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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349Ameren Illinois is warning customers about scammers using the utilitys name to try to trick customers into giving them money.

Oct. 15 to 19 was Utility Scam Awareness Week.

Jason Klein, Director of Operations for Ameren Illinois Division 5, said that the utility started tracking scamming activity in mid-2014.

Weve had more than 4,000 customers affected, and they have lost $140,000 since we started tracking it, Klein said.

A typical scam is a call that asks you for immediate payment, Klein said. The caller says you will be disconnected if you do not pay immediately.

Scammers will often ask the victim to get a Green Dot card or similar card, and then call back with the number on the card.

Once they do that, the money in gone, Klein said. A Green Dot card is a prepaid card available at Walmart and other retailers. The victim loads the card with cash and then gives the number to the scammer.

Today, were focusing on small businesses, Klein said. Theyre often targeted during their busiest times.

Kimberli Goodner, the owner of 222 Artisan Bakery, learned the hard way about scams. She was a victim shortly after taking over the bakery two-and-half years ago.

Ameren needed payment to start the utility in our name, Goodner said. We worked out a plan to pay it over three months.

In the second week Goodner was running the restaurant, she was out buying supplies when an employee called. The employee told her that Ameren had called and said they would cut the power to the restaurant if they didnt receive full payment. The caller left a number to call back.

Goodner said when she returned the call, someone answered as Ameren and put her on hold, then another person got on the line and told her she needed to make an immediate payment. I gave him my credit card information, she said. He said it wouldnt go through.

She ended up giving him $950 with a Green Dot card.

I felt like such a sucker, she said. But it sounded so real, with on-hold music, and the way they answered the phone.

The caller also seemed to know that she was a new business with an initial hook-up fee and the amount of the fee.

The caller also made sure Goodner stayed on the line, threatening to immediately cut off the power if she hung up. During this time, employees and customers back at the restaurant learned of the scam and tried to call and warn her, but she didnt answer because the caller made her stay on the line.

Unfortunately, nothing could be done after Goodner gave the scammer the money.

We were lucky with our bank. They helped us out. It was hard because we had just opened and didnt have capital for this.

Goodner said she would like to see Walmart and other retailers who sell the Green Dot care to provide training to the sellers so they can spot scamming victims.

That was two-and-a-half years ago. Ive had several other calls since then, from people claiming to be Ameren or other utilities. I dont trust any of them, she said.

Klein said that the scammers likely knew that the restaurant had just opened and took advantage of what they knew would be a busy time.

Klein said that representatives from Ameren Illinois have been meeting throughout the week with customers. Were doing what we can to inform customers. We cant meet with them all, so we want to get the word out. If we can help one person, it will be worth it.ALTON  An Alton man faces three first-degree murder charges, and five additional felony charges, in the Tuesday shooting death of Godfrey Trustee Eldon Twirp Williams.

Donald M. Nelson, 34, of the 1200 block of Pearl Street, Alton, was charged Wednesday with three counts of first-degree murder, all Class M felonies; and one count each of attempt armed robbery, a Class 1 felony; criminal trespass to a residence, a Class 4 felony; armed violence, a Class X felony; unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, a Class 2 felony; and unlawful possession of a stolen firearm, a Class 2 felony.

The charges were announced at a sometimes-emotional press conference at the Alton Police Department, with both law enforcement and civic officials praising Williams and talking about their relationships with him.

All but two of the charges relate to Williams murder. The criminal trespass and armed violence charges stem from the suspects actions in Godfrey prior to his capture, according to Madison County Sheriff John Lakin.

Bail was set at $5 million, something Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons said was an extraordinary amount, but not unheard of in Madison County.

He also said his office will vigorously prosecute the case, and although Illinois does not have a death penalty, the suspect will effectively have his life taken from him.

The suspect was apparently in custody with Madison County deputies before Williams death was reported. Investigators are still trying to determine the exact timeline, but a rough timeline was outlined at the press conference.

According to Alton Police Chief Jason Jake Simmons, the original call was for an unresponsive male in the 200 block of West Delmar in Alton. He said Williams was found dead in his vehicle, and Alton Fire Department paramedics quickly determined that it was a crime scene and a large number of officers responded.

Prior to that call, Madison County deputies took Nelson into custody in Godfrey after citizens reported a male acting strangely.

At about that time a deputy went past the Alton crime scene, and it was quickly determined that the two cases were related.

Because we worked together a suspect was quickly identified in this case and another violent criminal is off the streets, Simmons said.

Lakin said that at 11:35 a.m. a citizen called to report a suspicious person had entered a residence.

There was some talk about turning a dog loose on him and he fled out the door, Lakin said.

Deputies found the suspect nearby and he was taken into custody at about 11:46 a.m. after a short foot chase.

Gibbons and others noted exceptional and quick police work, as well as extraordinary help from local citizens.

Simmons noted that citizen involvement led to a quick resolution of the situation.

As a community we need to identify suspicious activity and call police for assistance when you see something that doesnt sit right, he said.

Gibbons noted that while every death is a huge loss to family and loved ones, there is a far-reaching effect because Williams spent his lifetime in service to others and the community.

Gibbons noted the three separate first-degree murder charges each presented an alternate theory for the crime, allowing easier prosecution.

They are simply just three alternative ways of getting to the same result, he said.

Although there was an attempted armed robbery charge filed, Gibbons said the exact motive remains unknown, and investigators were still trying to determine the exact timeline and other details of the case.

He also noted that the weapon, a 9mm handgun, was recovered.

Gibbons also promised vigorous prosecution.

While we do not have a death penalty in Illinois any longer, we certainly have the ability to remove an individual from the community for the rest of their life, and to take their life away in that way, and we intend to do that, he said.

Both Alton Mayor Brant Walker and Godfrey Mayor Mike McCormick spoke, and were at times emotional.

Walker described Williams as a fierce advocate for the village of Godfrey and one of the finest public servants I will ever meet.

An emotional McCormick took some time to compose himself before saying, Twirp was my friend.

He said Williams death would be an impossible void to fill, and that McCormick spent time with him every day.

Twirp is going to be missed, and Im so sorry, he said.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.EDWARDSVILLE  A resolution opposing a potential vehicle mileage tax was approved by the Madison County Board in a party line vote, with Republicans favoring it and Democrats abstaining.

The vote came after raucous fighting and an attempt by Board Member Michael Parkinson, D-Granite City, to tie the resolution to a millionaire tax.

Proponents said the resolution should be non-partisan and would hurt the countys economy and unduly burden the poor. Many of the opponents said there is no proposal currently being considered, but the issue has become a hot potato in the Illinois governors race between incumbent Bruce Rauner and Democratic challenger J.B. Pritzker.

The tax would be assessed either as a per-mile tax using a GPS tracking device, or a flat fee ($450 per year is the most common amount talked about) per vehicle.

The resolution cites an undue hardship such a tax would impose on Downstate residents, as well as privacy concerns because of potential abuse of tracking devices that might be used to monitor mileage.

It had been approved by the County Boards Executive Committee last week.

Rauner has accused Pritzker of supporting such a tax. According to a number of media fact-checkers, Pritzker has said he was interested in studying such a tax, but has backed off of those statements because of Downstate opposition.

A bill to implement a tax was introduced in the previous legislative session. In February 2016, state Sen. John Cullerton introduced SB 3267, which would have instituted a VMT for non-commercial vehicles, with vehicle owners receiving a credit for estimated motor fuel taxes. The bill eventually died.

The debate Wednesday started after board member Tom McRae, R-Bethalto, made a motion to approve the resolution, which was seconded by Ray Wesley, R-Godfrey.

McRae had originally brought the resolution to the Executive Committee.

I feel this meeting was staged around Gov. Bruce Rauners campaign, said Board Member Jack Minner, D-Edwardsville, who had attended the Executive Committee meeting.

He called it a new low for Republicans, and also referred to the referendum on making Madison County a sanctuary county for gun owners.

I thought the sanctuary county was the bottom of the barrel, he said.

Parkinson then motioned to modify the resolution by adding the millionaires tax, which was based on a non-binding referendum approved by Madison County voters in 2014 with a 60 percent majority.

Board Member Phil Chapman, R-Highland, who vocally supported the resolution, then asked Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons whether the amendment was allowed. The specific question was whether the change was germane to the original resolution.

Gibbons said he was not sure and would have to research the issue.

I cant give you an immediate off-the-cuff opinion, he said.

The arguments went back and forth, with Democrats saying that the County Board should not be used for political grandstanding, and some Republicans countering that it was done all the time under previous administrations.

A vote was finally called on the addition of the millionaires tax, which was defeated 13-8, with four members absent and one vacant seat.

Several board members, including Parkinson, Minner, Art Asadorian, D-Granite City, and Kristen Novacich, D-Granite City, called it political posturing and said they would abstain.

The final vote on the resolution was 14 yes votes and 10 abstentions.

In addition to Parkinson, Minner, Asadorian and Novacich, those abstaining were: Michael Doc Holliday, D-Alton; Bruce Malone, D-Alton; Robert Pollard, I-East Alton; Ann Gorman, D-Edwardsville; Liz Dalton, D-Collinsville and Larry Trucano, D-Collinsville.

Michael Walters, R-Godfrey; Jim Dodd, D-Alton; Nick Petrillo, D-Granite City and Gussie Glasper, D-Madison were absent.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.CARLINVILLE  Held during the third full week of October each year, National School Bus Safety Week is an active and evolving public education program and an excellent way for parents, students, teachers, motorists, school bus operators, school administrators and other interested parties to join forces and address the importance of school bus safety. Designed to promote school bus safety, school districts throughout the country observe School Bus Safety Week.

2018 National School Bus Safety Week is Oct. 22-26 and the theme is My Driver  My Safety Hero! The theme each year is derived from a Poster Contest held the previous year by National Association for Pupil Transportation, and the winner was Aumkar Patel, a fifth-grader in McDonough, Georgia.

School bus transportation plays a critical role in the education of our nations students, and is the direct link between a neighborhood and a classroom. More than 25 million children ride the yellow buses every school day, and National School Bus Safety Week helps to keep school bus safety in the forefront.

Getting Ready for School

 Have your children put everything they carry in a backpack or school bag so that they wont drop things along the way.

 Encourage them to wear bright, contrasting colors so they will be more easily seen by drivers.

 Make sure children leave home on time so they can arrive at the bus stop before it is due, ideally at least five minutes early. Running after or in front of a bus is dangerous.

Walking to the Bus Stop

 Walk young children to the bus stop or encourage children to walk in groups. There is safety in numbers; groups are easier for drivers to see.

 Practice good pedestrian behavior: walk on the sidewalk, and if there is no sidewalk stay out of the street. If you must walk in the street, walk single file, face traffic and stay as close to the edge of the road as you can.

 Stop and look left, right and then left again if you must cross the street. Do the same thing at drive -ways and alleys. Exaggerate your head turns and narrate your actions so your child knows you are looking left, right and left.

At the Bus Stop

 Have children wait in a location where the driver can see them while driving down the street. Try to avoid waiting in a house or car.

 Do not let children play in the street. Playing with balls or other toys that could roll into the street is also dangerous.

Getting On and Off the Bus

 Warn children that if they drop something getting on and off the bus, they should never pick it up. Instead, they should tell the driver and follow the drivers instructions.

 Remind children to look to the right before they step off the bus.

 If you meet your child at the bus stop after school, wait on the side where the child will be dropped off, not across the street. Children can be so excited to see you after school that they dash across the street and forget the safety rules.

Mobile Devices

Cell phones and other electronic devices are often permitted on the school bus as long as:

 They are in backpacks or other holders, keeping hands free to use handrails while boarding and departing the bus.

 Sound is muted or headphones, ear buds or similar devices are used.

 Content does not violate the law or school district policy and procedures.

 Use does not create a distraction for the driver.The Illinois Emergency Management Agency teamed up Thursday with the St. Louis Cardinals to educate southern Illinois students about the importance of earthquake preparedness.

There are two seismic zones in the southern part of the state.

Gov. Bruce Rauner declared Thursday as Great U.S. ShakeOut Earthquake Drill Day in Illinois to encourage people to participate in the annual earthquake drill. This year, more than 364,000 people in Illinois registered for the event, including more than 309,000 students.

The St. Louis Cardinals mascot, Fredbird, joined Illinois Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Jennifer Ricker and staff to show second grade students at Jefferson Elementary School in Marion what to do during an earthquake. Ricker led a discussion about the risk of earthquakes in Illinois and the importance of being prepared with the students.

At 10:18 a.m., an announcement was broadcast into each classroom that the ShakeOut earthquake drill was beginning. At that time, students practiced the Drop, Cover and Hold On actions that should be taken when the earth starts to shake.

Whether you are at school, at work, at home or on vacation, an earthquake can happen at any time, anywhere, Ricker said. This is why the Shakeout earthquake drill is so important. This preparedness drill helps us teach millions of people the life-saving Drop-Cover-Hold On procedure.

The largest earthquake to ever rattle North America occurred in 1811 in New Madrid, Missouri, near southern Illinois. If a similar quake struck the same spot today, according to a 2008 University of Illinois study, the impact would be catastrophic: 3,500 fatalities, 2.6 million without power, $300 billion in direct economic loss.

Most of southern Illinois sits atop one of two major fault zones  the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone.If you are looking for a new job or just want to explore your employment possibilities, it is time for you to attend the Fall Job Fair at Southwestern Illinois College.

The fair runs Thursday, Nov. 8 from 9 a.m. to noon in the Belleville Campus Varsity Gym, 2500 Carlyle Ave. All job seekers are welcome and should arrive dressed to impress with plenty of copies of their resumes. The job fair is open to the public.EDWARDSVILLE  A murder defendant claimed to be in Madison at a fish fry, when, in fact, he was at a gas station in Missouri, according to a taped interview seen by a jury Wednesday.

Vincent Gordon, 32, of Alton, told detectives several different stories as officers revealed they had hard evidence he was lying, according to the recording.

Gordon, of 925 Easton St., Alton, is on trial on four counts of first-degree murder, a count of unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, and escape. He was on parole when the shooting occurred but cut a Department of Corrections ankle bracelet off. Gordon is representing himself.

Gordon is accused of killing Derrick Vaughn, and Elijah Ingram. He was in a card game with three other people in the 3100 block of Lawn Street, within the public housing complex. A small argument broke out.

During the taped interview, officers showed Gordon a picture of himself at a gas station in Missouri and told him they knew he was not telling the truth.

Det. James Siatos said that Gordons girlfriends car has a GPS tracking device, which showed the car at various locations. Each time the car stopped at a point with a video camera, Gordon was seen at that location, Siatos pointed out.

Gordon also told officers his girlfriend took the car to work. His girlfriend, Beverly White, said Gordon dropped her off at work in Godfrey in the late afternoon, then picked her up at 10:27 p.m. The shooting was between 10:11 p.m. and 10:22 p.m., May 21, authorities said.

Before the tape was introduced, Siatos testified that he interviewed Gordon twice. The first time, Gordon told him he was at home, playing cards on his cell phone. In the recorded interview a few hours later, the defendants said he was at The Circle in Alton, in Madison, and on Fourth Street in Alton.

Siatos said during the interview that GPS and video evidence put him at Alton Acres, at Belle Manor, and at a gas station in Missouri. People also told police they saw him at Alton Acres just before the shooting, and a video caught his image leaving Alton Acres.

Everywhere the car went, you were behind the wheel each time the car stopped, Siatos said during the interview. People in the back room (at Alton Acres) saw you walk in. It looks like you tried to take all three of them (the other card players) down, but there was only one left, Siatos said on the tape. If you are trying to put yourself in prison for the rest of your life, youre doing a pretty good job of it. Williams told police who did the shooting, according to officers who testified.

That one survivor, Terrion Williams, testified Tuesday that Gordon shot his cousin, Williams cousin Vaughn, and his friend, Ingram. Officers also testified Wednesday that Gordon became a suspect. They surrounded a home in an apartment building on Easton Street, the home of Gordons neighbor. Det. Mike ONeill testified he made several attempts to contact Gordon to give himself up.

The neighbor, Charles Skelton, 927 Easton St., testified Wednesday that Gordon was at his home when police arrived. He said he left, once he let the police in. He identified a picture of Gordons cell phone in a closet in his home, where Gordon had been hiding. He also testified that Gordon cut the ankle bracelet off and put it in the toilet. He said he retrieve it and placed it in a trash can, then pointed it out to Alton police, who took it as evidence.

The tape lasts four hours. One hour of the recording was played Wednesday. The rest is to be played Thursday. The prosecution may rest after the entire tape is played. Gordon said he has several witnesses to appear.

Reach reporter Sanford Schmidt at 618-208-6449.The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite...Filmmaker Vikas Bahl, accused of sexual assault by a former employee of Phantom Films, has filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, his former partners in the production house.

The court, during the hearing Wednesday, directed Bahl to make the woman employee a respondent to the suit and adjourned the hearing to October 19.

Bahl, the director of Kangana Ranaut-starrer Queen, has sought an interim direction from the court seeking to restrain Kashyap and Motwane from making any statements, either to the media or on social media platforms, against him.

The suit, filed Tuesday, alleged that Kashyap and Motwane made "defamatory, slanderous and baseless allegations" against him due to which he has suffered irreversible damage to the reputation.

It demanded damages of Rs 10 crore from Kashyap and Motwane. He labelled his former partners as opportunists, who allegedly orchestrated the whole campaign against him, making him look like the person responsible for the production house's fall.

Justice S.J. Kathawalla, who heard arguments on Bahl's application for interim order, asked if the parties were open to sort out the issue amicably.

"Is there any way to end this matter? Just check if the parties are willing for this," he asked the lawyers.

The court also directed Bahl to make the woman who has levelled allegations against him a respondent to the application, saying it was pertinent to hear her too.

Justice Kathawalla directed Bahl, Kashyap, Motwane and the woman to appear in person in his chamber on Friday, when the matter would be heard.

Bahl's counsel Sharan Jagtiani argued that even after the alleged incident, the woman was in touch with Bahl.

To this, Kashyap's counsel Venkatesh Dhond said Bahl cannot trivialise the woman's allegations on this ground, as she had to continue working with Phantom Films.

Justice Kathawalla, while adjourning the matter, noted that while the #MeToo movement was good, there should be guidelines in place so that authorities know how to handle such cases.

The judge passed no order on Bahl's plea. Phantom Films was established in 2011 by Kashyap, Motwane, Bahl and producer Madhu Mantena.

After putting his might behind independent projects, Ship of Theseus director Anand Gandhi hopes his stories find more mainstream relevance in future.

Gandhi has penned the screenplay for his maiden mainstream outing Helicopter Eela, starring Kajol. The feature, which released on October 12, is based on his play Beta Kaagdo.

He has also written and produced Tumbbad, a historical period horror featuring Sohum Shah, which also released on the same day. A mythological horror, the film has has received unanimous praise by critics.

Gandhi, 38, is glad to contribute in this shifting ecosystem where viewers are warming up to content-driven stories.

"There is a beautiful churning happening. It is exciting to be part of this change and make films. The biggest challenge is to optimise these possibilities and keep pushing and reinventing oneself," Gandhi told PTI.

"I will continue to make the kind of films I want to make. I hope the films I make reach a wider audience. So the definition of commercial cinema changes," he added.

The filmmaker said the difference between commercial and independent cinema has blurred over the years.

"I hope the cinema that resonates deeply with people and provides meaningful experience become mainstream. The lines are blurring, I don't think there is a relevant difference today."

The credit for reigniting the momentum in indie cinema, Gandhi said, goes to actors and filmmakers, who are starting to invest their money and talent in good projects.

"Audiences are watching films and showing their preferences. They are in a way pushing the boundaries of what producers and distributors are willing to take on. Industry people are taking on risks and offering something new to audience. Everyone has to push each other towards a greater evolution," he said.

Gandhi is also a co-creator of ElseVR, India's first virtual reality (VR) platform aiming to bring extraordinary stories.

"The hardware is yet to catch up, it is not very comfortable to watch virtual reality for a long period of time. The headsets are still very heavy and are not extremely conducive and comfortable for viewing for a longer time," he said.

He is at the moment caught up with his next two directorial filmsan American science fiction co-production and a Hindi drama.

For the science fiction feature, Gandhi has collaborated with a scientist who has come on board as his client adviser and executive producer.

"I am beginning to learn whether there are any differences or not. It is an English language film, I hope to get Indian partners involved in the project. Given the nature and subject, it made sense to look for partners in that part of the world. This film will go on floors by December next year," he said.

The Hindi project will go on floors by June or July next year.

"It is different from what I have done so far, it is a drama spanning three decades. We have started talking with actors and partners, in next two months we will hopefully get things locked. We are hoping to make it bilingual, in Hindi and Tamil," Gandhi said.

The owner of a Sharjah-based private aviation company, Anand Subramaniam, has been arrested after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's son lodged a complaint against him.

Mandar Mahajan, secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Flying Club, had filed a complaint before police that Subramaniam had cheated him out of Rs 21.87 lakh.

According to police, in May 2016, MP Flying Club filed a complaint against Sharjah resident Subramaniam for not delivering the engine for a Cessna aircraft despite taking a payment of Rs 21.87 lakh through Central Bank, Indore via account transfer in 2013. The Aerodrome Police Station had registered a case under section 420 (cheating) and 467 (forgery) of the IPC.

MP Flying Club had ordered for an engine with Subramaniam's aviation company through due procedure and advance payment. However, the company did not deliver the engine and instead, kept on making false promises of the delivery. Later, it was learnt that Subramaniam had shut his company and entered a new business.

Since then Subramaniam has been absconding prompting the police to issue an Interpol notice against him. He was arrested from Mumbai airport on Tuesday evening after arriving from Sharjah.

Police said that after his arrest, Subramaniam was taken by the Crime Branch of Indore, and he will be produced before a local court.Tensions between Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh and former Samajwadi Party minister Azam Khan flared up again after the former filed an FIR against the latter in Gomtinagar police station in Lucknow. Singh has levelled serious allegations against Khan that includes threat to kill his family, spreading communal hatred and insulting religion.

Speaking to the media, Singh alleged that Khan, during an interview to a private TV channel, had threatened to kill the female members of his family and throw acid on them. He further said that Khan also tarnished his public image.

According to the inspector-in-charge Triloki Singh, Amar Singh has charged Azam Khan with criminal conspiracy against him and his family and said that Khan is a threat to his family.

As proof, Singh has handed over a CD to the cops that contains the recording of the 55-day-old interview.

Azam Khan and Amar Singh's enmity is quite old and its genesis lies in the fight for supremacy over Rampur. Rampur, a western UP district, is home turf of Khan. Singhs interference happened when Jayaprada was fielded by the SP to contest polls from Rampur.

Khan took this move as one aimed at curtailing his political freedom in his home turf and had allegedly opposed Jayaprada during her campaign. Jayaprada, after her differences with TDP chief, Chandrababu Naidu, left the TDP to join the Samajwadi Party. SP fielded her from Rampur parliamentary constituency in 2004 and she won.

The close proximity between Jayaprada and Singh caused friction with Khan as he felt highly offended by the move to field her from Rampur.

It is alleged that Khan had distributed obscene posters of Jayaprada in the previous polls, thus making the electoral battle difficult for her. However, she won again. Subsequently, the SP had expelled her from the party in 2010 for anti-party activities. But the chasm between Singh and Khan widened.

Jayaprada and Amar Singh openly supported each other, and Azam Khan continued to oppose the duo.The Jamal Khashoggi disappearance case has taken a turn for the worse. A tape purportedly containing the last moments of the journalist was accessed by Turkish media. In the tape Khashoggi can be heard screaming and crying as he was subjected to torture and then death.

A Turkish source who heard the tape has revealed what he heard on the tape to media in the middle east. According to him, Khashoggi was dragged from the consul-general's office at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and onto the table of his study next door.

Witnesses, who were downstairs, then heard horrendous screams coming from the room. The source said, "There was no attempt to interrogate him. They had come to kill him."

Khashoggi was then injected with an unknown substance, after which the screams stopped.

Khashoggi was reported missing by his Turkish fiance after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and failed to come out on October 2. His disappearance led to strained diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Khashoggi was a columnist with the Washington Post and was openly critical of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

According to the source, killing of Khashoggi took only seven minutes. Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, who has been identified as the head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, was one of the 15-member squad who arrived in Ankara earlier that day on a private jet.

Tubaigy began to cut Khashoggis body up on a table in the study while he was still alive, the Turkish source said.

As he started to dismember the body, Tubaigy put on earphones and listened to music. He advised other members of the squad to do the same.

When I do this job, I listen to music. You should do [that] too, Tubaigy was recorded as saying.

A Turkish source told the New York Times that Tubaigy was equipped with a bone saw. He is listed as the president of the Saudi Fellowship of Forensic Pathology and a member of the Saudi Association for Forensic Pathology.

Saudi officials have denied any involvement in his disappearance and said that he arrived soon after arriving at the consulate.

Meanwhile, the US has asked Turkey for the recording. "We have asked for it, if it exists," President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House.

The Washington Post has published Khashoggi's last column titled 'What the Arab world needs most is free expression', in which he strongly criticises the freedom of press in Arab countries.If nothing else, Ayushmann Khurrana deserves a standing ovation for his performance in Badhaai Ho. Not because his performances are flawless. Simply put, he has mastered the art of slipping into his characters effortlessly. The buzz surrounding his performance in the recent Andhadhun, in which he played a blind pianist, had not yet died down when Khurrana hit the theatres again as the guy-next-door dealing with an unimaginable family crisis. As the movie trailer revealed, his mom is pregnant.

Ayushmann's Nakul Kaushik hails from a middle-class family. Son of a travelling ticket examiner (TTE) in the northern railways, Khurrana and his close-knit family live in government quarters in Lodhi Road. He has to seek permission from his family even for on-site work assignments in the US, but that doesn't mean they are conservative. They simply want everyone to stay together.

His colleague-turned-girlfriend, Renee (a pleasant Sanya Malhotra), belongs to an elite family in Delhi. She lives with her mother (a subtle Sheeba Chadha) in an upscale locale. One of the standout moments in the film is a scene in which Renee celebrates her mom's 50th birthday. The mother is fond of Nakul, but concerned about his family. She describes it as a circus she doesn't want to buy tickets to. Nakul happens to hear the conversation, which is followed by a confrontation. While doing that, he switches from the refined Hindi and English he uses in public to the khari boli of western Uttar Pradesh. And that happens beautifully, without the slightest trace of pretence.

Khurrana impresses, as do most of the other actors including Neena Gupta as Khurrana's mother and Gajraj Rao as the father. Gupta, often remembered for her bold roles, has made a good selection, and makes every effort to make the character likeable, but the script (written by Shanatanu Srivastava, Akshat Ghildial and Jyoti Kapoor) fails her. Except for the fact that she is a mother to two grown-up sons and is expecting, there's not much for her to play with, unlike some of the layered roles in the recent years like Bareilly Ki Barfi and Dum Laga Ke Haisha. We have seen Rao playing an idiosyncratic dad in The Viral Fever's many videos, but he still manages to bring freshness to his character.

The film, however, is not as impressive as the performances, mostly because of the cliches it gets trapped. The core idea of the film is quirky, but it fails to live up to the expectations. Apart from a few funny moments, it ends up a banal family drama, overplayed saas-bahu dynamics, and some cringeworthy jokesespecially one on a man confused about his sexuality. At a time when there's a serious discourse about the LGBTQ community, a caricatured queer character is the least we expect in the popular culture.

Songs mark almost every occasion, almost making the film a clone of a TV serial. It's distracting and unnecessary. As it darts from the romantic track between Nakul and Renee, and the way Nakul's life turned topsy-turvy because of the situation at his home, it seems confused about its theme. But thank god for Ayushmann, who has mastered the art of balancing eccentric films, who makes it watchable.

Badhaai Ho

Director: Amit Sharma

Actors: Ayushmann Khurrana, Neena Gupta, Sanya Malhotra, Gajraj Rao

Rating: 2.5/5New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) With the national capital region bracing for choking smog, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for compensation to farmers to discourage them from burning stubble, and warned that the problem could aggravate if the matter is not addressed urgently.

The prime minister was sympathetic to the problem of farmers, said Singh, who is pressing for Rs 100 per quintal compensation to farmers to check stubble burning.

Singh told Modi that the problem of air pollution because of stubble burning could aggravate, despite steps being taken by the Punjab government, with the close of the harvest season, and needed to be addressed urgently.

The NCR region is bracing for smog due to stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring states, including Punjab and Haryana.

Delhi's air quality remained "very poor" for the second consecutive day Thursday. Several areas were nearing severe levels of pollution, authorities said.

Giving details of the meeting, an official spokesperson of the Punjab government said Singh also urged Modi to intervene to ensure settlement of the Rs 31,000 crore CCL (cash credit limit) gap and sought Centre's assistance for the preparation of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of first Sikh guru Sri Guru Nanak Dev.

He urged Modi to advise the Finance Ministry to settle the CCL gap on the principle of shared responsibilities.

Singh pointed out that the matter had been discussed in detail in internal report of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, referred as the PK Jha Committee Report.

Singh said the Union Finance Ministry, which was looking into the matter on a reference received from the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, was yet to finalise it.

He urged Modi to advise the Finance Ministry to reconsider and review conversion of Rs 31,000 crore as long term loan as it cannot be solely attributed to Punjab, given the principle of shared responsibilities.

Earlier in a letter to the prime minister, Singh sought Rs 800 crore in compensation for the losses incurred by the state due to the recent flooding resulting from exceptionally heavy rainfall, the spokesperson said.

Singh had informed Modi that the heavy rainfall in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, from September 22 to 24, caused extensive damage to life, agricultural crops, property and other infrastructure in the state.

The estimated damage to crops was Rs 150 crore, while road network had been damaged to the extent of Rs 119 crore, with another Rs 516 crore caused to flood protection infrastructure and minor irrigation works, the chief minister said.

Further, there was damage to the tune of Rs 5 crore to human population livestock and private residences, he noted in the letter. PTI SKC SKC ABH

ABHParis, Oct 18 (AFP) French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday he was pulling out of a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"I won't go to Riyadh next week," Le Maire told France's Public Senat TV channel, adding that "the current circumstances do not allow me to go to Riyadh".

The minister echoed President Emmanuel Macron's remarks last week on Khashoggi's disappearance, calling it a "very serious" matter.

Le Maire is one of the first senior Western officials to pull out of the October 23-25 Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he will decide on Thursday whether to attend.

Several business titans and Western media groups have already pulled out of the conference organized by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

Khashoggi, who was living in self-imposed exile in the United States where he contributed to the Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He was critical of some of Saudi Arabia's policies.

Turkish officials claim he was killed and dismembered in the consulate by a hit squad which arrived from Riyadh -- claims denied by the Saudi government.(AFP) AMS

AMSChandigarh, Oct 18 (PTI) The Haryana government has decided to constitute State Bench of Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in Hisar for speedy settlement of matters related to GST, Finance, Excise and Taxation Minister Capt Abhimanyu said Thursday.

Under GST, so far, there are 4.25 lakh registered taxpayers in the state, who are contributing tax of over Rs 4,600 crore every month, he said in an official statement.

Earlier in the Value Added Tax (VAT) system, the State had 2.25 lakh active registered dealers and there was a Sales Tax Tribunal for the State which is still working, he said.

"Thus, the state requires a State bench of Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in the State. The State Government would soon send its request to the Central Government for the constitution of State Bench of Goods and Services Tax Appellate Tribunal in Hisar city for the state," he added. PTI SUN MR

MRLahore, Oct 18 (PTI) Pakistan's revolutionary poet Habib Jalib's daughter runs private taxi in Lahore for the livelihood of the family after her mother's stipend was stopped in 2014 by the Punjab government.

Tahira Habib Jalib, a resident of Mustafa Town in Lahore, is serving as a captain of private taxi service in the city to earn their livelihood, Geo TV reported.

On Wednesday, the Lahore Electric Supply Company sent an electricity bill amounting to Rs 75,000 to Tahira, who lives with her sisters and their children, the channel said.

"I am the sole bread-winner of the family and I drive a car to earn money," Tahira was quoted as saying by the channel.

"The car that I am driving is brought on loan," she added.

Tahira said that she does not feel any shame in running the taxi as she is the daughter of Habib Jalib, who never compromised on principles till his death.

She said the monthly stipend of her mother was Rs 25,000, which was stopped in 2014 by the then government led by chief minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government of Punjab used to pay the stipend from the quota of the poets.

"The stipend was stopped days before my mother's death in 2014," she said.

Tahira urged the government to resume the stipend and introduce poor-friendly system so that the poor earn their livelihood without difficulty.

"These leaders use my father's verses in their speeches but they do not take notice of the troubles faced by his children," she said, referring to political leaders who use her father's poetry in their political messages.

Habib Jalib, born on March 24, 1928, in Hoshiarpur village in undivided India, migrated to Pakistan after partition and worked as a proof-reader for an Urdu daily.

A progressive writer, he became the voice against then military dictators -- General Ayub Khan and General Zia-ul Haq.

Described as the people's poet, Habib Jalib was jailed multiple times by General Zia for writing poems against his rule. He was once arrested and beaten up by police for reciting poetry against the Zia regime at a protest march by women activists towards Lahore High Court.

When Jalib died in 1993, his family had refused to accept the government's offer of bearing funeral expenses. PTI ZH

ZHKabul, Oct 18 (AFP) The Taliban said an attack on a high-level security meeting in Afghanistan on Thursday had targeted top US commander General Scott Miller, who NATO said survived the shooting.

"The target was General Miller and General Raziq," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Abdul Raziq, the police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, was killed in the attack, Afghan officials said. (AFP) ZH

ZHKandahar, Oct 18 (AFP) A powerful Afghan police chief was among at least three people killed in a shooting Thursday the Taliban said had targeted top US commander General Scott Miller.

Miller was not hurt in the assault claimed by the militant group that also wounded at least 12 people, including three Americans and a provincial governor, NATO and Afghan officials said.

Security forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for attacks -- into their homes.

In a Twitter post, the Taliban said Miller and Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq, who was killed, were the targets of the shooting.

"General Raziq and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition," a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.

Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governor's security personnel, the official said.

The shooter had been killed, he added.

An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting.

Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," Peters said.

"We are being told the area is secure."

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was "full of military forces".

"They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes". (AFP) ZH

ZHPakur (Jharkhand), Oct 18 (PTI) A senior veterinary

doctor has been arrested from Pakur district in Jharkhand on

charges of forcing religious conversion on a minor girl, a

senior police officer has said.

A case was registered against the veterinary doctor

under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Jharkhand Anti-Conversion Act, 2017 on the basis of the statement of the girl's father on Monday last, Superintendent of Police, Shailendra Prasad Burnwal said Wednesday.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the police conducted

raids at Sawanlapur village on Tuesday, arrested the

veterinary doctor-cum-flying animal husbandry officer and

rescued the 13-year-old girl from the village, where a

religious meeting was on.

In an FIR lodged at Littipara Police Station, the girl's father, a resident of Rodego village, said that the veterinary doctor, Dalu Soren, had recently lured his daughter and took her away in his vehicle after offering Rs 500.

The accused had told the girl that she would be

converted to Christianity at a religious meeting and assured

her that missionary authorities would take care of her studies and other requirements, police said.

The police was also looking into allegations that Soren had converted villagers in the past, the SP said.

The girl has been sent to a child welfare centre for counselling and Soren has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a Pakur court on Tuesday. PTI COR BS MM DV

DVJ'khand CM prays for the prosperity of the people, state

Ranchi, Oct 18 (PTI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar

Das Thursday offered prayers at the famous Deori temple in

Ranchi district on the occasion of Mahanavami.

An official release quoting Das said that he prayed

for the prosperity of 3.25 crore people and the resource-rich

state.

The chief minister announced that a statue of late

Sahadeo Munda, who had donated land for the temple would be

set up in its premises so that the people were inspired by it.

He also expressed gratitude to the Mundas widow,

Sumitra Devi. PTI PVR KK

KK KKNew Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) The BJP accused the Congress on Thursday of running a "paid campaign" on Facebook in Pakistan for removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a serious matter.

Its spokesperson Sambit Patra flashed copies of a Facebook page which shows an advertisement of the opposition party calling for "Desh bachao, Modi hatao" (Save country, remove Modi), with Pakistan being highlighted as the location.

"What does it mean? You are running a campaign in Pakistan against our popular prime minister in Pakistan," he told reporters.

It is understandable if a campaign against the prime minister is run in India by the opposition party but why it should sponsor this in Pakistan, he asked.

"Congress leaders have been showing their love for Pakistan," he alleged, and cited Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's reported comments that he culturally connected more with the neighbouring country than with south India, to attack the opposition party.

Bharatiya Janata Party's IT department head Amit Malviya also tweeted a photograph of the Congress' Facebook page, saying "official Congress page sponsoring advertisements on Facebook in Pakistan to remove Modi!" PTI KR RT(Eds: Changing slug, updating with more inputs)

New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) Ashish Pandey, the son of a former BSP MP who has been accused of brandishing a pistol and threatening the guests at a five-star hotel here, told the police Thursday that he was instigated by a woman, who had shown him the "middle finger," after which he had got the weapon from his car.

Pandey, who surrendered before the Patiala House court Thursday, also said in a video message that he was being subjected to a media trial and that only one side of the story was being shown, portraying him as a "terrorist".

"The woman accompanying Gaurav (Kanwar, son of a former Congress MLA) showed me the middle finger, which instigated me to get my pistol from my car," Pandey told the police after his arrest in the case.

"Pandey claimed that Kanwar was in the ladies' washroom in the hotel when his female friends went to the washroom. They raised an objection over Kanwar's presence in the washroom which led to an argument, following which Pandey was called by his friends," a senior officer privy to the probe said.

Pandey claimed that he asked Kanwar to come out of the washroom but the latter refused to do so and instead, challenged him, saying, "What is your business if I am inside the washroom?", the police said.

Subsequently, Kanwar's female friend showed the middle finger to Pandey and his women friends at the porch of the hotel and that instigated him to get the pistol from the car, the accused told the police.

Pandey was on his way home in Lucknow Sunday night when he got to know about the video of the incident being circulated on the social media. He then messaged all his friends, requesting them to ensure that the video was not circulated and asking them to delete it from their phones.

The next day, when he realised that the video had gone viral, he took his son and wife along with him and went hiding at various places in and around Lucknow, Pandey told the police.

His father, uncle and brother were in touch with lawyers and his friends, while he was juggling between places, he told the interrogators.

The police are yet to recover the weapon Pandey had brandished at the foyer of the south Delhi hotel in the early hours of Sunday.

"I have been subjected to a media trial. I am being portrayed as a terrorist. I am not denying that the incident happened but it is being shown from one side," Pandey said in a video message he released before his surrender.

In the video, he said the CCTV footage of the hotel should properly be checked to ascertain who was at fault.

"They should check the CCTV footage and see who entered the ladies' washroom and after exiting from it, who threatened whom. When I came out, I took the licensed gun from my vehicle. I did not aim the gun towards him (Kanwar) and the weapon was pointed downwards.

"Everyone is saying I threatened a woman with a gun but I did not even address the woman, who was with him. She pushed me and even made obscene gestures at me using her hands. Her male friend said things to me," Pandey said.

He added that he would tell his side of the story to the police and that he had full faith in the country's judicial system.

After the video of the incident went viral on the social media, resulting in a public outrage, Pandey had requested his friends on WhatsApp not to circulate the video and apologised for what he did.

The video of the incident at the Hyatt Regency hotel here prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for Pandey.

A Delhi court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Pandey Wednesday.

Pandey's father Rakesh Pandey is a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP and his brother Ritesh is an MLA in Uttar Pradesh. PTI SLB AMP RCNew Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) The request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi is being "examined" by Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday.

Answering a question on Choksi, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar at a briefing said, "According to the information that I have, the extradition request by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate), is being examined by them (Antigua and Barbuda authorities) and after they have examined it, they have said they will convey their response to India."

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda E P Chet Greene last month on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly and raised the issue of extradition of Choksi, who is currently in the Caribbean island.

Greene had conveyed to Swaraj the assurances of his Prime Minister for fullest cooperation of their government in the matter of extradition of Choksi to India, Kumar had said after the meeting.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and ED probing the fraud.

On a question on absconding businessman Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, Kumar said that in the case of Nirav Modi, extradition requests from the CBI and ED are pending with the UK authorities.

"The requests are under consideration," he said.

"We are committed to take this matter forward and to bring back the economic offenders," he said.

On Mallya, he said the Westminster Magistrates' Court has fixed December 10 as the date for verdict in the case.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's mysterious disappearance, Kumar said, "I think I have seen media reports that this matter is still under investigation and so at this stage I have no comments." PTI ASK RTWe're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form(Eds: Updating with latest inputs in paras 3-5)

New Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) Ashish Pandey, the son of a former BSP MP who has been accused of brandishing a pistol and threatening the guests at a hotel here, told the police Thursday that he was instigated by a woman, who had shown him the "middle finger," after which he got the weapon from his car.

Pandey, who surrendered before the Patiala House court Thursday, also said in a video message that he was being subjected to a media trial and that only one side of the story was being shown, portraying him as a "terrorist".

The police said they had seized the weapon Pandey brandished at the five-star hotel in south Delhi in the early hours of Sunday as well as the BMW car he had brought to the hotel that night.

The police said they seized the car from Lucknow, adding that the three women accompanying Pandey at the time of the incident were identified and their roles were being verified.

All the three women were foreign nationals, the police said, adding that one of them was an interior designer, another a realtor and the third one was into filmmaking.

"The woman accompanying Gaurav (Kanwar, son of a former Congress MLA) showed me the middle finger, which instigated me to get my pistol from my car," Pandey told the police after his arrest in the case.

"Pandey claimed that Kanwar was in the ladies' washroom in the hotel when his female friends went to the washroom. They raised an objection over Kanwar's presence there which led to an argument, following which Pandey was called by his friends," a senior officer privy to the probe said.

Pandey claimed that he asked Kanwar to come out of the washroom but the latter refused to do so and instead, challenged him, saying, "What is your business if I am inside the washroom?", the police said, adding that Pandey also alleged that Kanwar hurled abuses at him.

Subsequently, Kanwar's female friend showed the middle finger to Pandey and his women friends at the porch of the hotel and that instigated him to get the pistol from the car, the accused told the police.

Pandey was on his way home in Lucknow Sunday night when he got to know about the video of the incident being circulated on the social media. He messaged all his friends, requesting them to ensure that the video was not circulated and asking them to delete it from their phones.

The next day, when he realised that the video had gone viral, he took his son and wife along with him and went hiding at various places in and around Lucknow, Pandey told the police.

His father, uncle and brother were in touch with lawyers and his friends, while he was juggling between places, he told the interrogators.

"I have been subjected to a media trial. I am being portrayed as a terrorist. I am not denying that the incident happened but it is being shown from one side," Pandey said in a video message he released before his surrender.

In the video, he said the CCTV footage of the hotel should properly be checked to ascertain who was at fault.

"They should check the CCTV footage and see who entered the ladies' washroom and after exiting it, who threatened whom. When I came out, I took the licensed gun from my vehicle. I did not aim the gun towards him (Kanwar) and the weapon was pointed downwards.

"Everyone is saying I threatened a woman with a gun but I did not even address the woman who was with him. She pushed me and even made obscene gestures at me using her hands. Her male friend said things to me," Pandey said.

He added that he would tell his side of the story to the police and that he had full faith in the country's judicial system.

After the video of the incident went viral on the social media, resulting in a public outrage, Pandey had requested his friends on WhatsApp not to circulate it and apologised for what he did.

The video of the incident at the Hyatt Regency hotel here prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for Pandey.

A Delhi court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Pandey Wednesday.

Pandey's father Rakesh Pandey is a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP and his brother Ritesh is an MLA in Uttar Pradesh. PTI SLB AMP RCJaipur, Oct 18 (PTI) A wanted criminal and alleged pro-Khalistani group member, who was planning to assassinate former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, was arrested Thursday in Rajasthan's Bikaner district, police said.

The accused, Jarman Singh, is the leader of a pro-Khalistani module that had allegedly attacked and looted police rifles in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on October 2.

Three men were arrested in Shamli on Sunday in connection with the October 2 incident. They later revealed that they were linked to militant group Khalistan Liberation Front and planned to attack former chief minister Badal during his political rallies.

On Thursday, The Rajasthan Police arrested pro-Khalistani member Jarman Singh from a Gurudwara in Bikaner's Kolayat, police said.

"We received some inputs from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Punjab police about Jarman Singh who was hiding in Bikaner. On the basis of that, the accused was traced and nabbed in a Gurudwara in Kolayat area," Bikaner IG Dinesh M N told PTI.

He said Singh is wanted by the ATS of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh police.

"The accused is the leader of a pro-Khalistani module that had attacked and looted two rifles from policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on October 2 and was also planning to target form CM of Punjab Prakash Singh Badal," he said, adding, that the arrested accused will be handed over to the Punjab ATS. PTI SDA CKNew Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) A teenager was killed and his friend critically injured after their speeding motorcycle rammed into a DTC bus in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh, police said Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Harsh (16), a resident of Madipur in west Delhi, they said, adding that the driver of the bus was also injured in the incident.

The incident took place on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday when Harsh and his friend Bablu were on their way to a temple, the police said.

A DTC bus had broken down, the police said, adding that the driver and conductor were looking for another bus for the passengers.

The motorcycle carrying Harsh and Bablu first hit the driver, before ramming into the bus, a senior police officer said, adding that the two-wheeler was being driven at a speed of over 100 km per hour.

The helmet of Harsh was broken into pieces as his head hit the bus, the police said.

Both Harsh and Bablu were rushed to a hospital, where the former was declared "brought dead", while the latter was in coma, they added.

The driver of the bus, Inderjeet (42), a resident of Nangloi, sustained multiple fractures in his legs, the officer said.

The body of the deceased was handed over to the family members after post-mortem.

The police were trying to ascertain who let Harsh ride the two-wheeler, despite knowing he was underage, the officer said.

The victim had dropped out of school after Class 8. His father is a labourer. The father of Bablu, another school dropout, is also a labourer. PTI NIT RCTN CM extends Vijayadasmi greetings to governor

Chennai, Oct 18 (PTI) Tamil Nadu chief minister K

Palaniswami Thursday greeted governor Banwarilal Purohit on

the eve of 'Vijayadasami' which marks the conclusion of the

nine-day long navarathri festival.

The chief minister sent a bouquet and a greetings

message to him, an official release said here.

"On the auspicious occasion of Vijayadasami, I convey

my best wishes to you and your family," Palaniswami said in

the message.

Also, he wished the governor and his kin continued

peace, happiness and good health. PTI SAT

NVG NVGAmritsar, Oct 18 (PTI) Giani Gurbachan Singh Thursday night resigned as Jathedar of Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, citing ill health as reason.

He forwarded his resignation letter to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Gobind Singh Langowal and the executive members of the SGPC, the release issued to the media said.

"Because of age-related health issues, it has become tough for him to serve this spiritual and pious seat , the release said

"In the light of my ill health, I am unable to serve this religious position and request the SGPC president and SGPC executive to appoint some appropriate personality in my place while reliving me from this pious seat, the release quoted him as saying.

Singh had created a controversy by pardoning Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh in September 2015 in a blasphemy case. However, he had to revoke the pardon after facing backlash from the Sikh community.,

On the pardoning issue, he said, "The decision to extend pardon to him (Dera head) during his tenure was objected to  but later on pardon was withdrawn with the consent of five Sikh head priests. Sikh community also expressed deep anguish over the pardon extended to him.

He also cited couplets from Guru Granth Sahib and said, "to err is human.

After the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents was tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, his act of pardoning Ram Rahim again gained limelight. The report had pointed towards alleged role of Badals in getting pardon for the Dera chief.

Besides several Sikh organisations, senior Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa had also demanded removal of Giani Gurbachan Singh from the post of Akal Takht Jathedar. PTI JMS CHS VSD RCJNew Delhi, Oct 18 (PTI) The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Thursday criticised the varsity's move to impose Central Services Rules (CCS) on the teachers.

The JNUSU claimed that 48 teachers were issued show cause notices in August for participating in a day strike on July 31 to oppose the vice-chancellor's decisions.

They termed the varsity's move as "absurd, illegal and unconstitutional".

"Universities are autonomous spaces, and teachers are not part of the executives as Government servants are. The ruling regime must not impose the CCS rules on university faculty members, as these are actually framed for the government servants who have to carry forward specific duties and programs of the government," the JNUSU said.

The imposition of CCS rules will completely destroy the academic spirit and excellence of universities as now speaking or researching on pressing concerns of our times like caste discrimination, minority witch hunt, gender inequality, economic plunder of natural resources by corporate companies, poverty, unemployment and many more will surely invite the wrath of the ruling regime, it claimed.

"The idea of critical thinking, research, progress and development will all be criminalised and destroyed. JNUSU strongly condemns the imposition of CCS rules and immediately demands that the government must stop all intimidating tactics to impose CCS rules," the student body said.

In its academic council meeting, the varsity had approached bringing teachers under the CCS Rules, which would mean teachers won't be able to criticise the administration or the ruling party.

Earlier, the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) had also opposed the move.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Wednesday accused some Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (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 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.

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. PTI SLB

RCJ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.Bosses of crisis-hit cake chain Patisserie Valerie could be hauled before parliament after a shock 40million black hole was uncovered in its accounts.

Chief executive Luke Johnson, who owns more than a third of the cafe's parent company Patisserie Holdings, is facing calls to account for his governance of the business in Parliament.

Trading in the firm's shares has been frozen and long-serving finance director Chris Marsh, 44, arrested on suspicion of fraud after the scandal pushed it to the brink of collapse last week.

Trading in Patisserie Valerie shares has been frozen and finance director Chris Marsh, 44, arrested on suspicion of fraud after a shock 40m black hole was uncovered in its accounts

The Serious Fraud Office has launched an investigation into what happened.

Grant Thornton  which has audited Patisserie Holdings since 2006  is facing civil legal action over why it failed to spot the problems.

Johnson, 56, has since struck a rescue deal with investors to plug the business with 20million  saving its 2,800 staff and 206 cafes.

But MPs said Patisserie Valerie's management could still be called upon to explain why they did not detect any warning signs.

Johnson, who is best known for his turnaround of restaurant chain Pizza Express, is listed as holding around 40 director roles  raising concerns he may have taken his eye off the ball.

Patisserie Valerie boss Luke Johnson has struck a rescue deal with investors

Labour MP Peter Kyle, a member of the business select committee, said: 'Patisserie Valerie's situation only exemplifies the need for a wholesale look at how we ensure our companies get the right governance and the right external scrutiny, so that shareholders, customers and our broader economy can be reassured that best practice is being followed.

'We have mostly focused on the big firms so far, such as Carillion and the like, but Patisserie Valerie shows it is not just a problem that exists at big companies.'

Grant Thornton could also face an investigation by the committee, with chairman Rachel Reeves, a Labour MP, saying the firm had serious questions to answer.

The auditor pocketed 600,000 in fees in the last four years for its work with Patisserie Holdings.

Reeves said: 'The rising number of accounting failures undermines trust in business and it's vital that Government and regulators take action to ensure that audits provide a true picture of the financial position of the firms they audit, not works of fiction.

'The audit industry is simply not fit for purpose. The government needs to quickly get a grip of the audit industry if we are to get audits that business, investors, and employees can believe in.' American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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Read MoreALBANY  Rep. John Faso, R-Kinderhook, and his Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado will participate in a debate at WMHT at 1 p.m. Friday.

The exchange will air live  on WMHT and at http://www.nynow.org  and repeat at 8:30 p.m. Friday.Bethlehem

The Bethlehem planning board said it had serious concerns with a plan by a local developer to build 25 townhouse style apartments on New Scotland Road next to the historic Slingerland family burial vault.

Developer Tom Burke is proposing the project on a three-acre parcel where the home of William H. Slingerland once stood.

William H. Slingerland was a well-known civil engineer and local post master after whom the hamlet of Slingerlands was named. His brother, John I. Slingerland, was a congressman well known for his abolitionist views.

Both brothers and several other family members of the Slingerland family were laid to rest in the Slingerland burial vault, which is located on a small parcel owned by town of Bethlehem that sits next to the site owned by Burke.

Planning board members, as well as local residents, expressed concerns with the impact that the apartment complex might have on the burial vault, as well as on the character of the Slingerlands Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"It's really disappointing," Bethlehem planning board chairman John Smolinsky said Tuesday when plans for the project were first proposed. "This needs some re-thinking."

Board members said the size of the three buildings that would make up the attached townhouse style apartments would have to be smaller and blend in better with the hamlet's architecture, which is a mix of Italianate, Colonial Revival, Victorian, Queen Anne and Bungalow styles of buildings.

A building at the site that once housed the Mangia restaurant and now houses a dance studio will remain in place.

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The planning board is considering requiring the developer to hire an architect with historical expertise.

Neighbors were especially concerned about the storm water drainage, although the developer's plans submitted to the town say the drainage will improve if the apartments are built.

Others are worried about the burial vault being harmed in some way, especially as a group of local residents is in the middle of raising more than $100,000 to restore the vault, which had fallen into disrepair over the years. The large home owned by William H. Slingerland was torn down in 1980. There is concern that some artifacts from that home may still be buried in the ground since the home was torn down in the middle of the night under unusual circumstances.

Burke, who attended Tuesday's meeting, said he believes the project will eventually move forward despite the concerns.

"We did a rigorous analysis, and it's been our determination this is a viable project," Burke said. "And it would be in substantial conformity with the vision for the town."Albany

The state is looking to sweeten the pot to encourage development of more community-based solar energy projects, particularly in the Capital Region territory covered by National Grid.

This week, the state Public Service Commission released a staff study that called for boosting credits that support so-called "distributed energy" projects, which include solar and wind systems.

Part of that proposal identifies National Grid, which represents about 1.6 million electric customers and 600,000 natural gas customers in the Capital Region and elsewhere upstate, as lagging in goals established under a system meant to encourage more community renewable power systems.

This is part of a program called "distributed energy" where payments from utilities for excess power are recalculated periodically by utilities based on a variety of factors, including location and environmental benefits.

Under net metering, owners of such systems were paid for power at retail rates, which the industry had complained was excessive. The new rules also cap the amount of renewable power that companies would have to buy at 2 percent of the company's annual revenues in a given year.

To transition into the new system, created in March 2017, utilities were assigned goals for new renewable systems to be supported by a credit, in which customers of such systems would have part of their bill credited.

Under that, National Grid was set aside credits to cover up to more than 470 megawatts of new renewable energy projects. So far, only about 90 megawatts have gone in, according to the PSC report.

Other upstate utilities, like Central Hudson and Orange & Rockland, have already gone through their credits, which covered about 180 megawatts of such projects, according to the PSC report.

The credits were created as a temporary transition from net metering to distributed energy. Such credits are applied to the bills paid by customers of renewable energy projects, with the utilities covering the credits by spreading that expense across the bills all other customers.

The proposal calls for bumping up the National Grid credit slightly, which could make the systems more attractive to potential customers, which in turn could make more developers interesting in building them.

"A combination of factors, including upfront costs and local permitting challenges faced by project developers, resulted in relatively slow ... development," said National Grid spokesman Stephen Brady.

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The proposal also recommends increasing incentives available to attract about 100 megawatts of new projects split between Orange & Rockland and Central Hudson.

Renewable energy advocates said the changes could help stimulate more renewable energy projects in the state.

"The proposal refines and in some cases increases how much the projects would be paid for the solar they export to the grid," said Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York.

"The solar industry generally supports this proposal, with some suggested modifications, as it would likely help get more community solar built while New York continues to debate how this policy will evolve over time," she said.

The PSC, which has not taken action on the proposal, is taking comments on it through Oct. 22.I LOVE YOU, AMERICA WITH SARAH SILVERMAN

Hulu

The news cycle is spinning faster than the front row at SoulCycle, but at least host Sarah Silverman gets to sit down for dinner with a family of conservatives in rural Wyoming. How much they enjoy the meal remains to be seen.

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN

ABC, 8 p.m.

The classic 1966 Halloween staple returns for another year as Linus searches for the elusive Great Pumpkin and Charlie Brown finds trick-or-treating isn't the thrill everyone makes it out to be.

THE BIG BANG THEORY: "THE PLANETARIUM COLLISION"

CBS, 8 p.m.

Sheldon (Jim Parsons) accidentally sabotages Amy's (Mayim Bialik) career in the new episode.

SUPERNATURAL: "GODS AND MONSTERS"

The CW, 8 p.m.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) finds a clue to Dean's (Jensen Ackles) whereabouts, so he, Mary (Samantha Smith) and Bobby (Jim Beaver) set out to investigate. Castiel (Misha Collins) imparts some sage advice on Jack (Alexander Calvert), who, still desperate to belong, seeks out a familial connection.

SUPERSTORE: "TOXIC WORKPLACE"

NBC, 8 p.m.

Amy (America Ferrera) and Jonah (Ben Feldman) get combative to keep their new relationship hidden from their coworkers.

YOUNG SHELDON: "A RESEARCH STUDY AND CZECHOSLOVAKIAN WEDDING PASTRIES"

CBS, 8:30 p.m.

Recurring guest star Wallace Shawn returns as Dr. Sturgis in the new episode in which Sheldon (Iain Armitage) and Missy (Raegan Revord) are recommended for a university research study on twins.

THE GOOD PLACE: "JEREMY BEARIMY"

NBC, 8:30 p.m.

The group explores the three main branches of ethical thought.

STATION 19: "HOME TO HOLD ONTO"

ABC, 9 p.m.

When Station 19 receives a call from concerned neighbors regarding a resident in their apartment building, the team heads out to investigate. When they arrive to evaluate the scene, they're shocked by what they find inside.

MOM: "BIG SAUCE AND COCONUT WATER"

CBS, 9 p.m.

Guest Star Alert! Guest star Kristen Johnston returns as Tammy in the new episode in which Bonnie (Allison Janney) invites a newly paroled Tammy to stay at her house.

MURPHY BROWN: "THREE SHIRTS TO THE WIND"

CBS, 9:30 p.m.

Guest Star Alert! David Costabile, Merle Dandridge and original Murphy Brown cast member Charles Kimbrough guest-star in the new episode. Murphy (Candice Bergen) and the team weigh the pros and cons of interviewing a former White House senior adviser (Costabile) who wants to promote his divisive book and agenda

HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER: "IT'S HER KID"

ABC, 10 p.m.

Annalise (Viola Davis) and Nate (Billy Brown) look to get Nate's dad a psych evaluation so that they can have his murder case retried under an insanity plea.

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT: "ACCREDO"

NBC, 10 p.m.

A member of a women's empowerment group is found murdered, leading the cops to the group's charismatic male leader. Rollins (Kelli Giddish) keeps her pregnancy under wraps to avoid going on desk duty.

AMANPOUR & CO.

PBS, 11 p.m.

"My job is to provide the unvarnished truth," says Christiane Amanpour of her new public-affairs show, a CNN-PBS collaboration. The war correspondent turned international news anchor hosts the wide-ranging series from London.

Brought to you by the publishers of TV Guide.  TV Guide 2018She spent much of her life in an indigenous village without electricity, using wattles to cross rivers and make it to her school in the poorest region of Panama. The hardships she endured as a child still make her cry.

From those humble beginnings, Rosa Iveth Montezuma has become the first indigenous woman to be crowned Miss Panama, gaining prominence and influence as an advocate for native people since she won the country's biggest national beauty pageant in June.

"I think that made me strong," she said of her upbringing, in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Now, everything is falling into place for me."

The title has opened doors on an international stage for her to denounce the marginalization of indigenous communities. A month after winning, Montezuma attended the U.N. Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples. She also spoke during the organization's International Indigenous Peoples' Day and took her message to the Organization of American States in Washington.

Dressed in naguas  a long, straight indigenous dress of vibrant colors and geometric designs  Montezuma advocated for longstanding claims of native communities in the Americas and argued that governments "have a historic social debt with our native peoples."

She has had to overcome opposition and discrimination even since winning. In Panama, some criticized her for wearing her traditional dress to the United Nations, arguing that people would think all Panamanians are "cholas"  a pejorative term common in Latin America and Latino communities in the United States.

Montezuma also faced resistance when she entered the beauty contest. After her indigenous ethnicity was questioned on social media, she had to go with pageant organizers to a government office to get her identity documents and prove she is indeed Panamanian. Some had alleged, falsely, that her father was Italian.

 Associated Press

More misconduct by Weinstein detective

New York prosecutors say the former lead police detective in the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault investigation urged one of his accusers to delete information from her phone before turning it over to prosecutors.

The Manhattan district attorney's office detailed the alleged misconduct in a letter to Weinstein's lawyer that was made public Wednesday.

The new allegations against Detective Nicholas DiGaudio involve an unidentified woman who says Weinstein raped her in his Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Prosecutors say the woman didn't delete any information, which was personal and unrelated to the investigation.

DiGaudio was removed from the Weinstein case last week after evidence surfaced that he instructed a witness to keep quiet when she raised doubts about another accuser's claim of sexual misconduct. There was no immediate response from DiGaudio's union.

That revelation led prosecutors to drop a charge related to that allegation.

 Associated Press

10.5 million watched 'Conners' premiere

The 10.5 million people who tuned in to ABC to watch the premiere of ABC's sitcom "The Conners" is a classic half-full, half-empty story.

It was the first time the old "Roseanne" cast had appeared without Roseanne Barr, and viewers were curious how the sitcom would deal with her absence after being fired by ABC. (Spoiler alert: she died because of an opioid addiction.)

The Nielsen company said Wednesday that the audience for "The Conners" was larger than any other ABC show this new season, either new or returning. It was bigger than any new show on any network, narrowly beating NBC's "Manifest."

Yet it could not approach the 18.2 million people who watched the first episode of the "Roseanne" reboot last spring.

 Associated Press

'Orange' to wrap after season 7

"Orange Is the New Black" is fading to black after its upcoming seventh season.

Cast members posted a video Wednesday announcing the series' 2019 end, which was confirmed by a Netflix spokeswoman.

In the video, the actresses thanked fans for their support and promised a fulfilling wrap-up to the comedy-drama set in a women's prison.

The show was nominated twice for top-series Emmy honors, and Uzo Aduba won two acting trophies.

 Associated PressWhere?

That question lingered on the lips of Americans in October 1983 when news broke that President Ronald Reagan had sent U.S. troops to invade this tiny Caribbean nation. Grenada, population 110,000, didn't register on the radar of many folks, and certainly not as enemy territory.

By Christmas, the conflict had ended and peace was restored. Now, 35 years after Grenada grabbed headlines, more Americans are getting to know it. Overnight visits by U.S. residents increased 18 percent in the first half of 2018 over the same period last year, according to tourism officials, and the number of cruise passengers rose more than 26 percent.

Whether they come for day trips on cruise shore excursions or vacations at luxury resorts, visitors stroll some of the Caribbean's best beaches, tour plantations and explore tropical rainforests laced with lakes and waterfalls.

Twenty percent of the world's nutmeg grows in Grenada, but this "black gold" isn't the only flavor found here. Long known as "The Spice Island," it also supplies home pantries with cinnamon, allspice, turmeric, mace and bay leaves. Spice plantations open their doors to visitors to show how it's done.

At Dougaldston Estate, guides crack open nutmeg pods to reveal a seed inside laced in red, affectionately known as the "lady in the boat with the red petticoat." The red covering becomes processed as mace. The nutmeg seed is used for flavoring, in medicine and, in some parts of the world, as a natural aphrodisiac. Inside a wooden shed, benches hold an array of other bits of plant material  leaves, branches, seeds  scraped and pummeled into spices until the room fills with the fragrance of Christmas.

Outside, the hot sun shines down on cocoa beans filling shallow wooden platforms where women walk slowly back and forth, shuffling their feet through the beans to aerate and dry them so they can be shipped to a chocolate factory. Grenada chocolate earns high praise as some of the world's best and, unlike in some developing countries, no child labor is involved in its production.

The Grenada Chocolate Co. welcomes tours, as does a nutmeg-processing cooperative in the fishing village of Gouyave. Bags of spices and bars of chocolate always can be found among the goods vendors sell at the outdoor market in the old town section of St. George's, Grenada's capital city.

An underwater volcano created the main island of Grenada and its six smaller islands about 2 million years ago. It formed the rich volcanic soil responsible for the high quality of Grenadian nutmeg, and  perhaps more of interest to vacationers  nine black-sand beaches. These, along with more than 40 stretches of white sand, allow beachgoers to choose from simple, secluded hideaways to long seafront arcs lined with luxury resorts. Grand Anse Beach, lying along the southwest coast, often has appeared on lists of the best Caribbean beaches. For nearly 2 miles, its white sand fringes a cobalt sea.

Hills and mountains rising from these sandy coastlines lead into rainforests. A driving tour up the west coast on winding roads, often narrowing to one lane, passes bamboo forests and nutmeg trees. Cocoa pods hang heavy on their branches, and bunches of bananas dangle along the roadside. Farmers wielding machetes dodge vehicles as they walk to their fields, drivers raising their hands in greeting.

At Concord Falls, the three-tier waterfall cuts through black, volcanic rock dressed in the lush greenery of the rainforest. Young men may offer to stage a spectacle by jumping from the top of the cataract in exchange for tips.

Another route through the rainforest travels up to 1,900 feet above sea level through Grand Etang National Park. Hiking paths lead around Lake Etang, formed from the crater of an extinct volcano. Seven Sisters Falls is nearby. Annandale Falls, the most easily accessible in Grenada, can be visited on the way to or from St. George's.

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Driving through the countryside and villages, visitors are sure to see the colors of the national flag  green, yellow, red  painted on rocks, curbs, bridges and old tires framing flower beds. The patriotic display is at its best in the weeks leading up to Grenada's Independence Day, Feb. 7.

France claimed Grenada as a colony in 1650, later losing it to Britain, which granted islanders independence in 1974. Grenada remains a parliamentary democracy.

As Caribbean islands go, the crime rate is low. When Hurricane Ivan roared through in 2004, it damaged the prison, and the incarcerated left to check on their families. Once the emergency was over, a public service announcement ordered prisoners to return to serve out their sentences. All did.

The U.S. got involved in Grenada politics a few years after a coup put a government in power with a Marxist philosophy and ties to Cuba and other communist countries. Aiming to prevent communists from gaining another foothold in the region, a U.S.-dominated military force invaded. The U.S. rationalized it had an interest in rescuing roughly 600 U.S. medical students on the island to avoid another Iran hostage crisis.

Less than two months later, it was all over, and elections the following year restored democracy. The date of the invasion, Oct. 25, became a national holiday known as Thanksgiving Day.Milestone marked

Decades ago, when Tri-City Rentals was still a young company, they bought the Sheridan Apartments, a 276-unit complex in the Northside neighborhood of Schenectady. It was one of the company's first acquisitions.

Tuesday, Tri-City celebrated 50 years of ownership at Sheridan with a harvest party and donations to local nonprofits.

The one and two-bedroom apartments are spread throughout 21 attractive brick buildings, built in 1952. Rent, including heat and hot water, for a one-bedroom apartment is $915 and two-bedroom units are $1,025. The complex is now one of 27 properties the company manages in the Albany area; 10 in Greater Rochester and nine in Greater Buffalo.

The company donated $5,000 each to two Schenectady nonprofits that address housing needs: the YWCA of Northeastern NY and the YMCA Men's Residence.

City Mayor Gary McCarthy read a proclamation declaring Oct. 16 Sheridan Apartments Day, and Sen. Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, noted a personal connection to the complex: He lived there 42 years ago, after he graduated from college.

Lou Magliocca, executive director of the YMCA's housing division, also noted a personal connection between Tri-City and the YMCA: The company's general manager, Tim Owens, donates old suits to the men who live at the 875 Commons Residence Program on Broadway in Schenectady. The residence provides affordable housing to veterans and men who have physical or developmental disabilities or who have HIV/AIDS.

Julie Massry Knox, sales and marketing manager at Tri-City, said the donations were the company's first to these two specific YMCA/YWCA groups, although Tri-City has supported the YMCA mission in the past.

"They also deal with housing, but they fill the needs for a demographic we can't serve, because the men and women who use their services may not be able to afford rent," Massry Knox said.

Best in show

The award winners in the Saratoga Showcase of Homes have been announced.

A panel of professionals chose winners in seven categories: landscaping, workmanship, master bath, kitchen, exterior design, floor plan and interior decorating.

Tour participants were also asked to choose their favorite homes in a "people's choice" category. In the classic home division, Kodiak Construction (2 Moss Creek, Middle Grove) was the winner; executive home: Malta Development (10 America's Cup Ct., Malta); and luxury home: The Form Collaborative (5 Maddy Groves Road, Greenfield Center).

The Form Collaborative swept the luxury home category. In addition to trophies awarded to company principal Ryan Berry, Justin White of Bayberry & Co. was honored for landscaping; Susan Waldron Designs won for the interior design of the modern contemporary home; and Sarah McDonald won for best kitchen.

In the executive home division, Bonacio Construction's entry  Unit 104 at the Residences on Union Avenue - was the winner in landscaping (James Williams of Galusha & Sons/Cloverleaf) and exterior design. Witt Construction (9 Persimmon Place, Saratoga Springs) took first in floor plan and workmanship. Bella Home Builders' entry (4 Rolling Green Drive, Wilton) won in the master bath, interior design (Bennington Furniture Design Team, Andrea Chenier, Kaitlynn Johnson and Jeff Ture) and kitchen (Heather Bodnaryk of Curtis Lumber) categories.

Awards in the classic home division went to Kodiak Construction for workmanship and exterior design. Jesse Marco of Brookside Nursery was recognized for the landscaping at the Kodiak house, as was Julia Day of Creative Designs Kitchens for the kitchen in the Kodiak house. Belmonte Builders (4 Brentwood Blvd., Saratoga Springs) won the classic home floor plan category and Chris Kwarta of Liberty Design took the trophy for the interior design. The master bath at the entry from Heritage Builders (12 Ironwood St., Ballston Lake) was also named a winner.

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For a full list of winners that includes the runners up, go to saratogashowcaseofhomes.com.

The tour has raised $1.1 million through the years for two charities: Rebuilding Together Saratoga County and Habitat for Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties. This year's donation amounts will be announced later this fall.

Empire State Plaza included in modern architecture tour guide

Love it or hate it, Albany's Empire State Plaza never fails to draw attention and opinions for its distinct design. Most recently, it is included in a field guide to modern architecture on the East Coast called "Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: East Coast USA," produced by Phaidon, a publisher of books on art, photography, design, architecture, fashion, food and travel. Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is in the book, along with Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. and the National Arboretum, also in D.C. and Polk State College in Florida. The University at Albany is also included.

Author Sam Lubdell writes of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's legacy project, designed by Wallace K. Harrison and others: "For monumental scale, nothing beats the Empire State Plaza, a 98-acre, $2 billion Modernist civic center complex...There are so many impressive edifices, such as the Legislative Office Building, which features a green marble "well" that is clad in marble, as are the walkways, heating vents, planters. Everything."

Lubdell was particularly taken with The Egg, noting its thin stem that extends six stories underground.

The author describes the UAlbany's uptown campus as one of the greatest surprises in the book, "an epiphany for even the most ardent architecture zealot."

"The 'Academic Podium,' as [architect Edward Durell] Stone called it is the architect's Modernist acropolis, a raised grid of white classically inspired New Formalist academic and administrative buildings." The book is available at phaidon.com.

lhornbeck@timesunion.com  518-454-5352  @leighhornbeckChina is set to transform its fire services and armed forestry police to build a national firefighting rescue team, according to a new government plan.

Chinese firefighters. [File Photo: IC]

The plan, released by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, aims to improve the country's disaster prevention, rescue and workplace safety, as well as to protect life and property and maintain social stability.

The new team must "stick to the absolute leadership of the CPC and be based on the national context, and should smoothly transit the team from the old system to the new to ensure the team's overall stability."

Specific management and safeguard measures for the team will be released and improved. After three years of trials, a mature policy system in line with laws and regulations will be formed.

"The forces and resources of emergency rescue should be optimized and integrated to give full play to the team's role as the main force and national team in emergency rescue," according to the plan.

The plan's main tasks are made up of six key areas, including a unified, efficient leadership system, with more fire stations built; a ranking system for command cadres, technical cadres and firefighters; and a personnel management mechanism.

A set of team management measures will be made to set up an honor system in tribute to the firefighting and rescue profession, and to establish a safeguard system that fits the profession.ALBANY  The race to elect New York's next attorney general is heating up.

The Republican and Democratic candidates both stand to make history if victorious.

Republican Keith Wofford, a bankruptcy attorney from Manhattan, and New York City Public Advocate Letitia "Tish" James, the Democratic nominee, would each be the state's first black attorney general. James also stands to become the first woman of color to hold a statewide elected office.

According to an Oct. 1 Siena Research Institute poll, James holds a 14-point lead, 50-36 percent, over Wofford, with both candidates doing well among voters in their own party. The money race is more competitive: Wofford has out-raised and outspent his Democratic opponent, and both candidates have about $400,000 in the bank, according to their most recent Board of Elections campaign finance filings.

Wofford, a political neophyte, is facing an uphill battle in the majority Democratic state against a seasoned politician in James, at a time when many political observers said there has been a "blue wave" response to the administration of President Donald J. Trump. Wofford voted for Trump and said he stands by his vote.

But given the recent corruption scandals that have plagued Albany, the idea of an independent attorney general, to provide a check on the executive branch and the Legislature, might be appealing to many voters.

James touts her past work as assistant attorney general and public advocate, which serves in a similar capacity for New York City. Wofford contends that his outsider status frees him from any political allegiances so that he will be able to de-politicize the office. As such, the election may come down to whether voters are looking for independence or experience in the state's top legal officer.

There are also a slew of minor-party candidates vying for the seat, including Michael Sussman, a civil rights attorney and political activist from Orange County who is the Green Party nominee, and Libertarian Christopher B. Garvey, a Long Island patent attorney.

The candidates are vying for the post vacated by Eric T. Schneiderman, who resigned last year amid allegations he had physically and mentally abused several women.

The Public Advocate

Letitia "Tish" James is no stranger to breaking records. She became New York City's first black female citywide elected official when she was elected public advocate in 2013. During her two terms in the office, she seem more of her legislation passed than all previous public advocates combined, such as a law banning questions about salary history from the employment process in New York City.

James, a graduate of Howard University School of Law and Lehman College, got her start as a public defender at the Legal Aid Society. She went on to work at the attorney general's Brooklyn regional office, and later, was elected New York City councilwoman.

"All throughout my career it's been taking on and challenging special interests and standing up for individuals whose voices are not being heard," she said during a Times Union editorial board meeting in August.

James' campaign platform includes challenging the policies of Trump's administration and reforming the criminal justice system. Her battles with Trump include having filed various briefs in her role as public advocate in response to his policies on transgender people serving in the U.S. Army, and also challenges of his immigration policies. In 2015, she had represented an unaccompanied minor in an immigration proceeding.

James said she will also address governmental corruption in New York, but her opponents have painted her as a career politician, questioning her independence from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, whose endorsement she accepted in the Democratic primary last spring.

During a four-way Democratic primary, she chose not to seek the endorsement of the liberal Working Families Party, which backed actress and activist Cynthia Nixon over Cuomo. The third-party extended its endorsement to James anyway, as it had during past elections, and she will carry the endorsement in next month's general election.

James addressed criticism that she lacks independence from the governor  at at time when several of Cuomo's associates are facing jail time  during her Times Union editorial board meeting. She made the decision to side with the governor, she said, to avoid putting herself in the middle of a feud between the Democratic establishment and the party's progressive factions.

"What's so interesting and kind of comical is that prior to this vacancy no one ever questioned my independence  nobody," James said. "All the groups, all the advocacy groups, all the Indivisible (groups), all the True Blue, all the activists: 'We want Tish James.'"

If elected, she said, she would seek the permanent legislative authority to prosecute public corruption. Currently, the attorney general needs a referral from the governor's office to do so.

The Political Outsider

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Keith Wofford, a Buffalo native, has what many supporters consider an impressive resume. He is widely regarded as one of the top bankruptcy attorneys in the nation. He said his legal experience qualifies him to tackle corruption in Albany, and that he would steer the attorney general's office in a more effective and a less-partisan direction, to create new economic opportunities for everyday New Yorkers.

He often recalls how his working-class upbringing and his public school education, combined with hard work and a parental emphasis on education, propelled him to Harvard University on a scholarship and later, Harvard Law School.

As a co-managing partner in the Manhattan office of the Ropes & Gray law firm, Wofford said he doesn't see those same public and private sector opportunities available to average New Yorkers. To stimulate job-creation and economic growth, he believes that the attorney general office should "stop beating up" on the business community.

He sought to tie Albany's myriad corruption scandals to the lack of opportunities for New Yorkers, pointing to the poor results and scandals that have emerged from Cuomo's signature economic development programs.

"No career politician is going to be able to fix the things that need to be fixed, corruption, the politicians misusing our money for the personal benefit or enhancement of their buddies," Wofford said of his opponent.

He also hopes to scale back use of the Martin Act, which in New York allows the attorney general to investigate financial firms without demonstrating "intent" to defraud, and to create a unit to help small businesses maneuver through regulations.

Wofford contends that previous attorneys general, like former Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, exploited the Martin Act to "strong-arm" companies into settling flimsy lawsuits, which has driven away jobs and opportunity.

"The statute is not being used for its intended purpose," Wofford said.

Wofford's ties to Wall Street and the financial sector, which has flooded his campaign with contributions, may raise questions about his priorities.

When asked during a Times Union editorial board meeting on Wednesday to name other large industries that were perhaps too aggressively targeted by previous attorneys general, he noted the banking industry has been singled out.

"I don't expect people to cry any tears for any bank. I get that banks are unsympathetic," he said. "But the law is not there just to take money out of the pockets of the politically unsympathetic."

The candidate said he would crack down on opioid manufacturers and also empower the state's organized crime task force to go after major drug dealers.

Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Tish James' election as New York City public advocate made her the first black citywide official. She is the first black woman elected citywide.TROY  In a case with statewide political implications, state Supreme Court Justice Patrick J. McGrath heard arguments Thursday in a lawsuit that seeks to force a state watchdog agency to vote on whether to investigate a former top aide to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Marc Molinaro and state Republican party chairman Ed Cox are jointly suing the Joint Commission on Public Ethics in an effort to compel its commissioners to take a vote on whether to launch a probe into whether the former aide, Joseph Percoco, used state government resources while managing Cuomo's 2014 re-election bid  and whether Cuomo knew of the potentially illegal activities.

New York law states that 60 days after receiving a sworn complaint  such as the ones filed by Cox and Molinaro  JCOPE "shall" take a vote on whether to launch a formal investigation. The Republicans say the state's ethics watchdog is also required to notify the complainants when a vote has occurred.

JCOPE's attorneys, however, have argued that it is not required to investigate a "sworn" complaint if the complainant does not have first-hand knowledge of potential illegal activities.

Indeed, Cox and Molinaro's complaints are based on testimony during Percoco's corruption trial this year  which resulted in his conviction  and investigative news reports, including a review of Percoco's state phone records by the Times Union.

Percoco's conduct has become a flashpoint in the race for governor. But with less than three weeks before the Nov. 6 vote, it's likely the clock will run out on any possible probe into his campaign work before Election Day.

At the hearing on Thursday, McGrath at one point questioned JCOPE's argument that the law allows the commission to ignore a "sworn" complaint if it is based on second-hand knowledge such as media reports.

"The statute doesn't require that, does it?" McGrath said. "It just says 'a sworn complaint.'"

Attorney Michael Hutter, representing the Republicans, emphasized that his clients were mainly seeking to force JCOPE to simply disclose if it had taken a vote on whether to open an investigation  or to force a vote, if one has not occurred.

There is no public record a vote occurred. In mid-September, both Cuomo's government office and his campaign told the Times Union they had not received a "15-day letter" that would initiate JCOPE's fact-gathering process before a vote. That's despite the fact that the statute indicates JCOPE will send the letters to targets of sworn complaints.

McGrath also left open the possibility that the Legislature had indeed written a law that would allow JCOPE to bury complaints filed by the public against state officials.

"They wrote it, right  the Legislature?" McGrath said.

But the burial of complaints "was not the goal of the Legislature," Hutter responded.

"You want me to fill in the gaps (in the law)?" McGrath asked Hutter.

An outside counsel hired by JCOPE, Thomas Gleason, argued that Cox and Molinaro had inserted themselves into "confidential proceedings."

"The work of JCOPE is intended to be under the cloak of confidentiality," Gleason said.

Gleason was retained by JCOPE after Attorney General Barbara Underwood's office recused itself from the case, citing a possible conflict of interest.

Percoco was convicted this spring of taking more than $300,000 from two development firms in exchange for government favors; he was sentenced last month to six years in prison. While Percoco's apparent campaign work in his state office  during an eight-month period in 2014 when he was managing the governor's re-election effort but was not working for the Executive Chamber  was key context in the trial, it was not the basis of any federal charges against him.

In addition to filing a complaint with JCOPE, Cox also formally requested the Manhattan district attorney's office launch a criminal probe of Percoco's campaign work from his taxpayer-funded office.

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In July, Percoco's attorney Barry Bohrer told the Times Union he didn't know whether JCOPE or the Manhattan district attorney's office were investigating the former aide's campaign work.

In February 2015, state Supreme Court Justice Henry Zwack ruled against JCOPE in a similar case involving President Donald J. Trump, who was then a private businessman.

But another 2015 state court decision  issued after the Trump decision  supported JCOPE's position in a lawsuit seeking to force the agency to investigate former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

In his comments from the bench, McGrath noted the "dueling" decisions.

During the eight months in 2014 when Percoco was managing Cuomo's re-election campaign after resigning from the Executive Chamber, he continued to use his desk at the governor's office in Manhattan, according to Cuomo staffers who testified at the former aide's corruption trial.

Cuomo's desk in that government office was just steps away from Percoco's, and records obtained by the Times Union show that on several days when the aide's state phone was used to make campaign-related calls, the governor was present in the Manhattan office.

Cuomo has said he was unaware that Percoco was campaigning from his office, and has claimed he believed Percoco was merely "transitioning" out of his former position as executive deputy secretary.

Percoco's phone records show that over the eight months in question, 68 calls were made from his former state desk phone to Cuomo's Manhattan campaign headquarters  an apparent violation of state regulations. The Percoco government phone line was also often used to call Cuomo's fundraisers, campaign consultants and the campaign's election lawyer.

There were 837 calls over 68 days made from the taxpayer-funded phone in Percoco's former office.

JCOPE, created in 2011, has faced abundant criticism that its rules prevent the public from knowing whether or not it is pursuing an investigation. It has also been the subject of criticism for its close ties to Cuomo, who appoints a plurality of its commissioners.

Since its inception, all of JCOPE's executive directors have been former Cuomo attorneys. Its current top staffer, Seth Agata, was an administration counsel and campaign volunteer for Cuomo in 2014. He appeared as a witness at Percoco's trial.ALBANY  Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has a comfortable 23 percentage point lead in his pursuit of a third term in office, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

The two-term Democrat is winning 58 percent of likely voters, while Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, the Republican nominee, is only winning 35 percent of the vote. The poll did not ask about the third party candidates running for governor, but only 2 percent of voters preferred someone besides a major party candidate, while 5 percent are undecided.

The governor's lead is built primarily on his 88 percent support from Democratic voters, who outnumber Republicans by a two-to-one margin in the state. His geographic base is in New York City, where he is winning by 64 points.

Molinaro's base is upstate, where he wins 52 percent of the vote, and easily wins New Yorkers who identify taxes as the most important issued affecting their vote.

"In a campaign where Gov. Cuomo continues to hammer President Donald Trump and his policies, Molinaro also has the challenge of running in a state where Trump has a 37 percent job approval," Quinnipiac polling analyst Mary Snow said in a statement.

The numbers are in keeping with recent results from the Siena Research Institute, which showed Molinaro trailing by 22 points. The poll comes on the heels of the new FiveThirtyEight gubernatorial forecast model, which gives the governor a 99.6 percent chance of winning reelection.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, is also poised to easily win re-election, based on her 25-point lead in the poll.

She is backed by 58 percent of likely voters, while Republican challenger Chele Farley is at 33 percent support. Gillibrand is winning every region of the state.

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The top issues for voters are health care, taxes, the economy, immigration and education, according to the poll. Republicans are focused on the economy, taxes and immigration, while a plurality of Democrats identify health care as their top issue.

The poll was conducted between Oct. 10 and 16, and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

David.Lombardo@timesunion.com - 518.454.5427 - @poozer87New York State Police

DELANSON  A 34-year-old volunteer firefighter, assistant scout master and member of the Air National Guard is facing child pornography charges, State Police said in a press release Thursday.

Nick Hochmuth of Delanson was charged with one count of possession of a sexual performance by a child and one count or promotion of a sexual performance by a child, police said.Glory Dayz, a 1980s-themed Malta nightclub that had a difficult opening over Labor Day weekend and ran into multiple disputes about nonpayment of bills, closed after about a month in business. The landlord said he evicted the club for failing to pay rent.

"He never paid me anything toward the rent," Mitesh Patel, who owns the Roosevelt Inn & Suites and other structures at 2955-61 Route 9, just north of Northway Exit 13, told me. The building that was home to Glory Dayz, previously occupied by Orchid's Caribbean Restaurant & Lounge, sits next to the Roosevelt and behind the unaffiliated, still-in-business 13 North Restaurant.

Patel said Glorz Dayz owner Michael Barry on paper owed him $12,000 for four months' rent, to cover the time when Barry was building the club, but that he would have taken $4,000, for 40 days' rent, and allowed Glory Dayz to stay. When he had not been paid anything by Sept. 10, Patel said, he exercised a clause in the lease allowing either party to provide a 30-day notice of cancellation. Patel said the official eviction date was Oct. 10. He said Barry also owed approximately $1,600 in utilities payments, toward which Barry contributed a check of about one-third of the due amount. The check bounced, Patel said.

"The landlord nullified the lease," Barry told me today when asked about the club's closure. He refused to say whether he had paid any rent. "The landlord nullified the lease," he said again. "We performed in accordance with it."

More for you Band says Malta's Glory Daze bar owner ripped them off

Barry said he plans to reopen Glory Dayz "soon, very soon" at another location in the Capital Region. He declined to identify where, he said, at the request of his new landlord. Glory Dayz's final night in Malta was during the first weekend of October, Barry said.

DISCUSS THIS STORY IN TABLE HOPPING

Patel told me that when Barry vacated the Route 9 building, he took furniture, fixtures and other items that belonged to Patel. Patel said they were valued at more than $16,000. Capt. Jeffrey Brown of the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office confirmed to me that Patel had filed a theft complaint and that the matter is now an active investigation with the department. Brown said Patel had not attached a value in his complaint to the allegedly stolen property.

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In addition to Patel, others have alleged Barry stiffed them completely or otherwise did not fully pay bills for Glory Dayz, including an audio-visual company that repossessed its equipment after the first weekend and liquor distributors. The most vocal has been Dan Coler of the band Dashboard Anthem, which played opening night, Sept. 1, and alleged Barry paid half of the agreed-upon fee with a check that later was returned for insufficient funds. Coler, who told me last month that he had brought the matter to police, could not be reached this afternoon for an update.

Michael Gallitelli, owner of Metroland Photo in Albany, told me today he has a hearing with Barry in small-claims court in Malta next week to pursue a debt of about $1,400 for photos and frames Barry ordered as decor for Glory Dayz and did not pay for.

At Barry's request, another local musician who performed at Glory Dayz called me last month to say that he was paid for his services and was satisfied with his dealings with Barry.ALBANY  The Montgomery County Board of Elections is feeling the absence of its Republican deputy commissioner, Adam Jackson, who died in the Schoharie limousine crash earlier this month during a particularly busy election season.

Jackson, 34, would have had a role in reviewing and mailing 89 absentee ballots that  without his oversight  inadvertently omitted the name of Republican congressional candidate Joe Vitollo. The erroneous ballots were sent to voters in the town of Amsterdam on Oct. 12, according to BOE officials.

Adam and his wife Abby Jackson, of Amsterdam, were among 20 killed in the Oct. 6 tragedy, when a limousine veered off the road and crashed into an overgrown ditch near the Apple Barrel Country Store along Route 30A in Schoharie.

Terry A. Bieniek, the Democratic BOE commissioner for Montgomery County, said the mistake was identified on Tuesday, and that all absentee voters who received the faulty ballots were notified and sent new ballots.

"I don't want to make excuses, but we are going through some hard times," Bieniek said. "We certainly corrected it as much as we could."

BOE officials organized a memorial for Jackson and a chaplain visited the office last week, on the day the ballots were sent out.

In addition to reeling from the loss of a colleague, the office's limited staff has been fielding a larger-than-usual number of requests for absentee ballots and information on how to register to vote, according to Bieniek.

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"There is clearly a lot of excitement about November," Bieniek said. "We generally are on top of our game, but these last few days have been really hard."

He said other county departments have been aiding with the workload in the past few days.

Vitollo, who is challenging Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko in November's general election, fumed over the mistake and questioned why no one else at the office caught such a blatant error.

"I personally think the Democrats are crooked and they are doing illegal things," Vitollo said. "I'm missing 500 yard signs in areas where everyone else's signs are up."

Adam and Abby Jackson, an Amsterdam School District teacher, are survived by two daughters, Archer, 4, and Elle, 16 months old. A GoFundMe page has been set up for the girls' college fund.Mexico Beach, Fla.

With stunned faces and tears, residents of hard-hit Mexico Beach returned home for the first time Wednesday about a week after Hurricane Michael hit to find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.

Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where she'd lived with her husband. She was distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.

Husband Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock given to him by a friend 40 years ago.

"That's my belongings," he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red pickup truck. Choking up, he said: "I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it."

Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Eden's face as she and husband Ron Eden sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house they've rented each October for years. They didn't find much  just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a son's camp chair.

The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time. In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.

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"Basically, we lost 'old Florida.' It's all gone," said Lanie Eden.

Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit. But officials used the city's Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with 155 mph winds and a strong storm surge.

State emergency management officials said some 124,500 customers across the Panhandle were still without power Wednesday morning and 1,157 remained in shelters.

In Bay County, home to Mexico Beach and Panama City, more than half of the households and businesses remained without electricity.Special Counsel Robert Mueller is expected to issue findings on core aspects of his Russia probe soon after the November midterm elections as he faces intensifying pressure to produce more indictments or shut down his investigation, according to two U.S. officials.

Specifically, Mueller is close to rendering judgment on two of the most explosive aspects of his inquiry: whether there were clear incidents of collusion between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, and whether the president took any actions that constitute obstruction of justice, according to one of the officials, who asked not to be identified speaking about the investigation.

That doesn't necessarily mean Mueller's findings would be made public if he doesn't secure unsealed indictments. The regulations governing Mueller's probe stipulate that he can present his findings only to his boss, who is currently Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The regulations give a special counsel's supervisor some discretion in deciding what is relayed to Congress and what is publicly released.

The question of timing is critical. Mueller's work won't be concluded ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to take control of the House and end Trump's one-party hold on Washington.

But this timeline also raises questions about the future of the probe itself. Trump has signaled he may replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions after the election, a move that could bring in a new boss for Mueller. Rosenstein also might resign or be fired by Trump after the election.

Rosenstein has made it clear that he wants Mueller to wrap up the investigation as expeditiously as possible, another U.S. official said. The officials gave no indications about the details of Mueller's conclusions. Mueller's office declined to comment for this story.

With three weeks to go before the midterm elections, it's unlikely Mueller will take any overt action that could be turned into a campaign issue. Justice Department guidelines say prosecutors should avoid any major steps close to an election that could be seen as influencing the outcome.

That suggests the days and weeks immediately after the Nov. 6 election may be the most pivotal time since Mueller took over the Russia investigation almost a year and a half ago. So far, Mueller has secured more than two dozen indictments or guilty pleas.

Trump's frustration with the probe, which he routinely derides as a "witch hunt," has been growing, prompting concerns he may try to shut down or curtail Mueller's work at some point.

There's no indication, though, that Mueller is ready to close up shop, even if he does make some findings, according to former federal prosecutors. Several matters could keep the probe going, such as another significant prosecution or new lines of inquiry. And because Mueller's investigation has been proceeding quietly, out of the public eye, it's possible there have been other major developments behind the scenes.

Mueller only recently submitted written questions to Trump's lawyers regarding potential collusion with Russia, and his team hasn't yet ruled out seeking an interview with the president, according to one of the U.S. officials. If Trump refused an interview request, Mueller could face the complicated question of whether to seek a grand jury subpoena of the president. The Justice Department has a standing policy that a sitting president can't be indicted.

At the same time, Mueller is tying down some loose ends. Four of his 17 prosecutors have left the special counsel's office in recent months. Three are going back to their previous Justice Department jobs, and the fourth has become a research fellow at Columbia Law School.

After several postponements, Mueller's team has agreed to a sentencing date for Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements last year. The Dec. 18 date comes more than a year after Mueller secured a cooperation deal with Flynn, suggesting that Mueller's team has all it needs from him.

Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, struck his own cooperation agreement with Mueller last month, after being convicted at trial in Virginia on eight counts of bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failure to file a foreign bank account. The plea agreement let him avoid a second trial in Washington. The judge in the Virginia trial, who wasn't part of the plea agreement, has scheduled a sentencing hearing Friday, which could complicate Manafort's cooperation agreement with Mueller.

Mueller's prosecutors also have met with Michael Cohen, Trump's former personal lawyer. Cohen pleaded guilty in New York in August to tax evasion, bank fraud and violations of campaign finance laws. That separate investigation, headed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, is one of several New York probes involving the Trump Organization, and could ultimately prove to be more damaging to the president than Mueller's work.

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Former federal prosecutors said that Manafort's plea deal probably advanced Mueller's timeline for determining whether there was collusion.

Manafort could be assisting Mueller's team on questions related to whether the Trump campaign changed the Republican party's stance on Ukraine as part of an understanding with the Russian government, and whether the Russians helped coordinate the release of hacked emails related to Democrat Hillary Clinton with members of Trump's campaign, said another former prosecutor who asked not to be named.

Manafort is also key to understanding a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr. and a group of Russians who had promised damaging information concerning Clinton, the former official said.

Manafort appears to have good material to offer, said Samuel Buell, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Duke University School of Law. "He's not going to get that deal unless he can help Mueller make a case against one or more people," Buell said. Cooperators can't expect leniency unless they provide "substantial assistance in the prosecution of others," Buell added, citing sentencing guidelines.

Although the days and weeks after the election might test Mueller in new ways, he has confronted pressure before to shut down.

Trump's lawyers have attempted to publicly pressure Mueller into wrapping up his investigation, setting artificial deadlines since the early days of the probe when they predicted it would wrap by the end of 2017. In August 2017, then-White House lawyer Ty Cobb said he would be "embarrassed"if the investigation dragged on past Thanksgiving.

Even if Mueller's probe stretched through 2019, the timeline wouldn't be unprecedented. Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr spent four years investigating President Bill Clinton before releasing his report on the Monica Lewinsky affair, which spun out of a probe into an Arkansas land deal known as Whitewater.

It took almost two years for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to indict Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, for lying to investigators and obstruction of justice in October 2005 in the investigation into the public outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.A Selkirk-area woman who is wanted for grand larceny and a man considered armed and dangerous are two of the people 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.President Trump's constant, relentless, remorseless lying is a central feature of his presidency, an unprecedented threat to our democracy and  in my view  an impeachable offense.

I realize it is not always possible to draw a bright line between untruths Trump knows are untrue and conspiratorial nonsense he might foolishly believe. But never before have we had a leader who so pollutes the national discourse with garbage that he at least ought to know is false  and I fear the consequences will be with us long after Trump is gone.

At his inauguration, Trump swore to "faithfully execute the office of president." He violates that oath when he speaks to the nation in bad faith. Other presidents have lied  Lyndon Johnson about Vietnam, Richard Nixon about Watergate, Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky. But never have we had a president who lies about everything, who invents his own fake facts, who continues to trumpet falsehoods even when confronted with the facts.

And yes, undisputed facts do exist and can be ascertained. I am not talking about subtle matters of interpretation; I'm taking about knowing falsehoods, commonly known as lies.

Here is just one example: At a roundtable with a group of workers in Duluth, Minn., in June, Trump said, "The head of U.S. Steel called me the other day, and he said, 'We're opening up six major facilities and expanding facilities that have never been expanded.'" A few days later, at the White House, Trump said, "U.S. Steel just announced they're expanding or building six new facilities." Reporters called the company for details and learned that U.S. Steel has not announced plans to open any new domestic steel mills. Not even one. The Washington Post's "Fact Checker" column gave Trump the maximum four Pinocchios for his patently untrue statement. End of story, right? Wrong. More than a month later, at one of his rallies, Trump declared that "U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants." At another rally around the same time, he told supporters that "U.S. Steel just announced that they're building six new steel mills."

Six new plants, seven new plants, what's the difference when neither is true and the real number is zero? In June, Trump's claim might have been called a "misstatement" or a "falsehood" or an "untruth." A month later, after the truth had been clearly established, that same claim could only be called a bald-faced lie.

And those are just a smattering of the more than 5,000 falsehoods from Trump that the Post has tallied since he took office. Trump clearly understands the benefit of flooding the zone. If, during the course of a rally or a news conference or an interview, he tells one glaring lie, that's where all attention will be focused. But if he tells a dozen lies, or two dozen, it is all but impossible for critics to keep up. By the time all those lies have been called out, Trump will have spewed a few dozen more.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl offered a valuable lesson in how to pin Trump down. At one point, he was trying to leave the false impression that there is serious scientific debate about whether human activity has contributed to climate change. "They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael," Trump said.

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"Who says that?" Stahl interjected. "'They say?'"

"People say," Trump responded. "People say ..." Finally he claimed, without offering a shred of evidence, that "scientists ... have a very big political agenda"  a dodge amounting to an admission that Trump had no factual basis for the claims he was making.

When Stahl turned to Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and Trump said "I think China meddled also," Stahl again called him on it: "You are diverting the whole Russia thing. ... You are, you are."

Trump finally got so flustered that he said, "Lesley, it's OK. In the meantime, I'm president  and you're not."

And that is the point. When Trump insists on his own invented "facts," he makes reality-based political dialogue impossible. His utter disregard for truth is a subversion of our democracy and a dereliction of his duty as president. The Founders considered themselves men of honor whose word was their bond. They left us the vague, encompassing phrase "high crimes and misdemeanors" for just such an emergency.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter .

Support our mission and join our community now.October 18, 2018





Pockets of AI innovation are sprouting up and expanding all over the world, benefitting enormously from new avenues of research, funding and investment. Here are some of the most recent hotspots for the research and development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence.







Montreal, Canada

Montreal has fast become one of the worlds leading centres for AI research, and this newfound status is having a significant impact on the citys entire startup community. Some observers now expect Montreal to become Canadas very own, mini Silicon Valley.

Montreal raised more venture capital money than any other city in Canada last year  and while this may not be much compared to other AI hubs around the world, its growth is turning attention to the city and its potential.

Montreal has a reputation for AI research that has attracted the likes of Google (News - Alert) , Facebook and Microsoft in recent years. The Canadian government has also pledged more than $200 million of funding to further boost it.

The city has everything it needs to establish itself as an AI hub: it has the thriving private, academic and public sectors behind it, each sharing the load and working together. It is also home to leading universities including McGill University and Universite de Montreal, which both have huge numbers of students dedicated to studying AI.

Tech workers in Montreal are fiercely proud of their community and are determined to be a leading voice in the global conversation around AI.

London

Earlier this year, London was found to be the AI capital of Europe, home to double the number of AI companies than its closest rivals Paris and Berlin combined. In total, it has 758 AI companies, while around 645 of these companies have a headquarters in the city. And 80% of the top 50 AI companies across the UK are based in London.

The research, commissioned by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, found that London has a strong AI ecosystem that is of increasing importance to the capitals economy. It also found that investment raised by Londons AI companies grew by more than 50% last year, reaching over 200m in total.

It was feared by some experts that the capitals reputation as a tech hub would be threatened by Brexit, but the city has seen staunch support from AI and robotics investors like the entrepreneur Tej Kohli. Investments in the citys AI companies are still a savvy business move according to Mr Kohli, who recently wrote in City AM that London continues to be the top destination for Indias tech elite in particular.

Singapore

In recent years, Singapore has attracting some of the worlds leading AI talent and investment due to its global status as a cosmopolitan, hard-working society with strong state backing for high-tech research.

For example, 10,000 in Singapore will be taught AI basics for free on the AI for Everyone scheme, launched by AI Singapore to boost to the local tech scene, while the National Research Foundation has invested S$150 million in a national programme aimed at boosting Singapore's AI capabilities over the next five years.

And the potential for growth is huge; one report by Frontier Economics said Singapore could double the size of its economy in just 13 years if it successfully adopts AI, which would otherwise take 22 years.

Whether its the government of Singapore throwing their weight behind AI education, or Londons tech scene benefitting from the backing of investors like Tej Kohli, AI hubs are continuing to spring up across the globe  making the prospect of widespread, commonplace AI a question of when, rather than if.[October 17, 2018] Mobikor provides webtoon service for Vietnamese workers in Korea

Overseas remittance service application, 'PayOne,' is linked to Vietnam ' s first webtoon platform 'Vinatoon'

Mobikor plans to expand the webtoon market for the Vietnamese citizens in cooperation with the best companies in various areas SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobikor (www.vinatoon.co.kr co-CEOs Kim Joong-hwan and Lee Jin-woo), Vietnam's first webtoon service provider, announced that it would join hands with Payone (www.epayone.co.kr CEO Lee Dae-hyeong), digital financial transaction solution development and service company, to provide webtoon service for Vietnamese workers living in Korea.



Mobikor introduced Vinatoon (www.vinatoon.com), the first webtoon service in Vietnam last April, attracting the attention of the cartoon/webtoon industry in Korea and Vietnam. The company is servicing excellent webtoons of Korea in Vietnam, and making efforts to expand webtoons for Vietnamese citizens in cooperation with several partners in Vietnam.

Payone is a company that provides financial and mobile services for workers living in Korea, e.g. overseas mobile business and payment business, including overseas remittance service and overseas cell phone charging service for foreigners living in Korea. Payone entered into an agreement with BIDV Bank of Vietnam in 2008, and entered into an MOU with the Center for Overseas Workers of the Vietnamese Ministry of Labor, and introduced 'PayOne,' a remittance smartphone app for foreigners, in 2016, which is now used by many Vietnamese workers and families in Korea. The two companies are planning to implement a link to 'Vinatoon,' Vietnam's first webtoon service, in the 'PayOne' app, and carry out joint marketing. This service will allow Vietnamese workers living in Korea to conveniently enjoy high-level Korean webtoons that are translated and edited in Vietnamese, and use the fee-based webtoon payment service in Korea. "About 187,000 Vietnamese citizens, including workers, are staying in Korea as of 2018, second to Chinese among foreigners in Korea," said Kim Joong-hwan, CEO of Mobikor. "We expect that it will be a good present for the Vietnamese citizens in Korea who want to enjoy Korean webtoons, and we will cooperate with various Vietnamese companies to expand the webtoon market in Vietnam." Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20181016/2269048-1LOGO SOURCE Vinatoon

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Battery Mainstay Headed For High-Tech Makeover

Industry-national lab collaboration seeks unrealized potential of a venerable battery technology LEMONT, Illinois, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The complex interactions inside a lead battery while it charges and discharges remain mysterious, even 159 years after the technology's invention. But now the lead battery is headed for a high-tech makeover that will make this sustainable mainstay product more appealing to the automotive industry and the power grid. Under the terms of a new agreement signed with the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, 14 members of the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) have joined forces with Electric Applications to grapple with some of their common challenges. "This is a beautiful example of how synergy between industry and science can drive innovation," said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science (ACCESS). "These leading companies of the lead battery industry want to do pre-competitive R&D using some of the most advanced tools, techniques and capabilities at Argonne to help improve the longevity of lead batteries. Every company faces this problem. Once you understand the complex chemical interactions inside these batteries, you can start to propose solutions to further extend their life." The research will be a collaborative effort between Argonne's Advanced Photon Source (APS), and the laboratory's Chemical Sciences and Engineering and Materials Science divisions. The APS is a DOE Office of Science User Facility that provides ultra-bright, high-energy X-ray beams for research in almost all scientific disciplines. Tim Fister, an Argonne materials scientist in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering division, will be using the state-of-the-art tools at the APS to understand the changes in the battery during its operation. Argonne's Materials Science division operates the Electrochemistry Discovery Laboratory, where a team of experts led by Vojislav Stamenkovic, senior scientist and tech leader, will explore the behavior of materials at the atomic scale to reveal the structure-function relationships responsible for lead battery operation. "We've developed so many tools and techniques in the last five years, and we now have a chance to understand how we can unlock the potential for the next generation of batteries. We can see things that we couldn't have seen even 10 years ago," Srinivasan said. The nine full members of the program include Crown Battery Manufacturing Company, Doe Run Resources Corporation, East Penn Manufacturing Company, EnerSys, Exide Technologies, Johnson Controls, NorthSar Battery Company, RSR Technologies and Trojan Battery Company. The five associate members are Superior Graphite, Microporous LLC, Cabot Corporation, Borregard Lignotech and Advanced Battery Concepts.



"There is a need, and the resources are available at Argonne and industry is willing to invest in advanced technology," said Don Karner, president of Electric Applications Incorporated of Phoenix and the program coordinator for the companies. "Bringing all three of those elements together, we're hoping to gain significant knowledge that will help the members significantly improve the performance of their battery products. The science program will focus Argonne's resources and expertise on improving the performance of lead batteries to assist the industry in meeting market demands for existing applications and for new applications." To date, Argonne has focused much of its attention on lithium-ion and beyond-lithium-ion batteries. Its researchers have blended different chemical elements in an effort to squeeze more energy out of the lithium-ion system. But the expertise and techniques that Argonne has tapped also apply to lead batteries, Karner said. He sees Argonne and the other members as a special breed of explorers and miners.

Tim Ellis, Chairman of ALABC, and President of RSR Technologies said, "Lead batteries are a critical foundation technology underpinning everything from the cars we drive to the cell phone networks they back up. This new project, with Argonne's scientists, will help make the leap to the next generation of advanced lead batteries, as well as supporting efforts to meet the growing demand for reliable, safe and effective rechargeable battery energy storage. This is cutting edge research employing techniques not previously utilized for lead batteries, and we are confident the results will prove ground-breaking." Argonne and the consortium members seek to build upon the work of their predecessors. For the last century, lead battery manufacturers have invested much of their research in assessing the viability of processing methods and additives without fully understanding the underlying chemistry. "We will provide a better understanding of this technology through fundamental electrochemistry and through high precision, custom built tools," Stamenkovic said. "We are particularly interested in the lead sulfate crystal growth and dissolution process, and in learning how to control the latter in a more effective manner," Fister said. The lead sulfation issue limits lead battery performance to less than half its potential. Tapping a significant portion of that unused potential would result in even better low-cost, recyclable batteries for mobile and stationary market applications. Once Argonne researchers better understand these processes, they will begin analyzing how the addition of various additives may improve lead battery performance, much as they have done with lithium-ion batteries. About Argonne

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.

About ALABC

ALABC is a global consortium for battery innovation carrying out pre-competitive research designed to advance lead battery technology. The research has been successful in developing high performance lead batteries including next generation micro-hybrid applications for automotive, as well as innovative battery technology featured in motive, industrial and renewable energy storage applications. The consortium includes more than 90 member companies and organizations worldwide, consisting of lead producers, battery manufacturers, battery users, materials suppliers and research institutions. Photographs: Click here to view photographs from the Argonne project.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] MobiKwik Acquires Clearfunds, Announces its Foray in Wealth Management

NEW DELHI, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Will invest $15 Million in Wealth Management over next one year MobiKwik, India's leading full-stack fintech platform, announced its entry into the wealth management business with a 100% acquisition of Clearfunds, a leading online wealth management platform, based in Mumbai. This is the first acquisition ever by MobiKwik and will help the brand to further strengthen its foothold in digital financial services. MobiKwik will be investing US$15 million over the next one year to scale up its wealth management business. MobiKwik's 107 million plus customers will soon be able to invest in mutual funds seamlessly from their MobiKwik app. Post the acquisition, Kunal Bajaj, Founder and CEO, Clearfunds will lead MobiKwik's wealth management business. Kunal has over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry and has held leadership positions at world's leading financial intitutions like Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Jefferies India.



Founded in 2016, Clearfunds uses powerful data analytics and automated processes to deliver the best investment experience. Its Smart Portfolios feature is a fully automated investment advisory service designed to make investing easy. Clearfunds uses sophisticated computer algorithms to build, monitor and rebalance diversified mutual fund investment portfolios suited to an investor's stated goals, time horizon and risk tolerance. It has $45 million worth of assets under advisory and allows clients to access 3,000+ direct mutual fund schemes across all 36 Mutual Fund Companies (AMCs), and 4 Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs). Ms. Upasana Taku, Co-Founder and Director, MobiKwik, commented, "This acquisition will help us get a head start in the wealth management domain. Clearfunds has done exceptionally well and has an edge over its competitors, owing to its superior technology and advanced data analytics. MobiKwik's users will now be able to start their investment journey with as little as Rs. 100. We will continue to explore strategic investments or acquisitions that can add value, as we look to build out our full-stack fintech platform."

About MobiKwik: MobiKwik is India's leading digital financial services platform with over 3 million merchants and 107 million users. Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, it has raised four rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, MediaTek, GMO Payment Gateway, Cisco Investments, Net1 and Bajaj Finance. For further details:

Akanksha Jain

Director - Public Relations

MobiKwik

Mobile: +91-9871900447

Email: akanksha.jain@mobikwik.com





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] OnRisk and Agile Risk Partners To Collaborate on Advanced Structuring Platform

Princeton, NJ, USA, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agile Risk Partners (Agile), a London-based MGA startup, and OnRisk, the US-based insurtech startup, have agreed to collaborate on the development of an advanced, CAD-style platform for underwriting, structuring and distributing high-value P&C risk. Under a strategic insurtech partnership recently concluded by the parties, Agile will become an early adopter of OnRisks platform, and will contribute its deep underwriting and risk advisory expertise to ensure that OnRisks planned platform extensions are sufficient to meet Agiles rigorous, day-to-day transactional requirements. It is anticipated that 200 D&F property deals, including many requiring ILS capacity support, will be bound using the OnRisk platform during Agiles first year of operation. Agiles Director of Underwriting Richard Foster commented on the insurtech partnership, To structure high-value deals in a fast-paced trading environment, well need speed, precision and flexibility that exceed the capabilities of mud maps and spreadsheets. We look forward to the deployment of a CAD platform that can efficiently transact the most complex property risk transfers in the London market. OnRisk CEO Frank Sweeney added, Agile and OnRisk share a belief that the high-valuerisk market has benefited greatly from capital innovation, but remains technology-constrained and lower priority for insurtech investment. This collaboration will enable us to inject advanced technology directly into core high-value risk structuring processes.



Agile plans to commit resources to the next round of platform extensions that will convert the current, patented prototype platform into sophisticated CAD software capable of modeling the most intricate risk-sharing arrangements utilized by the global insurance industry. OnRisk designs will target the immediate operational priorities for Agiles MGA and risk advisory businesses. James Poole, Agiles Managing Director, said, We think these precise, visual structuring tools are potentially foundational for accelerating innovation in the high-value risk space. We are eager to push the technology envelope to the benefit of our buyers and capacity providers.



About OnRisk OnRisk is a US-based insurtech startup that provides a digital platform for structuring high-value property & casualty (P&C) risk. OnRisk's cloud platform delivers a CAD-style, graphical, interactive toolkit designed to provide corporate risk managers, carrier ceded reinsurance specialists and their brokers with an intuitive, user-friendly view of these complex risks. Visit www.onrisk.com to learn more about OnRisk. About Agile Risk Partners Agile Risk Partners is a London-based managing general agent (MGA) startup that will specialize in underwriting direct & facultative (D&F) property risk, and Agile further plans to tap the global ILS market for capacity support. Agile has been founded by ex-broker James Poole, previously at Price Forbes and Arthur J Gallagher & Co., and well-known D&F market underwriter Richard Foster, most recently the Head of Global Property at Brit Insurance. CONTACT INFORMATION Frank Sweeney CEO, OnRisk Inc. Email: fsweeney@onrisk.com Phone: +1 609-658-6704 James Poole MBA FCII Managing Director Agile Risk Partners Email: james.poole@agileriskpartners.com Phone: +44 7711 313759

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Augumenta Brings Powerful Mixed Reality Interaction to HoloLens and Android Smartglasses with Infinite Touch Toolkit

MUNICH, Germany, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At AWE Europe this week, Augumenta, Ltd. announced the immediate availability of Infinite Touch, a toolkit for developers to enable gesture interaction using 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) cameras in Microsoft HoloLens as well as Android smartglasses.

The challenge of achieving seamless interaction with mixed or augmented reality (AR) content is an obstacle for developers of industrial and consumer applications. With Infinite Touch, smartglasses equipped with a 3D camera sensor now can be controlled by simply pointing with a finger at virtual objects. This dramatically enhances user experiences by enabling powerful application interfaces with more advanced input capabilities, simple browsing of menu structures, and point and execute functionality. On Microsoft HoloLens, Infinite Touch uses the built-in ToF 3D camera sensor to go beyond the default gestures made available by Microsoft. For Android devices, Augumenta is working with leading ToF vendor PMDtec to create a bundle consisting of their pico flexx camera module and a mounting bracket for various smartglass models. The first Android device to have this option is the upcoming ODG R-9 .



Theres huge potential in AR for both enterprises and consumers, but one of the things slowing down adoption has been the ability to interact in an intuitive way that requires no learning, said Tero Aaltonen, co-founder and CEO of Augumenta. Infinite Touch addresses this problem by providing a powerful and simple interaction method: pointing with a finger. We are looking forward to exciting new application concepts coming out from our partners based on this technology. Infinite Touch opens a new and exciting world for application developers, comments Tony Manninen, CEO of game studio LudoCraft Ltd. This newly available technology inspires us to create novel games that are intuitive to control and offer endless possibilities to play with the physical space.

We at pmd are proud that Augumenta has selected our development kit pico flexx as their platform for ToF-based hand tracking, said Mitchell Reifel, VP Business Development and Sales, pmdtechnologies Inc. The pico flexx is small, inexpensive and easy to use, making it an ideal selection for this use-case. pmd looks forward to working with Augumenta on pico flexx as well as next generation products in the future. Augumentas Infinite Touch toolkit for HoloLens is available immediately to developers working in the Unity3D environment. Visit www.augumenta.com/hololens for a discounted launch promotion rate until the end of October. A release for Android smartglasses equipped with 3D ToF cameras will become available by end of the year. This week at the AWE Europe exhibition, Augumenta is demonstrating Infinite Touch in action on HoloLens, with a plane dogfighting demo created by LudoCraft , on booth 302. The companys enterprise application suite and customers solutions are also available for testing in there. About Augumenta

Augumenta supplies augmented reality applications and development tools to organizations that use smartglasses. The companys software enables new ways for smartglass users to monitor and control machine operations, interact with Internet of Things (IoT) devices and control practically any application running on monocular and binocular smartglasses. Headquartered in Oulu, Finland, with a support hub in Taipei, Taiwan, Augumenta licenses its products to global OEMs, enterprise customers, integrators and developers. More than 250 companies have engaged with Augumenta to improve their bottom lines. More information and registration for the company newsletter is here: www.augumenta.com . HoloLens is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. and Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Contacts:Tero Aaltonen tero@augumenta.com +358 44 255 3454 Augumenta, Ltd. Matthew Schmidt matt@smallplanetpr.com +1 650-345-3549 Small Planet Public Relations

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018]

SafeRide Technologies Demonstrates Its Cybersecurity AI Technology at NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference

TEL AVIV, Israel, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

SafeRide Technologies, the first automotive cybersecurity company to offer a multi-layer deterministic and heuristic anomaly detection and threat prevention solution, is demonstrating its vXRray AI technology on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform at the GPU Technology Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel this week.

Most vulnerabilities today are unknown until an attack takes place, as conventional cybersecurity measures can only detect and prevent known threats. SafeRide's vSentry AI solution is a behavioral profiling and anomaly detection software that uses SafeRide's vXRay advanced machine learning and deep learning technology to provide additional vehicle-level protection against unknown vulnerabilities as well.

NVIDIA DRIVE is a scalable AI car computing platform for next generation autonomous vehicles. It enables machine learning and deeplearning algorithms to execute real time inferences locally in the vehicle. Many AI applications that use NVIDIA's hardware and software for autonomous driving analyze behaviors outside of the vehicle, while SafeRide's unique technology detects behavior within the vehicles' computers and network to detect and prevent zero-day attacks.







"As part of NVIDIA's Inception Program, SafeRide has access to NVIDIA's ecosystem and resources, allowing us to accelerate the development of our software and deliver best-in-class cybersecurity solutions for autonomous and connected vehicles, " said Yossi Vardi, CEO of SafeRide.

SafeRide is demonstrating its vXRay technology on the NVIDIA DRIVE platform at this week's NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference in Israel. Please visit SafeRide's booth #5 in Pavilion 2 to learn more and receive a demo.

About SafeRide Technologies

SafeRide Technologies is the provider of vSentry, the industry-leading multi-layer cybersecurity solution for connected and autonomous vehicles that combines state-of-the-art deterministic security solution with a groundbreaking AI profiling and anomaly detection technology to provide future-proof security. SafeRide provides OEMs, fleet operators and automotive suppliers early detection and prevention of cyberattacks, and helps to avoid financial damage, prevent reputation loss, and save lives. For more information, visit http://www.saferide.io.

Media Contact:

Rachel Glaser

GK for SafeRide

rachel@gkpr.com

+972-54-250-9439



SOURCE SafeRide[October 18, 2018] Cigalah Medpharm Announces the Launch in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates of Nexodyn AOS, the Tehclo-Based Wound Cleanser Developed by the Swiss Pharma Company APR

Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS), the Tehclo-based cleanser for acute and chronic wound management, is now starting to be available in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE), promoted and commercialized by the leading pharmaceutical company Cigalah Medpharm, part of Cigalah Group, following an exclusive partnership with the Swiss Pharma company APR Applied Pharma Research ("APR"). The current size of wound care market in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates accounts for almost 70 million USD and it's expected to keep growing in the next years because of the aging of the population and the increasing prevalence of chronic wounds, which represent roughly the 70% of the total market. As confirmed by market research, strong is the need from Healthcare Professionals (HCP) of new treatment options to ensure a faster and effective wound healing. The innovative wound cleanser, Nexodyn AOS, based on APR's proprietary and patented technology Tehclo, offers to HCPs and caregivers a new treatment option to effectively address the wound healing complexity. Thanks to its distinctive physico-chemical properties, Nexodyn AOS promotes wound healing restart by creating the ideal microenvironment to sustain the physiological healing process and favoring an optimized lesion closure. As it contains hypochlorous acid, it can prevent contamination or contribute to counteract local infections by exerting a local antimicrobial effect on the wound surface. "We are very proud about our collaboration with APR and that Cigalah Medpharm's product portfolio got enriched with such an outstanding product as Nexodyn AOS. The launch of Nexodyn is the beginning of a long-term success story and we are very confident that with professionalism, experience and our market approach we will achieve our targets together - to revolutionize the wound care market in the MENA region." said Dr. Ahdy Elsays, Managing Director of Cigalah Medpharm. Cigalah Medpharm will support the distribution and the promotion of Nexodyn AOS with a comprehensive range of activities addressing the HCPs at different levels, from KOLs to hospitals, such as congresses, as well as training courses and digital campaigns, with the purpose of establishing Nexodyn AOS as the first wound cleanser restarting the physiological healing process of wounds. "We are very proud to make Nexodyn AOS finally available to HCPs and patients on Saudi Arabia and UAE markets. We believe that Nexodyn AOS, thanks to its unique features supported by our patented technology Tehclo, is the right answer to the increasing demand ofadvanced and consistent solutions in the wound care, as while it cleanses the wound it creates the conditions for healing restart." said Paolo Galfetti, Chief Executive Officer of APR.



The launch of Nexodyn AOS in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates comes after previous marketing of the product in Italy and US, and other markets will follow in the next year as a result of the company partnerships which span from Europe to Africa and Asia, confirming Nexodyn AOS appeal and efficacy among the available wound care solutions. About Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS)

Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS) is a sprayable Active Cleanser with an ancillary antimicrobial activity developed for acute and chronic wound management. A wide array of clinical experiences and studies suggest Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS) to perform as a Wound healing Restarter by creating the ideal microenvironment to sustain the physiological healing process. Restarting wound healing, favoring an optimized lesion closure and ensuring a favorable safety and tolerability profile, is especially relevant with chronic wounds. Developed based on APR's proprietary and patented technology Tehclo, the product is a newly conceived solution with three main features: highly pure and stabilized hypochlorous acid (HClO >95% of free chlorine species), acidic pH (2.5 - 3.0) and high Reduction-Oxidation Potential (ORP >1.000 mV). Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS) is intended for use in the debridement, irrigation, cleansing and moistening of acute and chronic wounds (e.g. diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers, and vascular ulcers), post-surgical wounds, burns and other lesions. As observed in non-clinical experiments and clinical experiences, Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS) has synergic physico-chemical properties sustaining the restart of wound healing to the benefit of patients and HCPs who can be confident of the reactivation of the physiological healing process concomitantly to protection and management of uncontrolled microbial growth. Nexodyn AcidOxidizing Solution (AOS) shows favorable safety and tolerability profile and the clinical experiences performed confirm its high relief sensation and comfort at application as well as wound-associated pain reduction. For more info, please visit: http://www.apr.ch/apr-pharma-products/medical-prescription/nexodyn-wound-healing/ About APR Applied Pharma Research s.a. APR is a Swiss, independent developer of science driven, patent protected healthcare products. The Company identifies, develops and commercializes, value added products designed to address patient or consumer needs in niche or rare therapeutic areas on a global basis. In particular, APR's business model is currently focused on two pillars: (i) internally developed and financed (alone or together with co-development partners) proprietary, value added products to be licensed to healthcare companies for their commercialization, and (ii) support to third party projects by offering added value R&D services under contract and fee for service arrangements. APR has a balanced pipeline of revenue generating branded products marketed in all major markets, combined with a compelling pipeline of products at different stages of development. APR has entered into licensing and partnership agreements with pharmaceutical companies in over 70 countries, with international sales on a worldwide basis. The company has started up a direct sale and marketing organizations in selected countries in rare disease products area. About Cigalah Medpharm Cigalah Group is a key player in the Middle East and North Africa healthcare market with a total turnover exceeding 1 billion dollars. Cigalah Group is covering many therapeutic areas through collaborations and partnerships with key pharma multinational corporations including Bayer, BI, Takeda, Amgen and Gilead. Cigalah is significantly expanding its presence in the MENA region thanks to Cigalah Medpharm and Cigalah Pharmaceuticals, the UAE based subsidiaries of Cigalah Group. Cigalah Medpharm is the gateway to the Middle East representing global brands in parapharmaceuticals, cosmeceutical and healthcare products who wish to establish a strong base in the region. The paradigm of the organizations success is built on happy and satisfied customers and the choice of working only with partners and producers, who share the same ethics and high quality standards. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005353/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. Signs Manufacturing and Supply Agreement for Sensor Product and Electronics System to Aid in Fighting Opioid Epidemic

Product will be supplied to Government Agencies, Addiction Clinics, Hospitals and Large Pharmaceutical Distributors DRAPER, Utah, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) is excited to announce that Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (Flexpoint) finalized a Manufacturing and Supply agreement that will give exclusive manufacturing and supply of sensors to Counted LLC for delivery to selected and established end users. The five-year agreement calls for Flexpoints patented process, featuring the Bend Sensor Technology to be integrated into a system conceptualized by Counted which provides a mechanism for the tracking of medications and digital distribution of data. The data from the device has the ability to be transmitted to pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, patients, healthcare providers, law enforcement or the government health care system. The smart packaging system is designed to generate data in real time and has the ability to be sent to a database, operating in the cloud. By monitoring medication adherence and patient compliance, the technology can help stop the abuse of many prescription medications. Every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of and addiction to opioidsincluding prescription pain relievers , heron , and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl is a serious national crisis that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.



The technology is readily transferable to an expanded number of additional products and applications. Flexpoints Bend Sensor technology will be used in a system configuration that will allow the healthcare industry to effectively track and monitor the usage of medications on a real-time basis. Prototype production, testing, and proof of concept testing have already been successfully completed with positive results. Upon completion of the numerous pilot programs which Counted will participate in, beginning as early as this current quarter and continuing into the next quarter, we anticipate wide scale production and distribution. During the first and second quarters of 2019, the company anticipates delivering several hundred thousand sensors on a monthly basis with numbers expanding from these levels. We believe this is the most important and most lucrative product with which the company has ever been involved. When combined with our recent sizeable orders from multiple customers in the VR/AR/MR industry, Medical IoT and Robotics market segments and advancements we are making with other medical device companies, we expect revenues to increase substantially as we enter 2019, stated Clark Mower, CEO of Flexpoint. Please visit http://www.flexpoint.com / for more information.

About Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) is an innovative technology firm specializing in developing products that feature the Company's patented Bend Sensor and related technology. The Bend Sensor is a groundbreaking sensing solution that is revolutionizing applications in the automotive, safety, medical and industrial industries. The Bend Sensor single-layer, thin film construction cuts costs and mechanical bulk while introducing a range of functions and stylistic design possibilities that have never before been available in sensing technology. Flexpoint's technology and expertise have been recognized by the world's elite business and academic innovators for over 18 years. The company is setting a new standard for sensing solutions in the "smart" age of technology. Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" and involve both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such uncertainties include, among others, certain risks associated with the operation of the company described above. The Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. Contact Information: Flexpoint Sensor Systems Clark Mower, President

801-568-5111 Brokers and Analysts

Chesapeake Group

410-825-3930

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Reputation.com Continues to Build Out its World-Class Executive Team with the Addition of McAfee Veteran Jason Grier as EVP and Chief Customer Officer

Seasoned Executive Fills New Strategic Role to Bolster Customer Loyalty and Expand Support Infrastructure

Jason Grier, EVP and Chief Customer Officer, Reputation.com



REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reputation.com , the first and only complete cloud-based enterprise reputation management platform, today named Jason Grier its new executive vice president and chief customer officer. Grier is a former executive at McAfee and has had a prominent career in customer experience, support and operations. Tweet This: Bolstering the team: @Reputation_Com appoints former McAfee exec Jason Grier as #EVP and Chief Customer Officer http://bit.ly/2ynTnQa Griers addition will help Reputation.com further strengthen its customer support and service operations to drive loyalty, retention and revenue groth. He is a former senior vice president of global support operations and chief customer officer at McAfee, where he successfully launched their Enterprise wide Net Promoter (NPS) program. He also led support operations strategy, including the design of a customer survey and loyalty program.



I am thrilled to join Reputation.com and help further enhance what is already known throughout the industry as an organization that delivers a world-class customer experience, said Jason Grier, EVP and chief customer officer at Reputation.com. I originally decided to join to be a part of an exciting growth company with an industry-leading product. Getting to know the people at the company further reinforced my decision. This is a winning team. Customer Experience Expert Brings a Wealth of Proven Expertise and Leadership

Grier spent more than a decade at McAfee, most recently as vice president of global support operations and chief customer officer, responsible for thousands of professionals across several business categories. He has experience across a diverse variety of verticals, including customer support and success, quality, business intelligence and analytics, workforce management, support engineering operations and malware support operations.

During Griers tenure at McAfee his teams won numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious Intel Quality Award for outstanding quality and personification of Intel's values, the highest team honor given at Intel. His teams also won two TSIA Star Awards, two Service & Support Professionals Association Awards, and a Stevie Award for innovation in action. Prior to McAfee, Grier held positions as vice president of professional services at Sutherland Global Services and vice president of telesales at Covad Communications. Jason is an authority not only on optimizing the customer experience, but building award-winning teams and designing programs for clients that set industry standards, said Joe Fuca, CEO of Reputation.com. His honor-filled career and tireless work ethic are an ideal fit for Reputation.com, and it wont be long before our customers feel his presence. About Reputation.com

Reputation.com delivers the only integrated SaaS platform that helps enterprises improve their reputation with consumers online and onsite, across the entire customer journey  from finding a location on search, to conversion, to operational improvements that deliver a better customer experience. Reputation.com technology has managed tens of millions of consumer reviews, surveys and social media interactions across hundreds of thousands of online points of presence for global companies spanning 77 industry verticals, including healthcare, retail, automotive, restaurants and others. Reputation.com is a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company and is funded by the same top-tier venture capital firms that backed Google, Facebook, Cisco and Microsoft. To learn more, visit www.reputation.com . Media Contact: Brigit Valencia

BOCA Communications

360.597.4516

reputation@bocacommunications.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d77a18b0-2532-408f-96be-f85d9cf57e02

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Want to Add a 'Spring' to Your Stride? For the First Time, Scientists Have Developed an Unpowered Exoskeleton that Reduces Metabolic Rate While Running

Groundbreaking robotics research in the emerging area of human augmentation, which focuses on wearable exoskeletons to improve the performance of the human body, is featured in the October issue of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (TNSRE), a journal published by the IEEE (News - Alert) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. In recent years, there has been some progress made in reducing the metabolic rate of walking and running, but developing exoskeletons that are lightweight, easy to wear, that also offer reliable, long-lasting power sources has remained elusive. A team of Iranian biomedical engineers has now, for the first time, developed an unpowered exoskeleton that reduces metabolic rate while running. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005150/en/ Unpowered Exoskeleton Being Tested in the Lab. (Graphic: Business Wire) The research team is led by Rezvan Nasiri, and includes Arjang Ahmadi, and Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, all from the Cognitive Systems Laboratory, Control and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Tehran, in Iran. "The exoskeleton we developed reduces the metabolic rate by 8% during running by using a rotational spring system which couples two hips in the sagittal plane. The device takes advantage of the 'scissor kick' motion that occurs naturally during running - the reciprocal motion of the body recycles that energy, thereby allowing us to create an unpowered exoskeleton. No external battery is required, making the device lightweight and unobtrusive," said lead researcher, Rezvan Nasiri. "Users do not need to run at a constant speed to achieve metabolic rate reduction. We look forward to testing our device under a wide variety of settings in our future work." The exoskeleton the team developed was tested on ten healthy active subjects for running at 2.5 meters per second. The team repeatedly achieved 8% metabolic rate reduction when compared to the subjects running at the same speed without wearing an exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is entirely human powered, and does not have any motors, electrical systems, or sensors. The research team project that by reducing the mass of their device, u to 10%, metabolic rate reduction is possible, which is an extremely exciting prospect in the field of human augmentation, and for anyone interested in recreational running. The Iranian team's work was supported by the University of Tehran.



"This new research is special because it has been incredibly hard to reduce energy costs of a physically intact human by adding a device to their legs. Achieving this is a tremendous breakthrough in the field of human augmentation because humans are so incredibly good at minimizing metabolic energy cost during locomotion. Until now, no one has been able to add a device to humans that could reduce that metabolic energy expenditure for running," said Dr. Rodger Kram, Associate Professor Emeritus of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. An expert in the energetics of running, Dr. Kram continued, "the beauty of this new device really lies in its simplicity - at less than 2 kilograms, it is lightweight, and requires no external power. It is portable, quiet, and not at all bulky. I'm impressed by this team's achievement, which has big implications for the running industry. It will be exciting to follow the innovations that result from their work." "This team has developed a very simple, elegant solution that integrates almost seamlessly into the body's natural movement. Humans have evolved the ability to run over millions of years, and we're super efficient at it. This makes it especially difficult to improve the function of the already 'tuned' biological system - and doing so has long been a challenge for scientists and engineers," said Dr. Greg Sawicki, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech, and head of the Human Physiology of Wearable Robotics Lab. "The team in Iran has found a way to remap the structure of the musculoskeletal system with little more than a spring, essentially giving runners the equivalent of a new body part and an alternative pathway for exchanging energy. Their research has tremendous implications for our field, and I'm excited to see what develops as a result of this trailblazing work."

The entire paper which describes this new research will be available tomorrow on the IEEE TNSRE website, https://tnsre.embs.org. About IEEE TNSRE Via its website, tnsre.embs.org, the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (IEEE TNSRE) journal publishes cutting-edge research on the rehabilitative and neural aspects of biomedical engineering, including functional electrical stimulation, acoustic dynamics, human performance measurement and analysis, nerve stimulation, electromyography, motor control and stimulation, and hardware and software applications for rehabilitation engineering and assistive devices. The journal has an impact factor of 3.972. The papers published in IEEE TNSRE are accessible through IEEE Xplore. Researchers are invited to submit papers with their research findings and clinical translation studies for publication in the journal. About the IEEE EMBS The IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) is the world's largest international society of Biomedical Engineers. With more than 9,500 members residing in some 97 countries around the world, it's a true global connection, providing access to the most fascinating people, practices, information, ideas, opinion and fellowship from one of science's fastest growing fields: biomedical engineering. From formalized mathematical theory through experimental science, from technological development to practical clinical applications, IEEE EMBS members support scientific, technological, and educational activities as they apply to the concepts and methods of the physical and engineering sciences in biology and medicine. By working together, we can transform and revolutionize the future of medicine and healthcare. For more information about the IEEE EMBS, please visit www.embs.org. About IEEE IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization, is dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more at www.ieee.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005150/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] New Report from NSFOCUS Analyzes 27 Million Attacks in H1 Cybersecurity Insights Report

NSFOCUS, a leader in holistic hybrid security solutions, today released its H1 Cybersecurity Insights report, which highlights the observations of the NSFOCUS Threat Intelligence center, a security research organization created by NSFOCUS for implementing an intelligent security 2.0 strategy and improving the cybersecurity ecosystem. NSFOCUS analyzed traffic from January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018. Key findings from the H1 Cybersecurity Insights report include: Crypto Miners Since the end of March, the number of crypto mining activities has risen sharply compared to the beginning of 2018.

Among all crypto miners, WannaMine was the most active, responsible for more than 70 percent of all detected crypto mining activities detected by NSFOCUS. Recidivist Attackers Among more than 27 million attack sources detected by NSFOCUS in the first half of 2018, 25 percent were responsible for 40 percent of attack events. This implies that "recidivists" (attack sources found to be repeatedly linked with malicious behaviors) are more threatening than other attack sources.

The large proportion of recidivists indicates that it is a common practice among attackers to reuse attack resources. China, the USA, and Russia are home to the most "recidivists."

Government agencies, energy, education, and finance sectors are most favored targets, suffering 90 percent of recidivist attacks, due to the large volume of business, extensive distribution, and more sensitive data. IoT Impact on Attack Types During the first six months of 2018, there were fewer new Trojan variants than botnets and worms. This is linked with the proliferation of networked hosts and IoT devices in part due to the reduction of hardware costs. Due to the high activity of backdoor programs, evice and network administrators need to upgrade devices and check their configurations regularly.

Backdoor activity remained at high levels and then peaked in May at 6,000,000 before falling to more nominal levels. Backdoors are common malicious programs that can provide remote control access solely through default login interfaces of IoT devices.



DDoS Traffic DDoS attack traffic drops sharply when the government exercises security governance during substantial events both physical and cyber. In the first half of 2018, the amount of DDoS traffic seen in the network environments in China is somewhat suppressed due to the government's traffic governance for major events.

61 percent of DDoS attack sources have launched only DDoS attacks over a long period of time. Common DDoS attack resources include reflectors and controlled hosts or devices, whose IP addresses or IP address ranges are relatively fixed. However, about 9 percent of DDoS attack sources launch exploit attacks later. "Looking ahead to the rest of 2018, vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered each and every day and the need to exploit those found will always be present. We've noticed that attackers prefer to reuse tactics and exploits, so patching regularly is critical for IT professionals," said Guy Rosefelt, Director, Threat Intelligence & Web Security, NSFOCUS. "We also believe DDoS traffic will remain a great scourge on the Internet. Arguably, most hackers are capable of causing enormous amounts of traffic and their capability is increasing, which will continue to be a great challenge to defenders and security governance personnel."

To download a copy of the H1 Cybersecurity Insights report, please visit https://nsfocusglobal.com/2018-h1-cybersecurity-insights/. About NSFOCUS, Inc. NSFOCUS, Inc., a global network and cyber security leader, protects enterprises and carriers from advanced cyber attacks. The company's Intelligent Hybrid Security strategy utilizes both cloud and on-premises security platforms, built on a foundation of real-time global threat intelligence, to provide multi-layered, unified and dynamic protection against advanced cyber attacks. NSFOCUS works with Fortune Global 500 companies, including four of the world's five largest financial institutions, organizations in insurance, retail, healthcare, critical infrastructure industries as well as government agencies. NSFOCUS has technology and channel partners in more than 60 countries, a member of the Microsoft (News - Alert) Active Protections Program (MAPP), StopBadware.org, and the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA). A wholly owned subsidiary of NSFOCUS Information Technology Co. Ltd., the company has operations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Visit the website: www.nsfocusglobal.com

Read the blog: http://nsfocusglobal.com/category/blog/

Follow on Twitter (News - Alert) : https://twitter.com/NSFOCUS_Intl

Follow on LinkedIn (News - Alert) : https://www.linkedin.com/company/nsfocus

Follow on Facebook (News - Alert) : https://www.facebook.com/nsfocus/ NSFOCUS; NSFOCUS, INC. and NSFOCUS Anti-DDoS System (ADS) are trademarks or registered trademarks of NSFOCUS, Inc. All other names and trademarks are property of their respective firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005229/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Absolute to Host Conference Call for Fiscal 2019 First Quarter Financial Results

Absolute (TSX: ABT), the endpoint visibility and control company, today announced it will host a conference call on Friday November 2, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. ET (5:30 a.m. PT) to discuss its fiscal 2019 first quarter results. Steve Munford, Interim Chief Executive Officer, will host the call. A press release announcing the quarterly results will be issued at 7:30 a.m. ET (4:30 a.m. PT) that same day. The corresponding Management's Discussion and Analysis and financial statements will also be made available at www.absolute.com. All interested parties can join the call by dialing 647-427-7450 or 1-888-231-8191. Please dial-in 15 minutes prior to the call to secure a line. The conference call will be archived for replay until Friday, November 9, 2018 at midnight. To access the archived conference call, please dial 416-849-0833 or 1-855-859-2056 and enter the reservation code 8690248. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available at www.absolute.com and https://bit.ly/2ykLg6Z. Please connect at least 15 minutes prior to the conference call to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be required to join the webcast. An archived replay of the webcast will be available for 90 days.



About Absolute Absolute provides visibility and resilience for every endpoint with self-healing endpoint security and always-connected IT asset management to protect devices, data, applications and users - on and off the network. Bridging the gap between security and IT operations, only Absolute gives enterprises visibility they can act on to protect every endpoint, remediate vulnerabilities, and ensure compliance in the face of insider and external threats. Absolute's patented Persistence technology is already embedded in the firmware of PC and mobile devices and trusted by over 12,000 customers worldwide. For the latest information, visit www.absolute.com and follow us at @absolutecorp.

2018 Absolute Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Absolute and Persistence are registered trademarks of Absolute Software Corporation. For patent information, visit www.absolute.com/patents. The Toronto Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the information contained in this news release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005095/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] AXP - AppBus eXperience Platform Now Available on Carahsoft SEWP Contract

New Partnership Brings Powerful AppBus Solutions to Government Sector PHILADELPHIA and RESTON, Va., Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AppBus , a digital business automation platform company, and Carahsoft Technology Corp ., The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider, today announced a partnership. Under the agreement, Carahsoft will serve as AppBuss master government aggregator, making AXP  AppBus eXperience Platform -- available to the public sector via Carahsofts NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) Contract. We are pleased to partner with Carahsoft, a trusted provider of IT products and services to the broad government ecosystem, stated Bill Conners, President and CEO of AppBus. As the Government begins to accelerate modernization and automation, AppBus, Carahsoft and its reseller partners will help enable this transformation. The public sector has a mandatory requirement to preserve and extend mission critical assets and AppBus makes this possible. In addition, AppBus complements the current Carahsoft partner ecosystem very well, allowing our public sector customers to continue to leverage existing technology investments while driving digital transformation. AppBus provides a Digital Business Platform that combines the power of RPA, API Management and Endpoint Management to seamlessly integrate, automate, and secure applications for delivery to edge devices on any network. AppBus leverages the existing capabilities of an enterprises application portfolio, enables greater levels of automation and process transparency and accelerates the delivery of improved user experiences. AppBus provides a single platform to preserve and extend critical business assets for optimal experiences. The platform enables greater innovation and timeto value for projects and application that affect employees, customers, and partners.



With the addition of the AppBus eXperience Platform to our offerings, Carahsoft and its resellers will be able to support agencies interested in achieving digital transformation without having to rewrite legacy applications, said Patrick Gallagher, who oversees the AppBus team at Carahsoft. With AppBus, users are able to access critical applications on a single platform. AppBus software and services are available immediately via Carahsofts SEWP V contracts NNG15SC03B and NNG15SC27B . For more information, contact AppBus at Carahsoft team at 703-230-7597; or visit our website at www.AppBus.com.

About AppBus AppBus provides a digital business platform that integrates, automates and secures enterprise application delivery to any device on any network. With AppBus, acclimating to change is simple, we leverage the capabilities of the enterprise, enable transparency for automation and accelerate the delivery of optimal experiences. Our platform ensures innovation and time to value throughout the enterprise ecosystem with employees, customers, and partners. Visit us at www.AppBus.com Contact:

Donna Usiskin

800-927-5181

Donna.Usiskin@appbus.com About Carahsoft



Carahsoft Technology Corp. is The Trusted Government IT Solutions Provider. As a top-performing GSA Schedule and SEWP contract holder, Carahsoft serves as the master government aggregator for many of its best-of-breed technology vendors, supporting an extensive ecosystem of manufacturers, value-added resellers, system integrators, and consulting partners committed to helping government agencies select and implement the best solution at the best possible value. The company's dedicated Solutions Divisions proactively market, sell and deliver AppBus, VMware, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Veritas, Dell, Adobe, F5 Networks, Google Cloud, ServiceNow, Open Source, Micro Focus Government Solutions, SAP, Salesforce, and Innovative and Intelligence products and services, among others. Carahsoft is consistently recognized by its partners as a top revenue producer, and is listed annually among the industry's fastest growing and largest firms by CRN, Inc., Forbes, Washington Technology, The Washington Post, and Washington Business Journal. Visit us at www.carahsoft.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook . Contact:

Mary Lange

703-431-8485

pr@carahsoft.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Remedy Launches AI-Powered Healthcare Screening Service to Find Millions of Patients With Undiagnosed Chronic Disease

Today, Remedy launched Remedy Sentinel, a new AI-powered service to identify patients with undiagnosed chronic illnesses. With Sentinel, Remedy is demonstrating the first artificial intelligence healthcare technology with the ability to assess and interview patients like a physician, drawing from both direct training from physicians, as well as machine learning from medical and epidemiological datasets. In today's environment, many diseases present no symptoms in their early stages, wreaking havoc while people carry on unaware. Remedy estimates that about 30 million Americans have a chronic illness they don't yet know about and roughly 20% of Americans with a chronic illness are unaware they are sick. Sentinel achieves greater than 90% concordance with physician opinion on cases of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, depression, COPD, and congestive heart failure. Based solely on medical history and social determinants of health alone, Sentinel can detect undiagnosed diabetes and chronic kidney disease with over 95% accuracy. "Remedy's mission is to ensure all medical decisions are made with the full support of modern medical research and clinical data -- maximizing patient health outcoms per dollar spent," says Will Jack, Co-founder and CEO of Remedy. "Sentinel is solving one of the biggest public health crises in America today, and making our first steps toward that end."



After Sentinel reviews patients' existing medical data, patients speak over the phone with a care coordinator using Remedy for a quick yet comprehensive interview, where Sentinel guides the care coordinator to ask a series of questions about the patient's symptoms, medical history, and social determinants of health. In a matter of minutes, Sentinel provides a holistic overview of the patient's risks across various diseases. From there, the care coordinator presents the patient with clear steps to get the appropriate care they need to treat any newly diagnosed illnesses. "Finding the high-cost chronic patient before they become one is the Holy Grail of population health predictive analytics." - Bo Bobbitt, President of Value Health Partners.

Remedy's core business is built through partnerships with health plans and provider groups holding value based contracts. Remedy is currently looking to deploy Sentinel in value based health systems, including Medicare Advantage Plans, ACOs, and integrated delivery networks, where it estimates it can drive an average uplift of over $200 per member per year. To ensure all have access to Sentinel's disease screening capabilities, Remedy is accepting applications from patients for pro-bono chronic disease screenings. For more information, check out https://www.remedymedical.com/earlyaccess About Remedy Founded in 2016 by Will Jack, Nikhil Buduma, Mike Ng, and Jessica Ma, Remedy is a medical AI company focused on ensuring all medical decisions are made with the full support of modern medical research and clinical data -- maximizing patient health outcomes per dollar spent. https://www.remedymedical.com/ View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005230/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Nalco Champion Teams With Accenture and Microsoft to Launch Digital Platform for Downstream Oil and Gas Customers

Nalco Champion, an Ecolab company, in collaboration with Accenture (News - Alert) and Microsoft Corp., has launched a new unified, digital platform - Refined Knowledge powered by ECOLAB3D - to provide downstream refinery and petrochemical customers with insights from their operations to help predict and solve challenges across the assets in their organizations. ECOLAB3D is the digital engine that translates data into actionable insights, enabling the company to drive greater value for its customers. Through its algorithms, analytics and expertise, ECOLAB3D gives customers the power to take their performance and operations to the next level. Refined Knowledge collects data from remote sensors, automation tools and other systems by leveraging Microsoft's (News - Alert) secure Azure cloud platform. Refined Knowledge synthesizes that data and provides performance dashboards, reports, benchmarking capabilities and an eROI calculator to help customers optimize how assets are used and reduce their total costs of operation. Refined Knowledge also delivers 3D CRUDEFLEX, a series of proprietary automations and sensor applications for crude distillation units. Customers can use these actionable insights to provide feedstock flexibility, optimize production, mitigate risks and deliver increased sustainability and profitability potential through water and energy cost savings across their organizations. "The Refined Knowledge platform unleashes the power of data, leveraging our digital capabilities to deliver superior value beyond products and services," said Danny Rey, Nalco Champion senior vice president of Global Downstream. "We are able to use this platform to deliver cost reductions of about 10 percent for many customers, which can mean $10 million in increased profitability or $3 million in documented savings for a single site or installation. I am excited about what's possible for our customers through this enhanced offering." Accenture, in collaboration with Nalco Champion, built a modern analytics application for the platform that leverages a user-first and cloud-first approach. The two companies also collaborated on the end-to-end solution, bringing data into the platform so users can visualize business insights and run advanced analytics in an agile way. Manish Panjwani, a managing director and technology consulting lead for Accenture's North America resources businesses, added: "This project solidifies Nalco Champion's position as a leading innovator to drive better performance for its customers by leveraging intelligent analytics. Nalco Champion can better predict upcoming plant outages by monitoring their customers' assets in close to real time, moving towards predictive rather than reactive maintenance."



"Nalco Champion continues to be at the forefront of providing the refining and petrochemical sector with digital innovations that utilize the security and global scale of Microsoft's Azure cloud," said Caglayan Arkan, general manager, Manufacturing & Resources, Microsoft. "Monitoring process and water technology applications in real time can make the difference between a plant that runs with no downtime and a plant with a corrosion-related shutdown that leads to lost productivity and additional costs." Refined Knowledge powered by ECOLAB3D is built upon Nalco Champion's prior generation Refined Knowledge digital offering that has been successfully deployed in more than 1,000 customer locations and to date, has collected more than 20 billion data points to generate customer insights.

For more information on Refined Knowledge powered by ECOLAB3D, visit nalcochampion.ecolab.com. About Nalco Champion Nalco Champion, an Ecolab company, provides safe, sustainable chemistry programs and services to the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry, refineries and petrochemical operations in more than 170 countries around the world. Through onsite problem solving and the application of innovative technologies, we maximize production, optimize water use and overcome complex challenges in the world's toughest energy frontiers. For more Nalco Champion information, visit nalcochampion.ecolab.com. About Ecolab A trusted partner at nearly three million customer locations, Ecolab (ECL) is the global leader in water, hygiene and energy technologies and services that protect people and vital resources. With annual sales of $14 billion and 48,000 associates, Ecolab delivers comprehensive solutions, data-driven insights and on-site service to promote safe food, maintain clean environments, optimize water and energy use, and improve operational efficiencies for customers in the food, healthcare, energy, hospitality and industrial markets in more than 170 countries around the world. For more Ecolab news and information, visit www.ecolab.com. About Accenture Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions - underpinned by the world's largest delivery network - Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 459,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com. (ECL-P) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005262/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018]

Cattle Operation Raises Over Half Million Dollars via Harvest Returns' Crowdfunding Platform

FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackdirt Farm Management, LLC, a grass-fed cattle operation in Georgia, announced today that it has successfully completed a capital raise totaling $510,000. The asset-backed note was successfully closed on Harvest Returns' crowdfunding platform.

With the capital raised, Blackdirt's team will grow by approximately 100 percent within the next 12 months as additional farmland assets come into production. The company is set to more than double acreage in grass-fed beef production by the end of 2019. The expansion includes over 1,000 acres of grazing farmland in the Southeast that will transition into grass-fed beef production.

"We are very pleased with the results of our partnership with Harvest Returns, as it provided access to a base of investors outside Blackdirt's existing network, and proved to be an effective platform for raising capital," said David Nicola, CEO of Blackdirt Farms. "We look forward to working with the Harvest Returns team again in the future."

Changing consumer tastes and preferences are driving demand in the organic grass-fed beef market.

"W're excited to support Blackdirt's rapidly growing grass-fed livestock operation," said Chris Rawley, Harvest Returns' CEO. "Blackdirt and other innovative producers are increasingly choosing crowdfunding as a way to raise capital to expand their farms and ranches."







About Blackdirt Capital

Blackdirt Farms was founded in 2015 by David Nicola. The company is a professional agriculture operations and production business with a focus on grass-fed and pasture-based beef production in the Eastern U.S.

About Harvest Returns

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Harvest Returns, LLC is a financial technology company created in 2016 by two military veterans to bring agricultural producers together with investors. Through democratizing the agriculture investment process, the online platform provides curated, diversified offerings of farms, ranches, and timberland to qualified investors.

For more information, please visit harvestreturns.com.

For more information about this topic, please contact Allison Spence at 844-673-8876 or email at 203463@email4pr.com.

Contact

Allison Spence

844-673-8876

203463@email4pr.com

http://harvestreturns.com

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cattle-operation-raises-over-half-million-dollars-via-harvest-returns-crowdfunding-platform-300733099.html

SOURCE Harvest Returns[October 18, 2018] New Online Breast Cancer Resource Puts Women in Control of Their Breast Cancer Treatment

GAINESVILLE, Va., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Remember the little black bags carried by doctors? Dr. John P. Williams, M.D., a breast cancer surgeon, is bringing that personal touch back, directly into the home of any woman with breast cancer. The Breast Cancer School for Patients is a FREE online educational platform which features over 80 video tutorials (video ) about breast health and breast cancer. His mission is to help recently diagnosed patients, so they can become 'experts' to assure they get the highest quality breast cancer care in their own community. "In this age of technology and rapid information sharing, it can be hard to navigate through information about breast cancer online," states John Williams, who has organized this vast field into one easy-to-navigate site called Breast Cancer School for Patients. Dr. Williams offers "old school" compassionate hand-holding in the first video-based school for patients. "I like to think of this as a form of telemedicine, which is the use of health technology to bring positive health outcomes to patients." Dr. Williams tackles the tough issues and questions patients want to learnabout, such as:



Why women should get a 3D mammogram ( video here )

) Will I survive breast cancer? ( video here )

) How to get a second opinion ( video here )

) Why fewer women need chemotherapy now ( video here )

) BRCA Genetic testing. What you must know. ( video here ) Upon signup for a newsletter, visitors will immediately receive a detailed email containing several hundred "Doctor Questions." This is a list of the key questions to engage one's breast surgeon, medical oncologist, and radiation oncologist about "cutting edge" treatment options. Dr. Williams urges women to, "Become informed before speaking with your doctors. You will improve your own care with this approach."

More about Dr. John P. Williams, M.D., F.A.C.S:

Dr. Williams is a breast cancer surgeon. He founded and is the medical director of the Novant Health UVA Health System Breast Center in Northern Virginia. Learn more about Dr. Williams here. His CV can be reviewed here. He has been featured in US News & World Reports and other media outlets. Press Contact:

Renee Sall

203514@email4pr.com

(201) 315-4337 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-online-breast-cancer-resource-puts-women-in-control-of-their-breast-cancer-treatment-300733516.html SOURCE Breast Cancer School for Patients

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Dynamics Inc., Softbank Corp. and Softbank Commerce & Service Corp. Agree to Comprehensive Collaboration in the Field of Battery-Powered Interactive Cards

Dynamics Inc., SoftBank Corp. ("SoftBank") and SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. ("SoftBank C&S") agreed to consider a comprehensive collaboration for the deployment of Dynamics' battery-powered interactive card in Japan. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005485/en/ This card image is a sample only. Currently in preparation. (Photo: Business Wire) Based on the agreement, SoftBank will support Dynamics Inc. on mobile connectivity and SoftBank C&S will support on service planning, marketing and sales expansion as strategic partners. The companies plan to start services from 2019. "We are very pleased to be able to bring such an innovative payment experience with SoftBank and SoftBank C&S to the Japanese market. This is only the first step. Through this technology we will continue to provide more products of value to Japanese consumers," said Jeffrey Mullen, CEO of Dynamics Inc. "We are extremely impressed with SoftBank's achievements of capturing technological innovation and market trends, and we hope to have a great synergy between the three companies in the future. With this collaboration, we are convinced that we can drive change and growth in the market environment and business environment in Japan through Dynamics' technology." "We are very happy that we can co-create with Dynamics, a company that has advanced technology and a completely different credit card embedded with communication functions as one of the IoT businesses that SoftBank is promoting. We believe that the development of IoT technology will improve quality of life and we will help accelerate this movement," said Hidebumi Kitahara, Vice President, Head of Global Business Strategy Division, SoftBank Corp.



"Thanks to technological innovation, we are delighted that we have gained the opportunity to contribute to the domestic cashless economy through the Internet. In addition, we will make efforts to spread the adoption of Dynamics' next-generation credit cards and make new proposals to further accelerate the cashless economy in Japan by making effective use of our know how of planning & selling of ICT products, manufacturing and distribution, which SoftBank C&S is engaged in," said Yasuo Mizoguchi, President & CEO of Softbank (News - Alert) Commerce & Service Corp. About Dynamics Inc.

Established in 2009, Dynamics has three business operations: cards, processing, and mobile payment. The Company's card division has alliances with financial institutions in Europe, US, and Asia; the processing division has an alliance with a major Canadian financial institution, and the mobile payment division has an alliance with a major mobile handset carrier of Korea. The company executes product development to match the needs of respective countries around the world. In addition to its global headquarters in Pittsburgh, Dynamics operates multiple manufacturing facilities, personalization facilities, and data management facilities, with its APAC headquarters in Singapore, LATAM headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and EMEA headquarters in New York. More information on the company, its technology and products can be found at www.dynamicsinc.com. About SoftBank Corp. SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO:9984), provides mobile communication, fixed-line communication and Internet connection services to consumers and corporate customers in Japan. Leveraging the innovative technologies of other SoftBank Group companies, SoftBank Corp. is also expanding into AI, IoT, smart robotics, FinTech, cloud security and other sectors. About SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp. SoftBank C&S distributes various IT-related products, the original business of the SoftBank Group, and also manufactures and markets "SoftBank SELECTION" mobile accessories. Additionally, by leveraging SoftBank Group synergies, SoftBank C&S provides ICT solutions that combine mobile and fixed-line infrastructure with ICT-related products for corporate customers, web services for various mobile devices, and e-procurement services. For more information, please visit http://cas.softbank.jp. All Trademarks are the property of their respective owners View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005485/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Ving Team Presents on Generational Knowledge Transfer at 2018 NE Ohio Safety Expo

Youngstown Ohio, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 2018 NE Ohio Safety Expo was held on October 12, 2018, at Trumbull Career and Technical Center in Warren, Ohio. Ving CEO Tony DeAscentis and Ving Success Representative Gabriel King presented an educational session titled How to Successfully Use Baby Boomers and Generation X to Train Millennials on Your Companys Way of Getting the Job Done Right and Safe.



The presentation covered practical tips for generational knowledge transfer in the workplace, especially as it relates to employee safety training practices. The different learning styles across generations can create gaps between employees, and transferring this valuable knowledge can help to close the divide and form a well-trained workforce.

DeAscentis is a regularly active participant in the areas safety community. Networking is a crucial element in spreading safety innovations, he said. You have to get out there and interact with other professionals in the industry in order to make an impact in the world of safety.

As a Ving Success Representative, King communicates directly with clients to ensure that they are getting the most out of their safety training efforts and preparing relevant safety topics for use throughout their workforce. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Safety Management from Slippery Rock University and has been putting his educational background to good use by presenting topics such as this in the Youngstownarea.





Events like this allow us to dive deeper into understanding the safety connections between employer and employee, said King, and what they search for when creating an effective safety culture for a safer workplace.

This year marked the 11th annual NE Ohio Safety Expo and was a collaborative effort of the BWC Division of Safety & Hygiene Youngstown Service Office along with the Trumbull Career and Technical Center. The expo was created to share valuable and effective information about workplace safety programs and included 38 educational sessions this year.



David Costantino, Loss Prevention Supervisor for the Ohio BWC, commented that This years Expo broke the attendance record at 512 total attendance. Prior to the event, he had accurately predicted that it was anticipated to be a larger turnout than ever before.

Costantino was also thrilled to have the team on board for the educational sessions. I cant thank [Ving] enough for being part of the Safety Expo, he said. What a great opportunity for people to get high-quality training close to home and at a very affordable price!

Next years event is tentatively scheduled for Friday, October 11, 2019, at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.

XXXX

About Ving

Ving Safety Training and Compliance Monitoring Platform. Watch Video Here

Ving has been purposefully designed to help employers overcome the risks and challenges of managing a decentralized workforce. The goal: minimize or eliminate employee injury, rework, quality issues, days off work and the associated financial impact.

The Ving platform makes it easy for company leadership to deliver consistent, relevant, timely microbursts of training/information across any preferred method of communicating (e.g. text, email, portal, project management/work order management system, etc.) just before an employee performs a task. No matter how the information is shared, Vings dashboard and notification system keep those accountable for an employee's safety or job performance in the know, enabling them with data-driven insights that lead to proactive decisions on how to manage potential areas of risk.

Users choose content from our Safety Ving library of more than 1,000 titles, their own company-generated content or other third-party content.

Ving is redefining how you can engage the workforce of today. Contact: Tony DeAscentis Phone: 855-855-7165 Email: tony@vingapp.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] CITGO Innovation Academy Launches at E.K. Key Elementary

SULPHUR, La., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CITGO Petroleum Company announced the launch of the CITGO Innovation Academy at E.K. Key Elementary School in Sulphur, La. The academy is the first established in the Lake Charles region and the fourth Innovation Academy established by CITGO across its operational footprint. Kindergarten through fifth grade students at E.K. Key will be introduced to the foundation of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education through hands-on learning and activities, interactions with professionals in the STEM field and tools to build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. "This is the perfect time to partner with E.K. Key on this initiative," said Jerry Dunn, CITGO Vice President and General Manager Lake Charles Refinery. "The booming industrial sector in Louisiana is creating more and more STEM-based career opportunities. The earlier we can introduce STEM education to empower and equip our future generations, the more successful our communities will be." The CITGO Innovation Academy at E.K. Key Elementary will be hosted this fall in a brand-new building on the school campus, complete with six classrooms, one lab and a resource room for teachers. There will be access to state-of-the-art STEM resources, including robotics, coding software and additional computer programming. E.K. Key Principal Laura LeDoux said Louisiana has many needs in STEM fields. "CITGO recognizes that enhancing the natural ove of the sciences at the elementary level is crucial to the development of filling these needs," LeDoux said. "CITGO is providing the Academy with resources and technologies to enable teachers to immerse students in project-based learning, and enhance their problem-solving skills while instilling a life-long love of science."



The first CITGO Innovation Academy was launched in 2013 at Foy H. Moody High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, which serves as the flagship campus, followed by the launch of two Innovation Academies at Cunningham Middle School and Garcia Elementary School, also in Corpus Christi. The CITGO Innovation Academy at Lemont High School in Illinois was also recently launched. "We've seen such incredible successes at our other Innovation Academies," continued Dunn. "This past year, an underwater robotics team from a Corpus Christi-based Innovation Academy participated in an international competition held in Seattle! We're excited to help E.K. Key students accomplish their dreams."

CITGO Innovation Academies are the cornerstone of the CITGO STEM Talent Pipeline. Through the CITGO STEM Talent Pipeline, the company actively supports the academic exploration of STEM education in the schools nearby its refineries in Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, La., Lemont, Ill. and its headquarters in Houston, Texas. Since the initiative's inception, CITGO has awarded more than $1.5 million toward programs that promote the importance of STEM education and provide educators with the resources they need. About CITGO Headquartered in Houston, Texas, CITGO Petroleum Corporation is a recognized leader in the refining industry with a well-known brand. CITGO operates three refineries located in Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, La.; and Lemont, Ill., and wholly and/or jointly owns 48 terminals, nine pipelines and three lubricants blending and packaging plants. With approximately 3,400 employees and a combined crude capacity of approximately 749,000 barrels-per-day (bpd), CITGO is ranked as the sixth-largest, and one of the most complex independent refiners in the United States. CITGO transports and markets transportation fuels, lubricants, petrochemicals and other industrial products and supplies a network of approximately 5,200 locally owned and operated branded retail outlets in 30 states and the District of Columbia. CITGO Petroleum Corporation is owned by CITGO Holding, Inc., an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. For more information, visit www.citgo.com . View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/citgo-innovation-academy-launches-at-ek-key-elementary-300733631.html SOURCE CITGO

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Behavox Announces New Global Headquarters in New York City

Behavox, a pioneering artificial intelligence data analytics firm, today announced the relocation of its headquarters from London to New York City, in order to accommodate rapid company growth, an increase in North American clients and New York's close proximity to their new Montreal office. The new headquarters is located at 180 Maiden Lane, New York. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005525/en/ "This is an exciting time for Behavox and marks a huge milestone for the company, our employees and clients who will all benefit from the opportunities this expansion presents," said Erkin Adylov, Behavox's Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "The opportunities in New York City, notably top-of-class recruitment and business development, are extensive. We're thrilled to call this progressive city our new home." Behavox's machine learning software enables firms to search and generate immediate insights from enormous amounts of emloyee-generated data, including emails, text messages, trade data and voice calls, all tracked in real-time. Behavox is building the first behavioral operating system with an eventual focus extending well past compliance into areas like productivity, culture, and revenue generation.



Their new headquarters is located in the heart of the Financial District, a short walk from the New York Stock Exchange and overlooking the East River. The office will employ 100 people when at full capacity. Those interested in exploring career opportunities at Behavox can see job postings here or email their resume to info@behavox.com. Behavox also has offices in Montreal, Singapore, London and San Francisco. About Behavox

Behavox is the people analytics company that gathers and interprets employee data in a corporate environment to understand the behavior of an organization. By aggregating and analyzing internal and external interactions and using cutting-edge software and machine learning Behavox can generate previously unidentifiable insights on: compliance and risk; culture and conduct; people performance; and sales and profits. Behavox works with forward thinking, multi-national businesses, financial institutions and investment firms. For more information, visit here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005525/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Foresters Offers Emergency Assistance to Members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia









Who: Foresters Financial, a purpose-driven financial services provider committed to doing more for families and communities, is offering assistance to its members affected by Hurricane Michael in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. What: Eligible members living in the affected area who are experiencing significant personal hardship as a result of Hurricane Michael can receive grants to help with immediate needs. Disaster relief assistance is one payment per household. Members who are directly affected by the Hurricane Michael can contact Foresters toll-free at 800 828 1540 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday, or e-mail Foresters at service@foresters.com.

Members who are directly affected by the Hurricane Michael can contact Foresters toll-free at 800 828 1540 between the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday, or e-mail Foresters at service@foresters.com. About Foresters Financial Foresters Financial is a purpose-driven financial services provider with more than three million clients and members in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, and total funds under management of $45.1billion1. With a history of more than 140 years, we provide life insurance, savings, retirement and investment solutions that help families achieve their financial goals, protect their families and improve their communities. For more information, visit foresters.com. Foresters Financial and Foresters are trade names and trademarks of The Independent Order of Foresters (a fraternal benefit society, 789 Don Mills Road, Toronto, Canada M3C 1T9) and its subsidiaries. Products offered vary by country. Not all products are available for distribution in all jurisdictions. In the United States, products are offered by The Independent Order of Foresters and its subsidiaries, including Foresters Financial Services, Inc. a registered broker-dealer. Securities, life insurance and annuity products are offered through Foresters Financial Services, Inc. or independent producers. Insurance products are issued by Foresters Life Insurance and Annuity Company, New York, or The Independent Order of Foresters. Investment advisory products and services are offered through Foresters Advisory Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser. 1in Canadian dollars as of December 31, 2017 416847 US (10/18) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005611/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Bias Intelligence Inc. Announces Publishing of Multi-Agent Consensus Optimization Research Paper

SEATTLE, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bias Intelligence Inc., a data science company focused on the end-to-end delivery of solutions to the most challenging process optimization problems facing global companies, today announced the publishing of a co-authored research paper titled Auction Bidding Methods for Multiagent Consensus Optimization in SupplyDemand Networks. Published on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library as part of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L), the research paper was developed in partnership with the University of Washington mechanical engineering department and addressed some of the most complex problems facing the practical implementation of multi-agent consensus optimization algorithms in commercial scenarios. The paper co-authors include Niyousha Rahimi, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington; Jundi Liu, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Washington; Andrey Shishkarev, Bias Intelligence Inc.; Ilya Buzytsky, Bias Intelligence Inc.; and Ashis G. Banerjee, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington.

"I am incredibly excited to announce the release of this academic paper which prooses a new way to approach multi-agent consensus optimization, said Ilya Buzytsky, Chief Executive Officer of Bias Intelligence. At Bias our goal is to advance the system optimization industry by leaps and bounds using modern technologies. With the ability to 'scale out' computational power using cloud-based platforms like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, we can address many of the limitations of legacy optimization software packages that rely on linear programming and require enormous amounts of time and computational burden. The idea of multi-agent consensus will show up everywhere in the future: autonomous car and truck networks, energy grid management, robotics planning and distribution, drone swarm optimization and virtually all types of system disruption management. We couldnt be prouder to bring these algorithms to life in our forthcoming products and services and thank the University of Washington for all their support.





To review and download the research paper, please visit https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8463627 , and to learn more about Bias Intelligence, please visit http://biasintelligence.com .

About Bias Intelligence

Bias Intelligence is a data science company focused on the end-to-end delivery of solutions to the most challenging process optimization problems facing global companies today. Bias Intelligence delivers these solutions through a set of packaged software offerings combined with an advanced understanding of big data platforms in the industry today. We enable customers to unlock the true potential of their data by helping them gather insight and make decisions in order to optimize their business processes. Bias Intelligence was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Learn more at http://biasintelligence.com . Contact Information Contact:

Ilya Buzytsky

Chief Executive

ilya@biasintelligence.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] WineBid Will Continue To Grow At Record Pace Says Outgoing CEO

NAPA, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- WineBid Inc, the premier Internet auction for fine and rare wines, has announced CEO Jerome Zech will step down in the first quarter of 2019. WineBid is coming off a record year in 2017, and 2018 is on track to be the most profitable year yet. Zech will leave the company in an excellent position to continue its growth. "Since 1996, WineBid has been focused on developing the best platform to auction fine and rare wines. Our stellar management team will remain in place, and I look forward to working with the new CEO to ensure a seamless transition. I will also remain as a consultant to WineBid after my departure," said Zech. Zech joined WineBid as the CEO in 2000, just as technology-based companies were finding their footing. During his tenure, the company has grown by every measure, including revenue, profits, new customers and number of bottles sold. He also oversaw the development of proprietary auction tracking tools and the state-of-art Napa Valley wine warehouse. In 2015, ech led WineBid in a rebrand, giving customers new ways to discover wine on the site. That same year, he launched WineBid's sister site, Peloton Imports, a retail wine site to make affordable wines from Europe readily available stateside. Zech truly stands behind the philosophy that fine wine should be accessible to everyone. For the last 17 years, WineBid has participated in the Hospices de Beaune and Premiere Napa Valley auctions, to include these unique insider wines in the WineBid inventory.



While WineBid has always been a leader in technology, every bottle of wine is still inspected and placed by hand. "It's best for the wine and therefore best for the company," said Zech, who is pleased to support the company into its next phase. The WineBid board has engaged executive search firm Spencer Stuart to find a successor to Zech.

About WineBid: Established in 1996, WineBid is the largest online auction for fine and rare wines with more than 100,000 registered bidders worldwide. WineBid and Peloton Imports are based in Napa, California. For more information, visit www.winebid.com or www.pelotonimports.com or call (888) 638-8968. Contact: Brooke Hilton, pr@winebid.com, or (888) 638-8968 x213 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/winebid-will-continue-to-grow-at-record-pace-says-outgoing-ceo-300733783.html SOURCE WineBid

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] OneDigital Health and Benefits Acquires Nashville Based Paradigm Group

OneDigital Health and Benefits, the nation's largest company focused exclusively on employee benefits and HR, has acquired Paradigm Group in Nashville, TN. Managing Principal Bob Levy and his team will continue serving the firm's clients, providing innovative solutions for employee benefits, compliance services, health and wellbeing expertise, HR consulting and technology. Paradigm Group, recently awarded one of The Tennessean's Top Workplaces, assists clients across a range of industries helping meet compliance requirements, manage financial risk and organize employee benefits program. By joining OneDigital, the firm's clients will have access to enhanced offerings including cutting-edge enrollment technology, health and wellbeing services and national compliance resources. "We are thrilled to have found a like-minded partner to complement the leadership position we have built in Middle Tennessee over the past 22 years," says Bob Levy, managing principal of OneDigital Tennessee. "This partnership continues our strategic growth throughout Tennessee and provides the resources that the large, national firms possess, to our clients while maintaining the strong local presence and team we've built at Paradigm Group." neDigital's comprehensive advisory services and market-leading solutions are offered in over 74 offices throughout the country. The firm has a well-established track record of doubling and tripling the size of operations in new markets and is seeking additional firms to join this team over the next 12-24 months.



"The growth OneDigital experienced this year is unprecedented and working with teams like Paradigm Group only enhances our strategic growth regionally," says Wally Dawson, regional managing principal of OneDigital Southeast. "Their industry knowledge and clout add to our existing footprint in Tennessee. Bob has built an impressive and respectable team committed to client service - an effective combination that will improve the experience of their existing client base and offer prospects a fresh approach to employee benefits for their business." About OneDigital Health and Benefits

OneDigital Health and Benefits, the nation's largest company focused exclusively on employee benefits and HR, combines people and technology to power business growth. Serving companies of all sizes, OneDigital offers employers a sophisticated combination of strategic benefit advisory services, analytics, compliance support, human resources management tools and comprehensive insurance offerings. Headquartered in Atlanta, OneDigital has over 1,400 employees throughout the country, serves 38,000 clients and manages nearly $4.5 billion in premiums. OneDigital has been named to the Inc. 5000 List of America's fastest-growing companies every year since 2007. Currently listed as 13th in EBA's Top 50 Brokers in the Large Employer Group, OneDigital offers a strategic perspective to improve all aspects of plan design and performance. For more information, visit www.onedigital.com. About Paradigm Group Based in Nashville for more than 20 years, Paradigm Group has earned a reputation for excellence in strategic design and delivery of employee benefits and retirement plan solutions. To learn more about Paradigm Group, visit www.paradigmgroup.net. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005721/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] DC Systems Promotes Kenneth Munson to Chief Executive Officer

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DC Systems, a leader in utility grade smart energy applications, today announced the unanimous approval from its board of directors to appoint Kenneth Munson as its new Chief Executive Officer. Munson was previously the Company's COO and will assume his new role immediately. The company's founder, Douglass Campbell will remain Chairman of the Board and assume the role of Chief Technology Officer. "I am honored to have been chosen by the board to lead DC Systems," Munson said. "I firmly believe that by leveraging the Company's nearly thirty-year legacy of innovation and customer centric focus we can push industry boundaries and surpass our goals in today's dynamic and changing energy markets. I look forward to working with the executive team, our employees, and partners in serving our customers while driving growth for our company." A seasoned COO and CEO, Munson brings a 20+ year history of creating, commercializing, and scaling disruptive technologies in "cloud-based" demand-side energy management, automation and control, grid analytics, and intelligent energy storage. His background includes leadership in market-development, product commercialization, reenue generation and capitalization strategies. Prior to joining DC Systems, Munson co-founded Sunverge Energy and served as its President and Chief Executive Officer for nearly a decade.



Best known for his ability to lead the growth of early stage ventures, Munson's track record for scaling operations and high-level strategic planning will provide DC Systems with the awareness required to win new partners and customers. Munson will emphasize growth, financial discipline and shareholder value creation across the Company's core markets in 2018 and beyond. "Ken joined DC Systems in April, and in a short period of time has proven to be a visionary leader with suburb execution abilities," said DC Systems Founder and Chairman, Douglass Campbell. "We are confident that Ken's expertise in grid-edge software and business acumen is perfectly suited to lead the next phase of the company's growth and success."

About DC Systems

DC Systems has been a trusted partner to utilities, EPCs, large power producers and energy users since 1990 and has more than 100 utility customers and 400 projects worldwide. DC Systems provides a flexible and scalable product suite that embeds real-time intelligent control, secure communications and monitoring of centralized and aggregated decentralized grid assets. DC Systems is headquartered in Redwood City, CA and customers include Southern California Edison, Sempra Renewables, Alliant Energy, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Austin Energy, Potomac Electric Power, Chevron, Shell, and Silicon Valley Power. For more information, please visit www.dcsystems.com or contact press@dcsystems.com. Press Contact:

Ms. Christi Graham

(650) 425-3682

press@dcsystems.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dc-systems-promotes-kenneth-munson-to-chief-executive-officer-300733804.html SOURCE DC Systems

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Navy Federal Announces Change at the Helm

John Lockard, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Navy Federal Credit Union, announced today that the board has selected Mary McDuffie as the new President and CEO of Navy Federal. McDuffie will assume her new role effective 18 January 2019. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005869/en/ Mary McDuffie has been named the new President/CEO of Navy Federal Credit Union. McDuffie will assume her new role on January 18, 2019 (Photo: Business Wire) McDuffie is a distinguished leader, serving as an executive leader at the credit union since 1999. She currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Nay Federal.



Previously, McDuffie served as the executive vice president of Delivery Channels and Communications. In this role, McDuffie's led the expansion of the credit union's marketing efforts, launched Navy Federal's mobile banking initiative and developed a voice of the member program which now helps deliver world-class, award-winning member experience to the organization's growing membership. McDuffie has also served as Navy Federal's executive vice president for Lending, responsible for the credit union's consumer lending, credit card, mortgage and equity loan operations. Prior to Navy Federal, McDuffie served as senior vice president of marketing for Star Systems, Inc. and as a senior manager at J. Walter Thompson (JWT), a multinational communications company. McDuffie graduated with honors from Wellesley College.

"Mary McDuffie is a talented and proven leader," Chairman Lockard said. "Mary understands our mission of member service. There is no other person more qualified for this role and no other could be as dedicated in our mission to serve our members." McDuffie takes the helm from Cutler Dawson, who is retiring after 14 years of service with the credit union. "Cutler Dawson has led the Navy team in every way possible. He truly cares about his team and all of our members." Lockard said. "He has been the right leader for the right time. Thanks to him, we are prepared for the opportunities that the future will bring us." About Navy Federal Credit Union: Established in 1933 with only seven members, Navy Federal now has the distinct honor of serving over 8 million members globally and is the world's largest credit union. As a member-owned and not-for-profit organization, Navy Federal always puts the financial needs of its members first. Membership is open to all Department of Defense and Coast Guard Active Duty, veterans, civilian and contractor personnel, and their families. Dedicated to its mission of service, Navy Federal employs a workforce of over 18,000 and has a global network of 323 branches. For more information about Navy Federal Credit Union, visit navyfederal.org. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005869/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Discover Financial Services Declares Quarterly Dividend for Common Stock

The Board of Directors of Discover Financial Services declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.40 per share of common stock payable on December 6, 2018, to holders of record at the close of business on November 21, 2018. About Discover Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) is a direct banking and payment services company with one of the most recognized brands in U.S. financial services. Since its inception in 1986, the company has become one of the largest card issuers in the United States. The company issues the Discover card, America's cash rewards pioneer, and offers private student loans, personal loans, home equity loans, checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit through its direct banking business. It operates the Discover Global Network comprised of Discover Network, with millions of merchant and cash access locations; PULSE, one of the nation's leading ATM/debit networks; and Diners Club International, a global payments network with acceptance in 190 countries and territories. For more information, visit www.discover.com/company.



This press release contains forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made, which reflect management's estimates, projections, expectations or beliefs at that time, and which are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. The amount and timing of any future dividends and share repurchases are subject to the discretion of the company's board of directors and will depend upon the company's results of operations, financial condition, cash requirements, future prospects, market conditions, capital requirements, applicable law and regulations (including federal securities laws and federal banking regulations) and other factors, and may be subject to regulatory approval or conditions. Additional factors impacting dividends and share repurchases can be found in "Business - Supervision and Regulation", "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017, and under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2018, and March 31, 2018, which are filed with the SEC (News - Alert) and available at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). The Company does not undertake to update or revise forward-looking statements as more information becomes available.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005969/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Singularity University's Exponential Medicine Shapes the Future of Healthcare, Showcases Advances in Healthcare Technologies

The world's experts in healthcare, technology, biopharma, and more will convene for the eighth annual Exponential Medicine conference (ExponentialMedicine.com), November 4-7 at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Exponential Medicine is presented by Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to help solve humanity's grand challenges. Over 70 world-class faculty, innovative startup companies, and more than 500 selected innovators from every facet of health and biomedicine will gather for the four-day program to explore and leverage the convergence of fast-moving technologies in the reinvention of health and medicine. Exponential Medicine was founded in 2011 by Dr. Daniel Kraft, a Stanford- and Harvard-trained physician-scientist, and SU's Faculty Chair of Medicine. Dr. Kraft envisioned a high-energy, bold redesign of the medical conference, crossing silos to foster impactful healthcare breakthroughs and advancements. "Exponential Medicine brings together the world's most innovative leaders for a deep dive into the cutting edge and future of medicine, exploring the latest developments of rapidly developing technologies and their potential to reshape many elements of prevention, diagnosis, and therapy around the planet," Dr. Kraft said. "Insights, connections, and collaborations sparked at Exponential Medicine have catalyzed many new approaches with real impact on the world that will become mainstream in the near future. Participants are challenged to think bigger and encouraged to explore and build on the latest innovations in convergent technology." Participants learn about and discuss the current and future implications of evolving and innovative technologies, from artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and digital health to regenerative medicine. More than 50 startups will be featured in the Innovation Lab, enabling hands-on technology demonstrations and including a startup competition. Faculty at this year's event includes SU co-founders Peter Diamandis and Ray Kurzwil, as well as more than 70 experts and industry leaders, including:



Next-Gen Imaging Technology - Mary Lou Jepsen (News - Alert) , Founder & CEO Open Water

AI Meets Medicine - Anthony Chang, MD, MPH, Chief Intelligence and Innovation Officer, Children's Hospital of Orange (News - Alert) County

Regenerative Medicine - Nina Tandon, Ph.D., Co-Founder, EpiBone

Technology That Knows What You Are Feeling - Poppy Crum Ph.D., Chief Scientist Dolby Labs

Biotech on the Frontier - Andrew Hessel, CEO, Humane Genomics and Nanotechnology/Biotechnology Faculty, Singularity University

The Circadian Code - Satchin Panda Ph.D., Professor, Salk Institute

Bringing Healthcare Systems into the Future - John Halamka, MD, MS, Chief Information Officer, Beth Israel Hospital & Dean for Technology, Harvard Medical School

AI & Deep Learning - Alan Karthikesalingam, MD, Ph.D., Google (News - Alert) DeepMind

Neuromedicine at the Frontier - Eric Leuthardt MD Ph.D., Neurosurgeon, Washington Univ.

Patients Included - Dave DeBronkart, ePatient

Reimagining Regulatory & The Regulator - Asif Dhar, Principal, Deloitte (News - Alert) Consulting LLP

Digital Surgery - Shafi Ahmed, MD, Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean, Barts Medical School

Future of Clinical Trials - Noah Craft, MD Ph.D., Co-founder & CEO, Science37 Click here to view the full lineup of Exponential Medicine 2018 faculty and topics. Deloitte is the Platinum Sponsor of the Singularity University Summits, including Exponential Medicine, Singularity University Global Summit, and SingularityU International Summits. Deloitte is also a founding member of SingularityU Netherlands.

"The changes currently taking place in healthcare are driving the industry toward large-scale disruption that is impacting both traditional and emerging players," said Doug Beaudoin, US and global life sciences and healthcare consulting leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "Deloitte is proud to collaborate with SU on Exponential Medicine, where so many of these key players will have the chance to discuss and explore their roles in the future of health." For information on SU programs and events, visit www.su.org. ABOUT EXPONENTIAL MEDICINE Exponential Medicine is a four-day program exploring the convergence of technology and the potential impact on health and medicine. Follow Exponential Medicine on Twitter (News - Alert) @ExponentialMed and the conference via the #xMed hashtag. The conference will be accessible via free livestreaming starting at 1 p.m. PST Nov. 4 through 1 p.m. PST Nov. 7 at ExponentialMedicine.com. ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world's biggest challenges and build a better future for all. SU's collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, read the SU Blog, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download the SU App. ABOUT DELOITTE Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world's most admired brands, including more than 85 percent of the Fortune 500 and more than 6,000 private and middle market companies. Our people work across more than 20 industry sectors to make an impact that matters - delivering measurable and lasting results that help reinforce public trust in our capital markets, inspire clients to see challenges as opportunities to transform and thrive, and help lead the way toward a stronger economy and a healthy society. Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the "Deloitte" name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005979/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][October 18, 2018] Smart Speaker Market by Intelligent Virtual Assistant, End User, Distribution Channel, and Price - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2025

LONDON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart Speaker Market by Intelligent Virtual Assistant (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, and Others), End User (Personal and commercial), Distribution Channel (Online and offline), and Price (Low, Mid, and Premium) - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2025



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5564008



Smart speaker is a speaker that can be activated by an intelligent virtual personal assistant. Any consumer majorly uses this device to listen to music and ask questions related to any problems, and control smart home devices. The smart speaker market has witnessed significant growth over two years, since its inception, owing to increase in technological awareness and rise in usage of smart home devices.



Advancement in microphones, automated speech recognition technology, and natural language processing (NLP) help the smart speakers to identify and process the voice command of the user with utmost precision. Amazon offers Amazon Echo powered by virtual assistant known as Alexa and Google provides Google Home powered by virtual Google assistant. These dominate the smart speaker market in terms of value and volume. The other players operating in this market include Apple, Alibaba, Sonos, and others.



There is an increase in the purchase of smart speakers owing to the rise in technological awareness among the consumers. Amazon Echo is projected to continue to evolve with integration of more skills and features and would reach to even more customers in the near future. Thus, continuous advancement of smart speakers and its expansion in various regions around the globe are expected to boost the growth of the market during the forecast period.



With the rise in usage of smart phones and smart home devices, smart speakers witness an increase in growth rate owing to the compatibility with smart home devices. Also, smart speakers exhibit a great potential to bridge the digital divide. Most of the people, especially in the underdeveloped countries are not computer savvy. The mobile revolution outpaced the computer revolution in India as smart phones provide ease of use with greater utility. Similar to the smart phone revolution, the smart speaker market is expected to grow significantly in the developing regions of Asia-Pacific because of the ability to perform multiple functions and the availability at an affordable price range. The companies such as Amazon and Google are partnering with smart hme manufacturers to provide ease of access to different smart home devices. The major restraint that affects the expansion of smart speakers by the major players in smart speaker market includes the localization demands of the consumers. Localization of intelligent virtual assistants, which includes the ability of the assistants to speak in different local languages, poses a great challenge to the smart speaker manufacturers. The complex process of language understanding and translation, speech recognition for the languages, including dialects and variations in accent, addition of local knowledge or culture to the system (local music, local retail markets, news, celebrities, and jokes), and spoken language generation requires a lot of resources for the manufacturers. As a result, the companies are partnering with the local players in the field of artificial intelligence to create a suitable product for the local markets.







The key players operating in the smart speaker market include Amazon.com, Inc., Apple, Inc., Alibaba Group, Alphabet Inc. (Google Inc.), Sonos, Inc., Bose Corporation, Xiaomi, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Baidu Inc. and Plantronics, Inc. (Altec Lansing/AL Infinity, LLC). The companies adopt innovative ideas, invest on advertisements across digital & print media, and increase the participation or development of other players such as Lenovo, SK Telecom, and others. These factors fuel the market competition and growth. Recently, Lenovo introduced The Lenovo smart display powered by the Google assistant in mid-2018. It combines the broad usefulness of a smart speaker with bright, large visual results that enable faster and more efficient form of user interaction.



The report segments the smart speaker market based on type of intelligent virtual assistant, end user, price, distribution channel, and region. According to intelligent virtual assistant, it is divided into Amazon Alexa, Siri, Cortana, Google Assistant, AliGenie, Xiaomi Al assistant, and others (DuerOS, SKT NUGU, Naver Clova, and Kakao i). By end user, the smart speaker market is bifurcated into personal and commercial. Based on price, it is segmented into low ( $0 to $100 ), mid ( $101 to $200 ), and premium (above $200 ). By distribution channel, it is categorized into online and offline. Based on region, it is analyzed across North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and LAMEA.





KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS

This report provides an extensive analysis of the current and emerging market trends, and dynamics in the smart speaker market.

In-depth analysis is conducted by constructing market estimations for the key market segments between 2017 and 2025.

Extensive analysis of the market is conducted by following key product positioning and monitoring the top competitors within the market framework.

Key players are profiled and their strategies are analyzed thoroughly to understand the competitive outlook of the global smart speaker market.



KEY MARKET SEGMENTS



By Intelligent Virtual Assistant

Amazon Alexa

Google Assistant

Siri

Cortana

Others (AliGenie, Xiaomi Al Assistant , DuerOS, SKT NUGU, Naver Clova, and Kakao)



By End User

Personal

Commercial



By Distribution Channel

Online

Offline



By Price

Low (Less than $100 )

Mid ( $101 - $200 )

Premium (Above $200 )



By Region

North America

U.S.

Canada

Mexico

Europe



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5564008



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: sarah@reportbuyer.com

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/smart-speaker-market-by-intelligent-virtual-assistant-end-user-distribution-channel-and-price---global-opportunity-analysis-and-industry-forecast-2018-2025-300733685.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

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Facebook originally estimated that up to 50 million people were affected by an attack on the site announced on September 28 and shrank that number down to 30 million a few weeks later. This week, a report from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claimed that Facebook has internally blamed the attack on spammers.

Facebook discovered the attack on September 25 and publicly revealed it on September 28. The company released an update on October 12 with its revised estimate for the number of people affected by the attack, but it has yet to share any information about the attackers with the public. The FBI, which is assisting with the investigation into the attack, is said to have asked Facebook not to discuss the attackers' identities.

Quoth the Journal: "Internal researchers now believe that the people behind the attack are a group of Facebook and Instagram spammers that present themselves as a digital marketing company, and whose activities were previously known to Facebooks security team, said the people familiar with the investigation." Facebook has repeatedly declined to confirm or deny WSJ's report or discuss the attackers' identities.

This attribution is supported by the attackers' decision to compromise a limited amount of information that was available to them. Facebook said the attack relied on a vulnerability in the "View As" feature that lets people view their profiles from other perspectives. Once that vulnerability was exploited, the attackers could steal the access tokens used to let people use their accounts without having to log in every time to do so. The social media platform's vulnerability existed between July 2017 and September 2018.

The attackers could have wreaked havoc with those access tokens, but according to Facebook's update on the attack, they were mostly concerned with stealing contact information (of which Facebook has even more than most people expect). This data would prove particularly valuable to spammers who make their living by contacting as many people as possible.

In any case, this is the biggest attack in Facebook's history, and this almost certainly won't be the last we hear of it.(Image credit: CSL)



Update, 10/18/18, 10:20 a.m. PT: Microsoft responded to request for comment about this security flaw and why it remains unpatched:

Microsoft has a strong commitment to security and a demonstrated track record of investigating and resolving reported vulnerabilities. We're looking into this report, and if we determine we need to take further action to help keep customers protected, we will," said Jeff Jones, Senior Director at Microsoft.

Original, 10/18/18, 8:58 a.m. PT:

Sebastian Castro, a security researcher from Colombia working for the CSL security company, has found a Windows vulnerability that could allow an attacker to install a permanent backdoor in users' systems. The researcher said Microsoft is yet to fix this flaw.

Windows RID Hijacking

Castro found that the Relative Identifier (RID) that is assigned to Windows user accounts to describe their respective permission group could be modified with a simple registry change. Attackers could use the technique to gain administrative privileges and take control of the users system.

Attackers cant make this change remotely, unless the users PC is somehow already exposed to attacks from the internet via open and non-secure ports or if the attackers already gained remote access to the system via malware.

However, if the hackers can brute force a users account password or get the user to install an infected file via email or some other medium, then they can gain a permanent backdoor with full system access.

(Image credit: CSL)

Castro described the attack as highly reliable and working on all Windows versions from XP to 10, as well as on Windows Server 2003 to 2016. According to the researcher, the attack is not easily noticeable, as the hacker would use regular Windows resources. However, if you want to check if your limited or guest accounts have been backdoored this way, you can check to see if their RID has been modified to "500," which is the RID for administrator accounts.

Microsoft Hasnt Fixed the Vulnerability

Castro told ZDNet that he reached out to Microsoft, but the company was unresponsive. He also made it clear that the vulnerability has not been patched.

To put some fire under Microsofts feet, the researcher has already released a fully working exploit for the popular Metasploit exploit framework, which means malicious actors will soon be able to integrate this exploit into their own exploit suites and malware too.

Castro also presented the attack at several security conferences over the past several months, so chances are Microsoft is well aware about it by now. We've contacted the company for further details, and we'll update this post if we receive a response.NSA Fort Meade (Image credit: ACLU)

The ACLU obtained a new report by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) government agency through a recent U.S. Freedom of Information (FOIA) request that claims Obama era privacy rules for intelligence agencies has been mostly inadequate.

PCLOB Report on PPD-28 Privacy Policies

Following Edward Snowdens revelations on NSAs mass surveillance programs and certain abuses, the Obama administration created a set of privacy policies for intelligence agencies to follow called PPD-28. These new rules were supposed to protect regular citizens against new surveillance abuses. However, PCLOBs review of these policies found the protections lacking.

The Obama administration passed the PPD-28 policies in 2014, and the PCLOB review of the PPD-28 policies was finalized in December 2016. However, the Trump administration has refused to release the report to the public until now, according to the ACLU.

Bulk Surveillance Activities Unchanged

The report notes that the PPD-28 has allowed the intelligence agencies to continue their existing bulk surveillance practices mostly unhindered. The new policies limited bulk surveillance activities to only six categories, but these categories are so broad that the NSA didnt have to change its problematic practices at all once the rules went into effect.

The six categories for bulk surveillance activities had already existed before the policies passed, so in essence the PPD-28 only put in writing the surveillance limits the NSA had already given itself.

PPD-28 Policies Are Inconsistent

The report also said that the lack of a common understanding as to the activities to which PPD-28 applies has led to inconsistent interpretation and could lead to compliance traps, especially as [intelligence community] elements engage in information sharing.

For instance, the PPD-28 policies apply only to surveillance programs under FISA section 702, but not to programs operating under sections 704 and 705(b). This allows the law enforcement agency to evade the privacy rules for certain surveillance activities.

In order to address these inconsistencies, PCLOB recommended that the National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issue criteria for determining which activities or types of data will be subject to PPD-28s requirements. However, ACLU said that its unclear whether or not the agencies ever issued these clarifications.

PPD-28 Doesnt Address Expanded Raw Data Sharing

The privacy board was also concerned with how the agencies would apply the PPD-28 policies with the upcoming expansion of NSAs power to share raw mass surveillance data with 16 other U.S. agencies.

President Obama approved this expansion of power days before he left office. Later, the FISA renewal codified it into law, while also allowing the agencies to see all the surveillance data without needing a warrant. Prior to this change, the NSA had to redact some sensitive surveillance information before sharing it with other agencies.

EU-U.S. Privacy Shield In Doubt

This report came out at the time when the European Parliament has already given both the European Commission and the U.S. government an ultimatum to drastically improve the privacy protections of EU citizens against U.S. agencies mass surveillance operations, or it will end the EU-U.S. data agreement.

ACLU noted that it has always believed that the PPD-28 policies never provided adequate protection for EU citizens and are too weak to serve as a legal basis for the Privacy Shield agreement. The published PCLOB report now confirms ACLUs beliefs.

The second annual review of Privacy Shield is already underway, and EUs top court is also going to review it as part of a lawsuit by the Ireland Data Protection Commission against Facebook. ACLU believes that both the European Commission and the court will now have to deal with critical report on the PPD-28 policies.Concurs de granturi adresat COMUNITATILOR (APL) pentru sporirea rezilientei lor la schimbarile climatice si FEMEILOR ANTREPRENOARE in vederea dezvoltarii unor afaceri prietenoase mediuluiThe Samsung Galaxy Book 2 proves that Windows on Snapdragon still has a long way to go, despite excellent cameras and a beautiful AMOLED screen. And its just too pricey to justify this kind of performance.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 proves that Windows on Snapdragon still has a long way to go, despite excellent cameras and a beautiful AMOLED screen. And its just too pricey to justify this kind of performance.

The potential of running full Windows 10 on ARM CPUs is huge, but the early results have been mixed at best. In spring 2018, a handful of OEMs launched 2-in-1s running Windows, but powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors rather than traditional x86 chips from Intel or AMD. These first-gen devices were intriguing but suffered from sluggish performance and annoying compatibility issues.

Now, Qualcomm has released the more-powerful, Snapdragon 850 chip and Samsung is using it to power the Galaxy Book 2, a 12-inch detachable 2-in-1 with built-in 4G, a colorful OLED display, a surprisingly-snappy keyboard and a comfortable stylus (both of which come in the box). The Book 2's performance, particularly when running standard win32 apps, is a noticeable step up from its predecessors, but $999 (UK price TBD) is a high price to pay for what is undoubtedly a secondary device.

Test Unit Specifications

Display 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 OLED Display CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Graphics Qualcomm Adreno 630 Memory 4GB SSD 128GB eUFS Storage Networking Snapdragon X20 LTE Modem / 802.11ac Wi-Fi Ports 2 USB Type-C, 3.5mm, microSD Cameras 8-MP rear, 5-MP front OS Windows 10 Home (S mode) Dimensions (W x D x H) 11.32 x 7.89 x .30 inches / 287.5 x 200.4 x 7.6 mm Weight 1.8 pounds (0.8 kg) / 2.4 pounds (1.1 kg) with keyboard Price (as configured) $999 (UK price TBD)

Design

The Galaxy Book 2 has the same basic design as other detachable 2-in-1s. The 1.8-pound (0.8 kg), 11.3 x 7.9 x 0.3-inch (287.5 x 200.4 x 7.6 mm) slate connects magnetically to a 0.6-pound (0.27 kg) keyboard cover while a panel on the back flips out to serve as a kickstand. The gunmetal gray, matte metal back panel looks premium and resists fingerprints but just isn't as attractive as the Surface Pro 6 in gray or its stunning new black shade or the leather and aluminum-clad Envy x2. Its all a step up in design from Samsungs recent laptops that used the lightweight Metal12, which didnt feel luxurious.

The kickstand extends back nearly 90 degrees so you can adjust the angle as you see fit. The system balanced decently on my lap, but wasn't as stable as the Surface Pro 6 because the kickstand just isn't as tight. When I used the Galaxy Book 2 on a bumpy train, it jostled uncomfortably on my lap, but never fell over.

The Galaxy Book 2 has two USB Type-C ports which can be used to charge the device, plug in to a docking station or connect to peripherals. There's also a 3.5mm audio jack for headphones, but no USB Type-A port for connecting to the most common accessories. By contrast, the Surface Pro 6 has a single Type-A port, a mini DisplayPort out and an audio jack, but no Type-C.

There's also a fingerprint reader located right next to the rear camera on the Galaxy Book 2. The sensor did a great job of recognizing my index finger and logging me in via Windows Hello.

Display

The Galaxy Book 2's 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 AMOLED screen offers incredibly vibrant colors and sharp images. When I watched a 1080p trailer for Aquaman, the blue of the water and the brown of desert sands looked particularly lush.

According to our colorimeter, the Galaxy Book 2 can reproduce an impressive 200 percent of the sRGB color gamut, nearly double the premium laptop category average and way ahead of the Surface Pro and Envy x2.

At 328 nits on our light meter, the Galaxy Book 2's screen is a little brighter than the category average but dimmer than its competitors. When I put the Surface Pro 6 next to the Galaxy Book 2, Microsoft's screen was notably more luminous, which made Mera's red hair look redder. Blues were still deeper on the Samsung display.

Audio

The Galaxy Book 2's audio output was surprisingly good. When I listened to AC/DC's "Highway to Hell," the music sounded heavenly, with accurate drums, guitar and vocals. The sound was loud enough to fill my dining room and blissfully free of the tinniness we see on so many laptop and tablet speakers.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2's Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 CPU and 4GB of RAM are capable of competently surfing the web, running office apps and note-taking, but the experience just isn't as smooth and seamless as on similarly-priced competitors like the Surface Pro 6. The problems are far worse when you multitask or use an app like Google Chrome, which is not a Microsoft Store app.

When I opened over a dozen tabs in Chrome and had a YouTube video window sitting side-by-side with a Google Docs tab, I noticed a lot of lag, both in editing the document and switching tabs. At a couple of points, the screen froze.

When I performed the same test with Microsofts Edge browser, there was still lag, but it wasn't as bad. On a Surface Pro 6, there was no lag at all and pages loaded and drew much faster.

The Galaxy Book 2 fared worse on synthetic benchmarks. Its Geekbench 4 score of 3,545 is less than a third of the premium laptop category average and even farther behind the Surface Pro 6. The HP Envy x2, which had the last-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, was about 15 percent worse, so there is some definite generation-over-generation improvement here. Some would argue that tests like Geekbench, which themselves are not Microsoft Store apps, aren't fair because they are running in emulation mode, not natively. However, if you choose to use non-Store apps like Chrome, this is perfectly representative of the performance you'll get.

Don't even think about crunching video. It took the Galaxy Book 2 a glacial 39 minutes and 43 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake. That's nearly twice as long as the average premium laptop and way slower than the Surface.

The Galaxy Book 2 runs Microsoft Office well enough for use, but it's not as quickly as Intel-powered competitors. Samsung's 2-in-1 took 2 minutes and 18 seconds to match 65,000 names with their addresses in Excel, which is around 15 percent better than the HP Envy x2 but way behind the Surface Pro 6 and the average premium laptop.

Since this is a Qualcomm-powered laptop, it uses smartphone-style eUFS Flash storage instead of a typical SATA or NVMe SSD. The Samsung eUFS drive copied 4.97GB of mixed media files at a rate of 110 MBps, which is less than a quarter of the category average and half of the Surface Pro 6's rate. The Envy x2 had nearly identical transfer speeds.

If you're buying this 2-in-1, you probably weren't thinking of gaming, which is good. The Galaxy Book 2 returned an unplayable frame rate of 24 fps on Dirt 3, a low-end racing game that runs on even the cheapest hardware. By contrast, the Surface Pro 6, which has Intel integrated graphics, played a smooth 81 fps. the average premium laptop got 74 fps.

Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 lasted 10 hours and 41 minutes on our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi with the screen set at 150 nits. While that time compares favorably to premium laptop average, it's less than we expect from a device with an ARM processor. The Envy x2 and its Snapdragon 835 CPU lasted 14 hours and 22 minutes on the same test while the Surface Pro 6, which has a power-hungry Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, lasted for a 9 hours and 20 minutes.

Windows 10 S and Software Compatibility

Like other Qualcomm-powered Windows 2-in-1s, the Galaxy Book 2 ships with Windows 10 Home in S mode, which prevents you from installing any app that doesn't come from the Microsoft Store. It's easy to understand why Microsoft, Samsung and Qualcomm would want you to use a crippled version of the operating system. The Snapdragon chips can run any store app natively so performance is much better while, with regular win32 apps, the processor has to emulate an x86 chip, which really slows things down.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of important apps that aren't available as store apps. If you want to use a browser other than Edge, you're out of luck. If you want to do some coding with Visual Studio or Android Studio, you can't run either in Windows 10 S. You can't run my favorite code and text editor, Notepad++ in Windows 10 S either.

Fortunately, with a couple of clicks, you can switch out of S mode and into regular Windows 10 Home, which lets you install 32-bit apps. However, there are many Windows applications that are only available in a 64-bit version. Photoshop Elements, an app I use every day, does not come in 32-bit anymore and the Cinebench benchmark, which we wanted to run, is also 64-bit only.

Even among 32-bit apps, not all will work on ARM processors. I tried to use OpenVPN, a popular VPN client which I use to access some private networks, but it won't install because it tried to load a TAP driver that's not compatible with ARM. On the bright side, Googles Chrome browser works fairly well and there is a 32-bit version of Firefox as well.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The backlit keyboard is pleasantly snappy and responsive, with a deep 1.6 mm of vertical travel and a strong 70 grams of required actuation force. Typing on a lightweight keyboard cover usually isn't as satisfying as pressing against a laptop keyboard that has some mass, but Samsung's keys felt good and enabled me to achieve a score of 95 words per minute with a meager 5 percent error rate, which is on the low end of my typical range.

The 1.7 x 3.9-inch touchpad is a little small, but highly accurate. In my tests, I was able to target icons, drag windows around and highlight text, without a hint of jumpiness or stickiness. The pad also responded instantly to multitouch gestures such as pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe.

Stylus and Inking

The Galaxy Book 2 comes standard with Samsung's S Pen, a 5.5-inch (14 cm) plastic stylus you can use for drawing or note-taking. Unlike Microsoft's $99 (99) Surface Pen, the S Pen doesn't need batteries or to be charged. It works competently, but isn't one of the better stylii I've used.

The plastic tip is small enough to target narrow areas on the screen and draw thin lines, but doesn't have the same realistic pen on paper feel of the Surface Pen. I had no problem taking text notes or drawing in Samsung's preloaded Notes app and marking up screenshots in the Screen write app, but I didn't get the kind of helpful friction that I have experienced with the Surface. But, like the Surface, the back of the stylus can be used as an eraser, which is welcome for inking in Windows.

If you're going to carry the pen, keep it in a bag or a pocket. It weakly attaches to a magnet on the side of the tablet, but if you get jostled or move around too much, it will likely fall off. The stylus also comes with a sheath that protects the tip while it rolls around in your bag. It also doesn't help that the S Pen is made of cheap, glossy plastic with just a tiny metal sliver in the middle for attaching to the magnet.

In addition to Windows Ink, Microsoft's set of first-party note-taking and drawing apps, Samsung bundles its own set of useful utilities. When you press the button on the S Pen, a circular menu called "Air Command" appears in an overlay on the right side of the screen. There you can choose to create or open a document in Notes, an app that lets you take handwritten notes or draw pictures. You can crop a part of the screen and edit it (or convert images to text) with Smart Select or you can capture the entire screen mark it up in Screen Write.

While Samsung's inking apps are helpful, I wish that Notes provided an easy way to convert your scrawlings into text as you write so that you could then copy and paste them into word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

4G Connectivity

The Galaxy Book 2's built-in 4G LTE modem is a huge convenience. Our review unit came with a Verizon SIM card that gave us speeds as high as 74 Mbps down and 49 Mbps up. As with any carrier, connection quality can vary. In my house, which has poor Verizon connectivity, loading videos and web pages was sluggish and results were mixed when I used the connection on a commuter train.

However, if you buy the Book 2, you can use any SIM card you want. In the U.S., it will be sold online by AT&T, Samsung and Microsoft and at Verizon, AT&T and Sprint stores. We're still waiting to find out about UK availability and pricing.

It almost goes without saying that, if you buy a competitive product that doesn't have built-in 4G, you can use a hotspotting feature on your phone to get online. However, it's very convenient to have LTE available from the moment you boot up or wake your tablet. When you have to turn on a hotspot on your phone, provided that your plan allows it, that's an extra step and you're also eating up your handset's battery.

Cameras

Both the 8 megapixel rear camera and the 5MP front shooter capture excellent images. When I shot pictures of a park and a city street, details like the complex wood lattice of a sculpture and the painted graffiti on a truck were sharp and colorful.

The 5MP webcam is a lot better than most laptop cameras. It got the bright color of my shirt just right and captured fine details like the lines in my forehead and the hairs in my beard.

Software and Warranty

In addition to Samsung's small suite of pen apps, the company preloads Samsung Flow, which syncs files and content with your Samsung phone, allowing you to transfer live calls, documents or web pages from one device to another. Samsung Gallery is a lot like Windows 10's built-in gallery; it shows all of your on-device photos but it also allows you to sync with the images on your phone.

Dolby Atmos gives you fine control of the audio, allowing you to choose among music, movie, voice or gaming profiles. There's also the same suite of crapware that comes on every Windows 10 laptop, including Candy Crush Saga, Royal Revolt 2: Tower Defense and Drawboard PDF.

Samsung sells the Galaxy Book 2 with a one-year warranty.

Bottom Line

When evaluating the Galaxy Book 2, I keep coming back to the same question: "who is this for?" Samsung doesn't market this 2-in-1 as a secondary device, but its mediocre performance, low storage capacity and paltry 4GB of RAM make it viable only as a lightweight mobile device you can carry with you when you have a more powerful computer waiting for you at home. However, few people would pay this kind of money for a second computer, particularly one that's incompatible with some mainstream apps and sluggish when running Chrome, the world's leading browser.

For only around $125 more, you can get a Surface Pro 6 with a Core i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM ($1,124 or 1,104 with keyboard and pen), one which offers good enough performance to be your main system, along with a brighter screen, a superior stylus and a nicer design. The Surface doesn't have a built-in 4G option (yet), but you can always connect it to your phone's hotspot.

If you really do want a secondary device to compliment your powerful home PC, there are better and cheaper options such as the Surface Go ($399 or 379, $599 or 599 with pen/keyboard). The Surface Go has a 10-inch display, no 4G and shorter battery life but it has no problem running Chrome and it has Microsoft's more-premium design.

The Galaxy Book 2 has several positives, including a gorgeous screen, a snappy keyboard, built-in 4G, good sound and great cameras. It's also a noticeable step up from first-gen Qualcomm-powered laptops like the HP Envy x2. However, consumers don't grade products on a curve. Unless the price drops significantly lower, the Galaxy Book 2 just isn't worth the money.

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MORE: All Laptop ContentKANSAS CITY, Mo. - A company doing some underground utility work in the area of Blue Parkway and Kensington Avenue last week ended up cracking a main that sent sewage into Brush Creek. Amir Kenner, a senior engineering technician at the Kansas City Water Department, said orange conduits that an unknown company installed are to blame for the damaged sewer main.MERRIAM, KS. (KCTV) -- Merriam police are investigating reports of shots fired near the Kings Cove Apartments not far from 75th Street and Switzer. Right as many people were getting home from work on Wednesday, they heard gunshots around 5:45pm. When officers arrived, they did not find any victims but they did find evidence of a shooting.Sun UK: Stunning Arianny Celeste was ringside at the exact moment when Khabib Nurmagomedov made the attack on Conor McGregors camp, following his stunning victory over the Crumlin scrapper

Guide To Living In KCMO Dump

Trouble dumped on city streets: What to do so junk doesn't cost you New information on a man caught in the act for illegal dumping. The city says he turned himself in and even cleaned up the mess, but it could still be . . .

Rolling With Old School Trend

Despite Downward Trends Nationally, Kansas City Is Still A Racing Hotbed Sunday's NASCAR race will cap the busiest weekend of the year at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. It's a market that's a bright spot for a sport on a downward slope nationally. Investment in racing in the Kansas City area is even ramping up, as evidence by Kansas City-based developer Chris Payne purchasing the old I-70 Speedway property this summer.

Kansas City Is A Health Hazard

Living in certain parts of Kansas City could take 15 years off your life KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Where you live could take years off your life. In fact, people living in six zip codes in Kansas City have a life expectancy almost 15 years lower than the rest of the city. Those zip codes are: 64126, 64127, 64128, 64129, 64130 and 64132, all on Kansas City's Eastside.

Latest Real Estate Scheme Inside The Loop

Block, Sunflower Development transform Traders on Grand into luxury apartments - Kansas City Business Journal The old Traders on Grand building has nearly completed its transformation into The Grand, a luxury apartment complex that boasts amenities like Downtown's highest rooftop pool, an attached dog park/dog shower, a game room and movie theater in a former vault. The $67 million project is a partnership between Sunflower Development Group and Block Real Estate Services LLC.

This Week's Lesson In Fear

Johnson County boy taken into custody after threatening to 'shoot up' middle school OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- Overland Park police took a boy into custody Wednesday after administrators say he posted on social media that he would "shoot up" his middle school. Hours after that threat on Westridge Middle School, Paige Tuley was still fighting back tears.

Old School TKC Redux

George Brett will be a guest star on IFC show "Brockmire" | The Kansas City Star George Brett is in demand ... as an actor. Earlier this year, Brett appeared on the ABC comedy, "Modern Family," as he talked with Cam (Eric Stonestreet) during a Royals' spring-training game. On Monday, Brett was in Atlanta working on a new gig. He was shooting scenes for the IFC show "Brockmire."

KANSAS CITY DUDE WILL BE BIG BIRD!!!

Kansas City man taking over role of Sesame Street's Big Bird The puppeteer who has played Big Bird on "Sesame Street" is retiring after nearly 50 years on the show and a Kansas City, Kansas man is taking his place. Caroll Spinney announced Thursday will be his last day on "Sesame Street." He joined the program in 1969.

Our favorite ring girl in the whole wide world is safe:Closer to home, here's more news on all topics local:is the #TBT is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .Person in wheelchair found dead in Brush Creek, KCPD investigating Peggy Breit/KMBC SOURCE: Peggy Breit/KMBC The Kansas City Police Department is investigating after a person was found dead in a wheelchair in Brush Creek Wednesday. Police said officers were called to Brush Creek near Cleaver II and Benton Boulevard around 2:50 p.m.

Kansas City police are calling this a "death investigation" right now and not a homicide. Here's the full report on more human misery on the Country Club Plaza . . . Checkit:The Porsche Taycan is arguably the most technologically advanced model Porsche has ever built, but its not going to be priced that way. In fact, the Taycan looks like itll be more affordable than we thought. A Porsche executive revealed that the Taycan will like carry a starting price of 80,000 or around $92,500 based on current exchange rates. That said, top-spec versions of the Taycan arent going to come cheap, potentially reaching 200,000, or a little over $230,000.

Pricing of Porsches first-ever electric car could slot between the Cayman and the Panamera

Well, thats good news, isnt it? A lot of people, we included, expected Porsche to tack on the big bucks in pricing the Taycan. The German automaker wouldnt be criticized if it did, especially with all the advanced technologies that came in its development. But in the surprise of surprises, Robert Meier, the complete vehicle model line director for the Taycan, told Automotive News that the Taycan isnt going to bleed our bank accounts dry. Were expecting a price somewhere between a Cayenne and a Panamera, he said.

If theres worth to Meiers words, the entry-level version of the Taycan could cost somewhere between 74,828 (the base price of the Cayenne) and 90,655 (the base price of the Panamera).

Do a little mathematical gymnastics, and an assumed price of 80,000 isnt out of the cards. That converts to around $92,500, give or take a few thousands. Given the perceived expectation that the base Taycan would comfortably exceed $100,000, the new estimate is a comforting thought, even if its still going to take a heavy toll in our pockets. It just wont be as heavy as we expected it to be.

Dont celebrate too quickly, though, because if youre looking for a top-spec Taycan, youre going to have to spend big for one. Thats the word from Porsche Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke, who said that the higher-performance versions of the electric car like a Taycan Turbo S could be priced as much as 200,000. That converts to a bank account-bleeding $230,000. For a quick reference, the most expensive Panamera variant currently on sale is the Turbo S E-Hybrid Executive that goes for 199,183 in Germany. Here in the U.S., it costs $194,800.

Neither Meier nor Meschke expounded on the price estimates of the Taycan, but if the electric cars going to be a bit more affordable than earlier estimates, youre going to see a lot of excited people looking to get a piece of the 600-horsepower electric sedan.

As it is, the Taycans performance credentials  it can sprint from 0 to 62 mph in 3.5 seconds  and its estimated range of 310 miles count as two big check marks for customers.

The ability of the Taycans batteries to need just four minutes to add more than 100 kilometers to its range is another feather on its cap.

Porsche intends to build 20,000 units of the Taycan on two shifts in a years time. That number, though, could rise if a third shift is added. If the Porsche Taycan is cheaper than we thought, that third shift could happen sooner than later, too, if demand for the EV increases.

Further Reading

Read our full review on the 2020 Porsche Taycan.

Read our full review on the 2018 Tesla Model S.

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche Mission E Cross Turismo Concept.

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche Panamera.

Read our full review on the 2018 Porsche Cayenne.16 Astonishing Facts About The New McLaren Speedtail Hyper-GT

Probably All You Need And Want To Know About the New McLaren Speedtail Hyper-GTInaugural South Africa Investment Conference marks a step change in the governments approach to engaging with the domestic and international business community

Next weeks much-anticipated inaugural South Africa Investment Conference will be a platform for the country to woo investors and showcase a more coherent narrative about the direction of the countrys economy, according to Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel, addressing the media on Thursday on preparations ahead of the event.

Under the theme Accelerating Growth by Building Partnerships, the conference will be held from 25-27 October 2018 at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. The events keynote address will be made by the President of the Republic of South Africa, who will be joined by eminent political and business leaders throughout the conference.

South Africa is open for business and the most diversified African economy, with a host of unique comparative advantages and unique features as an investment destination and trade partner. Patel said the aim of the conference is to market the compelling opportunities in the country so as to encourage investments and create jobs.

The conference will also be an opportunity to take further the many discussions and issues that came up during the Jobs Summit, FOCAC and BRICS Summit and now talk to people with resources who can invest in South Africa.

The countrys first Investment Conference will provide a platform to showcase growth and investment prospects in an economy with vast potential and enormous resources. Investors will have the opportunity to hear from  and engage with  government representatives on its progress towards political and economic renewal, strengthening the credibility of public institutions and unlocking the latent potential and innovative spirit of South Africas economy.

The conference will also present domestic and international businesses with a portfolio of investment projects in several sectors. Sessions will bring together both foreign and local investors the respective ministers to work out what can be done practically to boost investment. About 50 investment experts are expected to attend and lead discussions.

While the summit will focus on the economy as a whole, delegates will drill down to key areas where there is a scope for growth. The conference is thus also a platform for information exchanges between government, local and international businesses on the countrys most exciting investment opportunities.

Statement by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the South African Investment Conference 2018

The Investment Conference follows a commitment made by the President during the State of the Nation Address in February this year. The aim of the conference is to market the compelling investment opportunities in our country so as to encourage investments and create jobs.

The current negative economic climate  characterised by a technical recession worsened by rising oil prices, tense relations between US and major economies, and weakening investor sentiment towards emerging economies  has made it even more important to take steps to reinvigorate the economy.

This conference is a key milestone in the countrys bold ambition to raise at least US$100 billion in new investment over the next five years and one of a series of initiatives being undertaken by government to ensure economic recovery and growth, and to create jobs and prevent further job losses.

In April this year, President Ramaphosa appointed four investment envoys: former Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel; the former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mcebisi Jonas; businesswoman, Phumzile Langeni; and veteran businessman, Jaco Maree.

In September, in response to negative growth in the first half of the year, President Ramaphosa announced a stimulus and recovery plan to ignite economic activity, restore investor confidence, prevent further job losses and create much needed jobs.

Through the stimulus and recovery plan, Government is introducing immediate economic reforms to provide policy certainty and unlock growth in key sectors. Some of the reforms include a review of regulations on the travel of minors, expanding the list of countries not requiring visas for travel to South Africa and implementation of electronic visas.

The revised Mining Charter has been finalised after widespread consultation with communities, labour and industry players. Government has decided not to proceed with the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act Amendment Bill and intends to draft separate legislation for the oil and gas industry. Government is reviewing various administrative prices, starting with electricity, port and rail tariffs. [...]

The Investment Conference builds on the recent Presidential Jobs Summit, where labour, business, government and the community constituency adopted a ground breaking Framework Agreement to prevent further job losses, create jobs and support companies in distress. The pdf Framework Agreement (946 KB) serves as an enabler for the creation of an estimated 275 000 additional jobs annually, especially for the youth.

Over the past six months, the Presidents investment envoys have engaged in over 150 dialogues with the both domestic and international investors. These interactions have helped to facilitate open communication on the investment climate and on the opportunities for investment that could be unlocked through partnership.

The investment envoys have met with local and international business leaders individually, through business associations and foreign missions. These engagements have achieved three broad aspects critical to achieving our objectives for the investment drive:

The Investment Envoys have contributed to an issues log, which is a collation of proposals on how government can re-orient policy to stimulate economic growth and increase investor confidence. Government has already established an inter-ministerial committee that is working around the clock to leverage this feedback to improve the ease of doing business;

An investment pipeline has been collated, which is a collection of projects that either have a funding gap or have been delayed due to red tape or administrative delays. Some of these projects will be showcased at the Investment Conference for consideration by investors;

The investment envoys, together with InvestSA, have facilitated the resolution of specific issues related to regulatory permits or licenses, delayed decision-making, work visas and guidance regarding B-BBEE equity equivalent requirements.

Through this initiative a total of 45 bankable projects will be announced which are ready for implementation. These projects are in manufacturing, green economy, infrastructure, agro-processing, minerals beneficiation, mining, oil and gas, and property development. The projects are projected to be to the value of R150 billion.

It is against this backdrop that President Ramaphosa has extended invitations to a select number of CEOs, investors and leaders of civil society to provide a platform to showcase growth and investment prospects in an economy with vast potential and enormous resources. At least one thousand delegates are expected to attend the conference.

Government will use the opportunity to engage with investors and share the progress it is making in its journey towards political and economic recovery. This requires strengthening the credibility of our public institutions and unlocking the latent potential and innovative spirit of South Africas economy.

On 26 October, President Ramaphosa will open the conference, followed by a presentation of a case for investment in South Africa. The presentation will be followed by the announcement of bankable projects and then plenary will break into commissions around agriculture, agro-processing, mining and manufacturing, transport, energy and water.

The conference will be preceded by a series of networking events on 25 October, including a networking cocktail, a performance at the Theatre on the Square and an art exhibition.

On 27 October 2018, President Ramaphosa will lead a walkabout along Vilakazi Street in Soweto with both investors and the general public. The aim of the walkabout is to showcase the vibrancy of the township economy. The investors will thereafter have an opportunity to hold business-to-business and business-to-government bilateral meetings.

Government calls upon all sectors of society to rally behind this bold initiative to stimulate economic growth and create jobs for all in our communities.So where do you want to go the most? Is it New York, Paris or do you want to build your own $5,000 adventure?

The Transylvania Community Arts Council has partnered with Aloha Seven Seas Travel to offer an experience filled fundraiser. The TC Arts Council has $100 raffle tickets on sale. The ticket gives participants a chance to enter to win a trip of a lifetime worth $5,000.

Tickets will be sold until Oct. 26, and TC Arts Council hopes to sell 100 tickets by that time.

The winner will be drawn at the TC Arts Council during the Brevard Fourth Friday Gallery Walk on Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. P...Sesame Street's Count von Count is scheduled to make an appearance during Halloweenfest.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, has announced that Transylvania County is the next community selected for Sesame Street in Communities (SSIC), a nationwide initiative to support parents, caregivers and community providers to give all children, especially the most vulnerable, a strong and healthy start.

Sesame Street's Count von Count and Abby Cadabby Walkarounds will celebrate the announcement at HalloweenFest in downtown Brevard on Saturday, Oct. 27, according to a press release.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the natio...Patricia Jones Selby, born Nov. 1, 1939, went to be with her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, on Oct.11, 2018.

She was the daughter Kenneth and Dorothy Jones, of Kansas, though she resided in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was the widow of Tunis Clay Selby, of Warren, Ohio.

She is survived by her son, John Ehrler; granddaughter, Dawn Marie Ehrler; and great-granddaughter, Jadia Marie Ehrler. She was a friend of Bill W. for 43 years.

She was always taking interest in helping others to recover from alcoholism and drug addiction. She worked at Gratitude House in West Palm Beach as a counselor an...When it comes to voting, most folks are relatively knowledgeable about those candidates running for president, Congress, governor and perhaps some other prominent offices. However, I am always surprised and shocked by the lack of knowledge by highly intelligent people concerning those candidates running for local offices like county commissioner. In most instances, all too many folks dont even know whos running.

Allow me to make a suggestion to you about one of the candidates for county commissioner. This suggestion is made especially for newcomers to our county who are not famili...As a former public school teacher, I am very concerned about providing our children with a high quality public education. Our schools are now being underfunded and we need a responsible representative to stand up for public education. We need Sam Edney.

Education is the key for building a better economy. The return on a dollar invested shows in a more productive work force, higher quality living, better pay scale, a more involved citizenry, less crime and better health.

Sam Edney is the man to lead in the support of quality public education. Sam believes in supporting teachers. He would...ITB Asia opened its doors today at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The three-day conference and exhibition will run until Friday 19 October 2018.

Exhibition space sold out by mid-August following overwhelming response this year

Over 1,000 exhibitors and 1,000 buyers to feature on show floor

20% increase in new exhibitors signing up for this years show

More than 125% growth in number of hotel groups signing up as part of the Buyers Programme Partners

ITB Asia opened its doors today at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. The three-day conference and exhibition will run until Friday 19 October 2018.

Under the overarching theme, Travel Reimagined, top industry leaders will deliver insights on the key trends provoking disruption across the travel industry and how brands are innovating to stay competitive. The expected over 1,000 exhibitors and over 1,000 buyers will be able to appreciate the exciting exhibition event and conference programme, featuring the strongest line-up of exhibitors and speakers yet.

ITB Asia continues to maintain its position as the leading travel trade show in Asia. It remains one of the top business platforms for connecting exhibitors and partners with key decision makers in the MICE, Corporate and Leisure travel industry. Working in close collaboration with our partners and exhibitors, we are delighted to unveil one of our most engaging and exciting programmes yet. We look forward to welcoming visitors to this years show! said Katrina Leung, Managing Director of Messe Berlin (Singapore), the organiser of ITB Asia.

As part of the keynote line up today, Microsoft and Google will provide insights on what will disrupt and change the way we travel and do business, whilst Ctrip will shed light on challenging the international travel market. Tomorrow, leading companies discussing the future of travel distribution, will include Booking.com, Hotelbeds Group, Jacobs Media Group, KAYAK, Skyscanner and Triptease. On Friday, the final day of the show, Thomas Cook, Mileslife, Tujia, Fliggy & Dragon Trail Interactive will discuss how Chinese travellers are changing the world and how brands can win them over.

The number of Corporate and MICE participants at ITB Asia has increased by 49% compared to last year. To reflect this strong support and the increased focus in this area, ITB Asia will launch several new initiatives for the MICE and Corporate segments, including gathering industry leaders at the newly launched MICE & Corporate Hub. Confirmed partners and speakers include Airbnb for Work, CWT Meetings & Events, site and Troovo, to name a few. Other new initiatives include the dedicated MICE & Corporate Speed Networking sessions which have already sold out, and the MICE Tech Showcase which will feature some of the most exciting innovations helping to solve today's complex issues in the MICE industry.

The show has seen a 20% increase, compared to 2017, in new exhibitors signing up for this years show following the growth in demand from Asian and European participants. This years new registrations include National Tourism Organizations (NTO) and Regional Tourism Organizations (RTO). ITB Asia is pleased to welcome new NTO exhibitors from Abu Dhabi, Botswana, Croatia, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea as well as RTO exhibitors such as Fukuoka, Kansai, Rovaniemi and more.

Whilst Asian exhibitors continue to dominate the show floor this year, we have seen a strong growth in the number of European exhibitors participating in the show for the first time. These include the Ministry of Transport & Construction of the Slovak Republic, Polish Tourism Organisation, Tourism Association of Canton Sarajevo and Visit Ukraine.

Compared to last year, ITB Asia 2018 has experienced more than 125% growth in the number of hotel groups signing up as part of the Buyers Programme Partners. Exceptional support has been received from leading hotel groups such as Best Western International, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Melia Hotels International and Worldwide Hotels, Pan Pacific Hotel Group, Radisson Hotel Group, WorldHotels AG and Wyndham Hotel Group.

The launch of a dedicated Muslim Pavilion, housing the Muslim Travel Showcase sees Muslim travel as a key theme for ITB Asia this year. With the release of the Mastercard-Halal Trip Digital Muslim Travel Report (DMTR) 2018, the latest insights and in-depth analysis into the Muslim travel market and behaviours when it comes to trip planning, research and engagement in the digital space will be revealed. CrescentRating will present its Halal in Travel Asia Summit focusing on the key theme of Innovation & Technology in the Muslim Travel Space as it continues its partnership for the third year running.

ITB Asia 2018 will welcome a number of leading media and creative agencies at the presentation hub this year, including high profile thought leaders from BBC Global News, ESL Gaming, Google, LaLiga, Ogilvy & Mather and Twitter who will discuss innovation in destination marketing. Destination Marketing is a new topic for this year, and these leaders will provide key insights on how destinations can better market themselves to different groups of travellers. This includes touching on the latest technology available in the market to enhance the customer experience and leverage the multiple touch points with travellers.

For more information on ITB Asia 2018, visit www.itb-asia.com.

Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Travel industry news and trends. Subscribe

 2021 Travel Industry WireBishop E.W. Jackson Releases Video Endorsing Entire Slate of Republican Candidates in Virginia Contact: Vanity Jackson, 757-375-6444, Vanity@ewjackson.com



NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 18, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- After running unsuccessfully for nomination to the US Senate in Virginia, E.W. Jackson was asked by supporters whether he would endorse Corey Stewart, his former rival for the nomination. Jackson responded that he had not been asked, and that his policy has always been to consider only those candidates who ask for his endorsement.



In a break from that approach, Jackson has endorsed every Republican candidate who is running in Virginia. Says Jackson, "Corey did call me, but I had already made up my mind to endorse him and all the other candidates running for Congress. It's not my usual practice but these are unusual times."



In a video posted on Facebook and YouTube, the Bishop lists each candidate he is endorsing by name. He says, "I am enthusiastically supporting them all, and I will do anything they need me to do." However, he offers special expressions of friendship for Ryan McAdams in the 4th District and Dave Brat in the 7th: "Both asked for my help early on. I consider them personal friends and I want to especially acknowledge the importance of their races."



"I know that these candidates were not the first choice for all of you," he says with a chuckle, "because I was the first choice for Senate for some of you. But we have to put all of that behind us. What is most important now is to send people to Congress who will support President Trump's agenda. Some of these Republicans might not vote with the President all of the time. But we know that Democrats will vote with the President none of the time."



Jackson urges supporters to make phone calls, contribute, knock on doors and vote. "If Democrats take over Congress, they will impeach the President. If they do so, it will precipitate a Constitutional crisis unlike anything since the Civil War. We must not let that happen."



Watch Endorsements Video Here



Share Tweet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)Sceintists sampled sea, rock, and lake salt from around the globe  they found microplastics in most of it.

So here's the thing: when we nudge 13 million metric tons of plastic into the oceans every year, it's bound to come back and haunt us. And sure enough, it's doing so in the most vexing way  returning as sneaky microplastics, hiding in our beloved table salt.

Last year TreeHugger reported on research that found salt samples from 8 different countries had plastic contaminants from ocean pollution. Now, a new study has taken a broader look at the problem of plastic in table salt and concludes that it's even worse than we thought.

Laura Parker writes in National Geographic that of 39 salt brands tested, 36 had microplastics in them, according to the new study by researchers in South Korea and Greenpeace East Asia.

The new research also looks at the correlation between microplastics in table salt and how predominant it is in the environment where the salt came from. Not surprisingly, they were pretty well related.

The findings suggest that human ingestion of microplastics via marine products is strongly related to emissions in a given region, said Seung-Kyu Kim, a marine science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea.

The 39 samples came from 21 countries in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. They varied in density of the contaminants, but the Asian brands were especially high.

"The highest quantities of microplastics were found in salt sold in Indonesia," Parker writes. "Asia is a hot spot for plastic pollution, and Indonesiawith 34,000 miles (54,720 km) of coastlineranked in an unrelated 2015 study as suffering the second-worst level of plastic pollution in the world."

The three salts that were free of plastic came Taiwan, China, and France.

Of the three types of salt sampled  sea, lake, and rock  sea salt won the prize for highest microplastics levels, next was lake salt and then rock salt.

The new study estimates that the average adult consumes approximately 2,000 microplastics per year through salt. Given that the particles are less than five millimeters (0.2 inches) in size and often the same color of salt, it's easy for them to infiltrate without notice. Determining the health risks of ingesting microplastics has been tricky so far and nobody has been able to come a scientific conclusion. But suffice to say, at the rates we're consuming the stuff  from our seafood to our table salt to drinking water even the dust in our homes  it can't be good. It's awful for mice, that's for sure  it can't possibly be much better for humans.

What are we going to do about this mess?

The study was published this month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.TRENTON  A massage therapist in Pennington is accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a massage, authorities said.

The woman accused massage therapist Asmar Berry, 40, of Clementon, of touching her intimate parts without consent during a massage in September at Renewed Spa Massage on Route 31, the Mercer County Prosecutors Office said in a statement.

Berry, charged on a summons and released with an upcoming court appearance, faces counts of second-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact.

Berry has been a licensed massage therapist in New Jersey since May 2013, according to state records. His license expires next month, according to the New Jersey of Division of Consumer Affairs.

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information on the case should contact Detective Karen Mendez of the county special victims unit at 609-989-6568.TRENTON  Pedro Medina is out.

And the vote was taken out of City Councils hands because the mayor felt he didnt have the needed majority support for approval of a three-month extension of the Mercer County undersheriff to continue serving as acting police director.

Mayor Reed Gusciora said he was left scrambling Thursday afternoon to find a last-second replacement for Medina, who has been on loan from the county.

Council has a problem with Pedro Medina, Gusciora said. Under the ordinance, he has to be re-upped for another 90 days and approved by council. And council said no they dont want that.

The legislative body voted Thursday night to table the re-appointment resolution once Gusciora indicated he was nominating a replacement.

Lt. Chris Doyle, a 23-year veteran, will succeed Medina as acting police director.

At-large councilman Jerell Blakeley called B.S. on the mayors pronouncement to The Trentonian earlier in the day that he didnt have the four votes to reappoint Medina.

He had the votes, Blakeley said, confirming he would have voted yes.

Ditto for at-large councilman Santiago Rodriguez. The at-large councilmen claimed Robin Vaughn and Marge Caldwell-Wilson would have also voted yes.

Medina took over for Ernest Parrey Jr. as acting police the same day Gusciora was sworn into office as mayor on July 1.

Parrey, an Eric Jackson holdover, stayed on as a paid consultant for a month to help ease the transition.

Medina, who had a prior engagement at Lawrence High School, said in a phone interview before the meeting he was baffled and didnt understand the reasons behind the move.

He blamed politics.

Some of those council members want to be mayor, he said. Thats not your job. Theres only one mayor. And they need to work with the mayor. They need to put some of the personal politics, the personal feelings aside.

When he took over, Medina restructured the department, reassigning officers to other units.

He also reduced the number of brass working desk duty.

Medinas decisions didnt sit well with everyone, including South Ward Councilman George Muschal, who confirmed he would have voted no on extending the acting police director.

Initially, the city signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the county to keep Medina on for three months, until Sept. 30, with the agreement the county would continue to pay the undersheriffs $141,000 salary.

As the deadline to find a permanent replacement approached, it became clear that Medina wasnt going to leave his cushy county position to take a huge pay cut to assume one of the citys most demanding, high-stress cabinet positions, especially at a time of heightened distrust of police nationally and in Trenton amid numerous notable high-profile police shootings of African-Americans.

The mayor had hoped to keep Medina, a former Trenton cop, on another 90 days while his transition team continues to search for a permanent replacement.

But the council apparently was opposed to that idea.

That left Gusciora scrambling to find a stop gap.

He chose to promote internally, handing the reigns to Doyle, who was most recently the assigned commander of the departments internal affairs.

Doyle served as acting police director under former mayor and ex-federal jailbird Tony Mack.

Medina never officially ruled out his interest in the job, and the Gusciora administration attempted to address the wage disparity by introducing a salary ordinance that would have drastically improved annual salaries for city directors.

Under an initially floated proposal, the salary range for city directors would have increased tens of thousands, up to $166,119 for 2018-2019.

A scaled-back version of the salary ordinance was scheduled to go before council for a vote Thursday night.

But the mayor told The Trentonian Thursday afternoon that proposal, which faced stiff opposition from three council members, was being tabled.

That pretty much spelled the end for Medina, amid other concerns raised by members of the legislative body.

The mayor refused to discuss the mess of factors that council members had with Medina, including whether they were related to the acting police directors job performance.

Medina said he received blow-back from people in the department who were thrown out of their comfort zone by his decisions.

But he stood firm on those calls.

True leadership makes tough decisions, he said. When you make tough decisions not everyone is going to be happy, especially those who just want to get by and get paid and go home and not make a difference.

Medina earned a pension from the city and said giving back to Trenton was part of the reason he took the job in the first place.

I feel for the city, Medina said. You have heard people from the community concerned about how the way business is being conducted. The election is over. Its time to do your legislative job. Its time to work with the mayor. Its not time for grandstanding and forgetting why youre elected.

Medina said he understands the difficult financial climate Trenton faces but believes the city is going to address iniquities in pay if they hope to attract, and retain, qualified and competent leaders.

Its not a 9 to 5 job, he said about police director. My days start early. I get up at 6 oclock, Im constantly meeting with people, constantly on the phone.

The biggest task for the next leader, Medina said, will be getting the department to buy into change.

He felt some people were resistant and intentionally tried to undermine the progress he hoped to achieve.

I have to tell you, Im walking out of there with my head high. I wish the mayor the best.Rajesh Ramachandran

Rajesh Ramachandran

THE daylight, public murder of the wife and the near-fatal attack on the son of a judge by his personal security officer (PSO) throw up a lot of questions. Mahipal, known only by his first name, is the PSO who turned predator from guardian in a matter of a few minutes and over a purported argument; an absolutely scary proposition for a region that has a lot of people with PSOs. Unlike some other safer parts of the country, it is impossible to visualise a politician or a senior official in Punjab or J&K who is not shadowed by a gun-wielding guard. This region has shed a lot of blood to remain normal or almost normal, at best. Even now, the seeming normalcy is but a thin facade, which can crumble in no time and for no reason. Memories of the fight against militancy are still alive and fresh. So are the forces seeking revenge. There are many who had spent their entire lives fighting those dark forces which have now receded into the shadows in Punjab or still out in the open in J&K. And these officials undoubtedly need protection. That is the least society can offer to those who have sought to secure the lives and property of an entire population. An officer or a functionary of the government who had to take tough decisions for the larger public good should not be made to pay with her life for those noble deeds. That principle is non-negotiable.

Now, that brings us to the next logical question. Who else deserves security? Why did the son of a former MP need a gun or worse brandish it outside a five-star hotel last week in Delhi? Offering arms licences to badly brought-up, privileged kids is actually a grave threat to society. Any MLA worth his starched, white kurta from the Hindi heartland as a matter of entitlement gets a PSO, whom he uses like his servant, driver and at times even his personal goon. With so many gangsters of the Gangetic plains aspiring to be legislators, the plight of these personal security guards could be easily visualised. It would almost be akin to the government hiring and training cops and nominating them to one gangsters gang or the other, paying their salaries all this while. It is high time the government had a relook at the policy of mechanically offering security guards to politicians.

Why blame just politicians? In the mid-1990s there used to be a news photographer at Delhis Indian Newspaper Society building. Nobody really knew where he worked. The INS used to be the hub of all regional newspapers, which had a journalistic presence in Delhi, and this photographer would hangout at a tea stall outside the building. He would gatecrash every political press conference and would be right at the feet of the neta, waiting for the pearls of wisdom. In just a matter of a couple of years, he too got a PSO with the side arm prominently displayed. If it is so easy for a jobless journalist hanging a worthless camera around his neck to have a government employee guarding him round-the-clock, that too in the national capital, there is a serious problem with the very phenomenon of PSOs.

Security has to be divorced from the feudal idea of social hierarchy masquerading as VIP culture. Scarce government resources should not get allocated for people to feel important or to exhibit their importance. We urgently need a national register of officials who need PSOs. Everybody understands the threat of LTTE or its fragments to the top politicians or officials of Tamil Nadu. There was a terrible and almost successful attempt on Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidus life not long ago. The Maoists keep hunting down politicians in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. But that does not justify any security for a Kerala or Karnataka politician and there is actually a visible and marked scaling down of security for top politicians and officials as we cross the border and step into Kerala or Karnataka. Punjab and J&K politicians, officials and senior serving and retired functionaries do need protection. But do their counterparts in Haryana or Delhi or Uttar Pradesh or Bihar need it? If at all, the hapless voters need protection from practicing and aspiring politicians of the heartland. So is the case with officials. Why spend government money on security guards for officials without any analysis of a threat perception? Every state government should have a list of people who need security, which has to be vetted by the Union Home Ministry. Any politician found misusing this facility --- like making the PSO cook, serve, drive, clean, shop or walk the dog --- should lose it immediately. Once this official servitude considered a perk of the job is barred by law, most of the politicos would on their own surrender their entitlement because they know they face no threat.

Now, coming back to Mahipal, it is indeed sad that there was no language of conciliation between the PSO and the judges family. According to newspaper reports, Mahipal felt insulted and in a sudden explosion of uncontrollable rage he turned his weapon against an unarmed mother and son. This is a bundle of contradictions, a case of a victimised servant, who is also a protector turning into an aggressor and a murderer. The judge has lost grievously. Mahipal will lose his job, his family, his freedom and most probably his life. Instead, all he had to do was to have registered his protest, at a personal level or a public platform. Even a social media post, like that of the BSF jawan complaining about the dal, could have brought in relief. But life in uniform gets so de-humanised that murder often becomes an easier solution than conversation. That the hierarchy of oppression and violence can get reversed quicker than the utterance of a hurtful jibe is a grave message.Flavia Agnes

Flavia Agnes

Womens rights lawyer

So finally it has happened. The Minister of State for External Affair, MJ Akbar, had to step down from his official position. Whether it was his decision or whether he was pressured by the party bosses to do so, we will never know. Whatever may be the reason, it is a welcome move.

It is a moment of triumph not only for the 20 senior journalists who came out strongly against him in a joint statement and to those who graphically described the extent of their abuse which they suffered as his subordinates, but a landmark victory for the women's movement in India.

The message has gone out loud and clear. A Union Minister cannot hold office when such allegations of sexual misconduct are piled up against him. This is a message that has gone out globally.

It was a litmus test for the government which has been flaunting its pro-women programmes such as beti bachao, beti padhao and ujwala, and the more recent ordinance criminalising triple talaq, to save the poor Muslim women.

The government took its own time. There was no statement from women like Sushma Swaraj under whose ministry MJ Akbar worked. The Prime Minister and the party bosses kept mum and even allowed him to remain in office until he filed a case of criminal defamation against the first person who had accused him, using his political clout in an uneven court battle. As an anchor in a TV talk show commented, 97 lawyers against one individual. But as Priya Ramani, against whom the case is filed, said, truth is the defence.

This will open up the doors for more women to come out against their bosses and seniors at the workplace and hopefully will lead to a healthier workplace environment ensuring dignity of women.

The lesson learnt is that women have to stake a claim. They will not be given their rights on a platter. They have to snatch them from a patently patriarchal system of corporate governance. But it is possible to dent this structure; it is possible to bring in fresh air. It is possible to bring in gender equality and protect womens dignity at the workplace.

Yes, they were strong women. Yes, they occupy influential positions today. Yes, a poor woman working as a contract labour will not be in a similar position to resist the even more blatant sexual overtures from her supervisor. Yes, it is possible for women to file such cases and tarnish the image of their bosses without due process. Yes, even accepting all the limitations, we need to rejoice this moment.

The 1997 Vishaka guidelines issued by Justice JS Verma were historical but its impact was marginal on corporates. Even within government offices most women did not register complaints as the complaints committees were non-functional or it was very easy to gang up against the employee when a senior boss was involved. The private corporates did not bother to set up complaints committees.

Then in 2013 we got the Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act. Even this did not have the desired impact. But now hopefully these committees will begin to function. They will invite an external member, an NGO person or an expert on the issue, to be part of this committee. And if there are lapses, the #MeToo movement will still be around to expose the lapses. These are the concrete gains of this campaign.

The storm, which started with Tanushree Dutta's allegations against Nana Patekar three weeks ago has turned into an avalanche. While denting the patriarchal base of our industries, institutions and public offices, it has spilled into the legal and political domains. We cannot predict what the legal battle will entail and how long it will go on from one court to the other. All eyes will be on the court and many legal issues will have to be gone into.

It was obvious that the #MeToo movement could not stay confined within the comfort zone of social media, of naming and shaming with first person narratives of violations. However, we cannot undermine it as it was a bold step, as a woman who exposes her violator with the intimate details of the abuse which may involve naming body parts and graphically describing the type and extent of abuse in the social media, have more to lose than the person named. The courage of their convictions led many to lend their voice to the steadily galvanising movement which created ripples in the placid waters of several of our institutions, and touched even the NGO sector.

There are signs that some changes will be brought about within the film industry. The big banners are in the process of hurriedly setting up internal complaints committees (ICC) (which they should have done a long time ago). Many women directors have come out with a statement that they will not work with actors who have been accused of sexual misconduct. The comedy group AIB has decided to de-list every video featuring a former member, Utsav Chakraborty, who is accused of sexual harassment by several women. Some Bollywood projects such as "Housefull 4" and "Mogul" are facing an uncertain future with their stars making a public statement that they will not work with those accused of sexual harassment.

Media houses were the worst hit and heads began to roll. After women complained against the Resident Editor of the Times of India in Hyderabad, K.R. Sreenivas and the Hindustan Times journalist Prashant Jha, they had to step down. While some rubbished the allegations, Chetan Bhagat and Rajat Kapoor issued an apology.

Why did they not complain earlier? Why are they coming out now two or three decades later? The answer is simple. As one journalist succinctly stated, At that time, in early nineties when many of these incidents had taken place, awareness about sexual harassment was lacking. There were no internal complaints committees. The idea of approaching the police was scary. We did not even have the backing of our families. Does this mean that the incidents did not occur?

The naming and shaming device is a result of the failure of our criminal justice system to redress their grievances. The women will be asked for proof. But as the law on sexual harassment at the workplace stipulates clearly, it is not the acts of the abuser but the perception of the violated that is relevant. And it is here the graphic details contained in the personal narratives posted in the social media will come to their aid.editorial@tribune.com

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, October 18

Girl students have bagged the top positions in the student union elections at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), State University of Performing and Visual Arts (SUPVA) and a majority of the colleges located in different parts of the district.

In fact, the top three positions of students union at the State University of Performing and Visual Arts (SUPVA) have been swept by girl students. While Divya Vats of the Department of Urban Planning and Architecture has been elected as the union president, Tamanna Balhara of the Department of Design has been elected vice-president and Isha Gautam of the Department of Lifestyle Accessories has been elected secretary of the union.

SUPVA Students Union president Divya, who is the daughter of architectural model maker Harish Vats and home-maker Savita Vats of Delhi, says that their university was a unique integrated campus of different institutes and she would try to make it known across the country by organising events and coordinating with other institutions.

I will also try to raise the voice of the students as till now, they had no such platform/mechanism to get their concerns addressed, she maintained while talking to The Tribune on Friday.

Yashika of the Department of Zoology at the MDU has been elected the president of the MDU Students Union. Daughter of Kanwar Sain, a driver, and Neeta, a housewife of Rewari, Yashika says she had never thought of entering student union politics, but contested the election on being motivated by her friends and teachers.

I will try to ensure that the provision of merit-based scholarships at the university, redress the students grievances related to hostel issues and ensure the safety of girl students on the university campus. We will also make efforts for the withdrawal of cases registered against the university students during the recent agitation against indirect elections. I will discuss the pressing concerns of the students with my team and then decide on the future course of action, she said.

Know your leaders

At SUPVA, Divya Vats has been elected the union president, Tamanna Balhara vice-president and Isha Gautam secretary of the union, while Yashika of the Department of Zoology has been elected the president of the MDU Students Union.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 18

Even as Haryana Roadways unions extended their strike till Friday, the state government on Thursday decided to rope in private school buses for the convenience of commuters.

Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar said school bus operators who wanted to run buses on specified routes could get in touch with the Regional Transport Authorities, which were working on modalities of running of private buses.

He pointed out that school bus operators would have to provide drivers and conductors. He said the state government was ready for talks with striking employees on any issue except for introducing 720 private buses.

Panwar said striking employees would be booked under the ESMA. He added the advertisement to appoint 930 conductors and 500 drivers under the outsourcing policy had been issued.

Karnal: Commuters had to face a tough time on Thursday, particularly on rural routes. They had to wait for hours for buses, though private buses and school buses provided some relief.

I have been waiting for a bus for more than an hour. The government should take action against the employees causing problems to the common man, said Ramesh Kumar of Garhibirbal.

The district administration took the help of 20 drivers with the Haryana Police and pressed 65 school buses into service. Another 72 private buses plied on various routes.

We have urged school managements to support the administration, said Nishant Kumar Yadav, Additional Deputy Commissioner. He said private schools would be given Rs30 per km for their support.

Yamunanagar: The police on Thursday registered a case against Hari Narain Sharma, state president of the All-Haryana Roadways Workers Union, for participating in the strike.

On the complaint of Ravinder Prakash Pathak, General Manager of the Yamunanagar depot, a case was registered against Sharma under the ESMA. Sharma could not be contacted for comment.

The strike remained peaceful in the district. The roadways authorities plied about 25 buses, both roadways and private, in the afternoon.

Panipat: The General Manager of Panipat depot, SP Parmar, on Thursday suspended 18 employees and served show-cause notice on 192 employees for violating the ban order under the ESMA.

Around 215 employees were on strike on Thursday. The administration arranged 30 private buses, which would be run on local routes.

The district administration provided 53 special police officers to Haryana Roadways.editorial@tribune.com

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, October 18

A local, freshly recruited militant of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) was killed in a brief gunfight with security forces late Wednesday night in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.

The militant was later identified as Showkat Bin Yousuf, a resident of Awanitpora in Pulwama district. He had joined the HuM ranks on October 3.

A senior police officer from Pulwama confirmed the killing and said an ambush was laid by the security forces in the Kakapora area of Pulwama district late last night, following inputs regarding the movement of militants.

Several militants were travelling together and when confronted near Dougam village by security forces, they opened indiscriminate fire. The shootout took place about midnight, the officer said.

He said the fire was retaliated and while other militants escaped from the area, one of them was killed.

The militant, the officer said, was believed to have carried out a grenade attack in the Pattan area of north Kashmirs Baramulla district on Wednesday afternoon.

Another accomplice of his, a 17-year-old freshly recruited militant, was apprehended in Pattan by the security forces. He is being questioned, the official said.

The body of the militant was handed over to his family in Awantipora early this morning, following which thousands gathered to take part in his funeral prayers.

Some militants also appeared at the funeral and offered a gun salute to the slain ultra. Internet services, already on 2G mode in the area, were snapped minutes after the shootout.editorial@tribune.com

M Aamir Khan & Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 18

Even as vote counting for the municipal elections is scheduled on Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is already in a celebratory mood. The leaders and workers of the Kashmir unit of the party were in high spirits today after BJP state general secretary (organisation) Ashok Koul chaired a meeting at the Jawahar Nagar party office to celebrate its big victory in the urban local bodies elections.

He (Koul) chaired a meeting before leaving for Kargil.the Kashmir cadre was congratulated for putting in a lot of hard work that resulted in our big victory. When other parties shied away from participating in the elections, our workers came forward while braving threats. This is for the first time that the BJP will win an election here and the lotus has finally bloomed in Kashmir, said BJP media in charge Manzoor A Bhat.

While a good number of BJP candidates are set to win unopposed, the party is also confident of winning wards amid a low poll percentage in the Valley. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the party had fielded 34 candidates but all of them had lost. In fact, 33 candidates had even lost their security deposits.

BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur said they had won uncontested from around 70 wards while hoping that Srinagar would get a mayor from the BJP. We are also hopeful of winning over 30 wards from Srinagar and we are confident that we will have a mayor from our party, he added.

However, Peoples Conference (PC) president Sajad Lone, who is an ally of the BJP, also appeared confident of having the Srinagar mayor from his party. All set inshallah to have the first mayor from PC. Expecting very good results. Time to give Srinagar what it deserves. A set of hardworking people who work there on the ground, Lone tweeted.

Lone, who is a legislator from north Kashmirs Handwara constituency, also hoped to win from other municipalities of north Kashmir. The PC is all set to take over urban bodies in Kupwara, Handwara, Langet, Sumbhal, Pattan among others. Let us hope we are able to contribute to planned urbanisation, which I believe is the future, he said.

Will take 150 wards: Saffron party

BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur claimed the party was expecting a win in around 150 wards in the Valley. "While over 70 candidates have won uncontested, we expect to emerge victorious from 80 other wards as well," he said.

Both BJP, Lone's party eye Srinagar mayor's postrajivbhatia82@gmail.com

Aate Di Chidi is a Punjabi black comedy film directed by Harry Bhatti and starring Amrit Maan, Neeru Bajwa and Gurpreet Ghuggi in lead roles. An expatriate Punjabi family heads to India after years of being away from their homeland. While the elders long to return to their roots, the young ones in the family are not too keen on this homecoming and hope to return to Canada soon. As both the generations vie to prove their point to one another, a hilarious series of events ensues.

A must watch

Its a really nice film. I feel everyone should watch it. It reminded me of my childhood, the village days. The Punjab that is shown in this film is the Punjab Ive lived in, todays generation might not be able to believe there were such times too. I was crying while watching the film.

Minna Sandhu, housewife

Cultural value

The film shows Punjabi culture and it is educative for youngsters like me. I liked Amrit Mann the most.

Karan, student

Solution oriented

It shows how our values and beliefs are failing. The film has also given a solution. There is a comparison between those living in India but not valuing the culture and those who live in other countries such as Canada do everything to preserve them.

Taranpreet Kaur, teacher

Namaste England

Namaste England is a Bollywood romantic comedy film directed and co-produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The film is the sequel to 2007 film Namastey London and stars Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra in lead roles. It is a young and refreshing story of Jasmeet and Param, whose love story traces along different places from Punjab to Dhaka to Paris to Brussels to finally London.

Enjoyable fare

Its a nice, romantic film. Something I enjoy watching. Arjun Kapoor has done a great job. The music too is good.

Mrs Bedi, housewife

Couple chemistry

I quite liked the understanding between the couple. The movie also has a message that there is no better country than your own. India is the best.

Rajinder Singh Bedi, Retd

Its funny

The trailer made it seem like a serious film but I was surprised it has good comedy. Both Arjun and Parineeti compliment each other.I like Badshahs song the most.

Badhaai Ho

Badhaai Ho is a comedy drama film directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma. The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana and Sanya Malhotra in the lead roles. Badhaai Ho is tipped to be a coming-of-age story with a tinge of romance. This film is based on children feeling terribly embarrassed by the outcome of their parents mid-age romance; with outsiders joining in criticism, conveys some really progressive thoughts.

Different subject

After a long time a nice film is showing with a different subject. I am excited for Ayushmann Khurrana.

Komal, accountant

Good concept

Badhai ho is based on a different concept and add to that Ayushmanns acting- the film is quite interesting.

Vivek, student

Unique plot

The storyline is really good. Its a unique concept. I dont think such a movie is made before. I liked it.

Arman, student

(As told to Gurnaaz Kaur)editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Khanna, October 17

The police have recovered a huge quantity of illicit liquor and arrested two persons. Their accomplices managed to escape.

Those arrested have been identified as Harish Kumar, alias Rohit, of Meat Market in Khanna; and Varinder Singh of Dangerian village, Fatehgarh Sahib district. Their accomplices, Dinakar Kalia, alias Shanti, of Khanna; Kamal Thapar of Khanna; Sanjay Kumar, alias Sanju, of Meat Market in Khanna; Mani, Sanjay, Sunil, Shiva, Aman, Rahi and Sikander, all residents of Meat Market, Khanna.

Khanna SSP Dhruv Dahiya said a police team, under the guidance of Khanna SP (I) Jasvir Singh, set up a naka near Rasulra village, Khanna, to check suspected vehicles and persons. They got a tip-off that some persons had dumped illicit liquor in a warehouse on Malerkotla Road leading to Rasulra village. The police recovered 270 boxes of illicit liquor (Royal Secret brand) that was meant for sale in Arunachal Pradesh only.

The SSP said the group was active in the area and was supplying liquor in the city too. With these arrests, the police have broken the supply chain of smuggled liquor in the area. A case under Section 61, 1 and 14 of the Excise Act has been registered.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

A day after MJ Akbar resigned as junior minister for external affairs over charges of sexual misconduct levelled by over 20 journalists, a Delhi court today agreed to hear the criminal defamation case he filed this Monday against his first accuser Priya Ramani.

The Patiala House Court will record Akbars statement on October 31 and then decide whether a case of defamation is made out and a notice be issued to Ramani to face trial.

The court hearing proceeded as scheduled despite the Editors Guild of India today appealing to Akbar to withdraw the case and backing women journalists who have pledged to fight on.

The guild saluted the courage of the women who have spoken out and said it would appeal to top lawyers to represent them pro bono should the case continue.

At a 20-minute hearing before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, senior lawyer Geeta Luthra represented Akbar who was absent, and sought cognisance of the case, which the court took.

Akbar has contended that Ramanis controversial tweets and identical social media post accusing him of sexual harassment had damaged his reputation of 40 years besides leading to his resignation from the council of ministers.

Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda, said MJ Akbars suit.

Luthra argued that Ramani, who levelled allegations over a 20-year-old event, intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated and salacious imputations to harm the reputation of the complainant.

The former minister has filed a criminal defamation suit against Ramani under Sections 499 and 500 IPC. If proved guilty, she could face two years in jail or fine or both. But support for Ramani poured on social media today with several journalists agreeing to rally behind her whenever she is asked to be present in court to face trial.

Maneka moots party panels

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has requested presidents and in charges of recognised national and state political parties to constitute internal complaints committees (ICCs), as mandated under the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act-2013

NCW email for #Metoo plaints

The National Commission for Women has come out with a dedicated e-mail address to report cases of sexual harassment at workplace. It has asked women to send written #MeToo complaints to ncw.metoo@gmail.commonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, October 18

Dodging the Delhi Police, Special Task Force and UP Police, son of former BSP MP, businessman Ashish Pandey surrendered at the Patiala House Court on Thursday morning.

Ending days of search for Ashish across Delhi, Lucknow, Ambedkar Nagar and even in Nepal, he sprang a surprise by surrendering in the court, which sent him to one-day police custody. The application for his police custody was filed before the Patiala House Court in the National Capital.

Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma considered submission of the Delhi Police which sought a four-day custodial interrogation of Ashish on various grounds. The court, however, granted one-day quizzing of the accused.

A video had gone viral on the social media showing an aggressive Ashish wearing salmon-coloured trouser brandishing a gun and threatening a couple in the porch of a luxury hotel in New Delhi.

He is even heard saying that he is from Lucknow and will not spare them.

The footage shows him being pacified by people and going back to his car.

But he does not drive away but returns to carry on his threatening and abusive behaviour with the gun in his hand.

However, before the surrender he released a video giving his side of the story.

In todays video, he is seen wearing a white shirt and his body language is completely submissive, unlike that of the earlier video.

In the video, Ashish does not deny the incident in the hotel porch but claims that it is only one side of the story.

Referring to the media trail against him for the last four days he says that he is being projected as a terrorist or a wanted criminal and the police have even issued a red corner circular against him.

He urges that the hotel CCTV footage should be examined to find out who had entered the ladies toilet and who had threatened him. He also asked the police to record the statement of the hospital staff and security to know the whole incident.

He said that he did not touch or even look at the concerned woman who had pushed her and used obscene gestures.

But in the video he did not further elaborate on the incident.

But now I am surrendering and will make a statement before the police. I have full faith in the countrys legal system, he said.

I have licensed weapons for the last 20 years and have no single instance of misuse of my licensed weapons. Even the footage that has gone viral does not show me pointing the gun at anyone. The gun is behind my back, said Ashish defending his intimidating behaviour.

Son of former BSP MP from Ambedkarnagar Rakesh Pandey and brother of sitting BSP MLA from Jalalpur in Ambedkar Ritesh Pandey, Ashish in the video asks if it was a crime to be the son and brother of politicians.

Claiming to be a businessman who paid heavy taxes Ashish said that he had no pending case of even slapping anyone against him. Leave alone a criminal case, Ashish said that he did not even have a civil case against him.

The surrender comes a day after his MLA brother Ritesh Pandey had issued a statement assuring to cooperate with the police investigation and informing that the family was attempting to make him appear before the investigating team.

The Delhi police assisted by the STF and UP police had been conducting an intensive combing operation across Lucknow, Ambedkar Nagar and even Nepal working on the theory that he may have escaped out of the country to Nepal.

Sources claim that he was reportedly hiding in Delhis Sainik Farm area keeping tabs of the police movement, seeking legal advice and planning his moves. With PTIshalender@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Lucknow, Oct 18

Ashish Pandey, a former BSP MPs son who had brandished pistol at guests and threatened them in the foyer of a five-star hotel here, surrendered on Thursday before a Delhi court that sent him to one-day police custody.

The accused had moved an application seeking to surrender before the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh.

The application for surrender, filed through lawyer SPM Tripathi, said Ashish, son of ex-BSP lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, has been wrongly framed in the FIR and has been subjected to media trial.

The application said Ashish is ready to submit before the court voluntarily and police may be directed to take him into custody if required.

However, since the magistrate concerned was on leave, the plea, seeking judicial nod to surrender, of Ashish was referred to another link judge who was hearing urgent matters of other courts whose presiding officers were on leave.

Meanwhile, the court staff of Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh informed police about Ashishs surrender plea to be taken up by link magistrate Neetu Sharma.

The accused along with his lawyers appeared before Metropolitan Magistrate Sharma to press for his surrender plea and police personnel were also there to seek custodial interrogation of Ashish. The magistrate, at the outset, allowed the policemen to formally arrest and quiz Ashish on court premises for 20 minutes.

Later, the public prosecutor submitted that police was seeking his four-day custodial interrogation. Accused is from Lucknow. The weapon has to be recovered and also it has to be verified whether the gun has a licence. The accused is also required to be taken to Lucknow and other places to know whereabouts of other accused, the prosecutor said.

The counsel appearing for the accused opposed the application moved by police. He said his client was ready to cooperate. We can deposit our pistol. My client is suffering just due to media hype, and because his father was an MP. This matter is politically motivated, he said.

Before surrendering, Ashish in a video message said he was being subjected to media trial and alleged only one side of the story was being shown, portraying him as a terrorist. I have a licensed weapon for the past 20 years and have no instance of misusing it ever, he said.shalender@tribune.com

Mumbai, October 18

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has indicated that he would be expanding his Cabinet shortly, though he did not formally announce a date by which new members would be inducted into his team.

The expansion of the Cabinet will be carried out soon... who will be in and out will be known at an appropriate time, Fadnavis told reporters in Solapur on Wednesday. Sources said BJP chief Amit Shah, who was in Mumbai earlier this week, had a meeting with party leaders apart from elected representatives. Shah was in town to oversee the BJPs mass contact programme.  TNS

Maha BJP against simultaneous pollsgspannu7@gmail.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

Three-time former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and an ex-Chief Minister of Uttarakhand ND Tiwari died on his 93rd birthday in the capital on Thursday.

Tiwari breathed his last at the Emergency in Max Saket where he was shifted a while ago following multi-organ failure.

The death brings an end to a long and distinguished political career of Tiwari who joined the BJP last year after severing five decade long ties with the Congress party.

Tiwaris political career nosedived post 2009 as he got embroiled in a sex scandal while being the sitting Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

The former Congressman also had to face the ignominy of witnessing his biological son Rohit Shekhar take him to court to prove his parentage.

After long years of unsuccessful struggle, Tiwari acknowledged Shekhar was his son from Ujwala Sharma who spent a lonesome life trying to get her due in the veteran leaders life.

It was only in 2014 that Tiwari acknowledged Ujwala Sharma and married her.

Soon after he declared Rohit Shekhar his political heir. This was on the eve of 2014 Lok Sabha elections.shalender@tribune.com

Sushil Manav & Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Gurugram, October 18

A split in the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) seems imminent. Amid a clamour for Hisar MP Dushyant Chautalas expulsion at the partys working committee meeting in Gurugram on Thursday, party patriarch Om Prakash Chautala reportedly told the leaders that he would take a call on October 25, stressing the report of the disciplinary committee was a must.

Anyone who threatens the party will find me standing against him. I am not a father or a grandfather when I adorn this pagri (turban) of party supremo, he is reported to have assured the leaders.

Both Dushyant and his younger brother Digvijay have been rather defiant ever since they were sent a notice and suspended on October 11 for anti-party activities in the wake of the ruckus at the partys Samman Rally at Gohana, which, party leaders allege, was engineered by both the brothers.

Chautalas furlough from the Tihar Central Jail, where he is serving sentence in the JBT recruitment scam, came to an end on Thursday. He will be out for a day for a medical check-up on October 25. It is then that he is expected to take a decision on the issue.

All eyes are now on Dushyants father Ajay Singh, serving imprisonment with his father, who is likely to be out on parole on Friday. It would be interesting to watch as to what would be his political move. Sources said the Chautala-Dushyant meeting, where other family members were present too, ended abruptly with Dushyant making a hasty exit as soon as his uncle Abhay Singh, with whom he has a family feud, arrived there.

Dushyant, who met Chautala on Thursday morning at the latters 11-Meena Bagh residence in Delhi, wrote to INLD office secretary Nachhatar Singh Malhan the second time, seeking 15 more days to reply to the party notice. He had earlier in a letter dated October 14 sought proof of the charges against him. Every day, I am mindful and proud to represent the passion, strength and integrity of the INLD. I understand it as my responsibility to make a positive impact in community. On the personal level, let me repeat that I have every intention to remain a part of the INLD family and I am extremely excited about the positive future of the party headed by our Chaudhary Om Prakash Chautala ji (sic), read Dushyants letter.

The party's October 11 notice to Dushyant had accused him of gross indiscipline and hooliganism during the birthday celebrations of the late Chaudhary Devi Lal and of causing disaffection within the party and conspiring with forces inimical to the INLD".shalender@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, October 18

Law on the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is not possible as several Supreme Court and High Court judgments say it cant be made by setting aside a judgment, claimed eminent lawyer and convener of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jeelani on Thursday.

Jeelani was reacting to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur on Thursday urging the Narendra Modi government to bring an appropriate and requisite law for the early construction of the Ram Mandir at the disputed Babri Masjid site in Ayodhya.

Jeelani said such statements were being made as part of a well-thought out conspiracy to influence judges. However, neither the RSS nor the government can influence judges, asserted Jeelani.

Besides influencing their vote bank, such statements serve no other purpose. As making such statements by the government and the Prime Minister would be considered unconstitutional, the RSS is playing this role, said Jeelani.

The Allahabad High Court had divided the land into three parts  a judgment which was based on facts, hence setting it aside would not be constitutional.

Jeelani is arguing the case in the Supreme Court on behalf of the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board.

All India Muslim Personal Law Board Executive member Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali described Bhagwats statement as inspired by electoral politics.

He said till the elections, one should be prepared to hear many more such statements from various quarters of the Sangh pariwar.

Petitioner in the title suit dispute Iqbal Ansari said no decision outside the court was acceptable to Muslims. When polls approach, people suddenly remember Ram and the Ram Mandir. However, the matter is under consideration of the SC and its decision will be acceptable to the Muslims who have full faith in the Constitution and constitutional bodies, said Ansari.shalender@tribune.com

Thiruvananthapuram, October 18

The shutdown called by Hindu outfits in Kerala over Sabarimala issue evoked a good response with buses keeping off roads and shops remaining hut on Thursday.

Barring a few minor incidents of violence in which some Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses were pelted with stones, the day-long shutdown passed off peacefully, police said. The KSRTC operated services in the morning in some routes.

Shutdown supporters blocked roads and forced shops to be closed in some places, the police said. Private vehicles were seen plying in some parts of the state.

However, there was no major disruption to normal life as Thursday was a public holiday on account of Mahanavami. The strike was called by Sabarimala Samarakashna Samithi, an outfit of Lord Ayyappa devotees, to protest the state governments decision to implement the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups to enter the hill temple and the police lathicharge at Nilackal,

the base camp, Wednesday. The BJP and its NDA partners had extended their support to the protest call.  PTI

Woman journalist forced to return

Pamba (Kerala): A Delhi-based woman journalist of a foreign media outlet who trekked the Sabarimala hill was on Thursday stopped midway by Lord Ayyappa devotees opposing the entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine. The journalist accompanied by her male colleague, a foreigner, descended the hills from Marakkoottam area in the face of mounting protest by the Ayyappa devotees.shalender@tribune.com

Tribune News service

Chandigarh/Ropar, October 18

Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra on Thursday ordered a crackdown on illegal drug de-addiction centres across the state even as he marked a departmental inquiry against the Ropar Civil Surgeon and the SMO, Chamkaur Sahib, for alleged dereliction of duty.

An unlicensed de-addiction centre was being run on the premises of Jand Sahib Sikh Academy, Ropar, with 195 inmates who were subjected to inhuman treatment. The district health authorities will be brought to book for their negligence and failure to comply with the established protocol, the minister warned in a demi-official letter to all civil surgeons.

As per the government instructions issued on January 1 and March 3, the civil surgeons were required to visit private de-addiction centres and nursing homes and furnish reports every Friday.

It is learnt that the owner of the illegal de-addiction centre in Ropar, where addicts were allegedly sodomised and thrashed, was in the process of opening a Rs 4 crore fast food outlet of a multi-national company.

Giving further details on the inhuman treatment of the inmates, the Ropar police said one of the addicts was confined to a toilet for a month. Another was sexually assaulted with an iron bar. Swapan Sharma, SSP, and DSP Navreet Singh Virk said the accused owner, Khushwinder Singh led a luxurious life and was trying to diversify his operations.

Police officials claimed the accused had told them that he was in the process of handing over the management of the rehab centre to certain persons and opening a food outlet on the highway. The police are investigating his bank details and other assets.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, October 18

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday reiterated that his party would go it alone in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections which are likely to be held early next year.

Addressing the party's 52nd Dussera rally at Mumbai's Shivaji Park this evening, Thackeray asked Shiv Sena workers to begin working in every constituency in Maharashtra. "There are many reports that will enter into an alliance for next Lok Sabha elections... We plan to

contest the next elections on our own," Thackeray said to a packed audience.

Indicating that the Shiv Sena would adopt an even more hardline version of Hindutva than the BJP, Thackeray said he would be visiting Ayodhya on November 25 with his party workers. "You had enough time to visit America, China, Japan and other countries but you could not

visit Ayodhya in the last four years," Thackeray taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Sarcastically calling Modi the 11th 'avatar of Lord Vishnu', as referred by BJP's cadres in Maharashtra, Thackeray wondered why the Lord could not build a grand temple for Lord Ram despite getting an absolute majority in parliament.

Thackeray also endorsed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's speech earlier in the day at Nagpur where the latter demanded that the government issue an ordinance for the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. "We fully agree with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that the government should immediately begin construction of the Ram Mandir," Thackeray said.

He further taunted Prime Minister Modi by saying the Shiv Sena was capable of building a temple in Ayodhya on its own. "Tell us if you cannot do it... tell us that your promise of a Ram Mandir was jumla and our Shiv Sainiks are fully capable of building a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya," Thackeray said.

He went on to virtually call the prime minister a liar. "The country has become a volcano because of your lies. When the country erupts you will never be able to return to power," Thackeray said while referring to soaring prices and crimes against women.shalender@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, October 18

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today reiterated that his party would go it alone in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections which are likely to be held early next year.

Addressing the partys 52nd Dussera rally at Mumbais Shivaji Park, Thackeray asked Sena workers to begin working in every constituency in Maharashtra. There are many reports that will enter into an alliance for next Lok Sabha elections..... We plan to contest the next elections on our own, Thackeray said.

Indicating that the Sena would adopt an even more hardline version of Hindutva than the BJP, Thackeray said he would visit Ayodhya on November 25 with his party workers. You had enough time to visit America, China, Japan and other countries but you could not visit Ayodhya in the last four years, Thackeray taunted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Calling Modi the 11th avatar of Lord Vishnu, as referred by BJPs cadres in Maharashtra, Thackeray wondered why the Lord could not build a grand temple for Lord Ram despite getting an absolute majority in Parliament. Thackeray also endorsed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats speech earlier in the day at Nagpur where the latter demanded that the government issue an ordinance for the construction of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya.

We fully agree with RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that the government should immediately begin construction of the Ram Mandir, Thackeray said.

He further taunted Modi by saying the Sena was capable of building a temple in Ayodhya on its own. Tell us if you cannot do it... tell us that your promise of a Ram Mandir was jumla and our Shiv Sainiks are fully capable of building a Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, Thackeray said.

He went on to virtually call the PM a liar. The country has become a volcano because of your lies. When the country erupts you will never be able to return to power, Thackeray said while referring to soaring prices and crimes against women.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 17

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change have tweaked the guidelines on the utilisation of the money collected by the Compensatory Afforestation Funds Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).

The authority manages the corpus collected from industries and state government agencies that use forest land for projects. These funds are to be used by states to implement agro-forestry in non-forest land to compensate for felled trees in forests. The authority accumulates around Rs 6,000 crore annually and over Rs 60,000 crore is lying unspent in the CAMPA funds. Punjabs share in the corpus is around Rs 700 crore.

A senior government functionary said the new guidelines, effective from this month, defined the parameters on the utilisation of the funds, specifically for CAMPA-related activities. While specifying that the corpus could not be used to defend litigation not related to CAMPA, utilisation of the funds for the construction of office infrastructure and operational purposes had been defined.

Now onwards, under the new guidelines, each state has been asked to create its own account to collect the corpus generated under the compensatory afforestation, instead of the funds being deposited at the Central level.

In the light of the recent orders of the Supreme Court on October 8, rebuking the Punjab government for diverting the Compensatory Afforestation Funds Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds to pay for Rs 1.11 crore as litigation in the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the guidelines become more relevant. The states have been asked to manage the litigation from its resources.

While coming down heavily on the state Forest Department for diverting the corpus to pay for lawyers fee, the state has been asked to reimburse the funds within two months.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Batala, October 18

Hundreds of farmers, under the banner of Kisan Sangharsh Committee, held a protest and blocked traffic on the Pathankot-Amritsar railway track in Batala. When the reports last came in, Gurdaspur DC Vipul Ujwal and Batala SSP Opinderjit Singh Ghuman were engaged in deliberations with farmers to break the stalemate.

The agriculturists were demanding immediate release of arrears towards sugarcane growers.

Raising slogans against the state government, union leader Sarwan Singh claimed that for the last one year, the government had not cleared the payments of sugarcane. On the one hand, the government asks us to go for diversification from the wheat-paddy cycle and on the other hand, we are not getting our payments on time, he said.

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had assured us that all dues pertaining to last seasons sugarcane crop would be cleared by September 30 but till now, not even a single rupee had been paid to any farmer of the state, he added.

Several trains had to be cancelled due to the protest. Police personnel were deployed in and around the Batala station.

Dump stubble in front of DCs officeROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 17

Having remained in Kerala jail for 21 days in a rape case filed by a nun and released on conditional bail, Bishop Franco Mulakkal returned to the city on Wednesday. He was greeted by his supporters. Though he had been relieved of his pastoral duties by the Vatican about a month ago, he announced that he would still retain the title of Bishop of Jalandhar Diocese and that Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese Bombay Agnelo Rufino Gracias would only be the administrator.

Bishop Franco claimed that both of them would be putting up in the Bishop House and he needed the assistance of Bishop Gracias to handle administrative matters. I want to handle my case myself. For this, I need to be physically and mentally free to concentrate on my matters. But I will be attending ceremonies and prayers whenever I will be available. I will be going to Kerala only on alternate Saturdays to appear before the inquiry officer as per the condition in the bail. This will go on for two months or till the filing of chargesheet by the police, whichever is earlier, he told mediapersons soon after presiding over the holy mass. Bishop Gracias welcomed him, but did not attend the mass.

Bishop Franco was welcomed by pastors and nuns of congregations falling under the Diocese and various NGOs working under it. A feast was arranged for the visitors.

As he entered the Bishop House, Bishop Franco first went to the Sacred Heart Church. There he held an hour-long prayer after which he appealed to everyone to participate in a relay fast prayer for him at the Prarthana Bhawan.

Addressing the gathering in Punjabi, he also shared his experiences before the inquiry team and his stay in jail. I knew about my arrest on the third day of the probe. So I went prepared. I wore a T-shirt under my robe as I would not have gone to jail in my pastoral dress...There will be many court proceedings after this too and I will fully cooperate in the matter, he said.

A nun had accused Bishop Franco of sexually assaulting her repeatedly between 2014 and 2016.

The bishop had, however, dismissed the allegations as baseless and concocted, insisting that she levelled those as the catholic order had rejected her demand for favours.editorial@tribune.com

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 18

With stepped-up verification of Jammu and Kashmir students after the arrests of three J&K students from a local institute, panicked paying guest (PG) accommodation owners have now begun asking J&K students to vacate their premises.

The police are also seeking intimation and details of all Kashmiri students proceeding or coming back from leave. At some of the institutions, students are informing the area SHO before heading for a leave.

Many Kashmiri students have already begun leaving the state amid apprehensions of arrest. While at least 40 students of the CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology alone have proceeded on a leave, other institutes also report a similar spate.

Till date, various departments have sought the students data. At the state level, a form issued by the DGP titled Other students database a few days after the arrests sought data of students (name, DoB, gender, fathers name, address, contact, Aadhaar detail, date of admission, photograph, etc). Another form released by the Sanjh Kendra for student verification is titled Stranger verification (resident of other district/state). Separately, in Jalandhar, data has been sought by the CIA, Commissioner of Police and rural police after the arrests.

Manhar Arora, MD, St. Soldier Educational Society said, More than 40 to 50 students of our institute have been asked by their respective PG accommodation owners to leave after the data was sought by the police recently. Many students were also panicked and wanted to leave. But we have started holding counselling of students.

Manbir Singh, MD, CT Group of Institutions, said, At least 40 students have proceeded on leave. Students submitted applications, but before we could grant them leave they left. Intimations of all these students are being given to the police.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, We are treading carefully and only students with confirmed terror links are being arrested. So a panic of this kind with PG accommodation owner is uncalled for. Kashmiri students are welcome in the state and there are no orders of any kind on their separate verification.

Pupil held in Pulwama, brought to Punjabrchopra@tribunemail.com

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, October 18

The Patiala police, in a joint operation with the Rajasthan Police, today arrested German Singh, the mastermind behind the conspiracy to assassinate former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

He was arrested near Nagaon village in Bikaner. He was wanted by the Patiala police in connection with a car theft case in Patran.

German Singh had allegedly plotted to eliminate Badal during the October 7 rally at Mehmadpur in Patiala. Intelligence inputs suggested he and his accomplices had planned to target Badal near the national highway while the rally was on.

German Singh, along with an accomplice, had conducted a recce at Anandpur Sahib. He had also visited the Patiala rally venue, the police claimed. They wanted to target Badal because of his anti-Khalistan stance, but failed to execute their plans, they added.

On Tuesday, the Patiala police received inputs on German Singhs movement along the Punjab-Haryana border. A team was formed under the CIA incharge to track him down. He was traced to Kalaint village in Bikaner. Alerted by the Patiala police, the Rajasthan Police picked up the accused for questioning and later handed him over to Punjab cops. Patiala SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said. We are yet to ascertain if he had been directly linked to any radical group. He was in Punjab on October 6 and 7, but the exact details about his movement could only be ascertained after his interrogation. The accused would be presented in a court tomorrow, he added. The 22-year old resident of Ajijpur in UP had allegedly masterminded the plot to attack Badal. German and his three accomplices had snatched two rifles from UP policemen, he said.

Cops hope to crack Mata Chand Kaur case

Chandigarh: With the arrest of Palwinder Singh from Thailand by the CBI, the Punjab cops hope to get vital leads into the assassination of Mata Chand Kaur at Namdhari headquarters Bhaini Sahib in 2016. Palwinder is a suspect in a 2015 Jalandhar car blast case. The CBI was given the case as it was suspected that the blast was linked to the killing of Mata Chand Kaur, said a police official. tnseditorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, October 18

On the eve of Dasehra, about 500 teachers from all seven Assembly seats of Gurdaspur district on Thursday burnt an effigy of Ravana to demonstrate their anger against the state government.

Four pictures were pasted on the effigy. These were of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Education Minister OP Soni and Education Secretary Krishan Kumar. Amid sloganeering, the effigy was lit at 4:30 pm in Nehru Park, where police personnel were deployed.

Union leaders said if the state government wanted its schools to survive, it should follow the recommendations of the Kothari commission. In 1966, the Kothari commission had recommended that 3 per cent of the total budget of a state government should be set aside for the smooth running of schools. The Punjab Government adopted the recommendations but in 1997, it suddenly started diverting funds. Out of 3 per cent allocated to the Education Department, funds were diverted to the police department to fight terrorism. Now that there is no terrorism, we urge the government follow the recommendation again, said Kuldeep Singh Purewal, union leader of the Gurdaspur unit of the Sanjha Adhyapak Morcha.

Leaders also flayed the Chief Minister for reducing the salaries of SSA, RMSA teachers. How can the government have money when it indulges in populist measures? Was there any need to start the karza kurki khatam, fasal di poori rakam initiative wherein debts of thousands of farmers have been waived?, said a leader.

Muktsar: Several teachers unions burnt an effigy of Ravana at Kotkapura chowk here on Thursday. Equating the demon king with the CM, the Education Minister and the Finance Minister, they slammed the governments decision to reduce the salaries of some teachers in the name of regularisation of services.gspannu7@gmail.com

Kandahar (Afghanistan), October 18

A powerful Afghan police chief and a journalist were among at least three people killed on Thursday when a gunman opened fire on a high-level security meeting attended by top US commander General Scott Miller, officials said.

At least 12 people were wounded, including three Americans and a provincial governor, in the Taliban-claimed attack that comes two days before Afghanistans long-delayed parliamentary elections. Miller was not hurt.

The Taliban said the attack had targeted top US commander General Scott Miller, who NATO said survived the shooting.

The target was General Miller and General Raziq, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Abdul Raziq, the police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, was killed in the attack, Afghan officials said.

Security forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civiliansalready on high alert for attacksinto their homes.

Condemning the horrific terror attacks in Kandahar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar. India condemns it most strongly and mourns with our Afghan brethren the loss of life, including that of Kandahar's senior leadership. We stand in solidarity with the brave people of Afghanistan in fighting terrorism imposed on them."

The Taliban said Miller and General Abdul Raziqthe police chief of Kandahar province who had a fierce reputation for brutalitywere the targets of the shooting.

General Raziq and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition, a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

Six of Raziqs bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governors security personnel, the official said.

The shooter had been killed, he added.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.

An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting.

Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATOs Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident, Peters said.

We are being told the area is secure.

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was full of military forces.

They dont allow anyone to come out of their houses, he told AFP.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant groups birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far, including Abdul Jabar Qahraman who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on democratic processes.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Paris, October 18

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added his name to a growing list of government ministers and prominent business executives cancelling their attendance at a Saudi Arabia investment conference over the fate of a Saudi journalist.

Le Maire said Saudi authorities needed to explain the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of the authoritarian kingdoms Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered inside the consulate. The Saudis have denied the allegations.

No, I will not be going, Le Maire told Public Senat TV.

The allegations are serious.

Paris and Riyadh enjoy close diplomatic ties and commercial relations spanning energy, finance and arms. Le Maire said he had informed his Saudi counterpart of his decision not to travel to Riyadh on Wednesday.

Asked if the move might jeopardise bilateral relations between the two countries, Le Maire said: Absolutely not. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his plans to attend an investment conference in Riyadh next week would be revisited on Thursday. Reuterslaxmi@tribune.com

Washington, October 18

Two weeks after he disappeared, The Washington Post has published what it said appears to be Jamal Khashoggis final column, in which the missing Saudi journalist writes of the importance of a free press in the Arab world.

Such a forum is currently lacking, says Khashoggi, a Post contributor and US resident who disappeared entering Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power, he writes.

The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices, Khashoggi writes.

Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.

The ultimate fate of Khashoggi  whose writings have been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - is still unknown, but leaks by anonymous Turkish officials have painted a picture of him allegedly meeting a grisly demise in the consulate at the hands of Saudi agents. In the introduction to Khashoggis column  the Posts Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah said the newspaper held off on publishing it in the hopes that he would return.  AFP

Man linked to Saudi prince in question

A man who previously travelled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohd bin Salmans entourage to the US entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before Jamal Khashoggi vanished there

Images published on Thursday by a pro-govt Turkish newspaper shows the man also later outside the Saudi consul generals home, checking out of a Turkish hotel with a large suitcase

US, britain, France ditch Saudi summit

Britain, France, the US and the Netherlands have decided not to attend an investment summit in Riyadh as international pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi grows Terming the issue very serious, these countries said the full truth of this affair be known and those responsible for the journalists disappearance must be held to account



Suspect killed in suspicious car accidentamansharma@tribunemail.com

Colombo, October 18

A Maldivian court overturned the 19-month jail term of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Thursday, a month after the former president's estranged half-brother suffered a shock election drubbing.

Gayoom, 80, ruled the largely Muslim island nation for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008.

He was arrested in February and accused of participating in an alleged coup during a crackdown on rivals of strongman President Abdulla Yameen, in charges his family and observers said were politically-motivated.

Gayoom was granted bail at the end of September, a week after Yameen lost national elections that had been skewed heavily in his favour.

On Thursday, a court in the capital Male quashed Gayoom's conviction for obstruction of justice-a charge that arose when he refuse to hand over his mobile phone to police.

Gayoom is one of many political opponents and dissidents who were jailed or forced into exile during Yameen's strongman rule.

Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected president, was convicted on a terrorism charge and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 after a trial characterised by Amnesty International as a "travesty of justice".

He obtained prison leave in 2016 to travel to London for medical treatment and has remained abroad since.

Former foes Nasheed and Gayoom teamed up before the election to back Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a political neophyte who defeated Yameen in a landslide victory.

Yameen appeared on national television Wednesday to once again concede defeat in the last month's polls, despite mounting a court challenge to annul the results.

The Supreme Court is yet to deliver a verdict in the case, which hinges on Yameen's allegation that the election commission used invisible ink to understate his support on ballot papers.

He is due to step down on November 17. - AFPlaxmi@tribune.com

Colombo, October 18

A Maldivian court overturned the 19-month jail term of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Thursday, a month after the former President's estranged half-brother and jailer suffered a shock election drubbing.

Gayoom, 80, ruled the largely Muslim island nation for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008. He was arrested in February and accused of participating in an alleged coup during a crackdown on rivals of strongman President Abdulla Yameen, in charges his family and observers said were politically-motivated.

Gayoom was granted bail at the end of September, a week after Yameen lost national elections that had been skewed heavily in his favour.

On Thursday a court in the capital Male quashed Gayoom's conviction for obstruction of justice -- a charge that arose when he refuse to hand over his mobile phone to the police. Gayoom is one of many political opponents and dissidents who were jailed or forced into exile during Yameen's strongman rule.

Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected president, was convicted on a terrorism charge and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015.  AFP

Was sentenced to 19 months in jail

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, 80, who ruled the largely Muslim island nation for 30 straight years, was arrested in February and accused of participating in an alleged coup. He was sentenced to 19 months in jail.gspannu7@gmail.com

Islamabad, October 18

Pakistan may not have to approach the IMF for loans as it has received positive responses from some friendly countries, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, days after Islamabad formally approached the global lender for a bailout to tide over the economic crisis.

Talking to a delegation of senior editors on Wednesday, Khan said his government was in touch with some friendly countries and has sought cooperation to address the mounting balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Though he did not name any countries, Pakistani media has reported that the government was consulting allies like China and Saudi Arabia for financial help.

Their response is positive. I am quite hopeful that we will not have to approach the International Monetary Fund for our economic needs, he was quoted as saying by The News.

Imrans comments follows some tough talking by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the US on Pakistans bailout plan, demanding absolute transparency on the countrys debts, including those owned by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Apart from selling off surplus luxury cars, Prime Minister Khans proposals include turning state-owned buildings into universities, dispensing with VIP security protocol and cutting air conditioning in government offices to keep the economy afloat.

Khan has vowed to steer Pakistan out of a looming balance-of-payments crisis, saying it needs USD 10 to 12 billion.

He said Pakistans economy has been badly hit. He said the previous governments borrowed so much that it has become hard for his government to repay the loans.

Had the former government not received loans or the amount so received was utilised properly, the economy of the country would have been in a good shape, he said.

Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar met IMF chief Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Indonesia on October 12 and formally requested a stabilisation recovery programme.

Umar said a team of the IMF will arrive in Pakistan on November 7.

He said the government dont want to fully rely on the IMF and would do anything to bring improvement in the economy.

He said the loan programme with the IMF is almost final, but the government will have to see that the IMF does not place any undoable conditions for Pakistan in return.

Lagarde has made it clear to Umar that the IMF would require absolute transparency on Pakistans debts, including those owned by China under the multibillion dollar CPEC.

The CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect Chinas Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistans Balochistan province. It is the part of Chinese President Xi Jinpings ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

The US has said that the huge Chinese debt was responsible for the economic challenges facing Pakistan, adding that it will review Islamabads bailout plea to the IMF from all angles, including the countrys debt position.

Umar said the Pakistan government was also exploring other options to avoid problems if the IMF programme did not materialise.  PTIrchopra@tribunemail.com

Washington, October 18

The Trump administration has said it is planning to revise the definition of employment and specialty occupations under the H-1B visas, a move which will have a detrimental impact on Indian IT companies and small- and medium-sized contractual firms mostly owned by Indian-Americans.

Read: US move to abolish H-4 visas set to impact tens of thousands of Indians

The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Wednesday that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) planned to come out with its new proposal by January 2019.

It will propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.

It will also revise the definition of employment and employer-employee relationship to better protect US workers and wages, the DHS said.

Such a move, which is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration, will have a detrimental impact on the functioning of Indian IT companies in the US and also small and medium-sized contractual companies in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian-Americans.

In addition, the DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration said.

The DHS reiterated that it was proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation.

The H-4 visas are issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21) of the holders of H-1B visa.

The DHS said it was also finalising its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

This rule precludes an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker.

The rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas had often exceeded the numerical limitation, the DHS said it was proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications.

This will allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, it said.

The Trump administration is reviewing the H-1B visa policy that it thinks is being misused by companies to replace American workers.

The administration has said publicly and also in its court filing that it wants to revoke work permits to H4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian-Americans and women.

The move will have a major impact on Indian women as they are the major beneficiary of the Obama-era rule. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, October 18

America has asked Turkey for an audio recording in the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi, US President Donald Trump has said as he sought a full report from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dissident Saudi journalists mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for The Washington Post.

Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are baseless.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he had asked Turkey for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi.

Weve asked for it, if it exists, he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

Im not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. Ill have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back, Trump said, referring to his meeting with Mike Pompeo on Thursday on his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Thats going to be the first question I ask him, he said.

On his way back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder? he was asked.

I dont have anything to say about that, Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

Theyre going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. Im going to be very consistent: Were going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, well form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that, Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened.

He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and hes going to have a full report. Im not giving cover at all, he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran. Were not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about? he asked.

They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the Middle East. But if you look at Saudi Arabia, theyre an ally and theyre a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things, he said.

When I went there, they committed to purchase USD 450 billion worth of things, and USD 110 billion worth of military (equipment). Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I dont think theres ever been any order for USD 450 billion, Trump said.

However, lawmakers continued to call for action against the Saudi establishment.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as additional questions and reports accumulate around the disappearance and reported torture and assassination of Khashoggi, so too does the list of misstatements, falsehoods, and denials from the Saudi Arabian government.

These responses intended to answer international criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salmans regime have included everything from categorical denials to claims that operatives of the Saudi government may have inadvertently murdered Khashoggi while attempting to detain, interrogate, and torture him in violation of international law, he said.

Yet despite so much evidence to the contrary, President Trump appears ready to believe the Saudi Arabian governments denials. While President Trump may accept Saudi Arabias denials about the disappearance and death of Khashoggi at face value, the American people wont, Krishnamoorthi said.

Senator Patrick Leahy said the credible, detailed reports from the Turkish government and the international press that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 had shocked the world.

While we do not yet have definitive proof, neither is there any other plausible explanation, he said.

Meanwhile, 11 Democratic Senators wrote to Trump seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This comes days after a bipartisan group of 22 senators recently triggered a probe and a Global Magnitsky Act determination relating to the circumstances surrounding Khashoggis disappearance and possible murder.

It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and US policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your familys deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia, the Democratic senators wrote. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, October 18

Two US B-52 bombers flew near contested islands in the South China Sea and participated in a routine training mission, according to a statement from Pacific Air Forces.

The two B-52H Stratofortress bombers, which are based in Guam, participated in a routine training mission in the vicinity of the South China Sea the statement said on Wednesday, adding that the flight was part of US Indo-Pacific Commands Continuous Bomber Presence operations which have been ongoing since March 2004, reports CNN.

The Pentagon would not confirm which islands the B-52s flew by, but recent tensions have focused on the Spratly Islands.

The US regularly flies aircraft in the South China Sea, but Beijing is particularly sensitive about the operations when they come near areas where the Chinese government has built islands and established military facilities on disputed maritime features.

Pacific Air Forces said Tuesdays mission is consistent with international law and US long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Recently, a Chinese destroyer sailed within 45 yards of the USS Decatur, forcing the American warship to maneuver to avoid a collision while it was sailing near the disputed Spratly Islands.

The US labelled the Chinese warships actions unsafe and unprofessional while Beijing said the US was threatening the safety and sovereignty of China.  IANSSponsored: Ministry of Planning

In previous articles weve covered a few of the most significant issues facing the environment today and how our Government is addressing these. A large part of our, and indeed many other countries, strategy to do this involves being part of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and a crucial factor for the successful implementation of MEAs is our youth.

More hereThe logistics on this one is tough. I don't know how many days you are planning for each destination. But let me give it a try.

We usually recommend a minimum of two nights in Tortuguero, and three in Monteverde. If you are going to Tortuguero, then you probably have to spend the night before in San Jose. If you have an early flight out of SJO, then you have to overnight in San Jose on the way out too. So there is seven of your eight nights.

I would recommend a night in Arenal in between. If you opt to drive it all in one day, you are most likely will end up climbing that mountain road after dark. That is a little challenging. Not impossible of course, but you are driving on blind curves without guardrails and not the greatest signage. Plus, there are some awesome views. Why miss them?

You would pick up your car in Guapiles, or maybe the rental car company will meet you at the dock. From Guapiles, figure 2 to 3 hours to Arenal. You could take a one night break from all the physical activity and hang out in one of the many hot springs in the Arenal region. Then get an early start the next morning to drive the three hours or so to Monteverde.

You might also check into a package to one of the lodges in Tortuguero. I agree with Racandee about the pricey packages offered by one of the lodges. It is a nice lodge, but they are also about the most expensive in the area.

Mawamba is $331.00 in a double. They won't do a quad with four adults. But if two of the guests are under 12, you get a two for one. It sounds high, but when you break down the price of transportation, meals, tours, and lodging, it really isn't that bad. These are all included in the package. They would also drop you off at the rental car office.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I can offer any further advice.

Warm Regards,

Pat Hewitt

Costa Rica Travel Exchange

- Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind -With a JR Pass, from Kyoto, take JR Nara Line to Nara. If you just see Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha and parts of Nara Park, just over 1/2 day should be enough time. You can then take the train to Osaka. As to whether you can "see" Osaka in that 1/2 day, it depends on what you want to visit. If you just stick to Namba, Dotonbori, Umeda just for shopping and people-watching, then it's enough time. If you go to Osaka Castle, perhaps you would need to skip Umeda since the Castle will take you a couple of hours.

>>>From Kyoto can I see Nara and Osaka in the one day? How do I travel to Nara from Kyoto?Welcome to the forum Joseph.

With one week, we stay at one resort, and prefer the outer island resorts. That said, if you are interested in hiking, zip lining, or river rafting, you could spend two or three days on the main island, then head to Musket Cove. Any resort you stay at will be able to make arrangements for any tours/activities you are interested in doing. Haven't stayed there so can't comment on the resort. Resorts we stayed at did not allow fishing from the shore or from kayaks off shore, but did offer fishing excursions that were pricey. Plus there are no guarantees we would catch any fish. Were lucky to catch a few blue fin tuna which the resort cooked for us for dinner. Would contact the resort and ask. Others who have stayed at the resort may be able to advice, if it is possible or not.

If you take a taxi or private transfer to Denarau, your driver will stop at one of the markets on the way. Will be cheaper than purchasing food, alcohol, etc than at Denarau. Will need FJD for taking a taxi. The Western Union office at the airport in Nadi has much better exchange rate than at LAX. Be sure to get some small bills as the driver may not be able to make change.

Coming from the states, you will need an adapter angled for Australia for charging camera, phone, laptop batteries. We also take a power converter, and small power strip for charging more than one battery at the same time. As drinks at resorts can be pricey, and add up quickly, suggest purchasing alcohol at the duty free shop at the airport in Nadi. We can't purchase our brand of choice in Fiji, so take the amount of alcohol allowed by customs in our checked luggage. Have a look at the following for other suggestions of what to take with you. Though the link can no longer be updated, the information is still relevant.

Hope this helps.

Edited: 3 years agoGood advice from Daisy. There are lots of transportation companies that can handle all of these transfers.

My personal first choice is Desafio. They can handle all three. This is a large and very professional company with a large fleet of modern equipment.

Their main office in the Arenal area. But I think that they have a van or two headquartered in Monteverde. We use them for our Liberia / Monteverde, and Monteverde / Arenal clients all the time.

The prices are very reasonable. They can offer the other leg back to the Liberia airport as well.

What time of day do you arrive? The ride up to Monteverde is quite scenic. If you are get in late in the day, you just might head for Arenal first. That way, you can enjoy the views on the way up the mountain when you leave Arenal.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I can offer any further advice.

Warm Regards,

Pat Hewitt

Costa Rica Travel Exchange

- Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind -Hello all! Husband and I will be in town during the first weekend of November. First timers!

Can you recommend any walkable restaurants in the area. Open to all cuisines. We are from Chicago, and we are used to walking quite a bit. Looking for a taste of New York so to say. I dont want to eat at places that we have here in Chicago (for example shake shack)

Also, coffee I can get near by, and while I enjoy Starbucks, please dont suggest it.With at much luggage a cab to the hotel is probably best/easiest. Yellow cabs between JFK and anywhere in Manhattan are a fixed rate that comes to about $70-75 after tip and possible tolls The four of you will fit in a standard cab. There are mini-van and SUV cabs that might be needed for you luggage. (If you have a LOT of large luggage you can also order a larger vehicle from a car service such as Dial 7 or Carmel - although sometimes two Yellow cabs can be similarly priced to one larger car service vehicle.) Use only the Yellow cab dispatcher line or car service you have booked. Ignore any touts in or around the terminal offering illegal rides. For the hotel to the dock you can do a Yellow cab (if you fit - or two) but it will be on the meter and costs vary by time/distance - it's not far so shouldn't be terribly expensive. You could order a car service if you wish.

You might enjoy the dinosaurs and other things at the American Museum of Natural - which is right across from Central Park and you can walk across to/from the Met. I think you'd probably really enjoy the Intrepid.

You might want to consider going downtown - there's a lot to see and you could take a ride on the (free 24/7) Staten Island ferry for a nice view of the Statue of Liberty and the skyline Here's a map for a self guided walking tour downtown:

I'm honestly not sure if the USO will have good offers available. It's not far away from where you will be so you might stop in or phone Those more knowledgeable about the current demand for theater tickets for specific shows hopefully will advise further.

Thank you for the sacrifices you and your family make for us. Happy trip planning.

Edited: 3 years agoFly 540 is one of the well known Airlines in East Africa that offer low charges on various scheduled flights all year round to several destinations in Kenya, Zanzibar, and South Sudan. It is in hence necessary to have the Fly 540 contacts. Read on to know the main contacts for fly 540 Kenya.

If you are looking for an airline that offers amazing deals/cashbacks that help you save money on every trip, then Fly 540 is the way to go. Searching for Fly 540 booking contacts and office physical locations? Here is a detailed list:

READ ALSO: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport receives green light for direct flights to US

Fly 540 Head Office contacts

Tel: +254 20 3883060  2

Fax: +254 20 3883063

Email: info@Fly540.com

Fly 540 online contacts

Fly 540 Twitter handle: @FlyAviation

Fly 540 Facebook page:

International House Limited office, ground floor

Central business district (CBD), Nairobi, Kenya

Telephone: +254 712 540 540 / +254 733 540 555 / +254 735 540 555 / +254 714 305 305 / +254 723 305 305 / +254 717 305 305

Email: bookings@fly540.com

Fly 540 airline Kenya contacts  call centre

ABC Place, Off Waiyaki Way

Telephone: +254 710 540 540, +254 722 540 540, +254 728 540 540, +254 733 540 540, +254 737 540 540, +254 723 532 275

Fax: +254 20 445 3257

Note: The Call Centre is open during these times:

Monday  Friday at 7.00am  10.00pm

Saturday at 7.00am  7.00pm

Sunday at 9.00am  7.00pm

READ ALSO: Fy540 Online Booking Procedure

Other Fly 540 Kenya contacts (Within Nairobi)

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA)

Unit 3  The Domestic Departures

Telephone: +254 20 827523 / 827366

Sales: +254 727 532 273

Laico Regency Hotel, Nairobi

Mezzanine Floor

Telephone: +254 20 2243211-4

Sales: +254 737 540 540 / 727 532 275

Greenspan Mall, Donholm, Nairobi

1st Floor

Telephone: +254 704 540 540 / +254 705 540 540 / +254 708 305 305

Wilson airport

Ground Floor, Langata House

Langata Road, Nairobi

Mob: + 254 704 305 305 / 706 305 305

Sales: +254 729 540 540 / 735 540 540

New Muthaiga Mall, Nairobi

1st floor

Telephone: +254 702 540 540 / +254 703 540 540 / +254 726 305 305

Regional Fly540 Kenya contacts

Mombasa

Ground Floor, Mombasa Trade Centre at Nkrumah Road, Mombasa

Sales: +254 710 540 540 / 728 540 540

Telephone: + 254 41 2319078/79/80

Fax: + 254 41 2319080

READ ALSO: Jambo jet contacts

Mombasa International Airport

P.O. Box 94635  80115,

Mombasa.

Sales: + 254 701 540 540 / 732 540 540

Nyali Centre, near Naivas

Links Road, Nyali, Mombasa

Sales: +254 734 540 540 / 707 540 542

Telephone: +254 41 4477540-2

Ukunda

Ground Floor, Bazaar Building Ukunda

Sales: +254 732 540 559

Kisumu

Kisumu International Airport

Sales: +254 707 540 560 / 737 540 546

Mega Plaza at Mezzanine floor

Directly opposite Safaricom shop

Mobile: 0724 563 009, 0734 540 550

READ ALSO: Latest Kenya Airways careers vacancies in 2018

Homa-Bay

Cold Springs Hotel Apartments

Bank Road, ground floor

Telephone: +254 716 540540 / +254 731 540 152 / +254 728 305305

Eldoret

Metro Towers - 1st Floor,

Oginga Odinga Street

Telephone: +254 53 2033570/80, 0735 540547

Sales: +254 736 540 540

Eldoret International Airport

Telephone: 053 2030814

Mobile: +254 734 540 549 / 734 540 549

Sales: +254 738 540 540

Lamu

North Coast Travel Services

Seafront near the Catholic Church / Equity Bank

Mobile: +254 732 540 559

Telephone: +254 42 2130312 / 2120370

Malindi

Oasis Mall, next to Pata Pata ground floor

P.O. BOX 10293  00100, Nairobi

Operations: +254 727 532279

Telephone: +254 Sales: +254 729 540540

Juba

Juba International Airport

Sales: +211 959 540 540

Zanzibar

Zanzibar Airport

Telephone: +255 762 540 540

Physical Contacts

Baycourt upper floor, suite 3 & 4

The Watermark Business Park Ndege Rd, Karen

P.O. Box 10293  00100,

Nairobi, Kenya

Company services

In spite of the fact that Fly 540 headquarters are based in Nairobi, they also work from JKIA (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport) and Wilson Airport. Fly 540 give flies to Lodwar, Kisumu, Eldoret, Mombasa, Lamu, Malindi, and across the borders to Juba and Zanzibar. Fly 540 work to ensure their customers enjoys a safe, cost effective and comfortable air travel, while also offering excellent and reliable customer service.

With the above Fly 540 gets in touch means, you can contact them at any time. Again with the contacts Fly 540, you can book your ticket at the comfort of your couch.

READ ALSO: Flight crew members didn't want me on the plane because I was a risk - Njambi Koikai narrates

Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest- Ahmednasir argued there would be no referendum if Uhuru opposes it

- He claimed Raila alone would not convince Kenyans to support constitutional amendment

- The senior counsel also expressed reservation on the renewed push for constitutional change

- He argued there was no need for a referendum and suggested the Constitution be edited instead

- Although Raila's position on the plebiscite issue is clear, Uhuru is yet to come out publicly to support or oppose it

Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi has weighed in on the ongoing referendum debate and Opposition leader Raila Odinga who has been spearheading the renewed push for a constitutional amendment may not agree with what he had to say.

Abdullahi categorically stated Raila would not determine whether or not Kenyans would go to another referendum to change the law.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi on Wednesday, October 17, said President Uhuru Kenyatta will decide wither or not Kenyans should go to another referendum.

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Raila Odinga calls for speedy investigations into brutal murder of young women

Appearing on Citizen TV's JKL show on Wednesday, October 17, Abdullahi said President Uhuru Kenyatta had all the powers to decide which way Kenyans would go as far as the referendum issue is concerned.

"Raila has no say, in my view, whether we will have a referendum or not, but if Uhuru says we will have a referendum then Kenyans will listen," he argued.

READ ALSO: EACC lists ex-Nairobi governor Evans Kideros KSh 9 billion wealth

The city lawyer, who represented Uhuru at the Supreme Court during hearings of presidential election petitions both in 2013 and 2017, claimed Uhuru had become the most powerful president Kenya has ever had.

"Uhuru has become the most powerful president since independence. He is more powerful than his father, retired presidents Daniel Arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki," Abdullahi alleged.

READ ALSO: Raila, Ruto clash over 2017 elections during burial of ex-minister Henry Obwocha

The senior counsel, nevertheless, opposed the calls for a plebiscite and suggested that the Constitution be edited instead, without altering the structure of governance as has been proposed by Raila.

"The Constitution needs some editing but in terms of changing the basic structure of the constitution, I am opposed to that. We do not need a referendum that will change the basic structure of the constitution," he said.

READ ALSO: Stop using handshake to bring confusion in Jubilee - Ruto warns Raila

Although Raila's position on the referendum debate is already known to most Kenyans, Uhuru is yet to come out strongly either to endorse or reject the fresh push for constitutional change.

TUKO.co.ke understands the president may have chosen to keep off the referendum talks to avoid upsetting the Opposition leader and jeopardise the March 9, 2018, peace agreement, or offend his deputy, William Ruto, who until recently was opposed to any attempts to amend the Constitution.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Top 5 Facts About Uhuru Kenyatta - Raila Odinga Pact - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Newspaper- The Grand Mullah, as he is famously known, clarified he does not own a factory at his home

- He claimed he has not been able to understand why the electricity bill was so high

- Ahmednasir said the cost of power in Kenya is too high, not just for households but also for the manufacturing industry

- The only other known person who pays same amount for power is former Kiambu governor William Kabogo

If you thought your electricity bill has gone through the roof, then clearly you have not heard how much Ahmednasir Abdullahi forks out every month to be at peace with Kenya Power.

The top city lawyer, best known by his moniker, The Grand Mullah, revealed his ridiculously high monthly power bills have not been making any sense even to him.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

Ahmednasir Abdullahi claimed he was paying Kenya Power and Lighting Company about KSh 250,000 every month for using electricity in his house.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Kenya Power tells distraught customers to channel anger to energy regulator as new tariffs bite

Appearing on Citizen TV on Wednesday, October 18, Abdullahi disclosed he was paying Kenya Power something in the neighbourhood of KSh 250,000 every month for his domestic consumption alone.

"I pay 250,000 per month for electricity in my house and I do not have a factory there," he said as he decried the generally high cost of power in the country.

READ ALSO: Government removes fixed power charges, lowers cost of electricity for Kenyans

According to the senior counsel, the cost of electricity in Kenya is way too high, not just for domestic consumers but also for those in the manufacturing industry.

"When your power is expensive you cannot be competitive in the manufacturing industry," he argued.

READ ALSO: Kenya Power opens hotline after complaints over electricity bills

This, however, was not the first time Abdullahi protested the cost of electricity.

In July 2018, the affluent and powerful lawyer claimed he paid KSh 220,000 for his home's electricity bill.

"I don't run a medium sized factory...how is that possible Apollo? I need your services," he tweeted in reaction to a post by his learned friend Apollo Mboya who was battling KPLC in court over inflated electricity bills.

READ ALSO: Forget what the government said, cost of electricity is not about to get any lower

The only other well known Kenyan who reportedly pays about the same amount for electricity consumption at his home is former Kiambu County governor, William Kabogo.

"I have paid a monthly average of KSh 250,000 for the last one year. Daylight robbery without violence. We kill the monopoly and problem solved..." Kabogo said on June 30, 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.

High school leaver builds own electricity power plant (Amazing Story) - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- The body of the barmaid was found lying in a pool of blood in her lover's house

- Her body was found with injuries on the head and a deep cut on the throat

- According to her sister, she was last seen in the company of her lover before meeting her death

- Locals claimed they had overheard the suspect saying he was going to commit a heinous act

- According to them, he claimed the person he was to harm had swindled him money

A 34-year-old woman who worked as a barmaid in Maragua town was on the morning of Wednesday, October 17, found butchered to death by her lover, a barber in Murang'a town.

The mother of two identified as Judy Wanjiru Gacheru was last seen in the company of her lover, Joseph Gatuku, on Monday, October 15, in Maragua town.

READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

The 34-year-old woman who worked as a barmaid in Maragua town was found butchered to death by her lover, a barber in Muranga town.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Uganda entrepreneur launches bodaboda mobile application in Nairobi

TUKO.co.ke understands her body was found lying in a pool of blood in the bedroom of the suspects house at Kamuiru village within Mbiri Ward, Murang'a.

The body had cuts on the throat and injuries on the head suspected to have been inflicted by a blunt object.

A blood stained panga was also found next to the body which the police took away as well as a hammer which are suspected to be the murder weapons.

READ ALSO: Form 2 student stabs colleague over KSh 600 debt in Kakamega

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke at the murder scene, the deceased's sister, Lillian Wambui, said on the fateful day, Wanjiru was accompanied by the suspect and a boda boda rider who is their friend.

They all visited her work place in Maragua town and took lunch before leaving at around 2pm.

Wambui said she got concerned after she called Wanjiru the following day but she did not pick her call as her mobile phone was switched off.

READ ALSO: Narrow escape for Eldoret police officer after thug snatches her gun, fails to shoot her

A blood stained panga was also found next to the body which the police took away and a hammer that are suspected to be the murder weapons.

Source: Original

This prompted her to trace her whereabouts from the boda boda rider who told her the last time she saw her sister was on Monday, October 15, when he took them home with her lover.

I said I will abandon all my activities on Tuesday, October 16, to look for her and we agreed with the boda boda rider that he will take me to the home where he took them," narrated Wambui

The door was not locked but before I could enter the house, my mission was cut short by Wangu who let out a loud cry claiming she had spotted her body, she said while fighting back tears.

READ ALSO: Jubilee MPs declare war on foreigners doing menial jobs in Kenya

Her mother, Mary Wairimu Kirai, condemned the incident saying the death was a big blow to her as her two school going children had been left without a parent as the deceased had divorced with her husband five years ago.

I wonder what crime she had committed to warrant her to be killed in such a brutal manner. I call upon the police to apprehend the suspect to meet justice," she said.

Locals who spoke on condition of anonymity said the suspect had in the last one year sold parcels of land and was at one time overheard saying he was planning to take severe action against a person he did not disclose who he claimed had swindled him KSh 100,000.

READ ALSO: Photos of MP Moses Kuria posing with Jacque Maribe in court stir up emotions online

In a separate incident, the residents of Kahuro town woke up to a rude shock to find a 52-year-old mason killed and his body dumped beside the Kahuro -Muriranjas- Kahatia road.

Mugoiri location senior chief Matthew Miako Murai said the late David Macharia Kamau had spent the better part of the day building a house within Kahuro town and in the evening, he was spotted taking beer in one of the bars at Kahuro town.

"The body of the suspect who comes from Kiamakara village near Kahuro town had injuries on the head that we suspect he sustained after he was hit by pieces of wood we found next to the body," the administrator told TUKO.co.ke

Story by Mark Wachira, TUKO Correspondent

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Source: Tuko- Amos Charo Saro met the suspects on OLX, an online market

- They pledged to sell him building material and a meting with them was planned

- After payment, he was pushed from a moving car and a police officer who witnessed the event pursued the car

- The two suspects were arrested and taken in custody

Two suspected con men were on Wednesday, October 17, arrested by detectives in Parklands, Nairobi after they allegedly robbed a man KSh 732,000.

The two, Sameer Abdulaziz Kassim and Peter Kavoli Musili, police sources said, had interacted with their target, Amos Charo Saro, on OLX and agreed to sell him construction material.

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Sameer Abdulaziz Kassim (l) and Peter Kavoli Musili (r), police sources say had interacted with their target Amos Charo Saro, on OLX and had agreed to sell him construction material. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: City lawyer says Uhuru, not Raila, would decide whether Kenyans go to referendum or not

Saro met the suspects in Nairobi CBD and they drove towards Westlands but he was pushed out of the speeding car after giving the suspects KSh 732,000, an incident witnessed by a police officer guarding a bank.

The officer saw a man being thrown out of a vehicle and shouting wezi! wezi! (thieves, thieves). He took a taxi and gave chase. He managed to intercept the vehicle at the junction of Westlands and Mpaka road," read a report filed at Parklands Police Station.

READ ALSO: 17 pieces of advice most Kenyans wish they could tell William Ruto

After stopping the suspect's car, the officer fired eight rounds from his rifle which attracted Parklands police who proceeded to the scene.

The police searched the car and recovered KSh 400,000. The suspects were taken into custody at Parklands Police Station.

They are set to appear in court where they will be charged with a count of robbery with violence immediately investigations are concluded.

READ ALSO: Detectives arrest man masquerading as KDF officer, selling fake military tenders

The victim, according to police, suffered bruises during the fall.

This incident brings to the fore the grave danger citizens are exposed to via e-commerce applications in the country.

Fraud cases have been rife and authorities have since advised Kenyans to be cautious before making such transactions.

They advice only dealing with registered firms which must also be vetted carefully.

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Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV.

Source: Tuko Kenya- Erick Otieno Atanga had branded himself as Colonel Kiprotich

- He was giving out tenders disguised as a Department of Defence (DOD) officer

- Atanga will be arraigned on Thursday to face fraud charges

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Wednesday, October 17, arrested a man masquerading as a Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) officer.

Erick Otieno Atanga, according to the DCI, had been defrauding members of the public with fake tenders while posing as an officer from Department of Defence (DOD) and had tagged himself as Colonel Kiprotich.

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Erick Otieno Atanga, according to the DCI, has been defrauding the citizenry with fake tenders. Photo: DCI

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: KDF officer among kidnappers arrested while demanding KSh 5k ransom

He is set to be arraigned on Thursday, October 18, where he will be charged with obtaining money by false pretense.

"Detectives yesterday arrested Erick Otieno Atanga who has been presenting himself as Colonel Kiprotich of D.O.D (Department of Defense) and defrauding people by selling them fake D.O.D tenders. He will be charged today with obtaining money by false pretenses," DCI tweeted.

READ ALSO: Detective who robbed Mali national over KSh 5 million arrested in another robbery incident

This latest arrest came at a time when crimes associated with military and police officers are on the rise.

On Monday, October 15, detectives arrested a KDF officer who has been running an alleged abduction syndicate in Eastleigh area, Nairobi County.

On Sunday October 14, DCI arrested Constable Kelvin Ndosi, who was involved in a failed carjacking and kidnapping incident. He is suspected to be a gang member of seven police officers terrorising Nairobi residents.

On Wednesday, August 1, detectives nabbed a man masquerading as a National Intelligence Service (NIS) officer who had fraudulently acquired KSh 300,000 at Nyayo House.

READ ALSO: Robbery: 7 senior police officers heading gang unleashing terror on Nairobi residents

The incidents have since raised concern on the state of security in the country.

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Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV.

Source: Tuko.co.ke- Juliet Nakiyemba was trafficked to Jordan through Al Saudi Agency in August 2018

- She had told her husband she had gone to visit her parents in the village

- The husband later received calls from strange numbers informing him his wife had died

- He reported to police who found the body had been repatriated and taken to the morgue

- Medical reports indicated the body had no kidneys

Police in Uganda have arrested two suspects in connection with the death of a woman who was in search of greener pastures in Jordan.

The two were arrested and accused of human trafficking after they initiated the travel of Juliet Nakiyemba to Jordan through Rwanda by Al Saudi Agency in August 2018.

READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

Nakiyemba had left her home in August telling her husband she was going to visit her parents in the village. Photo: UGC

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kisumu fishmongers oppose Uhuru's ban on fish imports from China

In a Facebook post by Deep Info, Nakiyemba had informed her husband, Moses Nyakana, she was going to visit her parents in the village.

The unsuspecting husband then rang to establish whether she had reached safely but attempts to reach his wife by phone were futile because she had blacklisted his calls.

Days later, Nakiyemba sent him WhatsApp messages and voice notes telling him she had traveled abroad.

READ ALSO: Diamond Platnumz laughs off his ex Wema Sepetus post with man in bed

In September 2018, Nyakana received a strange call informing him his wife was sick and could be brought back to Uganda, but he did not take the callers seriously as the 31-year-old had left in good health.

"He was again called the second time by another anonymous caller who told him that Nakiyemba was mentally ill and had committed suicide by jumping through a window of a five storey building, said Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire.

Juliet Nakiyemba was trafficked to Jordan through registered Al Saudi Agency in August, 2018. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Jacque Maribe wants prosecutor to stop linking her to boyfriend's alleged crime

It was reported the woman died on September 4, 2018, and her body was repatriated back 20 days later before it was taken to City Mortuary for post mortem.

Post mortem report confirms that two of the deceased's kidneys had been removed, a condition that may have resulted into her sudden death, he added.

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Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Mudavadi ruled out supporting DP William Ruto in his quest for the presidency in 2022

- The ANC party leader said Ruto was a competitor and he could not pull towards the same goal with him

- Mudavadi was responding to calls from Khalwale that he supports the DP in 2022

- The ANC leader declared he would be on the ballot in the next presidential race

The elusive Luhya unity could remain a mirage if sharply contrasting views of key leaders from western Kenya concerning President Uhuru Kenyatta's succession in 2022 is anything to go by.

Barely a week after FORD Kenya party leader Moses Wetang'ula announced he would not vie for the presidency and instead support Deputy President William Ruto during the 2022 General Election, his Amani National Congress counterpart, Musalia Mudavadi, thinks the former's move is misinformed.

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Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi said it was important to unite the Luhya community but not rally behind Deputy President William Ruto in 2022. Photo: Musalia Mudavadi/Twitter.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama hints NASA could be disbanded

Speaking during a joint requiem mass for victims of Fort Ternan bus accident at Amalemba grounds, Kakamega on Wednesday, October 17, Mudavadi agreed with Wetang'ula that Luhya unity was important but differed with him on backing Ruto's presidential bid.

The ANC party leader said he had engaged the FOED Kenya colleague who together were key pillars of National Super Alliance (NASA), saying they had achieved much progress in ensuring the Luhya community was united ahead of 2022 General Election and beyond.

"Our unity is very important and we need to prioritise this as leaders from Western Kenya. I am glad Wetang'ula assured me we are on course though I don't agree with him on his recent decision to back Ruto," said Mudavadi.

FORD Kenya leader Moses Wetang'ula said he had assured his supporters he would be in government in 2022 which was possible through supporting DP William Ruto. Photo: Moses Wetang'ula/Twitter.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kisumu family in shock as mans private parts found hanging on their house

The former deputy prime minister though was explicit that Ruto was western Kenya's main political competitor and there was no logic in uniting and backing him in the next poll.

"I understand and want to presume Wetang'ula understands Ruto is our competitor. We cannot work hard to unite ourselves and then go and join hands with our competitor. What science is that?" Mudavadi posed.

Former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale who is FORD Kenya deputy party leader disagreed with the ANC leader's stand on the matter saying it would leave him in the political cold for long.

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Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko Breaking News Latest- The cow had a 12 hour labour only to deliver a calf with deformities

- According to the owner, a veterinarian had earlier administered artificial insemination

- She explained the cow had not shown any signs to suggest it would deliver a deformed calf

- The calf, however, did not live long as it died a few hours after being born

- The incident left residents in disbelief as it is the first time for them to experience such

Residents of Gitiri village within Ngaararia Ward, Murang'a County are in shock after a cow belonging to one of the farmers sired a calf with rare body defects.

The calf belonging to Joyce Muthoni was sired on Wednesday, October 17, morning and had two heads, five legs, two backbones and two tails.

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The calf had two heads, five legs, two backbones and two tails . Photo: Mark Wachira

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Detectives arrest man masquerading as KDF officer and selling fake military tenders

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke on phone, Muthoni said her cow developed signs of calving on the night of Tuesday, October 16.

Together with her son, Kamau Kaombi, she decided to keep vigil at the cowshed to assist the animal.

She, however, explained the cow had prolonged labour which prompted her to call a veterinary officer who lives nearby.

READ ALSO: 17 pieces of advice most Kenyans wish they could tell William Ruto

The cow had a prolonged labour which prompted the owner to call a veterinary officer who lives nearby. Photo: Mark Wachira.

Source: Original

According to Muthoni, the veterinarian had earlier on administered artificial insemination to the animal

It was around 9pm and he advised us that all was well and that it was not yet time for calving and we opted to wait," narrated the farmer.

"The cow was in pain but after it exceeded, I told my son to summon a boda boda rider to go and pick the veterinary officer from his home but the vet declined to come and said he would only show up at day break," she added

READ ALSO: City lawyer says Uhuru, not Raila, will decide whether Kenyans go for referendum or not

The deformities in the calf made the delivery to take long as it was hard to pass through the birth canal forcing the farmer to pull it out. Photo: Mark Macharia

Source: Original

The farmer said the deformities in the calf was making it hard to pass through the birth canal and they had to pull it out at around 9am and it died a few hours later.

When it came out, she almost broke into a run as that was not the calf she expected from her animal which has give birth to normal calves twice in the past.

Her son said he was equally perplexed and said all through, the cow did not register any signs to suggest it would bring forth a calf that was deformed.

READ ALSO: Jacque Maribe wants prosecutor to stop linking her to boyfriend's alleged crime

Similar sentiments were echoed by his uncle, John Njoroge, who said he went back home in haste from work after he was told the cow was having problems in giving birth.

The incident became a crowd puller with many people trooping to the home to see the rate creature.

Hiti Mwaganu from Ngararia village said he rushed to the home to witness the bizzare creature adding he had heard of such occurrences in the past in other parts of the country but never thought it would occur near his locality.

Story by Mark Wachira, TUKO Correspondent

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Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV.

Source: Tuko News- The woman was linked to the kidnapping after photos of Mo were found on her web page

- She was brought in for questioning by the American Intelligence Groups (AGI)

- AGI took over the kidnapping case from Tanzanian authorities

A Kenyan woman has been linked to the kidnapping of Africas youngest billionaire, Mohammed Mo Dewji, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Muthoni Gathitu is said to have been brought in for questioning by the American Intelligence Groups (AGI) which has since taken over the abduction case from Tanzanian authorities.

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READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

Mo was kidnapped at a Tanzanian hotel. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Tanzania billionaire and Simba FC owner kidnapped at posh Dar-es-Salaam hotel

The AGI linked Muthoni to the case because it discovered Dewji was being photographed by the Kenyan woman for a certain period of time ahead of his mysterious disappearance.

Countless photos of the kidnapped billionaire in several boats in Mombasa and South Africa were found on the woman's web page.

Mo's family offered token to any information that might help locate him. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Form 2 student stabs colleague over KSh 600 debt in Kakamega

The investigators believe Muthoni was involved in some way in the incident and have put her on the list of people being investigated over the kidnapping.

As reported by TUKO.co.ke earlier, Mo was abducted on Thursday, October, at 5am at the Colosseum hotel in Oyster Bay, a leafy suburb in northwest of Dar Es Salaam where he had gone for his regular morning workout.

The Kenyan lady is said to have photographed Mo. Photo: UGC

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Safaricom increases calling and SMS charges

According to police reports, the tycoon was kidnapped by two white men, probably foreigners, who arrived at the hotel in a Toyota Surf vehicle and fired in the air before grabbing him.

Efforts by both police and Mo's family to trace him have bore no fruits, with his whereabouts still remaining a mystery.

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Shosh Cecilia: Ladies Stop Dating Sponsors | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- Ahmednasir said the two Jubilee party leaders are no longer reading from the same script

- He compared them to a separated couple waiting to divorce each other

- Ahmednasir believes the bromance between the two died following the March 2018 handshake

- Uhuru, he asserted, became more interested in unity and development whereas Ruto shifted more focus to 2022 politics

Senior counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi has claimed the relationship between his two clients, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, is no longer what it used to be when the duo came to power in 2013.

Abdullahi claimed Uhuru and Ruto, who were once inseparable, have gradually drifted apart and are now reading from different scripts, especially on matters politics.

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READ ALSO: City lawyer says Uhuru, not Raila, will decide whether Kenyans go for referendum or not

Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi claimed President Uhuru Kenyatta (r) and his deputy William Ruto (l) who were once inseparable are now reading from different scripts on matters politics.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Picha za Jacque Maribe na wanasiasa 6 mashuhuri Kenya, akiwamo Uhuru

Speaking to Citizen TV on Wednesday, October 17, Abdullahi claimed the two leaders had shifted their attentions to different areas of interests and that chances were they could also be subtly pushing for different political agendas.

We have to be honest. I do not think they (Uhuru and Ruto) are reading from the same script. They are like a couple that is yet to divorce. You know before the divorce you separate and lead your own lives. Both of them have found new love, the vocal lawyer argued.

READ ALSO: Raila, Ruto clash over 2017 elections during burial of ex-minister Henry Obwocha

Abdullahi, who TUKO.co.ke understands represented Uhuru at the Supreme Court during hearings of presidential election petitions both in 2013 and 2017 and is currently representing Ruto in a petition seeking to block demolition of Weston Hotel, believes the bromance between his two big clients died following the Match 2018 peace agreement.

The senior counsel further argued the president decided to focus on uniting the nation, following the chaotic 2017 General Election by entering into a peace agreement with Opposition leader Raila Odinga while at the same time pushing for the Big Four development agenda.

President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and Opposition leader Raila Odinga (R) jointly addressing the nation outside Harambee House, Nariobi, following signing of the peace agreement.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: I demanded Uhuru not to include Ruto in our handshake talks - Raila Odinga

Ruto, on the other hand has chosen to focus more on the 2022 succession politics and is not very keen on supporting the famous handshake, according to the city lawyer.

Indeed, the DP had expressed reservations regarding the March 2018 peace pact which he claimed was being used by Raila as an excused to divide Jubilee leaders.

If he (Raila) thinks he can bring down Jubilee, then let me warn him that will never happen. You may have succeeded in lying to Kenyans during your days in KANU and NASA, but you have no space in Jubilee, he said in September 2018.

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When Uhuru, Ruto and Raila Met at State House - On Tuko TV

Source: Kenya Breaking News Today- Salim Yislam served in President Jomo Kenyatta's presidential escort unit

- Yislam who was an outrider of Jomo got an accident in 1966 after escorting him to Mombasa State lodge following a collision involving his motorcycle

- He fractured his leg and after healing, he was assigned to drive some of the ex-president's cars and even drove Uhuru to school

- A vehicle he was driving got involved in a crash and fractured another of his leg rendering him immobile

- Yislam asked his children to search for Uhuru and tell him his childhood driver was happy he was president before he passed on in 2014

- His daughter, Aisha Mohammed, has said efforts to reach Uhuru or his mother Mama Ngina have been fruitless for the past four years

The family of an officer who served in the Presidential Escort Unit (PEU) during Kenya's founding President Jomo Kenyatta is appealing for audience with President Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver his dying wishes to him.

According to the family of Salim Yislam who died in 2014 at his Scheme, Kakamega home, the deceased also served as Jomo's personal driver and used to drive Uhuru to school before getting involved in multiple accidents which rendered him unable to work anymore.

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READ ALSO: Wanafunzi wa chuo kikuu cha Rongo wazua rabsha wakati wa mazishi ya Sharon Otieno

Aisha Mohammed daughter of the late PEU officer Salim Yislam said her father was a motorcycle outrider in former President Jomo Kenyatta's motorcade. Photo: Michael Ollinga/TUKO.co.ke.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Monica Kimani's family files application to block release of Maribe and fiancee on bail

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke on Thursday, October 18, Yislam's daughter, Aisha Mohammed, said his father had persisted they meet Uhuru or his mother Mama Ngina personally to pass his congratulatory messages and plea to assist his family.

She said her father who was a motorcycle outrider fractured his leg after his bike collided with another outrider's when escorting Mzee Kenyatta to Mombasa State lodge in 1966.

"After fracturing the right foot and healing. He was assigned by Kenyatta to drive some of his official vehicles. It is then that he said he used to drive Uhuru to school. The vehicle he was driving was unfortunately hit by another car while on his return trip from dropping Uhuru in Nakuru in 1973," narrated Mohammed.

She said her father who had reclined back home wanted them to tell Uhuru he was happy that he finally grew up to be the Head of State when he was still alive.

Aisha Mohammed the daughter of late PEU officer Salim Yislam. She appealed for audience with president Uhuru Kenyatta to deliver her father's dying wish. Photo: Michael Ollinga/TUKO.co.ke.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Mudavadi clashes with Wetangula, Khalwale over support for William Ruto ahead of 2022 elections

"He really wished to meet Uhuru and pass this message after he won the presidency in 2013 but unluckily passed on in 2014. He told us to ensure we get his message to Uhuru and ask Mama Ngina for any help we had," she said.

According to Mohammed, her father referred her to Mzee Jomo's former Aide-De-Camp Major Marsden Madoka and the late Uhuru's elder sister Margaret Kenyatta who died in 2017, to help her get to the president.

"I searched for Madoka but he said he could not help and referred me to former Kakamega County Commissioner Kang'ethe Thuku but he was transferred to Nairobi before helping. Our efforts to reach even Mama Ngina have been futile," she added.

Yislam's daughter appealed for assistance to get audience with Uhuru, saying the family was also undergoing tough economic times and they depended on mandazi and ice cream selling business.

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- The MPs drawn from South Nyanza said a referendum aimed at creating more political positions was unnecessary

- South Mugirango MP Silvanus Osoro said those pushing for a referendum had not indicated explicit reasons for amendment

- According to the MP, the current Constitution promulgated in 2010 was not yet fully implemented

- They pledged to support Ruto's 2022 presidential bid

Deputy President William Ruto's opposition to the referendum inclined towards creating more political positions has received a boost after a group of MPs from Kisii threw their weight behind him.

The legislators said the current Constitution had already burdened Kenyans with a huge wage bill and amending the supreme law to create other offices was illogical.

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Deputy President Willaim Ruto begged to be left out of the referendum debate saying he was busy implementing government pledges. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter.

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Family of driver who took Uhuru to school wants to meet him, deliver his last message

Speaking in Suneka Catholic Church, Kisii county on Thursday, October 18, the MPs said Kenyans were fresh from an electioneering season and were not ready to indulge in another politically charged season.

South Mugirango MP Silvanus Osoro questioned the logic of amending the current supreme law which was promulgated in 2010 before it was even fully implemented, saying amendment calls were ill advised.

We must stop this debate about referendum and focus our energies on development. Looking at the state of affairs, some people are calling for change of constitution to create positions for some individuals. We are not ready for that, said Osoro.

Kitutu Chache MP Richard Onyonka said it would be wise for Kenyans to be told exactly what was the motive for amending the Constitution was before any leader could begin to campaign for the plebiscite.

The Members of Parliament and other leaders from Kisii said they would support DP William Ruto's 2022 bid. Photo: William Ruto/Twitter.

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Bobi Wine's controversial concert to take place after organisers agree with stadium management

We have heard some people calling for change of the Constitution but sadly they have not told us what is wrong with the current one. That urgent problem which demands for such an urgent amendment," Onyonka said.

Other leaders who backed Ruto's call were MPs Oroo Oyioka (Bonchari), Zadock Ogutu (Bomachoge Borabu), Ezekiel Machogu (Nyaribari Masaba), Alpha Ondieki (Bomachoge Chache), Innocent Obiri (Bobasi), Dan Wanyama (Webuye West) and Kisii deputy governor Joash Maangi.

Ruto said time for politics was over and he was more focused on implementing pledges they made to the electorate when seeking votes.

We are now implementing the pledges we made to Kenyans. This is why we are here with leaders from different political backgrounds working together on matters of development, said Ruto.

The MPs said the Abagusii community would support the DP's 2022 presidential bid.

As leaders from the Abagusii community, we want to make it clear we will support William Ruto for presidency in 20322. No one can gag us from talking about 2022, Osoro added.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Top 5 Facts About Uhuru Kenyatta - Raila Odinga Pact - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The governors were to meet with the Agriculture and National Treasury CSs

- The meeting was meant to address issues affecting maize farmers in the country

- The leaders accused the CSs of lack of commitment in the plight of maize farmers

- They called on national government to ensure all farmers are paid their dues

The Council of Governors has taken issue with Cabinet secretaries for skipping a crucial consultative meeting meant to address the maize crisis in the country held at Eldoret Town Hall in Uasin Gishu County.

National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and his Agriculture counterpart Mwangi Kiunjuri were expected to meet the governors and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) officials.

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READ ALSO: Picha za mazishi ya Sharon Otieno nyumbani kwa babu yake Homa Bay

Turkana County Governor Josphat Nanok addressing the press at the Uasin Gishu County headquarters after chairing a consultative meeting on the maize crisis in the country. Photo: Thaddeus Asesa

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Cabinet approves changes to transform NYS into government corporate body

The governors accused the two for lack of commitment to the plight of maize farmers as far as the issues facing them are concerned.

The absence of Cabinet secretaries for Agriculture and Treasury in the meeting puts to question the commitment of the national government to the agenda of food security. Further, the increased taxes and levies on agricultural inputs make our farmers noncompetitive to produce, said CoG chairperson Josphat Nanok.

According to Nanok who doubles as the Turkana County governor, Kenyan farmers have been facing various challenges during production and marketing of their produce.

READ ALSO: Kisii politicians back Ruto's opposition of referendum push

As we speak here today, our farmers are not able to deliver their maize to NCPB stores which may cause huge post-harvest losses to farmers. In desperation, our farmers have ended up being vulnerable to devious middlemen who exploit them by suppressing the prices below production cost, he added.

Nanok said there was an outcry from the farmers on when the Ministry of Agriculture would open the depots to receive maize from farmers and announce the buying price.

The governors noted some farmers were yet to receive their payments despite delivering maize to the NCPB stores a year ago.

Uasin Gishu County Governor Jackson Mandago speaking during a consultative meeting on the maize crisis in the country. Photo: Thaddeus Asesa/ Tuko

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Meet Daniel Odongo, the 'blind pilot' who wants to fly Uhuru

We urge the Ministry to clear the remaining balances owed to farmers to allow them to solve their domestic needs as well as invest for the next season, said Governor Jackson Mandago.

In October 4, 2018, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave direction to the Agriculture CS to ensure all farmers are paid after government issued KSh 1.4 billion.

Story by Thaddeus Asesa

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news

Kenya's Former Gangsters Now Cleaning Nairobi City - Kenya Untold Stories | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.keIn secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.On the heels of the Ministry of Health's announcement that the Delta variant is now the domiHead of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli advocates speeding up the implementation of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement.

"We [the EU] have the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine. And we should speed up the implementation of this agreement, which we hope will bring the Ukrainian economy, integrate it closer to the open market of the European Union" Mingarelli said at the Kyiv International Economic Forum, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the international trade system was not perfect, it had gaps and imbalances that need to be mended. "But protectionism is not the answer. We think the answer is the modernization of the World Trade Organization through negotiations and strengthening the international trade system based on generally accepted rules," the Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine noted.

The Kyiv International Economic Forum is attended by numerous delegations of foreign businessmen, financiers and investors who discuss prospects of cooperation with Ukrainian enterprises.

olIn January-August 2018, the exports of goods from Ukraine increased by 12.4%, while imports grew by 16.1% compared with the same period last year.

"In January-August 2018, the exports of goods totaled $30.910.5 million or 112.4% compared with January-August 2017, while imports totaled $35.914.6 million or 116.1%," the State Statistics Service of Ukraine reports.

It is noted that the foreign trade operations during this period were carried out with partners from 215 world countries.

In January-August 2018, the highest shares of exports from Ukraine were shipped to the Russian Federation (worth $2.45 billion or 7.9% of total exports), Poland ($2.16 billion or 7.0%) and Italy ($1.8 billion or 5.9%).

The top exports of Ukraine for January-August 2018 were ferrous metals (to the tune of $7.0 billion or 22.7% of total exports), grains ($ 4.2 billion or 13.6%), machinery, equipment and mechanisms ($3.09 billion or 10%).

The largest volumes of imported goods were delivered to Ukraine from the Russian Federation ($5.09 billion or 14.2% of total imports), China ($4.5 billion or 12.6%) and Germany ($3.99 billion or 11.1%).

The top imports of Ukraine for January-August 2018 were mineral fuels; oil and oil refining products ($8.2 billion or 22.9% of total imports), machinery, equipment and mechanisms ($7.3 billion or 20.4%), products of chemical and related industries ($4.7 billion or 13%).

olFifteen students and five adults are among those killed in an explosion and shooting at the Polytechnic College of Kerch in Russian-annexed Crimea, "deputy head of the Kerch administration" Dilyar Melgaziyev has told Interfax.

"Fifteen students, including six minors. Five adults," Melgaziyev said, clarifying that at the time of the tragedy six students were under the age of 18.

He added that according to preliminary data, all five adults were college employees.

According to him, the posts of college employees will be specified later.

Earlier it was reported that among the dead was the likely culprit of the tragedy who had committed suicide.

At least 20 people were killed and about 50 were injured in an explosion and shooting at the Polytechnic College of Kerch on October 17.

Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova said that she had appealed to Under-Secretary-General of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland on mass murder in Kerch.

opUkrainian World Congress President (UWC) Eugene Czolij, during his working trip to Brussels, stressed the importance of expanding the existing sanctions against the Russian Federation, the UWC press service reports.

With respect to the ongoing aggression, the UWC President stressed the importance of making every effort to strengthen the existing sanctions regime against the Russian Federation, including its exclusion from the SWIFT financial network, the report reads.

The UWC President also drew attention to the unlawful activities of the Russian Federation which have disrupted the free flow of traffic in the Sea of Azov and negatively impacted trade with Ukraine.

Highlighting the hybrid aggression of the Russian Federation, including widespread disinformation and cyber warfare, Eugene Czolij urged support from the international community in helping to reduce interference by the Russian Federation in Ukraines upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary elections, reads the report.

In addition, Eugene Czolij stressed the need to deploy a UN peacekeeping mission to the Donbas region.

He also suggested that the EU consider appointing an EU Special Representative for Ukraine in view of its importance to the EU and its member states, reads the report.

iyThe meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission has once again confirmed the Alliances commitment to supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

An Alliance representative told an Ukrinform correspondent about some details of the meeting, which took place on October 17 in Brussels without media coverage, attended by Minister of Ukraine for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, Vadym Chernysh.

Minister Chernysh informed the Allies about the terrible humanitarian situation and the challenges faced by refugees and displaced persons. The Allies expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in the conflict zone as well as the violation of human rights in Crimea, the Alliance representative said.

He noted that the NATO members had once again stressed the importance of the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and ensuring the unhindered access of the OSCE SMM to the conflict area.

The Allies confirmed their full support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. NATO will continue to provide strong political and practical support to Ukraine, the source stressed.

olUkraine and Armenia held bilateral political consultations on the prospects of cooperation within international organizations and the issues of regional security, the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in Armenia reports.

"On October 18, in the scope of the visit of Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vasyl Bodnar to the Republic of Armenia, the Ukrainian-Armenian political consultations were held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The parties discussed bilateral cooperation, prospects for cooperation within international organizations and the issues of regional security, reads the report.

According to the embassy, Bodnar also visited the Yerevan Research Institute of the Ternopil National Economic University, met with academic staff and discussed the work of the Ukrainian higher education institutions branch.

iyUkraine strongly condemns the official contacts of the Syrian Arab Republic with the occupation authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

"On October 15-16, 2018, the so-called official delegation of the occupation authorities of Crimea led by Sergey Aksyonov stayed in the Syrian Arab Republic at the invitation of Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Mohammad Samer al-Khalil. In this regard, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine states that holding of negotiations of Syrian officials with representatives of the occupation authorities of Crimea... is a gross violation of Ukraines state sovereignty, interference in its internal affairs as well as violation of fundamental norms and principles of the international law," reads the statement released on the website of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.

As the Foreign Ministry notes, the aforementioned illegal actions of the Syrian side, with which the Syrian authorities try to please the current Russian regime, cause irreparable harm to diplomatic relations between Ukraine and the Syrian Arab Republic.

The corresponding note of protest was handed over to the Syrian side, the Foreign Ministry informs.

olThe resumption of meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at the level of ministers should become the first step to reaffirm the special partnership between Ukraine and NATO.

Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze made the relevant statement at the NATO-Ukraine meeting on the assessment of Ukraines implementation of the Annual National Programme under the auspices of the NATO-Ukraine Commission for 2018, the Governmental portal reports.

"The Brussels Summit demonstrated that the allies again confirmed their commitment to further development of the special partnership between Ukraine and NATO. The only stumbling block on this path is blocking of the ministerial commission by Hungary. The future of the NATO-Ukraine Commission actually depends on the allies. I urge the Alliance to join actively the negotiations with Hungary to prove the high level of our partnership in practice, Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

The Vice PM noted that the NATOs political decisions regarding Ukraines membership had been approved at the Bucharest Summit ten years ago, and the practical task for today was to do everything necessary for high-quality preparation for the membership in the Alliance.

olThe agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Qatar on the mutual abolition of visa requirements comes into force on November 2, 2018.

"The agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the State of Qatar on the mutual abolition of visa requirements, which was signed in the city of Doha on March 20, comes into effect on November 2," the press service of the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine reports.

Pursuant to the agreement, the citizens of Ukraine, who use passports of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad (biometric and non-biometric), and citizens of the State of Qatar, who use ordinary passports, can enter, stay, exit and transit the territory of the other party without visas provided that the duration of their stay does not exceed 90 days within 180 days.

olUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko has dismissed Viktor Nikitiuk as Ukraine's ambassador to Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

The respective decree, No. 336/2018, was published on the website of the head of state on Thursday.

"To dismiss Viktor Olehovych Nikitiuk as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Tajikistan and as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan concurrently," reads the document.

opThe Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has passed the law on the transfer of the St. Andrew's Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople for perpetual free of charge usage.

A total of 237 Ukrainian lawmakers voted in favor of adoption of the presidential draft law No. 9208 as a basis and on the whole, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The decision on transfer of the St. Andrew's Church will help to accelerate the process of granting the Tomos of Autocephaly - the recognition of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by the world Orthodox Christianity," the explanatory note says.

Presenting the bill, representative of the President of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Lutsenko noted that the transfer of this particular religious building would have a unique, both practical and symbolic-spiritual significance.

"This will present the exclusive respect of Ukraine to the authority and the role of the Mother Church in the history of the development of the Ukrainian spiritual tradition and will unambiguously contribute to the process of granting the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, i.e., the establishment of an independent (autocephalous) jurisdiction, which will become worthy and equal among other local Orthodox churches of the world Orthodox Christianity," the MP said.

olThe International Kyiv Smart City Forum 2018 will be attended by foreign guests from Central and Eastern Europe on October 31, according to Director of the ICT Department at Kyiv City State Administration, Yuriy Nazarov.

"This year we are organizing Kyiv Smart City Forum 2018 for the third time. If earlier it was a local event within Ukraine, now it is already an international forum that will be held on October 31 at Congress and Exhibition Center Parkovy... The forum will be attended by representatives of more than hundred cities of Ukraine and more than 50 guests, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe," he said at a press conference, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

Nazarov added that the program of the forum includes panel discussions on current issues in Ukrainian cities, urban architecture, environment and energy efficiency, the use of open data and innovations.

Also, modern innovative companies will represent their concepts for the development of transport, utilities services and energy saving measures in cities.

Kyiv Smart City Forum 2018 is devoted to the promotion of smart city technologies and implementation of innovative solutions in cities. The forum will become a platform for an active community that is interested in the urban topic.

iyfacebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter

PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY:

Please join us at 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 22, in the media room on the sixth floor at the ULM Library for a press conference about this grant for continued work on olive oils potential effects on Alzheimers Disease.

Published Oct. 18, 2018

MONROE  Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (EAP) portfolio company Oleolive has been awarded a $350,000 federal grant to study oleocanthal, a compound found in extra virgin olive oil, and its effects on Alzheimers disease and related dementias.



The grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute on Aging (NIA) was awarded to the Shreveport-based company, which licensed a University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) technology for extraction of oleocanthal from the oil.

Segue Science Management (SSM) negotiated the licensing agreement, the first technology licensing deal for ULM, and partnered with Oleolive to form a private company to provide high-quality oleocanthal to researchers, develop a consumer product to show the beneficial effects of oleocanthal on the skin, and continue research on oleocanthals effects on Alzheimers disease by Dr. Amal Kaddoumi, who also received pilot funding from BRFs Center for Molecular Imaging and Therapy. Oleolive operations are based out of BRFs Intertech 1 facility in Segue Science Labs. SSM, which aims to commercialize scientific technologies discovered in the academic setting, has entered a second-year contract with ULM to commercialize more technology developed at the university. Revenue derived from Oleolive and future licensed technologies returns to ULM in the form of royalties. Dr. John Sutherlin, Director of the ULM Office of Sponsored Programs and Research commented, The Office of Sponsored Programs and Research remain very proud of the hard work and brilliance of our faculty. We are so glad to have played a role in taking this project from pure research to applied research with more to come. ULM will continue to look for more opportunities for other researchers.



Dave Smith, EAP Executive Director, added, This federal grant further validates the research that is ongoing at ULM and the value of the technology that Oleolive and its founders are bringing to market for researchers and a possible wide range of future applications  from skin conditions to cancer and Alzheimers disease.



Oleocanthals potential health benefits were originally studied by ULM researchers Drs. Khalid El Sayed and Amal Kaddoumi.



Oleolive founders are Kiley Grant, CEO, Drs. El Sayed and Kaddoumi, and former LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport researchers Drs. Alana Gray, COO, and Jim Cardelli, CTO.



For more information about the company at www.oleo.live and www.super-oli.com.NATO noted the importance of the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and pledged to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

The NATO-Ukraine Commission has discussed the humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Donbas and the human rights situation in Russian-occupied Crimea.

"NATO member states have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in the conflict zone and human rights violations in Crimea," a NATO official told DW.

Read alsoTurchynov, NATO PA President discuss strategy to counter Russia's aggression in Azov-Black Sea region

Ukraine Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Vadym Chernysh also took part in the meeting of the commission at the ambassadorial level in Brussels on Wednesday, October 17.

NATO noted the importance of the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and pledged to support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

"Kyiv has maximally simplified the procedure for crossing humanitarian goods supplied to the occupied territories. This refers to medicines, which should be promptly and smoothly delivered to the sick, as well as food products, building materials and water purification agents," the ministry's press service quoted Chernysh as saying.

The official assured the provision of the population in non-government-controlled areas of Donbas with drinking water is a "priority" for the Ukrainian state.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Hungary has been blocking the meetings of the NATO-Ukraine Commission at the level of politicians for a year. At the same time, the commission meets regularly at the ambassadorial level. Ukrainian officials may also take part in such meetings.Since one of the dead pilots of the aircraft was a member of the U.S. National Guard, the U.S. side is interested to take part in the investigation.

Spokesman for the military prosecutor's office of the Central region of Ukraine Andriy Kyseliov has said U.S. representatives may join a group of experts who will establish the circumstances of the crash of the Ukrainian Su-27 flanker jet in Vinnytsia region on Tuesday.

Since one of the dead pilots of the aircraft was a member of the U.S. National Guard, the U.S. side is interested to take part in the investigation.

Read alsoUkraine's Su-27 crash: Clear Sky-2018 drills to continue

"Of course, there is information that there is an interest of the American side to take part in the investigation," Kyseliov told Hromadske.

He noted that, according to the Ukrainian legislation, they cannot be involved in the investigation. "Therefore, it is possible that the expert group created by the Ministry of Defense, which will work daily from tomorrow and will hold a meeting in the town of Starokostiantyniv (Khmelnytskiy region), will involve foreign experts," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 16, at about 17:00, a Su-27 flanker jet of the Ukrainian Air Force crashed in Vinnytsia region. The jet was on a combat training flight as part of the Clear Sky-2018 international exercises. Both pilots aboard are reported to have died in the crash. One of the crew members is reportedly a U.S. national.

The U.S. Air Force confirmed that an American pilot was involved in the Su-27 incident during the Clear Sky-2018 international drills, but did not specify his fate pending investigation.This refers to persons who are denied entry to Ukraine and representatives of the armed forces' units or other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state.

The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has passed bill No. 7017 to amend the Criminal and Criminal Procedural Codes of Ukraine regarding liability for illegal crossing of the state border.

The relevant decision was backed by 243 out of 343 MPs registered in the session hall, an UNIAN correspondent reported on October 18.

Read alsoOSCE spots trucks carrying anti-aircraft gun in Russian-occupied Donbas

The bill proposes to supplement the Criminal Code of Ukraine with Article 332-2 "Illegal crossing of the state border of Ukraine."

The document stipulates the crossing of Ukraine's state border to harm the country's interests is punishable by imprisonment for up to three years. This refers to persons who are denied entry to Ukraine and representatives of the armed forces' units or other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state, who try to cross the state border of Ukraine by any means beyond official checkpoints or at checkpoints without proper travel documents or documents containing inaccurate information.

The same acts committed repeatedly or by a group of persons will entail imprisonment from three to five years.

Committing these acts combined with violence or the use of weapons will to be punished by imprisonment from five to eight years.

In addition, the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine envisages that investigators of security agencies shall carry out pre-trial investigations of crimes under the said article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The document comes into force the day following the date of its publication.The terrible massacre in Crimea could not leave anyone indifferent. Another mad "Breivik," a local 21-year-old man, gunned down 21 people, also leaving dozens injured. It would seem that, apart from words of sympathy and condolences, there is nothing much to say in such a situation.

However, in Russia, they decided to use this horror to show, first of all, to themselves that Crimea is ours, albeit covered in blood.

The Russian Foreign Ministry rushed to announce that in the follow up to the tragedy, Russia received words of support from "foreign partners and leaders of foreign countries." Here comes a long-awaited moment of recognition of the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea. However, in practice, as usual, it turned out differently.

First, Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately expressed condolences after the incident and separately emphasized that "in Russia, in the city of Kerch, a tragic event occurred." It is curious that, often, as accidents occur and high-profile crimes are committed in Russian cities, Putin does not speak of their territorial affiliation aloud. However, this situation was special.

Naturally, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who was standing next to Putin at that moment, also expressed condolences and did not argue about the territorial issues. This is not surprising, since Russian-Egyptian negotiations, in fact, did not cover the matter. Moreover, the fact remains that Egypt never recognized the Crimea occupation.

Second, the TASS state news agency reported that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, at a meeting with the Russian Prosecutor General in Belgrade, expressed his condolences, adding that the crime had been committed precisely in Russia. Just three minutes ago, I received information about what happened in Russia, in Kerch, Vucic allegedly said.

However, in Russia they decided to use this horror to show, first of all, to themselves that Crmiea is ours, albeit covered in blood

However, these words can't be found either in the Serbian media, or in Vucic's Twitter, or in the press service report. Although, in fairness, it should be noted that the head of the Serbian Ministry of Defense sent a telegram with condolences to his counterpart from the Russian Federation, Mr Shoigu. Obviously, not all Serbian officials understand: if they question the issue of Crimea belonging to Ukraine, then Kosovo is not Serbia, either.

Later, in Russia, the President of Ukraine was ostracized when he dared to say that it was the citizens of our country who were killed in its occupied part. Meanwhile, the presidents of the CIS countries didnt focus on this at all and their words of support were addressed primarily to the families of the victims and the injured.

The real Russian "victory" was the message of the press service of the German government. Indeed, the condolences from Angela Merkel really did not mention the fact that Crimea is Ukraine, on which some Russian media focused.

But that's not all.

The biggest disappointment for Russian propaganda and professional instigators of hatred towards Ukraine was the fact that the crime was not a terrorist act and that it was committed not by some NATO-trained ruthless Ukrainian saboteurs on the orders of the White House. It turns out that nobody left Yarosh business cards in the bomb-hit college. This was done by a lone culprit. Moreover, it is possible that he regularly watched Russian TV, where talking heads constantly speak of Ukrainian "crimes." Besides, as soon as the first reports came about the incident in Kerch, Russian TV immediately began to beat the war drums, talking about Ukrainian saboteurs and terrorists.

For Russian realities, it does not matter that such precedents are fiction (the only real thing in these fantasies is citizens of Ukraine like Oleh Sentsov, Viktor Panov, or Volodymyr Balukh, convicted on fake charges). Therefore, it is not surprising that the Russian collaborator and, concurrently, the speaker of the parliament of the occupied Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, claimed that the crime has Ukrainian traces. And then came a fiasco.

The biggest disappointment for Russian propaganda and professional instigators of hatred towards Ukraine was the fact that the crime was not a terrorist act

The Investigative Committee of Russia ruined everything by re-qualifying the case from a terrorist attack to mass murder. Such a great news piece has broken apart and failed to create a pretext for unfolding another stage of Russia's war against Ukraine.

One of the experts loyal to the Kremlin has expressed his attitude to what happened very frankly: if it is not a terrorist attack of Banderites, not a terrorist attack of an Islamic State, then the retaliatory strike is not necessary and there will not be a new big war.

In fact, it turns out that it's the occupation authorities who are to blame for the tragedy in Kerch, as they gladly engage in creating fiction horror stories about the threat coming from Ukraine, while remaining absolutely irresponsible towards the occupied territory. This means that massacre will soon be forgotten and blocked by some other breaking news. Indeed, they will say that in Russia and the occupied Crimea everything is stable  they have Putin and the infamous spiritual ties. It is better to turn on the international panorama mode, and search for flaws in other countries.

Roman TsymbaliukThe warships could significantly increase the defense capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the Black and Azov Seas war theaters.

The United States offered Ukraine the Oliver Hazard Perry type frigates under the "Excessive Defense Property."

The U.S. leadership sent a letter to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense about military and technical assistance to the Ukrainian Navy through the military attache of the United States Embassy, the Ukrainian Military Portal reports with reference to own sources.

"Among the proposals, the issue is being considered of obtaining the Oliver Hazard Perry type frigates that are in the possession of the U.S. Navy and could be transferred under the Excess Defense Property program," reads the report.

These warships could significantly improve the defense capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the Black and Azov Seas war theaters.

As UNIAN reported earlier, the designers revealed a project of a missile boat, which will be created for the Ukrainian Navy.The envoy recalled that the United States had lifted the embargo on arms supplies to Ukraine.

Kurt Walker, a Special Representative of the U.S. Department of State for Ukraine negotiations, has announced possible negotiations with Kyiv on sales of U.S. weapons.

Speaking at the Atlantic Council Conference in Washington, the American diplomat recalled that the United States had lifted the arms embargo on Ukraine  something he said a few years ago, under the previous U.S. administration was seen as a "potentially provocative" move.

As is known, the Obama administration suggested this would lead to an escalation in Donbas.

Read alsoU.S. eyes giving Ukraine Oliver Hazard Perry frigates to boost defenses in Black, Azov Seas

"We got rid of that. We have now helped Ukraine with anti-tank weapons, with anti-sniper systems And the decision from the administration is to treat Ukraine like a normal country. A country that has a right to self-defense, a country that has a national security strategy, a country that may have gaps in that strategy and friends and allies can talk about how to help fill those gaps," Volker said.

The diplomat also stated that the new package of military financing is being worked through the Congress.

"We'll be sitting down with the Ukrainians to talk possibly also about foreign military sales and what will make sense for them," said the U.S. envoy.

As UNIAN reported earlier, on March 2, the U.S. State Department approved the sale to Ukraine of 210 Javelin antitank missiles and 37 launchers worth a total of $47 million.

Ukraine has already received said weapons.The U.S. envoy believes Russia does not intend to change its stance on Ukraine.

Kurt Walker, a Special Representative of the U.S. Department of State for Ukraine negotiations, says he believes Russia will retain its current position toward Ukraine until the presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Ukraine in 2019.

The American diplomat said that the U.S. failed to impact the decision-making from Vladimir Putin or others in Russia "about whether to continue the war" in Donbas.

"They are determined to continue to do so. And my estimation is that the chances of their changing their position now are lower than they were even a year ago. I think that Russia has essentially decided to wait out the Ukrainian election, see what happens, maybe there'll be new opportunities that arise that give a more favorable position for Russia, so I think they just intend to play it out," Volker said, speaking at the Atlantic Council Conference in Washington.

Read alsoVolker announces talks with Ukraine on sale of U.S. weapons

Calling the developments "unfortunate," Volker explained that this is what is directly causing "humanitarian hardships" in eastern Ukraine.

He also finds it said that while Russia claims it is protecting Russian speakers in Donbas, it is precisely Moscow's actions that are "hurting Russian speaking people in Ukraine."

He also ruled out Ukraine's intentions to return the occupied territories by force.

"I can say with great confidence, having met with everyone, Ukrainians have no illusions about retaking the territory that they've lost by force. That would be a catastrophe for Ukraine to attempt that," Volker said.

At the same time, he opines it is important that Ukraine "build the capacities and strength so that it can continue to emerge successfully as a healthy, secure European democracy."Hungarian officials get very nervous when accused of coordinating their moves with Moscow.

After the shocking video was released revealing a scene where Ukrainians in the Hungarian Consulate in Zakarpattia's Berehove were issued Hungarian passports and instructed to conceal the fact before the Ukrainian authorities, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's top diplomat, chose a tactic of escalating the confrontation.

Although this is hardly his own initiative as the aggravation of relations with Ukraine is the policy of the entire current political class in Hungary, LB.ua wrote.

This is evidenced by a recent visit of a Hungarian delegation to Transcarpathian Region, which included Secretary of State for National Policy Arpad Janos Potapi, the head of the Transcarpathian department at the State Secretariat of Hungary, Katalin Ljubka, the head of the office of state secretary Z. Kadar, as well as Hungary's general consuls in Uzhhorod - Jozsef Buhajla - and in Berehove - Matias Siladi.

During their visit to Ukraine, they held confidential talks on the current situation with the administration of the Hungarian Culture Society of Transcarpathian Region and the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Ukraine.

They said Budapest was investigating the leak of a scandalous video from the consulate in Berehove, showing Transcarpathian residents being issued Hungarian passports and asked to keep it secret. Hungarian special services are running thorough checks on those who apply for fast-tracked citizenship.

Read alsoUkraine MFA: Hungary acts as if Ukraine's Zakarpattia its territory

In the meantime, Budapest has temporarily suspended citizenship ceremonies in Transcarpathian Region. From now on they will be held at local self-government offices in Hungary's Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County bordering with Ukraine,

Pro-Hungarian organizations, in turn, said that because of extended checks of Ukrainian Hungarians for dual citizenship at the border, they and the consulates reopened legal aid centers. Interestingly enough, a similar center used to operate back in 2015 when its lawyers helped Transcarpathian Hungarians dodge mobilization to the Ukrainian army.

Further coordination of international efforts on countering the language clauses of the Ukrainian education law was also discussed during the delegation's visit. The participants in the meeting agreed that at international events they will insist that the law "limits" the rights of minorities. That's exactly what Ukrainian MP Laszlo Brenzovych claimed on October 11 in Brussels at a meeting with European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics and President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani. "Hungarians' position has never been so bad in the history of independent Ukraine," Brenzovych said.

High-ranking Hungarian official Potapi said about Budapest's intention to pass an address to the European Commission and the EU Council, which would accuse Kyiv of "violating" its obligations under the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

Read alsoKlimkin: Budapest's position on language harms ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine

As for Budapest financing the programmes of the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathian Region, this September alone, the Hungarian Culture Society of Transcarpathian Region allocated 570 million forints (about $2 mln) through the branches of OTP Bank to the Hungarian-speaking population in assistance to children who study in Hungarian-speaking schools and kindergartens in the region. This amount was allocated by the Hungarian government through the Bethlen Gabor Fund.

Ukraine's plans to station a standing military contingent in the town of Berehove was also discussed. According to the representative of the Democratic Union of Hungarians of Ukraine, Laszlo Zubanich, this "will upset the ethnic balance" that has formed in Berehove and across the area over the past decades. Moreover, this step of the Ukrainian authorities allegedly contradicts the agreement on cooperation between the Hungarian Republic and the former Ukrainian SSR.

Meanwhile, Hungarian officials get very nervous when accused of coordinating their moves with Moscow, which for four years has been trying to change the government in Ukraine first by military means, then by terrorism and sabotage, and now also with political methods. Because Russia is "toxic", Budapest is trying to avoid a "Hungary-Russia" connection because it calls into question the independence of the Hungarian authorities.

Read alsoHungarian NGO spreading fake about persecution of national minorities in Ukraine  media

But facts are stubborn, and they suggest quite the opposite.

First, Szijjarto's harsh statements about Ukraine began and continued, by a strange coincidence, at joint events with Sergei Lavrov (New York on September 19, 2017, followed by an event in Moscow on October 3, 2018). "The ministers expressed concern about the education law passed by the Ukrainian parliament, which limits the rights of ethnic minorities to education in their native language," the Russian Foreign Ministry said then.

Second, it is Moscow that helps the Hungarian authorities share information about the "oppression of Transcarpathian Hungarians" internationally. It was the Russian delegation who distributed corresponding brochures at the OSCE conference in Warsaw in September. And they were printed in Moscow, too.

Read alsoUnlocking of NATO-Ukraine Commission's work depends on agreements between Kyiv, Budapest  Stoltenberg

Orban closely cooperates with Moscow on economic matters as well - and he intends to develop these relations further despite European sanctions and EU policies. On September 18, 2018, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Hungarian prime minister insisted that Moscow should consider an extension of the future Turkish Stream gas pipeline to Hungary. Thus, he nodded at Russian plans to increase the volume of Russian gas supplies to Europe, while excluding the real and potential opponents of Moscows imperial policy from among the transit countries (including Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Lithuania).

Rosatom is also building two additional generating units of the Hungarian nuclear power plant Paks.

And during his visit to Moscow on October 3, Szijjarto announced that in 2020, Budapest would buy 4 bln cubic meters from Moscow. And although the cost of Russian gas for Hungary is kept in secret, practice shows that Moscow always uses gas either as a stick or a carrot.

Taking into account all said factors, Budapest and Moscow might not only play along on the Ukraine issue but also coordinate their joint actions against Kyiv.

Despite the mutual expulsion of consuls, as well as a series of unfriendly statements on Ukraine by Peter Szijjarto, Kyiv still harbors hope to at least take the public rhetoric down a notch.

"We are not at war with Hungary because we are at war with the Russian Federation which carried out armed aggression. But we need to find a common language with Budapest," Klimkin said optimistically after his latest meeting with Szijjarto.There is no official confirmation from the Russian authorities yet

Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Akhtem Chiygoz has said Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh will be convoyed to the Kerch colony on Thursday, October 18.

There is no official confirmation from the Russian authorities yet, RFE/RL's Krym.Realii media project said.

Read alsoCrimean activist Balukh complains about acute heart pain  media

As UNIAN reported earlier, the Crimean court on July 5 sentenced Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh to an extra five-year term in a penal colony and a RUB 10,000 fine in the second criminal case opened against him. That second case was based on claims by Valeriy Tkachenko, the head of a detention center in the village of Rozdolne, who stated Balukh had allegedly assaulted him, while the prisoner and his defense insisted that it was Tkachenko who had in fact attacked the defendant.

Balukh was detained by Russia's FSB Federal Security Service on December 8, 2016. FSB operatives claimed that they had allegedly found 90 ammunition rounds and several TNT explosives in his attic.

On March 14, 2018, the Kremlin-controlled "Supreme Court of Crimea" reviewed Balukh's original verdict and sentenced him to three years and five months in a penal colony settlement and a RUB 10,000 fine.

On March 19, Balukh said he would go on hunger strike in response to the verdict. Balukh's defense and human rights activists assert that he is a victim of repression over his public pro-Ukrainian position.

Recently, Chiygoz reported that Balukh who was kept in a Simferopol detention center had badly been beaten by the guards and faced death threats.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that evidence of the attack on Balukh would be transferred to courts.

On October 9, Balukh announced he had suspended his hunger strike during the transfer from the peninsula to a Russian-based colony.Kharkiv City Council approved the decision about naming a new street after Alexandra Belova  the recognized Righteous Among the Nations. This has been shared by the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin on his Facebook page.

Kharkiv became the first city to join the initiative of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine The Righteous People of My City, noted Lozhkin.

The Righteous Among the Nations is the title established by the Yad Vashem National Memorial to the Holocaust victims to honor the heroes who, risking their own lives, saved Jews during the Second World War. There are more than 2.6 thousand of the Righteous among the Nations in Ukraine, according to Yad Vashem. Of course, in fact there are many more of them, and the work to restore the facts of saving Jews is still ongoing, says Lozhkin.

According to him, in September the JCU appealed to the local councils of the Ukrainian cities with a proposal to name a new street, square or a mini-park with the name of one of the Righteous Among the Nations  a native of this city, and to place a corresponding memorable sign there.

A Kharkiv journalist Alexandra Belova is a recognized Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations, who in 1942 saved two Jewish girls, the children of her neighbor Rosalia Arinberg  an 11-year-old Yelena and a three-year-old Ira. As well as Rosalia herself.

Rosalia Arinberg together with the children got into the ghetto, but was able to escape. Having left the girls on the way to Kharkiv, she went to Alexandra Belova asking for help. Alexandra walked 40 km in the minus 20 degrees freezing cold weather and brought the children to her house on a sled.

The younger child, Ira, was taken by the Arinberg housemaid  Zinaida Logvinenko. Alexandra Belova was hiding Rosalia and her elder daughter Lena. The girl was warned not to approach the window, but once she looked out onto the street, and someone of the neighbors noticed her. Then the family decided to move Lena to the house on the other side of the street, to the pre-war co-worker of Rosalia Arinberg  to Galina Zozulevich. Soon the Arinbergs were able to leave Kharkiv with the prepared by Belova forged documents.

A few months later, Alexandra was shot by the Gestapo for the salvation of a Jewish family and links with the partisans.

Saved by her Rosalia Arinberg lived to be 90 years old. Her younger daughter lives in Germany, and the elder, Yelena Scherbakova, died last year in Kharkiv.

This is a heroic deed of a person who, at the cost of her life, saved the others. This is a tribute to the memory. Kharkiv honors its heroes. Unfortunately, this has not been done earlier, but we have corrected our mistake. I think, we should have named a street in honor of Alexandra Belova a long time ago, and now one of the streets will receive her name, declared earlier the First Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv Igor Terekhov.

I hope that the example of Kharkiv will be followed by the other cities, to which we have made the relevant proposals, says Lozhkin.Kerch's deputy mayor, Dilyaver Melgaziyev, said on October 18 that all the victims had been identified, adding that 15 of them were students, and six of them were younger than 18, while the other five victims were college employees.

All the victims of a shooting rampage at a technical college in Ukraine's Moscow-annexed Crimea region have been identified, with some of the critically wounded being airlifted to hospitals in Russia, authorities say.

Twenty-one people were killed, including the suspected shooter, and scores were wounded in the October 17 shooting spree at a technical college in Kerch, according to Radio Liberty.

Russian investigators identified the suspected killer, who they say also shot himself dead, as Vladislav Roslyakov, an 18-year-old student at a technical college in the Crimean city.

Kerch's deputy mayor, Dilyaver Melgaziyev, said on October 18 that all the victims had been identified, adding that 15 of them were students, and six of them were younger than 18, while the other five victims were college employees.

Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said earlier that a total of 70 people were wounded in the attack, and 10 of them were in a critical condition, including five who were in a coma.

Read alsoCrimea college attack: Death toll grows to 21 people

Skvortsova told Russian news agencies on October 18 that the authorities were preparing to airlift at least 10 severely wounded people to top Russian hospitals for surgery. Dozens more remain hospitalized in Kerch.

The Russia-imposed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, told Russian news agencies that the first victim will be buried later on October 18.

Authorities and eyewitnesses say a teenager walked calmly through the Kerch polytechnic school shooting people seemingly indiscriminately with a shotgun before committing suicide.

Aksyonov described Roslyakov, a fourth-year student, as a shy boy who had no known friends and a good record in school.

"What he published on his [social media] account was not open to the public. Access to his account was restricted; he didn't have any friends," Aksyonov told Rossia-24 television.

"He wasn't aggressive, he was rather timid," Aksyonov said, speculating that Roslyakov might have "watched some movies" that inspired him to go on the shooting spree.

"He was walking around and shooting students and teachers in cold blood," Aksyonov said.

The announcement that the shooter was a student who acted alone came after hours of shifting explanations as to what happened at the school, with investigators initially saying it might have been a terrorist attack.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the authorities declared an emergency in Crimea and Russia sent National Guard troops to protect schools and a new 19-kilometer bridge connecting Crimea with Russia.

Read alsoKerch bomber identified

The attack was the greatest loss of life in school violence in Russia since the Beslan attack by Chechen separatists in September 2004, in which 333 people, many of them children, were killed during a three-day siege.

While such school shootings are rare in Ukraine and Russia, which illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, AP reported that the bloodbath raised questions about school security, as the Kerch school had only a front desk with no security guards.

Some witnesses said more than one person was involved, with one saying a bomb with shrapnel that went off in the school lunchroom during the siege was set off by a second attacker.

But Aksyonov said Roslyakov made the bomb himself and set it off while using a shotgun he recently acquired and 150 cartridges he bought just a few days ago to conduct his deadly shooting spree.

Aksyonov said Roslyakov had recently received a permit to own the shotgun after passing routine background checks.Four enemy troops were wounded, intelligence reports say.

Russia's hybrid military forces mounted 17 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas in the past 24 hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action (WIA).

"Two Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the past day. According to intelligence reports, four occupiers were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update published on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on October 18, 2018.

Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports 1 WIA in Donbas on Oct 17

Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire from grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms to attack the defenders of the town of Avdiyivka, and the villages of Katerynivka, Novoluhanske, Verkhniotoretske, Novomykhailivka, Novotroyitske, Starohnativka, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Talakivka, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne.

In addition, the enemy resorted to 120mm mortars to shell the defenders of Talakivka, while the Ukrainian positions near Novoluhanske, Hnutove, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne came under fire from 82mm mortars.

"Since Thursday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted two attacks on the Ukrainian positions near Hnutove and Vodiane, using grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms. No heavy weapons were used. No casualties among Ukrainian troops have been reported since the start of the day," reads the report.Cyber-terrorism topped the list of threats to U.S. security in the poll.

Nearly half of all current military troops believe the United States will be drawn into a major war soon, a jarring rise in anxiety among service members worried about global instability in general and Russia and China in particular, according to a new Military Times poll of active-duty troops.

About 46 percent of troops who responded to the anonymous survey of currently serving Military Times readers said they believe the U.S. will be drawn into a new war within the next year. That's a jarring increase from only about 5 percent who said the same thing in a similar poll conducted in September 2017.

Another 50 percent think the country will not end up in a major conflict during the next year. But that number is falling, down from more than two-thirds of those surveyed last fall who said a war was unlikely.

Read alsoNATO prepared for 'growing Russian threat'  media

The fears of war come as President Donald Trump in the last year has repeatedly emphasized improving military readiness in the face of growing threats from foreign adversaries, both loosely affiliated terrorist groups and traditional major power rivals. At the same time, top Pentagon officials have spoken publicly about the need to prepare for a conflict against a "near-peer" adversary.

When asked about specific countries, troops said Russia and China were among their top concerns. The poll showed a big increase in the number of troops who identify those two countries as significant or major threats: About 71 percent of troops said Russia was a significant threat, up 18 points from last year's survey. And 69 percent of troops said China poses a significant threat, up 24 points from last year.

Cyber-terrorism topped the list of threats to U.S. security in the Military Times poll. Nearly 89 percent of those surveyed listed it as a significant threat, with more than half of those calling it a major concern.

And many troops worry the U.S. is not fully prepared for cyber warfare. One-third of service members said they disapprove of the country's current policies on combating cyber terrorism. Only about 13 percent said they strongly back government and military efforts underway.

Foreign terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group were seen as less of a threat than domestic terrorist groups. About 57 percent of troops see U.S.-based Islamic extremists as a significant threat, compared to 49 percent for other domestic terrorist groups and 48 percent for foreign ones. Last year, more than 59 percent of troops said Al Qaeda and ISIS posed significant threats.

Read alsoU.S. charges seven Russian GRU officers with international hacking, disinformation

The biggest decrease shown in this year's poll was North Korea, which was seen as a significant threat by more than 72 percent of troops one year ago, but in this year's poll only 46 percent described the country that way.

Between September 20 and October 2, Military Times, in collaboration with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, conducted a voluntary, confidential online survey of U.S. service members. The survey included 19 questions on service members' opinion(s) related to the current political climate, policy and national security in the United States.

The survey received 829 responses from active-duty troops. The IVMF used standard methodology to estimate the weights for each individual observation of the survey sample. The margin of error for most questions was roughly 2 percent.

The survey audience was 89 percent male and 11 percent female and had an average age of about 31 years old. The respondents identified themselves as 76 percent white, 13 percent Hispanic, 9 percent African American, 5 percent Asian and 6 percent other ethnicities. Respondents were able to select more than one race.Both Salvini's League party and Italy's other governing party, the Five Star Movement, are opposed to Russian sanctions on the grounds that they hurt Italian businesses and the economy.

Italy's deputy prime minister says his country will oppose a renewal of European Union sanctions against Russia, but he suggested Rome is not ready to break with the rest of the EU and veto a rollover of the sanctions.

"I come here because I am convinced that sanctions are economic, social, and cultural madness," Matteo Salvini said on a visit to Moscow on October 17. Salvini leads Italy's far-right League party and is also Italy's interior minister, RFE/RL wrote.

He criticized the basis of the sanctions, which were imposed on Moscow after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war against the government.

The EU's dominant powers, Germany and France, and most other EU members have said the sanctions should stay in place until progress is made in ending that conflict.

Read alsoFor the first time, Italy arrests far-right Italians who fought in Ukraine  media

Salvini charged that the EU is sanctioning Russia for "alleged violations against Ukraine," while taking no action over Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus  "a European country"  since 1974.

"It is folly," he said, vowing to "do his best" to bring an end to the Russian sanctions, or at least to resist attempts to make their renewal every six months automatic.

"If we are asked to confirm, we will say no. It's clear that it makes no sense that they are in place," he told a gathering of Italian businessmen in Moscow in a speech live-streamed on his Facebook account.

But he stopped short of saying Rome would veto a plan to roll over the sanctions, which is expected to come before a summit of EU leaders in December. The sanctions are due to expire in January.

"We can only play the veto joker once in Europe," Salvini said, noting that Italy is also battling Brussels on other fronts, including over the EU budget, immigration reform, and Italy's own, contested 2019 budget.

"If they reject that, I don't know what card I will play," he said.

EU sources have told RFE/RL that Italy might agree to extend the sanctions if the EU agrees to Rome's proposal to soften them somewhat by reviving EU bank funding for small Russian businesses that were not targeted by the sanctions.

Both Salvini's League party and Italy's other governing party, the Five Star Movement, are opposed to Russian sanctions on the grounds that they hurt Italian businesses and the economy.

Salvini has openly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the League signed a cooperation deal in 2017 with United Russia, Russia's dominant political party.

"I feel at home here. In some European countries I don't. Here, I feel as safe as in my home," Salvini told the Moscow gathering.

During his visit, Salvini was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is due in Moscow next week for talks with Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.Everything began with the infamous tragic events in the USA, Vladimir Putin suggested.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the tragedy at the occupied Crimea's Kerch College is the result of globalization.

Addressing the participants of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi on Thursday, October 18, Putin said: In social networks, on the internet, entire communities have been created. Everything began with the infamous tragic events in the USA, when unstable young people create false heroes for themselves. This means that we all in general fail to create the necessary, interesting and useful content. They grab a surrogate for heroism instead of the real one. This leads to tragedies alike.

Read alsoPoroshenko: Crimea's PGO initiates criminal proceedings following terrorist attack in Kerch

As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 17, a student of the Kerch Polytechnic College, Vladislav Roslyakov, opened fire and set off an improvised explosive device at his educational facility, after which he committed suicide.

As a result of the accident, 21 people were killed and 50 were injured and hospitalized.

The criminal case initially suggested a "terrorist attack," to be shortly re-qualified for "mass murder."

A three-day mourning was declared in the occupied Crimea.The Russian president assured that his country's concept of using nuclear weapons does not provide for a preemptive strike.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Russian citizens that in the event of a nuclear war they would go to heaven as martyrs, while the rest would just die.

Are we ready, am I ready to use the weapons at our disposal, including weapons of mass destruction, to protect our interests? I remind you what I said earlier. I said that in our concept of the use of nuclear weapons, there is no preemptive strike, Putin said, speaking at the Valdai Forum in Sochi Thursday, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Russia.

The Russian concept is the response to the attack, he said.

Read alsoPutin names what he thinks caused Kerch massacre

For those who know, I dont need to say what it is. For those who don't, I will say it again. This means that we are ready and we will use nuclear weapons only when we are sure that someone, a potential aggressor, attacks Russia, our territory, said Putin.

And when we are sure, and this all happens within a few seconds, that there is an ongoing attack on Russia, only after that we strike back. This is the response, because they [missiles] fly at us, and then something will fly back, towards aggression, he added.

The aggressor must be aware that retaliation is inevitable, that they will be destroyed. And we, the victims of aggression, as martyrs, will go to heaven, while they will just die, because they will not even have time to repent, Putin said.

Read also"Radioactive ash" syndrome: Russias Zhirinovsky suggests nuking Poroshenko's residence

As reported earlier, in March 2014, a Russian propaganda talking head Dmitry Kiselyov, speaking on the air of one of the TV channels, said that Russia is the only country capable of turning the United States into radioactive ashes.

In October 2016, Putin criticized Kiselyovs remark for being too aggressive. Rattling nuclear weapons is the last thing to be done. This is harmful rhetoric, and I don't welcome it, he said.Crisis Phone Numberspecial noticeIf you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential.1-888-899-9377A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis.The Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC) Thursday asked the provincial government to address the issues of water shortage for winter crops and fix adequate price of the sugarcane crop.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :The Sindh Agriculture Research Council (SARC) Thursday asked the provincial government to address the issues of water shortage for winter crops and fix adequate price of the sugarcane crop.

The demand was made at a dialogue organized by SARC at Hyderabad Press Club on Thursday where participants discussed issues affecting the farmers in Sindh including shortage of water and uncertainty of availability of water for winter crop and fair price of sugarcane crop.

SARC's Advocate Ali Palh, Prof. Ismail Kumbhar of Sindh Agriculture University, Dost Muhammad Baloch of Matiari Sugar Mill, Shabir Ahmed from Mehran Sugar Mill, peasants representatives Ghulam Ali Laghari and Murtaza Otho, Dr Shahnawaz Dal and other stakeholders expressed their views.

The recommendations supported construction of any dam which had been approved by Council of the Common Interests (CCI) and keeping in view the issues of delta, environment protection and shared water control.

The recommendations called for implementation of Supreme Court's order with regard to removing all direct outlets from the irrigation canals while it rejected Sindh Government's offer of fixing Rs.160 per 40 kilogram price of sugarcane.

"This is fourth consecutive year that growers of sugarcane are in crises and Sindh government has failed to resolve this issue," the participants deplored while the SARC warned of staging protest outside CM House in Karachi over the matter.

The recommendations demanded action against sale of spurious seed, pesticides, fertilizer and other inputs while seeking close coordination among Irrigation, food and Agriculture ministries.

It called for providing subsidized solar tube wells and tractors to the growers. Concerns were also expressed against corruption specifically in Sindh Irrigation Department.United Business Group (UBG) Chairman, Iftikhar Ali Malik, will present a Rs100 million cheque to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday as a donation for PM and CJ Dam Fund.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :United business Group (UBG) Chairman, Iftikhar Ali Malik, will present a Rs100 million cheque to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday as a donation for PM and CJ Dam Fund.

The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Senior Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik in his statement issued here Thursday said he would call on Prime Minister Imran Khan along with high level delegation of leading businessmen and hand over the cheque to show complete solidarity with the incumbent government in construction of the dams.

He said starting of immediate construction of Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams is a positive and timely direction towards saving Pakistan from Indian water aggression and so is ensuring cheap electricity for future generations in the country.

He said they would give proposal to the government to adopt diverse options like listing the Diamer-Bhasha dam in domestic and international stock markets to generate funds. He further suggested that investors should be made shareholders for construction of the dam and government should provide guarantees to attract investment. He also appealed to overseas Pakistanis to contribute maximum donations generously to Dam Fund.

He said it was a good sign that every Pakistani was wholeheartedly wanted to save Pakistan from impending water crisis. However, criticizing the apathy of the previous governments and concerned authorities in saving water, he said Pakistan dumps water worth approximately $20 billion into the sea each year due to absence of water conservation systems.

"The country badly needs three Mangla-sized dams to conserve the amount of water that goes to sea each year as the country faces a 36 percent shortage in its water requirements at the moment," he said adding that if no water reservoirs are made, the country faces an extreme water shortage in the coming years. He said Pakistan was predominantly an agrarian economy as 60 percent of its population was directly or indirectly associated with agriculture, but with the gradually decreasing water supply, the country's food security may come under stress.

"Adoption of modern water conservation methods and agricultural practices is imperative to cope with water scarcity as Pakistan has been placed in red zone, due to low per capita water availability at 1,000 cubic metres," he added. We could bring millions of acres of land under plantations to increase our agricultural production, in addition to creating job opportunities for rural populace," adding that the dam would also provide cheap electricity and help Pakistan overcome load-shedding.

Iftikhar Malik urged all Pakistanis to assist the Chief Justice of Pakistan and PM Imran Khan in the direction of this nationwide trigger."It is a small contribution for an excellent trigger and may pave method for a greater future for all Pakistanis," he said.Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and TEC Education Foundation have decided to work together for promoting skills in Microsoft office both at the level of faculty and the students.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and TEC education Foundation have decided to work together for promoting skills in microsoft office both at the level of faculty and the students.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has recently initiated an opportunity for students and faculty to get Microsoft Certification in Microsoft Office in order to ensure professional proficiency in academic and official working, a press release on Thursday said.

In this move, the TEC Education has been authorized for certification exam development, delivery, and program management services.

Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, the President of the TEC Education Foundation, Pakistan, visited the AIOU held meeting with the Acting Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Nasir Mahmood as well as the University's Deans and senior management.

It was agreed that AIOU would take benefit from this opportunity and encourage students and Faculty to develop skills in MOS.

The Vice Chancellor hoped that the efforts of HEC and TEC Education Foundation would be productive in promoting international certification.

According to Dr. Moiz Uddin Ahmed, Head of Computer Science, an Examination Center has already been established at the University's Computer Science department with latest and state of the art computer systems.

The IT Professionals has also been nominated for the invigilation of the examination.

Under the arrangements, students with MOS vouchers could visit CS department and appear in the examination which will be conducted online under the supervision of MOS Administrator.

Senator Rukhsana Zuberi appreciated the efforts of AIOU for managing the MOS examination and providing technical facilities to the students.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry today discussed economic cooperation between the UAE and Romania, during a meeting with Viorica Dancila, Prime Minister of Romania, and her delegation in the Emirates Palace hotel, as part of her visit to the UAE.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Oct, 2018) The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry today discussed economic cooperation between the UAE and Romania, during a meeting with Viorica Dancila, Prime Minister of Romania, and her delegation in the Emirates Palace hotel, as part of her visit to the UAE.

At the meeting, Ibrahim Al Mahmoud, First Deputy Chairman of the board of Directors of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in his welcome speech, that they are receiving a high-level delegation from the friendly country of Romania and are looking forward to promoting strategic trade and investment partnerships to serve the mutual interests of both countries.

Al Mahmoud stated that ties are growing as foreign trade between the two countries from 2015 to 2017 has seen significant growth with the non-oil trade exchange in 2016 reaching nearly US$573.8 million as compared to $519.1 million, an increase of 10.5 percent.

He said that the warm ties and encouraging environment between the UAE and Romania affirm that the private sector in both countries can benefit from the available investment opportunities.

From the Romanian side, the business sector has comparative advantages available in the UAE in terms of an excellent investment environment, good economic fundamentals, especially infrastructure, and promising investment opportunities particularly the commercial markets and the purchasing power.

Referring to the MoU which was signed by the UAE Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Romanias Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, he said they could build on it and translate it into opportunities which serve the goals of both sides.

That could be achieved through intensifying visits and exchanging information to learn of more investment opportunities and investment legislation that are prevalent in both countries which serve the needs of businessmen, businesswomen and investors in both countries.

In her speech, Prime Minister Dancila expressed her happiness at the meeting and the opportunity to meet the chambers officials and the businessmen and investors, pointing to Romanias desire to develop economic and investment relations with the UAE.

She asserted that she looks forward to inaugurating many investment deals in different fields for Emirati investors in Romania so that the UAE takes the lead in establishing commercial relations with Romania and on a regional level. The UAE enjoys the strong fundamentals prevalent among leading countries in commercial and economic investment dynamics, she added.

Both sides witnessed presentations by Stefan-Radu Oprea, Minister of Business Environment and Trade in Romania, about investment opportunities in Romania, especially in the fields of health, medical services, and tourism and technology. The UAE is considered one of the top countries which cares about technological transformation and the digital economy, which is considered the future of sustainable economies, the presentation said.GENEVA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Oct, 2018) Dr. Amal Abdullah Al Qubaisi, Speaker of the Federal National Council, FNC, met with Abdulqader bin Saleh, President of the Algerian National Assembly, on the sidelines of the meetings of the 139th General Assembly of the IPU held in Geneva.

The two sides discussed ways of promoting cooperation while emphasising the importance of strengthening parliamentary ties between the two countries.

They spoke of the cooperation and partnership between the UAE and Algeria and stressed the importance of the growing development in parliamentary ties between the two countries as well as the strengthening of coordination through parliamentary diplomacy, especially during the IPU meetings and the different parliamentary events on topics of mutual concern.

Dr. Al Qubaisi thanked Abdulqader bin Saleh for the official invitation to visit Algeria and stressed the importance of these mutual visits between the two parties in promoting and supporting the ongoing ties while noting that the events being witnessed in the region currently require strengthening of coordination to discuss topics of mutual concern.

Al Qubaisi also elaborated on the role of the FNC in parliamentary diplomacy in line with the countrys directives in promoting national issues as well as the position of the country towards developments in the region and the world, and stressed the keenness of the FNC to promote and develop ties with the different parliaments around the world.

Bin Saleh stressed the keenness of his country to promote cooperation and friendship ties with the UAE, and hailed the development witnessed by the two countries in all areas, and highlighted the importance of coordinating visions and positions at international conferences and IPU meetings.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The Prime Minister of Romania Viorica Dancila visited Wahat Al Karama, Abu Dhabis national and cultural landmark designed to commemorate the sacrifices of the UAE's brave heroes.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Oct, 2018) The Prime Minister of Romania Viorica Dancila visited Wahat Al Karama, Abu Dhabis national and cultural landmark designed to commemorate the sacrifices of the UAE's brave heroes.

Upon her arrival, Dancila 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.

The visit began with the ceremonial Guard of Honour performance, after which Dancila laid a wreath before the Martyrs' Monument, which is made up of 31 panels leaning on one another to symbolise solidarity between the people and the leadership of the UAE.

 The Romanian Prime Minister then went on a tour accompanied by Ahmed Abdullah Saeed, UAE Ambassador to Romania, who explained the sites prominent areas.

She concluded the visit by signing the visitors' log, expressing her utmost respect and appreciation for the brave martyrs of the UAE.Viorica Dancila, Prime Minister of Romania, has praised the efforts of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), in supporting Emirati women to reach eminent positions in the UAE.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Oct, 2018) Viorica Dancila, Prime Minister of Romania, has praised the efforts of H.H. Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Chairwoman of the General Women's Union (GWU), President of the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and Supreme Chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation (FDF), in supporting Emirati women to reach eminent positions in the UAE.

She made this statement after a visit to the headquarters of the GWU accompanied by Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Al Matroushi, UAE Ambassador to Romania, and Dr. Adrian Macelaru, Romanian Ambassdor to the UAE. She was received by Noura Al Suwaidi, Director of the GWU, and other women leaders.

The Romanian Prime Minister said that during her visit she had witnessed many examples of the immense progress by Emirati women and the great support they are receiving from H.H. Sheikha Fatima.

Al Suwaidi welcomed the visit of the Prime Minister Viorica Dancila to the GWU headquarters and said that the visit is of great relevance as the guest was introduced to the phases of development of Emirati women in all areas of work.

While stating that the GWU appreciates this visit, she noted that Romania has good relations with the UAE and the union was keen to brief the leaders and people of the country about the programmes in the union led by Sheikha Fatima that support women.

She added that the achievements of the Emirati women in general, and women and children in particular, are due to the support of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Their Highnesses Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates, as well as the support of H.H Sheikha Fatima, a leader of humanitarian work in the UAE.ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 18th Oct, 2018) Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and Group CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) met, today, with Viorica Dancila, Romanias first female Prime Minister, at ADNOC, in Abu Dhabi.

During the meeting Dr. Al Jaber conveyed the greetings of the UAE leadership to the Romanian leadership and government, emphasising the UAE's keenness to boost bilateral ties. He stressed the need for both parties to take advantage of the opportunities to enhance bilateral trade.

Accompanied by Dr. Al Jaber, Prime Minister Dancila attended a demonstration of ADNOCs advanced Panorama Digital Command Centre, which is using artificial intelligence, AI, and big data to drive operational efficiencies and performance, by giving real time visibility to information from ADNOCs full value chain.

Prime Minister Dancila also visited ADNOCs Thammama sub surface collaboration centre, that is using smart analytics and is adopting AI platforms to solve subsurface challenges and to help unlock more challenging resources and optimise field development plans, as well as reduce drilling time and manage production capacity across ADNOCs operations.

Later, Dr. Al Jaber hosted a lunch for Romanian Prime Minister, which was also attended by the UAEs Ambassador to Romania, Ahmed Abdullah Saeed, and Romanis Ambassador to the UAE, Adrian Macelaru.

During the visit, Prime Minister Dancila also met with members of ADNOCs Future Leaders Programme, which is designed to identify the companys brightest and best Emirati employees and provide them with the knowledge, skills and experience they will need to ensure ADNOC continues to thrive in the future energy landscape.

Prime Minister Dancila became Romanias first female Prime Minister on January 28th, 2018. Before entering politics she was an engineer for Petrom SA, the Romanian National Oil Company.

During her visit to ADNOC she expressed her admiration for how ADNOC is harnessing the enabling power of digitalisation and has adopted an innovative partnership approach to drive growth.

Diplomatic relations between the UAE and Romania were formally established in 1989. Romania opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in 1991 and the UAE Embassy opened its doors in Bucharest in 2004. In April, the UAE-Romania Joint Committee held its first ministerial meeting in Bucharest. The meeting was chaired by Dr Al Jaber.

Bilateral non-oil trade between the UAE and Romania amounted to US$573.8 million in 2016. UAE cumulative investment in Romania from 2003-2017 amounted to US $103 million. Austrias OMV, which owns 51 percent of PETROM, is part-owned by a subsidiary of Abu Dhabis Mubadala Investment Company. OMV has a 20 percent stake in ADNOCs SARB and Umm Lulu offshore concession area.A meeting to discuss arrangements for Baba Guru Nanak birth anniversary were held here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Secretary Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Muhammad Tariq Wazir.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :A meeting to discuss arrangements for Baba Guru Nanak birth anniversary were held here on Thursday under the chairmanship of Secretary Evacuee Trust Property board (ETPB) Muhammad Tariq Wazir.

Deputy secretaries Imran Gondal, Faraz Abbas besides representatives of interior ministry, police, army, rangers, Wapda, Customs and Railway attended the meeting.

Talking to the media, the Board secretary said that Sikh yatrees were arriving in Pakistan and foolproof security arrangements had been made for them.

Gurdwaras would be decorated and dengue spray would be conducted there. All arrangements are being completed including accommodation, medical and food for the yatrees.

The Sikh yatrees will arrive here at Wahga Railway station from India through a special train. While central ceremony of Gurdwara Janum Asthan Nankana Sahib would he held on Nov 23 in which leaders of Muslim, Hindu, Christian amd different walks of life would participate in it.

Sikh yatrees will go back to their homeland India on Nov 30.National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal Thursday directed investigation of the complaints filed by the people for non-completion of Park Enclave a residential project initiated by Capital Development Authority (CDA), in 2011.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (Retd) Javed Iqbal Thursday directed investigation of the complaints filed by the people for non-completion of Park Enclave a residential project initiated by Capital Development Authority (CDA), in 2011.

He directed the investigation after taking notice of the complaints of non-allotment of the plots by CDA despite receiving billions of rupees especially from the overseas Pakistanis, a press release said.

According to the details, the project of Park Enclave was initiated in 2011 without completely securing all of the land for the project.

The CDA allegedly contrary to the facts not only spent millions of rupees on the publicity of the project but after receiving Rs15 billion from the people could not complete the project in the last eight years.

This is sheer joke with masses and misuse of power by the authorities, he said.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Pakistan and Lebanon held inaugural session of military Staff Talks earlier this month in Beirut, Capital of Lebanon.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Pakistan and Lebanon held inaugural session of military Staff Talks earlier this month in Beirut, Capital of Lebanon.

Pakistan side was headed by Director General Joint Staff Headquarters Lieutenant General Malik Zafar Iqbal, while Lebanese side was led by Deputy Chief of Staff (Planning) Brig. General Joseph Sarkis, said a message received here from Beirut Thursday.

Pakistan delegation congratulated Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) on the successful conduct of Operation Fajr al Jaroud to evict terrorist groups from Lebanon's north-eastern town of Arsal.

It apprised the Lebanese side of the counter-terrorists actions carried out by Pakistani defence forces and law enforcement agencies as well as the unparalleled sacrifices rendered by the country in this fight.

As both the countries were victims of terrorism, the two delegations agreed to benefit from each other's experiences in this respect.

The two sides discussed various dimensions of the ongoing cooperation and deliberated upon ways and means to expand and deepen bilateral ties.

Lebanese side thanked Pakistan for extending generous training facilities to LAF personnel.

Acknowledging the similarity of challenges to the two countries emanating from their respective geostrategic locations and regional dynamics, the sides agreed to institutionalize bilateral Staff Talks and military exchanges. They agreed to hold the next session of the Staff Talks in Islamabad.

Earlier, Pakistan delegation was received by the LAF Commander, General Joseph Aoun. The head of Pakistan delegation extended an invitation to General Aoun for attending the IDEAS-2018 exhibition to be held in Karachi from November 27-30. The delegation also visited Lebanese Air and Naval Headquarters and received extensive briefings. They also visited Lebanese military training and research institutions and held useful discussions on cooperation for mutual benefit.ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday agreed to evolve an effective strategy for extradition of Pakistanis detained in the UAE for committing crimes.

An agreement to that this effect was reached during a meeting between UAE Ambassador Hamad Obaid Ibrahim Salem Al Zaabi and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister(SAPM) on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfikar Bukhari here, a press release said.

The two sides discussed plight of Pakistani workers imprisoned in the UAE for minor crimes and considered ways and means to mitigate their sufferings.

They also deliberated on the matters of bilateral interests and stressed the need for further cementing the existing ties between the two countries.

Their discussion focused on how to improve the working conditions for the blue-collar Pakistani workers across the UAE and they agreed to increase opportunities for the Pakistani manpower there.

The ambassador expressed his commitment towards improving the visa process by establishing a specialized visa desk at a the UAE consulates operating in Pakistan.

Bukhari and the envoy underlined the need for better coordination among relevant departments of both the countries to forge closer ties as it would eventually enhance the export of skilled labour for future projects across the UAE as an investment in human's capital of Pakistan.

The SAPM thanked the ambassador for visiting the ministry and showing seriousness in addressing problems being faced by the Pakistani workers in the UAE.Spokesman Muhammad Faisal said Pakistan was steadfast in maintaining its position on Kashmir, adding that "there was no change in the principled stance.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Spokesman Muhammad Faisal said Pakistan was steadfast in maintaining its position on Kashmir, adding that "there was no change in the principled stance." He said the new government was continuing with the same policy on Kashmir and mentioned the prime minister's initiative of writing letter to his Indian counterpart for holding talks on important issues including Kashmir dispute and terrorism.

"Pakistan's position on Kashmir is based on principle and undeterred," the spokesman categorically added.

He mentioned the blatant human rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir and said the culprits involved in the rape and murder of eight-year-old Muslim gild Asifa were still scot-free despite availability of the authentic forensic evidence.

To a question on news reports about India's plan to suspend flight operations of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), he said the PIA had been facing problems with regularization of its accounts in India and the matter was subjudice with the Delhi court.

He said despite repeated requests, India was delaying the visa extension of PIA manager and his family, forcing them to return to Pakistan.

He called upon India to facilitate the PIA official under the Air Services Agreement between the two countries, which otherwise, could be harmful to the bilateral relations and people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India.

On progress on CASA-1000, the spokesman said during the meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the president of Tajikistan on the sidelines of SCO Heads of Government Conclave in Dushanbe, the two sides stressed fast-tracking of the project for ensuring energy corridor in the region.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Qatar Embassy is all set to establish a special center here for facilitation of Pakistani workforce aims at increasing job opportunities for them and avoiding exploitation at the hands of employers abroad.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2018 ) :Qatar Embassy is all set to establish a special center here for facilitation of Pakistani workforce aims at increasing job opportunities for them and avoiding exploitation at the hands of employers abroad.

"Such a facility will ease the visa getting process for Pakistanis, ensure their safety and legal rights in Qatar, giving a substantial boost to the receipt of remittances through legal means," Special Assistant to the PM Syed Zulfikar Bukhari told APP Wednesday.

The Qatari government has decided to open the facility in Pakistan in response to efforts made by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Zulfikar Bukhari.

Bukhari said increased job opportunities in Qatar for Pakistani manpower would pave the way to make the national economy stronger and more vibrant.

Bukhari said Qatar wanted to further strengthen its ties with Pakistan, which was evident of the fact that it had selected Pakistan from eight countries for setting up 'Qatar Visa Center' to facilitate the aspirant manpower.

In first phase, the special assistant said eight such centers would be set up in selected countries to facilitate the workers of different countries by simplifying the procedure of employee-employer contract before arriving in Qatar.

He said those centers were aimed at protecting the rights of the workforce, who were exploited at the hands of employers.

He hoped that the center would ensure the rights of the workers by verifying contracts reflecting mutual understanding between them.

Officials at the centers would guide the aspirants regarding recruitment procedure and required documents and criteria for employment in Qatar, besides acquainting them about their legal rights.

The initiative would not only bring down numbers of returning workers due to different complexities abroad but also ensure instant employment soon after their entry into Qatar.

Referring to his recent meeting with Qatari ambassador in Pakistan, Bukhari said the envoy had reposed confidence in Pakistan and given a positive gesture by increasing the number of jobs for Pakistani workforce in his country.

Currently, he said, there were around 115,000 Pakistani workers in Qatar, while it had recently announced over 100,000 more jobs for Pakistanis.Senior leader Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator A. Rehman Malik has paid rich tribute to Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto and martyrs of Karsaz. <

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Senior leader Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator A. Rehman Malik has paid rich tribute to Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto and martyrs of Karsaz.

He said that October 18 is a sad day in the history of the country and an occasion to pay homage to brave martyrs who laid down their lives while welcoming their beloved leader Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto on this day in 2007.

Rehman Malik said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto travelled back defying all odds and threats to her life and against the advice of many, said a press release.

He said that Bibi Shaheed had decided to return as she had given the commitment to the people of Pakistan. He added that she had rejected the offer by General Pervez Musharaf to return after the election. She wanted to lead nation from the front and once she made up her mind nothing could stop her, he said.

He said that Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto was the one who ensured the return of Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and it was she who convinced Nawaz Sharrif to contest the election .

Senator A. Rehman Malik said that Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto was the strength for the people and strong practical supporter of democracy.

He said that terrorists attacked her caravan resulting in the martyrdom of more than two hundred innocent workers and democrats but nothing could deter her and the will of her workers.

"There is none who could compete wisdom and politics of Shaheed Mohtarama Benazir Bhutto and on this day I salute her courage and sacrifice for the people and democracy and the people who sacrificed their lives along with her" said Rehman Malik.Special Facilitation Center is being established for the aspirants, who see Qatar as a prospective foreign job destination, which would eventually augment Pakistani manpower abroad, in addition to lessening chances of their exploitation by employers.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Special Facilitation Center is being established for the aspirants, who see Qatar as a prospective foreign job destination, which would eventually augment Pakistani manpower abroad, in addition to lessening chances of their exploitation by employers.

"Such a facility will ease the visa getting process for Pakistanis, ensure their safety and legal rights in Qatar, giving a substantial boost to the receipt of remittances through legal means," Special Assistant to the PM Syed Zulfikar Bukhari told APP on Wednesday.

The Qatari government has taken the initiative to open the facilitation center in Pakistan in response to the persistent efforts by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development Syed Zulfikar Bukhari.

Zulfikar Bukhari said increased job opportunities in Qatar for Pakistani manpower would pave the way to making the national economy stronger and vibrant.

Bukhari said Qatar intended to further strengthen its ties with Pakistan, which was evident from the fact that it had selected Pakistan from eight countries for setting up 'Qatar Visa Center' to facilitate the aspirant manpower.

In the first phase, the Special Assistant said eight such centers would be set up in selected countries to facilitate the workers of different countries by simplifying the procedure of employee-employer contract before arriving in Qatar.

He said those centers were aimed at protecting the rights of the workforce, who faced different problems at the hands of employers.

He expressed the optimism that the center would ensure protection of workers' rights by verifying contracts, reflecting mutual understanding between them.

Referring to his recent meeting with Qatari ambassador in Pakistan, Bukhari said the envoy had reposed confidence in Pakistan and given a positive gesture by increasing the number of jobs for Pakistani workforce in his country.

Currently, he said, there were around 115,000 Pakistani workers in Qatar, while it had recently announced over 100,000 more jobs for Pakistanis.

Officials deputed at the centre would guide the aspirants regarding recruitment procedure and required documents and criteria for employment in Qatar, besides acquainting them about their legal rights.

The initiative would not only bring down numbers of returning workers due todifferent complexities abroad but also ensure instant employment soon after theirentry into Qatar.The Police have arrested two suspected dacoits and recovered two pistols with 10 rounds from their possession.

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :The Police have arrested two suspected dacoits and recovered two pistols with 10 rounds from their possession.

According to Police spokesman, Airport police on a tip-off, raided in Muzaffarabad area in its jurisdiction and arrested two suspected dacoits namely Saifullah and Ali Sher and recovered two pistols with 10 rounds from their possession.

Further investigation is underway and police is expecting some sensational revelationfrom them.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

In continuation of National Disaster Resilience Day Commemoration, the Center for Disaster Preparedness and Management (CDPM) commemorated the International Day for Disaster Reduction here at SAAQ Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, University of Peshawar.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :In continuation of National Disaster Resilience Day Commemoration, the Center for Disaster Preparedness and Management (CDPM) commemorated the International Day for Disaster Reduction here at SAAQ Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, University of Peshawar.

The event was organized by the Mobilise Project at the CDPM, said a press release issued here.

Addressing the audience, UoP Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences Dean, Prof. Dr. Bashir Ahmad said, occurrence of disasters was a common phenomenon in the worldwide. Its intensity varies from region to region due to topographic and climatic variations.

The whole nation should have to concentrate on taking initiatives to reduce vulnerabilities to disasters to prevent losses of precious lives and damages to livelihood and infrastructure.

Dr. Bashir Ahmad said the faculty members and students of the University of Peshawar were equally contributing to national and global obligations through their research and development activities.

The University was coping with the needs and challenges of the local and the global dynamics in the best possible manner. The faculty was trying its level best to address the social, academic, cultural and economic problems in a befitting manner, he added.

"Our teaching faculty and researchers pride themselves in teaching and high standards of research,"Bashir said and added that one such example was the Mobilise Project of the Center for Disaster Preparedness and Management.

The project work will investigate enhancement of current collaboration processes in order to exploit the benefits of the interactive collaborative technologies that will be developed within the project.

Director CDPM Dr. Noor Jehan, said the team of the Center was trying their level best to work together with the national and international agencies for disaster resilience in Pakistan.

The CDPM has planned to organize an International Conference on Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction in February 2019, she added.

In connection to target (c) of the UN Sendai Framework for DRR i.e. "Reducing the Economic Losses from Disaster" Dr Kamal Ahmad delivered a presentation on Disaster Risk Financing. The Government of Pakistan has established the National Disaster Risk Management Fund at the National Level.

The fund aim to grants for sub-projects that contribute to enhanced resilience to extreme weather and geophysical hazards (DRR), and strengthen the government's ability to quickly respond to disasters triggered by natural hazards (DRF), he said.

While delivering presentation on Progress, Challenges and Way forward for Disaster Risk Reduction in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Deputy Director PDMA Tajdar Khan said that PDMA want to shift from analogue to digital mechanism in order to enhance the flow of information to the vulnerable people during emergency situation.

In this regard, PDMA-PEOC revamping project has been launched to strengthen the capacity of the authority for real time monitoring of disasters. CDPM and PDMA will work together to reduce vulnerabilities of the province to future disasters through Mobilise Project.

The event was attended by 200 delegates from 45 different organizations and institutions from across the country.

Special Dua was offered for the Martyrs and victims of disasters in the country.Questo comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Market Overview:

Canola Oil Market is projected to grow at the CAGR of 6.8%. Numerous health benefits, low prices and easy availability is driving the market growth across the globe. Growing application of canola oil by personal care industry is influencing the demand of canola oil from last few years. Favorable government policies for minor oil crop producers has improved the production of canola in North America and Asia Pacific region. In Europe, large portion of canola oil is used for industrial purpose particularly to produce biodiesel.

Canola is considered as one of the best oil for heart health as it contains less saturated fat compare to any other oil. Canola oil is also very high in unsaturated fats which are good for health. It's higher in the omega-3 fatty acid alpha-linolenicexpe acid (ALA) than any other oil. All these factors has impacting on consumer preferences while selecting the oil for food preparation and food processing.

Request a Sample Report @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2752

Major Key Players:

This report includes a study of strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, product launches by the major canola oil market players. It further includes product portfolios, developments of leading major players which includes

The key players profiled in the Canola Oil Market are as Archer Daniels Midland Company (U.S.), Associated British Foods plc. (U.K.), Sunora Foods (Canada), Wilsons Foods (South Africa), JIVO WELLNESS PVT. LTD. (India), DALMIA CONTINENTAL PVT. LTD (India) and ARLA FOODS AMBA (Denmark)

Global Canola Oil Market is segmented by canola species, processing, application, packaging and region. Canola oil application in bio-diesel is growing at faster rate due to increasing demand of bio-diesel. Brassica Rapa i.e. polish canola are in high demand due to its increased application personal care products and processed foods

Regional Analysis:

Canola Oil Market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and rest of the world (ROW). Europe has the major market share followed by Asia Pacific. Europe is one of the major producer of canola and support from government has made Europe a leading market for canola oil. China and India contributes maximum market share in Asia Pacific region and increased canola production in China and India has boosted the export canola oil from Asia Pacific region.

Key Findings:

The top five importers of canola oil are U.S., Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and France. Europe and China are the major producer of canola oil

Segment:

Canola Oil market has been segmented on the basis of canola species which includes Brassica Rapa (Polish canola), Brassica napus (Argentine canola) and Brassica juncea (Brown mustard canola)

Canola Oil market has been segmented on the basis of processing which includes refined, modified, handmade, crude and others

Canola Oil market has been segmented on the basis of application which includes cooking purpose, processed foods, lubricants, personal care, bio-diesel and others

Canola Oil market has been segmented on the basis of packaging which includes drum, can, plastic bottle, glass bottle and others

Brassica Rapa i.e. polish canola are in high demand due to its increased application personal care products and processed foods. Many key players are use refined and modified processing technique compare to other type of processing. Canola oil application in bio-diesel is growing at faster rate due to increasing demand of bio-diesel.

Access Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/canola-oil-market-2752

The Canola Oil market is segmented under the following regions mentioned below:

North America

US

Canada

Mexico

Europe

Germany

France

Netherlands

Spain

UK

Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific

China

India

Australia

Malaysia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Rest of the world(@ChaudhryMAli88)

It is unlikely that the appointment of a successor to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will be completely depoliticized, Vitaly Naumkin, the academic director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies, told Sputnik on Thursday, noting that the candidate should be agreed upon by all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, including Russia.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) It is unlikely that the appointment of a successor to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will be completely depoliticized, Vitaly Naumkin, the academic director of the Russian academy of Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies, told Sputnik on Thursday, noting that the candidate should be agreed upon by all the permanent members of the UN Security Council, including Russia.

De Mistura said on Wednesday that he would quit in the last week of November due to personal reasons. Earlier on Thursday, Andrey Kortunov, the director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, told Sputnik that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed the necessity to prevent the politicization of the appointment of de Mistura's successor in his address at a closed meeting with Valdai Club participants in Sochi.

"There are several candidacies, as far as I know, and the appointment will not be completely depoliticized.

[A successor] would be picked from professionals with extensive experience in peacekeeping work, I know some of them and I would prefer not to name them ... The appointment of a UN envoy is agreed upon by the UN Security Council permanent members, including Russia, that is why it should be a candidate who pleases everyone," Naumkin said.

Before stepping down, the current UN special envoy for Syria is expected to visit Damascus on October 26 to discuss the Syrian Constitutional Committee. Earlier in the week, Naumkin said that he allowed for the possibility that de Mistura might convene the Syrian Constitutional Commission before his resignation.

The decision to set up the Syrian constitutional committee was agreed upon in January, during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian resort city of Sochi. Currently, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is working on creating a special committee in Geneva that will be tasked with preparing a constitutional reform.(@FahadShabbir)

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Thursday that although the EU leaders had not discussed the possibility of imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia amid concerns over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, "consequences" on the part of the bloc were possible.

VIENNA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Thursday that although the EU leaders had not discussed the possibility of imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia amid concerns over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, "consequences" on the part of the bloc were possible.

"We had no debate on sanctions today most likely because it was not on the agenda. However, not only myself but also other colleagues and the rest of the EU demand full transparency ... Consequences on the part of the EU are quite conceivable," Kurz told reporters after the EU summit in Brussels.

Khashoggi, who has been working for The Washington Post newspaper as a columnist and has been known for his criticism of Saudi authorities, went missing in Istanbul on October 2 after he entered the Saudi consulate and never came out.

According to The Washington Post, the Turkish authorities have shared with the United States audio and video recordings suggesting the journalist had been murdered in the Saudi consulate. Saudi Arabia has rejected the accusations, saying that the journalist had left the consulate.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Azerbaijan's State Security Service said on Thursday that it had arrested a foreign national accused of espionage.

BAKU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Azerbaijan's State Security Service said on Thursday that it had arrested a foreign national accused of espionage.

"Foreign citizen Hesenzade Bahram Nusrat was engaged in espionage to the detriment of security of Azerbaijan and received instructions from foreign services, he was arrested," the statement read.(@rukhshanmir)

Bhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results.

Thimpu, Bhutan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Bhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results.

The result means the country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India, will have chosen a different party to rule at each election since the absolute monarchy was ended in 2008.

The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the national assembly's 47 seats, according to the results which are to be officially confirmed on Friday.

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September, with the former ruling party ending up in third place.

DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for "nation building" in the country which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs.

Both parties had campaigned on promises to boost the economy with Tshering's party using the slogan "Narrowing The Gap".

The DPT, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in 2013, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India.

The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutan's debt to pay for more power plants.

Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects.The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, wedged between India and China, voted in a national election Thursday guaranteed to usher in a new ruling party which must boost the economy without compromising the country's fierce independent streak.

Thimphu, Bhutan, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, wedged between India and China, voted in a national election Thursday guaranteed to usher in a new ruling party which must boost the economy without compromising the country's fierce independent streak.

The country of 800,000 people, famed for its Gross National Happiness index, is holding only its third democratic election since the ending of the absolute monarchy in 2008.

The capital's streets were mainly empty as authorities declared a holiday for the election. Many voters looked forward to seeing a new government tackling problems including Bhutan's large foreign debt, mainly owed to India.

"We expect a new broom to sweep well," said engineer Gopal Chettri after voting in the capital Thimphu. "It is a country with a limited budget so what can you say. Whatever party wins has to cope with it." results of the runoff vote -- to be announced Friday -- could see a government formed by a party only registered in 2013.

Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) narrowly led the first round of voting on September 15 with 92,722 votes, just ahead of the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), which won Bhutan's first election in 2008, on 90,020.

Harvard-educated prime minister Tshering Tobgay conceded defeat after his ruling party slumped to third place.

The rivals have vowed to bolster the economy and health system and improve government transparency. Corruption, rural poverty, youth unemployment and criminal gangs are all problems for the "Land of the Thunder Dragon."The key will be making money from the country's hydro-electric power, which is mainly exported to India. The DPT wants more hydro-power construction while the DNT is more wary of increasing Bhutan's foreign debt.

Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects.(@rukhshanmir)

Nairobi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Burundi's main international donors called on the government to hold "consultations" with foreign humanitarian groups over a controversial new law that restricts their operations, days after authorities arrested three aid workers.

A joint statement in French urged Burundi to meet international aid organisations, whose operations were suspended for three months on October 1 as Bujumbura tries to push them into abiding by the strict new law. The statement, signed by donors including the United Nations, European Union, United States, Japan and Canada, called for "detailed consultations to clarify the questions of INGOs over the application of the law".

The new law compels foreign NGOs to place a third of their budget in Burundi's central bank and to implement new ethnic quotas favouring the majority Hutus, the tribe of President Pierre Nkurunziza.

A Burundian and two Congolese, reportedly employed by the US-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), were arrested last week in the west of the country for violating the ban imposed on October 1.

At the time the IRC declined comment on the arrests, which were confirmed by local government and diplomatic sources.

A UN source told AFP that the donors had resorted to issuing their statement after they failed to secure a meeting with the interior minister. "This statement is a very strong political signal sent to the government. Because it is the first time that all of the country's main donors have come together to say 'Be careful, your decision will bring grave consequences for Burundi's population'," she added.

Only six out of an estimated 130 foreign NGOs have so far filed the required documents with the interior ministry. The suspension is being felt in the poor central African nation where many rely on the life-saving activities of aid agencies.

Burundi has been in the throes of a political crisis since April 2015 when Nkurunziza successfully ran for a controversial third term.

Violence since then has left at least 1,200 dead, forced some 400,000 from their homes and triggered an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

str-cyb/fal/klm/ach(@FahadShabbir)

Ecuador decided on Thursday to expel Venezuelan Ambassador Carol Delgado, following "offensive" comments against President Lenin Moreno expressed by Venezuela's Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez, the Foreign Ministry said.

MEXICO CITY (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Ecuador decided on Thursday to expel Venezuelan Ambassador Carol Delgado, following "offensive" comments against President Lenin Moreno expressed by Venezuela's Minister of Communication and Information Jorge Rodriguez, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Ecuador will not tolerate any disrespect to its authorities. At the same time, Ecuador, which remains committed to its democratic and humanitarian principles, will continue to provide assistance to Venezuelan citizens, who enter the country, adopting important economic and social measures to protect their rights," the ministry said in a statement.(@rukhshanmir)

The recent meeting of the Russian and Egyptian leaders has given a powerful impetus to the development of the Russian-Egyptian relations, and has also proved Russia's firm support of Egypt's development plans, Hussein Haridi, Egyptian ambassador and former assistant foreign minister, told Sputnik on Thursday

CAIRO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The recent meeting of the Russian and Egyptian leaders has given a powerful impetus to the development of the Russian-Egyptian relations, and has also proved Russia's firm support of Egypt's development plans, Hussein Haridi, Egyptian ambassador and former assistant foreign minister, told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi arrived in Russia for an official visit. On Wednesday, he held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russian resort city of Sochi, which resulted in an agreement on comprehensive cooperation and strategic partnership.

"This summit gives a powerful boost to the development of bilateral relations in different areas. The presidents' meeting has showcased the importance of bilateral cooperation, as well as of the regional and international-level cooperation. Thus, concerning the bilateral level, the summit has proved that Russia firmly supports all the plans of Egypt's development.

The creation of the first Egyptian nuclear power plant [NPP] is the best proof to this," Haridi said.

He emphasized that the agreement on comprehensive cooperation and strategic partnership showcased the two sides' commitment to "strategic alliance for developing all the aspects of the bilateral relations."

"Both political leaders [Sisi and Putin] fully recognize common threats, risks and problems. And the mutual interests of the countries call for a more intense cooperation for the sake of solving common problems," Haridi added.

Haridi added that the agreement was also a "strong message to all the states located worldwide and in the region."

During their narrow format meeting, Putin and Sisi discussed trade, middle East settlement, bilateral defense cooperation, and resumption of regular direct air services between the two countries. The Russian and Egyptian foreign ministries signed a memorandum on strategic political consultations.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Citizens of Western European countries and other states were captured by the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) during an attack on a refugee camp in the Syrian town of Al-Bahra, and transferred then to the settlement of Hajin in Deir ez-Zor province, a military diplomatic source told Sputnik on Wednesday.

On Monday, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko, head of the Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation, said that IS militants had attacked a refugee camp in Al-Bahra, capturing 130 families totaling 700 people. He stressed that the abducted civilians were de-facto taken hostage and could be used by terrorists as a "human shield" to protect the militants from the possible attack by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) advancing toward the last IS-occupied areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

"It is worth noting that there are already more than 750 people among the hostages of IS in this area, including citizens of Western European countries and other states," the source said.

The terrorists put forward ultimatums to the Kurds for the immediate release of all their supporters held by the SDF and they demand the transfer of new territories in the east of the Euphrates under their control, killing hostages every day as a lever of pressure, he noted.

"The imitation of fight against terrorists in this region of Syria has already lasted more than six months and is used by Washington to justify its illegal presence in this country," the source added.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The United Nations peacekeeping mission should be considered very carefully if deployed to Libya because local population still remembers the 2011 NATO intervention all too well, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno told Sputnik.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The United Nations peacekeeping mission should be considered very carefully if deployed to Libya because local population still remembers the 2011 NATO intervention all too well, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guehenno told Sputnik.

In September, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Siala said that the country wanted the United Nations political support mission to be transformed into a mission that would help establish security and stability in the country. However, in October, Siala specified that he did not mean at all turning the United Nations Support Mission for Libya (UNSMIL) into a peacekeeping mission.

"My own contacts in Libya have seen that most Libyans they are wary of international intervention, in part because of the intervention in 2011 but generally speaking there is a worry, because Libya is a middle-income country with significant oil resources, so there is always a great suspicion that forces that deploy in Libya would have an interest in the riches of Libya. So I am not sure that a force would be acceptable to Libyans and if such a force would be deployed, then its composition would have to be very thought through," Guehenno said on the sidelines of the annual Valdai Discussion Club meeting in the Russian city of Sochi.

Guehenno also said that a solid political agreement between different Libyan armed groups would be the most important factor contributing to the safety and credibility of the upcoming general election in December, and the UN peacekeeping force could provide additional reassurance if deployed.

In 2011, a civil war broke out in Libya between the government forces led by the country's long-time leader, Muammar Gaddafi, and the rebels. The UN Security Council condemned the use of lethal force by the government against civilians during the war and adopted a resolution, establishing a "no-fly zone" over Libya and authorizing member states to take all the necessary measures to protect civilians. After the adoption of the resolution, NATO member countries launched a military intervention in the country, carrying out airstrikes and organizing a naval blockade. Gaddafi was eventually overthrown and killed.

The country is currently divided between two governments, with the eastern part of Libya controlled by the parliament elected in 2014 and backed by the Libyan National Army. The UN-backed Government of National Accord governs Libya's western parts.

The general election is scheduled to be held in the country on December 10.Finland is prepared to send its experts to Malaysia to help empower the country's education system, said Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik on Thursday

PUTRAJAYA (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Finland is prepared to send its experts to Malaysia to help empower the country's education system, said Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik on Thursday.

He said this was conveyed to him by the General Manager of the Finnish National Agency for Education, Olli-Pekka Heinonen, during a meeting on Wednesday.

"During the meeting, Olli-Pekka Heinonen said if Malaysia could send officers to Finland because of financial factor, etch, Finland is prepared to send to send their officers to Malaysia.

"Malaysia hopes this cooperation will help us to learn from the Finnish experiences and good practices in improving the standard of the education system in Malaysia," he said in a statement here Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Education Ministry, with the cooperation of the Malaysian International Islamic University, organised a seminar on the Finnish Education System, held at the university's main campus in Gombak.

The seminar was held following a discussion between Maszlee and Finland Ambassador to Malaysia Petri Puhakka , who paid a courtesy call on the Education Minister last July 13.

On the seminar, Maszlee said it was the best platform for the Malaysian teaching workforce to learn from Finland on teaching and learning towards improving the country's education system.

This, he said, would be in line with the country's effort to promote high quality education and become one of the three best countries in the international standard assessment, such as the programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

"The exchange of ideas and knowledge between Finland and Malaysia can bring Malaysia on par with Finland in various disciplines of knowledge, including training for teachers, as well as create a more conducive environment for learning," he added.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office started probing the activities of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen amid controversy caused by constant involvement of external and freelance consultants to the work in the ministry, local media reported Thursday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Berlin Public Prosecutor's Office started probing the activities of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen amid controversy caused by constant involvement of external and freelance consultants to the work in the ministry, local media reported Thursday.

The investigation was initiated after a ministry employee on September 30 filed a complaint against the minister, saying that external advisers were actually working on a full-time basis for a long period of time, the Spiegel magazine reported, citing sources.

The complainant also noted that a whole "army" of freelance advisers worked in the ministry. Thus, a fictitious self-employment could have taken place, as the employer is not required to provide social security to such employees.

If the investigation proves that it was done intentionally, the employer will be prosecuted, the publication said.

According to the media outlet, the German Federal Audit Office also conducted an audit in connection with the involvement of consultants.

The confidential report of the department, among other things, noted that the Defense Ministry was directly dependent on external consultants in some areas, such as IT modernization. A separate report noted that contracts with consultants had often been concluded without a tender, and they had not been checked for economic efficiency.

The minister will have to explain the situation to the budget commission. According to the publication, after the Federal Audit Office's check, von der Leyen attracted several investigative teams to examine all the contracts with consultants that had been signed since she took the office.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias quit his post on Wednesday, the government said, in a cabinet dispute over the country's controversial name deal with Macedonia.

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2018 ) :Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias quit his post on Wednesday, the government said, in a cabinet dispute over the country's controversial name deal with Macedonia.

"Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accepted the foreign minister's resignation," the PM's office said in a statement, adding that Tsipras himself would take over the post.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias quit his post on Wednesday, the government said, in a cabinet dispute over the country's controversial name deal with Macedonia.

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2018 ) :Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias quit his post on Wednesday, the government said, in a cabinet dispute over the country's controversial name deal with Macedonia.

"Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has accepted the foreign minister's resignation," the PM's office said in a statement, adding that Tsipras himself would take over the post.

Kotzias on Tuesday had clashed in a cabinet meeting with Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, who is also the coalition partner holding up Tsipras' government.

Head of the nationalist Independent Greeks party, Kammenos has threatened to defect from the government in opposition to the deal brokered by Kotzias and Tsipras earlier this year to rename Greece's neighbour North Macedonia.

The deal has raised strong objections in both countries.

Greece also has a northern province named Macedonia, the heart of Alexander the Great's ancient kingdom.

Many Greeks fear the deal on the table will officially enable Skopje to lay claim to their cultural heritage.A day after the UN envoy for Syria announced his planned departure, the head of the humanitarian task force for the war-ravaged country said Thursday he would also resign next month.

Geneva, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :A day after the UN envoy for Syria announced his planned departure, the head of the humanitarian task force for the war-ravaged country said Thursday he would also resign next month.

"I am also leaving at the end of November," Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva.

His comment came after the UN envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, announced Wednesday that he will step down at the end of next month after more than four years in the key post.

The Italian-Swedish diplomat, who is the UN's third Syria envoy in six years, said he was leaving for "purely personal reasons," citing the need to give his family "a little bit of attention" after a long stint in the demanding post.

And Egeland insisted Thursday that he had already decided when his contract was renewed last month that he would leave at the end of November, and that it was "a coincidence" that he and de Mistura were stepping down at the same time.

He said his three years in the job had been "very exhausting", especially since he also has a full-time job as head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

Both men are leaving as UN efforts to end the seven-year war show no sign of a breakthrough.

- Job 'not half done' - More than 360,000 people have died in Syria's war, which began in March 2011 as an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad but has morphed into a complex conflict with myriad armed groups, some of whom are foreign-backed.

"I presume I will be replaced by somebody better and that they will continue with the task force because the job is not even half done," Egeland said.

He nonetheless hailed a few positive developments in Syria that had been discussed by countries at a task force meeting Thursday, including the success so far of a Russian-Turkish deal to create calm around Syria's last rebel stronghold, Idlib.

"It is a welcome calm," he said.

But overall, Egeland lamented that over the three years he has headed the humanitarian task force for Syria, "there has been too many setbacks, we have failed more often than we have achieved what we wanted." De Mistura also acknowledged Wednesday that the UN's job in Syria was far from over, and vowed not to lay "down the charge until the last hour of the last day of my mandate." But his departure will complicate UN peace efforts at a time when Syrian forces have made significant territorial gains, prompting discussion about the terms of a political settlement to end the war.

De Mistura will be travelling to Damascus next week to push for the creation of a committee to agree on a post-war constitution for Syria that would pave the way to elections.

That plan has been under discussion since January when it was announced at a conference organised by Russia, a key Syrian ally, but it has since been bogged down in bickering over the committee's composition.

But de Mistura said Wednesday he hoped the committee will be up and running in November, before he leaves.MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Members of the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia) are feeling fine in the zone set up by the United States near the Syrian area of At Tanf, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"We do not know what is going on in other regions of Syria. Particularly, the US forces have settled for a long period on the eastern bank of the Euphrates river.

They have unilaterally set up a zone with a radius of 55 kilometers [34 miles] in the area of At Tanf, inside which the Rukban refugee camp is located. There is no access to this area that is why nobody can guarantee that this camp can be assessed safely without being attacked by bandits who are feeling very well in this US zone, including the IS members," Lavrov said in an interview with RT, Paris Match and Le Figaro.The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed protest to Syrian authorities over their recent talks with a Crimean delegation in Damascus, the ministry's press service said on Thursday.<

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed protest to Syrian authorities over their recent talks with a Crimean delegation in Damascus, the ministry's press service said on Thursday.

The delegation, led by Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the region, held a two-day working visit to Syria from Monday through Wednesday, during which bilateral economic and scientific cooperation was discussed. Syrian President Bashar Assad qualified the visit as the "new beginning" of bilateral cooperation.

"Ukraine resolutely condemns the Syrian Arab Republic's official contacts with the occupational Crimean administration ... In light of this, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry states that Syrian officials' talks with representatives of the occupational Crimean government ... are a serious breach of the Ukrainian state sovereignty, meddling in its inner affairs, and also a breach of basic rules and principles of the international law .

.. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has handed over a note of protest to the Syrian side," the ministry said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry believes that Syrian talks with the Crimean delegation were doing "irreparable harm" to the Ukrainian-Syrian diplomatic ties.

Crimea rejoined Russia in 2014, when 97 percent of those who participated in the referendum on the matter voted in favor of reunification. Despite this, the reunification was not recognized by Kiev, which prompted tensions in the Russian-Ukrainian relations, and also in Russia's relations with a number of western countries. Russia has repeatedly said that the vote was held in compliance with international law and following a democratic procedure.Israel must withdraw the rest of its forces from southern Lebanon and cease violations of the country's air and maritime space, senior officers from the Lebanese Armed Forces said at a tripartite meeting chaired by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday.

BEIRUT (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Israel must withdraw the rest of its forces from southern Lebanon and cease violations of the country's air and maritime space, senior officers from the Lebanese Armed Forces said at a tripartite meeting chaired by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday.

The tripartite meetings between representatives of the Lebanese and Israeli armed forces under the UN auspices have been held on a regular basis in the Lebanese southern city of Naqoura since the end of the 2006 Lebanon War.

"The Lebanese party has expressed its commitment to the position of the Lebanese government on the country's territorial integrity, maritime border and oil resources.

The Lebanese party has provided information about the violations of air space, territorial waters, land borders, and constant provocations, and demanded that this [behavior] should be stopped. It has also voiced its demand for the liberation of Shebaa farms, Kfarchouba Heights, and the settlement of Ghajar," the Lebanese military said in a statement obtained by Sputnik.

UNIFIL was originally established in 1978 to ensure Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and restore peace and security. Following the war between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah movement in July-August 2006, the UN Security Council significantly enhanced and expanded the original mandate.Moldovan lawmakers passed the bill on embodying the aspiration for joining the European Union in the country's constitution in the first reading on Thursday, but failed to secure enough votes to pass it in the second reading as four parliamentary factions - socialists, communists, liberals and liberal democrats - abstained from voting.

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Moldovan lawmakers passed the bill on embodying the aspiration for joining the European Union in the country's constitution in the first reading on Thursday, but failed to secure enough votes to pass it in the second reading as four parliamentary factions - socialists, communists, liberals and liberal democrats - abstained from voting.

Last year, the Democratic Party of Moldova, which holds the majority in the parliament with 42 seats, proposed to make an amendment to the country's constitution and add a provision stipulating that Moldova's priority is European integration.

In July 2017, Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu expressed hope that Moldova would be able to apply for the EU membership in 2018.

The bill passed the first reading in the parliament by simple majority, after which the speaker put the draft legislation for a vote in the second and final reading.

"Fifty-four votes were cast in support of the introduction of the European integration clause in the constitution. If only 13 parliament members - liberal democrats and liberals - had not left the meeting hall, the bill could have been passed," Candu said.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Mongolia has invited Kim Jong Un to visit the nation's capital, which once hoped to host the historic summit between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump, an official said Tuesday

Ulaanbaatar, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Mongolia has invited Kim Jong Un to visit the nation's capital, which once hoped to host the historic summit between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump, an official said Tuesday.

The invitation comes amid expectations that Kim and Trump, who met in Singapore in June, will hold a second summit -- a time and location for which have yet to be determined.

According to Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga's office, the invitation was sent to Kim on October 10, though no specific date was proposed.

The North Korean leader can visit "whenever he feels convenient", an official from the president's office told AFP, confirming a report published Monday by North Korea's KCNA state news service.

Mongolia had offered to host Trump and Kim for their landmark summit in June, but they ended up picking Singapore, where they agreed to a vaguely worded statement on denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Trump said last week that three or four unspecified locations have been short-listed for their next meeting, but it would "probably" not be in Singapore again, and he did not give a date.Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh met with visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, the Mongolian government press office said Thursday.

ULAN BATOR, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh met with visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, the Mongolian government press office said Thursday.

Shoygu arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator on Thursday morning for one-day official visit.

"Mongolia attaches great importance to deepening its relations with Russia in all sectors. In this regard, we are ready to continue to expand military-technical cooperation between our two countries," Khurelsukh said.

The prime minister expressed his gratitude for Russia's long-standing support to providing training and military-technical equipment to Mongolia.

He also expressed the hope that Russia's high-level officials will visit Mongolia to jointly celebrate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the battle of Khalkhin Gol in 2019.

Describing their bilateral relationship as traditionally good-neighborly, Shoygu said that Russia will further deepen military-technical cooperation with Mongolia.

Earlier in the day, Mongolian Defense Minister Nyamaa Enkhbold held talks with Shoygu on issues related to bilateral defense cooperation.

During the meeting, the two defense ministers signed a long-term program for military cooperation to enhance defense ties, under which the two countries will collaborate in areas of armed forces management, military education and joint exercises, according to the Mongolian Defense Ministry.

During the visit, Russian defense minister also handed over military equipment assistance to the Mongolian air defense forces.Nicaragua resorted to a "shoot to kill" strategy to repress recent anti-government protests, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released in Paris Thursday.

Paris, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Nicaragua resorted to a "shoot to kill" strategy to repress recent anti-government protests, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released in Paris Thursday.

Speaking of the deaths of more than 70 demonstrators during anti-government protests in different parts of the Central American country in April and May 2018, Amnesty said the "alarming number (...) indicates there was an intention to shoot to kill on the part of the security forces." Nicaragua's ambassador to France, Ruth Esperanza Tapia Roa rejected Amnesty's report as "baseless", in comments to AFP.

Nicaragua's descent into chaos began on April 18 when the police and pro-government paramilitaries cracked down on protests against social security reforms.

Demonstrations evolved into a wider opposition against President Daniel Ortega, a former leftist guerrilla in power for 11 years who has refused calls to step down.

Rights groups say over 300 people have now been killed in the turmoil and hundreds more detained in a crackdown.

Ortega has dismissed UN charges of a disproportionate use of force against protestors, enforced disappearances and torture.

He called the United Nations a tool of "lies and infamy", and last month expelled the UN rights mission after it published a report criticising the "climate of fear" in the country.

Amnesty said its investigative team found evidence of extrajudicial executions during the first weeks of the protests.

"Most of the fatalities during the protests were the result of firearm injuries, despite the fact that the use of such lethal weapons by state officials should only be authorised in the most extreme situations," the report said.

Amnesty specifically looked into nine of the killings and found that "the point of entry of bullets indicates that in many cases people were hit in parts of the body where the injury was most likely to prove fatal, indicating that there was an intention to shoot to kill." Snipers are believed to be responsible for some of the deaths in the capital Managua and cities of Leon, Ciudad Sandino and Esteli, Amnesty said.

Authorities refused at times to carry out autopsies, attempted to prevent families from making official complaints, and clamped down on the press, it added.

A number of other international human rights organisations have spoken out against the ongoing crackdown in Nicaragua.

These include the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and four special rapporteurs from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

A court in Oslo refused on Thursday to extend the arrest of Russian national Mikhail Bochkarev, detained on suspicion of involvement in spying activities, citing absence of proof, according to the court's statement obtained by Sputnik.

STOCKHOLM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) A court in Oslo refused on Thursday to extend the arrest of Russian national Mikhail Bochkarev, detained on suspicion of involvement in spying activities, citing absence of proof, according to the court's statement obtained by Sputnik.

Bochkarev, a staff employee of the Russian parliament, was detained at the Gardermoen airport outside Oslo on September 21 following his participation in an IT conference in Norway's parliament, arranged by the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation. The Norwegian security suspects Bochkarev of gathering data via wireless signals and networks in the parliament building. On September 22, the court authorized Bochkarev's arrest which was later extended until October 18.

"After an overall examination of evidence that is currently available, the court has no doubts that the conditions for justified suspicions were not fulfilled," the statement said.

According to the ruling, the prosecution failed to substantiate its accusations, while the questioning of witnesses did not provide additional grounds for suspicion.

However, the court said that Bochkarev's release had been suspended after the prosecution announced it would appeal the ruling.

The appeal request is to be submitted by Friday noon local time (10:00 GMT). Bochkarev will remain in custody until the court hearing, planned for Monday.

Bochkarev has denied all accusations. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the case against the Russian national was fabricated.More than 180 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country from Lebanon and Jordan over the past 24 hours, while over 40 of them have crossed into Syria via the recently reopened Nassib checkpoint, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution and Settlement said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) More than 180 Syrian refugees have returned to their home country from Lebanon and Jordan over the past 24 hours, while over 40 of them have crossed into Syria via the recently reopened Nassib checkpoint, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Refugee Reception, Distribution and Settlement said on Thursday.

The Nassib checkpoint, located at the Jordanian border, was reopened on Monday under agreement of the Syrian and the Jordanian governments. In early July, Damascus regained control over the checkpoint, which was seized by militants in 2015.

"Over the past 24 hours, 182 Syrian citizens returned to the Syrian Arab Republic from foreign territories, including 140 refugees who left Lebanon for Syria via the Jaydet-Yabus and Talkalakh checkpoints (42 women and 71 children), and 42 Syrian citizens who left Jordan for Syria via the Nassib checkpoint (13 women, 21 children)," the center's daily bulletin read.

A total of 23 internally displaced Syrians have returned to the Eastern Ghouta settlement in Damascus province, the center added.

Since July 18, a total of 19,327 people have returned to Syria from other countries, according to the bulletin, while 360 of them have returned via the Nassib checkpoint.

The Russian Center for Syrian reconciliation has carried out two humanitarian actions over the past 24 hours, delivering 3.45 tonnes of food to settlements located in the Syrian provinces of Hama and Aleppo, the ministry added.

According to the bulletin, the Syrian engineering troops continue conducting mine clearance operations. Over the past 24 hours, they have cleared up eight hectares of territory, nine buildings and two kilometers of roads, while they have also found and defused 41 explosive devices, including 10 improvised explosive devices.

As the Syrian government has regained control over most of the country's territories that were seized by terrorists, it is now focused on creating favorable conditions for repatriating refugees. Moscow is assisting Damascus in this, along with providing humanitarian aid to civilians and being a guarantor of the ceasefire.The media delegation of renowned journalists from Pakistan left here on Thursday for Shanghai to visit projects kicked off under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :The media delegation of renowned journalists from Pakistan left here on Thursday for Shanghai to visit projects kicked off under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The delegation comprising senior journalists Sohail Warraich, Haroon-ur-Rasheed, Irshad Arif, Habib Akram, Salim Bukhari, Nazir Laghari, Khusnood Ali Khan, Mujahid Barelvi, Bazad Khan, Shoaib Bin Aziz, Aamir Khan, Zafar-ud-DinMehmood, and Mansoor Aafaq is currently on a five-day visit to China to further promote media cooperation between the two countries.

Talking to APP here, Chairman, Punjab Film Censor board and member of the delegation, Shoaib Bin Aziz said, the tour was organised by 'Understanding China', which was contributing to the promotion of bilateral relations between all-weather friends and strategic partners.

During their stay in the Chinese capital, the members of the delegation held meetings with the top officials of the Chinese government, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and leaders of media organizations.

The Pakistani journalists visited the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs and witnessed regular briefing held at the International Press Centre.

He said the delegation visited the China Huaneng Group, where it was briefed on Pakistan's first supercritical coal power plant built in Sahiwal.

They were informed that the plant, a part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was completed on a build, operate, transfer basis in which the plant'sownership would be transferred to the Government of Punjab after 30 years of operation.

The delegation also held a meeting with Chairman of China Economic Net, Cui Cen and discussed ways and means to further enhance cooperation between the media industries of the two countries.

After the visit of Shanghai, the delegation will return home on Friday.(@FahadShabbir)

The parliament of the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo overwhelmingly supported the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into a fully functional army, local media reported Thursday.

BELGRADE (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The parliament of the self-proclaimed republic of Kosovo overwhelmingly supported the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into a fully functional army, local media reported Thursday.

According to the Gazeta Express newspaper, 101 out of 102 lawmakers present at the voting supported the creation of the Defense Ministry.

Lawmakers from the Serbian List national minority party left the parliament ahead of the voting, the media outlet noted.

The formation of the armed forces of Kosovo requires amending the constitution of the partially recognized state with the consent of at least two-thirds of the 120-strong parliament.

In 2017, Pristina tried to carry out the transformation in another way via expansion of the KSF powers by means of a common law but the move faced international opposition, including from Russia, the European Union and the United States.

On Monday, Kadri Veseli, the speaker of the Kosovar parliament and the former field commander of the Albanian detachments, said that Pristina would create armed forces compliant with NATO standards before 2019.

In early October, the internal affairs and defense committee of the Kosovar parliament prepared a package of bills on the transformation of the KSF into the army and submitted them for approval. Representatives of the ruling party of the Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and the opposition were united in their desire to approve the bills.

Earlier, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed republic, Ramush Haradinaj, said that the United States had "blessed" the creation of a Kosovo army in accordance with NATO standards. The US Embassy in Pristina then reported that Washington was supporting the transformation of the security forces of the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo into a professional multinational army according to NATO standards with a limited mandate for territorial self-defense.

Pristina currently does not have its own army. Belgrade actively opposes its creation, citing the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 on the settlement in Kosovo and Metohija.

In 1999, the armed confrontation of Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Serbian army and police led to the bombing of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which then included the territories of Serbia and Montenegro, by US-led NATO forces.

In 2004, Albanian militants attacked Serb communities, which led to the mass resettlement of Serbs from the province and the destruction of numerous Christian monuments of their history and culture.

Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008 and is recognized by over 100 UN member states. Serbia, as well as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Spain, Greece and some other countries do not recognize Kosovo's independence.Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he and his US counterpart Donald Trump had different views on certain issues, stressing though that this fact did not impede the bilateral dialogue.

SOCHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he and his US counterpart Donald Trump had different views on certain issues, stressing though that this fact did not impede the bilateral dialogue.

"We are engaged in a normal, quite a professional dialogue, and he certainly hears [me], and he does not just hear, he reacts to the interlocutor's arguments, and I can see that. He may disagree with some things, just like I do not agree with him on some things. We have different views on certain issues, but this is normal for a discussion of two partners," Putin said at the Valdai Discussion Club forum, which is currently underway in the Russian city of Sochi.

Putin added that he did not think that Trump ignored other people while communicating with them.

"This is not true. Perhaps, he behaves like this with someone, then they are to blame," Putin said, emphasizing that he did not share the opinion that Trump was listening to nobody.

The Russian president positively assessed his meetings with Trump.

"Have our meetings with Trump been harmful or useful? I believe that in spite of the attempt to bring these meetings into discredit they were positive rather than negative ... We see what is happening there [in the United States]. It is better to communicate, to be in contact with each other than ... quarrel and argue non-stop," Putin added.

He went on to say that Trump sought stabilizing the Russian-US relations.

"In my opinion, the current president is primed to certain stabilization and alignment of the Russian-US relations. Let us see how it goes," Putin said.

He also noted Russia's commitment to stabilization.(@FahadShabbir)

Russia and Mongolia on Thursday signed a long-lasting program of the defense industry cooperation, expanding their partnership on joint drills and military education.<

ULAANBAATAR (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Russia and Mongolia on Thursday signed a long-lasting program of the defense industry cooperation, expanding their partnership on joint drills and military education.

The document was signed by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Mongolian counterpart Nyamaagiin Enkhbold.

At the official ceremony, the Russian minister also announced that Moscow had handed over military equipment worth more than $13 million to Ulaanbaatar.

"The transfer of property to the Mongolian side as part of military-technical assistance is certainly a landmark event in bilateral relations ... I am convinced that the means of ground aerodrome maintenance of general use will expand the capabilities of the Mongolian Armed Forces and, in particular, the national Air Force," Shoigu said at the ceremony.

The Mongolian defense minister thanked the Russian side for the equipment that was provided "free of charge."

Moreover, Russia and Mongolia will enhance their cooperation on the exchange of students, including the ones studying in the universities under the respective defense ministries, the Russian defense minister added.

Over 300 Mongolian servicemen are currently studying in the universities of the Russian Defense Ministry, according to the official figures.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

ULAANBAATAR (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Russia is committed to enhancing its defense industry cooperation with Mongolia, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday.

"We appreciate that Mongolia considers the development of cooperation with Russia as one of the most important external policy objectives.

We reaffirm our committeemen to effectively support the existing potential for deepening military and defense industry cooperation," Shoigu said during his talks with Mongolian Defense Minister Nyamaagiin Enkhbold.

Shoigu expressed gratitude to Mongolia for its active participation in military conferences, forums and drills organized by Russia in 2018, and praised the fact that the agreements reached by the two countries were being implemented.

During his talks with Shoigu in April, Enkhbold said that Russia and Mongolia were preparing their third defense industry cooperation program for 2019-2024.(@rukhshanmir)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and his Bolivian counterpart Maria del Carmen Almendras discussed bilateral relations and the regional agenda, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and his Bolivian counterpart Maria del Carmen Almendras discussed bilateral relations and the regional agenda, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"A thorough exchange of views took place on a wide range of topical issues of bilateral, regional and international agenda, including in the context of Bolivia's current chairmanship of the UN Security Council. Considerable attention was paid to further development of the Russian-Bolivian political dialogue, deepening cooperation in trade, economic sphere, investment and humanitarian field," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the talks were held in a friendly and constructive atmosphere.

In June, Bolivian President Evo Morales visited Moscow and held talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Following the talks, the two presidents confirmed their interest in expanding trade and investment ties, developing cooperation in the fields of culture, education and science, as well as developing defense industry cooperation. The parties also declared their intention to cooperate in counteracting global challenges and threats in the global economy, as well as in the fight against drug trafficking.

During his visit, Morales also invited Putin to visit Bolivia. He later said he was looking forward to the visit of the Russian president in November.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) Several ceasefire violations were registered in the Syrian provinces of Latakia and Aleppo Over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry's Center for Reconciliation of the Warring Parties in Syria reported on Wednesday.

"Over the past day, terrorists attacked Ikko (two times), Latakia province, Maarata (two times), Aleppo province and R&D Centre of Aleppo. Besides, there have been two shelling attacks at Tadef, Aleppo province," the center said at a briefing.

The center added that it had carried out a humanitarian operation in the settlement of Saad al-Ansary in Aleppo province, delivering one tonne of fresh bread to local residents.

It also delivered food sets to 15 families of the fallen Syrian soldiers in Aleppo province.

The center also urged the commanders of illegal armed groups to abandon armed provocations and take the path of a peaceful settlement in the areas under their control.

Russia, together with Turkey and Iran, is a guarantor of the ceasefire in Syria. Moscow has also been assisting Damascus by supporting the government forces' fight against terrorist groups and providing humanitarian aid to civilians.(@rukhshanmir)

At least six children were killed and 25 injured Wednesday when lightning struck a primary school in northern Tanzania, a local government official said.

Nairobi, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Oct, 2018 ) :At least six children were killed and 25 injured Wednesday when lightning struck a Primary school in northern Tanzania, a local government official said.

The lightning hit Emaco Vision primary school, in the mountainous Geita region, during the morning.

"It was about 9am, six pupils were killed and 25 were injured," said regional education coordinator Yese Kanyuma.

Images circulating on Tanzanian social media showed parents crowding in front of a hospital near the school for news of their children.

In 2015 four school children and their teacher died in eastern Tanzania's Kigoma region when their classroom was struck by lightning.(@rukhshanmir)

Taiwan and its only South American diplomatic ally Paraguay will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in cooperation, hopefully later this year, Vice Foreign Minister Jose Maria Liu said Thursday during a legislative hearing.

Taipei, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Taiwan and its only South American diplomatic ally Paraguay will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in cooperation, hopefully later this year, Vice Foreign Minister Jose Maria Liu said Thursday during a legislative hearing.

Liu's comment came after Foreign Minister Joseph Wu confirmed a day earlier that the two countries are pushing a US $150 million investment proposal.

Asked by a legislator about the deal unveiled by Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benitez during a state visit to Taiwan last week, Liu said the Paraguayan president, who took office in August, wants to deepen cooperation with Taiwan in terms of investment, economic, trade and public infrastructure.

Noting that Taiwan and Paraguay maintain good relations, Liu said the South American country is looking to conduct cooperation with Taiwan in education, social welfare, medical care and infrastructure projects.

Abdo said Monday in a tweet that Taiwan has agreed to invest US$150 million in his country to help boost development in these areas.

However, Liu said that the two sides have not yet signed a MOU on cooperation for the next five years but will do so soon, hopefully by the end of this year.

Asked about the source of the US$150 million budget, Liu said it might be allocated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Paraguay has had diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1957.(@rukhshanmir)

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against corruption Wednesday in Haiti, with some even shoving the unpopular president at a public ceremony.

PortauPrince, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against corruption Wednesday in Haiti, with some even shoving the unpopular president at a public ceremony.

Police fired in the air to get President Jovenel Moise away from a ceremony at which he laid flowers at the tomb of one of the destitute Caribbean country's founding fathers.

People in the crowd threw themselves to the ground as the shots rang out.

Elsewhere, near the presidential palace, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Tempers have been running high for weeks in Haiti, where some accuse the government of doing nothing to fight corruption.

On Wednesday, people demonstrated all over Haiti. In the capital, Port au Prince, burning barricades were set up in the streets.

One particular gripe is the alleged theft of funds from a foundation called Petrocaribe.

It was created by the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to help poor countries of the Americas, among other things by providing them with cut rate oil. Haiti has benefited from it for the past 12 years.

In 2016 and again last year, probes carried out by the Senate concluded that nearly two billion Dollars in money from the fund had been embezzled. A dozen former government ministers were implicated but nobody was ever charged.

Since protests began this summer, Haitians have started using the higher figure of 3.8 billion dollars, but this is not the correct amount given by Petrocaribe.

"Our children have nothing to eat. We have nothing to pay for their education. And politicians wasted 3.8 billion dollars that were supposed to be used to develop the country," said one protester, Ronald Saint-Hilaire, in the capital.Relations between Turkey and Moldova have reached the strategic cooperation stage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday during his visit to the Eastern European country.

ANKARA/CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2018) Relations between Turkey and Moldova have reached the strategic cooperation stage, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday during his visit to the Eastern European country.

Earlier in the day, Erdogan arrived in the Moldovan capital for a two-day visit.

"Our relations have reached a strategic level, and now, a partnership mechanism has been created, meetings of the High-Level Cooperation Council will be held twice a year," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with his Moldovan counterpart Igor Dodon.

Moldova's territorial integrity is important for Turkey as well as the relations between the Moldovans and the Turkic-speaking Gagauz people, who have close historic ties with Turkey.

"I invite Moldova to seriously take FETO [the movement of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, which Ankara refers to as the Fethullah Terrorist Organization].

The members of this terrorist group have penetrated all levels, and now they are penetrating into Moldova just the same," Erdogan noted.

Turkey's leader went on to express hope that the Turkish-Moldovan turnover would reach $1 billion soon as it currently stands at $466 million.

At the same time, the Moldovan president awarded Erdogan the Republic's Order for an extraordinary contribution to the promotion of bilateral ties, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

"By the decree of the President of Moldova, the Order of the Republic is presented to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for his special contribution to the development of relations between the states," Dodon's spokesperson said.

The leaders have also signed a statement on the establishment of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council.UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2018) The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances may launch its own investigation into the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Chair-Rapporteur Bernard Duhaime said in a briefing on Thursday.

"An eventual UN investigation... could be a possibility," Duhaime said when asked about Khashoggi. "We consider that an independent, impartial and thorough investigation needs to be done as quickly as possible."

Earlier on Thursday, at least four human rights groups called on Turkish authorities to request a UN investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres can initiate a probe if all parties involved agree or via legislative mandate, the UNSG'S spokesperson told reporters.

Turkish authorities reportedly have evidence indicating that Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US resident, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. On Tuesday, the New York Times, citing Turkish officials, reported that four of five suspects identified have ties to the Saudi government.

Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi, saying that the journalist had left the consulate. Riyadh said it is investigating the matter.(@rukhshanmir)

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday that it had resumed evacuation of refugees from Libya amid intensified clashes near the country's capital.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday that it had resumed evacuation of refugees from Libya amid intensified clashes near the country's capital.

Tripoli has been hit by multiple clashes between rival militant groups since late August, when the Seventh Brigade armed group launched an attack against other militias. In September, the rival militant groups reached a ceasefire agreement under the UN auspices. However, the hostilities continue, with daily violations of the truce being reported.

"Amidst an increasingly volatile security situation in Tripoli, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency successfully evacuated 135 people out of Libya to Niger on Tuesday night (16 October)," the statement read.

According to the agency, the refugees are now temporarily hosted by the UNHCR Emergency Transit Mechanism until further accommodation is found.

The rescued group is the first one the UNHRC evacuated from Libya since June, when the evacuations were suspended over concerns that the number of people received by Niger was outpacing the speed at which people were being resettled to third countries, the agency said.

The UNHRC added that a total of 1,997 people have been evacuated from Libya since the start of the rescue operations in December last year.

Libya has been in the state of war since its long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown in 2011. The eastern part of the country is governed by the parliament, backed by the Libyan National Army (LNA) and located in Tobruk. The UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), headed by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, operates in the country's west and is headquartered in Tripoli.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The United States will pay up to $5 million for information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (outlawed in Russia) leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing its reward for the arrest or conviction of AQAP leader Qasim al-Rimi to $10 million, the US Department of State said in a press release on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) The United States will pay up to $5 million for information about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (outlawed in Russia) leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing its reward for the arrest or conviction of AQAP leader Qasim al-Rimi to $10 million, the US Department of State said in a press release on Thursday.

"The US Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the identification or location of Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) senior regional leader Khalid Saeed al-Batarfi, and is increasing from $5 million to up to $10 million its reward for information leading to the identification, location, arrest, and or conviction of the leader of AQAP Qasim al-Rimi," the release said.

The State Department noted that Yemen-native al-Rimi was named the emir of AQAP in June 2015, and escaped from a Yemen prison in 2006 after being convicted for a plot to assassinate the US Ambassador there.

The State Department has designated al-Rimi a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and he is also on a list of individuals sanctioned by the United Nations, the release noted.

The State Department also said Saudi-native al-Batarfi trained with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and fought with the Taliban in that country starting in 2001.

Al-Batfari joined AQAP in 2010 and was named emir of Abyan. In January 2018, the US designated him an Specially Designated Global Terrorist after he threatened the Jews and the United States over the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the release.Children pray the rosary in the Philippines during the One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign

A group of children praying the rosary at a wayside shrine in Venezuela in 2005 has now become the international One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign sponsored by Aid to the Church in need.

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

A group of children gathered to pray the rosary one day at a wayside shrine outside of Caracas in Venezuela in 2005. Some women who happened to come upon this group remembered Padre Pios words, When a million children pray the Rosary, then the world will change. Since then Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has organized an annual One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign on October 18, the Feast of St Luke, the Evangelist. I spoke with Jonathan Luciano, National Director for ACN in the Philippines, about the campaign that took place there on Thursday.

Children Praying the Rosary in the Philippines

Mr Luciano explained that the campaign was picked up in the Philippines even prior to the opening of an ACN office in 2016. Since the beginning, Dioceses across the Philippines had received invitations to join the campaign from ACN International. This is the third year that the ACN office in the Philippines has directly organized the campaign throughout the entire nation.

Listen to our interview with Jonathan Luciano, Director of ACN Philippines

Numbers participating

Participation in the campaign is strong in the Philippines. Mr Luciano says that 41 dioceses with 1,293 parishes and 777 schools signed up. Most of the children stopped what they were doing at 9:00 in the morning to pray the rosary together for peace. Other children stopped in the afternoon to pray.

Orphans of the drug war highlighted

This year, we decided to highlight one school, Mr Luciano told us. We chose San Jose Academy. This is a school under the diocese of Kalookan and they have a very special program for orphans of those whose parents were killed by the drug war being done here in our country. We chose this because we wanted the children, also these orphans, to be the agents of reconciliation, of unity and peace.

These children, orphaned by the drug war, led the rosary at San Jose Academy this morning.

Photo credit: Cathlene Samiano, ACN PhilippinesArchbishop Joseph Atanga believes that the issues African youth face are distinctive and there are different ways of facing these issues.

By Russell Pollitt, SJ

Jesuit Archbishop Joseph Atanga shepherds the Archdiocese of Bertoua in the eastern region of the African country of Cameroon. The Archbishop spoke to me about some of the problems he believes afflict African youth. He says that African youth need, first and foremost, to be helped to come to Jesus. He says that he is also hoping that the Synod of Bishops will be able to facilitate a closer relationship between the West and the African Church.

The Synod has been good, it is important for the Church to come together and share different experiences from across the world. He said that the bishops of Africa are also happy to be able to present the situation that the youth in Africa find themselves in today.

The Archbishop said that the Synod has shown how youth all over the world have the same problems, even though the problems of African youth differ. He said that it is important that youth from all over the globe come together and share their experiences too.

He believes that the issues African youth face are distinctive and there are different ways of facing the issues. It is important for African bishops to listen to the youth, he says, so that the can accompany them and help them face their issues and problems.

Archbishop Atanga believes that African youth are at a crossroads; he says that they dont know how to find their way to Jesus. The bishops of Africa have to learn how best to accompany them to Jesus.

Corruption, extreme poverty and political upheaval are important issues for Africa which, the Archbishops says, are not being addressed properly at the Synod. He says that there is corruption all over the world, not just in Africa. Corruption, he believes, leads to extreme poverty. He says that multinationals exploit the resources of the African continent and then take money off the continent.

The Archbishop says that Africans are migrating and that often this is driven by poverty. He says that they are migrating both off the continent and inside African countries themselves. This, he says, is another big issue that needs to be closely examined.

He hopes that the Church in the west will help the African Church. He says that dialogue is important in finding ways for the Church in the west to support the African Church. The Archbishop says that the Holy Father talks about corruption and that the bishops cannot let him talk about that alone; all the bishops need to address this issue so that they can find a way forward together.

At the end of the Synod the Archbishop hopes to take away a sense of the issues that face the universal Church. He says that many of the problems are the same and that the Church needs to find ways of meeting those problems and walking together so as to be a listening universal Church.La Civilita Cattolica publishes details of Pope Francis private meeting with his fellow Jesuits during his visit to Lithuania last month.

By Vatican News

The hour-long meeting with a group of 28 Jesuits from several different countries took place on 23 September while Pope Francis was in Vilnius. A transcript of the conversation was published in the most recent edition of La Civilta Cattolica by the magazines Editor-in-Chief, Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, who was present at the meeting.

Change in the Church

One of the points touched on by Pope Francis during the conversation, was the importance of the encounter between young and old. When a young Jesuit asked the Pope how he could help him, Pope Francis replied that today we need to accompany the Church in a profound spiritual renewal. I believe the Lord wants a change in the Church, he said. Historians say it takes 100 years for a Council to be applied, said the Pope, so we are halfway there. Then he added: If you want to help me, act in such a way as to move the [Second Vatican] Council forward in the Church. And help me with your prayer.

Entering chaos

Another young Jesuit asked him how to live without fear in a world that seems to be in chaos. Pope Francis advised him not to enter chaos alone, because you will end badly, he said. But if you enter with the grace of spiritual exchange with your Provincial, with your community, if you do so as a mission and with the Lordthere is no need to be afraidGod is strong.

Touching wounds

During the encounter, Pope Francis also met Archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius, who was imprisoned for years by the KGB. Sunday 23 September was the day the Pope visited Lithuanias Museum of Occupations and Struggles for Freedom, the infamous prison where opponents of the Soviet regime were detained and tortured. Pope Francis was deeply touched by what he saw there and shared his impressions with his brother Jesuits. Jesus descended into hell, he reminded them, and I advise you not to be afraid to descend into the hell of the people. We need to go down into hell, he said, in order to touch their wounds. When you touch the wounds of others, you are touching the wounds of Christ, said Pope Francis, and a Jesuit should never be afraid of this.

Wounds past and present

These wounds are not limited to what happened here in the past, he continued. Referring to the situation of some prisons in North Africa, the Pope said we get all upset about what was done by the Communists, the Nazis and the Fascists: But today? Doesnt it happen again today?, he asked. Of course, except its done with silken white gloves!On Thursday, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience H.E. Mr. Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea.

The Holy See's Press Office released a communique on Thursday describing the audience in which Pope Francis received the President of the Korean Republic. This is the full text of the communique:

Today, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience H.E. Mr. Moon Jae-in, President of the Republic of Korea, who subsequently met with His Eminence Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, and with H.E. Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions, the parties evoked the good bilateral relations and the positive contribution offered by the Church in the social, education and healthcare sectors, as well as the promotion of dialogue and reconciliation between Koreans. Strong appreciation was expressed for the common commitment to fostering all useful initiatives to overcome the tensions that still exist in the Korean Peninsula, in order to usher in a new season of peace and development.

Finally, some matters of a regional nature were discussed.

Its life or death when trying this spooky sipper that Mercato Della Pescherias mixologists have crafted just in time for Halloween. The all new Acqua di Vida, or Water of Life, resembles that of a potion combining a careful blend of Malibu rum, Don Q rum, blue Curacao, pineapple juice and finished with a black cherry garnish (Pictured: Water of Life Cocktail)

You can enjoy this specialty cocktail now through October 31st for only $15. Mercato Della Pescheria is nestled on the edge of St. Marks Square in the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian Las Vegas. Open seven days per week from 11:00am-11:00pm, this Italian seafood restaurant boasts a Crudo bar, pasta station and a table side tiramisu presentation. Reservations are highly recommended, please call 702-837-0309.

Buca di Beppo, the authentic, family-style Italian restaurant serving freshly prepared Italian cuisine to food lovers across the USA is pleased to unveil its special menu in honor of World Pasta Month. This year, for the month of October, Buca di Beppos culinary team takes diners on an adventure across Italy with classic dishes from a variety of regions, along with perfect wine pairings.

The culinary team from Buca di Beppo enjoyed spending time this summer in Italy to find inspiration for World Pasta Months special dishes along with the wines to accompany the menu. Featured entrees include Shrimp Genovese from Genoa, Pappardelle Sugo from Bologna, Tortellini Bianca from Parma, and Creamy Short Rib Orecchiette from Rome. For starters, diners can enjoy Rollatini alla Norma from Sicily, ltalian Sausage Cheese Dip from Tuscany and Suppli from Rome, selections that set the tone for a culinary trip across Italy.

Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada will host their 17th annual Boo-A-Thon bowling tournament fundraiser on October 20 at 12-2 pm and 3-5 pm, and October 21 at 12-2 pm, at the Texas Station Bowling Center.

The annual event is intended to help support the financial literacy programs that Junior Achievement offers to students in Clark County.

Southern Nevada community members are invited to join in the festivities and form five-person bowling teams to raise at least $100 per person. Junior Achievement will provide all of the fundraising tools necessary to aid with team fundraising efforts. There is a $10 registration fee for all bowlers, which will provide unlimited bowling for two hours, bowling shoes and the chance to win a number of prizes.

We are ecstatic to host our annual Boo-A-Thon fundraiser and are looking forward to a spectacular and exciting event. said Michelle Jackson, president of Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada. With your support, we will continue to partner with educators, volunteers and business community leaders to encourage over 20,000 students in 2018-2019 to dream big and reach their potential.

Junior Achievement strives to strengthen, prepare and teach young people how to succeed in a global economy. Since being founded locally in 1996, Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada has impacted more than 330,000 students with their practical hands-on financial literacy curriculum.refers to delinquent girl gangs or more correctly the boss girl in a gang.first appeared in Japan during the 1960s, as a female equivalent to the malegangs. By the 1970sgangs were starting die-out, as the country saw the rise of thegirl gangs. Initially the gangs started as small groups of girls sneaking cigarettes in the bathroom at school, but soon grew in numbers and the level of criminality they became involved in.The gangs grew in the 1970s, and had a reputation for violence and shop-lifting. Gangs ranged in sized from Tokyo's United Shoplifters group, which numbered somewhere around 80 girls, through to the largest gang which was known as the Kanto Women Delinquent Alliance, rumored to have had around 20,000 members. Making them bigger and more organized than the more well known Japanese organized crime gangs of the Yakuza. The idea of delinquent gangs of girls entered common culture in Japan in the early 70s, when they were featured in a number of exploitation movies known as Pink Films (in a sub-genre referred to as "Pinky violence").identified themselves as gang members though having brightly dyed or permed hair, and by wearing school uniforms that they'd altered, by rolling up their sleeve, lengthening their skirts covered in gang affiliated symbols and slogans. Thegirls followed strict rules and codes of conduct within their gangs, and breaking them would result in "lynching". Lynching involved several degrees of punishment, but burning with cigarettes was a common punishment for minor infringements of the rules. Reasons for punishment ranged from showing disrespect to the senior members, speaking to rival gangs, cheating with someone else's boyfriend or being caught doing drugs. Although sniffing paint thinner or glue was a common activity among girl gang members.It was common for girls to carry razor blades, which were easily concealed, through to chains and bamboo swords they'd stolen from the school gym. The criminal activities and violence of the girl gangs in Japan, reached such a high that they were described by Japanese police pamphlets in the 1980s as "omens of downfall". Despite authorities attempts to quell the girl gang culture in the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a recent rise in gang membership.have become popular characters in both Japanese fiction, manga, anime and movies.Special forces servicemen patrol a blast site at a college in the city of Kerch. At least 18 people died in a blast in a technical college on the Crimean peninsula. (KERCH.FM/AFP)

Speaking to journalists and parents of missing students in the city of Kerch, where the shooting took place, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said the death toll stood at 18 plus the killer.

He added that 53 people were injured in the attack. 12 of whom were in an extremely serious condition.

Russia's Investigative Committee named the shooter as 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, a student at the college.

He was captured on security camera footage and later found dead with gunshot wounds in the college library.

Aksyonov said he had seen the body of the killer, whom he described as "not a Crimean, not even a person", adding that Roslyakov had acted alone.

Facing a crowd of angry parents, some of whom still did not know where their children were, Aksyonov said authorities were seeking to establish the gunman's motives: "What pushed this non-person to do this, I don't know."

He added that the fourth-year student had aroused no suspicion, saying teachers called him "peaceful."

But Roslyakov confirmed earlier reports that the teenager had acquired a gun license legally. and promised a transparent investigation with "no secrets".

According to the RIA Novosti agency, security forces raided Roslyakov's parents' home following the killings.

TWO BOMBS AND A GUN

Russian authorities initially put out conflicting versions of what happened at the technical college in Kerch, on the peninsula annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The attack was first reported as an explosion, with authorities saying an "unidentified explosive device" had gone off and classifying the incident as an act of terror.

A few hours later the Investigative Committee said the victims were killed by gunshots.

"A shooting took place after the explosion. The gunman had a hunting gun," Crimean official Igor Mikhailichenko said.

The attack was then reclassified as a murder.

"This is not a terrorist act. It's a mass killing committed by one scumbag," Aksyonov said earlier on state television.

'TERRIBLE TRAGEDY'

The Investigative Committee said most of the victims were teenagers. According to the college's website, it accepts students in the last three grades of school, from the age of 14.

Aksyonov announced three days of mourning from Thursday for victims of the "terrible tragedy".

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, described the killings as a "tragic event", speaking during a joint news conference with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"It's already clear that it's a crime, the motive and possible versions for this tragedy are being carefully examined," Putin said.

"I want to express condolences to the relatives of the dead and express the hope that the injured recover as quickly as possible," the president said, calling for a minute's silence to mourn the victims.

'RANDOMLY SHOOTING'

Witnesses said that the attacker fired shots but also spoke of hearing an explosion.

A student at the college who asked not to be named told AFP: "I was in a class when I heard shooting on the first floor."

"When we all ran out into the corridor, there were others running and shouting that some guy with a machine gun was randomly shooting everyone in turn."

"Then a strong explosion went off, but thank God, I was already outside and saw our guys being thrown out of the windows by the explosive wave," he said, adding that part of the building collapsed.

Another witness who gave his name as Sergei and who worked nearby said in a video on the Kerch.tv website that he heard "a bang and shots."

Sergei, whose shirt was covered in blood, said victims "were taken away in public transport, in minibuses and buses, with two or three people in each ambulance."

"They are children and staff," the witness said. "I saw people without legs, without arms."

SCHOOL ATTACKS

Attacks by disaffected teenagers at their schools and colleges have hit the headlines recently in Russia.

In January, a school student attacked a teacher and fellow students with an axe in Siberia and tried to set fire to the school building and to kill himself.

In April, a school student stabbed a teacher and a fellow student in the Urals Mountains and then set fire to a classroom.Vietnam is among those hardest-hit by climate change, but renewables investment is slow

Last Wednesday, Hanoi hosted an event of high significance: the launch of the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report was approved only a few days prior, and Vietnam was selected as the first country to share this important research.

According to the IPCC, the event was important for Vietnam, as the country is one of the countries in the world to be hit hardest by climate change. It also remains at a slow pace in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enabling private investors to invest heavily into renewable energy (RE) projects. It is acknowledged the country can attract more of this type of investment if it removes obstructions against investors.

Caitlin Weisen, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) country director in Vietnam, said that the country has great potential for RE. Vietnam can deploy at least 85 gigawatts (GW) of solar photovoltaic generation capacity and 21GW of wind energy generation well before 2050, showing that a low-carbon pathway is possible. The combined total technical capacity (126 GW) is an equivalence of 80 per cent of Vietnams total installed energy capacity by 2030 (129.5 GW).

Vietnam also boasts high potential for energy-saving of up to 7 per cent relative to business as usual, through to the year 2035. Energy efficiency (EE) measures can remove some 67 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) by 2035 as well as deliver additional environmental benefits.

Cutting across all climate efforts is of importance to enabling the access, contribution and involvement of the private sector, Weisen said.

A recent UNDP survey of 13 large banks, institutions, and investors show that there is at least $10 billion readily available for investment in RE and EE in Vietnam, amounting to almost 40 per cent of the total investment required by Vietnam by 2030.

This investment is possible if the current barriers constraining such investments are addressed, especially the low price of electricity that lowers incentives for efficient use, and the existing format of power purchase agreements (PPAs) that deter investors from investing, read a UNDP report on private funding opportunities for RE and EE investments in Vietnam, released last week.

A foreign bank representative said that it stands ready to invest $1 billion into around 10 RE projects in the country. However, the banks engagement in Vietnams RE market is presently being prevented by PPAs that are deemed un-bankable, the representative said.

Another bank also revealed that it has $10 billion set for RE investment loans worldwide, and would be happy to become engaged in RE investments in Vietnam. The bank could theoretically offer up to $1 billion for Vietnam, but currently has several major concerns about the PPA framework that prevent its full engagement, a bank source said.

A third bank also stated that if the regulatory framework was simplified it could provide $500 million annually for RE and EE in Vietnams state-owned enterprises through concessional loans, as well as provide another $500 million annually for project preparation. However, Vietnams Law on Public Investment procedures are too long  larger projects may take several years to develop during which time procedures may change, the banks spokesperson said. Moreover, flexible credit lines related to RE/EE are effectively not allowed since most RE projects have to be approved by the prime minister, which further complicates lending.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has approved over 70 new solar power projects to be put into operation before June 2019, with a total designed capacity of over 3,000 megawatts (MW).

According to pan-Asia consulting firm Dezan Shira & Associates, as of July, solar power projects with a total capacity of 12,600MW were in the pre-investment phase, while 1,430MW was in the development and feasibility phase. Around 1,000MW is under construction, while only 8MW is currently in the operating stage. Also, 748 solar roof-top projects were in operation with a total capacity of 11.55MW.

Last year the Vietnamese government issued Decree No.11/2017/QD-TTg on mechanisms for encouraging the development of solar power in Vietnam, offering a feed-in-tariff (FiT) for utility solar power plants of 9.35 US cents per kilowatt an hour (kWh) for 20 years. The FiT will be applicable for projects beginning operations before June 30, 2019, except for those in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan, which have a 2020 deadline.

Currently the FiT for wind power is set by the Vietnamese government at 7.8 US cents per kWh. However, this price will be increased to 8.5 US cents as November 1.These days, authorities of the north-eastern province of Quang Ninh are working with South Koreas Ly Viet Company on the companys giant project worth at least $3-4 billion to build a specialised park in the provinces Uong Bi town on a 100-hectare land site.

The investor is likely preparing the necessary dossiers. They have visited a number of localities in Vietnam to find a location for this project, and they may select Quang Ninh, said Nguyen Duc Tiep, director of the Investment Promotion Division under the Quang Ninh Investment Promotion Agency.

In another case, Tiep told VIR, South Korean toy producer Teddy Bear is working with the province to pour hundreds of millions of US dollars into building a specialised museum on an area of two hectares in Halong city. The investors told us that improvements in the local business and investment climate have attracted them to Vietnam, said Tiep. Over the past two years, the Vietnamese business and investment climate has improved remarkably, helping not only Quang Ninh, but also the whole country to lure in a great deal of foreign direct investment (FDI).

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), FDI will continue being a key driver of Vietnams economic growth this year, with an estimated disbursement of $18 billion, up 2.8 per cent on-year. In the first nine months of this year, the disbursed sum was $13.25 billion, up 6 per cent on-year.

A rise in FDI reflects that Vietnams business and investment climate continue improving, significantly contributing to a growth rate of 6.7-6.8 per cent this year, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung. International organisations are also quite upbeat about Vietnams economic prospects.

Standard Chartered Bank more than one week ago released its global research report on Vietnam entitled Vietnam  Fast, not Furious, Growth, in which the bank continues to expect robust GDP growth of 7 per cent for 2018 and 6.9 per cent for 2019, driven by strong FDI-supported electronics manufacturing and rising consumption.

Between January and September, Vietnam earned $36.1 billion (up 14.6 per cent on-year) from exporting mobile phones and spare parts, and $26.1 billion (up 16.7 per cent on-year) from exporting computers, laptops, and spare parts. The biggest exporters include Samsung, LG, and Intel.

Vietnam is likely to remain the fastest-growing ASEAN economy in 2018 and 2019, as it was in 2017. We remain positive on Vietnams medium-term growth on strong manufacturing activity, as FDI inflows to electronics manufacturing remain strong, said Chidu Narayanan, economist for Asia of Standard Chartered Bank. We maintain our view that newly-registered FDI inflows will remain strong in 2018 and 2019-2020, at close to $17 billion each year.

The World Bank has also just released its East Asia and Pacific (EAP) economic update, which stated that Vietnams medium-term outlook has improved further. Real GDP is projected to expand by 6.8 per cent in 2018 (up from 6.5 per cent in the banks April projection) before moderating to 6.6 per cent in 2019 and 6.5 per cent in 2020 due to the envisaged cyclical moderation of global demand. In the update, Vietnams economic growth is expected to outperform almost all EAP economies (see chart), propelled by the sustained global recovery and continued domestic reforms.

Robust economic performance is underpinned by a government commitment to macroeconomic stability and private sector-led growth. Economic policies continue to focus on market-oriented reforms to reduce the economic role of the state, boost business conditions, and open the economy for more private investment, said the update.

According to the US-based Trading Economics which provides economic indicators for 196 nations, GDP in Vietnam is expected to be $242 billion by the end of this quarter. In the long-term, the GDP is projected to stand at around $269 billion in 2020.

Meanwhile, Spain-based FocusEconomics, which provides in-depth economic analysis globally, expect the Vietnamese economy to expand by 6.7 per cent in 2018 and 6.6 per cent in 2019.

This years strong growth is expected to carry into next year, thanks to robust FDI inflows and solid domestic demand. Strong private credit growth and rising incomes should support private consumption, while overseas capital should continue to buoy manufacturing output, said the firm in a bulletin sent to VIR.File photo of Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the World Trade Organisation, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meetings in Nusa Dua on Indonesias resort island of Bali on Oct 10, 2018. (SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP)

Escalating trade wars "pose real risks" to the global economy, potentially threatening millions of jobs, head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Roberto Azevedo warned in a London speech on Wednesday (Oct 17).

US President Donald Trump is locked in a trade war with China, rolling out billions of dollars in tariffs in a bid to tackle its trade deficit and rein in what Washington considers unacceptable Chinese trade practices.

Trump has also targeted the EU, and WTO director general Azevedo told business heads at the Mansion House speech that there appeared to be "no end in sight" to the tit-for-tat action, pleading with world leaders to negotiate.

"A continued escalation of tensions would pose real risks," he warned.

WTO economists calculate that "a complete breakdown in international trade cooperation would see a sharp rise in tariffs, knocking up to 17 per cent off global trade growth, and 1.9 per cent off overall global economic growth.

"These effects would cause significant disruptions for workers, firms, and communities as they adjust to this new reality," said Azevedo.

"Potentially millions of workers would need to find new jobs; firms would be looking for new products and markets; and communities for new sources of growth," he added.

Responding to claims that unfair trade practices were going unpunished under the current system, Azevedo said there needed to be political solutions and he called on leaders to work towards them at next month's G20 summit in Argentina.

Trump has so far slapped tariffs on US$250 billion worth of Chinese goods imported by the US and threatened to go even further.

He has also boosted military support for China rival Taiwan and accused China of interfering in US elections.

The US accuses China of rampantly stealing technology and seeking an unfair trade advantage by forcing foreign businesses to work with local partners, handing over their know-how in the process.Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged deputies in Macedonia to ratify the name change. (Photo: AFP/Louisa Gouliamaki)

"I want to encourage them to move forward with determination and bravery, because there will not be another opportunity," Tsipras told reporters outside his office, less than an hour after accepting Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias' resignation.

"I am determined to do whatever I can (to) safeguard the successful conclusion of the historic Prespes agreement," said the 44-year-old leftist premier, adding that he had decided to personally assume the duties of foreign minister.

Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev faces an uphill battle to secure the necessary two-thirds majority to rename his country North Macedonia, a move aimed at opening a path to NATO and EU membership.

Greece also has a northern province named Macedonia, the heart of Alexander the Great's ancient kingdom.

Many Greeks fear the deal on the table will officially enable Skopje to lay claim to their cultural heritage.

Tsipras said he was "heartbroken" to lose Kotzias, who had helped him broker the hard-fought deal announced in June, and signed in the border Prespes region, after months of talks with Skopje.

CLASHED IN CABINET

A day earlier, Kotzias had clashed in a cabinet meeting with Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, who strongly opposes the Macedonia deal but is a crucial coalition partner for the Tsipras government.

Head of the nationalist Independent Greeks party, Kammenos has repeatedly threatened to defect from the government if the deal is put to a vote in Greece's parliament. That is expected early next year if Macedonia enshrines the name change through constitutional revision.

"The prime minister and several ministers made their decisions in yesterday's cabinet meeting, and I made mine," Kotzias, who reportedly felt slighted by a lack of support from the PM, said in a tweet after his resignation.

Both Tsipras and Zaev have staked major political capital on the name deal, which is strongly promoted by the European Union and the United States, despite strong objections and protests in both of the countries involved.

But Tsipras is also trying to hold his coalition government together ahead of elections scheduled in a year's time. His Syriza party badly trails the opposition New Democracy conservatives in opinion polls.

There is speculation that there could be a ballot as early as May, or if not sooner.

A 67-year-old career diplomat and university professor, Kotzias had held the foreign ministry post since Tsipras' leftist government came to power in 2015 and was one of his most experienced and valued ministers.

In a referendum last month, the name deal was ignored by most of the Macedonian electorate, with two thirds of them choosing not to vote - that has weakened Zaev's hand in the current parliamentary debate.

Those opposed to the name change have argued that the referendum should have required a minimum 50-per cent turnout for it to be considered valid, but Zaev has said the vote was only consultative.Hyosung Group is planning to expand investment in Vietnam to $6 billion

The group was recently licensed for its polypropylene (PP) production plant and an associated liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) underground storage depot in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau worth $1.2 billion in total investment value.

The PP plant element of the project is expected to replace Hyosungs existing PP production line in South Korea.

Dropping anchor in the Vietnamese market in 2007, Hyosung Vietnam Limited has injected $1.5 billion into its spandex yarn and auto tire manufacturing facilities in the country.

The company is currently operating nine plants based in Nhon Trach Industrial Park (IP) in the southern province of Dong Nai.

This year, the company engaged in building a new plant in Tam Thang IP in the central province of Quang Nam, which is specialised in supplying steel cord to feed the global auto tire industry.

These plants have been supplying input materials (steel cord and tire cord) to global brands such as Goodyear, Yokohama, and Michellin, spandex to sportswear manufacturers like Adidas, Nike or Puma, and components for industrial item production such as pumping machines, transformers, ATM machines, and motors.

To deepen roots in Vietnam, Hyosung is showing keen interests in M&A opportunities.

A Hyosung representative said that the Vietnamese governments intention to divest from state-owned enterprises (SOEs) matches the companys strategy in Vietnam and they wish to engage in the Vietnamese SOE equitisation process through capital contributions or stake purchases to become a strategic partner.

To deepen roots in Vietnam, Hyosung is showing keen interest in M&A opportunities in Vietnam.

We do not pose limits to such investments, provided that the Vietnamese partners satisfy our criteria of operational efficiency in their industries. The concrete criteria for M&A deals shall depend on the specific industry as well as our knowledge about the field, the source said.

In a recent move, Hyosung wanted to invest in power projects in Vietnam, particularly supplying diverse kinds of power transformers that are always in bad need in the Vietnamese market.

Most recently, the company confirmed its commitment to buy the entire 13 million shares, equal a 46.58 per cent stake, that state-owned power authority Electricity of Vietnam owns at Dong Anh Electrical Equipment Corporation (EEMC).

The company expects support from authorised agencies for the deal to take place as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade was reported to have green-lighted EVNs capital transfer at EEMC and is moving forward with the auction arrangement procedures, which is quite good news for Hyosung in its ambition to become EEMCs strategic partner.

Hyosung Group chairman Cho Hyun Joons visit to Vietnam early this year is part of the companys commitment to bring its investment to Vietnam to $6 billion, covering the diverse fields of chemicals, heavy industry, and power projects.PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc held bilateral talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, photo VNA

Since May this year, Real Estate Indonesia (REI) has been seeking opportunities to pour hundreds of millions of US dollars into property projects in Vietnam, such as hotels and resorts. REI is a nationwide group with more than 5,000 members across Indonesia, including developers of all sizes.

Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi told VIR that both countries are boosting co-operation in the construction industry. Many construction and property businesses have been showing great interest in the Vietnamese market, where they see the growing demand for investment. Among them are Ciputra Group, Semen Indonesia, PT. Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk, and PT. PP (Persero) Tbk.

According to Budiarsa Sastrawinata, general director of Ciputra Westlake City Development Co., Ltd., Hanoi is a potential market for complex investment projects, while Ho Chi Minh City is also a major property market  though the competition among those seeking to invest there is currently far tougher. Hanoi is a developing city and therefore investment in major development projects around the capital is promising, Sastrawinata said.

Last week Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc paid a working visit to Indonesia. He held talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, with both sides vowing to continue facilitating enterprises of both countries to do business in their respective territories. This is aimed at boosting investment ties and reaching a bilateral trade turnover of at least $10 billion by 2020.

During this visit, Nikko Indonesia and Vietnams Licogi 16 inked a co-operation deal on infrastructure development. Under the deal, both companies will construct in Indonesia a 6.7 kilometre expressway worth $200 million and a $50 million project to build a financial centre building. These are the first infrastructure projects that a Vietnamese company will implement in Indonesia.

Nikko will also invest into Licogi 16s 50 megawatt, $50 million solar power project in the central region of Vietnam. All these three projects are expected to begin construction in early 2019.

However, besides property and construction, Indonesian investors also want to do business in Vietnam in many other sectors. Those include fertilizer producer Pupuk Indonesia, Telekomunikasi Indonesia, pharmaceutical Kimia Farma oil and gas group Pertamina, Bukit Asam mining company, and even aircraft manufacturer Dirgantara Indonesia. Vietnam and Indonesia have also considered digital technology one of the latest co-operative sectors for both countries. Last month, Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek launched its services in Hanoi under the brand Go-Viet, as part of its $500 million international expansion. The on-demand Go-Viet app  driven by a Vietnamese company and with Go-Jek providing the technology, expertise and investment  offers services ranging from transport and logistics to food-delivery and mobile payments.

Earlier, Go-Jek began its plan to raise its rivalry with Grab in Vietnam by expanding operation to Ho Chi Minh City.

A year ago, Intra Asia Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding on coal trading and seaport investment with Vietnams Hong Phat Group. Intra Asia Indonesia wants to build a $1 billion coal port in Vietnams central region.

Director Samal Abdul Nasir Bamadhaj told VIR that Vietnams free trade agreements, fast economic growth, stable political climate, improved business environment, and large demand for infrastructure are greatly attracting not only Intra Asia Indonesia, but also many other Indonesian investors.

A new action plan for a Vietnam-Indonesia strategic partnership for 2019-2023 was inked by the two countries last month. The plan covers many co-operative sectors such as politics, economics, trade, investment, culture, the society, and maritime issues. More recent and modern sectors are also included in the plan, such as digital technology, intellectual property, and connectivity in seaports and airports. Vietnam and Indonesia have also committed to effectively deploying a deal in farm produce and will consider founding new joint ventures in aquaculture, wood processing and furniture export, and expanding tourism co-operation, especially sea and island tourism.

Vietnam-Indonesia trade turnover hit $5.3 billion in the first eight months of this year  up 27 per cent year-on-year  and Ambassador Hadi expects the figure to reach $8 billion for the year as a whole, $9.2-$9.3 billion next year, and over $10 billion in 2020. Currently, Vietnam has 72 Indonesian investment projects registered at $583.28 million.Overall, respondents to PwCs survey anticipate that the fast-approaching Industry 4.0 will bring significant benefits, such as higher efficiency of operations as well as improved access to customers brought on by digitisation and automation.

They are positive about Industry 4.0, despite a lot of uncertainty in terms of the exact impacts.

Due to the different level of market maturity, this journey brings unique challenges to Vietnam compared to global peers.

Vietnamese respondents are most concerned about the lack of digital standards, insufficient skills in local talent, and data privacy and security.

In particular, there is a limited understanding of the specific skills, knowledge, and capabilities required to make digital integration a reality in Vietnam.

PwCs estimates put Vietnam's investment appetite 2-3 times higher than the global median.

Despite these challenges, many Vietnamese businesses are keen to invest, with PwCs estimates putting Vietnams investment appetite 2-3 times higher than the global median, indicating that the strategic advantages offered by Industry 4.0 are embraced properly.

To move forward with Industry 4.0, acquiring and rolling out digital capabilities and infrastructure across the nation are all-important. Based on our experience, we have defined a number of practical recommendations, from building awareness via industry bodies to incentivising network development and creating innovation hubs, said Grant Dennis, general director of PwC Consulting Vietnam.

Christopher Lee, management consulting senior manager at PwC Consulting Vietnam, added, Most participants in our survey indicated that private businesses need to take the lead, but there is a place for the government to be involved to make sure that Vietnams transition into the digital age is carried out well.

The Industry 4.0 Vietnam Survey was conducted in collaboration with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Vietnam Business Council for Sustainable Development.

The data was collected from 188 respondents across management levels in industries impacted by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.Vietnams rail transport sector continues to be of interest to foreign investors,Photo: Le Toan

Ups and downs

Last week, a mission of the French Embassy in Vietnam led by deputy economic counsellor Laurent Chopiton held a meeting with state-owned giant Vietnam Railways (VNR) in a move to pave the way for future business and investment co-operation between VNR and French businesses. As planned, SNCF and other French firms will discuss the possibilities of partnership with VNR next week. Earlier, the likes of Siemens, Lotte Group, and Russian firms also professed to strong interest in Vietnams railway industry.

The recent growing interest among international businesses is attributed to the governments due attention along with VNRs changed mindset towards market conditions, especially its recently articulated intention to give up its monopoly in cargo transport.

Certainly, surrendering any monopoly aspects will help attract foreign investment to the sector. Thus, any decisions to delay it will not be happy news to investors, Thomas J. Treutler, managing director of the Vietnamese branch of Tilleke & Gibbins Consultants Ltd., told VIR.

However, in the latest update of the 2017-2020 restructuring and divestment plan sent to the Ministry of Transport (MoT) recently, VNR made a series of changes, with the most obvious being the delay in the merger of Hanoi Railway Transport JSC (HARACO) and Saigon Railway Transport JSC (SARATRANS).

Accordingly, VNR proposed that the MoT seek the governments permission for it to maintain the existing operation model of HARACO and SARATRANS. After 2020, based on the business performance of the two units in the 2016-2020 period, the giant will create a plan to restructure their operations towards divesting the entire state stake in the railway cargo transport.

Echoing Treutlers view, Vaibhav Saxena, consultant at Vietnam International Law Firm, said that the delay in surrendering monopoly in railway cargo transport may affect immediate interest among foreign investors, but foreign investors who are willing to take this risk will have a bright business prospect with a state participated project. In the future, with the surrender of state monopoly, foreign investors stand a fair chance to make looming profits by structuring the deals well, he added.

Why the changes?

The move by VNR is at odds with what the giant proposed in three previous schemes, being the merger of the two units into one joint stock company in the 2017-2020 period. This JSC would then be separated into one specialising in passengers, in which VNR would hold a controlling stake, and another focusing on cargo transport with VNR possibly divesting the entire stake.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Ngoc Dong, it is reasonable to uphold the operation model of HARACO and SARATRANS because VNR has not provided enough grounds for the change.

Many problems remain unsolved in VNRs plan for the two units, including labour restructuring, the possible loss of state stake value and more. We need more time to assess how efficient the change would be, Dong told VIR.

In fact it had taken months for VNR to demonstrate the necessity of the merger, after years of low operational efficiency at HARACO and SARATRANS  the sole operators of cargo transport in the railway industry.

As shown in the Ministry of Finances Document No.9280/BTC-TCDN recently sent to the MoT, both firms showed poor performance, while their competiveness plummeted below that of aviation, road, and waterway transport. Specifically, last year VNRs total revenue rose by 15 per cent on-year to reach VND7.77 trillion ($343.8 million), but profits declined by 16 per cent to VND145 billion ($6.4 million), mainly because of a loss of VND88 billion ($3.89 million) at HARACO. SARATRANS performed better than its Hanoi peer, but results remained lower than expected.

These two firms are offering the same products and services and compete with each other, thus increasing the employed labour force but decreasing their productivity, competitiveness, and operational efficiency, VNR chairman Vu Anh Minh explained.

Despite the facts, the giants reasoning still failed to persuade the MoT. Thus, it had to accept the delay to speed up approval of the overall restructuring plan.

Minh, however, admitted that the latest change in the proposal would possibly pull back the restructuring plan towards increasing professionalism in cargo and passenger transport. Nations which have separated the passenger and cargo transport businesses in their railway networks have proved efficient, according to the World Bank and international organisations, he added.

VNR once bet it all on this merger, which was expected to result in a breakthrough in VNRs future operations. The company has reported low profits of around VND150 billion ($6.64 million) for the past three years.

The giant also hoped to breathe new life into private investment on the back of the new restructuring of HARACO and SARATRANS to promote the development of cargo transportation, thus enabling it to compete with other transport segments, including aviation and road. However, it is worthy to note that both firms were previously one entity before being separated within the current operation models since 2016. However, their business performance remained lower than expected. This proved that careful consideration into any changes is necessary, especially with business results recently improving.

In August 2018, SARATRANS made revenue of over VND173 billion ($7.65 million), up 22.4 per cent on-year, while HARACO also reported an on-year rise of 12.3 per cent in revenue.Solution near for tech giant tax limbo, photo: shutterstock

Data released by the Ministry of Information and Communications showed that in 2015 Facebook led the online advertising market in Vietnam with the annual revenue of $235 million, followed by Google with $97.4 million. However, in the 2016-2017 period, Vietnamese authorities only managed to collect VND120 billion ($5.3 million) in the total corporate income tax from the local partners of the two giants, while according to Article 13 of the Law on Corporate Income Tax, Facebook and Google may be classified as high-tech companies and may therefore be eligible for a preferential tax rate of 10 per cent for the first 15 years.

No supervision on advertisers

Collecting taxes from online platforms such as Facebook, Google, and YouTube is a concern not only for Vietnamese authorities, but a major issue across the globe, with many claiming that the regulatory environment is not strict enough in the management of online business activities.

Discussing the tax issue with VIR, media expert Le Quoc Vinh affirmed that it is necessary to strengthen regulatory control over the business activities of the advertisers on these cross-border platforms.

Firms paying advertising fees for foreign corporations have to be controlled via strict regulations. As a result, if we have a clear accounting system with clear-cut obligations, the issue can hopefully be resolved, Vinh added.

In the latest move, Facebooks purchasing of the rights to broadcast the Premier League in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand may generate huge revenues from its advertising activities. Thus, tax collection is rising even higher on the agenda of the countries authorities.

The legal system in Vietnam does not provide for supervision measures over firms that have no representative offices in the country, which makes tax collection from Facebook and Google impossible.

The current legal system only has hold on firms with legal representation in the country, thus, firms without legal presence are in a grey area, making enforcement very difficult, Ho Thi To Uyen, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Trades Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency, told VIR.

This is a huge challenge for Vietnam because collecting tax arrears from these firms would require the collaboration of a lot of ministries and agencies. However, in Vietnam the issue currently rests in the hands of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Finance, and the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Uyen added.

According to Uyen, collecting higher taxes from the individuals and organisations who make money through the platforms may be the most suitable solution. In fact, many countries have taken this tack.

The US government collects taxes from individuals and organisations earning money through the Facebook and Amazon platforms via the Paypal online payment system at the rate of 6.25 per cent. The Singaporean government applies a 7 per cent tax rate on individuals and organisations earning money through online platforms. In Vietnams case, regulations stipulate that individuals doing business on Facebook, Google or YouTube have to pay 7 per cent tax if their income exceeds VND100 million ($4,400) per year, including 5 per cent value-added tax and 2 per cent income tax.

Indeed, plenty of individuals have been identified and had tax arrears collected. Specifically, an individual in the central province of Quang Nam, who earned more than $700,000 from Facebook and Google, had to pay around $66,000 to the local tax department. Earlier, a game writer in Ho Chi Minh City, who earned $1.8 million from the two platforms, had to pay $180,000 in taxes and fines. However, these are only two cases among the 14,000 accounts doing business on these platforms.

According to both Vinh and Uyen, to improve tax revenues, local authorities need to extend the coverage of supervision and to reach the payments Facebook and Google would need to pay, they should adjust tax rates on individuals and organisations to fall in line with those applicable to the firms themselves. Depending on their tax bracket classification, this would mean potential multi-fold increases.

Collaboration is key

At the October 11 APEC Workshop on Enhancing Regulatory Infrastructure for E-commerce in Hanoi, Toh See Kiat, chairman of Goodwins Law Corporation and CommerceNet Singapore Limited, told VIR that Singapore needed extensive international collaboration to deal with cross-border disputes. He highlighted international organisations like Alternative Dispute Resolution and Online Dispute Resolution in the process.

This fell in line with the views economist Nguyen Tri Hieu who previously expressed to VIR that it is necessary to have agreements on tax obligations between Vietnam and the countries where the corporations have representative offices. These are the only grounds to collect tax from Facebook, Google, and similar firms. As a result, Vietnam could follow in the footsteps of Singapore or even join agreements with countries where the firms have representative offices, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and China. These are the two options for Vietnamese authorities to collect taxes on the giants: they can either take a domestic approach and charge individuals and organisations earning money from these platforms or they can work out an international co-operation. In either case, Vietnams work is cut out for it and it will be fascinating to see how the country goes about addressing the issue.Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung (right) and Naser Al Hajri, Mubadala Petroleums Senior Vice President for Operations in Southeast Asia. (Photo: VNA)

Dung made the pledge at a reception in Hanoi on October 17 for Naser Al Hajri, Mubadala Petroleums Senior Vice President for Operations in Southeast Asia, during which he applauded the companys achievements as well as its future investment initiatives in Vietnam.

The Deputy PM suggested Mubadala Petroleum expand its investment in other oil and gas blocks, and other areas such as renewable energy by launching new projects or cooperating with domestic and foreign firms in Vietnam.

Highlighting the fruitful relationship between Vietnam and the UAE, Dung said the two countries have become each others important partner based on the pillars of economic, trade and investment cooperation.

The UAE has been a big trade partner of Vietnam and run many investment projects in the country, he said, adding that many Vietnamese living and working in the UAE have significantly contributed to socio-economic development in the host country.

For his part, Naser Al Hajri expressed his hope for stronger cooperation between Mubadala Petroleum and domestic and foreign partners inVietnam to expand investment in oil and gas exploitation.

Mubadala Petroleum wants to realise the initiative on the development of large-scale oil and gas clusters, and increase its investment in other spheres like renewable energy.

Mubadala Petroleum is a leading international, upstream oil and gas exploration and production company. The company manages assets worth up to 40 billion USD and operations spanning 10 countries with a primary geographic focus on the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Its total output reached 320,000 equivalent oil barrels in 2016. It has participated in a number of major projects including the world-class Dolphin Gas project, which is central to meeting the energy needs of the UAE; enhanced oil recovery in Oman and most recently in the giant Zohr gas project in Egpyt; plus exploration, development and production activities in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Mubadala Petroleum has been active in Vietnam since 2007 and has non-operated interests in offshore, Block 07/03 containing the Ca Rong Do (CRD or Red Emperor) oil and gas field development and the adjacent exploration Blocks 135 & 136/3.Gareth Ward

What is your impression of Vietnam and its growth momentum? Do British investors see the country as an attractive business destination and what changes are they looking for in Vietnam?

I have been here for only two months, but already feel the dynamism of the economy. The UK is rated as the third-largest EU investor in Vietnam, but I believe that the real figures from UK companies are even higher, because many of them invest via their subsidiaries in Singapore or Hong Kong. More British investors are now looking at the Vietnamese market because of its growth potential, openness to global trade, and focus on improving the business environment. For new investors, the availability and consistency of information are always important. Therefore, British companies want more transparency and access to information about business opportunities, processes, and regulations.

Vietnam is working on its strategy to keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In what ways can the UK and Vietnam work together in this field?

The UK has been responding to the digital era for at least a decade. This has transformed how we shop, entertain ourselves, make financial transactions, travel to work, and manage our health. This revolution has been led by entrepreneurs but supported by the government through creating the right environment for ideas and businesses to flourish.

We established Tech City UK, which actively supports businesses, and we changed the way we operate in government too, including by establishing the world-leading Government Digital Service. The UK can work very closely with Vietnam in different areas, including smart cities, digital health, fintech, digital construction, and education tech.

The UK Prosperity Fund, which will be launched in Vietnam soon, will cover all these areas, helping Vietnam with policies and strategies to embrace opportunities in the digital economy.

There were also 19 ed-tech companies accompanying the British prime ministers trade envoy to Vietnam last weekend to introduce their products and services, which could help Vietnam to improve its capacity in the education sector.

The UK is about to officially leave the EU, which is going to ink a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam. Because this FTA will not have the UK as a member, do you think that there should be a bilateral FTA between Vietnam and the UK?

The UK thinks that it is necessary to maintain robust bilateral trade relations with Vietnam. This is even more important after the UK officially leaves the EU. The UK and Vietnam became strategic partners in 2010 and a bilateral trade agreement would deepen this relationship.

Vietnam is boosting the equitisation of its state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and banks. How can this attract UK investors?

First of all, the equitisation of SOEs is a key part of improving the business environment. UK companies and investors will see this as evidence of the Vietnamese governments efforts to create an equal playing field in the market.

In addition, British investors and companies will be interested in investing in Vietnamese SOEs in different sectors. However, they need clearer and more consistent information, such as equitisation plans, financial reporting to international standards, and valuation methodologies.

Finally, I am also aware that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) will be very willing to support Vietnamese SOEs to make initial public offerings (IPOs) and list on the LSE. The benefit of listing in London is not just the liquidity and number of investors, but also raising the profile of the companies.

Vietnam is now compiling a new strategy on foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction. Based on the UKs experience, could you provide some advice for Vietnam to lure in higher-quality FDI?

Vietnams success in attracting FDI over the last 30 years is world-leading. Based on the UKs experience, I think there are three things that will help Vietnam attract more FDI in the future. They all begin with T: talent, transparency, and tax.

The UK has world-leading universities which attract a pool of talent from around the world. We have business licensing procedures that are clear and easy to understand. It takes a company only 24 hours to register its business online. We have consistent tax policies and a robust research and development (R&D) incentives scheme.

For example, as of April 2016, large companies can claim an 11 per cent taxable cash credit (it was 10 per cent prior to April 2015), irrespective of the companys tax position. The credit can be used to settle taxes owed to the revenue authority or, if certain criteria are met, can be payable in cash.Vietnam has become the EUs second-biggest trading partner in ASEAN, after Singapore, Photo: Le Toan

For one week from October 14, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will visit Austria before flying to Brussels to attend the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM) and visit Belgium and the EU. His final stop will be a trip to Denmark where he will attend the P4G Copenhagen Summit 2018, aimed at discussing sustainable development goals through innovative partnerships.

One of the main targets of these visits, in addition to cementing further economic, trade and investment ties, is Vietnam working with leaders of these nations - with Austria currently holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union - on the possibility of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) being signed later this year. It is hoped it could be ratified in the first quarter of 2019, before the next elections to the European Parliament scheduled to be held next May.

PM Phuc will also meet with the heads of many European companies from these nations, wishing to expand business and investment in Vietnam in anticipation of the EVFTA.

In Austria during October 14-16, the governments and businesses of the two countries will likely clinch around 11 co-operation deals, focusing on the areas of health care, e-government, hydroelectricity, fibre optics, e-learning, and banking.

Meanwhile in Belgium, where PM Phuc will stay during October 16-19, six deals are expected to be signed, focusing on co-operation in the sectors of agriculture, food hygiene and safety, and seaport development. For example, Belgiums Rent-A-Port Group is expected to sign a deal with Vietnams Hateco to upgrade Haiphong Port in the north of Vietnam. Rent-A-Port will also likely ink another deal with a domestic partner to develop Lach Tray Port in Haiphong.

During PM Phucs October 19-21 visit to Denmark, he will be expected to witness the signing of seven co-operation deals, concentrated on the sectors of food hygiene and safety, finance, labour, and energy.

These deals with the three nations are expected to help Vietnam lure more investment from them, and expand its trade.

As of September 20, Vietnam had 31 valid Austrian investment projects registered at $144 million, 68 Belgian projects ($912.5 million), and 132 Danish projects ($417.3 million). Vietnam also boasted 2,141 European investment projects with the total registered capital of $24.2 billion, making the EU the fifth-largest foreign investor of Vietnam after South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.

Currently, Vietnam also has 94 projects in the EU, registered at $207.4 million.

According to the General Statistics Office, Vietnam has become the EUs second biggest trading partner in the ASEAN, after Singapore and ahead of Malaysia, with trade worth $50.3 billion in 2017. The figure hit $41.1 billion in the first nine months of this year, with Vietnam enjoying a trade surplus of $21.1 billion.

The EVFTA will eliminate over 99 per cent of tariffs. Vietnam will lift 65 per cent of import duties on EU exports to the country at entry into force, with the remainder of duties being gradually eliminated over a 10-year period. Meanwile, the EU will remove tariffs over a seven-year period.

The agreement also covers non-tariff barriers to trade and other trade-related aspects such as public procurement, regulatory issues, competition, services, investment, intellectual property rights, and sustainable development.

According to Cecilia Malmstrom, EU Trade Commissioner, the EVFTA is a great opportunity for European exporters. Vietnam is one of the fastest growing countries in Southeast Asia, a market with significant potential for the EUs agricultural, industrial and services exports, she said.

During PM Phucs attendance at the ASEM Summit, which will bring together heads of state or government of 51 European and Asian countries as well as representatives of the EU, he and other leaders will focus discussions on the theme of Europe and Asia: Global Partners for Global Challenges.

The leaders will seek to strengthen dialogue and co-operation between the two continents on a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, connectivity, sustainable development and climate, along with security challenges such as terrorism, cyber-security, and irregular migration.The European Union has responded to criticism over a forthcoming deal on timber imports with Vietnam, saying the agreement will not have a negative impact on Cambodian forests.

The EU agreement, known as the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), was criticized by civil society groups this week for negotiating the deal with Vietnam despite evidence that timber from Vietnam was being sourced from illegal logging operations in Cambodia.

George Edgar, EU ambassador to Cambodia, said in a statement to VOA on Monday that the issues raised by NGOs had been noted by the EU, but added that an EU FLEGT licensing scheme was in place to ensure only legally harvested timber made its way into the supply chain.

After ratification of the VPA, Vietnam will need to develop its Vietnam Timber Legality Assurance System (VNTLAS), of which control of legality of imported timber is a major part, and strengthen its effective mechanisms to detect violations as well as ensure better law enforcement, he wrote, noting that Vietnam has committed to issue legislation requiring importers to conduct due diligence to ensure that only legal timber enters the supply chain.

On October 10, a group of seven NGOs issued a joint-statement calling on the EU to postpone the signing of VPAs until a functioning and verifiable Timber Legality Assurance System (TLAS) had been established under the VPA.

The seven NGOs said that Vietnamese timber traders are actively undermining government structures in Cambodia by bribing state officials to secure lucrative timber deals. Often, the indigenous population is coerced and bullied into agreeing to sell their ancestral forests for a pittance, the groups alleged.

Recent improvements in forest law enforcement in Laos have increased the Vietnamese pressure on Cambodias forests even more, read the statement.

But Edgar said that the FLEGT VPA includes public disclosure of information on imported timber, together with information on actions taken to prevent illegally produced timber products being imported into Vietnam. The FLEGT VPA also provides for the setting up of complaints mechanisms and periodic independent evaluation of the timber legality assurance system, he said.

Thus, if properly implemented, the FLEGT VPA has the potential to support the enforcement of relevant laws in Cambodia, he wrote.

However, while the FLEGT VPA is expected to have a significant positive impact in promoting trade in legally and sustainably harvested timber, the import of illegally logged timber from Cambodia also requires commitment and action from the Cambodian side and the EU is therefore encouraging Cambodia to take necessary steps to tackle the issue of illegal logging, he added.

Ouch Leng, an anti-logging campaigner who heads to Cambodia Human Rights Task Force (CHRTF), said the VPAs should be scrapped.

After the EU signs the agreement with Vietnam, Vietnam will come to destroy and log forest in our country in any way possible, including legal or illegal ways, to meet their quotas. In Vietnam, there is no more natural forest. There are only pine trees and trees planted in orchards, so it cant meet the demand of the EU market, he said.

I dont want the EU to conduct timber trade. It should distance itself from this business, he said.

Keo Omalis, chief of the Ministry of Agricultures forestry administration, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Officials at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh could also not be reached for comment.

Forest Trends, a forest monitoring group, released a report in early 2018 including data from Vietnams department of customs that showed there was a significant increase of timber imports from Cambodia to Vietnam in 2017.[Editors Note: The National Assembly in Vietnam is set to convene on Monday to vote in Communist Party of Vietnam Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to succeed Tran Dai Quang who died last month, as president. Observers say the development will consolidate the power of an already-influential party chief. VOA Khmers Aun Chhengpor spoke with Vietnam expert Le Hong Hiep, research fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, to discuss the dynamics of this transition.]

VOA: What is your prediction for the vote at the National Assembly of Vietnam this Monday on the party chiefs presidential candidacy? Why?

Le Hong Hiep: The procedure in Vietnam is like this: when you want to elect a national leader, the party will discuss and nominate the candidate and introduce that candidate to the National Assembly. Because in Vietnam its a one-party system, the National Assembly, basically in most of the cases, will just rubber stamp the partys decision. In this case, it is almost 100 percent certain that the National Assembly will elect Mr. Trong to the presidency as recommended by the party.

VOA: What will Nguyen Phu Trongs presidency mean for Vietnams domestic politics and beyond?

Le Hong Hiep: I think the implication is not significant for now in both economic and political terms. Economically, the policies will remain unchanged even after Mr. Trong takes over the presidency. Politically, it depends on whether the new arrangement will last beyond 2021 when the party convenes its congress and elects new leadership. So far, Mr. Trong has indicated that he agreed to take over the presidency after the sudden death of Late President Tran Dai Quang. That means its unclear whether, at the next partys congress, they will elect someone to hold both the party secretary and the state president positions as Mr. Trong is willing to do. And if they do, I think that will have some implications for Vietnam in the long-term economic and political situation. And that depends on who will be elected to succeed Mr. Trong. For now  I dont think there will be significant implications for Vietnams political system.

VOA: Can we draw parallels between the Vietnam party chief Nguyen Phu Trongs entry into the presidential office to what happened recently in China where President Xi Jinping swept to outright power by rewriting the constitution to pave way for his life-time rule?

Le Hong Hiep: I think it depends on what happens next after this because Mr. Trong is supposed to retire in 2021. If he tries to stay on beyond 2021 by, for example, changing the partys constitution to expand the term limit because he has been holding this general-secretary position for two consecutive terms, and, according to the partys regulation, he will not be able to hold another third term. If he tries to change the internal regulations to stay on for more terms, I think thats quite a willing trend and he will try to emulate what Mr. Xi Jinping is doing in China.

But I think that possibility is quite low. I dont think that he will have the ambition to emulate what Mr. Xi Jinping is doing in China. In Vietnam, the political system is more pluralistic and there is more emphasis on consensus-based decision-making. Even Mr. Trong is now holding two positions, he will still have to consult his politburo and the central committee for major decisions. Even at the next partys congress, if Mr. Trong stays on or someone else is elected to hold both positions, that practice will still be maintained, and Mr. Trong himself and his successor is unlikely to be as powerful as Mr. Xi Jinping in China.

VOA: There was a known intra-party struggle between Nguyen Phu Trong and Former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung before the 2016 party congress. So will Nguyen Phu Trong weaken other factions within the party?

Le Hong Hiep: I think the power structure in Vietnam at the moment is much more consolidated than more than two years ago. As you mentioned, under the previous administration, there were some power struggles between Mr. Trong and Mr. Dung. But now, there is no major camp competing with Mr. Trong and his colleagues. Basically, there is virtually no opposition to Mr. Trong taking over the presidency. In fact, the partys central committee voted unanimously to support Mr. Trongs nomination. I dont think there will be any internal fighting against Mr. Trong for now.

VOA: Will this status quo remain the same at the 2021 party congress?

Le Hong Hiep: I think so. Even in the next few years, I think Mr. Trong will be able to consolidate his power and there will be no major opposition to his roles.

VOA: Domestic dissatisfaction was apparently evident in the recent riot nationwide against the decision of the 99-year development projects. Does a more powerful Nguyen Phu Trong have a chance to build more domestic confidence and legitimacy of the party?

Le Hong Hiep: The leadership and the national leadership in Vietnam is elected by the National Assembly, making it an indirect democracy, not direct democracy. So the people have virtually no voice and no say over the election of Mr. Trong. Most people will just observe the move. They dont care so much about most of the developments. Of course, some people are concerned that the consolidation of power within the party will lead to more authoritarianism and more repression. But other people are also optimistic that the development will make the political system more efficient and the party will be able to fight corruption and deliver economic growth that will ultimately benefit the people.

VOA: Is it important for a candidate for national leadership like Nguyen Phu Trong to be popular among Vietnamese people?

Le Hong Hiep: Yes, I think its as important as in any country whether the leader is seen capable and clean. The reputation you have have will have an impact on the peoples perception regarding that leadership as well as the government and the ruling party. In Vietnam now, I think many people have some respect for Mr. Trong with his reputation and ability to undertake a very intensive anti-corruption campaign so far. I think most people expect him to do more after he has been able to consolidate his power and nominated to hold both positions.

VOA: Some observers of Vietnam would describe Nguyen Phu Trong as a hardliner. Why do you think he has been described so?

Le Hong Hiep: Thats understandable because Mr. Trong is the party secretary  the partys head  and his main job is to maintain the partys rule and survival. Without sometimes hardline policies, he would not be able to play his part or do his job. Normally in most communist countries, the party heads will be more conservative and will have a more hardline position on political issues. Meanwhile, the prime minister will have a more liberal tendency because he is tasked to promote economic reform and economic growth that he tends to be more liberal.

VOA: Can we expect any change to Vietnams foreign policy or neighborhood policy under Nguyen Phu Trongs presidency?

Le Hong Hiep: I think there will be no change. Vietnam will likely maintain its current foreign policy. I think that there is consensus within the top leadership as to how to deal with China and the U.S. This is not the foreign policy of Mr. Trong, but is the foreign policy of the party. And I think Vietnam will maintain its current foreign policy under Mr. Trongs presidency.

Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.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.A candidate in Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary election was killed Wednesday in a bombing attack on his campaign office, officials in Afghanistan's Helmand province say.Growing consensus that senior Saudi officials had a journalist killed while the US asks for more time for the investigation, working to create harmony in the South China Sea, and the search for the perfect pumpkin.Just a few weeks before Chinas human rights record comes up for periodic review at the United Nations, the countrys leadership is putting itself squarely behind a massive effort to detain and indoctrinate Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang.

The message from state media reports, editorials, an interview with Xinjiangs top official as well as a polished and lengthy propaganda film of what China calls vocational education centers has been clear.

The effort was needed to stem the spread of religious extremism and to stop a surge in terrorist attacks, according to the chairman of Xinjiangs government Shohrat Zakir. The propaganda video says thousands of attacks have been carried out in recent years before the program was put into place. How many attacks took place is unclear, but that wouldve put Xinjiang on par with Afghanistan, analysts note.

The centers are also needed for jobs and language training and a center featured in the video shows happy graduates receiving diplomas and learning skills such as woodworking or machine sewing to help them live a more modern life.

The video and narrative, which comes after months of denying the centers even existed, is a sharp contrast to stories from families of Xinjiangs ethnic Uighurs  the regions Turkic speaking minority, ethnic Kazazkhs and other Muslims  who have been detained at what critics call internment camps.

And while China is unlikely to change the minds of any Western elites or rights advocates, the target audience of its offensive is more those in the developing world, analysts note.

This is a way, not so much perhaps to actually deflect those questions in the review itself, but at least to have a shot at trying to make a counter argument in the wider global media, that will cover the universal periodic review, said Barry Sautman, a political science professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Whether that has any chance of success is pretty problematic.

For months, Beijing has denied the existence of the centers, which analysts say authorities started to put in place in April 2017.

However, it wasnt until August of this year, when China faced a United Nations panel on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that it admitted the existence of the centers.

What is surprising is that Beijing waited this long, said James Leibold, a Xinjiang specialist at LaTrobe University in Melbourne.

I cant help but think that it is an effort to avert further embarrassment internationally at the U.N. and as you know U.S.-China relations have really soured and I think they feel they have to kind of respond to some of this criticism that is coming, particularly out of DC, he said.

Despite Beijings clarifications, much remains unclear. For example, the number of centers that actually exist and how many have been detained. Critics and rights groups estimate that hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than one million people, have been sent to the centers.

What is also unclear is how long the training lasts and whether or not individuals come voluntarily as the government claims or not.

Xijiangs chairman Shohrat Zakir has said the trainees who come to the centers do so voluntarily. But Hu Xijin, editor in chief of the party backed tabloid, the Global Times, shared a different view on Twitter.

I dont think trainees of vocational training centers in Xinjiang go there voluntarily, but they have been given sincere help of education and training to enable them to return to normal life eventually, he wrote.

How the United Nations review will go towards answering some of those questions or pressuring China to scrap the internment camps, as rights groups are advocating, is uncertain.

Analysts note China is working aggressively to advance its view on human rights at the United Nations. That view includes putting a higher priority on stability, economic development and the state over individual rights.

China has already made some strides at chipping away at longstanding views of universal values. In March, it succeeded in passing a motion in the U.N. Human Rights Council to pursue a key rights notion of Xi Jinping: pursuing a community of a shared future for all human beings.

The motion called for mutually beneficial co-operation in the field of human rights and stressed respect for each countrys interpretation of the concept.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based World Uyghur Congress, is calling for an end to the camps and at the very least independent press access. He expressed both confidence that Chinas move would backfire, but also concern that countries in Beijings pockets would support it during the review.

China has successfully kidnapped the U.N.s Human Rights Council and used economic benefits to control it or drive a wedge [between members.] To a certain degree, the UN has been divided and kidnapped by those autocratic member countries, led by China, Raxit said.

Chinas Universal Periodic Review begins on November 6 in Geneva Switzerland, where groups such as Raxits World Uyghur Congress and others are expected to stage large protests.The head of the European Parliament said on Thursday EU countries who refuse to host refugees could instead pay more for EU migration and development projects in Africa, signaling possible compromise to end a bruising dispute in the bloc.

The migration feud has divided southern and eastern EU states as well as rich destination countries such as Germany since 2015, when more than one million refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa reached the bloc's borders.

But the tone of the discussion has changed recently after years of one camp insisting that all EU states must take in some migrants and the other side rejecting that.

"No relocation - [then] more money for Africa," European Parliament President Antonio Tajani told a news conference on Thursday as the bloc's 28 national leaders discussed migration.

"This should be a good compromise. It's better to have an agreement with a compromise than no agreement," he said.

Mediterranean arrivals of migrants and refugees are below 100,000 people so far this year, according to United Nations data, a far cry from the 2015 influx that caught the bloc unprepared and overwhelmed security and other public services.

The EU has since tightened its external borders, has turned more restrictive on granting asylum and has sealed deals with countries from Turkey to Libya to keep a lid on migrants departing their territory by sea for EU shores.

EU will further step up returns and deportations of those who reach Europe but do not qualify for asylum, a statement of the 28 national leaders' meeting in Brussels on Thursday said.

The bloc will seek to build "a broader partnership" with countries along the migratory routes, mainly in North Africa, including to crack down on people smugglers.

The chaotic scenes from 2015 are still reverberating in European politics, which has since seen a surge in support for anti-immigration, populist and nationalist groups. But fewer arrivals now mean some of the heat is off, making a deal easier.

The eastern, formerly communist EU states like Poland and Hungary, remain adamant that they will not allow in any refugees from mainly Muslim countries.

Germany, France and the Netherlands, which had previously demanded solidarity from all EU states, may be more open now to allowing their reluctant peers to buy out of the refugee distribution scheme as a way of sealing a deal, diplomats said.

"We cannot force [others to take in refugees], but those that do not do so must possibly contribute in another way such as...in Africa. Everyone needs to take on some of the responsibility that we all have," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told his EU peers recently.

Any political agreement is likely to take more time, diplomats and officials said, not least because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the eurosceptic Italian government have built their political clout on an anti-immigration line and criticism of how the EU has handled migration.The European Union handed Italy a stinging letter Thursday warning that the nation's significantly higher deficit targets represented a deviation unprecedented in the history of EU budget rules  but still offered reassurances that the bloc was not an adversary of Italy.

The dual message underlines the EUs balancing act as it tries to prod Italys new populist government back into compliance with EU financial standards without enflaming the anti-Europe rhetoric that is coursing inside Italy.

Italy has until Monday to respond to the letter, which is likely to set off a back-and-forth that will go on for weeks, if not months. Italy is one of the 19 nations using the shared euro currency, so its financial decisions and actions can affect the fortunes of the euro and subsequently the finances of other EU nations.

Speaking to reporters in Rome, EU budget chief Pierre Moscovici said the EU Commission and many other EU nations are worried by Italy's spending plans, which will see the countrys budget deficit rise to 2.4 percent of GDP, three times higher than agreed upon by the previous government.

Moscovici called the difference unprecedented.

But he also said the commission would not interfere with Italys choices, saying its role was one of a referee, not an adversary, of Italy.

I cannot imagine a Europe without Italy or Italy without Europe, Moscovici said. Nor a euro without Italy or Italy without the euro.

Italian Economics Minister Giovanni Tria emphasized that the governments draft budget, sent to Brussels on Monday, was aimed at increasing growth. He said he hoped that when Italy explained the structural reforms included in the bill that would bring the two sides positions closer together.

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU has always been generous with Italy when it comes to assessing its budget, and that EU leaders had already approached him to make sure not to be too flexible on strict deficit and debt levels when combing through the details of Italy's spending plans.

I had some colleagues on the phone say they don't want us to add flexibility to already existing flexibility, he said, adding that the EU has no intention of doing so.

In a press conference in Brussels, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte denied that the spending deviation was unprecedented, but noted that Italy had several days to offer a formal response to the commission's concerns.

Political analyst Wolfango Piccoli of Teneo Intelligence said the commission is facing a tough dilemma and must walk a fine line with Italy's budget.

A harsh rebuke and the threat of further measures would likely boost the popularity of the populist coalition government, giving Italys governing parties an invaluable narrative to use during the campaign for the European elections in May, Piccoli said. In contrast, a more lenient approach would further undermine the credibility of the ECs tortuous fiscal rules and irritate some member states from Northern Europe.

Conte will fly home to another controversy. The head of one of Italys two ruling populist parties says unauthorized changes were made to the draft budget, suggesting a possible rift in the coalition government.

Luigi Di Maio, the head of the 5-Star Movement, on Thursday threatened to lodge a formal criminal complaint. He told a late-night talk show that the draft budget presented to President Sergio Mattarellas office contained a proposal to extend a tax amnesty on money held abroad and brought back to Italy. The 5-Star Movement opposes such a move, as it risks laundering corrupt or mafia capital.

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League party, called the accusation surreal.

Conte said he would review the draft budget line by line when he returns to Rome.With tens of thousands still without power, Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday relaxed or waived voting rules for eight counties hammered by Hurricane Michael last week.

Scott's order represents a delicate balancing act for the Republican governor since most of the Panhandle counties affected by the decision are GOP strongholds that usually deliver thousands of votes for Republican candidates. Scott himself is challenging Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in a closely watched race that could help decide control of the U.S. Senate.

Hurricane Michael roared ashore last week and left a trail of ruin for roughly 80 miles (130 kilometers), stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Georgia border.

Using his emergency power as governor, Scott relaxed rules on early voting, including limits on where local election officials are normally allowed to set up early voting sites. He also said that election supervisors could extend the early voting period all the way to Election Day. Florida law requires early voting to wrap up the weekend before Election Day.

The governor's order also allows people to request that mail-in ballots be delivered to a different address than the one on file in the state's voter registration list.

State officials said they made these moves amid reports of damaged polling places, power outages and limits on phone services. The Department of State said in a press release that no voting equipment was damaged.

Under Florida law, Scott could have postponed the election beyond Nov. 6, but there's is an open legal question on whether that authority would have extended to federal races.

In 2014, Scott narrowly won re-election over former Gov. Charlie Crist by more than 64,000 votes, winning seven of the eight counties covered by this executive order. Scott got more than 30,000 votes from this part of the Florida Panhandle, including nearly 28,000 votes in coastal Bay County, which was pounded by the storm.A former Minnesota FBI agent who admitted to leaking classified documents to a journalist was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison and three years of supervision after his release.

Terry James Albury, 39, pleaded guilty last April to one count each of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and unauthorized retention of national defense information for stealing documents and then sharing them with online news organization The Intercept.

The sentence is less than prosecutors had asked for, arguing that Albury had betrayed public trust when he leaked 70 documents, 50 of which were classified. One was a classified "secret" related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.

Albury's attorneys asked for probation, saying that his experience as the sole African-American field agent for most of his five years at the Minneapolis branch of the FBI led him to become internally conflicted over anti-terrorism policies he saw as racial profiling.

Albury's attorneys said in a statement to reporters he was "driven by a conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI," and that the racism he witnessed from agents and in the agency's policies drove him to disseminate classified information.

The Intercept, an online publication dedicated to what it calls "adversarial journalism," accidentally tipped off the FBI to the presence of a leaker when it submitted Freedom of Information Act requests referencing documents with names that were kept secret from the public. A subsequent audit of FBI systems found Albury had accessed documents that later appeared in The Intercept.

The federal government has been going through a crackdown under the supervision of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump on employees who leak secret information to the press. Former NSA contractor Reality Winner received a sentence of five years and three months last August after also leaking documents to The Intercept, the longest sentence ever imposed for giving sensitive information to the press.

Albury worked for the FBI for 16 years, receiving an award from then-Director James Comey in 2015 for "exceptional efforts in the recruitment of two Confidential Human Sources."With stunned faces and tears, residents of hard-hit Mexico Beach returned home for the first time Wednesday about a week after Hurricane Michael hit to find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.

Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where shed lived with her husband. She was particularly distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.

Husband Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock that was given to him by a friend 40 years ago.

Thats my belongings, he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red truck. Choking up, he said: I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it.

Old Florida is gone

Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Edens face as she and husband Ron Eden sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house theyve rented each October for years. They didnt find much, just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a sons camp chair.

The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time. In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.

Basically, we lost old Florida. Its all gone, Lanie Eden said.

Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit. But officials used the citys Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a strong storm surge.

WATCH: Mexico Beach Begins Recovery After Michael Sweeps Away Most of Town





State emergency management officials said about 124,500 customers across the Panhandle were still without power Wednesday morning and 1,157 remained in shelters.



In Bay County, home to Mexico Beach and Panama City, more than half of the households and businesses remained without electricity. Inland, in Calhoun County, 98 percent of the customers didnt have power Wednesday morning, according to the emergency management website. And in Jackson County, which borders Alabama and Georgia, about 83 percent were without power.

Looting a problem

In the meantime, in many areas devastated by the hurricane, law enforcement officials are battling looting of homes and businesses.

Bay County Sheriffs Maj. Jimmy Stanford said deputies have arrested about 10 looters each night since the storm hit. In some parts of the county, residents have spray-painted signs warning that looters will be shot.

Panama City resident Wes Allen said looters have been a constant problem at the badly damaged motel where he is staying with his wife and three children. Residents have formed a nighttime patrol to keep an eye out for thieves.

Weve got looters breaking in and stealing whatever they can, he said. Allen said he hasnt reported the thefts to police because authorities seem so busy with other things.

Often the looters have been armed, Stanford said.

Most of our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower, and now theyre encountering armed individuals, he said. Its a stressful time for everyone in Bay County.

Sixteen dead in Florida

The storm killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the coastal county that took a direct hit from the storm, state emergency authorities announced Tuesday. Thats in addition to at least 10 deaths in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.



The states tally did not provide details of how the victims deaths were storm-related, and The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm those details for all of them. The APs tally of deaths, in which authorities have confirmed details of how people died, stood at eight in Florida, and 18 overall including other states.

No power, no anything

In Mexico Beach, what had been a town of about 1,200, residents dont expect power or anything else anytime soon.



Carlton Hundley, 25, returned to the house he rented with his girlfriend Connie Huff to find nothing but a long pile of shattered wood. What few possessions they found, including one of his shoes, were scattered across the ground.



I knew it was bad, Id already seen the pictures. But its a lot more than I thought, he said.



Roxie Cline, 65, was overcome with emotion as she tried to describe the destruction in Mexico Beach, where she and her husband had lived for three years.

I cant, I cant, she said, tearing up. Its devastating. You lose everything. Everybody has.Two top officials in southern Afghanistan, including powerful police commander General Abdul Raziq, have been killed in a shooting incident during a visit of the top U.S. general in Afghanistan.

American General Scott Miller was unharmed. He was visiting the Kandahar governors compound for a meeting with the governor and other provincial officials. Local media said the participants were making their way to a helipad after the meeting when the shooting occurred.

In addition to Raziq, who had survived several previous Taliban attacks on his life, Thursdays assault killed the provincial intelligence chief and badly wounded the Kandahar governor. Earlier reports said the governor was killed. Two Americans, including one U.S. service member, were wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying an infiltrator carried out the attack that was aimed at both Raziq and the American general.

U.S. military spokesman Col. Dave Butler said the wounded Americans have been medically evacuated and are stable, adding that the attacker is dead and the area is secure.

This was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident, he said, suggesting it was an insider attack in which Afghan personnel turn their guns on local partners.

Butler later tweeted a message from General Miller, saying Today I lost a great friend Lt. Gen. Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan. The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in a video address to the nation, told Afghans the situation in Kandahar would soon return to normal.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement late Thursday.

The United States is resolved to continue its support for the government and people of Afghanistan as they work to provide security for all Afghan citizens. He added that Raziqs assassination and recent attacks on Afghan parliamentary candidates stand in stark contrast to the aspirations of the Afghan people for peace, security, and economic stability.

Raziqs assassination is a major blow to counter-Taliban efforts in Kandahar, where the U.S. military operates the second largest base in the country.

Raziq had been the police chief for Kandahar province since 2011 and was known to have kept the Taliban at bay. A New York Times story in 2014 called him the man who put Fear in Taliban and Their Enemies.

At the same time, human rights activists blamed his security forces for widespread abuses.

The United Nations Committee against Torture in a report last year noted numerous and credible allegations that Raziq was widely suspected of complicity, if not of personal implication, in severe human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings and  secret detention centers. The committee called for Raziq and other Afghans involved in such practices be duly prosecuted and punished.

In one of its recent reports, the Human Rights Watch observed that even the Ghani administration seems afraid of Raziq, who operates far outside the law and has powerful support, notably from U.S. intelligence and security officials, who consider him an ally in the fight against the Taliban.

By many accounts, Raziq was one of the most powerful and rich men in southern Afghanistan. His death, analysts say, could change the political landscape.

Its going to have a significant impact on the whole security balance in southern Afghanistan, but particularly Kandahar, said Mushtaq Rahim, an independent political analyst based in Kabul. He was able to maintain the security presence of the Afghan government on the outskirts of the city and even in faraway areas.

In general, in Afghanistan, the rural areas outside the city are considered to be much harder to secure and many of them are under Taliban influence or control.

Ayaz Gul contributed to this report.Legendary Turkish photographer Ara Guler, famed for iconic images of Istanbul that captured almost three-quarters of a century of the citys history, has died at age 90, state media said.

Guler passed away after being rushed to hospital in Istanbul for emergency treatment for heart failure, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

He won fame with extraordinary images of Istanbul in black and white that admirers believe captured the soul of the city more than any other photographer.

His work included images of the citys best known mosques and landmarks, pictures of workers going about their daily lives to rare pictures of Istanbul covered in a blanket of snow.

Preserving a city

In a city that is now changing at a frenetic pace, Gulers work preserved facets of Istanbul that have now become irrevocably lost.

Celebrated Turkish writer and Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk famously used Gulers images in his book Istanbul: Memories and the City in which the smoky and misty photos provided the perfect accompaniment to the text.

For many, the work of Guler was infused with the spirit of huzun, the Turkish word for melancholy, which is seen as a particular Istanbul characteristic.

But in a wide-ranging career, he also photographed famous personalities including Salvador Dali, Alfred Hitchcock and Winston Churchill. Another famous subject was the artist Picasso.

Born in Istanbul

Born to an Armenian family in Istanbul, Guler attended an Armenian school there and began working as a photographer on Turkish newspaper Yeni.

He got his first big international chance as a photographer in 1958 when US magazine Time-Life opened a Turkey office.

He then met the likes of Marc Riboud and Henri Cartier-Bresson who signed him up to join the celebrated photo agency Magnum.

Fans liked to call Guler the Eye of Istanbul, but he insisted he was more.

People call me an Istanbul photographer. But I am a citizen of the world. I am a world photographer, he said once.

Worked around the world

His work took him around the world to Africa and Afghanistan as well as his native Turkey and resulted in numerous books, which remain a favorite of Istanbul souvenir-hunters to this day.

Guler was a well-known face in Istanbul and even in his last months could regularly be seen at the outside tables of the cafe he owned, Ara Cafe, in central Istanbul, which is adorned with his pictures.

In August, a photography museum in Istanbul opened in his name.U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has pulled out of an investment conference next week in Saudi Arabia, as Riyadh continues to face questions about its involvement in the disappearance and alleged killing of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist in Turkey.

Mnuchin made the announcement Thursday on Twitter, following numerous Western corporate chiefs who have dropped out of the three-day gathering that starts Tuesday in Riyadh.

As reports from Turkey have mounted alleging Saudi agents tortured, killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi two weeks ago inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul, the chief executives announced they will not be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference.

Saudi Arabia has denied killing Khashoggi, a critic of the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi wrote about Saudi Arabia in columns for The Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia says it says it will disclose the results of its investigation into his disappearance.

The investment conference is being organized by Saudi Arabia's mammoth sovereign wealth fund and was being billed as a showcase for economic reforms advanced by Salman as he attempts to diversify the kingdom's economy, for decades focused on its role as the world's leading oil exporter.



The gathering had been dubbed "Davos in the Desert," after the annual meeting of world economic leaders in Switzerland.

International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said she is skipping the conference. JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon and the heads of two top U.S. investment firms  BlackRock and Blackstone  have dropped out of the gathering. Top executives at the Ford auto manufacturing company and the MasterCard credit company have said the won't be going, while the Google internet search engine company said that the head of its cloud computing business also would not be at the event.

The chiefs of European bankers BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Societe Generale also rescinded acceptances to the conference.A new documentary on massacres by Zimbabwe's military has led to harsh exchanges as the 1980s killings challenge a new president who preaches unity but refuses to apologize for his alleged role in one of the country's deepest wounds.

The screening in the capital, Harare, would have been almost impossible under former leader Robert Mugabe, who led the country for 37 years and resigned following military intervention in November.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime Mugabe loyalist and enforcer who succeeded him, has tolerated documentaries and plays critical of the government amid promises of a "flowering of democracy."

But none has taken such direct aim at Mnangagwa as the new documentary on the army operation he supported as state security minister between 1983 and 1987. Gukurahundi Genocide: 36 Years Later is named after that campaign.

During Operation Gukurahundi  "the early rains that blow away the chaff" in the local Shona language  a North Korean-trained brigade rampaged through the southwestern provinces of Matabeleland, leaving 10,000 to 20,000 civilians dead. That's according to a 1997 report by the Catholic Commission on Peace and Justice that drew on more than 1,000 interviews and is seen as the most authoritative account.

Like his predecessor, Mnangagwa has refused to apologize but said he will accept recommendations of a national peace and reconciliation commission conducting public hearings on the atrocities.

"Authorities are not comfortable with this subject," producer Zenzele Ndebele told the screening crowd on Wednesday night.

"Most people involved in Gukurahundi are now in power. This makes them uncomfortable," added Ndebele, who said he was summoned by police before being allowed to screen the documentary in September in Bulawayo, a city where many of the atrocities occurred.

Witness accounts

The documentary highlights Mnangagwa's alleged role and features interviews with villagers, former top military officials and politicians narrating how they were tortured and jailed for belonging to an ethnic group accused of harboring anti-government rebels.

Some say Mugabe used the military campaign to stamp out support for the rebels. Others saw the massacres as an attempt by Mugabe to weaken any opposition to his stated aim of a one-party state.

Villagers recount being kept in camps and forced to dig graves for mass burials. Girls were raped and husbands forced to watch as soldiers raped their wives, witnesses say in the hourlong documentary.

"Since I was pregnant I was spared," one elderly woman says.

Another woman says her husband divorced her because he could not stand sharing her with soldiers.

Lingering tensions

Although the 94-year-old Mugabe now lives quietly in the capital, the atrocities remain a fresh scar. At the screening in Harare, the simmering tensions showed.

"It was biased, this is vendetta journalism," 26-year-old Lonias Rozvimajoni said afterward. He described witnesses as "bogus" and the documentary as "fiction," to a chorus of support from some. They said the timing of the documentary's release was meant to tarnish Mnangagwa's presidency.

Others shouted back, defending the work.

"You are hired guns," barked Ibbo Mandaza, an academic who runs a nongovernmental organization that hosted the screening, referring to the seemingly pro-government youths.

"Gukurahundi happened. I was in government at the time, I witnessed it," said Mandaza, who had been a ruling party official.

He abruptly ended the session, although the heated exchanges continued over tea and biscuits in the courtyard.

"Maybe it will take them to become victims to understand," Dumisani Mpofu, who worked on the documentary as a researcher, told The Associated Press.More than 60 world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, will travel to Paris next month for commemorations of the end of World War I a century ago, French officials said Thursday.

On November 10  a day before the commemorations in Paris  French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also attend a ceremony near Compiegne, northern France, where the armistice ending the war was signed on November 11, 1918, Macron's office said.

The main ceremony will take place at the Arc de Triomphe war monument in Paris at 11 a.m. on November 11  marking the time when guns finally fell silent after four years of trench warfare and general European slaughter.

Later in the day, guests will be invited to participate in a Peace Forum, to be opened by Merkel, an event which France wants to turn into an annual multilateral peace conference.

Earlier in November, Macron will spend a week touring the country's WWI battlefields, including Verdun, scene of the longest-lasting battle which left at least 700,000 dead on both sides.

"The idea is to commemorate our 'poilus' [hairy] ancestors," the presidency said, using a nickname for French WWI rank-and-file troops.

Macron will also "pay homage to the French people's extraordinary capacity  which has never failed  to rebuild and start anew after a war," the presidency said.

A special Cabinet meeting will be held in Charleville-Mezieres, in the Ardennes, an area which saw much destruction during the war and which today suffers from de-industrialisation and high unemployment.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also attend a Franco-German friendship concert on November 4 in the eastern city of Strasbourg, part of the Alsace region which was returned to France in 1918 after being seized by Prussia in 1870.

Only countries which "sent troops or workers to the European theaters of war" have been invited to the Paris ceremonies, the presidential office, said when asked to explain the absence of countries such as Saudi Arabia.Thousands of people protested across Haiti on Wednesday in sweeping anti-corruption demonstrations that coincided with a national holiday honoring one of the heroes of the country's independence, Jean-Jacques Dessalines.

Police opened fire on demonstrators, injuring several, as the protesters threw rocks and set fire to tires, according to VOA Creole stringers in Port-au-Prince.

Protesters are demanding transparency from the government regarding the alleged misuse of $3.8 billion in oil profits.

The money, made by Haiti under the Petrocaribe oil alliance signed between Venezuela and Caribbean nations in June 2005, had been earmarked for infrastructure and social and economic projects.

Several audits have been done, with the results either failing to provide clear answers as to where the Petrocaribe funds went or showing that much of the revenue has been mismanaged, including being spent on construction projects that were not completed.

In November 2017, a special Haiti Senate commission also accused more than a dozen government officials in former President Michel Martelly's administration of embezzling funds.

The results have angered citizens and sparked a series of nationwide protests.

Demonstrators demanded to know what happened to the oil revenue and called for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise.

"[October 17] is a day of deliverance for us. It's a day to uproot poverty. It's a day to uproot unemployment. So we're asking everyone to hit the streets, because we can't go on living with these problems," a protester told VOA Creole.

Salnave Elyse, who heads RAMNE (Rasanblement Militan Nodes, a northeastern militant group), denounced the opposition's plan to protest Wednesday.

"This movement isn't really intended to help the people," Elyse said. "This is a way for them to pursue their own goals. The real objective behind this Petrocaribe movement is to overthrow the government and replace it with their own cronies."

He called on the police and law enforcement officials not to let that happen.

Earlier Wednesday, Moise, first lady Martine Moise and Prime Minister Jean Henry Ceant attended a ceremony marking the 212th anniversary of the assassination of Dessalines. A policeman was hurt at a wreath-laying ceremony when a protester threw a rock at him.

Meanwhile, in the suburb of Petionville, police fired warning shots and tear gas when protesters flooded the road leading to Moise's private residence.

Large protests were also reported in Les Cayes, Jacmel, Jeremie, Mireballais, Gonaives, Petit Goave and Cape Haitian, where protesters chanted "Catch them! Lock them up!"

VOA Creole stringers Exalus Mergenat, Makenson Charles, Roney Innocente, Jean Hernst Eliscar, Clement Collegue and Wilner Cherubin contributed to this report.The U.S. appears willing to give Saudi Arabia a bit more time to finish its investigation into Turkish allegations that Saudi agents killed a U.S.-based journalist inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after meeting with Saudi and Turkish leaders this week, briefed President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, telling him to give Saudi Arabia a few more days to complete its investigation of the disappearance of the writer, Jamal Khashoggi.

After the U.S. assesses the Saudi report, Pompeo said, "Then the United States will determine what the appropriate response might be."

Pompeo said there are "a lot of stories out there about what has happened" to Khashoggi, but declined to speculate on the outcome of investigations in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The top U.S. diplomat said he believes "a complete picture will emerge" from the probes.

Pompeo said he told Saudi King Salman and the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the U.S. takes Khashoggi's fate "very seriously," but also noted that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have had a "strategic alliance" for decades.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is dropping out of next week's Saudi investment conference in Riyadh. The conference is designed to showcase the crown prince's effort to diversify the Saudi economy beyond its role as the world's leading oil exporter. Numerous Western corporate chieftains had already pulled out of the three-day gathering as Saudi Arabia struggles to answer questions about Khashoggi's fate.

Pompeo's discussion with Trump came as Turkish investigators carried out a new search of the consulate, their second this week, and completed a nine-hour search of the nearby residence of the Saudi consul to Istanbul. He abruptly returned to Riyadh on Tuesday.Saudi Arabia has denied knowledge of Khashoggi's disappearance. Pompeo said as he left Riyadh that the Saudi leaders did not want to discuss any facts of the case while they carry out their investigation. They have promised to release results to the public.

After meeting with the Saudi leaders, Pompeo flew to the Turkish capital, Ankara, to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. Pro-government Turkish media have published investigators' claims that the Saudi agents cut off Khashoggi's fingers, decapitated him and then dismembered his body shortly after he arrived at the consulate October 2 to pick up documents so he could marry his fiancee, Turkish national Hatice Cengiz. She waited in vain outside for Khashoggi's return. Khashoggi has not been seen since.

Media reports

The pro-government newspaper Sabah identified Saudi security official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb as the leader of what it said was a 15-member "assassination team" that flew into Istanbul to carry out the execution of Khashoggi. He had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States while writing columns for The Washington Post that criticized the crown prince and the Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen.

The Turkish newspaper said Mutreb, who has been photographed near the crown prince on his foreign travels this year, was spotted on surveillance tapes entering the consulate more than three hours before Khashoggi arrived, then later the same day outside the consul's residence and then again in the evening at the airport as he left Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Post published what it said it believes will be Khashoggi's last column, one in which he decried the lack of freedom of the press in the Arab world.

"The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power," he wrote.

"The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices," Khashoggi said.

Trump reaction

Trump said Wednesday he wants audio and video intelligence from Turkey, "if it exists," while saying it "probably does."

Trump's demand came as he expressed support for Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally, and said he expects its investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance would be completed by the end of the week.

When questioned on what he would do if the Saudi investigation showed that the Saudi monarch and his heir apparent were responsible, Trump told Fox Business in an earlier interview, "Well, I hope we're going to be on the better side of the equation."

"You know we need Saudi Arabia in terms of our fight against all of the terrorism, everything that's happening in Iran and other places," Trump said.

When asked if the United States would distance itself from Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case, Trump said, "I do not want to do that and frankly they have a tremendous order, $110 billion," referring to a promised Saudi purchase of U.S.-made weaponry, in the coming years.

"It is 500,000 jobs, it will be ultimately $110 billion. It's the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military, and I said we are going to turn that down?" he added.

"So hopefully it is working out. We'll find out, we'll get down to the bottom of it," Trump said of the Saudi investigation. "I hope that the king and the crown prince didn't know about it. That is a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't."

Pompeo told reporters on his way back to Washington that the United States needs "to know the facts before we can begin to formulate what the appropriate response" would be if Saudi Arabia is responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance.

"I do think it's important that everyone...keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships--financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationship, things we work on together all across the world," Pompeo said. "The efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world's largest state sponsor of terror, Iran--the Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues."

Pompeo said the Saudis committed to holding accountable "anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found," making no exceptions for anyone, including members of the royal family.The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports the Rohingya refugee camps in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, are fertile grounds for traffickers who prey upon vulnerable people. It says young women and girls in particular are lured into situations of forced labor and sexual exploitation.

An investigation by IOM staff has identified nearly 100 Rohingya refugees who have escaped abusive trafficking situations and returned to Coxs Bazar. The IOM says these small numbers are only a fraction of those who have fallen victim to trafficking.

It says it is difficult to pin down the scope and scale of the situation because of its clandestine nature. Also, it says victims are reluctant to come forward because of stigma and fear of retribution.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman says girls sold into forced labor are the largest group of trafficking victims. But, he says adult men and boys also are targets of traffickers, accounting for around one in three of those ending up in forced labor.

He says traffickers lure vulnerable young people into dangerous situations with false promises of work and a better life.

Individuals mentioned instances of girls and young women recruited for domestic work or hotel maids and became trapped into forced prostitution. Community members stated Rohingya women normally do not consider prostitution as an income-generating activity. But, the current lack of livelihood options forces some of the women to engage in survival sex, he said.

Millman says the going price for cheap prostitution is six dollars, but the Rohingya women only get between 80 cents and $1.20 per service.

Nearly a million refugees live in Coxs Bazar. Most have arrived since August 2017 to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar. The IOM says the refugees are barred from leaving the settlements and depend entirely on international aid for survival. It says the limited work opportunities in the camps, make the Rohingya easy prey for traffickers.Even in the country that invented the internet, access has remained painfully slow for many rural residents in places like the central state of Arkansas, far from the big cities of the East and West coasts. That may be about to change.

The Federal Communications Commission  a government agency  recently auctioned off almost $1.5 billion in subsidies to get broadband providers to serve an additional 700,000 American homes over the next 10 years. Additional such auctions are planned.

For rural residents in Arkansas  ranked as one of the worst connected states in the country  it cannot come too soon.

"Remember dial-up?" That's how Ashley Vaughan responds when she's asked to describe her internet speed at home. She's a resident of Pangburn, Arkansas, a town of about 600 people. After leaving the area for a few years, she returned in 2015.

"[Internet speed is] still as crappy as it ever was," Vaughan said. "I was trying to watch Hulu [a streaming network], and my husband was trying to load a webpage at the same time, and neither of them worked."

Rural areas

The issue of poor broadband access  defined by the FCC as fewer than 25 megabits per second (Mbps)  is not uncommon. Almost 20 percent of the American population, or 60 million people, live in rural areas, which generally experience the least connectivity in the country.

Of those, around 15 million Americans have access to less than 10 Mbps.

In Vaughan's case, she says her internet speed is only 0.05 Mbps. She's called her internet provider to complain, but was told her service was the best available where she lives.

To get around the problem, many communities have sidestepped big companies and created municipal networks. Individually, some people spend extra on portable broadband access for their phones.

That slow speed doesn't just mean fewer shows watched or video games played. It also impacts Vaughan's son's schoolwork, which increasingly requires use of a computer. Vaughan describes an instance in which her son took hours to download a single textbook, preventing anyone else in the house from using the internet during that time.

Many households in the U.S. have been wired for DSL, or digital subscriber lines, permitting the transmission of high-speed internet data over telephone lines. Meanwhile, most suburban and urban areas have seen the installation of fiber and copper cables, providing faster service. But many rural areas have been left behind.

"Fiber lines are expensive to install, and older copper lines are expensive to maintain," said Jameson Zimmer, a broadband analyst with BroadbandNow, a data aggregation company based in Los Angeles.

On average, Zimmer says, it can cost tens of thousands of dollars to run fiber lines, depending on the complexity of the terrain and the length of the line. This means there are fewer internet providers willing to take on that financial burden  giving consumers fewer options.

"What to do about this is overwhelming," Zimmer said.

Legislative push

It's a problem that both Republican and Democratic party leaders are working to solve.

U.S. Senator John Boozman of Arkansas has been one of the leaders in the push for legislation broadening access to high-speed internet.

In an email to Voice of America, Boozman wrote that investing in affordable, high-speed internet would strengthen the American economy. He applauded President Donald Trump for signing an executive order earlier this year to expand broadband access into rural areas but said the issue needs attention from "all levels of government."

"There is a sense of urgency in the need to close the rural broadband gap. Today, reliable connectivity is just as essential as traditional infrastructure like roads and bridges," Boozman wrote. "I've seen students sitting in the back of pickup trucks outside of schools in order to access the internet to complete their homework."

Alisha Summerville feels that urgency. She's a co-owner of the online store ASK Apparel, which launched last year and is based in Pangburn. Even though she relies on her smartphone to do most of her work, the store earns $10,000 to $15,000 a month from online purchases and sells to customers in 18 states.

The store earns an additional $5,000 to $10,000 through a brick-and-mortar store in the neighboring town of Heber Springs, but Summerville says the company was set up to serve online shoppers and it encourages foot traffic to become online traffic.

"That's where business is going," Summerville said of internet sales.

Summerville says she takes her internet connection into consideration every single time she makes a decision  from marketing and design to the equipment she uses. Having better broadband access at home would mean she could accomplish a lot more.

"When your internet is down, so is your business," Summerville said. "When I'm thinking about internet, and I'm thinking about sales, I'm thinking about how much further we could reach."Russian officials say Wednesday's attack on a school in Crimea in which at least 19 students were killed was not a terrorist attack, but a case of mass murder. They say video footage captured by a closed-caption camera shows a former student armed with a rifle enter the technical college in the Black Sea city of Kerch. Zlatica Hoke reports the suspect in the school shooting also was killed.Somalia on Sunday marked the one year anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in Africa's history: a car bomb that ripped through the capital, Mogadishu, killing nearly 600 people. No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it had the hallmarks of the terrorist group Al-Shabab. As Mohamed Sheik Nor reports from Mogadishu, some victims are still suffering from the effects of the blast.Asked Thursday by reporters whether Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was dead, U.S. President Donald Trump responded it "certainly looks" as if he is and that is "very sad."

There will be "very severe" consequences if the Saudis killed him, promised Trump, speaking on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One.

Trump's administration is willing to give Saudi Arabia a bit more time to finish its investigation into Turkish allegations that agents from the kingdom killed Khashoggi inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.

WATCH: Pressure Mounts on Trump to Confront Saudis on Khashoggi

More time

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after meeting with Saudi and Turkish leaders this week, briefed Trump at the White House earlier Thursday, telling him to give Saudi Arabia a few more days to complete its investigation of the disappearance of the writer, who lived in the U.S. state of Virginia.

After the U.S. assesses the Saudi report, Pompeo said, "the United States will determine what the appropriate response might be."

Pompeo said there were "a lot of stories out there about what has happened" to Khashoggi, but he declined to speculate on the outcome of investigations in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The top U.S. diplomat said he believed "a complete picture will emerge" from the probes.

Pompeo said he told Saudi King Salman and the country's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the U.S. was taking Khashoggi's fate "very seriously," but also noted that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have had a "strategic alliance" for decades.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he was dropping out of next week's Saudi investment conference in Riyadh. The conference is designed to showcase the crown prince's effort to diversify the Saudi economy beyond its role as the world's leading oil exporter. Numerous Western corporate chieftains had already pulled out of the three-day gathering as Saudi Arabia struggles to answer questions about Khashoggi's fate.

Pompeo's discussion with Trump came as Turkish investigators carried out a new search of the consulate, their second this week, and completed a nine-hour search of the nearby residence of the Saudi consul to Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, who abruptly returned to Riyadh on Tuesday.

Results to be released

Saudi Arabia has denied knowledge of Khashoggi's disappearance. Pompeo said as he left Riyadh that the Saudi leaders did not want to discuss any facts of the case while they carried out their investigation. They have promised to release results to the public.

After meeting with the Saudi leaders, Pompeo flew to the Turkish capital, Ankara, to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Pro-government Turkish media have published investigators' claims that the Saudi agents cut off Khashoggi's fingers, decapitated him and then dismembered his body shortly after he arrived at the consulate Oct. 2 to pick up documents so he could marry his fiancee, Turkish national Hatice Cengiz. She waited in vain outside for Khashoggi's return. Khashoggi has not been seen since.

The pro-government newspaper Sabah identified Saudi security official Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb as the leader of what it said was a 15-member "assassination team" that flew into Istanbul to carry out the execution of Khashoggi.

Khashoggi had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States while writing columns for The Washington Post that criticized the crown prince and the Saudi involvement in the war in Yemen.

On surveillance tapes

The Turkish newspaper said Mutreb, who has been photographed near the crown prince on his foreign travels this year, was spotted on surveillance tapes entering the consulate more than three hours before Khashoggi arrived, then later the same day outside the consul's residence and then again in the evening at the airport as he left Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Post published what it said it thought would be Khashoggi's last column, one in which he decried the lack of freedom of the press in the Arab world.

"The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power," he wrote.

"The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices," Khashoggi said.

Trump said Wednesday that he wanted audio and video intelligence from Turkey, "if it exists," while saying it "probably does."

Trump's demand came as he expressed support for Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally, and said he expected its investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance would be completed by the end of the week.

Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas and State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.President Donald Trump is threatening to send the military to close the southern U.S. border unless Mexico stops what he calls an onslaught of Central American migrants who are now poised to enter Mexico from its border with Guatemala.

A caravan of nearly 3,000 people left San Pedro Sula in Honduras late last week, making their way through Guatemalas muddy jungle and residential streets to reach Mexico and eventually the United States.

Trump claims there are criminals among the migrants and is urging Mexico, in the strongest terms to stop them.

The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me as President than Trade or the USMCA (US Mexico Canada Agreement), Trump tweeted Thursday.

Hes making a political calculation, said Marcelo Ebrard, Mexicos incoming foreign minister, about Trumps posting on Twitter, in a reference to U.S. midterm elections in November. Ebrard said in a local radio interview Trumps comments were predictable.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Mexico City for a meeting Friday with outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Mexico sent hundreds of extra policemen to its border with Guatemala Thursday.

While Trump has threatened to deploy the military to the Mexico-U.S. border, Lieutenant Colonel Jamie Davis said Thursday in a statement the Department of Defense has not been tasked to provide additional support.

Mexican officials say they will not let the migrants enter as one large group. Individuals must show a passport or visa to cross the border, or express an interest in staying in Mexico and apply for refugee status.

We will offer jobs, work to Central Americans. Anyone who wants to work in our country will have help, will have a work visa, Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said this week.

Honduras is one of the most violent and deadliest nations on Earth, in part, because of gangs and drugs.

Many of those trying to get to the United States want to escape the daily threat to their lives, the lack of jobs, and want to get their children away from the influence of gangs.

One of the migrants told the Associated Press that he is concerned but not deterred by Trumps threats to keep them out.

You have to keep fighting, he said while another young man said Only God on high can stop us.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is warning of military action against a key U.S. ally in the disputed Syrian city of Manbij, as bilateral tensions threaten to resurface between the NATO partners.

We will do what is necessary, was Erdogans message to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when they met Wednesday in Ankara, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who also attended the meeting.

Ankara is demanding the removal of all members of the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG from Manbij. The YPG, supported by U.S. forces, helped to oust the Islamic State from the strategically important city in 2016. But Ankara designates the militia as terrorists linked to the PKK, which is waging a decades-long Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

Washingtons backing of the YPG in its war against the Islamic State remains a point of tension with Ankara. Under a road map agreed earlier this year to defuse bilateral differences, the militia would withdraw from Manbij, and joint U.S.-Turkish patrols of the city would be started.

Turkey is ready

However, Ankara is voicing growing frustration over what it sees as Washington backsliding. Turkey is ready to eliminate terrorists in Syrias Manbij if the U.S. is facing difficulties, Cavusoglu said Wednesday after meeting with Pompeo.

Cavusoglu said it has been more than five months since the deal over Manbij had been agreed. "Some delays are normal during the groundwork, but there should not be a resistance from the [US] army in the ground," Cavusoglu said. Ankara has often criticized American forces in Syria of being too sympathetic to the Kurdish militia.

The Manbij road map until now was seen by analysts as a success, The working relationship is still in place in Syria. We are still waiting for the joint patrol operation to start in Manbij, said former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who served widely in the region, The [anti-US] rhetoric, we can say, by President Erdogan until now was dialed back a bit.

Analysts suggest Cavusoglus latest comment are likely in response to the lack of urgency expressed by the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. "As for joint patrols  first, how to perform patrols, how to command and control. We need to develop a staffing plan, including what will be the rules of engagement. Then we have to train the people we have chosen to perform these joint patrols, Dunford said Tuesday.

Obviously, we are moving forward with rational steps, Dunford added. This is not an urgent issue. The urgent security issues were addressed immediately," he added.

Colliding interests

Ankaras suspicions of Washington are heightened by its new stated goal of curtailing Irans influence in Syria. Syria needs to get rid of the image of a country that exports terrorism to its neighbors. Also, militia groups fighting on behalf of Iran should be removed from the ground," said U.S. envoy for Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey.

With the YPG controlling a large swath of northern Syria, including much of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier, observers say Washington sees it as key to containing Iranian influence. Manbij, on a main highway between Iraq and Syria is widely regarded as having particular strategic importance.

Ankara and Washington recently took a significant step to improve ties. Earlier this month American pastor Andrew Brunson was allowed to return to the United States after more than two years in detention on terrorism charges. Washington called the charges baseless and politically motivated.

But international relations expert Soli Ozel of Istanbuls Kadir Has University says Manbij symbolizes the deepening mistrust between Turkey and the United States.

My sense the most fundamental problem is that Turkish interests in the Middle East and American interests in the Middle East are not the same. Are they totally incompatible I am not sure, said Ozel.

While Washington sees Tehran as the regions main threat, Ankara has been deepening its cooperation with Iran over Syria. Ankara, Tehran, and Moscow have been coordinating efforts to end the civil war, even though they back rivals sides.

Observers suggest Iran will likely seek to exploit growing U.S.-Turkish tensions over Manbij.

Turkeys pro-government Sabah newspaper reported Wednesday the Free Syrian Army is seeking a green light from Turkey to move against the YPG in Manbij "in 20 days if Ankara instructs us, said Adnan Abu Faisal, the FSA military assembly leader. "The FSA has sworn to bury the PKK in their own pits and return the area to real owners, he added.

Turkish investigators carried out searches Thursday at the Saudi consulate and the nearby consuls residence in Istanbul in connection with the disappearance of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Forensic teams had already visited the consulate once this week, going there Monday to search for clues to what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the diplomatic outpost on Oct. 2.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi monarchy who wrote for The Washington Post, has not been seen since that day.

Turkish officials have said Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi, while Saudi officials say he walked out of the consulate on his own. Neither country has publicly offered evidence of its version of events.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited leaders in both Saudi Arabia and Turkey to express concern about the case and President Donald Trumps desire to figure out what happened.

Pompeo is scheduled to brief Trump on the trip Thursday morning at the White House.

Trump wants the evidence

Trump said Wednesday he wants audio and video intelligence from Turkey, if it exists.

His demand came as he expressed support for Saudi Arabia, a long-time U.S. ally, and said he expects its investigation into Khashoggis disappearance would be completed by the end of the week.

When questioned on what he would do if the Saudi investigation showed that Saudi leaders King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were responsible, Trump told Fox Business in an earlier interview, Well, I hope were going to be on the better side of the equation.

You know we need Saudi Arabia in terms of our fight against all of the terrorism, everything thats happening in Iran and other places, Trump said.

When asked if the United States would distance itself from Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case, Trump said, I do not want to do that and frankly they have a tremendous order, $110 billion, referring to a promised Saudi purchase of U.S.-made weaponry, in the coming years.

It is 500,000 jobs, it will be ultimately $110 billion. Its the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military, and I said we are going to turn that down? he added.

So hopefully it is working out. Well find out, well get down to the bottom of it, Trump said of the Saudi investigation. I hope that the king and the crown prince didnt know about it. That is a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they havent.

Pompeo visits Saudi Arabia, Turkey

Pompeo told reporters on his way back to Washington that the United States needs to know the facts before we can begin to formulate what the appropriate response would be if Saudi Arabia is responsible for Khashoggis disappearance.

I do think its important that everyone ... keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships  financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationship, things we work on together all across the world, Pompeo said. The efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the worlds largest state sponsor of terror, Iran  the Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues.

Earlier, Pompeo said that when he met with Saudi leaders they did not want to talk about any of the facts involving Khashoggis disappearance.

As he headed to Ankara to talk to the Turkish leaders about their investigation regarding the missing journalist, Pompeo that the Saudi monarch and his son assured him they would show the entire world the results of their investigation.

Pompeo said the Saudis had committed to holding accountable anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found, making no exceptions for anyone, including members of the royal family.

Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas and State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.A U.N. official is calling for more time to give diplomacy a chance in Idlib, the last rebel-held area in northeastern Syria.

The U.N. Senior Adviser for Syria, Jan Egeland, warns that a government military offensive to retake the province could risk the lives of 3 million civilians who have nowhere to run.

Egeland says he is relieved a Russian-Turkish agreement on Idlib is holding, despite the failure of militants and rebels to meet a deadline for their withdrawal from a buffer zone separating them from government forces.

Although the situation remains calm in the area, Egeland says there are worrying reports that armed groups are building fortifications inside Idlib. He says there are signals a conflict may engulf parts or most of the province.

Both Russia and Turkey have indicated more time will be given to implement the agreement.

"That is a great relief to us because if one is to follow a military logic that has too often been followed in this war alone, it would be horrific news. Not only for civilians, but also for humanitarians of whom there are 12,000 colleagues in Idlib," Egeland said.

While it is unclear where the fighters and their heavy guns would upon leaving the buffer zone, Egeland says it is likely they would go back to Idlib, which could trigger war.

He warns that the catastrophe that would result from a war in Idlib could be the worst in the seven-year civil war. More than 350,000 people reportedly have been killed since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has told his Chinese counterpart that improved high-level relations between their countries will reduce the risk of unintentional conflict.

Mattis and Chinese General Wei Fenghe met on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Singapore in an effort to normalize military relations. Following the talks, U.S. officials said they sensed relations with China's military had stabilized, although the talks did not produce new agreements.

Military relations between Washington and Beijing had deteriorated in recent weeks over a bitter trade war, U.S. sanctions against China's military for buying weapons from Russia, and Beijing's creation of military outposts in the South China Sea.

Pentagon official Randall Schriver told reporters after the longer-than-expected 90-minute meeting that Mattis "repeated our desire for a durable relationship that is a stabilizing force in the overall relationship."

Mattis planned to meet in Beijing with Wei a few weeks ago, but Chinese officials said Wei was not available, one of several indications strained U.S.-China relations had spread into the military arena. China's snub came as it reacted angrily to the sanctions

U.S. President Donald Trump has often lambasted China over its economic policies. Earlier this month, Vice President Mike Pence accused Beijing of using "predatory" trade practices and resorting to military "aggression."

China did not immediately comment to U.S. media after the meeting between Mattis and Wei during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference.

The United States on Thursday downgraded the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by placing it under the authority of the U.S. Embassy to Israel.

The move, which was immediately denounced by the Palestinians and hailed by Israel, is the latest Trump administration decision to align with Israeli government views and a victory for U.S. Ambassador David Friedman. He had long sought to end the Jerusalem consulates independent status but had faced resistance from within the State Department.

Friedmans push picked up steam in May after the Trump administration moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem over the vehement objections of the Palestinians, who claim the eastern part of the holy city as the capital of an eventual state.

The consulate had for years served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians but will now be known as the Palestinian Affairs Unit of the embassy to Israel. It will remain in its current location, at least for now, the State Department said.

The step, which was announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, means that the Jerusalem consulate will no longer have a separate channel to Washington to report on Palestinian affairs and will no longer be run by a consul general with authorities tantamount to those of an ambassador.

In a statement, Pompeo said the merger of the consulate into the embassy is intended to achieve significant efficiencies and increase our effectiveness. He denied that it signaled any change in U.S. policy toward Jerusalem or the Palestinian territories.

The United States continues to take no position on final status issues, including boundaries or borders, he said. The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties.

The administration, Pompeo said, remains strongly committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace that offers a brighter future to Israel and the Palestinians. We look forward to continued partnership and dialogue with the Palestinian people and, we hope in the future, with the Palestinian leadership.

Although Pompeo sought to portray the move as a bureaucratic management shift, the downgrading of the consulate has potent symbolic resonance, suggesting American recognition of Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Michael Oren, Israels deputy Cabinet minister for public diplomacy and a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, appeared to lend credence to that view in a tweet welcoming the step.

A great day for Israel, Jerusalem, and the United States, he wrote. The announcement closing the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and transferring its responsibilities to the embassy ends the last vestige of American support for the citys division. Israel is deeply grateful.

The Palestinians, who cut off nearly all contacts with the Trump administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital late last year, meanwhile, quickly denounced it.

Nabil Shaath, the international affairs adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said it was a very bad decision that violated past agreements and continued President Donald Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Now, he is cutting the last connection he is said to have with the Palestinian people. He is practically saying Jerusalem is for Israel, Shaath said. This decision has nothing to do with peace. It complicates peace and makes it impossible.

The consulate downgrade is just the latest in a series of decisions by Trump that the Palestinians say shows bias against them.

The administration in December recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital, ending a decades-long U.S. position that the status of the city should be determined in negotiations. In January, it slashed, and then ultimately ended, U.S. funding to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees as it also did with the vast majority of bilateral assistance to the Palestinians.

Last month, the administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, citing U.S. law that mandates its closure unless credible peace talks with Israel are underway.

Since he became U.S. ambassador to Israel, Friedman, a longtime supporter and fundraiser for the West Bank settlement movement, had argued he should have authority over the consulate, which for decades has operated differently than almost every other U.S. consulate around the world.

Typically, the head of a consulate, known as a consul general, reports to the ambassador, who has chief of mission authority over all U.S. posts in the country. In contrast, the consul general running the Jerusalem consulate historically had his or her own chief of mission authority. The closest comparable case to the Jerusalem situation is the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, which also has its own chief of mission who does not report to the U.S. ambassador in Beijing.The U.S. Justice Department has begun investigating allegations of child sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, according to people familiar with the probe.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia recently issued subpoenas to dioceses across the state.

The investigation, first reported Thursday by The Associated Press, followed a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August noting that more than 300 Catholic priests in the state had sexually abused children for decades and that church leaders had covered it up.

U.S. officials said Tuesday they will keep working to stabilize areas they helped liberate from Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

With IS's so-called caliphate crumbled, the U.S. and its allies now seek long-term solutions for the region, emphasizing that the next phase will focus on providing local partners the means to ensure sustained stability in areas previously held by the terror group.

The theme of the day is the conventional fight. While not over, we can see the endpoint, Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, told reporters at an annual meeting in Washington on countering violent extremism.

But that is not the end of the campaign, he added. We talked about transitioning to a new phase really focusing on the stabilization and sustainment effort.

The International Chiefs of Defense for Counter-Violent Extremist Organizations Conference was hosted by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with representatives from 83 nations, including commanders of counterterrorism operations from the U.S. and around the world.

I think we all recognize that violent extremism is a generational challenge that demands we develop solutions that are politically, fiscally and militarily sustainable, Dunford said in his opening remarks.

The U.S. is a major donor to peace building and stabilization programs in Syria. But in mid-August, the Trump administration announced cuts of about $230 million in stabilization funding to northeast Syria, saying it would instead rely on financial contributions from countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and other members of the anti-ISIS global coalition.

McGurk noted that these nations have so far announced $300 million in contributions, which have helped stabilization programs in Syria.

Raqqa

With the help of the U.S.-led coalition, Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces freed the Syrian city of Raqqa  IS's former de facto capital  in October 2017 after a four-month-long battle.

One year later, locals say U.S. assistance has been instrumental in rebuilding their city.

The United States was a major force behind the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS, and ever since, it has been helping us rebuild our city through funding various local organizations that work in different projects, said Abdulsalam Hamasork of the Raqqa Civil Council, the governing body in charge of running Raqqa.

According to U.S. officials, stabilization efforts have helped 150,000 Raqqa residents return to their homes.

The U.S. funding is effective because it is targeting communities and areas that were hit hard by IS and its extremist ideology. What we have in Raqqa has already been happening in other areas that were previously under IS rule, Hamasork told VOA in a phone interview.

Civic initiatives

In the northern Syrian town of Manbij, local activists see how the U.S. focus has gradually shifted from military assistance to supporting civic initiatives. Manbij was cleared of IS militants in August 2016.

With the cooperation between local forces, the majority of U.S. funding here goes to education and health programs, said Sadam al-Haman, a journalist with the Manbij Media Center.

This has encouraged more displaced people to return to their houses in the past few years. It has also been effective in eradicating ISs radical ideas, particularly among young people who were forced to be indoctrinated when the terrorist group ruled our city from 2014 to 2016, he added.

But some analysts say it may take a long time for stabilization efforts to help local communities in areas formerly held by IS fully recover.

Raqqa has not seen much rebuilding, although some schools have been cleared, electricity restored and areas successfully de-bombed, said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

The U.S. has always drawn a distinction between stabilization and rebuilding, although it may be a difference with little real distinction, because so long as lives are not rebuilt in Raqqa, the likelihood of further violence remains, Landis said.

Iraq

In Iraq too, U.S. officials say their efforts continue to help the recovery process. Such efforts include training over 170,000 members of the Iraqi security forces.

We had a good presentation today from the commander of the new NATO Training Mission to Iraq that will continue to professionalize the force, McGurk said in his Tuesday meeting.

The U.S. announced Tuesday that $178 million would go to Iraq to help local communities that were impacted by the IS fight.

The governance component of stabilization programs is essential, said Bilal Wahab, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

In order for aid to be effective, it should be corruption-free and promote economic opportunities to interrupt the cycles of war economy, he saidA U.S. student who supported pro-Palestinian boycott campaigns against Israel will be allowed to study in Israel after the Israeli Supreme Court overturned her deportation order.

Lawyers representing University of Florida student Laura Alqasem said Thursday's decision "is a victory for free speech, academic freedom, and the rule of law."

The 22-year-old student had been detained since arriving in Israel on October 2 with a valid visa, but she was not allowed to clear immigration due to a 2017 law banning any foreigner who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel."

Alqasem, whose father is Palestinian, was president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group is part of The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which aims to "end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law."

Israel contends the movement conceals its motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state.

The Florida native said she no longer participates in the BDS movement, but Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry said he was not convinced and believed she was a threat.

After a lower court rejected her appeal last week to remain in Israel, she turned to the Supreme Court in an attempt to remain in the country.

"We were surprised the court was so friendly to us," attorney Leora Bechor said after a hearing on Wednesday.

Alqasem registered at Israel's Hebrew University to pursue a master's degree in human rights. The university joined her appeal on Wednesday, maintaining her case dealt a serious blow to academic freedom in Israel.The URL has been copied to your clipboard

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In Zimbabwe, an inquiry into what caused at least seven deaths in a post-election protest has begun. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare some of the victims are looking forward to compensation.A dissident Vietnamese blogger imprisoned for defaming the country's Communist government is celebrating her first day of freedom on U.S. soil.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters, family members and reporters when she arrived early Thursday morning at George Bush International Airport in Houston, Texas, accompanied by her two young children and mother.

Quynh was reunited with her two children on the flight from Vietnam. She told VOA, Although I was prepared to meet my family, I was still shocked when my son and daughter hugged me on the plane. We have been waiting for more than two years for this.



She added that Vietnamese officials had kept her from having any contact with her son and daughter until the last minute.

"The reunion sends a message to those who have imprisoned me that I am not alone and the voice of freedom is never lost.

Quynh, who blogged under the pseudonym "Mother Mushroom," wrote extensively about human rights and industrial pollution before she was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Her release on Wednesday coincided with a visit to Vietnam by U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

The State Department said Wednesday that Quynh had "clearly stated" she wanted to go to the United States if she were released from prison.

She told reporters shortly after her arrival in Houston that she choose to come to the United States because "no one cares more about human rights" than the United States.

Her plight received international attention last year when she was given an International Women of Courage Award in absentia. The award was presented by U.S. first lady Melania Trump.

Quynh is among the dozens of bloggers and activists who have been arrested since 2016 as part of the Vietnamese government's crackdown on dissent over the past two years.

The State Department urged Vietnam to "immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience and allow all Vietnamese citizens to express their political views without fear of retribution."

Human rights organization Amnesty International welcomed the news of Quynh's release. Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty's regional director for East and South East Asia, said the release "should also be a reminder of Vietnam's worsening record of jailing anyone who criticizes the regime ... There are over 100 people languishing in jail because they peacefully spoke their mind - in public, on blogs, or on Facebook."Hundreds of taxis on Thursday drove at a snail's pace across the Polish capital Warsaw in protest at the ride-sharing app Uber and other unlicenced competitors.

Other cab drivers gathered in front of the justice ministry to call for legislation to regulate the industry.

Traditional cab operators argue that the Uber app and others like it represent unfair competition because their drivers can dodge the rules and restrictions that regulate professionals.

"There are 12,500 legal taxis in Warsaw and around 8,000 to 9,000 unregistered working for Uber, Taxify and a couple dozen other similar app-based operators," said Jaroslaw Iglikowski, head of the Warsaw Taxi Drivers union.

"The app-based operators are taking around 30-35 percent of our overall business and up to 70 percent of night-time fares, especially on weekends," he told AFP.

The protesting cab drivers claim in a petition they gave the justice minister that the country is losing more than 700 million zloty (160 million euros, $190 million) annually in unpaid taxes because of Uber and others like it.

The taxis dispersed in the early afternoon before rush hour, as the drivers had promised they would not cause traffic problems for city residents.

Uber has become one of Silicon Valley's biggest venture-funded startups and has expanded its ride-sharing services to dozens of countries.

It does not employ drivers or own vehicles, but instead relies on private contractors using their own cars, allowing them to run their own business.

The app claims it is a service provider, connecting passengers with these freelance drivers directly and cheaply.

But critics and competitors around the globe say this allows it to flout costly regulations such as stringent licensing requirements for taxi drivers, who undergo hundreds of hours of training.An inquiry into what really caused at least seven deaths in a post-election protest in Zimbabwe, entered its 2nd day in the capital, Harare, today. In a report filed by Columbus Mavhunga for VOA, some of the victims are looking forward to compensation.The Constitutional Court has struck off a provision of the dreaded Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which prohibits public protests without seeking police clearance.

According to the privately-owned News Day newspaper, Justice Rita Makarau made the ruling Tuesday in which she noted that Section 27 of the law is open to abuse by the state.

She was quoted by the newspaper as saying,  In addition to failing to pass the test on fairness, necessity and reasonableness, there is another feature of Section 27 of POSA that I find disturbing. It has no time frame or limitation as to the number of times the regulating authority can invoke the powers granted to him or her under the section.

Thus, a despotic regulating authority could lawfully invoke these powers without end. This could be achieved by publishing notices prohibiting demonstrations back-to-back as long as each time the period of the ban is for one month or less. It, thus, has the potential of negating or nullifying the rights not only completely, but perpetually. On the basis of the foregoing, it is my finding that Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act (Chapter 11:17) is unconstitutional.

An application to repeal this section was made by the Democratic Assembly for Restoration and Empowerment, National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe chairperson Stendrick Zvorwadza, Combined Harare Residents Association and National Election Reform Agenda in May this year.

Justice Priscilla Chigumba once made a ruling against Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act in favor of these applicants after a temporary order to ban protests was issued by Officer Commanding Harare Central District Chief Superintendent Newbert Saunyama, who blocked demonstrations over a blanket blockage on the importation of some goods from other nations.

Chigumba said police did not act fairly in stopping the protests.

Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act state that police can declare a temporary prohibition of holding public demonstrations within particular police districts if a regulating authority for any area believes on reasonable grounds that the powers conferred by sections twenty five and twenty six will not be sufficient to prevent public disorder being occasioned by the holding of public demonstrations or any class thereof in the area or any part thereof, he may issue an order prohibiting, for a specified period not exceeding three months, the holding of all public demonstrations or any class of public demonstrations in the area or part thereof concerned.

Whenever it is practicable to do so, before acting in terms of subsection (1), a regulating authority shall cause notice of the proposed order to be published in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulating in the area concerned and to be given to any person whom the regulating authority believes is likely to organise a public demonstration that will be prohibited by the proposed order; and afford all interested persons a reasonable opportunity to make representations in the matter.

It was an offence for someone to organize a protest in an area where police have banned public demonstrations.

Section 27 of POSA read in part, Any person who organises or assists in organising or takes part in or attends any public demonstration held in contravention of an order under subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.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.Starting this school year, English, history and math, are not the only classes required to graduate high school in Texas.

A new state law requires students in grades nine through 12 to receive a class, paired with a 16-minute video, that aims to teach them how to deal with law enforcement during a traffic stop.

Continents and regions Crime, law enforcement and corrections Education Law enforcement North America Southwestern United States Students and student life Texas The Americas United States College students Demographic groups Education systems and institutions Graduate and professional schools Higher education Population and demographics Society

Known as the Community Safety Education Act, Senate Bill 30 was signed into law by the 85th Texas Legislature to help ease tensions between police and students in the wake of multiple shootings by police of unarmed citizens that have taken place across the United States in recent years.

"We did not feel that we could stand idly by as these tragic incidents that erode public confidence and create distrust for law enforcement continue to occur without making an effort that could ultimately help save lives," the author of the bill, state Sen. Royce West, said in a press release in 2017, when the bill passed the Texas Senate.

What students see in the video

The video, first published in September, begins with West explaining what officials plan to achieve with the bill.

"The goal of the act was to define the behavior and expectations of citizens and law enforcement during traffic interactions," West said on the video, adding that he hopes this helps repair trust issues between citizens and the police.

"We're addressing that issue through training in the academies; our law enforcement academies, our schools, and driver's education programs," West said.

After the introduction, the video shows a re-enactment of students being pulled over for speeding and the officers explaining to them what to do next.

The re-enactment is followed by different students asking questions about what to do if they have to deal with law enforcement, with officers answering those questions.

Teachers get guidelines and tips

According to the State Board of Education, students must watch the video to graduate, and educators should follow detailed guidelines to educate the students about the video.

The guidelines include:

"The role of law enforcement and the duties and responsibilities of peace officers."

"Rights concerning interactions with peace officers."

"Proper behavior for civilians and peace officers during interactions."

"How to file a complaint against or a compliment on behalf of a peace officer."

Teachers are also given tips on how to address questions or concerns that parents have regarding the class, as well as on how to draw their students out on the subject to enhance their understanding.

CNN has reached out to the Sate Board of Education and West for further comment.Are job titles important? Read what happened when an advertising agency decided to ditch them. And here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door. (You can also get "5 Things You Need to Know Today" delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

1. Saudi Arabia

Budget deficits Business, economy and trade Continents and regions Donald Trump Economy and economic indicators Federal budget Federal budget deficit Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government budgets Middle East Middle East and North Africa Political Figures - US Political platforms and issues Politics Public debt Public finance Saudi Arabia US federal government White House Business and industry sectors Freedom of press Human rights International relations and national security Journalism and news media Media industry Political organizations US political parties US Republican Party

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefs President Trump this morning on his meetings with Saudi and Turkish leaders over the disappearance and apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Criticism is mounting over the Trump administration's handling of the crisis, with many saying Trump seems more interested in providing cover for the Saudis than in finding out the truth. Turkish officials say they have evidence that Khashoggi was killed in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul and that many of the 15 Saudi men implicated in the incident have high-level ties to the Saudi government. Khashoggi's final column for the Washington Post, in which he advocates for freedom of the press in the Middle East, was published last night.

2. US deficit

President Trump asked his Cabinet secretaries to cut their budgets by 5% next year, as his administration tries to get a handle on the rapidly ballooning federal deficit. The deficit jumped to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018. That's up 17% from last year and the highest level since 2012. Republicans blame Democrats, saying they're resistant to cutting spending on social programs. Dems point the finger at the GOP's massive tax cut. Republicans haven't talked much about the deficit or federal debt since Trump took office. But that's all they talked about when Barack Obama was in the Oval Office. CNN's Z. Byron Wolf says the GOP hypocrisy on this is stunning, even by Washington standards.

3. Crimea campus attack

At least 18 people died in an attack on a college in Russian-annexed Crimea. The victims, mostly teens, were killed when a bomb exploded in the school's dining room. Many of the dead had also been shot. About 50 others were injured. The suspect in the attack, reportedly a fellow student, killed himself in a library. Authorities first called this a terror attack but later reclassified it as a murder investigation.

4. Jayme Closs

The FBI is asking for help to find a missing 13-year-old girl whose parents were found dead. An Amber Alert was sent out for Jayme Closs, who disappeared Monday from her Wisconsin home. A 911 call was made from her home, but when deputies arrived, Closs' parents had been shot to death and she was gone. The FBI believes Closs is in danger.

5. Climate change

Want to stroll through the Blue Mosque in Istanbul or ride in a gondola through the canals of Venice? You might want to plan those trips for sooner rather than later. They're just a couple of dozens of World Heritage sites endangered by climate change. A study published this week says the flooding risk in the Mediterranean region will increase by 50% by 2100, while the risk of erosion will jump by 13% during the same period. The impact on historical icons would be significant, unless the world takes action, the study warns.

BREAKFAST BROWSE

The end is near

The upcoming season of "Orange is the New Black" will be the Netflix series' last, but some say, creatively at least, it comes a couple of seasons too late.

In the driver's seat

How do you make surgery less scary for kids? Give them tiny electric cars and let them drive themselves to operations.

Toke tourism

Ready to roll up to Canada to enjoy its just-now-legal weed? Be careful before you light up, because there are lots of rules.

Off key

An ice shelf in Antarctica seems to be singing, and the whole thing is downright scary.

The robots are coming

Meet Mica. She's an AI assistant that looks you in the eye, offers a warm smile and will probably lead the robot apocalypse against us all.

HAPPENING LATER

CNN town hall

CNN's Dana Bash moderates a live, one-hour town hall with Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is running for US Senate in Texas, at 7 p.m. ET. (GOP Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign declined to participate.) To stay up to date on all election events, subscribe on your Google or Apple calendar.

TODAY'S NUMBER

$365 million

The value of the massive deal boxer Canelo Alvarez signed with sports streaming service DAZN. It's the richest contract ever signed by an athlete.

AND FINALLY

What the heck is that?

A school of fish just stopped and stared at a drone that crashed in a lake. But hey, you'd do the same thing if a drone crashed into your living room. (Click to view.)As more and more north Alabamians are holding donation drives for Hurricane Michael relief efforts in Florida, WAAY 31 spent the day with a nurse practitioner and EMT from Huntsville who are helping out in Panama City.

Nurse Practitioner, Chase Uptain, and EMT, Sylbia Bell, were in the hardest hit areas on Thursday.

The pair set up shop at a FEMA distribution site being ran by the National Guard. Right as WAAY 31 pulled up, a woman with a gaping leg wound came to the medical tent. Uptain and Bell flushed her wound but it was so bad, they said she needed to go to the ER, because if the infection gets into her bloodstream it could be deadly.

"We just saw a lady with a really bad leg wound that needs to go to the emergency room. We did a dressing on that," said Uptain.

Bell said in the two hours they were at the FEMA distribution site, they saw about 20 people.

"It does feel good to be out here helping people," said Bell.

The two said the need for more medical staff is very real.

"I'd like to challenge everyone at home at Madison Hospital and surrounding hospitals to send as many people and volunteers as you can," said Uptain.

The CarePlus group Uptain and Bell are with will be heading back to north Alabama in the next few days, but another crew will replace them to keep up the work.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  The country's largest business organization on Thursday issued a resolution to the government recommending solutions to pressing concerns such as rice supply, traffic congestion, and flooding.

In its 44th Philippine Business Conference and Expo, (PBCE) the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) also called on the government to undertake reforms in the agriculture sector to help address rice production shortfall.

"Government should provide high-yield planting materials, fertilizers and loan to the farmers that will allow them to invest in harvest equipment and steel silo that will allow them to store their palay so they can get higher yields," said San Miguel Corp. President Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang, 44th PBCE chairman.

Ang said the country suffers a shortfall of 1.5 million tons of rice annually, which results in higher prices of the staple.

"Shortfall can be addressed by using high yield planting materials. We produce four tons per hectare per year using traditional planting materials. If we are to use high-yield seeds we can yield as much as as six to seven tons per hectare per year. This is at par with amount of rice produced by our neighbors in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)," he said.

The group also urged the government to build more elevated highways and mass transit systems to address traffic congestion.

To decongest EDSA, PCCI proposed an elevated road on EDSA-Rockwell flyover. Ang said the project will "decongest traffic further" by allowing motorists to get to Quezon City through Boni Avenue and Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong.

"Traffic is costing us losses of up to 3.5 billion pesos a day or 1.2 trillion a year and wasting millions of man-hours. Government needs to help work on resolving right-of-way issues," said Ang, who is also PCCI director for infrastructure.

He said the government should also build a new international airport with four parallel runway. The air terminal, he added, should be an hour's drive away from major cities and connected to mass transit and major tollways.

"If we can solve these, our cost of doing business will improve tremendously and this is what Filipino businessmen and foreign investors are looking for," he said.

San Miguel has a proposal to build a 700-million international airport in Bulacan. President Rodrigo Duterte has praised the project, which is going through another review after it was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board.

PCCI also proposed a long-term solution to flooding in Metro Manila such as a 15-meter diameter steelway from Laguna to Manila Bay. Ang said the project "will provide permanent solution to the flooding problems of Metro Manila."

He said the project will cost the government at least 110 billion and will take three to four years to finish.

Duterte, in a speech at the same event, concurred with the resolution, and assured that the government is addressing the issues to the best that it can.

"Everything that Ramon Ang said before you today are all true. Totoo talaga lahat yan," the President said.

"And with less money in our hands and (Finance Secretary Sonny) Dominguez desperately trying to raise the money, and with the global chaos, we find ourselves today still grappling for solutions," he added.That turned the focus to Mnuchin, who is seen as very close to Trump and unwilling to buck the White House. The decision for Mnuchin to withdraw is a sign that pressures from [Capitol] Hill and the media are making an impact, said Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, who spent 30 years at the CIA. After Pompeos failure to get any action from the Saudis, another Cabinet-level meeting with the Crown Prince would be foolish and embarrassing.A 1956 drawing, Ive been Buked and Ive Been Scorned, shows a woman standing in a doorway, with a view through a narrow shack to an open window beyond. She is, perhaps, a grandmother: Her hair is gray, and her clothes hang on her loosely. The title seems to refer to her personal history of suffering, while with one hand she is gesturing as if to explain something. She is, perhaps, telling us her history, and by extension the larger history she has lived. She is both intimidating and maternal, and she clearly doesnt suffer fools gladly. But there is an extraordinary nuance in the image, in the form of the window seen behind her. The promise implicit in the image seems to be the hope that drove White as an artist, and its something we might cling to today: that if we listen carefully to this fellow human being, we might get through to the other side.Some of its many incarnations since have been both high-profile and somewhat anticlimactic, such as the cold 1986 big-screen version, with Rick Moranis and original cast member Ellen Greene, and a belated Broadway premiere in 2003 with Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler that received only tepid notices. Now, the Kennedy Center, hoping for results closer to those of the early glory days, is finally taking a crack at Little Shop, in a production directed by Mark Brokaw that begins performances Wednesday in the Eisenhower Theater. It is also a reunion, of sorts, for Menken and one of the original cast members, Lee Wilkof, who created the lead role of Seymour, the nebbishy flower shop clerk who slakes Audrey IIs blood thirst and in the process wreaks rock-and-roll havoc on the unsuspecting denizens of Skid Row. The actor is back in the shop, this time as Mushnik, the craven proprietor who is, in essence, ultimately eaten up by his own profits.The White House has removed the acting chief of a small foreign aid office less than two months after he was put in place to quell controversy over the Trump administrations use of the agency as a source of jobs for political supporters, according to interviews and an internal email obtained by The Washington Post.In his new book, he wanted to write about these people who had these fascinating lives and all found themselves in the same city in the same decade. Wow, to be a fly on the wall, to have a time machine, he says. There are so many books about the era, but I wanted to write about it through the lens of what they were drinking, where they were drinking . . . and how many places are still open today where you can go sit at that sidewalk cafe and imagine yourself in 1928 instead of 2018.The relocation of Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole Indians to Oklahoma, which has come to be known as the Trail of Tears, took decades. Thompson said more than 12,000 Choctaw people made the journey but an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 died along the way. In Oklahoma, the Choctaw and their horses were part of the cattle ranching economy. The horses are small but tough and durable.Maybe. Asked later what they enjoyed most about the dinner, both raved about the obscure rose sake they drank at the end of the night. This sake was made from this purple grain of rice that they had thought had gone extinct, Joe explained. And then some archaeologist ... was doing [an] excavation and found it and then repopulated it. The rice was so old that it seemed new  and had created a new beverage. But did they like the sake, or was it a one-time novelty? And by sake, I obviously meant each other, because this is Date Lab and it is time to rate the date.Me: Yes, but it is important to emphasize that experiment is a relative term. For example, there are minor experiments, such as building a baking-soda volcano in ones kitchen for science fairs  which, by the way, I feel are very important educational tools to maintain our national dominance in technology, which elevates ...Todays Headlines

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicySimon said a significant part of the public reception of the Khashoggi story was his association with The Post. While most people cant name an individual who died in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Simon said, many remember the murder of reporter Daniel Pearl a few months afterward because of his affiliation with the Wall Street Journal. Pearl was kidnapped and killed by the terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed while reporting in Pakistan in 2002.Window shade: If youre sitting in the window seat, you control it  mostly. For the window shade, you dont own it as much as you are responsible for it, says veteran business traveler Jeffrey Walsh of Delran, N.J., who founded a social network for travelers called Nomo FOMO. If you are looking out of the window and trying to enjoy the sunset, then you can keep it up to enjoy. However, you should take into consideration others around you. For example, if youre not looking out the window on a long flight and the sun is low on the horizon, causing a glare, consider closing the shade. Also, follow the instructions of the flight attendants. When they ask you to close the shade, do so.Hip neighborhoods and trend-setting bars and restaurants have turned Brooklyn into New York Citys epicenter of cool. Part of the draw is the laidback neighborhood vibe, which extends to Brooklyns Prospect Park. The largest park in the outer boroughs, which you can get to in less than 30 minutes by subway from midtown Manhattan, rivals Central Park in terms of pastoral beauty. Created by the same architects  Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux  the 526-acre park has many of the same attractions as its Manhattan counterpart, including its own zoo, vintage carousel, running loop and skating rink. The Long Meadow, which stretches almost a mile along the west side of the park, is one of the longest unbroken green spaces in any city park in the country. Unlike on Central Parks Great Lawn, there is room to spread a picnic blanket or toss a Frisbee here, even on weekends. Events are more low-key but no less star studded. Celebrate Brooklyn! at the Bandshell attracts big name acts (Willie Nelson, the Decemberists) that easily compete with Central Parks SummerStage. The surrounding neighborhood of Park Slope has the Upper West and Upper East Sides beat when it comes to great food. After a day in the park, youll have countless of-the-moment restaurants, such as Fausto and Olmsted, to choose from for dinner, and, at bars like craft beer shrine Double Windsor, youll be rubbing shoulders with locals rather than tourists.But Bard College is making big promises to prepare students for four-year college in a city that has struggled, despite lofty investments, to improve the attendance and academic records of its most vulnerable students. In Ward 8, one of the wards east of the Anacostia River, fewer than 45 percent of seniors in neighborhood high schools graduated in June, compared with 59 percent of seniors citywide. In the wards neighborhood high schools, fewer than 5 percent of high schoolers passed the English portion of a national standardized test.Just over two-thirds of the children taken from their parents were boys, the ACLU report found. More than 1,000 were under 10. The children were placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that oversees shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, who in most cases crossed the border on their own.Harris looked noticeably more relaxed as he offered a sarcastic welcome to Colvin, who moved back into the district from Washington last year. You know, Im not a newcomer to this district. I have lived here for over 30 years, he said. Harris told viewers he has delivered on creating jobs for Maryland residents and voting for the recent federal tax code overhaul, which he described as the largest tax cut in American history.Harriss campaign and several GOP political committees paid Nicole Beus Harris more than $26,000 in 2017 for work she did through her firm, Indys Services, federal campaign finance records show. Harris stopped paying Indys Services before he and Beus Harris married that July. He did not list her firms income on his 2017 financial report.Mr. Brogan was born in Oxford, England. He worked for the Times in Paris before coming to Washington in 1973. He eventually became bureau chief but left after the paper was acquired by Rupert Murdoch in 1981. He freelanced for several newspapers and eventually joined the Glasgow Herald. He retired in 1998 to write books, including World Conflicts. His wife said he was looking for permanence as an author, feeling that much of the work of a daily journalist ends up lining the bottom of a parrots cage.We know change is coming to D.C. so, to the extent that our government can be focused on how this change takes place and how we can make it work for everyone, we should be, said D.C. Council member Brandon T. Todd (D-Ward 4), who introduced a bill to create the Office of Nightlife and Culture about a year ago. Our city is growing by leaps and bounds every day. . . . This person can help us figure out how everyone gets something thats close to what they want.In the past 16 months, the Trump administration has charged five people  two were contractors and one worked for the U.S. Senate  in leak-related cases, though some were charged with lying rather than with disclosure. The rate nearly matches that of the Obama administration, which brought five such cases between December 2009 and December 2010 alone.On Wednesday, the elder Hamilton took the stand as his sons final witness. Ronnie, he said, grew up in a deeply fractured household. Just a few years into his marriage to Thomaseen Hamilton, the retired major carried on an affair with another woman, Diane Williams. Their first child was Ronnie. Later, he and Williams had a second child, Julia Hamilton. He would visit them during his police hours, never telling his wife about his secret family.In the 5th Congressional District, where distillery owner Denver Riggleman (R) and journalist Leslie Cockburn (D) are locked in an increasingly bitter race to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Thomas Garrett (R), absentee ballots were up by 117 percent to 6,090. There, the number of ballots cast in heavily Democratic Charlottesville were up by 213 percent to 673.Brat, a former Randolph-

Macon College economics professor, advised her to get an entry-level job at a college where she might qualify for free tuition as an employee. He went on to say his two children could have attended Randolph-Macon for free when he was a professor, so he was in a financial pinch when he quit to go to Congress.Australian state legalizes abortion: Australia's Queensland state has legalized abortion after lawmakers were allowed a free vote, making it the fifth Australian state to do so. Restrictions on abortion vary by jurisdiction in Australia, and though it had been illegal in Queensland under a 19th-century statute, women had circumvented that using 1960s and 1970s common-law rulings, which permit abortion on social and economic grounds. It was also permitted on medical grounds. Under the new law, women can terminate pregnancies at up to 22 weeks gestation.I received this column from Jamal Khashoggis translator and assistant the day after Jamal was reported missing in Istanbul. The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post. This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for. I will be forever grateful he chose The Post as his final journalistic home one year ago and gave us the chance to work together.These reasonable-sounding goals have been shown to be naive and unrealistic. The Saudis are throwing their weight around in ways that make the region more unstable, not less. Mohammed has done nothing to make it politically feasible for other Arab governments to publicly come to terms with Israel. And the $110 billion in arms sales that Trump boasts about is largely a mirage.Moreover, the United States has other leverage. Trump should make clear that Saudi Arabias actions have squandered the once bipartisan support in Congress for the kingdom  and that, unlike Saudi Arabia, the United States is not a monarchy. Congress has a say in our Middle East policy. It can impose costs on Saudi Arabia, by blocking military aid and arms sales. A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Trump calling for an investigation under the Magnitsky Act  a U.S. law that mandates sanctions, including travel restrictions and freezing assets, of foreign individuals who have committed gross violations of human rights. Magnitsky sanctions would have real teeth, because members of the royal family love to travel outside the Arabian Peninsula, where they can do things they cannot do at home.This congressional inquiry should focus first on the intelligence agencies duty to warn Khashoggi about any lethal threat, because his U.S. residency qualified him as a U.S. person for whom such a warning was required. It should look, too, for any hint that U.S. intelligence about MBS, as the crown prince is known, has been skewed by the Trump White House for political reasons. And the investigation should examine the larger problem of U.S. visibility into the kingdom, which has too often been a black hole for our spy agencies.I just think that its a waste of my time, said Leo Meeks, 39, a lifelong Clarksvillian who majored in political science in college but hasnt voted in at least eight years. Even if he did vote, he said, the winner is often determined by gerrymandered districts or the electoral college, not voters. Because whoevers going to get into office is not going to be influenced based on what my goals are or what my needs are or what the publics needs, he said. Its going to be driven by capitalism, by big companies. . . . Money controls.In addition to the letter signed by the three retired generals, the Hunter campaign has distributed fliers featuring a photo of Hunter, a Marine veteran, in his military uniform. An image of the flier viewed by The Washington Post did not appear to include a disclaimer, required by Department of Defense policy, that neither the military information nor photographs imply endorsement by the Department of Defense or their particular Military Department.Every poll says  and most of the experts say  this has to do with how people feel about him, his administration and the direction of the country, said Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trumps personal lawyer for special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs Russia probe. Whether it is or isnt about him, they are going to either blame it on him give him credit for winning. So when he sees a situation like that, his instinct is, Lets go for it. He remembers what his rallies did to bring out the base.Tester has tried to buck the prevailing political sentiments by centering his campaign on his claim to be the only real Montanan in the race and the one who understands whats at stake. He draws a contrast between his family farm in the northern part of the state, which he still runs, and the ranch bought in 2002 by his opponent, Matt Rosendale, a Maryland-born real estate developer and state auditor who moved here after the purchase.The building is still managed by an arm of the presidents company, but the loss of the name is significant. Once, driving along the elevated West Side Highway past the towers built by Trump in the 1990s, the Trump Place lettering appeared on one after another. As of Thursday morning, only two buildings in the area once hopefully dubbed Trump City by the developer were still publicly identified as Trump-affiliated.While not cheap, the cost of fortifying a house against hurricane-force winds is not as unaffordable as many homeowners think, he said. He said retrofitting a roof is about $1,000 for a 2,000-square-foot roof, the average size in the United States. When building a house from scratch, it could cost as little as 3 percent to 5 percent more to harden the house, fortify the roof, windows and doors and tie the house together tightly from top to bottom in some areas of the country, he said.The about-face came after mounting criticism by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdog groups of what appeared to be an unorthodox arrangement between the agencies to bring in a political appointee to oversee Kendall. President Barack Obama nominated Kendall for the position of inspector general, but the Senate never voted on it. Tufts, meanwhile, is a former consultant who has no experience as an investigator and would have been leading one of the governments most active inspector general offices.All Democrats fault for weak laws! Trump wrote in one tweet, adding later: Can you believe this, and what Democrats are allowing to be done to our Country? The second tweet included a video clip of unknown origin that showed men, speaking Spanish, handing out slips of paper to people in lines carrying bags. The footage was identical to a clip posted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who claimed it showed cash payments to Hondurans to join the caravan and suggested, without evidence, that the money came from a Democratic megadonor.Kavanaughs confirmation was delayed for a week to allow for a limited FBI investigation into Fords allegations and those of another accuser. Republicans said interviews conducted by the FBI unearthed nothing to corroborate the claims, while Democrats said the probe was too narrow in scope to be enlightening.By the time the 2016 campaign kicked off, Bush had drifted up above the 50-percent mark in popularity, but that didnt stop Trump from making a central component of his campaign a full-throated denunciation of much of Bushs presidency. It helped that Trumps main rival, at the outset of the GOP primary, was the former presidents brother Jeb Bush, but the enmity between the current president and the former president continues to this day.Gang Hu, Greenland USAs chief executive, said in a statement to The Washington Post that the developers ambition was to create a property that would revitalize this area of downtown; to create homes for families, restaurants and retail for gathering; and to become part of the intricate fabric of the invigorated urban core. One of our main goals was also to have a positive impact on the local economy. Metropolis is meeting the local need for more housing to support the citys growing population interested in urban living.Last year, a United Nations report said the worst torture in Afghanistan took place in police jails in Kandahar, and the U.N. Committee Against Torture called for the investigation and prosecution of Abdul Raziq. A decade earlier, a 2006 U.S. State Department study alleged that he had been removed from his post with the border police for arresting and tormenting a group of men from a rival clan. He categorically denied any wrongdoing.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.The inevitable impression is that invalidating the visa given to her was due to the political opinions she holds, the judges wrote. If this is truly the case, then we are talking about an extreme and dangerous step, which could lead to the crumbling of the pillars upon which democracy in Israel stands.Saeb Erekat, the secretary general of the PLO, condemned the U.S. move. The US decision to end the existence of the US Consulate . . . has nothing to do with efficiency and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological US team that is willing to disband the foundations of American Foreign Policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes, he said in a statement.Its inconceivable that an operation using royal guards, other court officials and the consulate was not authorized by the crown prince. Thats not how the kingdom functions, especially with MBS as heir apparent, said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on Saudi Arabia and the royal family who served more than 30 years at the CIA.Rozzi said he hoped that through the federal investigation in Pennsylvania and the state-level investigations now underway across the country we can find out what really happened and get all the documents, and gain as much as we can from this, learn from it and make sure it never happens again. We must make sure these victims are compensated for the suffering they are going through.Youre not going to see Mike Pompeo, or any secretary of state who works for Donald Trump on this particular issue, respond any differently than Mike Pompeo did, Miller said. This is not on Mike Pompeo. Its on a president who, for any number of reasons, has determined that the value of maintaining ties with the Saudis is something of immense importance to the national security interests of the United States. And who will go to great lengths, by acquiescent support or silence, to give the Saudis the benefit of the doubt.The Post has listened to more than 10 hours of recordings provided by Abdulaziz, which he says were taped during meetings he had with the men over the span of four days in May. The file data shows that the recordings were made at the times he specifies. Contemporaneous WhatsApp messages about the visit also jibe with his story. Abdulaziz asked that the men not be identified. He said he does not know if they were working for Saudi intelligence or had been forced by the government to try to bring him back. The men, both public figures who have spoken in support of the crown prince, did not answer calls or respond to questions sent by The Post on Wednesday. One said he would send a response but did not. Calls to a Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman went unanswered.All-Star Tipperary hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

Mr Barrett (25) of Beakstown, Holycross, will be sentenced next month after Judge Elizabeth MacGrath found the facts proven in the section two assault case against him. The Tipperary defender had denied the charge.

His brother, Brian Barrett (31), pleaded guilty to assaulting a barman at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, causing him harm, and will also be sentenced next month.

Thurles district court heard that Brian Barrett headbutted Dylan Kerr, who was sitting on a stool at the bar looking at his phone while waiting for a lift home after work, and Cathal Barrett then grabbed him around the neck with his arm.

Cathal Barrett said that he was trying to "restrain" Dylan Kerr as he thought he was moving towards his brother after the headbutt.

The former young hurler of the year and All-Ireland winner in 2016 told gardai following the incident that he had four pints of Guinness on the night of May 27, 2017, in Holycross with his team-mates after a club game. They then went to Thurles and he had five vodkas with Seven-Up in a local bar, and three more vodkas with Red Bull in Hayes's Hotel.

Judge MacGrath said at the end of the case: "I have no doubt that the level of alcohol consumed on the night had quite a bearing on the situation."

Brian Barrett told gardai that he had no memory of what happened in the bar at Hayes's Hotel with Dylan Kerr, and tried to contact the injured party the following day when he realised what went on.

Mr Kerr told the court that the incident happened at about 3.30am on the morning of May 28 last year, when he was waiting for a lift home after work.

"Brian Barrett was sitting on my left and Cathal Barrett was standing on my right hand side. He was waiting for a lift."

Brian Barrett came over to him and started talking to him and was "extremely aggressive and quite rude," Mr Kerr said, so he tried to ignore him and gave him "yes and no" answers. Brian Barrett then headbutted him, causing him to drop his phone on the floor. He went to pick up his phone and Cathal Barrett "grabbed me by the throat".

Cathal Barrett was "quite aggressive as well" and said "come on you c..t, come on you p...k" and also "watch my f..king leg". Mr Barrett's leg was in a brace at the time.

Mr Kerr said he didn't think Mr Barrett was trying to hurt him, but was "doing his best to restrain' him and was also being abusive and aggressive.

In a garda interview, Brian Barrett said he was shown CCTV of the incident and could see himself "headbutting that lad" and was "ashamed and disappointed" and didn't know what frame of mind he was in at the time.

Cathal Barrett took the witness box and said that, just before the incident, he was sitting at the end of the bar, making phone calls to try and arrange a lift home. "In the meantime, an incident occurred. I didn't actually see the incident, I was kind of dreaming and thinking how I was going to get home more than anything. An incident occurred and my first reaction was, I grabbed Dylan to try and restrain him and defuse any situation that might occur."

He had no intention of hurting Dylan, he said, and didn't know him. "He got off his chair and he was going around towards Brian's direction, not necessarily to do anything. My instinct was just to hold on to him."

Under cross-examination, he said it wasn't his intention to grab Dylan by the throat and didn't think it was recklessness. "I tried to do the best in the situation."

He denied "roaring into his ear" or calling Dylan a "c..t" but probably did say "mind my f..king leg" as it was in a brace, the defendant said.

Judge MacGrath said there was no evidence that Dylan Kerr acted in any way aggressively and said she was satisfied that Cathal Barrett's actions were "reckless" and didn't accept a defence that he was acting to try and protect his brother.

She adjourned the case until November 6, pending the preparation of a written impact statement by Mr Kerr.A flight from Perth to Brisbane has been forced to make an emergency landing in Adelaide after passengers noticed a burning smell.

The Virgin Australia VA465 flight left Perth Airport at 7am on Thursday, when a passenger said an electrical burning smell went through the passenger cabin.

The plane touched down in Adelaide. Credit:Brendon Thorne

The odour worried passengers around three hours into the flight, and a witness said the flight attendants seemed anxious.

The captain advised there was an electrical issue onboard, and the plane would need to land for inspection.Construction is starting on Australia's first big waste to energy plant in Kwinana, creating jobs and propelling Perth towards the end of the landfill age.

The facility will transform waste treatment in Perth and enable eight councils to stop their collective sending of 400,000 tonnes of waste to landfill every year.

Landfill is no longer considered a sustainable option for Perth. Credit:Graham Tidy

Household waste from South Perth, Canning, Mandurah, Kwinana, Armadale, Gosnells, Serpentine Jarrahdale and Murray councils  a quarter of all Perth's post-recycling waste  as well as commercial and industrial waste will be diverted from landfill.

It will be incinerated through thermal grate technology and converted into steam to produce enough electricity to power up to 65,000 West Australian homes, with remaining ash converted into construction materials.Environment Minister Melissa Price has billed taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in travel allowance, airfares and charter flights to travel to her remote West Australian electorate from her home in Perth.

Parliamentary disclosures made by Ms Price revealed she spent $97,211 in travel expenses flying to and from her electorate of Durack, including $22,812 in travel allowance and $10,297 in family travel during the 2017-18 financial year.

Environment Minister and Durack MP Melissa Price in parliament on Thursday morning. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Ms Price also spent $27,251 on five private charter flights from Perth to her electorate.

This included a $7214 charter to fly from Perth to Wiluna, then on to Geraldton.WA's opposition has questioned the independence of an inquiry into the North Metropolitan Health Service after it was revealed it will be conducted by the chief of staff to former Labor health minister Jim McGinty.

The inquiry was organised in the lead-up to the release of a damning report into corrupt practices in the NMHS by the Corruption and Crime Commission in August.

Former WA Labor staffer Danny Cloghan has picked up a $150,000 contract with the health service chaired by his former boss Jim McGinty.

It will be conducted by Danny Cloghan, who will be paid about $150,000 for the job, according to answers to parliamentary questions.

He was employed to "review to evaluate and identify any issues related to the governance and effectiveness of the workforce and integrity functions of North Metropolitan Health Service"."Why should we spoil our relationship with Saudi Arabia without understanding what had happened there?" Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Valdai foreign-policy forum in Sochi on Thursday.

Saudi Minister of Commerce and Investment Majid al-Qasabi talks to the audience at the opening of Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2017. Credit:AP

A large delegation of Russian chief executives and at least one billionaire plan to attend Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative next week amid an exodus by western officials and companies in response to dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance. Turkey says it has evidence that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents after he entered the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi officials deny involvement.

Washington: It takes more than allegations of a state-approved murder in a foreign country to scare away the titans of Russian industry.

Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund and a leading player in Putin's push to engage Saudi Arabia, has encouraged business leaders in fields ranging from petrochemicals to diamonds to banking to attend the event. The size of the delegation suggests there may be some truth to President Donald Trump's warning that Russia and China are waiting to pounce if the US cancels lucrative contracts with Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's disappearance.

"Russia is building situational coalitions with all those that the West opposes," said Valery Solovei, a political scientist at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations. "The Saudis will play the Russian card in order to achieve a more restrained US attitude."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund during a meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Russia. Credit:AP

The controversy over the journalist's fate prompted a raft of global business executives to cancel plans to attend the forum and exposed divisions between the White House and Congress over the best response to a vital US ally in the Middle East. Republican lawmakers are threatening to sanction the Saudi government over the objections of the president if the Turkish allegations are proven.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Twitter Thursday that he's withdrawing from the Saudi investment summit. He said he'd met with Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and "we have decided I will not be participating."Blackstone has advised ILFML that it will not provide a matching or superior offer to the Oxford Proposal. As the ILFML Board has determined that the Oxford Proposal is a 'superior proposal' to the Blackstone proposal, the ILFML Board has now withdrawn its recommendation of the Blackstone proposal.

The Investa Office Fund includes prime office towers in Sydney, where rents are rising fast.

"It is very satisfying to see the considerable value that we have created from our portfolio," commented fund manager Penny Ransom.

Will the deal go ahead?

The statement continues that the board is now recommending the Oxford proposal. The deal will be completed assuming that the independent expert (KPMG Finance) concludes that it is in the best interests of unitholders; and the backing of unitholders.

Commenting on the Oxford Proposal, ILFML Chairman Richard Longes said:WSU Helps Raise Awareness of Opioid Overdose Treatment

October 18, 2018

OGDEN, Utah  Weber State Universitys Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions will host a lecture to help combat Utahs opioid crisis, Oct. 26 from 1-2 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Ballrooms.

Guest speakers Dr. Jennifer Plumb and Peter Sadler from the group Utah Naloxone will share information about the background and data surrounding Utahs opioid crisis and talk about naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose.

Utah has the seventh highest drug overdose rate in the United States. On average, six Utahns die from an opioid overdose every week.

Utah Naloxone works to decrease opioid deaths by equipping individuals and families with naloxone rescue kits and the instructions on how to use them.

Attendees will receive kits and will learn how to recognize the signs of an opioid overdose.

As educators and healthcare providers, it is our duty to educate our students and the community on the epidemic, danger and treatment of opioid addiction, said Yasmen Simonian, Dumke College of Health Professions dean. The Dumke College is offering this free presentation in hopes it brings attention to the nationwide opioid crisis and overdose treatment.

Plumb is an emergency medicine physician with the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics and Primary Childrens Hospital. Additionally, she is the medical director of Utah Naloxone. Plumb has personal experience with the devastation created by adolescent substance abuse; she lost her brother to a heroin overdose shortly before she began medical school. Plumb works with medical professionals, first responders, law enforcement agencies, family groups and active users to train them to administer naloxone.

A Weber State graduate, Sadler is the Utah Naloxone program manager. He recently retired after 20 years with the Salt Lake City Police department. Sadler is actively involved with increasing access options for naloxone statewide through education and training in a variety of venues.

Visit utahnaloxone.org for more information.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.Jim was a hard-working man who always had a smile for everyoneNot only did Facebook inflate ad-watching metrics by up to 900 per cent, it knew for more than a year that its average-viewership estimates were wrong and kept quiet about it, a new legal filing claims.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not only did Facebook inflate ad-watching metrics by up to 900 per cent, it knew for more than a year that its average-viewership estimates were wrong and kept quiet about it, a new legal filing claims.

A group of small advertisers suing the Menlo Park, Calif., social media titan alleged in the filing that Facebook "induced" advertisers to buy video ads on its platform because advertisers believed Facebook users were watching video ads for longer than they actually were.

That "unethical, unscrupulous" behaviour by Facebook constituted fraud because it was "likely to deceive" advertisers, the filing alleged.

The latest allegations arose out of a lawsuit that the advertisers filed against Facebook in federal court in 2016.

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Facebook knew by January 2015 that its video-ad metrics had problems and understood the nature of the issue within a few months, but sat on that information for more than a year, the plaintiffs claimed in an amended complaint Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif.

Facebook disputed that allegation. "Suggestions that we in any way tried to hide this issue from our partners are false," the company told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the latest allegations. "We told our customers about the error when we discovered it  and updated our help centre to explain the issue."

Facebook in 2016 revealed the metrics problem, saying it had "recently discovered" it. The firm told some advertisers that it had probably overestimated the average time spent watching video ads by 60 per cent to 80 per cent. Tuesdays filing alleged that Facebook had instead inflated average ad-watching time by 150 per cent to 900 per cent.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that allegation.

The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status to bring other advertisers into the legal action, plus unspecified damages. They also want the court to order a third-party audit of Facebooks video-ad metrics.

 Mercury NewsA startup company hopes the cream really does rise to the top when it brings out a non-dairy hemp creamer developed in Manitoba.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A startup company hopes the cream really does rise to the top when it brings out a non-dairy hemp creamer developed in Manitoba.

The hemp creamer, formulated by the University of Manitobas Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, is scheduled to hit the market next summer.

Natures Hemp, based on the West Coast, plans to set up manufacturing somewhere in Western Canada early next year.

"Wed like to stick with Manitoba. We have good relationships there" and it has the hemp production, said David Parry, Natures Hemp manager and co-founder.

Natures Hemp plans to raise about $5 million before years end for the startup of its hemp creamer. Its manufacturing plant will initially employ seven people, Parry said. The company is owned by PUF Ventures, which has ownership in several cannabis companies, including medical cannabis.

"We believe that hemp will be the trendy alternative to milk due to its sustainable, its connection to the cannabis plant and its health benefits," Parry said.

There have been various hemp milk varieties on the market for some time but a hemp industry insider maintained that a non-dairy creamer has strong potential.

"Its a natural outcome from what weve seen in other non-dairy creamer replacements like almond, soya or even rice and potatoes," Ted Haney, executive director of the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, said. "This is a matter of extra-high-quality protein and fat to make a hemp-based creamer."

The market for alternative milk and creamers is estimated at $5 billion and growing, Parry said. Asia is regarded as a massive market for non-dairy creamers that Natures Hemp will focus on, too. It also has pending joint ventures in South Africa and Europe.

Natures Hemp was looking for a creamer "with a list of ingredients you wouldnt be afraid to eat," Parry said.

"We wanted a creamer that we could really push to the restaurant and hospitality industries, and also the lactose-intolerant market that seems to be growing," Parry said. Natures Hemp creamer is also gluten-free.

Hemp oil used in the creamer has numerous health properties including omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, iron, vitamin E and essential amino acids.

"The properties in hemp product will be much healthier than almond, soy or natural milk but it depends on what youre looking for," Parry said.

Neither does the hemp creamer require refrigeration, though Parry expects it would still be chilled in restaurants because thats what consumers expect.

U of M is regarded as the leading Canadian university in hemp research, which is why Natures Hemp approached it about product development.

Natures Hemps criteria was "a clean product" in terms of healthy ingredients that when "put into coffee, it looked like cream and tasted like cream," Parry said.

Development of the creamer at the Richardson Centre, located in the U of Ms Smartpark, took six months, said Michael Janzen, research development manager at the centre.

Processes involved included hemp seed extraction, milling, ultrafiltration, ultra-high-temperature pasteurization, viscosity testing and sensory testing, Janzen said.

"The Richardson Centre has done a good job with a combination of a number of natural products," Parry said.

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Hemp is the cannabis plant without the psychoactive THC ingredient. Neither does the hemp creamer contain CBDs, or cannabidiol.

Natures Hemp says it is talking with provincial governments to find the best fit for its manufacturing plant.

The creamer product will come in the little pods found on restaurant tables but there will also be a half-litre size for an office, and also three-litre sizes for coffee outlets such as Starbucks, Parry said.

There will be sweetened and unsweetened creamers.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.caMayoral candidate Don Woodstock is promising to impose quotas for hiring, training and promotion of Indigenous people on the civic workforce if he wins the election next week.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mayoral candidate Don Woodstock is promising to impose quotas for hiring, training and promotion of Indigenous people on the civic workforce if he wins the election next week.

Woodstock said city halls efforts to assist the Indigenous community have largely been symbolic and ineffective at addressing real change.

Don Woodstock said civic officials told him that only about eight per cent of the civic workforce identifies as Indigenous, which he said is below the 13 per cent representation in the greater community. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)

"Why is (the quota) important? Thats how we get people out of poverty, thats how we get people out of crime," Woodstock said Thursday at a news conference adjacent to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. "Im suggesting we can do better."

Woodstock was accompanied at the event by Ron Evans, the former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who endorsed Woodstock for mayor.

Evans, whose firm is working to be recognized as a qualified provider of Indigenous awareness training, said Woodstock was the only mayoral candidate to approach him about what he was doing and what could be done to change the environment for Indigenous people at city hall.

"That says a lot about Don and thats why I would encourage others to support him," Evans said. "He may not be the most popular candidate at this time but he certainly has the right ideas," adding he is impressed with Woodstocks other campaign commitments, including his promise to direct city spending towards inner-city youth sports.

Woodstock said civic officials told him that only about eight per cent of the civic workforce identifies as Indigenous, which he said is below the 13 per cent representation in the greater community. That number is expected to increase to more than 20 per cent by 2020, he said, adding city hall needs to do more.

Woodstock said that hiring, training and promoting more Indigenous people would demonstrate that the city is truly inclusive.

Woodstock and Evans dismissed previous initiatives that have been undertaken by city hall to help Indigenous people.

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City hall established its Indigenous relations division in 2013. In response to the 2015 Macleans magazine article that identified Winnipeg as the countrys most racist city, Mayor Brian Bowman created the Winnipeg Accord, where individuals, business and organizations commit to improve how they deal with the Indigenous community and publicly acknowledge their efforts.

City council has mandated Indigenous awareness training for all civic employees, politicians and their staff. Bowman created an Indigenous advisory council for his office and the Winnipeg Police Board also set up a similar body for itself.

Evans said there is little to show for those efforts.

"Weve looked (at what city hall has done) but its not very meaningful, its all symbolic stuff," he said. "If (all this) was working, we wouldnt have the issues were dealing with currently."

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.caWinnipeggers were keen to buy legalized cannabis Wednesday online and in line.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers were keen to buy legalized cannabis Wednesday online and in line.

Cannabis prohibition in Canada ended as of Wednesday morning, but the stigma around using marijuana persisted for many people lined up outside Winnipeg's new, legal cannabis stores on a brisk, clear day.

Shoppers of all ages tended to be shy about giving their names to inquiring reporters. But when the doors finally opened, those Manitobans ran the gauntlet of cameras for their first chance to buy weed without breaking the law.

Here's what happened on Wednesday at four legal cannabis outlets across the city.

***

An hour before the Tokyo Smoke cannabis store at 55 Goulet St. in St. Boniface opened, about 20 shoppers were lined up outside. Some hid their faces behind big sunglasses and tuques that were pulled down low.

"A lot of people just are so taboo against it, a lot of people are still against it  I've been against it for my whole entire life," said a customer who works in law enforcement, and would only agree to an interview if he wasn't identified.

The 37-year-old, who had only used marijuana three times, was looking for some cannabis to help him sleep at night.

"Anyone who works in law enforcement, we all work shift work, and honestly, it takes a toll on your body."

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Employees at Tokyo Smoke in a last minute meeting before the doors opened Wednesday.

By opening time at 10 a.m., the line had swelled to at least 50 people. After a quick ID check at the doors, they were off  browsing the descriptions of a variety of cannabis strains in a bright, open space and writing down their purchases on shopping lists. (Only five kinds of cannabis were available for sale, with more promised soon.)

Educational material on the walls walked novices through the basics of cannabis lore, and staffers were available for advice at every turn.

Store manager Andrew Sniatkowski guided 26-year-old Eric Bachmann through his first legal purchase.

"Regulatory actions are actually really great for cannabis, because we know what we're getting  you know what's in it, it's been tested," Sniatkowski told Bachmann, who agreed.

In the end, Bachmann spent $28 on a gram of Serious Kush and a gram of Cold Creek Kush. The shopping experience, he said, was a big step up from the last time he bought weed.

"You're always worried about being caught, and I don't want to worry about it. I don't want to have the stigma attached to it  I don't feel like I'm a criminal, so this is very nice."

***

Before it opened at 10 a.m., 150 cannabis customers lined up outside Delta 9s retail store on Dakota Street in St. Vital.

"Merry legalization day!" said one young man who'd been waiting since 5 a.m. with two friends, each of whom requested anonymity.

"Theres still a stigma," said the 23-year-old female in the trio, a university student. "It's history in the making," said the third 20-something, who was shivering in the dark and identified himself as a health-care worker. "We want to support cannabis culture," he said, noting they have the day off.

When it opened, 30 customers at a time were allowed inside the gleaming bud boutique.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Delta 9 customer Anthony Klatt makes his way into the store after sleeping outside all night with his friend, Steven Stairs who was the first customer.

"Its a high-class kind of shop," said Sam, 25, who didn't want his last name used. "It's like an Apple store."

A sensory bar along the back wall allows customers to see and smell the cannabis strains before placing an order. Sam spent close to $100 on weed and accessories, including grape-flavoured rolling papers. His buddy, Carl, spent almost as much. The two young men said theyll use cannabis recreationally instead of booze.

"I feel much more in control," said Sam. "And theres no hangover," said Carl.

Online, Delta 9 sold out an hour after it began taking orders at midnight. "We had 400 orders in the first hour," said CEO John Arbuthnot. "I went online at 12:01 (a.m.) and I was the 90th order," said the 28-year-old, who runs the company. A new shipment arrived by 6 a.m. The stores vault was packed with cardboard boxes filled with strains such as Sensi Star, Diesel, Keats and Galiano.

"Were hoping thats going to last a few days," said Arbuthnot. "Hopefully, well get through the weekend." Another "few hundred kilograms" of cannabis is expected to arrive in the next few weeks, he said, trying to keep in mind the historic importance of the day, and likening it the end of Prohibition in 1933. "This was kind of surreal."

For the crowd at Tim Hortons next door, the legalization of marijuana wasn't a big deal.

"Im not concerned," said Nissa Chmilowsky, 49. "The only ones it affects are people who already smoke cannabis," she said.

***

At Canopy Growth Corp.'s Tweed store on Regent Avenue, at least 50 shoppers were lined up as of 11 a.m.  only to face another long line when they got in. One customer said the entire shopping process took him two hours.

"I definitely think it will speed up, just as stores hit their stride," said Dan Larocque, whose job title with Canopy is "cannabis subject matter expert."

"A lot has gone into planning how this is going to be done, but when it comes down to it, today is the first day that the wheels hit the road."

Eleven kinds of dried cannabis were available for shoppers at the Tweed store Wednesday morning, with more on the way.

"We've already received three shipments  there's stuff rolling in the door," said Canopy Growth corporate trainer Kate Moody.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Susan Gibson finishes making her purchase of cannabis at Tweed store Wednesday.

As with shoppers at other cannabis stores, the vast majority of Manitobans in line at the Tweed store weren't willing to talk on the record with reporters as they waited.

Winnipeggers Al and Susan Altomare were a rare exception  Susan had never used cannabis, and Al figures the last time he used it was 40 years ago, "at least." Wednesday was his 61st birthday.

"My wife is making me a special birthday dinner, so if we smoke first then we'll be really hungry," he said, laughing.

Jokes aside, Altomare felt legalization might be a step forward for Canada.

"If it works the way they're planning for it to work, getting rid of criminal activity, protecting a certain number of younger kids from getting easy access to it, I think it'll be good."

***

National Access Cannabis waited until 5 p.m. to open its Meta Cannabis Supply Co. retail storefront, not that the delay seemed to matter.

About 100 people lined up outside the strip mall location at 584 Pembina Highway were in a festive mood, chatting amicably under a setting sun.

Security guards allowed access to small groups, as customers made their purchases and made room for others.

Inside, a lobby separated the store from the street, and the retail space had the polished feel of a mall computer store.

"Were not comparing ourselves to that fruit product," NAC vice-president Matt Ryan said with a chuckle.

He gestured to the central round bar, and then to display cases set into the walls around it. "We designed the store to look like a jewellery store meets a bakery."

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kelly Kennedy, retail marketing manager for the cannabis store, Meta Cannabis Supply, sets up product on shelving Tuesday.

Store consultants, about a dozen of them, were on hand to act as concierges.

"Cannabis is a complex product," Ryan said. "We call (staff) 'friendly guides,' and they help people as they go on their journey and learn about cannabis."

Chief Christian Sinclair of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation was the first customer. OCN owns 10 per cent of NAC.

"I had no clue what I bought," Sinclair said.

His guide was a store employee whos also a member of OCN. Melissa Constant suggest two hybrids with mid to high levels of THC: the Ultra Sour and Girl Scout Cookies brands.

Both were tucked discreetly away in a small white paper bag. The sales receipt was for $167 and change.

It wont be consumed. The purchase is headed back to OCN.

"Were going to put this into frames and keep them as mementoes," Sinclair said.

OCN is a member of the "Big Five" group of First Nations with plans to retail pot in Manitoba.

Three retail outlets are expected to open on reserve lands between the end of October and mid-November: on Long Plains Madison Street site in Winnipeg, at OCNs mall adjacent to The Pas, and on Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation property in Thompson.

This bud's for them

Meet some of Manitoba's first pot customers

JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS Matthew Dahl celebrates after buying legal marijuana.

Matthew Dahl was the first retail customer to purchase cannabis at the Delta 9 store on Dakota Street.

"I said, 'Give me one of those and one of those'  I wasn't picky," said Dahl, who was in a hurry. He had been waiting in line in the cold since 7 a.m. and had to go to the bathroom.

He spent about $25 on a gram of "Keats" and a gram of "Galiano." He was looking forward to sampling his purchases at home.

"I have the day off," he said.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dave Watson of Morris waits outside Delta 9.

Dave Watson drove from his home in Morris to buy weed Wednesday.

"I've been waiting for this day for 27 years," said Watson, 45. He said he placed an online order on Delta 9's website when it became legal just after midnight, then decided to drive in to buy some at the St. Vital store.

"I think every little town should have (a retail outlet)," said Watson, who has used cannabis medicinally after hurting his back a few years ago. Now he uses it for migraine headaches and anxiety.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Delta 9 customers, Joyce Cayer and her daughter Kim Cayer take a selfie while in line on Wednesday.

Kim Cayer didn't want to miss the moment when legal pot went on sale in Canadian stores.

"I wanted to be here," the 58-year-old Toronto resident said in line, waiting for Delta 9 to open its doors.

Ontarians have to purchase recreational weed online through the Ontario Cannabis Store, which does not operate any retail outlets. The provincial government expects to introduce a private retail model, but not until next spring.

Cayer, who performs as a magician and clown in Toronto, wanted to buy some in the flesh. Her mother Joyce Cayer, who lives in Steinbach, was in line with her; Joyce said she has tried marijuana, but didn't care for it.

Kim said she's looking forward to having a puff at the end of a workday, just as some people enjoy a glass of wine, without raising eyebrows.

"Now I can sit on my deck," she said. "And I don't have to go into a back alley to buy it."

CAROL SANDERS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Kim Talaga, 49, of Beausejour had a rare form of cancer that affected her trachea and has a medicinal prescription for cannabis at Delta 9. She was upset she'd have to wait in line with the recreational users when the store opened Wednesday.

Kim Talaga, who has a prescription for medical marijuana, drove into Winnipeg from Beausejour to visit Delta 9, where she has a prescription on file.

When she saw the line out the door and around the building, she asked one of the security guards outside the store if there was an express lane for medicinal marijuana users.

"There's no priority for patients? I have to wait in line? It doesn't make any sense," said Talaga, who had adenoid cystic carcinoma that affected her trachea and left her with scar tissue and pain.

"This is my medicine," said the 49-year-old, who decided not to wait. "You shouldn't have to line up."

"I just wanted to see what it's all about and be part of the experience," said Dan Niles, a 59-year old Winnipegger who has used cannabis for about four decades, as he waited in line at the Tokyo Smoke store on Goulet Street.

"It's kind of like the end of Prohibition, in a way, but with an unenforceable law to start with. If people want to smoke, they're going to find a way to smoke."

Niles said the success of legal cannabis will depend on quality and price.

"If it's going to be more than, say, $10 a gram, then I can simply go to my guy down the street and buy some."

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Hubert Bergeron, 72, and his wife Claudine at the opening of Tokyo Smoke.

St. Boniface resident Hubert Bergeron was happy to give his full name to media as he waited to buy weed at Tokyo Smoke.

"There's two factors there: I'm old, and I don't give a s--t," joked the 72-year-old. "And it's legal, so why not?"

Prices at the store did seem "a bit high," he said.

"But I wanted to come here today because it's quality-controlled and I can choose what I want, so I'll be doing it for today. But in the future, we'll see what happens with the black-market competition."

Bergeron has waited 50 years for legalization, and was excited about government regulation. Was he willing to pay extra for the legal stuff?

"Oh sure, yeah  a couple of bucks. But other than that, people will be looking for the best price in Canada, and that's going to put some pressure on the retail."

Claudine Bergeron accompanied her husband to his first legal pot deal, even though marijuana's not her thing.

"I tried it when I met him 50 years ago, but it wasn't for me," she said.

Still, she's in favour of legalization, because cannabis users "should know what they're getting."

"I think this is a good step," she said. (You) shouldn't go to jail for this, and people should really feel at ease what they're taking is protected, it's quality-controlled. Some people want it for medicinal reasons, and I think that's really going to be interesting for us seniors."

Winnipegger Steven Garner uses marijuana "maybe twice a year" with his significant other. But he was still willing to spend his Wednesday morning waiting in line for some legal bud at the Tweed store on Regent Avenue.

"We just feel that it's kind of a momentous occasion, we should probably contribute to the free rights and open rights for Canadians to do what they want to do," he said.

As he waited, Garner had plenty of time to reflect on the store itself, which was mostly occupied by high-end accessories and Tweed-branded apparel.

"It seems like a lot of wasted space for something like this," he said.

"They could do this whole thing with half the retail space. Nothing's been purchased off the shelves; you don't see anyone buying T-shirts.... It should just be like a Tim Hortons."

Gary and Heather met while they waited in line at the Regent Avenue Tweed store, and neither wanted to share their last names with the Free Press. But they were both happy to share their thoughts on legal weed.

Gary, a retiree from The Pas, is accustomed to buying from "a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy."

The opportunity to buy marijuana in a store has been "a long time coming," he said, adding he was planning to get 3.5 grams  an eighth of an ounce  and was willing to spend as much as $60 for the privilege.

"It's only a weed, it's just a plant," he said.

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Heather usually gets her weed from friends, and was prepared to spend about $50 for "a little bit" of the legal stuff.

"It's like buying an expensive bottle of wine, or a cheap bottle of wine," she said.

Like Gary, Heather said she was willing to spend a bit more for government-controlled product.

"Because you don't know what you're getting with a local dealer  who knows what? Do they spray it with Off to get the bugs off it it, or, who knows?"

Still, she would have preferred to see cannabis sold in government-owned liquor stores, as opposed to private stores.

"I just think that the government control would be better that way."Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A one-of-a-kind peer support program for federal prisoners in Manitoba is attracting attention as part of a national study on prison conditions.

The Peer Offender Prevention Service (POPS) has been running at Stony Mountain Institution since 2010, and currently involves seven inmates serving life sentences who are on call 24/7 to help other inmates in crisis. They've responded to 23,000 incidents within the prison over the past eight years, and they were recently spotlighted during a Senate visit to the penitentiary.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/JUSTIN TANG Canadian Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard .

Sen. Wanda Thomas Bernard, chairwoman of the standing Senate committee on human rights, is studying prison conditions in Canada and expects to release the committee's final report next year. She said the POPS program should be evaluated to see if it can be expanded to other prisons across Canada.

The committee noticed "structural issues" with the program that could be improved, she said, but visitors were impressed with the peer support program, which doesn't exist elsewhere.

"Id love to see a review of POPS about looking to, you know, how do you standardize something similar across the country, because there are some very serious mental health issues that people are experiencing while in prison. And weve heard from people across the country that there are not enough mental health supports, not enough mental health services available 24/7," she said in an interview with the Free Press.

POPS was the brainchild of a correctional officer who formalized a peer support network within the institution, allowing trusted, long-term inmates to sign up as mentors and be paid a minimal wage as they would earn for any other job within the prison, said J.L. Meyer, assistant warden of management services at Stony Mountain.

"The way it works is if an inmate is having some difficulties, he can ask for a peer (from POPS) to come and see him, and that peer will go down and just talk to him. Anything from whether an inmate is feeling suicidal or they're in some kind of crisis, some kind of an issue that they don't want to talk to a staff member about, they can request to see a peer and we'll facilitate that," he said.

POPS runs in addition to mental health services offered inside the institution, but the inmates working in POPS can be called upon any time, including to talk to an inmate who is in segregation, and they can draw on their own life experiences.

"I can go and talk to an inmate and listen to them and try and understand what the situation is like, but Ive never been there, so how do I really understand it, right? So I think the lifers that have actually lived it and been through those issues, they understand it more than anybody," Meyer said.

Meyer said the institution doesn't track whether POPS has led to a decrease in prison suicides or security incidents, but, "The inmates utilize the program, so it must be helpful to them."

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The Senate committee wrapped up its cross-country tour in Winnipeg earlier this month with the visit to Stony Mountain and a public hearing that delved into concerns about solitary confinement, "overwhelming" over-representation of Indigenous and other visible minority inmates, restorative justice and a lack of post-sentencing support for offenders who are being released back into the community.

POPS was one bright spot amid the prisoners' concerns senators heard during their time in Manitoba, Bernard said.

"For all of those positives, we still saw and heard despair  a sense of hopelessness  from not having enough opportunities for education and for training in trades, just not enough opportunities for those," she said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemayA key goal of legalizing recreational cannabis is squeezing out illegal suppliers. But how competitive will legal cannabis retailing be against established black markets?

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

A key goal of legalizing recreational cannabis is squeezing out illegal suppliers. But how competitive will legal cannabis retailing be against established black markets?

Thats a key question for federal and provincial politicians. Governments dont like pot consumers funding organized crime.

That question may also interest investors. Theyve pushed up cannabis stock prices and created demand for four cannabis exchange-traded funds. Alcohol and tobacco companies have bought stakes in cannabis growers. Suppliers of hydroponic equipment and online retailing software could benefit, too.

To answer the question, consider the "four Ps" that marketers work with in every industry. Those are the product characteristics, price charged, place where sold and promotion activity. From this viewpoint, legal vendors have some potential advantages. But they face major challenges under current government plans.

Pricing challenges

Price is the competitive element politicians mention most. In Colorado, cheap legal cannabis means black markets control only 20 per cent of state sales. But in Washington state, where prices are higher, black markets capture 50 per cent.

In Canada, governments agree cannabis prices must be competitive. Theyve suggested $10 per gram, including excise and sales taxes.

But Statistics Canada estimates market prices fell below $7.50 last year, and farther since then. Vancouver street prices reportedly are near $5. And street vendors dont charge tax.

Meanwhile, most provinces lack confirmed supplies, so they risk product shortages initially. Growers might prefer exporting their limited stocks to Germanys higher-priced medical cannabis market.

Provincial governments could face awkward choices. If they price high to cover costs, theyll be uncompetitive. If they price low to compete, taxpayers may end up subsidizing drug users.

Longer term, more growing capacity will come online and enable lower prices.

Other pricing questions remain unanswered. Will all products share the same price? Or will prices differ by brand? Will each retailer set their own prices?

Retailers lack convenience

The places cannabis is sold also affect competitiveness. The western provinces will allow private-sector retailers. Ontario and its eastern counterparts are keeping retail in the public sector.

The public-sector plans lack convenience due to limited store numbers. That aids the black market.

For example, Ontario plans 150 outlets by 2020. Thats only one per 95,000 people, about as common as Walmart. Its enough for planned shopping trips, but not for consumers who have unexpectedly run out.

By contrast, Ontario has 2,067 locations selling alcoholic beverages: One per 7,000 people. Those include liquor agency outlets, beer stores and wineries.

Quebec also expects 150 cannabis outlets eventually, or one per 56,000 people. New Brunswick plans 20, so one per 38,000.

Contrast those numbers with Colorados. It has more than 800 stores, or one per 6,250 people.

Private stores out west will likely be more numerous. But theyre banned from selling alcohol or tobacco. That specialization will restrict retailers revenue sources and the number of viable stores.

Provincial plans have barely mentioned on-site consumption. Countless bars and restaurants serve alcohol drinkers. Licensed cannabis "lounges" similarly could serve cannabis users, especially renters in non-smoking buildings and American tourists. Otherwise, those groups may stick with black markets.

Product advantages

Consumers cant evaluate cannabis products without smoking them. The cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations vary greatly. Consumers also cant detect contaminants like pesticides and mould.

Quality-assurance measures therefore could give legal cannabis products a competitive edge. Each province except Saskatchewan plans a single public-sector wholesaler. That centralization will facilitate large-scale testing.

Consider Ontarios liquor agency. Its Quality Assurance Lab examined 28,000 beverages last year, rejecting 11 per cent.

Quality assurance, combined with recognizable brand names, would help products develop performance reputations. Some may offer a mild buzz, others a powerful high. Consumers could learn to rely on consistently performing brands, instead of unpredictable street weed.

However, branding faces challenges. Federal law limits package designs. No people, animals or lifestyle images are allowed.

Some critics even want plain packages, to discourage cannabis adoption. But that would make it harder for growers to establish reputations, neutralizing a key advantage over illicit products.

It would also reduce growers incentive to boost quality, especially if prices are fixed. As near generics, theyd instead try to lower production costs. Or perhaps hike THC numbers to stand out. Should we encourage cheaper, stronger pot?

The lack of edibles, like brownies and beverages, is a glaring gap. Ottawa wont legalize those for another year. Unlawful suppliers keep market control until then.

Federal rules also limit promotional activity. "Informational" ads are OK. But no evoking emotions, and no lifestyle depictions involving recreation or excitement.

Those clauses undermine legal cannabis competitiveness. Good ads evoke emotions. Lifestyle images explain complex products simply. And isnt this law about "recreational" use? Growers consequently have proposed more flexible rules.

Because federal law prohibits self-service, sales staff will be important. Store ownership may matter here. Public-sector staff might be better at consumer education and harm reduction. Private-sector sellers may respond better to customer preferences and market trends.

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.

Regarding in-store promotion, New Brunswick will display products under glass. Consumers will see packaging, read labels and visually compare products.

But Ontario wants things "similar to how tobacco is now sold." That implies customers wont see or touch products before purchase. Itll be tough for consumers to develop preferences, and for growers to build reputations. That further weakens legal products competitiveness.

Prognosis is mixed

Overall, governments retailing prospects look mixed. Legal cannabis could stand out on product quality if growers earn reliable reputations. But edibles remain absent for now. Promotion could give legal cannabis another edge, if governments loosen up the rules.

Black markets will initially out-compete the provinces with convenient places. That will decrease over time, especially out West. But it wont disappear without legalized lounges. Illegal vendors may always have some price advantage. Provinces can minimize that by forgoing profits.

Michael J. Armstrong is an associate professor of operations research at the Goodman School of Business, Brock University.

This article was first published at The Conversation Canada: theconversation.com/ca.Ottawa experienced a traumatic event when Manitoba rejected the carbon tax, but the feds are in denial. Its as if Ottawa had a heart attack and then promptly fried up a pan of bacon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to pause and take the pulse of Canadians regarding the carbon tax.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Ottawa experienced a traumatic event when Manitoba rejected the carbon tax, but the feds are in denial. Its as if Ottawa had a heart attack and then promptly fried up a pan of bacon. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau needs to pause and take the pulse of Canadians regarding the carbon tax.

Premier Brian Pallister gave a simple explanation for his decision to reject the carbon tax.

"The sit-down with the prime minister a couple of weeks ago was pretty much clear," Pallister told the Free Press. "Either were standing up now to the federal threat or were standing up in a year. So, which ones better? I would say now."

Pallister met the federal government more than halfway. He had proposed a carbon tax thats initially higher than Ottawa required. He proposed to implement it earlier than required. He raised the point that Manitoba needs credit for its massive-to-the-point-of-reckless investments in hydro power.

Ottawa hasnt responded to these specific points. Instead, the feds fixated on a single issue: Manitobas proposal to keep its carbon tax at $25 per tonne of carbon (or 5.3 cents per litre of gasoline) while Ottawa is telling provinces to increase the carbon tax to $50 per tonne over time. The federal government says itll impose that higher carbon tax on any province that doesnt comply.

Rewind two years, and the situation looked very different.

"We will end the cycle of federal parties  of all stripes  setting arbitrary targets without a real federal/provincial/territorial plan," the Liberal campaign platform stated. "We will instead partner with provincial and territorial leaders."

Thats what makes the meeting between the prime minister and premier pivotal. When the prime minister rejected Manitobas points, he repudiated the promised partnership. That forced the premier to take a stand.

What happened next is truly stunning. Manitobas decision to reject the carbon tax is a disaster for Ottawa. It could have been an opportunity for conciliation, but Ottawa took the opposite approach.

"Now, (Manitoba is) with the federal Conservatives and conservative parties across the country," federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said.

So, Manitobas rejection of a carbon tax is just partisan, according to McKenna.

Pots and kettles debating partisan blackness may be standard procedure, but McKenna takes it to an astonishing level.

Yes, Saskatchewans right-of-centre Saskatchewan Party government has opposed the carbon tax from the beginning, and Ontarios Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford has now joined the fight. But theyre not the only ones.

New Brunswicks Liberal Premier Brian Gallant is promising to "fight" Ottawas carbon tax. Albertas NDP Premier Rachel Notley has withdrawn her support for Ottawas plan and frozen that provinces carbon tax. Most striking is the almost unnoticed fact that Quebecs cap-and-trade system is equivalent to $18 per tonne and theres no sign it will rise, yet Ottawa shows no interest in threatening that province with a federal carbon tax.

McKennas partisanship is tone-deaf, but her colleagues comments are even more revealing.

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The Free Press reported that Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Ottawa would impose a carbon tax on top of Manitobas proposed flat tax no matter how much emissions fall.

Let that sink in.

Ottawa will force provinces to impose increasing carbon taxes even if theyre already hitting emission-reduction goals. LeBlancs comment makes it clear this policy is not about the environment. Its about taxes.

For those who need more proof, consider this: Prince Edward Island is already almost halfway to achieving its targets and Nova Scotia has already hit them, yet Ottawa is still threatening to impose carbon taxes on those provinces.

Manitobas rejection of a carbon tax is a wake-up call for Ottawa. The most charitable assessment of the federal carbon tax is that its badly flawed and raising multitudes of unanswered questions. At the very least, the prime minister needs to hit the pause button and check taxpayers blood pressure as opposition to the carbon tax rises.

Todd MacKay is the Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.Thirty years ago, I was a harsh critic of Brian Mulroneys poorly negotiated Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. But we were able to regain some ground in the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. So, what should we make of the newly minted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) of 2018?

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Thirty years ago, I was a harsh critic of Brian Mulroneys poorly negotiated Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement. But we were able to regain some ground in the subsequent North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. So, what should we make of the newly minted United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) of 2018?

First off, I dont want to downplay the harm that will be inflicted on Canadas farmers from opening up our agricultural markets to U.S. producers. When the 3.6 per cent of market share under the USMCA is combined with similar carve-outs from the Canada-European CETA deal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, it will amount to over 10 per cent of Canadas dairy market.

There is no getting around it: the agricultural opening will be painful for our farmers and farming communities in some parts of the country. The governing federal Liberals will undoubtedly seek to soften the blow by offering billions in financial compensation to them. It remains to be seen, though, whether it will do the trick.

Moreover, there is a great deal of uncertainty around the awkwardly conceived 16-year sunset clause, the reference to "non-market country FTA" (e.g., China) termination language and something called "macroeconomic policies and exchange rate matters." Much of this will need to be clarified in the coming weeks, so as to determine whether it is actually good or bad news for Canada overall.

As is typically the case in trade agreements, there will be clear winners and losers. One is tempted to argue that Trumps America is the real winner here, but Im not so sure.

Oh, he got the access to our dairy market that he so desperately wanted  and desperately needed, for domestic political purposes. But Trump was unable to secure his administrations larger goal of dismantling Canadas agricultural supply management system altogether.

In terms of intellectual property rights, U.S. negotiators were also able to increase patent protection on pharmaceuticals (particularly biologic drugs) from eight to 10 years. In addition, they were able to secure a cap on Canadian automobile (and auto parts) exports and an increase in Canadas deminimis threshold (where custom duties would kick in) for online purchases.

There are potential gains for Canada, too: a side deal that nixes any auto-tariff threat; the removal of the costly Chapter 11 investor-state clauses; the rescinding of the energy "proportionality" provision that required us to continue oil shipments to the U.S. even in times of shortages in Canada; the retention of the cultural exemption and improvements to trade flows in light of changes in the customs and trade facilitation chapter.

While there were notable improvements in labour, environmental, gender and Indigenous rights, the real coup was Canadas salvaging of the Chapter 19 dispute-settlement mechanism. Without this means of adjudicating difficult trade disputes, Canada would have been extremely vulnerable to any U.S. trade action going forward.

For the most part, Canada was largely playing defence in terms of its overarching trade objectives. Since we didnt want to open up the NAFTA can of worms in the first place, that was always going to be the case. Yes, we had a list of things that we wanted as well (such as Washington doing away with its "Buy America" provisions and enhancing professional labour mobility), but those would require significant U.S. concessions  which were never really in the cards.

And, by the way, it is dreaming in Technicolor to think the Trump White House  or the powerful U.S. lumber lobby  was going to settle the long-standing softwood lumber dispute to our satisfaction. That was never going to happen, no matter what Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer thinks.

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The reality from the outset was that Canada had precious little leverage when it came to negotiating with the United States. What were we supposed to do when the U.S. said no to our particular demands? Were we going to threaten them with halting all trade with the U.S.?

Thats the other key reality check here: Canada needs access to the U.S. economy (where more than 75 per cent of our total exports go) more than the U.S. needs access to ours. The simple fact is that Canada is more dependent on the U.S. economy than vice versa. And, more importantly, Trump and the American trade negotiators understood this only too well and took advantage.

I wish I could say that there was a better trade deal out there, but Im not convinced of that. And it was becoming economically reckless to tempt the trade gods by extending the economic uncertainty. With the U.S.s clock ticking, we needed an agreement in principle by Oct. 1.

Im not suggesting for one minute that the USMCA is a perfect trade arrangement, or that it satisfies all of our commercial demands (including an exemption from the punishing steel and aluminum tariffs, or a pledge by Washington to never again invoke a Section 232 investigation). It doesnt.

But as someone much wiser than me once said, we cant make perfect the enemy of the good. Put another way, we probably got the best deal that we were going to get  or that was out there, given the circumstances.

Peter McKenna is professor and chairman of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.Nuveen Preferred & Income Opportunities Fund is a closed ended balanced mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC, Nuveen Asset Management, LLC, and NWQ Investment Management Company, LLC. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in securities of companies operating across diversified sectors. It primarily invests in preferred securities, dividend paying stocks of companies, and corporate and taxable municipal debt securities which are rated BBB/Baa or better by S&P, Moody's, or Fitch. The fund employs fundamental analysis with a top-down stock picking approach to create its portfolio. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the BofA/Merrill Lynch Preferred Stock Fixed Rate Index and the JPC Blended Index which is comprised of 82.5% BofA/Merrill Lynch Preferred Stock Fixed Rate Index and 17.5% Barclays Capital Securities Index. The fund was formerly known as Nuveen Preferred Income Opportunities Fund. Nuveen Preferred & Income Opportunities Fund was formed on March 26, 2003 and is domiciled in the United States.

Read MoreAmerican Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Read MoreiShares Russell 1000 Value ETF's stock was trading at $108.64 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IWD shares have increased by 52.9% and is now trading at $166.14.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.The following companies are subsidiares of Sysco: 2234829 Alberta ULC, 2234842 Alberta ULC, A. M. Briggs Inc., A.M. Briggs, Almacen Fiscal Frionet Caldera S.A., Almacen Fiscal Frionet Limon S.A., Appert's Foodservice, Arnotts (Fruit) Limited, Asian Foods, Bahamas Food Holdings Limited, Bahamas Food Services Limited, Brake Bros, Brake Bros Foodservice Ireland Limited, Brake Bros. Foodservice Limited, Brake Bros. Holding I Limited, Brake Bros. Ltd., Brakes Foodservice NI Limited, Buchy Food Service, Buckhead Beef Co., Buckhead Meat & Seafood of Houston Inc., Buckhead Meat Company, Buckhead Meat Midwest Inc., Buckhead Meat of Dallas Inc., Buckhead Meat of Denver Inc., Buckhead Meat of San Antonio LP, Buzztable Inc., CAKE Corporation, Central Seafood Co., Christys Wine & Spirits Limited, Clafra Aktiebolag, Colorado Boxed Beef Co - Specialty meat-cutting division, Corporacion Frionet Sociedad Anonima, Crossgar Foodservice, Crossgar Foodservice Limited, Crown I Enterprises Inc., Cucina Acquisitions (UK) Limited, Cucina Finance (UK) Limited, Cucina French Holdings Limited, Cucina Fresh Finance Limited, Cucina Fresh Investments Limited, Cucina Lux Investments Limited, Curleys Quality Foods Limited (Third Party), Davigel Belgilux S.A., Davigel Espana S.A., Desert Meats & Provisions, Distagro, Doerle Food Service, Doughtie's Foods Inc., Dust Bowl City LLC, Eko Fagel Fisk o mittemellan AB, Enclave Insurance Company, Enclave Parkway Association Inc., Enclave Properties LLC, European Imports, European Imports Inc., Figg Inc., Freedman Meats, Freedman Meats Inc., Freedman-KB Inc., Fresh Direct (UK) Limited, Fresh Direct Group Limited, Fresh Direct Limited, Fresh Holdings Limited, FreshPoint, FreshPoint Arizona Inc., FreshPoint Atlanta Inc., FreshPoint California Inc., FreshPoint Central California Inc., FreshPoint Central Florida Inc., FreshPoint Connecticut LLC, FreshPoint Dallas Inc., FreshPoint Denver Inc., FreshPoint Hawaii LLC, FreshPoint Inc., FreshPoint Las Vegas Inc., FreshPoint North Carolina Inc., FreshPoint North Florida Inc., FreshPoint Oklahoma City LLC, FreshPoint Pompano Real Estate LLC, FreshPoint Puerto Rico LLC, FreshPoint San Francisco Inc., FreshPoint South Florida Inc., FreshPoint South Texas Inc., FreshPoint Southern California Inc., FreshPoint Tomato LLC, FreshPoint Vancouver Ltd., Freshfayre Limited, Fruktservice i Helsingborg AB, GHS Classic Drinks Limited, Gilchrist & Soames Inc., Gilchrist & Soames UK Limited, Guest Packaging LLC, Guest Supply, Guest Supply Asia Limited, Guest Supply Singapore Pte. Ltd., International Food Group, Isakssons Frukt & Gront AB, J & M Wholesale Meats, J. Kings Food Service Professionals, J. Kings Food Service Professionals Inc., Kent Frozen Foods, Les Ateliers Du Gout, Liquid Assets Limited, M&J Seafood Holdings Limited, M&J Seafood Limited, Manchester Mills LLC, Mayca Autoservicio S.A., Mayca Distribuidores S.A., Menigo Foodservice AB, Mitshim Etatu Supply LP, Newport Meat Company, Newport Meat Northern California Inc., Newport Meat Pacific Northwest Inc., Newport Meat Southern California Inc., Newport Meat of Nevada Inc., North Star Holding Corporation, North Star Seafood, North Star Seafood Acquisition Corporation, North Star Seafood LLC, PFS de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Palisades Ranch Inc., Pallas Foods, Pallas Foods Farm Fresh Unlimited Company, Pallas Foods Unlimited Company, Pauleys Produce Limited, Promotora del Servicios S.A. de C.V., Restaurangakdemien AB, Restaurant of Tomorrow Inc., Rohan Viandes Elaboration SAS, SMS Bermuda Holdings, SMS GPC International Limited, SMS GPC International Resources Limited, SMS Global Holdings S.a.r.l., SMS International Resources Ireland Unlimited Company, SMS Lux Holdings LLC, SOTF LLC, SYY Netherlands C.V., SYY Panama S. de R.L., Serca Foodservice, Servicestyckarna I Johannes AB, Servicios Ameriserve S.A. de C.V., Shenzhen Guest Supply Trading Co. Limited, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Bianchi Montegut, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Boiseau, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) De Garcelles, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) J.D. Lanjouan, Societe Civile Immobiliere (SCI) Le Dauphin, Specialty Meat Holdings LLC, Stockflag Limited, Stockholms Fiskauktion AB, Supplies on the Fly, Sysco Albany LLC, Sysco Asian Foods Inc., Sysco Atlanta LLC, Sysco Autoservicio S.A., Sysco Baltimore LLC, Sysco Baraboo LLC, Sysco Bermuda Partners L.P., Sysco Boston LLC, Sysco Canada Holdings S.a.r.l., Sysco Canada Inc., Sysco Central Alabama LLC, Sysco Central California Inc., Sysco Central Florida Inc., Sysco Central Illinois Inc., Sysco Central Pennsylvania LLC, Sysco Charlotte LLC, Sysco Chicago Inc., Sysco Cincinnati LLC, Sysco Cleveland Inc., Sysco Columbia LLC, Sysco Connecticut LLC, Sysco Corporation, Sysco Corporation Director's Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Employee's 401(k) Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Executive Deferred Compensation Plan Trust, Sysco Corporation Good Government Committee Inc., Sysco Corporation Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Executive Retirement Trust, Sysco Corporation Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Plan Trust, Sysco Detroit LLC, Sysco Disaster Relief Foundation Inc., Sysco EI VI S. s.r.l., Sysco EU II S.a.r.l., Sysco EU III S.a.r.l., Sysco EU IV Capital Unlimited Company, Sysco EU IV S. s.r.l.., Sysco EU V S. s.r.l., Sysco Eastern Maryland LLC, Sysco Eastern Wisconsin LLC, Sysco Foundation Inc., Sysco France Holding SAS, Sysco France SAS, Sysco George Town II LLC, Sysco George Town Limited S. s.r.l.., Sysco Global Finance LLC, Sysco Global Finance LLP, Sysco Global Holdings B.V., Sysco Global Resources LLC, Sysco Global Services LLC, Sysco Grand Cayman Company, Sysco Grand Cayman II Company, Sysco Grand Cayman III Company, Sysco Grand Rapids LLC, Sysco Guernsey Limited, Sysco Guest Supply Canada Inc., Sysco Guest Supply Europe Goods Wholesalers LLC, Sysco Guest Supply Europe Limited, Sysco Guest Supply LLC, Sysco Gulf Coast LLC, Sysco Hampton Roads Inc., Sysco Hawaii Inc., Sysco Holdings II LLC, Sysco Holdings LLC, Sysco Indianapolis LLC, Sysco International Food Group Inc., Sysco International Inc., Sysco Iowa Inc., Sysco Jackson LLC, Sysco Jacksonville Inc., Sysco Kansas City Inc., Sysco Knoxville LLC, Sysco Labs Europe Limited, Sysco Labs Pvt. Ltd., Sysco Leasing LLC, Sysco Lincoln Inc., Sysco Lincoln Transportation Company Inc., Sysco Long Island LLC, Sysco Los Angeles Inc., Sysco Louisville Inc., Sysco Memphis LLC, Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Canada Inc., Sysco Merchandising and Supply Chain Services Inc., Sysco Metro New York LLC, Sysco Minnesota Inc., Sysco Montana Inc., Sysco Nashville LLC, Sysco Netherlands Partners LLC, Sysco North Central Florida Inc., Sysco North Dakota Inc., Sysco Northern New England Inc., Sysco Philadelphia LLC, Sysco Pittsburgh LLC, Sysco Portland Inc., Sysco Raleigh LLC, Sysco Resources Services LLC, Sysco Riverside Inc., Sysco Sacramento Inc., Sysco San Diego Inc., Sysco San Francisco Inc., Sysco Seattle Inc., Sysco South Florida Inc., Sysco Southeast Florida LLC, Sysco Spain Holdings SLU, Sysco Spokane Inc., Sysco St. Louis LLC, Sysco Syracuse LLC, Sysco Technologies Cayman Ltd., Sysco Technologies LLC, Sysco UK Holdings Limited, Sysco UK Limited, Sysco UK Partners LLP, Sysco USA I Inc., Sysco USA II LLC, Sysco USA III LLC, Sysco Ventura Inc., Sysco Ventures Inc., Sysco Virginia LLC, Sysco West Coast Florida Inc., Sysco Western Minnesota Inc., The SYGMA Network Inc., Upsys, Victua SAS, Walker Foods Inc., Waugh Foods, and Wild Harvest Limited.Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Colgate-Palmolive: 887357 Ontario Inc., COLGALIVE S.A., CP GABA GmbH, CP International Holding C.V., CP West East Investment Limited, Cleaning Dimensions Inc., Colgate (BVI) Limited, Colgate (Guangzhou) Company Limited, Colgate (U.K.) Limited, Colgate Business Services of the Americas S.C., Colgate Flavors and Fragrances Inc., Colgate Global Business Services Private Limited, Colgate Holdings, Colgate Inc., Colgate Oral Pharmaceuticals Inc., Colgate Palmolive Ghana Limited, Colgate Palmolive Holding S.Com.P.A., Colgate Palmolive Nouvelle Caledonie Sarl, Colgate Palmolive Tanzania Limited, Colgate Sanxiao Company Limited, Colgate Venture Company Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Asia) Pte Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Blantyre) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Brunei) Sdn Bhn, Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Central America) Inc. y Compania Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive (Centro America) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (China) Co. Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive (Costa Rica) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominica) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Dominican Republic) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (East Africa) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Eastern) Pte. Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Egypt) S.A.E., Colgate-Palmolive (Far East) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Fiji) Pte Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Gabon) S.A., Colgate-Palmolive (Guyana) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (H.K.) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Hellas) S.A. I.C., Colgate-Palmolive (Hong Kong) Holding Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Kazakhstan) L.L.P., Colgate-Palmolive (Latvia) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive (Middle East Exports) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Myanmar) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (New York) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive (Proprietary) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Research & Development) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Romania) SRL, Colgate-Palmolive (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Uganda) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive (Vietnam) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive (Zambia) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive (Zimbabwe) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive A.B., Colgate-Palmolive A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Adria Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Asia Pacific Treasury Services Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Belgium S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Bolivia Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Caricom Service Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Central European Management Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Chile S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cia., Colgate-Palmolive Comercial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Commercial (Hellas) SP LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Commerciale S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive Commericale S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive Compania Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive Company Distr. LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Company GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Cote dIvoire S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Cyprus Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Development Corp., Colgate-Palmolive East West Africa Region (Pty) Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Enterprises Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Espana S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Europe (Holdings) Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Europe Sarl, Colgate-Palmolive Finance (UK) plc, Colgate-Palmolive Global Trading Company, Colgate-Palmolive Holding Argentina S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Holding Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Hungary Kft Limited Liability Company, Colgate-Palmolive IHQ Services (Thailand) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Inc. S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Industrial Ltda., Colgate-Palmolive Industriel S.A.S., Colgate-Palmolive International Holding LLC, Colgate-Palmolive International LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Investment Co. Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (BVI) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (PNG) Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Investments (UK) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Investments Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Israel Ltd., Colgate-Palmolive Italia S.r.l., Colgate-Palmolive JSC, Colgate-Palmolive Lanka (Private) Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Latin America Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Limited, Colgate-Palmolive Manufacturing (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Marketing Sdn Bhd, Colgate-Palmolive Maroc S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Mocambique Limitada, Colgate-Palmolive NJ Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Nederland B.V., Colgate-Palmolive Norge A/S, Colgate-Palmolive Participacoes e Investimentos Imobiliarios Lda., Colgate-Palmolive Peru S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Philippines Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Pty Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Retirement Trustee Limited, Colgate-Palmolive S.A. de C.V., Colgate-Palmolive S.p.A., Colgate-Palmolive Senegal S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Services (Hellas) LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Services (Poland) Sp. z o.o., Colgate-Palmolive Services CEW GmbH, Colgate-Palmolive Services S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Slovensko s.r.o., Colgate-Palmolive Support Services, Colgate-Palmolive Temizlik Urunleri Sanayi ve Ticart S.A., Colgate-Palmolive Transnational Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Ukraine LLC, Colgate-Palmolive Unipessoal Lda, Colgate-Palmolive de Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Colgate-Palmolive de Puerto Rico Inc., Colgate-Palmolive del Ecuador S.A.I.C., Colgate-Palmolive del Peru (Delaware) Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Eeska republika spol. s r.o., Colpal CBS S de R. L. de C. V., Consumer Viewpoint Center Inc., Cotelle S.A., Dimac Development Corp., Dominica Coconut Products Limited, EKIB Inc., ELM Company Limited, Elta MD Holdings Inc., Elta MD Inc., EltaMD, Filorga Americas Inc., Filorga Asia Limited, Filorga Benelux SA, Filorga Cosmetiques Polska, Filorga Middle East DMCC, Filorga Portugal Unipessoal Lda., Filorga RU Limited Liability Company, GABA Europe Holding GmbH, GABA International, GABA International Holding LLC, GABA Schweiz AG, GABA Therwil GmbH, Gamma Development Co. Ltd., Global Trading and Supply LLC, Hamol Ltd., Hello Products, Hello Products LLC, Hills Funding Company, Hills Pet Nutrition (NZ) Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Asia Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Canada Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Denmark ApS, Hills Pet Nutrition Espana S.L., Hills Pet Nutrition GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Holding B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Indiana Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition Italia S.r.l., Hills Pet Nutrition Korea Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing B.V., Hills Pet Nutrition Manufacturing s.r.o, Hills Pet Nutrition Norway AS, Hills Pet Nutrition OOO, Hills Pet Nutrition Pty. Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition S.p.A., Hills Pet Nutrition SNC, Hills Pet Nutrition Sales Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition South Africa Proprietary Limited, Hills Pet Nutrition Sweden AB, Hills Pet Nutrition Switzerland GmbH, Hills Pet Nutrition Taiwan Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition Trading (GZ) Co. Ltd, Hills Pet Nutrition de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hills Pet Nutrition de Puerto Rico Inc., Hills Pet Nutrition s.r.o., Hills Pet Products (Benelux) S.A., Hills Pet Products Inc., Hills Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Hills-Colgate (Japan) Ltd., Hopro Liquidating Corp., Hygiene Systemes et Services SA, IES Enterprises Inc., Inmobiliaria Colpal S. de R.L. de C.V., Inmobiliaria Hills S.A. de C.V., Innovacion Creativa S.A. de C.V., Kolynos Corporation, Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Espana S.L.U., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia S.R.L., Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques S.A., Laser Brand Toothpaste, Lournay Sales Inc., Mennen Company, Mennen Interamerica Ltd., Mennen Limited, Mennen South Africa Ltd., Mennen de Chile Ltd., Mennen de Nicargua S.A., Mission Hills Property Corporation, Mission Hills S.A. de C.V., Norwood International Incorporated, Olive Music Publishing Corporation, PCA SKIN, Paramount Research Inc., Penny LLC, Pet Chemicals Inc., Physicians Care Alliance LLC, Productos Halogenados Copalven C.A., Purity Holding Company, Purity Music Publishing Corporation, Refresh Company Limited, Samuel Taylor Holdings B.V., Sanex, Sanxiao Company Limited, Services Development Co. Ltd., Societe Generale de Negoce et de Services (GENESE) S.A., The GDN - The Global Distributive Network SAS, The Lournay Company Inc., The MPDP - The Medical and Pharmaceutic Distributive Platform SAS, The Murphy-Phoenix Company, Tom's of Maine, Toms of Maine Holdings Inc., Toms of Maine Inc., Veterinary Companies of America Inc., Vipont Pharmaceutical Inc., and XEB Inc..Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF's stock was trading at $81.79 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, BSV shares have decreased by 0.6% and is now trading at $81.30.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA engages in the traditional banking businesses of retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking. It operates through the following segments: Spain, the United States, Mexico, Turkey, South America, and Rest of Eurasia. The Spain segment includes mainly the banking and insurance business that the group carries out in Spain. The United States segment consists of the financial business activity of BBVA USA in the country and the activity of the branch of BBVA SA in New York. The Mexico segment refers to banking and insurance businesses in this country as well as the activity of its branch in Houston. The Turkey segment reports the activity of Garanti BBVA group that is mainly carried out in this country and, to a lesser extent, in Romania and the Netherlands. The South America segment comprises of operations in n Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The Rest of Eurasia segment includes the banking business activity carried out by the group in Europe and Asia, excluding Spain. The company was founded in 1857 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

Read MoreThere is not enough analysis data for Berkeley Energia.

4.4 Community Rank

Outperform Votes Berkeley Energia has received 72 outperform votes. (Add your outperform vote.)

Underperform Votes Berkeley Energia has received 38 underperform votes. (Add your underperform vote.)

Community Sentiment Berkeley Energia has received 65.45% outperform votes from our community.

MarketBeat's community ratings are surveys of what our community members think about Berkeley Energia and other stocks. Vote Outperform if you believe BKY will outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Vote Underperform if you believe BKY will underperform the S&P 500 over the long term. You may vote once every thirty days.

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NextBluestone Resources Inc. engages in the exploration and development of mineral properties. It holds 100% interests in the Cerro Blanco gold project and the Mita geothermal project located in Guatemala. The company was formerly known as Indicator Minerals Inc. and changed its name to Bluestone Resources Inc. in January 2012. Bluestone Resources Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Read MoreThe Boeing Co. is an aerospace company, which engages in the manufacture of commercial jetliners and defense, space and security systems. It operates through the following segments: Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space and Security; Global Services; and Boeing Capital. The Commercial Airplanes segment includes the development, production, and market of commercial jet aircraft and provides fleet support services, principally to the commercial airline industry worldwide. The Defense, Space and Security segment refers to the research, development, production and modification of manned and unmanned military aircraft and weapons systems for global strike, including fighter and combat rotorcraft aircraft and missile systems; global mobility, including tanker, rotorcraft and tilt-rotor aircraft; and airborne surveillance and reconnaissance, including command and control, battle management and airborne anti-submarine aircraft. The Global Services segment provides services to commercial and defense customers. The Boeing Capital segment seeks to ensure that Boeing customers have the financing they need to buy and take delivery of their Boeing product and manages overall financing exposure. T

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Boston Scientific: 34 Biomedical Merger Corp., 9357-1867 Quebec Inc., Acurate Industria e Comercio Ltda., Advanced Bionics, Advanced Stent Technologies, American Medical Systems, American Medical Systems Europe B.V., Apama Medical, Apama Medical Inc., Asthmatx, Atritech, Augmenix, Augmenix Inc., Augmenix K.K., BSC International Medical Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BSC Medical Device Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BTG, BTG Australasia Pty Ltd, BTG Europe B.V., BTG IM Holdings Ltd., BTG International (Holdings) Limited, BTG International Asia Limited, BTG International Canada Inc., BTG International Germany GmbH, BTG International Healthcare Inc., BTG International Healthcare LLC, BTG International Healthcare Limited, BTG International Inc., BTG International Limited, BTG Limited, BTG Management Services Limited, BTG Medikal Limited Sirketi, Bard Electrophysiology, Barosense, Biocompatibles Inc., Biocompatibles International Limited, Biocompatibles UK Limited, Boston Scientific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Boston Scientific (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, Boston Scientific (Thailand) Ltd., Boston Scientific (UK) Limited, Boston Scientific AG, Boston Scientific Argentina S.A., Boston Scientific Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Boston Scientific Benelux NV, Boston Scientific Canada Limited, Boston Scientific Ceska republika s.r.o., Boston Scientific Chile SpA, Boston Scientific Colombia Limitada, Boston Scientific Comercial de Costa Rica BSCR S.R.L., Boston Scientific Far East B.V., Boston Scientific Gesellschaft m.b.H., Boston Scientific Group plc, Boston Scientific Hellas S.A., Boston Scientific Hong Kong Limited, Boston Scientific Iberica S.A., Boston Scientific India Private Limited, Boston Scientific International B.V., Boston Scientific International Finance Limited, Boston Scientific International S.A., Boston Scientific Israel Ltd., Boston Scientific Japan K.K., Boston Scientific Korea Co. Ltd., Boston Scientific Lebanon SAL, Boston Scientific Limited, Boston Scientific Ltd., Boston Scientific Medical Device, Boston Scientific Medical Device Limited, Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH, Boston Scientific Middle East FZ-LLC, Boston Scientific Middle East SAL, Boston Scientific Nederland B.V., Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation, Boston Scientific New Zealand Limited, Boston Scientific Nordic AB, Boston Scientific Peru S.A.C., Boston Scientific Philippines Inc., Boston Scientific Polska Sp. z o.o., Boston Scientific Portugal - Dispositivos Medicos Lda, Boston Scientific Pty Ltd, Boston Scientific Romania S.R.L., Boston Scientific S.A.S., Boston Scientific S.p.A., Boston Scientific Scimed, Boston Scientific Scimed Inc., Boston Scientific Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific TIP Gerecleri Limited Sirketi, Boston Scientific Technology & Engineering Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific Uruguay S.A., Boston Scientific Vietnam Company Limited, Boston Scientific de Costa Rica S.R.L., Boston Scientific de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Boston Scientific del Caribe Inc., Boston Scientific do Brasil Ltda., Bravo Bidco Limited, BridgePoint Medical, Cameron Health, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., Cardiac Pathways Corp, Catheter Innovations, Claret Medical, Claret Medical Inc., Cosman Medical, Cosman Medical LLC, CryoCor, Cryterion Medical, Cryterion Medical Inc., Cryterion Medical Ireland Limited, EKOS LLC, EMcision, EMcision International Inc., EP Technologies, EP Technologies Inc., Electron Acquisition Corporation, EndoChoice, EndoChoice Holdings Inc., EndoChoice Inc., EndoChoice Innovation Center Ltd., EndoChoice Israel Ltd., Endotex, Enteric Medical Technologies, Galil Medical Inc., Galil Medical Ltd., Galil Medical UK Limited, Guidant, Guidant Delaware Holding Corporation, Guidant Europe NV, Guidant Puerto Rico B.V., Hong Kong Medtech Trading Limited, Intelect Medical, Millipede, Millipede Inc., NXT Merger Corp., Notebook Merger Sub Ltd., Novate Medical Limited, NxThera, NxThera Inc., PT Boston Scientific Indonesia, PneumRx GmbH, PneumRx LLC, PneumRx Liimited, Protherics Medicines Development B.V., Protherics Medicines Development Limited, Protherics UK Limited, Provensis Limited, RMI Acquisition Corp., Remon Medical Technologies, Rhythmia Medical, Robert S. Smith M.D. Inc., Roxwood Medical Inc., SNS Merger Corp, Sadra Medical, Sadra Medical Inc., Securus Medical Group, Securus Medical Group Inc., Special K Merger Corp., StarMedTec, Stream Enterprises LLC, Symetis, Symetis SA, Target Therapeutics, Target Therapeutics Inc., The LumenR Tissue Retractor System, Veniti, Veniti Inc., VertiFlex, Vertiflex Inc., Vessix Vascular, Xlumena, Zuma Investment Pty Ltd, iogyn, nVision Medical, and nVision Medical Corporation.Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, a diversified financial institution, provides various financial products and services to personal, business, public sector, and institutional clients in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through four strategic business units: Canadian Personal and Business Banking; Canadian Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; U.S. Commercial Banking and Wealth Management; and Capital Markets. The company offers chequing, savings, and business accounts; mortgages; loans, lines of credit, student lines of credit, and business and agriculture loans; investment and insurance services; and credit cards, as well as overdraft protection services. It also provides day-to-day banking, borrowing and credit, investing and wealth, specialty, and international services; correspondent banking and online foreign exchange services; and cash management services. The company serves its customers through its banking centers, as well as direct, mobile, and remote channels. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce was founded in 1867 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreBlack Diamond Group Limited rents and sells modular space and workforce accommodation solutions. It operates through two segments, Modular Space Solutions and Workforce Solutions. The Modular Space Solutions segment provides modular space rentals to customers in the construction, real estate development, manufacturing, education, financial, and resource industries, as well as government agencies in North America. Its products include office units, lavatories, storage units, large multi-unit office complexes, classroom facilities, banking and health care facilities, custom manufactured modular facilities, and blast resistant structures. This segment also sells new and used space rentals units; and provides delivery, installation, project management, and ancillary products and services. The Workforce Solutions segment provides workforce housing solutions, including rental of accommodations and surface equipment, and provision of turnkey lodging and travel management services in Canada, the United States, and Australia. This segment also provides associated services, such as installation, transportation, demobilization, and sale of used fleet assets. This segment primarily serves the resource, infrastructure, construction, disaster recovery, and education sectors. The company also provides specialized field rentals to oil and gas industries. Black Diamond Group Limited markets its rental assets, custom sales, and ancillary products and services through in-house sales personnel, its website, social media, web campaigns, and its digital marketplace. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..Rockwell Collins, Inc. designs, produces, and supports communications and aviation systems worldwide. The company's Interior Systems segment offers commercial aircraft seats; galley structures, food and beverage preparation equipment, and water and waste systems; oxygen and passenger service equipment; cabin lighting systems; and business jet and general aviation interior products. Its Commercial Systems segment provides cabin management systems; data link, frequency, very high frequency, and satellite communications systems; landing, radio navigation, and geophysical sensors, and flight management systems; situational awareness and surveillance systems and products; integrated flight controls; simulation and training systems; maintenance, repair, parts, and after-sales support services, and aftermarket used equipment. The company's Government Systems segment provides communications systems and products; radio navigation products, global positioning system equipment, and multi-mode receivers; avionics systems; precision targeting, electronic warfare, and training systems; simulation and training systems; space wheels; visual system products; maintenance, repair, parts, and after-sales support services, and aftermarket used equipment. Its Information Management Services segment offers voice and data communication services; flight support services; airport communications and information systems; train dispatching and information systems; mission critical security systems; and cabin connectivity solutions. The company serves original equipment manufacturers of commercial air transport, business and regional aircraft, commercial airlines, U.S. Department of Defense, other ministries of defense, other government agencies, defense contractors, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and passenger and freight railroads, as well as airport, critical infrastructure, and business aircraft operators. The company was founded in 1933 and is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Read MoreDunelm Group plc engages in the retail of homewares in the United Kingdom. The company offers furniture for bedroom, living room, dining room, and office; sofas and chairs; bean bags; bed frames, mattresses, divan beds and bases, and headboards, as well as kids beds; and bedding products, such as bed linens, duvets, pillows, protectors, and baby and kids beddings. It also provides curtains, and poles and tracks; blinds; rugs, runners, and door mats; mirrors; cushion pads, covers; throws; seat pads; pictures and frames, wallpapers, and accessories; lighting products, including ceiling and wall lights, lamp shades, floor and table lamps, and outdoor lights; kitchen products, such as cooking, dining, utility, and electrical products; and storage products for home, clothes, and kitchen, as well as travel and luggage products. In addition, the company offers towels and bathmats, bathroom accessories, and bathroom furniture; kids accessories and toys, and nursery furniture and products, as well as travel, safety, and wellbeing products; garden furniture and storage, and garden dAcor products; and Christmas trees and lights, wreaths and garlands, baubles and tree decoration, and novelty products. It operates 173 superstores and 2 distribution centers, as well as sells its products through an online store at dunelm.com. Dunelm Group plc was founded in 1979 and is based in Syston, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  The National Privacy Commission (NPC) on Thursday ordered Facebook to take necessary measures following a data breach that affected more than 700,000 Filipino users.

In particular, the NPC asked the social media giant to "provide identity theft and phishing insurance for affected Filipino data subjects, or in the alternative, establish a dedicated helpdesk/help center for Filipino data subjects on privacy related matters concerning Facebook, located in the Philippines and with a local number."

Phishing is a cybercrime where perpetrators pose as legitimate representatives of reputable organizations to make users divulge sensitive information the attackers can use for their benefit. An insurance covers the costs that would arise from identity theft.

The NPC said Facebook should comply by April next year, or within six months upon receipt of the order.

Privacy commissioner Raymund Liboro told CNN Philippines the government is taking the potential risks seriously, stressing that perpetrators will next try to make money from users' data.

"Hindi lang ito simpleng, sabi nga ng iba may nanghahack just to make a point or to make a mess, manggulo lang. Ito, to make money," Liboro said.

He warned affected users to be vigilant, citing as example how the attackers could obtain their bank details through sending a hoax e-mail seemingly from legitimate banks.

Who's at risk?

Facebook earlier notified the government that a total of 755,973 Philippine-based Facebook user accounts may have been compromised. They were part of some 30 million users worldwide who were logged out of their accounts on September 28 due to an attack that stole their access tokens or information used to log on to their profile.

This includes over 380,000 affected users in the country whose basic profile information, including registered full name, email address, and phone number have been exposed, the NPC said.

Meanwhile, the perpetrators may have obtained more sensitive information from some 360,000 user accounts, including their location, work history, list of recent places the user has checked in, and recent search queries, among others.

For the remaining 7,424 users, the NPC said "further information that may have been exposed include the posts on their timeline, their list of friends, groups they are members of, and the names of recent Messenger conversations."

More steps Facebook should take

The NPC slammed Facebook's October 13 letter that says "there is no material risk of more extensive harm occurring."

"This Commission does not agree; the risk of serious harm to Filipino data subjects is more than palpable. The conditions for individual notification are present," the NPC said.

It said the data breach made the affected users more vulnerable to professional spam operations, phishing attacks, and identity theft. The NPC admitted that the "identity verification systems throughout the Philippines are quite weak."

The NPC also ordered Facebook to submit a more comprehensive report on the data breach and inform all affected users about the possible risks they face. Liboro said Facebook's "generic announcements" are not enough.

"Data breach notifications for data subjects are for their benefit; we must provide as much information as possible to assist the affected data subjects to brace for its impact," the NPC said.

It also wants the social media company to implement a program that would increase Filipinos' awareness on identity theft and phishing.The worlds second largest cargo aircraft Antonov An-124 Ruslan and the twinjet passenger aircraft Boeing 737 landed at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), Airport Manager Upali Kalansuriya said.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Kalansuriya said the Antonov cargo aircraft touched down for refuelling and for a rest for the crew.

Mr Kalansuriya said, there were nineteen crew members onboard. The aircraft landed empty.

It is an iconic to have the worlds second largest aircraft at MRIA and it is the second time that this aircraft arrived in the country. The aircraft arrived last afternoon from Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Airport, Saudi Arabia and had left for Indonesia at 3.27 a.m. today, he said.

The An-124 is the second largest production aircraft in the world, manufactured between 1982 and 2014. This aircraft is specifically designed for carrying heavy and bulky loads for long-range delivery and air-dropping heavy or bulky cargo, including machines, equipment and troops.

This same aircraft landed earlier on July 31 at MRIA for refueling and crew rest.

On April 19 the worlds largest cargo aircraft Antonov An-225 Mriya landed at MRIA. That aircraft arrived from Kuala Lumpur and left for Karachi, Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a Boeing 737 passenger aircraft landed at MRIA on Monday (15).

The aircraft arrived with a group of 56 tourists from Kerala and had scheduled left for Muscat this morning. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)Equinox Gold Corp. engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral deposits. The company's principal properties include the Aurizona project covering a total land package of approximately 223,160 hectares located in Maranhao State, Brazil; and the Castle Mountain property situated in California, the United States. It primarily explores for gold, copper, and silver deposits. The company was formerly known as Trek Mining Inc. and changed its name to Equinox Gold Corp. in December 2017. Equinox Gold Corp. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Exxon Mobil: AKG Marketing Company Limited, Aera Energy LLC, Al-Jubail Petrochemical Company, Ampolex (Cepu) Pte Ltd, Ancon Insurance Company Inc., Barnett Gathering LLC, Barzan Gas Company Limited, Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Celtic Exploration Ltd., Coral FLNG S.A., Cross Timbers Energy LLC, Ellora Energy Inc., Esmeroon Oil Transporta Imperial Oil Limited, Esso (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Esso Australia Resources Pty Ltd, Esso Deutschland GmbH, Esso Erdgas Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 15) Limited, Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Angola (Overseas) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Chad Inc., Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Deepwater) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria (Offshore East) Limited, Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited, Esso Global Investments Ltd., Esso Italiana S.r.l., Esso Nederland B.V., Esso Norge AS, Esso Petroleum Company Limited, Esso Raffinage, Esso Societe Anonyme Francaise, Exxo Holdings Inc., Exxon Azerbaijan Limited, Exxon Chemical Arabia Inc., Exxon International Finance Company, Exxon Luxembourg Holdings LLC, Exxon Mobile Bay Limited Partnership, Exxon Neftegas Limited, Exxon Overseas Corporation, Exxon Overseas Investment Corporation, ExxonMobil (China) Investment Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil (Taicang) Petroleum Co. Ltd., ExxonMobil Abu Dhabi Offshore Petroleum Company Limited, ExxonMobil Alaska Production Inc., ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., ExxonMobil Australia Pty Ltd, ExxonMobil B Resources Company, ExxonMobil Capital Finance Company, ExxonMobil Capital Netherlands B.V., ExxonMobil Central Europe Holding GmbH, ExxonMobil Cepu Limited, ExxonMobil Chemical France, ExxonMobil Chemical Gulf Coast Investments LLC, ExxonMobil Chemical Holland B.V., ExxonMobil Chemical Services (Shanghai) Co. 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.First Data Corporation provides commerce enabled technology and solutions for merchants, financial institutions, and card issuers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Global Business Solutions, Global Financial Solutions, and Network & Security Solutions. The Global Business Solutions segment provides solutions to merchants, such as retail point of sale merchant acquiring, e-commerce, and mobile payment services, as well as cloud based point of sale operating system that include a marketplace for proprietary and third party applications. The Global Finance Solutions segment provides technology solutions for bank and non-bank issuers, such as credit, retail private label, commercial card, and loan processing, as well as licensed financial software systems; suite of account services that include card personalization and embossing, customer communications, and professional services; and call center solutions and back office processing. The Network & Security Solutions segment offers EFT network, stored value network, and security and fraud solutions, as well as other value added solutions to its clients in GBS and GFS segments, smaller financial institutions, and other enterprise clients. First Data Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Read MoreFedEx Corp. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of a portfolio of transportation, e-commerce, and business services. It operates through the following segments: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Services, and Corporate, Other & Eliminations. The FedEx Express segment consists of domestic and international shipping services for delivery of packages and freight. The FedEx Ground segment focuses on small-package ground delivery services. The FedEx Freight segment offers less-than-truckload freight services across all lengths of haul. The FedEx Services segment provides sales, marketing, information technology, communications, customer service, technical support, billing and collection services, and certain back-office functions. The Corporate, Other & Eliminations segment includes corporate headquarters costs for executive officers and certain legal and finance functions, as well as certain other costs and credits not attributed to the firm's core business. The company was founded by Frederick Wallace Smith on June 18, 1971 and is headquartered in Memphis, TN.

Read MorePrime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe would have a discussion with the Indian authorities on the alleged plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena, a Spokesman from the Prime Ministers office said yesterday.

He said the Prime Minister had decided to discuss the issue with Indian Defence Authorities after an Indian newspaper carried a news item quoting President Sirisena that Indian intelligence service RAW was plotting to assassinate him.

The Prime Minister has sought an appointment with the Indian defence authorities despite a schedule for his Indian Visit has already been fixed.

He has sought the appointment in line with his thinking that he should discuss this serious matter with them, the official said.

Prime Minister is due to begin his Indian visit today (Yohan Perera)The following companies are subsidiares of Illinois Tool Works: A V Co 1 Limited, A V Co 2 Limited, A V Co 3 Limited, ACCU-LUBE Manufacturing GmbH - Schmiermittel und -gerate -, AIP/BI Holdings Inc., Accessories Marketing Holding Corp., Advanced Molding Company Inc., Allen Coding GmbH, Allen France SAS, Alpine Automation Limited, Alpine Engineered Products, Alpine Holdings Inc., Alpine Systems Corporation, Anaerobicos S.r.l., AppliChem GmbH, Arylux Hungary Elektromechanikus Alkatreszgyarto Kft, Avery Berkel France, Avery India Limited, Avery Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Avery Weigh Tronix, Avery Weigh-Tronix (Suzhou) Weighing Technology Co. Ltd., Avery Weigh-Tronix Finance Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Holdings Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix International Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix LLC, Avery Weigh-Tronix Limited, Avery Weigh-Tronix Properties Limited, Azon Limited, B.C. Immo, Beijing Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Berkel (Ireland) Limited, Berrington UK, Brapenta Eletronica Ltda., Brooks Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Brooks Instrument B.V., Brooks Instrument GmbH, Brooks Instrument KFT, Brooks Instrument Korea Ltd., Brooks Instrument LLC, Buell Industries Inc., CAPMAX Logistica S.A. de C.V., CCI Realty Company, CFC Europe GmbH, CS (Australia) Pty Limited, CS (Finance) Europe S.a.r.l., CS Mexico Holding Company S DE RL DE CV, CSMTS LLC, Calvia Spolka z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnosci, Capital Ventures (Australasia) S.a r.l, Capmax Logistica S.A. de C.V., Celeste Industries Corporation, Coeur, Coeur (Shanghai) Medical Appliance Trading Co. Ltd, Coeur Asia Limited, Coeur Holding Company, Coeur Inc., Compagnie Hobart, Compagnie de Materiel et d'Equipements Techniques-Comet, Constructions Isothermiques Bontami C.I.B., Crane Carrier Company, Despatch Industries, Diagraph Corporation Sdn. Bhd, Diagraph ITW Mexico S. de R.L. De C.V., Diagraph Mexico S.A. DE C.V., Dongguan Ark-Les Electric Components Co. Ltd., Dongguan CK Branding Co. Ltd., Dorbyl U.K. (Holdings) Limited, Duo Fast de Espana S.A.U., Duo-Fast Korea Co. Ltd., Duo-Fast LLC, E.C.S. d.o.o., ECS Cable Protection Sp. Zoo, ELRO (Holding) AG, ELRO Grosskuchen GmbH, ELRO-WERKE AG, Elga Skandinavian AS, Elro Group, Eltex-Elektrostatik-Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Envases Multipac S.A. de C.V., Eurotec Srl, FEG Investments L.L.C., Fasver, Filtertek, Filtertek De Mexico Holding Inc., Filtertek De Mexico S.A. de C.V., GC Financement SA, Gamko B.V., Gun Hwa Platech (Taicang) Co. Ltd., HOBART Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Hartness International, Hobart (Japan) K.K., Hobart Andina S.A.S., Hobart Brothers International Chile Limitada, Hobart Brothers LLC, Hobart Dayton Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Hobart Food Equipment Co. Ltd., Hobart Foster Belgium, Hobart International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Hobart Korea LLC, Hobart LLC, Hobart Nederland B.V., Hobart Sales & Service Inc., Hobart Scandinavia ApS, Hobart Techniek B.V., Horis, ILC Investments Holdings Inc., ITW (China) Investment Company Limited, ITW (Deutschland) GmbH, ITW (EU) Holdings Ltd., ITW (European) Finance Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance II Co. Ltd., ITW (European) Finance III Co. Ltd., ITW (Ningbo) Components & Fastenings Systems Co. Ltd., ITW AEP LLC, ITW AOC LLC, ITW Aircraft Investments Inc., ITW Alpha Sarl, ITW Ampang Industries Philippines Inc., ITW Appliance Components EOOD, ITW Appliance Components S.A. de C.V., ITW Appliance Components S.r.l.a, ITW Appliance Components d.o.o., ITW Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, ITW Australia Property Holdings Pty Ltd., ITW Australia Pty Ltd, ITW Automotive Components (Chongqing) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Components (Langfang) Co. Ltd., ITW Automotive Japan K.K., ITW Automotive Korea LLC, ITW Automotive Parts (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Automotive Products GmbH, ITW Automotive Products Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Bailly Comte, ITW Befestigungssysteme GmbH, ITW Belgium, ITW Brazilian Nominee L.L.C., ITW Building Components Group Inc., ITW CER, ITW CP Distribution Center Holland BV, ITW CS (UK) Ltd., ITW Canada Inc., ITW Celeste Inc., ITW Chemical Products Ltda, ITW Chemical Products Scandinavia ApS, ITW Colombia S.A.S., ITW Construction Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Construction Products (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., ITW Construction Products AB, ITW Construction Products AS, ITW Construction Products ApS, ITW Construction Products CZ s.r.o., ITW Construction Products Italy Srl, ITW Construction Products OU, ITW Construction Products OY, ITW Contamination Control (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Contamination Control B.V., ITW Covid Security Group Inc., ITW DS Investments Inc., ITW DelFast do Brasil Ltda., ITW Delta Sarl, ITW Denmark ApS, ITW Dynatec, ITW Dynatec Adhesive Equipment (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Dynatec GmbH, ITW Dynatec Kabushiki Kaisha, ITW EAE B.V., ITW EAE Mexico S de RL de CV, ITW EF&C France SAS, ITW EF&C Selb GmbH, ITW Electronic Business Asia Co. Limited, ITW Electronic Components/Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Electronics (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Epsilon Sarl, ITW Espana S.A., ITW FEG Hong Kong Limited, ITW FEG do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW Fastener Products GmbH, ITW Finance Designated Activity Company, ITW Finance Europe S.A., ITW Fluids and Hygiene Solutions Ltda., ITW Food Equipment Group LLC, ITW France Finance Alpha S.A.S., ITW GH LLC, ITW GSE ApS, ITW GSE Inc., ITW Gamma Sarl, ITW German Management LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings LLC, ITW Global Investments Holdings Y Compania Sociedad en Comandita por Acciones, ITW Global Investments II Inc., ITW Global Investments Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Europe GmbH, ITW Global Tire Repair Inc., ITW Global Tire Repair Japan K.K., ITW Graphics (Thailand) Ltd., ITW Graphics Asia Limited, ITW Graphics Italy S.R.L. in liquidazione, ITW Great Britain Investment & Licensing Holding Company, ITW Group France (Luxembourg) S.ar.l., ITW HLP Thailand Co. Ltd., ITW Holding Quimica B.C. S.L. Sole Shareholder Company, ITW Holdings Australia L.P., ITW Holdings I Limited, ITW Holdings II Limited, ITW Holdings III Limited, ITW Holdings IV Limited, ITW Holdings IX Limited, ITW Holdings Inc., ITW Holdings UK, ITW Holdings V Limited, ITW Holdings VI Limited, ITW Holdings VII Limited, ITW Holdings VIII Limited, ITW Holdings X Limited, ITW Holdings XI Limited, ITW Hungary Finance Beta Kft, ITW ILC Holdings I Inc., ITW IPG Investments LLC, ITW Imaden Industria e Comercio Ltda., ITW India Private Limited, ITW International Holdings LLC, ITW Invest Holding GmbH, ITW Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, ITW Ireland Unlimited Company, ITW Italy Finance Srl, ITW Italy Holding Srl, ITW Japan Ltd., ITW Korea LLC, ITW LLC & Co. KG, ITW Limited, ITW Lombard Holdings Inc., ITW Lys Fusion S.r.l., ITW M FILMS II LLC, ITW MH LLC, ITW Meritex Sdn. Bhd., ITW Metal Fasteners S.L., ITW Mexico Holding Company S. De R.L. de C.V., ITW Mexico Holdings LLC, ITW Morlock GmbH, ITW Mortgage Investments II Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments III Inc., ITW Mortgage Investments IV Inc., ITW Netherlands Administration BV, ITW Netherlands Beta B.V., ITW Netherlands Finance Alpha BV, ITW New Universal LLC, ITW New Zealand, ITW Novadan Sp. Z.o.o., ITW PPF Brasil Adesivos Ltda., ITW Packaging Technology (China) Co. Ltd., ITW Participations S.a r.l., ITW Pension Funds Trustee Company, ITW Performance Plastic (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Japan Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids Korea Limited, ITW Performance Polymers & Fluids OOO, ITW Performance Polymers (Wujiang) Co. Ltd., ITW Performance Polymers ApS, ITW Performance Polymers and Fluids Group FZE, ITW Peru S.A.C., ITW Philippines Holdings LLC, ITW Poly Mex S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Polymers Sealants North America Inc., ITW Pronovia s.r.o., ITW Pte. Ltd., ITW Qufu Automotive Cooling Systems Co. Ltd., ITW Real Estate Germany GmbH, ITW Residuals III L.L.C., ITW Residuals IV L.L.C., ITW Rivex, ITW SMPI, ITW SPG Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Simco-Ion (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., ITW Slovakia s.r.o., ITW Spain Holdings S.L., ITW Specialty Film LLC, ITW Specialty Films France, ITW Specialty Materials (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., ITW Spraytec, ITW Sverige AB, ITW Sweden Holding AB, ITW Test & Measurement Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, ITW Test & Measurement GmbH, ITW Test and Measurement Italia Srl, ITW Test and Measurement Services Industry and Trade Ltd., ITW Texwipe Philippines Inc., ITW Thermal Films (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ITW UK, ITW UK Finance Beta Limited, ITW UK Finance Delta Limited, ITW UK Finance Gamma Limited, ITW UK Finance Limited, ITW UK Finance Zeta Ltd., ITW UK II Limited, ITW Universal II LLC, ITW Welding, ITW Welding AB, ITW Welding GmbH, ITW Welding Products B.V., ITW Welding Products Group FZE, ITW Welding Products Group S. DE R.L. De C.V., ITW Welding Products Italy Srl, ITW Welding Products Limited Liability Company, ITW Welding Produtos Para Solgdagem Ltda., ITW Welding Servicios Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., ITW Welding Singapore Pte. Ltd., ITW de France, ITW do Brasil Industrial e Comercial Ltda., Ideal Molding Technologies LLC, Illinois Tool Works (Chile) Limitada, Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Nederland B.V., Illinois Tool Works Norway AS, Impar Comercio E Representacoes Ltda., Industrie Plastic Elsasser GmbH, Inmobiliaria Cit. S.A. de C.F., Innova Temperlite Servicios S.A. de C.V., Innovacion y Transformacion Automotriz S.A. de C.V., Instron (Shanghai) Ltd., Instron (Thailand) Limited, Instron Brasil Equipamentos Cientificos Ltda., Instron Foreign Sales Corp. Limited, Instron France S.A.S., Instron GmbH, Instron Holdings Limited, Instron International Limited, Instron Japan Company Ltd., Instron Korea LLC, International Leasing Company LLC, International Truss Systems Proprietary Limited, Isolenge - ITW Sistemas de Isolamento Termico Ltda., KCPL Mauritius Holdings, Kester, Kester Components (M) Sdn. Bhd., Kleinmann GmbH, Krafft S.L., Loma Systems, Loma Systems (Canada) Inc., Loma Systems BV, Loma Systems sro, Lombard Pressings Limited, Lumex Inc., Lys Fusion Poland Sp. z.o.o., M&C Specialties (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., M&C Specialties Co., MAGNAFLUX GmbH, MEHB Holdings Limited, MGHG Property LLC, MOA Enterprises Inc, Manufacturing Avancee S.A., Meritex Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Meurer Verpackungssysteme GmbH, Miller Electric Mfg. LLC, Miller Insurance Ltd., NDT Holding LLC, NOVADAN APS, Norden Olje AB, North Star Imaging Europe, North Star Imaging Inc., Nova Chimica S.r.l., Orbitalum Tools GmbH, PENTA-91 OOO, PR. A. I. Srl, PT ITW Construction Products Indonesia, Pacific Concept Industries Limited (Enping), Panreac Quimica S.L., Paslode Fasteners (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Peerless Machinery Corp., Penta Dnepr LLC, Penta Sever OOO, Penta Volga OOO, Polyrey, Premark FEG L.L.C., Premark HII Holdings LLC, Premark International, Premark International LLC, Prolex Sociedad Anonima, QSA Global Inc., Quimica Industrial Mediterranea S.L., Ramset Fasteners (Hong Kong) Ltd., Rapid Cook LLC, Refrigeration France, S.E.E. Sistemas Industria E Comercio Ltda., ST Mexico Holdings LLC, Sealant Systems International Inc., Sentinel Asia Yuhan Hoesa, Shanghai ITW Plastic & Metal Co. Ltd, Simco (Nederland) B.V., Simco Japan Inc., Societe de Prospection et dInventions Techniques  SPIT, Speedline Holdings I Inc., Speedline Holdings I LLC, Speedline Technologies GmbH, Speedline Technologies Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Speedline Technologies Mexico Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Stokvis Celix Portugal Unipessoal LDA, Stokvis Danmark ApS, Stokvis Holdings S.A.R.L., Stokvis Promi s.r.o, Stokvis Prostick Tapes Private Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, Stokvis Tapes (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Taiwan) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Stokvis Tapes BVBA, Stokvis Tapes Benelux B.V., Stokvis Tapes Deutschland GmbH, Stokvis Tapes France, Stokvis Tapes Italia s.r.l., Stokvis Tapes Limited, Stokvis Tapes Limited Liability Company, Stokvis Tapes Norge AS, Stokvis Tapes Oy, Stokvis Tapes Polska Sp Z.O.O., Stokvis Tapes Sverige AB, Stolvis Holdings II S.A.R.L., Technopack Industria Comercio Consultoria e Representacoes Ltda., Teknek (China) Limited, Teknek (Japan) Limited, Teksaleco Ltd., The Miller Group Ltd, Thirode Grandes Cuisines Poligny, Tien Tai Electrode (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., Tien Tai Electrode Co. Ltd., Unichemicals Industria e Comercio Ltda., VR-Leasing Sarita GmbH & Co. Immobilien KG, VS European Holdco BV, Valeron Strength Films B.V.B.A., Veneta Decalcogomme S.r.l., Versachem Chile S.A., Vesta, Vesta (Guangzhou) Catering Equipment Co. Ltd, Vesta Global Limited, Viltronics Soltec, Vitronics Soltec B.V., Wachs Canada Ltd., Wachs Subsea LLC, Weigh-Tronix Canada ULC, Weigh-Tronix UK Limited, Wilsonart International Holdings LLC, Wynn Oil (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd., Wynn's Automotive France, Wynn's Belgium BVBA, Wynn's Italia Srl, Wynn's Mekuba India Pvt Ltd, ZF TRW (Engineered Fasteners and Components), and Zip-Pak International B.V..The following companies are subsidiares of InterContinental Hotels Group: 2250 Blake Street Hotel LLC, 24th Street Operator Sub LLC, 36th Street IHG Sub LLC, 426 Main Ave LLC, 46 Nevins Street Associates LLC, Allegro Management LLC, Alpha Kimball Hotel LLC, American Commonwealth Assurance Co. Ltd., Asia Pacific Holdings Limited, BHMC Canada Inc., BHR Holdings B.V., BHR Luxembourg SARL, BHR Pacific Holdings Inc., BHTC Canada Inc., BOC Barclay Sub LLC, Barclay Operating Corp., Bristol Oakbrook Tenant Company, Cafe Biarritz, Cambridge Lodging LLC, Capital Lodging LLC, Compania Inter-Continental De Hoteles El Salvador SA, Crowne Plaza Amsterdam (Management) B.V., Crowne Plaza LLC, Cumberland Akers Hotel LLC, Dunwoody Operations Inc., EVEN Real Estate Holding LLC, Edinburgh IC Limited, General Innkeeping Acceptance Corporation, Guangzhou SC Hotels Services Ltd., H.I. (Ireland) Limited, H.I. Soaltee Management Company Ltd, HC International Holdings Inc., HH France Holdings SAS, HH Hotels (EMEA) B.V., HH Hotels (Romania) SRL, HI Sugarloaf LLC, HIM (Aruba) NV, Hale International Ltd., Hoft Properties LLC, Holiday Hospitality Franchising LLC, Holiday Inn Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Holiday Inns (China) Ltd, Holiday Inns (Chongqing) Inc., Holiday Inns (Courtalin) Holdings SAS, Holiday Inns (Courtalin) SAS, Holiday Inns (England) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Germany) LLC, Holiday Inns (Guangzhou) Inc., Holiday Inns (Jamaica) Inc., Holiday Inns (Malaysia) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Middle East) Ltd., Holiday Inns (Philippines) Inc., Holiday Inns (Saudi Arabia) Inc., Holiday Inns (South East Asia) Inc., Holiday Inns (Thailand) Ltd., Holiday Inns (UK) Inc., Holiday Inns Crowne Plaza (Hong Kong) Inc., Holiday Inns Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Holiday Inns Inc., Holiday Inns Investment (Nepal) Ltd., Holiday Inns of America (UK) Ltd., Holiday Inns of Belgium N.V., Holiday Pacific Equity Corporation, Holiday Pacific LLC, Holiday Pacific Partners LP, Hotel Inter-Continental London Limited, Hotel InterContinental London (Holdings) Limited, Hoteles Y Turismo HIH SRL, IC Hotelbetriebsfuhrungs GmbH, IC Hotels Management (Portugal) Unipessoal Lda, IC International Hotels Limited Liability Company, IHC (Thailand) Limited, IHC Buckhead LLC, IHC Edinburgh (Holdings), IHC Hopkins (Holdings) Corp., IHC Hotel Limited, IHC Inter-Continental (Holdings) Corp., IHC London (Holdings), IHC M-H (Holdings) Corp., IHC May Fair (Holdings) Limited, IHC May Fair Hotel Limited, IHC Overseas (U.K.) Limited, IHC UK (Holdings) Limited, IHC United States (Holdings) Corp., IHC Willard (Holdings) Corp., IHG (Australasia) Limited, IHG (Marseille) SAS, IHG (Thailand) Limited, IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, IHG ANA Hotels Holdings Co. Ltd., IHG Bangkok Ltd, IHG Brasil Administracao de Hoteis e Servicos Ltda, IHG Commission Services SRL, IHG Community Development LLC, IHG Cyprus Limited, IHG ECS (Barbados) SRL, IHG Franchising Brasil Ltda, IHG Franchising DR Corporation, IHG Franchising LLC, IHG Hotels (New Zealand) Limited, IHG Hotels Limited, IHG Hotels Management (Australia) Pty Limited, IHG Hotels Nigeria Limited, IHG Hotels South Africa (Pty) Ltd, IHG International Partnership, IHG Istanbul Otel Yonetim Limited Sirketi, IHG Japan (Management) LLC, IHG Japan (Osaka) LLC, IHG Management (Maryland) LLC, IHG Management (Netherlands) B.V., IHG Management MD Barclay Sub LLC, IHG Management SL d.o.o, IHG Management d.o.o. Beograd, IHG Orchard Street Member LLC, IHG PS Nominees Limited, IHG Systems Pty Ltd, IHG Szalloda Budapest Szolgaltato Kft., IHG de Argentina SA, IND East Village SD Holdings LLC, Inter-Continental D.C. Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Investment Corp., Inter-Continental Florida Partner Corp., Inter-Continental Hospitality Corporation, Inter-Continental Hoteleira Limitada, Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Operating Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Montreal) Owning Corp., Inter-Continental Hotels (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation, Inter-Continental Hotels Corporation de Venezuela C.A., Inter-Continental Hotels of San Francisco Inc., Inter-Continental IOHC (Mauritius) Limited, Inter-Continental Management (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental (Branston) 1 Limited, InterContinental (PB) 1, InterContinental (PB) 2, InterContinental (PB) 3 Limited, InterContinental Berlin Service Company GmbH, InterContinental Brasil Administracao de Hoteis Ltda, InterContinental Gestion Hotelera S.L., InterContinental Hotel Berlin GmbH, InterContinental Hotel Dusseldorf GmbH (Germany), InterContinental Hotels (Puerto Rico) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Australia) Pty Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Canada) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (Espana) SA, InterContinental Hotels Group (Greater China) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, InterContinental Hotels Group (Japan) Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group (New Zealand) Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group (Shanghai) Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Customer Services Ltd., InterContinental Hotels Group Healthcare Trustee Limited, InterContinental Hotels Group Operating Corp., InterContinental Hotels Group Resources Inc., InterContinental Hotels Group Services Company, InterContinental Hotels Group do Brasil Limitada, InterContinental Hotels Italia S.r.L., InterContinental Hotels Limited, InterContinental Hotels Management GmbH, InterContinental Hotels Nevada Corporation, InterContinental Management AM LLC, InterContinental Management Bulgaria EOOD, InterContinental Management France SAS, InterContinental Management Poland sp. z.o.o, InterContinental Overseas Holding Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Corporation Limited, KG Benefits LLC, KG Gift Card Inc., KG Liability LLC, KG Technology LLC, KHP Washington Operator LLC, KHRG 11th Avenue Hotel LLC, KHRG 851 LLC, KHRG Aertson LLC, KHRG Alexandria LLC, KHRG Alexis LLC, KHRG Allegro LLC, KHRG Argyle LLC, KHRG Austin Beverage Company LLC, KHRG Baltimore LLC, KHRG Born LLC, KHRG Boston Hotel LLC, KHRG Canary LLC, KHRG Cayman Employer Ltd., KHRG Cayman LLC, KHRG DC 1731 LLC, KHRG DC 2505 LLC, KHRG Donovan LLC, KHRG Employer LLC, KHRG Goleta LLC, KHRG Gray LLC, KHRG Gray U2 LLC, KHRG Hillcrest LLC, KHRG Huntington Beach LLC, KHRG King Street LLC, KHRG La Peer LLC, KHRG Miami Beach LLC, KHRG Muse LLC, KHRG NPC LLC, KHRG Onyx LLC, KHRG Palladian LLC, KHRG Palomar Phoenix LLC, KHRG Philly Monaco LLC, KHRG Pittsburgh LLC, KHRG Reynolds LLC, KHRG Riverplace LLC, KHRG SFD LLC, KHRG Sacramento LLC, KHRG Savannah LLC, KHRG Schofield LLC, KHRG Sedona LLC, KHRG State Street LLC, KHRG Sutter LLC, KHRG Sutter Union LLC, KHRG Taconic LLC, KHRG Tariff LLC, KHRG Texas Hospitality LLC, KHRG Texas Operations LLC, KHRG Tryon LLC, KHRG VZ Austin LLC, KHRG Vero Beach LLC, KHRG Vintage Park LLC, KHRG WPB LLC, KHRG Wabash LLC, KHRG Westwood LLC, KHRG Wilshire LLC, KHRG Zamora LLC, Kimpton Hollywood Licenses LLC, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group, Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, Kimpton Phoenix Licenses Holdings LLC, Kimpton Sedona Licenses LLC, Louisiana Acquisitions Corp., MH Lodging LLC, Mercer Fairview Holdings LLC, PML Services LLC, PT SC Hotels & Resorts Indonesia, Pollstrong Limited, Powell Pine Inc., Priscilla Holiday of Texas Inc., RM Lodging LLC, Regent Hotels and Resorts, Resort Services International (Cayo Largo) L.P., SBS Maryland Beverage Company LLC, SC Cellars Limited, SC Hotels International Services Inc., SC Leisure Group Limited, SC NAS 2 Limited, SC Quest Limited, SC Reservations (Philippines) Inc., SCH Insurance Company, SCIH Branston 3, SF MH Acquisition LLC, SPHC Group Pty Ltd., SPHC Management Ltd., Semiramis for training of Hotel Personnel and Hotel Management SAE, Six Continents Corporate Services, Six Continents Holdings Limited, Six Continents Hotels Inc., Six Continents Hotels International Limited, Six Continents Hotels de Colombia SA, Six Continents International Holdings B.V., Six Continents Investments Limited, Six Continents Limited, Six Continents Overseas Holdings Limited, Six Continents Restaurants Limited, SixCo North America Inc., Solamar Lodging LLC, Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation (BVI) Ltd., Southern Pacific Hotels Properties Limited, Universal de Hoteles SA, White Shield Insurance Company Limited, and World Trade Centre Montreal Hotel Corporation.Navistar International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells commercial trucks, diesel engines, school and commercial buses, and service parts for trucks and diesel engines worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Truck, Parts, Global Operations, and Financial Services. It manufactures and distributes Class 4 through 8 trucks and buses in the common carrier, private carrier, government, leasing, construction, energy/petroleum, and student and commercial transportation markets under the International and IC brands; and designs, engineers, and produces sheet metal components, including truck cabs and engines. The company also provides customers with proprietary products needed to support the International commercial truck, IC bus, and engine lines, as well as other product lines; and a selection of other standard truck, trailer, and engine aftermarket parts. In addition, it manufactures and distributes mid-range diesel engines, as well as provides customers with additional engine offerings in the agriculture, marine, genset, and light truck markets; sells engines to original equipment manufacturers (OEM) for various on-and-off-road applications; and offers contract manufacturing services under the MWM brand to OEMs for the assembly of their engines. Further, the company provides retail, wholesale, and lease financing of products of its trucks and parts, as well as financing for wholesale and retail accounts receivable. Additionally, it exports trucks, buses, and engines. The company markets its commercial products through an independent dealer network, as well as through retail outlets; and its reconditioned used trucks to owner-operators and fleet buyers through its network of used truck dealers. It operates approximately 1,052 outlets in the United States and Canada, and 89 outlets in Mexico. Navistar International Corporation was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Lisle, Illinois.

Read MoreDevelopment Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama today said the Board of Directors of the Board of Investment (BOI) comprised of highly respected professionals, who functioned with utmost responsibility and Integrity.

Issuing a statement, he said the news reports which cast aspersions on the conduct of the BOI Board of Directors are irresponsible and factually Incorrect.

I categorically reject these baseless allegations made in those news Items. The Board comprised of honourable people who sought to bring back professionalism into the institution and guide the country's investment facilitation and promotion activities. From all reports I have received, the staff of the institution as well as genuine investors have appreciated their professional conduct. Thanks to the investment policies of the government and the efforts of the BOI, the value of the projects approved in 2018 exceeds US$ 18 Billion. Realized FDI Inflows in 2017 was also a record US$ 1.9 Billion. Misleading media reports would erode Investor sentiment at a time when much progress is being achieved, Minister Samarawickrama said.The following companies are subsidiares of Pearson: AEL (S) PTE Limited, ATI Professional Development LLC, Addison Wesley Longman Inc., Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., Aldwych Finance Limited, Americas Choice Inc., Atkey Finance Limited, Author Solutions, Axis Finance Inc., CAMSAWUSA Inc., CTI Education Group (Pty) Limited, Camsaw Inc., Casapsi Livraria e Editora Ltda, Centro Cultural Americano Franquias e Comercio Ltda., Century Consultants Ltd., Certiport, Certiport China Co Ltd, Certiport China Holding LLC, Certiport Inc., Cogmed Systems AB, Connections Academy of Arkansas LLC, Connections Academy of Florida LLC, Connections Academy of Iowa LLC, Connections Academy of Maine LLC, Connections Academy of Maryland LLC, Connections Academy of Minnesota LLC, Connections Academy of Missouri LLC, Connections Academy of Nevada LLC, Connections Academy of New Jersey LLC, Connections Academy of New Mexico LLC, Connections Academy of New York LLC, Connections Academy of Oregon LLC, Connections Academy of Pennsylvania LLC, Connections Academy of Tennessee LLC, Connections Academy of Texas LLC, Connections Education Inc., Connections Education LLC, Connections Education of Florida LLC, Dominie Press Inc., Dorian Finance Limited, Dorling Kindersley Australasia Pty Limited, EBNT Canada Holdings ULC, EBNT Holdings Limited, EBNT USA Holdings Inc., Edexcel Limited, Edexcel South Africa Pty Ltd, Education Development International plc, Education Resources (Cyprus) Limited, Educational Management Group Inc., Educational Publishers LLP, Embanet ULC, Embanet-Compass Knowledge Group Inc., EmbanetCompass, Embankment Finance Limited, English Language Learning and Instruction System Inc., Escape Studios Limited, FBH Inc., Falstaff Holdco Inc., Falstaff Inc., GED Domains LLC, GED Testing Service LLC, George (Shanghai) Commercial Information Consulting Co. Ltd, Global Education, Global George I Limited, Global George II Limited, GlobalEnglish, Globe Fearon Inc., Guangzhou Crescent Software Co. Ltd, Heinemann Education Botswana (Publishers) (Proprietary) Limited, Heinemann Publishers (Pty) Ltd, INTELLIPRO INC., Icodeon Limited, IndiaCan Education Private Limited, Integral 7 Inc., Integrated Analytics LLC, J M Solucoes Exportacao e Importacao Ltda, K12 Learning Services LLC, Kagiso Education Pty Ltd, Knowledge Analysis Technologies LLC, LCCI International Qualifications (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., LCCIEB Training Consultancy. Ltd, Learning Catalytics, LessonLab Inc., Lignum Oil Company, Linx Brasil Distribuidora Ltda., Longman (Malawi) Limited, Longman Australasia Pty Ltd, Longman Group(Overseas Holdings)Limited, Longman Indochina Acquisition L.L.C., Longman Kenya Limited, Longman Mocambique Ltda, Longman Romania S.R.L., Longman Swaziland (Pty) Limited, Longman Tanzania Limited, Longman Zambia Educational Publishers Pty Ltd, Longman Zambia Limited, Longman Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Longmaned Ecuador S.A., Major123 Limited, Maskew Miller Longman (Pty) Limited, MeasureUp LLC, Modern Curriculum Inc., Multi Holding, Multi Treinamento e Editora Ltda, NCS Information Technology Services (Beijing) Co Ltd, NCS Pearson Inc., NCS Pearson Pty Ltd, NCS Pearson Puerto Rico Inc., National Computer Systems Japan Co. Ltd, Ordinate Corporation, PN Holdings Inc., PT Efficient English Services, Pearson (Beijing) Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Pearson (Guizhou) Education Technology Co. Ltd., Pearson Affordable Learning Fund Limited, Pearson America LLC, Pearson Amsterdam B.V., Pearson Australia Finance Unlimited, Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Pearson Australia Pty Ltd, Pearson Benelux B.V., Pearson Books Limited, Pearson Brazil Finance Limited, Pearson Business Services Inc., Pearson Canada Assessment Inc., Pearson Canada Finance Unlimited, Pearson Canada Holdings Inc, Pearson Canada Inc., Pearson Central Europe Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson College Limited, Pearson DBC Holdings Inc., Pearson Desarrollo y Capacitacion Profesional Chile Limitada, Pearson Deutschland GmbH, Pearson Digital Learning Puerto Rico Inc., Pearson Dollar Finance Two Limited, Pearson Dollar Finance plc, Pearson Educacion SA, Pearson Educacion de Chile Limitada, Pearson Educacion de Colombia S A S, Pearson Educacion de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pearson Educacion de Panama SA, Pearson Educacion de Peru S.A., Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Pearson Education Achievement Solutions (RF) (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education Asia Limited, Pearson Education Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Pearson Education Hellas SA, Pearson Education Holdings Limited, Pearson Education Inc., Pearson Education Indochina Limited, Pearson Education Investments Limited, Pearson Education Korea Limited, Pearson Education Limited, Pearson Education Namibia (Pty) Limited, Pearson Education Publishing Limited, Pearson Education S.A., Pearson Education SA, Pearson Education South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Education South Asia Pte. Ltd., Pearson Education Taiwan Ltd, Pearson Education do Brasil S.A, Pearson Educational Measurement Canada Inc., Pearson Educational Publishers LLC, Pearson Egitim Cozumleri Tikaret Limited Sirketi, Pearson Falstaff (Holdings) Inc., Pearson Falstaff Holdco LLC, Pearson France, Pearson Funding Five plc, Pearson Funding Four plc, Pearson Funding Two Limited, Pearson Holdings Inc., Pearson Holdings Southern Africa (Pty) Limited, Pearson IOKI Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Pearson India Education Services Private Limited, Pearson India Support Services Private Limited, Pearson Institute of Higher Education, Pearson International Finance Limited, Pearson Investment Holdings Inc., Pearson Italia S.p.A, Pearson Japan KK, Pearson Lanka (Private) Limited, Pearson Learning China (HK) Limited, Pearson Lesotho (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Loan Finance No. 3 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No. 4 Limited, Pearson Loan Finance No.2 Unlimited, Pearson Loan Finance Unlimited, Pearson Longman Uganda Limited, Pearson Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Pearson Management Services Limited, Pearson Management Services Philippines Inc., Pearson Maryland Inc., Pearson Netherlands B.V., Pearson Netherlands Holdings B.V., Pearson Nominees Limited, Pearson Online Tutoring LLC, Pearson Overseas Holdings Limited, Pearson PEM P.R. Inc., Pearson PRH Holdings Limited, Pearson Pension Nominees Limited, Pearson Pension Property Fund Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Limited, Pearson Pension Trustee Services Limited, Pearson Professional Assessments Limited, Pearson Real Estate Holdings Inc., Pearson Real Estate Holdings Limited, Pearson Schweiz AG, Pearson Services Limited, Pearson Shared Services Limited, Pearson South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Pearson Strand Finance Limited, Pearson Sweden AB, Pearson VUE Philippines Inc., Pearson in Practice Holdings Limited, Pearson in Practice Skills Based Learning Limited, Pearson in Practice Technology Limited, Penguin Capital LLC, Phumelela Publishers (Pty) Ltd, ProctorCam Inc., Reading Property Holdings LLC, Rebus Planning Associates Inc., Reston Publishing Company Inc., Rycade Capital Corporation, Shanghai AWL Education Software Ltd, Silver Burdett Ginn Inc., Skylight Training and Publishing Inc., Smarthinking Inc., Sound Holdings Inc., Spear Insurance Company Limited, Stark Verlag GmbH, Sunnykey International Holdings Limited (BVI), TQ Catalis Limited, TQ Clapham Limited, TQ Education and Training Limited, TQ Global Limited, TQ Group Limited, TQ Holdings Limited, The Financial Times (I) Pvt Ltd, The Learning Edge International pty Ltd, The Waite Group Inc, Trio Parent Holdings LLC, US Learning Services LLC, USLS Holdings LLC, Virtual Nerd, Vue Testing Services Israel Ltd, Vue Testing Services Korea Limited, Wall Street Institute Kft., Williams Education GmbH, eCollege.com, and Editions Du Renouveau Pedagogique Inc..Fortis Inc. operates as an electric and gas utility company in Canada, the United States, and the Caribbean countries. It generates, transmits, and distributes electricity to approximately 433,000 retail customers in southeastern Arizona; and 98,000 retail customers in Arizona's Mohave and Santa Cruz counties with an aggregate capacity of 3,233 megawatts (MW), including 59 MW of solar capacity. The company also sells wholesale electricity to other entities in the western United States; owns gas-fired and hydroelectric generating capacity totaling 65 MW; and distributes natural gas to approximately 1,048,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in British Columbia, Canada. In addition, it owns and operates the electricity distribution system that serves approximately 572,000 customers in southern and central Alberta; owns 4 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 225 MW; and provides operation, maintenance, and management services to five hydroelectric generating facilities. Further, the company distributes electricity in the island portion of Newfoundland and Labrador with an installed generating capacity of 143 MW; and on Prince Edward Island with a generating capacity of 130 MW. Additionally, it provides integrated electric utility service to approximately 67,000 customers in Ontario; approximately 270,000 customers in Newfoundland and Labrador; approximately 31,000 customers on Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; and approximately 15,000 customers on certain islands in Turks and Caicos. The company also holds long-term contracted generation assets in Belize consisting of 3 hydroelectric generating facilities with a combined capacity of 51 MW; and the Aitken Creek natural gas storage facility. It also owns and operates approximately 91,000 circuit Kilometers (km) of distribution lines; and approximately 49,500 km of natural gas pipelines. Fortis Inc. was founded in 1885 and is headquartered in St. John's, Canada.

Read MoreThe Communist Youth Federation (CYF) of Sri Lanka today staged a protest outside the Fort Railway station over several demands including Governments moves to privatize school education and the health sector. Pix by Pradeep DilrukshanaRogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, text messaging, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 10.9 million subscribers. It also provides Internet and WiFi services; smart home monitoring services, such as monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through a smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; 4K television programming; and televised content on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; calling features, such as voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol, and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; IT and network technologies; and cable access network services. The company also owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 55 AM and FM radio stations. Rogers Communications Inc. was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.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The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc.,      ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics.The following companies are subsidiares of Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO  Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited (Japan), Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams.In the wake of President Maithripala Sirisena reportedly implicating Indias Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in the alleged assassination attempt on him, Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu called on him yesterday and sought clarification in this regard, it is learnt.

According to reports, the President expressed his disappointment over the lack of progress in the conduct of investigations into the alleged attempt on his life.

Following local and international media reports that the RAW was implicated in this case, the High Commissioner visited the President yesterday morning and inquired after the allegations. It is learnt that India wanted to seek `clarity on this matter.

The Presidents office issued a media statement only after the High Commissioners visit, it is learnt. (Kelum Bandara)Invesco Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt ETF's stock was trading at $25.82 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, PCY shares have increased by 2.9% and is now trading at $26.57.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.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Suncor Energy Inc. operates as an integrated energy company. The company primarily focuses on developing petroleum resource basins in Canada's Athabasca oil sands; explores, acquires, develops, produces, transports, refines, and markets crude oil in Canada and internationally; markets petroleum and petrochemical products under the Petro-Canada name primarily in Canada. It operates in Oil Sands; Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Corporate and Eliminations segments. The Oil Sands segment recovers bitumen from mining and in situ operations, and upgrades it into refinery feedstock and diesel fuel, or blends the bitumen with diluent for direct sale to market. The Exploration and Production segment is involved in offshore operations off the east coast of Canada and in the North Sea; and operating onshore assets in Libya and Syria. The Refining and Marketing segment refines crude oil and intermediate feedstock into various petroleum and petrochemical products; and markets refined petroleum products to retail, commercial, and industrial customers through its other retail sellers. The Corporate and Eliminations segment operates four wind farm operations in Ontario and Western Canada. The company also markets and trades in crude oil, natural gas, byproducts, refined products, and power. The company was formerly known as Suncor Inc. and changed its name to Suncor Energy Inc. in April 1997. Suncor Energy Inc. was founded in 1917 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreiShares Russell 2000 Growth ETF's stock was trading at $170.68 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IWO shares have increased by 85.8% and is now trading at $317.08.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.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Animosity between President Sirisena and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe took new heights on Tuesday as the two leaders embroiled themselves in a heated exchange of words at the weekly Cabinet meeting.

It started after Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe presented a Cabinet memorandum seeking approval to develop the East Container Terminal of Colombo Port by Sri Lanka Ports Development Authority (SLPDA).



The Prime Minister, however, opined that that it should be done under an Indian investment. Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama also stressed the need to hand over the terminal for development to India.

The suggestion infuriated the President. In an excited mood, the President unleashed his verbal barrage in all directions sparing no one, and even charged that the country would compromise its sovereignty by alienating its seaports to external parties in this manner.

While rapping the government for leasing out of the Hambantota Port to a Chinese company, he said it would spell more doom in the event of alienation of a stake of the Colombo Port to another country in the same way. If we act like this, we will not be able to berth our own ship in our own port, he said.

The Prime Minister defended his position saying that a bulk of transshipment business at Colombo Port was done with India. He cited it as justification for handing over the East Container Terminal for development to India. But, the President, at this point, referred to his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit in Kathmandu, Nepal last month.

PM Modi does not mind the SLPDA developing it single-handedly, he said.

It enraged the Prime Minister prompting him to remark in Sinhala, Modi agamethithuma dannawanam, ona Bambuwak (Hang it if PM Modi knows it!) The Prime Minister is slated to visit India this weekend and will meet with Premier Modi and discuss the issues at hand. The President did not stop at that. He struck a note of criticism on Chinese involvement in development projects as well. I met with Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. He asked me to exercise caution in dealing with China, the President added.

RAW conspires to kill me- President

In addition, the President spoke out his disillusionment with the lack of progress in investigations into the alleged assassination attempt on him.

If I am the person with authority in this case, I will not keep the present Inspector General of Police (IGP) even for a week, he thundered.

Commenting on the Indian national questioned over the assassination plot, the President called him an agent of Indias Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). In this way, he tried to tell that RAW was conspiring to eliminate him physically.

I know Indian PM Narendra Modi does not know about it, he said.

Earlier, the accusation was that RAW played a pivotal role in unseating the MR regime and installing the current President. Today, the President accused the very same RAW of hatching a plot to kill him. (Kelum Bandara)

See full article:

GOVT. in turmoil as prez-PM clash Interim Government with Mahinda Rajapaksa a remote possibility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 MSCI Taiwan ETF's stock was trading at $36.70 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWT stock has increased by 80.0% and is now trading at $66.06.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.The following companies are subsidiares of Valero Energy: AIR BP-PBF DEL PERU SAC, BELFAST STORAGE LTD, CANADIAN ULTRAMAR COMPANY, COLONNADE TEXAS INSURANCE COMPANY LLC, COLONNADE VERMONT INSURANCE COMPANY, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY LLC, DIAMOND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY OF CANADA INC., DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL HOLDINGS LLC, DIAMOND GREEN DIESEL LLC, DIAMOND K RANCH LLC, DIAMOND OMEGA COMPANY L.L.C., DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINING COMPANY L.P., DIAMOND UNIT INVESTMENTS L.L.C., DSRM NATIONAL BANK, ENTERPRISE CLAIMS MANAGEMENT INC., GCP LOGISTICS COMPANY LLC, GOLDEN EAGLE ASSURANCE LIMITED, HAMMOND MAINLINE PIPELINE LLC, HUNTWAY REFINING COMPANY, MAINLINE PIPELINES LIMITED, MAPLE ETHANOL LTD., MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT GP LLC, MICHIGAN REDEVELOPMENT L.P., MRP PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, NECHES RIVER HOLDING CORP., NORCO METHANOL LLC, OCEANIC TANKERS AGENCY LIMITED, PARKWAY PIPELINE LLC, PENTA TANKS TERMINALS S.A., PI DOCK FACILITIES LLC, PICKARD PLACE CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, PORT ARTHUR COKER COMPANY L.P., PREMCOR USA INC., PROPERTY RESTORATION L.P., PURE BIOFUELS DEL PERU S.A.C., PURE BIOFUELS HOLDINGS L.P., Parkway Pipeline, Premcor, Pure Biofuels Del Peru, SABINE RIVER HOLDING CORP., SABINE RIVER LLC, SAINT BERNARD PROPERTIES COMPANY LLC, SUNBELT REFINING COMPANY L.P., THE PREMCOR PIPELINE CO., THE PREMCOR REFINING GROUP INC., THE SHAMROCK PIPE LINE CORPORATION, TRANSPORT MARITIME ST. 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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..This is a country which is harping on solving its national question; how to find a viable solution to the grievances of the minority Tamils. But despite this question being spoken about in the open, there is a question that seems to be addressed behind closed doors. That question is; how to unite the president and the prime minister?

The relationship between Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesignhe was deteriorating over the past several months and reached boiling point just a few days ago.

According to reports tensions rose to the surface at a recent meeting when the President and the Premier disagreed about how to progress with the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port. The Premier informed of his wishes to see the port being developed with Indias aid, but these views were shot down by Sirisena who affirmed that the sea port should be kept within the ambit of Sri Lanka.

These happenings leaking out to the media just prior to the Premiers scheduled visit to India can affect the relationship between the two nations.

Sri Lanka has other reasons to worry about with regard its relations with India. Newspapers were buzzing with the news that about an alleged plot to assassinate President Sirisena. The Presidential Media Division has sent a statement denying that the president had mentioned about an involvement of an Indian Intelligent Service in this regard. In the attempts to do some damage control Sirisena has taken the initiative and got in touch with Modi. Meanwhile the Indian High Commissioner called on Sirisena to seek clarity on the matter.

It is clear that the relationship between the two nations has been healthier after the 2015 presidential elections. India values this healthy relationship and so does Sirisena and Wickremesinghe.

The Premier is hellbent on promoting his ideas to stabilise the depreciating rupee. This is why he wants India to play a huge role in the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port, backing his thinking with the claim that the bulk of the container traffic towards the Colombo Port is originating from Sri Lankas closest neighbour.

Indias interests in Sri Lanka are associated with the Mattala Airport, Palaly Airport, the East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port and a Natural Gas Plant in Kerawalapitiya. Premier Wickremesinghes visit to India is aimed at accelerating the progress of East Container Terminal of the Colombo Port.

Both Sirisena and Wickremesinghe have treaded cautiously on the aspect of keeping ends warm with India. The duo is also aware that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa also keeps in touch with Indian Premier Narendra Modi. Given this background, the most aggressive claims about the involvement of Indian Intelligence Agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in an assassination attempt in Sri Lanka are being made by the Joint Opposition; a force which is working closely with Mahinda Rajapaksa. India is quite aware of Rajapaksas clout in Sri Lankan politics. Any person with an iota of political knowledge knows that India has a huge interest in who wins the 2020 Presidential Elections.

This story of there being a plot to assassinate the president is being investigated in Sri Lanka and an Indian national was arrested and questioned in this regard.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. 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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. 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The two candidates in the high-stakes 22nd Congressional district race kept the gloves on for a time, discussing priorities during a political forum Wednesday morning, at the Beeches, in Rome. For the Republican incumbent-jobs.

"I think the most important issue facing our nation is getting people back to work. We need to have people working so that they can earn a living, they could take care of their families, they could live the American dream," said Congresswoman Claudia Tenney.

The Democratic challenger says healthcare is priority one.

"To me, the number one priority is, we need to focus on rising premiums that are affecting everyone in this community and across upstate New York because of the two-year assault on the Affordable Care Act," said Anthony Brindisi.

In opening remarks, a hint of the dissention to come.

"What binds all these people together is their desire to have a representative in Congress who does not look for ways to try and divide people," said Brindisi.

Soon, the gloves came completely off.

"I feel like we're at the drone site, just droning on and on with trained, Nancy Pelosi talking points. She raised taxes. I have never raised taxes," said Tenney. "I don't know where to begin. It's a word salad of lies."

Rome Free Academy history and government students were in the audience at the political forum. They talked about how their elected leaders treated each other.

"I thought they answered some very good questions especially from the students. I think some of them, they kind of dodged the question a little bit and just attacked each other. Didn't really answer what needed to be answered," said Lauren La Forest. La Forest represents the RFA newspaper, the Knight Times. She found her industry under attack by the incumbent.

"Good luck fact checking anything with our local media because they're so busy erasing all the negative references to Anthony Brindisi that are on their website," said Tenney. After the forum, still at the event, Tenney cited the local newspaper for information.

"Recently in the Utica Observer Dispatch, just the increase in the funding for our community service agencies, those are something I fought for and obtained."

The roughly hour-long exchange between the two left the students hungry for more.

"I'd say very good debate and I'd be very intrigued to go and see more," said RFA student, Anthony Tamburrino.

The Rome Area Chamber of Commerce and the Professional and Businesswomen of Rome presented the forum.Mohawk Valley Community Colleges president has signed the largest articulation agreement in the schools history, with the University at Albany.

For UAlbany, its the largest agreement its school has with a SUNY community college.

MVCC students who complete their associates degree will be able to transfer those credits toward a bachelors degree at UAlbany more easily. The agreement states that a student majoring in general studies, general science, or humanities and social sciences at MVCC could potentially transfer into almost any bachelors degree program at UAlbany and graduate within four semesters.

The agreement includes 46 majors and every school and college at UAlbany.

School officials say this will promote and encourage students to earn their bachelors degrees in a timely manner, and it will also save students money.

Creating those pathways up front helps so much more with college planning, for students to have and parents to have that many different choices and to have clear pathways so they know when they start at MVCC, they know that their credits will transfer and a solid fashion completely to the University of Albany, said Randall VanWagoner, president of MVCC. And to have a hundred different pathways and forty-six programs is a wonderful thing, great opportunity for students and were so thrilled to have it.

Close to half of every graduating class at UAlbany includes transfer students, and MVCC has seen an increase in the amount of students that transfer to UAlbany.NEW HARTFORD  The New Hartford Police Department is asking for the publics help identifying a suspect in regards to a stolen vehicle.

Police say the vehicle was stolen on Oct. 3, and the white male pictured in the surveillance video below was seen parking the vehicle at the Fastrac on Oriskany Boulevard and then walking away from it.

Police say this is the best surveillance footage they have and theyre unable to zoom in further.

If you recognize the male, youre asked to call New Hartford police at 315-724-7111 or 315-733-6666. All calls can remain confidential.A Remsen man is facing a felony charge after he allegedly stole checks from his employer and cashed them, according to the Oneida County Sheriffs Office.

Zachary Williamson, 24, is charged with felony second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

On Aug. 2, deputies responded to an address in the town of Augusta for a reported fraud complaint. An investigation found that Williamson allegedly stole numerous checks from his employer, forged his employers name on the checks and then cashed them at several locations in Oneida and Madison counties.

Williamson was arrested Oct. 16 at an address in the town of Remsen and then taken into custody. Hes being held in the Oneida County Jail without bail.

Deputies say the case will be turned over to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office for grand jury consideration.



The United States and Britain killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and faced no punishment. China has sent one million of its Uyghur population to forced brainwashing camps and dismisses with contempt worldwide criticism. Saudi Arabia massacres children and starves millions of famine-stricken people in Yemen and yet stands tall in world fora. In this horror of rich and arrogant nations crimes, the killing of one journalist may look like no major matter.

The October 2 gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabias Istanbul consulate underscores the despicable reality behind rules in world politics: The rich and powerful can commit war crimes, kill thousands of people and still strut around as civilised nations commanding respect. International law, rules, United Nations resolutions and sanctions are largely for third world countries like Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Iran.

But mark our words; Saudi Arabia will wriggle out of the crisis, as it has done in the past whenever it had been pushed into a corner. The monarchy loathes democracy and is no respecter of human rights. Even an innocuous tweet can land a Saudi national in jail. Yet every western nation courts its friendship, with an eye on the kingdoms US$ 750 billion reserves.

Since Khashoggi disappeared on Oct 2, no Saudi citizen has opened her or his mouth to condemn the killing though the Saudi journalist was speaking up on their behalf to bring about an element of democracy into the one-family-led feudal form of governance. The Saudis simply say they believe that Khashoggi is still alive somewhere although in their hearts-of-hearts they know the messenger was tortured and killed. They also fear the fate that befell Khashoggi, who was once a close advisor to the royal family, could befall them if they utter a word that does not go with the official statement.

A critic of Saudi Arabias war on Yemen and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salmans reform process, Khashoggi was named the 2018 Muslim Democrat of the Year by the US-based Centre for Islamic Studies and Democracy. In his acceptance speech in April, he said Saudi Arabias rejection of democracy stemmed from a deep belief that absolute monarchy was the best way of governance.

Khashoggi said democracy in the region was under attack from salafists, extremists, and terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda and stressed that the only way out in the Middle East was choosing the path of democracy and getting over sectarianism. Khashoggi said the Gulf nations would keep opposing any democratic movements as the rulers believed that they were hired by God to save these countries.

These views also appeared in his regular column in the Washington Post.

Saudi Arabia does care about its world image. But instead of correcting its ways, it often resorts to hubris, threats and oppression.

In 2006, Saudi Arabia gave the Tony Blair government just ten days to stop a corruption probe launched by Britains Serious Fraud Office. The probe began after evidence emerged that British Aerospace had paid 6 billion pounds to Saudi Royal family members as commissions, to secure a multibillion pound arms deal.

Fearingthe cancellation of the contract described as the biggest [UK] sale ever of anything to anyone, Blair invoked national interest provisions and stopped the probe.That was not the only occasion that Saudi Arabia had flexed his money muscle and political clout. In November last year, Saudi Arabia abducted the prime minister of another country. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was summoned to Riyadh and kept incommunicado in an undisclosed location until France intervened and secured his release.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia warned the UN that Saudi aid to UN programmes would be stopped if it did not remove Saudi Arabia from a list of nations that had committed war crimes against children. Saudi Arabia has come under severe criticism in human rights circles for its war on Yemen, the poorest Arab nation, where children are caught up in a war that had, in addition to horror and destruction, brought about a famine described as the worst in one hundred years.

Saudi Arabias latest warning is aimed at US President Donald Trump, who is coming under Congressional pressure to take tough action against Saudi Arabia over the murder of Khashoggi. In a puerile bid to show that he was committed to value-based international relations, Trump initially said if the allegations were true, Saudi Arabia would be punished. When Saudi Arabia warned whatever measures the US would take would be met by more severe measures  meaning Saudis by curtailing oil production can let world oil prices shoot up to as much as US$ 400 a barrel  the US President yielded to pressure. He seemed to endorse now the Saudi Arabias narration that Khashoggi could have been killed by rogue killers during the interrogation that went wrong. He dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh for talks with King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad, may be to work out a way out of the crisis, and to ensure that the Saudi contracts, especially the arms deals, are safe. When urged to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Trump rejected the call, saying the Saudis would then go to Russia or China.

In a strange coincidence, the day Khashoggi walked into the consulate and into the trap set up by his killers, President Trump in an insulting tone told a campaign rally in Mississippi that Saudi Arabia and its King would not last two weeks in power without American military support and urged the kingdom to pay more for its own defence.

Trump meant business and wanted Saudi money, more of it. Trumps first visit overseas as US president was to Saudi Arabia where he signed US$ 400 billion worth of deals, of which arms purchases accounted for US$ 110 billion. In all probability, the rich nations which salivate over Saudi billions will make sure that Saudi Arabia is left off the hook, may be with mild censure, though this does not augur well for a rule-based international order.

Though the Saudi king carries the title of the servant of Islams holiest places to give some legitimacy to the royal familys claims for the divine right to rule, the rulers have long deviated from the Islamic principles of peace, justice, human rights and good governance. Can they justify the killing of children in Yemen as Islamic? Saudi clerics who are quick to condemn other forms of Islam as bida or latter day innovations, conveniently forget that monarchical rule does not conform to the Prophet Muhammads teachings and the practice of his immediate successors, who upheld meritocracy and the spirit of democracy.Researchers will work with teachers to create a new course which will address digital skills gaps as part of a new 329,975 project led by the University of Wolverhampton.

Over three years, MeLDE (Media Literacy in a Digitalised Era: supporting teachers through a whole-school approach) will develop an online platform to help students and teachers develop media literacy and gain recognised qualifications through Mozilla's Open badge scheme.

There will also be a new toolkit which teachers can use to roll out media literacy training in their schools, either as part of existing classes or an extra-curricular activity.

The project has been granted European funding, after a successful Erasmus+ Key Action 2 strategic partnership bid from the University's Faculty of Arts.

Alison Carminke, Academic Enterprise Manager for the University of Wolverhampton's Faculty of Arts, said: "EU citizens (above all, young students) are vulnerable to cyberbullying and cyber harassment, predatory behaviour and disturbing online content. Meanwhile, 44% of Europeans lack basic digital skills.

"Our project will identify current gaps in media literacy teaching, develop teachers skills and give them the tools to spread this new knowledge throughout their schools."

MeLDE was been officially launched in Wolverhampton earlier this month by partners from Cyprus, Germany, Greece and the UK.

Picture caption: MeLDE project team.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The partners involved in this project are:

University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom  Faculty of Arts

Private Institute Emphasys Centre (Cyprus) (www.emphasyscentre.com)

National Center For Scientific Research "Demokritos" (Greece) (www.demokritos.gr)

Antenna (Cyprus) (www.ant1iwo.com)

Arbeitskreis Ostviertel e.V. (Germany) (www.bennohaus.de

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today left for India on a three-day official visit.

He is expected to meet Prime Minister Modi and defence authorities there.Six brand new PT-6 aircraft purchased from the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) for primary training of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) has joined the SLAF fleet.

Air Force Commander Kapila Jayampathy signed the formal final acceptance of the aircraft after they were assembled at the Aircraft Engineering Wing (AEW) at SLAF Base, Katunayake on Wednesday.

Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathy signed the acceptance of the aircraft at AVIC Hongdu in Nanchang, China on May 15.

In 2015, the National Security Council approved the request to purchase the six PT-6 aircraft at a cost of more than USD 5 million.

PT-6 has been widely used by Chinas Air Force and countries such as the United States, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

PT-6 aircraft is a single-engine, tandem seat propeller trainer capable of performing primary flight training

SLAF said the aircraft, painted in the recently introduced colour scheme of the SLAF, would be utilized at the No1 Flying Training Wing at the SLAF Academy, China Bay for the training of newly enlisted pilots. The aircraft will also form the nucleus of an aerobatic display team to be formed in the SLAF.

SLAF Chief of Staff , Air Vice Marshal Sumangala Dias, members of the air force Board of Management and representatives of the Aviation Engineering Division of the M/S CATIC of China, the manufacturer and vendor of the Aircraft were attended the ceremony.(Darshana Sanjeewa)Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  Amid the Binays' battle for the Makati City mayoralty, Junjun Binay admitted that his father Jejomar Binay tried to convince him several times not to take the post citing various reasons.

"At one point he was convincing me not to run. Kasi noong una, hinihimok akong tumakbo ng Kongreso. And then noong sabi ko hindi ako interesado diyan, and then we have that disqualified na ako. So, from being able to run for Congress, to being disqualified. Makikita natin may unting pihit dito," he told CNN Philippines' The Source.

[Translation: At one point he was convincing me not to run. At first, I was being urged to run for Congress. And then I said I'm not interested, and then we have that (fact that) I'm disqualified. So, from being able to run for Congress, to being disqualified. You could see a shift.]

Junjun also slammed criticisms that his father backed the bid of incumbent mayor Abby for Makati City mayoralty when the former Vice President joined her in filing her certificate of candidacy on Wednesday. He said he is banking on the former vice-president to keep his word about being neutral. Jejomar Binay issued a statement on Monday saying he supported both his children's bid.

"I would like to hold on to the word of my father na maging [to be] neutral in this election," he explained.

Junjun also said his father called him on Tuesday to apologize for not being present when he filed his CoC. Only his sisters Anne and Senator Nancy Binay accompanied him to the Comelec.

He reiterated that 13 of the 16 regular councilors in the city withdrew their support for Abby, and 21 of the 33 barangay captains pledged support to him.

"It's the dissatisfaction. It's been two years, and my sister worked with them, and you know it reflects that kind of leadership," he said. "I haven't explained to him, there's public clamor. Again, we cannot deny that more than two thirds of the city council has they taken their support (away) from my sister."

But Abby, in a separate phone interview, debunked her younger brother's statements.

"I can confirm the councilors but I vehemently deny the 21 barangay officials. You have to remember also that kung may [if there is] public clamor, nasaan ang survey niya [where is his survey]?" Abby told CNN Philippines.

She said the mayoralty relies on the votes of around 500,000 Makati residents and not the elected officials, and added that it is clear her father is supporting her bid for city mayor.

"The fact my father endorsed my (certificate of nomination and acceptance). It is a written document. Wala naman na sigurong kailangan pang pagdudahan kung sino ang sinusuportahan niya. [There is no doubt who my father is supporting,]" she said.

The former Vice President's daughter then said the elections on May 13 will test both of their speculations.

"If I don't win, then that means they want to go back to their old ways," he said.

The Binay family has led Makati City for more than two decades, with Jejomar Binay as mayor before his vice presidency in 2010. Junjun took over until October 2015, when he was ordered dismissed and disqualified from running for public office by the Office of the Ombudsman over graft charges.

ABBY BINAY

Family drama

Junjun admitted that his relationship with his sister has gone sour for the past few years. He claims Abby has not had close ties with him and his other siblings, as they have not gotten together in the family's traditional Sunday lunches.

"We may have our own differences, but you know, there are times where we also support each other," he said.

Still, Junjun backed Abby's mayoral bid in 2016. He said that at that time, there was an internal agreement that her older sister will only sit as Makati City mayor for one term.

"I went around convincing people to vote for my sister, I opted not to run. It was my choice," he said.

JUNJUN BINAY

Abby belied this, saying that there was no person in that meeting which knew of her one-term limit.

"Unfortunately siya lang ata ang nakakaalala noon. Kasi kahit ang ama ko hindi 'yun sinasabi sa'kin," she said.

[Translation: Unfortunately, I think he's the only one who remembered it, because even my father's not telling me that.]

She explained that she has been consistent with her position not to talk to her siblings, and that the issues have only been brought now up due to politics.

"We agree to disagree," she said. "All I ask is that you do not wash your dirty linen in public."The cabinet spokesman saying will be hanged, should be hanged, everyone will be put in jail at a press conference will give rise to serious questions in the minds of the people about the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary in a country like ours that is still evolving a mature political culture, SLFP General Secretary Professor Rohana Lakshman Piyadasa said yesterday.

He was referring to Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Seneratne who said will be hanged, should be hanged and everyone will be put in jail at the weekly cabinet press briefing on Wednesday.

I did not see him say it. I did not watch news. But if Minister Rajitha Senaratne spoke like that  it is not suitable for him to speak in an emotional manner before journalists, Prof. Piyadasa said in Kandy.

My opinion is that the Cabinet spokesman should not get angry or emotional. He should engage with the journalists in an intelligent manner with facts, he said.

The President is implementing very advanced concepts to protect the independence of the judiciary. As an example it was after 30 years that a Chief Justice was appointed according to experience and seniority. At such a time if a minister says will be hanged, all will be put in jail  it will create a notion among the people whether a freedom of the wild ass is being created in the country again, he said.

During the recent past our Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary were going astray. The confidence of the public was shattered in them. Are we going back to such a time, is what would arise in the mind of the public, he said.

What I can say as the General Secretary of a responsible political party is that such statements could harm the Presidents difficult effort to restore our shattered political culture. The judiciary is being restored again. There was a time when houses of the judges of the Supreme Court were stoned.

Persons were brought from the outside and appointed as Chief Justices. Now the judiciary is enjoying some freedom and independence. It should be enhanced further, he said. (J.A.L. Jayasinghe)The US is increasing its pressure on Ecuador to evict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from its London embassy, where he took political asylum in June 2012. He would then be arrested immediately by British police and subjected to extradition proceedings to face trumped-up espionage charges in the US that could see him jailed for life or even executed.

On Wednesday, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee sent a threatening letter to Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno insisting that he hand over Assange to the proper authorities as a precondition for improving relations with the United States.

In a bipartisan letter, Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, and former Foreign Relations Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, declared: We are very concerned with Julian Assanges continued presence at your embassy in London and his receipt of Ecuadorian citizenship last year.

Julian Assange

Engels role makes even more explicit the leading part being played by the Democrats in the drive to lock away Assange for good and silence WikiLeaks itself. In June, on the eve of a visit to Ecuador by Vice President Mike Pence, 10 Democratic Party senators called on the Trump administration to demand that the Ecuadorian government renege on the political asylum it provided Assange six years ago.

Written in bullying and contemptuous language, the Engel-Ros-Lehtinen letter warns that any further significant progress and warming in Washingtons relationship with Morenos government on a wide range of issues, including economic cooperation and financial aid, depends on Ecuador terminating Assanges political asylum.

The letter effectively confirms that if Assange is forced to leave the embassy, on whatever pretext, the British government will deliver him into the hands of the US. Prime Minister Theresa Mays government has repeatedly refused to give Assange an assurance he will not be extradited to the US.

On numerous occasions, Mr. Assange has compromised the national security of the United States, the letter states. He has done so by publicly releasing classified government documents along with confidential materials from individuals connected to our countrys 2016 presidential election.

The thousands of secret US files published by WikiLeaks document US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, anti-democratic plots and interventions around the world, and massive global surveillance and computer hacking by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies.

The letter also refers to the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory concocted by the US spy agencies and the Democrats to accuse WikiLeaks of aiding Russian interference to secure Donald Trumps 2016 victory. In reality, WikiLeaks published documents, which it insists were not provided by Russia, proving that top Democratic Party officials sought to sabotage the campaign of Bernie Sanders in the primary elections and that Hillary Clinton gave speeches to Wall Street bankers pledging to protect their interests.

The letter brands Assange a dangerous criminal and a threat to global security, who should be brought to justice. The truth is that Assange and WikiLeaks have courageously continued to publish leaked documents that expose the truly dangerous criminalsthe US ruling class and its allies, and their illegal invasions, assassinations, regime-change operations and mass surveillance.

As for justice, the American intelligence, detention and judicial agencies have a documented record of torture, frame-ups, show trials and incarceration of enemy combatants without trial.

The letter adds: Most recently, we were particularly disturbed to learn that your government restored Mr. Assanges access to the Internet. This is also a false assertion.

Last Friday, under the guise of partially restoring Assanges right to access the internet and receive visitors, Morenos government sought to impose a new special protocol that provides a pretext for terminating the asylum that the previous Ecuadorian government of Rafael Correa granted him in 2012.

Anyone seeking to visit Assange would have to give the Ecuadorian embassy three days notice and wait for written authorisation by the head of the embassy, which could be arbitrarily refused or cancelled without any reason being given. Visitors would have to provide the Ecuadorian authorities with full ID details and either hand over or clear all mobile phones and other communications devices.

Assange, whose health has been severely compromised by being trapped inside the tiny embassy for six years, would have to submit to compulsory quarterly medical evaluations that could provide the pretext for a forced medical evacuation.

Far from restoring Assanges basic democratic rights, the protocol would reinforce the political silencing imposed by Ecuador in March. In direct violation of the right to asylum, it seeks to forbid him from making any comments that criticise or could offend any government, particularly those with good relations with Ecuador.

Assange would have to comply scrupulously with a prohibition on carrying out any activities that could be considered as political and interference in the internal affairs of other States, or that may cause harm to the good relations of Ecuador with any other State.

The protocol states that failure to comply with any of its obligations will entail, in addition to other possible consequences, the termination of the asylum of Mr. Julian Assange.

One of the possible grounds for a US application to extradite Assange may well be an indictment against the WikiLeaks editor by the Mueller investigation into purported Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A concerted effort has been waged by US intelligence agencies, the Democratic Party and media outlets such as the New York Times and the Guardian to slander Assange as an agent of both the Putin regime and the Trump campaign because WikiLeaks published the damning exposures of Clinton.

In what may be related to the attempt to link WikiLeaks with Russia, Morenos government this week released documents purporting to reveal that it sought to get Assange out of its embassy last December by naming him as a political counsellor to the countrys embassy in Moscow.

British authorities, however, flatly rejected a request for Assange to be given an Ecuadorian diplomatic ID card. According to the documents, a letter dated December 21, 2017 from Britains Foreign Office said UK officials do not consider Mr. Julian Assange to be an acceptable member of the mission.

Russias embassy said on Twitter that the material was another example of disinformation and fake news. The embassy repeated its denial of similar reports produced by the Guardian last month. WikiLeaks associate and former British whistle-blower Craig Murray has also publicly rejected claims that Assange wanted or requested to go to Russia.

The files were made public on Tuesday at the instigation of right-wing opposition legislator Paola Vintimilla, whose Social Christian Party opposed the former Correa governments decision to grant Assange nationality. Assange, an Australian citizen, was compelled to turn to Ecuador in 2012 because the Labor Party-led government in Australia fully lined up with the Obama administration and denied him his right to assistance and protection against persecution.

Under Moreno, who assumed the presidency in May 2017, Ecuadors government has turned against WikiLeaks and Assange as part of its efforts to reforge relations with Washington. The decision to cut off his communication and visitation rights on March 28 this year was taken one day after the US and Ecuador held top level military talks. Moreno has since repeatedly threatened to repudiate Assanges political asylum in an apparent effort to pressure him into voluntarily leaving the embassy.

As the conspiracy against the WikiLeaks editor escalates, the World Socialist Web Site reiterates its call for all defenders of democratic rights to fight for the unconditional freedom of Julian Assange. It is an essential component of the broader struggle in defence of freedom of speech and an independent and critical media in opposition to the growing censorship of oppositional views by governments and corporate giants such as Facebook and Google.

The author also recommends:

The Australian government must act to repatriate Julian Assange to Australia

[17 June 2018]A major feature of the November 6 midterm election campaign in the United States is an effort to divert a left-wing movement of the working class into the safe channels of the Democratic Party.

While the pro-imperialist orientation of the Democrats is demonstrated by the dozens of congressional candidates with ties to the military-intelligence apparatus, a relative handful of pseudo-left candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York City are being used to give the Democrats an entirely undeserved radical and progressive image.

In Florida, this is being done with the Democratic Party candidate for governor, Andrew Gillum, the African-American mayor of Tallahassee, who won the August 26 primary in an upset over several more conservative candidates, including the favorite of the party establishment, former Representative Gwen Graham, daughter of former governor and US senator Bob Graham.

The presentation of Gillum as a progressive, left-wing candidate has brought out the age-worn red-baiting techniques of right-wing commentators, who consider virtually anything to the left of Ronald Reagan as socialism. For these types, mild reforms like minimum wage increases, and even phony reforms such as Obamacare, are signs of socialism. However, the idea that Gillum represents anything close to socialism is preposterous.

Gillum, a 39-year-old African American, is the current mayor of the state capital of Florida, and served on the Tallahassee City Commission from 2003 to 2014. He has close relations with the Tallahassee Police Department, promoting safe neighborhoods as a response to shooting incidents in the state.

After he won the Democratic nomination to face ultra-right Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis, who ran a Trump-style campaign, Gillum was heavily promoted by the liberal and pseudo-left press as the first black nominee of a major party for governor of Florida, and as a Bernie Sanders-type progressive candidate.

In his television advertisements, Gillum claims that he will invest $1 billion in education, create Medicare for everyone, and establish a $15 minimum wage, all while beating the NRA. He talks about overcoming impossible odds to be put in the position to win the gubernatorial race as the first black governor in the same way that Hillary Clinton was presented as the potential first woman president and Barack Obama as the first black president.

As he is a thoroughly bourgeois politician, workers should not be fooled by the presentation of Gillum as some sort of radical. He has never even been a Sanders-type pretend reformer within the party, supporting Clinton in 2016. He is only distinguished from his pro-corporate counterparts by his race, in what amounts to attempting the Obama swindle a second time. Stacy Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in neighboring Georgia, is attempting a similar swindle, only twice as big, since she is a dual-minority candidate, female and black, running against an ultra-right Trump-style Republican.

Gillums selection of millionaire investor Chris King as his running mate demonstrates his real class loyalties. King is the founder of the Elevation Financial Group, a company that acquires low-cost housing units and turns them for profit. King is openly religious and presents himself as an evangelical Christian, which is intended to ingratiate Gillum with members of the Christian fundamentalist right who might be skeptical of Gillums supposedly more left ideas.

The endorsements and support Gillum has received from various politicians and media personalities also exposes his pro-corporate character. He has received support from celebrities who have benefited commercially from reactionary identity politics such as Tyler Perry and #MeToo figurehead Alyssa Milano. He has also been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, and was one of the several hundred Democratic Party candidates endorsed by former President Barack Obama last week.

Despite the rhetoric of his campaign advertisements, Gillum is a political representative of the capitalist class no less than DeSantis, and in some ways more so since he is more of a mainstream pro-corporate politician than his Trump-style opponent. In a sense, this is a rerun of the presidential race, with DeSantis standing in for Trump and Gillum for Clinton. Trump carried Florida by a small margin, but popular opinion in Florida, as elsewhere, has turned sharply against the administration, and Gillum is narrowly ahead in the polls

Both Trump and DeSantis have launched strident attacks on Gillum since the primaries, claiming that he has a socialist agenda. This began when Trump called Gillum a failed socialist mayor a few hours after he won the Democratic primary, and has continued as a main talking point for DeSantis. In early September DeSantis told an audience in Miami that socialism would be a disaster for Florida. We cant let socialist policies win in this free land.

In part, this is an effort to curry favor with older Cuban voters in south Florida with out-and-out red-baiting. But it also expresses the genuine fear of socialism that animates the entire US ruling elite, particularly after the 13 million votes cast for Sanders in the 2016 primaries, reinforced by opinion polls showing that young people in America have a more favorable attitude to socialism than to capitalism.

While Gillum himself has chosen to ignore the claims that he is a socialistand he has not been compelled to address the issue directly because debates with DeSantis have been postponed due to Hurricane Michaelone of his campaign organizers has chosen to fire back with redbaiting charges of her own.

The leader of Venezuelans for Gillum vilified DeSantis for accepting $75,000 in campaign contributions from Sunshine Gasoline, which has a tenuous connection to CITGO, owned by the Petroleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. She tweeted about the DeSantis campaign: They come to Miami, lie and exploit the suffering of people who have fled socialist dictatorships, but yes, they happily accept dirty money from Venezuela. A total hypocrisy.

This response of the Democratic Party, to respond to red-baiting with red-baiting, shows how frightened the ruling elites are that workers and young people are looking more favorably on socialism. It underscores that so-called progressive candidates in the Democratic Party are just as ardent defenders of capitalism as the ultra-right Trump lovers in the Republican Party.Last Saturday, almost 2,000 people from all over Honduras gathered in the northwestern city of San Pedro Sula in order to travel together northward to reach the United States and Canada. The migrants and refugees are escaping generalized conditions of violence and poverty, which were imposed by a century and more of imperialist plundering by US corporations of the regions natural resources and cheap labor, enforced through military invasions, occupations, CIA-backed coups and other forms of political meddling.

The caravan has been faced with an ongoing and increasingly brutal crackdown against immigrants by Mexican and Central American authorities at the behest of the US government.

The Thursday prior to their departure, a security summit took place with Central American and Mexican officials, along with the US vice president, secretary of state and secretary of homeland security as part of the second conference of the Obama-era Alliance for Prosperity of the Northern Triangle, which includes Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

At the meeting, US Vice President Mike Pence demanded governments stem the flow of illegal immigration and drugs. He referred angrily to the fact that over the last year 225,000 migrants from the Northern Triangle traveled northward, making up most apprehensions at the US-Mexico border. This figure is a 61 percent increase from Honduras and 75 percent from Guatemala over the last year.

Pence threatened migrants not to put your families at risk by taking the dangerous journey north, adding later: We will confront those who would do us harm through drug trafficking and gang violence.

The US officials also used the meeting to threaten Central America against building closer economic ties with China, considered by Washington as its main geopolitical rival, while making clear that the national security framework for the attacks on immigrants across the region is an integral part of the militarization and other preparations for war against major powers.

By Monday, about 1,000 more migrants, carrying backpacks along with children and infants, joined the caravan within the initial 110 miles before reaching the border crossing point with Guatemala at Agua Caliente.

The Guatemalan government deployed about 100 anti-riot police to block the highway to meet the caravan. According to El Periodico, a military helicopter even flew close to the caravan.

However, the intimidation tactics didnt work against the enormous mass of thousands of migrants. After some hours of waiting and confusion, with children hungry and some fainting, humanitarian groups from Guatemala arrived with food and water. Eventually, as it was clear that the migrants were being illegally halted, as Northern Triangle citizens only need their national ID card to each others cross-borders, the caravan was allowed to march into Guatemala chanting Si se pudo! (Yes, we could!), despite the continuous harassment of the armed forces.

Many speaking to reporters about why they are leaving speak of the gang violence, lack of health care for serious conditions, and how the rich have all the money. One mother carrying her daughter told reporters: What happens is that the sons and daughters of politicians get jobs, but there are no jobs for the poor. A man told the Honduran HCH Noticias Its not the president and his zero poverty promises. No, we are the ones that will avoid this poverty by sending remittances to our families back there.  And we are no single country, we are Central America, we are united.

After the successful crossing, the group advanced 58 miles to the city of Esquipulas with the help of buses and trailer trucks provided by pro-immigrant groups.

There, the police arrested Bartolo Fuentes, a journalist and former deputy of the LIBRE coalition, who had become one of the spokesmen of the caravan. He was also one of the organizers of the caravan, which was largely put together through social media.

Fuentes was quickly sent to the capital, Guatemala City, where he was fraudulently accused of illegally entering the country and sentenced for deportation back to Honduras. Using the relationship between some organizers and the official opposition parties, the Honduran Foreign Ministry justified the arrest and urged Hondurans in a statement not to take part in this irregular mobilization by a movement that is clearly political.

A reporter of HCH Noticias in the shelter in Chiquimula was quickly surrounded by migrants hoping to send I-miss-you greetings to their loved ones, to thank Guatemalans for the warm welcome, and call for international support. One explained that salaries are only $4-$5 per day in Honduras and are not enough to pay for food and utilities for his family. A youth said: I want to say hi to my mom, Reina Hilda Hernandez, to my friends, brothers, my girlfriendthe love of my life who decided to stay. Im doing well, it has been yuca [tough], but there are no spikes.

The plan of these migrants is to reach the Mexican and US ports of entry and to apply for asylum. Although the Trump administration officially ended the policy of separating families in late Junewith many separated children never to be reunited with their parents, already deported applicants continue to be sent into detention camps in record numbers, but now as family units.

Moreover, the end of the summer has seen a new surge in immigration to record levels, with US Customs and Border Protection reporting a jump in border arrests of 43 percent between June and September. According to Trump aides, speaking anonymously to the Washington Post, this surge, a few weeks away from the US mid-term elections, has made the president furious.

Back in April, Trump used a slightly smaller caravan of Central American migrants as a pretext to deploy the National Guard to the US-Mexico border with the cooperation of the Democratic Party.

Now, under advice by his fascist aide Stephen Miller, Trump has been pushing to rapidly re-instate family separation in some other form. On Tuesday he told AP, The one thing I will also say is that when a person thinks they will not be separated, our borders become overrun with people coming in.

He has reportedly also given orders to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to push Mexico to carry out more aggressive measures, to round up and deport Central American immigrants, including stopping the caravan. On Tuesday, Trump fired off a tweet against Honduras: If the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!

The Mexican government has responded by mobilizing hundreds of police, military and migration officials to Tapachula, Chiapas, according to several local reports, with the National Migration Institute announcing that it will inspect each case individually, requiring visas for entry and will deport those not qualifying for refugee status. As evidenced by the experience at the Honduras-Guatemala border, such a detention of the caravan at the heavily militarized Guatemala-Mexico border could quickly turn into a humanitarian disaster for the migrants.

This militarized assault on immigrants by the Mexican authorities, acting as an extension of the US deportation forces, is expected to escalate during the incoming Mexican government of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

While demagogically promising during the campaign that he will not do the dirty work of US immigration policy, once elected he immediately adopted a tone of subservience to US imperialism. In a press conference yesterday, referring to a vague plan to reduce immigration by increasing US-Mexican capital investments in the Northern Triangle, Lopez Obrador still stated with deference I exposed this to president Donald Trump; hell accept our proposal. When asked specifically by reporters whether the caravan should be allowed to enter Mexico, he evaded the questionThere are options, there are alternatives. It isnt only about that.World Socialist Web Site reporters attended a demonstration by supporters of Unsubmissive France (LFI) outside the partys headquarters on Tuesday, called to oppose police raids against the organization that morning. Police seized all the data on computers in the offices of LFI and the Left Party, an allied political party founded by LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon in 2009, and searched Melenchons apartment.

We spoke with Myriam, a Chilean refugee in France who had fled the dictatorship of Augustus Pinochet, and her daughter, Esperanza. Myriam came to sound the alarm, and warned that the raids against LFI recalled the methods used by the Chilean right-wing to terrorize workers prior to Pinochets bloody CIA-backed coup d  etat in 1973. The methods of the right wing are always the same: overturn the law and take advantage of their powers for actions like this.

I arrived in 1985 with my two children to escape the dictatorship there, she said. We were targeted. I wanted to protect my children, economically as well. We arrived here and my children have grown up, but now we are starting to see the same thing. Im very afraid.

Myriam noted the deep anger growing among workers in France against the authoritarian and militarist policies of the government of Emmanuel Macron, which is seeking to tear up workers social rights and public services. You see that all the resources for supporting the poor are being taken away.  They dont want workers, they want slaves.

She also said that the class interests supporting the policies of Macron and that which backed Pinochets coup were the same. Pinochets coup d  etat was supported by the free-market conservatives, she said. Chile was the laboratory for their free-market policies. They profited, and the people starved to death. In France, Myriam said that under former Socialist Party (PS) president Francois Hollande, they have begun to put an end to the labor code. In Chile there is no longer a labor code.

Myriam made clear her hostility to Macron, a banker and former advisor to the PS government who could only become president because he wants to place the whole of society at the disposal of the financial elite. Macron was a zero, the worst of all the candidates, and now look where he is, she said. And whom does he serve? He serves the rich, the ultra-rich, and thats it.

Myriam warned of the growing neo-fascist danger in the Brazilian presidential elections, where the extreme-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is on the verge of taking power. She noted that the methods of Chile in 1973 and those of Brazil today, which we are seeing with the attacks against Lula, are the same, a reference to the judicial maneuvers that led to the imprisonment of former president Lula de Silva of the Brazilian Workers Party on corruption charges.

Myriam added that with Macron in France, I see the same processes, slowly at first, because it is France after all. It is not an impoverished South American nation. So, they proceed with more care. But it is the same.Following the unexpected landslide rejection of a United Auto Workers (UAW)-backed contract at two of Lear Corporations Indiana plants Sunday, the UAW has been scrambling to contain workers opposition.

Workers at plants in Hammond and Portage, Indiana, voted no by nearly three to one (74 percent) on the UAW-backed tentative agreement. The workers manufacture seats for the Ford Explorer, which is produced at the nearby Chicago Assembly Plant.

The courageous stand taken against the pro-corporate agenda of the company and the union has provoked widespread interest and support among other workers, with many sharing the World Socialist Web Site article Indiana Lear auto parts workers overwhelmingly reject UAW-backed contract proposal on Facebook. As of this writing, the contract rejection vote has been entirely ignored by the corporate press.

Workers at Lear should carry forward the momentum of the no vote and not wait for the UAW to string out the negotiations and beat back opposition. The WSWS Autoworker Newsletter calls on workers to act immediately to elect rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the union, to formulate demands which take as their starting point workers needs.

Such committees should take the conduct of the negotiations out of the hands of the UAWwhich has proven itself to be a representative of management, not workersand begin making preparations for strike action. At the same time, an urgent appeal must be made to the many other sections of workers facing a similar fight against poverty wages and miserable working conditions.

The overwhelming rejection of the UAW-backed deal at Lear is another sign of the growing wave of working class militancy in the US and internationally. Anger continues to simmer among tens of thousands of UPS workers, who have seen the Teamsters union attempt to force through a brutal concessions contract, despite a 54 percent no vote. In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, striking autoworkers seeking to oppose low wages at Yamaha Motors India and other companies have faced arrest and threats of termination.

Workers at Lear and other auto parts plants have suffered decades of sharp declines in wages and benefits, imposed with the willing assistance of the UAW. The average hourly wage for auto parts production and other non-supervisory workers declined 7 percent between 2006 and 2016, according the Wall Street Journal. In 2016, UAW officials acknowledged that they were in the midst of negotiations with Lear over the possibility of the company hiring on hundreds of workers at a lower wage scale in Detroit, in an effort by the union to increase its dues base.

In 2014, the UAW attempted to claim that it was ending two-tier at the Lear Hammond plant, knowing there was massive hostility to the tier system which it had initiated. In reality, however, the union had agreed to the creation of a new tier of sub-assembly workers, who would be moved to a plant in Portage and have their wages capped at an even lower level.

Lear workers told the WSWS in 2015 that the UAWs claims of ending the tiers were far-fetched, that they had screwed us over, and that there were new demands for speed-up following the enactment of the contract.

In the current situation, UAW Local 2335 has responded to the rejection of its contract by seeking both to placate workers anger and to cover up its role in attempting to push through yet another sellout agreement.

On Monday, the local released a statement asserting that officials had sought to survey [members] individually, and due to time constraints would hold a series of ratification feedback meetings. The local offered no explanation as to why they had falsely promoted the dealwhich they attempted to ram through Sunday, refusing to distribute the agreement beforehandas helping support our families with a better wage.

Sometime Monday or Tuesday, in a blatant act of censorship aimed at stamping out opposition, Local 2335 deleted a post from its Facebook page from Sunday, which had shown the total ballot count from the ratification vote. The post had attracted a number of comments from workers, who were either thrilled that the contract was voted down, or incredulous and angry that the union had even brought it to a vote.

Meanwhile, on the WSWS Autoworker Newsletters Facebook page, Sherry Franciski-Dauksza, the vice president of Local 2335 and a member of the bargaining committee which negotiated the agreement workers had just voted down, hysterically denounced the reporting of the WSWS as lies, writing, THIS ARTICLE IS FILLED WITH LIES! THIS GROUP THAT MADE THIS ARTICLE IS A UNION BUSTING GROUP..... When challenged, however, Franciski-Dauksza was unable to point to anything that was factually inaccurate in the report.

Jerry White, editor of the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter, responded, explaining [The] UAW is not a union in any sense from the standpoint of the interest of workers. It does not unite, it divides workers by tiers, between plants, etc. It has taken millions in bribes to sign pro-company deals. Thats why workers need rank-and-file committees, independent of the UAW, to fight.

In a revealing reply, Franciski-Dauksza actually said she agreed with Whites characterization of the UAW, adding morosely, I agree Jerry, but you have reps and people that r honest and really do try!! Sad it is the way it is

The UAWs denunciation of the article as lieswhich is at the same time an attempt to delegitimize workers genuine opposition to its pro-corporate agendais in line with its campaign, going back to the 2015 contract negotiations, to fraudulently characterize the WSWS efforts to expose the truth as fake news.

In sharp contrast with the UAWs efforts at damage control, workers at Lear described the deterioration of their living conditions over several contracts. I work at this plant, wrote Pam. I have been there going on 19 years. Last contract us seniors over the 4 years [of the contract] only equaled out to be a 10 cent raise by the time we paid more insurance and losing the match on our 401k and them freezing our pension.

I think we deserve better than what they want to give us. Plus the back pay from when our contract ended, they want to add it in on our signing bonus. Really r u kidding me and let them give us a luxury tax on our wages. BOGUS.

Workers at other companies who had undergone their own painful experiences at the hands of the UAW shared their statements of support and denounced the role of the union.

Jeff, a worker at the agricultural equipment company John Deere, commented, Good for them the [UAW] did the same thing to Deere employees last contract, rushed them to a vote not knowing what was in the contract. UAW is in bed with management!!

A worker with several years at the Ford Chicago Assembly told the WSWS Autoworker Newsletter that she had not previously realized how low starting wages were at the Lear plants. She stated her support for a common struggle of Ford, Lear, and other workers, adding, I think we should join together, cause if the company can get away with it with them theyll try it with all of us. Workers in every field need to be united.

The best predictor of the future is the UAWs track record, said a Fiat Chrysler worker in Kokomo, Indiana. The overwhelming majority of members have zero confidence in the money-leaching UAW. It is as if the UAW International works for the companies. We cannot trust them to bargain on our behalf. The way the UAW treats workers exposes them not as an organization for workers, but an organization for big business!Events in Sydney over the past 10 days have provided a stark reminder of the nexus between Australias multi-million dollar horse racing and gambling industry, the mainstream media and the major political parties. They reveal precisely how this ignorant and grasping milieu, and its single-minded pursuit of personal gain, dictates and debases cultural life.

Last month Racing NSW demanded its right to advertise its forthcoming Everest Cup horse-racea $13 million annual event at Sydneys Royal Randwick racecourseon the exterior of the Sydney Opera House (SOH).

The corporate gambling group wanted images of the competing horses, their barrier-draws, jockeys colours and the race trophy itself to be projected onto the world-renowned sails of the architecturally acclaimed building on October 9, a few days before the race.

The Everest Trophy is the worlds richest horse race with an entry fee of $600,000 per horse. The first prize in 2020 will have climbed to $15 million.

SOH chief executive Louise Herron opposed Racing NSWs demand, informing state government officials, during a series of heated meetings, that it violated the buildings operating charter and would threaten its World Heritage listing. The charter states that projection of colours and images on to the sails of the Opera House should be confined to exceptional, non-commercial occasions of brief duration.

This conflict, however, was largely unknown to the citys residents until the Rupert Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph and Australian, along with 2GB radio announcer and extreme-right demagogue Alan Jones, joined the attack.

Jones, 77, a multi-millionaire horse owner and major investor in the gambling industry, who is well-knwon for his anti-immigrant views, decided to interview the SOHs Herron on his radio show. Two of Joness business partners in the racing industry had contenders in the Everest Trophy.

Jones demanded that Herron stop blocking Racing NSW and allow its advertising scheme to proceed. Who the hell do you think you are? he thundered on public radio.  We own the Opera House! Do you get that message?

When Herron refused to capitulate, Jones threatened to call NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and instruct her to immediately sack Herron.

A few hours later, Premier Berejiklian overruled SOH management and the official charter and ordered the October 9 advertising media display to proceed.

Joness bullying and the government decision provoked an immediate response from thousands of Sydney residents.

Scores of enraged social media posts and letters to the media denounced Joness outrageous behaviour, the blatant commercialisation of the building, and the governments slavish relations with the gambling industry. The National Trust and peak architecture, visual arts and theatre organisations all issued statements opposing the decision.

The angry response followed allegations last month that Rupert Murdoch had called for the removal of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister and revelations of government interference in the state-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Indifferent and contemptuous of the popular anger, newly appointed Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a former advertising and marketing executive, declared that the horse race was a big money spinner for NSW and advertising it on the SOHs sails was a no-brainer.

The Opera House, he declared, was the biggest billboard Sydney hasI cant work out what all the fuss is about.

Labor Party MPs in NSWstate Labor leader Luke Foley and federal MP and shadow minister for tourism Anthony Albaneseimmediately concurred. Albanese told the media that people should chill out a bit because this [horse] race is beamed around the world.

In other words, the prospect of major profits for the gambling industry from such global exposure trumped any other consideration. Last year gambling revenue in Australia totalled more than $23 billion, the highest per capita in the world, including $3.3 billion from racing. The industry is notorious for gouging its super-profits from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged layers of the population.

Within days, more than 311,000 people had endorsed an online petition opposing the advertising, and a newspaper survey indicated that 80 percent of NSW residents were against Racing NSWs light show.

On October 9, the night of the Everest Cup advertisement, over 2,000 people gathered outside the Opera House, chanting slogans against the government, Alan Jones and Racing NSW. Placards were held aloft declaring Sails, not $ales, while many shone torches and hi-beam lights on the SOHs sails in an effort to disrupt the advertisements.

Such was the public uproar that a few days later Jones decided to offer a bogus apology to Herron, while a senior Racing NSW bureaucrat told the media: I dont think well be going down this path again.

Greens MPs in NSW and various small l liberal independents, demagogically denounced Jones, the racing industry and the Liberal and Labor parties.

The Greens declared the protest had forced Jones and Racing NSW to change tack and deemed it an important victory against the big business interests threatening the cultural integrity of the SOH.

Addressing last Tuesdays protest, Greens MP for Newtown, Jenny Leong, declared that the demonstrators had drawn a line in the sand and that the people have said enough to bullies, enough to the idea that people with power can buy this city.

The immediate eruption of outrage, on the part of hundreds of thousands of people, against the wealthy elites and the gambling industryone of the largest donors to Australian federal and state politiciansis a powerful and healthy reaction, and based on an elemental understanding that the cultural rights of the population were under attack.

To imagine, however, that this episode will pressure big business, including gambling, the media and their political servants would be a grave error. The horse-racing and gambling industries are promoted and run by the most ruthless and selfish social layers. They spend millions lobbying those in power, and simply refuse to take no for an answer.

As Premier Berejiklian told the media late last week, the Opera House guidelines have from time to time been amended and I dont want NSW to fall behind because other cities and states are promoting these events.

Ending this scourge requires nothing less than the development of a revolutionary socialist movement of the working class to rid society of the capitalist profit system itself.

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[28 October 1999]Last weekend, nearly a quarter million people marched in Berlin, Germany to protest militarism, racism, and the promotion of the extreme right by Germanys grand coalition government. The demonstration, dubbed #indivisible by its organizers, was the largest mass protest in the country since marches against the Iraq war in 2003.

Some of the placards displayed at the protests, many of which were homemade, read, No to the witch-hunting of Muslims, No place for Nazis, and Racism is no alternative. One banner bore the declaration, Solidarity with the victims of right-wing, racist, and anti-Semitic violence.

In discussions with World Socialist Web Site reporters, demonstrators described Germanys secret service as a right-wing extremist stronghold, and condemned the establishment parties' embrace of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The Bavarian state election held the following day also underscored the deep gulf between the political elite and the left-wing sentiments of broad sections of the population. After the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats saw their worst results in 70 years at last year's federal election, the CSU and SPD all but collapsed in Bavaria, losing more than 21 percentage points. The SPD in Bavaria, which was in opposition, lost even more votes than the governing CSU. With just 9.5 percent of the vote, the SPD achieved its worst ever state election result.

The right-wing extremist AfD also lost a substantial number of votes. While in last year's federal election the AfD secured 12.4 percent of the vote in Bavaria, it won just 10.2 percent of the vote in Sunday's state election. In other words: although Germany's ruling elite, and its leading parties and media mouthpieces, have systematically promoted the AfD and legitimised right-wing extremist conceptions, the far-right party lost some 231,000 votes, or a quarter of its voters.

These developments confirm two central positions taken by the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality PartySGP).

First, the AfD does not reflect widespread far-right sentiments in the population, but has rather been encouraged by the ruling elite in order to impose its policies of social austerity and war in the face of popular opposition. Despite all of the distancing from the Nazis' crimes, German democracy is as fragile as it was in the past, wrote the SGP in its statement distributed at the demonstration. As soon as the ruling elite adopts a new imperialist course and feels opposition from below, they show their preference for the far-right.

Second, the struggle against the far-right menace requires a socialist perspective. Political outrage and mass protests are necessary, but not sufficient. To prevent the ruling class from once again pursuing their reactionary agenda by promoting fascistic forces, it is necessary to build an international socialist movement capable of combining opposition to social inequality, the rise of the far-right, and war with the struggle against capitalism.

After the events of this past weekend, the question of a socialist strategy to oppose the far-right is posed with renewed urgency. The entire ruling elite is responding to the widespread opposition at the ballot box and in the streets with a further shift to the right. The ruling elite is closing ranks, suppressing all forms of democratic opposition, and intensifying its political conspiracy against the population.

Former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel urged the grand coalition government to hire more police and not to concede to pressure from the streets. Provoking a new government crisis by giving up the ghost certainly won't make Germany any more stable, he told the Bild newspaper. Germany is too large to focus solely on ourselves. And the world will only listen to us if we hold Europe together.

In her government statement on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel struck the same reactionary tone. She demanded a further crackdown on refugees, calling for joint improvements in protecting the external borders and repatriations. Another issue was tightening domestic security. For the European elections, the government is planning to create guidelines for parties which actively spread disinformation in their campaigns.

The implications of this are clear. Under the pretext of combatting disinformation, Google has been censoring left-wing and progressive news outlets, including the World Socialist Web Site, in close collaboration with the German government. In the grand coalition's latest report by the domestic intelligence agency, all opposition to capitalism, nationalism, imperialism, and militarism was criminalized as left-wing extremist and anti-constitutional. The SGP was labelled as a left-wing extremist party and an object for observation.

The government is able to act so aggressively only because it is supported by the state apparatus and de facto by the left-wing opposition parties. Twenty years after the Green Party organised Germany's first military intervention in the post-war era in the face of bitter opposition, they have shifted far to the right on domestic and refugee policy. Wherever they are part of governing coalitions, they have strengthened the security forces and organised brutal deportations of refugees. In Bavaria, they are hoping for a coalition with the CSU of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who explicitly defended the recent neo-Nazi rampage in Chemnitz.

Left Party parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht accused Merkel in her statement on Wednesday of being a lame duck in the Chancellor's office, and complained that Germany currently has a government incapable of functioning. At an event last week, she openly disassociated her party from the mass protests in Berlin and described the idea of open borders as unreal and completely impractical. It is only a matter of time before Wagenknecht agrees to a deal with the extreme right. Wagenknecht is a brave voice of reason, enthused AfD leader Alexander Gauland, who recently authored an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that was based in large part on a speech by Hitler in 1933.

The media is playing a central role in the political conspiracy to promote the far right. While they promote the AfD, give generous coverage to every anti-refugee demonstration, and describe neo-Nazis as concerned citizens, hardly any reports appeared on the mass demonstration in Berlin. Commentators openly denounced the demonstration. The Berlin-based Tagesspiegel provocatively accused the organisers of illegal censorship for their banning of German flags and AfD members.

Influential circles in politics, the media, intelligence agencies, and military are working behind the scenes to grant the AfD even more power in Berlin. The entry of the AfD into parliament has produced some positive changes, declared parliamentary president Wolfgang Schauble in an interview with Bild am Sonntag. The grand coalition's majority is not as clear-cut as it was during the last legislative period, and this makes the debates more exciting, he added.

Referring to the AfDs fascistic and racist tirades on the floor of parliament, Schauble declared that such tough rhetoric is not so bad that we need to be concerned about it.

Under these conditions, the SGP is renewing its call for new elections. A clique of right-wing conspirators without any mandate cannot be permitted to install a right-wing dictatorship, rearm Germany, and compel the population to pay the bloody price. In an election campaign, the SGP would mobilise all of its forces and resources to expose the ruling elite's reactionary policies and build a socialist alternative to capitalism, war and authoritarianism.

We demand the following:

* Stop the conspiracy by the grand coalition, the state apparatus, and right-wing extremists!

* Mass opposition to the extreme right must be mobilised on the basis of a socialist and internationalist programme.

* No more war! Stop Germany's return to a militarist great power policy!

* For the dissolution of the secret service and an immediate halt to the surveillance of the SGP and other left organizations!

* Defend the right to asylum! No to the militarisation of the state and surveillance!

* End poverty and exploitationfor social equality! The wealth of the financial elite, together with the banks and corporations, must be expropriated and placed under democratic control.The first responsibility of a genuine socialist movement is to tell the truth to the working class. The recently published small volume 55 Strong, Inside the West Virginia Teachers Strike, widely promoted by Labor Notes and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), does precisely the opposite.

55 Strong

55 Strong is a whitewash of the unions, the Democratic Party and the middle-class fake socialist groups, which worked together to derail and betray the nine-day strike of West Virginia educators last spring. The DSA, which is a faction of the Democratic Party, has rushed the book to press in order to promote the election of various Democrats, including West Virginia congressional candidate Richard Ojeda, in the November elections. The DSA, ISO and Labor Notes group, whose members have increasingly taken leading positions in the teacher unions, want to shore up the discredited American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) as new struggles by teachers emerge in Los Angeles and other areas.

Edited by activist Jessica Salfia, West Virginia-based folklorist Emily Hilliard and Appalachia-focused author Elizabeth Catte, the book claims to feature authentic teacher stories. The volume strings together a series of interviews and personal essays by lower level union officials, supporters of Labor Notes, the DSA or Jacobin magazine and a few others. It pushes the myth of a historic victory by West Virginia educators, ascribes to the unions a heroic role and claims the Democrats were championing the cause of teachers against the Republican-controlled legislature.

Teachers and workers throughout the US were indeed galvanized by West Virginia teachers defiance of the state anti-strike laws and their rejection of the repeated back-to-work orders from their unions. Last springs teachers strikes were among the first manifestations of a resurgence of the class struggle after decades in which the unions suppressed resistance to the growth of social inequality and capitalist exploitation in the US and internationally.

The strike was not launched by the unions but through a rebellion of rank-and-file teachers using social media to organize teachers and school employees independently of the AFT, NEA and its local affiliates. Tragically, however, educators did not have independent organizations to sustain the struggle by reaching out to teachers across the US and broader sections of the working class.

Instead, a section of lower-level union officials associated with Labor Notes and other pro-union activists helped the unions reassert control and strangle the strike. They boosted the trade union apparatus, repeatedly demanded that teachers adhere to the unions rotten deals (each one labeled a victory), blacklisted the World Socialist Web Site and did everything in their power to constrain teachers efforts within the confines of the two-party capitalist system.

The main demands of the strikea fix to the under-funded Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA), adequate wages and full funding of public educationwere not met. Instead the school workers union officials took seats on yet another PEIA task force to listen to another round of do-nothing hearings. The paltry pay raise of 5 percent in West Virginia, where teachers salaries ranked 48th in the US, at best, barely covers the money teachers routinely pay out of pocket for classroom supplies every year due to chronic underfunding of education. This meager pay raise may, moreover, be paid for by cutting other vital services.

These facts, of life-and-death concern to every teacher and public service worker in the state, are blithely omitted from 55 Strong. Where was the victory? PEIA is still underfunded and being threatened with privatization by Governor Jim Justice. The unions, meanwhile, have urged teachers to sign a petition addressed to the legislature, acknowledging that nothing is fixed.

The books approach is thoroughly parochial and often condescending. Among the interviews selected for publication are those which characterize the attacks on public education as state-specific, the result of a lack of respect or a product of gender-bias. In other words, the editors, in line with the identity politics pushed by the Democratic Party, emphasize regional or gender differences to reinforce divisions in the working class. This reactionary perspective is pushed by the pseudo-left precisely as teachers and workers around the world, regardless of race, gender or nationality, find themselves in exactly the same struggle and desperately require a means to unify.

2018 Teacher Rebellion pamphlet

Working from the standpoint of the world political situation, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), by contrast, anticipated this outbreak of mass struggles, fought throughout the West Virginia struggle to make workers conscious of the underlying political issues and provided leadership to unite workers in defense of public education. For an honest analysis of these experiences, the reader should turn to the Mehring Books publication, The 2018 Teacher Rebellion (available here) as well as the more than 100 articles produced by the World Socialist Web Site on teacher struggles during the spring.

The Socialist Equality Party fought to unite the fight in West Virginia to the already developing teacher struggles in Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Florida as well as internationally. The WSWS Teacher Newsletter steadfastly warned of the anti-working class character of the unions. As seven West Virginia counties struck on February 17, the WSWS predicted that the unions would attempt to quickly shut down any struggle if Governor Justice and the state legislature show some signs of movement.

On March 2, the WSWS again urged workers to take up an independent fight and warned, Far from being workers organizations, the unions are critical mechanisms for the suppression of the class struggle. A movement to defend the interests of workers requires the formation of new organizationsrank and file factory, workplace and neighborhood committees, democratically controlled and directed by the workers themselves.

The rebellion against the back-to-work order by the unions came as a shock to various pseudo-left publications, including Jacobin, which heralded the deal reached by the union on February 27 and declared the strike over because the unions said so. But it was a breath of fresh air for workers in the US and around the world. With the shackles of the unions at least temporarily loosened, teachers, other workers and young people felt their strength and expressed a desire to discuss the most radical solutions to societys problems.

Zac Corrigan, representing the SEPs youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), addressed a rally of more than 1,000 West Virginia students and teachers at the capitol in Charleston and emphasized that the teachers fight was a political struggle to determine which class should rule and how the wealth created by the working class should be distributed.

HIgh school students' demonstration in Charleston, addressed by IYSSE representative Zac Corrigan

While the SEP won support from workers by telling the truth and raising the critical political lessons necessary to unify and broaden the struggle, the DSA, ISO and other pseudo-left organizations rushed to the defense of the unions and Democrats. To this end, 55 Strong deliberately omits, misrepresents or fabricates factual events.

Among the DSA members included in the book is United Caucuses of Rank and File Educators founder Jay ONeal. He begins his essay with the admission that he anticipated nothing prior to February. He recounts his original conception that organizing a strike would surely be a years-long process. This does not prevent him from shameless self-promotion about launching a Facebook group to address the biggest barrier to change, the legislature playing our unions against one another.

When the southern coal county teachers launched the strike and it initially broke free of union control, ONeal and his co-thinkersfar from advocating for a politically independent, much less socialist, program to unite the working classdoubled down at the state capitol trying to work with state legislators.

ONeal falsely credits the state unions for calling the statewide two-day walkout. This is a lie. The southern districts wildcattedwithout union sanction. They spread the strike to 55 districtsin the face of union opposition. The unions sanction of the walkout only followed mass demonstrations of between 5,000 to 10,000 workersboth union and non-union educatorsat the state capitol, which threatened to render the unions irrelevant. The belated sanction was a crisis maneuver, an attempt by the unions to rein-in the growing action spreading throughout the state. The unions followed the short official strike by once again ordering teachers back to work and demanding a cooling off day to which teachers responded, Cooling off is heating us up and continued the strike.

Instead of heeding the union, teachers held impromptu meetings inside and outside the capitol and voted to stay out. In the face of teachers intransigence, AFT President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia flew into Charleston with an army of union functionaries to reassert the unions control over the strike, wrap it up and force through a sellout deal proposed by billionaire coal baron Governor Justice.

These events, which proved that the biggest barrier to change was the unions themselves, do not make it into the pages of 55 Strong. Instead, ONeal extols the results of the strike, implying that this was vindication of the AFT and NEA. He proudly claims, That walkout result[ed] in a 5 percent raise for all employees, a freeze on changes to PEIA, a task force appointed to fix PEIA, and the elimination of bills that would have further hurt education . United, public employees had forced their legislature to listen.

In another essay, Katie Endicott, billed as a union activist, glorifies the phony promises of the WVEA to fully support teachers. Tega McGuffin Toney, president of Fayette County AFT (not identified as such), claims local union leaders truly were the glue that held many of the teachers together.

West Virginia teachers protesting at the state capitol in Charleston

In fact, the NEA and AFT and their left apologists did everything to isolate the strike and wear teachers down by promoting impotent appeals to the state legislature. This was under conditions in which the potential existed to build a powerful united movement of the working class. As West Virginia teachers wildcatted, teachers in Phoenix carried out sickouts over salaries. Thousands of lecturers defied their unions and walked out in the United Kingdom. And Frontier Communication workers in West Virginia struck, solidarizing themselves entirely with the teachers. Walkouts would follow in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina, Arizona and most recently in Washington state.

The unions kept workers divided and opposed the call for a national or general strike. They sought to corral teachers behind the Democrats with slogans like Remember in November, urging them to run as Democrats in local elections and through ballot proposals to mildly increase taxes on the wealthy, such as Arizonas Invest in Ed, which was struck down by the courts.

While some contributors to the book raise certain criticisms of the Democrats, the general thrust is to promote them. Critically, Democrats in our state legislature sided with public employees during our fight for a raise and healthcare funding this year, Comer writes. We exerted pressure and they responded quickly.

In different venues, several of the essayists have made no bones about their embrace of the Democrats. Announcing a DSA-supported group WV United, ONeal said in Labor Notes, Right now all the unions are saying Remember in November. Wed love it if we flipped both houses

Sometimes we felt like we didnt have a spokesperson, and then Ojeda came along, 55 Strong essayist Toney enthused on CNN recently. I think whats so captivating about Ojeda is that hes authentic and hes real and hes one of us. Ojeda is an extreme right-wing militarist who backed Trump and is part of a large group of Democratic candidates with ties to the military and CIA.

These people think workers have a short memory. But the Democrats have controlled the governors seat in West Virginia for 32 of the last 40 years, overseeing the defunding of PEIA and public schools. As part of the massive redistribution of wealth from the working class to the financial elite after the Crash of 2008, Obama spearheaded a war against public education and teachers and expanded charter schools and other for-profit schemes. Democratic state governments in California, New York, Colorado and other states, as well as local Democratic administrations in Los Angeles and other cities have done the same.

The bipartisan war against public education and the impoverishment of the working class should be remembered, and not just in November! Only a socialist redistribution of wealth can solve these problems including the guarantee of free, high quality education for all and decent wages for all school workers. That requires a frontal assault on the source of the power of the corporate and financial elite: its control of economic life, and with that, the entire political system. The redistribution of wealth to the working class must be connected to the fight for workers power, the transformation of the giant corporations and banks into publicly owned utilities, and the socialist reorganization of economic life.

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[3 August 2017]Two US B-52 bombers flew near contested islands in the South China Sea Tuesday, according to a statement from Pacific Air Forces.

The two B-52H Stratofortress bombers, which are based in Guam, "participated in a routine training mission in the vicinity of the South China Sea," the statement said, adding that the flight was part of US Indo-Pacific Command's "Continuous Bomber Presence operations" which have been ongoing since March 2004.

Asia China Continents and regions East Asia Environment and natural resources Government and public administration Government bodies and offices Government organizations - US Islands and reefs Landforms and ecosystems North America Oceans and Seas (by name) Physical locations South China Sea The Americas United States US Department of Defense US federal departments and agencies US federal government

The Pentagon would not confirm which islands the B-52s flew by, but recent tensions have focused on the Spratly Islands.

The US regularly flies aircraft in the South China Sea, but Beijing is particularly sensitive about the operations when they come near areas where the Chinese government has built islands and established military facilities on disputed maritime features.

Pacific Air Forces said Tuesday's "mission is consistent with international law and United States' long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific."

The "Chinese have successfully militarized some of these outposts and their behaviors become more assertive and we're trying to have an appropriate response," US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver told reporters traveling in the region with Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

News of the bomber flight comes as top Pentagon officials said that China's defense minister has agreed to meet with Mattis, a meeting that was previously canceled over a dispute involving US sanctions against Beijing.

A Chinese destroyer recently sailed within 45 yards of the USS Decatur, forcing the American warship to maneuver to avoid a collision while it was sailing near the disputed Spratly Islands.

The US labeled the Chinese warship's actions unsafe and unprofessional while Beijing said the US was threatening the safety and sovereignty of China.

Pentagon officials have said that despite the recent incident involving the Decatur, the US would continue such freedom of navigation operations.

"What we don't want to do is reward aggressive behavior like you saw with the Decatur incident by modifying our behavior," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Joe Felter told reporters.

"That's just not going happen we're going to continue to exercise our rights under international law and encourage all our partners to do the same," he added.Senator Lindsey Graham's comments about Iranian lineage did not go over well with a group of powerful tech execs.

On Tuesday, Graham joked during an interview on "Fox & Friends" that it would be "terrible" if a DNA test revealed that he has Iranian heritage. His comment came in response to Senator Elizabeth Warren's decision to take a DNA test to prove her Native American ancestry claims.

Continents and regions Iran Lindsey Graham Middle East Middle East and North Africa Political Figures - US Technology Apologies Discrimination Racism and racial discrimination Societal issues Society North America The Americas United States Business, economy and trade Company activities and management Company strategy Startups

When asked for further comment, a spokesman for Graham referred CNN Business to his follow-up Fox News segment.

"Name one person who's been a bigger defender of the Iranian people to fight back against their oppressor," said Graham, adding that the comment was a joke intended for "the Ayatollah," not the Iranian people.

Nonetheless, some leaders in the tech industry, which has a number of high-profile executives, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs of Iranian heritage, are calling for Graham to apologize.

Omid Kordestani, the executive chairman of Twitter who was born in Iran, wrote that "an apology is in order" from Graham. In a tweet, he asked the senator to "please start upholding the best values of our great nation and its institutions."

Hadi Partovi, CEO of nonprofit Code.org, similarly found the comment insulting.

Partovi and twin brother Ali are cofounders of Code.org, a nonprofit that helps get computer science programs into schools. They've also invested in, and advised, numerous tech startups, including Facebook, Uber and Dropbox. Successful entrepreneurs in their own right, they have both sold companies they cofounded to Microsoft before starting a social music startup, iLike. The startup sold to MySpace in 2009. The brothers, born and raised in Tehran, moved to the United States at age 11, Partovi said.

He told CNN Business he's dealt with his fair share of racist remarks over the years, from classmates joking about bombing Iran to more recent taunts on Facebook that he should go back home. But he expects more from US leaders.

"I've had it my whole life in America," Partovi told CNN Business. "But what I think is most problematic is when the leaders -- the folks who are supposed to be role models themselves -- are not just excusing but are leading that kind of behavior."

Meanwhile, Iranian-born Pejman Nozad, a Silicon Valley investor in tech companies such as Dropbox and DoorDash, said that "the list of accomplished Iranian-Americans is endless," in a series of tweets Tuesday.

Nozad, who moved to the United States from Iran more than 25 years ago, identified a few including Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

"Most Americans don't realize that companies like EBay or Dropbox are founded by Iranians," added Partovi, who said Graham's comments were quickly circulated among his friends in the Iranian community.

The tech industry has already been at odds with the Trump administration's stance on immigration, and Graham's comments add fuel to the fire.

Leaders in an industry where foreign-born entrepreneurs and talent are central to its success have condemned the administration for imposing a "travel ban" and separating parents and children at the US-Mexico border as part of its "zero tolerance" immigration policy.

Although Graham may have meant his comments in jest, Partovi believes it's revealing.

"Our country might have major problems with the Iran's government but you don't say the entire people are terrible," Partovi said. "It is clear to Iranians that American tensions with the Iranian government is boiling over to leaders, and politicians are directly attacking people for their background."

But will he apologize? "I hope so," Partovi said.COLUMBUS, Miss. (WTVA) - A scholarship at Mississippi University for Women will help students at North Pontotoc High School.

The Jana Brown Tyler Scholarship was established by her husband David Tyler.

The scholarship will give preference to students at North Pontotoc High School. It will provide four-year scholarships for 20 students, one per year over a period of 20 years, from North Pontotoc High School.

If no student qualifies, other students in the Pontotoc County School District will be considered.

David Tyler says this was his wifes desire.

Jana Tyler moved to Mississippi when she was young and started school in the Pontotoc City School District, moving to Ecru School in the fourth grade.

She met her husband in the seventh grade, and both graduated from Ecru High School in 1967.

Jana Tyler then went to school at MUW where she earned a degree in 1970.

She passed away last October.

For more information about the Jana Brown Tyler Scholarship, please call the Office of Development and Alumni at (662) 329-7148.COLUMBUS, Miss (WTVA) - Baptist Golden Triangle hospital in Columbus provided more than 1,000 free flu shots Wednesday evening.

They put this event together to give back to the community and keep everyone healthy this flu season.

MUW nurses who were helping out said even though the flu shot does not guarantee you won't get sick, it is still worth a shot to get it.

"A lot of people can get skeptical of the flu shot. They think that if they get it, they are going to get sick," Taylor Morrison explained. "But the vaccine that you are getting is not an active virus, so you're not going to get sick. It will just help prevent you from not getting the virus."Country

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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweJACKSON  Fireworks flew at the final meeting over future wilderness in Teton County, but irreconcilable differences ruled the day.

After two years of wrangling over how to best manage Teton Countys federal public lands, the final outcome was no deal.

The Teton County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to abandon any recommendation about designating wilderness in Teton...The Newport Beach surgeon who briefly appeared on a Bravo reality dating series and was once named Orange Countys Bachelor of the Year and his girlfriend have been charged with sexually assaulting more victims.

Dr. Grant Robicheaux was charged last month with attacking two women in 2016 and, on Wednesday, was charged with assaulting five additional women, PEOPLE confirms.

In 2014, Robicheaux appeared on the short-lived Bravo reality dating series Online Dating Rituals of the American Male. In 2013, he was named Bachelor of the Year by Orange Coast Magazine.

His girlfriend, Cerissa Laura Riley, also faces more charges and has been accused of assaulting three additional women, according to a release from the Orange County District Attorney.

Both defendants face additional charges of kidnapping to commit rape, the release says.

Dr. Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley

On Wednesday, the couple appeared in court in Santa Ana where they pleaded not guilty to charges of drugging and raping the women, the Los Angeles Times, CNN report and the Redlands Daily Facts report.

Besieged by a swarm of reporters and photographers, the couple held hands as they headed into court to enter their pleas, KNTV and City News Service report.

On Wednesday, they also learned that prosecutors were charging them with additional counts.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Their pleas of not guilty apply to the new charges, a spokesperson for the prosecutor confirmed to PEOPLE.

On Wednesday, the couple said in a statement, We unequivocally deny all allegations of nonconsensual sex and absolutely deny any allegations that we have ever secretly drugged anyone for the purpose of having sex with them.

We have been aware of this investigation since the search warrant in January, and as a result of the search we were well aware that the police had taken computers, phones, and digital storage items for review. We didnt flee, we didnt move and we didnt go into hiding.

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Before the arrests, they continued, we had great friends, great lives and great careers that allowed us to make positive contributions to our community. We look forward to getting our lives back.

We have and will continue to stay here to clear our names we worked hard to establish.

In September, the doctor, 38, and Riley 31, were arrested and charged with luring two women in 2016 to his Orange County home, drugging them and sexually assaulting them  all while capturing the alleged attacks on video, prosecutors allege in court records.

Prosecutors had said that previously they believe the pair has many more victims.

After the couples arrests became public, the DA said his office received many calls about them, which led to the new charges, the Times reports.

They are scheduled to return to court for a pre-trial hearing on Jan. 18, 2019.

The charges he faces include rape by use of drugs, assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, forcible rape and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance, the release states. He faces 82 years and 4 months up to life in prison if convicted.

RELATED: Bravo Reality Doctor and His Girlfriend Accused of Drugging and Sexually Assaulting 2 Women

Riley faces charges including assault with intent to commit a sexual offense and oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance, the release states. She faces 63 years and up to life in prison if convicted.

The two had both been free on $100,000 bail since their high profile arrests, KNTV and City News Service report. In court, prosecutors asked the judge to set bail at $3 million. Bail was set at $1 million each and the couple was ordered to surrender their passports, KNTV and City News Service report.

Riley is a former substitute teacher who last worked in one local district in 2016. She has reportedly also been employed as a dance instructor and in sales.

Dr. Grant Robicheaux

Robicheaux and Riley have vehemently denied the accusations against them.

In a statement released in September, the couples attorneys, Philip Cohen, Scott Borthwick, and Shawn Holley said their clients have been aware of these accusations for a number of months, and each of them will formally deny the truth of these allegations at their first opportunity in court.

Dr. Robicheaux and Ms. Riley believe that such allegations do a disservice to, and dangerously undermine, the true victims of sexual assault, and they are eager to have the proper spotlight shed on this case in a public trial.

The defense attorneys for the couple did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs request for comment.EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate is developing adaptations of its Kim Kardashian West prank show You Kiddin Me?! in the UK and Australia and is also looking to line-up international linear deals for the Facebook Watch format.

British producer Primal Media and Australian indie Eureka are developing local versions of the show, which features celebrities and their families as they pull pranks on the public, and Lionsgate has been at Mipcom this week to talk about even more adaptations.

Jennifer OConnell, Lionsgates alternative programming chief, said that it working out how to adapt the show for a longer linear format. If it were to be for a linear network, which is what weve been [pitching] at Mipcom, there are plenty of places [in the show] to open it up, but when youre dealing with a streamer and especially Facebook, they like to streamline so people want to watch the next one, she told Deadline. Were talking about really opening up the format and spending even more time with them before the prank gets going to get a sense of their home life, she added of the 15-minute show.

Lionsgate has agreed with Facebook that it can shop international versions to broadcasters. Streamers generally want to keep hold of all of the rights but Facebook [Watch] is at the very early stage of their process. Were hoping to make it worth their while to give us these rights and bring back some international format money, she added.

Primal Media, which was launched by Mat Steiner and Adam Wood in 2016, makes shows such as Sky format Carnage and ITVs Big Heads and is part owned by the U.S. studio. Eureka, which is run by MasterChef producer Paul Franklin and Restaurant Startup creator Chris Culvenor, recently struck a deal with Lionsgate to represent its formats down under. They will be tasked with finding their own version of Kardashian.

You Kiddin Me?! Launched on September 22, with a celebrity guest line-up including the Kardashian-Jenners, Zoe Saldana and Lisa Rinna, the first episode features the Keeping Up With The Kardashians family. All episodes are exec produced by Kardashian West.

Story continues

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Lionsgate Promotes Nannette Diacovo To EVP Legal AffairsHilary Brooke Mueller is speaking out in the wake of the controversy surrounding the release of a video of her blocking a black resident in her apartment building from entering his home.

The Missouri woman defended her actions after the viral video, shared on Facebook, Friday, showed her attempting to prevent DArreion Toles from entering St. Louis Elder Shirt Lofts.

She was subsequently terminated from her job, and claims she has received death threats.

When I noticed an individual that I did not know here, my only thought was to follow directions I had been given by condo association board members repeatedly; and that is to never allow access to anyone that you do not know, she told local news outlet Fox2, identifying herself as Hilary Thornton.

RELATED: Missouri Woman Fired After Viral Video Shows Her Blocking Her Black Neighbor from Their Condo

D'Arreion Toles

The 32-year-old told the outlet that she was simply inquiring whether or not he was a fellow resident.

I simply asked if he lived there because the direction from the association is  that if you dont know the person, you dont let them in, Mueller said to Fox2, claiming that Toles did not initially show her his key fob.

Its the only indicator that any resident has that they live in the building, he would not answer me. He would not show me one, she continued.

In his video, Toles can be seen making attempts to enter his building despite Mueller repeatedly blocking him. If you want to come into my building, she said before he interjected by saying, Its my building as well. So, I need you to get out of my way  Its not your building, youre not the owner.

RELATED: Black Man Caring for 2 White Children Stopped by Cops After Womans Call: Babysitting While Black

Mueller said the backlash from the video has included death threats. There are truly no words. That is absolutely false and heartbreaking, she said in response to being called a racist. Those are words that truly cut deep.

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Two days after Toles shared his video of Mueller, her employer issued a statement on their website confirming she has been fired.

Tribeca-STL was recently shared a video containing a disturbing interaction that we believe is important to clarify. The video did involve one of our employees, but the event did NOT take place at Tribeca-STL and did NOT involve one of our tenants, the real estate company said.

The video is showing the employee in her private life at her own residence interacting with another person. The Tribeca-STL family is a minority-owned company that consists of employees and residents from many racial backgrounds. We are proud of this fact and do not and never will stand for racism or racial profiling at our company, the company said. After a review of the matter the employee has been terminated and is no longer with our Company. At Tribeca-STL we want all residents, guests and visitors to feel welcome, safe and respected.

Toles also reflected on his encounter with Mueller in an interview. I was kind of blown away, shocked and like wow. I am just glad I had my camera out. If I did not have my camera out, I feel it could have gone a totally different way, he told local CBS station KMOV4.

Toles also added that he has no ill will against Mueller. Like I said, dont respond negatively. Dont go after the lady. Let her be at peace. Let her live her life, he said. I am not mad at her. I am not upset with her. I am not going to go after her legally or anything like that. I wish her the best. I would still have a conversation with her.The Washington Post published its last column from Jamal Khashoggi on Thursday, which fittingly focused on diminishing press freedoms in the Arab world.

Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate, he said. Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives.

Khashoggi cited Freedom Houses 2018 Freedom in the World report which found that most governments in the Arab world were classified as not free.

Also Read: Iranian Dissident Journalist Masih Alinejad on Jamal Khashoggi's Fate: 'What Is the West Going to Do?'

The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power, he said. The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices.

The column from Khashoggi was written and submitted shortly before he disappeared inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. In a note to readers, the Posts Global Opinion Editor Karen Attiah said she had decided to run the column amid the growing consensus that Khashoggi was dead.

I received this column from Jamal Khashoggis translator and assistant the day after Jamal was reported missing in Istanbul, said Attiah. The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post.

Though Saudi Arabia has categorically denied anything to do with Khashoggis disappearance, Turkish officials have accused the kingdom of killing the journalist, sending in a 15-man hit squad who then dismembered him with a bone saw. Turkish media has obtained gruesome secretly recorded audio from inside the consulate proving the murder the New York Times reported yesterday.

Read original story Washington Post Publishes Last Khashoggi Column: Arab Governments Are Silencing the Media At TheWrapThe New York Times responded to critics Thursday by defending a profile of far-right activist Gavin McInnes that ran in the paper earlier this week.

We are always open to criticism, which helps us do better work. In this case, we disagree with the main points of criticism. Our story is an unflinching look at Gavin McInnes that directly addresses his racist, sexist and xenophobic comments as well as violence perpetrated by a group he actively leads, a spokesperson told TheWrap.

Some critics have suggested that the subject of this story should not receive any attention. The Times mission is to explain what is happening in the world. McInnes and his group were at the center of a news event that gained significant attention last week  a brawl outside a prominent Republican club in Manhattan. Its our duty to delve into what occurred, and who was involved, the statement continued.

Also Read:Vice Media Co-Founder Calls Sen. Cory Booker 'Sambo': 'Shucking and Jiving for the White Man'

McInnes, who leads the far-right group The Proud Boys, raised eyebrows after being invited to deliver remarks at the Manhattan Republican club Friday evening. Members of his group later scuffled with Antifa protesters outside the venue resulting in a flurry of media coverage. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the Proud Boys as a hate group.

McInnes is also a co-founder of Vice Media, though he exited the company in 2008. He did not immediately respond to request for comment about his thoughts on the profile.

The Times piece, which described McInnes egghead glasses, pocket-protector and heavy-drinking, angry-nerd aesthetic came in for criticism from the usual suspects this week who argued that the Grey Lady was too soft in the profile.

Leading the criticism were journalists at the liberal HuffPost. Writer Andy Campbell attacked the piece as tone deaf and accused it gloss[ing] over key facts about McInnes sordid history.

In a wildly tone-deaf profile of Gavin McInnes this week, The New York Times went to great lengths to avoid calling the Proud Boys founder a racist, sexist, fascist gang leader, even though he could be accurately described as all of these things, Campbell wrote.

Read original story New York Times Stands by Profile of Far Right Activist Gavin McInnes At TheWrapCalifornia 13-year-old who survived shark attack says he can't wait to 'get back out there' originally appeared on goodmorningamerica.com

A Southern California 13-year-old who survived an attack by a great white shark said he is already looking forward to getting back in the ocean.

"Hopefully really, really soon," Keane Webre-Hayes told ABC News on Wednesday. "I definitely want to get back out there."

PHOTO: Keane Webre-Hayes talked to his classmates about surviving a shark attack after returning to school just two and a half weeks later. (ABC News)

First, he has to wait for his 1,000 stitches to heal.

And when he ventures back into the water, "he'll be wrapped in bubble wrap," his mom, Ellie Hayes, joked.

PHOTO: Keane Webre Hayes in the hospital recovering after a shark bite. (Obtained by ABC News)

The 13-year-old was diving and fishing for lobsters in water about 9 feet deep off Beacon's Beach north of San Diego on Sept. 29 when he was attacked by the shark, authorities said.

He was rushed to shore by lifeguards and local kayakers, then airlifted to a hospital.

"When I was in the water, I was like, 'It's probably a big fish," and my mind instantly went to 'shark,'" Hayes said.

He also regaled his classmates upon his triumphant return to school Wednesday with his surprising priorities after he was brought safely, though severely injured, to shore.

"The first thing I said when I saw my mom pull up was 'Can you take pictures for Instagram?'" he told his classmates, laughing.

Kayaker Chad Hammel, who helped get Keane to safety, told ABC News it was lucky to get him out of the water when they did.

"Luckily, we got him out of the water because when we got him on the kayak heading in, that's when I looked back and the shark was behind the kayak," Hammel said.

PHOTO: Keane Webre Hayes in the hospital recovering after a shark bite. (Obtained by ABC News)

(MORE: Mother of 13-year-old shark attack victim says he got 'very, very lucky')

Keane was in critical condition upon arrival at the hospital, and underwent five hours of immediate surgery with Dr. Tim Fairbanks, the hospital's chief of pediatric surgery. Fairbanks said it was "an honor to take care of Keane and his family," but that said the teen still has a long road to full recovery.

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"We really got to start with baby steps and build our way up," Fairbanks said.

PHOTO: Keane Webre Hayes was awarded a lifetime fish and game license by the California Wildlife Officers Foundation. (Obtained by ABC News)

The 13-year-old's return to school Wednesday, just two and half weeks after the attack, was greeted with a standing ovation by classmates.

PHOTO: Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton and fellow shark attack survivor visited Keane Webre Hayes in the hospital. (Obtained by ABC News)

He also stayed in good spirits throughout his speedy recovery in the hospital, which may have been helped by a couple of celebrity visitors.

PHOTO: Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and fellow San Diego local visited Keane Webre Hayes in the hospital. (Obtained by ABC News)

Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton, who survived a 2003 shark attack when her left arm was bitten off and made an incredible comeback to surfing, spent a day with Hayes.

"It was really cool. She showed me how to play pool. So she holds the stick and she hits it with her hip so that was pretty cool," he said.

He also met fellow San Diego local Tony Hawk, a star professional skateboarder.

PHOTO: Keane Webre Hayes was awarded a lifetime fish and game license by the California Wildlife Officers Foundation. (Obtained by ABC News)

Hayes said he still wants to lobster dive again and thanks to a lifetime fish and game license presented by the California Wildlife Officers Foundation, he can do it anytime he wants.

A close family friend, whose daughter is in Hayes class, set up the Keane Hayes Encinitas Shark Attack GoFundMe page to help contribute to the familys mounting medical bills.

ABC News' Jim Vojtech and Maria Villalobos contributed to this report.Pregnant postal worker goes missing outside home, USPS offers $25K reward originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

The U.S. Postal Service is now getting involved in the search effort for one of their own.

Kierra Coles, 27, disappeared after being seen on video two weeks ago outside her home. She has not been heard from since, authorities said. On Tuesday, the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Unit announced it was offering a $25,000 reward for help in her safe return.

Coles is 3 months pregnant and has a boyfriend, officials said.

PHOTO: Kierra Coles' father is passing out flyers hoping to find his missing daughter in Chicago. She hasn't been seen since Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018. (WLS)

(MORE: Why the first 72 hours in a missing persons investigation are the most critical)

The postal worker was last seen on surveillance video from outside her apartment in Chicago's South Side on Oct. 2. Police said she called out of work that morning saying she was sick, but was seen on the video wearing her uniform and her car was found outside her apartment.

Police said they are treating the case as a non-suspicious missing person.

Coles' mother, Karen Phillips, said it's possible she became overwhelmed by everything that was going on in her life. Phillips told Chicago ABC station WLS her daughter recently moved out of her home and into the apartment.

"Maybe something did happen where she was overcome with a lot, you know when you are pregnant you are emotional," she said. "I want to say she just went somewhere and didn't want to tell nobody and then she will just come home but I don't feel that."

PHOTO: A missing person's poster for Kierra Coles, who has not been seen in Chicago since Oct. 2, 2018. (USPS Inspectors Unit)

(MORE: Desperate search on for missing girl after abduction from home where her parents were found dead)

The $25,000 offered by the USPS Inspection Unit is in addition to $3,500 offered by her postal union, WLS reported.

"Whoever it might be knows something," her father Joseph Coles told WLS. Joseph lives in Wisconsin, but has been in town for two weeks handing out flyers and said he "would not leave" before finding her.

"We're not going to sit idly by and we're not going to rest until we find our sister," Mack Julian, from the Letter Carrier's Union, said.

Cole is 5-foot-4 and about 125 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.At-home DNA testing is in the spotlight again this week as Senator Elizabeth Warren and President Donald Trump continue duking it out over whether or not Warren can claim Cherokee heritage. Warren has long claimed that she has a Cherokee ancestor, an assertion which Trump has used to leverage racist attacks against not only Warren but Native Americans in general. This week, Warren proffered results from a DNA test that showed genetic markers that indicate she likely had a relative many generations back who was indigenous  though even Warren acknowledges that this doesnt actually make her a Native American.

The racial implications here are important.

In Warrens specific case, she cannot claim to be Native American because she is not recognized as a member of any Native tribe. As University of Connecticut geneticist Dr. Deborah Bolnick told Forbes of Warrens DNA test: Identity and belonging are shaped by a persons social connections and lived experiences, as well as by the legal and political contexts that define tribal membership. DNA and ones genetic heritage do not determine who we are or what groups we are affiliated with. Identity and belonging are socially, politically, legally, and culturally determined. A DNA test does not tell us anything about those things, and thus should not be seen as resolving this debate. DNA doesnt have that power.

But what about people who are not seeking to prove to the president that they have an indigenous ancestor? After all, most people who order at-home kits from companies like 23andMe and Ancestry.com, which tests and analyzes DNA from saliva samples provided by customers, are probably just curious to answer questions like, Where do I come from? and Who am I, really?

The desire to learn or understand more about who we are by looking to our past (even the distant past) is understandable. University of Kansas geneticist and anthropologist (and author of the Forbes article) Jennifer Raff tells Brit + Co, the vast majority of Americans are motivated [to take DNA tests] by a fascination with their own family histories and what those family histories might mean in terms of shaping who they perceive themselves to be, and perhaps their desires for their children.

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Raff says she understands why people take these tests, and she doesnt criticize anyone who goes for it. But Raff stresses that there are many problems with how these tests are marketed and consumed.

While most people who take these tests do so in search of answers about who they are, where they come from, and often, to extrapolate information about their race and ancestral lineage, what these tests actually reveal is totally unrelated to matters of identity.

According to Raff, These tests can tell us where people in the world with whom we share ancestry live today. That doesnt mean the same thing as where our ancestors come from, and it certainly doesnt mean its who we are. She further explains that because people in most regions of the world have migrated a huge amount over time, DNA tests such as 23andMe cant tell a person where theyre from.

Your geological ancestors are not the same as your genetic ancestors, Raff tells us.

Raff gives a hypothetical example of a person who takes a 23andMe test and is surprised to see that their results show Scandinavian and Japanese genetic markers. This does not necessarily mean that the persons ancestors are Scandinavian and Japanese; it means they share genetic markers with people who currently live in Scandinavia and Japan.

So, while at-home DNA tests can tell customers a little bit about themselves, there are major limitations.

A Brit + Co editors 23andMe results.

These companies are talking about populations as if they were discrete, static, biological entities. And we know thats not true, Raff says. Different populations around the world do vary genetically, but Raff cautions that that variation is not in neat tidy packages, nor do they map onto what we as a society think of as racial categories. In fact, genetic variation totally undermines social racial categories, according to Raff. And while 23andMe notes in its product that racial categories are not biologically determined, they reinforce the concept of discrete, biologic racial categories in the way they market the tests.

Take, for example, a recent partnership between Ancestry.coms DNA test and Spotify, wherein Spotify offers clients customized playlists based on their ancestral DNA results. In this case, Ancestry.com is not only indicating that their tests can tell a person who they are, but also what pop cultural touchstones might be relevant to them, all based on genetic markers that cant even necessarily tell you where your ancestors once lived. It sounds like a fun game, but the logic is also eerily reductive.

Simply put: A persons race and culture is not determined by genetics and thus cannot be detected in or explained by genetic tests. Race is socially and legally constructed, not dictated by DNA. Any attempts to blur that line should make anyone leery. The idea that DNA can tell us something about race is a very harmful concept, rooted in one of the ugliest facets of US history: the eugenics movement.

Raff puts DNA tests in the same line of testing as craniology (also called phrenology), a thoroughly debunked and racist pseudoscience that suggests different races have different skull sizes and shapes. This practice was used to discriminate against Black people, indigenous people, Irish people, and more in the Victorian era. Skull size and shape is a completely arbitrary feature that cannot say anything about a persons race, but Raff says that people are trying to do the same thing about genetic variation.

She also notes that at-home DNA testing is popular among Neo-Nazis who are hoping to demonstrate their so-called racial purity and promote racist ideology. Other researchers have expressed concern that white people in general are misinterpreting the results of their at-home DNA tests.

The consequences of selling and buying the idea that race and ancestry can be determined by tests that compare genetic markers of the population in contemporary nations are already playing out, and its something Raff says shes concerned about.

Im not exactly sure what the consequences will be, Raff tells us, but if you look at the history of racial thought in American and the attempts to use biological data to support racial categories, that leads us down some really ugly paths that I think we should pay attention to. We need to be mindful of them. History can teach us for the future.

What do you think? Tell us on Twitter @BritandCo.

(Photo via Getty Images)

You Might Also LikePhoto credit: BILL GREENBLATT - Getty Images

From Bicycling

Reserved parking spots for local VIPs are nothing new. But what about a dedicated spot for your bike?

University of Missouri chemistry professor George Smith, Ph.D., was one of three researchers honored with this years Nobel Prize. He and a British chemist, one of the other winners, harnessed the power of evolution, as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences put it, with a process called phage display that can combat autoimmune diseases and in some cases cure metastatic cancer.

According to The Kansas City Star , University of Missouri officials were struggling to come up with the right way to honor Smith, the universitys first faculty member to win a Nobel Prize. Turning to other schools for ideas, they noticed a reserved parking spot was a common reward. There was only one problem: Smith lives less than a mile away from his workplace on campus, and bikes to work every day. In fact, hes an admitted poor driver.

Im not a good driver, so its more out of necessity, he told the newspaper. I drive very seldom.



[Its time to boost your power in the saddle with Maximum Overload , a cutting-edge on-the-bike and strength program, designed to improve your output by 12 to 15 percent!]

When a university official proposed a reserved spot on a bike rack instead of a parking spot, it was the perfect solution. Everyone in the room lit up and thought it was a wonderful idea, University of Missouri spokesperson Christian Basi told The Kansas City Star.

Basi also pointed out the bike rack serves a dual purpose of promoting sustainability-and helps reinforce the fact that no one who lives within a mile of campus should be driving, not even university royalty.

And royalty he is. Smith, who will walk away with a third of the $1 million pot of prize money, instantly became a local celebrity after the announcement. He often gets stopped to take selfies with admirers when walking across campus, he told the newspaper.

This isnt the first time a university has chosen to honor a Nobel laureate with a dedicated spot for their bike. Northwestern University, for example, installed a reserved bike rack for Scottish chemist Sir Fraser Stoddart, Ph.D., after his win for chemistry in 2016, albeit with much less fanfare.

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Photo credit: Jacob Meschke

('You Might Also Like',)The world has now been treated to three full days of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry as the expectant couple continues their 16-day official tour through Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, and theres already been more than enough tender moments for the affectionate pair.

The latest unintended PDA to take place, however, went down during an official engagement in Melbourne on Thursday, October 18. The couple made their way to an exhibit as they stopped by to learn more about a training program dedicated to indigenous youth. As they greeted their hosts and hundreds of screaming fans on the streets, the couple grasped handsa common occurrence from the Duke and the Duchess of Sussex.

There was, however, a quietly affectionate gesture from Harrys end. The prince quietly took his one open arm and pulled it behind his back, seamlessly then placing both hands on his wife.

This hasnt been the only headline-generating PDA example between the high-profile pair on their joint tour. During a downpour of heavy rain in Dubbo, Australia, on Wednesday, Harry gallantly handed his umbrella to his wife before heading up to the stage to deliver a speech.

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Markle, whos currently expecting the her first child with the prince, then followed her husband up the stage with the same umbrella and held the piece over his head as he spoke.

Prince Harry addresses the crowd as Meghan Duchess of Sussex holds an umbrella for him during a Dubbo community BBQ in Victoria Park

Prince Harry and Meghan Duchess of Sussex tour of Australia  17 Oct 2018

The Duke and Duchess travel to Victoria Park to join people from Dubbo and the surrounding areas for a BBQ picnic in the park to celebrate community spirit within the region. His Royal Highness gave an address as well. (Credit: Photo by Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock)

Follow along with The Knot as we continue to monitor Harry and Meghan on their tour.

Secure your ideal wedding vision by starting with The Knots Style Quiz, here.

Related Articles"We're making history by sending a person from the border to Congress  who is a Latina, who looks like her community," she says.

An unprecedented number of women are chasing political office in the 2018 midterm elections. This month, we're profiling several worthy candidates who are seeking to effect change.

When she first began volunteering for campaigns in 1996, Veronica Escobar didn't imagine that shed ever want to go into politics herself  let alone run for office. But now, over two decades later, thats exactly where the former county judge finds herself: as the Democratic Nominee for Congress in Texas 16th District.

I never imagined that I would be a candidate or would ever serve an elected office, she tells InStyle. In fact, I thought, Absolutely not. Never will I do this; I will always be behind the scenes  helping, supporting, canvasing, phone banking  but no way do I ever want to do this.

As time went on, Escobar quickly realized that she needed to use her own voice to enact change on a grand scale. If I expect an ambitious, ethical government, then Id better step up and fight for that, says the advocate for immigration reform. Id better be willing to jump in and put my name in the ring. And so I did.

RELATED: If Young Kim Wins in November, She Could Be the First Korean-American Woman Elected to Congress

If elected, Escobar would become the first Latina from Texas in Congress, and the potential milestone isnt lost on her. When I learned that there has never been a Latina elected to Congress from Texas, I was shocked, she tells InStyle. I actually didn't believe it at first, because it just seems unreal for a state our size and for a state with a significant percentage of the population being Hispanic. Knowing that we could make history is very exciting. Keep reading to learn more about Escobar.

Getting into giving back:

What initially got me involved in helping other candidates was a deep frustration about the direction the community was going in, says Escobar, who noticed changes to her El Paso, Texas, community when she moved back after graduate school in 1993. I felt some very disturbing xenophobia in the community. It was being fueled by the local border patrol chiefs approach to militarize our border and make migrants seem undesirable and dangerous. There was this proposal to build a wall, and I was really horrified and offended. I felt like that was not representative of the community or our location on the U.S.-Mexico border. That conversation, the call for a wall, was being led by a border patrol sector chief, who decided to run for Congress in 1996. I thought, Oh my gosh, we can't have a proponent of building a wall representing this vibrant, wonderful community on the U.S.-Mexico border in Congress.

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Escobar decided to take action. The first campaign I worked on was for an opponent of that border patrol chief, she says. It was the first time I ever knocked on doors. I felt a call to action, to defend the community, and to fight back against what I believed were xenophobic viewpoints that were harmful to the community.

Most important issues:

Through her platform, Escobar advocates for issues such as protecting the environment, expanding access to affordable healthcare, and improving veterans services. But her campaigns central call to action is focused on standing up for the U.S.-Mexico border and supporting immigration reform. During a time when border communities like mine are being targeted through family separations, denial of passports, and using our ports of entry as a place of obstruction for asylum seekers, knowing that we could make history is very exciting  specifically because I come from the border, she says. The border really is a target right now during this era in the Federal Government, led by the Trump administration. To know that, in response, we're making history by sending a person from the border to Congress  who is a Latina, who looks like her community  the fact that the border's making history is very meaningful to me.

Community inspiration:

When Escobar thinks about the future of El Paso, shes motivated to keep pushing for change. There are two real driving inspirations in my life, and number one is my community, says Escobar. I come from a community that takes care of each other, where families always look to help, protect, and lift up one another. There is incredible inspiration that comes from that.

Her other key inspiration is her family, especially her two children, 20-year-old son Cristian and 18-year-old daughter Eloisa. I feel a deep obligation to leave them with a better planet, a better community, a better government, says Escobar. And that's not what is happening right now. We are living in what I believe is a very dark era in American history, and I believe that we need a very strong voice, a zealous advocate for the border and families here, and someone who would fight for a just and humane government. I feel this sense of urgency to work on things so that my children inherit something that is better than what I inherited.

Biggest challenges:

Escobars campaign trail hasnt been hurdle-free. I think the hardest thing for me  and it may be the same for other women, especially women of color and women without large financial means  is that it really, truly is a financial sacrifice to run for these offices, says Escobar. I think that's what makes it so difficult for women, and why there are so few women who run. I had to quit my job a year ago. My family's had to make tremendous financial sacrifices so that I could have the privilege of running for Congress, and I'm one of the fortunate ones. I have the support of my husband, my family, and my friends to really help me get through this very difficult time for us, financially.

Escobar is painfully aware that without that level of support, her run for Congress may not be possible. There are so many talented and brilliant women out there whose voices we need but we can't have, because they're single moms or because they just don't have the financial means to do it, she says. So I recognize in the difficulty I've faced that I am actually very fortunate to be able to make the sacrifice. It definitely has not been easy, but I'm grateful for the opportunity.

For more stories like this, pick up the November issue of InStyle, available on newsstands, on Amazon, and for digital download Oct. 12.Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:

1. PROBE INTO KHASHOGGI CASE FAR FROM OVER

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Turkey, where a newspaper detailed the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in gruesome detail.

2. 'NO, I THINK I'M HELPING PEOPLE'

In a wide-ranging interview the AP, Trump says he won't accept the blame if his party loses control of the House in November.

3. WHERE MARIJUANA SALES ARE NOW LEGAL

At the stroke of midnight in Newfoundland, Canada became the largest country with a legal national pot marketplace.

4. DEATH TOLL RISES AFTER HURRICANE MICHAEL

The category 4 storm killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the panhandle. That's in addition to at least 10 deaths elsewhere across the South.

5. CALIFORNIA COUNTY AT A CROSSROADS

The Latino and Asian population has doubled in Orange County, and many are looking to Democrats for leadership in the Republican stronghold.

6. DEMOCRATS' NOT-SO-SECRET PLAN TO FIGHT MIDTERM MALAISE

Pastors are being asked to text congregants, the NAACP to use its wide reach with black voters and Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria are being encouraged to vote.

7. AMERICA'S MOST FAMOUS PIMP DIES

Just days after wild celebrations for his 72nd birthday, Dennis Hof was found dead in one of his Nevada brothels.

8. DEMOCRAT BREAKS OUT 'LYIN' TED' MONIKER

Beto O'Rourke lays into Ted Cruz, hoping to reverse polls that show him fading against the Republican incumbent in a Texas Senate race.

9. TWISTERS ARE SPINNING UP FARTHER EAST IN US

A new study finds that tornado activity is shifting away from America's heartland and swirling more in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee.

10. DODGERS OUTLAST BREWERS IN EXTRA INNINGS

Cody Bellinger's RBI single in the 13th inning gives Los Angeles a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee, tying the NLCS at two games apiece.ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP)  Babar Azam just missed a maiden test century but Pakistan gave itself more than two days to win the short test series against Australia and made a good start on Thursday.

Azam fell for a career-best 99 and captain Sarfraz Ahmed added 81 before he declared their second innings over at 400-9 for an overall lead of 537 runs.

Pakistan delayed the declaration, mindful of Australia escaping defeat in the first test in Dubai last week. Pakistan declared there also, and gave itself just under five sessions to bowl out Australia. But Australia, given an improbable 462 to win, held out with two wickets to spare.

This time, Pakistan has set Australia a monstrous 538 to win in more than six sessions, and already undermined that notion by taking out Shaun Marsh for 4 with an incredible delivery by debutant Mir Hamza.

By stumps on day three, Australia was 47-1, Aaron Finch was on 24, and Tim Head on 17.

Pakistan suffered a late collapse but its lead had already passed 500.

It resumed from 144-2 overnight and the morning session was lowlighted by Azhar Ali's embarrassing run out on 64.

Ali steered a delivery through slips and the ball rolled towards the boundary. Ali didn't run, believing he'd hit a four, and met Asad Shafiq in the middle of the pitch to talk.

But the ball stopped before the boundary at third man, and the chasing Mitchell Starc threw it at the striker's end and captain Tim Paine whipped the bails off.

Ali, playing his 67th test, and Shafiq, playing his 63rd, were dumbfounded while the Australians celebrated a little slice of luck.

That dropped Pakistan to 160-4, but Shafiq, and particularly Azam and Ahmed took advantage of a tiring Australia attack.

Shafiq was the only wicket to fall in the middle session, caught at point for 44.

Then Azam and Ahmed dominated, briskly scoring 133 runs for the sixth wicket. Australia couldn't break the partnership even with the second new ball.

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Azam was on 99 when he fell lbw to seamer Mitchell Marsh while trying to play across the line. Azam's disappointment was obvious. His 161-ball knock included six fours and three sixes.

Offspinner Nathan Lyon, burdened with much of the workload, then grabbed two wickets in one over, those of Bilal Asif (15) and Yasir Shah (4).

Legspinner Marnus Labuschagne got Ahmed when the captain missed a sweep and was trapped lbw. Ahmed faced 123 balls and hit five fours and a six.

Lyon finished with 4-135 from 43 overs, and eight wickets in the match.

Marsh was forced to open the innings after regular opener Usman Khawaja injured his troublesome left knee during a warm-up before the third day's play. He didn't field all day and had to drop down the order.

Marsh has struggled in the series, which has ended for him with scores of 7, 0, 3 and 4. The lefthander couldn't cope against the Pakistan seamers, and gave Hamza his first test wicket when he lost his off stump.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_SportsKiev (AFP) - An independent watchdog on Thursday told AFP it had seen vehicles carrying weaponry enter rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine from Russia over the last week, appearing to contradict Moscow's claim it is not arming separatists.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had observed convoys of cargo trucks moving across the border under the cover of night.

A drone captured footage of "vehicles, including a truck carrying an armoured personnel carrier, entering and exiting Ukraine" using an unpaved route with no border crossing facilities, it said.

The OSCE did not make any explicit claims as to whether weapons had been deposited in Ukraine.

The organisation has previously complained of its drones being jammed.

On two other occasions it had seen weapons convoys moving near, but not crossing, the border.

In response to the new reports, the United States urged the Kremlin to "stop providing deadly weapons under cover of night to its proxies in eastern Ukraine."

"Only Russia can bring an end to bloodshed in Ukraine," the US embassy in Ukraine said last week, after the OSCE announced it observed the first of the convoys.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict with Moscow-backed rebels broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms across the border.

Moscow has denied the allegations despite overwhelming evidence that it has been involved in the fighting.

The OSCE team's 600 members are the only independent monitoring mission in the war-torn area who provide daily reports on the fighting.Singapore (AFP) - Beijing appears ready to normalise its interactions with the American military, a US defence official said Wednesday, after relations soured during a sanctions spat and trade war.

Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, said Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is set to meet his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe in Singapore on Thursday at a regional security summit.

A meeting between the two men had initially been scheduled to take place in Beijing last weekend, but it fell through after China declined to make Wei available.

"I think the fact that (Mattis is now) meeting with Minister Wei is some evidence that the Chinese are interested in keeping things normal and stable -- as are we," Schriver told reporters travelling with Mattis.

"What we have heard in our dialogue is the Chinese are interested in having a military relationship that's a stabilising force in the overall relationship."

China reacted angrily after Washington last month imposed sanctions following Beijing's purchase of Russian fighter jets and missiles, and a close encounter between warships in the South China Sea raised the spectre of a military mishap between the two nuclear powers.

Beijing's actions, which followed the imposition of the sanctions, included scrapping a planned port visit of a US warship to Hong Kong and cancelling a meeting between the head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.

Defence ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are meeting in Singapore to discuss a range of regional security concerns.

Front and centre is China's military build-up in the South China Sea and its sweeping claims of sovereignty across the economically vital waters.

In an incident the Pentagon decried as "unsafe and unprofessional", a Chinese warship last month sailed within just 45 yards (41 meters) of a US destroyer as it passed by Beijing-claimed features in the South China Sea, forcing the American vessel to take evasive action.

Story continues

The US periodically conducts such "freedom of navigation" operations to challenge China's claims over international waters.

Schriver said Mattis would be encouraging other countries in the region to assert a presence in the areas which Beijing claims.

"Our message will be no single country can change international law, international norms," he said.

"We will fly sail and operate where international law allows but we are also looking for partners to give voice to keeping ... international law ... upheld."

Still, he stressed the importance of maintaining clear communication with the Chinese military.

"We need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic," he said.By Trevor Hunnicutt (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said on Tuesday that he would not cut ties with Saudi Arabia even as pressure mounts on the country to explain the disappearance of a prominent critic. Fink is one of several top business executives, including JPMorgan Chase & Co's Jamie Dimon and HSBC Holdings plc CEO John Flint, who pulled out of a major investment conference in Riyadh after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who has been critical of the country's policies, went missing. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, vanished after entering the consulate. Turkish officials say they believe he was murdered there and his body removed, which the Saudis strongly deny. Asked on CNBC if he would cut off all business ties with Saudi Arabia if it became clear that King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered Khashoggi's murder, Fink said, "No." BlackRock, the world's largest fund manager with oversight of more than $6.4 trillion in assets, is widely followed by investors and economists for its influence at many of the world's public companies and it also has a foothold with governments around the globe. Fink has long had relationships with Saudi officials and one year ago announced plans to open offices within the country. Relationships with the business and investment community are essential to the country's Vision 2030 push to diversify the economy away from oil. The plan has grabbed attention for its big-ticket initiatives, such as a $500 billion business zone and a plan, now shelved, to sell part of the state oil firm. But the journalist's disappearance on Oct. 2 created a complex calculus for BlackRock, whose chief executive has worked to present it as socially conscious. In a letter to top corporate executives earlier this year, Fink wrote that to "prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society." Fink told CNBC he wanted the conference delayed until the end of an investigation into the journalist's disappearance but that he had not been successful. At that point, he said, he had only one choice and that was to withdraw. "We needed to be thoughtful and mindful how to navigate this," Fink said. "I wanted to preserve the relationships that we'd worked so long for." (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Diptendu Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Nick Zieminski)Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner speak onstage during a Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony in 2016. (Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize / Kimberly White)

The program known as the Oscars of Science has revealed wholl be getting the spotlight  and almost $22 million in awards  at next months Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Silicon Valley.

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation and its sponsors listed nine researchers as recipients of the Breakthrough Prize for important achievements in the life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics, plus 12 early-career scientists wholl be getting New Horizon Prizes.

Each of the Breakthrough Prizes is worth $3 million, which exceeds the $1.1 million cash value of the longer-running Nobel Prize. Each New Horizon Prize is worth $100,000. In some cases, multiple researchers share the prize.

The Breakthrough Prize program, now in its seventh year, is sponsored by Russian billionaire investor Yuri Milner and his wife, Julia; Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; Google co-founder Sergey Brin; 23andMe CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki; and Tencent Holdings CEO and co-founder Ma Huateng.

The winners will be honored during a glitzy Nov. 4 ceremony at NASAs Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., hosted by actor Pierce Brosnan and broadcast live on National Geographic.

Last month, the prize organizers announced that British physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell would receive a special award for her role in the discovery of pulsars and her career-long leadership in the scientific community. Here are the additional winners announced today:

Breakthrough Prize in Life Science

Ionis Pharmaceuticals C. Frank Bennett and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratorys Adrian Krainer share a $3 million prize for the development of a gene therapy drug that treats a rare but deadly infant disease known as spinal muscular atrophy:

Angelika Amon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wins the prize for determining the consequences of aneuploidy, a condition that involves an abnormal number of chromosomes and disrupts the cells genetic error-correcting system:

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Harvards Xiaowei Zhuang wins the prize for discovering hidden structures in cells by developing super-resolution imaging, a method that transcends the fundamental spatial resolution limit for traditional light microscopy:

Zhijian James Chen of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for learning how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell through the discovery of cGAS, an enzyme that senses DNA:

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The University of Pennsylvanias Charles Kane and Eugene Mele share the prize for developing new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surfaces:

Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics

Vincent Lafforgue of Frances CNRS research agency and the Fourier Institute wins the prize for his contributions to several areas of mathematics, in particular to the Langlands program in the function field case. The overarching theory, developed by award-winning Canadian mathematician Robert Langlands, has been called the grand unified theory of mathematics:

New Horizons Prizes

Columbia Universitys Brian Metzger wins a physics prize for his pioneering predictions of the electromagnetic signal from a neutron star merger, and for leadership in the emerging field of multi-messenger astronomy.

Caltechs Rana Adhikari shares a physics prize with MITs Lisa Barsotti and Matthew Evans for research focusing on present and future ground-based detectors for gravitational waves.

MITs Daniel Harlow, Harvards Daniel Jafferis and Stanfords Aron Wall share a physics prize for their insights into quantum information, quantum field theory and gravity.

Chenyang Xu of MIT and the Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research wins a mathematics prize for making major advances in the minimal model program and applying that work to the moduli of algebraic varieties.

Karim Adiprasito of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and June Huh of the Institute for Advanced Study share a mathematics prize for contributing to the development of combinatorial Hodge theory, leading to the resolution of the log-concavity conjecture of Rota.

The University of Turkus Kaisa Matomaki and Caltechs Maksym Radziwell share a mathematics prize for breakthroughs in the understanding of local correlations of values of multiplicative functions.

More from GeekWire:People hold up a Canadian flag with a marijuana logo on it outside a government cannabis store in Montreal - The Canadian Press

Canada has became the first major world economy to legalise recreational cannabis, kick-starting a nationwide experiment in drug laws and regulations despite uncertainty about the consequences.

Weed enthusiasts celebrated the "end of prohibition as the clock struck midnight on Tuesday evening and the first legal pot sales for non-medical purposes were made across the country.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister who pledged the change in his 2015 election campaign, tweeted that the policy would take profits out of the hands of criminals and protect children.

On Wednesday, his government also announced moves to make it easier for people convicted for carrying small amounts of marijuana in the past to obtain a pardon, waiving the $631 Canadian dollar fee.

However legalisation was not universally welcomed, with one leading Canadian medical journal warning the uncontrolled experiment would put profits ahead of the nations health.

And there was speculation about the impact the change could have on other nations, including America  where some states have legalised recreational use  and even Britain, where it remains a crime.

A decoration resembling a giant marijuana bud drops towards the crowd at midnight, during a party marking the legalisation of recreational cannabis in Toronto Credit: Chandra Raye / Handout via REUTERS

Canada is the first country in the G7  a group of the worlds seven biggest economies  to legalise recreational cannabis, overturning a ban almost a century old. It has had legal medical marijuana since 2001.

The change is the latest example in a growing trend of countries loosening their cannabis laws.

Uruguay became the first country to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use in 2013. Portugal and the Netherlands have decriminalised the drug.

South Africas top court has said cannabis use at home is legal. And in America, nine states have legalised recreational use and more than 30 have approved medical marijuana.

In Canada, adults can now buy cannabis oil, plants and dried cannabis from licensed producer and retailers. They can also carry 30 grams (one ounce) of the drug in public.

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At least 111 legal pot stores opened across the nation on Wednesday, starting first in Newfoundland, Canadas most easterly province where the time turned midnight before the rest of the country.

Excited smokers waited outside stores to be among the first to buy legal recreational pot, celebrating the historic moment.

Ian Power, who queued in St. John's, Newfoundland, told the Associated Press: "I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall. I'm not even going to smoke it. I'm just going to save it forever.

Bruce Linton, the CEO of marijuana producer and retailer Canopy Growth who served Mr Power, said some people were in tears.

The last time Canada was this far ahead in anything, Alexander Graham Bell made a phone call, he said, referring to the telephone inventor who lived in the country.

People line up outside of a cannabis store in Quebec City, Quebec Credit: ALICE CHICHE/AFP/Getty Images

The law change has created a patchwork of different regulations across Canada because provinces have been allowed to create their own rules over the specifics of sale.

Some are only allowing government-run stores to sell the drug, others have agreed to give licenses to private retailers. Some provinces have gone for a mix of both.

One concern to have arisen is whether the police are prepared for a possible spike in drug driving. There are doubts about the reliability of screening technology and fears cases could clog up the courts.

Another is at the US-Canadian border. The US Customs and Border Protection held a briefing with journalists on Tuesday, noting that marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and those caught at the border with pot are subject to arrest and prosecution.

Mr Trudeau has defended the change by arguing it will better protect children from cannabis by placing sale in a legal framework, while taking profits away from criminals.

It could also generate hundreds of millions of extra tax revenues a year for the Canadian government.

A customer reads a pamphlet on cannabis products while waiting in line outside of a Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. Credit: Dean Casavechia/Bloomberg

However on Monday, the Canadian Medical Association Journal issued a scathing editorial saying the country was about to begin a national, uncontrolled experiment in which the profits of cannabis producers and tax revenues are squarely pitched against the health of Canadian.

The piece concluded: If use of cannabis increases, the federal government should have the courage to admit the legislation is flawed and amend the act. Canadians - and the world - will be watching.

In Britain, the first steps have been taken to loosen the rules around medical cannabis use, with Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, announcing a review earlier this year.

However Mr Javid said it was in no way a first step to the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use.

Bookies issued odds suggesting non-medical use will still be illegal in Britain in 2025.Recreational marijuana is now legal across Canada, giving millions of people the right to buy, carry and grow cannabis.

The countrys new federal cannabis act went into effect Wednesday, legalizing use for adults 18 or 19 and up, depending on the province. The change raises questions for U.S. travelers eager to hightail it across the border and light one up. But take note: people returning to the U.S. from Canada are barred from bringing any marijuana products with them because it is illegal at the federal level, said Stephanie Malin, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Regardless of Canadas legalization of marijuana today, nothing will be changing on the U.S. side or with CBP policies and procedures at the border, Malin said via email. Marijuana remains a controlled substance under U.S. federal law and it remains illegal.

U.S. residents are free to consume cannabis in Canada, but they should leave it behind when returning home, says Erik Altieri, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana laws (NORML). While recreational weed is legal in eight states, including Washington and Maine, which border Canada, people cannot travel to and from such states with marijuana because customs and immigration are under federal jurisdiction.

What happens in Canada needs to stay in Canada, Altieri said in an email. It is extremely unwise and illegal to attempt to bring any marijuana or marijuana products back across the border with you, whether you are returning to a state with legalization or not.

Potential consequences for people who get caught bringing marijuana over the border include jail time, fines and travel restrictions, depending on how they are prosecuted, says Scott Leemon, a criminal defense attorney in New York City. Those caught reentering states along the Canada-U.S. border where marijuana is illegal will most likely be referred to local authorities who will decide whether to prosecute, he says.

Story continues

Leemon says it remains unclear how someone caught attempting to bring marijuana to a state that allows recreational use would be prosecuted. For example, although people are permitted to carry a small amount of marijuana at the Los Angeles International Airport, it is still illegal for someone flying from Canada to transport marijuana there.

According to Leemon, border patrol agents will likely assess people returning from Canada with extra scrutiny  at least during the first few months of legalized marijuana.

They look for everything. I know people that have been detained for as little as a vape pen, he says. Theyll probably be looking, especially with people going on the weekends, or if someone goes and comes back on the same day.

CBP said in a statement that officers are thoroughly trained on admissibility factors when assessing people who come to the U.S. from Canada.

Determinations about admissibility and whether any regulatory or criminal enforcement is appropriate are made by a CBP officer based on the facts and circumstances known to the officer at the time, the statement reads.Theresa May, pictured with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, indicated she is ready to consider extending Britains transition out of the EU for a further year (Getty)

PM plays down Brexit transition extension

Theresa May has tried to backpedal over the possibility of extending the Brexit transition period after an angry backlash from Eurosceptics.

Delaying the end of the transition period would tie the UK to EU institutions such as the single market and customs union for longer.

Prominent Tory Brexiteers including Boris Johnson and David Davis told the Prime Minister voters would never forgive her if she agrees to push back the deadline.

In a fudge unlikely to win over her critics, the PM insisted this afternoon an extension was an idea rather than a proposal.

Mad cow disease identified on Scottish farm

A case of Mad cow disease has been found on an Aberdeenshire farm.

The case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) was identified during routine tests and did not enter the human food chain, the Scottish Government said.

An investigation is underway into the source of the disease and restrictions are in place to prevent it spreading.

Minister pulls out of Saudi Arabia conference

Liam Fox has become the latest high-profile figure to distance himself from Saudi Arabia following the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Arabia is facing pressure to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the countrys consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

A Turkish official said that the journalist was murdered and dismembered in the consulate, which the Saudis denied.

Kleenex scraps Mansize tissues after sexism row

Kleenex has said it will no longer brand its large boxes of tissues as Mansize after complaints over sexism.

The tissues will be called Kleenex Extra Large following public demand to get rid of gendered branding.PARIS (Reuters) - Patrice Caine, the chairman and chief executive of French defense electronics group Thales, has decided not to attend a Saudi investment conference next week, amid global concerns over the fate of a missing Saudi journalist. A spokesman for Thales added that the French company would nevertheless be represented at the event, due to be held in Riyadh from Oct 23-Oct 25, by Jean-Loic Galle, who is an executive at Thales' space division. The disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has raised concerns around the world. Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of the authoritarian kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body removed. The Saudis have denied the allegations. The French state owns 26 percent of Thales while Dassault Aviation has a 25 percent stake. (Reporting by Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)ROME (Reuters) - The volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii probably took place two months later than previously thought, Italian officials said on Tuesday.

Historians have traditionally dated the disaster to Aug. 24 79 AD, but excavations on the vast site in southern Italy have unearthed a charcoal inscription written on a wall that includes a date which corresponds to Oct. 17.

The writing came from an area in a house that was apparently being renovated just before the nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying Pompeii under a thick blanket of ash and rock.

"Being charcoal, fragile and evanescent, which could not last a long time, it is more than likely that it was written in October 79 AD," said Massimo Osanna, head of the Pompeii site.

The Aug. 24 date derives from an account of the blast given by Pliny the Younger, who witnessed the eruption and wrote about it almost 30 years after the event in two letters to his friend, the Roman historian Tacitus.

However, previous excavations have uncovered a calcified branch bearing berries that normally only come out in autumn. The discovery of some braziers over the years also suggested the disaster did not strike at the height of summer.

Osanna suggested the correct date might have been Oct. 24.

Showing off the faint writing on an uncovered white wall, Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli hailed it as an "extraordinary discovery".

"Today, with a lot of humility, maybe we're rewriting the history books because we're dating the eruption to the second half of October," Bonisoli said.

(Reporting by Giulia Segreti; Editing by Crispian Balmer and David Stamp)A peep into a Thimphu toy shop shows stacks of Pokemons, all made in China, a testimony to the quiet overtures Beijing is making in Bhutan at rival India's expense.

China's annexation of Tibet in 1951 and an unresolved border dispute have long been irritants in ties with Bhutan, and India would prefer they remain estranged.

India jumped to Bhutan's defence last year when Chinese troops started building a road on Doklam, a territory claimed by both China and Bhutan.

The eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation lasted 72 days before the Indian and Chinese armies pulled back.

But now Beijing is seeking to mend relations and extend a hand of friendship to the tiny Himalayan kingdom, despite the two having no diplomatic relations.

Chinese shipments have shot up in the past decade, with goods from machinery and cement to electricals and toys making Beijing the third largest source of foreign products to heavily import-dependent Bhutan.

And stuck between the competing regional powers, Bhutan has been gasping to assert its sovereignty and shrug off decades of heavy dependence on India.

Many among Bhutan's 800,000 population feel India's embrace is becoming a stranglehold and getting in the way of Thimpu's ties with other countries.

"Within Bhutan, there is a growing demand to diversify and loosen its dependence on India," University of British Columbia historian Tsering Shakya said.

"However, given the geography and history it is not easy for Bhutan to ignore India's interest."

Nestled in the highest, snow-capped mountain range in the world, Bhutan is one of the world's few countries to have never been colonised, and has retained much of its unique culture and charm.

The country's fourth king famously introduced the concept of gross national happiness in the 1970s, shunning the usual gross domestic product used by most modern countries to measure economic growth.

- 'Jealous big brother' -

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Bhutan was almost as isolated as the mythical Shangri-La until the early 1960s when its first highway was built.

But it has become increasingly dependent on neighbours, as shown in 2013 when India was accused of triggering a fuel crisis by cutting subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene -- which some say was a punishment to Bhutan for warming up to the Chinese.

"If we (India and Bhutan) are good friends, our friendship shouldn't be affected by our relations with other countries," said Vimla Pradhan, a 21-year-old college student.

"It appears as if everything Bhutan does, it should have tacit approval from India. India will always come before others but please don't behave like a jealous big brother," she told AFP in Thimpu.

Pradhan, who studies political science and philosophy, is not isolated in her views.

Many aspiring Bhutanese are restless for new opportunities at a time when youth unemployment is 10.6 percent against the national average of 2.4 percent.

India has been generous with loans and grants but Bhutan could do with more investment, and China has deep pockets.

"Where are the jobs? Look at any nook and corner and you will find young men hanging around aimlessly," said Karma Choden, a mother of two, as she waited for customers at a roadside stall selling dry cheese and red chillies.

Bhutan, a growing economy which has been trying to shed its tag as one of the world's least developed countries, is struggling to reduce unemployment as it gears up for only its third ever election on Thursday.

The ruling party was knocked out in the first round of polling in mid-September, signalling the electorate's desperation for change.

- Rich dividends -

China's policy of mixing soft diplomacy and economic aid has reaped rich dividends in South Asian countries where India has long held sway like Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

China has been reaching out to Bhutan through sports, religious and cultural visits as well as scholarships to Bhutanese students.

Its vice foreign minister Kong Xuanyou made a rare trip to Bhutan in July.

Bhutan has also been receiving a growing number of Chinese tourists, who have to pay a sizeable visa fee, unlike their Indian counterparts.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting Bhutan surged from fewer than 20 a decade ago to 6,421 in 2017, according to official figures.

Taxi driver Kinzang Dorji is unable to make much sense of Bhutan's diplomacy and history. But he understands the value of foreign investment.

"Bhutan should make friends with other countries," Dorji said.

"Many Chinese tourists have started coming and they are bringing in a lot of money. We don't mind them at all," he said before zooming past a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Thimphu.The moon over the Chinese capital, Beijing (PA)

The Chinese city of Chengdu could put an artificial moon in the sky to make nights brighter.

An illumination satellite could be in place by 2020 and is said to be eight times as bright as the real moon.

An official said it was designed to complement the moon at night.

The bizarre plan, which would give a dust-like glow for the south-western city of 14 million, was revealed in the Peoples Daily newspaper.

If successful, the man-made moon could replace streetlights.

Chinese blossoms illuminated by the moon (PA)

Officials said it could be controlled to light up an area up to 50 miles wide and said the idea was the brainchild of a French artist.

The likelihood that the moon will ever rise in the skies above Chengdu has already been dismissed by some skeptics  but the Chinese are not the first to come up with the ambitious idea.

Most famously, the Russians wanted to use a satellite to deflect sunlight back to Earth, to illuminate night times in part of the vast country.

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There have also been concerns raised that the science fiction-type plan could harm wildlife.

However, one of those involved in the project, Kang Weimin, director of the Institute of Optics, School of Aerospace, Harbin Institute of Technology, said this was not the case.

He said that the light of the satellite is similar to a dusk-like glow, so it should not affect animals routines.

The satellite is due for launch in 2020 and could start work soon after, the paper reported.

The idea was launched at a press conference earlier this month by Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute.ATLANTA (AP)  A bitter political battle over access to the polls is consuming the final stretch of the hotly contested Georgia governor's race.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee, says Democrat Stacey Abrams and liberal allies are fighting for immigrants without legal status to cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

Abrams' campaign says that's untrue and Kemp is deliberately twisting her words and her record. It says Kemp is trying to deflect from his own record of making it harder for citizens to vote.

The hard-fought and much-watched race pits a Republican backed by President Donald Trump, against a Democrat supported by former president Barack Obama. Kemp and Abrams have sparred over voter registration efforts and voting rights for years in the Deep South state.

But the tension escalated following an Associated Press report last week that more than 53,000 voter applications were on hold with Kemp's office ahead of the election. Nearly 70 percent of those registrations were from black applicants. As secretary of state, Kemp is responsible for overseeing elections in Georgia.

With public polling showing the race in a statistical dead heat and early voting already underway, it's a high-stakes dispute.

Abrams and voting rights advocacy groups charged that Kemp is systematically using his office to suppress votes and tilt the election, and that his policies disproportionately affect black and minority voters.

Kemp said he was merely following state law. He said the 53,000 Georgians on the "pending" list can still vote by bringing a proper ID that matches their registration information, rectifying the issue in person.

Many of the 53,000 wound up on the "pending" list for failing Georgia's "exact match" 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.

Story continues

Kemp has sought to move past the controversy by swinging hard at Abrams. In an appearance Monday on Fox News, he said a soundbite of Abrams at a recent campaign event is evidence that she wants immigrants without legal status to vote.

The clip of Abrams was from a campaign stop in Jonesboro, Georgia last week with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. During the event, Abrams said: "The thing of it is, is that blue waves aren't blue ... the blue wave is African-American. It's white, it's Latino, it's Asian-Pacific Islander. It is disabled. It is differently abled. It is LGBTQ, it is law enforcement. It is veterans. It is made up of those who have been told they are not worthy of being here. It is comprised of those who are documented and undocumented. It is comprised of those who have been told they're successful and those who have been left behind."

During the Fox News interview, Kemp singled out Abrams' words that the blue wave, referring to Democrats aspirations to sweep the November election, includes "those who are documented and undocumented."

"Wow. It means she wants illegals to vote in Georgia. This is a shocking development in the campaign. While she was campaigning with Elizabeth Warren she actually said this," Kemp said. "I think hard-working Georgians should decide who their governor is, not people here illegally like my opponent wants."

Kemp's campaign said in a statement that Abrams had a record of fighting against measures aimed at making it harder for immigrants without legal status to vote.

Abrams' campaign said in a statement that her words were taken out of context and that Kemp was trying to deflect from his own record of creating barriers for legal voters in Georgia.

"Kemp is running scared because he knows that Georgians are increasingly excited to vote for Stacey Abrams, and they aren't going to let him steal this election or their futures," said Abrams' spokeswoman Abigail Collazo.

During a visit to Athens, Georgia last week to stump for Kemp, Donald Trump Jr. underscored why the race was so important for Republicans, saying that his father's agenda was at stake in the upcoming election. The younger Trump said it's essential for Republicans like Kemp to win important state offices where they can support the President.



If you feel confused about the rules for using, buying, growing or doing anything with cannabis, you are not alone.

For starters, know this: the federal law, The Cannabis Act, lays the framework, but the provinces and municipalities ultimately set the ground rules.

With that said, heres are a few kind-of-confusing-cannabis laws that might trip you up, but could cost set you back thousands if you dont remember.

Dont toke and almost drive

One of the first cannabis offences just an hour into legalization day was a now-viral mistake behind the wheel in Manitoba. It was an hour into legality, and something illegal this way came, as one Winnipeg police offer revealed of a driver caught with weed in their car.

While consuming cannabis is legal in Canada: possessing or consuming it in or on your vehicle  whether its moving or stopped  is not.

The driver was slapped with a staggering $672 fine, one of the steepest pot violations a Canadian can face.

Bottom line is that you cannot consume cannabis in your vehicle.  Winnipeg Police (@wpgpolice) October 17, 2018

Delivery drama

In Ontario, your condo concierge cannot accept a cannabis shipment on your behalf.

Also, since anyone accepting the delivery must be of age, the delivery person will ask for ID if you look 25 or younger. If no one is home, the package will be sent back to the depot where you will have to go pick it up.

Whats in an age?

Eighteen-year-olds can light up in Alberta and Quebec, for now. Much of the rest of the provinces and territories opted for 19 as the minimum age to possess recreational cannabis, though the newly-elected CAQ government in Quebec wants to raise the minimum age to 21. Anyone caught offering pot to a young person could face fines in the thousands and/or jail time, depending on the province.

Happy trails

You can use cannabis on the trails in national parks in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. But dont try it in: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Yukon.

See the Parks Canada website for more information on marijuana in the wild.

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Check the streets youre on

In Montreal, the city government has opted to not to deviate from the provincial laws, which allow cannabis smoking in public parks. But Montreal also has smaller-scale borough councils, some of which are enacting local bylaws that restrict the same activity. As a result there are some streets where you can smoke on one side but not the other, as the Montreal Gazette reports.

Bud and breakfast

In what some hope will be a boon to the budding weed tourism industry, some provinces are allowing smoking and vaping cannabis in hotels and inns. P.E.I. and Ontario each have hotel locations open to the idea, but the rules vary from region to region.

Graveyard spliff

Edmonton, like many municipalities, has banned smoking cannabis in public parks, and went on to specify that, yes, cemeteries count as smoke-free zones.

INTERACTIVE MAP: Want to buy pot? Pick your province for the rules and regulationsSen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., speaking during the Open Markets Institutes conference in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

COLUMBIA, S.C.  New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker offered sharp criticism of the White Houses handling of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a campaign event at Allen University on Thursday. He also tied the issue to larger concerns about Saudi Arabia and suggested America should reevaluate its close ties to the Gulf kingdom.

Booker was asked about Khashoggis case when he took questions from audience members following the event. He immediately linked the issue to Saudi Arabias military strikes in Yemen, which have led to widespread civilian deaths and food shortages in that country.

I just want you to know I think it is right that theres such a response and frustration about that, Booker said of the reaction to Khashoggis disappearance. But you have to understand, I have been critical of the Saudis for a long time, say, for example, whats going on in Yemen right now, which is a humanitarian disaster.

Booker suggested that people should be outraged about what happened to Khashoggi and the situation in Yemen, which has garnered far less attention.

This is one man that died gruesomely, which is horrific, and we should condemn it and whats happening right now to thousands  tens of thousands of people, children in Yemen right now, massive famine, humanitarian disaster, Booker said.

Booker noted he has previously criticized U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and American military involvement in Yemen, which has included providing targeting information for Saudi strikes. He also criticized President Trump for showing a lack of moral leadership.

We need to reexamine that entire relationship, Booker said of Saudi Arabia. We need to be a nation that leads the moral light of the world, not retreats from our morals, he said, also criticizing the Trump administration for stepping back from international leadership in areas such as climate change.

In the Senate, Booker has voted against U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia during both the Trump and Obama administrations. He has also backed efforts to limit U.S. support for Saudi military operations in Yemen and publicly pushed the Trump administration to press Saudi Arabia on human rights issues.

Story continues

Khashoggi, who was a U.S. permanent resident and contributor to the Washington Post, went missing on Oct. 2 after going into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to file paperwork required for his upcoming wedding. In recent years, Khashoggi had become a prominent critic of the Saudi monarchy.

The Turkish government, which has a tense relationship with Saudi Arabia, has said that Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi team. Saudi Arabia initially denied any role in Khashoggis death, but may now be preparing to admit that the dissident writer died in the consulate during a botched interrogation.

So far, the White House response to the situation has largely consisted of a push to get Saudi Arabia to conduct an investigation into the matter with Turkish participation. Critics have argued that the White House response is inadequate and questioned the Trump administrations close relationship with Saudi Arabia, particularly the countrys new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who has repeatedly engaged in repressive behavior despite marketing himself as a reformer.

Booker echoed this view in his appearance on Thursday and suggested he was skeptical of Saudi efforts to investigate the situation.

Im worried that this has been skewed from the start. Im worried about efforts to cover this up and Im worried about our administration willing to just go along and get along because of a lot of the financial interests that we might have, Booker said.

Americas morals are not for sale. Americas values are not for sale and we need to stand up for who we are as a country, Booker also said. I hope that whoever ever holds that presidential office stands as a moral leader nationally and globally and not somebody that would compromise for arms sales.

Booker has been the subject of growing speculation that he might mount a White House bid in 2020, which has only increased with groundwork the senator has begun and recent trips he has made to influential primary states like South Carolina. Booker addressed the presidential buzz at the event on Thursday when an audience member asked him about his future plans. Booker, whose event was aimed at turning out voters for the midterms, said hes focused on that election and will consider the future afterward. He subsequently told reporters that hell think about what the next steps are for me in the days following the Nov. 6 midterm races.

I will be glad to have that conversation in 20 days. Lets focus on one election at a time. Lets focus on this one before us, Booker said. Somebody asked me the other day, Are you running for president? I said, Sir, Im running from the president.Slavery  more than 90 potential victims of slavery have been identified and 73 people arrested after a two-week clampdown on modern slavery and human trafficking (Picture: National Crime Agency)

A two-week crackdown on modern slavery and human trafficking has identified more than 90 possible victims.

The fortnight of law enforcement activity also led to the arrests of 73 people.

Led by the National Crime Agencys Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit, the crackdown in September involved 37 police forces from across the UK, as well as other partners including Border Force and Immigration Enforcement.

It was the latest part of Project Aidant, the NCA-led law enforcement response to modern slavery and human trafficking.

Of the 73 arrests, 24 were for modern slavery offences, 19 were for controlling prostitution, while the rest were for a variety of offences including conspiracy to rape, money laundering and immigration offences.

The operation focused on the use of adult services websites (ASWs) by traffickers to advertise victims of sexual exploitation, with at least 16 forces identifying potential victims on ASWs.

Throughout the fortnight, a total of 91 potential victims were identified.

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Although it is difficult to estimate the scale modern slavery in the UK remains very difficult, the NCA believes there are likely to be tens of thousands of victims.

Around 950 criminal investigations are currently under way into modern slavery and human trafficking across the UK  up from 300 in August 2017.

The National Crime Agency believes there are tens of thousands of victims of modern slavery in the UK (Picture: PA)

NCA deputy director Tom Dowdall said: This activity, which was months in the planning, aimed to identify and safeguard victims of sexual exploitation and arrest and disrupt their traffickers.

As a result of this and the NCAs wider work we have supported police forces and law enforcement partners to better identify victims of sexual exploitation who are being advertised on the internet.

This has led to the results we are releasing today  with numerous offenders identified and disrupted as well as potential victims protected.

Story continues

While most adverts on ASWs do not relate to trafficked victims, NCA experts believe those involved in exploitation use the volume of adverts on those platforms to hide their criminal operations.

Mr Dowdall added: We know from sex workers who are not being exploited that ASWs provide safety benefits as they are able to vet customers and avoid those with a history of abuse or violence.

However we recognise that ASWs also provide offenders with the ability to easily advertise multiple victims, increase the amount of sexual services victims are forced to provide, and maximise criminal profits. Our focus is therefore on those exploited victims and the criminals controlling them.

As well as enforcement activity with police forces, the NCA has partnered with NGO Stop The Traffik to raise awareness of the difference between sex work and sexual exploitation, as well as with the nursing profession to raise awareness of trafficking amongst those working in the health sector.Moscow (AFP) - A teenage gunman shot dead at least 19 people and injured dozens before killing himself at a technical college where he was a student in Russian-annexed Crimea on Wednesday.

Here is what we know so far about the shooting.

- A 'US style' shooting -

Russian authorities initially put out conflicting versions of what happened at the college in Kerch, a city in the Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The attack was first reported as an explosion, with authorities saying an "unidentified explosive device" had gone off and classifying the incident as an act of terror.

A few hours later Russia's Investigative Committee said the victims were killed by gunshots.

"A shooting took place after the explosion. The gunman had a hunting gun," Crimean official Igor Mikhailichenko said.

The attack was then reclassified as a murder.

"This is not a terrorist act. It's a mass killing committed by one scumbag," Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said on state television.

- Two bombs and a gun -

During the course of the day investigators said they found two explosive devices: one in the college canteen and another in the personal belongings of Roslyakov, whose body was discovered in the library.

According to the authorities, the explosive device in the canteen was "filled with metal objects" and caused substantial damage to the building's first floor.

CCTV images showed a man entering the school -- "holding a gun", investigators said. They added that Roslyakov's body had gunshot wounds.

According to a source cited by the RIA Novosti state news agency, Roslyakov had legally acquired a gun licence and passed the necessary psychological tests to do so.

- Unknown motives -

According to authorities, Vladislav Roslyakov was 18 years-old and a fourth year student in Kerch college.

His motives for the attack are still unknown. According to Aksyonov, he did not previously show signs of aggression.

Story continues

A photograph published on Russian websites appeared to show the body of a young man lying in a pool of blood, resembling the man in the CCTV footage.

Images circulating on social media allegedly show Roslyakov wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the two killers responsible for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US.

Authorities said they are investigating whether Roslyakov had accomplices or whether he was acting "under the influence" of another person or group.HOUSTON (AP)  Frank Randazzo, a retiree near Houston, volunteers for his local GOP office knocking on doors of undecided voters amid the most expensive U.S. Senate race in the country. He did a double take when a man with a Beto O'Rourke sign in his yard declared he was voting Republican.

"He told me to ignore the sign. It was his wife's," Randazzo said.

Tuesday night is the last televised debate in Texas between O'Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and from national polls to divided households in conservative suburbs, the indications are of a close race with just three weeks until Election Day. But what hasn't been seen so far are major missteps or race-altering moments.

Neither side is betting on one down the stretch. For O'Rourke, who last week announced a record-shattering fundraising haul of $38 million from supporters nationwide, the debate in San Antonio presents his last best chance to give Cruz supporters any misgivings. The El Paso congressman has run against politics as usual and campaign mudslinging, but O'Rourke is also sharpening his tone amid new polls that suggest his rise may be hitting a ceiling for a Democrat in Texas.

Cruz, meanwhile, is out to not squander the built-in advantages of running in a deeply Republican state that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 24 years. He is set to get another boost on Monday when President Donald Trump comes to Texas for a rally at an 8,000-seat convention hall in Houston.

And even Democrats are doubtful that Cruz  as unflappable a campaigner as anyone in the Senate  will make any disastrous late stumbles that would cause voters to peel off.

"Ted Cruz isn't going to be a Mourdock or an Akin," said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster based in Alabama.

He was referring to Missouri Republican Todd Akin, whose 2012 Senate campaign imploded after he said women's bodies could stop unwanted pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape," and Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who that same year said pregnancies resulting from rape were God's intent. Both went on to lose races that were within their reach.

Story continues

Continued Anzalone: "Is there always an 'X' variable you hope for at the end? Absolutely. But I'm not ready to say that's what is needed for an O'Rourke victory."

Since launching his longshot bid last year, O'Rourke has insisted that what his campaign didn't need were attack ads or money from political action committees. Up until now he had rarely even mentioned Cruz's name during his packed and lively rallies.

But that has started changing with time running out and new polls showing O'Rourke within single digits but still trailing in Texas, which President Donald Trump won by 9 points in 2016. While campaigning along the Texas-Mexico border last weekend, O'Rourke called Cruz reckless for helping instigate a 2013 government shutdown and accused him of undermining public schools.

"He put your lives and your communities on hold for his presidential ambition," O'Rourke told an audience in McAllen, Texas.

Cruz, on the other hand, has hammered O'Rourke for months and made little appeal beyond his conservative base during their first debate in September. Hours after O'Rourke on Friday announced his blockbuster fundraising numbers that tripled what Cruz raised, Cruz chalked it up to anger on the left and continued casting O'Rourke as too liberal for Texas.

"Typically, in a general election, Democrats in Texas at least pretend to go to the middle. They pretend to be moderate. That's not what Congressman O'Rourke is doing. He's going hard, hard left," Cruz said.

He was at a honky-tonk in Houston, where pairs of cowboy boots dangle from the ceiling and mingling underneath were Cruz supporters, whose own families illustrated O'Rourke's surprising inroads in unexpected places. Angie White, 57, said her daughter has gone to O'Rourke events but that, like many young people, "I feel like she's not going to go vote." Next to her was Carolyn Knight, 65, who joked about wanting her grandkids to stay home on Election Day.

Houston is one of Texas' most liberal cities, but Democrats haven't carried surrounding Harris County in a midterm election in a quarter-century.

"We also live in a very red state," said Lillie Schechter, chairwoman of the Harris County Democratic Party. "Obama lost it by 1.2 million votes. Hillary lost it by 600,000. We've been cutting our margins, but it's a really heavy lift."

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweberUNITED NATIONS (AP)  About 20 Cuban diplomats and supporters disrupted a U.N. meeting called Tuesday by the United States to spotlight the island nation's political prisoners, loudly banging on tables and shouting in Spanish, "Cuba, yes! U.S. blockade, no!"

It was impossible to hear U.S. Deputy Ambassador Kelley Currie, senior Trump administration officials or the secretary-general of the Organization of American States above the noise in the U.N. Economic and Social Council chamber that continued for more than 45 minutes.

Toward the end of the meeting, U.N. security officials ordered out more than a dozen pro-Cubans in the balcony who had joined in the shouting. Those protesters yelled "Long live free Cuba!" (Viva Cuba libre!) and one kept shouting "Liars!" ("Mentirosos!") as they was escorted from the chamber.

It was a very rare protest by accredited diplomats who have the right to attend any open U.N. meeting, and reflected the serious deterioration of U.S.-Cuban relations during the Trump administration following the restoration of ties in 2015 under President Barack Obama.

The U.S. had severed diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961 after the revolution led by Fidel Castro. An economic embargo, initially imposed in 1958 and subsequently expanded, remains in place.

Despite Obama's opening, serious issues remain, especially the U.S. call for human rights on the Caribbean island.

Currie told reporters outside the chamber that the Cuban diplomats "should be ashamed of themselves" and that the U.S. would raise their actions with the proper authorities in the United Nations.

"I have never seen diplomats behave the way that the Cuban government delegation did today. It was very shocking and disturbing," she said. "This kind of rubbish behavior  it has no place here in the United Nations."

Cuban Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo called the meeting a "farce," ''a political comedy" and "a new chapter in the long list of aggressions against Cuba."

Story continues

"The truth is on our side," she said. "Cuba is proud of its human rights record, which denies any manipulation against it."

Currie said the U.S. sought to raise the issue of political prisoners because the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee is meeting and "it's an issue that we feel is under-highlighted and needs additional attention."

Even before Tuesday's meeting, the two countries were trading accusations.

The United States said Cuba has jailed 130 political prisoners in a "blatant affront" to fundamental democratic freedoms and announced it was formally launching a campaign Tuesday at the U.N. called "Jailed for What?" to hold Cuba's regime responsible for human rights violations.

Rodriguez said Monday that the U.S. has itself violated human rights, especially in the use of torture, detention and "arbitrary deprivation of liberty" at its Guantanamo military base, where terrorism suspects have been held for years. She also pointed to U.S. immigration policies that have separated parents and children.

Among the speakers at the session were Secretary General Luis Almagro of the Organization of American States, Executive Director Carlos Quesada of the Institute of Race and Equality and former Cuban political prisoner Alejandro Gonzalez Raga. The sister of political prisoner Eduardo Cardet Concepcion spoke by video.

But their words were drowned out by the constant banging on tables and shouting of slogans.

The U.S. envoy said Almargo highlighted "the role that Cuba plays in destabilization in Venezuela and Nicaragua."

"Therefore, we feel that it is important to shine a light on a regime that is undermining peace and security across Latin America as well as persecuting its citizens at home," Currie said.

Cuba's ambassador called the OAS a "puppet" organization and said the event was put on with actors serving "a foreign power, many of them paid by Washington."SheKnows

It looks like another Christmas will pass without Prince Harry and Meghan Markle joining Queen Elizabeth at Sandringham. While it is understandable that the long journey (and likely negative U.K. press) makes it a tough time of year to make the trip, it does come on the heels of Prince Philips death in April, which []TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Democrats running for two Kansas congressional seats that their party hopes to flip raised far more campaign cash than their Republican opponents did from mid-July through September, according to campaign finance reports available online Tuesday.

The most eye-popping number was posted by Democrat Sharice Davids in the Kansas City-area 3rd District. Her campaign reported that it raised nearly $2.8 million during the period, making her more competitive in fundraising than any other Democrat faced previously by Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder during four terms in the House.

Davids has received national attention for her unusual political profile as an LGBT and Native American attorney who has fought mixed martial arts bouts. While the district is Republican-leaning, President Donald Trump narrowly lost it in 2016, and he endorsed Yoder in July.

Yoder raised a little more than $1 million during the period for what has become the toughest race of his career. But he began the period with far more money than Davids  nearly $1.8 million to less than $128,000.

He has raised more than $3.8 million for his re-election so far and spent $1.5 million on his campaign during the last period, ending September with nearly $1.3 million.

That gave Yoder an advantage in cash on hand, because Davids had a little more than $1 million left after spending nearly $1.9 million during the period. Her total fundraising has exceeded $3.1 million.

Both Davids and Paul Davis, the Democratic nominee in the neighboring 2nd District of eastern Kansas, received more than $300,000 on Sept. 28 from the House Victory Project, a Washington-based Democratic group.

Davis, a former Kansas House leader, and Republican Steve Watkins, an Army veteran and political newcomer, are seeking the seat held by retiring GOP Rep. Lynn Jenkins.

Davis reported raising about $1.36 million from mid-July through September, including the House Victory Project contribution, bringing his total cash contributions to nearly $3 million. He spent $1.04 million and ended September with $1.26 million.

Story continues

Watkins ended the period with about $151,000 after raising $282,000. He spent about $256,000 from mid-July through September, and he's raised a total of $923,000 for his campaign, though more than half of that, or $475,100 came from a personal loan to his campaign.

But Watkins' father, a Topeka physician, also is involved heavily in the race as the almost-exclusive source of funding for a political action committee, Kansans Can Do Anything, boosting his son's candidacy. The elder Watkins has contributed more than $765,000 to the PAC, including more than $178,000 from mid-July through September.

Also, Trump had a rally in Topeka to help boost Watkins' campaign earlier this month, and Vice President Mike Pence was scheduled to have a fundraiser for him Friday.

___

Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .Democrat Katie Porter, who is challenging Rep. Mimi Walters in California's 45th Congressional District, raised $2 million more than Walters in the third quarter of this year. (Photo: Digital First Media/Orange County Register/Getty Images)

Democrats enjoy significant fundraising advantages in dozens of House contests that could determine control of the legislative chamber, according to new financial disclosure data.

Democrats cash edge, shown in financial disclosures that had to be filed by Monday, is all the more notable because the vast majority of the partys contenders are outperforming Republican rivals without the benefit of corporate PAC money.

Democratic candidates in 45 of the most competitive House races have raised $252 million, compared with the $172 million raised by Republican rivals, a New York Times analysis of the campaign disclosure data found.

Democrats have raised two-thirds of all the money hauled in by House candidates, according to an analysis by FiveThirtyEight, a data-focused news site. Thats by far the most since 1998, as far back as FiveThirtyEights data goes. In 2006, when Democrats last won control of the House from the GOP, Democratic and Republican candidates total fundraising was roughly even.

A few Democrats  like Gil Cisneros in Californias 39th Congressional District and Scott Wallace in Pennsylvanias 1st  owe their financial edge to self-funding. But for the most part, Democrats green wave of cash is being fueled by a surge of individual donations, many of them in small-dollar increments given online.

The cash improves Democrats odds of flipping the 23 seats they need to take control of the House of Representatives. The funding allows Democratic candidates greater resources to get their message on the airwaves and turn out voters through field organizing.

The fundraising numbers are insane relative to past cycles, said Andrew Baumann, a consultant with Global Strategy Group advising a number of Democratic candidates. Democrats have never raised money like this.

At least six Democratic candidates running for GOP-held House seats raised more than $3 million in the third quarter, swamping their Republican opponents in fundraising. They include Katie Hill in Californias 25th; Antonio Delgado in New Yorks 19th; Andrew Janz in Californias 22nd; Abigail Spanberger in Virginias 7th; Josh Harder in Californias 10th; and Amy McGrath in Kentuckys 6th.

Story continues

Many more Democrats have raised more than $1 million in the quarter, providing them a comfortable advantage over rivals on the airwaves.

For example, in Californias 45th, Katie Porter, a law professor and consumer advocate challenging Rep. Mimi Walters, raised nearly $3 million. Walters, a member of House Republican leadership from Orange County, raised less than $1 million over the same period.

For a Democratic challenger to be outraising a Republican member who is part of leadership by $2 million  that just doesnt happen, said Baumann, who consults for Porter.

Small donors powered Porters advantage. Her campaign has received 180,000 individual donations, with an average contribution of $27.50, according to the campaign.

Walters seat in the highly educated and increasingly diverse suburbs of Orange County is a top pickup target for Democrats.

But Democrats are also outperforming Republican candidates in many districts that remain a reach for the party, including Californias rural 22nd, where Janz is taking on Rep. Devin Nunes.

Carolyn Long, the Democrat challenging Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler in southwest Washington states 3rd District, raised nearly $1.2 million more than Herrera-Beutler in the quarter. In South Carolinas 1st, an open seat that includes Charleston, Democrat Joe Cunningham topped Republican Katie Arringtons fundraising by more than $300,000. And in Ohios rural 7th, a district where Donald Trump won by more than 29 percentage points in 2016, Democrat Ken Harbaugh outraised Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs by more than $500,000.

Whats more, the bulk of Democratic House candidates are posting these historic fundraising hauls without direct help from corporations.

Eighty-five Democratic House candidates who have pledged not to accept donations from corporate political action committees have outraised their Republican opponents, according to End Citizens United, a Democratic group that encourages candidates to take the pledge. Of the six Democrats who raised more than $3 million in the third quarter, all but McGrath have promised not to accept corporate PAC money.

The Democrats ability to raise money from an energized base means that their principled position to refuse corporate PAC money has not had much impact on their overall war chests, said Baumann, who worked for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2006, a Democratic wave year.

End Citizens United maintains that candidates raise more grassroots dollars because of the pledge, not despite it. In giving up corporate PAC money, these candidates gain voters trust allowing grassroots donors to feel they are part of a movement and standing toe-to-toe against special interests money, said Anne Feldman, a spokeswomen for the group.

Republicans still have some strengths in which they can take solace, even in a challenging cycle. For example, the Republican National Committee boasts a fundraising advantage over the Democratic National Committee, which it has used to erect a vast field operation capable of helping candidates up and down the ballot. The RNC has spent $250 million protecting House and Senate majorities, enabling it to field more than 540 paid staff members in 28 states.

Democrats simply dont have the political infrastructure that we do to get people to the polls, said RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens. Candidates like Jon Ossoff and Danny OConnor lost despite having a ton of money and the backing of the entire Democratic machine.

Republicans also have a seemingly unending flow of cash from outside groups, particularly through the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund, two GOP super PACs tied to Republican leadership. Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson recently dumped an emergency injection of $25 million into the two super PACs.

Those groups have stepped in to bolster advertising for Republican candidates who trail their Democratic rivals.

But this year, Democratic political groups are thriving as well. Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, is planning to spend $80 million through his super PAC  the vast majority of it on behalf of Democratic candidates.

In addition, there are limits to what outside forces can accomplish when candidates lack their own cash. Campaign dollars go further on television, because unlike super PACs, stations are required to charge them the lowest possible market rates. And super PACs are barred by law from coordinating with campaigns, which can prevent them from using their resources most effectively.

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National Anthem

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Special Guest

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Democrats suggest Trump had conflicts in deciding fate of FBI headquarters originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

President Donald Trump inserted himself personally into his administrations discussion of the fate of the FBI headquarters in downtown Washington near his D.C. hotel, according to new emails released by Democrats Thursday, raising questions about possible conflicts of interest between the governments actions and the presidents personal business holdings.

Democrats, citing the new documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee, accused General Services Administrator Emily Murphy of misleading Congress about the White Houses involvement in the plans in testimony before a House committee.

The documents show that a more expensive plan to keep the existing property on Pennsylvania Avenue, demolish the existing building, and construct a new facility on the same siteand thereby prevent commercial developers from competing with the Trump Hotel directly across the streetwas approved during a meeting with President Trump at the Oval Office on January 24, 2018, Democrats wrote Thursday.

In an email exchange after the January 2018 meeting, GSA officials discussed producing a document memorializing the Oval Office conversation.

Ideally I think it would first recap the oval office meeting with what POTUS directed everyone to do then ask Emily(GSA) to execute POTUSs orders, GSA acting chief of staff P. Brennan Hart wrote in an email on January 27.

The Trump Organization had arranged to lease the Old Post Office building from the federal government prior to Trumps bid for the White House, and the GSA is now the landlord of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is located just blocks away from the FBIs J. Edgar Hoover Building.

In their letter to Murphy, Democrats, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said the committee is seeking more information and documents to determine whether the President is making decisions about the FBI headquarters building based on what is best for the country of what is best for his own financial bottom-line.

Story continues

PHOTO: A sign stands outside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Washington, D.C., Feb. 2, 2018. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The disclosures come on the heels of new reports from the agencys inspector general, and a report Thursday in the New York Times, which raise questions about President Trumps decision to intervene personally in the real estate discussions surrounding the iconic Pennsylvania Avenue property.

The White House denied claims that President Trump attempted to influence the real estate decisions about the FBI headquarters building.

The idea that the reason the president wanted the F.B.I. headquarters to remain in its current location is based on anything other than the recommendation of the F.B.I. is simply false, said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, in a statement to ABC News.

In August, the GSA inspector general, an internal independent watchdog, concluded that Murphy initially misled Congress about Trumps interest in the project, writing that she provided incomplete testimony about conversations with the president and White House officials about the FBI headquarters project.

After suggesting to Congress that the president had no role in the discussions during a House Appropriations Committee hearing in April, Murphy was later shown to have attended two meetings at the White House in January on the relocation plan, including one meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, where the plans were discussed, the report said.

Asked twice about the White Houses role by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., Murphy said the directions to redevelop the downtown headquarters came from the FBI.

Murphys testimony was incomplete and may have left the misleading impression that she had no discussions with the President or senior White House officials in the decision-making process about the project, the inspector general concluded.

PHOTO: File photo of then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, left, his wife Melania Trump and daughter Tiffany Trump cutting the ribbon at the new Trump International Hotel on Oct. 26, 2016, in Washington. (File-Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

After releasing the documents - including emails and a photo of Trump meeting with Murphy in the Oval Office - Cummings and other Democrats said Trump "should have avoided all interactions or communications relating to the FBI headquarters project to prevent both real and perceived conflicts of interest."

He should not have played any role in a determination that bears directly on his own financial interests with the Trump Hotel. The GSA also should have taken steps to wall off the decision from improper influence.

At stake was a plan to move the FBI headquarters out of the city  a relocation that had been in the works for several years and narrowed down to three possible sites in Maryland and Virginia in 2013. The watchdog found that the revised plan to demolish and rebuild the headquarters in Washington could be more expensive than initial plans to relocate the agency.

A GSA spokesperson insisted Thursday a number of emails referenced in todays congressional letter are taken out of context and refer to the project's funding approach, not the location decision, adding that it stands by its testimony.

Suggestions that those emails indicate presidential involvement in the location decision are inaccurate, said Pamela Dixon, a GSA spokeswoman. As previously testified by GSA and the FBI, the leadership team at the FBI made the decision to keep its headquarters at the current Pennsylvania Avenue location.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump had long held a personal interest in the fate of the FBI building. The newspaper report, citing congressional sources, said an executive for The Trump Organization had at one point raised concerns that, if the site was redeveloped into a hotel, new competition from across Pennsylvania Avenue could imperil the business prospects of the Trump hotel. The report said the executive sought assistance from a member of Congress to restrict what could be built on the F.B.I. site.

A federal judge recently ruled that congressional Democrats could proceed with a lawsuit against the president centered on his D.C. hotel and some other businesses and whether he is profiting illegally from their business with foreign governments.The caravan, which set off from Honduras on Saturday, crossed into Guatemala on Monday evening after a standoff with riot police - Getty Images South America

Donald Trump, the US president, threatened on Tuesday to cut off aid to Honduras unless the country took steps to halt a migrant caravan, which has doubled in size since it set off from a gang-plagued city on Saturday.

The group, now believed to be 3,000 people strong, was confronted by riot police on the Honduras-Guatemalan border, but by Monday evening had managed to cross. The organiser of the northern-bound group, Bartolo Fuentes, a Honduran former politician, was then detained by Guatemalan police.

Mr Trump tweeted that he was considering ending financial assistance to Honduras, worth nearly $66 million (50m) in 2019.

"The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!" he said.

It was not clear how Honduras would be able to exercise control over people who had already left the country.

The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

Mike Pence, the vice president, tweeted that had spoken to Juan Orlando Hernandez, president of Honduras.

"Delivered strong message from @POTUS: no more aid if caravan is not stopped, said Mr Pence. Told him U.S. will not tolerate this blatant disregard for our border & sovereignty.

The current group making their way north plan to seek refugee status in Mexico or pass through to the United States, saying they are fleeing poverty and violence.

Mr Hernandez who has warned that cutting off aid will only worsen conditions in Central America, and drive more migrants towards the USA.

Story continues

Human rights organisations called on the Guatemalan government to guarantee the migrants safe passage.

Honduran immigrants, some of more than 3,000 people in a migrant caravan, travel north on Tuesday near Quezaltepeque, Guatemala Credit: Getty

"The government of Guatemala is responsible for the security and integrity of the people who are on its territory and their human rights should not be violated for any reason," a statement by 18 migrant support groups said.

"We demand the cessation of all police and administrative action that restricts their fundamental rights."

Mexico, under strong US pressure, has now said it will block members of the caravan from entering its territory if they did not have permits.

In April another migrant caravan set off from Guatemala, with 1,200 people in an annual symbolic march. They were assisted by the Mexican government granting them transit and humanitarian visas  a move which infuriated Mr Trump.

When the group reached the border, around 150 attempted to seek asylum, but were turned back by authorities saying they could not process their claims.Dunkin Donuts has apologized to a Somalian customer who was berated by an employee for not speaking English. (Photo: Facebook/Hamdia Ahmed)

Dunkin Donuts apologized to a college student after one of its employees called the police in an altercation that she said began when she stopped at a drive-thru with her family and the attendant heard them speaking Somali.

On Monday, 20-year-old Hamdia Ahmed tried placing a coffee order in the drive-thru of a Dunkin Donuts located in Portland, Maine, when an employee became enraged over the loudspeaker.

We were speaking in our native language before we even spoke through the microphone to place our order. Out of nowhere, the shift manager screamed at us and said, Stop yelling, leave or Im calling the cops, Ahmed wrote on Facebook. I was surprised to hear this because we werent even doing anything. The shift manager told us to leave and she was calling the police. She also refused to take our order.

The University of Southern Maine student parked, leaving her older brother and mother in the car, and went inside the store to inquire why the police were called. I also wanted to let this woman know that her behavior was unacceptable, Ahmed tells Yahoo Lifestyle. And I decided to wait for the police.

Ahmed alleges other customers began filming the altercation and says one left the store saying, Im not buying coffee here  this is straight-up racism.

Hamida Ahmed says she was racially discriminated against at a Portland, Maine, Dunkin Donuts. (Photo: Jason Poulin)

Ahmed explained in her Facebook post that after speaking to police officers, she was initially issued a no-trespass order for disturbance and yelling at a staff. According to the Portland Press Herald, Ahmeds order bans her from the John Street location for one year.

The only crime we committed was speaking in our native language, wrote Ahmed. Languages come in a different tone and this woman felt like we were a threat to her. This is America and everyone should have the right to speak in their native language. Unbelievable.

Ahmed also posted a Facebook video of the argument. Dont talk to me like that when I was talking to my family in my language, she says into the drive-thru microphone. Youre going to disrespect me because I speak a different language than you? Is that what it is?

Story continues

The employee responds, It has nothing to do with your language. You can leave. I dont want to hear it. Im done with it. You can leave, or Ill call the cops.

Guys, I need your help. Today my family and I want @dunkindonuts. Before we even place our order through the dr thru, we were told to leave for speaking in our native language. We were called a  bitch. The police were called on us, and now cant go back their. I am disgusted. pic.twitter.com/A1foloR1ma  Hamdia Ahmed (@hamdia_ahmed) October 15, 2018

According to the news outlet, store owner Dave DaRosa apologized to Ahmed on Wednesday and he revoked the No Trespass order. Representatives of Dunkin Donuts and the Portland Police Department did not return Yahoo Lifestyles requests for comment.

He gave a sincere apology, Ahmet told the Press Herald. He acknowledged that the police should have never been called.

The paper also published a statement from Dunkin Donuts corporate office: Dunkin and our franchisees are committed to creating a positive customer service experience for all of our guests. The franchisee who owns and operates the store has confirmed he has met with the guest, sincerely apologized to her for the poor experience and is working on providing additional customer service training to his store crew.

I appreciate their apology but what I really wanted to get out of the meeting is I want training for their workers, Ahmed told the Press Herald. Because they cant treat people like that, and the police should have never been called.

According to a recent Tweet from Ahmed, Dunkin Donuts will now train their staff as well.

Update: The owner Dave has apologized for the incident that occurred in his store. The no trespass order has been rescinded. He acknowledge that the police should have never been called on us. Their will be a training for the staffs. Proud of myself for speaking up. https://t.co/OgjjkuXehX  Hamdia Ahmed (@hamdia_ahmed) October 18, 2018

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

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Quito (AFP) - Ecuador expelled Venezuela's ambassador Carol Delgado on Thursday over "offensive" comments against President Lenin Moreno by a Venezuelan government minister, the foreign ministry said.

Communication and information minister Jorge Rodriguez had accused Moreno of lying about the number of Venezuelans that have arrived in Ecuador after fleeing the economic meltdown in their homeland.

"I listened stupefied to a president on this continent because I couldn't believe he could be such a liar," Rodriguez said on Wednesday, referring to the claim that "6,000 unwell Venezuelans a day are entering Ecuador."

Ecuador said it "will not tolerate any demonstration of disrespect towards our authorities," adding however that it would continue to offer help to Venezuelans entering the country.

South America has been grappling this year with a migration crisis sparked by a mass exodus of Venezuelans fleeing poverty, failing public services and shortages of basic necessities.

The United Nations says 2.3 million Venezuelans are living outside the country, with 1.6 million having fled since 2015. An estimated 90 percent have fled to other Latin American countries.

While Colombia has taken in more than a million Venezuelans, many of those have continued south to Ecuador, Peru and Chile, heaping pressure on those countries.Eleanor Wilson will not face a retrial over allegations she slept with a student during a fight (PA)

The former teacher accused of having sex with a student in a toilet of a plane has reportedly said that she is relieved there will be no retrial.

Eleanor Wilson, 29, was charged with four counts of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust during a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

After the jury were dismissed last week when no majority verdict was reached, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced Ms Wilson would not face a retrial.

Her brother, Jethro, told MailOnline that his sister is very relieved at the outcome.

He added: She wants to talk to the people who matter first and then decide what she does from there.

Ms WIlson is said to be relieved that there will be no retrial (SWNS)

Ms Wilson was accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from a camping trip in August 2015.

It was alleged the teacher, then aged 26, kissed and cuddled the boy before beckoning him into the toilet, where they allegedly had sex.

She was also said to have seen the boy outside of school and allegedly kissed and cuddled him on three separate occasions.

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Within weeks of the pair returning from the trip, rumours spread around the school that Ms Wilson was in a relationship with a student.

She denied this when confronted by the schools head teacher, saying she was horrified by 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 teacher, pictured with boyfriend Josh Hawkins, denied four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust (SWNS)

Jurors were told the clandestine relationship was exposed months later when another pupil at the school tried to blackmail Ms 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.

She insisted the boy had imagined what he claimed happened in the plane toilet and said there was no truth whatsoever in the allegations.

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Giving evidence, the teenager said a bond developed between them. He said his account was not fantasy and he was telling the truth.

Ms Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, was released on unconditional bail following last weeks hearing.

She was banned indefinitely from teaching in July last year following a report by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of the European Parliament said on Thursday EU countries who refuse to host refugees could instead pay more for EU migration and development projects in Africa, signaling possible compromise to end a bruising dispute in the bloc. The migration feud has divided southern and eastern EU states as well as rich destination countries such as Germany since 2015, when more than one million refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa reached the bloc's borders. But the tone of the discussion has changed recently after years of one camp insisting that all EU states must take in some migrants and the other side rejecting that. "No relocation - (then) more money for Africa," European Parliament President Antonio Tajani told a news conference on Thursday as the bloc's 28 national leaders discussed migration. "This should be a good compromise. It's better to have an agreement with a compromise than no agreement," he said. Mediterranean arrivals of migrants and refugees are below 100,000 people so far this year, according to United Nations data, a far cry from the 2015 influx that caught the bloc unprepared and overwhelmed security and other public services. The EU has since tightened its external borders, has turned more restrictive on granting asylum and has sealed deals with countries from Turkey to Libya to keep a lid on migrants departing their territory by sea for EU shores. EU will further step up returns and deportations of those who reach Europe but do not qualify for asylum, a statement of the 28 national leaders' meeting in Brussels on Thursday said. The bloc will seek to build "a broader partnership" with countries along the migratory routes, mainly in North Africa, including to crack down on people smugglers. The chaotic scenes from 2015 are still reverberating in European politics, which has since seen a surge in support for anti-immigration, populist and nationalist groups. But fewer arrivals now mean some of the heat is off, making a deal easier. The eastern, formerly communist EU states like Poland and Hungary, remain adamant that they will not allow in any refugees from mainly Muslim countries. Germany, France and the Netherlands, which had previously demanded solidarity from all EU states, may be more open now to allowing their reluctant peers to buy out of the refugee distribution scheme as a way of sealing a deal, diplomats said. "We cannot force (others to take in refugees), but those that do not do so must possibly contribute in another way such as...in Africa. Everyone needs to take on some of the responsibility that we all have," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told his EU peers recently. Any political agreement is likely to take more time, diplomats and officials said, not least because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the euroskeptic Italian government have built their political clout on an anti-immigration line and criticism of how the EU has handled migration. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Mark Heinrich)Brussels (AFP) - The European Commission on Thursday formally warned Italy that its budget plans for 2019 are a serious concern for Europe and an unprecedented deviation of EU rules.

Italy's plans to increase spending instead of cutting budgets "are unprecedented in the history of the Stability and Growth Pact," the EU's top economic affairs officials wrote in a letter to Rome, referring to the bloc's rules on public spending.

In the letter, Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said the 2019 budget was in "serious non-compliance" of EU law.

Crucially, this meant the Italian budget can be rejected by Brussels and sent back for revision this month, a move that would be a first in the European Union.

The commission gave the Italian government until Monday October 22 at 1200 CET (1000 GMT) to respond to the concerns.

Underlining the sensitivity of the matter, the letter will be delivered by Moscovici in person to Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria in Rome.

The officials met after EU leaders in Brussels discussed the eurozone, with harder line speakers -- most notably from the Netherlands -- denouncing Italy's decision to go on what they see as a spending spree.

On the sidelines of the summit, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, where criticism of Rome's populist government also runs high.

"This is not the budget the Commission expected. It is understandable that there are reactions. I expect some critical observations," Conte said in Brussels.

Italy's coalition government submitted its draft 2019 budget to the European Commission on Monday that announced a big wave of extra spending to fullfil electoral promises.

The spending boost is essentially due to what the government calls its "people's budget", a series of pension and tax changes that will cost 37 billion euros ($43 billion), of which 22 billion will be paid for by expanding the deficit.

Brussels says Rome needs to cut the deficit in order to begin reducing its massive debt, which exceeds 130 percent of annual economic output -- way above the EU's 60 percent ceiling.

The brash attitude of Italy's anti-establishment government towards public spending has spooked financial markets, with many fearing a re-run of the debt crisis that nearly saw Greece kicked out of the eurozone.Brussels (AFP) - Theresa May knew even before she got to Brussels that she wouldn't be invited to dinner with her European opposite numbers, who wanted to discuss her Brexit plan without her.

But the British premier can't have known, as she returned to the British residence, that she'd also miss out when four colleagues went on an impromptu trip to the pub for beer and chips.

After Wednesday night's inconclusive Brexit dinner, French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel walked back to their hotel together.

After a leisurely 25-minute stroll through Brussels' old town, Macron received a text message from Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel: "Come and join us."

A few minutes later Macron, Merkel, Bettel and Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel were sat round a convivial table on the city's Grand-Place, beers in hand.

No reporters had been invited to the apparently spontaneous get-together, but a passing journalist snapped a mobile phone shot that quickly sped around Twitter.

"We had a drink between colleagues last night, a beer. And chips, because we're in Brussels. It was very nice," confirmed Bettel as he arrived at the summit venue on Thursday.

The Luxembourg leader confirmed that the four pals had reviewed the political events of the day, but that they were also just happy to relax together and have a chat.

"And I paid, because of last Sunday's election, if you want to know everything," he added. Bettel's party performed well enough in the poll that he has renewed his governing coalition.Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Consumer Reports has no financial relationship with advertisers on this site.

Government regulators opened an investigation this week into why some Ford heavy-duty pickup truck power tailgates are falling open.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking into the problem, which affects 2017 Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks.

Ford issued a technical service bulletin in October 2017 that warned dealers of a possible water leak that could affect the wiring harness that operates the power liftgate. A service bulletin has instructions from automakers to its dealers on how to handle a problem with their vehicles.

The investigation covers 54,400 trucks, according to NHTSA, and could lead to a recall.

NHTSA reported that it received a complaint from an F-250 owner from Oxnard, Calif., saying his tailgate had fallen open 16 times between November 2016 and May 2017, often while he was hauling cargo and pulling a trailer.

In his complaint, the owner said that his Ford dealer blamed him for accidentally pushing the tailgate button on his key fob, which the owner said wasnt possible. The truck owner ultimately disconnected the wiring to the power tailgate himself, according to the complaint he filed.

The agency says five complaints have been filed so far.

On Ford owner websites such as ford-trucks.com, consumers reported that they resorted to using ropes and bungee cords to keep their tailgates secured. One pickup owner found his tailgate open against his garage door and then again after driving. Inside his tailgate, he found his wiring harness connector was full of water.

A Ford spokeswoman declined to answer specific questions from CR about the consumer complaints, the potential safety defect, or why the company hasnt recalled the pickups.

We take the safety of our customers very seriously, Elizabeth Weigandt, the Ford spokeswoman, said in an email. Whenever a safety-related defect is identified, Ford takes quick action. We will cooperate with NHTSA on their investigation, as we always do.

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A NHTSA spokesman, Derrell Lyles, declined to outline a timetable for the agencys investigation or its next steps. Once the investigation is over, the conclusion will be posted to the site, he said in an email.

This is a preliminary evaluation, the first step in NHTSAs investigation process. Automakers often recall vehicles during this stage if they come to agreement with federal investigators about a problem.





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Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright  2018, Consumer Reports, Inc.By John Miller ZURICH (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has rejected Novartis's bid to repurpose a drug now approved for rare inflammatory diseases to be used in a group of heart attack survivors, the Swiss drugmaker said on Thursday. The company received an FDA letter turning down its bid to make canakinumab a targeted therapy for those cardiovascular patients who in tests had quickly responded to treatment, as levels of a protein in their blood associated with inflammation and heart disease quickly plunged. Canakinumab made headlines in 2017, when data from a six-year study of about 10,000 patients proved that fighting inflammation with the drug - not merely lowering cholesterol - helped heart attack victims avoid future attacks or death. But while scientists lauded the results of Novartis's Cantos study as a revelation, the benefit of the medicine was downplayed by some cardiovascular experts who concluded it was insufficient to justify expanding existing approvals to routine use in cardiac patients. "Based on the correspondence, the Cantos data would not support labeling for the use of canakinumab as a targeted therapy for those patients with cardiovascular disease who achieved a reduction of hsCRP below the 2 mg/L target," Novartis said in a statement. A big challenge Novartis always faced with canakinumab, also known as Ilaris, is it now costs some $200,000 annually for treating rare inflammatory diseases like Mediterranean fever. Cardiology drugs costs just a fraction of that, so Novartis would have had to win favorable labeling from regulators. "We're now evaluating the full details of what's in the complete response letter, and trying to determine what is the best course of action," a Novartis spokesman told Reuters. "It's not clear what the next steps are." The cardio market is huge, with a quarter of the 1.3 million people who suffer heart attacks in the United States and Europe annually likely to have another attack within five years. But in its current uses, Ilaris is comparatively small, racking up sales of $402 million last year. In trials for heart disease, Novartis discovered a potential benefit in lung cancer patients for the drug, prompting the company to start cancer trials and to promote the medicine's potential for smokers who also suffered from heart disease. In spite of the FDA snub in heart disease, Novartis said Phase 3 canakinumab trials in non-small cell lung cancer would continue and are due to be completed in 2022. (Reporting by John Miller; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)French finance minister Bruno Le Maire arrives to attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris. Photo: Reuters

Frances finance minister Bruno Le Maire is the latest in a long line of politicians and global business leaders to pull out of an investment conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia next week amid a worldwide diplomatic dispute over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

On Public Senat TV, Le Maire simply said: No, I will not go to Riyadh next week. The conditions are not right.

Ahead of his disappearance, Washington Post columnist Khashoggi was highly-critical of Saudi Arabias authoritarian kingdoms Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October, after a hit squad was sent in to murder him and dismember his body.

Saudi officials have denied the allegations but it has done nothing to prevent the growing backlash against the regime across the world.

READ MORE: Heres everyone who has dropped out of Saudi Arabias Davos of the Middle East

Saudi Arabias Future Investment Initiative, a conference that is widely known as the Davos of the Middle East, has provided a platform for business leaders and politicians to take a stand against the lack of information and transparency over what happened to Khashoggi.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, AOL founder Steve Case, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon are among the growing list of people that have cancelled their attendance at the conference. Yahoo Finance also confirmed on Monday that private equity firm KKR will not be attending the conference.

READ MORE: US trade with Saudi Arabia doesnt justify casting a blind eye



Chicago (AFP) - A dissident Vietnamese blogger known by her pen name 'Mother Mushroom' has arrived in the United States after her surprise release from prison, telling a large crowd of supporters she will "never keep silent" in her fight for democracy in the one-party state.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 39, was quietly freed from a jail on Wednesday in Vietnam and put on a plane with her elderly mother and two young children who were seen smiling and hugging her in images shared on social media.

Her unexpected release after two years behind bars came as US defence chief Jim Mattis visited Vietnam as part of warming ties between the former foes, who are eager to counter China's rising influence in Asia.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Vietnamese government commented on the timing of Quynh's release, though the US embassy in Hanoi said they welcomed the move.

The outspoken blogger, whose name comes from her daughter's nickname "mushroom", smiled and spoke to a large crowd of friends and supporters, many livestreaming the chaotic scene on Facebook, at Houston's George Bush airport where she arrived just before midnight on Wednesday.

She said it was not an easy move leaving her country but vowed to "never keep silent" in her fight for rights issues back home.

"I will continue to raise my voice until there is human rights in Vietnam, real human rights," she told AFP by phone before getting into a car with her family.

Quynh has been behind bars since her arrest in 2016 when she was arrested while visiting a fellow activist in prison.

She was later convicted for "anti-state propaganda" for publishing damning Facebook posts about deaths in police custody, a toxic spill in central Vietnam and the criticisms of the ruling communist party.

She was sentenced to 10 years in jail last year, a heavy ruling that drew swift rebuke from the US, the EU and UN.

Earlier this year police moved her to a prison hundreds of kilometres from her hometown Nha Trang in central Vietnam, which she said had taken a toll on her family who were exhausted by the travel.

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"It was time for me to think of my family, I made this final decision (to leave) for the future of my two kids," she said.

- One out, one in -

The US embassy in Hanoi said Quynh had requested to go to the US if released and urged Vietnam to free other activists.

"We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience," embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said.

Her arrest grabbed headlines globally and she gained global fame after receiving the International Woman of Courage Award in 2017, presented to her in absentia by US First Lady Melania Trump.

Her husband Donald Trump's administration has come under fire for not doing enough to protect human rights, especially in Vietnam.

Though Vietnam has long jailed its critics, a hardline leadership in charge since 2016 has been accused of doubling down on efforts to silence activists.

More than 55 bloggers, protesters and Facebookers have been jailed this year alone, according to an AFP tally, with the length and frequency of sentences steadily ticking upward.

Soon after Quynh was released Wednesday, fellow dissident Nguyen Dinh Thanh, 27, was jailed for seven years for "spreading anti-state materials" in southern Binh Duong province.

The former medical student was accused of printing 3,000 leaflets apparently to distribute at nationwide protests in June, according to state media.

In another indication that Vietnam is not likely to let up its punishment of critics, activist Le Dinh Luong had his 20-year sentence upheld in an appeal trial Thursday in Nghe An province.

The sentence is one of the harshest doled out to an activist in years.Genes account for 51 per cent of the difference in whether young people chose to go to university

Genetics plays a significant role in whether young adults choose to go to university, which university they choose to attend and how well they do, a new study suggests.

Previous studies have shown that genetics plays a major role in academic achievement at school, with 58 per cent of individual differences between students in GCSE scores due to genetic factors.

However, it was unclear if DNA was important in later life.

Using data from identical twins to tease out how much of university choice was genetic, researchers from Kings College London found that genes explained 57 per cent of the differences in A-level exam results and 46 per cent of the difference in achievement at university.

They also found genetics accounted for 51 per cent of the difference in whether young people chose to go to university and 57 per cent of the difference in the quality of the chosen university.

Dr Emily Smith-Woolley, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, who co-led the research said: We have shown for the first time that genetic influence on educational achievement continues into higher education.

Our results also demonstrate that the appetite young adults have for choosing to continue with higher education is in part, influenced by their DNA.

The researchers also found that shared environmental factors  such as families and schools - influenced the choice of whether to go to university, accounting for 36 per cent of the differences between students.

However, shared environmental influences appear to become less important over time, become negligible for achievement at university.

Dr Ziada Ayorech, from the IoPPN, who co-led the research said: Unlike secondary school, where students tend to share educational experiences, university provides young people with greater opportunity to be independent and to carve out their interests based on their natural abilities and aptitudes.

Students unique environments  such as new friends, and new experiences  appear to be explaining differences in university achievement and the role of shared environment becomes less significant.

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The results were based on studying 3,000 pairs of twins from the UK as well as 3,000 people who had their gene sequenced.

Comparing identical and non-identical twin pairs allows researchers to determine the overall impact of genetics on how much people differ on measures like exam scores.

If identical twins' exam scores are more alike than those of non-identical twins this implies the difference between twin pairs is due to genetic factors

The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.(Reuters) - Glencore Plc said its chairman Tony Hayward will no longer be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia, confirming a report in the Financial Times. He is the latest top executive to pull out of next week's high profile conference, amid widespread concern about the fate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist critical of Riyadh's policies, disappeared on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey believes he was murdered and his body removed. Saudi Arabia has denied that. The investment summit, dubbed "Davos in the Desert", in Riyadh typically attracts executives from some of the world's largest companies and media organizations. (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru and Lawrence White in London; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba) (AFP) - Former president Barack Obama had vowed to close the US military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but now it will stay open for at least 25 years, the officer in charge of the facility said Tuesday.

Rear Admiral John Ring said the prison, which holds several alleged plotters of the 9/11 attacks, is focused on readiness to make "sure that the facilities are going to last for 25 years."

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order, reversing his predecessor Obama's ultimately fruitless 2009 directive to shutter the facility that has drawn global scorn.

Following Trump's move, "they told us we are going to be here for 25 years or more," said Ring, Commander of Joint Task Force Guantanamo.

The Pentagon "sent us a memo saying plan to be open" for at least 25 years, Ring said during a visit regularly organized by the US military for journalists, with the aim of showing that prisoners are treated humanely at the American enclave in communist Cuba's southeast.

In December, the top torture expert at the United Nations said reports from sources indicated at least one inmate was still being tortured at Guantanamo Bay.

Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said he had received information that torture through noise and vibrations was taking place against Ammar al-Baluchi, a suspected 9/11 plotter.

Melzer voiced particular concern about detainees who had been held for long periods of time in almost complete isolation.

Under president George W. Bush, the military hastily built the prison camp following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Over the years, roughly 780 people have been detained at Guantanamo, mostly for their alleged ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

First under Bush and then under Obama, the US released hundreds of detainees from the prison.

The most notorious inmates, including accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, are still awaiting trial but their cases have been beset by legal woes.

Story continues

Guantanamo has not received any new inmates since 2008, and 40 remain.

Some have never been charged yet have been deemed too dangerous to release.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to load Guantanamo with "bad dudes," and later in office he said Islamic State fighters would be sent there.

Ring said that so far there is "no indication" that such new detainees would be transferred soon to Guantanamo.Afghan officials say three top Kandahar province officials have been killed by their own guards in an attack at a security meeting that also wounded two U.S. troops. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and told the AP that U.S. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, was the target. NATO officials say Miller escaped unharmed.Trudeau completes election pledge with an end to a century of prohibition



A man rolls a joint during a Wake and Bake legalised marijuana event in Toronto. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

At five seconds past midnight, Ian Power became the owner of the first gram of recreational cannabis to be sold in Canada. After waiting for hours in the cold, Power strode excitedly into the only cannabis store open in St Johns, Newfoundland, and made his purchase.

I think its one of the biggest moments of my life, he told the crowd of reporters gathered to witness the transaction at the Tweed store. Theres a tear in my eye. No more back alleys. Power said he intended to frame his purchase rather than smoke it.

Its one of the biggest moments of my life, said Ian Power after buying the first legal cannabis for recreational use in Canada. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

Three years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected with a mandate to legalise marijuana, residents in Canada can now legally purchase the drug, putting an end to nearly a century of prohibition in the country. Banned in 1923, cannabis first became legal in 2001, when the government approved it for medicinal purposes only.

Theres no question the world is watching. Jody Wilson-Raybould, the countrys attorney-general, said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. The federal government also announced plans to pardon people convicted of previous minor marijuana convictions, a victory for campaigners who argued that prohibition unfairly targeted racial minorities.

Ministers present at the event struck a sombre tone, reminding the country of strict laws in place to prevent the sale of cannabis to minors and to deter impaired driving.

Cannabis sales will be governed by a confusing patchwork of sometimes contradictory provincial laws: in Ontario, people will be free to smoke or vape marijuana anywhere they can legally consume tobacco, but in Manitoba the penalty will be $672.

But such concerns did little to temper giddy enthusiasm. Long lines marked the occasion in Halifax, as residents flocked to the 12 government-run stores in the province. Retailers across the country had previously warned of supply shortages leading up to legaliation.

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A decoration resembling a giant marijuana bud drops towards the crowd at midnight. Photograph: Chandra Raye/@chachmusic/Reuters

I loaded up, Isaac Langille told the Star Halifax, brandishing a purchase of 30 grams  the maximum legal amount  for $344 CAD. Provinces have struggled to devise pricing strategies that will deter the black market, where the product can be cheaper.

The price per gram isnt uniform throughout the country: in the Northwest Territories, the cost online is $13.13 CAD per gram, compared with $5.87 CAD in Newfoundland.

For years, illegal marijuana dispensaries have operated throughout the country, often requiring little more than Skype conversation with a doctor off-site and a valid drivers licence. A number of dispensaries are expected to continue operating, even though they will still be illegal.



People braved the cold to line up to purchase cannabis at the Tweed retail store. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

It kind of has felt legal for the last 20 years anyway. Now I can just buy it legally, Charlie Galley told the Star Halifax as he left one of the provinces cannabis stores in Nova Scotia.

Many early purchasers said they hoped legalisation would lead to a change in the perception of users.

Quebec comedian and journalist Jean-Rene Dufort sports a marijuana leaf jacket. Photograph: Martin Ouellet-Diotte/AFP/Getty Images

People need to stop thinking potheads are people who dont do anything in life, sit on their couch eating chips all day, Hugh Senecal told the CBC in Montreal. I got up at 3am to be here. Most people wouldnt do that.

The Societe Quebecoise du Cannabis  one of Quebecs retailers  had already recorded more than 10,000 sales by 9.30am, according to the CBC.

Canadas most populous province will have no physical stores, but moments after midnight, Ontarios online ordering system kicked in, followed by a chorus of social media mocking the clunky design of the site. Stores are likely to appear later in the year.



Sample jars of British Columbia-grown brand Broken Coast are displayed at a party held by supplier Aphria in Toronto. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters

Legalisation parties were held in Ontario, but with no stores, attendees were forced to use cannabis previously obtained  illegally  to mark the event.

Just a handful people lined up out front British Columbias only store, in Kamloops. Im just excited that we have a store finally, the first person in line told Global News, arriving at 2am for the 9am opening. It was like Christmas last night, I was so giddy.

Rocking the joint: an employee holds pre-rolled joints at Buddha Barn Craft Cannabis in Vancouver. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

Even one of the countrys largest newspapers got in on the action: the Globe and Mail posted an infographic on how to roll a joint.

Overshadowing the rollout was the reality that Canada Post, the countrys only approved mail service for cannabis orders, was on the verge of striking  with rotating walk-offs beginning as early as Monday. For marijuana users who do not live near a brick and mortar weed store, a strike means that their long wait for legal weed will continue.Sabarimala Temple (India) (AFP) - Hindu hardliners blocked intersections, threatened drivers, threw stones at buses and ordered a 12-hour strike on Thursday to successfully bar women from one of India's holiest temples for a second day.

The Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in the southern state of Kerala was meant to allow women of all ages -- and not just those under 10 and over 50 as before -- from Wednesday following an order by India's highest court last month.

But hundreds of traditionalists, throwing stones at baton-wielding police, defied the order -- blocking the path, surrounding and shouting at any woman attempting to make it to the hilltop site.

Angry young men also surrounded and smashed the car windows of female television reporters and threatened others, including an AFP reporter. Another female correspondent was kicked.

Local Hindu groups had previously declared a 12-hour shutdown of local businesses, telling drivers that their vehicles would be attacked if they took anyone towards the temple.

"Some men came to the parking lot early Thursday and warned taxi drivers against defying the shutdown call," taxi driver Praveen, in the town of Pathanamthitta, told AFP.

"They warned drivers at several nearby parking lots and hotels. Anyone who defies it will be risking damage to his vehicle," he added in an account corroborated by other drivers.

"No one will get to the temple today because all the drivers are scared for the safety of their cars," one hotel receptionist told AFP. Shops, businesses and schools in the area were shut.

State authorities insisted that they would ensure access, imposing restrictions on public gatherings of more than five people, and laying on buses for devotees.

Kerala police, who had 1,450 officers on duty, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms, provided escorts to some buses.

Police also patrolled through the night and reinforced their presence at Nilackal, the base camp below the temple.

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But groups of between 50 and 100 young men gathered at intersections on Thursday, checking vehicles.

"Traditions that have existed since before courts cannot be tampered with," Krishna Kumar, a tall muscular man in his 20s at one crossroads in the town of Kozhencherry, told AFP.

In some areas, protesters threw stones at the buses.

- 'Impure' -

The situation at the actual temple was festive, meanwhile, with thousands of people queueing to enter as music played, after trekking for several hours up the steep hill through lush, monkey-filled forest.

But despite the Supreme Court's order to allow them in, none of the few women present on Thursday were between 10 and 50 years old -- of menstrual age, as the court put it.

The restriction reflects an old but still prevalent belief that menstruating women are impure, and the fact that the deity Ayyappa was reputed to have been celibate.

"Everyone is angry and I don't have to hide it. What the Supreme Court has done isn't right. We don't want any change. Our Ayyappa's traditions don't need to be tampered with," shirtless devotee Sundaravadana told AFP, clutching a "Save Sabarimala" placard.

"We've come here since our childhood and understand the rich tradition behind it. Women are allowed everywhere, at all other temples. It doesn't happen here for a reason. We will do whatever to save our Sabrimala," he added.

Female devotees are still barred from some Hindu temples in India. The entry of women at Sabarimala was long taboo, with a ban formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991.

The Supreme Court ruling, which overturned that decision, enraged traditionalists, including supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pinarayi Vijayan, the Marxist chief minister of Kerala, said that the mobs were backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group close to Modi's BJP.

"These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies... All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala," Vijayan tweeted.

The head of the BJP in Kerala, P.S Sreedharan Pillai, told AFP on Wednesday that his party advocated "peaceful protest against the court verdict."

"The overwhelming majority of women oppose the Supreme Court ruling," he added.

Trupti Desai, an activist, said she had decided to postpone her visit.

"If I go there will be more violence. The government had enough time to prepare the ground for implementing the court's verdict but they have failed to provide protection to the women devotees," she told AFP by phone.BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is backing Germany's Manfred Weber to be the centre-right's candidate to head the European Commission, national news agency MTI quoted Orban's cabinet chief Antal Rogan as saying on Thursday. The current president of the EU executive Jean-Claude Juncker will stand down next year. Former Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb is so far Weber's only rival to be the center-right European People's Party (EPP) lead candidate, and secure the nomination to replace Juncker. Orban, a nationalist, has clashed with the EU over immigration and other issues. Orban's Fidesz party, which won Hungary's elections by a landslide in April, is expected to dominate the Hungarian vote in European Parliament elections in May. That group can have an important say in the EPP which currently holds 219 seats as the biggest group in the 751-member assembly and hopes to promote its lead candidate for the top EU job. However, the selection process is uncertain as many national leaders reject pressure from the European Parliament for them to nominate a winning party leader as the successor to Juncker, saying the want to have a free choice on who they put forward to run the EU executive. Weber, who can also be confident of support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, criticized the Hungarian government last month when the European Parliament voted to sanction Hungary for flouting EU rules. (Reporting by Marton Dunai and Sandor Peto; Editing by Toby Chopra)Hurricane Michael tore through the Florida Panhandle and into Georgia after making landfall on Wednesday, Oct. 10.

Mexico Beach, Florida, was among the hardest-hit locations. The city was almost completely flattened from the storm. However, amid the incredible destruction, one home stood high on stilts above the wreckage, appearing largely untouched and pristine.

It is no coincidence that this house survived. Dr. Lebron Lackey, a radiologist from Cleveland, Tennessee, and his uncle, Russell King, an attorney from Chattanooga, built this house with the intention of it surviving a monster hurricane, or "the big one."

The construction of the home started in 2017 and ended this April. The home is known as the Sand Palace, and it has its own Facebook page.

"It's the first house that either one of us had ever built," Lackey told AccuWeather. "We both enjoy the beach and vacation time. But we were aware that we were building a structure that would potentially be in harm's way."



1 house in Mexico Beach, Florida, survived Hurricane Michael

AP Photo/Garret Fischer

First, at vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui voluptatum.

1/12

(AccuWeather/ Jonathan Petramala)

Surrounded by ruins, one house, known as the Sand Palace, remains unscathed by Hurricane Michael.

(AccuWeather/ Jonathan Petramala)

Surrounded by ruins, one house, known as the Sand Palace, remains unscathed by Hurricane Michael.

(AccuWeather/ Jonathan Petramala)

Surrounded by ruins, one house, known as the Sand Palace, remains unscathed by Hurricane Michael.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mike Jackson sifts through debris looking for remnants of his home which was destroyed by hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

A home stands damaged from hurricane Michael as members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team look for survivors in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018.

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(AP Photo/David Goldman)

Damaged homes are seen along the water's edge in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018.

(AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Homes are left swept off their foundations from the effects of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida. Michael made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds and a storm surge of 9 feet.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

People walk amidst destruction on the main street of Mexico Beach, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Rescue personnel perform a search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018.

(AP Photo/David Goldman)

A search and rescue team walks past a debris pile from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018.

"Just like you put on your seat belt every day when you get in the car to get you ready for something that hopefully never happens, we built a house for something we hoped would never happen," Lackey said.

Hurricane Michael wreaked havoc through the community earlier this month, testing the construction of the home.

"We built it for the big one, but we had no idea that the big one would come so soon and come barreling right down on Mexico Beach like it did," Lackey said.

When constructing the home, every decision was made with the conscious thought of its functionality and survival in the event of a hurricane. From pilings, to the roof and everything in between, the homeowners made decisions with the home's fortitude in mind.

Lackey and King went above and beyond the state building codes. They built it with the intention that it would survive a massive storm like Michael.

State code in the wake of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 required that houses have to be built to withstand 120-mph winds. However, the Sand Palace was built to withstand about 240- to 250-mph winds, Lackey said.

"We were told using 30-foot pilings would be adequate by folks that already knew we were trying to build a hurricane-proof house," Lackey said. "And when it came time to buy those pilings, we asked, How much would it be if we went 40 feet?' and the incremental cost really was not that much."

The walls are made of poured concrete on top of 40-foot pilings. Rebar is placed through all of the walls to increase stability. Steel cables go from the girders above the pilings through the roof and continue down the other side of the back wall, Lackey said.

Lackey estimates that the additions cost about 15 percent to 20 percent more than usual.

When asked if he would recommend paying these extra costs to build a hurricane-proof home in a vulnerable area, Lackey responded with confidence.

"The recommendation is 100 percent. I would definitely recommend that those homes be built similar to ours. I mean that without a doubt," Lackey said.



mexico beach damage hurricane michael

Firefighter Austin Schlarb performs a door to door search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

While the house survived the storm largely unscathed, there were still damages. Lackey described these damages as expected.

"When you are building a dwelling, you accept the idea that some parts that you're going to build are genuinely going to be used as breakaway," Lackey said. "You intend those to break away, and other parts tend to be permanent."

According to Sand Palace Facebook page, the ground floor and the stairs up to the middle floor are gone, along with windows in one of the bedrooms. All the utilities have to be redone, and one of the heating and air units is gone.

"As we rebuild these features that were impacted, we may actually make some changes. My partner and I have already talked about improvements to be made," Lackey said.

The destruction is negligible in comparison to much of the neighborhood, in which many homes are completely flattened.

"It's mind boggling. That level of devastation is just not something you ever expect to see," Lackey said. "It's like a bomb went off. Everything's flat and debris is pushed up. It used to be homes."

Lackey said that he and his family fell in love with Mexico Beach and its community.

"I had tears in my eyes before I even reached my house. And those weren't tears of joy that my house made it, those were tears of sadness to see my town had been impacted the way they had," Lackey said.

According to Lackey, much of the community is planning to rebuild and he hopes they do.

"We want the resiliency of our house to hopefully reach toward the resiliency of our community," Lackey said. "I would be proud for that because I love Mexico Beach and the people and neighbors, and I want them all to come back."

Lackey was not at the Sand Palace during the storm, but watched the storm through a security camera. While Lackey built his home with the idea of it being hurricane-proof, he stresses the importance of following evacuation orders.

"We built what we thought was a hurricane-proof home, so we would have something to come back to, not so that we would have something to stay at," Lackey said.

He returned to Mexico Beach after the storm had passed, and has since allowed first responders to use the Sand Palace as a shelter and a place to gather resources.

"We have opened our doors to them for whatever purposes they find suitable," Lackey said. "We're willing to help out in any way we can."(NEW DELHI)  A temple in southern India thats one of the largest Hindu pilgrimage centers in the world is set to open its doors to females of menstruating age following a ruling by the countrys top court.

Some 1,000 police officers cleared protesters from the vicinity of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala state on Wednesday, hours before the temples doors were to open to females ages 10 to 50, said police officer Manoj Abraham.

Police arrested 11 protesters when they tried to block the path of some females. On Tuesday, hundreds of protesters stopped buses carrying devotees to two of the temples base camps and asked females to show documents to prove their age.

Since a state court ruling in 1991, the centuries-old temple has barred women and girls ages 10 to 50 from entering. Indias Supreme Court lifted the ban last month, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender.

Temple management and the protesters argue that the celibate nature of the temples presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is protected by Indias constitution. Some religious figures consider menstruating women to be impure.

Meghna Pant, a female activist, said the celibacy of the deity was not more important than the equality of women. Who are men to decide where women can go or not? she said.

Supporters of the ban have been angered by the state governments decision not to seek a review of the Supreme Courts ruling.

Rahul Easwar, an attorney for the temple, appealed to the female devotees not to enter the temple and give temple authorities until next week to file a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Sabarimala is surrounded by mountains and dense forests in its location at the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Up to 50 million devotees visit the temple every year.

Several temples across India have banned women, saying the policy is intended to preserve the purity of their shrines. The operators of a temple in the northwestern state of Rajasthan believe the Hindu god Kartikeya curses women who enter the temple, instead of blessing them.

Indias secular courts have intervened recently in cases in which a religions gender beliefs were seen as discriminatory.Bolzano (Italy) (AFP) - A diplomatic row threatens to disrupt Italy's Alpine province of South Tyrol: over the question of national identity and whether some of its inhabitants should have the right to Austrian citizenship.

Italy's wealthiest province elects its new autonomous parliament on Sunday as Vienna and Rome lock horns over a proposal by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to offer Austrian passports to South Tyroleans.

But the offer extends to speakers of German or the regional language Ladin -- not to those who only speak Italian.

While the passport issue isn't on the ballot per se, and other issues such as immigration have dominated the campaign, the dual-nationality question has nevertheless been a hot-button topic.

Proponents of dual citizenship claim it will forge a stronger European identity in the face of growing far-right and populist forces.

But critics fear offering Austrian nationality only to German- and Ladin-speakers could prove divisive in a territory often held up as a model of peaceful cohabitation between the different linguistic groups.

And a furious Italian government sees Kurz's proposal as an attack on its sovereignty.

"You can't give away passports without our consent," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said at the weekend. "A dual passport is out of the question."

Vienna, which has yet to draw up a concrete roadmap for its scheme, has recently sought to calm the waters, promising to proceed solely with Rome's consent.

- 'We have nothing to do with Italy' -

In South Tyrol's capital Bolzano, the low-key campaign is in evidence only through a few political posters in the town's green spaces.

For retired bank employee Rene, Austrian citizenship would be a dream come true.

"We have nothing to do with Italy. It'll give us back a feeling of belonging to our Austrian homeland," he told AFP.

Part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for over five centuries, South Tyrol was ceded to Italy after World War I, but awarded autonomous status.

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Subjected to forced "Italianisation" by Benito Mussolini from the 1920s, just before World War II the province's German speakers were offered the option of "returning" to Nazi Germany or remaining as fully fledged Italians.

In 1948, the rights of the three main language groups -- German, Italian and Ladin -- were enshrined in the territory's autonomy statute.

But for many the dream of rejoining Austria, or attaining independence from Italy, never faded. There was even a series of separatist bombings during the 1950s and 1960s.

Everyone is required to identify with a linguistic group and according to the latest figures from 2014, 65 percent of the half-a-million-strong population feel themselves to be German speakers, 27 percent Italian and four percent Ladin.

All public signs are trilingual and most people switch effortlessly between Italian and German.

Nevertheless, with its stunning views of the Dolomite mountains and traditional Alpine architecture, Bolzano has an undeniably Austrian feel.

The restaurants that ring the main square all offer apple strudel. One store even sells that most quintessentially Viennese cake, the Sacher Torte.

- Political majority? -

The ideal of full independence is inscribed in the statutes of the ruling South Tyrolean People's Party, but its leading candidate, Arno Kompatscher, concedes that most people are happy with the status quo.

"According to polls by all parties, the top campaign issue is immigration. Dual citizenship comes very low down," he told AFP.

He said he feared the issue could be instrumentalised by far-right or identitarian groupings.

Sven Knoll, a candidate for the more stridently pro-independence Sued-Tiroler Freiheit (South Tyrolean Freedom) party, believes "there is already a political majority for dual citizenship, across party lines".

But Guenther Pallaver, political science professor at Innsbruck University, is sceptical.

"With no concrete proposal on the table from Vienna and no official opinion polls on the matter, I think the debate will evaporate after Sunday's vote," he told AFP.

Marc Roeggla, researcher in minority rights at the EURAC institute in Bolzano, said that even if a near-term solution seemed unlikely, the issue of dual citizenship would not go away.

Vienna's mistake had been to announce the move unilaterally.

"If everyone can come to the table as an equal partner from the very beginning, I really think it could work," he said.

Maria Eichbichler, a shopowner in Bolzano, said she was all for dual citizenship.

"I don't feel myself to be Italian. But more South Tyrolean, a European, if you prefer, just with an Italian passport. I think a second passport would be really good," she says.BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Thursday its deviation from EU fiscal targets was "not large", as the European Commission warned of "particularly serious non-compliance" in its draft budget for next year. He also said the government was talking to rating agencies and was hoping that a negative assessment of Italy's budget could be avoided. "Talks are taking place at different levels. We hope that once the budget plans will be fully known, a negative assessment could be avoided," Conte told a news conference in Brussels. Rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's will review the country's finances in the coming two weeks. Conte added that the government will hold a meeting on Saturday to discuss a partial tax amnesty which is part of the budget. It has led to disagreements between the two ruling parties, the 5-Star movement and the League. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; editing by John Stonestreet)President Donald Trumps son-in-law Jared Kushner was reportedly a cause for concern among national security staffers amid investigations into the disappearance of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi because Kushner was known to have messaged with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on WhatsApp.

A CNN report indicates that the White House senior adviser has been chummy with Mohammed for months, causing him to pull back from the public eye as details emerge about what happened to Khashoggi.

Khashoggi went missing on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and has not been seen in public since. The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Khashoggi appears to have been drugged, beaten, killed and dismembered by Saudi operatives in the presence of a top Saudi diplomat.

CNN reports that Kushner has been operating behind-the-scenes to mitigate the fallout and quietly leveraging his close relationship with Mohammed while treading lightly to avoid stepping on Secretary of State Mike Pompeos purview. Since officials expressed concern about Kushners conversations and messages with Mohammed outside official channels, Kushner has begun notifying other members of the Presidents team about his conversations and providing readouts afterward.

(Photo: The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Kushner has been to Saudi Arabia many times to speak with the prince, developing such a close relationship that Mohammed bragged to the Emirati crown prince and others that Kushner was in his pocket, according to a report in The Intercept in March.

Kushner and Mohammed met most recently in June to discuss a Middle East peace plan and spoke by phone last week about Khashoggi.

Trump has repeatedly downplayed what happened to Khashoggi and made it clear that he has no intention of ceasing arms sales to Saudi Arabia. As for Kushners relationship with Mohammed, a White House spokesperson told The Hill in a statement that Kushner has always meticulously followed protocols and collaborated with colleagues regarding the relationship with [Crown Prince Mohammed] and all of the other foreign officials with whom he interacts.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Former Vice President Joe Biden has warned Democrats not to begin impeachment proceedings until Special Counsel Robert Mueller has presented his findings on possible collusion between Donald Trumps campaign and Russia.

With Democrats increasingly confident of winning a majority in the House of Representatives at the midterm elections, there is mounting speculation the party could move to impeach Mr Trump following the 6 November vote.

But Mr Biden told CBS This Morning it would not be the right time to take such action.

I hope they dont, Mr Biden said of the possible move by his partys lawmakers.

I dont think theres a basis for doing that right now. I think we should wait until the (Mueller) report comes out.

Asked whether Mr Mueller  reportedly close to concluding his investigation  should issue findings before the midterms, Mr Biden said his report should not be rushed.

I think it should be issued when they finish the investigation, he said. Ive been around a long time. You wait until the investigations finished. You dont put an arbitrary end to it. You wait until its finished, and lets see what it has to say.

Mr Biden did criticise Mr Trump in his CBS interview, condemning the president for his friendly relations with autocrats.

The Democrat also expressed concern over the presidents handling of the diplomatic crisis sparked by the suspected death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi  allegedly murdered at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

Mr Biden said Mr Trump was already making excuses for the Saudi authorities before the facts are known.

He added: Im very worried that the president seems to have a love affair with autocrats.

I just dont know why this administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from (Vladimir) Putin to Kim Jong Un to (Rodrigo) Duterte.

A poll released on Sunday showed Mr Biden is the preferred candidate for the 2020 presidential election among Democrat voters.

The former vice president has 33 per cent support, ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders on 13 per cent.By Tom Hals (Reuters) - A federal judge ordered the U.S. government on Thursday to begin processing asylum claims for dozens of migrant parents and children that had been separated at the southern border under the Trump Administration's zero tolerance immigration policy. The order directs the government to begin the process of reviewing asylum claims for about 60 detained parents and children, even if their claims had previously been denied. Civil rights attorneys argued in court papers that the government was violating a September settlement agreement that had cleared the way for more than 1,000 immigrants separated by U.S. officials to have their asylum claims reconsidered. Department of Justice attorneys at the time promised the court the government would "get moving" on the agreement. U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego rejected the government's argument that it did not have to begin reconsidering asylum until the settlement was approved by the court. A hearing on the fairness of the settlement is scheduled for Nov. 15. The settlement applied to about 2,500 children and their parents who were picked up after crossing the border and detained separately under the crackdown on illegal immigration under U.S. President Donald Trump, one of his signature policies. The administration abandoned family separations in June in the face of widespread condemnation. On Thursday, Trump threatened to send the military to the border with Mexico to prevent thousands of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from crossing into the United States from Mexico. (Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Bill Berkrot)Global media and international decision-makers, right up to the president of the United States, have spent more than a week talking about what happened to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and what it means for human rights and Saudi Arabias long-standing foreign relationships. Radhya Almutawakel has stayed focused on her own work in Yemen: carefully documenting how Saudi actions there have claimed thousands of lives, often with the aid of American weapons.

We cant deny that there is a sourness inside all of us, that Yemenis have been dying for years, thousands of them, and millions starving, and the reaction is not as strong as in this case, she told HuffPost.

Almutawakel runs the best-known human rights organization in Yemen, where a U.S.-backed coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been battling an Iran-linked rebel group since 2015. The war has caused the worlds worst humanitarian crisis today, with over 20 million people now reliant on aid, experts predicting the biggest famine in a century, and more than 10,000 civilians killed.

Her group, Mwatana, and international organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have recorded and investigated thousands of violations of international law  including coalition bombs killing civilians; the United Arab Emirates, a coalition member, subjecting hundreds to torture; and the Houthi rebel movement, the coalitions opponents, planting deadly land mines and taking hostages.

The advocates work has only sporadically made top headlines around the world  an irony thats now commemorated in headlines like How One Journalists Death Provoked a Backlash That Thousands Dead in Yemen Did Not.

Better late than never, from Almutawakels point of view. The discrepancy in attention is sad, she said, and as a fellow critic of the Saudi regime, she feels more vulnerable seeing how far Riyadh now appears willing to go to silence dissent, potentially with international acquiescence.

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But the episode has also helped her see something else: that for all its wealth and international influence, its alliances with the worlds richest countries and its massive tools of repression, Saudi Arabia is not untouchable. The world can pressure the kingdom, and it cannot act with total impunity.

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People who contact her about the crisis in Yemen keep asking what can be done, Almutawakel said. But now they know what can be done. They just use the power they have in their hands as civil society and media, and they make a difference. Its just that so far, the more powerful voices in civil society and media havent consistently done that for Yemen.

American lawmakers from both parties have viewed U.S. intelligence about Khashoggi and then argued that the Saudis should be held responsible for his alleged death, including through unprecedented sanctions. Major companies, most recently JP Morgan Chase and the huge media conglomerate Endeavor, have pulled back from business entanglements with the kingdom as Khashoggis face has remained on cable news for days. And while President Donald Trump, a supporter of the Saudi rulers, is promoting Riyadhs denials of any role in Khashoggis disappearance, even he says that investigating the situation is crucial.

Saudi Arabia is finally facing consequences for one of its crimes, which is targeting Khashoggi, Almutawakel said. She thinks thats in part because the kingdom has increasingly frustrated world powers with behavior like that in Yemen: The file of violations of Saudi Arabia is getting bigger and bigger.

As American leaders start to speak of a fundamental shift in the relationship thats let the Saudis pummel her country, Almutawakel has a list of requests ready  some ways in which Riyadh could be forced to improve Yemens situation almost immediately.

She wants the kingdom and its partners to immediately ease restrictions on travel and the import of essential food and medicine, which she described as harsh political decisions designed to get the win the Saudis seek. Saudi Arabia should also focus on re-establishing the machinery of Yemens government, she said. The internationally recognized president of Yemen has, under Saudi pressure, lived in Riyadh for years, and the UAE has promoted alternative leadership in areas under its control, disrupting long-standing norms and making essential interactions with the government  say, over salaries and benefits  more complicated.

Tucked in there too is a request thats more personal, but also critical to any sort of accountability or normalcy in the Arab worlds poorest state. Almutawakel said the Saudi-led coalition needs to stop its harassment of Yemeni citizens at all levels, from mass arrests to the kind of detention she and a fellow researcher experienced this summer, prompting them to move to the Netherlands. She expects to be based there for a few months as she prepares to visit the U.S. to receive an award from Human Rights First. But she hopes returning to Yemen will be easier in the new year.

Its never too late, Almutawakel said. The world has proved they can do a lot.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.The two Koreas and the US-led United Nations Command held talks Tuesday on demilitarising a section of the heavily fortified border dividing the peninsula, as a diplomatic thaw gathers pace.

"The three parties examined the progress in removing landmines at the Joint Security Area (JSA)...and discussed other practical matters regarding steps toward disarming the area," Seoul's defense ministry said in a statement.

The JSA, also known as the truce village of Panmunjom, is the only spot along the tense, 250-kilometre (155-mile) frontier where troops from the two countries stand face to face.

It was a designated neutral zone until the "axe murder incident" in 1976, when North Korean soldiers attacked a work party trying to chop down a tree inside the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), leaving two US army officers dead.

South and North Korea -- which are technically still at war -- agreed to take measures to ease military tensions on their border at a meeting in Pyongyang last month between President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un.

Earlier this month, the two sides began removing landmines at the JSA -- which is now often used for talks between the two Koreas -- as part of the deal, and are due to withdraw "unnecessary" surveillance equipment once the landmine work is completed.

The September summit was the third this year between the leaders as a remarkable rapprochement takes hold on the peninsula.

Moon has advocated engagement with the isolated North to nudge it toward denuclearisation.

During his summit with Kim last month, the two men also agreed to remove some guard posts at the border by the end of the year and to halt military drills in the area from November.

Tuesday's talks were the first meeting of a trilateral JSA commission made up of the two Koreas and the UN Command, which is included as it retains jurisdiction over the southern half of the JSA.

Its chief, US general Vincent Brooks, told reporters in August that as UN commander he supported initiatives that could reduce military tensions.

But he added that as commander of the combined US-South Korean forces -- one of his other roles -- he felt there was a "reasonable degree of risk" in Seoul's plans to dismantle guard posts near the DMZ.By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Parliament in Kosovo, which relies on NATO troops for its protection, voted on Thursday to set up a 5,000-strong national army though its Serb minority said the move was illegal. Serb deputies, backed by Belgrade which does not recognize Kosovo's independence, have blocked any such move in the past saying creation of a national army required a change to the constitution. The U.S.-led NATO alliance, which has 4,000 troops in the Balkan country, has also in the past urged Kosovo not to create a national army unless the constitution was amended with the support of the Serb minority. But three laws, promoted by the Kosovo government and passed on a first reading by a parliamentary vote on Thursday, upgraded the mandate of the lightly-armed domestic Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to transform into an army - something which the government said bypassed the need to make changes to the constitution. The nationalist-dominated government tried to create a national army last year but were stymied by the refusal of Serb politicians to agree to a change in the constitution. The draft laws were supported on Thursday by 98 deputies in the 120-seat parliament, though the vote was boycotted by the legislature's 11 Serb deputies. Approval in a second reading in a few days time is required for the laws to be passed. "The three laws have one task, to protect the territorial integrity of Kosovo, to protect the citizens of all communities in Kosovo," Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said before the vote. The landlocked Balkan territory of 1.8 million, which declared independence in 2008, is still guarded by stationed NATO troops nearly two decades after the end of the war. NATO moved into the fledgling state in June 1999 following weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency after the break-up of Yugoslavia. The United States and most of the European Union member states recognize Kosovo. But objections by permanent Security Council members Russia and China which back Serbia in not accepting Kosovo's statehood prevent it from being a member of the United Nations. The draft laws envisage an army of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. The present KSF security force is a lightly armed, 2,500-strong force trained by NATO and tasked with crisis response, civil protection and ordinance disposal. NATO says it has no plans to leave the territory just now, but it suggested that any change to the status of the KSF might lead to a reduction in its forces there. "Any change in the structure, mandate and mission of the Kosovo Security Forces is for the Kosovo authorities to decide," a NATO official told Reuters in an e-mailed answer. "NATO supports the Kosovo Security Force under its current mandate. Should this mandate evolve, the North Atlantic Council will have to re-examine the level of NATOs engagement in Kosovo. We cannot predict decisions by the North Atlantic Council." (Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Richard Balmforth)MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a fatal blast at a college in the Crimean port city of Kerch may have been the result of an act of terrorism and that investigators were looking into the possibility. President Vladimir Putin had ordered the security services to establish the cause of the blast, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. Peskov said Putin offered his condolences to the victims of the blast, which killed 10 people and injured dozens, according to Russian news agencies. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn)KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  The Latest on the situation in Afghanistan ahead of the country's parliamentary election on Saturday (all times local):

7 a.m.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned several recent attacks in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections.

On Thursday, an elite guard attacked a delegation leaving a high-level meeting on security plans for the elections. The gunman killed the powerful Kandahar police chief and at least one other senior Afghan official but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. The Taliban claimed the attack and said Miller was the target.

The Security Council's statement issued late Thursday from U.N. headquarters said the members underscored the importance of security for elections and that violence or threats intended to disrupt the elections were unacceptable.

___

6:30 p.m.

Afghan officials say three top Kandahar province officials have been killed by their own guards in an attack at a security meeting that also wounded three Americans.

A Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility for the attack tells The Associated Press that U.S. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, was the target. NATO officials say Miller escaped unharmed.

Kandahar's deputy provincial governor Agha Lala Dastageri said powerful provincial police chief Abdul Razik and the province's intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin died immediately in the attack and provincial governor Zalmay Wesa died of his injuries at a hospital.

Three Americans  a service member and two civilian workers  were wounded in the shooting, said U.S. Col. Knut Peters, a spokesman for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi took responsibility for the attack. He too said all three officials were killed.

The security meeting inside the sprawling provincial governor's residence was being held ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections.

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___

5 p.m.

An Afghan TV station says the Kandahar police chief was killed when members of the provincial governor's elite guards turned their guns on their own colleagues and American troops who were present at a high-level security meeting in province.

Two American troops were also wounded in the shooting.

Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, who was present at Thursday's meeting, was unhurt in the incident.

Tolo TV says the police chef Abdul Raziq was killed while the Kandahar governor and another official were wounded.

U.S. Col. Knut Peters, a spokesman for the NATO troops in Afghanistan, says two Americans troops who were wounded have been medically evacuated.

Peters says initial reports indicate the original attacker is dead. He had no further information.

___

11 a.m.

A Taliban suicide bomber has targeted a NATO convoy near the Afghan capital, killing two civilians and injuring five Czech troops.

Afghan officials and the Czech military say the attack took place late Wednesday in the district of Bagram in Parwan province.

Wahida Shakar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor, says three Afghan civilians were also wounded.

Bagram is about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Kabul and is also the home of a sprawling U.S. military base

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Of the five Czech soldiers, one was seriously injured when their vehicle overturned following the explosion. The soldier underwent surgery and the Czech military said he was not in life-threatening condition.SAN ANTONIO (AP)  The Latest on the Texas Senate race debate between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke (all times local):

9:30 p.m.

Beto O'Rourke has evoked a nickname Donald Trump bestowed on his then-2016 presidential rival Ted Cruz, "Lyin' Ted," as the Democrat went on the offensive repeatedly during a Texas Senate debate in San Antonio.

Early into the action, Cruz criticized O'Rourke for supporting a proposal that explored imposing a tax on oil production. O'Rourke responded: "Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you" adding "it's why the president called him Lyin' Ted and its why the nickname stuck."

Cruz laughed off the exchange saying it was obvious that O'Rourke needed to attack to try and reverse polls that show him fading.

O'Rourke has shattered fundraising records and attracted national attention, but polls that once showed him staying within striking distance now have Cruz ahead.

___

8:20 p.m.

Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke are wasting little time laying into each other in the second and final scheduled debate of a Texas Senate race that has become one of the country's hottest  even as polls suggest it may not stay close.

O'Rourke, an El Paso congressman, has used record-setting fundraising and a background as a one-time punk rocker to attract heaps of national attention as he tries to upset Cruz and become the first Democrat to win statewide office in Texas since 1994.

Polls this summer suggested he was staying within striking distance. But Cruz has more recently opened up around 10-point leads.

O'Rourke had long stayed positive, but took Cruz to task on Tuesday for failing to criticize President Donald Trump over Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and said he didn't tell the truth on other issues. Cruz decried O'Rourke's "extreme views" on abortion.

___

4:15 p.m.

Democrat Beto O'Rourke is hoping to reverse polls showing him fading against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in the second debate of a Texas Senate race that's become one of the nation's most-watched.

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O'Rourke is giving up his El Paso congressional seat to challenge Cruz and shattered Senate fundraising records with an astounding $38-plus million in the three months through September.

But polls that once showed O'Rourke staying close to a monumental upset in deep red Texas now suggest Cruz is pulling away.

Cruz kept O'Rourke on the defensive when they debated last month in Dallas, and O'Rourke, who had maintained a feel-good message, has promised a sharper tone Tuesday night in San Antonio.

It's the race's last scheduled debate after one in Houston was canceled amid Senate floor votes.PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  The University of Southern Maine barred from teaching a retired professor who organized a one-credit course for students to protest Republican Sen. U.S. Susan Collins in Washington as she considered then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

University president Glenn Cummings said in a statement Wednesday that Dr. Susan Feiner set up "an unauthorized class that advanced her personal political agenda," the Portland Press Herald reported. Feiner has been banned from teaching at the University of Southern Maine and other University of Maine campuses.

Cummings says the "pop-up course" was hastily arranged without his or the provost's knowledge.

The university pulled the course and no school funds were used to support the trip.

University spokesman Robert Stein said that "as far as we know," no students participated in the bus trip to Washington, D.C. "If any students went, it was without credit and on their own," he said.

Collins voted to confirm Kavanaugh.

As for Feiner, she said she didn't plan to challenge the university's decision. "I'm retired. It's USM's loss," she told the newspaper in a text message.

Maine GOP Executive Director Jason Savage praised university's actions. "President Glenn Cummings and the University of Maine System showed true integrity in dealing with this situation swiftly. We are very pleased to see immediate, and forceful, action taken on this matter," Savage said in an email.

___

Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.comW. Eugene Smith Grant: Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures  The Past Is Never Dead Confederate Memorial Day in Fredericksburg, Va., 2018. (Photograph by Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures)

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund announced on Wednesday evening, Oct. 17, that Mark Peterson is the recipient of this years $35,000 Grant in Humanistic Photography for his project, The Past Is Never Dead. Selected from a talented group of nine finalists, Peterson looks at the organizations, political parties and candidates bringing the message of white supremacy to the halls of various state and local governments. The W. Eugene Smith Grant will help Peterson further explore the social life of the resurgent Confederacy, the removal of Confederate statues and names on schools and streets, and record the process of the long-term impact of these initiatives. Petersons project was selected from 314 entries from 53 countries, the most ever submitted to the Smith Grant since its inception in 1980.

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Grant is presented annually to photographers whose work is judged by a panel of experts to be in the best tradition of the compassionate dedication exhibited by W. Eugene Smith during his 45-year career in photojournalism. The grant, as well as fellowships and other special awards, enables recipients to undertake and complete worthy photojournalistic projects.

The judges were extremely impressed with the urgency of Mr. Petersons work, and his commitment and courage in revealing a difficult and enormously relevant subject in society today, said Stephen Frailey, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund board member and the chair of this years Smith Grant adjudication committee. Participating as a judge in this competition gave us tremendous insight to the range of narratives from around the world by so many remarkable photographers. The passion and intelligence each one brings to their respective picture stories is quite evident, and the strength and conviction of work submitted was inspirational. Joining Frailey on the adjudication committee were Jody Quon, photography director at New York Magazine, and Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of African Artists Foundations (AAF), based in Nigeria.

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Photographer Sarah Blesener (U.S.) received a $5,000 Smith Fund Fellowship for her project, Beckon Us From Home, which looks at how the interplay of religion, love of country, and military-style training in youth education is being implemented at patriotic camps and clubs across the United States. Photographed in 12 different states, Beckon Us From Home is an ongoing photography project investigating how the United States instills patriotism and passes down traditions to new generations.

The judges also presented special awards to Monika Bulaj (Poland) and Enayat Asadi (Iran) for their projects, Broken Songlines || Three Manuscripts, and Rising From the Ashes of War, respectively. Sponsored by the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, the $2,500 awards are presented to Smith Grant finalists whose works the judges deemed as exceptional and worthy of recognition.

The W. Eugene Smith Student Grant was awarded to Marwan Bassiouni (Swiss/U.S./Egyptian), a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (Netherlands), who received the $4,000 grant for New Dutch Views, a statement that challenges the idea that there is only one national identity and that Islam is separate from the Netherlands. By photographing the Dutch landscape from inside Dutch mosques, Bassiouni invites viewers to step inside the perspective of a Muslim person and rediscover his or her own landscape.

This years $5,000 Howard Chapnick Grant was presented to Pete Brook for his project, A History of Prison Photography, Written by Prisoners. The grant is awarded to an individual for leadership in any field ancillary to photojournalism, such as picture editing, research, education, and management. For more than a decade, Brook has written about and curated images of mass incarceration in the U.S. For this project, Brook is teaching the history of photography to 28 men in San Quentin State Prison in California.

The following photographers were recognized as finalists for this years W. Eugene Smith Grant:

Mary Calvert: Defending the Forces: Reforming Americas Military Justice System (U.S.)

Giancarlo Ceraudo: Destino Final: The History of Dictatorship in Argentina (Italy)

Antonio Gibotta: Stuck in the Cold of Belgrade (Italy)

Raffy Lerma: In the Midst of Violent Change: Covering the Philippine Drug War (Philippines)

Stephanie Sinclair: Child Marriage in the United States (United States)

The W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund is supported by generous contributions from the Incite Project, the Herb Ritts Foundation, Canon USA, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, and Carla Shen. Additional support is provided by Aperture, Brilliant Graphics, Center for Creative Photography (CCP), the International Center of Photography, MediaStorm, Photo District News (PDN), the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video and Related Media Department, the School of Visual Arts Master of Professional Studies in Digital Photography, and Synergy Communications.

See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Twitter, and Tumblr.US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart sought Thursday to normalise military relations that have dramatically soured in recent weeks over trade and sanctions tensions.

The much-anticipated meeting between the Pentagon chief and General Wei Fenghe saw the men address long-standing frictions -- including Beijing's actions in the South China Sea -- but also centred on strengthening ties to withstand political crises like the one currently engulfing the two nuclear powers.

Mattis "repeated our desire for a durable relationship that is a stabilising force in the overall relationship," Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters after the nearly 90-minute meeting on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore.

"When we have times of differences and irritants, we should seek to deepen our contact, particularly at the high level, strategic level so that we can talk through differences."

A meeting between Mattis and Wei was supposed to take place in Beijing last weekend, but it fell through after China declined to make Wei available.

The snub came as China reacted angrily after Washington imposed sanctions following Beijing's purchase of Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Beijing's other actions included scrapping a planned port visit of a US warship to Hong Kong and cancelling a meeting between the head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.

And tensions reached a dangerous level when a Chinese warship sailed extremely close to a US destroyer as it conducted a "freedom of navigation" operation challenging China's extensive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

The contested waterway, where China has built a series of military facilities on islets and reefs, was a subject of "significant" discussion, Schriver said, but no progress was made in resolving the issue or the other perennial point of friction -- Taiwan.

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"We're going to continue to have differences," Schriver said.

"They weren't resolved at this meeting and during this discussion and they probably won't be in a next discussion. There will be issues that are long-term challenges to manage."

- Tough rhetoric -

Mattis's attempts to carve a better relationship with the Chinese military stands in contrast to the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House.

President Donald Trump has frequently assailed China over its economic policies and earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence issued a litany of complaints, accusing Beijing of "predatory" trade practices and military "aggression", among other charges.

Mattis has made eight trips to the Asia region as Pentagon chief, and a primary mission has been to encourage countries to stand up to China in the South China Sea.

But Schriver indicated that countries remain too intimidated to do much on this front.

"In some instances, other countries may not have the confidence given China's strength to always speak up, but (Mattis) wanted to let Minister Wei know that he hears about it a great deal from other countries," Schriver said.

Mattis's visit to Singapore comes as questions swirl in Washington about his future.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Trump suggested Mattis may be headed out the Pentagon door.

"It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said.

Mattis later told reporters that Trump had assured him of his "100 percent" support.

Gregory Poling, an Asia expert and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said most countries in the region see Mattis as "a steady hand on the tiller".

But they are wary of the uncertainty in Washington and Trump's mercurial approach to America maintaining a leadership role in the region.

Once Mattis leaves after a trip, "officials start wondering... is the full force of American power really in Asia to stay?" Poling told AFP.

"I don't think Asian leaders see lasting commitment from the US on things other than North Korea and trade deficits."

Schriver said the issue of North Korea came up with Wei "in very general terms" as a possible area to deepen cooperation.

"We do have a shared view that we would like to see denuclearisation occur," he said.By Phil Stewart SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will seek more resilient military ties during talks with his Chinese counterpart in Singapore slated for Thursday, a U.S. official said, as both militaries attempt to navigate mounting tensions. Mattis saw first hand last month how growing Sino-U.S. friction could undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for an October meeting in China with Defence Minister Wei Fenghe, in apparent retaliation over U.S. sanctions. A meeting with Wei now appears set to take place on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian defense ministers in Singapore. Randall Schriver, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to helping reduce the chances of a devastating conflict. "Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interests - we need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes, it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic," Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis. Schriver said he believed that sentiment was shared by China's military, noting that it recently requested Thursday's talks in Singapore after Beijing decided against a planned Mattis-Wei meeting in China. "I think the fact that he's meeting with Minister Wei is some evidence that the Chinese are interested in keeping things normal and stable, as are we," said Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs. He said Wei had a standing invitation to visit the United States. MANAGING CRISES Military-to-military ties have long been one of the more fragile parts of the overall U.S.-China relationship, with Beijing limiting contacts when tensions run high. That has been a source of major concern for years among U.S. officials, who fear an accidental collision or mishap could quickly escalate. "What we want in terms of stability are regular interactions at senior levels so we have a good understanding of one another's intentions, that we have confidence-building measures that will help us prevent an unintended accident or incident," Schriver said. "And, should one occur, that we have the ability to manage that so it doesn't worsen." China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on China's military for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped-up U.S. support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory. In a recent reminder of the risks amid rising tensions, the Pentagon this month accused China of an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea that brought a Chinese ship dangerously close to a U.S. Navy destroyer in international waters. Mattis, speaking to reporters as he flew to Asia this week, rejected Chinese claims that the United States was acting aggressively and pointed the finger at Beijing. "When the Chinese ships are putting bumpers over the side ... You don't do that when you're out in the middle of the ocean, unless you're intending to run into something," Mattis said. But tensions between the United States and China have already extended well beyond naval maneuvers and even the bitter trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump last month accused China of seeking to meddle in Nov. 6 congressional elections, a charge almost immediately rejected by Beijing. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, in what was billed as a major policy address, renewed that and other accusations this month and added that Chinese security agencies had masterminded the "wholesale theft of American technology," including military blueprints. The Pentagon's top concerns have been China's rapid military modernization and simultaneous creation of military outposts in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway vital for international trade. The Pentagon un-invited China to a multinational exercise earlier this year in protest. Mattis, Schriver said, will renew to Wei U.S. positions on freedom of navigation in international waters, amid Chinese claims of "irrefutable" sovereignty in the South China Sea. "I think our message will be: No single country can change international law and national norms. We'll fly, sail and operate where international law allows," Schriver said.

Meghan McCain is still waiting for that apology from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about a doctored image of a gun being held to her head that went viral on Twitter during her fathers memorial.

The subject was raised on Thursdays episode of The View, when the panel discussed Twitters decision not to suspend the account of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan for his tweet comparing Jews to insects. Farrakhan, who has posted anti-Semitic messages before, is not in violation of any extant policy, according to the company. While it appears to violate Twitters proposed new policy around dehumanizing tweets, that rule has not yet gone into effect.

Meghan McCain and Jack Dorsey. (Photos: Getty Images)

Meghan McCain weighed in, noting that the accounts of James Woods, Candace Owens, and Milo Yiannopoulos have all been suspended before.

My problem is, I had an experience after my father died when I was still at his funeral, where a picture went viral of someone who had put a picture of me crying over my fathers casket with, with a Glock pointed at my head, and it went viral, she recalled. It was up all day. The only reason it was taken down was because my husband went absolutely ape-crap, got involved, called people he knew who worked in Congress to get involved.

In September, Dorsey told Congress he agreed it was unacceptable and said the digitally altered image should have been taken down earlier. Dorsey said he would personally apologize to McCain, who shared on Thursday that the image only added more pain during the worst time of her life  after the death of her father, John McCain.

He has not [apologized], by the way, McCain noted. Technology has real ramifications, it made that experience exponentially more painful. Now, I have a husband who knows congresspeople, my father was a sitting senator, so it got taken down at some point. What if you are somebody who lives in Ohio, who has something like this doctored, who doesnt have this kind of access? They have to do better.

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She added, When youre talking about free speech, there are limitations. You cant have child porn on the internet. We still live in a civilized society, you cant have death threats against people after their father dies and keep it up.

Co-host Abby Huntsman, who revealed that she deals with death threats against herself and her children on Twitter, said she recently had coffee with Dorsey.

I think hes in over his head, Huntsman said. He understands theres a problem.  Theyve got a lot of challenges ahead. The problem is, where do you draw that line on free speech? I would say if youre sexist, if youre racist, if youre threatening someones life  is that not enough?

Dorsey tackled the hot-button issue of free speech on Twitter at Wireds 25th anniversary summit this week.

When we started the company, we werent thinking about this at all. We were thinking about building something that we wanted to use, he explained. Our purpose today, we believe, our superpower, is around conversation. And we believe our purpose is to serve the public conversation. And that does take a stance around freedom of expression and defending freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. Not just one within this country.

He added, But it also comes with a realization that freedom of expression may adversely impact other fundamental human rights, such as privacy and physical security. So we believe that we can only serve the public conversation, we can only stand for freedom of expression if people feel safe to express themselves in the first place. We can only do that if they feel that they are not being silenced.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

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Brisas Barra de Suchiate (Mexico) (AFP) - Mexico deployed hundreds of riot police Thursday to its border with Guatemala as a caravan of Central American migrants prepared to cross on their way to the United States, defying President Donald Trump's threats.

Hundreds of federal police in riot gear fanned out on the international bridge in Suchiate, on the Mexican-Guatemalan border, as the caravan of several thousand Honduran migrants trekked toward the crossing.

Guatemala also sent police reinforcements to its side of the border, after Trump threatened to cut aid to the region, deploy the military and close the US-Mexican border if the migrants were allowed to continue.

A first group of several hundred migrants arrived late Wednesday in the border town of Tecun Uman, Guatemala, where they overflowed a local shelter, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said.

Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms.

The migrants planned to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without a visa.

The caravan successfully used the same strategy Monday to cross from Honduras to Guatemala at the border town of Agua Caliente, despite efforts by some 100 police to stop them.

"We're going to rest here and wait for the others who are on their way so we can enter (Mexico) en masse, like we did at Agua Caliente," Edgar Elias, one of the leaders of the caravan, told AFP.

But nature may complicate that plan: the shallow Suchiate river, which forms the border, was swollen by rain overnight.

That will likely reduce the number of places where the migrants can attempt to cross the highly porous border illegally, especially since many are traveling with young children.MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's government on Wednesday said it hoped to end disputes with the United States and Canada over steel tariffs before the next Mexican administration takes office at the start of December. Mexico and Canada have been at loggerheads with the Trump administration over the steel industry since the United States at the end of May announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum imports. Mexico retaliated against Trump with tariffs on various U.S. products ranging from bourbon to pork. Last week Canada announced new quotas on a range of seven categories of steel, prompting a testy response from the Mexican government. Speaking at an event in Mexico City, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo expressed hope that Mexico could be excluded from Canadian steel tariffs, saying that "the possibility of us achieving this is not slight." Guajardo said he had talked with Canadian officials, and that if an agreement could be reached with Ottawa to exempt Mexican steel producers, the duties collected would be returned to the industry. The steel dispute has hung over the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, with the three countries finally reaching a deal late last month. The three countries aim to sign the new agreement by Nov. 30. Rogelio Garza, a deputy economy minister, speaking at the same event on Wednesday, said he expected Mexico to reach agreement with the United States and Canada over steel in the next six weeks before the new trilateral trade deal is signed. (Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Dave Graham and Leslie Adler)Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - More than three decades after the end of military dictatorship, army men look to be on the threshold of returning to power in Brazil, this time through elections in a crime-ridden country whose official motto is "Order and Progress."

The comfortable favorite in an October 28 presidential run-off is Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who has chosen a newly retired general, Hamilton Mourao, as his vice president if he wins.

At least four others with military backgrounds are tipped to enter government under a president Bolsonaro.

The 63-year-old candidate has vowed to rule "with authority, but without authoritarianism" -- though his nostalgic talk of the 1964-1985 dictatorship he served, his promises to arm "good" citizens, and his talk in favor of torture have chilled many voters.

In Brazil, a 1979 amnesty gave immunity to those responsible for the 434 murders and the torture of thousands during the dictatorship, counted by a national truth commission. A declassified CIA report revealed that the elimination of opponents was ordered at the highest levels of the government at the time.

In many democracies, evoking such brutal rule positively in a campaign would be anathema. But in Brazil today, with more than 62,000 murders annually and a constant fear of armed robberies, the law and order evoked by past military times has lent it support among younger voters.

"I've heard young people say, 'During the dictatorship things were organized,'" said political analyst Jairo Nicolau, of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

"These young people were born in a democracy and have a diffuse view of what happened."

- Military-run schools -

In an October 7 general election, 35 members of congress -- 31 deputies and four senators -- with army or police careers were elected. In the last parliament there were just 18.

According to the Ibope survey firm, the institutions in which Brazilians had most confidence were the fire service, churches, the federal police, and the military. Those least trusted were the government, the congress, political parties and the president.

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In May, a reserve general tipped to be Bolsonaro's defense minister, Augusto Heleno, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper that the military was "vaccinated" against the temptation of staging a coup, though he was "flattered" by the show of trust shown by a large part of the population.

Bolsonaro and his campaign say that, three decades after the end of the Cold War, the enemy now isn't just Communism, but also corruption, crime -- and "gender identity ideology."

Bolsonaro has proposed creating schools run by the military to fight against the "indoctrination" of children. His probable choice as transport minister, reserve general Oswaldo Ferreira, hailed the "clear rules," the "discipline" and the "hierarchy" that characterize the life in military barracks.

The military already made some inroads into government under outgoing President Michel Temer, who placed Rio's security in their hands and named a former general as defense minister.

- Corruption -

For Nelson During, head of the specialist military-watching website Defesanet, the tilt back toward seeing military men in positions of power is due to corruption that has ravaged the main political parties.

That came to a head with a vast graft probe called "Car Wash" that implicated numerous politicians and Brazil's biggest company, state-run oil group Petrobras.

"By marring all the political class, (the probe) undermined the representative system. Not only in the eyes of the military, but also the general population, on the left and the right," he said.

But the idea of the military itself being a corruption-free body does not necessarily hold. A recent publication of a 1984 US embassy cable mentioned the existence of investigations into embezzling of public money.

As for the supposed economic "miracle" Brazil went through in the 1970s, often raised by those fond of the dictatorship, historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling said in their book, "Brazil: a Biography," that not everything was a success.

A road cut through the Amazon, for instance, "massacred the forest, gobbled up millions of dollars and even today parts of it are impassable," they wrote.Washington (AFP) - US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will decide on Thursday whether he will attend an investment conference in Riyadh that has been boycotted by global business leaders concerned about the fate of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.

Two weeks after The Washington Post contributor disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, titans of finance and industry, as well as major media groups, have withdrawn from next week's Future Investment Initiative organized by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.

On Saturday, on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund meetings in Bali, Mnuchin expressed "concern for Mr Khashoggi and his family" but said he still planned to attend the Saudi conference known as the "Davos in the Desert."

"The answer is for now I am" still going, Mnuchin said, adding that if more information came out he would take it into consideration.

Asked about the matter at a press conference on Wednesday, Mnuchin said: "We're going to revisit the decision again tomorrow."

He said a decision will be taken "based on Secretary Pompeo's report."

Mike Pompeo, the top US diplomat, held talks with Turkey's leaders in Ankara on Wednesday over the Khashoggi case.

He arrived there from Riyadh where, he said, the Saudis "made a commitment that they would show the entire world the results of their investigation."

Under growing pressure Saudi Arabia, a major buyer of US weapons, has denied knowledge of the fate of Khashoggi who had lived in self-exile in the United States since last year.

Pro-government Turkish media have published allegations purporting to confirm that Khashoggi was not only murdered by Saudi agents in their consulate in Istanbul, but tortured and dismembered.

Among those who have pulled out of the Riyadh conference are IMF chief Christine Lagarde, HSBC chief executive John Flint, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.A multidrug-resistant strain of salmonella linked to raw chicken products has sickened nearly 100 people across multiple states, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC).

The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) is monitoring an outbreak of Salmonella Infantis after at least 92 people were sickened by the bacteria and 21 were hospitalized across 29 states. Illnesses were reported between Jan. 19, 2018, and Sept. 9, 2018, although no deaths have been linked to the outbreak so far.

The source of the outbreak remains unclear, as a multitude of products which tested positive for the bacteria  including whole chickens, ground chicken and even pet food  did not share a common supplier.

Salmonella Infantis was also recently discovered in live chickens, indicating the outbreak might be widespread in the chicken industry.

Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps 12 to 72 hours after being exposed to the bacteria. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment. Young or elderly patients may require hospitalization, depending on the severity of their symptoms.

Although this particular strain is resistant to multiple common antibiotics, the CDC advises that Salmonella Infantis seems to still respond to azithromycin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and meropenem.

The CDC recommends consumers always handle raw chicken carefully, cook it thoroughly and wash their hands after handling to prevent infections.Night of the Living Dead (Photo: Everett Collection)

By Nick Schager

In the pantheon of horror classics, few stand taller than George A. Romeros 1968 directorial debut, Night of the Living Dead, which returns to cinemas across UK and Ireland in a newly restored and remastered version on Wednesday, 24 October.

The story of a group of Pennsylvania strangers who find themselves trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by the undead, Romeros groundbreaking indie never features the word zombie (its fiends are referred to as ghouls) and yet defined the reanimated creatures for the modern age, transforming them from black-magic Caribbean slaves (as in films such as 1932s White Zombie and 1943s I Walked With a Zombie) into rotting corpses with a single-minded hunger for human flesh  a legacy that shows no signs of abating thanks to the likes of 28 Days Later, World War Z, Train to Busan, Zombieland, and, of course, The Walking Dead.





A stark, brutal, and bleak tale of survival that shocked audiences upon its release, Night of the Living Dead imagines chaos and annihilation coming not from invading extraterrestrials or supernatural monsters, but from ourselves. It was a new apocalyptic American nightmare steeped in contemporary anxieties, and on its 50th anniversary (the dead rose on Oct. 1, 1968), it remains as potent  both in terms of scares and allegorical power  as ever.

Shot on a shoestring budget, and inspired by Richard Mathesons I Am Legend, Romeros 1968 saga is a sleek, stripped-down affair. While visiting their fathers grave, Barbra (Judith ODea) and brother Johnny (Russell Streiner) are accosted by a man who tries to take a bite out of Barbra. In a scuffle to save her, Johnnys head collides with a gravestone and he perishes. Barbra, understandably freaked out by this incident, flees, eventually stumbling upon a farmhouse outfitted with an outdoor petrol pump.

Struck nearly dumb by this trauma, shes soon joined by Ben (Duane Jones), a tall, intelligent African-American man who promptly boards up the windows and doors. Before long, they discover theyre not alone  Harry Cooper (Karl Hardman) and his wife, Helen (Marilyn Eastman), have been hiding in the locked basement alongside their injured 11-year-old daughter, Karen (Kyra Schon), as well as local Tom (Keith Wayne) and his girlfriend, Judy (Judith Ridley). Such company quickly breeds hostility, as interpersonal frictions compound an already volatile situation  a setup that would influence countless progeny, including John Carpenters Assault on Precinct 13 and Frank Darabonts Stephen King adaptation, The Mist.

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NEW YORK, NY  NOVEMBER 05: Gary Streiner, Director George A. Romero, Chris Roe and Russ Streiner attend the Night of the Living Dead World Premiere of Restored Print during the To Save and Project: The 14th MOMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MOMA on November 5, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Lars Niki/Getty Images for Museum of Modern Art, Department of Film)

Radio and TV news broadcasts reveal that this plague is spreading across the region (and perhaps the globe?) thanks to radioactivity from a downed space probe. Night of the Living Dead, however, hardly proffers that theory as a definitive explanation. Instead, it keeps the root cause of this cataclysm more than a bit vague, the better to maintain an atmosphere of dreadful, irrational uncertainty. Furthermore, its a strategy designed to leave things open to allegorical interpretation.

Produced at a time of domestic racial and economic strife, as well as the Vietnam War, Romero layers the action with roiling undercurrents. From Barbras initial misleading dialogue with Ben (implying that Johnny was her boyfriend, which suggests she fears being alone with a black man), to Harrys lies about his cowardly decision to not come upstairs and aid them (which are censured by Ben), to the ghouls themselves (which are simultaneously anonymous and familiar agents of death), the film is awash in all manner of urgent terrors and conflicts: familial discord; racial tensions; parental hang-ups; patriarchal hubris; and fear-of-the-other mania.

Judith ODea and Duane Jones in Night of the Living Dead. (Photo: Everett Collection)

Take your pick as to what the destructive zombie hordes are meant to represent. They could be the liberal counterculture generation, intent on decimating the status quo. Or, conversely, they might be conservative America, striking back at late-1960s progressivism (after all, hero Ben is an African-American paired with a white woman  and Jones was horror cinemas first African-American lead). Maybe theyre stand-ins for the Vietcong, making the proceedings a treatise on the folly of the countrys South Asian escapades. Given the ongoing Cold War, its also easy to see them as Russian invaders, here to wipe out Americas democratic way of life. Romero not only doesnt say  he doesnt overtly suggest any one reading. Instead, he allows them to be vessels of an open-ended nature, capable of embodying whatever fear is most front-and-centre in the national consciousness at a given moment.

That means, of course, that from a 2018 perspective, one can just as easily view Night of the Living Deads zombies as  depending on ones political persuasion  homegrown or foreign terrorists, invading immigrants or refugees, or UKIP extremists. Romeros first feature is always attuned to our darkest despairs, both narratively and visually. Employing stark black-and-white cinematography, the director crafts a vision of a world rife with contrasts. His chiaroscuro-steeped aesthetics, which include frenzied editing, convey a sense of opposing forces clashing in sharp, vicious ways. Meanwhile, his grainy monochromatic style lends the carnage a newsreel-ish realism which enhances its this-could-really-happen horror  and, consequently, reinforces the notion that the zombies are reflections of threats that exist in our here-and-now.

(Photo: Everett Collection)

Nowhere is that more acutely felt than in Night of the Living Deads coda. After Ben has survived the zombie onslaught, hes killed by a redneck sheriffs posse, which mistakes him for another member of the walking dead. Its a bleakly ironic final twist, and is followed by a montage of still snapshots of men using meat cleavers to throw Bens body onto a raging bonfire. That sequences imagery recalls photographs of wartime atrocities committed in the name of apparent maintaining-the-social-order good  and, moreover, feels intertwined with the films satire of the (misleading, if not outright exploitative) media.

Its also, fundamentally, a traumatising conclusion to a story marked by unflagging hostility and hysteria. And its one that helped cement the zombie as the 20th (and 21st) centurys signature creature. A grotesque resurrected version of mankind that cares only for cannibalistic consumption, Romeros ghouls are us at our unholy worst, and the director used them  both here, and again in his stellar sequels Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985)  to point the finger squarely at humanity for societys failings. Rather than locating his mayhem in far-off Transylvania or remote Europe (or the tropical islands where zombies had traditionally dwelled), Night of the Living Dead brought the horror home  to our country, our houses, our very bodies.

In doing so, it not only established a genre template that continues to flourish today, but set a lofty standard thats rarely been met by those that have followed in its shuffling wake.

Starting on Wednesday, 24 October, Night of the Living Dead returns to cinemas across UK and Ireland in a newly restored and remastered version presented by Fathom Events, CinEvents and Living Dead Media to commemorate its 50th anniversary.

Night of the Living Dead will be accompanied by a new behind-the-scenes look at the making of this iconic film. Tickets are on sale here https://en.fathomfear.com/.

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Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today.

Nike is on the move, after an upgrade at Oppenheimer. Analysts there just rated the stock outperform, saying the shoe giants digital strategy is the right move to drive sales. They also set a $90 a share price target, nearly 20% above current levels.

Another Executive is out at Tesla This time the VP of manufacturing. Gilbert Passin reportedly left the company over the summer but word is only now getting out. Tesla has been dealing with a series of high-profile departures in recent months, including the heads of HR, accounting and engineering.

The end of an era at beer and wine giant Constellation Brands, the company behind corona. The CEO, Rob Sands, will step down from the top role in March and become Executive Chairman. Sands guided Constellation through a major expansion, including a $4M dollar bet on marijuana company Canopy Growth. His successor, Bill Newlands, will become the first person outside the Sands family to lead the company.

IHOPS parent company, Dine Brands Global, is trying something different. How about booze with your pancakes? It just opened a new restaurant in Phoenix that offers beer, wine and cocktails. The location used to be Lone Star Steakhouse, so it already had a liquor license. The franchise owner says they pitched the idea to IHOPs corporate office which signed off.

Food company, Beyond Meat, is reportedly moving closer to an IPO. CNBC says the company behind vegetarian burgers and other products has hired JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to help with their public offering. Beyond Meat counts Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Welch among its investors.WHITEVILLE, N.C. (AP)  A driver opened fire on a North Carolina state trooper during a traffic stop early Wednesday, killing the 11-year Highway Patrol veteran, authorities said. The suspect was arrested after a chase.

Around 12:15 a.m., the trooper stopped the white pickup truck on suspicion of speeding on a highway in rural Columbus County southwest of Whiteville, said Highway Patrol First Sgt. Michael Baker. Baker said the driver shot Trooper Kevin Conner as he approached.

"The driver of that vehicle fired several shots, striking the trooper," Baker told reporters.

The suspect fled and Conner was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Baker said the driver then headed about 20 miles west (32 kilometers) to Fair Bluff near the South Carolina state line, where authorities pursued him in a chase. The truck became disabled on railroad tracks in the town, and the suspect fled on foot. Authorities said the suspect was arrested around 4 a.m. after an extensive search.

Baker said the man, whose name wasn't immediately released, was being held in the Columbus County jail pending charges.

The Highway Patrol said the Columbus County-based trooper was an 11-year veteran of the organization. Patrol commander Col. Glenn McNeill said the organization was "mourning the loss of a hero" as condolences poured in from law enforcement agencies on social media.

"Many will say he was the nicest guy you would ever meet and the ones that knew Kevin and family would agree," the nearby Bladen County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook.

WRAL-TV reported that Conner helped save lives after a 2011 fiery head-on crash in Columbus County. A WRAL article from that year said Conner used an extinguisher to put out flames, and he and another trooper provided first aid before paramedics arrived.COLUMBIA, Tenn. (AP)  A sheriff says his detectives are trying to figure out why a mother would kill her four children and then herself at their home in Tennessee.

Maury County Sheriff Bucky Rowland told a news conference Tuesday that evidence points to a murder-suicide, but police don't know what prompted it.

The sheriff said the teen-aged victims had been adopted and home-schooled in what appeared to be a loving home. He said police hadn't previously been called to the residence in Columbia, southwest of Nashville, and their father wasn't home at the time.

Rowland said an adult child found the bodies and called police after coming home from work Monday evening. He identified the dead as 55-year-old Cynthia Collier, 14-year-old Bo Li, 14-year-old Meigan Lin, 15-year-old Lia Lin and 17-year-old Kaileigh Lin.Larnaca (Cyprus) (AFP) - Cyprus said Thursday it will pay to ensure hundreds of Cobalt Air passengers stranded on the holiday island can return home safely after the sudden collapse of the low-cost carrier.

In a surprise announcement posted on its website late Wednesday, the airline said it was cancelling all flights from shortly before midnight "due to indefinite suspension of Cobalt's operations".

It warned customers its offices would no longer be staffed and urged them to seek refunds through their credit card company or travel agent.

Cobalt's grounding comes just two weeks after Latvia-based Primera Air filed for bankruptcy and a month since Belgian airline Skyworks took the same course.

The airline was launched only two years ago, filling the void to become the Mediterranean island's biggest carrier after state-owned Cyprus Airways went bankrupt in January 2015.

Employing many pilots from the defunct national carrier, it went on to operate 13-15 flights daily, taking up to 3,000 passengers to 23 destinations including Athens, Beirut, Heathrow, Paris and Tel Aviv.

But late on Wednesday night, its website was abruptly replaced with a single-page statement announcing the cancellation of all of its flights from 23:50 pm.

Its last flight was reportedly in the air on the way back to Larnaca from London at the time.

"As a result, future flights or services provided by Cobalt will be cancelled and will no longer operate," the statement said, without elaborating on the reasons.

- Emergency meeting -

The airline advised passengers with tickets against going to Larnaca International Airport or attempting to contact its offices "as no Cobalt flights will operate and no Cobalt staff will be present".

"We sincerely apologise once again and would like to thank our very loyal customers for their support over the last two years of Cobalt operations."

Nine flights had been scheduled to arrive and nine to depart from Larnaca airport on Thursday.

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Hundreds of passengers were left stranded, although it was not immediately clear exactly how many.

Airport authorities said there was no panic in the departures hall, with passengers appearing to have stayed away after learning about the airline's fate and the flight cancellations.

On Thursday the Cypriot transport minister emerged from an emergency meeting on the situation to say everything would be done to minimise the inconvenience for those stuck in Cyprus and abroad.

Vassiliki Anastassiadou said Cyprus would cover the cost for passengers to return home up until October 24, while adding that this did not absolve the airline of its liabilities towards customers.

"The cost of the tickets will be covered by the state for repatriation purposes only," the minister told reporters.

"We... feel the need to help passengers trapped either in Cyprus or abroad who want to return to their place of residence."

Two travel operators on the island had been instructed to manage the repatriations and issue tickets on other airlines.

- Financial struggles -

Anastassiadou described the situation as "regrettable" as it comes at time Cyprus is enjoying a surge in its vital tourism sector with arrivals in 2018 expected to exceed last year's high of 3.6 million.

The minister confirmed the airline was struggling but had informed authorities it was looking for funding.

"It seems they were not able to do this, but we had also given Cobalt a deadline of October 22 to present its financial situation," she said.

Officials told the state-funded Cyprus News Agency that Cobalt had accumulated tens of millions of dollars in debt since its first commercial flight in July 2016.

Other reports put the debt at around 100 million euros ($115 million).

They said Cobalt had ceased operations after failing to reach a deal with a potential European investor to help it pay for leasing its six aircraft -- two Airbus 319s and four Airbus 320s.

Reportedly, the company had only 15 million euros left in its accounts, which it needed to pay its 200-air crew and 50 ground staff.

There was speculation that it was facing cash-flow problems after two of its aircraft were grounded for two days.

Although Cobalt refused to comment on the rumours, sources within the company reportedly attributed the liquidity problems to difficulties faced by Chinese investors in exporting capital due to Chinese government restrictions.

The airline's largest shareholder is AJ Cyprus, with 49 percent of the shares. AJ Cyprus is owned by China's AVIC Joy Air.

Cyprus is a hugely popular holiday hotspot for Britons -- with over a million flying to the island each year.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday urged Turkey to release a Turkish-U.S. citizen and former NASA scientist, among other detainees, days after Ankara turned over U.S. evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson. Pompeo raised the issue with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a meeting in Ankara, where he also met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. Khashoggi, a U.S. resident, vanished during a visit to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to collect marriage documents. "The Secretary also discussed with Foreign Minister Cavusoglu the continued wrongful detention of Dr. Serkan Golge and other U.S. citizens as well as locally employed staff from U.S. Mission Turkey," department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Golge was visiting family in southern Turkey when he was arrested in a crackdown following a failed military coup in 2016 which the government blamed on supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. He has denied the charges. His sentence last month was reduced to five years. Turkey has detained 160,000 people and dismissed nearly the same number of civil servants over suspected links to the coup attempt, according to the U.N. human rights office. U.S.-Turkish relations have been strained over the detentions as well as other issues, and the United States has imposed sanctions and tariffs on Ankara. Pastor Brunson, whose detention fueled a diplomatic crisis that sent the lira tumbling this year, had also been charged with terrorism offences. He was released on Friday and returned to the United States. On Wednesday, Brunson's lawyer said he was appealing the verdict and sentence in Turkish court. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)Lima (AFP) - A Peruvian appeals court Wednesday ordered the release of opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, who has been detained for a week after being accused by prosecutors of receiving money from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, a judge announced.

The court "provides for the immediate release of the detained suspects" in the case, including the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, said chief magistrate Octavio Sahuanay.

The 43-year-old Keiko Fujimori, the leader of Popular Force, the biggest party in Congress, was arrested on the orders of prosecutors investigating contributions to her campaign when she ran for president in 2011.

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.

Up to her arrest, Fujimori had not been directly under investigation, as most of the prosecutors' attention was on two of her senior 2011 campaign aides.Lima (AFP) - Peru's president called on Spain Thursday to arrest a sacked Supreme Court judge who fled the South American country while facing trial over a massive influence peddling scandal that forced the resignation of the interior minister.

Interior Minister Mauro Medina resigned late Wednesday after it became clear the dismissed judge, Cesar Hinostroza, had slipped over the border to Ecuador and boarded a flight to Madrid.

"The criminals will have to answer to justice," President Martin Vizcarra said. "We are sure that Spain will not protect those who are required to face Peruvian justice."

A Spanish foreign ministry source confirmed Hinostroza had entered the country on Wednesday. "We are waiting to receive the requests being processed by the Peruvian authorities," the source told AFP.

Meanwhile, Peruvian authorities stopped Hinostroza's 16-year-old daughter from boarding a flight to Madrid.

The scandal has dogged Vizcarra's government since it broke only months into his term in July, when a website released audio tapes featuring Hinostroza and other judges selling lighter sentences for a price.

The 62-year-old judge -- sacked from the Supreme Court by Congress a fortnight ago -- is the central figure in a scandal that has shocked Peru, seen protests erupt in several cities and prompted Vizcarra to promise sweeping judicial reforms.

- 'Fled clandestinely'-

The president said the judge had "fled clandestinely" as he was awaiting trial for leading a "criminal organization" and other crimes.

He crossed the border into Ecuador and boarded a flight to Spain via Amsterdam, the government said late Wednesday.

Medina immediately resigned, becoming the second member of Vizcarra's cabinet to lose his job over the scandal, following the sacking of justice minister Salvador Heresi in July.

Heresi was among those heard on the tapes allegedly arranging lenient treatment for convicts in exchange for cash or favors. Twelve people have been jailed so far as part of the investigation.

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In one of the tapes, Hinostroza is heard talking to an unidentified person about lowering the sentence of a man who had raped an 11-year-old girl.

- Seeking asylum -

Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva said Lima had begun efforts to have the judge extradited from Spain.

"We are looking for the expulsion of Hinostroza," he told reporters.

He said the fugitive judge, shortly after his arrival in Madrid, "approached a police station to request asylum, which was rejected."

The interior ministry said Thursday two police officers and two diplomats were standing by to travel to Spain to bring Hinostroza back.

Vizcarra, who was speaking as he opened a meeting of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Lima, said corruption cases "endanger democracy" and the economy of Peru.

"The criminals who have fled will have to respond to justice," he said.

Supreme Court president Duberli Rodriguez, as well as an appeals-court judge and three members of the National Council of Magistrates -- which appoints judges and prosecutors -- have resigned or been suspended as the scandal has reverberated through the Andean country of 32 million.

While Rodriguez has not himself been accused of wrongdoing, he resigned, saying he accepted responsibility as president of the nation's judiciary.

The scandal began with the release of the 20 recordings, which were originally made by police as prosecutors tried to track a drug-trafficking ring operating in Callao, Peru's main port, near Lima.

Hinostroza was dismissed on October 4 by Congress and disqualified from holding public office for 10 years.Purported crime kingpin Joseph Merlino, 56, sentenced to two years in prison for operating an illegal gambling business

Joseph Skinny Joey Merlino leaves court earlier this year. On Wednesday he was sentenced to two further years in prison. Photograph: Kathy Willens/AP

Joseph Skinny Joey Merlino was living what many a middle-aged gangster would consider a coveted life.

After serving much of a 14-year sentence related to racketeering, the purported crime boss traded Phillys bitter winters for a home in the balmy, South Florida suburb of Boca Raton.

He settled into a $400,000 townhouse in a nondescript cul-de-sac in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, according to the Miami Herald. Merlino, who reportedly survived 25 attempted hits in his heyday, told the Herald that his new line of work was a carpet-installation outfit.

But trouble overran Merlinos new life.

He landed back in jail for four months after hanging out with an old mob buddy at a cigar bar. And in August 2016, he was one of 46 accused mobsters implicated in a massive racketeering scheme that spanned the eastern seaboard, prosecutors said.

The Manhattan US attorneys office claimed the Philly, Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese and Bonanno crime families were all working together in this single scheme.

After it was revealed that two FBI agents on the case might have mishandled a key witness, many of these men were offered plea deals on lesser charges, and decided to plead guilty.

President Trump was right. They need to outlaw the flippers 'Skinny Joey' Merlino

Merlino, long known for courting the media, bucked the trend and his case went to trial in January. The proceeding ended in a mistrial because of a deadlocked jury. Instead of retrying the case, prosecutors and Merlinos lawyers brokered a deal.

Merlino, now 56, wound up pleading to a single gambling-related count in April.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Asked if he wanted to comment outside the courtroom, Merlino said no, and focused his attention on a water fountain. But when he left the courthouse, Merlino offered thoughts on mob informants who had cooperated with authorities to help put him back in jail.

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President Trump was right. They need to outlaw the flippers, he remarked.

Merlinos sentencing, however, doesnt just mark an apparent conclusion to a high-profile mob case. His impending prison time may indeed speak to the longtime decline of the cosa nostra.

Elements of Sopranos-style organized crime do continue to exist  and, given the bloodshed and death associated with these elements  remain bizarrely romanticized.

But gone indeed are the days of John Gottis gaudiness, such as the fancy Brioni suits that landed him the moniker The Dapper Don, and the glitz captured in films such as Casino.

(Merlino, once known as the John Gotti of Passyunk Avenue, sported a knit hoodie on the first day of his trial.)

Merlino in 1997. Photograph: H. Rumph, Jr./AP

The legalization of many stalwart mob industries  such as gambling  has also left many made men unable to make a decent living.

For whats left of what they do, this would significantly hurt their bottom line, if not completely destroy it, John Meringolo, one of the lawyers representing Merlino, previously told the New York Post. If theres no gambling, theres no core business.

Kenneth McCallion, a former federal prosecutor who several decades ago investigated possible ties between the mafia and Donald Trump, told the Guardian that by the early 1990s, mobsters had hit an identity crisis.

We would pick up on wiretaps, or from sources, that the culture of organized crime was so eroded, some of the members would have to watch TV or movies to see how wiseguys walked and talked, McCallion said. So, that was kind of the beginning of the end.

Families that may have got into the mob, meanwhile, became increasingly disinterested in the life  requiring bosses to import prospects to beef up their ranks, he said.

Merlinos imprisonment may deal a severe blow to what remains of Philadelphias mob.

Historically, when leaders wound up behind bars, what it triggered would be a power struggle within the organization, McCallion told the Guardian.

Judge Richard Sullivan, who handed down the maximum sentence, said he didnt think Merlino was the boss of Philadelphias family. But Sullivan didnt buy arguments by Merlinos lawyers that he had been a degenerate gambler since age 13 and slipped back into crime for money.

You were a player, Sullivan said.

Regardless of Merlinos status in the Philadelphia mobs hierarchy, he still appears to hold considerable sway over his supporters, who filled more than half the courtroom.

Its all bullshit, one man in the gallery loudly groused during sentencing. Rat bastard.

You want to talk over me? an incensed Sullivan retorted. You want to be quiet?

Yeah, sure, the man said dryly.An Ohio police officer is being praised online after turning a call that could have ended in tragedy into a teaching moment for two teenagers.

Officer Peter Casuccio, of the Columbus Police Department, received a call on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. about two young black males who were spotted "flashing" a weapon, which turned out to be a BB gun.

Bodycam footage of the incident shows Officer Casuccio lecturing the two teens, one 11 years old and the other 13 years old, about how dangerous their actions were and how the scenario could have played out much differently.

"This is getting kids killed all over the country," Officer Casuccio tells the teens, whose identities were not revealed. "In today's world, listen, that thing looks real, bro."

The boys, who sound shaken from the incident, respond to Casuccio's comments with a few "yes, sirs" and apologies.

"If that was a different cop, we would have been killed," one boy can be heard saying.

"How old are you, boy? How old are you, young man?" Officer Casuccio asks the pair. "Do you think I want to shoot an 11-year-old? Do you think I want to shoot a 13-year-old? Do I honestly look like the kind of dude who wants to shoot anybody?"

"No sir," the boys respond.

The footage then cuts to audio of Officer Casuccio speaking with the 11-year-old and his mother, who sounds horrified by the incident.

"He could have shot you for that. You know that?" she can be heard asking her young son, who is about the same age as Tamir Rice was when he was shot dead by police in Cleveland while playing with a toy gun in 2014.

Casuccio assures the boy and his mom that "regardless of what people say about the dudes wearing this uniform, we care. We legitimately care."

"The last thing I ever want to do is shoot an 11-year-old man, cause your life hasnt even gotten started yet, and it could have ended," he continues. "Cause I wouldnt have missed. I could've killed you. I want you to think about that tonight when you go to bed. You could be gone. Everything you wanted to do in this life couldve been over."

The footage, which was posted on YouTube on Oct. 15, has already racked up nearly 26,000 views.Can a salad really bring on labour? [Photo: Getty]

As anyone who has ever gone over their due date will likely appreciate, heavily pregnant women will do near on anything to kick-start labour.

Just ask Hilary Duff.

The 31-year-old actress is currently expecting her second baby and has turned to a special maternity salad to try and induce her delivery.

The salad, made by Caioti Pizza Cafe in Los Angeles, features a simple mix of romaine, gorgonzola, walnuts, watercress and the restaurants secret herb-balsamic dressing, has become famous for its mysterious labour-inducing properties.

Hilary Duff has turned to the maternity salad to bring on labour [Photo: Getty]

Hilary is just one of the hundreds of mums-to-be who visit the cafe and order the salad in the hope of bringing on labour.

This salad is supposed to make you go into labor@caioti_pizza dont let me down, she posted to her Instagram stories earlier this week.

The salad is so well-known that even gynaecologists in the local area have started recommending the restaurant to their pregnant patients to give them some hope.

Doctors send their patients here  so do midwives and doulas, Carrie LaDou, owner of Caioti Pizza told Today. Everybody knows us and the salad has become an end-of-pregnancy tradition for most locals.

But can a salad really cause the onset of labour?

Women have for a long time looked towards ways of initiating labour. This might be because their pregnancy is prolonged beyond 40 weeks and they would like to have a natural onset of labour rather than be induced, Mr Ian Currie, consultant gynaecologist at BMI The Chiltern Hospital told Yahoo UK.

Various remedies have been used over the years but none have really undergone any serious scientific scrutiny.

Mr Currie goes on to explain that though there are usually loose hypotheses to justify the eating of certain foods or the doing of certain things to bring on labour, actually science still doesnt fully understand how the human body initiates labour.

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Mechanism for onset of labour is complex and it is a really important area of research particularly when labour starts too early, he continues.

Premature labour can result in many problems for both mum and baby. Fortunately with modern obstetric and neonatal care those risk are reducing gradually.

So what could be behind the reported success of the maternity salad in terms of bringing on labour?

There is a suggestion that the substances in balsamic vinegar may have an impact, Currie continues.

If this was so shouldnt we see higher rates of natural onset of labour in countries with high consumption of these products eg Italy. In fact Italy actually has the highest Caesarean section rate in Europe, although that might be for other reasons.

Liz Halliday, Deputy Head of Midwifery at Private Midwives has another theory about the success of the salad. One thing to remember is that women over 40 weeks of pregnancy are already at a high chance of labouring and so eating the salad might be coincidental or provide a placebo effect, she says

Currie believes bring-on-baby trends should undergo more scrutiny before experts can say they work and therefore recommend them.

Whether the medical professional support these or not will however not stop women who are usually really fed up, tired and achy in looking at any possibility to start labour.

So even though it is unlikely that the maternity salad is the miraculous labour starter heavily pregnant women hope it to be, is there anything else that can be done to kick start the process?

According to Liz Halliday Midwives and Obstetricians will often recommend the following, although all of these have little if any evidence to support success:

Eating a spicy meal may irritate the bowel which in turn may encourage contractions in the uterus and start labour. Going for a long walk may help the babys head to engage and start labour. Having sex may help to ripen the cervix through the action of mild prostaglandins found in semen. Having sex that results in female orgasm increases oxytocin levels and may start labour. Nipple stimulation may increase oxytocin levels and may start labour Acupuncture or reflexology may ripen the cervix Taking a homeopathic regime may help to start labour

It can also be advisable to simply relax and take a day off, Liz Halliday adds. Sometimes the anxiety of trying to bring on labour may actually be the very thing stopping labour from happening. Normal gestation is anything from 37 to 42 weeks, and it is important to remember that a 40 week date is simply a guess. Until a woman is over 42 weeks she is not overdue, but simply still pregnant. Perhaps changing this misconception is the key to reducing the pressure on women and that in itself might bring on labour.

And we all know the other old wives tales about bringing on labour dont we? Neflix, curry and chill anyone?

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:

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Hilary Duff isnt about to let trolls shame her for kissing her son on the lips

Is the sharing of birth stories to social media fuelling a culture of fear about childbirth?Attorney Michael Avenatti joins protesters outside the White House on July 17, 2018. (Photo: Mary F. Calvert/Reuters)

WASHINGTON  Im one of the few people who can beat Donald Trump if I decide to run for the U.S. presidency. The man who confidently utters these words is not a senator or governor, not even a junior congressman. In fact, he has no record of public service. Michael Avenatti, the Los Angeles lawyer, is best known for representing Stephanie Clifford, an adult film actress (you may know her as Stormy Daniels) who claims to have had an affair with President Trump. If his work on her behalf is not quite sacrifice rivaling, say, command of a platoon in the South Pacific, it has nevertheless given Avenatti something more valuable today than public reverence: raw fame.

Now, Avenatti would like to turn that fame into political power, in order to take down the man who did precisely that two years ago. The power-bald 47-year-old wants to be known as a presidential contender, one who should be taken seriously by the Democrats precisely because he is like no other Democrat.

Were not gonna beat Donald Trump by nominating a traditional politician, Avenatti says, just days before a CNN poll had him garnering support from just 1 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents. A traditional politician, Avenatti is definitely not. And though his platform, such as it is, contains mostly mainline liberal nostrums, he is banking on the premise that After Trump will look nothing like Before Trump, that even as the very serious Beltway people express their disdain for the conflation of politics with celebrity culture, there are millions of Americans who want just that. And though they may not yet know it, they may want Michael Avenatti.

In small but significant ways, Avenatti already resembles the Trump of the early 2015 primary campaign, long before the Republican National Committee cottoned on (or reconciled itself) to his rise and tried to insulate him with layers of advisers: focused but unrestrained, restless, freakishly accessible to journalists, punching back at even the slightest insult, whether it comes from the right or left. Avenatti feuds with private citizens on Twitter, just as Trump used to do. And if Trump had a thin platform  the border wall, trade with China  Avenatti has a nonexistent one, predicated on nothing so much as his ability to fight, then fight some more, then fight again the next morning and all through the day.

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Much like Trump, Avenatti is a nightmare to custodians of the political establishment, who hope that the current administration is an anomaly, after which Washington will return to the usual way of doing things, not entirely effective but at least predictable. Asked about a potential Avenatti run for the presidency, former Hillary Clinton adviser Philippe Reines expressed what might be called skepticism. Will be like someone throwing lighter fluid on an already roaring fire, just to see it momentarily flare up, he said. And from the ashes, a golden-haired phoenix will rise, to sit in the Oval Office for four more years.

Avenatti, Stormy Danielss lawyer, listens during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on Aug. 2, 2018. (Photo: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

At the same time, the principled days when the Democrats would go high when the Republicans went low seem to be coming to a close. Riffing on that famous Michelle Obama plea for the higher ground, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently said, When they go low, we kick them. Whether in the crotch or the shins, he did not say, though one images it was the former. Joe Biden, the former vice president, has mused about beating Trump up. Not with votes, but with fists.

When they go low, we hit harder, Avenatti said in a recent phone conversation with Yahoo News, when asked what his presidential campaign slogan might be. He speaks entirely in hard, sharp jabs, sentences as lean as the man who utters them. In a half-hour conversation, he manages more bravado than most people will muster in a lifetime. He never jokes, or smiles. He seems intensely focused, but also angry and perturbed. To be fair, many liberals are angry and perturbed in 2018. Not all of them are focused.

Fighting, however, isnt the same thing as winning. Last week, a Los Angeles judge dismissed Cliffords defamation suit against Trump. To celebrate his victory, Trump called her horseface on Twitter. Clifford shot back by suggesting that the president was inauspiciously endowed. Avenatti, for his part, labeled the president in a tweet of his own a disgusting misogynist and an embarrassment to the United States.

It made for great theater, but depressing politics. And though Avenatti was the underdog, he appeared, judging by coverage of the skirmish, to reap none of the sympathy an underdog can generally expect. He has championed Clifford, yes, but it has also sometimes seemed that she has been the pawn of Avenattis own political ambitions.

And then theres Julie Swetnick, another woman whom Avenatti vowed very publicly to defend, in a way that was clearly intended to dramatically raise his own profile with the Democratic base. In September, two women  Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez  accused then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Kavanaughs nomination, which had until then been largely uneventful, turned into a pitched political battle, a referendum on Trumpism and #MeToo, on whether one believed women or didnt.

It was then, when Kavanaugh was dominating the news, that Avenatti introduced an accuser of his own. In an affidavit made public in a tweet  a classic Trump maneuver  a Washington-area woman named Julie Swetnick claimed that, as a college student in suburban Maryland in the 1980s, she went to high school parties at which she witnessed Brett Kavanaugh consistently engage in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels, left, speaks as Avenatti listens outside federal court on April 16, 2018, in New York. (Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)

Of the three main Kavanaugh accusers, Swetnick proved the most problematic, even to those who believed Ramirez and Ford. Her story has not been corroborated, except by an anonymous witness whose affidavit was also released by Avenatti (he declined to make either Swetnick nor that witness available for an interview). And some of what news organizations unearthed about Swetnicks past seemed to call her credibility into question.

But the most damning evidence against her was, to some, her choice of legal representation. If the Ford and Ramirez allegations sent the Republicans into despair, the Swetnick allegations had the opposite effect. If Republicans bail out on this good man, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., because of the smears and character assassination perpetuated by Michael Avenatti, we deserve our fate.

Avenatti became a symbol of Democrats zeal to take down Kavanaugh, an effort Republicans saw as rotted through with self-promotion and dishonesty. On Sept. 27, when both Ford and Kavanaugh testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans in their statements made reference to porn star lawyers (Orrin Hatch, R-Utah) and Stormy Danielss lawyer (John Cornyn, R-Texas, on four occasions). Afraid to go after Ford, they went after Swetnick instead. Maybe it wasnt fair, but it worked. A week later, Kavanaugh was confirmed.

[Mitch] McConnell and [Chuck] Grassley should write him an in-kind contribution for his work, one Republican staffer closely involved in the nomination fight told Yahoo News, referring to the Senate majority leader and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, both Republicans. I dont know anybody in the Democratic Party who thought that was helpful. Him getting involved made it more of a circus than it already was.

Avenatti does not exactly see it that way. Im not some ambulance chaser, he says, boasting that he has won over $1 billion in verdicts (Avenatti, like Trump, was a transfer to the University of Pennsylvania; his law degree is from George Washington University). He says that Swetnick is exploring her options, though he doesnt say what those options are.

Avenatti thinks he is equipped to make an assault on the gates around 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. better than the rest. Most of the Democrats that are considering running are too gentle to beat Donald Trump, he says. In recent weeks, he has criticized Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, two potential primary challengers. Both abstained from returning fire, but you have to wonder how long that will last. As the Republicans learned in 2015, a pest ignored will not slink away on his own.

Others are happy to make the case against Avenatti. S.E. Cupp, a conservative commentator who is often critical of Trump, tweeted in early October that Avenatti was a carnival barker who should be disavowed by every Democrat running for election anywhere. Avenatti called her a hack, though perhaps he was secretly pleased with the term she used, carnival barker, with which Candidate Trump was frequently derided and dismissed.

The remarkable thing about the nascent Avenatti candidacy is that it has almost nothing to do with policy. There is a 20-point platform of basic Democratic principles: Climate change is an urgent threat.  Our criminal justice system needs reform. If there are substantive differences from what Hillary Clinton proposed in her own presidential campaign, they are not readily apparent. Clinton was all policy, which sometimes made it seem that she was running for the Brookings Institution, not the White House. Avenatti, on the other hand, makes Genghis Khan look timid. His political action committee, announced in August, is called Fight PAC, as in Fight Back. That is roughly as subtle as he gets.

Avenatti, left, takes a selfie with Mike Munhall of Bennington after speaking at the Hillsborough County Democrats Summer Picnic fundraiser in Greenfield, N.H., on Aug. 19, 2018. (Photo: Cheryl Senter/AP)

Sometimes, Avenattis bellicosity tips over into the ridiculous. At a recent event held by Vanity Fair, Avenatti challenged Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son, to a mixed martial arts fight. That the proceeds would presumably go to charity appeared to be lost on those who saw the challenge as a sign of how utterly debased American political discourse had become. A person close to Trump Jr. laughed the whole affair off, calling Avenatti a sad, sad man.

This person, who is close to Trump Jr., had a lot to say about Avenatti. Regrettably, there is space for only some of it here: While his supporters and much of the media like to call him the Democrat version of President Trump, the truth is he is more like the Democrat version of Herman Cain  a reference to the pizza magnate who briefly enthralled the Republican base in 2012 with his 9-9-9 tax plan before fading into obscurity  someone with a modicum of celebrity, who will spend a few weeks leading the Democrat primary field, before spectacularly crashing and burning in the most embarrassing fashion imaginable.

Avenatti says he is serious about the fight, but that it probably wont happen because, he predicts, Trump Jr. will soon be indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been investigating the Trump presidential campaigns potential ties to Russia. He also dismisses allegations that he is sullying what small patch of decency remains in our public square. I think weve already eroded civility, he says. Thats true. Also true: You have plenty of time to bemoan the loss of civility when you have power neither on Pennsylvania Avenue nor on Capitol Hill.

So can Avenatti lead the Democrats out of the wilderness? Its unlikely, but it was also unlikely that a politically inexperienced reality TV star defeated more than a dozen Republican challengers before felling the many-headed Clinton beast. Theres anger and then theres anger, says Larry Sabato, the veteran University of Virginia pollster (the emphasis is his). A lot of Dems want the latter. He thinks that Avenatti could outlast his Democratic opponents the way Jimmy Carter did in his successful 1976 primary campaign. Sabatos praise for Avenatti is, well, not exactly praise: Hes mean as a snake.

Avenatti will take it. He wants to lead the Democrats to victory, but it will have to be entirely on his terms. And it certainly wont be on the high road.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:(WASHINGTON)  President Donald Trump says the U.S. is asking Turkey for audio and video relating to missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi if it exists.

The president on Wednesday called Saudi Arabia an important ally, noting it is an important customer for U.S. military exports.

Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudis Istanbul consulate, which Saudi officials have denied.

U.S. officials say they are taking Khashoggis disappearance seriously, but Trump says he has not sent the FBI, stressing that he was not American citizen.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Trump warned against a rush to judgment, comparing condemnation of Saudi Arabia to the allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.President Trump has threatened to close the US border with Mexico (PA)

Donald Trump has threatened to send the US military to close the border with Mexico in angry early-morning tweets.

Trump also vowed to stop aid to Central American countries if a large number of migrants  or as the president called it, an onslaught  from Honduras is not stopped before they reach the US.

He even threatened that the migrant issue could undermine the recently re-worked trade deal between the US, Mexico and Canada.

In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER! he wrote in one tweet.

He added in another message: The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border.

.In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

.The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

His comments came as it was reported some 2,000 people had fled Honduras and were making their way north to try and get into the US.

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The group has been dubbed the march of the migrants.

Those fleeing Honduras say they are doing so because of the chronic violence in the country.

One  Carolina Aguilar  told reporters at the weekend that gangs had killed her husband earlier this year and she was leaving the country with her two daughters.

Protestors in Florida against Donald Trumps immigration policies (PA)

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MORE: Brexit: Most Tory Leave voters believe Britain will exit the EU with a deal in place

He said many criminals were coming into the US from Central America.

Trumps tweet messages may be about neighbouring countries but may be also destined for domestic audiences.

He also used the tweets to attack the Democrats.

He has urged the Republicans to make immigration a central issue of important Congressional elections which take place in the US next month.

The president famously proposed building a border wall when running for the presidency and has since threatened to shut down the government if he does not get his estimated $23 billion for the barrier.New York (AFP) - The prosecution has admitted to a new embarrassing error in the Harvey Weinstein case, saying a police detective told one of the disgraced Hollywood producer's accusers to delete from her phone anything she wanted to keep private.

In a letter to Weinstein's attorney dated Tuesday, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon acknowledged that the lead detective had made the recommendation to one of two women accusing Weinstein in the case, in which he faces charges of rape and a forced oral sex act.

"My office had asked Complainant 2 to produce any and all cell phones that she might have used during the time she interacted with the defendant," the letter said.

But the detective told her she "should delete anything she did not want anyone to see before providing the phones to our office."

Illuzi-Orbon says the woman ultimately handed over the phones "without any deletions," but the admission further weakens the prosecution's case.

"This new development even further undermines the integrity of an already deeply flawed indictment of Mr Weinstein," his lawyer Ben Brafman was quoted by a spokeswoman as saying.

The lawyer requested in August for the whole case to be thrown out and is awaiting a decision of the judge. The next hearing is scheduled for December 20.

The New York Police Department said "the evidence against Mr Weinstein is compelling and strong," according to a statement published in The Los Angeles Times.

"The NYPD will continue its work with the prosecution to deliver justice for the courageous survivors who have bravely come forward."

Weinstein, an international pariah after being accused by more than 80 women of sexual misconduct, is out on a $1 million bail and denies any non-consensual sex.

One of six sexual assault allegations against Weinstein thrown out earlier this month in a victory for the defense.

A letter from prosecutors, subsequently unsealed by the judge, revealed credibility issues and seemed to suggest that Lucia Evans, an aspiring actress in 2004, may have performed oral sex on Weinstein of her own volition, in the hope of obtaining an acting part.

The document also referenced possible police misconduct, after a detective failed to turn over details from a witness interview, and a draft email from Evans to her husband that exposed further inconsistencies in her account.Mourners attended a prayer service for the Kerch polytechnic vocational school attack victims - TASS

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the mass school shooting in Crimea a day before was the result of "globalisation" and the continuation of an American trend.

"It's a result of globalisation. On social media, on the internet, we see that there is a whole community that has been created. Everything started with the tragic events in schools in the US," he said at a forum in Sochi.

He said unstable young people were creating "fake heroes for themselves" and "reaching out for a surrogate for heroism" in the absence of the real thing.

"We're not creating healthy (internet) content for young people... which leads to tragedies of this kind," he said.

"But there is a place for real heroism in today's life," he said.

CCTV footage shows Vladislav Roslyakov putting firearm shells into a backpack at an arms shop several days before the attack Credit: REUTERS

An 18-year-old identified as Vladislav Roslyakov on Wednesday killed at least 20 students at a college in the Moscow-annexed peninsula before killing himself.

More than 40 others were injured in what local press dubbed "Russia's Columbine", a reference to a 1999 US high school massacre.

Authorities said they were working to establish the motive for the attack.

An ex-girlfriend told Russian state media Roslyakov had spoken to her about taking revenge for bullying at the school.

The head of Crimea said on Thursday the shooter couldn't have organised the attack alone and investigators are looking into "who prepared him for this crime".

Russian state television has suggested Ukrainian agents were to blame and discussed his mother's membership in the Jehovah's Witnesses "sect".

The shooting is the latest in half a dozen school attacks in Russia this year, although the previous incidents involved knives and traumatic pistols rather than high-powered firearms.

Several of the attacks were inspired by the Columbine high school massacre in Colorado in 1999. The shooter in Crimea wore a white t-shirt that seemed to resemble that worn by one of the Columbine shooters.

Also on Thursday, Mr Putin's spokesman called the incident part of a dangerous trend.SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and had executed some of them and promised to kill more. Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals, adding that Islamic State was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces. Putin did not specify what the militants' demands were. "They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day. The day before yesterday they executed 10 people," Putin told the Valdai discussion forum in Sochi. The TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that Islamic State militants had taken around 700 hostages in Syria's Deir-al Zor province after attacking a refugee camp in an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces on Oct. 13. TASS said the militants had kidnapped around 130 families and taken them to the city of Hajin. In Washington, the U.S. military cast doubt on Putin's claims. "While we have confirmed that there was an attack on an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near (Deir-al Zor) last week, we have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin and we are skeptical of its accuracy," Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. "We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp," Robertson added. (Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Sochi; Additional reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow and Idrees Ali in Washington.; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn and James Dalgleish)Mexico Beach, Fla. Bela (L) and Jaques Sebastiao begin the process of cleaning up their home after it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael, on Oct. 17, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Missing relatives and worries that looters are just outside the door. Dirty clothes. Hours-long lines for gasoline, insurance adjusters, food and water. No power, no air conditioning, no schools, no information and little real improvement in sight.

Daily life is a series of fears and frustrations, both large and small, for thousands of people living on the edge, more than a week after Hurricane Michael flattened thousands of square miles in the hurricane zone of the Florida Panhandle.

With power still out in much of the Panhandle and thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged by Michael, almost nothing is normal. Even simple tasks are difficult or impossible.

Driving times are doubled or tripled because roads are clogged with police and fire vehicles, utility trucks, returning residents and people seeking help. Lines are long outside a discount store where more than two dozen insurance, financial services and cellphone companies have set up in a temporary village of open-sided tents erected on asphalt.

Unseasonably warm temperatures in the 80s are adding to the misery because so few people can cool down with air conditioning. Bottled water is plentiful at roadside aid stations; ice is another matter.

Spotty cellphone service leaves those most vulnerable with little information to help them get by. Residents in Panama City eagerly ask for information about what happened 20 miles away in devastated Mexico Beach, and for tips on finding pharmacies, coin-operated laundries and stores that might sell batteries to power flashlights with fading beams. (AP)

See more news-related photo galleries and follow Yahoo News Photo on Twitter and Tumblr.Kigali (AFP) - Rwandan President Paul Kagame carried out a major ministerial reshuffle on Thursday, following the voluntary departure of foreign minister Louise Mushikiwabo, notably removing his influential defence minister from the post.

The resignation of Mushikiwabo, who was last week chosen to head the world organisation of French-speaking nations(OIF), came as no surprise as the 57-year-old had visited dozens of countries to campaign for support and received the backing of the African Union as well as the crucial support of France.

She is replaced by seasoned politician, Richard Sezibera, a fluent English and French speaker who previously served as Secretary-General of the East African Community (EAC) bloc, and also did a stint as health minister.

More unexpected was the removal of defence minister James Kabarebe, who had served in the position since 2010, and is shuffled into a new post as presidential advisor on security.

He is one of seven officials close to Kagame charged in France over a missile attack on a plane which killed then-president Juvenal Habyarimana and is deemed to have sparked Rwanda's 1994 genocide which left 800,000 people dead, most of them from the Tutsi minority, according to the United Nations.

No reason was given for removing Kabarebe from the defence portfolio but his departure is seen as a significant move towards the normalisation of Rwanda's relations with neighbouring Uganda, which have been frosty for several years.

Kigali accuses Kampala of illegally arresting Rwandans in Uganda and of harbouring dissidents.

Uganda for its part accuses Rwanda of conducting espionage in Uganda and infiltrating its security bodies.

In June, at the height of these tensions, Kabarebe accused Uganda of illegally arresting and torturing Rwandans.

He also openly accused Uganda of being jealous of Rwandas development and warned Rwandan citizens against scavenging for jobs in Uganda.

Kabarebe is replaced at the defence ministry by General Albert Murasira, who came through the ranks of Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front (FPR) which in 1994 toppled the regime and ended the genocide.On Wednesdays Full Frontal, Samantha Bee accused the Republican Party of widespread voter suppression, highlighting states like North Dakota and Georgia, where controversial laws could stifle key demographics and ultimately swing elections for the GOP. The vote hasnt been this suppressed since Blake Shelton won [Peoples] Sexiest Man Alive,' the comedian cracked, and you know they only counted his vote.

Bee opened with a segment on North Dakota, detailing a law that requires voters to provide a form of legal ID that includes a street address. Many citizens who live on reservations or in rural areas use P.O. boxes., and the law curiously passed after Senator Heidi Heitkamp was elected as the only state-wide Democratic office-holder in 2012.

Heitkamp won her race by around 3,000 votes, and her victory was widely credited to Native American voters, Bee said. This new law affects 5,000 Native American voters with almost surgical precision, taking advantage of the fact that many residents of reservations dont have individual street addresses. In order to get an address, they would have to call their 911 coordinator (whose phone number is not 911), ask to have an address assigned, request a letter confirming the address is their address and obtain that letter from a different agency  we think. We called 911 coordinators in North Dakota, and even they werent sure how this is supposed to work, probably because its not supposed to.

The host also examined the Georgia gubernatorial race between Democrat Stacey Abrams, the first African-American woman to be nominated for governor by a major political party, and Republican Brian Kemp, who has served as Georgias secretary of state since 2010.

Kemp got a potential boost fromhimself, Bee said. Hes the states secretary of state overseeing his own gubernatorial election. Hes like a dog carrying his own leash  if the dog was secretary of state in Georgia.

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Georgia put a hold on over 53,000 voter registration applications for failing to meet exact match criteria, which allows the state to void registrations that are a single letter, or even a hyphen, off from the voters ID. Nearly 70 percent of those applications belong to African-Americans.

Thats fuckin racist, Bee said. And, she added, it fits with the GOPs current political strategy.

Republicans are getting more creative and more shameless about their attempts to block the vote because they know theyre not popular enough to win without cheating, she said. They truly are the Blake Shelton of political parties. I mean, hes not even the sexiest man on The Voice!  Voting shouldnt be a privilege, but as long as it is, if you can, better fuckin use it and help other, less privileged people do it too.Dubai (AFP) - The Al-Saud dynasty, which has ruled Saudi Arabia since the early 20th century, has found itself embroiled in one of its worst international crises since the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi journalist -- a critic of the ultra-conservative kingdom -- was last seen entering his country's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of a state-sponsored killing, but Riyadh denies the allegations.

Here is a look at the ruling family and the system of succession.

- Who are the Al-Saud? -

The Al-Saud trace their origins back to the 1700s, when Saud bin Mohammed reigned as a local sheikh in the central Arabian peninsula, which would two centuries later be the birthplace of Saudi Arabia -- named after the family.

His son, Mohammed, allied himself in 1744 with a fiery cleric, Mohammed bin Abdul Wahhab, who advocated a return to purist Islam and spread the doctrine through power of the sword.

Mohammed's descendants lost control to Ottoman forces in 1818, but six years later the Al-Saud family retook the desert seat of Riyadh. The second state lasted until 1891 and ended at the hands of Al-Rasheed from the Shammar tribe.

Deposed ruler Prince Abdulrahman al-Saud fled to Kuwait, after which the British helped his son Abdul Aziz return and recapture Riyadh 11 years later.

By 1902, Abdul Aziz bin al-Saud had expelled the rival Al-Rasheed clan from Riyadh, at the heart of the peninsula, and set about consolidating his power to form Saudi Arabia.

He unified the territories after a series of tribal wars.

He took control of the Gulf coast in 1913, expelled Hussein, the Hashemite sharif of Islam's holy city of Mecca, by 1925 and in 1932 declared himself king of Saudi Arabia.

Oil was struck in 1938 in the strictly conservative Wahhabi kingdom, transforming it into one of the world's richest countries.

- How does succession work? -

Under Saudi law, the monarch must be a descendant of Abdul Aziz, who died in 1953.

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Since then, the throne has passed laterally from one of his sons to another.

The kingdom has a "Council of Allegiance" to decide on the succession, a committee comprising Abdul Aziz's descendants.

On the death of a king, the committee to formally declare the crown prince as the new ruler.

The new monarch must then propose to the council within 10 days his candidates for the post of crown prince.

The council chooses a crown prince from up to three candidates put forward by the king, but it has the authority to reject them all and put forward its own name.

The king can reject its nominee and the committee then has a month to vote on either the king's candidate and its own.

In essence, the crown prince has usually been selected by informal consensus within the royal family.

- From father to son? -

Abdul Aziz had 45 sons on record. King Saud succeeded the kingdom's founder upon his death in 1953.

But Faisal took over on November 2, 1964 after his half-brother was deposed on charges of corruption and incompetence. Saud died in exile in 1969.

The architect of Saudi Arabia's modernisation, Faisal was assassinated by a nephew in March 1975.

Khaled, another half-brother, took over and ruled until his death in 1982, when Fahd became king, appointing Abdullah, two years his junior, as crown prince.

After Fahd suffered a stroke in November 1995, Abdullah his half-brother acceded to the throne.

Salman rose to the throne in January 2015 after Abdullah's death, becoming the last of the bloc of brothers known as the Sudairi Seven, after their mother Hassa bint Ahmed al-Sudairi, to rule.

- How have things changed? -

Salman's generation has wielded power for more than 60 years through a lateral succession of brothers and half-brothers, creating a delicate balancing act between several important family lines.

But Salman made key changes in the order of succession. His son, 33-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, was promoted to defence minister, before becoming crown prince in June 2017.

The heir apparent meteoric rise has seemed almost Shakespearean in its aggression and calculation. In June, he edged out a 58-year-old cousin, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, to become heir to the throne.

If he succeeds as king, foreign diplomats predict MBS could well be in control of Saudi Arabia for at least half a century.

- What impact the Khashoggi crisis? -

The potential fallout from the Khashoggi incident is hard to predict.

The crown prince's foreign policy including a ruinous war in Yemen and centralisation of power has triggered opposition towards him from within the royal family, the business elite and the religious establishment.

"Opposition to the young crown prince in the ruling family will most likely grow," warns Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy.

"There are elements of the Al-Saud family that are convinced that the prince is reckless and compromising the security of the country," it added.

A family coup has been rumoured before and would not be unprecedented in Saudi Arabia, says research firm Capital Economics.

Officially, the 82-year-old monarch can change the youthful crown prince, but some analysts say that possibility appears remote.Seth Rogen has posted a behind-the-scenes gawp at Disneys live-action Lion King remake.

Well, we say its live-action, but as there are no human characters in it, the first picture is basically a bunch of dudes in comfortable clothes fresh from recording their voiceover parts for the photorealistic animals thatll populate the movie.

In the shot, we have Rogen (Pumba), Donald Glover (Simba) and Billy Eichner (Timon), as well as director Jon Favreau.

Iron Man / Jungle Book director Favreau has spoken before about how important it is for him to honour the original in his remake.

The Jungle Book was 50 years ago, but The Lion King was only 20. It came out in the age of video where people were watching it over and over again, Favreau said. So I have to prioritize that when Im directing. I have to try and honor what was there. In some ways its like bringing a Broadway play back because there are certain expectations.

I tried to keep it on the edge of being real, Favreau said. The Lion King, people really know it and they grew up with it. They have an emotional impact. I think memory is like a compression software; you cant remember everything so you prioritize whats important.

I think, What do I remember about The Lion King? What do I remember about The Jungle Book? I remember Mowgli and the snake; the snakes eyes; Baloo and the river. Those are the images we definitely need in there [the new live-action movie]. Then you look back at it and you realize heres things you dont remember, which you can explore a little more.

The Lion King is set for release by Disney in 2019.





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Every live-action Disney remake in development

Wreck-It Ralph 2 accused of whitewashing Disneys Princess TianaBy Fathin Ungku and John Geddie SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore charged a citizen, a North Korean and three companies in court on Thursday with supplying prohibited luxury items to North Korea, the latest example of sanctions breaches in the wealthy Asian city-state. The multiple charges against Singaporean Chong Hock Yen, 58, and North Korean Li Hyin, 30, span over six years and involve hundreds of thousands of dollars of perfumes, wines and watches in breach of U.N. sanctions, court documents seen by Reuters show. Also charged on Thursday were three Singapore-registered companies linked to Chong - SCN Singapore Pte Ltd, Laurich International Pte Ltd and Sindok Trading Pte Ltd. "Singapore takes its obligations under the United Nations Security Council resolutions seriously and implements them fully and faithfully," Singapore's police said in a statement. "We will not hesitate to take action against any individual or entity that breaches our laws and regulations." Reuters could not immediately reach Chong, Li or officials of the companies to seek comment. In July, a Singapore company official, Ng Kheng Wah, was charged for supplying luxury goods to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. Ng was also named in some of the charge sheets in Thursday's case, as was a firm called T Specialist, that also featured in the July case. Back in 2016, Singapore fined a shipping company based in the city state, Chinpo Shipping Company (Private) Ltd, S$180,000 for facilitating a shipment of arms to North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions. Charge sheets show Chong is alleged to have helped three companies supply items such as perfumes and cosmetics, jewelry, watches with precious metals and musical instruments to North Korea 43 times between 27 December 2010 and 18 November 2016. The charges against him relate to transactions totaling nearly S$600,000 ($435,666.57). Li is alleged have helped two firms supply similar items, as well as wines and spirits, to North Korea, in 14 instances between 17 September 2014 and 5 January 2017 in deals worth more than S$400,000 ($290,444.38). Singapore, the site of an unprecedented summit this year between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, says it complies with U.N. Security Council resolutions imposed on the North to persuade it to halt its nuclear and ballistic missile program. Singapore suspended trade relations with North Korea in November last year, when the United Nations toughened sanctions over its weapons program. (Reporting by Fathin Ungku and John Geddie; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Neil Fullick)Abdul Jabar Qahraman became the 10th election candidate to die ahead of Saturday's polls - Tolo News

A former Communist general turned prominent politician has been killed by a Taliban bomb hidden in his sofa as he campaigned for this weekend's parliamentary election in Afghanistan.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman became the 10th election candidate to die ahead of Saturday's polls when the blast tore through his campaign office.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which also killed three of Mr Qahraman's companions in the capital of Helmand province.

A Taliban statement said they had killed a renowned communist".

The dead candidate had been a key figure in the dying days of Afghanistan's Soviet-backed government, holding military power in the south of the country until he fled into exile in 1993.

After the fall of the Taliban he return to Afghanistan and was elected as an MP, recently advising President Ashraf Ghani on security in the south of the country.

Election posters have begun to cover Kabul ahead of the October 20 parliamentary polls Credit: Omar Sobhani/Reuters

His assassination came amid final preparations for Saturday's poll where nearly nine million registered voters have a chance to choose MPs for 250 seats in parliament.

The Taliban have ordered a boycott of the election and threatened to attack anyone involved in what they call a bogus American vote.

Mr Ghani said that such brutal acts of the terrorists and their supporters cannot weaken people's trust in the peaceful and democratic processes.

Seven other people were wounded in the blast, the Helmand governor's spokesman told Tolo News, adding that the bomb had been placed in Mr Qahraman's sofa.

The death toll in the country's long-running insurgency has escalated in recent months, with concerns Saturday's polling will be a flashpoint for Taliban violence.

Last week 22 people were killed in an explosion at an election rally for a woman candidate in the north eastern province of Takhar, while dozens of police have been killed or wounded in attacks on checkpoints this week.

The election is already three years late, having been postponed by political disputes and rows over electoral reforms.

Saturday's polling is a test of Afghan government authority as Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress in America's longest war.By Polina Nikolskaya and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 19 people were killed and dozens injured at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea on Wednesday when a student went through the building shooting at fellow pupils before killing himself, Russian law enforcement officials said. Eighteen-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov turned up at the college in the city of Kerch on Wednesday afternoon carrying a firearm and then began shooting, investigators said. His body was later found in the college with what they said were self-inflicted gunshot wounds. There were no immediate clues as to his motive in mounting such an attack, which recalled similar shooting sprees carried out by students in U.S. schools. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 , prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula. Many of the victims from Wednesday's attacks were teenage students who suffered shrapnel and bullet wounds. Pupils and staff described scenes of mayhem as panicked pupils tried to flee the building. They said the attack had started with an explosion, followed by more blasts, and a hail of gunfire. Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the southern Russian resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, declared a moment's silence for the victims. "This is a clearly a crime," he said. "The motives will be carefully investigated." "CHILDREN'S BODIES EVERYWHERE" The director of the school, Olga Grebennikova, described the scene that she encountered when she entered the college building after the attack. "There are bodies everywhere, children's bodies everywhere. It was a real act of terrorism. They burst in five or 10 minutes after I'd left. They blew up everything in the hall, glass was flying," Grebennikova told Crimean media outlets. "They then ran about throwing some kind of explosives around, and then ran around the second floor with guns, opened the office doors, and killed anyone they could find." Soon after the attack, Russian officials said they were investigating the possibility that it was terrorism. Troops with armored personnel carriers were sent to the scene. Local parents were told to collect their children from the city's schools and kindergartens for their safety. However, the Investigative Committee, the state body that investigates major crimes, said later that it was re-classifying the case from terrorism to mass murder. An employee at Kerch's hospital said dozens of people were being treated for their injuries in the emergency room and in the operating theater. Anastasia Yenshina, a 15-year-old student at the college, said she was in a toilet on the ground floor of the building with some friends when she heard the sound of an explosion. Officials said an explosive device had gone off in the school's cafeteria during the attack and that a second device had been found among Roslyakov's belongings and defused. "I came out and there was dust and smoke, I couldn't understand, I'd been deafened," Yenshina told Reuters. "Everyone started running. I did not know what to do. Then they told us to leave the building through the gymnasium." "Everyone ran there... I saw a girl lying there. There was a child who was being helped to walk because he could not move on his own. The wall was covered in blood. Then everyone started to climb over the fence, and we could still hear explosions. Everyone was scared. People were crying." Photographs from the scene of the blast showed that the ground floor windows of the two-story building had been blown out, and that debris was lying on the floor outside. Emergency services teams could be seen in the photographs carrying wounded people from the building on makeshift stretchers and loading them on to buses and ambulances. A second pupil at the college, who gave his name as Sergei, said he had taken a few steps out of the building into the street when the first blast went off. He was hit by debris from the blast and injured in the leg. Sergei, 15, told Reuters he ran to another building, but said he could hear more explosions going off every few seconds. He took cover and after the attack was over, he was taken to hospital in an ambulance. "I arrived at the hospital, the scene there was awful. They're bringing in people all covered in blood, some with arms missing, some with legs missing." (Reporting by Moscow newsroom; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Gareth Jones)By Phil Stewart SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counterpart on Thursday that the world's two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties so as to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict. Mattis saw firsthand last month how mounting Sino-U.S. friction can undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for him to travel to China in October to meet Defense Minister Wei Fenghe. It was retaliation for recent U.S. sanctions, one of a growing number of flashpoints in relations between Washington and Beijing that include a bitter trade war, Taiwan and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea. Mattis and Wei made no remarks as they shook hands at the start of their talks on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Singapore. The meeting ended without any public statements. Randall Schriver, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said Mattis and Wei largely restated differing views on thorny security disputes but agreed on the need for durable ties. "Both acknowledged that the meeting itself was significant and that high-level communication can help," Schriver said. "So I think it was productive in that regard." Schriver said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to helping reduce the chances of a devastating conflict. "Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interests - we need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes, it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic," Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis. Wei has a standing invitation to visit the United States but no date was agreed for his trip, Schriver said. MANAGING CRISES Military-to-military ties have long been one of the more fragile parts of the overall U.S.-China relationship, with Beijing limiting contacts when tensions run high. That has been a source of major concern for years among U.S. officials, who fear an accidental collision or mishap could quickly escalate. "What we want in terms of stability are regular interactions at senior levels so we have a good understanding of one another's intentions, that we have confidence-building measures that will help us prevent an unintended accident or incident," Schriver said. "And, should one occur, that we have the ability to manage that, so it doesn't worsen." China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on its military for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped-up U.S. support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory. In a recent reminder of the risks amid rising tensions, the Pentagon this month accused China of an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea that brought a Chinese ship dangerously close to a U.S. Navy destroyer in international waters. Mattis, speaking to reporters as he flew to Asia this week, rejected Chinese claims that the United States was acting aggressively and pointed the finger at Beijing. "When the Chinese ships are putting bumpers over the side ... You don't do that when you're out in the middle of the ocean, unless you're intending to run into something," Mattis said. But tensions between the United States and China have already extended well beyond naval maneuvers and even the bitter trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump last month accused China of seeking to meddle in Nov. 6 congressional elections, a charge almost immediately rejected by Beijing. Vice President Mike Pence, in what was billed as a major policy address, renewed that and other accusations this month and added that Chinese security agencies had masterminded the "wholesale theft of American technology," including military blueprints. The Pentagon's top concerns have been China's rapid military modernization and simultaneous creation of military outposts in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway vital for international trade. The Pentagon withdrew an invitation to China to a multinational exercise earlier this year in protest. China expressed disappointment to Mattis on Thursday over that decision, Schriver said. "Minister Wei said that he did hope that there'd be future opportunities. And if the relationship progresses that way, I'm sure we'll entertain it," Schriver said. "But we're not there right now." (Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)Military personnel constructed shelters at Floridas Tyndall Air Force Base on Tuesday, October 16, after Hurricane Michael inflicted what was described as catastrophic damage to the base the week before.

Base officials said on Tuesday that residents, including military members, civilians, employees, and their families, were being allowed return to check their property during daytime hours, from Wednesday to Sunday. They stressed that the base and surrounding area remained dangerous, and that power lines and debris were still being cleared up.

Chaplains, mental health experts, first sergeants, and other support agencies were preparing to receive those returning to their homes on Wednesday, officials said. Credit: US Air Force via StoryfulTexas faces the threat of further flooding after days of heavy rain - with at least one person having died thanks to the downpour.

A state of emergency has already been declared in 18 counties with the flooding having led to the collapse of a bridge.

Within a span of 24 hours, the Llano River, northwest of Austin, Texas, rose from 10 feet to nearly 40 feet, just shy of an all-time record. Now, its back down to 15 feet. Texas governor Greg Abbott had ordered evacuations in the regions near the river, and crews recovered one unidentified body from a flooded lake.

The rain is expected to continue into Thursday and Friday.

Earlier this month, four people in west Texas also died after the flooding of the Llano River. Three of those bodies have been recovered. On Tuesday, emergency crews reported 62 vehicle collisions that resulted in injuries over the course of only four hours.

The raging waters on the Llano river crashed into the FM 2900 bridge near Kingsland, Texas, causing it to collapse. There are no reported injuries or deaths from the incident.

In response to the flooding, emergency personnel blocked access to 150 low-water crossings, several school districts closed, and emergency workers had to rescue citizens whose homes had flooded. Some evacuees had to take up shelter at a nearby middle school, Click2Houston reports.

September 2018 was among the wettest that the state of Texas has experienced in more than 100 years, according to records kept since 1895. This year, San Antonio and Dallas experienced their wettest September ever recorded. Sixteen US cities had their wettest Septembers ever in 2018. Many more had their hottest September ever.

Meteorologists predict that the heavy rains will let up this weekend. However, they also predict more rain in the coming months, and the Farmers Almanac suggests that Texas will have stinging cold, average precipitation this coming winterPhoto: WikiCommons/IM3847

Renowned neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart has revealed her top strategy for surviving a stressful work environment during an interview on Yahoo Finance Presents: Its A Jungle Out There.

The Jungle podcast is a new 10-part series that unpacks productivity lessons from nature, with Dr Swart explaining crab mentality in episode one.

This isnt just all about leadership and business, its about primal human behaviours and the crab is a really good analogy for not being able to let go and getting locked into a certain behaviour or way of thinking and once youre on that path its sort of like a failure to admit to behave that way and you should go and behave differently, said Dr Swart, who is also a medical doctor, faculty at MIT Sloan, and award-winning author of Neuroscience for Leadership and The Source: Open Your Mind, Change Your Life.

Crab mentality is a term derived from a pattern of behaviour that has been observed in crabs when theyre trapped in a bucket. Even though any crab would be able to escape in that situation, the group of crabs work to pull that would-be successful crab down. In other words, the group would rather all share a collective demise than let one crab be successful.

The analogy for the workplace is best described as if I cant have it, neither can you. Humans will enact this by trying to reduce the self-confidence of any colleague who achieves success beyond the others, out of spite, envy or resentment  even if it means threatening their own survival.

Also if theres one person whos in a really senior position or a group of people that have allowed a certain culture to flourish, if someone new comes in and tries to change it theres a lot of resistance to that so that person can be easily be ostracised or moved out of the group, said Dr Swart. But it really takes one of the people who have the power and the status or is longstanding in the culture to make it better for all of us to change the status quo.

Story continues

Dr Swart explained that while this type of group behaviour is deep-wired into our brains  even though mutual self-destruction seems against survival instincts  there is neuroscience to show that making sure you eat enough to nourish your brain and not hit a level where you are too hungry, can have a huge effect on decision-making and can even combat the toxic culture that will stress you out.

Food is huge because our brains only weigh 2-3 kilograms and they are a tiny proportion to our bodyweight but our brain uses up 25-30% of what we eat and if youre under stress and youre feeling ostracised, which to our brains which were wired a millennia ago thats a threat to survival, you will be using up more and more of that sugar as soon as you eat it, she said.

Dr Swart outlined that recent studies, including a prominent one involving Israeli judges, showed that the further they got away from eating something, the more likely theyd make racist decisions about who should go on parole.

She says that making sure you have a snack before an important meeting and not skipping a meal before you confront someone about bias can make a huge difference.

If you want to hear the full conversation and how you can combat crab mentality at work, youll find it on Apple, ACast, and Google podcasts. More articles on the subject are on the dedicated Work & Management hub at Yahoo Finance UK.Senior Tories have warned Theresa May that she will never be forgiven by voters if she agrees to extend the Brexit transition period.

Mrs May admitted she is ready to consider pushing back the end date following a crunch Brexit summit yesterday, leaving the UK subject to the blocs rules and obliged to pay in to EU coffers.

Discussing her position at a press conference in Brussels today, the Prime Minister insisted the extension to the implementation period is an option rather than a proposal, in a fudge that is unlikely to assuage the concerns of Eurosceptics.

Also speaking to reporters in Belgium, European Council president Donald Tusk said the EU would be happy to extend the transition timeframe.

Striking a positive note, Mr Tusk said he thought negotiators were getting closer to securing a deal.

In an open letter published this morning, former cabinet ministers Boris Johnson and David Davis called on the PM to deliver the Brexit which people voted for.

Theresa May, pictured with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, indicated she is ready to consider extending Britains transition out of the EU for a further year (Getty)

They wrote: We urge you to make clear that you will not bind the UK into the purgatory of perpetual membership of the EUs customs union, whether by a backstop or any other route.

The group called on Mrs May reject the Northern Irish backstop proposed by the EU and to ditch her own plan for an all-UK version.

The letter was also signed by ex-ministers Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson and Priti Patel, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Conservative European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tories.

Boris Johnson and David Davis warned that voters will not forgive the PM for surrendering to Brussels (Getty)

Mrs May told the European Council she was open to the extension floated by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to give time to resolve the Irish border issue.

The change would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019, and more than five years after the referendum vote to Leave.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said an extension may ultimately stop Brexit from happening (Getty)

Furious Brexiteers said that the move would delay yet further the moment when the UK could sign new trade deals around the world, and would cost taxpayers billions of pounds in additional contributions.

Story continues

Nigel Farage tweeted that the admission meant the UK would never leave the EU, and Tory MP Nadine Dorries repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace Mrs May as leader.

Mrs Mays acceptance of an extension to the transition period will take us to the next general election which may mean we never leave at all.  Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 17, 2018

If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. Its time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader. Ive done my bit. Its time for my colleagues to do theirs. #Brexit  Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 17, 2018

We cannot find the money to fund our front line police properly. We cannot find the 2b for the vulnerable on UC, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit?? This is serious.  Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 17, 2018

So the government is going to propose a 17 billion extension to the transition but refuse a 2 billion bail out of Universal Credit- good luck with that! https://t.co/k7rglLSBGG  Nick Boles MP (@NickBoles) October 17, 2018

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU leaders abandoned plans for a special Brexit summit in November yesterday , after Mr Barnier told them he needed much more time to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

The EU wants Britain to agree that Northern Ireland was stay within the customs union and single market after December 2020 if no other solution can be found to prevent a hard border with Ireland.

Mrs May says she will not agree to this as it would essentially involve creating a border down the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The possible scenarios of how Brexit could play out (PA)

Yesterday EU leaders gave Mrs May 20 minutes to make her pitch before discussing Brexit in her absence over a dinner of turbot cooked in wheat beer.

The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said: Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table and would have to be looked into.

Mrs May initially suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit, to give the UKs authorities and companies time to prepare for the new arrangements.

But she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

The clock is ticking on Britains exit from the EU (PA)

While expressing their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal, a number of EU leaders have said their countries were beginning preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

In a speech to the German parliament before travelling to Brussels, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the possibility of a Brexit deal was still there, but added that Berlin was making plans for a no-deal withdrawal.

And in Paris, Emmanuel Macrons government published details of legislation to authorise preparations for a no-deal Brexit, which could see the restoration of customs checks and health inspections for animals at French ports, and a requirement for Britons to seek visas for stays of three months or more.Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against corruption Wednesday in Haiti, with some even shoving the unpopular president at a public ceremony.

Police fired in the air to get President Jovenel Moise away from a ceremony at which he laid flowers at the tomb of one of the destitute Caribbean country's founding fathers.

People in the crowd threw themselves to the ground as the shots rang out.

Elsewhere, near the presidential palace, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Tempers have been running high for weeks in Haiti, where some accuse the government of doing nothing to fight corruption.

On Wednesday, people demonstrated all over Haiti. In the capital, Port au Prince, burning barricades were set up in the streets.

One particular gripe is the alleged theft of funds from a foundation called Petrocaribe.

It was created by the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to help poor countries of the Americas, among other things by providing them with cut rate oil. Haiti has benefited from it for the past 12 years.

In 2016 and again last year, probes carried out by the Senate concluded that nearly two billion dollars in money from the fund had been embezzled. A dozen former government ministers were implicated but nobody was ever charged.

Since protests began this summer, Haitians have started using the higher figure of 3.8 billion dollars, but this is not the correct amount given by Petrocaribe.

"Our children have nothing to eat. We have nothing to pay for their education. And politicians wasted 3.8 billion dollars that were supposed to be used to develop the country," said one protester, Ronald Saint-Hilaire, in the capital.Afghan General Abdul Raziq poses for a picture during a graduation ceremony at a police training centre in Kandahar province - AFP

A powerful Afghan police general has been assassinated in an insider attack, robbing president Ashraf Ghani of a key security official and threatening his fragile grip on southern Afghanistan.

Gen Abdul Razik was shot dead alongside the Kandahar spy chief and provincial governor shortly after a meeting with the top US military commander in the country.

The Taliban said they were behind the attack which saw one of the provincial governor's bodyguards open fire after a meeting with Gen Scott Miller, the top Nato and US commander in Afghanistan. Gen Miller was unhurt, but two Americans were wounded.

The assassination dealt a severe blow to Mr Ghani's security forces less than 48 hours before he attempts to hold nationwide parliamentary elections against a backdrop of brutal insurgent violence.

Gen Raziq had been the most powerful government figure in southern Afghanistan for much of the past decade, where as Kandahar police chief he had been an aggressive opponent of the Taliban.

A NATO helicopter lands at the Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan Credit: MOHAMMAD ISMAIL/REUTERS

His young age and boyish looks belied a ruthless commander and he was accused of systematic torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances. He denied the accusations.

However Western commanders considered him a bulwark against the encroaching Taliban and one of their most effective partners as he brought a measure of stability to Afghanistan's second city. He estimated he had survived dozens of assassination attempts.

The Taliban named the attacker as Abu Dujana and said: The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along several other officials.

Said Jan Khakrezwal, the head of the provincial council, told Reuters: "Provincial officials including the governor, the police chief and other officials were accompanying the foreign guests to the plane when the gunshots happened."

The shooting wiped out the top of Kandahar's security apparatus at a stroke, also killing the province's intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin and provincial governor Zalmay Wesa.

Story continues

The killings came only a day after a prominent politician, Abdul Jabar Qahraman, became the tenth election candidate to die ahead of Saturday's polls when a Taliban bomb was hidden under his chair.

Graeme Smith, a former UN political analyst in Kabul said: The incident will make the military balance in southern Afghanistan considerably more fragile, as Raziq was often at the forefront of government efforts to slow the Talibans advances.

Saturday will see Afghanistan's only third parliamentary election since the Taliban were ousted. The insurgents have vowed to disrupt what they call a bogus poll.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he would no longer attend an economic summit in Saudi Arabia, days after many other business leaders pulled out of the event amid growing evidence that the countrys officials ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.  Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) October 18, 2018

Several advocacy organizations as well as some lawmakers had called on Mnuchin to withdraw from the event, which is scheduled for later this month.

I dont think we should continue as business as usual until we know exactly whats happened here. ... I dont think he should go, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

Over the last week, a spate of business and media executives, from companies including Viacom, Uber, Ford and JPMorgan Chase, had announced their withdrawal from the Future Investment Initiative conference, scheduled to begin Oct. 23 in Riyadh.

Mnuchin told CNBC on Friday that he still planned to attend but would reconsider if more information comes out about Khashoggis disappearance.

Trump and the White House have faced criticism for not responding forcefully to the disappearance of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and contributor to The Washington Post.

Despite growing evidence that Khashoggi was murdered, Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have accepted the Saudi governments denials of having any involvement in Khashoggis disappearance or knowledge of his whereabouts.

Pompeo cited an ongoing investigation into the situation.

There are lots of stories out there about what happened, and Im going to allow the process to move forward and allow the facts to unfold, and as they unfold, we will make a determination for ourselves about what happened there, based on the facts that are presented, Pompeo told reporters Thursday, after meeting with Trump.

Story continues

This story has been updated with more background about the administrations response to Khashoggis disappearance.

Related Coverage

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Jamie Dimon Joins Growing List Of Business Leaders Skipping Saudi Conference

A History Of Donald Trump Believing Denials -- When They Come From His Allies

How The Khashoggi Scandal Looks When You've Been Bombed And Starved By Saudi Arabia For Years

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized rapidly mounting global condemnation of Saudi Arabia over the mystery of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warning of a rush to judgment and echoing the Saudis' request for patience.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was murdered in the Saudis' Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.

"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."

Trump's remarks were his most robust defense yet of the Saudis, a U.S. ally he has made central to his Mideast agenda. They put the president at odds with other key allies and with some leaders in his Republican Party who have condemned the Saudi leadership for what they say is an obvious role in the case. Trump appeared willing to resist the pressure to follow suit, accepting Saudi denials and their pledge to investigate.

The Oval Office interview came not long after Trump spoke Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He spoke by phone a day earlier with King Salman, and he said both deny any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.

After speaking with the king, Trump floated the idea that "rogue killers" may have been responsible for the disappearance. The president told the AP on Tuesday that that description was informed by his "feeling" from his conversation with Salman and that the king did not use the term.

In Turkey earlier Tuesday, a high-level Turkish official told the AP that police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there.

Story continues

Also Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the king and crown prince in Riyadh and said the Saudis had already started a "serious and credible investigation" and seemed to suggest it could lead to people within the kingdom. The secretary of state noted that the Saudi leaders, while denying knowledge of anything that occurred inside the consulate, had committed to accountability "including for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials."

Pompeo was heading next to Turkey, where officials have accused the Saudis of using a 15-member team to kill Khashoggi inside the consulate.

Trump said he hoped the Saudis' own investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance would be concluded in "less than a week."

In the meantime, there were signs at home that Trump's party was growing uncomfortable with his willingness to defend the Saudis.

In an interview with Fox News, a prominent Trump ally in the Senate called on Saudi Arabia to reject the crown prince, known as MBS, who rose to power last year and has aggressively sought to soften the kingdom's image abroad and attract foreign investment.

"This guy has got to go," said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, turning to speak to the camera. "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who was also a resident of the United States, has been a contributor to The Washington Post and a critic of Saudi leaders, especially Crown Prince Mohammed.

International leaders and business executives are severing or rethinking ties to the Saudi government after Khashoggi's high-profile disappearance. Trump has resisted any action, pointing to huge U.S. weapons deals pending with Saudi Arabia and saying that sanctions could end up hurting the American economy.

He said it was too early to say whether he endorsed other countries' actions. "I have to find out what happened," he said. But his complaint about "guilty until proven innocent" and comparison to the Kavanaugh situation suggested he was giving the Saudis more leeway than other allies.

Khashoggi went to the consulate on Oct. 2 to get documents for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman while his fiancee waited outside. She and Turkish authorities say he never emerged and he has not been heard from since.

Khashoggi, 59, had been living in the U.S. for a year in self-imposed exile and writing columns for the opinion section of the Post.

Trump said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin's trip to attend a Saudi investment conference is still on but could be canceled by Friday depending on what the investigation finds.

"I think we'll also be guided by what other countries are doing," he said.

___

AP Writer Matthew Lee contributed.Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied covering up for ally Saudi Arabia in the suspected murder of a critical journalist, saying that he should know what happened to Jamal Khashoggi within days.

"No not at all, I just want to find out what's happening," Trump told reporters in the White House when asked if his cautious approach to the scandal amounted to a cover-up. "I'm not giving cover at all."

Trump said he would get a "full report" from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his return from meetings with Saudi leaders and then know the truth of what occurred.

"We will probably know that by the end of the week," Trump said.

Trump has appeared to be on the defensive since Turkish sources first accused Saudi agents of killing Khashoggi -- a US resident and Washington Post contributor -- inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Trump says that Saudi Arabia is valued as a historic customer for the US weapons industry. And earlier Wednesday, he told Fox Business that the US also relies on the kingdom in the fight against terrorism.

Khashoggi, a former regime insider who became critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen since he stepped inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to sort out marriage paperwork.

The controversy has blown a massive hole in attempts by Prince Mohammed to promote himself as a modern reformer and led to a spate of cancelations from a major Riyadh investment conference scheduled next week.President Donald Trump likes to boast that hes breaking records with the latest low unemployment figures. Heres another record for his administration: The 2018 federal deficit hit the highest level of the last six years.

The deficit jumped 17 percent (or by $113 billion) to $779 billion at the end of Trumps first fiscal year, according to final figures released Monday by the Treasury Department. Thats mostly due to the massive corporate tax cut that slashed rates from 35 percent to 21 percent, choking revenue for spending, which climbed 3 percent. Much of that was a hike in defense spending and money to pay interest on the climbing federal debt, CNN reported.

The U.S. governments $523 billion in interest payments to service its debt in 2018  the highest ever  was more than the entire economic output of Belgium this year, Bloomberg reported.

Corporate tax collections in the U.S. fell 22 percent, or $76 billion, in the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

The total federal debt  which combines annual deficits  was 78 percent of the nations entire gross domestic product in June. It hasnt been that large a percentage since World War II.

Trump promised the tax cuts would pay for themselves by boosting business, which would produce more taxes. But that hasnt yet happened. The Trump administration estimates that the deficit will increase to $1.09 trillion in the next fiscal year.

The federal government usually increases spending  and deficits  to boost a faltering economy  such as during the 2008 recession triggered by the subprime mortgage and banking crisis. But the economy was already in a strong recovery when Trump moved into the White House, and he still boosted the deficit.

By cutting taxes in 2017 when the economy was already quite strong, Congress and the administration not only missed a golden opportunity to begin to address the fiscal problem, they actually made the problem worse, William Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CBS News.

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The GOP had traditionally been the party that battled for a balanced federal budget.

4 Republican policies led to a $779 billion deficit in 2018:



- Bush Tax Cuts: $488 B

- Trump Tax Cuts: $164 B

- Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: $127 B

- Defense increases since 9/11: $156 B



Without tax cuts for the wealthy and endless wars we would've had a $156 billion SURPLUS.  Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) October 15, 2018

Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.WASHINGTON  As President Donald Trump defends maintaining close ties to Saudi Arabia, he has repeatedly exaggerated  by 700 percent  the value of U.S. weapon sales to Riyadh, yet he has not mentioned the amount of money Saudis have put into his own pocket.

From the first days that Saudi involvement in the disappearance of U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi became clear, Trump has attempted to downplay it based on pending arms sales to the kingdom: $110 billion worth of military, he said again Thursday. Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country, probably the history of the world.

That number, though, is nowhere near accurate. In reality, only $14.5 billion in weapon sales have been approved by the Trump administration and Congress. The remainder is largely aspirational and years away from fruition.

What Trump does not talk about is a different potential explanation for his repeated defenses of Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: The many tens of millions of dollars the royal family and its friends and allies have spent on Trump condominiums and at Trump hotels.

This is a case where conflicts of interest can kill, said Walter Shaub, who resigned as director of the Office of Government Ethics after Trump and White House officials refused to accept his guidance. The autocrats of the world are watching what the United States does next.

Shaub said that if Saudi Arabias ruling family can get away with the alleged murder of a Virginia-based journalist for a major American newspaper for the relatively small price of soliciting Trump properties, other dictators would see it as a green light.

If nothing happens, whats next? An American citizen gets murdered abroad? Dissidents in exile get killed on American soil? Shaub wondered.

The White House on Wednesday referred HuffPosts queries about Trumps personal profits from Saudi leaders to the Trump Organization, his closely held family business. A spokeswoman there did not respond to emails and phone calls, but a National Security Council spokesperson said there was no link between Trumps business interests and actions in the Khashoggi case.

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Trump appeared to try to head off suggestions his personal financial interests are influencing him with a Monday Twitter post: For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!

But that statement ignores the bigger question of how much Saudis have invested in Trump, Shaub said, adding that evidence suggests the answer is quite a bit.

From the sale of his 291-foot yacht to a Saudi prince in 1991, when Trump was facing personal bankruptcy, to the sale of the entire 45th floor of one of his New York City buildings to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the hosting of large entourages of Saudis at his hotels in New York and Chicago over the past year, Shaub said, Trump has more than an incidental relationship with the country and its leaders.

Theyre clearly a valued customer of his, Shaub said. Possibly his most valued customer.

It was a bald-faced lie even by Trumps standards, said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and a National Security Council spokesman under President Barack Obama. Further, hes even been clear that this massive income colors how he thinks of the country, asking rhetorically why wouldnt he like the Saudis, given how much money they direct his way.

Tim OBrien, the author of a 2005 book about Trumps finances and wealth who on Wednesday published a detailed recitation of Trumps Saudi connections, said it is clear why Trump wants to protect the Saudi royal family, and it has nothing to do with arms sales.

I think hes loyal to them because he cares about them as a business opportunity, OBrien said. And he doesnt care at all about human rights abuses or murdering journalists.

How much money Trump is personally making from the Saudi government and Saudi nationals cannot be known with precision because Trump has refused to release his tax returns  even though he once promised he would. His failure to do so broke established precedent followed by every major candidate since the Watergate era.

Shaub said those tax filings would let Americans see who is buying his properties, who is leasing his name, how much they are paying him, who his business partners are for various projects and how much they are investing, among many other details.

None of that information is divulged in the cursory financial disclosure form Trump files annually, Shaub said. The disclosure form was never intended to cover this situation.

Multiple reports in the past day say that Turkish officials have audio of Khashoggi being tortured, murdered and dismembered, all within a few minutes of entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to retrieve some documents. An earlier Washington Post report found that a team of 15 Saudi agents, including an autopsy specialist, arrived in Istanbul in the days preceding Khashoggis visit.

Despite the accumulating public reports, Trump has appeared to be more interested in protecting Salman and his son than uncovering the truth about Khashoggi. Trump has repeatedly pointed out that Khashoggi did not have U.S. citizenship and that, even if he was murdered, it did not happen in the United States. Trump told reporters Monday that both the king and the crown prince had denied their involvement very strongly  the same basis Trump has used for defending men accused of sexual misconduct, from Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to just-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump even invented an explanation that Khashoggi may have been murdered by rogue killers.

On Tuesday, in an interview with The Associated Press, Trump said the coverage of Khashoggis disappearance was again a case of being presumed guilty until proven innocent  another argument Trump made in support of Kavanaugh, who faced accusations of sexual assault and sexual misconduct but who was confirmed anyway.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ostensibly dispatched to Saudi Arabia to get to the bottom of Khashoggis disappearance, was instead photographed laughing and smiling during his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, meanwhile, posted a photo of herself on social media enjoying her visit to the royal court in Riyadh.

We have the objective fact that the president and the secretary of state are behaving very strangely, Shaub said. All of this is deeply concerning.

Related Coverage

Trump Says 'Rogue Killers' May Be Behind Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance

Mike Pompeo Looks Ready To Accept Saudi Arabia's Spin On Jamal Khashoggi's Fate

Jamal Khashoggi Tortured In Front Of Top Saudi Diplomat: Reports

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the "onslaught" of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

The attack comes with Trump's Republicans fighting to retain control of Congress in the November 6 vote, and as thousands of migrants from impoverished Honduras were marching north through Guatemala toward the United States.

"I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS," Trump said.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

The tweets came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to embark on a tour of the region that will see him visit Mexico ahead of its December inauguration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as Panama.

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration and building a wall that stretches the length of the 1,954-mile (3,145 km) border a keystone of his presidency, but his animus toward Mexico had cooled since Obrador's election in July.

Despite their sharp differences, the US and Mexico have made progress on several issues, including the signing of an updated transcontinental trade pact, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

But, possibly with an eye on November 6 polls that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, Trump returned to the fiery rhetoric that has marked his past relations with Mexico.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said.

Story continues

- Caravan presses on -

It was not immediately clear what form of military deployment Trump had in mind. The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed.

At least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a policy to separate migrant children from their parents, since discontinued.

Exhausted after tramping in the sun and rain, an advance group of the Honduran migrants on Wednesday took refuge in a church-sponsored shelter in the center of Guatemala City.

Their objective now is to regroup and press on towards the border with Mexico.

A caravan of vehicles carrying more than 2,000 migrants left last Saturday from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula after organizing themselves on social media.President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to shut the U.S.-Mexico border, claiming without evidence that several Central American countries are allowing many criminals to head to the U.S.

Trump, in a series of tweets, said he would call up the military to close the border if Mexico fails to stop this onslaught.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

....The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

The president appeared to have been referring to a caravan of migrants now traveling through Honduras and Guatemala en route to the border. Trumps tweets came after his favorite TV program, Fox & Friends, devoted several segments to the caravan.

On Tuesday, he threatened to cut off aid to Honduras and Guatemala, as well as to El Salvador.

Story continues

Trumps tweetstorm also took a swipe at Democrats for open borders and weak laws.

Earlier this year, a similar caravan of migrants sparked the presidents ire, leading him to call on governors to deploy National Guard troops to the border.

Trump, who began his 2016 presidential campaign by claiming without evidence that immigrants from Mexico are bringing crime, theyre bringing drugs, theyre rapists, frequently makes baseless claims about immigration, using racist stereotypes to conflate undocumented immigrants with members of criminal gangs.

Since 2008, immigrants in Central America have organized caravans to flee political and humanitarian crises, including corruption and gang violence, seeking asylum in Mexico or the United States.

Related Coverage

Here's The Truth About The Caravan Of Migrants Trump Keeps Going On About

Trump Has Lied And Twisted Facts To Justify His Harsh Immigration Policies

Trump Threatens To Withdraw Honduras Aid Over Approaching Migrant Caravan

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close the US-Mexican border against an "onslaught" of migrants, stepping up his anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of congressional elections.

As several thousand Hondurans made their way through Central America toward the US border, Trump blamed Democrats for an "assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador" with a caravan "INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS."

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

Trump has made his call for a wall on the southern border a signature issue of his two-year presidency, but Thursday's tweet storm was especially fierce.

Trump suggested he was even prepared to put at risk the recently renegotiated North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, redubbed as USMCA.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders meanwhile said that "we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration," and that "our administration is doing a great job on the border."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a tour of the region that took him to Panama on Thursday with a visit to Mexico set for Friday.

The Mexican stop is important for future relations because it comes just ahead of the inauguration in December of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign minister designate, downplayed Trump's comments as aimed at his domestic political base.

"The position of President Trump is the one he has always raised," Ebrard told local radio station Radio Centro.

"It was predictable and also the election process is very close, so he is making a political calculation," he added.

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- Controversial caravan -

The president's message was part of a broad strategy to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and tighten rules for legal migrants.

Barely a week goes by without Trump warning about the danger posed by ultra-violent Central American gangs like MS-13, while chants of "build the wall" are a staple of his pre-midterms campaign rallies.

The latest focus is on some 2,000 Hondurans who departed Saturday from the city of San Pedro Sula in a caravan headed for the US border.

A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican border, where they overflowed a shelter in the town of Tecun Uman, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said.

Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms.

Several migrants told AFP the group plans to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican immigration authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without papers.

The migrants say they organized on social media for the long and difficult journey, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation.

"This caravan did not appear organically," a senior Trump administration official told journalists.

"There's a political aspect and an organizational aspect which frankly seeks to sow chaos and dissent and that needs to be dealt with," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

- Border forces -

In Mexico, hundreds of riot police deployed at a bridge on the border with Guatemala. Guatemala also sent police reinforcements.

Responding to a tweet about Mexico deploying police equipped with anti-riot gear, Trump wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

Mexico's ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, met with migrants camped out in the border town of Tecun Uman to discourage them from crossing illegally.

"We are offering documented entry to those who have a passport and visa, and to those who do not, documented entry via an application for refugee status, on humanitarian grounds. We will address every case," he told a large crowd of Hondurans gathered on the town's central square.

Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray meanwhile told reporters he had met with UN chief Antonio Guterres, who said the UNHCR would help the Mexican government to process asylum applications for those in the caravan.

As for the US border, it remained unclear whether Trump's threat would result in any military deployment.

The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed.

But at least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a since-abandoned White House policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the border.Port-au-Prince (AFP) - Haitian police said Thursday at least two people were shot dead and more than a dozen injured in a huge anti-corruption protest that rocked the Caribbean country a day earlier, as pressure mounted on unpopular President Jovenel Moise.

In their initial report, authorities did not say who was to blame for the shootings, but police had fired in the air on Wednesday to help Moise escape from a public ceremony after he was shoved by protesters.

Elsewhere, near the presidential palace, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Tempers have been running high for weeks in Haiti over the alleged embezzlement of funds obtained through Petrocaribe, a Venezuelan initiative that provided poor countries in the Americas oil at cut rate prices.

In 2016 and again last year, probes carried out by Haiti's Senate concluded that nearly two billion dollars in money from the fund had been embezzled. A dozen former government ministers were implicated but nobody was ever charged.

Moise issued a series of tweets on Thursday saying he was serious about getting to the bottom of the scandal.

"I ask all senior civil servants who have been actively involved in the management of these funds to make themselves available to justice," he wrote.

But the messages did little to assuage the anger of his critics, who accused the president of protecting some of those accused -- one of whom is his current chief of staff.

"These messages amount to bluffing and demagoguery," said Andre Michel, a lawyer representing citizens who had filed a complaint over the scandal, adding: "Jovenel Moise is the main obstacle to the completion of the Petrocaribe trial."U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the disappearance and presumed murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That same day, the U.S. government received a $100 million payment from the oil-rich kingdom, The New York Times and Washington Post reported  an amount that had earlier been promised to the Trump administration to support its stabilization efforts in Syria.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will merge the U.S. Consulate General, which serves Palestinians, with its new embassy in Israel into a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, drawing a quick rebuke from Palestinians. "This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations," Pompeo said in a statement. "It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip." U.S. President Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and stoked international concern by recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital in December and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May. The consulate general in Jerusalem is the top mission for Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem for their capital. Pompeo said the United States will establish a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the embassy in Jerusalem to continue reporting, outreach and programming in the West Bank and Gaza as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem. Senior Palestinian leader Saeb Erekat denounced the decision to eliminate the consulate as the latest evidence the Trump administration is working with Israel to impose a "Greater Israel" rather than a two-state solution. The decision has nothing to do with efficiency, Erekat said, "and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological U.S. team that is willing to disband the foundations of American foreign policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes." Pompeo said the Trump administration was committed to a peace effort between Israel and the Palestinians. Palestinian leaders suspended ties with the U.S. administration after the embassy move and have thus had no official contacts with the consulate in Jerusalem. The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest disputes between Israel and the Palestinians and Palestinian leaders accused Trump of sowing instability by overturning decades of U.S. policy. Palestinians, with broad international backing, seek East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they want to establish in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel regards all of the city, including the eastern sector it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed, as its "eternal and indivisible capital," but that is not recognized internationally. The Trump administration has avoided that description, and noted that the citys final borders should be decided by the parties. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem; Editing by Frances Kerry and Bill Trott)Uber condemned the alleged kidnap and assault and said it was co-operating with the authorities: PA

A woman who says she was kidnapped and then sexually assaulted by her Uber driver was later charged more than a thousand dollars for the journey.

The unnamed victim alleges Harbir Parmar, a 24-year-old from New York, drove her almost 80 miles away from Manhattan  where she was picked up  and then put his hand under her shirt to touch her breasts.

According to charging documents filed in a New York court, Mr Parmar took advantage of the woman after she fell asleep in the back seat of his Toyota Highlander, and fraudulently charged her $1,047 (800).

He has been charged by federal prosecutors with kidnapping and fraud. If convicted he faces up to life in prison.

The case is likely to reignite a debate over the safety of taxi apps such as Uber.

No one  man or woman  should fear such an attack when they simply hire a car service, Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said when he announced the charges.

"Parmar was hired to transport a woman from Manhattan to her home in White Plains. Instead, Parmar kidnapped, terrorised, and assaulted the woman before dumping her on the side of an interstate."

The New York police commissioner, James O'Neill, said: This individuals behaviour goes far beyond ride-sharing companies efforts to revise their ethics codes and put stronger emphasis on background checks for their drivers.

"The people we serve deserve much better."

Uber said it refunded the massive fee the woman incurred and has banned Mr Parmar from using Ubers taxi platform since February.

Whats been reported is horrible and something no person should go through, the company said in a statement. The firm also said it was co-operating with the police investigation.

The charges say the woman called an Uber in Manhattan late one evening in February to take her home to the suburb of White Plains.

After she fell asleep, however, it is alleged Mr Parmar changed the destination on his Uber app to a location in Boston, Massachusetts, hundreds of miles away.

Story continues

When the woman woke up she said she discovered the car had stopped and Mr Parmar had got into the back seat with her and was groping her breasts.

She tried to reach her phone to call for help but the driver grabbed her phone from her. He then returned to the front of the car and began driving again, refusing the womans desperate requests to be taken to a police station or her home.

She was eventually dropped off by the side of the I-95 motorway near New Haven, 84 miles from where she'd been picked up in Manhattan, and more than 60 miles away from White Plains.

When Mr Parmar appeared before a magistrate in White Plains on Tuesday he was bailed until a later hearing, secured with a $10,000 (7,600) cash bond deposited by his parents, who were in the courtroom.

The incident was not the first time the driver had billed customers for false destinations, prosecutors said. The charges allege he had put in an incorrect destination to overcharge his passengers 11 times and had also filed $3,600 (2,700) in false cleaning fees.

Traditional taxi drivers whose businesses have been hit hard by competition from Uber have long claimed the app is unsafe because drivers are not properly vetted.

In London, the Silicon Valley firm temporarily lost its licence to operate after Transport for London ruled it had failed to thoroughly screen its drivers backgrounds and was not reporting serious criminal offences connected with its drivers.

In September Uber won an appeal against the ban and was granted a new probationary 15-month licence.New York (AFP) - Uber is eyeing a valuation above $100 billion for its much-anticipated share offering due in 2019, which would be the biggest-ever in the tech sector, sources familiar with the plan said Tuesday.

The sources told AFP the global ridesharing giant is considering speeding up its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) to the first half of 2019, rather than the second half of the year.

Uber, which operates in over 60 countries, is already the largest of the venture-backed "unicorns" valued at more than $1 billion, which until recently was considered rare without tapping stock markets.

Its most recent investment -- a $500 million injection from Japanese auto giant Toyota -- was made at a reported valuation of $72 billion.

Earlier Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that bankers were proposing a valuation as high as $120 billion for Uber, which has been a disruptive force in many cities where regulators and taxi operators have challenged its business model.

Uber offered no comment on the IPO plans.

Sources told AFP the timing of the IPO will depend on market conditions and that Uber was in talks with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to be lead underwriters. The two firms declined comment.

Uber is due to make a market debut by the end of 2019 as part of an investment deal with Japan's SoftBank, which has a stake of some 15 percent.

- Heated race -

The ridesharing group last year hired a new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who has vowed to fix the company's work culture and business practices after a series of missteps and scandals over executive misconduct, a toxic work atmosphere and potentially unethical competitive practices.

Under Khosrowshahi, Uber has moved to boost transparency and become more accountable. Last month, it settle an investigation into a 2016 data breach with a payment of $148 million, and earlier this year reached a settled with former Google car unit Waymo over allegedly stolen trade secrets.

Story continues

Uber reported a loss of $891 million in the second quarter as revenues jumped 63 percent to $2.8 billion, with bookings hitting $12 billion.

As it expands its ridesharing services, Uber is also seeking to become a major player in autonomous cars, and has agreed to buy and adapt vehicles from Volvo to begin operating self-driving taxis.

Uber briefly suspended tests of self-driving cars in March following a fatal accident in Arizona. It resumed testing in Pennsylvania in July, but with a driver behind the wheel at all times, the company said.

If its valuation tops $100 billion, Uber would be worth more than the combined value of the three big automakers General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Separately, Uber rival Lyft had selected JPMorgan Chase as the lead underwriter, a source told AFP.

The Wall Street Journal first reported JPMorgan had been chosen along with Credit Suisse and Jefferies Group for its IPO next year, which could value the company at some $15 billion.

The two San Francisco firms have been in a heated race in the US market. Lyft has discussed international plans but so far has expanded only to a handful of cities in Canada.London (AFP) - Britain will launch an online platform with Interpol to help prevent suspected sexual predators using the aid sector as a cover to harm vulnerable people, the government announced Thursday.

The Department for International Development (DFID) said it was teaming up with Interpol to stop suspects being able to move freely between NGOs.

The move, using existing Interpol systems, follows a series of high-profile abuse scandals.

"Our message to sexual predators using the sector as a cover for their crimes is 'your time is up'," International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said in a statement.

"We have to give the people that we are here to help the protection that they need," she added, ahead of a global safeguarding summit in London Thursday, which her department is co-hosting.

The project, named Operation Soteria after the Greek goddess of safety, will operate from two regional hubs in Africa and Asia.

It will increase criminal record checks and information-sharing between all 192 Interpol members, including high-risk countries, to improve the police response in this area, said the DFID.

The five-year pilot will cost 10 million ($13 million, 11 million euros), of which Britain will contribute 2 million.

Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said the new initiative fitted the organisation's core mission of protecting "the most vulnerable members of society".

"This is all the more important when sexual predators attempt to exploit the very people -- be it men, women or children -- they are supposed to be safeguarding from harm," he added.

Thursday's summit will bring together the world's leading aid players on preventing sexual abuse and exploitation, the DFID said.

Britain's help to NGOs would include providing access to specialist investigators, the government statement added.

It is also plans to support aid agencies in testing a new passport for workers to prove their identity, thus improving the vetting process.

The humanitarian sector has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse scandals in the last decade that has included some of the biggest names in the field, such as the United Nations and Oxfam.LONDON (Reuters) - British trade minister Liam Fox has pulled out of a Saudi investment summit next week, the BBC reported on Thursday. Fox was listed as a speaker at the Riyadh summit, which other European ministers and business leaders have also said they will no longer attend following criticism of the kingdom over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Department for International Trade was not immediately able to confirm the BBC report. (Reporting by Alistair Smout and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)United Nations (United States) (AFP) - With its economy in a freefall and tensions rising with Israel, the Hamas-ruled enclave of Gaza is imploding, the UN envoy for the Middle East warned Thursday.

Nickolay Mladenov delivered the warning to the Security Council a day after Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip in retaliation at rocket firings from the Palestinian territory.

"Gaza is imploding. This is not hyperbole. This is not alarmism. It is a reality," Mladenov told the council.

He cited World Bank figures showing official unemployment at 53 percent, with more than 70 percent of Palestinian youths jobless.

Every second person in Gaza now lives below the poverty line, he said.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for a decade, on Thursday pledged to launch an investigation into the rocket fire after denying any involvement in the attack, but Israel rejected the denials.

"We remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that nobody claims to want, but a conflict that needs much more than just words to prevent," said Mladenov.

The United Nations has made some headway in joint efforts with Egypt to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, but Mladenov warned this could collapse.

"Barring substantial steps to reverse the current course, this precarious sense of calm is doomed to give way under the mounting pressure. It is already beginning to fray," he said.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars in Gaza since 2008.Twins Terry and Linda Jamison first learned about their psychic abilities in high school, when they would predict when their friends would get into relationships with boys  and when they would break up. We were always right, says Linda, laughing. Where we grew up in a little town, outside Philadelphia, nobody had ever heard of psychics. They didnt know what they were.

Now, the Psychic Twins  as they call themselves  are internet stars: With over 750,000 YouTube subscribers and a total video view count reaching 30 million, theyve accrued a strong, loyal following that seems to grow with each prediction they make, whether its on the scale of a natural disaster or a celebrity pregnancy. So far, they claim to have a track record of over 3,000 verified predictions.

Thirty years ago, however, the twins were pursuing another calling: comedy. In the 80s, Terry and Linda both moved to New York City and tried to break into the comedy industry, eventually landing a guest spot on NBCs Saturday Night Live as a two-headed housewife giving cleaning tips. Shortly thereafter, they relocated to Los Angeles in hopes of taking their talents  both funny and psychic  to Hollywood. So we moved out here, says Terry. And the comedy was slow to catch on, but our psychic work just  I mean, it went like crazy. People were crazy about it. Their first foray into psychic television work was in the mid-90s on NBCs The Other Side, which featured psychics interacting with guests. A lot of talk show offers poured in soon afterward, and they quickly realized their supernatural abilities attracted an even bigger audience than their comedy did. Thats when we really decided to commit ourselves, says Terry. It was a long time of developing our psychic gifts. They began to follow a regimen of meditating several hours a day followed by what they call an automatic-writing trance, writing allegedly directed by a spirit and performed quickly with no thought. We like to say its like metaphysical bodybuilding. Instead of going to a gym and lifting weights and building up your muscles, we build metaphysical muscles, psychic, intuitive muscles, says Linda.

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Linda and Terry Jamison appear as the two headed housewife on NBCs Saturday Night Live. (Image: Saturday Night Live)

With predictions ranging from natural disasters to mass shootings, to celebrity deaths and audience members illnesses, the twins appeared on multiple national radio and television shows like The Ricki Lake Show, The Tyra Banks Show, and Coast to Coast, doing readings about the future. These include Category 5 and 4 hurricanes Irma and Harvey, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, and even Leonardo DiCaprios Oscar win.

The twins biggest claim to fame, however, is their alleged foretelling of the events of September 11  made almost 20 years ago on radio show Coast to Coast. Terry recalls host Art Bell suggesting they make a few predictions for the upcoming millennium. Our first world prediction was 9/11, on his show, she states. When a listener called in and asked about impending disasters, the twins discussed a terrorist attack targeting the World Trade Center in 2002 and several similar events at other government buildings by then.

There are many who dispute their thousands of predictions, with some pointing out that their version of September 11 specified an incorrect year. And there are others, the twins say, who have gone out of their way to censor them due to how accurate their predictions are, such as the media and several government agencies. The actions of those agencies, however, have not deterred them from assisting law enforcement: Weve worked as psychic detectives, helping police with murder cases, cold cases, missing-persons cases. Weve done it all. The twins allege they were able to get a body exhumed because of an incorrect cause of death. They exhumed the body and found out the bullet wound was in such a place that you couldnt have done it yourself with a rifle, recalls Linda. Were saying exhume bodies. Thats expensive. Its risky, because you could look bad. But it is their confidence in their skills, however, that has enabled them to make such bold predictions. We go in there where people dont really have the courage to go, says Linda. Weve done this for 35 to 40 years. Throughout their long career, the twins have also authored four books, their most recent being You Cant Fix Stupid: Psychic Tips to Idiot-Proof Your Life.

The cover of Terry and Lindas most recent book. (Image: via Terry and Linda Jamison)

Recalling a history of folklore painting witches and psychics as villains and the devil personified, Linda says, Were still rebuilding the validity of the work we do because the public is so threatened.  Anything feeling or hearing things outside the normal senses, the church tried to suppress and so did science. And, unfortunately, that went on for centuries. So were helping people to see, Look, this isnt something to be afraid of like you were taught.

Its a mystery to us, it really is, why its still going on in 2018 where there are so many scientific studies documenting this kind of thing as being possible, she says. Thousands of studies published in reputable journals. The skeptics are more like cynics, we feel. Its really because they take a cynical stance more than an open-minded stance.

Much like astronauts, they perceive themselves as the pioneers of what they believe is the last frontier  psychic intelligence. We say were pioneers of inner space, as opposed to outer space. And were actually, you know, pioneering the farthest reaches of the human psyche and the human mind. The twins perceive the future generation as open-minded explorers they believe will bring legitimacy to their craft. So many of our young fans are, you know, teenagers or 8 years old, says Terry. Certain millennials are opening up to it.

If nothing else, they say they hope they can to teach others to embrace and develop their own intuition. Its like a nuns calling, as strange as it sounds, says Linda. We dont make much money. We hardly ever do private readings now  But we do it because we want people to be made aware that this is a talent that could be developed in other people too, and every person has the muscles and the basic innate gifts.

Terry chimes in: Supernatural is the new natural  We feel that in teaching people how to embrace their own intuition and psychic gifts and intuitive gifts, that everyone can develop their intuition to some degree.

With their abilities, for Linda and Terry, the goal is to improve humanity. We hope that people will take our lead and sort of expand on what weve been able to do over these several decades and really help mankind move in a positive direction, rather than the negative direction were going in now. Its a matter of life and death. Its a matter of survival.Jerusalem (AFP) - A US student barred from Israel over past support for a pro-Palestinian boycott campaign appeared before the Jewish state's top court Wednesday in a final appeal against the state's decision.

Lara Alqasem, 22, landed at Ben Gurion Airport on October 2, for master's degree studies at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

Despite having a visa, she was not allowed to clear immigration, due to a 2017 law barring supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Alqasem, reportedly of Palestinian descent, was president of a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine during her undergraduate studies at the University of Florida.

The group has supported boycott campaigns against Israel.

Alqasem, who says she left SJP in 2017 and was no longer part of the BDS movement, decided to stay in Israel and challenge the decision. Two appeals to lower courts have been rejected.

At Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing, Alqasem's lawyer said the state should apply common sense when applying the law against BDS supporters.

"Why would she want to enter Israel to call for a boycott?" Yotam Ben Hillel asked.

"She committed to not do so, and is aware" she would be deported if she did campaign, the lawyer added.

The Hebrew University wants Alqasem to undertake her studies. A representative said foreign students and researchers provide "oxygen" for local academia, while their presence could counter boycott efforts.

"We think that if people come and live here, theyll see we're not an apartheid state," the university's attorney Pepi Yakirevich said in court on Wednesday.

The state's representative argued that the interior ministry had the authority to prevent Alqasem's entry, based on the law and her past actions, which indicated a "central role" in her organisation.

The panel of three judges adjourned the hearing ahead of reaching and publishing a decision.

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In March 2017, Israel's parliament passed a law banning the entry of supporters of BDS, a movement inspired by an international campaign against South Africa before the fall of apartheid.

The judges questioned the point of barring a person who was no longer active in the BDS movement.

But outside court, an attorney for a right-wing NGO that worked with the state on the case insisted Alqasem would resume campaigning activity if allowed to enter Israel.

"There are enough circumstances and supporting evidence to all our claims that prove that Lara Alqasem isn't here in order to be a regular student and gain an education," said Yaakov Cohen of Im Tirtzu.

Her true aim is "to incite and create provocations", he added.Arturo Vidal in action for Chile.

Arturo Vidal has been fined 700,000 after he was involved in a Munich bar brawl in September 2017.

Chiles midfielder was part of a fracas which saw a fight break out in a German bar and a bottle of vodka was smashed over the head of a victim.

Vidal has since moved to Barcelona and was not present when the verdict was delivered. He faced a possible 10 years in prison, but instead was given a 800,000 fine.

READ MORE: Eriksen to be fit for Spurs clash with West Ham

READ MORE: Can Mourinho repeat Luke Shaw trick to keep Martial and Pogba at United?

READ MORE: Blackpool FC, a Kyrgyzstan money-laundering conviction and a non-takeover

The assault happened after Bayern had defeated Mainz 4-0 at home, when Vidal decided to celebrate the win at an Oktoberfest event.

Vidals father-in-law, Carlos, was fined 31,000 and his younger brother, Sandrino Vidal, was fined 15,286.

The Chilean international has since moved to Barcelona, and has played for his new club nine times this season, scoring no goals.By Suzy Byrne

Sesame Street icon Caroll Spinney is leaving the nest.

The master puppeteer, who brought Big Bird to life and also played Oscar the Grouch, has announced his retirement after 49 years on the show. His last day on the set of the Astoria, Queens-based production will be Thursday.

Long-time puppeteer Caroll Spinney has announced that he is stepping down from the roles of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. Spinney is pleased that his iconic roles will be carried on by puppeteers Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson. Learn more: https://t.co/BALgkIPI5q pic.twitter.com/sGMDjqLklQ  Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) October 17, 2018

Big Bird brought me so many places, opened my mind and nurtured my soul, Spinney said in a statement. And I plan to be an ambassador for Sesame Workshop for many years to come. After all, were a family.

Veteran Sesame Street star Carroll Spinney has announced his retirement (Getty)

Since 1969, Spinney has played parts of both iconic characters  as well as other muppets  on the beloved kids show. He has won six Emmys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and two Grammys, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

I always thought: How fortunate for me that I got to play the two best Muppets? he told the New York Times in a new interview about his retirement. Playing Big Bird is one of the most joyous things of my life. He said he was the one to suggest giving childlike qualities to the oversize bird. I said, I think I should play him like hes a child, a surrogate. He can be all the things that children are. He can learn with the kids.

Spinney with Oscar the Grouch, another of his characters, at the 2014 premiere of the I Am Big Bird documentary, which told his story. (Photo: Getty Images)

He told the Times the role of Big Bird suited him on many levels. Im a soloist, he said. Im not good with a team. Im out of sync with the rest. Theyre all going left at the same time, while Im the only one going right. He also said it could be very lonely in there  I was separated from everybody. While that may sound a little sad, he said in his statement, Before I came to Sesame Street, I didnt feel like what I was doing was very important. Big Bird helped me find my purpose. Even as I step down from my roles, I feel I will always be Big Bird. And even Oscar, once in a while. He added that the roles have given me great joy and led me to my true calling.

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Spinney, sporting a Big Bird feather, with his Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2006 Daytime Emmys. (Photo: Marc Bryan-Brown/WireImage)

In recent years, the physical requirements needed to perform the roles became difficult for Spinney, who is now 84. He stopped doing the puppeteering for Big Bird in 2015, but continued voicing the role of that and Oscar. So he decided that the upcoming 50th season of the show  which airs next year on HBO and PBS  would be his final one.

Spinneys interest in puppeteering began during his childhood and, after serving in the Air Force, he landed a job as a professional puppeteer in Las Vegas and Boston in the 1950s and 1960s. That led to him meeting Sesame Street creator Jim Henson at a puppetry festival in 1962. They reconnected in 1969, when Henson was creating the show, and he hired Spinney for the inaugural season. While Spinney briefly considered leaving during the first season over a pay dispute, he ultimately stayed on and has done more than 4,400 episodes in total, a Sesame Street spokesperson approximates.

A 2014 documentary,I Am Big Bird, told Spinneys story. In it, he spoke about his initial doubts regarding his talent as a puppeteer, and talked about how he was dealing with emotional problems. I had a terrible storm in my head of how unhappy I was, he said. In the flim, he also said he couldnt imagine ever wanting to retire. And now, although its a retirement, he says he wont be gone from the spotlight permanently, revealing plans to continue attending conventions and making other public appearances in his new ambassador role. Ill be 100 years old, doing Muppet stuff, he promised the Times.

On the show is where Spinney met his second wife, Debra Jean Gilroy, in 1972. She was working in the community education department of the show. Their love story is a large part of the documentary. She told the Times, I couldnt believe Big Bird was coming up and talking to me.

Spinney with his wife, Debra, at a Sesame Street event in 2017. (Photo: Mike Coppola/WireImage)

As for the roles of Big Bird and Oscar, they wont be going away, of course. They will be carried on onscreen by puppeteers Matt Vogel (Big Bird) and Eric Jacobson (Oscar). Spinney said he handpicked both of them for the guardianship of the characters and promises they will continue to give them life.

Spinney in the documentary I Am Big Bird. (Image: I Am Big Bird/YouTube)

Vogel, who has been Spinneys apprentice for Big Bird since 1996, told the Times that carrying on Spinneys legacy was daunting but important, saying, The more I do the character, the more that I try to preserve what I think Carolls intentions were. Inevitably, part of our own personality starts to creep into those characters. But thats the way they live on. Vogel previously inherited the parts of other popular Muppets, including Kermit the Frog and Count von Count.

Jacobson, wholl take over for Oscar, also performs Grover, Bert, and Guy Smiley.

Read more

Brian Henson no hard feelings over Sesame St lawsuit

Knightley bans daughter from Disney films

Dafoe defends role over ageism rowPeople inspect a Waffle House damaged by Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Florida, U.S. October 11, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman

Waffle Houses hurricane response capabilities are legendary. The chain is known to keep its restaurants open amid horrific conditions, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency even measures the severity of a storms damage by the unofficial Waffle House Index.

But the severity of Hurricane Michael, which slammed the Gulf coast of Florida on Oct. 10 and was the strongest hurricane to strike the U.S. in almost 30 years, required the company to use a special card it keeps up its sleeve: the Waffle House truck.

Currently, the truck is in Panama City, Fla., handing out free food  the standard operating procedure when dispatched in an emergency.

According to Pat Warner, Waffle Houses spokesperson, Waffle House only has one truck, which is kept in Atlanta and used for catering. But if hurricane damage is bad enough, the company will send it out to fill in for a restaurant that simply cannot reopen.

The food truck will be giving out free food again until 4:30pm today at 631 W 15th St. in Panama City! #ScatteredSmotheredandRecover pic.twitter.com/X3wlGa3Nuo  Waffle House (@WaffleHouse) October 16, 2018

Weve had the truck for five years but have only activated it twice, said Warner, who noted the other time was for flooding in Baton Rouge, La., in August 2016. If its a case where the restaurant is going to be out a while, and its an area where theres no services for the people, we will bring it in.

With Hurricane Michael, almost all 30 of the Waffle House locations that were hit managed to reopen quickly. But a few Waffle House locations around Panama City have too much structural damage. And the company sent the truck to park in front of the restaurant and handed out free food.

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Spotted in Panama City: a Waffle House food truck serving hash brown bowls and waffles. pic.twitter.com/Od4qreIPXu  Alan Blinder (@alanblinder) October 17, 2018

We decided to send the truck down there to set up in front of one of our closed restaurants [until] Wednesday, Warner said. Theyre driving up and were giving a couple meals to go.

Hurricane Michaels extremely fast onset and wind made it different than past hurricanes, Warner said.

Florence seemed like it took forever, but this one really went from tropical storm to category 4 in a couple days, and then on shore, said Warner. The type and nature of hurricanes matter significantly to anyone affected by a hurricane, and Waffle House faces different challenges depending on whether the damage is floods, wind, or both.

Whereas Florence and Harvey were flood-heavy, Michael was wind heavy, bringing power outages and tree damage, disrupting supply chains and water access. With water outages in Panama City, Waffle House had to truck in water to keep its locations open.

With the dust settled, Warner says that Waffle House is relieved there wasnt more damage, and that all of its employees made it to safety.

We can rebuild a restaurant, he said. Thats the easy move.

Waffle House has around 2,100 restaurants in the southeast. As or Thursday, thousands of Floridians were still without power.

 

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance focusing on consumer issues, retail, personal finance, and more. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann.

How Waffle Houses hurricane response team prepares for disaster

Heres what FEMA told us about the Waffle House indexUK Prime Minister Theresa May said she was open to extending the post-Brexit transition period. Photo: Getty Images

Heres a daily overview of some key economic and business developments that the Yahoo Finance UK team is monitoring in Europe and abroad:

Brexit transition in the spotlight

British Prime Minister Theresa May signalled on Thursday she would consider extending a transition period for a matter of months after Britain leaves the European Union, a move her critics say is a betrayal of Brexit.

The pound recovered on Thursday after Mays comments to trade around $1.31.

May has sought to reboot Brexit talks with her European Union counterparts on Wednesday after talks broke down over the weekend.





European markets up, but Chinese stocks get clobbered

All the main European stock markets posted modest gains in early morning trading on Thursday, a stark contrast to losses in Asia. The Shanghai Composite was the worst performer by far on Thursday, hitting its lowest level in four years after falling by nearly 3%.

One of the best performing stocks in Europe was Publicis Groupe (PUB.PA) in Paris. Shares surged by about 6% in morning trading after the company reported well-received third-quarter earnings.

Novartis: Big takeover announcement

Shares in Novartis (NVS) rose on the Swiss stock exchange and are set to pop in New York after it announced plans to acquire US-based drugmaker Endocyte (ECYT) for $2.1 billion in cash.

The purchase will help the Swiss drugmaker expedite its development of cancer treatments, the company said in a statement.

The $24-per-share offer represents a premium of 54% to Endocytes Wednesday closing price.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.

Novartis also reported third-quarter results on Thursday.





Italian budget in focus

European Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Italys Economy Minister Giovanni Tria are holding a joint news conference at Italys Treasury on Thursday afternoon, only days after Italys cabinet approved an expansionary budget.

Analysts have voiced concerns about a clash between the EU and Rome over Italys fiscal plans, which are not clearly aligned with EU guidelines.

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Theres a lot of concern that things could get nasty, Mujtaba Rahman, a managing director at Eurasia Group, told Yahoo Finance UK. The news conference is designed to reassure markets that theres a discussion taking place and that discussion is constructive.

Yields on 10-year Italian government bonds were rising above 3.5% on Thursday morning.

With files from ReutersA black 9-year-old boy in Brooklyn, New York, says he wont accept the apology of a white woman who falsely accused him of groping her at a deli last week.

Jeremiah Harvey and his mom, Someko Bellille, told attendees at a neighborhood meeting Monday that the episode represented more than just a misunderstanding.

What happened to us respecting one another, having unity and being neighborly? Bellille wondered aloud to the crowd. In separate comments to ABC7, Jeremiah said: I dont forgive this woman, and she needs help.

As seen in surveillance video provided by the store, Jeremiahs hands were nowhere near Teresa Klein last Wednesday, when she said shed felt someone grab her behind. In the footage, Jeremiahs backpack appears to be the real culprit, brushing against Klein as he walks by.

Kleins reaction to the contact  captured and shared on Facebook by bystander Jason Littlejohn  went viral, as she appeared to call 911 to report being sexually assaulted by a child. (New York police later told CNN they had no record of the call.)

The video shows Jeremiah and his younger sister crying on the sidewalk as Klein calls the authorities and Bellille stands nearby.

Littlejohn urged those watching to help make the video of Cornerstore Caroline go viral. His plea seems to have been successful: The video has racked up at least 8 million views.

Presented with video evidence that Jeremiah never groped her, Klein admitted to ABC7 shed made a mistake. I was wrong, she told the station. Young man, I dont know your name, but Im sorry.

She claims Bellille escalated the situation, although its not clear whether this actually happened.

I understand how it looks, Klein told PIX11, but she escalated and then I lost my temper at her, not at that child.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who organized Mondays meeting, labeled the episode a modern-day Emmett Till moment. Till, 14, was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after a white woman falsely accused him of whistling at her in a grocery store.

Story continues

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Turkeys release of American pastor Andrew Brunson from jail is a huge step forward for the U.S.-Turkey relationship.

Its not been easy getting here. An August deal between U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the pastors release fell through, angering Trump personally. At the time, Trump slapped sanctions on Turkey, contributing to a sharp decline in the lira. He also put a freeze on bilateral ties. I joked that Trump had effectively become the Turkey desk officer at the State Departmentwith the power to block everything.

Brunson was arrested on October 2016, on charges of allegedly being a spy and connections to terrorist groups working against Turkey. For some reporters, this was a sign of Erdogan increasing pressure on the U.S. in negotiations on issues, such as Turkeys request for the extradition of Fetullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in the U.S. and whose network of followers many Turks believe played a key role in the failed July 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.

Trump has reacted positively to Brunsons release, saying this will lead to good, perhaps great, relations between the United States & Turkey!

From my perspective, it seems Trump and Erdogan can also reset their ties. During the August crisis, the two presidents did not target each other personally, leaving the door open to another fist bump when they make up. That day is not far off.

Its clear that maintaining good ties with Turkey is in Washingtons interest. And Turkey is bigger than Erdogan. Despite Erdogans tight grip on the Turkish society for nearly two decades, half the countrya bloc demographically and economically the size of Spainstill refuses to vote or fold under him. U.S. policy regarding Turkey should not be about throwing the baby out with bathwater. Turkey borders Iran, Iraq, Syria, formerly-ISIS-held territory, and Russia across the Black Sea. Its much easier, less cumbersome, and less costly, to implement U.S. policies regarding those countries and entities with Turkey on board. And to be sure, Turkey needs the United States as well. In the immediate term, Ankara needs Washingtons commitment to push back against Saudi Arabia regarding the alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

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With Trump ending his freeze of U.S-Turkish ties, U.S. government officials and their Turkish counterparts can now tackle various issues that divide the two countries. Yet while ,Brunsons release is a good step toward normal relations, there is plenty more to do.

Most immediately, Congress has threatened sanctions if Ankara goes ahead with its plans to purchase in 2019 Russian S-400 missile defense system, a move that goes against Turkeys status as a NATO ally.

From my interviews, it seems Erdogans standing has already improved in Congress following Brunsons releasepaving the way for Congress to allow Trump to sell Turkey the U.S. Patriot missile defense systems. To cement his reset with Trump, Erdogan should reconsider his decision regarding the S-400 system.

Trump also needs to listen to Erdogans concerns. Erdogans Oct.13 tweet, calling for enhanced cooperation against Fethullah Gulens network, ISIS, and the Kurdistan Workers Party (YPG) is instructive.

Gulen is a Turkish Muslim cleric who resides in the United States. Gulen once controlled a powerful religious political network in Turkey, with deep reach inside the countrys police, military, and judiciary. Over the past decade, Gulen helped Erdogan consolidate powereroding Turkeys democratic checks and balances, taking over the courts, locking up journalists, and silencing opposition.

Once Erdogan and Gulen consolidated power over Turkeys democratic institutions as a collective duo, though, things became problematic: each wanted Turkey for himself. A raw power struggle ensued.

A majority of Turks, and not just Erdogan supporters, are now convinced that Gulen-aligned military officers led the failed 2016 coup that nearly toppled Erdogan. But heres what Trump needs to know about Gulen: half of Turkey, which supports Erdogan, despises Gulen because he tried to murder Erdogan. The other half, which opposes Erdogan, despises Gulen because he empowered Erdogan.

Material evidence that Gulen personally ordered the coup is hard to obtain. Its highly unlikely he texted his supporters, telling them go ahead with the coupand therefore U.S. courts are unlikely to rule for his extradition.

In the meantime, however, U.S. and Turkish law enforcement officials continue their efforts to follow an evidentiary path. In August, Kemal Oksuz, a key figure in the Gulen movement, was arrested in Armeniaon the basis of an FBI warrant. Both sides should continue their efforts along this path.

Trump also needs to reconsider U.S. policy regarding cooperation with Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, (YPG) an armed group that Washington has relied on to fight ISIS. The YPG is an offshoot of the PKK, a terrorist entity that Turkey has been fighting for decades.

After defeating ISIS, YPGa group with a Marxist pedigreetook over vast, Sunni Arab areas of Syria. Washington needs to empower Sunni Arabs in Syria if it doesnt want ISIS, which feeds from Sunni Muslim resentment over political exclusion, to return. In my view, the seeds of ISIS 2.0 lie within Marxist YPGs control over conservative Arab villages.

Cooperation between Trump and Erdogan in the Middle East extends beyond Syria. In recent months, I have learned that Washington has intensified its cooperation with Ankara to target the PKKs leadership in Iraq. Those efforts should continue and Erdogan should acknowledge them.

Trumps key objective in the Middle East is to push back against Iran. He wants Iran out of Syria and isolated in the region.

Erdogan should continue to support Trumps new Syria envoy to push back against Iran, Russia, and the Assad regime there. If Assad is brought to justice, millions of Syrians brutalized by him during the war will have closure, also shutting the door to ISIS return.

Erdogan can help Trump beyond Syria to isolate Iran. For example, Turkey could join U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, which are taking a toll on the regime in Tehran.

Brunsons release makes all of this is possible, but there remains a catch: Erdogan also needs to release other American citizens and local staff of U.S. diplomatic missions in jail in Turkey.

By releasing Brunson, an evangelical pastor, before U.S. midterm elections, Erdogan has helped Trump at the ballot box. Trumps tweets typically get 30,000-50,000 likes, with his most popular declarations receiving around 80,000 likes. His announcement regarding Brunsons release has received over 125,000 likes.

I believe that as powerful presidents, Trump and Erdogan will get along. The road ahead may well be rocky and differences remain between the U.S. and Turkey. But the two men, who like each others style of governance, are talking again. That is what matters.Weve heard a lot about the U.S. imposing sanctions on foreign powers lately. America has threatened to hit countries from Saudi Arabia to Russia and China with tough penalties for human rights violations.

The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, named after a Russian lawyer who died in prison after he uncovered a massive corruption scandal in Russias government, was enacted in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama.

The act mandated that the U.S. government could freeze the assets and restrict the travel of anyone who committed gross human rights violations in Russia.

The original law was updated and became the Global Magnitsky Act, allowing the president to impose these sanctions on human rights violators anywhere, not just in Russia.

Congress included a provision in the new act mandating that the president must respond to requests to ban violators within four months.

This month, a bipartisan group sent a letter to President Trump requesting sanctions on those responsible for the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump said he didnt want to cancel his $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia over the Virginia residents disappearance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly sent someone to Trump Tower in 2016 to negotiate with the president-elect about repealing the act once he got in office.

Other senators wanted to use the Global Magnitsky Act to push for sanctions on China over its repression and surveillance of its citizens.

A version of the Global Magnitsky Act is now law in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Its been successfully used to punish:

While the original act was written to punish a few, the Global Magnitsky Act may be Americas gateway to stopping human rights violators.A driver for Uber was charged Tuesday with kidnapping a 24-year-old New York woman.

Prosecutors said the victim, who has not been named, was riding with New York Uber driver Habir Parmar in February when she fell asleep in his vehicle. When she awoke, Pamars car was allegedly on the side of the road and his hand was under her shirt, the Journal News reported.

As alleged, Harbir Parmar was hired to transport a woman from Manhattan to her home in White Plains, U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said in a statement. Instead, Parmar kidnapped, terrorized and assaulted the woman before dumping her on the side of an interstate. No one  man or woman  should fear such an attack when they simply hire a car service.

Parmar allegedly left her on the side of the interstate in Connecticut after the assault. He now faces a federal charge of kidnapping. He also faces a federal charge of wire fraud stemming from incidents in which he allegedly sent false information about the destination of Uber customers on nearly a dozen occasions over the course of more than a year, according to the Journal News.

In a statement to HuffPost, Uber said Parmar was immediately blocked from using the platform in February when the allegations first surfaced.

Whats been reported is horrible and something no person should go through, a spokesperson for Uber said. As soon as we became aware, we immediately removed this individuals access to the platform. We have fully cooperated with law enforcement and will continue to support their investigation.

Earlier this month, it was reported that 51-year-old former Uber driver Frederick Gaston told investigators that his rape of a 26-year-old woman in 2017 was good sex and a perk of the job.

We had sex, and it was good sex, Gaston said, according to Special Victims Det. Michelle Farinas deposition, obtained by the Miami New Times.

In September, a Florida woman jumped out of her Uber drivers window after she realized 30-year-old Destiny Green was not driving to her destination.

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I went into survival mode so quick, Brooke Adkins, 19, told WFLA at the time. I was far. Like, I got 25 to 30 minutes away. Im like, Where are you taking me?

And a CNN investigation found in April that at least 103 Uber drivers in the U.S. have been accused of sexual assault or abuse of passengers in the past four years.

Parmars kidnapping charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.YouTube confirmed that the website experienced a global outage late on Tuesday, apologizing to users for the inconvenience and promising that its streaming service would be up and running soon. The temporary disruption appeared to affect users around the world.

Were working on resolving this issue and will let you know once its fixed, YouTube said in a statement posted to Twitter.

Thanks for your reports about YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music access issues. We're working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will keep you updated.  Team YouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018

Anguished social media users were quick to spot YouTubes blackout.

Never seen YouTube down for 30+ minutes like this before ????  Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) October 17, 2018

Yes, our @YouTube is down, too. No, please don't call 911 - we can't fix it.  Philadelphia Police (@PhillyPolice) October 17, 2018

Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?  Koala (@KoalaKontrol) October 17, 2018

Youtube is down, so now we need other things to do on our lunch break :(  UNFD (@unfdcentral) October 17, 2018

The service appeared to be restored after about 90 minutes, much to some social media users relief.

Me leaving my moms room now that YouTube is back up pic.twitter.com/FoIHNCVIRC  _call.me.king ???????? (@_call_me_king0) October 17, 2018

It remains unclear what caused the outage. When asked for more details about the incident, Google declined to comment.Initiative 1631  Carbon fee

 What is it? This ballot measure would charge a fee on carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Large polluters would be charged an escalating fee on fossil-fuel emissions starting at $15 per metric ton. It would be the first direct carbon fee of its kind in the U.S.

Fundraising

 Supporters have raised $11 million. Top contributors include The Nature Conservancy at $1.5 million in cash, the League of Conservation Voters with $1.4 million and Bill and Melinda Gates who have together donated $1 million. Other supporters include Sarah Merner, Craig McKibben and Chris Stolte.

 Opponents have raised $22 million. Top contributors are Phillips 66 with $7.2 million, BP American with $6.3 million and Andeavor with $4.3 million. Other opponents include American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, U.S. Oil and Refining Co., Koch Industries and Chevron.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.WASHINGTONThe United States plans to turn up sanctions pressure on Venezuela but sees less need to immediately target its energy sector, given sagging production from the OPEC member's state-run oil company, a senior US administration official said on Wednesday.

The US government has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Venezuelan military and political figures close to socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who it blames for trampling on human rights and triggering the country's economic collapse.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration had weighed escalating sanctions by targeting a Venezuelan military-run oil services company or restricting insurance coverage for oil shipments.

The actions would have built upon last year's ban for US banks from any new debt deals with Venezuelan authorities or state-run oil giant PDVSA.

Asked by reporters whether the US government had slowed down on its push for sectoral sanctions, the senior official described them as some of the many "tools" it is keeping in reserve. "With regards to Venezuela, all options are on the table," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSA's inefficiencies," the official said.

Venezuela's crude oil production hit a 28-year low in 2017, a slump blamed on poor management and corruption.

"At the end of the day, Nicolas Maduro has taken care of really running PDVSA to the ground, and essentially more and more making it a non-factor," he said.After a night of calm, the Home Front Command lifted Thursday all security restrictions imposed on the Gaza border communities following Wednesday morning's rocket attack on a Be'er Sheva home and in the sea off the shores of a city in central Israel.

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On Wednesday, the army restricted gatherings of more than 300 people in open areas and more than 500 people in closed spaces in the communities surrounding Gaza, and school was canceled in Be'er Sheva, Sderot and the Gaza border communities.

Gaza border communities resume routine (Photo: Roee Idan)

The decision to resume full routine was taken following an IDF situation assessment and a Security Cabinet meeting overnight Wednesday.

The rocket alert siren went off at 3:39am on Wednesday in Be'er Sheva and surrounding communities in the Negev region, following which a rocket hit a house, breaking through two floors of concrete.

At around 9:30am , the Code Red rocket alert was once again sounded in southern Israel, this time in two communities in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. There have been no reports of injuries or damage. An IAF aircraft attacked the terror cell that tried to launch rockets at Israel.

Back to school in Gaza border communities (Photo: Roee Idan)

Seven people were treated for shock after the attack, including a 39-year-old mother and her three children aged 9, 10, and 12, who were in the house when it was hit. In addition, three people were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in the city suffering from light bruising sustained when falling as they were running for shelter.

Due to the size of the rocket and the force of the impact, heavy damage was caused to the house that was hit and it is at risk of collapse. A house next door was hit by shrapnel from the rockets, and its balcony collapsed. Debris was scattered throughout the street, damaging parked cars and adjacent structures.

The second rocket that hit the sea off the shores of one of the cities in central Israel had a bigger payload than normal.

According to a preliminary investigation by the Home Front Command, the rocket weighed about 20 kilograms, and penetrated through three concrete layers.

Security camera footage of the house in Be'er Sheva hit by a rocket

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"The safety room saved the lives of those staying at home," the Home Front Command added.

In retaliation, the IDF attacked over 20 targets , including a terror tunnel, in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning in retaliation for the rocket fire launched from Gaza.

Among the targets hit all over the strip were Hamas military bases, rocket manufacturing sites, underground infrastructure, an offensive tunnel, and tunnel dig sites in other areas, including one of a sea terror tunnel.

An IAF aircraft also attacked a terror cell in the northern Gaza Strip that tried to launch rockets at Israel.

The cell was said to belong to an "errant" radical faction, which was formerly part of Fatah and now has close ties to Iran.

In addition, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings and the reduction of the strip's fishing zone to three nautical miles.The IDF posted banners Thursday warning Tulkarem residents against assisting terrorist Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na'alwa who murdered Ziv Hagbi and Kim Levengrond Yehezkel at the Barkan industrial area in the West Bank last week.

The IDF said that those who choose to assist the terrorist would risk a long period of imprisonment.The Israeli Embassy in Paris, in coordination with the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, protested Wednesday against the coverage of Wednesday morning's rocket attack by popular French news sites "Le Parisien," and "Le Figaro" which focused on Israel's retaliatory strikes, instead of reporting the damage caused to a house in Be'er Sheva by Gaza's rocket.

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Following the protest, Le Parisien added a brief report about the rocket launch from Gaza: "A rocket fired Wednesday morning from Gaza into Israel causes damage in the city of Be'er Sheva."

However, the report's headline remained: "Israeli strikes Gaza, Palestinian killed."

Le Parisien's article begins with the Israeli strike in Gaza. "The Israeli Air Force launched an offensive against targets in the Gaza Strip, in response to a rocket launch from Palestinian territory, a Palestinian was killed. Footage of the Israeli army shows a Palestinian man, who was preparing to launch a rocket, who was shot dead as a result," the article read.

The article's next passage further details the Israeli attack, while focusing on the Palestinian side: "'Nazee Zanan, 25, was shot and killed in an air strike in the northern Gaza Strip,' the health minister said without elaborating. Meanwhile, the Israeli army published a video showing two men preparing to launch a rocket. One of them was wounded in an explosion soon thereafter, which apparently was carried out by Israeli forces."

There is no mention of the events that prompted Israel's retaliatory strike until the middle of the article, where, in a few words, the journalist describes the rocket that "hit a house in Be'er Sheva" while a woman and her three children, unharmed, were inside. The fact that the house was destroyed by the rocket was left out.

Le Figaro website's coverage began with a short breaking news report about an Israeli attack that ensued "after a rocket, fired by Palestinian fighters, hit a house in the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, the IDF reported."

"According to Israeli Health Ministry's spokesperson, three people were hospitalized as a result," the article went on to state.

The site's second breaking news report reads, "Israel closed two crossings into GazaErez and Kerem Shalomas well as Gaza's fishing zone."

The house hit by the rocket (:  )

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Le Figaro's following update described an Israeli attack on "20 different targets in the Gaza Strip" and adds that "Hamas condemns the rocket strike on Israel."

Almost four hours after the initial report, Le Figaro published that a Palestinian was "killed in an Israeli air strike", adding that the "Palestinian, according to IDF's footage, intended to launch a rocket."

In the next briefings it was reported that "Israel attacked 20 different targets in the Gaza Strip" and that "Hamas condemns the recent rocket fire on Israel."

In addition, the Liberation news site reported that "Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the closure of two crossings between Israel and Gaza, following a rocket attack on a city in southern Israel. The minister also restricted the fishing zone."

The Liberation too focused on the Israeli strikes in Gaza, reporting, "Israel attacked about 20 targets throughout the Gaza Strip due to rocket fire, while blaming Hamas for the events."A White House official condemned Wednesday the overnight firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israel, causing the dustruction of a house in the city of Be'er Sheva.

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"We condemn the rocket attack launched from Gaza, and call to put an end to this destructive violence," the official said.

House hit in Be'er Sheve by rocket fired from Gaza (Photo: Reuters)

"We appreciate the efforts invested by Israel, the United Nations, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a long-term ceasefire agreement (with Hamas).

"Hamas continues to distance peace, causing more suffering. We call upon Hamas to put the safety and wellbeing of Gaza's residents as their top priority," the White House official went on to say.

On Wednesday evening, The Security Cabinet convened in Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu's Office to discuss possible security development following the military escalation in Gaza.

After a night of calm, the Home Front Command lifted Thursday morning all security restrictions imposed on the Gaza border communities.

Before the meeting began, GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that "Hamas presumes to control Gaza, telling the strip's residents it is trying to improve their situation.

"In practice, the rampant violence on the Gaza border in the shape of incendiary balloons, explosive devices and rockets as we witnessed Wednesday early morning, is only worsening the situation of Gaza's residents, prompting us to attack Hamas weapon manufacturing sites, headquarters and underground terror infrastructure," he elaborated.

"All the targets we attacked were destroyed, and will be very difficult to reconstruct," Halevi stated, in reference to the 20 Hamas targets the IDF struck in retaliation for the rockts launched from Gaza.

"The IDF is prepared for all future scenarios and has the know-how to respond with greater power," he concluded.The far-right German political party "Alternative for Germany" has begun the dismissal process for one of its members, regional lawmaker Jessica Biessmann, who posed in front of wine bottles featuring pictures of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, German news agency DPA reported Wednesday.

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The photos of member of parliament (MP) Biessmann, which were posted on social media, sparked a roar of disapproval among Germany Party members, who petitioned to the German Federal Intelligence Service to investigate the matter.

Jessica Biessmann (Photo: AP)

In response, Biessmann said the photos are a decade old. "Hitler wine" bottles are available for purchase in Italy, but publicly displaying Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany.

There have been calls for Germanys domestic intelligence agency to monitor the Alternative for Germany party over extremism concerns.

Additionally, daily newspaper Thuringer Allgemeine reports that Bjorn Hocke, a senior AfD member in Thuringia, a state of Germany, quit after photos surfaced showing him posing behind a swastika table cloth while visiting Hitler-related sites in 2015.

Bjorn Hocke (Photo: Spiegel online)

These are only a few scandals associated with the Alternative for Germany party. back in February, the party also distanced itself from a member who reportedly called a German official a 'coward' and 'traitor' for the failed 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.

The daily Die Welt reported that Lars Steinke, head of the party's youth wing in Lower Saxony state, posted a comment on his private Facebook page slamming Col. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and describing the assassination plot as "a coward's shameful attempt to save his own skin."

Asked to comment on the report, Steinke told Reuters: It was a non-public statement so you wont find anything here.

Jessica Biessmann posing in front of 'Hitler wine' (Photo: Twitter)

According to Die Welt, Steinke argued that "the war wascontrary to today's propagandanot a war primarily against Hitler, but against Germany and the German people," and that Stauffenberg was "no hero."

AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland described Steinkes comments as groundless idiocy. Stauffenberg is a hero of German history. Steinke has disqualified himself from the AfD. He should be excluded, said Gauland.

The anti-immigrant AfD became the third largest party in the national parliament after elections in September. It won around 13 percent of votes, benefiting from concerns about the arrival of more than a million migrants since mid-2014. Questionable comments about the Nazi era by prominent members, and the leadership's handling of them, have been a recurring issue for the party.An indictment was filed on Thursday with the Magistrate's Court in Tel Aviv against Jaffa residents Abd al-Malik Asfur and Adam Abu Shehadeh, who left for Turkey to join the Islamic State group (ISIS) and the Jabhat al-Nusra organization affiliated with al-Qaeda in Syria.

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Asfur and Shehadeh returned to Israel after losing contact with their Syrian mediator, according to the indictment.

File Photo: ISIS terrorists (Photo: AP)

Several years ago, Asfur became increasingly interested in ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, while developing an ideological bond with the terror organizations and their values.

He then decided to join the fighting in Syria, prompting him to contact a Syrian source via Telegram who was supposed to help him enter Syria's territory.

Asfur suggested Shehadeh to join him, and the latter agreed.

The two Jaffa residents decided to enter Syria through Turkey in order to take part in ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra's fight against the Syrian regime.

After Arriving in Istanbul, Asfur and Shehadeh waited for instructions from the Syrian source who told them to he would contact them within a day or two.

However, they lost contact with the source, following which they returned to Israel.

The prosecution asked to extend Asfur and Shehadeh's remand after the two admitted to the charges attributed to them and gave a detailed version of the events.JERUSALEM -- The United States says it is placing its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians under the authority of its embassy to Israel.

The State Department said Thursday that merging the Jerusalem Consulate with the newly opened Jerusalem Embassy will achieve "significant efficiencies." But the move also has symbolic significance, by in effect downgrading the standing of the consulate.

For years, the consulate has served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians, reporting straight to the State Department in Washington. Placing it under the authority of the embassy could be seen as suggesting American recognition of Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Palestinians cut ties with the US after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem.The IDF started ramping up its armored forces along the Gaza border on Thursday in a daylight show of force following a Security Cabinet decision to escalate retaliation for any violent incidents originating in the strip.

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Among the forces that amassed at the border were dozens of tanks, artillery, infantry APCs and engineering vehicles.

IDF amasses troops by the Gaza border (:  )

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In addition, flight routes at Ben-Gurion Airport were changed Thursday due to the security situation. The Israel Airport Authority stressed, however, that the change "doesn't affect flights schedule."

Israelis living in communities by the border fence say they have not seen such a significant concentration of IDF forces in the area in years.

"It only looked like this during Operation Protective Edge or several years ago when there were tensions. It feels like something is about to happen, or they want to send a message to Hamas to beware," one resident said.

(Photo: Roee Idan)

Among the troops were also soldiers from the IDF Spokesman's Unit, which another resident said may be there to help send a message ahead of Friday, when thousands of Palestinians are expected to riot as part of the ongoing "March of Return" campaign that began on March 30.

About 200 Gazans have been killed by Israeli troops since the border protests began, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. Palestinians have launched incendiary balloons and kites into Israel and on occasion breached an Israeli frontier fence.

"It's possible that the fact these vehicles are close to the road and everyone can see them is meant to serve as a deterrent," said Shmuel, who lives in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. "I hope there's quiet on the other side, after they realize they have a lot more to lose than gain when they attack us."

With the deployment clearly visible from main Israeli roads near the Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials met leaders of the enclave's ruling Hamas to try to calm tensions. The Egyptian delegation, which left the strip on Wednesday after spending a day there in an effort to promote ceasefire talks, is led by Ahmed Abdelkhaliq, who heads the Palestinian issue in the Egyptian intelligence services.

The Egyptian delegation in Gaza

A Palestinian official said the Egyptian delegation was also in contact with Israeli leaders to curb the current tensions.

"The situation is delicate. No one wants a war," he said.

"Palestinian factions are demanding an end to the Israeli blockade that strangled life and business in Gaza," the official told Reuters.

GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi warned Wednesday that "the rampant violence on the Gaza border in the form of incendiary balloons, explosive devices and rockets is only exacerbating the situation of Gaza's residents."

"The IDF is prepared for all future scenarios and has the know-how to respond with greater power," he added.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip early Wednesday landed inside Israel, one hitting a Be'er Sheva home and causing great damage and the other falling in the sea off the shores of a central Israeli city.

Seven people were treated for shock in Be'er Sheva, including a 39-year-old mother and her three children aged 9, 10, and 12, who were in the house when it was hit. In addition, three people were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in the city suffering from light bruising sustained when falling as they were running for shelter.

Last Friday saw an unusually brazen incident on the border when some 20 terrorists blew up a hole in the border fence and infiltrated Israel. IDF forces opened fire on them, scaring most of them back into the strip. Three who continued advancing on IDF positions were shot dead. One of them was able to reach several meters from an IDF position armed with a knife. He was then shot dead at close range.







Reuters contributed to this story.GENEVA -- A UN humanitarian aid official said Thursday that Syria's government has withdrawn a controversial law that allowed for authorities to seize property left behind by civilians who fled the country's civil war, calling it a good sign that "diplomacy can win -- even in Syria."

Jan Egeland said he was told of the decision by Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Egeland, also said Assad's government has agreed to allow convoys of aid to enter the desolate Rukban area near Syria's border with Jordan. He said the UN and its partners haven't gotten access since January to the area where up to 50,000 civilians have been stuck for months, calling it one of Syria's most "desperate places."

Egeland, who heads aid issues in the office of UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura but whose day job is leading the Norwegian Refugee Council, also confirmed he will leave the UN post in November. He spoke a day after de Mistura told the UN Security Council that he himself is leaving for "personal" reasons.Russian President Vladimir Putin says any talks about the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria would be contingent on providing security guarantees for Syria.

Putin said Thursday that Russia helped negotiate the pullback of Iranian forces from the border with Israel over the summer.

Israel and the United States have demanded the withdrawal of all Iranian forces from Syria.

Putin said at an international policy forum in Sochi that the issue could be discussed between Iran, Syria and the United States, with Russia joining the dialogue.

He said Syria should be offered security guarantees by "those who want to see the Iranian forces pullout."B'Tselem Executive Director Hagai El-Ad sent a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the UN Security Council, telling him "I am not a traitor" and insisting "you will not silence us."

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The head of the left-wing human rights NGO was speaking at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, where he described the suffering of the Palestinian people.

"It is very difficult, if not impossible, to fully convey the indignity, the outrage and the pain of a people denied the benefit of human rights for more than 50 years," he began. "It is hard to articulate the flesh and blood meaning of the exposed lives Palestinians endure under occupation."

B'Tselem head Hagai El-Ad and Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour (Photo: UN TV)

"But no matter how hard it is to describe, the real hardship is that of facing such an intolerable existence day in and day out, trying to live, raise a family and develop a community under these conditions," El-Ad went on to say.

"It has been almost two years since I last had the honor of speaking before the Council. Two more years of occupation, two years in which the routine of the first 49 years of occupation continued," he accused.

Describing this routine, he went on: "Since I last spoke here, 317 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces and 13 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. Israel has demolished 294 Palestinian homes and has continued making arrests on a daily basis, including of minors. Israeli settlers have vandalized and uprooted thousands of olive trees and grapevines. Israeli security forces have continued to regularly enter Palestinian houses, sometimes coming in the dead of night, to wake children, register their names, and take their pictures. Palestinians have lost countless of hours waiting at checkpoints with no explanation. And so, the routine of the occupation marches on."

B'Tselem head Hagai El-Ad speaks at UN (: UN TV )

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This, he said, "is a calculated and deliberate process of slowly splitting up an entire people, fragmenting their land and disrupting their lives; separating Gaza from the West Bank, breaking up the West Bank into small enclaves, and walling off east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Eventually, what remains are isolated bits easier to oppress."

"The Gaza Strip, with a population of nearly 2 million, has essentially become an open-air prison," El-Ad accused. "Its inmates have been staging protests for the past six months after suffering for nearly a decade under an Israeli-imposed blockade that has led to economic collapse, soaring unemployment rates, polluted drinking water, dwindling power supplies, and ultimately to deep despair."

"Since March 30, more than 5,000 Palestinians have been injured by live Israeli gunfire, and more than 170 killed, including at least 31 minors. The youngest were just little boys, just 11 years old when they were killed," he went on to say.

El-Ad claimed Israel's actions against the Palestinians have nothing to do with security. "They do however affect the amorphous construct called the Middle East peace process. If one looks beyond the blinders of this process, it is clear to see how its supposedly yet-to-be-negotiated outcome is in reality being dictated day in and day out by unilateral Israeli actions," he said.

Israel, he asserted, is following a different moral compass, "and while at it, is also busy removing any obstacles that might keep it from its objective. Ongoing efforts to legislate against Israeli human rights organizations now go hand in hand with the routine in which opposition to the occupation is being equated with treason."

Prime Minister Netanyahu responded to El-Ad on Twitter, writing: "While our soldiers are preparing to defend Israel's security, the B'Tselem executive director has chosen to make a speech ridden with lies at the UN in an attempt to aid the enemies of Israel. The conduct of B'Tselem is a disgrace that will be remembered as a short and passing episode in the annals of our people."

Danon, Haley slam B'Tselem head's speech

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon slammed El-Ad's remarks, calling them a "circus" meant "to defame our strong democracy."

"Mr. El-Ad, you're a citizen of the State of Israel who serves our enemies," Danon told the B'Tselem head in Hebrew. "They're using you against us. IDF soldiers protect you and you come here and defame them. Shame on you, collaborator."

Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon speaks at UN (: UN TV )

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Outgoing US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley joined Danon's criticism, calling El-Ad's speech "a distorted and one-sided accounting that is provided all too often in the United Nations when it comes to Israel and the Palestinian issue."

"It is why I've so often attempted to bring some diversity to our discussions of the challenges facing the Middle East," Haley noted.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at UN (: UN TV )

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Speaking of Iran's use of child soldiers, Haley finished her comments with a warning to anyone who does business with companies and individuals under US sanctions "could themselves be subject to US sanctions."

"The sanctions the United States is leveling against Iran are broad and deep and for good reason. Any company or individual that does business with this Iranian network, is complicit in sending children to die on the battlefields of Syria and elsewhere. The United States will do all we can to reverse the flow of international funds into the Iranian regime," she concluded.A team of Egyptian mediators on Thursday shuttled between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers in a stepped-up effort to forge a cease-fire between the two enemies.

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The series of meetings came a day after Gaza terrorists fired a rocket that struck a home in Be'er Sheva , triggering a series of Israeli airstrikes . It was the heaviest day of fighting in several months.

The four Egyptian intelligence officials entered Gaza from Israel on Thursday afternoon, and then returned to Israel after meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' top leader.





Hamas leader Haniyeh meets with Egyptian delegation

Khalil al-Haya, a top Hamas official, said the Egyptians had discussed cease-fire efforts, as well as on-and-off attempts at reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Authority. The talks were ongoing.

The Islamic militant Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, leaving the Palestinians divided between rival governments in Gaza and the West Bank.

Gaza's economy has been ravaged by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that was imposed after the Hamas takeover. Hamas has been leading weekly violent protests near the Israeli border for over six months in an attempt to ease the blockade.

Those protests have intensified in recent weeks as Egyptian and UN cease-fire efforts faltered.

Hamas leadership meets with Egyptian delegation

Last week, some 14,000 Palestinians thronged to the perimeter fence, burning tires and throwing rocks, firebombs and grenades at soldiers on the other side.

Some 20 Palestinians breached the border last Friday, and seven Palestinians were killed, including four who the military said had entered Israel and approached a military position. Israel responded by cutting off Qatari-funded fuel shipments meant to ease a chronic electricity shortage.

Following Wednesday's rocket attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet for a lengthy, late-night meeting . But Israel refrained from further retaliation, suggesting it was giving the Egyptians a chance to restore calm.

UN Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov urged all friends of Israel and the Palestinians to join the UN in calling on all sides "to step back from the brink" of war, calling Gaza a "powder keg."

"We remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that nobody claims to want, but a conflict that needs much more than just words to prevent," he told the UN Security Council in a video briefing from Jerusalem.

UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov meets with the Hamas leadership

"I am afraid that there is no more time for words," Mladenov said. "Now is the time for action. And we must see very clear actions on all sides that de-escalate the situation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone."

He said all parties must maintain their commitment under a cease-fire that ended the 2014 Operation Protective Edgethe third between the sides since the Hamas takeover.

Mladenov said Hamas and other terror groups must immediately stop "all provocations and attacks," attempts to breach the border fence, end the use of incendiary balloons and kites, and halt tunnel construction.

"Israel must restore the delivery of critical supplies to Gaza and improve the movement and access of goods and people," he said. "And Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint in the use of live ammunition."

A key test will be on Friday, when the next border protest is planned. Israel has demanded an end to the weekly confrontations, as well as the frequent launches of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory.

Israeli forces amass on the Gaza border (Photo: Roee Idan)

Daoud Shehab, a member of the organizing committee of the marches, said officials were encouraging protesters to stay away from the border fence. But he said he was not sure to what extent they would succeed in "restraining the public mood."

"There will be attempts to prevent them from approaching the fence. There might be a reduction of balloons," he said. "We hope there will be no human losses tomorrow. We are giving a chance to the Egyptian efforts."

The IDF, meanwhile, has ramped up its armored forces along the Gaza border in a daylight show of force following a Security Cabinet decision to escalate retaliation for any violent incidents originating in the strip.

Among the forces that amassed at the border were dozens of tanks, artillery, infantry APCs and engineering vehicles.Even if it's not entirely clear what would be the extent of the IDF's ramped up response to Hamas's escalation in violence, one thing is clear: Israel must not reach an agreement under fire and without first restoring its deterrence.

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The deterrence from Operation Protective Edge lasted three years and eight months. The political leadership did not take advantage of this quiet to achieve a convenient arrangement with Hamas, and this has been its main mistake.

Over the past six months, Hamas has realized that the Israelis understand only force, and that has been working out nicely for the terror group. If the Israeli reaction doesn't change in the wake of a grave incident like the rocket fire early Wednesdaythe situation would only deteriorate.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Lieberman hold situation assessment (Photo: Hagai Dekel)

On March 29, Hamas decided to change the equation, and they've been successful: first with the "March of Return" on the border, the violent rioting, the launching of incendiary and explosive balloons, rounds of fighting they initiated, and lately the mass infiltrations into Israel.

The military and the government didn't handle these cases correctlynot the balloons, when at first they didn't stop their launchers; and not the rounds of fighting that the IDF ended with no operational achievements. Furthermore, despite the infiltrations, the IDF didn't reintroduce the ban on Palestinians entering the 300-meter buffer zone on the border.

Over the past six months the prime minister, as well as the defense minister, have mostly been busy making threats that turned out to be empty. It were those empty threats that allowed the situation to deteriorate to this level.

The rocket fire on Wednesday morning surprised both the IDF and the political leadership. They were all busy preparing for the arrival of Egyptian intelligence head Kamel Abbas to the Gaza Strip, Ramallah and Jerusalem to wrap up the loose ends on the ceasefire deal.

Damage caused by Gaza rocket to Be'er Sheva home (Photo: Ido Erez)

Hamas claims it was not responsible for the rocket fire at Be'er Sheva and central Israel. But only two organizations in the strip have the kind of rockets fired on WednesdayHamas and Islamic Jihad. The damage caused is extensive and unusual because this rocket had more than the standard 20 kilograms of explosives.

The launchers of the rocket did so in a calculated manner. It was definitely not the result of a lightning strike, as Hamas claimed, but rather because someone wanted to achieve another victory before the arrangement that the same someone also hoped to achieve, and so it was convenient for that someone to also appear as the one seeking to halt the fire.

Israel must not allow this situation and so it requires a responsebefore Israel agrees to an arrangement. The retaliatory attacks on Wednesday were not as significant despite the videos released by the IDF. The only terrorist killed was the result of the thwarting of a cell trying to launch rockets at the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

IAF attacks rocket launching cell (:  " )

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Meanwhile, some of the Hamas leaders have gone underground, and the organization evacuated its command posts to limit the IDF's ability to carry out assassinations.

The IDF presented the Cabinet with different levels of operations, but it's clear that both the military and political leadership lack the kind of trickery Israel excelled at during Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge. In 2008, then-defense minister Ehud Barak ordered to open the Gaza border crossings despite the unending rocket fire, and then the next day he ordered strikes on dozens of Hamas targets. In 2014, Barak and Netanyahu went to the Golan Heights for a photo up to divert media attention to Syria, while the Air Force carried out a strike taking out Hamas commander Ahmed Jabari.

For six months that Netanyahu and Lieberman's policy of restraint is not working. There's no reason to believe that if they continue on the same path now, it'll suddenly start bearing fruit.Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will hold a hearing for Welfare Minister Haim Katz on Sunday following which he will decide whether to file an indictment against Katz for bribery, fraudulently obtaining benefits under aggravated circumstances, fraud and breach of trust. Katz said Thursday that he is "certain that after the hearing, this bizarre case will be shelved because there is nothing factual or legal about it."

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In May, the Tel Aviv District Attorney's Office (for Taxation and Economics) notified Minister Katz of the expected step. The decision was made on the basis of the recommendations of State Attorney Shai Nitzan and District Attorney Liat Ben Ari Schweki.

Chaim Katz (Photo: Mark Israel)

Katz has served in the Knesset for the past 19 years, except for a short break, and was appointed minister in May 2015. Between 2005-2006 and 2009-2013, Katz served as Chairman of the Knesset's Labor and Social Affairs Committee, where he wielded considerable influence over advancing legislative processes as well as various matters relating to the public.

The police suspect that Katz acted to appoint a chairman of the Israel Aerospace Industries board of directors and intervened in internal matters related to the organization of employees at the company.

Another case concerns Katz's ties to investor Mordechai Ben Ari, who is considered an expert on investment portfolio management.

According to the State Attorney's Office, Ben-Ari is suspected of instructing Katz on how to manage his investment portfolio so frequently that the portfolio was actually managed by him. This was allegedly done without any financial compensation from the minister, contrary to accepted practice, and without a formal arrangement of their relations as mandated by law.

Mordechai Ben Ari (Photo: Amit Sha'al)

As part of the relationship between the two, Ben-Ari advised Katz on one occasion to purchase securities in subsidiaries of Aquitel, a dominant public holding company, while exploiting insider information about future developments he learned of as part of his position in the company.

The State Attorney's Office noted that Minister Katz and Ben-Ari had carried out large-scale coordinated transactions in the framework of trading on the stock exchange, in a manner that would have yielded a great deal of economic benefit to Katz.

"Ben-Ari's expertise and his great involvement in managing Katz's portfolio yielded millions of shekels in profits," the State Attorney's Office wrote.

In addition, Katz opened a trust account under the management of Ben Ari when he was appointed welfare minister, but hid his identity in contravention with the rules.

"The economic relationship between the two included the expectation and mutual understanding that Ben-Ari could use the public role of Minister Katz, with the powers vested in him and with the accessibility that the job provides for the benefit of himself or the Aquitel Group."

Investigators of the Department of Intelligence and Trade Control at the Israel Securities Authority claimed that in exchange for the benefits, Katz exercised his power and authority as a public figure to help advance Ben-Ari's affairs. Among other things, the minister acted to pass a bill that embodied a very high potential economic value for Ben-Ari and Aquitel.

"Minister Katz conducted discussions on the bill, initiated and drafted by Ben Ari himself, at the Labor and Welfare Committee he heads, and invited him to the committee as the only expert on the subject," the State Attorney's Office said.

"This was done while concealing the personal and business relationship with Ben Ari and presenting him as an expert without any vested interest, despite the considerable business interests inherent in advancing the proposal."ONTONAGON  Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials said Tuesday 759 lake sturgeon have been released into the Ontonagon River.

The fish were stocked on Sept. 19 in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to the DNR.

Over the spring and summer, the DNR and its partners released more than 12,000 juvenile lake sturgeon into public waters, part of an effort to rehabilitate the species.

This years total is twice the number stocked in 2017.

Total lake sturgeon stocked numbered 12,374.

Lake sturgeon eggs and larvae were collected from the wild in April and May and then reared in stream-side facilities until they were large enough to tag. To allow for future evaluations, most fish were tagged before being released.

Many of these stocking efforts were public events that showcased the importance of lake sturgeon to Michigan, and the partnerships that help us protect them for future generations, said MDNR Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter.

The lake sturgeon is on Michigans Threatened Species list.

Ralph AnsamiThe Property Council of Australia recently revealed some reasons behind the record level property sector confidence for South Australia (SA), amid the significant declines recorded in other states.

While the latest ANZ/Property Council Survey showed that the state-wide confidence in SA slightly dropped from 149 last quarter to 144 for the December 2018 quarter, confidence has remained relatively stable, and it remains the most valued market in Australia.

Confidence levels are almost 30 points above South Australias historic average, and currently sit almost 20 points above the national average. Similarly, State economic growth expectations are also significantly higher than the rest of Australia, Property Council SA Executive Director Daniel Gannon shared.

This figure marked the nations highest level of property sector confidence for the second consecutive quarter. Gannon cited four factors that drove this outstanding rating.

He pointed out that SA is the only state in the country that does not charge stamp duty on commercial property transactions.

Second, outlook on the states investment became more positive when defence spending was increased.

In addition, corrective state taxes on car parks and banks were not featured in the State Governments budget for the financial year 2019.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, SA has started its plan to reform land tax, with an allotted $96 million to raise thresholds and lower rates.

The Property Council also highlighted that SA was the only state to see an increase in residential capital growth expectations.

Confidence in the State Government to manage the economy has remained in positive territory for the third consecutive quarter. This means there is goodwill across the sector, but it also means the new Government needs to deliver its vision to reform and rebuild, Gannon concluded.

The ANZ/Property Council Survey includes responses from property industry professionals from South Australia and across the country.News

Washington, DC - When the FTC warns consumers about government imposter scams, were usually referring to bogus calls that falsely claim to come from the IRS or some other official office. But as a case just announced by the FTC demonstrates, thats not the only kind of false government affiliation that can deceive consumers. A $2.2 million settlement with American Immigration Center reminds other businesses of the dangers of conveying a misleading connection to a government agency.

When consumers wanted to renew their green cards or apply for naturalization, where did they go? Online, of course, where they input terms like USCIS, INS, or US Immigration to search for the proper government site. According to the FTC, thats how they ran across results with tag lines like USCIS Forms  Easy Online Forms for Green Card & Citizenship.

A click took them to sites with the outward appearance of official government webpages. First, there were the URLs  usimmigration.us, uscitizenship.info, etc. Then there was the red, white, and blue color scheme, the Statue of Liberty, passports, and pictures of then-President Obama. Whats more, people looking for, say, Green Card Renewal Form I-90, saw links with the exact name of the relevant document. According to the FTC, people paid between $120 to $300 and input a substantial amount of personal information, all under the impression they were filing documents directly with a government agency.

Except that they werent. Despite the appearance of those pages, consumers were actually on one of many commercial sites the defendants used to sell their software wizard to fill out government immigration forms. And the money consumers paid didnt go toward government filing fees. It went straight into the defendants pockets.

In addition to the $2.2 million judgment, the defendants have agreed to clearly disclose that: 1) their sites arent affiliated with the government; 2) people must separately file immigration applications with the appropriate government agency; and 3) people must separately pay applicable filing fees to the government. The proposed order also bars the defendants  principal Cesare Alessandrini and Forms Direct, Inc., doing business as American Immigration Center  from stating or implying any affiliation with the government.

Whats the message for other companies?

Avoid an affiliation conflation. Look at your ads and websites from the point of view of your target audience. Could prospective customers be left with the misimpression that your company has an affiliation with a government agency? Steer clear of any purported connection to a local, state, or federal government office.

Consider the big picture. The complaint in this case cited the words the defendants used to convey claims to consumers, as well as what their websites looked like. Thats because, according to the FTC Deception Policy Statement, The Commission will evaluate the entire advertisement, transaction, or course of dealing in determining how reasonable consumers are likely to respond. That specifically includes visual imagery and the omission of material information. Wise companies bear in mind the FTCs long-established net impression standard and exercise caution in drafting their copy, selecting graphics, and choosing what they say  and what they dont say  to consumers.News

Yuma, Arizona - 50,000 words. One month. Observed every November, National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing! Participants begin writing on November 1st. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30th.

This year, aspiring authors are invited to attend NaNoWriMo kickoff events, weekly write-ins, and finale celebrations at the Main and Foothills libraries.



National Novel Writing Month Kickoff

All writers are invited to attend National Novel Writing Month Kickoff Parties! Local writers Chris Howard and Meleesa Stephens will be on-hand to welcome you to the program and help you register at the official website, http://www.nanowrimo.org/.

Foothills Library  Friday, November 2nd  4:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Main Library  Saturday, November 3rd  11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.



Write-ins

Need a place to write? Bring your preferred writing tools to the Foothills or Main Library and work on your novel surrounded by other local writers.

Foothills Library  Wednesday, November 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th  3:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Main Library  Saturday, November 10th, 17th, 24th  11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.



Thank God Its Over!

You survived! Celebrate a month of hard work with your fellow NaNoWriMo writers!

Foothills Library  Saturday, December 1st  1:00 - 2:00 p.m.

Main Library  Saturday, December 1st  3:00 - 4:00 p.m.



The Main Library is located at 2951 S 21st Drive. The Foothills Library is located at 13226 E South Frontage Road. For more information, call (928) 782-1871.News

Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump at the Presentation of the Medal of Honor to Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley:

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you. And thank you very much, Chaplain. Appreciate it. Please sit down.

Vice President Mike Pence, thank you for joining us for todays ceremony. This is always one of my favorite events. I like brave people. We meet them right here.

Fifty years ago, an American Marine fought with unmatched bravery in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War  the Battle of Hue City. The name of that heroic Marine is Sergeant Major John Canley. (Applause.) I think you like him. (Laughter.)

Today, we proudly award John the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Applause.) Johns family is with us to pay tribute  his children, Ricky, Yukari, and Patricia; along with his two grandchildren, Victoria and Candice. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. (Applause.) Also with us is Johns cousin, who has always been like a brother to him, James Canley. James, thank you very much. Stand up, James. (Applause.)

Were grateful to be joined by Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. Thanks, Patrick. Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer. (Applause.) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford. (Applause.) Hey, John, there are some pretty big people over here, when you hear that, right? (Laughter.) These are the biggest. These are the biggest, John.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Peter. (Applause.) Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert Neller. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you, General. Stand up, Robert. Come on. Stand up. Thank you, Robert.

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green. And  (Applause.) You know, its like old family week, huh? (Laughter.)

Boy, heres a Marine I like a lot that we all know, we all love. Hes doing a fantastic job. Four-star General John Kelly. Stand up. (Applause.)

And thank you as well to Congresswoman Julia Brownley for being with us. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

We are especially thankful to be joined by five previous Medal of Honor recipients: Donald Ballard; Harvey Barnum  please stand as I call you name; Roger Donlon; Thomas Kelley; and Brian Thacker. (Applause.)

Sergeant Major John Canley was born in Caledonia, Arkansas. In 1953, at the age of 15, John used his brothers paperwork to enlist in the United States Marines. (Laughter.) We didnt know that, John. (Laughter.)

John served in South Korea and Japan, before shipping out to Vietnam for more than five years of intense combat.

On January 30th, 1968, Vietnamese families gathered to celebrate the Lunar New Year, known as Tet. In the midst of the celebration, thousands of North Vietnamese communists launched surprise attacks all over and throughout the country. This became known as the Tet Offensive, one of the largest enemy offenses that weve ever seen, and certainly of the Vietnam War.

Within the first day, the communists seized control of a vital American stronghold  Hue City.

At the time of the attack, John was a Gunnery Sergeant with Alpha Company, First Battalion, First Marine Regiment. This company of roughly 150 Marines was tasked to help take back the city.

On their way, the enemy attacked them with machine guns, mortars, rockets, and everything else they had. Johns friend Pat Fraleigh was struck by a rocket explosion and was about to be run over by a tank when John charged through enemy fire, and carried him back to safety.

Today, 50 years later, Pat is here with us at the White House to honor the hero who saved his life. Thank you for being here, Pat. Wheres Pat? Pat. (Applause.) Thats great, Pat. Thank you very much. I knew youd have no problem getting up. (Laughter.) Thats great. Thank you, Pat.

Early in the battle, Johns commanding officer was seriously wounded. Command then fell to John, who quickly organized his men and led them through the fight.

One of his fellow warriors who joins us today, John Ligato, said, You followed him because he was a true leader. He was totally fearless. He loved his Marines, and we loved him back. Where is John? Where are you, John? Stand up, John. (Applause.) Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here.

By the end of the day, John and his company of less than 150 Marines had successfully pushed into the city which was held by 6,000  at least  communist fighters.

In the days that followed, John led his company through the fog and rain, and in house-to-house  very vicious, very hard  combat. He assaulted enemy strongholds; killed enemy fighters; and, with deadly accuracy, did everything you had to do. He raced into heavy machine gun fire on many occasions, all to save his fellow Marines. In one harrowing engagement after another, John risked his own life to save the lives of those under his command.

During the fifth day of combat, John and his company were tasked with liberating the Joan of Arc School, which had become a strategic and symbolic stronghold of the communists control of the city.

As soon as Johns company arrived, communist forces unleashed their machine guns with tremendous velocity, tremendous violence, all at the Marines. Undeterred, John and his comrade Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez fearlessly charged forward with rocket launchers, killing the enemy and driving them from their positions. The enemy didnt know what the hell happened. (Laughter.)

During this daring maneuver, Sergeant Gonzalez was shot and killed, giving his life for his nation and for his fellow Marines. Today, we are honored to be joined by Sergeant Gonzalezs mother  who I just met, who is incredible  Maria. Where is Maria? Maria. Theres Maria. (Applause.) Thank you, Maria. Everybody in this room had great respect for your son. You know that. Thank you very much.

We are also joined by Henry Murphy, whose brother Walter died fighting courageously in the Battle of Hue City. And Henry  where are you, Henry? Please stand up. (Applause.)

To Maria and Henry: We are eternally in your debt. Sergeant Gonzalez and Major Murphy are heroes who will live forever in the hearts of all Americans. Thank you both very much for being here. Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

As the battle raged on, Sergeant Major John Canley fought his way inside the Joan of Arc School. There, he and his fellow Marines went room to room, in brutal, close-quarters combat.

John raced straight into enemy fire over and over again, saving numerous American lives, and defeating a large group of communist fighters.

After an intense day of fighting, John and his fellow Marines liberated the school. But John wasnt done yet. Despite sustaining serious injuries  very, very serious injuries  he continued to face down the enemy with no thought for his own safety.

John waged seven straight days of unrelenting combat, personally saving the lives of more than 20 Marines. By the battles end, American Marines had defeated the communists and taken back the city.

Today, we are joined by more than 30 of the brave Marines who fought with valor in the Battle of Hue City. Would you please stand? (Applause.) You make us all very proud. Thank you for being here. Thank you very much.

Sergeant Major John Canley continued his service long after Vietnam, training thousands of Marines in combat drills and overseas. Now, at 80 years old  you dont look 80 years old to me. (Laughter.) Looks like we could put him in, Joe, right away. Right? Nobody would know the difference, right? (Laughter.) Thats really great. He still goes to the gym. I asked him that question. I said, How are you keeping in shape? I still work out, sir. (Laughter.) Its beautiful.

And he goes right on base right near his home in California and gives advice to young Marines.

Johns fellow Marines have described him as a Marine warrior  and I can see it  who is bigger than life and beyond the reach of death. He is truly larger than life.

John, it is because of your extraordinary personality, and being, and whatever it takes that really do something very special for our country. America is the greatest force for peace, justice, and freedom the world has ever known because of you and people like you. There are very few. There are very few. Brave people  but very, very few like you, John.

It is now my incredible privilege to present Sergeant Major John Canley with the Congressional Medal of Honor. And I would like to ask the military aide to come forward and read the citation. Thank you.

MILITARY AIDE: The President of the United States, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor to Gunnery Sergeant John L. Canley, United States Marine Corps, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy while serving as Company Gunnery Sergeant, Alpha Company, First Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division, from 31 January to 6 February 1968, in the Republic of Vietnam.

Alpha Company fought off multiple vicious attacks as it rapidly moved along the highway toward Hue City to relieve friendly forces that were surrounded by enemy.

Despite being wounded in these engagements, Gunnery Sergeant Canley repeatedly rushed across fire-swept terrain to carry his wounded Marines to safety.

After his commanding officer was severely wounded, Gunnery Sergeant Canley took command and led the company into Hue City.

At Hue City, caught in deadly crossfire from enemy machine gun positions, he set up a base of fire and maneuvered with a platoon in a flanking attack that eliminated several enemy positions.

Retaining command of the company for three days, he led attacks against multiple enemy fortified positions while routinely braving enemy fire to carry wounded Marines to safety.

On 4 February, he led a group of Marines into an enemy-occupied building in Hue City. He moved into the open to draw fire, located the enemy, eliminated the threat, and expanded the companys hold on the building room by room. Gunnery Sergeant Canley then gained position above the enemy strongpoint and dropped in a large satchel charge that forced the enemy to withdraw.

On 6 February, during a fierce firefight at a hospital compound, Gunnery Sergeant Canley twice scaled a wall in full view of the enemy to carry wounded Marines to safety.

By his undaunted courage, selfless sacrifice, and unwavering devotion to duty, Gunnery Sergeant Canley reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

(The Medal of Honor is presented.) (Applause.)Latest News

Baghdad, Iraq - In Baghdad on Sunday, Deputy Secretary Sullivan participated in a working lunch with Iraqi religious leaders. The Deputy Secretary was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Doug Silliman, Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Major General Ricky Waddell, National Security Council Director for Iraq Matthew Zais, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs Andrew Peek.

The Deputy Secretary underlined that the United States is deeply committed to assisting persecuted religious groups, including Christian and Yazidi communities in Iraq who suffered genocide at the hands of ISIS. He emphasized the United States view that ensuring people of all beliefs have a secure future in Iraq is integral to the regions stability and peace.

The United States has provided nearly $1 billion since FY 2017 in development and security assistance in Iraq, of which nearly $300 million is specifically prioritized in geographic regions with concentrations of religious component communities, such as the Ninewa Plains. A significant amount of that funding is also benefitting displaced and other conflict-affected populations in Northern Iraq, an area that hosts the majority of the countrys displaced ethnic and religious minorities.

The Deputy Secretary of State reaffirmed the U.S. governments commitment to continued support for religious and ethnic minority communities in Iraq.Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Monday, at approximately 8:06 a.m., the Yuma Police Department received a call in reference to a possible school shooting to occur at Cibola High School or Yuma Catholic High School.

Two 16 year old male students from Desert View Middle & High School have been identified as the subjects who made the threats. Both juveniles will have charges forwarded to the County Attorneys Office for review for terrorism.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this case to please call the Yuma Police Department at 928-373-4700 or 78-Crime at (928) 782-7463 to remain anonymous.Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.The number of people enrolling in universities in Ghana is very high. Baldwin College is one of the colleges that is experiencing a high number of applications. The increased enrollment into universities has been facilitated by the high demand for skilled workforce in Ghana. Baldwin College provides its students with the skills and knowledge that is necessary to meet job requirements. This knowledge also helps students face challenges in the contemporary society. Therefore, if you need a good place to study, Baldwin College should feature prominently among the top choices of colleges you are considering. This article will provide you with detailed and comprehensive information about Baldwin College, programs, and entry requirements.

Baldwin College is one of the best colleges in Ghana. The institution is located in Accra-North, Accra. The primary aim of establishing the college was to transfer skills and knowledge acquired by the founder, to the current generation of youths, especially those who desire to study the sciences. The institution offers undergraduate programs which are based on science core curriculum and strong liberal arts. This provides the students with choices when it comes to professional and career development.

READ ALSO: Holy Child College of Education courses, fees and admission requirements

About Baldwin College

The founder of Baldwin College is Dr. Akwasi Achampong who is a trained medical professional. He is also the owner and medical director of Elmont Medical. He established Baldwin College with the principal aim of transferring the knowledge and skills he acquired to individuals who want to study the sciences.

The mission of Baldwin College is to be an independent and comprehensive institution that provides a value-centered education experience to its students to enhance ethical, spiritual, intellectual, and social development. The vision of Baldwin College is to become the most preferred institution that is capable of training the minds of its students to make important decisions that will shape the world.

Baldwin College is guided by its mission, vision, and policies on the code of ethics because they define the relationships of student to student, institution to the public/media, staff to student, and staff to staff. You will, therefore, acquire the skills and knowledge essential for facing the challenges of modern life. The institution offers undergraduate programs, which are based on science core curriculum and strong liberal arts.

The faculty will encourage you to search for the truth through analytical and critical thinking. This will make you strive for personal and moral growth. It will also help you develop a sense of economic, political, and social responsibility.

Baldwin College programs

The courses offered at Baldwin College are:

Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Information Technology programme

Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Medical Laboratory Science programme

Diploma (HND) programmes

ICM UK programmes

Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Information Technology programme

The program seeks to meet the emerging and existing needs of the industry through educating new IT workers concerning the current IT practices and principles, as well as its applications. In addition, the programme will enable you to obtain practical skills necessary for interacting at the technical and management level. The programme will enable you to fit in jobs that focus on the use of IT in an increasing number of new sub-disciplines such as information security, network administration, telecommunications, information systems, computer graphics, data management, and web development. The program will also provide you with a gateway into the Entrepreneurial and Information Technology environment within the community. This will enable you to be gainfully employed as an employee, entrepreneur, or a consultant.

Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Medical Laboratory Science programme

The BSc. Medical Laboratory Science programme will enable you to become a competent Medical Laboratory Technologist with high professional standing in the delivery of laboratory practice. It will also help you to be:

able to perform in all fields of medical laboratory science or related areas of employment

able to work as an informed professional in relation to the changing healthcare system

capable of evaluating and constructing your own approach to medical laboratory science practice

inculcated with values significant for serving the patient and society as a caring, knowledgeable ethical professional and enlightened citizen.

able to obtain skills in critical observation and inquiry by getting placements in various units of specialties

able to gain the capacity to continue as a responsible and productive member of the profession and at the same time assume leadership roles as appropriate to the society and profession.

able to obtain a good understanding of contemporary and future public health policies, health issues, and international health rules and regulations.

Diploma (HND) programmes

The Diploma programmes offered by Baldwin College create unique employment opportunities for the students in private and government institutions, as well as training and research institutions. National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations (NABPTEX) awards the certificates associated with the diploma programmes. The institution is the affiliate body for Baldwin College. Below are the diploma programmes offered by the institution:

HND in Medical Laboratory Science

HND in Dispensing Technology

READ ALSO: Christ Apostolic University College courses, location and contacts

ICM UK programmes

The Institute of Commercial Management (ICM), was established in 1979. It is a professional body for Business and Commercial development. It is also an examining and awarding body for management and business students. The institution has been accredited to offer business and commercial courses by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation which is the UK regulatory body for publicly funded qualifications and public examinations. ICM is a non-profit organization. Its headquarters is in Ringwood, Hampshire, United Kingdom. Below are the ICM courses offered by Baldwin College:

Accounting and Finance

Business Studies

Managing Health and Safety

Marketing Management

Hospitality Management

Professional Computing and Information Processing

Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations

Human Resource Development

Baldwin College fees

The table below shows the fees charged by Baldwin College:

Entry requirements for Baldwin College

General entry requirements

There are several entry requirements for Balwin College that you must consider first.

1. SSSCE applicants

The applicants should have a pass in three core subjects (English, Mathematics and Integrated Science/ Social Studies) including three elective subjects.

2. WASSCE Applicants

The applicants should have credit passes in three core subjects (English, English language, and integrated science/social studies) including three elective subjects.

Students who want admission in the Bachelor of Science (BSc.) Medical Laboratory Science programme should have three (3) credits in the core subjects including three credits in the elective subjects (Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics or Physics).

3. Mature applicants

Should be at least twenty-five (25) years old.

Should be a holder of Certificate in Medical Laboratory Technician or have credits in three (3) core subjects (Mathematics, English, and Integrated Science) including three (3) Elective subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics) in SSSCE, WASSCE or Equivalent.

Should have not less than three years working experience in a medical laboratory and should pass an entrance examination.

4. International applicants

WASSCE/SSSCE applicants from West African sub-region should have Six (6) credits (A1-C6 in WASSCE and A-D in SSSCE) including English, Mathematics and Integrated Science.

IGCSE/GCE (Cambridge)  O and A Levels Applicants should have at least Five (5) passes including English and Mathematics in the IGCSE/IB/Cambridge O Level and three relevant subjects at the A Levels.

5. Transfer applicants

You are only allowed to transfer from the same Information Technology programme from any University.

To be considered for the application, you need to meet the requirements of the core courses. You should also demonstrate a 2.0 cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA).

How to apply

You can purchase the application form from the Osu campus as follows:

Degree (BSc.) programmes:

GHS 100.00 for Ghanaian applicants

An equivalent of USD 100.00 for International applicants.

Higher National Diploma (HND) programmes:

GHS 80.00 for Ghanaian applicants

An equivalent of USD 80.00 for international applicants.

Institute of Commercial Management (ICM-UK) programmes:

GHS 60.00 for Ghanaian applicants

An equivalent of USD 60.00 for International applicants.

Baldwin College admission forms can also be downloaded. You will be charged GHS 80.00 for HND programmes, GHS 100.00 for BSc. programmes, and GHS 60.00 for ICM programmes if you are Ghanaian applicant. An international applicant will be charged USD 80.00 for HND programmes, USD 100.00 for BSc. programmes, and USD 60.00 for ICM programmes at the time of submission.

After filling the application form, you are expected to attach two (2) passport size photographs. The completed application forms must be submitted in person, along with two (2) passport size photos, certificates and result slips, as well as transcripts. Make sure you submit it in person to:

The Front Desk

Baldwin College, Osu

Off the Oxford Street, first turn on the left after Photoclub.

Contact information

You can always contact the university through:

Digital address: GA-082-6568

Physical address: P. O. Box 19872, Accra-North, Accra, Ghana

Phone: +233.26.596.8229

Email: enquiries@baldwin.edu.gh

Baldwin College offers the best education and training when it comes to academic programs. The college provides equal opportunities to both local and international students, so bribes will not give you preferential treatment. The quality of education and training that will be provided to you will increase your chances of being employed after you have graduated.

READ ALSO: Anglican University College of Technology courses and admission requirements

Source: Yen.com.ghUniversity of Ghana Business School courses will help you become competitive in the job market because they are in high demand. If you want to study at one of the accredited institutions, the University of Ghana Business School should be considered too. Take advantage of the ongoing University of Ghana Business School admissions and achieve your academic dreams. Below are the courses provided at the University of Ghana Business School.

University of Ghana Business School is undoubtedly one of the prestigious universities in the republic of Ghana. The institution is located in Accra, Ghana. The institution offers undergraduate, masters and PhD courses in six academic departments namely:

Department of Finance

Department of Marketing & Entrepreneurship

Department of Accounting

Department of Operations and Management Information Systems (OMIS)

Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management (PAHSM), and

Department of Organization and Human Resource Management (OHRM)

The institution has a serene environment that accommodates thousands of students from various walks of life.

READ ALSO: Accra College of Medicine courses, fees, and entry requirements

About the University of Ghana Business School

The University of Ghana Business School (UGBS) is a first business school that was established with a primary goal of developing world-class human resources and capabilities to meet global challenges and national development needs, through quality teaching, research, learning, and knowledge dissemination. The institution is a member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM), and Association of African Business Schools (AABS). In addition, the school has collaborated with various business schools in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia in areas of faculty exchanges, research development academic programme, and case studies.

UGBS offers executive education and tailored programmes to senior management and executives in all sectors while its Enterprise Development Service (EDS) focuses on providing business advisory, business development, and consultation services to various enterprises. The institution has experienced and qualified faculty who are concerned with conducting relevant research and covering areas such as finance, banking, accounting, marketing, information systems, entrepreneurship, human resource management, insurance, health, service management, and operations management.

Courses offered at University of Ghana Business School

Diploma programmes

Diploma in Accounting

Diploma in Public Administration (DPA)

University of Ghana Business School Undergraduate courses

B.Sc. Administration (Accounting Option)

BSc. Administration (Banking and Finance Option)

BSc. Administration (Insurance)

BSc. Administration (Marketing Option)

2. BSc. Administration (E-Commerce and Customer Management Option)

BSc. Administration (Human Resource Management Option)

BSc. Administration (Public Administration Option)

2. BSc. Administration (Health Services Management Option)

University of Ghana Business School MBA courses

MBA Accounting (Regular and weekend)

EMBA Accounting

MPhil Accounting

Ph.D. Accounting

MBA Finance (Regular and Weekend)

EMBA Finance

MSc. Development Finance

MPhil Finance

MPhil Risk Management and Insurance

Ph.D. Finance

MBA Marketing (Regular and Weekend)

MPhil Marketing

EMBA Marketing

EMBA Entrepreneurial Management

Ph.D. Marketing

MA Management and Administration

EMBA Project Management

EMBA Human Resource Management

MPhil Human Resource Management

Ph.D. Human Resource Management

MBA Management Information Systems (Regular and weekend)

MPhil Management Information Systems

MPhil Operations Management

MSc. Management Information Systems

Ph.D. Information Systems

MPA (Regular and Weekend)

MSc. Climate Change and Sustainable Development

MSc. Clinical Leadership and Management

MBA Health Services Management (Regular and Weekend)

MPhil Public Administration

MPhil Health Services Management

Ph.D. Public Administration & Policy Management

Ph.D. Health Policy and Management

Upcoming programmes

MA Marketing Strategy

MSc Hospitality and Tourism Management

MSc International Business

MBA Entrepreneurship and Innovation

MPhil Entrepreneurship and Innovation

MSc. Clinical Leadership and Management

University of Ghana MBA Finance courses

MBA Finance (Regular and Weekend)

EMBA Finance

MSc. Development Finance

MPhil Finance

MPhil Risk Management and Insurance

University of Ghana Business School Weekend MBA

Accounting option

Economics

Management Science

Organisational Behavior & Mgt.

Management Information Systems

Accounting Theory I

Long Essay

Accounting for Sustainability

Advanced Issues in

Financial Reporting

Accounting Systems & Procedures

ACCT 607 Advanced Public Sector Accounting

Finance

Managerial Accounting

Economics

Management Science

Organizational Behavior & Management

Management Information Systems

Long Essay

Business Law

Investment Management

Corporate Finance

Financial Management of Banks

Health Services Management

Managerial Accounting

Managerial Accounting

Managerial Accounting

Economics

Management Science

Management Information Systems

Administrative & Organization Theory

Global Health

Health Policy & Management

Managing Quality in Health Service Organizations

Cultural Dimensions of Health

Health Promotion Approaches & Methods

Marketing Option

Managerial Accounting

Economics

Management Science

Organizational Behavior & Management

Management Information Systems

Long Essay

Business Law

Advanced Entrepreneurship

Marketing Research

Consumer Behavior

Relationship Marketing

Internet Business & Electronic Marketing

OHRM Option

Managerial Accounting

Economics

Management Science

Organizational Behavior & Management

Management Information Systems

Long Essay

Business Law

Human Relations in Organisation

Strategic Human Resource Management

CSR & Occupational Safety & Health Mgt.

OMIS Option

Managerial Accounting

Economics

Management Science

Organizational Behavior & Management

Management Information Systems

Long Essay

Business Law

Information Systems Analysis & Design

Theories & Methods in Information Systems

Electronic Business

Short courses in University of Ghana Business School

These short courses include:

Warehouse and Inventory Management

Effective Leadership in Management and Administration

Accounting for Non-Accountants

Effective Office Management and Administration

How To Become an Effective Personal Assistant

Procurement Management

Logistics and Transport Management

Effective Front Desk Management

Effective Human Resource Management

Customer Relationship Management

Internal Audit and Control

Effective Leadership in Management and Administration

Procurement Management

Organizational Health and Safety Practices

Supply Chain Management

Financial Modelling using Microsoft Excel

Practical Selling Skills

Effective Management of SMEs

Effective Human Resource Management

Effective Supervision

Effective Front Desk Management

Negotiation Skills

University of Ghana Sandwich programmes

The University of Ghana Business School is offering the under-listed sandwich/modular courses that lead to the award of Master of Arts and Master of Science Degrees. The sandwich courses are listed below:

MA Study of Religion

MA Teaching English as a Second Language

MA Public Affairs

MA Contemporary English Studies

MA Information Studies

MA Theater Arts

MA Migration Studies

MA Music

MSc Geo Information Science

MA Educational Leadership & Management

MA Marketing Strategy

MA Organizational Leadership & Governance

MSc Accounting & Finance

MSc Financial Risk Management

MSc Actuarial Science

MA Conference Interpreting

MSc. Clinical Leadership and Management

MSc. International Business

University of Ghana Business School distance learning

If you want to study from home or work, you are welcome to enroll in distance learning. The mode used by University of Ghana Business School when it comes to distance learning is through the combination of face to face interaction and E-learning. All you need to have is a laptop and an internet connection to take part in distance learning. The courses offered under distance learning are:

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology

Bachelor of Arts

UGBS 2018 fees

To access the fees schedule of the University of Ghana Business School for academic year 2018/2019, check out the following page. You should understand that the minimum percentage before students can have access to register for the first semester of 2018 - 2019 academic year is as below:

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Ghanaian students:

Academic Registration - 60%

Residential Registration - 50%

International students:

Academic Registration - 50%

Residential Registration - 50%

You will be expected to pay at least the minimum required fee so as to be allowed to undertake the academic registration. You should consider the following when paying your fees:

Deposits at the bank should be achieved with a fee deposit slip

Deposits at the bank should be achieved with cash only.

Pay fees at the approved banks of the University of Ghana (listed below).

Make sure the student index number and names are correct.

Make sure the amount quoted on the receipt is the correct one.

Ensure the account name is that of the University of Ghana

Payments by cheque (no personal cheques allowed) can be made at the Universitys cash office only.

You can use the following mediums to pay your fees:

At the bank

Online using Visa card, Mastercard or Mobile Money (MTN and Vodafone)

Cheques (payable only at University of Ghana Cash Office)

Ghanaian students are expected to pay their fees through the following banks:

Ecobank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana School Fees Account

Barclays Bank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana Student Fee Collection Account

UniBank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana Student Fee Collection Account

Standard Chartered Bank - Account Name: University of Ghana Students Account

Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited

UGPay - Secure online payment platform for Visa card, Mastercard & Mobile Money

Universal Merchant Bank - UMB Collect Form

Access Bank

Republic Bank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana - Fees

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Distance learning students should pay their fees through the following banks

Ghana Commercial Bank - Account Name: College of Education DE Students Fee Collection Account

Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited

UGPay  Secure online payment platform for Visa card, Mastercard & Mobile Money

Foreign students should pay their fees through the following approved banks

Foreign Students (excluding students of the College of Health Sciences):

Ecobank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana Fee Collection Account (FOREX)(Payments in Ghana ONLY)

*Ecobank Ghana Limited - Account Name: University of Ghana Fee Collection Account (FOREIGN), Account Number: 0161094409780403 (for International Transfers), Swift Code: ECOCGHAC

Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited

UGPay - Secure online payment platform for Visa card and Mastercard.

University of Ghana Business School entry requirements

Below is the University of Ghana Business School admission requirements:

If you want to apply for a degree programme in the University of Ghana, you must have at least credits (A1 - C6 in WASSCE and A  D in SSSCE) in the core subjects (English, Core Mathematics and Integrated Science (for Science related programmes) or Social Studies).

You should have a good first degree (at least a second class lower division) in the related field of study at the University of Ghana or any recognized University.

In order to assess your eligibility as an applicant, you may be required to take an entrance examination and/or interview at the Department/Institute/School/Center.

Those programmes that are marked with asterisks (*) means that you are admitted into the MA/MSc programme at the first instance. If you obtained an average of B+ or better you may progress to the MPhil programme after the Head of Department has recommended you.

To apply for the Ph.D. programmes, we will expect you to have a relevant masters degree. The course will be limited to candidates whose academic and scholastic records show potential for successful completion of the doctoral degree programme.

You should have a minimum of two to three years working experience in the relevant field to be considered for the application.

How to apply

To apply, Ghanaian applicants must obtain e-vouchers can be obtained online at a fee of GH 200.00 which should be paid at the approved banks. You should fill the form to completion and submit it online. You will receive a confirmation message on your phone with a pin that you will use when assessing your admission status.

Foreign students are not expected to buy e-vouchers, but they should use the following link to obtain an online application form for completion and submission.

Online Application for International Undergraduate applicants is slightly different. If you are a prospective student, you should registers at the institution, visit the UGBS MIS web and select one of the options provided to be registered.

Contact information

P.O. Box LG 78, Legon, Accra.

Telephone: +233 50 158 1492

Email: ugbsmarcoms@ug.edu.gh

The University of Ghana Business School has more to offer apart from academic programmes. The University of Ghana Business School courses are the best in the market which will increase your chances of getting a job soon after you have graduated. Enroll at UGBS now to receive the best education and training.

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Source: YenHisense Ghana contact might not be apparent to you. Nonetheless, this should not worry you. Hisense is a Chinese multinational company dealing with the manufacturing of electronic appliances. The company has its headquarters in Qingdao, Shandong province, China. The company has several brand names including Ronshen and Kelon. The company majorly deals with the manufacturing of television sets. This can be proven by the availability of Hisense TVs in major stores across Ghana. In addition to this, the company manufactures home theaters, chest freezers, fridges, and mobile phones among others.

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Hisense Ghana contact information is important for everyone who uses the Hisense brand in their home or office. This information might, however, not be readily available to you, thus making it difficult for you to get the kind of assistance you need from the company. Do not be alarmed as this article seeks to avail Hisense contact information that you can use to get help or any other kind of service from the company in Ghana.

The contact number of Hisense Ghana

Below is detailed contact information of Hisense Ghana that you can use to get your issues solved:

Hisense Ghana East Legon contact

Address: Mensah Wood Rod, East Legon, Accra, Ghana.

Phone: 0302550000.

Website: www.hisense.com.gh/.

The establishment year 2011.

Employees 51-100.

Email: marketingadmin@hisense.com.gh.

Instagram: hisense_ghana .

Facebook: @HisenseGhanaOfficial.

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In addition to these, you can visit the different Hisense showrooms in the locations listed below:

East Legon

Adjacent to GhanaLink.

Spintex

Opposite Oak Plaza Hotel.

Kasoa

Opposite Pink FM.

Lapaz

Nyamekye Junction.

North Industrial Area

Opposite Melcom Plus.

Accra Central

Opposite the Opera Square.

Ring Road

Opposite Bus Stop Restaurant.

Junction Mall

Nungua.

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You can also get help by visiting the Hisense website using the following process:

Click here to visit the website.

Once the web page has opened, begin by selecting inquiry depending on the nature of your concern.

Input your names, i.e. fist and second in the dialogue, boxes provided.

Input your email, phone number, model number and serial number in the subsequent dialogue boxes.

Once you have done this, explain your inquiry in the Inquiry section.

Click submit.

With the information above, you should be able to contact the company using Hisense tv Ghana contact number. Hopefully, all your issues will be addressed promptly allowing you to continue using Hisense products and get maximum benefits from the appliances.

Source: YenHaving Unilever Ghana contact is an added advantage to everyone. However, these contacts are not apparent to everyone. If you are in the retail business, getting Unilever Ghana limited contact address will help your business positively. Unilever Ghana is the leading retail and producer of consumer goods in Ghana. With this, the company is able to produce goods that are relatively cheap and can be easily afforded by Ghanaians.

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Unilever Ghana supplies consumer produce to most Ghanaians. These products are used to make life easier. People use these products to make them look good, feel good or have a simple life in general. To retailers and wholesalers, Unilever is a producer who supplies goods at affordable price leaving a reasonable profit margin for merchants. This means that most people get maximum profits by retailing Unilever products. To consumers, Unilever products are safe, affordable and last long. Unilever products are produced to meet international standards. These leaves quality control arm of governments relieved knowing that safe products are in market circulation. If you need to contact Unilever Ghana, use the Unilever Ghana contact information provided below:

Unilever Ghana Tema contact - Unilever Ghana head office contact

Registered Office: Unilever Ghana, Tema Factory Heavy Industrial Area, Ind / A /2 /3A-4, Tema.

Postal Address: P.O Box 721, Tema.

Telephone: 233-303-218100/218300.

Fax: 233-303-210362.

Website: www.unileverghana.com.

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With Unilever Ghana contact number at your disposal, it should not be difficult for you to communicate with the company for various services. It is also important to note that Unilever Ghana email address has not been provided in their official website thus explaining why it has not been provided in the article.

Unilever Ghana contact should be the bridge through which you realize your business vision. It provides a communication channel, which you can use to get all your product queries answered, at the same time make orders.

Source: YenGhana Baptist University College seeks to provide means to students who seek to further their educational agenda. There comes a moment in life when students need to further their studies and acquire skills in higher learning institutions. It is at this moment that they need to be knowledgeable about the courses offered, the fee schedules and admission requirements in these tertiary institutions before deciding to join these institutions. This article thus gives detailed guidelines to prospective students who desire to study at Ghana Baptist University College, which is one of the leading tertiary institution offering opportunities for scholars to further their studies.

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The Ghana Baptist University College is a private institution situated in the urban setting of the medium-sized township of Abuakwa-Kumasi, Ghana.This makes Ghana Baptist University College Abuakwa Kumasi their main campus. Its launch in November 2006 was announced by the Ghana Baptist Convention and was granted accreditation by the National Accreditation Board. The Ghana Baptist University College, abbreviated as GBUC, in Kumasi was the initiative of the Ghana Baptist Convention (GBC) with its headquarters found in Accra, Ghana. Like all other institutions of higher learning, the University College courses are tailored towards delivering high quality and diverse programmes which equip students with professional skills suitable in the current world. The Ghana University College is affiliated to three institutions namely;

The University of Cape Coast. Ghana Baptist Convention. Associations of Ghana Private Universities.

The mission statement of the GBUC focuses on educating, developing, training and mentoring students who will help in influencing and transforming society through the integration of academic skills and the Christian faith. The vision of the institution aims at being a center of excellence in creative teaching and learning, innovation and research, professional capability and godly ethics in academic disciplines from the Biblical aspect worldwide. The core values for the institution include;

Scholarship in enlightening the head of students, faculty, and staff through the academic formation.

Discipleship in educating the heart of students, faculty, and staff through character developing.

Stewardship which involves taming the hands of students, faculty, and staff through skill acquisition.

Leadership in educating heels the students, faculty, and staff through experience forming.

There are several reasons why students should consider joining this institution as it offers top programmes which are tailored towards meeting the various needs of students in different professional settings. Students are given a flexible and convenient study program based on each individuals requirements and courses offered at Ghana Baptist University College are delivered by skillful faculties in an interactive environment to help students meet their career and personal goals as well as in building a strong network with their colleagues. Parents and guardians will also find this institutions fee as economical compared to the high standards of living.

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Courses offered at Ghana University Colleges

Ghana Baptist University College courses are some of the best in the market. As one of the private institutions of higher learning in Ghana, Baptist University College of Ghana offers a number of courses ranging from certificate, diploma, degree and at a master level. Baptist University courses include;

Undergraduate programs

The School of Business Administration (SBA).

This school offers certificate, diploma and degree levels with options in;

Accounting

Human Resource Management

Banking and Finance

Marketing and Entrepreneurship

School of Arts and Social Sciences Education (SASSE)

The school offers the following courses;

Bachelor of Religious Education

French department (Bachelor of Education-French)

English department (Bachelor of Education-English)

School of Theology and Ministry (STM) which has;

Bachelor of Theology

Diploma in Theology

Diploma in Church Music

The School of Nursing

Bachelor of Science in Nursing

Postgraduate courses

School of Theology and Ministry which offers a Master of Arts in Ministry.

Admission requirements

Applications for admission into the Ghana University College should be made on the prescribed forms obtained from the institution or the Universitys official website, www.gbuc.edu.gh. These completed forms must be submitted together with two passport-sized photographs and other relevant documents within the specified period to the registrar of the institution. The admission requirements are as follows:

School of business administration

Bachelor of Business Administration

The school offers a four-year programme in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with various specialization. Requirements for admission into this course includes;

Post-secondary candidates

Before applying and submitting application into this course, these candidates should have five credits at the GCE Ordinary Level including Mathematics and English Language plus three passes at the GCE Advanced Level, or an average score of 24 or higher including Core Mathematics, Core English, and Integrated Science or Social Studies and any other Elective subjects in WASSCE/SSSCE level.

Certificate candidates in business

These candidates are required to have five credits including English Language and Mathematics plus ABCE with passes in a minimum of three subjects.

Mature Applicants

Requirements include five GCE Ordinary Level, passes including English language and Mathematics or WASSCE/SSSCE with three or more passes comprising English Language and Mathematics with working experience.

The applicants in this category must have attained at least 25 years of age at the time of handing their application documents (birth certificate) and are also required to attend Access Course organized by the University College. They must pass with an average score of 60% in the exam which entails a General Paper, English Language and Mathematics.

Post Diploma/HND Candidates

The committee on admission will assess these candidates with regard to the curriculum content of their programme on a case-by-case basis and place them at the appropriate level either 200 or 300.

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Professional Candidates

Candidates in this category are required to have ACCA part II, CA part II as they will be admitted to level 200 only if they meet basic entry requirements.

Diploma in business administration

These applicants should have five credits at the GCE Ordinary Level including English Language and Mathematics, or five passes comprising of English Language and Mathematics at WASSCE/SSSCE level.

School of Arts and Social Sciences Education(SASSCE)

Bachelors Degree

It offers a four-year bachelor in Education with concentration in English, French and Religious Studies. Admission requirements in this course are different based on individual candidates. Post-Senior high school students or Secondary Candidates.

Applicants in this category are required to have five credit passes in Core English, Core Mathematics, and Integrated Science or Social Studies (grade D or higher) at SSSCE. Those at WASSCE must have credit passes in Core English, Core Mathematics and Integrated Science or Social Studies (grade C6 or higher). Credit passes in 3 Elective subjects may comprise English, History, French and any of the Ghanaian Languages. The students are required to have passed in six subjects with an overall average score of 36 for WASSCE and 24 for SSSCE.

Mature Applicants

Applicants in this category are required to have at least 25 years at the time of application and must pass an entry exam of three papers which include General Paper, Science or Mathematics and special paper in Religious Studies. In addition, prospective students are expected to pass a selection interview.

All candidates seeking placements at the levels other than level 100 will be required to register and read all compulsory Professional Education and General English-related courses.

General Certificate of Education (GCE) advanced level applicants

Applicants should have passed in three subjects with a minimum one of the passes being of grade D or higher. Also, the applicants will be required to have credit passes (at least grade 6) in five GCE Ordinary Level including English Language, Literature in English, Mathematics and Science subject or General Science for non-science students and an Art subject specifically for science students.

Post diploma students.

Post diploma students should have a good diploma in an English-related programme with a minimum of Second Class Lower Division or higher, obtained from a recognized tertiary institution with a minimum of two years working experience.

Foreign qualifications.

All foreign certificates must be referred to the National Accreditation Board (NAB) to conclude eligibility for admission.

School of Theology and Ministry (STM).

Ghana Baptist University College offers both diploma and degree programmes in Theology namely; Bachelor of Theology, Diploma in Theology and Diploma in Music. The following requirements should be met by applicants willing to submit either their degree or diploma applications;

Bachelor of Theology admission requirements

The applicants should have five credits at the GCE Ordinary Level including Mathematics and English Language plus three passes at the GCE Advanced Level, or should have an average score of 24 or higher comprising of Core English, Core Mathematics and Integrated Science or Social Studies and any three Elective subjects in WASSCE/SSSCE, or an equivalent professional qualification verified by Admissions Committee of the institution.

Diploma in Theology and a diploma in music

Applicants in these programmes are required to have five credits at the GCE Ordinary Level including both Mathematics and English Language or should have five passes including English Language and Mathematics at the WAEC/SSSCE/SHSCE levels.

SCHOOL OF NURSING

Admissions requirements into the School of Nursing GBUC.

Applicants willing to undertake an undergraduate degree into the Ghana Baptist University College should meet the following requirements;

SSSCE applicants must have an aggregate score of 25 or best-performed subjects comprising of credits (A-D) in core subjects English Language, Mathematics and Integrated Science and at least passes in three elective subjects in a specification of Science, Agricultural Science, General Arts, and Home Economics.

WASSCE applicants must have an aggregate score of 36 or six best-performed subjects comprising Mathematics, English Language and Integrated Science and at least passes in three elective subjects in the specifications of Science, Agricultural Science, General Arts, and Home Economics.

Foreign students Requirements

Foreign students must be literate in English and have their result slips translated into English.

Other Entry Requirements in the School of Nursing.

Candidates with Diploma in Registered Nursing (RN) from known institutions are encouraged to apply. The applicants in this category may transfer credits from the previous course of studies, with appropriate recommendations and referrals. Applicants with State Registered Nurses (SRN) qualifications from known health institutions and at least three years of professional experience should also forward their applications.

Candidates would be required to check their admission status from the University College or visit the official website of the university, get their provisional admission letter and plan all the necessary payments at the specified banks stated in the letter. The admission list is usually released by the management of GBUC in August or September prior to the commencement of the next academic year, and it's uploaded online.

Ghana Baptist University College fees structure - Ghana Baptist University fees

The University College expects certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate students to pay college fees before the beginning of an academic session. Its a requirement to be met by all students who officially register for programmes at the institution by logging in the student portal using their specified details. Ghana Baptist University College students portal allows for efficient management of student data. However, the college reserves the right to change fees without prior notice subject to approval by the Governing Council. The college fees are subsequently uploaded online for various programmes as follows;

First years on regular degree programs are required to pay GHC 1490, those on weekend programs pay GHC 1390, evening programs GHC 1595 and International students pay $ 1495.

First years on regular, weekend and evening diploma programs are expected to pay GHC 1390, and International students pay $1495.

Continuing students on regular degree programs are required to pay GHC 1195, those on weekend programs pay GHC 1395, evening programs GHC 1295 and international students are expected to pay $1300.

Continuing students on regular, weekend and evening programs are required to make payments of GHC 945 whereas international students are expected to clear fees by paying $1300.

Additional charges include;

Admission fee GHc 190, clothing fee GHc 60, Re-sit fee GHc 50, Visa application fee GHc 60, internship fee GHc 30, graduation fee GHc 200, finally project and supervision fee GHc 50.

Ghana Baptist University College has two campuses namely;

City campus located in Kumasi

Abuakwa campus in Abuakwa.

With this in mind, it is important for you to know Ghana Baptist University College colors. This will allow you to identify with the institution immediately you see the colors. In addition to this, Grace Baptist University College Ghana allows you to get to your dreams at a little price and better quality education. The university goes by the colors blue, white and orange.

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For further queries about the courses offered at GBUC, applicants should consider visiting or contacting the institution through the following Ghana Baptist University College address and contact details;

Opposite Anglican SHS, Asem-Kumasi

+233 03222080195, +233 (0)26-5498983, +233 (0)54-9062092

info@gbuc.edu.gh and gbuc2006@yahoo.com.

Dedicated to providing high-quality programmes and courses to students, Ghana Baptist University College is a place to be when seeking to meet professional and personal goals at a pocket-friendly cost and nurtured on a firm Christian faith.

Source: YenThe meaning of Halloween is linked to its origin, which is yet to be fully grasped. Some factions of believers believe it had pagan roots and was Christianized by the early church, while others believe it is a legitimate Christian celebration separate from pagan belief. The origins of Halloween are yet to be fully grasped. Whatever the case, Halloween, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve, is a day set aside to remember the dead, including martyrs, saints and other faithful who have passed on. In most parts of the world, Halloween is celebrated on 31st October. It marks the beginning of a 3-day observance of Allhallowtide.

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By now, the question, what is Halloween has begun to get the appropriate answers. Some of the activities carried out during this day include trick-or-treating, playing pranks, lighting bonfires and telling frightening stories.

History of Halloween

The history of Halloween can be approached from three perspectives; The Gaelic and Welsh influence, Christian influence, and its spread to North America. Somehow, it is by understanding the history of Halloween that you would be able to give the answer to the question what is the origin of Halloween.

The Gaelic and Welsh

The first notion states that Halloween, as we know it today, was greatly influenced by the beliefs and practices of the Celtic-speaking countries who had pagan roots. Nicholas Rogers, a historian observes that some folklorists have pointed the origin of Halloween to the Roman feast of Pomona, who was the goddess of seeds and fruits, or in Parentalia, the festival of the dead.

Halloween is more likely linked to Samhain, a Celtic festival, which originates from old Irish for summers end. Samhain was seen as a period when the gap between this world as we know it and the other world thinned. In most, if not all parts of Britain and Ireland, Halloween day was celebrated through rituals and games that were purposed to foretell ones future, more so in marriage and death. To some, this is the true meaning of Halloween pagan.

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Christian influence

Some factions of historians believe todays Halloween was influenced by Christian practices and dogmas. According to this, Halloween is the eve of the Christian holy days of All Hallows Day. It has been a tradition, since the time of the early church, for people to keep vigil the night before a big feast or celebration, e.g. Christmas and Easter. Therefore, 31st October was named All Hallows Eve and November 2nd, the All Souls Day. These days are referred to as Allhallowtide and are dedicated to honouring the saints and praying for all the recently lost souls that have not yet arrived in heaven. The Allhallowtide became an obligatory holy day across Europe from the end of the 12th century. Since then, it has been celebrated with traditions such as ringing church bells for the souls in a place of suffering before going to heaven.

Spread to North America

Spread of the happy Halloween as has until recently been known, in North America, was influenced by the Anglican colonists in the Southern United States and Catholic colonists in Maryland, who recognized All Hallow's Eve in their church calendars; according to the writings of Lesley Bannatyne and Cindy Ott both. Nonetheless, it was not until the mass immigration of the Scottish and Irish people into North America that Halloween became a big holiday in North America. This happened in the mid 19th century, and the celebrations were limited to the immigrant population and communities, and gradually leached its way into the mainstream society. By the 20th century, Halloween was being celebrated by people of all cultures, religion, and races in entire America.

The spiritual meaning of Halloween

Halloween is seen as a day to celebrate the death and rebirth of the world and everything within it. In the northern hemisphere, it marks the beginning of winter, a time when nature dies because of the winter cold, whereas, in the southern hemisphere, it marks the beginning of a new season when newly formed buds are getting ready for rebirth and growth during summer.

The spiritual significance of Halloween is the celebration of the dead. The belief that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest at this period means that it is the time to let go of all things that we have lost and to begin a new chapter of freedom. It is a time to make peace with yourself and everything. In pagan Samhan, Halloween was celebrated as soon as the time hit 1/11. It is believed that the veil is thinnest due to the suns position and the instinctive Scorpio sign. Scorpio sign is translated as a time of transformation and paying regards to the cycles of death and rebirth.

What does Halloween mean in the Bible

Halloween is mainly a celebration of the western world, and it has no link whatsoever with the Bible. Nonetheless, there are Biblical principles that people use to define Halloween. Some of these Biblical relations can be understood if you learn more about Halloween history. It is, therefore, highly erratic to say that Halloween is a Biblical event.

READ ALSO: Skin bleaching and lightening. What do the doctors say?

Halloween meaning in English

Halloween is celebrated on the night of 31st with children wearing costumes and knocking on people's doors, asking for treat or tricks. Treat or trick means that you either give the children treats or they trick you. In most cases, these costumes are of ghosts and witches.

What is the meaning of Halloween in Ghana and Africa at large, you must be asking. Halloween in Africa is mostly an adaptation of the western world Halloween. It has, however, not set its roots deeply into the African lifestyle. The Halloween celebration is slowly picking pace among the youth, mostly those with interest in western culture. The older generation has no interest in this celebration, with a few of them even knowing about it. It is right to conclude that Halloween in Africa is not part of the mainstream culture.

With this information, Halloween is not a mystery anymore. You should be able to decide whether it is a worthy day to celebrate or not.

Source: Yen.com.gh- Naby Keita has sustained an injury while on international duty with Guinea

- The news will be a big blow for Liverpool who are currently third on the EPL log

- Keita could miss the Reds' Premier League clash against Huddersfield

Liverpool star Naby Keita has given the Reds' boss Jurgen Klopp another selection nightmare after sustaining an injury while playing for his national team Guinea.

The 23-year-old central midfielder limped out of Guineas clash against Rwanda before half-time on Tuesday afternoon, October 16.

Naby Keita had only just recovered from an injury picked up against Napoli in the Champions League.

He came off the bench for James Milner in the draw against Manchester City and then went on international duty and has now picked up another problem.

READ ALSO: Griezmann at the double as France heap more misery on Germany

And according to the report by UK Sun, Liverpool are now sweating on his fitness for Saturdays trip to Huddersfield as Jurgen Klopps side defend their unbeaten run in the Premier League.

Naby Keita's injury news is now a fresh blow for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp who is already having concerns about the fitness of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

Liverpool are still unbeaten this season in the Premier League, and they are occupying third position on the log with 20 points after 8 games.

READ ALSO: Pogba's agent Mino Raiola agrees deal in principle with Barcelona

Earlier, NAIJ.com had reported how Premier League side Liverpool were hit with another injury blow after star striker Sadio Mane reportedly broke his thumb while on international duty with Senegal.

Mane was said to have being injured in a training session with Senegal that ruled him out of a return game against Sudan.

Yenkasa Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh:

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page.

Source: YenMusician Shatta Wale proposed to his longtime girlfriend and mother of his son, Michy on the night of his album launch on October 13. The pair have not always had a rosy love affair, with Michy once describing her man as "servicing all the community (of women)."

Thankfully for their fans, the pair are back together and plans are thought to be underway for a wedding. The lovebirds have planned a trip to Dubai to "relax" before the marriage.

With things going as well as they seemingly are, YEN.com.gh is taking a trip down memory lane to recollect all the alleged and proven affairs Shatta Wale has been involved with apart from Michy.

READ ALSO: Gifty Osei mourns death of her 'son'

1. Rosemond Brown

Rosemond Brown or Akuapem Poloo has gained fame off the goodness of social media. She is now an actress and a model and she knows how to ingratiate herself to those she wants to be seen with.

It is how come Brown got extra close to Shatta Wale. It was alleged that two saw their way to pleasure and Brown eventually had to apologise to Michy for the wrong done.

2. Efia Odo

TV presenter Efia Odo has also been identified with having a good time with Shatta Wale. She has not denied any affair although she said she is friends with the musician.

Shatta Wale has curiously about the matter and that has only served to have many people believe that an affair did happen.

3. Bigail

Upcoming artiste, Bigail, has been around for a year or two looking for her a breakout hit. But that has not stopped her from getting very comfortable with a big name like Shatta Wale.

Bigail is thought to be one of the women Shatta Wale had an affair with when he separated from Michy for sometime.

4. Unknown groupie

A groupie is a name used for fans, especially young women, who are willing to go to amazing lengths to be found attractive by male entertainers.

READ ALSO: Comedian Teacher Kwadwo sews new uniforms for pupils in his school with his salary

Not too long ago, a young woman appeared in a video Shatta Wale posted on the social media. As could be seen, the woman was giving oral pleasure to two men and one was identified as the musician.

Yenkasa Does it Matter if a Child is Named by the Mother? | Yen.com.gh:

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YEN's official Facebook page.

Source: YenGHOne TV's Serwaa Amihere has courted the anger of some Ghanaians after she criticised the government's insistence on holding a rally-like launch for NABCO.

On Wednesday, October 13, President Nana Akufo-Addo launched his flagship programme for employment, the Nation Builders' Corps (NABCO). But the rally-like launch of NABCO did not please GHONE's Serwaa Amihere.

Amihere wondered in a tweet why it took a march pass and the Corps members to show up to the Independence Square for the programme to commence.

But her criticism did not go unknown to supporters of the Presidency and the NABCO programme. They thought she was being destructive.

READ ALSO: Adult video of Nigerian pastor Chris Omatsola leaks

Amihere tweeted: "Im just wondering, couldnt we have commissioned the NABCO recruits without them marching?? "

But she had a response from one Abukari Abdul Jelil who said: "Ghanaians and useless critics, the jobs creation are the most important to us the graduates , he has done it and we are grateful. Hopefully its sustainable. To hell with your wondering."

READ ALSO: AirtelTigo, MTN and Vodafone to review tariffs upwards

Another also just asked, "And what is the problem with matching?????? [sic]"

The culture of holding rally-like launches for major government policy launches is a common occurrence in Ghanaian politics.

Ghana News Today: Shata Wale Rocks Fans at Reign Album Launch | Yen.com.gh

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Get interactive via our Facebook page.

Source: YenPortuguese AF Orders Five Leonardo AW119Kx Helicopters



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By George Dvorsky 17 October 2018 (Gizmodo)  A United Nations report published last week said we have about a decade to get climate change under control, whichlets be honest isnt likely to happen . So break out your goalie masks and harpoon guns, a Mad Max future awaits! Now, as new research points out, we even know where on Earth the inevitable water wars are most likely to take place.Sarcasm aside, this report is actually quite serious.Published today in Global Environmental Change , the paper identifies several hotspots around the globe where hydro-political issues, in the parlance of the researchers, are likely to give rise to geopolitical tensions, and possibly even conflict. The authors of the new report, a team from the European Commissions Joint Research Centre (JRC), say the escalating effects of climate change, in conjunction with ongoing trends in population growth, could trigger regional instability and social unrest in regions where freshwater is scarce, and where bordering nations have to manage and share this increasingly scarce commodity.Obviously, the causes of geopolitical tension and conflict are complex, but as the new report makes clear, we shouldnt underestimate the role that water is going to play in the future. Competition for dwindling water resources, the authors say, will exacerbate tensions on a global scale in the coming decades, with certain regions more vulnerable than others. But how are the various factors that influence water demand and availability likely to affect populations around the world?The new study, led by JRC scientist Fabio Farinosi, was an attempt to answer this critical question, and to also create a model that can predict where and when future water wars might arise. []Farinosis team used a machine learning-driven approach to investigate the various factors that have traditionally given rise to water-related tensions. An algorithm studied previous episodes of conflict over water resources, of which there is no shortage (check out this impressive database of water-related conflicts to get a sense of how common water wars are in our history). The algorithm considered access to freshwater, climate stress (two greenhouse gas emission scenarios were considered, one moderate and one extreme), population trends, human pressures on the water supply, socio-economic conditions, and more. [ more ]

Heres Where the Post-Apocalyptic Water Wars Will Be Fought

(JRC)  JRC scientists have identified the hotspots where competition over the use of shared water resources could lead to disagreements between countries.

The new study aims to facilitate the implementation of strategies to encourage cooperation between countries.

The combination of climate change and demographic growth is likely to exacerbate hydro-political issues.

Water conflicts are more likely to occur in areas that are already under water stress.

The most vulnerable areas are around the Nile, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates, and Colorado rivers.

Competition for limited water resources will be one of the main concerns in the coming decades.Scarce water resources can generate or exacerbate political tensions, regional instability and social unrest.

New scientific methods for early identification of risk areas

JRC scientists used a new machine-learning approach to investigate the pre-conditions and factors that are likely to lead to water management issues in shared water bodies.They carried out an innovative analysis of past episodes of conflict and cooperation over transboundary water resources, and studied the links with freshwater availability, climate stress, human pressure on water resources and socio-economic conditions.The scope of our study is two-fold. First, we wanted to highlight the factors which lead to either political cooperation or tensions in transboundary river basins. And second, we wanted to map and monitor the likelihood of these kinds of interactions over space and time and under changing socio-economic conditions, explains JRC researcher and lead author of the study, Fabio Farinosi.

Determining factors

Scarcity of water, high population density, power imbalances and climatic stressors are the main factors which push countries towards either political cooperation or tensions in transboundary river basins.The Nile, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Indus, Tigris-Euphrates, and Colorado rivers are water hotspots, where hydro-political interactions are most likely to occur.These areas are already under water stress, and future demographic and climatic conditions are expected to exert further pressure on scarce water resources.The changing socio-economic and climatic factors will increase the pressure on water resources worldwide.This is likely to increase competition between countries for water.Globally, the combined effect of climate change and population growth can increase the likelihood of water-related interactions in transboundary river basins by between 74.9% and 95%.This does not mean that each case will result in a conflict. It depends on how well prepared and equipped the countries are to cooperate. This is where we hope our research can help, by raising awareness of the risks so that solutions can be sought early on, Farinosi says.

New tools for monitoring hydro-political dynamics

Based on this research, JRC scientists developed an index and a model which help detect areas in the world that are at high risk of hydro-political conflicts.These tools can prompt policymakers to design and implement strategies that encourage cooperation between countries before conflicts occur.The tools also provide an additional method for monitoring the hydro-political dynamics under Target 6.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to enhance Water Resources Management and transboundary cooperation.The index and model complement the SDG indicator 6.5.2 Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation, by providing additional intelligence on important contributing factors that are not yet included in the current SDG monitoring framework.The JRC is in the process of developing a more detailed analysis of the largest river basins in Africa in collaboration with the local institutions.

EU action

This study, which builds on the 2013 Council Conclusions on EU water diplomacy, will further inform the EUs work on water diplomacy and transboundary water management.The EU is engaged in contributing to peace and security in priority regions such as the Nile basin, the Central Asia region and the Mekrou River Basin, with a number of projects aimed at developing mechanisms for cooperative and knowledge based water management in order to avoid conflicts, and to sustain common water resources for sustainable development.In 2018, the EU worked to promote global membership to the UNECE Water Convention.The aim was to underscore the EUs belief in the shared value of international agreements on global water cooperation in order to foster development and peace in a context of increasing tensions over water. Chad has been the first non UNECE country to join the UNECE Water Convention, and Senegal has followed.Other African countries are also taking steps towards accession to this international legal instrument which promotes international water governance.The EU is ready to support interested countries in the accession process.Read the full study: An innovative approach to the assessment of hydro-political risk: A spatially explicit, data driven indicator of hydro-political issues.By Julia Ainsley and Abigail Williams

17 October 2018

WASHINGTON (NBC News)  A caravan of migrants fleeing Honduras has grown to 4,000 and the Mexican government has sent an additional 500 federal police to its border with Guatemala in anticipation of their arrival, according to U.S. government documents obtained by NBC News.Part of the caravan, which has split into two groups, is now approaching the Mexico-Guatemala border amidst a surge in border crossings on the U.S.-Mexico border.In September, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 41,400 illegal immigrants, up from 37,544 in August, according to numbers not yet released publicly but obtained by NBC News. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the numbers of families and children traveling on their own surged to record levels in September.Shelters and churches along the border have been flooded as a result of the surge as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been releasing hundreds of migrants from detention at a time.Many of the Hondurans traveling in the caravan are children, some traveling with their parents and some without their parents, according to the documents. Because children are afforded special protections in the U.S., their arrival is creating anxiety within the Trump administration that has pledged to decrease illegal immigration. President Donald Trump said last week that he would consider separating migrant families at the border once again, after reversing his controversial zero tolerance policy in June.U.S. Customs and Border Protection is tracking the caravan as the Hondurans make their way north towards the U.S. border. Meanwhile, the State Department is attempting to stave off that possibility by compelling the Mexican government to stop them at their border with Guatemala.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Mexico to meet with his counterparts on Friday, where plans to stop the caravan will be a prominent topic of discussion, according to a senior State Department official who spoke to reporters on Wednesday.I am certain that there will be conversations in Mexico about how we can work together on this issue, the official said about the caravan. We are certainly looking for concrete results and for solutions that work for both countries. [more]Subscriber content preview

Photo provided by Washington State Parks [enlarge] Bathhouse 1 is one of the log buildings due for repairs at Millersylvania State Park.





The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is seeking proposals by Oct. 30 to preserve Depression-era structures at Millersylvania State Park near Maytown in unincorporated Thurston County.





. . .Subscriber content preview

SALEM, Ore. (AP)  Oregon regulators have fined the state's second-largest dairy more than $187,000 after finding 224 violations of its wastewater permit.

The Statesman Journal reports the state Department of Agriculture announced the fine last week against Lost Valley Farm near Boardman.





. . .On the Block: Legacy eyes another 580 TOD units, plus a woonerf, in downtown Redmond

The tired old strip mall called Redmond Square, at 16425 Cleveland St., sold in late 2016 for $31 million. Legacy Partners of San Francisco and Chinese partner Modern Green Development Co. Ltd. announced plans to add up to 600 residential units and commercial space, but it's taken almost two years for details to emerge.

The ownership venture is called MGRM LLC. Redmond Square may only be a placeholder name for the final proposal.

Legacy is also close to finishing another separate residential project immediately north of the site; more on that below.

Renderings by Tiscareno Associates [enlarge] The site is just north of Downtown Redmond Station, where light rail service will begin in 2024.





Significantly, Redmond Square is immediately north of Downtown Redmond Station, where light rail service is expected to begin in 2024. The tracks and station will be elevated above the Redmond Central Connector trail.

Redmond Town Center is on the south side of the trail, in an area the city has targeted for more growth and density.

Plans filed with the city by Tiscareno Associates would divide the almost 3.5-acre Redmond Square site into east and west blocks, with a woonerf between them.

Hewitt is the landscape architect for Redmond Square, and is designing the woonerf.

Tiscareno writes that the woonerf will be on a gentle slope above the grade of Redmond Way and Cleveland Street to create what we refer to as a Plaza Level' that serves to make this public space uniquely pedestrian oriented. Each block has a large private courtyard at this Plaza Level' that provides the majority of open space for this development.

One building with about 300 units would go on the west block. Two buildings with about 280 units would go on the east block. Tiscareno says some or all of the east block might be condominiums.

All three buildings will be six stories, with matching roof heights. To passersby, they would appear to be two irregular C-shaped structures.

Two levels of parking (one underground, one structured) are planned, with garage ramps on the southwest and east sides of the entire site. The final amount of parking has yet to be determined, since MGRM is asking the city for less than the code-mandated ratio of one stall per resident. The proximity of the future light rail, bike/ped trail and Redmond Transit Center (to the north) might make that code departure an easier sell.

Bike rooms would have at least 580 stalls.

Retail/commercial space on both blocks would total about 25,000 square feet. The largest anchor retail bay would go on the site's southeast corner, facing the light rail station.

[enlarge] One building with about 300 units would go on the west block. Two buildings with about 280 units would go on the east block, and some of those might be condos.





All three buildings would have roof decks.

Tiscareno writes, Subtle sophistication with symbiotic asymmetry will be the aesthetic theme of this large development.

Tenants in the current one-story, four-building Redmond Square complex include Pizza Hut, Noodle Land and Hobby Town.

Legacy has plenty of experience in Redmond. It developed and then sold in 2016 the 177-unit Milehouse for $68 million. During the recession, it developed most of the 6-acre, six-building Riverpark, which includes 319 residential units, a hotel and offices. Legacy sold the apartments and hotel to Equity Residential in 2012 for $95.3 million. (Clarion Partners owned the offices, which were sold the same year for $38 million.)

Immediately north of Redmond Square, at 16450 Redmond Way, Legacy is just about finished with 195 units at The Triangle. That six-story project was also designed by Tiscareno; Compass Construction is the general contractor. Legacy acquired the skinny, 1-acre triangle for $5.75 million in 2016.

Many other developers also are active nearby, drawn by the new zoning and light rail.

Mill Creek Residential Trust has 300 units underway on the former Redmond Athletic Club site; and it's planning another 250 units closer to the Sammamish River Trail.

Deal Investments is planning the 160-unit Blackbird at 7635 159th Place N.E., near its almost completed 196-unit StationHouse. On the Mattress Firm site, at 16760 Redmond Way, Pastakia + Associates is planning 102 units, called Redmond Way Flats.

An Eastside investment group is planning 96 units at 8336 165th Ave. N.E. (immediately north of Core83). Trammell Crow Residential is now building Alexan Central Park, with 193 units at 16160 N.E. 80th St. And Fairfield Residential is planning 360 units at 15814 Bear Creek Parkway.

Also look for the Subway block, the triangle west of Downtown Central Park, to sell soon. Leibsohn & Co. is offering that property, which could yield a six-story apartment building.

Oh, and there's also stuff happening at the last light rail stop before downtown, Southeast Redmond Station, that we'll get to soon.





Got a tip? Contact DJC real estate editor Brian Miller at brian.miller@djc.com or call him at (206) 219-6517.





Previous columns:Subscriber content preview

SEATTLE  The Westcore River Building, at 303 S. River St. on the Duwamish Waterway, sold for $14.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Westcore River Street LLC, which acquired the property in 2016 for $5.8 million. The buyer was Talon 303 River LLC, which is associated with Talon Private Capital.





. . .Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor reelectionist Sara Duterte admitted that the decision of her brothers to run in the 2019 elections could result in a political dynasty, but argued that the choice to elect them was still up to the voters.

"We really cannot deny that. Ang mga detractor, sasabihin ng mga opposition, na political dynasty. Yes, it's a political dynasty, but in a sense na we are submitting ourselves to elections, so it is still a democratic process," she told local reporters on Wednesday.

Three of President Rodrigo Duterte's children are hoping to get elected into public office next year. Sara's younger brother, Sebastian "Baste," wants to be vice mayor of Davao City. Her older brother, the eldest son of President Rodrigo Duterte and former Davao vice-mayor Paolo or Pulong is entering the race for the city's first district representative.

Sara noted that several family members running for public office is common in the Philippine political landscape so the situation with her family was no different from other established dynasties in the country.

"Masama man na magturo ng iba, pero it's not only here in Davao City. It's not only here in the Philippines. Kung makita ninyo sa ibang bansa usually, if you come from a family of doctors you become a doctor. When you come from a family of politicians, most likely you become a politician," she pointed out.

Prior to being elected President in 2016, the Duterte patriarch was a congressman and long-term mayor of Davao.

Last March, the President said he would accept the anti-political dynasty law if that was what the people wanted. The Consultative Committee that reviewed the 1987 Constitution also banned political dynasties under a federal government.

Although the 1987 Constitution explicitly prohibits political dynasties, no law has been passed to implement the provision even after three decades. Critics said it's because many lawmakers themselves come from political dynasties.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  A branch of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) will soon reach a decision on the Justice Department's motion for an arrest warrant and travel ban against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Makati Police Chief Rogelio Simon on Thursday said he was able to talk to Judge Andres Soriano, the judge of Makati RTC Branch 148 handling Trillanes' non-bailable case for coup d' etat.

The judge is "in his last stage of work," Simon said. He said Soriano told him the police will be informed two to three hours before the ruling is released.

The police are waiting for the possible issuance of an arrest warrant on Trillanes, after Soriano concluded the proceedings last October 11.

If Soriano orders Trillanes' arrest, the senator must return to jail because the charge of coup d' etat is non-bailable. This case was earlier dismissed when Trillanes was granted amnesty by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2011. But President Rodrigo Duterte, through Proclamation No. 572, voided the amnesty saying Trillanes failed to comply with the requirements, a claim Trillanes denied.

Trillanes is out on a P200,000 bail after another branch of the Makati RTC granted a separate DOJ petition and ordered the senator's arrest on rebellion charges.

Trillanes, a staunch cirtic of the Duterte administration, is also facing an inciting to sedition case for allegedly urging soldiers to kill the President.

The senator on Thursday asked the Pasay Prosecutor's Office for more time to file his counter affidavit to respond to the accusations.

Labor Undersecretary Jacinto Paras, one of the complainants, says trillanes' remark should not be taken sitting down because it is a serious threat against the president.

"It's credible because he's not just an ordinary citizen. He's a senator of the country and he is a former military official so may weight yung sinasabi niya," Paras said.

CNN Philippines' Anjo Alimario and Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.Did you know that the Philippines is the third country in the world who produce/ contributes most of the plastic waste?

It is a sad fact that we shouldnt be proud of as a country. That is why WWF-Philippines started the Ayoko ng Plastik an awareness campaign to subconciously and consciouly inculcate in every individual to disown usage of plastic as much as possible.

The feat may be ambitious but the #AyokoNgPlastik movement hopes to achieve this by bringing together companies, individuals, and other sectors to minimize and eventually put a stop to single-use plastics such as straws, bags, bottles, and cups.

Refusing to use is a simple yet strong first step that individuals can take to commit to a sustainable

The Ayoko ng Plastik campaign was launched at Glorietta Mall in Makati recently. Ayala Malls is one of the biggest partner of WWF-Philippines for this campaign. Being a campaign partner they will soon have drop off points for single-use plastic waste in each of their establishments. All single-use plastic waste they collected will be used to make eco-bricks!

In addition to Ayala Malls, other official partners of the #AyokoNgPlastik movement present during the event include National Geographic, Bellevue Hotels and Resorts, Bos Coffee, Corkcicle, Coffee Project, Daluyon Beach and Mountain Resort, Puerto Pension Inn, Foodpanda, HSBC, Impact Hub Manila, IVO, The Lind Boracay, The Moment Group, Tobys Estate, CIBO, and CNN-Philippines.

The movement is one of the major projects of WWF-Philippines this year. Initiated by its Next Generation Council (NGC), the goal is to raise awareness and encourage individuals to live more consciously and for businesses to operate more sustainably. Introduced during the event, the NGC is made up of young movers and shakers who heeded the call to spread WWF-Philippines conservation thrusts. Headed by The Net Group Chair Raymond Rufino, members include television host and columnist Stephanie Zubiri-Crespi, Philux COO Stephanie Kienle-Gonzalez, Magsaysay Transport and Logistics COO Jesse Maxwell, Teach for the Philippines CEO Clarissa Delgado, The Moment Group Co-Founder and Creative Director Abba Napa, and former WWF-Philippines National Youth Council Chairperson Alexa Cancio.

If your company, neighborhood or you as an individual want to be a part of this movement, find #AyokongPlastik on Facebook.

Stay gorgeous everyone!

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Although I had been blogging elsewhere for awhile, the doors at Eclectablog opened up ten years ago this past summer. During that time weve gone from one guy writing about an eclectic assortment of topics to becoming the main progressive political blog in Michigan and one of the top progressive blogs in the country. We helped blow the lid off what was going on behind the scenes in the tragic Snyder experiment known as the Education Achievement Authority. We helped make Emergency Management a national news story. Weve peeled back the veneer on Republican shenanigans time and time again.

Weve also built up a truly diverse crew of writers who cover all types of topics from multiple perspectives, all of whom are paid for their fine work.

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I hear you plan to go on a fact-finding tour of Israel. In fact, Israel is doing pretty well. Its, Somalia, your native country, that could truly use your formidable skills. Maybe you could use your frequent flyer miles and swing by.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18)  Three of the police escorts of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director General Nela Charade Puno were killed in an ambush attempt on Thursday morning. Three other police personnel were hurt.

According to an initial police report, Puno and her police escorts were on a convoy along the national highway of Lupi, Camarines Sur when unidentified armed men shot at the vehicle. They were on their way to Daet, Camarines Norte after the provincial capital passed an ordinance requiring establishments to secure FDA clearance prior to acquiring a business license.

The three wounded personnel were brought to the nearest hospital.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said Puno and her FDA team were unharmed and brought to a safe location.

"The safety of DG Puno and FDA employees is our top priority at the moment. They have the full backing of the Department," he said in a statement.

The police and the health department are conducting investigations.(CNN)  A year and a half into his first term, French President Emmanuel Macron is looking for a new start.

He reshuffled his cabinet Tuesday and made a rare televised address to assure France that all is well after a bruising summer which has seen his popularity rating plummet amid protests, scandals and gaffes.

"Europe is tipping almost everywhere toward extremes and again is giving way to nationalism, we need all our energy to succeed. I have confidence in us," Macron said.

His approval rating fell to 29% in September, an all time low, after a summer of protests over proposed economic reforms and scandals involving his security aide Alexandre Benalla.

Benalla was filmed wearing a police helmet and beating May Day protesters in July, after which he was dismissed. Last month, a selfie of him posing with a gun during Macron's campaign led to another investigation and questions over the President's judgment.

Macron has also been hit by resignations of key cabinet officials, especially environment minister Nicolas Hulot, who quit the government during a live radio interview in frustration at Macron's failure to tackle climate change.

"I don't want to give the illusion that my position within the government suggested that we are answering these problems properly, so I'm leaving the government," Hulot said. "I no longer want to lie."

Interior minister Gerard Collomb also announced his intention to leave the cabinet and return to his old job as mayor of Lyon. He was replaced by close Macron ally Christophe Castaner in the reshuffle Tuesday.

Even as he has courted international public opinion -- delivering a pointed rebuke to US President Donald Trump's isolationist message at the United Nations -- Macron has faced growing criticism at home for pursuing unpopular policies that many perceive as benefiting France's richest and cutting into the country's treasured social protections.

Public services ground to a halt in July amid mass protests and strikes against Macron's proposed economic reforms, which would slash public spending and see over 120,000 people laid off.

"Macron is implementing an agenda that aims at destroying all the benefits conquered throughout the past half-century: pensions, protections against unfair dismissal, terms and conditions in both private and public sector," Axel Persson from the CGT union's rail workers branch told CNN at the time. "If he gets his way, we will be back to square one in terms of workers' rights in France."

This agenda has led to criticism by figures on the left, particularly from France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. Police raided Melenchon's offices this week over alleged misuse of European Union funds, prompting a furious protest from the 67-year-old who has accused the investigation of being politically motivated.

A veteran left-winger, Melenchon came a close fourth in last year's Presidential election, less than two percentage points from making the run-off which Macron eventually won.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the other person in that run-off, National Front leader Marine Le Pen, has also ramped up pressure on Macron's administration, fanning anti-immigrant and anti-EU sentiment even as the French President has emerged as one of the bloc's strongest proponents.

"In recent months we have seen the poison of division reappear," Macron said in his address Tuesday. "But I only have one compass, the faith you put in me in May 2017 to make our country an educational, economic, social and environmental power."

This story was first published on CNN.com,"France's Macron reshuffles cabinet amid scandals, plummeting popularity."Pompeo threatened Salman: Your future as king is in peril

According to CNN Internationals sources, Pompeo told bin Salman in no uncertain terms that he had to "own" the situation.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visits in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

"THE PRINCE HAD TO OWN THE SITUATION"

According to a report published in CNN International, a source familiar with Pompeo's Tuesday meeting with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tells that the smiling photo-op between the two should not be read as an indication that the meeting was friendly. Instead, Pompeo told bin Salman in no uncertain terms that he had to "own" the situation, and "that every fact is going to get out," said the source.

Mike Pompeo met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman WATCH

HIS FUTURE AS KING DEPENDS ON HOW HE HANDLES THE ISSUE

Its been said that Pompeo reportedly delivered a stern warning to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman during a meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday, urging him to "own" the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, who has not been seen publicly since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

US diplomat floated the possibility that "his future as king" would depend on how he handles the situation. Pompeo also emphasized that bin Salman needs to be more forthcoming about the incident "even if the crown prince didn't know about it beforehand," CNN reported.This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon!

Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page?Weather to finally dry out for harvest

With the weather drying out from now until Monday, we should be seeing average rainfall and a return to the dry summer we are used to for the rest of the year.More firms today are using regtech tools to make sure their policies, procedures, and daily activities are meeting compliance obligations.

The tools can be embedded in operational and supervisory processes across multiple departments to make complying with regulatory requirements an integral part of the business process rather than an add-on.

Some developers are using biometric data to track customers and distributed ledger technology so businesses can work together to monitor the same customers.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority noted in a recent report that a growing area of development in regtech is understanding employee behavior and customer preferences or risk tolerances.

Regtech must regularly be assessed for its suitability and effectiveness, as recent enforcement actions illustrate.

The SEC in August announced a $4.5 million settlement with Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. over charges that the firm failed to safeguard retail investors assets from theft by its representatives.

Five former brokers at the firm were named in the order. The SEC noted that four of those had been identified and fired in 2013, and one in 2016, with three of these individuals going to jail. The settlement involved fraud incidents at offices in Minnesota, Ohio, and Virginia in which client funds were allegedly stolen.

Investigators found that Ameriprise failed to detect some of the diversions either because of programming errors in its surveillance technology for monitoring fund disbursements or because of a failure to follow up red flags.

In June, Morgan Stanley paid $3.6 million to settle similar SEC charges of inadequate supervision and failure of automated systems to detect questionable third-party transactions allegedly used by a former broker at the firm accused of misappropriating $5 million from the accounts of an elderly couple and their family.

The broker allegedly falsified electronic statements, account transfers and forged signatures to exploit what the SEC contends were vulnerabilities in the firms controls.

In July, Mizuho Securities USA LLC settled for $1.25 million with the commission for allegedly failing to invest in the technology needed to safeguard information pertaining to stock buybacks by its issuer customers.

_____

Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence has launched its third annual, Fintech, Regtech and the Role of Compliance Survey. Wed love to hear from you.

The survey results and accompanying report will provide insight into both the developing regulatory approach and the direction and progress of risk and compliance functions in managing fintech, regtech and insurtech.

These findings will enable firms to benchmark their own views and preparations against those of peers.

As with all TRRI surveys, information will be treated in the strictest confidence and the results will be shared anonymously through a special report. The survey should take no longer than five minutes to complete.

The survey closes Thursday, October 25.

To read the second annual Fintech, Regtech and the Role of Compliance Report, which was based on the responses of nearly 800 financial services firms last year, please go here.

____

Susannah Hammond is senior regulatory intelligence expert at Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence. She can be contacted here.

Julie DiMauro is a contributing editor of the FCPA Blog. She writes best practice articles and speaks about compliance and risk issues in the financial services sector as part of the Regulatory Intelligence group at Thomson Reuters in New York. Follow her on Twitter @Julie_DiMauro and email her here.There are up front costs to putting on any fundraising event and Yasam Icin Yars is no exception.

Sponsoring an event gives local businesses an opportunity to give something back to their community.

Today the Yasam Icin Yars team wanted to take some time to say a heartfelt thank you to the sponsors of Yasam Icin Yars 2018.

Yacht Classic Hotel

The Yacht Classic Hotel was our main sponsor this year and you will have seen their logo emblazoned on the back of the T-shirts.

The event was attended by Mustafa Argn, owner of the hotel who also took part in the medal ceremony.

Yacht Classic Hotel with its seafront location in central Fethiye, elegant decoration, warm-hearted sense of service, delicious food menu and peaceful atmosphere, has been providing an excellent service for a quarter-century.

Visit the Yacht Classic website for more information about the hotel.

www.yachtclassichotel.com

Two businesses sponsored us for the second year running.

Yakamoz Hotel

The Yakamoz Hotel in Ovack has been a Bronze sponsor for the last two years. The owner, Mehmet Guven, is pictured here accepting the monies raised by the coffee morning held at the Olive Grove Village in September.

Located off the beaten track, close to (but far enough away from) the vibrant seaside towns of Fethiye & Oludeniz, Yakamoz Hotel is the perfect place to unwind & enjoy the relaxing atmosphere in an idyllic traditional hotel where the atmosphere is relaxed and service is offered with a smile.

Visit the Yakamoz Hotel website for more information about the hotel.

www.yakamozhotel.com

Spectrum Turkey, Dalyan

Another Bronze sponsor for the second year was Spectrum Turkey. As well as being a sponsor, owners, Joanne and Tom Sparrow, have supported members of Team Dalyan in signing up individual sponsors.

Villa Cabrece (SPECTRUM TURKEY) is a dedicated healing place, a venue created for like-minded people who want a specialist group holiday, or a truly magical villa to share with family and friends; for those who want something that little bit different, something exclusive and unique that they can share together to create heart warming happy memories, to enjoy the sunshine, fun and laughter, love and much joy.

Visit the Spectrum Turkey website for more information.

www.spectrumturkey.co.uk

We also had two new Bronze sponsors for this years event.

King Emlak, Dalyan

King Emlak is an estate agent in Dalyan who have everything from building land, through apartments and luxury villas to hotels and businesses available.

Visit the King Emlak website for more information or to look at properties for sale in Dalyan.

www.dalyanestates.com

Sinans Place Last Drop  Dalyan

As well as being a Bronze Sponsor, Sinans Place have hosted Quiz Nights to raise money for Yasam Icin Yars every Sunday evening across the summer.

For more information about Sinans Place Last Drop, visit them on Facebook

Do you want to be involved?

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor for next years event, please contact :

yasamicinyaris@gmail.com

or call Lyn Ward on 00 90 531 711 5468.

Supporters

The team would also like to thank everyone who supported Yasam Icin Yars 2018 throughout the lead up to the event. You were fantastic!

For more information about Yasam Icin Yars visit:

www.yasamicinyaris.org

Join the Yasam Icin Yars Facebook group for regular updates.BitGo, a Palo Alto, CA-based institutional-grade cryptocurrency security platform provider, held the approx. $15m (corrected from a $16m previous info) second close of its Series B funding round.

New investors Goldman Sachs Principal Strategic Investments group and Galaxy Digital Ventures joined Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures, DRW, and Redpoint Ventures.

This second tranche brings the total amount raised in the Series B round by the company to $57.5m (corrected from $58.5m).

The company intends to use the funds to support development of its $1 trillion crypto wallet.

Led by Mike Belshe, CEO, BitGo provides institutional investors with security, compliance, and custodial solutions for blockchain-based currencies. The company is a large processor of on-chain bitcoin transactions, processing 15% of all global bitcoin transactions, and $15 billion per month across all cryptocurrencies. Earlier this month, BitGo announced the launch of BitGo Trust Company, the first qualified custodian purpose-built for storing digital assets.

The company whose customer base includes the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges and spans more than 50 countries, has offices in Sioux Falls, London, Singapore, and Tokyo.

FinSMEs

18/10/2018Quake Capital, a NYC-based accelerator focused on making seed level investments in new and early stage ventures across a wide range of industries, added Jim Brisimitzis as managing partner.

In his new role at Quake, Brisimitzis will oversee corporate development and outreach. He will be based out of Quakes Seattle office, which is planned as part of its 2019 expansion.

Brisimitzis joins Quake from Microsoft, where he served as general manager of Microsoft for Startups after successfully launching the program in 2015.

In this role, he led engagement with 2,800 startups in the U.S. and Canada and established partnerships with leading accelerators and incubators across the continent.

In three years, his work generated millions in new revenues and established a portfolio valuation of more than $12 billion.

Prior to launching Microsoft for Startups, Brisimitzis led global operations for Microsoft Ventures, where he created and launched the HiPo program, an exclusive engagement for startups with significant market potential. Over the course of his more than 15-year career, he has worked with both enterprises and startups, including work on an early artificial intelligence technology that was recently awarded a U.S. patent.

Led by Glenn Argenbright, founding partner, Quake Capital is an accelerator focused on making seed level investments in new and early stage ventures across a wide range of industries. The firm hosts accelerator programs in three cities: New York, Los Angeles and Austin. The firm works with key advisers, and taps into exclusive relationships developed over the last 30 years to enable access to the top players in finance, development, manufacturing and distribution.

FinSMEs

18/10/2018Memory, an Oslo, Norway-based AI startup providing an automatic time tracking app, raised US$5m in funding.

The round was led by Investinor and UK venture capital fund Concentric, with participation from existing investor SNO Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to further develop the AI functionality of Timely, its first product, as well as hiring more than 30 people over the coming months.

Founded by Norwegian entrepreneur Mathias Mikkelsen, Memory pursues a vision of an AI-enabled future, seeking to create tools that make it easier to control time use in the modern workplace.

Timely, its time tracking app to increase productivity, is currently used by more than 4,000 paying businesses across 160 countries.

FinSMEs

18/10/2018Momenta, a Beijing, China-based autonomous driving company, secured a new round of funding.

The round valued the company north of $1 billion.

Backers included existing investors NIO Capital and Pagoda Investment, strategic investors Tencent, government funds from Shanghai and Suzhou, China Merchants Group, and CCB International.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to work closely with its strategic partners in automotive, logistics, big data and other related areas.

Founded in September 2016 and led by CEO Xudong Cao, Momenta is building intelligent systems for autonomous driving, aiming to provide solutions for Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs.

This year, the company also strategic partnership with the government of Suzhou, where the company will deploy a large-scale test fleet to accelerate its Level 4 autonomous driving development and support the government in building smart transportation systems, and expanded its business to international OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

FinSMEs

18/10/2018ProducePay, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of financial resources, tech tools and data insights to fresh produce farmers, secured $14m (11m) in Series B funding.

The round was led by Anterra Capital, with participation from Rabo Frontier Ventures (Rabobank strategic investment fund), Coventure, Social Leverage, FJ Labs, Greenhouse Capital, Moonshots Capital and Tribeca Angels.

The company intends to use the funds to scale its financing business and develop its software platform.

Founded in 2015 and led by Pablo Borquez Schwarzbeck, CEO, ProducePay provides farmers with financial resources, tech tools, and data insights. Its financial solutions give produce growers, distributors, shippers and marketers access to cash flow and tools to increase sales. The company recently launched multiple tools for online trading and data insights. These tools aim to streamline the produce sales process by allowing verified distributors and grower shippers to find new business partners, communicate digitally and access real-time pricing and market conditions.

ProducePay has provided liquidity to over 600 growers and distributors in the United States, Mexico, Canada, Honduras and Chile, financing over $850m of produce in under four years.

FinSMEs

18/10/2018.     2:0      14-        .         ,                   2022 ,             " 4".     ...Thrity Umrigar was merely going out on October 4th to run some errands. But as she was waiting to pay a bill at her Cleveland bank, she turned around and saw a long line of people behind her. Suddenly, she wasnt just an award-winning, nationally best-selling author; she was an engaged citizen who saw an opportunity that was just too good to pass up.



Almost like someone who cant help themselves, I found myself turning around and yelling, Voter registration ends on Tuesday! Are you registered? says Umrigar. And then, because I hadnt humiliated myself enough, I went up to each person in line and asked them individually if they were registered. Most of them looked at me like I was a crazy lady, but I had a few good conversations with people waiting in line.



Cleveland VOTES Nonpartisan Engagement Training held in July by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress Whether its one woman at a bank or a team of volunteers with clipboards at rallies, the full-court press of voter registration and voter encouragement has been a ubiquitous presence in the national landscape for months now. It is a flurry of activity unlike many have ever seen leading up to a midterm election.



Here in Ohio, the barriers to registration and voting mirror the obstacles nationally (lack of education on issues, apathy about candidates, transportation to polls, etc.), but are also uniquely Ohioan. A June 2018 Supreme Court decision upheld the use-it-or-lose-it Ohio voting law that gives the state the power to bar voting from citizens who fail to return a mailed address confirmation form, and don't vote for another four years (or two federal election cycles) after registering.



Midterm election voter turnout can be tricky to measure. You cant expect the 69.3 percent of citizens who voted in the 2016 Presidential Election, but you also want to do better than the 39.5 percent who cast ballots in 2014, the last midterm election.



To improve on that rate, several Cleveland-based organizations have undertaken massive efforts to increase participation in the upcoming election. Their goal? To confront the barriers head-onfirst by getting Clevelanders registered to vote, then by devising ways to get the votes of Clevelanders cast and counted.



Step 1: Registration



Registering to vote often means navigating what can sometimes be a complicated web of changing addresses, confusing information, and signing your name in exactly the right place.



Recognizing that individuals often turn to local nonprofits for sage advice, Cleveland Neighborhood Progress has been deeply immersed in Cleveland VOTESan initiative that provides free nonpartisan voter engagement training to 501(c)(3) organizations who are in direct engagement with their constituents.



Through their two free trainings offered in July, 83 attendees from dozens of Cleveland nonprofits learned everything from the process of registration to how to maximize social media for educating clients to best practices for handling potentially emotional conversations about prominent issues in the upcoming election.



The trainings really illustrated the need for nonpartisan information in the political landscape and how it can best be communicated to our communities, says Jennifer Lumpkin, Civic Engagement Strategy Manager for Cleveland Neighborhood Progress. Nonprofits are a trusted place of information for our neighbors and can play a crucial role in helping their constituents understand how to deepen their engagement.



Those attending the trainings were able to have in-depth discussions on how their organization aligns with ballot issues, as well as how they can play a more active role in addressing voter suppression and disenfranchisement.



For Justice Ministry of the South Euclid United Church of Christ, the approach seems to be working. We had a goal of registering 125 people, says volunteer Juan Goodman. We ended up with over 220, which was very encouraging.



Ashley Underwood of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio reports that she was able to gain more perspective on the many reasons why people are not civically engaged, which inspired her to brainstorm messaging that would make voting interesting to someone who has never registered.



I now discuss voting with genuine excitement, says Underwood. Politics and legalese can be overwhelming, but registering community members in this personable manner has yielded really insightful interactions.



In addition to the trainings, Cleveland VOTES also convened partners all over Cuyahoga County on September 25 for National Voter Registration Day. Over 1000 people were registered, a tally that far exceeds previous efforts for this day. Their efforts were even shouted out on social media by When We All Vote, the national organization co-chaired by Michelle Obama aiming to spark a conversation about the responsibility of registering and voting.



Voter registration is a key way to address equity in our community, says Lumpkin. The more we can help every citizen understand the process, the closer we can get to every voice being heard.



Step 2: Voting



Getting people registered is only half the battle. Turning those registrations into actual votes can be just as monumental a taskparticularly in low-income communities where voter turnout on Election Day has proven to be significantly distressed.



Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates (NOVA), an organization that focuses on voter research and advocacy, has centered their efforts on a strategy that often flies under the radar: vote by mail (VBM).



Low-income individuals struggle with getting time off work, transportation, childcare, and not enough time to look at the ballot., says Susan Alcorn, NOVA's president. Vote by mail gives people extra time to look things over, talk with their friends and family, and have more confidence in the process by being able to be more intentional with their voting.



VBM presents its own set of challenges, chiefly that individuals addresses must match up with the information listed on their voter registration. (An address discrepancy can result in the vote being invalidated.)



According to NOVAs research, 20 percent of low-income Ohioans move without changing their address, representing roughly 40,000 potential votes in the Cleveland area alone that would not be counted. Yet when NOVA volunteers promoted VBM in the 2016 election, the turnout in low-income groups increased by up to 20 percentage points.



This year, we will be following up on over 800 voter registrations, says Norman Robbins, Director of Research at NOVA. The personal touch of well-trained volunteers has proven to make a world of difference in actual votes being submitted.



VBM does require that citizens request their ballot in advance, and it is critical that these votes be mailed in with the correct postage. Those wishing to save the stamps can deliver their ballot in person to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections at 2925 Euclid Avenue.



Step 3: Making the connection



No matter what method Clevelanders use to vote, both Cleveland VOTES and NOVA agree that the key piece to voter turnout is the person-to-person contact where the importance of voting can be discussed. These critical conversations can take the form of interactions at the food bank, dialogue after church service, and, yes, even engaging with that passionate stranger who suddenly approached you at the bank.



We are not in the government and we are not big corporations, but the Constitution tells us we are the most important people, says Umrigar. What are you possibly going to do with your day on Election Day that will have greater consequences for you and your loved ones and your country? Please go vote.Valve has shipped a patch for Dota 2 that bakes dynamic loot box odds right into the in-game menu where players purchase treasure boxes. The patch introduces a clickable arrow next to each type of treasure that displays the current odds for rare, very rare, and extremely rare drops.

Whats neat about Dota 2s new feature is that per-box odds typically shift as players open more and more packs, and the odds listed in-game will always reflect those current odds rather than a general percentage of overall drop rates.

Its becoming increasingly common for developers to disclose those loot box odds either in-game or on a games website as lawmakers and governing bodies voice concerns over the similarities between the monetization system and gambling.

Valve itself has had its share of problems with loot box regulation in the past. The company recently shifted the way loot boxes work in the Netherlands for both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2 in an effort to navigate around requests from The Netherlands Gaming Authority.Documentary on the History of Midway Games Meteoric Rise in the 90s is the Second in an On-going Series of Monthly Events for Indie Film FansThe annual placement of the Trees on the Bay started last week as the Long Beach Marine Maintenance team towed the floating light platforms to their holiday locations.Police warn against scam : Fraudsters offer apartments in Bonn

Bonn In the past few days there has been an increase in fraudulent ads appearing on property websites. Several interested people have fallen for the trick and already transferred money.

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The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is examining several cases of fraudulent apartment adverts which were published online and warns urgently against the scam. Three criminal charges have been brought forward in the past few days, the police reported on Wednesday.

According to the police, several ads offering rooms in shared flats or small apartments were published between September 26 and October 12. When interested parties contacted the suspected fraudsters via the internet or a messenger service, the victims were asked to transfer amounts of 400 to 600 euro as a deposit. They did not receive the promised key, and the alleged landlord was not reachable since.

As the police report, the money transfer was made to a foreign bank. In one other case the interested person thought it was suspicious that he would have to pay rent and deposit beforehand and filed a complaint. He had previously contacted the alleged supplier of the apartment via a foreign number.

Fraud victims had already posted warnings against the scam on Facebook. One affected woman described how the suppliers of the fraudulent ads were presenting fake identities and passports and pretending to be currently abroad.

The police in Bonn urgently warns people to not fall for apartment fraudsters online. Telephone contacts are not a basis for money transfers and transfers to foreign accounts are not common.

If in doubt, please contact the police.46-year-old German woman detained : Suspected IS member arrested at Cologne/Bonn airport

Cologne/Bonn A 46-year-old German woman was arrested on Wednesday at Cologne/Bonn airport. She is suspected to be a member of the terrorist organisation Islamic State. The Federal Prosecutor is investigating.

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According to the Attorney General, the woman is strongly suspected of being a member of the terroristic group Islmaic State (IS), to have lived in Syria with her husband and to have purchased a house in Iraq. She was arrested upon arrival in Germany, brought to appear in front of the investigating magistrate at the Federal Supreme Court and is currently in custody.

The 46-year-old is thought to have decided at the end of 2014 to join the IS in the fight against the regime of Syrian ruler Baschar al-Assad and to participate in the building of an islamic state based on the model of the sharia, according to the Federal Prosecutor.

In January 2015, she married an IS warrior, via video chat from Germany, which is permitted under islamic law. At the start of February she travelled from Germany to meet her husband in Turkey. Together they are said to have gone to Syria. There she joined th IS.

The couple moved into an apartment provided by the IS. She was doing the housework, while he fought for the IS in combat missions. They received a monthly wage from the IS of 250 US dollar.

In June 2015, they both moved to Tal Afar in Iraq, where they lived in a house from which the rightful owners were driven out by the IS or fled from the IS.

In the middle of 2015, her husband was killed during battles. The 46-year-old German woman is thought to have decided to turn her back on the IS then and travelled to Turkey in October 2016. Now she returned to Germany and was arrested upon arrival.

The investigation continues.kejguv at 18-10-2018 01:04 PM (3 years ago) (m)

In the early hours of today Thursday, October 18th, a three storey building collapsed in Nnewi, Anambra leaving no fewer than 11 persons trapped under the rubble. The building which is located in Okpuno, Otolo, in Nnewi North Local Government Area of the state, belongs to one Collins Avoyi. According to the state police commands spokesperson, SP Mohammed Haruna, nine of the trapped persons have been rescued and taken to hospital while effort was on to get the remaining two out of the rubbles. He said the trapped workers included foreign masons from the Republic of Togo.

In the early hours of today Thursday, October 18th, a three storey building collapsed in Nnewi, Anambra leaving no fewer than 11 persons trapped under the rubble. The building which is located in Okpuno, Otolo, in Nnewi North Local Government Area of the state, belongs to one Collins Avoyi. According to the state police commands spokesperson, SP Mohammed Haruna, nine of the trapped persons have been rescued and taken to hospital while effort was on to get the remaining two out of the rubbles. He said the trapped workers included foreign masons from the Republic of Togo.

Sp Haruna said ;

Sp Haruna said ; Quote A three storey building belonging to one Mr Avoyi Collins m collapsed at Okpuno Otolo in Nnewi North LGA of Anambra. Police Patrol rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area to prevent looters from taking advantage of the situation to steal. So far, nine of them were rescued alive from the collapsed building while efforts are ongoing to rescue two others who are still trapped inside the debris. Meanwhile, the rescued victims were rushed to the Community Health Center, Okpuno for medical attention and investigation is ongoing to ascertain circumstances surrounding the incident,

Post Reply Writing is my passion and facts-proofing is my hobby, I have been writing at Gistmania for close to a decade now and It is one of the most exciting things I do. Outside writing, I love enjoying time with my loved ones - if you have any tip for me, please do get in touch Posted: at 18-10-2018 01:04 PM (3 years ago) | GistmaniacWASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nearly 90 percent of Croatians own their own homes, so when the Croatian government passed a property tax for the first time in 2017, Lipa Taxpayers Association refused to stand by and allow this property tax to hit an already troubled economy. Its efforts led to the taxs full repeal.



"Stopping the real estate tax in Croatia was a huge success for civil society, said Davor Huic, president of Lipa. It was the first time ever that citizens prevented the government from raising the overall tax burden in the country. But perhaps even more importantly, we have created a popular climate in which it is politically very difficult, if not outright impossible, to increase the level of taxation in Croatia."

Lipa launched an award-winning campaign against the tax, emphasizing Croatias already crippling tax burden. Its efforts turned public opinion sharply against the tax in a matter of months, resulting in over 146,000 petition signatures, media coverage in more than 100 news outlets, and a full repeal of the property tax. Following the repeal, public opposition to taxes has remained high, with the government unable to introduce any new taxes since. And while Croatians may still be overtaxed, they are grateful that Lipas success means they wont be sending payments to the government just to live in their own homes.

Lipa has shown how a small civil society organization can have an outsized impact on a public debate and achieve an important tax repeal, said Brad Lips, CEO of Atlas Network. There's lasting impact here: Croatians who may not have felt that they had a voice in the past suddenly are empowered to stand up for their rights.

What: Lipa Taxpayers Association named one of six finalists for Atlas Network's prestigious $100,000 Templeton Freedom Award for work repealing Croatias property tax

When: Nov. 8, 2018, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner closing ceremony  Intrepid Museum Manhattan Pier 86, West 46th St & 12th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Press Contact: Daniel.Anthony@AtlasNetwork.org or 202-449-8449

Awarded since 2004, the Templeton Freedom Award is named for the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. The award annually honors his legacy by identifying and recognizing the most exceptional and innovative contributions to the understanding of free enterprise, and the public policies that encourage prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment via free competition. The award is generously supported by Templeton Religion Trust and will be presented during Atlas Network's Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner gala dinner ceremony Nov. 8, 2018 in New York City. The winning organization will receive a $100,000 prize and the runners-up will each receive $25,000.

The 2018 Templeton Freedom Award finalists are:

The Buckeye Institute (Columbus, Ohio, United States)  Increasing Safety, Liberty, and Justice: Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform in Ohio

The Commonwealth Foundation (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States)  A Titanic Shift: Pension Reform in Pennsylvania

The Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies of Egypt (Cairo, Egypt)  Better Budget for a Better Egypt

Libertad y Progreso (Buenos Aires, Argentina)  Downsizing of Argentinas Government

Lipa Taxpayers Association (Zagreb, Croatia)  Campaign Against the Introduction of the Property Tax in Croatia

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University (Arlington, Virginia, United States)  Unleashing Prosperity by Cutting State Regulations

About Lipa Taxpayers Association

Zagreb, Croatia-based Lipa Taxpayers Association raises the standard of living for Croatian citizens by working to reduce the tax burden and public spending of Croatia.

About Atlas Network

Washington-based Atlas Network is a nonprofit organization that strengthens the worldwide freedom movement by connecting more than 485 independent partners in over 90 countries that share the vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets.

AttachmentGovernments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.New York City joined Facebook investors, including three state governments, in pushing founder Mark Zuckerberg to give up the role of chairman after a string of security breaches and misuse of the platform by foreign agents during U.S. elections.Facebook plays an outsize role in our society and our economy" and has a social and financial responsibility to be more transparent, said New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, whose job includes serving as the adviser for the fourth-largest pension fund system in the country, with assets of $197 billion. "An independent board chair is essential to moving Facebook forward from this mess."State treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania are also backing the measure, originally filed by Trillium Asset Management in June, which calls for a vote at the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company's next general meeting.The former head of Alabama's law enforcement agency said Tuesday that a member of then-Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey's security detail was removed after he told his superiors that Ivey displayed "stroke-like symptoms" during an April 2015 trip to Colorado.Spencer Collier, who ran the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency from 2013 to 2016, also alleged that the trooper was told Ivey suffered a series of mini-strokes known as transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), and that Ivey's chief of staff, Steve Pelham, told the trooper not to tell anyone, an order he called improper and in violation of ALEA policies."You don't ever repeat political conversations," Collier, now the chief of the Selma Police Department, said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. "But it goes from being political conversations to undermining an organization when you give instructions contrary to what the policy provides."Ivey has said in previous interviews she suffered from altitude sickness during the Colorado trip. The allegations, first reported by Alabama Political Reporter, revive an issue the governor's Republican primary opponents tried to raise in the spring.Ivey's camp pushed back against the allegations Wednesday. Daniel Sparkman, a spokesman for the governor, denied a cover-up or any need for a cover-up existed, and denied any meeting took place between Collier and the then-lieutenant governor over the matter.The governor's campaign released a letter from Ivey's doctor saying he examined Ivey after she returned from Colorado and saw no evidence of TIAs in that examination or subsequent ones conducted through early 2016."I cannot comment on what condition may have led to her hospitalization in April 2015, but her health since then has remained good with no indication of an increased cardiovascular risk," Dr. Brian Elrod wrote in the letter.In a statement released by the campaign, Ivey said the letter "confirms what I've said all along, which is that I'm in good health," and blamed her Democratic opponent, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, for the allegations surfacing."It's sad that Mayor Maddox's campaign is trying to push this issue three weeks out from election day, but I assume he's desperate since his liberal record is out of touch with Alabama," the statement said.The Maddox campaign said in a statement they "were shocked to learn that Governor Ivey possibly had a stroke and attempted to cover it up.""We are examining all the available information and Walt will have more to say very soon," the statement said.Collier, who said he believed "the public needs to know what went on and what happened," said the activity after the incident was what mattered to him."None of this is about her health," Collier said. "I'm not taking issue with her health. My issue is with her response."Ivey, who turned 74 on Monday, told al.com in 2017 that she got "light-headed" while presiding over a meeting of the Aerospace States Association, and went to the hospital."So on Friday night and Saturday and I got out of the hospital on Sunday," she was quoted as saying. "They ran all kinds of tests. And I've never had a stroke, not then, not since."Collier said Tuesday the trooper assigned to Ivey reported that she had become "incoherent" and transported her to an emergency room. The trooper alleged that Pelham told him "not to tell anyone." According to Collier, that violated ALEA policies, which he said the trooper was following."It says that any unusual event, you will immediately notify your supervisor," he said. "He did think the emergency room visit was unusual. Steve Pelham telling him not to tell anyone was unusual."The trooper's supervisor, Jack Clark, "reminded the trooper he didn't work for Steve Pelham or Lt. Gov. Ivey," Collier said. "She was the protectee, but he worked for ALEA and was bound by its policies."Attempts to reach Clark Tuesday and Wednesday were unsuccessful.Collier said he did not speak with Pelham after the incident.After Ivey returned from the conference, Collier said Ivey summoned him to a private conference room in the law firm of Balch and Bingham -- which "struck me as odd," Collier said -- and gave the order for the trooper's removal. Collier, who said he did not notice any health issues with Ivey at that meeting, said he did so that day."She wanted proof he had been reassigned by afternoon," he said. "By noon we had reassigned him."Collier served as a Republican in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2002 to 2013, when he was appointed to lead ALEA. Gov. Robert Bentley fired him in March of 2016, alleging that an audit of the agency found "a number of issues." A subsequent investigation cleared Collier of any wrongdoing.Following his termination, Collier alleged that Bentley had pursued an affair with a longtime staffer, triggering a chain of events that led to Bentley pleading guilty to two campaign finance misdemeanors and leaving office. Collier is suing Bentley for unlawful termination.Ivey's Republican opponents attempted to raise issues about Ivey's health during the primary, and several released their medical records. The governor released a letter from her doctor that said she was in "excellent health" and that Ivey had "no medical issues that would prevent her from fulfilling her obligations as governor."Collier said his main concern in the incident was the apparent violation of policies."ALEA is a paramilitary organization," he said. "It's very clear who can give orders and who can't. Had the trooper followed the suggestions and followed the directive, it would have been a problem. I think it's a credit to the trooper's integrity."Description

GIS  18 October, 2018: The creation of a centre of excellence for research and the use of technology so as to ease the work of tea growers will help increase tea production and revitalise the tea sector in Mauritius.

The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, made this statement yesterday at Royal Parbeaux Hall, Nouvelle France, during a ceremony organised by the Ministry of Agro-Industry and Food Security for the payment of the Winter Tea Allowance to tea growers. The Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Mahen Seeruttun, Ministers and Members of Parliament, and other personalities were present on the occasion.

A cheque of approximately Rs 3.86 million was handed over to the Chairman of the Small Farmers Welfare Fund and the organisation will effect payment of the Winter Tea Allowance to some 1 100 tea growers.

In his address, the Prime Minister recalled that Budget 2018-2019 made provision for a monthly income support of 50 cents per kilo of tea leaves harvested by small planters during the three months winter period. However, he highlighted, Government has decided to increase this support to 75 cents per kilo of tea leaves harvested so as to provide better assistance and motivation to tea growers.

He underlined that Government is also taking necessary measures to create the appropriate environment to attract investors in the tea sector. This, he pointed out, will help create a new dynamism in the sector for it to flourish. He added that Mauristea Investment Co Ltd, a company from China, has already taken over the Dubreuil tea factory and made it operational again. Some 600 arpents of land have already been identified and will be made available to promoters for tea plantation.

Prime Minister Jugnauth underscored that the use of new techniques and information technology can be used to the advantage of tea growers and he made a parallel with young graduates who are using technology in sheltered farming. He further dwelt on ongoing Government projects, including the Metro Express and the A1-M1 link road, and measures taken to sustain the population such as the National Minimum Wage.

For his part, the Agro-Industry Minister underlined that the tea industry is experiencing a growth of 7% per annum and this figure is bound to increase in the years to come. Since 2015, Government has been working towards the revival of the tea sector and today this sector comprises some 1 200 tea growers, 1 500 arpents under tea cultivation and an annual tea production of around 1 400 tons. The Winter Tea Allowance shows commitment of Government to support tea growers so that this sector plays an important role in the countrys economy, he added.Description

GIS - 18 October, 2018: The Valerie Seneque Breast Cancer Care Centre, dedicated to support women suffering from breast cancer and help them lead a normal life despite the prevalent stigmatisation of the disease, was inaugurated yesterday at Petit Bel Air in Mahebourg.

The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Local Government and Outer Islands, Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs. Fazila Jeewa-Daureeawoo, the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Dr Anwar Husnoo, the Director and founder of the Breast Cancer Care Organisation, Mrs Shamima Patel, as well as other personalities were present.

In her address, Vice-Prime Minister Jeewa-Daureeawoo, highlighted the importance of screening and preventive measures to reduce cancer risks as the disease remains an alarming threat to women all around the world. Around 80% of the total budget allocated for the healthcare sector is mostly used for treating Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), which indicates the increasing gravity of these diseases, she indicated.

Government, in a bid to enhance the healthcare system and make of Mauritius a medical centre of excellence, is investing a lot for the upgrading of existing primary healthcare infrastructures and construction of new ones, the Vice-Prime Minister pointed out. People should therefore avail of the healthcare services and screening activities for early detection, treatment and prevention of complications, she urged.

The Vice-Prime Minister underlined that the setting up of the Centre will further raise breast cancer awareness and people will become conscious of the need to fight the stigma of breast cancer. Mrs Jeewa-Daureeawoo saluted the courage and determination of all those women who are struggling against breast cancer every day.

For his part, Minister Husnoo, expressed concern for the increasing number of new cases of cancer each year. NCDs, he underlined, are one among the leading causes of death in Mauritius, and in 2017, there were 2 500 new cancer cases, 1 500 among females and 1 000 among men, with breast cancer topping the list.

On this score, the Health Minister emphasised that an early detection of NCDs is fundamental so as to treat them accordingly. The population, he emphasised, should adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle as well as practise physical exercises in order to reduce the risks of diseases. A timely screening, an effective diagnosis and preventive measures are crucial to better manage NCDs, he stated.

Speaking about the Centre, Minister Husnoo observed that it has been inaugurated in October which is designated as the breast cancer awareness month. He commended the efforts of both public and private partners who have collaborated for this laudable initiative of providing relief to breast cancer victims.

The Director and founder of the Breast Cancer Care Organisation, Mrs Patel, underscored that the Centre will bring a change in the way Cancer is dealt with and will provide psychological, social, physical and emotional support to the people suffering from breast cancer. A fourth Cancer centre will soon be inaugurated in Port-Louis, she announced, while expressing her determination to mobilise Mauritians to address cancer-related issues.Description

GIS 18 October, 2018: A Training of Trainers Programme, an initiative of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) organised in the context of the National Leadership Engine Project, was launched yesterday by the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Dharmendar Sesungkur, at the Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene. The National Leadership Engine is a national project that aims at building leadership capabilities among youth in Mauritius at all levels. A Training of Trainers Programme, an initiative of the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) organised in the context of the National Leadership Engine Project, was launched yesterday by the Minister of Financial Services and Good Governance, Mr Dharmendar Sesungkur, at the Hennessy Park Hotel in Ebene. The National Leadership Engine is a national project that aims at building leadership capabilities among youth in Mauritius at all levels.

In his address, Minister Sesungkur highlighted that Mauritius has already established itself as one of the leading economies in Africa, and is successfully transitioning from a low income to an upper middle income country, underscoring the need for a new breed of leaders at all levels of the society. He added that s trong leadership and management is a key factor in fostering innovation, unlocking the potential of the workforce and ensuring organisations have the right strategies to drive productivity and growth.

The Minister pointed out that the National Leadership Engine Project, by bridging existing gaps in the area of leadership development, is contributing to achieving the vision of Government in leveraging its youth as thriving leaders. These leaders, he said, will be able to operate in the public and private sectors and within the civil society, blending a global mindset with the very best of relevant local experience and culture. The objective is to increase stakeholder confidence around delivery of high quality results, thus contributing efficiently and effectively to the overall national economy and the social environment, he added.

Minister Sesungkur emphasised that the trainees, as future trainers, will be expected to train people to competently share responsibilities, vision, and commitment and develop a team of leaders to bring forth meaningful change in the society.

The Training of Trainers Programme

The three-week Training of Trainers Programme will kick-start on 19 October 2018 and involve some 100 trainers comprising Youth Officers from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, participants from the public and the NPCC staff. All the trainers will eventually be accommodated in some 10 Youth Centres across Mauritius where, after their training sessions, they will disseminate their knowledge to young people.

They will be expected to work on projects for the community through innovative problem solving related to challenges such as illiteracy, unemployment, entrepreneurship, obesity, drug addiction, self-esteem, teenage pregnancy and poverty.(TNS)  Jeff Bezos is defending Amazons work with the Defense Department, saying his company will continue to bid on U.S. government contracts amid protests by employees.Amazons CEO made the comments during an interview Monday at the Wired 25 conference in San Francisco.If big tech companies are going to turn their back on U.S. Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble, Bezos said.He didnt mention one of Amazons biggest competitors, but he didnt have to. Google, which saw employee protests and resignations over Project Maven, its artificial intelligence work with the Pentagon, said in June it will not be renewing the contract. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at the same conference Monday that the Project Maven decision was not based solely on employees opposition. However, the search giant did not bid for JEDI, the Pentagons $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract, either. Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft  which is also facing employee protests  are bidding for that contract.One of the jobs of the senior leadership team is to make the right decision, even when its unpopular, Bezos said.I like this country, he added. I know everybody is very conflicted about the current politics and so on.He himself is a frequent target of President Donald Trump, and also of other politicians, over Amazon working conditions, his ownership of theand more. Still, he said, This country is a gem.Amazon employees have also protested the companys other government work, including over Rekognition, its facial recognition technology, to police departments and government agencies.The other company headed by Bezos, Blue Origin, last week was awarded its first big government contract, worth $500 million, to develop rockets for launching national security satellites. Its one of three companies sharing a more than $2 billion Air Force contract.Philadelphia Selects Internal Innovation Grant Recipients

New York Times Maps Every Building in America, Causes Stir on Civic Tech Twitter

Durham, N.C., iTeam Looks to Improve City Forms

As gov tech principles spread and cities began sharing insights into using innovation to overcome long-standing municipal problems, the concept of the innovation lab has become more common.Now, a new directory has mapped the top civic innovation labs in the world, including, of course, those located in the United States. Dubbed the Innovation Lab Directory , at a glance it serves as an excellent list of the local, state and federal government agencies at the forefront of using technological advances to improve quality of life for residents.Indeed, many of the pioneers in that area are represented on this directory. At the federal level, it includes the tech consultancy 18F , which since its inception during the Obama administration has gone on to inspire many of the tech efforts taking place at the state level all across the country. USAIDs Global Development Lab is also represented on the directory, as is the U.S. Office of Personnel Managements The Lab at OPM There are no strictly state-level agencies from the U.S. represented on the list, which is perhaps telling. Meanwhile, at the city level are many of the usual suspects, including the biggest cities in the country  Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle and San Francisco.Perhaps most interesting are the smaller cities that made the list, many of which are for some time now punching above their weight class in terms of tech and innovation. This includes the likes of Louisville, Ky.; Rochester, N.Y.; South Bend, Ind.; and West Hollywood, Calif.The city's Innovation Fund, which aims to facilitate civic tech and innovation work, recently awarded grants to seven pilot initiatives created by city employees, all of which aim to improve services within the municipal government there.The awards are being billed as startup funds to help create lasting projects. The seven winners, the city announced in a press release , were chosen from a pool of 15 applicants by Philadelphias Innovation Working Group, which is made up of city employees from across departments who are trained in helping to seed innovation. The money ultimately comes from the Mayors Fund for Philadelphia, which provides the grants out of its annual operating budget. Six of the grants were approximately $7,500, while a seventh was for $1,080.The grants went to a diverse group of recipients and projects, ranging from the Philadelphia Fire Department upgrading its video equipment, software and programming to a pilot project by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health aimed at safely identifying and disposing of opioid needles.The Working Group gave consideration to many deserving and inventive ideas submitted by city employees, said Andrew Buss, deputy chief information officer for Innovation Management, in the release. The Innovation Fund demonstrates that innovation is alive and well in the citys many operational departments, and that many of our workers are creative thinkers who are committed to improving services for all residents.Project proposals were assessed on five criteria: process improvement, novelty/value creation, delivery of public services, government relations and cross-departmental collaboration.The civic tech and gov tech corners of Twitter are interesting places, often brimming with enthusiasm for the future, details of the latest municipal open data efforts and plenty of pictures of PowerPoint presentations being given in hotel conference rooms across the country.Every so often, however, something comes along from outside the usual purview of gov tech and civic tech folks to cause a bit of a stir. That was the case this week whenpublished a new project that mapped every building in America, thereby inciting basically every gov tech person on my Twitter timeline to excitedly re-tweet the project and ask everyone to imagine the possibilities.To be sure, this project certainly merits the excitement and exposure. Fittingly titled A Map of Every Major Building in America , the project really is an impressive feat, one that will surely have vast implications for visualizing open data and GIS work. The images on the map are drawn from a massive database released by Microsoft earlier in the year It remains to be seen what exactly enterprising tech and innovation folks will be able to do with this mapping effort. In some areas, that data has now been supplemented bywith extra information from state and local governments. The end result is exactly what the name of the project purports to be: a map of every single building in our country. Im not even a data visualization kind of guy, at least not on a deeply technical level, and I still had a great time playing with it.Finally, the Durham, N.C., Innovation Team (iTeam) is the latest government agency working to use human-centered design to make public services more accessible by creating better forms.Indeed, this overhaul of governmental forms is one that is ongoing across the country, with perhaps the most direct example being what the design firm Civilla was able to do with a human services form in Michigan. The problem is a simple one: At some point in recent decades, forms for government services got unwieldy and obtuse for any number of reasons, evolving to become cumbersome for both the residents who fill them out and the public servants who process them.Civic groups are now moving to create simpler and more efficient forms using human-centered design, which sees them doing field research and studying real experiences in order to develop new products.The effort to redesign any and all forms in Durham is ongoing, and the iTeam there held an event Oct. 17 to learn more about the forms folks tend to struggle with most.This is from the event description: Weve all had that experience of filling out a government form, and pausing to ask ourselves, could they have made this any more confusing or difficult? Forms are an important way we all engage with our governments, and in Durham we are launching a new effort to make our forms better. We want to have the best forms. Period. And we cant do it without you.Itll be interesting to see what Durham, and the increasingly high number of other local and state governments nationwide, come up with.Governments are more digitally connected than ever before, making them more effective and constituent-friendly  but also increasing their vulnerability to cyber attacks. Because a growing number of high-profile cybersecurity breaches involve trusted insiders or compromised network credentials, organizations are moving toward a zero-trust security approach to safeguard valuable data and systems.Concerns about chronic care patients and those who experienced extended disruptions in care. While the situation is beginning to stabilize, there will be continued chronic care needs and outcomes for weeks to come.

Fortunately, Hurricane Michael did not impact North Carolina as severely, but there is a recognition that the second storm did cause rain and exacerbated the situation in North and South Carolina. In addition, there is a real concern that the Michael response will pull resources (and focus) away from the Florence recovery.

Weve seen a sustained set of requests around behavioral health and medical professionals. There are a number of partners who are still providing medical support, and behavioral health needs continued to be flagged. This is likely related to the trauma survivors feel after navigating such an event.

Hospitals are working to come back online, and several are using mobile emergency departments and other solutions to meet the needs of patients. These solutions are great, but unless facilities are able to address their structural issues, they will not be able to perform the same medical functions in a mobile or limited capacity. Focusing on getting all facilities, including community health centers and free clinics, fully operational is a priority.

Flu vaccine  the number of requests for flu vaccine have surged. There is a need to vaccinate as many as possible, and we cannot ignore the fact that flu season is here because we are so focused on the acute response needs.

Opioid crisis  The number of patients needing assistance obtaining controlled substances is (again) higher than in years past. For our organization, this seems to be an upward trend, even from last year. In addition, we have been working to ensure that sufficient Narcan is present in shelters and other key locations, as there are concerns about overdosing and a need to make sure responders can avoid fatalities.

Chronic care  Patients with co-morbidities are of concern, especially in southwest Georgia (where sustained power outages are likely) and Florida (where infrastructure is damaged). This includes diabetic and dialysis patients.

An editorial in North Carolinasbegan by saying, Hurricane Florence turned the Cape Fear River into more of an open sewer than it already was.Then there was the story about Florence drowning more than 5,000 pigs and more than 3 million chickens, then another about the concern of Florence leaving behind a toxic mess from hog farms.Its the stuff that concerns Nicolette Louissaint, executive director of Healthcare Ready, who says not enough attention is paid to public health concerns during and after disasters.The way, in general, that we cover disasters is way too focused on individual suffering and the acute needs and not thinking about the broader questions of how did we get here, she said. What made us susceptible to this type of suffering and how do we protect people from going through it again?Louissaint said the issue should be taken up way before disaster strikes, like in the community planning stages. That the problem and solutions begin with infrastructure planning. We cant really have a conversation about disasters in isolation, she said. Its an urban planning discussion, its an infrastructure discussion  otherwise we wind up where we are right now.And that is wondering about public health problems resulting from Hurricane Florence, which helped create a toxic mess in North Carolina. There are 3,300 hog lagoons, where waste is deposited, in North Carolina. According to areport, four of those lagoons suffered structural damage and some waste may have escaped from 13 others as well.Some of the manure from the flooded farms may have escaped into the Trent River. There are other hazards too, such as coal ash basins, where power plant residue is stored, and there are other toxic sites. The floods can raise high enough to flow into these sites and then back into the rivers that provide drinking water.Also in North Carolina, as electricity was lost, about 5.25 million gallons of partially treated wastewater was dumped into a local river before it was deemed safe for workers to repair a failed generator,reported.Power and water are top of mind right now for Louissaint and other public health officials. What weve been seeing the last month with Florence and Michael is meds [will people run out of their meds?], water, power, she said. A lot of this pertains to critical infrastructure. There are a lot of concerns about environmental exposure, water quality and what happens to water treatment in the absence of power.The problem is exacerbated in the Southeast, where there are large, rural populations and people are farther from treatment and the likelihood of sustained power outages and communications challenges can be greater.Louissaint said her biggest fear is that our cross-sector dependencies cause people to miss out on getting help. As weve seen with all of the events, if you are disconnected from electricity, you dont have a phone thats working, and you if have a public health need, it is very difficult for your need to be identified.She said there is a connection between public health and environmental health, and concerns should be integrated into urban planning and infrastructure development. Making sure youre thinking about the threats that might impact the community and building infrastructure in a way that makes the community more resilient is an important part of mitigation and preparedness, Louissaint said.Were starting to put investments behind the conversation, and my hope is that some of those investments that will be pushed toward the locals, the counties, will allow them to make the decisions with funding dollars, she said.Mitigation and planning are long-term ventures, and disasters evoke concern for a short period of time and then that concern fades. It causes the conversations on disasters to really get stunted to heres what happened, whos suffering, lets find stories on the suffering and then lets forget about it in a few weeks, Louissaint said.Notes from the hurricanes:Florence:Michael:Duke Energy has proposed an electric transportation (ET) pilot program that will allow South Carolina to join other states in deploying EV infrastructure to meet the needs of this growing market.

The proposed $10-million pilot consists of four programs designed to research and better understand the effects of increasing adoption of electric transportation on Duke Energys electric system, the behavior of customers and the potential financial and environmental benefits to the state of South Carolina. They include:

Residential EV Charging Program. This program will provide a rebate and ongoing quarterly participation payments for up to 400 residential customers installing qualifying Level II charging equipment in exchange for utility management of home charging during defined hours.

EV School Bus Charging Station Program. This program is designed to facilitate the replacement of older diesel school buses with modern, clean, zero-emission electric school buses, reducing operating costs and eliminating harmful diesel emissions from the daily commutes of school children in South Carolina. Duke Energy will provide financial support for the purchase of about 30 electric school buses. In addition to studying the charging characteristics and usage patterns of electric school buses, this program will test bidirectional power flow abilities of electric school buses and the potential to use their batteries during times of high electric demand or during disaster recovery.

EV Transit Bus Charging Station Program. Duke Energy will provide financial support to eligible transit agency customers electing to procure electric transit buses for up to 30 electric transit bus charging stations. Electric transit buses also eliminate diesel emissions and reduce fuel and maintenance costs for transit agencies.

DC Fast Charging Station Program. Duke Energy will install, own and operate up to 30 DC Fast Charging (DCFC) installations across its South Carolina territory to provide a foundational level of infrastructure and facilitate EV market growth.

The estimated cost of the pilot is about $10.4 million over the proposed initial three years of the programs. The pilot must be approved by the Public Service Commission of South Carolina (PSCSC) before it can be offered to customers.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is one of the largest energy holding companies in the US, with approximately 29,000 employees and a generating capacity of 49,500 megawatts.The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released 2017 greenhouse gas (GHG) data collected under the EPAs Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), showing overall decreases across sectors and that total US greenhouse gas emissions reported decreased by 2.7 percent from 2016 to 2017.

The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) collects GHG data from large emitting facilities, suppliers of fossil fuels and industrial gases that result in GHG emissions when used, and facilities that inject carbon dioxide underground.

Reported emissions from large power plants declined 4.5% since 2016, and 19.7% since 2011.

This is the seventh year of full data collection for most sectors under the Program, and more than 8,000 large facilities reported 2017 GHG emissions to EPA.

EPA will hold an informational webinar on 24 October to demonstrate its large facility greenhouse gas data publication tool known as FLIGHT, including new features and a tutorial on common searches. FLIGHT allows users to view reported data by region, industry, or greenhouse gas; and download lists.Daimler Financial Services, the financial and mobility services arem of Daimler AG, has made a strategic investment in Soul Machinesa New Zealand company re-imagining how humans connect with machinesfurther to develop the combined use of artificial and emotional intelligence. Daimler is the first premium brand in the automotive sector to develop emotional intelligence use cases based on Soul Machines technology.

After successfully testing how artificial intelligence helps our employees better service customers, we are now investing in a disruptive technology to further enhance the customer experience. Udo Neumann, global CIO of Daimler Financial Services

Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Daimler Financial Services and Soul Machines already presented digital avatar Sarah in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Since then, Sarah was successful in answering most frequently asked customer questions during an internal pilot at one of the companys call centers in the US.





Sarah

Daimler Financial Services plans to use Soul Machines' technology to optimize the customer experience through artificial and emotional intelligence. Digital avatar Sarah will be able to support customers like a personal concierge.

Using Emotional Intelligence, the machine will be able to recognize the most diverse individual customer needs and offer the right information at the right time. For customers, this means communicating with a convenient, voice-controlled and emotionally intelligent touchpoint.

This brings Daimler Financial Services at the forefront of a changing environment, as the share of online business is increasing significantly and customers are making their purchasing decisions on digital platforms.

Customers expect intuitive, time-saving services that are available 24/7 through the channel that is most convenient for them. With the investment in Soul Machines we are laying an important foundation to not just meet, but exceed these customer expectations. Benedikt Schell, Chief Experience Officer at Daimler Financial Services

Founded in 2016, Soul Machines specializes in digital avatars and emotional intelligence. The company brings technology to life by creating incredibly life-like, emotionally responsive, artificial humans with personality and character that allow machines to talk to humans face-to-face.The Volvo Groupa global manufacturer of trucks, buses, construction equipment and marine and industrial engines, but not Volvo Carshas reported that it has detected that an emissions control component used in certain markets is degrading more quickly than expected, which could cause the engines to exceed emissions limits for nitrogen oxides (NO x ).

All products equipped with the component meet emissions limits at delivery; the degradation is due to a materials issue that occurs over time. A full analysis of the issue is not completed and it is not possible to assess the financial impact at this stage; however, the Group said in a statement that the cost could be material.

The investigation so far indicates that the degradation does not seem to affect all vehicles and engines in the same way and to the same extent. The company is now in the process of informing the appropriate authorities in various markets, and beginning discussions regarding remediation plans.

The degradation of the component does not pose a product safety issue, nor does it negatively affect vehicle or engine performance in areas other than emissions control. The degradation is a result of a materials issue that occurs over time.

The Group emphasized that all engines and vehicles equipped with the component meet emissions limits at delivery. The largest volume of potentially affected engines has been sold in North America and Europe.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have been meeting with Volvo to discuss ways to address the faulty emissions control component in the vehicles, according to reports.News

Parliament allows voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, use of EVMs in next elections

Amid high-pitched opposition protest, the parliament approved i-voting for overseas Pakistanis and use of electronic voting machines in the next general elections besides several other bills. Senior opposition leaders quickly announced that they would challenge the reforms.One In Two People Face Starvation In South Sudan, As Extreme Hunger Hits More States

Nearly half of South Sudans population is facing extreme hunger, the countrys highest proportion of food insecure people in the last 10 years, Save the Children is warning.

JUBA, 18, Ocotber 2018 [Gurtong]-More than six million people currently need urgent food assistance, including more than one million children. Near-famine conditions are predicted in four of South Sudans states, a rapid and worrying increase from 2017, in which famine was only declared in one state.



Areas of continuing conflictincluding Jonglei, Upper Nile, Western Bahr El Ghazal, and Unityshow the highest levels of food insecurity.



South Sudan, the world's youngest nation, has been affected by frequent conflict since it gained independence in 2011. Children continue to bear the brunt of this conflict with serious humanitarian consequences.



As the lean season (when food stocks are low) begins earlier than usual this year, 270,000 children in South Sudan are severely malnourished (SAM) and at risk of starvation. Some 20,000 could be expected to die from extreme hunger before the end of 2018.



Limited access by humanitarian organisations, coupled with reduced aid funding, makes it difficult to provide assistance to malnourished children. The South Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is currently only halfway funded. This is compounded by violence against aid workersnearly a third of all attacks in 2017 occurred in South Sudan, making it by far the most dangerous place in the world for humanitarians.



Malnourished children have substantially reduced immune systems and are at least three times more likely to contract and die from diseases like cholera and pneumonia than healthy children, says Deidre Keogh, Save the Childrens Country Director in South Sudan.



Without urgent funding to increase and maintain humanitarian services, many children are in danger of dying.



The revitalised peace agreement signed in September provides hope for millions of children to be protected and thrive if implemented effectively. To ensure South Sudans children are protected from a further decline into starvation, Save the Children calls on access to children in need to be guaranteed, humanitarian assistance to be enhanced and sustained, and for a lasting end to the conflict.



Haiti - FLASH : Partial balance of the demonstrations 2 dead 11 wounded by bullets





On Wednesday, 17 October, tens of thousands of people responded to the calls for protests across the country, many observers say they have never seen so many people in the street at the same time. The demonstrations left from several places and were divided into several groups making the control almost impossible for the police.



Barricades of burning tires were visible in many parts of the capital. Public transit and vehicular traffic were paralyzed. A National Equipment Center (CNE) truck carrying an excavator was burned. A group of demonstrators who were throwing stones at the Kinam hotel in Petion-ville was dispersed by police who used tear gas. At the Pont au Rouge, a vehicle of the PNH was attacked by individuals, stones and bottles were launched against agents of the Specialized Unit of the Guard of the National Palace USGPN, and the Departmental Unit of Maintenance of Order (UDMO). A USGPN officer was injured in the head. Many shots were reported in the area causing great confusion in the population and locally triggering panic movements.



At the end of the day, the first partial assessment of the demonstrations of October 17 across the country was 2 dead and 11 injured by bullets according to a first assessment of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) 11 policemen were injured by stones thrown, 8 vehicles of the PNH burned and 8 people were arrested...



Clashes in Les Cayes :

As in Port-au-Prince, the demonstrations, made up of several groups, left from various places making difficult the control by the police force, which used several times the tear gas and the shots of summons to disperse demonstrators visibly very motivated. The Boulevard des 4 chemins at the entrance to the country's third largest city was blocked until late afternoon.



Residence of the Deputy Samuel d'Haiti attacked :

According to the deputy of Saint-Marc, Samuel d'Haiti, his residence was targeted by unidentified armed individuals. He's talking about an assassination attempt...



Cap-Haitien :

Several thousand people left Barriere Bouteille and demonstrated in Cap Haitien. Stoning clashes took place in the Shada neighborhood between protesters and Pro Moise groups.



At the beginning of the afternoon to the Cap, demonstrators damaged the barrier of the Departmental Delegation of the North and threw stones at the building as well as at the Cap Haitien Town Hall. The PNH intervened to disperse them, using summing fire and tear gas, causing panic among protestors and residents.



Intense tension in Petit-Goave :

"In Petit-Goave the day took place in a climate of intense tension. The macadam was in turmoil, the large number of people took to the streets to demand the return of funds from the PetroCaribe program. Barricades of burning tires were erected on National Road # 2 and downtown (Grand'Rue, Rue Bijou, Rue Saint Paul).



The situation escalated after a protester (Gaby Ostine) was shot in the right thigh in front of Radio Thim FM. He was rushed to the hospital.



The demonstrators exerted strong pressure on the Commissioner of Police, Gulbert Conseillant so that he intervene in the premises of the radio to arrest, according to them, the one who had shot on the crowd. The protesters massed in front of the station wanted to penetrate by force. Agents of the Intervention and Maintenance Corps (CIMO) fired into the air to disperse the crowd and fired tear gas as young protesters responded with throws of stone and other objects...



In the vicinity of the station, clashes and tensions lasted nearly 4 hours before calm returned around 5:00 pm after a tough police intervention to protect the station from the anger of the demonstrators.



The police have made really good work and have shown a rare professionalism since the worst was avoided."



HL/ HaitiLibre / Guyto Mathieu (Correspondant Petit-Goave)



St-Marc / Montrouis :

The procession of a delegation, returning from Marchand Dessaline composed of ministers, the Commander-in-Chief of the army and Directors General heading to the capital was blocked at St-Marc, the demonstrators having erected barricades of flaming tires to block the road, many indeterminate shots have been heard. In order to avoid the confrontation and to reach the capital the delegation made a long detour while passing in the heights of the Nissage Saget city.



Subsequently, at the level of Montrouis on RN1, the agents of the Security Unit of the National Palace came in reinforcement, had to intervene by shooting in the air to disperse individuals who threw stones on the procession.



The satisfied opposition of the day :

The radical opposition grouped in the coalition Mouvement Democratique et Populaire "[...] salutes the courage and determination of the Haitian people, who have won the streets, in Port-au-Prince as well as in provincial towns, to demand the dilapidators of $3.8 billion of Petrocaribe fund.



For Me Andre Michel fierce opponent to the Head of State, member colaition the total success of this day of national mobilization reflects the rejection of President Jovenel Moise by the Population "Jovenel Moise is devoid of any popular legitimacy. He can no longer continue to exercise political power. It is obvious that keeping Jovenel Moise in power will lead the country to the edge of Chaos."



The opposition launches this solemn appeal to all the forces of the Nation to avoid the worst and asks the citizens to remain in the streets until the resignation of Jovenel Moise.



SL/ TB/ PI/ HaitiLibre























Haiti - NOTICE : Denial of the Ministry of National Education





The Ministry of National Education, categorically denies the false statement informing the closure of schools until Monday, October 22.



"It is surely a network of misinformation fueled by individuals who probably have unconfessed and unmentionable interests.



Again, some politicians try to use the school to pay for their personal belongings.



The Ministry strongly condemns the malicious attitudes of these individuals who seek to mislead the population."



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Justice : Urgency to act at the Rehabilitation Center for Minors in Conflict with the Law





As part of its program of monitoring and visits to prison centers in Haiti, members of the Citizens' Initiative for Human Rights (ICDH) have made a visit to the Rehabilitation Center for Minors in Conflict with the Law (CERMICOL) located at Delmas 33 to observe the conditions in which children are incarcerated and to distribute hygiene kits.



The Center has 101 children in 5 cells housed in two pavilions. The first pavilion contains 4 cells (2 of 18 children each and 2 of 19 children). The second pavilion includes a cell that accommodates 27 children. The Center has a school, offers courses at the professional level, has a dispensary, a reading room and leisure with a library and a TV.



During the interviews, children in the cells told ICDH that they had very limited access to leisure, leaving their cells only twice a week.



Most children report being incarcerated for 3 to 4 years, without ever having the opportunity to go before a juvenile judge. Some, according to the statements of the young detainees, have committed minor petty theft. One of the children claimed to have been incarcerated for 3 years without being tried for stealing "3 ti rhum plat" (3 small bottles of Barbancourt rum).



According to children's testimonies and observations made by members of the ICDH, CERMICOL would rather be a Detention Center to be a Rehabilitation Center. In this sense, the ICDH believes that much work remains to be done to seriously address the problematic of the Center.



In addition, during her visit, ICDH noted the absence of a nurse in the clinic.



ICDH recommends that the authorities provide the Center with the necessary services that can effectively rehabilitate children in conflict with the law and reduce the number of prolonged pretrial detention, transform CERMICOL effectively into a rehabilitation center and finally provide it with clearly defined legal assistance service.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14340-haiti-justice-the-promises-of-casimir-for-cermicol.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21979-haiti-politic-school-visit-of-pm-to-the-cabaret-prison-and-cermicol.html



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Reopening of the US Embassy

The US Embassy in Port-au-Prince will reopen this Thursday, October 18 at 11:00 am. The consular section will be open only for US Citizen Services. The Embassy will be closed for visitor and immigrant visa services. To make an appointment, please call 509-2812-2929 (Haiti) or 1-703-544-7842 in the United States.



Jovenel Moise promises PetroCaribe lawsuit

The PetroCaribe trial will take place, insisted and promised the Head of State, in his speech of circumstance, to Marchand Dessalines https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25856-haiti-politic-haiti-is-the-reference-for-all-people-on-earth-who-love-freedom.html "The guilty must pay, the money must serve the welfare of the Republic, the fight against corruption must be conducted without a state of mind."



Electrification follow-up

The restarting of the inoperative turbines of the Hydropower Plant of Drouet (commune of Verrettes) is continuing. The work of Marchand Dessalines' hybrid diesel plant (solar diesel) is nearing completion.



Promise to Dessalines

On Monday, Pierre Josue Agenor Cadet, the Minister of National Education gave the guarantee that an infrastructure worthy of the size of the Father Founder of the Motherland will be built with the financing of the public treasury...



Miss Universe Haiti 2018 in China

Samantha Colas, Miss Universe Haiti 2018 is currently in China where she participated in the Miss Global City contest before going to represent Haiti at Miss Universe.



Observatory of Haitian Youth on the ground

To ensure the coverage of the various events of October 17, 2018, Observers of the Observatory of the Youth of Haiti, have traveled the streets of Port-au-Prince, Gonaives, St Marc, Hinche, Cap Haitien, Les Cayes, Petit-Goave and Jeremie. A report of the day should be published shortly by the Observatory.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Message to Supporters from Hawaii Family Forum Oct 18, 2018

Our office was inundated with requests for a voter's guide but because of funding we were not able to provide one for the Primary Election. We understand that it is difficult to cast a ballot when you are unsure of how new candidates (or long-term legislators) will be a voice for your values. And, if you are voting absentee, you will be receiving your ballot any day now (if you don't already have it!).

It is with this purpose that we present the 2018 General Election Voter Guide in hopes that it will assist you in selecting candidates that most closely reflect your principles of life, liberty, and limited government. We know that many candidates do not respond to our survey, so we have provided live links to their websites, emails and provided a phone number. We strongly encourage you to call your candidate(s) if they did not return the survey. We will update the survey if candidates turn in their LATE responses so check back to this link to see if the revision date has changed. (It will only change if a new revised edition is posted).

Our nonpartisan voters' guide is 501(c)3 compliant and perfectly legal to pass out in churches.

It is our hope that this resource helps you vote with confidence in the November 6th election.

Remember, your vote is your voice - let it be heard loud and clear.

If you would like to vote in the GENERAL ELECTION and are not registered, you may register and vote in-person at any early walk-in voting location operated by your Clerks Office but you must vote immediately after completing the voter registration process.

Click the button below to view your guide online or download and print.

Click to Download Voter's Guide

Another resource we have for you is on regarding the two questions that will be on the ballot regarding (1) a CONCON and (2) whether or not the Hawaii State Constitution should be amended to allow the legislature to use real property taxes to fund public education. We conducted two podcasts with local attorney Jim Hochberg to discuss the questions so that you can be better educated on the questions. Our 501C4 community associate, Hawaii Family Advocates, has created informational sheets (one pagers) on each of those issues and they can be downloaded on this link. You can also listen to our two recent podcasts on the questions.

Shall there be a convention to propose a revision of or amendments to the Constitution? ( listen to podcast

Shall the legislature be authorized to establish, as provided by law, a surcharge on investment real property to be used to support public education? ( listen to podcast

Mahalo for your patience!

Eva Andrade

President & CEOThe proposal has been subject to a series of last-minute amendments by the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, which would, for example, prohibit grocery retailers from forming procurement consortia in order to maximise their bargaining position and leverage the economies of scale.

The European Parliament is next week set to discuss a directive proposal that would prohibit certain operating models of Finnish grocery retailers.

In Finland, Kesko and S Group have both procured products for their independent shopkeepers and co-operative shops.

Itd be absolutely bizarre if such operating models were prohibited. The model is used very commonly in Germany, for example, comments Janne Koivisto, a senior expert at the Finnish Commerce Federation.

Almost all retailers are part of international procurement consortia. They enable larger volumes and guarantee a better market position for negotiations with large industrial companies. Kesko and [S Group] are not part of the same consortia, he adds.

The European Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development has also stirred up debate by proposing that grocery retailers be prevented from demanding that suppliers comply with strict, statutory environmental and animal welfare standards. This could jeopardise the procurement of organic products, warns Koivisto.

The European Commission has stated that the directive is an attempt to promote the bargaining position of small operators in the food chain in comparison to large retail conglomerates.

We were very surprised that German MEPs from the [European Peoples Party] EPP made these absurd and impractical proposals. Kesko and S Groups procurement consortia and national eco-labels are common also elsewhere in Europe, says Elsi Katainen (Centre), who partook in the negotiations as a representative of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).

Im confident that proposals that violate EU laws or that are otherwise unclear or incoherent with member states systems can be cleaned out in the trilogue. Its important tat the directive can be passed during this electoral term, she adds.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Source: Uusi SuomiThe Parliament has clearly determined across the governmentopposition divide that we should proceed with the employment policy measures that have produced results, including [the proposal to adjust protection against unilateral termination at small businesses], he stated after the governments policy approach won the backing of 101 Members of the Finnish Parliament on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Juha Sipila (Centre) says his government will continue to move forward with its much-discussed proposal to ease laying off for small businesses.

You should really use discretion and be patient going forward, added Sipila.

He also pointed out that the legislative proposal at the heart of the long-running dispute between the government and both the opposition and trade unions is ultimately relatively insignificant in terms of its impact and importance.

The aim of the proposal is to encourage small businesses to hire employees by allowing them to make lay-offs on personal grounds.

In Finland, youll still need proper and sound justification for laying off after the changes have been made. Im sure theres some misinformation circulating about this. Itll still be impossible to make lay-offs on flimsy grounds, underscored Sipila.

The reaction of trade unions was anything but calm, however.

The Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL), the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals in Finland (Tehy), and the Finnish Union of Practical Nurses (Super) announced a series of new industrial actions in protest of the much-discussed proposal on Wednesday.

JHL stated that over 10,000 of its members will participate in a two-day strike to be launched on Monday, 22 October. Tehy and Super, meanwhile, said they will introduce a two-week shift-trading ban on Monday, 22 October.

The Finnish Industrial Union, in turn, is expected to announce additional industrial actions tomorrow on Friday.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Source: Uusi Suomi



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.Yick Wo v. Hopkins established fair implementation of statutes

In the summer of 1885, Lee Yick, a Chinese citizen operating a laundry in San Francisco, California, refused to pay a $10 fine the city had levied for doing business without a license. A municipal court sentenced the laundryman to jail; he served a day for each dollar of the fine. That skirmish not only went to the U.S. Supreme Court but established two important principles that continue to guide American jurisprudence.

Punning on his name, Lee Yick called his laundry, on Third Street between Harrison and Folsom, Yick Wo, which in Chinese means harmony and tranquility. When Sheriff Peter Hopkins arrested Lee Yick, he confused the businesss name with the owners. Ensuing legal paperwork identified Lee Yick as Yick Wo.

San Francisco authorities fined Lee Yick for lacking a proper licensewhich he lacked because San Francisco refused to license any Chinese laundries, even though Chinese ran most of the citys laundries. That bias marked only some of the opprobrium in which official San Francisco held Asians. Earlier, a city ordinance had tried to curtail Chinese laundries by saying they could operate only if at least 12 citizens living in that block approved. That rule was thrown out as unconstitutional.

The city rebooted, this time decreeing that unless a laundry occupied a brick or stone building, it could operate only if licensed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Of the citys 320 laundries, 310 were in wooden buildings, but about 90 percent of San Francisco houses were wooden as well, rendering dubious the new rules ostensible grounding in public safety. Moreover, the city had extensive fire safety regulations and wardens routinely inspected laundries for compliance. Even more dubious was the way the city administered the new licensing requirement, turning down more than 200 Chinese applicants while with one exception allowing all 80 Caucasian laundries to stay open.

Chinese launderers stood fast. The Chinese were very savvy, said Mae Ngai, professor of Asian-American Studies at Columbia University. They were organized, and they knew the laws of the country they were living in.

The Fung Hing Hong, or laundrymens guild, funded a campaign to fight the licensing requirement, engaging the support of local Chinese businessmen and the Chinese consul.

Lee Yicks was a smart choice as a test case. He had been in business 22 years, unequivocally passing annual fire safety and sanitary inspections, and actually had gone to jail for continuing to operate after having his license request rejectedevidence that the city clearly denied him the liberty that under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution cannot be taken away without due process of law.

To plead Lee Yicks and by association other launderers cases, supporters hired the lawyer who arguably was the citys most prominent: Hall McAllister, a former U.S. Circuit Court of California judge. McAllister maintained that the laundry licensing law was unconstitutional, but at every state court all the way to the California Supreme Court judges called the contested ordinance a normal exercise of city council power. This obduracy let McAllister appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1886.

San Franciscos Chinese had a second strategy: McAllister took an almost identical case, involving laundry owner Wo Lee, into federal court, telling U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Lorenzo Sawyer that in California courts Chinese laundrymen could not get a fair legal hearing because in that state no judge deciding any Chinese case contrary to popular prejudice could ever hope for reelection.

Sawyer empathized. San Franciscos laundry licensing ordinance, lacking as it did standards for deciding who did and did not get a license, made little sense, he noted. In addition, the judge said that the city could not sugarcoat the reality of its purpose to drive out the Chinese laundrymen and not merely to regulate the business for the public safety. The truththat the ordinance was part of prevailing animosity to Chinesemust be apparent to every citizen of San Francisco, Sawyer wrote. Nonetheless, the judge felt he had to defer to a decision upholding the city law handed down by the California Supreme Court in the Yick Wo case. So, at the U.S. Supreme Court Wo Lees case was merged with Lee Yicks, although the Courts ruling bears the title Yick Wo v. Hopkins.

Before the justices could gauge the San Francisco ordinances constitutionality, they had to decide whether the 14th Amendment or any other part of the Constitution protected the laundrymen. Not only were Wo Lee and Lee Yick not United States citizens, but an 1882 federal law barred them from becoming citizens. That made no difference, the justices held. The court never had ruled on this issue, but justices had to look no further than the 14th Amendments wording. The germane phrase says the government may not deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. That clearly means, Justice T. Stanley Matthews wrote in Yick Wo, that in the United States strangers and aliens have protection equal to that accorded citizens.

The San Francisco law the launderers were challenging did apply equallyto operate in wooden buildings, both Chinese and white laundry owners needed Board of Supervisors permission. However, Matthews explained, to be valid any regulation must be reasonablethat is, have a legitimate reason for existing and transparent standards for judging compliance that leave no room for the play and action of personal and arbitrary power. Almost certainly the laundry law, lacking criteria for granting licenses, did not meet that standard.

Matthews noted that unreasonableness but ducked when deciding the issue. In the present case we are not obligated to reason from the probable to the actual, he wrote. Given the citys record of saying no to Chinese laundrymen and yes to similarly situated whites, the law clearly discriminated. In the Yick Wo decisions most oft-quoted sentence, Matthews wrote that even if a laws wording appears fair, the Constitution bars that statute if it is administered with an evil eye and unequal hand, so as practically to make unjust and illegal discrimination.

This thumbs-down, while unusual for the eras conservative court, was not hard-fought. Only four weeks after accepting briefs, the court unanimously handed down Matthewss decision. The justices did not regard the matter as racial, but rather saw the offending regulation as an assault on the sacred right to conduct a business without unreasonable government interference.

In the 20th century, Yick Wo anchored a host of challenges to government overreach. In suits involving affirmative action, anti-sodomy laws, the rights of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, and othersa roster of more than 150 Supreme Court casespetitioners have cited precedents set by Chinese laundryman Lee Yicks refusal to pay a $10 fine.Scarborough Leader

The Oak Hill Players are performing the musical 'Honk!', their first live performance since the COVID-19 pandemic.Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

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The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those.RICHMONDThe Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, Center for Biological Diversity, and Born Free USA sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today for violating the law by failing to post online elephant and lion trophy permitting records as required by the Freedom of Information Act.

Under 1996 amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, agencies are obligated to post their decisionsincluding orders, policies and interpretationsonline for public inspection. The same obligation applies to certain types of records that are frequently requested and that have been released in the past. FWS FOIA log demonstrates that conservationists, journalists, and others request elephant and lion trophy import records often enough that this information should be posted online automatically as soon as the agency receives it.

Despite immense public interest in the governments decision of whether to allow the import of hunting trophies from imperiled species, and despite repeated attempts by conservation organizations to shed light on this important conservation issue, the Fish and Wildlife Service is covertly conducting this Endangered Species Act permitting program.

Although it is unlawful for an American to import an elephant or lion trophy without first obtaining a permit, the public has been systemically deprived of contributing relevant scientific information to influence the federal governments implementation of these critical elephant and lion conservation measures, said Anna Frostic, managing wildlife attorney with the Humane Society of the United States. FWS is openly flouting its statutory mandate to proactively post frequently requested material online.

Todays lawsuit asks a federal district court in Virginia to order the Fish and Wildlife Service to routinely post elephant and lion trophy permit applications, the agencys permitting decisions, and related findings regarding the sustainability of hunting species threatened with extinction.

The Fish and Wildlife Service needs to come clean and let the public know how many elephants and lions are killed to decorate rich Americans living rooms, said Tanya Sanerib, the legal director of the Center for Biological Diversitys international program. With huge threats facing Africas imperiled wildlife, the unlawful secrecy about these bloody imports is totally unacceptable.

For most of the past decade, according to tallies from the CITES trade database, U.S. trophy hunters killed and imported the parts of approximately 500 African lions and 500 African elephants each year. Both species are now listed as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.

Since Ryan Zinke became Interior Secretary, FWS has approved elephant and lion trophy imports from countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa to the delight of trophy hunters. President Trump, meanwhile, has blasted trophy hunting as a horror show.

According to Angela Grimes, Born Free USA Acting CEO, We have seen an alarming increase of attacks on the Endangered Species Act and the imperiled species it protects from both Congress and this Administration. By conducting this permitting program under the veil of secrecy, the FWS is further attempting to weaken and degrade the effectiveness of the ESA. To fully understand the impacts to threatened African lions and elephants, this information must be accessible to the public. Only then can we effectively protect these animals and the integrity of the ESA.

Todays lawsuit follows a pending court case filed by the same plaintiffs contesting the merits of the administrations decision last November to lift an import ban on Zimbabwe elephant trophy imports and to allow imports of lion trophies from Zimbabwe to the U.S., and its March 1 decision to shift to a case-by-case process for making trophy import findings.

Plaintiffs are represented in the case on a pro bono basis by Paul Hastings LLP.

Background informationTown Assessor Donna MacDonald explains the calculations for determining the tax rate.

Adams Property Owners See Tax Rate Drop for Fiscal 2019



The Board of Selectmen voted to keep a split tax rate and set the commercial rate at a percentage of 1.15 ADAMS, Mass.  Homeowners will see their tax rate drop by 82 cents for fiscal 2019, reflecting a surge of new growth and careful budgeting.

The very pleased Board of Selectmen on Wednesday night voted to keep a split tax rate that will also see a drop on the commercial side even though it will shoulder more of the tax burden.

The rate for residential will be $21.39 per $1,000 valuation; the commercial rate will be $25.40, a 14 cent drop from this year. The commercial and industrial shift will increase from 1.12 to 1.15. Businesses also pay tax on equipment and materials.

The owner of single-family home is valued at about $140,000 should see her tax bill decrease by about $160. The new rate will be seen in November's tax bills.

The total tax levy to meet the town's obligations, including the $650,996 debt exclusion to pay for the Hoosac Valley High School project, is $11,358,454, or about $200,000 less than last fiscal year. The high school bond currently takes about $1.25 of the tax rate although that will continue to slowly decrease as it nears the payoff date in 2033.

"As far as my end goes, I think this fiscal year, we are in a very good fiscal shape," said Assessor Donna MacDonald in response to questions. "I think we are taking a turn, instead of our tax rate [going up] to see our tax rate going down. I think this is a start of something bigger for the town of Adams because some of the reason why we're able to bring the tax rate down is because of new growth."

MacDonald pointed to the new Mobile gas station on the town's north end and four or five new houses being built along with numerous additions and garages.

"You can see that in the valuation," she pointed out on her chart as rising from $506,841,307 to $514,328,886 for the town's total value. "That means it gets spread out more and we can drop the tax rate."

MacDonald said there were two major factors in the tax rate: reining in the budget and new growth.

The town's nearly $7.5 million increase in value and a levy that has dropped by nearly $200,000 resulted in the reduction the tax rate. If the board had determined to go to a single tax rate  which hasn't been the case in many years  the rate for all properties would have been $22.08 per $1,000 assessed value. The tax rates for fiscal 2018 were $22.21 for residential and $25.54 for commercial.

Interim Town Administrator Donna Cesan said she thought the town's fiscal health has been strong for many years and town officials have made tough decisions along the way.

"We got a message from this board for the past year that we really need to look harder and harder at the taxes and how do we trim the taxes," she said. "I think it was a good budget. ... We had some things go our way with health costs, education, transportation ... ."

The recent growth noted by MacDonald was key, she said. "We haven't seen this in many years.

"We haven't had the housing starts that other communities have had. I hope it is a trend, it may be too early to tell. ... As this community does more to embrace tourism and to make investments in its local economy, I hope it continues."

Chairman John Duval said there has been a goal over the years to reduce the tax rate and in the past, that had been done at times by using free cash. Selectman Joseph Nowak described it as helping residents who had to bite the bullet to meet their tax obligations. But it wasn't a good practice to fall into, they agreed.

Nowak said the board has been cognizant of the town's elderly and poor population and the need to continue to provide services.

"It makes it really tough to try to keep everything going with making everybody happy," he said. "Each time we've tried as a board to cut things it's been really a push and pull with people. That's their right to do it but if you don't make cuts, you don't gain. I think we've made some cuts and we still are giving the services to the community the best way that we can."

In the past year, the board had created a budget committee that meets regularly with the town's financial staff to review spending.

"We work together, we make decisions as we go, we monitor what's going on not just wait until the end of the year," Duval said. "The select board as a group has gotten involved more than we have, I believe, in the past."

The board needs to redouble its efforts to get growth in the community, he said, alluding to new opportunities that Cesan would be bringing forward.

"We still have to be positive about this community and get more people to build houses, build additions, build their decks, and do renovations to their homes," Duval said. "It helps them and it helps all of us as a team here in Adams."

In other business:

 Cesan reported that the bid for the Town Hall roof had been awarded to with Titan Roofing. The bid includes an alternative bid to repair the clock tower that is leaking. The tower repair is $47,000 and the roof, $163,000 for a total bid of $210,000. The company is expected to start as soon as possible.

 Maxymillian Construction has begun emergency repairs on Glenn Street and East Road. Vanasse Hangen Brustlin Inc. is providing the oversight. Those two roads are considered in the direst shape of those damaged by flooding last month. Cesan said an informative presentation is scheduled prior to the special town meeting to approve borrowing to address the damage.

 Selectwoman Christine Hoyt reported that she and Cesan had participated in the tour of Hoosac Valley Elementary School on Wednesday with representatives from the Massachusetts School Building Authority. The school was the final tour of the 28 schools selected by MSBA for preliminary review.

 The board approved two separate host agreements  one for medical marijuana and one for adult recreational marijuana  with Mission Mass. The company has signed a long-term lease for 150 Howland Ave. and is expected to come before permitting authorities with plans in the near future.

 The town is seeking donation of a Christmas tree for Spring Street for this holiday season.Noonan's family was presented with replicas of the signs on the bridge. Board of Selectmen Chairman John Goerlach. State Sen. Adam Hinds. The Rev. Peter Gregory, retired pastor of St. Charles Church in Pittsfield and Noonan's uncle. State Rep. John Barrett III. The Honor Guard. A rifle salute and Taps. Signs are on both sides of the bridge. There is a display in Town Hall honoring Noonan. Tom McKnight worked to track down replica medals to create a display. Noonan's portrait featured at Town Hall. PreviousNext

Lanesborough Bridge Dedicated to Vietnam War Hero



Nancy Noonan Woitkowski knows her brother and Tom McKnight were there in spirit. LANESBOROUGH, Mass.  As a kid, Gregory Aloysius Noonan would meet up with his best friend Tom McKnight and head to the Miner Road bridge to fish and crack jokes.

As they grew older and the Vietnam War came, Noonan was far from that brook. He was overseas with pride, defending the United States of America. He was quite decorated too.

Noonan was drafted in 1968 and sent to Vietnam as a sergeant with the 9th Infantry Division. He was under heavy fire in three battles and was twice wounded -- the most serious was being shot in the leg in the Mekong Delta.

He earned three Combat Infantryman Badges, three Air Medals, two Purple Hearts, and a Vietnam Service Medal and three bronze stars for heroism among others.

"The sacrifices and the actions he took in Vietnam are impressive," said state Sen. Adam Hinds.

Noonan returned home safely in 1969 but lost his life on June 30, 1990, in an accident in Georgia. But his accomplishments, his sense of humor, and his part in the Lanesborough community won't be forgotten.

In 2012, the state Department of Transportation completely rebuilt the Miner Road bridge where Noonan spent so much of his childhood and McKnight, Noonan's best man and godfather to Noonan's only son, headed an effort to get it named after the Vietnam veteran.

It took some time to get the dedication in place and family and officials finally celebrated Noonan on Thursday.

"In this quiet spirit, we look beyond the bridge and signs and find the promise of honor and an everlasting sense of gratitude. We see with the eyes of great joy a place of dignity and hope," said the Rev. Peter Gregory, Noonan's uncle, who blessed the bridge Thursday morning.

In cold and windy weather, the rifle squad fired off a few rounds, taps was played, and the honor guard lined the bridge as family, friends, and community members gathered around to unveil new signage making the bridge's name official.

McKnight was notably absent. He had died this past spring. But Noonan's sister, Nancy Noonan Woitkowski, knew they were both there in spirit.

"I'm sure he's looking down with Greg and saying 'OK, you're cold, buck up, you can stand it' because that was their attitude," Woitkowski said.

State Rep. John Barrett III chuckled at that joke. Barrett has plenty of stories to share about Noonan because he was a classmate in high school.

"Lanesborough had quite a group that came up and Greg Noonan was one of the leaders. Tommy McKnight was a little older. And the bond we established in those four years was amazing," Barrett said.

It was 1970 when Barrett had last seen Noonan at a Mount Greylock class reunion. Barrett was serving as the master of ceremonies and had to introduce the decorated war hero at a time when the war was wildly unpopular.



A plaque was previously placed on the bridge. "Greg Noonan was someone who really should be honored, who fought at a time when this country was in a war that wasn't popular. He came back proud that he served his country," Barrett said. "I was proud of our class that night because they stood, rose, and gave him a standing ovation for what he had done."

"And Greg, true to form, got up there and started cracking jokes."

Barrett remembers Noonan as a good-natured guy and a tremendous athlete. While Hinds recognized the importance of honoring Noonan's role in defending the country.

"I am constantly reminded of the importance and the role we have in recognizing the service our brothers, sisters, uncles, and those who came before us in defense of our country. It takes these acts to make sure we never forget the importance of that role," Hinds said.

State District 1 Highway Director Francisca Heming gave Woitkowski and Noonan's brother John replica plaques of the signs honoring their late brother. The same signs hang on each side of the bridge, along the wall of the bridge there is a previously placed dedication to Noonan , and as a gift to the town, McKnight made a display including replica medals Noonan had won which hangs in Town Hall.

"It is in this time and place we share the joy of justice, the righteousness of honor, and the warmth of love," Gregory said of the event.



Haiti - Politic : First Board of Directors for the new Minister of Commerce





Earlier this week, Ronell Gilles, the Minister of Trade and Industry (MCI), chaired his first Board of Directors, in the meeting room of the Ministry



During this Board, the Minister Gilles established the bases of the action plan ministerial for the application of the national policy of the employment by giving priority to the quality of the services offered to the users. In this sense, he emphasized in particular the support to be provided to entrepreneurs.



For the Minister, this Board had as main objective to lay the groundwork for the ministerial action plan, with the 2018-2019 outlook to guide the Ministry's actions. To this end, the General Directorate will submit, to all the directorates and units of the MCI, a framework for inserting objectives and activities during the current financial year. And to mobilize people around a single goal, the Director General pleads for the effectiveness of the executives through technical departments, units and coordination.



IH/ iciHaiti

















The growing trend among media organisations to use right-grabbing contracts has become a matter of great concern for the International and the European Federation of Journalists (IFJ/EFJ).

What is a right-grabbing contract? A contract where a media employer asks you to sign away all your authors' rights/copyright for an unlimited time, in any media, or on any platform, for a single payment - usually just the fee you are paid for writing the original story.

This means that you will not get any extra remuneration if your article, photograph or broadcast is reproduced or sold elsewhere (e.g. to a database, other media in the same media group or externally).

In addition, your contract may also insist that you waive your moral rights and thus prevent you from the right to be named as the author or to oppose any modification that threatens the integrity of your work. This can also imply that you are allowing your employer to sell your story to another media which you may not approve of.

As a result, the IFJ/EFJ have launched a worldwide campaign against right-grabbing contracts and to demand fair payments to journalists.

How to enforce journalists authors rights:

I. Inform journalists about their rights

The authors rights of journalists are protected by international treaties and national laws. These rights not only include the economic rights (the right to earn money from a creative work) of authors but also their moral rights. Moral rights are guaranteed in national laws.

The national legal frameworks in most European countries recognise unwaivable moral rights of authors. The exceptions are the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands where moral rights can be waived  and publishers therefore frequently demand this. Moral rights are defined in international treaties and national laws. Article 6b of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works stipulates that: "...the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to, the said work, which would be prejudicial to his honour or reputation." II. Say NO to right-grabbing contracts, advocate collective agreements. Journalists should never sign right-grabbing contracts. Journalists who sign the right-grabbing contracts not only lose the right to use their works autonomously, but also the (moral) right to protect the integrity of their works. The IFJ/EFJ encourage member unions to advocate for collective agreements or model contracts that include an authors rights clause. The clause shall stipulate that: All authors rights in the work shall remain with authors who will retain their exclusive rights. The licence granted to publish or broadcast the work will be limited to the first publication/broadcast only. Unless there is express written agreement to the contrary, the licence shall expire within a certain period as permitted by national law after the delivery date. The publisher/broadcaster shall not make the copies available without the permission of the author after the licence expires. Any modification of the work shall be subject to prior authorisation by the author. Publisher/broadcasting company agrees that the following credit line (name of the author, date) shall accompany every publication or broadcast of the material.



What is a rights-grabbing contract? Contrary to international and national laws, right-grabbing contracts often demand journalists sign away their authors rights, including both economic and moral rights. These contracts demand that journalists shall: assign to the publisher a worldwide, exclusive right to use, reproduce, display, modify and distribute his/her work in all types of platform, known or future;

to use, reproduce, display, modify and distribute his/her work in all types of platform, known or future; allow the publisher to transfer his/her works to third parties without additional payment to the author and exploit his/her works in any way the publisher deems necessary.More than 350 journalists and media workers  40% of the workforce - have been sacked by the Argentine news agency Telam. The dismissals are an attack on union organization and media diversity and put at risk the future of the whole agency. They represent a brutal attempt by the government to control the editorial content of the agency.

The redundancies have even been ruled unlawful by the courts but the government refuses to reinstate the sacked journalists.

The workers were selected for redundancy based on their alleged political views and union activities by a new government-appointed management.

The workers  members of the Union of Press Workers of Buenos Aires are seeking redress. They have staged demonstrations, are filing a court action and are considering a complaint to the ILO. And they need your support.

Heres how you can help:

 Use the model letter (in English and Spanish) and send it to Argentine President Mauricio Macri calling for reinstatement of the workers - documentacionpresidencial@presidencia.gob.ar

 Send a message of support to Telam workers at prensa@sipreba.org and cgitelam@gmail.com

 Follow the workers on social media #SomosTelam Twitter: @somostelam Facebook: facebook.com/somostelam - Instagram -

 Make representations to the Argentine embassy in your country  https://www.mrecic.gov.ar/en/representaciones - see the model letter in English and Spanish

For more background information on the dispute

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Journalism-Has-Lost-Argentinas-Telam-News-Agency-Axes-Staff-20180629-0013.html

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Argentine-Court-Demands-Telam-Reinstate-Axed-Journalists-20180713-0016.html

http://www.ifj.org/nc/fr/news-single-view/category/reports-publications-3/article/argentina-nueva-oleada-de-despidos-en-la-agencia-estatal-de-noticias-telam/The International and European Federations of Journalists (IFJ-EFJ) unreservedly condemned 2016's bloody coup attempt and the use of force against citizens, journalists, media and many democratic institutions.

The failed coup was followed by a state of emergency and excessive and indiscriminate measures to purge all individuals believed to be connected to the attempt. The Turkish authorities are now jailing journalists, shutting down radio and TV channels and censoring the internet in an attempt to silence criticism. 140-plus journalists are in jail and over 150 media have been banned since mid-July. Thousands of journalists have lost their jobs and arrest warrants have been issued for dozens of media workers. Some families of journalists, who are in hiding or have fled, have been arrested to force them to surrender.

Media workers, journalists and press freedom campaigners all over the world have joined protests calling for the release of all jailed journalists in Turkey. Press freedom is essential for democracy, we demand Turkey sets the journalists free! Journalism is not a crime - Gazetecilik suc degildir !

A list of detained journalists is available here, and all the alerts submitted to the Council of Europe platform for the protection of journalism and the safety of journalists, here.

As part of our campaign we are providing practical support and solidarity to our affiliates in Turkey who are fighting to maintain their rights and freedoms day in day out. We have assisted with solidarity missions, financial support for those facing poverty or oppression and we have been observers at trials. We continue to lobby national and international institutions to demand the release of all journalists and the re-opening of media.

Affiliated unions have lobbied Turkish embassies in their countries as well as raising the issue with government ministers.

GET ACTIVE

Send a letter to the Turkish ambassador in your country and/or your national government (sample letters)

Send a contribution to the IFJ Safety Fund in order to support individual requests from Turkey (Bank account BE64 2100 7857 0052; Swift Code GEBABEBB; communication Solidarity Turkey)

Share our campaign on social media and websites the Did you know? Journalism is not a crime #JournalismIsNotACrime visual

Follow our updates on Twitter and Facebook

Join the IFJ-EFJ solidarity campaign with the Turkish journalists now!IFJ in the news this week

Every week the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is compiling a list of the top news articles from across the world in which it is mentioned.

Every week the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is compiling a list of the top news articles from across the world in which it is mentioned.

Read some of the news highlights from Saturday 6th of September to Friday 12th of October.



1. Hong Kong journalist group protests editors visa denial The Asahi Shimbun

2. Bangladesh enacts digital law despite protests The Mail Online

3. Sri Lanka: Film Festival Accused Of Censorship Eurasian News

4. Sri Lankan film festival accused of censorship UCA News

5. Journalist brutally murdered in Bulgaria Malta Today

6. TV reporter raped and killed in Bulgaria is fourth journalist murdered in Europe in just over a year Press Gazette

7. Trump Voices Concern, Senators Warn of Consequences Over Saudi Journalist Murder Claims CNS news

8. Raw Politics: Bulgarian reporter becomes Europe's third murdered journalist this year Euronews

9. Hong Kong journalist group protests FT editor's visa denial Nikkei Asian Review

10. Journalism: A dangerous activity DW

11. La IFJ condena el asesinato del periodista Zaki al Saqaldi, tiroteado el viernes en Yemen Europa Press

12. FIP pide a Arabia Saudi que aclare la desaparicion del periodista Khashoggi La vanguardia

13. Bangladesh enacts digital law despite protests Mail Online

14. The ongoing use of repressive and outdated legislation to suppress and control media has a detrimental impact on democracy and press freedom: IFJ. Eleven

For more information, please contact IFJ on + 32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 146 countries

Follow the IFJ on Twitter and Facebook

Subscribe to IFJ NewsThe exploitation of intellectual property rights is a topic for virtually every government, major company and economic forum worldwide. Journalists are among those who must have intellectual property rights too! These rights are called authors' rights.

The IFJ authors' rights programme calls for journalists to be recognised as the authors of the work they create, have control on any further use of their work and receive fair payment for it, whether their works are exploited off line or online. We oppose the Anglo-American copyright system which deprives all staff and most freelances of these rights.

Authors' rights are not only economic rights. Journalists, photographers and media professionals also need strong legal protection of their moral rights, including the right to be named as the author and the right to protect their content from being used in a detrimental way or context. In the Anglo-American copyright system, authors can be, and are, coerced into signing away their moral rights.

The right for individuals to exercise control over their work is crucial to maintaining ethical standards, which define and guarantee quality journalism. Too often journalists are forced to sign buy-out contracts whereby all their rights are assigned to their employers without additional payment for reuse.

The online exploitation of journalistic works, either by media employers, social media, search engines or third parties has raised some concrete challenges such as the need to authorise uses, be paid for them, to object to certain uses and sue infringers. The IFJ supports its members in providing the most appropriate solutions and ensuring journalists retain their authors rights.

We support legal harmonisation of authors' rights throughout the world with the aim of bringing all countries to the level of protection that exists in continental Europe. We also demand that collective bargaining rights for creators should be established where they do not exist.



The IFJs authors' rights work is supported by the Authors Rights Expert Group (AREG), which is composed of journalists and lawyers. The group meets on a regular basis to identify current threats to authors' rights and to plan appropriate actions to defend and support journalists and their unions who are fighting for higher standards of protection.SECTION I: Title and Headquarters 1. The name of the organisation is the International Federation of Journalists. Its headquarters is based in Residence Palace, International Press Center, Block C, Rue de la Loi 155, 1040 Brussels, Belgium at the time when this Constitution was approved.

SECTION II: Character 2. a) The International Federation of Journalists is a confederation of journalists' trade unions. It has been created to deal with matters related to trade unionism and the practice of the profession of journalism. It is established in the context of support for pluralist democracy and fundamental human rights. It is independent of all ideological, political, governmental and religious bodies. It represents and assists its member organisations in education and research in protection of core labour rights and all professional matters and has and promotes continental and regional groups made up of those member organisations. b) The International Federation of Journalists is an Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif as defined under Belgian law. The Administrative Committee is responsible for meeting the Federations obligations as an AiSBL.

SECTION III: Objectives 3. The aims and objectives of the Federation are: (a) To protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists; (b) To respect and defend freedom of information, media freedom and the independence of journalism particularly through research and monitoring of violations and taking action to defend journalists and their work; (c) To uphold and improve professionalism and to promote high standards of journalism and journalistic education; (d) To improve and defend the social and working conditions of all journalists, and to encourage and support member unions in collective bargaining; (e) To promote co-operation between member unions, and to support trade union development, by means of the organisation of continental and regional groups; (f) To promote and maintain editorial democracy; (g) To promote the social role of journalists and the profession of journalism, particularly its contribution to democracy and freedom; (h) To encourage the provision of professional and trade union education and training for journalists; (i) To co-ordinate action to ensure the safety of journalists and to incorporate safety training in collective agreements between member unions and employer organisations; (j) To encourage member unions to provide goodwill and assistance for members of other member unions who may be working in their territories; (k) To establish and maintain close relations with relevant international, government and non-government organisations in pursuit of these objects; (l) To fight for authors' rights and international reimbursement systems; (m) To promote mainstreaming equality in journalism and to encourage member unions to pursue this objective. (n) To fight against hate speech (o) To fight for the protection of sources and against all kinds of data retention by governments and corporations

SECTION IV: Membership 4. The Federation may admit to full membership national trade unions whose constitutions and activities are consistent with the character and objects of the Federation and which conform to the following definitions: (a) It is a journalists' trade union; that is, a representative, democratic organisation whose primary functions are to defend, maintain and advance (particularly by collective bargaining) the professional, ethical, moral and material rights of journalists. For the purposes of this definition, a journalist is one who devotes the greater part of his/her working time to the profession of journalism and who derives from it most of his/her income being employed or working as a freelance. (b) It is devoted to media freedom; that is, in accordance with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom in the collection and dissemination of information by all forms of media, and freedom to express opinion and comment, including the freedom to criticise and oppose governments, political and economic bodies whether public or private. 5. Membership of the Federation is not open to journalists' unions which include employers in their regular membership, nor to non-union organisations which operate in specific sectors of the profession. 6. When a union admitted to the Federation is organised on an industrial basis its membership shall be recognised only in relation to the number of its members who are journalists. 7. National organisations of journalists which are not journalists' trade unions as defined in paragraph 4(a), but which are devoted to media freedom as defined in paragraph 4(b), may be admitted as associate members. 8. Except as specified by this Constitution, associate members may participate in all Federation activities. They may be represented at Congress by one delegate but shall not have the right to vote, to nominate or to be nominated for office. With the assistance of the Federation, associate members shall do all in their power to attain and conform with the conditions of full membership and shall, when appropriate, seek full membership. Any associate member that has no sought within 3 years of the date of the adoption of this amendement, or their acceptance (whichever is the later) to upgrade their membership into full membership shall be reported to the IFJ Executive Committee for the consideration of whether they should continue in membership. 9. Member unions have the right of access to all working documents of the Federation and to receive all information upon request at any time. (Only exception: sensitive personal data).

SECTION V: Application for Membership 10. An application for membership of the Federation shall be made to the General Secretary in the prescribed form and shall be accompanied by the Constitution of the applicant organisation. The General Secretary shall advise all member unions of each membership application. 11. The Executive Committee shall consider each application. It may, provided two-thirds of Executive Committee members present vote in favour, admit an applicant to full membership or associate membership. It may reject an application or defer an application for further consideration at its next meeting. 12. An applicant whose application is rejected by the Executive Committee may appeal against that decision to the next Congress. Any three member unions who disagree with an Executive Committee decision to admit an applicant to membership may appeal against that decision to the next Congress. In either case the appeal must be lodged in writing with the General Secretary within three months of the decision being notified. 13. The procedure for changing the status of an associate member to full membership shall be the same as that prescribed in the preceding articles. 14. Membership of the IFJ becomes effective once the successful applicant has paid the amount of the subscription due covering the year of admission. Unions shall pay an amount for the remaining part of the year following the date of admission.

SECTION VI: Expulsion and Resignation 15. A member union may be expelled from membership by decision of Congress if: (a) It no longer meets the conditions of membership as set out in Article 4 of this Constitution; or (b) It acts in a manner contrary to the principles or objects or in a manner likely to damage the interests of the Federation; or (c) It is more than 12 months late in paying its membership fees. Any member union that has been duly expelled by Congress from membership for non-payment of fees cannot be accepted again into membership until it agrees arrangements to pay the arrears it accrued at the date of its expulsion. 16. A provisional decision to expel a member may be made by the Executive Committee after a proper investigation of the circumstances and provided two-thirds of committee members present vote to do so. Any such decision shall be notified immediately to the member in question. The member may appeal against the decision to the next Congress, which shall confirm or reverse the decision, but in the meantime the member shall be suspended from membership. If a provisional decision of suspension of a member union has been taken according to Section VI, 15 (c), the IFJ Executive Committee shall reverse the suspension immediately if the suspended unions debt is settled and the membership fees are paid in full. 17. Any member may resign from the federation by giving six months' notice in writing to the General Secretary.

SECTION VII: Congress

18. Congress shall be the supreme governing body of the Federation.

19. Congress shall be composed of delegates from the full member unions and the associate members. Full members shall be entitled to appoint delegates on a national basis and shall have votes at Congress, according to the following scale: Up to 100 members 1 delegate/vote Up to 600 members 2 delegates/votes Up to 1.200 members 3 delegates/votes Up to 2.400 members 4 delegates/votes Up to 4.800 members 5 delegates/votes Up to 8.000 members 6 delegates/votes Up to 12.000 members 7 delegates/votes Up to 15.000 members 8 delegates/votes Up to 26.000 members 9 delegates/votes <s>Over 26.000 members 10 delegates/votes</s> b) Gender equality for delegations: Affiliates shall aim to ensure that the number of women/men delegates shall be at least proportional to their share of the unions membership. Nevertheless each delegation consisting of more than three delegates shall aim to include at least one man/woman delegate and each delegation consisting of more than five shall aim to include at least 2 men/women delegates.

20. Congress shall normally meet every third year. The Executive Committee may convene an extraordinary Congress at any time if two-thirds of its members vote in favour. The Executive Committee shall convene an extraordinary Congress if half of the Federation's full members make such a demand in writing.

21. Member unions shall be advised of the place and dates of the normal Congress meeting not less than 8 months in advance of the start of the meeting. Invitations and a provisional agenda shall be sent to members not less than six months in advance, and working documents not less than one month in advance, of the start of the Congress.

22. Proposals from member unions, the Executive Committee and regional organisations of the IFJ, must be submitted to the General Secretary not less than five months before the start of Congress, except where this Constitution specifically provides otherwise. Proposals to amend this Constitution or to dissolve the Federation may be submitted only in accordance with the procedure set out in Section XI. Proposals submitted out of time may be considered by Congress only if a majority of voting delegates agree.

23. Notice of an extraordinary Congress shall be sent to member unions not less than six weeks before the opening of such Congress.

24. The Congress at its normal meetings shall: (a) Elect a Congress Presidium; (b) Adopt the Working Rules for Congress including the allocation of proxy votes, upon the recommendation of the Executive Committee, and establish a quorum; (c) Establish such Congress Commissions, working groups and/or procedures as are necessary for the efficient conduct of Congress and to assist the participation of delegates; (d) Receive, discuss and vote on a report from the General Secretary on behalf of the Executive Committee, and a report from the Honorary Treasurer in the finances of the Federation; (e) Decide on appeals on matters of membership; (f) Decide on proposals to amend the Constitution; (g) Determine financial strategy for the next three-year Congress period; (h) Decide on full membership and associate membership fees for the next three-year Congress period; (i) Determine policies and the working programme for the following three-year period; (j) Decide on proposals submitted for the agenda by member unions; (k) Elect the Officers of the Federation and the other members of the Executive Committee as provided in Section VIII

25. Decisions of the Congress shall be made by a simple majority of votes cast, except that a two-thirds majority of votes cast shall be required (a) To adopt a proposal to amend this Constitution; (b) To determine the financial strategy; (c) To decide membership fees. A proposal to dissolve the Federation shall be carried only if it is supported by two-thirds of the votes cast. The quorum required for voting on the dissolution of the Federation shall be 50% of votes represented at Congress.

26. All elections at Congress shall be by secret ballot and shall be conducted by the Congress Presidium in accordance with the Working Rules.

SECTION VIII: Executive Committee, Officers and Administrative Committee

27. Between Congresses the Executive Committee shall be the governing body of the Federation. It shall consist of the Officers and 16 other members and shall be elected by Congress for a period of office ending at the conclusion of the following Congress. It shall meet at least twice a year. A quorum of 11 voting members shall be required for decisions to be valid. The Committee shall establish its own working rules and procedures within the framework of the Constitution. The Executive Committee shall ensure that at the headquarters of the Federation there is a register of all decisions of the Executive Committee and all decisions of the Congress.

28. The Executive Committee is responsible for ensuring that the policies and the working programme of the Federation are carried out in line with Congress decisions, and shall report on its work to Congress. The Executive Committee shall agree Working Rules for its meetings and shall define establish a quorum and, where appropriate, procedures for allocation of proxy votes for absent members.

29. The first meeting of the Executive Committee each year, shall constitute the annual general meeting to approve the audited accounts and budget plan. Members will be informed of the date of the meeting at least 4 months in advance. Provided they are not in arrears, they have the right to send motions at least 2 months in advance and to send an observer. The minutes of that meeting will be distributed to all member unions. The Executive Committee determines the internal rules of the Federation including compliance regulations for its officers, staff and the conduct of the federation. These rules will be made available to all member unions.

30. The Officers of the Federation shall be the President, the Senior Vice-President, two VicePresidents and the Honorary Treasurer. They shall be elected by Congress from nominations made by full member unions. Candidates must be part of their unions delegation. No more than one Officer may be elected from any member union or nation. For the positions of Vice Presidents Congress must elect one man and one woman. 31. In addition to the Officers, the Congress shall elect 16 members of the Executive Committee in accordance with the following provisions: (a) Nominations may be made by full member unions, and candidates must be part of their union's delegation; (b) No fewer than two members shall be elected from each of the Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America regions; and no fewer than one member from each of the North America and Oceania regions; (c) No more than one member may be elected from any member union or nation.

32. Congress shall also elect two reserve committee members from each region and two further reserves not bound by any geographical criteria. The reserve receiving the greater number of votes in each case shall be considered the first reserve. If a member is unable to participate in a meeting of the Executive Committee he/she must inform the General Secretary at least four weeks before the meeting. The General Secretary shall then call the appropriate reserve to participate in the meeting in the following order: First regional reserve, second regional reserve, first general reserve, second general reserve. In such circumstances the reserve shall have all the rights, duties and powers of a member of the Executive Committee.<s> </s>

33. If following their election any Officer or member of the Executive Committee (a) dies; or (b) resigns from the Executive Committee; or (c) in the opinion of four-fifths of the Executive Committee has become ineligible to hold office in terms of this Constitution; Within the provision of Rule 28, he/she shall be succeeded as a member of the Executive Committee by the appropriate reserve in the following order: First regional reserve, second regional reserve, first general reserve, second general reserve (the second reserve thereby becoming the first reserve). If there is no appropriate reserve a replacement shall be selected in a manner determined by the Executive Committee; provided that the Executive Committee may decide not to fill a vacancy if it occurs within a year of the next Congress. In the event that the position vacant is of an officer, the Executive Committee shall then determine what action to take to fill the position from among the members of the Executive Committee.

34. <s>The General Secretary shall be a non-voting member of the Executive Committee</s>. The General Secretary participates by right of office, without voting rights, in the work of the Administrative Committee and Executive Committee.

35. The Executive Committee shall appoint members of working parties established by Congress to further the activities of the Federation. At least one Executive Committee member shall serve on each working party, and shall be responsible or effective liaison between the working party and the Executive Committee.

36. The President, the Senior Vice-President, the Vice-Presidents and the Honorary Treasurer shall together with the General Secretary constitute the Administrative Committee. The Administrative Committee shall a) supervise the Federation activities of the General Secretary and deal with financial matters, management and administrative policies, membership questions, matters of concern and prepare wider policy issues for discussion by the Executive Committee; and b) otherwise act for the Federation between meetings of the Executive Committee within the policies established by the Congress and the Executive Committee. Actions of the Administrative Committee shall be confirmed at the following Executive Committee meeting.

37. The President shall be the leading representative of the Federation. He/she shall convene and chair meetings of the Executive Committee and the Administrative Committee.

38. The Senior Vice-President and the Vice-Presidents shall assist the President in carrying out his/her duties and shall, in order, replace the President if he/she is prevented from carrying out those duties.

39. The Honorary Treasurer shall supervise the financial policies and performance of the Federation and shall report to the Executive Committee and Congress on those matters.

40. The General Secretary shall be the Chief Executive officer of the Federation. He/ she shall be appointed by the Executive Committee and be responsible to that committee. The competent persons to act in legal matters on behalf of the Federation are the President, the Honorary Treasurer and the General Secretary. When authorised to do so by the Administrative Committee, any two may sign on behalf of the Federation.

SECTION IX: Continental and Regional Groups 41. Continental and regional groups may be set up by affiliate and associate members of the Federation. Such groups may regulate their own activities provided they are in accordance with this Constitution and are consistent with policies established by Congress. 42. There shall be a Finance Commission whose objective is to review the IFJ accounts. The Finance Commission shall be elected by congress and report to Congress. The Finance Commission consists of three lay auditors. None of them belong to any other elected body of the IFJ. 43. There shall be a gender council whose mission is to advise on and coordinate the gender work of the IFJ. It shall have the right to set its working rules, composition and policies under the authority of the Executive Committee, and financed accordingly.

SECTION X: Finance 44. Congress shall determine the basis for the calculation of membership fees and shall decide the membership fees payable by full members and by associate members of the Federation. Membership fees shall be paid in the currency of the nation in which the headquarters of the Federation is situated. 45. The financial year of the Federation shall be from January 1 to December 31. The Executive Committee shall adopt and approve the accounts and budget of the Federation annually. 46. Membership fees for a financial year are due and payable by April 30 of that year unless the Executive Committee decides otherwise. Members admitted to the Federation during a year shall pay membership fees for that year on a pro rata calculation for the unexpired period of the year. 47. Membership fees shall be paid according to the number of regular members declared by unions up to a maximum figure, which shall be determined by Congress. 48. Any member union which is more than six months in arrears with the payment of its membership fees shall be reported to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee may direct that the services of the Federation be withdrawn from any such member union. 49. Any member union, which is more than 12 months in arrears with the payment of its membership fees, or with money due for the supply of International Press Cards, shall have no voting <s>and attendance</s> rights at Congress. Any such member union may also be expelled from the Federation by Congress <s>or by the Executive Committee</s>. 50. The Executive Committee may in exceptional circumstances exempt member unions from paying all or part of membership fees. Such exemptions to be reviewed at each Executive Committee. 51. The expenses of delegates to Congress and of members of the Executive Committee and working parties shall be paid by their member unions unless otherwise decided by the Executive Committee. 52. Accounts shall be subjected to external audit. Their report, shall be distributed to Executive Committee members and member organisations of the IFJ 53. A Safety Fund shall be deemed to be held on trust, kept in a separate account and administered according to its rules and subjected to external audit.The Executive Committee shall present a special report to the congress. Here shall be given detailed account of income, cash flow and reserves.

SECTION XI: Amendment of the Constitution and Dissolution 54. Proposals to amend this Constitution must be submitted in writing to the General Secretary no later than six months before the opening day of Congress. Every such proposal must specify precisely the amendment sought, and must be accompanied by a brief explanation of the reason for the amendment. The General Secretary shall immediately forward copies of the proposal and explanatory material to all member unions. 55. A proposal to amend the Constitution shall be carried only if it is supported by two- thirds of the votes cast at Congress. The quorum required for voting on a constitutional amendment shall be 50% of votes represented at Congress. 56. A proposal to dissolve the Federation must be submitted and dealt with in the same manner as a proposal to amend the Constitution. However, such a proposal shall be carried only if it is supported by two-thirds of all the votes represented at Congress. 57. In the event that Congress decides to dissolve the Federation, all liabilities of the Federation shall be discharged. Any remaining assets shall then be divided among the unions which are members at the time equivalent to the proportion of their contributions to the Federation during the current year. If there are insufficient assets to meet the Federation's liabilities, the outstanding liabilities shall be met by the member unions in similar proportion.As the Brazilian presidential mandate enters the 'lame-duck' period, the federal government's ambitious programme of infrastructure projects is now focused mainly on two calls for bids: one for the highway concession in Rio Grande do Sul State and the other for a group of airport concessions. These calls for bids involve a mixture of innovations that have been long waited by investors, and a few last-minute decisions that are yet to be proven adaptable in practice.

For the concession of the Rio Grande do Sul highway, the call for bids incorporated new and welcome practices to attract international investors. For example, procurement documents were made available in Portuguese and English, and administrative obstacles regarding international bidders' accreditation were reduced. Concessionaires will need to put strong corporate governance in place and adopt policies on related parties' transactions.

The federal government has also proposed changes in the requirements for winning bidders. The winning bidder will be the one who submits the lowest toll fare, however the sponsors will be required to inject additional equity into the concessionaire for each percentage point of discount to the tariff from the outset of the concession. This requirement aims to incentivise sustainable proposals. Investments in new interventions (duplications or additional lanes) will be triggered upon minimum measurements of traffic, and new investments not provided for in the contract may only be included at the point of the periodic reviews, every five years.

On the other call for bids, the federal government has offered to concession three baskets of regional airports: four in the Mato Grosso state, five in the northeast and two in the southeast. Each basket of airports will be awarded to one group of investors. Companies may participate in different consortia for each of the baskets. Previous airport concessions have already attracted international investors and operators. This will be the second round under President Temer's government: the previous round was awarded to investors who assumed the regional airports of Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Salvador and Porto Alegre.

Since the market share of the airports offered in the new round is less relevant than the previous rounds, the federal government has adopted a less rigorous tone in regulation: it will adopt international standards for the price of services at the airport, but the operator will have room to adjust the prices of different services with users and airlines.

The tender documents for the Rio Grande do Sul highway are available online at the National Agency for Territorial Transportation. The bidding session will take place on November 1 2018. The federal government expects to publish the call for bids for the airports and to hold the bidding session before the end of the year.

Karin

Yamauti

Hatanaka Francisco de

Andrade Figueira

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleThe Colombian government enacted Decree 1357 (hereafter the Decree) last July, which regulates crowdfunding platforms in line with the international growth of the industry. This as an attempt to bridge the gap between the supply of funds and start-up businesses.

The Decree generally establishes that: (i) Colombian entities offering crowdfunding services must be a) incorporated as sole purpose stock corporations authorised by the Superintendence of Finance, b) stock exchanges, or c) trading systems; (ii) the fundraisers must act on their own behalf, for their own benefit; and (iii) the funds must be used for productive investment projects.

The Decree further limits the practice of Colombian crowdfunding platforms to undertake crowdfunding activities via the issuance of securities (known internationally as 'equity crowdfunding'). Other types of crowdfunding, such as peer-to-peer lending, rewards- and donation-based crowdfunding, do not fall under the scope of this regulation.

Securities-based crowdfunding in Colombia requires the investment in securities to be issued by the fundraisers. Following international practices, the Colombian government excludes the purchase of such securities from the public offerings rules and the fundraisers from the qualification of issuers registered with the National Registry of Securities and Issuers (RNVE), and from the issuers' obligations.

The Decree defines the financial limits to fundraisers and investors. Fundraisers wishing to finance their project or start-up are subject to an approximately $782,000 cap, or $2.6 million if the investors are qualified. Likewise, non-qualified investors can contribute up to 20 per cent of either their net worth or their annual income, whichever the highest.

The Decree does not apply to Colombian residents that participate crowdfunding initiatives undertaken by foreign companies. However, according to the current regulation, foreign crowdfunding companies must comply with the legal regime applicable to the promotion of foreign financial services.

Carlos

Fradique-Mendez Maria

Camila

Ordonez

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleIn recent years, the number of corporate scandals occurring at listed Japanese companies has been increasing. These risk not only damaging the company itself but potentially might also result in a loss of credibility of the capital market as a whole. With that in mind, it has become increasingly necessary for listed companies to implement continuous measures to prevent such scandals from occurring.

On March 30 2018, the Japan Exchange Group announced the Principle for the Prevention of Corporate Scandals at Listed Companies (Principle) to assist Japanese corporations with their efforts.

The Principle is intended to act as a guide, from the viewpoint of preventing the impairment of corporate value, for all listed companies in Japan taking measures to prevent the occurrence of scandals and to prioritise the expected principles of conduct. The Principle includes the following six tenets of conduct to serve as the basis for the prevention of corporate scandals at listed companies. Although only brief descriptions are provided, the general content of each principle is as follows.

Principle 1: Understanding the actual conditions;

Principle 2: Fulfilling responsibilities purposefully;

Principle 3: Two-way communication;

Principle 4: Detecting 'the seeds of fraud' and responding quickly;

Principle 5: Applying consistent management to the group as a whole; and

Principle 6: Maintaining a sense of responsibility for the entire supply chain.

Principle 1 sets out the importance of ascertaining the state of compliance in the listed company as the first step in efforts to prevent corporate scandals.

Principle 2 explains the importance of fulfilling the responsibilities of management and the auditing and supervisory functions.

Principle 3 explains the need to foster a sense of unity throughout the company by enhancing communication between management and front-line departments.

Principle 4 explains that compliance violations, which can lead to serious scandals, are 'the seeds of fraud' and that, through the efforts in Principles 1 to 3, perceiving and responding quickly to these violations is at the core of the prevention of corporate scandals.

Principle 5 discusses the importance of ensuring that effective compliance management is carried out across an entire group.

Principle 6 concerns issues in the modern trading structure, focusing on the possibility that corporate scandals involving parties other than the company itself may still impact the company's main business.

Listed companies are not mandatorily required to comply with the Principle, but rather the Principle is positioned as a voluntary policy. Accordingly, no penalties or sanctions will be imposed on any listed companies if they do not adhere to the Principle. However, if the management of a listed company fails to respond in a genuine fashion to the Principle, it is likely to be subject to strict evaluation by the stakeholders. It should be noted that if a corporate scandal resulting in impairment of corporate value and damage to the stakeholders occurs in a non-compliant company, the Principle may be referred to in determining management's breach of its duty of care regarding its legal responsibility to the stakeholders. As mentioned above, the Principle merely provides guidelines for listed companies and does not provide any specific measures. The actual implementation of the Principle is left to the discretion of each listed company.

Yosuke Konno

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleRepublic Act 11057 or the Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) was signed into law on August 17 2018. It provides for new means and requirements for creating, perfecting, and registering security over personal property in the Philippines. The PPSA amended or repealed certain laws that are inconsistent with the new law. This includes those laws relating to the creation of pledges and chattel mortgages and the registration procedures for security interests over personal property in the Philippines.

Under the PPSA, a security interest over personal property is created by a security agreement. In creating a security interest, it would be sufficient that the collateral be reasonably identified, whether in a general or specific manner. A security agreement may also provide for security interests in future property, but the security interest in that property will be created only when the grantor acquires rights in it or the power to encumber it.

The PPSA further provides that security interest over personal property may be perfected to bind third parties through the following means: (a) the registration of a notice with the registry; (b) possession of the collateral by the secured creditor; and, (c) control of investment property and deposit accounts. For tangible assets, a security interest may be perfected by registration or possession. On the other hand, security interests in investment property and deposit accounts may be perfected by registration or control.

The PPSA also sets out a new set of rules for determining priority of security interest. This depends on the nature and kind of property involved, and is not entirely dependent on prior registration at the registry. With regard to enforcement, a secured creditor may now sell or otherwise dispose of the collateral, publicly or privately. The debtor is also required to satisfy any deficiency. Previously, Philippine rules governing pledges provided that the foreclosure of a pledge extinguished the debt, and the secured creditor was no longer entitled to recover any deficiency.

The Philippine Land Registration Authority (LRA) has to establish a new registry that will enable registration and the searching of notices on security interests, and to make it operational before the PPSA is implemented. During the transitional period (that is, from the date the PPSA becomes effective until the date when the registry is established and operational) existing laws will continue to apply.

The Philippine department of finance, in coordination with the Philippine department of justice, through the LRA, is tasked to promulgate the rules and regulations to implement the PPSA.

John Paul

V De Leon Bong Paulo

A Macasaet

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleThe General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a body of European legislation of considerable complexity, especially when it comes to its practical implementation. However, Slovakia still lacks models and guidelines from the Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic that would make the implementation of the GDPR easier and resolve several open questions. When Slovak law was revised before the implementation of the GDPR, it was hoped that the GDPR would bring about a reduction in obligations and a simplification of mandatory documentation, especially for smaller firms. It now appears from developments in the guidelines of the Office for Personal Data Protection that this might not be the case.

Instead of notification requirements, record-keeping and registration duties being completely eliminated, a new obligation to keep records of processing activities has been introduced. In the context of the GDPR, the recording of processing activities is similar to the record-keeping duties previously required. The model issued by the Office for Personal Data Protection clearly indicates that in Slovakia the records will need to be more detailed. For example, the payroll and personnel management information system was previously considered one purpose and an employer provided information on access to the payroll and personnel management information processes as one system. Under the new rules, the recommended model advises breaking this down into sub-categories such as health and social insurance contributions, attendance, meal vouchers, and so on. This will mean that the information provided to employees must also be more detailed. Another new feature introduced is the obligation to state the duration of data archiving for each purpose, which companies were not previously required to address under personal data protection legislation.

One of the fundamental tasks in personal data processing is to identify the legal grounds for processing a given type of personal data. This might include, for example, whether that processing is based on the data subject's consent, a legal obligation, a concluded contract, a legitimate interest of the company, or other grounds defined in the GDPR. Although the GDPR did not substantially redefine the legal grounds involved in the process, there has been a shift in how the Office for Personal Data Protection interprets them since the GDPR entered into effect. While previously the Office would accept legislation as grounds in cases where a law declared personal data processing a permitted action or possibility, it now requires that the law expressly orders the processing of personal data. This means that if, for example, an employer installs cameras to monitor a workplace, the employer must justify it on grounds of the company's legitimate interests, and conduct a test of proportionality.

The test of proportionality is an innovation introduced by the GDPR and it is not yet clear how the Office for Personal Data Protection will evaluate these tests in practice. The GDPR does not specify the form a test of proportionality should take and merely states that personal data can only be processed on grounds of legitimate interest if the legitimate interest prevails over the fundamental rights and freedom of the data subject whose personal data are being processed. It is not stipulated that a test of proportionality must be conducted in written form, or even that the Office or the data subject need to be informed of it. On the other hand, the guidelines of Article 29 of the Data Protection Working Party (now replaced by the European Data Protection Board) indicate that a data controller may provide information from the test of proportionality to data subjects. In our experience, a data controller is required to do this if a data subject objects to personal data processing based on a legitimate interest, because disclosure enables the data controller to prove to the data subject that it has satisfied the legal requirements for processing personal data based on a legitimate interest.

The priorities in obtaining consent for personal data processing are transparency and obtaining consent for each purpose individually. In many cases, consent given under the old system remains in force under the GDPR because the old legislation was interpreted such that an active expression of will was required to indicate consent for each purpose. What is new is the stronger emphasis on providing detailed information when defining the purpose of personal data processing. As an example, if a company obtains consent to process personal data for marketing purposes that it intends to share with other firms in its group, it must also obtain separate consent for that sharing of personal data with a business partner.

Radka

Slavikova-Gerzova Zuzana Lenzova

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleWithin the framework of the lump-sum taxation (or forfait taxation) regime, Switzerland offers certain individuals the opportunity to be taxed based on their annual living expenses instead of their worldwide income and wealth. The regime is open to individuals relocating for the first time to Switzerland and to former residents returning to Switzerland after an absence of 10 years or more, where those individuals neither have Swiss citizenship nor exercise a professional activity in Switzerland. In the case of married couples, both spouses must meet the requirements. The lump-sum taxation regime has not only proven to be highly attractive for newly immigrating high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), but also for entrepreneurs and investors who, for example, have stepped down from their functions and professional activities before relocating to Switzerland.

After a popular vote rejecting the abolition of the lump-sum taxation regime in 2012, Swiss federal and cantonal legislation was updated in 2016 with the aim of strengthening acceptance of the regime. To conclude this process, on July 24 2018, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) published new Circular Letter 44 (CL) in which it summarises the legal framework pertaining to the lump-sum taxation regime and provides further guidance to the cantonal tax authorities and to taxpayers on certain practical aspects of the regime. Following this revision process, the lump-sum taxation regime stands even stronger as an attractive tax planning tool for (future) Swiss residents.

Assessment basis within the lump-sum taxation regime

Within the lump-sum taxation regime, an annual comparison of the tax amounts resulting from the following four elements is taken, and the highest serves as the tax basis for a relocating individual:

the total amount of annual world-wide living expenses of the (future) taxpayer and his/her spouse and dependents;

seven times the annual rental costs or deemed rental income of the taxpayer's future principal residence in Switzerland, or at least three times the taxpayer's hotel costs in Switzerland;

a minimum taxable income of CHF400,000 ($410,000) subject to federal income tax, and a minimum taxable income and wealth subject to the respective canton's income and wealth tax; and,

the control calculation consisting of Swiss-sourced income and assets as well as certain income streams from outside of Switzerland for which a double taxation treaty protection is sought.

Relevant practical aspects

In practice, the relevant tax basis is determined within the framework of a ruling application with the competent cantonal tax authorities. It is within this context that certain case-specific aspects with regard to a relocation candidate can be addressed and reviewed with the cantonal tax authorities. While obtaining a residence permit for EU citizens, generally, is a mere formality, Swiss legislation requires non-EU citizens to be of 'economic interest' to a canton. In practice, the framework of the ruling in view of the application of the lump-sum taxation regime serves to ensure the fulfilment of this requirement by defining the parameters for the new immigrant's future taxation in Switzerland, so that non-EU citizens, by way of an elevated minimum taxation amount, may become eligible for a residence permit.

A Swiss taxpayer applying the lump-sum taxation regime qualifies as a Swiss tax resident from a Swiss domestic perspective, for the purposes of the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) and also for a large number of double taxation agreements (DTA) into which Switzerland has entered. Only a limited number of Swiss DTAs, specifically the Swiss-US and the Swiss-German DTAs, require that all US or German-sourced income is subjected to regular income taxation in Switzerland to allow for the recognition of the Swiss resident individual as a Swiss tax resident from the respective local (US, German) tax authorities' perspective (so-called 'modified lump-sum taxation').

Important updates in the new FTA circular letter

The CL provides further details and important clarifications with regard to certain requirements of eligibility to lump-sum taxation. The following elements are considered particularly relevant in practice:

Temporary absence from Switzerland: Taxpayers applying the lump-sum taxation regime who leave Switzerland for one tax year or more remain eligible to apply the lump-sum taxation regime after their return to Switzerland, regardless of the duration of their absence. However, in practice, it will still be important to review the permit situation throughout such absence.

Resumption of lump-sum taxation: A taxpayer who has previously applied the lump-sum taxation regime who waives his/her right to lump-sum taxation for one taxation period (which corresponds to a calendar year) or more (thus being taxed within the ordinary taxation regime in Switzerland) may not apply the lump-sum taxation again.

Professional activities: The CL provides that candidates for taxation under the lump-sum taxation regime may not exercise a professional main or side activity in Switzerland if this activity leads to compensation payments in Switzerland or abroad. This is typically specifically relevant, and will continue to require a case-by-case analysis, as regards board members, sportspersons, artists and scientists.

Worldwide living expenses: The CL specifies that the taxpayer's world-wide living expenses include, in particular, the individual's and the individual's spouse's and dependent (minor) children's costs for food and clothing, housing costs (including side costs), taxes and social security contributions, expenses for staff, alimony payments, schooling costs, expenses for travel and leisure activities, costs for expensive animals (for example, horses) and maintenance costs for cars, yachts, planes, and so on. Extraordinary and non-periodical expenses such as, for example, a donation of a substantial portion of wealth, generally do not count as living expenses of the taxpayer or his/her family. As such, they will not increase the tax basis for the relocator.

Developments with regard to international taxation aspects

In January 2017, Switzerland enacted its domestic legislation regarding the AEOI and, since 2017, has participated in the AEOI with an increasing number of partner states. Consequently, control calculations submitted by taxpayers will be subject to more scrutiny by Swiss tax administrations with a view to financial information received from foreign jurisdictions.

The same applies to social security contributions, specifically with regard to taxpayers who are partners of non-Swiss partnership structures or members of the boards of non-Swiss companies (in accordance with the CL). Stakes in partnerships may be classified as a (foreign) self-employment activity by Swiss social security administrations. While in some cases not directly detrimental to lump-sum taxation, this may trigger an exposure to Swiss social security contributions. Both circumstances (control calculation and social security aspects) have to be taken into consideration in the context of relocation planning for HNWI and (former) entrepreneurs and investors.

The lump-sum taxation regime

Within the framework of the recent developments, updated regulations and practices published by the FTA and cantonal tax authorities, the lump-sum taxation regime proves to remain an interesting and attractive tax-planning instrument for HNWI as well as (former) entrepreneurs and investors. Aside from the pure tax planning aspects and technical advantages of the lump-sum regime, Switzerland remains an attractive place for immigration due to a great variety of other factors, not least its excellent infrastructure, stable economy and legal framework, its central location in the heart of Europe, its high quality of life, and its internationality.

Ruth

Bloch-Riemer

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQs.

Share this articleIndiana consistently ranks near the bottom of the country in voter turnout, according to data from FairVote.org, a voting rights organization. The last time Hoosiers went to the polls in a general election without a presidential race to quibble over was 2014, when Indiana ranked second worst among states with a voter turnout of 28.8 percent. This year, with expanded early voting in Marion County, some public officials see an opportunity to overcome the traditional barrier of apathy  especially among minority voters  and increase turnout.

Marion County Clerk Myla Eldridge expressed concern for voter apathy among African-American voters, but also suggested there is reason to be optimistic about Election Day on Nov. 6.

For the first time in Marion County, according to Eldridge, there will be six satellite locations for early voting between Oct. 26 and Nov. 4.

Early voting is underway at the clerks office, 200 E. Washington St., from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekends. Early voting in the clerks office ends on Oct. 25. Voters are encouraged to use the Delaware Street entrance. Since 2009, the clerks office has been the only place Marion County residents could vote early.

Eldridge, a Democrat who was elected clerk in 2014 and is running for re-election this year, said she would like to see early voting extended even more in the future.

I think whatever we can do to make early voting easy and more accessible for the voters of Marion County, then we should do that, Eldridge said.

The six new satellite locations came as part of the fallout from a lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis NAACP and Common Cause Indiana that claimed the county was suppressing voting rights in urban communities.

Zach Adamson, a Democrat who represents District 17 on the citys northeast side, said voter knowledge among African-Americans in his district is pretty strong, as long as we keep people motivated to show up. Thats the real challenge. The knowledge base is pretty strong.

Adamson is encouraging residents to take advantage of early voting and to use county political parties to get a ride to the polls.

Eldridge said her office does targeted voter outreach, including to millennials, but not to minorities. Without race or ethnicity markers on the voter registration application, Eldridge said its difficult to gauge how active African-Americans are in the political process. In general, though, she said minority voters tend to feel that their votes dont matter.

If you dont participate in the political process, and youre not voting, its pretty much saying that you dont care about the decisions that someone is making on your behalf, Eldridge said.

Adamson doesnt believe voter apathy will be a problem in his district this year, saying the people he meets around the community have a higher than average political engagement level.

For Eldridge, convincing minority voters that electoral politics is worth their time comes down to a reminder about the status of their voting rights for most of this countrys history.

Its important for minorities to be aware that they need to participate in the political process because there was a time when they were not allowed to, Eldridge said. Now that you have the right to, we shouldnt take that lightly.

Contact Staff Writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick

Where to Vote

Marion County has six satellite locations for early voting.

 Glick Technology Center, 2620 N. Meridian St.

 Franklin Township Annex Learning Center, 6019 S. Franklin Road.

 International Marketplace Coalition, 3685 Commercial Drive.

 Lawrence Education and Community Center, 6501 Sunnyside Road.

 Perry Township Government Center, 4925 Shelby St.

 Washington Township Government Center, 5302 N. Keystone Ave.

Locations will be open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekends.

Need a Ride?

Each major county political party is offering rides to the polls on Election Day. Democrats can be reached at 317-245-4412, and Republicans can be reached at 317-964-5050.

Vote at PollsBy now youve probably heard of Henrietta Lacks, and thats only because of Rebecca Skloot. Skloot wrote the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became an HBO movie of the same name featuring Oprah Winfrey.

Skloot and members of the Henrietta Lacks family will discuss her story, a Black woman whose cancerous cells were harvested and used without her permission or knowledge for research, at 6 p.m. Oct. 24 at Northview Middle School.

Before the book was published in 2010, its likely you never heard of Lacks, but benefitted from her nonetheless. Lacks story doesnt begin with Skloot, but she brings to life the story of a woman, known in the science and medicine communities only as HeLa, the first immortal human cell line.

Lacks died of cervical cancer in 1951. Before she died, however, a doctor took samples of her tumor. Unlike previous human cells, which died, Lacks reproduced every 24 hours, and kept producing. HeLa cells have gone into space, been used for cancer research, and used to develop the polio vaccine, drugs to treat herpes, leukemia, Parkinsons disease, the flu, and the list goes on and on. The problem: Lacks never gave doctors consent to take a sample of her cells and neither did her family. In fact, her husband, David, said he told the doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital no when asked. And while Lacks cells were sold for $25 a vial and written about in numerous scientific and medical articles, her family never received a dime or even knew of the research.

The event is a continuation of Indianapolis Public Library and Indiana Humanities One State/One Story: Frankenstein initiative celebrating the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelleys book, Frankenstein.

Lacks life and death forces Americans to take a deeper look at scientific discovery, informed consent, ethics and racism related to science, Susan Davis, adult program manager, said.

This idea of consent, what makes you human and how much in control are you of those things that make you human, Davis said. It brings into play this idea [of] how much control do you have over that. Theyve built these multi-million dollar corporations  a lot of them based solely on the HeLa genome.

I am excited that the Lacks family, that two members of their family, will be speaking. She was more than just the HeLa gene. Im excited that they are allowed to celebrate her life.

In addition to Skloot, Lacks great granddaughter Veronica Robinson and daughter-in-law Shirley Lacks will discuss the family matriarch. Robinson said her grandfather was the oldest child and the only one to remember Lacks. He didnt talk about his mother or what happened to her, so the family learned about Lacks with the world, she said.

Her privacy was shared with the world, said Robinson, who attends Baltimore City Community College to become a registered nurse and eventually a doctor. Her bathroom door was opened to the world. All of our familys personal business that we didnt even have the opportunity to know first hand was now shared with everyone. If you dont tell people exactly what youre doing then youre stealing the most precious thing you could ever take from somebody, and thats their knowledge and their right to know.

Contact Editor Oseye Boyd at 317-762-7850. Follow her on Twitter @oseye_boyd.October 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - An American and an Arab journalist walk into a Saudi consulate, Thomas Friedman in New York and Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. One comes out smiling ear to ear like Lawrence of Arabia packing for a royal palace near Riyadh and the other disappears into the thin air and widely feared to have been rushed to meet his creator in more than one piece.

Why do the Saudis love the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and invite him to Mohammed bin Salman's palace in Riyadh to tickle his Orientalist fantasies, but, if persistent reports by Turkish authorities turn out to be true, they sent a hit team of 15 assassins to beat, torture, murder, and cut to pieces the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi? No, this cannot be part of the rivalries between our two papers of record. Let us search for a more plausible reason.

One jejune and sassy columnist

One lovely autumn morning in November 2017, we, New Yorkers, woke up and picked up our "Paper of Record," as our city's newspaper the New York Times calls itself, and read our dearly beloved globetrotting columnist Thomas Friedman telling us he had just been to Saudi Arabia and back having met the mighty and handsome Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and had brought us back the good tiding that "the most significant reform process under way anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia." We were overjoyed.

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In his considered opinion, the semi-literate -"jejune and sassy" as Edward Said once called him - columnist for the New York Times informed us that what his favourite Arab prince was doing "will not only change the character of Saudi Arabia but the tone and tenor of Islam across the globe." My colleagues and I teaching Islam at Columbia University uptown thought we were all totally out to lunch having failed to grasp the depth and profundity of this man's - again borrowing the late Said's choice words - "comic philistinism."

Thomas Friedman proudly reported to us, his captured audience in his New York neighbourhood and beyond, how he and the Saudi Prince had "met at night at his family's ornate adobe-walled palace in Ouja, north of Riyadh. MBS spoke in English, while his brother, Prince Khalid, the new Saudi ambassador to the US, and several senior ministers shared different lamb dishes and spiced the conversation." This, mind you, was November 2017, when we had hopes and reasons to believe the time for such gaudy Orientalia had passed but alas, the New York Times had no sense of editorial decency and no one was minding the shop to cut such gibberish from this idiot's prose. My only conclusion was that someone in a position of power and authority at the New York Times must believe old-fashioned Orientalist prose and politics still sells. An entire library of literature critically dismantling this nauseating Orientalism be damned.

You can read the rest of the piece if you are in the mood of self-flagellation - full of trite and hackneyed panegyrics for "MBS", as he calls him. One crucial thing though please notice when Thomas Friedman tells you in no uncertain terms: "But one thing I know for sure: Not a single Saudi I spoke to here over three days expressed anything other than effusive support for this anti-corruption drive."

"Not a single Saudi I spoke to ..." - let's keep that phrase in mind as we move forward.

"A premeditated murder "

Cut (no pun) to the second columnist: On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi entered Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document certifying his divorce, from which location there is no evidence he ever exited alive. Turkish authorities have reported they believe that upon his arrival Khashoggi was brutally beaten, tortured, killed and his body dismembered inside the consulate in a "premeditated murder." (For the latest updates on Khashoggi's unfolding story see Al Jazeera coverage here).

Official reports from the scene of Khashoggi's disappearance in Istanbul are not encouraging. "Turkish officials have said," according to Washington Post for which Khashoggi was a columnist, "they believe Khashoggi, 59, a critic of the Saudi leadership and a contributor to The Washington Post's Global Opinions section, was killed by a team of 15 Saudis flown in specifically to carry out the attack."

All major news outlets in the US and Europe have echoed the same accounts. "Turkish officials," according to BBC, "have audio and video evidence that shows missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the BBC has been told."

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports, "top Turkish security officials have concluded that the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on orders from the highest levels of the royal court."

The comic philistine

Soon after Thomas Friedman published that bought and paid for propaganda piece promoting the cause of a juvenile tyrant in the US, decent people began to object to his whitewashing of a Saudi Zionist committing war crimes in Yemen, in answer to which he went public praising his seasoned-kebab buddy MBS for "having balls," and told his critics: "F**k you!" - to the approving laughter of his audience. (The full talk, if you have the stomach for it, is here).

Upon Khashoggi's disappearance from the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Thomas Friedman rushed to write a piece in which he defended and excused himself against his own previous fanciful vagaries, extensively quoting himself, which he prefaced by saying that one of the sources he had cited was, in fact, Jamal Khashoggi. Never mind the fact he had told us he never saw a single soul who disagreed with what his favourite prince, MBS, was doing. Alas, Jamal Khashoggi has gone AWOL and we have no way of verifying that he, indeed, said anything to Thomas Friedman.

None of these antic paraphernalia in Thomas Friedman's apothecary is strange or unusual any more. "Thomas Friedman" has now emerged as a bizarre character-type, proverbial to a specific kind of New York Times journalism. Puerile, fatuous, delusional claptrap, inane to the point of numbing incredulity, Thomas Friedman glides giddily from the top to the bottom of his columns seemingly oblivious to what a bizarre cartoonish character he cuts to the world at large.

"It is not just the comic philistinism of Friedman's ideas that I find so remarkably jejune," wrote the late Edward Said in his now legendary piece, "The Orientalist Express: Thomas Friedman Wraps Up the Middle East (Village Voice 36:42, October 17, 1989), "or his sassy and unbeguiling manner, or his grating indifference to values and principles by which, perhaps misguidedly, Arabs and Jews have believed themselves to be informed. It is rather the special combination of disarming incoherence and unearned egoism that gives him his cockily alarming plausibility."

There is much that remains the same about Thomas Friedman since those prophetic words, and much that has worsened. In her witty and brilliant book, The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work (2011), Belen Fernandez has stripped naked the bare banality of Thomas Friedman's journalism and the bankruptcy of the media culture that has opted to recognise and even celebrate him. Badly in need of a half-decent undergraduate education, Thomas Friedman writes confidently from behind the arrogant hubris of two nuclear powers he defends, the US and Israel, and so what he says is uttered with the vertiginous mixture of undiluted stupidity and gaudy confidence.

In another brilliant piece, "in honour of Thomas Friedman's latest love letter to the ruling dynasty in Saudi Arabia," Abdullah Al-Arian has mapped out "seventy years' worth of the New York Times describing the [Saudi] royal family as reformers". It is an exceptionally revealing and yet damning piece, where you read how the New York Times has consistently offered Americans a decidedly abusive misreading of the US reactionary ally.

I, too, have had occasions to expose the sophomoric silliness of Thomas Friedman and his unfailing illiteracy about a world he has made a career misreading.

But all such and many more similar attentions raises a crucial question.

"Collecting garbage"

A young journalist friend recently observed how we keep criticizing Thomas Friedman and yet, we keep reading him. Indeed: why do we read him? The answer to that for me is very simple.

Years ago, when I was a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania writing my doctoral dissertation under the late Philip Rieff, one day I was sitting in my small cubical next to his office reading the New York Times. He walked to my desk, saw me reading the New York Times, quietly went back to his office and returned with a pair of scissors. "Never read the Times without a pair of scissors, Hamid," he said with his posh Anglophilic tone, "we are sociologists, we collect garbage."

This was in the late 1970s-early 1980s, when we still read newspapers in print. Today, I don't think reading the Times is to collect garbage, with a pair of scissors or just cutting and pasting for future citations. I have a different metaphor for it. The New York Times is the barometer of the health and sickness of the American society. So long as it keeps hasbara propaganda officers like Thomas Friedman on its columns the New York Times offers us a perfectly accurate measure of where this society is and where it is headed. It both reflects and manufactures the United States for us.

At issue, therefore, and why we read puerile dilatants like Thomas Friedman, is the circumstances under which the New York Times deems it necessary to feature among its columnists such figures to keep a demographically significant portion of its readership happy. At issue is not even the unfortunate fate of one Saudi national who thought caring for the democratic future of his homeland would be safe from a long distance. At issue, also, is not to single out Saudi Arabia for this particularly vicious assassination of a political dissident for which it is suspected to be responsible. Saudi Arabia's archrival, the ruling regime in Iran, has done similarly atrocious acts repeatedly, and so has its newly found ally, Israel. The Saudi murderous bombing of Yemen is of an order of magnitude far worse than the one it is now suspected to have done to just one dissident.

At issue is the systematic distortion of the truth of the historical struggles of Arabs and Muslims striving for the democratic emancipation of their homeland that is so grotesquely abused and maligned, misread, denigrated, and denied by propaganda officers like Thomas Friedman and the newspaper that regularly features him. As the late Edward Said recognised decades ago, for them, only one thing matters: how to preserve the racist apartheid settler colony they call "Israel." Israel is the prism through which they see the world. Anything that happens anywhere in the world, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, they twist and turn to a narrative that best benefits their favourite garrison state.

Thomas Friedman will continue to spin his gibberish on a regular basis; Jamal Khashoggi, the world now fears, will never be able to share his hopes for the democratic future of his homeland. The task at hand is never to allow the paparazzi prose and politics of Thomas Friedman to have the last word on "his friend Jamal Khashoggi" or on anything else for that matter. He and his ilk are the noxious symptoms of a disease, the disease of disinformation and untruth, of malignant illiteracy and purposeful ignorance. We are here to write back with a pair of shears cutting their entangled lies to their untruthful sizes, so the world knows which way to look for emancipatory truth.

This article was originally published by " Al Jazeera" -

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Peace and joyBy Raphael Satter, AP Cybersecurity Writer

October 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Newly released Ecuadorean government documents have laid bare an unorthodox attempt to extricate the WikiLeaks founder from his embassy hideaway in London by naming him as a political counselor to the country's embassy in Moscow.

But the 47-year-old Australian's new career in international affairs was nipped in the bud when British authorities vetoed his diplomatic status, effectively blocking him from taking up his new post in Russia.

The files were made public late Tuesday by Ecuadorean opposition lawmaker Paola Vintimilla, who opposes her government's decision to grant Assange nationality. They largely corroborate a recent Guardian newspaper report that Ecuador attempted the elaborate maneuver just before Christmas last year.

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Russian diplomats called the story "fake news," but the files show Assange was briefly named "political counselor" to the Ecuadorean Embassy in Moscow with a monthly salary pegged at $2,000. Ecuador even went so far as to apply for a diplomatic ID card, the documents show, but the plan appears to have fallen apart with the British veto.

A letter dated December 21, 2017 from Britain's Foreign Office says U.K. officials "do not consider Mr. Julian Assange to be an acceptable member of the mission."

An eight-page memo written to Vintimilla summing up the whole episode notes that Assange's position as counselor was scrapped a few days later.

WikiLeaks did not immediately return messages. The British Foreign Office and the Russian Embassy in London declined to comment.

See - The Ecuadorean government's letter to Vintimilla: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5004881-Carta-Canciller.html

Raphael Satter can be reached on: http://raphaelsatter.com

This article was originally published by " ABC News " -

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Peace and joyOctober 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - It took seven minutes for Jamal Khashoggi to die, a Turkish source who has listened in full to an audio recording of the Saudi journalists last moments told Middle East Eye.

Khashoggi was dragged from the Consul Generals office at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and onto the table of his study next door, the Turkish source said.

Horrendous screams were then heard by a witness downstairs, the source said.

The consul himself was taken out of the room. There was no attempt to interrogate him. They had come to kill him, the source told MEE.

The screaming stopped when Khashoggi  who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on 2 October  was injected with an as yet unknown substance.

Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, who has been identified as the head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, was one of the 15-member squad who arrived in Ankara earlier that day on a private jet.

Tubaigy began to cut Khashoggis body up on a table in the study while he was still alive, the Turkish source said.

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The killing took seven minutes, the source said.

As he started to dismember the body, Tubaigy put on earphones and listened to music. He advised other members of the squad to do the same.

When I do this job, I listen to music. You should do [that] too, Tubaigy was recorded as saying, the source told MEE.

A three-minute version of the audio tape has been given to Turkish newspaper Sabah, but they have yet to release it.

A Turkish source told the New York Times that Tubaigy was equipped with a bone saw. He is listed as the president of the Saudi Fellowship of Forensic Pathology and a member of the Saudi Association for Forensic Pathology.

In 2014, London-based Saudi newspaper Asharaq al-Awsat interviewed Tubaigy about a mobile clinic that allows coroners to perform autopsies in seven minutes to determine the cause of death of Hajj pilgrims.

The newspaper reported that the mobile clinic was partly designed by Tubaigy and could be used in security cases that requires pathologist intervention to perform an autopsy or examine a body at the place of a crime.

These are the first details to emerge of the Saudi journalists killing. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October to retrieve paperwork.

To date, Saudi officials have strongly denied any involvement in his disappearance and say that he left the consulate soon after arriving. However, they have not presented any evidence to corroborate their claim and say that video cameras at the consulate were not recording at the time.

Calls for Credible Investigation Grow Louder

On Tuesday, both Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, came out in support of Saudi officials denials they know anything about what happened to Khashoggi.

Trump tweeted that he spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in Istanbul. Trump said MBS told him that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter.

On Monday, CNN reported that Saudi Arabia was preparing to release a report that would blame Khashoggis death on a botched interrogation.

That would be a sharp reversal of earlier statements in which Saudi officials said they had nothing to do with the journalists disappearance and said he left the Saudi consulate minutes after he first arrived on 2 October.

Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and columnist for the Washington Post, had been living in self-imposed exile in Washington, DC, when he disappeared.

On Tuesday, Washington Post publisher and CEO Fred Ryan called for a full and honest explanation of Khashoggis disappearance.

The Saudi government can no longer remain silent, and it is essential that our own government and others push harder for the truth, Ryan said in a statement. Until we have a full account and full accountability, it cannot be business as usual with the Saudi government.

The United Nations human rights chief also called for immunity to be lifted for officials who might be involved in Khashoggis disappearance.

Due to the seriousness of the case, the immunity generally accorded to diplomats should be waived immediately, Michelle Bachelet said.October 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Over the summer, the Saudi Arabian government promised the Trump administration $100 million for the U.S.s efforts to stabilize parts of Syria liberated from the Islamic State, a coup for Donald Trump, who regularly complains about other countries not coughing up enough money on defense. But despite the pledge, one official involved in Syria policy told The New York Times that it was unclear when, if ever, the money would actually materialize in American bank accounts. But as luck would have it, just this past Tuesday, it didthe same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh to get some answers on the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and dissident who entered the kingdoms consulate in Turkey on October 2 and was never seen again. Some people have dismissed the notion that the two events are connectedThe specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, told the Times. But others arent so convinced!

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The timing of this is no coincidence, the American official working on Syria policy told the Times on Tuesday, just as Trump himself stepped up his defense of the kingdom, telling the Associated Press that what we have here is another case of guilty until proven innocent, which is exactly what happened with Brett Kavanaugh, who the president believes is innocent all the way. Trump also informed his Twitter followers that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman maintains he knows nothing about nothing, and if you cant trust the word of the guy who imprisoned his own cousins, who can you trust?

Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate. He was with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo...  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

...during the call, and told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

Even as the president goes to bat for his Saudi pals, more evidence has emerged that paints a grisly picture of what actually happened to the journalist. Turkish officials have conducted their own investigation, and the findings appear to differ significantly from Trumps rosy narrative:

Turkish officials said they shared evidence in recent days, including the details of an audio recording, with both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to support their conclusion that Mr. Khashoggi was killed at the hand of Saudi operatives.

The recording indicates how Mr. Khashoggi was killed in the office of the Saudi consul general, Mohammad al-Otaibi, minutes after he walked into the consulate building on October 2, said people familiar with the matter. Mr. Khashoggi wasnt interrogated, the people said. Instead, he was beaten up, drugged, and killed by Saudi operatives who had flown in from Riyadh earlier in the day, the people said.

Then, on the recording, a voice can be heard inviting the consul to leave the room, the people familiar with the matter said. The voice of a man Turkish authorities identified as Saudi forensic specialist Salah Al Tabiqi can be heard recommending other people present to listen to some music while he dismembered Mr. Khashoggis body, the people said.

Saudi Arabian officials, of course, have denied all knowledge of these proceedings. But the Times reports that five of the men suspected of taking part in Khashoggis (alleged!) murder have ties to the crown prince. One, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, is a former diplomat who worked at the Saudi Embassy in London in 2007 and frequently traveled with M.B.S. Three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the Saudi crown princes security detail. And the fifth is the forensic specialist who holds senior positions in the Saudi Interior Ministry and is a figure of such stature that he could be directed only by a high-ranking Saudi authority. As the Times notes, the presence of a professional who specializes in autopsies sure makes it seem like the operation had a lethal intent from the start, and wasnt simply an interrogation gone wrong. Then again, maybe healong with four other men linked to M.B.S. just happened to stop by the embassy that day. Presumably Trump and/or Saudi Arabia will offer a compelling explanation for all this in short order.

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Peace and joyWhy Israels  and Americas  Legal Justifications for Assassinations Dont Add Up

By Murtaza Hussain



October 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The expansion of legal rules around targeted killings by the United States is one of the most consequential legacies of the post-9/11 era. Under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the U.S. government arrogated itself broad rights to kill individuals far from any battlefield. The legal reasoning that former President Barack Obama used to publicly justify the ramped-up drone warfare program had its origins in a similar past effort by Israeli military lawyers to justify Israels targeted killings of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This month, The Intercept published an article about the history of this Israeli legal effort. In the story, Harvard law professor Gabriella Blum explained how, when she was a young lawyer working for the Israel Defense Forces, she and her team sought to give a legal justification for Israels burgeoning assassination program. Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney and author of the forthcoming book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, spoke with The Intercept to discuss the ethical and political implications of military legal scholarship, particularly around these justifications for Israels targeted killings in the occupied Palestinian territories and beyond.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Whats the real-world impact of academic legal scholarship, as it pertains to armed conflict?

There is a direct relationship that we can trace between knowledge production in the academy and what states seek to legally justify during armed conflict. What legal scholars publish contributes to an aspect of opinio juris, or what states believe is legal, which together with state practice constitutes something called international customary law. This is a form of international law, which, in contrast to treaties, is effectively a form of tacit consent. Effectively, legal scholars publish opinions which indirectly help shape customary law. If there is robust objection to what states do based on these opinions, then it falls into the realm of illegitimacy. But if, in contrast, the practice and the legal concepts gain traction, it can become the seed for new customary law, which can develop overnight or over a long period of time. If it crystallizes into a new norm, then it not only applies to the state proposing the law, but will be applicable to other states in the international community as well. This is certainly the story of the use of lethal force against enemy combatants not recognized as legitimate belligerents.

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How have the Israeli government and military lawyers employed international law to justify the use of targeted killings?

During the Second Intifada, Israel created an entirely new set of laws of war to govern their relationship with the Palestinians. As Daniel Reisner, former head of the [Israel Defense Forces]s International Law Department, himself stated in this article, Israel developed the concept of armed conflict, short of war to give itself the ability to legally justify its targeted killing policies in the occupied territories. The issue is that there exists a body of international law that dealt with situations of guerrilla warfare, namely the 1977 Additional Protocols I and II, which Israel has simply refused to recognize. The whole reason they needed to create these new legal concepts is because they were rejecting existing laws that were created during the 20th century, specifically to regulate this kind of irregular combat.

What were those laws, and in what context were they created?

During the period of decolonization in Africa and Asia, there were two protocols added to the Geneva Convention at the behest of countries in the Non-Aligned Movement, in order to recognize their wars of national liberation as legitimate. These protocols elevated guerrilla warfare to a form of legal armed conflict, meaning that guerrilla fighters received the status of legal combatants, giving them the right to both legally kill and be targeted themselves, as well as the protections afforded to prisoners of war if they were captured.

The first of these protocols was meant to regulate guerrilla wars fought against colonial domination, alien occupation, and racist regimes, while the second protocol regulated civil wars. When in 2000 Israel found itself fighting lightly armed Palestinian security officers in the occupied territories who had turned their arms against the Israeli army, they did not want to look at this existing body of international law to regulate their response. The first protocol, regulating irregular combat, would have required them to recognize the Palestinians as a nascent state living under colonial domination, foreign occupation, and a racist regime. But this would mean recognizing Palestinian militants as legitimate combatants with the right to use force, while Israel insisted that they were all criminal terrorists regardless of whether they targeted Israeli military installations or civilians. Meanwhile the second protocol governing civil war wouldve required them to acknowledge Palestinians in the occupied territories as a part of Israeli society, thus disrupting its Jewish demographic majority and acknowledging Israels governance of an apartheid regime.

So how did they legally maneuver around this issue in order to justify targeted killings?

To avoid either recognizing Palestinians as a nascent sovereign nation or a people subject to apartheid within Israel, Israeli military lawyers came up with an entirely new concept of armed conflict short of war, a new category of legal reasoning that never existed before. They didnt want to call their conflict with the Palestinians a war since that would recognize the inevitability of a Palestinian state and trigger a number of requirements under the laws of war. But they also didnt want call it an occupation, since then they would be subject to the laws that govern occupiers. Among other things, occupation law would mandate them to use policing powers instead of offensive military tactics like targeted killing. So to avoid doing either, they simply created a new and unprecedented legal category that is, in effect, a new law for colonial dominance.

The United States has used similarly expansive legal reasoning to justify its targeted killing operations in the war on terror. Is there a relationship between the Israeli legal efforts and those used in the American global counterterrorism campaign?

There is a synergy, in the sense that U.S. and Israeli arguments to expand the use of lethal force have been building off each other. As per the U.N. Charter, the use of force is generally prohibited, with a few exceptions, including individual and collective self-defense or when specifically authorized by a Security Council resolution under its Chapter VII authority. After 9/11, there was a shift under the Bush administration toward the use of preventive force, as opposed to pre-emptive self-defense, under customary law, or a response to an armed attack under treaty law. This shift becomes the basis of legal justification for extrajudicial assassinations, or targeted killings, outside of hot battlefields.

It was during the Obama-era drone warfare campaign, however, that these changes were really institutionalized. Whatever public hostility there was to Bush administration activities almost disappeared under Obama, though what he did in terms of targeted killings far exceeded what Bush did. It was liberal lawyers like Harold Koh and Martin Lederman who wrote the legal memos justifying these policies. Their efforts ultimately also helped legitimate previously unprecedented Israeli legal arguments in favor of expanding the range of circumstances when lethal force can be legally used.

Whats the cumulative impact on international law of these kinds of innovations? And how have they impacted our understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Because Israel wants to keep the land that it is occupying, they have perverted existing law to regulate their operations in the territories under their control. Normally speaking, they should be regulated by occupation law and thus, limited to using policing powers. Instead, theyve created whole new categories of law that have blurred the lines on the acceptable use of force and allowed them to carry out targeted killings of Palestinians, while denying them the rights normally afforded to combatants. Israeli military lawyers are right to point out that their situation is unprecedented; there is no other occupation that has lasted over five decades. No other state has invoked the concept of armed conflict, short of war in any other scenario, which Israels military lawyers admit they made up. Israel wants to be an occupying power in the Palestinian territories, but also claim that those territories are not occupied as a matter of law so that it can facilitate its settler-colonial territorial expansion. That is why Israel has remained in the territories for so long  it has never intended on withdrawing from them. And now it is invoking the law of self-defense to use force to protect its colonial holdings. But a state cannot invoke self-defense to wage war on a people [whose land] it already occupies, while insisting that those people are neither a nascent sovereign nation nor a population under its control.

Theres also been an ongoing effort to try and collapse the Israel-Palestine conflict into the same category as the U.S. war on terrorism, both morally and legally. The fact is that Israels confrontation with Palestinian armed groups is analytically and legally distinct from the U.S. confrontation with non-state actors like Al Qaeda and ISIS. No one is highlighting that distinction, and this is the most dangerous thing about the relationship between the U.S. and Israeli efforts on targeted killings. Given that most national liberation movements ended in the 20th century, the question of Palestine today stands out. Its a unique situation, though its one that international law has contemplated before.

What are some of the frustrations that exist with the way that matters of Israeli targeted killing policy are discussed, particularly with regard to legal rationales?

Even in contrast to the United States, Israel attempts to frame itself as the more humane face of war because theyve been legally regulating their war. But what articles like this dont really mention is that even when defining rules around civilian harm and proportionality, as the PCATI v. Government of Israel decision does, Israels military lawyers, ethicists, and practitioners are able to legally redefine who counts as a civilian or not. With regard to principles like proportionality, they are redefining what is appropriate to fit their irregular circumstances. What may have been disproportionate in conventional combat becomes proportionate under these new circumstances. Thus, the Israeli army can claim to be abiding by their Supreme Court decisions, but in the end, Israels military has changed the relevant definitions in the first place. They are not even saying that there is an exception for them in their targeting killing practices; they are literally just creating new law to justify their activities.

This article was originally published by " The Intercept " -

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Peace and joy



Speaking truth to power has ruined Darin Jones, a former FBI contract specialist who reported evidence of serious procurement improprieties. He should be the last federal whistleblower victimized, writes John Kiriakou.





By John Kiriakou

October 17, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The idea of whistleblowing has been in the news a great deal.

Is the anonymous author of a recent New York Times op-ed eviscerating the president a whistleblower?

Is the victim of an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh a whistleblower?

Im fortunate to have access to the media to talk about torture after blowing the whistle on the CIAs program. I think Ed Snowden, Tom Drake and others would say the same thing about the aftermath of their own whistleblowing.

Cost of Doing the Right Thing

The problem is that we are the exception to the rule. Most whistleblowers either suffer in anonymity or are personally, professionally, socially and financially ruined for speaking truth to power. Darin Jones is one of those people. Hes one of the people silenced in Barack Obamas war on whistleblowers. And he continues to suffer under Donald Trump.

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Jones was an FBI supervisory contract specialist who in 2012 reported evidence of serious procurement improprieties to his superior. Jones maintained that Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) had been awarded a $40 million contract improperly because a former FBI official with responsibility for granting the contract then was hired as a consultant at CSC. Jones said, rightly, that this was a violation of the Procurement Integrity Act. He made seven other disclosures alleging financial improprieties in the FBI, and he was promptly fired for his troubles.

Remember, the United States has a Whistleblower Protection Act. Any federal employee who brings to light evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or threats to the public health or public safety is protected under federal statute.

The FBI didnt care, though. Jones was a troublemaker. He was talking about his fellow FBI agents. And he had to be silenced.

Immediately upon his firing, Jones appealed. He was not reinstated, however, because he had made his revelation to his supervisor and not to one of the nine people on the FBI leadership-approved list of who could hear a whistleblower complaint. Jones appealed again, beginning a more than four-year odyssey.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is the champion of whistleblowers on Capitol Hill, whether you like his politics or not. Jones contacted Grassley and asked for help. His dismissal was clearly retaliation for his revelations and was illegal, according to the whistleblower protection law. Grassley agreed and wrote three separate letters to then-FBI director James Comey and then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. None were answered.

Grassley urged the Justice Department to reinstate Jones, saying that his dismissal was a violation of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, which strengthened the original whistleblower protection law. He added that when Yates appeared before his Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearings earlier in the year, she promised to improve the process for adjudicating claims of retaliation, including expanding the list of persons to whom a protected disclosure may be made.

She never did that. In fact, Yates ordered the director of the Justice Departments Professional Misconduct Review Unit to write to Jones and to tell him, The Deputy Attorney Generals review is complete and her decision is final. Your case is no longer pending. You should not expect to receive any future communications that you or any other organization or individuals may submit with regard to your whistleblower reprisal case. In other words, the official policy of the Justice Department was to ignore the law and to give the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and the whistleblower himself the middle finger.

The FBIs response was equally bad, albeit predictable. The FBIs Office of the General Counsel wrote to Jones, The FBI has advised you that it will not conduct further investigation into your allegations that the FBI removed you from employment because you reported a compliance concern and retaliated against you in violation of applicable whistleblower retaliation protection regulations. The FBI has met its legal obligations and considers this matter closed without any basis for further review or reopening. Please be advised that the FBI will not respond to any additional correspondence or emails related to or arising from the termination of your employment.

Thats another middle finger.

Note also that the FBI refers to whistleblower regulations. Its not a regulation. Its a law. And the FBI, too, has to respect and follow the law even when they dont want to.

End Victimization of Whistleblowers

The bottom line here, though, is that Darin Jones did the right thing. He did the honorable thing. He did the ethical, legal, and moral thing. And he paid for it with his career. Like other federal whistleblowers, hes ruined financially. Friends and family members have walked away from him. He cant find a job. I can tell you from firsthand experience that the psychological weight of the fallout from whistleblowing is sometimes too much to handle.

Jones friends and supporters are creating a GoFundMe campaign to help him through this horrible period.

We also need to keep up the heat on the FBI, the CIA, NSA, TSA, and every other governmental organization that victimizes whistleblowers.

We have to support Chuck Grassley and others on Capitol Hill who are trying to protect whistleblowers.

We have to force our own elected officials to do the same. After all, they work for us.

Our goal should be a simple one. Work hard to ensure that Darin Jones is the last federal whistleblower to be treated this way.

John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act  a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administrations torture program.

This article was originally published by " Consortium News " -

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Peace and joyPopular Nigerian lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), has said efforts had begun to secure the freedom of former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, from Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) custody.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday, Ozekhome said the former governors lawyers are taking steps to enforce his fundamental human rights.

In Ozekhomes words:

Fayoses lawyers are already taking steps to enforce his fundamental human rights by getting him released.

Fayoses lawyers are already taking steps to enforce his fundamental human rights by getting him released.

Yes, his lawyers will go to court to enforce his fundamental human rights.

The EFCC has no right to keep him for over 24 hours.

If they have done that by obtaining a Magistrate Courts Order that will be in the form of holding charge which has been declared unconstitutional and illegal by the Supreme Court.

Holding charge is illegal. It is unconstitutional.

Fayose, had reported at the EFCC office in Abuja on Tuesday, to answer to corruption allegations hanging on his neck, just a day after ending his tenure as Governor. The governor was later detained by the anti corruption agency and asked to return funds he received from the former National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan.Vanguard

GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State is among the state governors attending the National Economic Council, NEC, meeting presided over by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Thisday

Governors of the 36 states of the federation Thursday said though they were not opposed to the ongoing plans to approve a new minimum wage, they lacked the capacity to pay.

Guardian

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has re-arraigned a former governor of Katsina State Ibrahim Shehu Shema before Justice Hadiza Rabiu Shagari on a 26-count charge of conspiracy and money laundering.

The Nation

Kaduna Assembly to pass whistleblower, anticorruption bills next week

The Kaduna State House of Assembly says it will pass the Whistleblower Protection Bill and the Anti-corruption Bill by next week, as part of commitment to open governance in the state.

Tribune

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the implementation of the no-work, no pay principle when workers go on strike in the federal public service.The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) demands that the electoral tribunal, of the Osun state governorship election petition tribunal,reconstitutes immediately.

The opposition party said this, in a statement on Thursday. The party said , if this is not quickly done, it sends a bad signal on the integrity of the judiciary as the panel was disbanded by the president of the appeal court, Justice Zainab Bulkachwa.

The PDP also alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is mounting so much pressure on the judiciary to deny the PDP of victory.

See full statement beAPC

Osun: Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) Demands Immediate Reconstitution of Electoral Tribunal. We demand for the immediate reconstitution of the Osun state governorship election petition tribunal, as further delay will jeopardize the course of justice in the matter.

The disbanding of the panel by the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachwa, is a development which, if not quickly addressed, sends a very bad signal on the integrity of the judiciary.

Our submission is predicated on reports that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been mounting pressure on the judiciary to deny the PDP justice in the determination of the Osun Governorship election dispute at the tribunal.

We therefore invite Nigerians to note that in our lawful effort to reclaim our stolen mandate, PDP duly filed its petition on Oct. 15, 2018 in accordance with sect.285 (6) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which prescribed that judgment must be delivered on or b/4 180 days.

While Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was served, the APC and its candidate evaded service. Consequently, the PDP on Wed, Oct. 17, 2018 applied for substituted service, which was slated for hearing today, only to be informed that the panel has been disbanded on Wed. without any reason

The President of the Court of Appeal should note that her disbanding of the panel without setting up a trreconstituteso a deliberate attempt to prevent the PDP from serving the APC and its candidate and to meet the constitutional 180 days time frame

Election petition matters are sui generis, with timeframe allotted to all stages up to the final determination. Failure to set up a new panel to timeously hear our application for substituted service on APC smacks of a shenanigan to deny us full justice in the matter.Opinion Policies

Editorials are longer opinion pieces that are written by a group of community members recruited across campus who address relevant issues on a local, national and international level. Editorials are research-based. The purpose of the Editorial Board is to promote discussion concerning relevant issues in the community while advising on possible solutions. Topics are chosen via relevancy and interests of the members, which are then discussed by the Editorial Board in order to reach a general consensus concerning the topic or issue.

Feedback policy

If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com).

Column Policy

Columns are hyper-specific to opinion and are written by only columnists employed by the Iowa State Daily. Columnists are unique because they have a specific writing day and only publish on those writing days. Each column undergoes a thorough editing process ensuring the integrity of the writer, and their claim is maintained while remaining research-based and respectful. Columns may be submitted from community members. These are labelled as Guest Columns. These contain similar research-based content and need to be at least 400 words in length. The following requirements should be met: first and last name, email and relation or position to Iowa State. Emails must be tied to the submitted guest column or it will not be accepted or published. Pseudonyms are prohibited and the writer will be banned from submissions.

Read our full Opinion Policies here. Updated on 10/7/2020Kenya Moore took to Instagram to share a 3D image of her growing baby. According to the formerstar, her little miracle closely resembles daddy-to-be Marc Daly.First look!! #babydaly 3D image! This is a 3D image from an ultrasound. It looks like play-doh or Clamation LOL but you can make out a face! wrote Moore.She clarified that the black is not hair its just part of the image and confirmed that the sex of the child cant be determined based off of the sonogram: No you cant tell if its a boy or girl.But OMG the baby has daddys lips and nose! continued Moore, who also shared a side-by-side image of Dalys lips and her babys mouth.She added the hashtags: #miraclebaby #firstlook #3Dultrasound #love #family #ThatsMrsDalyToYou #kenyamoore #IVF #marcdaly.As previously reported, Moore first announced that she was pregnant with her first child with husband Marc Daly during the tenth season reunion taping of the Bravo hit reality series.Moore, who conceived through in vitro fertilization, previously opened up about how her life has changed since pregnancy.Im tired obviously. I dont have the stamina that I had before, so Im taking it a little easy  not working out and going on long walks with the dogs. But its nothing  I dont feel that bad, she told, adding, I have a little bit of sensitivity to smells that make me nauseous, and I have a slight loss of appetite.She also revealed that she and Daly are trying to not find out the sex of their baby ahead of time. We want to be surprised and we want to make it as natural as we can at this point, Moore explained. We just want a healthy baby. And it doesnt matter to either of us  boy, girl, we dont really care.Moore officially confirmed her departure from RHOA earlier this month, confirming that she will not appear on the show's upcoming eleventh season. I have decided to take this season off to focus on my high risk pregnancy in a healthy and drama free environment," Kenya toldin a statement."I thank Bravo for this amazing platform that has allowed me to grow, flourish and appreciate the value of what is truly important in life."Kenya also thanked her fans for all of the love they have shown her during her time on the Bravo hit reality series in her statement. "And to #TeamTwirl: Thank you for your loving and relentless support  you will see me soon!" Kenya gushed, adding a reminder that her first child, #BabyDaly, is on the way.Photo Credit: InstagramFuller Gallery celebrates fifth anniversary Visitors to Fuller Gallery might expect to see a painting of Marsh Meadows hanging in the storefront window, but in the five years since it opened, a Chinese sword, Olympic...

LEARNING TO SAVE LIVES Volunteer firefighters Lew Kitts, left, and Dave Prior talk to kindergarten and preschool students Friday about the equipment used to extinguish flames during emergencies. The annual showcase at Melrose School...

Film explores body and clothing An 8-minute film shot at Beavertail State Park to explore connections between clothing and the body will be screened at the Jamestown Arts Center. The screening of Waves and Shadows...MASON CITY, Iowa - 7th Grade science students at John Adams Middle School are building paper roller coasters, and getting help from local architecture and engineering firms in the process.

Students have been hard at work on their coasters for the past two weeks as part of a school-wide competition on Friday. In addition, they're getting advice and feedback from companies like Berglund + Cram, WoodHarbor, and Henkel Construction on their projects.

Students Jaelyn Falls and Adi Krueger say there's a lot that goes into their projects, and are feeling a bit of pressure.

"Ours used to touch the ceiling until it got knocked over and it started weighing down. And theirs is just straight and it's almost touching the ceiling. It's...they're just beating us so far and it's not cool."

In addition, they say having experienced people in the field helping them out is beneficial.

"It helps us with a lot of things. If we didn't have them, then ours would be all the way touching the ground by now and it wouldn't be that great."

The winner of Friday's competition will go to a state competition in Cedar Falls on November 14th to compete against other Iowa middle school students.MASON CITY, Iowa- US Congressman Steve King is under fire after he tweeted out an endorsement for Toronto Mayoral Candidate Faith Goldy.

Goldy is described as having far-right leaning views and some go as far as calling her a White-Nationalist.

Congressman King said Monday that he disagrees and that Goldy would make a great mayor.

He tweeted out Tuesday evening that she is pro rule of law, can make Canada safe again, balance a budget and is pro-Western Civilization. He added that this attack was started by the Democrats as a political game.

The left is hyperventilating again, he said Wednesday. As I understand, they found a book that she endorsed 10 or 12 years ago. In that book is some language that they objected to. She has retracted endorsement of that component of the language and they still throw labels out on her.

Congressman King also talked about the continuing feud between President Donald Trump and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

President Trump tweeted out that he would donate $1M to her favorite charity if a heritage test came back that she does come from Native American decent. Warrens results did come back that she has a small amount of Native American in her heritage, 1/1024.

Congressman King said that the check to the charity should reflect that number.

Id say take that million dollars and divide it by 1024 and write the check, Congressman King said.CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  Prison sentences have been handed down in the opioid-connected deaths of three Iowans.

Opioid abuse remains at an all-time high and these dangerous drugs wreak havoc on lives and communities, said United States Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa Pete Deegan. Street drugs - including those sold over the internet - routinely contain powerful opioids. These drugs have never been more deadly and anyone caught distributing them will be held accountable.

Jervonie Murphy, 26 of Dubuque, and Jay Rickert, 28 of Grand Rapids, Michigan, were sentenced on October 11 for their role in distributing opioids that led to the deaths of two people.

Murphy admitted to selling heroin to a woman on July 18, 2016. That woman shared some of the heroin with another woman who used the heroin and was found unresponsive the next morning. She never recovered and was pronounced dead on July 20, 2016. An autopsy revealed that the woman died of mixed drug toxicity involving methamphetamine and heroin.

The Dubuque Drug Task Force eventually made two controlled buys of heroin from Murphy, one of which happened within 1,000 feet of two playgrounds in Dubuque and the second occurred within 1,000 feet of an elementary school. Officers then searched Murphys home and found marijuana, crack cocaine, powder cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.

Murphy was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.

Rickert received one years and six months behind bars. He confessed to ordering DMT, an illegal hallucinogenic drug, from an on-line supplier on the dark web. Rickert had the drugs shipped directly to his friend, a 22-year old woman who lived in Dubuque, with instructions on how to safely use the drug.

However, the supplier of the drug shipped fentanyl instead of DMT. The two substances are nearly identical in appearance. The woman, believing the substance to be DMT, used the fentanyl and died. Rickert was talking to the woman over Skype while she used the fentanyl and called 911 after seeing her fall over. An autopsy later concluded that the cause of death was a fentanyl overdose.

On October 17, Richard Leroy Parker, age 47 from Dubuque, received a life sentence.

Evidence at his trial showed that Parker obtained several grams of heroin in Chicago in April 2017. He brought the heroin to a Dubuque residence on Easter Sunday. Parker and other individuals at the residence drank alcohol and smoked crack cocaine throughout the day. Prior to midnight, Parker gave the heroin to a woman. She used it and died. Parker admitted that as emergency personnel tried to save her life, he went into another room and hid the remaining heroin in a chair.



By Dong Sun-hwa







Actor John Cho, one of the "sexiest men alive" according to People magazine visited Korea on Saturday to promote the movie thriller "Searching." About 3 million people have seen the movie here since its release in August.





Watch the trailer of "Searching":









Cho plays David Kim, a father whose daughter has gone missing. He tries to find out his daughter with the help of her social media network.







Appearing on SBS "Nightline" on Monday, the actor revealed that it was important that that the movie had received positive reviews in the country where he was born.







He held a signing event with fans at COEX on Tuesday, and will appear on MBC radio "FM Film Music with Han Ye Ri."







Cho's Korean name is Cho Yo-han, and the actor headed for America when he was six years old. He has featured in a variety of work including the film "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle" in 2004 and the popular "Star Trek" series.

The Tumen River, where the borders of North Korea, China and Russia meet. Korea Times 2015 file



By Jung Da-min



North Korea is committed to strengthening its regional ties in Asia, especially with traditional allies such as China, Russia and Mongolia, on the 73rd anniversary of the foundation of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK).



The country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) recently published a series of articles on diplomatic and cultural events involving these countries.



This is in contrast with last year when North Korea was isolated from the international community after conducting missile and nuclear tests. In particular, North Korea-China relations had been weakened to the point where the regime's state media did not even report China's congratulatory message for the event.





By Park Ji-won



Russia supplied 2,000 more tons of refined oil to North Korea than China this year, U.N. data showed Wednesday.



It has provided 12,324 tons of refined oil to the North so far, while China has supplied 10,109 tons, according to the website of the U.N. Security Council's sanctions committee



Russia's refined oil supply to North Korea for August was 1,369 tons.



According to the U.N. resolution 2397, the total supply, sale or transfer of all refined petroleum products by U.N. member states to the North should not exceed 500,000 barrels or about 60,000 tons, during a period of 12 months beginning this year, and for 12-month periods thereafter.



Several countries including the U.S. and South Korea have pointed out that Pyongyang possibly received (refined) oil from ships registered in a third country. Such shipments aren't reported.



U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Russia last month of violating sanction against North Korea by delivering the fuel through ship-to-ship transfers at sea.



Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia refuted the allegation.



Haley said, "the United States tracked at least 148 instances of oil tankers delivering refined petroleum products obtained through illegal ship-to-ship transfers. We estimate that at the least, North Korea has obtained over 800,000 barrels of refined petroleum products in the first eight months of this year. That's 160 percent of the 2018 annual cap of 500,000."

Johannes Lindgren (Kang Min-ho) with his Korean foster mother Lee Chang-soon in 1981 / Courtesy of Lindgren





A reunion with his foster mother in Seoul after 36 years / Courtesy of Lindgren



By Jung Min-ho









By Jung Hae-myoung







The smoking rate among male adults decreased in 2017 from the previous year with cigarette sales slipping by over 200 million packs, helped by graphic warnings on cigarette packets, the health ministry said Thursday.







According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, last year's smoking rate posted a sharp decline compared with that of 2016  although it failed to elaborate on the figure.







The ministry, along with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), plans to come up with a report on national health and nutrition, including the smoking rate, in November.







Cigarette sales decreased to 3.4 billion packs in 2017 from 3.6 billion packs in 2016  in 2015, 3.3 billion packs were sold.







The ministry said making graphic warnings compulsory for tobacco companies has proven effective, as well as decreasing the number of smoking areas in public facilities.







Adding graphic warnings to cigarette packages has been mandatory for all manufacturers since 2016.







Expanding non-smoking areas also affected the smoking rate. In 2011, 47 percent of the population were smokers, but after increasing the number of non-smoking areas in public facilities, this dropped to about 40 percent in 2012.







The ministry will demand cigarette manufacturers attach photos showing more graphic damage caused by smoking, starting Dec. 23 this year.







Around 11 cigarette manufacturers, including those of electronic ones, will change the packet design with new graphics, showing the negative effect of smoking on the lungs, heart, mouth and intestines.







"We will continue to put graphic signs on the cigarette packets, including electronic ones, to cut down the national smoking rate," said a ministry official.







The ministry will also require companies to disclose the ingredients of cigarettes.





Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, left, celebrates a mass for the peace in the Korean peninsula, attended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, and his wife Kim Jung-sook, at Sant Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, 17 October 2018. EPA-Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in summoned the Christian love for humanity and the European spirit of unity to inspire peace on the divided Korean Peninsula Wednesday, as the South Korean leader preached his policy to engage and denuclearize the rival North at the Vatican.



Moon attended a rare special mass for Korean peace at the Basilica of St. Peter, presided over by Cardinal State Secretary Pietro Parolin.



"The love for humanity that bloomed in Christianity and the European civilization has traveled through time and space to give hope to the Korean Peninsula. The spirit of inclusion and alliance that the European Union has been working to realize is giving inspirations in our journey toward lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula," he said in an address after the mass.



Moon plans to meet with Pope Francis on Thursday and will deliver an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the pope to visit Pyongyang, according to the presidential office.





Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, right, listens to South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivering a speech at the end of a Mass for peace inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. AP-Yonhap



Moon expressed his gratitude to the pontiff and the Vatican for praying for peace on the divided peninsula half a world away.









"The prayer for peace on the Korean Peninsula that resounded at St. Peter's Basilica today will echo in the hearts of the people in South Korea, North Korea and all the rest of the world who hope for peace," Moon said.



Moon said amazing changes were already happening on the peninsula.



"In September, I and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un adopted the Pyongyang Joint Declaration. We agreed to end the military confrontation between the South and the North, and declared before the world in which we will build a Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons or nuclear threats, a peninsula of peace," he told the mass.



Moon stressed the two sides are faithfully keeping the promises by withdrawing weapons and guard posts and removing land mines from the heavily fortified border area.





South Korean President Moon Jae-in sits with Italian cardinal Angelo Comastri at the end of a special mass for peace in the Korean peninsula in Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, October 17, 2018. REUTERS-YonhapTwenty-two cross-border couples walk down the aisle in a joint wedding ceremony hosted by Rotary International at Heritz Wedding Convention Tower in southern Seoul, Oct. 4, 2010. The Korean grooms married brides from Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and China. Korea Times



This is the second of a two-part series about migrant women in Korea who struggle with risks of deportation, physical threats and psychological hazards in much of their daily lives.  ED.



Cases of jeopardized marriage migrants in Korea mirror the country's failing systems across welfare, international marriage brokerage and multicultural laws



By Ko Dong-hwan



A Cambodian woman moved to Korea in 2007 for marriage and a new life, but her Korean husband and mother-in-law did not allow her to learn Korean or hold a bank account. They told her they had paid for her labor on their vineyard, ending her dream of becoming a proud immigrant mother. Her husband, ignoring her hope of obtaining Korean citizenship, filed for divorce in 2013. Her mother-in-law then kicked her out of their home.



The Vietnamese wife of a Korean fisherman suffered constant beatings at the hands of his extended family. Five years into marriage, she ran away with her 16-month-old child and 2 million won ($1,800) she had saved after one of her in-laws tried to kill her.



Another Vietnamese woman was married to an alcoholic Korean man 30 years her senior. He was often hospitalized and spent most of their meager government subsidies on liquor and taxis. He kept physically harassing her, even after promising to stop the violence after she had fled to Vietnam. After he broke his second promise and threatened her with a knife to "make her as good as dead" and hid her passport, his sister helped her escape with her child.



In one of the highest-profile crimes in Korea involving a cross-border marriage, a Vietnamese woman was raped repeatedly by her Korean husband's stepfather in 2012 in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. She escaped by locking herself in a motel bathroom and phoning a Vietnamese friend for help.



The man was arrested and arraigned, but denied the allegations. The court dismissed his plea that the sexual acts were consensual, sentencing him to seven years in jail.



However, it was disclosed that at age 13 she was subject to marriage-by-capture, gang raped and impregnated. Seven months later, her husband filed an annulment suit over her previous "marriage." The dispute lasted more than four years until she left Korea for good.





Rep. Jung Choun-sook of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and the Women Migrants Human Rights Center of Korea hosted a critical forum at the National Assembly, Oct. 17, to discuss sexual harassment of marriage migrants and measures to safeguard their immigration status. From left on the lectern are Nam Soo-kyung Vitale, a public interest human rights lawyer from Legal Services NYC in the U.S., Wee Eun-jin from Lawyers for a Democratic Society and Cho Sook-hyun from One Law Partners. Courtesy of the Women Migrants Human Rights Center of Korea



These examples are direct testimonies from the victims  marriage migrants with F-6 visas  to the Women Migrants Human Rights Center of Korea, a Seoul-based NGO that supports foreign women suffering in troubled cross-border marriages. The agency provides victims with consultations, shelter and free legal support. The victims' identities have been withheld.



The stories represent only a fraction of the more than 20,000 international couples in Korea who married in 2017 alone (Korean husbands with foreign wives 14,869 and 5,966 vice-versa, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service). Each year from 2000 until 2017, cross-border marriages numbered from 11,000 (2000) to as many as 42,000 (2005). And yet, those few extreme cases show that cross-border marriages still can go irreparably wrong.



People often blame the situation on the individuals, considering all the cross-border marriage-friendly policies the government has rolled out. In 2011, the justice ministry launched an international marriage guide program that required Korean men marrying women from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Thailand to take a four-hour cultural lesson about their spouses. In October 2018, the ministry announced it would offer incentive points to Korean men learning the language of their spouses before inviting them to Korea with F-6 documents.



Despite such government efforts, Heo Young-sook, representative of the Women Migrants Human Rights Center of Korea, argues that the extreme cross-border marriage crises are largely because of the country's poor social structures, not individual delinquency. After working for NGOs defending Korean women's rights until the early 2000s, Heo started supporting female marriage migrants in Korea. She found that foreigners faced situations that were much more serious and desperate than Koreans in similar circumstances, in terms of violence and poverty.



"In most cases of cross-border marriage failure, Korean husbands and foreign wives were both from families living under the poverty line," Heo told The Korea Times. "To my utmost bitterness, I view those cases as scenes of socially vulnerable members reluctantly poised by society to kill each other. It is a structural, not individual problem."



Heo is concerned about the country's ineffective welfare system that has left behind international couples living in some of the poorest conditions. If the "subalterns" could benefit from a government welfare system as developed as that of northern European countries, they would be "left with only a cultural gap to deal with," Heo said.



One case involved a Korean man who stopped paying rent to pay his cross-border marriage brokerage fee and bring his bride to Korea. But without a place to live, the couple drifted from one public bathhouse to another.



"That couple's misery manifests the problem of poverty and a loophole in the government welfare system, rather than personal grievances stemming from miscommunication or violence," Heo said.





The website of a Seoul-based cross-border marriage brokerage agency. It is accessible only by members.



Bad brokers



One of the problematic backdrops weakening Korea's social structures behind cross-border marriage is that brokers often match unsuitable people together. While a hastily arranged marriage between two strangers from different countries is far from promising, the brokers and the Korean government have in part treated matrimony almost as a consumer product.



"A Korean groom cannot spare longer than 4.4 days to visit the bride's country because of pending work in his hometown and the high cost of international travel," Heo said, referring to a survey figure from the gender equality and family ministry. Marital partners wrap up everything within the tight schedule, from their first meeting to wedding and honeymoon, with the groom returning to Korea ahead of the bride.



Korean husbands, paying a brokerage fee of about 10 million won ($8,820), can complain about brokers to the Korea Consumer Agency, a government agency accepting consumer complaints, or Danuri Call Center, a multicultural family support portal run by the family ministry. The complaints are made at specials windows, where complainants are treated as if they are upset about a defective product.









Cross-border marriage brokerages, booming in the early 2000s, promoted women from different countries using racial epithets as if selling local products. One ad from a broker's site showed a chart titled "merits of brides from each country." The ad explained that Nepalese women were "beautiful" and had "untainted naivety," Vietnamese women were "tough" yet "devoted to husbands," and Uzbek women mostly had "high educational backgrounds and superb language skills."



Brokers sometimes did more than provide false information. In 2012, a Korean broker was sentenced to two years in jail for inspecting a Filipina woman's naked body to "check her virginity" at a lodge prepared by his agency in the Philippines, before marrying her to a Korean man.



So Ra-mi, a lawyer from human rights law foundation GongGam in Seoul, says in the public interest law guidebook "Migrant Law Study" that the outgoing brokerage practice derived from the "profit-driven nature of commercialized cross-border marriage brokerage that can nail the biggest bucks in the shortest time."



The problem was condemned in 2007 by the U.N.'s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The organization urged the Korean government to step in and prevent brokerage malpractice, particularly misleading online ads.



Han Ga-eun, a Vietnamese director of the Women Migrants Human Rights Center, told The Korea Times she was mostly vexed about foreign victims of the bad brokers being ignored, violated and unrecognized by Koreans, including the women's in-laws.



Arguing that both sides of a cross-border married couple must try to level the playing field, Han said, "Many Koreans view marriage migrants through a limited framework of marriage, ignoring their personal identities."







'Multicultural' families



Korean law hardly makes it easy for marriage migrants to cope with their lives here. Although there are bills supporting Korea's ever-increasing multicultural families, their very definition of the family unit is, once carefully considered, advantageous to Korean husbands while unfair to foreign wives.



According to the 2008 multicultural family supporting bill introduced by the family ministry, multicultural households must comprise a "Korean citizen" and a "foreigner or naturalized Korean married to the Korean citizen."



The ministry's definition, according to Heo, excludes marriage migrants from outside Korea, ethnic Koreans from overseas who migrated to Korea, and migrant workers accepted through the state employment permit system (who account for the majority of foreigners in Korea). Multicultural families, in the Korean government's understanding, do not make sense without a Korean citizen.



For an existing multicultural household in Korea, foreign wives often find their immigration status threatened because it depends on their marital status. They must remain married here for two years to apply for naturalization, and before then their husbands must sponsor their visas. Separation deals a heavier blow to the migrants than Korean husbands because of the country's complex visa requirements for foreign divorcees.



Foreign wives wishing to divorce their Korean husbands are virtually giving up their future here, a critical issue for the migrants wishing to keep their immigration status or claim custody over children. In households where the husband wields control over his wife's immigration status, and sometimes abuses the authority to threaten the woman's security, spousal equality is farfetched.



The 2008 bill also does not support those whose immigration status expires. F-6 document holders who leave their Korean partners due to domestic violence and cannot extend the document's expiration date are outside the bill's protection, as are children born here between unregistered migrant workers.



The exclusion practice, according to So, goes against the U.N.'s Committee on the Rights of the Child, which campaigns for all children's rights to education, social participation and protection without discrimination based on their backgrounds.



"The Korean government's multicultural policies are hinged on supporting legal marriage migrants to assimilate to life in Korea," So said. "The process, however, carries a discrepancy that foreigners are somehow encouraged to hide their cultures and languages to absorb Korean culture better. The policies reflect nationalism, not multiculturalism."





Vietnamese women who married Korean men and are waiting for their F-6 marriage migrant visas attend a pre-departure orientation session offered by the United Nations Center for Human Rights at the Korean consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Korea TimesPresident Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hands with Pope Francis before the start of their face-to-face meeting, Thursday night, in Vatican City. AP-Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul

VATICAN CITY  Pope Francis accepted a handwritten letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, delivered by President Moon Jae-in, Thursday, inviting him to visit Pyongyang.



"During a meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Pope Francis held behind closed doors at the Vatican, the pope said he was waiting for an official invitation from Kim Jong-un, adding he could visit the North," chief press secretary Yoon Young-chan said in a media briefing late Thursday (KST).



"The pope told President Moon that he would immediately respond to the invitation once he officially receives one," Yoon continued.



The specific timing of such a trip, if it occurs, was not mentioned, although ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Hae-chan said recently that the pope "was aiming to visit North Korea next spring."



If the visit takes place, it will be the first time for a leader of the Catholic Church to step foot in the North.



"President Moon met Pope Francis for 37 minutes. The pope said the Vatican strongly supports the peacemaking process on the peninsula and told President Moon that he should move forward with the ongoing denuclearization process. He also told the President that there was no need to be afraid," Yoon said.



The Vatican has no official diplomatic relations with North Korea. Pyongyang's constitution purportedly ensures "freedom of religion" as long as it does not undermine the state, although no openly religious activities are allowed.



It is unknown whether the Vatican will insist on North Korea accepting Catholic priests in the country as a pre-condition for a papal visit, something that has long been a prerequisite for an improvement of its relations with the North.



Pope Francis has long taken a less-absolutist approach in the Holy See's diplomacy as seen by a recent agreement over bishop nominations signed with China. The North is estimated to have around 2,500 Catholics, compared to more than 5.5 million in South Korea.



"You told me that dialogue is the only way for a resolution of all conflicts. I bear that mind every time I encounter difficulties. As a result, I laid the ground for a permanent peace with U.S. President Donald Trump and the North's Kim," Moon was quoted as saying by Yoon.



Pope Francis has been emphatic about the right and wrong ways to address international conflict. His "diplomacy of encounter" has reaped some rewards. He concluded a tour of Colombia that helped to shepherd through a peace agreement the Church brokered between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).



In 2014, the pope also hosted American and Cuban negotiators in Rome to seek a diplomatic accord after an 18-month impasse. In a previous interview with CNN, President Moon said he was against any deployment of nuclear weapons in South Korea, and hoped denuclearization could be achieved within a "similar Catholic framework" with the pope's assistance.



The Vatican's solid support for President Moon's push for peace on the peninsula is seen as a huge plus in his efforts to win more backing from the international community, and specifically European countries. Moon is using his nine-day trip to European capitals to try and build a consensus to keep the momentum for the denuclearization process alive, Cheong Wa Dae officials told The Korea Times.



A day before the meeting, President Moon delivered a speech at a "Mass for Peace" in St. Peter's Basilica that was presided over by the pope's top diplomat, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.



In his homily, Parolin prayed for the "gift of peace" on the Korean Peninsula so that "after so many years of tensions and division, the word peace can come out fully."



Moon responded by saying he was "very certain peace could be achieved on the peninsula." A Catholic himself, Moon spoke at the end of the mass, saying prayers recited there would turn into reality.



Later at a banquet, Cardinal Parolin said he appreciated Moon's efforts to keep the denuclearization talks alive, and his role in setting up June's summit in Singapore between Kim and President Trump.



"For me, praying for peace on the peninsula here at the Vatican and delivering a speech to prayers was like a dream. I am so honored to do this. We will achieve peace and overcome separation) without fail," Moon told Parolin during the banquet, Yoon said.











Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae speaks during a meeting with vice superintendents of education at the government complex in Sejong, Thursday. / Yonhap



By Kim Jae-heun



The government said, Thursday, it has decided to reveal the list of private kindergartens found to have committed irregularities through its inspection.



However, directors of nursery schools will not be identified, it added.



The decision came after a ruling party lawmaker brought to light a large number of accounting fraud incidents at some privately run kindergartens last week.



"We apologize for the failure to prevent corruption at private kindergartens," Education Minister Yoo Eun-hae said during a meeting with metropolitan and provincial vice superintendents of education in Sejong City.



"We cannot overlook the fact that nearly 90 percent of local private kindergartens have been indicated with corrective action during the audits in the last five years. We have to establish countermeasures to strengthen transparent management at the institutes and eradicate irregularities starting from now."



To this end, the education ministry will conduct a general inspection of private kindergartens that were suspected of corruption and failed to follow corrective measures ordered by the local education offices between 2013 and 2017.



The ministry will publish the list of corrupt kindergartens on the websites of local education offices by next Thursday.



The ministry added it will also share the result of future inspections with school parents.



Six education offices in Busan, Ulsan, Sejong, North Chungcheong Province, South Jeolla Province and South Gyeongsang Province have revealed the names of kindergartens that have committed irregularities, and their audit results. However, the other 11 education offices have not named any of the kindergartens yet.



The ministry said the local education offices will establish kindergarten corruption centers in their cities and provinces starting Friday while operating its own task force to strengthen its general consulting bureau for further possible corruptions.



Kindergartens planning to close temporarily or permanently will be punished harshly.



All kindergartens have to receive approval from the local education office to close down by the education act and they cannot shut down in the middle of the semester.



Those failing to obey the law can face up to three years of imprisonment or a 30 million won fine.



"We will act sternly against the private kindergartens' corruption. Also, there are kindergartens that wish to close down now but it is an act of abusing school parents' unfavorable circumstances. The government will not let any of the institutes drive school parents to the corner taking their children as hostages," Yoo said.



The ministry's further plans on implementing a public audit system on private kindergartens will be announced after the additional consultation with local education offices and the National Assembly next week.



Yemeni asylum seekers seek advice from National Human Rights Commission officials at a migrant center on Jeju Island in June. Yonhap



By Lee Suh-yoon



Rights groups are up in arms over the Ministry of Justice's denial of refugee status to hundreds of Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island, denouncing the government screening process as rushed and biased.



On Wednesday, the ministry unveiled the screening results of 373 Yemenis applying for refugee status and none were accepted as refugees, with 339 granted one-year humanitarian stay permits. Also, 34 applications were rejected, while its decisions on 85 others were delayed.



"The process was ridiculously rushed with three immigration officials screening over 480 applicants in just three months," Ko Eun-ji, an official at refugee rights center NANCEN told The Korea Times, Thursday. "We feel that the purpose of this screening process was not to sort and accept refugees, but to simply toe the line with mounting negative public sentiment toward Yemeni asylum seekers."



This year, more than 500 Yemenis arrived on Jeju and 481 sought refugee status, but none of the applicants have been granted this, with only 362 allowed to remain on humanitarian visas. Last month, the humanitarian visas were also granted to 23 other Yemeni asylum seekers.



"The fact that the refugee acceptance rate (for Yemeni asylum seekers) is zero percent is shocking. What is the point of having refugee protection laws then?" read a joint statement by refugee rights groups published shortly after the government's announcement.



"Granting a humanitarian visa, unlike granting refugee status, is not a humanitarian decision, despite what its name may suggest," the statement added. "The visa holders are just given work permits and barred from other social rights like access to health care, education, and free travel," the statement added.



With the humanitarian visas, requiring renewal every year, Yemeni refugees can leave Jeju Island for the mainland.



But they must constantly report their location to the immigration authorities.



The sudden influx of Yemeni refugees sparked a series of anti-immigrant rallies  the first of its kind here, prompting the government to ban Yemeni passport holders from the island's no-visa entry system in June. The new arrivals were also barred from traveling to the mainland.



Korea, a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, has granted refugee status to only 2 percent of applicants  839 of 40,470  since 1994. This is a shockingly low figure compared to Germany, which granted refugee status to over 123,900, or 20 percent, of applicants last year.



Following the justice ministry's decision, the Cheong Wa Dae website was flooded with petitions against allowing Yemeni refugees to remain with humanitarian visas. Many voiced fears of terrorism and loss of jobs to immigrants.

A protester holds a sign saying "Secure passenger safety" during a taxi strike in Gwanghwamun Square in the heart of Seoul, Thursday. Around 50,000 taxis halted operation in Seoul for 24 hours, which ended 4 a.m. Friday. Yonhap





By Kim Hyun-bin







Tens of thousands of taxi drivers took part in a strike Thursday, protesting Kakao Mobility's planned launch of a ride-sharing app.







Taxi drivers claim the mobile app connecting drivers and passengers during the rush hour commute will kill the taxi industry and threaten their livelihood.







Out of the 100,000 taxis operating in Seoul, around 60,000 took part in the strike, which was held for 24 hours starting 4 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Korean Taxi Workers' Union.



Incheon and the Gyeonggi Province area which operate 30,000 taxis had a 90 percent participation rate, the union added.





"Most of the drivers barely make ends meet and they also need to pay money to their companies, so many have no choice but to keep operating," a union official said.

????



The strike was expected to cause traffic chaos in the capital. However, many people in Seoul said there had been limited impact, although some commuters had difficulties catching a taxi in the morning.





Question: Regarding my posts about the terrible perversion of Torah and halacha that Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky has engineered with his prod...

Question: Regarding my posts about the terrible perversion of Torah and halacha that Rav Shmuel Kaminetsky has engineered with his prod...

Important!! email - yadmoshe@gmail.comBy Kim Yoo-chul



VATICAN CITY  President Moon Jae-in will hold summits this week with European leaders, including British Prime Minister Theresa May, to share his vision for North Korea.



On Friday, he will head to Brussels, Belgium, to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and then to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030) Summit.



President Moon is using his nine-day European tour to push a consensus-building process aimed at helping North Korea get sanctions relief and thus, according to him, moving the peace process forward, Cheong Wa Dae officials said.



Receiving broad support from European countries will provide a "great impetus" for the denuclearization process, they added.



"It's less likely the planned summit with May will make a huge difference as seen by the Moon-Macron summit, but we want her to think about on why sanctions relief makes sense in addressing the nuclear issue," a senior Cheong Wa Dae official told The Korea Times.





President Moon Jae-in and Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin smile during a dinner at Parolin's residence in Rome following a special mass for peace on the Korean Peninsula at Saint Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



The Vatican greeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in Wednesday (local time) by holding a specially arranged "Mass for Peace on the Korean Peninsula" initiated in Korean.



"The Vatican welcomes President Moon Jae-in and first lady Kim Jung-sook," Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the top diplomat of Pope Francis, said in an opening mass in Korean. "We deliver the Pope's blessing. Let us pray for peace on the peninsula," he said.



This is the first time that the Vatican held such a special mass in St. Peter's Basilica to pray for peace of a certain country. The Vatican explained that it is very rare for the Secretary of State Cardinal to preside over the mass.







In a proud day for Washington, the state Supreme Court affirmed last week that the death penalty, as applied, is arbitrary, biased and unconstitutional.



Two of the three branches of state government have taken this important stand, with Gov. Jay Inslee declaring a moratorium on executions in 2014 because the system is flawed and unequally applied. Although the court effectively abolished the death penalty with this decision, the Legislature should still remove it from state law and close the books.



The court's majority opinion, written by Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst, states that "the use of the death penalty is unequally applied  sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant. The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal; thus, it violates article I, section 14 of our state constitution."



This does not weaken our justice system  it actually becomes stronger when there's equal justice under the law. Nor does it forgive the worst criminals, including the eight now on death row in Walla Walla, who will still die in prison.



Life sentences without parole also provide more certainty to families of victims. They will no longer be forced to endure the uncertainty of death penalty cases that may extend for 20 years through appeals and often are overturned.



"Today's decision does not let anyone out of prison," Inslee said in a news conference with Attorney General Bob Ferguson. "We are now one step further in our pursuit of equal justice for all."



The death penalty is becoming an anachronism nationally, in part because society has evolved, matured and better understands that it's a flawed system of punishment. Federal and state courts have narrowed its application, and 19 other states already have abolished capital punishment, according to the Death Penalty Information Center's tally.



State Sen. Reuven Carlyle said the court decision provides "unstoppable" momentum to finally pass legislation eliminating the death penalty from state law.



The alternative, trying to revise the state's death penalty to make it constitutional, is unfeasible, and Inslee said he'd veto it anyway. Lawmakers tried over decades to make the penalty work, failed repeatedly and produced the arbitrary system that the court eviscerated on Oct. 9.



Indeed, the constitutional concerns have only deepened in recent years, noted a concurring opinion written by Justice Charles Johnson. "A death sentence has become more random and arbitrarily sought and imposed, and fraught with uncertainty and unreliability, and it fails constitutional examination," it said.



King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who has advocated to abolish the death penalty, summed up the court's historic decision well:

"It puts us on the right side of history," he said. "I'm sure our kids would get rid of this if we didn't."





The above editorial appeared in the Seattle Times. It was distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.



By Ajmal Shams





Last year in October, I led an Afghan delegation from the urban sector to visit the Republic of Korea to participate in a seminar organized by the Korean government for high level government officials from Afghanistan.



The program included lectures, visits and meetings. Our hosts were the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS).



The weeklong trip left deep impressions on all of us as we think deeper about the great development this country has made over the past several decades in spite of multiple challenges.



Korea owes its success story to the brilliant leadership of its rulers in recent decades. Yet, this would never have been possible without an equally committed and hardworking people.



Korea's transformation from an agrarian economy to a high-tech one in a few decades is a great model of progress to be emulated by the developing world. The country has been able to increase its per capita GDP of less than $200 in 1960 to more than $30,000 in 2017.



Based on annual GDP figures, Korea is the 14th-largest economy in the world and fourth largest in Asia. For a country like Afghanistan that is struggling with its economy and facing multiple challenges in the political arena, Korea offers great examples from its own development trajectory.



Not only that, Korea can be our potential development partner in various sectors. As a grateful nation, Korea's contribution to Afghanistan's stabilization efforts during the past 17 years are highly acknowledged and well appreciated by both our people and government.



Cities are considered to be drivers of economic growth. With a dynamic urban policy that has successfully fostered economic growth, Korea is rapidly urbanizing. After more than three decades of war, conflict and instability, Afghanistan is now one of the most highly urbanizing countries in the world.



Although Afghanistan is no match to Korea in terms of its overall development, Korean urban development practices can be a great learning experience for the former.



Korea set some of the great models of urban regeneration by providing seed money for private sector development while playing the role of regulator that provided an enabling legal framework. Afghanistan has huge potential for urban regeneration. Learning from how Korea handles its urban regeneration, is a great asset for Afghanistan.



We were amazed by how Korea has addressed its housing needs. The public sector took the lead in housing supply. It acted as facilitator and enabler by fostering the private sector to invest in the housing sector through a market-driven approach.



The government acquired land and provided to private sector for housing development. This innovative and progressive approach led to a boom in the housing industry. The housing stock in Korea now exceeds the number of households, a rare occurrence in the world.



When looking at the dismal situation of housing in Afghanistan, Korea offers great examples of housing sector development in the past few decades.



In a meeting with the vice minister of MOLIT, Son Byeong-seok, we mentioned how impressed we were with Korean development. We also thanked him on behalf of the Afghan government for Korea's continuous support for Afghanistan's development and rehabilitation.



We were also no less grateful for the seminar and hospitality shown by our hosts. Son told us that he was aware of the fact that our president was highly impressed by Korean development and was keen to seek support in the urban development sector. He assured us of all possible support from MOLIT.



We also had an opportunity to meet with the business community of Korea that showed interest in Afghanistan. We explored potential opportunities that our country offered for business and investment.



While I have mainly focused on the urban sector, Korea's development is vast and multi-sectoral. Both Korea and Afghanistan have wide-ranging areas of mutual cooperation. I hope my government realizes the potential and avails of the opportunities that South Korea offers.





The writer (ajmalkhan7200@yahoo.com) is a former Afgan deputy minister of urban development and housing. He is also president of the Afghanistan Social Democratic Party. He also served as policy adviser to President Ashraf Ghani when he chaired the security transition commission before his presidential bid. He writes regularly in the Gulf News, the Arab News, the Diplomat, the Foreign Policy, the Asia Times and other media outlets. He tweets @ajmshams.





By Gwynne Dyer





If Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), really did sent a hit team to Turkey to murder dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul early this month, what will happen next? Perhaps history can help us here.



A little over two centuries ago, in 1804, the armies of the French Revolution had won all the key battles and the wars seemed to be over. The rest of Europe had decided in 1801 that it would have to live with the French Revolution and made peace with Napoleon. Everything was going so well  and then he made a little mistake.



Many members of the French nobility had gone into exile and fought against the armies of the Revolution, and the Duke of Enghien was one of them. In 1804 he was living across the Rhine River on German territory.



Napoleon heard an (untrue) report that Enghien was part of a conspiracy to assassinate him, and sent a hit team  sorry, a cavalry squadron  across the Rhine to kidnap him. They brought him back to Paris, gave him a perfunctory military trial, and shot him. After that things did not go well for Napoleon.



The idea that Napoleon would violate foreign territory in peacetime in order to murder an opponent was so horrifying, so repellent that opinion turned against peace with France everywhere. As his own chief of police, Joseph Fouche, said, "It was worse than a crime. It was a blunder."



By the end of the year every major power in Europe was back at war with Napoleon. After a decade of war he was defeated at Waterloo and sent into exile on St. Helena for the rest of his life. So is something like that going to happen to MBS too?



Nobody's going to invade Saudi Arabia, of course. (Not even Iran, despite MBS's paranoia on the subject.) But will they stop investing in the country, stop selling it weapons and buying its oil, maybe even slap trade embargoes on it.



Since it seems almost certain that Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudi government  Turkish government officials have even told journalists off the record that they have audio and partial video recordings of Khashoggi's interrogation, torture and killing  all of Saudi Arabia's "friends" and trading partners have some choices to make.



Donald Trump immediately rose to the occasion, declaring that he would be "very upset and angry" if Saudi Arabia was responsible for Khashoggi's murder, and that there would be "severe punishment" for the crime.



He even boasted that Saudi Arabia "would not last two weeks" without American military support. Presumably Trump was talking about the survival of the Saudi regime, not the country's independence, but he was still wrong. He is as prone to overestimate his power as MBS himself.



The Saudis struck right back, saying that "The kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats or attempts to undermine it whether through threats to impose economic sanctions or the use of political pressure. The kingdom also affirms that it will respond to any (punitive) action with a bigger one."



But Trump was only bluffing. He really had no intention of cancelling the $110 billion of contracts that Saudi Arabia has signed to buy American-made weapons, because, "we'd be punishing ourselves if we did that. If they don't buy it from us, they're going to buy it from Russia or ... China."



People have been turning a blind eye to the weekly hundreds of civilian deaths caused by Saudi bombing in Yemen for three years now. Why would they respond any differently to murder of one pesky Saudi journalist in Istanbul, even if he did write for the Washington Post?



The difference is that it's intensely personal  this is an absolute monarch ordering the killing of a critic who annoyed him but posed no threat to his power  and it's brazenly, breathtakingly arrogant. MBS really thinks he can do something like this and make everybody shut up about it.



He is probably right, so far as the craven, money-grubbing foreigners are concerned  like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who could barely even bring himself to say that Saudi Arabia should investigate and explain the issue, because, "otherwise it runs completely contrary to the process of modernization."



But if the foreigners will not or cannot bring Mohammed bin Salman down, his own family (all 7,000 princes, or however many there are now) probably will. It is a family business, and his amateurish strategies, his impulsiveness and his regular resort to violence are ruining the firm's already not very good name.



He rose rapidly out of the multitudinous ranks of anonymous princes through the favor of his failing father, King Salman, but he could fall as fast as he rose. Killing Khashoggi was definitely a blunder.





Gwynne Dyer (gwynne763121476@aol.com) has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for more than 20 years. He is the author of "Growing Pains: The Future of Democracy (and Work)."



Ride-sharing service could be useful for passengers



Taxi drivers launched a 24-hour strike Thursday to protest a new ride-sharing service to be launched by Kakao.



Many members of taxi unions and associations shut down their operations and joined a massive rally at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. According to organizers, more than 60,000 drivers turned up with slogans such as "Let's crush Kakao."



The walkout, which began 4:00 a.m. Thursday, caused huge inconvenience for citizens heading to work. People who normally commute by taxi experienced more difficulty than usual in catching cabs and many citizens also complained of not being able to get a cab through the Kakao Taxi app.



Kakao T Carpool is designed to link regular drivers and passengers during rush hour in the morning and evening. The service enables drivers to pick up passengers headed for the same destination or going in a similar direction, and charge them a slightly cheaper rate than regular cabs during rush hours. On Oct. 16, Kakao Mobility announced that it was hiring drivers for the service.



Although the service has yet to begin, cab drivers are feeling intimidated. They already staged two protests earlier this month, claiming Kakao's ride-sharing service will be a grave threat to their industry. They also claim uncertified drivers will endanger the safety of citizens.



Resorting to a strike is not the way to settle this issue. The walkout by taxi drivers is an irresponsible move that shows little consideration for many citizens who need cabs to get to work and other crucial places.



Public opinion toward the carpooling service is not so bad. In fact, many citizens who have long been tired of the substandard service of Korean taxis are actually looking forward to the new service. Local taxi drivers are notorious for their bad behavior and harsh driving.



According to a recent survey by Rep. Kim Byong-gwan of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, 33.6 percent of 113,989 cases of taxi-related complaints at the Seoul metropolitan government had to do with drivers' rudeness. Many also complained about their refusal to provide services and attempts to charge undue fares. The ride-sharing service could be welcome news for passengers who are worried about the rises in taxi fares that are expected in various parts of the country next year. The ride-sharing service will also come in handy for commuters on rainy or snowy days when it is difficult to find cabs during rush hour.



Taxi drivers should try harder to raise their competitiveness rather than rejecting new technology that can be useful for passengers. The government should mediate a win-win plan for passengers and taxis so that the new service does not infringe upon the drivers' livelihoods.







By Donald Kirk





WASHINGTON  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, meet North Korea Chairman Kim Jong-un. These two have a lot in common. They're both in their early 30s. Both have almost unbridled power in their own kingdoms and ways of getting rid of their enemies.



Oh, there may be a few differences. Kim calls his kingdom "communist" while Saudi Arabia is a "monarchy," absolute. In practical terms, they wield about the same powers. They both are dynastic heirs to their fathers. Kim took over from Kim Jong-il after his death nearly seven years ago. Prince Mohammed's father is still king, but the prince is the real ruler.



Such comparisons come to mind as the world responds in horror to the murder of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, killed most cruelly inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he'd gone as a Saudi citizen to get a marriage license.



The world also was shocked by Kim ordering the murders of a couple of his relatives. First, there was the execution nearly five years ago of Kim's uncle, who had worked his way almost to the top while married to Kim's aunt, the younger sister of Kim Jong-il. Then there was the assassination of Kim's half brother, Kim Jong-nam, snuffed out last year in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur airport by two young women set up by North Korean agents to smear his face with a VX nerve agent.



Those killings, though, did not attract the same attention as that of Khashoggi, who had been writing a column for the Washington Post as a critic of the Saudi regime. While Kim threatens his foes, notably the U.S., with nuclear destruction, much of the world, notably the U.S. and Canada, relies on Saudi Arabia as an exporter of oil. Oh, and U.S. arms manufacturers count on the Saudis for billions of dollars in sales every year.



The comparisons go on. Trump a few days ago praised Kim Jong-un for the "chemistry" and "energy" that he sensed in their relationship. Earlier, he said the bond was so close that he and Kim "fell in love"  an embarrassing term that he later played down as "a figure of speech."



Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have long since bonded with Prince Mohammed. They see him not only as an enormously rich leader whom they need to court for economic reasons but also as a partner in the greater drama for regional power and influence.



Incredibly, Saudi Arabia, home of the Islamic holiest of holy centers, Mecca, to which millions of the faithful flock every year, also has decent ties with the Jewish state of Israel, the largest beneficiary of American military aid. Kushner dreams of Saudi Arabia influencing a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians while also standing as a bulwark against Iran, constantly teetering on the brink of war with the U.S.



That reasoning is fantasy that will never work if only because Saudi Arabia, for all its wealth, is already embroiled in vicious conflict in Yemen. It's highly unlikely the Saudis would want to go to war with Iran while the crown prince represses his own people, including members of the extended royal family.



Interestingly, there is another parallel here with North Korea. Trump is eager to treat Kim Jong-un in much the same style in which he has befriended the Saudi king and crown prince.



Trump recently dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Pyongyang, where he and Kim spent more than three hours chatting and lunching. Kim, to be sure, showed no signs of giving up his nukes, much less considering anything to do with the "human rights" of his long-suffering people, but Pompeo came home full of happy talk while sanctions remained in place.



Next, Pompeo was off to Riyadh, meeting the Saudi king and crown prince, no doubt remonstrating them for their sins, reminding them of how bad the Khashoggi murder made them look even as they distanced themselves from anything to do with such a heinous crime. These explanations aren't so much different from the hot air emanating from Pyongyang about the killing of Kim Jong-nam and numerous other acts of terror.



We can be pretty sure, though, that Trump will want to remain on close terms with Saudi royalty, just as he yearns to do with Kim. If there's any "chemistry," the word Trump likes to use, it's in his chemical adherence to dictators whom he should be repudiating.





Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has covered the ups and downs of Asian and Korean history for decades and has also visited Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, third from right, the Korean head of the U.S.-Korea Business Council, speaks during the joint business council's meeting at the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) Tower in Seoul, Thursday. Business leaders of the two countries urged Washington not to impose a 25 percent tariff on made-in-Korea cars and auto parts. / Courtesy of FKIThousands of taxi drivers and workers from taxi operators across Korea packed Gwanghwamun Square in Jung-gu, Seoul, Thursday, protesting against the recent launch of Kakao T Carpool. Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul



A walkout by thousands of taxi drivers in protest against a commercial carpool service disrupted commuters heading to works during morning rush hour on Thursday.



The stoppage began at 4 a.m. to protest against the recent launch of Kakao T Carpool, a ride-sharing service designed to connect ordinary drivers to passengers during the morning and evening rush hours. The taxi drivers claim the top mobile messaging company's service will kill the industry.





Anti-carpool protesters raise pickets reading "Illegal carpool app service OUT," "Illegal personal vehicle service in disguise of carpool OUT" and "Keep passenger transport industry ordered."



No major disturbances were reported during the 24-hour strike.









Commuters in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, the areas surrounding Seoul, experienced delaya in hailing taxi, after around half the taxi drivers operating in the two metropolitan regions walked off the job.





A protester raises a banner reading "Secure safety of passengers!" Yonhap



Nearly 10,500 corporation-owned taxi drivers and more than 26,600 privately owned taxi drivers went on the one-day strike in Gyeonggi _ 54 percent of all drivers.



In Incheon, about 7,000 taxi drivers joined the walkout.





As the protesters called for "survival rights," a taxi cruises down an empty road in front of the main entrance of Gwanghwamun.



The strike disturbed the routine commute of many citizens. Commuters formed long queues at bus stands or hurriedly walked to the subway to use another means of transport.



Hundreds of taxi drivers in other parts of the country also joined the strike, but this had little effect on commuters because the number of participating drivers was relatively low.





While the protest is in progress, citizens queue in front of Seoul Station in Jung-gu to wait for a taxi. YonhapLeft to right: Posing after unveiling are First PA Simil Johnspm. Director of Cooperatives Ridley Joseph and Australian Government representative Clinton Pobke. More photos on page 9



By Park Jae-hyuk







GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo urged top executives to invest more in Thailand as the rapidly growing country is considered to be a strategic market for the group to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian market, the conglomerate said Thursday.







"Thailand marked a 3.9 percent economic growth rate last year, and it is expected to grow by 4 percent this year thanks to its aggressive development policy," Huh told CEOs of the group's affiliates during a two-day conference in Bangkok from Wednesday to Thursday.







"With our entrepreneurship and experience in Thailand, we should accelerate our expansion in the Southeast Asian market, seeking opportunities for faster growth."







According to the chairman, Thailand, which has been dependent on the manufacturing industry, has begun fostering digital, plant and construction industries.







The country has also drawn keen attention from foreign investors as it is developing the Eastern Economic Corridor, the eastern seaboard of Thailand which plays a key role in its economy.







The Thai government will invest 50 trillion won ($44 billion) in the region for the next five years to have the area become the center of the manufacturing industry and a logistics hub connecting ASEAN member nations, China and India.







"Excellent products made by Korea's small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been popular in Thailand amid the Korean wave fever in Southeast Asia, so we should help Korean SMEs export their products and startups do their overseas businesses," Huh said.







"GS Home Shopping, which entered the Thai market, should play a role as a bridge for Korean SMEs and startups to expand their presences abroad."







During their two-day trip to Thailand, the chairman and chief executives also visited a studio of True GS, a joint venture that GS Home Shopping and Thai companies established in 2011.







They identified market trends and encouraged employees there.

Two "private investigators" have been jailed in China after targeting suspicious partners and tailing women for evidence of extramarital sex. Photo from South China Morning Post



By Zhuang Pinghui



A video screen shows Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam delivering her policy speech at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Lam has unveiled a major reclamation project called "Lantau Tomorrow Vision," under which about 1,700 hectares will be developed to provide homes for 1.1 million people, according to government radio. AP-Yonhap



By Sum Lok-kei





Hong Kong's leader on Tuesday insisted the city was not committing to unaffordable infrastructure projects amid criticism of her proposal to create artificial islands to house up to 1.1 million people.



But Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor refused to offer a cost estimate for the 1,700 hectares of new land east of Lantau Island, citing a lack of detailed studies or designs.



Government sources last week suggested a figure of HK$500 billion (US$63.8 billion).



Lam's assurances came after thousands of demonstrators took to the streets at the weekend in protest over the project.



"There is no point in giving a figure today," Lam said on Tuesday before her weekly meeting with advisers from the Executive Council . "There is still much room to explore in terms of reclamation methods, so it is hard to provide a budget or ceiling.



"I worked at the Treasury for seven years, and spent one or two years auditing expenditure on infrastructure. We will not  when we cannot afford it  commit to construction projects."



Lam said the government was spending HK$100 billion a year on infrastructure. Among the biggest has been the long-delayed and over-budget HK$88.4 billion Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link , which opened last month.





Pro-democracy politician Avery Ng, left, holds a chainsaw prop with writing that reads "Only care about infrastructure and not livelihood; we don't want East Lantau reclamation," before Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (depicted top center) delivers her policy address at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong on October 10, 2018. AFP-Yonhap



Another multibillion-dollar project, the 55km Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge , is set to open later this year.



The city's fiscal reserves are forecast to stand at HK$1.14 trillion by the end of March next year.



Lam said it was too early to say how the government would secure the funds needed for the Lantau reclamation project.



Finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po last Sunday said the government would consider "creative" ways to fund the islands, such as by issuing bonds.



Lam on Tuesday refused to comment on the turnout for the protest held last Sunday against the reclamation proposal, at which police estimated up to 5,800 people attended.



Hongkongers were entitled to express their opinions on the issue, she said, but some views were "biased".



There would be further opportunities for officials to listen to the public's views, including those of environmentalists, when the proposal went through the government's Town Planning Board and the legislature, Lam added.



On suggestions the project would take too long, Lam conceded up to three decades was the timescale.



"We should not refrain from starting the project because it will be a long process," the chief executive said.





Protesters mock Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam as they demonstrate against a large-scale land reclamation to build artificial islands in Hong Kong, China October 14, 2018. REUTERS-Yonhap



However, Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan claimed Lam was "contradicting herself".



"If you haven't done the maths, how do you know if it is affordable?" Chan asked.



The lawmaker added that Lam had not yet explained an expansion in the scale of the project from 1,000 to 1,700 hectares



Last year a task force was appointed by the government to study options for freeing up land in Hong Kong. It has been conducting a public consultation exercise in which reclamation of 1,000 hectares off Lantau was one of 18 options. There was no mention of 1,700 hectares.



"The difference in cost could be very large," Chan said.



Council Front legislator Eddie Chu Hoi-dick said Lam was "trying to look less aggressive" on the scale of the plan.



"What new research has been done to justify the expansion from 1,000 to 1,700 hectares?" Chu asked.



"What if the task force [shows the public] places a low priority on these artificial islands?"





The islands could look something like this. Photo from South China Morning PostAngola, IN (46703)

Today

Cloudy with occasional rain during the afternoon. High around 60F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..

Tonight

Rain ending early. Remaining cloudy. Low 34F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 90%.Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

A few showers early becoming a steady rain for the afternoon. High 61F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

Rain ending early. Remaining cloudy. Low around 35F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.Videos

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Despite the Trump administration's crackdown on unauthorized immigrants, federal agents have refrained from going onto California's college campuses in search of students in the country illegally.

But immigrant advocates say they can't be sure whether that policy will last, so this week more than 40 community colleges and organizations hosted events around the state for "Undocumented Student Week of Action," an effort to disseminate information about a variety of topics, including the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on college campuses.

SO CAN ICE GO ON CAMPUS OR NOT?

"We actually have ICE come pretty often to colleges," said Cal State Fullerton junior Diana Blanco, speaking at one such event on Tuesday at Fullerton College.

She added that the agents aren't looking for unauthorized immigrants to apprehend. "They come to the [job] fairs" to tout the benefits of working for ICE or Customs and Border Protection, said Blanco, an unauthorized immigrant herself.

But their presence can create fear and anxiety among unauthorized immigrant students, she said.

Still, Blanco is confident that immigration agents won't come on campus to approach her or other students in the country illegally. She's read the statements from leaders of California's community colleges, the University of California, and California State University systems saying that despite rising immigration enforcement, their campuses are safe for students in the country illegally.

"There's no reason for [ICE agents] to ask for your papers," Blanco said.

WHAT ICE CAN AND CAN'T DO

But Blanco might be partly mistaken. In a nearby workshop, an immigration lawyer told students that's not entirely accurate, especially if an agent is in a public space at the college and begins talking to students.

"If someone volunteers information -- they're undocumented, or they don't have legal status -- then they will use that information to apprehend that individual," said Lisa Ramirez, a partner with U.S. Immigration Law Group.

Here's what ICE agents can and can't do, information she shares with students and college employees in the workshop:

ICE agents can enter a public or private college's public spaces without prior notice. These spaces include dining areas, parking lots, lobbies and waiting areas.

ICE agents don't have the authority to stop, question or arrest just anyone in those public areas. They need a warrant signed by a judge to question people about their immigration status.

Agents can't enter private spaces -- like offices and classrooms -- without permission or a judicial warrant.

While Ramirez, college administrators, and unauthorized immigrant student leaders said they knew of no recent cases of federal immigration raids on California college campuses, most of the people interviewed at the event on Tuesday said it wouldn't surprise them if ICE began carrying out enforcement actions on campuses.

The arrest of a Cal State Los Angeles student outside her Boyle Heights home last year led unauthorized immigrant student leaders to wonder whether ICE agents would target college students and come onto campus.

ICE has said that colleges are on a list of "sensitive locations" that should be avoided by agents unless their supervisors give them prior approval.

WHAT COLLEGES ARE DOING

You'd think that learning that ICE agents can arrest unauthorized immigrant students on college campuses would unnerve some of those who attended Ramirez's workshop.

"I wasn't too scared before and I'm probably even less scared now," said Fullerton College student Alexis, who asked to keep his last name private because he's in the U.S. illegally.

He's comforted by how much effort administrators and other college employees are putting into protecting students like him.

The North Orange County Community College District, which oversees Fullerton College, has adopted protocols for how campus employees should deal with immigration agents on campus.

Fullerton College is in the process of using a private grant to train all employees and students about these protocols.

"What we can certainly control or influence is the information that we provide for students, faculty and staff to be aware of their rights so that they don't engage or are misled by ICE," said Sylvia Pimentel, a Fullerton College counselor and organizer of the Week of Action.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the funding source to train employees and students.

Hey, thanks. You read the entire story. And we love you for that. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you, not advertisers. We don't have paywalls, but we do have payments (aka bills). So if you love independent, local journalism, join us. Let's make the world a better place, together. Donate now.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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By Annie Gilbertson and John Sepulvado

Throughout his campaign for governor, Republican John Cox and his allies have criticized his Democratic opponents for affairs they had while in office, condemning their behavior as potentially attracting harmful exposure. He's said voters should "judge someone based upon what they've done in the past." But Cox has also faced accusations of marital infidelity, KQED and KPCC/LAist have learned.

Details of an affair are alleged by Mr. Cox's first wife in the court records of their divorce, which was filed in Illinois in 1997. KPCC/LAist and KQED obtained and reviewed more than 400 pages of documents from that case.

Mr. Cox's first wife, Nancy Cox, stated in a court filing that she discovered a home that she claimed he purchased to support another woman and her family while the two were still married. Ms. Cox wrote in that filing that the children told her about the other home in Longmeadow, Mass. and that they'd met his girlfriend when they went to visit. The girlfriend is not identified in court records, and it's unclear when their relationship first began.

Ms. Cox also said that Mr. Cox wanted to remain married with the "understanding he would continue to maintain a relationship with the other woman in Massachusetts," according to the court filings.

"I'm not interested in gutter politics," Mr. Cox said when asked about the alleged affair. "I was separated from my wife. That's all been resolved."

Ms. Cox did not return several requests for comment. In court documents, Mr. Cox denied that the house was purchased to further an affair, stating it was purchased almost a year after the divorce was filed.

The details of Mr. Cox's alleged affair stand in contrast to the attacks he and allies mounted along the campaign trail. In an interview with KQED in September, Cox took aim at Newsom's past marital conduct. "If you conduct yourself in a way that exposes you to extortion or to blackmail...that's really hurting the people you're representing," Cox said.

Newsom admitted in 2007 to an affair with his appointments secretary, who also was married to his campaign manager. At the time, Newsom was separated from his first wife.

"I had to own it," Newsom told KQED earlier this month. "I had to take responsibility. I had to be transparent."

Caroline Heldman, a politics professor at Occidental College, said most voters will forgive personal marital problems. But undecided voters could be turned off by the apparent hypocrisy of the Cox campaign.

"John Cox made this an issue," Heldman said. "It was foolhardy to go after his competitors' infidelities when he has this in the closet. It doesn't seem prudent."

Cox attacked Newsom about his affair when he introduced himself to voters in a debate for Republican candidates hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle in February.

"I take issue with Mr. Newsom just passing it off as an indiscretion of his and a moral lapse," Cox said. "It was far, far more than that. It was an endangerment to his position as a leader of this city."

As the primary election drew closer, a pro-Cox attack ad released in April targeted both Gavin Newsom and another candidate, Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa, for inappropriate relationships.

The ad, paid for by an independent expenditure organization supporting Cox called Restore Our Values, stated, "Newsom and Villaraigosa think the rules shouldn't apply to them." The ad continues, "They don't want punishment. They want a promotion. Californians deserve better. John Cox for Governor."

Villaraigosa dated Telemundo television anchor Mirthala Salinas, and acknowledged the relationship in 2007, according to the Los Angeles Times. "I take full responsibility for my actions," Villaraigosa told reporters.

The Cox campaign said they tried to pull the ad from the air -- but not because of its content or tone. The campaign filed a cease-and-desist letter objecting to how the sponsors identified who had paid for it. Despite the letter, the ad continued to air for a week across the state on Fox News.

Heldman said Cox clearly benefited. According to an aggregate of polling results during that time, Cox's popularity increased by 13 percent in that period.

"It was a statewide buy," Heldman said. "You could see after the ad hit the state, Cox's numbers went up and ahead of Villaraigosa. It's quite possible that Cox is still in the running because they attacked Villaraigosa's infidelity."

When asked why he's made his opponents pasts a focus, Cox replied, "I've made some mistakes in my life. But, that's affected my personal life. I wasn't the mayor of a major city."

He remained evasive when asked about his own marital record, turning the discussion instead to issues affecting the state.

"I'm focused on affordability," he said. "I'm focused on building homes. I'm focused on a gas tax."

Mr. Cox gave that response at a campaign event on L.A.'s Skid Row this week. He walked away without answering additional questions. His campaign manager wouldn't address Mrs. Cox's claim that her husband wanted to stay married to her while he continued another relationship.

This story was a joint report by KPCC/LAist and KQED. Annie Gilbertson reported for KPCC/LAist and John Sepulvado for KQED and the California Report.

Additional reporting by Michelle Wiley and Sonja Hutson.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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By Aaron Mendelson & Mary Plummer

A woman raped by a deputy sheriff following a traffic stop. A captain repeatedly pressuring a colleague to cheat on his wife. A campaign of harassment by a clique of sheriff's deputies, waged against a female deputy who didn't go along with unwritten rules.

Allegations in dozens of recent sexual misconduct cases reviewed by KPCC/LAist connected to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department are graphic, disturbing and sometimes bizarre.

Concerns over sexual harassment at the Sheriff's Department are not new: a landmark consent decree required the department to fight sexual harassment for nearly two decades between 1993 and 2012.

In recent years, our analysis found that the Sheriff's Department has played an outsized role in sexual misconduct legal cases involving the county's massive workforce:

At least $17 million has been paid out by the county in cases tied to sheriff's personnel since July 2004

That's 47 percent of all money spent on such cases by the county in a 13-year period ending June 2017

Sheriff's personnel make up 17 percent of all county employees but accounted for about one-third of the county's 134 cases in that period

County Counsel determined which cases represented sexual misconduct by searching employment, general liability, medical malpractice and law enforcement legal filings, at the request of KPCC/LAist.

"We need to do a better job of holding people accountable when they engage in misconduct, and creating a culture free of sexual harassment, sexual violence," said Priscilla Ocen, vice chair of the Civilian Oversight Commission for the Sheriff's Department, after reviewing the findings.

She said failures in oversight have plagued the agency, citing the jails scandal and recent struggle to implement federal laws on prison rape. "I think that those numbers would go down if there was a culture of zero tolerance," Ocen said.

In both number and dollar amount, the cases of sexual misconduct at the Sheriff's Department far outpace other county departments.

Department breakdown: Sexual misconduct settlements, judgments and attorneys' fees, in millions of dollars

Data from Los Angeles County, Fiscal year 2004-2005 - 2016-2017. Departments with less than $500,000 in that time period omitted.

County attorneys stressed that cases are settled without admitting any wrongdoing.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE NUMBERS

In all, KPCC/LAist reviewed 40 Sheriff's Department civil cases identified by the county. They varied widely. Among the allegations contained in the case files:

Deputy Guadalupe Lopez was told that female deputies were expected to provide sexual favors to male training officers when she arrived at East Los Angeles station in 2011. She was subjected to unwanted leering by several deputies associated with a clique known as the Banditos. After she filed a complaint, she found a dead rat under her car door. Lopez -- whose name has been previously reported -- obtained a settlement of $1.5 million, with attorneys' fees of $215,219.

Deputy Gabriel Gonzalez detained a member of the public during a traffic stop in Southeast L.A. County in 2002. Gonzalez drove the woman around for over an hour, took her to a secluded railroad yard and raped her in the backseat of the patrol car. Gonzalez was convicted in a criminal case, plead not guilty, and sentenced at trial to 30 years in federal prison. The civil case ended in a settlement of $3.2 million, with attorneys' fees of $327,151.

Sergeant Charles Dery allegedly repeatedly verbally harassed a male deputy he was supervising. The deputy claimed the harassment escalated into incidents of groping, including Dery touching the deputy's anus in a locker room. Dery and the county both denied the allegations. The deputy later said he feared reporting the harassment due to Dery's connections in "high places." He eventually reported and filed a civil suit. The county settled for $900,000, with attorneys' fees of $381,764.67.

All told, $12.5 million in settlements and judgments, and an additional $4.5 million in attorneys' fees for the county, were paid out for Sheriff's Department sexual misconduct cases in the 13 years of data examined.

At least three of the payments, totaling $2.1 million in settlements and legal fees, were connected to allegations that minors were sexually assaulted by sheriff's deputies, according to KPCC/LAist's review of the cases.

Part 1: 134 Cases, $36 Million: Inside Sexual Misconduct At America's Biggest County Government

Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said that a handful of cases with seven-figure legal bills have pushed up costs.

Nishida, who answered over email, raised a provision that applies to sworn officers as a cause of those high payouts.

"The Sheriff's Department," Nishida wrote, "unlike most other County departments, is liable when an employee engages in criminal behavior (such as sexual assault) when acting pursuant to 'color of authority.'"

'Color of authority' is a unique category in law, carved out because law enforcement officers have unique powers to compel citizens to follow their orders. The concept is set out in a 1991 case involving sexual assault by an LAPD officer. In her opinion in that case, California Supreme Court Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote that "the police act with the authority of the state. When police officers on duty misuse that formidable power to commit sexual assaults, the public employer must be held accountable for their actions."

The legal bills in those cases can be enormous.

"You're looking at potentially very high numbers," said defense attorney Traci Park. "So that could account in part ... for why the costs of the Sheriff's Department are higher."

However, the 'color of authority' framework does not apply to many sexual misconduct cases against the sheriff's identified by the county. KPCC/LAist reviewed the text of 23 complaints -- those made available electronically by the Los Angeles County Superior Court System, and the case involving Deputy Gonzalez mentioned above. The four cases that cited color of authority were outnumbered by the 19 that did not.

"The number of sexual assault cases under 'color of authority' is quite low. Those matters are so rare that they make the news," plaintiff's attorney Timothy Kearns said.

Asked in follow-up communications about the relatively few 'color of authority' cases, and the high overall costs at the Sheriff's Department, Nishida declined further comment.

CONTINUING 'TO PAY OUT AND PAY OUT'

Settlements involving police officers and sheriff's deputies grab headlines all the time. They usually stem from officer-involved shootings and allegations of excessive uses of force, incidents that happen in law enforcement -- and not other areas of local government.

Sexual misconduct, however, is not unique to law enforcement.

The high price of sexual misconduct at the Sheriff's Department echoes KPCC/LAist's finding earlier this year that the Los Angeles Police Department represented the majority of sexual harassment-linked settlement payouts by the City of L.A. in recent years.

"It's no surprise," said Kathy Spillar, who follows these issues through her involvement with the National Center for Women in Policing. She said the large payouts for L.A. County Sheriff's cases are a long-simmering concern.

"Until this problem of sexual harassment is dealt with, the department's going to continue to pay out and pay out," Spillar said. She believes that pervasive harassment has kept greater numbers of women from joining the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. County data shows that the department is nearly two-thirds male, counting both civilian and sworn members.

In fact, department leadership for years contested the consent decree requiring the agency to halt bias and boost the ranks of female deputies. Spanning four decades, the case and consent decree ultimately cost the county $72.4 million.

"This is not only an expensive problem financially, but it is also costing the citizens of Los Angeles County, the people of Los Angeles County, dearly in the lack of services that we expect from law enforcement," Spillar said.

Essentially, a more gender-balanced workforce would make the agency more effective in interacting with the community and responding to domestic violence calls, Spillar argued.

She also pointed to research showing female officers are less likely to use excessive force -- incidents that can cost their departments millions.

Nationwide, the numbers of women working in law enforcement have barely budged in recent years. A 1995 survey by the FBI found that 24.3 percent of law enforcement employees, sworn and civilian, were women.

That same survey in 2016 found the number had inched up to 26.5 percent.

HOW WE REPORTED THIS STORY

This story was reported using public records and documents. The county, which does not specifically track cases related to sexual misconduct, identified relevant cases in response to a KPCC/LAist records request. An initial response provided data on a few dozen Employment Practices cases. A subsequent, broader search turned up more than 130 cases by also searching General Liability, Law Enforcement, and Medical Malpractice case types. According to a county attorney who handled the request, "The cases in each of these categories which referenced the term 'sex' or any derivation thereof were examined and those cases involving sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, or any related behavior by County employees were identified".

This universe of 'sexual misconduct' cases is unlikely to match definitions of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct used by other jurisdictions, making direct comparisons difficult.

KPCC/LAist also requested attorneys' fees incurred by the county in its defense for each of the cases identified as sexual misconduct by the county. These costs are rarely reported in the media in stories about settlements and judgments, but help provide a fuller picture of the true costs of such cases.

The details of the cases referenced in this story are typically drawn from the case files. An editorial decision was made by KPCC/LAist to anonymize the names of those who alleged sexual assault, particularly men and women whose names had not previously been in the media in connection with the case. Not every misconduct case involved an allegation of sexual assault. Other records utilized in this reporting include criminal court records, Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission records, Sheriff's Department inmate records, and publicly available data on the county workforce.

Investigative journalism matters. Here at LAist, we believe Angelenos deserve hard-hitting reporting that holds officials accountable and shines a needed light on our government and public institutions. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now.The October 2018 artists featured at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, 5627 La Jolla Blvd., provide a feast for the eyes along the cafe gallery walls. The collection of mediums and styles includes a captivating six-panel exhibit by Ross McDowell, innovative deconstruction abstracts by Aaron Garretson, and the latest abstract beach scenes by Mayra Navarro, plus whimsical originals by Deb Winger.

A marine panel from Ross McDowell, with his artwork on exhibit at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters through the month of October 2018. ( Jane Wheeler )

Ross McDowell comes from a long line of artists as stated in his bio at rossmcdowell.com: I was born on the island of Marthas Vineyard. I lived a mile down a dirt road in a rural town called Chilmark with amazing, organic stonewalls, sprawling sheep farms and a picturesque fishing village. Thats where I was raised, a wild island child  fishing, swimming, surfing and living life to its fullest!

At 18, I moved to the island of Oahu in search of perfect waves and a change from the harsh Northeast winter. After slacking off at Hawaii Pacific University for the year, I headed to San Diego to pursue a career in art and Ive been here ever since.

My father is a coppersmith and jeweler, and my grandparents were painters, sculptors and folk artists. I strive to be original and to follow my heart when creating a project. Over the years Ive developed a style that I feel is truly unique to me and Im very proud of that.

Aaron Garretson blends his science background with his fine art degree to create an innovative unique style all his own. His bio at aarongarretson.com explains: I grew up in San Diego, attending public schools and surfing the breaks between Swamis and Sunset Cliffs. I studied biochemistry and cell biology at UC San Diego, and then earned an MFA at Columbia University in New York. My early art focused on portraiture and figurative pieces painted with oil pastels.

Recently, Ive drifted toward abstract themes, using assemblage and the deconstruction (destruction?) of traditional canvases in an effort to open up space and create new lines.

My art has appeared in the 2016 Southern California/Baja Biennial at the San Diego Art Institute, at the 2017 Juried Biennial at the William D. Cannon Art Gallery in Carlsbad, the 2017 group show Diverge/Convene at the San Diego Art Institute, the Black and White Juried Show at the La Jolla Art Association, and the BasileIE gallery in Barrio Logan.

Mayra Navarro poses with her art on exhibit at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters through the month of October 2018. ( Jane Wheeler )

Mayra Navarro has been creating and fine tuning her craft year after year. This excerpt from her bio at mayranavarroart.com provides a glimpse into her creative world: As an internationally-recognized fine artist based in San Diego, I create abstract beach scenes of the contemporary world that allow me to constantly discover attractive and brilliant visuals, inviting the viewer to see the mediums in diverse ways.

I participate in San Diegos vibrant Gaslamp Quarter at Sparks Gallery, (housed in the historic Sterling Hardware Building), exhibit solo, and collaborate in the annual A Step Beyond Silent Auction to help expand childrens art education under OBR Architecture, a firm in North Park. I have a BA in Arts and Sciences from San Diego State University in San Diego.A long-sought beach access at Princess Street in La Jolla got one step closer by a vote of the California Coastal Commission (CCC) during its Oct. 11 meeting at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside hotel  albeit with some conditions.

The CCC was tasked with reviewing a request from 7957 Princess St. homeowner Ure Kretowicz to 1) amend a permit to remodel and add to his existing single-family home; 2) record vertical and lateral public-access easements on the property title; 3) replace existing paving on the public street-ending with decorative tile pavers; and 4) add signage identifying public access.

The easements and signage would assist in the creation of a planned beach-access trail at that location, but would also allow for the installation of decorative tiles (there is currently decorative concrete that is different from the asphalt the City uses to create streets, which some argue already gives the impression the cul-de-sac is private) that could possibly discourage people from using it.

Many of the speakers who offered public comment emphasized the importance of clarifying that the cul-de-sac is a public right of way and not a private driveway.

During staff reports, CCC coastal program analyst Alex Llerandi explained: Over the years, various (unpermitted) private encroachments such as the planting of a Torrey Pine tree  have diminished the area of the cul-de-sac, he said. Because of the visually obscure location and the narrow side of Princess Street, staff recommend signage at the end of the sidewalk informing the public that the cul-de-sac is public property.

La Jolla Community Planning Association secretary Cindy Greatrex spoke on behalf of the community advisory group that wrote a letter against the decorative pavers. Our Development Permit Review sub-committee determined the applicants modifications  have resulted in the perceived privatization of the street, she said. La Jolla Community Planning Association applauds the Commissions decision to protect and enhance the publics access to the California coastline. Restoration of the public right-of-way adjacent the (Kretowicz) property is a crucial element of that statewide goal.

CCC deputy director Karl Schwing encouraged the commission to focus on what we have in front of us and said the package of requests would ultimately be beneficial because there would signage indicating it is more public right-of-way than private driveway.

All said, the CCC voted 10-1 to approve the collective item.

With the approval, the Environmental Center of San Diego got a vote of confidence to proceed with its plan to create a beach-access trail at that location.

Were encouraged that the California Coastal Commission reinforced their interest in the path, thats a positive, said spokesperson Pam Heatherington. Its always nice to hear the (CCC) supports your project, especially when we have to present to them to request a Coastal Development Permit when we have a design.

She added she was further encouraged by the CCC requirement of clear signage. Our biggest concern was the safety factor, we didnt want it to be not obvious that there is a trail there. I think we got that. This project was a long time coming and now were ready to roll.

The Environmental Center of San Diego will manage the project to evaluate the site and install a safe and natural-looking trail. Thus far, the Center has surveyed the bluffside, completed a biological assessment to determine the potential impacts to local species, and is prepared to cut back on some brush and complete a topographical survey.

After receiving a $38,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, the Center also contracted Rana Creek Living to create design plans. Once the design plans are complete, the Center will fundraise to execute the work.

Prior to the vote, at least six nearby residents signed and submitted a letter outlining their opposition to the planned, public beach-access trail. They cited issues with parking and safety, and said the bluffside into which the trail would be built was unstable and not suitable for public access.

However, the beach access advocates who have sought to reopen the access for decades prevailed.

As previously reported in the Light, the access has been closed by way of a gate that has been posted and locked since the 1970s, when former property owner Jane Baker built her house. Since that time, CCC has requested a public access easement be dedicated.

In 1999, the Kretowiczs entered into litigation, arguing it would be too dangerous for the public to access the beach through the since-eroded bluffside.

But the CCC found there was a history of public access at the site, and easement documents were filed with the City of San Diego and the CCC that note there is a public-access lane adjacent the property that will be part of the property record going forward.

Most vocally involved in reopening the access is La Jollan Melinda Merryweather. After the vote, she told La Jolla Light, I am pleased with the hearing we got half of what we wanted, referring to the easements and signage. I am so pleased we have our access back to an amazing beach for all to enjoy, it has been a group effort for over 26 years, which has taught me to never give up. And I am forever grateful to the California Coastal Commission for all the years they have fought beside us to get this beach access back.MoviePass embattled parent company, Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc., on Wednesday denied that it has misled investors, in response to a new investigation by the New York attorney generals office.

New York Atty. Gen. Barbara Underwood has opened a probe into the owner of the money-losing cinema subscription service to see whether it misrepresented its finances to shareholders, the company acknowledged.

The investigation is the latest blow for MoviePass, which has adjusted its offering multiple times to slow the hemorrhaging of cash. The New York-based start-up attracted more than 3 million subscribers by allowing customers to see a movie-a-day in theaters for $9.95 a month.

But after facing a cash crunch and a plummeting stock price, the company in August restricted subscribers to three films a month. The drastic measure led many analysts and Hollywood executives to believe the once-popular service was on its last legs. On social media, multiple users have said they quit the service in favor of competitors.

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Underwoods office did not have an immediate comment on the investigation, which was first reported by CNBC. Helios & Matheson, a publicly traded data company headquartered in New York, said it is cooperating with the probe.

We are aware of the New York attorney generals inquiry and are fully cooperating with it, the company said in an emailed statement. We believe our public disclosures have been complete, timely and truthful and we have not misled investors. We look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate that to the New York attorney general.

It is not the first time MoviePass has been accused of misleading Wall Street.

MoviePass and its parent company, respectively led by the outspoken Mitch Lowe and Ted Farnsworth, have long insisted they have a plan to become profitable, despite a business model that requires MoviePass to pay theaters owners the full price of tickets for each movie that subscribers see.

But the company has been hit with class-action lawsuits from investors who say the company was not transparent about its financial prospects. Also in August, Helios & Matheson board member Carl J. Schramm resigned and accused the firm of withholding information.

Helios & Matheson in August reported an operating loss of $126.6 million for the second quarter, largely thanks to MoviePass struggles. In the last year, its stock has lost nearly all of its value, currently trading at 2 cents a share.

MoviePass, which first launched in 2011, angered theater owners last year when it dropped its monthly fee to $9.95 from about $30. AMC Theatres, which has been vocal in its opposition to MoviePass, recently launched its own subscription service, allowing subscribers to see as many as three movies a week for $19.95 a month. That program has attracted about 400,000 users, according to Leawood, Kan.-based AMC.

ryan.faughnder@latimes.com

Twitter: @rfaughnderGrowth in Amazon Prime memberships  the main engine behind the retailers online dominance  may be starting to ease off the gas.

Thats according to new research by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, or CIRP, suggesting that in the last year, Prime memberships grew 8%  the lowest annual rate since the group began tracking the data in 2012. The group also put the number of U.S. Prime members  a figure Amazon.com Inc. has famously kept under wraps  at 97 million, with Prime shoppers spending an average of roughly $1,400 a year, compared with $600 a year for non-member shoppers.

The numbers offer insight into what one analyst dubbed as opaque a company as Ive ever covered. But they also raise questions about how Amazon might revamp or reimagine Prime when there are fewer and fewer people left to reach.

Its not a surprise that the member count is nearing saturation in the U.S., said Josh Lowitz, partner and co-founder of CIRP. Arguably its a victory that Amazon got there so fast.

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That leaves what Lowitz calls the magic question: What will Amazon do next?

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment on CIRPs report. (Amazons founder, Jeff Bezos, also owns the Washington Post.)

Lowitz said that since Primes inception in 2005, Amazon has focused on making the service compelling to customers, with features including two-day shipping, streaming video services and promotions such as Prime Day. But as it reaches saturation, Amazon must rely on making more money from its existing Prime members. That might include getting members to listen to their favorite podcasts on an Echo Dot, or a slew of other measures to bring Amazon services and products into daily life.

In time, Lowitz said, that approach could position Amazon to become the pharmacy of choice, the travel agent of choice.

We think a Prime member is more likely to say, Maybe I like my dress shirts from Amazon, because of that trusting relationship, Lowitz said.

(CIRP draws its figures from quarterly surveys of 500 Amazon shoppers. Prime estimates are drawn from the surveys as well as Amazon financial information.)

In April, Bezos announced that paid Prime membership had exceeded 100 million worldwide. Bezos unveiled the figure in his annual shareholder letter  published since 1997 and widely considered a must-read among executives and business leaders around the globe  and noted that in 2017, Prime gained more new members than in any previous year. By comparison, Netflix at the time had 125 million subscribers.

Estimates on Prime memberships have been the subject of much speculation, especially because the numbers also serve as a metric for Amazons revenue stream. The math can be difficult to parse: Its not quite as simple as multiplying the cost of a $119 annual membership by 100 million. Some members  students, for example  have options to pay less, while others pay more for a month-by-month subscription.

Prime approaching a saturation point may be inevitable, but that doesnt mean memberships should be described as flattening out, said Charlie OShea, lead retail analyst for Moodys. OShea noted that, hypothetically, its possible for a company to grow at 10%, then slip to 9% and still be adding more members in absolute numbers.

Is it flattening? OShea said. Well, trees dont grow to the sky. So at some point it has to flatten out. Are we there yet?

Either way, Amazon will have to prepare. Mark Rosenbaum, department chair and professor of retailing at the University of South Carolina, said international markets will be key in helping Amazon clinch massive bases beyond the United States.

But Primes ease and accessibility rely on advanced and extensive mail systems that dont exist everywhere in the world, Rosenbaum said. One solution may be for Amazon to work with retailers and vendors overseas, such as at 7-Eleven, where customers can pick up their packages. Prime has programs through Whole Foods that allow shoppers to pick up their groceries, for example.

But how does that work in Bogota, Colombia? Rosenbaum said. How would that work in Mexico City?

Siegel writes for the Washington Post.Tesla Inc. lost one of its senior manufacturing executives months ago, according to a person familiar with the matter, a loss that lengthens the list of departures during a harried period for the electric-car maker led by Elon Musk.

Gilbert Passin, Teslas vice president of manufacturing, left this summer, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel matters. Passin joined Tesla from Toyota Motor Corp. in early 2010.

Retaining senior managers has been one of Musks biggest challenges this year. Palo Alto-based Tesla has made major strides lately with manufacturing more electric vehicles, but Chief Executive Musk has been the source of major distractions, including a short-lived and legally precarious attempt to take the company private.

Executives who have left Tesla in recent months include the companys chief accounting officer, the vice presidents of global supply management and worldwide finance, and the heads of human resources and communications.

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Musk announced a series of promotions in September to fill several voids and named Jerome Guillen to the new position of automotive president. The chief executive has credited Guillen with helping Tesla achieve production progress with the Model 3 sedan, which may have recently exceeded the 100,000 mark after months of missed targets.

Business Insider reported on Passins departure earlier Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Tesla said it signed an agreement to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development as the U.S.-China trade war continues.

Tesla announced plans for the Shanghai factory in July after the Chinese government said it would end restrictions on full foreign ownership of electric-vehicle makers to speed up industry development. Those plans have gone ahead despite tariff hikes by the United States and China on billions of dollars of each others goods in a dispute over Chinese technology policy. U.S. imports targeted by Chinas penalties include electric cars.

China is the worlds biggest global electric-vehicle market, and its Teslas second-largest after the United States.

Tesla said earlier that production in Shanghai would begin two to three years after construction of the factory begins and eventually increase to 500,000 vehicles annually.

Tesla  which has yet to turn profitable  has not named a price, but the Shanghai government said it would be the biggest foreign investment there to date. The company said in its second-quarter investor letter that construction is expected to begin within the next few quarters, with significant investment coming next year. Much of the cost will be funded with local debt, the letter said.

Hull writes for Bloomberg. The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.The Trump administration told the drug industry this week that it wants the prices of prescription meds included in TV ads.

The drug industry said no.

I could end this column right there. But why let either side off the hook?

For all of President Trumps bluster about drug companies scandalous behavior  he says theyre getting away with murder  hes largely tiptoed around the well-heeled, generous-to-Republicans industry. Trump hasnt announced a single meaningful move to address runaway drug prices.

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Drug companies, for their part, keep testing what price points the market will bear, and then pushing even higher.

As it turns out, pharmaceutical companies are among the biggest beneficiaries of Trumps tax cuts, pocketing a windfall of billions of dollars and using the money not to reduce patients medical expenses but to enrich shareholders through stock buybacks.

The tax-policy advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness estimated in a recent report that five of the biggest drug companies will save a combined $6.3 billion this year as a result of lower taxes, and 10 of the leading drugmakers will enjoy a $76-billion tax break on offshore profits.

And contrary to trickle down claims that huge tax cuts will benefit the employees of these pharmaceutical giants, evidence so far shows the companies are sharing relatively little with their workers, the report found.

But drug companies dont want people to think theyre just a bunch of greedy, unfeeling bloodsuckers.

So they told the White House that even though they wont put prices in their TV ads, theyre willing to create a website and post drug prices there.

A whole website!

Drug companies patted themselves on the back for being such stand-up guys.

The administration and Congress have called on our industry to provide cost information in [direct-to-consumer] advertisements, and our members are voluntarily stepping up to the plate, said Stephen J. Ubl, president of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group.

This website thing wont be easy, he declared.

Todays announcement represents a big change for our companies and it will require significant operational changes for individual companies to implement, Ubl said. But we believe this is the right thing to do and is an important step toward providing patients with the information they want.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, a recent review of brand-name prescription drug prices by the Associated Press found that, over the first seven months of the year, there were 96 price hikes for every one announcement of a reduced drug price.

The Trump administration believes it can shame pharmaceutical companies into behaving more humanely by requiring them to include list prices in commercials for any drug that costs more than $35 a month and is covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

Patients deserve to know what a given drug could cost when theyre being told about the benefits and risks it may have, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a speech.

They deserve to know if the drug company has pushed their prices to abusive levels, he said. And they deserve to know this every time they see a drug advertised to them on TV.

Heres why that wont happen.

If the White House follows through on its proposal, drug companies will argue on 1st Amendment grounds that the government cant compel them to say things they dont want.

They will say currently having to list side effects in ads is different because there are safety considerations covered by federal law.

The industry will argue this all the way to the Supreme Court, and it will probably win, many experts believe.

Were living in the Citizens United era, where the rights of corporations have been inflated to the size of a blimp, said Jamie Raskin, a Democratic congressman and former constitutional law professor at American University.

The government will struggle to define what the precise public interest is in this case and how a brief flash of a price on a TV screen advances that interest, he told me.

Timothy Zick, a professor at William & Mary Law School, noted that the government only has the authority to mandate speech when it advances the governments interest in preventing consumer deception, conveys purely factual information and is not unduly burdensome.

As far as I can tell, he said, there is no allegation that the pharmaceutical ads are deceptive or confusing. Nor is the governments interest related to the safety of the drugs. Further, mandating list prices versus actual costs to the consumer would arguably itself be misleading.

Thats an important point. Relatively few people pay the list price of drugs because of haggling by insurers and discount programs. These bogus list prices are intended to inflate insurance reimbursement levels and patient copays, rather than reflect a drugs true costs.

This too is an issue. It highlights the complete lack of transparency in the drug market, which gives pharmaceutical companies free rein to raise prices as much and as often as they desire.

Theres an easier solution: Ban the wasteful and unethical practice of advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers  something that wasnt even allowed by federal authorities until 1997.

Were one of only two countries worldwide that permits this (the other being New Zealand). Everyone else has concluded, correctly, that you do more harm than good by encouraging people to buy costly meds, rather than leaving such decisions to trained, licensed healthcare professionals.

The American Medical Assn. called for a ban on such ads in 2015, arguing that the billions of dollars drug companies spend on marketing pushes prices higher and inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs.

The National Academy of Sciences has called on Congress to disallow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs as a tax-deductible business expense to refocus manufacturers priorities.

If the Trump administration truly wanted to bring down drug prices, it would allow Medicare to use the full weight of its 57 million beneficiaries to negotiate lower costs with manufacturers. The administration also would allow Americans to legally import lower-priced drugs from abroad.

Barring these common-sense steps, an end to direct-to-consumer ads would mean drug companies no longer would spend more on marketing than they do on research, and once again would be in the business primarily of fighting illness rather than selling product.

With his proposal for including prices in TV ads, Trump is simply picking a meaningless fight that he wont win.

And, adding insult to injury, the drug industry would pass along its legal costs to the rest of us.

David Lazarus column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.The case of Greg Mathis gated estate in Tarzana has concluded in a sale.

Mathis, known for sitting behind the bench of the courtroom reality show Judge Mathis, sold the Mediterranean-style manse for $3.1 million. It had been listed since September for a dollar shy of $3.2 million, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

Set at the end of a private and palm-topped drive, the well-appointed home offers 6,399 square feet of elegant interiors. Dual staircases of marble and hardwood draw the eye in the two-story entry hall.

1 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 2 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 3 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 4 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 5 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 6 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 7 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 8 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com) 9 / 9 Greg Mathis Tarzana home (Redfin.com)

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On the main level, theres a dramatic two-story living room, a double-island kitchen, formal and informal dining areas and a family room with a wet bar.

A covered patio extends the living space outside, where an impressive custom rock pool takes in canyon views. Off to the side, a terrace also capitalizes on the hillside setting. The grounds span nearly an acre.

Five bedrooms and six bathrooms finish off the floor plan. In the master suite, a lounge with a fireplace connects to a covered balcony.

Dee Crawford and Michael Lanier of Keller Williams Beverly Hills held the listing. Tracey Thomas of Redfin represented the buyer.

Mathis, 58, worked as a judge in Michigans 36th District Court before Judge Mathis first aired in 1999. Second only to Judge Judy as the longest-running TV judge, he began his 20th season in September.

He bought the property seven years ago for $1.195 million, according to real estate records.

jack.flemming@latimes.com | Twitter: @jflem94Southern California was just beginning to develop a taste for suburban sprawl in 1923 when an enterprising Venice property owner built a charming Craftsman home using plans and materials purchased from the Sears, Roebuck & Co. mail-order catalog. Or so the story goes.

The beach-area bungalow, which probably cost only a few thousand dollars back then, last hit the market four years ago with a slick sales campaign that included a dedicated website and the claim that the house was one of about 75,000 houses sold by Sears from 1908 to 1940, a contention that has its doubters. The 2014 listing also sported a very modern price: about $2.5 million.

The two-story home, with tapered pillars lining the covered front sitting porch and an abundance of wood trimming inside, provides a window into how the retail giant helped sustain the suburban dream  and how expensive that dream has become.

Now that Sears is stocking its shelves in Bankruptcy Court, it might be difficult to recall that the Chicago merchant once reached across several industries. For decades, customers could open the Sears mail-order catalog and buy appliances, clothing, sporting goods and a house to hold it all.

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Using the slogan Give the kiddies a chance, Sears marketed the pop-up pads to families looking to leave the city.

For many immigrants and people of color, Sears kit homes were the only way to capture the golden ideal of homeownership, said Rosemary Thornton, who has written several books about Sears and other companies that sold kit houses during the first half of the 20th century. They opened the doors for people denied by traditional lenders of the day.

A Hollywood Sears home is seen in Carlinville, Ill., in 2007. (Seth Perlman / Associated Press)

Through its Modern Homes catalog, Sears sold dwellings complete with precut and fitted materials, according to the Sears Archives, and the roughly 370 designs included styles such as English cottage, bungalow, traditional, Cape Cod and Dutch Colonial Revival.

They were shipped from Chicago via boxcar and came with 10,000 to 30,000 pieces, a 75-page instruction book and a promise that a man of average abilities could assemble a Sears kit home in about 90 days, Thornton said. She noted that about half of buyers built the homes themselves.

A kit home is a uniquely personal story, Thornton said. Somebody sat down and pored through a catalog to find the one they liked.

Buyers could choose the floor plans as is or mirrored, and common materials included cypress for the exterior, southern yellow pine for the framing and maple hardwood for the floors.

The purported Sears kit home in Venice, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, was rehabbed over the years.

Photos from the 2014 listing show a living-dining room with a fireplace that sits under wood coffered ceilings. A stained-glass window touches up the space.

The kitchen holds custom cabinetry and a breakfast nook, and French doors open to a covered patio that adjoins a small lawn. Upstairs, a master suite under vaulted ceilings boasts a fireplace and claw-foot tub.

The home traded hands for $82,000 in 1995 and $600,000 five years later.

In 2001, a fire damaged the second story, and it had to be rebuilt. The renovations must have been a success: The house sold the following year for $825,500.

When the house swapped owners in 2014 after a slight reduction from the listing price, the approximately $2.2-million tab represented a 2,583% jump compared with its price in 1995  not bad for what started as a humble concoction of pre-proportioned drywall under an asphalt tile roof.

A row of Sears mail-order homes is seen in Carlinville, Ill., in 2007. (Seth Perlman / Associated Press)

As the value of Sears kit homes has increased, so has the mythos surrounding them. Thornton said Sears destroyed all the sales records in a corporate housecleaning, so the only way to confirm whether a house is a Sears kit home is through an architectural survey.

The idea of finding a Sears house is very appealing, Thornton said. Learning the designs and setting out to find them is fun, even perhaps a little addictive.

Of the 31 home plans offered by Sears in 1923, the one in Venice most resembles The Kilbourne, a two-level Craftsman with a gabled roof and covered front porch. At the time, it was available for $2,554. Oak doors and trim cost $78 extra, but you could knock off $40 if you went without a fireplace mantel.

Sears kit home devotee Rachel Shoemaker, who helps administer a Facebook group on Sears homes, said she has yet to see an authenticated Sears house in California and doubts the Venice Craftsman would make the cut. Such homes are more common in the Midwest, she said, because freight costs to California would have been high and kits were readily available from other companies with mills closer to the area, including Aladdin Co. and Gordon Van Tine Co.

Also, Shoemaker noted, Sears didnt buy the Craftsman brand until 1927 and never used it to market houses, only tools and equipment.

This house is no way a Sears kit home, Shoemaker wrote in an email. This is not Sears kit home construction and is not Sears building materials. When you do this for as long as I have, you can see these details.

Thornton believes the Venice Craftsman came from a kit produced by Pacific Ready Cut Homes Inc., a Los Angeles company responsible for 40,000 kit homes sold mostly in California, including 20 that once stood on Figueroa Street. The gables attic vent, she said, is the greatest indicator.

In her search, shes noticed that kit homes often come in clusters. Seeing your neighbors receive tens of thousands of parts and unfurling a massive blueprint on their front lawn surely would pique curiosity.

Its not just a house. Its Americana, Thornton said of the enduring fascination with kit homes. Its a story of rugged individualism, of building something with your own hands, of understanding that the work we perform transcends our lifetime.

jack.flemming@latimes.com | Twitter: @jflem94There are more iconic years: 1945, which marked the end of a world war, and 1968, with its roiling protest movements. But 1990 also marked an important social and political moment. The Soviet Union was falling apart. HIV became one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States. And the U.S. was heading toward a war with Iraq  the first one, led by President George H.W. Bush.

It was Bush 1 and everyone was wearing flags, recalls artist Barbara Kruger. And, omigod, the war. It was just horrific.

It was in that climate that the artist painted a mural on the south facade of what was then known as the Temporary Contemporary, the Little Tokyo branch (now known as the Geffen Contemporary) of the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. The nearly three-story-high mural, in ways both oblique and direct, tackled issues of power, corruption, gender and race.

In its design, the mural Untitled (Questions) was inspired by the U.S. flag. Except that in lieu of stripes, it featured nine questions rendered in grab-you-by-the-eyeballs capital letters: WHO IS BEYOND THE LAW? WHO IS BOUGHT AND SOLD? WHO IS FREE TO CHOOSE? WHO DOES TIME? WHO FOLLOWS ORDERS? WHO SALUTES LONGEST? WHO PRAYS LOUDEST? WHO DIES FIRST? WHO LAUGHS LAST?

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The piece remained in place for two years  well into 1992, when it served as backdrop to the Los Angeles riots. During that uprising, Los Angeles photographer Gary Leonard famously captured a group of National Guardsmen walking along Alameda Street in front of Krugers mural. It made her questions seem all the more urgent.

National Guardsmen cross the street near Barbara Krugers mural on the fourth day of the Los Angeles riots in 1992. (Gary Leonard)

It stands for MOCA, its history and role in the city. It encourages us to engage...It shows us how an artist can create a timeless, unafraid truth. Incoming MOCA director Klaus Biesenbach

Kruger is now reprising the work in advance of the midterm elections  this time on MOCA Geffens north facade.

On Tuesday morning, her ash-blond curls float in the breeze as she surveys the large-scale letters that are beginning to materialize on the Temple Street side of the building. The questions they so forcefully ask remain strikingly relevant. Of that, she says, Its tragic and sad that there is still resonance on these issues.

The new version of Untitled (Questions) is expected to be completed by this weekend and will remain on view through the presidential election in 2020. It will be accompanied by a series of voter registration efforts led by the museum. And it is the first initiative undertaken by new MOCA director Klaus Biesenbach, who starts his job in an official capacity on Monday.

The work, he states via text message, comes to mind as one piece that, in a way, stands for MOCA, its history and role in the city. It encourages us to engage and mobilize to participate. It shows us how an artist can create a timeless, unafraid truth, and beauty that does not age.

Certainly, MOCA has special resonance for Kruger, the L.A.-based artist known for bold, graphic works, often rendered in a palette of red, white and black, that play with the tropes of mass media to deliver punchy political messages. Among her most famous pieces is a 1989 work that features a photographic image of a young womans face split between positive and negative, bearing the phrase Your body is a battleground. (It is on view at the Broad museum.)

Kruger, who was born in Newark, N.J., but has been hanging out in L.A. for teaching gigs since the late 1970s and moved here in 1990 (shes on the faculty at UCLA), has a long trajectory with MOCA. For starters, she was at the debut show in 1983: an exhibition of painting and sculpture titled, easily enough, The First Show. This was in the days when MOCAs formal Grand Avenue location did not yet exist and all exhibitions were held at the Temporary Contemporary, an old warehouse that had once housed police cruisers and was repurposed as an exhibition space by Frank Gehry.

People in this city didnt realize what a gem this building was, she says. It was able to shape-shift and be altered in brute, really material ways. It wasnt a precious over-designed museum.

MOCA has been important to Kruger in more direct ways too. In 1999, the museum held the artists first major museum retrospective. I had never been asked to do a show on this scale before, she notes. It changed my life to be able to have this space.

She has also served on the museums board of trustees  from 2008 until 2012, when she resigned during the tumultuous directorship of Jeffrey Deitch. The museum has since weathered another spate of troubles, including the recent firing of curator Helen Molesworth and the departure of director Philippe Vergne, but Kruger says she feels hopeful about MOCAs future under Biesenbach.

I think this is a great trajectory for him and for Los Angeles, she says.

Artist Barbara Kruger stands outside the elevator design she created for LACMA in 2008. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Its tragic and sad that there is still resonance on these issues. Barbara Kruger

With Untitled (Questions), Biesenbach is resurfacing a work that is intimately connected with the museums history. Though, when it was first proposed, it was not without controversy.

Krugers original design featured the Pledge of Allegiance surrounded by her questions. But community groups in Little Tokyo took issue with the work. The mural faced the spot where tens of thousands of Japanese Americans were shipped off to internment camps during World War II. And in those camps, internees were forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

The dialog with the community, she says, was a process that she welcomed. And it resulted in an alteration to her design: there would be no Pledge, only questions.

The questions were always on the work, she says. This never appeared as a pledge without those questions. I dont think irony is that powerful.

In his review of the work in 1990, Times art critic Christopher Knight described it as a huge and startling painting, one in which the viewer is pointedly addressed as an active participant in disputatious public life.

In many ways, the reprise of Krugers mural reflects what has changed and what hasnt in the nearly three decades since Kruger first painted it.

The greatest shift has perhaps occurred within the media landscape, which Kruger, a self-professed news junkie, follows closely. The unifying effect of a single newscast or newspaper has been replaced by a fragmented echo chamber of partisan cable news shows, Twitter feeds and conspiracy sites. Moreover, people often experience life through the screen of their smartphones  often with themselves in the frame.

Whats the importance of that tchotchke on the wall if were not standing in front of it? says Kruger. This is not a criticism; its an observation. Its how our approach to culture has changed. It makes us so vulnerable to manipulation. When the camera becomes mirror of choice, you lose sight of the big picture.

In addition, technology has made it easier than ever to produce images and disseminate them. The types of text-and-image collages that Kruger once painstakingly created by harvesting graphics from old books  I remember looking for images in the used bookstores on Sawtelle, she notes  can now be manufactured in seconds on a meme-making website.

Krugers work, as a result, has also evolved  often jumping off the wall into installations that respond to architecture.

Barbara Krugers Belief + Doubt at the Hirshhorn Museum. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)

This includes a long-term installation at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., which wraps every imaginable surface of the basement area (escalators included) in words, as well as a dramatic piece for a freight elevator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The latter features a dire quote by George Orwell  If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face forever  paired with an image that shows the bottom of a mans shoe.

These types of architectural interventions will be at the heart of a major new survey of the artists work being organized by the Art Institute of Chicago for the fall of 2020.

There is no bad space, says Kruger of working three-dimensionally. People say, I cant do this. This is a bad space. No, its a challenge.

Curiously, the one thing that hasnt changed much since Kruger first painted her mural in the summer of 1990 are the issues that spurred it. Who has sovereignty over womens bodies? Who is most disenfranchised by the prison industrial complex? How is religion deployed in civic life? These are all issues we continue to debate  hotly.

With her own questions, Kruger hopes she might spur some alternate thoughts.

Its creating commentary about living another day, she says. How the world could be and isnt.

The questions asked by Kruger in her mural for MOCA in the early 1990s remain current in todays political climate. (MOCA)

ALSO

Artist Barbara Kruger turns a bland building into a screaming statement. Time to listen up

After months of turmoil, Museum of Contemporary Art gets a new director with ties to New Yorks famed MoMA

A to-do list for MOCAs new director, Klaus Biesenbach

After 18 months in the planning stage  and overcoming many roadblocks Barbara Krugers artwork finally adorns the Temporary Contemporary

A MOCA retrospective of Barbara Krugers work asks provocative questions about how we communicate

In conversation: Painter Lari Pittman finds beauty in violence and telenovelas. He also has advice for MOCA

Sign up for our weekly Essential Arts & Culture newsletter 

carolina.miranda@latimes.com | Twitter: @cmonstahSome people grew up terrified of La Llorona. Others are about to find out why.

The first trailer for The Curse of La Llorona was released Thursday, giving horror fans an early look at the Weeping Woman in action. The lesson: locking all your doors and windows might not be enough.

Set in the 1970s, the film stars Linda Cardellini as a social worker who discovers that La Llorona is more than just a scary story when the spirit sets its sight on her children.

In the Latinx folk tale, the titular character roams the Earth looking for children to snatch away. She was cursed with this fate for drowning her own young children in a fit of jealous madness after discovering her husbands infidelity.

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The legend of La Llorona has been handed down from generation to generation, especially in the Latin community, where youre warned that if you dont behave, La Llorona will get you, actor Raymond Cruz previously told The Times. Not might get you. Will get you.

In addition to Cardellini and Cruz, the La Llorona cast also includes Patricia Velasquez, Marisol Ramirez, Sean Patrick Thomas, Jaynee-Lynne Kinchen and Roman Christou.

The film marks the feature directorial debut of Michael Chaves, known for his award-winning horror short The Maiden. Chaves has also been tapped to direct The Conjuring 3.

The Curse of La Llorona hits theaters April 19.

She wants your children. New trailer TOMORROW. #LaLlorona pic.twitter.com/oBHxH3DWls  The Curse of La Llorona (@lalloronamovie) October 17, 2018

tracy.brown@latimes.com

Twitter: @tracycbrownCome upstairs with me, Bella Thorne says. She takes off, racing up the neon-lit steps she has painted  every one a different color of the rainbow  to her bedroom, above which iridescent pink bulbs warn: [f] off.

She waves me in anyway, past her bed  a mattress on the floor, encased by a teepee  and into the bathroom. There are stacks of clear acrylic drawers on every surface, all filled with hundreds of different makeup products. She puts down the blunt she has been smoking and picks up a pencil, dotting beauty marks onto her face. This is one of the ways she deals with her acne, she explains  highlighting her freckles to distract from the blemishes on her face.

Downstairs, two publicists, an assistant, a stylist, a makeup-artist, a photographer and  inexplicably  the director of one of the movies she is currently in are waiting for Thorne to touch up her face. She had been in the midst of a photoshoot when, after reviewing some of the images, she grew self-conscious about her skin.

When it is bad, she says, tabloid magazines insinuate shes on drugs.

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The Daily Mail will be like, Bella must have been out partying last night because they got a photo of me not wearing makeup with acne, she says. Theyre like, She looks really tired out. Maybe the drugs are really wearing on her skin.  I get so mad. So are you telling every kid with cystic acne that they must be a heroin addict? I think they think I take serious drugs, and Im just smoking weed.

Bella Thornes home is wildly symbolic of where she is in her life. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

As she finishes touching up, I take a look around her bathroom. Like every room in her house, which she purchased two years ago for $2 million, its a craft store hodge-podge. Her shower is covered with a wall of faux ivy, and inspirational notes shes written to herself hang from the ceiling: Follow your instincts, Bella.; Your worst mistake is your best advice.

Thornes home appears to be her canvas  the medium she uses to express herself, be it through her hand-painted 12-foot unicorn statue, the hundreds of felt roses shes glued to the wall or the castle she created for her 19 cats. (She didnt want her first cat, Lola, to be spayed because she thought it was barbaric, and now there are four generations of cats living here: Nuzzling against your knee, crawling up the screen windows, tearing down metallic streamers.)

The abode  the exterior of which Thorne immediately had painted a loud violet  is wildly symbolic of where she is in her life. She bought it with money she made via her Instagram account, where she says she can charge around $65,000 to blast an ad to her 18.2 million followers. It was her first big adult purchase, which she instantly made childlike  a dreamy kind of space that became a manifestation of her evolving identity.

Actress Bella Thorne arrives at the world premiere of the Hannah Montana: The Movie at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood in 2009. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

Thorne became Disney Channel-famous on Shake It Up, a show about a pair of adolescents balancing school with jobs as backup dancers. It wrapped five years ago, and Thorne has been trying to figure out the kind of star she wants to be ever since.

While her Shake It Up costar Zendaya has landed major roles in blockbusters such as The Greatest Showman and Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thorne has enjoyed a quieter but remarkably steady career for a former child star. This year, she will have appeared in five movies  four of which are out this fall  and headlined the second season of Famous in Love, a recently canceled Freeform series about a young woman trying to balance college with the perils of sudden stardom.

And yet Thornes biggest impact at the moment is on social media, where she documents the exploits that have forged her reputation for being a wild child. She does not hide her affinity for marijuana  her Instagram includes pictures of her with clouds of smoke coming out of her mouth. Pictures of her topless. Pictures of her with red hair and orange hair and pink hair. Pictures of her kissing her boyfriend and her girlfriend. (Her boyfriend, Mod Sun, is a heavily tattooed hippy hop star who has been known to serenade Thornes vagina during his concerts. Her girlfriend, Tana Mongeau, is a YouTube star whose vlogs include such content as I GOT ARRESTED AT COACHELLAstorytime? and 3 girls, 1 bath.)

But shes also serious about acting in a way most people probably dont realize. Every year, she says she makes a new vision board, and it always includes her desire to win an Oscar. This fall, she had a small role as a cheerleader in the Sundance buzz movie Assassination Nation, plays a girl who sees ghosts in the horror flick I Still See You, fights for her life in the rideshare-gone-wrong thriller Ride and stars as a teen who coaxes her boyfriend to commit suicide in Lifetimes Conrad & Michelle.

When he hired her on Ride, director Jeremy Ungar was slightly unsure of which Thorne he was going to get  the young woman whos been working for over half her life, or the exhibitionist she appears to be on Instagram.

Bella Thorne as Jessica in the thriller Ride. (Rob C. Givens)

Theres this sense that she has this crazy, wild side  and that is a part of her  but theres another layer to Bella ... theres kind of a purity. Jeremy Ungar, director of Ride, on Bella Thorne

But she was a consummate professional, the filmmaker said. She is really passionate about delivering the best possible performance. Wed cut and shed be like, Are you sure? Is there anything else I can give to make this work? Theres this sense that she has this crazy, wild side  and that is a part of her  but theres another layer to Bella that I think theres kind of a purity to.

Still, its entirely possible that more of her fans will watch her Instagram stories than any of the independent films she is currently in.

Social media has become vital to her livelihood, and she knows it. Despite working on Shake It Up for three years, she says that when she turned 18, she had $200 to her name. When I ask her where the money went, her voice turns serious: You know where it went. I reply I do not, but she declines to elaborate. (Per the Coogan Law, employers must withhold 15% of a minors gross wages, preventing income from going entirely to kid actors guardians.)

When she realized how dire her financial situation was at 18, she was forced to move in with her then-boyfriend, another Disney Channel star named Gregg Sulkin. She could never pay for their meals when they went out to dinner, which embarrassed her, because her dad had always taught her to be the first to put down her credit card.

Bella Thorne attends DigiFest LA, the largest YouTube Music Festival, at Hollywood Palladium in 2013 in Hollywood. (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

I didnt think things were going to go down like that, she says, continuing to speak obliquely about the missing money. And then half of me is like, Come on, Bella. Look at your whole life. Dont be naive. You knew somewhere deep down inside things were not right. 

By now, we are sitting on her couch. After fixing her makeup, Thorne finished the photoshoot and her various handlers all left. She then poured herself a beer and asked me if I wanted her to roll us a spliff.

Youre OK with tobacco? she asks, grabbing some rolling papers from an area of the kitchen entirely devoted to marijuana. I used to be super, super against weed. When I was 16, my boyfriend smoked weed and I would get so upset. I thought it was the devils lettuce. I was always the really good two-shoes  the one that was the teachers pet in that annoying sense.

That changed when, at age 16, she was working on a movie that required her to cry. She said she would get so into the characters emotional headspace that once she started crying, she couldnt stop. On the drive home from the set, her mom would have to turn up the music just to drown out her daughters wails. She was so upset she couldnt sleep. So one night, she went into her brothers room  he was a stoner, she says  and begged him to give her some of his pot to help her sleep.

I cant leave myself alone too long. My mind goes to a weird place if Im not at work all the time. Bella Thorne

Thorne, whose father died in a motorcycle accident when she was 9, has also spoken publicly about her depression. Last month, on the night Conrad & Michelle aired, she posted on Instagram that her emotions are always all over the place, encouraging fans to call the suicide hotline if they were having sad thoughts.

My mind, she tells me now, is a scary place.

Thats why she spent all of 2017 working, either on Famous in Love or a movie set.

I cant leave myself alone too long, she says. My mind goes to a weird place if Im not at work all the time.

Like many people her age, Thorne spends a lot of time contemplating what people think of her. When people look at her Instagram, for instance, who do they see? We pull up her account, and I scroll through some of the images.

I mean, OK, this girl, shes showing off her body. Shes got armpit hair, she says, taking my phone in her hands. Thats just my boobs looking huge. And thats a photo I like because I have no makeup on. But people say, Shes crazy. Shes probably giving it up all the time. That girls a ho. 

Actress Bella Thorne arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of the Dreamworks animated film Megamind at the Hollywood and Highland Complex in 2010. (Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images)

But Thorne isnt like most people her age; as a Disney star, she was famous young, which meant people have long felt they could comment on how she looked. When she was 13, she and Zendaya went to the beach and posted a photo of Thorne in a black bikini. Perez Hilton wrote a post saying hed really be more comfortable if she would just cover up.

Excuse us, Bella? WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER??? the 2011 post read. Does she know you own this outfit? Please dont tell us she bought it for you??

The post caused such an uproar, Thorne says, that Disney Channel executives tried to fire me.

A Disney Channel spokesperson responded that Thornes job was not threatened and would not be jeopardized merely over her bathing suit choice.

The spokesperson did say , however: [W]e discussed with the Thornes how they envisioned Bellas personal brand image and career goals and whether, at age 13, her immediate plans were compatible with a Disney-branded show for viewers as young as age 6.

It was this disconnect between brand expectation and reality that led to Thorne revealing the even greater battle she had been fighting in secret. Last December, when someone on Twitter trolled her with the message: What did Disney do this girl?! I think she was molested. Thorne replied: Yeah I was. So it wasnt Disney.

From the age of 6 to 14, she subsequently wrote on Instagram, she was sexually abused by an older man in her home.

Maybe I am this way because I was molested and raped when I was younger. Bella Thorne

I used to think of myself like Marilyn Monroe a little bit, she says now. Everyone thought Marilyn Monroe was this sex symbol and she was always perfect and beautiful, but she was dying on the inside. I go back to that tweet, and maybe, in some [messed] up way, its right. Maybe I am this way because I was molested and raped when I was younger.

Thorne has never named her abuser and says she has resisted reporting the molestation to the authorities because she does not want to relive the traumatic memories.

And I guess that makes me selfish, she says, her voice growing quiet. I could do it. I should do it. You should tell every girl to go after her attacker. You should tell every girl that she has the right to go out there and speak her truth.

But then you dont. Then you cant even [speak out]. I always want to be a good person. And that makes me qualify as not as good of a person.

She starts to cry, and I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort her. Suddenly, she lies down on the couch and puts her head on my lap and details the abuse. Most of the time, she says, she acted like she was asleep while it was taking place. And she feels guilty about that.

I always think, Maybe you could have done something,  she says, still crying. It kind of makes me mad, because I read these stories that are really awful  I mean, really awful ... its really something getting ripped and taken from you. At least those girls tried. I just laid there, comatose.

Dani Thorne, left, and Bella Thorne are seen during day 3 of the 2017 Lost Lake Festival in 2017 in Phoenix. (Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic)

Later, Thornes older sister, Dani, tells me that she only learned of Bellas alleged abuse recently. I think the day that she did open up about it, it was a weird sense of  not, like, relief  but holy [crap], this is real, said Dani, who is four years Bellas senior. Really, that was the first step to leading her to where she is today.

Where she is today, Thorne says, is first on the scene. If anything happens, its Bella whos the first one downstairs with a bat, she says. Thats me. I watched my life stand still for so long, and now its moving.

She has reason to know it. A few weeks before the interview, there was a burglary at Thornes home. She was watching a movie with her sister on the the couch, and when she heard a noise at her front door, she initially thought it was one of her cats. Then, she noticed a masked figure trying to break in a front window.

I was immediately on my phone calling the police, not even waiting for a beat, she says, because Im just never, ever going to stay still again.

The burglars were scared off but returned when Thorne was not home and made off with $150,000 in loot. Since then, shes been staying at her boyfriends place and plans to buy a new house thats less accessible from the street.

She and Mod Sun, 31, spend nearly all of their time together. Hes adventurous, which she likes: Recently, they both got tooth jewelry  crystals semi-permanently attached to their teeth. At first, she got a disco ball tooth but had to scale it down to three crystals because they started to fall out in her food when she was eating at Chilis.

Bella Thorne performs onstage during day 2 of the Billboard Hot 100 Festival in 2018 in Wantagh, New York. (Theo Wargo / Getty Images for Billboard)

He also encouraged her to pursue music, and shes recently started rapping. She started her own label, Filthy Fang Records, and has released a few singles, the sexually explicit B*TCH, IM BELLA THORNE and Pussy Mine.

Music has taken on a higher priority in the wake of the Famous in Love cancellation, which was accompanied by some dramatic headlines. Thorne dismisses reports that she and showrunner King ever had any issues, and King herself tweeted that she and the actress had, and have always had, a friendly and professional relationship. But, Thorne says, Freeform viewed her as uncontrollable and crazy, and believes the network called her a diva because they were scared I was going to go running my mouth if I was upset.

Running her mouth about what, exactly?

Feminist issues, other things, bullying, she says hesitantly. Its coming out of my mouth and I know youre going to print it. But it was  there were some things  there were some comments made that  I dont know. Im trying to find a way around it. One issue is when you have a girl, a young girl who is on your show, you cant tell her that shes ugly or shes fat or shes this or shes that because thats going to make her feel bad.

Wait, I ask, who called you ugly?

The network, she says. In e-mails, and there was another thing that was in front of everyone on set. After, the cast was texting me, Oh, my God, Bella. I am so sorry. That was so awkward. I feel so bad. Do you want me to come over to your room? Oh, my God, I cant believe they did that. It was all supposed to change on Season 2, and it didnt.

Freeform declined to comment.

Mae Whitman and Bella Thorne in The Duff. (Guy D Alema / CBS Films)

Thorne has always struggled to fit in on sets, she says. She is usually closer with the crew than she is her fellow actors. She vividly recalls how, while filming the 2015 film The Duff, her costar Mae Whitman was the first actress to ask her to hang out outside of work.

I remember saying to my mom, She thinks Im awesome. She actually wants to hang out with me,  Thorne says. My first moment of seeing a female in power was her on that set. That was my first time ever experiencing the right and the wrongs of feminism. Thats just not the way things were growing up in my household. I just never really learned Be a woman, and Be a boss, and all these things and what the feminist movement is about. I never learned that until I got on that set with Mae.

After Shake It Off, Thorne says her agents saw her emulating Rachel McAdams and transitioning to romantic dramas and comedies. She diligently took roles in broad commercial films with family appeal such as Blended and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. But she was really interested in darker fare  the kind of stuff shes doing now.

I grew up loving The Grudge and The Shining,  she says. Horror is the thing that most keeps my eyes on the screen, so I dont think about myself or whatever Im going through.

Its getting dark, and I suggest I should leave because Ive probably been here too long and I can also no longer pretend Im not allergic to her inter-generational family of cats.

Hey, Bella, one more thing, I say. Do you ever wonder if it would be easier to be in an industry where there isnt so much judgment aimed at you?

No, she replies without hesitation. Because I like my life. All of the things that are awful  especially all of the things that happened growing up  Ive always looked at it as: Why me? Because I am strong enough. Because it has gotten me here. I dont even know what Bella Thorne would look like if she hadnt been molested growing up, or her father hadnt died. I dont know that I like that girl.

Bella Thorne at home. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

amy.kaufman@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AmyKinLAIn launching the Animation Is Film Festival last year in Hollywood, GKids Films Chief Executive Eric Beckman was pursuing a big dream: to build an American answer to Frances Annecy Festival while changing the way people think of animation.

Trying to create a must-see event in a town where theres seemingly a film festival every weekend and lots of free screenings with free hors doeuvres  until we actually did it, it was hard to know if people would agree with our reason to exist, says Beckman.

Its sort of nice to have your mission statement be the title of the festival as well, says festival programmer Rodney Uhler of the events goals: To get people who never really gave [animation] much thought or went beyond the kind of mega-releases from the big studios each year to see it more as just a part of the cinematic landscape and not see it as a genre for one specific audience.

After drawing about 5,000 attendees for the inaugural edition, this years festival opens Friday at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood with two screenings of Japanimation titan Momoru Hosodas new Mirai  one in English and one in Japanese, with each followed by Hosoda Q&As. Hell also be there for screenings of several other of his films. In Mirai, which premiered at this years Cannes Film Festival, a young boy is visited by time-displaced phantasms and spirit guides who help him accept his new familial reality.

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Mirai is based on an experience my son had when he was 3 years old, says Hosoda. We had just welcomed a new baby, and he had difficulty accepting her as his little sister. He threw a tantrum on the floor, saying that she stole mom and dads love from him. When I saw that, I thought I saw the true nature and naked soul of what a human is. I felt that humans  and life  are about wanting others and love, from the time they are born until they die.

Uhler says another film to watch for is the Belgian This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gateau!), which he says has been racking up awards left and right. Its sort of an oddball film, but thats why I love it. Its 45 minutes. Its about the European occupation of Africa. The story is told with dark humor and in a surreal sense, but oftentimes, youre distracted by how beautiful the frame is.

This Magnificent Cake! is an anthology film set in colonial Africa in the late 19th century telling the stories of five characters. (GKids Films)

Magnificent Cake is in intensely tactile stop-motion animation, shot and lit with arresting realism. Co-writer and co-director Marc James Roels, who will be on hand, says, We did a lot of research, reading diaries from missionaries and various people who went to Africa during this period. Theres a scene in which a group of porters who are all chained together fall off a bridge. This is something that apparently happened quite often. The way its described in these diaries, it seemed kind of matter of fact. They dont care too much about the porters; they were very upset about the cargo.

Other titles include the Spanish Bunuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles, in which the famed surrealist director undertakes a documentary as the result of a bet, and the Hungarian Ruben Brandt, Collector.

We have a really international lineup, says Uhler. We celebrate American indies as well. Animation is not immune to the underrepresentation of female filmmakers, so having Nina Paley present on opening night with her film, Seder-Masochism, is really special to us. Its a film that will inspire a lot of conversation.

Nina Paleys Seder-Masochism depicts narrative themes of the Passover seder. (GKids Films)

Seder-Masochism is an American film depicting narrative themes of the Passover seder. Its irreverent, jarring, not for kids, and is set to a puckishly selected array of popular songs. Writer-director Paley says her motivations to make the film were partially rooted in objections to her previous film, Sita Sings the Blues, which was based on the Hindu epic poem, the Ramayana.

There was the idea that there was a genetic or racial permission to these certain stories, which I dont agree with. But that was a peculiar strain of criticism: How dare this white, Christian woman appropriate our epic, says Paley, who is Jewish. I was like, OK, Ill do this, but you wont like this any more.

Simultaneous to that, my father was dying. I thought, this was a way of trying to understand something about him; Im going to explore the religion of my father. What ended up happening was I did end up understanding the religion of my father: atheism.

Uhler and Beckman point out that many of the films and events are intended for the whole family, including behind-the-scenes looks at upcoming studio juggernauts Ralph Breaks the Internet and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Beckman says, This is a festival that isnt specifically for people who are into animation; its really for people who are interested in film. Its a really rare opportunity to see all these films in one place. You may not love every film, but itll open your eyes as to what the medium is capable of.

------------

Animation Is Film Festival

When: Oct. 19-21

Where: TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, 90028

Info: https://animationisfilm.com

calendar@latimes.comFor SaraRose Orlandini, the original Halloween isnt just a movie  its a way of life.

Im extremely passionate about Halloween, says the 32-year-old resident of South Pasadena, the picturesque San Gabriel Valley suburb where John Carpenter filmed much of his 1978 horror classic. So passionate, in fact, that shes made it her business. In 2015, the energetic aficionado opened SugarMynt Gallery, an art gallery and event space dedicated to the hugely influential slasher film. This is for the fans, she says of the venture. This is for people like me.

Ben Brown, 10, of Sedona, Ariz., is dressed as the villain, Michael Myers from the 1978 horror classic Halloween while visiting the Myers house, background, on Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena, where much of the movie was filmed. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The shop could hardly be better located. Next door, the 130-year-old clapboard house used as masked killer Michael Myers childhood home in the movie casts a literal shadow over Orlandinis business. This brings SugarMynt a steady stream of Halloween tourists, some of whom come long distances to step into the cinematic Middle American hamlet known in the film as Haddonfield, Ill.

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We were looking for Middle America, Halloween cinematographer Dean Cundey recalled of the decision to shoot in South Pasadena. Haddonfield  was supposed to be just average America. And South Pasadenas architectural style is very similar you know, the clapboard houses and the tree-lined streets and so forth.

SaraRose Orlandini is ready for the holiday at her SugarMynt Gallery, which is devoted to the horror classic Halloween in South Pasadena. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

SugarMynt is only the most conspicuous manifestation of the towns legacy as the main setting of Carpenters movie, a low-budget production so rich in atmosphere that viewing it becomes an immersive experience. This quality perhaps explains why fans have made this town of 25,000 a sort of mecca. In 2007, no less a superfan than Rob Zombie even filmed portions of his remake there (the latest installment, which opens Friday, was largely filmed in South Carolina).

The locations are all still there, says Justin Beahm, a fan who parlayed his admiration of the picture into a job with Halloween distributor Trancas International Films (he has since left the company). A lot of filming locations over time change or are taken down or whatever else, or theyre on a soundstage. Well, there is a Haddonfield, and it is South Pasadena.

Daniel Patton, left, of San Francisco, and friend Mat Dedoussis of New Jersey visit the Myers house in South Pasadena. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Interestingly, the Myers house (which has since been designated a South Pasadena Historic Landmark) was saved due to its significance as one of the towns earliest homes  not because of its connection to the movie. In 1988, when the house was in danger of being bulldozed to make way for a condominium complex, then-City Councilman David Margrave swooped in and bought it for the bargain price of a silver dollar, under the condition that he move it off the lot by the end of the week.

The South Pasadena Preservation Foundation had a big block party, and they moved the house from one side of the street to the other, where it sits now, recalls Margraves widow, Diane Hamilton-Margrave, who still co-owns the building.

In the years since, the house (now used as an office building) has been painted a pale blue with pinkish trim, giving it a decidedly cheerier appearance than it had in the film. But to Halloween fans, it will always be the Myers house; even Carpenter recognizes its importance as a symbol of his most famous creation. He came and he presented David with a map of [Haddonfield], says Hamilton-Margrave. They were very appreciative.

Ben Brown, 10, of Sedona, Ariz., dresses up as Halloween villain Michael Myers while visiting the SugarMynt gallery in South Pasadena. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Less than a quarter-mile away, another valuable piece of Halloween real estate also draws fans: The home of Jamie Lee Curtis mousy-but-resilient Laurie Strode. To the delight of passersby, the homes owner  who spoke with The Times but requested not to be named because of privacy concerns  has fully embraced the association, even leaving plastic pumpkins out on the front porch along with a sign inviting fans to pose like Jamie Lee Curtis.

It was one of those things where my husband and I said, Why fight it? Just get with it, says the homeowner, who notes that people have come from such far-flung locales as Germany, Japan and New Zealand to see the house. Bad apples do occasionally rear their heads, however. Ive had the pumpkins stolen. Ive had some other stuff stolen off my porch, she said. But its rare.

For whatever reason, Halloween has by far the most rabid fans [of any horror franchise], noted Sean Clark, a writer, director, producer, host and personal appearance agent who with Trancas Films and HorrorHound magazine has spearheaded Halloween conventions in neighboring Pasadena every five years since 2003, including this years 40th anniversary celebration. To the point of being annoying. I mean, I love them, but at the same time, they are the Trekkies of the horror world and I couldnt tell you why. Its a mystery to me.

Danny Foster of Atascadero strikes a pose next to a mannequin in the likeness of Halloween villain Michael Myers. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Clark isnt kidding. A quick YouTube search turns up an enormous number of filming location videos shot by fans who made the trek, including at least one Halloween-themed marriage proposal. That video was shot by Alec Wells, who proposed to his superfan then-girlfriend Kat Canipe (now Wells) while dressed as Michael Myers; the clip eventually garnered the attention of fans and now boasts more than 330,000 views.

It feels like church, Kat Wells said of visiting the South Pasadena locations, including the famous peek-a-boo hedge on Montrose Avenue and the hardware store where Michael steals his mask (now an Indian restaurant called Radhika). To people who arent horror fans, to say something like, You know, a horror movie means so much to me that I go to the location and it makes me want to cry, that sounds insane. But  it was absolutely transcendent. It just felt like I was in Haddonfield.

The town hasnt fully embraced its cinematic notoriety, however. Although Beahm and town librarian Steve Fjeldsted eventually persuaded the City Council to name Oct. 31 John Carpenter Day  South Pasadena held a 2013 public proclamation ceremony attended by Carpenter he recalls experiencing some pushback initially.

Jordan Hafford of Salt Lake City kisses a mannequin of villain Michael Myers that is part of a re-created scene from the 1978 movie Halloween. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

I really dont think that they at the time knew the extent of the horror fan base and their dedication to this film, says Beahm. So we kind of had to convince them of that.

As far as Orlandini is concerned, South Pasadena should do more to exploit the Halloween connection. I never understood why people in this city have never embraced it, she said  her next-door neighbors included. Theres an insurance guy upstairs and I try to tell him, Cater to Halloween fans. Everybody needs insurance. Why not get it at the Myers house?

calendar@latimes.comAs enticing as Nigerian Prince is upon opening with a series of cons large and small involving a charming Lagos grifter and, separately, his unwitting cousin visiting from America, this earnest indie from Nigerian American co-writer/director Faraday Okoro eventually loses its multithreaded fizz.

Not that you feel like a mark who fell for one of those help-me-retrieve-my-millions email scams referenced by the title, but rather like someone unsure of what Okoro thinks of his trapped characters. Aimless first-generation Nigerian American teen Eze (Antonio J. Bell), shuffled off to his familys homeland to stay with a welcoming but strict Auntie (Tina Mba), quickly realizes hes been emotionally swindled when he discovers what he thought was a summer trip is really a yearlong disciplinary project meant to straighten him out and teach him some heritage.

Meanwhile, Aunties estranged son Pius (Chinaza Uche), an inveterate scammer, is in deep payback trouble with a corrupt cop (Bimbo Manuel) and sees in Eze a potential co-conspirator. Okoro, who drew from his own youthful experiences as a kid sent to Nigeria by his parents, puts many tantalizing elements and relationships into play, aided by Mbas formidable authoritativeness as Auntie and an appealingly nonjudgmental attitude toward Pius scheming ways.

But when the stakes are raised, ho-hum thriller plotting takes over and Okoro struggles to clarify what his characters want. By the end, everyones motivations are fuzzy and the promise of a uniquely complex story of cross-cultural education, opportunity and morality has withered.

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Nigerian Prince

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Playing: Starts Friday, Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica

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calendar@latimes.com

@LATimesMoviesIf the setting of The Guilty couldnt be simpler, its immaculate execution by first-time director Gustav Moller couldnt be more gripping and involving.

A disturbing Danish psychological thriller and a real-time police drama thats equal parts provocative and emotional, The Guilty wrings complex drama out of its minimalist physical trappings.

Like 2014s Tom Hardy vehicle Locke, The Guilty is a single-location film that consists almost entirely of a series of telephone conversations that get increasingly complex and unexpected.

A precise, sure-handed filmmaker, Moller not only believes that the strongest images in film, the ones that stay with you the longest, they are the ones you dont see, he has the skill to convince us as well.

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Working with co-writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen, Moller has set his film in the police emergency services control room of a large city  unnamed, though presumably Copenhagen.

The first sounds we hear, not surprisingly, are ringing phones. The first image we see in Jasper Spannings taut cinematography is the close-up of an ear with a telephone earpiece firmly in place.

On dispatcher duty this evening is officer Asger Holm, played with an impact that gradually overpowers you by top Danish actor Jakob Cedergren.

Asger, its clear almost immediately, is not business as usual as a dispatcher. When people call in for help, he is as likely as not to give them a sarcastic hard time for getting drunk or being in the red-light district in the first place as he is to send help.

Cedergren has given Asger a stern, rigid visage, presenting him physically as well as verbally as an uncompromising moralist with a sense of mission, someone who has no doubt he knows right from wrong.

That doesnt mean, however, that he cant be disturbed or unsettled, as he is by a call on his personal mobile from a journalist who asks him if he has any comments on his court date the following day.

What becomes clear is what we could have guessed: dispatcher is not Asgers regular beat. He has been temporarily assigned there pending the outcome of that legal proceeding, the cause of which we gradually learn more about.

All this is merely the setup for the main event. The phone rings again and on the line is no disoriented drunk but someone whose situation will change the nature of Asgers night, maybe even of his life.

The caller is Iben (Jessica Dinnage), a woman who sounds like she is talking to her young daughter.

Asgar quickly catches on that Iben is talking to him in a kind of code, trying to convey that she is in trouble without coming out and saying it, and he helps her along by asking a series of yes or no questions about her situation.

What he discovers is that Iben is in a car being driven by her ex-husband and being taken somewhere very much against her will.

Alive to all the grim possibilities a kidnapping presents, the moralist in Asger tries to piece together what is going on, bending heaven and earth to do the right thing for this endangered woman.

It cant be over-emphasized how carefully screenwriters Moller and Albertsen have constructed this story, doling out information sparingly, on a need-to-know basis, letting their plot purposefully unroll like a ball of twine.

As that is happening, The Guilty is ratcheting up both the level of tension and our worry for the people involved as the nature of the unexpected kinds of jeopardy they are involved in gradually becomes clearer.

Helping in this is the superior nature of the performances, starting with star Cedergren, who brings startling nuance and expression to the tight close-ups that dominate the film.

But The Guilty wouldnt succeed as well as it did without the complex editing of Carla Luffe and the involved voices of those who engage Asger on the phone, starting with costar Dinnage but including Johan Olsen and Omar Shargawi in key supporting roles.

One of The Guiltys more potent elements is its emphasis on Asgers genuine passion for police work. Were protection, we protect people who need help, he says on the phone at one point, and his sincerity is never in doubt.

How that belief, that sense of purpose, interacts with the real world in this twisty story  and whether things will work out the way those on the screen or in the audience expect  is the heart of this very fine film. Its a heart that beats as strongly as anyone could hope for.

------------

The Guilty

Rated: R for language

Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes

Playing: Laemmles Royal, West Los Angeles; Playhouse, Pasadena

kenneth.turan@latimes.com

@KennethTuranWhat They Had is the kind of small, unremarkably titled film that could easily fall between the awards season cracks. That would be a pity since this debut feature from writer-director Elizabeth Chomko is one of the years best indie dramas, one that should hit home with a wide range of viewers sure to relate to the achingly authentic family dynamics on display.

At the core of this lovely, heartbreaking, yet often buoyant movie is the irrevocable march into Alzheimers disease by Ruth (Blythe Danner), a woman in her 70s, and its acute impact on her devoted husband, Bert (Robert Forster), and their middle-aged kids: Bridget, or Bitty, (Hilary Swank) and Nick (Michael Shannon).

Weve certainly seen elements of this story on the big screen before, including in Iris, Away from Her and Still Alice. But what distinguishes Chomkos approach to the true-life inspired material (her beloved grandmother had Alzheimers) is how much of the film compellingly looks beyond the plight of family linchpin Ruth.

Ruths family members, also including Bittys surly, college-age daughter, Emma (Taissa Farmiga), are complex, dimensional, everyday people explored with love and candor and a lived-in familiarity via Chomkos fine writing, superbly matched by the work of her dream quartet of leads.

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After Ruth wakes up late one snowy December night, wanders off from her and Berts Chicago apartment and somehow boards a train, she lands in the hospital for observation. Nick summons the California-based Bitty to come home: Now more than ever, he needs help convincing their father, whos in deep denial, to place Ruth in a memory care facility.

It is, of course, easier said than done as Korean War vet Bert is a hard no. Prickly new bar-owner Nick is always at odds with his obstinate  and not dissimilar  dad, and Bitty, a chef whos got problems of her own with both Emma and husband Ed (Josh Lucas), doesnt have the gumption to truly take on the implacably old-school, devout Catholic Bert (much less anyone else).

So while the battle to move Ruth into a nursing home forms the narrative spine here (she coincidentally had a long career in elder health care), Chomko deftly moves the story forward via the remaining familys ingrained conflicts and emotionally charged interactions: Bert negating his childrens wishes for Ruth, opposites Bitty and Nick pushing sibling hot buttons, Bitty battling the resentful Emma, and more. They make for an involving series of powerful, at times darkly amusing, always truthful face-offs.

Peppered in are golden bits with the sweet and gentle Ruth who, despite the occasional flash of clarity, is lost to her illness. Yet shes still tuned-in just enough to know how wrong things are and that her time living at home is  and should be  drawing to a close.

Ruth brings out the best, however, in Bert, whose staunch dedication to her physical and emotional well-being, as well as to their many decades together, is a thing of beauty.

The radiant Danner, one of the greats, is perfection here, while Forster gives a stunning, Oscar-worthy turn as a man struggling to hold onto a blissful past to ward off a frightening future.

As the films nominal lead, Swank is also terrific, juggling Bittys control-freak impulses with her characters dire need for forward momentum. That part of her change eventually comes in such an unplanned way proves one of the films nicest surprises.

As for Shannon, he again shows why hes one of his generations most gripping, provocative actors. He impeccably slips into the blunt and bullying Nicks blue-collar Chicago rhythms, which are scripted with spot-on precision by Windy City native Chomko. (She really nails Berts no-nonsense, Midwest patois too.)

Shannon also poignantly captures how, despite Nicks gruff exterior, hes still just a man-boy looking for his dads approval. For all of Nick and Berts shared bluster, their inevitable rapprochement is wonderfully understated. Bring your handkerchiefs.

-----------

What They Had

Rated: R, for language including a brief sexual reference

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Playing: Starts Oct. 19, The Landmark, West Los Angeles

------------

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@LATimesMoviesIn the War of the Content Providers, product-hungry networks, beyond making their own original series have begun to look farther afield for reinforcements. American television shows have long traveled the world, as anyone who has spent a night in a halfway decent foreign hotel knows, but historically, American television has been limited to  American television, with some British imports for spice.

Even Australia, where they not only speak English but a particularly adorable version of it, was late to enter the American market. They have been sending us their actors for years, mostly to play Americans. (You would be surprised.) Now we are seeing more of their own shows.

Australian television is interesting in a particular way, because the country comprises a kind of an alternate reality version of our own; it looks like us, sort of. (You can say the same about Canada, but Canada has stood in for the U.S. so often in our shows it might as well be us  like, North Washington, and North New York, and North North Dakota.) An even younger country than the United States  if you reckon only by the white people  great tracts of its landscapes (along with its cities and industries) recall the American West. They love country music in Australia; they wear cowboy hats. Their colonial history with the indigenous population is similarly tainted. And, like us, they do like a mystery.

Three interesting examples of Australian crime shows have arrived here from there, more or less recently.

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Dead Lucky, which streams on Sundance Now, is the most conventional. Its main point of interest is star Rachel Griffiths, whom many Americans will have met as Brenda in Six Feet Under, in the role of Sydney police detective Grace Gibbs. There are many familiar elements here  the rule-bending detective with a dead (junior) partner and a problematic new one (Yoson An); problematic superiors; a problematic ex-husband (they share a daughter) and his problematic new girlfriend. (That they all work at the same place is less usual.) Grace is problematic herself, a rule bender, a troublemaker  but shes the one we trust.

Rachel Griffiths, right, is a Sydney police detective with a doubting new partner (Yoson An) in the Sundance Now series Dead Lucky. (Daniel Asher Smith)

The plot is twisty. The killer is known to the police; they just cant lay their hands on him. But there are other mysteries to solve, all entwined with and sometimes masking the one seemingly at the series center. (Still, you may get to the end ahead of the cops.) Social commentary  about immigration, racism, guns  is woven into the storylines.

Just finishing its cable run on FX is Mr. Inbetween, a half-comical criminal slice-of-life series created by and starring Scott Ryan and based on his 2005 mockumentary The Magician, about a Melbourne hitman. (Its still available at fxnetworks.com and for purchase from Amazon.) In the series, already renewed for a second season, Ryans character, Ray Shoesmith, is not specifically a hit man  all to the good, given how crowded that market has become  but a kind of freelance hood whose main adversaries generally turn out to be the people he works with.

Like Breaking Bads fixer Mike Ehrmantraut, Ray has a competence and patience that make him better than the other bad guys around him and attractive to viewers in spite of the fact that hes something of a sociopath (if an oddly reasonable one). Apart from his daughter (Chika Yasumura)  select viewers will recognize Australian web star Natalie Tran as Rays ex-wife  and new girlfriend Ally (Brooke Satchwell), for whom he has real affection, he visits the straight world like a tourist. Not being personally acquainted with people of this sort, I cant say whether making Ray likable is a cheat or not, but its dramatically workable.

By keeping the action at a low boil, even at critical junctures, Mr. Inbetween functions less as a thriller than a character study, often enough as a comedy, and occasionally as a critique of toxic masculinity. Indeed, it comes most alive in scenes where nothing much is happening, in a way that nevertheless holds your interest.

Scott Ryan created and stars as Ray Shoesmith in Mr. Inbetween, a darkly comic crime drama about a Melbourne, Australia, freelance criminal. (FX)

Judy Davis, first famous here for My Brilliant Career and known for much else afterward, is an officer of the law in the epic Mystery Road (Acorn TV), a series sequel to a 2013 Australian film of the same name, also starring Aaron Pedersen as aboriginal detective Jay Swan. (Acorn is the home of several Australian mysteries, some of which have gone on to other streaming services, including Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries, set in 1920s Melbourne, the Guy Pearce-starring Jack Irish and Mr. & Mrs. Murder, a sort of down-market Thin Man mystery whose detectives run an industrial cleaning service that takes them to crime scenes.)

Set in the dusty northwestern region called the Kimberly, it begins with the disappearance of young men, and it is unclear for a long while whether it is a case of missing persons or murder, just before the uncle of one (Wayne Blair) is released from prison, having served time for the rape of a minor. Davis flinty, upright Emma James leads the compact local constabulary and is the disinterested half-owner of a large ranch her brother (Colin Friels) is about to sell to a local aboriginal group, and where the missing boys had been working. Swan is sent from a bigger city to help James in her investigation; inevitably, they clash.

It takes place in big spaces in which people can look very small, but director Rachel Perkins continually resolves the action into life-sized events; it has the sweep of an old-school Western, with the gloss scraped off. (You may think of Chinatown as well.) The cinematography, by Mark Wareham, pays respect to the environment, and to the built environment, without flattering it. The motel room Swan puts up in is no prettier nor uglier than such places are in life; everything feels natural, yet (as moving pictures can) a little more alive than usual.

Perkins keeps the telling straightforward, even though the story is not. One is liable to get it all wrong more than once. Its less a matter of red herrings, though, than of becoming less sure, about the plot, and about the people  you think you know them, but people will fool you.

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloyd

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Where: Sundance Now

When: Anytime

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17)

Mr Inbetween

Where: Fox.com

When: Anytime

Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17 with advisories for coarse language, sexual content and violence)

Mystery Road

Where: Acorn TV

When: Anytime

Rating: Not RatedBarbie, the pint-sized fashion plate whose closet is filled with designer duds from brands such as Givenchy, Dior, Oscar de la Renta and Moschino, has added a tiny  and we mean tiny  selection of Rodarte dresses to her wardrobe.

Officially announced Wednesday on the @barbiestyle Instagram account, the diminutive dresses are scaled-down versions of looks from the spring and summer 2018 runway collection designer sisters that Kate and Laura Mulleavy presented in Paris in June 2017.

The dolls dolled-up in Rodarte are, appropriately enough, from the Fashionista line, which Mattel launched in 2016 to offer more diverse body types  including tall, petite and curvy.

Laura, left, and Kate Mulleavy discuss a dress design for the diminutive diva known as Barbie. (Mattel Inc.)

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Unlike some of the previous designer collaborations, though, the dolls rocking Rodarte arent being offered for sale but instead will simply inhabit the toy makers social media account, as perhaps a reminder that girls can grow up to be anything they want  including high-profile, critically acclaimed fashion designers whose work appears not just on the runway and the red carpet but also on the movie screen (they created costumes for Black Swan), the opera stage (for the Los Angeles Philharmonics production of Don Giovanni) and museum galleries (a three-month-long Rodarte exhibition opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., next month).

And, while were on the topic of doll-meets-designer collaborations, are we the only one who thinks the time might be ripe to get man-bun Ken into some glammed-up mini-Gucci by Alessandro Michele? Perhaps if designer-look Barbie has anything to do with it.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschornCalifornia will reconsider life sentences for up to 4,000 nonviolent third-strike criminals by allowing them to seek parole under a ballot measure approved by voters two years ago, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday.

The state will craft new regulations by January to include the repeat offenders in early release provisions. Gov. Jerry Brown also will not appeal a court ruling that the state is illegally excluding the nonviolent career criminals from parole under the 2016 ballot measure he championed to reduce the prison population and encourage rehabilitation.

The state parole board estimates 3,000 to 4,000 nonviolent third-strikers could be affected, said corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters, but they would have to go through rigorous public safety screenings and a parole board hearing before any decision is made.

Its the second such loss for the Democratic governor, who leaves office days after the new rules are due. Another judge ruled in February that the state must consider earlier parole for potentially thousands of sex offenders. The administration is fighting that ruling, which undercuts repeated promises that Brown made to voters to exclude sex offenders from earlier release.

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He will not appeal last months ruling by a three-judge appellate panel in the Second Appellate District in a Los Angeles County case that third-strikers must be included under Proposition 57s constitutional amendment. It requires parole consideration for any person convicted of a nonviolent felony offense regardless of enhancements under Californias three-strikes law.

There is no question that the voters who approved Proposition 57 intended [inmates] serving Three Strikes indeterminate sentences to be eligible for early parole consideration, the appeals court ruled, adding that, There is strong evidence the voters who approved Proposition 57 sought to provide relief to nonviolent offenders.

Administration lawyers said in a filing in a separate related case that the state is not seeking review of the appeals court decision and is in the process of drafting new emergency regulations in compliance with the decision by Jan. 5.

Michael Romano, director of the Stanford Three Strikes Project, called the administrations decision to comply a big deal, a huge deal.

Clients potentially affected by the new decision include inmates serving life terms for stealing a bicycle, possessing less than half a gram of methamphetamine, stealing two bottles of liquor or shoplifting shampoo, he said.

Its a monumental decision. Its one of the biggest decisions on sentencing policy in the Brown administration, said Romano, whose project represented third-strike inmates in several appeals.

The ruling doesnt guarantee any of the offenders will get out of jail. But it allows them to go before the parole board. Romano estimates 4,000 people will be eligible for parole.

Nonviolent third-strikers are disproportionately black, disproportionately mentally ill and statistically among the least likely to commit additional crimes, said Romano, who has studied the issue.

He cited corrections department data on more than 2,200 nonviolent, non-serious third strikers who were paroled under a 2012 ballot measure that allowed most inmates serving life terms for relatively minor third strikes to ask courts for shorter terms. Less than 11% returned to prison by October 2016, the latest data available, he said, compared with nearly 45% for other prisoners.Escalating his criticism of Californias fire management strategy, President Trump threatened Wednesday to withhold unspecified funding from the state.

The comments at a Cabinet meeting were vague on details  but they nonetheless sent federal forest managers across the state scrambling to figure out what the implications may be for their programs.

I say to the governor, or whoever is going to be the governor of California, you better get your act together, Trump said at the meeting. Were just not going to continue to pay the kind of money were paying because of fires that should never be to the extent.

It is unclear what funding the president is suggesting he would withhold  whether for forest management or firefighting on federal land, aid and reimbursements to state agencies after fires, or something else entirely.

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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trumps remarks come two months after he inaccurately suggested in a tweet that Californias environmental laws were preventing firefighters from accessing water they needed to douse wildfires  a proposition rebutted by firefighters and forest managers alike.

This time, he blamed incompetence for causing the federal government to pay out hundreds of billions of dollars.

Its a disgraceful thing. Old trees are sitting there, rotting and dry. And instead of cleaning it up, they dont touch them, Trump said of the states land management programs.

I think California ought to get their act together and clean up their forests and manage their forests, he said.

It is not clear whether the president was outlining changes in federal policy or campaigning against a state he has cast as an adversary ahead of the midterm election.

His comments left federal and state forest managers uncertain  both about the specific funding Trump is addressing and, were money to actually be withheld, what it would mean for forests and the people who live near or in them.

Paul Wade, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service in California, said Trumps comments Wednesday triggered a brief discussion between us and Washington.

He declined to elaborate, except to say: This is of national importance, and it affects the entire Forest Service. Our team is looking into this and trying to figure out how to respond.

Its hard to say, exactly, what hes talking about, said Scott McLean, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection deputy chief, referring to the presidents comments.

McLean said if the federal government pulled funding, state and private lands would largely be immune. The real problem, he said, would be in the national forests, which are not under Cal Fires jurisdiction.

Last year, 1.4 million acres in California burned, about 745,000 of them on federal land. So far this year, 1.366 million acres have burned, with about 742,000 on federal land, and were not finished yet, McLean said.

The state funds several programs that allow Cal Fire to remove dead trees and brush, as well as perform controlled burns, McLean said. And it allocated $443 million for emergency fire funds, which have already been used. The agency has asked the state for $243 million more.

Federal wildfire funding generally comes after a major fire, McLean said, and is used for aid and rebuilding, not fire suppression. These funds, which are accessed as federal grants via the Federal Emergency Management Agency, pay for 75% of the recovery costs incurred during a major fire.

These funds do not come from the U.S. Forest Service, which has its own firefighting force and in some cases suppresses fires on federal land. The agency has seen its budget slashed by more than $1.5 billion over the last two years, according to federal documents.

Environmentalists reacted quickly to Trumps latest comments suggesting he is trying to use fire prevention as an excuse to raid Californias forests.

They contend he is making a move to open ecologically sensitive public land for timber production, as well as for potential solar, wind, broadband infrastructure, mining, off-road vehicles and grazing uses.

Trumps threat to cut off funding is profoundly dangerous, said Chad Hanson, a research ecologist and spokesman for the John Muir Project, adding that research suggests increased logging can escalate fire intensity, damage wildlife habitat and put human lives at risk in communities near wildlands.

Instead of creating inroads for timber interests in our public forests, we should be focusing resources on making homes and structures fire-safe, he said.

Timber industry and advocates, including Reps. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale) and Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove), argue that environmental laws and activists are to blame for declines in timber sales  and an increase in forest fires  throughout the West.

They say the problem could be solved by lifting what they describe as burdensome regulations that have curtailed timber harvesting in national forests.

Its a notion Trump appeared to endorse in his comments Wednesday and in his tweets earlier this year. Critics say it is also driving a U.S. Forest Service plan to allow commercial logging of healthy green pine trees for the first time in decades in the Los Padres National Forest north of Los Angeles, a strategy the agency says will reduce fire risk.

Unfortunately, said McLean, the Cal Fire spokesman, the real issue is Mother Nature. After five years of drought, our vegetation is as dry as its ever been.

susanne.rust@latimes.com

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Twitter: @susrust @LouisSahagunThe Air Force has identified the California pilot who was killed during a military training exercise in Ukraine earlier this week.

Lt. Col. Seth Jethro Nehring, 44, was flying a Ukrainian Su-27UB aircraft Tuesday when it crashed in the Vinnytsia region, about 175 miles southwest of Kiev, Ukraines capital, the Air Force said in a statement. He was a fighter pilot with the California Air National Guards 144th Fighter Wing group, based in Fresno.

We are a close-knit family and when a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the 144th Fighter Wing feels it, Col. Daniel Kelly, commander of the 144th, said in a statement. We share in the sorrow felt by Jethros loved ones and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends as well as those of the Ukrainian aviator.

The crash also killed a Ukrainian pilot, identified as Col. Ivan Petrenko, who was the chief of aviation at the Ozern Air Base in Zhytomer, Ukraine.

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Nehring and Petrenko were participating in a combat flight exercise in a large-scale training called Clear Sky 2018, which involved about 950 personnel from the United States and eight other countries. Nehring was handpicked for the position based on his 20 years experience as a pilot with the 144th group, the Air Force said.

The U.S. and some of its European allies have been conducting military training exercises in Ukraine since 2015 in support of the countrys ongoing war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. This was the first combat air training invovling U.S. and Ukrainian forces since those exercises began, officials said, and both governments are investigating the cause of the crash.

Nehring lived in Reno but grew up in Fresno, Air Force spokesman Sgt. Charles Vaughn said. He is survived by his parents.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandraWhen the regions most powerful earthquake in years struck Northern California on an early Sunday morning in 2014, it jolted two homes standing side by side on a residential block in Napa.

The homes were in dramatically different condition when the shaking stopped. The blue house had been seismically retrofitted years before the magnitude 6 temblor and emerged largely intact. The yellow house didnt have that protection and was battered, the foundation torn up and the porch columns grotesquely distorted. The owner faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in repair bills and could not rent it out for 2  years.

Retrofitting single-family homes is considered one of the cheapest seismic improvements available, a foundation bolting process that usually costs less than $7,000 and can be done within several days without the residents moving out. But state officials, concerned that more homeowners are not taking action, are working on new initiatives aimed at sparking more retrofitting.

While some cities have focused on requiring retrofits of concrete buildings and wood-frame apartments, there is no such mandate for single-family homes, in part because the chances of death in an earthquake are much lower in such structures. As the fate of the yellow house in Napa showed, damage from a quake can bring financial catastrophe. Homes can be declared unfit to occupy, and owners can spend years searching for ways to finance repairs costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, all while paying the mortgage and finding a temporary place to live.

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There has not been a large quake directly underneath an urban area of California since the 1994 magnitude 6.7 Northridge temblor, which caused $42 billion in damage and left 14,000 homes and apartments uninhabitable. After Northridge, there was a flurry of home retrofitting. But momentum has slowed down as memories of that quake fade.

A closer look at the unretrofitted yellow home in Napa, damaged after the magnitude 6 earthquake in 2014. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

This month, the state launched a new round of a grant program giving homeowners up to $3,000 to retrofit. Officials also hope to streamline the process for home retrofits by making certain plans available to allow owners to avoid hiring a structural engineer.

Studies have shown how vulnerable California is to major earthquakes. In April, a U.S. Geological Survey study said a magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault in the East Bay could kill at least 800 people, and hundreds more could die in subsequent fires. Aftershocks could further shake up the wider region for months, plausibly causing a 6.4 quake close to Cupertino and a 6.2 near Palo Alto.

Though workers in the Bay Area might feel safe in buildings with the latest seismic technology, whether in the newest San Francisco skyscrapers like Salesforce Tower or corporate campuses like Apples spaceship in Cupertino, the destruction of the regions housing supply could suddenly render the workforce without a place to live.

At nighttime, these folks get back in their cars and go home to their pre-1940s wonderful bungalows, said structural engineer Janiele Maffei, who runs the state retrofit grant program and shared the story about the two Napa homes. Without fixing the problem for many more Californians, were going to have a very different kind of a homeless problem.

The USGS report estimated that there could be more than 150,000 households displaced from their homes and nearly 50,000 people in need of short-term shelter in the Bay Area after a big quake on the Hayward fault.

 Why a home built a few steps above the ground can slide off its foundation in an earthquake, and how the defect can be fixed, as explained by structural engineer Janiele Maffei.

There are at least a million homes in California with a defect that puts them at risk of sliding off their foundation in an earthquake. They are more common in homes constructed before 1940 but also exist in others built before 1980. These houses  elevated above the ground by a handful of steps  can be sent lurching after the flimsy short wall propping them above the foundation breaks.

Some owners never recover. After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, some walked away, abandoning their homes to foreclosure. Some lost their entire life savings as the bulk of their equity lay in ruins. About a year and a half after the earthquake, The Times reported that half of the foreclosures in the San Fernando Valley involved earthquake-damaged homes.

The seismic damage also pushed down home values, sending the price per square foot of single-family homes in the Valley down 34% compared with the price five years earlier. Owners were stuck  they couldnt pay to repair their homes, and they also couldnt sell high enough to pay off their mortgages.

Today, only 10% of California homeowners have earthquake insurance  largely because earthquake insurance is generally not required by lenders. (A homeowners insurance policy typically required by mortgage providers protects against perils such as fire.)

Though the number of policies sold by the California Earthquake Authority, a large nonprofit insurance provider established by state officials, has risen 30% in the last decade, there are only about a million residential earthquake policies in force out of about 14 million households across the state.

A house in Fillmore sits askew six months after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, having slid off its foundation. (Joe Pugliese / Los Angeles Times)

As part of their new push in encouraging Californians to retrofit their homes, state officials are expanding the geographical areas in which homeowners can apply for the $3,000 retrofit grant for homes elevated off their foundation and surrounded by a low wood wall, called a cripple wall, that often has not been fastened tightly to the foundation.

In an earthquake, the lack of grip between the house and foundation can cause the home to be shoved off  as if a rug has been pulled out from under the house, breaking the buildings knees.

The new round of funding announced this month adds another $6 million to retrofit homes, enough to fund 2,000 or more retrofits. The funding is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Earthquake Authority.

Among the new areas that are now eligible for retrofit grants: in Southern California, areas in the San Fernando Valley, Pomona, Diamond Bar, Walnut, Yucaipa and Calimesa; in Northern California, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, wide sections of Silicon Valley  including San Jose  and suburbs of the East Bay, as well as communities surrounding Eureka.

People can apply online at earthquakebracebolt.com through Nov. 13.

 Older California homes can slide or topple off their foundations in an earthquake. Structural engineer Janiele Maffei offers advice on what precautions should be taken to retrofit such homes.

Beyond the grants, the state hopes to reduce the cost of retrofitting by offering templates for types of homes that can guide contractors or do-it-yourselfers without the need for a structural engineer. This fall, the Applied Technology Council, a nonprofit composed of structural engineers, is expected to come out with templates covering homes with a cripple wall of between 4 and 7 feet.

There are other types of single-family homes that can collapse  and can result in a higher risk of death.

One problematic type are homes where theres a living space above a garage. Sometimes, the wooden walls supporting the garage are too flimsy and can collapse in an earthquake. Because the main problem is a lack of strength in the first-floor garage, the defect is known as a soft story, and fixing it may cost something in the range of $20,000.

This flaw can be seen in thousands of homes in San Francisco. The state has asked FEMA to fund a new program to assist in the retrofit of soft-story single-family homes. Templates for this type of retrofit are also expected to be made available this year.

 Hillside homes can collapse in an earthquake. Ken Hudnut, a U.S. Geological Survey research geophysicist, explains some ways to prevent a house from sliding away.

Another type are homes built on hillsides with flimsy poles holding them up as supports. In the 1994 Northridge earthquake, a hillside home in Sherman Oaks was sent tumbling down, killing the young couple inside.

Experts were unable to come up with templates for hillside homes; structural engineers will still need to be hired for those retrofits. But the Applied Technology Council will provide pre-engineering documents to assist other structural engineers devising plans to retrofit a hillside home.

In the long run, on average, itll save you money if you retrofit now, said Keith Porter, research professor of structural engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. For every dollar spent on a retrofit, youll save several dollars in future repair costs. Its better to strengthen your house now  in a calm and controlled fashion, than have to deal with a disaster after the earthquake.

Average cost to retrofit a home with bracing and bolting*

Statewide: $5,300

Northern California: $7,200

Southern California: $4,000

* The cost of retrofitting Northern California homes is, on average, higher, because more are elevated and on hills, and more require a solution designed by a structural engineer. A bolt-only retrofit in Southern California on average costs about $3,000.



ron.lin@latimes.com

Twitter: @ronlin

UPDATES:

4:30 p.m.: This article was updated with the latest information on the average cost of retrofits.

This article was originally published at 4 a.m.Authorities were searching Wednesday for an inmate who escaped the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriffs Station in Calabasas.

Edis Gonzales-Lopez, 19, climbed over a wall of the station at 5:28 p.m. Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department said in a statement. Gonzales-Lopez worked in the station as a trusty.

Gonzales-Lopez was arrested Sept. 17 on suspicion of burglary. His next court date was scheduled for Nov. 14.

He is known to frequent Pacoima and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, according to the Sheriffs Department.

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Authorities ask anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact the Sheriffs Departments Major Crimes Bureau Metro Detail at (562) 946-7893. Information may be provided anonymously at (800) 222-8477 or at https://lacrimestoppers.org.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

Twitter: @haileybransonAn evacuation order that affected some 4,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area was lifted Thursday after crews extinguished a fire threatening an underground natural gas pipeline.

The situation started with a small vegetation fire about 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Bay Point community. Contra Costa County firefighters extinguished the blaze and left. About an hour later, they got another call about a fire inside a vault that houses gas pipelines operated by Chevron, said Assistant Fire Chief Terence Carey.

It was realized very quickly that there was a high probability of danger, he said during a news conference Thursday morning.

Fire officials are investigating what started the fire. A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. representative said the utility had received reports that the blaze may have been sparked by an electrical line that fell after possibly being struck by birds.

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Authorities evacuated 1,400 homes in Bay Point on Wednesday night as a precaution. All evacuation orders were lifted by 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Contra Costa County Deputy Fire Chief Lewis Broschard told reporters.

Chevron is working to reduce pressure in the at-risk gas line in Bay Point at this time. Evacuation orders remain in place overnight; if you need help evacuating, call 911. Currently, approximately 4,000 people are evacuated from 1,400 homes. pic.twitter.com/EOyfDES3mj  Confire PIO (@ContraCostaFire) October 18, 2018

Some residents were awakened by officials pounding on their doors beginning at 11 p.m. Wednesday and continuing through the early morning hours, telling them to evacuate immediately.

Pablo Jimenez, 33, his wife and two daughters were the last residents to leave their neighborhood early Thursday after previous knocks on his door failed to wake them.

It was a very nerve-racking awakening for me and my family, he said. We had no idea what was going on.

He said that he grabbed his 7-year-old and 2-year-old daughters from their beds, and that the family left in their pajamas to stay with his brother, who lives a few miles away, outside the evacuation zone. Others spent the night at a church and the Bay Point BART station, where many residents slept in their cars.

Jimenez has lived in Bay Point, a suburb of San Francisco that attracts families looking for affordable housing, for two years. He and several of his neighbors didnt realize they live near a natural gas pipeline until they were evacuated.

Its a little more concerning knowing theres a pipeline and that theres been fires that have started quickly nearby, he said.

Thanks to Pittsburg PD and their drone program for helping us keep infrared eyes on the Bay Point gas pipeline incident overnight. The colorful image has allowed us to track temperatures in the vault throughout the incident. #poinsettiaic pic.twitter.com/8AUwSYdHHd  Confire PIO (@ContraCostaFire) October 18, 2018

Chevron crews worked overnight to reduce pressure on the gas line inside the vault, which resulted in a loud, shrieking noise that was described by fire officials as a jet-engine-like sound emanating from the area.

On Thursday, officials planned to purge the remaining natural gas from the line and inject it with nitrogen, which will extinguish the fire, said Chevron project coordinator Cary Wages.

Wages said the area is no longer at risk of an explosion, a possibility that had concerned officials overnight.

It is not clear when residents will be able to return to their homes. Officials anticipated it could be several hours before the fire in the vault was put out. After that, fire authorities will inspect the area to ensure it is safe.

Willow Cove Elementary School in Pittsburg was closed Thursday because of the evacuations.

Were very sympathetic to the citizens displaced from their home, but we want to ensure their safety, Carey said.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @Hannahnfry

Times staff writer Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

7:40 p.m.: This article was updated with the evacuation orders being lifted.

2:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

11:15 a.m.: This article was updated with an interview with an evacuated resident.

This article was originally published at 8:25 a.m.Seeking more evidence in a string of shootings in and around Malibu Creek State Park, Los Angeles County sheriffs deputies and search and rescue personnel again scoured the trails and brush Wednesday.

The search came as homicide detectives await ballistic testing to determine whether a man who was carrying a rifle when he was arrested by investigators seeking a burglary suspect is tied to the fatal shooting of Tristan Beaudette in June.

They are doing due diligence and searching for additional evidence, a Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said. Deputies and search and rescue [crews] with experience in the area combed it.

Anthony Rauda, 42, was arrested last week after searchers spent days looking for him in the wilderness area. Authorities are investigating whether he is responsible for a string of burglaries in the area over the last three months and several others dating to 2016.

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Officials are testing the weapon Rauda had when he was arrested to determine whether it is linked to shootings in and around the park. Nishida said Wednesday that final results are not back on the ballistics tests.

Beaudette, a research scientist from Irvine, was camping with his two young daughters when he was fatally shot in his tent before dawn.

The June 22 slaying has baffled investigators. At first, it seemed like an isolated incident. But then officials acknowledged they knew of at least seven other shooting reports in the area in the last two years.

James Rogers was hiking the Backbone Trail and was asleep in a hammock in Tapia Park, just south of Malibu Creek State Park, when he was struck by birdshot from a shotgun on Nov. 3, 2016. Rogers said he needed surgery to remove the pellets.

I heard a loud bang and then felt a burning sensation in my arm and fell to the ground, he said. Before I could look at my wound, I did a quick check of the perimeter and I saw nothing.

Meliss Tatangelo was camping in her Honda when she heard a loud noise about 5 a.m. in January 2017. She and another camper did not go outside, but she later found part of an ammunition round lodged in the back of her car. She reported the incident to authorities, she noted on her Facebook page.

She wrote that she believed a shotgun was fired from about 20 feet away and that if the line of fire had been an inch higher, she would have been struck as she slept.

Rauda was booked on suspicion of violating parole and is being held without bail. He has a criminal history of burglary and weapons violations, authorities said.

The string of break-ins in Calabasas and Malibu occurred between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. In each incident, food was stolen. The latest break-in occurred in the early-morning hours of Oct. 9 when a man smashed the front glass door of the Agoura Hills/Calabasas Community Center.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimesA Moreno Valley man wanted by police in connection with a double homicide in Nevada and a shooting in Southern California was arrested Wednesday after a chase and shootout with deputies that he livestreamed on Facebook.

San Bernardino County sheriffs deputies arrived at the scene of a shooting at a home in the 7400 block of Elk Trail in Yucca Valley about 2:15 a.m. Wednesday. A 43-year-old man had been shot and was taken to a hospital. His condition was unknown Thursday morning.

Witnesses told deputies that a man, later identified as Roger Tindell, 36, and a woman left the home in a silver BMW.

Deputies spotted the BMW nearby and turned on their lights to signal Tindell to pull over. Instead, he led them on a chase through Yucca Valley and Morongo, authorities said.

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At one point during the livestream of the pursuit, Tindell tells the pregnant woman sitting beside him in the car to cover her ears, as he leans out the window and fires several shots toward deputies.

Tindell shifts from using profanity to describe the woman, whom he referred to as his hostage, and threatening to shoot her to eventually calling her babe and saying he loves her in the video.

Now I have to raise our son alone, thank you, she tells him.

Another video posted to Tindells Facebook late Tuesday shows him getting dressed to leave his house. He smokes a cigarette, chugs a can of iced tea, places a black bandanna over his face and secures a handgun in the waistband of his pants. He also points the barrel of the gun at the camera.

Authorities said the pursuit ended when Tindell collided with a patrol car and opened fire at deputies. He was wounded in the gunfight and was taken to a hospital. The female passenger was not injured, but was taken to a hospital as a precaution. Tindell is expected to survive his injuries.

During their investigation, detectives discovered that Tindell was wanted by the FBI in connection with a double homicide in Henderson, Nev. In that case, a man and a woman who had suffered head injuries were found dead inside a home last Friday, according to Henderson police.

It is not clear how authorities connected Tindell to the Nevada case.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahnfryThe top U.S. and Chinese military officials sought to tamp down tensions and reset their deteriorating relationship Thursday after months of tit-for-tat quarrels that at times threatened to escalate into a military confrontation between the Pacifics two biggest powers.

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis told Chinas defense minister, Wei Fenghe, that the United States wanted a durable relationship, despite growing strains over Chinas building of military facilities in the South China Sea, expanded U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, a costly trade war between Washington and Beijing, and other friction points.

If the two defense officials made headway, they didnt show it. Their only public interaction was a stiff handshake before the meeting, as Mattis smiled at a tight-lipped Wei in his green Peoples Liberation Army uniform.

This was a reengagement and trying to reestablish high-level communication, said Randall Schriver, the Pentagons assistant secretary for Asia, who briefed reporters after the 90-minute meeting in Singapore. Were going to continue to have differences. They werent resolved in this discussion and they probably wont be in the next discussion.

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The talks, on the sidelines of an annual meeting of Asian defense ministers, come after an especially fraught period.

Early this month, a Chinese military vessel nearly rammed the Decatur, a U.S. destroyer, near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Four days later, Vice President Mike Pence gave a speech accusing China of predatory economic practices, military aggression against the U.S. and efforts to undermine President Trump and harm his reelection chances.

The next week, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, engaged in a frosty exchange in Beijing. Pompeo said the worlds two largest economies were stuck in a fundamental disagreement over a range of issues, from trade to maintaining sanctions on North Korea.

U.S. officials stressed that Wei had sought the Singapore meeting with Mattis after he had abruptly canceled planned talks in Beijing this month, forcing the Pentagon chief to scrub his visit there.

The U.S. officials portrayed Weis outreach as a sign that Beijing wants to lower temperatures ahead of a possible meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, possibly on the sidelines of the G-20 economic summit that starts Nov. 30 in Buenos Aires.

Inside the Trump administration, the Pentagon has emerged as a voice of moderation in dealing with China.

Mattis told reporters traveling with him that U.S. policy in the South China Sea had not changed dramatically from that pursued by the Obama administration, for example, and he noted that U.S. and Chinese diplomats have cooperated at the United Nations in maintaining sanctions on North Korea.

We are not seeking a more militarily confrontational approach with China, Mattis said.

Hard-liners in the White House have pressed a more belligerent approach in hopes of forcing China to make concessions in trade talks. Chinese officials, in turn, have pushed back both to register displeasure with Trumps trade agenda and as a show of force in the western Pacific, which the U.S. military has dominated since the end of World War II.

One potential flash point is the Taiwan Strait, where the Pentagon is weighing plans to send an aircraft carrier battle group for the first time in decades to show support for Taiwan. Doing so would be certain to prompt a furious response from Beijing, which views the island as an indivisible part of its territory.

In his meeting with Mattis, Wei raised concerns about U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Mattis assured Wei that the U.S. had not changed its long-standing policy that Taiwan is part of China, Schriver said.

Unlike previous administrations, however, Pentagon officials now openly discuss preparing for possible war against China  a scenario that until recently was treated as something to plan for but not mention in public.

Mattis and Wei agreed military ties between the two nuclear-armed nations could be a stabilizing force in an otherwise turbulent relationship, Schriver said.

Both sides have reasons to walk back from confrontation, at least temporarily.

U.S. officials want China to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, and to enforce economic sanctions against Pyongyang  help that Beijing is unlikely to provide if it is locked in a fierce rivalry with the U.S. on other issues.

Trump may back away from his combative strategy if he can nail down a trade deal with Beijing, some experts say.

Theres no question many senior Trump officials are determined to ratchet up the pressure on China, said Derek Chollet, a former Pentagon and State Department official during the Obama administration. Yet one wonders how wedded Trump himself is to this view.

Trumps decision in March to pull out of a proposed regional free-trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership left the U.S. with less leverage to contest Chinas growing power in the region, Chollet said.

In the charged environment, avoiding an inadvertent military clash or small incident that suddenly escalates into a crisis has taken on greater urgency, according to U.S. officials.

We need to make sure that when we step on each others toes, it doesnt escalate into something catastrophic, Schriver said.

There has been a cascade of disputes in recent months.

Among them: Beijing denied a U.S. warship permission to dock in Hong Kong; the U.S. sanctioned a Chinese company for buying Russian-made weapons; the State Department approved a $330-million military equipment sale to Taiwan; and the U.S. sanctioned the Peoples Liberation Army for buying Russian surface-to-air missiles and warplanes.

In addition, a 27-year-old Chinese engineering student in Chicago was charged with spying for China, a Chinese intelligence official was arrested in Belgium and extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges, and the CIA director publicly warned of Chinese cyberhacking and other threats.

In a rare step, the Pentagon deployed two nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the South China Sea to reinforce the U.S. rejection of Chinas claim to the airspace. The Pentagon also withdrew an invitation to China to participate in multi-country annual Pacific military exercises, known as Rimpac, that it had previously joined.

Some experts contend that China has outmaneuvered Washington and that a more forceful U.S. policy is overdue.

China is pushing below the level of war to demonstrate that they have greater willpower than we do, Michael J. Green, an Asia expert at Georgetown University and a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration, told a forum at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank. Frankly, I think they won at that for a while.

The most likely spot for a military clash is in the resource-rich South China Sea, which has heavily traveled shipping lanes, rich fishing grounds and potential oil, gas and other undersea mineral deposits.

China claims most of the sea and its scattered islands, though Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei have overlapping claims. Beijing has built military facilities on three man-made islands that it says are defensive in nature. The U.S. says they threaten vital shipping in international waters.

Critics say the Trump administration has not demonstrated an effective counter to Chinas buildup other than sending warships and aircraft near the disputed islands to demonstrate freedom of navigation, much as President Obama did.

Their policy in the South China Sea is the Obama administration policy that already failed, said Greg Poling, an expert in the maritime disputes at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

They have spent a lot less time on their soapbox talking about the South China Sea than the Obama administration did.

Privately, U.S. military officials say tougher options, including larger shows of force, are possible. But other than Vietnam and Indonesia, most countries in the region have shown little appetite for public confrontation with Beijing.

david.cloud@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidcloudLATPresident Trump on Thursday acknowledged the likely death of the missing Saudi journalist at the center of a global crisis, and said those responsible for his killing would suffer very severe consequences.

After wavering for days on what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, a Virginia-based Saudi national who wrote opinion columns for the Washington Post, Trump seemed to be moving toward a conclusion that investigators had reached two weeks ago.

His words, and the administrations first steps toward a limited reprisal against Saudi Arabia, marked a significant shift for the president, who until Thursday had repeatedly given credence to Saudi denials of involvement in Khashoggis apparent killing.

But he continued to avoid publicly pinpointing blame.

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It certainly looks that way to me, Trump said when reporters asked him if Khashoggi was dead. Its very sad.

The consequences will have to be very severe, he added. I mean, its bad, bad stuff. But well see what happens. Trump spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One for a flight to a campaign rally in Montana.

Turkish officials have said that Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist who became a critic of the countrys current government, was brutally killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. He entered the building on Oct. 2 to obtain official documents and has not been seen since.

Turkish news outlets, which government officials heavily control, have published detailed accounts of what they describe as Khashoggis torture and death at the hands of a team of 15 Saudis who flew into Istanbul hours before the killing and left shortly afterward.

The Turkish media have said that those accounts are based on secret audio recordings government officials possess that detail Khashoggis death and the dismemberment of his body. The tapes have not been publicly released.

Several of the Saudi men who flew into Istanbul the day Khashoggi disappeared are security officials with close ties to Saudi Arabias de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

A Turkish newspaper on Thursday published a time-stamped photograph of one of them, identified as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, entering the consulate a few hours before Khashoggi did. Mutreb has accompanied Mohammed on foreign trips, including one to the United States this year.

The crown prince and his father, King Salman, have denied to Trump that they had any role in the killing. Saudi officials also have publicly insisted that Khashoggi left the consulate alive within a short time of arriving there  a claim that Trump now implicitly acknowledges was false.

People familiar with the thinking of the Saudi rulers expect them to ultimately acknowledge Khashoggi was killed at the consulate and blame overzealous intelligence agents acting on their own initiative. However, the Saudi leadership needs time to identify scapegoats and assure the West theyve been detained and will be punished, those people said.

Trump has come under mounting criticism from lawmakers, including several prominent Republicans, for failing to condemn the Saudis as he has given the government in Riyadh time to come up with an explanation. Criticism has also come from diplomats and even some corporations that long have profited from close relations with the Saudi royal family.

Earlier this week, Trump compared the accusations against Crown Prince Mohammed to those against his Supreme Court appointee, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, saying both were being considered guilty until proven innocent.

But in a brief interview with the New York Times on Thursday, he acknowledged that the apparent killing of Khashoggi had set off a foreign policy crisis involving U.S.-Saudi relations.

This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately, Trump said, the newspaper reported. Its not a positive. Not a positive.

Earlier in the day, in the administrations first rebuke of Riyadh, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin met with Trump and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and then announced he was pulling out of an upcoming major Saudi investment conference that is a showcase for the crown prince.

Trade and finance ministers from countries including Britain, France and the Netherlands; the head of the International Monetary Fund and CEOs of major companies already had withdrawn in protest. Mnuchin was under growing pressure to add his name to the list.

Fox Business Network also announced it was withdrawing from the conference but was continuing to pursue an interview with the crown prince.

Pompeo told reporters that he had urged the president to give the Saudi government a few more days to explain what happened to Khashoggi.

We ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts, he said.

Pompeo returned Wednesday night from meetings with leaders in the Saudi and Turkish capitals and went to the White House on Thursday morning to brief Trump.

Pompeo said the Saudis understand the serious nature of Khashoggis disappearance and would conduct a thorough and timely investigation.

Their findings, he said, will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about, to inquire with respect to its thoroughness.

Turkey is conducting its own inquiry, and Pompeo said those results will also be taken into consideration. He again stressed the importance of Saudi Arabia as a strategic ally in a relationship, he noted, that dates back more than 80 years.

We just are going to allow the process to move forward, allow the facts to unfold, Pompeo said. And as they unfold, as we make a determination for ourselves about what happened there, based on the facts that are presented to us, the United States will determine what the appropriate response might be.

Saudi officials appear to hope that an explanation of Khashoggis treatment, however implausible, can repair the severe damage done to the governments reputation and standing in the world.

Prince Mohammed faces a particular challenge in recouping his reputation. He and his supporters have sought to portray him as a reformer, but he has overseen several disastrous Saudi policies in recent years. That list includes a ferocious war in Yemen against Iranian-backed rebels that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and pushed an estimated 13 million people to the brink of famine. Aid officials call Yemen the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

The oil-rich kingdom is not likely to suffer permanently, however, at least not from Washington, several experts said, because of its continued prominent role in the U.S. security strategy for the region.

Riyadh is a loyal and powerful partner in Washingtons fight against Iran and in the amassing of counter-terrorism intelligence. And although the U.S. is much less dependent on Saudi oil imports than it used to be, the Saudis continue to have the ability to disrupt oil markets and cause considerable economic pain if they choose to do so.

Trumps son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, has invested considerable energy in forging a personal relationship with Prince Mohammed.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson

UPDATES:

4:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from President Trump and additional reports from Turkey.

9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with Mnuchin withdrawing from the Saudi investment conference.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.A coalition of environmental groups has sued to stop the Trump administration from speeding construction of the first phase of southern border wall construction by waiving dozens of landmark environmental laws meant to protect air and water quality, public lands and wildlife.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., comes as President Trump threatened this week to send the U.S. military to the Mexican border to stop a caravan of migrants from Honduras, the latest in a wave of Central American families attempting to cross the border illegally.

The federal waivers issued earlier this month concern stretches of added border wall and gates in the Rio Grande Valley, the countrys most heavily trafficked illegal border crossing, where 137,000 immigrants were captured last fiscal year. Officials have said they plan to begin building 37 miles of border barriers there as soon as February.

The latest lawsuit was filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity. The three groups argue that the Department of Homeland Security lacks the authority to waive federal environmental laws such as the Endangered Species, Clean Air and Water acts.

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We hope the lawsuit will have a fighting chance of halting the construction of the border wall, said Jean Su, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

She said the groups offered the same legal arguments in prior challenges to border wall environmental waivers in California and New Mexico. The New Mexico case filed in February is scheduled for oral arguments Dec. 18. A federal judge in March rejected a lawsuit the groups filed with California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and others over stretches of wall in Calexico and San Diego, but the groups have appealed.

Were confident in our legal claims  thats why were appealing, Su said, calling the waivers an overreach into the legislatures scope of power and an unprecedented legal abuse by the Trump administration.

The Texas waivers are especially troubling, opponents said, because they allow border barriers and gates to pass through precious habitats for endangered species in a wildlife corridor that includes Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, the World Birding Center and the National Butterfly Center.

Carlos Diaz, a spokesman for Homeland Security, said they do not comment on pending lawsuits.

Loren Flossman, the U.S. Border Patrols wall project portfolio manager, has been meeting with Rio Grande officials and landowners and said their input would be considered as construction proceeds. Border Patrol officials and Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who represents the area, plan to hold local closed-door meetings with landowners later this month ahead of border wall design contracts being awarded Nov. 1.

We have made some adjustments to the wall design, Flossman said, based on landowner feedback and natural geography. He said officials have also modeled the potential impact of the wall on surrounding floodplains and the Mexican riverbank, as required by international treaties.

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.

While the number of immigrants caught crossing the border illegally is far below what it was a decade ago, the number of migrant parents crossing with children surged to record levels in recent months after Trump ended family separations at the border.

Groups of more than a hundred Central American parents and children have been caught crossing the Rio Grande and the Arizona desert in recent weeks, according to reports from Border Patrol and advocates. So many arrived in Tucson that a church was converted into a temporary respite center.

Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest monthly total on record and an 80% increase from July, according to unpublished Homeland Security figures reported by the Washington Post. Diaz said he could not confirm those figures until the agency releases its annual report for the federal fiscal year that ended last month.

molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhfThe Trump administration continues to send disturbingly mixed signals about whether it will hold Saudi Arabias rulers accountable if its proved that theyre responsible for the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

It has been two weeks since the Washington Post contributor and Virginia resident, a critic of the current Saudi leadership, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork he needed for his marriage. He was never seen again. According to Turkish officials, audio recordings show that Khashoggi was interrogated, tortured and killed by Saudi intelligence officers inside the consulate. The officials add that his body was cut up with a bone saw and removed from the building. On Wednesday, the New York Times, citing a recording described by a Turkish official, reported further that Khashoggi s fingers were severed before he was beheaded and dismembered.

It also reported that one of the men identified by Turkish officials in Khashoggis disappearance was a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabias de facto leader, and that three others are linked by witnesses and other records to the crown princes security detail. The crown prince has denied any knowledge of what took place at the Istanbul consulate, a denial relayed by Trump on Twitter.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Trump suggested that the Saudi rulers were being judged guilty until proven innocent  just like Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh!

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The evidence is mounting, and the U.S. needs a plan for when a story that now seems very likely to be true is finally proved beyond a doubt.

Such evasions, though, wont work for long. The evidence is mounting, and the U.S. needs a plan for when a story that now seems very likely to be true is finally proved beyond a doubt. What punishment will the U.S. mete out if it becomes clear that one of our closest allies in the region is torturing and dismembering journalists merely for criticizing the government? Surely even President Trump, though hes known for his transactional approach to relationships, cant allow this to pass.

Or maybe he can. On Wednesday, Trump denied that he was giving cover to the Saudis, and said that the United States had asked for recorded evidence of what occurred at the consulate in Istanbul. But then he added: With that being said, Saudi Arabias been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. The president cited a Saudi commitment to purchase $450 billion worth of military equipment and other items (not bothering to explain that few of those transactions have materialized.)

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, speaking after a mission to Saudi Arabia in which he cordially greeted the crown prince, noted that Trump was taking the situation seriously, but then added: I do think its important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships  financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the world  efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the worlds largest state sponsor of terror, Iran. The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues. Those are important elements of the U.S. national policy that are . . . in Americans best interests.

Pompeo is correct that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have interests in common, though a case can be made that this administration has exaggerated the political and economic advantages of the relationship. Its also true that the U.S. over the years has made common cause with other governments that oppress and imprison their citizens.

But if it turns out that the leaders of Saudi Arabia were complicit in the torture and murder of a journalist, it would be reckless, not realistic, to ignore that reality and conduct business as usual. The Saudi crown prince has already proved himself irresponsible and impulsive. Consider the brutal war he is waging in Yemen, his senseless crackdown on womens rights activists, the bizarre detention of dozens of senior Saudi princes and business leaders in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, his brief kidnapping of the Lebanese prime minister.

President Trump and the rest of his administration need to make it clear that there is a line the crown prince may not cross without jeopardizing the Saudi-U.S. relationship. The investigation into what happened to Khashoggi must be credible. And there must be consequences for any crimes that were committed.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookBefore the June primary, the Los Angeles Times editorial board backed Dianne Feinstein for reelection, saying her seniority, gravitas and 26 years of experience in the U.S. Senate were too valuable to give up.

Four months later, amid the unending turmoil in Washington, the ugliness of the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination hearings and the growing partisan gulf around the country, its only become more clear to us that Feinstein is the right person for an increasingly difficult job.

California voters should reelect her.

Feinstein, who became a senator in 1992, is running for a fifth six-year term. For the first time in many years, she is facing a serious challenge, from a fellow Democrat, state Sen. Kevin de Leon. De Leon is a self-described leader of the anti-Trump resistance; during the primary, he declared that, if elected to the Senate, he wouldnt work with President Trump.

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Feinstein has a long, distinguished track record of service, and she is the best choice to represent California.

Feinstein and De Leon hold similar positions on many key issues facing California. Both are outspoken advocates of gun control, environmental protection and immigration reform. Their differences are largely in tone and style. Feinstein is a pragmatist grounded in the reality of what is and isnt possible. She knows how to move bills, cut deals, influence policy and secure funding in a deeply partisan environment. De Leon tends to shoot for the moon with ambitious policy proposals. Thats been a lot easier to do in the Democrat-controlled Legislature than it would be in the U.S. Senate.

De Leon has argued that Feinstein is too much of a centrist to represent liberal California and that she is too accommodating to Trump. Hes complained that she is too conciliatory to GOP colleagues and he criticized her for abiding by the country club rules of the Senate. But even if he sees it that way, Republicans dont.

As the highest-ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Feinstein became a target for President Trump and other Republicans during Kavanaughs confirmation process, especially for her handling of the letter from Dr. Christine Blasey Ford alleging that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were high school students.

For that, Feinstein was lambasted from the right by Republican senators who accused her of weaponizing Fords letter by releasing it at the very last minute to cripple Kavanaughs nomination. (Trump, who calls her Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, has accused her of leaking the letter, which she denies.) She was also criticized from the left by some Democrats who felt she should have released the letter sooner. De Leon called it a failure of leadership.

The reality is that Feinstein was in a highly difficult position. Ford insisted on remaining anonymous, and an allegation without a name attached couldnt have been investigated in a meaningful way. Staffers for Feinstein say they checked back with Ford several times to see if she would change her mind, but they were reluctant to pressure her, knowing her life would be turned upside down  as it subsequently has been  once her name became public.

Its easy to dismiss Feinsteins caution as a sign of weakness, or to misconstrue her reticence as cold political calculus. Thats the environment of Washington, D.C., today. Its winner-take-all, partisan gamesmanship. Feinstein is a senator from an earlier, more civil and more productive era of governance.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

And look what shes accomplished with that approach. To name just a few things, she authored the ban on assault weapons in 1994, pushed the Desert Protection Act through Congress and, thanks to her high-ranking position on the Appropriations Committee, steered billions of federal dollars to California projects such as subway construction and wildfire restoration. She led the fight to expose the CIAs use of torture.

De Leon has been a good state legislator, fighting to improve conditions for low- and moderate-income Californians. But as a freshman in the U.S. Senate, most likely in the minority, unwilling by his own admission to compromise, what would he be able to achieve? Feinsteins experience and influence are much more valuable.

Some seem to think that Feinsteins willingness to negotiate across the aisle is reason enough to vote her out. But a better approach would be to reelect her and more candidates like her: people who know when to stand firm on matters of principle and when to negotiate to get things done. The country needs more lawmakers who understand that their mission is not to score points for their political party, but to vigorously defend our institutions, safeguard our freedom and serve the people by passing sensible, effective legislation.

Feinstein has a long, distinguished track record of service, and she is the best choice to represent California.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.Growing up in the Bay Area, we are taught to hate Los Angeles. Its so shallow, they say.

What many Northern Californians dont realize is how vast and diverse the city truly is  how thriving with art, culture and, yes, food. For all these reasons and others, I love L.A.

But there is one caveat: how Angelenos behave in restaurants.

Like many others pursuing artistic interests, I support myself mostly by waiting tables. And for some reason, in L.A. far more than in other cities, I am often met with questionable manners and outright disrespect.

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I noticed it within the first year of moving here, nearly nine years ago. Not much has changed. At every new restaurant, I keep thinking people will cease to be ridiculous. I am always proven wrong.

After Ive dropped off your food, dont make me take five trips to get hot sauce, aioli and all your other condiments.

So, L.A. diners, its time we had a chat. I know you can do better. Here are some guidelines to follow when eating out.

Lets start with gluten.

Youre allergic to gluten? Are you sure about that? Because Celiac disease affects only 1% of Americans. Gluten is in pizza dough, and I think we can all agree that pizza dough is delicious. But more to the point, no, we are not obligated to have gluten-free bread.

Please stop deviating from the menu.

We can only serve so much on the side, and we can only deconstruct a pork chop so much before it is no longer a pork chop. If you want the fish in your fish and chips boiled rather than fried, youre at the wrong restaurant. Likewise, if you want cauliflower instead of chicken in your chicken wings, go to Cafe Gratitude for that nonsense. Better yet, you explain it to the kitchen.

Start saying please, please.

I dont know if people forget this word the minute they land in L.A., but it really ought to be a regular part of your vocabulary. I could do with more thank yous, too. Im actually not your servant. Speaking of which, dont wave me over or snap your fingers to get my attention. I see you. Im just busy.

When I ask if you need anything else, think about it.

Think long and hard. After Ive dropped off your food, dont make me take five trips to get hot sauce, aioli and all your other condiments. I need to ask the kitchen for half of them, and I have many other tables to worry about.

When I ask how your food is, answer honestly.

Dont tell me its fine and then ask for a discount at the end of your meal because the cauliflower was too spicy or the up-charge on your avocado was too steep. You probably dont understand restaurant inventory, so your thoughts on the latter are irrelevant.

If youre having a bad day, dont eat out.

Whatever your troubles are, I challenge you to wait tables. Life will seem pretty fantastic after dealing with the finicky appetites of L.A. diners, some of whom dont understand why they cant get a discount simply because a restaurant doesnt have a vegan option. No joke: This is not an uncommon request.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

Brunch people: You especially need to calm down.

I understand youre hung over, but youre also eating brunch with your friends. Im working. In other words, Im running around, fetching your thousands of drinks. You dont need to keep asking me for coffee. I already know you need a gallon of it, but we only have so many coffee pots. Ill get to you when I can.

Dont tip less than 20%.

Its 2018. You should know better. If you think this rate is high, look around. See all those other workers who are delivering food and clearing plates? Those people are tipped from your 15%, which means you left the server more like 10%, which is just rude. Really you should leave more like 25%, but I realize that asking L.A. diners to tip 25% is like asking them to carpool.

You still have to tip when you eat at the counter.

Dont get me started on counter service. Just know this: If there is a tip option on the receipt or the computer screen you are signing, or if you see a tip jar, assume you should tip. While were on the subject, yes, you should tip even when youve ordered food to go. Someone had to wrap up all that food.

Close your tab quickly.

Ive probably had to smile and be nice to impolite customers for eight hours straight, hustling to get your boiled fish and bun-less burgers out on time while trying to describe what each of the 60 wines tastes like. Spare me the task of having to ask you to please pay your bill, so that I can go home, watch Netflix and forget that my shift ever happened. We cool?

Natalie Gregory is a writer, comedian and restaurant worker. She hosts the podcast Tip Your Server, about comedians who wait tables and tend bars in Los Angeles.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookTo the editor: It is terrible that the Saudi crown prince allegedly ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But why is this story getting so much attention at the expense of the root cause of crimes against journalists?

In many countries with which the U.S. has good relations, the people in power have been attacking journalists. As for Saudi Arabia, the persecution of reporters is not shocking  its just what absolute monarchs and dictators do.

What we should find shocking is that the United States has a president who calls journalists dishonest, disgusting and enemies of the people. It is only a matter of time before a lunatic acts upon the presidents expressions of hatred and insecurity.

How much difference is there really between a Saudi monarch and President Trump? That is the story.

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Michael Krubiner, Valley Village

..

To the editor: Trump responded to Khashoggis suspected murder and dismemberment by saying, Here we go again with, you know, youre guilty until proven innocent. I dont like that.

Instead of expressing outrage at the violent torture and death believed to have been suffered by Khashoggi, Trump has equivocated and emphasized the billions in weapons sales that he values and does not want to jeopardize.

Once again, he diminishes the moral leadership of the U.S. in the world and demonstrates that he gives human rights, morality and justice a lower priority than commerce and money.

Lenore Navarro Dowling, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: So, the Saudi government paid $100 million to the U.S. to assist in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Syria.

Perhaps I am naive, but I have to ask: Why are we responsible for the rebuilding of a country destroyed by a dismal dictator masquerading as its patriotic leader? Is this how dictatorships function  an aspiring dictator (Trump) using the money of a monarchical dictator (Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) to salvage the country of a monstrous dictator (Syrian leader Bashar Assad)?

Ed Cooper, Carlsbad

..

To the editor: An accused killer declares his innocence. The district attorney says, OK, sorry to bother you.

Phillip Gold, Westlake Village

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookRepublican lawmakers and candidates across the country are suddenly telling voters theyll protect preexisting conditions rules, brushing aside the fact that many voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act dozens of times and that GOP leaders pledge to resume that fight in 2019.

The shift reflects the growing popularity of Obamacare and Democrats success in using the issue to make a compelling closing argument in the midterm races.

A handful of Republican lawmakers and candidates, including Costa Mesa Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Missouri Senate hopeful Josh Hawley, have filmed ads about their childrens medical conditions  the kinds of health problems that without Obamacares protections would make insurance coverage unaffordable. Others have made promises in videos and debates.

Rohrabacher filmed an ad with his daughter, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 8.

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For her and all our families, we must protect Americas healthcare system, he said. Thats why Im taking on both parties and fighting for those with preexisting conditions.

Earlier this year we learned our oldest has a rare chronic disease, a preexisting condition, Hawley said in his own ad. We know what thats like.  I support forcing insurance companies to cover all preexisting conditions.

Rohrabacher voted to repeal Obamacare  along with its protections for preexisting conditions  dozens of times, including as recently as 2017.

Hawley is one of several GOP state attorneys general leading a lawsuit to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, including preexisting conditions rules. The Trump administration supports the suit, arguing that the preexisting condition provision in particular should be eliminated. It was the White Houses decision in that suit that gave Democrats greater leverage to push the issue of healthcare on the campaign trail this year.

Despite that, President Trump on Thursday tried to give the GOP additional cover on the issue. All Republicans support people with preexisting conditions, and if they dont, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support, he tweeted.

Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who led a government shutdown battle over Obamacare in 2013, said in a debate this week that he wants to repeal the law, but protect preexisting conditions.

In fact, its hard to find any Republican who isnt promising to keep the preexisting conditions requirement, which has become one of the most popular parts of the Affordable Care Act. The rush of ads and promises underscores how quickly the politics of healthcare have changed for the GOP, a party that has made opposition to Obamacare a key part of its election strategy every year since 2010.

The ads are aimed at independents and the voting bloc expected to be pivotal in House races around the country: college-educated, white women in suburban districts, said GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak of the Potomac Strategy Group. Democrats have been on the attack on preexisting conditions for months. I think its fair to say Republicans have not forged a consensus on how to respond, legislatively or politically.

Polls show that women are more likely than men to be concerned about healthcare. And generally, Democrats and independents count healthcare as their most important issue in this election cycle, according to a recent poll by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Republicans say theyre driven by the economy, jobs and immigration, followed by healthcare and gun policy.

Preserving protections for people with preexisting conditions is voters top concern among healthcare issues, according to another Kaiser poll of voters in two battleground states: Florida and Nevada. Nearly 70% of voters in both states said theyre more likely to cast their ballot for a candidate who wants to preserve the ACAs rule than not.

Those kind of polls have forced Republicans to try to reassure voters that they wont eliminate preexisting conditions protections, even if they keep control of Congress. ACA supporters say that pledge is unlikely to ring true to anyone who followed the GOPs high-profile but unsuccessful attempt to repeal the law in 2017.

The problem for Republicans is that their well-known, multiyear opposition to the healthcare law, that includes protections for people with preexisting conditions, is baked in the cake, said Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, an advocacy group in support of the law. No undecided voter is going to believe now, all of a sudden, that Republicans have a newfound propensity for protecting peoples healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reinforced that idea this week when he said that if Republicans keep the majority in the Senate, they may try to repeal the law again.

If we had the votes to completely start over, wed do it, McConnell told Reuters. But that depends on what happens in a couple weeks. ... Were not satisfied with the way Obamacare is working.

The 2010 law prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions or charging them more than other people. Republicans argue that they can protect people with pricey health conditions through other policy means, such as charging people additional fees if they go without insurance coverage when they are healthy. Policy experts are skeptical that such an idea would do enough to incentivize people to maintain insurance coverage.

Democrats have done a masterful job of saying if youre not for the ACAs version [of preexisting conditions rules], youre against everything, said Rodney Whitlock, a vice president of health policy at ML Strategies and a GOP health policy expert.

The preexisting condition issue has come up in elections up and down the ballot and across the country.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican whose state is among those suing over Obamacare, has also leaned on his familys experience to explain why he cares about the issue.

I will always cover preexisting conditions, period, he said in a tweet. My wife is Type 1 diabetic. My mother is a cancer survivor. My brother has a heart condition. Covering preexisting conditions is personal to me. And its the right thing to do.

In nearby Indiana, the GOP Senate candidate, Mike Braun, doesnt have a record of voting for Obamacare repeal legislation, but is still trying to blunt any GOP liability on the issue.

Mike Braun knows you should never go broke because you get sick, the Indiana Republicans latest video says, adding that he fought the insurance companies covering his small business.

The latest from Washington 

jennifer.haberkorn@latimes.com

Twitter: @jenhab

UPDATES:

1 p.m.: This article was updated with a tweet from President Trump.

This article was originally published at 12:45 p.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

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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

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Watch Live: White House holds surprise news briefing amid government shutdown Facebook

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Watch live: Vice President Pence and lawmakers honor George H.W. Bush at the U.S. Capitol before he lies in state Facebook

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Watch live: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a media briefing amid tensions at the border By Los Angeles Times Staff Facebook

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Its going to be tough out there Democratic candidate Katie Porter speaks to volunteers in Mission Viejo. Jon Bauman, Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na, is in the background. (Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times ) Judging from the cheers in the crowd, about half those assembled at Katie Porters campaign headquarters in Mission Viejo Sunday morning were old enough to remember 70s rock n roll star Bowzer from the band Sha Na Na. Jon Bauman, as Bowzer is known off stage, said it was her position on senior issues including retirement and social security that has him out supporting Porter over her opponent, incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. I want you to make sure every phone is called and every door is knocked, he told the crowd of about 80 volunteers. There has never been a more important election. Both Bauman and his nephew, California Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman, were interrupted by yells from Trump supporters coming from an adjoining hillside. We love Trump, the voice cried out. We love him too, he makes great fodder, the younger Bauman retorted, before introducing Porter. Porter, a UC Irvine law professor and first-time candidate, acknowledged the uphill battle some of her canvassers might face in this more conservative end of the long-red Orange County district. I know its going to be tough out there, she said, motioning to the hillside. But she said the attacks meant the other side viewed her campaign as a significant threat. This election is going to be close, she said. If we dont fight all the way to the finish line, until 8 oclock on Tuesday, this could slip away. Bowzer then took to a keyboard piano to lead the crowd in a reworded rendition of the song Good Night Sweetheart: Good night, Mimi Walters, he crooned. A woman in a black tank top, jeans and flip flops holding a cup of coffee later joined the crowd with her two sons, 17 and 14, the younger one wearing a Trump 2016 T-shirt. She declined to give her name, saying she was concerned about being attacked, but said she lived up the hill and said she had been the one yelling. She said she was encouraging her sons to talk to people on both sides and make up their own minds. We need to have a government that runs the way government teachers are telling kids its supposed to be run, said the woman, a retired registered dental assistant who voted early for Mimi Walters. Referring to Democrats, she said: Theyve had control over all these years and Californias gone to crap. Among those canvassing was Stacie Campbell, 37, who was at the launch with her husband Jerome and three children, the youngest of whom was 2 months old. Campbell, a Mission Viejo resident who runs a business, had never canvassed or volunteered for campaigns before, and her husband is a French citizen and unable to vote. She said they had been talking to their children  the older ones are 5 and 2  about the presidency and the government since Trumps election. Together, they worked on homemade Katie Porter lawn signs and put them up around town. This is the first time its felt like a big deal and there isnt a president up for election, she said. Because her city is a mix of conservatives and liberals  her next-door neighbor is an NRA-supporting Republican  she the race felt mSenate candidate Kevin de Leon has campaigned as the progressive alternative to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, but with the election just weeks away, his strongest support is coming from Republicans, according to a new USC-Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.

De Leon planned his campaign as an insurgency from the left against his fellow Democrat, but a funny thing happened on the way to the revolution: The battle over Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the Supreme Court made Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a high-profile target of President Trump.

On conservative media, commentators have urged California Republicans to cast ballots against Feinstein as retribution.

The poll, which was in the field while the Kavanaugh fight raged, cant show cause and effect, but does clearly indicate an unexpected twist in the race: De Leon, one of the most liberal candidates to run statewide in a general election, now gets more support from registered Republicans than from liberal Democrats.

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It is a profound irony, given the rationale of his campaign, that De Leon is getting more support from Trump supporters, said Robert Shrum, co-director of USCs Center for the Political Future. Hes doing better among people who fundamentally disagree with his message than people who agree with his message.

In a state as heavily Democratic as California, gaining the support of Trump backers isnt a ticket to success. The poll shows Feinstein leading De Leon by 44% to 31% among likely voters in her bid for a fifth full term in the Senate.

(Los Angeles Times)

And much of De Leons Republican support is soft, with a significant share saying they only lean toward voting for him. About a quarter of respondents are still undecided in the race, including more than a third of Republicans and 29% of independents.

If the undecided voters were to divide along the same lines as those who already have made up their minds, Feinsteins lead would grow by several points, said survey director Jill Darling.

Many of the Republican voters in the poll are already sitting out the Senate race, so quite a few of those people are likely to just stay home or at least skip the Senate race when they cast their ballots, Darling added.

The latest from Washington 

Currently, many Republican voters dont know a lot about De Leon, said longtime Republican strategist Mike Murphy, co-director of the USC center.

Hes just not Dianne, and they dont know anything about him, Murphy said.

Its an open question whether Republicans would maintain their support if they learned more about the former state Senate leader, who was the architect of Californias sanctuary state policy, among other positions he holds that most Republican voters reject.

De Leon has said he entered the Senate race in part because he believed that Feinstein was not taking a hard enough stance against Trump and was too moderate for increasingly progressive California. He has actively courted the left wing of the state party, which helped him win the Democratic Party endorsement over the summer.

Since entering the race, De Leon has acknowledged that his lack of statewide name recognition would be a hurdle, but he hasnt raised the money needed to run campaign ads on television in Californias expensive media markets.

The $4 million Feinstein has in the bank for the final weeks of the campaign dwarfs the approximately $300,000 De Leon has left.

In some ways the worst thing that could happen to him is to have the money to go on television, Shrum said. If he did have the resources, he would jeopardize that Republican support.

Feinstein hasnt educated Republican voters about her opponent either. She has not run campaign ads on television since before the primary.

Nor is De Leon likely to have a chance to stake out his positions in a big televised debate. Feinstein and De Leon met on stage Wednesday for a midday forum moderated by the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco. The event, the only time before election day the two are currently scheduled to meet, is available online, but no television station has committed to airing it during a more convenient time for voters.

This is the second election in a row in which the states top-two primary system has given Californians a choice between two Democrats for the Senate, and enthusiasm has remained low in the race.

Perhaps because of that, the percentage of undecided voters has remained fairly static for months across multiple polls.

The USC-L.A. Times poll of 1,180 Californians, including 794 considered likely to vote in the election, was conducted Sept. 17 through Oct. 14. That timing, during the height of the hearings into allegations of sexual assault made against now-Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh, may have intensified GOP support for De Leon, Darling said, although its not possible to know for sure.

Feinstein has consistently led by double digits in polls since she won the June primary with 44% of the vote.

The current poll shows Feinstein leading De Leon among likely voters, with a 26-percentage-point lead among liberal Democrats and 39 points among moderate Democrats. She has the support of 60% of registered Democrats, compared with 25% for De Leon.

De Leon leads by 24 points among moderate Republicans and by about 20 points among conservative Republicans. In total, 43% of registered Republicans said they back De Leon. Thats a greater share of his current support than the liberal Democrats expected to be his base.

Feinstein is leading across all age groups, with her greatest lead among voters age 65 and older.

De Leon, who would be the first Latino senator from California, nearly matches Feinsteins support among Latino voters, though 27% of Latino respondents said they remain undecided. Feinstein has a small edge among white voters, within the polls margin of error, and has a 42-point lead among other minority voters.

In the primary, Feinstein won every county in the state, and she continues to dominate across nearly all regions, the poll shows.

Feinsteins lead is particularly strong in the Bay Area, where she was San Francisco mayor for 10 years, but she also has nearly a 20-point lead in Los Angeles, part of which De Leon has represented in the state Senate for more than a decade. Feinstein won his state Senate district in the primary.

Shes also ahead by 12 points in the more conservative Central Valley. The two are closely matched in the region that includes Orange County, San Diego and the Inland Empire.

Conducted online in English and Spanish, the polls margin of error is 4 percentage points in either direction for likely voters and larger for subcategories. Poll respondents were drawn from a probability-based panel maintained by USCs Center for Economic and Social Research for its Understanding America Study. Responses were weighted to accurately reflect known demographics of the state population. A full description of the methodology, poll questions and dataare posted on the USC website.

More information about the poll is available at bit.ly/USCpolldata.

More stories from Sarah D. Wire 

sarah.wire@latimes.com

Twitter: @sarahdwireU.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a virtual shoo-in for reelection. Thats what the polls show. But they also show her support to be soft.

This is what I mean: In the June primary election, Feinstein received 44% of the vote. That was far more than the scanty 12% garnered by state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles), the second-place finisher in a 32-candidate field. But Feinstein hasnt been able to expand her support for the Nov. 6 general election.

A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll shows her at 44% among likely voters, with De Leon trailing at 31%. Theres a whopping 25% who are undecided, despite the fact that Feinstein has been a U.S. senator for nearly 26 years and was a high-profile San Francisco mayor before that.

If you leave out the undecideds, however, Feinstein is ahead by 59% to 41%.

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Similarly, a poll last month by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found Feinstein leading De Leon by 40% to 29%, with 31% undecided or not planning to vote. De Leon had cut Feinsteins lead in half since July.

Feinstein, at 85 seeking her fifth full term, might be vulnerable against a stronger opponent. The big problem for De Leon, 51, is that hardly anyone knows who he is outside of Sacramento, where he was the state Senate leader. And he cant raise enough money to get known through TV ads. Political donors dont invest in presumed losers. Its the classic Catch-22.

Ironically, De Leons biggest support group is the GOP. In the Dornsife/Times poll, Republican voters prefer him over Feinstein by 43% to 21%, with 35% undecided. And those who approve of President Trumps job performance support De Leon by 41% to 18%.

That, of course, is laughable. Its not an expression of fondness for De Leon. Its Republicans slinging rocks at their perceived archenemy Feinstein  and a sign of how polarized and cynical our politics has become.

Never mind that Feinstein is a moderate who, among other things, has fought for water development to help farmers in the Republican-dominated Central Valley.

And no Republican being intellectually honest could vote for De Leon, an outspoken leader of the anti-Trump resistance in California. Hes the author of the sanctuary state law abhorred by Republicans that protects undocumented immigrants against federal agents. De Leon has pushed some of the most liberal legislation produced by Sacramento.

But to have a decent showing on election day, De Leon needs Republican votes. He cant have GOP voters stiffing the race because no Republican is running.

Coverage of California politics 

Democrats back Feinstein by 60% to 25%, even though the activist-dominated California Democratic Party endorsed De Leon.

The two held what passed for a debate Wednesday in San Francisco. Itll be their only face-to-face confrontation of the campaign. There was no television  not even radio. It was a webcast and a small audience. The Public Policy Institute of California sponsored the event, billing it as a conversation. The groups president, Mark Baldassare, asked the questions.

It was Feinsteins first campaign debate since 2000. Thats because front-runners dont like to provide their little-known underdog opponents with free public forums. Also, they dont want to risk saying something really stupid.

No hard punches were landed, let alone a knockout blow. There were a few taps on the shoulder.

De Leons main campaign pitch is that Feinstein has lost touch with ordinary Californians and is too easy on Trump and Republicans.

I wish Democrats in Washington would fight like hell for Dreamers, just the way Donald Trump and Republicans fight like hell for their stupid wall, De Leon said, referring to young people brought to the country illegally as children by their immigrant parents.

We need Democrats in Washington that have the courage of their convictions, to not just be on the sidelines, but on the front lines.

Feinstein, who indeed has fought for Dreamers, responded with a note of reality.

More from George Skelton 

There is a lock on power in Washington, she said. When you have both houses and the White House controlled by one party, its extraordinarily difficult. Its like hitting your head against a concrete wall.

You can march, you can filibuster, you can talk all night. It doesnt change anything. What changes things are elections.

Feinstein and De Leon agreed on several issues, including Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $17-billion twin water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. They both oppose the project.

With climate change, De Leon said, Im not convinced therell be enough snowmelt to make the tunnels worthwhile. Dual tunnels, Im simply not there.

Im not in favor of that proposal, Feinstein said. Going deep underground with these big [40-foot wide, 35-mile] tunnels doesnt make a great deal of sense. Maybe a single tunnel, she added. Thats as far as I would go.

Feinsteins style of compromise and civility is at odds with todays smash-mouth politics propagated by Trump. De Leon represents the more combative wing of the Democratic Party.

But during the debate, he was careful not to convey disrespect for the veteran senator and tarnish himself. He expects to run for other offices in the future. Likely possibilities are Los Angeles City Council in 2020 and mayor in 2022.

Feinstein is a good bet to win reelection, serve a final term and retire reluctantly.

george.skelton@latimes.com

Follow @LATimesSkelton on TwitterIm not a fan of big government, nor am I particularly fond of tax increases, however I wholeheartedly support Measure P in the current election cycle. As Burbank residents, we truly are blessed with the quality public services we receive from our city. Our parks, libraries, streets and public safety services are top-notch.

One only needs to cross into our neighboring communities within the city of Los Angeles to experience poor-quality streets, aging infrastructure, run-down properties and vastly inferior police and fire services. Good luck if you find yourself in Sunland or North Hollywood and happen to need a cop or other emergency service.

Every time Ive had to deal with the Burbank city staff on any matter, whether ambulance service, calls to the Police Department, concerns over street conditions or questions regarding utility services, I consistently receive a prompt, courteous and efficient response.

I was astounded to learn the city currently only receives one cent out of every dollar collected from Burbank residents in locally generated sales tax, with the remainder going to Sacramento and L.A. County. Measure P will assure that the additional revenue from the 3/4 cent sales tax adjustment will be spent locally to maintain our outstanding public-safety services here in Burbank.

The bottom line is you cannot provide and sustain quality public services on the cheap. Lets keep Burbank the safe, clean and quality city that we all enjoy. Vote Yes on Measure P.

Matt Doyle

Burbank

--

In 2016 the city of Burbank Transportation Commission voted to advise the City Council not to go ahead with the Metrolink North Station as the train service was inadequate to attract a worthwhile number of riders. I testified to the City Council on Dec. 6, 2016, to that effect. Your report of the airport commission meeting of Oct. 15, 2018, confirms our prediction. If the shuttle from the station is moving only about one person per hour then clearly the investment is a failure.

Former county Supervisor Michael Antonovich believed that airports should have rail service, and we dont disagree. The problem is that building a station and running a shuttle bus is only part of rail service. Without frequent, reliable trains, the passengers will not materialize. Metro has failed to build the double track needed to expand capacity and enable Metrolink to run a schedule that will attract airport and local passengers. As a result we have empty buses and shuttle vans and an underused station wasting taxpayers money.

In 2016 the taxpayers of Los Angeles County overwhelmingly passed Measure M, handing yet more money to Metro for transportation projects. If this is the way that money is to be spent, on facilities that are ill thought out and uncoordinated with the providers of service, then far too much of that money will be wasted. Our public boards, filled with politicians without any knowledge of transportation, need to be reformed with at least some qualified members from the industry to provide guidance and ask the tough questions.

Paul Dyson

Burbank

President, Rail Passenger Assn. of California and NevadaA small group of migrant women came together more than two decades ago in the heart of Santa Ana to start a cultural center. It was an effort to preserve their traditions.

Since then El Centro Cultural de Mexico has become a linchpin for the local Latino community, fostering solidarity and providing a link to important cultural customs.

But the center hasnt had an easy time keeping its doors open. Despite its popularity, El Centro Cultural de Mexico has moved five times since 2001, departing various locations due to area development and space limitations in a rapidly changing city.

We have been pushed around, space after space, but we have fought to stay alive, said Benjamin Vazquez, a member of the centers board of directors. We want to serve as that symbol of the fight against gentrification.

The center may have found its permanent home in a neighborhood near downtown Santa Ana, where backers purchased a two-story building with assistance from a $925,000 California Endowment grant.

The center recently celebrated its newest facility with a grand opening event and ribbon cutting, though it moved into the building in March 2017.

We finally have our own place, said Socorro Sarmiento, a co-founder of the center. We will grow and be stronger now.

Karen Sarabia is the general coordinator of El Centro Cultural de Mexico in Santa Ana. (Photo by Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Sarmiento was one of the Mexican migrant women who started the nonprofit in 1994, aiming to create a space where immigrants could be comfortable speaking their language and celebrating their traditions away from the judgmental eyes of assimilation proponents.

We didnt have many places before then where immigrants could enjoy being themselves, Sarmiento said.

Initially, the group didnt have a centralized space to hold events, so it resorted to libraries, bookstores and Sarmientos home. The organization has since swelled into a cultural force, one that seeks to organize, educate and lobby for the rights of newcomers.

This is a city of immigrants, Vazquez said. There needs to be a place where they can feel at home.

El Centro Cultural de Mexicos leaders believe activism is crucial to their goal of uniting and educating the community.

Vazquez said the organization serves as an important adversary to gentrification. The center has been priced out of various buildings during its lifespan.

The music room at the El Centro Cultural de Mexico in Santa Ana. (Photo by Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Now armed with the first building its ever owned, El Centro Cultural de Mexico sees a new set of possibilities. At 9,500 square feet, the new building is three times the size of the previous location, though El Centro rents offices to community organizations like Santa Ana Collaborative for Responsible Development and news site Voice of OC.

We had no control over our fate before owning our own building, said Karen Sarabia, general coordinator for the center.

The new building has a music room where visitors can learn traditional Mexican instruments like the jarana, which is similar to a ukulele. Theres also a large main room where the center hosts dance classes, community meetings, art shows and exhibitions.

Children and young adults born stateside who wouldnt otherwise be exposed to the traditions of their culture can learn the ways of their ancestors.

Classes and workshops are held throughout the week.

The newest addition to the center is a radio studio. Headed by Luis Sarmiento, Radio Santa Ana at 104.7 FM seeks to provide a voice for the voiceless.

The purpose of this is to get voices on the air that dont often have access, like immigrants and working class folks, Sarmiento said.

Luis Sarmiento is the coordinator for Radio Santa Ana based at El Centro El Centro Cultural de Mexico in Santa Ana. (Photo by Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Aside from weekly events, the center has become well known for big annual programs, which include the upcoming Night of Altars as part of the Day of the Dead celebration.

In honoring the ancient Mexican tradition, community members will come together to build altars for dead loved ones. Vazquez said about 40,000 people attend the program and many of the people who construct altars have varying ethnic backgrounds.

We have Vietnamese altars, Chilean altars, everybody comes together for this event, Vazquez said.

This years program will take place from 1 to 10 p.m. Nov. 3 at Fourth and Birch streets in Santa Ana.

For Sarmiento, events like these illustrate the centers necessity. They take her back to the nonprofits infant days when a handful of migrant women realized that ones cultural identity was not something to be abandoned, no matter the miles between the person and their origins.

People need to recognize who they are, Sarmiento said. Thats where the center comes in.

For more information about El Centro Cultural de Mexico, visit elcentroculturaldemexico.org

benjamin.brazil@latimes.com

Twitter:@benbrazilpilotThe individual. Human relationships. Circles of life. Existence itself.

These are some of the heady themes presented in Horses in the Sky, a full-evening, full-company, full-vision piece for all 18 dancers of the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. The show, which lasts an hour without intermission, will have its Orange County premiere at the Irvine Barclay Theatre on Oct. 24.

The work relates to our existence in the universal sense, explained Rami Beer, the companys artistic director, as well as the choreographer, composer and lighting/sound/set/costume designer of Horses in the Sky. It relates to the different circles which encompass our existence: the individual and himself; the relationships within and between couples; society and the group, with the individual in front of the group.

Named after a 2005 song (and album) of the same name by the Canadian experimental post-rock band A Silver Mt. Zion, Horses in the Sky premiered in August 2016 in a series of performances at the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

Beer, a cellist, created every aspect of the show.

In addition to the dance movement, I am responsible for the music, he said. Its a full vision, and I do all this independently along with the people who work with me. The fact that I do this independently doesnt come from a place of ego, but rather a vision and a unison that I look for in our pieces that have a defined message.

One of Israels leading dance companies, the Kibbutz was formed in 1970 as the Inter-Collective Dance Company by Holocaust survivor and Israel Prize laureate Yehudit Arnon. Beer  who joined the company in 1980 as a dancer and, shortly afterward, became a choreographer  has been artistic director since 1996.

Our founder moved to Israel in the late 1940s with a vision and purpose of dedicating her life to dance, Beer said of Arnon, one of his early dance instructors. She founded the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company with this very vision and purpose in mind: to create a space for the creation of elite dance performances and furthering dance education.

The Kibbutz is still located where it was founded: in the International Dance Village of the Kibbutz Gaaton, a communal settlement established in 1948 by Jewish refugees, including Arnon and Beers parents. Its also where Beer was born and raised.

Were situated in what is considered the most diverse region of Israel, Beer said of western Galilee, and weve used dance to bring people together, no matter (if theyre a) Jew or Arab, and [to launch] such programs for youth at risk and women combating domestic violence.

Beer recently premiered Mothers Milk, dedicated to his late parents, and is currently working on Asylum, dealing with immigration, refugees and those seeking asylum.

For me, dance ... is a way to create communication between people of different backgrounds, cultures, religions, he said. I believe that what we present is our humble contribution to help create a better world in which to live.

IF YOU GO

What: Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company

Who: Rami Beers Horses in the Sky

When: 8 p.m. Oct. 24

Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

Cost: Tickets start at $48

Information: (949) 854-4646 , thebarclay.orgThe California Fair Political Practices Commission rejected a complaint Wednesday that alleged conflicts of interest between Newport Beach Mayor Marshall Duffy Duffield and his City Council colleague Scott Peotter.

Local activist Susan Skinner filed the complaint in September seeking an investigation into the possibility of a Duffield-Peotter employment arrangement  a partnership that has since been confirmed after state and local documents from the city of Adelanto showed that Duffield had tapped Peotter, who works as an architectural and development consultant, to do the legwork on parceling property Duffield owns in the San Bernardino County city. The property is the site of the factory for his eponymous Duffy Electric Boat Co.

Skinner amended her complaint twice this month, most recently on Monday, after the Daily Pilot published a story on Peotter working with Duffield to split the Adelanto land into parcels.

However, the FPPC declined on Wednesday to take the matter further.

Based on a review of the complaints and documentation provided, the Enforcement Division found insufficient evidence of a conflict of interest violation of the Political Reform Act (the Act) by either individual, and will not pursue an enforcement action in this matter, FPPC Enforcement Division Chief Galena West wrote in a letter to Duffield and Peotters lawyers.

In its letter, the FPPC referenced Skinners original complaint and her first amendment  but not this weeks update  which she said is the most powerful one.

Skinner said that she replied to the agency pointing out that her last amendment contained harder evidence.

Im expecting a different result from that complaint, she said.

Newport Beach political consultant Dave Ellis, who represents Duffield and Peotter in their reelection campaigns, released a joint statement on their behalf.

Todays rejection by the Fair Political Practices Commission of Susan Skinners multiple complaints against us underscores how one misguided person can misuse the process, the statement said. The work done in Adelanto  100 miles from Newport Beach  to prepare the Duffy Electric Boat property for sale has no relationship to any votes cast by us in Newport Beach. It never did and never will.

Duffield said this week that he split his 4.7-acre property in Adelanto into thirds and sought a cannabis distribution permit from the California Bureau of Cannabis Control to take advantage of increased property values that followed Adelantos passage of a medicinal cultivation ordinance in 2015 and creation of a cultivation zone in 2016 that later expanded to include the factory site.

He said he doesnt want to grow or distribute marijuana himself but wants to make the property more attractive to buyers so he can move his boat factory to Utah.

Skinner argued in her complaint that if Duffield is a source of income for Peotter, Duffields conflicts of interest are also Peotters.

Duffield regularly recuses himself from City Council votes on Newport Harbor matters because of potential business conflicts related to Duffy Electric Boat Co., which has a harborfront office on West Coast Highway. Peotter does not recuse himself from those votes.

In a related matter, Newport Beach attorney Phil Greer sent the city a cure or correct letter Wednesday, a few hours before the FPPC rendered its decision, asking City Attorney Aaron Harp to void a bundle of contracts for on-call harbor maintenance services the City Council approved in August  with Duffield recusing but Peotter voting  and to return money the city paid a lobbyist this year for a since-abandoned effort to have the state legally declare Newport Harbor a port. These were two issues that Skinner highlighted in her FPPC complaint.

Greer said the FPPCs decision not to pursue the complaint did not impact his request.

Harp declined to comment.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDI flew into a lush cerulean sky above the steel-blue ocean on a T-33 jet Wednesday.

The adrenaline was infectious and the views above coastal Orange County were breathtaking. I can see why aerobatic pilots get hooked on zipping and zooming across the sky. The views alone are worth it.

As the Huntington Beach reporter for the Daily Pilot, I was invited to ride on a jet and write a first-person story of my experience ahead of the Great Pacific Airshow scheduled for this weekend in Surf City.

The show is expected to draw 2 million visitors to watch the Air Force Thunderbirds, Jeff Boerboons Yak 110, a KC 135 Stratotanker and a C-17 Globemaster, among others, along with aerobatic pilots such as Matt Chapman, Sammy Mason and Bill Stein.

My pilot was Greg Wired Colyer, who also will perform in the show.

When I arrived at the Lyon Air Museum at John Wayne Airport, I expected to watch a safety video before my flight, but that didnt happen. Instead, Colyer gave me a brief rundown of all the buttons and controllers in the jet.

I like to think of myself as an adventurous risk-taker, but my nervousness was through the roof. Riding on an aerobatic jet had never crossed my mind.

The T-33 Shooting Star is a jet trainer that was produced by Lockheed from 1948 to 1959. The last active model was retired last year by the Bolivian air force.

As Colyer strapped me into his jet and helped me with my helmet, he showed me what switch to pull in case I needed to get out in a hurry. That only increased my anxiety.

Colyer said wed be able to communicate with each other through microphones embedded in our helmets. If I wasnt feeling well, I should let him know, Colyer told me.

Do you get sick easily? he asked.

No, but Im just really nervous, I said.

Good. So am I, he said.

Once we got the green light from air traffic control, we sped down the runway and into the sky. It wasnt turbulent or as physically intense as I imagined. It was like sitting in the window seat on a regular plane, except with a better view.

The ride was short and sweet. We were in the sky for 15 to 20 minutes and flew over Irvine, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and somewhere inland.

We did two flips over the ocean. It was similar to going through a loop on a roller coaster. I couldnt help but laugh from the feeling.

Colyer flew in from San Francisco on Wednesday for the air show. He is scheduled for two more shows after Huntingtons. During the offseason, hes a pilot teacher.

Colyer ditched his job as an air traffic controller and bought his first jet 10 years ago to fly and do stunts.

The adrenaline rush is addicting, he said as we flew above Laguna Beach. Its good to live with a little fear in life.

I agreed, telling him that was what encouraged me to agree to the ride-along.

Once we landed, I thanked him for the once-in-a-lifetime experience and wished him good luck this weekend.

He smiled and gave me the shaka, or hang loose, sign.

IF YOU GO

What: Great Pacific Airshow

When: 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday

Where: Area of the Waterfront Beach Resort, 21100 Pacific Coast Hwy., Huntington Beach

Cost: Free, though tickets are available for upgraded viewing.

Information: pacificairshow.com

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaA Newport Beach surgeon was charged Wednesday with drugging and raping five more women as prosecutors added felony kidnapping counts and increased bail to $1 million for the former reality TV star.

Dr. Grant Robicheaux, 38, once dubbed Orange Countys most eligible bachelor, and his girlfriend, Cerissa Riley, 31, are accused of rape by drugs, kidnapping, oral copulation by anesthesia, assault with intent to commit sexual offenses and other crimes.

The pair pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a slew of felony charges during a court appearance in Newport Beach. As they entered the courthouse, the two held hands while surrounded by a crowd of reporters and photographers.

Robicheaux was newly charged with sexually assaulting five women, while Riley was accused of being involved with attacks on three women. The pair initially were charged with drugging and raping two women.

The accusations against the surgeon date to 2009. A woman who was in her mid-20s at the time told authorities she began dating Robicheaux after they met at a bar in Newport Beach in September that year. Prosecutors say the doctor raped her at his home after she told him she didnt want to have sex. She told authorities that she knew Robicheaux had weapons and she was afraid of him.

The surgeon is accused of three felony counts of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense, four counts of rape by use of drugs, two counts of assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, a count of forcible rape, a count of oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance, four counts of possession of a controlled substance for sale and two counts of possession of an assault weapon. Those charges could carry a sentence of more than 82 years in prison.

Many of the new charges against the doctor are linked to alleged incidents before he began dating Riley, a former teacher.

Riley is facing three counts of kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense, three counts of rape by use of drugs, two counts of assault with intent to commit a sexual offense, a count of oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance and four counts of possession of a controlled substance for sale. She could get up to 63 years in prison.

Robicheaux and Riley were arrested Sept. 12 after a lengthy criminal investigation. More than a dozen women and one man have claimed they were attacked by Robicheaux, according to Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas.

Rackauckas previously urged others who might have encountered the couple to contact authorities.

Attorneys for Robicheaux and Riley say they never participated in nonconsensual sex.

Dr. Grant Robicheaux and girlfriend Cerissa Riley listen to his attorney Philip Kent Cohen, left, during a news conference in a break from court Wednesday in Newport Beach. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Prosecutors Wednesday said the couple preyed on their first victim together in March 2015. They are accused of raping a woman in her mid-20s who was unable to resist because she was under the influence of intoxicating and controlled substances, according to prosecutors.

The investigation began in 2016 after complaints by two women who separately told Newport Beach police they were taken to Robicheauxs house on 44th Street and assaulted. One woman described the couple as a Bonnie and Clyde team who drugged her and forced her to engage in sex acts, according to court documents.

No arrests were made immediately after either incident, but detectives continued to work the case for two years.

Prosecutors now say Robicheaux and Riley attacked other women during that time.

A woman who was in her mid-30s at the time met Robicheaux and Riley through a mutual acquaintance at a Halloween party in Newport Beach in October 2016, according to prosecutors. Robicheaux and Riley are accused of drugging her drink with GHB and raping her after she passed out. She awoke during the assault, prosecutors said.

Another woman, in her early 20s, had dinner with Robicheaux in Newport Beach in April 2017 after they met on a dating app, prosecutors said. She told authorities that Riley showed up during the date and pretended to be Robicheauxs friend, not a love interest. The woman said she went to a bar with them, where they plied her with alcohol and then took her to their home and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious, prosecutors said. The woman awoke during the attack and locked herself in a bathroom for the night, officials said.

Another woman in her early 20s met the couple at a Fourth of July party last year and she partied and drank with them on a boat a few days later. She told authorities the couple invited her to Robicheauxs house, where the doctor raped her.

As part of that investigation, police searched Robicheauxs home in January this year and found a video of at least one of the women being assaulted, authorities said. They also discovered videos and photographs of other potential victims on the couples phones, some of which were taken at festivals including Burning Man and Splash House, prosecutors said.

The search turned up large quantities of illegal drugs, including GHB, MDMA and cocaine, along with two illegal, unregistered assault rifles, four other firearms and several large-capacity magazines, prosecutors said.

Public records and a Hoag Hospital profile identify Robicheaux as a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who received his medical degree from Louisiana State University in 2007 and did his residency at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange.

Riley has been a substitute teacher in Fullerton, according to a video in which she appeared that Rackauckas played at a news conference last month. She has held substitute teaching permits since 2014. She received a teaching credential in 2017, but the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing suspended it for misconduct, according to the agencys website.

In 2014, Robicheaux appeared on the Bravo show Online Dating Rituals of the American Male, which followed his search for a girlfriend. He was declared Orange Countys most eligible bachelor by Orange Coast magazine in 2013 and used the online dating name InGoodHands.

Sclafani is a Daily Pilot staff writer. Winton writes for the Los Angeles Times. Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.Looking for an authentic Hawaiian experience? Monkeypod Jam in a Kauai village creates artisanal chutney, curd, preserves and salsa  and offers tastings.

Located in the blink-and-youll-miss-it village of Lawai along the islands South Shore, Monkeypod Jam sells more than 60 products made from fruits and vegetables grown on the island.

Visitors can sample the goodies anytime the shop is open. Creator Aletha Thomas has elevated such samplings with a new Jam Tasting Experience at 2 p.m. Thursdays.

We serve a flight of three different pupus [small bites] that feature three of our preserves, she said. One features a savory preserve; one features a pickle. And the last one is one of our sweet preserves in a dessert form.

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The menu for the 45-minute session varies each week. Guests will find Thomas serving dishes such as organic egg salad with piccalilli and panna cotta with white pineapple jam. Also in the mix is her newest creation: pickled breadfruit. It tastes just like a marinated artichoke heart, Thomas said.

Thomas shares the mission behind her 8-year-old business. We want to support our community, the island of Kauai, she said. Theres enough agriculture on this island to where we should be sourcing from them.

We work with over 55 to 60 different growers. It can be anyone from a backyard farmer with a lime tree to one of the largest farms on the island.

Visitors can register online for the weekly $25 sessions. Following the class, participants are welcome to further indulge in products that are in season. All, of course, are available for purchase, such as papaya vanilla jam ($5.50) and guava butter ($5).

Monkeypod Jam is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Its located at 3687 Kaumualii Highway in Lawai, a good stop on the way to Waimea Canyon from resorts in the Poipu area.

Info: Monkeypod Jam, (808) 378-4208

ALSO

Best places on Californias coast to see monarch butterflies this fall and winter

Mexico City for beginners

Paddlers, snorkelers, kayakers save $700 on Belize vacations with REI Adventures

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelAt least two senior Afghan officials, including a powerful police chief, were killed and two Americans were injured Thursday when an Afghan security guard opened fire at the provincial governors compound in Kandahar province, officials said.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan had just left a meeting at the compound and was unhurt, but the shooting claimed the life of a key U.S. ally: Abdul Raziq, the Kandahar police chief and one of the most reliable  and controversial  commanders in the 17-year war against the Taliban.

Afghan officials said the provincial intelligence chief was also killed, and there were unconfirmed reports that the provincial governor had died of injuries sustained in the shooting.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the most devastating assassinations of the war, and said its targets were Raziq and Army Gen. Austin Scott Miller, the commander of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.

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Afghan news media reported that the gunman was wearing the uniform of the Afghan security forces and was a member of the provincial leaderships security team.

U.S. Army Gen. Scott Miller, commander of the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan, had left the Kandahar provincial governors compound just before the shooting. (Associated Press)

A statement from the U.S.-led NATO coalition described the shooting as an Afghan-on-Afghan incident. It said Miller had escaped unharmed and three coalition personnel had been wounded and were medically evacuated. They included a U.S. service member, an American civilian and a coalition contractor whose nationality was not immediately released.

The death of Raziq, who was about 40, came two days before parliamentary elections nationwide and many feared it could add fuel to a recent surge by the Taliban by opening up a leadership void in pivotal Kandahar.

Security across the country is deteriorating as Taliban militants defy U.S. and Afghan peace overtures with offensives across multiple provinces that have made 2018 one of the bloodiest years in the war. The United Nations said 5,122 civilians were killed or wounded in the first six months of the year, the highest total since it began recording casualties in 2009.

Graeme Smith, an analyst and author of a book on the Afghan war, called Raziqs death potentially the most significant assassination in a conflict that has witnessed thousands of them.

If reports are true about the death of General Abdul Raziq, this marks a major inflection point in the Afghan war. Potentially the most significant assassination in a conflict that has witnessed thousands of them.  Graeme Smith (@smithkabul) October 18, 2018

The assassination of Gen. Raziq in Kandahar shows once again that military analysis of the Afghan war, troop numbers, conditions vs. timetable, is mostly irrelevant. Afghan governments fall because of internal weakness and loss of foreign support, not because of military defeat.  Barnett R. Rubin (@BRRubin) October 18, 2018

Raziq, a boyish police official with a reputation for ruthlessness, rose to prominence as head of the provincial border police and was credited with containing the insurgency in Kandahar, a traditional Taliban stronghold.

Raziqs zeal endeared him to the U.S.-led coalition and allowed him to shrug off credible allegations from human rights groups that his men tortured and killed civilians.

For much of the war, U.S. commanders furnished Raziqs forces with weapons and support in exchange for promises of protection for American forces in Kandahar, according to security analysts and former U.S. officials.

The Americans lost a steadfast ally with whom they had worked so well for so many years and on whom they had come to depend so much, said Ahmad Shuja Jamal, an Afghan analyst and editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Public Policy Review.

Raziq, who operated out of a heavily guarded compound in the center of Kandahar that had once belonged to the Talibans late founder, Mullah Mohammed Omar, had survived dozens of attempts on his life.

In 2012, he was wounded in a massive bombing that killed four civilians and wounded about 20 others. This year, a suicide bomber posing as a journalist was stopped trying to enter one of Raziqs news conferences with a bomb hidden inside a microphone.

All of that only added to his mystique, which was built on violence and buttressed by the impunity he was afforded.

The U.N. committee on torture last year called for Raziq to be prosecuted over reports that his forces had abused and suffocated Afghan prisoners, many of whom died in custody. Raziq  whom Human Rights Watch labeled Kandahars torturer-in-chief  steadfastly denied the allegations.

Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Shashank Bengali is South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali

UPDATES:

10:05 a.m.: This article was updated with three coalition personnel wounded.

9:25 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with the death of Abdul Raziqs death and staff reporting.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.The United States will fold the operations of the Consulate General in Jerusalem into the new American Embassy in Israel, Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said on Thursday, effectively shuttering its diplomatic representation to the Palestinian Authority here.

The move comes weeks after the United States ordered the office in Washington that served as the Palestinians de facto embassy there closed.

In a statement, Pompeo couched the change in administrative language, saying we plan to achieve significant efficiencies and increase our effectiveness by merging U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem into a single diplomatic mission. Pompeo said that U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman would oversee the merger.

The announcement drew no comment from the Israeli government but a furious reaction from the Palestinian Authority.

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Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said that closing the U.S. Consulate has nothing to do with efficiency and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological U.S. team that is willing to disband the foundations of American foreign policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes.

The Trump administration, he said, is working together with the Israeli Government to impose Greater Israel rather than the two-state solution on the 1967 border, in effect accusing the United States of dismantling the diplomatic structure in place since the Oslo Accords of 1993, that aimed at achieving two states.

President Trump has declared Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations a principal foreign policy goal, saying an agreement would be the ultimate deal and appointing his son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner to manage the talks.

The announcement caps a tumultuous year in U.S. diplomacy regarding Jerusalem, the contested city that Trump recognized as Israels capital in December 2017.

In May, the American Embassy was officially relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, provoking heated responses from the Palestinians and sparking a protest on the border between Gaza and Israel in which 60 Palestinians died.

The Palestinian Authority has refused all contact with the Trump administration since then.

The action Thursday will result in the consular office that long served as a quasi-embassy for Palestinian affairs being managed out of a new Palestinian Affairs Unit in the U.S. Embassy in Jeruslaem.

Pompeo said that the move does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

But it follows the U.S. in August slashing its humanitarian aid budget to the Palestinians by more than $200 million and cancelling its contribution to a United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, a sum that came to about $350 million per year.

Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Thursdays decision to merge the consulate with the embassy downgrades diplomatic relations with the Palestinians. It is not consistent with the goal of achieving a two-state solution, and that is how it will be understood by both sides.

It is very unlikely that the Palestinian Authority will engage the U.S. government through the Embassy to Israel, he added.

Danny Ayalon, who served as the Israeli ambassador to the United States from 2002-06, rejoiced in the decision, saying, Israeli interests are well served, and the Palestinians will come to understand theres a price for their intransigence and double talk and support of terror, be it financial or through incitement.

Calling the Palestinians spoiled children, Ayalon, formerly a right-wing member of the Israeli parliament, said demoting the consulate was a punishment to the Palestinians, explaining, they refuse to speak to Trumps people and call Ambassador Friedman a son of a dog. The Palestinians keep spitting at the Americans and want us to say its just rain.

Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York, countered, What is the point of dismantling a direct diplomatic channel to the PA? It has both substantive and symbolic value.

The U.S. has absolutely no coherent policy on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Pinkas said. This decision, while meaningless to Israel, will further convince the Palestinians that the U.S. will not act as an intermediary.

Only Guatemala has followed the U.S. lead to move its embassy to Jerusalem. Other Western governments condition such a move on a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including a decision on the permanent status of Jerusalem. The Palestinian government claims East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital at its founding in 1948, and has located its parliament, Supreme Court and other institutions of state in West Jerusalem.Political prisoner, activist, journalist, hymn-writer, emerging think tanker, aspiring novelist, hanger on of academia, parliamentary candidate for North West Durham, Shadow Leader of the Opposition, Speedboat, proudly banned from Twitter so officially more dangerous than the Taliban, eagerly awaiting the second (or possibly third) attempt to murder me.President Trump threatened Thursday to scrap a crucial trade deal and send troops to the U.S. southern border in response to a large caravan of Central American immigrants heading toward the United States.

In a series of tweets, Trump said that if Mexico is incapable of stopping the immigrants, he will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Trump also threatened to cancel a pending trade deal with Mexico that took more than a year to negotiate and is designed to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA, Trump said, referring to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

His threats came as an estimated 1,500 members of the loosely organized caravan reached the Mexico-Guatemala border, with thousands more expected to arrive in the coming days. Mexican authorities have closed a border crossing near the town of Tapachula, and have ordered hundreds of federal forces to the area to help immigration agents guard popular illegal crossing points along the murky Suchiate River, which forms the international boundary between the two countries.

Dozens of federal police officers stood guard on the Mexican side of the river on Thursday. It was unclear whether the immigrants would try to rush the border, as they did at the Honduras-Guatemala border several days ago, or whether they plan to turn themselves in to border authorities with the hope that they will be granted entry. The immigrants appeared ready to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive in order to proceed together.

Mexican authorities have said that members of the caravan will be treated like anybody else seeking to enter Mexican territory: Those with proper documentation will be allowed to pass while anybody entering the country in an irregular manner will be apprehended and returned to their home country.

Immigrants fleeing violence or other threats who seek refugee status to stay in Mexico will have to request it at the border and wait up to 45 days in immigration detention.

The Mexican government said Thursday that it plans to ask the United Nations Refugee Agency, which has offices near the Mexico-Guatemala border, to help it process possible refugee applicants and contribute to a humanitarian solution.

Trumps demands sparked widespread anger in Mexico, with some complaining that it was a violation of Mexican sovereignty.

Mexico should not do Trumps dirty work, tweeted filmmaker and activist Epigmenio Ibarra, who called for the free transit of the caravan through Mexico. Political scientist Genaro Lozano said on Twitter that Trumps pressure on Mexico is terrible and unacceptable.

In a radio interview, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray said Trumps tweets were clearly politically motivated and designed to generate support for Republican candidates before the midterm elections next month.

They are aimed at his electorate, Videgaray said. Rather than reacting, we have to put the tweets in context and not give them greater importance we already have a lot of experience in expressions like this.

The last time a similar caravan of immigrants sought to cross into Mexico, in April, authorities gave participants short-term visas that allowed them to travel through Mexico and reach the United States border. Many of those immigrants said they intended to seek asylum in the U.S., and Mexican officials said that international law gave them the right to do so. Mexicos actions at the time angered Trump, who ordered National Guard troops to the U.S. southern border.

Trump did not elaborate on his threats to send soldiers to the border on Thursday. Federal law bars the military from conducting law enforcement activities on U.S. soil, although National Guard troops have been used at the border in limited capacity by Trump and under previous administrations, including in 2006 and 2010 under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Along with his warning that he is ready to engage the military, Trump has also threatened to withdraw aid from Mexico and the so-called Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala if the caravan is not stopped.

The caravan, which includes people fleeing violence and political oppression as well as migrants in search of work, departed from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday, crossed into Guatemala on Monday, and has continued to swell in size in the days since.

Many immigrants said they rushed to join the caravan after seeing it covered by news outlets last week. Like previous caravans, this one was designed to help protect immigrants from the dangers of the migrant trail, which include robbery, rape and assault. Many participants said it seemed safer and cheaper than hiring a smuggler.

Honduran migrants head toward the Mexico border en route to the United States. (Orlando Sierra / AFP/Getty Images)

Father Mauro Verzelleti, the director of the Casa del Migrante in Guatemala City, said that in the last day and a half, about 5,000 immigrants mostly from Honduras arrived at his shelter. He opened emergency shelters in nearby elementary schools, but said that hundreds of people were still forced to camp in the street Wednesday night.

Verzelleti called on Central American countries to buck Trumps demands to halt the caravan.

Migration is a fundamental right, and states must respect this right, Verzelleti said. He pointed to the United States long history of political intervention in Central America, including its support for right-wing President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who many Hondurans think rigged last years presidential election.

If countries do not implement politics that permit people to remain in their countries, then they must respect the right to migrate, Verzelleti said.

Most of the migrants who slept at the shelter set out Thursday morning for the seven-hour journey to the Mexican border, with many hitching rides in cars or on the backs of tractor trailers. Many Guatemalans expressed support for the immigrants, giving them food, clothing or small amounts of cash.

One of those heading north was Francisco Ponce, a former motorcycle taxi driver from western Honduras who said he was forced to stop working eight months ago because he couldnt afford the extortion taxes levied by local gangs.

I was not able to work, he said. Heading for the United States is the only way to provide for his three daughters and wife, he said.

We hope that God touches Trumps heart. He is human just like us. We are not going to the U.S. to hurt anyone, but in order to work to support our families. Francisco Ponce, migrant from Honduras

Ponce said he was not daunted by Trumps threats to deploy the military to the U.S. border, and has hope that God will intercede.

We are not afraid, he said. We hope that God touches Trumps heart. He is human just like us. We are not going to the U.S. to hurt anyone, but in order to work to support our families.

Other immigrants admitted that they were wary of what lay ahead.

Who knows what will happen, said German Ramirez, a farmer from Honduras. We will see.

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will visit Mexico City on Friday to discuss the caravan with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Last week, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence hosted the leaders of the Northern Triangle countries at a conference on immigration where he implored them to persuade their citizens to stay home.

Those efforts and others come as record numbers of families have sought to enter the United States, even though the overall number of people crossing the border is much lower than in previous years. A previous administration effort to curb immigration, Trumps zero tolerance policy, called for the criminal prosecution of all people who illegally enter the U.S. and drew controversy after it resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents.

Jason Marczak, a Latin America expert at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the American response to the caravan must focus on the push factors that force people to leave to begin with, including high levels of poverty, corruption and violence.

A strong border will not prevent people from leaving their communities when their lives are threatened, Marczak said.

Linthicum reported from Mexico City, and special correspondent Jeff Abbott reported from Guatemala City. Cecilia Sanchez in The Times Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicum

UPDATES:

4:10 p.m.: This article was updated with reporting from Honduras and addition reaction from Mexico.

This article was originally pubished at 10:40 a.m.Remember When  With Americas Veterans Day on Nov. 11, (Remembrance Day in other countries) we need to remember our U.S. military is...

Genesee County in the 1970s Hi, read your article and it was great, but maybe I could add more. I am 62, was born in...New Delhi : Former Union Minister MJ Akbar's defamation case against one of the 20 women who have accused him of sexual harassment will be taken up by a court in Delhi today.

Mr Akbar has sued Journalist Priya Ramani, the first woman to name him in the growing #MeToo movement in India, accusing her of intentionally putting forward malicious forward and fabricated allegations to harm his reputation.

The editor turned politician has been called out by multiple women over the past few days.Thiruvananthapuram : Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has asserted that BJP goons masked as Ayyappa devotees blocked the journalist from trekking to the Ayyappa temple. While speaking to a media, the minister said that if the BJP puts an end to their abusing spree, everything will falls in place.

Meanwhile, Suhasini Raj, a Delhi-based woman journalist of a foreign media outlet, who trekked the Sabarimala Hill, was Thursday stopped midway by Lord Ayyappa devotees opposing entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine.

In a Face book live, the New York Times reporter said that the police tried to escort and help her in all possible ways. But the aggressive mob and stone pelting forced her to drop the plan. She also added that she doesn't want to enter the temple by hurting anybody's religious sentiments.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.Stock Market Detailed Map Of Expected Price Movement Before The Breakout

Our research team was hard at work over the past few days. Not only were they able to call this downside price swing 3+ weeks in advance, they also called the market bottom within 0.5% of the absolute lows. Now, they have put together a suggested map of what to expect in regards to price rotation, support, resistance and the eventual price breakout that we are expecting to happen near or after November 8~12. Today, we are sharing this detailed map with all of our followers.

Our research team, at www.TheTechnicalTraders.com , have honed their skills over the past few decades by studying market correlations, price relationships, advanced price modeling and more. Our objective is to be able to identify price patterns, opportunities, and setups while attempting to accurately predict the future of price so that we can keep our followers and members uniquely aware of future opportunities. As you can imagine, it is not an easy job and we often take heat for some of our research posts.

Today, we are sticking out neck out (again) and attempting to predict the future of the ES price rotation as this deeper rotation continues to play out. Our research team believes it has identified key price levels and dates/times that are relevant to this future price rotation. By no means is this research set in stone in regards to exact dates/times. These are suggestions which we believe to be accurate based on our research and analysis of the markets. Use them as guides to how this price rotation plays out.

This first chart is a Daily ES chart that shows three very important components of the current market price rotation.

_ The Support Zone below the recent lows is actually very critical to the true understanding of price rotation. As long as this support zone is not completely breached, prices should continue to push higher overall.

_ The Rotation Zone is where we believe the price will continue to consolidate within a fairly tight range before the November 8 ~ 12 bottom sets up. Volatility will continue to be greater than normal throughout this Rotation Zone.

_ The post-November 8 ~12 breakout is likely to attempt to target 3131 initially (a Fibonacci extension target) and we believe this move higher could explode fairly quickly.

Now that we have explained the general sense of our research, lets dig into the numbers a bit.

Our expectation is that a price peak will occur near early morning trading on October 26 (morning session in NY). We believe this peak will end near 2830 (a Fibonacci 50% retracement level) and we believe an extended basing pattern will precede this price peak. The extended basing pattern, which is expected to end near 2770 (a Fibonacci 25% retracement level) is already starting to form and should last from now until near October 23 or 24. We believe the upside move between the end of the basing pattern and the October 26th peak will be very fast and end fairly quickly  so be prepared.

The October 26 price peak will set up a very important component of our final analysis  the peak-to-peak price channel (highlighted in YELLOW now) and will allow us to determine when and where price volatility predicts the breakout move to occur. Our research team believes another bout of extended basing will occur after the October 26th peak that will likely push just below the 2771 support levels (to near 2750) retesting the Support Zone and presenting a false low price breakout pattern that may sucker many longs out of the market (and potentially set up massive short seller pressures in the market). This move may be critical to the eventual upside breakout that we are predicting.

Think of it like this, Fibonacci price theory suggests that price MUST attempt to establish new higher high prices or lower low prices at all times. Failure to accomplish these new price levels results in a consolidating/congesting price trend that typically forms as Pennants or Flags in price. Near the Apex of these pennant/flag formations, false breakouts (or what we call washout lows or highs) are common. These are price functions that operate as a shakeout move where price searches for direction and where buyers and sellers are stacked on top of one another attempting to ride the next wave. Price MUST attempt to establish a new higher high or lower low  so it must attempt to rally up and break the 2945 level or it must selloff ant attempt to break the 2712 level. We expect extreme volatility near or after the November 8~12 apex setup. Price could fall deep into the Support Zone before reversing higher with a bigger rally that attempts to run well above the 2945 level.

The vertical blue line is the November 8 date where we expect the absolute bottom to form and where we expect the next big price rally to initiate. Near after this date, we expect the price to rotate with greater volatility and attempt an upside breakout move near or after November 12. The key Fibonacci levels at 2771 & 2829 are certain to become key price rotation levels near this November 8 ~ 12 price breakout.

At this point, we have outlined some very detailed and structured price rotation levels that should clearly help you understand what is transpiring within the US Equities markets right now. If you take only one thing away from reading this article, please understand the Support Zone that weve highlighted on our charts is super-critical to the ability for the US Equities markets to continue to push higher. If this level is completely breached by lower prices (prices falling all the way below these price channels on the Daily chart, above), then our predictions of price rotation, extended basing and an ultimate upside price breakout are invalid. This Support Zone MUST hold for our analysis to become valid.

This level of research and understanding as related to technical and price analysis is not something one stumbles upon blindly. This takes years of study, practice, research, and understanding to be able to see into the future as we do. Sure, anyone that understands basic trend lines and Fibonacci concepts can draw some lines on a chart  but their overall success rate will quickly illustrate their true understanding of the markets. Take a minute to visit Technical Traders Ltd. website and read some of our recent research posts and pay attention to how we accurately predicted a 5~8% price correction 3+ weeks before this recent move happened. Ask yourself, how did we know it was going to happen and how did we know it would stop near 2700? Visit www.TheTechnicalTraders.com/FreeResearch/ to read all of our recent research posts or read how we predicted this downside price move by clicking here: https://www.thetechnicaltraders.com/predictive-trading-model-suggests-falling-stock-prices-us-elections/

Chris Vermeulen

www.TheTechnicalTraders.com

Chris Vermeulen has been involved in the markets since 1997 and is the founder of Technical Traders Ltd. He is an internationally recognized technical analyst, trader, and is the author of the book: 7 Steps to Win With Logic



Through years of research, trading and helping individual traders around the world. He learned that many traders have great trading ideas, but they lack one thing, they struggle to execute trades in a systematic way for consistent results. Chris helps educate traders with a three-hour video course that can change your trading results for the better.



His mission is to help his clients boost their trading performance while reducing market exposure and portfolio volatility.



He is a regular speaker on HoweStreet.com, and the FinancialSurvivorNetwork radio shows. Chris was also featured on the cover of AmalgaTrader Magazine, and contributes articles to several leading financial hubs like MarketOracle.co.uk

Disclaimer: Nothing in this report should be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any securities mentioned. Technical Traders Ltd., its owners and the author of this report are not registered broker-dealers or financial advisors. Before investing in any securities, you should consult with your financial advisor and a registered broker-dealer. Never make an investment based solely on what you read in an online or printed report, including this report, especially if the investment involves a small, thinly-traded company that isnt well known. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report has been paid by Cardiff Energy Corp. In addition, the author owns shares of Cardiff Energy Corp. and would also benefit from volume and price appreciation of its stock. The information provided here within should not be construed as a financial analysis but rather as an advertisement. The authors views and opinions regarding the companies featured in reports are his own views and are based on information that he has researched independently and has received, which the author assumes to be reliable. Technical Traders Ltd. and the author of this report do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content of this report, nor its fitness for any particular purpose. Lastly, the author does not guarantee that any of the companies mentioned in the reports will perform as expected, and any comparisons made to other companies may not be valid or come into effect.

Chris Vermeulen Archive

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



Britains ultra rich are already moving their money offshore, in anticipation of a Corbyn-led Labour government. They are anxious that some of their enormous wealth will be called upon to help fund the NHS, provide free education, and build council houses. Hence many are paying vast sums to accountants to help them find better uses for their money, such as hiding it in secret offshore accounts.

Since the Tories came to power in 2010, the burden of paying for the crisis of capitalism has fallen onto everyone but the capitalists themselves. But now the Tories are tearing themselves apart over Brexit and there is a real possibility of a general election to resolve a deadlocked Parliament. A Corbyn-led Labour government is becoming an increasingly likely near-term prospect.

And with the Labour leadership promising an irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people, the multi-millionaires are running scared.

Let the ruling class tremble...

Most [super rich] people are much more worried about Corbyn than Brexit  by a factor of 10, declared Michael Maslinski of the wealth management consultancy Maslinski and Co. to the Financial Times.

Another wealth manager Ian Tait, a director at London and Capital, told the FT that dozens of his clients have already taken measures to protect their assets from a potential Labour government. These measures include setting up offshore investment accounts in the Channel Islands, Luxembourg, or Switzerland, in order to avoid being caught by capital controls.

The prospect of a Corbyn government is alarming Britain's super rich / Image: Socialist Appeal

Some accountants even reported that their clients are already making plans to emigrate or move all their assets abroad, in case Corbyn becomes Prime Minister.

What revolutionary intentions have caused the ruling class to tremble so? Labours 2017 election manifesto promised only modest reforms, such as raising the top rate of income tax to 50 percent for earnings above 123,000, in addition to considering a wealth tax.

It seems as if even the slightest encroachment on their vast wealth has these parasites running for the hills.

In reality, however, these ladies and gentlemen are not so much afraid of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, but of what stands behind them: an emboldened mass movement of the working class fed up with austerity and inequality.

Militant mood

The recent Labour Party conference sobered the minds of the wealthy like a bucket of cold water to the head. MPs such as Dawn Butler gave radical speeches praising the fighting spirit of the Liverpool Labour councillors of the 1980s, who fought the cuts on the basis that it is better to break the law than the poor.

Laura Smith (MP for Crewe and Nantwich) called for a general strike to topple the Tories, receiving a standing ovation in response. John McDonnell endorsed the original wording of the socialist Clause IV, which committed the Labour Party to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.

John McDonnell endorses the original wording of the socialist Clause IV, which committed the Labour Party to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange / Image: Flickr, LP

These speeches were extremely well received by conference delegates, who were overwhelmingly to the left.

But such statements were not so well received by Britains super rich. As the head of wealth planning at a large London firm reported to the Financial Times:

The conversation has heated up since last months Labour party conference in Liverpool. One client pushed the button on leaving the country this morning.

The serious strategists of capital are worried that once Corbyn is in power, he will be under enormous pressure from below to carry through his promised reforms.

With the economy struggling due to the world crisis of capitalism, however, not to mention the future effects of Brexit or another world slump, Corbyn and McDonnell will find that the cupboard is bare in terms of offering serious reforms. Hence they will be forced to go much further than simply tweaking the tax system if they are to provide their programme in full to workers, the youth, and the poor.

What the rich are really worried about, therefore, is not the prospect of paying a bit extra in tax, but that their assets will be nationalised or their fortunes expropriated.

Prepare for battle

That these multi-millionaires are already preparing themselves for the upcoming struggle should serve as a wake-up call for the leadership of the labour movement.

Clearly the ruling class will not welcome a left-wing Labour government. They will do everything in their power to bring Corbyn to heel.

That these multi-millionaires are already preparing themselves for the upcoming struggle should serve as a wake-up call for the leadership of the labour movement / Image: Socialist Appeal

Hiding money abroad as part of a strike of capital is simply one weapon the capitalists will employ to bring a Labour government to its knees. The full weight of the establishment will be brought to bear on Corbyn, to ensure that the rule of the bankers and bosses remains undisturbed.

Labour members and grassroots activists must therefore seriously prepare to meet this onslaught head-on, from day one of a Corbyn government coming to power.

This is why the programme summarised by the original Clause IV, to place the commanding heights of the economy  including the banks and big monopolies  under common ownership has never been more relevant.

Without these measures, including the imposition of capital controls, the rich will continue their onslaught against the working class.

The rich have shown they are already taking this struggle seriously. It is vital that the labour movement does the same.

Big business threatens Labour with a strike of capital

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has recently warned against the chilling effect Labours nationalisation plans are having across boardrooms in the UK. The CBI is Britains largest business lobby and is dutifully beginning their latest attack on Labour by threatening an implied strike of capital.

The ruling class will never surrender anything without a fight, and Labours proposed plans represent what could be the beginnings of a fundamental social upheaval / Image: Socialist Appeal

This will come as no surprise to anyone. It represents something that Marxists have repeatedly warned about. We know whose interests the likes of the CBI defend: and it is not those of working people.

The ruling class will never surrender anything without a fight, and Labours proposed plans represent what could be the beginnings of a fundamental social upheaval.

Corbyn and McDonnell mustnt be swayed by these threats, which come from a whining layer of parasites only interested in bleeding workers dry. Instead, Labour must now go on the offensive and see through their promises on nationalisation and more.

The disaster of privatisation

Paul Drechsler, who stood down as chairman of the CBI last month, has demanded that Labour needs to provide evidence that nationalisation works. This is laughably bold for Drechsler to argue, when the bankruptcy and failure of privatisation and outsourcing has never been clearer to all.

Has the collapse of Carillion slipped Drescher's mind? The loss of nearly 2,000 jobs and pensions means very little to a capitalist class who maintain their standard of living while the rest of us suffer.

Failing companies like Carillion being bailed out by the government is now part and parcel of the capitalist system / Image: fair use

The collapse of Carillion is set to cost UK taxpayers 148m, yet failing companies like Carillion being bailed out by the government is now part and parcel of the capitalist system.

Michael Roberts, the chief of Water UK (the industry trade body) chipped in to warn that that renationalisation would put investment, service improvements, environmental standards and low bills all under threat.

This is rich, considering that Englands privatised water companies, despite being up to their necks in debt, have simply increased their prices and awarded billions in dividends to their shareholders. None of the profits were re-invested into the network and yet we are told that privatisation is a more efficient system!

What evidence is cited to show that privatisation works? Perhaps a report by the Social Market Foundation (a think-tank closely linked to the Tories and the Blairites), commissioned by the water companies themselves, which  surprise surprise  concluded that nationalisation would likely be expensive and could lead to declining efficiency. It is akin to turkeys, seeing themselves on a Christmas dinner menu, producing a report concluding that fish does in fact taste the best!

The many vs the few

Whether construction, utilities or healthcare: no part of the economy can be protected under capitalism while these vultures seek profit above all else.

The capitalist class can no longer churn out the myth that privatisation provides better services when everyday the working class can see its real impact: the NHS crisis worsening as more contracts are outsourced; homelessness rising as more council homes are sold off; and train fares continuing to go through the roof whilst services deteriorate.

Corbyn and McDonnell should reply with the following clear statement of intent: that they intend to nationalise the top 150 monopolies and place them under democratic workers control / Image: Socialist Appeal

Whilst the millionaires complain about the chilling effect of nationalisation on their investment portfolios, privatisation has had a freezing effect on the living standards of millions.

Drechsler demands that Labour be very clear about the scope of the policy, in terms of what you might choose to nationalise.

We think Corbyn and McDonnell should reply with the following clear statement of intent: that they intend to nationalise the top 150 monopolies and place them under democratic workers control.

Nationalisation must take place immediately, without compensation to the billionaires, and go far beyond just the utility companies. All outsourcing should be ended and all privatised companies returned to public control.

With a democratic plan of production, we could ensure that our basic needs are met and everyone could enjoy life without the stress of constant exploitation. Is that clear enough, Mr Drechsler?This autumn, the forces of Marxism have spread across Canadian campuses as never before. In the face of economic crisis, youth are questioning capitalism and are searching for answers that only revolutionary Marxism can provide. Since the start of September, Socialist Fightback Students (SFS) has collected well over a thousand emails, sold hundreds of papers, and started dozens of revolutionary reading groups across Canada, thus enrolling a new wave of youth in the fight against capitalism.

Montreal

Concordia and McGill

This September, Socialist Fightback activists were hard at work at Concordia and McGill in Montreal. We had a strong presence in the first few weeks of the semester, collecting more than 350 sign-ups and selling over 160 papers. The success of the start-of-term pub night at Brutopia, which saw 70 people attend, showed that Fightback is now an established part of student life. This energy and enthusiasm carried over to the first two public events of the semester, The Real History of the American Revolution: A Marxist Analysis at McGill and The Capitalist Crisis and the Socialist Solution at Concordia. Each of these was packed with 50 to 60 attendees. With these results, it has become clear that Socialist Fightback is the dominant political group on both campuses.

UdeM, UQAM et Cegep Marie-Victorin

Activists with La Riposte socialiste etudiante at UdeM, UQAM, and Cegep Marie Victorin had their most successful fall semester to date. The thirst for Marxist ideas was clear at events such as What is Socialism?, Why Fight for Socialism? and Faced with the crisis of capitalism: Reform or Revolution?, which brought in many students looking to get active in a revolutionary organisation. In total, we sold more than 165 copies of our paper La Riposte socialiste, and collected at least 150 signatures from those wanting to get involved.

Toronto

Ryerson University and George Brown College

This has been a record-breaking year for Socialist Fightback at Ryerson. At the Ryerson clubs fair, Fightback was by far the largest and most visible group. This decisive presence was put to good use when a group of anti-choice religious fundamentalists showed up on campus to antagonise students with disgusting photos of dead fetuses. Members of Socialist Fightback teamed up with other student activists to cover these photos, forcing the anti-abortionists to pack up shortly thereafter. Students came up to thank us after this, many of whom also decided to sign up with our club. Throughout the day, 130 students signed up to get involved, and we sold almost 60 copies of our newspaper. The trend of runaway successes continued with the first Socialist Pub Night of the semester, which was attended by nearly 100 people over the course of the night. This was followed by our first public discussion on What is Marxism? which was attended by more than 50 people. Many of the attendees were eager to get organised, and are now actively involved in the work of the club.

The fledgling Socialist Fightback club at George Brown College had an excellent first few weeks this September. The first event, on Marxism vs. Identity Politics, was attended by around 40 people, nearly all of whom were open to the ideas of Marxism and our critiques of the academic left. With more than 70 students signing up with our club over the course of the month, Socialist Fightback at George Brown College is off to a great start!

University of Toronto

At the UofT Clubs Carnival and Street Fest, the Socialist Fightback stall saw a steady stream of interested students and avid discussion. Between these two events, more than 200 students signed up to our email list and at least 40 Fightback papers were sold, showing a growing thirst for revolutionary ideas among students.

Our first event of the month, Defend the Right to Strike!, presented by Fightback editor Alex Grant, was a huge success with approximately 60 people in attendance. It was a timely discussion, which linked the Ford governments attacks on labour rightssuch as those of the York University TAs who were legislated back to workto his broader attacks on workers in Ontario. Alex explained the need for a mass, militant labour movement to fight such attacks, including defiance of back-to-work legislation and solidarity strikes. During the discussion many young workers commented on low unionisation rates, precarious jobs and stagnant, low wages in Ontarioconditions that students will have to deal with upon graduating, if they do not work already. We appealed to all students to get involved in Fightback and to help us build support for the socialist ideas and militant methods that are needed to win, in both the labour and student movements; a call that many are taking up by joining reading groups and volunteering to help out with our upcoming events and rallies.

York University

Socialist Fightback Students at York University have continued to stake their claim as the largest and best-organised club of any kind on campus, with a series of tablings, a pub night, a massive showing on clubs day, and a whole programme of public discussions, including What is Marxism?, Why We Need a Socialist Revolution, How to Fight Oppression: Marxism vs. Identity Politics and a panel on How Students and Workers Can Fight Doug Ford. These events have a regular attendance of over 40 each, attracting young people who are frustrated with capitalism and eager to get involved in revolutionary organising. At least 200 students have signed up with Fightback at York, and we sold more than 80 papers. This is just the start of what will be a stellar year.

University of Waterloo

Socialist Fightback Waterloo had a busy month of events, starting with a lively Socialist Pub Night attended by 20 people. The literature stall at clubs day saw 70 sign-ups and more than 20 paper sales. At the public event on Why We Need a Revolution there were 35 people in attendance and an enthusiastic discussion, with many expressing a desire to get active in Marxist organising. This event was followed by a public reading group on the Communist Manifesto, which was similarly very successful. We also intervened in the "When Will Capitalism End?" event organised by the German Studies Department, where the comrades defended the relevance of Marxist ideas today. There are more activities planned in the coming months.

Hamilton

After a challenging year, during which Fightback activists in Hamilton faced intimidation from the far right and harassment from the Hamilton police, this year marked a qualitative shift in our work in the city. During the move-in week at McMaster, the Socialist Fightback Students club held an event on "The Ideas of Karl Marx". Despite the fact that school hadn't even started yet, 25 people attended and were enthused by the event, many of them signing up to join the Fightback Hamilton Labour Day contingent. This helped us to organise the largest contingent Fightback Hamilton has ever had on Labour Day, which no doubt left an impression on workers in the city. At McMaster clubs day, more than 100 people signed up to learn more about Fightback. Our public event on "Why We Need a Revolution" was popular and attracted students from all backgrounds, eager to learn how to get involved and how to fight the capitalist system.

University of Alberta and University of Victoria

Socialist Fightback in Edmonton is growing quickly, despite the bureaucratic hurdles put in place by the University of Alberta. While not being allowed to have more than two people at our table at a time during the clubs fair, nor being allowed to initiate contact with fellow students, we still collected over 70 signatures. We held a series of public events, each attended by more than 20 people, on What Is Marxism?, Does Canada Need a Revolution?, Marxism and the Struggle Against Racism, and China: Capitalist or Communist? These events have generated enthusiasm among attendees, as demonstrated by the strength of our public collections. One event set a new record with $75 in donations! This fantastic response shows that in Edmonton there is a thirst for a socialist answer to the current problems of the world.

Meanwhile, at the University of Victoria, Socialist Fightback participated in clubs day, where we collected 35 emails and sparked interest in revolutionary ideas with a Socialist Pub Night and a public event on What is Socialism?

All in all, Socialist Fightback Students has had its most successful start to the semester in our history. We encourage all of those interested in joining us or building your own Socialist Fightback club on campuses across the country to contact us to begin the work!

Build Socialist Fightback Students!Love coffee? Mechanically minded? Are you ready to save the day?! Hero Coffee Works technicians keep Montana coffee businesses flowing. If you can crank a wrench, enjoy espresso and use a multimeter you might be the next hero to join our team!

https://www.indeedjobs.com/hero-coffee-works/_hl/en_US?cpref=JXWAtnzf3XWjLOi4YeVNLhRSoEeMyZTo-ZudvbclqbcAre you interested in working in a dynamic community based food processing facility located in the most beautiful valley in western Montana? Mission Mountain Food Enterprise Center (MMFEC)is located in Ronan, Montana.

The facility is a shared use community based operation and is unique to the Northwest in that it provides food businesses technical expertise and infrastructure to develop their food businesses. As a Montana Food and Agriculture Development Center MMFEC is the leader in food business development in Montana. MMFEC prioritizes working with our local agricultural community in developing opportunities in food and agriculture economies, local food systems, farm to institution and cooperatives.

We are seeking a dynamic individual who is interested in being part of our team and is experienced in management of food processing and manufacturing systems. This individual must be knowledgeable in current food safety regulations and third party audit systems, personnel and food processing facility management.

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Cell-406-250-6772Students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have visited a university in Cyprus to discuss new ways of assisting refugees and asylum seekers.

The group of eight #DMUSquareMile volunteers travelled to Cyprus on a #DMUglobal trip and have taken part in a packed itinerary of activities on the island.

The week culminated with a seminar at Frederick University, a partner institution in the #JoinTogether campaign. #JoinTogether is a United Nations initiative to support refugees worldwide, with 68 universities now signed up as partners.

DMU has been asked by the UN to take a lead in engaging the global higher education sector in the campaign and this trip was designed to give students an international perspective on issues related to migration.

During the event in Nicosia, students from DMU and Frederick University were given a presentation by Emilia Strovolidou from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), who spoke about the history of refugees in Cyprus and highlighted the scale of the refugee crisis around the world.

She suggested ways that refugees and asylum seekers could be better protected and answered questions from students about the perception of migrants and how they can be helped into employment.

We should not think about refugees as a burden or a threat but as having skills, talents and dreams, she urged.

The Vice-President of Frederick University, Natassa Frederickou, provided DMU students with more information about the university, which is based in the cities of Nicosia and Limassol. She then introduced the days main session, where students from both institutions shared their learnings and came up with new ideas for helping migrants.

Suggestions from students included legal advice from law students, community events, utilising universities vast expertise and humanising migrants by telling their stories more effectively.

To mark the European Unions Anti-Trafficking Day, students were shown an eye-opening documentary about the plight of young women trafficked from Eastern Europe to work in the sex industry in other countries, titled The Price of Sex.

Following the film, Cyprus Minister of Labour Zeta Emilianidou addressed the audience to emphasise the importance of tackling human-trafficking.

The event was closed by DMUs Deputy Vice-Chancellor Andy Collop, who summed up the experience of the students in Cyprus and underlined DMUs commitment to the #JoinTogether campaign moving forward.

RELATED NEWS

Students to visit Cyprus to explore new ways of helping refugees

Students discuss refugee crisis with government ministers in Cyprus

Cyprus student tells Limassol audience: "DMU was best decision I've made"

MBA student Siddhaarth Sivasamy, from India, said that the event has inspired him to take action when he returns to Leicester.

He said: It was a good experience. It was really shocking to hear about the human trafficking and it really shocked me. Im a committee for the Enactus Society at DMU and Im planning to do something where we can do something for the community when I get back to the UK.

Im very happy Ive been part of this trip. Ive enjoyed it and wish I could stay here.

This event came at the end of a week where DMU students have visited a refugee reception centre and met with government officials from Cyprus ministry of internal affairs and ministry of foreign affairs. Health Studies student Fatima Mohammed believes that this discussion rounded off the visit to Cyprus perfectly.

She said: This event perfectly summarised everything weve done this week. It was nice to know that each place that we went to this week, including today, everyone knows their weaknesses. Everything flowed throughout the week.

Ive learned to be more humble, take each day as it comes and be more appreciative.Metropolitan News-Enterprise

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Page 3

Court of Appeal:

Defendant Cant Compel Production of DNA Analysis Software

By a MetNews Staff Writer

The Fourth District Court of Appeal yesterday affirmed denial of an accuseds bid to compel production of the DNA analysis software, its source code and user manuals which the defense contends is needed to address the reliability of the identification of samples collected from a crime scene.

Justice William Dato of Div. One noted that the company that made the software, and owns it, is not a part of the prosecution team and, he declared, it must be afforded the chance to argue its interests before the trial court.

Prosecutors in the case against Florencio J. Dominguez, accused of conspiracy to commit murder, used a software program called STRmix to analyze a mix of DNA found inside a pair of gloves used in the killing. Dominguez sought production of the STRmix software, as well as its manuals and source code.

The San Diego Police Departments crime lab had obtained the software from the U.S. distributor of the softwares creator, the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR), which is owned by the government of New Zealand.

Response to Request

In response to the defendants discovery request, the prosecution asserted that ESRs copyright in the manuals prevented their disclosure, and that the software itself would not work without a license. The government also indicated that only ESR had access to the STRmix source code, and the internal validation information Dominguez had also requested.

The prosecutor indicated that ESR would produce all the requested items if Dominguez entered into a non-disclosure agreement with it. Dominguezs counsel refused this offer, explaining that such an agreement might render the evidence obtained useless in preparing a defense.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Charles G. Rogers heard the defendants motion to compel, and granted it based on his finding that ESR was a member of the prosecution team. The judge indicated his intent to issue a protective order upon production of the evidence.

ESRs Role

Dato focused on the fact that two of the items requested, the STRmix source code and internal validation data, were in the exclusive possession of ESR. He disagreed with Rogers finding that the institute was part of the prosecution team, saying:

Foremost, we observe that ESR provided no input or assistance specific to Dominguezs caseexcept insofar as the prosecutions use of its software program can be deemed tantamount to ESR investigating the case. Indeed, were it not for this discovery request, ESR would likely have no knowledge of the matter whatsoever.

He also rejected Dominquezs contention that ESRs training and occasional technical support for STRmix rendered it a prosecution team member.

In sum, he declared, it appears that any interaction between ESR and the lab was far from significant, especially with respect to Dominguezs particular case.

STRmix Program

Dato noted that STRmix program was in the prosecutions possession.

He wrote:

With respect to the software program itself, the People urge it falls outside the scope of our criminal discovery provisions because it is solely equipment and thus not exculpatory evidence within the meaning of section 1054.1, subdivision (e). While Dominguezs briefing addresses multiple categories of evidence, he does not squarely address what about the software would be exculpatory.

On this point, we think the People have the better argument. Nothing in the record before us indicates that the software suffered a problem that might have affected the results in this case.

User Manuals

The jurist, turning to the issue of the manuals, continued:

As we understand Dominguezs argument, he contends that as a matter of law his interests overcome any possible trade secret privilege that could be claimed.

But we do not see this issue as one amenable to decision as a matter of law, completely lacking any input from the party claiming a right (i.e., here, ESR). While Dominguezs interests may ultimately trump those of ESRs, we conclude that the court could not fully consider these issues without having ESR present. Indeed, at the hearing, the prosecutor noted ESRs absence ad nauseam. We think he was right to do so. Simply put, although the trial court assumed that ESR was invoking its privileges, nothing before it illuminated the full extent of the interests ESR could assert. ESR must be afforded the opportunity to be heard before the trial court balances the interests and makes a decision

The case is People v. Superior Court (Dominguez), 2018 S.O.S. 5007.

ESR filed an amicus brief in support of the prosecution. The ACLU, the Innocence Project and similar groups, and the Legal Aid Society of New York filed briefs supporting Dominguez.

Copyright 2018, Metropolitan News CompanyFriends on the Run hit the trail again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.MERIDEN  The female students wore pencil skirts and saddle shoes, they debated the popularity of Frank Sinatra versus Bing Crosby, and on Friday nights, the class of 1951 owned downtown.

There wasnt really room on the sidewalk to walk, it was so crowded, said Raymond Kielbasinski.

Friday night was our time to have fun, said Barbara Cavalari Mount.

About 40 members of the Meriden High School Class of 1951 gathered at Violas Restaurant Wednesday to share memories and wish each other a Happy 85th birthday.

The group decided after its 65th class reunion two years ago they wanted a lunch instead of a dinner in a restaurant in Meriden, not out of town. They also didn't want to wait another five years to get together so they chose the year when many were turning 85.

Well all be 90 by (the next class reunion), said Marie Barucci West, who helped organize the luncheon and whose cousin made a cake with an image of the former high school. Some of us wont be here.

There were wonderful people in school, said Jean Shibetta. We were the best class, we were the party class. We went on a cruise on our 50th reunion.

As they dined on pasta and chicken, members recalled their days at the citys only high school and a class that almost reached 300 members.

A lot of them didnt change, said Rosalie Mesite. Everybody helped everybody out, then. Its different these days.

Mount, who was on the cheerleading squad with Shibetta, came to the luncheon from Misquamicut, Rhode Island, and helped get her fellow classmates to the event. Another member came from Pennsylvania and Merlyn Jackson flew down from Montreal, Canada.

Its the most expensive lunch Ive ever had, Jackson said. I wouldnt miss this one because were all going out.

Jackson was the head majorette in her class and studied figure skating in Canada. She lived in various parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut before her family settled in Meriden, where she attended high school.

She grew up near Kensington Avenue and recalled she and her classmates walked to the high school on Pleasant Street. There was one bus from South Meriden.

What a wonderful thing to have them here, Mesite said. We all went to one big high school.

Mesite remembered girls who were forbidden from wearing slacks would often wear them in the cold weather and remove them prior to class. She recalled many students having jobs after school that kept them from extra-curricular activities.

Everybody worked really hard then, she said.

Mesite met her husband George Mesite shortly after high school when he ran a pizza shop downtown. Their first date was at a small eatery where they had hot dogs. George Mesite would later build the Villa Capri banquet facility on the site.

Shibetta recalled students danced the fox trot in the high school gym, and the ongoing feud over Crosby and Sinatra.

I like Robert Goulet and Engelbert Humperdink, she said.

Kielbasinskis daughter Donna McDonald recalled the large Polish community on Olive Street, where her father grew up and served as an altar boy at St. Stanislaus Church.

They all had hard lives, she said. They never had it easy being the first-generation.

Kielbasinski lost his wife in August and Mount lost her husband last year. Like others in the class, they help each other through the grief and cherish high school memories.

It was a wonderful place to be, Mount said.

mgodin@record-journal.com

203-317-2255

Twitter: @CconnbizSOUTHINGTON  Two legislators and six General Assembly hopefuls discussed their views on business and the state at a Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce forum Thursday morning.

Candidates touted their support for improving the states economy and had different ways of reaching that goal.

Rob Sampson, a Republican state representative for the 80th district running for the 16th senate seat, said business owners are concerned not only about the current level of taxes and regulation but what might pass in future legislative sessions.

Theyre concerned about whats coming. It seems like every year theres another thing weighing on business. Is this the year that the minimum wage is going to be increased to $15? Sampson said.

The election would determine whether the state would get back to our roots as Americans and rely on core principles of freedom and opportunity, and allow owners to grow your business and make your own choices.

Vicki Nardello, a Democrat and former state representative, is also running for the 16th senate seat vacated by Republican Joe Markley.

Nardello said business owners were concerned about large companies offering to move into Connecticut or threatening to leave and getting special benefits.

Connecticut needs to stop picking winners and losers, she said. We need to get a hold of energy costs and health care costs and bring them down.

Bringing young people to the state would mean investing in cities, advanced manufacturing and bioscience jobs and transit-oriented development.

Joe Aresimowicz, Democratic house speaker and a state representative for the 30th district, said hes supported and led efforts to increase technical education and make the trades more accessible for young people. Technical schools were moved out from under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Education, allowing them to partner better with businesses. He was hopeful about efforts made by the General Assembly to improve job prospects and partnerships between educators and employers.

Were going to come out of this and were going to come out better, Aresimowicz said.

Michael Gagliardi, a Republican opposing Aresimowicz, jumped into the race last week after the departure of the partys previous candidate.

The state needed solutions from people who have spent years in business rather than years at the capitol, Gagliardi said. Connecticut government needed to find ways to control unsustainable budget deficits.

The best way to get younger people here is to create a fairer tax base, he said.

Democrat David Borzellino is running against Republican Gale Mastrofrancesco for Sampsons open 80th House district seat. Both are from Wolcott.

Borzellino, executive director of the non-profit Farrell Treatment Center in Cheshire, said hes a solution-maker and will surround himself with good people who can help provide answers.

The way I run my business is I look for solutions. I dont have time for blame, he said.

Mastrofrancesco, a Wolcott Town Councilor, said the state isnt going to see major new business growth until the state reconsiders its rules and taxes.

Cutting regulations on small business is extremely important, she said. They are overtaxed, there are too many regulations, there is too much involved in starting a business.

Diane Pagano, a Republican running for the 103rd House district, was present at Thursdays forum. Her Democratic opponent and incumbent Liz Linehan was not present due to illness.

Democrat Ryan Rogers, running for the 81st House district, was also at Thursdays forum. His Republican opponent and incumbent John Fusco was not present due to a scheduling conflict.

jbuchanan@record-journal.com

203-317-2230

Twitter: @JBuchananRJA fresh wave of unrest rocked Bahrain over the last 48 hours as Manamas security forces attacked anti-regime protesters in a number of villages.



A fresh wave of unrest rocked Bahrain over the last 48 hours as Manamas security forces attacked anti-regime protesters in a number of villages.



Online activists shared videos and pictures of the protests in Bahrains Aqar and Maameer where police fired teargas to disperse demonstrators demanding democratic reforms.



The protesters responded by throwing Molotov cocktails in the direction of the security forces. There were no reports of injuries or arrests.



Demonstrations are held across Bahrain on an almost daily basis over Manamas intensifying clampdown on all forms of dissent.





/257By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In response to a story headlined Centre forms panel after JICA stops funds for bullet train published on September 22, the Railway Ministry said that neither has Japan International Cooperation Agency stopped any funding nor has it demanded that the Government first settle the farmers protest over land acquisition. The ministry pointed out that JICA had signed a fresh loan agreement with the government of about 90 billion yen on September 28.

The Ministry admitted that some farmers had filed a case in the Gujarat High Court but pointed out that the court had not granted any stay in the matter.

ALSO READ: Centre can't delegate land acquisition power to state government for bullet train project: Farmers

Our reporter responds: The story very clearly said JICA had only stalled a fresh loan for the project and not stopped it altogether. Moreover, the story was published on September 22, before the second loan agreement was signed with JICA on September 28. While it is true that the Gujarat High Court has not granted any stay in the matter, it has also not dismissed the plea of the farmers and the matter is pending.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami, State ministers, senior functionaries and party cadre celebrated the 47th foundation day of the party in a grand manner.

Launching of mobile app for blood donation, giving financial assistance to the families of those who had lost their lives while engaged in party works, and organising public meetings across the State marked the celebrations.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami hoisted the party flag at the AIADMK headquarters and distributed sweets to the cadre. They also garlanded the statues of party founder MG Ramachandran and the late general secretary of the party J Jayalalithaa.

Both leaders released a mobile app for blood donation - Rathathin Rathamae (the words used by MGR to refer to the AIADMK cadre as his blood relations). The app, developed by Aspire K Swaminathan, former secretary of IT Wing of the party, can be downloaded using the following link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.helyxon.rrblood

Those who wish to donate blood through this app should register their names, blood groups and telephone numbers. Those who want blood urgently should also register their details. Within seconds, the information will reach the blood donors living in around 10 km. So, blood donation can be done by one or more donors depending on the need.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami presented `two lakh financial assistance each to the families of seven party cadre who had lost their lives while engaged in party works. They also gave `50,000 each to two cadre who had suffered injuries in road accidents. Besides, they also gave `2.90 lakh to those who have suffered minor injuries in road accidents towards treatment. Two students hailing from poor families received `75,000 each from the leaders towards their educational expenditure.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Heavy rainfall lasting a few hours at Serilingampally early Wednesday inundated low-lying streets and swamped basements of several buildings in Madhapur, Kondapur and Kothaguda.

By 8.30 am, 12.3 cm rainfall was received in Serilingampally and 8 cm in Srinagar Colony. Almost all parts of the city experienced light to moderate rainfall.

Though the downpour halted for a while in the evening, it soon picked up, lashing various parts of the city until nightfall and bringing down the temperature to 22 degrees Celsius. Asifnagar recorded 6.2 cm rainfall.

Several roads in the city were waterlogged, causing traffic jams, which along with bad roads and ongoing metro works compounded the problem, forcing traffic cops to take up the work of clearing stagnant water and removing fallen branches. The Indian Meteorological Department issued a warning that thunderstorms would continue on Thursday at various places in the State, including Hyderabad.

IMD Hyderabad meteorologist B Raja Rao said the rains were a result of two factors: Moisture-bearing westerly winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and the formation of cumulonimbus clouds as an effect of the maximum temperatures remaining 3-4 degrees Celsius above normal for the past several days.Aditya Shrikrishna By

Express News Service

The web series and direct-to-streaming content in India has some way to go. It has both technical and financial challenges, but this column will prioritise the former. Baring big productions like Sacred Games and Ghoul, the technical and visual mastery has been found lacking but content of varying quality seems to be on endless supply. And more often than not, the writing is more rewarding than the cinematic capabilities when it comes to these shows.

Little Things is one such show that had its first season on YouTube, and after stupendous success, has moved home to Netflix for the sophomore season. It is still about the live-in couple - Dhruv and Kavya - played by Dhruv Sehgal, who has writing credits for all the episodes, and Mithila Palkar, respectively, their everyday lives chronicled in a series of eight episodes. It is so focused on the domestic, daily drudgery that it is literally about what it calls itself - the little things.

The little things we tend to do or indulge in subconsciously, the things we may not stop and think about. Everything from how we make small talk in a party to how we react when an Uber driver is unable to find our location. Or which restaurant to go to and how to sidestep awkward moments while playing city guide to our partners mom.

Dhruv Sehgal documents such minutiae of the modern, urban relationship. Dhruv and Kavya are a live-in couple and season 2 is more about their mundane daily life. It stoically refuses to make any grand pronouncements about the absence of marriage or any societal pressure that comes with such a set-up.

The makers treat Dhruv and Kavya like any other couple of their age battling the vagaries arising from living together -- work-life balance, mutating friendships, competitive mindsets and different levels of orientation towards career. The episodes therefore work like an anthology series instead of one long story thread through a season.

Each episode works like a day in the life of Dhruv and Kavya, all of them directed by Ruchir Arun. The first few deal with the couples interactions with the outside world and the questions that those exchanges throw at our protagonists are very current. A long-forgotten school friend of Dhruv comes on a flying visit from Delhi and Dhruv discovers how far apart theyve grown -- as individuals, as politically and socially aware beings. Its a quintessential post-truth world of wokeness coming in the way of family and friendships.

To its credit, Little Things takes a more empathetic viewpoint, never crossing over to the judgmental territory. Dhruvs friend comes across as a classic homophobic but Dhruv, on Kavyas advice, chooses to see through his friends trip and worry about these potential deal breakers later. That is another remarkable aspect of the writing here. Kavya is the sure-footed, career-oriented and more assertive person who has clear opinions with the ability to convey them just as well. Dhruv is still unsure about his career, and while that is not shown as a limitation, it does briefly harm his relationship with Kavya. He is also the more capricious of the two, unable to communicate as effectively and as often as he is needed to.

Little Things is unabashedly urban and self-aware that it is detailing the lives of extremely privileged people, both socially and economically. One even wonders where in Mumbai do you get an apartment like that and how Dhruvs still-on-the-runway career, loans and all, makes any meaningful contribution to the lions share that is Kavyas. In one of the episodes, a character casually throws a comment and says, Wow, what a privileged-sounding statement to make! The series doesnt make excuses for it and thats probably its most honest trait.

Sehgal constructs a neat trajectory as we learn about the couple via their interaction with others around them -- their friends, colleagues, a parent -- and slowly move inwards towards a discord between them. The first four episodes track Dhruv and Kavya with different people in different settings and only occasionally together, and the last four episodes become more domestic in nature with them spending full episode lengths only with each other and sometimes in the same space, when Kavya is down with fever or when they are both attending a friends wedding.

We see a stressed Kavya shouting down at her colleagues and coming home to Dhruv. We see Dhruv trying to think about quick bucks--he has loans to repay, another grind this generation is cursed with--and an innocuous morning exchange with Kavya giving him more clarity to abort that decision.

Little Things can be obdurate in its vision, it makes you wonder if when we move past this generation and its heirlooms, will it hold any value? If we see it years from now, will there be a connect as familiar as is present today? A lot of locally-produced web series are not built to answer this question.

Little Things 2 is streaming on Netflix.By Online Desk

'Qarib Qarib Singlle' actor Parvathy has had a rough year in the Malayalam film industry after joining the 'Women in Cinema Collective'.

In a recent interview with Film Companion, Parvathy reveals that she and other actors in the Women In Cinema Collective are not getting film offers, because of their 'bold voices'.

In the interview, Parvathy says that she's jealous of women in Bollywood, because they still have work even after coming out during the #MeToo movement. "What I noticed, and what Im jealous of, is that theyre being promised work, theyre being taken care of. Here you have producers and production houses saying, Come out and speak, you will not lose your job. And we dont have that. See, none of us in the WCC are getting any offers. The minute WCC is attached to our name, were the odd ones out. Dont talk to her. So its taken a direct hit. Thats sad because Kerala is supposed to be progressive."

The 'Women in Cinema Collective' is a non-profit organisation founded in 2017, and is chaired by dubbing artist and actress Bhagyalakshmi. The organisation aims to eliminate misogyny on screen, encourage more women to join Malayalam Cinema and to create a safe workplace in the film industry.

Recently Parvathy, along with the other WCC members, spoke against the AMMA for delaying the decision on Actor Dileep, who has been accused in the actor assault case.

READ | Enough is enough, tired of apathy by Mohanlal and A.M.M.A; WCC ups ante

In December 2017, Parvathy was severely trolled and abused on the internet for pointing out Mammootty's derogatory dialogues in the film 'Kasaba'. In an open forum during the International Film Festival of Kerala, the actress quoted the misogynistic dialogues in Kasaba as an example of glorification of misogyny. Even though she mentioned it without pointing fingers at Mammootty, the veteran actor's fans bashed Parvathy.

Parvathy also joined in the vayamoodedaPC campaign, after MLA PC George said that the Kerala nun, who accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of rape, was a prostitute.

On the work front, Parvathy will be next seen in 2019 playing an acid attack survivor in a film, with Tovino Thomas and Asif Ali as co-stars.Sajin Shrijith By

Express News Service

Sydney-based filmmaker Girish Panicker Mattada will be soon coming out with his debut attempt titled The Gambinos. A student of Los Angeles' New York Film Academy and New Zealand's SAE Film School, Girish has assisted director Vinayan on as many as eight films. He has also worked on several ads and short films.

The film, Girish says, is about a crime family based in the Malabar region. "It does not adhere to the typical action-crime formula that Malayali audiences are used to. The focus is more on the emotional and personal struggles of the crime family and the illegal operations carried out by them than the violence," explains Girish.

Radhikaa Sarathkumar

Radhikaa Sarathkumar plays the matriarch of a crime family with two generations succeeding her. Girish says he was compelled to cast her after seeing her performance in the Dileep-starrer Ramaleela. "Her character Mamma is a mother of four sons, and Radhikaa's casting proved very beneficial to us. She is also very disciplined. Though she is most active in Tamil cinema, she readily accepted our offer because she liked her character and the story. In fact, she liked the story so much that she agreed to do it for half her usual remuneration."

Vishnu Vinay, Sijoy Varghese, Sampath Raj, Salu K George, Sreejith Ravi, Musthafa and Neeraja form the rest of the cast. A lot of research and homework had gone into the film, adds Girish. "Two months before the shoot, I sat down with the actors for extensive discussions  everything from their look to the costumes was carefully planned. Once the shoot began, it was quite easy because I was working with a great team. All I needed to do was tell them the situations and they would do the rest. Occasionally, they would give me some cool suggestions."

The film's title is a reference to one of the biggest crime families in the world, and Girish says he picked the name because the crime family depicted in his film are similar to them. "Based in New York, the Gambino crime family was known for being vengeful and leaving no traces of the crimes they have committed. Because of their similar behaviour, the crime family in our film are nicknamed the 'Gambinos' of Malabar by the police department," explains Girish.

When asked if any classic crime films influenced him, Girish tells us he is a big fan of the films of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. "I've seen Scorsese's Goodfellas and Casino more than 5-10 times. I find the crime/gangster genre very appealing. In Malayalam, Samrajyam and Big B are two favourites. In Hindi, I'm a fan of Ram Gopal Varma's films. So naturally, when I thought of making my debut, I wanted to do a film that was different from the usual 'a story of five friends'  something that gave equal importance to style and substance."

Sakkir Madathil has penned the script. Elban Krishna is handling the camera. Composer Jakes Bejoy (Ranam) is putting together the music and background score. Editing is by Shafique Mohammed Ali, costumes by Jomon Joseph, and art by Nathan Mannur. The Gambinos comes out under the banner of Kangaroo Broadcasting, an Australian film company.By Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: Four days after actor Revathy recollected an incident of saving a minor girl from being assaulted, the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) said it would initiate a probe into the incident.

It was on last Saturday while conducting a press meet in Ernakulam that the actor, who is also an active member of Women in Cinema Collective, recollected an incident in which a 17-year old girl came knocking on the doors of her room in the night seeking help. The incident, she said, had occurred 25 years ago.

Though she neither mentioned the name of the girl or the place where the incident had occurred, a person had filed a petition against the actor for not lodging a complaint with the police about the crime. KeSCPCR member N Sreela Menon told reporters the panel would inquire into the case.

We will see whether the case really exists or not. We will sent a notice to the actor in the coming days seeking further explanation on the incident. If it is substantiated that such an incident had occurred, we will take action, said Sreela.

HC NOTICE TO A.M.M.A ON PLEA BY WCC

KOCHI: A Division Bench of the High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (A.M.M.A) and the state government on a petition filed by Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) to constitute a grievance redressal mechanism against the sexual harassment in terms of the guidelines by Supreme Court. WCC submitted that the complaints committee is the need of the hour in the wake of several revelations of widespread sexual assault and harassment of women in film industries across the country.

Anweshi in solidarity with WCC

KOZHIKODE: The Anweshi Womens Counselling Centre has expressed solidarity with Women in Cinema Collective (WCC). In a statement, organisation president K Ajitha said Anweshi stands firm with the victim. A.M.M.A has not taken any action on the complaint filed by the WCC. On the other hand, they are trying to retain actor Dileep who is accused in the sexual assault case, she said.Avinash Ramachandran By

Express News Service

Early on Wednesday, Vishal's 25th film Sandakozhi 2 ran into hot water in certain districts of Tamil Nadu, with the Thanjavur and Trichy theatres owners association deciding not to screen the film. This decision came close on the heels of the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council's (TFPC) decision to blacklist theatres in the district that were accused of abetting piracy. However, the issue was resolved, albeit temporarily, after discussions between the concerned parties.

"The film will be releasing in these districts as planned. But on Tuesday, there is a meeting scheduled between theatre owners and TFPC to iron out these discrepancies," said distributor Tiruppur Subramanian.

Vishal, President of TFPC, had earlier asked Qube Cinema Technologies to refrain from supplying the Key Delivery Message (KDM) to theatres blacklisted by the union. Though Qube had responded by saying it was not a unilateral decision and that it is ultimately the producer's decision to give the green light to send the KDM to any theatre. Meanwhile, TFPC's decision to tackle piracy with an iron fist came under scrutiny as theatre owners found this action to be uncalled for, especially considering the case is still sub judice.

"We cannot be held responsible for an individual's action in our theatre premises. We do not accept this blacklisting," said Subramanian.

With the issue being resolved for now, it is easy tides for Vishal, who is also the producer of the Lingusamy-directed Sandakozhi 2. The film that co-stars Keerthy Suresh, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Rajkiran will be released worldwide today on the occasion of Ayudha Pooja.Vaishali Vijaykumar By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Priyadarshini R serves us a cup of hot cappuccino to kickstart a refreshing morning. We are at the Writers Cafe outlet in Taramani. She is fondly called the coffee queen, and handles the beverage and juice department. The outlet opened in April this year and has employed acid-burn survivors and people from Spastic Society of Tamil Nadu (dealing with people affected from muscular spasms). The warm vibes from the staff, the pocket-friendly menu and of course, the finely stacked books and stationery from Higginbotham for sales sets this cafe apart. The employees are trained in their areas of strength.

They handle different sections like beverages, ice cream, confectionery, hot kitchen and attending to staff. The cafe aims to tie up with the NGOs in its ambit and provide opportunities for the differently abled. Sankalp, a school for differently abled, is the next one on their list. The funds from one outlet are used for opening another one. Its a self-sustaining model and we want to adapt to the market to function effectively. Our outlet at Gopalapuram is packed during weekends and this one is buzzing during weekdays. Its a favourite hang-out spot for college kids, says Tarun Mahadevan, the business development manager.

The space is bustling with staff meticulously packing chocolates into gift boxes for Diwali. While Pragadeshwari is focusing on the ice cream cones, K Asma is making a set of delicious ice creams, which she specialises in preparing. Our day begins with cleaning the counter. We ensure the orders are sent to other outlets from here. After ticking off the checklist, we start with the production of what is required for the day. All of us have been here since the cafes inception. There is always a burning desire to learn more. Someday we will achieve the perfection in baking, says Asma.

There are six to eight women staff in the confectionery and ice cream department. They work eight hours a day. The team is trained by executive chef Bhupesh Pitchaimani. Earlier, we were very much used to being turned down by employers for job opportunities. We would be isolated by society. Coming out of our house was a huge task and shying away from camera was frequent. Look at us now, sporting aprons and chef hats. People who visit the cafe hug us and pat on our shoulders as a symbol of love and support. This job has given us confidence, a sense of belonging and a purposeful life. Our success has proved all those who did not believe in us wrong. We want this for all the women out there and set an example, says Priyadarshini R, one of the survivors. Jules, one of the spastic staff, shares, I completed my schooling at SPASTN and joined here. I love cake mixing and help with ice-cream making as well. The job gives me an identity and helps me perfom better every day. Besides him, there are around five to six spastic staff with different responsibilities at the cafe.

At this cafe, you will find focus and patience in copious amounts. The staff listens to what we say and sticks to it. We might have to repeat it a few times. Once they get a hang of it they can manage on their own. The in-house pastries and baked products are all their creations. We dont push them beyond their boundaries, says Tarun. Each employee is allowed to perform a task that he or she is good at or comfortable doing. I visit the outlet twice a week to ensure the staff is happy. The requirements of a needy employee are different from the regular ones. We talk it out and come to terms with each other. To make work easier we have imported machines from Italy to give a better finish to the ice creams and pastries. Our manpower might be small but given some time we can achieve even bulk orders. The employees are extremely dedicated and trained by our executive chef, says Tarun Mahadevan.Writers Cafe will be opening another outlet in VR Mall by the first week of December. By next February, expect five more outlets in the city.

Secret of success

The outlet employs acid-burn survivors and people from Spasic Society of Tamil Nadu. The staffs are trained in their areas of strengths. They are assigned different roles in the hot kitchen and confectionery.By Express News Service

KOCHI: Yoga cannot be offered as a course as it is not something that can be commercialised. It should be imparted from the guru to the shishya. Nobody is interested in yoga or its depth. People believe the yoga shown on public platforms. However, it is has deeper aspects which people fail to understand. They are looking for all the acts shown to promote their product by the various gurus, said Yogi Ashwini. He was talking to Express when he attended an event here in the city.

All temples, mosques and churches should come under government control. I also believe that anybody should be able to enter anywhere. Women is the embodiment of Shakti. Whoever stops them should give them the vedic reason if the woman still wants to go, it is their choice, said Yogi Ashwini when asked about the Sabarimala issue which has created controversies across the country.

Yogi Ashwini also believes that our culture is under represented across the globe. Our culture is rich and it is only of late that yoga has seen light and is gaining acceptance. It is because we have no respect for our culture or for ourselves, he said.

Yogi Ashwini is the founder of the Dhyan foundation. The foundation has yoga centres which teach yoga free of cost and simultaneously run animal shelter homes across the country. In Kochi, the Dhyan foundation yoga centre is in Mattancherry. They also have an animal shelter and dog shelter in Kochi.

They take care of animals injured in accidents. He is known for his unique approach to Yoga and staunch disagreement against its commercialisation. The Dhyan foundation has centres across the globe. They also do langars (food distribution) at fixed destinations.

His shishyas have experiences to share about his unique approach to Yoga. Nandini, one of his pupils, spoke of her experience wherein she was told by Yogi that she shouldnt drop anything that is to be consumed so as to adapt her body to yoga. He said that our body would reject what was unnecessary as one performs the sadhna. He also does not ask his shishyas to stop consuming alcohol or tobacco. He only asks them to do the sadhna, she said.

As Yogi Ashwini believes charity is the only way to achieve, he is also a part of various charities and encourages other yoga disciples to do the same.By Online Desk

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday blamed RSS for the ongoing violent protests against women's entry into the Sabarimala shrine.

"Sabarimala has a uniqueness that other temples lack; it allows entry for people of all faith. Sangh Parivar and RSS have always been intolerant of this fact. They have made many attempts to erase this distinction of Sabarimala," Vijayan tweeted.

"These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies. Encouraging such movements will eventually lead to the banishment of backward classes from places like Sabarimala. All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala.The role they played in eliminating the rituals performed at Sabarimala by Adivasi-Malayaran community is common knowledge. The present troubles must be seen in this light. The RSS backed attackers are obstructing believers and spreading terror," he further added.

Kerala temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran reportedly presented a senior RSS leader's audio message asking the cadres to go to Sabarimala's monthly pooja disguised as pilgrims. The clip also urged the cadres not to go in groups due to Section 144, and carry irumudi that the devotees take during the pilgrimage.

The minister claimed that this call was made to create trouble at the hill shrine.

RSS in its annual Vijayadashmi address, changed the previous stance on the whole issue, saying that a large section of women follows the tradition of not entering the holy shrine.

"This tradition had been there for so long & was being followed. Those who filed petitions against it are not the one who will go to temple. A large section of women follow this practice. Their sentiments were not considered," said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.Express News Service By

MUMBAI/BHOPAL: Four Army jawans have been booked by the Pune Police for allegedly raping a deaf-mute woman on multiple occasions for over four years at the Military Hospital in Khadki near Pune.The 30-year-old survivor is a widow with a 12-year-old son. She worked as a Grade IV employee at the Military Hospital since 2014. According to her complaint, a jawan raped her while she was on night shift about four years ago. When she tried to lodge a complaint, her jawan supervisor joined the predator to rape her. Later, two other jawans sexually abused her, videographed the act and blackmailed her.

Finding no internal redress, the victim approached an NGO run by a couple based out of Indore in July last. They work for the welfare of hearing and speech impaired. The couple recorded her statement through sign language interpretation and helped lodge a complaint with the hospital commandant.

The victim also wrote to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat. After they took serious note, a complaint was lodged at Indore on Monday and in Pune on Tuesday, said a senior police officer.

Sign language expert Monika Purohit, who along with husband Gyanendra Purohit helps the Indore police manage the helpline for the physically challenged, said: the survivor learnt about our NGO and contacted us over Facebook in July, after which we reached out.

The NGO helped her escalate the matter to the defence minister and the Army chief in August through mail along with all evidence, including the obscene video and pictures used for blackmail since 2015. Her situation worsened after the death of husband (also deaf and mute) a year ago, added Purohit.The survivor has been on day shift since the last three months.

Woman narrated ordeal with help of sign language

Just a few days back, we received e-mail from army officials, about the woman being free to lodge a criminal complaint with police in the matter, but owing to no proper sign language expert being there in Pune to help her, she came to Indore for our help to get a case lodged in Indore. We subsequently met the DIG in Indore on Monday, who helped her all possible support and informed about the entire matter to police higher-ups in Pune. Later, on Tuesday night, a team of sign language experts in Maharashtra which works with us helped the woman to lodge the case at Khadki police station in Pune, added Purohit.

A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 376 for rape and 354 for molestation, said Rajendra Mohite, Senior Inspector at Khadki Police Station adding that an inquiry has also been initiated against the four accused jawans. The Southern Command of the Army too has formed a court of inquiry.By PTI

LUCKNOW: A jawan of an Indian Army Signals regiment has been arrested by military police at the Army cantonment in Meerut on charges of sharing vital information with Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The jawan, posted as a signals man, was detained by Army authorities three days ago for questioning before being formally arrested.

Local sources said the possibility of the soldier being a Pakistani spy sent across the border by the higher authorities in the neighbouring country could not be ruled out. He is suspected to have shared classified and sensitive information about the Western Command base and its corps and divisions in and around Meerut cantonment with Pakistani intelligence operatives.

The Army authorities have not revealed the name of the jawan, who is from Uttarakhand and has allegedly been spying for Pakistan for 10 months. As per the sources, the Armys intelligence unit became suspicious about his activities when they found he was in telephonic contact with people in Pakistan. An internal military investigation was initiated against the jawan after he shared information with his Pakistani handlers around three months ago. Since then his activities were being watched by the Army intelligence unit.

Sources in Meerut confirmed that during interrogation the man had disclosed many names and related information. The suspect used to share information with his Pakistani contacts with end-to-end encryption, mostly through messaging application WhatsApp.

The jawan has been associated with the Indian Army for the last 10 years and posted in Meerut for the last two years.The Armys intelligence unit alerted higher defence authorities after getting incriminating clues about his engagement with people across the border.

As per a senior Army official, investigations are on in different wings of Signals and a few other jawans at different places are also being questioned by the military police on the basis of clues given by the suspect.

Contacts with Pak raised suspicion

 Accused suspected to have shared classified information about Western Command formations with Pakistani intelligence operatives

 Armys intelligence unit became suspicious about his activities when they found he was in telephonic contact with people in Pakistan.By IANS

PATNA: Amid the ongoing festive season, a poster depicting Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav as "Ram" and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as "Ravan" was posted in front of Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) state headquarters here early on Wednesday.

The huge poster surfaced on the busy Birchand Patel Marg, nearly 50 metres from Janata Dal-United (JD-U) state headquarters.

According to RJD leaders, the poster is the brain child of party leader Anand Yadav.

Congress leaders have expressed strong reservation over the poster. "It is not proper to depict Nitish Kumar, who is not only an RJD leader but the Chief Minister, as Ravan," Congress state President Madan Mohan Jha said.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In line with the suggestion of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi that judges should not take off on working days, his colleagues in the Supreme Court have already started refraining from attending public functions on working days.

Judges are now refusing to attend functions and in some cases where a commitment to attend was already given by the concerned judge, he/she is informing the CJI of the same.The CJIs suggestion came while he was looking at administrative reforms in a bid to cut down pendency at the apex court. He appealed to judges in high courts and the lower judiciary saying they must refrain from taking leave when courts were functioning.

There are 4.30 crore cases pending in 42 high courts, according to the National Judicial Data Grid and 55,946 cases are pending in the Supreme Court, according to its official website. Justice N V Ramana refused an invitation to address an international conference at Port of Spain and Trinidad and Tobago since the event was happening when the court would be in session.

According to the CJI, if judges attend seminars and conferences when the courts are working, not only does the work get affected but study of files for cases scheduled for the next day also suffers.The CJI also asked judges to plan holidays in advance and coordinate with brother judges and CJI for leave.By PTI

NEW DELHI: Ashish Pandey, a former BSP MP's son who is accused of brandishing a pistol in the foyer of a five-star hotel here, surrendered before a Delhi court Thursday and was remanded to one-day police custody.

Ashish, who has been dodging the arrest despite joint efforts by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, appeared in the Patiala House Courts here and moved a plea before Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma seeking to surrender.

While the accused alleged frame-up and "media trial" in his plea, the police sought Ashish's four-day custodial interrogation on various grounds including that it needed to quiz him to unravel the truth and he has to be taken to Lucknow for effecting recovery of weapon he brandished.

The court considered rival submissions and allowed the Delhi police to quiz Ashish, the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, in custody for one day.

During the brief hearing, the counsel representing the police said, "The accused is from Lucknow.

Weapon has to be recovered to verify whether he has a license for the gun or not. His custody is required to know whereabouts of other accused and to recover the weapon i.e.pistol.

" Advocate S P M Tripathi, appearing for Ashish, said the custodial interrogation was not required as police already knew that he possessed a licensed gun and he was being framed only because that his father was a politician.

"The police knows that the gun has a licence.

I am not required. We are ready to provide the gun. He is not involved in previous cases. This is only because the father of the accused was a politician and the incident was hyped by media.

No notice was served to the accused and a non-bailable warrant was issued malafidely. Four-day police custody is not required," he said.

The application for surrender said that Ashish, the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, has been wrongly framed in the FIR and has been subjected to media trial.

It further said Ashish is ready to submit before the court voluntarily and the police may be directed to take him into custody if required.

The court had Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Ashish Pandey for brandishing a pistol at guests and threatening them in the foyer of a five-star hotel here.

A video of the incident that occurred early on October 14 went viral on social media resulting in public outrage.

It prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident.

An FIR was filed on October 16 at R K Puram police station under various provisions of the IPC and the Arms Act relating to criminal intimidation and misuse of fire arms.By PTI

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court Thursday took judicial note of M J Akbar's criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who has accused him of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago, and decided to record the statement of the former minister on October 31 in the case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing Akbar, that the "controversial" tweets and similar social media posts of Ramani have cause irreparable loss to his reputation built over 40 years.

ALSO READ: #MeToo breakthrough: Union Minister MJ Akbar resigns over sexual harassment allegations

"Let the matter be fixed for examination of the complainant (Akbar) and his witnesses for October 31," the magistrate said.

The senior lawyer referred to the sequence of events and said that Akbar has resigned from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to these allegations and this showed the extent of damage caused to his reputation.

She also referred to the reputation of Akbar as a journalist and sought judicial intervention in the matter by taking cognisance of the complaint.

ALSO READ: Editors Guild asks M J Akbar to withdraw defamation case against journalist

As per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied that there are prima-facie substance in the complaint.

Akbar on Wednesday had tendered his resignation after making it clear that he had filed the case in his "personal" capacity and would fight it out in the court of law.

"Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity.

I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs.

I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country," Akbar had said in his letter.

Akbar on Monday had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Ramani alleging she "wilfully" and "maliciously" made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

Expressing her readiness to fight the defamation allegations, Ramani had said, "Rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he (Akbar) seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment.

" Akbar's plea had listed alleged defamatory imputations made by Ramani on social media and also referred to his "long and illustrious" career as a journalist while terming the allegations of Ramani as a "figment of her imagination".

"Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda," it alleged.

It had termed as "scandalous" the allegations made by Ramani and said the "very tone and tenor" are "ex-facie defamatory" and they have not only damaged his goodwill and reputation in his social circle but also affected Akbar's reputation in "the community, friends, family and colleagues" and caused "irreparable loss" and "tremendous distress".

It had claimed that the woman journalist, while putting forward the allegations relating to incidents which allegedly occurred 20 years ago, "intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated, and salacious imputations to harm the reputation of the complainant".

"The conduct of the accused person, of not taking any action before any authority, qua the alleged incident against the complainant also clearly belies the sanctity of the article and allegations made by the accused person, which evidently goes on to prove that the said defamatory articles are only a figment of her imagination," it said.

Section 500 of the IPC provides for the sentence for the offence of defamation and an accused may be awarded two-year jail term or fine or both in the event of conviction.

Akbar's name had cropped up in the social media campaign #Metoo against alleged sexual harassment when he was in Nigeria.

Hours after returning home, Akbar had termed the allegations levelled against him by several women as "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment, included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: M J Akbar became the first Minister in the Narendra Modi government to resign under the shadow of a controversy, when he quit as the Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday.

In his resignation letter, Akbar thanked Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity given to him to serve the country.

Akbar, 67, had been named in multiple accounts that have surfaced in the #MeToo movement that started in India after actress Tanushree Datta accused her co-star Nana Patekar of harassment during a film shoot in 2008.

ALSO READ: Embarrassed BJP sighs in relief as M J Akbar resigns

The defiant minister, however, had ignored calls for his resignation and had instead filed a criminal defamation complaint against Priya Ramani, who had said that he had behaved inappropriately with her when she met him for job interview.

After Akbar filed the case on Monday, about 20 women journalists came out in support of Ramani, pledging to depose in court.Akbar, had also aggressively denied all charges made by Ramani and others and called them false, fabricated and politically motivated.

That the scandalous allegations levelled against the complainant, by their very tone and tenor, are ex facie defamatory and have not only damaged the goodwill and reputation of the complainant, in his social circles and on the political stage, established years of toil and hard work, but have also affected the personal reputation of the complainant in the community, friends, family and colleagues, thereby causing him irreparable loss and tremendous distress, the defamation suit filed by him said.By PTI

CHANDIGARH: Extending his greetings to the people on the eve of Dussehra and Durga puja culmination, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday exhorted the people to raise their voice against the myriad evils that are ailing the society.

Extending his greetings to the people on the occasion of the festivals, which are being celebrated on Friday around the country, the chief minister underlined the continued relevance of these festivals in today's challenging political, cultural and social environment.

The nation today stands at the crossroads of various challenges that require all its citizens to take inspiration from these important religious festivals to battle the trials and tribulations together, said Amarinder, in an official release.

In a subtle reference to the 'MeToo' campaign, the chief minister said such incidents were unacceptable in the land of Goddess Durga, who epitomises the strength of the Indian woman and womanhood.

The festival of Durga Puja teaches us to respect that strength, he said, calling for women empowerment as the key to the nation's progress.

Both Dussehra and Durga Puja, said the chief minister, were symbolic of the ultimate victory of good over evil, which remains at the core of the Indian ethos and spirit.By PTI

NAGPUR: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat Thursday said the government should clear the path for construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya through an appropriate and requisite law.

In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said the temple construction was necessary from the "self-esteem point of view" and it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness.

READ| Opposition can't oppose Ram temple: Mohan Bhagwat

The sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of countrymen in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma, Bhagwat said.

"The place of janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place," he said here There is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgement by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, he said, adding that it is nobody's interest to test the patience of society without any reason.

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir," he said.

Despite such machinations, the decision on ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the "grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law".By Express News Service

AHMEDABAD:Police arrested three persons on Wednesday after seven men from Bihar were attacked allegedly for wearing a lungi and sitting indecently in Vadodara city in Gujarat.The attack took place on Monday night in Sama locality in the city, police said.

The police said the attack on Monday night had nothing to do with the origin of the victims. The men were attacked after they did not pay heed to the local residents, who regularly asked them not to sit there indecently wearing a lungi (a traditional garment worn around the waist), Vadodara Police Commissioner Anupam Singh Gehlot said.

He said the incident could not be termed a hate crime against migrants.The victims were attacked after an altercation broke out between the two groups on Monday, he said.Police said those who were attacked belonged to Bihar.

With inputs from PTIBy PTI

NEW DELHI: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived here Thursday on a three-day visit with an aim to boost ties in a range of areas including trade and investment and maritime security.

His visit comes in the backdrop of controversial media reports that Lankan President has accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of plotting his assassination, a claim firmly rejected as "false" by Colombo.

Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold wide-ranging talks on Saturday.

"You are aware of close friendship between India and Sri Lanka. Development cooperation will be one of the agenda items," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing.

He further said, "All shades of political opinion in Sri Lanka are for close relationship with India. We do enjoy very strong bonds of friendship."

The two sides are also likely to review the status of the India-assisted housing projects in Jaffna during Wickremesinghe's visit.

They are also likely to deliberate on the Tamil issue -- the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated areas.

Sources said both sides are expected to discuss modalities of India taking charge of operating Sri Lanka's loss-making Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota.

The USD 210 million facility, 241 km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the "world's emptiest airport" due to a lack of flights.

India is likely to operate the airport under a joint venture with the island nation.

The sources said the two sides are also likely to discuss ways to deepen maritime security cooperation.

During the visit, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on Wickremesinghe.By PTI

WASHINGTON: A top Republican lawmaker has urged the Trump administration to immediately designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism and terminate its non-NATO ally status, asserting that Islamabad consistently defends Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and condemns US' counterterrorism efforts.

Congressman Ted Poe said in the House of Representatives that Pakistan will not receive any financial support from the US if terrorists continue to live safely in the country.

"Now is the day of reckoning. All assistance to Pakistan must end, its Major non-NATO ally status must be terminated, and the State Department should immediately designate it as a state sponsor of terrorism," Poe said last week, according to Congressional records.

In his remarks, the Republican Congressman from Texas slammed Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi for what he described as lecturing the US on aid.

"While I do not oppose open engagement with Pakistan, our position must be clear: Pakistan will not receive a dime of US support if terrorists continue to live safely on their soil," he said.

"For too long the opposite has been the case. Fortunately, President Donald Trump has disrupted the status quo and suspended most of the funding we give to Pakistan, specifically calling them out for their support to terrorism. But more should be done," he said.

Poe said if Qureshi was truly interested in restoring the relationship between the two countries, he would accept responsibility and acknowledge that countless terrorists still live inside Pakistan.

"His country has been the epicentre for extremism for decades, where extremists are still able to hold massive public rallies to incite young men to violence. This isn't conjectured, the evidence is well documented," he asserted.

Poe said Mumbai terror attack mastermind and the founder of the US and UN-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed operated freely in Pakistan.

Despite his role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, Saeed leads public rallies and can raise money for extremists causes, he said.

"Yet, Pakistan, including its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consistently defends Saeed and condemns US counterterrorism efforts," Poe said.

He said Qureshi even claimed terrorist groups that target Pakistan had safe haven in Afghanistan under the US' watch. "Yet it is Pakistani officials who somehow claim there is a 'good' Taliban, while the US makes no distinction," he said.

"If the Foreign Minister wanted to earn our trust, his government could demonstrate good faith by taking action. This includes handing over Saeed, the leaders of the Taliban and Haqqani Network, and banning all extremist groups on its soil. But this is a fantasy," Poe said.

The relations between Pakistan and the US nosedived this January after President Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to Washington but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

The US Congress also passed a bill to slash Pakistan's defence aid to USD 150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than USD one billion per year.

The Trump administration had announced early this year that it was suspending security assistance to Pakistan over differences on Afghanistan.By ANI

NEW DELHI: A day after MJ Akbar resigned from the government, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Thursday asserted that women should be treated equally everywhere in the society.

ALSO READ | CBSE affiliation norms simplified for speed, transparency: Prakash Javadekar

Javadekar said, "We have always maintained that not only at the workplace but everywhere in the society, women should be seen as equals, should be treated with equality. That is what we always say. There is nothing else to comment."

Akbar stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs following a series of sexual harassment allegations against him. On Wednesday, President Ram Nath Kovind accepted Akbar's resignation.

As many as 20 women, one after another, have come forward and alleged Akbar of sexually harassing them during his journalistic days. The storm around the 67-year-old gathered momentum after the #MeToo campaign raged in India.

For the past few weeks, Akbar had been facing flak over the allegations, with opposition parties also mounting attack on the government and demanding his ouster.By PTI

MUMBAI: Making a strong pitch for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Thursday said he would visit the Uttar Pradesh town on November 25 and "question" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

Addressing the party's annual Dussehra rally in central Mumbai, a few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Thackeray said a "2014-like wave" is not prevailing in the country.

The BJP had attributed its 2014 electoral success to the "Modi wave".

Thackeray also asked Sena workers to be prepared for polls.

READ | Mohan Bhagwat's demand for law to construct Ram temple politically motivated: Opposition

In the party convention held earlier this year, the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra and the oldest member of the NDA, had declared to go solo in future polls.

"I will go to Ayodhya on November 25. I will ask questions to the prime minister (over alleged delay in constructing the temple)... We are not enemies of the prime minister, but we don't want to play with the emotions of the people," Thackeray told a huge gathering of the party workers.

He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four and half years, after becoming the prime minister.

READ | Use 'Parliament alternative' for Ram temple construction: UP minister

Thackeray asked the ruling BJP to declare its promise to construct the Ram temple as a "jumla" (gimmick) if it is not going to implement the same.

The Sena chief also sought to dispel perception that his party is sticking to power in Maharashtra even as it has been unrelenting in criticising the BJP and the prime minister.

Thackeray said his party has been targeting the government over non-performance of the BJP government.

"Now the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is also speaking the same language as ours... Recently, RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said it is the duty of Raja (king) to keep people happy. We all know who is the king in democracy," Thackeray said, without naming anyone.

READ | BJP leaders back RSS demand for Ram temple law, opposition says it is politically motivated

"You ask us to walk out of the government (when the Sena criticises the government)... Why don't you ask the RSS to tell the BJP to walk out of the government now (for its criticism by the Sangh)?" Thackeray asked.

He also hit out at the BJP-led government over several issues, including price rise, alleged delay in implementing the promise of abrogating Article 370 and for not acting tough against Pakistan.

Thackeray also criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government for "delay" in declaring drought in the state despite several parts reeling under water shortage.

Referring to a Maharashtra BJP leader's comment that PM Modi is the "eleventh incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, Thackeray asked, "If that is the case then why the Modi government cannot control skyrocketing prices?"From: City Bank < info@citybankonline-us.com >

Sent: 2018/1/19 (Fri) 3:46 PM

Subject: CITY BANK NEW YORK



Attn:



My name is John C. Gerspach, Chief Financial Officer Citigroup New York.



We want to confirm to you a payment mandate from the United Nations instructing us of your debt settlement originated from Nigeria.



Nigeria as i country is known for her fraudulent act being reason why we are saddled with the responsibility to handle your payment.



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John C. Gerspach

Chief Financial Officer Citigroup

1 940 6048622



From: City Bank < info@citybankonline-us.com >

Sent: 2018/1/19 (Fri) 5:55 PM

Subject: RE: CITY BANK NEW YORK







Attn:



Attached here is the agreement letter of empowerment from United Nations/Government of Nigeria instructing this bank to carry out her foreign payment duties.



Please carefully go through it and fill out the City Bank form next to it.



You may call me any time and i will answer from the quarters considering the time differences.



Sincerely



John C. Gerspach

Chief Financial Officer Citigroup

+1 940 6048622













From: City Bank < info@citybankonline-us.com >

Sent: 2018/1/20 (Sat) 6:19 AM

Subject: UPDATE











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Meanwhile, you have to still fill out the form i sent you and return back.

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John C. Gerspach

Chief Financial Officer Citigroup



+1 940 6048622 Attn:We mastermind wire transfer but since you want to be paid through online, we have notified our affiliate bank for your online payment through her investment bond account.Therefore, bellow is the contact information for you to reach them immediately referencing us.Ms. Sandra D. Salazar(Customer Care Unit Head)Mashreq Bank DubaiEmail: customercare@mashreqbk.netWebsite:http://mashreqbk.net/index-2.htmlE-mail:customercare@mashreqbk.netMeanwhile, you have to still fill out the form i sent you and return back.Sincerely,John C. GerspachChief Financial Officer Citigroup



Attn:







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Chief Financial Officer Citigroup

+1 940 6048622

John C. GerspachChief Financial Officer Citigroup









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If this is okay by you, do fill out the attached form here to enable him do that for you.

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John C. Gerspach <456746464@mocha.ocn.ne.jp>

Monday, September 3 2:18 pm



to Citigroup Center California Market Center 110 E 9th St, Los Angeles, CA 90079, USA Hello, I just resume office this week and i have discovered your unfinished transaction file. I have checked and your Fund is still Pending and has not been cancelled. I don' t know if you are still available and ready to process your fund release. I await your reply for further details. Have a nice day. John C. Gerspachoffixces@gmx.com Re: 3 Mode Of Payment Full Explanation

John C. Gerspach

8:13 am (7 hours ago)

To me



Citigroup Center

California Market Center

110 E 9th St, Los Angeles, CA 90079, USA





Hello Thank you for your message and welcome to a new day. I hope you had a great night. Well I have to say that I do not know what to expect, so I do not know how to do it. 1. is by WIRE TRANSFER. Only requires your full account details, which you have already attached here and I. R.S Tax charges and Bank Processing and C.O.T of US $ 3,100 2. ATM MASTER CARD Full details and more explanation: The card can be used on any ATM machine, or you can go to your personal bank. Also, you have to make a total withdrawal of $ 10,000 to $ 20,000 per day and the card expires in the next two years. Your issuance date will start counting as soon as you receive the card and we will immediately activate the card for your use. The I.R.S. Tax Charges and Bank Processing and Insurance Charges are US $ 3,000



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URGENT EMAIL: johncgerspach8@consultant.com

Text messages or calls or voice notes: +1 (347) 343-3023 October 16, 2018 at 12:22 am John C. Gerspach <citib32@aol.com> wrote: Citigroup Center

California Market Center

110 E 9th St, Los Angeles, CA 90079, USA





Hello,

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URGENT EMAIL: johncgerspach8@consultant.com

Text messages or calls or voice notes: +1 (347) 343-3023 October 17, 2018 at 8:13 am John C. Gerspach <citib32@aol.com> wrote:

John C. Gerspach

10:01 AM (5 hours ago)



To me

Citigroup Center

California Market Center

110 E 9th St, Los Angeles, CA 90079, USA





Hello,

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John C. Gerspach

URGENT EMAIL: johncgerspach8@consultant.com

Text messages or calls or voice notes: +1 (347) 343-3023 If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more....Manmohan Bahadur V M By

The Indian Air Force turned eighty-six on October 8. While professionals at Air Headquarters do a regular assessment of IAFs capabilities it is essential that certain aspects of its prowess, that they cannot comment on, be discussed for strengthening Indias security apparatus, in which air power is a vital cog. When we talk about the modernisation of the IAF, a key question ishave we seriously analysed the effects on the nations deterrence posture of the systemic debilitation in the accretion of defence capability?

Most big ticket purchases of the government, irrespective of the political party in power, have got mired in controversy. The author has no expertise on commenting on the veracity of the alleged malfeasance but the controversies have had a worrying level of impact on the IAFs ability to project power and be a deterrent force. Make no mistakefor the next decade or so the IAF is well placed to take on the air power of its adversaries and help the Indian Army and Navy in their tasks. This is for three reasons. First, its equipment is betteroffensive assets like the Sukhoi, Mirage and Rafale (arriving soon); combat enablers like AWACS (Airborne warning and control system) and flight refuellers; and vital transport and helicopter fleets. Second, the training of its personnel is superior, and third, the air forces of the adversaries are still in the build-up phase. However, it is the trajectory of their build-up, coupled with the debilitation of our force accretion process, which is the worrying factor.

The history of capability accretion by nations is an example. The Greek and the Roman Empires expanded their boundaries due to their military power, but when their rulers strayed from the path of what Chanakya would call rajdharma and neglected their duty of maintaining a fighting edge over their adversaries, their influence waned. In the twentieth century the world witnessed the industrialisation and re-armament of Japan and Nazi Germany and their subsequent defeat by the Soviet Union and US; the latter had the full force of the national and political will to industrialise and militarise.

After World War II, the industrialisation and re-armament of China has been driven by a grand national strategy. This may not necessarily portend conflict, due to changed geo-political dynamics, to include economic globalisation, but as historian Paul Kennedy argues in his magnum opus The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, as a nations economic power grows, it has to go offshore for raw materials, resulting in conflictsthats what drove Hitlers lebensraum and Japans annexations in Asia. Chinas growing influence in the world and the aggressiveness of its Belt and Road Initiative must, therefore, be analysed keeping in mind their security implications. The proverbial powder must be kept drybut for this, it first needs to be available in the right measure and at the right time. The plans to shore up IAFs dwindling assets, therefore, need our attention.

In a recent seminar on IAFs structure held in Delhi by the Centre for Air Power Studies, the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, the officer looking after procurements, was clear about the requirementsthe Rafales must come by 2022, and 123 Tejas within the next decade. There must not be any hitch in the import of 114 multi-role fighters, and the DRDO must push for the Tejas Mk2 (still on the drawing board), of which the IAF will acquire twelve squadrons. More combat enablers (AWACS and flight refuellers) are needed and the fifth generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, hopefully, will fly in 2032. The IAF sure has a plate full of hopes, going by the snail mail speed of past procurements. But this had better change.

The change has to come on two fronts. First, the R&D and defence manufacturing sector, where there is no alternative but the governments hands-on, result-driven, private-sector-inclusive, carrot-and-stick approach. Second, and this is more revolutionary, with a bigger imperative: Both sides of the political aisle must devise a strategy to cooperate in the face of this crisis of serious proportions that is staring us in the faceif the capability build-up is delayed any further, the deterrent posture of the armed forces could get affected. Politics, they say, is the art of the possibleif ever it has to be proved right, it is now. Its been done before, as written about by veteran journalist Shekhar Gupta, when the opposition sided in national interest with the governments decision to pay an advance to the Russians before the Sukhoi contract was signed. If both sides, together, now select the CBI chief, the CVC and Lokpal why cant both sides be part of the defence acquisition structure, say at the Defence Acquisition Council level, for high value purchases? Well, the level and scope can be a matter of discussion but first let there be a consensus to do this in national interest.

Maybe a cost-benefit analysis could help drive home the gravity of the looming crisis. While making recommendations for the US defence budget 2018-22, the Senate Armed Services Committee was critical of the defence outlay and quoted their Army Chief of Staff as saying, The only thing more expensive than deterrence is actually fighting a war, and the only thing more expensive than fighting a war is fighting one and losing one. India has to aim for the cheapest option and ensure that there is no slouching in its deterrence posture. Sagacity and rationality in the political discourse are needed to allow

capability build-up to proceed unhindered. The conversethe expensive optionis unthinkable.

Post script: The euphoric media coverage of the Indo-Russian S-400 deal must be seen in the correct perspective: it would be an acquisition of a potent, and necessary, defensive asset. Though it is not one that carries war to the adversarythe other requirements are still vital.

(Views are personal)

Manmohan Bahadur V M

Retired Air Vice Marshal and Additional Director General,Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

Email: manmohanbahadur@gmail.comBy Express News Service

BENGALURU: The coal crisis for the states power sector reached a new low on Wednesday with buffer stocks stored by the Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) reaching zero. The power generating station, with a capacity of 1720 megawatt distributed among 8 units, is now being forced to run just 4 units while keeping the other 4 shut down. The situation prompted Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to write a letter to Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal asking him to ensure the steady supply to the state as per agreements.

According to the letter, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), one of the coal supply companies with which the State Government has a tie-up, has not been supplying the agreed upon quota of coal, leading to the shortage. As of now, we are getting around 16,000 tonnes of coal as against the required supply of 23,000 tonnes daily, said state Energy Secretary P Ravikumar.

He added that with the reduced supply, RTPS was forced to use the daily supply to run the four functioning units and there was no buffer stock. We are supposed to maintain a 15-day buffer stock which has now reached zero days. All available coal is being utilised on a daily basis, he said.

WCL, according to officials, was providing only 43% of the agreed upon amount of coal per day. This has led to depletion of the buffer stock at RTPS. However, chances of a power shortage affecting the state is unlikely immediately as the demand is quite low. On Tuesday, the state consumed 207 Million Units and some units of Ballari Thermal Power Station (BTPS) were also shut because of low demand. However, if the coal shortage continues, there could be a power shortage in the coming days, officials warned.

On Wednesday evening, generation from RTPS was just 566 MW out of the total capacity of 1720 MW. However, the other major thermal power stations, at Yeramarus and Ballari, have around 10 days of stocks left. Currently, there are no plans to carry out load shedding, Ravikumar said. Kumaraswamy urged Goyal to make up for the deficit in supply from the Mahanadi Coal Fields, located in Sambalpur, Odisha. Both WCL and MCL are subsidiaries of the state-owned Coal India Limited (CIL).By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Swarmed with complaints of stepmotherly treatment in the coalition government from party workers, Congress has stepped in to set things right. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao has written letters to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah asking for a proportional representation of both Congress and JD(S) workers in taluk and zilla-level committees.

The Congress party wants the government to make appointments on a 2:1 basis depending on the party that legislators of the taluk or zilla belong to.

Read | Karnataka bypolls: 64-member Congress team for Ballari battle

"Taluk and zilla-level forums like Akrama-Sakrama committees, land tribunals etc need to be restructured after the new government has come to power. The government, while making appointments to such committees, should ensure it is more convenient to Congress and JD(S) members," KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao's letter says.

Rao has suggested that appointments be made on a 2:1 basis depending on the MLAs of the respective taluks and zillas. In regions where there are more Congress MLAs, the party wants two-third representation to be from the Congress and one-third from the JD(S) while it can be inverse in the case of a region where there are more JD(S) MLAs.

Read | Karnataka bypolls to strengthen bonding between Congress, JD(S): G Parameshwara

In the case of regions where there are MLAs of the BJP, the Congress has suggested that the same formula should be implemented depending on which party stands second.

Rao has appealed to the Chief Minister to take his entire cabinet into confidence and ensure implementation of the suggestion. Every minister, Rao has suggested, should ensure that more Congress and JD(S) workers are appointed to such committees to assert their support and encouragement to party workers.

The letter comes in the backdrop of Congress workers and legislators alike crying foul over not being given importance in the coalition government.

Many in the Congress, ministers included, have made several complaints against lack of coordination and being taken for granted by their JD(S) counterparts in the coalition government. Keeping in mind the upcoming bypolls to three Lok Sabha and two assembly constituencies where Congress and JD(S) are putting up a joint fight, the parties are working towards wooing their workers.

Read | Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah reiterates retirement from electoral politics

"It (appointments) helps workers gain confidence in the coalition government. Boards at the taluk and zilla-levels will accommodate members engaged in social workers," said Dinesh Gundu Rao asserting that the letter was only a formal approach for an 'in-principle' agreement between the coalition partners.Bagalavan Perier B By

Express News Service

VILLUPURAM: AIADMK has been ruling Tamil Nadu for a long time due to the public welfare schemes implemented by its governments, said Chief Minister Edapaddi K Palaniswami while speaking at a public meeting held as part of the partys 47th foundation day celebrations at Ulundurpet here on Wednesday.

Palaniswami hoisted the party flag at the meeting and cut a cake on the stage, as part of the celebration. Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said that it was due to the welfare schemes of the AIADMK government the people in the State accepted the party.

DMK had given many troubles to MGR when he left from that party and formed AIADMK. His mike was switched off once while he was speaking in the Assembly, but MGR continued his speech for an hour. The DMK also attacked Jayalalithaa in the Assembly after she becomes the party head. She faced it boldly and when she came out, she took an oath that only after becoming Chief Minister, she would enter the Assembly again. She proved it, Palaniswami said adding that after her demise, some people had thought that the government would collapse but that did not happen.

They planned to capture power through various means. When we began the rule after the demise of Jayalalithaa, they said the rule would end within ten days. Then they said it would end by the budget session, but the AIADMK rule is continuing after one year and eight months. That is because of the support of party workers, he said.

The CM said that the party would not be scared of any court case as they had courage to face them. Since we have not done anything, we dont need to worry. But, DMK is trying to get a stay on the inquiry into the construction of the new secretariat building. What does that mean?

They have given a complaint against me, and court just asked to inquire and didnt say I am an accused. I am ready to face the inquiry. DMK, which is encouraging the heir politics, is not a party but a company. They are infamous for their atrocities and people are witnessing those things on television. After those incidents, the party head meets the affected people and apologises. He is also trying hard to come to the power. If he starts ruling the State, kangaroo courts will increase here, the Chief Minister said.

TTV Dinakaran says AIADMK should join in his party. How is that possible? He is asking that to the second largest party in the country and a party which created a history by ruling long time in Tamil Nadu, Palaniswami said and added that Dinakarans party will vanish soon.

While talking to media persons after the public meet, the Chief Minister said that some people were raising false allegations against him as the government had been good at governance. He said that tenders were issued in the same way the DMK did it during their rule. I will prove that I didnt do any scam. None of my blood relatives have taken the tender issued by the government, he said.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: One cannot easily forget the video footage of Manohar Chary hacking away at 20-year-old Madhavi, his daughter, in the middle of the day at SR Nagar. The incident which happened on September 20 horrified the State. Madhavi, from the Vishwabrahmin community, had only a few days ago eloped to get married to B Sandeep, a man from a scheduled caste.

A few days after the wedding, Manohar called the couple to a shopping complex in Erragadda on the pretext of making peace with them but when they met, he took out a sickle out of his bag and attacked them.

READ| Caste prejudice thriving in Telangana?

While her husband escaped with minor injuries, Madhavi sustained life-threatening injuries across her neck and face. Speaking at a press conference at the hospital where she underwent treatment, Madhavi says she was fine now, but she could never forgive her father. The scars will always remind me of my fathers brutality, she said.

Explaining her side of how the father-daughter relationship had deteriorated so much, Madhavi said, My father says he attacked my for not taking his permission before getting married.

But how could I have? He never gave me the freedom to speak my mind. He would have disagreed anyway and married me to someone else. She also did not write off the idea that her husband Sandeeps caste could have had played a role in aggravating her fathers anger.By PTI

BEIJING: A Chinese mining company has claimed to have successfully test-fired a supersonic missile, touted as a potential competitor to the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos missile, according to the official media here.

The test conducted on Monday at a discreet location in North China verified the launch, power and flight control systems, state-run Global Times reported while indicating that Beijing's all-weather ally, Pakistan could be one of its buyers.

All parameters for the supersonic flight of the HD-1 missile achieved their estimated values, it quoted a statement released by Guangdong Hongda Blasting Company located in southern China.

"The test flight shows that the HD-1's core components are now mature, with its aerodynamic design, materials and overall structure has already proven viable," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the daily.

Hongda independently invested in and developed the HD-1 missile, the statement said. Wei said the mining company's move to build and test a supersonic missile is an excellent example of military-civilian integration.

Established in 1988, Hongda is a mining company based in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province that also manufactures blasting and military equipment.

The HD-1's advanced solid fuel ramjet needs less fuel than its competitors, rendering the lighter missile able to fly faster and farther, Wei said.

After governmental approval, Hongda intends to sign deals and mass-produce the HD-1 for export, the report said.

There are not many such supersonic missiles available on the international defence market, Wei said.

Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries are likely to show interest given the weapon's potential to break anti-missile systems at supersonic speeds, he said, claiming that the new missile could be cheaper than the BrahMos.

"The BrahMos missile is a more expensive, less useful supersonic cruise missile developed by India and Russia," Wei claimed.

Hongda will participate in Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province next month, a company spokesperson said.

The HD-1 is a comprehensive weapon system consisting of missile, launch, command and control, target indication and comprehensive support systems, Hongda had said in a separate statement released earlier.

The HD-1 can be adapted to aircraft and ships as well as the basic ground-based vehicle version, the company said.

The total investment in HD-1 is expected to top 1.3 billion yuan (about USD 188 million).By UNI

JERUSALEM: In response to rocket attacks that took place in the Southern city of Beersheba and greater Tel Aviv area on Wednesday, the Israel defence forces have bombed several targets in Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Lt.Col. Jonathan Conricus said "There are only two organizations in Gaza that have this caliber of rocket: Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It's not hard to narrow down who's behind it", reports The Times of Israel. However, in a joint statement, Hamas and PIJ publicly condemned the rocket attack, saying it was "irresponsible" and threatened to derail an Egypt-led negotiation effort. The IDF said it bombed some 20 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including an attack tunnel being dug toward Israel from outside the city of Khan Younis.

The entrance to a naval tunnel, which would be used by Hamas's naval commando unit, was also destroyed in the retaliatory airstrikes.

Israeli air force jets bombed a number of weapons factory, military bases and other facilities connected to Hamas's tunnel-building efforts.

Palestinian media reported that the retaliatory strikes hit throughout the Gaza Strip in southern Gaza in Rafah and Khan Younis, around the central Gaza City and in the north of the enclave near Beit Lahiya.

Three people were moderately wounded in the strikes near Rafah, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

An Israeli aircraft also targeted a group of Palestinian terrorists as they attempted to launch a projectile at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip, the spokesman said Hamas and PIJ said they "affirm our preparedness to confront the occupation's assaults.

Our guns will continue to be a protective shield for our people and our weapons are drawn at the face of our enemy.

" IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said, "Iron Dome air defence batteries were not activated during the rocket attack".

Rocket attacks on Beersheba home to more than 200,000 people are rare and considered a major escalation. It was only the second rocket fired at Beersheba since the 2014 Gaza war.

The previous rocket, which struck a field north of Beersheba on August 9, came as Palestinians fired dozens of projectiles at Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

Following the rocket attack, schools were closed in Beersheba and in the communities immediately surrounding the Gaza Strip, the army said.

Residents of the Gaza periphery were also barred from gathering in groups larger than 300 people outdoors and 500 people indoors.By PTI

LAHORE: Pakistan authorities have suspended at least 116 police officials, including top officers, in connection with the killing of people during a public protest here in 2014, according to a media report.

The incident occurred in 2014 at Model Town area of Lahore where at least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured when the police opened fire to disperse protesting Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers during an anti-encroachment operation outside the residence of Canadian-Pakistani cleric Tahirul Qadri.

Punjab's newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Amjad Javed Saleemi, this week removed 116 police officers, including Deputy Superintendents of Police, inspectors and the investigation officer from their posts in connection with the killing of 14 people, the News International reported.

The officials who were removed have been directed to report to the Police Lines in Lahore for further orders.

As part of the investigation into the killings, four Superintendents of Police and other senior officials were already transferred.

Since then, the PAT chief has been demanding justice in the case and asking for suspension of all the accused policemen for free and fair investigation in the case.By AFP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied covering up for ally Saudi Arabia in the suspected murder of a critical journalist and said that he expects to learn the truth about Jamal Khashoggi's fate within days.

Trump's comments followed the publication in pro-government Turkish media of allegations purporting to confirm that Khashoggi was not only murdered by Saudi agents in their consulate in Istanbul but tortured and dismembered.

"No, not at all, I just want to find out what's happening," Trump told reporters in the White House when asked if his consistently cautious approach to the scandal amounts to a cover-up. "I'm not giving cover at all."

The president said he would get a "full report" from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- whom he is to meet at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) on Thursday -- after the diplomat's return from meetings with Saudi and Turkish leaders, allowing him to assess what really happened.

"We will probably know that by the end of the week," Trump said.

The US president has been on the defensive ever since Khashoggi -- a US resident and Washington Post contributor who had been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- vanished on October 2 after visiting the Istanbul consulate.

The Post published a column from Khashoggi on Wednesday in which he wrote of the important role a free press could play in the Arab world -- a piece the newspaper admitted appears to be his last.

According to the latest reports, the Saudi journalist was assassinated by a squad that included agents tied to Prince Mohammed, a son of King Salman and a lynchpin in the trend toward ever-tightening relations with Trump's White House.

The controversy has blown a hole in Prince Mohammed's bid to promote himself as the modern face of Saudi Arabia and led to a spate of cancellations by titans of global finance and business at a major Riyadh investment conference scheduled next week.

But Trump has downplayed the possibility of action against Saudi Arabia, which he has repeatedly praised as a major customer for the US weapons industry.

At one point he suggested, "rogue killers" could be to blame for Khashoggi's disappearance.

Earlier Wednesday, he told Fox Business that the US relies on the kingdom to fight terrorism.

Pompeo was also tight-lipped after meeting the Saudi leadership in Riyadh, telling journalists he did not want "to talk about any of the facts. They (Saudis) didn't want to either."

Adding to the picture of Saudi influence potentially weighing on American decision-making about Khashoggi, US media reported that $100 million for Washington's stabilization efforts in Syria was deposited by the kingdom as Pompeo arrived in Riyadh.

Fresh paint in consulate?

Turkish police and forensic experts on Wednesday searched the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul and also searched the country's consulate for a second time.

The consul, Mohammed al-Otaibi, left Istanbul for Riyadh on a scheduled flight Tuesday afternoon, with Ankara insisting he had not been expelled but left of his own choice.

Turkish police had on Monday night carried out an eight-hour search at the consulate, taking away soil and DNA samples. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also met with Pompeo, said there was evidence that some materials had been freshly painted.

Several US media outlets said Monday that the Saudis are preparing a report that Khashoggi's death resulted from a botched interrogation, but there has yet to be any sign of this being published.

Pro-government Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported it had heard audio recordings of Khashoggi being tortured during an interrogation, having his fingers cut off and then being decapitated.

It said Otaibi can be heard on one tape saying during Khashoggi's torture: "Do this outside. You are going to get me in trouble."

The daily reported that in another tape, an unknown individual tells Otaibi: "If you want to live when you return to Saudi Arabia, be quiet!"

Senators question Trump-Saudi ties

The New York Times reported Tuesday that a suspect identified by Turkey was a frequent companion of the prince's. Three other suspects are linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, The Times said.

Adding to embarrassment for the petro-state's royals, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde became the latest to pull out of Prince Mohammed's much-trumpeted investment conference next week. An IMF spokesman said she had postponed her planned trip to the Middle East with a stop in Saudi Arabia.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will decide Thursday whether or not he will attend the conference.

There was also new political pressure on Trump with nine senators from the opposition Democrats writing to express "significant concerns about conflicts of interest" between Trump and Saudi Arabia concerning deals done through his real estate empire.

The letter cited decades of business deals and asked Trump to provide information regarding recent and future financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

Trump defended himself on Monday, tweeting that "I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!"By Associated Press

MEXICO BEACH: More than a week after Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle, residents were returning to their homes to try to piece together lives from rubble as the overall death toll from the storm rose to at least 30.

Authorities in Florida on Thursday confirmed 20 deaths related to the storm, which retained hurricane-force winds as far inland as southern Georgia, and also affected the Carolinas and Virginia. Six deaths were reported in Virginia, mostly from flash flooding. North Carolina had three deaths, and Georgia had one.

ALSO READ | Hurricane Michael: Rescue teams in Florida search for survivors in Mexico Beach

In storm-ravaged Mexico Beach on Florida's Gulf Coast, residents were allowed to return home for the first time Wednesday, finding pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.

Across the region, stunned residents continued picking up the pieces on Thursday, as many remained without electricity. Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where she'd lived with her husband. She was particularly distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.

Husband Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock that was given to him by a friend 40 years ago.

"That's my belongings," he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red pickup truck. Choking up, he said: "I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it."

Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Eden's face as she and husband Ron Eden sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house they've rented each October for years. They didn't find much  just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a son's camp chair.

The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time. In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.

Roxie Cline surveys the damage in the vicinity of her destroyed motor home that she lived in, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday. ( Photo | AP)



"Basically, we lost 'old Florida.' It's all gone," said Lanie Eden.

Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit. But officials used the city's Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with winds and a strong storm surge.

In the meantime, in many areas devastated by the hurricane, law enforcement officials are battling looting of homes and businesses.

Bay County Sheriff's Maj. Jimmy Stanford said deputies have arrested about 10 looters each night since the storm hit. In some parts of the county, residents have spray-painted signs warning that "looters will be shot."

Panama City resident Wes Allen said looters have been a constant problem at the badly damaged motel where he is staying with his wife and three children. Residents have formed a nighttime patrol to keep an eye out for thieves.

"We've got looters breaking in and stealing whatever they can," he said. Allen said he hasn't reported the thefts to police because authorities seem so busy with other things.

Often the looters have been armed, Stanford said.

"Most of our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower, and now they're encountering armed individuals," he said. "It's a stressful time for everyone in Bay County."

ALSO READ | Hurricane Michael: In Florida, families seeking the missing amid storm damage

In Mexico Beach, what had been a town of about 1,200, residents don't expect power or anything else anytime soon.

Carlton Hundley, 25, returned to the house he rented with his girlfriend Connie Huff to find nothing but a long pile of shattered wood. What few possessions they found, including one of his shoes, were scattered across the ground.

"I knew it was bad, I'd already seen the pictures. But it's a lot more than I thought," he said.

Roxie Cline, 65, was overcome with emotion as she tried to describe the destruction in Mexico Beach, where she and her husband had lived for three years.

"I can't, I can't," she said, tearing up. "It's devastating. You lose everything. Everybody has."Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio presented the Certificate of Merit to Phan Huy Le's wife (Source: vnexpress.net)





Speaking at a ceremony in Hanoi on July 17, Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Umeda Kunio said Le is not only a top Vietnamese historian, but also a knowledgeable scholar of Japan - Vietnam relations, and had made great contributions to boosting friendship, trust and mutual understanding between the two countries.Les contributions span a wide range of fields, including his role as a bridge as he was the Vice President of the Vietnam - Japan Friendship Association in 1987.He participated in many cultural exchange events, including academic research activities of the two countries. The professor made great contributions to clarifying historical ties between Hoi An ancient town and Japan from the 16th century, contributing to building the foundation for the current friendship and relations between the two nations.As President of the Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences, Le also made significant contributions to academic exchanges between Vietnam and Japan, as well as in training Vietnamese researchers on Japan.He successfully led the Vietnam- Japan conference on the 100th anniversary of the movement of Dong Du (Eastern-Country Study Tour) in 2005, and activities to mark the 70 years of the death of the movements mastermind Phan Boi Chau, as well as the 100th anniversary of the death of Chaus Japanese associate Dr. Asaba Sakitaro in 2010. Thanks to these events, the two countries have known about the movement as well as the friendship between the two men, which is also recognized as one of the important achievements in the history of relations.Le paid attention to developing major of Japanese Studies after he was nominated as Dean of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, VNU-Hanoi in 1995. He has made a great contribution to training researchers in Japan and developing the high-quality education on Japan in Vietnam.According to Hoang Nhu Lan, Les spouse, her husband was aware of the importance of cultural diversity and international academic cooperation. For the promotion of international exchanges in the academic field in Vietnam, he always appreciated the role of cooperation with Japan.Since the mid-1980s, he built academic cooperation with top Japanese professors, Lan said, adding that over the past 40 years, as a scholar, Professor Le contributed to deepening mutual understanding between the two countries./.By Online Desk

The 24.05 carat 'Moon of Baroda' rock which Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe wore for 'Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend' will go under the hammer next month in Hong Kong. The yellow diamond belonged to Baroda's Gaekwad family for almost 500 years till it was sold in the 1920s, according to 'Hollywood Reporter'.

The diamond will be auctioned by Christie's on November 27 and is likely to range between 500,000 to 750,000 USD. The pear-shape rock dates back to 16th century, adding to its value and emphasizing the unusual yellow colour caused by an elevated level of nitrogen.

Given the size and colour of the stone I feel that everyone will find it very gorgeous. I think Marilyn Monroe is down to earth. She doesnt have an amazing collection of jewelry. Even a down-to-earth girl will appreciate the stone. Its quite something," the Hollywood reporter quoted Christies Asias Connie Luk.

Alongside the 'Moon of Baroda', Christies will also auction a photo of Monroe wearing the stone. The photograph of Monroe is also expected to sell at around 15,000 US dollars.By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may not have to approach the IMF for loans as it has received "positive" responses from some "friendly countries", Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, days after Islamabad formally approached the global lender for a bailout to tide over the economic crisis.

Talking to a delegation of senior editors on Wednesday, Khan said his government was in touch with some "friendly countries" and has sought cooperation to address the mounting balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Though he did not name any countries, Pakistani media has reported that the government was consulting allies like China and Saudi Arabia for financial help.

"Their response is positive. I am quite hopeful that we will not have to approach the International Monetary Fund for our economic needs," he was quoted as saying by The News.

Imran's comments follows some tough talking by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the US on Pakistan's bailout plan, demanding absolute transparency on the country's debts, including those owned by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Apart from selling off surplus luxury cars, Prime Minister Khan's proposals include turning state-owned buildings into universities, dispensing with VIP security protocol and cutting air conditioning in government offices to keep the economy afloat.

Khan has vowed to steer Pakistan out of a looming balance-of-payments crisis, saying it needs USD 10 to 12 billion.

He said Pakistan's economy has been badly hit.

He said the previous governments borrowed so much that it has become hard for his government to repay the loans.

"Had the former government not received loans or the amount so received was utilised properly, the economy of the country would have been in a good shape," he said.

Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar met IMF chief Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Indonesia on October 12 and formally requested a "stabilisation recovery programme".

Umar said that a team of the IMF will arrive in Pakistan on November 7.

He said the government don't want to fully rely on the IMF and would do anything to bring improvement in the economy.

He said the loan programme with the IMF is almost final, but the government will have to see that the IMF does not place any undoable conditions for Pakistan in return.

Lagarde has made it clear to Umar that the IMF would require absolute transparency on Pakistan's debts, including those owned by China under the multibillion-dollar CPEC.

The CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect China's Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

It is the part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

The US has said that the huge Chinese debt was responsible for the economic challenges facing Pakistan, adding that it will review Islamabad's bailout plea to the IMF from all angles, including the country's debt position.

Umar said the Pakistan government was also exploring other options to avoid problems if the IMF programme did not materialise.By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar dismissed the review petition filed by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, saying that "no lawful point has been raised in the petition", Geo TV reported.

During the hearing, Abbasi's lawyer said, "Imran provided documents in pieces which were not verified and not acceptable."

At this, the chief justice said, "The court decides whether it is satisfied with the documents that are submitted and we are satisfied with the ones we received."

Abbasi's lawyer, however, said, "If the court was advised then it would have clarified the law."

In response, Chief Justice Nisar said, "We have clarified the law in our decision."

Last month, the apex court had refused to form a full bench to hear Abbasi's review petition against its decision to dismiss the disqualification case against Prime Minister Imran.

In his 13-page review petition, Abbasi had demanded the disqualification of Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

The petition stated that now since Imran has become the prime minister, the matter is more pertinent for the public.

The original petition, filed by Abbasi in November 2016, had sought Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen and Imran's disqualification over non-disclosure of their assets and ownership of offshore companies.

It accused the PTI leaders of not declaring their assets to the Election Commission and violations of the lncome Tax Ordinance, 1979, and Peoples Act, 1974.

It also claimed that the PTI is a 'foreign-funded' party.

In its December 15, 2017 ruling, the apex court had disqualified Tareen but ruled in favour of Imran.

The chief justice had cleared Imran in the case as the petitioner was not directly affected in the foreign funding case.By IANS

WASHINGTON: Two US B-52 bombers flew near contested islands in the South China Sea and "participated in a routine training mission", according to a statement from Pacific Air Forces.

The two B-52H Stratofortress bombers, which are based in Guam, "participated in a routine training mission in the vicinity of the South China Sea" the statement said on Wednesday, adding that the flight was part of US Indo-Pacific Command's "Continuous Bomber Presence operations" which have been ongoing since March 2004, reports CNN.

The Pentagon would not confirm which islands the B-52s flew by, but recent tensions have focused on the Spratly Islands.

The US regularly flies aircraft in the South China Sea, but Beijing is particularly sensitive about the operations when they come near areas where the Chinese government has built islands and established military facilities on disputed maritime features.

Pacific Air Forces said Tuesday's "mission is consistent with international law and US' long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific".

Recently, a Chinese destroyer sailed within 45 yards of the USS Decatur, forcing the American warship to maneuver to avoid a collision while it was sailing near the disputed Spratly Islands.

The US labelled the Chinese warship's actions unsafe and unprofessional while Beijing said the US was threatening the safety and sovereignty of China.By PTI

WASHINGTON: Abandoning the Obama-era rule of granting work permits to H-4 visa holders - who are spouses of professionals holding H-1B visas, mostly Indians - will benefit some US workers, the Department of Homeland Security believes.

The Trump administration is planning to revoke a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the US, a move that could impact tens of thousands of Indians.

H-4 visa is issued to the spouse of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India.

They had obtained work permits under a special order issued by the previous Obama administration in 2015.

The move to end the rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, who have work permits.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its Unified Fall Agenda released on Wednesday said it believed that abandoning the current practice of granting employment authorisation to H-4 dependent spouses would benefit some US workers.

The DHS said the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labour market early.

The DHS, which has already delayed three times this year issuing of the necessary notification, said in its agenda that it was on its way to remove H-4 dependent spouses from getting work authorisation.

In its agenda, the DHS said it anticipated that there would be two primary impacts that it can estimate and quantify.

First, the cost-savings accruing to forgone future filings by certain H-4 dependent spouses, and labour turnover costs that employers of H-4 workers could incur when their employees' employment authorisations are terminated.

"Some US workers would benefit from this proposed rule by having a better chance at obtaining jobs that some of the population of the H-4 workers currently hold, as the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labour market early," it said.

As of December 25, 2017, US Citizenship and Immigration Services had approved 126,853 applications for employment authorisation for H-4 visa holders.

These counts all approvals since May 2015 when the rule was implemented.

This number includes 90,946 initial approvals, 35,219 renewals, and 688 replacements for lost cards.

Last month, two powerful Democratic women Senators - Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand - had urged the Trump administration not to go ahead with its decision to revoke the authorisation to immigrants those on H-4 visas as such a move would have an impact on about 100,000 women.

"Preventing women from engaging in employment can lead to isolation, depression, anxiety, feelings of guilt, and a loss of self-worth.

Revoking a wife's ability to work leaves her and her children entirely dependent on her spouse.

"Increased isolation - coupled with complete financial dependence - can make leaving an abusive relationship dangerous and, in some cases, impossible," they wrote.

However, the release of the Unified Fall Agenda shows that the Trump administration is on track to undo the H-4 spouse work authorisation decision taken by the previous Obama administration.Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov at the event (Source: CPV)

The statement was made by Russian Ambassador to Vietnam Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov at the 15th anniversary of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Vietnam in Hanoi on October 17th.





The Ambassador also expressed his hope that the two sides will successfully hold the Russia - Vietnam Year and the Vietnam Russia Year in 2019.

Phan Xuan Dung, Chairman of the Vietnam - Russian Friendship Parliamentarians Group, appreciated the centre for holding activities to raise mutual understanding between the two peoples, including concerts and discussions on Russias potential in science-technology, economy and investment. Both sides organised forums, round-table seminars, meetings between young people, photo exhibitions, film screening, classical and contemporary Russian concerts.

An art performance at the event (Source: CPV)

From October 10th to 17th, a show staged by dancers from the Moscow State Dance Theatre Gzhel, an exhibition of 50 works by Russian painter M.V. Stoyachko were held.



Four contemporary Russian films were also screened at National Cinema Centre in Hanoi, Le Do cinema in the central city of Da Nang and Cinestar cinema in Ho Chi Minh city./.



Minister-President of Flanders region Geert Bourgeois (Source: VNA)



The Vietnamese PM said Flemish firms are working effectively in Vietnam in seaports and logistics, renewable energy, and mining, thus making important contributions to bilateral ties.

He asked the minister and authorities from the region to facilitate bilateral partnership in fields they hold strength and to uphold their role as a bridge for Vietnamese goods to enter Europe and other markets.

Hailing Vietnam as a leading partner in Southeast Asia for Flanders region, Bourgeois affirmed that the visit by PM Phuc will create a new milestone in the development of Vietnam-Belgium and in particular Vietnam-Flanders ties.

He thanked the Vietnamese Government, ministries, and agencies for their hospitality during his visit in May 2018 and stressed that Flanders wants to double bilateral trade and foster ties across research, education-training, and transportation.

Bourgeois said Flanders supports the signing and ratification of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), considering it a great opportunity to develop trade and investment between Vietnam and the EU, as well as between the country and Flanders.

Following the meeting, both sides witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between Flanders and the Vietnamese Government.

At a reception for Minister-President of Belgiums Wallonia region Willy Borsus on October 16th, PM Phuc highlighted that Vietnam attaches great importance to multifaceted cooperation with Belgian regions, including Wallonia.

He lauded Wallonia for choosing Vietnam as a place to open a representative office in 1996, which has so far become a dynamic partner of the region.

The PM welcomed effective joint projects in the fields of healthcare, culture, arts, vocational training, environmental protection, and heritage protection  all towards contributing to socio-economic development in Vietnam, including poverty reduction.

The leader wished that Belgiums major businesses will continue investing in Vietnam, adding that the country will offer all possible support to them in the process.

Borsus, for his part, said Wallonia considers Vietnam a priority partner in the region. He discussed promising fields of cooperation, such as farm produce processing and foodstuffs.

He noted that regional authorities support the early signing and approval of the EVFTA to boost trade and investment between Vietnam and Belgium, as well as between Vietnam and Wallonia.

The minister hailed Vietnamese nationals in Belgium for their contributions to socio-economic development in the host country./.Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High 62F. Winds W at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A shower is possible early. Cloudy skies early, followed by partial clearing. Low 32F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.At the working meeting (Photo: baodautu.vn)

The visit by Singaporean businesses aimed to seek trade and investment cooperation opportunities in Vietnam, including Can Tho city and the Mekong River Delta.

The 12 businesses of the delegation work in different areas, and include some big groups such as Sembcorp who is the investor of 7 Vietnam -Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) in Vietnam, or NTUC who is a retail trader of over 50% of Singapores market.

According to Truong Quang Hoai Nam, Deputy Chairman of the Can Tho city Peoples Committee, this is a convenient chance for the two countries businesses to seek trade and investment cooperation, promoting Singapores investment into Vietnam, especially in Can Tho city and the Mekong River Delta region. He added that his city is calling on investment from Singapore in 3 industrial park infrastructure projects, an information and technology project, a logistics project and 11 real estate projects.

In Can Tho city, the Vietnam - Singapore Friendship Association, the Singapore International School, as well as 9 Singaporean businesses with an investment capital of nearly USD130 million, are operating efficiently. Additionally, nearly 30 local businesses are exporting goods to and importing goods from the Singaporean market, including rice, seafood, textile and garment, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, fertilizer, chemical, garment materials and machines, with total turnover of nearly USD25 million./.(Newser)  If you currently sport a beard, just be glad you're not living in England a few centuries ago. King Henry VIII introduced the first beard tax in 1535, in an attempt to turn the facial hair into a status symbol. Though he later did away with the tax, Queen Elizabeth I introduced her own tax on beards left to grow longer than two weeks. And Russia's Peter I introduced a facial hair tax in 1698 in an attempt to dissuade men from growing beards or mustaches. It was repealed in 1772. That's just one of the 10 weird things rounded up by Listverse that used to be taxed. A sampling of the rest:

Clocks and watches: The British government passed an act in 1797 that required people to pay taxes every three months for their clocks and watches. The unpopular tax was repealed less than a year later, but in that time, tavern owners benefitedmany put up large clocks in their establishments to draw in people who, having hid their own watches to avoid the tax, needed to check the time.

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Fireplaces: Another controversial tax in England and Wales, this one lasted from 1662 to 1689. Tax collectors went so far as to enter homes to confirm the number of fireplaces needing to be taxed. Even hospitals and homes for the poor were taxed for their fireplaces.

Another controversial tax in England and Wales, this one lasted from 1662 to 1689. Tax collectors went so far as to enter homes to confirm the number of fireplaces needing to be taxed. Even hospitals and homes for the poor were taxed for their fireplaces. Salt : Salt was taxed in France from 1295 until the tax was abolished during the French Revolution, but it was later reinstated by Napoleon and not repealed until 1949. Referred to as the gabelle, the salt tax was considered to be one of the causes of the revolution.

Salt was taxed in France from 1295 until the tax was abolished during the French Revolution, but it was later reinstated by Napoleon and not repealed until 1949. Referred to as the gabelle, the salt tax was considered to be one of the causes of the revolution. Hair powder: England introduced the tax in 1795 to help fund its war against France. Anyone who used hair powder was required to pay the equivalent of $167 per year. The number of people paying the tax dwindled from 46,664 in 1812 to just 997 in 1855, as more and more people opted to ditch wigs for natural hair. It was abolished in 1869.

Click for the complete list . (Or check out six weird tax deductions .)(Newser)  In another case of alleged embezzlement by a public official, an Oklahoma sheriff is accused of stealing some $6,000 worth of school supplies to be used to bolster his campaign, Tulsa World reports. Nowata County Sheriff Kenny David Freeman was arrested Wednesday on one charge of embezzlement. The 43-year-old Freeman was appointed sheriff early this year after the previous sheriff resigned. Authorities say a local Walmart left $25,000 worth of school supplies, including coloring books, lunch boxes, crayons, and markers, that it was donating to schools at the sheriff's office, WRAL reports. Freeman allegedly skimmed off the top and handed out the supplies at local events, with local DA telling Tulsa World, "It appears he was using it for his campaign." In a September Facebook post, Freeman's campaign calls for the "opposing campaign to give it a break" with the campaign fraud accusations, writing, "Their issue is that I gave free lunch pails that had been donated to give to kids." (Police say this woman embezzled from the Girl Scouts.)(Newser)  Allegedly calling himself "a good Catholic male," a pharmacist in Michigan refused to fill a woman's prescription based on his belief that she would use the drug to abort a baby. In reality, Rachel Peterson needed the medication misoprostol to treat a miscarriage, the Detroit Free Press reports. The incident, which took place at a Meijer pharmacy in Petoskey, prompted the ACLU to file a complaint with the chain, saying 35-year-old Peterson was the victim of sex discrimination. In addition to being used to treat miscarriages, misoprostol is also commonly used to treat ulcers. "Had the customer been a man prescribed the same medication  the pharmacist would have filled it," the ACLU says in a statement. When combined with another drug, per the Free Press, misoprostol can be used to cause an abortion.

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Upon learning that she had miscarried, Peterson declined more invasive procedures and opted to let her body complete the miscarriage on its own. After that took longer than expected, her doctor prescribed misoprostol. She says she went as far as to divulge to the pharmacist that the fetus was not viable, per the ACLU statement, but the pharmacist accused her of lying. Per Michigan Live, Meijer does allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription based on religious beliefs. However, the policy is to then have another pharmacist handle it or transfer it to another pharmacy. The pharmacist refused even that, says Peterson, who eventually did get the medication she needed from a different pharmacy. Meijer reportedly declined to comment on the specifics of this case. In its complaint, the ACLU demands that Meijer discipline the pharmacist in question and ensure that customers can get the medications that they are prescribed. (A similar story played out in Arizona over the summer.)(Newser)  White House counsel Don McGahn has officially quit as expected following the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. His last day was Wednesday, but in less than two years in the job, he left an imprint that will last for decades, NPR reports. He oversaw the selection process that chose dozens of young, conservative judges to fill vacancies on the federal bench. With McGahn's help, Trump has been able to install no fewer than 29 appeals court judges and 52 district court judges"a record for any administration this early in its term," according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellas well as Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

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But McGahn also clashed with Trump repeatedly in his time as White House counsel, especially over the Robert Mueller investigation, the Washington Post reports. Last year, McGahn reportedly told Trump he would quit rather than follow an order to have Mueller fired. Washington attorney Pat Cipollone is set to replace McGahn, and he is likely to be a busy man: Along with the Mueller investigation, which he has already been informally advising the administration on, his office will have to deal with multiple subpoenas and other requests if the Democrats win control of the House in the midterm elections. (McGahn spoke to Mueller for more than 30 hours.)(Newser)  An Arizona man should be a bit more comfortable in a hospital bed having spent two days stuck at the bottom of a 100-foot mine shaft. Believed to have been descending into the gold mine shaft near Aguila, 90 miles northwest of Phoenix, when he fell Monday, 62-year-old John Waddell suffered two broken legs, per FOX 10. But his hardships didn't end there. The father also battled three rattlesnakes (now dead) and severe dehydration over 48 hours without food or water before a neighbor discovered him Wednesday. Terry Schrader had agreed to check on Waddell at the shaft if he didn't return by Tuesday, though it was Wednesday before he actually went searching.

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"I was afraid of what I was going to find," Schrader says. "As I pulled up my truck, I could hear him hollering, 'Help, help.'" Schrader adds, per ABC15, that "the carabiner broke, I guess, and he supposedly fell 40 to 50 feet." Though Waddell had a phone, there was no cell service; Schrader had to drive out of the desert to call authorities. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office organized the rescue beginning around 2pm, reports the Arizona Republic. It took more than six hours and a team of more than a dozen before Waddell could be airlifted to a hospital. "We are looking forward to his recovery," an MCSO rep says. Regardless of his screams as he was removed from the shaft, "he's a tough guy," Schrader says. (Rescuers decided to abandon efforts to pull a man out of a Nevada mine shaft.)Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc greets participants in the Vietnam-EU-Belgium Business Forum on October 17th (Photo: VNA)



Attending the Vietnam-EU-Belgium Business Forum jointly held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Belgian Vietnamese Alliance, embassies and trade offices of Vietnam and Belgium, PM Phuc said that the Government pledges favourable conditions to connect enterprises from both sides for the benefits of the firms and the people.

Two-way trade has increased tenfolds in nearly a decade, he noted, adding that it is likely to rise to USD53 billion this year.

Laying stress on the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which is expected to open the door for the enterprises to capitalize on their cooperation potential when it takes effect, PM Phuc hoped that the European business association, especially Belgian firms, will raise their voice to push the signing of the deal.

Vietnam will serve as a bridge for European enterprises to break into ASEAN market toward a free and fair trade, he said, underlining Vietnams advantages for Belgian investments like stable socio-political and macro-economic conditions, and well-developed port systems.

Together with the imminent signing of the EVFTA, Vietnam has participated in 15 new-generation free trade agreements, which means that if Belgian firms enter Vietnam, they will get into a global market, he underlined.

At the forum, PM Phuc and officials of both nations witnessed the signing of several cooperation documents between the VCCI and Belgian Vietnamese Alliance, Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group and European mobile network business centre, and Vietnam Project company and Sarens Group.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Belgium  Vietnam Friendship Alliance Andries Gryffoy said Belgian firms are interested in seeking opportunities in health care, real estate, green energy, food, beverages, seaport infrastructure and other fields in Vietnam, adding that they are promising investors.

He said Belgium boasts a business-friendly government, dynamic research environment, and education system up to international standards and high labour productivity.

Lying in the heart of the EU with a population of 420 million and modern infrastructure, Belgium focuses on industries such as aerospace, chemicals, energy, waste and wastewater treatment, artificial intelligence and 4.0 technology, which are potential fields for partnership with Vietnamese firms, he said.

The same day, PM Phuc had working sessions with representatives from EU and Belgian leading firms operating in Vietnam, during which they informed the Vietnamese leader on outcomes and investment and business plans in the Southeast Asian nation in such fields as oil and gas, renewable energy, agriculture, fertiliser and insecticide production, seaport infrastructure, rubber, and tire production. They also made recommendations on how to accelerate cooperation between the business communities of Vietnam and the EU, as well as between those of Vietnam and Belgium in particular.

Earlier, on October 16th, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received leaders of Solveigh and Nijhuis - the Dutch businesses with experience in anti-erosion, water exploitation and use and carrying out a climate change adaptation project in central Vietnam.

The PM hailed Solveigh and Nijhuis as well as other Dutch partners in conducting surveys, research and working solutions to minimise coastal erosion in Vietnam. He described their work as a specific action to implement cooperation programmes within the framework of the strategic partnership on adaptation to climate change and water management between Vietnam and the Netherlands.

Menno Holterman, Managing Director of Nijhuis, said the projects partners inspected erosion in Hoi An and agreed to carry out another project to address challenges in the area. It aims to improve safety and livelihood for locals, and protect and restore Hoi An coast, while forming new eco-system tourist sites there. Investment for this will be arranged by European and Dutch organisations and businesses and Vietnams T&T group.

Representatives of the two Dutch groups expressed their wish to continue receiving attention and facilitation from the Prime Minister and relevant agencies of Vietnam during the projects implementation.

Welcoming proposals of Dutch organisations and businesses, PM Phuc said the Vietnamese Government hopes for experience sharing and support on human resources and technology from the Dutch partners to solve urgent issues in Vietnam, especially coastal and riverbank erosion and subsidence, climate change response, and help local peoples sustainable socio-economic development.

The PM suggested Dutch and Vietnamese partners coordinate with the Peoples Committee of Quang Nam province to accelerate the study and survey to have an optimal plan.

The two Dutch groups, T&T group and other partners were asked to work with Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Quang Nam authorities to reach an implementation plan./.(Newser)  Former USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny was arrested Wednesday after a Texas grand jury indicted him, alleging he tampered with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of now-imprisoned gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. In a statement issued late Wednesday night, the Walker County district attorney's office in Huntsville, Texas, said Penny was arrested by a fugitive task force in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and awaits extradition to Texas. The third-degree felony is punishable by two to 10 years in prison. The indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch relating to Nassar's activities at the ranch, near Huntsville, the AP reports.

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The indictment alleges Penny acted after learning that Texas Rangers and Walker County authorities were investigating the ranch, which was being managed by USA Gymnastics. It states the documents were delivered to Penny at the USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis; they have not been recovered, and their whereabouts are unknown to authorities. Nassar was sentenced earlier this year to decades in prison, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of molesting them with his hands under the guise of medical treatment. In Texas, a number of gymnasts who had trained at the Karolyi Ranch have said Nassar sexually assaulted them there. (The interim president of USA Gymnastics has stepped down after just four days in the job.)(Newser)  Cam Battley is a top executive at one of Canada's biggest marijuana companies, but he isn't sticking around to savor the country's historic pot legalization. He's off to Germany on Friday and Australia next weeka sign of what a leader Canada has become in the global pot industry, and of the reverberations its decision to legalize could have internationally, the AP reports. "It's a special moment, not just for Canada, but for the world because my strong conviction is that the rest of the world will follow suit," says Battley, chief corporate officer at Aurora Cannabis. "We're not known as wild and crazy. We're known for good public policy and I think they will follow our lead."

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Canada's approach allows provinces to shape their own laws within a federal framework, including setting the minimum age and deciding whether to distribute through state-run or private retail outlets. That offers other countries a model somewhere between the more strictly regulated system in Uruguay, the only other country with legal sales, and the more commercial version in some of the nine US states that have approved recreational marijuana. New Zealand, Mexico, and Italy are among other countries mulling legalization. "This is the genie out of the bottle," says John Walsh of the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America. "Because of Canada's reputation for being fairly careful, for being a good global citizen, and because of the scale of their market, it's a more likely example for other countries." (John Boehner is now on the board of a cannabis company.)(Newser)  President Trump said Thursday that he's ready to send the US military to the border to keep a caravan of mostly Honduran migrants out. In a series of tweets, Trump also reiterated threats to withhold financial aid to Central American nations, with particular attention to Mexico. "I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" the president wrote. He said border security surpassed any other issue in importance for him, including trade and the newly reformulated NAFTA pact known as USMCA. Trump also asserted that the caravan of immigrants includes "MANY CRIMINALS."

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The Washington Post suggests that Trump is especially irked because more immigrant parents than ever are reaching the border with children since the US stopped its policy of family separations over the summer. Border Patrol arrested nearly 17,000 family members in September, a record number that's up 80% from July. Trump has previously said he wants to beef up the military's presence along the border until a wall is in place, and he again faulted Democrats on the issue of immigration. "All Democrats fault for weak laws!" he wrote. But comments this week from Nancy Pelosi suggest her party won't be budging on the solution he wants most. "It happens to be like a manhood issue for the president, building a wall, and I'm not interested in that, she said, per Roll Call. (Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  While a revival of NBC's The Office doesn't look likely, ABC is continuing the trend of TV reboots in bringing back cop drama NYPD Blueat least for one episode. The network is producing a pilot for a revised version of the show, which ended its 12-season run in 2005, per the Hollywood Reporter. In this version, Detective Andy Sipowicz (played by Dennis Franz in the original series) has been murdered, leaving his son, Theo, to investigate. Deadline reports the project received approval from original co-creator Steven Bochco, whose widow has signed on as a producer. His son, Jesse Bochco, will serve as an executive producer and is also set to direct the pilot. (Bochco died in April with many credits to his name.)(Newser)  A Connecticut police officer caught on video telling a group of young people he was feeling "trigger happy" was fired Wednesday, the Hartford Courant reports. "Theres no scenario in which Mr. Barone can return to his duties as a productive member of the Hartford Police Department," Police Chief David Rosado said in announcing Stephen Barone's termination. Barone, then a sergeant, stopped seven men he suspected of trespassing during the Aug. 9 incident. As one of the men recorded the encounter on his phone, Barone said, "If anybody wants to fight or run, Im a little trigger happy guys, I'm not gonna lie." The video went viral, and a month later, the city released a second video in which Barone can be heard explaining why it would be inconvenient if he had to fire his weapon, noting that if he did so, he would be ineligible for overtime and would have to "move from my nice house."

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Barone, a 10-year department veteran, said during the internal affairs review that his statements were "effective in maintaining control," but that he could have chosen "better" words and that he regretted "how this is being portrayed" in the media. Critics said the incident highlights the mistrust between Hartford's mostly white police department and the city's population, which is 84% nonwhite, but police investigators ultimately decided Barone did not violate the civil rights of the men, who were mostly black and Hispanic. Critics also pointed out that just 7% of Hartford PD officers live in the city; among Barone's other filmed comments, he noted at one point that only "junkies" come to Hartford from the wealthy suburb of Glastonbury, where he lives. Barone can appeal his firing. WFSB has the ACLU's response to his termination; the statement says, among other things, "Hartford's overall lack of police accountability guarantees a bad system, not just bad apples." (Read more police officer stories.)(Newser)  Reputed Philadelphia mob boss "Skinny Joey" Merlino says he plans to spend the next two years working out. Granted he won't have much else to do in federal prison. Merlinowho previously spent 12 years behind bars for racketeering, conspiracy, and assault (and was twice acquitted of murder)was sentenced to the maximum two-year term Wednesday after pleading guilty to illegal betting in April, reports NBC Philadelphia. "Enough. Let's move on," US District Judge Richard Sullivan told him. "You've certainly spent enough time in courts and jails for a lifetime." Required to report to prison in 45 days, the 56-year-old left Manhattan federal court telling reporters, "President Trump is rightthey've got to outlaw the flippers," a reference to presidential comments in August.

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Still, Merlino's guilty plea was a big step: It was the first time he admitted wrongdoing in court, per the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Arrested in a 2016 crackdown on an East Coast syndicate accused of extortion, loan-sharking, illegal gambling, and fraud, Merlino first took his case to trial, but jurors were deadlocked. Though the ultimate sentence wasn't the one Merlino's attorney wantedhe requested half of any sentence be served on house arrestit was a lighter one than Merlino could've expected if convicted at trial, especially given what prosecutors had to say. "The experience of standing trial twice for murder did not sufficiently discourage him from engaging in illegal activity," they noted, describing a steady unconcern for the law. (This mob boss was released from prison years early.)(Newser)  Mike Pompeo continues to urge patience with the Jamal Khashoggi case: The US secretary of state says he has advised the White House to give Saudi Arabia "a few more days" to complete its investigation into the journalist's disappearance. At that point, "we can make decisions about how or if the United States should respond to the incident," Pompeo told reporters Thursday. "There a lot of stories out there," and "we just are going to allow the process to move forward, allow the facts to unfold." But after meeting with Pompeo and President Trump to discuss Pompeo's visit to Saudi Arabia and Turkey earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday he is pulling out of a high-profile investor conference he had planned to attend in Saudi Arabia next week. No other government officials will attend in his place, CNN reports.

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"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mnuchin tweeted. The decision came after several of his European counterparts pulled out of the summit and multiple business leaders urged him to withdraw. Meanwhile, investigators in Turkey, where Khashoggi was reportedly gruesomely killed after entering the Saudi consulate to obtain paperwork for his upcoming marriage, have expanded their search area, the Washington Post reports. They are now planning to search at least two rural areas outside Istanbul, and have begun reviewing surveillance footage showing the entrances to the city's Belgrad Forest. (The Washington Post has reluctantly run what appears to be Khashoggi's final column.)(Newser)  A Smithfield Foods employee has been suspended and 50,000 pounds of meat have been tossed in the garbage after surveillance video appeared to show the worker urinating on the production line at the Smithfield, Va., packaging plant. The employee can be seen removing his gloves, apparently peeing while leaning up against the counter, then putting the gloves back on and going back to work, WAVY reports.

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The incident happened over the weekend, and on Tuesday Smithfield released a statement saying an internal investigation "revealed an employee had urinated at his station" but assuring customers that "the facility immediately halted production, fully cleaned the processing line, and sanitized all equipment multiple times before resuming operations." The employee's fate will be decided after a company investigation is complete, the Virginian-Pilot reports. (Smithfield has been involved in other gross headlines.)(Newser)  Nebraska's no longer nice, at least in its next tourism campaign. The new sales pitch, per the AP, has a decidedly self-deprecating bent: "Nebraska. Honestly, it's not for everyone." The slogan, which the Nebraska Tourism Commission unveiled Wednesday at a Nebraska City conference, will replace the current "Through My Eyes" campaign this spring, commission marketing manager Jenn Gjerde said Thursday. State tourism director John Ricks told the Omaha World-Herald that because Nebraska consistently ranks as the least likely state tourists plan to visit, the marketing campaign needed to be different. "To make people listen, you have to hook them somehow," Ricks said. "We had to shake people up."

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Nebraska has used several slogans in its efforts to entice tourists, including, "America's Frontier," ''My Choice, Nebraska" and "Nebraska ... the good life." The slogan that debuted in 2014 was: "Visit Nebraska. Visit nice." One of the new video ads that will begin running next spring opens with a boy peering through oversized glasses into the camera. The background music is quirky. Then comes a voice: "Nebraska is kind of like that odd kid. Didn't say much in school. Slightly peculiar maybe. But when you took the time to get to know him, turned out he was pretty interesting." Another ad shows two people walking and jumping over the toadstool rock formations at Toadstool Geologic Park in northwestern Nebraska. Words appearing on the photo say: "Famous for our flat, boring landscape." (Meanwhile, Bali is considering some tourism restrictions.)(Newser)  If Russia is ever attacked with nuclear weapons, the Russian victims will "go to heaven" as "martyrs," says Russian President Vladimir Putin, who made the comments Thursday during the annual Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, the AFP reports. As for the aggressors in an attack on Russia: "They will simply die because they won't even have time to repent" before Russia's "inevitable" retaliation. But, Putin declared, Russia will never be the first to use nukes, saying, "We have no concept of preemptive strike" (though RT explains why there may be a loophole to that). Putin spoke on a wide range of topics from US domestic politics to Russian involvement in Syria. Read on for more tidbits:

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President Trump : Calling his July sit-down with Trump a "normal, professional dialogue," Putin said he is hopeful that the US president will improve relations between the two countries, per the AP, adding that Moscow is ready "at any moment" to work toward that.

: Calling his July sit-down with Trump a "normal, professional dialogue," Putin said he is hopeful that the US president will improve relations between the two countries, per the AP, adding that Moscow is ready "at any moment" to work toward that. Anti-Russian rumblings in the US : Putin chalked up anti-Russian sentiment in Washington and recent sanctions to domestic politics in the US, according to Newsweek, saying, "Let's look at the calendar; they're having midterm elections and presidential elections soon."

: Putin chalked up anti-Russian sentiment in Washington and recent sanctions to domestic politics in the US, according to Newsweek, saying, "Let's look at the calendar; they're having midterm elections and presidential elections soon." Russian military might : "We have run ahead of the competition," said Putin, referring to "precision hypersonic weapons," per the AP. Russia has deployed the Kinzhal hypersonic missile and has another one, the Avangard, on deck.

: "We have run ahead of the competition," said Putin, referring to "precision hypersonic weapons," per the AP. Russia has deployed the Kinzhal hypersonic missile and has another one, the Avangard, on deck. Russian aid to the Assad regime in Syria : "We have liberated almost 95% of the Syrian Republic's territory," Putin said. "The second thing is that we have secured the statehood there; we have prevented the state from collapsing."

: "We have liberated almost 95% of the Syrian Republic's territory," Putin said. "The second thing is that we have secured the statehood there; we have prevented the state from collapsing." The Russian people: Pravda quotes Putin as saying, "We are not afraid of anything at all  with such a territory, with people ready to give their lives for the fatherland, nobody can do anything about it."

(Read more Russia stories.)URUMQI, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government has allocated to 3 billion yuan (434.2 million U.S. dollars) in funds into the health sector of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, an official said Thursday.

Wang Hesheng, deputy director of the National Health Commission, said at a meeting in Xinjiang that since the 13th five-year plan began two years ago, the money has been transferred to 345 health-related projects in the region.

Wang said that the government efforts to improve Xinjiang's health sector has paid off and that the health of locals has been guaranteed.

Meanwhile, 19 provinces and cities have given more than 2.1 billion yuan in funds to help with more than 2,600 projects in Xinjiang in the past two years.

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ](Newser)  The top US commander in Afghanistan survived an assassination attempt Thursday, but a high-ranking Afghan official was killed. US Army Gen. Scott Miller was not injured in the attack in Kandahar City, which took place after a meeting to discuss security ahead of Saturday's national elections, reports the Wall Street Journal. However, the assault in which bodyguards for a regional governor opened fire did kill Kandahar's police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, described by the Journal as "one of southern Afghanistan's most powerful political and military figures." One other Afghan official was killed, the regional governor critically wounded, and three Americansa service member and two civilianswere also hurt, per the AP.

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The New York Times calls the attack "one of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war," and the Taliban confirmed afterward that Miller and Raziq had been the targets. The assault took place at the regional governor's compound. "When the high-ranking participants were heading to helicopters, an enemy infiltrator opened fire on them, says an Afghan government official. The 39-year-old Raziq was a controversial figure, seen as crucial in maintaining order in the region but also accused of human rights abuses and corruption. (Read more Afghanistan war stories.)(Newser)  The US Justice Department has opened an investigation of child sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, using subpoenas to demand confidential files and testimony from church leaders, according to two people familiar with the probe. The subpoenas, served last week, follow a scathing state grand jury report over the summer that found that 301 "predator priests" in Pennsylvania had molested more than 1,000 children over seven decades and that church leaders had covered up for the offenders. Now federal prosecutors are bringing the Justice Department's considerable resources to bear, according to two people who were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. One advocate calls the move potentially "groundbreaking," noting, "The federal government has so far been utterly silent on the Catholic cases."

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At least seven of the state's eight Roman Catholic diocesesPhiladelphia, Pittsburgh, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg, Allentown, and Harrisburgacknowledged receiving subpoenas and said they would cooperate or were working with Justice Department officials; sources tell the Philadelphia Inquirer all eight dioceses were subpoenaed. US Attorney William McSwain of Philadelphia, who issued the subpoenas, wants to know if priests, bishops, seminarians, or others committed any federal crimes; he asked for certain church leaders to testify before a federal grand jury in Philadelphia, though it could be months before that happens because of the time it takes to review the requested documents. Click for much more, including how dioceses could potentially be charged under a law originally passed to bring down the Mafia. (Read more pedophilia scandal in Catholic church stories.)(Newser)  Asked Thursday if he believes missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, President Trump replied, "It certainly looks that way to me, its very sad. It certainly looks that way." Trump, who has in the past been reluctant to place blame on Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi's disappearance, said the US is awaiting the results of three investigations and that the administration will "get to the bottom" of what happened, CNN reports. "Well be making a statement, a very strong statement," he said, adding that there would be "very severe" consequences for anyone involved if the journalist was murdered. "But we'll see what happens," he added. Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had urged the White House to give the Saudis "a few more days." (Read more Jamal Khashoggi stories.)Wang Chen (R), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), meets with Vice Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Altynai Omurbekova in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 17, 2018. Altynai Omurbekova is in China to attend the Fifth Annual Conference of Taihu World Cultural Forum. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Wang Chen, vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), met on Wednesday with Vice Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Altynai Omurbekova, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, former Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Egypt's former Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, respectively, in Beijing.

These guests are in Beijing to attend the Fifth Annual Conference of Taihu World Cultural Forum from Oct. 17 to 19.

During his meeting with Omurbekova, Wang said traditional friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan boasts a long history. China and Kyrgyzstan in June agreed to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership, openning up a new chapter for friendly cooperation between the two countries.

China stands ready to work with Kyrgyzstan to actively promote the construction of the Belt and Road, intensify exchanges on experience in governance, and promote the mutually benefitial cooperation in culture and legislation, Wang said.

Omurbekova said that Kyrgyzstan will further strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China and enhance friendship among the people.

While meeting with Prodi and other guests, Wang said that China is committed to the path of peaceful development, calls for respecting the diversity of civilization, and advocates building a beautiful world featuring universal security, common prosperity, openness and inclusiveness.

China is willing to strengthen cultural exchanges and mutual understanding with all parties and jointly promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Wang said.

The foreign guests expressed their willingness to actively participate in and promote exchanges between different civilizations and enhance mutual understanding and cooperation.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Bahrain, The UAE, Oman, Jordan, Palestine and Yemen yesterday affirmed their full solidarity with Saudi Arabia against all those who attempt to undermine or seek to harm the Kingdoms policy, position and sovereignty.

The statements, issued by each countrys official news agency, came following accusations against the Kingdom in the case of the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national who had been based in the US, has been missing since Oct 2, when he visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to obtain marital documents. Bahrain expressed its gratitude of the important role played by Saudi Arabia, which is considered the foundation for security and stability in the Arab and Islamic worlds.Pakistans government hanged a man yesterday for raping and murdering a six-year-old girl. Imran Ali, 24, who was arrested after Zainab Ansaris body was found in a garbage dump in Kasur, more than 50 km away from Lahore, was executed in Kot Lakhpat jail, Lahore, at 5.30 am.

Officials handed over Alis body to his family for the last rites to be performed in Kasur. The incident that shook the nation began on January 4, when Zainab left her house for Quran studies at a madrassa nearby. Her parents were away in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, leaving her under the supervision of her aunt.The High Criminal Court yesterday began hearing the case of 12 men accused of forming a terrorist cell. The cell is said to have aimed to destabilize Bahrains peace and spread fear among citizens.

The accused men, including seven fugitives and four in the police custody, are said to have received training on using weapons and assembling them in Iran and other countries.

Four members of the terror cell were allegedly moving between Iran and Iraq to recruit new members in order to carry out their terrorist plots. Its reported that the seventh defendant managed to recruit several members for the cell after he returned from Iraq.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday said he welcomes a new chapter in relations with Moscow after signing a strategic agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The deal opens up a new chapter in our cooperation and will take it towards new horizons, Sisi said in translated comments.

The two signed the agreement in the presence of ministers in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Putin said the talks were held in a businesslike and constructive atmosphere. The leaders discussed the whole spectrum of bilateral relations as well as key international and regional problems, he said. The talks were overshadowed by an attack on a college in Crimea in which at least 17 were killed and more than 40 injured.

Moscow initially described as it a terrorist attack before investigators reclassified it as a mass shooting. Investigators said the shooting was carried out by a teenage student who killed himself. Putin called for a minutes silence for the victims. Relations between Russia and Egypt have strengthened in recent years despite the 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner by jihadists. The plane was carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort that killed all 224 on board, a devastating blow to Egypts tourist industry. In December the countries signed an agreement for Russia to build Egypts first nuclear power station.

In April this year, a flight from Moscow to Cairo marked the relaunch of direct flights between Russia and Egypt. Flights had been suspended after the 2015 plane bombing. Charter flights to Egyptian resorts once popular with Russians remain suspended, however. We considered the question of full restoration of air links... and noted that our Egyptian friends are doing all they can to ensure security, Putin said. We will strive to restart charter flights in the near future.Bahrain-based leading Islamic banking group Al Baraka Banking Group BSC (ABG) and four of its subsidiary banking units announced winning the Best Islamic Financial Institution Award of 2018 by Global Finance Magazine. Meliksah Utku, Board Member and General Manager of Al Baraka Turk Participation Bank and Nurul Bariah Djaafar, Chief Representative of Indonesian Representative Office received the awards at the annual awards ceremony held during the IMF World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Indonesia on Saturday.

ABG received the Best Islamic Financial Institution in Africa Award. Al Baraka Islamic Bank Bahrain received the Best Islamic Financial Institution in Bahrain Award, Jordan Islamic Bank received the Best Islamic Financial Institution in Jordan Award, ABG Algeria received the Best Islamic Financial Institution in Algeria, and ABG Tunisia received the Best Islamic Financial Institution in Tunis Award.The legal team at Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat), the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain, has been recognised by The Legal 500 GC Powerlist Middle East: Teams. The ranking of the regions legal in-house providers, as one of the top 100 in-house legal teams, is also the second consecutive edition in which the Mumtalakat teams expertise is acknowledged. The legal teams selection was based on independent peer nominations from law firms and attorneys across the world and their experience with their respective legal counterparts.

Commenting on the recognition, Mahmood H. Alkooheji, Chief Executive Officer of Mumtalakat said, It is important to also highlight that this all-female team sets an example of the calibre of professionals we maintain at Mumtalakat and I am certain that this is one of many future accomplishments that the team will continue to mark. Mumtalakats legal team is led by Aysha Abdulmalek and consists of four other Bahraini members: Muneera Zubari, Noor Sharafi Noora Mubarak and Zahra Ghuloom.Editors note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Chinas reform and opening-up, and huge changes have been made in Beijing, capital of China, over the past 40 years. We have invited 40 foreign experts to participate in a series of interviews named New Era, New Insight jointly hosted by GMW.cnThe official website of Guangming Daily and the Information Office of Beijing Municipality and share their Beijing Stories.

When I first arrived in Beijing, the most impressive thing was the number of bicycles, which is now of course a lot of cars. When I came here in 1994, the Reuters office was in the diplomatic compound in Sanlitunmany bungalows and the skyline can be seen from the window. But now tall buildings are everywhere. Water cube, world trade square, CCTV building. Lots of nice buildings. There were very few restaurants, and I was single. Because our Philippine Spring Festival was not very lively, so I stayed in Beijing at that time, but my friends in Beijing were very warm-hearted, and I always had a full schedule every day, whether it was lunch at a friend's home, or a meal at a friend's place in the evening, I think it's not just Beijing, the Chinese are probably the most generous and kind-hearted people in the world. Now all kinds of dishes and restaurants are available. When you go to the supermarket, you can easily buy imported food. Around the 1980s and 1990s, I heard from other foreign journalists and diplomats that there would be a flight every week, and then all the imports would send to the Beijing Hotel. The diplomats and foreign journalists went to Beijing Restaurant once a week to buy some imported food. Beijing now is a very cosmopolitan city, very modern. We said its a dramatic transformation in English. He is not a simple change, but a dramatic change. Food, clothing, shelter and transportation have changed dramatically. You can find all kinds of famous brands in Beijing, and almost every month a big international BBS is held in Beijing. Beijing is a very attractive city. It can attract peoples attention, and this attraction is like a magnet. Many foreign journalists live in Beijing for 3 years or 5 years, and they are willing to come back after they leave. Thats why I lived for 21 years.

[ Editor: WPY ]Editors note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of Chinas reform and opening-up, and huge changes have been made in Beijing, capital of China, over the past 40 years. We have invited 40 foreign experts to participate in a series of interviews named New Era, New Insight jointly hosted by GMW.cnThe official website of Guangming Daily and the Information Office of Beijing Municipality and share their Beijing Stories.

My first trip to Beijing was 1993, as a backpacker.

At that time, because of the reform and opening up, the economy was developing very fast and there were all kinds of job opportunities. Then I stayed and started my own business.

At the beginning, I spent more than a year in 1995setting up a joint venture companyto do market research

In 2006,I started a private sole corporation, Plastered T-shirts is now my own independent brand.

Dongcheng district was very supportive of my company and they helped me a lot. But at that time, I found a lawyer to help me register the company because I could not understand many materials, and gave about 10,000 RMB to do this for me, and it took me about two months. But I started another company in Chaoyang this year, and it took me about a week, and then it cost less than 4000 Yuan, so it's pretty fast now.

I've been playing with retro stuff since 2006

When my brand became popular, many places were copying

Because the regulation of intellectual property was not standard in the past, I wanted to find some people, but it was not easy, so I just focused on innovation.

Things are different now. Just like, there was a Taobao shop about three months ago, and they have 2 million fans there, and they totally copied about three or four patterns from us. I immediately communicated with them through Taobao and a lawyer, and they pulled the T-shirt off in a day. The country now attaches great importance to intellectual property rights, so they dare not sell plagiarisms, and they wrote me a letter of apology. Not like before, so intellectual property is much better in China now.

I've been in this creative industry for 12 years. For me, Beijing is a city that keeps changing. From 1993 to now, every day is different

In fact, I like this kind of environment. It is very challenging for me as an entrepreneur. It makes me feel that this city is very active. So I like to start a business in Beijing. Every day is new.

[ Editor: WPY ]The federal government has approved the implementation of no work, no pay principle when workers go on strike. The federal executi...





The federal government has approved the implementation of no work, no pay principle when workers go on strike.





The federal executive council (FEC) issued the approval during its weekly meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.





Chris Ngige, minister of labour and productivity, said the report of the technical committee on industrial relations matters in the federal public service was adopted at the meeting.





Ngige said the public service in Nigeria is facing numerous problems, prompting the inauguration of the committee in August 2016.





FEC in turn, empanelled a committee of ten which I chaired to do a government draft white paper on those contentious areas that the technical committee had looked at, NAN quoted him as saying.





These contentious areas are enforcement of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act Law of the Federation 2004 which deals with lock out of workers by their employers without declaring redundancy appropriately.





Because in some establishments, especially in the private sector, workers are locked out by their employers; so the law there says that if you lock your workers without passing through the normal channel-due process.





For the period of the lock out, the worker is assumed to be at work and will receive all the remunerations and allowances, benefits accruing to him for the period and that period will also be counted for him as a pensionable period in the computation of his pension.





But when workers go on strike, the principle of no-work-no-pay will also apply because that principle is enshrined in the same section 43 of the Labour Act.





According to Ngige, the section says that for the period a worker withdraws his/her services, government or employers are not entitled to pay.





The minister also said the period for which the worker was absent would not count as part of the pensionable period in public service.





He said the national industrial court had made a pronouncement on the law.





Ngige said another area considered was the issue of public servants remaining permanently in the executive bodies of trade unions.





Government realises that some persons in the public service go into trade union executive positions; hold offices; and they do that for life; for as long as they are in the service, he said.





In doing so, they will refuse postings and deployments under the guise that are doing trade union activities; government says no.





Government has also said that there must tenure stipulations because people stay there without tenure; many organisations give people union positions without tenure; government says there is no office that does not have tenure.



Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says job creation is what he does best. The 71-yea...

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says job creation is what he does best.





The 71-year-old former vice-president said this ahead of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) release of labour statistics, expected Thursday, October 18 and Monday, November 6, 2018.





The most effective way to fight crime is to provide opportunity to create wealth, because poverty is conducive to crime, Atiku said on Thursday.





If you elect me as your President, I will equip the security forces to fight terrorism and crime. Additionally, I will do what I do best  job creation.

The most effective way to fight crime is to provide opportunity to create wealth, because poverty is conducive to crime. If you elect me as your President, I will equip the security forces to fight terrorism and crime. Additionally, I will do what I do best - job creation.  Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) October 18, 2018

Nigerias job creation report for Q1 and Q2 2018 was initially billed to be released on October 10, while labour force statistics for Q4 2017 and Q1 2018 is expected on October 18, according to the NBS data release calendar.





Both reports have not been made publicly available.





However, the data office is set to release the unemployment and underemployment report for the last quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 by Monday, November 6.





Previous reports show that nearly eight million Nigerians have become unemployed since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015.





JOBS AS CAMPAIGN TOOL

The Buhari administration says it has created over seven million jobs since 2015, and plans to create more using the provisions of the economic growth and recovery plan (ERGP).





Speaking in London, earlier in 2018, Babatunde Fashola, minister of power works and housing, said Buhari has created jobs for 6.3 million new rice farmers via the agricultural drive.





Fashola also said the ministry of power, works and housing has created 193,469 jobs, with 40,429 direct and 153,040 indirect jobs, within the two years.





Audu Ogbeh, minister of agriculture, had said in January, 2018 that the Buhari admin has created six million jobs in the agricultural sector alone since it came on board in 2015.





The last NBS report shows that the number of people within the labor force who are unemployed or underemployed increased from 13.6 million and 17.7 million respectively in Q2 2017, to 15.9 million and 18.0 million in Q3 2017.





President Buhari and former vice-president Atiku are running on the promise to create jobs if voted in to lead Nigeria in 2019.





The unemployment report is expected to be a campaign tool for both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  depending on the eventual numbers.The Lagos State House of Assembly has ordered the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state to call on the Private Sector Partnership (PSP) operators in their areas to go back to refuse collection and disposal with immediate effect.Recall that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had earlier disengaged most of the PSP from operating in the state following the introduction of a new environmental initiative, through the Visionscape Sanitation Solution Limited.Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, who gave this directive Thursday, on behalf of the lawmakers during plenary, also ordered the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni to invite the Commissioner for the Environment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti to appear before the House on the matter next week.This followed an urgent matter of public importance raised by Gbolahan Yishawu (Eti-Osa Constituency 1l on heaps of refuse scattered all over the state.The speaker stressed that the Lagos State Government does not know about Visionscape.Obasa stated that there are three arms of government, including legislative, executive and judiciary, and that the state government ought to have consulted the House on Visionscape before they started operation.He said: We insist that we dont know anything about Visionscape because we were not consulted before they started work.We once wrote the Commissioner for Finance, Hon. Akinyemi Ashade not to pay Visionscape again and he would return any money he paid to them after our instruction to the coffers of the state government. We will go to that, when the time comes, but we have to do the needful now.We are calling on the 20 local governments and 37 LCDAs in the state to have meetings with the PSP operators to go back to work and they should start paying them and make the residents to start paying the operators. We have to avoid epidemics and be proactive.The Speaker also warned those stopping people from dumping refuse at the dumpsites to desist from doing so, adding that he saw a lot of refuse trucks in a bad state and that some of them have been abandoned.Obasa insisted that the House ought to have approved the new refuse disposal policy of the state government before Visionscape started work.We are inviting the Commissioner for the Environment to come and report to us within one week. The Clerk should write all the local councils in the state to do the needful and the Commissioner for the Environment should work on this and report to us in a week, he said.Human Rights activist and legal luminary, Femi Falana, SAN, has urged Nigerian labour unions to cease the fight against corruption from the government, alleging that the most corrupt people are found in government.He has also called for a full probe of the alleged $500 million bribe involving a serving governor from the North, saying that the matter must not be swept under the carpet.Falana who stated this in his lecture at the 40th anniversary of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, in Abuja, with the theme Dynamic Labour Leadership: Filling in the Economy, stated that the Federal Government has no business to be borrowing money.He said that Nigeria has become a joking stock in the international community borrowing money from countries when it could make 100 billion dollars if it could check Britain and the United States where the nations oil was discharged.According to him, "We must go to the root of criminality on International level to recover our money. PENGASSAN should not leave the fight against corruption to government. No government in the world fight corruption genuinely. The most corrupt people are found in the government.We can cease the initiative of the fight against corruption, he stated, adding that the fight against corruption should not be selective and restricted to a particular party.He said, It is important for the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress, NUPENG and PENGASSAN to lead other Nigerians to ensure that we wage war against corruption that is impartial, fair and just.Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Wednesday, restated federal governments stance on the new minimum wage. He ...





Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Wednesday, restated federal governments stance on the new minimum wage.





He spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.





The minister said the N24,000 per month stands, a figure the organised labour has kicked against.





He said that once minimum wage was fixed, any organisation or state that had the capacity to pay more could do that.





Ngige cited that Edo, Delta and Lagos states paid their workers more than the current N18, 000 national minimum wage.





He disclosed that FEC approved the implementation of the no-work, no pay principle when workers go on strike in the federal public service.





The minister said that the technical committee, which was inaugurated on April 27, 2016, did their work and submitted to the FEC in Oct. 2017.





FEC in turn, empanelled a committee of ten which I chaired to do a government Draft White Paper on those contentious areas that the technical committee had looked at.





These contentious areas are enforcement of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act Law of the Federation 2004; this is the section that deals with lockout of workers by their employers without declaring redundancy appropriately.





Because in some establishments, especially in the private sector, workers are locked out by their employers; so the law there says that if you lock your workers without passing through the normal channel-due process.





For the period of the lock out, the worker is assumed to be at work and will receive all the remunerations and allowances, benefits accruing to him for the period and that period will also be counted for him as a pensionable period in the computation of his pension.





But when workers go on strike, the principle of no-work-no-pay will also apply because that principle is enshrined in the same section 43 of the Labour Act, he said.





According to Ngige, the section says that for the period a worker withdraws his services, government or his employers are not entitled to pay.





The minister said that under the section, the period for which the worker was absent would not count as part of his pensionable period in the public service.





Ngige added that the issue of public servants remaining permanently in the executive bodies on trade unions was discussed.





His words: Government realises that some persons in the public service go into trade union executive positions; hold offices; and they do that for life; for as long as they are in the service.





In doing so, they will refuse postings and deployments under the guise that are doing trade union activities; government says no.





You have to be a public servant first before you become a trade unionist; therefore, if you are there; the public service rules will also apply to you.





And in furtherance to this, government has also said that there must tenure stipulations because people stay there without tenure; many organisations give people union positions without tenure; government says there is no office that does not have tenure.



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This story is no longer available on our site.The event has attracted the participation of around 250 enterprises from Vietnam and many other countries, including India, Nepal, Japan, the Republic of Korea and China.

With more than 650 booths, the show offers an opportunity for businesses and trade villages to introduce their latest products, seek more customers and expand their export markets.

During the 2018 Hanoi Gift Show, forums providing consultancy on design and an international workshop on trade village and handicraft products will be held, creating condition for enterprises, artisans and skilled workers to exchange their experience.

A business linkage programme between local businesses and foreign importers will also be a highlight of this years event.

The Hanoi Gift Show, which will last until October 20, is expected to attract around 12,000 visitors, including over 600 foreign importers, mainly from the US, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and Brazil.The Senate and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, yesterday warned the Federal Government against returning the country into a debt trap.Though the Senate eventually approved President Muhammadu Buharis request for $2.78 billion Eurobond, it reiterated the concerns of the Bretton Woods institutions over rising public debt in Nigeria.The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, at the just-concluded annual meetings in Indonesia had warned that a trend of rising public debt in developing countries was undermining economic development in the affected countries.The NSIA also warned that it is suicidal for the nation, the states and some businesses in the country to borrow dollar-denominated funds from the international financial market to finance infrastructure development in the country.However, the Senates approval for the issuance of $2.786 billion from the international capital market was as contained in the 2018 Appropriation Act.It also approved the issuance of $82.54 million to refinance the balance of $500 million matured Eurobond in the international capital market and advised the Federal Government to do everything possible to reduce or limit its request for more external borrowing and source other means of generating revenue internally.According to the Senate, this will help avoid a cleverly managed re-conquest of the country through a debt overhang.Resolutions of the Senate were sequel to the consideration of the report on the new external capital raising presented by Chairman of the Committee on Local and Foreign Debt, Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central).Presenting the report, Senator Sani said: That the issuance of both USD2.786 billion and USD 82.54 million from International Capital Market is for the part- financing of 2018 Budget, with particular interest to finance key infrastructure projects proposed in the 2018 Budget.The committee also observed that the capital raising of USD2.786 billion will result in a portfolio mix of Domestic Debt- 68 percent and External Debt- 32%, which is an improvement over the ratio of 70:30 as at June 30,2018. This brings the debts portfolio mix closer to the target of 60:40.The committee further observed that the issuance of these bonds will contribute to the implementation of the Debt Management Strategy which seeks to reduce the cost of borrowing, lengthen the maturity of the public debt stock, free- up space in the domestic market for other borrowers and help to increase Nigerias external reserves.It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had written the Senate, seeking the approval of the lawmakers to raise external funding for the 2018 budget.In the letter dated July 23, and read last week by the Senate President, President Buhari said the sum as approved in the 2018 Appropriation Act, would be used to finance deficits and key infrastructure projects in the 2018 budget.The three-day event allows Vietnamese firms in the garment and textile and interior decoration sectors to seek partners, expand markets and learn about new technology and techniques.

It gathers 120 leading Indian silk producers and 250 foreign businesses from across the world.

Along with showcasing silk and silk blended garments, fabrics, accessories and carpets, the fair also features business meetings, a fashion show and workshops.

The organising board expects to welcome about 10,000 visitors during the event.On October 17 noon, the European Commission (EC) agreed to submit the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to the European Council to seek its approval for the signing of the deal slated for late 2018 and to the European Parliament (EP) for ratification in 2019.

At a press conference on October 17 afternoon, the EU affirmed its commitment to putting the document in place as soon as possible.

During his trip, PM Phuc held talks with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of Austria, which is assuming the EU Presidency, and with Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium, which accommodates EU agencies.

He also met with other leaders and businesspeople of the two countries, and delivered speeches at business forums, calling for the implementation of these documents.

The same day, the PM had a meeting with Bernd Lange, Chairman of the EPs International Trade Committee.

He applauded the role and contributions of Lange to enhancing the partnership between Vietnam and the EU in general and between the Vietnamese National Assembly and the EP in particular.

Lange expressed his delight at the ECs decision to send the EVFTA to the European Council for signing, saying this is an important step so the EP can begin the ratification process.

He affirmed his support for all-round cooperation between Vietnam and the EU.

During his meeting with EP President Antonio Tajani the same day, PM Phuc praised the fruitful relations between the Vietnamese legislature and the EP, saying Vietnam considers it an important pillar of the Vietnam-EU comprehensive cooperation.

For his part, Tajani stressed the EP will make efforts to ratify the documents in early 2019, which, he said, would support both sides and benefit trade in Europe and Asia.

The EP will continue with its support for the implementation of cooperation programmes between the EU and Vietnam, as well as Vietnams sustainable development, he said.

He lauded cooperation between the EU and Vietnam at international forums and organisations, affirming his support for efforts to maintain peace and security, avoid escalating tension and respect interests of parties concerned in the East Sea on the basis of international law.

The ECs adoption of the EVFTA ahead of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit, which opens on October 18, has demonstrated all sides efforts to step up connectivity between Asia and Europe.

In a press release, the EU cited EC President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying that the trade and investment agreements with Vietnam are exemplary of Europe's trade policy. They bring unprecedented benefits to European and Vietnamese companies, workers and consumers.

By adopting them a few hours before welcoming the participants to the ASEM Summit in Brussels, the commission shows its commitment to open trade and engagement with Asia, he said.

Juncker said he expects the EP and EU member states to work to ensure the agreements enter into force as soon as possible.

EC Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said Vietnam is one of the fastest-growing economies in Southeast Asia, with a vibrant market of more than 95 million consumers, an emerging middle class and a young, dynamic workforce.

She expressed her hope the EP and EU member countries will approve the agreements swiftly to allow businesses, workers, farmers and consumers to reap the benefits as soon as possible.Not only the fact that progress is sluggish but the transfers of ownership, stock exchange listings and financial reporting have also not been strictly enforced.

To date, more than 500 equitised SOEs remain unlisted on the stock exchange as required, while thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong in public assets are being lost due to inaccurate calculations of land use and lease rights.

The reasons for such a situation are due to the imperfect legal system, limited awareness, and a lack of determination and responsibility from the SOE leaders and agencies responsible for managing SOEs.

In order to accelerate SOE equitisation, encourage private investment and attract foreign participation in the process, it is necessary to establish individual responsibilities, determine detailed equitisation plans, make information transparent, step up promotion activities targeted at strategic investors, and abolish the mindset of evading collision with dark zones in the legal, land, debt and financial relationships of SOEs.

Recent realities in SOE equitisation also call for careful consideration to be given to the ratio of shares to be sold and the disinvestment roadmap in order to maintain a controlling stake only when necessary.

It is also crucially important to refine the machinery of the Committee for State Capital Management as the largest representative owner of state capital at enterprises in order to further push through the progress and efficiency of SOE equitisation, helping to ensure that state capital is managed strictly and utilised effectively.

SOE equitisation and state capital divestment are an important measure to restructure and reform the operation of SOEs. This process should not be accelerated at all costs and regardless of effectiveness, especially at large SOEs, and also must not be delayed which could lead to losses of public assets and hinder overall economic reform.The Deputy PM made the statement during a reception on October 17 for Naser Al Hajri, Senior Vice President in charge of Southeast Asia operations at Mubadala Petroleum, a UAE oil and gas company with a primary geographical focus on the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Deputy PM Dung stated that the Vietnam-UAE relationship is developing well and the two sides have become important partners in the pillars of economic, trade and investment cooperation.

The UAE currently has a multitude of investment projects in Vietnam while many Vietnamese are living and working in the UAE, making important contributions to the countrys socio-economic development.

Praising Mubadala Petroleums current performance, Deputy PM Dung asked the company to continue expanding their business in renewable energy, in addition to oil.

For his part, Naser Al Hajri said he expected further and closer cooperation with domestic and foreign partners in order to expand the companys oil extraction business and other areas such as renewable energy.

In Vietnam, Mubadala Petroleum has invested in a number of oil blocks over the course of more than ten years.At the last activity of his busy working day yesterday, PM Phuc said that his day was a great joy as he was warmly welcomed by the local leaders, in which they expressed their respect to the Vietnamese community in Belgium. Another good news is that the European Commission yesterday submitted for approval a free trade agreement with Vietnam  the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)  to the European Council, the first comprehensive open market deal between the EU and a developing Asian country.

According to the PM, the agreement will positively boost Vietnams development. At the Vietnam EU-Belgium Business Forum early yesterday afternoon, the investment trend towards Vietnam was also boosted thanks to the EVFTA, he added.

The PM also expressed his pleasure at the fact that most of the overseas students here are following their study in new sectors and high technologies.

While giving a brief over the national socio-economic situation, PM Phuc also praised the contributions of overseas Vietnamese to the countrys development.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc talks with representatives of the overseas Vietnamese community in Belgium. (Photo: chinhphu.vn)



He suggested the local Vietnamese families maintain traditional culture, as well as paying attention to teach Vietnamese to their children. PM Phuc said he hoped that overseas compatriots will always turn to the motherland and tighten their solidarity to assist each other. The Fatherland always open arms to welcome you to return to build the country, he affirmed.

A representative from the overseas Vietnamese community in Belgium, numbering up to 13,000 people, informed that their contributions to local communities have been praised by the concerned Belgian authorities. Even living away from home, they are always looking to the Fatherland.

They also expressed their pleasure at the positive achievements that Vietnam has made, especially in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction, as well as expressing their belief that Vietnam and the EU will sign the EVFTA soon.Addressing the celebration, Chairman of the citys Vietnam-Republic of Korea Friendship Association, Diep Dung, highlighted the strong growth of Vietnam-RoK ties after the two countries first set up diplomatic relationship 26 years ago and the strategic cooperative partnership 9 years ago. The two countries are important partners of each other in the fields of investment, trade, tourism, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

Dung reviewed the associations activities to contribute to bilateral relations in the past few years, including receiving RoK delegations to the city, holding cultural exchange events, and co-sponsoring charity activities with RoK businesses in the city.

The Consul General of the RoK to Ho Chi Minh City, Lim Jae-hoon, hailed the close friendly ties between the two countries. He noted that the RoK is a major investment partner of Vietnam, with more than 3,000 RoK firms doing business in the country.

On the occasion, the citys Vietnam-Republic of Korea Friendship Association presented 20 scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds at Le Hoang primary school in Go Vap district, Ho Chi Minh City.Vietnamese Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, and head of the Vietnamese Mission to the EU, Vu Anh Quang, briefed the PM on the communitys situation and a range of embassy issues.

Quang said that the embassys top priorities are to promote the Vietnam-EU Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation, and further develop friendship and collaboration between Vietnam and Belgium, as well as between Vietnam and Luxembourg.

An estimated 13,000 Vietnamese people live in Belgium, he stated, adding that the community is lauded for abiding by the host countrys laws, integrating well into Belgian society and maintaining Vietnams culture.

President of the General Association of Vietnamese in Belgium, Huynh Cong My, shared that Vietnamese people in Belgium are delighted with Vietnams achievements in poverty reduction and economic development, and eagerly anticipate an early signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

PM Phuc shared the positive developments with the participants, stating that the European Commission (EC) had, on October 17, agreed to adopt the EVFTA and an Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) to submit them to the European Council for approval of the official signing of the documents.

If approved, these documents will be submitted to the European Parliament for ratification, Phuc added.

The agreement will have a huge impact on Vietnams development, he affirmed, adding that many European enterprises have already signaled an interest in investing in Vietnam in anticipation of the agreement at the Vietnam-EU Business Forum held the same day.

He also asked the Vietnamese community in Belgium to maintain their traditional culture and continue teaching young people their native Vietnamese language.Dam said the consensus on opinions and actions reached, as well as initiatives tabled, during the AMMD-6 have laid an important foundation for Vietnam to successfully undertake the role of Chair of the AMMD for the next two years.

According to Dam, despite the concerted efforts of ASEAN member states in actively working together to prevent illegal drug use and production, figures in these fields are still on the rise.

He expressed concern over the use of methamphetamines, citing that the rate of users of this kind of drug in several Vietnamese regions amounts to 70-80%.

The host wished that ASEAN legal enforcement agencies will increase joint works to fight drug crimes; prevent the plantation of poppy, production, trade, and trafficking of drugs; and combat money laundering. He also hoped they would share experience in rehabilitation for victims of drug abuse.

Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Prajin Juntong affirmed that drugs are a complicated and transnational issue, which therefore requires close coordination among countries towards a drug-free ASEAN community.

He said over the past few years, ASEAN legal enforcement agencies have raided major drug production and trafficking cases via a supervisory mechanism on roads, waterways, and airways.

ASEAN has built and adopted an action plan to prevent the spread of drug use in the ASEAN community for the 2016-2025 period, as well as launched the ASEAN Cooperation Plan in the fight against illicit drug production and trafficking in the Golden Triangle area for the 2017-2018 period.

ASEAN member states also launching initiatives such as an information centre on drug prevention and control, and working groups on legal enforcements against drugs via airways and seaports.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.CEPI's 'Paper & Beyond' Stages Industry's Leadership on Europe's Circular Bioeconomy "The new European strategy comes at a defining moment for the bioeconomy. Industry's transformation is gaining pace across the entire forest fibre and paper value chain."  Karl-Henrik Sundstrom, CEO of Stora Enso and Chairman of CEPI. Oct. 18, 2018 - CEPI announced that Paper & Beyond, the new event concept where circular bioeconomy leaders meet, took place just a week following the release of the EU's new Bioeconomy Strategy, which set out a clear path for better linking the bioeconomy and circularity. Paper & Beyond is the new version of European Paper Week. The new European strategy comes at a defining moment for the bioeconomy, says Karl-Henrik Sundstrom, CEO of Stora Enso and Chairman of CEPI. Industry's transformation is gaining pace across the entire forest fibre and paper value chain. As the mainstream renewable and recyclable material industry, we are ready to take the lead on Europe's circular bioeconomy. The first of its kind conference got off to an innovative start with a competition gathering some of Europe's most promising young researchers. From the engineering of spider silk strong nanocellulose filaments to paper-based electrodes for fuel cells, researchers illustrated the innovativeness and European lead in forest fibre research. Building on this year's theme, the Europe & Beyond  Getting the best from the bioeconomy session welcomed keynote speaker Peggy Liu, a world-renowned sustainability expert on China who brought a global perspective on the circular bioeconomy. She touched upon recent developments in China, including the country's waste restrictions, its policy on single-use plastics and its recent investments in Europe under the Belt and Road initiative. Following the positive trends in production (up 1.5%), exports (up 5.4%) and investment (up 7.5%) seen in the latest market data for 2017 , RISI returned to provide insights into circular bioeconomy markets, with, for the first time, a business intelligence session on European nanocellulose markets. Paper & Beyond also hosted the final conference of the EU-funded Provides project which has confirmed the Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) technology. This breakthrough aims at achieving a 40% reduction in energy use and an 80% life cycle reduction in CO2 emissions, while also producing high-quality lignin from wood for biochemicals or biocomposite production. The consortium will continue research on a DES pulping pilot and demo, aiming at commercial deployment by 2030. CEPI is the European association representing the forest fibre and paper industry. Through its 18 national associations CEPI gathers 495 companies operating more than 900 pulp and paper mills across Europe producing paper, cardboard, pulp and other bio-based products. CEPI represents 22% of world production, 82 billion of annual turnover to the European economy and directly employs more than 177,000 people. To learn more, please visit: www.cepi.org . SOURCE: Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI)Ilim Group Provides Update on USD 1 Billion Strategic Investment Projects at Pulp Mills in Russia CEO Kseniia Sosnina (on right) and Senior Vice Presidents visit Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk mills. By the end of 2021, Ilim's Bratsk mill will have implemented a number of strategic projects with a total value of USD 700 million, while investments at the Ust-Ilimsk mill will exceed $300 million by 2022. The projects are focused on increasing pulp production capacity and environmental efficiency. Oct. 18, 2018 - Ilim Group said that its CEO Kseniia Sosnina and Senior Vice Presidents have visited the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk Mills in Russia. The key focus of the visits is the delivery progress of the strategic investment projects envisaged in the Company's Business Plan, with a value of USD 1 billion. Bratsk Mill By the end of 2021, the Bratsk Mill of Ilim Group will have implemented a number of strategic projects with a total value of USD 700 million, including the KLB Line rebuild and pulp line upgrade. The KLB Line Rebuild will be completed by September 2019 to deliver 135,000 incremental tons of products per year. HW Line Rebuild will be completed in November 2020, which will increase pulp output by additional 173,000 tons per year. Thus, by 2021, the total production output of the Bratsk Mill will reach 1.5 mln tons per year. The Bratsk Mill will account for 50% of the national pulp production volumes. As part of Kseniia Sosnina's visit, capital project managers updated the CEO on the project delivery progress. Installation of foundations is currently in progress for the Caustic Plant Rebuild project which aims to increase the plant capacity to support incremental volumes. Another additional project within the framework of the large-scale upgrade is the extension of the finished products warehouse to store KLB inventory, which will be created so that the clients will not experience supply problems during the project period. As regards construction of the new woodyard (three lines with a total capacity of 5 million m3 of chips per year), initial groundwork has been fully completed and partial equipment installation has been launched. A new state-of-the-art production line will bring the following economic benefits: reduce wood losses and electric energy consumption and increase finished product output. Ilim has a special focus on environmental projects. Ilim management has assessed the progress under the upgrade of the lime kiln waste gas treatment system project. Three Lime Kilns are being equipped with modern precipitators, which apart from minimizing the adverse environmental impact, will provide an economic benefit  lime accumulated by filters will be reused. Preparation of the site for laying of the foundations is in progress. Installation of main process equipment is underway at the Construction of Vacuum Evaporation Plant 8 project site. By the end of the next year, Ilim plans to commission the facility with evaporation capacity of 980 tph, while EVAPs 6&7 are scheduled to be shut down for an upgrade. This project aims both to minimize discharge and emissions by putting them back into the process cycle and to drive a significant improvement in energy efficiency. Moreover, construction of a new evaporation station is essential to support the increase in the pulp and KLB output volumes. Ust-Ilimsk Mill The total value of the strategic investment projects implemented in Ust-Ilimsk exceeds $300 million. The first facility visited by the delegation was the new woodyard, which was started up in June 2018. The second woodyard line is almost fully ramped up. The total woodyard capacity is 4 mln m3 of chips per year. Another completed project is an upgraded evaporation plant, which was ramped up in October. The Evaporation Plant is to ensure efficient and safe operation of recovery boilers, as well as create opportunities to increase current pulp lines productivity. Management has then inspected the facilities under construction within the framework of the Oxygen Delignification project with a new oxygen plant to be built and the oxygen delignification plant to be prepared for start-up. This facility has a significant envirnmental and economic relevance. After the upgrade the Mill will significantly reduce its adverse environmental impact and minimize chemicals consumption. The Upgrade of Recovery Boiler 3 project is in progress: equipment installation is nearing completion, utilities installation is underway. Rebuild covers 95% of the facility, i.e. this will basically be a new boiler. And it will be the world's most advanced boiler both in terms of higher capacity and safety. These projects are technologically and functionally fundamental to perform a large-scale upgrade of the current pulp line with an annual increase of production output by 130,000 tons and launch of a new KLB Line with a capacity of 600,000 tons per year. As a result, by 2022, the Ust-Ilimsk Mill will acquire the status of a million-ton mill with an annual capacity of 1.5 million tons. At present, our strategic project investments exceed USD 1 billion, said Sosnina. We have entered an active stage of project implementation and we are keeping up the pace. Next year will be even more challenging. We will have to execute the second stage of the total upgrade of our mills and simultaneously start our 'Big Ust-Ilimsk' project. These projects will be executed without interrupting the operations, so we will focus on making sure that the construction work does not affect the mills' current operation. Demand for both pulp and packaging products is growing. We are expecting record high financial results this year. This will give us an opportunity to invest, expand our production capacities, and keep growing, Sosnina concluded. The key consumer of Ilim's products produced by its Siberian mills is China. In 2018, Ilim Group management held a number of meetings with Asian partners. There was a conference in Zhengzhou (Henan, China) in April and in Baodin in September. These meetings are aimed to expand the client portfolio, improve customer service quality, and optimize supply. Ilim Group is the largest pulp and paper company in Russia. To learn more, please visit: www.ilimgroup.ru . SOURCE: Ilim GroupEarlier today "Apple rolled out an online tool to users in the United States and several other countries to download, all the data that the iPhone maker has collected on them," reports Reuters. Apple also provides users with the ability to deactivate or delete their account for any reason.

According to Reuters, "Despite its focus on keeping data on devices, Apple does collect and store some data about its users. With the updates to its privacy website Wednesday it is seeking to better explain those instances. For example, Apple collects data on users' reading habits to improve suggestions in its Apple News app."

Of course users have all sorts of controls in their iDevice settings that could curb the collection of data on specific apps and features to assist them. There's a good report on this by Kaspersky

In the U.S.A the Data and Privacy site where you can obtain a copy of what data Apple collects on you here. If you're Canadian, be sure to go to the bottom of the page and set it to Canada before proceeding.

Once you click on the link above you'll be asked to fill in your Apple ID and password. Once that's done you will enter the page as noted below where you can click on the appropriate links. If you want a copy of what data Apple is collecting on your devices, you choose the first option of "Obtain a copy of your data."





Apple informs you that it will take 7 or more days before your request for information can be processed and sent to you.

Once you've received a copy of the data that Apple has collected on your device, you have the option of going back into your settings and shutting off certain privileges you didn't realize that you gave Apple and/or other parties or go to the extreme and deactivate or delete your account.

If you choose to deactivate your account at any time, especially after seeing what Apple collects on you, Apple explains what that step will actually mean to you in clear terms as presented in the screenshot below.





If you choose to deactivate your account Apple will ask you why you chose that option by providing a pull down menu as presented below in the screenshot #3.





Before I get my copy of the data that Apple has collected on me, I'll be spending some time this weekend to scour my iPhone setting carefully app by app, feature by feature to make sure that I haven't by laziness, allowed Apple or third parties access to too much information about my device and indirectly me personally.

If anything, Apple's new tool has nudged me to take privacy a little more seriously and shut down whatever I possibly can that could assist Apple and/or third party developers gain too much insight into my device or personal habits. Perhaps some of you are in the same boat.



The ongoing, never ending delays of Intel's 10nm processors have disappointed their customers like Apple and consumers in general. AMD was frustrated with their supplier Globalfoundries inability to give them the lead over Intel at a time that they were stumbling and so they dumped their supplier and decided to work with TSMC. In January 2019 AMD will be announcing at CES their breakthrough 7nm chips for server and desktops that finally leaps ahead of Intel. Desktop enthusiasts are really excited over the news and Intel is likely to lose consumers fed up with Intel's inability to deliver.

The frustration has come to a head and The Oregonian is now reporting that Intel has decided to split up their manufacturing group into three pieces: 1) Technology development; 2) Manufacturing and operations; and 3) Supply chain.

The report stated that "Intel will split its vaunted manufacturing unit into three pieces, the company told employees Monday. The shakeup comes amid a crisis in Intel manufacturing, which is years behind schedule in delivering the company's next-generation, 10-nanometer chip technology. Intel says the chips, originally due in 2015, won't be in mass production until late next year.







The delay reflects the difficulty of shrinking feature sizes on computer chips as those features approach the atomic level. Intel used to introduce a new class of processors on a dependable, two-year cycle, fueling a broad advance in computing power. But its timetable has been slipping amid increasing complexity in the manufacturing process." You could the full story here. If you're curious as to what Intel's delays are about in general, you could check out this report here



In May Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple has Setup a Hardware Engineering Lab in Oregon, Hiring Several Former Senior Intel Engineers." The news supported a report by Bloomberg in April that Apple would end Intel based Macs in favor of their own processors.

Just as the news about Intel hit the wire yesterday, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who works for TF International Securities, seized the opportunity to speculate that Apple would work with TSMC to deliver a custom ARM processor that would one day power future Macs.



Iran and the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea

10/18/18

By Bahman Aghai Diba, PhD International Law of the Sea



Caspian Sea

On 12 August 2018, five littoral states of the Caspian Sea (Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan) signed a convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. This convention should be approved by the legislative bodies in all five states before it becomes officially binding.

The Caspian Convention has determined certain important points and at the same time, has made determination of certain other important points contingent on future agreements of the concerned states.

The most important points determined by the Caspian Convention are:

A 15-mile territorial Sea for the littoral states A 10-mile exclusive fishing zone for the littoral states Leaving the superjacent waters of the Caspian Sea out of the national territories for the "common use" of the littoral states The littoral states are free to lay submerged pipelines without the need to get approval of others The littoral states are committed not to let non-littoral states have military presence in the Caspian Sea

The most important points which are not determined in this convention are:

The share of littoral states in the seabed of the Caspian Sea The baselines for measuring the maritime areas ( noting that the baselines are not determined, the extent of internal waters- behind the baselines- and width of territorial sea , exclusive fishing zone and the start of the international sector is not determined in practice). Details of flight over the Caspian Sea for the military aircraft Legal status of using Volga-Don waterways Conditions for using the living resources Conditions for entry of the naval units of the other littoral states to the territorial and internal waters Conditions for cooperation of littoral states with the real and legal persons of the non-littoral states

What Iran loses in the new Caspian Convention?

A- Noting that the Caspian Sea is 640 miles long and 270 miles wide, what is important is the fact that except for 15 miles of territorial sea, and 10 miles of exclusive fishing zones, that goes to the littoral states, the remaining vast area of the Caspian Sea has been considered as "international waters" for the five littoral states. Other than Russia (which has some of its most advanced naval and industrial fighting units in the Caspian Sea), no other state has any important naval or industrial fishing units there. This means that the Russians get the naval and industrial dominance over the vast areas of the Caspian Sea.

B- Iran loses its leverages for putting pressures on the other states of the Caspian Sea to give more attention to its disadvantaged situation, despite the fact that once Iran and Russia were the only two states in the coasts of the Caspian Sea. In the past Iran had even rejected the validity of the Russian agreements with Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan (based on the MML- Modified Median Line) dividing their parts of the Caspian Seabed.

C- If the seabed of the Caspian Sea is divided according to the length of coasts (median line), Iran will get the smallest share (around 13 percent) of the Caspian Sea. (Using the same method, Russia and Azerbaijan each get around 20, Kazakhstan gets around 30 and Turkmenistan gets around 17 percent of the Caspian Sea). The new agreement opens the way for this.

D- Iran was using its rejection of the trans-Caspian pipelines (submerged pipelines of oil and gas) as a tool to put pressure on the neighboring states (under the pretext of environmental issues and with cooperation of Russia, which did not want the rivals get stronger in the market) to give more attention to its demands.

What Iran gains:

Commitment from the Caspian littoral states not to give permission for the military presence of non-littoral states in the Caspian sea Commitment from the other littoral states not to let their sections in the Caspian Sea be used for "invasion" or military operations against IRI

Some important Points:

In this Convention, the Iranian government gains security for the regime of Iran and against the national interests of the people in Iran, and Iran loses some of its levers to pursue national interests in the Caspian Sea. Iran has given a free hand to Russians in major parts of the Caspian Sea, because of its bad relations with the Western countries. Iran - as an isolated state that insists on policies contrary to the national interests of the Iranian people as well as the peace and security in the region and the world - has played badly in this game. Perhaps Iran could have waited to gain a better position in the future to settle an issue that has lasted for the last twenty years. The people in Iran have historically negative views about Russian plans on Iran. This agreement has expanded that pessimism. The people of Iran have gradually become disappointed about the ability of the government during the IRI regime to assert the rights of the people. The general approach of Iranian people to the recent agreement is: This is the continuation of the regime's failure to protect Iran's rights in the case of Iran-Iraq war and disputes with the neighboring counties (on various issues, including water rights). Iranian people feel defeated, embarrassed and humiliated due to an unbalanced agreement in the Caspian Sea, without it addressing the demands (and expectations) of Iranians. This has increased the level of distrust and even opposition of people towards the regime.

The share of Iran from the Caspian Sea will be the smallest part of this body of water. None of the other littoral states (Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan) of the Caspian Sea is ready to accept anything more than this for Iran. At the same time, the Iranian part of the Caspian Sea (almost 13 percent of the Caspian Sea) has not any important oil and gas resources that is so far identified by any method. Even if new and economical resources of oil and gas are found in this sector in future, their exploration and exploitation requires high investment and technology (this sector is the deepest part of the Caspian Sea). Iran has none of them in the proper level. Again, if it has any of them, it would be easier and more profitable for Iran to use them in other places (such as the Persian Gulf). Therefore, it is possible to say: Caspian Sea has not high economic priority for Iran.

On the other hand, the Caspian Sea and its littoral states can pose a security threat for the regime of Iran. Most of the Caspian littoral states are very interested in having good relations with the Western, especially the US, government and companies. Azerbaijan Republic is an ally of the US and it has very close relations with Israel. In recent years, when the issue of a possible attack against Iran has been discussed, Azerbaijan is named as a possible route for this. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan attach great importance to the Western companies for development of their resources in the Caspian Sea.

While conflicts between Iran and US is still widespread and peaceful solutions for removing the conflicts are not so promising due to the policies of the Iranian regime (the US and its allies want Iran to stop regional interfering and support of terrorism) , the possibility of confrontation is growing. If this happens, the Caspian littoral states, except then Russia, will be in the opposite side of Iranian regime. For the same reason, the regime in Iran that attaches the highest priority to its survival, is more concerned about the military-security issues in The Caspian Sea, rather than resources in the seabed or even Iran's share of the whole area. The regime in Iran has been using every legal and political occasion, to block the presence on non-littoral states, especially the US, in the Caspian Sea, with cooperation of the Russians who have similar worries. Iran and Russia have used all meetings of the Caspian littoral states in the last twenty years or so to put pressures on the other Caspian sates to keep the West out of the region.

The recently concluded Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, has not really anything about the most important issue that it was supposed to address: the legal regime of the Caspian Sea or in fact what belongs to whom in the area.. If so, what was the hurry to conclude an agreement which is not solving the problem? The answer is in the chapters of the new convention prohibiting the presence of non-littoral sates in the Caspian Sea and the commitments of the littoral states not to let their territory in the Caspian Sea (without knowing where it is really) to be used for attacking others.

Iranian Majlis (parliament) has to approve this agreement with two thirds majority. There is a possibility that Majlis will not do so. If the leader interferes in favor of the approving the agreement, he will lose more credibility (especially under the present conditions of Iran).

About the author:



Bahman Aghai Diba, PhD International Law of the Seas, is the author of several books. His latest books were published in 2011:Three telecommunication companies have announced an upward review of the cost of their services, beginning Thursday, November 1.



This comes in the wake of amendments to Acts 970, 971 and 972 as announced in the mid-year budget review presented by Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta in July.



The amendments see the separation of the NHIL and GETFund from the Value Added Tax (VAT).



A press release by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications the review by MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo is in strict compliance to Ghanas laws.



Our members, who are responsible corporate entities, would comply fully with Ghanas laws and ensure the distinction between VAT and the new levies emanating from their separate origins and basis in law.



As intended, the incidence of the two new levies will thus be on consumers and will result result in the increase of the cost of telecommunication services.



Mobile phone users are expected to be notified by their service providers of any changes before implementation on November 1.







Source: 3news.com









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Featured VideoFor the aged and vulnerable living in most rural communities in the country, access to healthcare for periodic medical attention remains a challenge.



Recognizing this challenge, in addition to providing quality healthcare services to both the young and old, Newmont Ghanas Ahafo mine in collaboration with Project C.U.R.E, a US based non-governmental organization, has organized free medical clinics for four of its host communities.



The beneficiary communities are Afrisipakrom, Susuanso,in the Tano North District and OLA Resettlement (Kenyasi No.2) and Ntotroso Resettlement sites; in the Asutifi North District of the Brong Ahafo region.



For the past six years, Newmont Ghana has been partnering with Project C.U.R.E to organize annual clinics for its host communities. This year, a 16-member team of volunteering medical professionals supported by local community health workers as well as students from the two Community Nursing Colleges in these areas pitched camp to offer free health checks and medication to over a 1,100 people who thronged the clinic centers with various ailments.



Caring for Households



When Jennifer Pokua a resident of Kenyasi No. 2 new site, heard about the free clinic in her community, she organized her household and joined the hundreds of community members who queued up early in the morning waiting for the medical team.



I love their show of love and smiles when they were attending to us. They patiently listened to our concerns and the student nurses served as translators for those of us who could not speak English. They took care of my family free of charge and gave us medication as well. I am very happy with their service. They seem to really care about our wellbeing. I thank Newmont for organizing this clinic Jennifer said.



Mavis Acheampomaa, a resident of Afrisapakrom was also unwell when she heard about the clinic coming to her community. She was very happy with the care given her and expressed her appreciation to the team for their kindness, expertise and for giving her medication as well as reading glasses for her short sightedness.



The traditional leader of Kwakyekrom, Ogyeahoho Adu Nkrumah Yeboah, who also participated in the health screening, thanked the team for their selflessness and lauded Newmont Ghana for the initiative. He implored Newmont to make it a quarterly activity due to the high turnout recorded.





Bringing love, health and hope



Director of Kits Programme for Project C.U.R.E, Julie Kreutz King, was happy about delivering health care to people who needed it most.



I believe everybody should have access to good medical care and therefore we are happy to partner with Newmont who believe in giving back to their communities through clinics. The company also encourages us to come to Ghana to organize these clinics for their communities as well as sending supplies to local clinics multiple times a year. She said.



Michael Buxton, an Emergency Medical Technician and team leader with Project C.U.R.E, was happy that his team could help the communities in improving their daily quality of life.



We are happy to be here to serve the local communities and bring health, hope and happiness to the people. It was very fulfilling for us to be able to treat people most of whom came with Respiratory Tract infections, Stomach Ulcers, Back and Waist Pain and other ailments; most of which are treatable by the medicines that we brought. However, we referred some patients to other local clinics and hospitals if it was something that we believe required further attention.





Kits for kids



Children who visited the clinics with their parents were given a Kit for Kids bag; a drawstring backpack filled with everyday essentials such as soaps, hand sanitizers, comb, bandages, hydrocortisone cream etc. packed by children, families and companies.



Newmont has been partnering with Project C.U.R.E in various capacities over the years, through Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) trainings for midwives and nurses, donation of medical supplies and equipment to health facilities and health training institutions as well as clinics in its Ghana operations.

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Twitter(NEW YORK) -- Twitter has released data on more than 10 million tweets from nearly 4,000 accounts it said were linked to Russia and Iran, which paint a more nuanced portrait of the nations purported online influence operations.



The social media giant previously disclosed the operations and lawmakers released hundreds of suspected account names that Twitter said were linked to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll farm that worked day and night to spread propaganda and stoke division online ahead of the 2016 election. But this is the first time the public and independent researchers have been given access to what data analyst Ben Nimmo described as the full motherlode of information.



Nimmo, an information defense fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab whose team was given a preview of the data in order to post their analysis with Twitters announcement, said that for all the attention given to Russias online influence in the U.S. ahead of the 2016 presidential election, he was surprised that the data showed that the first targets and the first victims were, in fact, Russian users.



Particularly in the Russian dataset a lot more of the content was in Russian than in English, said Nimmo. Its a really important reminder that the Russian troll farm started out as a tool of domestic repression. It then became a weapon abroad They adapted it to the U.S. audience.



Nimmo pointed to the blast of social media activity after the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine, which international investigators blamed on Russia. On the day before the incident, accounts linked to Russias troll factory posted a total of 19,000 times. On the day after, the number jumped to 57,000, most of them using hashtags that blamed Ukraine.



You can see that somebody hit the big red button that said, Trolls, go troll, Nimmo told ABC News.



Only later did the Russians turn their attention to the U.S. election, where their goals evolved along with developments in the political race. While a full analysis of the ideological breakdown of the entire trove of tweets has yet to be undertaken, the DFRLab determined that the Russian trolls appear to have been surprisingly non-partisan, at least when it came to divisive issues.



They tried to inflame everybody, regardless of race, creed, politics or sexual orientation, the analysis said. On many occasions, they pushed both sides of divisive issues.



For example, DFRLab identified two Russia-linked accounts that straddled the gun control debate: Mass shooting occurs even in #GunFreeZones so people is the problem not guns #Prays4California, one said the day after the San Bernardino shooting. mass shooting wont stop until there are #GunFreeZones #Prayers4California another said.



Darren Linvill, a Clemson University professor who with his colleague Patrick Warren previously analyzed some 3 million tweets linked to Russia, told ABC News that influencing the elections might not have been their only  or even their primary  goal.



The primary goal was be divisive and get Americans to question each other and question institutions, he said.



As for the Iranian operation, Nimmo said it was less widespread and much, much clumsier than the Russians. It consisted of about a million tweets from 770 accounts that mainly attempted to get Twitter users to go to websites that hosted pro-Iran, anti-Israel or anti-U.S. content.



It used fewer personalities, which is much less effective, Nimmo said.



In releasing the dataset, Twitter said the move was in line with our principles of transparency and to improve public understanding of alleged foreign influence campaigns. Twitter and Facebook have come under increasing pressure to counter the spread of inauthentic accounts on their platforms, including those linked to foreign state-sponsored actors.



Linvill called Twitters disclosure a great first step, and said the data could prove of great analytic value when it comes to understanding online influence operations but he still expressed some concern about what he called a look back at history.



The way in which the IRA changes its behavior almost completely year-to-year, this wont be particularly helpful to understand what theyre doing now, he said. The way they operated in 2016, 2017, looks nothing like theyre doing now.



Nimmo said he hopes that the release of the information will help not only researchers but also average Twitter users to understand the need to be cautious online and extend that idea into the political sphere.



Part of this is basic street wisdom online, he said.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Duy Bac, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, said that administrative reform is considered as a key content in the renewal of the State apparatus of Vietnam and the Vietnamese Government pays special attention to the issue.

Both the successful and unsuccessful experience of France in administrative reform will be a valuable reference for Vietnam, Bac noted.

French Ambassador to Vietnam, Betrand Lortholary, emphasised that Vietnam and France share many similarities in administrative reform and France wishes to share its experience with Vietnam in the areas of public policy assessment, the application of advanced digitalisation tools in administrative management, and the compilation and the application of the law on territory planning, among others.

At the event, delegates listened to and discussed opinions from Vietnamese and French experts and researchers in the areas of administrative reform and civil service; the subject of administrative reform in Vietnam; administrative reform and information technology, and difficulties and challenges in administrative reform in Vietnam, and others.

The seminar, jointly organised by the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, the French Embassy in Vietnam and the French National School of Administration, is also among the activities to mark the 45th anniversary of Vietnam-France diplomatic ties and the 5th anniversary of the Vietnam-France strategic partnership.Another shakeup has hit the police service as the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu, has re-assigned some 32 officers.



An internal memo dated October 15, 2018, said the reassignments take immediate effect.



Former Public Affairs Director of the Ghana Police Service and District Commander at East Legon, Superintendent Cephas Arthur per the memo is now the Director Of Police Operation for the Mamprobi district.



In 2011, he was promoted to head the Public Affairs Directorate when SP Kwesi Ofori was reassigned to the Tafo Pankrono Police station in the Ashanti Region.



Having served more than 6 years in that capacity, SP Cephas Arthur becomes one of the longest serving Public Affairs Directors in the service.



DCOP Simon Yaw Afeku, Director-General (DG) in charge of Operations is now the DG in charge of ICT at the Ghana Police National Headquarters.



The Police Service in September 2018 made 14 re-assignments within its hierarchy but per the memo, all those whose were affected by the re-assignments then should stick to the latest development.



This posting supersedes this Headquarters posting dated 28th September, 2018, the internal memo added.



DCOP Patric Adusei Sarpong, who was the DG, L&P, per the memo, is now the Regional Commander for the Ashanti Region.



DCOP G. Owusu-Boateng, former Ashanti Regional Commander is now the Regional Commander for the Brong Ahafo Region.



DCOP Edward J. Oyirifi-Akrofi, former Northern Regional Commander is now the Commander of Tema.



DCOP Francis Ebenezer Doku, who was the Volta Regional Commander, is now the Volta Regional Commander.



Others District directors have also been transferred to other places.



Some districts that have had their directors sent elsewhere includes: Kpesie, Tarkwa division, Kaneshie division, Agona Swedru division, Walewale, Nkawie, Amasaman, Damango, Tolon among others.





Source: the publisher









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Featured VideoThe Minister designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection and MP for Agona West, Hon Cynthia Morrison today put smiles on the face of 94-year-old Mr Jacob Gao Laryea who was involved in the construction of the Akosombo dam under the government of President Dr Kwame Nkrumah.



The old man, Jacob Gao Laryea who has four children, lives alone in a chamber and hall room in a house belonging to his late sister at Teshie Mana Road in Accra without electricity in his room, though he worked as a labourer during the construction of the dam where electricity is generated for the country.



Speaking to Peace FM in an interview when the Minister visited him and gave him some support, Mr Jacob Gao Laryea said he can't hear from his left ear, there are worms in his body and sometimes experiences some strange movements in his body as some of the effects of working on the dam.



According to him health experts then, gave notice about the dangers workers will experience 12 years after stepping in the dam to work but he sacrificed his safety in the interest of mother Ghana.



Mr Laryea appealed to government for medical help.



He said one of her desires is to meet President Nana Akufo-Addo before joining his ancestors one day.



Hon Cynthia Morrison personally cleared all the things in Mr Laryea's room and provided new ones such as bed, mattress, fan, television, cooking utensils and also connected electricity to his room and gave him some money.



In an interview with Peace FM, Hon Cynthia Morrison said she was very touched when she learnt about the plight of Mr Jacob Gap Laryea who rendered important service to the nation and therefore decided to help him.



She promised to give Mr Laryea medical care and also ensure that he benefits from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) if her nomination is approved by Parliament and sworn into office.





Source: Emmanuel Akorl/Parliamentary Correspondent, Peace FM









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Featured VideoVice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says President Akufo-Addo has done things within the last 20 months that have not been done over the past 61 years.



He disclosed that after just 20 months in office, the Akufo-Addo administration has done more to digitise and formalise the Ghanas economy and society than what pertained in Ghana since independence.



Dr. Bawumia disclosed this at the United Kingdom-Ghana Investment Summit on Tuesday in Accra.



According to him, The Akufo-Addo government is doing things, life-transforming activities and reforms, what we havent done as a nation over the past 61 years, we did it in just in 20 months. We are implementing reforms that will provide the critical, soft infrastructure that will ensure that Ghana becomes a modern economy.



He added that in just 20 months, we have implemented policies and programmes designed to formalise the economy and make life easier for both the ordinary Ghanaian and businesses. For instance, today, through the use of technology, getting a drivers licence has been made easier and cut out the need to pay a middleman before accessing an essential service. This is certainly good for the ordinary Ghanaian and business.



The Vice President stressed that this government is building a new, confident, modern Ghana through the use of technology and the implementation of critical reforms. We have delivered in this short period, and will continue to deliver in the coming days, months and years.



Dr. Bawumia also pointed to the implementation of the Ghana Card, National Digital Property Addressing System-GhanaPostGPS, Mobile Payments Interoperability, E-case tracking, Free SHS and the E-registration of companies, as evidence that the government is indeed working.



He maintained that the government was committed to moving Ghana beyond aid while creating the environment for the growth of the private sector.



Other reforms such as online processes for passport acquisition, digitisation of all land records, injection of transparency into the procurement processes by making all processes easily trackable online, and the ongoing development of a national Emergency Number linked with the emergency services, fire and police services which has been designed to give a callers location for fast response times were all part of the jigsaw, Vice President Bawumia stated.



In the area of health, processes are underway to ensure the speedy supply of urgently required blood and medication to isolated and hard-to-access communities through the use of drones. The processes should be completed soon, and Im happy to say that government is not paying a pesewa for this. Its being funded by the private sector, the Vice President disclosed.



Dr. Bawumia also urged the investors to take advantage of Ghanas business-friendly environment to engage their Ghanaian counterparts.



While we strive to make further efforts to make Ghana a leading business destination through the formalisation agenda, I will urge you to talk to your Ghanaian counterparts and explore ways we can work together to make Ghana better. Given what we have been able to do within this short period, you can be rest assured that we are poised to achieve even more.

Source: Daily Guide









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Featured VideoThe Minority Spokesperson on Employment, Richard Quarshigah, does not seem enthused with the engagement of some graduates under the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme rolled out by the Akufo-Addo-led government.



Hundred thousand graduates are said to have been enrolled onto the seven modules of the programme and are expected to be on a monthly allowance of GH700 for the next three years.



The recruits, who passed out Wednesday, October 17 at the Black Star Square in a fanfare graced by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, were encouraged to put in their best to help build a country they will be proud of.



Help build a nation youll be proud of  Prez tells NABCO recruits

But the Member of Parliament for Keta Constituency, Richard Quarshigah, thinks there is nothing worthy of praise for the programme.



Speaking on an Accra-based radio station on Wednesday, the MP stated categorically: Clearly, [NABCO] is nothing to celebrate, maintaining: Those celebrating it are doing so out of mediocrity.



Some beneficiaries of NABCO during Wednesdays passing out ceremony

He explained that NABCO is not a novelty that deserves to be commended but carved out of the National Youth Employment Programme, which already existed.



The MP also questioned the authenticity of the 100,000 graduates the government claimed to have enrolled onto the programme.



He said he was surprised that the passing out ceremony was marked by a fanfare attended by the President and his vice, who promised Ghanaians jobs.



According to him, this is nothing different so I cannot understand why the president who promised jobs want to be congratulated.



Background



NABCO was launched by the president as part of governments initiative to provide jobs for the countrys unemployed graduates.



The seven modules under NABCO are meant to help address the challenges facing the nations most pressing sectors while providing jobs to graduates who are unable to find jobs partly due to a ban on public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



They have been put on Civic Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Educate Ghana, Enterprise Ghana, Digitize Ghana, Heal Ghana and Feed Ghana modules of the programme.









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Featured VideoNational Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Kofi Adams, has described governments Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) as a repeated initiative.



According to him, the initiative will deplete the countrys resources.



Government introduced the NABCO initiative as part of its commitment towards addressing the high youth unemployment in the country.Already, 100,000 recruits of NABCO have successfully passed out today, Wednesday, October 17, 2018 in Accra.



But speaking on Citi TVs Breakfast Daily, Mr. Adams maintained that NABCO should have been run under already existent systems like the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).



Why the rush in changing and renaming things? This is creating its own bureaucracy and wasting so much. That is my worry. Aside from the worry of these professionals who feel that there is space and opportunity, this is bureaucracy that is taking so much from our coffers.



NaBCo programme is unsustainable  Ade Coker



The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ade Coker, has also said the programme is unsustainable.



According to him, jobs to be provided under the programme are momentary, and will not enable young people to build a career nor address the challenge of unemployment in the country.



He stated that the youth to be employed under NABCO would go back to be jobless after a short period because the jobs NABCO is offering are not permanent jobs.



We have been here before; these jobs are not sustainable jobs. How long are these youth going to have their jobs for? The youth should be offered jobs that will last for a very long time, jobs they can build their careers on. Lets get the youth serious jobs for once. he said.



NABCO will succeed  Nana Addo tells critics



President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday hit back at critics who downplayed the impact of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) initiative.



Nana Akufo-Addo says the initiative will go a long way to partly address the current unemployment situation in the country.



He is optimistic the country will benefit from the talents of the NABCo graduates.



As has become the norm with every bold initiative proposed by this administration, this programme, predictably, was not only ridiculed in certain quarters but also met with pessimistic and cynical comments with some going to the extent of urging graduates from our nations tertiary institutions not to register for the programme. In NABCO, we have planted the seeds of growth and future of our country. I am in no doubt whatsoever that NABCO will succeed, he added.



What is NABCO about?



NABCo was launched in May 2018.



It runs under six modules namely Educate Ghana, Revenue Ghana, Heal Ghana, Enterprise Ghana, Digital Ghana, Feed Ghana and Civic Ghana.



President Akufo-Addo introduced the Nation Builders Corps as an alternative job creation opportunity for the countrys jobless graduates.



The programme, which will be managed by the office of the President, will focus on alleviating shortfalls in public service delivery.





Source: citinewsroom.com









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Featured VideoFormer Minister of Trade and Industry, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah has officially launched his campaign for the flagbearership position of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).



The launch, which took place at the La Villa Boutique Hotel in Osu, Accra on Tuesday, was attended by scores of supporters and party faithful from various parts of the country.



Also in attendance were former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, high-profile personalities, as well as a few people from international organizations.



Speaking on the theme: Forward Agenda; Winning 2020, Mr Spio-Garbrah focused mainly on the rebranding of the NDC.



According to him, the party, which went through a lot, lost credibility in the eyes of Ghanaians, citing the unprecedented defeat of the party in the 2016 general elections to buttress his point.



He stressed the need to rebrand the party and position it to improve the lives of not only members of the party but Ghanaians in general.



The former minister stressed that his knowledge in advertising, marketing, banking, among others, makes him the most suitable candidate to lead the party to victory in the 2020 general elections.



Mr. Spio-Garbrah emphasized the need for delegates to elect competent candidates to lead the party in the 2020 elections.



To him, the NDC lost the 2016 elections because it elected candidates that met the expectations of delegates and not Ghanaians.



He further encouraged delegates to vote for persons who have the country and its people at heart.



Mr. Spio-Garbrah would contest about 10 other candidates to lead the party into the 2020 general elections.



They include former President John Dramani Mahama, former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah, former Vice Chancellor of the University for Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Prof. Joshua Alabi, Cape Coast South MP, Kweku Ricketts-Hagan and Goosie Tanoh.



The rest are Alban Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Stephen Atubiga, member of NDCs Communications Team, Elipklim Agbemava, a lawyer; David Dotse Kwame Kuwadah and a banker and oil and gas consultant, Nurideen Iddrisu.

Source: Daily Guide









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Featured VideoA presidential aspirant, Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu has alleged that many local businesses are collapsing under the Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government due to vindictiveness.



Alhaji Iddrisu, who wants to be president on the ticket of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says that the government has targeted businesses believed to be owned by members of the opposition parties, particularly the NDC.



"We saw banks collapse under NPP because there is vindictiveness. There is hatred for the opposition", he said, adding that "Once you are not part of them, they attack you and destroy your business."



In an exclusive interview with Graphic Online in Accra, Alhaji Iddrisu said "we can't progress as a nation if systems are instituted to destroy local businesses owned by Ghanaians and that somebody must change that".



"We can't be destructive. We don't believe in ourselves," he said, stressing that "they are attacking everybody."



Local contractors



According to him, if elected as President, he will change the system by empowering local businesses and pointed out that his administration will not discriminate against any business no matter the background of the persons who own it and the persons political affiliation.



"I am coming to ensure that the indigenous Ghanaian businesses and banks are empowered to create jobs," he stated, adding that vindictiveness and wickedness against Ghanaian businesses would not contribute to the development of the country and its prosperity.



Among his priorities Alhaji Nurideen said would be empowering local contractors by paying them on time.



He said the construction sector contributes hugely to the economy and that because many local contractors are not paid on time, they can't compete with the foreign firms.



According to him, paying local contractors on time meant contributing to the reduction of unemployment and the stabilization of the countrys falling currency.



Pharmaceuticals / agriculture



At age 43, Alhaji Nurideen, is a banker and an oil and gas consultant and he argued that one of the areas where he would focus attention more would be the pharmaceutical industry.



He explained that the country spends a lot of money importing drugs and that if local pharmaceutical companies are empowered to produce such drugs here in the country, it would stabilize the countrys economy.



He said the indigenous pharmaceutical companies could be empowered with tax reliefs, particularly on the equipment they import for their operations in the first year.



Touching on agriculture, Alhaji Nurideen, said he would support agriculture by waving off import duties on farm implements and machinery.



He believes that if farmers have access to farm machinery and other productive elements at a cheaper cost, it would help them to venture into large-scale farming which in turn would inure to the benefit of the country, particularly when it comes to job creation.



He has, therefore, called on NDC members to vote massively for him to enable him to lead the party and win power in 2020.



He argued he was the best candidate for the party going into Election 2020.



Alhaji Nurideen will be contesting against former President John Dramani Mahama; Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade and Industries; Mr Sylvester Mensah; a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Professor Joshua Alabi; a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) and Mr Alban Bagbin, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament,



Others are Mr George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast South; Mr Stephen Atubiga, a member of NDCs communications team; Mr Elikplim Agbemava, a legal practitioner; Mr David Dotse Kwame Kuwadah, Kojo Bonsu, a former Mayor of Kumasi and Mr Goosie Tanoh, a former Special Assistant to former President Rawlings.

Source: Daily Graphic









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Featured VideoA presidential aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alhaji Nurideen Iddrisu is of the view that parents are paying more fees under the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy than when the system was not free.



According to him, because the policy was not well planned, the government is unable to fund it properly which has resulted in parents paying extra monies to ensure that their children get a quality education.



He explained that the double track system introduced in September as part of the free SHS system meant that parents had to look for teachers and pay them to organise extra classes for their children who are on alternate tracks.



Speaking to Graphic Online in Accra, Alhaji Nurideen said the food the students are fed with was not enough and that parents had to send a lot of monies to their children to buy food to supplement what they are given in school.



President Akufo-Addo launched the Free SHS policy on September 12, 2017, describing the programme as the means of creating a society of opportunities and empowerment for every citizen.



The Free SHS policy was one of the New Patriotic Partys (NPP) main campaign promises in the 2016 general elections.



According to Alhaji Nurideen, many head teachers are afraid to talk about the challenges confronting the implementation of the free SHS policy and the double track system because they fear that they will be victimised or sacked.



He stressed that head teachers who complain about the policy are victimised, saying there is no freedom in this nation.



"The vindictiveness is too much. Once you speak up, you are picked up and you are sacked," Alhaji Nurideen said.



"Those who introduced it (the double track), how many of them have their children in the schools. They will never put their children there because the system is not working," he quizzed.



Alhaji Nurideen, who is a banker and oil and gas consultant was of the view that the government introduced the double track component of the free SHS policy due to lack of infrastructure and proper planning.



He said the government could have saved itself from embarrassment in the implementation of the free SHS policy by simply apologising to Ghanaians that it is not ready for the policy.



According to him, the double track would lead to multiple tracks if the necessary facilities are not instituted to ensure the proper implementation of the policy.



Alhaji Nurideen said the president himself does not even know how much the system cost, explaining that when he (President Akufo-Addo) was asked on BBC interview on how much it will cost and the source of funding for the project, he was unable to answer.



He explained that for the country to succeed, it ought to have a national plan that would be followed by all, no matter the government in office.



He said because the country does not have a national plan and policy, each political party does whatever it thinks it is good and in the end, nothing is achieved in our development as a nation.



Alhaji Nurideen is seeking to be elected to lead NDC in the 2020 elections. He is competing with 13 others, including former President John Dramani Mahama and Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Trade and Industries.

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoCity approves Social District, sends to state for approval

MANISTIQUE  Manistique is moving forward with its plan to implement a Social District in its downtown. The maintenance plan and map, along with a formal resolution was approved during...

City earns fourth award in regional AWWA water taste-off contest

MANISTIQUE  The city of Manistique has once again earned an award for its water quality. It is the fourth time the city has been recognized in the American Water...* Austria and Singapore Wednesday signed an agreement to boost the exchange of ideas and know-how in the fields of digitalization and information and communications technology, local media reported.

* Russian president Vladimir Putin on October 17 signed the Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation between Russia and Egypt with visiting Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Black Sea coastal city Sochi.

* President Donald Trump said on October 17 the United States has asked Turkey for any audio or video evidence it may have related to the disappearance of US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi but was not sure whether any such evidence exists.

* British Prime Minister Theresa May assured EU leaders in Brussels on October 17 that she can still reach a Brexit deal, avoiding a showdown over stalled talks as Brussels stepped up planning for a failure of negotiations.

* China is ready to work with Belgium to strength cooperation and exchanges at all levels, said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on October 17. Li made the remarks in Brussels when holding talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel during a working visit to the country.

* UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said on October 17 he would step down at the end of November for family reasons, quitting as the Syrian government - backed by Iran and Russia - has retaken most of the country and a political deal remains elusive.

* China and Belgium on October 17 agreed to keep unleashing complementary advantages, tapping more cooperation potentials, and yielding greater development achievements in pragmatic cooperation.

* Iraq's prime minister-designate Adel Abdul Mahdi said on October 17 he would present a new cabinet to parliament for approval next week.

* European Union leaders are meeting in Brussels on October 17 to discuss Brexit after London walked away last week from a deal the EU has offered over disagreements on how to keep an open Irish border.

* Heavy rain that pummeled Nicaragua has left at least six people dead this month, local news outlets reported Wednesday, October 17.

* Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces will soon receive a regimental unit of S-400 Triumpf missile systems and three divisional units of Pantsir-S missile systems, local news reported Thursday.

* European Union members on the UN Security Council on October 17 asked the political actors in Syria, particularly the government, to engage in the early convening of a constitutional committee.

* Iran has scrapped visa-free entry for Serbian nationals, days after the Balkan country reintroduced visas for Iranians, Tehran Times daily reported on October 17.

* Iranian foreign minister on October 17 urged Pakistan to follow up the fate of kidnapped Iranian border guards and transferred them to Pakistani soil.

* The Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is likely to worsen significantly unless the response to it is stepped up, an emergency committee of experts convened by the World Health Organization said on October 17.

* The Syrian government has given approval for the United Nations to deliver aid next week to thousands of civilians stranded on the Jordanian-Syrian border and threatened with starvation, aid workers and camp officials said on October 17.

* The Russian unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in September, marking a decrease of 10.1 percent over the same period in 2017, the Russian Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat said in a report on October 17.

* At least 270,000 children in South Sudan are severely malnourished and face greater risk of starvation, with some 20,000 expected to die from extreme hunger before the end of year, aid group Save the Children warned on October 18. The aid agency said nearly half of South Sudan's population is facing extreme hunger.

* Bolivia and Peru on October 17 agreed to carry out joint surveillance and monitoring operations in order to enhance the protection of natural areas along their shared border.

* Wildlife authorities in southern Australia announced Wednesday an investigation into the deaths of almost 60 penguins which were killed in a suspected dog attack.Earth-based observations since Galileo

Since 2001, Imke de Pater and other researchers, including Franck Marchis, Conor Laver, Katherine de Kleer, and Clayton Cantrall, have used adaptive optics images acquired at the Keck II and Gemini North telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii to monitor volcanic activity on Io. While the images dont have the detail we can see from spacecraft flying past Jupiter, they do have sufficient resolution to distinguish different volcanoes across Ios surface. The telescopes can also measure the intensity of each volcanos glow at different wavelengths. Armed with these measurements, the astronomers estimated the heat put out from individual volcanic centers, and can watch how it changes year over year.

Clayton Cantrall and his co-authors, in a paper published in the 15 September 2018 issue of the journal Icarus, consolidates the de Pater group data with two other data sets: some unpublished data acquired between 2003 and 2009, and observations taken as New Horizons flew by Jupiter in 2007. The combined data set included 156 separate nights of Earth-based observations, spanning 15 years and covering all longitudes of Io.

Cantrall et al. identified 88 distinct hot spots, of which 24 had not been detected previously by Galileo (though one of the 24 had been detected as a hot spot by Voyager). Of the 88 hot spots, 82 were detected more than once. The astronomers classified 18 as "persistent," meaning they were seen in more than half of all the observations in which they might have been visible. Many of these, like Pele, Marduk, Isum, and Janus, were considered persistent during the Galileo mission. A few are new since Galileo, like Uta Patera and another near Chalybes Regio in Ios north polar region. Apparently Io's volcanoes can be dormant for a long time, but also become active for a period spanning decades.

The authors also identified five outbursts, eruptions so powerful that Ios brightness as seen at an infrared wavelength of 5 microns more than doubled, but which only lasted a few days at that level. They detected 15 mini-outbursts from 11 different volcanoes. It was one of these outbursts, at Tvashtar, that New Horizons observed during its encounter. The massive volcanic eruption included lava fountains so powerful and bright that New Horizons saw them in sunlit imaging of Tvashtar and a 400-kilometer-tall dust-rich plume. The outbursts are not spaced out evenly in time, with three outbursts detected in August 2013 and only two others across the rest of the 15-year timespan.

With 15 years of data to work with, the authors of this paper were able to note that despite the occasional outburst or new eruptions coming and going, Ios total heat output remained steady, which is important for understanding how evolution of Ios orbit and the subtle changes in tidal heating in its interior might affect heat output. They were also able to chart how activity at individual hot spots varies with time, leading to a rather intriguing finding.

In a few cases, activity at nearby volcanoes tended to mirror each other. For example, heat output from Janus Patera decreased after a mini-outburst at the nearby Kanehekili lava field in 2010, before returning to normal in 2013. They suggest that these similarities in thermal emission across hundreds of kilometers might arise from very large regional magma sources (instead of each volcano being powered by a distinct hot spot), and that these regional magma sources can be depleted by outburst-scale eruptions.KAMPALA  Businessman Medard Kiconco who is accused of violently evicting hundreds of families and destroying property worth millions of Shillings in Kasangati Town Council, Wakiso District has taken responsibility said for last weeks biplent evictions.

Mr Kiconco on Thursday appeared before investigators at the Commission of Inquiry into land matters and recorded a statement in response to summons issued against him in regard to complaints.

I have made a statement and anytime they call me, I will come back, Mr Kiconco told journalists adding that the eviction was execution of a court process by court bailiffs who were ordered to ensure vacant possession of the land.

On Wednesday, Justice Catherine Bamugemereire said Mr Kiconco has been summoned to appear before the commission after President Museveni halted any further evictions and destruction of property during an impromptu fact-finding tour of the area.

He was accused of defying a directive by the land inquiry which halted implementation of an order from the High Court execution division dated August 23.

Describing himself as a businessman dealing in construction, Mr Kiconco yesterday said that his land is private mailo on Block 206 Plot 671 measuring 3.89 hectares (about 9.6acres) in Sekanyonyi Villages in Kawempe Division, Kampala and not in Lusanja, Kasangati Town Council.

There was no eviction in Lusanja because it is not my land. My land is at the border of Wakiso and Kampala districts. I am responsible for eviction out of a court process after a judgement was made, said Mr

Kiconco denying any notice or advice from the land inquiry.

Armed with court documents and a land title, Mr Kiconco, without revealing the number, said that he compensated more than a hundred people between 2016 and 2017 who admitted that they were erroneously

on the land.

He challenged the complainants to present any purchase agreement to prove their claim saying that the accusations against him are instigated by politicians and government officials who misled the president.

According to the title copy, Mr Kiconco acquired the disputed land in April 2016 from Paul Katabazi Bitarabeho who was administrator and later owner of the same land before transfer.

He revealed that the land in question neighbours leasehold land measuring 30.6 hectares owned by the Bitarabeho family in Lusanja.

Mr Kiconco declined to comment on President Musevenis orders also denied any links to the first family and officials of Operation Wealth Creation headed by Gen. Salim Saleh but insisted that he will follow the due process of the law.

Residents reported to President Museveni that Mr Kiconco used the Police and armed gang violently evicted them from the land where they have lived for decades and destroyed their household property in the wee hours and injured others.

Their leader, Fred Kanyike said that a total of 350 homes were demolished and 240 others awaits the same and that the land has since been fenced off without any notice.

Sitting at the National Records and Archives Centre in Kampala, the Commission is inquiring into the law, processes and procedures in land acquisition, land administration, and management in the country.

RelatedDeputy Robert Jahn was shot multiple times, including was struck below the ballistic vest he was wearing. (Photo: San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department)

A San Bernardino County, CA, sheriff's deputy was in critical but stable condition after being wounded in a shootout early Thursday morning at an apartment complex in Adelanto, the agency said.

Two men, both identified as 26-year-old Los Angeles residents, have been arrested in connection with the incident, reports KABC.

According to sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Bachman, Deputy Robert Jahn was conscious after being airlifted to Colton's Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, where he underwent surgery.

Deputies were conducting an unrelated traffic stop about 1 a.m. on Bellflower Street when they heard gunfire erupt nearby, sheriff's Sgt. Marc Bracco said. The shootout that left Jahn with multiple wounds happened after they responded to an apartment building, the sergeant said.

A massive law enforcement presence, including a SWAT team, descended on the scene.

Sheriff John McMahon identified Jahn at a press conference outside the hospital. He said Jahn, a five-year veteran of the department and a married father of four teenage daughters, was struck below the bulletproof vest he was wearing.

A handgun was recovered at the crime scene and no other suspects were being sought, McMahon said. The motive for the shooting is under investigation.A sergeant with the Rosemont (IL) Police Department charged with armed robbery has been suspended without pay, according to the Chicago Tribune.

A 13-year veteran of the force, Sergeant Edward Karas is accused of robbing an Exxon station in Norridge and a Shell station in Park Ridge.

Should Karas be exonerated of the criminal charges and the internal allegations of misconduct, he would be eligible to receive back pay.Embed from Getty Images

Lawmakers in South Carolina recently made it easier for the convicted to erase crimes from their publicly available records, expanding the list of convictions eligible for expungement.

That list now includes ways to expunge multiple related offenses if they carry no more than 30 days and a $1,000 fine, and first offense convictions for possession with the intent to distribute drugs, including cocaine, crack and meth, according to The State.

The bill also allows individuals convicted of domestic violence to expunge records of their conviction "five years from the date of the conviction."

The new law also addresses the convictions of juvenile offenders, but stops short of allowing the expungement of convictions for offenses involving the operation of a motor vehicle, as well as violent crimes.

Advocates of the new law say employers would be more willing to hire former inmates if the crimes they committed were not publicly available.

Governor Henry McMaster vetoed the legislation in May, but the legislature overrode the veto and voted the bill into law.

McMaster said, "Second changes should be freely given when individuals have paid their debt to society; however, forgiveness should be informed by fact and should not be forced upon unwitting participants and prospective employers."According to KVAL-TV News, an Oregon man suddenly opened fire on first responders who had just arrived at the scene of a structure fully engulfed in flames.

The manidentified as 65-year-old Lance Taylor Jacobsreportedly set the fire in an attempt to lure police officers and firefighters in an ambush attempt.

Springfield Police Lieutenant Scott McKee told the station that as firefighters were setting up apparatus to extinguish the flames, gunfire erupted. They quickly retreated from the area, leaving their apparatus behind.

Police soon arrived, and they too came under fire.

Eventually, officers heard a single shot and, upon investigation, found the man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.According to KOIN News, police leaders from the Portland (OR) Police Department held the third annual community "summit" meeting aimed at building trust with the community.

"Building Bridges of Understanding in Our Communities came together in September 2016, at a time of heightened tensions in our country and polarizing political rhetoric," said the City of Portland on its website. "We explored bias as both a bridge and a barrier to maintaining a strong, safe, and caring community. Our efforts strengthened the trust between each other and the communities we serve."

"Trust is the foundation of what allows law enforcement to be effective," Deputy Chief Bob Day told the news station. "Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose."

Law enforcement officers from Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties joined leaders from several community organizations at the event.According to WPDE-TV News, 24-year-old Florence County Deputy Arie Davis has made a remarkable recovery and is doing well. Image courtesy of Florence County Sheriff's Office / Facebook.

According to WPDE-TV News, 24-year-old Florence County Deputy Arie Davis has made a remarkable recovery and is doing well.

Deputy Davis was one of six law enforcement officers who were wounded in a shooting that resulted in the line-of-duty death of Florence Police Officer Terrence Carraway.

Deputy Davis' father Michael Davis told the television station, "At first, when we went in, the doctor said she probably gonna lose it. Lose her leg. Below the knee. And my heart, her mother heart, we said doctor do whatever you can to save her leg. And later on they went into surgery and they came out. And said yes, were going to be able to save her leg. It was touching. And God is working it out."Future Motion choose Siklu's EtherHaul 8010FX to provide 10Gbps speeds in downtown Santa Cruz

FORT LEE, N.J., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Future Motion is a high-tech startup based in Santa Cruz, California, a beach town just a short drive from the heart of Silicon Valley. Future Motion makes the Onewheel, an innovative powered board that is ridden like a skateboard but with one wheel and a suite of technology "bridging recreation and transportation."

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/771337/Siklu.jpg

Future Motion choose Siklus EtherHaul 8010FX to provide 10Gbps speeds in downtown Santa Cruz (PRNewsfoto/Siklu)

With the university, the boardwalk, world-class surf and a thriving creative culture, Santa Cruz is far from your typical small town. But until recently it did have one thing in common with a lot of communities of its size - it lagged a generation behind its larger neighbors in access to high-speed connectivity. Regional and national fiber and DSL providers don't see a huge opportunity in Santa Cruz and as a result are slow to deploy, leaving gigabit access a hit or miss proposition for not just residents but business entities.

Many times this situation results in a young up-and-coming company being forced to relocate to a more densely populated area where gigabit connections are available at affordable prices. Hence the founders and much of the culture that the company was based on are uprooted and transported, all in search of affordable high speed internet access.

Future Motion was in this exact situation  their success seemed to be driving them away from their roots resulting in the city losing not only a burgeoning tax base but the innovation and creativity that started Future Motion in the first place. Searching for a way to remain in Santa Cruz, Future Motion reached out to Cruzio, a local and award-winning independent ISP who was already leveraging mmWave wireless systems from Siklu to bring multi-gigabit access to the city. Future Motion had a fiber feed to their existing building, with an EtherHaul 1200 series serving as a 1Gbps wireless redundant link.

The business was booming, Future Motion was adding staff and had outgrown their initial facility and need to move in order to expand. Their choices were to stay in the middle of town where fiber might be available, and pay the extra rent or relocate to Silicon Valley.

Enter Cruzio and Siklu with a wide array of multi-gigabit mmWave solutions available. Freed from the constraints of incumbent telcos and fiber plants Future Motion was able expand the search to larger, cheaper outlying facilities still in Santa Cruz. Working closely with Cruzio, Future Motion were able to identify a new location and verify they would be able to connect at speeds up to 10Gbps using Siklu's EtherHaul 8010FX to their POP in downtown Santa Cruz.

With access secured and the new facility identified Future Motion was able to stay in Santa Cruz, keeping the culture that started the company and providing a roadmap to other startups on how to blend high tech needs with a small town quality of life.

Cruzio, with mmWave as part of their offerings, have been able to expand rapidly throughout the county with less risk and at a faster pace. Before spending the money to lease or extend a fiber connection, Cruzio brings up to 10Gbps to a locale via Siklu. Over time as the demand grows the business case for a fiber link may be justified  but only once the customers are already there, greatly reducing risk.

"With Siklu's mmWave solutions we have been able to grow our network organically, and deliver in days the multi-Gigabit connections Santa Cruz demands," says Chris Frost, Director of Infrastructure & Technology at Cruzio, and avid OneWheel rider. "We fully plan to leverage this model and expand to other communities with similar needs, and Siklu will be our mmWave solution."

About Siklu

Siklu delivers multi-gigabit wireless fiber connectivity in urban, suburban, and rural areas. Operating in the mmWave bands, Siklu's wireless solutions are used by leading service providers and system integrators to provide 5G Gigabit Wireless Access services. In addition, Siklu solutions are ideal for Smart City projects requiring extra capacity such as video security, WiFi backhaul, and municipal network connectivity all over one network. Thousands of SIKLU carrier-grade systems are delivering interference-free performance worldwide. Easily installed on street-fixtures or rooftops, these radios have been proven to be the ideal solution for networks requiring fast and simple deployment of secure, wireless fiber. www.siklu.com.

Press Contacts

Shiri Butnaru Dave Sumi Marketing Manager, Siklu VP Marketing, Siklu [email protected] [email protected]

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SOURCE SikluBEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- While bracing for the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), worldwide participants including officials and company leaders are actively edging the competitiveness of their exhibits or products.

Among them, hopeful words like "opportunities", "chance","promising" and "great platform" are most frequently mentioned when referring to the mega expo, which will be held in Shanghai on Nov. 5-10.

From the big beneficiaries of China's opening-up policy like European auto-industry giants to fresh comers such as African food and beverage suppliers, there is a common aspiration to make best of the expo to promote their brands and products, and take bigger shares in the lucrative market of China.

"We look forward to meeting companies we can collaborate with as we are always seeking to expand our ecosystem of partners," said German software corporation SAP in a statement.

It told Xinhua that the CIIE provides a new platform for global businesses to collaborate and promotes common prosperity of the world economy and trade.

Metro, a leading German international company in wholesale and food retail, said that it wants to take the opportunity of the CIIE to showcase its strength in imports and global sourcing.

Philippe Palazzi, chief operating officer and management board member of Metro AG, said: "We also want to use such a great platform to enhance our exchange and communication with local customers, business partners and other stakeholders as we are committed to the long-term development in China."

For Danish brand Danisa, which sees itself as a "beneficiary of China's opening-up to the world policy," the expo means more customers and partners.

"We believe that through this event we will have better exposure in China and find more partners to help us distribute our products to not only tier-1/tier-2 cities, but also further into tier-3/tier-4/tier-5 cities," said Erik Bresling, CEO of Danisa.

Companies which are believers of China's development and beneficiaries of the opening-up policy make a big part of CIIE participants. Regional delegations also attach great importance to the platform, viewing it as a gateway and window to know better China's market and development path.

So far, over 150,000 buyers from home and abroad are estimated to attend the expo. Apart from business exhibitions, 80 countries and three international organizations have confirmed their participation in the country-pavilion exhibition, which covers a total area of 30,000 square meters.

Horacio Licon, vice president of the Greater Houston Partnership, an economic development organization serving the Greater Houston area, told Xinhua that the expo is a great opportunity for Houston to continue developing its trade relationship with China, the second largest trading partner of the region.

Licon will lead a team of 15 delegates representing 12 companies to Shanghai in November, which cover diverse industries such as technology, manufacturing, energy and logistics.

"We have expectations in terms of understanding and hearing directly from our Chinese counterparts on the private sector and on the government side, the messages about the future of Chinese trade, how the government is seeing the future of Chinese trade and how Houston will play a role in that relationship," Licon said.

The American delegate's concern is understandable as the U.S.-initiated tariff frictions with major trade partners are threatening the hard-won international trade rules and prickling China-U.S. economic ties.

According to John Edwards, British consul-general in Shanghai, the CIIE is a great opportunity for newcomers to understand the Chinese market as well as the customers while on the other hand, it is also "a very special symbol of China's opening-up."

His comments echoed President Xi Jinping's remarks on the expo.

"Looking ahead, China will open still wider and its development will deliver even greater benefits to the rest of the world," Xi said in a speech at the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Vietnam last year, adding that the CIIE "will help all parties to better share the opportunities of China's development."

"The expo sends a strong message from China in favor of free trade and multilateralism," Argentine political observer Patricio Giusto, who is head of consulting firm Diagnostico Politico (Political Diagnosis), told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to official data, more than 2,800 enterprises from more than 130 countries and regions have confirmed their participation in the first CIIE. Some companies such as Metro and accounting firm EY have even registered for the 2019 expo as they believe that free trade and opening-up that China always advocates is win-win for everyone.The British foreign office has promised to formally request the CR authorities for an update on the case.

"We've been fighting almost 10 years to solve this mystery and we'll keep on fighting even if we have to do it alone," Michael's brother, David Dixon, said.

"My dad recently passed away never knowing what happened. I can't let that happen to my mum," David Dixon said.

NB. ANY NEW INFORMATION TREATED WITH STRICT CONFIDENTIALITY

BACKGROUND:

Michael Dixon disappeared on the evening of 18 October 2009 in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, while on holiday.

Evidence indicates he was the victim of violent crime, but British and Costa Rican authorities failed to properly investigate.

The 33-year old British journalist had been living in Belgium and working for a US magazine.

He was 1.7m tall, with a slender build, brown eyes, short dark hair, and light brown skin.

Costa Rica is a popular tourist destination, visited by 20,000 British people a year. However, it is not the Switzerland of Latin America as its tourist board claims it to be. In recent times more than 20 foreign nationals have vanished and most cases remain unsolved.

"Corruption is rife in this country and all the investigations into Michael's disappearance were never fulfilled" David Dixon said.

FOR MEDIA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONALS:

For all further enquiries, please contact: David Dixon, +44 7920 792 204 [email protected]

For comment by responsible person in British foreign office, please contact: Nicola Powell, +44 20 7008 0195, [email protected]

For comment by CR authorities, please contact: Luis Guillermo Fonseca, Phone: +506 2666-1103, email: [email protected]

For a BBC report on the Michael Dixon case, please go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/fast_track/9485099.stm

For more on the Help Find Michael Dixon campaign, please go to: http://helpfindmichaeldixon.com/

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/769966/Michael_in_Costa_Rica_2.jpg

PDF - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/769965/Michael_Dixon_Time_line.pdf?p=original

SOURCE David Dixon- Alquity, convened by Philanthropy University, launches the Transforming Lives Awards to identify & support outstanding nonprofits & social enterprises delivering sustainable livelihood initiatives across Asia, Africa & Latin America

- Awards process supported by business leaders such as Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson and Unilever's Paul Polman

- Interested organizations should apply by October 31st, for their chance at up to $100,000 in funding

The Transforming Lives Awards identifies and supports excellent nonprofits and social enterprises driving sustainable livelihood programs across Asia, Africa and Latin America

OAKLAND, California, Oct 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofits and social enterprises have two weeks left to begin their pre-application process for the Transforming Lives Awards - a new initiative founded by Alquity and convened by Philanthropy University to find and fund organizations supporting growth in sustainable livelihoods and the achievement of UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

The Awards offer new paths to capital, profile and expert advice so that winners can invest in their futures and the futures of those they serve.

The pre-application period started on October 1, and ends October 31, during which time interested entrants are invited to submit short and long-form questionnaires about their organizations. The process also involves a first-of-its-kind peer assessment that sees local organizations' participation in the vetting process.

Award winners will receive between $25,000 to $100,000 in funding. Critically, the winning organizations will demonstrate a pathway to a sustainable funding model, even if their current model requires donor funding.

"We at Philanthropy University are reimagining capacity building for the digital age," said Connor Diemand-Yauman, CEO and Co-Founder of Philanthropy University, "and that includes connecting local organizations to funding opportunities through our learning platform. This awards program also pioneers a tech-enabled participatory approach, more deeply involving, and recognizing, local organizations as the experts and leaders."

"Alquity's vision is to be a thought-leading 'shared values' business by generating economic value in a way that also produces value for society by addressing its challenges," said Paul Robinson, Founder of Alquity. "The Transforming Lives Awards will be the catalyst for increasing our impact through uncovering organizations delivering sustainable solutions and supporting more equitable economic development across all of our key emerging markets."

"Alquity and Philanthropy University have launched an exciting initiative to identify the most innovative and scalable models to promote economic growth in developing countries," said supporter Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group. "I look forward to seeing the organizations which emerge from the program as they strive to help make greater progress towards ending poverty around the world."

A total of 120 organizations will be selected to move on to a formal application process, when they will be assessed by an esteemed judging panel that includes Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Hilde Schwab, co-founder of the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

"I am delighted to join the judging panel for the Transforming Lives Awards," said Schwab. "Social entrepreneurship has the potential to deliver meaningful change for underserved communities by applying the ambitions, determination and strategic approach of business to solve serious social issues. Building sustainable livelihoods is the backbone of creating inclusive societies that provide opportunity for all."

The winners will be announced at a global awards event in Summer 2019, following an extensive assessment and due diligence process.

Currently totalling $600,000, the awards will fall into three categories:

Nonprofit High Impact: for organizations that can demonstrate strong management practices and measurably strong results through programs designed to support the economic empowerment of their communities.

Nonprofit High Potential: for organizations that can demonstrate potential to scale livelihoods focused programs.

Small and Medium Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurs: for enterprises employing sustainable business models to address social or environmental challenges, or indeed visionary start-ups with a viable and scalable business plan.

To learn more and start your pre-application for an award, visit the Philanthropy University website .

About the Awards

Award winners will come from target countries in three regions:

Africa : Egypt , Ghana , Kenya , Morocco , Nigeria , South Africa

: , , , , , Asia : China , India , Vietnam

: , , Latin America : Brazil , Chile , Peru , Mexico

There will be at least one award given in each region.

Award winners will be focused on achieving UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

Alquity is donating the initial $600,000 of awards money and funding the costs of the awards. The business is looking for opportunities to increase this funding by bringing additional partners into this community of excellence.

About Philanthropy University

Philanthropy University is a free online learning platform that provides locally-led organizations in the Global South with access to practical courses, knowledge-share discussions and funding opportunities so they become more effective in their work. Our easy-to-use University blends expert instruction with engaging content to unlock potential and impact, on the ground.

Start learning at https://philanthropyu.org/

About Alquity

Alquity is an asset management business investing in high-growth markets across the world. Its goal is to connect investors to their investments and social progress in order to deliver better financial outcomes for all. Its investments target attractive returns across Africa, Asia, and Latin America through portfolios that include transparent companies, with effective management that is aligned with shareholders. Alquity funds are therefore responsible by design, targeting consistent out-performance whilst contributing to long-term growth.

Alquity donates a minimum of 10% of its management fees to development projects in the regions in which it invests. In this way, the business aligns the values of investors, employees, holdings and communities  uniting them with the fundamental belief that these shared values are key to achieving enduring financial and societal success.

To find out more about Alquity the business http://alquity.com/

To find out more about Alquity's Foundation http://alquityfoundation.org/

Contacts:

Paige Dearing

Director, Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

+1 301 717 1415

Suresh Mistry

Director

[email protected]

+44 207 5577 867

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653133/Philanthropy_University_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://bit.ly/2CsiljY



SOURCE Philanthropy UniversityBRUSSELS, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Positive outcomes in proof-of-concept study with subcutaneous rozanolixizumab in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG): clinically meaningful improvement in multiple disease-related endpoints

in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG): clinically meaningful improvement in multiple disease-related endpoints Strong 68% mean reduction of Serum IgG and IgG Autoantibodies observed

Safety profile in-line with subcutaneous dosing in phase 1 and the safety profile observed in the proof-of-concept immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) study

Proof-of-concept has been achieved in myasthenia gravis

Confirmatory development study with rozanolixizumab in patients with myasthenia gravis to start in H2 2019

UCB today announced positive results from a phase 2 study (MG0002; NCT03052751) with a novel, subcutaneous FcRn (neonatal Fc receptor) monoclonal antibody, rozanolixizumab, in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), achieving proof-of-concept. Based on these results UCB intends to accelerate the development of rozanolixizumab with a confirmatory study in MG starting in the second half of 2019.

Professor Vera Bril, MD, University of Toronto, coordinating investigator for the MG0002 study said: "I am very excited about these positive results with subcutaneous rozanolixizumab. Today, there is a clear need for safe, effective, non-invasive, non-burdensome therapies for patients with generalized MG, who continue to face serious, potentially life-threatening symptoms associated with their disease."

Dr Dhaval Patel, Executive Vice President and Head of NewMedicines at UCB said: "First I would like to express my sincere thanks to the patients, investigators, care partners and all those who contributed to this important study. The results strengthen our conviction that reducing pathogenic autoantibodies with the most advanced subcutaneous anti-FcRn therapy in clinical development may offer an innovative approach to improve outcomes and treatment experience for patients with myasthenia gravis. In addition, the results give rise to the expectation of potential therapeutic benefit in other IgG autoantibody-mediated conditions."

Full data from MG0002 show that subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab were safe and well tolerated and resulted in clinical improvement over the entire duration of the study. Clinical benefits were observed across several pre-specified disease-related endpoints, including Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis (QMG) score, Myasthenia Gravis Composite (MGC) responder rate and Myasthenia Gravis-Activities of Daily living (MG-ADL) score.

Building on the potential clinical utility of rozanolixizumab in other neurological conditions driven by pathogenic immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies, UCB will initiate a phase 2 study in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in the first quarter 2019. UCB is also advancing development in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), with results from an on-going dose ranging study expected at the end of 2018.

Study Design: MG0002 (NCT03052751) was a Phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial that enrolled 43 MG patients from North America and Europe with generalized muscle weakness and a total QMG of at least 11. MG0002 compared three once/week subcutaneous infusions of placebo (N=22) and 7 mg/Kg rozanolixizumab (N=21) on days 1, 8, 15 and were compared during a four-week period (dosing period 1).

After dosing period 1, participants were re-randomized to receive either 7 mg/Kg or 4 mg/Kg rozanolixizumab on days 29, 36, and 43 (dosing period 2) with continued observation until day 99. Conventional therapies were allowed and included corticosteroids and/or immunomodulatory agents and/or Cholinesterase inhibitors. The protocol included no specific headache prophylaxis and mandated withdrawal of patients with severe headache. Pre-specified analyses of safety and efficacy across both dosing periods looked at the data following six subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab.

Study Results: At the end of dosing period 1: The baseline-corrected delta in QMG between rozanolixizumab and placebo was -0.7 (p = 0.221), the baseline-corrected delta in MGC score was -1.8 (p = 0.089) and the baseline-corrected delta in MG-ADL score was -1.4 (p = 0.036). In a post-hoc analysis, the absolute change from baseline in the MG-ADL score, an established registration endpoint, was -2.0 for rozanolixizumab compared to -0.18 for placebo (p = 0.008).

The QMG responder rate was 38.1% compared to 22.7% for placebo (p=0.223), the MGC responder rate was 47.6% compared to 27.3% for placebo (p=0.144), and the MG-ADL responder rate was 47.6% compared to 13.6% for placebo (p=0.017). Response was defined as a reduction of 3 or more points from baseline for all scores.

During dosing period 2, additional clinically meaningful reductions of all scores were observed. Pre-specified analyses across the two dosing periods (i.e. following six subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab) showed clinically meaningful patient benefit consistently across several disease-specific endpoints, including QMG, MGC and MG-ADL. Participants on active treatment showed a marked reduction of total IgG levels and IgG autoantibody levels. Serum IgG concentrations reduced by 56% after two weeks of rozanolixizumab treatment. Total IgG and anti-acetylcholine receptor (anti-AChR) antibodies decreased by 68% from baseline during dosing period 2 in participants receiving rozanolixizumab 7 mg/Kg in both dosing periods.

Safety profile: Safety and tolerability of rozanolixizumab were confirmed and in-line with subcutaneous dosing in the phase 1 program and the safety profile observed in the proof of concept ITP study. There was an expected greater frequency of headache (57.1%) compared to placebo (13.6%) during dosing period 1. Per protocol, three rozanolixizumab-treated participants with headache were withdrawn from the study. All headaches were manageable and resolved with standard therapies. The incidence of infections between rozanolixizumab and placebo was similar.

The full data will be presented at a medical congress in the near future and submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Rozanolixizumab is a novel, subcutaneous anti-FcRn monoclonal antibody in clinical development at UCB and not approved in any region of the world.



About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.ucb.com ) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7 500 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  4.5 billion in 2017. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news

Forward looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, political, regulatory or clinical results and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that may be implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws and hiring and retention of its employees.

Additionally, information contained in this document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. UCB is providing this information as of the date of this document and expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report a change in its expectations.

There is no guarantee that new product candidates in the pipeline will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences between the partners. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products after they are marketed.

Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.

SOURCE UCBIf you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found hereWelcome Guest! You Are Here:Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) holds talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BRUSSELS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China is ready to work with Belgium to strength cooperation and exchanges at all levels, said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

Li made the remarks in Brussels when holding talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel during a working visit to the country.

Noting that China-Belgium ties have maintained the momentum of sound development, Li said Belgian companies are welcomed to invest in China, which will give equal treatment to all foreign enterprises as domestic enterprises.

Li said China is willing to import more high-quality Belgian agricultural products that suit the demands of Chinese market and hopes that Belgium can further facilitate bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Li said the two countries can boost cooperation in technology and innovation and expand nuclear cooperation on the basis of abiding by international laws and meeting international obligations.

The two countries can deepen practical cooperation in infrastructure development and the digital economy while actively exploring the third-party market cooperation, he added.

The Chinese premier said China and Europe, both as major economies, should work together and take steps to push for progress in the negotiations of a China-EU investment treaty so as to send a positive message of upholding free trade, economic globalization, and the multilateral trading regime.

Michel said Belgium is willing to align the connectivity program of the European Union with China's Belt and Road Initiative and support Belgian enterprises in investing in China.

Furthermore, Belgium is ready to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, agriculture, technology, nuclear, aviation and other fields while enhancing the third-party market cooperation in Africa and Asia, Michel said.

Belgium supports effective multilateralism and free trade and stands ready to work with China to strengthen coordination and communication in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, Michel said.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on nuclear, the third-party market, culture, logistics, aviation, among others.At least 19 killed, 40 injured in Crimea college attack

KIEV, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- At least 19 people, mostly teenagers, were killed and 40 others were injured Wednesday in an attack on a college in the city of Kerch in Crimea, local media reported.

According to the reports, an unknown explosive device went off in a canteen of the Kerch Polytechnic College around midday local time (GMT 0900). The blast was accompanied by shooting.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office of Crimea and the Russian Investigative Committee have opened separate criminal investigations into the incident on charges of a "terrorist act."

Later in the day, the Russian Investigative Committee said the case was a "mass murder" and named 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov as a suspected shooter.

Roslyakov, the fourth-year student of the college, has committed suicide after the attack, the committee said in a statement.

Eyewitnesses told local media that there were several attackers, but those reports have not been officially confirmed.

The state of emergency was imposed in Kerch in the wake the attack. All educational establishments in the city are d.

The three-day mourning for the victims of the attack was declared in Crimea.

Crimea was incorporated into Russia in March 2014 following a local referendum. Ukraine says the peninsula was annexed.His rags-to-riches story could make a film.

Nikita Puri meets Musthafa P C, the man behind ready-to-use breakfast foods that countless Indians trust.

IMAGE: Musthafa P C. Photograph: Kind courtesy ID Fresh

A few years ago, Bengaluru-based Musthafa P C received what could have been the gateway for a substantial payday.

A reputed five-star hotel chain had approached him to supply them with thousands of packets of 'diamond cuts', a snack almost as popular in Indian homes as the ubiquitous samosa.

This was around the time that iD Fresh Food, Musthafa's enterprise, had just started selling fresh, ready-to-use idli and dosa batter in Bengaluru.

Musthafa, now 45, had recently quit his job with FICO, a data analytics enterprise, and was struggling to make ends meet.

Musthafa then approached the hotel's chef to better understand how they'd use the diamond cuts.

It'd be the perfect bar snack, he was told.

But Musthafa was uneasy about being associated with the business of liquor, even in the faintest of ways.

He turned down the offer. "I felt like crying," he recalls.

"Not because we lost the order, but because the Almighty had given me the courage to take that decision."

In retrospect that was the best decision, says Musthafa.

It helped them decide who they were and what they wanted to be known for.

The company's vision suddenly became crystal-clear: simply, to assist homechefs in kitchens across India.

Over the last few years, countless homes in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Vijayawada, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune -- as well as in Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi -- have begun their days with home-style, fresh, preservative-free breakfast products from iD.

The contents of iD's attractive zip-locked bags have an average lifespan of four-seven days, and range from ragi (finger millets) dosa batter to batter for the relatively grainy Udupi idlis and ready-to-cook Malabar parottas.

The brand's popularity in finicky Indian kitchens owes to a culture of consistency and quality, unlike the unmarked packets or smaller brands also available.

Amongst working professionals and generations who grew up without learning their grandmothers' culinary skills, iD is a godsend.

As brand guru Harish Bijoor puts it, "When someone else can make it all just right, and that too at the right price, why would you want to do it at home?"

With backing from Helion Ventures and Premji Invest, iD Fresh Food now has a revenue of Rs 2.75 billion and aims to be a Rs 10 billion business in the next few years.

Musthafa's foray into the ready-to-cook sector started in 2005, in Thippasandra, a bustling locality near Bengaluru's upscale Indiranagar where his cousins ran a small grocery store.

They'd see customers buying idli and dosa batter and realised there was a market for this.

Rubber bands held the batter -- and the occasional cockroach -- inside those unbranded bags, recalls Musthafa.

Along with his cousins Abdul Nazar, Jafar T K, Shamsudeen T K and Noushad T A, Musthafa spent the next nine months in a 50 sq ft kitchen in Thippasandra, talking to mothers and grandmothers and learning the art of making the perfect idli-dosa batter.

None of the young men knew how to cook. "After that we'd go around on a scooty, delivering the batter door to door," he recalls.

Once they started selling about 100 packets of batter a day, Musthafa knew the business would take off.

Two things helped seal iD's success.

"We scaled up from a family business, and brought in several professionals," says Musthafa.

Secondly, but not less significantly, iD teamed up with a German company to develop a heavy-duty grinder.

"The batter business is all about grinding rice and dal correctly," says Musthafa.

Traditional grinders can grind about 3kg of dal an hour.

"Our break came when we developed grinders that can grind thousands of kilos every hour."

IMAGE: The ready-to-cook food maker's idli and dosa batters are a hit in India's urban households where both husbands and wives work, and even among single men and women living away from home. Photograph: Reuters

iD's growth was also helped by the fact that many of Bengaluru's small grocery stores are owned by Malayalis, a network the Wayanad native could tap into.

Says Bijoor, "To me, this is a case study of how you start small with right ambition.

How you start with one product and then seek adjacencies of product expansion, without compromising on quality."

Quality is a necessity, since Musthafa's three sons (8, 13, 15) are among the first to try every iD product.

"It's a crunchy deep fried snack. It's somewhat like a savoury doughnut," Musthafa said earlier this year, explaining what a vada is to an audience at Harvard University where iD's success has become a case study.

"It's a fantastic snack, but it's also one of the most difficult things to make for most."

Musthafa was discussing the vada because friends and relatives had been sharing pictures of their latest culinary masterpieces  shapely exploits from vada-land.

This was not long after iD had launched vada batter in a pack with a patented spout.

Courtesy this innovative technique, the batter can be squeezed directly into a pan with hot oil, to get crisp vadas complete with the hole in the centre.

The latest from iD is a decoction for filter coffee.

Within a year, Musthafa expects to be offering all of this, and more, in North India, too.

Breaking into the breakfast segment and setting the bar for it is an emotional business for Musthafa.

"Breakfast was a luxury while I was growing up," he recalls.

His father Ahmed worked as a coolie at a coffee farm where a single shift paid him Rs 15.

There was never enough money to feed the family of six.

Today, Musthafa's company makes 55,000 kg of batter daily.

"That's 1.3 million idlis every day," he says.

To assist his family, Musthafa turned entrepreneur young.

At the age of 10, he would set up makeshift shops and sell sweets on weekends and during summer holidays.

His next entrepreneurial venture was a second-hand car purchase portal in Dubai, which did well till the dot-com bubble burst, he says.

A graduate from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Musthafa also worked with companies like Motorola, Citibank and Intel.

D V R Seshadri, now a professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, remembers Musthafa as a quiet man.

"He was wide-eyed and observant. But most of all, he had a tremendous idealism," he says.

Seshadri first encountered Musthafa when the entrepreneur was studying for an MBA at IIM- Bangalore and Seshadri was a visiting faculty.

But Musthafa had already travelled a long road to get there.

He remembers the only reason he attended school was because they provided a midday meal.

Later, a scholarship from a non-governmental organisation helped put him through college.

Now that Musthafa can, he gives back to society whenever possible.

"Musthafa brings in unskilled people from villages and trains them at world-class facilities," says Ashok Dhingra, a director at iD and Musthafa's mentor.

"He's exceptional," continues Dhingra.

"Musthafa has built economically viable homes for people who were living under tarpaulin sheets in Kodagu.

It started with 20, then it became 50, then 100.

He never talks about his philanthropy and doesn't want publicity for it."

Seshadri recalls how he was moved to tears after he read Musthafa's paper titled 'Reflections' for his class.

"Not only had Musthafa talked about the hardship of his childhood days, he had also written about wanting to be a true Muslim whose duty it was to be of service to humanity."

Musthafa's rags-to-riches story is the stuff of books and films.

"It is a good story," says Bijoor.

"These stories count after success has been achieved, and not before.

These are brand props, but not strong enough props to build or hold up a brand.

Musthafa must not get lost in these as well."

That looks unlikely.

Musthafa is currently busy trying to make iD's packaging more environment-friendly. As Bijoor points out, this is an achiever of no mean substance.Unlike Bofors, on Rafale, all sides agree that it was the best aircraft to buy.

The only plausible charge right now is cronyism.

Why give the benefit of offsets to a corporate buddy with no experience of defence production?

While cronyism is awful, is it bad enough to convince that critical mass of Modi voters to turn against him now, asks Shekhar Gupta.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's harshest critics don't yet say that the Rafale has become his Bofors. But they believe they are on their way, that it has the potential to be the silver bullet, the Brahmastra to bring down one who looked unbeatable till a few months ago.

Just a couple of things, they say, are still missing.

First, not enough people in the 'countryside' know about Rafale -- a recent India Today Axis-My India poll showed that in Uttar Pradesh only 21 per cent know what the Rafale is.

For this, obviously, we journalists are to blame.

Second, that there is no leader with V P Singh's moral authority to take the message to voters convincingly.

The Congress and Rahul Gandhi are particularly unsuited as the shadow of Bofors and many other scams hangs over them.

The Opposition, especially Rahul, has decided to make Rafale the central pylon of its 2019 campaign. With this, they will hang the charge of larger corruption and cronyism.

If Modi can be in a crony relationship with a controversial businessman with so many companies in deep distress, can you ever expect him to say no to the more successful, and richer ones?

To circle back to the old 'suit-boot ki sarkar' formulation, they need the Rafale at the heart of the compass.

The Opposition rues that it does not have the media, no equivalent of Ram Nath Goenka's The Indian Express of the Bofors years, to build public opinion, to wave it in Parliament.

All they have are two individuals with impeccable personal reputations -- Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan.

Now, Rahul isn't the horse to be put at the head of this Ashwamedha, and nobody from inside Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has yet rebelled.

Check out your political history. It was the rebellion of trusted stalwarts Jagjivan Ram against Indira Gandhi and V P Singh against Rajiv Gandhi that changed the equations in 1977 and 1988-1989 respectively.

To expect another V P Singh to rise from some place is unrealistic.

One, because V P Singh had the double sheen of being personally incorruptible, and of sacrifice, having given up a top Cabinet position.

Second, while he was no orator in the class of Modi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he turned out to be a wizard on translating a complex defence deal into a metaphor the heartland voter would understand even 30 years ago.

He resigned from the Cabinet in 1987, just as Rajiv's decline began, resigned his Parliament seat and decided to contest the bypoll from Allahabad.

There was a special oomph about the constituency because Amitabh Bachchan had just vacated it under a Bofors-related payoffs cloud.

The setting was perfect, but his friends and enemies were both dead sure he wouldn't be able to make Bofors an issue. How will the poor villagers relate to something so esoteric?

Singh cracked it in style. He campaigned -- in peak summer -- on the back of a motorbike, a gamcha around his neck much like activist-politician Yogendra Yadav does today, and asked people at villages en route a simple question: Do you realise that Rajiv Gandhi has burgled your homes?

Then he would pull out a matchbox from his kurta pocket and hold it up -- see, this is a matchbox. When you buy one to light your bidi or hukka or the kitchen chulha for 'char annas' (25 paise), about one-fourth goes to the government as tax.

With this, the sarkar builds your schools, hospitals, roads, canals and buys guns for your army. This is your money. If somebody steals some of it, and that too while buying guns for the army, isn't it like your house being burgled?

Bofors was more about Singh's story-telling than facts in the end.

Rajiv Gandhi says he has a certificate from Bofors that he's been given no commission, he said. And then asked, isn't it like a lunatic who flourishes a certificate from a mental asylum saying he's sane and asks you how can you be sane if you don't have one?

Or, to convince people that only Rajiv could have taken this Bofors commission, he would tell this story: In a circus, a lion, a horse, a bull and a cat lived close by.

One night, somebody opened the cages. The next morning the owner found the carcasses of the horse and the bull. You think anyone had doubts who had eaten them?

The lion or the cat? If such big money has been eaten here, will some petty cat eat it? Only a lion-sized thief, Rajiv.

And finally, the killer blow at Rajiv's smiling pictures in Congress hoardings: I don't know what he is laughing about, 'Apni chaal par, hamaare haal par, ya Switzerland ke maal par (on his deviousness, our plight, or the wealth stashed in Switzerland)'.

I can't promise to bring you canals or tube-wells, he'd say, but I will surely fix the plumbing from where your wealth is leaking.

Singh's genius is never to be doubted. But his pitch also worked because he had a good case, and the Congress had a product in steep decline, Bofors or no Bofors.

The Opposition doesn't have a V P Singh today. But is Rafale a story anywhere near as strong as Bofors yet?

There is a vital difference between Bofors and Rafale. Unlike Bofors, on Rafale, all sides agree that it was the best aircraft to buy.

Because the Congress had selected it.

The charge, on the contrary, is that the Modi government is buying just 36 instead of 126.

On Bofors, V P Singh could say with a straight face that when troops fired the first Bofors gun, it fired backwards, killing many of their own. Nobody can say this about Rafale.

The second difference, as T N Ninan said in a column, there is still no smoking gun like Bofors.

The statement by (former French President) Francois Hollande is a far cry from the Swedish National Audit Bureau finding commissions paid to three dodgy accounts in Switzerland with Indian links.

The only plausible charge right now is cronyism.

Why give the benefit of offsets to a corporate buddy with no experience of defence production? However, while cronyism is awful, is it bad enough to convince that critical mass of Modi voters to turn against him now?

That is the limitation of the Rafale campaign.

V P Singh was brilliant. But he had a great slogan too: 'V P Singh ka ek sawaal, paisa khaya kaun dalal? (V P Singh has one question: Money has been swallowed, who is the broker?)

It worked because you believed that money had indeed been 'eaten'. The Opposition is very far from that on Rafale.

And finally, the complaint with the media. Rajiv Gandhi was the first powerful prime minister in whose destruction the media, much smaller then, played a central role. It is easy to say now that all journalists are compromised or afraid of Modi. So, what can you expect?

But you need to have the humility to concede that the media, today, doesn't have a story like Bofors.

Second, Modi's graph may be in decline but he isn't as unpopular as Rajiv had become by 1988, after many missteps, so charges don't stick yet.

Third, there is no rebellion in the BJP. Yashwant Sinha, Kirti Azad and Shatrughan Sinha aren't V P Singh.

And the last, that journalists are chastened by Bofors, where three decades have passed without a kroner being recovered or anybody found guilty.

The bar of scepticism on defence scandals is now set higher.

By special arrangement with The Print'None of his grandparents, and only one of his parents, was born in the US or spoke English as their mother tongue.'

'Of his three wives, one was born in Czechoslovakia and one in Slovenia.'

'Where would Trump have been if they, too, had 'rejected the ideology of globalism and embraced the doctrine of patriotism'?' asks Sunanda K Datta-Ray.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com

It wasn't at all surprising that the packed United Nations General Assembly heard Donald Trump's attack on globalisation -- which he called 'globalism' like the Americans called non-alignment 'neutralism' -- in stony silence.

In India, he would have been howled down.

Or, perhaps, not.

We are such experts at dissimulation that it is quite likely that the very people who queued every day for H1B visas would in his presence heartily endorse everything Trump said in New York about staying at home to build up the country.

Foreigners quickly detect this duplicity.

'When I call on Cabinet ministers, the President, or governors, they all love to talk about their sons, sons-in-law and daughters in the United States and how well they're doing and how well they like things,' noted William B Saxbe, the American ambassador to New Delhi in the 1970s.

'The next day I read in the papers the very same people are denouncing the United States as a totally different kind of country.'

Migration is not a subject on which many Afro-Asians are honest or objective.

Many of the 84 heads of State and 44 heads of government who listened to Trump would count among their citizens the hundreds of thousands of Afro-Asians who are either hammering at the European Union's Greek door or risking (and losing) their lives in leaky tubs that should never be allowed to attempt to cross the Mediterranean.

Those kings, presidents and prime ministers packed in the UN's green malachite hall would never admit that the search for better living conditions is migration's main impetus.

That applies as much to the Nobel Laureate academic at a hallowed institution as to a street-corner sweeper.

Both are emigrants who have sought and found abroad the comforts the motherland denied them.

Some try to camouflage this uncomfortable truth by ponderously pontificating on migration as being a civilisational phenomenon.

Or they claim a justifying a mission -- like Indian doctors saving Britain's National Health Service.

A few try to submerge themselves totally in a newly acquired identity.

Occasionally, someone like Amit Anilchandra Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, and some far right politicians in the West, seek comfort in applying double standards to different migrants.

Presumably, Shah did not look on as 'termites' the hundreds of thousands of Gujarati shopkeepers and small traders whom the natives of the old Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika resented so deeply?

Rightly or wrongly, they were blamed for standing aloof from Africans whom they exploited, and for trying to identify with the British.

When indigenous regimes threw out Gujaratis who had gone to East Africa on the colonial bandwagon, they could have returned to the motherland where their capital, skills and undoubted capacity for hard work would have been invaluable assets in India's development.

Instead, they begged and pleaded with an extremely reluctant Britain to let them in.

Instead of encouraging them to return to India, Indira Gandhi's government stupidly backed their demand.

It was determined to punish Britain, not realising that meant cutting India's own nose to spite its face.

Those Gujarati immigrants -- now numbering more than 620,000 -- include millionaires, peers of the realm and about half of the ethnic Indian members of the British parliament.

These were the people behind the Wembley Stadium extravaganza when Narendra Damodardas Modi visited Britain in 2015.

Like fellow Gujaratis in the US or Singapore, those who prospered (as they do everywhere!) in Britain never hesitate to help the BJP.

Would Shah still call them termites?

Some speakers don't appreciate how delicately they themselves are placed.

Queen Elizabeth, whose uncle, Edward VIII, boasted he didn't have a drop of English blood in his veins, never mentions migration.

But speaking in Sweden last month, the Dalai Lama was less astute.

He may even have provided Trump his cue by saying that refugees should 'ultimately develop their own country' because 'Europe belongs to Europeans'.

Where does that leave the 45th US president?

He is the son and grandson of immigrants: German on his father's side -- not Swedish, as he likes to say -- and Scottish on his mother's.

None of his grandparents, and only one of his parents, was born in the US or spoke English as their mother tongue.

His mother's parents came from the remote Gaelic-speaking Outer Hebrides.

Of his three wives, one was born in Czechoslovakia and one in Slovenia.

Where would Trump have been if they, too, had 'rejected the ideology of globalism and embraced the doctrine of patriotism'?'Change is the rule of politics.'

IMAGE: Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Anilchandra Shah with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at the launch of the Suraj Gaurav Yatra in Rajasamand, August 4, 2018. Photograph: PTI Photo.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar is the Bharatiya Janata Party's newly appointed prabhari (minder) for Rajasthan that votes on December 7 to elect its next assembly.

"We have to prove that we are capable of retaining our governments and we are returning to power after the Lok Sabha polls," Javadekar tells Radhika Ramaseshan.

Early opinion polls and field reports have written off the BJP in the Rajasthan polls. Of course, you will reject the findings. But what are your concerns?

As we have seen, surveys go awry in many elections because they don't capture the mood of the downtrodden. We saw it in Mayawati's case in 2007 (in the Uttar Pradesh election) and earlier.

You can go into every nook and corner of Rajasthan and you will see the love and affection women have for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.

Youths are captivated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We have a strong organisation, our booths have been set up.

The fact that you have been asked to stay put in Rajasthan shows the central leaders lack confidence in Raje's leadership?

Not accurate. When I was in charge of Karnataka, I was told six months before the polls and even then, I was visiting only every two months.

In Rajasthan, I was told to be the prabhari two days before the election dates were announced.

Rajasthan is not new to me. In 2003, I worked with Pramod Mahajan, in 2008 with Gopinath Munde, in 2012, I was there as a spokesperson. I successfully negotiated in the Gujjar agitation (in 2008) and brought about a settlement.

Raje is the leader, she carried out a successful Gaurav Yatra for 800 kms. She covered practically every major constituency and got tremendous response. There was no code of conduct then, so when she addressed meetings at midnight, people waited for two or three hours to hear her.

The Congress today is unable to speak against Raje. Between 2003 and 2008, the state has made tremendous progress, but the Congress raised its voice against corruption in the 2008 election. There's no taint this time, no perception of corruption even.

Raje is a larger-than-life person who is not known to brook Delhi bosses and their deputies in Rajasthan. What's your equation with her like?

I have good rapport with the total Rajasthan unit. I travelled extensively in the state when I was in the BJP's youth front. It's not about one individual.

In our system, the prabhari has to speed up programme implementation and help develop strategies.

BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh successfully reversed the anti-incumbency factor. Rajasthan has never done it.

We will break the jinx in this election. MP and Chhattisgarh broke it. We broke the jinx in UP finally. Otherwise in 15 years, it was ruled by the Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The Congress has lost credibility with people, the poor especially. Its plank of poor has gone to Modi.

In 2014, the BJP ruled in six and the Congress in 16 states. Today, Congress has only four states while we are in power in 19 states. The vote base has changed.

Moreover, we have presented Raje as our leader and we will win on our policies and programmes.

Bhamashah Health Insurance scheme up to Rs 300,000. Nearly 2.5 million poor people have been hospitalised in four-and-a-half years. Second is the direct benefit transfer scheme that benefitted 16 million families.

Rajiv Gandhi said out of the Rs 100 the government released, only 15 paisa reached the needy. Modi and Raje release Rs 100 and Rs 100 reaches the poor. The Rajshree scheme is for girls' empowerment from birth to Class XII.

(Former Congress CM Ashok) Gehlot has said recently we must not close Raje's welfare schemes if we come to power. Of course, he won't come to power, but that's an admission of our good governance.

In the 2008 election, there was no government-party coordination. Raje wasn't interacting with the BJP. Is she more interactive now?

Very much. Now it's the party (in command). We mustn't forget that in 2008, we won 78 (of 200) seats so it was not a complete rout. Now the political scene has changed.

When Gehlot says people are paying to ratchet up their ratings, he obviously means Sachin Pilot.

Raje is the daughter of Rajmata (Vijaya Raje Scindia) but what the party decides is the law for her.

But she and Amit Shah weren't sharing a dais until recently.

That's not true. Amit Shah's programmes have two features. Road shows. The show in Dholpur was 10 times more responsive than Rahul Gandhi's.

Then, the organisational programmes are meant for a targeted audience like our youth workers and not for the general public.

There are reports that the crowds at Modi and Shah's public meetings were thin and unenthusiastic...

There's no anti-incumbency. Even the Congress can't criticise our government. People love Modi.

So is the December election a Modi election or Raje's?

It is Raje's and Modi's.

We have the parliamentary elections in six months. There are common issues. Ujjwala scheme, Ayushman Bharat yojana, Jan Dhan, Ujala (to distribute affordable LED tubelights).

This time BJP has actively redefined style of governance by ensuring India benefits from schemes that promote productivity, schemes that are meant to empower people and not just give away doles, meant to incentivise people by asking them to contribute a little while the government contributes the bulk.

People like this, they feel a sense of self-respect.

What is the BJP's assessment of the reported Gehlot-Pilot tussle? A way of keeping the Congress down?

The Congress has been weakened with infighting expressed openly before people. Somebody is accusing the other person of paying money to ratchet up his ratings. They can't decide who their leader is.

Rahul Gandhi talks of irrelevant things. Like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, about Vijay Mallya running away during the NDA's time.

He doesn't ask the basic question that it's because we became active and changed the law (against absconders) that all this happened. Instead he's addressing irrelevant matters.

Are you repeating your sitting MLAs or doing a winnability check?

We take a pragmatic view. We analyse, we seek feedback from our booth workers, it's a composite exercise.

Changes are usual, but I am not saying that many will be dropped.

But change is the rule of politics.

The verdict from the assembly elections will have a bearing on the Lok Sabha election in 2019.

We are winning all the three states.

We have to prove that we are capable of retaining our governments and we are returning to power after the Lok Sabha polls.In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the RSS chief also spoke about urban maoism, the Sabarimala row and the need to strengthen the countrys borders.

IMAGE: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses the Vijay Dashmi function at RSS headquaters in Nagpur. Photograph: PTI Photo

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday demanded a law to pave the way for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying an organised Hindu society is the bedrock of unity and the acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the panacea for fundamentalism.

In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, at the RSS headquarters, Bhagwat also spoke about urban maoism, the Sabarimala row and the need to strengthen the countrys borders.

Bhagwat said the Sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of

Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma.

The acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the panacea for fundamentalism, selfishness, unrestrained consumerism arising out of hardcore materialism and insensitivity, he said.

Temple construction is necessary from self-esteem point of view; it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness, he said.

Bhagwat also hit out at Maoism, saying it has always been urban and the neo-Left doctrine of urban naxals is to establish an anti-national leadership with blind followers solely committed to them.

In an apparent reference to the arrest of a number of activists by Pune police for their alleged links with Maoists, Bhagwat alleged that urban Maoism was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in society.

These people (Maoists) take strength from the countrys enemies and always malign the nation wherever they go, he alleged.

WATCH: RSS celebrates Vijayadashami Utsav in NagpurDelhis air quality remained in the very poor category for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with several areas in the national capital nearing severe levels of pollution, according to the authorities.

IMAGE: A woman holds her son as she walks through smog at a road construction site in New Delhi. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

The PM2.5 level (presence in the air of particles with a diametre of less than 2.5 micrometres) touched a new high at 158 as authorities predicted further deterioration of air quality in the coming days.

The PM10 level (presence in the air of particles with a diametre of less than 10 micrometres) stood at 332.

The PM2.5 is said to have a greater impact than PM10 on health and is said to be more dangerous.

The overall Air Quality Index of Delhi was recorded at 315, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor and 401 and 500 severe.

As the air quality worsened, Delhis Environment Minister Imran Hussain formed a six-member team to carry out surprise inspections in the city to check violations which contribute towards air pollution.

The minister said inspections would be carried out to check steps being taken by various bodies on the ground. He has also sought the details and schedule of working of the mechanical sweeping and sprinkling vehicles being operated by these bodies, including the public works department.

Hussain also directed the development agencies to ensure that all construction sites adhere to the Construction and Demolition Waste Rules, 2016 to avoid any dust emission from their activities.

Meanwhile, to encourage the use of public transport, the Delhi Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal by which one can avail 10 per cent discount on using common mobility cards (metro card) in Delhi Transport Corporation cluster buses.

The metro card usage started in DTC cluster buses on August 24. This was necessary in view of rising air pollution to encourage more and more people to use public transport, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.

IMAGE: Vehicles ply at Rajpath as a thick smog engulfs India Gate in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

He further appealed to the central government and the governments of Haryana and Punjab to initiate measures in the wake of the deteriorating air quality in north India, including Delhi.

The Centre should intervene. Farmers have not been given subsidy. This is the failure on the part of the central and the state governments. As December and January is nearing, the entire north India, including Delhi, is close to becoming a gas chamber, Sisodia said.

He said the state government had made several efforts since last year which improved Delhis air quality and had requested the Centre, as well as the governments of Punjab and Haryana, to take measures in this regard, but despite assurances, the air quality has deteriorated.

The Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority has already imposed since Monday the Graded Response Action Plan, which prescribes a set of measures to curb air pollution, after Delhis air quality deteriorated to poor category a few days back.

A senior Central Pollution Control Board official said the situation was being monitored and depending upon the quality of air, more stringent measures like increase of parking fees and complete ban on construction activities would be imposed.

We are hoping that with slight improvement of meteorological conditions, the air quality would improve. But if it doesnt, we will impose stringent measures, he said.

In case of further deterioration of air quality to severe level, measures like stopping entrance of trucks, among others, can be enforced.

On Thursday, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 315, Dwarka Sector 8 369, ITO 256, Jahangirpuri 337 and Rohini 368, according to the CPCB.

The AQI on Wednesday was also recorded at 315. Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Greater Noida had all recorded very poor air quality.

The data released by the CPCB shows that the air quality in the last three years has not improved much but officials also said a clear picture would emerge by end of this month.

A CPCB official said a number of factors were responsible for the deteriorating air quality, including vehicular pollution and construction activities.

On Wednesday, Hussain had said that satellite images showed crop residue burning at dangerous levels and had asserted that it should be stopped immediately or the entire north India would suffer serious health hazards.Ashish Pandey, a former Bahujan Samaj Party MPs son who had brandished pistol at guests and threatened them in the foyer of a five-star hotel in New Delhi, surrendered on Thursday before a Delhi court which sent him to one-day police custody.

IMAGE: Ashish Pandey, accused of brandishing gun at guests outside a hotel, being brought out of the Patiala House Court in New Delhi. Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo

The accused approached the court of Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh and moved an application seeking to surrender.

The application for surrender, filed through lawyer S P M Tripathi, said Ashish Pandey, the son of former BSP lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, has been wrongly framed in the FIR and has been subjected to media trial.

It said Ashish Pandey is ready to submit before the court voluntarily and police may be directed to take him into custody if required.

However, since the magistrate concerned was on leave, the plea, seeking judicial nod to surrender, of Ashish Pandey was referred to another link judge who was hearing urgent matters of other courts whose presiding officers were on leave.

Meanwhile, the court staff of Metropolitan Magistrate Dharmender Singh informed police about Ashish Pandeys surrender plea to be taken up by link magistrate Neetu Sharma.

The accused along with his lawyers appeared before Metropolitan Magistrate Sharma to press for his surrender plea and police personnel were also there to seek custodial interrogation of Ashish Pandey.

The magistrate, at the outset, allowed the policemen to formally arrest and quiz Ashish Pandey in court premises for 20 minutes.

Later, the public prosecutor submitted that police was seeking a four-day custodial interrogation of Ashish Pandey on various grounds.

Accused is from Lucknow. The weapon has to be recovered and also it has to be verified whether the gun has a licence. The accused is also required to be taken to Lucknow and other places to know whereabouts of other accused, the prosecutor said.

The counsel appearing for the accused opposed the application moved by police.

The police knows that the gun is licensed. I (Ashish Pandey) am not required. I am ready to provide the gun. I am also not involved in previous cases. This case is highlighted only because the father of the accused was a politician and the matter is hyped by the media. No notice was served to the accused and NBW was issued malafidely, the defence counsel said.

The court, however, granted one-day police custody of the accused.

The court had on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant against Ashish Pandey for brandishing a pistol at guests and threatening them in the foyer of a five-star hotel here.

A video of the incident, that occurred early on Sunday, had gone viral on social media resulting in public outrage. It prompted police to step in and launch a hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident.WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said here on Wednesday that his nation has requested audio and video materials from Turkey that are related to the alleged death of a missing Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump told reporters at the White House that "we've asked for it, if it exists."

However, he did not confirm whether there was any such recording as reported by Turkish media, saying that "I'm not sure yet that it exists."

The Turkish daily Yeni Safak earlier reported that Turkey has audio recordings that could reveal the details of what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, noting that he had been tortured during an interrogation, with his fingers cut off.

Trump suggested that "rogue killers" may have been responsible for the disappearance.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, the president compared the Khashoggi case to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying "here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent."

When asked about his ambiguity towards Saudi Arabia's link with the journalist's disappearance, Trump denied that he has ever been "giving cover" to the Saudi side at all.

"No, not at all, I just want to find out what's happening," Trump said. "I'm not giving cover at all."

On Tuesday, The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi had been writing, accused the Trump administration of performing a "diplomatic cleanup operation" for Riyadh.

In an editorial, the paper called for an independent international investigation into the disappearance of the journalist, saying that the travel to Saudi Arabia by State Secretary Mike Pompeo has seemed to fail to find the truth.

Pompeo, "who smiled broadly as he greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appeared less intent on determining the truth than in helping the de facto Saudi ruler escape from the crisis he triggered," the article said, noting Trump had signaled that he is more than ready to assist in that dodge.

It urged an investigation by the UN's Security Council or Human Rights Council, noting that "until the full truth about Mr. Khashoggi is disd, U.S. businesses should shun the Saudi regime and Congress should block all military sales."

U.S. media outlets have reported that Turkish police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there, citing toxic material inside the building.

However, Trump said "we will probably know that by the end of the week" after he got a "full report" from Secretary of State Pompeo upon his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Earlier on Wednesday, he told Fox Business Network that the United States relies on Saudi Arabia to fight against terrorism and Iran, and would thus be unwilling to walk away from the kingdom, a "tremendous purchaser" of U.S. military equipment.

"It is 500,000 jobs, it will be ultimately $110 billion, it's the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military, and I said we are gonna turn that down?" he asked.

"So hopefully it is working out. We'll find out, we'll get down to the bottom of it. I hope that the king and the crown prince didn't know about it," he said. "That is a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't," he said.

Several U.S. media outlets reported on Monday that the Saudi side was preparing a report that Khashoggi's death was a result of a botched interrogation.Akbar's lawyer said that he had resigned from the post of minister of state for external affairs due to Priya Ramani's allegations and this showed the extent of damage caused to his reputation.

A Delhi court on Thursday decided to record the statement of former minister M J Akbars criminal defamation complaint of being accused of sexual misconduct by journalist Priya Ramani, on October 31.

The court took judicial note of the complaint against Ramani, who has accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago, and decided to record the statement in the case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing the former minister, that the defamatory tweets and similar social media posts of Ramani have caused irreparable loss to his reputation built over 40 years.

Let the matter be fixed for examination of the complainant (Akbar) and his witnesses (six) for October 31, the magistrate said.

Luthra mentioned that Ramani objectionable tweets have been merrily retweeted by a number of other people and various news items were written on their basis in national and international newspapers and other media platforms.

Luthra said calling Akbar a predator in tweets was defamatory and also referred to an article written by Ramani herself.

My (Akbar) reputation lowered in public. People have read tweets and the article (by Ramani). Number of retweets and likes crossed thousands which showed the extent of defamation, the counsel said.

The senior lawyer referred to the sequence of events and said that Akbar has resigned from the post of minister of state for external affairs due to these allegations made in the defamatory tweets and other posts.

She also referred to the reputation of Akbar as a journalist and sought judicial intervention in the matter by taking cognisance of the complaint.

My position has been damaged. My reputation has been damaged. I have been elected to Parliament. I am a longstanding journalist and have written various books. This shows I had a reputation, which has been damaged, the senior counsel said.

As per Code of Criminal Procedure, the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied that there are prima-facie substance in the complaint.

Akbar on Wednesday had tendered his resignation after making it clear that he had filed the case in his personal capacity and would fight it out in the court of law.

Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs. I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country, Akbar had said in his letter.

Akbar on Monday had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Ramani alleging she wilfully and maliciously made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

Expressing her readiness to fight the defamation allegations, Ramani had said, Rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he (Akbar) seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment.

Akbars plea had listed alleged defamatory imputations made by Ramani on social media and also referred to his long and illustrious career as a journalist while terming the allegations of Ramani as a figment of her imagination.

Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda, it alleged.

It had termed as scandalous the allegations made by Ramani and said the very tone and tenor are ex-facie defamatory and they have not only damaged his goodwill and reputation in his social circle but also affected Akbars reputation in the community, friends, family and colleagues and caused irreparable loss and tremendous distress.

It had claimed that the woman journalist, while putting forward the allegations relating to incidents which allegedly occurred 20 years ago, intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated, and salacious imputations to harm the reputation of the complainant.

The conduct of the accused person, of not taking any action before any authority, qua the alleged incident against the complainant also clearly belies the sanctity of the article and allegations made by the accused person, which evidently goes on to prove that the said defamatory articles are only a figment of her imagination, it said.

Section 500 of the IPC provides for the sentence for the offence of defamation and an accused may be awarded two-year jail term or fine or both in the event of conviction.

Akbars name had cropped up in the social media campaign #Metoo against alleged sexual harassment when he was in Nigeria.

Hours after returning home, Akbar had termed the allegations levelled against him by several women as false, fabricated and deeply distressing and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment, included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.NGO rebuts Enforcement Directorate's charges.

A Ganesh Nadar reports.

Greenpeace and the National Democratic Alliance government have been at loggerheads since May 2014.

In 2015 Greenpeace's licence was cancelled, but the NGO got a stay order from the courts.

Greenpeace was then stopped from receiving money from abroad, with the government claiming that certain inimical elements were bent on derailing India's economic development under the pretext of protecting the environment and these elements were being financed from abroad.

Subsequently, government officials reportedly found that the NGO had incorporated a commercial entity called DDIIPL in 2016 after the Union home ministry cancelled Greenpeace India Society's (Chennai) FCRA registration the previous year for alleged violation of norms.

Last week, the Enforcement Directorate conducted searches at Greenpeace's premises in Bengaluru and froze over a dozen bank accounts of Greenpeace and DDIIPL on charges of alleged forex violations.

The Enforcement Directorate alleged Direct Dialogue Initiatives India Pvt Ltd, DDIIPL, was created to 'facilitate the operational activities of Greenpeace' and claimed that the new entity received FDI of Rs 99 lakh (Rs 9.9 million) from a Netherlands-based organisation followed by another tranche of Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million), apart from making a British national its director.

'As on date, DDIIPL received foreign direct investment to the tune of Rs 29 crore (Rs 290 million),' the ED charged in a statement.

"This is conjecture and imaginary as we have been prevented from receiving foreign funds. After the government cancelled our FCRA licence we have not received any money from abroad," Greenpeace Campaign Manager S Nandikesh told Rediff.com.

"So far they have not given us any reasons for freezing our bank accounts in writing. We are reading about their allegations in newspapers," he added.

Nandikesh denied that DDIIPL was a Greenpeace subsidiary. "It is a separate entity. It is our service provider. They canvass donors for us," he stated.

The ED alleged that DDIIPL spent around Rs 21 crore (Rs 210 million) for its expenses since inception 'with no substantial revenue generation so far'. Nandikesh declined to comment on this allegation, only saying DDIIPL should be asked about this.

The ED also alleged that a number of employees have 'migrated' from Greenpeace to DDIIPL. Asked about this, Nandikesh said, "After an employee leaves our company we don't keep track of where they are going."

The ED also stated that both entities work out of the same office. Nandikesh laughed at this charge, but said, "It is not out of the same office, but yes, it is in the same building."

Photograph: Kindly courtesy Greenpeace India/Twitter'We have taken note of this anger. We should not take upper caste votes for granted believing that they will not vote for any other party as there is no option,' a senior BJP leader said.

M I Khan reports from Patna.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with priests from the Maninagar Shree Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan. Photograph: Kind courtesy @narendramodi/Twitter

Bihar has been witnessing something unusual in the last few days.

On October 11, a student hurled a slipper at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at a function to protest against reservations.

Before that, some upper caste youths showed black flags to Union ministers -- Ashwani Choubey, Smriti Irani, Ram Kirpal Yadav -- and Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi for neglecting their interests and demanded reservation for the poor among them.

In the caste-ridden Bihar politics, these developments are a reflection of the growing disillusionment the upper caste have for the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal-United ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

Among the upper castes, it is particularly the youths and students who are angry.

And, they are not hiding their unhappiness, and are openly protesting against the BJP and Kumar.

Till recently, the upper castes were known as the BJPs traditional supporters and overwhelmingly voted for it in elections since the '90s.

They were also comfortable with Nitish Kumar after he dumped Lalu Prasad Yadavs Rashtriya Janata Dal last year.

But today, the upper caste youths have been openly justifying the act of Chandan Singh, who hurled the footwear at Nitish Kumar.

He had rightly protested against reservations. We had voted the BJP to power in 2014 at the Centre, but it neglected us, Sushmit Kumar, an agitated youth, told Rediff.com.

Echoing Sushmits view, Ratnesh Sharma said Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to treat Dalits as special and "ignoring us" is wrong.

Sushmit and Ratneshs disappointment was evident across Bihar recently when on September 6, some organisation had called a one-day bandh to protest against the amendment to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The amendment bill passed by Parliament had overturned the Supreme Court order which barred arrests without a preliminary inquiry.

Chandan Singh symbolised the growing anger of upper caste students against the discriminatory reservation policy that badly hit us. Chandan has rightly termed the Nitish Kumar-led government as anti-savarna (forward caste), Sushmit said.

Chandan, resident of a village in Bihars Aurangabad district, vowed to continue his protest against reservations after he was released by the police.

Interestingly, he was detained and not arrested in order to not to provide another issue to several upper caste groups, particularly the Sawarna Sena which has been protesting in Bihar for the past two months.

If this wasnt enough, two upper caste leaders of the BJP have been openly supporting the demands of the community.

Senior BJP leader and former Union minister C P Thakur had staged a dharna against his own state government demanding the release of the upper caste men arrested during the bandh while BJP MLC Sachidanand Rai has publicly said that the upper castes are angry and the government should understand why they are unhappy.

Both BJP and Nitish Kumars JD-U are worried over the anger among its traditional support base that constitutes nearly 12 to 14 per cent of the total population in Bihar.

A senior BJP leader admitted that the anger among upper castes against the party was evident during the bandh sponsored by upper castes groups in September.

"We have taken note of this anger. We should not take upper caste votes for granted believing that they will not vote for any other party as there is no option, he said.

Taking advantage of the growing anger against the BJP, the Congress is not only supporting reservations for the poor among the upper castes but has made a Brahmin its state unit president and set up a campaign committee headed by a Bhumihar to send a strong political massage ahead of the 2019 polls.'A nation becomes great only when its society chases a big dream and becomes resolute towards its pledge by making the most of its inherent power, energy and capabilities for achieving its goal'



IMAGE: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat greets Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi during Vijay Dashmi function at the headquaters. Photograph: PTI Photo

Nobel Prize winner and social activist Kailash Satyarthi attended the annual Vijaya Dashami function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Nagpur on Thursday.

Satyarthi, the 2014 Nobel laureate, was invited by the RSS as the chief guest at this year's function in Nagpur where the RSS headquarters is housed.

We present the Nobel laureate's full speech.

'Agne naya supatha raye asman

Visvani deva vayunani vidvan,

Yuyo-dhyas-majjuhu-rana-meno

Bhuyistham te nama uktim vidhema'

(O Lord of Fire, lead us on the right path, so that we attain physical and spiritual happiness by the virtue of our good deeds. O Lord, please keep us away from deviousness and evil).

At the outset, I would like to extend hearty greetings to all on the occasion of Vijaya Dashmi and the 93rd Foundation Day of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Not only does this festival of Vijaya Dashmi signify the victory of Rama over Ravana but it also celebrates the triumph of humility over ego; morality over immorality and compassion over cruelty. This day actually celebrates renunciation of throne by exile ridden Rama and the victory of the most down-trodden, marginalised, and excluded people residing in villages, forests, and foothills under the reigns of their revered deity.

Today by inviting me over on the occasion of your Foundation Day, not only have you extended respect and compassion to millions of exploited and deprived children of India but also to those of the entire world. On behalf of those millions of children, I extend heartfelt gratitude to you.

Almost thirty nine years ago an exasperated and hapless father Wasal Khan had knocked my door. His fifteen year old daughter Saabo who was born in slavery at a brick kiln in Sarhind, Punjab was about to be sold at a brothel. Those days I used to publish a fortnightly magazine in Delhi. Wasal wanted me to carry his story, so that his daughter could be saved. While listening to Wasal Khan's ordeal, suddenly a thought flashed past my mind. Had Saabo been my younger sister or daughter, could I have afforded to wait for even a single minute? I was aware that our Constitution does not permit slavery. I gathered a few friends, sold my wife's jewellery, hired a truck and drove it all the way from Delhi to Sarhind for rescuing the slaves. My friends and I were mercilessly beaten up by the brick kiln owner and his goons. Empty-handed we returned to Delhi. I knocked at the court's door and was able to rescue all the 36 bonded labourers, including Saabo.

While we were on our way back from the court, I could see that spark of happiness and jubilation on the faces of the mothers of the children who had given up all hope. In the tears of joy flowing down their cheeks, I could see the reflection of God. The children were having their very first tryst with freedom.

At that moment I thought, who am I to liberate anybody? Probably it was a way by which God was emancipating me somewhere deep within. The evil of child labour and slavery was rampant across the world, but there was absolutely no action or intervention against it. It is only the inherent spiritual power of my motherland that inspired an ordinary person like me to run a worldwide movement to save childhoods from being ruined.

Over the last twenty years, the number of child labourers globally has fallen from 260 million to around 150 million. I feel heart-wrenched that even the day and age we live in; our daughters are still sold and brought at price much less than what cattle commands.

I have rescued several daughters from abject slavery and exploitation who do not even muster the courage of hugging and weeping on the shoulders of their parents because they feel that rape and sexual abuse has rendered their bodies and souls impure. My dear brothers and sisters, eight children who go missing every hour in our country, four children who are sexually abused and two who are raped are certainly someone's children if not that of our mother land 'Bharat Mata'? We take immense pride in the fact that we are the children of Gautam, Kapil, Kanaad, Anusuiya, Savitri, Seeta, Lakshmi Bai, Buddha, Mahaveer, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Maharana Prataap, Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Subhash, and Ashfaqulla Khan. I ask you, I ask the sons and daughters of our great motherland, how long will all of you continue to be in the slumber of apathy, passivity and fear?

People often ask me how tender childhoods can be saved in India amidst so many drawbacks and problems. My reply invariably remains, that India may be a land of hundred problems but it is also the mother of over a billion solutions.

As a child, I used to participate in several religious ceremonies along with my family. After listening to the stories of Lord Satya Narayana and Ram Charit Manas we used to prepare 'Panchaamrit' or the divine nectar and offered it to the deities before distributing to all present. With utmost humility and reverence for my motherland 'Bharat Mata', I am offering a Panchaamrit - the five element concoction in her feet. In this Panchaamrit, I clearly see the potential of building a Samvedansheel Bharat (Compassionate India), Samaaveshi Bharat (Inclusive India), Surakshit Bharat (Safe and Secure India), Swavalambi Bharat (Self-reliant India) and Swaabhimaani Bharat (Self-respecting India)!

No respectable society can be built without compassion. Compassionless politics, economy and society are much like a body without the soul. Without genuinely feeling the pain of others and a firm determination to work towards ending that suffering happiness and peace cannot be instilled.

In the contemporary times robots, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality are growing at a very rapid pace. There is no denying that they are useful too, but we should be equally mindful of the fact as to where would this fast paced technology lead us in 20-30 years from now? For all you know the role of teachers, doctors, philosophers, guides and motivators shall be significantly slighted. Along with schools, hospitals and markets our interpersonal relationships might just also shrink considerably. In such a situation, in the absence of familial values, human feelings and compassion where would we all head to? In my opinion countries with capitalist economies that are driven by physical luxuries would need India the most at that point in time. Therefore we must forthwith start inculcating sensitivity within ourselves. I have always said that the West has taught us globalization of markets, economy, consumerism, manufacturing and technology. This tornado and hot gust of materialism has swept most of us off our feet. To counter this we must ensure that cool and gentle breeze of compassion emanates from our great motherland.

Photograph: Rediff.com IMAGE: A word cloud of Satyarthi's speech.

The second element of Panchaamrit is inclusivity. India is a land of diversities. Our myriad religions, ways of worshipping, food, cultures, languages, costumes, and ways of thinking are beautifully nestled as colorful flowers in a vase. This is where our true beauty lies. There is no other country as diverse as India. Inclusivity is our soul. Without inclusivity unity in diversity cannot be imagined.

Rigveda says,

'Samgacchadhwan samvadadhwan

Sam vo manamsi janatam

Deva bhagam yatha pure

Sajanana upastate'

(Let us pledge that we all shall walk together. No one will split; no one will be left behind. We will all speak in chorus. We will all think together. Like our ancestors we will also sit together and create the wealth of knowledge).

Development indicators for economists may vary from per capita income to Gross Domestic Product, but for me this scale is very different. I measure the development of society by a smile that we can bring on the face of an Aadivaasi daughter enslaved at a farm in a far flung village or in a stone quarry reeling under constant threat, fear, insecurity and uncertainty.

The third element is security. Without security and an environment of mutual trust and respect in the society, nation building is unimaginable. Internal security is equally if not more important than safeguarding our sovereign frontiers. There is a very popular hymn in the vedas.

'Saha Naav-Avatu

Saha Nau Bhunaktu

Saha Viiryam Karavaavahai'

(O Lord, May we all be protected! May we all be nurtured and make collective efforts).

The painful words of a 15-year-old girl morbidly filled my ears with hot molten glass. I still remember how excruciating it was for me to hear all what she said that day. She was crying inconsolably while returning from the police station. She revealed that the night before she had cried and begged in front of her father to have mercy on her as she was extremely tired and jaded, but he did not stop and turning a deaf ear towards her plea he raped her. I was left with no option other than lodging a complaint against my father she lamented. She repeatedly kept saying remorsefully that I should not have filed a complaint against my father.

This was not just a rape perpetrated on the daughter by a father. It was the rape of India's soul. It was the rape of our great traditions. It was the rape of our age old familial values. We hail from the land where Durga is worshipped as the goddess of power and courage, Saraswati is revered as the goddess of knowledge, Lakshmi is worshipped as the goddess of wealth. How can we accept and tolerate such fall and decimation of character?

Some months ago, a 12-year-old boy along with his friends upon finding his sister all alone gang-raped her. These boys had watched a porn film the night before this incident. The business of online pornographic films is flourishing unabated across the world. I have been incessantly demanding for a strong legislation against this crime. In fact, last month during the United Nations General Assembly I met with several Heads of Countries and have already started working on an international treaty against online child pornography.

Our women grapple with fear, threat and insecurity at home, workplace, localities and public places. Those who are entrusted with the responsibility of running shelter homes for girls are raping and murdering them. So-called custodians of child welfare and protection are selling children. Girls stop attending school fearing harassment and eve teasing and we out of fear remain quiet seeing all of this happening right in front of our eyes. This is a grave disrespect towards Bharat Mata. Fear makes us hollow from within besides fanning intolerance and violence. Silence of the society succumbing in front of crime and injustice is not merely cowardice but quite violent in itself! Last year, in an endeavour for Safe Childhood, Safe India we had marched 12,000 km under the Bharat Yatra. This historic march across the country commenced from Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari and was joined by 1.2 million people. Our efforts still continue. A seer had once cautioned, 'Abhayam mitrad-abhayam-amitrad abhyam-jnatad abhayam parokshat'(Let us not be afraid of friends, let us not be afraid of foes, let us not be afraid of the visible and let us not be afraid of the invisible).

IMAGE: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat with Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi and others during Vijay Dashmi function at RSS headquaters in Nagpur. Photograph: PTI Photo

The fourth element of Panchaamrit is self-reliant India. True that all countries, businesses, markets and technologies are conjoined, but in order to become a self-reliant nation economic stability, job creation and social equity are a must have. Our country predominantly depends on agriculture and small and medium scale industries. We cannot become self-reliant by foreign investment or with the rich getting richer. We will have to empower our farmers, workers, and retailers. India is yet to get rid of starvation. Millions of children remain malnourished. Meaningful, quality and employment oriented skill building and education continues to be a challenge staring in our face. If we really want to reclaim the title of Golden Bird for our country, we will have to ensure that 85 million children who remain outside the ambit of education in our country are provided with quality, meaningful and equitable education.

The first hymn of Rigveda is 'Agnim-Iille Purohitam Yajnyasya Devam-Rtvijam; Hotaaram Ratna-Dhaatamam' (O well-wishers of society, lets light up the fire of knowledge. Collectively let us contribute towards the well being of each other according to the need of the hour. Let us transform the shared knowledge into prosperity for all).

The fifth element of nation building is "Self-respect". Though hundreds of years of oppressive colonial rule could not kill the soul of India, but it certainly left scars of inferiority in the mind and a deep sense of mental slavery that we have still not been able to tide over. This inferiority complex conspicuously reflects in the ever increasing sense of contempt towards our language, tradition, culture, costume, way of living, food and education. It's a travesty that all efforts to eliminate this complex only make us even more irrational further inflating egos.

For generating self-respect towards our culture we will have to adopt the values that are at the heart of our great culture. In my opinion, the great and eternal Indian culture has three philosophical elements. First, immortality which means neither we are born nor do we perish. Second, universality which means that we do not limit ourselves within the boundaries of time and space! It is for this universality that thousands of years ago our sages and saints could give out universal messages like 'Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam' (Entire earth is one family). Third, totality which means we do not look at the society and this world in fragmentation. Upanishads say 'Isha vasyam idam sarvam, yatkimcha jagatyam jagat'. (This whole circle of nature is fully pervaded by God whatever is in the universe is under existence and control of almighty God).

It is for this very reason our culture is not a pond of stagnant water; instead it is a perennial river which keeps giving birth to springs and tributaries. We Indians are born with a unique quality of continual self-improvisation and we must take immense pride in it.

I invoke the youth of India. Instead of copying and chasing the shadow of others recognise your innate cultural strength and derive self-respect from it. Let us all take a pledge for building a compassionate, inclusive, secure, self reliant and self-respecting India. If we start with millions of most marginalised and socially excluded children and work towards ensuring their freedom, protection, security, education, values and health only then will we be able to realise our goal of building a great India. A strong nation can not be built by hurling blames and accusations on governments nor can it be made merely by making solicitations every now and then. So what makes a nation great? A nation becomes great only when its society chases a big dream and becomes resolute towards its pledge by making the most of its inherent power, energy and capabilities for achieving its goal. Tomorrow evening like every year, my children at Bal Ashram our long term rehabilitation center situated on the outskirts of Jaipur will enact Raamleela before consigning the effigy of the demon Ravana to flames. In a competition the children will unanimously identify ten social evils and crimes that are stymying our country. These evils will be written one each on every head of Ravana before being set afire. My children along with hundreds of villagers will take a pledge to collectively eliminate these evils and crimes from the society.

In doing this and achieving the goal of building a great and child friendly nation the participation and leadership of conscientious youth is absolutely essential. I request the youth from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to take a lead on this path for saving the present and future of our motherland. If the branches (shakhas) of the Sangh situated in almost all villages across the length and breadth of our country serve as a firewall to protect this generation of children, then all the generations to come will become self-sufficient in protecting themselves.

Sitting haplessly on the sea shore when Hanumana - the mighty Monkey Deity -- had forgotten his identity and sense of power, it was Jamvanta - The King of Bears -- who had reminded him 'Pavantanay bal pavan samaana, kaa chup saadh rahaa balwaanaa' (You are the son of the God of Wind! Why have you fallen silent, you all powerful!). It is for this challenge that we have been celebrating the festival of Vijaya Dashmi ever after.

Like Jamvanta, I am also reminding you of your abundant inherent power. I am reminding you of the invocation of our sages and saints from the era of vedas dating back to thousands of years. 'Vayam rashtre jagryama purohitah' (O well-wishers of this society wake up and rise and awaken the nation).

Om Shanti!China and Belgium on Wednesday agreed to keep unleashing complementary advantages, tapping more cooperation potentials, and yielding greater development achievements in pragmatic cooperation.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (L) speaks at a joint press conference with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday, October 17, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua]

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made the remarks at a joint press conference after holding talks with his Belgian counterpart, Charles Michel.

The two heads of government briefed results of their talks at the press conference.

"The two sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges, timely communicate on various issues and keep consolidating political mutual trust," Li said.

He suggested the two sides further expand two-way opening-up, upgrade the level of bilateral trade and investment, deepen cooperation in nuclear energy, aviation and aerospace, and enhance innovation cooperation.

On relations with Europe, the Chinese premier stressed that China and Belgium will work together toward a healthy and stable development of China-Europe relations.

He added that the two countries will jointly forge ahead connectivity between Asia and Europe and facilitate the process of a China-Europe bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiation.

In order to contribute to world peace, stability and development, China and Belgium will enhance communication and coordination under multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, safeguard multilateralism and rules-based international order, maintain free trading system and open world economy, Li said.

For his part, Michel suggested the two countries tap potentials in economy and trade, investment, agriculture, energy, aviation, infrastructure and connectivity cooperation.

He called on Belgium and China to make joint efforts to facilitate development of Europe-China relations, reach an agreement on the BIT at an early date and take steps to promote mutual benefit between enterprises from the two countries.

Noting the consensus on safeguarding multilateralism and the rules-based global governance, the Belgian prime minister encouraged the two countries to jointly maintain world security, stability, and development.Myanmar: Joint appeal to the UN Security Council to act on Rohingya crisis

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 11 December 2017 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Myanmar: Joint appeal to the UN Security Council to act on Rohingya crisis, 11 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c4726.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

11/12/2017

Statement

In advance of the United Nations Security Council's December 12 meeting on the situation in Myanmar, we, a global coalition of 69 human rights, faith-based and humanitarian organizations, urgently call on the Council to take immediate action to address the campaign of ethnic cleansing and mass atrocity crimes, including crimes against humanity, committed against the ethnic Rohingya population by Myanmar's security forces in northern Rakhine State, as well as the continuing restrictions on humanitarian assistance throughout the state since October 2016.

Words of condemnation by the UN, including the Security Council's Presidential Statement on November 6 and the UN General Assembly's Third Committee's adoption of a resolution on Myanmar, have not resulted in Myanmar's government ending its abuses or holding those responsible to account. It is time for prompt, concerted and effective international action.

Myanmar authorities are still heavily restricting access to northern Rakhine State for most international humanitarian organizations, human rights monitors, and independent media. Most of Myanmar's Rohingya population, estimated at more than one million, have been forced to flee to Bangladesh as refugees. Despite a bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh, there are insufficient guarantees that return at this time can be informed, safe and voluntary, that requirements for documentation of prior residence will not be used as a pretext to reject legitimate returns, that temporary holding centers will not become semi-permanent internment camps and that returnees will have the same rights of movement, access to livelihoods and health and education services as other residents of Rakhine State. The UN Fact-Finding Mission, which is tasked with preparing a report on abuses nationwide, has thus far been prevented from gaining access to the country.

Over 646,000 Rohingya have been made refugees since August 25, when Myanmar security forces launched "clearance operations" in response to armed attacks on security posts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). Refugee testimonies provide overwhelming evidence of Myanmar military-led atrocities during these operations, and a similar campaign that had begun in October 2016. The crimes against humanity perpetrated against the Rohingya include massacres and other unlawful killings, widespread rape and other sexual violence, looting, deportation and mass arson of hundreds of Rohingya villages. The violence also displaced tens of thousands of people from other ethnic minorities. Rohingya who remain in Myanmar continue to face severe food insecurity and threats in addition to systematic violations of their rights to a nationality, freedom of movement, and access to healthcare, education, and livelihood opportunities.

The Myanmar government has the primary responsibility to protect its diverse population without discrimination and regardless of ethnicity, religion or citizenship status. But, the civilian and military leadership of Myanmar, including the military's Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, refuse to even acknowledge the serious human rights violations against the Rohingya and continue to deny any wrongdoing by state security forces in Rakhine State while ignoring decades of institutionalized discrimination against the Rohingya community.

We urge the Security Council to immediately impose an arms embargo against Myanmar's military that covers the direct and indirect supply, sale or transfer, including transit and trans-shipment of all weapons, munitions, and other military and security equipment, as well as the provision of training and other military and security assistance. The Security Council should also place targeted sanctions on senior officers responsible for crimes against humanity or other serious human rights violations. Financial sanctions should target senior officers who ordered criminal acts or are liable as a matter of command responsibility. The Security Council should explore all avenues for justice and accountability, including through international courts.

If the pledge to "never again" allow atrocities means anything, the Security Council cannot delay action any longer.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteArmenia: Tracking the controversial trial of captors of a police station

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 13 December 2017 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Armenia: Tracking the controversial trial of captors of a police station, 13 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c52a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

13/12/2017

Press release

Paris-Erevan. In the beginning of December 2017, or six months after the trials opened against members of the armed group "Sasna Tsrer", the prosecution started indicting the accused of serious crimes, including murder, hostage taking, illegal acquisition and illegal possession of arms. Up to date, the process was protracted due to a series of sanctions against defendants and their lawyers and constant postponing of case examination. Moreover, lawyers had denounced allegedly discriminatory security check-up procedures at court entrance and held two strikes that were largely supported by lawyers across the country. Finally, up to date, the investigation into ill-treatment of four defendants that took place on 28 June 2017 has not brought any results, contributing to erosion of public trust in the judicial process in Armenia.

FIDH and its member organisation in Armenia, Civil Society Institute, publish today a joint situation note detailing the problems with judicial proceedings against 32 members of the armed group since the trials started on June 8 and June 10, 2017. It provides the Armenian authorities with concrete recommendations to improve justice administration consistent with the principles of the fair trial and equality before the law.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteJoint letter to the Georgian authorities concerning cruel and humiliating treatment and lack of investigation thereof in Georgia

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 13 December 2017 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Joint letter to the Georgian authorities concerning cruel and humiliating treatment and lack of investigation thereof in Georgia, 13 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c546.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

13/12/2017

Open Letter

In a joint letter addressed today to the Georgian authorities, FIDH and its member organisation in Georgia, Human Rights Centre (HRIDC), express their concern over a growing number of allegations of cruel and humiliating treatment inflicted in places of detention in Georgia.

Dear Prime Minister,

Dear Minister of Internal Affairs,

Dear Prosecutor General,

FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) has been alerted by our member organisation in Georgia, Human Rights Centre (HRIDC), of a growing number of allegations of cruel and humiliating treatment inflicted in places of detention in Georgia.

According to a report of the Public Defender of Georgia presented to the Parliament in 2016, among 35 cases referred to the Public Defender, up to date no alleged perpetrator was brought charges and no complainant received a formal victim status. In five cases, the investigation discontinued due to the absence of corpus delicti. In other cases studied by the HRIDC, investigation was either not opened or has been delayed without substantial reason. We have been recently informed that the number of alleged ill-treatment cases as of today has reached 60. Below you will find a description of one of the most recent ill-treatment case S.M. that requires your utmost attention. For the purpose of victim's protection, his identity is rendered anonymous but available upon request to the Human Rights Centre.

Our organisations would also like to express our utmost concern regarding the statement by the Minister of Interior concerning the work of the Public Defender of Georgia in defence of S.M. We would like to remind that it is namely the role of the office of the Public Defender  as conceived in democratic political systems  to address complaints of maladministration or a violation of rights of any citizen.

By the same token, we would like to draw your attention to the case of physical assault on lawyer Giorgi Mdinaradze by former head of the Vake-Saburtalo district police unit No. 5 Lasha Kvirkvaia4. On 23 October 2017, Tbilisi City Court found Lasha Kvirkvaia guilty under Article 333, part I of the Criminal Code of Georgia on abuse of power and imposed a fine amounting to GEL 10 000.

While the judgment confirms the concerns mentioned above over the rooting of the practice of cruel and degrading treatment by police officers, the case is illustrative of the fact that instances of the use of excessive physical force are not qualified by the prosecution as such but rather as "abuse of power" that conceals the element of violence used by police officers and discharges them thereof. Secondly, the fact that lawyers whose integrity is protected by law find themselves as targets of physical assaults while performing their duty implies the extent of the problem on average citizens.

Our organisations remind that in accordance to the Article 17 of the Constitution of Georgia5 and in accordance to the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights6, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment are absolutely prohibited actions, and the state has positive and negative responsibilities with regard thereto. Thus the state is not only obliged to prevent torture, inhuman and degrading treatment but also to impartially and effectively investigate allegations thereof.

Our organisations thus call on the Ministry of Interior to ensure a prompt and impartial investigation of cases brought to date to the attention of the prosecutors and to ensure efficient investigation of any future complaints.

Our organisations also call for the establishment of an independent mechanism to investigate and prosecute facts of inhuman or degrading treatment. We would therefore appreciate if you could meet representatives of our member organisation for that purpose. A meeting would also allow discussing the most urgent cases of ill-treatment that for the sake of concision were not mentioned in this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Dimitris Christopoulos

President of FIDH

Aleko Tskitishvili

Director of Human Rights Centre (HRIDC)

Annex: Description of the case of S.M

On 22 September 2017, police officers tortured S.M in the police unit in order to obtain his confession. Upon bringing S.M to the police office, the officers started intimidating him with an aim to force him to self-incriminate a crime he had not committed. Namely, the police officers, through verbal and physical intimidation demanded him to sign a confession statement that has been drafted for him by police officers. The detainee refused to admit the crime and asked for the lawyer, yet police officers did not satisfy the request. During the trial, marks suggesting S.M has been subject to physical violence were clearly visible, yet the prosecutor did not request for a forensic expertise. The investigation into the ill-treatment fact is being protracted. S.M still has not received a victim status. S.M is legally represented by Human Rights Centre's lawyer.

Moreover, instead of opening an investigation into the alleged fact of ill-treatment, the Minister of Internal Affairs responded to the statement of the Public Defender1 in an insulting manner calling, calling the latter an "officer who justifies criminals".

Link to original story on FIDH websiteDRC: Slaughter in Kasai: Crimes against humanity perpetrated to create chaos

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 20 December 2017 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, DRC: Slaughter in Kasai: Crimes against humanity perpetrated to create chaos, 20 December 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c56a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

20/12/2017

Report

In July 2017, FIDH and its member organisations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conducted a fact-finding mission in Angola to gather testimonies from Congolese refugees who had fled the slaughter perpetrated in the Kamonia territory in the Kasai province. The harrowing testimonies published today reveal the scale and seriousness of the crimes committed against the civilian population by the Congolese defence and security forces and their auxiliaries, the militia known as Bana Mura. Their level of organisation and planning reveals a deliberate strategy of terror and destruction, which led to crimes against humanity. The violence was unleashed in response to an uprising of a local militia, Kamuina Nsapu, which had itself perpetrated serious abuses. With the elections repeatedly being postponed in the DRC, the atrocities committed in Kasai are part of a recurring scheme of Joseph Kabila's regime to mobilise tension and violence in order to retain power through chaos and diversion.

Villages destroyed by heavy artillery, attacks on hospitals and places of worship, executions, torture and mutilation, sexual violence, looting, arbitrary arrests and detention. The testimonies gathered from the Congolese refugees in Angola by the FIDH team illustrate the ordeal to which the civilian population in Kamonia was subjected to for at least five months.

The report (only available in French) describes the abuses perpetrated in a dozen villages. Particular reference is made to the massacre committed on April 24, 2017, in the village of Cinq, situated a few kilometres from the border of Angola, which had at the time a population of around 10,000. Egged on and supported by the Congolese army and police, the Bana Mura militia descended on the village with the purpose of eliminating the civilian population, mostly belonging to the Luba ethnic group. The attack led to hundreds of deaths, including many women and children, mostly executed by gunfire, machete, or burned alive. During the attack on the Cinq hospital, over a hundred patients, including pregnant women, were killed, along with members of the medical staff.

Many survivors fled through the bush. Several hundred were registered by the United Nations agency for refugees (HCR), having reached Angola after a terrifying escape, pursued right up to the border by the militia. Among them were many children suffering from machete wounds.

According to the testimonies gathered by the FIDH team and information received from local sources, in particular Congolese human rights organisations, other villages were subjected to similar acts of violence between March and August 2017. Our organisations have compiled a list of around twenty other villages where such attacks have taken place. The report includes the testimony of some of the survivors.

The cruelty of the abuses leaves little doubt as to the aim pursued: to terrorise, destroy and force the Luba populations to flee, accused of complicity in the crimes committed by the Kamuina Nsapu militia and of supporting the opposition to Joseph Kabila's regime.

The last part of the FIDH report describes how the crimes committed on the Kamonia territory were planned, directed and also actually committed by Congolese State agents, along with their Bana Mura militia auxiliaries, whom they helped to structure and arm. Our organisations have in particular drawn up a list of at least 50 names of persons suspected of crimes committed in the area. The list includes members of the army, the police and intelligence services, of the Bana Mura militia, local traditional chiefs, representatives of the presidential majority and Congolese government officials. The list, which is held confidentially, can be communicated to any commission of enquiry or judicial body charged with an independent and impartial investigation into the crimes committed on the Kamonia territory, and with determining the criminal liability of their authors, or the responsibility of the Congolese State.

FIDH and its member organisations in DRC call on the Congolese authorities to put an end immediately to the serious human rights violations committed in Kasai, and to carry out independent and impartial investigations into the crimes described in the present report in order to bring those responsible to justice, to grant reparations to the victims, and to end impunity and the repetition of the crimes.

Context:

On August 12, 2016, the traditional Kamunia Nsapu chief, Jean-Pierre Mpandi, was assassinated by the Congolese armed forces (FARDC). Although their arms were rudimentary, often just bits of wood and knives, the Kamuina Nsapu militia rose up and attacked the representatives, the edifices and the symbols of the central government. They were accused of crimes and abuses, in particular the forced enrolment of child soldiers; they carried out summary executions, often by beheading. The attacks started in Kananga (central Kasai), but soon spread to the neighbouring provinces (including Kasai). The repression by the defence and security forces was excessive, leading to a large number of summary executions. In September 2017, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights considered that the situation in the Kasai provinces was still one of the worst human rights crises in the world. At least 3,383 persons were killed, according to the Catholic Church, over 87 mass graves were discovered; at least 1.4 million people, including almost 600,000 children, were forced to find refuge in neighbouring provinces, and nearly 30,000 others fled to Angola. These figures are conservative estimates, and it would seem that the acts of violence were committed on an even larger scale.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteIran: Government must respect rights, show restraint in dealing with nationwide protests

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 3 January 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Iran: Government must respect rights, show restraint in dealing with nationwide protests, 3 January 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c58a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

03/01/2018

Press release

(Paris) The Iranian government must immediately and unconditionally release all individuals detained in connection with recent countrywide protests and launch independent and impartial investigations into all deaths that occurred during the demonstrations, FIDH and its member organization League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI) said today.

Since 28 December 2017, thousands of Iranian people have taken to the streets in the capital Tehran and more than 50 other cities and towns across the country to protest against the government's economic mismanagement, corruption, and suppression of freedoms.

The protests initially began with demands concerning rising prices of food and basic commodities, widespread state corruption, and the high rate of unemployment. However, the demonstrations quickly featured calls for greater political freedom, the release of political prisoners, and accountability for long-standing repression. Protesters expressed their criticism of all ruling political factions, the judiciary, and other apparati of repression and made specific calls for the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to step down. In some cities, protesters took down images of Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Scores of people are feared to have been killed in connection with the protests. While official sources have acknowledged 21 deaths, including two security agents and two children, one of whom was 11 years old, the actual numbers are likely higher. Hundreds more have been injured. According to official figures released by the government, more than 1,000 people, around 500 of whom in Tehran alone, were detained. The great majority of those detained in connection with the protests are below the age of 25. It is feared that the actual numbers of those detained could be significantly higher.

Based on the Iranian government's systematic practice and the threats voiced by several of its high-ranking officials, a number of protesters could face the death penalty. FIDH and LDDHI urge the international community, and in particular the United Nations (UN) and the European Union, to be on alert against such threats.

In many instances, state-controlled forces, such as the paramilitary force Basij ('Mobilization'), which operates under the control of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), used excessive force against the protesters. It was reported that Basij members were involved in destruction of property and arson attacks in various cities with the aim of providing justification for the heavy-handed suppression of the protests. Iranian authorities also blocked social media, in particular the messaging applications Telegram and Instagram, and censored privately-owned domestic media.

FIDH and LDDHI urge the Iranian government to ensure that law enforcement officials and other state agents act in accordance with international standards, such as the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, in dealing with protesters.[1]

The two organizations also call on the Iranian government to guarantee the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, and the right to freedom of association in accordance with its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. They also call on the Iranian government to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran and other UN special procedures access to the country.

The authorities must also immediately and unconditionally release all other prisoners of conscience.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteVietnam: Annus horribilis ends with more arrests and imprisonment

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 5 January 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Vietnam: Annus horribilis ends with more arrests and imprisonment, 5 January 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c5aff.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

05/01/2018

Press release

(Paris) Vietnam's unprecedented repression of dissent during 2017 calls for the international community's renewed engagement with Hanoi on human rights, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today.

In 2017, Vietnamese authorities arbitrarily detained or imprisoned at least 46 activists and human rights defenders, including 7 women, for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly. The crackdown accelerated in late December 2017, when 15 activists were sentenced to prison terms.

On 20 December 2017, police and security forces in Ho Chi Minh City beat at least 20 people and detained five of them for participating in a peaceful protest against the Taiwanese-owned company Formosa, which was responsible for a massive environmental catastrophe in Vietnam's three coastal provinces in 2016.

On 21 December 2017, a court in An Giang Province sentenced five people under Article 88 of the Criminal Code ('spreading propaganda against the state') for hanging 26 flags emblazoned with three red stripes (the flag of the former Republic of Vietnam, also known as South Vietnam before 1975) in the province's Chau Doc Township on 25 April 2017. Nguyen Tan An was sentenced to five years in prison; Huynh Thi Kim Quyen and Nguyen Ngoc Qui received four-year sentences; and Pham Van Trong and Nguyen Thanh Binh were jailed for three years.

On 22 December 2017, a court in Ha Nam Province rejected an appeal by prominent human rights defender Tran Thi Nga against her conviction and nine-year prison sentence under Article 88 of the Criminal Code. The court upheld the lower court's decision in a hearing from which authorities barred Nga's family members and supporters. Outside the court, police and security forces took into custody nine activists who had gathered to show support for Tran Thi Nga. At least one of them was beaten by thugs before being arrested.

On 24 December 2017, authorities arrested former political prisoner Doan Van Dien at his home in Lam Dong Province and detained him in the B5 detention center in Dong Nai Province. The reason for his arrest was not immediately known.

On 28 December 2017, a court in Binh Dinh Province sentenced nine people to prison terms ranging from three to 14 years for printing and distributing leaflets. Pham Long Dai, Doan Thi Bich Thuy, Truong Thi Thu Hang, and Tran Thi Bich Ngoc were convicted Under Article 88 of the Criminal Code. Ta Tan Loc, Nguyen Quang Thanh, Huynh Huu Dat, Nguyen Van Nghia, and Nguyen Van Tuan were convicted under Article 79 of the Criminal Code ('conducting activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration'). In addition, all nine were sentenced to three years of house arrest to be served upon the completion of their prison terms.

FIDH and VCHR are also troubled by the Vietnamese government's latest move to tighten monitoring of internet content. On 25 December 2017, Deputy Head of the People's Army Political Department Lt Gen Nguyen Trong Nghia announced that a new 10,000-strong military cyber unit, named 'Force 47', had begun operating "to fight proactively against the wrong views."

FIDH and VCHR reiterate their calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Vietnam and for the repeal of all provisions of the Criminal Code that are inconsistent with the country's obligations under international law. At least 130 political prisoners remain behind bars in jails across the country. Nearly all of those arbitrarily detained or imprisoned in 2017 were arrested and charged under Articles 79, 88, or 258 ('abusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the state') of the Criminal Code.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteCAR: Conviction of Andjilo: a first warlord trial and a decisive first step

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 22 January 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, CAR: Conviction of Andjilo: a first warlord trial and a decisive first step, 22 January 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c5c10f.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

22/01/2018

Press release

Bangui  Paris, 22 January 2018  Our organisations welcome today's sentencing of the former Anti-Balaka warlord Rodrigue Ngaibona, aka "General Andjilo", to life in prison. With the help of a collective of lawyers, our organisations supported many of his victims before the Bangui Criminal Court. The charges did not cover all of the crimes he allegedly committed, but the imminent establishment of a "hybrid" tribunal, the Special Criminal Court, should make it possible to shed light on other crimes committed by Andjilo and his cohorts, and to bring to trial other Central African warlords.

FIDH and its member leagues in the Central African Republic welcome the Bangui Criminal Court trial of Andjilo that led to the first conviction of an Anti-Balaka leader since the events of 2012. The accused, who has denied all the charges  calling them acts of "self-defence"  was found guilty of a series of crimes committed in Bangui and on the Bouca Road (300 km north of Bangui) between October 2014 and January 2015.

Found guilty of multiple murders, criminal conspiracy, armed robbery, false imprisonment and illegal possession of firearms and munitions of war, Rodrigue Ngaibona was sentenced to life imprisonment with forced labour. In reality, this verdict means a sentence of/equals to life in prison, as sentences of hard labour are no longer meted out in the Central African Republic, highlighting the need for a reform of the justice system, especially of the criminal code.

"This is probably only a first conviction for General Andjilo, since the charge covered only some of the crimes he allegedly committed", noted OCDH President Maitre Mathias Morouba. "Andjilo may well be held accountable for other acts, which, where applicable, may be classifiable as war crimes and crimes against humanity before the Special Criminal Court".

The collective of lawyers represented Andjilo's victims throughout the proceedings that commenced in 2015. Admittedly, it managed to find some weaknesses thereof, specifically in the prosecution's case and concerning the protection of victims and witnesses, some of whom refused to participate in the proceedings for fear of retaliation. These weaknesses, however, are inherent in the state of Central African judicial system after years of conflict and the coming into operation of the Special Criminal Court (CPS), a mixed tribunal consisting of Central African and international judges, which should make it possible to try with complete independence and according to the rules of fair trial the main perpetrators of international crimes committed in Central Africa in recent years and to help restore the rule of law there.

In addition to his sentence of life imprisonment, Rodrigue Ngaibona was ordered to pay damages to compensate the losses suffered by the civil parties. He must also pay one symbolic franc to the human rights defender organisations that filed suit together with the victims, a sign of the will of the Central African justice system to recognise the importance of the victims and the associations that support them.

"In a country where automatic appointment of lawyers is provided only for the accused, the participation of the collective of lawyers along with the civil party greatly enhanced the proceedings and made it possible to conduct a fair trial, in which the right to legal aid, of the perpetrators and the victims alike, was respected" recognized Joseph Bindoumi, President of the LCDH.

The fight against impunity is a major challenge in Central Africa, which for a year has experienced a resurgence of violence by armed groups against civilian populations, despite the presence of over 10,000 UN peacekeepers. Originating from the former Seleka rebellion, which overturned the government in April 2013, or the Anti-Balaka self-defence groups formed to combat them, these groups continue to control much of Central Africa and to commit grave human rights violations.

With respect to the action by FIDH, LCDH and OCDH in the Central African Republic: With support from the European Union, our three organisations have been conducting since 2015 a project called To Support the Struggle against Impunity in the Central African Republic, which is documenting serious human rights violations in Central Africa and supporting the victims of those violations before the courts. They have a joint office in Bangui and many intermediaries throughout the country.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteIn the face of brutal crackdowns, the International Criminal Court opens preliminary examinations into Venezuela and the Philippines

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 8 February 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, In the face of brutal crackdowns, the International Criminal Court opens preliminary examinations into Venezuela and the Philippines, 8 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c5ea.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

08/02/2018

Press release

The Hague, 8 February 2018  FIDH welcomes today's announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Fatou Bensouda, to open preliminary examinations into the situations in Venezuela and the Philippines. FIDH welcomes these announcements and the ICC's pressure to address the international crimes committed by the security forces of these two states, one in the name of a so-called 'war on drugs', the second in the wave of violent repression of demonstrations. We now urge Venezuela and the Philippines to conduct thorough, impartial, and independent investigations into those allegedly responsible for international crimes committed on their soil and to cooperate with the Court during these preliminary examinations.

FIDH has warned about the occurrence of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines. In a fact-finding mission carried out by the Observatory (an OMCT/FIDH partnership) from 7 to 16 August 2017, our organisations observed an increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders in the country. Interlocutors reported having experienced increased difficulties in carrying out their human rights activities under President Rodrigo Duterte, in relation to investigations surrounding extrajudicial killings allegedly committed by police and vigilantes as part of Duterte's 'war on drugs'.

The human rights situation in the country has been deteriorating ever since President Duterte took office on 30 June 2016 and declared a hard campaign against drug offenders. The ICC Prosecutor said she would analyse crimes against humanity allegedly committed since at least 1 July 2016. Since then, thousands of people have been victims of extra-judicial killings in the course of police led anti-drug operations.

President Duterte's total disregard for human rights, the rule of law, and accountability for serious crimes has been apparent from his statements, in which he suggested the Philippines would withdraw from the Rome Statute and labelled the Court 'useless'. The Philippines, however, confirmed its commitment during the last session of Assembly of States Parties to the ICC in New York in December.

The ICC Prosecutor announced she would examine crimes allegedly committed in Venezuela since at least April 2017 in the context of demonstrations and related political unrest. She noted that the continued demonstrations led to excessive use of force to disperse demonstrators and arrested and detained thousands of people and that many of those detained have been allegedly subjected to serious abuse and ill-treatment. It was also reported that some groups of protestors resorted to violent means, resulting in some members of security forces being injured or killed. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 124 people have been killed in the framework of the protests: 46 killings were allegedly have been committed by the security forces and 27 by the pro-government armed groups.

FIDH urges Venezuela and the Philippines to remain committed to the ICC Statute as States Parties and to work closely with the Office of the Prosecutor to ensure accountability for the international crimes allegedly committed in both countries.

FIDH has been and will remain vigilant in advocating for the need of the ICC to open preliminary examinations on different continents and in different countries where no national investigations or proceedings are being initiated.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteTourists visit the ancient walled city of Pingyao in Jinzhong, north China's Shanxi Province, on Oct. 17, 2018. The ancient walled city of Pingyao was built in the 14th century, and was named a UNESCO world heritage in 1997, as "an exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city." The city boomed in the 19th century as China's financial center, as Shanxi merchants expanded their businesses across the country. Now, the well-preserved compounds of these affluent merchants and some emerging modern elements like souvenir shops, bars, photography festival and theatrical performances have again brought the ancient city to life and made it a popular tourist attraction. (Xinhua/Cao Yang)Arbitrary arrests and continued incommunicado detentions by Sudanese government force

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 14 February 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Arbitrary arrests and continued incommunicado detentions by Sudanese government force, 14 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c614.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

14/02/2018

FIDH at the UN

Khartoum, Paris  14 February 2018. Several Sudanese, African and international organisations, including the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) wrote to 6 United Nations Special Procedure mandate holders to draw their attention to the worrying developments concerning the excessive use of force by Sudanese authorities to disperse peaceful protests across Sudan.

The Open letter signed by FIDH and its Sudanese, African and International partners concerned the crackdown on peaceful protests and the wave of arbitrary arrests and continued incommunicado detentions by Sudanese government forces was addressed to 6 United Nations Special Procedure mandate holders including:

UN Human Rights Committee

UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention;

UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. David Kaye;

UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan, Mr. Aristide Nononsi

UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Ms. Annalisa Ciampi

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mr. Michel Forst

The signing African and international organisations, condemned the unlawful killings, arbitrary and continued incommunicado detentions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, excessive use of force and post-print censorship by government forces. They urged the UN Special Procedure mandate holders to reiterate to the Government of Sudan that all Sudanese have the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly including freedom of the media. They further urged them to call on the Government of Sudan to:

Guarantee the safety and well-being of all detainees and grant them immediate and unfettered access to their lawyers, family members and medical services.

Charge or release all those arbitrarily detained, and for those charged, ensure prompt access to a lawyer of their own choosing and full respect for their rights as detainees and to due process and a fair trial.

End its policies of post and pre-print censorship of newspapers.

Stop harassing and intimidating Sudanese citizens including human rights defenders, peaceful activists and journalists and others who seek to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.

Conduct an immediate, independent and impartial investigation into all allegations of excessive use of force against peaceful protestors as well as ill-treatment and torture of detainees by police and NISS. Findings of such investigations should be made public and perpetrators should be held accountable before an independent and impartial tribunal.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteHuman rights implications of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY) initiative

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 14 February 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Human rights implications of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY) initiative, 14 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c634.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

14/02/2018

Open Letter

Brussels, 14 February 2018

Re: Human rights implications of the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY) initiative

Dear President Juncker,

Dear High Representative Mogherini,

FIDH and the International Campaign for Tibet write to you with regard to the 2018 EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY), which was launched in Venice last month and consists of a number of events throughout the year, aimed at boosting visitors' flows and investments on both sides.

We recognize the historical importance and the significance of Chinese culture for the world and the contribution that such an initiative can have for greater people-to-people exchanges and understanding. We are also aware of the economic opportunities it opens for both EU Member States and China.

However, we are deeply concerned about the promotion of tourism in Tibet, which takes place amid a security crackdown of unprecedented severity. We are also concerned about the issue of access to Tibet. While Chinese tourists enjoy free and open access to the EU, citizens from EU Member States are not granted unfettered access to Tibet. In addition, restrictions are imposed on Tibetans' freedom of movement, limiting their ability to conduct cultural and religious activities, such as going on pilgrimage.

We would like to raise the following issues of concerns in relation to the promotion of tourism in Tibet:

As the number of self-immolations by Tibetans exceeds 150,[1] indicating the Tibetan people's profound anguish at Chinese oppression, the Chinese authorities are seeking to brand Tibet as a romantic 'Shangri La' destination. Chinese authorities are implementing a strategy to bring large numbers of Chinese and international tourists to visit scenic sites and cultural icons of Tibet and receive a version of history and traditions manipulated by Beijing and its state-trained guides.

While the Chinese government is marketing Tibet as a tourist destination based on the spiritual attractions of its Buddhist culture and landscape, Beijing has tightened its control over Tibetan religious expression and practice. The authorities' commodification of Tibetan culture is part of the trend towards increasing repression of Tibetan culture, traditions, and identity.

The presence of global hotel chains in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet provides support for Beijing's claim of normalcy and 'harmony' in Tibet. This represents a new threat to Tibet's religious culture and national identity, which risks increasing the marginalisation and exclusion of the Tibetan people, and raises concern about the impact of untrammeled tourism on the Tibetan plateau's fragile landscape.

Unfettered access to Tibet for European citizens and other foreigners remains highly restricted. Every year since peaceful protests swept across Tibet in March 2008, the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) remains closed to foreign tourists for around a month. China has allowed a limited number of visits and delegations to travel to Tibet, but participants are closely monitored and have few opportunities to meet local residents beyond those approved by the authorities. Access is even more difficult for exiled Tibetans who wish to travel to Tibet to visit their families and friends or to do business. The visa application process they have to go through is long and complex, and they often face strong pressure and even blackmailing from the authorities.

Very few Tibetans in the TAR and in many other Tibetan areas have been issued passports in the past few years, and many had their passports confiscated, in breach of China's law.[2] The restrictions on travels outside of Tibet is used as a form of collective punishment, and the families and friends of certain individuals, such as former political prisoners or people associated with Tibetans who have self-immolated or participated in protests, can also see their passports' application denied or their passports cancelled. The denial to issue passports is accompanied by restrictions on movement in Tibetan areas, which is linked to intensified militarization in areas where there have been protests or self-immolations.

In recent years, Chinese authorities have imposed new sweeping measures in order to prevent Tibetans from travelling to attend teachings by the Dalai Lama abroad, and to punish those who do. For example, in 2017, Chinese authorities forced thousands of Tibetan pilgrims to return to Tibet after travelling to India to attend a major teaching by the Dalai Lama in the sacred Buddhist site of Bodh Gaya, India. This follows systematic measures to prevent Tibetans in Tibet from travelling out of China at all, even though many waited for years to obtain passports for legal travel.[3]

We believe that only by fully involving Tibetans in any decision-making process and implementation of policies aimed at encouraging tourism to Tibet the objectives of generating economic benefits, improving local living standards, and protecting the environment of the plateau can be achieved. Tibetans should be the primary beneficiaries of revenues from tourism, the main employees of tourism enterprises, and, above all, the guides and story tellers who explain Tibet's culture and values to visitors. Tourism can also play a critical role in promoting cross-cultural dialogue and understanding between Tibetans and Chinese. European investors in tourism in Tibet  such as hotel chains  should do their part in ensuring the active participation of Tibetans in the tourism industry and protecting authentic Tibetan culture.

Our organisations welcome the enhancement of tourism between the EU and China, which will certainly be beneficial for both sides. However, as noted by the European Parliament (EP) in its 2015 report on EU-China relations, the restrictions imposed on EU citizens or on European-Tibetan citizens wishing to travel to certain areas of Tibet do not exist for Chinese citizens who are granted visas to travel to EU Member States or within the Schengen area. In recent months, the EU has been calling for reciprocity with China in the area of trade and, in its 2016 Strategy on China, mentioned the objective to "[P]romote reciprocity, a level playing field and fair competition across all areas of co-operation".[4] This notion of reciprocity should therefore be extended to the respect for fundamental rights, including the freedom of movement and the freedom of information of European citizens in China and Tibet.

During a debate on ECTY in Strasbourg in November 2017, a number of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) questioned the moral implications of celebrating a tourism year with China without a single reference to human rights. Given the EU's commitment to mainstream human rights and freedoms in all areas of its external policy, we would like to know whether and to what extent the human rights situation in Tibet has been part of the discussions around this EU-China Tourism Year.

Lastly, following the announcement last May by Commissioner Avramopoulos of the launch of negotiations between the EU and China for a visa facilitation agreement, we would also be interested to know whether the issuing of visas to citizens from EU Member States of Tibetan descent has also been included into this negotiation process. Chinese authorities have announced that from 1 February 2018, foreigners of Chinese background will be allowed to apply for multiple-entry visas that permit them to stay in China for up to five years, provided they meet certain criteria. Is this new development also part of the ongoing discussion with the EU and could it affect the EU-China visa facilitation agreement?

ICT and FIDH look forward to your feedback on the steps taken by the EU to address these concerns, and remain available should you need any additional information on the above-referenced issues.

Yours sincerely,

Vincent Metten

EU Policy Director

International Campaign for Tibet

Gaelle Dusepulchre

Permanent Representative to the EU

FIDH

Cc:

President of the European Council, Mr. Donald Tusk

Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Mr. Dimitris Avramopoulos

Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the European Commission, Mr. Richard Szostak

Managing Director of Asia and the Pacific, European External Action Service (EEAS), Mr. Gunnar Wiegand

Deputy Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific, EEAS, Ms. Paola Pampaloni

Head of China Division, EEAS, Mr. Ellis Mathews

Chair of the European Parliament, Mr. Antonio Tajani

Chair of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. David McAllister

Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights, Mr. Pier Antonio Panzeri

Chair of the European Parliament's Delegation for Relations with the People's Republic of China, Mr. Jo

Leinen

Link to original story on FIDH websiteHuman rights groups call on States to hold China accountable at the UN Human Rights Council

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 26 February 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Human rights groups call on States to hold China accountable at the UN Human Rights Council, 26 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c654.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

26/02/2018

Open Letter

In a private letter sent to select UN member states, nearly 20 human rights organizations called for clear and concrete actions to denounce China's current rollback in respect for human rights at the UN Human Rights Council, which opens its session in Geneva today.

The groups highlight five cases of human rights defenders that would benefit from further pressure being brought to bear on the Chinese government. They include:

Liu Xia, a poet kept under house arrest after the death of her husband, Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, in July 2017;

Wang Quanzhang, a rights lawyer held incommunicado since July 9, 2015;

Gui Minhai, a Swedish citizen arbitrarily detained in China since he vanished from Thailand in October 2015;

Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan cultural rights and education advocate who has been detained more than two years on charges of inciting separatism;

and Yu Wensheng, a prominent human rights lawyer disbarred, then arbitrarily detained, in January 2018.

Most recently, Mr Wangchuk was the subject of a press release by a group of UN experts on 21 February, who denounced the criminalization of his work to peacefully promote Tibetan language and culture.

"These are just five cases among hundreds, if not more. Taken together, they show that the ferocious crackdown on human rights defenders, including lawyers, that has intensified since President Xi Jinping assumed power continues unabated" say the authors of the letter.

"The Human Rights Council should take further steps to show China that undermining key legal protections for freedoms of expression and association and the rights to a fair trial, not to mention disappearing or arbitrarily detaining dissenting voices, is unacceptable behavior  especially for a would-be "global leader'."

In March 2016, the U.S. led a historic joint statement of twelve countries focused on the human rights situation in China. Following President Xi's consolidation of power at the 19th Party Congress in November 2017, a renewed commitment to a joint statement condemning China's human rights violations has never been more timely.

The organizations urge the governments to call for the release of all arbitrarily detained individuals; condemn the use of 'residential surveillance in a designated location', which the UN Committee against Torture has said 'may amount to incommunicado detention in secret places,'; and promptly grant relevant UN experts unhindered access to all parts of the country, including Tibetan and Uyghur areas.

"The Council's credibility is based on its ability to act swiftly and effectively to address human rights situations and to uphold universal values. However, this has come under attack in recent years, particularly from China and like-minded governments."

"In this context, it is critical for countries to demonstrate their commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights in China, and to defend the values underlying the international human rights system."

This year is particularly important, as human rights defenders inside and outside China prepare for the country's next Universal Periodic Review, scheduled for November 2018.

The letter to governments concludes: "For human rights defenders to have the courage to engage in this important process, with all the risks that it entails, it's critical that they know that they are not alone."

Link to original story on FIDH websiteSouth Sudan: The Human Rights Council should renew the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan and address the need for accountability

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 26 February 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, South Sudan: The Human Rights Council should renew the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan and address the need for accountability, 26 February 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c674.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

26/02/2018

Open Letter

To Permanent Representatives of member and observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council

Geneva, 23 February 2018,

RE: Renewing and strengthening the mandate of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan to ensure accountability for gross violations of human rights and related crimes in South Sudan

Excellencies,

We, the undersigned national, regional and international non-governmental organisations, write to call on your delegation to renew and strengthen the mandate of the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan (the Commission), during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in March. It is essential that the Commission continues its vital work to collect and preserve evidence of gross human rights violations, abuses and related crimes, with a view to end impunity and ensure accountability. The HRC should also strengthen the resolution to make explicit that the mandate of the Commission includes the identification of individual perpetrators, with a view to enable future prosecutions.

The civil war in South Sudan broke out on 15 December 2013 in Juba, quickly spreading north. By the end of 2015, conflict had spread throughout the western and southern Equatorias region. Although the parties to the conflict signed a peace agreement in August 2015, major fighting resumed in July 2016 when the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) and opposition soldiers clashed in Juba, resulting in the loss of civilian lives, looting of civilian property, and further displacement of civilians.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 4 million South Sudanese have been displaced since 2013, including 1.9 million people who have been internally displaced. In 2017 alone, 700,000 South Sudanese fled as refugees to neighbouring countries. OCHA further reports that 7 million South Sudanese need assistance and protection.

After the Commission's visit to South Sudan in December 2017, Commissioner Clapham expressed concern at the increased levels of violations and abuses, including sexual violence, committed by the parties against civilians. He noted that the "atrocities and the violations are no longer confined to a few parts of South Sudan but are rather spread across the entire country."

The Commissioners renewed their call for perpetrators of the widespread human rights violations to be brought to justice. Commissioner Yasmin Sooka emphasised the immediate need to establish the Hybrid Court and the Commission on Truth, Healing and Reconciliation. Although the South Sudan Council of Ministers reportedly approved the Hybrid Court statute and the government's Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the African Union, the South Sudanese government is yet to take further steps to operationalise the Court.

Regional actors have also voiced frustration and concern over the continued violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. In January, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) expressed frustrations with the parties' failure to comply with the Agreement on Cessation of Hostilities, Protection of Civilians, and Humanitarian Access and their violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws. IGAD's Council of Ministers resolved "to take all necessary measures including targeted sanctions against individual violators and spoilers of the peace agreement."

In addition, during the 30th ordinary session of the African Union (AU) summit, Moussa Faki Mahamat, AU Commission Chairperson reiterated the support of the AU to IGAD to impose sanctions on leaders violating the ceasefire agreements. "In South Sudan, how can we not repeat that we cannot understand the insane violence that the belligerents inflict, with indescribable cruelty, on a population that has suffered too much. The time has come to impose sanctions on those who obstruct peace". On 2 February 2018, the United States of America imposed a unilateral arms embargo on the country.

With the violence ongoing, and in the absence of another international mechanism to monitor and document human rights violations and abuses, and pending the establishment and operationalisation of the Hybrid Court, the Commission's role is vital. Moreover, the Commission might be needed even when the Court is established. Our organisations urge the UN HRC to take strong and meaningful action during its 37th Session to enhance the Commission's mandate and enable it to support justice, truth, and reparation for the victims of the grave human rights violations committed in South Sudan

We call on all Member States to adopt a resolution that:

Renews the mandate of the Commission to conduct independent investigations into alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, collect and preserve evidence of gross human rights violations and abuses and related crimes, with a view to ending impunity and ensuring accountability, with a particular focus on sexual and gender-based crimes, and attacks or reprisals against human rights defenders;

Strengthens the language on accountability to make explicit that the mandate of the Commission includes the identification of individual perpetrators, with a view to future prosecutions.

Urges the Government of South Sudan to allow and facilitate access to all locations and persons of interest to the Commission;

Requests that the report of the Commission be transmitted to the AU Commission in order to support and inform future investigations of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan and the UN Security Council for consideration and further action;

Encourages the AU to take immediate steps to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan as recommended by the AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan, and provided for in the 2015 peace agreement;

Urges all States to encourage further concrete action to deter and address on-going violations of international human rights and humanitarian law at the UN Security Council.

We thank you for your attention to these pressing issues.

Sincerely,

1. African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies (The Gambia)

2. Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia

3. Burundian Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (CBDDH)

4. CIVICUS

5. Community Empowerment for Progress Organisation (South Sudan)

6. DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project)

7. End Impunity Organisation (South Sudan)

8. Eritrean Law Society

9. Eve Organisation for Women Development (South Sudan)

10. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

11. Global Society Initiative for Peace and Democracy (South Sudan)

12. Human Rights Centre Somaliland

13. Human Rights Watch

14. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

15. International Refugee Rights Initiative

16. International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

17. International Youth for Africa (South Sudan)

18. Pan African Human Rights Defenders Network

19. South Sudan Christian Community Agency

20. South Sudan Human Rights Society for Advocacy

21. South Sudan Law Society

22. Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition

23. West African Human Rights Defenders Network (Togo)

24. Women Monthly Forum (South Sudan)

Link to original story on FIDH websiteRussia 2012-2018: 50 anti-democracy laws entered into force within last presidential mandate

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 11 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Russia 2012-2018: 50 anti-democracy laws entered into force within last presidential mandate, 11 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c69a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

11/03/2018

Press release

Since re-election in 2012, Russian president has overseen the creation of 50 new laws designed to strangle opposition voices and raise the level of fear and self-control in the society, according to new research by FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights). Their fields of application and thematics vary just as much as the harshness of sentences. Presented in chronological order, a table summarizes the fifty laws and their consequences in the lives of Russian citizens.

The new laws and regulations, introduced during Putin's most recent term in office, range from increased surveillance and censorship powers, to laws banning "questioning the integrity of the Russian nation" - effectively banning criticism of Russia's presence in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea  broad laws on "extremism" that grant authorities powers to crack down on political and religious freedom, to imposing certain views on Russian history through forbidding to think differently.

A specific and complex branch of laws have also been constructed through these lasts years to make it more difficult for NGOs and human rights organisations to run and communicate on their activities, to access the information, to receive international funding, severely hindering their ability to operate independently, and as a matter of fact, for the smaller ones, to survive.

The impressive table which reflects three years of thorough monitoring, is presented in chronological order.

The table doesn't only list the laws: it explains the kickback each of them represents fundamental freedoms of Russian citizens, cutting little bit more every days the free exchanges with the outside world. It also provides some, far from exhaustive, examples, of the legal abuses it provokes in the every day life of citizens.

New era requires new methods for those who have to fill the legitimity gap while the Iron curtain is no longer there and Internet breaks the borders through. Not only the present but also the past gets filtered and controlled. Everything is good to take, there are no little or big details: a poet charged with extremism for a poem on Ukraine, notion of "undesirable" organisations which seems to pump-up from the Harry Potter evil references, ban to negatively mention any deeds of Red Army during the Second World II or ban on evening/ overnight assemblies designed to prevent EuroMaidan kind of meetings, but also criminal charges for more than three participating in the protest actions.

A requirement for messaging services to host all data within Russia, and decrypt users' information on demand go with a special list of those who have a double nationality, those who can't travel abroad, newly defined State treason or attempts to access classified information (for instance Russian military losses in the conflicts).

FIDH warns: Putin regime's increasing aggression and authoritarianism at home is a precondition of its foreign aggressive policy.

The first round of Russia's presidential election takes place on Sunday 18 March.

The full breakdown of Russia's 50 anti-democracy laws is available to download here

Link to original story on FIDH websiteOral Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 12 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Oral Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, 12 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c6ba.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

12/03/2018

Statement

Madam Vice-President, Madam Rapporteur, members of the Fact-Finding Mission,

FIDH welcomes the Special Rapporteur's report and the Fact-Finding Mission's oral update.

We condemn the Myanmar government's ongoing efforts to erase Rohingya existence and its continued denial and cover up of the atrocities committed. In less than 18 months, security forces have almost emptied Rakhine State of its entire Rohingya population.

The government's recent claim that "the vast majority of Muslims" in Rakhine State remain in their villages is blatantly false. The military's explanation that the massive Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh is the result of terrorists fleeing with their family members is preposterous and insulting.

The government's refusal to grant the Special Rapporteur and the Fact-Finding Mission access to Myanmar shows that it is unwilling to foster accountability for crimes committed in ethnic minority areas, including in Kachin and Shan States. We urge the Council to stand firm on the legitimate mandate of the Special Rapporteur and the Fact-Finding Mission to work unhindered by threats and obstruction. We support the High Commissioner's call for the Council to ask the General Assembly to establish a new independent and impartial mechanism to bring perpetrators to justice.

We remain disturbed by the government's failure to address other long-standing human rights issues. Nearly 100 political prisoners, including human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and farmers, remain behind bars. They must be immediately released.

Old and new laws that are inconsistent with international standards remain an obstacle to the full enjoyment of the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association. These draconian laws must be urgently scrapped or significantly reformed.

As the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders turns 20, defenders across the country remain as vulnerable as ever. At least five of them have been killed over the past 18 months and, in most cases, no effective investigations have been conducted. It is imperative that the government adopts specific measures to ensure the protection of human rights defenders.

Thank you.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteSyria: War crimes against journalists in Homs: FIDH and victims' families call for charges to be brought

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 12 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Syria: War crimes against journalists in Homs: FIDH and victims' families call for charges to be brought, 12 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c6da.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

12/03/2018

Press release

Paris, 12 March 2018  Six years after the bombing of a hidden makeshift press centre in the rebel-held Baba Amr neighbourhood in Homs, that left journalists Remi Ochlik and Marie Colvin dead, evidence available to French investigators leaves no doubt as to the premeditated, targeted nature of the attack. Likewise, the identities of several individuals alleged to have planned and ordered the attack  all high-ranking members of the Syrian military and security apparatus  is also known. However, no charges have been issued to date. FIDH, together with survivors of the attack and families of the two journalists assassinated in Homs, demand that international arrest warrants against the suspected perpetrators be issued without delay.

While the Syrian regime may have reclaimed the last rebel-held parts of Homs by raining down a constant shower of bombs and missiles on the area, the attack against the clandestine Baba Amr press centre on 22 February 2012 was far from random. The attack killed two people: French photo-journalist Remi Ochlik, who was 28, and American war correspondent Marie Colvin, and left three others wounded: Wael Al-Omar, Edith Bouvier and Paul Conroy.

A preliminary investigation into the attack was opened in France in 2012, initially for assassination and attempted assassination the focus shifted in 2014 to war crimes. An eyewitness to the planning of the attack recently testified before French investigators and confirmed in particular detail earlier information and evidence in the case file that demonstrates it's premeditated, targeted nature.

The aim of the attack is now clear: eliminate journalists present in Homs to prevent them from reporting on the regime's bloody campaign to reclaim Homs and discourage other reporters from coming to Syria to cover the conflict from rebel-held zones. The sequence of events is slowly becoming clearer: starting with the interception and tracking of Marie Colvin's telephone calls; the presence of an informant near the press centre; a meeting to plan the rocket attack held in the head of the Homs Military Security Committee's offices; and checks after the attack to make sure no journalists had escaped alive.

Several people identified by witnesses as having worked together to plan and carry out the attack are members of the Syrian military and security elite: Maher El Assad, brother of the Syrian president and Commander of the elite 4th Armoured Division; Ali Mamluk, Head of the Syrian Secret Services; and Rafik Shahadah, Head of the Homs Military Security Committee at the time.

The French investigation is today the only case that targets the criminal responsibility of those behind the attack. It is surprising that the French authorities have taken no formal steps against the suspected perpetrators, despite ample evidence in the case file.

Link to original story on FIDH websitePakistan: Government's lack of commitment at UN rights review a missed opportunity

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 15 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Pakistan: Government's lack of commitment at UN rights review a missed opportunity, 15 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c6fa.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

15/03/2018

Press release

(Lahore, Paris) The Pakistani government missed yet another opportunity to show its commitment to address key human rights issues during a United Nations (UN)-backed review, FIDH and its member organization Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said today.

Pakistan's human rights situation was assessed during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which was held on 13 November 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. The outcome of Pakistan's third UPR is scheduled to be adopted on 16 March 2018, during the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The Pakistani government accepted 168 of the 289 recommendations it received from UN member states during the third UPR. Another 117 recommendations were 'noted' and four were rejected.

FIDH and HRCP urge the Pakistani government to immediately begin the process of implementation of the recommendations that it did not accept and that are consistent with its obligations under human rights treaties to which Pakistan is a state party.

Below is a brief analysis of the government's response to the recommendations made by UN member states with regard to selected key human rights issues.

Death penalty

The government did not accept any of the 34 recommendations it received concerning the death penalty. These included 22 recommendations that called for the reinstatement of the moratorium on capital punishment, eight that called for the ratification of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-OP2), and four that urged an end to the imposition of the death penalty on juveniles and their executions.

Enforced disappearances

The government accepted two recommendations that called for investigations into allegations of enforced disappearances (including those involving human rights defenders). However, the government refused to commit to the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).

Use of military courts for trials of civilians

The government refused to accept the two recommendations that called for an end of the use of military courts for trials of civilians.

Protection of human rights defenders

The government accepted only three of the six recommendations that called for the protection of human rights defenders and for investigations into attacks (including enforced disappearances) against them.

Right to freedom of expression

The government accepted only four of the seven recommendations that called for the adoption of measures to protect journalists and to combat impunity for attacks against them. In addition, it did not accept any of the 14 recommendations that called for the repeal or amendment of blasphemy laws as well as a recommendation that called on the government to take steps to protect freedom of expression online.

Protection of religious minorities, right to freedom of religion or belief

None of the 10 recommendations that called for the adoption of measures aimed at protecting religious minorities and the right to freedom of religion or belief enjoyed the government's support. The government's commitment was limited to investigating all reports of violence against religious minorities and bringing those responsible to justice.

Women's rights

The government accepted 41 of the 54 recommendations it received with regard to women's rights. These included 31 recommendations that called for the protection of women's rights and the adoption of measures, including at the legislative level, aimed at preventing discrimination and violence against women and girls and ensuring punishment for all perpetrators of violence against women.

On a more negative note, the government did not accept four recommendations that called for the raising of the minimum marriage age for girls from 16 to 18 years and three recommendations that urged the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW).

LGBTI rights

The government failed to accept all seven recommendations that called for the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people from violence and discrimination and for the protection of their rights.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteOral statement for the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Pakistan

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 19 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Oral statement for the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Pakistan, 19 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c71a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

19/03/2018

Statement

Madam Vice-President,

FIDH and its member organization, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), express profound sadness at the untimely passing of our colleague and friend Asma Jahangir, a human rights champion who worked tirelessly to protect the rights of all, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups.

With regard to the UPR, FIDH and HRCP regret that the government of Pakistan missed yet another opportunity to show its commitment to address key human rights issues. Despite having accepted nearly 60% of the recommendations it received, it is apparent that the government lacks the political will to address the most serious human rights violations, such as enforced disappearances, the persecution of religious minorities, the use of the death penalty, and extrajudicial killings.

The government's blanket refusal to commit to end the death penalty, including for juveniles and for offenses that do not meet the threshold of the 'most serious crimes', is particularly disappointing because this practice is in clear violation of Pakistan's international human rights obligations.

Freedom of expression continues to be silenced through the harassment, arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance of voices critical of the government or Islam. In this context, it is concerning that the government did not accept any of the recommendations that called for the repeal or amendment of blasphemy laws.

We are also disappointed by the government's failure to accept all recommendations that are meant to protect persons from violence and discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

We welcome the government's positive response to over 30 recommendations that called for the protection of women's rights and the adoption of measures aimed at preventing discrimination and violence against women and ensuring punishment for all perpetrators of violence against them. We sincerely hope the authorities will translate this commitment into action.

FIDH and HRCP further urge the Pakistani government to immediately begin the implementation of the recommendations that it did not accept and that are consistent with its obligations under human rights treaties to which Pakistan is a state party.

Thank you.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteOpen letter to French President Emmanuel Macron

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 24 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, 24 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c73ff.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

24/03/2018

Open Letter

The Hon. Emmanuel Macron

President of France

Palais de l'Elysee

Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore

75008 Paris

France

Paris, 24 March 2018

Re: Visit of the Communist Party of Vietnam's General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong

Mr. President,

You have invited the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, to visit France from 25  28 March 2018 to mark the 45th Anniversary of Franco-Vietnamese diplomatic relations and the 5th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership between France and Vietnam. With this official visit, you are receiving the head of a political party  the Communist Party (CPV)  with the honours due to a head of state.

Needless to say, the CPV is not simply a political party. It is the only legally recognized party in Vietnam, which has recently prohibited its members from discussing democracy, the separation of powers, and pluralism, or face expulsion.

You have centered your mandate on the active participation of civil society in the nation's political affairs. The man you receive today represents a regime whose aim is the very opposite  to stifle civil society voices and destroy its citizens' aspirations to manifest any interest in public affairs, other than by applauding the opaque decisions of their rulers. He is the man who declared that "Communism is better than democracy". In light of the current crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression in Vietnam  one of the worst since the country's economic opening under the "Doi Moi" policy in 1986  Mr. Trong is clearly referring to the security and police apparatus that is the last vestige of a totalitarian state.

Repression against civil society in Vietnam is deliberate and well-organized. While claiming to develop the "rule of law", Vietnam is reinforcing the "rule by law" by adopting extensive legislation that criminalizes the exercise of fundamental rights. Vaguely-worded "national security" provisions of the Criminal Code are the backbone of the government's repression against dissidents, bloggers, citizen journalists, human rights defenders, and members of "non-recognized" religious communities. At the United Nations, during Vietnam's Universal Periodic Review in 2014, France called for the repeal or amendment of national security provisions to ensure they did not restrict freedom of opinion and expression. Vietnam took no such action.

Under this cloak of so-called "legality", the Vietnamese government has arrested, prosecuted, and arbitrarily imprisoned scores of civil society activist  62 in the past 14 months alone. At least 130 prisoners of conscience languish in Vietnam's jails today. They include blogger and former CPV member Nguyen Huu Vinh (sentenced to five years in prison), human rights defenders Me Nam Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh and Tran Thi Nga (10 and nine years in prison, respectively). Both Me Nam and Nga, who are mothers of young children, were recently transferred to a prison more than 1,000 kilometers from their homes to prevent them from receiving visits. Social rights activist Nguyen Van Oai (sentenced to five years in prison) has also been sent to a prison far from his home. Human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, arrested in December 2016, has spent over a year in pre-trial detention on charges of "attempting to overthrow the people's government", a crime which carries the death penalty.

Religious freedom is restricted by a draconian, mandatory system of registration. Religious communities not registered with the state, such as the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), are subjected to daily repression and harassments. UBCV leader Thich Quang Do remains under house arrest after more than 35 years of various forms of arbitrary detention. Ethnic minority Christians (Hmong, Montagnards), Cao Dai, Hoa Hao Buddhists (ten of whom were recently sentenced to prison sentences of up to 12 years) are the targets of repression simply for exercise their right to freedom of religion.

Vietnam's suppression of civil society is not only a blatant violation of fundamental rights, but it has dramatic consequences on the daily lives of ordinary people. With no free press, no free trade unions, no independent civil society and no independent judiciary in Vietnam, people have no means to defend themselves or express their grievances. For example, in April 2016, Vietnam's central coast was struck by one of the worst ever industrial pollution disasters. Toxic waste spill from the Formosa steel plant contaminated over 200 kilometers of coastal waters, causing the deaths of hundreds of tons of fish and destroying the livelihood of local people, whose survival depends on fishing. The victims received no compensation, and those who filed complaints or even expressed concern were harshly repressed. Medical doctor Ho Van Hai, who simply wrote on his blog about the serious consequences of pollution on people's health, was arrested and recently sentenced to four years in prison and two years' house arrest on charges of "propaganda against the State".

Protesting poor working conditions in Vietnam is also taboo. A recent report on the working conditions of women in the electronics industry revealed violations of worker rights leading to serious health problems such as miscarriages, fainting, and extreme fatigue. The report's author, Ms. Pham Thi Minh Hang, was subsequently threatened and harassed by the authorities. Female workers were threatened with lawsuits if they talked to people outside their company about working conditions.

Mr. President,

We do not deny the importance of developing relationships between France and Vietnam. But this relationship must not entail the sacrifice of France's principles as the birthplace of human rights, nor the well-being of the Vietnamese people. You cannot receive a dictator such as Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong without using all your authority to insist that Vietnam upholds its commitment to the international community to respect and guarantee human rights.

It is essential that France speaks out loud and clear to urge Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience, cease harassments, beatings and all other forms of intimidation against civil society activists and human rights defenders and end religious persecution. Vietnam should also take steps to progressively dismantle its arsenal of anti-human rights legislation. To remain silent on these crucial issues would cause deep disappointment to civil society in Vietnam.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteU.S. Treasury Dept. says China is not a currency manipulator

The U.S. Treasury Department has again declared that China is not a currency manipulator.

A report said officials are 'deeply disappointed' in China's actions, but they don't rise to the level of manipulation.

This is at odds with President Donald Trump's claims otherwise.

The report did say that China would be kept on a financial watch-list, along with several U.S. allies.

Washington has not labeled China a currency manipulator since 1994.Report for UN review calls for end of persecution of Chinese and foreign human rights defenders

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 29 March 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Report for UN review calls for end of persecution of Chinese and foreign human rights defenders, 29 March 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c756.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

29/03/2018

Press release

(Paris, Taipei) In a joint report submitted today for the third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of China, FIDH and its member organization Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) documented the Chinese government's repressive actions against Chinese and foreign human rights defenders. The third UPR of China is scheduled to be held in November 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Since China's second UPR in 2013, authorities have intensified the crackdown on both local and foreign human rights defenders through arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, prosecutions, and imprisonment. These actions have been inconsistent with the recommendations the Chinese government accepted in the 2013 UPR to provide a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders and civil society.

In many cases, authorities have invoked vaguely worded 'national security' provisions in their draconian legislation, such as Articles 103 ('inciting separatism') and 105 (including 'subversion of the state power' and 'inciting subversion') of China's Criminal Law, to arrest, detain, and prosecute human rights defenders without due process. New repressive laws, such as the "Law of the People's Republic of China on Administration of Activities of Overseas Non-Governmental Organizations in the Mainland of China" and the "Cybersecurity Law", have contributed to creating an unsafe and overly restrictive environment for civil society actors.

The case of Taiwanese activist Li Ming-Che illustrates the ordeal to which many human rights defenders have been subjected simply for the legitimate and peaceful exercise of their rights and their support for democracy and human rights.

Li Ming-Che was arrested on 19 March 2017 in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, after entering China from Macau. Chinese authorities refused to disclose his fate or whereabouts until 27 March 2017, when they revealed that Li Ming-Che was being detained at an undisclosed location and investigated by police on suspicion of "endangering national security." His right to access to effective legal counsel was denied, even if the Chinese government announced that a lawyer had been appointed on 14 June 2017. On 28 November 2017, a court in Yueyang, Hunan Province, found Li Ming-Che guilty of charges of "subversion of the state power" and sentenced him to five years in prison for sharing information about the history and democratization of Taiwan and for criticizing the Chinese government through social media. In court, Li Ming-Che was forced to confess to this crime in front of the court's cameras. After the trial, Li Ming-Che's whereabouts remained unknown until January 2018, when a document received by his family members revealed that he was imprisoned in Zishan Prison in China's Hunan Province. He remained imprisoned incommunicado until his wife was allowed to visit him on 27 March 2018.

In their joint report, FIDH and TAHR call on United Nations (UN) member states to make a series of recommendations to China, which include: the amendment or repeal of legislation that is inconsistent with international standards related to the right to freedom of association and the right to freedom of opinion and expression; an end to the arrest and detention of individuals for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of opinion and expression; cooperation with UN special procedures; and the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

Link to original story on FIDH websiteMali - Al Hassan to the ICC: a milestone for justice

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 3 April 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Mali - Al Hassan to the ICC: a milestone for justice, 3 April 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c77a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

03/04/2018

Press release

(Bamako, Paris) The transfer of Al Hassan, chief of the Islamic police in Timbuktu during the city's occupation by Jihadist groups in 2012 and 2013, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague is a milestone in judicial proceedings brought for crimes committed during that period. This is the first prosecution in the Mali situation before the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity against individuals, and in particular for charges of sexual and gender-based violence, namely rape, sexual slavery and, for the first time before the Court, persecution on gender grounds. The victims and our organisations, who lodged a complaint against him with the Malian courts in March 2015, welcome this prosecution, taking place at a time when the national judicial proceedings appear to be at a standstill, despite the commitments made by the Malian authorities.

In March 2015, following numerous investigations, FIDH, AMDH, WILDAF, AJM, DEMESO, Cri de Coeur Collective and 33 victims lodged a complaint with the court of District 3 in Bamako against 15 alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the Timbuktu region, including Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz Ag Mohamed Ag Mahmoud who held the position of chief of Islamic police during the city's occupation. According to information gathered by our organisations, Al Hassan was directly involved in sexual violence committed against several dozens of women who were victims of rape and sexual slavery, among other offences.

Whereas Al Mahdi has been sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment by the ICC exclusively for his conduct in the destruction of religious and historic buildings in Timbuktu, the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Al Hassan concerns, in addition to those same charges, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against individuals, including torture, sexual violence and gender-based violence (rape and sexual slavery), and is, therefore, the first prosecution before the ICC for persecution on gender grounds.

The arrest and transfer of Al Hassan to The Hague represent significant progress in the investigations and prosecutions carried out by the ICC, in particular for the Timbuktu victims who are still waiting for justice to be done.

Whilst our organisations welcome this progress, we nevertheless wish to stress, that since an investigation was commenced by the Malian justice system in 2015, following the complaint lodged by our organisations, Al Hassan could have been tried by the national courts, just as Aliou Mahamane Toure, former chief of Islamic police in Gao, was in August 2017. Our organisations also wish stress that Ag Alfousseyni Houka Houka, who was the Islamic judge of Timbuktu during the occupation of the city of Timbuktu and who, in that capacity, issued decisions which were implemented by Al Hassan's Islamic police, is now, following his release in August 2014, in the municipality of Essakane, situated in the Timbuktu region, where he is regularly seen. Houka Houka still stands accused by the Malian justice system of crimes committed in Timbuktu, and the de facto impunity from which he benefits is an infringement of the victims' right to justice.

This decision sends a strong signal to an environment which does little to promote the fight against impunity in Mali. With the July presidential election fastly approaching, a preliminary draft law of national understanding, announced by the President of the Republic on 31 December 2017, was sent by the Ombudsman of the Republic to the prime minister on 5 March, without the involvement of any civil society actors. That draft could provide for amnesties for 'all those involved in an armed rebellion' who have 'no blood on their hands'. Given that there has been no further progress in the judicial proceedings, the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (CVJR) has not finished its work and the International Commission of Inquiry has only just started its assignment, our organisations call on the Malian authorities to suspend this process and to wait until the necessary enquiries can be carried out. Otherwise, such a law could enshrine impunity and arbitrariness, a long way away from the commitments made by the national authorities since 2013.

The Sanogo trial, which has been stalled since November 2016 has still not resumed in addition to a number of other judicial proceedings that are at a standstill. Our organisations published a report in December 2017, setting out concrete recommendations for strengthening the Malian judicial system in order to meet the commitment made to justice.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteFIDH and EuroMed Rights call for the end of lethal force against Palestinian protesters

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 13 April 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, FIDH and EuroMed Rights call for the end of lethal force against Palestinian protesters, 13 April 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c79a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

13/04/2018

Statement

Ahead of todays' planned demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, EuroMed Rights and FIDH are calling on the European Union to urge Israel to refrain from using lethal or excessive force against unarmed protesters, which has already resulted in the unlawful killings and injury of about 2,000 Palestinians over the past two weeks.

Brussels, 13 April 2018

Since 29 March, Palestinian and international human rights organisations have continually warned Israeli authorities about the illegality of the use of live ammunition against unarmed demonstrators, which will inevitably result in increased civilian casualties. However, the Israeli military has confirmed that they did not intend to change their open-fire policy. This was demonstrated again during the second round of protests last Friday, as 10 Palestinians were killed and 832 were wounded, including protestors, journalists and medics.

If Israel's open-fire policy continues in Gaza, there is a high risk of further killings and injuries of Palestinian protesters. Several United Nations human rights experts, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court have already condemned the killings and recalled that the use of lethal force against unarmed demonstrators is strictly prohibited by international law.

Since 30 March 2018, Israeli authorities killed 25 Palestinians taking part in the protests, including three children, and one journalist. About 2,000 have been wounded, including 342 children and 76 women. Among those injured, at least 1,150 were shot with live ammunition and around 40 remain in serious or critical condition.

It is essential that the European Union and its Member States join the international community concerns and, in particular:

Condemn the use of lethal force in contravention with international law and call on Israel to stop its shoot-to-kill policy against peaceful protesters;

Recognise the right of all people to free expression and association to assert their demands, including the population of the Gaza Strip who is protesting Israel's blockade and asserting the right of refugees to return;

Support the calls for impartial, prompt and credible investigations into the suspected unlawful killings of unarmed protesters during the past two weeks.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteSupporting the future of Syria and the region: FIDH and SCM priorities for the Brussels II Conference (24-25 April 2018)

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 23 April 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Supporting the future of Syria and the region: FIDH and SCM priorities for the Brussels II Conference (24-25 April 2018), 23 April 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c7e4.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

23/04/2018

Press release

Ahead of the 24-25 April "Brussels II Conference", and while major human rights and international humanitarian law violations continue seven years after the beginning of the Syrian uprising, FIDH and SCM (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression) reinstate their call issued ahead of last year's Conference, that donors and UN member States should ensure that any financial support to Syria's "reconstruction", "early recovery", "resilience" and/or "stabilisation" be conditioned to the effective engagement of an inclusive political transition to a sustained and durable peace, and that no funding should be directed to the Syrian government or any development agency under the Syrian Government's authority until:

An inclusive political transition with credible guarantees of accountability and the right to return is under way

The Assad government and its allies have ended all attacks targeting civilians, including the bombing of residential areas and illegal sieges, respected a ceasefire and guaranteed a full and unhindered humanitarian access and passage for civilians.

Independent monitors are allowed unhindered access to all secret, clandestine and public, temporary and permanent, places of detention.

Humanitarian and civil society organisations are effectively decriminalised, and allowed to operate safely and freely, and their necessary contribution to the future of Syria recognised.

These requirements need a significant political mobilisation, which could lead to crucial results without substantial financial contribution. FIDH and SCM call on the international community to take into account the following priorities, which should be considered as indispensable for any discussion on the future of Syria:

1- Truth and justice for detained and enforcedly disappeared persons

Under international law, each party to the conflict has the obligation to take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing as a result of hostilities and provide their family members with any information it has on their fate.

Approximately one million Syrians are estimated to have been arbitrarily arrested and unlawfully detained since 2011, by Government forces and affiliated militias in official and makeshift detention centres throughout the Syrian Arab Republic. In 2017 only, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, 6,517 persons were arrested ; in the month of January 2018 only, 496. According to the same organisation, 85,000 people have been subjected to enforced disappearance by the Syrian government since 2011.

The vast majority of detainees are being held without due process and are not allowed access to legal representation or to their families. They endure various forms of brutal torture and subsist in severely inhumane conditions. Many have died in detention, while others have been summarily executed. According to Amnesty international, 13,000 persons have been killed in the sole prison of Sadnaya since 2011. The bodies of those who have died as a result of torture, neglect, inhumane conditions, or from executions are rarely returned to their families, who are also not notified about burials.

United Nations Security Council resolutions 2254 (2015) and 2258 (2015) call on all parties to the conflict to release any arbitrarily detained persons, particularly women and children. Despite these resolutions, little has changed.

In December 2017, the decision to establish under the auspices of the Astana Conference a "working group" for the release of detainees, although an interesting step whose impact remains to be seen, lacks international legitimacy. Rather than country-sponsored initiatives, the United Nations should supervise such kinds of processes.

The release of 200 detainees by Jaish al-Islam, early April 2018, as part of an evacuation deal over the holdout town of Douma, proves that decisions intervene. Nevertheless, the fate of some 3,000, allegedly captive in the stronghold, remain unaccounted for, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among them, human rights defenders of the Violations Documentation Centre, Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil and Nazem al-Hammadi, who were abducted by unidentified assailants in December 2013 from their office by unidentified armed men in Douma, at a time when the locality was under the control of Jaish al-Islam. While those responsible for their abduction remain unknown, allegations that they had been transferred elsewhere, or swapped for rebels jailed by the Government are plausible.

Beyond Douma, other human rights defenders remain disappeared after the evacuation and cease-fire deals are concluded, such as Jesuit priest Father Paolo, abducted by ISIS in 2013, or Abdullah al Khalil, abducted on May 2013 in Raqqa.

Thus, for many of the Russia-brokered evacuation agreements, the fate of many people taken hostage by the rebels remains unknown, and concerns remain about how effective these prisoner exchange agreements are at resolving the detention situation.

In addition, the vast number of detainees under the responsibility of the Syrian authorities remains unaddressed. Among them, the fate of detained human rights defenders, who are either detained by government authorities or likely to be arrested by the government should they be released by other warring parties, requires appropriate action.

As a consequence, our organisations call on donors and UN member States to follow-up on the recommendations of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, and set as contingent of the assistance provided upon to the adherence of recommendations and commitments to:

Immediately and unconditionally release all persons imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of human rights, or because of their identity.

Ensure that all those detained are registered, have access to a lawyer, can challenge the legality of their detention before an independent court, are provided access to medical care, are held in recognized places of detention and are allowed regular visits by their families.

Inform families of the fate, whereabouts and legal status of all persons in their custody and respond to all outstanding requests.

Grant independent international monitors, such as the UN-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, unhindered access to all persons deprived of their liberty and allow them to investigate and monitor conditions in all detention facilities.

Hold accountable the perpetrators of torture and mistreatment.

In addition, donors should allocate specific funding in order to monitor, document and investigate places of detention, sexual and gender violence in the context of detention, torture and inhumane treatments, and the setting up of rehabilitation processes. In particular, an independent body to investigate the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared, as well as unidentified human remains and mass graves in Syria should be set up, with a broad mandate to investigate, including by reviewing all official records and interviewing any official.

Lastly, all cases of enforced disappearance should be investigated, and suspected perpetrators be prosecuted in civilian courts in proceedings that conform to international fair trial standards, and victims should receive full reparation.

2- The right to a safe return for internally displaced persons and refugees

Today, Syrians make up the largest refugee population in the world. Since the start of the conflict, more than 5,5 million Syrians have been forced to leave their country. 6,5 million Syrians  including 2,8 million children  have been forced to leave their homes and are internally displaced within Syria. Overall, between refugees and internally displaced persons, more than half of the Syrian population have left their homes since 2011.

A closer examination of the Syrian conflict would reveal that the Syrian regime and its allies are the main architects of an ongoing demographic engineering in the country, but not the sole perpetrators.

Over the past seven years, the Syrian government and, to a lesser degree, armed radical and opposition groups, have enforced sieges on densely populated areas, depriving civilians of food, medicine and other basic necessities in violation of international humanitarian law. Local "evacuation agreements" have increasingly become one of the Syrian government's key strategies to force the opposition's surrender. The agreements are presented by the government and its allies as a "reconciliation" effort, but, in reality, they come after prolonged unlawful sieges and bombardment and typically result not only in the evacuation of members of non-state armed groups but also in the mass, forced displacement of civilian residents of these areas.

In such context, our organisations urge donors and UN member States participating in the Brussels Conference to:

State clearly the right of civilians to live where they wish and allow civilians who have been displaced to return to their homes safely, in dignity and voluntarily based on free, informed, individual choice.

Call on parties to evacuation agreements to ensure that evacuees are able to or may choose to return to their original property, with clear guarantees for evacuations, entitlement and protection of their property, and ensure adequate compensation for displaced civilians whose properties have been destroyed or damaged in the course of the conflict.

Refrain from engaging in reconstruction plans and funding before guarantees are secured for displaced populations to return safely to their homes and properties.

3- Support efforts by the independent civil society and victims to fight impunity

Since the start of the uprising that broke out in Syria in March 2011, the killing of civilians, the use of prohibited weapons, including chemical weapons, enforced disappearances and torture of detainees, summary executions, sieges on towns and cities, forced displacements of the population have continued, despite abundant evidence and images that have shocked the world.

To many observers, the impunity of the crimes committed have fuelled further crimes and abuse and will continue to do so.

All referral of the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court by the UN Security Council remains blocked by the Russian and Chinese veto. And this, despite calls from the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Faced with the impossibility of obtaining real justice in Syria and the political impasse that blocks the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court, prosecutions before national justice systems in third countries, via what is known as extraterritorial jurisdiction, constitute the only hope for Syrians in search of justice and redress.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction gives prosecutors and judges in a third country the power to investigate and try crimes that took place abroad. It applies to the most serious crimes, or international crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. These crimes are serious to the extent they are considered to be a stain on humanity, and therefore can and should be prosecuted abroad, if necessary.

Unfortunately, many political and legal obstacles remain which, in practice, render this supposedly "universal" form of justice extremely difficult to access for Syrian victims. Several legal hurdles and capacity gaps remain, such as the lack of political will that slows down or stops proceedings ; the narrow legal frameworks that restrict access to extraterritorial justice such as requirements that a suspect should reside in a third country to be tried there ; the little margin of manoeuvre left to prosecutors to either pursue or drop cases, that risks leaving victims without access to justice ; the lack of capacity and resources of justice systems to investigate these complex crimes, that require innovative strategies and considerable human and financial ressources.

Despite these obstacles, FIDH and SCM, as well as other NGOs, have stood by Syrian victims and found ways to trigger proceedings for crimes committed in Syria before national justice systems, including in Germany, France, Sweden and Spain.

In addition, in the face of the Security Council deadlock to address the longstanding state of impunity for these abuses on all sides to the conflict, on 21 December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution creating an "international, impartial and independent" mechanism. Its mandate is to collect and analyse evidence of crimes committed in Syria since 2011 and share these files with investigators and judges with jurisdiction over the case, whether national or international.

Countries that voted for the resolution to establish the mechanism in December 2016 took a critically important stand for Syrian victims. Yet, the mechanism faces a demanding task ahead to process the considerable information that exists about ongoing abuses in Syria, develop strong cases, build bridges with victims, as well as collaborate with other documentation groups and national judicial authorities investigating crimes in Syria, with whom the IIIM's files are to be shared.

In such context, our organisations demand the Brussels conference to prioritise efforts to fight against impunity, and notably, to:

State clearly that parties to the conflict responsible for violations of IHL relating to the targeting of schools, medical units, and aid workers will be held accountable.

Support Syrian civil society organisations engaged in documenting crimes, engaging with victim communities and fighting impunity. Support all victims and community-based initiatives working to pursuit justice for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.

Allow Syrian victims and those who hold dual nationality to pursuit justice in Europe and advocate for the neutrality of its tracks in Europe, notably in facilitating Syrian victims' capacities to travel.

Support and make sure the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011' and the UN Commission of Inquiry are able to effectively carry out their respective mandates.

Ensure the IIIM has the vital resources it needs to do its work, notably in moving the IIIM's funding to the regular UN budget.

Call on UN member States to pledge their commitment to cooperate with the IIIM as necessary, including by sharing relevant information about crimes committed in Syria, ensuring their laws allow their justice systems to use the evidence obtained by the IIIM, and, where relevant, providing necessary resources to war crimes units to enhance their capacity to investigate crimes perpetrated in Syria.

Establish a Special Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Syria and endow it with adequate resources.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteMexico: National Human Rights Commission cites federal authorities' responsibility for serious violations committed against human rights defenders Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 25 April 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Mexico: National Human Rights Commission cites federal authorities' responsibility for serious violations committed against human rights defenders Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero, 25 April 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c7f9.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

25/04/2018

Press release

On 20 March 2018, nearly 5 years after several complaints were first lodged, recommendation 5/2018[1] was issued by the Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos [National Human Rights Commission, hereinafter CNDH] in the cases of the human rights defenders Damian Gallardo Martinez, Enrique Guerrero Avina and a further 10 individuals. It is worth recalling that both human rights defenders have been arbitrarily imprisoned since May 2013 and have been the victims of repeated human rights violations from their detention to the present date.[2]

As both the families and the state, national, and international organisations following the defenders' case, we seek to make public the contents of this recommendation, which confirms the veracity of the testimonies provided by Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero concerning the serious human rights violations suffered.

The CNDH's acknowledgement of serious human rights violations joins that of various international organisations such as the United Nations, which has spoken out against these on various occasions and in reminder of which we provide the following:

1) opinions 23/2014[3] and 55/2015[4] of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, considering the respective detentions of Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero to be arbitrary and recommending their immediate release;

2) the urgent appeal[5] in reports on human rights defenders, torture, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly and association concerning the violations committed against Damian Gallardo;

3) the concern for serious violations committed in both cases expressed in the report on the situation of individual defenders prepared by rapporteur Michel Forst after his visit to Mexico in 2017;[6]

4) international organisations such as Front Line Defenders;[7] the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint programme with the World Organisation Against Torture and the International Federation for Human Rights [abbreviated internationally as FIDH]);[8] the Coordinacion Alemana para los Derechos Humanos en Mexico [German Coordination for Human Rights in Mexico];[9] Amnesty International;[10] and a group of 50 international NGOs[11] likewise spoke out on repeated occasions with regard to the arbitrary nature of detention and the serious violations committed against defenders.

The symbolic nature of these cases has resulted in multiple visits being made to Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero, both on the part of international organisations such as the diplomatic corps, and by the representative[12] of the office of the United Nations in Mexico, a historic event in cases of defenders detained in maximum security prisons.

CNDH recommendation 05/2018 draws attention to the responsibility of federal authorities in the commission of serious human rights violations such as excessive use of force, arbitrary detention, home searches, arbitrary interference, violation of legal safety through the revealing of photographs, failure to investigate torture cases and the disclosure of confidential information on detained individuals.

This recommendation reveals a pattern of police behaviour in detentions, such as has been indicated by international organisations as a generalised practice for detentions in Mexico.[13] It provides an account of the existence of serious procedural violations in both cases, calling into question the actions of the police corps, the Procuraduria General de la Republica [Attorney General of Mexico, hereinafter PGR] and the judicial authority itself.

Furthermore, and in spite of the clarity provided on these issues, it is important to point out the deficiencies and omissions of the CNDH recommendation in several aspects. On the one hand, the failure to recognise Damian Gallardo and Enrique Guerrero as human rights defenders is deeply worrying, despite their having been recognised as such by the United Nations and by various international organisations. The CNDH's unwillingness to provide this recognition hampers understanding of the workings of human rights violations and their various aims and impacts.

Moreover, the failure to speak out on the existence of torture in both cases, simply concluding that unnecessary injuries exist, is particularly serious. In effect, not only the two cases of reference but also the 12 cases included in the recommendation show evidence of similar injuries and independent Istanbul protocol documentation consistent with possible torture. The CNDH enumerates only those injuries discovered after detention without analysing them in a global context or discovering the pattern they reveal.

In the particular case of Enrique Guerrero it is worth mentioning that while the CNDH recognises the existence of bullet holes in the human rights defender's vehicle caused by members of the federal police, its conclusions remain evasive and fail to take a stand concerning the attempt at extrajudicial execution that this represents.

In conclusion, the recommendation constitutes yet another indicator of multiple violations committed against defenders and the urgent nature of their release. Compliance with the legally established time frames on the part of the corresponding authorities is fundamental. We the undersigned will be vigilant as to the response of the authorities indicated and due compliance with the recommendation in the various aspects that it sets out.

In this regard, we outline the recommendation's scope, by which the CNDH:

A) will file a report with the PGR such that it investigates and punishes those authorities named as responsible;

B) will lodge a complaint with the federal police's department of Internal Affairs so that it investigates and punishes those members cited for excessive use of force, arbitrary interference, arbitrary detention and violation of procedural guarantees;

C) urges the PGR to continue its investigations into torture denounced by both defenders;

D) urges the Comision Nacional de Seguridad [National Commission for Security] to refrain from publishing photographs or personal data of detained individuals.

We demand that the authorities accept the recommendation in its entirety and consequently comply with the CNDH recommendation.

In this respect, we ask the National Human Rights Commission for the immediate implementation of a monitoring mechanism for complying with the recommendation, with the participation of our organisations, which follow the defenders' cases.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteBurundi: Sentenced to 32 years in prison, Germain Rukuki is the victim of a travesty of justice

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 30 April 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Burundi: Sentenced to 32 years in prison, Germain Rukuki is the victim of a travesty of justice, 30 April 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c81a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

30/04/2018

Press release

Paris-Geneva, April 27, 2018  Human rights defender Germain Rukuki has been sentenced to 32 years following a trial marred by irregularities. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT) condemns one of the heaviest sentences ever handed down against a human rights defender in Burundi.

On April 26, 2018, the Ntahangwa High Court sentenced human rights defender Germain Rukuki to 32 years in prison for "participation in an insurrectional movement", "undermining State security" and "rebellion". Neither Germain Rukuki, nor his lawyers were present while the sentence was read out. Germain Rukuki has been detained since July 2017 for his work with Action des chretiens pour l'abolition de la torture in Burundi (ACAT-Burundi), which documents acts of torture and other crimes committed throughout the country, mainly by President Nkurunziza's regime.

This decision, which is clearly politically motivated, comes three weeks ahead of a highly controversial constitutional referendum aimed at allowing President Nkurunziza to remain in power until 2034, and three years after the beginning of the Burundian crisis, sparked by the announcement of Pierre Nkurunziza's intention to run for a third term.

Throughout his trial Germain Rukuki became a symbol of the repression and judicial harassment targeting Burundian human rights defenders since the beginning of the crisis in April 2015. All of the judicial proceedings against him were marred by numerous irregularities. Germain Rukuki was first arrested and illegally detained within the national intelligence premises (SNR) before he was transferred to the Ngozi prison and appeared before the Court twice, facing systemic violations of his right to a fair trial. No concrete or convincing proof of his guilt was ever presented, and numerous elements show that his sentence is above all a political decision. During his first hearing, on February 13, 2018, some foreign diplomats were prevented from observing the trial. According to our sources, Germain Rukuki intends to appeal the decision.

This sentence is a clear act of reprisal against Germain Rukuki's peaceful and legitimate human rights activities. The Observatory calls upon the Burundian authorities to ensure his immediate and unconditional release and to ensure that his right to a fair trial is upheld.

Since 2015, the Observatory has documented daily human rights violations committed by the Burundian authorities, who do not demonstrate any tolerance towards those considered to be political opponents and systemically kill, torture, kidnap, arrest and jail outside of any legal framework those who criticize the government. Similarly, the Burundian civil society has been relentlessly targeted, through bans of major human rights organisations, adoption of legislation aimed at controlling civil society organisations, enforced disappearances, arrests and illegal detention of human rights defenders, continued judicial harassment and heavy criminal sentences. The treasurer of the Ligue ITEKA, Marie-Claudette Kwizzera, was kidnapped by SNR agents on December 13, 2015. She remains missing and is likely to have been killed.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteGlobal Rights NGOs urge China to release Tibetan Tashi Wangchuk, charged in connection to a New York Times report

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 3 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Global Rights NGOs urge China to release Tibetan Tashi Wangchuk, charged in connection to a New York Times report, 3 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c844.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

03/05/2018

Open Letter

3 May 2018

Open Letter to President Xi Jinping

Our organisations are committed to freedom of expression, freedom of the press and human rights in Tibet and China. We are writing today, on World Press Freedom Day, to express our deep concern over the continued arbitrary detention of Tashi Wangchuk, a Tibetan language advocate arrested in 2016 after giving an interview to the New York Times. Tashi Wangchuk has since been tried for "inciting separatism," a politically motivated charge that violates his rights to freedom of expression and association. We call on the Chinese government to release him immediately and unconditionally.

Tashi Wangchuk began raising public concern for the lack of rightful Tibetan-language education after local authorities in his native Kyegundo (Chinese: Yushu) County forced the closure of local Tibetan language classes and he was unable to find another school to teach his two teenage nieces.

In late 2015, Tashi Wangchuk spoke with the New York Times in an interview about his attempts to promote the teaching of Tibetan; he insisted the interview be on the record. A journalist from the New York Times also accompanied him to Beijing, where Tashi Wangchuk attempted to file a lawsuit to ensure local authorities guarantee the provision of Tibetan language education. The result was an article and video documentary featured in the New York Times in November 2015  https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000004031427/a-tibetans-journey-for-justice.html.

In his article, Tashi Wangchuk insisted that his language advocacy was peaceful and non-political. His attempts to persuade the Chinese government to guarantee Tibetan language instruction were conducted through official channels and he made it clear that he was not advocating Tibetan independence. Instead, his main focus was ending the destruction of Tibetan language and culture.

Despite taking these precautions, Tashi Wangchuk was arrested on 27 January 2016, held in an unknown location and later charged with inciting separatism. He has remained in detention ever since. On 4 January 2018, after nearly two years, he finally stood trial in a closed session, to which journalists and visiting diplomats were denied access. There has been no indication since January as to the verdict or sentence. If found guilty, Tashi Wangchuk risks a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

The crime of "inciting separatism" is set out in China's broad and vague state security laws, which are routinely used to crack down on the exercise of freedom of expression, including attempts by Tibetans (and others) to exercise their cultural and religious rights protected under international law or to send information about human rights abuses to the outside world. The prosecution of Tashi Wangchuk appears to be linked to his interview with the international media about his advocacy for Tibetan language rights: indeed, the New York Times' video documentary was presented as evidence at his trial.

In November 2017 a group of international experts appointed by the UN deemed his detention a violation of China's human rights obligations. According to the experts, his advocacy, including the interview with the New York Times, "falls clearly within the righta to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media". They called on the government to immediately release Tashi Wangchuk, and investigate individuals involved in the violation of his rights, noting that "mere assertions by the [Chinese] government that lawful procedures have been followed are not sufficienta" Following his trial, the international experts, including Special Rapporteurs on freedom of opinion and expression, racism, arbitrary detention, and human rights defenders, issued a statement condemning Tashi Wangchuk's ongoing detention  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22683&LangID=E

The prosecution of Tashi Wangchuk also violates Chinese law, including the Constitution, where Article 4, which provides that "[e]thnic minorities' right to learn, use and develop their own spoken and written languages is guaranteed in accordance with the law" and Article 35, which states that "[c]itizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association."

The Chinese government must comply with its international obligations to respect the rights of the Tibetan people, including their rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as their religious, cultural and linguistic rights. We call on the Chinese government today, on World Press Freedom day, to immediately and unconditionally release Tashi Wangchuk.

Signed

English PEN  https://www.englishpen.org/

FIDH  International Federation for Human Rights  https://www.fidh.org/en/

Free Tibet  https://freetibet.org/

Human Rights in China  https://hrichina.org/en

Human Rights Watch  https://www.hrw.org/

International Service for Human Rights  www.ishr.ch

International Tibet Network  https://tibetnetwork.org/

PEN America  https://pen.org/

Safeguard Defenders  https://safeguarddefenders.com/

Link to original story on FIDH websiteIndia: Reject death penalty for child rape cases, focus on ending impunity for sexual violence

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 4 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, India: Reject death penalty for child rape cases, focus on ending impunity for sexual violence, 4 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c864.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

04/05/2018

Press release

(New Delhi, Paris) The Indian Parliament should reject a Cabinet ordinance that would introduce the death penalty for cases of rape of girls under the age of 12, FIDH and its member organizations People's Watch and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) said today. Parliament is likely to convene later in the summer for its monsoon session.

The ordinance, which was signed by President Ram Nath Kobind on 22 April 2018, would amend the Indian Penal Code, the Evidence Act, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, and would also extend minimum prison sentences for cases of rape of women. It comes on the heels of two horrific rapes, including the brutal rape and murder of a girl child in Jammu and Kashmir State, which stirred a nationwide outcry.

Rape is an intolerable, abhorrent crime. FIDH, CHRI and People's Watch condemn attempts by certain segments of society to use the murder and rape of a child to inflame enmity between and within communities and to call for retributive justice. This distracts from the real needs, which are to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice quickly and that the Indian criminal judicial system, from the police to prosecutors to prisons and courts, are well-equipped to investigate and prosecute offenders.

FIDH, CHRI, and People's Watch are concerned that the introduction of the death penalty could result in fewer cases being reported to authorities and victims refusing to testify under pressure, as perpetrators often come from the same communities as the victims. Official Indian government data notes that the attacker is known to the victim in 95% of cases prosecuted under the POSCO Act. There are also concerns about attempts by perpetrators to murder their victims to avoid identification, if capital punishment is introduced.

In 2015, the Law Commission of India in its 262nd report recommended the abolition of the death penalty for all crimes, except terrorism-related offenses and waging war. In addition, during its consultations, a general consensus emerged among members of the Law Commission that courts were unable to adopt a fair and non-discriminatory approach to the death penalty.

India is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantees right to life and requires a progression towards abolition of the death penalty. However, during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May 2017, India refused to accept all the recommendations it received with regard to the abolition of the death penalty.

In 2017, courts in India handed down 109 death sentences, bringing the total number of prisoners on death row to 371 by the end of December 2017. No executions took place in 2016 or 2017 and the last execution in the country was in 2015.

FIDH, a member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty (WCADP), CHRI, and People's Watch reiterate their strong opposition to the death penalty for all crimes and in all circumstances.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteJoint Press Statement by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council - PHROC, on the Events of the 70th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba and the Relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 15 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Joint Press Statement by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council - PHROC, on the Events of the 70th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba and the Relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem., 15 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c884.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

15/05/2018

Statement

The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) held an urgent press conference to address Israel's continuing and intensified use of lethal force against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which led to the killing of 58 Palestinians, including 43 civilians, of whom six were children, by the Israeli Occupying Forces(IOF) on 14 May 2018. The press conference also touched upon the United States (US) relocation of its embassy to Jerusalem, disregarding Jerusalem's internationally recognized legal status under international law.

PHROC has sent a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, urging to take concrete measures to protect the Palestinian population in Gaza, and to lift the unlawful closure.

Date: 14 May 2018

Re: Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council(PHROC) call for an immediate statement to be released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Your Excellency ZeidRa'ad Al Hussein,

It is with grave concern that Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council (PHROC) write regarding the rapid escalation of killings by Israel at the Gaza fence, to enforce and maintain its unlawful sea and land closure and prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. Today Israel continues its implementation of unnecessary, indiscriminate, and disproportionate use of force against unarmed civilians, including women, children and families marching in the "Great Return March" to secure their right to return to their places of origin and in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the "Nakba".

Critically the killing of civilians in pursuit of their right of return, and right to peacefully assemble, further represents a manifest violation of the right to life. Since the mass protests began, the Israeli military has fired live ammunition from snipers, used plastic coated steel bullets, and launched tear gas grenades from drones. Between 30 March and 13 May 2018, human rights organizations have documented that 41 Palestinians have been killed while participating in these peaceful demonstrations, including five children, two journalists, one person on crutches, and two persons with disabilities. During the same period, 3,979 Palestinians were injured, including 732 children, 131 women, 35 paramedics, and 37 journalists, among them 2,186 by live ammunition.[1] As such, the killings carried out in the context of the ongoing occupation may amount to willful killings, grave breaches under Article (147) of the Fourth Geneva Convention including wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and war crimes under Article 8(2)(a)(i) of the Rome Statute. In this vein, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has warned "any new alleged crime committed in the context of the situation in Palestine may be subjected to my Office's scrutiny. This applies to the events of the past weeks and to any future incident." Today, as of 20:00 pm, a further 54 people were killed, including 41 civilians of which five were children, and as of 16:30pm the Palestinian Ministry of Health documented 1,960 injuries.

Today, Israel and the United States have acted in abject violation and disregard of general international law, relocating the United States embassy to Jerusalem in an effective endorsement of Israel's annexation of Jerusalem. The recognition of internationally unlawful acts such as annexation, as lawful, sends a strong message to violating States, to continue their systematic denial of the human rights of occupied populations, including the rights to return, self-determination and permanent sovereignty over natural and national resources. In addition, the recognition grants Israel a carte blanche to flagrantly disregard the rule of law, further its unlawful settlement of Palestine, and employ shoot to kill policies to maintain its prolonged occupation, with impunity.

On 10 May 2018, Palestinian human rights organizations called upon the UN to take action to ensure Israel's compliance with international law ahead of large-scale protests expected in Palestine in commemoration of the "Nakba" and against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem. The Palestinian organizations warned against potential excessive use of force, including lethal force, by the Israeli Occupying Forces in suppression of the right to peaceful assembly. Today, following the failure of the international community to act to prevent the expected high civilian death toll and casualties, PHROC call for a strong statement of condemnation by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.In light of the escalating death toll and mass civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, PHROC asks that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights call for the convening of an emergency session of the Human Rights Council to examine violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law committed during the "Great Return March" since 30 March 2018 across the OPT, and conduct an independent, impartial, investigation by means of establishing a Commission of Inquiry. It is a matter of urgency that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights immediately and publicly condemns Israel's resort to force, including lethal force, in the Gaza Strip, and considers further actions to ensure the continued non-recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem by the international community.

It is imperative in this regard that the international community act collectively to enforce international law and sanction Israel. Israel must be held accountable for gross violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, incurring both state and individual criminal responsibility for sanctioning killings as a matter of state policy. Failure to act now to stop human rights violations and end occupation will lead to further mistrust in the international justice system among Palestinians, which will pave the way for further violence and violations of international law.

Yours Sincerely,

Addameer Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association

Sahar Francis

General Director



Aldameer Association for Human Rights

HalaJaber

General Director

Al-Haq

Shawan Jabarin

General Director

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

IssamYounis

General Director



Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights

Nidal Azza

General Director

Defence for Children International  Palestine Section

Khaled Quzmar

General Director

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights

Raji Sourani

General Director

Hurryyat  Centre for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights

Helmi Al-Araj

General Director



Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights

Issam Aruri

General Director

Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies

Suhaib Sharif

General Director

Link to original story on FIDH websiteBangladesh: Government shows lack of commitment to address serious human rights violations during UN review

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 18 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Bangladesh: Government shows lack of commitment to address serious human rights violations during UN review, 18 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c8a4.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

18/05/2018

Press release

(Dhaka, Paris) The Bangladeshi government's failure to accept recommendations on key human rights issues during the country's third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) denotes its lack of commitment to protecting human rights, FIDH said today.

The third UPR of Bangladesh was held on 14 May 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Bangladeshi government accepted 167 of the 251 recommendations it received from other United Nations (UN) member states. Another 61 recommendations were not accepted and the government said it would examine and provide a response to the remaining 23 recommendations by the 39th session of the UN Human Rights Council, to be held in September 2018.

Similarly to the second UPR of Bangladesh, the government refused to accept all the recommendations that called for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) and the 1951 Refugee Convention. The government also failed to accept all the recommendations related to the death penalty, including those that called for a moratorium on the death penalty, the abolishment of capital punishment, and the accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-O2).

The government also refused to accept several recommendations that called for: the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals; the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual acts; the amendment of the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Act; the decriminalization of defamation; and the inclusion of legislative protections for indigenous peoples.

Although Dhaka accepted recommendations calling for investigations into all allegations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, the government delegation maintained that they disagreed with the proposition that enforced disappearances "occur frequently." The delegation also repeated the claim it made during the previous UPR cycle in 2013 that the government has a "zero-tolerance policy" towards law enforcement officials accused of human rights violations, despite evidence that no credible investigations have been undertaken into these allegations.

Some recommendations accepted by the government included those that called on Bangladesh to: amend the 2017 Child Marriage Restraint Act to maintain the legal minimum age at 18; expedite the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law; and to protect freedom of assembly and expression and investigate threats against human rights defenders, journalists, bloggers and other civil society actors. The government also committed itself to repealing Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act and to ensure that the forthcoming Digital Security Act does not violate freedom of expression online.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteiStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- An Uber driver has been charged in federal court after allegedly kidnapping a woman, groping her after she fell asleep and then charging more than $1,000 for the ride after abandoning her on the side of a highway.



Harbir Parmar, 24, of Howard Beach, New York, was charged in White Plains Federal Court with kidnapping and wire fraud, officials with the Southern District of New York said on Tuesday.



On Feb. 21, a woman from White Plains requested an Uber in Manhattan to take her home, according to a complaint filed with the FBI. Parmar picked up the woman around 11:30 p.m., and she fell asleep in the back seat.



Parmar stands accused of changing the destination in the app to Boston, according to the FBI complaint. When the woman woke up, the vehicle was parked on the side of the road and Parmar had joined the woman in the backseat, placing his hand under the front of her shirt. As she reached for her phone to call for help, Parmar grabbed her phone and refused to give it back to her.



Parmar returned to the driver's seat and continued driving, according to the complaint. The woman asked she be taken home or to a police station, but Parmar refused, dropping her off along a highway in Connecticut around 1:45 a.m.



The woman said she memorized the car's license plate and went to a nearby convenience story seeking help. The next morning she saw that she'd been charged $1,047.55 for the ride.



"As alleged, Harbir Parmar was hired to transport a woman from Manhattan to her home in White Plains. Instead, Parmar kidnapped, terrorized and assaulted the woman before dumping her on the side of an interstate," U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement. "No one -- man or woman -- should fear such an attack when they simply hire a car service."



If convicted, Parmar could face life in prison for the kidnapping charge and 20 years for the fraud charge.



From December 2016 to February 2018, Parmar allegedly sent false information about customers' destinations and overcharged them on more than 10 occasions. He's also been accused of submitting false information related to cleaning fees. The improper charges totaled more than $3,600.



Uber said that the company blocked Parma from using its app in February and that he hadn't taken a trip since the incident. Uber also provided information to investigators.



"What's been reported is horrible and something no person should go through. As soon as we became aware, we immediately removed this individual's access to the platform," an Uber spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. "We have fully cooperated with law enforcement and will continue to support their investigation."



The woman's fare was refunded within days, Uber added.



Susanne Brody, a lawyer for Parmar, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.On Sept. 26, US President Donald Trump made a wild claim accusing China of meddling in US elections. Regrettably we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration, he said at meeting of the UN Security Council. He provided no evidence to back up his claim. It was an exercise in smoke and mirrors intended to demonize China.

The proof of Chinese meddling in US politics turned out to be an ad in a newspaper. Trump later took to social media to post photographs of the four-page advertising supplement in Iowas largest newspaper the Des Moines Register, describing the supplement as propaganda, even though the common practice of buying advertising space differs from malign influence operations.

In response to Trumps accusations, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China has always followed the principle of non-interference in other countries domestic affairs. This is a tradition of Chinas diplomacy, he said, adding that China did not and will not interfere in the domestic affairs of other countries.

Yet, despite a lack of evidence, the administration doubled down on its smear campaign against China. In his speech at a think tank in Washington, US Vice President Mike Pence accused China of meddling in Americas democracy, citing Trumps speech at the United Nations. Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai later called the accusations groundless and reiterated the fundamental importance of non-interference in Chinas foreign policy. We have been consistent in this position, he said.

There is no convincing evidence that China has orchestrated an effort to meddle in US politics; furthermore, it is well-documented that China has long been committed to the principle of non-interference in foreign affairs. It is more likely, therefore, that the administration wants to make a scapegoat of China to distract from its troubles and failures.

In fact, this blame it all on China strategy has been pointed out before. After Trump hurled accusations at China, Reuters reported that they raised questions as to whether Trump was trying to deflect attention from an investigation of his campaigns possible ties to alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and also set up China for the blame if Republicans do poorly in the midterm vote.

But whatever Trump administrations intention might be, it is important to point out that China has stayed committed to the principle of non-interference in others countries domestic affairs. Besides, China has openly stated that it is not interested in meddling in US domestic affairs and elections.

It is time to lay the China threat lie to rest. There is considerable misunderstanding about China, especially in the West, and the administration is pushing a false narrative about Chinas development to stir up fear. The blame it all on China strategy might result in short-term gain but a coordinated campaign to demonize China will likely lead to long-term pain. Of course, there are challenges and the two countries should discuss ways to address these challenges but stirring up anti-China hysteria ahead of the elections is a losing strategy.Q&A on the decision taken by the State of Palestine to refer its situation to the International Criminal Court

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 25 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Q&A on the decision taken by the State of Palestine to refer its situation to the International Criminal Court, 25 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c8c4.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

25/05/2018

Press release

FIDH and its member organisations in Palestine, Al Haq, Al Mezan, PCHR and RCHRS, issue this Q&A to clarify and address the decision taken by the State of Palestine to refer its situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

On 22 May 2018, Riad Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, submitted a referral of the situation of Palestine to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, in accordance with Article 14(1) of the Rome Statute.

The referral comes in the context of heightened use of excessive force against unarmed Palestinian protesters demanding their right to return to their homes and an end to the unlawful closure of the Gaza strip in what has become known as the 'Great Return March'.[1] Our organisations welcome the step taken by the State of Palestine and hope it will accelerate the preliminary examination that commenced in 2015.[2]

1. What is the state referral by the State of Palestine?

The State of Palestine has submitted a state referral to the Prosecutor in line with its rights as a State Party to the ICC Statute, and requests the ICC to immediately proceed into an investigation on the situation in Palestine.[3] The referral covers crimes committed on the territory of Palestine since 13 June 2014 with no end date.[4] The State of Palestine highlights in the referral core crimes of "particular seriousness and concern to the Palestinian people"[5], such as

the unlawful appropriation and destruction of private and public properties;

the unlawful transfer of the Israelis into the occupied territory;

murder and unlawful attacks on civilians;

torture, cruel and inhumane treatment of Palestinians;

persecution; and

apartheid.

The State of Palestine calls on the ICC Prosecutor to ensure that these crimes form an integral part of the OTP's investigation.[6]

2. Has Palestine referred its situation to the ICC before?

This is the first time the State of Palestine exercises the right to refer its situation to the ICC since it acceded to the Rome Statute on 2 January 2015.

Palestine submitted a declaration as a non-State party to the ICC Statute on 1 January 2015 in which it accepted the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed on its territory since 13 June 2014, pursuant to Article 12(3) of the Rome Statute. As such Palestine gave jurisdiction over crimes committed in the context of the 2014 Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip, known as 'Operation Protective Edge'.[7]

Subsequently, the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC opened a preliminary examination into the situation of Palestine on 16 January 2015.[8]

This was the second time that Palestine accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC.

The first declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the ICC was submitted on 22 January 2009 for the purpose of 'identifying, prosecuting and judging the authors and accomplices of acts committed on the territory of Palestine since 1 July 2002'.[9] This declaration was made following 'Operation Cast Lead', Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip between 2008-2009 which lasted from 27 December 2008 until 18 January 2009.[10]

After more than three years of analysis, The ICC Prosecutor decided not to proceed with the preliminary examination on the basis that it did not have the authority to determine whether Palestine was a "state" for the purposes of the Rome Statute.[11]

3. What is the focus of the ongoing preliminary examination opened by the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on Palestine?

The Prosecutor opened a preliminary examination on the situation in Palestine in January 2015. A preliminary examination is the first step taken by the OTP to determine whether or not to there is a reasonable basis to proceed into an investigation. In this phase, the OTP must determine whether the legal criteria established by the ICC Statute for opening an investigation are met. The OTP has received information related to allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian population on the territory of the State of Palestine.

In its annual report on preliminary examinations in 2017, the OTP stated that it continued to consider relevant submissions and that it would continue to assess these "with a view to reaching conclusions on jurisdictional issues within a reasonable time frame."[12] The OTP also clarified that it is currently looking at crimes committed in relation to settlement activities, such as the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the confiscation and appropriation of land; the planning and authorisation of settlement expansions and, in at least one instance, of a new settlement.[13] Moreover, the OTP has received information regarding the purported establishment of an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination that allegedly deprives Palestinians of a number of their fundamental human rights.[14]

The OTP is also considering alleged crimes committed in connection to the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2014, including attacks against civilians and civilian objects. The latter relates to attacks on or affecting residential areas and buildings; medical facilities, ambulances, and medical personnel; UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East ("UNRWA") schools serving as designated emergency shelters; and various other civilian objects and infrastructure. In addition, it has been alleged that members of Palestinian armed groups committed crimes in relation to, inter alia, rocket and mortar attacks launched against Israel, the alleged use of protected persons as shields, and the alleged ill-treatment and execution of persons accused of collaborating with Israel.[15]

4. What are the criteria assessed during a preliminary examination?

The legal framework of preliminary examinations is set out in article 53(1) (a)-(c) of the ICC Statute. This article provides that, in order to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation, the Prosecutor shall consider, in a four-phase process the temporal, either territorial or personal, and material jurisdiction (phase 2); admissibility including an assessment of complementarity and gravity (phase 3); and the interests of justice (phase 4). The preliminary examination becomes public in its second phase, while the first phase consists of an initial assessment of all information on alleged crimes received under Article 15.

At the moment, the preliminary examination into the situation of Palestine is at the second phase of its assessment, namely, the analysis of the subject-matter jurisdiction.

During the preliminary examination stage the OTP is limited to receiving information on alleged crimes and may seek additional information from relevant stakeholders, including NGOs and other reliable sources that are deemed appropriate. Since the opening of the preliminary examination into the situation on Palestine, the OTP has received at least 98 communications pursuant to Article 15 in relation to the situation in Palestine since 13 June 2014.[16]

5. Will the state referral move the situation of Palestine from a preliminary examination to an investigation?

The state referral does not automatically lead to the opening of an investigation. Upon receipt of the referral from Palestine, the Prosecutor insisted that the preliminary examination "has seen important progress and will continue to follow its normal course, strictly guided by the requirements of the Rome Statute."[17] The preliminary examination will run its course and the OTP will continue to assess whether the criteria to open an investigation would be met.

6. What does Palestine's self-referral change?

Now that Palestine has referred its situation to the ICC, the Prosecutor does not need to seek the authorization of the ICC Pre-trial Chamber to proceed into an investigation. Instead, the Prosecutor may announce the opening of an investigation once the legal requirements are met.[18] However, the referral may expand the scope of the existing preliminary examination, which so far only focuses on alleged crimes committed since 13 June 2014. The Palestinian referral concerns "past, ongoing and future Israeli actions to promote, expand, and entrench the settlement regime, perpetrated by, or with the assistance of, the government of crimes within the court's jurisdiction committed in all parts of the territory of the State of Palestine".[19]

Link to original story on FIDH websiteBangladesh: Halt 'war on drugs' killings, end impunity for serious human rights abuses

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 31 May 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Bangladesh: Halt 'war on drugs' killings, end impunity for serious human rights abuses, 31 May 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c8e6.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

31/05/2018

Press release

(Dhaka, Paris) The Bangladeshi government must immediately halt its deadly crackdown on the narcotics trade and investigate the numerous reports of related extrajudicial killings committed over the past several weeks, FIDH and its member organization Odhikar said today.

At least 121 people have been killed so far in what the authorities described as "shootouts" resulting from raids on houses of suspected drug dealers, most of which have been conducted by the police special unit Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). These raids come on the heels of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's announcement on 3 May that the government would begin cracking down on drug abuse, particularly on methamphetamines, in the country.

Several family members of individuals killed during the crackdown thus far have reported that their relatives were not killed during shootouts as claimed by the authorities but were taken away by plainclothes police officers at night and later found dead.

There have also been reports that some of the individuals killed in the crackdown were not involved in drug trafficking. Others that were killed were known to be political opposition activists, a fact that raises concerns that the government may be using its crackdown on drugs as a cover for a renewed campaign of attacks on its opponents.

Bangladeshi law enforcement agencies, particularly the RAB, have been consistently linked to serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture. FIDH and Odhikar have repeatedly expressed concerns that these cases have not been adequately investigated and have been part of systematic targeting of the opposition and other government critics.

In its April 2017 Concluding Observations on Bangladesh's preliminary report, the United Nations Human Rights Committee noted its concerns over high rates of reported extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh, including by the RAB, and recommended that the government investigate all cases and provide information on the number of investigations conducted and convictions secured. In addition, during Bangladesh's Universal Period Review (UPR) on 14 May 2018, numerous UN member states recommended that Bangladesh investigate and prosecute cases of alleged extrajudicial killings. The Bangladesh government has responded to international concern by saying it has a "zero-tolerance" policy towards abuses by law enforcement, despite a lack of investigations and prosecutions of these cases.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteBurundi: FIDH, KHRC and FHRI apply to intervene before the East African Court of Justice to support Burundian civil society organizations

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 12 June 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Burundi: FIDH, KHRC and FHRI apply to intervene before the East African Court of Justice to support Burundian civil society organizations, 12 June 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c906.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

12/06/2018

Press release

Paris, Nairobi, Kampala, 12 June 2018  Application from three human rights NGOs to participate in a freedom of association legal case brought against Burundi before the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) will be heard tomorrow.

In December 2016, five major Burundian NGOs filed a formal complaint to the EACJ, following the arbitrary and unlawful decision of Burundian authorities to shutdown their organizations and freeze their bank accounts. In support of these organizations, in their struggle to reclaim their rights, FIDH, together with its member organizations, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI, Uganda) made a request to submit an amicus curiae brief in the case. Today, the EACJ is hearing oral arguments on the request.

Since 2015, Burundi has been engulfed in a severe political crisis characterized by the continuing perpetration of murders, enforced disappearances  as of today, the treasurer of the Ligue ITEKA, Marie-Claudette Kwizera, who was kidnapped in December 2015, is still missing  acts of torture, sexual violence and other serious crimes, mostly against those perceived as opposing the regime. In parallel, authorities have engaged in a serious crackdown against independent human rights organizations to alter their capacity to document and report the crimes and to assist the victims. In October 2016, the decision to ban and freeze the accounts of the five NGOs was made as part of this crackdown. In January 2017, a similar decision was notified to the ITEKA League, FIDH member organization in Burundi. The targeting of civil society was recently illustrated again by the unlawful sentencing of activist Germain Rukuki to 32 years in prison on trumped-up charges (2).

Before the EACJ, the five Burundian NGOs argue that their banning and the freezing of their accounts was in violation of the country's regional and international legal obligations related to freedom of association. Represented by the law firm Leigh Day and human rights lawyers Nani Jansen Reventlow and Catherine Anite, FIDH, the KHRC and FHRI wish to provide expertise in the field of human rights and freedom of association to assist the Court in the interpretation and application of relevant legislation.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteLaos: Government slanders Sombath Somphone, issues "blanket denials" on enforced disappearances during rights review

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 18 July 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Laos: Government slanders Sombath Somphone, issues "blanket denials" on enforced disappearances during rights review, 18 July 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c924.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

18/07/2018

Press release

(Paris) During a review by a United Nations (UN) body, the Lao government slandered disappeared civil society leader Sombath Somphone and failed to provide any details concerning its purported investigation into his enforced disappearance, FIDH and its member organization Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) said today.

On 11-12 July 2018, FIDH and LMHR attended the first-ever examination of the situation of civil and political rights in Laos by the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The government delegation provided elusive answers to the multitude of detailed and pertinent questions concerning the investigation into Sombath's enforced disappearance. The government claimed that its Investigation Committee had been "trying very hard" to investigate Sombath's disappearance but said it was "very hard" to find a person who disappears. Despite admitting to the challenges in conducting the probe, the government claimed police have the "capacity and techniques" to investigate Sombath's disappearance and, as a result, there was "no need to have international assistance." Sombath was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of the Lao capital, Vientiane, on the evening of 15 December 2012.

The head of the government delegation, Bounkeut Sangsomsak, then embarked on an irrelevant and unnecessary monologue against Sombath and his family. Mr. Bounkeut claimed that Sombath possessed a "tremendous amount of money" and property in Laos and justified the courts' refusal to declare Sombath as a missing person (an act that Lao legislation requires courts to perform three years from the date of a disappearance) out of concern that an inheritance dispute among his family members would ensue. Inexplicably, Mr. Bounkeut repeatedly referred to Sombath's wife, Shui-Meng Ng, as his "so-called wife."

The government delegation also rejected all other allegations of cases of enforced disappearances as "baseless, groundless, and untrue" and "misinformation the committee received from unreliable outside sources." The CCPR chair responded by saying that during the review the Lao government delegation had provided "very skeletal" information concerning specific allegations of enforced disappearance, a behavior that the chair said amounted to a "blanket denial of the facts."

Lastly, the government explained its ongoing delay in the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) by saying that the convention was "very complex and very unique" and that Vientiane needed to "raise awareness and [the] capacity of officials concerned" before it could ratify the ICPPED. Laos signed the ICPPED in September 2008.

Despite being given 48 hours from the conclusion of the review to provide additional written information to the CCPR, the Lao government did no submit any follow-up material within the deadline. The CCPR is scheduled to publish its Concluding Observations on the review of Laos by the end of July 2018.

The CCPR monitors state parties' compliance with their legal obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Laos became a state party to the ICCPR in 2009.

On 11 June 2018, FIDH and LMHR submitted a joint shadow report to the CCPR to detail the Lao government's violations of civil and political rights and its failure to comply with its obligations under the ICCPR's provisions. This includes the government's failure to adequately investigate Sombath's disappearance, which violates Article 2(3) of the ICCPR.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteBelarus: Trade Union leaders found guilty of tax evasion after a sham trial

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 24 August 2018 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, Belarus: Trade Union leaders found guilty of tax evasion after a sham trial, 24 August 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5bc83c96a.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

24/08/2018

Press release

Paris-Geneva  Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik have been found guilty of tax evasion charges today by the Saviecki District Court of Minsk. Charges were brought against them a year after the trade union helped to mobilize protests against Presidential Decree No. 3 that established a fee on the unemployed. The Observatory's judicial observation mission reports that the politically motivated trial fell well short of providing the essential fair trial guarantees to the defendants and calls for their conviction to be quashed.

The trial started on July 30, 2018, and took place in the Saviecki District Court of Minsk before Judge Maryna Fiodarava. Messrs. Henadz Fiadynich and Ihar Komlik, respectively Chairman and Chief Accountant of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union of Radio and Electronic Industry Workers (REP), were charged under Article 243.2 of the Criminal Code for "Tax evasion on a large scale". The latter provision was previously used to prosecute Chairman of the Human Rights Centre "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski, who spent three years in prison in 2011-2014. The UN Human Rights Committee found his imprisonment arbitrary since national legislation and decisions of the Belarusian authorities made it impossible for "Viasna" to operate legally in Belarus. Legislation abusively restricting the operation of civil society organisations remains in force to date, forcing many organisations to register abroad.

The government's complaint charged that between 2011 and 2012, Messrs. Fiadynich and Komlik conspired to receive transfers of foreign funding into a bank account in Vilnius, Lithuania, and to withdraw and transport cash back to Belarus with the help of co-workers and colleagues, without having reported these receipts to the authorities.

Today the Court issued its judgement, finding the defendants guilty of all charges and sentencing them to 4 years of restriction of liberty without imprisonment.

Trial observation revealed major flaws in the conduct of pre-trial investigation and proceedings. During the trial, at least six of the witnesses examined by the parties complained that their pre-trial statements were procured through threats, intimidation and other pressure exerted by State agents during initial questioning. While Judge Fiodarava ordered an investigation of these allegations mid-way through the trial, this inquiry lacked independence and thoroughness capable of effectively determining any wrongful conduct on behalf of the authorities.

Moreover, the prosecution's case was built around key pieces of evidence, including unauthenticated bank records from a Lithuanian bank, and information about the bank account and cash flows from foreign organisations procured using an unknown email account. State witnesses refused to provide any specific information regarding how this evidence was collected, referring in general terms to the course of 'investigative work.' These facts weigh heavily against the lawfulness and reliability of such evidence, as well as the ability of Messrs. Komlik and Fiyadynich to prepare an adequate defense.

The Observatory believes that these actions by the authorities violate Belarus' obligations under international human rights law and its own Constitution, and that the convictions should therefore be overturned on appeal.

Link to original story on FIDH websiteDecisions 20802/25.9.2018 and 20898/26.9.2018 of the 9th Independent Appeals Committee (administrative body, second instance)

Publisher Greece: Administrative Court (First Instance) of Athens Publication Date 25 September 2018 Cite as Decisions 20802/25.9.2018 and 20898/26.9.2018 of the 9th Independent Appeals Committee (administrative body, second instance) , Greece: Administrative Court (First Instance) of Athens, 25 September 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,GRC_ACA,5bc8c2a64.html [accessed 17 November 2021] 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.

The 9th Independent Appeals Committee, issued recently two decisions (20802/25.9.2018 and 20898/26.9.2018) concerning two families of Syrian nationals originating from Afrin, Syria. Case 20802 concerns a family comprised by the two parents and 3 children while case 20898 a family comprised by the two parents and their 4 children. Both decisions present similarities regarding the applicants' claims and are identical in what concerns the reasoning.

In both cases the applicants (the parents) were invited to a hearing by the Committee. The hearing was realized through teleconference (as all the applicants remain in Samos).

The applicants claimed that they had left Syria for Turkey in the end of 2013 (case 20802) and in 2015 (case 20898) and entered Greece in 2018. During their stay in Turkey they had employment and they had identity cards issued (kimlik). They had not applied for international protection in Turkey.

The Committee after taking under consideration the situation in Syria and the current state of the armed conflict, the situation of Syrians of Kurdish origin, the operation of the Turkish armed forces in Afrin in the beginning of 2018 and the situation in the city at the time of the drafting of the decisions, accepted as credible the claims of the applicants regarding their personal details, origin, former residence is Syria (Afrin), their situation in Turkey and proceeded with the ruling on the admissibility of the cases.

Regarding admissibility, the Committee examined the cases under provisions on the concept of the "safe third country" (art. 56 L. 4375/2016, transposing art. 38 of the Asylum Procedures Directive, recast). More specifically, the Committee, after referring to the content of art. 56, proceeded with the examination of the criterion of the existence of a connection of the applicant with the third country. In this regard, the Committee took under consideration that Turkey has under de facto occupation the place of former residence of the applicants (the city of Afrin), that Turkey in essence "forms the future" of Afrin and determines the developments. In that sense the applicants, if their application was to be found inadmissible, would have to return to the country (Turkey) which is creating (along with others) their needs for international protection. In the present situation, even though conditions for the existence of a connection with Turkey exist (duration of stay and existence of relationships in Turkey) the link with that country seems to have been broken. According to the Committee, a forced return of the applicants to Turkey would be against the Geneva Convention and to the European aquis on asylum.

Based on the above, the Committee concluded that, since the cumulative fulfillment of all criteria of art. 56 L. 4375/2016 is needed for the "safe third country" concept to apply, and since one of them (the requirement for a "connection") is not satisfied, then the examination of the rest criteria is not necessary. Consequently the Committee declared the applications for international protection admissible and proceeded to the examination of the merits of the cases.

Regarding the merits, the Committee, in both cases, found that the applicants have a well-founded fear of persecution as, because of their ethnic origin (Kurds), they could be characterized as supporters of the Kurdish forces, and that the agent of possible persecution would be the Turkish armed forces and Arab Sunni rebels. Consequently the Committee recognized the applicants as refugees.People visit the Baidu exhibition stand at the Light of the Internet Expo in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

SAN FRANCISCO - China's search engine giant Baidu Inc has become the first Chinese member of the US-led alliance on artificial intelligence (AI), the Partnership on AI (PAI), which is committed to addressing the challenges and impacts of artificial intelligence.

The US supergroup on PAI development said in a statement Tuesday that Baidu has in recent years involved into a diverse technology conglomerate, with ventures in autonomous driving, smart assistants and AI platform services.

Baidu has pushed forward with a series of initiatives aimed at limiting AI's unintended consequences as the Chinese internet leader has taken "safety and security" as its first principle in the development of autonomous driving, the PAI said.

Baidu is currently working on three new AI products, with Apollo being the largest open source autonomous driving platform.

Its two other AI products are DuerOS, a voice enabled digital assistant, and Baidu ABC, a smart cloud for the enterprise market.

"Admitting our first Chinese member is an important step toward building a truly global partnership," said PAI Executive Director Terah Lyons.

The growth and scope of work on AI in China is extensive, and any conversation about the future of AI that does not involve China is an incomplete conversation, Lyons said.

Baidu President Ya-Qin Zhang said AI's safety, fairness and transparency should not be "an afterthought but rather highly considered at the onset of every project or system we build."

He added that Baidu's AI leaders will join the existing PAI Working Groups and forthcoming lines of programming to help develop policies, tools, and principles that will drive responsible AI development.

The PAI, which includes some big-names in Silicon Valley such as Apple and Amazon, was set up in 2016 to formulate the best practices on AI technologies and advance the public's understanding of AI evolution.To celebrate the Double Ninth Festival, also known as "senior citizen day" in Chinese society, a special feast was prepared in Hezhou, a city in southern Chinas Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which for centuries has been famed for its residents' unusual longevity.

Earlier this year, the Tourism Development Commission of Hezhou, as well as a vocational school and a cooking association, organized a team to study delicacies with features of "longevity."

Finally, a special feast was designed. The meal was made up of 20 dishes including traditional Chinese tea, soup, and other delicious food.Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WOPEF.PK,WOPEY.PK,WPL.AX) reported that its sales revenue for the third-quarter increased 25.4% over the same period to US$1.157 billion on the back of higher prices, although sales volumes were tempered slightly by the timing of Woodside equity sales.

Total revenue for the quarter grew to US$1.29 billion from US$1.01 billion in the previous year.

Woodside CEO Peter Coleman said, "Looking ahead in Senegal, we are on schedule to submit the SNE Field Development and Exploitation Plan and expect to assume operatorship of the development in the fourth quarter."

Production was 23.1 million barrels of oil equivalent or mmboe from 20.3 mmboe in the same quarter last year.

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Business NewsRoyal Dutch Shell plc (RDS-B, RDSB.L, RDSA.L,RDS-A), through its affiliate Shell Overseas Holdings Limited, has reached an agreement with Norwegian Energy Company ASA (Noreco), to sell its shares in Shell Olie-og Gasudvinding Danmark B.V. or SOGU for a consideration amount of $1.9 billion.

SOGU is a wholly-owned Shell subsidiary that holds a 36.8% non-operating interest in the Danish Underground Consortium or DUC.

The sale is subject to regulatory approval and expected to be completed in 2019. The transaction's effective date is 1 January 2017.

Andy Brown, Shell's Upstream Director, said: ''Today's announcement is consistent with Shell's strategy to simplify its portfolio through a $30 billion divestment programme, and contributes to our goal of reshaping the company into a world class investment case.''

As part of the agreement, Noreco will assume all of Shell's existing commitments and obligations, including the Tyra redevelopment and the decommissioning costs associated with the assets.

The sale represents production of some 67,000 boe/d (Shell share) in 2017. Under the agreement, Shell Trading and Supply and Shell Energy Europe Limited will continue to have oil and gas lifting rights from the SOGU assets for a period after completion.

Shell noted that the transaction has no direct impact on its other businesses in Denmark. Following completion, Shell will retain a Downstream presence in Denmark through A/S Dansk Shell, which includes the Fredericia refinery. The network of Shell-branded retail stations in Denmark continues to be operated by DCC. Shell will continue to evaluate options to grow new in Denmark if relevant opportunities present themselves.

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Business NewsInfraREIT, Inc. (HIFR) said Thursday that it has agreed to be acquired by Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC for $21.00 per share in cash, valued at about $1.275 billion, plus the assumption of about $940 million of InfraREIT's net debt, as of June 30, 2018.

InfraREIT said its stockholders will receive $21.00 in cash for each share of InfraREIT common stock, representing an 18 percent premium to the company's unaffected share price of $17.79 on January 12, 2018. After receiving all required approvals, the transaction is expected to close by mid-2019.

Oncor plans to fund its acquisition of InfraREIT with capital contributions from its owners Sempra Energy (SRE) and Texas Transmission Investment LLC.

InfraREIT said it expects to continue paying regular quarterly dividends of $0.25 per share through the closing of the transaction, including a pro-rated dividend for any partial quarter prior to the closing.

As a condition to the acquisition, InfraREIT's subsidiary, Sharyland Distribution & Transmission Services, L.L.C. and Oncor also signed a definitive agreement with SDTS's tenant, Sharyland Utilities, L.P. to exchange SDTS's South Texas assets for Sharyland's Golden Spread Electric Cooperative interconnection or Golden Spread Project located in the Texas Panhandle, along with certain development projects in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains regions.

This includes the Lubbock Power & Light interconnection or LP&L Project. The exchange will be immediately prior to Oncor's acquisition.

InfraREIT noted that the agreement with Oncor includes a "go-shop" provision that allows the Conflicts Committee and its advisors to actively solicit and negotiate with other potential acquirers to determine whether they are interested in making a proposal to acquire InfraREIT.

Accordingly, InfraREIT will solicit competing acquisition proposals through November 17, 2018.

Concurrently with the execution of the merger agreement and the asset exchange agreement, Sempra Energy will purchase a 50 percent limited partnership interest in Sharyland Holdings LP, which will own a 100 percent interest in Sharyland. The closing of Sempra Energy's purchase is a requirement of the asset exchange agreement between SDTS and Sharyland.

Additionally, under a separate agreement with Sharyland, Oncor has agreed to operate and maintain all of Sharyland's assets following the closing of the transactions.

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Business NewsNorth Dakota issued cease-and-desist orders against three companies promoting unregistered and potentially fraudulent securities in the form of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

North Dakota Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler issued the orders on the basis of investigations conducted by the Department's ICO Task Force to identify ICOs and cryptocurrency related investments that pose risk to investors in the state. The effort is also part of Operation Cryptosweep, a coordinated multi-jurisdiction investigation, and enforcement effort involving more than 40 U.S. and Canadian securities regulators.

The companies involved are Crystal Token, Advertiza Holdings (Pty) Ltd., and Life Cross Coin.

North Dakota Securities Department said that Crystal Token is not registered to sell securities in North Dakota. Their website contains allegedly fraudulent statements with claims of excessive unsubstantiated rates of return on investment, fails to provide sufficient disclosure of the management team's credentials, and purposely withholds their identities.

Advertiza claims it has made a filing with the SEC under federal Rule 506c of Regulation D. The company is not registered in North Dakota to offer securities.

Life Cross Coin's website contains allegedly fraudulent content. The people represented to be the executive team appear to have fake names. Life Cross Coin is not registered in North Dakota to offer securities, and their website content contains unsubstantiated claims and misrepresentations, the Securities Department noted.

An ICO is a fund raising method used by start-up firms to raise capital. Most ICOs involve projects that are at the "idea" stage represented in a white paper. Companies create a new virtual coin or token, which is then sold online to investors in the ICO in exchange for cryptocurrency or fiat currency.

A warning by US Securities and Exchange Commission is already in place against the risks involved in initial coin offerings.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton had warned investors last year that there is substantially less investor protection in the cryptocurrency and ICO than in traditional securities markets, and warned that there are greater chances for fraud and manipulation.

Initial Coin Offerings are subject to federal securities laws in the United States, and actions are being taken against start ups defrauding investors in the name of ICO schemes.

"The continued exploitation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem by financial criminals is a significant threat to Main Street investors," says North Dakota Securities Commissioner Karen Tyler. She cautioned investors to be exceedingly cautious when considering a related investment.

The most common securities law violations by companies promoting ICOs are the offer and sale of unregistered securities, sales by unregistered agents, and engaging in fraudulent practices.

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Business NewsThe last column written by missing dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been published by Washington Post.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who had been living in the United States, has not been seen since he entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey's Istanbul on October 2.

The article he wrote shortly before his disappearance and published Wednesday on the op-ed page, calls for free expression in the Arab world.

The absence of press freedom means that Arabs "are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives," he wrote in the article titled "What the Arab world needs most is free expression."

A note from Karen Attiah, Global Opinions editor for the Post, says he held off publishing the column hoping Khashoggi would come back. "Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen," he said.

Khashoggi, who would have turned 60 last weekend, in his final column calls for "the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda."

Turkish authorities suspect that Khashoggi was abducted and murdered by the Saudis, but Riyadh denies it.

Saudi Arabia allowed Turkish investigators to search the Saudi consul's residence and the Consulate Wednesday night.

BBC quoted sources close to the investigation as saying that they have audio evidence of Khashoggi's torture and eventual murder at the diplomatic facility.

Saudi Arabia is one of Washington's closest allies, and the Trump administration is under pressure to order an investigation into the whereabouts of Khashoggi, and impose sanctions against anyone found responsible for his possible killing.

Khashoggi was once an adviser to a Saudi ambassador to the United States. He was twice fired as the editor of the most progressive Saudi newspaper, Al Watan, for publishing articles sharply criticizing Islamist extremists. A television news network he helped to found in Bahrain in 2012 was taken off the air after it broadcast an interview with a critic of that country's authoritarian regime.

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Business NewsStudents in Vietnam greet China.

The 40 years of reform and opening-up in China has promoted an increased interaction between Chinese people and the rest of the world.

Since China's reform and opening-up, more and more Chinese have traveled outside of China to communicate with the world. The following stories are from three Chinese citizens who have traveled, worked and volunteered overseas, to discover their perspective on how China is integrating with the world.

Ding Qiuge, a woman from a small village in central China's Henan province, traveled together with her family to attend her daughter's wedding ceremony in Phuket, Thailand this year. She told Peoples Daily that it was her first time outside of China, and that she never dreamed she would be traveling abroad at the age of 52.

She explained that to travel abroad was once beyond the imagination of her generation, adding that when she was a child, people were excited to receive small gifts from as far afield as Beijing or Shanghai.

Ding's first trip abroad impressed her greatly. "Everything there was fresh to me, and the scenery was breathtaking," Ding said, adding that she was also fond of Thai food.

The constant rise in outbound Chinese tourism indicates the continuous improvements to the life of those living in China in the 40 years of reform and opening-up. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of outbound tourists from China has ranked first in the world since 2013.

Between 1995 and 2016, the number of Chinese outbound tourists rose from 5 million to 135 million, with an average annual growth rate of 17.6 percent. In 2017, 136 million Chinese residents went abroad for private purposes, accounting for more than 95 percent of total outbound tourism.

The reform and opening-up, enhancing Chinas overall abilities over the past four decades, also encouraged Chinese enterprises to go global and expand their business overseas.

Foreign students learn to write Chinese characters.

Zhang Jin, an assistant chief engineer from a state-owned engineering company, was part of the earliest group to take part in a Chinese project overseas. In 2001, he was deployed to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a hydraulic engineering project.

Zhang didn't know what to expect from working overseas, adding that though he had some friends working in foreign companies back then, he had never considered working in a foreign country.

After working for years in the UAE, Zhang gradually noticed changes in the development between the two countries. When I first came to Dubai, there were limited air routes from China, but now several cities in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou have opened direct flights, he said.

Moreover, Chinese investment and business are commonplace in the city now, and Chinese company advertisements are everywhere, he added.

According to statistics released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, from 1982 to 2000, China's foreign direct investment was only $27.8 billion. However, between 2002 and 2017, the figure soared to $1.11 trillion.

Today, more Chinese people like Zhang are working overseas. Statistics from Chinas Ministry of Commerce showed that a total of 994,000 Chinese citizens were working in foreign countries by the end of August this year.

Feng Ai and African children.

Feng Ai, honored as one of "the top ten young volunteers" in China, served as a volunteer overseas in 2005.

Feng said that when she visited Nepal in 2002, she was surprised when some children were able to say "hello" in Chinese, and she even found a board with "hello" written on it in Chinese during her time in a small village. Thanks to this trip, she decided to become an international volunteer and help people in need outside of China.

Three years later, in 2005, Feng joined one of the earliest volunteer groups sent to Africa by the Chinese government, teaching Chinese at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

Feng said that in the beginning, her family expressed concern about the life of a volunteer in Africa. However, much to their delight, Feng shared that the locals were curious and friendly towards Chinese people.

Taxi drivers would say "hello" to her in Chinese when she walked along the street, and Chinese Kung Fu was well-known by locals, Feng said.

Six months later, Feng became the only volunteer to extend her service, staying for one year in total. During this period, she not only worked in overseas enterprises, but also shuttled between the embassies of Italy, Turkey, South Korea and other cities in Ethiopia, giving full play to the language and service advantages of volunteers.

"We were the first group of volunteers there, and we were always exploring what we could do and what they needed," Feng said, adding that the first group was made up of 12 volunteers in the fields of Chinese language, agriculture, sport, traditional Chinese medicine and informatization, and by the second year there were more than 50 volunteers.

Since the reform and opening-up in China, Chinese youths continue to gain more opportunities and choices to volunteer abroad.Canadian blockchain and cryptocurrency company DMG Blockchain Solutions is developing a global supply chain management platform for the legal cannabis industry. The platform will be deployed initially in Canada and to other countries later.

DMG's cannabis supply chain solution will be developed in collaboration with its and finance partners. It is currently in discussions with cannabis industry players, including major licensed producers, quality assurance labs, retail distributors, and government regulators.

The blockchain-powered platform will enable immediate product traceability for rapid recalls, ensuring a legal source of product, product safety, as well as facilitating and automating legal and taxation compliance.

It will also help in automating transactions with the help of smart contracts and enabling information flow among licensed producers, licensed distributors, regulators, retailers, shippers, and reporting and auditing systems.

Canada is being positioned to be the global supplier of cannabis, also known as marijuana, and blockchain technology is seen to be ideal for product and supply chain management for controlled products such as cannabis.

Canada on Wednesday became the first major world to legalize recreational marijuana after 95 years of prohibition. It became the second country in the world, after the South American nation Uruguay, which legalized marijuana in 2013.

According to statistics provided by DMG, cannabis represents a $23 billion industry in Canada alone, including an estimated $6 billion in revenue from 13 million recreational users.

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Business NewsEditors Pick

Home improvement retailer Lowe's Companies, Inc. (LOW) said, excluding charges in the prior-year period related to the extinguishment of debt, third quarter earnings per share increased 38% from a year ago. Comparable sales increased 2.2%. Comparable sales for the U.S. home improvement business were...

Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards issued in the U.K. from January 19, 2022, according to the "accepted payment methods" on Amazon's UK website. Amazon has blamed the action on the high fees Visa charges for processing each credit card transactions. The online retailer revealed that Amazon.co.uk will continue accepting Visa debit cards, and any Visa credit card issued outside of the UK.

While reporting financial results for the third quarter on Wednesday, home improvement retailer Lowe's Cos., Inc. (LOW) raised its revenues outlook for the full-year 2021. For fiscal 2021, the company now projects revenue of approximately $95 billion, representing approximately 33% comparable sales...Shares of Sealed Air Corp. (SEE) have climbed off their worst levels of the day but continue to see considerable weakness in late-day trading on Thursday. After hitting a four-year intraday low, Sealed Air is currently down by 8.4 percent.

Sealed Air initially came under pressure after the bubble wrap manufacturer warned of weaker than expected third quarter earnings and lowered its full-year earnings forecast.

President and CEO Ted Doheny said Sealed Air's third quarter profitability was adversely affected by currency headwinds and higher than expected raw material and freight costs.

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Business NewsThe Australian paddler who lost the back end of his surf ski to a curious shark says he doesnt want anyone to stop enjoying the ocean because of it.

Andrew Wheatley was out paddling about 1.5 kilometres off of the south coast of Upolu when he was lifted into the air by a sudden impact on the back of his vessel.

I was going pretty fast, when I was lifted from behind, flung up and to the right, he said.

He said he got back into the boat and began paddling back to shore as fast as he could, without too much thought to what might have happened, before he realised the boat was beginning to sink.

I got on and started going and realised the ski was filling with water, so I just decided to paddle, said Mr Wheatley.

As I was paddling, I turned around and had a look and realised my whole tail was gone, right up until the running and worked out that whatever it was, it was quite big.

Surf Skis are nimble vessels, designed to be damaged, he said, so there is a mechanism in place to drain water from the body of the boat as one paddles.

With that on his side, he was able to make it back to shore. With his tail gone, the journey back was slow going.

All I was thinking was that I need to make it inside the reef, he said.

Mr Wheatley said he has been paddling for nearly twenty years, all over the Pacific and has never seen a shark out in the waters, or even considered encountering one.

It was just one of those one in a million chances, and you never think it will happen to you.

Ive known sharks are out there, I know Im in their environment but really thought they dont want anything to do with me, he said.

Mr Wheatley said his biggest regret was not paying proper heed to basic safety precautions, which has been a lesson learnt  for him and all his friends who heard the story.

Normally I paddle in a lifejacket, take a phone in a pouch and wouldnt probably go out that far without going with someone, he said.

I suppose I went out thinking the wind was good, looked out and just went.

Having a harsh reminder to stay vigilant about safety has been important, Mr Wheatley said.

Yes, we do this all the time, and yes Ive been doing this a long time but you just cant get complacent with this stuff.

After being bombarded with concerned messages as Mr Wheatleys encounter travelled the grapevine, he decided to post his story and some photos on Facebook.

His story has been shared nearly 400 times, and his message is only spreading further, with cable news from across the Pacific reaching out to interview him.

But Mr Wheatley said while the shark encounter is exciting, his key message is about safety.

Sometimes you can unconsciously incompetent at what you do because you do it so often, and I think basically thats where I was, not thinking about anything.

No one is invincible, he said, and we shouldnt get silly, no matter how near or far the paddle trip may be.

Mr Wheatley said before he began telling his friends what he thought had happened to his ski, he needed expert advice.

He emailed the Australian Institute of Marine Science with photos, and within a few minutes heard back from a senior research scientist Dr Mark Meekan.

He said judging by the triangular shapes of the teeth marks, it was most likely a shark, and by the distance between the teeth it was probably a large one.

For Mr Wheatley, the knowledge is not deterring him from jumping back in the sea, and he said it shouldnt stop anyone either.

They are not there to attack; theyre not interested in us."

When they bite its because their using their sense, which is biting because they cant see, he said.

Sharks have relatively poor eyesight, and as they rise to the surface to fish their prey is silhouetted by the sun, leaving room for error with confusingly shaped vessels, said Mr Wheatley.

The rudders on our boats flick like a fish the conditions lined up where thats basically what I looked like."

Hes probably thinking tuna, or something big, and he got a mouthful of fibreglass instead. He would have spat that out pretty quick.

Mr Wheatley said the last thing he wanted was to scare people off of going into the water because of a single shark.

He was basically trying to see what the boat was by biting the boat, he wasnt out to attack me.

More importantly, sharks are a protected species in Samoa; Mr Wheatley said he hopes the new laws are honoured and that no one decides to kill shark in fear.

In March this year, Samoa designated a 128,000 square kilometere Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) would become a shark sanctuary.

At the time, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi said Samoa had to stand together to safeguard sharks for the future.

We will not sit idly by while the demand for shark products robs our future generations of these culturally, ecologically and economically valuable species, he said.Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi has called for a drawn out merger of the National Health Services and the Ministry of Health to be implemented urgently.

Tuilaepa has told Samoa FM radio his Cabinet has decided to go with recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry set up to look into the merger.

He said the Nurses Associations insistence to revisit and review the proposed structure of a major body had been a major sticking point.

He said the Cabinet had accepted a Commission recommendation that it would be easier and cheaper to run.

But the most important part is for the doctors and nurses to work together and put aside their differences and do what they went into the service for, Tuilaepa said.

In August this year, the Commission of Inquiry appointed by Cabinet to review the proposed merger said the leaders of the health sector in Samoa exist in a state of warfare.

And unless reconciliation takes place immediately between leaders of the warring occupational groups, especially doctors and nurses, members of the public whose lives depend on the sector, will continue to be victims.

But its not just that. Health workers who are merely trying to perform their duties will continue to be trapped in this vicious cycle while the war rages above them.

This was the gist of a report titled A Pressing need for Grace, which casts doubt on whether the merge can proceed under current circumstances, has been submitted to Cabinet for their deliberation.

A fundamental change in attitude of all Health sector workers is the Commissions own prescription for the terminal condition which the sector is currently manifesting, an attitude of selfishness and mala fides (bad faith) which lies at the heart of the conflicts and disagreements which has paralyzed the service for many years, the report reads.

The Commission strongly recommends the conduct of a formal process of reconciliation between the leaders of the warring occupational groups.

(There is also) a need for a nationwide resetting of health sector goals where the best interests of patients and the needs of the public, dictate the form of health administration we have, (and not groups of privileged self- centered office bound jet setting combatants), whilst the vast majority of ill- treated underpaid staff continue to work hard and do the best with what they have, whilst the war rages above and around them.

Chaired by former Attorney General, Taulapapa Brenda Heather-Latu, the Commission members included the Vice Chancellor of the National University of Samoa, Fui Dr. Asofou Soo and former Chief Executive Officer of the Public Service Commission, Faamausili Dr. Matagialofi Luaiufi.

There is a fundamental lack of effective leadership over and within the health sector, which is now in a critical state of dysfunction and has been torn asunder by sector wide hostility, suspicion and conflict, the report says.

This woeful state of affairs has been allowed to continue, and indeed flourish through a lack of attention and an unwillingness at the highest level to stamp out the destructive behavior and arrogant behavior of certain sector health leaders and their followers.Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi issued an impassioned plea to Members of Parliament, particularly Cabinet Ministers and Associate Ministers.

In light of recent controversies involving Cabinet Ministers and their business interests, Tuilaepas call was quite simple. He wants them to stay far away from their family businesses, telling them to focus on their public duties instead.

They have been elected by their respective districts as their representative, Tuilaepa said, so the businesses should be handed over to the children and families, while they serve their constituencies.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa makes a valid point.

Cabinet Ministers have a moral responsibility to the country to ensure everyone is treated fairly and equally, and that they put their best foot forward to advance the development of others, not just themselves.

Indeed, they cannot juggle their private business interests and their public duties at the same time. They have to choose either/or. You see, regardless of whether they are clean or not, there will always be questions of conflicts of interest, especially in a small country like Samoa.

Which is what has been happening a lot lately.

Think of the Associate Minister of the Ministry of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Peseta Vaifou Tevaga, who has been making the headlines for his involvement in his familys business.

Were not going to delve into that again since we believe the matter has been reported in detail in the pages of this newspaper for the past few weeks.

Just last week, another senior Cabinet Minister, Afamasaga Rico Tupai, was questioned about his alleged involvement in another family business-related matter.

But we know they are not the only ones.

On yesterdays front page, it was revealed that four Cabinet Ministers and three Associate Ministers still have private business interests despite the plea from Prime Minister Tuilaepa.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour (M.C.I.L.) records, Ministers Papalii Niko Lee Hang (Works Transport and Infrastructure), Afamasaga Rico Tupai (Communications and Information Technology), Sala Fata Pinati (Tourism) and Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu (Justice and Courts Administration) still have shares in private companies.

For Associate Ministers, M.C.I.L. records indicate that Peseta Vaifou Tevaga, Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi, and Faasootauloa Pati Taulapapa  like their ministerial colleagues  also have shares in private firms.

Now lets pause here for a minute.

To be fair to all these Ministers and Associate Ministers, they are not the first ones to have private business interests. There were many before them and were sure there will be many more after them.

Besides, in some cases, these senior public officials had these business interests long before they entered Parliament and became Cabinet Ministers.

But this is where Tuilaepas point about them doing what is right comes into play. It is a point that has been immediately backed up by one of his senior Cabinet Ministers in the Minister for Revenue, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt.

I believe in doing the right thing. Once I became a Minister, I transferred all my shares to my family, Tialavea said. My point is, it is a moral issue and no minister should hold shares in any company. This is assurance to members of the public that there is no shady business going on.

Moral issue?

Absolutely. We couldnt agree more with Tialavea.

In my view personally the ministers and associate ministers once they are appointed to office, should transfer their shares, it makes life difficult for them and their families who are running the business.

Tialavea added at the time of their swearing-in, each and every Cabinet Minister is asked to steer clear of their family-owned businesses and offload their shares.

Very true. But heres the issue, for this issue to be addressed adequately, Prime Minister Tuilaepa needs to do more than just talk. At the moment, there is no specific law that deals with issues of conflicts of interest apart from certain policies in the public service.

Perhaps now is the time for Prime Minister Tuilaepa to put his money where his mouth is by legislating the issue, making it illegal for Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament to have any private business interests, whatsoever.

What do you think? Share your thoughts with us.

Have a good Friday Samoa, God bless!A 21-year-old is extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn a valuable life skill in sewing.

Its a skill she hopes will not only benefit her but everyone in her family and the village.

Motiana Siaosi, of Magiagi is among more than 100 Samoan women taking part in sewing lessons provided through a programme funded by China with assistance from the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development.

Ms. Siaosi is not employed.

However, with the skills she is learning, that might soon be a thing of the past.

Right now, I am not going to school anymore, she said. I am grateful and honoured to represent my mother who couldnt come due to some family matters.

Ms. Siaosi said she started learning to sew at Sunday school.

I love sewing but we were only taught the basics back when I was in Sunday school, she said. Being here and being able to learn more skills is a dream come true.

The programme to teach women to sew will take place in Faleapuna, Afega, Magiagi, Tooa Salamasina hall and Safotu.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, Afamasaga Faauiga Palepua Mulitalo, highlighted why the training is important.

This is an opportunity for the women to develop themselves socially, financially, to have the skills to sew for their own families and become more economically sustainable in the long run, she said.

Alongside Ms. Siaosi are also other young females who are equally keen to learn. The training is expected to take three weeks.Two years ago, Saipele Semo was spotted selling boxes of matches on the streets of Apia. Fast forward to today he is preparing to fly to Brisbane for his first international fire dance performance.

His rise from the backstreets of Samoas capital to a recognised fire dancer has been phenomenal, thanks to the owner of the Siva Afi dance crew, Leota Lene Leota.

Saipele, 15, of Leone is part of a dance crew from Siva Afi who have been invited by the Samoan community in Brisbane, Australia to perform.

The trip, scheduled for the late November and early December period, will see them participate in workshops and shows in Brisbane over two weeks.

Leota said Saipele is the youngest of the three dancers, who are all in their early 20s.

He has 10 brothers and three sisters, and lived a tough life on the streets of Apia selling boxes of matches, when he was spotted by Leota and recruited.

Saipele learnt the skill of fire dancing from Leota and older crew members and is now undertaking training in fabric printing, which Leota himself is teaching.

I saw Saipele when he was selling stuff. Now we are teaching him in the printing factory, it is not only about going to school, but to do something they can enjoy and use. Some of them are still attending school and some still sell the stuff on the street.

There is never enough to help, sometimes giving them some ice cream to take home or money for the bus etc. to support them is what we are doing.

Its to take him (Saipele) so he can see a new life. He might be changed when he comes back, I hope so. I think it is about giving these kids a chance. No matter what they are doing just to give them a way. It is as well to show parents other opportunities and ideas, Leota said.

Saipele told Samoa Observer that he loved to do the fire dance and and has not had an injury since he learnt the art, and is excited at taking his first ever overseas trip.

Coincidentally, Saipele is not the first Siva Afi dance crew member to be recruited from the streets, as Leota has indicated giving similar opportunities to other children, who still sell items on the streets of Apia in their spare time.

I want to give back to those kids. When I was a kid when I finished school on the way home I collected four of those empty bottles of coca cola and that was enough for my lunch the next day. So every day when I finished school I provided my lunch for the next day. So I look at all those kids which are in a similar situation as me, he said.

While the dance groups travel expenses including visas to Australia have been covered by their various fundraising activities, Leota says they are still looking for a sponsor to get a return ticket for Saipele.

The dance group has just over four weeks to finalise their travel. Anyone who wants to support Saipele to enable him realise his dream can contact Leota on +685 26128.Chinas onshore and offshore yuan rate against the US dollar fell below 6.94 on Thursday, a new low since January 2017, but experts believe the central bank is capable of stabiizing the exchange rate.

Xie Yaxuan, an expert at China Merchants Securities, told the Peoples Daily that the yuans depreciation is a result of a strong US dollar index, falling stock market prices and the foreign capital outflow.

US decided not to call China a currency manipulator on Thursday but kept it on a watch list with Germany, Japan, Switzerland, India and South Korea.

The Trump administration and past administrations have threatened to call China a currency manipulator for weakening the yuan and using it to soften the blow of tariffs. China did not meet the criteria to be called a manipulator, the US Treasury said.

Shao Yu, chief economist at Shanghai-based Oriental Securities, told the Peoples Daily that the yuans weakness shows the currencys flexibility.

If we connect the dots, in terms of policies, the yuans exchange rate is also part of important variable factors in trade talks between the US and China, Shao added.

The escalating trade friction between the US and China could affect the supply and demand in the foreign exchange market through two channels: one is trade channels and the other is the international capital flow, Xie said in a recent research note shown to the Peoples Daily.

With the final decison pending on whether Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping would meet at the gathering of G20 leaders in Buenos Aires at the end of November, the People's Bank of China (PBC) is completely capable of maintaining the yuans exchange rate between 6.8 to 7 to the US dollar, Shao stressed.

PBC chief Yi Gang pledged to keep the yuan stable. A separate communique issued by the IMF said member countries should avoid using currencies as a trade weapon.

"We will refrain from competitive devaluations and will not target our exchange rates for competitive purposes," it said.

The yuans exchange rate may still show a wider range of fluctuations in the future, Xie predicted.A business house has stepped in to support a village council restore order amongst its youth through a daily curfew.

The owner of local electronics company Island Rock, Tuaopepe Jerry Wallwork, presented 50 vests to Tanugamanono village representatives yesterday after they approached his company for assistance.

Tuaopepe said the vests cost an estimated $2000 tala and his company was happy to support the curfew that the village decided to re-impose on their community after it was uplifted last December.

We are happy to support Tanugamanono village with sponsoring their vests for their daily curfew. I think this is a great initiative to control and maintain order within the young people in the village and furthermore I support them because Tanugamanono is also my village, he said.

Representative of the village of Tanugamanono, Siligatusa Paipai, told Samoa Observer that they put in the request for the uniforms to the company.

Our village had a meeting in July this year and decided that its time to bring back the vavao (village curfew).

The village started the curfew in the year 2016 then continued to 2017. However, we put it on hold during the festive season. But after the festive season we did not bring it back, but then we had some problems with the young ones not respecting the privacy of families at night.

Most especially, when they are drunk they either make a lot of noise or they behave inappropriately, so the matai of Tanugamanono called a meeting again in July this year, he said.

It was agreed at the meeting that the village should restore the curfew to ensure families are not disturbed by unruly youth.

Speaking of the uniforms, Siligatusa said the vests will assist them, as the villagers and other members of the public passing through, will be able to identify the curfew guardians.

It was agreed at the meeting convened by the matai that villagers who police the curfew will wear a uniform when standing next to the road, he added. The villagers will be notified of the impending start of the curfew when the first bell is rung at three intervals between 7.25 pm, 7.30 pm and 7.45 pm and 11.00 pm every night when all activities should cease until the next morning.In 2009, Afatia Palaamo noticed a small, pea sized lump on her left breast. After a few months, it grew, so she went to a doctor, who said her bra might be causing some problems.

Nearly ten years later, Afatia is still suffering the consequences of two bouts of cancer, and is sharing her story in honour of Pinktober, and the late Manamea Schwalger who inspired the annual cancer awareness month at a Pink Luncheon at the Sheraton today.

I was too relaxed, and I should have listened to my body and not the doctor, she said.

It wasnt until August 2011 that Afatia finally sent samples to New Zealand for a biopsy, and found out by chance, that December, her results had come back with bad news.

I went to the doctor for a different matter, and he said oh, right, because of the cancer? I was shocked.

Turns out Afatias biopsy results had been returned to Samoa, but no one contacted her. The doctor attending her visit read her results and assumed she knew.

That wouldnt be the last time medical professionals let her down. The doctor, who delivered her diagnosis, albeit by accident, offered her two options: to remove the lump, or the entire breast. Afatia didnt feel she understood the full ramifications of either, but was told to go away and think about it.

Weeks later, she revisited that doctor, who asked her why she didnt arrive for her surgery, scheduled for the week before Christmas.

What surgery? He never asked me to book, I never consented to a surgery, he said to go away and think about it, Afatia said.

Finally in March 2012, she was able to travel to New Zealand and successfully underwent a double mastectomy and three months of radiation.

I came back with a big burn on my left breast from the radiation, not a bad souvenir to come home with, she laughed.

Three years into her recovery, life turned upside down for Afatia. Heavy drinking and poor eating habits, and unhappy conditions at home sunk her into a depression, and eventually, she thinks, caused her cancer to return.

This time, she presented to hospital with deep pains in her side and back. C.T scans revealed metastasis in her spine, and Afatia was recommended for urgent radiation.

When her application to travel was denied, her new doctor set her up immediately with counselling.

I really needed that, said Afatia.

In January 2017, she was accepted to go to New Zealand again for radiation, but this time it was not as quick as before.

After radiation, Afatia said she lost feeling in both her legs, a result of the radiation working closely to the spine. Doctors told her it would be six to eight weeks before she got her strength up  it would become nine months.

Those would be the darkest times of my recovery, she said.

My family had to do everything for me. I couldnt even feed myself, or eat more than two tablespoons of food.

Last year, Afatia began a physiotherapy regime with the help of a volunteer. They helped her strengthen her muscles and work on her breathing to relax the tension in her back and spine, she said.

Finally, last October I could stand on my own two feet, and walk with crutches.

Last White Sunday was the first time I had been to church all year, and I could sit on the bench, she said.

Afatia said after everything she has been through, her priority is helping others learn from her experiences.

I would waste my cancer if I thought of it as a curse, and not a blessing, she said.

She has improved her eating and cut out sugar, salt and most carbohydrates, and said her family has begun to follow suit, as well as maintain an active lifestyle.

She urged people not to be complacent, and to seek treatment and reach out to the Cancer Society if they are worried they might have the symptoms of cancer.

Back then, pride stopped me from treatment, from seeing the Cancer Society for help, but I did need help. And they did so much for me, and that is why I joined them.Nestled between Savaia and her giant clams, and Matautus Return to Paradise resort is the village of Gagaifolevao, a village planning on becoming an eco-tourism hot spot.

Gagaifolevao is one of six Lefaga district villages intent on regenerating and protecting coral reefs for the sake of their children, but also in a money making venture to uplift the community at large.

This is a fishing community and it depends on the ocean for food and income, but two major cyclones and years of tourism overflow from the already pumping spots at Savaia and Return to Paradise have left the coral reef trampled and damaged, resulting in less fish to catch.

In 2015, the village council applied for funding from the Global Environment Fund Small Grants Programme (G.E.F-S.G.P.) to set up a barrier to start conserving their dwindling reef.

They succeeded and received a grant of US$30,000 (T$79,090) to set about building a Marine Protected Area (M.P.A.).

Gagaifolevao Village Mayor, Iputau Letupu Felise said the coral reef regeneration and protection will set of a chain effect of positive development for the village.

With a flourishing reef, the village can grow the highly prized giant clams to sell, and charge entry fees to tourists wanting to snorkel and admire the reef.

S.G.P. intern, Monty Jefferson and Ministry for Natural Resources and Environment Marine Conservation Officer, Samantha Kwan swam into the M.P.A. to assess the growth of the reef since the No Take Zone boundary was established in 2015.

Visibility was a little low, but you could see coverage was around 30 to 40 per cent of the reef, said Ms. Kwan.

For only two years, thats really good.

More tourists at Gagaifolevao will need somewhere to stay, and Iputau said families with land along the coast will begin building beach fale to rent this year and hopes to be ready in time for Christmas.

Well need help from S.B.E.C. [Small Business Enterprise Centre] with budgeting and marketing but this programme can help the village, said Iputau.

There is room for at least a hundred guests in Gagaifolevao.

S.G.P. Programme Associate, Ofusina Ieremia said while it could take up to 10 years for Gagaifolevao to reach the standard Savaia has reached, the Lefaga District Committee has set a high standard for knowledge sharing and support, which will enable them to get there.

The seven villages of Lefaga (Matautu, Gagaifolevao, Safaatoa, Faleaseela, Matafaa, Savaia and Tafagamanu) meet once a month to share their learnings regarding tourism, M.P.A. management and more.

Iputau said he hopes the villages can agree on the same management policies and village bylaws when it comes to conservation, to further the chances of their reefs development.

As a district committee, they have applied for a further grant from S.G.P. to create a united M.P.A. across the entire Lefaga Bay area.

Well need a district wide management plan to survey the site and have technical consultations. Its a very expensive project, Iputau said.

Pointing at some children playing nearby, he said this investment is essential.

Think about your children and even the children still in your belly - they will benefit from this.Alice Every is a patient support advisor working with the Samoa Cancer Society (S.C.S.), and has been on a 12-month assignment with the Australian Volunteers for International Development (A.V.I.).

In her last weeks with the Society, she took time out of her busy schedule to share her experiences with the Samoa Observer.

Alice arrived in Samoa last year to join outreach nurse Fuamatala Tofilua in her work tending to patients with cancer at various stages of the disease.

A palliative care nurse by profession, her work has been to not only support Fuamatala in her work, but to also develop the palliative care work of the Cancer Society and the greater health sector.

But Alice said compared to her experiences in Australia, families in Samoa are incredibly caring of their loved ones, which makes palliative care much easier in some regards.

The thing that I have been overwhelmed by, that perhaps I wasnt expecting was the way Samoan people care for each other, and that is something that can often be a bit lacking in Australia.

Its a big issue, having patients not having a family member who will care for them at home, and them living on their own and not having anyone to look after them, she said.

But in Samoa, multiple family members will step up to full time care, without question.

It is done with such care, and so effortlessly, its not seen as a burden or even questioned that they would do that. They just expect it of themselves and of each other to provide that care.

Alice and Fuamatala travel far and wide across Samoa to visit patients at home and ensure they take their medication, and are connected to the health sector at large by helping them get to appointments or consult with different doctors.

Ive had some adventures, said Alice.

We visited a wee boy whose house was up where you couldnt drive to, so we climbed this mountain to get to him, we took a small boat to Manono to visit a patient, she said.

Caring for children at the end of their life was a challenge on its own for Alice. But a strong team at the Cancer Society meant she never cried alone, she said.

Seeing people dying from cancers that, if they lived in other countries that had more access to treatment or more resources, they possibly wouldnt have died of those cancers, thats probably been the thing I have found most distressing, Alice said.

But the work the Samoa Cancer Society is doing is incredible and well beyond my expectation of a small N.G.O. of a small Pacific country to be providing.

She said the choice to take on a palliative care nurse shows how progressive the health sector and the society are, and understands S.C.S. has applied to A.V.I. for another nurse when Alice leaves next week.

The Australian Volunteers for International Development programme works to match Australians and their skills with organisations in nearly 30 countries to help them deliver their objectives, and is funded by the Australian department of foreign affairs and trade and AusAID.Months of practice, hours of cleaning and a whole day of packing bananas have resulted in Samoas first shipment of export ready bananas in 50 years.

Member of the Banana Growers Association, Taimalie Charlie Westerlund, Ututaaloga Charlie Ulia and Tuisuga Sofara Aveau together sent 500 boxes of their best green bananas to New Zealand on Wednesday, hoping to break into the market there.

Farm manager for the Ah Liki plantations, Johanna Coyle said exporting bananas is a massive challenge and preparing for this week has been nearly two years in the making.

The New Zealand quarantine rules are strict and the fruit itself is difficult to predict.

Its important they reach their destination in the same state so that when they are sold for the ripe banana market, the vendors can ripen them and have a uniform grade to sell, said Ms. Coyle.

When bananas ripen, they release ethylene which speeds up the ripening of the fruit around them, so weve been careful to select a harvest of the perfect maturity.

The cleaning process is the hard part, Ms. Coyle said, because bananas have many nooks and crannies for bugs and dirt to hide in, which could affect the entire shipment.

We soak them in water and use hoses to get in between the bananas to wash out the dirt and bugs hiding in there. Weve also been practicing on our own bananas for months, she said.

Finally on the big day, Ah Liki hired several more hands to help harvest and pack the bananas as well as sort through to remove any unattractive or prematurely ripening fruit.

They sprayed the batch with a fungicide to defend against surprises and were closely supervised by Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries quarantine staff.

It took 12 hours to prepare their portion of the shipment: 300 boxes of green bananas.

We even quarantined the whole area here to make sure it was pristine for the container, said Ms. Coyle.

Always looking to improve, the Ah Liki farm sent a batch of bananas to New Zealand last June as a trial run.

We wanted to work out the logistics of how to make shipments as easy and streamlined as possible, and we are always looking for things to fix as we go along, said Ms. Coyle.

Last time, they learned to fix some farming practices and their packaging methods.

President of the Banana Growers Association, Tuisuga Sofara Aveau said New Zealand has set out a clear quarantine pathway through which everything must be channelled and he is confident this shipment will succeed.

This is the first time we have attempted it for a long time and we hope we have followed everything required of us, he said.

Hopefully we can learn from this to see if there are any problems or any obstacles we need to address.*The Street Talk was done by Talaia Mika who is a N.U.S. diploma in journalism final year student.

Photos: Misiona Simo

Vaiana Emosi, 40, Manono-Tai

I do not support having two airports in Samoa. Reason being is because I live at Manono island and if the Faleolo Airport suddenly closes down and were recommended to travel all the way to Tiavea then it will be very expensive for us. Its like saying lets make that side of Samoa better than the other side of Samoa which is basically where were at. Plus, its a waste of money. One airport is enough and fair for the whole of Samoa.

Sala Raki, 33, Vaimoso

I think its fair enough that another airport should be established in Tiavea because people on that side of Samoa also need better transportation. We should think broadly about whats fair for everyone especially people living on that side. They barely get blessings like that because mostly the urban areas and the other side of Samoa are being given the simple life in terms of transportation in particular.

Unasa Tauheia Levaai, 36, Siufaga Savaii

I believe it can be a good benefit for our country in terms of trading. We are very much involved in the world trading products and another airport would help speed up the transportation of products overseas. Its good that our government is using any opportunities we can get. We should also look at the safety of our people. There can be bad and stormy weather conditions, so it can be easier for people living on that side of Upolu to use the Tiavea airport instead of coming all the way to Faleolo when we know its unsafe.

John Leafa, 40, Lalomanu

I do not support this new airport at Tiavea. Its too far and costs a lot for the government while were in debt with China big time. Another thing is that the Church ministers are fighting for their taxes and were about to waste big money on this airport while one airport is enough for everyone. Samoa is moving forward and almost all the families in Samoa have vehicles so I dont see any reason why there should be another airport.

Eseta Levi, 38, Vaitele

Its nice because its safer for the transportation of people. Plus, one of the ministers complained about the location of the other airports. I agree with him because it should face where the wind is coming so it can be easier and safer for people to travel unlike the other airports facing the wrong way. Its also safer for people because we dont know what might happen if they come all the way from Tiavea to Faleolo to go overseas.

Maliko Sagote, 40, Faleula

I disagree with this new airport because if I live in Savaii and Im recommended to go to Tiavea to catch my flight at 10pm, then I might just catch some wings and fly all the way to Tiavea just to catch my flight. I know a lot will think its safer and fair for people living on that side of the country but what about us here in Savaii? I think its fairer to have just one airport for transportation and thats Faleolo airport. Plus, its a waste of money. We work hard to pay our taxes and I think its a waste if we use on a new airport while one is enough.ISTANBUL (AP)  A member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage during several trips abroad walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, a surveillance photo leaked Thursday shows, drawing the kingdom's heir-apparent closer to the columnist's alleged slaying.

The man, identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, has been photographed in the background of Prince Mohammed's trips to the U.S., France and Spain this year.

Turkish officials say he flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an "autopsy expert" Oct. 2 and left that night. That was the same day Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who wrote critically of Prince Mohammed's rise to power, entered the consulate and was not seen again.

Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. The AP could not immediately reach Mutreb for comment.

But Mutreb's appearance at the consulate, as well as later at the consul general's residence, adds to the growing pressure on Saudi Arabia amid international outrage over the disappearance of the writer, whom Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered.

In a further sign of that pressure, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as did senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands. Several top business executives have also canceled plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

Analysts say that as long as the Saudis refuse to acknowledge what happened to Khashoggi, the leaks about the case will probably continue.

"Turkey wants to show to the world that it cannot be ignoble, selling values and principles in political deals with U.S. or Saudi to try to bury the truth and come up with an acceptable scenario," said Yusuf Katipoglu, a Turkish analyst.

The pro-government Sabah newspaper on Thursday first published the images of Mutreb, showing him walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9:55 a.m. with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1:14 p.m., then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.

A report Wednesday by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi's slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general's official residence, some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah-published pictured showed an image of the Mutreb at 4:53 p.m. at the consul's home, then at 5:15 p.m. checking out of a hotel. He later cleared an airport security check at 5:58 p.m. before flying out of Istanbul.

Mutreb's name matches that of a first secretary who once served as a diplomat at the Saudi Embassy in London, according to a 2007 list compiled by the British Foreign Office. The same name also appears in an email published by WikiLeaks from the 2015 breach of surveillance company Hacking Team of Saudi officials being trained to use their software. That breach showed how governments were increasingly turning to mercenary hackers-for-hire to pry into the cellphones and computers of their domestic opponents.

Mutreb's identity was confirmed by Turkish officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Mutreb also was identified in state and pro-government media reports.

It's unclear what relationship Mutreb has with Prince Mohammed.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show Mutreb in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey. The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the U.S. and Saudi flags intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The three-week trip across the U.S. saw Prince Mohammed meet with business leaders and celebrities, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Post.

Mutreb also has appeared in images on Prince Mohammed's trips to Boston, as well as Spain and France.

The Sabah report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both the consul general's residence and a second search of the consulate itself. Authorities have not said specifically what they found, although technicians carried out bags and boxes from the consul general's home. He left Turkey on Tuesday.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured attention remains focused on what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. after the rise of Prince Mohammed. It also put further strains on the relationship between the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the U.S., as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

President Donald Trump, who initially came out hard on the Saudis over the disappearance but since has backed off, said Wednesday that the U.S. wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Khashoggi's alleged killing "if it exists."

After briefing Trump on Thursday on his talks this week with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told the Saudi rulers that the U.S. takes "very seriously" the disappearance of Khashoggi and will await the outcome of investigations by the kingdom and Turkey before deciding how to respond.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders jointly called for a U.N. investigation of the Khashoggi disappearance.

"If the government of Saudi Arabia is not involved in Jamal Khashoggi's fate, it has the most to gain in seeing an impartial U.N. investigation determine what happened," said Sherine Tadros of Amnesty International. "Without a credible U.N. inquiry, there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over Saudi Arabia, no matter what its leadership says to explain away how Khashoggi vanished."

The Post published Thursday what it described as Khashoggi's last column, in which he pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.

"As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate," Khashoggi wrote. He added: "The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power."The lively Kona Electric will begin trickling into dealerships soon with an estimated range of 258 miles on a charge, pushing it past the Chevrolet Bolt and lower trims of the Tesla Model 3 sedan and the much more expensive Model X crossover.

But dont call it a Tesla fighter.

With the electrified Kona, Hyundai isnt trying to take on any particular brand. Rather, its looking to upend the notion that families with electric vehicles need a gasoline-powered backup car.

We wanted to have something thats very affordable and performs well, does what people expect and replaces a gasoline vehicle in the household  not be an additional vehicle in the household, Mike OBrien, Hyundai Motor Americas vice president of product, corporate and digital planning, said during a recent press event.

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The Kona Electric has Level 3 fast-charging that can take its battery from 0 to 80 percent of capacity in 54 minutes at a 100-kilowatt charging facility. (David Dewhurst Photography)

Automakers plan to roll out more than 60 electric and plug-in hybrid models in the U.S. through 2020. But for now, the Kona Electric, which begins arriving in stores this year in California before rolling out to other zero-emission focused states in the West and Northeast, will occupy its own niche in the market. The ample range is a key selling point, but its crossover layout will differentiate it from other battery EVs in its expected price range.

The Bolt and Nissan Leaf are compact cars, and OBrien says consumers would have to drop a lot more cash on the upcoming Jaguar i-Pace or Model X if they want an electric utility vehicle, or opt for a plug-in hybrid. The Kona Electrics platform sibling, the Kia Niro EV, is due in the U.S. next year. Hyundai is also introducing a hydrogen-powered electric crossover in the U.S. this year.

Potential to do well

Until now, though, consumers looking for affordable electric crossovers havent been able to meet their needs, said Akshay Anand, executive analyst at Kelley Blue Book. Anand says the Kona Electric has potential to do well, pointing to a survey showing that an average range of around 300 miles appeals to consumers.

Standard features include a 7-inch display audio and 8-inch navigation system with EV Technology Display. (Jay K. McNally)

But Hyundai will need to be aggressive in promoting the Kona EV to build awareness, he said. It cant be an afterthought behind its gasoline-powered sibling, which launched early this year. Anand said Hyundai should stress that the Konas range and utility are enough for it to be a primary vehicle.

Hyundai can take the messaging around the vehicle in a few directions, with its range, 201 horsepower, style and utility, but OBrien wants to emphasize that charging wont be a chore. The Kona Electric comes standard with Level 3 fast-charging that can take its battery from 0 to 80 percent of capacity in 54 minutes at a 100-kilowatt charging capability.

Aside from Teslas Superchargers, which work on Tesla vehicles only, public fast-charging stations can be harder to find than conventional ones. But Electrify America, ChargePoint and other developers of charging stations are accelerating their installations of fast chargers.

The Kona Electric has a 150 kW (201 horsepower) permanent-magnet synchronous electric motor and 64 kWh lithium-ion battery. (David Dewhurst Photography)

Hyundai expects owners of the Elantra, Sonata and Tucson to be among the converts to the Kona Electric. While education around EVs is still an issue for some, OBrien is confident the vehicles will continue to gain acceptance as people see more of them on the streets and learn about the experiences of their friends and relatives.

Were seeing the market for EVs expanding well beyond the current Tesla customers, said OBrien, who added that Tesla has helped bring more awareness to EVs. We imagine a different consumer base. A lot of our buyers will come from our loyal owner base that we already have.

Im not expecting that were going to have a lot of Model 3 people getting their deposits back, he said. That wasnt our goal.

Pricing hasnt been announced, but OBrien said it will be roughly half of the i-Paces range of $70,495-$86,895.

Opportunity for growth

The market for EVs has not taken off, but theres a growth opportunity in the segment among minority buyers, said Marc Bland, IHS Markits vice president of diversity and inclusion.

Bland, while discussing ethnic trends in the industry, said brands would benefit from educational campaigns that lay out how electrified vehicles work.

Toyota, for instance, began sponsoring Afropunk music festivals in Brooklyn and Atlanta several years ago to make inroads with African-American consumers for its hybrid lineup. At the festivals, Toyota displays hybrid options such as the Prius and RAV4 crossover alongside booths that explain how sustainability impacts health, business and communities.

I think the next frontier for ethnic consumers is how do we get a higher take rate among African-Americans and Hispanics for electric vehicles and hybrids, Bland said in an August interview. I think it boils down to education and lack thereof. Theres a lot of misunderstanding of what an EV is and can do.

Bond writes for Automotive News.CARLSBAD

Discount pass helps Komen campaign

The Carlsbad Premium Outlets have partnered with Susan G. Komen for the More Than Pink Campaign to raise funds by offering a $10 discount pass. Shoppers can then get 25 percent off an item at participating retailers through Oct. 29. Visit Simon Guest Services at the Mall Management office or text KOMEN to 74666 to donate and instantly receive your digital discount pass. Visit simon.com/sgkdonate to donate online and have a discount pass emailed to you.

DEL MAR

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Hispanic food show

The 2018 Hispanic Food and Beverage Expo! will return Oct. 26 and 27 to the Del Mar Fairgrounds for two days of trade-only business, education, tastings and more. Food and beverage producers can showcase products and meet with industry buyers and decision makers. Features include networking with industry peers, master classes by top producers, free business matchmaking, and a temporary on-site importer. Attendees can register at comidaexpo.com/registration; exhibitors can register at comidaexpo.com/exhibit. Email info@comidaexpo.com.

NORTH COUNTY

Realtor workshop

The North San Diego County Association of Realtors hosts Managing Your Transaction A-Z from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 25 at 906 Sycamore Ave., Vista. Topics will include changing market conditions, pocket listings, fiduciary duties, ethics and financial elder abuse. Speakers are Carolyn DAgosta, former chair of the National Association of Realtors Professional Standards Committee, and attorney David Bright. Cost is $89 for members and $119 for nonmembers. Continental breakfast and lunch are included. RSVP at nsdcar.com/education.

FALLBROOK

Ribbon-cuttings today

Join the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce for open houses from 3 to 7 p.m. today at two neighboring businesses: Rusty Rose Clothing and Accessories, and Indigo Blu Wellness Salon, 413 S. Main Ave. Ribbon-cutting and photo are at 5 p.m. Call (760) 728-5845.

RANCHO BERNARDO

Barons store speakeasy

Barons Market will join Abnormal Brewing to raise funds for breast cancer organizations at its final Backroom Beer Pairing of the year. From 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, the public can visit any of Barons seven Southern California stores to enjoy bite-and-brew menus in its stockrooms-turned-speakeasies. For this event, the family-owned market chose Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and Michelles Place as the beneficiaries. Get tickets at bit.ly/2QYk9GB. Barons has a North County store at 11828 Rancho Bernardo Road, San Diego. Call (858) 485-8686.

VISTA

Workability program seeks internship help

Vista Unified School Districts Workability program is looking for partners who can create paid internships for student work experience for students with mild learning disabilities. Workability pays for students salaries out of their grant, and all the students are covered by the schools workers comp insurance. The business partner does basic training and gives the student a work experience  and benefits from the free help as well as pre-training a great potential employee. Contact Stephen Soderback at stephensoderback@vistausd.org.

Please send items to laura.groch@sduniontribune.com at least 10 days before events.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.comAlthough its opening has been delayed by more than a year, the Dog Haus Biergarten in downtown Vista will make amends with its patient customers this weekend.

From 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, which is opening day at the gourmet sausage and beer eatery, visitors will receive a free Haus Dog of their choice.

Founded in 2010 in Pasadena, Dog Haus is known for its gourmet all-beef hot dogs, no-nitrite sausages, Angus beef burgers and sliders, housemade corn dogs and fried chicken sandwiches.

The meats Dog Haus uses are hormone- and antibiotic-free and all of its sandwiches are served on grilled Kings Hawaiian rolls. Entrees range in price from $6 to $7.50. The restaurant also serves 24 beers on tap, canned beers, wines and a selection of side dishes and ice cream desserts.

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The Cocky Balboa, an Italian mozzarella chicken sausage sandwich at Dog Haus Biergarten, which will open its long-anticipated Vista location on Saturday, Oct. 20. (Courtesy photo)

The Vista restaurant at 227 E. Broadway is the third Dog Haus owned by local franchisees Scott and Henry Lee. They purchased the franchise rights for the countys first location, which opened in San Diegos East Village in October 2016. They also opened a second location last spring inside Chula Vistas Mattress Firm Amphitheatre last spring. Their eventual goal is to have 10 franchises countywide.

The Vista location occupies the lot at Broadway and Indiana Avenue that was home for more than 60 years to the One Day Shoe Repair shop, which closed in 2015.

World War II veteran Bud Miller opened the shop inside a small red building on the property in 1959 and sold it in the 1970s to Dennis Manifold. Tom Fleming came on as an apprentice in 1985 and eventually bought the business in 1996.

Before he retired in 2015, Fleming sold the property to developer Lev Gershman who tore down the weathered building in 2016 to make way for a restaurant property.

The long-anticipated Dog Haus Biergarten restaurant will open in downtown Vista on Saturday, Oct. 20. (Pam Kragen/San Diego U-T)

Dog Haus was originally scheduled to open in summer 2017, but the project encountered unexpected delays. The new modern industrial building has an indoor dining room with communal wood-and-steel tables as well as a large covered patio with fire pit.

At Saturdays opening, diners can choose from seven varieties of Haus Dogs. They include the top-selling Sooo Cali, an all-beef hot dog topped with wild arugula, avocado, tomato, crispy onions and spicy basil aioli. Other options are the Chili Idol (a chili dog with cheddar cheese sauce and onions), Downtown (a dog wrapped in smoked bacon with caramelized onions and pickled peppers) and the Free Bird (a turkey dog with avocado, tomato and smoked bacon and miso ranch dressing), among others.

Dog Haus Biergarten

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Where: 227 E. Broadway, Vista

Phone: (424) 224-7008

Online: vista.doghaus.com

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.comThe visiting tech ambassador of Denmark, Casper Klynge, reiterated on Wednesday his goal to seek broader cooperation with Chinas tech giants in an exclusive interview with Peoples Daily Overseas Social Media.

The staid civil servant was appointed to serve as the worlds first-ever tech ambassador for a year. I feel a little bit lonely, but that explains why I came here to seek more partners and to broaden collaboration with Chinas tech giants, Klynge said in the exclusive interview.

(Tech ambassador of Denmark, Casper Klynge; Photo courtesy of The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing)

Keen on making nice with tech giants, Klynge, who previously served as Denmarks ambassador to Indonesia, now represents the Danish government in its efforts to deepen cooperation with Chinas powerful tech players in this increasingly important diplomatic field.

Klynge is currently in China for a week-long visit and is interested in the cities of Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Shanghai.

After visiting Beijing-headquartered tech giants like Baidu and Didi Chuxing, Klynge said they he was amazed by the vitality that such Chinese companies demonstrate.

China has a vibrant environment for tech innovation. We tend to put technology and digitalization more firmly on the international agenda and change the mindset of the tech cooperation with our partners. The most important thing is to have conversations and connections, like establishing diplomatic ties, said Klynge.

But we are not putting companies before nation, what we do is an add-on of the national diplomatic act out of national interest, Klynge stressed.

(Photo courtesy of The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing)

Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live but also how we govern. New technology doesnt respect national borders, Klynge added.

Meanwhile, Klynge and his team are elevating cooperation on cyber security with nations. We provide an opportunity to influence the national policy-making and legislation process, just as they influence our lives, which will make a contract between government and tech companies to better serve democracy and civil society, Klynge said.

China and Denmark have a long partnership on tech cooperation, from wind energy to agriculture. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Denmark Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and in February Denmark established its Tech Ambassador Office in Beijing.

Denmark was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with China, while in terms of bilateral trade, China has remained Denmarks largest trading partner in Asia for many years and the trade volume has increased remarkably to about $11 billion, according to Xinhua.

(Photo courtesy of The Royal Danish Embassy in Beijing)A generous donation from a Poway High School student is helping Central Elementary students  and their teachers  keep their cool.

The downtown Escondido school recently unveiled a major remodel. Among its new features are four large shade structures, providing an airy green canopy over the preschool and kindergarten outdoor areas. The shades are 12 feet tall and 30 feet wide and cover an area roughly 40 feet long. And they cost $40,000 each.

Kaitlyn Chan, 15, of Poway was able to contribute $12,500 to the cost of one of the shades through a nonprofit she created, SunSafety for Schools, with the help of her mom, Dr. Nancy Chen, and her dad, Celgene scientist Henry Chan.

Kaitlyn grew up well aware of the hazards associated with too much sun  from sunburn to skin cancer.

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We talk about it at the dinner table a lot, because my mom is a dermatologist, she said. I realized I wanted to help educate young students on sun safety to protect them later on in life.

Kaitlyn knew that youngsters were the most vulnerable to the suns rays, but also the perfect candidates when it came to instilling new and better sun habits.

So the teen began a campaign two years ago to raise money for shade structures at schools that lacked them. She chose Escondido because her mother has a practice in that city, so theres a personal connection, Kaitlyn said. And we wanted to work with an underserved school.

She contacted the Escondido Union School District to see where she could best focus her efforts. Assistant Superintendent Michael Taylor told her that the school was being remodeled, and Wed be interested if you wanted to contribute to the cost of a sun shade, he recalled. We were so excited about that. It was just a good example of our school district working with the community and wanting whats best for the kids.

Kaitlyn raised the money from donations and by selling water and raffle tickets for gift baskets at the Escondido Street Faire on Grand Avenue, which shell also be doing at this years festival on Sunday. She created a club at her high school to raise awareness of sun safety. And in between fundraising and school, Kaitlyn is a pianist, cellist and runs cross-country.

On a recent morning, she was preparing to talk to teacher Rose Salas transitional kindergarteners at Central, the third of three presentations she gave that day on campus.

To a group of attentive, not-too-squirmy 4-year-olds, she showed a PowerPoint presentation with a simple ABC: A is for Away (keep out of the sun), B is for Block (as in sunblock), and C is for Cover Up (hats, sun-protective clothing).

Older children might better understand concepts such as harmful UV rays, but Kaitlyn wants to reach the younger ones, she said afterward. The older the children, the more (bad) habits they would already have. I think the young ones will remember: You can have fun in the sun, but you need to be protected and have safe fun in the sun. Theyre getting the message.

Her next fundraising effort will be aimed at Juniper Elementary. Said Taylor, Juniper is a good opportunity for us to put in sun shades. We want to put in a new playground next spring, and all our playgrounds moving forward will have sunshades.

Getting donations and gifts from interested community members like Kaitlyn isnt so unusual for the district, he added. Whats unusual is we have this young lady so engaged in civic work at such a young age, and her determination to help the kids of Escondido.

Visit sunsafetyforschools.org.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.comA MiraCosta College professor has been awarded the Medgar Wiley Evers Award from the North County chapter of the NAACP.

Al Nyman has earned distinction in his 42-year career for his service as a U.S. Marine, Grossmont College police chief, San Diego County Sheriffs Department lieutenant, campus leader, and professor of criminal justice. Receiving the Medgar Wiley Evers Award for his work is one of the high points, he said in a statement.

Earning the Carlsbad Police Department Volunteer of the Year was a very great honor, but this has to be at the top of the list, said Nyman, who was recognized recently by the North County chapter of the NAACP. The award honors Nyman for his outstanding service and commitment to the region. It is named for civil rights activist and NAACP secretary Medgar Wiley Evers, who was assassinated in the driveway of his Mississippi home in 1963.

Al Nyman has not only been a mentor to our students and leader among our MiraCosta College faculty, he has been an outstanding leader in our region and in the law enforcement community, said Diane Dieckmeyer, MiraCostas vice president of instruction, in a statement. Al is most deserving of this prestigious award and has made our MiraCosta family proud.

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Inspired by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Nyman has dedicated his life to improving the lives of young people, regardless of color.

In the field of law enforcement, he helped start a juvenile justice program 30 years ago in Carlsbad that worked with the courts to direct youth offenders toward social services instead of jail. The program put young people on the right track and also reduced recidivism.

At MiraCosta, he has encouraged students to pursue careers in criminal justice and to be productive community members.

MiraCosta College has been a big part of my life, Nyman said in a statement. The college has a platform for helping students of all backgrounds steer toward their careers, whether in criminal justice or in another career path.

A Brooklyn, N.Y., native, Nyman served two years as a Marine before joining the Grossmont College Police Department. He worked his way up to chief at that campus, then spent the next 30 years with the San Diego County Marshals Office and Sheriffs Department. He retired several years ago as a watch commander at the Vista jail.

While serving in law enforcement, Nyman also worked as a professor at MiraCosta College, where he was instrumental in helping build the criminal justice program. He also helped found the MiraCosta College Associate Faculty Union, where he is still vice president.

laura.groch@sduniontribune.comChula Vista is rising. Literally.

To account for potential sea level rise, the Port of San Diego is elevating a portion of the citys Bayfront by as much as 8 feet in preparation for a $1 billion hotel and convention center.

The soil will also improve drainage and prepare the area for roads, utilities and other infrastructure required for the long-awaited development that will be key to Chula Vistas economic development by generating thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue.

When all of the soil is moved, the area will be 14 feet above sea level.

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The Chula Vista Bayfront elevation project is just one of several the Port is doing to prepare for sea level rise.

The Port manages 34 miles of waterfront real estate throughout San Diego. This includes hotels, restaurants, public parks, and museums.

For more than a decade, planners at the Port have calculated potential sea level rise into its future projects through vulnerability assessments. This year marks a significant shift in which those abstract plans have materialized into concrete projects, according to regional experts.

Sea level rise, for a long time, has been focused on vulnerability assessments and how to integrate that information into local plans, said Dani Boudreau, the vice chair of the San Diego Climate Collaborative.

Apart from the Bayfront project, the Port is elevating the Shelter Island boat launch by two feet and building an oyster reef along Chula Vistas shoreline to prevent erosion. Additionally, the Brigantines Portside Pier project is currently under construction.

This current batch of projects is only the beginning.

Within the next five years, we are going to see some really interesting projects on the ground, Boudreau added. A lot of them are already in the design phase.

The Climate Collaborative is made up of various cities and regional agencies such as the Port of San Diego. Their goal is to provide a regional forum to talk about different ways of preparing for the impacts of climate change, reduce carbon footprints, and mitigate greenhouse gases.

The collaborative helps its members develop best practices, share resources, and come up with a regional strategy.

Because of the nature of climate change, every stakeholder along the coast and even those near the coast need to be on the same page, said Philip Gibbons, program manager for the Port of San Diego.

Its really something thats going to affect all of us, Gibbons said. Sea level rise is not going to stop at the Ports jurisdiction, or Encinitas jurisdiction, or Carlsbad. Its something that we all have to work on.

Because San Diego is so geographically diverse, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to climate change, he added.

For example, North Countys coastline is largely made up of cliffs and needs to guard against erosion while the South Bay is more densely populated and more threatened by flooding.

To calculate potential sea level rise, the Port uses projections from the State of California Ocean Protection Council. Those assessments include short- and long-term projections. Because long-term projections vary, the Port considers conservative and liberal long-term projections.

In March, the California Ocean Protection Council released an updated Sea Level Rise Guidance report that stated sea level rise could be between 2.5 and 6.9 feet by 2100.

A more recent report, this one released in September by the California Coastal Commission, said that sea level rise could be as high as 10 feet depending on the condition of Arctic ice sheets.

A significant finding from this report is that Antarctic ice sheet loss could have an outsized impact on sea level rise in California compared to the global average due to ocean circulation dynamics, the report states. Further, the report states that rapid ice sheet loss could result in upwards of 10 feet of sea level rise along the California coast by 2100.

According to models from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, several homes in Coronado, Imperial Beach and Mission Beach would be underwater with four-and-a-half feet of sea level rise. Parts of Chula Vistas Bayfront, Shelter Island, and the San Diego Convention Center would be vulnerable to flooding.

Recent vulnerability assessments show that high sea levels combined with extreme weather events  which scientists predict will be more common in the future  have the potential to cause significant flooding in the the region, particularly San Diego Bay, according to the states Climate Change Assessment.

San Diego Bay is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise due to the core location of several important transportation hubs, the airport, naval base, and port, as well as being a business and population center, according to the assessment.

An economic impact study commissioned by the Climate Collaborative found that between $395 million and $451 million of commercial and industrial property throughout the county could be lost annually if sea level rises by 6.6 feet, according to the report.

Tourism and shipbuilding would be the most impacted sectors, according to the analysis.

According to experts, some areas of San Diego are already seeing impacts of sea level rise.

Were seeing in San Diego that there are communities that are starting to see impacts already, Boudreau said.

Some of the visible impacts of sea level rise include nuisance flooding during high tide or small rain events and changes to storm water systems, such as finding seaweed and salt water further into the systems than before.

Tidal inundation already impacts many storm water outlets in Imperial Beach, where nearly 800 feet of wastewater pipe is exposed to erosion hazards and pump stations are currently vulnerable to coastal flooding, according to the citys Sea Level Rise Assessment.

The Ocean Protection Council echoes the same sentiment in their sea level guidance reports.

Coastal California is already experiencing the early impacts of a rising sea level, including more extensive coastal flooding during storms, periodic tidal flooding, and increased coastal erosion, the council wrote in an April 2017 report.

Apart from working with the Climate Collaborative, the Port is also working with the U.S. Navy to prepare for sea level rise.

The Port and Navy are the two biggest land managers in San Diego Bay. The two recently signed a memorandum of agreement to align their sea level rise efforts.

Those sea level rise efforts will be constantly updated and evaluated depending on how climate change impacts the region in the future.

We are not trying to completely solve the problem today because we probably cant do that yet, Gibbons said. Theres a lot of uncertainty about what sea level rise will be like in 2050 or 2100 so we are creating a framework now. Were really setting afloat a process to plan what will likely change over time.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or TwitterAs a Michigan junior high school student, William Apostol played in a heavy-metal band. Not long into high school, he put down his electric guitar and devoted himself to playing and singing bluegrass music.

Now known professionally as Billy Strings, he leads an all-acoustic band that is steeped in the music of such bluegrass giants as Doc Watson and Bill Monroe, but is also conversant with Slayer and Black Sabbath.

That doesnt mean Strings, 25, performs headbanging favorites at his shows, which mix his original works with songs by John Hartford, David Grisman, New Riders of the Purple Sage and the 1957 Leon Payne cry-in-your-beer ballad Aint Nothing to Me.

But he and his three-man band bring a youthful burst of raw intensity to their music, while Strings arresting 2017 album, Turmoil & Tinfoil, shows him to be an adroit songwriter.

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His best numbers, such as the foot-stomping Dealing Despair, combine bleak lyrics with high-octane music.

Its a potent combination.

Billy Strings, with Clinton Ross Davis: 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23. Soda Bar, 3615 El Cajon Blvd., City Heights. $15 (advance) $20 (day of show); must be 21 or older to attend. (619) 255-7224. ticketfly.com

george.varga@sduniontribune.com

Twitter @georgevargaWhats happening

Kristina McMorris (The Westgate Hotel)

The Westgate Hotel will host its Fall Literary Tea with Kristina McMorris, author of Sold on a Monday. Guests will be served a three-course afternoon tea with bubbly. 2 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday.1020 Le Fontainebleau Room, 1055 Second Ave., San Diego. $45 per person (tax, gratuity, ticketing fee additional). Signed books will be available for purchase for $30. Parking arrangements are an additional $3. (619) 238-1818. westgatehotel.com

Gracey Lane Farm is getting into the Halloween spirit with Pumpkin Carving & Cocktails. Artists Victor Roman and Elvin Armando will lead guests in pumpkin carving while sipping on a complimentary cocktail or beverage. Take a guided tour of the Enchanted Series art gallery exhibit and hear ghost tales with the artists and curator Jen Phillips. Costumes are welcomed. Pumpkin and carving materials are provided. 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday. 2111 Gracey Lane, Fallbrook. $35 per person. Reservations: bit.ly/2yny3JK

BO-beau Kitchen + Cache in Hillcrest will transport guests to the Mediterranean with plates representing all parts of the sea. The three-course dinner menu, available through Sunday, features dishes like Spanish pan con tomate, French rib eye frites au poivre and Greek pan-seared branzino (European sea bass). 1027 University Ave., San Diego. $39.95 per person. Reservations: (619) 481-5033.

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Madison on Park is located in the University Heights neighborhood. (Madison on Park)

Madison on Park in University Heights will host an immersive cocktail experience called Nickel Fortunes, a mysterious take on a gypsy den, complete with libations and complementary bites. Guests will be invited to the back entrance for a one-of-a-kind mystical event, cards of fate will determine drink selections (two), goat stew and potato latkes will be served, and a personal tarot reading will be given by Gypsy Destini. 7 to 11 p.m. Monday. $33 per person. 4622 Park Blvd., San Diego. (619) 269-6566. madisononpark.com

Mortons The Steakhouse will host A Taste of Two Legends, a 40th anniversary celebration, with Napa Valleys most famous and oldest wine-making family, the Mondavis. Guests will enjoy a six-course, chef-curated menu paired with rare, world-class wines from four Mondavi generations, including exclusive library wines and new not-released-yet family projects. A Melchoir bottle of the 2016 Ancora Insieme will be auctioned off with all proceeds benefiting the Boys & Girls Clubs of Napa Valley. 6:30 p.m. Oct. 27. The Harbor Club, 285 J St., San Diego. $295 per person, plus tax. (619) 696-3369. mortons.com

Events for a cause

Blue Point Coastal Cuisine will host its Chef Charity Dinner Series, a five-course dinner featuring land and sea classics like lobster bisque, mushroom ravioli and seared lamb and shrimp. A portion of all dinner proceeds will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Daily through October. 565 Fifth Ave., San Diego. $75 per person; $20 optional wine pairing. Reservations are not required but encouraged. (619) 233-6623. bluepointsd.com

Tocaya San Diego will donate all proceeds from its Pretty in Pink Prickly Pear Margarita ($10) to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The drink is available through Oct. 31. 755 Fifth Ave., San Diego. (619) 343-2898. tocayaorganica.com

Mustangs & Burros is serving Breast Cancer Awareness cocktails through the month of October. (Estancia La Jolla Resort & Spa)

Mustangs & Burros at Estancia La Jolla Resort & Spa will serve Breast Cancer Awareness cocktails through the month of October. From each $12 drink sold, $1 will be donated to Susan G. Komen. Drink names include: Women Crush Warriors, Think Pink Lady, The Fighter, Positively Pink, She Who Shines and She is Fierce. 700 N. Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla. (858) 964-6537. meritagecollection.com/estancia-la-jolla

The Oceanaire Seafood Room and Pink Ribbon Oysters have collaborated this month to raise awareness for breast cancer. For every oyster devoured, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. For National Seafood Month, Oceanaire is also offering two cold water lobster tails served with drawn butter, priced at $39. 400 J St., San Diego. (619) 858-2277. theoceanaire.com

Mamas Kitchen has launched its 14th annual Mamas Pies Thanksgiving Bake Sale (formerly Mamas Pie in the Sky). Each fall, more than 30 pastry chefs, bakeries and caterers volunteer to cook pumpkin, traditional apple, pecan and Dutch apple pies for the Thanksgiving holiday. The pies are sold to the public for $25 each, and proceeds benefit Mamas Kitchen, which provides home-delivered hot meals to San Diegans with AIDS, cancer and other critical diseases. Pies sales will continue through Nov. 19. This years goal is to raise $140,000, which will fund more than 47,000 meals for Mamas clients. For details, visit mamaspies.org or call (619) 233-6262.

October is National Seafood Month

Blanco Tacos + Tequila will offer hamachi and watermelon ceviche and grilled tiger shrimp fajitas. Stop by during happy hour for $4 tacos, including the grilled fish taco. Fashion Valley mall, 7007 Friars Road, Suite 901, San Diego. (619) 810-2931. blancotacostequila.com

Bettys linguine (Hello Betty Fish House)

Hello Betty Fish House will serve Bettys linguine, made with garlic and white wine sauce topped with fresh mussels, clams or shrimp. 211 Mission Ave., Oceanside. (760) 722-1008. hellobettyoceanside.com

Juniper & Ivy will offer seafood-centric dishes, including Baja yellowtail, spicy tuna handroll, sea urchin with pimento cheese, kampachi sashimi (marine fish), tuna belly, spot prawns and ahi tuna wellington. 2228 Kettner Blvd., Little Italy. (619) 269-9036. juniperandivy.com

Mister As seafood selections includes California bluefin tiradito, smoked scallops, plancha (grilled) octopus, Georges Bank scallops and pan-seared Ora King salmon. 2550 Fifth Ave., San Diego. (619) 239-1377. asrestaurant.com

Lobster salad (Mille Fleurs)

Mille Fleurs will serve classics like salmon tartare, lobster bisque and lobster salad. 6009 Paseo Delicias, Rancho Santa Fe. (858) 756-3085. millefleurs.com

Campfires seafood-driving menu features rotating ceviche, a smoked fish board with market fish and seasonal flavorings, seafood pozole verde and roasted whole fish. 2725 State St., Carlsbad. (760) 637-5121. thisiscampfire.com

Lola 55 is serving Baja-style fish through October. (Lola 55)

Lola 55 will offer two fish tacos, both made with local fish: the spicy smoked fish taco is stuffed with jalapeno, bacon, citrus soy, red frill mustard, crema and Carolina Reaper Salsa; and the Baja-style fish with remoulade, chorizo-tomato vinaigrette, frisee (curly endive), pickled serrano peppers and purple basil. 1290 F St., San Diego. (619) 542-9155.

The Fish Market (750 N. Harbor Drive, San Diego) and the Fish Market Restaurant (640 Via De La Valle, Solana Beach) are serving a full lobster with tortillas, Spanish rice and black beans. $49 per person. thefishmarket.com/locations

Executive pastry chef Erik Aronow (James Tran)

Chefs on the move

Puesto welcomes Los Angeles native Erik Aronow as its new executive pastry chef. He replaces chef Jessica Scott, who moved to the East Coast. With 15 years experience, the Le Cordon Bleu graduate honed his skills in notable Los Angeles kitchens, including Bouchon Bistro, Red Medicine, Republique, Ink, and most recently as executive sous chef at Culver Citys Destroyer. He plans to debut his new dessert menu later this month. Puesto has five locations in San Diego, La Jolla, Irvine (two) and Santa Clara, with a sixth location opening in Concord in Northern California in November. eatpuesto.com

Diners can choose from an assortment of seafood at Maretalias raw bar. (Blue Bridge Hospitality)

Renovations

Blue Bridge Hospitality has unveiled its newly remodeled Italian eatery, Maretalia. The $250,000 top-to-bottom renovation features a new 1,800-square-foot indoor-outdoor cocktail bar and lounge with seating for 24, as well as a massive 8-foot raw bar with assortments of bivalves crudos, crab claws, shellfish, oysters and seafood platters. Chef Ronnie Schwandt will showcase his pasta-making skills in a dedicated pasta kitchen offering fresh pasta daily, alongside artisan cheeses and house-made bread. The pasta will be featured in dishes ranging from squid ink gramigna with venus clams, saffron and a mussel broth to a corn cappelletti with grilled shrimp, heirloom tomato, basil and grilled corn. The bar menu is comprised of signature and specialty cocktails, more than two dozen Amaro varietals, a built-out wine list and a roster of spirits, including grappa, vodka, whiskey, rum and gin. 1300 Orange Ave., Corondao. (619) 522-0946. maretalia.com

carolina.gusman@sduniontribune.comThe night sky will be illuminated as San Diego celebrates the 11th annual Festival of Lights Saturday at Balboa Park. Also known as Diwali, it is one of Indias most important festivals that symbolizes the spiritual victory of good over evil, the triumph of virtue over vice and the conquest of ignorance with reason and understanding, according to organizers. Lamp lighting is a hallmark of the festival, which features dozens of lamps, large and small, representing different eras, traditions and regions of India. The event will include a lamp-lighting procession of 1,008 small lamps, an exhibit of traditional Indian dolls and figurines, music and dance and vendors selling Indian delicacies. Ambassador Venkatesan Ashok, consulate general of India in San Francisco, is the chief guest.

11th annual Festival of Lights, Diwali Celebrations: 1 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Several locations in Balboa Park. $5 for adults; free for children under 12. sdias.info/festival-of-lights

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carolina.gusman@sduniontribune.comAn Orange County man was arrested after authorities found him broken down on the side of the road in Tulare County in a dead womans car, police said Wednesday.

Milton Louis Mayfield, 55, of Anaheim, was booked in a Santa Ana jail Tuesday night on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found in a local motel earlier in the day.

California Highway Patrol officers encountered Mayfield in a disabled vehicle on the side of the freeway in Tulare County before dawn. When officers tried to help him, Mayfield made spontaneous statements indicating he may have killed a woman, and CHP contacted Santa Ana police, Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

Santa Ana officials checked several motels before finding the body of the woman, later identified as Deborah Ann Simon, in a room at the Sunshine Village Motel.

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Details about how the woman was killed were not available. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Santa Ana Police Department homicide division at (714) 245-8390.

alejandra.reyesvelarde@latimes.com

Twitter: @r_valejandraThe La Jolla Elementary School principal apologized this week for an email to parents that she says unintentionally perpetuated stereotypes about black people.

The school will hold a forum on Monday at 6 p.m. regarding the matter and how to support all families at the school, according to Principal Donna Tripi.

Last month, Tripi warned parents in an email about a man who had allegedly stared at and followed a parents daughter at a local Starbucks. Tripi described the man in her email as an African American male about 30 years old, about 61-62, dressed in all black and a hooded sweatshirt.

The email went on to give parents security tips to keep your children safe, including calling the police if you see something that doesnt feel right.

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Were all hoping it was an isolated incident, the email concluded, but reminders are always helpful.

This week, Tripi sent another email to parents apologizing for her description of the man, which was so vague that it wouldnt help anybody in identifying the man, but included details that aligned with stereotypes about black people.

My email was a mistake. While it is critical to keep our school family safe, the way I communicated didnt provide enough specifics to identify the individual, but could easily lead to unnecessary and harmful reactions against other members of our community, Tripi wrote. African American males continue to face discrimination in our society every day. The thought that I unintentionally contributed to that climate with a vague email is something for which I owe our community an apology.

Tripi defended the parents fears about the black man, saying shes confident the concern they described was not imagined and that the parent was reasonable in believing that the man was following her daughter.

That was a problem for Andre Branch, president of the San Diego Branch of the NAACP, who took just as much issue with Tripis second email as the first one.

This apology is as disturbing as the original email, Branch said. She repeats the description of the man, mentioning his race, but not that of the parents or the children. This repetition reinforces the idea that the parents and their children have something to fear from African-American men.

Branch said he believes it was the mans African-American identity that generated the fears reflected by the parents and principal.

They have no more to fear from African-American males than they do from white males in hoodies or white males in suits and ties, Branch said. If their concern had nothing to do with this mans race, it would not have been mentioned.

Tripi did not respond to requests for comment.

Out of 535 students enrolled at La Jolla Elementary last fall, five were black, state data show. The school didnt employ any black teachers last school year, according to state data. Out of 31 teachers, 28 were white.

Mondays school community forum will be facilitated by Omar Passons, a black attorney and community leader who recently ran unsuccessfully for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Passons said he reached out to school district officials after he saw Tripis first email posted on social media.

I am an African-American man whos a little bit shorter than 61, but Ive been in workout clothes and a hoodie in La Jolla after working out, Passons said. The description that was included in the email was just really, really general.

Its humiliating to be in that position where you look at somebody and see fear in their eyes for no reason, Passons added.

However, Passons said he is satisfied with how the school has addressed the issue so far.

Their response was what I would hope it would be, Passons said.

Amie Zamudio, a white 40-year La Jolla resident and activist with San Diegos Racial Justice Coalition and Showing Up for Racial Justice, said she thinks Mondays community forum will be a chance to have a teaching moment and call people in rather than call people out.

You dont realize if youre a white person in a white community whats happening with racism, said Zamudio, who said she helped initially bring attention to Tripis emails on social media. We are really hoping this will segue past a one-hour meeting, and lets have a real discussion about our bias.

Starbucks was in the news nationally for an incident of racial bias in April, when two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks while they were sitting and waiting for an acquaintance. The incident drew national outrage and attention to how racial biases can influence peoples perceptions of safety. Starbucks also changed it policies about patron restroom use.

Kristen Taketa

Email: kristen.taketa@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @Kristen_TaketaFollowing months of public outcry, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Thursday morning a proposal to regulate dockless scooters throughout the city  including restricting speeds in select areas and requiring that companies share ridership data.

City councilmembers Barbara Bry and Lorie Zapf have been calling on the city since May to adopt rules governing the rental scooters, which can travel up to 15 miles per hour and are often improperly used on city sidewalks.

In September, public health officials at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego called the scooter trend a public health disaster in the making, and announced it was spearheading an effort to track injuries related to the electric vehicles.

San Diego continues hands-off approach as electric scooter injuries mount 

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Faulconer released this statement Thursday morning along with his proposal: The rapid evolution of this industry is evidence of the popularity of dockless mobility devices as great options for folks who would like to leave their car at home. As with many disruptive new technologies, there are issues that need to be addressed. First and foremost, public safety is our top priority and that will be reflected in these common-sense regulations.

If adopted by the City Council as proposed, the new rules would limit speeds to 8 miles per hour in select areas, including along the boardwalks in Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and La Jolla.

Using geofencing technology, scooter speeds would also be lowered in Balboa Park, Mission Bay Park, Liberty Station NTC Park, the promenades in front of and behind the San Diego Convention Center and the Embarcadero area.

Im pleased to have worked with Mayor Faulconer to develop important safety standards for the protection of scooter riders and pedestrians, Councilwoman Zapf said in a statement. My goal has always been to slow down the speed of the scooters and address safety concerns. With this proposal I feel confident that we will see changes for the better.

At the same time, Councilwoman Bry expressed a desire to more fully flesh out the proposal.

While the mayors proposed framework is a good start, Id like to see even more detail to ensure that the companies operate responsibly, she said. Such detail should include a more robust fee structure, improved data-sharing requirements and a commitment to equity and education.

In the city of San Diego, where long-promised bicycle lanes have yet to fully materialize, many scooter users have taken to riding on sidewalks, frustrating business and unnerving pedestrians.

Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition applauded the new rules, but reiterated a longstanding call to accelerate progress on the citys incomplete network of bike lanes.

With this sudden surge in popularity and ridership of scooters, its critical that we provide safe places for them to be riding instead of sidewalks, Hanshaw said.

Scripps Mercy Hospital said that while exact numbers on injuries are not yet available, at least 30 scooter riders have required hospitalization since June, with scores more being treated in the emergency room.

Dockless scooter companies, such as Lime and Bird, first showed up in San Diego earlier this year, backed with hundreds of millions of dollars in investor cash. Initially, some companies also offered dockless bikes, only to have that transportation option largely fade away in recent months.

The mayors office said that its been tracking the emerging business model, deciding to act this week based largely on safety concerns.

We have been paying close attention to the growth of the industry here and in other cities, said spokesman Greg Block. As it has evolved away from traditional bikes to be dominated by motorized scooters, we felt that now was the right time to develop common sense regulations that allow people to continue to have transportation choices while making it safer for riders and pedestrians.

Under the proposal, each individual scooter would need to carry signage reading: Riding on Sidewalk is Prohibited. Companies would also be required to inform riders of state and federal laws, including the cost of citations.

Is Southern Californias dockless electric scooter fad a public safety hazard? 

In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that lifted the helmet requirement for scooter riders 18 years and older. The law also allows scooter riders to operate on streets with speed limits of 35 miles an hour, up from 25.

At the same time, the governor approved legislation that allows minors cited for not wearing a helmet to attend a safety course to correct the violation. State law requires that electric scooter riders be at least 16 years old with a divers license or permit.

Police officials have said that ticketing scooter riders is a low priority given the agencys limited resources.

The mayors proposed rules would also require scooter companies to share information, such as fleet sizes, how often the vehicles are used, where they are used and the number of reported accidents.

Each scooter company would also be required to indemnify the city from liability claims and carry a liability insurance policy.

Unlike in San Francisco, Los Angles and Santa Monica, Faulconer has not proposed to limit the number of scooters or scooter companies that can operate within the city.

Similar to other cities, the mayor has proposed an annual permit fee and additional operating fees for the use of city property, the costs of which are still being determined.

In Los Angeles, for example, companies pay as much as $20,000 a year for a permit to operate in the city and a $130 per-vehicle fee.

The San Diego City Council Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee is scheduled to hear the mayors proposal at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comHeads of Escondido-based Interfaith Community Services announced Wednesday an ambitious goal of housing more than 2,000 people or who are homeless or threatened with homelessness next year.

We housed 1,000 people this year, Interfaith Chair Rev. Meg Decker said at the nonprofits annual meeting at the Escondido Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Were going to up our game.

The agencys Executive Director Greg Anglea said last years goal had been met and then some, with 1,198 helped. Of those, about 750 were homeless people who were placed into permanent homes and about 450 were people who received rental assistance when they were facing eviction.

The new 18-month Housing 2019 campaign has a goal of helping 2,019 next year. Anglea said the nonprofit will aim to find homes for about as many homeless people as last year while meeting the new goal by helping more people who are facing eviction.

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As an example of one of the people helped, Anglea said a woman who had been able to make ends meet found herself $620 short on rent after her husband died, and she took time off work to care for her teenage son who had been diagnosed with a mental condition.

You kept her housed, Anglea said to supporters gathered for the annual meeting. You prevented her from becoming homeless.

The new campaign will be the third year Interfaith has dramatically increased its housing goal. In 2017, the nonprofit ended homelessness for 583 people, Decker said.

When we say ending homelessness, were not talking about moving somebody into a shelter or a transitional program, Anglea said. That may be a part of their journey, but were talking about the part afterwards, when they leave a shelter and move into a home of their own.

The campaign found housing for people by raising money to pay for rental assistance through community donations while also working with landlords and property owners.

Anglea also said plans are moving forward to open a detox center next year as part of its 35-bed Recovery and Wellness Center, which opened in December. Decker said the new service will help break the cycle that often sees people in and out of jails and hospitals.

The need for such a center in North County has existed since Interfaith closed its Escondido Community Sobering Services in 2013. Sobriety services still are offered in downtown San Diego and El Cajon.

Anglea also announced a new partnership with Neighborhood Healthcare, which will open a medical clinic with doctors and healthcare providers to serve Interfaith clients in Escondido. In turn, Interfaith will staff social workers at Neighborhood Healthcares new Poway clinic to help connect patients there with their services.

The partnership also will help needy people with mental health issues. Anglea said almost 3,000 people tried to get mental health help last year at Interfaith and other nonprofits that work with homeless people, and he noted that almost 90 percent of people on the street said they had a mental health condition.

But digging a little deeper, Anglea said only 10 percent of homeless people said their condition was long-lasting and prevented them from being housed.

The reality is that mental illness does not cause homelessness, but homelessness can absolutely cause mental illness, he said, stressing the need to provide mental health services to unsheltered people. Homelessness is very bad for your health.

Anglea said Interfaith also is collaborating with three local hospitals that have agreed to transfer homeless patients they treat to Interfaiths Recovery and Wellness Center rather than discharging them back to the street.

The annual report presented at the meeting also said about 500 people sleep under an Interfaith roof on any night, about 17,200 unique clients were served this past year, 24,000 emergency food kits were distributed, 126,000 meals and sack lunches were served and about 4,600 children received services, with 412 children placed into housing.

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ISLAMABAD: The current ruling party of Pakistan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (Pakistan Justice Party), recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Communist Party of China, to help strengthen party-to-party relations.

During an event held at Pakistans Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Song Tao, head of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, signed the MoU.

Song recently visited Pakistan as head of a delegation. Talking to the Chinese leader, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said both Pakistan and China enjoy excellent relations which will continue to grow stronger in the future.

Qureshi said that China is an all-weather friend and strategic partner to Pakistan. We start a new chapter in our relations with the signing of an MoU between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf and the Communist Party of China. A regular exchange of ideas will help both countries and political parties to combat the challenges we face today, the minister added.

Talking at the event, Song said that party-to-party relations would help to further promote the economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries. He also invited Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf Party leaders to visit China.

The two parties also agreed to exchange high-level delegations to understand each other further, bring the two nations closer to each other and to address any potential issues.

Earlier, the Chinese delegation visited the secretariat of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf Party and met with party leaders.A San Diego federal judge has ordered the government to get moving on asylum determinations for reunited migrant families, dismissing the governments objections that the settlement agreement that calls for such determinations hasnt been finalized yet.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who has been overseeing the effort to reunify families forcibly separated at the border, gave unofficial preliminary approval to the settlement agreement last month. The settlement calls for immigration authorities to give the migrant families a second chance at applying for asylum.

The lawyers for the families had argued that when the families were separated at the border by the government, most children were not interviewed to determine if they had credible fear of returning to their homeland  an initial step to the asylum process. Their parents, however, were granted credible fear interviews, but many were so distraught over being forcibly separated that they were not able to clearly advocate for themselves.

Under the settlement, those families still in the U.S.  including many in immigration detention  will be granted interviews. The entire family unit will be allowed to remain in the U.S. until every family member has completed the process, even if one or more members fails.

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When Sabraw gave the negotiated plan an unofficial thumbs up last month, he suggested the process get underway as soon as possible.

Both sides agreed, with the governments attorney telling the judge, If it is a good plan, we should get moving. Authorities have said keeping the families in limbo in detention has been expensive and created unrest in the facilities.

Sabraw granted official preliminary approval last week, triggering a clause of the agreement that legal orientations and credible fear interviews would begin within days of a migrant confirming his or her wishes to proceed with an asylum claim. But the government put the brakes on the process, arguing that to continue to go forward would not be proper until the settlement is final. By law, before a class-action settlement can be finalized, all class members must be noticed and then given a chance to object.

Attorneys for the families filed an emergency motion to Sabraw.

In the order Thursday, Sabraw said the process should move forward as agreed upon, starting with the 60 or so people in immigration detention who have already signed forms and are ready to proceed with orientations and interviews.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavisPresident Trump and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo expressed confidence Wednesday that the Saudi government could be trusted to investigate the disappearance and suspected murder of a Virginia-based Saudi journalist in Turkey  despite the likelihood that senior Saudi officials were involved.

The double-barreled defense of the Saudi rulers signaled a shift in White House strategy and suggested the administration has decided to help its most important ally in the Arab world defuse international outrage over the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident.

But pressure on Saudi Arabia intensified as Yeni Safak, a pro-government daily newspaper in Turkey, said it had obtained audiotapes that provided grisly new details of Khashoggis apparent torture and killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The paper said that the dissident Saudi journalist was seized as soon as he entered, drugged with an unknown substance and tortured before he was killed. His fingers were cut off during questioning and he was decapitated, the paper reported. It said he was killed in seven minutes.

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The Saudi consul general, Mohammad Otaibi, could be heard telling Saudi operatives sent to Istanbul that day, Do this outside. Youre going to get me in trouble, the paper reported. Otaibi abruptly left Istanbul for the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday.

Turkish police investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors searched the Saudi consul generals residence for evidence on Wednesday afternoon. The inspection had been expected Tuesday, but authorities waited until the diplomats family had flown out of the country, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters.

Turkish officials already have searched the Saudi Consulate, but did not disclose the results of their findings.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said U.S. authorities had asked for the tape of Khashoggis killing, suggesting Turkish officials havent yet shared it.

Im not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does, Trump said. He said it would be the first question he would ask Pompeo when he returns early Thursday from two days of emergency talks in Riyadh and the Turkish capital, Ankara, that focused on the Khashoggi case.

Pompeo told reporters during a refueling stop in Brussels that his meetings with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had focused in part on the allegations of an extrajudicial killing in their consulate.

We had very direct conversations about this, the seriousness of this, how serious President Trump is taking this, how seriously the United States will take this, he said.

Pompeo said the Saudis pledged to conduct a thorough, complete and transparent investigation and would show the entire world the results.

They made a commitment, too, to hold anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found accountable  whether they are a senior officer or official, he said. He added, Its reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it so they get it right, so that its thorough and complete.

He declined to say if he had asked for or had heard the alleged torture tape, but said he had spoken to Khashoggis Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. Asked whether he believed the Saudi rulers repeated denial of complicity, Pompeo said he was reserving judgment.

Saudi Arabia is far less popular in Congress than in the White House, and a weak U.S. response will not sit well with many lawmakers, nor with the political and foreign policy establishment, who have denounced Saudi Arabia and the Trump administrations handling of the case.

Really, the president of the United States should be a leader, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) told reporters in Coral Gables, Fla. He should not be a person who makes excuses for countries just because of a financial deal, personal or official.  This strikes to the heart of our democracy, it undermines our values as we are viewed in the rest of the world and, quite frankly, if it werent so serious, I would say it looked silly.

Khashoggi, who was 59 when he disappeared, was a U.S.-educated journalist who covered major international stories, including the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent rise of Osama bin Laden, whom he briefly befriended, for Saudi news organizations. He later served as an advisor to and spokesman for top Saudi officials, including their ambassador in Washington.

He fell out of favor with the government after the crown prince consolidated his grip on power over the last two years with mass arrests of rivals and critics, holding some hostage until they reportedly handed over vast fortunes. Khashoggi went into self-imposed exile last year in a bedroom suburb of Washington, D.C., and wrote a monthly opinion column in the Washington Post in which he criticized the crackdown.

He first visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Sept. 28 to obtain a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife so he could remarry. He made an appointment to pick up the paperwork at 1:30 on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while his fiancee waited outside.

He reportedly gave her his two cellphones and told her to call an advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  a personal friend  if he did not emerge. Saudi officials said he left the consulate within two hours, but have offered no explanation as to how he disappeared.

Neither Trump nor Pompeo offered any new facts or insights in the case Wednesday. But unless authorities recover his body or other conclusive evidence of his death, the mystery may remain unsolved.

Pompeo urged Americans to be mindful of the extensive energy, economic and security ties between Riyadh and Washington, including efforts against what he called the worlds largest supporter of terrorism, Iran, Saudi Arabias traditional rival in the region.

The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on these issues, Pompeo said in Ankara. We need to make sure we are mindful of that as we approach decisions on whether to impose sanctions or take other punitive steps against Riyadh, as many in Congress and elsewhere have urged.

While Pompeo was in Riyadh, the Saudi government made good on a long-promised pledge and paid $100 million to the U.S. to assist in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Syria, U.S. officials said. The officials called the timing coincidental.

Few experts believe the Saudis will have to expend much capital to buy their way out of the crisis, primarily because of Trumps good favor.

Trump, if you are on his side, is going to defend you, said Daniel Byman, a former CIA analyst specializing in the Middle East who is now an associate dean at Georgetown University.

He sees the Saudis as his friends, Byman said. This is not a moment when the administration is saying, No. Roll back. Make these concessions. He is defending his supporters as part of a broader strategic relationship  for better or worse.

Some experts suggested the Saudis may make nominal gestures, such as more talk of reform in the repressive desert kingdom, or an overture to Israel, an official enemy.

In that view, Khashoggi may be a casualty of harsh political realities. Saudi Arabia lies at the center of Washingtons strategic and political engagement with the region. The Trump administrations enmity for Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syrian President Bashar Assad, dovetails with Riyadhs goals to limit Tehrans influence.

The administration has turned to Saudi Arabia to lead  and finance  its anti-Iran drive in the region, while Riyadh relies on U.S. weapons and logistical support to pursue an increasingly unpopular war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Saudi government is reported to have pressured the Palestinians, and countries with large numbers of Palestinian refugees, including Jordan and Lebanon, into considering a Middle East peace plan that was crafted by Trumps son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, and is still under wraps. The White House clearly would like to see what Trump has called the ultimate deal succeed, and would value Saudi support.

The response in the Middle East to the Khashoggi incident has largely reflected where each country sits in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. At least nine countries arrayed around the Persian Gulf closed ranks behind Saudi Arabia, although some say an investigation is required.

Saudi leaders for nearly two weeks denied knowing anything about Khashoggis disappearance. On Monday, they began floating a scenario  initially adopted by Trump  that blamed the death inside the consulate on rogue killers, and then suggested the journalist was accidentally killed during an interrogation that went awry.

On Tuesday, Trump offered more support for Riyadh, saying the Saudis were innocent until proven guilty and comparing the Khashoggi case to the allegations of sexual misconduct that nearly derailed the Senate confirmation of new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Analysts familiar with the desert kingdom said it was likely that Saudi leaders were hoping the scandal would blow over and that they could wait it out.

We received commitments that they would complete this [investigation], and I am counting on them to do that, Pompeo said. They gave me their word.

Wilkinson reported from Washington and Bulos reported from Beirut. Times staff writers Mark Z. Barabak in Coral Gables and Jennifer Haberkorn in Washington contributed to this report.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter

UPDATES:

4:35 p.m.: This article was updated with details about the investigation.

10:05 a.m.: This article was updated with President Trumps latest comments.

7:50 a.m.: This article was updated with comments by Secretary of State Pompeo.

This article was originally published at 4:20 a.m.A college student in Maine says a Dunkin Donuts employee refused service and called the police because her family was speaking her native Somali language.

Hamdia Ahmed was at the drive-thru at the restaurant in Portland on Monday when the shift manager started screaming at her, she said.

Stop yelling, leave or Im calling the cops, Ahmed recalled as she posted details of the incident on Facebook. I was surprised to hear this because we werent even doing anything.

Ahmed said the shift manager also refused to take the familys order. When she entered to store to get an explanation, she was called a b----, she said.

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I dont mind being called a b----, but the rest of my family didnt deserve that, she wrote later Monday.

To make matters worse, the police arrived on the scene and gave her a trespass order for disturbance and yelling at a staff. All she was doing was speaking with her relatives who were in the vehicle, she said.

The only crime we committed was speaking in our native language, she wrote. Languages come in different tone, and this women felt like we were a threat to her. This is America and everyone should have the right to speak in their native language. Unbelievable.

Ahmed, 20, posted video of the incident on Facebook. The employee can be heard telling Ahmed that she had to leave or the cops would be called.

The owner of the restaurant would meet with Ahmed on Wednesday and apologize, according to the Press Herald newspaper.

He gave a sincere apology, she told the newspaper. He acknowledged that the police should have never been called.

A corporate official with the company also apologized, and the trespass order was rescinded. Ahmed, though, was not completely satisified.

I appreciate their apology but what I really wanted to get out of the meeting is I want training for their workers, Ahmed told the Press Herald.The Massachusetts man who mailed threatening letters and suspicious white powder to a Democratic U.S. senator, a Republican congressional candidate and Donald Trump Jr., among others, pleaded guilty in court Wednesday.

Daniel Frisiello, 25, pleaded guilty to 13 counts of mailing a threat to injure the person of another and six counts of false information and hoaxes, according to the Department of Justice.

Frisiello was arrested in March after sending envelopes to five high-profile people  Trump Jr., California U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna, Stanford University Professor Michele Dauber, Sen. Deborah Stabenow and California Republican Congressional candidate Antonio Sabato Jr.  with a letter claiming the white powder was dangerous and intended to cause harm.

In March, Frisiello mailed a letter to Trumps then wife, Vanessa, inside their Manhattan apartment.

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Youre an awful, awful person, I am surprised that your father lets you speak on TV, read the note. You make the family idiot, Eric, look smart. This is the reason why people hate you, so you are getting what you deserve. So shut the F--K UP

Vanessa Trump was hospitalized briefly at Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center before the white powder was determined to be harmless corn starch.

Thankful that Vanessa & my children are safe and unharmed after the incredibly scary situation that occurred this morning, the Presidents son tweeted at the time. Truly disgusting that certain individuals choose to express their opposing views with such disturbing behavior.

Frisiello also sent letters threatening the manager of a Mass. company where a relative had been fired in 2015.

Police identified him by matching fingerprints from the letters and through trash found at his home that contained remnants of the cut-out computer-printed messages.

Hes due back in court Jan. 16.The ex-boyfriend of a college student murdered in her Pittsburgh apartment last October has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to the brutal slaying.

Matthew Darby, 22, was sentenced in Allegheny County court Wednesday hours after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in the death of University of Pittsburgh student Alina Sheykhet.

The plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors in which he was able to avoid the death penalty.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports Darby told the judge he was entering the plea because I am guilty.

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Darby, 22, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. (Uncredited / AP)

Sheykhet, 20, was found dead by her father in her bedroom with multiple chop and stab wounds to the head and face. Darby, whom shed been seeing on and off for two years, was arrested days later in South Carolina.

Police quickly zeroed in on Darby as a suspect thanks to a previous protection-from-abuse order Sheykhet had received against him.

In a scathing victim impact statement, Zachary DeReno, the boyfriend of one of Sheykhets roommates, described Darby as a weak, spineless, insecure, self-entitled coward, according to the Post-Gazette.

Her best friend Paige ONeil also lashed out at Darby, reportedly saying in court: You didnt want anyone else to have her. From this, you did the most selfish thing to get what you truly wanted.

Darby also pleaded guilty Wednesday to theft, flight to avoid apprehension and burglary and a September 2017 criminal trespassing incident at Sheykhets apartment, in which he broke in.

Sheykhets parents, both Russian immigrants, have expressed frustration with the way in which their daughters protection-from-abuse orders were handled, as they claim the temporary order she received against Darby was never served.

(Darby) has taken Alina from us in an unimaginable way, her father Yan Sheykhet said, according to the Post-Gazette. I truly believe his goal was to destroy our family. The pain and loss that my family has endured in the past year is incomprehensible. He has stolen so much from us, including a future with our daughter.

With Wire News ServicesThe Justice Department is investigating alleged sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania, according to a report.

The investigation comes after a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report identified more than 300 priests accused of sexually abusing over 1,000 victims over seven decades.

Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades, the report read.

The U.S. Attorneys office in Philadelphia issued subpoenas last week and is demanding confidential files and testimony from church leaders, according to two people familiar with the probe.

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U.S. Attorney William McSwain of Philadelphia is probing whether clergy members committed any federal crimes.

He demanded evidence including bishops knowledge of anyone in their ranks taking children across state lines for illicit purposes, inappropriate communications via phone or computer, and more.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Activists applauded the move by the federal government.

Its groundbreaking if were going to see one of the U.S. attorneys pursuing the Catholic cases, said Marci Hamilton, who runs Child USA, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing child abuse. The federal government has so far been utterly silent on the Catholic cases.

With News Wire ServicesA Georgia middle school teacher with a warrant out for his arrest amid accusations that he sexually abused a student was found dead Wednesday in an apparent suicide.

Zachary Meadors, 28, was found with a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound by police responding to reports of a man slumped over in a vehicle along the side of a highway in Lawrenceville, Ga., Gwinnett Police said in a news release.

The Freedom Middle School teacher was reported missing Monday, and was last seen Saturday. He was scheduled to meet with district officials Monday to discuss allegations that he sexually abused a 12-year-old male sixth-grade student, but he did not show, according to local ABC affiliate WSB-TV.

Meadors, who taught English at the school for the past two years, was reportedly facing charges of child molestation, computer pornography and child exploitation. He was on leave without pay at the time of his death.

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He left several letters on the doorstep of his family home before he disappeared apologizing for the image (his family) may have of him now, according to WSB-TV.

He also left an additional letter reportedly instructing family to divide his finances.Russian President Vladimir Putin said nearly 700 hostages had been seized by ISIS militants who executed some of them and promised to kill more in a part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces.

The Russian leader, speaking in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals in an area where the terrorist group has been expanding its control.

They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day, Putin said. The day before yesterday they executed 10 people.

Putin did not detail the ISIS demands.

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The group is holding the prisoners captive somewhere south of the Euphrates River.

The ISIS attackers stormed a Syrian refugee camp last week and kidnapped 130 families, including U.S. and European nationals, who may be foreign security or aid workers. The attack came after several days of intense fighting between ISIS and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

This is just horrible, Putin said. It is a catastrophe.

Earlier this week, the United Nations warned that the fight for Hajin, the location of the refugee camp, was having a devastating effect on thousands of civilians. The Syrian Democratic Forces estimates about 3,000 ISIS fighters remain in the area.A day after Jamal Khashoggi went into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, his translator emailed his Washington Post editor with a column extolling the virtues of a free press.

As it turns out, that was likely Khashoggis last column; the journalist has been missing since Oct. 2 and presumed dead at the hands of Saudi officials.

The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together, his editor, Karen Attiah, wrote Wednesday night when the newspaper published the column.

Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post. This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for. I will be forever grateful he chose The Post as his final journalistic home one year ago and gave us the chance to work together.

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Khashoggis column, which seems hauntingly prescient now, speaks of the need of a free press to keep Arabs informed of matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives.

The Arab world was ripe with hope during the spring of 2011. Journalists, academics and the general population were brimming with expectations of a bright and free Arab society within their respective countries, Khashoggi wrote. They expected to be emancipated from the hegemony of their governments and the consistent interventions and censorship of information. These expectations were quickly shattered; these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions than before.

No official report has yet been released, but Yeni Safak, a Turkish newspaper with close ties to the Erdogan regime, published a gruesome recounting of Khashoggis alleged murder, including dismemberment and decapitation.

President Trump, who floated the idea that rogue killers may have been responsible for the journalists disappearance, continues reiterating that King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have denied any knowledge of the death.

The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices, Khashoggi wrote.

We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.My Story and My Vision of China: Interview with Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Australia, Professor Tanya Monro

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia Professor Tanya Monro tells her impression of China's science research (People's Daily Online Shuyang Wang)

In 1998, the 25-year-old female physicist Tanya Monro won the Bragg Gold Medal for her research achievements in the field of photonics. The Bragg Medal, established in 1992, is a prize to recognize the work of a Ph.D. student in Australia that is considered to be of outstanding quality.

Twenty years have since passed, and the young scholar has grown into a famous scientist in Australia who is also the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Australia. In our recent interview with Professor Monro, we got to hear many of her compelling stories from the science world and how she views the current cooperation between China and Australia in related research areas.

As an award-winning Australian physicist, Professor Monro's field of research is in photonics, the science of light, mainly focused on the development of new lasers and sensor technology. When asked why she chose photonics as a career path, Professor Monro explained, "When I went to university, I discovered photonics was quite a new field. What attracted me was the idea that in a new field, you can be creative and discover things without the need for them to be very specialized."

Professor Monro creatively combined photonics research with the medical field, working with her team to uncover many new findings. During her research, new optical materials were developed to make optical fibers which can now be used in many kinds of surgeries.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia, Professor Tanya Monro in the interview (People's Daily Online Shuyang Wang)

Professor Monro was awarded the South Australian Scientists of the Year Award in 2010 and the Eureka Prize in Interdisciplinary Scientific Research in 2015. "I think that if you want to create knowledge that impacts the world, you have to look at the big problems. One discipline can never solve them. The universities make it easier for researchers to work in an interdisciplinary way."

With her other role as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Monro carries forward the further development of inclusiveness and innovation, promoting the cooperation between China and Australia in photonics research.

In 2017, a collaborative center was set up by the University of South Australia and the Shangdong Academy of Science to together work in advanced laser and fiber optic sensors. "Photonics is an area in which Australia is very talented. China has outstanding photonics capabilities, and I think we can provide opportunities for our Chinese collaborators as well. We are excited to assist Chinese students to come through as a result of that collaboration," said Monro.

"My experience with Chinese students is that they're often confident about connecting industry to research which is wonderful. Research is risky, and it often goes wrong. If it doesn't go wrong at least some of the time, you're not doing risky enough research. I often find my Chinese students are more fearless."

Besides the collaborative center, the University of South Australia has also established many cooperative projects with Chinese universities such as the An De College founded together with Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology.

Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of South Australia, Professor Tanya Monro (People's Daily Online Shuyang Wang)

Professor Monro believes that China and Australia have different strengths and that is why such cooperation is essential to Australian universities and even the development of Australia as a whole.

"Australians tend to be resourceful and able to do creative things, and what I find in China is the extraordinary ability to put together large teams, large initiatives, and significant infrastructure. They are willing to work on tough problems that take a long time. I think if you can combine those strengths you can do some extraordinary things."

Recalling her first visit to China 10 years ago, Professor Monro was impressed with the escalation of investment and priority in science research in China today. "When I first visited Chinese universities, I found big labs with inadequate equipment, but now even relatively junior researchers there have facilities that would make many professors in Australia very jealous," she said.

Professor Monro recognizes that China today has taken the leading position in photonic technologies and has built tight connections between universities and industry to promote the development and application of photonics. "China starts to play a more significant role in some of the photonic device industries which is becoming more important because we are moving towards to a more automatic world."

Talking about the future, Professor Monro said, "I think the greater the diversity and the more approaches you can bring, the more creative the activity and thus the bigger the possibility. We will always do better in science and research if we connect the best minds in the world. China is, without question, a priority partner."

(People's Daily Online/ Linwan Zhang)A Pennsylvania man serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and step-daughter was charged with the 1988 killing of a 45-year-old man, and police suspect he could be responsible for additional homicides in the state.

Regis Brown, 59, was charged with criminal homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, and intimidation of a witness in the death of Bryce Tompkins, who was found shot to death in a Lawrence County, Pa. creek in 1988, Erie News Now reported.

Detectives are investigating his involvement in six to eight other homicides across multiple counties.

Hes either been arrested for or confessed to or is a strong suspect in 8 homicides right now in the northern part of the state from Lawrence County to Erie, said Pennsylvania State Police Det. Joseph Vascetti.

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Brown is reportedly cooperating with investigators.

Tompkins body was discovered in a creek in Hickory Township, State Police said at a news conference Thursday.

Brown shot him twice in the back then dumped his body in the creek, investigators said.

Brown killed Tompkins because the victim had witnessed Brown commit a burglary, State Police said, according to Erie News Now.

Brown had long been a suspect in the case but there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

He reportedly admitted his involvement after he was arrested for murdering his wife, Michelle Brown, 53, and her stepdaughter, Tammy Greenawalt, 35.

He bludgeoned his wife to death and rolled her body up in a carpet, according to investigators, before stabbing his stepdaughter.Police Chief David Rosado on Wednesday fired Stephen Barone, the self-described trigger happy Hartford police officer who was filmed in August threatening a group of young people with deadly force. Barones comments, which were circulated on Facebook, prompted a reckoning over the police departments racial makeup and how few of its officers live in Hartford.

Its clear to me that theres no scenario in which Mr. Barone can return to his duties as a productive member of the Hartford Police Department, Rosado said.

Internal affairs investigators had already decided Barone, a 10-year member of the department, violated its code of conduct and discredited the force when he warned the group he was feeling trigger happy and used profanity.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Barone declined to comment.

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A sergeant at the time, Barone was the ranking officer of a new unit focused on quality of life concerns when he stopped seven men, whom he suspected were trespassing, on Heath Street.

If anybody wants to fight or run, Im a little trigger happy guys, Im not gonna lie, he was filmed saying on Aug. 9. One of the men Barone stopped, Rashawn Johnson, recorded the encounter on his phone.

In another video of the incident, which the city released a month later, Barone is heard listing the inconveniences of shooting someone on duty. Firing his weapon would make him ineligible for overtime, he explained. That means I got to sell my cars, move from my nice house.

The same internal investigators also found Barone flouted department rules when he failed to call off a chase in July, in which two Hartford police officers drove their cruiser the wrong way on Interstate 91 at nearly 60 mph.

For Hartford Police Chief David Rosado, Recent Weeks Have Tested His Mission Of Leading A Community-Oriented Police Force 

Barone was demoted last month and assigned to desk duty, his salary lowered from the $89,200 base pay he made as a sergeant to $76,800 as an officer.

In an internal affairs interview, Barone said he could have used a better choice of words, but believed at the time his words were effective in maintaining control. He appeared to particularly regret widespread news coverage of the incident, telling investigators he was very apologetic on how this is being portrayed.

While police investigators decided Barone had not violated the civil rights of the group, who were mostly black and Hispanic, several community leaders and pastors said Barones handling of the encounter reflected a mistrust between the mostly white police department and a city more than 80 percent nonwhite. Barone was also filmed saying only junkies come to Hartford from his wealthy suburb of Glastonbury.

He had a weapon. His badge gave him a lot of authority. And he abused it, said Abdul Shahid Ansari, president of the Greater Hartford branch of the NAACP and the chair of a police oversight board. The feeling in the North End was, if he were a person of color, hed already be terminated.

Hartford city councilors called a special meeting with Rosado and his command staff, focusing on the departments racial makeup and a dearth of homegrown officers. Eighty-four percent of Hartfords residents are people of color, compared to 34 percent of its police officers. Less than 7 percent of the force lives in the city.

Barone is the second Hartford police officer fired this year. Detective Robert Lanza was dismissed in January after he allegedly directed racial slurs at Plainville police officers, who were arresting him on suspicion of drunken driving. His criminal case remains active.

Still, it is rare that a Hartford police officer is fired. At the end of Barones weekslong hearing process, a hearing officer recommended he be suspended for 100 days without pay, but not fired, Rosado said in an interview.

I took everything  I took both reports, I took the report from the hearing officer, he said. I reviewed them for a few days to really think about this, because this is not a decision you can make lightly. And I made the decision today.

Barone can appeal his termination, and Rosado said he would assume that that would be an option that theyre going to pursue. A representative of Hartfords police union did not respond to a request for comment.

Mayor Luke Bronin called Barones conduct inconsistent with the police forces values, and said his firing was in the best interest of our community as a whole.

David McGuire, director of the ACLU of Connecticut, attributed Rosados decision to pressure from dogged residents and Johnson going public with footage of Barones threat.

It is good news that Barone is no longer employed by Hartford, McGuire said in a statement posted to Twitter, but the department never should have promoted him in the first place.

Barone had been disciplined in 2016 for turning off his dashboard camera during a chase that ended violently. Another Hartford police officer, then-Sgt. Sean Spell, was later convicted of assault for kicking a man who was handcuffed and lying on the ground.

Barone was suspended for four days after internal investigators found he had violated department standards. Four months later, however, he was promoted to sergeant  a decision that outraged many, including the ACLU and NAACP.

I dont know how he was able to remain on the force as long as he did, Ansari said.Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement Wednesday to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions.

Tesla, based on Palo Alto, Calif., announced plans for the Shanghai factory in July after the Chinese government said it would end restrictions on full foreign ownership of electric vehicle makers to speed up industry development.

Those plans have gone ahead despite tariff hikes by Washington and Beijing on billions of dollars of each others goods in a dispute over Chinese technology policy. U.S. imports targeted by Beijings penalties include electric cars.

China is the biggest global electric vehicle market and Teslas second-largest after the United States.

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Tesla joins global automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. that are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing electric vehicles in China.

Local production would eliminate risks from tariffs and other import controls. It would help Tesla develop parts suppliers to support after service and make its vehicles more appealing to mainstream Chinese buyers.

Tesla said it signed a land transfer agreement on a 210-acre site in the Lingang district in southeastern Shanghai.

That is an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site, Teslas vice president of worldwide sales, Robin Ren, said in a statement.

Shanghai is a center of Chinas auto industry and home to state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., the main local manufacturer for GM and VW.

Tesla said earlier that production in Shanghai would begin two to three years after construction of the factory begins and eventually increase to 500,000 vehicles annually.

Tesla has yet to give a price tag but the Shanghai government said it would be the biggest foreign investment there to date. The company said in its second-quarter investor letter that construction is expected to begin within the next few quarters, with significant investment coming next year. Much of the cost will be funded with local debt the letter said.

Teslas $5 billion Nevada battery factory was financed with help from a $1.6 billion investment by battery maker Panasonic Corp.

Analysts expect Tesla to report a loss of about $200 million for the three months ending Sept. 30 following the previous quarters $742.7 million loss. Its CEO Elon Musk said in a Sept. 30 letter to U.S. securities regulators that the company is very close to achieving profitability.

Teslas estimated sales in China of under 15,000 vehicles in 2017 gave it a market share of less than 3%.

The company faces competition from Chinese brands including BYD Auto and BAIC Group that already sell tens of thousands of hybrid and pure-electric sedans and SUVs annually.

Until now, foreign automakers that wanted to manufacture in China were required to work through state-owned partners. Foreign brands balked at bringing electric vehicle technology into China to avoid having to share it with potential future competitors.

The first of the new electric models being developed by global automakers to hit the market, Nissans Sylphy Zero Emission, began rolling off a production line in southern China in August.

Lower-priced electric models from GM, Volkswagen and other global brands are due to hit the market starting this year, well before Tesla is up and running in Shanghai.Bishop Robert McElroy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego condemned a recent spate of attacks against St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church, a Hillcrest parish that welcomes the LGBTQ community, and one of its staff members.

Diocese officials say the parish and one of its employees have faced a series of attacks that began more than a year ago, with vandals slashing tires, setting doors of the church on fire and making threats. Late Sunday or early Monday, someone broke into the rectory and painted vulgar anti-gay graffiti inside the Polk Avenue building.

These vile and reprehensible acts are utterly contrary to Catholic teaching and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, McElroy said in the statement issued Wednesday. The hatred that lies behind them constitutes a dark and vicious corner in the life of our Church that every member of the Catholic community must reject.

I support and stand in solidarity with the staff and community of St. Johns Parish at this moment.

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Social media posts and articles posted on conservative Catholic websites such as LifeSite and churchmilitant.com have targeted the parish and a staff member at the church who is a gay man in a same-sex marriage. An online petition asks for signatures supporting his dismissal.

St. Johns a year ago hosted a special service aimed at reaching out to LGBT members, their families and friends. That service commemorated the 20th anniversary of a document released by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called Always Our Children that offered an outstretched hand to parents and family members of gay Catholics.

San Diego police have been notified of the incidents and federal law enforcement agencies also are investigating.

It needs to stop, said church spokesman Kevin Eckery, who blamed different fringe elements upset that the parish is a LGBTQ-friendly church.

We intend for it to be welcoming, and some people dont like that. They would rather spew hateful rhetoric, he said.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA motorist who led police on a chase from the Tierrasanta area to the Mira Mesa area was arrested early Thursday after crashing into a fence and allegedly injuring two officers.

Officers were dispatched to a residence on Portobelo Court shortly before 11:25 p.m. Wednesday for a man suspected of assault and vandalism, San Diego police Officer Steve Bourasa said.

When officers arrived, the man jumped into a pickup truck and fled the area, Bourasa said.

As the driver continued northbound toward Miramar, officers deployed a spike strip, Bourasa said. The man continued driving with damaged tires and crashed into a fence around 12:20 a.m. on April Leigh Terrace, located off Calle Cristobal in MiraMesa.

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The driver struggled with officers as they attempted to arrest him following the crash, Bourasa said.

Two officers were treated at the scene for minor injuries they suffered in the incident, Bourasa said. After he was taken into custody, the man was transported to a hospital. The extent of his injuries was not immediately available.

The 24-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was expected to be booked into county jail on suspicion of evading police,vandalism, resisting arrest and multiple counts of assault on a peace officer, Bourasa said.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA San Diego appeals court ruled Wednesday that prosecutors dont have to give a man defending a murder charge the software, source code and other materials that make up a powerful new DNA analysis tool that connects him to a decade-old killing.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal concluded that the makers of the computer program STRmix, a private company that developed the program and sells it to crime labs around the nation, are not part of the prosecution team.

Because of that, the San Diego County District Attorneys Office cant be forced to hand over the companys material, which reveals how the program works and the software it runs on. The decision reverses a ruling in March by Superior Court Judge Charles Rogers, who concluded that the companys product  called STRmix  provided crucial evidence linking defendant Florencio Jose Dominguez to the killing, and thus prosecutors should hand it over.

The dispute centered on an emerging area of contention in criminal courts, where the use of more sophisticated forensic tools that rely on computer algorithms is becoming more common. Many of these tools are developed by private companies who guard the source code and other techniques that drive the tools.

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That can conflict with a defendants due process rights and right to confront and examine evidence used against him or her, civil liberties advocates have argued. The Dominguez case presented such a conflict and drew attention from national groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which urged the appeals court to uphold Rogerss ruling.

The appeals court concluded it was a stretch to call the company that developed STRmix  Environmental Science and Research, a joint venture between the governments of New Zealand and the state of South Australia  a member of the prosecution team. Among other reasons, it noted that the company did not do anything unique or specific to Dominguezs case, but simply sold its product and provided some technical support and product updates to the San Diego Police Department crime lab, which then used it

Under state laws that dictate discovery  the legal process under which each side is required to exchange information  as well as U.S. Supreme Court rulings that say what evidence prosecutors have to provide to defendants, that work by ESR is not enough to qualify them as part of the prosecution team, Associate Justice William Dato wrote.

That was the key question in the case that forced the issue. Matthew Speredelozzi, the lawyer for Dominguez, had tried to get access to the source code, software, user manual for the program and validation studies  which would show how well it works  so his hired expert could examine the source code to determine how the program is working.

But the company said Speredelozzi would have to sign a restrictive nondisclosure agreement first, claiming the code was a privileged trade secret it could protect. The lawyer contended such a condition violated his clients constitutional rights, and filed a motion to get the District Attorneys Office to turn over the code as part of the pre-trial discovery.

Prosecutors argued they could not force the company to do so.On Wednesday spokesman Steve Walker welcomed the ruling.

Were pleased that the court agreed with the position we have held all along that the District Attorneys Office has no control over the property of a private company and we cannot distribute a companys intellectual property without limitation, he said in a statement.

ESR said in court papers that developing STRmix took 27,600 hours of work, and it has been validated in 33 scientific publications. The company has said it allows defense lawyers to examine the code but the non-disclosure agreement is needed to protect the companys product.

Speredelozzi said Wednesday he was disappointed with the ruling, which he said highlights a growing problem for defendants. The current discovery rules just arent adequate for defendants any more, with the increasing use of this kind of technology in the criminal justice system, he said.

Much of that technology  which includes things like facial recognition software and risk assessment tools that determine how dangerous someone might be  are developed by private companies and not technically in possession of prosecution agencies, making them out of reach for defendants to examine.

For a defendant who wants to make meaningful challenges to this technology, there are a lot of barriers to them doing it, he said. He said it was too soon to know what the next steps would be, which could include asking the state Supreme Court to review the ruling.

Dominguez was serving a life sentence for the murder of Moises Lopez in a San Diego park in 2008. After two trials, he was convicted in 2011, largely on the strength of testing that found his DNA in a bloody glove found at the scene  one that contained DNA from more than one person.

Such mixture DNA samples have been controversial among forensic scientists, because it is difficult to clearly identify one person as a contributor especially when there are low-levels of genetic material. In 2010, a national forensic science body recommended changing how such samples are analyzed to a more conservative interpretation that would classify some evidence  like Dominguezs  as inconclusive.

In 2017, Dominguezs murder conviction was thrown out by a San Diego judge. In preparing for a new trial, prosecutors reanalyzed the evidence  this time using the STRmix tool.

The technique uses computer software that runs millions of calculations and produces a likelihood ratio, which essentially says a match between a defendants DNA and the evidence is a certain number of times more likely than a coincidental match. The program does those complex statistical and analytical computations quicker and with greater accuracy than humans can.

That analysis again concluded Dominguezs DNA was part of the bloody glove mixture.

Twitter: @gregmoran

greg.moran@sduniontribune.comA man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering the owner of a flooring company in East Village, but the alleged killers accomplice is still on the loose, police said Thursday.

Kevin Eugene Cartwright, 51, was taken into custody in El Cajon on Wednesday. Police did not say what led them to Cartwright, who is suspected of killing Ghedeer Tony Radda inside Bottom Price Flooring on G Street.

A customer found Radda unconscious and reportedly bleeding from the stomach in his business about 3:40 p.m. on Oct. 10.

After reviewing footage from surveillance cameras, police determined a masked man and a female accomplice who were in the business about 3 p.m. were likely responsible for the death.

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Police believe Cartwright is the man in the mask, which resembled an old, gray-haired woman. Officers are still looking for the woman he was with. She was described as being light-skinned with long, purple hair that was possibly a wig. She was wearing a dark jacket and blue jeans.

San Diego police Chief David Nisleit took to Twitter to thank everyone who helped police locate Cartwright and asked for continued assistance in the search for his accomplice.

Thank you to everyone who helped with getting Kevin Cartwright in to custody for the murder. However, this female suspect who was involved in the murder is still outstanding. We need your help identifying and locating her. https://t.co/2JvCFB66x4  David Nisleit (@ChiefNisleit) October 18, 2018

A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered for information that leads to the womans arrest. Anyone who knows more about the killing was asked to call detectives at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (888) 580-8477.

A friend said Radda was a married El Cajon resident with two daughters. He was also a member of the Santee chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a civic engagement group.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.comA suspected drunken driver who sheriffs officials say rammed a patrol car was arrested after leading deputies on a chase from Santee to El Cajon.

A deputy attempted to pull over the driver around 10:05 p.m. Wednesday after he saw him run two red lights, said sheriffs Sgt. Aaron Montan.

The man took off driving and entered a nearby mobile home park, where he was cornered by deputies, Montan said. The driver then rammed a patrol vehicle before continuing westbound on Mission Gorge Road, driving the wrong way in eastbound lanes for a brief time.

The driver entered southbound state Route 125 before exiting on Grossmont College Drive and crashing into a fence of an El Cajon home.

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Deputies cornered the suspect at a cul-de-sac and deployed a police dog, Montan said.

The man was arrested on suspicion of DUI, assault with a deadly weapon and felony evading. No deputies were injured in the incident.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comWang Chen, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, meets with Romano Prodi, former Italian prime minister and honorary chairman of the Taihu World Cultural Forum, in Beijing on Wednesday. ZOU HONG/CHINA DAILY

Nearly 1,000 politicians, entrepreneurs, scholars and cultural notables from about 40 countries and regions have gathered for a forum in Beijing to exchange ideas, strengthen cooperation and deepen understanding among different cultures.

The fifth annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum begins on Thursday with the theme, "Dialogues of Cultures: Building a Community of Shared Future for Mankind".

The forum aims to help different cultures learn from each other and build a better world with lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity and an open and inclusive attitude, according to Yan Zhaozhu, chairman of the forum.

"Cooperation is a foundation for such a community," Yan said. "And culture plays a key factor in influencing international communication and diplomacy." The forum is also to eliminate doubt and confusion about China and contribute Chinese wisdom to the construction of the global governance system, he added.

The forum has attracted state leaders, former state leaders and dignitaries. On Wednesday afternoon, Altynai Omurbekova, vice-prime minister of Kyrgyzstan, was received by Wang Chen, vice-chairman of the standing committee of the 13th National People's Congress, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the forum's main venue.

Wang also received former Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski, former Italian prime minister and honorary president of the forum Romano Prodi, and former Egyptian prime minister Essam Sharaf.

Vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Chinas National Peoples Congress Wang Chen meets with former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi on the sidelines of the Taihu World Cultural Forum on Wednesday. [Photo/China Daily]

Several notables attending the forum, such as Indian film star Aamir Khan and French Sinologist David Gosset, were also greeted by Wang.

On Wednesday, Prodi noted the importance of the forum introducing Chinese culture and also opening the nation to other cultures with different origins and roots.

"To be open, we'd better not only talk, but also listen," Prodi said at the conference's executive board meeting. He also expressed his worries over the difficulties the world is facing today, when mistrust among countries is all too widespread.

"Culture is changing," he continued. "But we have to find how to interpret the meaning of culture in the context of the 21st century We need to better translate our own cultures and have them better understood and received by others."

The Taihu World Cultural Forum, named for Taihu Lake in the Yangtze River Delta, was created in 2008.

The inaugural conference was held in 2011 in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, by the lake, and was followed by meetings in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, and in Shanghai and Macao.

Vice-chairman of the standing committee of Chinas National Peoples Congress Wang Chen meets former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi on the sidelines of the Taihu World Cultural Forum, Oct 17, 2018. [Photo/China Daily]

This year's conference, co-hosted by China Daily and supported by civil diplomacy institutions and academic institutes, will discuss the cultural significance of economic globalization, people-to-people connectivity under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, and eco-friendly development through themed forums.

The discussion will also take in the use of new technologies in museum operations, cultural diversity in the film industry, the revival of traditional medicine and new cultures grown in cyberspace.

Much work has been done to promote cultural exchanges since the founding of the forum. For example, a meeting on communication among different civilizations along the ancient Silk Road was organized by the forum in 2014 in Paris, France.

Vice-chairman of the standing committee of Chinas National Peoples Congress Wang Chen meets former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi on the sidelines of the Taihu World Cultural Forum, Oct 17, 2018. [Photo/China Daily]

High-level symposiums on traditional Chinese medicine were held in 2012 and 2014.

The forum also has gone beyond exchanges of thought. In 2017, a center for foreign leaders to experience traditional Chinese medicine opened in Beijing. In May, the forum announced it would work with the Palace Museum in Beijing to launch a "cultural parlor of Chinese civilization".

Some areas in the museum also are to be used for lectures on Chinese philosophies, stage performances of traditional Chinese fine arts and displays of cultural creativity products.People can dispose of their unwanted guns and get a gift card worth $100 or $200 in a semi-annual trade-in event set for Saturday in Encanto.

Authorities will hand out the cards from 8 a.m. until noon at Encanto Southern Baptist Church, located at 6020 Akins Ave.

San Diego police ask that participants access the event from 62nd Street and follow the signs. to the church. Akins Avenue will be closed from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday to accommodate the gun buyback.

Gun owners can get a $100 gift card for any working handgun, rifle or shotgun, or a $200 card for a military-style weapon. Only two cards will be handed out per vehicle.

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Participants may choose a skateboard instead of a gift card, while supplies last, officials said.

No questions about gun ownership will be asked.

Ammunition, explosives and non-working guns will not be accepted.

The guns should be carried in the trunk or back end of vehicles. Authorities will take out the weapons, which will be destroyed, police officials said.

The Guns for Gift Cards event is hosted by the San Diego Police Department, Sheriffs Department, District Attorneys Office, the San Diego Training Center and the Unified African American Ministerial Action Council.

Authorities said that in just the past three years, 884 guns were taken off the streets through the Guns for Gift Cards events.

The buyback program was started in 2008 after two teenagers, Michael Taylor, 15, and Monique Palmer, 17, were gunned down as they left an Encanto house party in 2007.

Rev. Gerald Brown, of the ministerial action council, said in a statement that nearly 3,000 guns have been collected in the semi-annual buybacks since that double homicide.

More importantly, we vow to remember all who have have lost their lives to senseless gun violence. Monique Palmer and Michael Taylor will live eternally in our actions, hearts and minds, Brown said in a statement.

Sheriff Bill Gore said in the statement that he hopes people will honor not only these teenagers, but all who have lost their lives in gun violence.

San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit added that participating in the program could prevent guns getting into the wrong hands, including a childs.

Too often,  District Attorney Summer Stephan added in a statement, weapons are stolen and end up in the hands of criminals, who use them to commit violent crimes in our neighborhoods. Gun buyback programs are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to protecting the public from gun violence.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @pdrepardA minivan driven by a man suspected of being under the influence of drugs slammed into a La Mesa house late Wednesday night, startling the family inside and sending debris flying across the room.

The Chrysler Pacifica ran into the building on Veemac Drive near Sinjon Circle around 10:45 p.m., said La Mesa police Lt. Brian Stoney.

The driver of the vehicle was injured in the crash and was combative with officers, Stoney said.

He was believed to be under the influence of drugs and was taken to the hospital to be treated for his injuries. Officers also got a warrant to have a blood sample taken, he said.

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An engineer inspected the home, which sustained structural damage, the lieutenant said. No one inside the house was hurt.

Homeowner Ed Rieth was asleep and his wife was watching TV when the vehicle hit the wall, sending the TV and debris across the room, according to NBC 7 San Diego.

Rieth, who has lived in the home since 1996, told San Diego News Video that he was trying to have a good attitude about the crash. They say you can either. laugh about it or cry, so might as well laugh. We cant do anything about it, he said, The insurance companys going to love us.

Twitter: @karenkucher

(619) 293-1350

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA 36-year-old man who was severely burned early Tuesday morning in a Mission Beach building fire died at a hospital about 12 hours later, authorities said Wednesday.

Aaron Porter was discovered inside a second-floor apartment as firefighters battled the large blaze that broke out about 6:50 a.m. in a mixed-use building on Ventura Place near Strandway, near Belmont Park, according to firefighters and the San Diego County Medical Examiners Office.

Paramedics at the scene performed CPR on Porter before he was taken to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, which boasts the Regional Burn Center. Porter was treated for burn injuries, but his condition deteriorated throughout the day Tuesday.

He was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m.

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A second person injured in the blaze sustained only minor injuries and elected not to be taken to a hospital, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department officials said Tuesday.

Investigators believe the fire, which caused about $600,000 worth of damage, started in a rooftop storage area of the building, which has residential units on the top floor and two ground-floor businesses: Dreyers Ice Cream and Kojacks.

Firefighters arrived to find smoke and flames coming from the second floor and roof of the building. The two businesses sustained water damage but no fire damage.

A two-alarm fire damaged a multistory building in Mission Beach and left two people hurt early Tuesday. Aaron Porter, 36, later died from his burn injuries. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune)

A second alarm requesting more personnel and equipment was requested shortly after 7 a.m., according to SDFD spokeswoman Monica Munoz.

The fire sent up a huge plume of smoke above Mission Beach. A lifeguard who arrived quickly to the scene knocked on doors, helping to wake up residents and get them out of the building. Some bystanders reported taking similar actions.

Firefighters initially had difficulty gaining access to the building because a downed power line was touching the external metal staircase. They ended up using ladders to access the fire.

Crews were concerned about climbing up there and getting electrocuted, so for our safety thats why we (used) the ground ladders, Kinnamon said. As you can tell, it was an intense fire.

Firefighters did an aggressive attack, SDFD Battalion Chief Ed Kinnamon said, and were able to contain the blaze to the single building, which is about a block from the boardwalk and close to many other structures in the dense beach neighborhood.

They had the fire knocked down in about a half hour and then checked to make sure no fire was still in the buildings plaster walls.

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins

(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.comA man robbed a bank Wednesday afternoon in the Oak Park neighborhood by demanding cash without showing a note or weapon, police said.

The robbery happened just after 1:05 p.m. at the U.S. Bank branch near the corner of Federal Boulevard and Euclid Avenue, San Diego police Officer Steve Bourasa said.

The man approached an open teller and demanded cash, Bourasa said in a statement. The teller relinquished an undetermined amount of cash and the male walked out of the bank.

No demand note was used, nor weapons seen, according to police. The suspect was last seen walking westbound on Federal Boulevard toward Euclid Avenue.

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Police described the suspect as a roughly 30-year-old, clean shaven black man, about 6 feet tall with a thin build and bald head. He wore a gray track suit during the heist.

FBI agents and robbery detectives from the San Diego Police Department were teaming up to investigate the incident, Bourasa said.

Anyone with information was asked to call the SDPD robbery unit at (619) 531-2299 or the San Diego County Crime Stoppers anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.

Twitter: @Alex_Riggins

(619) 293-1710

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.comA UC San Diego scientist who revived interest in using viruses to fight infection and a Salk Institute researcher who is pushing to grow human organs for transplantation have been named among the 50 most influential figures in health care by Time.

The magazine placed Steffanie Strathdee and Juan Carlos Belmonte on a list that also includes Bill and Melinda Gates, Nobel laureates James Allison and Tasuku Honjo, and Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of the direct-to-consumer genetics company 23andMe.

The magazine, which issued its Health Care 50 list for the first time on Thursday, said it

wants to highlight innovation in a health care system that has been plagued for decades by major problems, from lack of access to uncontrolled costs to worrying rates of medical errors.

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Strathdee, an epidemiologist at UC San Diego, stirred international headlines when she used an experimental cocktail of viruses to save the life of her dying husband, Tom Patterson, a member of the schools psychology faculty.

The treatment is called phage therapy, and it involves choosing the right viruses to battle potentially lethal bacteria.

UC San Diego researcher Steffanie Strathdee pushed for the use of viruses that saved the life of her husband, Tom Patterson. (Photo by K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Scientists largely lost interest in phage therapy nearly a century ago due to the rise of antibiotics.

But things began to change after Patterson contracted a superbug infection while vacationing in Egypt in late 2015.

Patterson did not respond to traditional therapy. His condition worsened over a period of months as the infection attacked his kidneys.

Strathdee, an infectious disease expert, suggested a long-shot alternative: fight the infection with viruses that seek and destroy specific kinds of infection.

That led to a collaboration between UC San Diego Health, the Navy, two other universities and a San Diego biotech company. In less than three weeks, they developed a cocktail of viruses that they thought might work.

And they were right. The achievement stunned physicians and scientists. That breakthrough, and research elsewhere, soon stirred fresh interest in phage therapy. Earlier this year, UC San Diego created a special center devoted to the subject.

Strathdee was caught off guard Thursday by Times decision to name her to the Health Care 50.

I never dreamed that I would be included on a list with Bill Gates and the two guys who just won the Nobel Prize (in physiology or medicine), said Strathdee, 52. This tells me that phage therapy is alive and that we can bring back a 100-year-old forgotten cure.

Strathdee and her husband will tell the story more fully next year with the release of their book, The Perfect Predator: A Scientists Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug.

Her office is located across the street from the Salk Institute, where Belmonte was working in his lab on Thursday when he was notified that hed been included in Times Health Care 50.

Time praised Belmonte for addressing the shortage of human organs for transplant with a scientifically innovative  albeit ethically controversial  solution: growing human cells in animal embryos to produce, say, human liver tissue inside a living pig or nonhuman primate, which can then be transplanted into people.

Its the first step toward growing enough human organs without relying on human donors.

Belmonte, 57, said, I am very honored to be included. We do fundamental biology and our work is linked to the possibility of translating the knowledge we develop in the lab to (developing therapies) in the clinic.

He added that the cell research is progressing very well, but cautioned that people shouldnt expect scientists to soon develop reliable ways to grow human transplant organs in animals.

I feel that there are fundamental questions that need to be solved, Belmonte said. This sort of thing is far away.The San Diego Union-Tribune recently e-mailed questions to the candidates running for state office. Here are the questions and responses from Maggie J. Campbell, Republican nominee, 78th Assembly District.

Union-Tribune: What single fix does the state most need to implement to address the housing crisis?

CAMPBELL: First, we must recognize that there is no single fix with respect to the housing crisis. No matter which decision is made, someone will be negatively affected and that is not good. We have to find solutions that will not handcuff the legislature but at the same time, that will not hurt homeowners or make rents more expensive than it is right now. We certainly have to make sure that the decision does not make the housing crisis worse.

Union-Tribune: Are you in favor of rent control? And what is your position specifically on Proposition 10?

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CAMPBELL: Yes, I am in favor of rent control to a reasonable degree. It is a struggle for individuals and families to live from pay check to pay check because their rental payments are equal to more than half of their take-home pay. I do not believe that landlords should be blocked from raising rents because they have overhead costs and salaries in most cases to pay and they seek to make a profit as well.

However, I believe that the increases in rents should not be yearly or at the end of each and every lease term with the same tenant. Tenants should not be penalized with a higher rental cost simply because they choose not to enter into a lease or to renew their lease. Many tenants cannot afford the increase, but they do not have the funds to pay moving costs. They become trapped in the rental for another year paying an increase that many cannot afford.

This prevents them from saving money to move to an affordable apartment or home. As we begin to consider implementing rent control, we must spend considerable time thinking about the best way to handle this measure that will not cause harm or hardship to the business owners/landlords as well as the renters. We must be reasonable in our approach to always do the right thing in the best interests of the people of this district.

With respect to Proposition 10, the fiscal effects could harm some landlords in the areas of a decline in the value of the rental property over time There is no guarantee that this would happen, but it is a possibility. There may be an impact on construction, but if it does happen, it would happen over a period of several years as well. Some of the things we have to be concerned about are whats happening right now. Individuals and families are having great difficulty securing affordable rentals for themselves and their families, leading to homelessness and reliance upon public assistance.

Therefore, as voters, we have this to consider as well as to align with California law which provides that rent control policies may not violate landlords right to a fair financial return on their rental property. There are many factors to consider regarding the overall effects of this proposition including but not limited to revenue losses annually.

Union-Tribune: What should the state do to address homelessness and are you aware of a specific approach being used elsewhere that would work in California?

CAMPBELL: We have to stop talking about it and do something about immediately. Everyone has an opinion and no one solution will please everyone. The immediate goal is to move homeless people off the street into a clean safe space. Once they are off the streets, the next step would be to provide workable, and reasonable resources as needed including, but not limited to mental health, medical, and dental services, employment opportunities, food, and water. Follow up services is essential as well as childcare.

There are so many things needed when a person has lost the roof over their head and are suffering from a variety of issues due to the homelessness. There is no one thing that can be done to cure homelessness. It is an ongoing opportunity for the city to continuously address and improve their approach over time. As citizens, we must do what we can to assist our city in the approaches made to end homelessness. Whats taking place and working in one city may not necessarily work in this city. It is ok to review what other cities are doing, as it will give us ideas. But ultimately, we must keep working on our approach and make steady improvement toward our goals to end homelessness.

Union-Tribune: The so-called split roll property tax initiative is being aimed at the 2020 ballot and a variety of other taxes have been floated in recent years. Is California adequately taxed or no? If so, why? If not, what new taxes do you support?

CAMPBELL: Since 1978, Proposition 13 has placed stringent caps on California property taxes. It has severely limited property taxes. Its among the lowest in the country for residential and commercial properties. In 2020, the incumbent and his union supporters seek to change key provisions in Proposition 13. They want the revenue that will be generated from the split roll.

This will hurt everyone in the district regardless of your political party affiliation, and it will devastate businesses.Prior to Proposition 13, there were no limits on the increases for the tax rate or property value assessments in California. Some properties were reassessed 50% to 100% in one year. Even though we will not vote on the attack on Proposition 13 until 2020, the political repercussions have already begun!

Increased property taxes will be passed on to the consumers! Businesses will reduce employment, shut down, and relocate to other states. The cost of doing business in California is already high. This attack will make it more difficult to earn a profit. I am a staunch supporter of preserving Proposition 13.

Union-Tribune: Education reform advocates have long sought changes to teacher tenure, school funding and the states dashboard for evaluating schools. What would you change in the California school system, and how?

CAMPBELL: Many parents will agree that improving education is extremely important because the current system is seen as being inadequate. Those who are not parents sometimes are not aware or understand what improvements that are needed without stepping on the parental rights and responsibilities when making the necessary changes in education. This is a collaborative effort where both sides must come together and make reasonable changes in the best interest of our children because the children are our future. They are deeply affected by our decisions. We want this effect to be positive now and in the long run. The decision should not be made without the parents participation and considerations.

Union-Tribune: What is the most important issue we have not raised and why?

CAMPBELL: Public Safety. Proposition 47 passed by California voters on November 4, 2014. It reduces certain drug possession felonies to misdemeanors. It requires misdemeanor sentencing for petty theft, receiving stolen property and forging/writing bad checks when the amount involved is $950 or less. Since the passage of Prop 47, offenders have been using it to their advantage. More than 4,300 state prisoners have been resentenced and released.

I am committed to working with Law enforcement agencies to work through the consequences of Prop 47, referred to as unintended effects. There is an increase in robberies, property theft and other crimes throughout district 78 and the state. Officers are re-arresting the same offenders over and over again. Because of Prop 47, the offenders are being released back on the street. This appears to the general public as a slap on the wrist.

I am committed to supporting legislation that will counter the unintended effects of prop 47 in the best interests of Public Safety for our families, communities, and businesses in the 78th Assembly District in support of Law Enforcements efforts. It is imperative that as a team, that we find a way to block the unintended effects of Prop 47 and revoke the offenders Get out of Jail Free Cards!In an era of increasing polarization on civic issues, Measure L has attracted unprecedented bipartisan support. This is because Measure L represents the most comprehensive ethical reform at San Diegos City Hall  ever.

The San Diego County Democratic and Republican parties both endorsed Measure L. So did the League of Women Voters and the San Diego Taxpayers Association. Measure L is a citizen-drafted-and-sponsored amendment to San Diegos City Charter, but in order to be placed on the ballot, it garnered a bipartisan supermajority of both Republicans and Democrats on the San Diego City Council.

Measure L is an extensive reform of ethical standards for all elected officials in the city of San Diego. Its unabashed goal is to dramatically increase the quantity and quality of candidates willing to offer their time, skills and services to serve in public office.

Measure L provides six reforms. First, it prohibits city-funded mailings by incumbents in the last 75 days of a re-election campaign, mailings that for years have been disguised as constituent newsletters.

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Measure L next restricts politicians from cashing in as special-interest lobbyists by prohibiting former elected city officers from lobbying the city for two years after they leave office. This reform is long overdue.

Elected city officers will no longer be able to accept speaking fees if Measure L passes. This includes fees from individuals, companies or groups with business before the city.

Measure L bars elected officials from the free use of luxury skyboxes in all city-owned venues and prohibits them from giving those expensive seats away to donors, lobbyists and others.

Under current practices, elected officials can take a $10,000 annual car allowance, whether they drive on city business or not. Under Measure L, elected officials will be reimbursed for actual miles driven, just like every other city employee.

Last, but significantly, our ethics reform proposal finally ends the archaic practice of letting our elected officials vote on their own pay. On Feb. 2, 2015, the San Diego County Grand Jury concluded that there was a substantial, irresolvable conflict when San Diego City Council members vote on their own pay.

In their 2015 report, the San Diego County Grand Jury called that fundamentally flawed and an inherent conflict of interest. It was the San Diego County Grand Jury that recommended that salaries of council members and the mayor should be tied to an external benchmark.

The grand jury in that 2015 report recommended we, the voters, be allowed to eliminate this abuse at a November election. The San Diego Salary Setting Commission also has recommended allowing voters to end this ethical conflict, and has done so six times since 2008.

The grand jurys report came only two years after four former members of the City Council in the city of Bell in the Los Angeles suburbs were convicted of criminal acts related to voting on their own pay. It is inconceivable that, in the context of the city of Bell convictions, it has taken so long to correct this conflict in our own city, or that anyone would oppose this long-overdue reform.

Measure L draws from the grand jury recommendation, by indexing the pay of elected officials to the salaries of California Superior Court judges. Starting in 2020, it benchmarks council pay at 60 percent of those salaries and, in 2022, it caps pay at 75 percent of judges. The mayor and city attorney will be paid the same as judges.

[Editors note: Superior Court judges currently make just over $200,000 per year. San Diego council members make about $75,000 a year, the mayor makes about $100,000 a year and the city attorney earns about $193,000 a year.]

Any subsequent increases will be tied to a formula based on an average of California state employees, guaranteeing no undeserved or dramatic increases in the future.

Following the grand jury recommendation will dramatically increase the pool of competent individuals who will choose to throw their hat in the ring and compete for public office. Currently, we pay our elected officials less than almost any comparably sized city. They make less than half of county supervisors, and close to a third of what council members make in Los Angeles.

Over 4,000 city employees now make more than council members, including over two dozen librarians and almost four dozen lifeguards. Pay in the private and nonprofit sectors far exceeds what we pay our elected officers. This disparity makes it almost impossible for true citizen legislators to commit four to eight years to serve the city, leaving us with career politicians.

Measure L is intended to change that dynamic.

Ottilie, the chief proponent of Measure L, is the former chairman of the San Diego Salary Setting Commission. He declined the U-Ts request to include the pertinent salary figures in his piece, so we added the editors note above.

Another view: No on Measure L. Make San Diegos elected leaders justify pay raises

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionAs a former county supervisor, it may be surprising that Im supporting Measure D on the November ballot, which would reform the way county officials are elected. But it shouldnt be.

I saw firsthand how the current county election system enables candidates  from county supervisor to sheriff to district attorney  to be elected and re-elected in June primary elections, when as few as 30 percent of voters participate. These very low-turnout primary elections give exaggerated influence to political parties and special interests, which use their money and endorsements to elect their hand-picked candidates.

Related: Why Measure D hurts regular citizens

Measure D would institute the same top-two system we use to elect members of Congress, the governor, state legislators and, in the city of San Diego, the mayor and City Council. The two candidates receiving the most votes in the primary would have a runoff in the November general election, when as many as 80 percent of voters participate.

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Instead of winning election with votes from just a tiny fraction of eligible voters, Measure D ensures the winners will be elected by a majority of voters. That means county elected officials will be more accountable and responsive to a majority of their constituents.

For example, four years ago only 420,000 voters countywide participated in the June primary. In contrast, over 690,000 voters participated in the November general election that year. That means more than a quarter-million county voters were effectively disenfranchised from electing county candidates who won election in the June primary.

If you are disappointed by the countys weak response to the hepatitis A epidemic, or the leapfrog development approved by a majority of the current Board of Supervisors, the solution is Measure D. It will require these officials to stand for election when a majority of their constituents participate, and enable voters to hold them accountable for their actions.

I believe democracy functions best when the most voters participate, and that has always been in November. Voters in the general election better reflect the diversity of our county. Participation by voters of color is significantly higher in November. Thats also the case with young people.

It also should come as no surprise that a majority of the current Board of Supervisors  who collectively have been on the board for 98 years  vigorously oppose Measure D and did everything they could to keep it off the ballot, including requiring a bogus impact report to push the initiative past the statutory deadline for the November ballot.

Political partisans and special interests sued supporters of Measure D to throw it off the ballot, despite the signatures of over 100,000 San Diegans who wanted a chance to vote for it. Fortunately, a fair-minded Superior Court judge rejected these attempts and ordered Measure D on the ballot.

These same partisans and special interests claim it is voters responsibility to understand the election process and to participate in the primary election. But as you can see from the numbers above, thats just not the way it works. Voter confusion caused by different rules for county elections compared to state and federal offices contribute to this disconnect.

When I was running for office, it was not uncommon to hear from voters that they were surprised a candidate could win outright in the June primary, and there would be no November election for that office. They assumed the county election system was similar to the federal and state systems, and that they would always have a chance to vote for the office in November.

Opponents also claim the top-two system will be more costly, because there will be more candidates facing November runoff elections. Theyve suggested various cynical alternatives to save money, but they all come back to the same fundamental issue: They want a system that enables county officials to be elected by a small minority of voters. The truth is, additional costs associated with the top-two system are negligible.

Finally, those favoring the status quo claim November runoffs will extend campaigns that could have been decided in June. But the credibility of our election process ought not be judged by how fast we do it, but rather by participation and trust voters have in the outcome.

Voters deserve a fair and transparent election system that ensures these important decisions are made when the most people participate, and thats in November. For more information, go to www.moresdvoters.org  and vote yes on Measure D!

Slater-Price is a former member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and a former mayor of Encinitas.Once upon a time, regular citizens could run for office and have a decent shot at winning. Sadly, those days are pretty much over thanks to increasingly cumbersome rules and the ever skyrocketing costs of political campaigns.

This has developed over several decades where on one hand incumbent politicians have conveniently legislated ever more byzantine rules for challengers to navigate and on the other hand monied interests like labor unions push structural election changes which drive up the costs of campaigns.

Related: Why Measure D will improve democracy

Incumbent politicians and big monied interests work hand-in-hand to shut out aspiring candidates looking to challenge the status quo with fresh perspectives and much-needed average Joe common sense.

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San Diego County voters are fair-minded and understand that politics is a rough and tumble business. We further understand that political forces, whatever flavor they may be, working hard to advance their respective agendas is completely understandable too  as long as we all play by the same basic rules.

What is not OK is changing the way county elections themselves are done midstream through specific, narrowly tailored legislation in Sacramento to rescue a failed local signature effort by local union leaders masquerading as good government advocates and seeking to drive up the costs of county campaigns which already easily reach into the millions.

You see, county elections used to be governed by, well, county government. Just like the elections in every city in San Diego County are governed by (drum roll) those respective city governments. Quaint ideas like local control used to rule the day.

That wasnt good enough for some who asked Sacramento to intervene with legislation usurping local control of county elections. No, not all county elections. Only one certain county. Strike one in terms of the process.

A signature drive ensued (to place what is now Measure D on the ballot), but the signatures came up short. So the proponents once again asked Sacramento to intervene, to retroactively (yes, you read that right  retroactively) change the threshold for number of signatures needed. Strike two.

However, altering the signature threshold using the normal legislation process wouldnt allow for this ballot measure to be voted on until 2020, so they shoved the language into a budget bill so that it could take effect immediately. Strike three.

So weve determined that the process by which Measure D ended up on your ballot was flawed at best and corrupt at worst. That alone should be reason enough to vote no.

But of course, lets also discuss the merits of the measure itself, getting back to the opening point about the idea that regular citizens could run for office and have a decent shot at winning.

Races for county government currently cost up to $1 million. Theres no way a regular citizen could raise that much money  at $850 or so per contributor  as it is. Forcing runoff elections under Measure D will double that cost, at a minimum, forcing candidates to be still more dependent on outside money. Strike one on the merits.

Oh, but elections should be decided in November, when more people vote, proponents claim. If that were the true motivation, then why not put forth an honest proposal where we frankly do away with the June elections altogether and have only November elections  like most of the cities and school districts around the county do? Lots of money to be saved by the county and candidates alike. Strike two.

Finally, Measure D is legally dubious, completely bankrolled by labor unions and eliminates the ability for write-in candidate campaigns which can serve as an important safety valve in November elections. Strike three.

In conclusion, dont reward the sinister games played by the proponents. If they can go to Sacramento to change the way our county government conducts elections, just wait until they set their sights on changing the way your city or school district conducts elections, driving up costs and disenfranchising regular citizens candidates that dont have monied interests backing them.

Dont be fooled. Measure D is everything we hate about politics  masquerading as reform.

Three strikes on the process. Three strikes on the merits. Vote no on Measure D.

Krvaric is a small business owner in San Diego and the volunteer chairman of the Republican Party of San Diego County. He lives in Scripps Ranch with his wife and four children.From the opening by Leon Breitling of a modest workshop in Saint-Imier, in 1884, to the modern Manufacture in La Chaux-de-Fonds we know today, Breitling has consistently stood out for its capacity to innovate, and its forward-looking mindset. It quickly made a name with a timer/tachymeter that measured speed. In 1915, Breitling also became one of the worlds first manufacturers to present a wrist chronograph with a separate pusher above the watch crown.

In 1934, Willy Breitling, the third generation to run the family business, unveiled an essential invention: a second separate pushpiece, exclusively dedicated to resetting the chronograph to zero. This patented feature was the final touch in giving the wrist chronograph its modern face. Its involvement with flight began in the late 1930s, as aviation came of age, and the brand has continued to lead the field with chronographs whose precision still makes them the choice of pilots worldwide.

Since 1952, the Navitimer  whose signature circular slide rule can be used to perform some twenty essential calculations and conversions while airborne  has confirmed Breitling as a reference in aviation. From the land and the sky to the ocean's depths, dive watches are another area in which Breitling excels, with expertise that goes back to 1957 and the launch of the SuperOcean, water-resistant to 200 metres. Not forgetting the brand's role in the conquest of space, as the maker of the first Swiss chronograph to go into orbit, worn by the astronaut Scott Carpenter in 1962.

Established in Saint-Imier in 1884 and symbol of chronometric precision, Breitling is the 43rd brand to join the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie whose mission is to promote excellence in watchmaking worldwide since 2005. Supported by its partners - highly regarded figures in traditional watchmaking and representatives of contemporary watchmaking - the FHH has successfully developed its activities to inform, train and organise events for both professionals and the public. Thanks to these common values and shared ambitions, the FHH has established itself as a respected voice, able to promote the authenticity and legitimacy of excellence in watchmaking. As a brand recognised for its history, creativity, expertise and innovation, Breitling is embedded in this unique environment.

The 43 partner-brands of the FHH

A. Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Armin Strom, Bovet, Breitling, Bulgari, Cartier, Chanel, Chopard, Christophe Claret, Chronometrie Ferdinand Berthoud, De Bethune, DeWitt, F.P. Journe, Girard-Perregaux, Greubel Forsey, Gronefeld, Hautlence, Hermes, H. Moser & Cie, HYT, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Kari Voutilainen, Laurent Ferrier, Louis Vuitton, MB&F, Montblanc, Officine Panerai, Parmigiani Fleurier, Piaget, Ressence, Richard Mille, Roger Dubuis, Romain Gauthier, RJ-Romain Jerome, Speake-Marin, TAG Heuer, Ulysse Nardin, Urwerk, Vacheron Constantin, Van Cleef & Arpels, Zenith.Re Rep. Duncan Hunter is running a despicable campaign (Oct. 17): Kudos to the San Diego Union-Tribune for the blunt and honest editorial on Duncan Hunter. It is beyond belief that the congressional race in his district is even competitive. But sadly in the age of Donald Trump there seems to be a complete disconnect between truth and ethics among a large component of our country who seem to be driven only by their own self interests.

Hopefully enough Americans will come to their senses and vote their consciences this November and bring morality, compassion, and respectability back to our country.

Regina Hanan

Scripps Ranch

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I have been reading the stories of Congressman Duncan D. Hunter with growing disgust. The stories paint a picture of an entitled man unrepentant for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his campaign fund.

He denies anything wrong, he blames his wife. Hell say anything but tell the truth. Most of us only have what we read to go on when making our judgments of a politician. Several years ago I was part of a small group of professionals who, as members of a PAC, got to have an intimate meeting with Congressman Duncan D. Hunter. I was struck by his ego -- his confidence, casualness and total sense of entitlement. This was before any of the charges had been published. I wouldnt vote for Hunter to take my trash out, unless he was in it.

Brian Swanson

Escondido

The title of Charles Clarks article, Hunter campaign raises national security issues, (Oct. 15) is misleading. This article would be more aptly titled, Hunter Campaign Falsely Charges Campa-Najjar as a Security Risk. The reader does not discover until paragraph 8 that these charges have no merit. In fact Campa-Najjar has passed two FBI background checks with no red flags.

The three retired generals who claim he is a security risk are now lobbyists who have advocated for legislation before the House Armed Services Committee, on which Hunter once served. None of them could be reached for comment.

Prominence was given to the inaccurate statement of those three generals, but the fact that 70 national security experts vouched for Campa-Najjar was a mere footnote.

Come on, U-T, show some journalistic integrity.

Kathy Steel

San Marcos

In a time when party loyalty for some seems more important than God and family, its still mind-boggling that people continue to support someone just because of his political label. Duncan Hunters alleged illegal use of campaign contributions for personal purposes is shocking. The violations are so numerous and well documented that its just a matter of time until hes convicted.

But some voters say theyll still vote for him because he calls himself a Republican. Such unquestioning party loyalty says these people are oblivious of the fact that the Republican Party has become a front for big money interests at the expense of the remaining 99 percent of us.

The trillion dollar Trump deficit is permanent, different from the temporary deficits under Obama. The former party of fiscal conservatism is now putting America on a path to fiscal ruin.

Charles Perkins

La Mesa

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.Re Trump backs Saudis, citing denials (Oct. 17): Just when I think the Trump administration has sunk to its possible low, it strives for a new low. It is beginning to look as though the administration is complicit in its knowledge and concealment of the death of the Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.

Intelligence agencies captured reports of his planned demise before the event. And adding to the tragedy, Trump plans on selling the Saudis military equipment enabling them to reek more havoc on its enemies. What the hell is going on in this make America less great administration?

Carole Lombardi

Del Cerro

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Trumps lies are calculated to confuse his backers

Trumps constantly manufacturing doubt in the media, using a technique that has served him well in business and bankruptcy.

In the 2016 election he suggested, maybe it was the Chinese, instead of the Russians that hacked the U.S. Or rogue agents from Saudi Arabia. This type of rhetoric helps instill Suggestive Memory, a technique that opens a possible acceptance of alternate realities.

Then the narrative shifts from facts to shifting dialogue, so as to befuddle and breed acceptance of any of a number of arguable distractions. Lying outright and later admitting you didnt have all of the facts at the time, then presenting even another possibility, can be destabilizing to someone who is trying to discern the truth.

All in all we live in a time where corrupt people brazenly commit crime in front of our face and hijack justice and Democracy while we compromise our own beliefs.

Daniel Venzon

San Diego

Given the occupant of the Oval Offices denigration of our U.S. intelligence agencies, his public claim he knows more than the generals, his consistent admiration and defense of demagogues, political strongmen and dictators (Putin, Duarte, Kim Jong-Un, etc.), and his son-in-law Jerad Kushners millions of dollars invested in Saudi Arabia, you can be sure he will continue to defend the Saudis with his statements (Crown Prince Mohammid bin Salman totally denied any knowledge of the missing journalist.)

How easily this president forgets it was Saudi Arabians who committed the 9/11 atrocity.

Ed Karesky

Escondido

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.Grand Journeys, at 11828 Rancho Bernardo Road in The Mercado above Barons, can help you plan your next getaway.

The travel agency, which specializes in full-service global travel, luxury travel and corporate travel, was opened in April by business partners Maureen Rouleau and Erin Philp, who together have a combined 62 years of experience in the travel business.

We do customized travel, cruises and tours, groups and multi-generational travel, said Rouleau. Weve done groups from 20 to 200.

Rouleau said the agency specializes in soft and high adventure as well as exotic destinations, like Europe, Africa, Asia and the South Pacific. We cover the world, she said. She also is a specialist on Alaska, as she grew up in there.

Rouleau has a long history of providing quality travel services in Rancho Bernardo, opening the agency Travel Travel in 1979. She owned the business until 2003, when she sold it to a larger entity, and managed it for the new owners until 2015.

After that, she said she decided to open her own travel agency again. For two years, she had a home-based agency, Journeys by Maureen, before she and Philp decided to move into a storefront.

The community was asking us to be back in business, Rouleau said. With so many requests from clientele, why not open another office? She added, We are here for the community, we were asked to open to serve the community.

Prior to getting into the travel agency business, Rouleau worked for Western Airlines, first in Alaska, where she was born and raised, and then in California. At the end of the oil boom, I moved to Los Angeles, she said. From a town of 4,500 to the big city, 20 years old. I knew nobody. Western Airlines was my family.

In 1975, Rouleau got married and she and her husband moved to Rancho Bernardo in 1976, where they raised two children.

Philp got into the travel industry in 2007, Rouleau said, following in the footsteps of her mother, who worked in IT with Rouleau at her former agency. Today, she is one of the to-selling agents in the industry, Rouleau said of her business partner. She took to the business like a duck to water.

Philp said she is a global travel specialist and also specializes in corporate travel.

Part of the Rancho Bernardo community for 40 years, Rouleau said she is a longstanding community supporter. She has served on the Rancho Bernardo Community Foundation board. She has, through escorting Rancho Bernardo residents, family and friends on group cruises over the years, contributed $100,000 to the foundation.

She has also served on the Rancho Bernardo Business Association board, is a past president of a local Soroptimist group and is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Rancho Bernardo.

Rouleau also personally escorts groups on tours and has traveled to over 100 locations around the world. Some of her upcoming tours include the Canadian Rockies in fall 2019, Australia and New Zealand in spring 2020 and Japan in fall 2020, she said.

Grand Journeys is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Fridays and Saturdays by appointment only. While walk-in clients are welcome, appointments are encouraged, Rouleau and Philp said. To make an appointment or find out more about what the agency can offer, call 858-251-3753.

Email: news@pomeradonews.comWhether dressing up as a fairy princess, superhero, witch, ghost or scary monster, there will be plenty for those of all ages to enjoy during the Halloween season.

If you are hosting a Halloween-related community event, send details to rbnews@pomeradonews.com by 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22.

RANCHO BERNARDO

 The annual Halloween Carnival will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19 at the Rancho Bernardo-Glassman Recreation Center, 18448 W. Bernardo Drive in Rancho Bernardo Community Park.

The free community event will include free carnival games, arts and crafts activities, prizes, treats and more for the whole family. Call 858-538-8129.

 Students in seventh to 12th grade can celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein by participating in a book discussion at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 22 in the Rancho Bernardo Library, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive. Call 858-538-8163.

 A free Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Workshop will be held for ages 8 to adult at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23 in the Rancho Bernardo Library, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive. Call 858-538-8163.

 Westwood Club will host its annual Halloween Carnival for the entire community from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. There will be many activities like games, a cake walk and bounce house, plus refreshments and prizes available.

Admission is free to Westwood Club members and their guests (if using a guest pass) and $3 for non-members. Donated cakes and volunteers are needed. To sign-up a cake or volunteer contact Nora at 858-485-6300 or programs@rbwestwoodclub.com. The club is at 17394 W. Bernardo Drive.

 Adults can celebrate the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein by participating in a book discussion at 2 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29 in the Rancho Bernardo Library, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive. Call 858-538-8163.

 Scary stories for ages 5 and up will be told at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30 in the Rancho Bernardo Library, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive. Call 858-538-8163.

 Trick-or-treating has returned to the Rancho Bernardo Vons Town Center, 11922-11987 Bernardo Plaza Drive. There will lots of safe, family fun, goodies, balloon animals and a friendly clown from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. For details, go to rbtowncenter.com.

 Merchants in The Plaza, 16773 Bernardo Center Drive, will distribute candy to trick-or-treaters from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. Look for the flier in store windows.

 The Rancho Bernardo Library, 17110 Bernardo Center Drive, will welcome children to a free Halloween event at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. Assemble for pictures in costumes and do Halloween crafts at 4 p.m. Turn in carved pumpkin masterpieces and win prizes at 4:30 p.m. (free pumpkins can be picked up on Oct. 28 so you can carve at home.)

There will be a 4:30 p.m. Monsters on Parade for children so they can collect candy at the service desks and prizes in the costume contest will be awarded at 4:45 p.m. Call 858-538-8163.

 LifeBridge Church is welcoming families to Halloween Trunk or Treat from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31 at the churchs lower campus, 17645 W. Bernardo Drive. There will be an illusionist, bounce houses, music, prizes and lots of candy. For details, contact the church at 858-487-7676 or info@lifebridgesd.org.

 A redesigned and better-than-ever Loveless Manor Haunted House will be welcoming visitors of all ages from 6 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. The home is in the Westwood neighborhood at 11552 Alborada Drive. Admission is free.

POWAY

 A Monster Mash Costume Party for those 21 and older will be held from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20 in the Elks Lodge, 13219 Poway Road. There will be music, a costume contest, food, raffles and silent auction. During the first half hour beer and wine are free.Tickets are $20 at the door. Proceeds will benefit the Best Buddies program at Rancho Bernardo High School. It fosters one-on-one friendships between students with and without disabilities. For details, call San Diego Granite at 858-486-2040.

 The Poway Chapter of National Charity League will host its annual Halloween Carnival at the Poway Library, 13137 Poway Road. The free family event with games, prizes, candy and more will be 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27. Wear costumes. Call 858-513-2900.

 All are welcome to the 10th annual Trunk-or-Treat starts at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28 at St. Bartholomews Episcopal Church, 16275 Pomerado Road.

There will be a contest for the best decorated car (cars need to arrive by 3:30 p.m.), trick-or-treating from car-to-car from 4 to 5 p.m., followed by a pizza dinner at 5 p.m. and family movie appropriate for all ages. Call 858-487-2159.

 Once Upon a Halloween is returning to Old Poway Park, 14134 Midland Road, from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28. Take a ride into the past aboard the Halloween Railroad, see a replica of the Ectomobile from Ghostbusters, tour a haunted house, hear spooky tales, visit a creepy cemetery and participate in duck races. There will also be face painting, kids crafts, Thriller dancers, a caricature artist, carnival games and more spooktacular surprises. A childrens costume parade will be held at 4:45 p.m. Food will be available for purchase.

Admission is free. Activities are free or low-cost. For questions, call Old Poway Park at 858-668-4576. To volunteer, send an email to lynnwolseydesigns2014@gmail.com. Community service hours are available to high school students needing them.

4S RANCH

 A Day of the Dead-themed bash will be held for teenagers during a free 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19 lock-in at the 4S Ranch Library, 10433 Reserve Drive. Sign-up required. Call 858-673-4697.

 Kids can celebrate the Day of the Dead with a traditional sugar skull free workshop at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24 in the 4S Ranch Library, 10433 Reserve Drive. Call 858-673-4697.

 The inaugural Trunk-or-Treat with Best Buddies will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 in the Del Norte High School parking lot, 16601 Nighthawk Lane. Enjoy treats, paint some pumpkins, win prizes and dress in your favorite costume. Wear a costume with your buddy and be eligible to win a prize for best theme.

 Participating merchants in the 4S Commons Town Center and the 4S Ranch Library will give candy to trick-or-treaters from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. The center is at Rancho Bernardo and Dove Canyon roads.

CARMEL MOUNTAIN RANCH

 A free Day of the Dead sugar skull craft activity will be offered to children from 3 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30 in the Carmel Mountain Ranch Library, 12095 World Trade Drive. Parent assistance will be required for children 8 and younger. Call 858-538-8181.

 Participating merchants in the Carmel Mountain Plaza, 11602-12174 Carmel Mountain Road, will welcome trick-or-treaters in costume who are 12 and younger from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31.

While supplies last, pick up a free treat bag near Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or Angelika Film Center. Halloween fun will also include a performance by the 80z All Stars and balloon art. For details, go to carmelmountainplaza.com.

 Carmel Mountain Ranch Town Center will have participating merchants distributing candy or other goodies to trick-or-treaters from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31. This is for costumed children, ages 12 and under, accompanied by an adult. They can stop by the registration tables near Sprint and North County Optometry to receive their official trick-or-treat bag.

Merchants will have a bright orange pumpkin in their windows to indicate participation. The center is at 11925 Carmel Mountain Road. For details, go to shop-carmel-mountain-ranch.com.

email: rbnews@pomeradonews.comA new round of hot, dry Santa Ana winds is heading for San Diego County, bringing a red flag fire weather watch for the second time in less than a week.

The watch will go into effect late Thursday night and could last into Saturday, says the National Weather Service.

The watch applies to the countys inland valleys, foothills and mountains, where the Santa Anas are expected to gust 40 to 50 mph on Friday and Saturday. Forecasters say the winds are likely to be strongest in Pine Valley, Alpine, Ramona, and in Valley Center.

These winds wont be quite as strong as the ones we just had, but there will strong gusts, said James Brotherton, a weather service forecaster.

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Things will really pick up before dawn on Friday.

The winds arent expected to reach the coast. However, the relative humidity will be low everywhere, ranging from 10 to 15 percent in East County to the 20s near the coast.

Fridays daytime high temperatures will reach the 90s inland and low 80s near the coast.

ICYMI

Did you see the absolutely best video that was taken of the recent Falcon 9 rocket launch?

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.Credit: Jim Wright Bad Religion has premiered a new song called "The Profane Rights of Man." The track, described as a "worried look at the state of human rights in America," is available now via digital outlets.

As vocalist Greg Graffin explains, the 126-second song was based on a 1789 document titled "The Universal Rights of Man."

"Since we're a band that has a longstanding tradition of championing the Enlightenment, we wanted to emphasize that our society is based on a profane rather than a sacred theological justification for human rights," Graffin says.

"In sum, the song is about Bad Religion's belief in a secular basis for the protection of human rights for all people."

"The Profane Rights of Man" follows the single "The Kids Are Alt-Right," which was released in June. Bad Religion's most recent album is 2013's True North.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The ResultsAs They Happen The ResultsAs They Happen

WorldTempus brings you all the Only Watch news direct from the auction

WorldTempus brings you all the Only...Pune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/18/2018 -- Global Drill Bits Market - Overview:



Drill bits are essential tools that are used in the oil and gas industry for any drilling operation. It is used to drill cylindrical boreholes for E&P activities in the production of crude and gas. Drill bits produce drill cuttings when used in for the formation of boreholes. The cuttings that are formed by the bit are usually removed from the wellbore and brought to the surface through circulation.



According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Drill Bits is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The global Drill Bits market is forecasted to demonstrate an exponential growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a whooping, CAGR during the estimated period (2017  2023).



Get Sample Copy@https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1614



Global increasing demand for energy has resulted in rapid increase in the offshore drilling activities to meet the increasing demand, which ultimately has provided significant boost to the drill bits market. Moreover, new oil reserve discoveries increase the drilling and exploration activities in coming years which upsurge the demand for the market. However, environmental risks and strict government regulations for drilling as well as increasing focus on renewable energy may hinder the market growth of the market.



Global Drill Bits Market - Competitive Analysis



Global Drill Bits Market appears to be highly fragmented and competitive owning to the presence of numerous large and medium players active in regional market. The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position.



Manufacturers operating in the market strive to deliver innovative solutions that improve the design and manufacturing processes of business around the world. Focusing upon the competitive edge, Drill Bits manufacturers strive to develop products that can deliver optimal efficient, convenience and reliability. Utilizing their international and regional presence, these manufacturers assure their customers with the consistency in product & service quality. Manufacturers strive to develop their product portfolio with a wide range of drill bits for every application.



Get Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/drill-bits-market-1614



Industry News



In September 2017, Halliburton has launched GeoTech HE, a robust drill bit that incorporates new features and materials to deliver enhanced performance and increased reliability in high energy drilling systems characterized by very high weight-on-bit and drilling torque.



In April 2017, BP Oman and Modus Oman Drilling Systems signing a two year supply contract of Modus ALMAS PDC drill bits for BP Oman. The signing marks the outcome of 6 months of successful field trials and outstanding performance of ALMAS PDC drill bits with BP Oman.



In July 2016, American Securities LLC, a leading U.S. private equity firm, Completes Acquisition of Ulterra Drilling Technologies, L.P. Ulterra is a leading manufacturer of polycrystalline diamond compact ("PDC") drill bits for the oil and gas industry. The Company was owned by ESCO Corporation.



Drill Bits Market - Segmentation



Global Drill Bits Market is segmented in to two key dynamics for an easy grasp and enhanced understanding.



Segmentation:



Based on Type, the market has been segmented into rolling cutter and fixed cutter bits. The structure of rolling cutter drill bits are tooth shape. Rolling cutter is used to two or more cone shaped element that roll across the borehole as the bite is rotated. Fixed cutter mostly use in natural or synthetic diamond, to remove material by grinding action as the bit is rotated.



Based on end market, the market has been segmented land and offshore. Onshore dominates the end market segment of global market. Offshore segment is expected to be the fastest growing segment during the forecast period.

Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America.



Key Players



The key players in the global drill bits market are Atlas Copco (Sweden), Baker Hughes Inc. (U.S), Cangzhou Great Drill Bits Co., Ltd. (China), ESCO Corporation (U.S), Halliburton Company (U.S.), and Irwin Industrial Tool Company (U.S.). NewTech Drilling Products LLC (Russia) National Oilwell Varco Inc (U.S.), Scientific Drilling International Inc (U.S.), Kingdream Public Limited Company (China), Varel International, Inc (U.S.), Torquato Drilling Accessories, Inc. (U.S.), and Ulterra Drilling Technologies (U.S) are among others.



Global Drill Bits Market - Regional Analysis



North America dominates the drill bits market. The U.S. accounts for the largest market share in the North American region. The advancements in unconventional drilling technologies, which have attracted capital for oil and gas drilling projects. Additionally, vast hydrocarbon resources in the U.S. Shale basins and continuous offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico region, are driving the demand of the market.



Asia Pacific and Europe are the other major market for the Drill Bits. Increasing demand for energy due to urbanization & industrialization from the countries such as India, China, and Indonesia among others driving the demand of the market in Asia Pacific region. The Europe drill bit market is expected to be dominated by countries such as U.K, Norway and Russia. The development of unconventional oil and gas exploration activities such as shale, is driving the market in the region. It is expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period.



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Email:sales@marketresearchfuture.comPune, India -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/18/2018 -- Synopsis of Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market:



Hybrid Adhesive and Sealants are modified adhesive & sealant which are produced by a combination of two different classes of polymeric resin to offer superior properties such as excellent flexibility & elongation, high thermal resistance, and peel strength. Moreover, they provide adhesion to various types of substrates including plastics, woods, ceramics, and metals. Hybrid Adhesive & Sealants find numerous application scope such as building & construction, automotive, and general industry due to various properties such as high tear & abrasion resistance, strong dynamic stress absorption, good shock & vibration resistance, chemical & UV resistance.



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As per our analysis, some of the important market factors and trends identified in the Global Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market include rising automotive production & sales, growing construction sector, and rapid industrialization. Additionally, increasing demand for air travel in developing countries is expected to raise the demand for Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market. Growth in demand for air travel can be attributed to the increasing disposable income coupled with affordable fares offered by various airlines. Increase in air traffic leads to the rising demand for newer aircraft and associated service, which in turn, drive the demand for hybrid adhesive & sealant. Furthermore, rising investment in the construction activities of hospitals, hotels, colleges, and universities are expected to fuel the demand for Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market. Though the Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market is growing at a significant rate, the lack of awareness regarding the benefit of Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant among potential Adhesive & Sealant manufacturers of the developing countries hinder the growth of the market.



Key Players:



? Henkel AG & Co. KGaA

? Soudal Inc.

? H.B.Fuller

? Bostik S.A.

? 3M

? Sika AG

? Wacker Chemie AG

? TREMCO ILLBRUCK

? Kisling AG

? Illinois Tool Works Inc



Geographical Analysis:



The report covers brief analysis of geographical regions such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.



Intended Audience



- Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant manufacturers

- Traders and Distributors of Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant

- Production Process Industries

- Potential Investors

- Raw Material Suppliers

- Nationalized Laboratory



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Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:



May 2017- Den Braven, the Netherlands based company announced that the company has modified their polyurethane and silicone sealant through research and technological advancement in hybrid technology. The company launched a new range of new high performance sealants and adhesives. These products have very low VOC content and environment friendly. With this product launch the company enhance its product portfolio and improves its position in global market.



September 2017- Henkel Adhesive Technologies India Ltd., a part of Henkel AG conducted a conference in Pune, in which company launched its Loctite Hybrid Adhesive. The launch of high performance adhesive strengthen Henkel's position among the global hybrid adhesive & sealant manufacturers.



August 2016- tremco illbruck announced to invest around USD 12.2 million at its Traunreut and Bodenwohr site. Traunreut manufacturing facility is one of the leading hybrid adhesive and sealant manufacturers in Germany and Europe. The company is set to double it's capacities in this segment. With this capacity expansion, the company expand its global reach and its market position in Europe.



Segmentation:



The Global Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market is classified on the basis of resin type, application, and region. Based on resin type, hybrid adhesive & sealant market is segmented into MS polymer, epoxy-polysulfide, epoxy-polyurethane, epoxy-cyanoacrylate, and others. Based on application, the market is segmented into building & construction, automotive & aerospace, marine, general industry, and others. Based on regions, the market is segmented into Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa.



Regional Analysis:



The Global Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market is segmented into five regions namely - Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to increasing demand from various applications such as building & construction, automotive, and general industry among others. The robust demand for Hybrid Adhesives & Sealants is predicted to surge in economies of Asia Pacific such as China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam. The growth of the market is driven by the huge demand in building & infrastructure sector as well as growing automobile production and sales. Moreover, growing purchasing power, developing infrastructure, and implementation of new development strategies to fulfil the demand for Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant in the increasing applications are the important factors for the regional market growth.



Asia Pacific has emerged as the largest market for Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant followed by North America and Europe. North America is estimated to witness a significant growth in Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant Market due to the recovery of automotive sector along with escalating investments to revitalize building & construction sector. In Europe, countries such as Spain, Russia, Germany, and UK have emerged as prominent consumer markets due to developed end use industries and technological advancements. Additionally, rising number of infrastructural & commercial projects in North America and Europe is expected to drive the growth of the market. Moreover, regional Adhesive & Sealant manufacturers are shifting their focus on improving the initial strength of adhesives & sealant. With such product improvements, Hybrid Adhesive & Sealant are predicted to gain prominence during the review period. Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico are predicted to drive the demand for hybrid adhesive & sealants in the growing automotive sector. Additionally, the Middle East & Africa is estimated to witness a strong growth over the forecast period. Increasing investments in institutional as well as commercial construction sector in Turkey, Oman, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia is estimated to positively influence industry growth over the forecast period.



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Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comNew York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/17/2018 -- Based on the Macromolecule Hydrogel industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Macromolecule Hydrogel market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2018-2025), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2018-2025), 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 Macromolecule Hydrogel market. The latest market intelligence report, Macromolecule Hydrogel provides both qualitative and quantitative data analysis of the Macromolecule Hydrogel industry for the forecast period, 2018-2025. This study equips companies, stakeholders, field marketing executives and others to gather valuable insights pertaining to the market share, growth and size of the Macromolecule Hydrogel industry for greater business gains. Unmatched statistical data on current and yesteryear trends included in the study aims at offering a paramount customer satisfaction.



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Major Players in Macromolecule Hydrogel Systems are:



DSM, KRUUSE, SEIKAGAKU CORPORATION, Ocular Therapeutix, Ambu, Coloplast, ESI BIO, Covidien, Smith?Nephew United, HOYA, Derma Sciences, Yafoer, Axelgaard, NIPRO PATCH, ConvaTec,Ashland, Jiyuan,3 M, Huayang, Paul Hartmann, Molnlycke Health Care, Guojia



This comprehensive survey presents an overview of various aspects associated with the business domain including but not limited to the definition, various application, and classification. Other important factors the assessment weighs upon are investment feasibility evaluation, expected return on an investment, import and export trends, demand, supply chain management and consumption analysis. What adds more credulity to the Macromolecule Hydrogel study is the competitive market structure showcased intellectually through tables, charts, info graphics, images and similar resources.



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Major Regions play vital role in Macromolecule Hydrogel Systems are:



- North America

- Europe

- China

- Japan

- Middle East & Africa

- India

- South America

- Others



Extensive documentation of the market performance across demographics and forecast of expected returns for a stated period enables business evangelists to speculate investor decisions in the coming years. Further, organized effort to accumulate information about the market share of leading manufacturers coupled with their sales figures, production value and brand positioning reveals a lot about the industry's future potential. The study also offers data focussed on topics including result-oriented marketing strategies or tactics adopted by major manufacturers operating in the Macromolecule Hydrogel industry.



Most important types of Women High Visibility Pants products covered in this report

are:



Natural Macromolecule Hydrogel

Synthetic Macromolecule Hydrogel



For more granularity, the evaluation offers vital intelligence on industry segmentation, end-use, potential buyers or customers, gross margin, market scenario across different countries and profits for the forecast period Macromolecule Hydrogel. Strong emphasis on product pricing, production capability and the inclusion of state-of-the-art technology to boost sales gives this comprehensive analysis a business edge to the subject matter experts, manufacturers, business owners and marketing professionals and enabling them to make a profitable business decision.



Most widely used downstream fields of Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs covered in this report are:



Medical Fields

Industrial Fields

Consumer Goods



There are 13 Chapters to thoroughly display the Macromolecule Hydrogel market. This report included the analysis of market overview, market characteristics, industry chain, competition landscape, historical and future data by types, applications and regions.



Chapter 1: Macromolecule Hydrogel Market Overview, Product Overview, Market Segmentation, Market Overview of Regions, Market Dynamics, Limitations, Opportunities and Industry News and Policies.

Chapter 2: Macromolecule Hydrogel Industry Chain Analysis, Upstream Raw Material Suppliers, Major Players, Production Process Analysis, Cost Analysis, Market Channels and Major Downstream Buyers.

Chapter 3: Value Analysis, Production, Growth Rate and Price Analysis by Type of Epoxy Adhesives.

Chapter 4: Downstream Characteristics, Consumption and Market Share by Application of Epoxy Adhesives.

Continue..



Table of content:



1 Macromolecule Hydrogel Introduction and Market Overview

1.1 Objectives of the Study

1.2 Definition of Car Headlight

1.3 Macromolecule Hydrogel Market Scope and Market Size Estimation

1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis

1.3.2 Global Macromolecule Hydrogel Value and Growth Rate from 2018-2025

1.4 Market Segmentation

1.4.1 Types of Car Headlight

1.4.2 Applications of Car Headlight

1.4.3 Research Regions

Continue...



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The research provides answers to the following key questions:



- What is the estimated growth rate of the market for the forecast period 2018 - 2025? What will be the market size during the estimated period?

- What are the key driving forces responsible for shaping the fate of the Macromolecule Hydrogel during the forecast period?

- Who are the major market vendors and what are the winning strategies that have helped them occupy a strong foothold in the Wave Power Generation equipment market?

- What are the prominent market trends influencing the development of the Macromolecule Hydrogel across different regions?

- What are the major threats and challenges likely to act as a barrier in the growth of the Women High Visibility Pants market?

- What are the major opportunities the market leaders can rely on to gain success and profitability?



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Connect with us: Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | TwitterSan Jose, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/18/2018 -- "Pneumatic Rollers Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking: Global Market Insights 2018 to 2028" is an analytical study that offers actionable intelligence on several segments of the pneumatic rollers market. The report also reveals the sales and demand scenario of pneumatic rollers across key regions globally. Comprehensive report on pneumatic rollers market covers analysis on various dynamics impacting growth. It also provides historical data, current market scenario and future insights on pneumatic rollers market. The pneumatic rollers market report is skilfully drafted with a chapter wise analysis for convenience of the reader.



Chapter 1  Executive Summary



This chapter provides an in-depth overview of the pneumatic rollers market. It also includes opportunity assessment along with wheel of fortune that reveals segmental assessment of pneumatic rollers market. The chapter highlights various mega trends that influence the growth of pneumatic rollers market along with key insights provided by XploreMR analysts.



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Chapter 2  Introduction



The pneumatic rollers market report covers a brief introduction on the market. It provides opinions of key participants, overview of construction industry, outlook on construction equipment across key regions (BRIC & TRIAD), financial services, potential of aftermarket services and challenges in the pneumatic rollers market.



Chapter 3  Scope



This chapter covers market segmentation along with definition of pneumatic rollers. It defines the entire scope of the report and various facets it is describing.



Chapter 4  Associated Industry Assessment



This chapter covers road infrastructure scenario, major construction projects worldwide, need of compaction machines and compaction machine value and volume sales and forecasts.



Chapter 5  Market Dynamics & Key Indicators



This chapter includes key dynamics focusing on drivers, restraints, opportunities and trends in the pneumatic rollers market. It also highlights value chain analysis, product life cycle and technology roadmap.



Chapter 6  Pricing Analysis



This chapter provides price point analysis by region, by loading capacity and other forecasts. This delivers intelligence on various pricing aspects influencing sales of pneumatic rollers.



Chapter 7  Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis and Forecast



This chapter of the pneumatic rollers market report includes a year-on-year growth assessment, absolute dollar opportunity analysis, pneumatic rollers market volume forecasts, and impact analysis. This chapter further covers intelligence on sales and demand of pneumatic rollers across key regions, and segmental information on pneumatic rollers by engine capacity, by operating capacity, and by drum width. It also reveals market attractiveness index of each segment and region.



Chapter 8  North America Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter includes assessment on pneumatic rollers sales across major countries of United States and Canada along with detailed segmental outlook across these countries for the forecasted period.



Chapter 9  Latin America Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



Major countries of Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico are assessed apropos to the adoption of pneumatic rollers. Potential of these countries complementing to the growth of the Latin America pneumatic rollers market with y-o-y growth assessments are revealed here.



Chapter 10  Europe Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter of the pneumatic rollers market report includes insights on demand and sales of pneumatic rollers across Germany, France, United Kingdom, Spain, BENELUX, Nordic and Italy. Revenue generation through sales of pneumatic rollers and their demand in these countries is provided in this chapter.



Chapter 11  CIS & Russia Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



The demand for pneumatic rollers in CIS & Russia is analyzed and future potential of the pneumatic rollers market in this region is revealed in the chapter. Segmental snapshot of pneumatic rollers market is chalked in this section.



Chapter 12  Japan Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



The sales of pneumatic rollers in Japan are assessed and future projections of the Japanese pneumatic rollers market is revealed in this chapter. Segmental analysis of pneumatic rollers market in this country is included in this section.



Chapter 13  Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ) Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



Countries of Greater China, ASEAN, India, and Australia & New Zealand are assessed and sales assessment of pneumatic rollers in these countries is covered. A market attractiveness index and incremental opportunity along with year-on-year growth rate of APEJ pneumatic rollers market is provided here.



Chapter 14  Middle East and Africa (MEA) Pneumatic Rollers Market Analysis



This chapter focuses on pneumatic rollers market scenario across GCC countries, Israel, South Africa, and Turkey. Application wise analysis of pneumatic rollers market in these countries is covered in this chapter.



Chapter 15  Pneumatic rollers Market Competitive Assessment



This extensive section provides competitive intelligence to the reader by covering major companies participating in manufacturing and dealership of pneumatic rollers. This chapter provides market structure analysis, company share assessment including Tier 1 and Tier 2 players and region wise positioning assessment.



Chapter 16  Company Profiles



This chapter includes profiling of key market players involved in manufacturing of pneumatic rollers and their distribution. In-depth company share analysis along with company overview, key design innovations and developments, SWOT analysis and key financial aspects are covered.



Chapter 17  Research Methodology



This section gives a brief overview on the entire research process carried out to garner key information and statistics on pneumatic rollers market. It also covers detailed intelligence on various sources used. A brief overview of secondary sources used to glean the market information and details on primary interviews initiated with opinion leaders, market observers and other stakeholders in the pneumatic rollers market is covered here.



Buy Now Full Report @ https://www.xploremr.com/cart/reports/buynow/2175Astronomers using ESOs Very Large Telescope have spotted a gigantic galaxy proto-supercluster in the early Universe, just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang.

Nicknamed Hyperion, the newly-discovered proto-supercluster is the largest and most massive structure to be found so early in the formation of the Universe.

Its enormous mass is calculated to be more than one million billion times that of the Sun.

This is the first time that such a large structure has been identified at such a high redshift, just over 2 billion years after the Big Bang, said lead author Dr. Olga Cucciati, an astronomer at the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy.

Normally these kinds of structures are known at lower redshifts, which means when the Universe has had much more time to evolve and construct such huge things. It was a surprise to see something this evolved when the Universe was relatively young!

Located in the COSMOS field in the constellation of Sextans, Hyperion was identified by analyzing the vast amount of data obtained from the VIMOS Ultra-deep Survey (VUDS).

The proto-supercluster has a very complex structure, containing at least seven high-density regions connected by filaments of galaxies, and its size is comparable to nearby superclusters, though it has a very different structure.

Superclusters closer to Earth tend to a much more concentrated distribution of mass with clear structural features, said Dr. Brian Lemaux, an astronomer at the University of California, Davis.

But in Hyperion, the mass is distributed much more uniformly in a series of connected blobs, populated by loose associations of galaxies.

Given its size so early in the history of the Universe, Hyperion is expected to evolve into something similar to the immense structures in the local Universe such as the superclusters making up the Sloan Great Wall or the Virgo Supercluster that contains our Milky Way Galaxy.

Understanding Hyperion and how it compares to similar recent structures can give insights into how the Universe developed in the past and will evolve into the future, and allows us the opportunity to challenge some models of supercluster formation, Dr. Cucciati said.

Unearthing this cosmic titan helps uncover the history of these large-scale structures.

The discovery is reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (arXiv.org preprint).

_____

O. Cucciati et al. 2018. The progeny of a cosmic titan: a massive multi-component proto-supercluster in formation at z=2.45 in VUDS. A&A, in press; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201833655In 2016, Audemars Piguet unveiled two Frosted Gold Royal Oak ladies watches to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the collection. These two watches, in white and pink gold, represented the second time that the womens Royal Oak had showcased the talents of a woman. The first time, you may remember, was in 1976, when Jacqueline Dimier created the womens version of the Royal Oak. She retained the strong masculine lines of Gerald Gentas original design, but brought out the feminine spirit of her creation with a more svelte silhouette. Forty years after Jacqueline Dimier, the brand welcomed Carolina Bucci.

Bucci, a native of Florence, is passionate about jewellery design. She continues the tradition of her family, which has produced generation after generation of goldsmiths since 1885, by updating a traditional technique that she now uses in her own designs. This Florentine finish, which involves hammering gold with a diamond-tipped tool, creates tiny indentations that catch the light. As a result of a collaboration between Audemars Piguet and Carolina Bucci, this technique has been applied to the case and bracelet of the Royal Oak 2017 models, earning them their label Frosted Gold (watch the video).

Carolina Bucci  Audemars Piguet

The new Royal Oak Frosted Gold recently unveiled by Audemars Piguet is the latest result of this collaborative venture. While yellow gold has undoubtedly come back into favour with the watch industry over the last season or two, this watch takes the material to its logical extreme. Yellow gold is Carolina Buccis favourite material, and this new 37 mm piece is rendered even more radiant through its Florentine finish, used here for the first time on this shade of gold. But thats not the only way in which this timepiece harnesses the play of light: the Italian designer has chosen to replace the usual tapestry motif on the dial with a mirror. Smooth and meticulously polished in the Audemars Piguet workshops, the mirror dial contrasts with the hammered finish of the rest of the watch, reflecting the light and interacting with its environment. The mirror interacts constantly with its environment, changing its appearance depending on the outfit youre wearing, the decoration of the room youre in, the lighting, the time of day and the weather, Carolina Bucci points out.

 Audemars Piguet

The new Royal Oak Frosted Gold, with its choice of yellow gold, the mirror dial, and even the watch presentation box, which Carolina Bucci also designed, represents a strong reflection of the designers aesthetic. And that is probably why Audemars Piguet has chosen to give this 300-piece limited edition the name of Carolina Bucci.

The watch presentation box, designed by Carolina Bucci  Audemars Piguet

The Royal Oak Frosted Gold Carolina Bucci is fitted with a self-winding automatic movement that displays the three time functions, plus a date in a window at 3 oclock, and provides a 60-hour power reserve. The yellow gold case of the Frosted Gold is water resistant to 50 metres, with sapphire crystals front and back and a screw-down crown. The smooth expanse of the silver-coloured mirror dial is punctuated by yellow gold applied indices. The hands are also in yellow gold, coated with luminescent material. The yellow gold bracelet of the Frosted Gold is secured with an Audemars Piguet folding buckle.

The watch is priced at 53,900 Swiss francs.Longines has drawn inspiration from a 1940s watch model to create The Longines Heritage Military. True to the original lines of a timepiece designed for the British Royal Air Force, this reimagined watch belongs to a timeless style that has made the winged hourglass brand famous. To reproduce the original timekeepers patina, the dial on the military watch has been hand sprayed with tiny black droplets, making each and every piece unique.

 Longines

Longines is expanding its Heritage collection with a reimagined military model from the 1940s. The Longines Heritage Military draws its inspiration from a watch created for members of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). Stanley Turner, a highly-decorated radiotelegraph operator aboard an RAF aircraft during the Second World War, wore this model around his wrist. The watch once owned by Mr. Turner was recovered and offered to the Swiss brand by a young English collector, who inspired the current reissue. Thus, Longines is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the RAF in its own way.

 Longines

With its minimalist design and 38.5 mm diameter, The Longines Heritage Military flawlessly adheres to the aesthetic and spirit of the period timepiece which, at the time, measured 32.5 mm. Its oversized winding crown evokes the original watchs ease of handling.

The Longines Heritage Military also displays a silver, opaline dial with a subtle mist of fine droplets in black paint. This process, a first for Longines and performed entirely by hand, makes each and every piece unique while mimicking the oxidation found on the original. Despite housing an automatic movement, this timekeeper is the only piece in Longines current collections that does not carry the Automatic label on its dial in order to preserve the spirit of the 1940s.

 Longines

Remaining true to the watch worn by Stanley Turner and his RAF colleagues, The Longines Heritage Military features a curved, fully polished bezel and box-form sapphire crystal. The steel casing that houses the automatic movement (L888.2) comes with a green, aged leather watch strap, and a Nato strap in the same shades. Both versions of the strap are provided with each timepiece, along with the required replacement tool, all of which come in a case specially designed for the occasion.The Preventive Medicine Sector at the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population has announced that Egypt has been elected as a member of the joint coordination council of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The announcement came on the sidelines of the 65th round of the meetings of the regional committee of WHO held in Khartoum on 15-18 October.

The head of the Preventive Medicine Sector said that Egypt has been elected to be a member of the council for four years as a representative of Middle East countries.

Meanwhile, health and population ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said that Egypt's election to the position is considered an important step towards combating infectious and endemic diseases regionally and internationally.

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The Egypt-Japan Education Partnership aims to create 100 schools based on the Japanese system of education, to build the capacities of Egypt's youth

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi approved Thursday a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) loan agreement with the Egyptian government to the tune of 18.626 billion Japanese yen (~$160 million) for the Egypt-Japan Education Partnership and Egypt-Japan School (EJS) Support Programme.

The programme loan for the education sector will foster policy implementation and institutional building toward the opening of Egypt-Japan School branches, which the government is advancing.

The initiative aims to introduce Japanese-style education in Egypt, improving the quality of education and building the capacities of Egypt's youth.

The schools were scheduled to open last October before the Egyptian Ministry of Education postponed studies to be better prepared and ensure a sufficient level of quality and selection criteria, the ministry said at the time.

The project, which aims to create 100 such schools, was agreed on during El-Sisi's visit to Japan in February 2016.

Under a cooperation protocol signed between Egypt and Japan in 2017, Japan is providing the necessary technical support for the project.

Some 35 Japanese schools opened their doors 2 July for enrolment of students in the academic year 2018/2019.

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The event is organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, in cooperation with the Arab League and the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources

Egypt's first Cairo Water Week (CWW) resumed Thursday its activities for the fourth day with the participation of water experts and officials from more than 50 countries around the world.

The event is organised by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, in cooperation with the Arab League and the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources.

A session, titled "Using solar-powered irrigation in Egypt," was held Wednesday to discuss opportunities and challenges related to using solar energy technologies in agriculture for shoring up sustainable development.

Earlier this week, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi affirmed that Cairo will continue to support the efforts of its brotherly nations to maximise benefits from the Nile River in ways that do not harm the Egyptian people.

The president's statements came during his reception of the heads of delegations participating in the CWW events.

The CWW conference is being held from 14 to 18 October to discuss water related issues, hosting water experts, ministers and officials from 53 countries.

The heads of delegations participating in the conference reflected on the importance of initiatives like CWW as an opportunity to discuss enhancing technical cooperation and building nations' capabilities to address water scarcity.

The CWW focuses on climate change and environment, trans-boundary water governance, water scarcity, health, sanitation challenges and opportunities, as well as science and technology innovation issues.

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Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr said the financing would contribute to the achievement of the priorities of the Egyptian people

Egypt's Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr and director-general for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Christian Danielsson signed on Thursday two comprehensive development agreements worth 135 million on job creation and curbing irregular migration.

Nasr said that the first agreement -- the financing agreement of the EU Comprehensive Development Programme for Job Creation, worth 75 million -- contributes towards achieving the priorities of the Egyptian people.

The second agreement, worth 60 million, is aimed at curbing irregular migration in Egypt and is funded by the European Emergency Fund for Africa, including contributions from Germany and the International Organisation for Planning, according to Nasr.

In related news, Egypt and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed on Wednesday an agreement whereby the bank will contribute 214 million to finance the Kitchener Drain infrastructure, rehabilitation and de-pollution project.

The Kitchener Drain is the main agricultural drain passing through the governorates of Kafr El-Sheikh, Gharbeya and Daqahleya in Egypt's Nile Delta region.

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The Auburn Hills-headquartered community health center Easterseals is celebrating its selection as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic. The designation means $4 million in additional funding.



Easterseals, a national organization, has been in Michigan for 98 years. It has eight clinics in Oakland County and three elsewhere throughout southeastern Michigan. The grant money is designated for the Oakland County locations but no one will be turned away because of their residence.



The clinic's focus on mental health, substance abuse, autism, and trauma services for adults and children.



"This gives us the funding to do the things that weve always dreamed of doing before," says Brent Wirth, CEO of Easterseals Michigan.



The dreams of which he speaks include the ability to serve anybody, regardless of their residence, regardless of the level of care required, and regardless if they have insurance.



Wirth says that patients can now come to Easterseals without having to call their insurance companies first.



Easterseals will also use the grant to fund and develop a workforce that includes psychiatrists and telehealth professionals.



United States Senator Debbie Stabenow co-sponsored the bill that made the grant money possible. The funding becomes available on Jan. 1, 2019.



"Our mission is based on serving people at risk and with unmet needs. Were always innovating, always finding ways to serve the community. Weve been doing that for 100 years," Wirth says.



"We walk alongside the people that we serve."



Visit Easterseals Michigan online to out more about their services and clinic locations.



Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.Hazel, Ravines and Downtown, a casual fine dining restaurant in downtown Birmingham, is on track to open by the end of the month.



The new restaurant is co-owned by Beth Hussey and Emmele Herrold, self-described food soulmates that have demonstrated success in the industry. Hussey and Herrold opened Ferndales One-Eyed Bettys and Pops for Italian as managing partner and executive chef, respectively.



Hazel, Ravines and Downtown, however, is much more than a restaurant. The concept includes a modifiable private dining facility and also a daily market. C Store will open every day at 7 a.m. and sell familiar items found at any convenience store.



And then theres the 10,000 square-foot restaurant itself, which takes its names from the three surrounding neighborhoods. Each neighborhood comes with its own food and drink menu. Hazel features familiar American comfort food and drinks. Ravines features more well-traveled and exotic fare. And Downtown will focus on the latest trends in drinking and dining.



That location, at the intersection of three neighborhoods at Woodward Avenue and Maple Road, defines the menu and much more for Hussey and Herrold.



"Its the greatest corner in southeast Michigan if you ask me," says Hussey.



"Ive always loved Woodward. The fact that were on Woodward is pretty special to us."



Another focus will be the oyster bar. Hussey and Herrold have hired an "oyster guy" to manage the seafood selections and educate the staff about oysters.



Hussey and Herrold chose Birmingham because they identified a niche that they could fill. Feeling that the downtown lacked a casual dining restaurant, the duo wanted to create a place for all occasions, one where customers could arrive dressed up or come in jeans and t-shirts. The food, however, will remain top-notch, with a focus on farm-to-table fresh ingredients.



Hazel, Ravines and Downtown are located at 34977 Woodward Ave. Ste 100, in downtown Birmingham.



Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.When AGS Automotive Systems built a major manufacturing plant in Sterling Heights, they needed to recruit more workers, and fast.

So they took a non-traditional approach to hiring.

In 2013, the company had just purchased and restored a 360,000-square-foot vacant manufacturing facility, leading to the creation of 90 new jobs over a two-year period. So AGS teamed up with local agency Michigan Staffing to recruit Iraqi refugees to fill their rapidly growing workforce. Many of those workers have gone on to become an integral part of the business.

While refugee numbers in Michigan have dramatically dropped this year, at the time the automotive company was hiring in 2013, the number of Iraqi refugees arriving in Michigan was at its highest.

With the help of resettlement organizations like Samaritas (formerly Lutheran Social Services) many refugees have found homes in Sterling Heights and Troy. But finding long-term employment can be a challenge.

In the seven years that they have partnered with AGS through Michigan Staffing, Samaritas vice president Lena Wilson estimates that hundreds of refugees have found employment with the company. Wilson says the major challenges refugees face when seeking work are language barriers and transportation limitations.

In manufacturing, the flexibility of multiple work shifts (so employees might carpool), translation support, competitive wages and the ability to place husband-and-wife teams together creates opportunities for refugees.

Wilson says the Iraqi refugee employees are some of the most dedicated workers a business could hope for.

Refugees want to succeed, and they will do all it takes to ensure that they are successful and they provide a better life for their families, Wilson says. Employers give Samaritas positive feedback on the refugees placed in jobs, and often they come back to hire more because of the good experience and outcomes.



Jennifer Rizk, human resource manager at AGS, agrees.

We feel very fortunate that the needs of our organization and the needs of so many people in the community came together at the same time.



Jennifer Rizk, human resource manager at AGS.

At AGS there were some initial challenges to overcome, not only due to the pace of the automotive business but also from the perspective of bringing different cultures and languages together. Fortunately, several employees are bilingual, and the company offered English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.

Rizk says it took teamwork and cooperation to understand each others needs and perspectives, but it was worth it.

Their success is our success, and we are a better company for their being here.

Metromode spoke with three AGS employees who found a new home in the company to find out what they faced to get here and how they feel about their work a few years into their new role.



Raad Hakeem, 27, Supervisor



Hakeem remembers learning English from US Army personnel when they came into his family's small grocery store in his hometown in Alqosh, Iraq.

"I would ask them 'hey mister, what is this?', pointing at everything," Hakeem says.

His grandfather used to travel to the US and would tell him stories when he was growing up, but the country was always a far-off dream. Most of the people in my town were simple farmers, he says.

Hakeem graduated from high school and was studying at a local college when his family had to flee. He moved to Michigan with his parents and siblings in 2013, after two years in Lebanon, and with his grandfathers stories fresh in his mind his primary ambition was to own a house. It was a goal he was able to achieve after a few years of permanent employment. He works as a supervisor at AGS facility in Sterling Heights and says his team is family to him.

"We all share our food and learn about each other's culture," he says.

Hakeem says language was one of the most significant barriers to moving, explaining that the British English they studied was different from the American English they experienced.



My co-workers helped me a lot.



Sally Gomhor Khames, 25, Quality Technician

Khames was in her first year of college when she and her family fled Baghdad. Khames moved with three of her younger siblings and says the language barrier was a huge hurdle.

I spoke a little bit of English, but I was the only one in my family, she says.

When she couldn't afford to continue her education here in Michigan, she took a job at McDonald's to help support her family. She joined AGS as a quality technician, working two jobs for several years while her family settled.

It was a really good start, she says. I had a chance to prove myself.

Khames enjoys the respect for women in the workplace here, and the way shes been able to make choices for herself and her family. Now, I trust myself, she says.

She says AGS is like family and talks about the kindness she was shown when she moved.



I hope all refugees experience the welcome I was given.



Hayder Al Hadi, 30, Manufacturing Engineer

Al Hadi graduated college and was working in Baghdad before he was forced to leave Iraq. He and his parents, younger brother and his wife spent two years as refugees in Turkey before coming to the U.S.

Hadi says starting all over again in a new country was difficult.

I was aware of some things, Hadi says, but everything here is different.



He took classes on culture, work life and language to assimilate, but even so, re-establishing himself was a challenge. It was hard finding accommodation in a new country, and wishes there were temporary dwellings available for refugees while they acclimatize to life in Michigan.

"I had my name, but no bank account, no credit score," he says. "I stayed in a motel for 40 days before I could find somewhere to rent."

Through Samaritas he found a job with AGS, starting as a machine operator and working his way up to a role as a manufacturing engineer. Hadi is proud of his accomplishments here in the U.S. and says, as the first job here, he counts his workplace as his home.

And theres nothing better than being home.Manufacturing is in Dan Radomski's DNA, and his rich background is an asset to the LTU Collaboratory, a manufacturing startup incubator and accelerator based at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield's City Centre.



Radomski started his career with the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In charge of new business development, he learned about "every manufacturing technique known to man," including composites, next generation metal cutting, metal forming, and micro-machining. He specialized in clean energy product manufacturing, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and fuel cells.



"I lifted up a whole business unit at SME focused on clean energy products and how to better manufacture them and to drive out costs and make them more affordable, so they'd be used more," Radomski says. That expertise took him to NextEnergy, a clean energy incubator in Detroit.

"Eventually, I took over running the incubator, helping companies commercialize new, clean tech products, many of which were physical products, so they required a team to be able to design their products for manufacturability, durability," he says.



Radomski recognized the strength of Michigan's accelerators to provide business planning and strategy support, but he saw a gap in education about product development, specifically design for durability and reliability. He sparked an idea for a training curriculum to support startups working to commercialize a physical or hardware product, which he pitched to the Department of Energy for funding. To pilot the program, he connected with LTU Collaboratory executive director, Mark Brucki.



"They eventually asked me to come on and be the director," says Radomski.



We caught up with Radomski to learn more about his role, and the future of the LTU Collaboratory.



Metromode: You have just such a wealth of experience in manufacturing and the Collaboratory is an accelerator for startups that manufacture physical products. From a broad perspective, why this type of support is important to the Michigan economy right now?



Dan Radomski: There's a wave of innovation in hardware and it's easy to overlook it but when you take your eye to new products, whether it's consumer products or even business products, you'll notice that due to the number of different technologies converging, we can turn any unintelligent piece of hardware into an intelligent piece of hardware. With embedded sensors giving everything a wireless address, allowing it to connect and to provide data, the ability to quickly perform data analytics and remote control devices, provides for just a wave of innovation and products. From something as simple as a Fitbit to an autonomous vehicle. Nest, an intelligent thermostat or drones that'll do just about anything. It's all around us.



This wave of innovation is creating an incredible amount of new product innovation and it creates an opportunity to have a number of new company startups that ultimately bring in new product and markets, but also manufacture here in their own state. So, we're trying to capture as much of this innovation that's out there in new companies and design engineering and manufacturing that goes along with it. Most new companies are not going to manufacture out of the gate, right, so partnering them with local design, engineering, testing firms, prototyping, and suppliers is a part of what we do.



The Collaboratory offers virtual reality and augmented reality. That recently became sort of a big thing. Can you talk about the benefit?



These tools are starting to be used for collaborative product design where you can visualize what you're developing, and they're also supporting existing manufacturing operations. So, if you have a product you're manufacturing, it gives you the the ability to visualize the manufacturing process, and perfect it before you make investments, setting up equipment and tuning.



We're connected with a number of the VR, AR, AI firms that are bringing these solutions to market and trying to introduce them to our clients. We have regular events where they're exposed and can have demonstrations, learn about case studies where it's been applied.



I'm sure it blows the minds of a lot of people really.



Yeah, mine included.



There's a new building on campus that belongs to the Collaboratory. What's going into this building?



It's a building that's partly used right now by Michigan Works. We will occupy about half of the bottom floor. It's 6,000-plus square feet of shared working space for innovators and our clients.



It will also serve as a true product design center. People call them makerspaces, but this will be different because we will have tools that will help companies prototype their products, like additive manufacturing, 3D printing machines. A lot of makerspaces have machine tools so you can cut metal or wood or plastics. We're not going to have those types of tools, but we will have people that can do engineering analysis known as FEA, finite element analysis, to stimulate stresses on the product before they spend a lot of money on manufacturing process.





We will have equipment to scan a physical object, and create a CAD file or a FEA model and that's critical to be able to benchmark. A lot of people start with a physical prototype, but they don't have a CAD file, which they eventually need to be able to quote and redesign. We also plan to have some additive manufacturing, 3D printing, for parts.



When will it open?



We are set to open, if all goes well, April of 2019.



How do you see the Collaboratory complement other accelerators in the area?



Two ways that we're really different. One is that we're focused specifically on only hardware and physical products not software companies and app companies. Then two, we're providing a deep level of knowledge and training and one on one support to help lean the existing product design and help with the design of manufacturability with that design and then once the company already has the product in market, helping them scale their business.



Tell me about your experiences working in the Southfield City Centre. What do you enjoy most about working there that people might be surprised by?



I love what we've been able to do in this city to create a vibrant ecosystem that includes large companies, small companies, and the connection to the university. We're starting to see a lot of collaboration with companies working on collaborative R&D projects and or supporting student programs and to me that's just great to see that connection so deliberate and vibrant now.



Innovators, small manufacturers in the area, we encourage them to start coming to our events, sign up for our monthly newsletter, just get acquainted to what we're trying to do to help the community.Mobility startups worldwide have even more incentive to test and deploy their technologies in Michigan with the announcement of a new grant program.



PlanetM launched a $1 million grant to help startup companies test and pilot technologies such as autonomous vehicle innovations or vehicle-to-infrastructure communication techniques. A portion of the money will fund testing activities in closed environments, including the University of Michigans Mcity and the American Center for Mobility at Willow Run. Grants also will go towards pilot projects on Michigan roadways.



One of the biggest barriers to startups looking to prove out their technologies is the cost to test, said Amanda Roraff, operations manager for PlanetM, an initiative of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. that brings together mobility organizations, governmental entities and educational institutions to foster the growth and development of the states mobility ecosystem.



Mcitys normal fee costs more than $6,000 for one day of testing. PlanetM negotiated a special daily rate of $1,000 for startup grant recipients. The grant will cover up to 75 percent of testing costs with a 25 percent match by the recipient. Testing costs vary widely by startups and their particular needs.

Testing sites and original equipment manufacturers want to be exposed to the new technologies that startups provide, Roraff said.



Everybodys racing for innovation and new ideas and so working with startups is a key way to accelerate that, she said.



Startups with technologies that have already been tested but need to work out the bugs in a public environment can apply for the pilot grant, which provides up to 75 percent of the cost to deploy their technologies on Michigan roadways in partnership with a municipality, department of transportation or large employer. For example, grant recipient Derq worked with the Michigan Department of Transportation to increase intersection safety in downtown Detroit with vehicle-to-infrastructure communication technology.



Applicants can come from anywhere in the world; there is no requirement to have any full-time employees in the state. The grant is meant to attract new innovations and introduce startups to the Michigan mobility ecosystem, Roraff said.



Detroit is becoming a hotspot for mobility startups who are looking to plug into the regions automotive industry and multitude of research and development organizations and facilities. The state also boasts incubators, venture capitalists and other acceleration services that cater to mobility startups.



The grants are part of PlanetMs larger initiative to promote technology activation in Michigan. Its been involved in projects in Detroit and Grand Rapids to collect data, identify mobility needs and come up with pilot projects to address them.



While Silicon Valley has been known for focusing on software while Detroit focuses on the hardware side of mobility technology, the PlanetM grant offers a nice blend to bring technology activation to Michigan, Roraff said.



I think it will continue to help Michigan be at the forefront of testing and deployment of these new mobility technologies, she said.



Detroit nonprofit NextEnergy is serving as the project management partner and will help deploy the grant. Applications are accepted in three rounds with deadlines in October, February and June. For more information, visit www.planetm.com/grants.



Visit Driven and learn how the Detroit region is leading the world in next-generation mobility.President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi is expected to return to Cairo today following a three-day visit to Russia.

Al-Sisi arrived in Moscow on Monday, and talks with his host, Russian President Vladimir Putin, offered the opportunity for a fresh exchange of views on a host of bilateral issues including plans for Russia to build Egypts first nuclear reactor.

Addressing the Russian Federal Council (RFC) on Tuesday President Al-Sisi said he was hopeful the nuclear reactor would materialise in the coming years.

Presidential Spokesman Bassam Radi, who accompanied the president, said attracting greater Russian investment and upscaling the volume of Russian tourism to Egypt following this years resumption of direct flights from Russia to Cairo were also high on Al-Sisis agenda.

But as far as the talks Al-Sisi and Putin were scheduled to hold, as Al-Ahram Weekly went to print, are concerned, informed diplomats say ongoing discussions between the two sides on regional conflicts would get the lions share of attention.

The visit is important in terms of underlining both leaders commitment to regular consultations and the exchange of high-profile visits, said one diplomat.

Al-Sisi has always eyed Russia as a key ally in his vision for Egypt and the region. And when it comes to cooperation with Moscow what is of most interest to Cairo is to promote regional stability based on strong national states  be they countries which have passed through periods of protest and regime change, countries that are still challenged by internal conflicts or states which have not gone through these upheavals.

A Russian source who spoke to the Weekly about Moscow and Cairos shared political interests summed it up pithily as stability, strong leaders and cooperation.

Egypt and Russia have been particularly keen to cement cooperation on two regional files  Libya, where Egypt is directly involved and an influential player, and Syria, where its influence is much less.

There has always been agreement that when it comes to Libya, says a former diplomat who attended high-level consultations between officials from Cairo and Moscow, Islamists of all shades, if they cant be cut out completely, they need to be very marginal. And on Syria Egypt and Russia agree there can be no regime change under the sway of protests or militant opposition groups.

An Egyptian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said there is a shared understanding that in Libya Khalifa Haftar, who controls much of eastern Libya, must be a leading, if not the leading, figure in any future political dispensation. When it comes to Syria, President Bashar Al-Assad should remain in office pending the elimination of all militant groups and the establishment of a plausible political succession, even if that is later rather than sooner.

The West may not like Haftar and would like to see Al-Assad leaving sooner rather than later but we think otherwise. We believe these two leaders could serve the cause of stability in their countries. Russia happens to agree with us on this and we are working closely to ensure a greater political input for both men, said the diplomat.

UN sources say that during talks in Cairo earlier this week with Ghassan Salame, the UN envoy to Libya, Egyptian officials made no bones about the need for the UN mission to secure a leading role for Haftar. Cairo has also been clear about the urgent need to establish the composition of a political coalition representing civil and unarmed opposition groups to negotiate with the Assad regime on future power-sharing in Syria, well away from any radical militant groups, especially those close to Turkey and Qatar.

The same UN sources say there is a clear resemblance between the arguments they hear from Cairo on both Libya and Syria and those voiced by Moscow.

Both Cairo and Moscow want Haftar to be head of a unified national army and they want the army to oversee the political structure, not the other way round. And they want the arms embargo imposed on Libya to be removed to allow supplies of weapons to Haftars army, said one UN source.

In his address to the RFC on Tuesday, Al-Sisi said the UN sponsored political process for Syria needs to be stepped up so a new constitution can be drafted as a first step towards the resumption of political negotiations to end the crisis in a way that protects the unity and safeguards state institutions.

On Libya, Al-Sisi said Cairos vision is based on the full implementation of the holistic political approach proposed by the UN last year but which has not yet moved forward, complemented by ongoing work to unify the Libyan military so it can serve its role in protecting Libya and combating terror threats.

Ziad Akl, a senior researcher at the Egyptian Studies Unit of Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, says Egyptian-Russian cooperation over Syria and Libya goes beyond any narrow definition of joint interests to encompass stability across the Middle East.

It is also about opening up economic avenues for the eventual reconstruction of both countries, in terms of infrastructure and in terms of armaments, says Akl.

Obviously, for Egypt it is a direct security issue, given the more than 1,000km western border Egypt shares with Libya and Cairos ongoing war with militant groups in Sinai. Egypt is naturally concerned about preventing an influx to the peninsula of any militants displaced from Sinai.

For Russia, argues Akl, it is a matter of expanding its strategic presence across the Middle East in countries that Moscow traditionally considered part of its sphere of influence in a region that has a considerable Western presence.

You can argue that Egypt needs Russia on the bilateral front to help with mega projects, including massive infrastructure developments, but you can also argue that Russia needs Egypt, a stable Middle East country that has mostly good relations across the region and close ties with the West, to help promote Moscows own vision of a stable Middle East and North Africa that could offer lucrative business opportunities to Russia.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 October, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Agreeing on regional stability

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The sixth annual Regional Stormwater Summit came and went recently. The takeaway? Money. Lots of it.



The Regional Stormwater Summit was held Friday, Oct. 5 at Lawrence Technological Universitys Southfield campus.



Roughly 250 municipal officials, engineers, and activists attended this years summit.



Keynote speaker Branko Kerkez, Gerker and Goygit Faculty Scholar at the University of Michigans Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, presented his Open Storm project. The computerized monitoring system makes stormwater management infrastructure more effective and efficient.



Such a system, he estimates, could save metro Detroit $500 million in infrastructure costs. The project recently won the $25,000 grand prize at the WEFTEC 2018 water and sewer management conference.



"Since starting these events in 2013, we have brought regional stakeholders together with experts in stormwater design and technologies," Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash said prior to the event.



"These efforts are now bearing fruit in projects across the region."



Other presentations examined topics including stormwater management standards and green infrastructures ability to mitigate the effects of climate change. A team from Wayne State University presented their miniature sensors that monitor pathogens, phosphorous level, pH, heavy metals, and temperature. The team has since incorporated as Microbuoy Inc.



A trade show for stormwater management products and services was also held.



Lawrence Tech partnered with the office of Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner and the nonprofit group Pure Oakland Water for the event.



Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.A Madison Heights-based shelving company is helping college students continue their education.



Shelving Inc. provides shelving and storage solutions for customers nationwide. It also provides scholarships to college students, among numerous other community outreach programs.



The company recently announced the three winners of its fourth annual scholarship program. More than 300 people applied.



There was a concentrated effort this year to appeal to Michigan students. The company reached out to several Michigan colleges and universities to better connect local students with the opportunity.



"It was great to meet the winners in person and shake their hands and hand them the checks," says Shelving Inc. CEO Joe Schodowski.



"You could see in their faces how grateful they were."



Brontae Williams from The College for Creative Studies won the $1,500 scholarship, Calvin Calloway of Wayne State University won the $1,000 scholarship, and Oluwafunmilola Akinyemi of The University of North Texas won the $500 scholarship.



While there is no specific theme for the scholarships, Schodowski says that the company looks for students that are the first from their families to attend college or have overcome significant obstacles to getting there in the first place.



"I believe that if youre able to help, and not even help, but to take action, then you cant just sit on the sidelines and watch things go by," Schodowski says.



"There's a lot more to life than money."



Its a philosophy the company backs up with action. Among its many community service programs, Shelving Inc. donates ten percent of its annual profits to the Capuchin Soup Kitchen. They also hold a number of annual event-driven fundraisers for the Capuchin Ministries programs and Soup Kitchen. Shelving Inc. donates both money and supplies to veterans, people transitioning out of homelessness, and foster children.



Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.Inside the chapel at Adventist Village. Photo by Jane Simons

Melvin and Katie Evans, longtime residents, appreciate Washington Heights where they live. Photo by Jane Parikh

Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series. Southwest Michigan Second Waves On the Ground Battle Creek series amplifies the voices of Battle Creek residents. In the coming months, Second Wave journalists will be in Battle Creek neighborhoods to explore topics of importance to residents, business owners, and other members of the community. Neighborhood coverage, telling the untold stories of those moving the community forward begins next week in Washington Heights. To reach the editor of this series, Jane Simons, please email her here or contact Second Wave managing editor Kathy Jennings here A former Battle Creek city commissioner once remarked that Battle Creek has everything we need, its just missing that something.Depending on who you talk to in this city of 52,347 residents, that something includes everything from neighborhoods in need of improvement to better-paying jobs to more retail and restaurants to a downtown district that attracts and keeps people in town after the workday is done. The same sentiment is expressed by residents in cities throughout the United States.Though some residents may see a glass half full scenario, city and economic development leaders point to a vibrant restaurant scene that includes Umami Ramen and the recently-opened Shwe Mandalay , a Burmese restaurant, as reasons to see the glass half full. They also tout Binder Park Zoo, the River Valley Trail, and recreational opportunities along the Kalamazoo River.I see a lot of resources and opportunities here, says Joe Sobieralski, president and CEO of Battle Creek Unlimited, Calhoun Countys economic development agency.Though the name conjures a fierce combat, the legend is the city's name came from land surveyors who saw a creek and got into a skirmish with one or two Native American's while they were scoping out the potential for development in the early 19th century. The so-called battle became part of the city's iconography that has recently been slated for removal out of respect for the Nottaweseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi.George Livingston, retired Willard Library librarian and Battle Creek historian, says surveyors would hack off part of a tree with an ax to mark a boundary when they came to a particular section. Their activity drew Native Americans, setting the stage for conflict. Back in those days, Livingston says, surveyors often marked their maps with the location of every single pond and were running out of names for geographical features.For novelty, they called it Battle Creek because of the nearby creek, Livingston says.At that time, any waterway was a valuable piece of property because it meant flowing water and that meant power and industry.People in the East who were trying to eke out a living came here as did capitalists in big cities when they found out about the prominent waterways, Livingston says. The thought was that it could be a settlement because water would provide power to the community.The Quakers were among the first to see the potential.They knew they could subdivide the land they purchased into lots and make their money back 100 times over, Livingston says. They were canny enough to get in on the ground floor. They knew Battle Creek would be a promising site for a city because of the water. They were forward-thinking men.Before Battle Creek cemented its place as the worlds cereal capital, Livingston says it was known for its production of agricultural implements and the city was home to a big tractor factory that manufactured behemoth tractors which required skilled men and transportation options to get the steel required to the area.Nobody was eating cereal because there werent grocery stores back then, Livingston says. One thing that makes Battle Creek so interesting is its connection with wider world. The tractors that were produced here were too enormous to use in Michigan and were made for the vast plains of the world in Canada, South America and even in Russia.Vladamir Lenin was interested in getting hold of Battle Creek tractors. Many a Battle Creek man went over to Russia and talked to Lenin and sold him tractors. Those tractors would drive and never stop.The advent of the railroads brought a new group of settlers to the city who would have a profound and lasting impact on Battle Creek.The decision by the Seventh Day Adventists to settle in Battle Creek was the result of a search for a place where there were honest and hard-working people. Ellen G. White , the religious sects founder, drew others to settle in Battle Creek.Not long after, the city was home to the mother church for the sect.Not many communities are the mother church for the sect, Livingston says. There was a huge printing press on Washington and Main which was the largest in the United States called the Duplex Printing Co. and they used to print all of the religious works for Adventists all over the world. That required unimaginable amounts of paper on some of biggest presses in the world.As the number of Adventists grew and grew, they wanted their own school and Mother Whites thoughts turned to creating a place where clean living would be encouraged and supported.Livingston says Mother White took note of a very successful sanitarium rest lodge in New York State. She said she had gotten a message from God that this was the way the Adventist church should go -- to preach healthy living.The Sanitarium was built because of the Adventists, Livingston says. People were just drawn to it and Battle Creek became the best-known little town in America.The Sanitarium was a health spa and hotel which created the need for staff to attend to guests needs and other ancillary services. But, it also had a gymnasium which required exercise equipment and thats when the exercise equipment industry began in Battle Creek, Livingston says.In keeping with the health-focused mission of the Sanitarium, a great deal of attention was paid to what visitors were going to be fed.The steaks, oysters, and whiskey that were among the staples for so many menus of this time period were not going to fit with the Sanitariums mission, Livingston says. But, the case had to be made for what made certain foods better than others.This required that you had a doctor and a scientific lab to say why a steak is bad and lettuce is good, Livingston says. You also needed science and doctors to see how food burns up and how many calories are used.Mother White knew she needed someone to run what would fast become a popular industry -- dealing with food -- and she turned to the prominent Kellogg family.She recruited John Harvey Kellogg and gave him a stipend to go to medical school.Livingston says Dr. Kellogg had a theory about everything and always dressed in white and expected the same of the people who worked for him at the Sanitarium, which held tremendous prestige because of the famous doctors who would come there to work with Kellogg. The Sanitarium also served as a college which trained doctors and nurses.W.K. Kellogg, John Harvey Kelloggs younger brother, joined forces with his brother and was the organizational and marketing genius behind the Kellogg cereal empire after a recipe for that first type of cereal was perfected.Livingston says visitors to the Sanitarium were fed a certain type of boiled wheat and somebody remarked that it was really good.They got so many compliments and after several experiments, they got something that people liked, Livingston says. Pretty soon, cereal became part of breakfast.It was that cereal that shielded Battle Creek from the worst of the Depression.The Depression came along and people still ate cereal, Livingston says. It was a recession-proof industry until the present day.In the last decade, job reductions at the Kellogg Co. and Post Cereals have impacted the local economy; the closure of big box stores, especially at the once-thriving Lakeview Square Mall, has impacted shopping patterns; and the exodus of young people, who were raised in Battle Creek, to larger cities with more to offer, have created challenging times for the city.Jim Hettinger, who guided the creation of the Fort Custer Industrial Park and served as president of Battle Creek Unlimited from 1979 to 2009, said in a recent interview that, the Industrial Park becomes more and more important every day that the cereal industry recedes. What Battle Creek needs to do is have an honest planning process, a worst-case scenario process.The idea behind the development of the Industrial Park was to give Battle Creek an economic base that wasnt dependent on the cereal industry, which has been in decline since the late 1960s. City leaders also were looking to replace previous economic driver such as a military presence that had also been dropping off throughout the years.The former military base that became the Industrial Park gave the city a place in the global restructuring of the economy.While the Fort Custer Industrial Park continues to grow and thrive, the leadership of BCU, the organization responsible for the creation of the Park, says they are now broadening their scope to include other areas of the city.Joe Sobieralski, president and CEO of BCU, says the city has been very, very successful on the economic development front with manufacturing and will continue to forge ahead with Industry 4.0, the name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, which includes the Internet of Things and cloud computing.We want to be a player in that space, Sobieralski says, while acknowledging that the city has more work to be done on the community development side.The Industrial Park is diversified and has benefitted Battle Creek, but we need to create vitality for the downtown area and having places where people want to be outside of work, Sobieralski says. "We want to keep people around, so they will lay their head here and call it home.Lifelong Battle Creek resident Melvin Evans and his wife, Katie, never considered leaving Battle Creek. The couple moved into a home on Bowen Avenue in 1959 where they continue to live. When they moved in they were one of three Black families and the neighborhood was a place where neighbors took the time to get to know each other and took care of their homes.It was a beautiful neighborhood. I was one of the first people to start a Block Club here in the Heights, Evans says. We built a park on the corner of Howland and Bowen and we used to have Block parties that were smorgasbords just about. At that time things were fine.That park is named for Evans uncle, Claude Evans, who was the citys first Black dentist.About 10 years ago, Evans says the area started going down a bit as the result of young people buying homes without the financial means to keep them up. Evans says the slide was an issue that began in the 1970s when the drug trade relied increasingly on the I-94 corridor to transport their goods between Detroit and Chicago.It damn near took over Battle Creek, he says. Drug dealers were setting houses on fire as a message to people who didnt pay their bills.The neighborhood also saw its share of parties that got out of control, people parking on lawns, and a general apathy about the area. Things are turning around these days and Evans, now 87, says hes never worried about his safety and intends to stay put.I had a job at Post and my wife worked at Kellogg and we raised a son here and the neighborhood was beautiful, he says. After I retired in 1996, we were thinking about moving, but the house is paid for and we stayed.Sobieralski says he wants more people to feel like Evans does. He says the city has a lot of resources and opportunities here and BCU wants to be an influence and make it a community that people want to convince their friends and family to move to.This is what is driving BCU to take more of a lead role in addressing what he sees as a lack of basic principles for having a thriving community, such as nightlife and more dining options. He says that this is outside of the realm of what his organization has done in the past but says that his board and leadership team believe that the times demand a more inclusive approach to creating a vibrant city.We are intentionally inserting ourselves in the community development side. We cant continue to grow our technology base without community development, he says. There needs to be a holistic approach to economic development. We cant be working in silos.The economy is doing well, weve got the momentum and weve got to capitalize.The Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council will focus on high-level economic matters and the government's wider economic agenda.

A work programme hasn't been finalised, but it will canvass: ways to grow the economy and improve productivity and living standards; address issues that affect people's everyday lives; and bridge the gaps between government and business. The programme will also work on issues at the heart of New Zealand's prosperity and social, environmental and economic sustainability.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the 13 members, chaired by Air New Zealand chief Christopher Luxon, were a diverse cross-section of the business community and their work would complement work underway with the Small Business Council and the Tripartite Forum.

"I will also be asking the council to gather advice from their peers in the domestic and international business community on some of the most important issues facing New Zealand including how we best grow and share our prosperity, support regional development, and transition to a clean, green New Zealand," Ardern said.

The council includes Westpac New Zealand chief executive David McLean, who has been grappling with an internal digital transformation without leaving people behind. Westpac also holds the government's banking contract. Former ASB Bank boss Barbara Chapman is a member. She is now a professional director sitting on the boards of IAG New Zealand, Fletcher Building and the New Zealand Initiative. She was recently appointed chair of Crown-controlled Genesis Energy.

Mercury NZ, another Crown-controlled company, will be represented on the council through chief executive Fraser Whineray. Jocelyn O'Donnell of Invercargill's family-owned HW Richardson, and Maori food firm Kono's chief Rachel Taulelei are also council members.

Australian-owned New Zealand Steel chief Gretta Stephens, who until recently was in charge of the Tiwai Point smelter, and Wesfarmers' Bunnings NZ boss Jacqui Coombes are also on the council.

Fonterra Cooperative Group's recently-appointed acting chief executive Miles Hurrell is on the council, as is McKinsey & Co partner Andrew Grant.

New technology-based firms will contribute through Xero's chief product officer Anna Curzon, Rocket Lab's Peter Beck, and Pango Productions chief Bailey Mackey.

The unpaid appointments are for up to two years and at the PM's discretion. The chair will speak on behalf of the council. The group is expected to meet with the PM three times a year.

(BusinessDesk)

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New Zealand Steel's $46 million stake in distributor Steel & Tube has shut down the creation of a potentially tricky customer flexing its muscles to get better pricing, analysts say.

The local unit of Australia's BlueScope Steel paid a 17 percent premium for almost 16 percent of Steel & Tube, effectively blocking any future takeover. The issue became live for NZ Steel when Fletcher Building made two offers for the steel products distributor. A tie-up between those companies would have created a domestic steel customer with about half the market.

First NZ Capital analysts said BlueScope needed to clamp down on the risk of a consolidated customer emerging and wrestling down prices. The New Zealand business is especially vulnerable given it doesn't have a viable export market if distributors chose to purchase imported products.

The research house doesn't anticipate BlueScope will pursue a full takeover having gone through a poor experience when it tried to consolidate steel distribution in Australia.

"Historically, Steel & Tube was a very solid business, but has seen declining revenues from a growing NZ market, despite debt-funded acquisitions," FNZC said. "With nurturing, the business should be able to generate a dividend yield to BlueScope, in addition to securing its route to market."

NZ Steel paid $1.75 a share, a small premium to Fletcher's opening gambit. Fletcher made a second bid at $1.90 and left scope to pay a 5 cent special dividend, but walked away when Steel & Tube didn't immediately bite. Steel & Tube stock hit a trough in August when the company raised money at a steeply discounted price of $1.15. The shares recently traded at $1.45, down 25 percent so far this year.

Milford Asset Management was the seller and had been a backer of Fletcher's proposal. However, Steel & Tube's board wanted greater convincing. FNZC, as its advisor, had put a valuation of $1.95-to-$2.36 a share on the company.

The steel products maker has been overhauling its business under the leadership of Mark Malpass after a review this year uncovered a number of legacy problems. The board now thinks it's on a more sustainable path and has said recent sales trends have given it confidence it can resume dividend payments in the 2019 financial year.

Shareholders will have a say on that direction at next week's annual meeting, where chair Susan Paterson is up for re-election. Milford's John Johnstone withdrew from seeking an appointment to the board.

(BusinessDesk)

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Genesis Energy is buying coal and gas in the wholesale market to supplement fuel supplies, while it awaits the first deliveries of imported coal in early December.

The company is running its two dual-fuel Rankine units at Huntly fully on coal to help maintain national electricity supplies, amid dwindling South Island hydro storage and low gas production. The firms gas-fired 400 MW E3P plant is running at about half capacity.

Chief executive Marc England said it is the combination of low storage and reduced gas supplies from the Pohokura field that has put pressure on the sector.

We would probably have been fine if we just had low lake levels but its the combination of the two, he told BusinessDesk. In other dry periods weve been able to rely on the spot gas market.

Wholesale electricity prices have jumped in recent weeks as national hydro storage has drifted lower, instead of rising, as it would normally do at this time of year. Production from Pohokura, the countrys largest gas field, has also been roughly halved since operator Shell found a faulty valve on the offshore production platform last month. That is not expected to be restored before the end of November

Electricity cost an average $340/MWh in Auckland yesterday, according to Electricity Authority data, having reached $544 on Saturday. It averaged $60.61 last October.

New Zealand relies on the flexibility Genesis has to run the aging Rankine units when required and to fuel them with gas or coal, depending on what is available and cheapest at the time. Most of their output is contracted by major users and other retailers, with Genesis using only about 12 percent of their production in the year ended June 30.

Genesis, which has a domestic coal contract with West Coast coalminer BT Mining for 150,000 tonnes a year, started October with about 312,000 tonnes in its stockpile.

Local deliveries are continuing and the company has been buying coal and gas from other users to try and maximise its supply.

Nevertheless, it is rapidly drawing down its domestic coal stockpiles and has now ordered 120,000 tonnes of Indonesian coal. Four shipments are expected from early December through to mid-January.

England said initiating coal imports was not without risk, given the typical lead time of two or three months before delivery. Nor was it simple, with about 15 bilateral agreements needed from the mine gate in Indonesia, through to ports, shipping companies, KiwiRail, councils and trucking firms.

Earlier today, England told Parliaments environment select committee that the firms recent daily coal use at Huntly this week was equivalent to 1.5 times the daily energy output from the Kupe gas field. At that rate it would get through its stockpile by early December, he said.

England said the current gas shortage was only short-term. But he said it demonstrated the volatility of the New Zealand electricity market and the countrys reliance on a range of fuel sources for generation when renewable supplies are not available.

He said the firms current coal use is significant.

Its not just around the edges. And its filling a gap, without which we wouldnt be able to keep the lights on and keep running industry in New Zealand.

The committee is considering legislation to effect a ban on new offshore exploration for oil and gas. Earlier this week it heard that a lack of new finds means the country faces a near-term gas supply gap, with deliveries expected to fall away from 2021.

Genesis this week announced a partnership with Tilt Renewables to develop a 100 MW windfarm at Waverley. It has also committed to stop burning coal at Huntly by 2030 as part of its efforts to help reduce emissions from the generation sector.

(BusinessDesk)

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In the third of a series of UN interviews, Ahram Online speaks to the country representative of UN Women on the role of the country office in supporting women's empowerment and rights in Egypt

UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry of the UN Charter into force in 1945. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being.

On the occasion of the celebration of the UN Day on 24 October, the UN offered a series of exclusive interviews to Ahram Online.

The third Interview in the series is with Blerta Aliko, UN Women country representative.

In what priority areas does UN Women Egypt's country office work?



UN Women has a tripartite mandate: advancing normative work on gender equality and the empowerment of women, coordination, and operational support. UN Women Egypt has been reinforcing national efforts to facilitate policy dialogues between government, civil society organisations, academia, and supporting national implementation on womens leadership and participation, economic inclusion and freedom from violence against women.

How are UN Women Egypt's activities integrated with the Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS)?



UN Women Egypts work and activities are highly aligned and responsive to national priorities. All the work is aligned with the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030, which was endorsed by the president of Egypt and complements the SDS. In addition, UN Women Egypt enjoys a strong partnership with the government of Egypt and is a proud partner of key national institutions, including the National Council for Women, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the Ministry of Planning, Monitoring and Administrative Reform, among other academic and research institutions, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

How are UN Women Egypt's activities aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UN Partnership for Development (UNPDF)?



UN Women is privileged to coordinate the womens empowerment outcome result area of the UNPDF on behalf of the United Nations. All activities that are pertinent to womens empowerment, which are supported by relevant UN agencies  including UN Women  fall under this outcome result area and are centred around the National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030. In addition, gender equality and the empowerment of women is mainstreamed across the other outcome result areas of the UNPDF, to which UN Women is also a contributor.

Tell us more about the main achievements of the UN Women Egypt country office.

UN Women Egypt has contributed to many of the accomplishments on the womens empowerment agenda, in partnership with the National Council for Women. These accomplishments include the issuance of 713,571 national ID cards for women under the Womens Citizenship Initiative (WCI) and the highest and fastest outreach to 2,000,000 women on the ground through the Knocking Door Campaigns to catalyse action on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

UN Women Egypt has also provided support to the legislation development process through sharing good practices at the regional level, facilitating the inclusion of civil society and other actors, as well as providing technical expertise. Furthermore, UN Women supported the establishment of the Egypt National Observatory for Women (ENOW), that can monitor and track public policies from a gender perspective, gathering empirical evidence to inform future governmental policies.

UN Women Egypt has also supported the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) programmes, benefiting 18,844 members, 92 per cent of which are very poor women. Combined with loans and training on social empowerment and financial literacy, the VSLA programme resulted increasing womens confidence and engaging in income-generating employment and decision-making processes.

UN Women Egypt has further supported the leveraging of 10 private agribusiness firms in rural areas to invest in womens employment through gender-responsive work environments, benefitting over 5,000 women and their families, while multiplying the firms revenues, and while retaining their trained women workforce.

Stemming from the conviction that it is critical to engage men and boys to achieve gender equality, UN Women Egypt launched the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES). The survey is considered one of the most comprehensive household surveys carried out on mens attitudes and practices  along with womens opinions and reports of mens practices  on a wide variety of topics related to gender equality.

UN Women Egypt also supported the launch of Because Im a Man social media campaign, which attracted the attention of millions of online followers, including endorsements by renowned and influential celebrities.

How will UN Women Egypt address obstacles to further progress?

UN Women Egypt enjoys an open dialogue with the government of Egypt and relevant stakeholders, which offers an opportunity to discuss common challenges and how to further garner collective support to address challenges that hinder the advancement of women at all levels. The National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 is the first global strategy to address the empowerment of women in response to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to ensure that no woman is left behind.

UN Women Egypt fully supports the operationalisation of the strategy and has contributed to supporting the National Council for Women in the design of work packages, which aim at operationalising the strategy to achieve its intended objectives. UN Women Egypt further supports all national advocacy efforts to raise awareness at all levels about barriers to womens empowerment and the needed action to address them.

What initiatives do you hope to accomplish?

UN Women Egypt has an ambitious strategic note for 2018-2022 and aspires to support national efforts in the areas of womens leadership and participation, womens economic inclusion, and preventing violence against women and girls. UN Women Egypt also hopes to engage as many men and boys in the national efforts to empower women and girls, besides educating communities about womens political, economic, and social rights and the associated perceptions of gender roles.

UN Women Egypt will support the translation of constitutional commitments and hopes to witness more women in leadership and decision-making positions, and to have more than 25,000 of Egypts capable women and youth occupying local councils seats. Among our objectives is to also expand on the issuance of national ID cards for women to ensure that more women in Egypt can practice their citizenship rights.

UN Women Egypt aspires to contribute to fostering an environment that is free of violence through supporting national efforts towards a strong legislation on ending violence against women in Egypt, with implementation mechanisms that guarantee its enforcement.

Last, but not least, UN Women Egypt will champion the creation of opportunities for the economic inclusion of women to ensure their employability and working with relevant partners and stakeholders on fostering the principles of decent work and non-discrimination in the workplace.

UN Women is privileged to continue to support all national efforts towards achieving gender equality and womens empowerment, as stated by the UN Women executive director, on both the premise and promise of the 2030 Agenda and its global goals, seeking equality for all.

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Ebos Group will pay A$50 million to tighten its grip on its Australian retail pharmacy network.

The healthcare and animal health products maker has agreed to buy out Terry White, two years after securing a controlling stake when the Australian pharmacy business merged with Ebos's Chemmart business. The deal will be done via a scheme of arrangement and is expected to be completed before the end of the calendar year.

The merged TerryWhiteChemmart entity is already one of Australia's biggest retail pharmacy networks. At the time of the merger, annual retail turnover was A$2 billion across 500 pharmacies. Ebos said full ownership is expected to increase earnings in the year ending June.

"A strongly resourced management company is critical in the face of a highly competitive and evolving retail pharmacy sector and continuing industry reforms," chief executive John Cullity said.

Last month, TerryWhiteChemmart chief executive Anthony White told the Australian Financial Review a float was still an option for the company but wouldn't be on the cards in the immediate future as the integration of the business continued. He said the pharmacy retailer aimed to have more than 1,000 stores in the network by 2020, with a 25 percent market share.

Ebos shares slipped 0.2 percent to $21.75 at the opening of the market on a very small volume. That was a smaller decline than the wider S&P/NZX 50 index.

The company's greater control over the retail pharmacy business will come into effect ahead of a A$1 billion annual distribution deal with Australia's Chemist Warehouse from July.

Ebos has a successful track record of mergers and acquisitions and transformed itself in 2013 with the purchase of Australian pharmaceutical wholesaler and distributor Symbion. About 48 percent of gross operating revenue is derived from the wholesale and retail pharmacy businesses.

However, Cullity warned shareholders this week that the Australian Federal government's pharmaceutical benefits scheme to subsidise prescription drugs for residents threatens a model that works well.

Ebos's cornerstone shareholder Zuellig Group also holds a third of Greencross Medical, which has a retail pharmacy network of 357 stores in New Zealand under the Unichem and Life Pharmacy brands.

(BusinessDesk)

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The Egyptian Ministry of Environment's Nature Protection Department said on Thursday that the environment police has raided a large illegal wild animal farm in a desert area.

Khaled Allam, the head of the Central Department of Biodiversity, said that authorities were quick to act soon after receiving information about the farm.

According to Allam, the seized animals found in the farm were an African lion, a bengal tiger, a cheetah, a chimpanzee, a striped hyena, a spotted hyena, a Nile crocodile, as well as some pelicans and fallow dears.

Egypt's Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad said that the ministry is vigilant against the illegal trade in wildlife to protect Egypt's natural resources by modern and non-conventional methods.

The Egyptian Environment Law prohibits the possession of any living organisms regulated by international conventions signed by Egypt, especially predators.

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Credit: Timothy WhiteJames Taylor grew up in North Carolina, and his hometown area was devastated recently by Hurricane Florence. Now, the folk-rock legend has partnered with The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina to launch the "James Taylor Million Meals Challenge," which will provide food, water and supplies to those displaced by the storm in more than 20 counties in the state.

Taylor has posted a video on his official YouTube channel and Facebook page in which he shares details of the campaign and asks people to donate to the cause. In the clip, underneath an instrumental version of James' classic "Carolina in My Mind," he explains that the challenge's goal "is to raise enough money to provide one million meals to people in crisis who desperately need the help."

He points out, "If you contribute, we will match your donation dollar for dollar until we have met our goal of a million meals, and fulfilled this commitment to our neighbors through the food bank."

Every $10 donated the food bank will be able to provide 100 meals to those in need.

Taylor adds that he and his wife "are inspired by the resilience of people [impacted by the recent hurricanes] in Florida and in the Carolinas, neighbor helping neighbor, and by people from all parts of the country pitching in to do their part."

You can donate by visiting FoodBankCENC.org/JamesTaylor.

James launches a new joint tour leg with Bonnie Raitt on February 5 in Cincinnati. Check out all his dates at JamesTaylor.com.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Analysts say wide-scale religious reform is needed to end the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood regaining influence in Egypt

In an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Shahed on 13 October, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi rejected the possibility of the Muslim Brotherhood staging a return in Egypt, reports Gamal Essam El-Din.

Asked about the future of the group in Egypt, Al-Sisi said the Ikhwan [the Brotherhood] will never have a role to play as long as I am in power.

The Egyptian people will never accept that the Brotherhood returns to power. The public now knows the ideology of this group is at odds with moderate Islam and with daily life.

The ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood and its perverted interpretation of Quranic texts place the group in conflict with life, said Al-Sisi. He urged Islamic clerics to do more to reform religious discourse and contain extremist thought.

Al-Sisi accused Muslim Brotherhood leaders of riding a wave of chaos that swept the Arab world in 2011. This wave brought devastation to several Arab countries, he said, blaming the Brotherhood for ongoing conflicts in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

He expressed concern about the 36,000 terrorists leaving Syria now the war there is drawing to a close.

Where will these terrorists who came from all over the world go? I am afraid that some intelligence agencies, bent on destabilising the region, will try and use them to achieve their goals.

Political analysts say that while Al-Sisis anti-Muslim Brotherhood sentiment is not new it sends a warning to countries like Qatar and Turkey which are involved in funding the group, and states like the UK and Germany which tolerate its activities.

Abdel-Rehim Ali, expert on political Islam and an independent MP, told Al-Ahram Weekly that President Al-Sisis interview was a reconfirmation of the position he first espoused when running for president in 2014.

During the presidential campaign he said on a number of occasions there was no future for the Brotherhood in Egypts political life.

Many, particularly in the West, wrongly believe that some Arab leaders oppose the Muslim Brotherhood for political reasons, says Ali. They portray the Brotherhood as a moderate group which seeks to challenge autocratic rulers in the Arab world.

This is completely wrong. The group has never been moderate. It is antagonistic to democracy and seeks to create a theocratic autocracy, as we saw in Egypt in 2012 and as are now seeing in Turkey.

Ali argues Al-Sisis consistent rejection of the Brotherhood marks him out from Egypts previous rulers.

Whether under the monarchy before 1952, or the republic after 1953, attempts were made to strike deals with the Brotherhood, all of which backfired.

The Brotherhood conspired against King Farouk in 1952, tried to kill president [Gamal Abdel-] Nasser in 1954, assassinated president [Anwar Al-] Sadat in 1981, and cooperated with Hamas to topple Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Abdallah Al-Sinawi disagrees with Ali. He sees a number of similarities in the way President Al-Sisi and late president Nasser dealt with the group.

Both initially accepted the Brotherhood, moving against it only when it became clear the group was seeking to monopolise power and impose a religious autocracy.

It was Sadat who used the Brotherhood to shore up his position against his Nasserist and leftist opponents. This led to the spread of militant Islam as the Brotherhood infiltrated all aspects of life in Egypt, spreading its poisonous ideology and moving to kill Sadat when he signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Mubarak thought he could contain the Brotherhood by allowing its members to join parliament, says Al-Sinawi. As under Sadat, they used the relative tolerance of the Mubarak regime to spread their perverted version of Islam.

Al-Ahram analyst Hassan Abu Taleb says President Al-Sisis rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood reflects the opinion of the majority of Egyptians.

He, nonetheless, warns that while it is true the Muslim Brotherhood will have no role under Al-Sisis regime, the threat of the group recovering its influential position in Egypt is still big.

The group has a lot of cash, and is present in at least 50 countries. Its leaders continue to insist they will return to Egypt and spare no effort in trying to make their dream of creating a religious state come true, says Abu Taleb.

Under Al-Sisi Egypt might have been able to contain the Brotherhood but this does not mean that the threat is over.

This is why reforming religious discourse must now take priority. The Brotherhood has been able to survive since 1928 partly because it made opportunistic deals with rulers, but mainly because it portrayed itself as an organisation that works day and night to recover the glory of Islam.

To ensure the group never again poses a threat a wide-ranging programme of religious reform is needed, one that exposes how the Brotherhoods ideology is inimical to Egypts future, progress and national unity. Only then will the group face extinction, and cease to be a menace whether or not Al-Sisi is in power, Abu Taleb said.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 October, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: No future for the Brotherhood

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US, China defence chiefs aim to improve strained ties



Singapore, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart sought Thursday to normalise military relations that have dramatically soured in recent weeks over trade and sanctions tensions.

The much-anticipated meeting between the Pentagon chief and General Wei Fenghe saw the men address long-standing frictions -- including Beijing's actions in the South China Sea -- but also centred on strengthening ties to withstand political crises like the one currently engulfing the two nuclear powers.

Mattis "repeated our desire for a durable relationship that is a stabilising force in the overall relationship," Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters after the nearly 90-minute meeting on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore.

"When we have times of differences and irritants, we should seek to deepen our contact, particularly at the high level, strategic level so that we can talk through differences."

A meeting between Mattis and Wei was supposed to take place in Beijing last weekend, but it fell through after China declined to make Wei available.

The snub came as China reacted angrily after Washington imposed sanctions following Beijing's purchase of Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Beijing's other actions included scrapping a planned port visit of a US warship to Hong Kong and cancelling a meeting between the head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.

And tensions reached a dangerous level when a Chinese warship sailed extremely close to a US destroyer as it conducted a "freedom of navigation" operation challenging China's extensive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

The contested waterway, where China has built a series of military facilities on islets and reefs, was a subject of "significant" discussion, Schriver said, but no progress was made in resolving the issue or the other perennial point of friction -- Taiwan.

"We're going to continue to have differences," Schriver said.

"They weren't resolved at this meeting and during this discussion and they probably won't be in a next discussion. There will be issues that are long-term challenges to manage."



- Tough rhetoric -



Mattis's attempts to carve a better relationship with the Chinese military stands in contrast to the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House.

President Donald Trump has frequently assailed China over its economic policies and earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence issued a litany of complaints, accusing Beijing of "predatory" trade practices and military "aggression", among other charges.

Mattis has made eight trips to the Asia region as Pentagon chief, and a primary mission has been to encourage countries to stand up to China in the South China Sea.

But Schriver indicated that countries remain too intimidated to do much on this front.

"In some instances, other countries may not have the confidence given China's strength to always speak up, but (Mattis) wanted to let Minister Wei know that he hears about it a great deal from other countries," Schriver said.

Mattis's visit to Singapore comes as questions swirl in Washington about his future.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Trump suggested Mattis may be headed out the Pentagon door.

"It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said.

Mattis later told reporters that Trump had assured him of his "100 percent" support.

Gregory Poling, an Asia expert and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said most countries in the region see Mattis as "a steady hand on the tiller".

But they are wary of the uncertainty in Washington and Trump's mercurial approach to America maintaining a leadership role in the region.

Once Mattis leaves after a trip, "officials start wondering... is the full force of American power really in Asia to stay?" Poling told AFP.

"I don't think Asian leaders see lasting commitment from the US on things other than North Korea and trade deficits."

Schriver said the issue of North Korea came up with Wei "in very general terms" as a possible area to deepen cooperation.

"We do have a shared view that we would like to see denuclearisation occur," he said.System error

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The announcement was made by Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawki Allam during the fourth international conference by Egypt's General Secretariat for Fatwa Authorities Worldwide, which was held in Egypt to discuss the modernisation of Islamic fatwas.

The index, which will be prepared by Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta (the House of Fatwas) and then proposed to conference members, aims to regulate the issuance of fatwas and combat radical discourse.

It also offers regulations to guide those working in issuing Islamic legal advice.

The three-day conference, which was held under the title: The renewal in Fatwas - Theory and Practice, brought together Muslim scholars and senior clerics from 73 countries.

Allam also announced the launch of a global charter of fatwas, which offers a comprehensive code of ethics and defines criteria for the issuance of fatwas. The charter, which will also offer content for reference by scholars in this regard, will be available in several languages.

The move is designed to "face chaos in the field of fatwas and Islamic discourse in general," Allam said.

Allam called on Wednesday for the modernising of Islamic fatwas and the correction of false religious concepts as key to eliminating extremist ideas.

At the closing ceremony, Allam introduced a list of recommendations produced by participating countries including: modernising fatwas to fight radical calls by extremists, using social networking tools to disseminate accurate fatwas, consulting with economic, political social and medical experts in producing well-founded fatwas, as well as urging scholars and students to study the modernisation of fatwas.

The conference also called for launching the first observatory to map the future course of ifta.

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Here We Pray Together, the fourth annual St Catherines International Peace Forum, started this evening at St Catherines Monastery in Sinai, to be followed by Muslims and Christians praying together at the monastery on Friday.

As the call to Friday noon prayer sounds at the Sacred Valley Mosque, the bells of St Catherines will also ring, calling Christians to prayer.

With delegates from all over the globe participating in the forum, including more than 20 foreign ambassadors to Egypt as well as the ministers of antiquities, culture and tourism, the event is intended to highlight Egypts peace and security.

South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda said the forum aimed to spread a message of peace and security across the world from one of the most sacred areas where the three scriptural religions meet.

The forum will last for two days, with exhibitions displaying a collection of photographs, paintings and Bedouin handicrafts also being organised along with a tour around St Catherines.

The minister of endowments will deliver the Friday sermon at the mosque, and archbishop Dimetriose Damyanos will be preaching to Christians.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany described Sinai as a source of inspiration that has radiated across civilisations, both regionally and globally.

St Catherines Monastery combines Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This is what we could call the genius of Egypt and the reflection of a harmony between the followers of different religions, he said.

St Catherines Monastery contains a distinguished basilica built in 530 CE by the Byzantine emperor Justinian on the site of an earlier chapel founded by St Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine the Great.

The monasterys long existence and virtually intact collections of icons and manuscripts can be attributed to its naturally well-secured location, tucked away in the barren rocky landscape of South Sinai.

In 2002 the site was placed on the World Heritage List overseen by the UN cultural body UNESCO as a mixed property, cultural and natural, meaning that both the monastery and the area around it are protected.

Gamal Mustafa, head of the Coptic and Islamic Antiquities Sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, explained that last year the Library of St Catherines Monastery, second only to the Vatican Library in Rome in terms of the importance of its manuscript collections, was reopened to the public.

According to archbishop Damyanos, the sixth-century Library houses thousands of centuries-old manuscripts including a hand-written copy of the New Testament as well as thousands of ancient books and scrolls that date back over 700 years.

The restored eastern side of the library, he said, houses the worlds second-largest collection of early codices and manuscripts. The renovation work has not yet been completed as what has been done is only the first phase of the project, advisor to the Archbishop Tony Kazamia said.

During the restoration work in the monastery, a sixth-century CE medical recipe by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was found.

The manuscript is a palimpsest written on leather and bears parts of a medical recipe attributed to Hippocrates and three other medical recipes written by an anonymous scribe, one of which contains drawings of medicinal herbs. The second layer of writing on the manuscript is a text from the Bible.

The Mosaic of Transfiguration in the main church at the monastery has been receiving visitors after restoration. The library conservation work started in 2014 and has been carried out under the supervision of the ministry with funds provided by the monastery.

Ahmed Al-Nimr, a member of the scientific office at the Ministry of Antiquities, said that the Mosaic of Transfiguration was one of the oldest and most beautiful in the Middle East. It dates to the ninth century CE and covers a surface of about 46 square metres painted with precious materials such as gold and silver.

The mosaic depicts Jesus and the prophets Elijah and Moses. It is surrounded by 31 medallions containing pictures of other prophets, in addition to two medallions representing Jonah and the Virgin Mary.

Over the centuries, the mosaic has suffered damage from earthquakes and intense visitation by pilgrims from all corners of the world.

The Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Catherine, one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world and home of the biblical burning bush, is located on Mount Sinai, the place where God talked to Moses and gave him the Ten Commandments.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 October, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Praying for peace

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'Bad news': CO2 emissions to rise in 2018, says IEA chief



Paris, Oct 17 (AFP) Oct 17, 2018



Energy sector carbon emissions will rise in 2018 after hitting record levels the year before, dimming prospects for meeting Paris climate treaty goals, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Wednesday.

The energy sector accounts for 80 percent of global CO2 emissions, with most of the rest caused by deforestation and agriculture, so its performance is key to efforts to rein in rising world temperatures.

"I'm sorry, I have very bad news for you," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told guests at a diplomatic function hosted by the Polish embassy in Paris.

"Emissions this year will increase once again, and we're going to have the COP meeting when global emissions reach a record high," he said, referring to the December UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland.

After remaining flat for three years, total global CO2 emissions in 2017 rose by 1.4 percent, dashing hopes that they had peaked.

The meeting in Katowice is tasked with finalising the "operating manual" for the 195-nation Paris Agreement, which enters into force in 2020 and calls for capping global warming at "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and at 1.5 C if possible.

"The chances of meeting such ambitious targets, in my view, are becoming weaker and weaker every year, every month," Birol told invitees, including former French prime minister Laurent Fabius, who shepherded the 2015 treaty to a successful conclusion, and Poland's junior minister Michal Kurtyka, who will preside over the December summit.

With one degree Celsius of warming so far, Earth has seen a crescendo of deadly extreme weather, including heatwaves, droughts, floods and deadly storm surges made worse by rising seas.



- Next two years critical -



Even taking into account voluntary national pledges to slash carbon emissions caused by burning fossil fuels, the planet is currently on track to warm by an unlivable 3 C to 4 C by century's end.

A major UN report released earlier this month said that capping average global temperatures at 1.5 C above preindustrial levels would prevent the worst ravages of climate change.

But reaching that goal would mean reducing CO2 emissions by nearly half compared to 2010 levels within a dozen years, and becoming "carbon neutral" -- with no excess C02 leaching into the atmosphere -- by 2050.

The UN report also details humanity's "carbon budget" -- the amount of CO2 we can emit and still stay under the 1.5 C ceiling.

At current rates of carbon pollution, that budget would be used up within two decades.

Fabius, who said he had accepted an invitation to help Poland prepare for the December climate summit, insisted that the next two years are critical.

"Climate change is a near-term problem," he said. "When you look at the tragic consequences, it is today, not in 50 years."

"This is not a negotiation like any other," he added. "If you fail, you cannot start over again."Egypt's Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek has referred to criminal court three people accused of embezzling $1 billion from the petroleum company Tri Ocean Oil and moving the funds to Doha and other countries.

The Egyptian state is a shareholder in Tri Ocean, a privatley owned energy company, according to the prosecution.

The defendants include the deputy head of the company's board of directors and its finance director.

According to investigations, one of the defendants transferred $9.5 million to his account in Bank Audi in Switzerland and the Qatar National Bank (QNB) in Doha.

The investigations also indicated that another defendant transferred over $4 million to the account of a company he owned in several banks in Cairo and Doha and $4.453 million to his account in QNB in Doha.

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Mattis to meet Chinese counterpart amid tensions



Singapore, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Thursday after earlier talks were scrapped amid soaring tensions between the nuclear powers over trade tariffs and sanctions.

The much-anticipated meeting between the Pentagon chief and General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of a regional security summit in Singapore is expected to see the men pursue more durable military relations that can better withstand political and economic crises.

The fact that Mattis "is meeting with Minister Wei is some evidence that the Chinese are interested in keeping things normal and stable -- as are we," Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters.

"We need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic."

A meeting between Mattis and Wei was supposed to take place in Beijing last weekend, but it fell through after China declined to make Wei available.

China had reacted angrily after Washington imposed sanctions following Beijing's purchase of Russian fighter jets and missiles, and a close encounter between warships in the South China Sea raised the spectre of a mishap.

Beijing's other actions have included scrapping a planned port visit of a US warship to Hong Kong and cancelling a meeting between the head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.

If Mattis does strike a conciliatory tone, it will stand in contrast to the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House.

President Donald Trump has frequently assailed China over its economic policies and earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence issued a litany of complaints, accusing Beijing of "predatory" trade practices and military "aggression", among other charges.



- 'Sort of a Democrat' -



Mattis has made eight trips to what he calls the Indo-Pacific region as Pentagon chief, and a primary mission has been to encourage countries to stand up to China's vast claims of sovereignty in the strategically vital South China Sea.

Schriver indicated that countries aren't doing enough on this front, and said Mattis would be encouraging them to assert a presence in the areas which Beijing claims.

"We will fly sail and operate where international law allows but we are also looking for partners to give voice to keeping... international law... upheld," he said.

Mattis's visit comes as questions swirl in Washington about his future.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Trump suggested Mattis may be headed out the Pentagon door.

"It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said.

Mattis later told reporters that Trump had assured him of his "100 percent" support.

Gregory Poling, Asia expert and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said most countries in the region see Mattis as "a steady hand on the tiller".

But they are wary of the uncertainty in Washington and Trump's mercurial approach to America maintaining a leadership role in the region.

Once Mattis leaves after a trip, "officials start wondering... is the full force of American power really in Asia to stay?" Poling told AFP.

"I don't think Asian leaders see lasting commitment from the US on things other than North Korea and trade deficits."Five Czech soldiers wounded in Afghanistan attack: ministry



Prague, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



Five Czech soldiers have been injured in an attack in Afghanistan only two months after three others were killed, the Czech defence ministry said on Thursday.

"The attack on the Czech patrol occurred on Wednesday around 1220 GMT near the Bagram base in the Parwan province," the ministry said in a statement.

The five soldiers were injured when a civilian vehicle loaded with explosives was blown up near an armoured vehicle which then rolled over, it added.

One soldier with serious injuries underwent surgery and his life is no longer in danger.

Another with light injuries remained in hospital while the other three were released, the ministry said.

On August 5, three Czech soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing while on patrol in the eastern Parwan province alongside a US soldier and two Afghan soldiers, who were wounded. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

It was the deadliest assault on NATO soldiers in many months.

The Lidove noviny broadsheet daily reported on Wednesday that Czech special forces had killed one of the August attackers and captured another, while Czech TV reported "far more" had been killed and captured.

Thirteen Czech soldiers have been killed in NATO missions in Afghanistan.Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) issued a statement on Thursday saying that the authorities deny foreign media reports that former lawmaker and political activist Mostafa El-Naggar has been arrested after his recent conviction on insulting the judiciary charges, or "forcedly disappeared."

The SIS said the authorities say El-Naggar has been a fugitive since December 2017.

"Dr. Mostafa Ahmed Mohammed El Naggar was and still is a fugitive evading a 3 years prison sentence he received in the 2014 case known as "the case of insulting the judiciary" on 30 December 2017.

The SIS explained that although "the defendant appealed against the verdict before the Court of Cassation, however, he should have surrendered himself to the authorities to implement the ruling at least one day before the hearing of the appeal [which took place on 15 October 2018] in accordance with the law.

In December 2017, a Cairo criminal court sentenced El-Naggar, a dentist by practice and the founder of the post-2011 liberal Justice Party, along with 19 other defendants to three years in prison for insulting the judiciary through publications and statements to TV and radio stations, as well as social media.

On Monday, the Court of Cassation rejected appeals by El-Naggar and 19 co-defendants in the case which involved 25 high profile figures - both Islamist and non-Islamist - including ousted president Mohamed Morsi and Nasserist journalist Abdel-Halim Qandil.

The court ruled that El-Naggar along with the 19 defendants sentenced to the 3-year-sentence in the case must each pay EGP 1 million in compensation to the judges club.

The court's verdict is final.

The SIS said " the date of the appeal was set for October 15th and the session was held as planned without the after-mentioned person turning himself to the authorities which means it was held in his absence" The statement read.

"After taking all the above into careful consideration SIS stresses that all the competent authorities and agencies categorically deny that Dr. Mostafa Ahmed Mohamed Al Naggar was arrested by security forces or that he turned himself in for that matter."

"SIS also stresses that all the rumors and allegations of his enforced disappearance are false and that he is still a fugitive willingly evading serving the sentence issued against him. Any allegations insinuating otherwise are merely baseless claims attempting to evade the implementation of a judicial rule," the state information service concluded.

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Russians 'will go to heaven' in event of nuclear war: Putin



Sochi, Russia, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



Russians will "go to heaven" as martyrs in the event of nuclear war because Moscow will only ever use nuclear weapons in retaliation, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

"We have no concept of a preemptive strike," Putin told a forum of international experts in the southern city of Sochi in response to a question from the audience.

"In such a situation, we expect to be struck by nuclear weapons, but we will not use them" first, he said.

"The aggressor will have to understand that retaliation is inevitable, that it will be destroyed and that we, as victims of aggression, as martyrs, will go to heaven.

"They will simply die because they won't even have time to repent," he said to some laughter from the audience.

Putin last year unveiled "invincible" new weapons that would render Western missile defence systems obsolete.

In 2016 he called for the country to reinforce its military nuclear potential.Ethiopia PM accuses 'plotters' over soldiers' protest



Addis Ababa, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday an incident last week in which dozens of soldiers marched on his office was instigated by "plotters" and revealed the troops were armed.

Ahmed, in office since April, said the soldiers had been intent on derailing his reform agenda.

The government earlier described the unexpected arrival of dozens of special forces soldiers at the premier's palace as an attempt to demand better pay.

But on Thursday Abiy gave a different account of the incident that prompted an internet shutdown in the capital for several hours.

"They came to the National Palace to derail the national reform. But it is difficult to say that they all came with such idea. They were persuaded by some plotters," Abiy said, according to the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate.

"If the government had not handled the situation with care, it could have plunged the country into chaos," he added.

Video was later circulated of the prime minister doing push-ups with the red beret-wearing troops, which Fana said was a way to relieve the tense situation.

The soldiers later apologised, and "senior military officers and individuals" who encouraged the troops were arrested, Fana reported last week.

Abiy, 42, has pushed reforms ranging from the privatisation of key state-owned sectors to a peace deal that ended the conflict with neighbour Eritrea.

The plans amount to a reversal of policies long championed by the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), leading to speculation that the party is split over his moves.

A former minister of science and technology, Abiy's rise to power came after more than two years of anti-government protests led by the country's largest ethnicity the Oromo, of which he is also a member, along with the second-largest ethnicity, the Amhara.

Elites in the EPRDF differed over how to address the successive revolts, creating tensions that led to the shock resignation of Abiy's predecessor Hailemariam Desalegn.Monitor suggests arms transferred from Russia to rebel-held east Ukraine



Kiev, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



An independent watchdog on Thursday told AFP it had seen vehicles carrying weaponry enter rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine from Russia over the last week, appearing to contradict Moscow's claim it is not arming separatists.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it had observed convoys of cargo trucks moving across the border under the cover of night.

A drone captured footage of "vehicles, including a truck carrying an armoured personnel carrier, entering and exiting Ukraine" using an unpaved route with no border crossing facilities, it said.

The OSCE did not make any explicit claims as to whether weapons had been deposited in Ukraine.

The organisation has previously complained of its drones being jammed.

On two other occasions it had seen weapons convoys moving near, but not crossing, the border.

In response to the new reports, the United States urged the Kremlin to "stop providing deadly weapons under cover of night to its proxies in eastern Ukraine."

"Only Russia can bring an end to bloodshed in Ukraine," the US embassy in Ukraine said last week, after the OSCE announced it observed the first of the convoys.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since the conflict with Moscow-backed rebels broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of funnelling troops and arms across the border.

Moscow has denied the allegations despite overwhelming evidence that it has been involved in the fighting.

The OSCE team's 600 members are the only independent monitoring mission in the war-torn area who provide daily reports on the fighting.Kosovo moves to create an army, Serbia warns of 'threat to peace'



Pristina, Oct 18 (AFP) Oct 18, 2018



Kosovo on Thursday took the first steps towards creating its own army, ten years after it declared independence, despite fierce opposition from the ethnic Serb minority and Serbia itself which called the move "a threat to peace".

Since the end of the 1998-1999 war between Serbia's armed forces and pro-independence ethnic Albanian guerillas, NATO-led international forces (KFOR)have been tasked with security in Kosovo.

More than 4,000 KFOR troops are currently deployed throughout the breakaway territory whose independence is recognised by more than 110 countries, but not by Serbia which still considers it to be its southern province.

The parliament in Pristina on Thursday passed three bills laying the groundwork for transforming the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) -- an emergency force trained to respond to disasters -- into a regular army.

The move is aimed at avoiding the need for a constitutional change to legally establish armed forces, a move that would require a two-thirds majority of both ethnic Albanian and the 20 non-Albanian MPs, half of whom are ethnic Serbs. Serb MPs have blocked any such initiative in the past.

Since it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Kosovo has sought to establish its own army but those efforts have been met by bitter opposition from Serbia, which has a crucial influence on the Kosovan Serb minority and their MPs in the parliament.

In Belgrade, Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin said the creation of a Kosovo army would be "a threat to peace" aimed at "threatening Serbia and Serbs".

"There could be no other armed force in Kosovo except KFOR as long as the UN Security Council 1244 resolution (that ended the war) was in place," Vulin said.

NATO has made clear that it would prefer the KSF to be transformed into a regular army via constitutional changes.

It was unclear whether Pristina has received any support for the move from the United States or European Union, both of which have thus far insisted on the inclusion of all communities, and the relevant constitutional changes, in the process of establishing a Kosovo army.

About 100 lawmakers in the 120-seat parliament on Thursday supported the bills proposed by the government and referred them for another round of debate before the final adoption, expected next month.

The measures were opposed by Serb MPs who walked out of the parliamentary session in protest.

According to the government's proposal the KSF would be transformed in coming years into a 5,000 strong army with 3,000 reservists.

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on normalising ties have been stalled for months but started generating attention -- and concern -- this summer after Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic signalled an openness to the idea of border changes.Lebanon's president said on Thursday a government would be formed very soon as political parties intensified negotiations to break a deadlock more than five months after elections.

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 they have so far been unable to reach consensus.

Asked by reporters on Thursday if a government would be agreed on, President Michel Aoun replied: "Yes, the government will be very soon or sooner."

The major parties have jostled over the number of cabinet seats they should get and over the apportionment of the most powerful ministries. In recent days stepped-up talks between leaders have increased optimism that the deadlock may soon be broken.

"Forming the government is taking longer than expected but we will get there," Hariri said on Tuesday. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to return to Lebanon from a trip abroad on Friday.

The delay has increased concern over the threat of an economic crisis in the heavily-indebted country.

Lebanon has the third largest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world at more than 150 percent, and a new government is expected to start moves towards bringing down the deficit.

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Three Female Veterans of German Politics 'There Was an Assumption I Would Be Docile'

What's life like for women in the top echelons of German politics? DER SPIEGEL spoke with three former cabinet ministers about their experiences as women in government. Things have improved, they say, but there is still much to be done.New York, October 18, 2018 (SPS) - The European Union reaffirmed the support of the union for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara after the approval by the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) of the 73rd sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) of a new resolution on Western Sahara.

Austria, on behalf of the European Union and the countries of the Stabilization and Association Process and potential candidates, has stated that the EU welcomes the commitment of the UN Secretary General to relaunch the negotiation process with a new dynamic and a spirit that will lead to the resumption of a political process with the aim of achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that will provide the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in the context of agreements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. "We continue to encourage the parties to work for that solution, within the framework of the United Nations."

The EU is also concerned about the lack of funding and encourages the international community to provide new additional financial contributions for the Sahrawi refugees. SPS

125/090/TRAGuelmim, (Southern Morocco), Oct 18, 2018 (SPS)  The Court of Appeal of the city of Guelmim, issued, on Monday, harsh and unjust sentences against media activists and Sahrawi human rights activists, according to the League for the protection of Saharawi prisoners in Moroccan prisons.

The convicted Saharawi activists are Abdullah Mouloud Al-Husain (Ferdous), who was sentenced to 30 months in prison and Abdel Karim Lemhmeden to 30 days in prison, suspended his execution.

The two Saharawi media activists were condemned by the Moroccan occupation in retaliation for their activities in favor of human rights, since they are members of the Saharawi Media Observatory for the Documentation of Human Rights violations.

It should be noted that the activist Abdullah Fardous, was imprisoned on September 9, 2018 by the Moroccan occupation forces in the city of Gulemim, in southern Morocco, where he was sentenced to an initial sentence of two months in a lightning trial, which confirms the policy of the sentences prepared in advance by the occupation against the Saharawi activists. SPS

125/090/TRANew York, Oct 18, 2018 (SPS) - The Republic of Zimbabwe on Tuesday expressed its support for the efforts of Secretary-General Kohler's Personal Envoy to allow the Saharawi people to exercise their right to self-determination to independence.

The Republic of Zimbabwe expressed its satisfaction with the resumption of the Western Sahara peace process through the preparation of the talks in Geneva and the initiative of the African Union to establish a mechanism to contribute to the solution of the Saharawi cause. SPS

125/090/TRAEnglish17/10/2018

DODIK SENDS TELEGRAM OF CONDOLENCES TO RUSSIAN PRESIDENT

BANJALUKA, October 17 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik has sent a telegram of condolence to Russian President Vladimir Putin over a bomb attack in a college building in Kerch, Crimea, killing 13 and injuring several dozen of people.



"With great sorrow, I have received terrible news on the attack and explosion that occurred at the Polytechnic College in Kerch, where 13 young people lost their lives, and a large number is seriously injured," reads the telegram of condolences sent by President Dodik.



Over this great tragedy, Dodik sent the deepest condolences on behalf of the citizens of Republika Srpska and his own behalf.



"I would like to ask you to pass our sympathy and compassion to the families of the victims for their grief, and good wishes for a quick and successful recovery to the injured ones," reads the telegram of condolences sent by the president of Republika Srpska. /end/vosEnglish17/10/2018

CVIJANOVIC SENDS TELEGRAM OF CONDOLENCE TO MEDVEDOV AND IVANTSOV

BANJALUKA, October 17 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic has sent a telegram of condolence to the Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, and the Russian Ambassador to BiH, Petr Ivantsov, on the occasion of an attack at a school in the Crimea where 18 persons were killed and several dozen were injured.



I received with sincere sorrow the news of the explosion and attack at a vocational college in Kerch where innocent young people and teachers were killed, Cvijanovic has said in her telegram.



She has said that thoughts of Republika Srpska citizens are with the families of those killed.



Please, extend our sympathies and support to the families of those killed and injured. On behalf of the Republika Srpska Government, on my behalf and on behalf of Republika Srpska citizens, I extend the deepest sympathies to you, the Russian people and families of those killed, the Republika Srpska Prime Minister has said in her telegram of condolence. /end/sgRussia and Turkey plan to give more time for the implementation of their de-escalation deal in the Syrian province of Idlib, a "great relief" for 3 million civilians in the area, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland told reporters on Thursday.

But there were still "a million unanswered questions" about how the deal would work, and what would happen if groups designated as terrorists refused to lay down their weapons.

Speaking after a regular Syria humanitarian meeting in Geneva, Egeland said Syria's ally Russia had confirmed that Damascus had scrapped a "very concerning" law allowing the expropriation of land and property from refugees.

Idlib and adjacent areas are the last stronghold of rebels who rose up against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, and the UN has warned that a battle to restore Assad's control over the zone could be the worst of the seven-year-old war.

Turkey and Russia's deal set up a buffer zone running 15-20 km (9-13 miles) deep into rebel territory that originally had to be free of heavy weapons and militants by Monday.

"There will be more time for diplomacy," Egeland said.

"I was heartened to hear both Russia and Turkey say they are optimistic, they can achieve much more through negotiations, and they are generally very positive on the implementation of this deal which is giving a relief, a pause in fighting, to Idlib."

Egeland said there were 12,000 humanitarian workers in the area, and Idlib had now gone five weeks without an air raid, something he could not remember in the past three years.

In the east, however, fighting was raging around several villages inhabited by 15,000 people, including Islamic State fighters and their families, who were under attack by Syrian government and Kurdish forces, and 7,000 civilians had fled.

Egeland advises UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has spent four years trying in vain to broker a political agreement to stop the war, and who said on Wednesday he would leave in November.

Egeland said he would also leave at the end of November, saying it had been an exhausting job in addition to his role as head of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"There will be another team," he said. "The job is not even half done."

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President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by US-backed forces and issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day.

Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several US and European nationals, adding that Islamic State group was expanding its control in territory controlled by US and US-backed forces.

Putin did not specify what the militants' demands were.

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Bas Rozendaal had to be deliberate as he dipped into the mikvah, a ritual bath used for conversions to Judaism and other religious practices.

At 6-foot-2, he had to fully immerse himself three times without touching the floor or the sides of the shallow pool, located on the Millstone campus in Creve Coeur.

It was quite a challenge because Im a tall guy, said Rozendaal, a program manager at an educational training company. To be completely submerged, you have to sort of get yourself into a fetus position and then just sink a little bit, without touching the bottom.

While that required some finesse, it also involved less discomfort than other parts of the conversion process for Rozendaal. A circumcision at age 30. A pin to the penis, as part of a hatafat dam, a ritual drawing of the blood. A nine-hour flight from his home in Amsterdam to Chicago. A five-and-a-half-hour drive to St. Louis.

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That last part could have been avoided, but Rozendaal could not find a Jewish community or rabbi that he felt entirely comfortable with in his home country of the Netherlands, he and his fiance, Annette Moron, said.

Instead, through a friend of Morons parents, they found Rabbi Carnie Rose of Congregation Bnai Amoona.

And so began, a year ago, a conversion that was unusual not only in the distance that Rozendaal was willing to travel, but also in the fact that Rose and Orrin Krublit, an assistant rabbi at the Conservative synagogue, guided him through the process.

Not all rabbis will work with prospective converts remotely  even if they eventually meet in person.

I think if they had not come to us and done the lifecycle rituals, the rituals that make the conversion efficacious, in St. Louis, then we might have had some concerns, said Krublit. But because they were willing to come here and take in the final culmination of the conversion with us, that sort of alleviated any concerns we may have had.

Originally from Curacao, the Dutch Caribbean island, Moron in August 2016 accepted a job with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and moved to Amsterdam. About two weeks later, she started perusing Tinder, the dating app, and matched with Rozendaal.

I liked her smile on her profile picture, Rozendaal said. In the background, I saw the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, so for me it was her smile and also the picture in America was a reason to contact her.

And for me, it was just the general vibe; he looked really relaxed, confident, and I thought, Lets see.  Moron said.

On their third date, Moron, who was raised in a family that kept kosher in the home and celebrated Shabbat each week, told Rozendaal about her religious background.

I said, I want to be very open and honest with you. Im Jewish, and its a very important part of my life, and I want you to know that,  Moron, 28, recalled.

Rozendaal, who attended a Protestant elementary school, said he was immediately very open-minded.

In May 2017, the couple visited Morons parents in Curacao for the first time and had a Friday night Shabbat dinner. He started learning more about Jewish customs.

The feeling I got from sitting at the table on a Friday evening, the whole family aspect, I really liked it, Rozendaal said.

As they became more serious, Rozendaal started thinking about how, if they got married, their children would be raised Jewish. He also realized he would want to be a part of their lives as much as I can.

Rozendaal told Moron he wanted to convert. But they were not yet engaged.

For me it was very important to show that I am not doing this just for Annette or her family; Im also doing this for myself. But of course, its all sort of intertwined, he said.

A somewhat unorthodox conversion, done conservatively

In leading Bnai Amoona trips to Israel, Rose had gotten to know Danny Ehrlich, a tour guide who had also served as cantor on the High Holidays in Curacao. Ehrlich connected Rose with Morons parents, who asked if he could assist in the conversion process for Rozendaal.

Rose recalls having a wonderful conversation with the family and telling them no problem.

But Rozendaal recalls Rose asking him four times over the phone, Are you sure you want to do this?







Unlike some other faiths, Judaism does not seek to convert people to the religion. Jewish tradition also instructs a rabbi to turn away an interested convert three times before agreeing to do the conversion.

Rozendaal started remotely taking an Introduction to Judaism class via teleconference at 9 p.m. Sundays, Dutch time, halfway through the 20-week class. I had a lot of reading to catch up on, Rozendaal said.

From the classes, Rozendaal gathered that in Judaism you shouldnt follow everything as its written down exactly but also see things as metaphors and try to live by the general ideas and not so much the strict laws.

During classes, Rozendaal could see and hear Krublit and others speak but only participated via messages on WhatsApp. He would ask questions during class and also speak with Krublit outside of class.

Still, sometimes the internet connection would freeze. Had he been able to participate in person, Rozendaal said, the connection with other students would be better. There were different people in there with different ideas, backgrounds. It would also be nice for me to have a conversation with other people and see how their [conversion] process is going.

The Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, discourages long-distance sponsorship except in the most unusual of circumstances. These include the conversion of an individual living in a remote area, far removed from Jewish life and the regular presence of a rabbi, the organization said in a statement.

The act of sponsorship by definition involves assisting and actually witnessing the religious growth of an individual as he or she becomes integrated within the community and increasingly embraces personal practice of Judaism. When utilized to the virtual exclusion of regular interaction within a community itself, telephone and e-mail contact are palpably inadequate to the task of meaningful sponsorship, the statement continued.

A conversion well-traveled

Juan Mejia, a Conservative rabbi, has used online learning to help communities in Latin America convert to Judaism. He told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) in 2017 that there is a big stigma attached to such a process and that he only does the actual conversion ceremonies in person  similar to the Bnai Amoona rabbis.

Rabbis at other St. Louis Conservative and Reform synagogues told the Jewish Light that they had not participated in such conversions.

Rose points to the class and study Rozendaal committed to and his participation in the Jewish community in the Netherlands.

Its not simple to find a warm and welcoming congregation, Rose said. Our synagogues in America do a wonderful service by being open and welcoming and inviting, and its so very different than in other parts of the world, as opposed to here, where they were met with such warmth.

And Rozendaal was willing to go through all the parts of the conversion process. He underwent the circumcision with a doctor in the Netherlands. He missed the next week of work and then had more than six weeks of recovery.

After arriving in St. Louis Aug. 30, they attended Shabbat morning services at Bnai Amoona the next day. Finally meeting the Bnai Amoona rabbis and attending the service, Rozendaal said, was a great experience. It was the first time I had been to an American synagogue, and there was a bat mitzvah happening. I had never experienced a bat mitzvah before, so it was all new.

The next day, the couple and Morons parents, who had flown in from Curacao, met Krublit for coffee and discussed the final steps.

It was so great to see them in person. I was used to seeing them on a 5-inch screen, so they were a lot bigger in real life. But it was just very sweet to be able to hug them and greet them and welcome them to St. Louis, the rabbi said.

Despite the fact that Rozendaal had the circumcision, a rabbi still had to witness the drawing of the blood. So on Sept. 4, the Dutch couple, Krublit, and a urologist met at the congregation for the hatafat dam. Rozendaal had been worried that the body part would not be fully recovered from the first procedure, but fortunately, it had healed, he said. (Krublit only had to see the blood on a piece of gauze.)

And then came the final step: the immersion in the mikvah.

The imagery behind immersion in a mikvah is as though youre being reborn, with time in the mikvah being thought of as a symbolic womb, Krublit explained. And in order to facilitate that transformation, Jewish law requires that a person be 100 percent surrounded by the living waters, mayim chayim.

Once Rozendaal had figured out how to properly immerse himself three times in the ritual bath, in the presence of rabbis, he emerged from the water and was really shaking and really relieved and happy that it was finished, he recalled.

You were beaming, Moron said.

From St. Louis, they traveled to Chicago, and Rozendaal asked Moron to marry him at Millennium Park.

The two plan to marry in August 2019 in Curacao, at a synagogue that was consecrated in 1732 and is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, according to the congregation. Suffice it to say, it will be a Jewish wedding.To the rescue

After exiting his plane in the Newark, N.J. airport on Monday, Gavriel Gavy Friedson spotted a situation all too familiar to him. An elderly Orthodox Jewish woman in a wheelchair was turning blue in the face as she and her family approached the security line.

Ive seen this enough times to know she was in deep distress. I knew something was up, says Friedson. I flagged the police officers standing upstairs to get me the defibrillator and call 911. I was able to start chest compressions and a full CPR on her in seconds.

Friedson, 29, is a volunteer EMT and deputy director of international operations with United Hatzalah (UH), a free, volunteer-based emergency medical services organization in Israel. Originally from Boca Raton, Fla., he made aliyah with his family when he was 10 years old.

In Israel, you can volunteer on the back of an ambulance at 15 years old, which is what I did, says Friedson, who is coming to St. Louis this weekend to speak at Congregation Bnai Amoona. Once I moved to Israel I really wanted something that would help me grow from this young American child, turning me into an Israeli child. I wanted to be more connected to Israeli society. I thought there is no better way to be a part of society than treating society itself.

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At age 16 he joined the fire department, then the police department until he entered the Israel Defense Forces at 18. My entire time in high school, I was a first responder. I would go to school every day either getting dropped off by an ambulance or a fire truck.

In the 12 years that Friedson has been volunteering with United Hatzalah, he has responded to more than 9,500 emergency calls. He has been the first medic on the scene at numerous terrorist attacks and speaks to how UH has become the Uber of emergency medical services in Israel, arriving in just 3 minutes or less nationwide and 90 seconds or less in major cities.

Seconds can be critical in many emergencies, says Friedson, who helped lead UHs response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Our job with UH is not to replace ambulance services but fill the gap until they arrive.

Friedson is now traveling across the United States and Canada to talk about his experiences. He also helps to raise money for the nonprofit, which he says brings men and women from all walks of life  Jewish, Christians and Muslims  who scatter the country to make sure UH has teams in place in every single Israeli city, village and neighborhood.

Friedson will speak at 11 a.m. at Bnai Amoona on Oct. 20 as part of the synagogues regular Saturday morning services.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the woman he helped at the airport unfortunately died early Tuesday at a nearby hospital. She was 86 years old and had been on her way, with her daughter and granddaughter, to attend a nephews wedding.







We were able to restore her pulse before she got to the hospital, but she had a really bad heart attack, says Friedson. I was thankful that we gave her a fighting chance. She passed away in the hospital with her family surrounding her.

For more information about United Hatzalah, go to www.israelrescue.org.

Jewish immigrant life in pictures

As part of their 20th anniversary season, The Sheldon Art Galleries are featuring four free exhibitions that focus on the immigrant experience. The most prominent of the four is The Immigrants: Works by Master Photographers, which depict the work of 40 photographers from the 1860s-2015, examining issues of labor, education and poverty as well as discrimination, assimilation and a sense of belonging.

The exhibition includes several pieces that speak to the Jewish immigrant experience as well as many noted photographers of Jewish heritage. Among them are Lewis Hines, Robert Capa (Endre Friedmann), Bruce Davidson, Arnold Eagle, Robert Frank, Arthur Leipzig, Leon Levinstein, Mary Ellen Mark, Ruth Orkin, Walter Rosenblum, Arthur Rothstein and Alfred Stieglitz.

Tracing the immigrants journey, the photographs lead viewers through sections on otherness, growth, global issues, boundaries, work and the history of the United States. In addition to iconic images such as Stieglitzs The Steerage, from 1907, and Hines Jewish Grandmother, Ellis Island, 1926, the exhibit also features a historic work by Augustus Frederick Sherman, who documented new arrivals while working as a clerk at the Ellis Island immigration station from 1892 to 1925.

Other memorable photographs include Orkins touching 1951 portrait of three Jewish teenage refugees who are fleeing to Israel from Iraq, and a photograph by Bob Gruen of John Lennon posing in front of the Statue of Liberty in 1972. More recent images include a 2005 print by Dulce Pinzon that shows a young man, Noe Reyes from the Mexican state of Puebla, dressed in a Superman costume, riding a bike. Reyes works as a delivery person in Brooklyn and sends $500 home to his family each week.

Issues relating to immigration are front and center in todays world, from the recent travel ban to the border wall to the uncertainty of the DREAMers. Todays refugee crisis is documented in a haunting photograph by Alex Majoli of African refugees trying to reach Greece. These and many more works by important photographers tell the story of the lives of immigrants throughout the world.

The exhibition runs through Jan. 12. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20, Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, Director of the Sheldon Art Galleries, will speak on selected works in the exhibit. Admission to that is free as well, though reservations are suggested. Contact Paula Lincoln at 314-533-9900 x37 or [email protected]

The Sheldon is located at 3648 Washington Blvd. in Grand Center. Gallery hours are noon  8 p.m. Tuesdays; noon  5 p.m. Wednesdays  Fridays; 10 a.m.  2 p.m. Saturdays, and one hour prior to Sheldon performances and during intermission.U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would no longer attend next week's investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.

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Asif Khan in the role of Tartuffe at the RSC

It is a gift of a role

Actor, writer and producer Asif Khan takes the lead role in the RSCs new adaptation of Molieres 17th-century satire Tartuffe. He tells Gill Sutherland about playing the conman in this classic tale, which has been relocated to Birmingham to tell the story of Muslim family the Pervaizs.

You debuted at the RSC in 2017 playing Captain Jack in The Hypocrite  Richard Beans tremendous romp  did you have a thought that you would like to come back?

Yes, I think anyone who has been to drama school has an ambition of performing on-stage at the RSC, just being in the building! You are supported by such a great team  from movement to voice  and the fact that Gregory [artistic director Doran] is breaking boundaries with the plays and casting and Im full of admiration for what hes trying to do here.

How did this adaptation and your role come about?

As far as I know Greg came up with the idea of setting it in a Pakistani Muslim community and then asked the two writers  Richard and Anil  to work on a draft, and then Iqbal Khan joined as the director. I was initially asked to do a weeks workshop in London when they had produced a draft. We workshopped the script, played around, introduced some new ideas. We presented a reading to an invited RSC audience and it must have gone well

Im thrilled to be playing Tartuffe, its a gift of a role, hes a villain but so enjoyable.

Had you encountered the play before?

I knew of it. Before I went into the workshop I read the original version a few times, its good to know what the structure of the original is and what Moliere was trying to hit; and see if you can do the same kind of thing with this.

For example when Tartuffe first comes on, Moliere wants to make it clear straight away that he is a crook. So the audience know who he is and then they can play along with him.

Its like Richard III playing with the audience, they are aware of Tartuffes tactics. The whole fun is that Imran, the head of the family, is unaware of what is happening to him, how he is being manipulated.

Its obviously daring to set this tale in the Pakistani community with Tartuffe recast as a Muslim holy man, who turns out to be a conman. How did that sit with you?

With this I was initially unsure because I am a practicing Muslim; and the way Tartuffe looks, his image, with the long beard, the salwar kameez and Mosque hat, it is really playing into almost that negative stereotype. Tartuffe has used that image for his own advantage. The audience might worry oh can we laugh at this?  so it is a slightly dangerous line. But I want the audience to relax and laugh!

For 90 per cent of the time you dont know who this Tartuffe actually is  hes a shapeshifter and adapts to being in whatever environment  one minute hell be a stern cleric, the next one of the lads.

You have faith  are you conflicted by anything in the play, is it anti-religious at all?

No, Im not conflicted, theres so much balance in the play. It targets those people that are using religion to their own advantage; people who are practicing religion in the wrong way. Tartuffe uses it as a front, a trick.

It does confront a lot of issues around the world even though the first performance was in 1664. Theres so much thats explored in the play, it confronts issues about religion, race and misogyny. I dont feel offended by anything in the play. The writers were really sensitive, they checked with me about the references to the Quran, for example.

Every community has its flaws; its right to fully explore the good and bad without restrictions, and thats what the play does. Its fundamentally just about a family. It also portrays a diverse range of Muslims  white convert Khalil, Bosnian cleaner Darina, who breaks all stereotypes of what a female Muslim might be; and theres Amira, a strong confident Muslim woman.

Besides being hugely entertaining, is there an underlining message? What is this Tartuffe saying about multicultural Britain?

It doesnt explicitly say this is what we want you to think. Its more raising issues  so for instance Darina challenges the son Damee about why men feel they have to defend a womans honour, why cant she just defend her own? Theres various moments like that, but its not lecturing. It lets the audience go away with their own thoughts.

The RSC audience does tend to be white and middle class  how are you making sure you have a more diverse audience?

This play is set in Birmingham in a Pakistani Muslim community, and we really want that community to come to the RSC, and so the company are exploring various ways of doing that. It is tricky to attract people who have perhaps have never been to the theatre. My community is not very theatre-going, especially the young; its not something that the Asian community do, but I do hope this encourages them. I think word of mouth is good  if an Asian family come and see the show and feel represented and feel connected with these characters then hopefully they will go and tell someone else and they will come alongAnd I have been seeing a diverse audience.

Some of the gags are very cultural and Im sure the Muslim Pakistani audience will appreciate the humour.

Tell us a bit about your past, how did you get into acting?

I was born and brought up in Bradford and enjoyed acting at school. I went to the University of Bradford to do a degree in electronic imaging and media communications  very sensible! A major shift occurred there when I entered the doors on Theatre on the Mill at the university, I did lots of shows and threw myself into as much as I could do. I worked with a beautiful bunch of people who were passionate about what they do. I knew I wanted to act and went on to RADA. It was the best three years and learned to stretch myself.

Do you get any sense of acting being a privileged white world?

I think it still is. It kind of feels like that; there are more obstacles in your way; its a bit harder to be seen as eligible for every role, so its hard to break through. But theres definitely more diversity now, not just among actors but producers and playwrights. We live in a diverse country and that needs to be represented.

Whats next after this?

I wrote my play Combustion [first performed in 2015] basically because my voice as a British Muslim didnt feel represented and so it covered quite sensitive themes. The whole process has been a great experience and I would like to do more of that; Ive got a few commissions: for Watford Palace Theatre, Rifco Arts and Channel 4. Family life is also quite busy; I have a one-year-old son Nooh.

Tartuffe plays at the Swan Theatre until 23rd February. Book tickets at www.rsc.org.uk/tartuffeUS Defense Secretary Jim Mattis held high-profile talks with his Chinese counterpart on Thursday, as the United States seeks to forge to more resilient military ties that can withstand mounting pressure between the world's two largest economies.

Mattis saw first hand last month how growing Sino-US friction can undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for him to travel to China in October to meet Defense Minister Wei Fenghe. It was apparent retaliation over US sanctions.

Mattis and Wei made no remarks as the two shook hands at the start of their talks in Singapore, which took place on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian defense ministers.

Randall Schriver, a US assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to helping reduce the chances of a devastating conflict.

"Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interests - we need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes, it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic," Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis.

Schriver said he believed that sentiment was shared by China's military, noting that it recently requested Thursday's talks in Singapore after Beijing decided against a planned Mattis-Wei meeting in China.

"I think the fact that he's meeting with Minister Wei is some evidence that the Chinese are interested in keeping things normal and stable, as are we," said Schriver, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs.

He said Wei had a standing invitation to visit the United States.

Managing Crises

Military-to-military ties have long been one of the more fragile parts of the overall US-China relationship, with Beijing limiting contacts when tensions run high. That has been a source of major concern for years among US officials, who fear an accidental collision or mishap could quickly escalate.

"What we want in terms of stability are regular interactions at senior levels so we have a good understanding of one another's intentions, that we have confidence-building measures that will help us prevent an unintended accident or incident," Schriver said.

"And, should one occur, that we have the ability to manage that so it doesn't worsen."

China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on China's military for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped-up US support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory.

In a recent reminder of the risks amid rising tensions, the Pentagon this month accused China of an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea that brought a Chinese ship dangerously close to a US Navy destroyer in international waters.

Mattis, speaking to reporters as he flew to Asia this week, rejected Chinese claims that the United States was acting aggressively and pointed the finger at Beijing.

"When the Chinese ships are putting bumpers over the side ... You don't do that when you're out in the middle of the ocean, unless you're intending to run into something," Mattis said.

But tensions between the United States and China have already extended well beyond naval maneuvers and even the bitter trade war.

US President Donald Trump last month accused China of seeking to meddle in Nov. 6 congressional elections, a charge almost immediately rejected by Beijing.

US Vice President Mike Pence, in what was billed as a major policy address, renewed that and other accusations this month and added that Chinese security agencies had masterminded the "wholesale theft of American technology," including military blueprints.

The Pentagon's top concerns have been China's rapid military modernization and simultaneous creation of military outposts in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway vital for international trade. The Pentagon un-invited China to a multinational exercise earlier this year in protest.

Mattis, Schriver said, will renew to Wei US positions on freedom of navigation in international waters, amid Chinese claims of "irrefutable" sovereignty in the South China Sea.

"I think our message will be: No single country can change international law and national norms," Schriver said. "We'll fly, sail and operate where international law allows."

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Burke/Triolo Productions/Thinkstock Zac Brown Band will sing the national anthem next Wednesday before the Atlanta Hawks take on the Dallas Mavericks at Georgia's State Farm Arena.

Morgan Evans makes his Today show debut Thursday, performing his #1 hit "Kiss Somebody" on the NBC morning show.

Craig Morgan celebrated his tenth anniversary as a member of the Grand Ole Opry Tuesday night by playing the world's longest-running radio show.

You can check out newcomer Mitchell Tenpenny's new videos for the tracks "Telling All My Secrets" and "Alcohol You Later" on YouTube now.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The top US commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller escaped unhurt after a burst of gunfire in the governor's compound in Kandahar province on Thursday but the powerful police chief General Abdul Razeq was killed, officials said.

A senior security official said the governor's bodyguard opened fire and hit Razeq in the back as soon as officials came out of the meeting. The governor and the local head of the NDS intelligence service were wounded.

Several Afghan and international security officials said Razeq, one of Afghanistan's most powerful commanders with a fearsome reputation as an enemy of the Taliban, had been killed.

Miller, who had been attending a meeting with security officials ahead of parliamentary elections on Saturday, was not injured but two Americans were wounded in the crossfire and had been evacuated, NATO spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said.

"Provincial officials including the governor, the police chief and other officials were accompanying the foreign guests to the plane when the gunshots happened," said Said Jan Khakrezwal, the head of the provincial council.

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Two days after Katherine Shimonis returned to her home in the Florida Panhandle to find it destroyed by Hurricane Michael, she went to her local post office, which was empty and without power, and shouldered her way through the front door.

To her shock, the 69-year-old retired teacher found her mail-in absentee ballot sitting in her post office box in the town of Port St. Joe.

"It was like gold to me; it really was," said Shimonis, who like many in storm-ravaged northwest Florida worried she might miss out on a chance to vote in November's congressional and gubernatorial elections.

With much of the region still working to secure basic services like electricity, passable roads and phone service after one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the United States, election officials in the Panhandle are scrambling to ensure tens of thousands of people are able to vote.

The concern is not just local. In Florida, the ballot includes one of the country's most closely watched races for the U.S. Senate, pitting Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson against Republican Governor Rick Scott. Opinion polls show the contest is essentially tied.

The race to succeed Scott, who is prevented by law from seeking a third term as governor, is also drawing intense national interest. Republican former U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis is facing off against Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, a Democrat seeking to become the state's first black governor, in another close contest.

While it has a relatively sparse population, the Panhandle is one of Florida's most reliably Republican areas, and lower voter turnout in the area could hurt both Scott and DeSantis.

There are nearly half a million registered voters in the 12 counties eligible for federal emergency aid after Michael. All but two of those counties were carried easily by Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.

"It's certainly going to impact the turnout a little bit," said Brad Coker, managing director of Jacksonville, Florida-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy. "Who knows, it might be the difference."

In some affected Florida counties, regular polling sites housed in schools and community centers were severely damaged or destroyed after Michael smashed ashore on Oct. 10.

Residents who planned on voting by mail may have seen their ballots washed away by the storm; others have left the state and cannot receive absentee ballots by mail.

Many voters in the area said they were focused on recovery, not politics.

"I haven't even thought about it that much," said Kenneth Williams, 58, a retired U.S. Air Force mechanic, who was at a Red Cross shelter in Honeyville, Florida.

Williams, who said he would like to vote for DeSantis but had not made a decision in the Senate race, said he still had to register his changed residency after moving recently and was not sure whether he could do so in time for the election.

At stake in the Nov. 6 election is control of Congress. Democrats need a net gain of two seats to take control of the 100-seat Senate, but they are defending 26 seats, including 10 in states like Florida where Trump won in 2016. They have a better shot at winning the House of Representatives, where they need a net gain of 23 seats to take the majority.

EXPANDING VOTING ACCESS

Florida officials have taken steps to expand voting access to people hit by the storm but face difficulties in communicating changes, since many people have no power and no ability to receive mail.

Scott issued an executive order on Thursday permitting election officials in affected counties to extend early voting days, designate additional voting locations and make it easier for displaced voters to obtain vote-by-mail ballots.

Early voting starts as soon as Oct. 22 in some counties.

In badly hit Gulf County, John Hanlon, the elections supervisor, said had set up two voting "super centers" that will open on Oct. 27 and remain open through Election Day, replacing polling sites too damaged to be used.

"Every voter in my county is going to have an opportunity to vote if I have anything to say about it," he said.

In neighboring Bay County, with 120,000 registered voters, officials will open five "mega-voting sites" for 12 hours a day starting Oct. 27 through Election Day, in lieu of regular polling sites, said Mark Andersen, the county's supervisor of elections.

"We won't fail," said Andersen during a phone interview, while his driver asked police to allow them through a blockade to deliver 400 vote-by-mail ballots to the county's only operating post office.

Karla McGhee, 55, a nurse from Panama City in Bay County, said the election was hardly a priority for her since the storm. "I think that's the last thing on our minds at the moment," said McGhee, who was at a site that was providing free hot food to storm victims in Blountstown. McGhee, who voted for Trump, said she had not yet decided how to vote in November.

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Copyright  Prensa Malaguea, S.A. - Mlaga. Includes content from the company, the media group, SUR, the newspaper of Malaga and, where applicable, from other companies within the group or third parties.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES:

It is prohibited to reproduce, distribute, make available, communicate publicly and use in whole or part the contents of this website, in any form or way, without previous express authorisation in writing. This includes simply reproducing it and/or making it available as a summary, comment or press review for commercial purposes or those which are directly or indirectly lucrative, which is expressly forbidden.Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it would ask the United Nations refugee agency for help coordinating with Central American governments related to people seeking refugee status at Mexico's southern border.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday as Hondurans and Salvadorans joined thousands of migrants in Guatemala hoping to travel north.

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North African-focused oil and gas company SDX Energy <SDX.L> said on Thursday that talks to buy some of BP's <BP.L> Egyptian assets have been abandoned.

Reuters reported earlier in the year, citing banking sources, that BP is seeking buyers for its stake in a 50-year-old oil and gas business in Egypt, then estimated to be worth around $500 million (382 million).

"Discussions regarding its proposed acquisition of a significant package of assets in Egypt from BP have been terminated by mutual agreement," SDX said in a statement, without giving details on why the talks were ended.

It was not clear which assets SDX was in talks with BP over. SDX, whose shares were suspended from trading on London's AIM exchange when it confirmed on Sept. 20 it was in talks with BP, had said the acquisition would constitute a reverse takeover.

SDX shares started trading again on Thursday and were down around 4.3 percent at 0729 GMT.

"Clearly it's disappointing that this transaction has not materialized," SDX Chief Executive Paul Welch said in the statement.

"It was an exciting opportunity but... we are screening potential deals all of the time and we know that there will be others that will serve to fast track our stated goal to be a North Africa-focused (exploration and production firm) of scale."

BP officials had no immediate comment.

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Egypt's Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) marked World Food Day (WFD) under the slogan Our Actions are our Future.

Under the subtheme, Zero Hunger World by 2030 is Possible," celebrations this year highlighted the importance of unified actions to address hunger and malnutrition with a view toward ending hunger within the next decade, one of the most important sustainable development goals.

On 16 October, the WFD ceremony was held under the patronage of Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ezzeddin Abu Steit and attended by Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, assistant Director-general and regional representative for Near East and North Africa, along with Hussein Gadin, FAO representative in Egypt, a large number of FAO officials and other UN agency representatives, Ministry of Agriculture officials, representatives of the Agricultural Research Centre, Desert Research Centre, and civil society, academic and media bodies.

During the ceremony, held at the premises of the Ministry of Agriculture, a FAO-produced documentary on ways to achieve zero hunger was shown. The minister of agriculture also honoured a number of people for their efforts towards this end. An exhibition of FAO publications was organised on the sidelines of the ceremony.

At the event, Minister Abu Steit noted that Egypt has made significant strides in comprehensive economic development over the past few years with a view to diversifying its sources of national income. He said the agricultural sector took the lead, benefiting from the latest technology to improve available agricultural resources and increase agricultural production while improving the quality of products to make them more competitive locally and internationally.

He disclosed that the Egyptian government turned special attention to agricultural development, offering financial incentives and constant encouragement so that future development can rely on an agricultural sector capable of meeting the needs of the growing population. As a result, he said, many investors turned to agricultural activity, with around LE 9.21 billion invested in agriculture in 2016/2017, making up 25.4 percent of total investments.

He added that the country exported LE 56 billion worth of surplus agricultural products, representing more than 22 percent of overall exports for 2017. He pointed out that 5.6 million people worked in the agricultural sector in 2017, representing more than one quarter of the Egyptian workforce.

According to the Regional Overview on Food Security and Nutrition, around 40.2 million people in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region suffered from malnutrition in 2017. This is why the FAO is helping the countries of the region formulate strategies and policies to address the challenges that obstruct the eradication of hunger, such as water scarcity and climate change. The FAO is also working with the member states to support production chains, nutrition, and consumption patterns that help sustain food security, improve nutrition indicators, and curb stunting, obesity, and wasting, explained Abdessalam Ould Ahmed.

He added: The NENA countries agreed on three regional initiatives in 2014 to improve food security, support small-scale family farming, and achieve water security. These are: the Initiative on Water Scarcity, the Initiative on Building Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition, and the Initiative on Small Scale Family Farming. We all know that 80 percent of the agricultural production in our region is produced by small holders. But 70 percent of the poor also live in rural areas. Therefore, poverty and hunger in the region cannot be eradicated without paying attention to small-scale farmers, as these play the biggest role in comprehensive rural development.

In a speech he delivered on behalf of FAO director-general Jose Graziano da Silva, Hussein Gadin said: The WFD comes this year at a critical time for the fight against hunger and malnutrition. This is the third year in which hunger continues to rise, with around 821 million people suffering from under nourishment in 2017, according to the latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. Conflict, extreme weather conditions linked to climate change and economic slowdown are reversing the progress that had been achieved in the fight against hunger.

In its message, this years WFD appeals to the international community to work closely together and benefit from the available guides and tools, as it is still possible to achieve zero hunger if we join forces across countries, continents, sectors, and cities during the period that remains until 2030, he added.

Gadin said the situation and challenges Egypt is facing require more investment in agricultural and food systems, and finding better ways to adapt to other problems such as water shortages and climate change. He said the FAO can greatly contribute to such efforts.

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The first edition of Craffiti Egypt, an international exhibition for handicrafts, was inaugurated in Cairo, running 11-18 October as an annual event

Craffiti Egypt is Cairo's first international handicrafts exhibition. It lasted for eight days, from 11-18 October, at the Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Nasr City.

This exhibition aimed at opening new markets for Egyptian artisans, designers and craftsmen, introducing and promoting their products to export companies focusing on high quality goods.

Board member of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), deputy of the Egyptian Export Council for Handicrafts (EECH) and the Egyptian Handicrafts Industry Chamber (EHIC), Hisham El-Gazzar talked to Ahram Online about the importance of the event.

We tried to solve marketing problems faced by many hidden talents in the field of craftsmanship," El-Gazzar said. He explained that EECH and EHIC received several business proposals from foreigners companies in Europe, America and Arab countries who want to export Egyptian handmade products.

Craffiti Egypt was organised by the EECH and EHIC, under the auspices of the Egyptian Ministry Social Solidarity, the Union of Trade and Industry and the FEI.

The exhibition is part of Alex Banks initiative "Ebda3 Men Masr" (innovations from Egypt).

El-Gazzar added that like at big international exhibitions, a new concept was added in this exhibition: "zoning" (the division of the exhibition area into sections). This helped potential export collaborations happen, making it easier to find and compare exhibitors.

The exhibition will be held annually at the same time of year. El-Gazzar commented: First, it is an appropriate time for buying presents and gifts before Christmas. Second, when we invite foreign buyers or purchasers, they are not especially busy in October, and are able to attend. It is a convenient time on the international exhibitions calendar.

Among the exhibitors were Yadaweya Foundation that showcased products of Bedouin handmade crafts, including hand-stitched and embroidered bags, purses, abayaa and jewelery.

Sinai food products, such as pressed dates, virgin olive oil, spices and herbs, were also present in the showcased products.

President of the Sinai Woman Development Association of Bir Al-Abd, Fouada Hassan, explained: These products are part of the Ministry of Social Solidarity project, Training village woman on basic life skills.

Exhibitions like this one are a chance to sell their products, as the main obstacle we face is always marketing the products, Hassan added.

Yadaweya Foundation (an NGO) aims at reviving and preserving Egyptian heritage. It highlights craftspeople and hidden talent among local artisans in many Egyptian governorates, such as Sohag, Luxor, Aswan and Al-Arish.

Managing director at Yadaweya Foundation, Raweya Ali, said: In this exhibition, we sell all their products on their behalf for free.

Creative glassware, handmade accessories for tableware, hanging items, delicate glass sculpture and cozy lighting glass units designed by Egyptian glass artist Dr Walid Onsy were one of the highlights of the exhibition.

Onsy uses Islamic ornamentation, Arabesque styled designs, calligraphy and references to Egyptian folklore. Onsy is one of the few in the Middle East specialised in this technique in glass.

Onsy said: I used a glass fusing technique which has its roots in ancient Egyptian culture. Now, it is very popular as Murano art glass-making in Italy.

Another exhibitor, Hanan Sawaby of Al-Khan Metal and Brass for Decorative Designs, affirmed: All designs were handmade  both interior and exterior designs.

Fashion designer Nihal Soliman used an old Egyptian handmade embroidery technique well known in Kerdasa district for home decor, including curtains, cushions, soft furniture, scarves and bags, while the talented Ghada Mustafa makes furniture designs from tree trunks.

Mustafa didnt study the arts. She said: I am a fond of art and I love trees. The shape of the trunk is the hero in Mustafa's designs.

Sculptor Adel Sayed, from Teneda village in El-Dakhla Oasis, El-Wadi El Gadid governorate, turned his hobby of wood carving into way of living.

He uses date palm tree wood branches stripped of their leaves to carve beautiful designs and figures from Egyptian tradition that reflect the history of the oasis and his village and their beautiful Bedouin traditional costumes.

It was a suitable, available material, and expressive of our tradition. It is also environment friendly, he commented.

Another hardworking artist, Amal Mansour, from Al-Dakhlia Oasis, derives her art from Egypt's cultural heritage, using sandstone to bring beauty and inspire.

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Procam has confirmed that Ember Films Jonathan Jones, cinematographer Balazs Bolygo BSC, HSC and Gun Hill Studios Rupert Cobb are all presenting at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho on 1st November for the Media Technology Day.

Procam further confirmed a special panel on Production Sustainability, supported by Splice. Chaired by BAFTAs Head of Industry Sustainability, members of their sustainability scheme  albert  will discuss the opportunities the film and TV sector has to lessen its environmental impact. Using real-life case studies, the panel will explore what steps everyone can take to support sustainable practice; offering practical tips and advice on how to reduce not just your production, but also your companys carbon footprint. Production sustainability is both a topical environmental issue and imperative, as well as becoming an increasingly hot topic at a business and commissioning level.

Please see the full programme here

And reserve your place here

There are five digital cinematography sessions over the day, with speakers and details for three now fully confirmed:

SONY: VENICE VERSION 2.0: Cinematographer Balazs Bolygo BSC, HSC discusses shooting with the 6K Full Frame Sony CineAlta VENICE

Join us for a screening of Shadow, a short film by award-winning cinematographer Balazs Bolygo BSC HSC, shot on the Sony CineAlta VENICE and supported by Take2. Balazs will share his experience of using the Sony VENICE with firmware version 2.0 and how the Sony VENICE allowed him and his team to achieve complete image clarity, with beautiful colour rendition, even when filming in low light. Balazs will be joined by Richard Lewis, Chief Engineer and Camera Specialist, Sony Professional Solutions Europe, who will share how forthcoming firmware & hardware updates, including the VENICE Extension System, will further enhance the cameras already formidable capabilities.

PANASONIC: Working with the EVA1 and VariCAM LT: DoP (musician, record producer, editor and mix engineer) Rupert Cobb explains how the cameras faithful and consistent colour reproduction enhanced the development of a new ground-breaking television series.

Nigel Wilkes, Group Manager for Panasonics Broadcast & Pro-AV division said, Were delighted to have Rupert on board as our first EVA1 ambassador. Rupert and I have known each other since working on Live From Abbey Road, and since catching up at last years Media Production Show weve been working with Rupert in putting the EVA1 through its paces. Weve been blown away at the content Rupert has shot with the EVA1, and look forward to seeing the end-results.

CANON: Shooting Full Frame: Best Practice: An insight from Ember Films Founder, Director and DoP, Jonathan Jones, on working with the EOS C700 Full Frame to produce stunning high-end drama with maximum image quality.

Working in partnership, Canon and Emmy award-winning UK production house, Ember Films put the new EOS C700 Full Frame camera through its paces to shoot a high quality dramatic trailer for Netflix in just three days. The sub-three minute promotional film mixes Embers experience in wildlife cinematography with years of shooting scripted drama for major broadcasters. In this session, Jonathan will share his insights into shooting with the Canon EOS C700, the importance of full frame, the workflow and grading process, and how he managed to achieve his creative vision given the challenging timeframe.

These are just some of the exciting and topical presentations and panel discussions happening at the sumptuous Ham Yard Hotel on the 1st November.

Brought to you by the Procam Group  Procam, Procam NY, Take2, Procam Projects and TLS  and supported by Televisual, the Media Technology Day is a free-to-attend, focused, all-day industry event for heads of production, producers, directors, production managers, directors of photography and senior production operators.

The Media Technology Day includes a compelling line-up of additional seminars including:

 A panel discussion with UK broadcast commissioners from C4, UKTV, Channel 5 and the BBC, curated by Televisual

 The technology and innovation behind the BBCs award-winning Blue Planet II

 Two further high profile cinematography case studies presented by leading DoPs

and best practice production technology presentations

You can see the full seminar session timetable and whos presenting at www.procam.tv/mediatechday



You can also get your hands on the latest digital cinematography kit with technical experts on hand to answer all of your production questions. Exhibitors include ARRI, Canon, Panasonic, RED and Sony, Cooke, Fujinon, Sigma, TLS and Zeiss, Take 2, Timecode Systems, Procam Projects and Procam.

The Media Technology Day is the place to find out whats changing in your world, see the latest production technology and catch up with your peers with a drink in the sumptuous Ham Yard Hotel bar.

Attendance is free but registration essential. Go here to reserve your place

Share this storyGamal Al-Ghitani, who passed away three years ago, was one of Egypt's most renowned novelists

Al-Ahram Daily newspaper will publish a supplement tomorrow, Friday, 19 October, to commemorate the third anniversary of the death of Egyptian iconic novelist Gamal Al-Ghitani.

Al-Ghitani (9 May 1945-18 October 2015), was one of Egypt's most famous and renowned novelists who many deemed the successor to Naguib Mahfouz, the only Arab Nobel Laureate. He is one of the most translated Egyptian authors. His works have been translated into English, French and German, among other languages. He is most famous for his 1974 novel Zayni Barakat.

The supplement includes many articles written by authors and critics celebrating his work.

In his piece for the supplement, author Tareq Imam recounts his first meeting with Al-Ghitani at his office at Akhbar Al-Adab (Literature News), a cultural newspaper that he founded and headed for many years. He describes Ghitani as a humble human being who reaches out and gives a hand to young writers.

Al-Ghitani founded and headed Akhbar Al-Adab in 1993, becoming one of Egypt's most prestigious literary newspapers. He remained editor-in-chief of the paper until 2011.

Hassan Abdel-Mawgood 's article in the supplement takes the reader on a journey into Al-Ghitani's world as a journalist, and describes how he wrote his articles: always in one sitting, with no interruptions. He also talks about what a prolific writer Al-Ghitani was, saying: "He wrote whenever he wanted to write, always spoke of inspiration but never waited for it. He was always able to write."

In addition, Al-Ghitani was a great administrator who knew who to run a publication with all its bureaucratic aspects and system.

One important aspect of Al-Ghitani's character that defined him was working as a war reporter on the frontlines during the Arab-Israeli conflict until the 1973 war. On this aspect speaks Khaled Okasha, in his piece about Al-Ghitani, the war reporter and the friendship between his father, who was a fighter pilot in the 1973 war, and Al-Ghitani.

Syza Qassem, gives an extensive review of his book, Hekayat Ha'ema (Wandering Tales), which was released in 2015. The book is fully written from Al-Ghitani's memory, and is a long tale. Qassem gives the reader a window into the more bizarre things that Al-Ghitani read in his life, and what informed his rigorous literary style.

You cant write about Al-Ghitani and ignore his seminal work, "Zayni Barakat," the novel that he was best known for, and for that reason the supplement includes a brief study of the novel by Mohamed El-Sayed Eid.

The author analyses the language used in the novel, the narration, and how Al-Ghitani weaved the character of the protagonist of the novel  Zayni Barakat.

Some of Al-Ghitani's novels have been adapted into television shows and movies, and on that front speaks scenarist Mohamed Helmy Hilal, who adapted his novel "Tales of the Stranger" into a movie. He describes his first meeting with the towering novelist.

Gamal Al-Ghitani, who passed away three years ago today, won many prizes, with his works recognised both locally and internationally.



He won the Nile Award for Literature in 2015, the highest literary honour granted by the Egyptian state. He also won the French Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1987, as well as several other awards.

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Hammond marches on Another week, another shut out victory for the Hammond Skyhawks following a 31-0 win over First Baptist. The Skyhawks improve to 11-0 and advance to the semifinals of the SCISA...

C.A. Johnson pounds Wagener-Salley for first playoff win in decades For the first time in more than three decades the C.A. Johnson Green Hornets have won a playoff game following a 39-8 victory over the Wagener-Salley War Eagles in the...While some critics fixate on Trumps proposed Middle East Strategic Alliance, they forget the actual Arab alliance that has formed and whose purpose should be deepened

One of the principles we learned in the study of international relations and which we, in turn, would teach to our students, was the need to distinguish between the essential, crucial issue and the noise that is so often created by incidental events, the rhetoric that political leaders use when dealing with domestic political circumstances, or other such phenomena that distract people from the major issues and preoccupy them.

For example, at the beginning of this decade, following the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring and the attendant upheavals that threw regional and international relations into turmoil, there emerged three sources of threat to regional security in the Middle East.

The first was proliferation of extremism, fanaticism and terrorism which attempted to create an Islamic caliphate.

Secondly, the vacuum that had arisen in many countries enticed Iran to fill it in, either with its own forces or, indirectly, through local puppets such as the Peoples Mobilisation Units in Iraq, Hizbullah in Syria and Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen.

The third threat was the anarchy and instability that resulted from the revolts and civil wars and that, whether directly or indirectly, had detrimental effects on the region on the whole.

Undoubtedly the three threats are linked in many ways. At any rate, all caused a state of chronic regional instability that invited a host of regional and international military and intelligence interventions.

This is the main regional security issue that Arab countries have been grappling with. A short while ago, the US unveiled a project for regional security called the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA).

The project triggered heated debate which was quickly drowned out by two kinds of noise: the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the conflicting statements of US President Donald Trump followed by urgent interventions on the part of some members of Congress to steady Saudi-US relations and accompanied by a hullabaloo of biased media coverage and a cacophony of shrieked outcries opposed to Arab states and interests. However, is not our central concern the current state of the Middle East and how to handle its precarious and volatile conditions?

The reaction of a handful of Arab commentators to the MESA proposal was negative. They conjured up memories of the Baghdad Pact and the Central Treaty Organisation and the circuitous routes the US uses to penetrate and control the region in the interests of the Zionist entity, of course.

Some added an allusion to the Joint Arab Defence Treaty, signed by the members of the Arab League in 1950, as proof of the futility of Arab alliances and of the Arab League as well.

Not that those who voiced such reactions had the slightest knowledge about what went on between the various Arab parties concerned and the US when MESA was proposed. Nor did they bother to ask, do the Arabs need the US in order to create an Arab alliance to readjust the balance of powers in the region to a degree sufficient to deter current threats?

On numerous occasions in this column, I have discussed two points: the need to establish an Arab security system, or a Concert of Arabia, among the Arab powers that were spared the catastrophe of the Arab Spring and, secondly, the need to press forward with an ambitious programme for domestic reform in order to fortify the immunity of and safeguard the Arab nation state.

As we know, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain forged an alliance the purpose of which was not solely to deal with Qatari conspiracies but also to strengthen the military, security and economic relations between its four members.

Last week, Egypt and Saudi Arabia conducted the fourth in their series of Tabuk joint military drills. The two sides also regularly carry out maritime manoeuvres known as Morjan.

Egypt has similar series of bilateral military exercises with both the UAE and Bahrain. It might be useful to bear in mind, in this context, how Arab arms and Arab oil joined forces in the October 1973 War, how Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait stood by Egypt after the 30 June 2013 Revolution and how these Arab countries are standing by Bahrain and Jordan today.

As for reform, it is proceeding full steam ahead in the countries of the abovementioned quartet and in Jordan in Kuwait.

Sometimes these projects have a broader Arab regional dimension, as is the case with Saudis Neom city, which will span the borders with Egypt and Jordan, and with the Egyptian project to become a natural gas hub in the eastern Mediterranean and in which Saudi Arabia and the UAE have participated since the launch of SUMED to transport oil from the Gulf countries to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea and Egypt.

So the real question is not about the US proposal but about current developments in the Arab region and how ready the Arabs are to take tough decisions and, perhaps as well, to build on what has already been accomplished in the framework of economic and/or military cooperation or in the framework of resolving pending issues such as the maritime border between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the agreement on which has added huge potential to both countries developmental prospects.

The abovementioned quartet alliance and reform projects are 100 per cent Arab from beginning to end. No one asked the US to build a Middle East alliance or an Arab NATO.

It does nothing to diminish the value of the US and its importance to this region and the world if the Arabs decide, on their own, how to defend their region and their people.

Maybe what they have already accomplished and is worth building on is the starting point for overcoming the current challenges and promoting stability, growth and prosperity.

True, Arab history is filled with ambitious projects, from the Joint Arab Defence Treaty in 1950 through the Joint Arab Command in the mid-1960s, to the Joint Arab Force that was created a few years ago.

What is important is that we have a wealth of information and lessons to draw on as we determine how to move from where we stand at present towards broader horizons in a manner commensurate to the threats which, we should add, could increase due to Iranian ambitions or to terrorist designs to undermine stability throughout the Arab region.

The current Arab quartet alliance was forged on the basis of its members collective will to strengthen security and economic cooperation between them in many ways.

The US is not a party to this alliance. In fact, it was the only country that suggested that the alliances sole purpose was to deal with Qatar, whereas the fact is that Doha occupied no greater place on the alliances agenda than that countrys size.

Now, these countries must identify the next steps needed to take their alliance further and enhance its abilities to deal with the abovementioned threats.

As a first step, they should set into motion a network of steering meetings at the level of heads-of-state, defence ministers and chiefs-of-staff, and economic and financial ministers, with the purpose of mapping out the future of their alliance.

It might be useful for them to take a leaf from the experience of developed nations in which a network of governmental and non-governmental political and strategic research centres generates the ideas and higher strategies for organising and structuring decision-making processes and marshalling the resources the system needs in order to realise its aims.

The above contained my thoughts on the greater question of Arab security. As for the noise, perhaps we will have some words to say on it at another time.

* The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 18 October, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Arab strategic alliance

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After the jump, I will discuss the statements of the three academic organizations. As I will explain, the AAUP gets it right, the American Political Science Association gets it mostly right, and the Middle East Studies Association gets it mostly wrong.

At least three academic organizations have weighed in on the situation of the University of Michigan instructors who refused to provide references for undergraduates seeking to participate in the study-abroad program at Tel Aviv University. As readers may recall  and as I explained here and here  both instructors were candid about their reasons, explaining that their support of the BDS movement (boycott, divestment, sanctions) precluded even minimal participation in anything related to Israel. John Cheney-Lippold is a tenured associate professor of American Culture, and Lucy Peterson is a graduate student instructor in Political Science. As has been widely reported, Cheney-Lippold was severely penalized; he will not receive a merit raise for 2018-19 and his scheduled sabbatical was canceled and frozen for two years. Because she is a graduate student, Peterson is protected by privacy laws, so it is not known whether or how she has been disciplined.

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS

The AAUP letter, dated October 16, addresses only the Cheney-Lippold case, raising procedural issues under the AAUPs Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure. Specifically, the letter noted that

Under Regulations 5b and 7a, charges that may lead to the imposition of severe sanctions are to be preceded by an informal inquiry conducted by a duly constituted faculty committee charged with determining whether proceedings for imposing sanctions should be undertaken. Following such a determination, AAUP-supported standards require an administration to demonstrate adequate cause for imposing a severe sanction in a hearing of record before an elected faculty body.

These concerns are well taken. There is no doubt that the penalties  denial of a raise and loss of sabbatical eligibility  constitute severe sanctions, and that they were imposed without faculty participation or input. The AAUP letter continues, however, to call upon Michigan to rescind the sanctions pending affordance of proceedings consistent with the above-cited procedural standards.

Recission seems unnecessary, given that the sanctions have not yet taken effect, but I agree with the need for a more formal proceeding, especially with regard to Cheney-Lippolds use of class time to justify his position on BDS. Dean Coles disciplinary letter says that Cheney-Lippold spent entire class periods on the discussion (in both courses he is teaching this semester), but he claims it was only fifteen minutes. This is precisely the sort of factual dispute that hearings are intended to resolve. (Although it is still questionable whether he could have properly spent any class time drumming up defense for his stance or support for BDS.)

THE AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION

The APSA letter, dated October 15, raises procedural issues in the Peterson case, presumably because she is a graduate student in political science. (The letter did not name her, but she has been identified in the press.)

Although it is not known whether Peterson has in fact been sanctioned, or to what extent, the APSA expressed its concern that

Statements prior to this Fall did not specify that instructors would be sanctioned for supporting the BDS movement, or that sanctions could be exercised for declining to write letters of recommendation. Although the university certainly may expect that instructors will make reasonable efforts to aid students, strong sanctions without clear prior notice raise questions of procedural fairness. That the instructor we are concerned about is, in this case, also an early career graduate student only heightens our concerns that outsize sanctions may be imposed on one who could reasonably argue that the vague, unspecified, and changing norms regarding writing letters of recommendation were not adequately conveyed in advance.

This statement needs to be parsed. First, no one at Michigan has been sanctioned for supporting the BDS movement. Cheney-Lippold was penalized imposing his political views on a student, and afterward misusing his authority in class. Nothing more has ever been suggested in the Peterson case, and it is hard to understand why the APSA would even mention it.

On the other hand, it is absolutely right that a graduate student might not have anticipated or understood her obligation to base reference letters solely on the students merit. Fair notice is essential in disciplinary matters, and more so for beginning teachers. Dean Coles letter to Cheney-Lippold cited the AAUPs statement of general faculty obligations to students:

As teachers, professors encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students. . . . Professors demonstrate respect for students as individuals and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and counselors. Professors make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their evaluations of students reflect each students merit. . . . They protect their academic freedom. (Italics added.)

The requirement of evaluation on each students merits is sufficient to give notice to an experienced (and tenured) professor like Cheney-Lippold that politics may not influence reference letters, but it is reasonable for the APSA to question whether a graduate student instructor should be held to the same understanding. It would certainly be wrong to impose strong sanctions on Peterson in these circumstance; a reprimand and warning ought to be sufficient.

MIDDLE EAST STUDIES ASSOCIATION

MESAs letter, dated October 16, defended Cheney-Lippold on the merits, citing free speech and academic freedom grounds. According to MESA, it should be entirely up to a faculty member to decide whether or not he or she wishes to write a letter of recommendation for a student, unless it can be clearly demonstrated that a refusal to do so was motivated by racial, ethnic, religious or gender bias. Apparently conceding that there are some impermissible grounds for withholding references, MESA does not explain why political disagreement is a valid reason for impeding a students access to a university sponsored program.

The MESA letter also observes that Professor Cheney-Lippold clearly acted on the basis of sincerely held convictions about an issue of public concern, but concludes that the decision to sanction him constitutes . . . an infringement of his academic freedom and of the right of faculty to decide for whom they wish to write letters of recommendation. Cheney-Lippold's sincerity is not in doubt, but notably missing is any acknowledgment of faculty obligations to students.

It is accurate, of course, to say that faculty may decide for whom they wish to write letters of recommendation (italics added), but there was no question that Cheney-Lippold was quite willing to write a letter for the student in question, so long as it was not for the program at Tel Aviv University. "Let me know if you need me to write other letters for you," he wrote, "as I'd be happy." Thus, even accepting MESAs principle, Cheney-Lippold was nonetheless advancing his own political goals at his students expense.

Finally, MESA asserts, as others have, that faculty members have an essentially unfettered right to write or withhold letters of recommendation, as though it is an act of grace rather than part of the job. This is a long outmoded view of academics, in which the dispensation of favors to students is entirely at the professors discretion. Perhaps that was the case in feudal times, but it is inappropriate today. It is a reasonable expectation that faculty will provide references based on merit, assuming that time is available. Students should not be treated like supplicants.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Aoife White and Natalia Drozdiak (Bloomberg)  Thu, October 18, 2018 07:06 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877820f65 2 Science & Tech Google,Europe,technology,privacy,App-Store Free

Google will start charging smartphone makers that want to install its app store and services for devices sold in Europe, changes it says it must make to comply with a European Union antitrust order in July that brought a record 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) fine.

Starting Oct. 29, new phone models that install the Play store and a bundle of Google apps, including Gmail, YouTube and Google Maps, must pay a licensing fee, the Alphabet Inc. unit said in a blog posting Tuesday. Phone manufacturers can choose to add Googles Search and Chrome browser apps for free or install alternatives.

The Google Play store is the most important feature of the Android operating system because it brings millions of apps that make phones useful. Google had forced manufacturers to preinstall Search and Chrome if they wanted to use it, restrictions that the EU found unlawful. It gave the company a deadline of next week to stop. The changes put an end in Europe to a strategy of ensuring these money-making search and web ads get huge distribution.

Google argues that the advertising revenue generated from the Search and Chrome apps helped us fund the development and free distribution of Android. Ending the deals with manufacturers that pushed those two apps out to all Android phones means the company now plans to monetize Android with the paid licensing agreement, which only affects phones shipped to Europe.

The shares of Alphabet Inc., Googles parent company, rose $24.88, or 2.3 percent, to $1,127.32 at 3:04 p.m. in New York trading. Theyve climbed about 7 percent this year, compared with a 4.8 percent increase in the Standard & Poors 500 Index.

EU order

The European Commission said it was Googles responsibility to get in line with the order and it will monitor the effectiveness of the companys moves.

It is for Google to decide exactly how to comply with the commissions decision, EU spokesman Ricardo Cardoso said in an email. The decision does not require Google to charge for any of its apps or for the Play store."

The Google Play store is a gateway for Android users to access other popular non-Google apps -- such as Facebook and Snapchat -- so manufacturers will have an incentive to pay for the store and the extra Google apps.

Licensing fees paid by manufacturers are likely to be moderate and could be recouped by revenue-share agreements for placing Google apps prominently on a screen. Changes could take months, if not more than a year, to trickle into the market given the normal development cycles for mobile devices.

Read also: Google CEO says 'important to explore' China project

The overall impact on Google will probably be negligible, according to Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research.

Changing the nature of the arrangement with handset makers might make some difference, but at the end of the day, Google is still the best provider out there," Wieser said. "Maybe one day some upstart in search will find it had a way into the market because of this, but Google will also continue to refine its products.

Phone experiments

Under the changes just unveiled, manufacturers are no longer prevented from experimenting with phones loaded with different apps or using an operating system based on the Android software but not carrying the Android name. This may not harm Google if it relies on the strength of its brand to label phones as Android. That may mean more of the Android green robot stickers at phone stores to highlight the Google-approved models.

The Developers Alliance, an app industry group thats supported Google in the EU probe, said Googles move to obey the EU and allow other versions of Android be sold more widely risked creating diverging devices that dont work together.

The company is also fighting the Android decision in the EU courts, along with an earlier legal challenge to last years fine for its shopping service, even as regulators are weighing a third investigation into the companys advertising contracts.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse)  Thu, October 18, 2018 09:00 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778239c5 2 Health sunscreen,health,#health,Hong-Kong Free

New research in Hong Kong has found that UV filters commonly used in sunscreen are polluting surrounding waters and could endanger human health, one of the citys leading universities said .

An extensive amount of seven common UV filter chemicals was found in Hong Kong seawater as well as in fish, shrimps and mussels on aqua-farms, scientists from Hong Kong Baptist University told reporters.

The effect of these contaminants passing along the food chain to humans and the long-term impact on human fertility cannot be neglected, said Dr Kelvin Leung, who led the research.

Tests performed on zebrafish, which share a similar genetic structure to humans, showed the polluted water caused abnormalities and a higher mortality rate in the fishs embryos as the chemicals entered the food chain.

The university described the study as a world-first in identifying the harm caused by a combination of polluting chemicals in sunscreen. Researchers said they would conduct further tests to learn more about the effects of UV filters on the human body.

The chemicals tested on the zebrafish study included octocrylene (known as OC), benzophenone-3 (known as BP-3) and ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate (known as EHMC), which were found to be the most abundant types of chemical UV filters in Hong Kong waters.

Read also: Five things to notice when purchasing sunscreen

The European Unions International Chemical Secretariat has already established BP-3 as a threat to human health and called for it to be replaced with another, safer ingredient. Dr Leung added that these chemicals can accumulate in the human body and cannot be dissolved or diluted simply by drinking water.

There is growing international concern over the polluting effects of sunscreen. Hawaii signed a bill in July to ban sunscreens containing chemicals harmful to coral reefs, which will take effect from 2021. But the ban raised concerns that it may deter consumers from using sunscreen to protect their skin from cancer.

Leung called for more regulations on the use of chemicals in personal care products and recommended consumers use mineral-based sunscreens such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, or wear sun-protection clothing.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Paris, France  Thu, October 18, 2018 19:19 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778487b1 2 Science & Tech Science,life,Earth,scientific-development Free

When Australian scientists presented evidence in 2016 of life on Earth 3.7 billon years ago -- pushing the record back 220 million years -- it was a big deal, influencing even the search for life on Mars.

But that discovery, based on an analysis of primordial rocks in Greenland, has now been challenged, with another team of researchers arguing in a study published Wednesday that the structures presented as proof of microbial activity were, in fact, geologically forged by underground heat and pressure.

The truth hinges on whether the cone-shaped formations in question are genuine stromatolites, layered structures left in the wake of water-dwelling microorganisms.

Previously, the earliest confirmed stromatolites were found in 3.45-billion year old rocks in Australia.

Being able to accurately date the first stirrings of life on our young planet -- roughly a billion years old at the time -- has important implications for understanding how it emerged and evolved.

Writing in the journal Nature, Abigail Allwood of the California Institute of Technology and colleagues analysed the three-dimensional shape of the disputed formations, along with their orientation in space and chemical composition.

The 3-D view led them to conclude that the alleged fossils lacked internal layers, a signature trait of stromatolites. Upon closer examination, the cone-like shapes were shown to be ridges that typically arise over millions of years through a natural deforming process called metamorphism.

Also missing, they said, were the chemical traces of microbe activity.

"We believe that the current evidence does not support the interpretation of these structures as 3.7 billion-year-old stromatolites," Allwood's team concluded.

Their analysis, the study continued, should also serve as a "cautionary tale" in interpreting rock formations in the search for life on Mars.

Mark Van Zuilen, a geomicrobiologist at the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, said the reassessment is convincing, and suggests the Australian stromatolites should regain their status as the earliest confirmed proof of life on Earth.

"These observations provide strong evidence for physical rock deformation and therefore offer a non-biological explanation for the observed structures," he commented in Nature.

Allen Nutman, a professor at the University of Wollongong in Australia and lead researcher on the 2016 study, was not available for comment.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin I Wayan Juniarta (The Jakarta Post) Nusa Dua  Thu, October 18, 2018 08:47 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778229f6 4 Art & Culture I-La-Galigo,festival,theatrical-play,UNESCO Free

When the performance on Friday night ended, the audience all stood up for a thunderous standing ovation that lasted for at least ten minutes as the musicians and performers lined the stage and took their well-deserved credit.

It was so gorgeous that I am at a loss for words, one of the spectators, Ruth Onduko, said.

Other spectators shared her opinion, and this came as no surprise. Despite its lengthy duration of nearly three hours, the performance was mesmerizing in every aspect.

The idea behind the performance came from the Sureq Galigo mythological epic poem of the indigenous Bugis people living in South Sulawesi.

The poem, which is enshrined in the UNESCOs Memory of the World and considered the most voluminous literary work in the world, has many similarities with the genesis stories of other civilizations.

The similarities range from the division of the universe into three realms, with mankind populating the middle world and the deities of the upper world sending their offspring to rule over mankind in the struggle of humans to find true love.

I La Galigo focuses on the struggle of Sawerigading, a young prince and a descendant of a deity, to find his true love.

His first love toward We Tenriabeng is impossible, since the lady is his twin sister and their union would spell doom for the kingdom.

His second love to Chinese princess We Cudaiq is marred with unresolved animosity.

Hilarious: Sawerigadings two cousins are court jesters that offer the nearly three-hour long performance a few humorous moments. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

The fruit of their union, the eponymous La Galigo, grows into a spoiled rascal who wanders from island to island stealing other mens wives.

The story ends when the supreme deity, Patotoqe, purges the middle world and declares the gods will no longer intervene in the affairs of men.

The mesmerizing quality of the performance can be attributed to the mastery of its creators.

Rhoda Gauer, who was responsible for the text adaptation and dramaturgy, has done a miraculous job of condensing the enormous text into a manageable and comprehensible twelve-scene performance.

Imagine the interpretational nightmare the director must undergo and the mental agony the spectators must suffer if the text  reported to be 6,000 pages or 300,000 lines of text  were to be performed in its entirety.

Robert Wilson, the director as well as the principal set and lighting designer, obviously made several difficult decisions that in the end turned the theatrical piece into a world-class act.

Take, for instance, his decision to leave the stage virtually empty of any props. The backdrop was a huge, unadorned screen that changes color in accordance to the mood of the scene. That bare stage provides the spectators with a distraction-free space, where their eyes could focus solely on what the performers were trying to convey.

Celebration: Commoners dance happily as Sawerigading tries to mend his broken heart by partying and enjoying cockfights. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

Wilsons decision to craft a performance in which the actors speak no lines destroyed the language barrier that would otherwise present a challenge to both the performers and spectators. Lines in Bugis, Indonesian or English would surely diminish the universal appeal of the performance.

That decision also opened an opportunity for another element of the performance to soar. That element is music, and it indeed soared to a heavenly level.

Prominent Indonesian composer Rahayu Supanggah created a musical repertoire that integrates hauntingly beautiful musical compositions with the singing and chanting of certain parts of the epic poem.

The repertoire was so moving that a spectator could close their eyes and would still be able to understand what was going on just by listening to the music.

Yet, there were not many instances in the performance where spectators would want to close their eyes. The colors of the costumes, the dynamics of the dances, the battle sequence, the clever choreography  dancers locked their feet together to form a ship  and the stunning light arrangement compelled spectators to keep their eyes open throughout the performance.

It was the kind of performance that needs to be watched, because reading about it would simply be insufficient.

The contrast delivered by the opening scene, in which men and women slowly enter the stage with various objects in their hands to tunes of music, and the closing scene, in which they slowly enter the stage without carrying anything and without any musical accompaniment, is so symbolically poignant that it deserves its own review.

The price of love: Sawerigading chops down Welenrennge, the largest and most sacred tree, to build a fleet of ships that he would use to cross to China, where Princess We Cudaiq is. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)

I La Galigo was first premiered in 2004 and toured scores of prestigious venues across the globe, including Singapores Esplanade and New Yorks Lincoln Center Festival.

The original production received a remarkable reception and reviews from both theater-goers and critics.

In conjunction with the 2018 International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bali, the theatrical piece was performed for four nights on a specially constructed stage in Nusa Duas beachside Peninsula area.

I La Galigo was produced by the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts in partnership with Bumi Purnati Indonesia and EdM (Elisabetta di Mambro) Productions. The project was under the auspices of Yayasan La Galigo and Indonesias Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf).

Some major corporations threw their weight behind the production, including state-owned Bank Mandiri, which poured in around Rp 700 million (US$46,145) to finance the theatrical production.

We support this production, because we want the participants of this international gathering to have the opportunity to witness the magnificent diversity of our cultural heritage, Bank Mandiri corporate secretary Rohan Hafas said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Surabaya, East Java  Thu, October 18, 2018 14:37 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778352e9 1 Art & Culture Museum,ethnography-museum,museum-of-death,airlangga-university,East-Java,#museum,travel,destination,death Free

A museum in the East Java city of Surabaya aims to enlighten people about Indonesian funeral rituals and their correlation to other fields, including the economy and culture.

The Ethnography Museum and Death Studies Center is located at Airlangga Universitys (Unair) School of Social and Political Sciences in Surabaya.

Upon entering the museum, people may smell a certain scent that may remind them of kemenyan (incense). But Toetik Koesbardiati, the museums management head, told The Jakarta Post that it was actually aromatherapy. We use it to protect the museum from bad smells, Toetik said. We also use incense sticks, but not for rituals to summon spirits.

A replica of a funeral ritual in Trunyan village, Bali. (Museum of Ethnography and Center for Death Studies/File)

Built in 2005, the museum mostly uses infographics to enlighten visitors about funeral ceremonies. It provides replicas as well, among them are funeral rites in Trunyan village, Bali and Toraja, South Sulawesi. Some people refer to the museum as a haunted house because it has one room with an imitative pocong(shrouded ghost) in it. People are shrouded when they are buried in the Islamic way. We added pocong as a reflection that one day well be dead and treated like that, Toetik said.

In the same room, there are books and research on death, the afterlife and other related topics. These books show that death is often explored as a specific topic, but many people still avoid talking about it, said Toetik.

An imitative 'pocong' (shrouded ghost) on display is among reasons why some people call the museum a haunted house. (Museum of Ethnography and Center for Death Studies/File)

Nestled in a two-story building, the museum has mock-up crime scene, jelangkung (a traditional medium used when summoning spirits) and types of graves based on different religions in Indonesia. There is also a collection of real human skeletons kept in a glass case.

On one side, it displays collections of skeleton sculptures themed "My lifestyle determines my death style", meaning that visitors can learn about someones lifestyle from their remains. In forensic science, skeletons can hint about peoples sex, height, disease and other information about their identity when they were alive. For instance, we can find out that someone is a saxophone player from their teeth structure, said Toetik.

Read also: Nobody dies alone in Jakarta anymore

'My lifestyle determines my deathstyle' collection of skeletons. (Museum of Ethnography and Center for Death Studies/File)

The museum has its own laboratory to support its studies and it is allowed to collaborate with other research institutions. It welcomes high school students who want to learn about forensics, children and foreign visitors as they have English-speaking guides.

Furthermore, for its unique approach, the museum was awarded with Purwakalagrha by the Indonesia Museum Awards 2018.

A mock-up crime scene at the museum. (Museum of Ethnography and Center for Death Studies/File)

People seldom talk about death, while they try so hard to stay alive because theyre afraid of dying. In biology, death is natural because this body isnt getting younger, Toetik said. In reality, our culture has many celebrations of death. I call it celebration because it requires a lot of money and people. It implies that death holds special place in our culture. Thats what were trying to portray [in our museum], although our limited space cannot fit [for all funeral ceremonies] from across Indonesia.

Managed under the universitys Anthropology program, the museum aims to show that death is never simple. Death is related to other aspects, one of them is economy. Some funeral ceremonies arent inexpensive  in Bali we have ngaben and in Java we have other rituals following the burial procession, said Toetik. Death also creates other economy aspects, such as funeral home and mortuary makeup artist, hence death is not the end, but its the beginning. It gives room for us to learn about it.

The museum is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (kes)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung  Thu, October 18, 2018 09:17 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778253c1 4 Art & Culture #music,music,classical-music,Bandung-Philharmonic,orchestra Free

A high-pitched sound dominated the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in Bandung on September 23, coming from stringed instruments combined with cymbals played by timpanist Djati Rekso Wibowo. It was gradually fading away by the end of the Bandung Philharmonics Ngasirah composition, the first ever to be performed in Indonesia.

The unusual pitch was purposely tuned to the closing end of the composition, which was created by Marisa Sharon Hartanto to honor the role of Ngasirah, the mother of Rajen Ajeng Kartini, a heroine well known for her visionary letters published as Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang (Through Darkness to Light) during the Dutch colonial era in the region now known as Indonesia.

The Bandung Philharmonic opened the composition with a light sound of stringed instruments, which grew heavier as they fused with cellos, turning into a tone that evoked a tranquil rural atmosphere in Java with its lush greenery as far as one could see.

Then the music slowly gave rise to imaginings of smiling children running around, as the sounds of a xylophone, flutes and percussion instruments were matched by violins in the orchestra with at least 60 musicians.

This piece is a tribute to all mothers, Marisa said about her composition.

The end part is Kartinis demise. The cymbals were scraped to produce a mysterious shriek. She died but her spirit lives on, she added.

Virtuoso: Pianist Aryo Wicaksono (left) performs Franz Liszts Totentanz along with the Bandung Philharmonic during the Legends concert at the Hilton Bandung. (JP/Arya Dipa)

Ngasirah was one of the four programs staged by the Bandung Philharmonic in its concert called Legends, and is also the opener of the orchestras fourth performing season. The other three were Tragic Overture Op.81 composed by Johannes Brahms, Totentanz by Franz Liszt and Symphony No.5 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Performing brand new compositions in shows is a typical characteristic of the Bandung Philharmonic. As a closing piece during its third season, the orchestra featured Krakatoa by Stacy Garrop as a world premiere. Not many orchestras consistently offer their new works in their performances.

Apart from Marisa, the Bandung Philharmonic also presented pianist Aryo Wicaksono, who has often appeared solo at concerts and festivals in the United States, Canada, Asia and Europe. He displayed his high skill in the Bandung show by playing Totentanz.

Opening his andante with a tempo of between 76 and 108 beats per minute, he then entered allegro with a tempo of between 120 and 156 beats per minute. A gripping moment emerged when he slowed down his tempo as the string instruments began to enter with their melancholic vibe. However, he changed his pace with confidence by playing vivace at 156 to 176 beats per minute, complemented by violins and flutes.

Musical explanation: Composer Marisa Sharon Hartanto (left) explains her composition Ngasirah, as conductor Robert Nordling looks on during the Bandung Philharmonics Legends concert at the Hilton Bandung. (JP/Arya Dipa)

Uncertainty in life seemed to be clearly reflected in this composition. Liszt apparently designed his piece to enable pianists playing it to use all the keys on the piano by striking or sweeping them from the left to the right and the other way around.

Bandung Philharmonic conductor Robert Nordling said the Legends concert served as the right thread to unify the various works, not only to commemorate deceased composers but also to celebrate musicians inspired by their predecessors.

Theyre legends from the past and living people. Each of the pieces has a story behind it just like Ngasirah. Theres a bunch of reasons that we choose to play this composition, said Nordling.

The peak of the Bandung Philharmonics concert this time was Symphony No.5 in C Minor.

Nordling claimed to have frequently conducted orchestras in different parts of the world with this program, but each of the shows had its own challenge.

It is not easy to maintain concentration and remain consistent when playing instruments to render Symphony No.5 in C Minor, which is divided into four movements. They started from C minor, later gradually entering C major, which was interesting to follow attentively.

As a conductor, when you leave the concert I do not want you to remember me. I want you to know about Beethoven. So, I have to study all about Beethoven and with my best ability I give you Beethoven, Nordling said about the challenge of offering the worlds most popular classical piece.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 08:39 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877822815 1 Business Garuda-Indonesia,Pelni,cooperation,cargoes,business Free

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and state-owned ship operator PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) launched on Wednesday their collaborative cargo business as part of their effort to expand their cargo distribution networks.

Garuda Indonesia cargo and business development director Muhammad Iqbal said under the collaboration, Garuda Indonesia cargo and Pelni logistics would offer more efficient cargo service by interconnecting air and sea cargo services.

In the global cargo business, we know there is a sea-air cargo, of which sea cargo is connected to air cargo, and this concept is what we want to offer to our customers. This is very suitable for archipelagic country like Indonesia, he said.

With sea-air cargo, shipment of goods or export commodities such as fish from remote areas to big cities or to other countries, could be faster, Iqbal said, adding that with the new service the process of cargo shipment should be accelerated.

Meanwhile, Pelni cargo and sea toll director Harry Boediarto said the sea-air cargo could potentially decrease the logistics cost by around 30 percent.

In the past, logistics delivery from one place to the other involved multiplayer operators. Therefore, customers had to pay more. Now, our collaborative service offers time and cost efficiency, he added.

The collaboration was marked by the kickoff of the operation of Garuda Indonesia-Pelni cargo outlet in North Jakarta on Wednesday.

Currently, Garuda Indonesia serves cargo air in 60 airports. Garuda is eyeing 11 percent growth this year, while Pelni is eyeing 10 percent business growth. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Chicago, United States  Thu, October 18, 2018 08:28 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778225da 2 World #USA,#HateCrime,Texas,mosque,arson,punishment Free

An arsonist convicted of burning down a Texas mosque last year was sentenced Wednesday to more than 24 years in prison for a crime prosecutors said was motivated by hate.

Marq Perez had been found guilty in July of a hate crime and felony arson in the January 2017 burning of the Victoria Islamic Center in Southeast Texas.

The 26-year-old had broken into the mosque a week before the arson in order to conduct reconnaissance, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement citing trial testimony.

A witness testified that on the night of the crime Perez used a lighter to set papers on fire, and described "how excited Perez was upon seeing the mosque in flames just minutes later," DOJ said.

The witness testified that Perez wanted to "send a message," it said, adding that others gave testimony about the suspect's use of anti-Muslim slurs.

"Mr Perez sought to provoke terror," FBI Agent Edward Michel said in a statement.

"No one in this country should feel afraid to openly practice their religion or express their beliefs."

The crime elicited an outpouring of support from around the world for the Islamic community in the city of Victoria, Texas.

An online GoFundMe campaign raised more than $1 million from donors in 90 countries to rebuild the mosque. It reopened in September.

"We're tremendously humbled and overwhelmed by the emotional and financial support you have given and continue to give us throughout this calamity," the mosque said on its GoFundMe page.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Sydney, Australia  Thu, October 18, 2018 08:08 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087782184a 2 World #Australia,#abortion,Queensland,legality,abortion,women-rights,Australia Free

Queensland lawmakers have voted to legalize abortion, overturning a century-old "morality" law and capping a 50-year campaign in Australia's most conservative state.

The state parliament approved 50-41 late Wednesday the law allowing women to terminate pregnancies at up to 22 weeks, and later with the approval of two doctors.

The legislation also creates 150-meter (492-feet) "safe access" zones around clinics offering abortions where protests are banned, and it requires doctors who refuse to perform abortions to refer women elsewhere.

Pro-choice campaigners had been seeking since the 1970s to overturn an 1899 criminal code adopted from British law that criminalized abortion as an "offence against morality".

Abortions were rarely prosecuted in the state, but pro-choice campaigners had until now been unable to overturn the criminal code.

This week's vote come at a time when women hold positions of influence in Queensland politics. The state government is headed by two-term Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose deputy, Jackie Trad, is a long-time pro-choice campaigner.

Queensland's main conservative opposition Liberal National Party (LNP) is also led by a woman, Deb Frecklington.

The LNP remains officially opposed to abortion, but Frecklington allowed its lawmakers to vote their conscience, helping push the measure through.

"History has been made," Palaszczuk tweeted after the vote. "Women will no longer have the fear of committing a crime when making the deeply personal decisions over their own bodies."

Anti-abortion campaigners vowed to pursue their efforts.

One group, Cherish Life, called the vote "devastating news".

"The fight will continue. The unborn need us more than ever," it said in a statement.

Queensland was the latest of Australia's states and territories to ease restrictions on abortion and leaves New South Wales, which includes Sydney, as the only state where it remains illegal to terminate a pregnancy, even if the law is rarely applied.

Women in New South Wales continue to have abortions, although they and the doctors who perform the procedures risk criminal prosecution.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 14:47 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877835fe6 1 City Bekasi,jakarta,bantar-gebang-waste-treatment,Dispute,garbage-trucks Free

The Bekasi administration has made good on its threat and temporarily blocked 51 garbage trucks from Jakarta heading to the Bantar Gebang dump in the West Java city, on the grounds that the capital city had yet to fulfil its obligations for dumping its waste at the site.

The Bekasi administration stopped the trucks on Wednesday morning near the Bekasi Barat tollgate on Jl. Ahmad Yani. The vehicles were eventually released at 2 a.m. on Thursday.

Bekasi Transportation Agency head Yayan Yuliana said that the Bekasi administration wanted to review the cooperation agreement between the West Java city and Jakarta, as the capital had not fulfilled its obligations, according to a kompas.com report.

Bekasi Transportation Agency officers halt some Jakarta dump trucks on their way to Bantar Gebang waste treatment facility in Bekasi, West Java, on Oct. 17, 2017. (Via kompas.com/Dinas Perhubungan Kota Bekasi)

For instance, said Yayan, the compactor trucks the Jakarta administration used did not comply with the standards Bekasi had set. The trucks also did not possess the required permits, he added.

Jakarta Environmental Agency head Isnawa Adji confirmed that 51 trucks had been stopped. "Trucks that still carried waste were allowed to dump the waste at Bantar Gebang," he said.

Earlier, the Bekasi administration threatened to block the trucks en route to the dump, as Jakarta had not paid the "compensation" as the two cities had agreed in their cooperation agreement.

Bekasi planned to use the compensation to develop the Rawa Panjang-Cipendawa flyover, which would ease the Jakarta garbage trucks journey to Bantar Gebang.

The estimated cost of clearing land for and developing the flyover is Rp 1 trillion (US$65.7 million). (cal)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 15:19 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877838927 1 City Bekasi,e-ID,public-service Free

Dozens of local residents waited in line as early as 3 a.m. on Thursday at a Public Service Mall (MPP) located inside the Atrium Pondok Gede shopping mall in Bekasi, West Java, just to obtain a ticket number for processing their e-ID cards.

If I didnt come before subuh [the dawn prayer], I would not get a ticket number. And then printing [my] e-ID card would be delayed," Murtiah, 49, said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com. [...] Waking up [before dawn] is no problem, what is important is that my e-ID is printed.

The acting head of the Bekasi Capital Investment and One-Stop Integrated Services Agency (DPMPTSP), Lintong Dianto, said the agency only issued 200 numbered tickets per day, in line with the daily quota for e-ID cards. He added that the tickets usually ran out in 30 minutes.

Lintong said that residents who were unable to obtain a ticket number could visit the agency's offices in East Bekasi, where it offered services such as issuing birth certificates and temporary e-ID cards.

He added that Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi had criticized the agency's decision to provide the service so early, saying that it was inhuman for the agency's officials to start work at 3 a.m. outside their official working hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

It would be more inhumane if we made the people wait five hours from 3 a.m. until the MPP opens at 8 a.m, said Lintong. We decided to provide the ticket numbers earlier with the hope that [residents] could go home first and then come back later to pick up their [finished] e-ID cards. (sau)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  Thu, October 18, 2018 23:44 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087784d1bc 2 World #Malaysia,#MurderCase,#British,Malaysia,arrest,wife,murder,Briton Free

A British man has been stabbed to death on the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi, and his wife has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said Thursday.

John William Jones, 62, was found on the floor of his house with a stab wound to the chest, local police chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim told AFP.

His British wife, whose identity was not disclosed, has been detained and is suspected of having murdered him following a row, he said.

The pair had lived on Langkawi, a jungle-clad, tropical island in northwest Malaysia that attracts millions of tourists annually to its palm-fringed beaches, for the past 11 years, Mohamad Iqbal said.

"The couple were believed to have engaged in an argument. The wife then took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her husband in the chest," he said.

A 30-centimeter (12-inch) knife was found on the floor of the couple's bedroom covered in blood stains, he said.

Local media reported the victim's body was discovered early Thursday after neighbours alerted police.

Under current laws, the wife will be sentenced to death by hanging if she is found guilty of murdering her husband. Murder carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia.

The government recently pledged to abolish the death penalty for all crimes but lawmakers still have to approve the changes.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 10:25 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877826d0a 1 City 2019-legislative-election,campaign,violation,Councilors,West-Jakarta,Bawaslu Free

A Gerindra Party Jakarta councillor running for reelection is being investigated for reportedly campaigning at a state junior high school in West Jakarta.

West Jakarta Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) chairman Oding Junaidi said councillor M. Arief handed out campaign paraphernalia and sarongs in goody bags to SMPN 127 teachers during a meeting in Kebon Jeruk on Oct. 10.

The goody bags were distributed after the teachers signed in for the meeting. [Arief was invited as a] speaker at the meeting, Oding said as reported by kompas.com on Wednesday.

The organizing committee prepared the content of the meeting, Oding said, but Arief instead talked more about himself during his session between 1 and 3 p.m.

Jakarta Bawaslu commissioner Puadi said the agency, along with police and public prosecutors under the Integrated Law Enforcement Center (Gakkumdu), found possible election law violations during the meeting.

Gakkumdu collected preliminary evidence and obtained clarification from the involved parties.

The police will investigate within the next 14 days, Puadi said.

Law No. 7/2017 on general elections prohibits campaigning in government buildings, places of worship and in educational facilities.

The law also prohibits civil servants from being involved in political campaigns. (ami)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 18:11 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087784509f 1 Politics Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan,#LuhutPandjaitan,Sri-Mulyani,#SriMulyani,#Gerindra,Gerindra-Party,2019-presidential-election,#2019-elections,Bawaslu Free

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subiantos Gerindra Party has accused two of President Joko Jokowi Widodos ministers of publicly demonstrating political partisanship while representing Indonesia at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Group in Bali over the weekend.

Video footage went viral on Wednesday showing Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati allegedly telling World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and IMF director Christine Lagarde to pose while making a partisan hand gesture during a photoshoot.

"That was a very unfair and unwise action. They [Luhut and Sri Mulyani] were unprofessional and partisan. They were supposed to be neutral, Gerindra executive Ahmad Riza Patria told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

In the footage, Luhut first makes a hand gesture spreading five fingers, like a high five or a hand wave, while the foreign guests give a two-fingered V-sign, a sign commonly used to symbolize either peace or victory.

Sri later told Luhut to tell the apparently unaware guests to make a one-finger gesture using the forefinger, which symbolizes the ballot number of the Jokowi-Maruf Amin ticket in next years presidential election.

It is common in elections in Indonesia to see candidates and their supporters using hand or finger gestures to symbolize support for their campaigns.

No, no, no, not two [fingers], not two, Luhut is heard telling his two foreign guests, who later mimic what Luhut did with his index finger.

Luhut and Sri Mulyani, as well as the guests appear amused at this point in the video, and within seconds the audience witnessing the incident also bursts into laughter.

Two is for Prabowo; one is for Jokowi, Sri Mulyani explains to Lagarde, who seems to be clueless about the meaning behind the hand gesture she has just made.

But Gerindra has not taken it lightly, with Riza saying that the Prabowo-Sandiaga Uno campaign team will file a report against Luhut and Sri Mulyani with the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).

This [the report] will be a reminder for other public officials that they have to be independent [during presidential elections], Riza said.

Bawaslu has yet to receive any report.

Bawaslu commissioner Fritz Edward Siregar said the alleged incident, however, would be examined thoroughly and in context to avoid misinterpretation.

Well, perhaps it can be [reported] as an alleged violation of articles 282 and 283. Article 282 is about public officials actions benefiting certain candidates, he said, referring to the 2017 Elections Law, which prohibits public officials from using state facilities for campaigning or for encouraging others to support certain candidates. (ipa)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18 2018

Human rights watchdogs have demanded that the government immediately release Sawin and Sukma, two environmentalists from Indramayu, West Java, who have been arrested on state defamation charges.

Sawin and Sukma, farmers who live in Mekarsari village in Patrol district, Indramayu, have been persistent in protesting the Indramayu 2 coal-fired power plant in their village.

The two had contested the construction plan, which was to be funded by a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and filed a lawsuit against it last year.

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Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? loginCredit: Mark WeissOzzy Osbourne has announced the make-up dates for his canceled U.S. No More Tours 2 shows, which were scheduled to take place this month in Los Angels, Las Vegas and Chula Vista and Mountain View, California.

The rescheduled dates will now be held July 20 in Las Vegas, July 23 in Chula Vista, July 27 in Mountain View and July 29 in Los Angeles. Visit Ozzy.com for ticket info.

Osbourne had initially postponed just one of the dates after undergoing surgery on his hand to treat an infection. However, he ended up scrapping all four shows, which were the final dates of his North American tour, when he learned he'd need further surgery.

Tickets for the original shows will be honored for the rescheduled dates. You can also receive a refund from your point of purchase.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 17:58 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087784378c 1 City river-restoration,jakarta,rainy-season,dredging Free

The Jakarta administration has opted to dredge rivers in Jakarta to prevent flooding as the rainy season is due to arrive in a few weeks.

Jakarta Water Resource Agency head Teguh Hendarwan said even though the central government was supposed to dredge the rivers by delegating the Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BBWSCC), the city administration opted to dredge them to prevent flooding during the rainy season, which is usually from October to February.

The city plays a role in preventing flooding by dredging the rivers given the fact that there are 13 rivers that go through the city, he said as quoted by kompas.com, adding that the city had deployed backhoes to rivers in the city.

Some of the rivers that have backhoes working to dredge them are Mookervart, Sekretaris and Krukut, as well as the Ciliwung River, particularly the Kampung Melayu-Bukit Duri and Kampung Baru segments.

He admitted, however, that the city chose to dredge the rivers as it was not able to acquire land around the rivers, which resulted in BBWSCC's inability to continue its river restoration program this year.

The BBWSCC also did not include allocation for river restoration in the 2019 state budget because the city administration had been slow in acquiring land needed to normalize the flow of the rivers, he admitted.

Teguh argued that the delay was caused by inconsistency of land ownership data from residents who live nearby the rivers. (ris/gis)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 11:01 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877826dd9 1 National #corruption,#KPK,Lippo-group,boss,investigation,bribery-case,Meikarta,James-Riady Free

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday morning conducted a search at the home of Lippo Group CEO James Riady, in connection with its investigation into the alleged graft case surrounding the issuance of permits for the diversified conglomerate's Meikarta flagship project.

As of Thursday morning, KPK investigators are still continuing with the search, KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said in a written statement.

The Meikarta developer allegedly promised Rp 13 billion (US$856,888) in bribery money to the Bekasi regency administration for issuing the relevant permits, of which it had reportedly transferred Rp 7 billion.

The KPK has detained Lippo Group operational director Billy Sindoro, two consultants working for the company, Taryudi and Fitra Djaja Purnama, and employee Henry Jasmen as suspects in the case.

The antigraft body has also detained five other suspects in the case: Bekasi Regent Neneng Hasanah Yasin, Bekasi Public Works and Housing Agency head Jamaludin, the agencys Spatial Planning head Neneng Rahmi, Bekasi Fire Department head Sahat MJB Nahar and Bekasi Capital Investment and One-Stop Integrated Services Agency (DPMPTSP) head Dewi Tisnawati.

Also on Thursday morning, the KPK searched the residences of three Bekasi officials as well as a residence at the Trivium Terrace Apartments for evidence.

Febri said the KPK had confiscated several documents related to the licensing "proposal" the Lippo Group had made to the Bekasi administration, as well as financial reports and electronic devices.

We have searched a total of 10 locations in Tangerang and Bekasi since yesterday [Wednesday], he said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 18:13 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877845bcb 1 City brawl,West-Jakarta,discotheque Free

Kebon Jeruk Police are on the lookout for suspects that initiated a deadly brawl at Bandara discotheque on Jl. Daan Mogot, West Jakarta, which was sparked after two people dancing in the establishment bumped into each other.

Police chief Comr. Marston Marbun said that the police had identified the suspects, but he did not reveal details.

We haven't [caught the suspects] but we have identified them, Marbun said Thursday, kompas.com reported.

The incident, which occurred on Wednesday at 2:30 a.m., resulted in one dead and five others injured.

The cause was just a misunderstanding. The perpetrator was drinking and bumped into [the victim]. They bumped into each other when dancing but initiated a brawl over it outside [the discotheque], Marbun said.

He said that one of the victims, who was only identified as HS, had been stabbed to death. Meanwhile, the five other victims also suffered stab wounds but survived.

Two of the victims were treated at the Royal Taruna Hospital and the other three at Sumber Waras Hospital.

Marbun said that later on Wednesday, a group of people scattered flowers outside the discotheque to honor the deceased victim.

He said that up to 100 police officers were stationed to guard the vigil for fear of revenge acts from the group. (ami)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 15:08 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877837d69 4 Business drugs,raw-materials,imports,health-ministry Free

The Health Ministry has said that local pharmaceutical companies still relied heavily on imported chemical ingredients  active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)  because the industry was unable to carry out sufficient research on developing such materials.

About 90 percent of the pharmaceutical industry still uses imported materials, particularly chemical ingredients, because it is not easy to produce those materials, the ministrys Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes) head, Siswanto, said on Wednesday in Magelang, Central Java, as quoted by kompas.com.

Siswanto said that many ingredients were patented by pharmaceutical companies in Germany, France and Japan, while Indonesia lacked appropriate laboratory facilities for researching the development of pure chemicals as an initial step toward processing and producing APIs.

He added that Indonesia had no plans to develop a pharmaceutical laboratory in the near future, because of the exorbitant costs of establishing such a facility.

The cost is too high. We [can] produce many medical substances, but the cost of clinical tests is too high. It could reach billions of rupiah, said Siswanto.

One solution to help reduce the dependence on pharmaceutical chemical ingredients would be to develop local herbs and other natural ingredients used in traditional herbal treatments across the archipelago.

[...] We must carry out research on plants and animal [materials] and test them for their medicinal properties and after that, they could be used for antibodies, anesthetics and other [medicines], he continued.

Siswanto said the ministry currently had three consortiums for developing vaccines and other medicinal products. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi and Gemma Holliani Cahya (The Jakarta Post) Surakarta/Jakarta  Thu, October 18 2018

The Surakarta administration in Central Java is planning to ban all outdoor cigarette advertisements, including billboards and banners, as part of its bid to achieve child-friendly city status by next year.

The administration made the decision knowing it might lose one of the citys major revenue sources. Cigarette tax and cigarette billboard tax contributes some Rp 2 billion (US$131,769) and Rp 8.5 billion per annum, respectively, to the citys revenues.

Im sure we can find alternative sources to substitute revenue from cigarette billboard and advertisement taxes, head of the citys Womens Empowerment, Child Protection and Community Empowerment Agency, Widdi Srihanto, told the press on Tuesday.

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Linkedin Andi Hajramurni and Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Makassar/Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 12:35 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778318dd 1 National Central-Sulawesi-earthquake,central-sulawesi,earthquake,rape,Child-sexual-abuse,#child-sexual-abuse,#CentralSulawesiQuake,Makassar,#Makassar Free

A 14-year-old boy has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl earthquake survivor in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

The girl and her family had left their hometown in neighboring Central Sulawesi after an earthquake and ensuing tsunami devastated the region on Sept. 28. They are currently living with relatives in Makassar.

The incident allegedly took place on Tuesday night at a vacant house situated in the Bumi Permata Suding residential complex, said Makassar Police criminal investigation unit chief Comr. Wirdhanto Hadicaksono.

The alleged perpetrator, identified as IN, had approached the girl on his motorcycle as she was walking back to her relatives house, which is located in the same housing complex.

He reportedly promised to give her a ride home with his motorcycle.

But as they reached the front of the empty house, the boy stopped the motorbike and dragged the girl inside, Wirdhanto said on Wednesday, adding that results of the polices medical examination showed signs of rape.

According to the police, IN is a school dropout who lives with his grandfather.

Despite being a minor, the boy has been declared a suspect for sexually assaulting a child with deception and intimidation.

He was charged under Article 81 of the 2002 Child Protection Law, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment and a minimum of five years.

It remains unclear where the parents or the relatives of the girl were when the incident took place as the police did not disclose further details on the case.

Andi Tenri Palallo, head of the Makassar Women's Empowerment, Family Planning and Child Protection Agency, said the girl was currently under the care and protection of the citys Integrated Care Center for the Empowerment of Women and Children (P2TP2A).

We are trying our best to give her counselling, Andi said. The trauma from the earthquake still haunts her, but now she also has to deal with another trauma from rape.

In response to the incident, the Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry plans to set up at least eight centers dedicated to protecting women and child in four hard-hit disaster areas, namely Palu city, as well as Sigi, Donggala and Parigi Moutong regencies.

The centers will provide solutions to problems female and child evacuees may face, including violence and sexual harassment.

Women and children living in shelters are welcome to visit these centers if they have any problems to be addressed, Nyimas Aliyah, the ministrys deputy assistant for women protection in emergency situations, said on Wednesday.

The ministry has distributed pamphlets providing advice for parents on how to protect the children from violence and sexual assault in various shelters across the province.

Do not let anyone touch your body by deception or by force. [Also, do not let them] take your photo or video when you are wearing no clothes, the pamphlet said.

If someone tries to hurt you, please tell your parents, officers or volunteers immediately. (ipa)



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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, October 18, 2018 17:11 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b30877841382 4 Business Sariwangi-teabags,Unilever-Indonesia,bankruptcy,production Free

Consumer goods manufacturer PT Unilever Indonesia has said that it will continue to manufacture Sariwangi teabags after the court declared the company's manufacturers of the teabags bankrupt on Wednesday.

The Jakarta Commercial Court declared PT Sariwangi Agricultural Estate Agency and Maskapai Perkebunan Indorub Sumber Wadung bankrupt in response to a lawsuit submitted by PT Bank ICBC Indonesia, one of its creditors.

Unilever, which acquired the Sariwangi teabag brand in 1989, said through its Twitter account on Thursday that the company no longer had relations with PT Sariwangi Agricultural Estate Agency and PT Maskapai Perkebunan Indorub Sumber Wadung.

Unilever, however, confirmed that it used to cooperate with PT Sariwangi Agriculture Estate Agency to produce the teabags.

Unilever Indonesia corporate secretary Sancoyo Antarikso said the company was still producing the teabags with the help of a third party.

Sariwangi is still a market leader of teabags in this country, he said as reported by tribunnews.com on Thursday.

Sariwangi Agricultural Estate Agency and Maskapai Perkebunan Indorub Sumber Wadung were declared bankrupt after they failed to pay Rp 1.5 trillion (US$98.80 million).

Sariwangi, which was established in 1962, initially ran a tea trading business. It expanded its business by manufacturing tea products and become a pioneer in teabag products.

In 2015, Sariwangi and its affiliate, Maskapai Perkebunan Indorub Sumber Wadung, faced financial problems after they failed to increase their production of tea leaves after investing a large amount of money in a watering system at their plantation. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Washington, United States  Thu, October 18, 2018 23:22 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b3087784ce50 2 World #USA,#ArabSaudi,#MurderCase,USA,Treasury-Secretary,absence,Saudi-Arabia,investment,meeting Free

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will skip next week's Saudi investment summit, dealing another blow to Riyadh following the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mnuchin announced on Twitter after meeting with US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo had just returned from Saudi Arabia and briefed Trump on the status of the investigation into the journalist's disappearance in Turkey.

With Wall Street already teetering on Thursday, Mnuchin's announcement sent US stocks tumbling, adding to losses from a recent sell-off.

Prominent business partners of Saudi Arabia and investors, including companies with significant investment from Riyadh, have fled the conference since Khashoggi's disappearance on October 2 during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials have told reporters of gruesome details of Khashoggi's alleged killing which they say were gathered by Turkish intelligence, tying officials with close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to the incident.

Khashoggi was a prominent political and human rights critic of the Saudi government who had been living in the United States.

While withholding judgment on the case, Trump and Pompeo in recent days have stressed the depth of US-Saudi cooperation in financial and counterterrorism matters stretching back for almost a century.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Bekasi, West Java  Thu, October 18 2018

The onset of the era of the fourth industrial revolution, popularized as Industry 4.0, has raised concern among employers and employees over the fate of the countrys workforce as millions of workers may be disgruntled and face unemployment if they are replaced by machines.

If machines were to replace us, then there would be nothing we could do, said Tham Andi Suhardi, an outsourced worker for bolt manufacturer PT Sagateknindo Sejati in Bekasi, West Java.

He told reporters invited by the company for a factory tour on Tuesday that he was a freelance coordinator of 25 neighborhood housewives who worked as part of the companys assembly line on a freelance basis in their own home.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, October 19 2018

Presidential candidate Prabowo Subiantos Gerindra Party has accused two of President Joko Jokowi Widodos ministers of publicly demonstrating political partisanship while representing Indonesia at the 2018 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group in Bali over the weekend.

Video footage went viral on Wednesday showing Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati allegedly telling World Bank president Jim Yong Kim and IMF managing director Christine Lagarde to pose while making a partisan hand gesture during a photoshoot.

That was a very unfair and unwise action. They [Luhut and Sri Mulyani] were unprofessional and partisan. They were supposed to be neutral, Gerindra executive Ahmad Riza Patria told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Fri, October 19 2018

Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA) expert handling the distribution of emergency shelter in Palu. (Courtesy of Embassy of Switzerland)

Switzerland has sent 30 tons of relief items to earthquake and tsunami victims in Palu and the surrounding area in Central Sulawesi. It also donated US$506,000 to the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), the Embassy of Switzerland in Jakarta said in a press release.

Switzerlands second cargo aircraft for disaster relief landed in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Oct. 11.

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Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Chicago, United States  Thu, October 18, 2018 17:05 1126 882ab4bc56dbda08a069b308778404c7 2 SE Asia #SoutheastAsia,#Vietnam,blogger,Mother,mushroom,USA Free

A dissident Vietnamese blogger known by her pen name 'Mother Mushroom' has arrived in the United States after her surprise release from prison, telling a large crowd of supporters she will "never keep silent" in her fight for democracy in the one-party state.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 39, was quietly freed from a jail on Wednesday in Vietnam and put on a plane with her elderly mother and two young children who were seen smiling and hugging her in images shared on social media.

Her unexpected release after two years behind bars came as US defence chief Jim Mattis visited Vietnam as part of warming ties between the former foes, who are eager to counter China's rising influence in Asia.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Vietnamese government commented on the timing of Quynh's release, though the US embassy in Hanoi said they welcomed the move.

The outspoken blogger, whose name comes from her daughter's nickname "mushroom", smiled and spoke to a large crowd of friends and supporters, many livestreaming the chaotic scene on Facebook, at Houston's George Bush airport where she arrived just before midnight on Wednesday.She said it was not an easy move leaving her country but vowed to "never keep silent" in her fight for rights issues back home.

"I will continue to raise my voice until there is human rights in Vietnam, real human rights," she told AFP by phone before getting into a car with her family.

Quynh has been behind bars since her arrest in 2016 when she was arrested while visiting a fellow activist in prison.

She was later convicted for "anti-state propaganda" for publishing damning Facebook posts about deaths in police custody, a toxic spill in central Vietnam and the criticisms of the ruling communist party.

She was sentenced to 10 years in jail last year, a heavy ruling that drew swift rebuke from the US, the EU and UN.

Earlier this year police moved her to a prison hundreds of kilometres from her hometown Nha Trang in central Vietnam, which she said had taken a toll on her family who were exhausted by the travel.

"It was time for me to think of my family, I made this final decision (to leave) for the future of my two kids," she said

- One out, one in -

The US embassy in Hanoi said Quynh had requested to go to the US if released and urged Vietnam to free other activists.

"We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience," embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said.

Her arrest grabbed headlines globally and she gained global fame after receiving the International Woman of Courage Award in 2017, presented to her in absentia by US First Lady Melania Trump.

Her husband Donald Trump's administration has come under fire for not doing enough to protect human rights, especially in Vietnam.

Though Vietnam has long jailed its critics, a hardline leadership in charge since 2016 has been accused of doubling down on efforts to silence activists.

More than 55 bloggers, protesters and Facebookers have been jailed this year alone, according to an AFP tally, with the length and frequency of sentences steadily ticking upward.Soon after Quynh was released Wednesday, fellow dissident Nguyen Dinh Thanh, 27, was jailed for seven years for "spreading anti-state materials" in southern Binh Duong province.

The former medical student was accused of printing 3,000 leaflets apparently to distribute at nationwide protests in June, according to state media.

In another indication that Vietnam is not likely to let up its punishment of critics, activist Le Dinh Luong had his 20-year sentence upheld in an appeal trial Thursday in Nghe An province.

The sentence is one of the harshest doled out to an activist in years.Oct 18 2018 4:03 pm

Agudath Israel of America urged the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last week to revise proposed regulations that could undermine school choice programs in many states and jeopardize the scholarships of thousands of students. This would include the approximately 6500 students currently using tax credit scholarships to attend Jewish schools.

Scholarship tax credit programs, which at present operate in eighteen states, offer taxpayers a state tax credit, generally ranging from 50-100%, in return for a donation to a scholarship granting organization. The scholarship organization then distributes those funds to eligible, mostly low-income, students to attend the private school of their choice. Agudath Israel has played a key role in advocacy and implementation efforts pertaining to scholarship tax credit programs in at least ten states, as Jewish families benefit greatly from the tens of millions of dollars in scholarship funding generated by those programs.

At the end of the summer, the IRS released proposed rules that were intended to prevent states from allowing their taxpayers to allocate certain state taxes as a charitable contribution to the state in the hope that this would qualify the payment as a charitable deduction under federal law. Considered as a charitable contribution, such donations, like those to scholarships organizations, would not be subject to the new federal tax laws $10,000 cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. The proposed regulations, however, would require taxpayers to subtract the full state tax credit from their federal charitable contribution, reducing or eliminating the value of that contribution.

Despite a statement from Treasury Secretary Mnuchin stating that the Trump Administration supported school choice and that the IRS believed that, only about 1 percent of taxpayers will see an effect on tax benefits for donations to school choice tax credit programs, the feedback received from scholarship programs told a different story.

Agudath Israel reached out to many scholarship organizations and heard similar sentiments of concern that the new regulations could potentially cause their biggest donors to withhold future contributions, says Rabbi A. D. Motzen, Agudath Israels national director of state relations. They felt that this could devastate these programs, leaving thousands of low-income students without a scholarship.

The nine page comment, principally authored by Providence attorney Marc (Menasheh) Lewin, Esq., who acted as counsel to Agudath Israel, with the advice and input of Baltimore attorney Stuart Schabes, Esq., argued that the proposed regulations represent a reversal of decades-old tax policy, and went on to offer specific recommendations that would help the IRS achieve its stated policy goals without jeopardizing scholarship programs. The Agudath Israel submission was part of a collaborative effort of a coalition of national advocacy organizations, and the many scholarship organizations which provided helpful guidance and data.

Agudath Israel has made a compelling case to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and the IRS to narrow the scope of the proposed regulations, says Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israels Vice President for Federal Government Affairs. Our message is clear: Please dont undermine the scholarships of thousands of students!

Agudath Israel has requested to testify at the public hearing scheduled for November 5th.Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

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Today

Light snow this morning will give way to some light rain this afternoon. Temps nearly steady in the mid 30s. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precip 80%..

Tonight

Periods of rain. Low around 2C. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Rainfall near a quarter of an inch.

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Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading.MBABANE  Construction industry firms will now face punitive action for business misconduct. Business misconduct may include elements of anti-competitive behaviour, dodging or short-changing clients (including non-completion of or failure to deliver a project or products), fronting, collusion, price-fixing and other similar acts which have the potential to derail the industry.



This comes after the official launch of the Industry Association Regulatory Policy yesterday. The policy was launched at the Happy Valley Hotel, and came into effect immediately after its initiation. The Chief Executive Officer of the Construction Industry Council (CIC), Nhlanhla Dlamini unpacked some of the clauses of the regulatory policy during the launch.



The CIC has four industry affiliated associations, namely the Eswatini Contractors Association (SCA), Swaziland Association of Architects, Engineers and Surveyors (SAAES), Swaziland Association of Indigenous Engineers (SAIE) and the Building Material and Suppliers Association (BMSA).

All members of the industry association, according to the policy will have to sign a code of conduct that binds them to the industry ethics contained therein.



Regulations



The industry associations code of conduct shall not be in conflict with the Act and other related pieces of legislation and regulations, as well as the Construction Industry Councils similar instruments.



As part of its code of conduct, the association is expected to stipulate actions and/or behaviours which are deemed professional misconduct in the industry.

In addition to reporting to the council where necessary, punitive action to be taken in the event a member is found to have committed business misconduct, shall be specified by each of the industry associations in their code of conduct documents, states a clause in the policy.



The council has put in place mechanisms for reporting complaints against contractors. According to the policy, the council may investigate such cases, including the use of collaborative processes with the industry associations.



Complaints



The council will also inform industry associations about complaints lodged against their members, in order to ensure that there is constant programming aimed at minimising the occurrence of such complaints.



At minimum, the executive committee of the industry association shall ensure that one annual general meeting (AGM) where all members of the associations are invited, is held at least once a year and for such meetings, sufficient evidence shall be kept, showing that effort directed at ensuring maximum attendance was made by the executive committee.



Another extraordinary general meeting shall be organised for members apart from the AGM, to discuss industry issues affecting members, since such may not be discussed in detail and exhaustively within an AGM, the policy states.

The council will have power to penalize the executive committee should this policy be violated, including removing the executive committee from office.



Extraordinary



The Associations are free to hold other extraordinary general meetings should a need arise, and the number of these shall be limited by the associations constitution.

Measures aimed at discouraging members from not attending general meetings shall be put in place by the industry association, in order to maximise participation by members in industry matters, further reads the policy which is available on the CICs website.

The policy also stipulates that the council shall make grant funding available to industry associations through a clearly defined funding framework, in order for the industry associations to effectively carry out its functions especially towards improving the construction industry in Eswatini.MBABANE- Eswatini Bank has availed a chance for its customers to own new wheels without having to pay a deposit.



This is a once in a lifetime opportunity provided by the bank which was launched at the beginning of the month.

Customers who made use of this facility stood a chance to win fuel vouchers.



Yesterday, the first prize presentation ceremony took place at the banks headquarters.

The promotion has been running for a month, and affords customers the opportunity to buy cars with a no deposit requirement and a repayment period of 72 months.



Executive Manager for Business Banking Nozizwe Mulela said if customers bought a car during the promotion, which will be running until December 31, they stood a chance to win fuel vouchers valued at a total of E1 000 every fortnight.



Jethro Maseko and Nonkululeko Dlamini were the winners of the first prize presentation. Maseko was the first prize winner with E600, while Dlamini was the second. She walked away with a fuel voucher of E400.



Maseko said he was ecstatic about winning as it was his first time to win anything in his life.

He had bought a Renault Quartz worth E150 000 and said he was already enjoying the perks of the banks offering. He thanked the bank and further encouraged other customers to take part in the promotion as they could also stand a chance to win great prizes.MBABANE  Police are seeking the whereabouts of a woman suspected to have stolen a vehicle.



Nomalungelo Jele (26) from KaKhoza in Manzini is alleged to have stolen the vehicle, while it was parked in a garage at Nkhanini.

According to the police, the vehicle is a white Isuzu valued at E325 000 and it was stolen over a week ago, on October 9.



The Royal Eswatini Police Service has been conducting investigations which are still ongoing.

Currently, the Isuzu registered PSD 955 AS has not been located, same with the suspect.

Information gathered is that the garage door was opened on the day the vehicle was allegedly stolen, but it could not be established if it was during the day or at night.



Police have come forward to ask the public to help them in locating the vehicle and to give information if they have seen it.

Relatives and friends of Jele have been visited by the police, but they do not have information on her whereabouts.



Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that they were looking for Jele.

Any information will be welcome so we can arrest the suspect and get the vehicle back. If you have any information, please call Hhohho RCBO Sikhumbuzo Fakudze at 7603 3862, Inspector Patrick Dludlu at 7604 4178 and Teevee Nkhambule at 7643 5858, she said.MBABANE  It took just one post to get thousands of social media users seething with anger and eventually costing a young man his job.



As South Africans try to stomach the shattering evidence given by one Cheryl Zondo in the rape trial of PastorTimothy Omotoso, local facebookers used every word in the dictionary to blast and condemn what they termed an inhumane post allegedly written by an employee of the Swaziland Sugar Association (SSA).



It did not end with the condemning but the social media users went to an extent of contacting the SSA, editors of media houses and civic organisations, calling for action to be taken against him.



The post, which was written in a mixture of vernacular and English, implied that there was nothing as funny as a woman who ignored a man courting her, when at the same time she was aware that he knew that she had recently been raped.



The account which posted the statement, used the name Mpendulo Perfectionist Simelane, whose page had logos of SSA and this is what made the social media users believe that he was employed by the company.



So serious were the calls that the SSA found itself with no choice but to part ways with the employee who was in the companys IT department.

It could not be ascertained as to how far the company went in as far as determining if the account indeed belonged to Simelane.



It was just after 10am when some of the social media users, including those on Twitter, started posting screen grabs of the posts condemning the content.

This was followed by a long letter directed to the SSA, which was shared all over the social media, especially on Facebook.

As the issue got heated up, the post was removed from the account, but it was a case of too little too late as screen grabs were being shared all over.



Stigma



This open letter serves as a move towards challenging the stigma of being raped and it represents the first step that should ignite the public at large to reject placing blame on victims.



Mpendulo Simelane, who is allegedly your employee, posted the attached defamatory and degrading statements of all time about a woman who has suffered enough in the hands of a molester, the letter stated.MANZINI  Several gun- shots were fired as a group of inmates held hostage Correctional officers before demanding keys to the facilitys cells in a foiled mass escape plan.



The rare incident took place at Sidwashini Correctional Services facility yesterday during lunch time, and the officers who were held hostage were two females.



This is said to have led to a bloody clash between Correctional officers and the inmates, who were armed with working tools such as forks, shovels and slashers, among others. As a result, four officers were rushed to the Mbabane Government Hospital, where they were admitted with serious injuries.



Relatives



A source close to the matter said the incident took place when the inmates were given time to make calls to their relatives and friends using the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation (EPTC) pay phones, normally referred to as call boxes, which are located within the facility.

The source said usually, everyday inmates were given time to make calls to people outside the facility. He said the procedure was that they would be allowed to go and make the calls in groups of five. However, he said they made the calls under the supervision of Correctional officers.



He said yesterday, the two female officers were assigned to monitor the inmates when making the calls. The source said it was suspected that the inmates had already planned to use this opportunity to attack the officers with the intention to escape.



He said this was more so because, while the inmates were making the calls, one of them asked to discard some rubbish.

It is said that one of the unsuspecting female officers, who had keys of the doors where the prisoner could dispose the waste, allowed the inmate to throw away the rubbish.



When the inmate came back, the source alleged he attacked the female officer. Likewise, it was alleged that the other four inmates also attacked the other officer.By Azernews





By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Colonel-General Zasar Hasanov held a bilateral meeting with his Czech counterpart Lubomir Metnar after the official opening ceremony of the exhibition on October 17, the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan reported.

Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov, who is on a working visit to the Czech Republic, also participates in the International Future Force Exhibition 2018.

The visit took place at the invitation of the Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic.

The sides exchanged views on current state of military cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic, prospects of development, as well as security issues in the region.

The Azerbaijani Minister got acquainted with the products produced by the defense industry of the Czech Republic.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on January 27, 1993

Czech Republic hosted official meetings on Peaceful Settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict.







Gallery owner and collector Alexander Iolas, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures on Greeces post-war art scene, is the subject of a tribute at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art which marks the 30th anniversary of his death. The exhibition aims to highlight the importance of networking in shaping new cultural movements and trends, while also shedding light on Iolas's relationship with disparate artists ranging from de Chirico and Man Ray to Modigliani and Warhol. Opening hours are Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art,

Helexpo Exhibition Center, 154 Egnatia,

tel 2310.240.002, www.mmca.gr

Read more at ekathimerini.com

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Zweifussler License: CC-BY-SAWhile ornamental orchids can be cultivated, the same was not true of wild orchids, whose reproductive biology was more unusual

Overharvesting to meet skyrocketing demand in Turkey and elsewhere is placing the endemic wild orchid population in Pindos mountain, northwestern Greece at risk, according to a team of scientists studying the flowers, ANA reports.

A key ingredient for the production of salep, a popular sweet drink, and Turkey's mastic ice cream dondurma, the dried orchid is now fetching prices as high as 90-120 euros per kilo on the black market.

"The wild orchids are strictly protected under Greek laws but most people don't know this. Even though our results show that local traditional collection is of a relatively limited extent and scale, in recent years the phenomenon of 'looting' harvesting is increasingly observed. In addition to orchids, it also concerns other medicinal plants, herbs, edible mushrooms and truffles as a result of global pressure for 'wild' and 'traditional' products, transforming the former foods of the poor into foods for the rich," the head of the team Kalliopi Stara told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

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: KostasGiannakis License: CC-BY-SAA polymer plant for production of polyethylene and polypropylene was commissioned in Turkmenistan. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov attended the official opening ceremony.

The plant was built by the consortium of companies consisting of Korean LG International and Hyundai Engineering, as well as Japanese TOYO Engineering in the village of Kiyanly on the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea. It will process 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and produce 386 thousand tons of high-density polyethylene and 81 thousand tons of polypropylene.

The plant will create about 1 thousand new jobs. Most of its products will be exported. The cost of the project exceeds US 3,400 billion.

 TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021| By Patricia Fanning

The day was brisk, the winds were moderate, and the invited crowd and numerous passers-by were appreciative as the first piece of public art on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) was dedicated on Oct. 16.

(View a photo gallery on Facebook and see a video below.)

The 30-foot-tall piece by artist Eric Peltzer is a kinetic sculpture that had been temporarily immobilized by a red sash. He and the participating dignitaries, including Maryland First Lady Yumi Hogan, had no scissors to cut that ribbon as is typical during a dedication. Instead they loosened the sash and let the wind take hold.

From left, Ken Skrzesz, executive director of the Maryland State Arts Council; UMB President Jay A. Perman; Maryland First Lady and artist Yumi Hogan; sculptor Eric Peltzer; and Catherine Leggett, chair of the Maryland Commission on Public Art, stand in front of UMB's first public art after its dedication.

In introducing the artist, UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD, had set the stage for the resulting movement. He observed that Peltzer had chosen a fitting title, Stochastic Interactions, and that stochastic describes the random processes of genetics and molecular biology.

The random nature of the wind interacting with the sculpture is meant to suggest the randomness at work on our genetics. Its a gorgeous piece, Perman said.

Perman also called attention to the way the piece suggests the human form through the shape of the DNA double helix. He called the design a wonderful nod to the cutting-edge genomic research that takes place in Health Sciences Research Facility III. The new building is a soaring backdrop for the sculpture and home to the Institute for Genome Sciences of the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), among other offices and labs.

As required by legislation passed in 2013, Maryland must include public art in new or renovated state buildings. The Maryland Public Art Initiative (MPAI) sets aside a percentage of capital construction costs for the integration of public art and enables its creators to become involved early in the planning and construction phases.

Peltzer is a Southern California artist who has been making sculptures for more than three decades. He visited the site over a two-year period after being selected in an open-call jury process overseen by the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency of the state Department of Commerce.

It is the Maryland Commission on Public Art that directs the strategic vision of Maryland's statewide public art program. Leaders of both participated in the ceremony.

Public art is free. No admission price. A museum without walls, said the councils executive director, Ken Skrzesz, who also noted that an outdoor sculpture such as Peltzers work allows us moments of reflection. As for the dynamics of the still-fettered Stochastic Interactions, Skrzesz observed, Its dying to take off!

Commission Chair Catherine Leggett called the sculpture magnificent, adding that the piece lifts us up and connects the health-care aspects of its surroundings on the UMB campus and the nearby University of Maryland Medical Center. Well done, she said.

The sculpture stands at the corner of Pine and Baltimore streets. The latter is a busy bus-route corridor. Meanwhile, city and campus pedestrians include patients arriving and departing the clinics of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry at 650 W. Baltimore St. Only moments after the unveiling, a dental patient emerged and admired the work.

It is that sort of public access that Maryland First Lady Hogan finds laudatory. Speaking from her perspective as an artist and in her role as honorary chair of the UMB Council for the Arts & Culture, she described the sculpture as beautiful, like a bird, and observed that its in the perfect spot to inspire people of all ages, including students.

Hogan, a faculty member at Maryland Institute College of Art, called Stochastic Interactions an example of artists connecting our lives.

Peltzer said he drew his inspiration for Stochastic Interactions on the history of the university and especially on that of its medical school, relying greatly on author Larry Pitrof, executive director of the UMSOM Alumni Association. The legs have twists, symbolic of the challenges of the first 100 years. Also, the legs have little incisions that reflect an inquisitive nature, Peltzer said.

As for the genomics aspect, he said, People walk by and know whats going on in the building.

Peltzer also shared one of his biggest difficulties, literally: To get something this big and heavy to move in the wind.

Dignitaries in attendance included Maryland Higher Education Secretary James Fielder Jr., PhD, and Liz Fitzsimmons, managing director of the Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts at the Maryland Commerce Department, which oversees the arts council.

Peltzers parents, sisters, and other family members were present. So were several members of the selection committee, whose members spent months poring over nearly 200 artist applications. The committee was led by UMB Assistant Vice President Angela Fowler-Young, director of the Office of Real Estate, Planning, and Space Management. It included Anthony Consoli, AIA, LEED AP, campus architect at UMB; Robert Cook, executive director of facilities and operations at UMSOM, and Pitrof, among others.

Perman thanked the committee and everyone at UMB and in Maryland government who saw the project through, such as Mark Behrens, a senior design and construction project manager at UMB, and the Maryland State Arts Councils Liesel Fenner, ASLA, program director of public art.

There are a million moving parts to something like this, the president said.

But the only moving parts that mattered were the arms of the sculpture. And Peltzers Stochastic Interactions responded to the wind, on cue, at its dedication.How could we not give flowers? It is a sign of respect, says the girls father as he watches them going into class in the village of Berezowka in eastern Poland.

The small rural primary school, only eight km from the border with Belarus, has 54 pupils. Twenty-one of them are local children while 33 are ethnic Chechens from the Russian Federation. They are brought by bus every day from a nearby centre for asylum-seekers.

To be honest, says the head, our school is only able to keep going thanks to the foreign children. They help to keep our numbers up.

I will show them pictures and write the words on the blackboard. With the younger ones, we might try to sing a song. English teacher Joanna Lubanska-Tymoszuk, 29, welcomes kids on the first day back at school in Berezowka, eastern Poland.  UNHCR/Rafal Kostrzynski The Polish flag is carried in for the singing of the national anthem on the first day of the new school year in the village of Berezowka.  UNHCR/Rafal Kostrzynski

The school is run by a private association called Behind the Krzna River, whose chairwoman, Monika Dziobek, says the Polish and Chechen children mingle happily. We have seen some beautiful cases of genuine friendship, she says.

Today, the children and parents, all in their best clothes, are gathering in the school hall for the welcome ceremony. A Polish boy, wearing a sash and white gloves and flanked by two other children in sashes, carries the white and red Polish flag into the hall for the singing of the national anthem.

We are pleased with the school. The teachers are good and there is a nice, friendly atmosphere.

A Chechen mother, with her small son on her lap, gently stops him from playing with a water bottle during the headmistresss speech.

We are glad to be here, says another Chechen mother. This is a peaceful place, with freedom of speech. We are pleased with the school. The teachers are good and there is a nice, friendly atmosphere.

After the ceremony, the children find their classrooms and teachers for the new term.

It is a legal requirement that the asylum-seekers send their children to school and this village school, catering for children from kindergarten age to 14, has shown kindness and imagination in accommodating them.

All the children follow the Polish curriculum, although the Chechens are excused Catholic religious education and observe their Muslim faith privately. There are extra language classes for those who have grown up speaking Chechen at home and Russian in wider society.

Most of the children pick up Polish very quickly, says language teacher Arkadiusz Rogulski.

There are lots of complementary lessons  something like 500 a year  not only Polish language but also sport, environmental studies and crafts, all taught in Polish, says Monika Dziobek. We have received EU funding for this and we hope it will continue.

Russian, needed in this border area that sees many visitors from Belarus and Ukraine, is taught as a foreign language to the older children in years seven and eight.

English is taught earlier, and a small group of seven-year-olds, with their parents, are checking out the class of English teacher Joanna Lubanska-Tymoszuk.

English is taught through Polish, not Russian, says one concerned Chechen parent. So our children need to know Polish first before they can learn English.

Lubanska-Tymoszuk, 29, beams reassuringly.

I will use pictures and sounds, she says. I will show them pictures and write the words on the blackboard. With the younger ones, we might try to sing a song.

The children are already sitting in their chairs, two Chechen girls in the front row, two Polish girls in the second row and a Chechen boy off to one side.

Children are individuals, laughs Polish mother of seven Jolanta Nowak. They choose their friends according to their character and temperament. It happens naturally.

Chechen sisters eat ice creams after school in their one-room flat at a centre for asylum-seekers in Horbow, eastern Poland.  UNHCR/Rafal Kostrzynski "More than anything, I want my daughters to have education and opportunities for the future.  UNHCR/Rafal Kostrzynski

The first day of school is short and by afternoon, the Chechen families are back in Horbowianka, a former hotel. Now it is run by the Polish Office for Foreigners, the government agency responsible for assessing asylum claims, as a home for new arrivals awaiting decisions on their cases.

The home houses 74 people, all from Chechnya.

Besides shelter and meals, the residents receive small monetary allowances and Polish lessons. After six months, they are allowed to work and some do seasonal or construction jobs.

One resident, who represents the Chechen community, helping to solve practical problems and smoothing any misunderstandings in the village, takes us to meet his family at the home.

I used to visit my Mum every week. Now we only have WhatsApp.

His wife opens the door to their cramped room. The couple have three daughters  the girls who took roses for the head.

I never thought I would leave Chechnya but my mother encouraged me to go, says the mans wife. I used to visit my Mum every week. Now we only have WhatsApp.

I witnessed two wars in Chechnya and only finished seven years of school. I had wanted to be a nurse. Now, more than anything, I want my daughters to have education and opportunities for the future.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter UNHCR/Noor Elshin

Amidst an increasingly volatile security situation in Tripoli, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency successfully evacuated 85 people, refugees from Syria, Sudan and Eritrea, to Timisoara, Romania. Here they will spend a few weeks at UNHCRs Emergency Transit Facility before flying onwards to Norway. On the same day another 135 vulnerable people were evacuated from Libya to Niger.

Many of the evacuated had been held in detention centres for several months and were suffering from the effects of malnutrition and poor health. They are currently being hosted in UNHCRs Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) until further solutions for them are found.

These evacuations are a life-changing and life-saving escape for refugees trapped in detention in Libya, said UNHCR Chief of Mission in Libya Roberto Mignone. Refugees and migrants in detention centres often suffer squalid conditions and are at risk of being sold to traffickers and smugglers. This shows what a lifeline resettlement can be.

UNHCR staff endured significant security challenges and restrictions on movement to complete the evacuation as tensions amongst rival militias increase, resulting in intermittent exchanges of fire and rockets falling on Tripoli airport.

The individuals involved were the first to be evacuated from Libya since June.

The successful completion of the evacuation brings the total number of people evacuated from Libya by UNHCR to 1997 since they began in December 2017.

UNHCR is grateful to Libyan authorities for providing access to the evacuees, and welcomes the efforts of resettlement countries in coming forward with offers of places for those trapped in Libya. However, with many more in Libya requiring urgent evacuation, UNHCR implores resettlement countries to speed their procedures for further places to become available.

People are being intercepted off the Libyan coast faster than we can evacuate them, said Mignone. We are deeply grateful for all those who have come forward with resettlement places but the simple truth is we need more evacuations, more often.

Share on Facebook Share on TwitterRefugees Mohamed and Mariam seen outside the detention center from where they were evacuated to Niger.  UNHCR

Amidst an increasingly volatile security situation in Tripoli, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency successfully evacuated 135 people out of Libya to Niger on Tuesday night (16 October).



Many of the evacuated had been held in detention centres for several months and were suffering from the effects of malnutrition and poor health. They are currently being hosted in UNHCRs Emergency Transit Mechanism (ETM) until further solutions for them are found.



These evacuations are a life-changing and life-saving escape for refugees trapped in detention in Libya, said UNHCR Chief of Mission in Libya Roberto Mignone. Refugees and migrants in detention centres often suffer squalid conditions and are at risk of being sold to traffickers and smugglers. This shows what a lifeline resettlement can be.



UNHCR staff endured significant security challenges and restrictions on movement to complete the evacuation as tensions amongst rival militias increase, resulting in intermittent exchanges of fire and rockets falling on Tripoli airport.



The 135 individuals involved were the first to be evacuated from Libya since June, amidst concerns that arrivals to Niger were outpacing the speed at which people were being resettled to third countries.



The successful completion of the evacuation brings the total number of people evacuated from Libya by UNHCR to 1997 since they began in December 2017.



UNHCR is grateful to Libyan authorities for providing access to the evacuees, and welcomes the crucial support of the Government of Niger in hosting the Emergency Transit Mechanism.



On the same day, 85 refugees from Syria, Sudan and Eritrea departed on two flights from Tripoli to Timisoara, Romania, with the assistance of IOM, the UN Migration Agency. They will spend a few weeks at UNHCRs Emergency Transit Facility before flying onwards to Norway.



UNHCR welcomes the efforts of resettlement countries in coming forward with offers of places for those trapped in Libya. However, with many refugees in Niger in need of further offers of resettlement, and many more in Libya requiring urgent evacuation, UNHCR implores resettlement countries to speed their procedures for further places to become available.



People are being intercepted off the Libyan coast faster than we can evacuate them, said Mignone. We are deeply grateful for all those who have come forward with resettlement places but the simple truth is we need more evacuations, more often.





For more information on this topic, please contact:Among the rescuers who converged on the Greek coastal resort of Mati in July as hundreds fled deadly wildfires was a 23-year-old Syrian refugee, himself saved from a watery grave last year.

Obada Ibo Al-Nassar trained as a lifeguard after arriving in Greece and is a volunteer with the Lifeguard Hellas (LH) organization, which joined the operation that began when terrified civilians rushed headlong on to the beaches or into the water.

LH lifeguards were among the first on the scene on the day of the fire, July 23, when hundreds were ferried to safety in other parts of the mainland. In the following days, the LH team, including Ibo, continued the offshore search for the missing and dead.

Ibo was involved in the Mati operation. He was an active member, says Spiros Mitritsakis, who runs LH with his wife Mania Bikof. Hes an exceptional lifeguard, adds the veteran.

As for Ibo, he says he is glad to be doing something constructive with people that have come to be like a family.

He is probably the only Syrian lifeguard in Greece, teaching people to master the sea and rescuing those in difficulty.

This was the worst. It was hell.

When he crossed to Lesvos more than a year ago, it was only the intervention of a naval ship that saved him when his dinghy began breaking up.

After arriving, Ibo was taken to the Moria Reception and Identification Centre. This was the worst. It was hell, he recalls. However, he soon made friends outside the site with some foreign lifeguards who had come to help Greece. They aroused his interest in their work.

Through them he met Spiros and became a lifeguard. The LH mainly works along the coast off Athens and relies on donations. In late 2015, it deployed a team of volunteers on Lesvos until June this year. Based in an IKEA housing unit provided by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the round-the-clock operation helped rescue thousands in their stretch of coast.

Ibo keeps a watchful eye on bathers at an Athens beach. He trained with the Lifeguard Hellas organization, which works mainly on the coast of the Greek mainland near the capital.  UNHCR/Socrates Baltagiannis

Ibo fitted in well with the LH volunteers from Greece and further afield, initially helping teach children at the Kara Tepe municipal accommodation site to swim in the sea nearby. He had a desire to learn, to do things, says Mania.

The team welcomed him and he was taken to the LH school in Athens and trained to be a lifeguard. This included courses on water safety, first aid, equipment, diving, rescuing people in the water, teaching swimming and working out. The next challenge is to master the Greek language.

I have to think about how to survive today.

That aside, things are looking up for Ibo, who moved to accommodation in Athens after being authorized to leave Lesvos. He shares an apartment with other young men under UNHCRs ESTIA accommodation and cash assistance programme, which is funded by the European Union and has enough places for more than 25,000 asylum-seekers and refugees, mainly in urban apartments. Priority is given to the most vulnerable and more than 21,000 people are currently accommodated.

He has just been recognized as a refugee, more than a year after applying for asylum.

However, challenges remain, like finding a job. Ibo has not really thought about the long term. I have to think about how to survive today, he says. Ibo once thought of study engineering in Syria but is happy to do unskilled work.

Greek friends have helped him find temporary work and arrange his social welfare papers, including Spiros and Mania, who became lifeguards 30 years ago. It has become a way of life for them. We dont feel we are at work. It is something we love and it gives us this energy, Mania says.

Ibo has the bug, too, and says he will stay connected with the lifeguards. He is grateful to Greece and happy to give something back. He still thinks of Syria from time to time. The area I came from, Yarmuk, is completely destroyed.

Mati also lies in ruins. For him to live that moment in Mati it is similar to the experience he had, Mania says. The only escape for some in Mati was by water.In his passionate drive to advocate for quality higher education for Somali refugees, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Ambassador Mohamed Affey, visited Dadaab Refugee Camps on 9th and 10th October 2018. He met with refugee youth some of who have completed secondary school, but they have had no access to higher education.

In his interactions with the youth, Ambassador Affey listened to their aspirations, dreams, challenges and needs. He encouraged them to remain positive and use their time in the refugee camps to engage in self-education as they aim for a brighter future.

Education is the greatest equalizer in life.

The day you become educated, you will take care of yourself and your community. You will forget the pain of being a refugee, Ambassador Affey told the youth.

He urged the refugees in the Dadaab camps to take advantage of the facilities that UNHCR and partner agencies have provided. He also reiterated the importance of advocacy to address key barriers to higher education for large number of Somali refugee students in Dadaab.

We are here in Dadaab to do advocacy work for the international community and our partners for continued support to refugee education in Dadaab so that many more can get an opportunity to go to school, to transit from high school to university and from university to the job market around the world as responsible members of the global community, the envoy said.

Ambassador Affey appealed to the international community, private sector, Somali civil society and Somali business people, Somali government and NGO partners to scale up their support to create additional higher education scholarships for Somali refugees. He observed that education is a key driver in finding durable solutions for refugees in protracted refugee situations.

Sadik Ibrahim, a 26-year-old refugee from Somalia is one of the youth who completed his secondary education in 2016 and dreams of going to University. I am doing voluntary community mobilization work and I also volunteer as a teacher in one of the primary schools, says Sadik. My dream is to be a politician and for that I want to study Business and Commerce so that I can understand how an office works.

Having waited for two years for an opportunity to join university, Sadik has not given up. I still have hope for change. The situation today does not determine my destiny, he adds.

The youth in Dadaab remain expectant that the advocacy efforts by the Special Envoy will increase the number of scholarships programmes for higher education.

The visit of Ambassador Affey to the camp has created a sense of hope among us.

This is the first time I am meeting with an Ambassador. I hope scholarships for refugees will somehow increase and I will have a chance to study, an elated Sadik said.

In the past three years, more than 3,260 refugee students have completed secondary school in Dadaab camps with dreams of pursuing higher education. However, due to lack of access to higher education opportunities, many of these graduates live in the camps with limited opportunities for higher education. According to the UNHCR global report on education, Turn the Tide, only 1% of refugees have access to higher education. .

The Dadaab refugee complex has a population of 208,000 refugees and asylum seekers, and consists of three camps, Hagadera, Ifo, and Dagahaley. 96 per cent of the refugees are from Somalia. 104,331 of the total camp population are of school-going chidlren aged 3-17 years, constituting half of the population. Only 63,892 of the total of school going age children are enrolled in school among them 9,036 are enrolled at secondary school in Dadaab camps.

Share on Facebook Share on TwitterKuwait renews calls for political solution in Syria

New York, Oct 18 (UNI) The State of Kuwait renewed late Wednesday calls for a political solution to resolve the crisis in Syria, affirming that a military choice was beyond consideration.

Speaking to a UN session on Syria, Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the UN headquarters in New York Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi said, International community must follow the course clearly laid down by the 2012 Geneva communique and UNSC resolution 2254 to put an end to the misery in the war torn country.

The world was hopeful that the crisis in Syria would see some sort of an initial solution, said Al-Otaibi. He hoped that the upcoming visit by United Nations and Arab League Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura to Damascus next week would come out with fruitful results to launch such endeavor, reports Qatar News Agency.New Delhi, Oct 17 (UNI) The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on Wednesday formally handed over the analysis report of top 100 bank frauds to the Union Minister of State for PMO Dr Jitendra Singh here by the Vigilance Commissioners TM Bhasin and Sharad Kumar.

While discussing the salient features of the report, Dr Singh appreciated the exercise undertaken by the CVC and said that this documented report will serve as a reference material for policy planners, lawmakers and researchers.

Briefing about the report, TM Bhasin said the entire exercise was mainly inspired by the rising trend in bank frauds which has become a cause of concern at all levels. The CVC, he said, through this report has undertaken a review and analysis of top 100 Bank Frauds in India, as on March 31, 2017.

The analysis of the top bank frauds included in the report mainly focuses on modus operandi, amount of money involved, type of lending, anomalies observed, loopholes that facilitated the fraud.

Mr Bhasin expressed the hope that this consolidated report will go a long way in reducing or obviating bank frauds in the country.

UNI AKS SHK1927Maldives govt strongly rejects 'India Out' slogan; thanks India for being 'closest ally, trusted neighbour' 17 Nov 2021 | 9:53 PM Male, Nov 17 (UNI) The Maldives government on Wednesday strongly rejected attempts to spread false information through media and across social media platforms using the so-called India Out slogan, and said the misguided and unsubstantiated views belonged to a small group of individuals who want to tarnish the countrys long-standing cordial ties with India. see more..

World Tennis Champion voices concern over Chinese Tennis Star Peng Shuai's fate 17 Nov 2021 | 9:37 PM Tokyo, Nov 17 (UNI/Sputnik) Tennis star Naomi Osaka on Wednesday joined the chorus of voices expressing concern over the disappearance of Chinese player Peng Shuai, who hasn't been heard from shortly after she accused a former high-ranking Chinese official of sexual assault. see more..

US, UK, Australia say Iranian government-linked hackers deploying Ransomware : Advisory 17 Nov 2021 | 9:30 PM Washington, Nov 17 (UNI/Sputnik) The United States, Australia and the United Kingdom on Wednesday issued a joint cybersecurity advisory highlighting a ransomware threat from hackers linked to the Iranian government. see more..

Philippine leader's daughter agrees to lead center-right party Ahead of 2022 Election 17 Nov 2021 | 8:33 PM Manila, Nov 17 (UNI/Sputnik) Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and mayor of Davao City, agreed on Wednesday to chair the center-right Lakas-CMD party, as she is running for vice president in the general election scheduled for the next year. see more..Temporary hospital of 100 beds to be established in Kumbh: Sidhharth Nath

Allahabad, Oct 18 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidhartha Nath Singh here on Thursday said that a temporary hospital of hundred beds will be established in Kumbh Mela premises to provide better health facilities through pilgrims and tourists.

Addressing the media here after laying foundation of hospital in parade ground, Mr Singh said that Yogi Adityanath government is committed to organise a grand Kumbh Mela keeping safety, security and amenities of pilgrims and tourists on priority.

He said that crores of pilgrims from here and other countries will come in Kumbh Mela, largest religious gathering of world.XL RecordingsThe week isn't even over yet, and we already have two new Thom Yorke songs.

Tuesday, the Radiohead frontman released an instrumental track in collaboration with Greenpeace called "Hands Off the Antarctic," and now he's shared "Open Again," a cut from his upcoming Suspiria soundtrack. "Open Again" is available now for digital download.

The Suspiria soundtrack will be released in full on October 26. The film, which is a remake of the 1977 cult classic from Italian horror icon Dario Argento, opens in limited release that same day before going wide November 2.

Yorke will embark on a U.S. solo tour beginning November 23 in Philadelphia.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Published: October 18, 2018

UT Honors Symposium to Analyze The Science Of Implicit Bias on Oct. 25

On Thursday, Oct. 25, Lorie Fridell, a faculty member in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida, will discuss The Science of Implicit Bias as part of The University of Tampas honors symposium series. Fridells talk will begin at 6 p.m. in the Plant Hall Grand Salon and is free and open to the public.

A national expert on biased policing, Fridell will explain how the science of implicit bias might manifest in police professionals and what individual police officers and agencies can and should do to avoid bias.

Fridell has more than 20 years of experience in conducting research on law enforcement and speaks nationally on what she calls racially biased policing, providing consultation and command-level training to law enforcement agencies.

Author, co-author or editor of seven books, Fridell has published titles including Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response, By the Numbers: A Guide for Analyzing Race Data from Vehicle Stops and Understanding Race Data from Vehicles Stops: A Stakeholders Guide.

Fridell is the founder of the Fair and Impartial Policing Training Program, which brings the science of implicit bias to police agencies, and is a co-principal investigator at the National Institute of Justice, a multi-method project collecting data on law enforcement personnel and agencies at 100 sites around the United States.

For more information, contact co-directors of the Honors Program, Ryan Cragun, associate professor of sociology, at rcragun@ut.edu, or Kacy Tillman, associate professor of English, at ktillman@ut.edu.Wyoming Business Tips for Oct. 22-28

A weekly look at issues facing Wyoming business owners and entrepreneurs from the Wyoming Small Business Development Center (WSBDC) Network, a collection of business assistance programs at the University of Wyoming.

By Robert Condie, southwest regional director, WSBDC Network

Should you spend money on an accounting system to keep track of your finances, or should you use a free option that may require more work on your part? This is a question that is almost always asked of me as small businesses are about to start. Finding out which route is right for your business can save you a lot of stress, especially when tax time comes.

From my time spent working with accounting software and knowledge of spreadsheets, Ive heard arguments both ways as to what is best for your business. But, at the end of the day, I believe accounting software can be beneficial to every small-business owner. Heres why:

-- Digital spreadsheets, like Excel, require knowledge of complex formulas that can make your records prone to errors.

-- Simple spreadsheets are easy to alter, which can make you susceptible to fraud.

-- Each income stream needs to be tracked separately. This means that, as you start offering more services, the number of spreadsheets you have to maintain will increase.

Now, that doesnt mean you have to buy the most expensive software out there. The WSBDC Network can help you find the software that works best for your business and budget, and how to track your finances effectively -- even if you decide an Excel worksheet is best for you.

Get in contact with your local SBDC adviser by visiting www.wyomingsbdc.org.

A blog version of this article and an opportunity to post comments are available at www.wyomingsbdc.org/blog1/.

The WSBDC Network offers no-cost business expertise and technical assistance to help Wyoming entrepreneurs think about, launch, grow, reinvent or exit their business. The WSBDC Network is hosted by UW with state funds from the Wyoming Business Council and funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

To ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194, email wsbdc@uwyo.edu, or write 1000 E. University Ave., Dept. 3922, Laramie, WY, 82071-3922.The mental healthcare industry in Vietnam is still developing. The government has established the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP); however, industry observers have noted that the NMHP only covers approximately 30 percent of the country, and uses a very narrow list of mental illness.

While the government estimates that approximately 15 percent of the population requires mental health care services, independent research suggests that the figure is closer to 20 to 30 percent of the population. This is a major service gap for NGOs and foreign businesses.

International NGOs and foreign businesses that want to cover this service gap, and contribute to the healthcare system, need an intricate approach when entering the country. That begins with understanding the barriers that have prevented Vietnams existing mental health system from developing its capacity.

Mental healthcare landscape

Mental disorders are sometimes imbued with shame and disgrace in the country, which can prevent individuals from speaking openly about their distress. For example, bac si tam than is Vietnamese for psychiatrist; however, it directly translates in English to doctors who treat madness. These references are embedded with cultural stigma, implying those who seek psychological assistance are treating their obscenity.

Maintaining social composure by not publicly discussing issueslike anxiety or work stressis common. However, psychological burdens have a wide impact on individuals experiencing distress, including their family members.

From the outside, developing a mental healthcare industry may not strike foreign investors with immediate appeal since it requires facilitating a niche market on one hand, and working within the low-cost environment on the other. However, the countrys rapid economic growth is largely driven by its demographic dividend, and there is an increased demand for all forms of health care, including mental health care services.

Conventional for-profit counseling services are likely to be a challenge for investors in the current market. With most low and middle-income earners working full-time jobs, they are unlikely to bear the costs of taking time off work to seek out psychological assistance. Other considerations to keep in mind are factors like social stigma and the undeveloped concept of for-profit healthcare, which can prevent affluent clientele from seeking service.

However, targeting the growing middle class with new internet apps and online services for a low price may be a feasible option, while wealthier segments may become willing to pay for higher-end services as the discourse around mental health evolves. It is important to note the demographics of consumers willing to pay for quality service may change with time, as consumer spending is rising significantly.

Regardless of the service model, creating accessible options with confidentiality as the backbone of any new service is important for healthcare providers to keep in mind. Creating useful technology, like internet apps, can help people who grapple with acute social pressure access support in the comfort of their own home.

Areas of concern

In 2014, Vietnams Psychiatric Association conducted a study to identify which of the 10 most common mental illnesses affect the country the most. Of the formal list of mental illnesses in the country, the three most well-known issues were alcohol abuse, depression, and anxiety. However, further research to address these conclusions and to identify their causes is needed.

Beyond this, people who live in rural areas encounter their own unique challenges  particularly those left behind by the countrys economic boom. Traditional aspects of family life are undermined because of the countrys rapid economic development; intergenerational households are changing as parents move to urban centers to find work, leaving their children with extended family, or alone for long periods of time.

A study conducted by UK-based The Young Lives Project found that poverty-related stressors compromise healthy child development. Across both urban and rural areas, vulnerable youths and women lack adequate resources for their concerns. Care is especially lacking for those living in rural areas that do not have accessible transport to major cities  like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City  where services are more widely available. However, the limited number of mental health care professionals currently working in the field are unable to provide the demands vulnerable segments of the population need, especially when resources are limited.

A joint study between UNICEF, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), and The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) surveyed the rural area of Dien Bien, in northwest Vietnam, and discovered that, of 333 attempted suicides, 140 were 19 years or younger in 2015; 16 of the 73 completed suicide attempts were children. Alarmingly, the survey found that suicidal tendencies are a pressing issue among Vietnamese youths within the province. Or, perhaps, an issue that was never given much attention.

However, the spike in suicides is a newly recognized concern, and more research is required to address the factors that cause adolescent distress in Vietnam.

Mental health care infrastructure

The World Health Organization (WHO) surveyed the country in 2014 and found that only 0.91 psychiatrists were available per 100,000 people.

The psychiatrists available per 100,000 population in Vietnam is comparable to its ASEAN neighbors: Malaysia has 0.76 psychiatrists available per 100,000 people and Thailand has 0.87 accessible psychiatrists for 100,000 people. However, it is far behind developed economies like Singapore, where 3.48 psychiatrists were available per 100,000 people, and the US, where 12.40 psychiatrists were available per 100,000 people.

This suggests that foreign healthcare providers and NGOs will most likely encounter challenges recruiting domestic professionals to serve the population in Vietnam.

The Department of Psychiatry at Hanoi Medical University and the National Institute of Mental Health provide programs for psychiatrists in training. General medical students can choose to do a one-year specialization in psychiatryalthough its interest remains low relative to other medical fields.

Developing the mental health care infrastructure will require foreign educational institutions and professional training programs to strengthen Vietnams clinical capacity and skills. Collaborating with local institutions to enhance existing education or establishing independent training services can help improve the current situation.

The mental health network facilitates outpatient treatment and inpatient programs for psychiatric care. The psychiatric hospital system in Vietnam has 36 hospitals established across the country. Hospitalization for clients in severe conditions are given the care in these inpatient hospitalscurrently, there are 6,000 beds.

The system delivers services through a network of state-owned hospitals; there are two National Psychiatric Hospitals: one located in the north in Hanoi, and the other in Bien Hoa city, located in the south. The remaining 34 provincial psychiatric hospitals are disseminated across the country.

Currently, Vietnam has 600 outpatient mental healthcare facilities available for locals who are looking for short-term care. Outpatient treatment offers psychosocial services for those in need, without being admitted into the hospital.

Further, while service is available through state-owned facilities, the consensus among international research is that there are no targeted facilities for children and adolescents  demographics that research suggests are highly vulnerable.

How to prepare for the market

The development of a successful mental healthcare industry will require active research and regional adaptation, with firsthand insight on evolving medical needs.

Businesspeople seeking to invest into the mental healthcare industry should familiarize themselves with local partnership requirements and the industrys regulations. In Vietnam, regulations in the health sector are more restrictive, so it is important to be aware of the existing limitations, as well as the lack of legislation for the industry.

Foreign investments up to 100 percent are allowed for healthcare establishments and medical training units provided they can fulfill capital requirements set by the government. Businesses that intend to provide healthcare treatment have comparatively high capital requirements, while the capital requirements for medical training providers are based on the number of students.

Exploring public-private partnership (PPP) opportunities and partnerships with local NGOs may help foreign investors enter the market and contextualize international treatments and services line more quickly.

Dezan Shira & Associates Business Intelligence Manager Maxfield Brown said, The main impediment will be on the regulatory side  taxation wont be a barrier. Mental health is controversial in many societies and the way you go about teaching it, or approaching it, is important. Even if it is not regulated, it is culturally sensitive. But as Vietnam becomes a developed economy, these views and laws might change in five years time, and that will change how companies can operate in the market.Vietnam updated its food safety law in February, replacing Decree 38/2012-ND-CP with Decree 15/2018/ND-CP, to reduce regulatory burdens and enhance international trade of goods.

With the change, the government loosened regulations by removing various administrative procedures, with the ultimate aim to increase channels of international trade for food products. The new decree is part of a larger scheme of initiatives  like the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)  to reduce technical barriers to trade and boost foreign investment.

Decree 15 allows the government to adjust the food industry standards with international best practice by relaxing its procedural grip. The EVFTA, for example, outlines sanitary and phytosanitary measures imported food products from Vietnam must comply within the EU.

Grounds for food safety inspection were amended while the procedures for safety audits were reduced significantly: 90 percent of food shipments now enter the country without examination. Previously, all food shipments were examined before the change to the law.

Products circulating the Vietnamese market now take a major leap from pre-inspection to post-inspection, with responsibility now placed on enterprises serving or selling food to declare self-compliance with regard to food safety regulations.

Decree 15 at a glance

Before Decree 15, an enterprise had to prepare two sets of documents with 11 different kinds of papers to satisfy food safety regulations. However, vendors were able to bypass this process by buying counterfeit food safety certificates off the streets.

Now, methods of safety standards have shifted. Businesses must self-announce food safety quality and compliance, but are no longer subject to automatic customs examinations. An enterprise operating in the food industry must declare responsible food safe practice on Vietnams multimedia websites.

Removing impractical administrative procedures are viewed by the government as a necessary step to reduce labor costs and develop business prospects. The new decree is predicted to reduce 90 percent of administrative fees, save 2.9 million working days, and save VND$2.5 trillion or USD$107222.50.

Ensuring food safety

Frequent food poisoning and contaminated food products have been widespread issues in Vietnam, despite the requirements stipulated in previous regulations. Countless food safety incidents arising from a lack of adequate regulatory enforcement exposed food supplies to foodborne illnesses throughout the trade process.



While the removal of administrative barriers enables efficient trade and investment, companies partaking in Vietnams food industry should still be conscious of the harmful effects of low-quality food. The demand for high quality and dependable food products should increase as the market continues to develop, and a single food safety scandal can permanently damage a brands reputation.

Further, businesses must be prepared for the potential to be inspected by regulatory authorities. The Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will inspect up to five percent of total food imports per year at random.

Currently, the government is in the process of drafting a decree on fines for any violations of food safety.

Steps businesses should take

The Ministry of Health established specifications within updated food regulation standards that must be met by international importers since a duty applies to every product that enters the country.



All companies that want to export food commodities into the country must submit an appropriate certification for registration. Companies are liable for safety issues for their products.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development provides the customs office with details of organizations authorized to export products into the country. Applicable requirements issued by the Ministry of Health must be met. These include labeling requirements containing the name and details of the manufacturer, registration for food additives, advertisement for food products, and the country of origin.

Businesses that want to partake in Vietnams food industry need to recognize the full scope of regulatory changes. Companies should review Decree 15 to ensure products and trade practices are aligned with the update.

Maxfield Brown, Dezan Shira & Associates Business Intelligence Manager in Ho Chi Minh City, said The decree is new and it still takes a while for agencies to implement new levels of regulation. It is up to the body of government interpreting the new law to enforce itso, it is important to differentiate periods when new regulations are not enforced from periods of uncertainty. People trying to comply with the new update should be cognizant of timing and how to comply with the regulation.The Hudson-CCG symposium, hosted by and held at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. on September 26 this year, released a report: Past, Present, Future, and Policy Options. The report predicts three possible outcomes of the U.S.-China trade dispute and concludes that all will be won by China.

Center for China and Globalization (CCG)

So, what is the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), the co-sponsor of this symposium?

Its a Beijing-based premier Chinese independent think tank of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It has its own researchers and overseas representatives.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) think tank research was used by the American conservative think tank, the Hudson Institute, who published the report and came to the conclusion that China comes out on top in all outcomes of the U.S.-China trade war.

A quote from the Hudson think tank says: There are only three possible outcomes, and all the three are won by China.

Critics believe that the superficial conclusion made using the CCPs think tank evaluation is incorrect and misleading, criticizing the Hudson Institute for quoting it in a way that makes it seem valid, when its inner purpose may very well just be CCP propaganda.

Some believe the assessment was intended to mislead the CCPs own policy makers.

Possible misinterpretation of facts

Some analysts claim the CCP think tank used its own report to influence the Hudson Institutes evaluation of how things are going in the U.S.-China trade war and sent the conclusion to the decision-making officials.

These officials in return felt very pleased, seeing that the report was published by a well-known American conservative think tank and concluded: China will win anyway. When the current U.S. President, Donald Trump, took office more than a year ago, Jin Yinan gave a speech on January 20 to a full house of Chinese officials saying that it is difficult for the American society to tolerate an 80-year-old bold President, and it would not last long.

From the tone of voice, it becomes apparent that Wall Street and a seeming majority of Ivy League schools, Silicon Valley businesses, as well as the American elite, dont seem to favor U.S. President Donald Trump all too much. According to a New York Times Commentary, Trump placed the U.S. on a precipice. So, Jin said: Isnt that a good thing? He did not place China on a precipice, but has placed the U.S. on a precipice.

Those not so fond of Trumps political attitude argue that many of the current U.S. presidents decisions seem bold and short-sighted. Withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is just one example.

Chinese analysts applaud Trumps withdrawal from the TPP because it creates an opportunity and benefits for Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative.

Jin Yinans Trump analysis

An important mosaic piece in the overall player draft in this trade war is Major General Jin Yinan of the Peoples Liberation Army. Jin is also a security strategy expert in China whose writings have been recommended to be read by provincial and ministerial officials following Chinas Secretary General of the CCPs, Xi Jinpings, recommendation.

Xi was briefed about Jin Yinans analysis of Trump more than a year ago and then compared it with the actual facts of the past year. It is no wonder that Jin Yinans big words and The New York Times smear of Trumps policy caused U.S.-China relations to become more challenging for China.

The power of think tanks to influence the decisions of rulers and politicians is receiving widespread scrutiny.

The elephant in the room is the question of how reliable think tank assessments actually are.

One example is the case of the think tank used to advise Chinese Communist Party officials like Xi Jinping. There is much reason to believe that many of the conclusions it makes are geared primarily toward validating Chinese propaganda guidelines rather than critically approaching geopolitical questions in the hope of resolving them.

In short, some experts on the matter are saying that the CCG think tank gave an analysis and report ending in a conclusion more in favor with what the Party ideology would like the outcome to be, rather than the geopolitical reality of things.

The growing need for more ideologically independent think tanks

To better understand this assumption, one must consider the CCG against the backdrop of the educational background of its Chinese intellectual members, who were raised and educated in a Communist Party culture. Under these circumstances, it would not be too far-fetched to assume that the worldview these intellectuals have is strongly based on, or at the very least heavily influenced by, Communist Party culture.

These think tank intellectuals of the CCP had been educated with the Party culture since childhood and they began to form their worldview based on that Party culture as well. Their perception of the outside world is different from that of people outside the Party culture. Therefore, when they advise the higher levels, they often cannot interpret the signs of an imminent crisis.

However, due to the nature of the Party-led mentality, even if the think tank experts could recognize the signs of a creeping crisis, they would not dare speak out in fear of falling under scrutiny and being accused by their peers and other officials of being infiltrated by socialism. They may even lose their jobs. Under these circumstances, who would dare to light the spark?

One Belt, One Road: A thorn in the side of U.S. trade

Former President Obamas greatest effort to create a cornerstone of his administrations legacy in Asia was the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement geared at offsetting Chinas rapid growth.

Since Trump took office, he sought an alliance with many countries, aiming at blocking the One Belt, One Road project that China and its partners are highly anticipating.

During this U.S.-China trade war, the Chinese stock market has plummeted, resulting in large amounts of foreign capital being withdrawn from China. For example, Japanese companies who entered China in the past year have already moved 60 percent of their investments out of China. Critics believe the slump China may be facing is partially due to the hard work done by their think tanks.

Currently, the Chinese think tank CCG is apparently suggesting that China replace the United States with Africa within the next five years as its main export destination for China-made products. Could this also be the reason why China is investing so much money into developing countries and helping them create infrastructures that will, later on, create a need for a steady supply of services and goods from China?

Translation by Chua BC

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our weekly emailMeow! Photo: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

Ever since a Los Angeles Times profile reported that actress and Instagram sensation Bella Thorne has 18 million Instagram followers and 19 cats, it is  unfortunately for me  cat day on Vulture.com. Forget whatevers streaming on Netflix (Elite, which you should be watching) or the also very good Wildlife: we are gathered here today for some feline considerations. Per the Times, Thorne didnt want her first cat, Lola, to be spayed because she thought it was barbaric, and now there are four generations of cats living here: Nuzzling against your knee, crawling up the screen windows, tearing down metallic streamers. Nineteen cats is entirely too many cats, according to me, a person who doesnt have any pets but does have an obsession with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga that requires quite a lot of care and attention. Since were discussing Bella Thorne and her cats, it seems important to ask a few pressing cat questions:

- How many litter boxes do you need for 19 cats, and do you keep the litter boxes all in one room, or spread them out around the floor plan?

- As wealthy cats  Thorne can pull $65,000 from one Instagram ad  do the cats feel like The Aristocats is an accurate representation of their wealth, or a reductive one?

- When Bella Thorne summons the cats for a mealtime, is that a cat call?

- When a catfight happens, do the cats not involved in the drama bet on the results?

- Is it even legal to have that many animals in a residential neighborhood? At one point does the number of animals in one house turn from pet-obsessed to zoo?

- Do all the cats share toys or do they all have separate cubbies for their accessories of choice like small children?

- When Bella Thorne is out of town, do the cats plan a big rager like in Project X, or is it more their style to prank potential robbers like in Home Alone?

- After cat number, say, eight, do you stop naming them and just assign them numbers?

- Does her accountant draft a monthly cat budget? And do the cats have access to the account?

- Are all of the cats related? Is it weird if cats do incest or is that, like, normal in cat culture?

- How many of these cats have seen A Star Is Born? How do they feel about Allys sellout bops?Photo: Mary Cybulski/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Melissa McCarthy is going to surprise a lot of people when they see Can You Ever Forgive Me?, but she shouldnt. Thats not a knock on the performance, which is great and deservedly earning her Oscar talk. Directed by Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl) and written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, the fact-based film stars McCarthy as Lee Israel, a writer whos seen her early promise dry up and career opportunities dwindle, leading her to embark on a sideline career forging letters by figures like Noel Coward and Dorothy Parker. McCarthys almost unrecognizable at first, less because of her characters drab wardrobe, but because of Lees seeming inability to smile and a tendency to recede into the background. Almost without fail, McCarthy plays the biggest personality in the room whenever shes onscreen. Here she plays someone seemingly embarrassed by her own existence, a woman whos let her discomfort curdle into bitterness and disappointment into hostility. Its a dramatic turn from a funny woman and will no doubt be praised as a huge departure. And it is.

Except, in the ways that matter most, it isnt. McCarthy doesnt emerge as a dramatic actor in Can You Ever Forgive Me? so much as turn up the volume on the dramatic elements that have always been a part of her performances. McCarthy first caught peoples eye as a supporting player on the WB drama Gilmore Girls, where she was so good at playing the part of sunny chef Sookie St. James, best friend to Lauren Grahams Lorelai Gilmore, that it was easy to confuse her with the character (particularly since Sookie seemed to track closely to the upbeat McCarthy whod turn up in interviews). But if the series didnt engage the full range of the comedic talents McCarthy honed as a member of the Groundlings, it allowed her to develop some dramatic chops to accompany them. Amy Sherman-Palladinos series stood out for its fast-paced, witty banter, but it was at its best when that banter served as scaffolding for affecting stories driven by multilayered performances, and McCarthy could more than keep pace on both fronts.

McCarthy worked steadily in the years after Gilmore Girls ended its run, although not always that noticeably, appearing in the supporting cast of the Christina Applegate sitcom Samantha Who? while taking supporting roles in films like The Back-up Plan. Yet theres an item deep in the McCarthy filmography that serves as a sign of things to come, even if no one noticed at the time. Given a small release in 2007, The Nines is to date the only feature directed by prolific screenwriter John August  and it serves a showcase for McCarthys abilities. McCarthy plays three parts, as do co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis, and to explain why is to risk spoiling the movie. In short, McCarthy plays three different characters who exist across three different realities: in one, the no-nonsense PR rep of an actor under house arrest; in another, an actress (named Melissa McCarthy) who falls out with a showrunner friend when he recasts a TV role written for her; and in the third, the wife of a game designer. But the tricky film bends the realities into each other and McCarthy bends with them, reshaping her characters to fit the surroundings. She gets to be funny and cryptic and alluring in a film that challenged her to push beyond expectations set by her TV work. And though it would be a while before shed get that sort of opportunity again, its clear watching the film now that there could be no holding her back. August had worked with McCarthy before. Shed starred in his 1998 short film God and in Go, which he scripted. Before most others, he had a better sense of what she was capable of playing, which, in short, was just about anything.

The rest of the world started to catch up with the Big Bang that led her to become one of the most in-demand stars in the world: the 2011 film Bridesmaids, directed by Paul Feig. Theres really no point in recapping McCarthys comic highlights in that film, but it might be worth recalling one scene in particular. Late in the movie, after providing the films broadest comedic moments (no mean feat in a movie that features characters defecating in the middle of downtown Chicago), McCarthys Megan forces a pep talk on the self-pitying protagonist played by Kristen Wiig, a process that involves fair amount of biting and slapping before segueing into a moving monologue about perseverance thats as funny as any other moment while still giving the movie its heart. Its a high-wire act played out on a couch and its pretty much impossible to imagine anyone else pulling it off.

Even more than the fearless abandon, its that ability to weave pathos and complexity into her performances thats set McCarthy apart, an ability showcased in subsequent Feig team-ups like The Heat and Spy (and, to a lesser extent, their Ghostbusters remake, in which both humor and pathos get slathered in too much digital ectoplasm to register). Its a skill thats helped keep even questionable movies from falling apart. McCarthy has made three films with husband Ben Falcone via their On The Day production company  Tammy, The Boss, and Life of the Party  working within a conservative budget as a way to preserve creative control. Though all have been financially successful, none have been particularly well-received. But even if they dont fully work, theyre often more compelling than theyre given credit for. Or at least stranger. Tammy, for instance, alternates big gags and sentiment in a way that wouldnt work at all without McCarthys central performance. The Boss gives McCarthy an opportunity to go cartoonish in a way seldom seen outside of her great SNL appearances (and even that finds room for a change-of-heart story).

Which brings us to this springs Life of the Party and to 2018 which, until Can You Ever Forgive Me?, was not shaping up to be one of McCarthys more memorable years. In fact, it could have gone down as a year of dead ends rather than new beginnings. A gloss on Rodney Dangerfields Back to School, Life of the Party finds McCarthy playing a middle-aged mom who returns to her alma mater to finish her degree when her marriage unexpectedly ends  much to the surprise of her daughter, a senior at the same school. Its an unfailingly pleasant, conflict-light comedy destined to play in endless cable reruns and its easy to see why McCarthy made it. Its safe  the most tense scene involves her characters nervousness at public speaking  and lets McCarthy to play against funny friends like Maya Rudolph, and, after a dowdy beginning, allows her to look glamorous, an opportunity not always afforded her onscreen. McCarthy could probably spend the rest of her career making movies like this and no one would complain all that much. But would anyone care?

Still, this would be preferable to more films like The Happytime Murders, the Muppets-but-dirty film-noir parody released to a hostile world this summer. McCarthy plays the human former partner of a puppet cop turned private eye, and it says a lot about the movie that its best scenes are those that allow McCarthy and Maya Rudolph to riff off one another. If Life of the Party suggested one possible future, The Happytime Murders suggested another: as a ringer making weak comedies better.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? suggests a third, more promising way forward, albeit one not that different from the best moments of McCarthys past. McCarthys one of the most skilled improvisers around, capable of turning every scene into comedy, but theres never a suggestion that shes champing against the reins of more overtly dramatic material. She sinks into the character. Then she sinks a little further, somehow holding the screen even as she plays a woman whos defining character trait is a profound discomfort with the world, a quality thats killed past relationships and closed off professional avenues. Lee drinks to excess, insults everyone around her, and steals toilet paper from the party of an agent (Jane Curtin) whos only invited her out of politeness. Then she turns to crime, even ripping off a sweet bookstore owner with a crush on her (Dolly Wells).

Yet, through it all, McCarthy makes her feel understandable, if never particularly likable. Thats in part because Lee doesnt care if shes liked. Even her deepest friendship, with her partner-in-crime Jack (Richard E. Grant, who gets films most overtly funny moments but also its saddest scene), is built on opportunism and insults. That doesnt make it any less real and, in the end, it makes what they have that much more touching, as the movie keeps inching toward tragedy. Yet even if it could never be mistaken for a comedy, and certainly not the sort of comedies McCarthy usually makes, that doesnt mean Can You Ever Forgive Me? isnt funny, either. Theres a tragicomic quality to Lees commitment to misanthropy, and a weird kind of honor to her remorselessness. Though the role is a departure in many ways, it sits nicely in a gallery alongside other extreme yet unmistakably human characters McCarthys created over the years. What makes Lee difficult and scary is also what makes her who she is. Shes, in other words, a Melissa McCarthy character. Its only the surroundings that have changed, not the actress.Photo: Mary Cybulski/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

There is a moment so revolting, so sad, and so utterly unforgettable in Can You Ever Forgive Me? that I wont give away, but is one of the most visceral depictions of loneliness Ive seen in a while. Loneliness, onscreen at least, tends to be a vibe, a #mood, a way of looking off into the distance as a certain kind of melancholy tune plays. In Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whittys screenplay, its a physical reality, a stench you live with until you are both used to it and loath to escape it. Holofcener, a writer attuned to minute details of life rarely addressed but immediately recognizable, turns that skill to Marielle Hellers adaptation of celebrity biographer Lee Israels memoir/confessional of her brief but thrillingly reckless career as a forgery artist.

Melissa McCarthy, frumpified to 1991 proportions, plays Israel, a writer who has staked her career on the fabulous lives of the people shes written about and is still anonymous and struggling to find work. Her agent (Jane Curtin) wont answer her calls, and her current project, a biography of vaudeville star Fanny Brice, is not exactly the hottest property on the market. Shes months behind on rent, and her cat, the only living being she seems to not harbor some barely veiled loathing for, is sick. While researching in the archives of the New York Public Library, she finds a letter from Brice tucked away in a file, and sneaks it out to see how much it will fetch at the local bookshop. It turns out a slip of paper written on by the right person can be worth at least its weight in $20 bills, but when Lee has the brilliant idea to embellish the letters with her own typewriter, and then start completely fabricating her own, the price quadruples.

The title takes its name from one of Israels most notable forgeries, a letter supposedly from Dorothy Parker. Lee prides herself on being, in some ways, a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker, and theres some sense of alienation in that pride, and in the career of a woman whose job it is to know the lives and quirks of luminaries with enough clarity to make them re-packageable to the larger public. The skill with which she taps into the inner souls of her famous subjects seems to be in equal proportion to her inability to form bonds in everyday life, in a way the film never directly comments on but which McCarthy feels fully attuned to. Lee forms a begrudging friendship with Jack (a lovely and heartbreaking Richard E. Grant), a fellow outcast from the New York hoity-toity literary set who is in all likelihood worse off than she is. Her need for him in her forgery operation, i.e. her career, is convenient cover for her need for him as a human being.

Elsewhere, Lee begins to form a halting romance with one of her buyers, played by Dolly Wells. Countless stories about a flawed protagonists secret life building a wall against human connection have been told before, but I found something uniquely true and sad about Lee and Annas courtship, because it seems to come from real need from both of them, and is thwarted not so much by the lie of the forgeries, but by Lees own inability to accept the affection Anna is so willing to give. In one date scene, Heller tells an entire story out of eye contact and nonverbal gestures; its incredibly intelligent emotional filmmaking.

Thats where the unexpected pleasures of Can You Ever Forgive Me  which could have been an intensely miserable film  sneak in. What is on paper a small-time heist film in the vein of the Coen Brothers or Breaking Bad is ultimately a cover for a more observant and relatable portrait of loneliness. In an age where the viability of a writers life is in even more ignoble decline, and where finding alternate lines of work or otherwise faking it become a necessary last resort, Israels story feels like a highly empathetic cautionary tale.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? was nominated for a 2019 Oscar in the following categories: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.[New music soundtracks this scene.] Photo: Sophie Mutevelian/BBC

Do we doo, do we do we, we doooooo, doo we dooo! Jodie Whittaker and her glass-ceiling-shattering entrance arent the only things delighting Whovians eardrums with the newest season of Doctor Who, thanks to a revamp of the shows theme song to usher in the reign of the 13th Doctor.

British-Nigerian composer Segun Akinola was tapped for the honor of reinventing the tune fans know and love, but instead of going overboard with a textbook change everything style, Akinola tells Vulture he looked back at Whos original theme five decades prior, believing the spirit of the original was all that was needed to weave the best sonic tapestry. Earlier this week, Vulture spoke with Akinola about his creative process, the other Who themes he worked on that didnt make the cut, and the joy of the theremin.

How did you land such a great gig? I cant think of another series that presents an opportunity like this.

I know, right? It was quite a cool story  I got a random call one morning saying, We put you forward for Doctor Who, and the executives are interested in speaking with you, do you mind if we pass on your phone number so they can call you? I obviously said yes, put the phone down, did a dance, and for awhile didnt quite understand what had happened. From that point, it was a series of having conversations with [showrunner] Chris Chibnall and [executive producer] Matt Stevens.

Did they already have a sonic structure in mind?

Once I had the job, thats when we talked about what we wanted to do. We turned out having similar thoughts about wanting the heart of it to be the original theme. They were really amazing in giving me space and freedom to be creative. What they really stressed numerous times was they wanted me to bring my creativity and my thoughts, rather than it being a case of telling me exactly what I needed to do. I had lots of time to think about ideas and play around with ideas.

What elements from previous themes did you want to keep in yours, and how did you want to enhance it for this new era?

I wanted to go back to the original theme. I really wanted that to be the heart and the core of whatever I was going to do. I was able to get hold of the original recordings from the shows archivist, and then I was able to examine them and bring my interpretations and viewpoints to it. In the final theme, what you have are a number of elements from the original. Some as they were, but most of them are played with some additional elements.

Why did you want to reinterpret the original theme, as opposed to other eras of Doctor Whos music?

It was such an amazing theme. Since I had somewhat of a blank slate now, the new theme offered the opportunity to go back and think, If were trying to come look at this fresh, having been through a number of years of different variations, why not go back to the theme that started it all? It was a suggestion from Chris and Matt, rather than a provocation of it needs to be this. Its remnant of the past and its also bold and fresh and new.

How did your creative process branch out from that?

The first thing I did was the other themes, actually, like the scores for the characters  and not as a means of procrastination. [Laughs.] I wanted to start establishing the sound of the series and then turn my attention to the theme, because that way I would be able to understand the direction Id want to go in. When I got to the theme, it was a case of tinkering and experimenting. One of the things I did was I created three versions of the theme  the other two were quite a lot more experimental and different. I really wanted to ask questions about how far I could play with it and mess around with. It made the direction to go in really obvious.

How would you define the sound of the series?

Without giving anything away about whats coming this season, its a case of having a reset. What we tried to do was have the music modern. That was one of the pillars. It was having lots of influences.

What influences did you favor?

They ranged from Adele to Emeli Sande to RagnBone Man to classical composers like Iannis Xenakis and Georg Haas. It didnt have to be definable as one thing or one sound. Its not just electronic or just classical. I pulled from every genre  all led by the story.

What other types of sounds did you experiment with? You mentioned those three different themes.

Yes, there were three versions, one of which you obviously hear in the show. It was one of the earlier versions I made, actually. The other two were much more ambient and much slower. Id classify those two as experiments to see what the theme would sound like as weird, ambient, and experimental. Theres a bit of an ambient soundscape in the background of the final theme as well to give it a sense of space. Of course, the theremin remained.

That was never going to be excluded, I imagine!

I wouldnt dare!Photo: Courtesy of TIFF

If you dont think its fabulous that indie darling David Gordon Green has made a sequel to John Carpenters Halloween (1978) that pretends that all those other miserable sequels and remakes never happened and that Michael Myers was actually caught and institutionalized that very Halloween night in 1978 and that the lone surviving babysitter, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), ended up a profoundly damaged, twice-married prepper waiting for the day when she could bring Michael down once and for all  well, we have nothing to talk about then, do we?

Carpenters Halloween might be madly overrated, but it remains the smoothest, shapeliest, and most entrancing of all dumb hack-em-ups. (I first saw it at a drive-in on the Berlin Turnpike outside Hartford, Connecticut, in 1978. Oh, what a night.) Green demonstrates respect for both its genius and its dumbness. He hasnt set out to transcend the original, to make something that isnt fundamentally a dumb hack-em-up: He and co-screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley even seem to go out of their way to write Carpenter-esque clunkers for the two-steps-behind cops as well as the hammy successor to Donald Pleasances keening shrink, Loomis.

But Green gets the great stuff, too. He shows a deep appreciation for Carpenters imagery and tempo, for the way in which the camera glides alongside the latest crop of high-school girls making their way along the tidy sidewalks of Haddonfield, Illinois, to Carpenters metronomic score  tracking-camera music that subtly evokes the hidden tracker. (Carpenters themes are back for the umpteenth time, spruced up by his son Cody and Daniel A. Davies.)

Green has even greater reverence for Michael, formally known as the Shape, the iconic boogeyman on whom we can project almost anything.

(All we really know is that hes a fan of kitchen knives and has a hard-on for babysitters dating back to the night that his big sister left him downstairs while she had sex.) There are shots of the Shape in this Halloween that are beautiful, in which hes framed by window sills and trees, his mask faintly glowing.

Jamie Lee Curtiss Laurie is now a bespectacled grandma with a mop of straggly hair but still, after 40 years, unable to heal from the trauma she suffered as a teenager. When she leaves her gated, booby-trapped house in the woods, she has one eye out for the nearest escape route and the other for the nearest glass of wine. Theres joy in this performance  you could tell how happy Curtis was when she came onstage to prolonged cheers at the films midnight premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Curtis has lived with Laurie Strode for so long that she must have been itching  like Laurie herself  to go back and do it right, suppressing memories of that tacky hospital bloodbath (Halloween II) as well as the middling-to-lousy Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, in which she played a headmistress. (It did feature Michelle Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt!) Of Halloween: Resurrection, in which Michael finally does Laurie in, the less said the better.

This new Halloween is the #MeToo Halloween, the one that says the body never forgets the memory of assault, and that the trauma is passed down to future generations in all sorts of unpleasant ways. Judy Greer plays Lauries daughter, Karen, who was whisked out of her mothers custody at an early age  but not before shed been taught how to shoot and fight and look for boogeymen behind every tree. (The character is a bit of a drag but has a punch line worth waiting for.) Karen and her skeptic husband treat Laurie as a nutter and try to keep her away from her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), but this Halloween, Laurie is sniffing the air and smelling a psycho killer, and soon shes tracking Haddonfield teenagers, too.

The reason for her heightened sense of danger is that Michael is being transferred to another mental-health facility, which is never a good idea, but no ever learns. The Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer is Sartain, the new Loomis, whom Laurie describes, helpfully, as the new Loomis. Unlike Loomis, he doesnt spout lines about eeeevil. Hes obsessed, instead, with understanding Michaels addiction to killing. Hes a wackadoodle. Almost as trying is an obnoxious Brit podcaster, Martin (Jefferson Hall), and his more tolerable female colleague, Dana (Rhian Rees), who visit the high-security asylum before Michaels scheduled transfer. Martin has the peculiar idea that he can get Michael (the totemic James Jude Courtney, seen only from behind) to speak at last by waving his old mask in front of him. Never a good idea but no one ever learns.

Since Greens debut with the arty, deeply humanist George Washington in 2000, he has gone in an entirely different direction, showing a penchant for madcap black comedies. But traces of humanism remain  an obstacle when youre making a hack-em-up, in which the supporting characters are traditionally just fodder for the hacker. I admire Greens resistance to turning the murders into spectacles. In many cases, we like the people who are killed  their deaths have a sting. No one yells, Cool! until close to the end, when theres a rousing head-stomping involving someone we really hate. Ill give Green that one. He earned it.

Greens Halloween doesnt have the geographical simplicity  the elegance  of Carpenters. Its a bit all over the place. But I love how he takes memorable images from the original and turns them on their heads, and how Michael, after being knocked on his ass, once again executes a perfect sit-up. After a purposefully slow start, the movie builds and becomes relentless. Maybe you cant go home again, but in the age of fanboy auteurs, you can go back to Haddonfield.SEEN is an experiment, a limited-run expansion of Vulture's coverage of the art world, all around the world. Photo: HBO

The lush new art-world documentary The Price of Everything shows us a system so waist-deep in hypermarketing and excess that its hard to look at art without being overcome by money, prices, auctions, art fairs, celebrities, well-known artists, and mega-collectors who fancy themselves conquistadors. In this, its a lot like most recent accounts of the art world  which are, all told, pretty accurate. I hate this toxic rot and junkie-like behavior. Yet I love art and the art world. I hate the portrait of that world contained in this movie, but I also recognize in it what I love.

That may sound like a contradiction or paradox, but it feels to me like something else. I used to believe the art world was at war with itself, that money was fighting art and vice versa. But Ive been living in my own ambivalence about things for a decade now, or more, and Im starting to think its not a war but a new equilibrium state, defined by that ambivalence. Its not just me. Everyone complains about money in the art world, but few would ever leave. Everyone  from struggling artists to billionaire gallerists  hates the system. But none of us can live outside it, nor would we want to. I mean, why would we? For many of us the question is, how could we?

The Price of Everything is a portrait of this damaged system  a place where big-ticket art made by only a handful of people  maybe 75 mostly male artists  appears in high-end galleries, auction houses, and art fairs before being sold off at astronomically inflated prices. Art and money have always slept together; theyre just doing it more profligately now than ever. The patter of the high-enders in Price is so imperious and spiteful that its no wonder the public  and many art-world insiders  have grown cynical about it all. I left the premiere feeling sick to my stomach and ashamed. Oh, and also: I appear in this documentary. More on that later.

Price opens with a balletic dance of white-gloved workers hastening about the immaculate showrooms of Sothebys auction house, moving art around tony galleries, paintings by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Rudolf Stingel, Richard Prince, Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter, Takashi Murakami, Banksy, Christopher Wool, and many other usual market suspects. Prices director is Nathaniel Kahn, maker of the 2003 Academy Awardnominated My Architect  a beautiful look at the architecture and life of his late, great father, Louis Kahn. Throughout Prices 98 minutes, alpha dogs talk money, plot prices, and act snarky about those not as upper echelon as they are. An insane earmark of this film is that all the potentates in it think their behavior is better than that of all the other potentates. Collectors with cookie-cutter collections grouse that no one else is a connoisseur anymore.

Soon we see the above-mentioned works on a stage before an almost all-white, well-dressed crowd that raises paddles, marks catalogues, cranes necks to see whos buying what, makes knowing gestures to one another, sneers, or appears impressed. Its a modern danse macabre where the superrich buy their art in public  a performance of power, clout, social status, sublimated sexuality, and price manipulation. The auctioneer is the pole-dancer/dominatrix of the proceedings, cooing and moving in mannered ways, pointing to bidders, calling some by their first names, being cheeky, coaxing, cudgeling, always closing, reciting ever-climbing prices. He intones, Thats $600,000 in bid to my left; theres $700,000 in the back of the room. Soon, I have $1 million on my right. The magic number; a murmur goes over the crowd as he looks up at a skybox or a chandelier and crows, I have 1,200,000. He gives fair warning, hesitates, counts to three, cracks the hammer down and shouts, Sold! The crowd erupts in applause; your skin crawls. Mine did, at least.

Cut to Simon de Pury, the so-called Mick Jagger of auctioneers (who was once suspended zooming over a room full of rich bidders calling out bids) purring, Its important that good art be expensive. This is a perfect and ridiculous echo of Sothebys former Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, Tobias Meyer, who once chirped, The best art is the most expensive because the market is so smart.

The thing is, much of the work on these trading floors is great. Most of it, however, is either middling, iffy, or bad. One collector says, Were lemmings; another that she always wants more; another that her friends now own the same sculpture she proudly displays in her home. Then she tells us her friends versions are different colors. The craziest thing about Price is that while all the artists in it acknowledge the stresses and powerful presence of the market, those in the market, on the other hand, seem not to even notice artists anymore.

And yet, those artists continue to work, some of them magnificently, and they are wonderful high points in this film, as well. Price brings us into artists studios, where were allowed to watch them work in silence, often alone. This is amazing access. To me, an artist working is still one of the more mysterious sights there is to witness, and we see it so rarely. I love these scenes.

Were not dealing with unknowns here, however. Each of the artists Kahn pictures are either now or once were famous. As they work, he queries them about money. All grant the markets shadow and admit that life is easier when money comes and that its good not to suffer. Each of the artists, however, also informs Kahn that with or without money, they still cant not do what they do and will always do it. Marilyn Minter says, I dont care if people buy [my paintings], I just need to make them. MacArthur winner Njideka Akunyili Crosby talks about urgency. All explain that the market and art are very separate things  a message, it seemed to me, repeatedly lost on Kahn, who seems to want to reduce the work to its value and the art world to its business.

In contrast, the artists he interviews talk about art as being the only defense they have against fate. These artists gave me faith.

Except maybe for Jeff Koons. We see him in his sprawling studio overseeing scores of assistants quietly making his paintings, matching colors down to the tiniest scintillas of pigment. As Koons speaks in his Ronald Reagan-voice about wanting to make people happy and give them permission, Kahn peppers him with questions about costs, prices, power, and being the most expensive artist alive. This stops even the squirrelly Koons, who looks hurt, winces, and says hes humbled. Then he plaintively adds, All I have are my interests. For this one second, even an artist as annoying as Koons is deeply human, vulnerable, desperate. Like all artists.

Success can be disorienting  for individuals, and to whole communities. Only 40 years ago, the art world was small, artists did what they did with no market, no money, and little outside audience. People with no money started galleries on the fly that became places like Larry Gagosian or Paula Cooper; people who never bought art before started buying some of this art for low prices. A few, ahem, with no training whatsoever called themselves art critics and began writing art criticism. Over the course of these decades, however, art and its market have become central fixtures of mainstream culture, so that artists are now celebrities, prices are news, collectors try to enter art history by paying the highest prices for art, and auction houses  once dusky places  are now hubs where contemporary art sometimes goes from studio to trading floor without ever being shown at all. Its amazingly thrilling to witness art playing a huge role in culture and to know that many of these self-made people built this art world with their own obsessions and sweat. It makes me proud, even. But we seem to be in some end-game phase that is more than disorienting to many in this world.

The top-heavy approach of Price has been a feature of art-world documentaries made for the general public since Morley Safers infamously snippy 1993 60 Minutes takedown. In that 13-minute clip, Safer mocked new art, artists, auctions, art fairs, rich collectors, high prices, and all the other low-hanging fruit Price features. Some of the same people are in it, including, of course, Koons. Its like theres software specifically for making such films.

Which brings us to me. Aside from vanity, neediness, and FOMO, I said yes to appearing in Price because I loved Kahns My Architect. The bigger reason, however, was the films producer, Jennifer Blei Stockman, former president of the board of the Guggenheim Museum. Ive known her from afar for over 20 years. Liked her. In the 1990s she called me out of the blue and asked if Id speak to a group of art-interested women in her Greenwich, Connecticut home. I was still driving a truck then, just starting to write. She offered money; someone said her husband was the former Reagan budget director David Stockman. I took the money. All I recall is the group being tickled by Jeff Koonss pornographic paintings featuring himself and his Hungarian-Italian porn-star ex-wife.

In 2015, Stockman emailed me about being in a film about the art world she was co-producing. I said Sure, assuming that  as with most of these excited calls about making a film about the art world  this one would vanish, too. But Stockman followed up. I tried to get out of it, then recalled that she once got me and my wife into a packed Guggenheim performance. Stockman was passionate, pleading about how bad things have become and that they were trying to portray the real art world  The one we love, Jerry. I bought it.

In the foul weeks after the 2016 election, I met Stockman, Kahn, and a small crew in the office of the director of the Whitney Museum. Equipment got set up; lights went on; I sat down. Facing me was Kahn with a clipboard. He started asking questions. He did this for hours. I appear in the film three or four times.

During Kahns questions I noted themes. First, his many queries about what art means. He seemed to make the same mistake as lay audiences do, imagining were supposed to understand art. The reasoning is that if you dont understand it, maybe the art is trying to put one over on you, take your money, that its laughing at you, means nothing, or is somehow fake and bad. I told him understanding art has very little to do with it; we dont understand Mozart, the Mona Lisa, or Rothkos floating, fuzzy, Buddhist TV-shapes. We dive into them. Instead, I said, we understand movies, TV, and sports. We understand the Kardashians. And money.

Maybe I was exasperated, defensive, or afraid. I kept saying I hate all this stuff, too, but that galleries are still where new art comes from and that I love going to them. Most dealers have no money. Only about 1 percent of 1 percent of all artists make any money. I told him hes really asking about a teeny sliver of the art world. I talked about artists living on the edge and said that a lot of good art is still getting made and shown. At one point I got carried away and I think I said wed all stand over the imaginary caskets of all the speculators until we were sure they were dead, then dance on their graves. Thankfully, this was cut.

Still, he persisted. Finally, exhausted, I had what I thought was an insight into the real deep content that lay behind his questions. I stopped him in the middle of another question, looked at him and said, Youre a cynic! You hate the art world! Everything stopped. There was silence in the room. From the crew, from him, from me. I saw Stockman behind him staring at me, amazed. Kahn and I looked at each other for a while, blinking. Nothing. He seemed to catch his breath and finally say, Yes, I am cynical.

Then I went a step further. I said, You hate the art world and these mega-structures of power and things like this for destroying your father, ignoring his greatness, and allowing him to die forgotten, in poverty. The art world is a stand-in for what tragically and unjustly happened to him. And to you. Total stillness. His eyes misted. After a moment he admitted he was crying. Kahn then spoke movingly about how awful and brutal the creative sphere can be to artists, how hard and callous it is. I told him I knew this, that maybe its always been that way. But it is also a reason to love artists, and not to spurn them or be cynical about what they do or even the market their work enters. I told him that the art world is now broken but that it will also change again when the money goes away. I said that the film sounded like it was to be his revenge for his father. After seeing it, I still believe this.

The films two heroes  or villains, depending on your point of view  are super-uber-mega-collector Stefan T. Edlis and my old friend and sparring-partner Amy Cappellazzo, chairman of the Fine Art division of Sothebys. When we first see Edlis, he sits at a desk in his above-the-clouds skyscraper Chicago apartment, scrolling on his computer as he reads from an inventory of his vast collection. For much of the film, the nonagenarian recites the prices of what he paid for his works, making comments about big killings and market drubbings. Cappellazzos patter  while a spot-on reflection of whats going on in this world  nevertheless made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Cappellazzo pelts us with prices and investment strategies, talks about hedge funds and selling short. She holds a photo of Willem de Kooning standing in front of a painting of his that shes about to auction off, says shell put it in her auction catalog, and calls the picture a money shot. You think, This world should explode. Later, Cappellazzo seemingly implants a neurotransmitter into the cerebral cortex of a young collector who in no time is lusting for an artist shed never heard of the instant before (estimate: between $150,000 and $200,000). For me the films nadir is Edlis and Cappellazzo offering crackers sales tips: Red is better than brown (goodbye, Rembrandt); no pictures with fish (bye-bye, Matisse); green is always good; once an artist is installed in the lobby, he/she is only a lobby artist (hasta la vista, Calder).

For me the deep content of Price  as with so much about the current moment  goes back to the undercurrent of contradictions and conflicts surfacing in the summer before the 2016 election. That July, I was flown in to speak at the rich persons self-help summer camp known as the Aspen Ideas Festival. On my last night there, I attended a fancy art-world dinner of about 20 people. There I met Edlis for the first time. Minter and Stockman were present, too. Seeing as this was Aspen, it was a collector-heavy dinner. The evening was typical conversation about shows, museums, gossip, the news, and whatnot. Until midnight.

From down the table, I heard Edlis animatedly carrying-on about how Trump could be good for America. I was stunned. In my dumb pre-election art-world bubble, this was impossible. Across from Edlis was none other than David Stockman, who Ive met and chided over the years. He, too, opined that the whole system needed to be shaken up and seemed to suggest that he was voting for Trump. I barked, Youre just a seeker trying to make up for the damage you did with Reaganomics. This had no effect on him. I said hed better tell his daughter how he was voting, first. This seemed to stop him, but only momentarily. Down the table, meanwhile, it got worse. A woman married to one of the worlds largest machine-gun manufacturers babbled about being adamantly against any kind of gun control.

The three artists present, two gallerists and I were astonished and began arguing with this group. I think dealer Jeannie Greenberg Rohatyn actually got up on a table and yelled at them. But they all gawked at us like we were just dumb clucks who should shut up and stick to art. It was exactly like when right-wingers tell liberal musicians to shut up and sing. Art dealer Michelle Maccarone and artist Carol Bove got up and walked out. I never said anything to Edlis. Minter and I, however, started bellowing that none of them had any idea what art really was and they shouldnt be around art at all. They only smiled more  thinking, probably, how cute. Minter and I soon left, too. After she and I parted on the walk home, I grew cold, more aware than ever of a fact that many in the art world tacitly know but live with  something we dont talk about much. Probably more than half of all current collectors, advisors, auction people, and others in the art world are Republican. And voted for Trump.

That paradox is part of the reason I said nothing to the 91-year-old Edlis. As I walked home, I thought, Who am I to judge him? The film sheds light on this, too. As a boy, Edlis looked into the eyes of Hitler, heard him speak in Germany. He and his family barely escaped the Holocaust. In the film we see his old passport, emblazoned with a large red J for Juden. These are the ever-present incongruities in todays art world. In one of the most moving scenes in the film, Edlis shows us a sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan. Its a masterpiece titled Him, a super-real, child-sized, lederhosen-clad, mustached, adult Hitler, kneeling, hands clasped in prayer. The work is not front and center in the grand room. It is displayed facing a wall between two large bookcases  hidden, lurking, insidious, uncanny, frightening. Watch and listen to Edlis in the scenes with this sculpture. He cannot or will not say the name Hitler. He refers to Him only as him. The work and Edlis are melding, redoubling, delivering, and redeeming one another. He never looks directly at Him, either, only gesturing with his head or a nod or his hand. We feel something that he feels while looking at the sculpture. In this way, Price gives us a glimpse into the metaphysical transformations that art creates.

Soon in the movie, Edlis says he hopes that he might do something meaningful in his life. Its moving. Soon we learn that he and his wife have generously donated more than 40 works from their collection to the Art Institute of Chicago. Not just the junk. Included in this gift are works by Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Richter, Koons (the $65 million Rabbit), Cindy Sherman, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, John Currin, Brice Marden, and many others.

Welcome to the art world of 2018. A place of cravenness and tropospheric wealth, yet a world that still provides comfort, safe spaces for people to do their work, take chances, assert themselves, step outside themselves, act, and maybe do something meaningful. A place where Koons can make you crazy and still make good work; where Cappellazzo can act batty but shine with intelligence; where former art-star octogenarian Larry Poons  cast as the films Tiny Tim battling against the evil Scrooge art world  might be on famous-male-artist automatic-pilot, not really pushing his work enough, but is obviously still following a deep calling.

The movie is amazingly well made. A masterpiece of its genre, a blinkered picture of a very big, very knotty ball of art world wax. Oh, and it also never mentions that its title is taken from Oscar Wilde, talking about cynics who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.OITNB. Photo: Cara Howe/Netflix

Good news: The ladies of Litchfield (and the other prisons they got shipped to) just got their release date. Bad news: Its the end for both them and the show. Orange Is the New Black will conclude with season seven, Netflix has announced. The show was given a three-season renewal back in 2016, with the expectation then that it could continue past that order with showrunner Jenji Kohan remaining onboard if she wanted and, according to us, couldve feasibly run forever. But, alas, season seven fulfills that order and will now be its last. My heart is orange but fade to black, Kohan said in a statement. OITNB joins House of Cards in becoming the first Netflix original shows to enter its graveyard. Were sure Piper and Iron Fist will get along just great.

Orange Is The New Black will end with Season 7. The final #OITNB episodes will premiere in 2019. https://t.co/9x1ooJSLki pic.twitter.com/TsqsHKZcAr  See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) October 17, 2018South Park Tegridy Farms Season 22 Episode 4 Editors Rating 3 stars * * *  Previous Next  Photo: Comedy Central

The first time that I encountered a Juul in the wild has been seared into my memory forever. In March of 2017, I had been sent to interview a pair of teens featured in a documentary about the trials and tribulations faced by adolescent girls in New York City. They walked in a few minutes late, apologized, and asked whether I would mind if they charged what looked to be a pair of long, thin USB drives they then plugged into the wall. When I made the grievous error of commenting that my phone also runs out of battery all the time and that Im always juicing up my external charger too, they giggled in the soul-destroying way that only high-schoolers can and explained, Its a Juul. [Century-long pause.] For vaping. The word grandpa was implied.

Following in the footsteps of Pokemon cards, Snapchatting, and Tide Pods, vaping is the newest youth craze that adults can comprehend just enough to fear. Last week, Yahoo! Finance reported that the vaporizer manufacturer Juul had earned a $15 billion valuation a brief seven months after its first round of VC investments, making them the fastest-growing start-up in the history of American commerce. For comparison: It took Twitter four-and-a-half years to pass the all-important decacorn benchmark of $10 billion. Facebook required two and a half. Juul barely needed a half year. Some have registered a lack of surprise, though. Thatll happen, they suggest, when youre peddling a chemically addictive substance and your only competition is websites.

As a program with a robust, well-documented relationship to marijuana consumption, South Park has a vested interest in the matter of the Juul menace. This week, Tegridy Farms launches a two-pronged broadside against vaping that attempts to simultaneously occupy the moral high ground and low ground. As South Park Elementary gets swept up in vape fever, Trey Parker and Matt Stone make the not-quite-incompatible arguments that for one, Juul cons impressionable youngsters into getting friendly with nicotine while putting decent farmers out of business, and moreover, that vaping is for dorks, as opposed to smoking weed, which is cool. While theyre not technically wrong  James Dean and Bob Dylan smoked, club promoters and Instagram influencers vape  its tough to make a point about infrastructure and social responsibility when all you really want is to burn one down.

At first, its clear that regardless of the politics of nicotine use, weve got to do something to save the children. Stans sister Shelly has gotten a talking-to for showing pictures of her anus (dont worry, it was only a photo of a dogs anus!) to the hall monitor in exchange for vape cartridges, and if something isnt done soon, little Ike could be next. Randy Marsh goes for the characteristic overreaction and ships his family off a cozy farm upstate, and because upstate refers to upstate Colorado, that farm raises rolling amber waves of cannabis. They live off the dank, mellow fat of the land, filling their home with hemp-fashioned products made responsibly and with care. Parker and Stones idealized vision of the business emphasizes artisanship, craftsmanship, and the personal touch over the cold mass packaging detailed by the executive who comes to buy their outfit.

Compare that to the ongoing situation back at school, where Cartman has struck up a kiddie cartel to move cartridges among the overworked tots in need of a release. He cycles through all the tried-and-true propagandizing employed by the cigarette companies, introducing a happy Kool-Aidstyled mascot and reassuring buyers, Did you know that vaping is way healthier than smoking cigarettes? In both instances, the ethical misdeeds are clear, and yet the foundation for their stance has faults running through it. Stone and Parker would love us to believe that theyre having a wont somebody please think of the children moment and that they recognize the deleterious effects of factory farming, but the finale that sees Randy Marsh beating the hell out of two dozen mist-breathing douches suggests otherwise. The want the same thing anyone wants: for their greenery to stay potent instead of getting engineered into American cheese by Big Agriculture, and for lame-os to stop making it uncool to get high.

Does a stand for whats right still count when it comes from a place of self-interest? It might have, if the episode could just be honest with us and itself about its motivations, which makes for stronger, self-effacing comedy. (Take it from 30 Rock, a sitcoms never better than when pointing out how its creator is full of it.) But South Park is a program on a perpetual crusade, always finding some new issue on which to take a partisan stance. Their reluctance to examine any implication their program might have in the issues they discuss remains their Achilles heel, a notion laid bare by their personal investment in the fate of marijuana. Randy can name his farm whatever he likes, but this isnt really about integrity. Its about getting stoned, and rather than be upfront about reconciling the two, Parker and Stone pretend its about the first. As principled stands go, its not the most convincing. Everyone knows youre high.

Assorted Thoughts and Questions:

 The noxious genre termed bro-country is easy enough to make fun of, but Parker and Stone cut right to the quick with their Chicken Fried-aping lyrics: Ice cold beer. Pick-up truck. Country music. Listing shit.

 This half-hour brings the return of fan-favorite Towelie, whos found gainful employ as a quality inspector for the many cannabis farms dotting Colorados arable tracts. In a fittingly South Park turn of events, however, its mostly a front for him to smoke for free.

 For all their proud pothead leanings, Parker and Stone can still find room for a devastating critique of 4/20 culture via the hemp-wool hat that plays the Spin Doctors hit single Two Princes whenever someone dons it. Between this and Big Mouths shots across the bow at Phish and their jam-band cohort, America has begun to slowly inch away from age-old stoner stereotypes and toward the more put-together image of Claire Danes having a casual vape on Master of None.By Oct. 18, 2018

This year's fall festival will feature the sounds of Soul Dog and their classics of soul music played by artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Al Green, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations and others. Some classic rock and Soul Dog originals round out the sets. Soul Dog is David Booth: guitar and vocals, Kevin Qualls: bass, David Frensley: drums, Ron Coleman: vocals, and Chuck Haney: Sax.





Howl at the Moon offers a family-friendly atmosphere featuring fall-themed activities, food, and music that everyone can enjoy.



For more information, contact Bobbie Wrinkle Tel: 270-442-2510 ext. 119 Email: bwrinkle@mclib.net



PADUCAH - McCracken County Public Library will host Howl at the Moon, Thursday, Oct. 25 from 7 - 9 pm.MSU to Host Swingin Memories Homecoming Dance

Oct. 17, 2018

By Oct. 17, 2018

MURRAY - On Friday, Oct. 26, the walls of Lovett Auditorium will resonate with sounds of the big band era during the fourth annual Swingin Memories Homecoming Dance, which features the Universitys Jazz Band and award-winning Jazz Orchestra.



The event will take place October 26 on the stage of historic Lovett Auditorium beginning at 8 pm. The stage will be set up for dancing as it would have been during the days of the swing bands: the band at one end, an open dance floor and a ring of tables and chairs around the perimeter. Both the Murray State Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Band are directed by Dr. Todd E. Hill, professor of music and director of jazz studies at Murray State.



The Jazz Band will begin the night by performing the opening set, providing continuous music from 8 to 10 pm. The Jazz Orchestra will also perform several swing tunes from the 1930s and 40s as well as some later hits up through the 1960s. Featured music will include hits made famous by Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown, Count Basie and many others.



"This is such a terrific opportunity for these student musicians," said Hill, a long-time professional bandleader who has been playing at dances for more than 35 years. "They get to experience playing for dancers. And, after all, the basis of jazz is that it should have a danceable beat, so what better way to feel the give and take that motion brings to the music? Those who dont care to dance are more than welcome to just come, listen and enjoy the music.



Additional tunes that will be featured include those previously performed by many of the Murray State dance bands from the Swing period, including those led by Billy Shelton, Len Foster, Jim Fern, Leroy Offerman, Billy Crosswy and the Phi Mu Alpha "Men of Note" band. Other songs from the evening were originally performed by the territorial dance bands that featured many Murray State music students and were headed by Jack Staulcup, Chuck Simons and Tom Lonardo.



In Hills tenure at Murray State, the Jazz Orchestra has appeared by invitation at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic as well as made three appearances at the Elmhurst College Jazz Festival and four appearances at the Kentucky Music Educators Conference. They presently have four albums in release  one of which qualified for Grammy nomination.



The fourth annual Swingin Memories Homecoming Dance begins at 8 pm on Friday, Oct. 26, in Lovett Auditorium as part of Homecoming 2018 festivities. There is no admission fee but a suggested $10 donation will be accepted. All funds support the jazz program at Murray State.



A detailed schedule of events for Homecoming 2018 can be found at murraystate.edu/homecoming.



Murray State University provides an Opportunity Afforded for more than 10,000 students through a high-quality education with experiential learning, academic and personal growth and the ability to secure a lifetime of success. Since 1922, the true value of higher education has been found at Murray State University, where our commitment is to afford endless opportunities for developing leaders in the community, the country and the world. The Universitys main campus is located in Murray, KY and includes five regional campuses. For more information about Murray State University, please visit murraystate.edu.Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required.

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By Bill Hughes

Oct. 17, 2018 | PADUCAH

By Bill Hughes Oct. 17, 2018 | 06:58 PM | PADUCAH

A meeting next month could determine whether McCracken County Jailer Tonya Ray goes to trial on either of the charges she is facing.



Ray's attorney, Thomas E. Clay, told West Kentucky Star that he will be meeting with special prosecutors Jason Darnell and Lynn Pryor on November 15 to discuss resolution of the charges against her.



Clay said, "We're going down there with an open mind and hopefully we can work out a resolution that will be acceptable to everybody."



He said nothing has been discussed so far, so he doesn't know what the prosecutors will offer.



Ray is charged with violating a whistle blower law related to the March firing of Deputy Jailer David Knight, who has since been reinstated and won the Republican Primary in the jailer's race. Ray also faces a perjury charge related to her testimony in the misconduct hearing of former deputy jailer Ben Green a year ago.



Ray lost the Democratic primary in the jailer's race to Dan Sims in May, so she will leave office at the end of the year. She was appointed to the position in 2017 after the retirement of Bill Adams.By The Associated Press Oct. 17, 2018 | 09:30 PM | FORT CAMPBELL

The estranged husband of a Fort Campbell soldier has been accused of killing her in an off-duty shooting.

The FBI said Wednesday in a statement Victor Silvers was arrested on a federal complaint and will have a court hearing Thursday in Paducah.

The complaint says Silvers is accused of murder, domestic violence and other counts in Sunday's fatal shooting of Brittney Nicole Silvers of Jacksonville, Florida. An affidavit says a domestic violence order prohibited Victor Silvers from possessing a firearm and ordered him to stay 300 feet away from his wife.

Magistrate Judge Lanny King ordered a public defender for Victor Silvers during an initial court appearance Monday.



The public defender's office said Wednesday that it doesn't comment on open cases.Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Oct. 18, 2018 | BENTON, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 18, 2018 | 09:13 AM | BENTON, KY

A Calvert City man charged with leading police on a chase the wrong way down Interstate 24 in March has agreed to a plea deal in Marshall County.



Court records show Dalton Lampley, who is already serving a 20 year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second degree assault charges in McCracken County, accepted a plea agreement on Wednesday in Marshall County Circuit Court. As part of the deal, Lampley will be sentenced to an additional 13 years behind bars on charges of first degree fleeing or evading police, possession of meth, wanton endangerment of a police officer, reckless driving, disregarding a stop sign, resisting arrest, criminal littering and criminal mischief. Charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license were dropped.



Lampley was arrested on March 17th, following a pursuit on I-24 that spanned parts of McCracken and Marshall Counties. Police said Lampley drove a garbage truck the wrong way along I-24 during the chase, striking two cars and causing several crashes and injuries.



A judge will decide next month if Lampley's sentences will run consecutively or concurrently. Formal sentencing is set for Nov. 29.By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 18, 2018 | 02:05 PM | BENTON, KY





A Benton pharmacist has been indicted for stealing medications, according to United States Attorney Russell M. Coleman.The indictments charge 34-year-old Kyle W. Humphrey with stealing pre-retail prescription medications, mislabeling prescriptions in order to defraud or mislead, and wrongful use of health information. He was also charged in a separate indictment with illegal possession of a firearm.According to the indictment documents from the attorney's office, between April and August of 2017, while working for a pharmacy in Calloway County, Humphrey allegedly concealed 20 different pre-retail medical products, including Finasteride, Allopurinol, Eliquis , Strattera, ProAir HFA, Farxiga, Cefprozil, Tamiflu, Duloxetine, Aripiprazole, Ergocalciferol, Levofloxacin, Bystolic, Xarelto, Clindamycin Palmitate HCL, Mylan Norethindrone tablets, Camilia Norethindrone tablets, Testosterone gel tubes, and Testosterone Cypionate.These drugs include blood thinners, non-stimulant ADHD drugs, antibiotics, birth control pills, hormone replacements, and others.Humphrey also allegedly altered the labeling of Allopurinol, a drug held for sale in the pharmacy, and acquired a person's health information so he could use it for personal gain.In a Calloway County Family Court order in August of 2017, Humphrey was prohibited from carrying firearms, but he was indicted a second time after he was allegedly found with a gun on January 2, 2018.If convicted, Humphrey faces no more than 20 years on the concealment charges, no more than three years for misbranding drugs, and no more than 10 years for wrongful use of health information. Humphrey also faces no more than 10 years for possessing a firearm while under a domestic violence order.I visited Lisanne and Benjamin early october, reaching their troglodytic chai in Noizay on my motorbike, this is just a short distance from the beautiful town of Amboise along the Loire river. This village has dozens of such cellars dug into the sandstone of the hill, these cellars were used for generations for winemaking and each of them is unique. Here there are even upper stories with rooms with fireplaces and chimney ducts so that people or workers could live there. Given that from up there you can see the river many of them have been turned into vacation residences or even outright primary residence.

Noizay , Loire On of the last times I met Lisanne was when she was working in Montlouis at the wine bar of Lise & Bertrand Jousset (scroll down to the 4th picture in the linked story), the young Dutch was obviously well versed into natural wines and aimed already at something else. Now that's it she starts her own domaine with associate Benjamin Serer whom she met last year while doing her one-year training at the wine school of Amboise. Both of them have extensive experience in the restaurant business, lisanne was a sommelier and Benjamin was a chef in Alain Ducasse restaurants. Both of them trained afterwards in different wine farms, Benjamin at Mathieu Cosme in Noizay, Vincent Careme in Vouvray, also at Philippe Foreau there. Lisanne worked more on the Montlouis side, the sister Appellation : she first actually came over here in the Loire with working with Noella Morantin in 2013 further south from here, helping a few days now and then to work in the vineyard including of course for the picking. Then she met other vignerons like Bertrand Jousset and also Toby Bainbridge in Anjou and that's when she began to want to do something of her own. She was still living in Holland and Belgium back then, commuting now and then to the region for vineyard stints and she ended up moving here in the Loire in march 2017 for that purpose.

Lisanne in one of the vat rooms

During her one-year-long time at the wine school lisanne learnt also the administrative part of managing a winery in France, which is very useful when you're a foreigner. And even though she already had a good training on the field through her months spent with the vignerons both in the vineyard and in the cellar, she needed to get the wine-school degree in order to be legally allowed to open a winery and get vineyards. The curriculum is mainstream of course, not particularly bent on natural winemaking but that's still useful to know everything that can be done in a winery, even if aftherthen she'll follow her own wishes in terms of vinification philosophy.In a certain way, conventional winemaking is an entirely different job but knowing it is interesting.

Pictured here are some of the vats they bought, they found everything second-hand, for example buying the tanks from vignerons from the area that were retiring. these are mostly fiber-plastic tanks, that's what they can afford, they'll see if this works well, they're not sure stainless-steel is better, there's the magnetic field or electric conductivity issue, they'll see in the future what is best for their wines. For now they have enough vessels, next year they'll maybe buy a few more barrels.

The press

Lisanne and Benjamin set up their business together since this year (2018) and they are having their first vintage vinified from purchased grapes. Right before that, from 2006 to 2017, Benjamin had been managing Le Cameleon, a bar in Tours. He is a native from Tours and has been living in this village of Noizay since 2010. He has always been appreciating Chenin a lot as well as Vouvray wines, he says they're going to make table wines this year (no Appellation wines, that is), there may also not be Chenin among their cuvees this year but they're getting familiar with the other varieties. Later of course both of them would like to have parcels of their own and do the next step with working from estate vineyards. When you buy grapes even if they're organic which is what they do, you don't have a hand dirtectly on the grapes and farming, but that's the easiest way to begin with your own winery.

The region which still has a good diversity in terms of landscape (it's not a monoculture region) still offers good opportunities for an aspiring vigneron who looks for parcels of his own. Of course you have to have your own intel among the locals and try to learn about vacancies before others. Even though something on the Vouvray Appellation will be more expensive than a generic Touraine Appellation it is still affordable compared to other regions, especially if you find a vineyard with a tricky access which other established wineries will snub.

Vat room

Here is one of the cellar rooms, as you guess the temperature is pretty stable, there rooms communicate through vaulted passages, it's very beautiful and harmonious, I always tend to think [I may be wrong but that's my Steinerian background where I learnt that architecture has a hidden influence on humans] that this can't be neutral for wines to be made in such beautiful places.

For this first vintage they bought grapes both in the Loire and beyond, like for example from Alsace from a biodynamic domaine. It was not their initial intention but because of lower volumes this year in many parts of the Loire (as a result of mildew) they had to look elsewhere as well. They bought to Domaine Luc Faller in Alsace and if the experience is good they might repeat it next year even if the volumes return to normality in the Loire by then. From the start they decided to buy only grapes from organic-farmed vineyards both because that's their common philosophy with Lisanne and because the natural vinification they intend needs organic grapes for a healthy yeast population. Lisanne adds that they want to work with indigenous varieties from the region like Grolleau and others, otherwise here they found gamay and Cabernet Franc and in Alsace they bought Riesling, Pinot Gris & Pinot Blanc. Benjamin says that for a first vintage anyway it's better not to have too many cuvees and focus on a few and do them well.

What they bought in terms of volume of grapes this year will allow them to make about 15 000 bottles, which is not bad for a first vintage. It would make between 3 and 4 hectares if you take an average yield of 40 hectoliters/hectare. And they'll keep working on the side, working in the vineyards of other vignerons, and this way they'll keep learning the vineyard management, which will be useful when in the future they'll get parcels of their own.

Old press

They looked around for a facility or a chai and for economic reasons they favored renting over purchasing or building. when you start a winery you have already vats and miscellaneous tools to buy and renting is the best option.

They found this unused vinification cellar to rent, it hadn't been used for a long time but still had a few cement vats and this custom-made press fitting exactly in this corner of the main cellar room. You can guess in the foreground the square opening of the underground tank where the pressed juice would typically setlle for its gross lees to deposit. This thing is probably a 100 years old, possibly even older (1860 ?), and there are certainly many other similar vertical presses sitting idly in the neighboring troglodytic cellars of this village. That's alas hard to find one to buy because the families who own them are reluctant to let them go, even if it would mean making them alive again thanks to a young vigneron setting up shop. The problem here is that local owners are sentimentally attached to these pieces of real estate where generations of their forefathers have worked and made wine.

Actually the owners still used this place but only for dinner or lunch parties, the owner being a hunter and he ans his fellow hunters would cook and eat here now and then, there are several rooms upstairs with a gorgeous view over the Loire river (pic on right) and as I understand that makes another sound reason they want to keep this place in the family.

Barrel room

Lisanne didn't keep a day job here in france but she plans to travel back to Australia again in the northern hemisphere winter and make some wine there. She's been there several time and the natural wine movement is pretty vibrant in the country. the fact that she hasn't yet vineyards of her own to take care of here in the Loire leaves her plenty of time in winter when the wine is quietly on its way. She'll pick in february in Australia, this will be Chardonnay, Savagnin, Riesling, Cabernet Franc and this will be from what I understand at James Erskine's Jauma Wines where she's been several times. Someone over there will afterthen keep an eye on her wines and the wines will be sold in Australia only.

Actually Lisanne already made wine in 2017 with another vigneron and has a pallet of it here in the cellar (picture on left), this is her cuvee Beau Gosse 2016, a Cabernet Franc fermented for the beginning a stainless-steel vat from destemmed grapes, then in a barrel. I tasted it when I visited Bertrand Jousset's wine bar in Montlouis, and wrote back then that the wine is dry, no sugar left, it's unfiltered and there was no SO2 at all added, including for bottling. For a first try it's pretty nice, very delicate and refined. This wine is already meant to be sold in the United States through Tess Bryant Selections (Tess Bryant being a young importer who is starting in the trade), this pallet should be shipped some day soon to California.

Otherwise the plasting tanks here are full with the juice from both Alsace and the Loire, and there are also grapes in a tank with which Lisanne and Benjamin are going to deal with today (picture on right).

Emptying fermenter

When I visited, Benjamin and Lisanne were in the process to fill the press with Riesling grapes after they'd macerated in a plastic tank for 11 or 12 days for a try. They travelled to Alsace to pick the grapes themselves with the local team of pickers and they destemmed the grapes right on the spot in the vineyard. they had brought the destemmer and the tank and hauled back the whole to here. They had it ferment with fermenting juice and it began to ferment right away so that they didn't have to put CO2. THey basically didn't touch it, no pumping over here, they just gently pushed the cap down every other day so as to keep it wet. They used a refrigerated truck for the other tanks that were filled with juice. This skin-maceration try on Riesling will make a volume of about 10 hectoliters.

Asked if they were inspired by other similar skin maceration wines for Riesling, Lisanne says they haven't encountered many, except for Rudolf Trossen in the Mosel who uses long macerations for some of his whites, the resulting wines being sometimes exceptionnals and others surprising. Also she likes the wines of Jean-Pierre Rietsch in Alsace although she's not sure he does skin maceration, same with Patrick Meyer. Anyway it's rare that Riesling is used for maceration, usually it's more Muscat or Pinot Gris (the latter is often used in Australia for maceration), and they wanted to make a try, choosing a relatively short maceration time so as not to get too much extraction.

The fermenting juice

Lisanne grabs a glass to have me taste this juice, she says they taste it regularly because they don't want to go too far, Riesling is very aromatic and an excessive skin maceration could be harmful, it could be tiring if it's hyper floral, you might drink a glass and stop there, and wine has to be easy drinking more than an excercise in extraction. When you taste the juice you have to anticipate the additional tannin extraction that will occur at pressing, that's the trick. The juice is beautifully sweet and enjoyable, for someone like me it's not obvious to spot when skin maceration is enough, but they know better... Lisanne says also that for their first vintage they don't want to take excessive risk for such a trial, but they like what they taste here.

After this one we tasted a direct-press Riesling from another tank, very different color indeed, darker, even though it's made from the same grapes (pic of the glass on right). The juice is even more sweet, it's still on the very beginning of the fermentation and the orange, almost-brownish color comes from the oxygen but it will dwindle back to a lighter color some time ahead. What is funny here is that the "orange wine" is bright yellow and the direct press wine is orange... Lisanne says that thety also made a try with part of the Cabernet Franc to make a sparkling Blanc de Noir, and they'll also make natural sparkling with Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc. They'll make of course also still wines, reds and whites.

Filling the press

Bucket after bucket, the press get filled. they found the press in Vernou, a small village not far from here, the vigneron they got it from was buying a larger, more modern press. It's a Vaslin 22 VT, it was probably made in the late 80, I found plenty of them for sale on the Web for between 300 and  2000 , i didn't know you could find such elaborate tools for this cheap. This is one of the reasons I think why France is still a terrific place to make wine to this day, vineyards can be very affordable to rent or buy in certain regions and second-hand tools are plentiful and often cheap, plus fellow winemakers sometimes give you stuff for free.

Speaking of their planned sales for their wines in the future, they're lucky to have connections through their former jobs, so the wines will find their market, some will be exported in the United States, Australia, Belgium. They don't know yet if they take their wines to a wine fair, that could be. For sure they'll show their wines at the next Bulles au Centre, the natural sparkling fair in Montrichard in july. Lisannr is now also part of Vivent les Vins Libres, a group that organizes a wine tasting event every year in Paris and also abroad, and next year in april (around april 14 2019) they'll be having one in both Hong Kong and Singapore, this may help find buyers in Asia. Of course it would be nice to sell locally in the Loire but they'll not be available permanently in the cellar to receive the public. Of course venues like Amicalement Vin near Amboise (they have a terrific wine portfolio) will certainly haver their wines, as well as other places focused on natural wine in the region like Bertrand Jousset's wine bar.

Visiting parents

While Lisanne and Benjamin were loading the press, her parents showed up. they drove all the way from Holland (near Utrecht) and are staying here for a couple of weeks to see their daughter, they don't speak French but thanks to Lisanne who introduced them to her favorite beverage they now appreciate and drink wine (they weren't drinking any in the past).

This wasn't entirely over for the picking when I visited, Benjamin told me that they still had the Cabernet Franc to pick on the following week (they'll use their boxes, picture on left), and they'd follow this same process but with 3 times this volume of grapes, and this time they'll use a tank which is easier to rack at the end of the maceration, this is a self-emptying vat (cuve autovidante, see picture on right) with a large opening and a slopped bottom.

Everything will be labelled as Vin de France (table wine) for now as long as they're using purchased grapes, and Lisanne says that she is quite puzzled by the Appellation system and its odd rules. for example here the village where they have this chai is located in the Vouvray Appellation zone and because of this, they're not even allowed to make any sparkling that is not under the Appellation, meaning that they technically can't make their pet-nat here and so they'll have to haul the wine on the other side of the Loire (outside the Appellation zone) to do the tirage (fill the bottles with the residual sugar)... In neighboring Montlouis (where they'll haul their wine) there's no such narrow rule, you can make a Pet'Nat Vin de France on their premises.

Giving tips on tools

At one point Alexandre who also starts making wine further down in the street dropped for a few minutes, he was looking for something for his CO2 and Lisanne helped him with what they had. Solidarity is a permanent fixture of those artisan domaines and you always can count with you fellow winemakers, which is convenient when they're next door.

I asked Benjamin about the first wines they'll release, he says the Gamay will be released pretty early in early 2019 probably and same for the natural sparkling or even earlier for the latter, it depends how the fermentation will unfold, quietly or briskly. We're looking forward to tasting the wines of Lisanne and Benjamin, and if not before that could be possible next july in Montrichard south from here as they attend the natural-sparkling fair there...

Juice drops

The press has a total capacity of 22 hectoliters and there are 10 hectoliters of Riesling, so they'll not fill it. They put a tarpaulin around the press to get around the fact there's no cement slab outside the cellar and it's important to prevent dust from the dirt ground to get into the juice. Once le last bucket of grapes is in the press, they'll start the pressing which will last some 4 hours, they use it on the manual mode and will stop when appropriate. they took away the chains that are normally mounted inside the press because they tend ti truturate too much the grapes.

There's no temperature control in these cellars other than the natural inertia of the depths under the hill. Benjamin says that colder nights were forecast in the next few days and they'll probably open the doors of the cellar to cool down the inside and moderate the fermentation temperature, the tanks being close to the door. It's also better for the aromas to slow down the fermentation temperature. And for the pet'nats, if the fermentation is too swift, there's a risk to pass the targetted level of residual sugar, a critical point where the juice has to be bottled.

Sonser Vins

Lisanne van Son & Benjamin Serer

sonservins [at] gmail.com

Sonser Vins Facebook page

Short interview in Flemish (nice-sounding language) when she was a sommelier. at Dome in Antwerpen

Trove of old variety apples picked along a road back in the Loir-et-CherThe Entrepreneurial Wayz director a Global Goodwill Ambassador

The director of a unit in Wits Enterprise has been named as one of just six Global Goodwill Ambassadors in South Africa.

Chimene Chetty leads The Entrepreneurial Wayz (TEWZ) in Wits Commercial Enterprise (Pty) Ltd. TEWZ works to develop an entrepreneurial economy and contribute to sustainable socio-economic development.

The Global Goodwill Ambassadors is an international association of humanitarians, which designates thousands of ambassadors from 150 countries to promote and encourage humanitarian initiatives. Ambassadors foster friendships and alliances to inculcate a better understanding of the worlds diverse population and cultures to shift negative preconceptions.

Im humbled to be nominated and acknowledged as a Global Goodwill Ambassador. To help people reach their potential, to become active contributors to the economy, and achieve self-actualization for a fulfilled life are at the very core of my work. This continues to be both my passion and my purpose, says Chetty, who over 20 years has committed to humanitarianism through working in the NGO sector.

A history of humanitarianism

Chetty was previously Southern Africa Regional Director of Ashoka, a global NGO that identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs. She later held the position of Director at the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Wits Business School for five years before joining TEWZ at Wits Enterprise.

Duncan Raftesath, Chief Executive of Wits Enterprise commended Chetty on her Global Goodwill Ambassadorship: We are immensely proud that we have a Global Goodwill Ambassador within our ranks. Chimene Chetty has certainly proved to be an ambassador for the socio-economic advancement of marginalised individuals and communities. A doer and a change-maker, she is dedicated to the development of people, communities and ultimately her country.

Chetty believes entrepreneurship is as a critical lever to deliver on the socio-economic rights of South Africans and prepare young people for the 21st Century global economy. Combined with a strong sense of social justice, her approach seeks to restore equity, access and equal opportunity to marginalised, othered and oppressed groups. Through her work at TEWZ, Chetty is closely involved in the personal development of others.

Leveraging entrepreneurialism for self-actualization

It has long been my mission to support transformation in the South African economy by helping to nurture a generation of change makers, problem solvers and savvy entrepreneurs who are able to start and grow sustainable businesses that are based on a shared values model, thereby creating inclusive opportunities and facilitating community-based development, says Chetty.

Chettys approach to entrepreneurial development is supported by years of individual experience and expertise as an entrepreneur herself. She has established various small businesses and initiatives and has served on several committees and boards. She presently serves on the Community of Practice Working Group of the Department of Higher Education, developing a framework for Entrepreneurial Universities in South Africa.Some 80 percent of the venues for the 7th CISM Military World Games next year will have been constructed by the end of 2018, said the organizers of the 2019 Wuhan Military Games on Wednesday, one day ahead of a yearly countdown before its opening.

"Some 10 out of up to 35 venues have been constructed and another 19 will have been constructed by the end of this year, with six remaining venues to be finished by April next year," said local officials from the host city of Wuhan at a press conference hosted by China's National Defense Ministry.

Being the host country, China routinely sends the largest delegation to the Military World Games.NEW HARMONY, Ind. (WEVV/WLFI) A message in a bottle from a West Lafayette girl made its way 250 miles down the Wabash River to New Harmony, Indiana. Now, the person who found it needs your help to find Abbey Bradford.

WLFI was contacted by our CBS affiliate in Evansville Thursday. According to aFacebook post, the message was sent in an old glass Pepsi bottle and was picked up out of the Wabash in New Harmony. That's at the southwestern most tip of the state.

The note reads: "Who ever gets this! My name is Abbey Bradford. I am a girl. I live in West Lafayette, IN. You can call me at ----. Love, Abbey

The woman who found the note said the phone number on the note didn't work. News 18 tried the number and it said it was disconnectd.

If you know Abbey, we would love to hear from you. Please email newsroom@wlfi.com.LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Today was all about showing support for domestic violence victims as the YWCA hosted their monthly luncheon.

The purpose of these meetings is to address community concerns by bringing up topics that are important to the Greater Lafayette area.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Most who attended the YWCA's luncheon wore purple or carried their purple purses in honor of the cause.

The purses are part of the Purple Purse fundraising campaign to raise money for domestic violence victims.

A lot of times people are abused financially meaning their abusive partner withholds money from the other, said Allison Beggs, Director of the Greater Lafayette YWCA.

She said they are 6th in the nation for fundraiser having raised more than $33,000 since the start of the month of October. She encourages everyone to donate before the fundraiser ends on October 31st.

The money goes towards the work that people like Leah Georgini do. She is the Director of the Domestic Violence Intervention and Prevention Program here in Lafayette. She works closely with domestic violence victims right here in our community.

She said it's just as much of an issue here as it is worldwide.

Our shelter housed over 400 hundred adults and children last year but that's only the tip of the iceberg, she said. We probably have to turn away about half the calls that come to us.

She said she cares so much about this cause because of what she saw her mother go through while she was growing up in England. She saw her mother escape abuse and now wants to help others.

Mira Cassidy spoke at todays event, and she too has a very personal connection to abuse.

She shared her story of escaping her abusive husband, an escape that took her about 10 years to do. She talked about how she turned to her religious community for support, but found only shame and no support.

But now she is an author and motivational speaker, hoping to create positive change by sharing her story.

I believe that by me sharing my story, it's helping to fix the situation or to bring some type of solution to it because there are so many different stories of domestic violence, there are so many types of survivors, said Cassidy.

Her book is titled Let Mia Tell It and you can buy it online.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  It was an emotional Tuesday for the 186 people who boarded Flight 22. As we reported Tuesday, it was the final Greater Lafayette honor flight.

PHOTO GALLERY: Final Greater Lafayette Honor Flight

News 18's Kiyerra Lake and photojournalist Ryan Delaney took the trip with them. It was an emotional day in Washington D.C. for the co-founders, but also our local veterans.

Boarding the plane to the final Greater Lafayette Honor Flight was a bittersweet moment. Co-founder Pam Mow stayed upbeat for the veterans and their guardians heading to our nation's capital.

"They are so much fun already so we're just gonna have a great day," said Mow. "It really is. It might hit me in a week or two, but right now it's all good."

After about an hour in the sky, they finally touched down at the Washington National Airport with a band and many people cheering and welcoming them at the gate.

With a police escort and four buses it was time to start the tour. The first stop, the Marine Corps Memorial based on the iconic photograph of six Marines raising the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. Three World War II Veterans were on this trip and two of them are brothers.

"The boys that didn't get there are the ones that really ought to be honored, Not us," said World War II Veteran Wayne Newman. "The ones that didn't get there and there were a lot of cemeteries there."

The Veterans also got a tour of the Arlington National Cemetery. The group watched the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There was also a wreath laying ceremony with a gift from the Greater Lafayette Honor Flight.

Both Ondis Brantley and Michael Sims were able to participate in this ceremony alongside the honor flight's co-founders.

Ondis said "All in all being 96, The world treated me pretty good," Sims added, "To me it was an honor and my thought was don't screw up."

One of the stops our Greater Lafayette heroes make is right here at the World War II memorial and just up the way they're going to head up to see the Korean and Vietnam War memorials.

An emotional visit for 77 Vietnam war veterans was visiting the memorial wall. On two acres and black granite, with more than 58-thousand names Allan Bergren was just looking for one in particular. With his cane, Bergen looked up and down the walls looking for his friend's names. Then he finally he saw it, Dennis B. Green.

Out of all the memorials, this is where the group spent the most time before heading to the Korean War Memorial and getting back on the bus to the airport. And on the plane it was time for mail call.

The veterans received letters from their family, friends and students from around Greater Lafayette all thanking them for their service, but also a time to share a final message for veterans to continue sharing their stories.

Tim Earls said over the plane speaker, "Go back to the schools and tell these young kids what freedom costs because it's not free. It cost something."

When the veterans arrived at the Purdue University Airport, another surprise was waiting for them. A crowd of hundred waiting to thank and welcome them home. This was all thanks to co-founders Dana Vann and Pam Mow

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb said, "Oh my gosh you talk about special places in heaven reserved for Pam and Dana." He was also on the flight.

They finally were getting a welcome home ceremony most of these veterans never received, but always deserved.

"Hoosiers and Americans care for one another and recognize all that we have," said Holcomb. "We are blessed and it's because these 84 men and their brothers and sisters that have put on that uniform."

Even thought this is an end of an era, lasting memories were made for all those veterans who boarded a Greater Lafayette honor flight since 2012.



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Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images For TWC(NEW YORK) -- The Manhattan District Attorneys office this afternoon issued a pre-emptive notice to Harvey Weinsteins defense team, alerting them to yet another potentially serious problem connected with the investigation that led to criminal charges against the disgraced movie mogul.



The assistant district attorney handling the case told Weinsteins team that one of the alleged victims was told by NYPD Detective Nicholas DiGaudio, the lead detective in the case to delete from her phones any information she didnt want prosecutors to see when she turned the devices over to them.



According to the letter, the detective said we just wont tell Joan, referring to Manhattan assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon.



The district attorney's office insists that the case is still moving forward, and provided no comment beyond the letter.



Weinsteins lead defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said Wednesday's admission is more evidence of what he described as a "deeply flawed" case against his client.



"This new development even further undermines the integrity of an already deeply flawed Indictment of Mr. Weinstein," Brafman said in a statement emailed to ABC News.



Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations of rape and sexual assault that have been made against him both in court and in the media.



Less than a week ago, the judge in the case dismissed one of six counts against Weinstein -- at the district attorney's request -- after prosecutors discovered a written account from alleged victim Lucia Evans which suggested her sexual encounter with Weinstein was consensual. Evans has accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.



Wednesday's letter refers to one of the two remaining accusers in the case, given that Evans accusation against Weinstein was dropped last week with the dismissal of the sixth count.



Both Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance's office and the New York Police Department (NYPD) are reviewing the detectives work on the case.



In court last Thursday, Illuzzi-Orbon told the judge that the case against Weinstein is still moving forward.



The Manhattan prosecution of Weinstein represents the only criminal case to be filed against him to date. Investigation elsewhere - including in Los Angeles and London - have not led to criminal charges.



Last week, after Illuzzi-Orbon informed the court that she would drop count six of the indictment against Weinstein, Evans lawyer blasted the move, saying in a statement that the district attorney's office made the decision to abandon her client.



"Let me be clear: the decision to throw away my client's sexual assault charges says nothing about Weinstein's guilt or innocence," said attorney Carrie Goldberg.



"Nor does it reflect on Lucia's consistent allegation that she was sexually assaulted with force by Harvey Weinstein," he continued. "It only speaks volumes about the Manhattan DA's office and its mishandling of my client's case."



Prosecutors said in a Sept. 12 letter to the defense unsealed last week that they discovered an account after Weinstein's arrest that could suggest the encounter was consensual.



"According to the Witness...the Complainant [Evans] told the Witness that...the Complainant had gone to the defendant's office, where the Defendant told her, in substance, that he would arrange for the Complainant to receive an acting job if she agreed to perform oral sex upon him," the letter said. "According to the Witness, the Complainant told her that she thereupon performed oral sex on the defendant."



The letter goes on to say that during this discussion Evans "appeared to be upset, embarrassed and shaking."



Weinstein defense attorney Benjamin Brafman accused Evans of committing perjury when she testified to the grand jury.



Sexual assault is a serious crime but falsely accusing someone of sexual assault is also a serious crime, Brafman said outside court last week.



Brafman said prosecutors discovered Evans written account about her encounter with Weinstein from a fact-checker with The New Yorker, and said he would subpoena the magazine.



When you do your homework after the arrest, bad things happen, Brafman noted.



In a statement, a spokesperson for The New Yorker said that the magazine stands by their reporting and fact-checking process, adding that "[a]ny assertion by lawyers for Harvey Weinstein that The New Yorker had information that contradicted Lucia Evanss account is patently incorrect."



Weinsteins defense team called the case permanently and irreparably damaged and Brafman said he would use the development to seek the dismissal of the whole case.



Illuzzi-Orbon, however, said last week that the rest of the case is full steam ahead.



Nothing in the disclosure relating to count six impacts the strength of the remaining case and the remaining counts in the indictment, all five of them, including predatory sexual assault, she said.



Evans is one of three women whose allegations form the backbone of the criminal case.



Defense attorneys also said they would subpoena police interview records after claiming that an NYPD detective may have unfairly tainted these proceedings when he prepared Evans for her testimony.



The detective has been removed from the case, Brafman said.



NYPD officials have said they stand by the criminal case against Weinstein, but have not to date directly addressed the alleged conduct of the investigator, Detective DiGaudio.



But the president of the NYPD detectives union vigorously defended the embattled DiGuardio.



"The Manhattan DAs office needs to enter the 21st century," Detectives Endowment Association president Michael Palladino said in a statement. "This is the age of technology. People keep loads of personal info on their phones that they prefer remains confidential."



"A woman should not have to surrender confidential intimate information thats immaterial to the case to defend herself against a sexual predator," Palladino continued in the statement. "Thats being victimized twice. Detective DiGaudio was sensitive to that.



Weinstein is due back in court on Dec. 20.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The US government issued a new version of the National Strategy for Counterterrorism (NSCT) recently. Compared with the previous version released seven years ago, the new National Strategy for Counterterrorism reveals strong personal characters of President Donald Trump. "Counterterrorism" was highlighted throughout the strategy, but the strategy was not specifically released for counterterrorism purposes. Instead, it aims to use counterterrorism as a tool to maintain regional hegemony and promote the self-centered "America First" policy.

Focus on the homeland and endorse the controversial policies

In recent years, the powerful spillover effects of the terrorist forces in the Middle East have threatened countries around the world with terrorists return and the localization of terrorism to varying degrees. Europe was hit the hardest and the US was often in danger, with many small-scale terrorist attacks. Therefore, it seems reasonable that the US emphasizes counterterrorism locally. However, the facts are not that simple.

The new National Strategy for Counterterrorism is actually an extension and refinement of the US National Security Strategy in counterterrorism.

The strategy identifies six objectives including "the capacity of terrorists to conduct attacks in the homeland and against vital United States interests overseas is sharply diminished; the sources of strength and support upon which terrorists rely are severed; terrorists' ability to radicalize, recruit, and mobilize to violence in the homeland is diminished; Americans are prepared and protected from terrorist attacks in the homeland, including through more exacting border security and law enforcement actions; terrorists are unable to acquire or use WMDs, including chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons, and other advanced weaponry; and Public sector partners, private sector partners, and foreign partners take a greater role in preventing and countering terrorism."

It seems that these objectives focus on local security and are therefore established for the sake of counterterrorism. On reflection, however, they all basically endorse the "American First" concept.

In fact, Trump's "America First" concept has been controversial since he took office. Trump's policies including promoting the construction of the border wall, strengthening security checks at ports of entry, and a series of discriminatory laws such as the so-called "refugee ban" and "travel ban" have all been criticized badly.

Faced with the opposition voices at home and abroad, Trump is actually under tremendous pressure from the public in spite of his apparent indifference.

At this time, the National Strategy for Counterterrorism emphasizing the threat of terrorism to the US can excuse Trump's controversial policies.

According to its logic and driven by the goals such as "the sources of strength and support upon which terrorists rely are severed" and "terrorists' ability to radicalize, recruit, and mobilize to violence in the homeland is diminished", the previous policies including tightening immigration and strengthening border control are not only necessary but also very urgent.

In this way, the original "politically incorrect" controversial policies have become the good counterterrorism strategy.

Create an atmosphere to suppress Iran

In addition to endorsing domestic policies, the US is also using counterterrorism as a tool to suppress opponents and fight for initiative.

In recent years, the strategic pattern of the Middle East has been reshuffled, and the competition over regional dominance has been very intense. Iran, a regional power, cooperated with old rivals of the US such as Russia and other countries to compete against the US in places like Syria.

The US and Iran have been in a spat since Trump took office. In May this year, Trump announced that the US would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. Trump recently announced that he will launch the second batch of sanctions against Iran, reducing the export of Iranian crude oil, natural gas and condensate to zero.

However, as far as the current situation is concerned, the above measures are unlikely to force Iran to yield in a short period of time. In the face of this stalemate, it is not surprising that the US started to consider making a fuss about "counterterrorism."

Iran was mentioned only once throughout the previous version of the US National Strategy for Counterterrorism. However, Iran was mentioned as many as 10 times in the new version. And in the first chapter, Iran was called "the most prominent state sponsor of terrorism." The roots of the terrorist organizations and terrorist activities identified by the US in the Middle East, such as the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, are all attributed to Iran's "instigation and support."

It is not the first time that the US publicly demonizes a sovereign state. In the past, the US had attacked the Iraqi regime because of the groundless "weapons of mass destruction." The US has repeated its trick under the current situation, and its intention is actually quite clear. The US aims to demonize Iran and continue to find excuses for isolation and sanctions against its opponents, gaining the upper hand in dealing with Iran.

In this way, depending on the relations with Iran, the US has the excuse for sanctions and even crackdowns. It also has the bargaining chip in negotiation and reconciliation. If the relation with Iran is deadlocked, the US can take the opportunity to consolidate the alliance with Israel, Saudi Arabia and other anti-Iran countries to gain political and economic interests.

Shape the environment to promote hegemony

Everyone knows that the implementation of hegemonism and the acquisition of geopolitical interests are the essence of US foreign policy. In recent years, the strength of the US has relatively declined and it has not been able to meet the needs of its global hegemony.

As a result, the US has to abandon its hardline approach of relying on absolute military strength and pursuing unilateralism. Instead, the US has shifted to more skillful use of all resources to create a favorable regional strategic environment. The new US National Strategy for Counterterrorism has created space for this.

Taking advantage of the power of allies and partners has always been an important means for the US to shape the international environment and consolidate its hegemonic status. The new US National Strategy for Counterterrorism has special emphasis on exerting partners' capabilities. Compared with the previous version, the new strategy has a chapter devoted to the role of partners.

Through measures including expanding the scope of partner selection, encouraging partners to strengthen their own capabilities, and increasing counterterrorism information sharing, the US aims to give full play to the role of partners and reduce their dependence on the US.

Correspondingly, the US has shrunk its responsibilities in global counterterrorism in the new strategy. This fully reflects that the US wants to minimize its responsibilities, reduce investment, and use more resources for major power competition. On the contrary, the "partner countries" that have been pushed to the front line of counterterrorism will have to assume more responsibilities in the so-called "counterterrorism." Moreover, they are facing greater risk of involvement in possible major power confrontation.

The new strategy emphasizes shaping a favorable environment, especially the ideological communication environment to prevent and suppress the occurrence and expansion of terrorism from the source in terms of counterterrorism policy formulation. This is indeed more brilliant than the counterterrorism idea that relied on indiscriminate bombing and precise hunting seen in the previous version. However, it remains to be seen whether the expected results can be achieved.

The traditional American political forces have deep-rooted white ethnicity and cultural superiority. In May of this year, the US government disregarded the religious feelings of the Islamic world and moved the US Embassy to Israel to Jerusalem. The negative influence of this move is still fermenting.

Eliminating the soil of terrorism requires the sincere cooperation with all relevant countries. However, the sincerity of this cooperation is not reflected in the new US National Strategy for Counterterrorism.

Disclaimer: The authors are is Li Lu and Wang Pengfei with the Joint Operations College of the Chinese PLA National Defense University. The article was published on the China Youth Daily and translated from Chinese into English and edited by China Military online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. Chinamil.com.cn does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same. If the article carries photographs or images, we do not vouch for their authenticity.Cabinet Secretary supports new North Wales Arts and Wellbeing collaboration

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Oct 18th, 2018

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething has pledged his support behind a new Concordat of organisations who are pledging to use the arts as a way to increase peoples wellbeing.

The newly launched Concordat which includes Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, Theatre Clwyd, many North Wales local authorities and a number of other organisations have pledged to support initiatives which use the arts as a way to enhance wellbeing.

The Concordat which is also supported by Arts Council Wales and the Welsh NHS Confederation aims for North Wales to be seen as a leading area in Wales in improving health and well-being through the arts.

Projects such as `Arts from the Armchair` and `Singing for Lung Health` are already successfully running collaboratively between the Heath Board and partners, both in culture venues and the wider community.

Arts from the Armchair is a partnership collaboration between Theatr Clwyd, the Mold Community Hospital team and BCUHB Flintshire Community Mental Health and Learning Disability Services Memory Clinic.

Created by BCUHB Arts in Health programme Coordinator, Andrea Davies, the group meets weekly at Theatr Clwyd, with professional theatre producer Hester Evans-Ford, and offers a range of arts-based workshop activities.

The group encourages those with early onset memory loss and their carers to overcome the challenges of communication by taking part in stimulating activities and encouraging social interaction in a supported, creative way.

Each week the participants engage with different areas of the theatre and stagecraft. Actors, musicians, costume makers, lighting and sound technicians, scene painters and other theatre professionals join the group to share new experiences and encourage involvement with the live performance process.

Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething said: This Concordat will cover a wide range of activity, from engagement with arts activities for their own sake, which have health benefits, through to specialist services such as Art, Music and Drama Therapy.

Engaging in creative activities plays an important in the prevention of poor health and in recovery following a period of physical or mental ill-health. It can also help ease social isolation during periods of acute or chronic ill health.

The arts challenge and engage us emotionally and physically; sooth and comfort us and the contribution of the arts to improving health and well-being is increasingly recognised.

Arts, Health and Wellbeing Strategic Programme Manager Liz Aylett said, Its fantastic that so many organisations have committed to joining this Concordat. We strongly believe in the power of the arts and arts therapies to help people who are unwell both during their stay in hospital and in recovery.

Many of our projects have also seen the value in promoting good health and communications, supporting the general wellbeing of individuals  both their physical and mental wellbeing.

During his keynote speech at the conference, Nick Capaldi, Chief Executive of Arts Council of Wales said: I am delighted therefore to be contributing to this the conference of the Concordat for Arts, Health and Well-Being in north Wales here at Theatr Clwyd  the home of the Arts from the Armchair project. That project is another excellent example of the benefits of the arts to health and is a collaboration between Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board and Theatr Clwyd. It provides positive, creative experiences through workshops and performances within a theatre context for people with dementia.

The goal of that project, like the Concordat as a whole, is to promote the benefits that the arts can bring to the populations well-being and help patients maintain good mental and physical health thus reducing the demand on the NHS.

Through this Concordat, as through all our work, our goal is to create a more equal, cultural and sustainable Wales and to put the arts at the heart of the life and wellbeing of the nation.

Top: Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething signs his name to pledge his commitment to supporting Arts and Wellbeing in North Wales.Social media contributing to growing mental health crisis among children in Wrexham says head of health board

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Oct 18th, 2018

Social media is contributing to a growing mental health crisis among children in Wrexham and Flintshire, according to the head of the North Wales health board.

It comes after politicians raised concerns about the length of time taken for help to be provided for children and young people with mental health issues in North East Wales.

A report shows that one youngster in the region faced a wait of more than half a year for treatment in 2018, while the longest wait for an assessment was over four months.

It comes despite the Welsh Government setting a target for 80 per cent of mental health patients to be assessed within 28 days and for interventions to start within a further 28 days.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board chief executive Gary Doherty admitted that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) were struggling to meet those targets, with only 11 per cent of children receiving an assessment within that timeframe in June.

However, he told members of Wrexham Councils safeguarding scrutiny committee that social media companies should be made to pay for adding to the problem.

Speaking at a meeting yesterday, he said: I actually agree with what the head of the NHS in England said that maybe the likes of Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat should be making some kind of contribution to the impact.

With social media, its not hard to see that its playing a part.

Anything that reduces the level of self esteem and confidence can contribute.

In terms of the impact of blue screens on sleep, all those and more beside that are some of the things that are driving the increase.

It was also revealed that an increase in the number of youngsters with eating disorders had added to the demand on the service.

The waiting list for assessments reached a peak in the summer with 212 children waiting to be seen in June.

Meanwhile, the list for treatment hit its highest during April with a total of 207 patients.

A number of councillors in Wrexham said they also believed that social media was contributing to the issue.

Cartrefle councillor Ronnie Prince said: I totally agree with what the chief said.

I visit my grandkids and I walk in the room and theyre on an iPad, so getting a conversation with them sometimes is very hard.

Trying to get that message across and say Turn it off because its not good for your health is difficult because they think the world revolves around this.

Cllr Joan Lowe, lead member for health and adult social care said the matter had also been mentioned to her by senior school staff in the area.

She said: Our headmaster actually said that with the mental health and wellbeing of pupils now and the deterioration in the last five years, he dreaded to think what the next five to ten years will bring and that was to do with social media and everything else.

However, Cllr Brian Cameron voiced concerns after health board representatives outlined that there are currently 10 vacancies within CAMHS in the north east area.

It means that only 25 out of the 35 jobs within the service have been filled.

He said: Do we think its acceptable for someone to wait to be seen for 28 weeks?

We may have a lot of experience ourselves and we know as adults what its like with mental health, but children havent got the experience to guide themselves through.

I appreciate the difficulties that youre under, but its frightening because its young people.

In response, Mr Doherty said the board was trying to fill as many posts as possible.

It is hoping to achieve the mental health assessment time target by the end of October, while the goal for reaching the treatment target is February 2019.

He said: I agree it is too long and thats why were working in this area.

What is definitely this case both within Wales and UK, is that the whole CAMHS service has struggled to keep up with demand.

The majority of units would have the level of vacancies weve got, but maybe a bit better.

At the end of the meeting councillors voted in favour of receiving a further update on waiting times from the board next year.

By Liam Randall  BBC Local Democracy Reporter (more here on the LDR scheme).With nearly three weeks still remaining before the November 6 vote, the 2018 US midterm elections have already become the most expensive non-presidential elections in American history. More than $5 billion has already been raised by and for federal, state and local campaigns.

Democratic and Republican candidates for the House of Representatives and US Senate, and outside groups supporting or opposing them, had raised $3.96 billion by September 30, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission that were analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics. That left five more weeks of fundraising and spending by the two corporate-controlled parties, for which reports will not be available until the end of the year.

To this must be added well over $1.5 billion spent on gubernatorial contests in 36 states, campaigns for state legislatures, and spending to promote and oppose statewide ballot initiatives in those states that provide for such referenda.

The 2018 election features the most expensive Senate campaign in history, in Florida, where the multi-millionaire governor of state, Republican Rick Scott, is challenging incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. The two candidates had raised more than $113 million by September 30. Hotly contested Senate races in Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Wisconsin and Nevada are all expected to break the $50 million mark.

Several of the contests for the 435 seats in the House of Representatives have broken the $20 million mark, including four in southern California and one in the Hudson Valley of New York state. There are $10 million House contests in California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The election also has one of the most expensive governors races in history, in Illinois, where billionaire Democratic J. B. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, is challenging incumbent Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, a billionaire hedge fund boss. Pritzker has already spent more than $100 million and Rauner $82 million. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, will each spend more than $50 million on reelection campaigns against nominal opponents.

Gubernatorial candidates have spent $664 million, according to state-level financial reports, which lag substantially behind the reporting on spending in federal elections. Another $250 million has been raised by the Republican Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association.

An estimated $650 million has been contributed to campaigns supporting or opposing ballot measures in statewide referendums. According to press reports, $118 million has been spent on a single ballot proposition in California, which would limit the revenues of kidney dialysis clinics. No figures are yet available on the amount spent in campaigns for the thousands of state legislative seats on the November 6 ballot.

Midterm election spending has rocketed upwards over the past two decades, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The 2002 midterm was the first to cost $2 billion. The 2014 midterms cost $3.67 billion and saw record low turnout. The 2018 midterm could hit $6 billion.

The sheer scale of the fundraising and spending demonstrates the profoundly anti-democratic character of the American political system. Only candidates who can raise vast sums need apply. That ensures that the entire political structure, from the legislature of the smallest state right up to Capitol Hill and the White House, is controlled by those with money. Those elected will, in a very real sense, represent their financial backers, not the voters who go to the polls November 6 to cast their ballots.

These huge outlays do not go to educate or inform the public about the political programs and experience of the candidates. The bulk of the money is spent on attack ads that pollute the airways and the internet, with an intensity of mudslinging and slander that makes commercial television virtually unwatchable for the last month of the campaign.

Republican candidates brand their Democratic opponents as terrorist sympathizersthe word treason has been flung about by more than one campaignwhile Democrats respond in kind, portraying President Trump as a stooge of Russia or branding Republicans as apologists for sexual assault.

There is considerable political significance to the fact that in both House and Senate races, Democratic candidates have raised and spent more money than their Republican opponents, reversing the longtime trend in which Republicans generally spent more, while the Democrats relied on the trade union apparatus and urban political machines to make up the difference.

Democratic candidates for the US Senate outraised the Republicans by roughly $450 million to $350 million. This financial advantage is partly a demonstration of the power of incumbency, as Democrats hold 26 of the 35 contested seats and all 26 Democratic incumbents are seeking reelection, including senators in ten states carried by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. But one Democratic challenger, Beto ORourke in Texas, raised a staggering $38 million during the third quarter, from July 1 through September 30, more than triple the $12 million raised by incumbent Republican Ted Cruz.

It is in the House races that the Democratic advantage is most striking, since there are more Republican incumbents than Democratic, but Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives had raised $714 million through September 30, compared to $542 million for Republicans. This fundraising edge underlies projections that the Democrats will make the net gain of 23 seats required to win a majority in the lower chamber. In 115 competitive seats, where the balance of power in the House will be decided, Democratic candidates have outraised Republicans in 71. In dozens of cases, Democratic challengers have raised more money than Republican incumbents.

While this is in part the result of a surge of small-dollar contributions raised over the internet, on the model of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in 2016, the Democratic Party advantage is primarily a product of shifts within the US corporate elite, where billionaires are pouring funds into the Democratic campaign. One aspect of this shift in support is the struggle over the direction of US foreign policy, particularly in relation to Russia.

The New York Times, in an effort to conceal the class significance of this shift by the financial aristocracy, published a report Tuesday headlined, Small Donors Fuel a Big Democratic Lead in 2018 Fund-Raising. But the figures supplied in the article belie the headline: while Democrats outraised Republicans in small donations by $46 million to $15 million in the 69 most competitive House races, the article acknowledges: Democrats have taken in $252 million altogether in those races over the course of the campaign, versus $172 million for Republicans. The gap in small donors accounts for about 40 percent of the Democrats overall financial advantage.

In other words, the Democratic advantage among large donors accounts for 60 percent of the overall advantage, the direct opposite of the claim made in the headline. Needless to say, the Times does not examine the reasons for the shift in large donations. It notes the $50 million given to the Republicans by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, while ignoring the $80 million given to the Democrats by media billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

In some areas, the Democratic fundraising advantage is so immense that the Republican Party appears to be effectively conceding long-held seats. In seven competitive Republican-held seats in California, for example, Democratic challengers raised $21.6 million in the third quarter, while five Republican representatives and two replacements for retiring incumbents raised only $4.2 million. In New York and New Jersey, every one of the 14 Democratic challengers to Republican House incumbents outraised their opponent in the third quarter, in many cases by millions of dollars.

Particularly remarkable is the fundraising for Democratic candidates with a military-intelligence background. These candidates, whom the World Socialist Web Site has identified and profiled as the CIA Democrats, come from the intelligence agencies, combat commands, special forces, and civilian war-planning agencies like the National Security Council.

For the most part, these candidates are not independently wealthy. But they have been able to raise gargantuan sums, in many cases with the backing of political action committees bankrolled by the super-rich, such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who recently pumped $10 million into the With Honor Fund, which donates to veterans running as candidates in either capitalist party.

Among the military-intelligence candidates raising vast sums are: Mikie Sherill, a former Navy pilot, who has raised over $7 million for her campaign in New Jersey; Amy McGrath, a Marine Corps pilot, $6.7 million in Kentucky; Abigail Spanberger, a former CIA agent running in Virginia, $5 million; Elissa Slotkin, another former CIA agent running in Michigan, $5.5 million; and Gina Ortiz Jones, an Air Force intelligence agent running in Texas, $4.7 million.

The author also recommends:

The CIA Democrats: A balance sheet of the primaries

[21 September 2018]

The Kavanaugh confirmation and the US midterm elections

[9 October 2018]Two weeks after the departure of Interior Minister Gerard Collomb and after several failed attempts to assemble a cabinet, French president Emmanuel Macron finally presented his reworked government on Tuesday. He had pledged to reshuffle the government to give a second wind to his programmeme of austerity and militarism, but he presented only modest changes, designed to allow him to pursue his widely hated agenda.

Collomb was replaced by one of Macrons close associates, the former Minister of Relations with Parliament and government spokesman, Christophe Castaner. He will be assisted by a junior minister, the former chief of domestic intelligence (DGSI), Laurent Nunez.

Eight new ministers and secretaries of state have joined the Philippe government to replace four outgoing ministers, and a number of portfolios have changed hands or have been enlarged within the executive. But the main ministerial portfolios did not change, except for the Interior Ministry which was at the centre of the crisis that led to the reshuffle.

Jean-Yves Le Drian remains at Foreign Affairs, Bruno Le Maire at Economy and Finance, Nicole Belloubet at Justice, Florence Parly at the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Gerald Darmanin at Public Accounts. Contrary to the expectations raised by the government itself, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has not resigned to lead a new government. The goal, according to the executive, was to consolidate the previous government.

The politicians who have agreed to join the government are not new supporters of Macron, but individuals allied to him prior to his election: Didier Guillaume, leader of the Socialist Party (PS) group in the Senate, who is taking over Agriculture, and Franck Riester, expelled from the right-wing The Republicans party, is to be Minister of Culture. The other ministers come from big business, finance or are top-level state functionaries.

In a televised speech, Macron made clear the purpose of his government would be to intensify the governments right-wing agenda. He said there would be neither a change of orientation, nor a change of course, and that he would pursue deep change, stressing continuity with the attacks he has made against the social and democratic rights of the working class.

Faced with the enormous unpopularity of his policies, the reshuffle confirmed that he could only offer more of the same, in line with his deep contempt for working people.

Playing musical chairs in the cabinet will not solve the crisis of the government, which is rooted in the enormous popular hostility to its programme, growing opposition to the government in the police forces and the increasing feeling in the political establishment that Macrons government is close to falling. This is reflected in the many refusals by established bourgeois politicians to accept ministerial positions in Macrons cabinet.

Castaner is neither the leading politician desired by Macron and Philippe, nor a political alternative to Collomb. This mediocre figure from La Republique En Marche! (LRM, Macrons partyThe Republic on the Move!) was chosen because he threatened to leave the government, and no one else acceptable to the LRM would take the job. This reshuffle will not solve persistent police protests against the government and the presidency.

Before joining Macron, Castaner made a career in the Socialist Party, in the political entourage of figures like Michel Rocard, Francois Mitterrands prime minister from 1988 to 1991, and PS politician Michel Sapin, who was economy minister under Francois Hollande. He was also close to Hollandes prime minister, Manuel Valls, and his repressive security agenda, and to criminologist Alain Bauer, Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient of France, who also has strong ties to police.

As the class struggle has intensified, the social base that Macron claimed to have found in the middle class, while he dealt the working class and poorer layers of the petty bourgeoisie the blows demanded by the financial aristocracy and the European Union, has disintegrated or proved to be non-existent.

The isolation of Macron, which the media and his political opponents treat as a personal fault of the president, is nothing more than the realisation that he no longer has any social base in the population outside the super-rich and the most affluent upper-middle class layers. Now even the police, who were a key base of Hollandes government, are rebelling against him.

Sensing that the governments days are numbered, and reflecting the feeling of part of the ruling class that the crisis of the Macron government can quickly lead to a crisis of rule, Unsubmissive France (LFI) leader Jean-Luc Melenchon on October 14 floated the idea of dissolving the National Assembly after the May 2019 European elections. This would trigger new parliamentary elections.

We can imagine that if we reach our goals in the European election with for us a national score, for him the minimum score, he will find himself facing a crisis of authority that his predecessors have never known, said Melenchon, adding the political crisis born inside Macrons party is spreading and becoming a crisis of rule.

Melenchon is a hardened defender of the bourgeois state and does not want to overthrow the government nor endanger it while it launches its attacks. He is advocating new elections in eight months, above all, to discourage workers from mobilizing against Macron right now. Nonetheless, it is far from certain that the Assembly will not be dissolved sooner.

One thing is clear: this government intends to survive only by a police repression of political opposition and mass intimidation. This is shown by the searches carried out at Melenchons home, the homes of his former collaborators and the headquarters of the LFI and those of the Left Party. The searches took place only two days after Melenchon publicly discussed a dissolution of the Assembly, and on the day of the cabinet reshuffle.

The operation conducted by the Paris prosecutors office under the authority of the Ministry of Justice is a clear political signal from the government to the police and a no less clear message aimed at intimidating Melenchon voters.After the police raids targeting the Unsubmissive France (LFI) movement on the order of the Paris prosecutor, the courts and the media are launching a violent campaign targeting LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. They are manifestly threatening to ban LFI, an organization that received the votes of 20 percent of the electorate in last years presidential elections, or at least to threaten its leaders with substantial legal penalties.

This would mark a major step in the transformation of the police state created in France during 20152017 into a tool serving openly to crush political opposition and social anger against the financial aristocracy. Indeed, the manner in which official circles are treating the police raids is a warning as to the profound crisis of French democracy. A police state exists and is rapidly consolidating itselfa situation that poses mortal dangers to the working class.

The state and the media are concentrating on the fact that Melenchon got angry at police who were searching LFI headquarters and were illegally trying to prevent LFI parliamentarians from entering their party headquarters. The LFI officials had to break down a door guarded by police in order to enter into their offices, and Melenchon had harsh words for police inside LFI headquarters. Many videos of the confrontation are circulating online.

In one of them, Melenchon said: You are not acting as policemen in a democratic state.  You cannot bother us, you cannot push us, you have no right to prevent us from entering into our headquarters, above all because we are not obstructing your searches. But you are acting in a very strange way. You enter, you take all sorts of things, you do not say what they are, you leave and we do not know what you have taken.

In fact, beyond the personal effects of LFI leaders, police gathered all the data on computers at LFI headquarters. Manuel Bompard, the LFI campaign coordinator, denounced the behavior of the police and of investigators: I was prevented from attending and observing the administrative procedure, although I am the legal representative of Unsubmissive France, but I was not allowed to attend the operations.  I received no legal document to sign.

A policeman grabbed me by the neck, by the arm, pulled me. This policemans hierarchy came to him and said: calm down. I was roughed up, attacked  What took place is unacceptable, he added, insisting that he would launch a lawsuit at the police station for the blows I received.

Nonetheless, the state and the media, far from critiquing police behavior, rapidly aligned themselves with the police to attack Melenchon. Yesterday, the courts announced they would launch an investigation into Melenchons behavior during the police raids. The Paris prosecutors office, which first launched the raids, opened an inquiry into charges of threats or acts of intimidation against the judiciary and violence targeting persons who represent the public authority.

Several police trade unions, close to the far right, demanded a public apology from Melenchon, including the Workers Force (FO) police union. The Alliance union, historically linked to the neo-fascist National Front, called on the new interior minister, Christophe Castaner, to file a complaint targeting the LFI leader.

In order to maintain at least the false semblance of impartiality despite having launched the trial, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins then asked the general prosecutor to be allowed to recuse himself from the case, so that the nearest regional court would take charge of it.

The principal French media are launching a wave of denunciations of Melenchon. This points, above all, to the unlimited deference to the police that predominates in official publications, which are all in agreement on threatening Melenchon. Liberation, Le Monde, LObs all published articles hostile to LFI yesterday.

Liberation was the most aggressive against LFI, publishing reactionary articles suggesting that Melenchons behavior could justify banning LFI. The daily put on its front page a large picture of Melenchon with the headline Is this one step too far? In its article titled Police raid on Melenchon: from unsubmissiveness to obstruction, it accuses Melenchon, without any proof of his having tried to block the police searches. Liberation threatens: The leader of Unsubmissive France is posturing as a political martyr, risking illegality.

Having made this extraordinary threat, Liberation then attacks the LFI parliamentarians, giving a free pass to the police: Its not nothing, in France, to see elected officials physically oppose policemen who are carrying out a judicial order.

In its editorial titled Tactics, Liberation poses as being understanding, admitting that its not surprising that LFI is screaming against such a massive police operation.  But if you step back a bit, you have to say that the reaction of the leaders of Unsubmissive France is essentially outrageous and illegitimate. Declaring that the judges were only doing their job in ordering the raid, Liberation concludes: where they went over the red line, it was when deputies of the nation blocked, with numbers and with decibels, a perfectly legitimate judicial inquiry.

In fact, there is no reason to believe that the judges were only doing their work, or that the judicial inquiry that provided a pretext for the police raids was perfectly legitimate. It was recently reported that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had auditioned all the candidates for the position of Paris prosecutor. The journal Les Echos reported that this was an unprecedented situation and pointed to these meetings that Edouard Philippe took credit for, because he wants to be certain that he will be perfectly happy with the future prosecutor.

That is, the prosecutor was carefully selected by the government, which was no doubt forewarned on Tuesday about such a large-scale, impending police sweep on Melenchonwith 15 police raids carried out by over 100 policemenbefore it happened. The attack on Melenchon and LFI is manifestly political, carried out by the executive even as it is at its lowest point ever in the polls and is desperately trying to strangle all social opposition to its program.

This underscores yet again the bankruptcy of the political orientation proposed by Melenchon: its nationalism, his and his partys ties to the army and intelligence services, and his call to integrate right-wing forces into the LFI, most recently at the partys recent summer school. It is important to note the remarkable fact that, despite the ties he has cultivated inside the state machine, Melenchon seems to have been genuinely surprised by the raids Tuesday morning. The various police and intelligence officials he recruited to LFI could not or did not warn him that they were impending.Striking hotel workers in Detroit gave Niles Niemuth, Socialist Equality Party candidate for Congress in the Michigans 12th district, a warm welcome at the picket line Wednesday in front of the Westin Book Cadillac hotel downtown.

The walkout at the Book Cadillac is part of a wider strike against Marriott properties in eight cities involving close to 8,000 workers, members of the UNITE HERE union. It is one manifestation of a growing mood of resistance in the working class after decades in which the unions have suppressed strikes in the United States.

The workers are demanding substantial raises above the poverty level wages most now receive, which are at least $2 per hour lower than other Marriott workers in the city. To this point, the Book Cadillac workers have been left isolated, with supervisory and non-striking personnel being used as strikebreakers to maintain hotel operations.

NIles with Detroit Hotel Workers

A striking worker told Niles about the issues Marriott workers in Detroit are facing. The first couple of contracts we didnt take any raises. The whole city of Detroit was not doing well because of the economy. Six years of nothing. Now, things are thriving, this hotel is profitable. Theyre still telling us they are not going to give any raise. Ive been here 10 years. I have got about a 70-cent raise in 10 years. Its almost unbelievable. The wages are lower than everyone else. Theyve got the MGM, the Renaissance Center Hotel.

In 1986, I got a quarter raise at McDonalds. They want to give me two cents. What can I do with two cents?

Niles pointed out that politicians from both the Republicans and the Democrats had overseen a huge transfer of wealth from the working class to the richest layers in society. As an example, he pointed to the recent decision by the City of Detroit and the state of Michigan to hand over huge tax breaks to corporate interests in the city, including a $100 million tax abatement to Ford Motors for the renovation of the old Michigan Central train station and more than half a billion dollars to billionaire Dan Gilbert for the construction of a new office building downtown.

Another worker, Damico, said, We were just down at the City County building, we were saying it wasnt right [to hand out tax breaks to Ford].

He continued, Its rough. Everything is going up. UtilitiesI was just on the phone asking why my utilities are so crazy. They said there must be something wrong in your house. I stay in a two-bedroom house. It is small. There is no way I should be paying $400 a month for gas and lights.

Hopefully we can get someone like Niles in office to help us out.

In further discussion with workers, Niles explained the political basis of his campaign. He noted that both parties were supporting the squandering of billions on wars while slashing funds for basic social needs.

We are in favor of bringing democracy to the economy, so that the companies are democratically controlled by the working class, not a handful of rich people who make all the decisions, Niles explained.

Detroit Hotel Workers picket

Another striker replied, I think that is awesome. It relates directly to our struggle. We are the working class fighting for what we want. Hotel workers have a direct impact on their industry when they strike.

Niles warned that UNITE HERE did not represent the genuine interests of workers. They had called out workers in a piecemeal fashion, preventing a united fight not just by hotel workers, but by workers in steel, auto, teachers, Amazon, as well as workers at United Parcel Service who just voted down a contract, only to see it rammed through by the Teamsters.

There needs to be a nationally coordinated struggle. Not just city by city or hotel by hotel.

The unions are sitting on hundreds of millions in assets while workers are struggling on meager strike pay. The unions are working to disunite and divide workers. UPS workers just voted to reject their contract. But the Teamsters said we dont care, we are declaring the contact ratified. The unions have worked to keep wages low and profits high.

The question is building leadership to unite all these struggles together. There should be a general strike of all workers.

Niles with Brad

One worker replied, I think thats great, but a lot of people are afraid of that.

Niles explained, Workers have been told they cant fight by the unions and the Democratic Party, but workers do want to fight. When workers went on strike in West Virginia, in defiance of their union, they found massive support.

The worker asked, Do you think our strike is effective, or is it just smoke and mirrors by the unions?

There are tens of thousands of workers in the area, auto workers, teachers, construction workers, Niles said, but it is not being organized. There were just seven strikes in 2017, among the lowest on record. But its not because, as the politicians claim, things are better than ever.

The worker replied, They talk about the high employment rate, but it is not just about employment. Workers are working under grueling conditions. I have heard horror stories about workers at UPS. I like my job here, I work in bartending, but I would not want to work in laundry or housekeeping. I make most of my money on tips. I couldnt make it if it werent for that.

Niles distributed copies of his 2018 election statement to workers on the picket line. He encouraged workers to attend the upcoming lecture on the 80th Anniversary of the founding of the Fourth International being held October 22 in Arbor and October 23 at Wayne State University in Detroit. The working class, he noted, needs to be learn from the experiences of the revolutionary struggles of the twentieth century in order to prepare for the battles ahead.Todays recalled University and College Union (UCU) conference was the result of the shutdown of the annual congress June 1 by the executive. The aim was to silence opposition to the UCU leaderships sell out of the 14-day strike by 50,000 lecturers, librarians, administration staff and technicians in defence of their pensionsthe largest action in the history of higher education.

The UCU agreed a deal involving staff losing an average 19 percent in the value of their pensions. First proposed by the UCU on March 12, it was rejected by thousands of academic staff at meetings in universities nationally the following day. Hundreds surrounded UCUs London headquarters to demand the repudiation of the agreement. Hunt and her backers retreated before putting essentially the same deal forward two weeks later, on April 13, which was reluctantly endorsed by an angry membership.

At the congress in June, Hunt staged walk-outs with her supporters among UCU administrative stafforganised in the Unite unionon three separate occasions to force motions criticising the sellout off the agenda. These included motions from delegates at Exeter University calling for No confidence in UCU general secretary Sally Hunt and for her resignation with immediate effect, and another for the Censure of UCU general secretary from members at King's College London.

For silencing the membership, Hunt was rewarded by the leadership of the Trades Union Congress. Having been made president of the TUC, she opened its annual conference last month with cynical evocations of the Peterloo Massacre.

Anyone believing that todays recall will finally provide an opportunity to discuss the betrayal of Hunt and company underestimates the contempt of the union leadership for the rank and file and democratic debate.

Hunt has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and will not be attending the conference. Her illness and absence will now be used to rule out any discussion of the motions of no confidence sidelined in June.

This enjoys the tacit support of the Socialist Party (SP) and Socialist Workers Party (SWP), both of which have used their left reputation to oppose moves against Hunt et al. and any development that could provoke a break with the trade union bureaucracy of which they are a part.

An October 10 article on the recall conference by the SP reports that the branch of general union Unite which organises UCU staff has confirmed there will be no further walkouts at our recall congress, as if this is an admirable change of heart, before acknowledging that because of Sally Hunt's absence, it is not clear whether recall congress will hear the critical motionsthus rendering Unites pledge a meaningless gesture.

The SP proposes no further action against Hunt, urging instead a few cosmetic changes to the structures of the UCU so that everyone can move on, leaving the union leadership in place but somehow accountable to the rank and file. These changes amount to a call for an elected official to stand in for Hunt while she is on medical leave instead of unelected senior union officials, followed by a rule change to introduce election of full-time officials, in particular a deputy general secretary.

The SP claims that a national dispute committee which the UCU agreed to set up at the aborted June conference also provides the basis for rank-and-file oversight of the ongoing pensions dispute.

It does nothing of the sort. There is no ongoing pensions dispute because it was sold out by the UCU, and the motion passed in June states only that national negotiators and UCU Independent Expert Panel members will report to the dispute committee.

The SWP, which plays a central role in the UCU Left faction, published a meagre 375-word article in Socialist Worker, in which UCU Left representative Carlo Morelli states only, There could be another attempt to stifle the discussion, this time by union trustees.

Morelli states obliquely, There are a variety of views on the left about how to respond. But whatever happens with the motions, its important that we have a united left to fight over pay and pensions.

What this means is that the SWP and SP are joining forces to oppose calls for Hunts resignation by focusing on vague references to workers wanting to transform their union and hold leaders to account.

The SP instead declared, Ironically, the reality is that most delegates did not want to vote to call for her [Hunt] to resign at a time when there are so many crucial disputes going on, before admitting that a motion of censure would have passed. Even so, the SP was forced to insist that motions 10 and 11 must be debated at a recall conference. That is no longer an imperative for the SP, which instead wants an elected official to fill in for Hunt while she is on leave! In the meantime, congress has huge achievements to celebrate, the SP stresses, including the magnificent 14-day pensions strike, which the UCU sabotaged!

All claims that the unions can be made accountable by rank-and-file pressure are a political fraud. The UCU has proved that the response of the bureaucracy is to rely on the pseudo-left groups to police discontent while they get on with imposing whatever attacks are demanded by the employers and the government.

The public sector unions, including the UCU, accepted large-scale attacks on pensions, selling out big strikes in 2011-12. In 2016, the British Medical Association ended the largest strikes of junior doctors in the history of the National Health Service by forcing them to accept an inferior contract. This year, 13 NHS trade unions agreed a pay deal so rotten that, when it became clear it was effectively a pay cut, members of the Royal College of Nurses called a no confidence vote in the union leadership that forced the general council to promise to resign by December 31.

The demand for the rotten leaders such as Hunt to step down is only the initial manifestation of a developing rebellion of the working class against organisations that function as an arm of corporate management. The call by the pseudo-left tendencies to implement a few reforms to the UCUs structures is a means of directing this oppositional sentiment into safe channels, while calculating that such reforms will facilitate their elevation into lucrative positions within the apparatus.

UCU members face a fresh round of struggles, with strike ballots in higher and further education that close October 19. But to end the endless series of betrayals by the trade unions and take forward a genuine struggle to defend jobs, wages and conditions and vital services, such as education and health, demands the creation of genuinely democratic organisations of struggle, including rank-and-file workplace and factory committees.

We urge UCU members to contact the Socialist Equality Party to discuss how to take this fight forward.

The author also recommends:

The British UCU Congress and the impossibility of reforming the trade unions

[26 June 2018]

UK: Bureaucrats walk out of University and College Union congress

[8 June 2018]The Teamsters defiance of the no vote by United Parcel Service workers is another demonstration of the anti-working class character of the cheap-labor contractors that call themselves trade unions.

Workers voted on October 5 by 54 percent to reject the concessions contract backed by the Teamsters and UPS management. The Teamsters, however, has declared it ratified, dredging up a constitutional clause that gives it the power to ram through any contract if less than half the workers vote, unless a two-thirds majority votes against it.

In the two weeks since this blatantly undemocratic action, workers outrage has only grown. There have been widespread calls for strike action. Workers have announced they are withdrawing their union dues and will no longer pay for the privilege of being sold out and having their will quashed. In the warehouses, workers report they are being told nothing by the union and that management is threatening workers who protest.

If the Teamsters leadership of James Hoffa has been successful thus far in suppressing a rank-and-file rebellion against its despotic actions, it is thanks only to its loyal opposition, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU) and Teamsters United (TU), as well as a collection of organizations backing them. The latter category includes Labor Notes, which is affiliated to TDU; Socialist Worker, the publication of the International Socialist Organization; and Jacobin, which is affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.

On Tuesday, the TDU and Labor Notes held an online meeting for UPS workers. The speakers included Labor Notes co-director Alexandra Bradbury and staff member Beth Berslaw, TDU National Organizer Ken Paff, TDU Steering Committee member Nick Perry, and several low-level TDU officials.

If there was one message these speakers delivered to UPS workers, it was: Whatever you do, do not fight back!

In response to workers submitted questions, the speakers declared that workers must accept that there is no way to stop the imposition of the contract. This was because nothing could be done that in any way challenges the authority of the Teamsters apparatus.

The TDU online meeting

When a worker asked how they could develop support for a strike at hubs across the country, Labor Notes Beth Breslaw replied: We dont have the backing of the International union to mobilize that kind of action, and action on that scale is not something thats feasible in the next two months.

Another worker said he wanted to know if there is anything we can do about the contract ratification right now, and asked if workers can leverage peak season and threaten a sick-in.

Nick Perry, a member of the TDU Steering Committee, responded: Its pretty worthwhile to pressure International Vice Presidents. If workers call them, theyre not going to respond, but if they get 200 calls, maybe thats something else. I dont know how worthwhile it is, but thats a good avenue to put pressure on them.

A sick-in, he declared, sounds good but would take a lot of organizing and membership participation, that wouldnt be supported by the International. We couldnt call a nation-wide sick-in, he said, and I dont think its the right answer.

What, then, does the TDU propose? That workers support TDU and TU candidates to win the leadership of the Teamsters who will, once in power, supposedly fight for workers interests. Yet when the TDU-backed official Ron Carey held the leadership of the Teamsters in 1997, he oversaw the sellout of a 16-day strike which resulted in the laying off of 15,000 workers and the introduction of a lower tier of 22.3 full-time employees.

They are also urging workers to sign petitions and write letters urging Hoffa to change his mind.

In the lead-up to the contract vote, Labor Notes, TDU and TU all claimed that a no vote would force the union leadership to return to the table and seek a better deal, as though the Teamsters leadership had, by some unfortunate misunderstanding, believed workers would want an agreement that creates a new tier of lower-paid hybrid drivers and maintains poverty wages for hundreds of thousands of warehouse employees.

What actually took place was that the Teamsters threw out workers votes and imposed the contract anyway. So why should workers appeal to these same forces, who have made clear they could not care less about what workers think?

While workers will gain absolutely nothing from this perspective, the TDU and Labor Notes functionaries have much to gain. As the WSWS noted in its recent article, The multi-billion dollar business of American trade unions, the Teamsters controls assets of some $270 million, and in 2015 alone spent $190 million (of which less than $1 million was spent on strike benefits). This is in addition to its control of multi-billion-dollar healthcare and pension funds.

The Teamsters top-paid officials have incomes that place them in the top one or two percent of the population. These include Hoffa ($387,244top 1 percent), Secretary-Treasurer Richard Hall ($281,845top 2 percent), and the Teamsters Uniteds own Sean OBrien ($302,442top 2 percent). This is what motivates TDU and TU.

It is left to Jacobin to provide a socialist gloss to this program. Like Labor Notes, they speak on behalf of layers of the upper middle-class who look with envy at the incomes of the top union executives. They are the most fervent defenders of the trade unions because they are terrified of any movement of the working class.

The DSA, with which Jacobin is affiliated, is a faction of the Democratic Party, a party of the ruling class that the unions promote and fund.

Along with the ISO, Jacobin has promoted the TDU as a rank-and-file movement and has continued to support its call for workers to sign petitions to Hoffa following the override of workers votes.

Jacobins sole response to the Teamsters repudiation of UPS workers vote, published six days later, on October 11, is a warning to the Teamsters leadership that its actions are so naked that they are undermining its ability to convince workers to support the organization.

Writer Joe Allen calls the Teamsters actions a gift to anti-union forces in the Janus era. This is a reference to this years Supreme Court decision stopping unions from forcing public sector workers who opt out of union membership to pay so-called agency fees. In legal arguments, the attorney for the AFSCME union openly labelled such agency fees as the tradeoff for no strikes and warned that any weakening of the unions stranglehold could raise an untold specter of labor unrest throughout the country.

Allen continues: If a boss wanted to make up a story to defeat a fledgling union drivewith indifferent union leaders who collect members dues, negotiate a contract with a lower starting pay than non-union Amazon, and then flagrantly ignore those workers clearly and democratically stated objections to that contractthey couldnt come up with one as good as whats just played out between UPS and the Teamsters.

Jacobin is in the midst of a campaign to establish the Teamsters at non-unionized Amazon. The Teamsters are faced with the difficult position of convincing Amazon workerswho, as a result of the Teamsters sellout contract, will be on a higher starting wage than their counterparts at UPSto join and pay dues to the Teamsters.

An October 4 Jacobin article calls on its supporters to get jobs at Amazon with the aim of promoting the union. Success in organizing workers at a corporate giant like Amazon will only come if organizers, strategically placed and coordinated, can agitate and motivate their coworkers from a position of comradeship in the workplace, it writes.

Jacobin tells workers they must join the Teamsters and support the TDU and TU. The TDU and TU tell workers that they must sign petitions to appeal to Hoffa. And Hoffa  throws out workers votes and orders them back to work. And through this conga line, all parties involved hope to keep workers shackled to this pro-corporate organization and prevent them from carrying out any genuine fight against the company.

The WSWS UPS Workers Newsletter has a very different perspective, one which is winning growing support from workers. From the outset of the struggle at UPS, the WSWS has urged workers to establish their own organizations of rank-and-file workplace committees, directly under their control and leadership, to reject the illegitimate contract, draw up their own demands for a strike, and mobilize support for a struggle.

Such committees would turn out to mobilize workers across UPS, Amazon, FedEx and other sections of the working class for a united struggle. We urge UPS workers who agree with this perspective to contact us today.(WTXL) - Ready-to-eat salads with steak distributed in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina are being recalled due to concerns about salmonella and listeria.

GHSE, a Green Cove Springs, Florida, company, is recalling about 738 pounds of product, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a news release Wednesday. The product may contain a corn ingredient that may be contaminated with salmonella and listeria.

The recalled products were produced from Oct. 11, 2018, through Oct. 14, 2018.

The products are the 15.25-oz clear clamshell packages containing "Marketside Fiesta Salad with Steak and have a use by date from Oct. 17, 2018, through Oct. 20, 2018.

The problem was discovered Oct. 15, 2018, when GHSE was notified that the corn used to make their ready-to-eat salad product was being recalled by their corn supplier due to concerns about listeria and salmonella.

No confirmed reports of adverse reactions have been reported, officials said.

Listeria can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people and others with weakened immune systems.

In healthy people, listeria may cause short-term symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, high fever, nausea, severe headache and stiffness. Pregnant women with the infection can suffer miscarriages and stillbirths.

Food contaminated with salmonella can cause salmonellosis, a common bacterial food-borne illnesses.

The most common symptoms of salmonellosis are diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated product. The illness usually lasts four to seven days.

Most people recover without treatment. Older adults, infants and persons with weakened immune systems are more likely to develop a severe illness.

Health officials are concerned that some product may be in consumers refrigerators.

Consumers who have bought these products are urged to throw them away or to return them for refunds to the places of purchase.Canada became the first industrialized nation to legalize recreational cannabis on Wednesday but a legal buzz will be hard to come by in its biggest cities as some, including Toronto and Vancouver, will have no stores open.

It marks an historic day as adult Canadians will be able to legally smoke recreational marijuana after nearly a century-long ban.

However, provincial governments' approval of only a small number of shops so far, and a shortage of weed supplied to these stores means most Canadians' first toke on Wednesday will likely be of black-market pot.

"There will be a lot of celebrations on the day, and it will almost all be with illegal cannabis" in some of Canada's biggest cities, said Brad Poulos, an instructor and cannabis business expert at Ryerson University in Toronto. "Recreational cannabis users in Canada... will just continue with their existing sources of supply until the legal system catches up."

Despite the dearth of stores in Canada's biggest cities, consumers around the country will be able to buy legal marijuana online, either through websites run by provincial governments or licensed retailers, although delivery will take a few days.

Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada's easternmost province, was the first to kick off legal sales at the stroke of midnight. Pot enthusiasts in the province will have the biggest choice of shops, with 22 outlets expected to be operating between 9 a.m. local time to 2 a.m., and at least some that opened at midnight on Wednesday.

Countries around the globe, many of whom are just approving medical marijuana, are watching Canada's recreational legalization, which combines federal rules with varying provincial regulations.

The move is a political win for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who vowed to legalize cannabis in his 2015 election campaign to take profits away from organized crime and to regulate the production, distribution and consumption of a product that millions of Canadians have been consuming illegally.

Provinces and businesses have been struggling to prepare, and legalization was pushed back from original expectations of a July start to enable setting up distribution and sales networks.

In the run-up to legalization, cannabis companies have been on a tear, as companies struck corporate deals while others went public creating an investor frenzy. The Canadian federal government as well as many provinces have been cautious, starting with limited stores and products, including no edibles for a year, and tight control over supply.

(WTXL) - As people along the Florida's panhandle continue to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Michael's devastation, others say the hurricane is providing some relief from red tide.

Families are returning to the waters near Anna Maria Island.

Two months ago, in the same exact spot on Sarasota Bay, there were dead fish everywhere. Now the water is clear and you can easily breathe.

State maps show Manatee County is in the clear, with the bloom nearly gone from the waters of Anna Maria Island. State scientists say Michael pushed the bloom north, so some parts of Pinellas County are still seeing medium levels of red tide near St. Pete Beach.

Captain Fannon is hopeful the winds will continue to move the bloom offshore and away from our area.

"Since Michael it has all cleared up, that's the one thing we were hoping for is that it would be enough to blast the red tide out of here," Fannon said.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Tallahassee Police Department is helping those assisting in areas west of Tallahassee following Hurricane Michael.

And TPD needs your help with Operation First Responder and Family Relief.

WTXL ABC 27's Jada Williams was live Thursday morning at Target on West Tennessee Street.

People can drop off donated items to three locations, one of those locations being the Target on West tennessee.

The police department heard that the first responders in cities such as Mexico Beach, Panama City, Lynn Haven, Marianna and Blountstown need basic hygiene and clothing items.

So they are partnering with the Florida Police Chiefs Association to put together the drive.

They're collecting items such as soap, shampoo, listerine and toothpaste.

But they're also looking for things like femine hygiene products, underwear, towels and washclothes.

TPD will have tables set up at Mission Barbecue on South Magnolia Drive, the Lake Ella Publix and the Target on West Tennessee.

The tables will be up Thursday from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Friday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (The News Service of Florida) - Florida eased restrictions Thursday on vote-by-mail ballots in eight counties ravaged last week by Hurricane Michael, while also giving elections supervisors more time to conduct early voting.

The changes included in an executive order by Governor Rick Scott were requested by local supervisors and are intended to help displaced voters in Bay, Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Jackson, Liberty, and Washington counties.

More than a week after the Oct. 10 landfall of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, the eight counties continue to grapple with problems such as power outages.

As of Thursday morning, for example, power was still out to 97 percent of Calhoun County and 81 percent of Jackson County, according to the state Division of Emergency Management.

As part of Scotts executive order, voters in the eight counties will be able to request, through telephone calls or in writing, for vote-by-mail ballots to be mailed to addresses that dont match the voters addresses in the Florida Voter Registration System.

The executive order will also allow the counties to continue early voting through Election Day. Leon County Supervisor of Elections Mark Earley said precinct locations and early-voting sites throughout the hurricane-wracked counties have been destroyed.

Poll workers have uncertain housing challenges there. There are challenges just getting water and food there, certainly. One of the biggest problems we are encountering is communications within some of these counties," said Earley. "The cell phone towers are out. The internet is out. There are a lot of communications issues that we are trying to overcome.

The changes do not include allowing voters to cast ballots by fax or email.

The eight counties, which have been a solid voting bloc for Republicans in state races, include more than 223,000 registered voters as of the August primaries.

Roughly 43 percent of the voters were registered as Republicans, while 40 percent were Democrats and 17 percent were independents or registered with third parties.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-17 01:21:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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YEREVAN, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Armenia's Nikol Pashinyan announced his resignation from the post of prime minister in a televised address to the nation on Tuesday evening.

The move comes amid Pashinyan's government resolute commitment to hold early parliamentary elections in December. The prime minister and his allies had said numerous times that they intended to hold new parliamentary elections in the country in December and remained unyielding to calls by former ruling Republican Party to postpone the early elections until May or June of next year.

Snap elections were the cornerstone of Pashinyan's government program which he had submitted to the parliament in June. Pashinyan was elected as PM of Armenia by the country's National Assembly after former president turned-prime minister Serzh Sargsyan resigned on April 23 under immense public pressure provided by weeks of nationwide protest against Sargsyan and his Republican Party.

Under Armenia's constitution, the parliament will be tasked with electing a new PM after Pashinyan's resignation. However, if no one is elected after 2 attempts in a 14-day period, the parliament then is automatically dissolved, and new elections are called no earlier than 30 days and no later than 45 days after its dissolution.

All 4 factions represented in Armenia's National Assembly have already announced they were not planning to nominate a candidate for prime minister during the 14 days following the prime minister's resignation.

Nikol Pashinyan and his cabinet ministers will continue to serve as acting members of the government until a new government is formed after the elections.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 00:16:22|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen and a civilian driver were killed in an attack by a group of unidentified gunmen on Wednesday morning in Kaduna state, north Nigeria, the police has confirmed.

Yakubu Sabo, a state police spokesman, told Xinhua that five other policemen who sustained injuries during the attack were being treated at a hospital in the state.

The policemen were on a foot patrol at Kakuri area of the state before they were attacked by the gunmen.

Sabo said that a gun duel took place thereafter, resulting in the death of two members of the patrol team. A civilian driver nearby was hit by bullets of the gunmen, and died at a local hospital, bringing the number of those killed to three.

The police spokesman said no arm was taken away by the attackers due to the repelling gun power of the police.

According to him, the attackers fled with injuries, adding that detectives had swung into action to track down the attackers and bring them to justice. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 00:16:22|Editor: Chengcheng

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SOCHI, Oct.17 (Xinhua) -- Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed the Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation between Russia and Egypt with visiting Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the Black Sea coastal city Sochi.

Putin hailed the successful development of the bilateral relations in recent years during the talk with the Egyptian president in Sochi, according to Tass.

"Last year we saw trade upsurge of 62 percent, and a 28 percent rise in the first six months of this year. It is also good to note that we do everything to diversify our ties and we do this successfully," said Putin, adding that ties with Egypt are very diverse covering agriculture, industry and many other fields.

Putin also highlighted the joint projects including the nuclear power plant and the techno park implemented by the two countries, saying the two countries had "established good cooperation mechanisms."

For his part, Sisi said he thought highly of the bilateral cooperation in joint major projects and stressed the importance of coordinating efforts with Russia in fighting against terrorism.

Also at the signing ceremony, a memorandum of understanding on strategic political consultations was signed between the two countries' foreign ministries.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is on a three-day state visit to Russia from Monday. On Tuesday, the two presidents had held an informal meeting in Sochi.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 00:41:31|Editor: Chengcheng

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (front) arrives at the European Council in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 17, 2018. The current status of the Brexit negotiations will be the key issue at the EU summit on Wednesday evening. British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to explain to heads of state of the 27 EU members how she envisages a solution to the remaining questions regarding Brexit. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

BERLIN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she wants Britain to remain a close and trustworthy partner of the EU, even after leaving.

The words of the chancellor came in a government statement on the EU summit which will later take place on Wednesday night.

Merkel stated that both sides moved closer to each other and the intention was to "put future relations on a new basis."

According to Merkel, 90 percent of the agreement had been reached so far. However, she emphasized that the German government is preparing for all possible scenarios of Brexit, including a so-called hard Brexit without any agreement at all.

A major point of contention was the issue of how the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland should be regulated, Merkel stated. One of the EU's main conditions for a withdrawal agreement is the prevention of border controls between the British territory of Northern Ireland and the EU member Ireland.

"Everything is currently looking at the Ireland issue, but despite the political spectacle, solutions are now emerging in this regard," Juergen Matthes, head of the Research Unit International Economics and Economic Outlook at the German Economic Institute (IW) told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"More importantly, the withdrawal agreement should not slam the door on a free trade area for goods as proposed by the British government. If the British government makes sufficient concessions here, also in terms of immigration and EU contributions to cohesion policy, the EU should be able to accept this proposal," explained Matthes.

The current status of the Brexit negotiations will be the key issue at the EU summit on Wednesday evening. British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to explain to heads of state of the 27 EU members how she envisages a solution to the remaining questions regarding Brexit.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 01:16:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Wang Yang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets winners of an award that China set up to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in helping poverty reduction, and visits an exhibition on poverty relief in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's top political advisor Wang Yang on Wednesday called for greater efforts to realize the country's goal of eradicating poverty by 2020.

Wang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, made the remarks while meeting winners of an award that the country set up to honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in helping poverty reduction.

Nearly 100 individuals and 40 organizations won the award this year.

Wang expressed congratulations to the award winners and urged the public to learn from them.

He also called for relevant authorities to spend greater efforts to win the battle against poverty and ensure the poverty-relief goal of eliminating absolute poverty by 2020 is achieved.Celebrity couple Jang Dong-gun and Ko So-young donated W100 million on Wednesday to help children in need (US$1=W1,127).

According to Asan Medical Center in Seoul, the couple made the donation to help treat sick children.

In order to help single moms and adopted children, they have donated W100 million to charity every year since 2010, when their first child was born.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 01:16:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Wednesday refuted the U.S. allegation that China uses so-called "dept diplomacy" to expand its influence globally, and urged the U.S. side to correctly view China's cooperation with developing countries.

In a recent speech, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence charged China with using so-called "debt diplomacy" to expand its influence around the world. U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, during his visit to Vietnam, said China adopted "predatory economic behavior" and piled massive debt on smaller countries that is difficult to repay.

"The United States, presented with multiple facts and statistics, repeatedly fabricated lies and made irresponsible remarks out of its own political needs. This is disappointing," spokesperson Lu Kang told a routine press briefing.

China understands the difficulties faced by developing countries and cooperates with them using its own development experience and within its own capabilities, and China assists them without any political conditions, Lu said.

He said such cooperation has strongly promoted the economic and social development of relevant countries and improved the wellbeing of the people.

"For example, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, which was financed and built by China, has created nearly 50,000 jobs for Kenya. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor contributed 2.5 percentage points to Pakistan's GDP growth in 2016," Lu said, adding that such cooperation is welcomed in many developing countries.

In fact, China-related cooperation projects only account for a very small part of the debt of the related regions and countries that the U.S. side has been hyping up recently, and not a single country is caught in the "debt trap" due to cooperation with China, Lu said.

"By the end of 2017, China's loans accounted for only about 10 percent of Sri Lanka's foreign debt. China's total loans to the Philippines are less than 1 percent of its foreign debt."

"The Sri Lankan ambassador to China recently said the allegation that the Chinese government had dragged Sri Lanka into the 'debt trap' was completely wrong. The Pakistani finance minister also refuted the U.S. statement that the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor triggered a debt crisis in Pakistan. I think these countries have the most say," Lu said.

At the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, many African leaders also voiced their objections to the fallacy that China-Africa cooperation has worsened the debt burdens of the continent, Lu said, noting that they had expressed their desire for development, financing and cooperation.

The United States will not receive support by indiscreetly pinning labels on China, he said. "We urge the U.S. side to correctly view China's cooperation with developing countries, and hope it does more practical things for the development of those countries, rather than stand idle and stir up troubles."

It is unethical for some country to serve its own political needs at the expense of the wellbeing of the people in developing countries, Lu added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 01:31:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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KHARTOUM, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday reiterated his country's concern about the peace process in neighboring South Sudan.

Al-Bashir made the remarks in his address to the Foreign Ministry workers after the first meeting of the National Council for Foreign Polices at the ministry building.

"Sudan's peace cannot be separated from the peace in the region. We believe the peace in South Sudan is the biggest step to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace in Sudan," he said.

The Sudanese president also announced the appointment of Jamal Al-Sheikh as his special envoy to South Sudan to follow up the implementation of the peace agreement in the world's youngest country.

Earlier in the day, al-Bashir chaired the first meeting of the National Council for Foreign Polices to discuss issues including the ongoing efforts to complete South Sudan's peace process and begin the peace process in the Central African Republic, Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed said in a statement.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 01:36:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's commerce ministry said Wednesday that the country's management measures on sugar imports were in line with the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The ministry made the remarks in response to Brazil's opening of a consultation process at the WTO over China's trade measures on sugar imports.

China has received Brazil's consultation request, and will properly handle it according to the WTO dispute settlement procedures, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Sugar is one of China's major farm produces and concerns the economic interests of more than 40 million sugar farmers, according to the statement.

Increased sugar imports has caused serious damage to the domestic sugar industry, and thus the Chinese government, at the request of its domestic industry, has adopted safeguard measures on sugar imports according to law, it said.

The tariff-rate quotas on imports of sugar products were among trade measures that China clearly acknowledged to retain when it joined the WTO, and China's automatic import license management of commodities was necessary to effectively monitor commodity imports.

"The management measures China has adopted on sugar imports comply with China's WTO commitments and are in line with the WTO rules," it said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 02:01:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LUSAKA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Zambia joined the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty here Wednesday with a call by a local advocacy body for increased action to tackle poverty.

The Civil Society for Poverty Reduction said it was regrettable that 54 years after independence, the gap between the rich and the poor in Zambia was widening while poverty has remained one of the biggest challenges facing the country.

Isaac Ngoma, the chairperson of the organization said it was unacceptable that over 40 percent of the country's population was still living in absolute poverty, with women and children being the most affected.

"As we commemorate this year's day for the eradication of poverty, we call for more action towards empowering and upholding the rights of the poor," he said.

This year's theme is "Coming Together With Those Furthest Behind to Build an Inclusive World of Universal Respect for Human Rights and Dignity".

The official said the theme calls for more practical action in overcoming the country's socio-economic challenges and enhancing interventions that will move citizens out of poverty and allow them to enjoy their rights and live a life of dignity.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 02:16:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WARSAW, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Poland's GDP growth is expected to reach 4.7 percent in 2018, 3.9 percent in 2019 and 3.6 percent in 2020, the World Bank wrote in a Wednesday-published report, raising its April respective estimates of 4.2, 3.7 and 3.5 percent.

Poland's budget deficit may reach 1.6 percent in 2018 and get closer to 2 percent by 2020, mainly due to growing welfare expenditures and the lowering of the retirement age.

The growth will continue to be supported by private consumption and investment as well as government spending, according to the World Bank.

In August this year, Polish Investment and Development Minister Jerzy Kwiecinski said that in the third quarter of 2018, solid GDP growth should be expected in the region of 4.5-5 percent.

In his assessment, the positive trend will be maintained in the second half of the year. Stablisation of the growth rate at 4.5 or even 5 percent of GDP would be, the minister believed, desirable for the economy.

"On the one hand, it shows that the growth is sustainable, driven by three engines -- consumption, investment and export -- while on the other, it guards against the situation overheating and allows the economy to be maintained on the path of sustainable development," Kwiecinski said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 02:26:58|Editor: Chengcheng

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TEHRAN, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that relying on the western states will not contribute to the country's scientific growth, state TV reported.

"Looking to the West and Europe has no benefit other than having to stand still, begging favors and undergoing humiliation," Khamenei said in a meeting with scientific elites in the capital Tehran on Wednesday.

Instead, Iranian nation should take the countries in the East as an example for its scientific progress, he was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Khamenei warned the Iranian scientific elites of what he called wars imposed against Iran on "economic, political and security" fronts, and urged them not to remain indifferent in the face of such challenges.

"If we make progress on the scientific path, the threats posed by the enemies of our civilization, politics and economy will be aborted," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 03:12:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHANGSHA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- A six-story community center for the elderly, located in the city of Changde, central Hunan Province, is a popular place for more than 160 senior residents in Xinpo community, offering the local region a solution to take care of the elderly.

"The center is financially supported by the younger generations of our community, so it is free for the senior residents," said Li Cuiying, head of the Xinpo community's women's federation. "Most of the senior residents in the community live alone since their children usually work in bigger cities, away from home all year."

"Both my son and my daughter-in-law work in another city," said Xu Shizhu, 74, a resident of the Xinpo community. Xu has been a regular at the center since its completion in 2014.

"I used to be alone at home, but now I always hang out with my old friends at the center, having lunch and dinner together, reading books and watching movies, all free of charge."

The community center has been updated with modern facilities, including a reading room, a consulting room, a cinema, a medical treatment room, a hair salon and several restaurants.

Most seniors from the community are attracted to the center because it also provides a daily pick-up service, and doctors from the community hospital regularly visit the center to give the elderly routine health checks.

"I come here every day because the center has everything I need," said Guo Chunxi, 82.

Given the popularity of the community center, more residents from the city volunteer at the center, and some of the elderly who were taken care of left the center all their money in their will.

"In traditional Chinese culture, taking care of the elderly is not only about providing them basic living necessities, but also about making them happy," said Chen Jianpin, Xinpo's Party chief. "The Xinpo community has set a good example of how to take good care of the elderly."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 04:22:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Serraj welcomed a conference on Libya to be held in Italian city of Palermo in November, the Libyan prime minister's information office said on Wednesday.

Serraj made his remarks during a phone call with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday who invited Serraj to attend the conference on November 12-13.

According to a statement issued by the office, the two officials discussed bilateral relations and means of developing cooperation between the two countries, as Conte expressed his country's full support for Serraj's efforts to achieve security and stability in Libya.

Despite signing a UN-sponsored peace agreement by the Libyan political parties in 2015, Libya remains politically divided between eastern and western governments, both competing for legitimacy.

France hosted in May a meeting on Libya with the participation of different Libyan parties to end the political crisis in the country.

The parties agreed to hold and commit themselves to "credible" presidential and parliamentary elections slated for Dec. 10.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 04:37:36|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TRIPOLI, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Libya's UN-backed government on Wednesday called for unity against "foreign mercenary gangs" in southern Libya.

"We warn again that the division provides an opportunity for foreign mercenary gangs to infiltrate and achieve their greedy goals. These crime, that affect the sovereignty of our country and security of the people, must unite us, and we must live up to our national responsibility," the government said in a statement.

"We renew our call to continue serious effort to find a solution for the political dispute and division and to unify the military establishment as a necessity to protect the country and deter the aggressors," the statement said.

According to local media, clashes took place on Sunday and Monday near the southern town of Um Al-Araneb, some 950 km south of the capital Tripoli, between local security and Chadian opposition militants. The clashes killed four security personnel.

Following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi's regime, Libya has been suffering escalating violence and chaos, as well as political division.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 04:57:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- European Union members on the UN Security Council on Wednesday asked the political actors in Syria, particularly the government, to engage in the early convening of a constitutional committee.

"We call on all parties, but specifically Damascus, to constructively engage with the (UN) special envoy with the aim of, as quickly as possible and without any further delays, convening a credible and inclusive constitutional committee," read a statement of the EU members on the council.

The statement was endorsed by Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland -- the current EU members of the Security Council -- and Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Belgium and Germany will become council members next year. Italy split a two-year council term with the Netherlands.

The EU countries called on Russia, Iran and Turkey -- the so-called Astana guarantors -- to ensure that the current cease-fire in Idlib province is upheld. They asked for a comprehensive nationwide cease-fire and for safe, sustained and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country.

"We fully believe that the Idlib cease-fire agreement should be an opportunity for the urgent resumption of the UN-led political process in Geneva," said the statement, read to reporters by Swedish ambassador Olof Skoog.

The EU countries expressed their full support for the efforts of UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura to establish urgently a credible and legitimate constitutional committee to advance the United Nations' efforts to achieve a sustainable political solution to the conflict in Syria.

"We underscore the special envoy's authority to establish an inclusive constitutional committee, including the participation of a minimum of 30 percent women, that will begin the work of drafting a new Syrian constitution and laying the ground work for free and fair UN-supervised elections consistent with Security Council Resolution 2254."

De Mistura, who briefed the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Wednesday morning, said he would step down in November.

As a result, October becomes a crucial month for him to verify whether the constitutional committee has any chance to be a credible and sustainable idea, he told reporters after the Security Council meeting.

The Idlib cease-fire, which is "terribly important," provides a unique window of opportunity for the establishment and launching of a credible and inclusive constitutional committee, he explained.

"Our assessment is that if there is a political will, there is no reason -- no reason whatsoever -- for the constitutional committee not to be able to be convened during the month of November," said de Mistura.

The main reason for the delay, he explained, is the Syrian government's difficulties to accept the final list of committee members prepared by the United Nations.

He said he would travel to Damascus in the next few days to get the Syrian government on board.

De Mistura said he would report back in November to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council for them to draw conclusions on this issue. He expressed the hope that the conclusions will help his successor start from clear and clean ground.

Explaining his decision to quit the job, de Mistura said he wanted to have more time with his family.

"It's not health, it's family basically," he said. "It is actually because there is also a family, which deserves, after four years and four months, a little bit of attention."It has a 12.3-inch dashboard, which is the first in the world to display information in 3D. Drivers do not need 3D glasses to use the feature, but have the option of viewing the information in 2D.

Hyundai's premium brand Genesis released an upgraded version of its G70 luxury sedan on Wednesday.

The new model also comes with the latest convenience and safety features including an air purifier and an electric parking brake.

The carmaker said it has sold more than 1,000 G70s a month on average since its initial launch in September 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 05:27:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHICAGO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. electric car company Tesla said it signed an agreement with China's Shanghai municipal government for its first overseas Gigafactory, local media reported on Wednesday.

On Chinese social media, the EV-maker confirmed the purchase of land, complete with pictures from the signing ceremony of the "land transfer agreement."

According to the agreement, Tesla purchased a tract of land measuring 864,885 square meters. Though Tesla didn't reveal the price, the website of Shanghai Land Market showed the original starting price of the land for sale was 973 million yuan (about 141 million U.S. dollars).

Securing the site is an important milestone for what will be the company's "next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site," said Robin Ren, Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales.

"Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy not only through all-electric vehicles, but also scalable clean energy generation and storage products," Ren said.

The U.S. carmaker said it was accelerating the construction of Tesla's Shanghai plant - Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory 3 - taking cues from the lessons learned in the United States.

Tesla signed an agreement with Shanghai municipal government in July to build a factory with a planned annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. The company is the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 05:37:53|Editor: Chengcheng

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BRUSSELS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has thrown doubt on the future of trade talks with the EU, showing frustration in a Wednesday briefing in Brussels over slow pace of his negotiations with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom a day earlier.

"Our purpose in the meeting was to stress the need for speed and for getting to near-term deliverables, including both tariff relief and standards," Ross said Wednesday. "This is not meant to be a five-year project. This is meant to be something that was to move quickly and in a cooperative fashion."

The two had met to discuss and formalize a July 25th agreement between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker that temporarily halted a trade tariff on European automobiles similar to the one that Washington has already imposed on European steel and aluminum.

According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, auto-related trade currently makes up 10 percent of total EU-U.S. trade, with the United States being the number one destination for cars built in the EU and accounting for 29.3 percent of the total EU export value.

Tension mounted on Wednesday when Malmstrom indicated Washington was dragging its feet on topics related to industrial trade and import duties.

Malmstrom told reporters Wednesday that "We have asked and said several times that we are prepared to start the scoping exercise on a limited agreement focused on industrial goods, on tariffs."

"So far the U.S. has not shown any big interest there, so the ball is in their court," the European Trade Commissioner said, placing responsibility on Washington to find ways to create tariff relief for industrial goods.

"We have not started negotiating yet, but if this is the first step taken by the U.S. we are happy to continue those discussions," she continued.

Wilbur Ross, responding to her statements, lashed out at Malmstrom, saying, "It's as though she was at a different meeting from the one that we attended."

"Our purpose in the meeting was to address the need for speed and for getting to near-term deliverables including both tariff relief and standards," Ross said.

Trump and Juncker agreed on July 25 in Washington to work toward the elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers on industrial goods traded between the EU and the U.S., but according to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the deal depends on continued progress.

"We really need tangible progress," Ross said, warning: "The president's patience is not unlimited."

His statement indicated that the currently suspended duties on European automotive imports could be implemented if trade talks did not advance in ways that suited President Trump.

"Discussing tariffs in the absence of discussing standards is a useless exercise," Ross said, characterizing his Tuesday meeting with Malmstrom on the state of EU-U.S. trade relations. "Both are protectionist."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 06:07:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The UN special envoy for Syria said on Wednesday that he will step down at the end of November but hopes to put together a constitutional committee for the war-torn country by then.

After serving for four years and four months on the demanding job, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he decided to quit for "personal reasons."

He told UN Security Council that the Syrian government has invited him to Damascus next week, where he plans to engage them on the composition of the constitutional committee.

That plan to draft a new Syrian constitution has been under discussion since January when it was announced at a conference organized by Russia, a key Syrian ally, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. But it has since been hampered by disagreement over the formation of the committee to draft the charter.

The Syrian government's and the opposition's lists for the committee, each comprising 50 names, "are not in question," said de Mistura, adding however, objection remains, mainly from the government, over a third list that the UN is tasked to form to include civil society representatives, religious and tribal leaders, experts and women.

The UN envoy expressed his hope to "be in a position" to issue invitations to convene the constitutional committee, hopefully during the month of November.

"The UN has done all it can to find a way to convene a credible and balanced constitutional committee," he said, pledging to do more and in an accelerated way in the forthcoming month, taking advantage of the "Idlib window of opportunity."

In September, Russia and Turkey, key stakeholders in Syria, agreed to set up a demilitarized zone between rebel and government fighters in the northwestern province of Idlib, staving off a major government offensive on the area, which the UN had warned could cause a humanitarian catastrophe.

De Mistura is the third UN envoy for Syria since the outbreak of the conflict in 2011, after former UN chief Kofi Annan and Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi stepped down.

At a press encounter Wednesday, asked if he still believes in a political solution to the crisis, de Mistura said it is still the key as "the alternative will be territorial gains and no sustainable peace."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 07:03:08|Editor: Xiang Bo

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HOUSTON, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Greg Abbott, governor of U.S. state of Texas, on Wednesday announced 5.8 million U.S. dollars in grant funding for the Border Prosecution Unit (BPU) to help crack down on gangs and transnational criminal organizations along the state border.

Comprising 17 district and county attorney offices within the Texas border region, the BPU focuses on investigating and prosecuting cases related to narcotics, weapons, human trafficking, organized crime, gangs, and other border-related offenses.

The BPU works strategically with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and federal and local law-enforcement agencies in the investigation and prosecution of cross-border violence.

In addition, the BPU funds full-time legal staffing within the Texas Anti-Gang Units (TAGs) in five areas in the state and provides a dedicated human trafficking attorney at the San Antonio TAG. This year, BPU programs have reported 10,261 contact hours of training conducted and 3,574 cases filed.

"Texas continues to invest in securing our southern border, and the Border Prosecution Unit is vital in helping investigate and prosecute the dangerous criminals that threaten our communities," said Abbott in a press release.

The governor's Homeland Security Grants Division (HSGD) administers the grant program, which provides prosecution resources for district and county attorneys along the Texas-Mexico border and counties significantly affected by border crime. The grants support salaries for prosecutors, paralegals and investigators, as well as training for unit members and law enforcement agencies.

Among the U.S. states, Texas has the longest stretch of border with Mexico. Texas borders four Mexican states, the most of any U.S. state.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 07:13:09|Editor: Xiang Bo

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MANAGUA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain that pummeled Nicaragua has left at least six people dead this month, local news outlets reported Wednesday.

Nicaragua's Red Cross said 496 families have been evacuated in the past 24 hours from the northern province of Matagalpa, the western province of Leon and the central province of Boaco.

Also on Wednesday, Red Cross workers recovered the body of a man identified as Stanislao Rivera, said the organization's director Auner Garcia.

Rivera had been reported missing Tuesday morning and his death brought the number of those who died during the heavy rain this month to six.

The Red Cross has sent some 208 volunteers to help rescue victims during the past few days, Garcia said.

"We have been undertaking this efforts in conjunction with local authorities and the Civil Defense," he said.

On Tuesday, the Nicaraguan government issued a red alert, the highest alert, for six provinces near the Pacific and two regions along the Caribbean.

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said an area of low pressure was in forming in the Pacific region of Nicaragua and has a 90 percent probability of becoming a tropical storm in the next five days.

The low pressure system is already generating precipitation, according to experts.

On Tuesday, Nicaraguan authorities evacuated some 800 people from the Matagalpa province due to an overflowing river.

Authorities said the rain will continue for at least the next 48 hours.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 07:23:10|Editor: Xiang Bo

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YAOUNDE, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Cameroon Constitutional Council on Wednesday adjourned hearings on petitions for nullification of Oct. 7 presidential election to Thursday after a heated debate between lawyers of the opposition candidate and the ruling party.

"The session has been adjourned to 6 pm (+1 GMT) tomorrow," Justice Clement Atangana, president of the Constitutional Council, said after close to 11 hours of deliberations.

Hearings became rowdy after the lawyers of opposition candidate Maurice Kamto from the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) insisted that signed minutes of 32 polling stations should be provided to the Council by Cameroonian electoral body, Elections Cameroon (Elecam) for cross-checking, lawyer Alphones Mbah who witnessed the hearings told Xinhua.

"But it is still unclear whether the minutes will be made available during tomorrow's hearings since the president announced the adjournment after the disorder," Mbah said.

Earlier, Kamto through his lawyers argued that the election should be nullified in seven out of 10 regions in the country because of massive irregularities, insecurity in troubled Anglophone regions and fraud.

Lawyers of the ruling party Cameroon People Democratic Movement (CPDM) told the Council that Kamto's case should be dismissed because it "lacks legal backing and proofs".

Judgment on Kamto's petition is likely to be passed tomorrow when the Council resumes, said Mbah.

Hearings will begin on Thursday at 10 a.m. local time with the petition from Joshua Osih of the leading opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) demanding the complete cancellation of the election, Atangana said.

On Tuesday the Council dismissed 16 petitions seeking the total nullification of the poll mostly because the petitions were inadmissible since they failed to respect the legal procedures, according to Atangana.

According to the Electoral Code, the decision of the Constitutional Council is final, and the final results of the election are expected to be declared by the Council by Oct. 22.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 08:38:20|Editor: Liu

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ISLAMABAD, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has spoke to his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif on the situation arising following abduction of Iranian guards near the Pakistan-Iran border point on Tuesday, a foreign ministry statement said.

Fourteen Iranian border guards were reportedly kidnapped by an armed group in Mirjaveh border point in Iran's southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province.

"Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi expressed his serious concern on the incident. He also briefed Zarif about the active efforts launched by the Pakistan law enforcement agencies to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing Iranian guards, in coordination with the Iranian military and intelligence counterparts," the statement said on Wednesday.

It was noted that the two directors general of military operations were in close contact through hotline to coordinate the search and rescue efforts including enhanced air surveillance and troops' deployment in the border area where the incident took place.

Qureshi said such incidents are the handy work of "our common enemies unhappy with the existing close, friendly relations between Pakistan and Iran."

Reaffirming Pakistan's commitment of not allowing anyone succeed in such malicious efforts, Qureshi noted that Pakistan and Iran have traditionally shared a "border of peace and friendship" which would be maintained in the same spirit.

The statement said that Zarif underscored Iran's desire to overcome all hurdles jointly with Pakistan in maintaining complete peace along the Pak-Iran border.

Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan Province, bordering Pakistan, is the locus for frequent armed clashes between the Iranian security forces and armed rebels or smugglers.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 08:58:24|Editor: Liu

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ISLAMABAD, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- As many as 116 police officials have been suspended from their posts for their alleged involvement in June 2014 Model Town tragedy in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, local media reported.

The suspended policemen included deputy superintendent of police, inspectors and investigation in-charge, said local Urdu TV channel ARY News on Wednesday, adding that the removed officials have been directed to report to their respective headquarters for further orders.

Earlier this month, anti-terrorism court in the country's eastern city Lahore also indicted former Punjab police chief Mushtaq Sukhera over his role in Model Town tragedy. The official, however, denied all the allegations levelled against him.

On June 17, 2014, at least 14 people, including two women, were killed when Punjab police allegedly opened fire on protestors of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). Around 100 workers also got injured in the clashes over removal of barricades outside the PAT secretariat in the Model Town area of Lahore.

Since then, PAT chief Tahir-ul-Qadri has been demanding justice in the case and seeking suspension of all policemen involved in the operation to conduct free and fair investigation in the case.

Earlier on Sept. 27, Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured the PAT chief that strict action would be taken against those behind the Model Town tragedy.

"The chief minister Punjab needs to ensure that action as per law was taken against all those responsible for the killings. They need to be removed of their posts so that impartial legal action may proceed," said the prime minister.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 10:03:42|Editor: Chengcheng

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SANTIAGO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said Wednesday that small agricultural producers in Latin America and the Caribbean are constantly under threat from disasters.

In a report, the FAO outlined guidelines to offer insurances to farmers' families and underlined the vital role insurances play in the region's food structure.

"One severe drought, hurricane or flood could completely decimate their production and severely affect the food security of families and communities," it said.

The report stressed the importance of financial instruments and insurances to combat these ever-present risks, and to "reduce agricultural losses due to disasters."

With insurance tools, losses are transferred to larger companies or the state so that small producers are able to continue working.

According to the FAO, this is the first report they have published to deal with the protection of small producers.

Anna Ricoy, the FAO's disaster risk management coordinator for the region, said that private insurers are not interested in small family producers.

The state should therefore "adopt institutional and economic decisions that generate an adequate and commercially viable alternative," she said.

The FAO suggested that providing protection to small farmers would benefit the region's food chain.

"Not only will a sector of vulnerable producers be protected, but the resilience and sustainability of the agricultural system will be increased too," Ricoy added.

The report pointed out that in Brazil the state offers insurance to the most vulnerable producers through the "Proagro" program.

Similarly, in Mexico small farmers can receive insurance through organized "insurance funds" which are recognized by the state.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 10:03:43|Editor: Chengcheng

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SYDNEY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The ancient Cambodian city of Angkor suffered from extreme weather conditions that strained its infrastructure within a major canal system, contributing to its demise that also serves as a warning for modern urban communities, according to a latest Australian research.

Angkor, built on a complex system of canals, water catchments and embankments, was once the largest city in the world, but it recorded a massive population fall in the 15th century, the University of Sydney said in a statement about its study on Thursday.

Using in-depth mapping analyses, university researchers found that the city suffered external climate stress coupled with overloaded infrastructure within a complex canal network, which helped to provide evidence of a "vulnerability to catastrophic failures."

"The water management infrastructure of Angkor has been developed over centuries, becoming very large, tightly interconnected, and dependent on older and ageing components. The change in the middle of the 14th century... from prolonged drought to particularly wet years, put too much stress on this complex network, making the water distribution unstable," said research team co-leader professor Mikhail Prokopenko.

The latest findings, published in scientific journal Science Advances, "is crucial to improving infrastructure in an era of increasing frequent extreme weather events which are creating new and pressing risks to urban environments," he said.

"For the first time, identifying a systemic vulnerability in Angkor's infrastructural network has provided a mechanistic explanation for its demise, which comes with an important lesson for our contemporary urban environments," said research co-leader professor Daniel Penny.

The risks of such a "network collapse" have become more acute "as urban conglomerations become larger, more complex, and have more people living in them," said the researchers.

The findings emphasize the need for governments and communities to focus on building resilience into modern urban networks, particularly in the face of a changing climate, said Prokopenko.

"If we don't build resilience into our critical infrastructure, we may face severe and lasting disruptions to our civil systems, that can be intensified by external shocks and threaten our environment and economy," he said."I'm somewhat exhausted after spending five seasons in Japan and the U.S.," Oh said upon arriving at Incheon International Airport on Wednesday.

Relief pitcher Oh Seung-hwan of the Colorado Rockies said he would like to play in Korea again before he retires.

"I'm not that young anymore, and the time for big dreams has passed. Part of me wants to return to the Korean league and play in front of fans here before it's too late, while I still have the strength to do so."

Oh signed a contract worth up to US$7.5 million with the Toronto Blue Jays in February (US$1=W1,127). The deal allows him to have the option of playing for a second year if he plays in at least 70 games in the first season. The Rockies inherited the contract when they acquired Oh in a trade in July.

Oh appeared in 73 games during this season, posting six wins, three losses, three saves and 21 holds with a 2.63 ERA. With his contract automatically renewed, the Rockies would have to terminate it or release Oh on a waiver, which could open a way for him to return to Korea. If that happens, his former club Samsung Lions will have priority in signing him.A pair of crested ibises from China arrive at Japan's Narita Airport, Oct. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Hua Yi)

TOKYO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- A pair of crested ibises from China arrived in Japan on Wednesday as a symbol of friendship between the two countries.

The pair of rare birds arrived in Japan's Narita Airport Wednesday afternoon, and were transferred to the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center in Niigata prefecture around evening.

The donation was made by China for the first time since 2007, and a signing ceremony of the handover document was held Wednesday.

Li Chunliang, deputy director of China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration, said at the ceremony that the arrival of the pair of crested ibises is an important action for protection of the rare birds as well as an embodiment of cooperation between China and Japan in wild animal protection.

The pair of crested ibises, named Lou Lou and Guan Guan, respectively, will bring not only rich genetic diversity but also Chinese people's friendship to Japan, he said.

A crested ibis from China receives physical examination at the Sado Japanese Crested Ibis Conservation Center in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, Oct. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Ma Caoran)

Takaaki Katsumata, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Environment in Japan, said that the crested ibises are a symbol of the friendship between China and Japan, and their arrival will help the protection of Japanese crested ibises and promote communication and cooperation between China and Japan in this area.

A crested ibis is an iconic bird deeply rooted in Japanese history and culture. However, the number of crested ibises in Japan plunged in the 20th century and the Japanese-born ibises became extinct in 2003.

Cooperation between China and Japan on protection of crested ibises started in the 1980s, and since then, China had donated five crested ibises to help rebuild the species in Japan, while Japan had been supporting the protection of the crested ibises habitat in China through governmental and non-governmental projects.

The crested ibises in Japan nowadays are all descendants of those from China. Japan now has some 370 wild crested ibises, most of which are living on the Sado Island.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 10:18:46|Editor: ZD

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THE HAGUE, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered here on Tuesday a keynote speech at the China-Netherlands Business Forum.

The following is the full text of the keynote speech:

Keynote Speech by H.E. Li Keqiang

Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

At the China-Netherlands Business Forum

The Hague, 16 October 2018

Prime Minister Mark Rutte,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to join you at the China-Netherlands Business Forum in this beautiful city of The Hague. On behalf of the Chinese government, I wish to offer warm congratulations on the opening of the Forum and extend sincere thanks to people of all walks of life who have long been committed to the friendship and cooperation between China and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This year has seen many highlights in China-Netherlands relations. In February, President Xi Jinping met with His Majesty the King who visited China. The meeting provided further guidance to and boosted the growth of our bilateral ties. With the official visit to China by Prime Minister Mark Rutte in April and my visit to the Netherlands this time, we made an exchange of visits at the head-of-government level within a year. Such frequent high-level interactions have lent fresh impetus to our relations defined as an open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation.

Being one of the earliest achievers of modernization, the Netherlands can be rightly proud of its accomplishments in many areas. It is the birthplace of the world's first share-holding company, first stock exchange and first modern bank. It boasts one of the world's highest per capita GDPs, and ranks as the fifth, the sixth, and the second largest exporter of goods, services and agriculture produce and food respectively. It is home to a great many well-known companies and brands, with half of its companies actively engaged in innovation. Just now I was given a presentation of some of the leading hi-tech products of this country, which left me deeply impressed by the scientific and technological prowess and industrial capabilities of the Netherlands.

Although our countries are far apart geographically, friendly interactions between our peoples go back centuries. As early as in the 17th century, Dutch merchants brought Chinese porcelain, tea and silk to Europe. Our cooperation has come a long way since the establishment of diplomatic ties, especially in recent years. The Netherlands has been among China's top three trading partners in the EU since the year 2000, with two-way trade projected to approach 90 billion U.S. dollars this year. We each have about 20 billion U.S. dollars of investment stock in the other's market. Eleven out of the 15 Dutch Fortune 500 companies have invested in China, and the Netherlands is now China's second largest investment destination in the EU.

We owe such fruitful economic ties to our shared adherence to the principles of mutual respect and equality, to our commitment to openness, inclusiveness and mutual benefit, and to our tireless pursuit of pragmatism, enterprise and innovation. With so many business leaders present, let me say the growth of trade and economic cooperation between our two countries is, to a large measure, down to the hard work and wisdom of our business communities.

Yesterday, I had productive talks with Prime Minister Rutte. We reached important common understanding in wide-ranging areas. Given the strong foundation, enormous potential and great prospect of our cooperation, there is every reason that we should redouble our efforts to further broaden, deepen and elevate China-Netherlands cooperation.

We need to make the pie of our trade bigger. As China-Netherlands trade only accounts for 1.5 percent of the combined trade volume of our two countries, there is considerable space for further expansion. China is keen to import more manufactured industrial products, advanced equipment and quality agricultural produce from the Netherlands. This will better meet the needs of Chinese consumers and be conducive to industrial upgrading in China. The first-ever China International Import Expo will open soon. We look forward to the active participation of Dutch companies to showcase your capabilities and I wish you hefty orders in advance. Chinese products offer good value for money; over 70 percent of Chinese exports to this country are through entrepot trade. I hope Dutch companies will fully capitalize on your strength as a transshipment hub to bring more Chinese products to the Dutch and the wider European markets. In view of the rapid growth in our trans-border e-commerce, it is high time we create better conditions, both in hardware facilities and the softer aspects, to give Chinese and Dutch consumers more choices and greater convenience.

We need to open up more space for two-way investment cooperation. China is ready to work with the Netherlands in creating a fair, non-discriminatory and transparent business environment for each other's investors. Dutch companies are welcome to expand their investment in China by leveraging the synergy between their leading-edge capabilities and China's huge market potential. In particular, I would encourage you to explore opportunities in China's central and western provinces as well as traditional industrial bases in the northeast, which hold enormous development potential. You are also welcome to invest in development zones, pilot free trade zones or free trade ports in China which offer enabling conditions. On our part, we hope the Netherlands, a nation long committed to a free and open investment policy, will give fair and equitable treatment to Chinese companies who make investments in this country according to market principles and commercial rules.

We need to strengthen cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Having a long history of maritime trade has made the Netherlands a gateway to Europe. China is ready to work closely with the Netherlands in ports, logistics, customs and other fields to help build an efficient and smooth passageway between Asia and Europe. Companies of our two countries have been engaged in third-party cooperation on equipment supply, design and consulting. We need to further expand the areas and scope of such cooperation to deliver greater benefits to the local communities.

The BRI is an initiative for economic cooperation, not a tool of geopolitics. In carrying out BRI and third-party cooperation, we should follow market principles and prevailing international rules, and leverage the role of regional and international institutions. We should proceed from the national conditions of countries concerned and ensure transparency in project operation in order to keep the debt risks under control.

We need to cultivate new growth drivers in our cooperation on innovation. The people of our two countries are both known for being bold innovators. While the Netherlands has been a top-tier innovative country in the world, China has also implemented an innovation strategy in recent years to drive growth and fostered a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation across society. As the new round of industrial revolution gathers momentum, global industrial and innovation chains are becoming closely entwined. All countries are involved, to varying degrees, in this process, each contributing its share and drawing benefits in return.

The Chinese and Dutch governments have implemented three major cooperation programs on science, technology and innovation. We are ready to build on the existing foundation to upgrade cooperation in this field. We should enhance cooperation in human resource development, joint research and commercialization of research results, particularly in areas such as smart shipping, agriculture, water management, aviation and space, life sciences, electronic information, new materials, chemistry and environmental protection. Such cooperation, which draws on our complementarity, will generate more benefits than if we act alone.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China-Netherlands cooperation is a fine example of China-Europe cooperation. The world today is undergoing profound changes. Yet no matter how the situation may evolve, China will always see Europe as an important pole in the world and the EU as a comprehensive strategic partner. China hopes to see the EU staying united, stable, open and prosperous. Given the growing uncertainties and destabilizing factors in the world economy, there is every reason for China and the EU, as two major economies, to enhance strategic communication and coordination, and respond to the challenges together.

We hope the EU will ease restrictions and increase the export of high-end equipment and high-tech products to China. We need to build on the progress in the negotiations of a bilateral investment agreement to push for substantive outcomes. A possible China-EU FTA would give a big boost to the growth of our economic and trade relations. We are ready to work with the EU to lay a solid foundation for the FTA by launching a joint feasibility study as early as possible.

To deepen China-Netherlands and China-EU cooperation, a free and open environment is indispensable. Yet, the rise of unilateralism and protectionism has dealt a blow to the multilateral trading regime. The rules-based multilateral trading regime, represented by the WTO, was built with long and hard efforts by all parties on the basis of learning the lessons of history. It has played an irreplaceable role in the global trading system. Trade among WTO members now accounts for more than 98 percent of global trade. China and the EU are both beneficiaries of the multilateral trading regime and advocates for upholding the authority and effectiveness of the WTO.

That being said, some of the WTO rules do need to be reformed and improved. China and the EU have established a joint working group for this purpose, which held its first dialogue not long ago. China maintains that the fundamental principles of the WTO, such as openness, transparency, inclusiveness and non-discrimination, should not be compromised. The direction of trade liberalization should continue to be followed. Reforms should accommodate the concerns of the majority of the membership, uphold the development rights and interests as well as the special and differential treatment of the developing members, and serve to narrow the gap between the North and the South. China supports fair trade as well as free trade. Without free trade, there will be no fair trade; trade that is unfair is simply unsustainable; be it free trade or fair trade, all trade should be based on universally recognized WTO rules.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Through four decades of reform and opening-up, China has made significant economic progress. With China becoming the second largest economy in the world, some foreign friends started to wonder: is China still a developing country? To identify the development stage of a country, one needs to take a comprehensive and multi-dimensional view. China does have a huge economic aggregate, but its per capita GDP stands just above 8,800 U.S. dollars, only a quarter of that of the EU. More than 40 percent of Chinese live in the rural areas. Among them, over 30 million, equivalent to the population of a medium-sized country, are living in poverty with a per capita annual income of less than 3,000 RMB yuan. A large number of villages and some remote areas are still struggling with primitive infrastructure. Some of them have only just had access to roads, electricity and the internet. China ranks 86th on the UN list of Human Development Index, 76 places behind the Netherlands. All these speak to the fact that China remains a developing country, and there is still a long way to go before China becomes a high-income country and achieves all-round modernization.

On the other hand, the significant gap between China and developed countries can be turned into huge potential for development. The Chinese economy grew by 6.8 percent in the first half of this year. Growth in the third quarter is projected to moderate somewhat due to factors such as changes in the external environment. Yet we expect the steady momentum of growth to continue and overall economic performance to be maintained within the proper range. Employment, in particular, has remained solid, with over 11 million new urban jobs created in the first three quarters of this year. This has helped to keep surveyed urban unemployment rate at a relatively low level of around 5 percent. Structural adjustments have continued to make headway: consumption has kept growing by over 9 percent; the services sector accounts for a growing share of the economy, consolidating its role as the main engine for growth. High-tech sectors, strategic emerging industries and equipment manufacturing expanded notably faster than general industries. Agricultural production remains strong, with main agricultural products in abundant supply.

What's more, new growth drivers such as new forms and models of business have been thriving. The number of newly registered enterprises reached five million in the first three quarters of this year, or 18,000 for an average day, bringing the total number of market entities in China to over 100 million. These new growth drivers now contribute over one third to economic growth and more than two thirds to urban job creation. The quality and performance of the Chinese economy has been improving: profits of large industrial companies and service providers maintained double-digit growth, and household income rose largely in tandem with GDP growth.

This being said, we are deeply conscious of the many uncertainties and destabilizing factors confronting the Chinese economy in the context of a complex and fast-changing international environment. Downward pressure on the economy has notably increased, so have the difficulties and challenges facing us. Nevertheless, the Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience and broad space for maneuver, and thanks to years of development and innovation, we have at our disposal a fairly substantial toolkit for macro-control. All these will fully equip us to meet the main targets of development for this year and, through continued unrelenting efforts, to sustain medium-high growth for a long time to come and move to a medium-high level of development.

China will stay committed to advancing reform. Reform is the fundamental driver of China's development. China will only speed up its market-oriented reforms. We will not slow down the pace of reform, let alone turn back. The Chinese government will continue to streamline administrative approval procedures, provide more efficient services, and slash the time required to start a business, get a permit or go through customs clearance. We will introduce tax cuts on a bigger scale and meaningfully lower fees, including the social security contribution rate. The reform to transform state-owned enterprises (SOEs) into standard companies and joint-stock companies has been basically completed. China's SOEs, many of which are publicly listed, run their operations in an open and transparent manner. It is entirely up to them to make their own business decisions, and they are responsible for any profits or losses. They do not enjoy any special subsidies.

Continued efforts will be made to deepen the reform of SOEs and state-owned assets, including mixed-ownership reform in a tiered and category-based manner. Foreign investors are welcome to participate in the reforming and restructuring of Chinese SOEs. We will work for greater transparency in government regulations, ordinances and standards at all levels and higher consistency and predictability in policy execution. A level-playing field will be resolutely enforced. All companies registered in China will receive fair and equal treatment.

China will stay committed to greater opening-up. China has comprehensively fulfilled, in some cases outperformed, the commitments it made upon accession to the WTO. A foreign investment management model of pre-establishment national treatment and a negative list has been rolled out. China's trade in goods now accounts for more than one third of its GDP. And foreign-invested enterprises have contributed about 40 percent to China's export and 20 percent to tax revenue. China's economy has deeply integrated into the world economy. Pursuing greater opening-up is a sure choice based on its own development needs. Since early this year, we have introduced an array of new measures in pursuit of greater opening-up, including lowering tariffs for some goods and widening market access in the manufacturing and services industries.

Starting from next month, we will cut import tariffs for more than 1,500 industrial goods, which will bring our overall tariff rate down to 7.5 percent, a lower-middle level by international standards. China will further open its financial services sector. Just as we have lifted foreign ownership caps in the banking sector, we will take similar steps in the insurance and securities sectors in the next three years. By then there will be foreign ventures qualified for full-license, full-ownership operation in the financial sector. China's pursuit of opening-up in greater breadth and depth will provide more cooperation opportunities to the business communities around the world. In the first eight months of this year, total paid-in foreign direct investment in China grew by over 6 percent. A new round of investment by some multinationals is in the pipelines. Companies from the Netherlands and other European countries are welcome to get a head start in seizing business opportunities in China.

China will stay committed to boosting innovation. Much can be accomplished in China given its huge market, strong supporting industries and abundant human resources. We will foster a more enabling eco-system to spur innovation, intensify support for basic research and applied basic research, encourage corporate R&D spending, and improve incentives for researchers and policies for the commercialization of innovation outcomes. We will facilitate integrated innovation and synergized development of companies of different sizes, industries, universities, research institutes and end users in both online and offline activities.

Stringent IPR protection meets China's needs for high-quality development and closer cooperation with the rest of the world. In recent years, China has revised nearly 20 IPR-related laws and regulations, handled over 1.4 million cases of IPR infringement, and set up special IPR tribunals. Intellectual property royalty payments by Chinese companies to overseas proprietors have increased by a big margin to reach 28.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, of which one third was made to the EU. China will never allow forced technology transfer or make technology transfer a precondition for foreign investment approval. Mutually beneficial technology transfer and cooperation between business partners in joint ventures and other forms of cooperation will be respected by the government. We will introduce a more rigorous mechanism of punitive compensation for IPR infringements to deter violations, improve judicial services and align China's innovation protection system with international business rules.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There is a proverb in the Netherlands that says, "A ship is as strong as its crew." If we compare China-Netherlands cooperation to a giant ship, business leaders present today would be sailors whose work is vital to the voyage ahead. I trust that all of you "sailors" will brave the waves hand-in-hand and forge ahead to set new records and score greater success in our cooperation.

Thank you.An Indonesian woman sits on debris near her house after an earthquake and tsunami at Pantoloan port in Poso, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia, on Oct. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)

JAKARTA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Indonesians displaced by quakes and an ensuing tsunami in Central Sulawesi province needed thousands of tents for shelter as the construction of temporary settlements was underway, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Over 18,000 tents were needed since the strong quakes of 6.0, 7.4 and 6.1 magnitude that triggered a tsunami devastated Palu, the provincial capital, and adjacent districts of Donggala and Sigi on Sept. 28, forcing more than 87,000 people to flee homes, Bernadus Wisnu Widjaja from the national disaster management agency said in Palu.

By far, a total of 5,000 tents have been transported to the disaster areas by humanitarian organizations and as many as 1,300 others by the Red Cross, he added.

A total of 800 big tents were also needed to accommodate students in the affected areas, he was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.

The UN children's agency Unicef has donated 200 tents to damaged local schools, according to the official.

The massive tsunami triggered by the quakes destroyed a total of 67,310 houses and a huge amount infrastructure facility in the central province.

Indonesia is prone to quake as it lies on a vulnerable quake-affected area of so called "the Pacific Ring of Fire."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 11:23:54|Editor: Chengcheng

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YANGON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar's southern Mon state government held a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the completion of the Death Railway built by prisoners of war (POWs) linking Myanmar and Thailand during WWII, the Global New light of Myanmar daily reported Thursday.

The ceremony, held at the War Cemetery in Thanbyuzayat on Wednesday, was attended by Mon State Chief Minister Aye Zan and diplomats from 11 countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Britain, Canada, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand and the United States.

They laid wreathes and paid tribute to the POWs of war who died during the construction of the railway.

The railway construction by started in 1941 and completed in October 1942 with the number of the sleepers of the railway reportedly representing the number of deaths to build the railways.

Aye Zan said the ceremony is aimed at remembering ill consequences of war and contribution to peace of the world without war.

To build the railway connecting Thailand and Myanmar to open the Asian Theater, the Japanese invading army forced the POWs from defeated countries and people from Southeast Asian countries to be laborers.

The Thanbyuzayat grave yard buried several thousands of victims of the Death Railway.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 11:43:57|Editor: zh

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Health Ministry on Wednesday confirmed 2,192 cases of measles, of which 12 have died.

Most of the cases occurred in the northern region, in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, with 1776 and 330 cases respectively. In addition to the confirmed cases, 7,894 suspected cases are pending confirmation in these two states.

The health ministry highlighted that a large vaccination campaign is being carried out in the states where cases of measles were registered, with 13.2 million doses of vaccines shipped to those states since the beginning of the year.

Brazil received a measles-free certification from the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) a few years ago. If the country does not manage to control the outbreak before February 2019, the certification may be rescinded.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 12:04:01|Editor: zh

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CANBERRA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Australia's peak scientific body has invested in technology that provides real-time fruit fly detection, helping farmers battle the pest.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on Thursday announced support for RapidAim, a CSIRO start-up that developed a system that uses smart sensors to identify approaching fruit flies by their unique movement, from the CSIRO Innovation Fund.

RapidAim's sensors can provide fruit producers with real-time data on the location of fruit flies, potentially revolutionizing the fight against them.

"Growers rely on weather radar and take action accordingly, but until now they haven't had any pest 'radar' to support them against pests like fruit fly,"Nancy Schellhorn, co-founder and chief executive of RapidAim, said in a media release.

"Existing fruit fly monitoring relies solely on manual trap checking, which limits the scale and depth of available information and costs valuable resources."

Fruit flies lay eggs in fruit and vegetables that hatch as the produce ripens, causing huge losses for growers.

Larry Marshall, chief executive of the CSIRO, said the technology had the potential to change the way fruit pests were combatted around the world and reduce the 900 million tonnes of insecticide currently used by growers every year.

"As Australia's national science agency, we're committed to solving Australia's greatest challenges - in this case a more than 300 million Australian dollar (213 million U.S. dollar) cost to Australian fruit and vegetable industry," Marshall said.

"Taking technology developed inside of CSIRO, turned into a new Aussie startup through our innovation program and the CSIRO Innovation Fund, is a great example of accelerating science solutions to deliver real-world solutions."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 12:04:01|Editor: zh

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SYDNEY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The first direct flight between Papua New Guinea (PNG) and China was set to take off on Oct. 23, airline officials have said.

The new route between Port Moresby and Shanghai will offer Chinese travellers and business people a new gateway into the South Pacific nation, PNG national Airline Air Niugini's acting chief executive Tahawar Durrani said on Wednesday.

Bolstered by the country's position as host of the 2018 APEC economic leaders' meeting, he said the seven-hour return service flight will operate twice per week on Tuesday and Friday.

"This service will complement our existing international flights to Asia," Durrani said.

"It also offers convenience for the Chinese and PNG business communities and tourists, delegates attending APEC, as well as hundreds of PNG students studying in various cities in China to fly direct between the two countries."

Upon arrival in Shanghai, the inaugural flight will be met with a celebratory function for all Chinese stakeholders involved including airport authorities, the tourism bureau, top travel agents, wholesalers and tour operators.

The event will then be followed with seminars and a media forum.

PNG is predicting the new route to be a massive windfall for its tourism sector.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 13:23:27|Editor: Chengcheng

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CARACAS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela's Communication and Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez on Wednesday announced new arrests in connection with the failed assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro in August.

Oswaldo Castillo alias "El Capi," Wilder Vasquez alias "Capo," and retired air force lieutenant colonel Rafael Diaz were arrested, Rodriguez said.

With these arrests, "the mastermind behind the assassination plot is perfectly established," said the minister, adding that those involved are associated with Venezuela's far right.

He said that these individuals also took part in violent protests from 2014 to 2017.

"We have now identified and captured the two groups who participated in the attempted assassination," Rodriguez said, noting the investigations will continue.

During an outdoor ceremony on Aug. 4 to commemorate the 81st anniversary of Venezuela's national guard, two drones carrying explosives flew close to the presidential stand as Maduro was giving a speech and detonated.

Maduro was unharmed but several members of the military sustained injuries.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 13:33:28|Editor: Chengcheng

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SYDNEY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Police in Western Australia were on Thursday called to remove a wayward crocodile that had ended up venturing into an industrial site.

It is not yet known why the 2-meter predator strayed so far from the water in the remote town of Fitzroy Crossing, but officers told local media the animal appeared to be very dehydrated.

Sen. Sgt Daniel Strachan said the team, dodging "multiple snaps," managed to wrap the crocodile in a blanket using a dog lead as a noose, and escorted it by vehicle 10 km to the Fitzroy River.

"We got it to the river and we were still concerned about it because it was still sitting on the bank and it wasn't moving much and we ended up coaxing it into the water and it swam away," he said.

"I probably won't get to do that again and I'll tell you what, if it is any bigger I won't be going near one."

Riding in the vehicle with the crocodile, officer Sean Cunningham said "it actually punctured holes through the dog lead."

"As you can imagine it was a bit upset and if you got a body part in the way of that it would do fair bit of damage, at least stitches, if not a broken bone in the hand and some good damage on the arm if it grabbed you there. So it was always in the back of my mind."

"I was very aware of those jaws," he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 14:48:38|Editor: ZD

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KAMPALA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Uganda Red Cross, a relief organization, on Wednesday launched an appeal for over 5,000 families in the eastern part of the country that are at risk of climate change effects.

The organization in a statement issued here said the lives of over 5,000 families in Bududa and neighboring districts in the Mountain Elgon region are threatened by severe climate change effects that include landslides, floods, and potential disease outbreaks.

The statement comes after the Oct. 11 landslide in Bududa that left 43 people dead, 16 still missing and 15 others hospitalized.

The organization said as torrential rains continue to affect the region, communities need to take urgent emergency preparedness and response plans to save lives of people.

"Uganda Red Cross seeks 339,477 U.S. dollars to support the 700 people affected in Bududa and over 5,000 people at high risk in the neighboring districts," said Robert Kwesiga, Secretary General of the Uganda Red Cross.

The organization said the appeal will support families with emergency relief non-food items, temporary shelter for displaced people, health and life saving interventions.

It will also be used among others to train more disaster response volunteers and offer pyscho-social support.The UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Wednesday warned that rural poverty has reached alarming proportions in North Korea as the gap between city and country widens.

According to the FAO's 2018 white paper, 15.6 million North Koreans now live in urban areas, accounting for 62 percent of the entire population of 25 million. That is a relatively slow increase from 58 percent in 1990.

But young North Koreans are migrating to the cities, and the youth population per 1,000 ha of farmland dropped 11 percent from 974 in 1995 to 860 in 2015.

The wealth gap between country and city is widening. One in every four rural children is undernourished and underweight and the North has the most serious poverty issue in East Asia, the FAO said.

The proportion of underweight children in rural areas is 27 percent but only 13 percent in the cities.

Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 14:53:42|Editor: Chengcheng

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MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces will soon receive a regimental unit of S-400 Triumpf missile systems and three divisional units of Pantsir-S missile systems, local news reported Thursday.

"The Aerospace Defense Forces have received three S-400 Triumpf missile systems this year for delivery to air defense units of military districts." TASS news agency quoted the Russian defense ministry as saying.

"We are expecting another regimental unit of this system to be delivered soon, along with three divisional units of Pantsir-S missile systems supplied in accordance with the State Defense Order 2018," said the ministry.

By the end of 2018, the share of modern military equipment for the Aerospace Defense Forces will reach 70 percent, added the ministry.

In recent years, Russia has been actively modernizing its military equipment. According to its state armament program for 2018-2027, Moscow plans to spend about 20 trillion rubles (318 billion U.S. dollars) to upgrade its military equipment.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 14:53:43|Editor: Chengcheng

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KAMPALA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has secured 21.6 million Euros from the European Union (EU) to help rehabilitate the 375km railway line from the eastern border district of Tororo to the northern district of Gulu.

Matia Kasaija, Uganda's finance minister and Ambassador Attilio Pacifici, EU Head of Delegation to Uganda, signed the financing agreement on Wednesday.

Uganda will top up 13.1 million Euros to rehabilitate the railway line that has been out of service since 1993, when there was insurgency in northern Uganda.

The Tororo-Gulu railway line used to be a pivotal economic artery along the East African Northern Corridor linking the Kenyan seaport of Mombasa and eastern Uganda to northern Uganda, as well as neighboring South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

"We are now proud to support the revitalization of this important economic link," Pacifici said.

"With this project, the EU continues to support Uganda's economy through the promotion of a multimodal, safe and efficient transport sector. We will in particular support the efforts of government to shift cargo from roads to more environmentally friendly, or greener transport modes such as railways and waterways," Pacifici said.

He said the railway project has been designed to complement the construction of the Gulu Logistics Hub.

The two projects, according to Pacifici, will have a major impact on the facilitation of trade by reducing import and export transportation costs, thereby contributing to regional integration and to strengthen Uganda's competitiveness within the East African Community region.

"The Gulu Logistic Hub, together with the railway line, will be a key import/export platform not just for northern Uganda but also for South Sudan and eastern DRC," he said.

Kasaija said the railway project will benefit from the proximity of the Albertine region, which has the country's oil wells.

"The railway project shall benefit from transportation of equipment and inputs for the construction and operations of the oilfields given the bulky nature of oil equipment," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 14:53:45|Editor: ZD

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BRUSSELS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May told leaders at the European Summit in Brussels on late Wednesday that she would consider an extension of the post-Brexit transition period for an additional year to make it 3-year long, in an attempt to break through an impasse in negotiations over the Northern Irish border.

Speaking to other EU leaders before a European Council working dinner, May said she would consider the transition period extension as part of a compromise on the Irish border.

Brexit talks appeared to fall apart on Monday when the EU's insistence on a Northern Ireland issue left the British prime minister stuck between hardline members of her coalition government unwilling to accept a customs border in the Irish Sea.

The EU refuses to accept any deal that does not respect the Good Friday agreements, which bans any hard borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but the Britain has not been able to propose a solution that would respect EU regulations necessary for avoiding a hard border.

Brussels has insisted a Northern Ireland-only "backstop" in case a treaty cannot be reached during the post-Brexit transition period. In such a case, a customs border would separate Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain, a move that has been flatly rejected by Democratic Unionist Party members of parliament, who are members of the governing coalition in Westminster.

European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters Tuesday that the British position left him with "no grounds for optimism" about reaching a deal on Brexit, and insisting that Brussels was "preparing for a no-deal scenario."

Statements on Wednesday from both France and Germany confirmed that the two powerful EU players were both making preparations for a Brexit without a deal.

The French government tabled a draft law Wednesday that covered emergency provisions in the case of no deal that would require visas for British nationals traveling to France, thus leaving British residents in France with "irregular" legal situations, while holding up trade at the borders.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told German representatives Wednesday that it was "only fitting as a responsible and forward-thinking government leadership that we prepare for every scenario. That includes the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without an agreement."

While Donald Tusk indicated Tuesday that he still hoped for "creative solutions," and that he would ask Theresa May for "concrete proposals" at the European Summit, the impasse on the Northern Irish border remains unresolved.

A UK-wide solution that would allow Britain to respect specific EU rules in order to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland has been evoked, but until such a proposal is fully-realized the EU has demanded a failsafe mechanism.

Theresa May has stated that no compromise of the British union would be acceptable, she appears to be considering a proposal from EU lead-negotiator Michel Barnier to extend the transition period from 2 to 3 years.

"Brexit must be orderly, for everyone and for all the issues, including on the island of Ireland," Michel Barnier said Wednesday, insisting "we need time, we need much time, much more time, and we will continue to work in the next weeks calmly and patiently."

May's critics within Britain have already started attacking her position, with the pro-Brexit far-right party UK Independence Party's leader Nigel Farage tweeting an extended transition period "may mean we never leave at all."

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani told reporters Wednesday evening that he "did not perceive anything substantially new in content" in Theresa May's speech.

Despite this, Tajani maintained cautious optimism, saying "we shall do everything we can to bring about positive development."

European heads of state and government will have to decide whether to call an urgent European Summit in November to handle Brexit issues, a move which will in itself require a certain amount of progress, according to observers.

If insufficient progress is deemed to have been made, drafting of agreements may be left until the next currently scheduled European Summit in December.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 15:23:48|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the fifth annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum which opened in Beijing on Thursday.

The conference, themed "Dialogue of Civilizations: Building a Community With a Shared Future for Humanity," should help improve understanding, accumulate consensus, deepen cooperation and promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, Xi said in the letter.

The exchange and mutual learning among civilizations has been a key impetus for civilization advancement of mankind as well as world peace and development, he said.

"China is willing to work with international community for mutual respect and harmonious co-existence among different civilizations," Xi said.

"Learning from one another among civilizations should play a constructive part in building a community with a shared future for humanity. All sides should share development opportunities and cope with challenges together for a better world," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 15:58:59|Editor: Li Xia

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NANJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- An amber fossil discovered in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region suggests that rainforest was present in central Tibet more than 40 million years ago.

The research, jointly conducted by an international team of scientists from China, Britain and India, was recently published in Palaeoworld.

Wang Bo, one of the researchers from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, said that the amber fossil was discovered in the Lunpola basin in Tibet and derived from dipterocarp trees, which are today only found in Asian rainforest.

The scientists concluded that Tibet had a different geographical environment over 40 million years ago.

Based on previous research and biostratigraphy studies, they believe a tropical or subtropical rainforest with an altitude of less than 1,300 meters was once present in central Tibet.

However, an obvious uplift on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau occurred around 25 million years ago. Plants such as pine and cypress, which can adapt to dry and cold weather, have started gradually growing there.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 16:59:15|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in's approval rating stayed at a high level on mounting peace mood in the Korean Peninsula, a weekly poll showed Thursday.

Support for Moon was 60.9 percent this week, according to the Realmeter survey. It was down 1 percentage point from the previous week.

The support scores made a natural correction, after peaking at 65.3 percent in the fourth week of September, or the week right after Moon's third summit in Pyongyang with Kim Jong Un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Moon and Kim re-confirmed their commitment to complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, agreeing to concrete ways to stop hostile acts in inter-Korean border areas.

Support for Moon's ruling Democratic Party fell 2.5 percentage points over the week to 42.3 percent this week.

The main conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party won 20 percent of support, followed by the minor progressive Justice Party gaining 9.8 percent in approval score.

The minor conservative Bareun Future Party and the centrist Party for Democracy and Peace garnered 6.6 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

The results were based on a poll of 1,502 voters from Monday to Wednesday. It had 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 16:59:15|Editor: Li Xia

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PORT MORESBY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's Vice Finance Minister Yu Weiping called for joint efforts to promote sustained and steady growth of the global economy at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers Meeting held here from Tuesday to Wednesday.

Noting that the sound momentum has been sustained in the development of the world economy, Yu said rising trade protectionism and structural factors continue to constrain the medium and long-term development of the world economy.

The Asia-Pacific economies should firmly support multilateralism, jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral trading system, continue to promote structural reform and enhance economic resilience and competitiveness, said Yu.

A joint statement from APEC finance ministers said, "To broaden and sustain the current expansion and raise medium-term growth prospects for the benefit of all, our economies must advance policies and reforms that increase productivity and strengthen the potential for inclusive growth."

"Financial inclusion is a fundamental building block of inclusive growth and development," it added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 17:09:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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WINDHOEK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A consensus report produced by the Southern African Climate Change Outlook Forum (SARCOF) Thursday revealed that Namibia is facing another drought in the forthcoming agricultural season.

"The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will receive normal to below normal rainfall in the 2018-2019 farming season," the Consensus report said.

Other countries predicted to be affected by the drought calamity are Zimbabwe and Zambia, according to SARCOF. They will also be affected by the persistent El Nino phenomenon which has influenced the Southern African Region for past few years.

The report also said the SADC region should brace of the difficult conditions and derive averting measures to reduce impact of the drought on food.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 17:14:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ULAN BATOR, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia and Vietnam have signed an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons, the Mongolian Foreign Affairs Ministry said Thursday.

A Mongolian delegation led by Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Tsend Nyamdorj visited Vietnam on Oct. 15-17, during which Nyamdorj and Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam signed the agreement, the ministry said in a statement.

"Currently, there are no Mongolian citizens imprisoned in Vietnam. But the number of Mongolian visitors in Vietnam has been growing in recent years," the ministry said, stressing that this kind of agreement is important to protecting the rights of Mongolian citizens abroad.

According to data released by the ministry, a total of 174 Mongolian citizens are serving their prison sentences overseas.

Among the 19 foreign nationals serving sentences in Mongolia, two are Vietnamese.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 17:49:22|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ULAN BATOR, Oct.18 (Xinhua) -- Mongolian Prime Minister Ukhnaa Khurelsukh met with visiting Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, the Mongolian government press office said Thursday.

Shoygu arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator on Thursday morning for one-day official visit.

"Mongolia attaches great importance to deepening its relations with Russia in all sectors. In this regard, we are ready to continue to expand military-technical cooperation between our two countries," Khurelsukh said.

The prime minister expressed his gratitude for Russia's long-standing support to providing training and military-technical equipment to Mongolia.

He also expressed the hope that Russia's high-level officials will visit Mongolia to jointly celebrate the 80th anniversary of the victory of the battle of Khalkhin Gol in 2019.

Describing their bilateral relationship as traditionally good-neighborly, Shoygu said that Russia will further deepen military-technical cooperation with Mongolia.

Earlier in the day, Mongolian Defense Minister Nyamaa Enkhbold held talks with Shoygu on issues related to bilateral defense cooperation.

During the meeting, the two defense ministers signed a long-term program for military cooperation to enhance defense ties, under which the two countries will collaborate in areas of armed forces management, military education and joint exercises, according to the Mongolian Defense Ministry.

During the visit, Russian defense minister also handed over military equipment assistance to the Mongolian air defense forces.U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Harry Harris also reiterated the importance of "a common voice" to achieve the common goal.

The comment came after President Moon Jae-in called for UN sanctions to be eased as a means to facilitate the North's denuclearization.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday said Washington will keep sanctions against North Korea in place if the isolated country fails to denuclearize, Voice of America reported Wednesday.

He was speaking at a seminar co-sponsored by the Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Seoul.

"We are, of course, cognizant of the priority that President Moon Jae-in and his administration have placed on improving South-North relations," he added. "I believe this inter-Korean dialogue must remain linked to denuclearization, and South Korea synchronized with the United States."

Commenting on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent flying visit to Pyongyang, Harris said North Korean leader Kim Jong-un invited inspectors to the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and the Tongchang-ri missile launch site.

"There, of course, remains a lot of work to be done," he added, "But I believe that if the United States and South Korea continue to approach North Korea with a common voice, we can turn the commitments that were made in Pyongyang, Panmunjom and Singapore into reality."

Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom defended a controversial project to reconnect railways and roads between the two Koreas that could violate sanctions. Kim told reporters the project "is going on smoothly" as scheduled and claimed South Korea is in close consultation with the U.S.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 18:19:26|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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RAMALLAH, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Thursday that Palestinian resilience in Al-Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin village is the first step toward foiling the U.S. "century deal."

He spoke to the community residents, solidarity activists and reporters during a visit to the village which is under an imminent threat of demolition by Israel.

"Our presence here in Al-Khan al-Ahmar carries a message that we are going to fight to defeat the deal of the century," he said, adding that his government is facing financial pressures but it will remain strong and will not give up on the national constants.

Hamdallah said "the century deal starts from Al-Khan Al-Ahmar with the aim to cut off the north of the West Bank from its south, cut off Jerusalem from its surrounding and Gaza from the West Bank."

He added that the popular resistance against the Israeli measures in the occupied territories will continue to foil the American deal.

Al-Khan Al-Ahmar Bedouin community is located to the east of Jerusalem and resided by 200 Palestinian Bedouins, 95 percent of whom are refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Hamdallah visited the village school and talked with students and teachers, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Dozens of tin-ceiling homes and basic structures are slated for demolition in the area, which suffers a lack of basic services and infrastructure, such as an electricity network, a sewage system and proper roads.

The community includes an only school for the Bedouin communities in the area, a mosque and a healthcare unit as well as several homes that are all at risk of demolition by Israel, but residents say they are offered no alternative to go.

The community in Al-Khan Al-Ahmar is one of the 46 Bedouin communities in the central West Bank that the UN considers at risk of forcible transfer, which is defined as a war crime under international law.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 18:19:26|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. claim that it would reduce Iran's oil exports to zero is a "political bluff," head of state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was quoted as saying by Financial Tribune on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump had been struggling for months to cut off Iranian oil exports, said Ali Kardor, NIOC chief.

"The U.S. president has done all he can and knows very well that bringing Iran's oil export to zero is a political bluff," Kardor was quoted as saying.

He also said that despite the U.S. financial and banking sanctions, Iran does not have any difficulty receiving payment for oil exports and could accept payments in euros instead of U.S. dollars if necessary.

"There is no problem on this issue," Kardor said, adding that with the European support, there will not be a problem.

The U.S. administration has been pushing its allies to cut Iranian oil imports and is encouraging Saudi Arabia, other OPEC states and Russia to pump more oil to meet the shortfall n the global market.

Senior U.S. officials often say that their aim is to cut Iran's oil exports to zero "to force Tehran to change their behavior in the region."

New U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil exports are set to start from Nov. 4.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 18:24:28|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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SUVA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The National Disaster Management Office released an alert on Thursday, asking Fijians to be prepared and take heed of the flood alert and heavy rain warning that have been issued by the Fiji Meteorological Services.

Fijians residing in low lying areas and squatter settlements should take heed of the warning and make preparations to evacuate to higher grounds well before flood waters rise.

A general flood alert is issued for small streams and low lying areas for the whole of Fiji.

Fijians should expect river levels on major catchments to increase apart from the ones that are already on alert and warnings.

The heavy rain conditions will continue in the next few days.

As an act of preparedness, Fijians are asked to check the location of nearest evacuation centers.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 18:59:37|Editor: Li Xia

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PARIS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A French soldier lost his life in "accidental circumstances" overnight in Mali, the country's defense ministry announced on Thursday.

Corporal Abdelatif Rafik died when a tire of truck he had serviced "accidentally exploded" and "violently" threw the officer on the ground, the ministry said in a press release.

He was treated at the scene but he succumbed to his injuries. Two other servicemen were injured and hospitalized, it added.

France had launched its military offensive in Mali in 2013 to crack down on Islamist fighters, who had seized control of Mali's northern region a year earlier.

With the support of African countries, Paris has deployed around 4,500 French troops in West Africa's Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane to combat extremist insurgents and restore security in the area.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 18:59:37|Editor: Li Xia

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SYDNEY, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Wildlife authorities in southern Australia announced Wednesday an investigation into the deaths of almost 60 penguins which were killed in a suspected dog attack.

The bodies of 58 fairy penguins were found this week along the northern coast of Australia's Southern-most State of Tasmania.

The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, which collected the penguin carcasses and has since been conducting post-mortem examinations, said that most of the birds appear to have died because of a dog attack.

"We would like to remind dog owners of the need to take responsibility for their animals at all times as dogs have the capacity to do a lot of damage to penguin colonies in a short period of time," the department said in a statement.

"Investigations into all the circumstances surrounding the deaths are continuing and so we would like to encourage anyone who may have any information to contact us to assist in our investigations," Parks and Wildlife Service officer Michael Spaulding told the local media.

It was the responsibility of dog owners to control their pets, he added.

The latest incident occurred months after 13 fairy penguins were killed in a suspected dog attack on a nearby beach this June.

Fairy penguins, or little penguins, grow to an average of 33 cm in height and 43 cm in length. They are found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand, with Tasmania supporting around half of the global population.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 19:24:42|Editor: Li Xia

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BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China will keep the yuan's exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level, and hopes the United States can refrain from politicizing the currency issue, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

In a semi-annual currency report issued Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department did not list China as a currency manipulator. But the report did say the U.S. would continue to monitor and review China's currency practices.

The report's conclusion that China does not manipulate the exchange rate is in line with common sense and the consensus of the international community, spokesperson Lu Kang told a routine press briefing.

As a responsible major country, China has repeatedly reiterated that it will not engage in competitive currency devaluation and will not use the exchange rate of the yuan as a tool to deal with external disturbances such as trade disputes, Lu added.

"China will unswervingly deepen the reform of exchange rate marketization and continue to improve the managed floating exchange rate system, which is market-oriented and formulated in reference to a basket of currencies."

China hopes the U.S. can respect the law of the market and stay objective, rather than politicize the exchange rate issue, said the spokesperson.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 19:49:46|Editor: Li Xia

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by Xinhua writer Wang Xiuqiong

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- For those that constantly paint a picture of foreign firms pulling out of China, it is time to face an inconvenient truth.

China was the largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first half of 2018, according to the the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

China attracted an estimated 70 billion U.S. dollars in inflows, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent, in sharp contrast to the global 41-percent FDI slump.

Again, facts have scotched the ill-founded notion that China is losing appeal for foreign investors amid trade tensions and rising costs.

Contrary to what is regularly peddled by the naysayers, China remains a top magnet for foreign companies. They are investing and reinvesting in the country, not retreating.

In the first nine months, the number of new overseas-funded companies established in China surged 95.1 percent from a year earlier to 45,922, Ministry of Commerce data shows.

During the period, FDI into the Chinese mainland grew 2.9 percent year-on-year in RMB terms and 6.4 percent in dollar terms.

Foreign firms know where to go. Though it is fair to say the era of making a quick buck in China has gone, ongoing urbanization, a huge market and a transition to high-quality growth are breeding huge opportunities for competitive companies.

More importantly, a better-than-ever business environment is in the making; China has substantially slashed red tape, lifted restrictions and strengthened property rights for foreign investors.

Earlier this month, German auto giant the BMW Group announced it will increase its stake in its Chinese joint ventures BBA from 50 percent to 75 percent, after China unveiled plans to ease ownership rules for auto joint ventures.

This is a telling example of China fulfilling its promise of opening wider, which foreign companies widely welcome.

With more reforms and opening up measures to come, China will prove a wise investment destination for foreign firms, and a surprise for pessimists.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 19:54:46|Editor: Chengcheng

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Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) workers load plastic boxes of election materials from a warehouse to a truck in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province, eastern Afghanistan, Oct. 18, 2018. More than 2,500 candidates are contesting the 249 seats of Wolesi Jirga, or the lower house of Afghan parliament, elections to be held on Saturday amid tight security. (Xinhua/Saifurahman Safi)

KABUL, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has encouraged all Afghan voters to file their fraud complaints with the related organs, in case of seeing or suspecting any fraud case during the upcoming parliamentary polls, UNANA said in a statement Thursday.

The long-delayed elections for Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of the Afghan parliament, are slated for Oct. 20 with more than 2,500 candidates vying for the chamber's 249 seats.

"All citizens should play an active, informed and constructive role in rooting out fraud," Tadamichi Yamamoto, special UN envoy and head of UN mission, was quoted in the statement.

The statement welcomed measures taken by Afghan election officials to tackle any fraud and irregularities during the polls.

Among the steps taken to ensure the transparency of the elections were a voting system in which voters can only cast their ballot in a single polling center at which they are registered, the planned implementation of a biometric voter verification system and deployment of up to 400,000 observers and candidates' agents, as well as political parties monitors, at the polling centers, the statement said.

The UNAMA said candidates should also bear a major responsibility of having their supporters not to commit fraud in their name.

"Fraud amounts to stealing the vote of a fellow Afghan citizen. This is unacceptable," said the statement, adding fraud was not in the interests of candidates, but would have the candidates' support credibility undermined.

According to the statement, Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) officials will be present in every polling center and the Afghan law enforcement agencies should investigate expeditiously, detain and prosecute those responsible where credible allegations are made.

During the upcoming polls, nearly 9 million registered voters, including 3 million women, will cast their ballots to elect members of the lower house of parliament for a five-year term.

Election officials recently canceled district councils election which was expected to be held together with the parliamentary polls.An exhibitor displays an artifact during the Made-in-South Sudan Exhibition in Juba, SouthSudan, Oct. 15, 2018.(Xinhua/Gale Julius)

JUBA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's participation in the first China International Import Expo early November provides enormous opportunities for the east African country to boost its export capabilities and explore more investment opportunities, a senior government official has said.

Christine Jino Okena, director of trade exhibition at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and East African Community Affairs, told Xinhua that Juba's presence at the expo will help tap its investment potentials, especially in the areas of agriculture, culture, and mining, among others.

"The Chinese government has invited our companies from here, and that is a great recognition. These companies are going to expose South Sudan to the world and that means many people will come to discover and invest in South Sudan," Okena said.

The Chinese government early this year invited South Sudanese businesses to showcase their products during the first China International Import Expo, scheduled for Nov. 5-10 in Shanghai.

Okena said three South Sudanese companies were selected to represent the world's youngest nation, adding that it would help boost the market of South Sudanese products in China.

"We have a lot of resources but we have not exposed them to the rest of the world," Okena said.

According to statistics from the Chinese embassy in South Sudan, annual trade between Beijing and Juba stood at about 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, 92 percent of which being South Sudanese exports to China.Photo taken on Dec. 4, 2017 shows a photo displayed during the opening of a photo exhibition under the title "Windows of Hope" in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. (Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Wednesday called for increased funding to meet the needs of 905,831 refugees in Ethiopia.

In a press statement, UNHCR said as of September 11, it has only been able to receive 69.5 million U.S. dollars of the total 327.8 million U.S. dollars it needs to meet the basic needs of refugees in Ethiopia until the end of 2018.

UNHCR further said it's receiving an increasing number of Eritreans who are crossing into Ethiopia following the re-opening of the two countries' borders, making its humanitarian financial assistance appeal even more urgent.

"Following the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship, signed on July 9, 2018, between former bitter rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea, two border crossing points were re-opened on September 11, 2018. The reopening has resulted in a significant increase in the number of new arrivals from Eritrea, with the average daily rate of arrivals increasing from 53 to 390 individuals," said the UNHCR statement.

Eritrean refugees allege indefinite military conscription, lack of meaningful economic activity and political repression as reasons why they fled their home country to Ethiopia. Ethiopia is also home to large group of refugees from South Sudan and Somalia fleeing internal strife and drought conditions.

Smaller groups of refugees fleeing war in Sudan and from Yemen are also part of the group the UNHCR has registered as refugees in Ethiopia.

UNHCR also said Ethiopia's own humanitarian crisis with 2.8 million people internally displaced, as a result of climate change and communal clashes, are also straining financial resources which would otherwise have been allocated to meeting the needs of refugees in Ethiopia.Shanghai forum to promote innovation

From:ChinaDaily | 2018-10-17 16:29

The 2018 Pujiang Innovation Forum is set to be held in Shanghai at the end of October, aiming to continue promoting science and technology innovation in China and the world and supporting global innovation development, the Ministry of Science and Technology announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

Initiated in 2008, the forum has been successfully held 10 times. It will kick off on Oct 29 and end on Nov 1.

The forum, one of the most influential and high-profile of its kind held in China, is organized jointly by the ministry and Shanghai municipal government and dedicated to creating a platform for global innovation exchange among academics, government and industry experts.

This year's event carries a theme of innovation-driven development and supply-side structural reform in the new era, consisting of four special subforums and 11 other subforums and panel discussions focusing on topics including entrepreneurs, finance, policies and future science.

Tang Yuli, deputy director of the ministry's policy and regulation department, said this year's forum will highlight the power of youth, with a new roundtable talk specially held for young scientists and entrepreneurs.

It will also stress regional connections, particularly the development of theGuangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Yangtze River Delta Region, and future science trends, he said.

More than 200 guest speakers, including scientists and scholars, entrepreneurs, government officials and foreign guests, will attend the event.

"This year marks the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, which is also the key year to deepen supply-side structural reform. We hope to gather global powers together to strengthen the quality, efficiency and momentum of innovation development," he said.

Portugal will be the forum's country of honor and a special workshop will be held, aiming to deepen cooperation in science and technology innovation between the two countries.

"Portugal and China have developed bilateral science and technology relations very deeply in the last few years," said Maria de Jesus Espada from the Portuguese embassy in Beijing. "This year, we're bringing to China our knowledge on how to cultivate the fruit of curiosity and promote a creative environment."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 20:50:00|Editor: Li Xia

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URUMQI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The 2018 summit of China's top 100 renewable resources enterprises opened Thursday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

With the theme of survival and policy of renewable resources, the summit aims to establish a blueprint for the development of China's renewable resources in the future.

More than 100 top renewable resource companies across China attended the summit.

There are more than 90,000 companies specializing in renewable resources in China, according to a report on China's renewable resources industry issued by the Ministry of Commerce in 2018.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 20:55:02|Editor: Li Xia

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TAIYUAN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jiehui, a former legislator of north China's Hebei Province, on Thursday stood trial for taking bribes at the Intermediate People's Court of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province.

Zhang, a former deputy chairperson of the Standing Committee of the Hebei Provincial People's Congress, was charged with accepting money and property worth nearly 127 million yuan (about 18.3 million U.S. dollars) personally or through others.

Zhang, who also served as the mayor of the city of Anshan, Liaoning Province, the secretary of the Anshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice governor of Hebei, allegedly took advantage of his posts to benefit others on business development and acquisitions, loan applications, land use rights and job promotions between 2001 and 2017.

The prosecutors, the defendant and his lawyers cross-examined evidence and gave full testimonies, according to the court's statement. Zhang made his final statement, confessing and expressing remorse in court. The trial was attended by more than 90 people, including Zhang's family members.

The court will announce the verdict at another date.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:00:03|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Several people, including two top provincial security officials, were killed and many others wounded in a shooting attack after an Afghan-NATO security meeting, attended by top U.S.-NATO commander in Afghanistan, in southern province of Kandahar on Thursday, sources said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:15:04|Editor: Li Xia

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Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presides over a symposium on the use of clean energy for winter heating in the country's northern region held during his research trip to Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province, Oct. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Yan Yan)

SHIJIAZHUANG, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Wednesday stressed the use of clean energy for winter heating in the country's northern region.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks at a symposium held during his research trip to Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province.

China should ensure that people in north China will be kept warm and safe in winter while at the same time making progress in improving air quality, Han said.

To clear up the air, China has been encouraging the use of natural gas and electricity instead of coal for winter heating.

Authorities must make sure of the source of natural gas before taking down old heating facilities, Han said, adding that efforts should be made to increase the natural gas supply.

After decades of rapid development that left the country with a thick, gray haze, China declared a war against pollution, with intensified efforts to crack down on polluters and incentives for clean energy use.

By the end of October 2018, a total of 3.62 million additional households in Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other cities in nearby regions will have had their coal-fired heating systems converted, according to an official plan released earlier this year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:54:46|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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A female parliamentary election candidate, Zuhra Naurozi (R), campaigns on a street in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, Oct. 13, 2018. During the upcoming polls, nearly 9 million registered voters, including 3 million women, out of some 12 million eligible Afghans, will cast their ballots to elect members of the lower house for a five-year term. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:45:08|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian diplomat said Thursday that the United States must withdraw its forces from Syria.

Iran's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Es'haq Al-e Habib, said that Washington must end its "illegal" presence in the Arab state, Press TV reported.

Regional efforts are underway to find a political solution to the seven-year conflict in the Arab country, he said.

The United States should also stop what Al-e Habib called "supporting terrorism" in Syria.

The Iranian official also denounced the "destructive" role that Washington's close ally Saudi Arabia is playing in the Middle East region, including "its support for terror groups in Syria."

He further called on the international community to exhaust all efforts to reconstruct the war-battered Syria.

Iran as the major regional ally of Syria has supported the government of President Bashar al-Assad in its fight against the militants in the civil war which broke out in Syria in 2011.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:45:08|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BELGRADE, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) has the responsibility to propose a strong and realistic perspective to Western Balkans and stick to its integration promises, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said here on Thursday.

Vucic made this statement at the opening of the 8th Belgrade Security Forum, stressing people's disappointment and willingness towards enlargement as biggest threats to future stability in the region.

Speaking at the annual forum's opening panel under the topic "Western Balkans and the EU", together with Austrian President Alexander Van Der Bellen, Vucic stood up for greater dedication from the part of the European Union to regional matters and a clear integration perspective.

Referring to the recent referendum in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Vucic said that something "great and significant" should be done to keep spirits up and prevent people's disappointment in the enlargement process, suggesting that EU shares the responsibility for maintaining stability in the Western Balkans.

"I will dare to say that we need to have a stronger role of the European Union (EU) in the region, otherwise, the EU will not be that kind of dream, democracy and freedom that we looked up upon so far," he said.

He estimated that the offer to the FYROM people presented at a recent referendum -- to accept membership in EU and NATO and change name to "Republic of North Macedonia" as agreed with Greece -- was not as attractive as predicted by the EU.

FYROM is currently the official name of Macedonia at the United Nations.

"A cake was offered to them (FYROM people) -- you will be a part of NATO and open EU negotiations, but people said: we have been listening to these stories for 10-12 years, and what has so far happened in the region -- nothing," he criticized, implying that people of the whole region need something concrete that will reflect on their living standard, while EU should offer something strong and realistic for the future of the people of the region and stick to those promises.

"The offer must be much more concrete. It has to be a reliable promise which requires fulfillment. If one says: meet the conditions and you will become EU members, this promise needs to be kept," he said.

Vucic concluded that Serbia will continue to do all in its powers to maintain and sustain peace and stability in the region, build good relations with all neighboring countries, and will stay firmly dedicated to its EU path.

Van der Bellen said that after years of "enlargement fatigue" he sees new enthusiasm, but that foundations of the EU should be integrated in a society before the accession.

"Bilateral problems, border problems and internal and regional reconciliation must be achieved before the full membership. This is the reason why countries that strive towards EU have a lot to do, and I hope that the EU can still be a vision and example of these reforms," he said, pointing out that not only Western Balkans needs reforms, but the EU too.

Van der Bellen pointed out that the EU has many internal problems and upcoming tasks, singling out the establishment of a "foreign policy that will be more seriously accepted in the world, which has not been the case so far".

This year's Belgrade Security Forum takes place from October 17 to 19 under the overarching topic "Finding Answers together to the New Normal", and it traditionally includes notable speakers from non-government sector, international organizations, officials of region and other countries, academics and ambassadors.Novelist Nieh Hualing sits at her home in the city of Iowa, Iowa, the United States on Sept. 16, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

IOWA CITY, the United States, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iowa has been called "Aihehua" (meaning "love the glamor of lotus") in Chinese, at least in the world of writers and poets.

Chinese novelist Nieh Hualing, living in Iowa City for some five decades, has helped link the place with the image of lotus, which represents poetical peace and moral integrity in Chinese literature and has hence been widely adored by all ages.

The UNESCO City of Literature has also been quite famed among those writing and speaking Chinese. For some 40 years, it has invited talented Chinese writers and poets to the United States for writing and talking with counterparts from other nations, giving them a rare chance of exposure when their country just opened up to the outside world.





PAUL ENGLE'S POEM

"A gray-haired wind has blown thousands of years. Red dirt from green fields into your brown eyes... The future is a rocket where you ride."

The verses were created by Paul Engle, a U.S. poet born and brought up in Iowa State, heart of the Midwestern region famous for its corn and hogs. A stranger to the Chinese language, he recorded his intense responses to several trips to China with his Chinese wife, Nieh, in the late 1970s, when the country began to conduct reforms and embrace the wider world.

So moved by his experiences in China that convinced him the country is ready to open up, Engle believed that the only possible reaction he could make had to be in poetry. "Images of China," a poetic collection of his thoughts on China, was filled with rimed stanzas, blank verse, the sonnet, free verse unrimed, rimed couplets, all verse forms in English.

The trips to China have also partly explained the couple's commitment to the International Writing Program (IWP), a writing residency for international writers and poets in Iowa City.

Novelist Nieh Hualing (3rd R, front) and participants of the International Writing Program pose for photos in the city of Iowa, Iowa, the United States on Sept. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

According to Hugh Ferrer, the IWP's associate director, the exchange program, since its inception in 1967, has provided a period of optimal conditions for the creative work of nearly 50 emerging and established Chinese poets and novelists, in a bid to grasp the momentum of Chinese modern literature and enhance bilateral literary communication for better understandings.

Novelist Nieh Hualing (R) and Hugh Ferrer, associate director of the International Writing Program, pose for photos in the city of Iowa, Iowa, the United States, on Sept. 17, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

"During my first time coming back to China, I met with Wang Meng, Bing Xin and Ai Qing, as I wished. I was so happy since I knew that means China was beginning to open up," recalled Nieh, who was born in 1925 in China's Hubei Province.

"I needed to know and invite the senior writers, I needed to know and meet the young ones, I needed to know what had happened in the past and what would happen then for this country."

Noticeably, most of them were invited after China's reform and opening up. They were household names, even globally famous, like Nobel laureate in Literature Mo Yan.

For most of them, the stay in Iowa City became their first ever experience outside China. Their exposure to the agricultural, U.S. heartland city, to some extent, altered their general imagination of the United States that had come mostly from movies and books.

However, the culture shock has been a rare experience for young Chinese attendees after the year 2000. China had become an integral part of globalization by then, lessening their curiosity on one hand and enabling more proactive participations on the other.

Chinese poet and mathematician Cai Tianxin, also this year's invitee, told Xinhua that he had been invited to give lectures in 11 U.S. cities during the three-month stay.





A WINDOW BETWEEN U.S.- CHINA

The program has been well connected with China since the beginning, thanks to Nieh. It has still been a window for Chinese writers to get across the literature genres in the United States and beyond.

For Su Tong who was invited in 2001, the exposure to the international family-like atmosphere impressed him most. For Bi Feiyu, an invitee in 2006, he learnt the importance of dialogue on equal footing in teaching literature through the program. But to Chi Zijian who participated in the program in 2005, the subjects of the IWP's panel discussions, such as gender and writing, horror depicting, imagination and reality, had all been inspiring to her writing.

"My colleagues come from different parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds," Chi said. "Listening to their remarks is like building up a world with literature as nation's boundary."

On the other hand, the involvement of Chinese writers, seen as "the source of peace and dialogue," has been a treasure for the IWP. The activities related to China have been booming.

"We've hosted a lot of really interesting writers here and Chinese writers in particular. I can say without reservation that Xi Chuan's poems have shaped my own thinking as a poet, the novels of Mo Yan and Su Tong have profoundly influenced my understanding of contemporary Chinese life. To be a writer in the 21st century, you have to have some sense of what China is all about," said IWP's director Christopher Merrill.

"There are many windows for us Chinese writers to look through to the outside world, but the one in Iowa has still been the largest and brightest one, leading us to the world stage," Chi noted. "The most positive part of the IWP is to get us, through literature, to the world peace that we have dreamed of for long."





A LIFE-LONG BOND

1104 North Dubuque Street stands a hillside pink-colored two-story building with a discolored plate, which reads "Engle's House."

File photo shows novelist Nieh Hualing and her husband, U.S. poet Paul Engle. (Xinhua)

The house, for decades, has been the most frequented place for Chinese writers coming to Iowa city. The host and hostess have been welcoming and caring, helping promote them in the U.S. literary circle and launching fund-raisings to pay for their flights and daily necessities so that they could get tuned to the life in a country so different from theirs.

The friendship between the Engle couple and Chinese writers has been personal and enduring, said He Jixian, an analyst from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

He said that Nieh and Engle have captured the worthy part of Chinese modern literature after China's reform and opening up, such as the genres and talented writers.

"Nieh has also been inspiring to the narrative of China's stories in the 20th century," he said.

"The writers she likes to invite are adept at telling the stories and emotions of the Chinese in key turning points of the country's history. Now that China has had a booming economy, it is high time for writers to tell the stories happening in the country in the past century. It's about China's cultural identity. It is important," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 21:55:11|Editor: mym

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BERLIN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Volkswagen will offer motorists a scrappage premium of up to 8,000 euros if they swap their older diesel vehicles against new ones, the German carmaker announced on Thursday.

The discounts apply to owners of diesel vehicles manufactured by the Volkswagen Group which belong to the motor classifications Euro1 until Euro4. The exact height of the premium detracted from the sales price of the new vehicle will be calculated on the basis of the size and type of vehicle with further details being revealed by the individual brands of the Wolfsburg-based corporation shortly.

Between August 2017 and June 2018, Volkswagen already introduced a similar time-limited scheme as a response to the ongoing "dieselgate" scandal. More than 210,000 older Volkswagen vehicles were removed from traffic internationally following revelations that the carmaker had installed illicit software to understate the actual Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions produced in the operation of its diesel motors.

Volkswagen further announced on Thursday that motorists in 14 areas of Germany with particularly high NOx pollution would be offered an additional "swap premium" when they upgraded from Euro4 and Euro5 diesel motor categories to the latest, and purportedly cleaner, Euro6 standard. Christian Dahlheim, Volkswagen Group Head of Sales, told press that his company would make a "significant contribution" to improve air quality.

The newest financial incentives offered by Volkswagen are intended to avert the looming imposition diesel driving bans in Germany. Courts have already ordered municipal governments in Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Hamburg to fully or partially banish older diesel cars from their streets as a means to lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission levels. Dozens of German cities currently do not comply with binding European Union (EU) clean air legislation due to their excessive NOx levels, a circumstance which has prompted the European Commission to file a lawsuit against Germany's federal government at the European Court of Justice (CJEU).

At a specially-convened government summit, Chancellor Angela Merkel's (CDU) ruling "grand coalition" unveiled a raft of new measures to address issues of urban air quality without requiring outright driving bans in the most affected cities. These include fleet renewal incentives, such as the ones offered by Volkswagen, alongside so-called "hardware upgrades" of affected vehicles to reduce their NOx emissions levels.

Hardware upgrades have been described as essential to achieve a significant reduction in NOx emissions without requiring driving bans by minister for the environment Svenja Schulze (SPD) and several national environmental groups but were previously resisted by transport minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) and carmakers.

Whereas, the Volkswagen and Daimler Groups have by now surrendered their opposition to hardware upgrades on the premise that a certified procedure for them, BMW, Opel and several foreign manufacturers are still refusing to back the government on anything other than swap premiums and less-costly motor software updates. Additionally, Volkswagen has made its support for the most contentious part of the policy package conditional on the ability of the "grand coalition" to ensure the participation of all carmakers in the retrofitting programs.

Speaking to the German press agency on Thursday, the automotive industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer described the Volkswagen fleet-renewal premiums as a "stimulus program" which came at a time when the carmaker was seeking to offset falling sales.

The director of the CAR center at the University of Duisburg-Essen insisted, however, that the introduction of nation-wide hardware upgrades remained the most ecologically-sensible solution to lower NOx emissions levels.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:00:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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MADRID, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 48,700 migrants have arrived in Spain so far this year, 154 percent more than last year, according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.

As of Oct. 15, as many as 48,669 migrants have reached Spanish territory, more than the combined total number of migrants in 2015, 2016 and 2017, said the ministry.

Most migrants arrived after crossing the sea in inflatable dinghies, with 43,467 making the dangerous journey, 206 percent more than in the first nine and a half months of last year.

Of those making the sea voyage, 41,646 migrants, or 95.8 percent, arrived after crossing the Mediterranean Sea to either the Spanish mainland or eastern Spain's Balearic Islands.

Meanwhile, 959 risked the Atlantic Ocean to reach the Canary Islands off the west coast of Africa and 862 sailed to Spain's two north African enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta.

Another 5,202 migrants crossed into Ceuta and Melilla by land, with most of them climbing a double six-meter high border fence which is protected with razor wire.

Spain has become the leading destination for migrants and refugees in Europe this year, outpacing Greece and Italy throughout the summer, according to the International Organization for Migration, the Switzerland-based United Nations Migration Agency.

The pressure placed on Spanish authorities by the continued wave of migrants can be illustrated by the fact that Spanish Maritime Rescue Services saved almost 1,500 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Spain in about three days over the weekend.Forty-two months on since the devastating earthquake on April 25, 2015, people whose houses collapsed in the quake are still living in makeshifts shacks, waiting for help from the government.

There are multiple reasons why the National Reconstruction Authority, the government body formed to spearhead the reconstruction works, has failed to show its impacts.

The first reason is not recognising the magnitude of damages in areas. The NRA divided affected areas into two zones  highly affected and less affected. But what they did not realise is that areas like Lamjung which was quite close to the epicentre were highly affected.

The work here in Lamjung started 18 months after works in the highly affected areas. But after the surveys in 2017, we realised that the magnitude of damage here was quite severe, says Shiva Regmi, District Coordinator for NRAs District Level Project Implementation Unit.

Here are few other reasons that affected the reconstruction works across the country.

Support: Too little, too late

The earthquake occurred in April 2015, but Regmi states that the NRA sent engineers only in January 2018. By the time they came, most had already built their houses with the first instalment we gave them.

The engineers came two years later than deployed by the NRA, complains Kaski districts Annapurna Rural Municipality Chairman Yuva Raj Kunwar. People had already started building houses and we had to provide engineers ourselves.

That created a new problem because the second and third instalments of the grants were only given to people who had built homes according to their guidelines.

Those who had money made earthquake resilient homes, but those who didnt made normal ones because no one wanted to live in the makeshift shacks during the monsoon, adds Regmi.

I am not as rich as others in the village, which is why Im rebuilding it in my own way. I couldnt wait much to put a roof over my familys head, adds Krishna Kumar Damai from a village near Besisahar, the district headquarters of Lamjung.

No trained masons

Finding skilled masons was a big problem despite the availability of technical support. This is a recurring problem in the villages as a lot of youngsters have left for big cities or the Gulf. Regmi says, People had to bring masons from farwest regions because they were the only ones they could afford.

His thoughts are echoed by Jamuna Bhattarai, an engineer deployed by the NRA in Kaski. There are many houses in the less affected areas that could be strengthened by retrofitting. But due to lack of trained masons, people dont want to think about it and spend money on building new ones, she shares.

For the past decade, government and nongovernmental organisations have been giving masonry training to villagers, but that training hasnt come to use in villages. The organisations gave them daily allowance during training. Most joined in only for that. There have been many who took the CTEVT training but they only did so to get certificates which would help them get jobs in the Gulf countries, adds Regmi.

Lack of technical help

Lack of masons wasnt the only problem. The number of NRA engineers was insufficient to meet the need. For example, the total number of engineers deployed by the NRA in Lamjung district is 42 which include engineers, sub-engineers and assistant sub-engineers who have to monitor over 10,000 houses being rebuilt in the district.

If you take Rainas Municipality, we only have six engineers, who have to monitor 3,000 homes. It is 500 homes per engineer and all of them arent together which makes it quite tough for them, adds Regmi, who shares that there is more technical help in neighbouring districts than in Lamjung.

We have to walk for hours. The government doesnt provide us with a vehicle which makes it even more difficult because our motorbikes cant go everywhere, adds Sagar Ranabhat, an engineer in Lamjung.

Fake beneficiaries

There are a lot of people who already have houses in major cities, but have taken government grants. There are many cases even in the highly affected zones that people who have houses in Kathmandu or Pokhara have taken the grant, adds Regmi, who says that the government hasnt deployed enough human resources to negate these loopholes.

As a result, people who are in dire need of government grants havent been able to rebuild. Chandra Bahadur Kunwar, 80, of Annapurna in Kaski district is one of the unfortunates who hasnt been able to rebuild his home. Due to poor financial conditions, he was only able to put up pillars for his new home and is now living in a neighbours place for the past three years.

If the government cracked down on frauds who are just taking the money and building small homes and not even living there, it could be used to give to people like them who are really in need of it, adds engineer Bhattarai.

Not learning from mistakes

The NRA which started its operations in the highly affected zones didnt learn from its mistakes. The problems they have faced in less affected zones are similar to those they faced in high affected zones, but nothing was done to make sure operations in less affected zones would be easy.

Before I came here I had to rebuild my home in Gorkha which helped me a lot because I knew what problems would arise. But what is shocking to me is that the government hasnt taken this as an opportunity to do good work. It would have been really easy if they learned from their mistakes in the highly affected zones and made sure those mistakes didnt happen in the less affected zones, adds Regmi, who feels that problem solving has never been in NRAs agendas.

Fake promises from leaders

However, that agenda comes from top political leaders, who when addressing the public give out whatever statement to please them. For example, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has stated that the government would give everyone affected grants.

That statement comes up time and again. They tell us that the PM of the country has told you to give us the grants but dont realise that we as engineers have no power because we have to follow a system that is quite different, adds engineer Hemant Aire.

Over three years have passed and reconstruction works are still going on. With the festive season in full swing, there are thousands who are still living in temporary shelters. For many families, new clothes arent on the agenda because winter is coming and all they care about is having a roof over their head so that their children wont have to shiver in the cold.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:00:13|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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ISTANBUL, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said on Thursday that the ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi complies with international laws and conventions in all aspects.

Chief prosecutor Irfan Fidan said in a written statement that the public would be informed about the investigation "when necessary."

According to press reports, Turkish police officers have expanded their search for more evidence about the whereabouts of Khashoggi to a forest in Istanbul and a farmhouse in the neighboring province of Yalova.

Police and crime scene investigators have conducted searches inside Saudi Arabia's consulate building in Istanbul, the residence of the Saudi consul general, and on vehicles belonging to the consulate.

Local media claimed that the investigators had found "certain evidence" that the journalist, who has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate on Oct. 2, was murdered in the consulate.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:20:16|Editor: Li Xia

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BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- One year after the landmark 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress, the CPC leadership has broken new ground and rigorous Party governance delivered real results.

OVERALL PARTY LEADERSHIP

When delivering a report to the 19th CPC National Congress on Oct. 18, 2017, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, announced that "the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the CPC, and the greatest strength of the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the CPC."

In March 2018, the constitutional amendment was adopted at the first session of the 13th National People's Congress and the statement that "the leadership of the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics" was enshrined in the country's fundamental law, offering a strong legal guarantee for Party leadership to play its role better.

Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core, new steps have been taken to uphold and strengthen overall Party leadership.

Over the past year, efforts were made in systems and mechanisms to ensure the Party always provides overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all involved, with strengthened CPC leadership in major areas including deepening overall reform, cyberspace affairs, financial and economic affairs, and foreign affairs.

The inauguration of the National Supervisory Commission (NSC) has strengthened the Party's centralized and unified leadership on its anti-corruption work.

CONTINUOUS STRICT PARTY GOVERNANCE

During a panel discussion with delegates from Guizhou Province who attended the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi highlighted strict Party governance, saying the drive should not slacken or let up despite successful initial outcomes, and that the fight is not done.

Shortly after the congress, Xi stressed that the efforts to address misconduct should not be stopped and the work to improve the Party's conduct and work styles should never end, warning about the intractability and recurrence of undesirable work styles -- formalities for formalities' sake, bureaucratism, hedonism, and extravagance.

Official statistics showed that more than 20 centrally-administrated officials have been placed under investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the NSC since the 19th CPC National Congress.

Meanwhile, institution building has been continuously improved and regulations have been increasingly strengthened. The CPC Central Committee published a revised regulation of the CPC on disciplinary action. The fundamental rule that regulates all Party organizations and its members had been amended twice in three years.

IMPROVED GOVERNANCE ABILITY

As socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, the CPC is devoted to improving its ability to govern and lead. There has been an upsurge within the CPC that all of its cadres and members are studying and implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era and the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress.

One week after the 19th CPC National Congress concluded, Xi visited the sites in Shanghai and Zhejiang's Jiaxing where the first CPC National Congress was held, calling on the whole Party to remain true to its original aspiration, keep its mission firmly in mind, and continue striving.

Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core, the Marxist governing party is standing at the forefront of the times and leading hundreds of millions of people to strive for national rejuvenation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:25:17|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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GAZA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A high-ranking Egyptian security intelligence delegation arrived in the Gaza Strip on Thursday afternoon and held talks with leaders of Islamic Hamas movement on reaching calm with Israel, officials said.

The five-member Egyptian delegation, which is headed by General Ayman Badea' and includes General Ahmad Abdul Khaleq and Hamam Abu Zeid, arrived in the Gaza Strip through Erez Crossing Point with Israel.

An official Egyptian security intelligence statement sent to the press said that "the visit of the delegation to Gaza comes in the frame of the ongoing Egyptian efforts and the political leadership keenness to restore calm in Gaza."

The statement said that Major General Abbas Kamel, the Egyptian minister chief of the security intelligence, "sent the delegation to the Palestinian territories and to Israel to work closely on calming the situation."

The statement went on saying that "the visit aims at contribution to speeding up reachi internal reconciliation (between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party)."

"The efforts of the delegation aim at ensuring a proper atmosphere for the international community to fulfill its pledges towards improving the living situation of the Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip," said the statement.

On Wednesday, Israeli war jets attacked 20 targets that belong to militant groups in the Gaza Strip in response to firing a rocket from the enclave into southern Israel, causing destruction to several Israeli houses.

In one of the airstrikes on northern Gaza Strip, a 25-year-old Palestinian man was killed and three were injured.

Well-informed Palestinian sources close to Hamas in Gaza said that intensive contacts conducted by Egypt and the United Nations on Wednesday prevented a fourth large-scale Israeli war that was going to be waged on the Gaza Strip.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:40:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JUBA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations on Thursday called on South Sudan's warring parties to release 900 civilians who were abducted between April and August.

A joint report by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the UN Human Rights Office says abducted young men and boys were forced to be fighters or used as porters when fighting spiked in April in Western Equatoria region after months of relative calm.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a report that women and young girls who were abducted by opposition forces were paraded and lined up for commanders to choose as "wives."

"Most of the abducted civilians are, as far as we know, still being held captive," Bachelet said in a statement issued in Juba.

She called on the Sudan People's Liberation Army in-Opposition (SPLA-IO )to immediately release the civilians, particularly children who are as young as 12.

According to the UN report, the rebel forces intensified attacks against villagers and targeted civilians following several months of relative calm in April, forcing 24,000 people to flee their homes.

It also said several civilians were injured when government forces of Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) launched offensives to remove SPLA-IO forces, as these operations failed to distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The report documented SPLA-IO attacks on at least 28 villages, a settlement of internally displaced persons and a refugee camp, in Gbudue and Tambura.

"Serious abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law occurred during these attacks, including unlawful killings, abduction, rape, sexual slavery, forced recruitment, and destruction of property," says the UN.

The report calls on the government to hold perpetrators of abuses and violations detailed in the report to account.

Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of UNMISS David Shearer said the fighting intensified while warring parties were negotiating a new peace agreement, despite positive reconciliation efforts in the affected community at the time.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:45:25|Editor: Yurou

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Aerial photo taken on Sept. 20, 2018 shows a car running in an area of Kekeya's greening project in Aksu, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

URUMQI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Over 30 years ago, a war against desertification was waged silently in Kekeya, a little-known place in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. But the influence was earth-shattering. Locals won the battle and passed on the spirit of fighting mother nature's ills to those who will continue striving for a better environment.

Located at the northwestern edge of the Taklimakan, the largest desert in China, Kekeya was once notorious for its erratic weather and constant sand storms.

Taklimakan Desert covers 337,000 square kilometers, slightly smaller than the size of Germany. It is also the world's second-largest shifting sand desert.

An afforestation project to prevent the desert from expanding and to reduce the impacts of sand and dust storms on nearby residents was launched in Kekeya in 1986 and completed in 2015.

Over the past 30 years, a great "green wall" stretching around 77,000 hectares has been gradually erected between the desert and towns.

The remarkable achievement of Kekeya, located in the Aksu Prefecture, has inspired more people to participate in ecological campaigns, which are already underway and expected to transform the desert into an oasis.

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

People in Kekeya suffered from droughts for hundreds of years.

Historical records show that, during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), a local official hired people to drill wells and explore underground water in Kekeya. But authorities abandoned such attempts, as the total cost was likely to be extremely high.

Before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, locals made a second attempt, digging several wells in Kekeya, but no water came out. In the 1960s, a project to channel water from a river in the city of Aksu was also forsaken.

"Planting trees in Kekeya is no different from farming fish in sand," said Eli Sulayman, 77, a retired forester in Kekeya.

Eli said Kekeya suffered around 100 days of sand and dust storms every year. "In spring and winter, fierce winds blew up and sand engulfed the cities. Residents had to turn on the lights even during the daytime."

"Either we endured or we escaped," said Eli.

In 1985, heads of departments in Aksu decided enough was enough. A head office for desertification was then established the following year to improve the situation.

Many people had doubts about the risky decision, but Bi Kexian, then director of the local forestry department, said that, "For the sake of our next generations, I was willing to take the risk of turning the bare land into green."

Bi took the lead by surveying the soil environment. Huge obstacles ahead included deep ravines and salty soil in need of water irrigation.

Groups of technicians and workers headed into Kekeya to solve soil and water problems, and built roads to aid the transportation of plants and trees in the barren land.

Meanwhile, the local government had been mobilizing the masses to grow trees from the very beginning. Later, people from all walks of life in Aksu voluntarily joined the campaign, digging holes for trees and fertilizing the land.

"Until now, I often dream about digging tree holes, which made my entire body ache," said 50-something Lai Qing, reminiscing about the days of tree planting when she was 20.

From 1986 to 2015, 3.4-million-person-time volunteers planted about 13.37 million trees in Aksu, according to the local forestry bureau.

The dusty days in a year decreased sharply, from about 100 days to 29, the local meteorological department said.

Thanks to the efforts of forest rangers, the survival rate of trees in Kekeya also exceeded 87.5 percent, way beyond expectations.

"I would feel guilty if I failed to take care of those trees that people had worked so hard to plant," said Imam Memet, who has been patrolling and protecting Aksu's forests for three decades.

MISSION CONTINUES

In a memorial hall in Kekeya, a red account book showing records of afforested areas in the region is displayed. The figures have been increasing without a stop thanks to the completion of Kekeya's greening project.

Three more ecological projects on the peripheries of the Taklimakan Desert were launched after Kekeya's project was completed.

In the basin of the Aksu River, an 84,000-hectare greening project has been completed. This autumn, a 71,000-hectare project in the Ogan River Valley is on track to completion. In the spring, Kongtailike District planted 4,000 hectares of trees.

Transport networks, irrigation and reforestation in the three areas have also been developed along with the three ecological projects, which are expected to benefit 1 million residents after all of them are completed by 2020.

For the better preservation of the hard-won forests and to further stabilize residents' incomes, the local government has introduced more cash crops including apple trees, walnut trees and jujube trees.

The sweet juicy Aksu apple has become signature to Xinjiang's agricultural products, which are widely known among Chinese people.

After years of development, Aksu has become a major forestry and fruit production area in Xinjiang, with the output of the prefecture reaching over 13 billion yuan (1.88 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017.

To improve people's living standards, the local government has also been increasing pollution control and city construction, and residents are encouraged to go for a walk by the clean rivers, new parks and squares around the city.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 22:50:27|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BANGKOK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A policeman-turned-pimp was on Thursday convicted of multiple counts of flesh trading in northern Thailand and sentenced to a record 309 years in prison.

The former police warrant officer, namely Yuthachai Thongchart, was convicted guilty by the Criminal Court of multiple counts of forced prostitution preying on underaged girls in Mae Hong Son province, 877 km north of Bangkok, from 2012 till 2016.

While Yuthachai was sentenced to 309 years, two other pimps were sentenced to 183 years and another to 65 years for the same crime of forcing a number of girls, aged under 18 years, into the flesh trade in provincial seat area of Mae Hong Son over the last several years.

Besides the former police warrant officer, all his fellow convicted pimps are females, namely Piyawan Sukma, Piyathat Papthiansuwan and Kalaya Wuthikhun.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:05:29|Editor: Chengcheng

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MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Sanctions are counter-productive and Russia will never resort to military measures in dealing with the issue, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday.

"This is absolutely out of the question in the contemporary world. We are a responsible state and a permanent member of the UN (United Nations) Security Council," Medvedev said in an interview with Euronews when answering a question from the host, according to a transcript published by the Russian government.

He added that there are various forms of response, including asymmetrical responses, which are not necessarily military in nature.

The prime minister underlined that sanctions would not lead to anything good but instead create pressure and obstacles in the development of bilateral ties.

Sanctions against the banking sector, in particular, are the hardest sanctions, and equal "a declaration of trade war," he said.

For instance, he said that Russia's trade with the European Union (EU) was almost halved after the sanctions were imposed, plunging from 430 billion euros (about 494 billion U.S. dollars) to 220-230 billion euros (252-264 billion dollars) at one point.

"This is why sanctions are a bad approach," Medvedev said.

Since 2014, Western countries including the United States and the EU have imposed a range of economic sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea, formerly part of Ukraine, and its alleged role in the conflict in the south of the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:15:33|Editor: Lu Hui

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by Xinhua writer Wang Lei

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- In a world of growing protectionism and unilateralism, Asia and Europe share common ground on free trade and have to take joint action to boost cooperation and regional connectivity.

For months, despite strong opposition from the international community, the United States opened fire at its trading partners by using tariffs as a tactic.

Washington's irresponsible approach, a blow to globalization, damages the rule-based trading system and threatens hard-won global economic recovery. What's more, it goes against people's will and endeavor to pursue a more prosperous future.

Faced with such a scenario, the international community needs determination and practical actions.

Situated on the world's largest landmass that contains more than two-thirds of the world's population, Asia and Europe are both major global economic blocks and stabilizing forces. It is in their interest to safeguard free trade and multilateralism and build a more open and integrated world.

According to figures from the European Council, Eurasian partners currently represent around 55 percent of global trade as well as 65 percent of the global economy. Undoubtedly, there is still a wide range of growth opportunities for them to discover.

Asia and Europe are natural partners. Geographically, Eurasian countries can conveniently establish closer ties with their neighbors and other nations. The ancient Silk Road served as an important means for the Eurasian people to embrace the outside world.

As the world economy is experiencing downward pressure, both Asia and Europe need more driving forces to maintain sustainable growth and development. Facilitating free trade and investment among each other, for example, is one of the efficient ways to realize their goal.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit, the largest inter-governmental platform in Eurasia, will provide an opportunity for partners to seek closer cooperation to tackle challenges facing free trade and multilateralism.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is on a nine-day Eurasia trip, will attend the Oct. 18-19 meeting in Brussels, home to the European Union headquarters. Li's trip definitely shows China's expectation and efforts to break boundaries among countries and promote connectivity and stability across the supercontinent.

With hi-tech development and closer interactions, globalization is an inevitable trend. A country's go-it-alone approach will not be the death knell for free trade and globalization as long as others stand together to sustain them.

As staunch supporters and beneficiaries of free trade, Asia and Europe are facing an invaluable opportunity to help cement consensus on defending a multilateral world and play a key role in regional integration and global growth.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:20:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PARIS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- French anti-corruption investigators on Thursday squeezed left-wing leader Jean -Luc Melenchon over his role in the alleged misuse of European parliament funds and funding of his presidential campaign in 2017.

Melenchon, a veteran communist, apperead at 10:00 a.m. local time (0800 GMT) in Nanterre court, west Paris, where he was still heard as part of two separate inquiries into alleged use of European Parliament funds to pay party employees and financial irregularities during his presidential campaign last year.

"There is an engaged escalation, a judicial escalation in the context of a pressure operation. They want to scare us, intimidate us," the 67-year-old anti-Europe politician said before the hearing.

On Tuesday, police searched Melenchon's home and "Unbowed France" party in a raid that the left leader broadcast live by his mobile phone.

Images showed a heated standoff after Melenchon tried to force down the door of the party's headquarters, shouting at a policeman "I'm the Republic! I'm the one who is a parliamentarian. Get out of the way and open up this door."

On Wednesday, Paris prosecutor's office said it had launched an investigation for "threats and acts of intimidation against judicial authorities" and "violence against people carrying out public duties."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:20:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Israeli exports to China fell by 29.3 percent in the third quarter of 2018, compared with the second quarter of the year, according to foreign trade in goods report released Thursday by the state's Central Bureau of Statistics.

According to the report, in July-September 2018 Israeli exports to China totaled 849.4 million U.S. dollars, compared to 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter.

On the other hand, in January-September there was a large increase of 58.1 percent in Israeli exports to China compared to the first nine months of 2017, from 2.36 billion U.S. dollars to 3.73 billion U.S. dollars.

In September, Israeli exports to China totaled 212.8 million U.S. dollars, down 27 percent from August.

According to the report, Israel's imports from China have increased by 9.5 percent, from 1.76 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter to 1.93 billion U.S. dollars in July-September.

In the first nine months of the year, Israeli imports from China totaled 5.39 billion U.S. dollars, compared with 4.98 billion U.S. dollars in the corresponding period in 2017, an increase of 8.2 percent.

In September, Israeli imports from China totaled about half a billion dollars, compared with 711.9 million U.S. dollars in August, a decline of about 30 percent.

Israel's total exports worldwide amounted to 46.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of the year, compared with 45.8 billion U.S. dollars in January-September 2017, a slight increase of 0.87 percent.

Israel's total imports in 2018 rose 18 percent to 59.7 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 50.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2017.#Korean Series Red-hot hitter finds nothing unusual about teammates' Korean Series woes Through two games of the Korean Series, designated hitter Jose Miguel Fernandez has been the one-man wrecking crew for the Doosan Bears, the only dangerous bat in an otherwise feeb...Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:25:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said here Thursday that the United States plans to merge its embassy and consulate general in Jerusalem to improve efficiency.

In a statement issued by the State Department, Pompeo said that "following the May 14 opening of the U.S. Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, we plan to achieve significant efficiencies and increase our effectiveness by merging U.S. Embassy Jerusalem and U.S. Consulate General Jerusalem into a single diplomatic mission."

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman will guide the merger, Pompeo said.

"We will continue to conduct a full range of reporting, outreach, and programming in the West Bank and Gaza as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem through a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside U.S. Embassy Jerusalem," he said.

The merge decision "is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations," Pompeo said.

"It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip," he said. "The United States continues to take no position on final status issues, including boundaries or borders. The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties."

Pompeo said that the Trump administration is strongly committed to achieving a lasting and comprehensive peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and looks forward to continued partnership and dialogue "with the Palestinian people and, we hope in the future, with the Palestinian leadership."

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, while Israel wants all of Jerusalem to be its eternal capital.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and declared the whole city as its eternal indivisible capital in 1980, but the move has not been recognized by the international community.

Palestinians have been boycotting the United States since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:40:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HANOI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Delegates from Southeast Asian countries Thursday reiterated political commitment at high level to anti-drug efforts in the region as well as the world at the sixth Ministerial Meeting on Drug Matters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

At the two-day meeting's opening ceremony, Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam said Vietnam has enhanced bilateral anti-drug cooperation with other ASEAN member nations as well as with the bloc's partners, especially neighboring countries, while attaching importance to sub-regional collaboration in the combat, Vietnam News Agency reported.

ASEAN has adopted an action plan to prevent the spread of drug use in the ASEAN Community for the 2016-2025 period, as well as launched the ASEAN Cooperation Plan in the fight against illicit drug production and trafficking in the Golden Triangle area for the 2017-2018 period.

Latest statistics released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime show that at least 250 million people, or five percent of the world's population, are drug users. In East and Southeast Asia, the number of heroin users stands at over 3 million, while more than 5 million people are using synthetic drugs.

In Vietnam alone, some 900,000 people are related to drug use, with 225,000 monitored drug addicts. Nearly 21,500 drug trafficking cases were reported in Vietnam in 2017, up 14.5 percent against 2016, local daily newspaper Vietnam News reported.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:45:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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GENEVA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) passed an "emergency resolution" on the final day of its assembly on Thursday on climate change.

The resolution said that to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius "requires urgent and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society."

IPU President Gabriela Cuevas Barron, a Mexican senator, said at a United Nations (UN) press conference here the resolution came under the assembly's aim to use science, technology and innovation to bridge the widening gap between policy-making and science.

"I believe that more than ever, the international community must center its efforts to attain the urgent transformation our world requires if we are to avert the environmental crisis foreseen by the UN and by the scientific community," she said after the resolution was passed.

The IPU said, "Time is of the essence for this situation; we call on all our parliamentarians to act now to preserve environmental balance."

The 139th IPU Assembly held on Oct. 14 to 18 in Geneva brought together over 1,500 delegates including 56 parliamentary speakers, 52 deputy speakers, and over 750 members of parliament.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:45:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BRUSSELS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China is committed to working with other countries in Asia and Europe to champion upholding multilateralism and to forge a robust partnership between the two continents, the Chinese ambassador to the European Union has said.

Ahead of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit in Belgium's capital Brussels, Zhang Ming called for joint actions to meet challenges and promote closer ties in a signed article titled "ASEM: Global Partners for Global Challenges."

"As anti-globalization and protectionist sentiments threaten to come back, our world is mired in a greater sense of instability and uncertainty," he said.

"It is more important than ever for ASEM members to come together, think in long terms, and take coordinated actions to resist unilateralism and uphold multilateralism."

He said that China stands ready to join other ASEM members in tackling universal challenges and contributing to more substantial cooperation between Asia and Europe.

Serving as the largest inter-governmental platform of Eurasia, the ASEM Summit plays a key role in expanding cooperation and bolstering regional connectivity.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is on his nine-day Eurasian trip, is scheduled to attend the meeting on Thursday and Friday. He will state China's stance on global issues and exchange views with leaders of other ASEM partners.

As connectivity is among the main topics of the summit, Zhang said that Asia and Europe need to unleash greater potential to increase connectivity.

The two sides need to strive for quicker results in areas such as trade and investment facilitation and digital economy, and can also explore more opportunities in such future-oriented fields as clean energy, ecological protection and smart technology, he said.

"Apart from bilateral partnerships, ASEM as a multilateral mechanism has a crucial role to play as well," he said.

In order to bring Asia and Europe closer, Zhang also highlighted the importance of people-to-people exchanges. The long-term development of ASEM would not be possible without respect for different historical and national conditions, he said.

"We must act together to ensure that our cooperation is always of the people, by the people and for the people," he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:50:46|Editor: Chengcheng

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MOSCOW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo could not sign a peace treaty with Russia without preconditions on territorial issues, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in the Russian city of Sochi.

"Prime Minister Abe ... said that this approach is unacceptable for Japan today and that we must first reach a principled decision on territorial issues and then talk about a peace treaty," he said during a Q&A session at a meeting of the International Valdai Discussion Club.

Last month, Putin proposed Abe sign the treaty and resolve the territorial spat later.

"This does not mean that we will stop resolving it or we will throw it into a scrapyard of history as if nothing had happened," Putin said.

Russia and Japan have not signed a post-World War II peace treaty due to their rival claims to four Pacific islands, called the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

The president said that Russia is trying to create conditions to build trust in its relations with Japan in order to sign the peace treaty.

"We are ready to proceed with joint economic activity on these islands ... It is being implemented rather modestly. That is the problem. But we are ready to work further," he said.

In September 2017, Putin and Abe agreed to conduct joint economic activities on the controversial islands and prioritized projects in aquaculture, electricity, greenhouse facilities, garbage disposal and tourism.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-18 23:55:48|Editor: ZD

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BANGKOK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Rabies death toll has risen to 17 in Thailand, the Disease Control Department said on Thursday.

According to the department, one more rabies death was confirmed in southern Thailand's Songkla on Wednesday, putting the total number of rabies death nationwide this year to 17.

Doctor Assadang Ruay-arjin, spokesman of the department said that a 65-year-old man was admitted to hospital in Songkla with chest pain and swallowing difficulty before he was tested positive for rabies and died.

The man, who had no record of receiving a rabies vaccine, raises 80 stray dogs at home and was bitten by a dog in January, the spokesman said.

Public health officials have inspected his neighborhood and provided rabies vaccine to people at risk.

Fourteen provinces, mostly in the country's northeast and south, have recorded 17 rabies deaths. Public health officials advised those who are bitten by a cat or a dog to immediately wash the wound or scratch it with water and soap before seeing a doctor.

Thailand has withdrawn a bill on animal torture and welfare for further review following heavy criticism. The bill requires owners to register their pets. Under the bill, owners must pay up to 450 baht (about 14 U.S. dollars) for each pet or face a jail term up to two years.

The number of stray cats and dogs in Thailand was estimated at 820,000 last year, and the total will reach 2 million by 2027 and 5 million in 20 years if nothing is done, according to the Livestock Development Department.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 00:05:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (R) meets with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan)

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu He met with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam here Thursday, and they expressed willingness to advance bilateral ties and cooperation.

Liu said China and Singapore enjoy a sound development momentum of bilateral relations, with frequent high-level exchanges and fruitful cooperation in various fields.

"China stands ready to work with the Singaporean side in advancing bilateral relations to a higher level," Liu added.

China and Singapore enjoy an all-round cooperative partnership progressing with the times.

The Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister said Singapore is willing to strengthen cooperation with China in infrastructure, finance and other sectors, so as to promote economic prosperity of the two countries as well as the region.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 16, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said here on Thursday that Saudi Arabia shall be given "a few more days" on its probe of the disappearance of a journalist.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he has decided to cancel his coming trip to the kingdom after meeting with Pompeo.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Pompeo said he had briefed President Donald Trump about his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Pompeo said Washington will wait for the outcome of the investigation into the missing Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia and Turkey before deciding the U.S. response.

"I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding...," Pompeo said.

The U.S. top diplomat added that the Saudi side had said they would conduct a "complete, thorough investigation of all the facts" related to Khashoggi's disappearance, "and that they will do so in a timely fashion."

He also said it is important to remember that Saudi Arabia is a long strategic partner of the United States throughout the process.

He added that the Turkish leadership has assured him that the country is conducting its own investigation and will share the results with the United States and Saudi Arabia.

However, he declined to answer more specific questions about what exactly happened to Khashoggi, only saying that "I'm going to allow the process to move forward."

As more and more evident and accusations suggesting Saudi's involvement in the case emerged, Mnuchin tweeted later that he had just met with Trump and Pompeo.

"We have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," he noted.

Also on Thursday, U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that the United States "must not accept a strategic alliance with #SaudiArabia which requires our silence when they butcher a political critic."

Several Republican heavyweights have urged Trump to reconsider the U.S. military sales to Saudi Arabia over the case.

The case of Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, has become a major source of tension between Saudi Arabia and the West.

Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Unconfirmed reports said that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, a claim denied by Saudi officials as "baseless."Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 01:56:11|Editor: Yang Yi

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NANJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China and over 10 Belt and Road countries Thursday pledged to build a cooperative partnership on energy to inject new impetus to energy development of various countries.

The pledge was made in a joint declaration announced at the Belt and Road Energy Ministerial Conference, which was held in east China's Suzhou city.

Energy cooperation has been a key field in jointly building the Belt and Road. Since the initiative was proposed five years ago, a set of energy projects have been successfully launched, bringing great social and economic benefits.

To promote the utilization of clean, safe and efficient energy has become a common task worldwide.

Participants at the meeting also said that countries need to tap potentials for energy cooperation, solve problems in green energy development, speed up global energy transition, and jointly promote high-quality development of green energy.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 02:31:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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WARSAW, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission reported on Thursday that it will soon pay out 34 million euros (39 million U.S. dollars) from the EU Solidarity Fund to help Poland, Greece, Lithuania and Bulgaria after they were hit by natural disasters in 2017.

Poland will receive PLN 52 million (13.8 million dollars) from the European Union's Solidarity Fund.

The EC motion in this matter was previously approved by the European Parliament and member states within the framework of the EU Council.

Corina Cretu, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, said the EU aid will reach the countries within a few weeks to help them cover the costs of damage caused by the natural disasters.

Money from the EU Solidarity Fund will be used to support activities related to reconstruction and the coverage of certain costs, such as temporary accommodation or operations related to the safeguarding of national heritage sites.

Since the creation of the fund in 2002 (after more than 80 disasters - including floods, forest fires, earthquakes, gales and droughts), 24 countries have received over 5 billion euros (5.7 billion dollars) in aid.iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- An outbreak of salmonella connected to raw chicken products and resistant to some antibiotics has infected 92 people in 29 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



The CDC said on Wednesday that 21 people had been hospitalized but no deaths had yet been reported.



An investigation into the outbreak indicated that raw chicken products from a variety of sources had been contaminated with salmonella, according to the CDC.



The CDC identified the particular strain as salmonella infantis but said it had not yet linked the raw chicken products or live chickens to one lone supplier.



The salmonella infantis was present in live chickens and in many types of raw chicken products, the CDC said.



People who got sick reported eating different brands of chicken products purchased from many different locations, leading the CDC to say that the outbreak "might be widespread in the chicken industry" in a statement.



The agency said the outbreak strain had been identified in samples "taken from raw chicken pet food, raw chicken products, and live chickens."



New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have had the most reported cases of salmonella, according to a chart released by the CDC.



The agency said antibiotic-resistance testing on the salmonella bacteria isolated from ill people showed the outbreak strain was resistant to multiple antibiotics.



The CDC said it was working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and representatives from the chicken industry to discuss steps that they might take to reduce Salmonella contamination.



In the last several months, several outbreaks of salmonella linked to turkey, beef and eggs have been reported across the U.S.



Earlier this month, at least 57 people in at least 16 states reported salmonella infections after consuming some of more than 6.5 million pounds of contaminated beef produced by an Arizona company.



In September, the CDC said that a multistate outbreak linked to eggs from an Alabama farm was even larger than expected, with 135 people infected across 36 states.



In July, a salmonella outbreak that infected 90 people across 26 states was connected to raw turkey products.



According to the CDC, there are four quick steps that can help keep people safe from food poisoning at home when it comes to preparing food: clean, separate, cook and chill.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 02:36:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Vera Songwe on Thursday called on African countries to rely on the ECA as a premier think tank to address some of the continent's social, economic and environmental challenges.

Songwe, who noted that most African countries were facing similar issues in an ever-more challenging global context in recent years, disclosed ECA's commitment to fill the gap in addressing the challenges that the African continent encounters.

The ECA, by working with member states through engagement and practical application of quality research and evidence generated through the organization's work, can offer solutions to accelerate the achievement of continental Agenda 2063 and the global 2030 development goals, she said while briefing African ambassadors on ECA's works.

"ECA should be your door to the best policy advice. If we don't have the knowledge in-house, we have the capacity to bring the best of the world to you," she said.

The Executive Secretary also affirmed ECA's determination to in building a prosperous Africa.

Building sustainable development solutions to accelerate Africa's economic diversification and industrialization, creating innovative solutions to finance sustainable infrastructure, human, physical and social for a transforming Africa were among the strategic areas that Songwe vowed to support ECA's member countries.

ECA's other areas of interest also include the provision of solutions to trans-boundary issues and developing regional solutions as a contribution to global governance issues, as well as building knowledge to advocate for and manage Africa's next-generation challenges.

Songwe also commended Africa's commitment in the formation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement(AfCFTA).

"With the AfCFTA, there was momentum on the continent that says that we as a continent are breaking borders and we need to work together," Songwe said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 02:46:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Middle East peace coordinator on Thursday called on Israel to cease settlement activities on the occupied Palestinian territories.

"I once again called on Israel to cease demolitions (of Palestinian-owned structures) and other measures that run contrary to its obligations under international law," UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council.

A total of 39 structures were demolished or seized in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 33 people and affecting the livelihoods of over 100 others in the past month, Mladenov said, citing figures from the UN relief wing, or OCHA.

While the rate of demolitions has declined since the beginning of 2017, over 13,000 demolition orders are pending against Palestinian structures in Area C, he said, referring to an administrative area that constitutes about 60 percent of the West Bank territory.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has reportedly approved the allocation of 6 million dollars for advancing the construction of 31 housing units in the Jewish settlement in Hebron, the first new construction there in 16 years, Mladenov added.

"I reiterated the long-standing United Nations position that all settlement activities are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace," he said.

Moreover, the UN envoy noted settler-related violence is a continuing concern, revealing the past month has seen 23 attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, resulting in one death, 12 injuries and property damage.

"To date in 2018, according to OCHA, over 1,600 Palestinian-owned trees were vandalized across the West Bank."

As the annual olive harvest begins, Mladenov called on the authorities to ensure smooth access of Palestinian farmers to their land and sufficient measures be taken to protect farmers and their property from attack.File Photo: A malnourished child is seen at a hospital in Hajjah province, Yemen, Oct. 1, 2018. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Millions of desperate children and families across Yemen could soon be without food, clean water or sanitation because of the deepening economic crisis and unrelenting violence in the port city of Hudaydah, warned the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday.

"The confluence of these two factors is likely to make the horrific reality facing children and families even worse as more and more war-weary people face the very real prospect of death and disease," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a statement.

The costs of food, fuel and water supplies have skyrocketed as the value of the Yemeni currency has plummeted, she noted.

Water and sewage treatment services are at risk of collapse because of soaring fuel prices. This in turn could lead to disease outbreaks and increased malnutrition, warned Fore.

An estimated 1.2 million more people will soon be in acute need of basic water and sanitation assistance, and the number is expected to further climb, she said.

The economic woes are compounded by the situation in the Red Sea port of Hudaydah where violence threatens to kill children and choke off an essential supply chain of fuel and humanitarian aid, she said.

If the port is attacked, damaged or blocked, she warned, an estimated 4 million more children will become food insecure throughout the country.

The only way out of Yemen's nightmare is to establish peace through a comprehensive political resolution, said Fore.

Until then, UNICEF continues its call on parties to the conflict and those who have influence over them to abide by their legal obligations to stop attacks against civilian infrastructure -- including the port of Hudaydah -- and guarantee safe, unconditional and sustained access to all children in need in Yemen, she said.

Five million more Yemenis could face severe food insecurity, bringing the number of people to 13.4 million who need emergency food assistance for survival, said chief UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Monday.

The United Nations and partners need 3 billion U.S. dollars for 2018 to support the people in need across Yemen. To date, only two-thirds of the resources required have been received, said the spokesman.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 03:06:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri reiterated Thursday he is optimistic that the new cabinet will be formed before the end of this week.

"If you want to help me, please do not ask me about the distribution of cabinet shares," he told the press at his house in downtown Beirut.

Hariri assured that all political parties will be represented in the new government, local TV channel NBN reported.

Meanwhile, President Michel Aoun told reporters at Baabda Palace that "the government is just around the corner."

Aoun announced that ongoing contacts with all political parties are being made for this purpose.

The bid to form a new Lebanese government has been slow since the May parliamentary elections, due to the parties' rifts over their share of key ministerial posts.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 03:06:32|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) on Thursday issued an alert over heavy rains in some parts of the east African nation starting from the second week of November.

Agnes Kijazi, TMA Director General, said the imminent heavy rains were expected to hit western, central, southern western, southern highlands and southern coast.

"Disaster management authorities are advised to prepare a contingency plan as well as budget necessary to cater for any negative impacts that the rains might cause," Kijazi told a news conference in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Kijazi also urged health authorities to take relevant precautions because there was a possibility of an outbreak of epidemic diseases during the period.

She said the rains were expected between the second week of November through April 2019.

Fourteen people were killed by torrential rains and flooding in Dar es Salaam in April last year.

The heavy rains forced authorities in Dar es Salaam region to close down schools for two days and advised families to leave inundated areas in a bid to reduce the loss of life.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 03:21:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HELSINKI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The use of coal for producing heat and electricity is possible to become illegal in Finland in 2029, based on a bill submitted to the parliament on Thursday.

The envisaged schedule met instant criticism particularly from the Helsinki power company, currently depending largely on coal for its district heating needs. The industry accepts the phaseout of coal, but has said the tight schedule blocks innovative solutions.

Kimmo Tiilikainen, the minister for energy and environmental affairs, said on Thursday that Finland wants to be in the "forefront of countries giving up the use of coal". Tiilikainen said the legislation and the changes in taxation make it clear to commercial companies in the energy sector how they will have to schedule their own decision making.

The captial's municipally owned energy firm, Helen said that as the legislation speeds up the investment decisions it at the same time prevents the usage of emerging new technologies. Talking to national broadcaster Yle, Janne Rauhamaki, a section head at Helen, mentioned geothermal energy and small serial-produced nuclear power plants as new options under development.

Helen has determined that biomass is the fastest way to replace coal, but Helen is concerned about the availability of biomass. It has said the current domestic production of biomass would not meet the demand.

Coal has still a major role in the production of district heating in Finland. Nationally coal is the source of energy for 26 percent of district heat, but in Helsinki its share in 2016 was 60 percent.

The ministry has acknowledged that the coal ban would create the largest financial impact in district heating in Helsinki and northwestern Vaasa.

Although huge piles of coal are still seen at the Helsinki downtown waterfront, Helen has announced earlier the closure of the coal powered plant at Hanasaari near the inner city by 2024. To replace the Hanasaari plant alone, two biofuel based power plants would be needed. As a first alternative source, a major heat pump plant has been installed in the downtown core area under the Esplanade park.

Taxation of the use of peat will be increased. Also coal will get a tax increase prior to being phased out. The use of biofuels would be favored. The changes in taxation would at least temporarily give an advantage to the use of natural gas as a source of energy in Finland.

The government on Thursday also submitted bills determining the share of biofuels in transport and domestic heating. From 2021 three percent of the light fuel oil used for heating and work equipment should be biofuel based. In 2029 the requirement would be ten percent. In transport,biofuels must cover 18 percent of the consumption in 2021 and would have to reach 30 percent in 2030.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 03:26:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ACCRA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Ghana's desire to transform its economy requires that it places industrialization at the center of activities, deputy minister for Trade and Industry Robert Ahomka-Lindsay said on Thursday.

He explained that this was the reason for the government's much mentioned One District-One Factory (1D-1F) program.

Ahomka-Lindsay made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the 10th anniversary celebration of the cooperation between Ghana and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs on Trade Capacity Building (TCB) program.

"Industry is at the center of government plans to transform the economy from one reliant on its natural resource base to one driven by value-added exports," the deputy minister stressed.

For that reason, he said the current administration, among other things, was seeking to establish a factory in every one of the country's 254 administrative districts.

This 1D-1F program, he explained, was aimed at moving the country away from the dependence on cocoa and gold export in their raw states towards a future in which the country would export automobiles and other high-value products.

Among the short-term measures to achieve this goal, he said the government would help distressed companies with a stimulus package funded by the national budget.

On the trade sector, the minister disclosed that the government had been partnering with development partners, including the UNIDO and Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI).

This capacity building, he said, was helping the institutions address issues of Sanitary and Phytosanitary compliance.

In March 2007, MOTI, the lead ministry of the Trade Sector Support Program, the Ghana Standards Authority, the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate and the Food and Drugs Authority became part of the UNIDO project on trade capacity building.

The program, running for the past 10 years, helped Ghana to lay the foundation for a national quality infrastructure policy and to develop numerous standards for the wood, fish, cocoa and fruits industries while revising more than 80 standards for those industries.

There were exhibitions by institutions which have benefited from the TCB program during the anniversary commemoration.

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in July 2016 proclaiming 2016 to 2025 as the third Industrial Development Decade for Africa, with UNIDO leading the implementation.

The vision for the implementation is to enable Africa move consistently on a path towards industrial development which is sustainable and takes care of all sectors, said Fakhruddin Azizi, UNIDO Representative for Ghana and Liberia.

"The attainment of this vision requires the transformation of African countries into locations of competitive industrial production," Azizi added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 04:01:50|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BRUSSELS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- China and Cambodia are ready to expand cooperation in areas including trade and investment, the two countries' leaders said Thursday.

The message was sent from a meeting between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen.

China is ready to continue consolidating traditional friendship with Cambodia and deepening cooperation with the country in various areas, so as to bring more real benefits to the people of both countries, Li said.

Li is in Brussels for a working visit to Belgium and the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit.

China will, as always, support the Cambodian people in following a development path in line with their national conditions, and support Cambodia's efforts to maintain stability, develop economy and improve people's livelihood, Li said.

The premier called upon the two countries to enhance synergy of their development strategies and expand bilateral trade.

China is willing to continue importing Cambodia's competitive agricultural products, and encourage competent Chinese companies to make investments in Cambodia, so as to achieve win-win results, he said.

The premier also expressed China's support for Cambodia in hosting the next ASEM summit.

For his part, Hun Sen said Li's visit to Cambodia and co-chairing of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) leaders' meeting earlier this year had injected new impetus into Cambodia-China relations and the LMC.

Cambodia is willing to work with China to firmly support each other and enhance coordination in international and regional affairs, said Hun Sen.

The prime minister said his country is also willing to expand practical cooperation with China in economy, trade and agriculture, adding that Chinese companies are welcome to make investments in Cambodia.

With regard to the next ASEM summit, Hun Sen said Cambodia will enhance communication and coordination with China.Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops on the Gaza-Israel border, east of Gaza City, on Oct. 12, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer)

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations' Middle East peace coordinator on Thursday warned Gaza is "imploding" with its economic, humanitarian, security and political indicators continuing to deteriorate.

In a video briefing to the Security Council, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov said the Gaza economy is in "free fall."

The official unemployment rate has reached 53 percent in the Palestinian enclave, over 70 percent among Palestinian youth, he said, citing numbers from the World Bank.

Moreover, Gaza remains on the brink of "another potentially devastating conflict," the UN envoy warned, while affirming the UN and its partners have engaged in an extraordinary effort to stabilize the situation and prevent an escalation.

"There is a growing consensus and determination among key international and regional partners on moving forward to defuse the powder keg that is Gaza," he said.

In addition, humanitarian efforts there are taking place in coordination with, and in support of, Egypt's efforts to bring Gaza back under the full control of the legitimate Palestinian government, he noted.

"The government's return to Gaza and the lifting of the suffocating movement and access restrictions are necessary for addressing the humanitarian and economic needs of the population in a sustainable manner," he noted, referring to Israel's control over border crossings with Gaza.

"We must see very clear actions on all sides that de-escalate the situation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone," he urged.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 04:52:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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STOCKHOLM, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Swedish companies and government agencies are intensifying preparations for how to deal with a British exit from the European Union (EU) after negotiations deadlocked at this week's EU summit.

As the latest attempt to reach a divorce deal between the United Kingdom and the EU failed, a "no-deal" scenario now looks more likely and that means all Swedish companies that export goods to the UK must consider what such a scenario would mean for them, Sweden's trade minister Ann Linde told news agency TT on Thursday.

"There isn't sufficient understanding for this in Swedish industries," Linde said. "You really have to consider whether you will be affected by the rules changing and, if so, what the impact will be on your company because there could be substantial changes."

Linde said all government departments have also been tasked with investigating what will happen if Brits living in Sweden will be counted as third-country citizens after March 2019, which is when Britain intends to leave the EU.

Linde said: "Will they be able to remain at the universities, will they be able to access healthcare?"

Jan Olsson, who is responsible for Brexit-coordination at the Prime Minister's Office, told Swedish Television that a no-deal Brexit would have very dramatic consequences in some areas, such as customs procedures, EU citizens' rights, air traffic, the finance sector and medical supplies.

Since the UK is part of the EU inner market and the EU customs union, a no-deal Brexit will mean the UK will become "like any other third-party country with which we have no agreement," Olsson said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 04:57:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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QUITO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno on Thursday warned he would not allow narco-guerrillas, or drug-trafficking guerillas, to infiltrate the country's military.

His warning came a day after several active military personnel were arrested during an operative to halt the trafficking of arms, ammunition and explosives and organized crime.

"Those who are involved in the alleged sale of arms must be brought to justice," Moreno wrote on Twitter.

"There will be no impunity for those who betray the country," Moreno said.

Several people were arrested, including active military personnel, during the operation carried out in four provinces of Ecuador as part of an investigation into alleged illicit trafficking of arms and explosives.

In a statement, the military said it collaborated with the investigation, including turning over information to investigating authorities about the possible involvement of military members.

Providing the information fell within the guidelines of a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to illegal activity in which military personnel may be involved, the statement said.

"The institution deeply regrets this act which goes against our own values of honesty in the Army and Armed Forces," the statement said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 05:07:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MAPUTO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday called on all citizens to remain calm while awaiting the final results of the 5th Municipal Elections on Oct. 10.

Addressing the nation in the afternoon, Nyusi said that during the elections there were few cases of violence, and Mozambicans should be proud of it.

The preliminary results in 53 municipalities in Mozambique gave majority victory to the ruling party, Frelimo.

"Everyone has openly witnessed the Mozambican joyful democracy that legitimized the process without being pressured, so I urge everyone to maintain serenity and respect for the laws, pending the final results," he said.

The president said that the electoral bodies were able to manage the electoral process and ensured that everything was within the parameters set.

The election results have been challenged by the two main opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). Both parties claim that there was fraud by Frelimo in the counting of votes.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 05:17:10|Editor: Yang Yi

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Yang Jiechi (2nd L), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin (2nd R) in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Wu Zhuang)

SOCHI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his country is ready to further strengthen coordination and cooperation with China to safeguard and promote common interests and global peace and development.

Russia applauds the high level of the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries, said Putin when meeting with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

All the consensus reached between the two presidents is being implemented, said Putin, adding that his country is willing to make joint efforts with China to maintain close contact at all levels and deepen practical cooperation in all fields.

Meanwhile, he stressed that the two countries should further enhance coordination and cooperation to safeguard and promote the common interests of the two countries as well as the global peace and development.

Putin also expressed deep appreciation and heartfelt thanks for President Xi Jinping's participation in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in September.

Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said the two presidents had made in-depth exchange of views on further development of China-Russia relations and the international situation and achieved important consensus during the 4th Eastern Economic Forum.

Together with Russia, China is willing to fully implement the consensus reached between the two presidents, especially enhancing the practical cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture, science and technology, innovation, said Yang, suggesting that the two side should properly arrange high-level exchanges and celebration activities next year to mark the 70th anniversary of China-Russia diplomatic ties.

Yang said it will be a good opportunity to promote the bilateral relations to score new achievements for greater benefits of the two peoples and people around the world.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 05:27:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan navy on Thursday rescued 54 Sub-Saharan African migrants at the Mediterranean Sea, the Moroccan army said.

These illegal immigrants were rescued while their boat ran into trouble off the northeastern city of Saidia, the army noted.

They were all brought to the port of the neighboring city of Nador, it added.

In recent months, Morocco has been witnessing a significant hike in illegal immigration attempts.

The Moroccan government said its security services have 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.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 05:32:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HELSINKI, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- A court in Helsinki on Thursday sentenced Ilja Janitskin, the owner and editor of two internet media sites, to one year and 10 months' imprisonment.

The court concluded that the MV-Lehti and a website called Uber had published libel targeting specific persons and racist materials. The verdict noted that there was no public interest or other acceptable reason for the publication of the writeups.

In the trial, another man got one year on probation and a woman, three months on probation. The three must pay 136,000 euros as compensation to the victims of the writeups.

A key victim and target was a wellknown journalist of the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. Her lawyer said that "no other such campaign against a journalist is known anywhere in the world", and thus journalists internationally are interested in the verdict.

"Hopefully the sentence has a bearing on the establishment of 'fake media sites' and the consideration before writing comments," the lawyer said.

Matti Tolvanen, professor of criminal law at the University of Eastern Finland, described the sentences as "rigorous and important". Talking to Yle, he said the sentences sent a signal that hatred crimes can be fought against.

"An individual is fairly powerless when faced with a campaign. But the sentences show that there are ways of stopping a hatred campaign," Tolvanen said.

Janitskin had left Finland but was extradited from Andorra after an international warrant was issued. There will be an appeal at least from Janitskin, local media reported.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 05:57:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RABAT, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani met with visiting Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday to discuss the means to boost bilateral trade.

The two officials highlighted the need to take advantage of bilateral cooperation agreements to develop trade.

They also expressed readiness for a meeting of the High Joint Committee to give a new impetus to trade, and exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interests.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 06:37:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May and her closest advisers were on Thursday contemplating how to scale the "brick wall" that is preventing a Brexit deal being agreed with Brussels.

The big question being asked by political commentators is whether May has finally run out of ideas in the quest to find a solution that will enable London and Brussels to find a way of inking a future relationship agreement after Britain ends its membership of the bloc.

With a deal between both sides said to be more than 90 percent agreed, the question of the border between Northern Ireland and the neighboring Irish Republic has become the big unresolved issue.

May traveled to Brussels Wednesday to address the leaders of the remaining 27 EU member states, and the border issue emerged as the big stumbling block.

Talks Thursday center on the possibly of extending by months, possibly a year, the so-called implementation period after Britain leaves the EU next March. Currently this agreement, during which non-member Britain would continue to follow all EU rules, would run until December 2020.

May said that the idea has emerged of an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months to give time for a permanent solution to the border issue.

She told journalists: "The point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020."

It now depends on whether May can sell such an extension to the contingent of strong Brexiteers among the Conservative benches as well as to the 10 MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party who shore up her minority government.

Supporters of the Leave Means Leave campaign fear a longer transition would give Brussels zero incentive to negotiate anything with Britain.

Its co-chair Richard Tice said: "The original transition was an unnecessary trap created by our weak civil servants who cannot be trusted as they don't want us to leave. It should be cancelled, not extended. It is increasingly clear the PM doesn't want to leave either."

"Any transition period gives the EU zero incentive to negotiate anything and gives Brussels the power to force whatever they want on to the UK without us being able to do anything about it. It's downright dangerous."

Critics in May's own party may also block the move. Conservative MP Nick Boles described extending the transition period as madness.

In a radio interview, Boles said he feared May was losing the confidence of people who have been supportive of her throughout this process.

Boles said: "They are close to despair at the state of this negotiation because there is a fear that both the government and the EU are trying to run out the clock, that they are trying to leave this so late that they can then credibly say that there's no alternative but a no-deal Brexit. And most people agree that would be chaos. Now that is not an acceptable way for a leader of a government to behave."

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labor Party, in a statement on Thursday said: "We are leaving the EU, but we will not support a deal cobbled together by a divided and chaotic Conservative government if it's going to make life tougher for millions of people."

Labor's interior spokeswomen, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, insisted Thursday that Labor would not rubber-stamp May's final Brexit plan.

Tom Newton Dunn, political editor of the Sun newspaper, commented that May saying a transition extension would only be for a few months feels like the "I'm only half pregnant" defense.

"Sounds weak and defensive. If she'd gone on the front foot and owned the idea with vigor, she just might have persuaded MPs. Very hard to do that now," said Dunn.

Meanwhile, Gerard Batten, leader of the pro-leave United Kingdom Independence Party hit out at the latest developments, saying: "Mrs May's Brexit betrayal slowly slithers into view. This is not due diligence;this is not a commitment to sort things out; this is a play to normalize transition indefinitely until a time when the establishment can call the whole thing off."

How can Britain and the EU part company in a way that averts a frictionless border on the island of Ireland?

Until now it has not been a problem as both the Irish Republic and Britain are members of the EU, making a border unnecessary. Once Britain leaves the bloc, it was become a third-party country, outside the EU with its cherished customs union and single market arrangements.

It leaves PM May with a lot of persuading to do to salvage any hope of an acceptable compromise with Brussels.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 06:47:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Every year Cuba seeks to increase agricultural production in order to reduce imports, ensure greater food security for its people and generate more income from exports like tropical fruits and world famous cigars.

However, the economic blockade imposed unilaterally by the United States since the 1960s has caused millions of dollars in losses to this sector.

The economic hit usually occurs due to incomes lost from exports of goods and services, geographical relocation of exports, additional banking transactions and lack of access to top-notch technology.

"Between April 2017 and March of this year, the sector registered an impact of 294.1 million dollars, mainly on the export of premium cigars, homeopathic and alternative health products as well as tropical fruits," said Leonardo Perez, director of international relations at Cuba's Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG).

Perez stated the greatest economic damage for the sector is having no access to the U.S. market to sell the famous hand-rolled Cuban cigars.

In that context, Juan Rico, business director of Tabacuba, a local company responsible for the production of the aromatic leaf, said that if the island could access the U.S. market, around 50 million units can be sold in the first year.

"Taking into account the average export prices in 2017 of Habanos S.A., a Cuban-Spanish entity that sells the famous cigars worldwide, we lost close to 134 million dollars last year due to the U.S. blockade as we couldn't sell the product in that market," he added.

Rico also indicated that export sales of Cuban machine rolled cigars last year totaled 120.5 million units, with the exception of the United States.

"Selling an additional 100 million of these cigars in the U.S. market, at an average price of 145 dollars per 1,000 units, would have meant an income of 14.5 million dollars we didn't receive due to the embargo policy," he asserted.

Added to all these figures, said the Cuban official, an additional 11.5 million dollars were lost due to currency exchanges, supplementary bank transactions and the geographic relocation of goods by sending products to far away markets.

According to Rico, Tabacuba is forced to transfer its exports in Kingston, Jamaica, because of the embargo's extraterritorial policies which prevent many shipping companies from entering Cuban ports.

"This measure obviously increases the cost of freight charges and products take longer time to reach its final destination," he said.

The MINAG official also stated the island's livestock, fruit processing and agroforestry industries also suffer losses, both to their productions and restrictions on their exports.

Close to 51 million dollars were lost for various restrictions in these areas last year, emphasized the Cuban official in a recent exchange with local and foreign press.

Perez said distinct Cuban products such as honey, coffee, charcoal, cocoa and others are banned from the U.S. market due to the blockade and the island has to sell them in Europe and Asia, generating less profits and higher costs.

"If we could sell in the U.S. our sales volumes would be bigger," he added.

The Cuban official said despite efforts within the U.S. Congress to eliminate the blockade, the nearly six-decade old policy still limits the country's possibilities of achieving sustainable development, particularly in agriculture.

Precisely the agricultural and food sector in the U.S. has made constant calls to put an end to the embargo amid the serious setback in bilateral ties after the Trump administration came to power.

Currently, a legislative initiative within the House of Representatives is under review, supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, which seeks to adjust the actual policy in sales of U.S. of agricultural products to Cuba.

Humanitarian exceptions for food and medicine allow for some U.S. sales to Cuba, but cash-in-advance payment rules limit those sales.

U.S. trade with Cuba totaled 711 million dollars in 2008, but it shrank to 186 million in 2015, and rose to 291 million in 2017 under Cuban normalization policies put in place by former U.S. President Barack Obama, according to official figures by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Havana imports about 80 percent of the food consumed in the Caribbean nation and spends more than 2 billion dollars a year for that, a figure that local authorities say could be reduced if the island had access to the U.S. market.Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-19 06:47:28|Editor: Chengcheng

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SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Apple announced Thursday a major press event for Oct. 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, where it is expected to unveil new tablets and Mac computers with new features seen in its latest iPhones.

The company has issued media invites for the upcoming special event, which were tweeted on social media showing recipients receiving the invitations in customized, artistically colorful designs of the Apple logo.

Apple did not say what the New York press conference would be meant for, but the invites bearing the words of "There's more in the making" suggest the company is going to release new products such as iPad Pros with bigger displays and Face ID facial-recognition feature already used on iPhones.

Media reports said the iPad Pro will have slim bezels, a new USB-C port and 11 inch or 12.9 inch display sizes.

It is also expected that Apple will release a new Mac Mini Pro and a low-cost MacBook with a new screen. A bloomberg report said in August this year that an upgraded version of the Mac Mini desktop will be targeting professional users.

Apple usually launches its new products in fall. It unveiled its new iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR at a flashy event on the new campus at its headquarters in Cupertino, northern California.A Hungarian businessman was conned by criminals inside the National Office Building, the office of members of parliament.

The CEO was promised lucrative taxpayer-funded jobs with the help of prominent politicians. He had already paid 23 million forints (approx. 71,000 euros) in bribes by the time he realized that he was conned and that the deputy minister that he was introduced to was not a real politician.

The case has national security implications as well: how did the criminals manage to enter a highly protected government building and take a guest there?

A businessman in Budapest was promised lucrative contracts with the state, facilitated by a deputy minister. He was told that he needed to pay a certain amount of money for the deal to materialize but to gain his trust, they told him that they would introduce him to the politician. The meeting took place in the National Office Building.

The businessman told Atlatszo that he had to wait long for the deputy minister to appear  he was told that the politician was extremely busy. However, a person showed up eventually, shook his hand and told him to go have lunch with his colleagues in the cafeteria. The deputy minister said that he would join the group for lunch later. He never did, but the businessman was taken to the cafeteria to eat.

I was sitting there among all those politicians whom I only knew from TV until then and I thought that now anything is possible for my company he said.

Later he was taken by the con men to two towns in Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen county where he was told that he would be meeting mayors. These people promised road- and school-reconstruction jobs to him.

He began to suspect that he was conned when he was asked for money for the third time. By that time he had already paid 23 million forints in bribes to the criminals.

He went to the 19th district police in Budapest and reported the crime. I saw that the investigator started to despair because my story started in the National Office Building and he did not know who might be involved in the story later. I am sure he was relieved when the case was shifted to the 5th district police because of the location of the crime he said.

The incident happened in 2016 but the investigation is still ongoing. The Budapest Police Headquarters told Atlatszo that they are investigating the crime and that they have one suspect. The police confirmed that they reached out to the National Office Building as well.

We asked the police whether they notified the Constitution Protection Office, that is, the internal security intelligence agency about the incident because it happened in the National Office Building. The police said that they did not because it was not justified in this case.

The police did not reach out to the mayor of the town in Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen country, either. This was the person who supposedly promised contracts to the businessman.

Atlatszo talked to the mayor who said that he was not contacted by the police and that he does not remember any such meeting.

The story does not add up. We take care of small road reconstruction work ourselves. Participants in the workfare program do that work. The school has been run and managed by the church for five years now, so the town council has nothing to do with school reconstruction works the mayor said.



Security concerns in the National Office Building

An important question in this story is how the criminals entered the National Office Building. This is a tough question, though, because politicians working in the building welcome several guests every day.

A former intelligence agent told Atlatszo that if the investigation was carried out properly, police would notify those responsible for the security of the Parliament and the internal security intelligence agency as well.

Moreover, this was not the first such case in the building. Atlatszo reported two years ago that up to 90 pieces of hardware, including seven brand new laptops of the Fidesz party group, were stolen from the Parliament and the National Office Building by an employee. These are two of the most highly protected government buildings in the country, surveilled by many CCTV cameras.

National security concerns were also raised when Jobbik MP Adam Mirkoczki found his office door open. The ministry of the interior quickly investigated the event and said that it was nothing but a case of a worn-out lock.



MTI Photo: Jaszai CsabaMore and more customers opt for cashless payment solutions in Hungary. The ratio of adult internet users who choose to pay without cash if they can has increased from about 33% to 44%.

Digital technologies are rapidly adopted in the area of everyday payments, too; the share of people who prefer cashless payment is likely to rise further in the coming years. eNET & OTP Mobils second eTrends Monitor survey is focused on adult internet users attitudes concerning payment online, with cash, and with mobile devices.



Internet users now prefer cashless payment

In Hungary, even regular internet users were divided over the question of payment methods. About as many people opted for cashless payment as for handing over banknotes, and the ratio of people willing to use either of these two methods was also similar.

But the situation has changed. A survey conducted by eNET and OTP Mobil in July 2018 indicates that those who prefer cashless payment are now the majority as opposed to cash payers; the ratio of these two groups is currently 44% and 28%, respectively. The share of those who are open to both payment methods is 29%.



Parking and motorway usage no longer dominate mobile phone payments

Many adult internet users also pay with their bank cards through smartphone browsers (in addition to laptop and desktop computers). Still, when it comes to mobile phones, slightly more people use apps or pay via text messages compared to payment through smartphone browsers.

The share of the former group (bank card payers through smartphone browsers) is 31%, while the ratio of the latter group is 38%. Overall, 2.5 million people (44% of adult internet users) pay via their mobile phones (including transactions through browsers, applications and text messages).

As to mobile payment solutions, money transfers via banks applications are the most popular (23%), followed by payments initiated from other apps (15%) and dedicated payment applications (14%). Within this latter category, PayPal and Simple are the most widely used.

Online purchases with mobile phones used to be mostly limited to parking and motorway usage (which 31% and 30% of our respondents buy now). But the tables have turned in this regard, too, with transactions in webshops taking the lead. Some 41% of the respondents use their devices for that purpose.



Card data now saved in cashless payment

Besides the addition of new payment solutions, another factor contributing to the proliferation of cashless payment is that service providers are introducing further functions and convenience features in order to render payment easier.

Saved card data are one example; users dont need to find their bank cards and enter the data on them upon each and every electronic payment transaction. Card data can be saved on online interfaces and in mobile applications as well.

Two thirds of adult internet users have heard about the online data saving option, and one third of them have already taken advantage of it. More than half of the respondents have heard about saving card data in a mobile app, and one in six have already registered the information on their cards in applications (or assigned their cards to apps).

In the case of OTP Mobil, saving bank card data for future payments serves two purposes explains dr. Al-Absi Gaber Seif, OTP Mobils Deputy Chief Executive Officer.

On the one hand, it provides a connection between the Simple application and SimplePay, i.e. users of the app can pay in thousands of webshops in a really convenient manner, based on bank card data saved in the system.

On the other hand, we also support webshops because, thanks to our convenient solution, they lose fewer customers during the payment process.

Source: eNETEveryone knows the Rubik's Cube, but not everyone can solve it. The colorful brain teaser is one of the most popular toys of all time, and it dates back to the 1970s in Hungary. We spoke with the inventor of the cube, Erno Rubik, to find out how he came up with the idea.

The colorful brain teaser is one of the most popular toys of all time, and it dates back to the 1970s in Hungary. Insider spoke with the inventor of the cube, Erno Rubik, to find out how he came up with the idea.The 2030 urban development concept could bring major changes for Budapests buildings and public transport, MAV CEO Robert Homolya told the Budapest 2030 conference on Wednesday.

In the next decade the suburban railway line H7 could be extended via a tunnel to Kalvin ter and many other development projects are also planned, he said.

Other projects will include construction of a southern railway bridge, a direct rail link between Liszt Ferenc International Airport and downtown Budapest, and a Budapest-Belgrade railway line project, Homolya added.



MTI Photo: Koszticsak SzilardIncreasing the contribution of tourism to 16% of Hungarys GDP by 2030, developing tourism in the countryside, a speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and the unveiling of a new national brand "WOW Hungary" were all on the agenda at the Tourism Summit 2018.

At the beginning of the event, a "making of" style video of the recent "Spice of Europe" campaign of the Hungarian Tourism Agency (MTU) explained how the Budapest-centric ads emphasized the creativity of Hungarians, and how Hungarians think differently.

MTU CEO Zoltan Guller then took to the stage, describing Hungarys National Tourism Development Strategy 2030, announced last year, as a strategy developed with "Swiss accuracy" and "Hungarian bravado." According to the strategy, by 2030, the contribution of the tourism industry to GDP should increase to 16%.

Guller set the aim of achieving a 50-50 ratio of domestic and international tourists. He also emphasized the importance of countryside development projects, while noting that currently "66% of international arrivals come to Budapest."

Prime Minister Viktor Orban also stressed the importance of tourism to the nation, terming it "one of the greatest contributors to the national economy," and noting that the industry provides livelihoods to 400,000 Hungarians. While noting that Budapest is tourisms "flagship," he also stressed that it is his "personal ambition" to make as many people interested in the countryside as in the capital.

David Farkas, deputy CEO for tourism strategy, noted that 60% of tourism campaigns presence occurs online. He added that the MTU involves a number of partners such as National Geographic and CNN.

A new national brand, "WOW Hungary," focusing on destinations outside Budapest, was announced in a video which explained that "WOW" is short for "Wellspring of Wonders," with its logo based on an ancient Hungarian motif. The winning tender for the project was submitted by Graphasel Design Studio.

The image film for the campaign was made after its makers had traveled 6,420 kilometers following 35 days of preparation, with the film crew visiting 90 towns in 22 days.

The 30th "Pro Turismo Awards" were presented at the end of the event, with fashion designer Szandra Sandor, We Love Budapest co-founder and editor-in-chief Regina Papp, chef Laszlo Ruprecht, festival organizer Zoltan Fulop, winemaker Bence Laposa, and Laszlo Konnyid, president of the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association, all receiving honors.



MTI Photo: Mathe ZoltanThe legislator has decided to implement some changes to tax legislation with a view to simplification. Unfortunately, cafeteria (employee benefit) plans are the victims of this simplification.

Lets review one by one what changes will be implemented already this year, and what we should expect in 2019:

Five types of taxes will be eliminated:

 After having won several actions for damages at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, starting from 1 January 2018, employees will no longer have to pay a 75 percent special tax on income earned in connection with the termination of employment, i.e. severance payments.

 From 1 January 2019, the special tax payable by credit institutions and culture tax will cease to exist.

 The 30% accident tax ceases to exist and will be replaced by a 23% insurance tax. Vehicle owners expect this tax reduction to reduce the premiums payable for compulsory insurance against civil liability arising from the use of motor vehicles.

 The Healthcare Contribution (EHO) will be integrated into the Social Contribution Tax (SZOCHO): The types of income included in the basis of tax assessment will be the same as those subject to social contribution tax liability and healthcare contribution liability under Chapter IX of Act CLVI of 2011 on the Amendment of Tax Laws and other Related Regulations or Act LXVI of 1998 on Healthcare Contributions, respectively.

Upper limit: No Social Contribution Tax will be payable on other income (income from dividends or exchange gains) once the Social Contribution Tax has been paid on an income that reaches 24 times the amount of the minimum wage.

The tax rate will be 19.5% and then 17.5% from the third quarter of 2019.

Tax reliefs associated with the Social Contribution Tax:

The following will cease to exist:

tax relief granted to young people under the age of 25 and working in entry level positions, and employees above the age of 25 or 55,

tax relief granted to those participating in the Karrier Hid (Career Bridge) Program,

tax relief granted for research and development activities,

tax relief granted to employers employing researchers or developers with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) or higher academic degree or academic title,

tax relief granted to employers with employees who are students or PhD candidates participating in a PhD program as defined in the National Higher Education Act,

tax relief granted to new employees of businesses operating in the free entrepreneurship zone,

tax relief granted for employing long-term jobseekers,

tax relief granted in connection with Infant Care Benefit (CSED), Child Care Fee (GYED), Child Care Benefit (GYES) or Child Rearing Support (GYET).

The following will enter into force:

tax relief granted to those employing unskilled and agricultural workers,

tax relief granted to those employing women with three or more children,

tax relief granted to disabled entrepreneurs and those employing disabled workers,

tax relief granted to the employers of public employees,

tax relief granted for employing researchers and for R&D activities.

from now on, tax relief will only be granted in connection with Infant Care Benefit (CSED), Child Care Fee (GYED), Child Care Benefit (GYES) or Child Rearing Support (GYET) to those who are entitled to family allowance with regard to having 3 or more children.

The newly introduced tax relief for people entering the labour market will be available to everyone who had been unemployed for at least 6 months in the preceding 9 months. This new relief provides full tax exemption for employers for two years, up to the amount of the current minimum wage. The application and administration processes will be streamlined, too.

In the case of newly-hired employees, the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NTCA) will automatically examine the entitlement to tax relief and certify it for the employers.

Several procedures will be simplified:

 Customs and procedural fines, which have been applied in parallel so far, will be eliminated. As of 9 August, only customs fines will be imposed by the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NTCA) for defaults or other violations as defined by the law.

 The income threshold for those paying taxes under the Small Enterprise Tax (KIVA) scheme will increase from HUF 500 million to HUF 1 billion. Suspension of the taxpayer identification number will no longer be included in the exclusion criteria. So that, starting from 1 January 2019, the taxpayers concerned can opt for paying taxes under the KIVA scheme for the full year, these favourable provisions will come into force on 1 December 2018.

 As of 1 July 2019, the obligation to register with and report any changes to the tax authority of the local self-government will no longer exist, because it will be replaced by the provision of information by the state tax authority.

New tax types and tax increases starting from August 2018:

 As of 25 August 2018, the rules applicable to Special Tax on Immigration will change. Therefore, entities that do not yet have a taxpayer identification number but pursue activities that are subject to Special Tax on Immigration, i.e. provide any financial or in-kind assistance to immigrants, must register themselves with the NTCA.

 As of 1 September 2018, the excise duty on cigarettes and smoking tobacco will increase, but as the European Unions mandatory minimum tax rate will still not be reached, further increases are needed, which will enter into force as of 1 January 2019 and 1 July 2019.

 The Public Health Product Tax (nicknamed as chips tax) will change not only in terms of level of taxation.

Complying with the call of the European Commission, in the future, all alcoholic products will be considered as taxable goods.

The expenses of health prevention programs will no longer be deductible from the basis of assessment.

The level of taxation of currently taxable goods (refreshments with high sugar content, chips, chocolates, alcoholic beverages) will be increased by nearly 20 percent.

Tax and duty cuts will continue next year:

 VAT: 5% VAT will be imposed on fresh milk, UHT, and ESL milk.

 Contributions:

As of 2019, only 15 percent personal income tax will be payable on income earned by people who continue working after retirement (and receive old-age pension). Employees working in retirement will be exempted from the obligation to pay the Pension Insurance Contribution and the Healthcare Contribution (EHO), and their employer from the obligation to pay the Social Contribution Tax (SZOCHO).

Currently, nearly 70,000 people are working in retirement, and due to the new favourable tax rules, this number might increase significantly next year.

The scope of the family tax allowance is further expanded: The tax allowance for families with two children increases by 5,000 forints per month to HUF 40,000 per month.

 The registration tax on motorcycles is reduced.

 Duties: Cashless solutions continue to be encouraged instead of cash and cheque payments: Up to 20,000 HUF, every retail bank transfer will be exempt from the 0.3 percent financial transaction duty payable so far.

The real victims of this simplification are Cafeteria plans (employee benefit plans):

The SZEP (Szechenyi Recreation) Card is the only Cafeteria item that remains in place. However, the rules applicable to and the amount available for the three subcategories remain unchanged.

All other fringe benefits available so far under the Cafeteria plans will cease to exist, except:

 work-related benefits (e.g. company phone, meals during business trips),

 income received in the form of products or services during events with discounted or free entry, provided that the share received by the individuals of such products or services cannot be determined,

 targeted support paid to voluntary insurance funds.

 Support for nursery and kindergarten care expenses stays in place and continues to be tax-free.

 The 1.18 times multiplier counted on income as a basis for the assessment of the tax payable used so far has been eliminated for the SZEP Card (but it stays in place for certain specific benefits). The Social Contribution Tax (SZOCHO) rate is reduced from 19.5% to 17.5% (according to anticipations, this will only come into force from the 2nd quarter of 2019).

Administration related to the filing of personal income tax returns is simplified:

 Electronic submission of declarations and applications required for assessing the advance tax liability (e.g. applications for family tax allowance, first marriage tax allowance, personal tax allowance) will be possible through a dedicated online interface. Declarations and applications will be forwarded by the NTCA to the paying agents based on the instructions of the individuals.

 From 2019, a draft tax return will be prepared by the tax authority for self-employed people as well, which may be supplemented by entrepreneurs with data related to their businesses that are not included in tax authority records. The deadline for filing tax returns by self-employed people was modified to the 20th of May of the year following the tax year.

Changes in excise taxes:

 The physical inventory taking process of tax warehouses will be smoother due to less strict inspection rules.

 Inventory shortages reported by operators will no longer be sanctioned by the authority. Excise penalty will continue to be imposed, however, in cases where the shortage is established by the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary.

 As of 1 January 2019, traders holding an excise authorisation and excise retailers purchasing goods with a special authorisation will no longer need to apply for a new authorisation on a case-by-case basis but may also obtain authorisation from the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary for all purchases from a specific entity.

 The volume of artisanal sparkling wine that may be produced and stored by small-scale wine producers and simplified tax warehouses will increase from ten thousand (10,000) to fifty thousand (50,000) litres as of 1 January 2019 (amendment of Sections 3(3)(16)(c) and Section 134(3) of the Excise Tax Act).

Changes in corporation tax

 There will be favourable changes in the concept of declared participation and the related special deductions from the basis of tax assessment, broadening the scope of tax-exempt income available under the participation exemption regime.

 In the future, perhaps as early as 2018, Hungarian R&D service providers and taxpayers using their services may share, according to their agreement, the tax relief associated with the R&D expenses incurred.

 The concept of energy efficiency investments will become broader and will not only include investments but also renovations. Tax reliefs will be available for renovations started after the entry into force of the amending act.

 In connection with the investment in early-stage companies, the new act amends the regulation so that, starting from 2019, the previously allowed maximum HUF 20 million reduction of the basis of tax assessment will not be applicable for a whole year and aggregated for all investments but optionally per early-stage company.

 Another favourable change is that, starting from 2019, the amount of funds that may be entered in development reserve per tax year increases from HUF 500 million to HUF 10 billion, significantly increasing the amount of early depreciation that can be recognised, which can be very favourable for real estate investments.

 According to the law, starting from 2019, the costs of running a kindergarten where at least 80% of the children are the children of the employees of the taxpayer, will be considered as eligible costs.

 The real estate utilisation and/or sale activities carried out in Hungary by real estate investment funds and pension funds that are legal persons established in the EEA shall not create an establishment for corporation tax purposes, even if the fund is subject to corporation tax in the Member State in which it is established but has no tax liability (so far, based on the existence of their activities in Hungary, establishment was created for funds that were not subject to corporation  or equivalent  tax in their Member State of establishment).

 It will be possible to apply tax reliefs subsequently through tax self-revision, regardless of whether or not the taxpayer has availed of a tax relief in the original tax return. Starting from the day following the promulgation of the amending act, the restriction that tax reliefs can only be availed of where they are applied for by means of the tax return, based on a decision taken by the taxpayer prior to the filing of the tax return, will be eliminated.



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Phone number: +36 1 452 6900Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- London Stock Exchange Group Romania (LSEG) is announcing the expansion of the local team with 100 new specialists for a variety of data-based technologies and services, which serve the three divisions of the company: Data & Analytics, Capital Markets and Post Trade, agerpres reports. According

- "Generation Z" Project, done by a group of students from the Mihai Viteazul National College in Bucharest, won second place at the European Charlemagne Youth Prize. The prizes given by the European Parliament and the Foundation for the Charlemagne International Award were announced on Thursday

- More than a third (35.5%) of the total cases of COVID-19 were registered, in the week of September 13-19, in Bucharest and in the counties of Timis (northwest of Bucharest), Cluj (northwest of Bucharest), Ilfov (surrounding Bucharest) and Iasi (northeast of Bucharest), informed, on Thursday, the

- The stake in Education is to achieve, through the "Educated Romania" project, whose implementation will be approved by the Government this week, "the 21st century education for the 21st century Romania", Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Monday at the opening ceremony of the new school year at the

- Libertatea religioasa intre politica si politici. O analiza politica a standardelor internationale, legislatiei nationale si practicii guvernamentale in pandemie (Freedom of Religion or Belief between politics and politics. A political analysis of international standards, national legislation

- A new case of infection with the West Nile virus was registered in Romania, the fifth since monitoring began, reported in Bucharest, according to the Center for Disease Control within the National Institute of Public Health (INSP). There have been 5 confirmed cases during the period of June

- The 5th edition of the Black Sea and Balkans Security Forum will take place on Friday and Saturday in Bucharest, the Ministry of National Defence informs, agerpres reports. The event is organized at the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine and will host officials and experts from

- Festival International de Teatru Rom va avea loc intre 30 august si 6 septembrie, in aer liber, in Sectorul 5 la ARTHUB Bucharest. In cadrul evenimentului vor fi prezentate spectacole de teatru si cine-teatru, creatii recente si premiere realizate de artiste si artisti romi profesionisti din Austria,DIICOT continua ancheta in rem dupa ce Diana Sosoaca a blocat vaccinarea intr-un centru din Iasi

Senatoarea independenta Diana Sosoaca s-a ales cu un dosar penal dupa ce, pe 4 septembrie, alaturi de mai multi protestatari, a incercat sa blocheze activitatea unui centru de vaccinare din comuna [citeste mai departe]Jesse Ito (foreground) and staff re-create the Ginyu Force Pose, also known as the Tokusentai, from Dragon Ball outside royal Izakaya. Read more

It's midafternoon and the front door is locked at Royal Izakaya on Second Street in Queen Village. The cellar door swings open for a delivery, and I clamber down the wooden steps, almost colliding with Masaharu Ito, who is bent over a stockpot filled with hijiki, an old-school Japanese seaweed salad that few local restaurants prepare. We both grin and shake hands. I'm here to see son Jesse.

Jesse Ito bounds over. He's lanky and 29 and has spent 15 years learning the craft of sushi from "Matt" Ito, who at 65 has been in the business for more than four decades, starting with Fuji, a destination restaurant first in Cinnaminson and later in Haddonfield.

The Itos sold Fuji in January 2016 to concentrate on Royal Izakaya, which opened in December 2016 with business partners Stephen Simons and Dave Frank.

Behind the bar, tucked behind a curtain, is Jesse Ito's 10-seat sushi counter, where he serves omakase tasting menus five nights a week for $70 and $130 a head. That is, customers put themselves into Ito's hands for one of the city's most critically acclaimed dining experiences. Ito's omakase just picked up a rare four-bell review from the Inquirer's Craig LaBan.

Tell me your earliest memory of sushi.

Sushi was always there, all the way back. I can't remember when it wasn't, because my father would just bring it home. I can't differentiate the memories. I started coming to the restaurant as an infant. I was at the restaurant more than home, so I was always around it. I was always eating it. It was just a normal thing.

When did he let you pick up the knife?

At home, he would let me use it and my mom would freak out. I was maybe 8. I was cutting really basic things. I started working when I was 14. That's when I picked it up again seriously. It was one day a week, maybe two days a week, just dish-washing, making appetizers and creme brulee and pastries. Then I went on the hot side for the next four years. I only got put in the sushi bar maybe one day a week, just doing various simple rolls and stuff.

When did you decide to do this as a career?

There was a time when I was getting done high school. I wanted to go to culinary school, and my parents didn't want me to. They said absolutely not. I took all AP courses and I was the biggest slacker in all the smart-kid classes. By senior year, I was a straight C or B student. I was fine with that. But I got a big scholarship to Rutgers, so I went there for business, which was actually really good. I don't think I'd be here if I didn't do that.

Why is that?

I remember when I was 16, [Center City restaurateurs] Tom Peters and Fergie [Carey] had been customers forever. And I love them. I was in the sushi bar on Sunday. Tom and Fergie had their whole crew in the sushi bar and my dad was doing omakase, and I had learned some little business details I was proud of. I had told Fergie  I forget what. Then Fergie looked at me. He said I was an idiot. He was like, 'What the  do you think this is? This is a restaurant business. It's a business.'

Ever since then, it kind of stuck with me  the business aspect. That's a huge part. Why do restaurants fail? Why do chefs come and go like that? Every chef wants to own a restaurant, but if you don't understand the back side  if you don't understand the business model  you're setting yourself up to fail almost. If you don't do the math before you open, how many seats, how many turns, price-point, your market  everything. If you don't think about, if you don't obsess about it, how are you going to succeed?

So I went to business school. I started as management. The dean of Rutgers pulled me aside and said, 'Hey, you should switch to marketing.' I'm glad he did, because I think any business owner needs to really understand the principles of marketing. I think that's what'll really propel you in any business, not just  especially food.

Was Rutgers training for owning a restaurant?

No. At that point, I didn't know what to do. As much as I think that's healthy for anyone 18, 19, 20. I did work full time, so it took me five years to graduate. I was really training for sushi hard-core after high school  real training. I was such a cocky young guy. It's so funny looking back, because I thought I was the best sushi chef ever. And it's crazy how different I am now.

As you get older, you just realize that there's so much more to learn and so many people out there who are so much better at everything. But you could always strive to do better instead of being so cocky about it.

It was probably when I was 23 or 24 that I said, 'This is what I'm going to stick with.' Because, toward the end of college, I had a bunch of adjunct professors for my business classes, and as much as I love marketing, advertising, and branding, I just couldn't see myself working in a corporate environment. I don't have that type of personality. I want to be my own boss. And I had an opportunity. Dave and Stephen popped up out of nowhere. When I think back, I just think I'm super-lucky with the opportunities that have been presented.

Dave and Stephen were customers for decades. Dave always [ate at] the sushi bar. I never knew what he did. He's the type of person who wouldn't tell you. Most people in Philadelphia don't even know what he looks like, which is what I like about them. They're not these showboat, 'Hey, I own this, this, and this; take care of me.' I never knew until we had our first meeting. That was when I was 24.

Tell me about the rise in sushi in the United States.

That's more of the trendy American style, which is very roll-centric, cheap costs, easily replicable because you can just buy a bunch of frozen fish and pull it out as you need it. There's cheap ingredients. You can use really low-quality fish and just cover it with a bunch of sauces. It's all carbs. It's rice, and fish, and seaweed. Now they use soy paper, which I hate. They're using brown rice and cauliflower rice. To me, that's all  . It's not sushi. Sushi means 'sour.' They used to ferment fish with rice over a year period. No vinegar or anything.

But I get it. Rolls taste good. You put a bunch of salty, spicy mayo with some nice fatty fish, it's going to taste really good. I get it, but everyone just copies each other. I'm not saying I'm not copying someone, of course. This has been done before. What I'm doing is traditional sushi. I'm not reinventing the wheel. It's just about execution. I always knew Philly had room for this growing up.

Do you think that a place like this could have existed 10 or 20 years ago?

No. Especially not the omakase. No way. I forget who told me, and I forget the study, but one of my customers said that they were reading in one of the business journals that someone did a study that the quality of sushi and the number of sushi spots are hand-in-hand tied to the wealth of the city.

I think Philly in the past five to 10 years is a very different scene than it was. Now you're going to see more omakase spots. Now you see Jean-Georges going in to the Four Seasons. There's going to be a different tier of restaurants as Philly gets richer. I think it has to do with wealth. A lot of people are moving from New York, D.C. I haven't looked at reports or anything, but it certainly looks like it's doing really well.

What are you doing that no one else does locally?

I love mackerels and the hikarimonos  all the silver-skinned fish, which a lot of people tend to say, 'I don't like mackerel. I don't like anything that's too fishy.' And I hate the word fishy. I think it's a little redundant. It has a very negative connotation. It kind of means spoiled. When you say fishy, it means spoiled. I would say gamey or strong flavor. But I do a very traditional preparation. I have my very own way of saucing and dressing it. People love mackerel. It's one of their favorite pieces of the night  the fish that they'd said they hate. It shows that it's all about technique and procuring good product.

Do you have an end game?

No end game. I don't think I'm ever going to stop making sushi. I do love it. I think anyone who's really passionate about what they do, retirement is not really. I don't think about retirement. Even my dad doesn't think about retirement.

As for you: What do you like to eat?

I like good food. I don't have a favorite. I know that's a terrible response, but lately I've been going to Vernick a lot. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, omakase is done at midnight, so I'll get out of here at like 12:20, 12:30, maybe 1. I'll be eating late-night food. I'm not going to lie. I've eaten Wawa more than I would like to say. I've had that moment standing in line where I'm like: 'This is very ironic. I just served all of these people the most expensive proteins available in the world, and I'm standing in line for this turkey-club sandwich at Wawa.'Comcast Corp. has broken the national gig barrier. The Philadelphia company says it can now offer gigabit speeds to nearly all of its residential and business customers, or nearly 58 million homes in the United States.

Gigabit speeds  1,000 megabits a second  are 10 times faster than the speed that most Comcast customers buy today, of 100 megabits a second.

The deployment represents the fastest rollout of gigabit speeds to homes among broadband providers, Comcast said on Thursday. Search engine giant Google popularized the notion of gigabit speed with Google Fiber, though it has retreated from its grand ambitions for that internet service.

According to Comcast's website, gigabit service in the Philadelphia area costs $105 a month without a promotional discount.

Tony Werner, Comcast's president of technology and product experience, said the effort to offer the service in the 39 states it serves and Washington took about three years. The company began by offering gig speeds in certain metropolitan areas and has stitched those together into a national service.

"Broadband and broadband service is becoming more and more important to our customers and basically everybody on the planet," Werner said.

Though few customers have a reason to buy gig service, Werner said, "what we are seeing is that our power users are connected to 50 to 60 [internet] devices" and are taking it. He used himself as an example, noting his four televisions, two gaming platforms, and eight internet-connected speakers. Beyond traditional electronics, he has garage doors, a stationary bike, a cooker, and other devices that are connected to the internet.

A big benefit of gigabit service is faster downloads. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, a video game, can be downloaded in about an hour at 100 megabits a second. At gigabit speeds, the download takes eight minutes, the company said.Steve Forbes, GOP stalwart and publisher of Forbes magazine, will speak Saturday at West Chester University and plans to address the current debate about Republicans abandoning "free-market" economics under the Trump administration by embracing tariffs, which he considers akin to "sales taxes."

"Tariffs are a sales tax. And I'm not sure putting sales taxes on American consumers and businesses is the right way to redress very real grievances about trade abuses," Forbes said in an interview.

"I prefer a laser-like approach. We'll eventually see an agreement reached with the Chinese, a deal in which there will be zones for American companies in China where they can invest, put up facilities without local partners and forced transfers of technology. I wouldn't be surprised if we negotiate a multi-year agreement with China selling them LNG. They need natural gas, they get it from Russia and the Middle East. They'd like a third source."

The chairman of Forbes Media also said he prefers sanctions to tariffs.

"We should apply real sanctions" to free trade abusers such as Chinese telecommunications company ZTE. Trump dropped tariffs on ZTE, which had traded with Iran and North Korea in defiance of U.S. sanctions.

"ZTE did bad things. If we applied sanctions they'd be out of business. Instead, they paid a fine and changed their management and board," Forbes said. "We could have sanctioned their banks, or kicked them out" of the banking system, he said.

Forbes disagrees with the current approach of tariffs and says he has allies among other Republicans, such as Pennsylvania's Sen. Pat Toomey.

"He's very much a free-trader. Republicans don't like the trade abuses. We're having a skirmish, it's not a full-scale trade war. The [stock] markets believe an agreement will be reached in the next few months, otherwise it would have gone down 5,000-10,000 points," instead of several hundred points last week, he added.

Forbes also said he's against tariffs on goods from the European Union and other trade partners.

Tariffs on lumber and steel "are also sales taxes. I don't like new taxes. They hurt our users of steel and aluminum, and we should have learned from the early 2000s, when we did steel tariffs. We ended up destroying more jobs than we saved or created." That was an attempt to help West Virginia and other places, Forbes said.

"Thanks to deregulation and tax cuts, the U.S. economy is doing so well now we're having labor shortages. There's no need for tariffs. They end up hurting more than helping."

Forbes is in touch with Trump's chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow.

"Kudlow believes in free trade. He sees these tariffs as a negotiating tool. He doesn't like them, but believes ultimately they'll disappear. He told me that before he went into the White House. If you listen to him speak, he makes it clear this is a pathway to agreements."

Otherwise, Forbes said, he's happy with the White House's "willingness to cut taxes. They have to do more on the personal side. And the deregulation. The massive amount of regulation we got in recent years was a crusher for manufacturing in the U.S."A view of the natural gas power generator under construction at SEPTA's Midvale Depot in Philadelphia, PA on September 18, 2018. Read more

SEPTA is aiming to convert 10 percent to 20 percent of its energy consumption to renewable sources, such as solar panels or windmills.

The transit agency, one of the largest energy consumers in the region, uses 480,000 megawatt hours a year of electricity for services such as trolleys, trains, and facilities. All of that power is drawn from the electrical grid, which uses primarily coal, nuclear, and natural gas sources, said Erik Johanson, SEPTA's director of business innovation. About 4 percent now is generated by renewable sources.

On Wednesday, SEPTA issued a request for proposals that could allow it to convert to renewable sources without spending more money on energy, he said. The agency wants to begin purchasing more renewable energy by November 2019, the request for proposal states, and requires a commitment to a fixed price for 10 to 20 years.

SEPTA is leaving open-ended how that could be done. It will consider proposals for new sources of hydroelectric power, for solar or wind power, or for simply plugging SEPTA into existing renewable sources in a 13-state region that stretches as far west as Illinois and Kentucky and from Virginia to New Jersey. Something new, though, may be the most cost-effective route.

"Within the last several years, the price for renewable energy has been dropping," Johanson said. "A new project would be more likely to provide cost-neutral electricity."

SEPTA may also need to blend several energy sources to fulfill its requirements, he said.

A sustainability program adopted in 2011 states that SEPTA has a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations.

SEPTA has been gradually shifting its 1,400-bus fleet from petroleum burners to hybrid vehicles. About half the fleet is now made up of diesel-electric hybrids, and the transit agency aims to increase that to 95 percent by 2021.

The agency has also drawn criticism from environmental groups for investing in an 8,800-kilowatt natural gas power generator in Nicetown. Although natural gas is one of the cleanest forms of fossil fuel, activists have argued that it could add to air pollution in a community already exposed to vehicle exhaust from SEPTA's Midvale Bus Depot, near the Roosevelt Expressway and Hunting Park Avenue. They also note that greenhouse gases can be created by extracting and transporting natural gas. The group is appealing the facility's air permit with the Licenses and Inspections Review Board.

Peter Winslow, a member of 350 Philadelphia, an environmental group that has led the fight against the Nicetown generator, lauded SEPTA on Wednesday for its investigation of renewable energy sources.

"Commitment by SEPTA to obtain 10 percent to 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources is significant," he said.

SEPTA's effort to begin conversion by next year recognizes the importance of climate change, Winslow said, adding that the agency could go further by retiring renewable energy certificates and insisting that the vendor it hires grow the amount of overall renewable energy being generated.

While SEPTA is seeking to become increasingly green, it is taking an incremental approach out of concern about the cost of certain sources of energy in the future. By not committing to a single energy source, SEPTA can avoid sudden price spikes, Johanson said.

This story has been updated to correctly report Winslow's proposals.Kristen Verostick, University of South Florida Department of Anthropology, right, and Jamie Willer, Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office, hand a body bag containing the body of a white male, estimated to be 18-21 years of age, found floating in a creek at Lewis and Richmond Streets. The male had been stabbed multiple times and his body was weighted down with weights that were chained to his feet and legs. The manner of death was ruled homicide. The exhumation of the body took place at 12898 Dunk Ferry Road. Read more

We stood in the middle of the lonely patch of grass in Northeast Philadelphia, in a grove surrounded by tall oaks, where faint depressions in the grass were the only indications that bodies are buried there.

In this, the city's last potter's field, a cluster of state police, forensic anthropologists, and homicide detectives probed the soil Tuesday, searching for the remains of a little girl found in a box in the Schuylkill in 1962.

A little girl mostly erased from the city's memory.

Her obscurity becomes an even greater indignity when you consider that the unidentified child for so long shared this stretch of earth, near Byberry Road, with another Philadelphia mystery: the Boy in the Box, the toddler found in a cardboard box in some roadside woods in Fox Chase in 1957, perhaps the city's most studied unsolved crime.

Unidentified himself, the boy has captured the attention of a city for more than a half a century.

The Girl in the Box has never been afforded that kind of scrutiny.

"Just like Boy in the Box of the 1950s, this was the Girl in the Box of the 1960s," said Lehigh County Homicide Detective Thomas McAndrew, formerly of the state police and now president of the Pennsylvania Homicide Investigators Association. "But no one knew about her  a little black girl largely forgotten."

Not by everybody, he quickly added. Not anymore, at least.

The child was believed to have been between 4 and 6 years old when her headless corpse was found in a wooden milk box floating in the river near Passyunk Avenue. She had been decapitated and burned, one of her fingers amputated and bandaged. Her remains had been wrapped in an apron and a copy of the Sunday Bulletin dated March 11, 1962.

The dig for her remains is part of an effort by state and local police  and national experts  to identify some of nearly 300 nameless dead still on city scrolls, dating back to the 1950s. And to solve the riddle of some of their deaths.

It's a charge led by McAndrew, who has worked murders for 20 years, and Erin Kimmerle, a renowned forensic anthropologist from the University of South Florida. She has dug in overseas war zones to identify the victims of atrocities. And she's dug to identify the victims of American atrocities, too  like those who suffered horrific abuse at a boy's school in Florida, buried in unmarked graves in a makeshift cemetery. The body of one boy, Thomas Curry, a runaway from the school who died from a crushed skull, was sent home to Philadelphia in 1925.

When Kimmerle cracked the lid of his coffin in Old Cathedral Cemetery in West Philadelphia in 2014, the mystery only deepened. The coffin was empty.

That's the sad reality of their work. Even with all the new technology and dedication, when you're probing the dirt for answers in decades-old crimes, sometimes there's only so much you can find.

For his part, McAndrew has become a vocal advocate for reforms that would help police better take advantage of the dizzying array of identification technology now in their grasp. He's long called for stricter mandated national and state databases that help police link the missing with the unidentified dead.

He hopes the attention could cause families who may have given up hope to step forward.

A federal grant dedicated to unsolved homicides led Kimmerle and McAndrew to the file of the Girl in the Box, gathering dust in the city archives, and this old potter's field. (The grant expires later this month  they sneaked the Philly dig under the wire.)

The field was decommissioned in 1987  no more room, officials said at the time  and now the anonymous dead are stored in cold cabinets at the morgue. The Boy in the Box was reburied at Ivy Hill Cemetery in 1998.

The Girl in the Box and the remains of six other young people that Kimmerle and McAndrew hoped to find were left there, languishing in unmarked graves.

There are no societies dedicated to solving these cases. No Wikipedia pages, no internet sleuths searching for their names. Just 6-by-3-foot graves, cheap particleboard coffins  a pine box even too pricey a luxury, apparently  and a cheat sheet that McAndrew hands out with the stark, sparse details of their deaths.

Grave 522: a teenage boy found shot to death in 1977 near some railroad tracks along Delaware Avenue.

Grave 530: a teenage boy stabbed to death and found floating with weights in a Port Richmond creek.

Grave 550: the partial remains of a young woman found also in 1979 in a sewer system in a Tioga sewer.

Their remains were all recovered, with three more graves set to be opened Wednesday and Thursday.

They had opened the Girl in the Box's grave first, and dug down to where they thought she rests, but had not found her. By day's end, they narrowed their search to a few yards of earth nearby. Come morning, they planned to search anew, determined to find a little girl, no longer forgotten.City dignitaries gathered in 2013 to cut the ceremonial ribbon of the new Philadelphia Police Department's Special Victims Unit. Read more

It was big news in 2013 when the city opened a dedicated Special Victims Unit where adult and child victims of sexual assault could finally receive all their care under one roof. Previously, services were scattered throughout the city, making it difficult for victims to deal with the medical, emotional, and legal aftermath of assault.

But two weeks ago, with barely a whisper, the city shuttered the 50,000-square-foot building at 300 E. Hunting Park Ave. after three police officers were sickened with symptoms related to mold exposure.

This is the second time in three months that mold has reared its spore-y head at the building, which is leased to the city by owner ISP 300 LLC and is managed by Watchtower Property Company.

In July, a pipe leaked, creating mold in a section of the building occupied by the Philadelphia Children's Alliance, which interviews, supports, and counsels the youngest victims of sexual brutalization. Back then, nobody needed to be displaced as Watchtower replaced drywall and carpeting.

While the remediation was wrapping up, though, new mold was found elsewhere in the building. This time, it was caused by a faulty HVAC unit.

Until the police officers fell sick, says City Hall spokesperson Mike Dunn, "We didn't know that the landlord had been working with the Children's Alliance on a mold issue. We were never informed."

Which sure seems weird, given that the city holds the building's lease.

The city has shut the place down during remediation out of health concerns for employees and the thousands of victims seen at the SVU every year.

I visited the site this week, which usually bustles 24/7 with hundreds of officers, social workers, advocates, and clients. It was so deserted, I thought I saw tumbleweeds blowing across the two-story parking lot (which was practically empty except for a van from a disaster-restoration business). Signs posted on the locked doors read, "Until further notice, no staff is to enter the building."

The sudden shut-down has sent the city back to the Dumb Ages, and now the victims and the angels who work so hard to handle cases with efficiency and sensitivity are scrambling.

The SVU's 75 police personnel have been relocated to three different districts. Staffers of the Philadelphia Children's Alliance are now operating out of temporary space at LaSalle University in Olney. Advocates in the Department of Human Services are back to working with young victims at various sites around Philly. And volunteers with Women Organized Against Rape, who for a year have manned an office at the SVU, have returned to WOAR's downtown headquarters.

"We're still getting the job done," Philly Police spokesperson Capt. Sekou Kinebrew was quick to say when I asked how the PPD is handling the disruption. "We're working our normal hours and continuing all investigations as usual. No one's case is getting left behind. This is temporary."

But so frustrating. And so wrong.

What has made the SVU a godsend is the co-location of all services. Interviews and exams are coordinated in such a way that victims  especially children  don't have to repeatedly relive the trauma of their assault to investigators from multiple agencies or travel to off-site medical sites for forensic testing or to support centers for counseling.

In other words, the SVU helps traumatized victims get through the hell of a sexual assault with as much efficiency, dignity, and humanity as possible.

That's why the mold disruption has WOAR executive director Monique Howard more worried than usual about victims. At the SVU, her staff and volunteers had easy physical access to victims. The shutdown has brought unavoidable delays in connecting.

"Every study shows that the best outcomes for victims happen when they're supported as quickly as possible after an assault," Howard says.

WOAR workers provide trauma-informed crisis intervention and advocacy to victims while they receive medical attention. They explain the rape-kit and police-reporting process, inform victims about legal options, help them make important post-assault health decisions (about STD and pregnancy testing, for example), and accompany them to legal proceedings.

"Generally," she says, "we establish a rapport that makes for better witnesses if a victim decides to proceed to court with charges."

Watchtower Properties, which manages the SVU site, appears to be taking the mold situation seriously.

Company manager Walker Gilmore says Watchtower has already spent $125,000 to fix the mess and that the total will probably top $150,000. Remediation has included everything from surface cleaning, moisture testing, and cleaning or replacement of HVAC units, to installation of ceiling dehumidifiers and humidity-monitoring devices, video-inspection of storm-water piping, and placement of ultraviolet light bulbs in the building's duct work (it keeps mold from spreading  who knew?).

As for when the building will reopen, SVU employees are bringing in their own inspectors to ensure the remediation has been adequate. But no one could say when that process would be completed.

"We're concerned for our officers," one of whom had to be hospitalized following the mold exposure, says frustrated FOP president John McNesby; just last month, the city had to seal off a room at the 39th District that also reeked of mold and mildew. "It could be 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days. We just want it done right."

Please make it soon, everybody. Victims desperately need you under one roof again.Members of the Havertown-Area Community Action Network, or H-CAN, Yvonne Fabella (from left), Sarah McCafferty and Krista Malott answer questions as the Haverford Township Human Relations Commission holds a town hall on diversity and inclusion. Read more

Charges of racial incidents in Haverford Township and its schools  a topic that has roiled the Delaware County township since release of a controversial report on the subject in April  got strong pushback Wednesday night from the district superintendent and police chief at a crowded community forum.

Maureen Reusche, superintendent of the Haverford School District, told the gathering of roughly 100 people that "it saddens me" to hear any complaints of racial bias, but she argued that the report from the Haverford-Area Community Action Network dealing with issues such as racial harassment and a lack of nonwhite teachers had mischaracterized the problem.

Reusche said she was angry that "there seems to be broad, sweeping generalizations made of the district" in the H-CAN report in alleging discrimination and hate crimes within the Delaware County township. "I know that is not representative of the district as a whole."

The schools chief was followed at the forum  sponsored by the Human Relations Commission of Haverford  by Police Chief John Viola, who vehemently disputed the report's contention that drivers in the township, which has a 3.3 percent black population, are racially profiled. Viola showed a slew of data to back his contention that black drivers are not stopped disproportionately more than others.

Not everyone in the crowd  which was allowed to submit written questions to the panelists  agreed with the defensive responses by top officials.

"Nothing she said was satisfactory," Khalilah Carmichael, a black township resident who works in health-care information technology, said after Reusche spoke. Carmichael said she was particularly troubled by the superintendent's response that the district doesn't need to hire a chief diversity officer  one of the main recommendations in the H-CAN report  because that task has been taken on by another employee and that her priority would be to hire more mental-health and guidance staff.

"She told us that was more important than diversity  she doesn't seem to understand that these experiences matter," said Carmichael, referring to students who, according to the report, were sometimes called the N-word or treated badly by students or district staff.

The hearing was the first opportunity of the new school year for township residents to discuss and debate the issues raised by the H-CAN report.

Community activists said recently they've been frustrated with the lack of a conversation around the report and specifically with the response from the school district, which they said failed to respond to its calls for the chief diversity officer or for including parents or residents in district inclusion efforts.

Officials with the highly rated, 6,000-student Delaware County district have insisted before Wednesday's meeting they are making progress on diversity, citing the recent hiring of an African American principal and increased cultural sensitivity training for students and staff.

Schools in the township of roughly 48,000  blending middle-class streets and islands of affluence  are 84.6 percent white but, like most classrooms in the Philadelphia suburbs, have grown slightly more diverse in recent years. According to state statistics, just a couple of years ago 98 percent of the teachers were white.

The April report  which sparked a call for action from the Main Line NAACP  highlighted a number of bias incidents and alleged hate crimes in the schools and community, such as an 11-year-old black child riding a bike and called the N-word by an adult in a passing car, a swastika scrawled on the trash can of a Jewish resident, and an immigrant family whose picture at a Havertown playground was posted on social media with accusations they might be kidnappers.

Reusche told the audience at the forum that school leaders are aware of the need to hire more nonwhite teachers and have made plans to attend a Philadelphia-area diversity job fair this year for the first time. But the superintendent said that the pool of available teachers overall is shrinking, making the market highly competitive.

"We don't ask race on applications and we don't use recruiters," Reusche added. "Anyone hired is on their own merit."

Larry Feinberg, the Haverford school board president, stood up at the meeting to say that recruitment of more nonwhite teachers was one of the district's top goals for the current school year.Mayor Kenney pitched community schools as a linchpin of his administration, a key reason Philadelphia needed the controversial soda tax. It would take a number of public schools and transform them with supports, resources, and a city-paid staffer to coordinate them, enabling school staff to focus more on improving academics.

Two years into the initiative  which has a $3.25 million budget this fiscal year  the city's community schools are not yet transformed, and overall, the effort's results have been mixed, according to a study released Thursday by Research for Action, the nonpartisan Philadelphia nonprofit.

While there have been some school-level victories, the community-schools model has been hampered by limited coordination between the school system and the Kenney administration and by a lack of standardized systems that could allow leaders to track individual students' progress, the report says. The program "could be improved with stronger leadership from the Mayor's Office of Education and more extensive cross-sector collaboration," it found.

Situated around the city, the 12 community schools  Cramp, F.S. Edmonds, Gideon, Gompers, Locke, Logan, and Southwark elementary schools; Tilden Middle School; and Dobbins; Kensington Health Sciences; and South Philadelphia and George Washington high schools  each have a different focus, but the goal is the same: to remove barriers to learning by embedding select resources inside the schools.

South Philadelphia High, for instance, has a clothes closet and a food pantry and focuses much of its work on jobs and career training; Tilden's amenities include a mindfulness room and an emphasis on mental-health services.

The city plans to add eight more community schools by 2022. (Kenney's plan was initially to have 25 community schools in place by 2020, but a lawsuit over the legality of the sugary-drink tax, now resolved, hampered that plan.)

One bright spot has been the quality of the community-school coordinators, those staffers charged with assessing schools' needs and finding resources to match them. At one school, a staff member described that coordinator to researchers as "a fairy godmother; if you say, 'We really need to have this,' [the coordinator] finds a way."

But those workers are often stretched too thin, the report found.

And while student participation in the community schools' programs and services was high  85 percent of those surveyed said they attended at least one community-school event in 2017-18  connections with families and the larger community have been tough, stymied by "a history of fear, mistrust, and lack of involvement with the school among community members," the report said.

There have been other hurdles, too; some schools have offered evening and weekend programs, but in other cases, security and funding issues have prevented the kind of wider programming envisioned.

There seemed to be a disconnect, too, between what students say they need and the kind of programming offered. More than 80 percent of teachers and staff said that community-school services matched students' needs, fewer than 20 percent of students made that claim. About 7,000 students attend the schools; 890 students and staff were surveyed.

Otis Hackney, Kenney's chief education officer, said that the report will serve community schools well and that its recommendations are already being implemented.

"We value this opportunity to take a clear look at where we can improve and are excited to work with the school district and many other partners to strengthen the initiative going forward," Hackney said in a statement.

Lee Whack, a district spokesperson, said the school system was pleased with the work in progress.

"The behavioral health supports and the community partnerships have been very beneficial, and we believe they will continue to grow," Whack said in a statement. "We greatly appreciate the commitment from Mayor Kenney and City Council in this effort to support Philadelphia children and communities."The life and legacy of Gerry Lenfest was celebrated Wednesday in a public ceremony at the Academy of Music. Read more

He was an American original who moved the city forward and helped to save the free press.

He felt a sense of responsibility to share his wealth with others and did so with a gleeful determination.

And he left the city and region changed.

H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest was remembered Wednesday in a ceremony at the Academy of Music that drew about 1,400 admirers and associates from across an impressive swath of the city's media, business, culture, government, education, and philanthropy realms.

Poetry was read, the orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music performed, photos and memories were shared, and in recollections both intimate and expansive, a portrait emerged of one of the city's most generous philanthropists  with a touch of the common man.

"Bold and dramatic decisions were made over a simple cup of coffee at his kitchen table or his favorite restaurant, Little Pete's," said Philadelphia Museum of Art president Gail Harrity about Lenfest's involvement at the Art Museum, where he had been board chairman. "He was not motivated by achieving personal recognition, but instead by civic responsibility and public service."

"The truth is, he was one of the great figures of our time," Columbia University president Lee Bollinger said of Lenfest, who died Aug. 5 at age 88. Lenfest was one of Columbia's largest-ever donors.

Several speakers talked about the characteristic twinkle in his eye, that he liked to offer palm readings, loved to sail, and was frugal to a fault  even after becoming a billionaire. He was as likely to be found talking to a security guard or member of the food service staff as another business leader, several suggested.

"His fortune changed dramatically, but he did not," said Harrity. "Only his ambitions grew, and yes, soared."

He loved music, and especially so when it came in the form of some young pianist or violinist pointing the way to the future. On stage were exactly the kind of students with whom he and wife Marguerite relished contact. They played a genre of lush works he loved, like Barber's Adagio for Strings.

Lenfest was passionate about art, but even more so when it could achieve some larger win for society. Without his involvement in raising millions, The Gross Clinic, the epic Thomas Eakins canvas, might have left the city. "For the Lenfests, keeping that painting in Philadelphia was a matter of civic pride," Harrity said.

When another storied Philadelphia benefactor, Leonore Annenberg, was remembered at a similar ceremony at the Academy in 2009, it came with a video greeting from Prince Charles, who called the refined widow of Walter Annenberg "a philanthropist of global acclaim." For the memorial of gruff developer Willard G. Rouse Jr. at Verizon Hall in 2003, an excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit was chosen to say something about who he was, and speakers pointedly asked the crowd where the city's next go-to man or woman would be coming from.

Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest would go on to answer  and emphatically. At the time of Rouse's death, Lenfest and his wife had just come into their fortune a few years earlier and were beginning to make their mark. In a span just shy of two decades, they gave away more than $1.3 billion to charity  money spent on expansions at the Curtis Institute of Music and Philadelphia Museum of Art, to substantially fund the creation of the Museum of the American Revolution, for college scholarships to students in rural Pennsylvania, to fund hospitals, literacy programs, and nature preserves, and on and on.

Wednesday's three-hour-plus tribute offered seemingly no end of testimony to their generosity, a montage of institutions transformed and individual lives changed.

But it took the former mayor and governor Ed Rendell to ask  as he did after Rouse died  who would take up the mantle.

"We can't slow down now," said Rendell. Lenfest would want the city to "roll up its sleeves and keep it moving forward."

Lenfest didn't just give of his fortune. Many speakers made the point that when he joined a board or took on a new project, he offered ideas and wisdom without imposing his own agenda.

"He had a sixth sense about when to get involved," said Curtis president and CEO Roberto Diaz, who also spoke of Lenfest's role as a catalyst; he often made his gifts contingent on being matched by gifts from other donors. "It was impossible to say no to Gerry," he said.

>> READ MORE: H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest Shaped Philadelphia for the Future

There are hundreds of institutions in the city that have been transformed by the Lenfests' giving, said Comcast chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts. "But I believe Gerry's most important calling and perhaps his lasting legacy is what he has done to support the freedom of the press in the city and the country," he said. "At a time when journalism has never mattered more, and has never been more fragile, Gerry stepped up to the plate to protect this most basic human right, a cornerstone of our nation and our democracy."

The two hosts of the celebration of Lenfest's life were Terry Egger, publisher and CEO of Philadelphia Media Network, and Jim Friedlich, executive director and CEO of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Lenfest bought the media company and donated it to a nonprofit, and created the institute (and at first resisted putting his name on it).

Among the attendees Wednesday were representatives from existing institutions he helped to change, like Curtis, the Barnes Foundation, Mann Center, Woodmere Art Museum; groups he helped to rescue, like the Kimmel Center and Philadelphia Orchestra; and others he willed into existence, like the Museum of the American Revolution.

What all of them had in common Bollinger expressed concisely and ardently.

"The Lenfest name brings happiness wherever it appears," he said, "and it will continue to do so for generations to come."Actor Sylvester Stallone waves to fans while visiting the Rocky statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Friday, April 6, 2018. Stallone, who is in town filming Creed 2, visited the statue to dedicate a new plaque at its base. Read more

With a career in action flicks like Rambo, Cobra, and the too-literally titled Over the Top, Sylvester Stallone is no stranger to the ridiculous. But what may be his most excessive work actually came out just a few years ago  and it focuses on watches and pens.

Back in 2013, Stallone released an advertisement for his "Chaos" line of pens and watches with Italian luxury brand Montegrappa Italia, of which Stallone is a board member. Priced at around $50,000 for the gold versions and $6,000 for the silver, the pieces were inspired by Stallone's action franchise The Expendables, and feature more skulls, snakes, and simulated fire than the movies themselves. The line also features similarly ridiculous cufflinks and an ink well, as watch blog A Blog to Watch notes.

Naturally, such lavish products need a trailer to go along with them, and Stallone obliged. Unfortunately, it flew mostly under the radar, up until this week, when the clip went viral on social media. But at just under four minutes  and with as much machismo as any Stallone flick  it ought to have been released in theaters, if only for its sheer bizarreness.

The clip opens with Stallone philosophizing on the duality of the universe, noting platitudes like "to have light, there must first be darkness," "death does not exist without life," and "to keep order, first there must be Chaos." Similarly, if there is a sensible pen and watch for every broke schmo out there, there must also be ostentatious ones for the rich and flashy  a market with which Stallone, a noted watch collector, is familiar.

From there, the trailer, which is entirely CGI, shows a skeleton on the bank of a river as a light bursts from its chest only to grow into a massive, monolithic tower, complete with a skull on top.

A snake then slithers from the nearby river, winding its way up the tower before a sword magically shoots out of the darkness, only to be caught by a skeleton hand that grows from the top of the structure.

Ever-extravagant, Stallone then covers the whole mess in liquid gold.

That appears to be the origin story of the "Chaos" pen, considering that the trailer then cuts to a closeup of the writing instrument, complete with the descriptions "exotic," "majestic," and "imposing." Doesn't everyone look for that in a pen?

To seal the deal, the commercial let's you know that with the "Chaos" pen, you will have "the power of the written word in your hands." Never mind that the same could be said of literally any writing utensil, ever.

What follows is a scene that can only be described as an acrobatic battle, a la Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, between the gold and silver versions of the pens on what appear to be the streets of Rome.

That takes up about three minutes of the ad, leaving the last quarter devoted to the "Chaos" watch. But because such an amazing timepiece cannot just be shown outright, the clip shows it materializing onscreen out of a brilliant, golden light.

For however insane the clip is, the "Chaos" line, of course, didn't become Stallone's main gig. His next upcoming film, Creed II, which filmed here in Philly earlier this year, is set for release on Nov. 21.This image released by Universal Pictures shows Jamie Lee Curtis in a scene from "Halloween," in theaters nationwide on Oct. 19. (Ryan Green/Universal Pictures via AP) Read more

Four decades ago, horror master John Carpenter unleashed masked killer Michael Myers on an idyllic Illinois town with Halloween, resulting in the grisly deaths of five people and the popularization of the slasher movie subgenre. A slew of sequels and reboots followed, each more dismal than the last.

Director David Gordon Green's newly released Halloween, however, has the film franchise springing back to life just when you thought it was dead, much like its star killer. And unlike with the series' other sequels, this one finally feels like it was worth the wait.

Written by Green and frequent collaborators Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride, the new Halloween follows Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode, the lone survivor of Myers' first killing spree, 40 years after the original film. Don't, however, expect her to make references to previous Halloween sequels  in this Halloween's universe, those films never existed. Instead, it's a direct follow-up to the original.

A self-described "twice-divorced basket cast," Strode today is a jaded, gun-toting survivalist, and has been waiting for Myers (played by original actor Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney) to return ever since 1978 in hopes of getting revenge. Myers escapes from prison on Halloween and Strode's paranoia proves wise, so she gathers her family  estranged daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak)  to take down her real-life Boogeyman once and for all.

Curtis' performance as babysitter-turned-warrior is the focal point of the film, and her version of Strode carries the responsibility well. She is a broken woman as a result of Myers' assault, and has lost everything from her family to her reputation. Racked by PTSD, a normal life for her doesn't seem possible, at least while Myers is able to walk the streets. Curtis' portrayal of Strode is realistic and powerful, and shows the type of regret and loss her character might experience.

With the #MeToo movement still in full swing, that story can easily be viewed as an allegory comeuppance of Hollywood's other famous white male predators. It's more extreme than a lawsuit, but here, we see three generations of Strode women band together to go after their attacker  a regular, old white dude who never shows his face and isn't actually all that powerful to begin with.

And, boy, does it feel good.

Oddly, though, Myers' original killing spree seems somewhat less shocking 40 years removed from the initial murders  a point that some of the film's characters debate early on. After all, we live in a world today where murderers shoot up people at country music concerts and high schools, which makes a guy killing five people in a small town feel less impactful. It's horrible, but is it something that can become an unwavering obsession in a person's life for 40 years? For Strode, the answer is yes, though at a great personal cost, a sad but necessary life choice.

Despite its successes, this Halloween falls just short of feeling like its own film. There is a lot of fan service to the original, and Green and McBride's love of stoner-slacker humor disrupts some of the film's more intense moments. It also essentially recycles the first film's structure, and serves mostly as a love letter to Carpenter's landmark film  but with way more gore.

Halloween fans, however, will likely be charmed, if only because it is nowhere near as bad as the previous sequels. Instead, like Strode, it's just a little more badass.

MOVIES

HalloweenIf dying, as the actors say, is easy, then Rupert Everett must have breezed through The Happy Prince.

The movie is essentially one long death scene, featuring Everett (who wrote and directed) as Oscar Wilde in the final, dismal three years of the author's life in exile and in ruin, before he finally succumbed to meningitis in Paris in 1900.

That makes the movie sound a bit more morose than it is. Everett  underneath some extra pounds and jowly prosthetics  plays Wilde as a man who keeps gloomy reality at bay with his famous wit, and also with absinthe, cocaine, and handsome young men.

The film picks up Wilde's story after his release from an English prison where he had been jailed on charges of "gross indecency" with men, ending his career as England's most celebrated man of letters. Wilde plans to live anonymously in France on a small allowance from his wife, Constance (Emily Watson), but his meager cash flow is contingent on his willingness to renounce the behavior that led to his arrest in the first place.

Wilde is having none of this. He takes up with former lover Lord Alfred Douglas, known as Bosie (Colin Morgan), even if it means estrangement from his wife and family, and poverty, and even if it means instigating the jealousy of devoted friend and lover Robbie Ross (Edwin Thomas).

Part of Everett's job here is to make us see Wilde as his friends saw him  reckless and selfish, but so candid about his weaknesses and so skilled at describing them that his failings were always forgiven. Everett plays Wilde as a man with a dramatist's flair, in the theater and in life (cinematographer John Conroy's hand-held camera, always just a step away, follows Wilde around like an eager puppy).

The movie is at its best in France and Italy with Wilde and his entourage. Attempts to integrate Watson's character into the story are less successful  husband and wife never reunited, and Watson's one note of brittle disappointment leaves us feeling that she's being underused. A thread that has Wilde telling stories to French boys, avatars of his estranged sons, also feels schematic and flat.

Elsewhere there is the feeling of period detail and atmosphere in search of emotion, and repetitive scenes of Wilde and Bosie blowing what little money they have on champagne start to grow tiresome.

"Must we talk about money at lunch?" says Bosie, with an air of aristocratic entitlement that Morgan plays almost too well. (Must we watch you have lunch?)

Happy Prince is also, at times, one of those historical dramas that has onlookers laughing with a forced gusto at famous lines, as though Wilde were Carl Reiner, and needed a laugh track.

It finds the right harmonized note of melancholy and humor in its closing moments, when a good-natured clergyman (Tom Wilkinson) is summoned to the author's deathbed, for a ritual of absolution that neither man is sure is going to stick.

MOVIES

The Happy PrinceNearly a century after the first Ahmadiyya Muslim missionary sailed across the Atlantic to Philadelphia, the sect's international leader is visiting the city to dedicate a new mosque in a struggling neighborhood.

Khalifa Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the equivalent of the pope to the world's 20 million Ahmadis, is spending three days at the Baitul Aafiyat mosque on Glenwood Avenue in North Philadelphia during a visit marked by a modest amount of pomp, but heavy security.

"The first missionary came to Philadelphia, so Philadelphia has a particular importance. And he has come to remind us of that history," said Imam Abdullah Dibba, of Baitul Aafiyat, which means "house of security" in Arabic.

Ahmad arrived in a caravan Wednesday from the group's national headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., to an excited crowd of about 1,200 followers. The group, some of whom had come from as far away as Canada, greeted their leader with a red carpet lined with families holding signs, and children singing songs of welcome. About 700 Ahmadis live in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

Ahmad began his U.S. visit Monday, traveling from London, the community's international headquarters. He is scheduled to make stops at Ahmadiyya communities in Baltimore, Houston, and Manassas, Va. Between Houston and Manassas, he will travel to Guatemala, where the Ahmadis are opening a new hospital. Ahmad will depart Nov. 5 to return to London.

>>READ MORE: Cherry Hill wants residents to know their Muslim neighbor

Ahmadiyya Muslims believe that the sect's founder, called Messiah Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was a prophet from God, while most Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was the last prophet in a line that includes Adam, Moses, and Jesus Christ, said Muqtedar Khan, a professor and founding director of the Islamic studies department at the University of Delaware.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, an Indian mystic, announced he was the messiah in 1889. His purpose was to "revive Islam, reform Muslims, and unite mankind," Dibba said.

But Mirza Ghulam Ahmad is viewed as an apostate in some countries around the world, said Daniel C. Bottomley, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware who wrote his dissertation on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Ahmadis are banned from calling themselves Muslims in Pakistan and members of the sect have been persecuted and killed because of their beliefs.

In 2010, Habib Peer, who immigrated to Philadelphia from Pakistan and became a U.S. citizen, returned to his home country and was shot dead in what his family said was a targeted killing because of his religion. Peer's death occurred three months after an attack on two Ahmadiyya mosques in Pakistan that killed 94 people.

Amid the violence, Ahmadis advocate for peace and interreligious dialogue. Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the tradition's fifth Khalifa, has made that a focus of his tenure, which began in 2003. He has launched a National Peace Symposium which is held annually in the United Kingdom, and an international Ahmadiyya Muslim Prize for the Advancement of Peace. Local mosques are instructed to initiate grassroots efforts in their communities. About 20,000 Ahmadis live in the United States.

>>READ MORE: Local Muslim sect introduces Islam with #MeetaMuslim effort

Born in Pakistan in 1950 when the country was the Ahmadi's international headquarters, Mirza Masroor Ahmad studied agricultural economics, earning a master's degree from the University of Faisalabad. He spent eight years in Ghana working on development projects, establishing farms and schools. He returned to Pakistan in the mid-1980s, and was eventually elected to lead the Ahmadis.

In North Philadelphia on Wednesday, Ahmad toured the new 21,000-square-foot mosque in the city where nearly a century earlier, missionary Mufti Muhammad Sadiq arrived to spread the faith. Sadiq then moved on to New York, Chicago and Detroit.

Philadelphia's small community worshiped in a 4,000-square-foot mosque on Ninth Street before moving into its new $7 million building, funded by members' donations and support from the national headquarters. Inside is a pristine house of prayer with cool gray/blue walls, a library, offices, and a multipurpose room where the local community will host on Friday a dinner in honor of Ahmad. During his visit, he will meet with individual families, lead prayers, and meet local dignitaries at the Friday event.

Jameela Ahmid, 75, of Logan, stood along the border of the red carpet Wednesday to get a glimpse of the man Ahmadis consider to be their pope and spiritual father.

Ahmad walked deliberately and quietly down the carpet, wearing a towering turban and surrounded by a phalanx of security. He stood next to the dedication plaque and unveiled it without a word.

"This is one of the highlights of my life to [see] the Khalifa, worldwide who is in charge of millions," said Ahmid, a retired coordinator of after-school programs. "I am here because I believe in the messiah. I believe in love for all and hatred of none."Lore Smith and George Pikunis died Tuesday night when a fire ripped through the home they shared in Browns Mills, Burlington County. Read more

Authorities have released the name of a 94-year-old man who died Tuesday in a fire that ripped through the Burlington County home he shared with his longtime companion and her son.

George Pikunis of the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township was pronounced dead at the scene Tuesday night. His name was not released until Thursday so family members could be notified. The blaze also killed Lore Smith, 92, and seriously injured her son, Kurt, 59.

The cause remained under investigation Thursday. Authorities were called to the 500 block of Willow Boulevard about 8:45 p.m. and pulled the three victims from the single-story house.

Lore Smith was pronounced dead at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center at Deborah Hospital on Tuesday night. Kurt Smith was airlifted to Temple University Hospital, where was placed on a respirator, said Joel Bewley, a spokesperson for the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office. A spokesperson for Temple said Smith was in fair condition Thursday.

According to witnesses, the three were trapped inside the home. Neighbors and police who tried to help them could not get through the flames and thick smoke. Firefighters equipped with breathing gear arrived shortly afterward and pulled them from the house. It took emergency crews an hour to get the blaze under control.Tina Shelton of Havertown marches with her "Time's Up" sign to a planning meeting after a prayer service and vigil opposite Cathedral Basilica SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia in September. Read more

HARRISBURG  U.S. prosecutors have subpoenaed every Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania for a trove of records, opening a potentially unprecedented inquiry into whether decades of clergy sex abuse and the ensuing cover-up constituted any federal crimes.

Nearly all of the eight dioceses acknowledged Thursday that they had either received subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia or been contacted by authorities. None would elaborate on the request, and prosecutors declined to confirm or deny the existence of the investigation.

But sources familiar with the matter, though not authorized to publicly discuss it, said agents were looking at a swath of potential crimes, from possession of child pornography to transporting children across state lines for the purposes of engaging in sex.

The Associated Press, which first reported on the subpoenas, said investigators also want to scour records related to the dioceses' organizational charts, finances, insurance coverage, and clergy assignments, as well as the confidential personnel files that have become known as the church's "secret archives."

The sweeping federal inquiry comes after the scathing grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, and as the Catholic Church worldwide finds itself plunged into further turmoil over its handling of sex-abuse claims.

The grand jury report, made public in August, detailed decades of abuse and cover-ups, and the fallout has been swift and relentless for both U.S. church leaders and the Vatican. Just last week, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, who was singled out in the report as having helped protect pedophile priests while bishop of Pittsburgh.

While dioceses' handling of sex-abuse allegations have been investigated by local or state prosecutors around the country, they have largely escaped federal scrutiny. A 2009 probe of the Los Angeles Archdiocese ended without charges.

But the Pennsylvania probe could signal that the U.S. Department of Justice is willing to use its resources to embark on an expansive criminal investigation of dioceses across an entire state.

"I've never heard of such a thing before," Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks and archives abuse scandals in Catholic dioceses, said Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office, which ran the investigation that culminated in the grand jury report, would not comment on news of the federal subpoenas. Joe Grace, spokesperson for Attorney General Josh Shapiro, referred calls to William M. McSwain, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. A spokesperson for McSwain would neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

But the dioceses didn't dispute their contact with federal authorities.

"The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has received a subpoena issued by a federal grand jury, which requires the production of certain documents," said its spokesperson, Ken Gavin. "The archdiocese will cooperate with the United States Department of Justice in this matter."

Federal authorities served the subpoena on Oct. 9, Gavin said.

The Dioceses of Harrisburg, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg, and Allentown also released statements saying they had been contacted by federal investigators, and were intending to comply or were consulting with their lawyers. The other dioceses are Altoona-Johnstown and Pittsburgh.

The grand jury report chronicled how more than 300 priests sexually abused more than 1,000 children over seven decades, and how church officials systematically covered it up.

"All of [the victims] were brushed aside, in every part of the state, by church leaders who preferred to protect the abusers and their institutions above all," the report says. "Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible not only did nothing: They hid it all."

Shapiro has said that his office's investigation drew upon testimony from dozens of witnesses, and relied heavily on the "secret archives," which included clergy sex-abuse complaints. Those records, the Attorney General's Office said, detailed how church officials ignored or hid allegations while shuffling abusers from parish to parish, sometimes across state lines. Lawsuits filed by accusers often ended in strict confidentiality agreements.

Because nearly all the allegations happened too long ago to prosecute, the report fueled furious debate over whether to allow a two-year reprieve in the civil statute of limitations so that older victims of child sexual abuse could sue their attackers and the institutions that covered up the abuse.

That proposal was endorsed by Shapiro, the investigative grand jury, the state House of Representatives, and Senate Democrats as well as victims and their advocates. But Senate Republicans, who control the chamber, until recently opposed any retroactive change in the law.

Late Wednesday, a compromise plan was floated that would have created a state-run compensation fund and opened a window for older victims to sue their attackers, but not the institutions that may have shielded their abusers. But the plan, put forth by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson), was swiftly denounced as protecting the Catholic Church, and the bill died on the last scheduled voting day of the legislative session.

Liz Navratil of the Harrisburg Bureau contributed to this article.Cynthia Erivo attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination exhibition in May. Erivo was criticized for imitating a "ghetto American accent." Read more

As soon as it was announced that filming would start for a Harriet Tubman biopic with British Nigerian actress Cynthia Erivo as the lead, a social media fury erupted.

An online appeal went up demanding that an African American woman be cast as Tubman, who, after escaping slavery, made more than a dozen trips to lead others to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

In the Change.org petition, which garnered 1,123 signatures by Oct. 17, organizer Tyler Holmes wrote: "We will boycott the film Harriet until you hire an actual black American actress to play the part."

Part of the anger directed at Erivo was that social media users unearthed an old tweet where Erivo had mocked a "ghetto American accent." Critics said she denigrated African Americans on one hand, but sought to portray an iconic African American hero on the other.

This came after a tangle in August when Nigerian-born blogger and author Luvvie Ajayi wrote that Tevin Campbell was too obscure a choice to sing at Aretha Franklin's funeral. "Under what rock did they pull that name from?" Ajayi quipped. The Twitter response was livid.

Such arguments, dubbed by some "the diaspora war," reveal more than preferences over movie roles and pop culture. The rancor provides a peek into a debate about identity in America, raising questions about how a changing black population  increasingly diverse with immigrants and refugees from Africa, the Caribbean, Britain, and elsewhere  sees itself and is seen by the majority.

Who is black in America? Can there be unity based on skin color alone? Who gets to speak for African Americans?

Although there is more nuance to the arguments, the sides often go like this: Black immigrants are respected more than black Americans, all the while benefiting from reparations meant to right evils of America's past. That's led to some black Americans redefining themselves as "American Descendants of Slavery" to spotlight their claim on America's promises. Meanwhile, immigrants discover they're newly identified as "black" in a white nation  an unnecessary distinction in Nigeria, Ghana, or Jamaica  and say that when pulled over by cops, no one cares whether they have a charming accent.

These identity issues are showing up at universities, during marches, and at theaters, and raise questions of whether these diverging groups can, or want to, build coalitions for political change.

We talked to a number of experts  immigrants and Americans  to help explain the origins of the tension and how the issue is playing out.

One source of contention is who benefits from diversity efforts.

For decades, researchers have studied how universities are increasing the numbers of black students at majority-white colleges. But some of the current tensions between immigrants and African Americans can be traced to a theory that the nation's most selective universities have shifted away from racial-justice remedies  things like affirmative action that were put in place to right the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow segregation  by using diversity as a goal instead.

A study published in the American Journal of Education in 2007 found that immigrants or children of immigrants, while making up 13 percent of the nation's black 18- and 19-year-olds  accounted for 41 percent of blacks admitted to Ivy League schools.

"If it's about getting black faces at Harvard, then you're doing fine," Mary C. Waters, the former chair of Harvard's sociology department, told the New York Times about a need for a philosophical discussion on affirmative action. "If it's about making up for 200 to 500 years of slavery in this country and its aftermath, then you're not doing well."

Compounding the tension is a fivefold increase in the black immigrant population in recent decades. There were 4.2 million black immigrants living in the United States in 2016, up from 816,000 in 1980, according to a Pew Research Center report. As more black immigrants experience success, they get what Fordham University professor Christina M. Greer calls "elevated minority status."

"Foreign-born blacks are often perceived by whites and even black Americans as different and 'special'  as harder-working and more productive citizens than their black American counterparts," Greer wrote in her book Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream.

It's a phenomenon that academics started noticing decades ago  that immigrants generally are "strivers" who work hard to better their lives.

It's not quite an apples-to-apples comparison, though.

Onoso Imoagene, a University of Pennsylvania sociologist born in Nigeria, who studies African immigrants and how they adapt to discrimination in America, said that although more than half of Nigerians in America are college-educated, just 7 percent of Nigerians living abroad have at least a bachelor's degree. So those who end up in the United States are the most educated  "a hyper-selected group," she said.

Immigrants dont carry the same racial trauma as Americans, experts say.

Even before immigrants come here, said Amy Yeboah, an assistant professor of African American studies at Howard University and the American-born daughter of Ghanian parents, they have an advantage American blacks often don't.

"If you are educated in Ghana, your level of education will be different from what you get in the Bronx," said Yeboah, who grew up in New York and earned her undergraduate and doctoral degrees from Temple University. "Students who apply from Ghana compared to those who are born here will do better, because they are prepared better."

Harvard professor Lani Guinier told the Washington Post that immigrants have an added benefit.

"In part, it has to do with coming from a country  where blacks were in the majority and did not experience the stigma that black children did in the United States," she said.

Immigrants are not oblivious to discrimination in their home countries, said Imoagene. It's just that those experiences haven't involved skin color.

"We have our own axes of stratification, when you think of ethnic lines [in Nigeria]  whether you are Yoruba or Igbo, or Christian or Muslim," she said. "Then you come here and find out you're [also] black, and have to learn the racial meanings attached to that status."

Whats resulted is a movement to declare who is entitled to what.

Some black Americans want to redefine themselves as an "American Descendant of Slavery," or ADOS, rather than African American.

Antonio Moore, a lawyer in California, and Yvette Carnell, a former journalist and congressional aide, appear to be leading the charge. The two make regular YouTube videos arguing that people whose ancestors were enslaved have a "justice claim" that black immigrants don't.

"We have been doing 'people of color' politics, but if you want to talk about what people who have been identified as African Americans need and what we are owed, then we have to change that definition." Carnell said.

On her videos, she has often criticized former President Barack Obama for saying this is a nation of immigrants. "We were not immigrants. We were property, we were chattel slaves. That's a difference."

Neither Americans nor immigrants are a monolith.

Michelle Saahene's voice was heard around the world when she spoke in April at the Center City Starbucks where a manager called the police on two black American men because they asked to use the bathroom without placing an order.

"They didn't do anything," Saahene, of Philadelphia, said in the viral video of the incident.

<< READ MORE: An unlikely outcome of Starbucks: Kindred spirits and a social media campaign

Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Saahene, now 32, said it was difficult for her to negotiate her racial identity as the daughter of immigrants growing up in Palmyra, a predominantly white town near Lebanon. Her teachers treated her well because she excelled in school. But at Pennsylvania State University and other places, she felt she got the cold shoulder from African American students.

Since those times, she has traveled back to Ghana. At Elmina Castle, where captured Africans were held before being taken on ships destined for the Americas, she wept.

"I  imagined what it was like to experience the torture, the rape and murder, and I looked out on the ocean and imagined being on a boat, sailing away, and I got sick to my stomach. When I got back to America, it was impossible for me to look at all African Americans and not see them as my possible brothers and sisters, neighbors and family and friends in Africa.

"To me, this feud between Africans and African Americans, it's terrible and it needs to stop."

Earlier this year, Rosita Johnson, a retired Philadelphia teacher, was honored by the South African government for her efforts starting in the '80s to support a school for children who fled to Tanzania after the Soweto protests of white rule.

At her Germantown home, the 86-year-old talked about the tensions between some Americans and Africans. A fractured black population, she said, only helps those in power.

"It's a divide-and-conquer tactic," said Johnson, "because African Americans are Africans. These are our cousins. If you're African American, you're related to somebody over there. Unfortunately, because of slavery and colonization, all people of African descent have suffered from racism. I call it a mental illness."Paul Dougherty, a former Haddon Township commssioner, pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting an unlawful payment in connection with his public office. Read more

A Haddon Township commissioner pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking a payment from a law firm in connection with a lawsuit against the township and has resigned his post, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced.

Paul Dougherty, 48, a lawyer who also has served as a municipal prosecutor in several South Jersey towns, was permanently barred from public office or holding any public job in New Jersey, Grewal said.

Dougherty, who had been a commissioner since 2007, pleaded guilty before Superior Court Judge Edward J. McBride Jr. in Camden County to one count of third-degree conspiracy to confer an unlawful benefit on a public official.

In recent months, Dougherty has been mired in a controversy after the Courier-Post reported in August that he was charged with leaving the scene of a vehicle accident on July 19 in Camden County. The Courier-Post reported that Dougherty submitted his resignation to Haddon Township on Tuesday. No reason was given. He had failed to attend commission meetings in August and September.

Dougherty also resigned his posts as municipal prosecutor in Cherry Hill and Medford Township.

Prosecutors said Dougherty in 2013 was contacted by a Haddon Township police officer who had just been suspended and wanted help from the commissioner.

Dougherty told her she had the basis for a lawsuit against the township and referred her to a law firm, prosecutors said. The law firm sued the township and obtained a $48,000 settlement for the police officer in 2015. The details of the lawsuit or the identity of the law firm were not disclosed in Grewal's announcement.

The law firm, which collected about $21,000 in legal fees, paid Dougherty a $7,106 referral fee. He returned the fee after learning he was under investigation by the state Attorney General's Office, prosecutors said.

Under his plea deal, prosecutors are recommending that he be sentenced to probation. The investigation began with a referral from the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 14.Humane Society Police Officer Tracie Graham (back) and Clair Mullins of the Montgomery County SPCA (front) take out two large tortoises Thursday, October 18, 2018 from an Upper Hanover home. Authorities rescued at least 240 animals from a home on the 1100 block of Station Road in Upper Hanover Township, including more than 100 snakes, as well as several alligators, ferrets, skunks, turtles and at least half a dozen guinea pigs. Read more

A veritable menagerie of exotic animals, including alligators, tortoises, and snakes, was rescued Thursday from a squalid home in upper Montgomery County, officials said.

And the couple who allegedly hoarded the animals had been sought Monday in connection with another cache of pets in nearby Macungie, Lehigh County, where authorities rescued 100 pigs, birds, and dogs after neighbors complained of constant barking from inside the home.

Authorities did not release the couple's names, but Hal Warner, the chief executive of the Lehigh County Humane Society, said animal-cruelty charges have been filed against them in his jurisdiction, and an arrest is pending.

His counterparts in Montgomery County plan to file similar charges against the couple, who rented both spaces from the buildings' owners.

"This is by far the worst case I've ever seen," Warner said Thursday, hours after a search warrant was served on the couple's home in Montgomery County.

The house on Station Road in Upper Hanover Township, about an hour north of Philadelphia, was searched by state troopers working with the Montgomery County Society for Protection of Animals. They were led there by information received during the investigation in Macungie, where Warner said neighbors told investigators the couple had brought a moving truck to the property the night before the raid.

Inside, investigators found an oppressive odor of urine and feces, according to Robin Royer, the zoning officer and code official for Upper Hanover. Dozens of animals were sequestered in filthy conditions, including cages filled with ferrets and plastic storage bins brimming with turtles.

Other reptiles roamed freely throughout the home, including at least 100 snakes, Royer said. Some of the animals in the house were dead, others severely ill. There was no furniture inside, only the various creatures.

It appeared, she said, that the tenants only visited the house sporadically, likely to give the animals food and water.

"The house just stank," she said. "In order for someone to inhabit that property in the future, it will have to be washed out with bleach."

Royer said Thursday's visit wasn't the first time township officials had been called to the property.

In February, neighbors complained of "malnourished, mistreated, and running dogs" at the house, which at the time was occupied by a different tenant, according to Royer. No further complaints were made, and the home's owner was never cited.

Property records show that the house is owned by Luanne DeWolf, a resident of Mertztown, Berks County. DeWolf could not be reached for comment.

The animals recovered from the house were taken to the county SPCA's shelter in Perkiomenville, where they'll undergo medical evaluations.

Meanwhile, Warner said the animals rescued from the Macungie house had all found new homes.Philadelphia voters will face a ballot question Tuesday that asks whether or not the city should amend its charter to make sexual harassment training mandatory for all city workers. Read more

In this season of nonstop campaign ads and fervent public appeals for votes in next month's mid-term election, Bucks County officials are scrambling to find enough workers to staff polling stations on Election Day.

So far, the county has lined up 1,800 poll workers, 200 short of its goal of 2,000. That's barely enough workers to staff the polls and assist voters in Bucks County's 304 voting districts, county spokesperson Larry King said. Not to mention the chance that some of those who signed up to work won't show.

And in this defining national election, officials expect voter turnout to be higher than usual on Nov. 6.

"This election cycle is particularly busy," said Deanna Giorno, chief clerk of Bucks County. "The voter registration office is working nonstop."

In the 2016 general election, Bucks County reported voter turnout of 75.95 percent, higher than the national turnout of around 61 percent. In contrast, turnout in municipal elections in the county has been significantly lower, topping out at 30.32 percent and falling as low as 12.11 percent in the last few years.

Up for grabs in next month's election are all 435 seats in the U.S. House and 33 in the U.S. Senate. This year's balloting will determine whether Republicans continue to control both chambers, and many hard-fought races are at stake as Democrats try to chip away at the GOP's dominance. Across the country, there are more than 6,500 state positions on the ballot, including Pennsylvania governor and lieutenant governor, as well as numerous local races.

>> VOTERS GUIDE: View candidates in the 2018 midterm election based on your address, or browse all the action in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

Poll workers in Bristol, Falls, Newtown, and Upper Southampton are particularly short-staffed, Bucks County officials said as they launched a recruitment drive in a bid to draw workers to the polls. Needed are election judges, machine inspectors, clerks, and majority and minority party inspectors  the "unsung engine that helps run a smooth election," King said. With the exception of election judges, who are paid $135 in a full-day shift, those workers earn $105 a day.

In surrounding counties in Pennsylvania and in South Jersey, officials say they're expecting a sufficient number of poll workers, but they are still looking for more, especially those willing to start working around 6 a.m. and stay until 9 p.m., as votes are tabulated after the polls close.

"It's always tough to fill these positions," said John Corcoran, spokesperson for Montgomery County. "It's a very long day."

On and around Election Day, some poll workers will likely cancel, he said, leaving vacancies that election officials are suddenly pressed to fill.

"There are lots of people pulling out last minute," said Stephanie Salvatore, superintendent of elections in Gloucester County. "So far, knock on wood, we seem to be pretty good."

"Normally, I wouldn't say this is going to be a turnout year," said Salvatore, who oversees the county's 229 voting districts, "but I think it's going to be a good turnout year. I haven't seen anything like this since 2008, when Obama was running."

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King, the Bucks County spokesperson, said poll-worker jobs tend to attract retirees and public-sector workers, some of whom have the day off on Election Day. Many of those who work the polls once, he said, are inclined to come back for another election.

In the days since the county announced the shortage of poll workers last week, he said, 25 people had stepped forward, eager to work next month.

"It's not really something you do for the money," he said. "It's more of a public service."

Anyone interested in working at the polls Nov. 6 may email Katie M. Pliszka, assistant director of the Bucks County Board of Elections, at kmpliszka@buckscounty.org.Joey Merlino appears to have dodged another bullet.

A federal judge in Manhattan on Tuesday declared a mistrial in the latest racketeering prosecution involving the reputed head of the Philadelphia mob  a case that threatened to send him back to prison for decades.

With a jury that declared it was hopelessly deadlocked after nearly 30 hours of deliberations in five days, the mouthy celebrity mobster  whose own lawyers describe him as a "degenerate gambler"  appeared once again to have rolled the dice against the feds and come out a winner. At least for now.

Prosecutors did not immediately say whether they intended to retry Merlino on counts that also included illegal gambling, loan-sharking, and health-care fraud.

"Thank God for the jury," Merlino said to reporters as he left the courtroom. He declined to answer further questions.

"We would have been happier had Joey been found not guilty," his longtime lawyer Edwin Jacobs said in a telephone interview after the ruling. "But any time a client leaves a serious criminal case without a guilty verdict it's a good day. Not every jury can reach a unanimous verdict. This jury could not. We respect their efforts."

The mistrial, after a three-week trial, came nearly two years after federal authorities swept up Merlino in an East Coast dragnet of 46 purported mafiosi stretching from Springfield, Mass., to Boca Raton, Fla., where Merlino had set up shop since last leaving prison in 2011.

Although 44 of his codefendants pleaded guilty before trial, Merlino opted to take his chances.

His latest trial may have lacked many of the blockbuster allegations of mob-style violence that were part of Merlino's past face-offs with the feds, but the proceedings offered their own surprises.

Mob associate John "Junior" Rubeo, the government's wire-wearing star witness, caused a stir this month when he testified that Merlino had carried on an affair with a pharmaceutical saleswoman in Florida  a statement that elicited a shocked reaction from Merlino's wife, Deborah, seated in the courtroom gallery.

She stormed out, the New York Post reported, with her husband trailing behind. Merlino later approached a Post reporter outside court and told him, "Don't put the girl in" the story.

Earlier, Merlino drew the ire of U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan after one juror reported that he had greeted her by name as she waited for an elevator.

"He just said, 'Hi, Sylvia,' " the woman later reported, according to transcripts. "I just turned my head, like, 'Some nerve.' "

Jurors first told Sullivan on Thursday  three days into their deliberations  that they were having difficulty reaching a unanimous decision. They remained cloistered for two more days before the judge relented and released them.

Even before the trial, Merlino's lawyers  Jacobs and John C. Meringolo  were keen to score a victory. Ever since their client was released from prison in 2011  after conviction in a similar 2001 racketeering case in Philadelphia  state and local authorities have trailed him, eager to take another whack at "Skinny Joey."

Back then, Merlino had emerged from lockup bronzed and more buff than when he went in, and had declared he was done with mob life for good. He quickly decamped from Philly and departed for Boca Raton's sun-soaked beaches.

But throughout the trial, prosecutors alleged that Merlino's public declarations that he had retired and gone straight were only for show. He easily slipped back into his old role as the head of the Philadelphia mob, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Schorr during her Feb. 12 closing argument to jurors.

Merlino, she alleged, became a powerful player in an alliance that federal authorities dubbed the "East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise"  a coalition of aging mobsters hailing from five crime families, weakened by years of federal law enforcement attention, a changing economy, and turncoats within their own ranks.

He muscled his way into the group's money-making schemes, ranging from extortion and offshore gambling to credit-card fraud and selling illegal cigarettes, she said. That list included a $157 million health-care fraud scheme involving kickbacks paid to doctors and pharmacists to prescribe unnecessary topical pain creams that later could be sold on the open market.

"Being with Merlino did not come for free," Schorr said. "You had to pay tribute."

But in his closing statement to the jury, Jacobs balked at what he described as a half-baked FBI investigation determined to exaggerate Merlino's importance and nail him on anything investigators could find  a case that ultimately was built on the word of mob turncoats desperate to stay out of prison.

Jacobs maintained that Merlino had made a genuine effort to go straight in Florida  working as a maitre d' in an Italian restaurant that bore his name and featured his mother's South Philly recipes.

It was a lifelong gambling habit that made him an easy mark for government cooperators hoping to lure him into compromising conversations at the behest of federal agents, who were recording every word, Jacobs said.

"Have you heard anybody [besides prosecutors] say that Joseph Merlino is the boss of the Philadelphia mob?" Jacobs asked jurors during his closing argument. "The answer is obvious  not a peep that he's the boss of the Philadelphia mob."

This article contains information from the Associated Press.New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez in June. A new poll found that the Democrat is leading Republican Bob Hugin by 9 percentage points among likely voters. Read more

A Democratic senator who survived a federal bribery trial. Two Republican congressmen currently under federal indictment, one for alleged campaign-finance violations, the other accused of insider trading.

In addition to carrying ethical baggage, the candidates have something else in common: They're leading in the polls in their reelection campaigns.

At a time when surveys show that support or opposition to President Trump is a top factor in voters' electoral calculus, many voters in states or districts that are traditionally noncompetitive appear willing to overlook ethical shortcomings to send a bigger message in next month's midterm elections.

"It's so hyperpartisan right now, divided along lines where Trump is the main factor, that almost anything else that happens doesn't really matter," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

The latest sign: A Monmouth poll released Thursday shows Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.) leading Republican Bob Hugin by 9 percentage points among likely voters.

The state's senior senator is hardly popular  just 28 percent view him favorably, compared with 45 percent who view him unfavorably. But in casting their Senate vote, a majority of voters say their view of Trump is more important than their view of Menendez, whose bribery trial ended in a hung jury last year. Prosecutors later dropped the charges, but the Senate Ethics Committee "severely admonished" Menendez for his conduct.

>> VOTERS GUIDE: View candidates in the 2018 midterm election based on your address, or browse all the action in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware

That might not matter in a state that hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate in 46 years, and where 55 percent of likely voters disapprove of the president's job performance. What's more, Monmouth found, 64 percent said they felt that "whatever Menendez did" was "about the same as what most other politicians do."

The story is similar in California's reliably Republican 50th District, where indicted Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter is leading Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar in the polls. Trump carried the district by 15 points in 2016.

Prosecutors in August accused Hunter and his wife of using campaign funds to pay for luxury vacations and other personal expenses. They have pleaded not guilty.

Just a slight plurality of voters (35 percent) view him favorably, according to a September Monmouth poll, suggesting he could be vulnerable. But 52 percent of voters in the district approve of Trump, and 64 percent of potential voters identified by Monmouth say it is "very important" for them to "cast a vote for Congress that" reflects their views of Trump. Monmouth found that Hunter had a 15-point lead among likely voters, although other polls show a tighter race.

Indeed, 1 in 10 voters in the Monmouth survey believe Hunter is or could be guilty but plan to vote for him anyway.

Then there's New York Rep. Chris Collins, a Republican indicted in August on insider-trading charges.

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Collins briefly suspended his campaign but pleaded not guilty and decided to stay on the ballot. A near-majority of voters (49 percent) view him unfavorably, according to an Oct. 16 Siena College poll. But in a district where Trump enjoys strong approval ratings (56 to 38 percent), Collins is still leading Democrat Nate McMurray by three points, the survey found.

"Will voters show their loyalty to the president and their party inclinations by reelecting Collins?" Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg asked this week. "Or will they spurn the indicted pol and vote for Democrat McMurray despite their yearning for the House to remain in Republican control?"

These candidates almost certainly would face tougher prospects in swing districts or states. But even in blue New Jersey, a letter of "severe admonishment" handed down by the Senate Ethics Committee was enough to end Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli's 2002 reelection campaign. He dropped out of a tight race.

Of course, Trump has encouraged his supporters to view the charges against Republicans with suspicion, and critics have ripped the president for attempting to politicize the Justice Department.

When a prankster pretending to be Menendez somehow got Trump on the phone in June, the president reportedly congratulated the senator for beating the bribery charges.While the atmosphere might be behaving as though it's Thanksgiving around here, meteorologists have jumped ahead to Christmas, New Year's Day, and beyond.

The government this week joined the annual quixotic exercise to wrestle with the atmosphere's often inscrutable ways and address the question: What's the winter going to be like?

The answer for the Philadelphia region was predictably uncertain: Signals are mixed on temperatures, but chances are good that precipitation will be above normal along the southeast and mid-Atlantic coasts, suggesting an active storm track.

But, no, the climate center did not get take on the how much for Philly? question. In a briefing Thursday  the coolest day in Philadelphia in seven months  forecaster Mike Halpert cautioned that the center isn't in the snow-forecast business just yet and that the outlook is "probabilistic in nature."

The outlook is far less specific and more muted than the ones issued by private-sector companies, one of which sees pre-winter patterns similar to those of 1995-96 and 2009-10. Those happen to be the two snowiest winters on record around here.

Talk of winter might have a particular bite given the chill that routed the summery spell earlier in the month. Temperatures rose into the 80s on six of the first 11 days of October. But they dropped to freezing and below on Friday morning outside the city, and Sunday's 50-ish forecast would be normal for the end of November. Readings are due to stay below averages at least through Thursday.

However, the chill isn't necessarily a harbinger.

The forecasts assembled at the Climate Prediction Center are objective and "probabilistic" because they are constrained by the unforgiving limits of a science that has long shown promise but has been consistently outwitted by the atmosphere.

Last winter, for example, none of the early outlooks caught wind of the record-shattering warm February in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.

The computer models that have had such amazing success (OK, not always) in short-term weather prediction haven't produced the same results in the long range.

Short-term computer models suffer from incomplete observations of the present state of the atmosphere  think of the oceans, and less-developed nations that have bigger issues than figuring out the temperature  and the forecast errors worsen over time.

Halpert said computer advances would be the key to progress in long-term forecasting. But for now, one of the most-useful tools is the "optimal climate normal," a fancy phrase for "overall trend."

Most recent winters have been mild in the U.S. Asked whether that was a function of worldwide warming and whether the trend would continue, Halpert, hedging his bets, answered, "I'm probably not going to touch the 'continue.' "

The atmosphere is what scientists call a nonlinear chaotic system. It is three-dimensional and behaves like a fluid attached to a sphere spinning at 1,000 mph and hurtling around the sun at 6,500 mph, with the amount of solar radiation reaching the Earth changing subtly instant by instant.

Still, meteorologists keep climbing back on that bicycle, and Halpert said the climate center's forecasts have shown improvements. The government has been issuing winter outlooks since 1972. It also has been doing them for other seasons, but winter traditionally has drawn the most interest.

As for the commercial-sector winter outlooks, AccuWeather Inc. is expecting slightly above-normal snowfall around here; a mild December, about 2.5 degrees above normal; an average January, and a February that would be about 3 degrees below normal  or 9 degrees colder than last February in Philadelphia.

The Commodity Weather Group and WeatherBell outlooks are similar. Weather Concierge, the company that evoked the 1995-96 and 2009-10 winters, says that while temperatures will be near normal, it will be quite stormy in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

Steven DiMartino, chief meteorologist at Weather Concierge, said that a burgeoning El Nino warming in the tropical Pacific is likely to energize an active storm track that could result in a sequence of coastal storms.

When the surface waters out that way get warm, that can be a big deal in the U.S.; weather generally travels west to east, and the warming generates strong upper-air winds from the west.

In long-range forecasting, however, simplification is the great enemy of reality. El Nino has been slow to take hold, although the Climate Prediction Center still says it is likely that it will be brewing during the winter.

And Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather's longtime long-range forecaster, says winter outcomes during El Ninos and their opposites, La Ninas, have been decidedly mixed.

"Some of them haven't worked out the way they were supposed to work out," he said.

The same can be said for seasonal forecasts.For the first time, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering the state's child protection law and prenatal drug abuse. Read more

One evening during the blizzard of 1993, my biological mother surrendered me to the lifelong care of my maternal grandmother. I was 5 years old. She packed a bag, bundled me in layers, and walked me out the front door  instructing me to wait until someone came to pick me up. As an adult, I vividly recall the event and now grasp its reality: My mother was engaged in an insidious crack cocaine addiction. Left to her own devices, this was the best she was capable of doing for me.

Stories like mine were common during the crack epidemic in the 1980s and '90s. News footage showed SWAT teams charging homes, incarcerated parents, soaring drug-related fatalities, children placed in kinship or foster care. Undeniable stigma flooded communities.

Today, amid a fearsome opioid epidemic, history repeats itself as we witness carousels of familiar images: families torn apart, children in crisis.

As a person in long-term recovery who was raised by a grandparent, I deeply empathize with anyone impacted by the disease of addiction.

In my role as director of prevention programs for the state leader in child-abuse prevention, I appreciate the ethical dilemma Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices face in how to intervene with pregnant, substance-abusing women.

Last month, they heard oral arguments in a case involving a woman who gave birth in January 2017 in Williamsport Hospital, about 175 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The mother tested positive for marijuana, opioids, and antianxiety drugs that can heighten the effects of opioids, and her infant spent 19 days at the hospital being treated for drug-withdrawal symptoms. Clinton County Children and Youth Services (CYS) took the baby into custody, accusing the mother of child abuse under Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law.

Criminalizing this mother's behavior is not the answer. The threat of arrest and separation will only result in generations of substance-dependent individuals, promotion of stigma, and increased barriers to pre- and post-natal care.

CYS attorney Amanda Browning declared the case to be about "human rights, equal protection, and child welfare." In my view, we can only uphold human rights and foster equal protection if we also include the welfare of the mother in the child-welfare equation.

Children separated from parents face myriad holistic traumas due to interruption of nurture and attachment. These children are more likely to become substance-dependent. If this is the trending outcome, and research proves it's true, can we claim validity in a punitive approach under the rhetoric of "equal protection"?

Research conducted by licensed, trauma-focused therapists indicates that children who can remain with their parents during the treatment and early recovery process have healthier, stronger positive attachment, and significantly lower ACE scores (adverse childhood experiences). Children are significantly less likely to manifest conduct disorder, anxiety, and depression  three conditions that often manifest in substance abuse.

There are few licensed, evidence-based, inpatient programs allowing parents to enter treatment accompanied by children. Women seeking interventions are limited and threatened by the system, and the possibility of losing their child upon admitting they need help. Attached to these barriers is the issue of funding and how they will afford a treatment stay, or if treatment will be interrupted because of insurance terms.

We need a well-informed, cross-systems approach combined with services and interventions delivered through a scope of empathy, compassion, and empowerment. We need public health nurses and master's-level licensed clinicians to serve as advocates in these cases. We know that home visiting nursing programs play an integral role and create strong outcomes for at-risk populations. I urge the justices to consider why these professionals have not been asked to assist in guiding the courts to develop best practice standards for pregnant women with substance-use disorder.

When I ponder that snowy night in my childhood, I also consider my biological mother's fraught decision. My heart aches for her. It's clear to me now that many women in her position do not give up on their children. They give up on themselves. They are filled with fear, and they lose hope.

For the voiceless children born into addiction, and for their mothers, it is my hope that prior to exacting punishment, those in power contribute to a mother-and-child-focused solution.

I challenge my colleagues, my fellow Pennsylvanians, and these justices to be contemplative and compassionate. Always protect the child. Always. In doing so, please remember it is the sum of all actions and all decisions that writes the early pages of a child's story.

Kayla E. Kressler is the director of prevention programs for PA Family Support Alliance, the state leader in child abuse prevention.Bicycle police officers keep watch over protesters, who demonstrated outside the Starbucks where an employee called the police on two black men who were sitting in the cafe. Read more

This week, the Police Advisory Commission released its report on the Philadelphia Police Department's arrest of two black men at a Starbucks in April. The responses to this report have been thought-provoking and demonstrate the need for an ongoing community conversation in which bias is distinguished from racism. Similarly, the importance of antiracist training and practice must be underscored.

>> READ MORE: Review of Starbucks arrests shows racial bias by Philly cops, commission finds

As there is no universally agreed upon definition of terms, and consumers of the report are using their own definition of certain key terms, I'd like to share the following glossary that the PAC used for this report and will use for future conversations on this topic.

Implicit Bias: Unconscious prejudices or stereotypes that can guide a person's actions, decisions, and assessments in a positive or negative way. This bias is involuntary and is neither intentional nor easily controlled.

Racism: A set of systemic and institutional conditions that cause inequality based on race. It is also an ideology that minority racial groups are biologically or culturally inferior to the dominant racial group. Racism often includes how these beliefs are deployed to recommend and legitimize discriminatory treatment of minority groups and/or to justify their lower status.

White Suprema cy : A political and/or socioeconomic system where white people enjoy a structural advantage, preference, or privilege over minority groups, both at a collective and an individual level.

Antiraci st : A concerted effort to understand racism, especially the history of white supremacy in the United States, and actively work to oppose and undo racism.

The divisive and complicated history of racism in the country and city is not something the PAC pretends to be able to solve on our own. However, as a foundational element of the Starbucks incident, and many other incidents, it must be addressed.

The PAC focuses on the Philadelphia Police Department, but instances of bias and racism permeate all aspects of our society. Given the power police officers wield, they must be held to a higher standard of scrutiny. The PAC takes pride in these efforts and will continue working with the police and the community regarding the many issues that might affect their relationship.

A conversation about racism does not suggest that the police are akin to a hate group or that they do no good. In fact, the PAC acknowledges that the Police Department strives to do good and to serve Philadelphians on a daily basis.

Further, the call for antiracist training and practice for the police does not suggest that they are the only public servants who could benefit from strengthening antiracist knowledge and practice. Indeed, all professions who deal with or have power over the public, such as social workers, teachers, doctors, and lawyers, should consider this type of training. Incorporating antiracist reflection, training, and conversations into operations and staff development can lead to greater understanding on how success and disparity are connected to race  that who we are born to can have a significant, disparate influence on what we must do to become what we aspire to.

Antiracist training also explores how being a black or brown person has historically been a disadvantage. Training designed for police officers will emphasize the historical role of police in perpetuating that disadvantage. The training will discuss how this disadvantage can lead and has led to other disadvantages, such as failing schools and intergenerational poverty.

A training and practice model that connects seemingly separate social problems will be impactful because the Philadelphia Police Department already buys into this notion. Department leadership often discusses the link between crime and poverty. Accepting this notion and the link among race, educational attainment, and socioeconomic status is a step toward accepting the role of systemic racism in police contact with citizens, even if that contact is legitimate and must occur. In the interest of true justice, we must work toward identifying methods to monitor, limit, and dismantle systemic racism.

Hans Menos is the executive director of Philadelphia's Police Advisory Commission.Six months after a Rittenhouse Square Starbucks earned international notoriety for the arrest of two black patrons, Philadelphia's Police Advisory Commission has released its finding from a review of the incident. The PAC concluded that an open conversation about race, better training and communication, and a strategy for community policing are necessary.

In the report, the PAC lays out six sets of recommendations for the Police Department. In a response letter attached to the report, Commissioner Richard Ross rejects multiple recommendations. Most important, Ross writes the Police Department "cannot agree with the statement that racism has a profound effect on what drives citizen and police contact."

It is unfortunate that Ross is unable to acknowledge the reality that racism has shaped policing in America  including here in Philadelphia. This is not the first time that Ross had a disappointing comment on the incident.

After the incident, Starbucks closed all of its 8,000 U.S. stores and conducted antibias training for all of its nearly 175,000 employees. The first PAC recommendation is that the Philadelphia Police Department "incorporate consistent, anti-racist practice, incident review and training." According to the PAC, a part of an antiracist practice is accepting the influence of racism on policing.

In his response letter, Ross chose to take a narrow and technical view of the incident  a private entity called the police and asked for service; the job of the police is to respond "regardless of the motivations of the caller." Ross is echoing his original statement after the incident that the officers "did not do anything wrong"  a statement that he later apologized for and added nuance to.

Ross points out that since 2011 a department policy prohibiting racial bias in policing is on the books. In fact, that policy has been on the books since 1868, when Congress adopted the 14th Amendment that guarantees equal protection under the law.

And yet racial disparities in policing persist. Evaluations of stop-and-frisks by the Police Department show that while the department has improved, African Americans account for 69 percent of stops from January to June 2017, in a city in which they are 48 percent of the population.

An analysis conducted by the Inquirer found that in Center City, blacks are stopped and arrested at indoor locations at a much higher rate than whites.

Other recommendations include creating positions overseeing community policing, communication with stakeholders about the role of policing in the city, and training supervisors in problem-solving skills, and improving mentorship for new officers.

The PAC has no leverage on the Police Department and no way to compel it to accept any recommendation or hold it to any recommendation that Ross did not accept. But City Council can. Earlier this year, the mayor signed into law a bill that guarantees the PAC a minimum annual budget of $500,000.

When Commissioner Ross comes in front of City Council to request next year's budget, Council should ensure that a part of that budget goes to the implementation of the recommendation  otherwise the investment in the PAC is nothing more than paying for the production of a fancy report.When running back Jay Ajayi goes down with a season-ending knee injury, Dave Fipp feels offensive coordinator Mike Groh's pain.

When safety Rodney McLeod tears his MCL, and his replacement, Corey Graham, pops a hamstring, and nickel corner Sidney Jones' hamstring goes kerplunk as well, Fipp is right there alongside defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz sharing the Maalox.

"Injuries are probably the hardest on special teams,'' said Fipp, who is in his sixth season as the Eagles' special teams coordinator. "People say, 'Oh, you guys lost Ajayi, but that doesn't really affect you.' Well, losing Ajayi means Corey Clement and Wendell Smallwood get pushed up. Now those guys are taking more snaps on offense, and we have to replace them on special teams.

"So, every injury affects us. It's been a challenge. But the guys have done a great job of stepping up. Last week, we had two new guards on our punt team. We had a different gunner on the outside. We had Malcolm Jenkins playing the personal protector [the upback on the punt team]. And we were going against Odell Beckham, and we netted 48 yards [per punt].

"We also had five new guys on kickoffs that hadn't been out there before. They only had two returns [on seven kickoffs], which I thought was a positive.''

There are a lot of positives with the Eagles' special teams through the first six games.

Cam Johnston leads the league in punting with a 50.2-yard gross average and is third in net average (44.3).

Kicker Jake Elliott has made 10 of 13 field-goal attempts and has the league's second-best touchback rate on kickoffs (82.8 percent).

DeAndre Carter, who is filling in for injured Darren Sproles on punt returns, is averaging an impressive 12.7 yards per return.

Both the punt coverage and kickoff coverage units are ranked in the top 10.

>> READ MORE: Doug Pederson says there's no need to give Jason Peters time off

So, things certainly could be a lot worse for Fipp, whose special teams have been ranked in the top five in the league three of the last four years, including No. 1 twice (in 2014 and 2016).

Johnston, who replaced ultra-dependable Donnie Jones, has a monster leg. Ten of his 29 punts have traveled 55 yards or longer. His current gross and net averages, if they hold, would be single-season franchise records.

But the Aussie native has a league-high five touchbacks and is only 20th in rate of punts inside the 20 (34.5 percent).

"That's a work in progress,'' Fipp said. "It's funny because you would say an Aussie kick [an end-over-end kick that punters use to prevent a roll on kicks near the goal line] is one of those things that all of those Aussie guys do best.

"But actually, to this point, it's been the thing he hasn't done the best as far as putting the ball down there in that part of the field. He's getting better at the situational kicks. I see him being able to do a great job with that at some point here. But that's one area he's [still] working on.''

Elliott, whose 61-yard field goal last year was the longest in franchise history, has yet to make one this season from longer than 37 yards. His three misses have been from 42, 54 and 55 yards.

Sproles, who is one of the league's best punt returners, injured a hamstring in Week 1 and has missed the last five games.

Fipp initially turned to Clement, who averaged just 2.8 yards on six attempts before injuring his quad in Week 3.

Carter was signed off the practice squad to replace him and has been a pleasant surprise. He had a 42-yard return in the Eagles' Week 4 overtime loss to Tennessee and had 23- and 19-yard returns last week against the Giants.

"He's done a great job for us,'' Fipp said. "He put the ball on the ground the other night [a fourth-quarter muff against the Giants that he recovered], but he's done a good job of catching the ball. His decision-making has been good. And the bottom line is he competes when the ball is in his hands.''

The 5-8, 190-pound wide receiver, who also has been returning kickoffs the last three games, will relinquish the punt-return duties to Sproles whenever the 35-year-old running back returns, which figures to be some time in the next few weeks.

>> READ MORE: The good Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby | Film review

"DeAndre's done a great job,'' Fipp said. "That being said, it's hard to replace Darren Sproles. He's an outstanding player. We look forward to getting him back. He'll step right in back there when he comes back.''

The one area in which the Eagles have struggled is kickoff returns. Carter has averaged just 12.7 yards on six returns.

Fipp also has used Smallwood and wide receiver Shelton Gibson. But the Eagles are 26th in kickoff-return average (19.6) and 29th in average drive start on kickoffs (the 23.5-yard line).

With all of the changes in the kickoff rules, many teams, at least early on, have leaned toward taking the touchback and starting at the 25-yard line. The overall touchback rate in the league on kickoffs is up from 58.4 percent last year to 67.9 percent through the first six weeks this year.

The Eagles, however, already have 10 kickoff returns, which is just eight fewer than they had all last season.

"We're still feeling our way,'' Fipp said. "I've got to do a little bit better job of getting these guys in position. It's been probably our weakest link on special teams. We haven't been great in that area."

Fipp said he has spent time this week watching film of other teams and seeing what they're doing on kickoff returns.

"Hopefully, we can get that phase going,'' he said. "There's a lot to it: Who you have. Who you're blocking. Who the returners are. What returners work best for those [blockers]. There's a lot of combinations.

"It's been interesting.''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...LAHORE: Mumbai attack mastermind and terror out Jamaat-ud-Dawaah (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed has lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government for seeking aid from the Donald Trump administration and walking into what he termed as an American trap of giving aid for the killing of Kashmiri and other 'Mujahideen' in the country.

"The US has ordered Pakistan to capture Afghan and Kashmiri Mujahideen with an aim to convert Pakistan into an extended territory of the US", Saeed said while addressing a huge crowd at Markaz Al Qadsiya in Lahore city.

He added, "The US puts pressure on Pakistan government to close the madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and stop teaching the Holy Quran.

They say those studying here are all 'jihadis`.

The US gives such diktats while coming to Pakistan. They also want syllabus on religious teachings to be removed as it gives birth to 'jihadis'.

The government of Pakistan agrees on such orders and informs them about banning 'jihadi' outfits in return of receiving monetary aid and support, he alleged.

Saeed founded Jamaat-ud-Dawah, a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba terror group, which waged the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks. The organisation is on the United Nations list of global terrorist groups.

Emphasising on the need to promote religious teachings, Saeed said, "We must reform our educational syllabus and to train our professors in accordance with Islamic education based on Quran and Hadith so that they can handle the economic, political and the various problems created by the US."

Saeed, who carries a USD 10 million bounty for his role in terror activities, criticised the Pakistani government for accepting suggestions to ask the US and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for aid.

He further asked Imran Khan to fulfill promises made during the election campaign of turning Pakistan into a true Islamic State.

"We have to safeguard Islam and Pakistan and should not get trapped into the US and IMF`s entrap", said Saeed in his address.

Saeed strongly criticized those studying and supporting the Western education system in Pakistan.NEW DELHI: Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Rakesh Pandey's son Ashish, who had brandished a pistol at guests and threatened them at Delhis five-star Hyatt Regency Hotel in a viral video, was formally arrested by Delhi Police minutes after he surrendered before a court here.

Delhi's Patiala House Court, which allowed Ashish's plea for surrender, granted 20 minutes to Delhi Police for interrogating him in connection with the case.

Delhi Police formally arrests Ashish Pandey for brandishing a gun outside Hyatt Regency on October 14, seeks police remand for him. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/xMTDZqsV28  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

The court later remanded Ashish to one-day police custody.

Court grants one-day police remand to #AshishPandey. Delhi Police had sought 4 days custodial remand. Ashish Pandey was seen brandishing a gun outside Hyatt Regency on October 14 & surrendered before the police today. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/Lh7D1LyqJT  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Delhi Police had earlier moved a plea seeking 4-day custody of the accused.

Ashish had been on the run after a video showing him brandishing a gun and threatening guests, including Gaurav Kanwar, son of a former Congress MLA, outside Hyatt Regency Hotel on October 14 went viral.

A surrender application, filed through lawyer SPM Tripathi claimed that Pandey, the son of former BSP lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, has been wrongly framed in the FIR and subjected to a media trial.

It further said Pandey is ready to submit before the court voluntarily and the police may be directed to take him into custody if required.

Earlier while speaking to ANI, Ashish had claimed that he did not threaten anyone and he was being framed in the case.

Im being projected like Im a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me. Look Out Circular has been issued against me. If you check CCTV footage, youll find who went to ladies toilet that night and who threatened whom,'Ashish said.

I'm being projected like I'm a wanted terrorist & police across the nation is looking for me. Look Out Circular has been issued against me. If you check CCTV footage, you'll find who went to ladies toilet that night & who threatened whom: #AshishPandey pic.twitter.com/Sg1JuMvJsH  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

He further said, I took the gun with me for safety. I didnt brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. I didnt even address that girl, she pushed me&made obscene hand gestures. Ive faith in judiciary&so I decided to surrender. There is no history of the police case against me.

I took the gun with me for safety.I didn't brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. I didn't even address that girl, she pushed me&made obscene hand gestures. I've faith in judiciary&so I decided to surrender. There is no history of police case against me:#AshishPandey pic.twitter.com/W30ogWtGF8  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

An FIR under the Arms Act and various sections of the IPC, including those related to causing hurt (323), criminal intimidation (506) and using force with the intent to outrage the modesty of a woman (354), was registered against Ashish Pandey.

The court had on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Ashish Pandey for brandishing a pistol at guests and threatening them in the foyer of a five-star hotel here.

A video of the incident that occurred early on Sunday went viral on social media resulting in public outrage.

It prompted the police to step in and launch a massive hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident.

(With PTI Inputs)After remaining constant for two days, the prices of both petrol and diesel across the country witnessed a dip on Thursday, bringing respite to consumers. The petrol price in the national capital settled at Rs 82.62 per litre, a decrease of 21 paise and that in Mumbai was Rs 88.08 per litre also a cut by 21 paise.

The diesel price mark was Rs 75.58 per litre in Delhi and for Mumbai, the price was Rs 79.24 per litre -- both a decrease by 11 paise.

In the two other metro cities, the same cut was seen. In Kolkata, the petrol price settled at Rs 84.44 per litre and in Chennai, it was Rs 85.88 per litre a cut by 22 paise. The price for diesel in Kolkata was Rs 77.43 per litre and in Chennai, it was Rs 79.93 per litre.

The prices of fuels on October 16 and October 17 remained constant. In Delhi, the petrol price settled at Rs 82.83 per litre and in Mumbai, it remained Rs 88.29 per litre.

The Delhi Petrol Dealers Association on Wednesday announced a one-day strike demanding a decrease in VAT over fuel prices. The association said that they will observe the strike from 6 am on October 22 to 5 am on October 23. Following the strike call, all petrol and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) pumps in the national capital will remain closed.

The dealers have called for a protest after Delhi government refused to decrease Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and diesel. VAT in Delhi is higher than neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

The Centre had recently cut the excise duty by Rs 1.50 per litre and asked PSU oil firms to subsidise fuel by Re 1. Thereafter other states followed suit and announced a cut in fuel prices. Maharashtra and Gujarat governments were among the first to announce a matching Rs 2.50 cut.

They were later joined by Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Assam, Uttarakhand, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Bihar with similar moves. Jammu and Kashmir, which is under the governor's rule, too reduced the tax on the two fuel. Maharashtra, however, reduced VAT only on petrol and not on diesel.

Even before the excise duty cut, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh had last month reduced VAT to cushion consumers for a spate of price increases.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday reiterated his stand on the construction of the Ram temple, demanding law for the construction of the temple in Ayodhya.

"The place of Ram Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated although evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place. The temple would have been constructed long ago if there wasn't political interference. We want govt to clear the path for construction through law," said Bhagwat.

Speaking at the annual "Vijaya Dashami" function in Nagpur, Maharashtra, Bhagwat said that there is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgement by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, he said, adding that it is nobody's interest to test the patience of society without any reason.

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari was also present at the function along with Nobel Prize winner and social activist Kailash Satyarthi, who was the chief guest.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir," he said. Despite such machinations, the decision on ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the "grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law".

The sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma, Bhagwat said.

Bhagwat also launched a scathing attack on Pakistan alleging that though the government has changed the policy of India's neighbouring country remains the same. In a veiled attack on Pakistan, Bhagwat said the attack on the borders haven't stopped despite a new government taking over (there).

The RSS chief said that India cannot be assured about its security without total self-reliance in defence production. He further said the country is alert about the security of the nation and has the courage to answer bullets with bullets.

On Kerala's Sabarimala temple controversy, Bhagwat said that the tradition had been there for so long and was being followed. The RSS chief said that those who filed the petitions against it are not the one who will go to the temple. "A large section of women follow this practice. Their sentiments were not considered," said Bhagwat.

The Supreme Court had on September 28 opened the doors for entry of women - long prohibited - in the Sabarimala Temple in Kerala. Women between 10 and 50 years of age have so far been prohibited on grounds of 'purity' owing to menstruation. Chief Justice Dipak Misra had observed that subversion of women rights under the garb of a physiological phenomenon cannot be allowed.

Bhagwat said that it is necessary to maintain the balance between strengthening armed forces and at the same time propagating peace with the neighbours. He added that the foreign policy of India has always been peace, tolerance and friendly relations irrespective of governments.

The RSS chief has also warned of activities of "urban Maoism" and "neo-Left" elements in society.

He maintained that the protection of the families of the army jawans fighting on the borders is the responsibility of the nation. "Government has taken a step but it needs to increase its speed," said Bhagwat.

Bhagwat delivered his annual speech in the presence of swayamsevaks (volunteers), who came from all over the country as also abroad. The Vijaya Dashami programme and the RSS chief's speech are among the most important events in the organisation's annual calendar. In 2017, Bhagwat had spoken on issues like the Rohingya crisis, cow vigilantism, Jammu and Kashmir and surgical strikes. The Vijaya Dashami programme starts at 7.40 am and concludes with the RSS chief's speech in the evening.RAIPUR: Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) on Thursday released its first list of six candidates for the first phase of Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled to be held on November 12.

The BSP ally Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J) of former chief minister Ajit Jogi has released another list of seven candidates.

The JCC (J) has forged an alliance with the BSP and the Communist Party of India (CPI).

The JCC (J) has so far announced 46 candidates, including the latest list, out of total 55 seats it would be contesting, a party leader said.

The BSP is contesting total 33 seats while the CPI two seats--Sukma and Dantewada.

Ajit Jogi has been nominated as the chief ministerial candidate of the coalition.

As per the latest list, JCC (J) has allotted tickets to Trilochan Nayak from Basna seat, Sanjay Chelak from Aarang (SC), Rohit Sahu from Rajim, Tankeshwar

Bhardawaj from Chitrakot (ST), Naval Rathia from Dharamjaigarh (ST), Phulsingh Rathia from Rampur (ST) and Munna Toppo from Sitapur (ST), said party leader Abdul Hamid Hayat.

Meanwhile, BSP state unit president OP Bajpayee said the party initially wanted to contest 35 seats, but agreed to leave Konta and Dantewada from its share to ally CPI.

The BSP candidates announced Thursday are: Ashok Verma (Dongargaon), Mishri Markande (Dongargarh), Hemant Poyam (Antagarh), Brahmanand Thakur (Kanker), Jugal Kishore (Keshkal) and Narendra Netam (Kondagaon), he said.

According to sources in the BSP, Richa Jogi, the daughter-in-law of Ajit Jogi will contest the polls on a BSP ticket.

However, the assembly constituency she will be contesting from is yet to be announced.

Assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 12 and November 20. Counting of votes will be done on December 11.

The BSP-JCC(J) tie-up has added another dimension to the electoral politics of Chhattisgarh which has always been dominated by the ruling BJP and opposition

Congress which have fought close contests to pocket maximum number of total 90 assembly seats.LUCKNOW: Senior congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad has courted a controversy by saying that Hindu candidates no longer invite him to campaign for them as they fear losing votes.

Azad made these remarks while speaking at an event in Lucknow on Wednesday to mark the 201st birth anniversary of the Aligarh Muslim University founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

Alumni of the university were also in attendance at the event.

Azad pointed at the fact, that since his days as a youth leader he has been campaigning across the country for a number of party candidates belonging to the Hindu community.

"Since the days of the Youth Congress, I have been campaigning across the country from Andaman Nicobar to Lakshadweep. 95 percent of those who used to call me were Hindu brothers and leaders, and just five percent were Muslim brothers," he said.

Since the days of the Youth Congress, I have been campaigning across the country from Andaman Nicobar to Lakshadweep. 95 per cent of those who used to call me were Hindu brothers and leaders, and just 5 per cent were Muslim brothers: Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress. (17.10.18) pic.twitter.com/GIBCeHzZeY  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 18, 2018

Azad further said that the figure has dropped to a significant low as Hindu candidates fear losing out on votes if he campaigns for them.

"But in the last four years, I have observed that the figure of 95 has dropped to just 20 per cent. This means that there is something wrong. Today people hesitate in calling me, thinking that it would affect their vote banks," Azad told the gathering.

But in the last four years, I have observed that the figure of 95 has dropped to just 20 per cent. This means that there is something wrong. Aaj darta hai aadmi bulane se, ki iska voter pe kya asar hoga: Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress in Lucknow. (17.10.18) pic.twitter.com/KlDJuYvRiW  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 18, 2018

The leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha indirectly charged the ruling BJP for the change as he stated that the shift in mindset has occurred over the last four years.

Meanwhile, he remarks did not go well with the ruling BJP, which accused the Congress of "demeaning and demoralising" Hindus.

Attacking Azad, BJP termed his remark that the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically as an ''abuse''.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the simple reason behind fewer people calling Azad for campaigning is the falling stock of the Congress.

For this Azad has invented the Hindu-Muslim angle, he added.

"These are not ordinary words. It is an abuse for the country's secular fabric and Hindus. It is yet another attempt by the Congress to demean and demoralise Hindus," Patra told reporters.

He also rejected Azad's allegation that the BJP is defaming the AMU and targeting Kashmiri students, saying if prayer meetings are held for terrorists then it will be condemned.

(With Agency inputs)Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Thursday urged all political parties to start internal complaints committee to register cases of sexual harassment.

Maneka was responding in the backdrop of the MeToo movement stating that the women should be provided with a more conducive atmosphere.

Maneka said that she wrote to presidents of six national parties and 59 regional parties urging to form ICC.

I wrote to every political party president,requesting them to start internal complaints committee.I think there are 6 national parties&about 90 smaller parties. It's an office,hundreds of women work there&I expect a more condusive atmosphere for them: Union Minister Maneka Gandhi pic.twitter.com/97viAGk0cy  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

"We are trying to get to every single form of harassment that is being experienced by women at workplace," Maneka told PTI.

"I have written to chiefs of political parties to form Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), which should have already been there under the law. When we are asking every organisation to have an internal complaints committee, why should we exempt political parties from it," she said.

Section 4 of the Sexual Harassment at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act mandates every organisation which employs women to constitute an internal complaints committee which is to be headed by a senior women employee.

The Minister had earlier also written to all Bollywood production houses to form an ICC, following which about seven of them had formed such committees.

Allegations of sexual harassment against prominent people in various fields have come to light under India's online "#MeToo" movement, which started with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing fellow actor -- Nana Patekar -- of harassing her during the shooting of a Bollywood film in 2008.

M J Akbar, who resigned as the Minister of State for External Affairs Wednesday, filmmakers Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Rajat Kapoor and actor Alok Nath are among those who have been accused of sexual misconduct. They have denied the allegations.

(With Agency Inputs)NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday took cognisance of former Union minister M J Akbar's criminal defamation complaint filed against journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first to accuse him of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal considered the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing Akbar, who referred to various tweets of Ramani to allege that they have caused irreparable damage to the reputation of the former junior Minister of External Affairs.

Criminal defamation case filed by #MJAkbar against journalist Priya Ramani: MJ Akbar's lawyer Geeta Luthra said before court, "Irreparable damage caused to Akbars reputation which he has built over 40 years."  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Akbar has resigned due to these allegations and they show the damage caused to his reputation,'' Luthra said in the court.

Luthra also referred to the Akbar's reputation as a journalist and asked the court to take cognisance of his complaint, saying the allegations have caused irreparable loss to his reputation built over 40 years.

Defending his client, Luthra said, ''Priya Ramani has tweeted defamatory tweets against the complainant. Her second tweet was clearly defamatory and liked by nearly 1200 people."

"Articles in the national and international media quoted these defamatory tweets. Tweets are defamatory unless Ramani proves anything," the lawyer said.

The court, after hearing the arguments of Luthra, fixed the matter for recording Akbar's statement on October 31 and said that, if it is satisfied, it may issue a notice to Ramani for appearing and facing the trial in the defamation complaint.

Delhi's Patiala House Court to examine statements of #MJAkbar and other witnesses on October 31. pic.twitter.com/vK6SEhczYU  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Akbar, who stepped down from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers yesterday, has trashed the allegations against him, saying "accusation without evidence has become a viral fever among some sections".

Journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first woman to call out Akbar under the growing #MeToo movement in India, has said the truth is her 'only defence".Former Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari passed away on Thursday in Delhi.

The veteran Congress leader was 93-year-old and died after a prolonged illness at the Max Hospital in Saket area.

Various political figures reacted on his demise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and gave his condolences to the only Indian who served as the chief minister of two states.

"Saddened by the passing away of Shri ND Tiwari Ji. A towering leader, he was known for his administrative skills. He will be remembered for his efforts towards industrial growth & working for the progress of UP & Uttarakhand, a state he steered in its initial days. My condolences."

Saddened by the passing away of Shri ND Tiwari Ji. A towering leader, he was known for his administrative skills. He will be remembered for his efforts towards industrial growth & working for the progress of UP & Uttarakhand, a state he steered in its initial days. My condolences  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 18, 2018

BJP leader Amar Singh also took to Twitter and praised Tiwari's work over the years as a chief minister.

"I met ND Tiwari for the first time in great eastern hotel of Kolkata & he was Sanjay Gandhis favourite. None the less wherever he worked he was a symbol of growth prosperity & wealth including Uttarakhand. My heartfelt condolences & May his soul rest in peace," Singh said in a Twitter post.

I met #NDTiwari for the first time in great eastern hotel of Kolkata & he was Sanjay Gandhis favourite. None the less wherever he worked he was a symbol of growth prosperity & wealth including #Uttarakhand. My heartfelt condolences & May his soul rest in peace @INCIndia  Amar Singh MP (@AmarSinghTweets) October 18, 2018

The Congress party too posted from Twitter account to pay condolences to ND Tiwari's family and friends.

Today we mourn the loss of one of our strongest leaders. Our thoughts & prayers are with the family & friends of ND Tiwari. pic.twitter.com/LP7MNUOJcX  Congress (@INCIndia) October 18, 2018

Others who paid their tribute to the veteran leaders were V Narayanasami (Chief Minister of Puducherry), Yogi Adityanath (Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh) and Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat.

"I am saddened by the untimely demise of former UP and Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari. I offer my deepest condolences to his family and pray that his soul rests in peace. He will always be remembered as an able administrator," said Adityanath.

"He played an important role in Indian politics. He will be remembered as an able administrator, diplomat and for working towards progress of Uttarakhand just after the state was formed," said Rawat.

Veteran Congress Leader former Union minister & Chief minister #UttarPradesh & #Uttarakhand , #NDTiwari passed away today, He brought development in UP in his regime as CM. His dedication as central minister noteworthy. I pray GOD for his soul rest in peace. @INCIndia#NDTiwari  V.Narayanasamy (@VNarayanasami) October 18, 2018

Former President of India Pranab Mukherjee also praised Tiwari in a Twitter post.

A Union Minister, Governor & four-time CM of two different States, in Shri ND Tiwari's passing away, I have lost a friend and the Nation has lost one of the leaders who was closely associated with Nation Building in the post-Nehruvian era. My prayers with his family & friends.

A Union Minister, Governor & four time CM of two different States, in Shri ND Tiwari's passing away, I have lost a friend and the Nation has lost one of the leaders who was closely associated with Nation Building in the post Nehruvian era. My prayers with his family & friends.  Pranab Mukherjee (@CitiznMukherjee) October 18, 2018

"My deepest condolences on the demise of Shri ND Tiwari. A colleague in the Congress Party & the Government for decades, he was an able administrator committed to the cause of his people," Mukherjee added.A day after Sabarimala Temple was opened for all in Kerala, the Director General of Police ordered the cyber cell to register complaints against people who are spreading hatred posts over social media.

The DGP's order comes after reports surfaced on social media saying that the head priest of Sabarimala Temple Kandaru Rajeevaru had planned to close down the Lord Ayyappa temple if young women entered it to offer prayers.

Rajeevaru dismissed the reports but appealed to the women, belonging to the age group of 10-50 who were restricted as per the centuries-old traditions of the shrine, not to come to Sannidhanam and create a problem.

"We have never said that the temple will be closed if women of the traditionally barred age group enter there. It is our duty and responsibility to carry out the monthly poojas and other rituals. We will not break the custom," Rajeevaru said.

He also said Sabarimala is a place where women are respected.

The DGP has ordered the cyber cell to take note of such incidents and register cases against people who are sharing posts on social media related to incidents of violence in Nilakkal and Pamba.

Earlier on Thursday, two journalists, who were trekking their way up towards the Sabarimala Temple, were stopped mid-way by protesters. The journalists were asked to abandon their trek and return. In a similar incident, a bus carrying journalists and other passengers was stopped mid-way and stones were pelted on the bus in protest.

The Sabarimala Protection Committee had on Thursday announced a 12-hour strike across Kerala in protest of the Supreme Court judgement.

The Supreme Court, in its judgement, had allowed entry to women of all age group inside the temple. The women were earlier not allowed entry inside Ayyappa's Sabarimala Temple due to thier menstrual cycle.

Violent protests took place prior to the opening of the temple's gate to devotees on Wednesday.

Section 144, which prohibits assembly of more than 4 people in an area, was on Wednesday imposed in Pampa, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam and Elavungal.

At least six BJP youth wing activists were arrested at Nilackal on Thursday for staging a protest in violation of section 144 of the CrPC.

The police were on Wednesday seen vandalising vehicles parked in Pamba district.

(With Agency Inputs)Parts of Kerala resumed their tense state of affairs on Thursday morning, as the Sabarimala Temple opened for the day. Security arrangements in the surrounding areas have been tightened in the face of a strike called by the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samiti against the entry of women into the temple. The state transport corporation has suspended all services in the area.

The Sabarimala shrine opened on Thursday morning after a day of ugliness outside its walls. The pilgrimage had opened on Wednesday, with numerous protests on the route to the temple against woman pilgrims who were attempting to catch their first darshan of Ayyappa.

A number of incidents of violence had been reported through the day, with female pilgrims and journalists, harassed, heckled and assaulted by angry protestors. Some also pelted stones at cars that were carrying women in the direction of the temple.

Police responded by lathi-charging the protestors and arresting at least 21 people. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC has been enforced in four areas around Sabarimala - Nilakkal, Pampa, Elavunkal and Sannidhanam.

The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has suspended all services in the affected areas. On Wednesday, a KSRTC bus had been attacked and damaged by protestors.

The protests and violence on the route to Sabarimala may be seen as the outpouring of anger over a perceived sense of aggravation over what is being portrayed in the Hindu right as an interference in culture and customs by the powers structures in New Delhi.

The controversy revolves over whether women have a legal right to visit the Sabarimala shrine, which has traditionally barred women of menstruating age from the temple. The Supreme Court had on September 28 ruled that women did have a right to visit the temple.

Kerala's ruling Left government had announced that it would not file a review petition against the Supreme Court order, and that it would implement the court's ruling. This has seen both the Congress and the BJP rile up in opposition.Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday arrived in the national capital.

Wickremesinghe is on a three-day visit to India.

During his visit, Wickremesinghe will hold discussions with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi on a wide range of topics including housing projects in the north of Sri Lanka, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wickremesinghe will also meet Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Wickremesinghe's delegation includes International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama and Petroleum Resources Minister Arjuna Ranatunga.

(With Agency Inputs)Jammu and Kashmir: A Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) terrorist was killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district Wednesday.

Faizan Majeed Bhat, a resident of Tral in Pulwama district, was involved in a grenade attack on a police party in Baramulla's Pattan that injured three policemen few days ago.

"Based on credible inputs that some terrorists are travelling on the Baramulla-Srinagar highway, a police team set up a checkpoint at Baba Teng Pattan," a police spokesman said.

He said one of the vehicles was signalled to stop but the militants inside the vehicle hurled a grenade.

"One police officer, DySp Zafar Mehdi and two other cops -- Shabir Ahmad and Ashiq Hussain -- sustained injuries," the spokesman said.

A cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered.

Bhat's accomplice Showkat Ahmad Bhat, however, managed to escape. The duo had recently joined the Tehreekul Mujahideen outfit, police said.SABARIMALA: A Delhi-based female journalist. who managed to climb up the pathway to reach Kerala's famed Sabarimala temple, was on Thursday forced to abandon her trek following a massive protest.

Suhasini Raj, who works as the India reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall before her.

According to witnesses, the protesters forced the two journalists to return.

#Visuals from #Kerala: Journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times, on her way to #SabarimalaTemple, returned midway after being stopped by protesters today. pic.twitter.com/D5bh5a1kNv  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

As she was ascending, Raj kept saying that she did not come to pray but to do her work.

"It was a massive protest by the devotees. The protesters were sitting on the pathway shouting slogans against her. She had no other way but to return and she did that," said a witness here.

Speaking on the issue, IGP, Thiruvananthapuram Range later said that they will give protection to everybody going up.

''It's our job to give protection to all pilgrims. We'll put more manpower and secure all routes. She (journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times) wasn't forced to come back, she came back,'' he said.

On Wednesday, the protesters, who opposed the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Sabarimala temple, clashed with the police and heckled female journalists as the pilgrimage season opened.

The temple opened for the first time on Wednesday after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

The district authorities have clamped a 24 hour Section 144 in a 30 square km radius of the temple town and the state is observing a statewide shutdown on Thursday called by a Hindu organisation backed by the BJP-led NDA.MUMBAI: Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday targetted Narendra Modi-led government over delay in construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Making a strong pitch for construction of a Ram temple, Thackeray said he would visit the Uttar Pradesh town on November 25 and "question" PM Narendra Modi over the issue.

"I will go to Ayodhya on November 25. I will ask questions to the prime minister (over alleged delay in constructing the temple)...We are not enemies of the prime minister, but we don't want to play with the emotions of the people," Thackeray told a huge gathering of the party workers.

Thackeray was addressing party workers on the annual Dussehra rally in Mumbai. He went on to say that the current political scenario in the country is not like it was back in 2014.

There is no '2014-like wave' in the country, he said.

Thackeray also asked Sena workers to be prepared for polls.

In the party convention held earlier this year, the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra and the oldest member of the NDA, had declared to go solo in future polls.

He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four and half years, after becoming the prime minister.

Thackeray asked the ruling BJP to declare its promise to construct the Ram temple as a "jumla" (gimmick) if it is not going to implement the same.

The Sena chief also sought to dispel the perception that his party is sticking to power in Maharashtra even as it has been unrelenting in criticising the BJP and the prime minister.

Thackeray said his party has been targeting the government over non-performance of the BJP government.

"Now the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is also speaking the same language as ours... Recently, RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said it is the duty of Raja (king) to keep people happy. We all know who is the king in democracy," Thackeray said, without naming anyone.

"You ask us to walk out of the government (when the Sena criticises the government)... Why don't you ask the RSS to tell the BJP to walk out of the government now (for its criticism by the Sangh)?" Thackeray asked.

He also hit out at the BJP-led government over several issues, including price rise, alleged delay in implementing the promise of abrogating Article 370 and for not acting tough against Pakistan.

Thackeray also criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government for "delay" in declaring drought in the state despite several parts reeling under water shortage.

Referring to a Maharashtra BJP leader's comment that PM Modi is the "eleventh incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, Thackeray asked, "If that is the case then why the Modi government cannot control skyrocketing prices?"

(With PTI Inputs)New Delhi: Actress Deepika Padukone is known for her expressive eyes and million dollar smile. The beautiful actress is a sigh to behold each time she steps out in public or for an event. Whether it is the cool and casual airport look or the dressy Cannes Film Festival look, Dippy darling has left us impressed many times.

Welcoming the festive season with much fervour, the actress took to Instagram and shared a picture in ethnic wear.

The caption reads, the festive season is here...

The actress has teamed up with Meghna Gulzar for the biopic of acid attack survivor Laxmi. A Mumbai Mirror report had revealed that Deepika will not only act, but also produce the film. The film is yet-to-be-titled. Mumbai Mirror quoted the actress as saying, When I heard this story, I was deeply moved as its not just one of violence but of strength and courage, hope and victory. It made such an impact on me, that personally and creatively, I needed to go beyond and so the decision to turn producer.

Coming to her personal life, buzz is strong that Deepika is all set to tie the knot with long-term beau Ranveer Singh. The wedding will most likely happen next month at Lake Como, Italy. Deepika and Ranveer have never admitted to being in a relationship but haven't denied it either. Moreover, their Instagram PDA and time to time public appearances are proof that there is certainly more than what meets the eye!

Will Deepika and Ranveer go the Virat-Anushka way and surprise us all with their wedding pictures? Time shall tell!New Delhi: A few days ago, Alia Bhatt posted a picture from the streets of NYC, making us all wonder if she is there to spend time with beau Ranbir Kapoor and his family. Well, looks like the actress is indeed there to be with the Kapoors!

Some pictures are doing rounds on Internet which show Alia and Ranbir spotted together on the streets of New York.

Check out the pics here, as shared by fan clubs:

Ranbir's father, Rishi Kapoor is going through a medical treatment in NYC. The Kapoors were already in NYC when Alia joined them a few days ago. Looks like the actress is leaving no stone unturned in making sure that she is there whenever her beau's family needs her!

Rumours are strong that things are getting serious between Ranbir and Alia. The two have often being spotted together and also seem to be bonding with each other's families.

Ranbir had almost confirmed the relationship by calling it 'too new to talk about' in an interview with GQ India magazine. On the other hand, Alia, in an interview with NDTV had revealed that she isn't single.

Earlier, in an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Rishi was asked if he approved of the Jodi or not. To this, Mirror quoted the actor as saying, Its Ranbirs life. Who he wants to get married to is his prerogative. Neetu likes her, I like her, Ranbir likes her. Get it? I cant be judgmental. After all, my uncles Shammiji and Shashiji and I chose our life partners. Ranbir is entitled to choose his.New Delhi: Bollywood's style icon Sonam Kapoor Ahuja has often left us awestruck with her outfits. Whenever the pretty lady steps out, she grabs eyeballs and gives us major outfit goals. Ahead of Dussehra celebrations, Sonam took to Instagram and posted a picture in a beautiful blue lehenga. The actress looks pretty in almost every outfit she carries but traditional surely brings out the best in her!

Check out the pic here:

Sonam tied the knot with her long time beau Anand Ahuja this year. This will be the couple's first Dussehra and we wonder how will they celebrate the ocassion. Sonam and Anand had a big fat Punjabi wedding which was attended by various Bollywood biggies. Soon after their wedding, pictures and videos of celebs dancing their hearts out at the ceremonies made way on social media.

Sonam is a regular social media user and often shares details from her life. The actress has time and again shared awwdorable pictures with her husband and the two look perfect together.

On the work front, Sonam will be seen in 'The Zoya Factor'. The actress is working with her real-life uncle Sanjay Kapoor who plays her dad in the film. Sonam will also share screen space with her father, Anil Kapoor in 'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga'. The film also stars Rajkummar Rao and will hit the screens in February next year.Meerut: In a shocking case, a minor was repeatedly gang-raped by her two brothers for more than four years in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.

The incident came to light after the 15-year-old victim, who lives in Civil Lines police station area, approached the police.

The brothers sexually abused the victim for more than four years. On protesting, they brutally beat up the sister and further threatened to kill their mother, said the police.

The accused persons have been arrested and a case was filed.

FIR registered; both the accused brothers have been arrested on the basis of evidence. After interrogation, the accused have confessed to the crime, said the police.

In yet another incident, 24-year-old woman was allegedly raped by her neighbour when she was sleeping in her house at Kakroli village in the district, police said.

According to a complaint lodged by the woman, she alleged that the accused entered her house and took her to a nearby jungle, where she was raped at gun point, they said.

He also threatened her of dire consequences if she informed anyone about the incident, police said.

With agency inputsWashington: The Trump administration has said it is coming out with new proposals to not only revise the definition of specialty occupations under H-1B visas, but also the definition of employment under this foreign work visa category which is popular among Indian companies.

Such a move, which is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration will have a detrimental impact on the functioning of Indian IT companies in the US and also small and medium-sized contractual companies in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian Americans.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January 2019. It will "propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation" to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.

It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, DHS said. In addition, DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration said.

The DHS reiterated that it is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation.

The DHS said it is also finalising its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

This rule precludes an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker. This rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, DHS said it is proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications. This will allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, it said.Canada became the first industrialised nation to legalize recreational cannabis on Wednesday, but a lawful buzz will be hard to come by in its biggest cities like Toronto and Vancouver, which will have no stores open.

Weed enthusiasts in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada`s easternmost province, kicked off the first permissible sales at midnight. Over 100 people braved the cold and wind in the province`s capital St. John`s, lining up outside a Tweed-branded store owned by Canopy Growth Corp., the world`s most recognised cannabis producer.

Canopy`s Chief Executive Bruce Linton rang in the first sales to residents Ian Power and Nikki Rose.

"I came out tonight to be the first person in Canada to purchase the first legal gram of recreational cannabis, to help see the end of prohibition in Canada finally," Power said.

The day was historic for the country as adult Canadians will be able to legally smoke recreational marijuana after nearly a century-long ban.

However, many provincial governments` approval of only a small number of shops so far, and a shortage of weed supplied to these stores, means most Canadians` first toke on Wednesday will likely be of black-market pot.

"There will be a lot of celebrations on the day, and it will almost all be with illegal cannabis" in some of Canada`s biggest cities, said Brad Poulos, an instructor and cannabis business expert at Ryerson University in Toronto. "Recreational cannabis users in Canada ... will just continue with their (existing) sources of supply until the legal system catches up."

Despite the dearth of stores in Canada`s biggest cities, consumers can buy legal marijuana online, from provincial governments or licensed retailers, although delivery will take a few days.

Other countries around the world, many of whom are just approving medical marijuana, are watching Canada`s recreational legalization, which combines federal rules with varying provincial regulations.

The move is a political win for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who vowed to legalize cannabis in his 2015 election campaign. That pledge was aimed at taking profits away from organised crime and regulating the production, distribution and consumption of a product that millions of Canadians had been consuming illegally.

But provinces and businesses have struggled to prepare, and legalization was pushed back from original expectations of a July start to enable setting up distribution and sales networks.

In the run-up to legalization, cannabis companies have been on a tear, as companies struck deals while others went public, creating an investor frenzy.

The federal government and many provinces have been cautious, starting with limited stores and products, including no edibles for a year, and tight control over supply.

WEED SHORTAGE

Ontario, home to Canada`s most populous city, Toronto, will have no physical stores until April 2019, due to a change to the province`s retail model by a new provincial government.

British Columbia, which plans both province-run and private outlets, has only one government store 350 kilometres (220 miles) from its biggest city, Vancouver. Private store licenses will only be issued after legalization, the province`s Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth said.

"October 18th is going to look very much like October 16th, in many ways," Farnworth said.

Even in provinces with more shops, empty shelves are likely due to a shortage of product. A study by the University of Waterloo and economic policy think tank C.D. Howe Institute found legal supply will satisfy under 60 percent of demand in the early months, though that will change as production increases.

"Oct. 17 will ... probably be the least elegant day," Canopy`s CEO Linton said. "But the key message is not how it works on the first day but that there is a first day."

Law enforcement going forward could be patchy. In August, Canada approved a device to detect levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabis`s psychoactive element, in drivers` oral fluids.

But many large police departments will forego the C$5,000 device, Adam Palmer, president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, told reporters on Monday.

Draeger Safety Canada, which makes the device, has shipped some units, but a two-week federal funding delay has put further orders on hold, although it expects demand for between 300 and 500 units through March, Managing Director Rob Clark said.

Canada has invested C$274 million to enforce the new laws and some provinces have allocated their own funding, but Palmer said police will not crack down on illegal stores right away.

"When the law changes on the 17th, we`re not going to see a big change overnight," Palmer said. "Police arent ... chomping at the bit to go out and start raiding stores."Washington: President Donald Trump has denied "giving cover" to US' "important ally" Saudi Arabia in the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi and sought a full report from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dissident Saudi journalist's mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for 'The Washington Post'.

Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless".

Amidst mounting pressure in the US, Trump on Wednesday appeared to be resisting any move to take strong action against Saudi Arabia, arguing that it was a key ally of America.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he had asked for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi.

"We've asked for it, if it exists," he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

"I'm not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. I'll have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back," Trump said, referring to his meeting with Mike Pompeo on Thursday on his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

"That's going to be the first question I ask him," he said.

On his way back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

"Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder?" he was asked.

"I don't have anything to say about that," Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

"They're going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. I'm going to be very consistent: We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened.

"He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and he's going to have a full report. I'm not giving cover at all," he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

"Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran. We're not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about?" he asked.

"They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the Middle East. But if you look at Saudi Arabia, they're an ally and they're a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things," he said.

"When I went there, they committed to purchase USD 450 billion worth of things, and USD 110 billion worth of military (equipment). Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been any order for USD 450 billion," Trump said.

However, lawmakers continued to call for action against the Saudi establishment.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as additional questions and reports accumulate around the disappearance and reported torture and assassination of Khashoggi, so too does the list of misstatements, falsehoods, and denials from the Saudi Arabian government.

"These responses intended to answer international criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's regime have included everything from categorical denials to claims that operatives of the Saudi government may have inadvertently murdered Khashoggi while attempting to detain, interrogate, and torture him in violation of international law," he said.

"Yet despite so much evidence to the contrary, President Trump appears ready to believe the Saudi Arabian government's denials. While President Trump may accept Saudi Arabia's denials about the disappearance and death of Khashoggi at face value, the American people won't," Krishnamoorthi said.

Senator Patrick Leahy said the credible, detailed reports from the Turkish government and the international press that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 had shocked the world.

"While we do not yet have definitive proof, neither is there any other plausible explanation," he said.

Meanwhile, 11 Democratic Senators wrote to Trump seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This comes days after a bipartisan group of 22 senators recently triggered a probe and a Global Magnitsky Act determination relating to the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi's disappearance and possible murder.

"It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and US policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your family's deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia," the Democratic senators wrote.Ruslan Demchenko might become a new head of Ukraine's side in Minsk group after ex-President Leonid Kuchma left it

Incumbent presidents advisor Ruslan Demchenko represented Ukraine at the last meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) in the talks on the settlement of the situation in Donbas. He replaced Ukraines ex-President Leonid Kuchma, who has been involved in the Minsk peace negotiations since 2014.

Ukraines second president Leonid Kuchma has been heading Ukrainian side in TCG in Minsk for more than four years; as promised in early October, he resigned and left the negotiation process.

According to the politician, he has reached his "critical age" (in August, Kuchma turned 80) and can no longer fulfill the mission of the key Ukrainian "peacemaker."

However, the issue of further representation of Ukraines interests in the Minsk peace talks is still a very difficult issue, because the head of the Ukrainian delegation was not officially appointed by the president.

On the eve, this honorable and responsible position was unexpectedly assigned to presidents advisor and former first deputy foreign minister of Yanukovychs times Ruslan Demchenko.

What do we know about Ruslan Demchenko

Ruslan Demchenko was born in Kyiv, on July 15, 1965. He is 53 years old now.

In 1989, he graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, receiving the specialist degree in international relations, researcher-translator of English. Accordingly, his Russian and English are fluent.

Open source

Career growth

Demchenko began his career in 1989 as a lower-level (2nd) economist at the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Construction of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.

In 1990 - 1992, he served as the third, second secretary of Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 1992 - 1996, he served as the second secretary at the Embassy of Ukraine to the United States.

In 1996  2000, he was the head of the department, deputy head of the service, deputy head of the Presidential Administration (under Leonid Kuchma).

In 2000  2003, he served as Consul General of Ukraine in Istanbul (Republic of Turkey).

In 2003  2005, he was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Serbia and Montenegro.

In 2005, he worked as the first deputy head of the Main Foreign Policy Service of the Presidential Secretariat of Ukraine and then headed the State Protocol and Ceremony Service of the Presidential Secretariat (under Viktor Yushchenko).

In 2006  2010, he was the head of the Office of President Yushchenko.

In 2010  2014, he acted as deputy, first deputy minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine.

It is rumored that at that time he was in charge of the Russian direction of that department, and also personally coordinated the work of Ukrainian diplomats to justify the repression against Yulia Tymoshenko and Yuriy Lutsenko in the eyes of the Western public.

Because of these rumors, many people called him the gray cardinal of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry or the diplomat of Anti-Maidan.

After the Revolution of Dignity, Demchenko has temporarily served as minister of foreign affairs (for four days).

Then he became an adviser to president Poroshenko, in particular, he is a curator of Russian-Ukrainian relations. He has been holding this position till now.

Rating of the politician

In January 2010, Demchenko was awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (V degree).

In August 2001, he has got the diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the 1st class, in November 2004 he has received the diplomatic rank of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, in July 2005 he became a civil servant of the 2nd rank.

Since January 2011, he has headed the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO.

Family and property

Demchenko is married, he has a son. According to the latest declaration, he is the owner of five apartments in Kyiv, a residential building in Koncha Zaspa, luxury district of Kyiv, and two land plots in Kyiv and Chernihiv regions.

His wife Olena also owns four apartments in Kyiv, as well as a group of non-residential premises and one land plot.

In addition, the presidential adviser has a tourist float, his wife has a 2006 Suzuki Jimny car.

His income for 2017 amounted to more than 36 thousand USD (most of this amount is wages and income from property rental), the income of his wife also amount to about 36 thousand USD.

Also, Demchenko keeps more than 10 thousand USD in Unex Bank, 660 USD in Ukragazbank, and 55 thousand USD in cash. At the same time, his wifes in cash stored 20 thousand euros.

In addition, Demchenko lent to third parties nearly 282 thousand USD.

Demchenkos chances to the Ukrainian delegation in the TCG?

Despite the fact that at the last meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, which took place on October 16, the Ukrainian delegation was headed by presidential adviser Ruslan Demchenko, this does not mean that he will carry out this mission in the future.

As the First Deputy Chairman of Parliament Iryna Gerashchenko hinted, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup in Minsk, President Petro Poroshenko should appoint and announce the official representative in the contact group.

At the same time, she added that the head of the Ukrainian delegation in Minsk should be a "highly professional and patriotic Ukrainian, who would represent Ukraines position with dignity and toughness."

This gives reason to believe that Demchenko took the post of head of the delegation temporarily until the president has decided on the candidate for this position. And it is quite clear why he became the temporary representative of Ukraine in the group.

It is no secret that from the very beginning of the TCG work in Minsk Demchenko was presidents actual representative in the group. He accompanied Leonid Kuchma at all the meetings. And this means that Demchenko is fully ready for the negotiation process and does not need time to get accustomed to the work of the group.

But, according to experts, he lacks some rigidity to be approved on an ongoing basis. Ruslan Demchenko is a career diplomat. Diplomats have a special language to hide their thoughts. Negotiations process requires involving a person, who would not pick [polite, diplomatic] words when a tough stance is needed, Ukraines former representative in Minsk political subgroup Roman Bessmertny noted.

Yes, and the work in MFA during Yanukovychs days plays against him. Of course, there will be criticism that Demchenko can play up to Russia, this can harm negotiations and undermine the position of Ukraine, political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko believes. According to him, even if such criticism is unfounded, it will still weaken Demchenkos positions in the TCG.

Therefore, experts agree that the diplomat is likely to preserve his shadow role in the negotiations.

Here are the names of other persons, who might replace Kuchma in Minsk talks  third president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, ex-Minister of Defense Yevgen Marchuk, diplomat Olexandr Motsyk, etc.

Does a change in negotiator affect the Minsk peace negotiations?

When the Minsk talks just started, second president of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, was considered an ideal candidate to head of the Ukrainian delegation in the Tripartite Contact Group, because he could talk on an equal footing with almost all representatives of Russia whom he had known since his presidency.

Many believe that his exit from the negotiation process is not connected with his age. Kuchma decided to leave because the negotiations have entered a deadlock. Accordingly, the change of the negotiator on the Ukrainian side is unlikely to seriously affect the implementation of the agreements.

Moreover, one cannot even expect the negotiation process in Minsk to be unblocked. Supposedly, one should not expect any reinforcement in the Minsk negotiations Everything depends on Putins desire to aggravate the conflict or to solve it. But for now, we do not see the desire to curtail Donbas conflict, so the situation would not change," expert on foreign policy and security Bohdan Yaremenko adds.

Read the original text at 112.ua.Many of them settled on London as a place to invest, and, in some cases, to reside

From the ruins of Russia's Communism some of the winners of Russia's new capitalism came westwards. Having made their money in the chaotic, and sometimes dangerous, business climate that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia's new rich started to look beyond their country's borders for places to spend -- and securely save -- their new wealth.

Many of them settled on London as a place to invest, and, in some cases, to reside. It was good business for high-end real estate agents. Britain's private schools raked in millions of dollars in fees from parents keen for their offspring to benefit from the most exclusive education. London's most expensive shops were happy to satisfy a craving for luxury acquired during childhoods under Communism.

Not all of the wealth was legally acquired, of course. Russia in its immediate post-Soviet years was simply not that kind of business climate. One young Russian-speaking British man this contributor knew in the early 1990s told the story of helping a Russian 'biznesmen' (the word 'businessman', its letters altered to fit the language, was now understood in Russian) to look at real estate in London. Agents' fees were settled from a suitcase full of cash.

For those rich Russians keen to leave some aspects of their past behind, London could help with that, too. A trusted legal system meant that some business disputes with their origins on the other side of the former Iron Curtain actually came to court in the United Kingdom. Highly-skilled public relations professionals were on hand to repair and enhance reputations. In any case, the local libel laws meant that some inconvenient allegations would never appear in print.

As energy prices rose in the 2000s, Russia's super-rich became even richer. The cash continued to flow into the British capital. This stratum of society became known as 'Londongrad'. Mark Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley's book of the same name chronicled the excesses of the post-Soviet expatriates.

Now times are changing. When the first oligarchs moved westwards in the 1990s and early 2000s, they were welcomed by a Britain not only open to wealthy outsiders but enjoying improving business and diplomatic ties with its former cold war foe. No longer.

Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, together with suspected Russian involvement in the poisoning earlier this year in Britain of the former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, have taken British-Russian relations to a post-Cold War low.

At the same time, the British authorities have introduced new measures -- 'Unexplained Wealth Orders' -- aimed at cracking down on illegally acquired money and property. These require 'a person who is reasonably suspected of involvement in, or of being connected to a person involved in, serious crime to explain the nature and extent of their interest in particular property, and to explain how the property was obtained.'

Read the original text at Forbes.For the past year, Russia has been harassing Ukrainian vessels passing through the Strait to and from the Azov Sea, increasing the time it takes for them to reach Ukrainian ports or international waterswith serious economic and security implications for the countrys southeast

Todays (October 17) news of a tragic attack on a school in the Crimean coastal city of Kerch (UNIAN, October 17) snapped global attention back to this Russian-occupied corner of Ukraine, which itself borders on a precarious security situation in the Kerch Strait and Azov Sea. For the past year, Russia has been harassing Ukrainian vessels passing through the Strait to and from the Azov Sea, increasing the time it takes for them to reach Ukrainian ports or international waterswith serious economic and security implications for the countrys southeast. In addition, continually strengthening Russian naval and maritime security forces have been challenging Ukrainian naval vessels in contested regional waters as well as close to Ukrainian shores (see EDM, April 12, May 8, 31, June 11). On October 12, Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree concerning the deteriorating situation in the Azov Sea (Rnbo.gov.ua, October 12). Specifically, the document claims Ukrainian sovereignty over its territorial waters in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov as well as calls for measures to counter Russian superiority in these linked bodies of water.

The presidential decree legally reinforced Kyivs earlier decision, on September 23, to send two Ukrainian supplementary naval vessels, the A500 Donbas (built in 1969) and A830 Korets (1973), through the Kerch Strait to the port of Berdyansk (UNIAN, September 23). The freedom-of-navigation operation not only aimed to reaffirm Ukraines right to free passage through the Strait (Ukrinform, September 26), which Russia de facto dominates from both sides due to the annexation of Crimea. Ukraine was also likely testing the Russian reaction and observing the latters reconnaissance and data gathering competencies. Finally, the Donbas and Korets northward passage through the Kerch Strait was part of Ukraines plans to establish a new naval base at Berdyansk for the Azov Flotilla, which it is now in the process of standing up. The Azov Sea naval base will comprise the third Ukrainian coastal outpost guarding a strategic chokepoint. The pre-existing other two are the West Naval Base (in Odesa), responsible for securing Ukraines interests throughout the wider Black Sea, and the Southern Naval Base (Ochakiv and Mykolaiv), which defends the Dnieper River and its delta.

Following years of neglect, Ukraine is hurriedly tying to reinforce its naval capabilities in the Sea of Azov. In early September, two modern Gurza-M-class (Project 58155) artillery gunboats were deployed there (Mil.in.ua, September 8). And reportedly, Kyiv is considering buying three Danish Standard Flex 300 patrol vessels for 102 million euros ($117 million) (Mil.in.ua, September 13). Additionally, after almost five years of postponement, President Poroshenko finally officially received two Island-class Coast Guard cutters from the United States, while he was visiting Baltimore harbor (UNIAN, September 28). Writing on her Facebook page, Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) First Deputy Chairperson Iryna Herashchenko asserted that the two US vessels would, following upgrades in the US, be sent to patrol Ukrainian waters in the Azov Sea (Uawire.org, September 30). Investigative reports from earlier this spring concluded that the main reason for the lengthy delay in Ukraine taking ownership of the US Island-class cutters was Poroshenkos desire to instead allow a Ukrainian shipyard he owns to benefit from government contracts for domestically built ships (Radio Svoboda, March 30).

Despite Ukraines efforts to quickly stand up an Azov Flotilla, it is unlikely to be enough to challenge Russias overwhelming regional naval presence. It is worth noting that the surface area of the Sea of Azov is roughly 39,000 square kilometers and is being patrolled by around 5070 Russian coast guard vessels. For comparison, Norways Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is 2,385,178 square kilometers (so about 61 time larger), and it is only protected by 1315 vessels (Authors off-the-record discussions, Brussels, October 37). Thus, to meet this challenge, Ukraine is looking at alternative approaches, including legal and deterrence-based strategies. First, Kyiv is weighing the possibility of backing out of its 2003 agreement with Russia, which had divided the Sea of Azov equally between them and prevented any foreign warships from entering the sea without both of their consent. By pulling out of this treaty, Ukraine and Russias territorial waters in the Sea of Azov would, according to international law, extend only 12 nautical miles out from their respective coasts, while the seas interior would become international waters. Additionally, this would legally free North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) warships to enter the Azov Sea.

In connection to the above, Ukraine is also formulating a multi-faceted deterrence policy for the Sea of Azov based upon the following considerations:

1) Establish a strong defense system along the entire coastline under Ukrainian control;

2) Find an alternative way (i.e., internal Ukrainian waterways) for NATO vessels to enter the Sea of Azov;

3) Seek diplomatic and political support from NATO and the European Union (State.gov, August 31);

4) Use the international legal system (such as lodging a case against Moscow at the Permanent Court of Arbitration) to preserve Ukrainian sovereignty (Pca-cpa.com, August 31);

5) Seek to extend the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europes (OSCE) monitoring mission mandate to the shores of the Azov Sea, or establish some other form of international monitoring mission for this body of water;

6) Build up a full-fledged flotilla, in conjunction with costal defense and with direct technical military assistance from NATO, capable of deterring Russian aggression; and

7) Deploy minesweepers (to date, Kyiv does not possess such vessels) to the Azov Flotilla or, as an alternative, acquire Danish patrol boats.

Thus, both sides are strengthening their Azov Sea naval forces. But concurrently, Russia is pursuing an assertive policy designed to undermine the social and economic situation in southeastern Ukraine, to create conditions on the ground congenial to establishing a future land corridor to Crimea, as well as to take full control over the Azov Sea. To effectively counter this strategy, Ukrainian responses will need to be resolute as well as multidimensional.

Read the original text at The Jamestown Foundation.

Related video:The enemy used the weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements six times

Open source

During the following day on October 17, the militants shelled the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine nine times. As a result of the hostilities, one Ukrainian serviceman sustained injuries, reports the press office of the Joint Forces Operation on Facebook.

It is noted that the rival used the weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements six times. The militants were opening aimed fire using 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns, and small arms.

Russian occupation forces performed the shelling of the Joint Forces positions in the area of settlements Avdiivka, Hruntove, Talakivka, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne. The enemy used 120mm mortar against the defenders of Talakivka, and 82mm mortar at the strongholds of our forces in the area of settlements Hruntove, Lebedyske and Shyrokyne, reads the message.

One Ukrainian serviceman sustained a slight injury during the hostilities.

The situation in the Joint Forces Operation zone remains under control.Since Thursday morning, the Ukrainian military positions in Donbas took fire four times. None of the Ukrainian defenders were killed or wounded in action. The Joint Forces Operation HQ reported this on Facebook.

The enemy never used the Minsk-banned weapons - mostly grenade launchers, heavy machineguns, and small arms. Hostile troops opened fire in Nevelske, Hnutove, and Lebedynske.

Anti-tank missiles hit Ukrainian positions near Lebedynske.

On October 17, the militants shelled the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine nine times. One Ukrainian serviceman sustained combat injuries in action. The militants opened adjusted fire using 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of different systems, heavy machine guns, and small arms.Since the beginning of the year, 39 civilians lost their lives in war-torn eastern Ukraine

Over the past week, OSCE SMM observers reported over 3,700 violations of the ceasefire and confirmed the deaths of two civilians. Alexander Hug, the Mission's first deputy head said this as quoted by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

'The security situation did not change much over the week. Over the past three days, an increased level of violence was observed. On the first four days of the week, the Mission reported 1,400 cases, and over the last three it witnessed over 2,300, which is a 60-percent increase,' he said.

Hug added that the observers confirmed deaths of two local residents, and another two were wounded. 'The responsibility lies with those who don't live up to their commitments,' he said.

The official added that since the beginning of the year, 39 civilians lost their lives in war-torn eastern Ukraine. In 2017, the number made 87.

As is known, Alexander Hug will leave the office on October 31.The documents that confirm this information were released by Paola Vintimilla, the Ecuadorian lawmaker from the opposition side

Recently new evidence was released that Ecuador government tried to appoint Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, to the post of the political counselor at the Embassy of Ecuador in Moscow as The Guardian reported.

According to the message, it was planned to provide Assange with a new position until Christmas, 2017; however, the British authorities vetoes the decision of Ecuador.

The documents that confirm this information were released by Paola Vintimilla, the Ecuadorian lawmaker from the opposition side as, she does not support the policy of the government to provide aid to Assange, particularly, the Ecuadorian citizenship.

In its turn, the Russian said accused the mass media of spreading fake news; however, the provided information proves the opposite.

Also, it was specified that Assange should be provided with the diplomatic ID card and even paid $2,000.

It is worthy to note that neither Russian, nor British side comment on the incident.

Julian Assange has been on the territory of Ecuadors Embassy in London since 2012. He can not leave the territory of the diplomatic mission as he fears arrest under Swedens request and further extradition in the US. The American authorities accuse Assange of publishing secret data of the State Department. He faces 35 years of imprisonment and even a death penalty. Assange himself denies the accusations.

In March, Assange was deprived of all the communication means due to the violation of a written commitment as of 2017 not to spread statements which would suppose the involvement in the relations with other states. He spread information about Russias guiltlessness in Skripals case.Last year Hungary increased the one-time payment to Hungarian teachers in Zakarpattia by 80%

The Hungarian authority allocated $5 million for the education sphere in Zakarpattia as Mukachevo.net reported citing the proper order in the government Hungarian bulletin.

Particularly, Hungarian government decided to additionally support the workers of the education sphere in the state educational institutions of Zakarpattia and those who help to hold the educational process in the Hungarian language.

According to the order "On provision of the sources of resources for the support of the health care system, cultural and social programs in Zakarpattia," the one-time state payment in the sum of $5 million is provided in 2019.

Last year Hungary increased the one-time payment to Hungarian teachers in Zakarpattia by 80%.

The new law on education was signed by Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko on September 25, 2017. In particular, it introduces a 12-year-long school program and limits the number of subjects taught in the languages of national minorities. This particular decision evoked outrage in Moldova, Romania, Russia, and Hungary. Budapest even threatened to slow down the process of Ukraines integration with the EU.

Ukraine sent the text of the new legislation to the Council of Europes Venice Commission; meanwhile, the Councils Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) announced that it failed to ensure the necessary balance between the countrys state language and the languages of its ethnic minorities.

Due to this conflict, Hungary imposed a veto at the holding of the Ukraine-NATO commission in Brussels at the foreign ministers level.

Related video:Open source

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said his government opposed the idea to prolong the anti-Russian sanctions.

'I am convinced that sanctions are economic, social, and cultural madness,' he said on a visit to Moscow on October 17, as quoted by RFE/RL.

'He criticized the basis of the sanctions, which were imposed on Moscow after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war against the government.' The EU's dominant powers, Germany and France, and most other EU members have said the sanctions should stay in place until progress is made in ending that conflict. Salvini charged that the EU is sanctioning Russia for "alleged violations against Ukraine," while taking no action over Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus -- "a European country" -- since 1974. "It is folly," he said, vowing to "do his best" to bring an end to the Russian sanctions, or at least to resist attempts to make their renewal every six months automatic. "If we are asked to confirm, we will say no. It's clear that it makes no sense that they are in place," he told a gathering of Italian businessmen in Moscow in a speech live-streamed on his Facebook account', the outlet wrote.

Earlier, Salvini considered the annexation of Crimea legal and said that the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine was fake. Foreign Ministry of Ukraine condemned such statement and Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Davide La Cecilia assured that "position of Italy in the support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is clear and consistent."

Recently, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stated that he would like to take Italys Prime Minister to Donbas to show the consequences of the battle actions and the Russian aggression in Ukraine.The MPs declined another decree, which urged the Parliament to call off the appeal to the National Security Council

Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament has upheld the appeal to the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which envisages tough sanctions against 112 Ukraine and NewsOne TV channels. The other draft decree which urged the Parliament to call off the appeal was declined.

On October 4, Ukraines Verkhovna Rada urged 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 for support and protection 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.

Moreover, the appeals were sent to the international organizations Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders and European Federation of Journalists.

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.

***

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.The chances of a peaceful solution have vastly decreased lately due to Russia's actions in Donbas, U.S. Envoy for Ukraine's Affairs said

Washington plans to make the anti-Russian sanctions mode harder every month or two, as the Kremlin's aggression in Donbas goes on. U.S. Envoy for Ukraine's Affairs Kurt Volker said this as quoted by Atlantic Council.

'We've tried to increase the pressure that we're putting on Russia in order to get them to negotiate towards a solution. That includes keeping sanctions in place in the U.S. and increasing these sanctions periodically, over time. And that's a track we and the Trump administration will continue to be on. And you'll see additional sanctions coming to play - every two months or three months, as we've seen,' he said.

'Likewise, we're working very closely with our European allies, and Europeans have kept sanctions as well. And I think this is somewhat surprising to Russia, I think. The European Union has shown tremendous resilience and strength in keeping these in place,' Volker added.

Volker added that the chances of a peaceful solution have vastly decreased lately due to Russia's actions in Donbas. On the other hand, he stressed, Kyiv has 'no illusions about re-taking control over the territory by force.' Such attempt would become a disaster for Ukraine, the U.S. envoy concluded.ImageSat International released the images proving that modernization and construction of new bunkers was observed in the area from July till October

Open source

Russia has upgraded its military bunkers, including the bunkers that contain nuclear weaponry, located in Kaliningrad Oblast near the Baltic Sea. CNN reported this, referring to the satellite data of private company ImageSat International.

The images shot from July till October show that large-scale modernization of the old and construction of the new bunkers took place; for instance, old bunkers near the town of Primorsk are now surrounded by the new ones. Judging by the photos, some of the new facilities seemed to be complete in a matter of ten weeks.

In February, a military base of the 152nd Missile Brigade of Russia's Armed Forces received Iskander missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The base is located in Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad Oblast.

James Foggo, the U.S. Navy Commander in Europe and Africa told CNN that strengthening of the Russian positions in Kaliningrad Oblast will not stop the NATO. The Russian side has not commented on the statement so far.The non-compliance of the storage and vaccination became the reasons for measles outbreak

Open source

In Petranka village, in Ivano-Frankivsk region, 53 children of 5 - 13 years sickened with measles as the press service of the Public Health Center of Health Ministry reported.

43 children out of 53 receive treatment in the local outpatient unit and 10 of them were hospitalized in the infectious disease section of Rozhnyatovsky regional hospital. As for today, 8 children were discharged.

The commission of the Health Ministry held the search in Petranka and established that the number of the gross violations became the reason for the measles outbreak.

There were a lot of children who were not previously vaccinated and not included in the vaccination plan. Also, the blackouts took place from time to time and it could influence the quality of the vaccines stored in the refrigerators.

Moreover, the commission spotted the inappropriate keeping of the medical records.

"Medical cards of three children contained no marks about vaccination against measles, four children were vaccinated with the violation of the vaccination time demands, and information about vaccination of 46 children on the schedule was not full," the message said.

As a results of the check, the Health Ministry obliged the Health Department of Ivano-Frankivsk regional state administration to assume measures to address gaps in Petranka village.

Earlier we reported that 28 children got sick with measles in one of the Vinnytsia region schools. The measles outbreak is connected with the fact that the parents refuse from the vaccination.

Earlier it was reported that as of September 12, 30,744 persons have been sickened with measles since the beginning of 2018.

Also, Moldova imposed the orange threat level on the results of the session of the national emergency commission for public health. It is noted that the highest number of cases were spotted in the southern regions of Moldova.

Also, the European Health Security Agency reported that Ukraine was the third in Europe on the number of people infected with measles in 2017. The leaders are Romania and Italy.Ukraine's President claimed that it is a tragedy, when Ukrainians die, no matter the place

Open source

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed condolences to the Ukrainians, who lost their children and loved ones during the explosion at the Kerch Polytechnic College, reports the website of the Presidential Administration.

A hideous murder took place today in Kerch. The Prosecutors office reported me that a criminal proceeding is initiated, Poroshenko claimed.

The President noted that the investigation is aimed at the identity of the potential killer and the terrible consequences of his actions.

Petro Poroshenko focused on the fact that the investigation of such cases is important for Ukraine because Crimea and the Ukrainians who live on its territory belong to Ukraine.

Why is this so important for us? Because they are Ukrainian citizens. And, of course, when Ukrainian citizens die, it becomes a tragedy, no matter the place, he claimed.

As we reported an explosion thundered at a college in Kerch, the town in the Russian-occupied Crimea. As of now, it is known about the death of 18 people and the injury of 40, most of them are teenagers. The official version is the explosion of an unknown explosive device.

According to the preliminary information, an 18-year-old student of the fourth year of college Vladyslav Roslyakov conducted the mass murder. The investigation reported that Roslyakov shot up people in the college and then committed suicide.The task force headed by Major General who was responsible for the investigation of Kemerovo tragedy figures out the motives of the terrorist action

Russia's investigation unit strenuously checks student Vladyslav Roslyakov, suspected in the organization of the massacre at Kerch college, for ties with the Ukrainian far-right organizations "Right Sector" and far-right Ukrainian National Assembly  Ukrainian People's Self-Defence (UNA-UNSO) which are considered to be extremist in Russia as Kommersant reported citing the sources.

"Nevertheless, according to Kommersant, Vladyslav Roslyakov is strenuously checked for ties with the "extremists." However, not religious ones but "Right Sector" and "UNA-UNSO" that are banned in Russia," the message said.

It is noted that at the moment there is no clear evidence of the ties of the shooter with the extremist organizations.

"It could be a conflict with other students or teachers," the source said.

It is supposed that the attack was prepared during a few months. In August, Roslyakov turned 18, and in September, he passed the medical examination and got the license for buying the hunting weapons. The student bought Bekas .12 gauge shotgun and 250 shells in the local firearms shop. He used some of that ammunition during the training at Kerch shooting club. He took away the powder from other shells, thus making self-maid grenades and putting the buckshot and small screws in them.

According to the task force, a mother of a shooter, who worked as a nurse at the oncological hospital and was a member of the Crimean sect Jehovah's Witnesses, put on the extremist list by Russian Justice Ministry in August 2017.

The task force headed by Major General who was responsible for investigation of Kemerovo tragedy figures out the motives of the terrorist action.

As we reported, an explosion thundered at a college in Kerch, the town in Russian-occupied Crimea. The number of the victims increased up to 21.

Russia's Investigative Committee opened a criminal proceeding due to Crimean blast upon the article on the terrorist action; however, later it reclassified it to the mass murder.

A crime was committed by an 18-year-old student of the college, later he shot himself.

The so-called Head of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov stated that the Kerch shooter had support in preparing the terrorist attack in the college on October 17.

Related video:The building remains in state ownership, the Ecumenical Patriarchate will only conduct worships there

Open source

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the presidential bill, approving the transfer of St. Andrew Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for worships, religious ceremonies and processions. The building itself will remain in state ownership.

237 people's deputies supported the decision. The plenary session was broadcasted on air of 112 Ukraine TV channel.

The St. Andrew's Church will be handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for free permanent use, for the worshipping, religious ceremonies and processions - with the condition that the Ecumenical Patriarchate will observe the legislation on protection of cultural heritage.

At the same time, transfer of the building for use entails its exclusion from the list of immovable objects of cultural heritage of the National Sanctuary "Sophia of Kyiv."

As it was reported earlier, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko proposed to the Verkhovna Rada to give the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv for the permanent use to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

"The president supports the aspiration to receive Tomos as soon as possible, and as the sign of solidarity with this process he makes a symbolic gesture. The bill, by which President Poroshenko proposes to transfer the St. Andrew's Church for the permanent use to the Ecumenical Patriarchate as a reminder that St. Andrew once baptized Ukraine, will be a symbolic gesture of unity with the Mother-Church," Iryna Lutsenko, the representative of the president in parliament, said.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant the autocephaly for Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The respective document appeared on the official website of the Patriarchate. This outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which already promised 'a tough and decisive response.'

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate have been struggling for the autocephaly since the country gained independence in 1991. For his firm stance in this regard, Patriarch Filaret, the current leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate, was stripped of his orders in 1992, as the Russian Orthodox Church imposed the anathema on him. Most recently, the Ecumenical Patriarchate lifted it from him. This decision, and the subsequent decision to grant Ukraine Tomos outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which already promised 'a tough and decisive response.'

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople can provide the Tomos on autocephaly to Ukrainian Orthodox Church at Synod that will take place in the second half of November 2018.Open source

Russia will not allow the NATO vessels to enter the Sea of Azov for the participation in the joint drills with Ukraine. Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russia, claimed this as Interfax reported.

"Now Ukraine wants to hold the NATO drills in the Sea of Azov but it will be impossible to enter it as our treaty with Ukraine demands mutual agreement for the passage of the military vessels to the sea," he said.

According to Russia's Foreign Minister, the actions of NATO near the Russian border are provocative.

"The build-up of the weapon near our borders, the determination to the modernization of the transport infrastructure in Europe in order to alleviate the way for American heavy weaponry and possibly weaponry of other NATO countries  really provocative drills are not our joint drills with China among Siberia but drills in Ukraine, Georgia and in the Black Sea," Lavrov noted.

He also claimed that Russia closely follows the intentions of the U.S. to deploy its division at the territory of Poland on the regular basis and according to Lavrov it is a violation of the NATORussia Founding Act.

"All the NATO drills that take place in the Baltic States, Poland, Romania, other countries; the deployment of the military contingent of Germany, Canada, UK and, well, in France, Baltic States, Poland the idea of our Polish colleagues to invite the American division to its territory will be the direct violation of the NATORussia Founding Act that bans the deployment of the significant military forces on the regular basis at the territories of NATO countries from East and Central Europe  these are very interesting processes," he said.

Earlier President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko informed that Ukraine is preparing to resist Russian aggression in the Sea of Azov.

October 12, President Petro Poroshenko introduced a partially secret decision of the Security and Defense Council (NSDC) to protect the interests of Ukraine in the south and east, as well as in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, and in the Kerch Strait.

Earlier, NSDC Secretary Olexandr Turchynov said that Ukraine would continue to expand its military presence in the Sea of Azov to repel "possible aggression" on the part of the Russian Federation. In particular, a shipboat group has already been created, and plans include the creation of a naval base on the Sea of Azov by the end of 2018.

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.

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.

Related video:Oliver Contreras - Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump inserted himself personally into his administration s discussion of the fate of the FBI headquarters in downtown Washington near his D.C. hotel, House Democrats said in a letter released Tuesday, raising questions about possible conflicts-of-interest between the governments actions and the presidents personal business holdings.



Democrats, citing new documents obtained by the House Oversight Committee, said the administration abandoned plans to sell the current Pennsylvania Avenue site of the FBI headquarters at direction from the White House and according to what POTUS directed everyone to do.



These new documents also show that top GSA officials promised to hold our ground on this proposal per the Presidents instructions, they wrote in the letter to General Services Administration head Emily Murphy.



The White House denied claims that President Trump attempted to influence the real estate decisions about the FBI headquarter building.



The idea that the reason the president wanted the F.B.I. headquarters to remain in its current location is based on anything other than the recommendation of the F.B.I. is simply false, said Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, in a statement to ABC News.



The internal documents obtained by the Oversight Committee are quoted at length in an Oct. 18 letter from congressional Democrats to Murphy, shared with ABC News Thursday. The disclosures come on the heels of new reports from the agencys inspector general, and a report Thursday in the New York Times, which raise questions about President Trumps decision to intervene personally in the real estate discussions surrounding the iconic Pennsylvania Avenue property.



In August, the GSA inspector general, an internal independent watchdog, concluded that Murphy initially misled Congress about Trumps interest in the project, writing that she provided incomplete testimony about conversations with the president and White House officials about the FBI headquarters project.



After suggesting to Congress that the president had no role in the discussions during a House Appropriations Committee hearing in April, Murphy was later shown to have attended two meetings at the White House in January on the relocation plan, including one meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, where the plans were discussed, the report said.



Asked twice about the White Houses role by Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill, Murphy said the directions to redevelop the downtown headquarters came from the FBI.



Murphys testimony was incomplete and may have left the misleading impression that she had no discussions with the President or senior White House officials in the decision-making process about the project, the inspector general concluded.



Internal email correspondence between the General Services Administration and the White House showed President Trump was being briefed on discussions about the FBI building, and direction on the project was clearly coming from the White House, congressional Democrats said. GSA is going to hold our ground  per the Presidents instructions, one email from Murphys chief of staff read, according to their letter.



At stake was a plan to move the FBI headquarters out of the city  a relocation that had been in the works for several years and narrowed down to three possible sites in Maryland and Virginia in 2013. The watchdog found that the revised plan to demolish and rebuild the headquarters in Washington could be more expensive than initial plans to relocate the agency.



The New York Times reported Thursday that Trump had long held a personal interest in the fate of the FBI building. The newspaper report, citing congressional sources, said an executive for The Trump Organization had at one point raised concerns that, if the site was redeveloped into a hotel, new competition from across Pennsylvania Avenue could imperil the business prospects of the Trump hotel. The report said the executive sought assistance from a member of Congress to restrict what could be built on the F.B.I. site.



In their letter to Murphy, Democrats, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, said the committee is seeking more information and documents to determine whether the President is making decisions about the FBI headquarters building based on what is best for the country of what is best for his own financial bottom-line.



The Trump Organization had arranged to lease the Old Post Office building from the federal government prior to Trumps bid for the White House, and the GSA is now the landlord of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which is located just blocks away from the FBIs J. Edgar Hoover Building.



A federal judge recently ruled that congressional Democrats could proceed with a lawsuit against the president centered on his D.C. hotel and some other businesses and whether he is profiting illegally from their business with foreign governments.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Russian peoples' deputies claim that recent attempt of Ukrainian authorities to legalize church dissenters through gaining autocephaly is an example of this

On October 18, the State Duma of Russian Federation unanimously adopted the statement on "escalation of situation in Ukraine." This was reported by the press center of the Russian parliament.

Authorities of Ukraine have actually entered the path of transforming Ukraine to the platform of struggle against Russia and its people on all possible fronts and directions, the statements reads.

Russian peoples' deputies claim that recent attempt of Ukrainian authorities to legalize church dissenters through gaining autocephaly from Constantinople Patriarch is an example of this.

The deputies also reminded about the Nazi march on October 14 in Kyiv, which, according to Russians, openly called to violence against Russians and believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate.

Ukraine has turned to a terroristic state and its leaders have the blood of Alexander Zakharchenko and many other sons and daughters of Donbas on their hands, Russian deputies write.

They believe that the recent decisions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are aimed at discrimination of Russian-speaking population and behind all these actions stand Western sponsors and inspirators.

As it was reported earlier, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko reported on October 16 that almost 2,900 Ukrainian soldiers deceased in Donbas since April 2014, when the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine began.

Earlier, Iryna Gerashchenko, the vice speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament said that 10,220 Ukrainian citizens perished in the ongoing armed conflict in Donbas, since the hostilities began in spring 2014.

On October 14, Ukraine celebrated the Day of Defender and three more holidays: Holy Protection, Day of Ukrainian Cossacks and the Anniversary of Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In honor of the 76th anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army creation, thousands of nationalists march through the center of Kyiv.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate decided to grant the autocephaly for Ukraine's Orthodox Church. The respective document appeared on the official website of the Patriarchate. This outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which already promised 'a tough and decisive response.'

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate struggled for the autocephaly since the country gained independence in 1991. For his firm stance in this regard, Patriarch Filaret, the current leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate was stripped of his orders in 1992, as the Russian Orthodox Church imposed the anathema on him. Most recently, the Ecumenical Patriarchate lifted it from him. This decision, and the subsequent decision to grant Ukraine Tomos outraged the Russian Orthodox Church, which already promised 'a tough and decisive response.'

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople can provide the Tomos on autocephaly to Ukrainian Orthodox Church at Synod that will take place in the second half of November 2018.The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine strongly condemned the negotiations of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and so-called "Head" of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov as the press service of the ministry reported.

October 15-16, the "official delegation" of occupation authority of Crimea headed by Aksyonov stayed in the Syrian Arab Republic upon the invitation of the Syrian Minister of Economic Development and Foreign Trade.

Particularly, the sides signed the so-called memorandum on the cooperation between "the Council of Ministers" of Crimea and Cabinet of Ministers of Syria in the trade and economic sphere during the visit.

The Foreign Ministry noted that such agreements are a rude violation of the state sovereignty of Ukraine, interference in its internal affairs and violation of the basic rules and principles of international right. Particularly, it concerns the norms and principles set in the UN statute and regulations of the resolutions of the UN General Assembly dated March 27, 2014 #A/RES/68/262, "The territorial integrity of Ukraine" dated December 19, 2016 #A/RES/71/205, "Regulation in the human rights sphere in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol (Ukraine) dated December 12, 2017 #A/RES/72/190.

The ministry noted that the actions of the Syrian side inflict the irreparable damage to the diplomatic relations between Ukraine and the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry passed the proper note to the Syrian side.

As we reported Sergey Aksyonov, so-called "Head of Crimea," appointed by Kremlin, met Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria on October 16.

Crimea was annexed by Russia by way of the illegal referendum, held at the peninsula in March 2014. Earlier the Russian militaries that stayed there without any marking conquered all strategic military objects and building of the force and state bodies. The results of the referendum were not recognized by Ukraine and the world society. The number of the European and world countries, including Ukraine imposed the economic sanctions against Russia.

Related video:Denisova emphasizes that the fishers and their families are exhausted physically and emotionally

Open source

Ukrainian ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova appealed to the Russian FSB with a request to return the members of "YMK-0041" crew to Ukraine as she reported on Facebook.

"I ask you to assume measures for the return of Serhiy Kalynychenko, Oleh Blok, and Ruslan Srkypnyk from the territory of the Crimean peninsula and reunion of the Ukrainian citizens with their families," the message said.

Denisova emphasizes that the fishers and their families are exhausted physically and emotionally after six months of the detention in Crimea.

According to her, the state of health of Serhiy Kalynychenko significantly deteriorated, the man suffers from palm fibromatosis and he needs the qualified treatment.

"Oleh Blok took care of his 83-year-old mother before the detention. Now she is almost helpless without her son: she cannot take care of the house or buy food on her own. Moreover, Blok planned to get married this autumn," Denisova wrote.

She also emphasized that the family of Ruslan Srkypnyk is left without a breadwinner and there is not enough money for the education of his two little kids.

"On September 11, the FSB reported that the coercive procedural measures were not used against these detainees. Last week the advisor of the Russian president answered to my request that the ship's crew was not deprived from the foreign passports and the freedom of their movement was not restricted. But they still cannot leave the territory of Crimea."

On May 4, Ukrainian fishing vessel YMK-0041 (home port Ochakiv) was detained in the waters of the Black Sea for the illegal catch of the flounder. The personnel consisting of five Ukrainians was taken to Crimea as Russias FSB Border Guard Service claimed.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry expressed the protest against the detention of the Ukrainian boat by FSB and demanded to release the sailors.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea investigates the detention of Ukraine's fishing vessel by Russia.

The criminal proceeding is opened in Russia against a citizen of Ukraine, captain of fishing vessel YMK-0041 detained in the Black Sea.

Related video:It was reported that both of the pilots of Sukhoi Su-27 fighter deceased

Open source

The death of the American pilot during the crash of Su-27 in Vinnytsia region within "Clear Sky-2018" drills on October 16 was confirmed by the officials of U.S. Air Forces in Europe  Air Forces Africa as Stars and Stripes reported.

According to the message, a deceased man was a member of the 144th Fighter Wing, California Air National Guard, based in Fresno, Calif. However, the officials do not disclose the name of the pilot.

Also, it is emphasized that Ukrainian and American sides hold the joint investigation of the tragedy.

As we reported, on October 16, the fighter aircraft Su-27 crashed in Vinnytsia region. Later it was reported that both of the pilots of Sukhoi Su-27 fighter deceased. The search and rescue group found bodies of two servicemen. One of them was Colonel Ivan Petrenko, the Chief of Aviation of Ukraine's 'East' Air Force Command, the other one was U.S. military man.

Also, the events planned for October 18-19 at Starostyantyniv and Havryshivka airfields with the participation of the representatives of the media within "Clear Sky-2018" drills will not be held due the crash.

Clear Sky 2018 is a joint and multinational exercise, where 950 officers from nine countries will take part, including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, the UK, and the U.S.

Related video:Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin expressed condolences to the families of Crimean blast victims, as he wrote on Twitter.

At the same time, he doubts that it would happen on a peaceful peninsula without Russias occupation.

Most of all, I dont want anyone to call Ukraines reaction to the tragedy cynical. Our hearts go to the families of the victims. But there is a fair and legitimate question: would such terrible thing happen without the atmosphere that dominates in Russian and which it brought to the peaceful peninsula? Klimkin said.

As we reported, an explosion thundered at a college in Kerch, the town in the Russian-occupied Crimea. As of now, it is known about the death of 18 people and the injury of 40, most of them are teenagers. The official version is the explosion of an unknown explosive device.

According to the preliminary information, an 18-year-old student of the fourth year of college Vladyslav Roslyakov conducted the mass murder. The investigation reported that Roslyakov shot up people in the college and then committed suicide.

Related video:

A couple of days ago, on the eve of legendary actor Akkineni Nageswara Raos birth anniversary, the makers of Akhil Akkinenis third film, Mr. Majnu, unveiled the films teaser. Akhils stylish makeover and the breezy vibes the teaser was loaded with are being appreciated by fans and industry celebs.

Hero Ram Charan is the latest Tollywood star to applaud Mr. Majnus teaser. The teaser looks very refreshing. Akhil, Venky Atluri and Thaman make an interesting combo, Charan wrote on his Facebook page, further wishing the films producer BVSN Prasad and the entire team.

Ram Charan is currently busy shooting RC12 in the picturesque Eurasian country of Azerbaijan.









Articles that might interest you:PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)Spencer Platt/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump Organization is accusing the New York State Attorney Generals office of being unfairly biased in its case against the Donald J. Trump Foundation.



In a motion filed earlier this week urging the judge to dismiss the case, attorneys for President Trumps company, which is connected to the charitable foundation, argued that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was investigating the foundation while soliciting campaign contributions on the promise to oppose Trump and his agenda.



Schneiderman led the investigation until his resignation in May following the publication of domestic abuse allegations against him in The New Yorker. He was replaced by Attorney General Barbara Underwood, who filed the lawsuit in June.



The lawsuit alleges that President Trump and his three eldest children, who served as members of the charitys board, repeatedly used charitable donations to pay off other financial obligations. The lawsuit seeks to dissolve the foundation and to bar Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump from serving on other charity boards in the future.



Alan Futerfas, an attorney for the Trump Organization, called it highly improbable that an investigation into years of charitable work done by the foundation was the product of three weeks of new leadership under Attorney General Underwood.



"The bias of an poffice working towards a goal does not disappear in three weeks," Futerfas wrote. "This is clearly demonstrated by a statement of Attorney General Underwood in which she said that she considers her battle with the President "the most important work [she] has ever done."



The New York Attorney Generals office responded to Futerfas filing in a statement.



"As our lawsuit detailed, the Trump Foundation functioned as a personal piggy bank to serve Trumps business and political interests, a spokesperson for the New York Attorney General said. We wont back down from holding President Trump and his associates accountable for their flagrant violations of New York law -- just as we hold accountable anyone else who breaks the law.



Prosecutors allege that Trump used the foundation for his benefit to advance his personal, business, and political interest in violation of federal and state law governing charities, according to a recent court filing. His alleged indiscretions include using the foundations money to pay legal settlements, support political campaigns and even purchase of a portrait of himself to hang in one of his hotels.



The president has been vocal in his objections to what he portrayed as a politically motivated campaign, tweeting that the sleazy New York Democrats, and their now disgraced (and run out of town) A.G. Eric Schneiderman, are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18,800,000 and gave out to charity more money than it took in, $19,200,000.



Oral arguments on the motion to dismiss are scheduled to begin later this month.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.ABSTRACT

Background and purpose: Migraine is a common debilitating condition with variable prevalence in young Nigerians with significant deterioration in normal daily functioning and in the quality of life. Few data exist on the disability of migraine in Nigeria. The aim of this study was to measure the headache related disability of patients with migraine using the MIDAS among young Nigerians. Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in Enugu South East Nigeria. The questionnaire was designed to assess headache profiles according to ICHD-III beta and disability using the Migraine Disability Assessment Questionnaire. Results: About 40.6% of migraineurs were concerned about headache attacks and 39.1% consulted a doctor because of migraine. Most students were affected due to reduced effectiveness at school and number of days missed from housework18.8% and 20.3% respectively. Overall, 47.8% had at least one day affected by headache in the last three months. The mean number of days disabled by headache was 14.3 days. The mean headache frequency was 5.7 days and the mean pain intensity was 4.2. About 27.5% of the migraineurs had moderate to severe disability due to migraine. There were no significant differences between males and females. Conclusion: Most with migraine experienced reduction in effectiveness at school and number of days missed from housework. Overall, 47.8% had at least one day affected by headache with an average of 14.3 days disabled by headache and 27.5% of the migraineurs had moderate to severe disability due to migraine.

Keywords:

Migraine, Disability, Students, Nigerians

1. Introduction

Migraine is a common debilitating condition with variable prevalence in Nigeria [1] - [7] . People with migraine experience substantial headache impact on daily activities, increased direct and indirect medical costs, health care resource utilization, reduced health-related quality of life and higher rates of comorbidities [8] [9] [10] . It is a growing public health problem with an estimated 5.61% prevalence and affecting nearly 56 million people in Africa especially the young [11] [12] [13] . As a chronic disorder, migraine causes significant deterioration in normal daily functioning and in the quality of life [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [14] [15] [16] . In a continent where diseases are still attributed to spiritual causes, and local healing methods are widely practiced, the burden of migraine is likely to be enormous. Few data exist on the disability of migraine in Nigeria [3] [6] [7] .

A common way of measuring the burden of migraine is by characterizing the disability associated with it using the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) Questionnaire [16] [17] . The MIDAS questionnaire has proven itself as an efficient tool in clinical practice, but it is more likely to capture very severe forms of headache [17] and therefore may underestimate the true impact of migraine in the community. The aim of this study was to measure the headache related disability of patients with migraine using the MIDAS among young Nigerians.

2. Methods

This was a cross sectional study conducted in Enugu South East Nigeria. Participants were drawn from two secondary schools and two tertiary institutions in Enugu urban and were evaluated in their respective schools. This study was part of a health awareness campaign in June 2015. Study duration was 2 weeks. The questionnaire was designed to assess demographic data and headache profiles according to ICHD-III beta [18] . Questionnaires were self-administered and retrieved the same day. Data obtained were manually sorted and coded into a personal computer. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu.

Using the formula: [19] N = D  Z2  P(1  P)/d2. Where N = desired sample size. P = prevalence rate of migraine 6.4%, D = design effect = 2, and d = desired precision limit assumed at 5%. N = 2  (1.96)2  0.064  0.936/0.0025 = 2  3.8416  0.040704/0.0025 = 125. Assuming 10% attrition, a sample size of 137 and above was used.

All participants gave their informed consent. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethics committee of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Enugu.

The lifetime prevalence of migraine was defined according to ICHD-III beta [19] . The MIDAS17 questionnaire consists of 7 questions referring to the impact of migraine in 3 activity domains: work/school, housework, social and leisure activitiesall these are evaluated for the preceding 3 months. The MIDAS score is derived as the sum of responses to questions 1 through 5. Two additional questions assessing frequency and intensity of pain on the MIDAS questionnaire were not included in the MIDAS score. The 4-point grading system for the MIDAS questionnaire is as follows: grade I (scores ranging from 0 to 5), little or no disability, grade II (scores ranging from 6 to 10), mild disability, grade III (scores ranging from 11 to 20), moderate disability, grade IV (21 or greater) severe disability.

For database management and statistical analyses, we used GraphPad Prism version 6, (GraphPad Software, La Jolla California USA). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic data. The differences in the mean scores in MIDAS questions were tested statistically using the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. Proportions were compared using the Chi squared test or Fishers exact test. Age was compared using the students T test. We considered P < 0.05 as statistically significant.

3. Results

3.1. Headache Subtypes

A total of 759 (aged 15 - 36 years) individuals were interviewed. Males were 308 (40.6%) and females 451 (59.4%) P < 0.001. The male to female ratio was 1:1.5. The mean age of the participants was 21.6 years (95% CI 21.6 - 21.9). Males (mean age 22.7, 95% CI 22.3 - 23.1) were older than females (mean age, 20.9, 95% CI 20.5 - 21.2) P < 0.001. The majority of the students were aged between 20 - 25 years of age (51.5%) and were in tertiary institutions (Table 1).

3.2. Migraine

A total of 69 (9.1%, 95% CI 7 - 11.1) had migraine. The prevalence of migraine and its subtypes are shown in Table 2. It was similar in females 10% (95% CI 7.2 - 12.7) and males 7.8%, (95% CI 4.8 - 10.9), P = 0.304. Migraine with aura, 1.6%, (95% CI 0.7 - 2.3) and migraine without aura 6.5%, (95% CI 0.5 - 8.2) were also similar in both males and females. The prevalence of migraine was lowest after 24 years. The prevalence of migraine was also similar in secondary and university students.

Table 1. Age, sex and level of education of the total population.

Table 3 shows that 40.6% of migraineurs were concerned about headache attacks and 39.1% consulted a doctor because of migraine. Similar proportions (30.4%) used medications for headache and said the headache affected their overall performance at school in the last three months. About a quarter reported a family history of primary headache.

The proportion of the people with migraine who were affected by the different criteria of the MIDAS questionnaire is shown in Table 4. There were no significant differences between the proportions of males and females who were affected by migraine in at least five days in the preceding 3 months. In MIDAS question 1, 2.9% of migraineurs missed school at least 5 days. Most students were affected due to reduced effectiveness at school and number of days missed from housework-18.8% and 20.3% respectively. Overall, 47.8% had at least one day affected by headache in the last three months.

Table 5 displays the mean MIDAS scores and Table 6 the levels of disability of migraineurs and their sex distribution. The overall mean number of days during which sufferers were disabled by headache was 14.3 days. The score ranged from 1.6 days missed from school to 4.7 days missed from housework. There were no statistical significant differences between the proportion of males and females who were affected.

The mean number of headache days was 5.7 days and the mean pain intensity was 4.2. Distribution of disability scores shows that 27.5% of the migraineurs had moderate to severe disability due to migraine. There were also no significant differences between males and females (Table 7).

4. Discussion

The migraine is a common chronic condition among young Nigerians Africans [1] - [7] however, little is known about it on this group in the continent. The lifetime prevalence of migraine in this study was 9.1% similar in males and females. The burden of migraine measured using the MIDAS criteria, headache frequency and intensity were also similar in both sexes. The mean number of days affected by headache was 14.3 days including 1.6 days missed of school to 4.7 days

Table 3. Factors affecting students with migraine.

Table 4. MIDAS Scores: Proportion of individuals affected by migraine in the preceding 3 months.

missed of housework. The mean number of headache days was 5.7 days and the mean pain intensity was 4.2 days in the preceding three months. About 27.5% of

Table 5. MIDAS Score: Mean and range of scores in the preceding 3 months.

Table 6. MIDAS Score: Mean and range of days with headache and pain intensity in the past 3 months.

Table 7. Distribution of disability scores.

the migraineurs had moderate to severe disability due to migraine.

The lifetime prevalence of migraine in this study (as well as in males and females) is similar to some studies from the continent and different from others [1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] . In a community based study in Enugu we reported a migraine prevalence of 6.7% and 7.1% in the 20 - 29 age group and 30 - 39 age groups [2] . Findings are slightly lower than the index study. The differences between the index study and some earlier reports may be attributed to population specific characteristics and different work and school environments.

Migraine with aura has been reported in few studies in the continent [2] . Migraine without aura in this study takes the higher proportion of migraine headache which is 88.4% and that of migraine with aura was 17.6% of migraine headache in general; this is true in most studies [2] [24] [25] [26] .

About 40.6% were concerned about having headache which suggests at least to some extent of possible severe attacks. This is congruent with the fact that a similar proportion consulted their physicians during the period. Migraine is a chronic health problem that has an impact on both the individual sufferer and on society [9] [10] [11] [12] [14] [15] . In addition to attack-related disability, many migraineurs live in fear, knowing that at any time an attack could disrupt their ability to work, care for their families and/or carry out their social obligations. Furthermore, migraineurs experience problems in interpersonal relationships because of guilt about their incapability of fulfilling their family duties or they are afraid that a migraine attack will interfere with their family activities [27] . Thus, leading to frustration, anger, depression, and helplessness and thus to affect patients well-being [27] .

The proportion who sought medical attention was within the range of 16% - 66% reported in other studies [5] [28] . People with migraine may not consult or continue orthodox treatment because of several reasons. Some may believe that their doctors do no empathize with them [29] while other factors may include lack of neurologists and specialist thus migraineurs may not actually benefit hospital visits. High cost of specialist consultations may be another possible factor.

Headaches and other pain disorders account for in major consumption of over-the-counter medications (OTCs). The difference between those who spent money of treatment (39.4%) (most likely on medications) and those who actually visited a doctor (30.4%) may allude to self-medication. In SSA where drugs are poorly regulated, substandard/ineffective drugs easily accessible and prescription ethics not fully complied with, it is possible that the cost of OTCs attributed to migraine may even be higher. The prevalence of possible medication overuse headache reported in Zambia was 7.1% [21] .

About 30.4% of migraineurs said that their overall academic performance was affected by migraine within the previous 3 months. In a study among university students by Timothy et al. [7] , about 64.8% of the respondents reported that their academic performance was affected by migraine. Among secondary school students in Benin City, Nigeria, 76.8% of secondary school students reported inability to participate in outdoor activities, household chores, and school absenteeism [6] .

Another interesting finding in this study show a that 24.6% of migraineurs had a family history of similar headache. Genetic epidemiologic studies show that migraine clusters in families and with different degrees of heritability and may be co transmitted with other disorders [30] [31] .

Based on the MIDAS scores students were more likely to have five or more days of reduced days of effectiveness at school and days missed from housework. This may suggest that at home, students were more likely to be exempted from domestic chores by their parents or guardians. On the other hand, these same students continue to attend classes (2.9% absenteeism from school) despite the fact that may not function effectively during lessons (18.8% reduction in effectiveness at school). Similar explanation may be given for questions 3 and 4 suggesting that many migraineurs continue on their school activities despite severe limitations. Migraine can be triggered by examination related factors [7] therefore likely to affect the overall performance of students even if these students do not report significant impact in-between exams. The burden and impact of migraine owing to lost work and school hours need to be properly addressed in the continent. This calls for adoption of proper school health programs to improve of ongoing low awareness and low quality of care. Promoting access to care at community-level, developing health infrastructure, training and research at facility-level can help reduce this multi-faceted problem [13] . These measures may be started in schools with the formation of health clubs and wellness groups. Lifestyle modification to address such non-communicable disorders including headache should be emphasized at such gatherings.

The mean number of days of disability in various domains based on the MIDAS questionnaire was similar in males and females. The ratio was tilted towards females except in question 3. The mean global score shows that migraineurs were disabled in 14.3 days in 3 months equivalent to 57.2 days in a year. Similarly, migraineurs had an equivalent of 22.8 days of headache in a year; half the number of days with headache supporting the fact that migraine related disability stretches beyond the actual pain. In the American Migraine Study II, 92% of women and 89% of men with severe migraine had some headache-related disability [27] . Lofland and Frick [28] reported that 76.5% of migraineurs missed some time from work with an annual average of 4.4 days. In the UK [14] a survey of hospital workers found that 24% of migraine sufferers had taken some time off work due to their migraines over the preceding 3 months. In the Migraine and its Effects on Life and Treatment (MELT) [32] survey which interviewed subjects with similar age group of the index study, participants had an average 2 days of absence and 4 days of reduced function at work or school.

In the present study, migraine sufferers spent 1.6 days at school with an attack in 3 months equivalent to approximately 6.4 days in a year while 14.8 days of reduction in effectiveness at school was reported. This is supported by the proportion of students who stated that migraine has affected their school performance. The most substantial element of total working time lost due to migraine in this study stems from days missed from housework findings are higher than some findings in the West [14] [16] . These findings are comparable to our findings.

Concerning headache frequency and pain intensity, the IBMS [8] demonstrated that persons with migraine had longer duration of headache attacks and were likely to experience severe pain intensity. In the US, 25% of women who have migraine experience four or more severe attacks a month; 35% experience one to four severe attacks a month; 38% experience one, or less than one, severe attack a month [27] with similar frequency patterns were observed for men. In the MELT survey participants reported an average of 23 migraine or other severe headaches per year [32] . In the present study the mean number of days was 5.7 in the preceding 3 months or equivalent to 22.8 days in a year.

Generally, poor healthcare infrastructure, poverty and lack of human resources undermine negatively impact on access to care in migraine. This resultant wide treatment gap for primary headaches implies a higher disability rate in the continent even if the prevalence is still assumed to be low.

The main strength of this study was in documenting the disability of migraine among young Nigerians in the school environment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a study was undertaken in South East Nigeria. Low income, lack of access to adequate care and other factors such as intense heat, poor feeding habits and stressful academic activities may precipitate and sustain primary headaches thus aggravating the level of disability caused by migraine. Therefore, the true burden of migraine may be very high among young Nigerians.

5. Limitations

The strict use of ICDH III beta may underestimate mild forms of migraine and exclude some who may have the condition. Other limitations include the relatively smaller number of subjects with migraine studied, cultural and social issues may make subjects to deny or trivialize the severity of headaches especially where they are easily treated with locally available medications. Finally, our findings may be affected by recall bias in describing the characteristics of the headaches as well as their duration. All data were self reported and there were no supporting medical records or data accessed.

6. Conclusions

The prevalence of migraine is high among students in south East Nigeria. In the preceding three months, 30% - 40.6% of migraineurs were concerned about headache attacks; consulted a doctor; used medications for headache and said that the headache affected their overall performance at school. Most students were affected due to reduced effectiveness at school and number of days missed from housework. Overall, 47.8% had at least one day affected by headache with an average of 14.3 days disabled by headache. The mean headache frequency was 5.7 days and headache intensity was 4.2. In all, 27.5% of the migraineurs had moderate to severe disability due to migraine.

Recommendations: Teachers and school-based health providers should be trained to recognize common types of headache and their first aid treatment. School authorities should be made to understand that headache (especially migraine) is not just simple malady but can affect the academic performance of students. Possible parents should be encouraged to take their children to headache care specialists or neurologists if symptoms are severe or recurrent.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Administrators, Teaching Staff and students of the educational institutions which served as sites for this study, we are also grateful to Miss Loveth Emmanuel, Secretary, Neurology and EEG services, Mount Carmel Hospital Enugu, for her help in the office.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Cite this paper

Ezeala-Adikaibe, B.A., Onyekonwu, C., Ijoma, U., Mbadiwe, N., Ekenze, O.S., Orjioke, C., Young, E., Chime, P., Onodugo, O., Anyim, O., Nwatu, C.B., Okwara, C. and Onwuekwe, I.O. (2018) Assessment of Migraine Disability Using the Migraine Disability Assessment Questionnaire in Young Nigerians. World Journal of Neuroscience, 8, 411-422. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjns.2018.84032

References



He was joined by First Lady Maribel Diaz and the Ministerial Cabinet led by Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva.









The special ceremony was held outside the Government Palace.





Vizcarra and his wife approached the sacred image and remained next to it for a few moments.









Afterward, the Peruvian leader joined a group of men in purple robes known as " cargadores " (carriers), on whose shoulders falls the task of transporting the heavy image.





The two-ton base bearing the painting left Las Nazarenas Church alongside thousands of worshipers to embark on its second tour of 2018.









Lima's Municipality and Congress joined the commemorative program by rending homage to the religious icon at their respective facilities.





History





Also known as the Christ of Pachacamilla, the Lord of Miracles procession constitutes Peru's most heavily attended religious festivity.





The image is a replica of a 17th-century mural of the crucifixion painted on the walls of a hut in the plantation of Pachacamilla (near Lima) by an Angolan slave.





The image became a motive for worship after the wall on which it was painted miraculously survived a destructive earthquake unscathed.





(END) CVC/DTK/RMB

Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra paid homage to the Lord of Miracles image in a second procession through the streets of downtown Lima.Published: 10/18/2018ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) -- Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Muellers office have been asking former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort  their newest cooperating witness  about his friend and former business associate Roger Stone, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.



Stone, a longtime political adviser to President Donald Trump and onetime partner of Manaforts at the lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, has come under increasing scrutiny from the special counsel in recent months. Nearly a dozen individuals close to Stone have been brought in for interviews with the Mueller team, and many of those same individuals have also appeared before a federal grand jury.



Muellers interest in Stone appears to be focused on whether Stone or his associates communicated with Julian Assange or WikiLeaks about the release of damaging emails allegedly hacked from Hillary Clintons campaign by Russian intelligence officers masquerading as hacker persona Guccifer 2.0.



Some of Stones public statements from that time appeared to indicate that he knew in advance that WikiLeaks was preparing to publish information damaging to Clintons campaign.



The special counsels office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Manafort declined to comment.



When asked what questions Muellers team might be asking Manafort  who recently pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in Washington, D.C. and is awaiting sentencing on 18 counts of financial crimes in Virginia  Stone told ABC News that it certainly wouldnt be surprising that his investigators would question Manafort about him since he and Manafort have been friends since childhood.



"I am highly confident Mr. Manafort is aware of no wrong doing on my part during the 2016 campaign, or at any other time, and therefore there is no wrongdoing to know about, Stone said. Narratives to the contrary by some in the media are false and defamatory."



Manafort and Stones ties indeed run deep. In the early 1970s, Manafort and Stone both frequented the same circles of young GOP operatives working on national political campaigns. In 1977, when Stone was 24, he was elected president of the Young Republicans. Paul Manafort was his campaign manager.



And both men had tumultuous tenures at the Trump campaign. Stone, who has taken credit for persuading President Trump to get into politics, served as an adviser to Trumps campaign before leaving amid controversy in 2015. Manafort served as Trump campaign chairman before resigning suddenly just a few months before Election Day.



Stone, meanwhile, appears to have steeled himself for the possibility that he could be one of Muellers next targets.



Its not outside the realm of possibility, Stone previously told ABC News, that [Mueller] may consider bringing some offense against me.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.YEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. According to preliminary information there are no Armenians among the victims of the explosion in the Kerch college in Crimea, Armenian foreign ministrys spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told ARMENPRESS.

20 people were killed in the explosion on October 17.

Eleven out of 20 victims of the Kerch college shooting were under the age of 18, Russian Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

"Twenty people were killed, among them 15 students and five college employees. Eleven out of 15 students were under the age of 18," Skvortsova said.

Doctors have stabilized teenagers that remained in a critical condition at a hospital in Crimea's Kerch, she added.

"Those with very serious injuries were stabilized overnight," Skvortsova said.

Fourty-four people injured in the Kerch college shooting remain hospitalized, the official pointed out.

On Wednesday, a student opened fire and orchestrated an explosion at the Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea. He later committed suicide. The criminal case was initially opened over an act of terrorism, but was later reclassified as murder. A three-day mourning will start in Crimea on Thursday, TASS reports.



Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Haitian President Jovenel Moise has survived an assassination attempt in the capital Port-au-Prince, according to local media reports.

Unidentified gunmen opened gunfire at a commemoration ceremony marking the 212th anniversary of the death of the first ruler of independent Haiti, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, which was attended by Moise, Haiti Libre reported.

Local media described the incident as an assassination attempt.

President Moise was uninjured but two of his bodyguards were wounded as they shielded the Haitian leader from the gunfire.

The attack comes against the backdrop of ongoing protests in Haiti. Earlier local media said that thousands were demonstrating in the streets against alleged misuse of funds from a Venezuela-sponsored oil assistance program to the country.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan hopes that the government will not change the logic of its work during the pre-election period, quite the contrary, its activities should be more intensive and effective, reports Armenpress.

You know that we are preparing for the early parliamentary elections, and understandably, the political situations leave certain effect on the work and moods. I want to hope that during this period the government will not change the logic of its work, quite the contrary, our activities must become more intense and effective as we are entering a pre-election phase. But on the other hand it is necessary to effectively use this time for organization of further activities, as well as reaching a more effective level, the acting PM said during todays Cabinet session.

He said by using the chance that the public administration system should not be involved in the pre-election processes, its a good period to work in calmer conditions. I hope that especially the part of our government and public administration system which is not politicized and shouldnt be so, will use this period for constructive purposes, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government today approved the bill on ratifying the agreement between Armenia and Japan on liberalizing, encouraging and protecting investments.

Acting minister of economic development and investments Tigran Khachatryan said at the Cabinet meeting that the relations between Armenia and Japan have continuously progressed and developed during the recent years. 2017 marked the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties. The opening of the Armenian Embassy in Tokyo in 2010 and the opening of the Japanese Embassy in Yerevan in 2015 contributed to the more dynamic development of ties.

He said the ratification of the agreement will greatly boost and elevate the development of bilateral economic relations to a qualitatively new level. The presence of a corresponding legal-contractual field will contribute to an increase of interest for the Armenian economy and investment flow, Khachatryan said.

Various level mutual-visits have become frequent. Consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries take place regularly. Inter-parliamentary ties are on a high level. Productive cooperation within the framework of international organizations also exists, he said, highlighting JICA  the Japan International Cooperation Agency  which carries out official assistance from Japan to Armenia.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government approved the draft on attracting budget support loans worth 50 million USD from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), reports Armenpress.

According to the draft, Armenia and the ADB are going to sign a loan agreement aimed at attracting budget support loan resources worth 50 million USD.

The funds will be directed for financing the deficit by the law on 2018 state budget (the total amount of the deficit  156 billion 915 million 705.5 thousand drams).

The total cost of the program is 90 million USD. It aims at expanding the Armenian financial markets.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. High level guests at the XVII Summit of La Francophonie in Yerevan were especially impressed with Armenian wine and brandy, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at todays Cabinet meeting. He said that it was important and good news for him.

Leaders of countries that are considered global winemaking leaders were present at the summit. It was very pleasant for me that the French president and first lady found it noteworthy to express on the occasion of the quality of Armenian wine and cognac, of course in heir vocabulary the brandy, which is very good, and not only them. Our wines and cognacs have made a very good impression, which means that we have been able to achieve a certain international standard of production of wine and cognac. We must encourage our producers, and the government must take all means to be able to support them for accessing new markets. I believe at this moment the largest obstacle for it are the production volumes, and it is also with these kind of investment projects that we should support our winemakers and cognac-makers for increasing production volumes, Pashinyan said, adding that on the other hand issues with the volumes of processed grapes in Armenia can also happen in mid-term prospects.

He said that the agriculture ministry should work intensively in order to elevate the culture and quality of processing grapes, the volumes of vineyards, as well as the anti-hail protection and irrigation issues to a proper level, because obviously winemaking is a very promising branch.

He said that the cognac production branch is well accomplished, but pointed out issues connected with it. He said that fake Armenian cognac is being sold namely in the territory of the Eurasian Economic Union. He called for serious supervision in this area.

Overall this is a very good tendency that today at this Cabinet meeting we are mostly discussing investment projects relating to industry, which means that we are entering a cooperation area with the business sector, meaning we continue deepening our cooperation, he said, adding that soon the government will have discussions with business representatives about amendments in the tax code.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian extended condolences over the explosion in the Kerch college in Crimea which claimed numerous human lives, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The President expressed his deepest condolences to the relatives and families of the victims, and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

On October 17, an explosion occurred at the Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea. According to preliminary reports, 19 people have been killed, more than 50 have been injured in the attack.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian has told the Hayastan All Armenian Fund that he will donate his entire salary since taking office in May to the charitably organization.

During our meeting in May of 2018 I expressed my faith for the fund and its projects in a very simple way  I said that I am ready to donate my salary to the fund, Sarkissian said during a meeting today with members of Hayastan All Armenia Fund. He said that his entire salary which has been accumulated since taking office will be donated to the fund in the coming days in order to have my small contribution in the solution of big and important issues.

Sarkissian, who is also the President of the Board of Trustees of the fund, talked to the new executive director and the staff of the fund about its activities.

Present your vision, after which we will quickly discuss and this discussion will become public, because the fund belongs to the Armenian people. The old working methods are no longer effective, Sarkissian said, noting that Hayastan All Armenian Fund has achieved numerous successes in the past, but it doesnt mean that the same model can be repeated for ages.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The discussions about recalling Yuri Khachaturov (Armenia) from the position of CSTO Secretary General continue, acting foreign minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan told reporters.

Discussions continue in the sense that we need to view the issue in a broader context, because similar situations may arise in the future, the charters of the organization should be ready for this kind of situations. Armenia has done everything in order for the domestic political issues not to impact CSTO. The CSTO reputation is as much important for Armenia as it is for any member country of the organization, he said.

Khachaturov is charged by Armenian authorities for breaching constitutional order during the March 1, 2008 events.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Former President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has said he is planning to establish a political party and become opposition.

The second President of Armenia made the announcement in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Asked if he is planning to create his own political party, Kocharyan replied: If one returns to politics, then you should think about it.

Now I notice a serious vacuum in the opposition and I suppose it should be filled, proceeding from the interests of the country, he said.

Kocharyan stressed he doesnt seek any high office. If I were to have such aspirations I wouldnt live privately for 10 years. The situation is developing in a way that it is dragging you into the process, from which you cannot avoid due to your biography, your [character] and attitude for life, Robert Kocharyan said.

Speaking about his desire not to participate in the upcoming possible early elections of parliament in Armenia, Kocharyan stressed that he simply doesnt manage to do it. Ive been independent, and that means that I must create a party from scratch, rather to restore something that already existed. I would also like to head for elections with a new, fresh team. What are the usual primary actions when you want to gather a team? You look at the people whom you know, the circle you have interacted with, worked with, he said.

At the same time, he said that given the situation it is necessary to involve new, talented, young and energetic people. Certainly it is also necessary to involve someone from the old team, whom you know, who has worked with you. However, in any case, it is necessary to rely on the new generation, and doing so isnt easy, this requires time, he said.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan has extended condolences to the families and friends of the Kerch attack in Crimea.

It was with great sorrow that I received the news about the tragic incident that took place in Kerch. We condemn in the strongest terms this act of violence. On behalf the Armenian people I offer condolences to the families and friends of the victims, and I wish speedy recovery to the injured, Pashinyan said in his address, according to his office.

20 people were killed in the attack on October 17 in a college in Crimeas Kerch.

Eleven out of 20 victims of the Kerch college shooting were under the age of 18, Russian Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova told reporters on Thursday, TASS reports.

"Twenty people were killed, among them 15 students and five college employees. Eleven out of 15 students were under the age of 18," Skvortsova said.

Doctors have stabilized teenagers that remained in a critical condition at a hospital in Crimea's Kerch, she added.

"Those with very serious injuries were stabilized overnight," Skvortsova said.

Fourty-four people injured in the Kerch college shooting remain hospitalized, the official pointed out.

On Wednesday, a student opened fire and detonated an explosion at the Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea. He later committed suicide. The criminal case was initially opened over an act of terrorism, but was later reclassified as murder. A three-day mourning will start in Crimea on Thursday, TASS reports.



Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. President Armen Sarkissian today visited Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

President Sarkissian, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, toured the Fund, got acquainted with the activities of different divisions. He was accompanied by the Funds new executive director Haykak Arshamyan. Thereafter, Armen Sarkissian met with the staff during which he talked about the role and activity of the Fund, the importance to work with new methods and principles in the contemporary world.

The Fund is a great value for our people since it has been created in difficult conditions for the Republic and our people and had a mission which it carried out with a great glory. I am not the one who should tell you about the achievements, programs and respect the Fund had among Armenians all over the world. Its just enough to visit different places in Armenia, depart from Yerevan to Stepanakert and see what high-quality road is constructed. There are multiple similar successful programs. Therefore, first of all I want to congratulate you that you work in a structure which really has a pan-Armenian significance with its activities, the President said.

He expressed gratitude to all Armenians, all citizens of Armenia, friends of the Armenian people who had their contribution to the implementation of the Funds programs. Again addressing my congratulations to our compatriots, I want to state that the Fund is not only alive, but also has a very good professional team. No hardship can affect our faith, love and dedication to the homeland and structures which bring their contribution to that homeland and the great homeland, I mean Armenia, Artsakh and also the Diaspora. As I expect from the Fund to actively operate not only in Armenia and Artsakh, but also in the Diaspora, there must be no doubt that we all should invest our potential, do everything possible for both the homeland, Artsakh and the whole Armenian people to reach their goals. I expect that we all jointly support, assist the Fund so that it will carry out its patriotic work in Armenia and Artsakh.

The President stated that its time for the Fund to revise its past path, assess the achievements and shortcomings. Time moves faster than we can think of. Therefore, the Fund needs to adopt new approaches, have new programs and work in a new way. The processes are moving quickly in Armenia, the world in the 21st century. I believe that the Fund will record new achievements. I believe that the past path, achievements, as well as difficulties will be lesson, the Fund again will move forward its mission. This is my message to you, the Funds staff. This is also my message to all citizens of the Republic of Armenia and all Armenians.

The President also congratulated and wished success to the new executive director, stating that he has a lot of tasks to do. Armen Sarkissian proposed the Funds executive to present the new vision of its activity in a short period of time, taking into account the changes and developments of the time. The Fund has been created in the 20th century and reached many achievements: its time for the Fund to become an institution of the 21st century, he added.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Zohrab Mnatsakanyan is highlighting the upcoming visit of US National Security Advisor John Bolton to Armenia.

We will speak about it in a timeframe closer to the visit, now we are preparing, it is a very important visit. Bolton is traveling to Russia, he is coming to the region, and we have our agenda with the United States, that is affirmed, developed throughout years. There are bilateral issues, there is a regional agenda, around which we will hold meetings with the US representative, Mnatsakanyan said.

Asked if the purpose of the visit is to develop Armenia-NATO ties, Mnatsakanyan replied: We have our developed stances and we remain within the framework of these stances.

John Bolton will visit Armenia as part of a regional visit. On October 12, he said on Twitter that he will visit the region October 20.

On October 20th I'll be travelling to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia to meet with my counterparts and other senior officials to advance American interests on a range of security issues, Bolton said on Twitter.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. President of the Republic of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on October 18 attended an event in Msmna village dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Msmna battle, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The President spoke of the Msmna battle as one of the significant chapters and victories of the Artsakh National-Liberation Struggle, noting that this heroic battle has been a source of inspiration, contributing its unique mite in the patriotic upbringing of the younger generation.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, known as the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, has extended condolences over the passing of Ara Guler, the renowned Armenian-Turkish photojournalist who died at the age of 90 on October 17.

It was with great sorrow that we learnt about the passing of world-famous photography master Ara Guler, the patriarchate said in a statement.

During his life he was the true summit of photojournalism, it continued.

Guler is gone physically, but his name and memory will remain due to his unique art.

The patriarchate said Gulers funeral will take place midday October 20 at the Holy Trinity Church in Beyoglu, Istanbul.

Earlier today Armenias acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan too offered condolences over the passing of Guler.

Gulers prominence led to him being nicknamed "the Eye of Istanbul" or "the Photographer of Istanbul".

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Armenia Woo Yoon-keun, the government told Armenpress.

We attach importance to the constant development of the Armenian-Korean relations also in the context that we want to carry out a revolution in Armenias economic policy as it happened in the Republic of Korea, the acting PM said in his remarks. He stated that the Armenian government is interested in attracting investments from the Republic of Korea and implementing joint programs. Pashinyan said Armenia abolished visa requirements for the Korean citizens and expressed hope that this will contribute to intensifying the ties between the citizens of the two countries and increasing tourism flows. Nikol Pashinyan also talked about the political events at the Korean Peninsula and welcomed the ongoing steps which are directed for reducing the tension.

Woo Yoon-keun in this turn thanked for the reception and conveyed to the acting PM the warm greetings of the President of the Republic of Korea. The Ambassador said his countrys government is ready to share the economic policy experience with the Armenian partners and added that they as well are interested in the development of bilateral economic cooperation. He expressed confidence that the agreement on promotion and mutual protection of investments, which will be signed in Yerevan on October 19, will give new impetus for the expansion of business ties. The Ambassador informed that a group of Korean businessmen are in Armenia these days who are examining Armenias investment environment and are interested in implementing investment programs. He also thanked Nikol Pashinyan for the support to the peaceful settlement of the issues existing between the two Koreas.

Nikol Pashinyan expressed confidence that the abovementioned agreement will contribute to deepening the bilateral economic ties and increasing the trade turnover volumes. He thanked the Korean government for the technical assistance provided to Armenia, as well as for supporting Syrian Armenian refugees.

The officials also exchanged views on the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Pashinyan thanked the Republic of Korea for demonstrating balanced stance on the NK conflict.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan attended the event dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Armenia.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the official website of the Prime Minister of Armenia, congratulating on the occasion, the acting PM said, Its our duty to remember today with respect and gratefulness those who established this institution back in 1943. Implementing such an initiative during the war years meant not only to believe in the victory and establishment of peace, but also to unconditionally believe in Armenia, its people, our great potential for science.

According to Pashinyan, after the collapse of the USSR great efforts were made to adapt the NAS to the new realities and be able to operate effectively, but the complications of the transitional period did not allow Armenias economy to continue having the same role it has during the Soviet years.

I recall all this not just as a memory, but try to emphasize the program, the ambition that the Armenian Government adopted following the non-violent, velvet revolution. We want to make Armenia a technologically progressive country as it used to be during the years of the USSR. We have the most important thing for that  human resources, Nikol Pashinytan said.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Operative connection has been established between the acting PM of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, ARMENPRESS reports acting PM of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan told the reporters on October 18.

According to our agreement, a reliable operative connection has been established with the Azerbaijani side and we can say that any information can be conveyed to the Azerbaijani President and from their side to me within half an hour. Its not so that we contact each other every time a ceasefire violation takes, only in case of necessity, Pashinyan said.

He noted that the situation on the border is unprecedentedly calm, which can be explained by the agreement reached between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Dushanbe.

Generally speaking, the situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border and Karabakh-Azerbaijan contact line is unprecedentedly calm and it is in some sense the result of Dushanbe agreements, the acting PM said.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 17, ARMENPRESS. According to acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, there are no oligarchs in Armenia, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan told the reporters on October 18, answering the question about Gagik Tsarukyan.

Mr. Tsarukyan is a major proprietor in Armenia and its not a secret for anyone. The rest is not to be commented by me. I have already announced that there are no oligarchs in Armenia, Pashinyan said.

Referring to the announcement of 2nd President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan about the fact that there is vacuum in Armenias political field, Pashinyan emphasized that the vacuum will be filled after the early parliamentary elections.

Generally speaking, vacuum exists in the political field, but the early parliamentary elections will put everything in their places. Early parliamentary elections are also aimed at overcoming the exisiting vacuum, the acting PM said.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan hopes that the economic situation will improve after the early elections, ARMENPRESS reports Pashinyan told the reporters on October 18.

The pending political situation also causes the economic situation to somehow remain in its place. This is a rule in economics. We hope the economic situation will be far more active after the early parliamentary elections, he said.

The acting PM also emphasized that they are interested in investments in Armenia, while the Government will spare no efforts to support investors.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian has sent a condolence message on the occasion of Ara Gulers demise.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Presidents Office, the letter runs as follows,

It was with deep grief that I learned about the demise of one of the most famous annalists of our times, Ara Guler.

His photographs are not usual images depicted by a mechanical equipment with an indifferent and cold gaze, but a warm and infiltrating look of an artist at the world, people, that makes the invisible visible and transient, eternal.

I deeply bemoan the loss of that great individual and extend my deep condolences to hi family members, relatives and the thousands of his fans in Armenia, Turkey and worldwide.

Edited and translated by Tigran SirekanyanAccording to the combat training plan for 2018, the air defense units of Azerbaijan's army conducted tactical exercises in various firing ranges, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan said in a message on October 17. In the course of the exercises the air defense units fire-tested the 9K33 Osa anti-aircraft missile system.



Firing of a 9K33 Osa air defense missile by the Azeri army (Picture source: Azeri MoD)

The 9K33 Osa (NATO Code: SA-8 Gecko) is a highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system designed in the Soviet Union. Its export version name is Romb. The SA-8 was the first mobile air defense missile system incorporating its own engagement radars on a single vehicle.

All versions of the 9K33 feature all-in-one 9A33 transporter erector launcher and radar (TELAR) vehicles which can detect, track and engage aircraft independently or with the aid of regimental surveillance radars. The six-wheeled transport vehicles BAZ-5937 are fully amphibious and air transportable. The road range is about 500 km.

The 1S51M3-2 radar system on the SA-8 TELAR received the NATO codename Land Roll. It was derived from the naval `Pop Group' radar system but is smaller since it does not require the elaborate stabilisation system. An improved system designated the SA-8B `Gecko' Mod 1, was first seen in Germany in 1980. It had improvements added to the launcher configuration, carrying six missiles in ribbed containers. The system is reported to be of the frequency-agile monopulse type. It consists of an elliptical rotating surveillance antenna mounted on top of the array, operates in H band (6 to 8 GHz) and has a 30 km acquisition range against most targets. The large pulsed J band (14.5 GHz) engagement antenna is mounted below it in the centre of the array and has a maximum tracking range of about 20 km.

Mounted on either side of the tracking radar antenna is a small J band parabolic dish antenna to track the missile. Below that is a small circular antenna which emits an I band uplink capture beam to gather the missile shortly after launch. The final antennas in the array are two small white rectangular ones, one on either side of the array mounted alongside the I band. These are used for command uplink to the missile. This twin antenna system permits the 'Land Roll' radar to control up to two missiles simultaneously against a single target. Furthermore, the two missiles can be guided on different frequencies to further complicate ECM. There is also a tubular device fitted to and above the tracking radar; this is a 9Sh33 electro-optical tracker. It can be used to track the target when the main tracking radar is jammed by ECM.

A 9K33 battery comprises four 9A33B TELAR vehicles and two 9T217 transloader vehicles on BAZ-5939 chassis with reload missiles and a crane. A reload time of five minutes has been reported per TELAR.

In addition to the TELARs, each regiment is also assigned a single radar collimation vehicle 9V914 (initially on the BAZ-5938 chassis but more often found on the ZiL-131 truck). This vehicle assists in the alignment of the TELAR's radar systems, ensuring accurate target tracking and engagement.

Engagement range for the early versions is approximately 29 km (1.35.6 miles) and engagement altitudes of between 505,000 m (16416,400 ft). The 9M33M2 "Osa-A" missile extends the ranges out to 1,50010,000m (16.2 miles) and engagement altitudes to 255,000 m (8216,400 ft). The 9M33M3 missile greatly enhances the altitude engagement envelope to 1012,000 m (3342,500 ft), and as such are also able to fly further (about 15 km/9 miles) but the system is not able to engage targets at longer ranges, due to other factors such as the radar tracking of the missiles. The system is designed for use primarily against jet aircraft and helicopters in any kind of weather.

The 9M33 missiles are 3.158 m (10.3 ft) long, weigh 126 kg (278 lb) and use command guidance. There is also a backup low-light optical tracking system for heavy ECM environments. The latest 9M33M3 missiles have an increased total weight of 170 kg (375 lb) in order to provide the extended range coverage and larger warhead. Propulsion is provided by a dual-thrust solid fuel rocket motor. Both versions feature a missile speed of around Mach 2.4 (peaking at around Mach 3) for a maximum target engagement speed of around Mach 1.4 for the original missile and Mach 1.6 for the M2\M3 missiles. The warhead for the initial and M2 versions weighs 19 kg (42 pounds), increased to 40 kg (88 lb) in the M3 version to improve performance against helicopters. All versions have impact and proximity fuzes.

There have been unconfirmed reports of other possible versions of the missile with both infra-red and semi-active radar terminal homing seekers.The Strix remains the only precision-guided 120mm mortar munition available on the international market. As demand for precision-guided munitions grows worldwide, this projectile could become the industry standard for guided 120mm mortar rounds.



Presentation of the 120mm mortar carriers GRKPBV 90 for the Swedish army. The first vehicles will be delivered in August 2019 and the last ones in October 2020 (Picture source: Swedish MoD)

The primary potential competitors of the Strix are the German 120mm Bussard and the U.S. 120mm XM395 precision-guided mortar munition (PGMM). The Diehl Bussard program was reportedly suspended in the mid-1980s due to lack of funding.

The Orbital ATK XM395 PGMM is currently in its engineering and manufacturing development phase under the U.S. Army's Accelerated Precision Mortar Initiative (APMI). Until the XM395 PGMM becomes available on the international market, the Strix will remain in a good position to exploit a near-term advantage in a developing market.

Saab Dynamics clings to expectations of winning additional orders for its Strix. However, until these new orders arrive, production of this round will remain suspended. Potential near-term customers include Finland and Norway, both of which are looking for new 120mm self-propelled mortar systems.FILE PHOTO: The ticker and trading information for Blackstone Group is displayed at the post where it is traded on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 4, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

By Tom Westbrook

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Private equity giant Blackstone Group (BX.N) has quit a takeover battle for Australian office-block owner Investa Office Fund (IOF.AX) after it was gazumped by Canadian landlord Oxford Properties Group's A$3.35 billion ($2.4 billion) bid.

Blackstone told Investa it would not match the offer, Investa said on Thursday, all but handing the sought-after target to Oxford as office rents boom, especially in Sydney where Investa's 20 towers are concentrated.

With Investa's board now recommending the Oxford buyout, notwithstanding a better offer, it also ends a takeover battle running since the Canadian firm emerged as 11th-hour contender last month.

"There's only the formalities to go through. I think that's as high as it'll go," said Winston Sammut, managing director of property investor Folkestone Maxim Asset Management.

"The question really now is what does Blackstone do given that it's got some cash available."

A Blackstone spokeswoman declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Oxford Properties Group.

"This is an excellent opportunity for IOF unitholders to crystallize their investment in IOF at an attractive and certain price," IOF Fund Manager Penny Ransom said in a statement.

The transaction, which requires shareholder and regulatory approvals, comes as tight supply in downtown office markets is driving a slew of deals in a sector that is defying softening home prices in Australia.

British-based consultant BIS Oxford Economics, unrelated to the bidder, forecasts vacancy rates for Sydney offices to hit an all-time low of 3 percent by the end of 2019 and office rents to rise 56 percent over the next five years.

"Some people think this is over, but it's not," Frank Gelber, economist and a director at BIS said by phone. "We reckon this cycle's got another four to five years to run."

In other deals, Miami-based Starwood Capital has three times raised its offer for Melbourne-based landlord Australian Unity Office Fund (AOF.AX) to A$480.4 million.

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Industrial and office landlord Propertylink Group (PLG.AX) on Tuesday dropped its A$755 million bid for peer Centuria Industrial REIT (CIP.AX) while it mulls a A$732 million takeover offer from Warburg Pincus [WP.UL] controlled ESR Real Estate.

Investa, which first drew interest from Blackstone in April, and a A$3.08 million bid in May, is regarded a particularly valuable because it is the largest office owner not diversified into the weaker-performing residential or industrial sectors.

Before Oxford emerged as a spoiler two days before shareholders were set to vote on Blackstone's buyout, the private equity giant had already lifted its bid once. It raised it three times before Oxford beat it out by A$48 million.

Investa shares closed 0.36 percent lower, in a flat market, at A$5.55, just below the Oxford offer price of A$5.60.

Oxford's offer will be voted on by shareholders at a meeting to be scheduled in December. Investa must also pay a break fee of about A$32 million to Blackstone.

($1 = 1.4037 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook in Sydney; Additional reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)The price for mid and lower iron ore grades surged on Wednesday, closing at fresh multi-month highs.

Analysts put the surge down to a combination of supply and demand factors. Strength in steel futures was another factor.

Chinese futures gave back some ground in overnight trade on Wednesday, coinciding with the release of Chinese credit data for September that was regarded as being softer-than-expected.

The price for mid and lower iron ore grades surged on Wednesday, closing at fresh multi-month highs.

According to Metal Bulletin, the spot price for benchmark 62% fines jumped 2.6% to $73.36 a tonne, leaving it at the highest level since March 7 this year.

It's now rallied 16.2% from the year-to-date low of $63.14 a tonne struck in early July, including 6% since the end of Gold Week holidays in early October.

Fresh from climbing to the highest level since early March on Tuesday, lower grade ores continued to rally with the price for 58% fines surging 1.9% to $42.42 a tonne, a level not seen since March 7.

However, while mid and lower grades settled at seven-month highs, the buying frenzy did not extend to higher grade ores with the price for 65% Brazilian fines finishing the session at $97.10 a tonne, down 0.1% from Tuesday.

The flat to higher moves in spot markets followed a surge in Chinese steel and bulk commodity futures during the session.

Rebar futures in Shanghai finished trade at 4,197 yuan, significantly higher than the 4,126 yuan it closed on Tuesday evening. It has now rallied in six of the past seven sessions, settling at the highest level in a month.

The strength in steel futures flowed through to bulk commodity contracts traded separately in Dalian with iron ore, coking coal and coke all rallying hard from Tuesday's night session close.

The January 2019 iron ore contract jumped to 523.5 yuan, well above the 509 yuan level it finished in overnight trade. Like spot markets, it too sits at the highest level since early March.

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Coke and coking coal contracts were also bid, climbing to 2,513 yuan and 1,412 yuan respectively, again, well above the 2,462.5 yuan and 1,393 yuan levels they closed on Tuesday evening.

The January 2019 coking coal contract now sits at the highest level in 13 months.

Richard Lu, an analyst at CRU consultancy in Beijing, told Reuters the across-the-board gains in bulk commodities were driven by a combination of factors.

On the demand side, he said the decision to allow Chinese provinces to set their own output restrictions during winter could see demand for raw materials remain firm.

This means that overall demand for steelmaking raw materials will be more than expected even though there will be some constraints, he said. So thats providing some upside for prices.

Chinese policymakers have introduced or announced restrictions on industrial output levels during winter months in an attempt to improve air quality, especially in northern regions.

On the supply side of the equation, he said tight supply of coking coal may have also contributed to the steep gains seen during the session.

"Coking coal supply in China is also tighter as winter approaches with the transport of thermal coal -- needed to fuel power plants -- being given priority over coking coal," said Lu.

We have also seen supply restrictions from Australia and Mozambique. The supply of metallurgical coal in the global seaborne market is quite tight at the moment."

The removal of temporary output restrictions in Tangshan on Thursday, a centre of heavy industry in the northern province of Hebei, may have also been a factor, along with continued strength in steel prices.

However, after a strong move earlier in the day, all steel and bulk commodity contracts gave back ground in overnight trade on Wednesday.

SHFE Rebar 4,163 , 0.17%

DCE Iron Ore 522.50 , 1.65%

DCE Coking Coal 1,389.00 , -0.04%

DCE Coke 2,444.50 , -0.99%

The partial reversal of recent gains followed the release of monetary growth figures from China during September that were widely regarded as being weaker-than-expected, suggesting that policymakers are not yet at the point where they feel the need to stimulate the economy further.

"The soft credit data is more evidence that the stimulus so far is reactive, not proactive," said economists at Macquarie Bank. "Things have to get worse for policymakers to step up stimulus."

Chinese commodity futures will resume trade at midday AEST.A Ukrainian Su-27UB Flanker crashed about 185 miles southwest of Kyiv on Tuesday, killing a Ukrainian pilot and American pilot.

The crash occurred during the multinational Clear Sky 2018 exercises, which involved military personnel from nine countries and were slated to wrap up this week.

The exercises focused on "air sovereignty, air interdiction, air-to-ground integration, air mobility operations, aeromedical evacuation, cyber defence, and personnel recovery," US Air Forces in Europe said in a statement.

"This is the largest exercise in the last four years," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also said last week. "It involves more than 50 aircrafts from eight NATO member-states and our planes of the Ukrainian Air Forces."

Among the participating aircraft were US F-15Cs, as well as Ukrainian Mig-29s and Su-27s.

Here's what the Su-27 can do, and what we know about the tragic crash.

The Russian Sukhoi-27, which NATO codenamed "Flanker," first flew in 1977, and later entered Soviet service in 1984.

In fact, the Flanker was developed a few years after the US introduced the F-15 and F-16, which had suddenly put Soviet pilots at a disadvantage. But the Su-27 subsequently helped level the playing field.

Source: globalsecurity.org

Designed as an interceptor and air superiority fighter, the highly manoeuvrable Su-27 has a top speed of about 1,800 mph and a maximum ceiling of about 59,000 feet.

The F-15, by comparison, has an edge on the Su-27 with its maximum speed of 1,875 mph and maximum ceiling of 65,000 feet.

Source: globalsecurity.org, US Air Force

The Flanker can be armed with up to 10 air-to-air missiles, including AA-10s and AA-11s. It can also be armed with FAB-100 bombs and one 30 mm GSh-301 cannon.

The F-15, however, can only be armed with eight air-to-air missiles, including four AIM-9 Sidewinders and four AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles or eight AIM-120 AMRAAMs. It's also armed with an M-61A1 20mm, six-barrel cannon.

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Source: globalsecurity.org, US Air Force

The Su-27 that crashed on Tuesday was a Su-27UB, which is a trainer variant.

The Su-27UB, which first flew in 1985, can be fitted with the same munitions and weapon control systems as the Su-27. But it has a few slight modifications, namely that it's a two-seater instead of a one-seater.

Source: globalsecurity.org

Although details about Tuesday's crash are still scant, the fact that the Su-27UB is a two-seater likely explains why both an American pilot and Ukrainian pilot were killed, given that the exercises were meant to bolster interoperability.

Source: Business Insider

"This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine," Maj. Gen. Clay Garrison, Commander of the California Air National Guard and the director of the Clear Sky exercises, said in a statement.

"Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and fellow Airmen of both the U.S. Airman and Ukrainian aviator who were killed in the incident," Garrison said.

The crash is still under investigation, and the US pilot's name is being temporarily withheld pending notification of next of kin.Military snipers from several NATO countries recently practiced high-angle shooting in the Austrian Alps.

Snipers from Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, the United States, and other NATO countries practiced the shooting from Sept. 9-14 at the International Special Training Centre's High-Angle/Urban course at the Hochfilzen Training Area.

"High-angle shooting is when you shoot further than 300 meters at angles greater than 15 degrees," Lt. Alexander Rishovd, a sniper instructor assigned to the Norwegian Army Land Warfare Centre,said.

"Imagine the whole shooting process being a triangle and the sniper is on top, the line of sight to the target at the other end is greater than the distance the bullet travels in a flat line," Rishovd said. "With the greater the angle the more the deviation between the line of sight and the distance that gravity has to affect the bullet."

And the pictures are stunning.

Check them out below.

The NATO soldiers hiked 6,500 feet up to the high-angle range several times during the five-day period, even using packhorses to help get their gear up.

And the training taught the soldiers how to pack lightly.

"With a sniper rifle and sometimes two rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammo, tripod, spotting scope and night optics, mountaineering gear, sleep system, and water and food, your pack easily gets over 40 kilos," one Belgian special forces soldier said.

"It is a difficult balance because snipers require a lot of specialised equipment, so you have to decide what is absolutely mission essential."

After ascending to the range, they started the high-angle shooting.

"Each degree of angle will have an associated number value called its cosine," Rishovd said.

"For snipers shooting at high-angles they need to measure the range to the target in line of sight and multiply it by the cosine [to] get the actual range the bullet is going to fly. Then the sniper will set his bullet drop compensation from that distance."

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They practiced shooting directly across valleys.

Down into valleys.

And uphill.

They also used smoke to help ascertain how fast and in which direction the wind was blowing.

The calculations are not very difficult, one Belgian Special Forces soldier said. The challenge is the shooting positions."

"To aim at targets that are at odd angle requires getting into difficult and sometimes unstable and uncomfortable positions," he continued. "It is also difficult for the spotter to get a good line of sight. The further out you shoot the more the angle and other factors effects your shot. Operationally it is one of the most commonly used skills, so it is good to refine them here."

They even practiced "stress shoots," which test a soldier's physical fitness and firearms training together to replicate a combat situation.

You can read more about stress shoots here.

Snipers from different countries were paired together too.

"Each country has its own tactics, techniques and procedures," an unnamed US Army Special Forces sniper instructor said. "When we pair snipers from different countries together, or have them compete against each other, they are able to compare and see what works best."

After the training sessions, the snipers hiked back down from the high-angle range.

"It is very difficult to find ranges where you can shoot at high angles," US Army Staff Sgt. Ryen Funk said. "We don't get to practice high angle enough, so it is good to come here and get that experience."A Ukrainian man who was reported dead in his home country was found alive and well, living a "lavish lifestyle" in France earlier this month.

Europol said Tuesday it had arrested an unnamed Ukrainian citizen after they discovered him living in a castle in Burgundy that dates back to the 12th century.

They said the man was living off laundered funds from a corruption scheme. During the October 5 raid they seized a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom and three works by Salvador Dali.

Dmytro malynovskyy

A Ukranian man who had been declared dead in his home country was arrested earlier this month, after European Union law enforcement agents found him alive and well, living a "lavish lifestyle" in a French castle.

In an October 16 press release, Europol said the man, who they dubbed the "King of the Castle," was living off money laundered from a corruption scheme.

French law enforcement officials first started investigating the man in January, after growing suspicious of his purchase of the Chateau de la Rochepot, near the town of Dijon in the Burgundy region. The castle, which dates back to the 12th century, is a popular tourist attraction and was previously owned by the descendants of former French President Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, who was assassinated in 1894, according to The Telegraph.

When they reached out to Ukrainian officials for more information on the castle's new owners, they learned that he was wanted in his home country for large-scale corruption.

Europol 2

Due to the international element of the case, French authorities requested the aid of Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, which discovered that the man had managed to evade capture by forging death certificates.

On October 5, French law enforcement and Europol agents arrested the man, seizing his castle, 4.6 million euros, a Rolls Royce Phantom, and three unnamed works by Salvador Dali.

Europol officials did not release the identity of the man, but three sources who spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty identified him as 36-year-old Dmytro Malynovskyy.

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Europol 1

A Ukranian government website says Malynovskyy has been missing since August 2014, just six months after the Ukranian Revolution resulted in then-President Viktor Yanukovych fleeing the country after revelations of widespread governmental corruption.

Electoral records RFE/RL viewed showed Malynovskyy had previously run for the Odesa city council, in 2006, representing the same party Yanukovych belonged to.

RFE/RL reports that the fraud and forgery Malynovskyy was allegedly involved in regarded Defence Ministry property in Odesa.

Ukranian prosecutors are reportedly in the process of securing the suspect's extradition. Three others associates were also arrested in the October 5 raid.Beijing expressed "solemn concerns" Wednesday after a US Navy vessel stopped in Taiwan, brushing up against China's red line.

Taiwan's defence ministry stated emphatically that the visit was "unrelated to military activity" amid speculation that this might be a precursor to plans for a US Navy show of force near Taiwan later this month.

The Thomas G. Thompson, a research vessel, has visited before, but this visit comes on the heels of a major showdown in the South China Sea.

Toward the end of last month, a Chinese destroyer nearly collided with a US Navy warship during a tense standoff following a close pass of Chinese-occupied islands.

A US Navy research vessel docked in Taiwan Monday, sparking concern in Beijing at a time of heightened tension between the US and China.

The Thomas G. Thompson (T-AGOR-23), a research ship owned by the Office of Naval Research, arrived in Kaohsiung earlier this week to refuel and make crew changes, the Associated Press reported. The Taiwan Ministry of Defence stressed that the visit, notably not a first for this oceanographic vessel, is "unrelated to military activity."

China is "expressing our solemn concerns to the US side," Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang said Wednesday, adding that Beijing "opposes all kinds of military contacts between the US and Taiwan." The US should immediately "stop all forms of official exchanges and military interactions with Taiwan and handle the Taiwan-related issues with caution," he warned.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, called on the parties involved to be cautious "in deed and avoid undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait," according to China's Xinhua News Agency. "The Taiwan issue bears on China's sovereignty, territorial integrity and core interests, and we have firmly resolved to safeguard state sovereignty and territorial integrity," Ma explained.

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The US Navy research vessel is carrying around 30 scientists from Taiwan, the Philippines, and the US, the Liberty Times reported, adding that the ship will conduct oceanographic research in the South China Sea.

The presence of a US naval vessel, even one engaging in non-military activities, at a port in Taiwan makes Beijing very uncomfortable.

"The day that a U.S. Navy vessel arrives in Kaohsiung, is the day that our People's Liberation Army unites Taiwan with military force," Li Kexin, the minister at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said last year. The latest visit has not crossed that red line, activating China's Anti-Secession Law, which permits the use of force to defend Chinese territorial integrity.

The visit comes amid heated disputes over trade, sanctions, Chinese territorial claims to the South China Sea, and arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing's concern over the arrival of the Thomas G. Thompson in Taiwan comes on the heels of another incident with a US warship.

After a recent US Navy freedom-of-navigation operation near the contested Spratly Islands, during which a US warship approached Chinese-occupied territories, a Chinese destroyer challenged the US vessel to a showdown, nearly colliding with the American ship in the process.At least 10 election candidates have been killed, thousands of polling centres closed, and many voters are likely to stay home due to the threat of militant attacks. This is democracy, Afghanistan style. Almost nine million people have registered to vote in the October 20 parliamentary election, which is more than three years late and only the third since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. But shambolic preparations, expectations of industrial-scale fraud, and escalating poll-related violence threaten to derail the election, which the international community is advising and largely funding. "We're trying to make a terrible situation slightly less bad," a Western diplomat told AFP, reflecting a sharp drop in expectations for a credible result, even by Afghan standards. Alarm is growing as the beleaguered Independent Election Commission (IEC), which has been skewered for its poor handling of the process, struggles to distribute voting materials to more than 5,000 polling centres before they open at 7:00 am on Saturday. They are supposed to include biometric voter verification devices that Afghan political leaders and officials only agreed to use a few weeks ago and have been made mandatory, despite being untested and not required by law. Votes cast without the controversial machines will not be counted, IEC spokesman Sayed Hafizullah Hashimi told AFP, even though polling centre workers have received little or no training in how to use them. Observers are concerned the results could be thrown into turmoil if the devices are broken, lost or destroyed. There also are fears the data could be manipulated before preliminary results are released on November 10. "Using technology can help transparency but it can also create confusion if not used properly," said Naeem Ayubzada, director of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan. - 'Pseudo-democracy' - More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, the sons of former warlords, and at least one prisoner. Campaigning has been marred by bloody violence. At least 10 candidates have been killed so far, including Abdul Jabar Qahraman who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand. The Taliban has warned candidates to withdraw from the ballot, which it has vowed to attack, and told education workers to stop their schools from being used as polling centres. The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes". Despite speculation the vote could be postponed again, Hashimi said it had to go ahead on time. "It is already snowing in some provinces and the weather is getting colder," Hashimi told AFP. "If we delay the elections for a week, it means we won't have them." Observers expect turnout on polling day to be far lower than the 8.9 million registered to vote in the first legislative election since 2010. More than 2,000 voting centres have already been closed for security reasons, and the threat of more militant attacks are likely to persuade many voters to avoid the poll. Some 54,000 members of Afghanistan's already overstretched security forces will be deployed to protect the ballot. To help boost numbers, Hashimi on Wednesday urged the media to focus on the elections, not violence. There are widespread suspicions that a significant number of voter registrations were based on fake identification documents, which fraudsters hope to use to stuff ballot boxes. Registrations in the eastern province of Paktia, for example, were "an implausible" 141 percent of the estimated eligible population, Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a recent report. "The fraud is already baked in," a Western diplomat told AFP, adding Afghan officials may never know how many people actually voted. That has further eroded confidence and deterred potential voters. "Most of the people I have been talking to say they won't go to vote, some even didn't bother to register, and many said 'we would love to vote if we knew the system would work'," AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig told AFP. "It's not that Afghans are tired of democracy. They're tired of this kind of pseudo-democracy." The Independent Election Commission is struggling to distribute voting materials to more than 5,000 polling centres before they open at 8:00 am on Saturday Votes cast without biometric verification will not be counted even though polling centre workers have received little or no training in how to use the devices The elections are being held under the threat of militant attacks, and more than 2,000 polling stations have been closed for security reasons Doctors, mullahs, sons of warlords, feminists and even a prison inmate are among more than 2,500 candidates competing for a seat in parliament Voters in Kabul will wrestle with a newspaper-sized ballot paper with more than 800 candidates listed The long-delayed election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for AprilA teenage gunman who killed 20 people in a Crimean college had spoken of taking revenge for bullying, a girl claiming to be his ex-girlfriend said Thursday, while Russian President Vladimir Putin said the massacre was influenced by American shootings. Putin said at a forum in the southern city of Sochi that the killing was the "result of globalisation" and the continuation of a trend that had begun in the US. "We do not create enough good (online) content for young people. This leads to this kind of tragedy," said the president, whose government has in recent years increased its control on the internet. Putin's remarks came as investigators sought to establish what prompted 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov to open fire on fellow students at a technical college in Kerch, a city in the Moscow-annexed Crimean peninsula, before killing himself. More than 40 others were injured. In an interview with state media, a girl claiming to be his ex-girlfriend described him as a "kind and considerate" person who had complained of bullying. "He would say that he lost trust in people when his classmates began humiliating him for not being like everyone else," a 15-year-old named as Zlata told the Kremlin-funded RT outlet. "Vladislav was always telling me about his frequent fights with people around him," she said, adding that he "didn't want to live" because of it. The girl, who broke up with Roslyakov at an unspecified time before the killing, said he was a shooting enthusiast. "I'm sorry for the people he shot and I'm very sorry that he killed himself. He was a very good friend," she said. - Horrific injuries - Russia's health ministry put the latest death toll at 20. A few hours earlier, city authorities published a list of 19 of the victims -- nine of them under the age of 18. A 15-year-old boy, Sergei Stepanenko, was the youngest to die in the shooting. One of the girls who died, 16-year-old Darya Chegerest, "tried to help others" as the attack unfolded but was killed, her fellow first-year student Viktoria Voiko told AFP. Many of those hospitalised were injured by an explosion that blasted metal ball bearings and other items into their bodies, ripping into organs. Health minister Veronika Skvortsova told journalists that most of those who died suffered gunshot wounds. She said the explosion made "mincemeat" of the victims and several had limbs amputated. - 'Russia's Columbine' - The gunman "moved from room to room and, like an experienced special forces fighter, first threw a home-made grenade before going to shoot people," Russian daily Kommersant wrote. It called the shooting an "unprecedented crime in Russia", which has strict gun controls. Several media outlets made a comparison with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the US, which left 13 people dead. They described photographs circulating on the internet showing Roslyakov wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers. "On paper, he had an ideal character. We simply do not understand," Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov told journalists. According to Kommersant, the teenager "grew up in a rather poor family" with a disabled father. The paper said Roslyakov's mother is a Jehovah's Witness -- a Christian organisation considered "extremist" and banned in Russia. Russian television reported she works as an orderly at one of the hospitals that treated victims. According to the RIA Novosti agency, security forces raided Roslyakov's family home following the killings. - 'The truth now' - Stunned locals brought flowers, candles and toys to the scene on Thursday morning as the army and police cordoned off the college site. "We all lost people close to us, the children of Kerch. We need to know the truth now," resident Sergei Ivanov told AFP. "No one can guarantee that this will not happen again," the pro-Kremlin paper Izvestia said. Kremlin spokesman Peskov on Thursday said "measures will have to be taken to minimise or totally eliminate such risks in the future." Attacks by disaffected teenagers at schools and colleges have hit the headlines recently in Russia. In January, a school student attacked a teacher and fellow students with an axe in Siberia and tried to set fire to the school building. In April, another student stabbed a teacher and a fellow student in the Urals Mountains and then set fire to a classroom. People laid flowers for victims of the shooting at a college in Kerch, Crimea People cleaned the college entrance in Kerch, Crimea, after Wednesday's shooting rampage Locals brought flowers and toys to the scene of the shooting Russian investigators examined the college in Kerch, Crimea where a student opened fireBhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results. The country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India and known for its Gross National Happiness index, has now chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008. The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the 47 national assembly seats, according to the provisional results released by Bhutan's election commision. Official results are to be announced Friday. Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September. The last ruling party was excluded in the contest. DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for "nation building" in the country which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs. Both parties had vowed to boost the economy with Tshering's party using the slogan "Narrowing The Gap". The election saw a 70 percent turnout and record 11 women win seats. The DPT, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in the 2013 vote, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India. The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutan's debt to pay for more power plants. - New friends needed - Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects. Bhutan has tried to shield itself from the downsides of globalisation, striving for "Gross National Happiness" over GDP growth, maintaining a carbon-negative economy and keeping tourist numbers down with a daily fee of $250 per visitor in high season. While Bhutan is proud of its cultural and political independence and has diplomatic relations with barely 50 countries, it knows it will have to open up. Foreign policy was kept out of the election campaign however. During the 2013 campaign, fearing that Bhutan was moving too close to China, India withdrew subsidies for kerosene and cooking gas imports, in what was seen as an attempt to coerce a change of government. Relations with India remain sensitive. At least five candidates and activists were fined up to two month's wages for sending instant messenger statements to groups on relations with India, the Bhutan election commission said. Last year India and China became embroiled in a military standoff over the Doklam plateau claimed by China and Bhutan, and which sits on a strategic corner where the three countries meet. India, which has a military presence in Bhutan, stepped in to prevent Chinese border guards from building a road there. Even though Bhutan does not have diplomatic ties with Beijing, its giant neighbour is the third biggest source of imported goods and wealthy Chinese tourists are a valuable new source of income. A growing number of Bhutanese feel the country should rely less on India and give China and others a chance to boost the economy and create new jobs. "Bhutan should make friends with other countries," said taxi driver Kinzang Dorji. Bhutan has now chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008 DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon, has vowed to work for "nation building"British Prime Minister Theresa May will call on fellow EU leaders Thursday to take united action to punish cyber attackers, warning hackers cause economic harm and undermine democracies. Britain is among eight European Union countries pushing for the bloc to urgently agree to a new sanctions regime to address malign cyber activities. "We should accelerate work on EU restrictive measures to respond to and deter cyber attacks, including a robust sanctions regime," May will say, according to pre-released comments. She will add: "Malign cyber activity causes harm to our economies, and undermines our democracies. "As well as protecting ourselves against attack, we must impose proportionate consequences on those who would do us harm." The move comes amid growing concern at Russia's activities, with Western powers blaming Moscow for numerous acts of hacking and electronic interference. This month the Netherlands revealed dramatic details of a bid by Russia's GRU military intelligence agency to hack the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague. This was "a stark example of the very real threats that we face", May will say, but also "a clear example of where these attacks can be prevented". A confidential EU proposal seen by AFP and backed by Britain, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, Romania and the Netherlands warns that "the pace of events has accelerated considerably". The paper says it is "only a matter of time before we are hit by a critical operation with severe consequences on the EU". Lithuania and the other Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, say they come under near-daily cyber attacks, most originating in Russia, targeting everything from banks and government institutions to transport infrastructure. Britain's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed this week that it has dealt with more than 1,100 cyber incidents in the two years since it was set up, the majority carried out from within "hostile nation states". May has repeatedly stressed that despite Britain leaving the EU in March, London wants the fullest possible security relationship with the bloc post-Brexit. If approved, the EU sanctions regime would freeze assets held in the bloc by targeted individuals and ban them from travelling to the 28 member states. But the proposal may face resistance from some EU members who want to improve relations with Russia, such as the new Italian government. Britain is among eight European Union countries pushing for the bloc to urgently agree to a new sanctions regime to address malign cyber activities, with Prime Minister Theresa May to call on her fellow EU leaders for actionCanada has become the latest  and largest  country to legalise cannabis.

A handful of retail outlets opened in the countrys easternmost province, while a federal official confirmed that Canada will pardon all those with convictions for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, the now-legal threshold.

A formal announcement was planned for later on Wednesday. The official said those who want to take advantage of the pardons will have to apply.

Canada is the latest country to legalise marijuana (Getty)

The countries where recreational cannabis use it legal (PA)

Canada has had legal medical marijuana since 2001 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has spent two years working toward expanding that to include so-called recreational marijuana.

The goal is to better reflect societys changing opinion about marijuana and bring black market operators into a regulated system.

Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton (left) passes a bag with the first legal cannabis for recreation use sold in Canada to Nikki Rose and Ian Power at the Tweed shop (AP)

Where is marijuana legal?

Uruguay was first was the first country to legalise marijuana and Canada now joins it as the only two countries in the world that have fully legalised the consumption and sale of recreational cannabis nationwide.

Nine US states have legalised recreational use of cannabis, and more than 30 have approved medical marijuana.



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California, the largest legal market in the US, earlier this month became the first state with a law mandating expungement of criminal convictions for marijuana-related offences that no longer are illegal.

The nine US states where marijuana is legal are Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

Many countries have decriminalised the use of marijuana (Getty)

Relaxed laws

While marijuana for recreational use remains illegal in most countries in the world, several have made it legal to use it for medicinal purposes.

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The countries where this is the case are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

The United Kingdom is set to follow suit from November.

Nine US states have legalised recreational use of cannabis (Getty)

Some countries also take a relaxed view to marijuana by decriminalising it  essentially treating possession and use similarly to minor traffic violations, rather than punishing people with arrests and prison sentences.

Countries where marijuana is decriminalised include Australia, Argentina, Italy, Mexico and Switzerland.

Cannabis usage is still illegal in most countries (Getty)

Tough punishments

With marijuana use illegal in most countries of the world, punishments vary.

While authorities often treat possession with a degree of leniency, tough prison sentences can also be enforced.

In Cyprus, cannabis is a Class B substance, and life imprisonment is possible for use and a maximum of eight years can be given to offenders for possession.

Consumption in Iceland is illegal even in small amounts and heavy fines are often given to anyone caught.

Uruguay was first was the first country to legalise marijuana (Getty)

Japan are able to punish people convicted of use and possession of cannabis with up to five years in prison and a fine. Cultivation, sale, and transport are punishable by up to seven years or a decade imprisonment and a fine.

On the harsher end of the scale, Malaysian legislation dictates a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers. Individuals arrested in possession of 200g of marijuana are presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs

Cannabis is a Class A drug in Singapore and those who are caught with 500g of cannabis or more, are presumed as drug traffickers, and could also receive the death penalty.Ecuador expelled Venezuela's ambassador Carol Delgado on Thursday over "offensive" comments against President Lenin Moreno by a Venezuelan government minister, the foreign ministry said. Communication and information minister Jorge Rodriguez had accused Moreno of lying about the number of Venezuelans that have arrived in Ecuador after fleeing the economic meltdown in their homeland. "I listened stupefied to a president on this continent because I couldn't believe he could be such a liar," Rodriguez said on Wednesday, referring to the claim that "6,000 unwell Venezuelans a day are entering Ecuador." Ecuador said it "will not tolerate any demonstration of disrespect towards our authorities," adding however that it would continue to offer help to Venezuelans entering the country. South America has been grappling this year with a migration crisis sparked by a mass exodus of Venezuelans fleeing poverty, failing public services and shortages of basic necessities. The United Nations says 2.3 million Venezuelans are living outside the country, with 1.6 million having fled since 2015. An estimated 90 percent have fled to other Latin American countries. While Colombia has taken in more than a million Venezuelans, many of those have continued south to Ecuador, Peru and Chile, heaping pressure on those countries. Venezuela's Minister of Communication Jorge Rodriguez, pictured in Caracas in September 2018, accused Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno of lyingFlash flooding in Tunisia has killed at least five people while a further two are unaccounted for, the interior ministry said on Thursday. Two died in the northwestern region of Kef and another in Grombalia in the north, ministry spokesperson Sofiene Zaag told AFP. On Wednesday a six-year-old child drowned in Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia and a 40-year-old man was swept away by a seasonal river in the neighbouring province of Kasserine, the ministry said. One person has been missing since Wednesday in Kasserine and another in Zaghouan in northeastern Tunisia, Zaag added. The drownings come less than a month after torrential rains killed at least five people in the northeastern region of Cap Bon. Water levels rose Thursday in several cities, including Tunis and its outskirts, where most schools were closed. Some commuters parked their cars and took off their shoes as they navigated flooded streets to reach workplaces in the capital. In some areas, floodwaters rose to nearly two metres deep during the night, devastating homes and shops. In Mhamdia, a township 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Tunis, families spent Wednesday night on the roofs of their homes to escape the floods. "I slept with my three children on a floor under construction above my own home, exposed to the wind and the rain," one resident said. "I've lost everything". In knee-deep mud, some residents tried to leave their homes in the crowded township with a few sodden possessions, an AFP photographer said. People have lashed out at authorities for failing to maintain drainage systems or clear rubbish from seasonal riverbeds, despite frequent heavy rains in the autumn. "This is the third time that this disaster has happened", said Abdelaziz Elkahbi, another Mhamdia resident. "The authorities promise to do something, but nothing ever happens". Schools remained closed in several areas including Kasserine and Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of Tunisia's revolution sparked by the December 2010 self-immolation of a fruit seller in protest at police harassment. The interior ministry urged drivers to take care, as numerous roads across the country are impassable. A shop owner tries to salvage his merchandise in a street flooded by torrential rains in the Tunisian capital Tunis on October 18, 2018 Cars piled up in a street after they were hit by flash floods in the city of Mohamedia near Tunisia's capital Tunis on October 18, 2018Bhutan is set to get a new ruling party as the tiny Himalayan kingdom holds a runoff vote on Thursday. The country of 800,000 people, famed for its Gross National Happiness index, is holding only its third democratic election since the ending of the absolute monarchy in 2008. Bhutan's helter-skelter politics could see a spectacular entry into government of a party only registered in 2013. Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa narrowly led the first round of voting on September 15 with 92,722 votes just ahead of the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008, on 90,020. Harvard-educated prime minister Tshering Tobgay conceded defeat after his ruling party slumped to third place. The DNT got more votes but the rival DPT led in more constituencies and both have been seeking to woo the third of voters who backed other parties in the first round. The rivals have vowed to bolster the economy and health system and improve government transparency. Corruption, rural poverty, youth unemployment and criminal gangs are problems for the "Land of the Thunder Dragon." The DPT has said it will make "Bhutan's economy self reliant by 2025" while DNT has used the slogan of "Narrowing the gap" with richer countries. Bhutan has tried to shield itself from the downsides of globalisation, striving for "Gross National Happiness" over over GDP growth, maintaining a carbon-negative economy and keeping tourist numbers down with a daily fee of $250 per visitor. Television was banned until 1999 when the country also got its first internet network. Bhutan is also fiercely proud of its independence, having diplomatic relations with barely 50 countries. India is unhappy about China's growing influence in Bhutan. During the last election campaign in 2013, fearing that Bhutan was coming too close to rival China, India abruptly withdrew subsidies for kerosene and cooking gas imports, in what was seen as an attempt to coerce a change of government. Last year India and China became embroiled in a military standoff over the Doklam plateau high in the Himalayas claimed by both China and Bhutan. India has a military presence in Bhutan and stepped in to prevent Chinese border guards from building a road there. China accused Indian troops of trespassing on its soil. Both parties have vowed to bolster the economy and health system and improve government transparency Bhutan has tried to shield itself from the downsides of globalisation, striving for 'Gross National Happiness' over over GDP growth and maintaining a carbon-negative economy With less than 3,000 votes separating them in the first round, the two parties in the runoff vote have been busy wooing voters who backed other parties in the September 15 vote Bhutan is fiercely proud of its independence and television was banned until 1999Hindu hardliners blocked intersections, threatened drivers, threw stones at buses and ordered a 12-hour strike on Thursday to successfully bar women from one of India's holiest temples for a second day. The Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in the southern state of Kerala was meant to allow women of all ages -- and not just those under 10 and over 50 as before -- from Wednesday following an order by India's highest court last month. But hundreds of traditionalists, throwing stones at baton-wielding police, defied the order -- blocking the path, surrounding and shouting at any woman attempting to make it to the hilltop site. Angry young men also surrounded and smashed the car windows of female television reporters and threatened others, including an AFP reporter. Another female correspondent was kicked. Local Hindu groups had previously declared a 12-hour shutdown of local businesses, telling drivers that their vehicles would be attacked if they took anyone towards the temple. "Some men came to the parking lot early Thursday and warned taxi drivers against defying the shutdown call," taxi driver Praveen, in the town of Pathanamthitta, told AFP. "They warned drivers at several nearby parking lots and hotels. Anyone who defies it will be risking damage to his vehicle," he added in an account corroborated by other drivers. "No one will get to the temple today because all the drivers are scared for the safety of their cars," one hotel receptionist told AFP. Shops, businesses and schools in the area were shut. State authorities insisted that they would ensure access, imposing restrictions on public gatherings of more than five people, and laying on buses for devotees. Kerala police, who had 1,450 officers on duty, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms, provided escorts to some buses. Police also patrolled through the night and reinforced their presence at Nilackal, the base camp below the temple. But groups of between 50 and 100 young men gathered at intersections on Thursday, checking vehicles. "Traditions that have existed since before courts cannot be tampered with," Krishna Kumar, a tall muscular man in his 20s at one crossroads in the town of Kozhencherry, told AFP. In some areas, protesters threw stones at the buses. - 'Impure' - The situation at the actual temple was festive, meanwhile, with thousands of people queueing to enter as music played, after trekking for several hours up the steep hill through lush, monkey-filled forest. But despite the Supreme Court's order to allow them in, none of the few women present on Thursday were between 10 and 50 years old -- of menstrual age, as the court put it. The restriction reflects an old but still prevalent belief that menstruating women are impure, and the fact that the deity Ayyappa was reputed to have been celibate. "Everyone is angry and I don't have to hide it. What the Supreme Court has done isn't right. We don't want any change. Our Ayyappa's traditions don't need to be tampered with," shirtless devotee Sundaravadana told AFP, clutching a "Save Sabarimala" placard. "We've come here since our childhood and understand the rich tradition behind it. Women are allowed everywhere, at all other temples. It doesn't happen here for a reason. We will do whatever to save our Sabrimala," he added. Female devotees are still barred from some Hindu temples in India. The entry of women at Sabarimala was long taboo, with a ban formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991. The Supreme Court ruling, which overturned that decision, enraged traditionalists, including supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Pinarayi Vijayan, the Marxist chief minister of Kerala, said that the mobs were backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group close to Modi's BJP. "These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies... All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala," Vijayan tweeted. The head of the BJP in Kerala, P.S Sreedharan Pillai, told AFP on Wednesday that his party advocated "peaceful protest against the court verdict." "The overwhelming majority of women oppose the Supreme Court ruling," he added. Trupti Desai, an activist, said she had decided to postpone her visit. "If I go there will be more violence. The government had enough time to prepare the ground for implementing the court's verdict but they have failed to provide protection to the women devotees," she told AFP by phone. Indian police beat a Hindu activist in protests over women's acccess to a temple in Kerala Despite the Supreme Court's order to allow them in, none of the few women present at the temple on Thursday were between 10 and 50 years old Kerala police have drafted in hundreds of extra officers, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms Stone-throwing Hindu activists faced off against police near a Kerala temple that a court has ordered open to womenA diplomatic row threatens to disrupt Italy's Alpine province of South Tyrol: over the question of national identity and whether some of its inhabitants should have the right to Austrian citizenship. Italy's wealthiest province elects its new autonomous parliament on Sunday as Vienna and Rome lock horns over a proposal by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to offer Austrian passports to South Tyroleans. But the offer extends to speakers of German or the regional language Ladin -- not to those who only speak Italian. While the passport issue isn't on the ballot per se, and other issues such as immigration have dominated the campaign, the dual-nationality question has nevertheless been a hot-button topic. Proponents of dual citizenship claim it will forge a stronger European identity in the face of growing far-right and populist forces. But critics fear offering Austrian nationality only to German- and Ladin-speakers could prove divisive in a territory often held up as a model of peaceful cohabitation between the different linguistic groups. And a furious Italian government sees Kurz's proposal as an attack on its sovereignty. "You can't give away passports without our consent," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said at the weekend. "A dual passport is out of the question." Vienna, which has yet to draw up a concrete roadmap for its scheme, has recently sought to calm the waters, promising to proceed solely with Rome's consent. - 'We have nothing to do with Italy' - In South Tyrol's capital Bolzano, the low-key campaign is in evidence only through a few political posters in the town's green spaces. For retired bank employee Rene, Austrian citizenship would be a dream come true. "We have nothing to do with Italy. It'll give us back a feeling of belonging to our Austrian homeland," he told AFP. Part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for over five centuries, South Tyrol was ceded to Italy after World War I, but awarded autonomous status. Subjected to forced "Italianisation" by Benito Mussolini from the 1920s, just before World War II the province's German speakers were offered the option of "returning" to Nazi Germany or remaining as fully fledged Italians. In 1948, the rights of the three main language groups -- German, Italian and Ladin -- were enshrined in the territory's autonomy statute. But for many the dream of rejoining Austria, or attaining independence from Italy, never faded. There was even a series of separatist bombings during the 1950s and 1960s. Everyone is required to identify with a linguistic group and according to the latest figures from 2014, 65 percent of the half-a-million-strong population feel themselves to be German speakers, 27 percent Italian and four percent Ladin. All public signs are trilingual and most people switch effortlessly between Italian and German. Nevertheless, with its stunning views of the Dolomite mountains and traditional Alpine architecture, Bolzano has an undeniably Austrian feel. The restaurants that ring the main square all offer apple strudel. One store even sells that most quintessentially Viennese cake, the Sacher Torte. - Political majority? - The ideal of full independence is inscribed in the statutes of the ruling South Tyrolean People's Party, but its leading candidate, Arno Kompatscher, concedes that most people are happy with the status quo. "According to polls by all parties, the top campaign issue is immigration. Dual citizenship comes very low down," he told AFP. He said he feared the issue could be instrumentalised by far-right or identitarian groupings. Sven Knoll, a candidate for the more stridently pro-independence Sued-Tiroler Freiheit (South Tyrolean Freedom) party, believes "there is already a political majority for dual citizenship, across party lines". But Guenther Pallaver, political science professor at Innsbruck University, is sceptical. "With no concrete proposal on the table from Vienna and no official opinion polls on the matter, I think the debate will evaporate after Sunday's vote," he told AFP. Marc Roeggla, researcher in minority rights at the EURAC institute in Bolzano, said that even if a near-term solution seemed unlikely, the issue of dual citizenship would not go away. Vienna's mistake had been to announce the move unilaterally. "If everyone can come to the table as an equal partner from the very beginning, I really think it could work," he said. Maria Eichbichler, a shopowner in Bolzano, said she was all for dual citizenship. "I don't feel myself to be Italian. But more South Tyrolean, a European, if you prefer, just with an Italian passport. I think a second passport would be really good," she says. South Tyrol, Italy's wealthiest province, elects its new autonomous parliament on Sunday critics fear offering Austrian nationality only to German- and Ladin-speakers in South Tyrol could prove divisive in a territory often held up as a model of peaceful cohabitation between the different linguistic groups Marc Roeggla, researcher in minority rights at the EURAC institute in Bolzano, said that the issue of dual citizenship would not go away All public signs are trilingual in South Tyrol and most people switch effortlessly between Italian and GermanA Maldivian court overturned the 19-month jail term of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Thursday, a month after the former president's estranged half-brother and jailer suffered a shock election drubbing. Gayoom, 80, ruled the largely Muslim island nation for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008. He was arrested in February and accused of participating in an alleged coup during a crackdown on rivals of strongman President Abdulla Yameen, in charges his family and observers said were politically-motivated. Gayoom was granted bail at the end of September, a week after Yameen lost national elections that had been skewed heavily in his favour. On Thursday a court in the capital Male quashed Gayoom's conviction for obstruction of justice -- a charge that arose when he refuse to hand over his mobile phone to police. Gayoom is one of many political opponents and dissidents who were jailed or forced into exile during Yameen's strongman rule. Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected president, was convicted on a terrorism charge and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 after a trial characterised by Amnesty International as a "travesty of justice". He obtained prison leave in 2016 to travel to London for medical treatment and has remained abroad since. Former foes Nasheed and Gayoom teamed up before the election to back Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a political neophyte who defeated Yameen in a landslide victory. Yameen appeared on national television Wednesday to once again concede defeat in the last month's polls, despite mounting a court challenge to annul the results. The Supreme Court is yet to deliver a verdict in the case, which hinges on Yameen's allegation that the election commission used invisible ink to understate his support on ballot papers. He is due to step down on November 17. Gayoom ruled the Maldives for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008Mexico deployed hundreds of riot police Thursday to its border with Guatemala as a caravan of Central American migrants prepared to cross on their way to the United States, defying President Donald Trump's threats. Hundreds of federal police in riot gear fanned out on the international bridge in Suchiate, on the Mexican-Guatemalan border, as the caravan of several thousand Honduran migrants trekked toward the crossing. Guatemala also sent police reinforcements to its side of the border, after Trump threatened to cut aid to the region, deploy the military and close the US-Mexican border if the migrants were allowed to continue. A first group of several hundred migrants arrived late Wednesday in the border town of Tecun Uman, Guatemala, where they overflowed a local shelter, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said. Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms. The migrants planned to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without a visa. The caravan successfully used the same strategy Monday to cross from Honduras to Guatemala at the border town of Agua Caliente, despite efforts by some 100 police to stop them. "We're going to rest here and wait for the others who are on their way so we can enter (Mexico) en masse, like we did at Agua Caliente," Edgar Elias, one of the leaders of the caravan, told AFP. But nature may complicate that plan: the shallow Suchiate river, which forms the border, was swollen by rain overnight. That will likely reduce the number of places where the migrants can attempt to cross the highly porous border illegally, especially since many are traveling with young children. Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the United States, walk in direction to Tecun Uman -- the border with Mexico -- as they leave Guatemala City, on October 18, 2018 Honduran migrants walk in direction of Guatemala's border with Mexico at Tecun UmanMore than 60 world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, will travel to Paris next month for commemorations of the end of World War I a century ago, French officials said Thursday. On November 10 -- a day before the commemorations in Paris -- French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will also attend a ceremony near Compiegne, northern France, where the armistice ending the war was signed on November 11, 1918, Macron's office said. The main ceremony will take place at the Arc de Triomphe war monument in Paris at 11 a.m. on November 11 -- marking the time when guns finally fell silent after four years of trench warfare and general European slaughter. Later in the day, guests will be invited to participate in a Peace Forum, to be opened by Merkel, an event which France wants to turn into an annual multilateral peace conference. Earlier in November, Macron will spend a week touring the country's WWI battlefields, including Verdun, scene of the longest-lasting battle which left at least 700,000 dead on both sides. "The idea is to commemorate our 'poilus' (hairy) ancestors," the presidency said, using a nickname for French WWI rank-and-file troops. Macron will also "pay homage to the French people's extraordinary capacity -- which has never failed -- to rebuild and start anew after a war," the presidency said. A special cabinet meeting will be held in Charleville-Mezieres, in the Ardennes, an area which saw much destruction during the war and which today suffers from de-industrialisation and high unemployment. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also attend a Franco-German friendship concert on November 4 in the eastern city of Strasbourg, part of the Alsace region which was returned to France in 1918 after being seized by Prussia in 1870. Only countries which "sent troops or workers to the European theatres of war" have been invited to the Paris ceremonies, the presidential office, said when asked to explain the absence of countries such as Saudi Arabia. The armistice was signed in this train on the outskirts of CompiegneUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived Thursday in Panama at the start of a tour of the Central American region that President Donald Trump blames for an "onslaught" of US-bound migrants. Pompeo, who will head to Mexico on Friday, had talks in Panama City with President Juan Carlos Varela and Foreign Minister Isabel Saint Malo, who is also vice-president. There were no statements after the meeting that lasted less than an hour but officials earlier said illegal immigration would be among the topics for discussion. Pompeo's arrival in Latin America comes amid tensions over a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants heading through Guatemala to Mexico with the hope of reaching the United States. Earlier Thursday, Trump threatened to send the military to close the US-Mexican border against an "onslaught" of Central American migrants. In a Tweet, Trump called the caravan "an assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador." On Tuesday, Trump threatened Central American countries with aid cuts if they failed to stop the caravan. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) is greeted by Panama's Vice-President and Foreign Minister Isabel Saint Malo as he arrives at Tocumen International Airport on October 18, 2018A Taliban-claimed attack on the top US commander in Afghanistan and senior Afghan security officials Thursday killed at least three people and sent the government scrambling to secure the country's restive south. There are fears the attack in the southern province of Kandahar could derail US efforts to engage the group in peace talks and parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20. US and NATO commander General Scott Miller was not hurt in the attack inside a heavily fortified government compound in Kandahar city that targeted a high-level security meeting. But the shooting carried out by a member of the provincial governor's security team killed anti-Taliban strongman and police chief General Abdul Raziq, Afghan and NATO officials said. "Today I lost a great friend LTG Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan, " said General Miller in a tweet posted by a NATO-linked account. "The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone." Provincial intelligence chief General Abdul Momin Hussainkhail and an Afghan journalist also died in the attack that wounded 13 people, including two Americans and the governor, officials added. "The attack carried out by a bodyguard of the governor happened moments after the meeting finished, as they were leaving the compound," Afghan Army chief of staff General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali told reporters. After a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani, "a high-ranking delegation headed by the NDS chief has been deployed to Kandahar to control the situation", Yaftali added. Afghan security forces swarmed Kandahar city after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for violence ahead of Saturday's ballot -- into their homes. The Taliban said in a Twitter post that Miller and Raziq were the targets of the shooting. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said Raziq or the governor, not Miller, had been the targets. "Eye witnesses reported that the attacker was focused on Raziq," a US embassy official in Kabul said. But the unprecedented attack on a US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and the death of Raziq was "a huge blow to stability and to counterinsurgency more broadly", said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center. "The bottom line here is that no one is safe, no matter how powerful they may be and no matter how much security they may expect to receive." - 'Deep uncertainty' - The security void left by Raziq's death, who was widely seen as a bulwark against the Taliban insurgency in Kandahar, would create "deep uncertainty" in the south, Johnny Walsh of the United States Insitute of Peace said. Raziq long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied. "While General Raziq had long faced accusations of human rights abuses, he was also arguably the most capable military commander in Afghanistan, and widely perceived as the main reason the Taliban have struggled in Kandahar in recent years," Walsh told AFP. Initial reports indicated Afghan officials were the targets of the attack, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said, describing it as an "Afghan-on-Afghan" assault. "We are being told the area is secure." A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details. A witness said the city was "full of military forces". "They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP. Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot. More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house. The election process has already been hit by violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months. At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand. The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes". strs-us-amj/ds/amu General Abdul Raziq -- the police chief of Kandahar province who had a fierce reputation for brutality -- was one of the targets of the shooting There are fears the attack could derail parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20 Afghanistan is on high alert ahead of long-delayed legislative elections, scheduled for October 20, after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower houseToday marked day four of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs royal tour, with the pair returning to Sydney.

It was a jam-packed day full of activities for the royal couple, as they visited the likes of Bondi, the western suburbs of Sydney and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The final call of the day for the royal couple was included meeting with Bill Shorten, Leader of the Opposition at Admiralty House, followed by a meeting with Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, at Kirribilli House.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended a call with Scott Morrison MP, Prime Minister of Australia, at Kirribilli House. @PMC_Gov_Au #RoyalVisitAustralia pic.twitter.com/w9mmynSOd8  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 19, 2018

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended a call with Bill Shorten MP, Leader of the Opposition, at Admiralty House. #RoyalVisitAustralia pic.twitter.com/Uc1xNJvC3A  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 19, 2018

Prince Harry climbs the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Earlier on in the day, Prince Harry was taken to new heights in Sydney on day four of his royal tour with Meghan Markle.

The Duke of Sussex was suited up in a harness ready to take on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Harry, 34, was accompanied by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and some Invictus Games competitors to climb the bridge. Source: Getty

Unfortunately, Harry flew solo for this engagement on the royal tour as Meghan opted out of climbing the landmark, most likely because of her pregnancy.

Women who are pregnant can climb the bridge up until they hit the six month mark, but the Duchess of Sussex chose to stay back and probably have a well-deserved rest.

Story continues

He raised the Invictus Flag to celebrate the arrival of the games to Sydney. Source: Getty

Harry, 34, wasnt totally alone though as he was accompanied by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The pair were also accompanied by some Invictus Games competitors.

When Harry reached the top of the Harbour Bridge, he raised the Invictus Flag to celebrate the arrival of the games to Sydney.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markles surprise visit to Western Sydney school

Meghan have made a surprise visit to a Western Sydney school on day four of their royal tour.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex spent time at Macarthur Girls High School, in Parramatta, NSW, to speak with students about issues including social justice and youth empowerment.

Accompanied by the Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian, the royal couple were treated to a dance performance on arrival, before meeting with several year 9 students, who are currently completing a project investigating issues of social justice and women and youth empowerment.

Harry and Meghan arrive at Macarthur Girls High School. Photo: AAP

Meghan and Harry then moved into a classroom to speak to students involved with the NRLs In League in Harmony youth advocate program, which also aims to unite and inspire young people to be advocates for cohesion and inclusion in their communities.

The seven-week program is delivered in schools focusing on building a positive sense of self, setting goals, appreciating diversity, developing communication skills and working with others to achieve common goals.

The royals visit Macarthur Girls High School. Photo: Channel 7

Prince Harry sits in on a workshop with students. Photo: Channel 7

Despite the busy schedule, Meghan had time to change outfits for the school visit.

She is now wearing a blue, $2,079 frock by Roksanda Ilincic and swapped her ponytail for a half-up, half-down hairstyle.

Meghan changed her look before the school visit. Photo: AAP

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Bondi Beach

Earlier this morning the Duchess of Sussex was handed a bunch of carrots from a royal fan as her and Prince Harry met locals on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Thousands of people lined the sand, some having waited since 6am this morning for the chance to shake hands with the royal couple.

While there were plenty of flowers, and other gifts, it was a huge bunch of carrots that had Meghan smiling.

Meghan and Harry meet crowds at Bondi. Photo: Getty

Meghan smiles as she is handed carrots. Photo: Channel 7

Hermione and Bridget were two lucky locals that got to meet the royals, having waited at Bondi since 6am this morning.

We just met them it was absolutely unreal, I was lucky enough to get a handshake from Meghan and I even got a picture of that to keep as a memory, she told Yahoo Lifestyle.

Harry meets locals at Bondi. Photo: Getty

Prince Harry and Meghan arrived at Bondi Beach early this morning on a gloomy day in Sydney.

But that didnt stop them getting comfortable and taking their shoes off on the sand as they met with a local surfing community group raising awareness for mental health and wellbeing, known as OneWave.

One Wave co-founders Grant Trebilco and Sam Schumacher wanted to use surfing as a way to help people talk to each other about mental health.

Meghan is wearing a Martin Grant maxi dress. Photo: Getty

The Duke and Duchess took part in the Fluro Friday session, where people share their experiences with mental health issues, and have the opportunity to interact with others while enjoying yoga and surfing.

Participants were dressed up for Fluro Friday, and even helped the Duke and Duchess get into the spirit by giving them leis to wear.

The pair spent over 20 minutes speaking with members of the group within the Anti Bad Vibe Circle where people of all ages discuss their experiences with mental health issues.

Harry and Meghan spoke to members of One Wave. Photo: Getty

The pair sat down in the sand to talk mental health. Photo: Getty

For many years The Duke has urged people to be more open about mental health challenges.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, along with The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have lead a UK mental health initiative called Heads Together, which combines a campaign to tackle stigma and change the conversation on mental health.

Founder Grant Trebilco said it was unreal to have the Duke and Duchess take part in their circle.

They are making mental health visible, Grant told Sunrise. To have them here and sharing real stories it just shows that mental health doesnt discriminate.

I was amazed [at how long he stayed here]. He is such a good bloke.

In the circle he said that reaching out for help is not a weakness its a strength. Harry also spoke about Heads Together, their charity in the UK, and Meghan spoke about how she practices yoga every day that yoga is her escape.

After speaking with the group, the couple were also gifted a surfboard, and were shown how to wax it.

The royal couple received a surf board. Photo: Getty

Harry and Meghan are dressed casually for their day of activities across wider Sydney, Harry wearing brown trousers and a pale blue shirt.

Meghan is looking summer-chic wearing a $1615 striped maxi dress with spaghetti straps by Martin Grant  the same Aussie designer of her favourite coat she has worn on the tour already.

One Wave co-founders Grant Trebilco and Sam Schumacher greet the royals. Photo: Getty

Harry and Meghan have been in the country since Monday, for a 16-day stint in Australia.

During that time, they will take in all the sights of Australia, before heading to Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, meeting with locals and carrying out engagements at the Invictus Games in Sydney.

Kensington Palace has revealed that their trip will focus on youth leadership, and projects being undertaken by young people to address the social, economic, and environmental challenges of the region.

Meghan Markle is pregnant

Just hours after they arrived in Australia on Monday, the royal pair announced they were expecting their first child together.

Their Royal Highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public.  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 15, 2018

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the Spring of 2019, the palace said in statement on Twitter.

Their Royal Highnesses have appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public.



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Or sign up to our daily newsletter here.Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in Uzbekistan late Thursday for his first state visit under the former Soviet republic's new leadership as the Kremlin attempts to cement the relationship with billions of dollars in business deals. The last time Putin jetted off to Central Asia's most populous republic in 2016, Uzbekistan was in the throes of political uncertainty following the death of long-term ruler Islam Karimov. Now the two countries are preparing to sign contracts worth over $20 billion, more than half of which will be for an atomic power station built with Russian financing in the west of the country. Karimov, an obstinate authoritarian wary of Moscow's influence became Uzbekistan's paramount leader even before the country's formal independence from the Kremlin in 1991. More than two years after his death, his protege Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has used significant political and economic reforms to position himself as the republic's undisputed leader. While Mirziyoyev has publicly honoured Karimov's memory he has also abandoned some of his more repressive policies while projecting an image of a country more open to foreign investment and tourism. Despite the pair meeting in Moscow last year, the two-day visit carries special significance for both men, according to Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Moscow-based Political Expert Group think tank. "For Putin it is important to show he has partners. For Mirziyoyev it is important to show how respected he is in Moscow," Kalachev told AFP. In the long-term, Kalachev said, Moscow's aim will be to turn Uzbekistan "from a partner into an ally." - Economic sweeteners - The trip offers an opportunity for Moscow to reinforce its economic clout in the Muslim-majority country of 32 million whose main export to Russia remains people. Around two million Uzbeks are estimated to be working or seeking work there. They are a key source of hard currency remittances back home in Uzbekistan. The high point of Putin's visit is likely to be a televised groundlaying ceremony for the nuclear power plant on Friday with Mirziyoyev. The project is worth $11 billion and is expected to come online in 2028, according to Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, who called Uzbekistan the Kremlin's "strategic partner" in the region. The plant has "breakthrough" importance for Uzbekistan, according to Bakhtiyor Ergashev of the Ma'no Centre for Research Initiatives in Tashkent. It will be the first of its kind in Central Asia, where attitudes to nuclear power have been shaped by the Chernobyl nuclear plant tragedy and atomic weapons testing in the steppes of Uzbekistan's neighbour Kazakhstan. The nadir in relations between Russia and Uzbekistan came about in 2012 after Tashkent walked out of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc that now consists of six ex-Soviet members. Relations picked up towards the end of Karimov's reign, however, and have been lifted to a "new level" by investment-hungry Mirziyoyev's ascent to power, according to Ergashev. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean Uzbekistan will be rushing to re-join the CSTO or other Moscow-led blocs, he said. Uzbekistan's foreign policy remains based on "keeping equal distance from the main centres of global power", of which Moscow is one, Ergashev told AFP. sk-cr-mp-tm/ach Russian President Vladimir Putin will attempt to reset once thorny relations with the new Uzbek leadership Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who this month met with France's President Emmanuel Macron (R), has abandoned some of his predecessor's repressive policies.President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close the US-Mexican border against an "onslaught" of migrants, stepping up his anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of congressional elections. As several thousand Hondurans made their way through Central America toward the US border, Trump blamed Democrats for an "assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador" with a caravan "INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS." "I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump has made his call for a wall on the southern border a signature issue of his two-year presidency, but Thursday's tweet storm was especially fierce. Trump suggested he was even prepared to put at risk the recently renegotiated North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, redubbed as USMCA. "The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders meanwhile said that "we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration," and that "our administration is doing a great job on the border." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a tour of the region that took him to Panama on Thursday with a visit to Mexico set for Friday. The Mexican stop is important for future relations because it comes just ahead of the inauguration in December of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign minister designate, downplayed Trump's comments as aimed at his domestic political base. "The position of President Trump is the one he has always raised," Ebrard told local radio station Radio Centro. "It was predictable and also the election process is very close, so he is making a political calculation," he added. - Controversial caravan - The president's message was part of a broad strategy to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and tighten rules for legal migrants. Barely a week goes by without Trump warning about the danger posed by ultra-violent Central American gangs like MS-13, while chants of "build the wall" are a staple of his pre-midterms campaign rallies. The latest focus is on some 2,000 Hondurans who departed Saturday from the city of San Pedro Sula in a caravan headed for the US border. A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican border, where they overflowed a shelter in the town of Tecun Uman, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said. Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms. Several migrants told AFP the group plans to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican immigration authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without papers. The migrants say they organized on social media for the long and difficult journey, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation. "This caravan did not appear organically," a senior Trump administration official told journalists. "There's a political aspect and an organizational aspect which frankly seeks to sow chaos and dissent and that needs to be dealt with," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. - Border forces - In Mexico, hundreds of riot police deployed at a bridge on the border with Guatemala. Guatemala also sent police reinforcements. Responding to a tweet about Mexico deploying police equipped with anti-riot gear, Trump wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!" Mexico's ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, met with migrants camped out in the border town of Tecun Uman to discourage them from crossing illegally. "We are offering documented entry to those who have a passport and visa, and to those who do not, documented entry via an application for refugee status, on humanitarian grounds. We will address every case," he told a large crowd of Hondurans gathered on the town's central square. Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray meanwhile told reporters he had met with UN chief Antonio Guterres, who said the UNHCR would help the Mexican government to process asylum applications for those in the caravan. As for the US border, it remained unclear whether Trump's threat would result in any military deployment. The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed. But at least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a since-abandoned White House policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the border. US President Donald Trump, pictured at the White House on October 1, 2018, has made cracking down on illegal immigration a keystone of his presidency The migrants say they organized for the long and difficult journey on social media, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican borderBritain will launch an online platform with Interpol to help prevent suspected sexual predators using the aid sector as a cover to harm vulnerable people, the government announced Thursday. The Department for International Development (DFID) said it was teaming up with Interpol to stop suspects being able to move freely between NGOs. The move, using existing Interpol systems, follows a series of high-profile abuse scandals. "Our message to sexual predators using the sector as a cover for their crimes is 'your time is up'," International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said in a statement. "We have to give the people that we are here to help the protection that they need," she added, ahead of a global safeguarding summit in London Thursday, which her department is co-hosting. The project, named Operation Soteria after the Greek goddess of safety, will operate from two regional hubs in Africa and Asia. It will increase criminal record checks and information-sharing between all 192 Interpol members, including high-risk countries, to improve the police response in this area, said the DFID. The five-year pilot will cost 10 million ($13 million, 11 million euros), of which Britain will contribute 2 million. Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock said the new initiative fitted the organisation's core mission of protecting "the most vulnerable members of society". "This is all the more important when sexual predators attempt to exploit the very people -- be it men, women or children -- they are supposed to be safeguarding from harm," he added. Thursday's summit will bring together the world's leading aid players on preventing sexual abuse and exploitation, the DFID said. Britain's help to NGOs would include providing access to specialist investigators, the government statement added. It is also plans to support aid agencies in testing a new passport for workers to prove their identity, thus improving the vetting process. The humanitarian sector has been rocked by a series of sexual abuse scandals in the last decade that has included some of the biggest names in the field, such as the United Nations and Oxfam. England's Department for International Development will team up with Interpol to stop suspected sexual predators being able to move freely between NGOsEuropean Union leaders warned Britain on Thursday they would offer no more concessions to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations but expressed confidence that a deal can be done before the country leaves the bloc next March. A Brussels summit wrapped up without progress after British Prime Minister Theresa May offered no new proposals, beyond suggesting she could accept a longer transition period after Brexit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was optimistic that a deal could be struck to avoid the potentially catastrophic prospect of Britain crashing out without agreement. But several leaders said it was up to May to act. "We have identified all potential scenarios from a technical point of view," French President Emmanuel Macron said as the summit wrapped up. "Now the key element for a final deal is on the British side. The key element is a British political compromise." May has been struggling since the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU to reconcile the demands of her eurosceptic Conservative party with the realities of negotiating with Brussels. Her difficulties were laid bare by the fury sparked back home at her suggestion that she could extend a post-Brexit transition period to address the fraught issue of the Irish border. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, traditionally an ally of May's in the bloc, said "we have the instruments on the table and it should be doable". "More than ever, the ball is in Britain's court," said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. - Longer transition - European Council President Donald Tusk had asked May to come up with "concrete proposals" to resolve the Brexit deadlock when she addressed the other leaders before they held a summit dinner without her on Wednesday. But officials said she made no such offer, instead pointing to progress made so far and urging them to have "courage" to find a deal. The 27 leaders then refused to sign off on a special November summit planned to seal the divorce deal, pushing any agreement back to a December summit -- just four months before Brexit. May said however that she might accept the EU's suggestion of extending the post-Brexit transition phase for a few months beyond December 2020 to allow more time to find a solution to the Irish border question. Both sides have agreed there should be a legally-binding "backstop" arrangement to avoid frontier checks between British Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland if and until a new trade deal solves the issue. This would come into effect after the transition ends -- but both sides strongly disagree on its terms, and the issue is holding up the rest of the Brexit talks. "This prolongation of the transition period probably will happen. That's a good idea," European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said. "I think this is giving us some room to prepare the future relationship in the best way possible." But several EU nations expressed reservations that any extension would resolve the Irish issue, with both sides wedded to their positions. The EU suggests that Northern Ireland stay aligned to its single market and customs union until a new trade deal is agreed, but London says this would damage the integrity of the UK. It proposes instead that the whole United Kingdom temporarily follow EU customs rules, but Brussels has said any backstop cannot, by its nature, be time limited. A senior British official confirmed Thursday that London's position has not changed, although Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar suggested there might be room for compromise. - 'Closer to a deal' - After talks with May on Wednesday, Varadkar said "we all recognise" that the British backstop would only apply until a trade deal is in place, so it would be "temporary, but cannot be time-limited". May sidestepped the issue at her end of summit press conference, where she pointed to EU expressions of goodwill as proof that a deal could be done. Merkel said: "Where there's a will, there should be a way." And Tusk added: "What I feel today is we are closer to final solutions and the deal. But it's maybe a more emotional impression than a rational one." May conceded: "There will be more difficult moments as we enter the final stages of the talks, but I'm convinced we will secure a good deal." While the transition extension may not break the deadlock, it energised her critics in London, who warned Britain could not be indefinitely tied to the EU. May suggested she did not expect any extension to be used, because she expected a trade deal before December 2020. Prime Minister Theresa May says Britain will consider extending the transition period after Brexit for a few months This week's Brussels summit had been set as the deadline for a draft deal on Brexit, but the sides remained at odds over the issue of the Irish border Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May, arriving for a second day of summit talks in Brussels, noted that both sides remained at odds over a "backstop" plan to avoid frontier checks in Ireland Timeline of the Brexit talksThe United States downgraded its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians on Thursday, placing it under the authority of the US embassy to Israel. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the consulate general, a separate office which handled dealings with the Palestinians, would be replaced by a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the controversial new US embassy in Jerusalem. The move will make the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who is reviled by Palestinians over his support for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the main interlocutor with the Palestinian leadership. The change, quickly condemned by the Palestinians, follows a series of setbacks for them at the hands of President Donald Trump, who has turned US policy sharply towards Israel. Pro-Israel advocates hailed the decision, saying it confirmed the US recognized the whole of Jerusalem as part of Israel. "This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. It does not signal a change of US policy," Pompeo said in a statement. He said the United States "continues to take no position" on how any peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians would take shape. - 'Unprecedented' - The Palestinian leadership rejected Pompeo's "efficiency" explanation. The decision has "a lot to do with pleasing an ideological US team that is willing to disband the foundations of American foreign policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes," the Palestinians' chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "The Trump administration is part of the problem, not part of the solution," he added. International powers have for decades maintained separate and autonomous representations to Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of supporting the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state. They have insisted that the status of Jerusalem, which both the Israelis and Palestinians see as their capital, should be negotiated between the parties as part of any end deal. Last December, Trump reversed longstanding US policy and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to boycott his administration. The embassy was officially transferred on May 14. Since then, the Trump administration has forced the Palestinians to shutter their Washington mission and has slashed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, in a bid to force them to the negotiating table. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Friedman and peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, has been working for months on a still-secret peace proposal, which Palestinians fear will be overly one-sided toward Israel. The move Thursday nearly closes off all direct diplomatic contacts between the United States and the Palestinians, analysts said. Ofer Zalzberg of the International Crisis Group think-tank said the US would be the only major power without a separate, independent representative office for the Palestinians. "Other countries have gone to great lengths to avoid having the same representatives to Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he told AFP. Robert Danin, a former senior US government official dealing with Israeli-Palestinian issues, said the move was a victory for "hard right partisans" who have sought to eliminate the Palestinian-focused consulate general "for decades." The consulate general "is THE eyes and ears into Palestinian politics and society. Its independence from US Embassy Israel provided Washington w/solid, unvarnished reporting and analysis," he said on Twitter. But Eugene Kontorovich, a law professor with the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and advocate for the embassy move, said the decision was more evidence the US considered Jerusalem to be fully part of Israel. "This step confirms that the US recognizes the entire city as Israel's capital," he said. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert defended the move, saying the new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the embassy would maintain contacts with Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem at the same level as before the change. "We value our relationship with the Palestinian people. We look forward to continued partnership and dialogue with them and, we hope in future, with the Palestinian leadership," she said via Twitter. The US embassy in Jerusalem, which was opened on May 14, 2018 Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Saeb Erekat says Washington is rewarding "Israeli violations and crimes" by closing its consulate general for Palestinian affairs and merging it into the US embassy to Israel US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insists the decision to close the US consulate general for Palestinian issues in Jerusalem is not a change in US policyThe United States downgraded its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians on Thursday, placing it under the authority of the US embassy to Israel. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the consulate general, a separate office which handled dealings with the Palestinians, would be replaced by a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the controversial new US embassy in Jerusalem. The move was quickly condemned by the Palestinians and it could leave the US as the only major power without a specific representative office dedicated to the Palestinians. It would also leave the ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who is reviled by Palestinians over his support for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as the main interlocutor with the Palestinian leadership. Pro-Israel advocates hailed the decision, saying it confirmed the US recognised the whole of Jerusalem as part of Israel. Pompeo denied the decision represented a shift in policy, but it came after a series of moves, including shuttering the Palestinian mission in Washington and moving the US embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. "This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. It does not signal a change of US policy," Pompeo said in a statement. He said the United States "continues to take no position" on how any peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians would take shape. A State Department official, however, confirmed that the role of US consul general will cease to exist and its current head will return to Washington. - 'Unprecedented' - The Palestinian leadership condemned Washington's decision. "The US decision... has nothing to do with 'efficiency' and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological US team that is willing to disband the foundations of American foreign policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes," the Palestinians' chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "The Trump administration is part of the problem, not part of the solution," Erekat said in a statement. Israel seized control of east Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war in a move never recognised by the international community. More than 200,000 Israelis now live in the Palestinian eastern part of the city and its future is one of the thorniest issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. International powers have for decades maintained separate and autonomous representations to Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of supporting the two-state solution and the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state. They have insisted the status of Jerusalem, which both the Israelis and Palestinians see as their capital, should be negotiated between the parties. Last December, President Donald Trump, a long-time pro-Israel advocate, recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to boycott his administration. The embassy was officially transferred on May 14, sparking violent protests in Gaza in which more than 60 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli fire. Ofer Zalzberg of the International Crisis Group think-tank said Thursday's announcement meant that the US would be the only major power without a separate, independent representative office for the Palestinians. "Other countries have gone to great lengths to avoid having the same representatives to Israel and the Palestinian Authority," he told AFP, pointing out even small countries separate their Palestinian and Israeli operations. "As far I know this is unprecedented." Eugene Kontorovich, a law professor with the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and advocate for the embassy move, said the decision was more evidence the US considered Jerusalem to be fully part of Israel. "This step confirms that the US recognises the entire city as Israel's capital," he said. Trump has been angered by the Abbas boycott and has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid in a bid to force them back to the negotiating table. His son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Friedman and peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, have been working for months on a still-secret peace proposal. On September 13, the United States shut down the Palestinian mission in Washington. The US embassy in Jerusalem, which was opened on May 14Democratic congressional candidate Dana Balter reiterated her support of Medicare and Social Security during an hour-long telephone town hall meeting Wednesday with AARP members in the 24th Congressional District.

Balter, D-Syracuse, pledged to preserve and expand the social insurance programs, including Medicaid, and repeated her opposition to cutting benefits. The programs, she explained, are contracts between the government and the people.

She opposes a balanced budget amendment because it could threaten Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Republicans have been advocating for a balanced budget amendment as a way to limit government spending and reduce the national debt.

"You cannot cut these programs as a way to balance the budget," she said.

Balter also opposes the idea of overhauling the programs for young people. Her opponent, U.S. Rep. John Katko, has said changes may be necessary with Medicare and Social Security at risk of becoming insolvent. A report released earlier this year revealed that the Medicare and Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in 2026 and 2032.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who headlined a fundraiser for Katko Tuesday in Syracuse, drafted a proposal that would create a voucher system for Medicare recipients. It would change how benefits are delivered by giving individuals vouchers to buy private health insurance coverage.

Balter isn't on board with that plan.

"I oppose vehemently the idea of getting rid of benefits for younger generations," she said.

There were other subjects discussed during the AARP tele-town hall meeting. To support caregivers, she would advocate for more training to improve their ability to provide care and respite options so they can get relief while tending to a family member. She also wants protections in place to ensure caregivers aren't in jeopardy of losing their jobs.

Balter noted that there is a new law requiring the federal government to develop a national strategy to support family caregivers.

"I'm hoping that very soon we'll see some really good policy recommendations," she said.

On housing for those with disabilities, Balter said there is a "crisis of affordable housing" in the U.S. The problem, she continued, affects people with disabilities and individuals who need accessible housing.

To address the housing needs, she supports requiring that housing developments funded with federal dollars include accessible housing. She also wants developers to use universal design principles and meet visitability standards.

Prescription drug costs are also a concern for Balter. She agreed with one participant who said drug prices are too high. One proposal to lower the cost of prescription drugs is to have Medicare negotiate prices. Proponents believe that having Medicare negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies will lead to lower prices.

The tele-town hall meeting was the first of two AARP plans to hold with the 24th district candidates. The organization will host a call at 3 p.m. Thursday with Katko, R-Camillus, who is seeking a third term in Congress.

There is considerable interest among AARP members in this year's election. A poll conducted during the phone call found 96 percent of those on the line plan to vote in the upcoming election. Only 2 percent said they won't be voting.

Online producer Robert Harding can be reached at (315) 282-2220 or robert.harding@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @robertharding.

Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1Former U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna felt he should speak out.

There are two candidates in the 22nd Congressional District race: U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Anthony Brindisi. Hanna, a Republican who represented the district from 2011 to 2017, announced Wednesday that he's supporting Brindisi in one of the most competitive congressional races in the country.

Brindisi, D-Utica, and Hanna made a joint appearance Wednesday night in Earlville to formally announce the endorsement.

The decision to endorse the Democratic challenger in the race is one Hanna didn't take lightly.

"I felt you have an opportunity, a voice, to stand up for something you think is important," he said in a phone interview Thursday. "You can decide to lay back ... or you can stand up and be counted and take the consequences for that, good or bad."

After acknowledging he may have missed opportunities in the past to speak out, he didn't want to miss this one "because I think it's an important election."

His endorsement of Brindisi is as much a statement of support as it is a criticism of his own party. He blasted Tenney, calling her a "lousy representative" and a "rubber stamp" for President Donald Trump.

"Even if you like Trump, you should still want someone in that job who offers some broadly thoughtful criticism of Trump when it's appropriate," Hanna said. "It defies anybody's real logic to think there's been nothing that she's disagreed with."

Hanna didn't support Trump in the 2016 presidential election. He endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. He also didn't support Tenney in the 2016 election. Tenney challenged him in a primary four years ago, and was preparing to do so again in 2016 when Hanna announced he wouldn't seek re-election.

Tenney went on to secure the GOP nomination, and she won a three-way race for the 22nd district seat.

Hanna lauded Brindisi for his record in the state Assembly. He views the Utica Democrat as someone who "laid out his independence" when he became a state lawmaker, and was part of a group who didn't vote in lockstep with the Democratic leadership.

"I've known his family, known him, for years," Hanna said. "He's a decent human being."

If Brindisi wins, Hanna said it will be challenging for him because of the district's makeup. There are roughly 30,000 more registered Republicans than Democratic voters in the district. There are major policy concerns, especially the economy and health care. There are 140,000 seniors in the district who are on Medicare, Social Security and other programs.

"He will be a good fit for this district as long as he remembers where he lives, and I think he will," Hanna said.

Before the public endorsement Wednesday, Hanna's support of Brindisi was already known. He has donated $2,700 to Brindisi's campaign during the 2018 election cycle, records show.

Since leaving Congress, Hanna has supported other Democratic candidates and causes. He donated $5,000 to U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer's political action committee. He contributed $250 to Beto O'Rourke's Senate campaign. O'Rourke, a Democratic congressman, is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Hanna also gave $250 to EMILY's List, a group that supports pro-choice Democratic women for political office. And he appeared in an announcement video for U.S. Rep. John Delaney's presidential campaign. Delaney, who Hanna described as a good friend and colleague from their days serving in the House, is a Maryland Democrat.

The ex-GOP congressman continues to support members of his own party. He donated $2,000 to Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx's re-election campaign. He also reiterated his support of U.S. Rep. John Katko's re-election bid.

Hanna described Katko, R-Camillus, as an "earnest guy."

"I do feel like John is one of those people who would love to be more representative of his district than the party wants him to be," he said.

While Hanna is supporting Brindisi in the 22nd district race, he had a message for Democrats. When he joined Brindisi for the event in Earlville Wednesday night, he said it was largely a Democratic crowd. Progressive groups were present.

He hears Democrats complain about the lack of compromise in Congress, but cautioned them against criticizing the system "if all you really want is to get everything you want."

Democrats and Republicans, he said, need to be willing to compromise.

"You need to be able to listen to the other side," he added.

Hanna expects that there will be some Republicans who won't like that he's supporting Brindisi. But he couldn't endorse Tenney, who he views as a career politician  she served in the state Assembly from 2011 to 2017 before being elected to Congress  and someone who only appeals to the conservative base.

If another Republican won the seat in 2016, he believes he would've supported that hypothetical candidate in the 22nd district race. But without a "more balanced Republican" in the field, he views Brindisi as the best choice for the district.

"This is our time, the people's time, to get rid of her and support someone else who offers, I think, a better, broader view of what it means to serve in government," Hanna said.

Love 3 Funny 1 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 7AURELIUS  Jon and Julie Patterson are the sixth generation of their family to work the land at Patterson Farms, an approximately 1,400 cow dairy farm that straddles the border between the towns of Aurelius and Springport.

With such a strong family history, the husband-and-wife duo said it's one of their most important goals to leave behind a healthy farm for their children to one day take over.

That's why the pair invited The Citizen to their farm to review what exactly is required and goes into a running a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) farm, a type of farm they say unfairly gets blamed for affecting water quality in Cayuga County.

"We strive to leave the land in better shape for the next generation than it was left for us," Jon said. "We depend on water quality just like everybody else.

In response to a lawsuit, the state Department of Environmental Conservation earlier this year unveiled a new draft of the permit outlining rules and requirements for CAFOs governed under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act, with a public comment period on the draft closing Oct. 11.

Many comments from prominent local groups centered around the apparent fact that only CWA-permitted CAFOs were having their rules revised to add transparency, while most CAFOs in the state, including all those in Cayuga County, are governed under the DEC's Environmental Conservation Law permits.

However, the Pattersons, along with agricultural industry representatives and experts, contest the idea that the ECL permits are more lax, instead saying it's just the opposite, and that farmers are some of the most protective stewards of the environment.

To illustrate how specific the requirements can be, the Pattersons took out their Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan, a comprehensive document required by the state specifying how nearly every aspect of the farm must be managed that numbers at least a thousand pages.

Jon explained what is required for manure application, only one of many required management practices for CAFOs. With a previous tanker-based application process, operators needed to manage how open or closed release valves were, what gear the vehicle is in, and the ground speed in order to maintain the specific application rate of manure as prescribed by the CNMP. Newer technology allows for the manure to be pumped from storage areas through buried pipes to the applicator machines with flow meters.

Contrary to the opinion expressed in the lawsuit's ruling, Cornell University Senior Extension Associate Karl Cyzmmek, who specializes in manure and nutrient management, said the development process for CNMPs is already more than well-regulated.

The judge's ruling found that process to develop CNMPs, in which the planners creating the plan are responsible both for developing and certifying the plan, to be not in accordance with the EPA's requirements.

I cannot see how the use of private actors hired by the regulated entities meets the requirement for state agency review and approval, Judge David A. Weinstein wrote in the decision.

However, Cyzmmek said that the Agricultural Environment Management (AEM) Certified Planners who develop CNMPs must go through an extensive certification process with the state in order to be qualified to do so.

To be an AEM planner, which requires certification from both the state Department of Agriculture and Markets and the federal National Resources Conservation Service, one has to design three CNMPs and have them approved by a state review panel. Prior to even that, one must qualify to be a certified crop adviser, which itself requires a process of training, formal education, field experience and more that can take at least three years, according to Czymmek.

It's a lot of responsibilities and a lot of checks and balances, said Tonya Van Slyke, executive director of the Northeast Dairy Producers Association.

Even after the plans are developed for a CAFO, Czymmek said, the planner must conduct an annual review with farm staff to make sure the plan is actually being followed. On top of that, they're subject to a random, surprise review by state Agriculture and Markets employees, with an unsatisfactory review possibly resulting in decertification for the planner and additional sanctions for the farm itself.

According to the text of the DEC's ECL permit, that annual review with farm staff must include discussion of farm-specific field features and management including: concentrated flow paths, surface water, wellheads, subsurface drainage systems, and karst features.

The Pattersons, Czymmek and Van Slyke all pointed to ECL-specific requirements like the annual review, staff training and yearly updates to the CNMP, versus five-year updates under the CWA, as evidence to counter the idea that the shift of most New York CAFOs from CWA to ECL permits in recent years represents farmers sneaking through loopholes.

The core notion that you're dodging under cover is totally incorrect, Czymmek said.

In fact, Van Slyke said, states are only allowed to have their own types of CAFO permits if they are stricter than what the EPA requires, noting that several other states do not require certified planners to develop plans, allowing farmers to do so on their own.

Even the way New York implements the CWA permit, Van Slyke said, is stricter than what the text of the EPA requires, something she believes the lawsuit's presiding judge failed to consider.

While CAFOs are large and visible, Jon said they only cover a fraction of land in the county. Citing a geographic information system report provided by the Cayuga County Watershed Inspection Program, Jon noted that while 49 percent of land within the Owasco Lake Watershed is used for some kind of agriculture, only 5.5 percent of that percentage is controlled by CAFOs.

With such a small share of the actual land, Julie said it may make sense for non-CAFO farms to be regulated instead of requiring more and more of CAFOs only. Indeed, the development of non-CAFO CNMPs is one of several priority projects identified by the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council.

"I do think it's fair for others to be regulated," Julie said.

The presence of harmful algal blooms, whose growth is often blamed on nutrients coming from CAFOs, in Adirondack lakes with no agriculture, served as final point that only paying attention to CAFOs will not solve the problem, Van Slyke said.

Instead, the Pattersons said, the issue is a much wider one that requires cooperation, not division.

"Divided, we'll fail," Jon said.

Staff writer Ryan Franklin can be reached at (315) 282-2252 or ryan.franklin@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @RyanNYFranklin

Love 11 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 7Cayuga Community College and Le Moyne College signed a formal agreement Wednesday enhancing opportunities for CCC students to continue their educational career at the Syracuse-based school.

CCC President Dr. Brian Durant and Le Moyne President Dr. Linda LeMura signed a transfer agreement allowing CCC students from one of 12 associate degree programs to enroll in specific bachelor degree programs at Le Moyne.

The agreement allows CCC students to maximize the transfer of credits by following a specific plan to earn an associate's degree at CCC in two years and continue on to Le Moyne to earn a bachelor's degree in another two years.

"This agreement creates an incredible opportunity for our current and future students, one that allows them to pursue their goals at one of the strongest four-year colleges in the Northeast," Durant said.

Durant said he was proud to partner with Le Moyne for the initiative, and cited their "outstanding programs, talented faculty and a student-centric approach to higher education" as proof CCC graduates would benefit from the agreement.

"We are proud to partner with Cayuga Community College, which, like Le Moyne, has long been a well-respected institution serving many first-generation students," LeMura said.

Le Moyne faculty members Wednesday met with CCC students from more than 10 courses to explain how they could continue their education after CCC thanks to the agreement, which also allows for Le Moyne staff to offer orientation, advisement sessions or individual appointments.

Eligible degrees for the agreement include Business Administration, Media Communications and certain Humanities and Social Sciences concentrations.

The announcement of the agreement was joined by Le Moyne's announcement of the Transfer Promise, a scholarship and career-readiness program for transfer students that offers up to $8,750 over three-and-a-half-years for full-time transfer students.

Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0Empire State Development's tourism office is posting weekly fall foliage reports. Below is the report posted Oct. 17, 2018:

VIVID PEAK AND NEAR-PEAK FOLIAGE SHOWCASES PICTURESQUE AUTUMN COLORS ACROSS NEW YORK STATE

Parts of six regions should experience peak color change

Albany, NY  This is the sixth 2018 Fall Foliage Report for New York State. Reports are obtained from field observers and reflect expected color conditions for the coming weekend. Fall Foliage Reports are issued every Wednesday afternoon and are available at iloveny.com/fall.

Foliage change slowed down in many areas of New York State over the past week, creating opportunities to see peak leaves in six of the states 11 vacation regions this weekend, according to observers for Empire State Developments I LOVE NY program. This weekend, look for peak colors in the Adirondacks, Catskills, Chautauqua-Allegheny, Capital-Saratoga, Thousand Islands-Seaway and Central New York regions.

In the Adirondacks region, Essex County spotters in Schroon Lake expect the area to be at peak this weekend with 80 percent color change and bright gold leaves. In Crown Point, spotters predict near-peak to peak foliage this weekend with 80-100 percent color change and average-to-bright gold and yellow leaves, along with shades of orange and red. Near-peak to peak foliage is expected in Willsboro. Look for 80-100 percent color change with average to bright golden shades of yellow and bright shades of red and orange. In Ticonderoga, leaves will be peak to past-peak by the weekend. Expect nearly complete color change and vibrant yellow, orange and red leaves.

Leaf peepers checking in from the Whiteface Mountain area in Wilmington expect just-past-peak leaves this weekend, with nearly complete color change and bright shades of gold, yellow and orange. Foliage in Lake Placid will be just past peak this weekend. Look for nearly complete color change and bright shades of red, yellow, orange and gold.

In Franklin County, foliage will be peak in Malone this weekend. Look for 95 percent color change and deep shades of red, orange and yellow. Leaves will be past-peak in Saranac Lake. Look for 95 percent color change and increasingly muted shades of red, purple, orange and yellow, along with leaf droppage. Foliage is now past peak in Tupper Lake and, with the rain and strong winds, the leaves are rapidly falling, leaving barren branches. Remaining colors include muted bronze, copper, mahogany, russet and various yellow hues.

Look for peak colors in northern Warren County, according to spotters in Chester and Hague. In the southern portion of the county, foliage will be near peak with 60 percent change. Look for muted shades of yellow, orange and rust, along with a few shades of red throughout the county. Foliage will be past peak in Hamilton County, according to spotters in Lake Pleasant. Subdued shades of yellow and orange remain, but there has been considerable leaf droppage. Foliage will also be past peak in Old Forge.

Color change has been slow over the past week in parts of the Catskills and some areas are holding on to peak and near-peak colors. In Greene County, spotters reporting from Catskill expect peak conditions to continue through the weekend. Look for 100 percent color change and brilliant colors of red, yellow, orange and burgundy. County foliage spotters reporting from above 2,500 feet note that the trees at this elevation will hold on to peak through the weekend, with very bright red, yellow and green leaves. Sullivan County spotters reporting from Forestburgh, about 20 miles from Port Jervis, note minimal color change over the past weekend and expect foliage this weekend to be 60 percent changed with dull to brilliant leaves ranging from yellow to wine with some splashes of red, along with a significant amount of remaining green leaves. Spotters reporting from Ferndale expect foliage to still be at midpoint this weekend, with 40 percent color change and some bright pops of red and purple leaves of average brilliance.

In Kingston, spotters predict up to 55 percent color change and a great variety of bright, brilliant orange, yellow and red leaves, along with some remaining green. The pace of foliage change picked up over the past two weeks in Delaware County. Look for just-past-peak leaves this weekend, with nearly complete color change and muted shades of yellow, orange and red, along with many bare trees. In Ulster County, spotters at Belleayre Mountain report that foliage is now past-peak.

In Central New York, Broome County spotters reporting from Binghamton expect peak foliage this weekend with 60 percent color change and yellow, orange and red leaves of average brilliance. In Chenango County, spotters in Norwich predict areas of peak and past-peak foliage this weekend with 85-90 percent color change. Many trees have lost their leaves and brilliance is fading on the others. The colors include yellow-brown and some spots of red and orange. Spotters are projecting peak foliage in southern Herkimer County, according to spotters in Mohawk. Look for complete leaf change with brilliant shades of red and gold. Spotters reporting from Chittenango Falls State Park in Madison County predict nearly complete color change and peak leaves this weekend with dominant shades of yellow, along with hues of orange and red.

Foliage spotters reporting from Schoharie in Schoharie County predict near-peak leaves this weekend with about 75 percent color change and bright yellow, orange and red leaves, along with some highlights of purple. Leaves will be around midpoint of change this weekend in Montgomery County, according to spotters at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site. Look for 40-50 percent color change and yellow and green leaves of average brilliance. In Otsego County, Cooperstown foliage spotters predict midpoint of change to near peak conditions this weekend with muted orange, yellow and green leaves. Foliage change will be just about complete in Oneida County this weekend, according to spotters in Utica. Look for past peak conditions with pale yellow and pale green leaves, along with leaf droppage.

In the Thousand Islands  Seaway region, expect peak leaves in Jefferson County, according to spotters in Alexandria Bay. Leaves should be completely changed, and include brilliant shades of red, bronze and yellow. Leaves will be peak in Oswego County, based on reports from spotters in Oswego. Look for 70 percent color change this weekend with a bright patchwork of reds, oranges and yellows blanketing the trees throughout the countys northeast portion, while dull mustard and pumpkin shades provide the backdrop along Lake Ontario and the Oswego River. Foliage will be past peak this weekend in St. Lawrence County, according to Canton spotters. Expect 95 percent color change with yellow, orange and red leaves of average brilliance.

In the Chautauqua-Allegheny region, Chautauqua County spotters reporting from Chautauqua predict 85 percent color change and peak conditions this weekend. Look for bright orange, red and yellow leaves. In Cattaraugus County, it will be a good weekend for leaf peeping at Allegany State Park where foliage spotters expect near peak conditions with 65 percent color change and yellow and orange leaves of average brilliance. The maples are the trees showing most of the colors while the oaks are still mostly green. In Little Valley, foliage spotters expect midpoint to near peak conditions this weekend with about 65 percent color change and an assortment of muted fall colors.

In the Capital-Saratoga region, look for near peak to peak foliage in Schenectady County with more than 60 percent color change and a great variety of bright colors, including shades of yellow and gold, along with reds and some pale greens. In Saratoga County expect near peak to peak foliage this weekend. Spotters in Saratoga Springs predict about 70 percent color change and a bright rainbow of yellow, red, orange and green leaves. In the Altamont area of Albany County, leaves will be peak to past peak this weekend with average shades of gold and yellow. Some areas have better colors than others, while some areas are predominantly green. Reports from Rensselaer County predict 60-80 percent color change this weekend, with the countys eastern and northern portions to be past peak, while the western and southern portions will be at midpoint. Colors include shades of bright orange, yellow and purple, along with some green.

In the Finger Lakes, Steuben County foliage spotters reporting from Corning, Hornell, Bath, Hammondsport and Keuka Lake expect near peak foliage this weekend. Look for 80 percent color change and bright shades of red, gold, yellow and orange. In Cortland County, foliage will be heading toward near peak this weekend with 75 percent color change and yellow and orange leaves of average brilliance, along with some green. Tompkins County spotters in Ithaca predict 75 percent color change and midpoint to near peak conditions this weekend. Look for green-yellow, orange and some red leaves of average brilliance. Look for near peak leaves in Ontario County, according to spotters in Canandaigua. Expect 50-60 percent color change with average to bright yellow and red leaves, along with the remaining green leaves.

Midpoint to near-peak foliage is expected this weekend in Seneca County. Look for 65-70 percent color change and average to bright shades of yellow, orange, red and some purple, along with a good amount of remaining green. In Monroe County, Rochester foliage spotters are looking at midpoint to near peak leaves for the weekend. Expect 50-55 percent color change with dull to average red leaves on maples, russet on dogwoods, and yellow leaves on sycamore, maple and elm trees. Locust trees are showing a gold-yellow glow to their leaves and are quite prevalent, while poplar trees and some maple trees are beginning to lighten up with shades of light green on their way to yellow. Shrubby plants are also transitioning to fall colors. North of Rochester, spotters near Lake Ontario reporting from Greece predict midpoint to near peak foliage with 60-65 percent color change as the transition picks up pace. There are still trees with green foliage, but more and more are turning shades of yellow along with pockets of red/orange, while other trees have already lost their leaves.

In Cayuga County, foliage spotters reporting from Auburn expect foliage at midpoint of change this weekend, with 60 percent color transition and lots of red, orange and yellow leaves of average brilliance, along with the remaining green leaves. In Chemung County, spotters reporting from Elmira and Horseheads expect 50 percent color change with vibrant shades of yellow, orange and red, along with the remaining green leaves. The leaves in Livingston County will be midpoint to near peak this weekend, with 50 percent color change and many shades of yellow, along with emerging shades of red. The leaves are of average brilliance and give depth to the views from the countys highways and byways. Onondaga County spotters in Syracuse expect leaves to be at midpoint of change. Look for 45 percent color transition and orange leaves of average brilliance, along with pops of yellow and red. Ontario County spotters reporting from Geneva expect 45-50 percent color change with bright green and yellow leaves, along with increased spots of red and orange.

Leaves will be heading toward midpoint of change this weekend in Wayne County, according to spotters in Lyons. Look for about 35 percent color change and bright gold and red leaves emerging from the dominant green. In Tioga County, spotters in Owego predict 30 percent color change this weekend and green, yellow and orange leaves of average brilliance. Color change is still in the early stages in Yates County.

In the Greater Niagara region, most spotters expect midpoint to near peak foliage this weekend. In Erie County, Springville leaf peepers expect near peak foliage with over 80 percent color change and muted yellow leaves dominating. In the Buffalo area, look for midpoint to near peak foliage this weekend, with 45-50 percent color change and bright shades of golden yellow, burgundy, red and orange. More color can be seen south of the city. In Genesee County, expect near peak to peak foliage this weekend, with more than 50 percent color change and bright shades of orange and red. Foliage will be near peak in Niagara County, according to leaf peepers in Niagara Falls. Expect around 60 percent color change and an assortment of bright shades of yellow, red, and orange leaves.

Near peak foliage is expected in Orleans County, according to spotters in Albion. Look for an average of 75 percent color change with green, gold and red leaves of average brilliance. In Wyoming County, look for 50 percent color transition and leaves at midpoint of change with average shades of red, yellow and orange.

In the Hudson Valley, near peak foliage will arrive in Columbia County this weekend, according to spotters in Hudson. Expect 55-70 percent color change with average to bright yellow, gold and orange leaves with some red mixed in. In Dutchess County, Poughkeepsie foliage spotters expect 50 percent color change with green leaves gradually being overtaken by red, orange and yellow in higher elevations. Northern Dutchess should be at midpoint or near-peak by the weekend, while trees to the south along the Hudson River still have many green leaves.

Orange County spotters reporting from Goshen expect foliage around midpoint of change this weekend, with leaf transition averaging about 40 percent, depending on elevation, and average shades of gold, yellow and orange. In Rockland County, spotters reporting from New City expect 45 percent color change this weekend and conditions at midpoint of change with bright green, orange, red and yellow leaves. Foliage spotters at Bear Mountain State Park predict 35 percent color change with mostly green leaves along with some emerging orange, red and yellow leaves of average brilliance this weekend. Westchester County spotters reporting from White Plains expect 10 percent or less color change this weekend, with scattered patches of red or yellow leaves of average brilliance.

On Long Island, Suffolk County spotters reporting from Melville expect just 10 percent color change this weekend, with some yellow and orange leaves mixed with red over the mostly green backdrop. In eastern Suffolk County, spotters predict 10 percent color change with mostly green leaves, along with some emerging yellow-orange leaves of average brilliance. In Nassau County, spotters reporting from Manhassetand Westbury expect just 10 percent color change with key lime green leaves on their way to yellow, along with burnt sienna and bright red leaves of average brilliance.

In New York City, spotters reporting from Morris Park in the Bronx expect about 20 percent color change this weekend, with bright isolated areas of yellow leaves, along with some orange and red leaves.

Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0LOCKE  Valerie I. Collins, 64, of Locke, died Oct. 15, 2018, at University Hospital, Syracuse, after a brief illness.

Valerie was born July 3, 1954 in Dayton, Ohio, a daughter of the late Eugene and Marian Sedam Duckro. While in high school, Valerie was a musician on the flute and piccolo, a talent she carried through her life as an active musician in the Catholic Church and in community bands and choruses.

At the time of her death, Valerie was the Director of Operations for Auburn Memorial Medical Services at Auburn Community Hospital. Previously she had worked as the manager of Community Corners Dental in Ithaca; office manager for two practices affiliated with Cortland Regional Medical Center; and Practice Manager of an independent medical office in Ithaca.

Valerie was an active member of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Moravia, a member of the Good Shepherd Catholic Community. There she had earlier been the Religious Education Coordinator. She currently was the President of the Altar Rosary Society and was an active leader in all social events at church. She and her husband, Tom, had their music ministry, providing vocal and instrumental music at masses, weddings, and funerals at the church.

Valerie was an extremely active Rotarian, a member of Moravia Rotary Club, where she was a Paul Harris Fellow, twice Club President, once the Club Secretary, and The Rotary Foundation Chair for the past five years. At the Rotary District level, she served as the District Secretary for three years and was the District Polio Chair at the time of her passing. She was also a Rotary Benefactor.

Valerie was, in her own words, a situational extrovert. She loved to travel, devoured U.S. Civil War history, and even learned to fly a glider.

Valerie is survived by her husband, Tom Collins; son, Stefan E. Myers, of Evergreen, Colo.; daughter, Alexis L. Myers, of Locke; son, Curtis L. Myers, of Locke; and daughter, Kathryn (Paul) Martinez, of St. George, Utah; three grandchildren, Raymond Martinez, Natalie and Chase Delosh; two brothers, Eugene (Patsy) Duckro and Bill Duckro; one sister, Cindy (Mike) Uhrovcik; and several nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her first husband, Jerald C. Myers, and a sister, Mary L. Trimbach.

Calling hours will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, at the Wade Funeral Home, 22 Church St., Moravia. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018, in St. Patrick Church, 51 Grove St., Moravia. Interment will be in Pine Grove Cemetery, Lansing, N.Y., at a later date.

Contributions may be made to Moravia Rotary Club, where they will be placed in a fund to be presented to the Polio Fund of The Rotary Foundation in Valeries name.MONTREAL, QCNoir Male, the newly minted interracial gay studio from Mile High Media, and veteran director Chi Chi LaRue are releasing the icon's latest effort, Hard At Work, starring cover models Marquee DAngleo and Ziggy Banks. Noir Male blends classic elegance with modern style, showcasing men of color as many want them (and they deserve to be) seen: sensual, sexual, and unapologetically fine.

The all-star-packed release, now available on DVD, also stars DeAngelo Jackson, Ray Diesel, Adam Russo, Seth Santoro and Jacob Peterson.

LaRue presents stylized vignettes featuring four hardcore scenes of passionate and unscripted interracial sex, where expected sexual scenarios become a thing of the past and hard working men fulfill their fantasies.

Hard At Work box art and release information is available here.

Noir Male celebrates the full range of sexuality and fantasy fulfillment, in a product that breaks free from the stereotypes and conventions of typical interracial gay porn. No body part is off-limits, and no desire out of reach, in scorching hot black and interracial encounters, where sexual preconceptions are left behind.

Jon Blitt, vice president of Mile High Media, stated, Noir Male continues to take the gay market by storm. Our first two DVD releases have made record numbers, selling out in some cases. With Chi Chi LaRue at the helm, this third film is a guaranteed hit as wellChi Chi brought out the very best performances from her stellar cast. Its a DVD fans will want to enjoy over and over.

Noir Male launched its member site in mid-August with great success; the latest scenes can be enjoyed now at NoirMale.com.

For the latest news, release info and BTS previews, follow Noir Male on Twitter or Instagram @OfficialNoirMale.In what one Canadian government official called the largest public policy shift this country has experienced in the past five decades, Canada on Wednesday became the worlds largest legal market for recreational marijuana when the countrys new legal pot law took effect nationwide.

Its an octopus with many tentacles, and there are many unknowns, British Columbia Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth told The New York Times. I dont think that when the federal government decided to legalize marijuana it thought through all of the implications.

But its not only public safety officials who are unhappy about Canadas legalization of marijuana. Surprisingly, some pro-pot activists also worry that the mass legalization of marijuana could backfire, according to a report by the technology and culture site Inverse.

It could be more of a Big Brother situation than its ever been before, University of Guelph in Ontario sociologist Andrew Hathaway, who specializes in drug policy research, told the site. In an era of legalization, which generally would suggest more progressiveness, it may not work out that way.

The catch in the new Canadian law is not the legalization of cannabis, but the regulation of the market. As Hathaway pointed out, marijuana itself is not legal; only marijuana bought and sold in the regulated market, and people who purchase marijuana from dealers not authorized by the government can still be charged as criminals.

Under the new law, Canadians may purchase and possess up to 30 grams of potslightly more than one ouncein public. But anything over the 30 gram limit remains against the law, according to a Washington Post report.

Whereabouts is 31 grams arbitrarily good for 14 years in prison, whereas 30 isnt? said one cannabis rights activist quoted by Inverse. Thirty-one grams isnt going to kill me any more than 30 is, or anybody else on the planet, so theres a complete lack of clarity.

At the same time, many marijuana users were not worried about the drawbacks, and according to report by Time Magazine, Canadian cannabis consumers were thrilled with the new legalization law.

This is awesome. Ive been waiting my whole life for this, said Tom Clarke, a formerly illegal pot dealer in Newfoundland. I am so happy to be living in Canada right now instead of south of the border.

But perhaps the happiest Canadians were those who had a criminal marijuana conviction on their records. As long as their offenses involved less than 30 grams of marijuana, all of those criminals will receive pardons under the new legal pot law.

Photo from 'Reefer Madness' via Wikimedia Commons Public DomainVAN NUYS, Calif.Perhaps the first thing that will strike readers of the new article on The Daily Beast's website, "Inside the Vigilante Sting to Catch a Bogus Porn Scout," is writer Emily Shugerman's description of one of the scammer's victims, Evil Angel Video: "one of the largest and most respected porn production companies in the country." Frankly, as true as the description is, it's not the sort of phrase one normally finds in a mainstream story about pornor even on The Daily Beast, which frequently posts stories about the adult industry.

According to The Daily Beast's story, aspiring actress Deana Embry was contacted through her Facebook page by a guy claiming to represent Evil Angel and saying that he liked her look and asking her to meet him in his North Farm, Texas, hotel room to audition. It wasn't the first time Facebook had been used in the same sort of scam, but Embry fell for the come-on and met the man. He turned out to be a local business owner and engineering student by the name of Francisco Reveriano, who had her sign some "contracts," took photos, discussed the industry and her personal role in production ... and had her perform a sex scene with him.

It was only afterwards that Embry discovered that the guy was a phonyand according to her, a "pervert"and it was Evil Angel CFO Adam Grayson who gave her the lowdown on the scheme. Seems that Grayson had been contacted weeks earlier by actual agent Mark Schechter, who forwarded him an email from Reveriano who'd used the e-dress [email protected], and included the Evil Angel logo. The email read, in part, "Our agent will be taking you through the process and hopefully you qualify and agree to work with us. ... Most importantly, in the end it is up to our Agent to decide if you qualify for a project or not and what final compensation you will be offered. So please be prepared and bring your A-level game." Grayson had never heard of an adult agent sending out such an email on Evil Angel's behalf, and he didn't recognize the e-dress as one that anyone at his company had used.

But that wasn't the end of it. Weeks after that first notification, Grayson received two more notices of the same scam being pulled, only this time in Louisianaand Grayson decided to do something about it.

"I actually emailed the guy to say, 'Hey, man, I know you think you're real cute and clever but we literally know an FBI agent who handles this stuff. This is really stupid. You should stop,' I told him. 'You should get out while the getting's good,'" Grayson told AVN. "And he responded right away to say, 'Oh, you're right; this is really stupid. I'm gonna stop,' and he shut down that gmail account that day. Come the second or third week of August, a girl had randomly called us or sent us a Twitter message or something saying, 'Hey, some guy tried to hire me for an Evil Angel movie. Is this real?' And I saw the email he sent her and I knew it was the same guy: same format, same language with a new gmail account, so I knew he was back at it, and then Sandra McCarthy from OC Modeling calls me, like on a Friday afternoon in mid-August, to say, 'Oh, do you know about this guy?' I said, 'Yeah, I know all about it.' She goes, 'Well, I just spoke to a girl who is scheduled to shoot with him on Sunday in Dallas!' And I was like, 'No way!' So I talked to the girl, Deana Embry, and she was in Dallas and she was awesome, because she had already shot with him a few weeks earlier, he didn't pay her, and he said 'I'll pay you the second time,' of course conveniently, and I said, 'What do you want to do? I'd love to catch this guy.' And she's like, 'Fuck him; we're gonna catch him.' And I said, 'This could be dangerous; he could be a lunatic and you're the bait.' She said, 'I don't care; we're gonna get this guy.'

"This is all late on a Friday," Grayson continued. "Everybody had left the building, and I just googled 'private investigators in Dallas' and I got this guy on the phone who was former Dallas PD and I told him what's going on, and I'm like 'I need somebody to be with this girl on Sunday morning and get this guy's real name and contact info,' and the guy was on itlike, 'Great, happy to do it; let's catch this scumbag'and comes Sunday midday, I got a message from him, 'We got it; we got everything on tape,' to which I responded, 'That's incredible!' I didn't think it was actually going to work. So we have a videoif you navigate down our Twitter feed a bit, there's like an edited-down version of this, the confession of this idiot, which is pretty colorful. He cracked pretty quick.

"It's pretty colorful; the guy's singing like a canary," he added. "The best part is, I come into work that Monday and I have a message from the guy apologizing, like, 'I should have listened to you two months ago; I'm such an idiot; I hope I don't go to prison.' Then, two weeks ago, when we posted it on Twitter, he had the fucking balls to email me to say, 'I didn't think you were gonna post this video.' And I said, 'I'm pretty sure you're not really in a position to negotiate your publicity rights right now. You're sexually assaulting women; I think you somehow give up some of your privacy. I only took one Media Law & Ethics class in school but I'm pretty sure once it becomes newsworthy, you're out of luck, buddy.' Gotta say, this is one of the stranger episodes in my career."

And that's pretty much what happened, but though another porn scammer had been shut down, Embry still felt violated and attempted to get Reveriano prosecuted. However, her complaints to both the Dallas and the North Farm Police Departments were essentially dismissed. Though Embry had been tricked into sex and she described the entire encounter to an officer, the Dallas Police report said only that "suspect grabbed [complainants] butt," which resulted in a charge of "assault by contact," to which Reveriano pled "not guilty" earlier this month. In fact, what he did would have been a crime known as "rape by deception," and if convicted, should have resulted in jail timebut that crime only applies if the rapist "poses as the victims partner or advertises the activity as medical treatment." In this case, Reveriano faces only a $365 fine.

The North Farm Police gave the accusation even less credit. According to The Daily Beast story, "Embry also called in a report with the North Farm police about the encounter in which she was allegedly tricked into sex. But when police called her back, she said, they told her the encounter was consensual and there was nothing they could do.

And so (hopefully) ends the saga of yet another phony porn agentbut perhaps this account will give some other budding performer pause if someone emails them from an account they don't know or friends them on Facebook with an offer of hardcore work: CHECK IT OUT BEFORE YOU SAY 'YES'!New York rapper 6ix9ine may have rainbow hair, a rainbow grill and the number "69" tattooed all over his body, but all that made little difference when he stopped by sex shop Romantic Depot to hang out and check out some of their products, as can be seen on the store's Instagram pages. In keeping with customer privacy, the store's not saying what he bought, but considering their selection, it had to be something good.

Romantic Depot has stores throughout the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area including Manhattan, Bronx, Yonkers, Elmsford, Rockland County, Paramus, and Lodi in New Jersey, and is slated to open a new lingerie superstore in Queens in November. Romantic Depot first gained media attention after working with Cardi B, so could 6ix9ines visit be the beginning of their latest collaboration?

Romantic Depot is the largest chain of sex shops in the tri-state area, and has grown exponentially since 2015.Should Beaufort County's commissioners be resolved to ask the federal government to defend our Southern Border by ending the Biden /Harris Open Border policy in regards to that one border that is intentionally made wide OPEN?

Yes, Illegal Migrants are a huge expense to local governments.

No, the cost of Undocumented Immigrants is insignificant in our providing a pathway for Dramatic Demographic Upheaval..This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian Libraries blog and has been republished at the permission of the author, Julia Blakely.

As a commemoration of the Imperial collection of shells in Vienna, the printed folio of Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis of 1780, is splendid. The eighteen engraved plates, carefully colored by hand, render individual specimens in the Habsburgs K.K. Hof-naturalien-Cabinet as if pieces of jewelry, casting shadows on a plain background of the thick, hand-made paper. Dedicated to the Empress of Austria, Maria Theresa (1717-1780), this production was also a work of science, as the task of arranging the shells in the Cabinet and describing them for publication was given to one of the leading scientists of the day, Ignaz Edler von Born (1742-1791).

Born, commissioned by Maria Theresa to arrange the entire royal natural history collections, was principally a mineralogist and metallurgist. But he had a great interest in shells and identified several new species. Systematists in malacology (the study of mollusks, including shells) still examine the originals, now in the Natural History Museum, Vienna (Naturhistorisches Museum), originally built to house the overflowing collections of the Habsburgs. The text of Borns descriptions are also still used. It was first published in a much smaller format in 1778, in both Latin and German, with one plate as the only illustration. G.C. Kronenbergs Borns strombs (Mollusca: Gastropoda), a recent article that appeared in Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien (2007), is one instance of scholarly work citing Borns analysis.

Also attesting to the importance of Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis in scientific research, two copies of the folio second edition were once in the Division of Mollusks in the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History, which holds the worlds largest shell collection (link). The books now reside in the Museums Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History. Alas, also indicating their scholarly worth, both volumes were rebound for practicality in sturdy library buckram, their original bindings lost (an earlier practice, happily no longer followed).

The second half of the 18th century was a period when books were produced addressing the lack of illustrations in the enormously influential tenth edition of Carl Linnaeus Systema Naturae. In this two-volume work of 1758-1759, the Swedish author (now known more often by his modern name form, Linne) introduced binominal nomenclature for animals, but providing visual representations for publication was time-consuming and quite expensive. The Habsburg commission of Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis, employing the binominal system and current with Linnaean names and descriptions, filled the gap with essential information. The plates were designed by the artist Franz Fuxeder (1725-1797) and engraved by Karl Schutz (1745-1800) and J. Adam. The vignettes are sometimes signed by Conti, Schutz, or Johann Ernst Mansfeld (1739-1796).

Apart from the separately printed plates of carefully displayed shells, there are forty-eight small scenes or portraits interspersed in the text, all of them an absorbing delight of this sumptuous work on conchology. Given the royal funding, individually created vignettes, alluding to the subject at hand, were created. This was a significant expense in the hand-press period. Unlike woodcuts that could go through the printing press with the standing type, intaglio plates had to be separately printed after, but carefully registered with, the pages of text. The scenes portray shells in land- and seascape settings or within elaborate frames with lettered identifications matched up to their descriptions, serving the purpose of a visual footnote.

The images are a world of their own. One imagines the artists having fun with their knowledge and creativity. There are representations of cavorting mythological creations; mermen and mermaids make appearances. Two of the sea creatures play the supporting roles in an interesting interpretation of Venus on the Half-Shell, hoisting her aloft. Rather than her flowing hair or hand, a piece of seaweed provides the element of modesty for the nude goddess.

The engraved publishers device on the title page is an allegorical vignette, with the god Hermes (Mercury in Roman mythology) presenting a volume to Athena (Minerva), goddess of wisdom, identified by the sacred (if startled) owl peeking over her shoulder. A putto hefts a book among a stack of other folios. The publisher, whose initials appear in a medallion festooned by a laurel adorning a carved platform, was Johann Paul Krauss (1701-1776), whose firm continued in business after his death. Following the dedication page is a more elaborate piece, with Poseidon sitting on an annoyed-looking porpoise (who served as the gods messenger), presenting a shell to a female figure (representing the Empress?), who sits enthroned between a caryatid made up of shells and a cabinet of drawers from which puttis play with shells. Behind is an open book, with a plate of shells resembling this title. Visual homages to the Habsburg rulers, current and past, are made in here and throughout the work. Poseidon appears again in one small vignette, this time cruising along on a fierce-looking porpoise. His son, Triton (looking a little rough around the edges) emerges from the waves blowing a conch shell. He was known as the Trumpeter of the Sea.

The book also honors the greats in natural history, conveyed in engraved scenes at the beginning of sections of text. The first, in a chapter of Testacea multivalvia, celebrates Pliny, author of the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia. Mermaids and mermen join the tribute to the author, laying seashells at a tomb that bears his name. In the background is the Bay of Naples, with a puffing Mount Vesuvius in the background (Pliny died in AD79 while attempting rescues by ship of those caught by the eruption of the volcano). The second order, Testacea bivalvia, opens with an homage to Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605?), the author of the first important work on shells, De Reliquis Animalibus of 1606. The last, for the third order, Testacea univalvia, is devoted to Linnaeus. There are a few shells scattered about the landscape; guarding the naturalists tomb are an eagle and a lion, whose paw rests on an unfortunate turtle. A whale breaches in the background.

It is curious that there hasnt been more published on the literature of shell books. There are legions of fine, detailed bibliographies in several natural history subject areasbirds, botany and horticulture, voyages of exploration, works of Charles Darwinbut little devoted to conchology. S. Peter Dances Shell Collecting: an Illustrated History(London, 1966) and a rare book dealers catalog by Antiquariaat Junk of the Netherlands, are two of the few resources.

This lack of scholarly studies in conchology publishing is remarkable, given that shells have been collected since the dawn of humankind, either for utilitarian purposes or for their beauty. In the Age of Discovery, European voyagers found an eager market for specimens collected in the South Seas. That the Empress of Austria commanded a publication on shells is an expression and record of her interest in Imperial trade and expansion to far-flung locales as well as a contribution to the science of natural history.

Past Smithsonian curators, Isaac Lea (1792-1886), conchologist and geologist, and William Healey Dall (1845-1927), a renowned malacology paleontologist, were avid book collectors. The Cullman Library holds many books from their former collections and would be an excellent place to start compiling a bibliography. Dalls copies of Filippo Buonannis Recreatio Mentis, et Oculi (Rome, 1684) and Thomas Martyns The Universal Conchologist (London, 1784) would be highlights; Borns Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis another, once owned both by Lea and Dall. Many of these titles have already been digitized by the Biodiversity Heritage Library, available for exploring the imaginative worlds found in books on shells.

All images in this post are from the Cullmans copy of Testacea Musei Caesarei Vindobonensis, which has been scanned for the Biodiversity Heritage Library. For comparison, below you can see a copy of the above illustration (Tab.7) from the copy held by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, also digitized in BHL, which has, unusually, uncolored plates.Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Does Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren really have Native American blood running through her veins?



It's scientifically impossible to know for sure, according to a collection of leading Native American geneticists, industry experts, research scientists with expertise in indigenous genetics and Native American leaders who spoke with ABC News.



The process of tracing one's ancestry is still evolving, geneticists told ABC News, and efforts to establish genetic affiliation with an indigenous group like Native Americans are at best thorny and uncertain, and, in the extreme, offensive.



Some experts were critical of Warren's press conference this week and her latest declarations.



Numerous experts also said that the Native American gene databases are too thin to make definitive conclusions about ancestry as far back in a person's lineage as Warren laid claim to again this week.



One leading Native American geneticist -- Dr. Kim Tallbear -- characterized Warren's Monday press conference and declarations as just the latest incidence in a decades-old practice of white Americans co-opting the Native American identity when it suits them.



Finally, critics said, using DNA to claim an ancestral affiliation with Native Americans contravenes contemporary notions of Native American identity, and, to some in the Native American community, is simply insulting.



Some experts, including Tallbear, saw Warren's DNA test as an affront to Native Americans' spiritual heritage, which is based on long and deeply-held tribal beliefs that the tribes have for centuries occupied the land on which their reservations sit.



Warren's renewed claims to Native American heritage touch on an extremely delicate subject among U.S. geneticists who study indigenous genomics. Several of a dozen scientists and experts interviewed by ABC News asked to talk on background in order to speak frankly and avoid any political blowback.



As genealogy databases have grown in recent years, Native American tribes have been inundated by DNA test result-toting Caucasians seeking tribal certification for everything from eligibility for school scholarships to sought-after tax relief, experts and Native American geneticists said.



Neither Warren nor anyone on her staff has responded to multiple requests for comment from ABC News.



'I am just very proud of it'



Warren has been dogged by her assertions that she descended from Native Americans ever since her successful 2012 Senate run, during which a 1996 article surfaced that quoted a Harvard Law School spokesperson as saying Warren is Native American.



The future U.S. senator -- who changed her ethnicity from white to Native American at the University of Pennsyvlania Law School, where she taught from 1987 to 1995, and at Harvard Law School, where she was a tenured faculty member beginning in 1995, according to a 2012 Boston Globe investigation -- defended herself on the campaign trail that year.



"Being Native American is part of who our family is, and I'm glad to tell anyone about that," she said at the time, describing her understanding of her heritage as having come from stories her mother told her as a child. "I am just very proud of it."



In a subsequent campaign ad, Warren doubled-down on the claim.



"I never asked for documentation from my mother when she talked about our Native American heritage," she said in the ad. "What kid would? But I knew my father's family didn't like that she was part-Cherokee and part-Delaware, so my parents had to elope."



"Let me be clear," she continued. "I never asked for, never got any benefit because of my heritage. The people who hired me have all said they didn't even know about it."



This week, Warren held a press conference revealing conclusions of a DNA test she took that was conducted by Stanford University geneticist Carlos Bustamante.



The test determined with "high confidence" that she is likely somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American, adding that Warren "absolutely [has] a Native American ancestor in [her] pedigree...likely in the range of 6-10 generations," according to the report and videos released by Warren's office this week.



Warren has stressed repeatedly that she's not seeking membership in or direct affiliation with any U.S. tribe.



The revelation sparked near immediate political backlash from President Donald Trump, who called the Massachusetts politician a "total fraud." Earlier this year, Trump had challenged Warren, whom he often refers to derisively as "Pocanhatas," to take a DNA test.



'Inappropriate and wrong'



Tallbear, an assistant professor of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, has long been one of the most strident critics of Warren's genealogy claims.



Tallbear, who recently authored "Native American DNA: Origins, Ethics, and Governance," assailed Warrens DNA test campaign this week, contending that her strategy is a cynical one, though consistent with Tallbear's experience in recent years as gene-testing technology has evolved.



She said she objects to how Warren maintains she's not seeking tribal membership or affiliation while simultaneously touting scientific evidence about her bloodline.



"Elizabeth Warren and genome scientists ... get to have it both ways," Tallbear said in a statement pinned to her Twitter feed on Tuesday. "They know very well that the broader US public will understand a DNA test to be a true indication of Elizabeth Warren's right to claim Native American identity in some way."



"The broader US public knows nothing about tribal citizenship and histories of settler-colonial meddling in our laws. The broader US public is also investedin making what are ultimately settler-colonial claims to all things Indigenous: our bones, blood, land, waters, and ultimately our identities."



Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin, Jr. released an equally embittered statement about Warren's press conference this week.



"Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong," Hoskin Jr. said.



"It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and [their] legitimate uses, while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well-documented and whose heritage is proven. Senator Warren," he added, "is undermining tribal interests with her continued claims of tribal heritage."



Tallbear said she has long been frustrated by Warren's claims.



In 2016, Tallbear published a 47-tweet thread decrying the notion that DNA has nearly anything to do with Native American identity.



Tallbear said the Cherokee Nation has been asking Warren since 2012 to stop affiliating herself with them.



Not all Native American leaders, however, have been publicly critical of Warren's DNA testing.



"Senator Warren has not tried to appropriate Cherokee or Delaware culture," Eastern Band of Cherokee Principal Chief Richard Sneed said in a statement sent to ABC News. "She has not used her family story or evidence of Native ancestry to gain employment or other advantage. She has not tried to claim a treaty or trust obligation, or seek the protection of the Indian Child Welfare Act."



"On the contrary," he continued in the statement, "she demonstrates respect for tribal sovereignty by acknowledging that tribes determine citizenship and respecting the difference between citizenship and ancestry."



Sneed went on to note that Warren has sponsored legislation to help prevent suicides in Native American populations, identify missing and murdered Native American women, and help tribes reaquire land they once occupied.



'Not a yes or no answer'



None of the experts and industry executives who spoke to ABC News -- including scientists who have worked with Bustamante -- directly refuted his conclusions.



Instead, they contended that the underlying science is apt to be flawed because the Native American gene databases for tribes in the U.S. are so thin - making conclusions like Bustamante's all but useless from a scientific perspective.



"It's hard to say that there is a definitive conclusion, especially if someone has such small amounts of Native American ancestry," said Dr. Nanibaa Garrison, a faculty member in the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Childrens Research Institute.



"When you're testing someone who might have an ancestor more than four or five generations back, that's when it becomes very hard to piece out that ancestor from all the other ancestors that the person has," Garrison added. "It's not a yes or no answer."



There are a number of different DNA tests that examine a persons genes, and they generally fall into two broad categories: paternity or maternity tests, which compare a childs genes to those of a possible parent, and genetic ancestry testing, which looks at numerous genes from an individual and compares their sample to a broader database.



Warren took a genetic ancestry test, which the National Congress of American notes is based on probabilities and can provide information about how different or similar an individuals DNA is to that of most people within a larger group of people.



Industry executives like Bennett Greenspan, founder of Family Tree DNA and Gene by Gene, concurred.



Greenspan, who's worked with Bustamante, said definitive conclusions on ancestry stretching as far back as Warren's purported lineage are harder to stand by than tests for other races because the indigenous databases are too limited.



That in turn has forced geneticists like Bustamante to draw from databases of tribal ancestry from north and south of U.S. borders.



"All of us -- at Ancestry, Family Tree DNA, My Heritage -- we all strive to obtain the fullest, most complete Native American databases simply because Native Americans have historically been unwilling and uninterested in participating in this game of identification, Greenspan said.



"When the National Geographic Society was trying to recruit Native Americans for their project 13 years ago," Greenspan added, "they had a very, very hard time obtaining DNA samples in the U.S. So, quite often, the DNA samples that have been obtained are either Canadian, Mexican or South American."



Bustamante has said that due to limited Native America databases, he compared Warrens DNA sample to recent samples from indigenous populations in South America rather than Native Americans in the U.S.



"He [was] not comparing markers to populations that lived in what is now the United States, said Dr. Michael Hammer, a biotechnology research scientist at the University of Arizona.



Neither Bustamante nor his staff at the scientist's eponymous lab responded to numerous requests for comment from ABC News.



Defining Native American identity



While multiple independent geneticists explained why Native American gene databases are far less reliable measuring sticks for ancestry than other Western races, they also stressed the more subtle, underlying damage that efforts like Warren's do to the Native American psyche.



Several leading geneticists told ABC News that the whole issue of gene-testing is a particularly sensitive one to Native Americans.



"As a geneticist, I don't want to be telling an indigenous people like Native Americans where they come from," said one leading genetic scientist who requested anonymity in return for speaking frankly. "They really don't appreciate that. Their origin story is where they live now -- so who am I to tell them that's not true?"



Hammer, the University of Arizona research scientist, explained that Native Americans concept of their ancestry is built less upon gene tests than tradition, including oral histories passed down through generations.



"That's the way they were raised and brought up, and that information was transmitted from generation to generation," he said. "It's their legacy, their heritage. It's the spiritual side of their origin."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The killing of Cecil the lion (pictured above) five years ago by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe triggered worldwide outrage. Since then we have been working to end the horrors of trophy hunting both in the U.S. and abroad. And one of the best ways to do it is by prohibiting the import of lion trophies to the worlds three largest importers, the UK, the EU, and the U.S. And together, with your support, thats what were going to do. Photo by iStockphoto

3.0K shares







Each year, American trophy hunters import a staggering 126,000 hunting trophies into the United States. This includes elephants and lions  animals whose numbers in the wild are in decline. Thats right. These animals, listed as threatened with extinction under federal law, are killed, taxidermied and shipped in crates so they can be mounted in someones living room or man cave.

After the Department of the Interior announced last year that it would start allowing the import of elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe for the first time in years  a decision we challenged in federal court  the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pushed the permitting process behind closed doors, leaving the American public with no way of knowing how many lion and elephant trophies are being allowed into the country. Repeated requests by the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, other conservation organizations and media outlets to get this information have been stonewalled. The agency, which is increasingly pandering to trophy hunters, is barely willing to give the time of day to the rest of us.

Today, the HSUS and HSI filed a new lawsuit challenging this blackout of information that, under law, should be available to every American citizen. We are demanding that the USFWS proactively post, in a timely manner, and on its website, each application for lion and elephant trophies that it receives, as well as copies of each permit issued and the findings the agency makes in support or denial of each permit.

The worlds wildlife belongs to all of us, not just a handful of trophy hunters with deep pockets. It is imperative that organizations like ours have access to this information within a time frame that allows us to monitor compliance with the Endangered Species Act and provide scientific data to the agency in support of our view that trophy hunting does not promote the conservation of imperiled species, but rather, makes their situation worse.

An overwhelming majority of Americans abhors trophy hunting, as is evident from the anger that erupts each time we hear of a killing spree by an American trophy hunter abroad. In recent years, the killing of two well-known lions, Cecil and Skye, made headlines, and earlier this week an Idaho Fish and Game commissioner caused an uproar when he boasted of killing an entire family of baboons, a leopard, a giraffe, and other animals on a hunting trip to Namibia. Last month, Americans were outraged to hear that a Texas billionaire received approval to import the trophy of a critically endangered black rhinoceros from Namibia.

These instances are by no means isolated. American trophy hunters kill an estimated 10,000 animals each month for nothing more than the pleasure of the kill and to import their hides and heads. While we can calculate these numbers from international trade databases, such information only becomes available several years after an import occurs. If we are to help the worlds wildlife that is most at risk, we need access to this information far sooner, when the applications for permits are made.

The USFWS blackout is illegal. The fact that these types of records are so frequently requested triggers a specific duty for the agency, under federal law, to put this information online. With this lawsuit we are putting the agency on notice: we will not stand for our government to be complicit in covering up the killing of the worlds most precious wildlife.

Sign the pledge to help stop trophy hunting.Are you looking for a logo to take the elements of your brand and showcase it to the world in a way thats even more awesome? If youre nodding your head in a yes, then you need to first understand how should it be? In a blog published at Forbes, Steve Cooper - co-founder and editor-in-chief of Hitched, reveals that an effective and powerful concept is one which is appropriate, distinctive, practical, simple and meaningful

. Even in its simplest form, it must flaunt your brands value, message and story. And to effectively ensure that your concept is powerful enough to summon the attention and interest of your target audiences, you must adhere to some basic designing principles.

1. Inspiring Online Sites:

Brainwaves come from anywhere and from anything. So, you need to extend your research and peep into graphic designing sites to get some inspiring logo design ideas. You need to explore a lot of websites and narrow your choices of companies with higher values and aspirations. You will definitely get motivating ideas from these websites.

2. Set Up A Designing Process:

Whether you want a design for your own business or for your clients, you must adhere to a specific designing process. To attain this, you should interact with your clients to obtain briefs. Conducting research on the business industry, its competitors and history is also crucial. Do well to check out current trends and styles pertaining to your brief. Staying abreast with latest trends can help businesses and designers get fresh ideas, according to a blog posted at Infobarrel.com. Following this, you can develop the logotype based on your research and brief. This helps you to get the striking idea that you are dreaming for.

3. Create Meaningful Design:

Inc.com reveals that an effective concept should tell a story to your clients or customers. If you look at it as an artwork or pattern of lines, then you will not be reveal out its deeper meaning. By showing your clients that what you have created is not a shallow artwork but has a meticulous ideology and deep thinking, you can impress them easily even if your overall voice of the design is simple.

4. Dont Be Over Innovative:

Being innovative is really wonderful and you can experiment, work around and get some killer ideas to design. However, each and everything has its own limitation. Excess of experimentation may result in a gorgeously looking concept but it will not be identifiable with the brand itself. Hence, you should ensure that the design is identifiable with the brand as well. Moreover, it should also be something that the company could own and the customers could identify. If you are able to accomplish it, you can rest assured that your idea will be successful, regardless of being innovative and generic.

5. Do Not Misjudge Typography:

While designing, you should give serious consideration to the typeface and ensure that it is unique. As a matter of the fact, a custom drawn typeface is better than the gorgeous fonts. Moreover, custom lettering is more recognizable in the logotype when compared to the font that you have downloaded from the internet. You would have come across many leading brands that use custom lettering. A fine example of this, one that exemplifies the spirit of this style, is Google. A blog published at Designhill.com reveals that Googles new logotype features custom sans-serif typeface called Product Sans.

6. Have All Your Sketches:

Whenever you design, you are sure to come up with a dozens of ideas which you might have sketched. You should never throw them away as they can serve as a valuable resource. In fact, you can get some ideas when you want to create a new one in the future. Even if you find something interesting over the internet, you can include them in your savings for future references.

7. Create Responsive Designs:

If you want your logo to be primarily used on apps and websites, then you should make it responsive. You must remember that simply enlarging or reducing your design as per its content is not going to work out. With increasing device capabilities and content area, you should add some additional details to your company logotype so that it can be responsive to any devices or platforms.

Designer David Paul reveals in a blog that creating a striking design for business is not only important to impress your potential clients and customers but also to establish your identity in the industry. In fact, it is the first step of building a strong loyalty and trust among your customers. In this tough, competitive business world, exclusive business symbol will be a key to ensure the success of an organization. In addition to this, it also plays a vital role in enhancing the reputation of your brand effectively. Concepts accustomed to your business conveys what your business is about exactly.A woman in charge of a toddler, whose mother was in the hospital, was supposed to drop him off at his father's house. But when the father wasn't home, the woman  who is a friend of the mother's (hopefully not anymore)  instead drops him off on the porch of a stranger's house. The way she carries him by only one arm can't be comfortable for him. She knocks on the door and scrams, leaving the little guy standing there all alone.

Fortunately, someone, who was trustworthy, was home. According to The Washington Post:

A woman answered a knock at her door to find the small boy standing there alone and called 911, Spencer said. Sheriff's deputies canvassed the neighborhood, knocking on every door nearby, including the father's, officials told reporters, according to the Chronicle. The father was not at home at the time. The child's father, Willie Simmons, spoke to reporters on Thursday. "If that was her child, she wouldn't have left him," he said, according to the Chronicle. "Just imagine if my nice neighbors weren't there. My son would have wandered in the street and got hit."

The toddler, who wasn't hurt, will be reunited with his family.It's highly unusual for a police officer to be fired when they shoot an unarmed person, which happens on a regular basis. It's even more unusual for a cop to be fired just for the words he uses, but the officer who threatened a group of people last summer by saying he was "trigger happy" has just been canned. Shocking but true.

The video above shows Stephen Barone, a former police officer from the Hartford Police Department in Connecticut, talking to a group of people who had been hanging out on a porch without any lights on. The officer didn't like the looks of things, and demanded their IDs. And he wanted to know what was on their persons. Even worse, he let them know he was the bully in charge by telling them that if anyone wanted to run, "I'm a little trigger happy, guys, I'm not gonna lie."

He then brags about how he'll be "paid a ton of money in overtime if I have to shoot somebody, so don't do anything stupid."

According to The Daily Dot:

On Wednesday, the Hartford Police Department put out a statement that they had fired Barone after finishing an investigation into the incident in the video, as well as a traffic incident in July. "Our success as a police department depends on our relationship with the community we serve," said Police Chief David Rosado. "This officer's conduct does not reflect the values of our agency. I did not make this decision lightly. We hold ourselves to high standards, and when we fall short, we take responsibility for it."

Image: MaxPixel

Two bedroom apartments in Phnom Penh start at $260,000  equivalent to 2,000 years' worth of average annual wages for Cambodia's workers.



But the bricks being used to construct housing in Cambodia's capital are made by people for whom apartments are even more out-of-reach than the average worker: these "blood bricks" are made by indentured slaves (including children), mostly small farmers who got into debt when climate change wrecked their crops and took on consolidation loans in exchange for years of "bonded labor" from brick companies.





The lenders prefer to indenture workers with families: the families can be held as hostages when the borrowers leave their job sites for medical care or other necessities.





Though Cambodia has a fast-growing economy, the fruits of that growth are mostly in the hands of a tiny elite, backed by an autocratic dictator who has mastered the use of Facebook to suppress his opposition by pushing out pro-elite propaganda and exploiting Facebook's "real names" policy to get pseudonymous opponents exiled from the service, and kidnapping and torturing opposition figures who use their real names.

The scope of blood bricks slavery is documented in a new report from Royal Holloway researchers.More than 40% of US federal judges have attended Manne seminars, a notionally "bipartisan" educational conference presented by a Florida "Law and Economics" institute whose invited ideological allies explained to judges why pollution is good for minorities (polluted neighborhoods are cheaper and therefore affordable by poor people), unions are bad, monopolies are economically efficient, discrimination in punishment is economically efficient, insider trading is economically efficient, and so on.



The Manne seminars also included high-profile "liberal" economists as well, but they were asked to lecture in domains that were outside of their expertise. It was rare for rebuttals to the nutty Law and Econ ideas to be presented by economists who studied the subjects under discussion.





Using Freedom of Information Act requests, a group of academics got a list of the judges who attended the Manne seminars, then used "cutting edge econometrics and natural language processing" to analyze the judges' rulings, to see whether the Manne seminars actually changed the tenor of justice in America.

The short answer is that the Manne seminars were devastatingly effective: "we find that Manne attendees subsequently are more likely to rule against regulatory agencies, for example the EPA and NLRB. Next we look at criminal sentencing in the district courts. We find that Manne attendance is associated with harsher prison sentences imposed."



The program has a recognized conservative bias, yet the attending judges are effusive in their praise regardless of ideological standpoint. What is the impact on observed judge decisions? We focus on two agencies the Law and Economics movement specifically criticized: the National Labor Relations Board and the Environmental Protection Agency. .. Manne judges exhibit a sharp and sudden increase in propensity to vote against federal labor and environmental regulatory agencies.  The differences-in-differences analysis  renders a consistent picture that Manne judges become more conservative after the training relative to their colleagues.  this indicates the Manne program accounts for 28-42% of the rise in judicial conservatism. If peers and precedent also impact the non-Manne judges, then the true Manne impact may  explain an even larger portion of the historical shift.  Judges increase sentence lengths by 7 percent and any sentence by 2 percentage points after Manne attendance. United States v. Booker loosened the formerly mandatory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and offers a policy experiment to analyze the effects of judicial discretion.  economics trained judges render more severe sentences in the fiscal years after Booker. the racial disparity in sentencing between black and white defendants is larger for Manne-trained judges than their colleagues. In addition, the gender disparity in sentencing between make and female defendants is larger for Manne-trained judges than their colleagues.  Manne attendance increases use of economics language for Manne judges across both economics and non-economics cases.  Judges who sit with economics-trained judges start to use more economics language, consistent with a learning effect.

Law and Economics [Henry Farrell/Crooked Timber]



Ideas Have Consequences: The Impact of Law and

Economics on American Justice [Elliott Ash, Daniel L. Chen, Suresh Naidu]The mercenary squads who carry out targeted assassinations in Yemen on behalf of the autocratic rulers of the UAE are composed of US veterans from elite units like the Green Berets, Navy SEALs, CIA "ground branch" and the special forces of the Maryland Army National Guard, working for the US-based mercenary company Spear Operations Group. Some of the mercenaries are reportedly still US military reservists, others have US top secret clearance.



The owner of Spear cheerfully admits that he pays his employees to assassinate people on behalf of the UAE government and says that the USA should have its own mercenary assassination squads.



The CIA said it had no information about the mercenary assassination program, and the Navy's Special Warfare Command declined to comment. A former CIA official who has worked in the UAE initially told BuzzFeed News there was no way that Americans would be allowed to participate in such a program. But after checking, he called back: "There were guys that were basically doing what you said." He was astonished, he said, by what he learned: "What vetting procedures are there to make sure the guy you just smoked is really a bad guy?" The mercenaries, he said, were "almost like a murder squad." Whether Spear's mercenary operation violates US law is surprisingly unclear. On the one hand, US law makes it illegal to "conspire to kill, kidnap, maim" someone in another country. Companies that provide military services to foreign nations are supposed to be regulated by the State Department, which says it has never granted any company the authority to supply combat troops or mercenaries to another country.

,p>

Yet, as BuzzFeed News has previously reported, the US doesn't ban mercenaries. And with some exceptions, it is perfectly legal to serve in foreign militaries, whether one is motivated by idealism or money. With no legal consequences, Americans have served in the Israel Defense Forces, the French Foreign Legion, and even a militia fighting ISIS in Syria. Spear Operations Group, according to three sources, arranged for the UAE to give military rank to the Americans involved in the mission, which might provide them legal cover.



A Middle East Monarchy Hired American Ex-Soldiers To Kill Its Political Enemies. This Could Be The Future Of War. [Aram Roston/Buzzfeed]





(Image: Abraham Golan)- Cheryl Zondi accused controversial Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso of sexual assault

- This week Cheryl was forced to present her case to open court

- Cheryl was forced to answer four harrowing questions asked by what can only be described as a hostile team of defence lawyers

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Cheryl Zondi has been lauded by South Africans for her bravery in bringing sexual assault charges against controversial Nigerian pastor Timothy Omotoso. Cheryl claims Omotoso abused her in his Durban-based church.

Omotoso also stands accused of sexually assaulting and abusing young girls who he groomed as sex slaves before abusing them while the girls were still in their early teens. On Tuesday, Cheryl bravely took to the witness box to give a brave and detailed account of her experience.

READ ALSO: Limpopo health crisis: 36 pupils pregnant, 31 infected with HIV at 1 school

Omotoso hired the notoriously ruthless defence attorney Peter Daubermann to make his case in court. Daubermann unleased a brutal line of questioning on Cheryl.

Briefly.co.za gathered that at one point Judge Mandela Makaula stopped Daubermann because he was badgering Cheryl. His line of questioning has drawn severe criticism from both the media and law experts.

We look at four of the most shocking questions Daubermann asked Cheryl on Tuesday.

1. By how many centimetres did Omotoso penetrate you?

Yes, Daubermann actually used those exact words in a South African court and expected an answer from the witness. While it might seem unbelievable thesouthafrican.com reports it really did happen.

2. Why didnt you phone or ask for help?

Incredibly, Daubermann asked Cheryl why she didnt phone someone or just up and leave after she had delivered a harrowing account of the mental hold which Omotoso had over her. This hold is common among abuse victims.

3. Why didnt you ask him to stop?

Dauberman went into full attack mode after Cheryl admitted that she never asked the pastor to stop abusing her. Daubermann seemed ignorant of the fact that sexual predators arent the types of people who usually stop because they are asked. His continued badgering of Cheryl led the Judge to mercifully intervene and stop the absurd line of questioning.

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4. Giving Consent

Daubermann said: You basically consented? You didnt protest against him? Every time you went to his room, you knew what to do? This absurd line doesnt take into concertation that Cheryl was 14-years-old at the time of the alleged abuse.

Any law student and most reasonable South Africans will be quick to point out that 14-year-olds are not capable of giving legal consent in sexual matters. Daubermann seemed to take Cheryls not protesting as meaning the same as giving consent.

READ ALSO: Rise of the Red Berets: How the EFF became a major political force

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Source: Briefly.co.zaA South African trio has made an impression on the global stage as they surprised everyone on the Greeces got Talent show.

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A singing group made up of Luvuyo, Simangaliso and Sandile might not be household names.

However, that may soon change as the trio entered the competition and made a huge impact.

Before the audition, they revealed to the judges that theyve been working in Greece for 6 months singing at various hotels.

A truly memorable moment ensued as the South African trio performed an operatic masterpiece  one of the timeless hits sang by Luciano Pavarotti.

READ ALSO: 3 star players who might make the move to Barcelona in January

At the end of the audition, the group received a huge round of applause from the capacity Greek crowd as well as the panel of judges.

The first judge remarked that he expected them to perform a traditional African song so he was completely surprised and impressed.

The next judge thanked the group for auditioning and embraced foreign contestants citing that Greece has been a multi-cultural society for centuries, welcoming people from various nationalities.

However, the best was yet to come as the host then proceeded to press the golden buzzer sending them to the semi-final stage directly.

Its hard to rate which was the more impressive  the performance which the original 3 tenors would be proud of or the warm embrace of the Greek nation towards our South African boys.

Have a look at the video below and judge for yourselves.

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Source: Briefly.co.zaNews / National

by Staff reporter

National spokesperson for the Nelson Chamisa led MDC Alliance, Jacob Mafume, says his party has not been invited to give oral evidence before the Kgalema Motlanthe led Commission of Inquiry into the August 1 post-election disturbances in which six people were killed by the army."We have not seen the invite if it was made."The invitees should be the Zimbabwe National Army soldiers who shot and the commanders who ordered the killings," Mafume said sarcastically, in an interview with NewZimbabwe.com Wednesday.The Kgalema Motlanthe led Commission opened the probe on Tuesday with witnesses presenting what they saw during the fateful day."We are not in control of the state," Mafume said, adding, "The Commission is a joke or a farce trying to find justification for killing citizens."Meanwhile, the Thokozani Khupe led MDC has confirmed it was invited to give evidence before the Kgalema Motlanthe led Commission.News / National

by Staff reporter

A United Kingdom Charity organisation has claimed that some donations given to African countries were meant to depopulate or stifle population growth.Starlight Global director Shanice Lindsay said most donations had side effects or hidden agendas in them.She said it was an open secret that there were intentions to depopulate Africa under the guise of health assistance.She addressed the issue during a debriefing which was held in the presence of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority's Chief Executive Officer, Karikoga Kaseke, and his team on Tuesday at a local hotel."Some paedophiles who are let out of prisons and are sent out to African under different disguises, some come as priests, missionaries, workers of international boards (name supplied) but these are usually their misfits."Be careful, it is an open secret in the West that they send their outdated, trials/experimental medication, their vaccines carry the AIDS virus and the vaccines they give children have the Ebola virus."They have a depopulation strategy towards Africa and their plan is to sterilise the girls in schools."They launch what they call health campaigns with organisations (name supplied) in the forefront who if countries don't comply, make it a condition of aid that countries accept their medication."Shanice went on to say because of this, young women suffer miscarriages without understanding why.She added that there was a move on the fast food industry which she said comes with high blood pressure and cancers."If you embrace fast food, make sure you are planning a big, fat health budget because you are going to need it 10 years down the road."If you are using western medication, because of all the side effects that comes from all these, please make sure you have an even bigger health budget to be able to cope with all of those complications," she said.The Starlight Global representative raised the issue of Eurocentric education saying it influences Africans to see themselves as inferior, preparing them for jobs and nothing more.She said their engagement with locals is different as they wanted to keep it real and they feel responsible as fellow blacks.The group has been touring the country for two weeks and are hoping to join hands with ZTA in building the tourism sector.With a growing number of wind and solar developments studding Alberta's landscape, the province has enshrined new rules that ensure operators  not landowners  are ultimately responsible for cleaning them up.

The province has had renewable energy development for over two decades, but landowner advocates have more recently grumbled about insufficient rules. For one, farmers and landowners wanted to make sure their property is returned to its prior state when renewable facilities expired.

The oil and gas industry has had such regulation for years.

Now, Alberta Environment has issued rules that explicitly state operators have a duty to conserve and reclaim the land after they have finished using it. It also sets standards for the industry to follow during the process  standards that will have to be met before the province could certify that it was done properly.

Reuters

Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said the rules fill a legislative gap that stretches back more than 20 years.

"As hundreds of millions in new investments flow into Alberta's renewable energy industry, we are ensuring Albertans can feel confident in entering renewable energy agreements on their land," Phillips said in an email statement.

The new directive stops short of creating an "orphan" fund for renewable projects  similar to the one for oil and gas wells  that will pay to clean up renewable energy sites if a company goes bankrupt.

But Daryl Bennett, a director with Action Surface Rights Association in southern Alberta, still welcomed the government's initiative.

"It's quite an improvement," said Bennett. "This just puts some standards in place so all the companies are expected to reclaim in a similar fashion."

Alberta is experiencing a renewable energy boom as the province wants to add up to 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy through private sector investment of about $10 billion by 2030. The province has become one of the hottest markets for the renewable energy sector in Canada.

Story continues

But the growth also spurred farmers and landowners to raise their concerns, leading the government to host a series of feedback sessions this spring and summer.

Mike Symington/CBC

The meetings resulted in a 50-page directive from Alberta Environment that sets out planning requirements for everything from weed management to soil mapping at project sites. Of note, it outlines an operator's "obligation" to reclaim specified land to equivalent land capability once they are finished using it.

Alberta Environmental officials say the directive still provides landowners with the flexibility to enter into agreements with private companies to mutual benefit, including ensuring proper financial security.

The new rules were published last month.

In Alberta, landowners are not obligated to accept a wind, solar or geothermal project on their land. Contracts are negotiated bilaterally between the landowner and the renewable energy developer.

Bennett participated in the discussions with government this year. He said some landowners signed contracts with companies they simply shouldn't have, but this new directive codifies the expectations for land reclamation.

For one, Bennett says it sets minimum depth levels to remove concrete bases, which could have significant, long-term impacts on the land if done poorly.

"I currently have some windmills going into hearings and I'll be asking the [Alberta Utilities Commission] to consider some of the things that are in that document even though it hasn't come into full force in effect yet," Bennett said.

CBC

The directive takes full effect in January, 2020.

Some landowners had hoped the province would create an "orphan" fund that would pay to clean up renewable energy sites if a company goes bankrupt.

The new directive doesn't do that, but it's becoming more common in contracts between landowners and operators for the company to agree to post some kind of financial security.

A representative of the wind power industry said the sector was supportive of the initiative overall.

Evan Wilson, spokesman for the Canada Wind Energy Association (CanWEA), said the government's initiative will introduce some specific costs to the pre-construction, construction and operations cycle of a project. But he said the directive offers clarity to all sides.

"Not only does it provide predictability for our members," Wilson said, "but it's our expectation that it will provide comfort for landowners and communities to know that there is a standard that industry can point to, that government can point to, that will allow landowners to know what is being done on their land at the end of life of the project."Stores across the N.W.T. are selling legal cannabis for the first time, and the demand is high, with Yellowknife's only retail store running out of product by early Wednesday evening.

Edward Eggenberger, the owner of The Liquor Shop uptown, says the store ran out of product at approximately 5:35 p.m. MT Wednesday evening, though it is expecting a new shipment Thursday morning.

The Liquor Shop is the only physical place where people in Yellowknife can buy cannabis.

In the morning, crowds lined up outside the store  some as early as 6 a.m.  to buy legal cannabis. Opening at 11 a.m., the store had to close its doors around 11:30 in order to deal with the crowds.

Loren McGinnis/CBC

Once inside, customers had a chance to look at a variety of products lined up inside glass cases.

"Everybody's happy to be here," said Eggenberger. "It's very busy. We're just trying to do the best we can at the tills to handle everybody."

Everybody is going away happy. - Edward Eggenberger, Liquor Shop

Eggenberger said there's been some issues with scanning the products and with labelling.

Randall McKenzie/CBC

"The product is not labelled that well, so it's hard picking the right product," he said. "It's trial and error. But I think everybody is going away happy."

Eggenberger said the plan is to move the products to a cannabis-only store next door to the Liquor Shop within the month.

"Absolutely it's a good day," he said. "It's become just another product that we sell. There's still a stigma attached to it, but the stigma is going to go away over time."

Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi/CBC

"It'll be interesting," said Timothy Zoe-Martin, one of the many residents who stopped by the store Wednesday morning. "It'll be nice to smoke and not have to worry about getting in trouble."

Zoe-Martin, who describes himself as a social smoker, said the day is important in reducing the stigma surrounding cannabis.

"Nobody wants a criminal record," he said. "We all want to be able to hold down good jobs and do what we can, right? So for it to actually be legalized ... now I can walk around my neighbourhood and smoke a joint.

Story continues

"As long as there's no kids around, of course," he added.

Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi/CBC

Norman Wells

In the community of Norman Wells  with a population of about 800  people can purchase cannabis products at the local liquor store as well.

A small lineup began to form outside the store just before 4 p.m. on Wednesday when the store opened. It's located a five-minute walk away at the Northern Store, which also serves as the town's post office.

People who purchased cannabis said they were excited about legalization. Robbie Greek said he hopes the products are good.

Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi/CBC

"I'm pretty intrigued. It's Aurora [Cannabis] made right here in Canada  nice to support local," he said.

"It's been growing underground; people have been having to hide it, be all sneaky and sketchy about it for years. Now they're going to have big legal grow-ops."

Greek wore a "Norman Wells: Yes We Cannabis" T-shirt he had purchased inside the busy liquor store, describing his souvenir as "something to  commemorate the day."

The store was selling a small run of the commemorative T-shirts, and by late afternoon it had run out of medium sizes.

Roland Nadeau, from southern Alberta, said Wednesday was a "big day" for him.

"I've been trying to get this legal since 1976," he said. "Used to go to pot rallies back then."

Joshua Brown of Yellowknife said he thought it would be better to buy cannabis from the store than from the illicit market.

Katie Toth/CBC

"For me, I'm just a recreational smoker," he said. "I'm hoping for good prices, good weed. There's no point in selling weed in the store if it's going to be the same as the street."

A liquor store employee in Norman Wells told CBC News they had yet to sell out of any cannabis products.

Fort Smith

In Fort Smith, liquor store owner Nikita Paziuk said there were nearly a dozen people waiting outside of her shop 10 minutes before it opened at 2 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. 

Paziuk said she still isn't quite sure what the stigma around cannabis will be like, but said that she's prepared to keep an open mind.

Katie Toth/CBC

"It's going to be just like selling liquor I'm assuming," she said.

Paziuk said the store made $5,000 in sales during their first two hours of business Wednesday.

Fort Smith's liquor store is initially offering 10 products, but Paziuk said the store is expecting more variety in the future.

Jamie Malbeuf/CBC

Fort Smith's Colin Fradsham was one of the store's first customers, walking out of the store with a bong and some Zombie Kush. Referring to himself as an "in the closet smoker," Fradsham said he always told himself he would buy a bong on legalization day.

Jamie Malbeuf/CBC

"The selection in here was way more than I thought it would be," said Fradsham. "They've got not only your traditional bongs, pipes and marijuana selections but they have more traditional [selections] as well."

With files from Katie Toth, Gabriela Panza-Beltrandi, Jamie Malbeuf, and Mario De CiccioBy Robin Emmott and Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union should agree a sanctions law to target computer hackers by early next year, the bloc's leaders are set to say on Thursday and will also seek a pledge from Russia and China to help stop cyber attacks, internal EU documents show. Despite some reluctance from Italy's anti-establishment government, EU leaders will make the call for a new regime to impose economic sanctions more quickly on specific hackers anywhere in the world at their summit on Thursday. "Work on the capacity to respond to and deter cyber attacks through EU restrictive measures should be taken forward," EU leaders will say, according to a draft of their final summit statement, using EU parlance for economic sanctions. "Negotiations on all cybersecurity proposals should be concluded before the end of the (EU) legislature," the draft statement said, referring to the April 18, 2019, closure of the European Parliament's term. Addressing the German parliament on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of possible manipulation of next May's European Parliament election, in the latest warning by an EU government that Russia may use cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns to undermine the vote. Russia has made cyber and electronic warfare part of its military operations, Western officials say, and Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have accused Moscow of conducting a global campaign of computer hacks against the West. Russia denies meddling in elections or hacking institutions. Russian officials portray such allegations as part of a campaign intended to entrench Moscow's reputation as an enemy. Diplomats at the Western military alliance NATO, which is set to have its own fully operational cyber command in 2023, say criminal groups in China and North Korea, as well as Islamist militants, are also behind attacks on Western computer networks. The 28 EU leaders will meet Asian leaders and including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and China's Premier Li Keqiang for a summit in Brussels from Thursday evening, where cyber security is expected to be discussed, with a focus on combating hackers in the final statement. China also denies responsibility for cyber attacks. ITALY'S PRO-RUSSIA STANCE Britain is pushing for the special EU sanctions regime of travel bans and asset freezes before it leaves the bloc next year. That could allow London to align its sanctions policy with the bloc in the future. But Italy's anti-establishment government is resisting the measures as it seeks better ties with Russia, although Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte is not expected to challenge the wording of the final statement because it is still vague, three diplomats said. Britain's Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to reassure his Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi on Monday at a meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the diplomats added. Britain and the Netherlands also made a plea to their fellow ministers at the closed-door Luxembourg meeting after other countries joined them in making a formal request for economic sanctions on individual cyber attackers. Most other EU countries now back the proposals, including France and Germany, diplomats said. Sophisticated computer hacking weapons and cybersurveillance software allows hostile governments to spy on and undermine the West, often using criminal groups for cover, experts say. At the special EU-Asia leaders summit on Thursday evening and Friday, the European Union will seek a political commitment from all 51 leaders gathered in Brussels to stop such criminals. Leaders will stress "the importance of combating cyber security threats, preventing potential use of information and communication technologies for criminal or terrorist purposes and disinformation", according to a draft statement. (Additiona reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Alison Williams)By Doina Chiacu and Jorge Cabrera WASHINGTON/ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala (Reuters) - The organizer of a migrant caravan from Honduras was detained in Guatemala on Tuesday as the U.S. government threatened to withdraw aid from both countries and El Salvador if the flow of migrants north to the United States was not stopped. Up to 3,000 migrants, according to organizers' estimates, crossed from Honduras into Guatemala on a trek northward after a standoff on Monday with police in riot gear. The Honduran Foreign Ministry called on its citizens not to join the group. The government "urges the Hondurans taking part in this irregular mobilization not to be used by a movement that is clearly political," it said. Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez said in a public address on Tuesday evening some Hondurans in the caravan had already returned home and the government was preparing to support them. He did not specify how many had turned back. Over the border, Guatemalan police officers detained Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran lawmaker, from the middle of the large crowd that he and three other organizers had led from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, since Saturday. The moves followed comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that his administration would halt aid if the Central American governments did not act, his latest effort to demonstrate his tough stance on immigration. The Honduran security ministry said Fuentes had been detained because he "did not comply with Guatemalan immigration rules" and would be deported back to Honduras in the coming hours. Security officials at the Honduran border with Guatemala in Agua Caliente blocked the road to prevent another much smaller group from getting through, television images from the border showed. "We can't attend to people en masse. People are going through one by one," police spokesman Alex Madrid said in a radio interview. Guatemala's government said it did not have official figures for how many migrants from the caravan had already crossed the border. Adult citizens of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua need only present national identity cards to cross each others' borders. That rule does not apply when they reach Mexico. The local offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement on Tuesday evening they were worried about the safety of migrants in the caravan, noting the group included women, children and senior citizens. "NO MORE MONEY" Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday to express his annoyance at the caravan, which follows a similar event in May that ultimately led to hundreds of migrants either seeking asylum in the United States or remaining in Mexico. "The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!" Trump wrote. Trump expanded his threat in a later tweet to include Guatemala and El Salvador. "We have today informed the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally, all payments made to them will STOP (END)!" he said. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence drove home the point, saying he spoke to Hernandez and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and warned them to help protect U.S. borders, adding "no more aid if it's not stopped!" The strong words could encourage Honduras to move closer to China amid intensified efforts by Beijing to win recognition from Central American countries aligned with Taiwan. Honduras is one of a dwindling number of countries that still have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, an island nation off the Chinese coast that Beijing views as a renegade province. Hernandez said last month cuts in U.S. support for Central America would only hinder the country's ability to stem illegal immigration. He welcomed China's growing diplomatic presence in the region as an "opportunity." Pence told Central American countries last week the United States was willing to help with economic development and investment if they did more to tackle mass migration, corruption and gang violence. GROWING GROUP The migrants in the group making its way north plan to seek refugee status in Mexico or pass through to the United States, saying they are fleeing poverty and violence. "What Trump says doesn't interest us," organizer Fuentes said in an interview shortly before his arrest. "These people are fleeing. These people are not tourists." Widespread violence and poverty prompt thousands of Central Americans, mainly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, to make the arduous journey north toward Mexico and the United States in search of a better life. Trump ran for president in 2016 on promises to toughen U.S. immigration policies and build a wall along the 2,000-mile(3,220-km) border with Mexico. Illegal immigration is likely to be a top issue in Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, when Democrats are seen as having a good chance of gaining control of the House of Representatives from Trump's fellow Republicans. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington and Jorge Cabera in Esquipulas, Guatemala; Additional reporting by Lizbeth Diaz in Mexico City; Writing by Delphine Schrank; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait)A National Parole Board panel has decided Paul Bernardo will remain behind bars. The Ontario rapist and killer was denied Wednesday in his first attempt at getting parole.

The decision was announced soon after the mothers of two of Bernardo's victims and a woman who survived an attack read impact statements to the panel, and Bernardo spoke.

Debbie Mahaffy told the hearing that today has been an "emotional hell" for her, because she had to be in the same room as her daughter's killer.

"I don't want to be here," Mahaffy said at the hearing in Millhaven Correctional Centre, east of Bath, Ont. "I do not want to be in the same room [with Bernardo]. I do not want to participate. Yet, here I am."

Greg Banning/Canadian Press

Bernardo is serving a life sentence for the kidnapping, rapes and first-degree murders of two teenaged girls in the early 1990s, including Mahaffy's daughter, and two counts of aggravated sexual assault.

The designated dangerous offender had been eligible for full parole since February, having served 25 years behind bars.

Leslie Mahaffy was 14 years old when she was kidnapped, tortured and killed in June 1991 at the Port Dalhousie, Ont., home of Bernardo and his then-girlfriend, Karla Homolka. They then dismembered her body, encasing her remains in cement and dumping them in a nearby lake.

"We have to relive Leslie's pain and horror," Mahaffy said. "Our pain and horror ... as if it happened yesterday."

Handout/Canadian Press

Donna French's daughter, Kristen, was 15 when she was kidnapped by Bernardo and Homolka and tortured for three days, before she was killed.

French told the hearing that Bernardo should never see freedom again.

"How does one describe such immeasurable pain so as to give even the slightest understanding of the overwhelming sadness, the emptiness, and pain we feel even after 26 years of dealing with our loss?" French said.

She also noted that the law was changed after Bernardo's incarceration to allow for consecutive periods of parole ineligibility.

Story continues

Handout/Canadian Press

The CBC's Ron Charles watched the parole hearing via video feed with other members of the media in a room at the Bath medium security prison. Bernardo is incarcerated at nearby Millhaven, a maximum security prison, which is where the hearing took place.

He reported the two mothers read their statements from behind Bernardo, and that Bernardo, sitting between his lawyer and his parole officer, looked down at the table with his hands in his lap as they spoke.

Survivor speaks

A third woman also spoke to the board. She is one of 14 women Bernardo admitted to raping.

She described how she was walking home on an evening in May 1988 when Bernardo attacked her from behind, dragged her into some bushes and raped her. The result has been emotional devastation from which she has never recovered, she said.

"After the assault, I really became a shell of a person," she said. "He should never be considered for any freedom for the rest of his life."

There's been never any indication whatsoever of remorse. - Tim Danson, lawyer

Bernardo, 54, spoke after the three women.

He portrayed himself as someone whose self-esteem was damaged by a childhood speech impediment. He felt increasingly inadequate, Bernardo said, adding he was afraid to interact with people. Social anxiety, he said, became sexual  he fretted constantly about being unable to perform.

"The more insecure I felt, the more I tried to control," he said. "My self-esteem would get better that way."

Bernardo was also convicted of manslaughter in the December 1990 death of Homolka's younger sister, Tammy. The 15-year-old girl died after the pair drugged and sexually assaulted her. Homolka later said she wanted Bernardo to have Tammy's virginity as a Christmas present.

Bernardo said he was completely shattered by Tammy's death, which only exacerbated his low self-esteem and led to his increasingly savage attacks on women and girls.

"I hurt a lot of people," he said. "I absolutely did and this is why I cry."

Empathy seems recent: parole board member

One of the two Parole Board of Canada members hearing the case, Suzanne Poirier, asked him at one point: "Would you say you used women as objects?"

"Back then, absolutely," he responded.

"How has this changed?" Poirier inquired.

"I over-used sex and that led to those cognitive distortions," Bernardo said." I overly based my self-esteem on sex."

Bernardo denied being a sadistic psychopath, although he admitted he felt nothing for his victims at the time he committed his crimes. It was all a matter of asserting power and control in an effort to give his fragile ego a boost, he said.

Poirier said that, to the parole board, Bernardo's empathy seemed to be recent.

Bernardo's parole officer said he had made minimal gains during his time behind bars.

No apology from Bernardo

The longtime lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, Tim Danson, said his clients were pleased with the parole board's decision. But he noted Bernardo showed no remorse.

"There's never been an apology by Paul Bernardo. There's been never any indication whatsoever of remorse," Danson told reporters, as member of the French family stood nearby.

"What he talked about was, he knows that what he did was wrong and it was terrible, but that's something different than reaching out to the families and apologizing to them directly."Dr. Hanan Shai is a lecturer in the Political Science Department at Bar-Ilan University.

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.

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Israel Hayom..17 October '18..The Israel Defense Forces were planned and built to win short and "cheap" wars.However, in its earliest years, the IDF was also forced to wage lengthy wars of attrition. It eventually put an end to these, beating the enemy and destroying its fighting capability to secure quiet that would last as long as possible.Such periods of quiet were reached after Operation Kadesh in 1956, which ended the war of attrition waged by the fedayeen; after the War for Peace in the Galilee or First Lebanon War of 1982, which put an end to the Katyusha missile threat from Lebanon; and after Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, which seriously checked the momentum of the Second Intifada.Today, too, Israel is waging a war of attrition, this time against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.But this particular war of attrition has turned into the longest in Israel's history because of Israel's reluctance to finish it with a decisive operation.The reason for the dawdling has to do with the tactics of Hamas' military wing, which present a threat to Israel. Its armaments include a series of fortified intelligent systems located deep inside tunnels and in the heart of a dense civilian population. Moreover, Hamas has a variety of weapons it could use against the Israeli homefront while simultaneously exacting a heavy toll on any IDF ground forces sent into the Gaza Strip.Hamas' approach has "skewered" Israel, as military theorist B.H. Liddell Hart put it, on the horns of a triple dilemma: long-term attrition against civilians if Israel maintains its current reality of keeping its soldiers back from occupying Gaza; heavy casualties among IDF soldiers over a long period if they are sent in to put an end to the attacks on Israeli civilians; or preventing heavy military and civilian losses through a massive remote destruction of the enemies' systems, equipment and operatives, which would entail extensive casualties among the Gaza civilian population used by Hamas as human shields, and could hurt Israel's international standing as a result.Hamas has turned the residents of Gaza into pawns in a powerful game and is exploiting them to create a balance of power. This has neutralized the ability of the IDF  one of the most advanced armies in the world  to act and has forced Israel into this brutal war of attrition, which cannot be stopped at a "reasonable" price, as previous wars of attrition could.Israel cannot live with the strategic helplessness that has been forced upon it by this two-bit terrorist organization and simply wait for a terrorist attack large enough to justify a major operation in Gaza with consequently heavy casualties among civilians in Gaza. Hamas is apparently calculating enough to avoid supplying Israel with such a justification.We also cannot hide from the fact that rather than beating and deterring Hamas, Hamas is beating and deterring us.Israel's strength has not been eliminated through military, political or economic means, but through Hamas' cynical manipulation of the moral rules that prohibit harming civilians.However, Israel can rope in the moral system that is being used against it and work its way out of the trap. The key lies in addressing the moral question of whose lives take precedence: theirs or ours? And by answering it decisively: "Ours!"Once free from the trap it has fallen into, and with universal morality on its side, Israel needs to declare loudly and clearly that the lives of Israelis are more important to it than the lives of its enemies, and needs to launch two operations. The first would be a military one, involving a rapid, temporary ground invasion into the Gaza Strip along routes previously cleared of enemy fire, thus avoiding heavy IDF casualties and preventing unnecessary losses of civilian lives or property. The goal would be to destroy Hamas' ability to fire rockets at Israel and wipe out the core of Hamas' wild leadership.The second operation should be a cultural and moral one, with the goal of bringing the conscience of Israel's democratic allies in line with universal morality, according to which the entire world should take action against immoral and unconscionable terrorism.Protestant pastors in the US mainly say they approve of the job President Donald Trump is doing, according to a study by LifeWay Research.

The study found 51 per cent of senior pastors approve of Trump's performance, with 25 per cent strongly approving.

'After almost two years of actions and statements from the White House, most pastors likely consider some positive and others negative,' said Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research.'When asked to evaluate the president's job performance with no neutral option, most pastors approve.'

However, nearly three in 10 (28 per cent) disapprove and another 20 per cent say they aren't sure.

McConnell said that many were reluctant to give an opinion.

'Compared to the middle of President Obama's first term, we see twice as many pastors say they're undecided on President Trump's job performance,' he said.

LifeWay compared the findings with a poll before the 2010 midterm elections, which found 30 per cent of pastors approved of President Obama's job performance, with 61 per cent disapproving and only nine per cent saying they weren't sure.

'There is no lack of information on what President Trump is doing or how he is doing it,' said McConnell, 'so the undecided posture appears to be an unwillingness to identify with either of the political sides that have emerged in American politics.'

The hesitancy of pastors to take sides where Donald Trump is concerned stretches back to the presidential election.

Despite 52 per cent of Protestant pastors identifying as a Republican and only 18 percent calling themselves a Democrat in the LifeWay Research survey prior to the November 2016 election, only 32 per cent said they planned to vote for Trump. A full 40 per cent said they were undecided, with 19 percent planning to vote for Hillary Clinton.

African-American pastors are the least likely to approve of the president's handling of the job by a very wide margin. Only four per cent approve of his performance, while 85 per cent disapprove.

Slightly more than half of white pastors (54 per cent) approve, along with slightly less than half of pastors of other ethnicities (47 per cent).

'In 2016, only six per cent of African-American pastors identified as Republican,' said McConnell, 'and nothing in President Trump's first two years has generated approval from African-American pastors beyond that level.'

Younger pastors are the least likely age group to approve of Trump's performance. Four in 10 (41 per cent) of those 18 to 44 say he's done a good job, while 56 per cent of those 45 and older support President Trump's job performance.

Pentecostals (86 per cent) and Baptists (68 per cent) are most likely to approve of the president's performance.

Few Presbyterian/Reformed (28 per cent) and Methodists (25 per cent) say they support the job President Trump has done.

Among other findings, male pastors (56 per cent) are more likely to approve than female pastors (30 per cent) and self-identified evangelical pastors (63 per cent) are more likely to approve than self-identified mainline pastors (41 per cent).Its GTO Dominican Cigars 10th anniversary, and next week the company will have a release to commemorate the milestone, a cigar called Corona del Cibao.

Corona del Cibao means Crown of the Valley and it refers to the famed tobacco growing region in the Dominican Republic. The blend uses 100% proprietary tobaccos from the companys farms located in the Cibao Valley that have been aging ten years.

Keeping consistent with the companys previous releases, Corona de Cibao will be available in two wrapper options  Corojo and Maduro. The cigars will be packaged in 24-count boxes with each box containing 12 Corojo and 12 Maduro cigars. Corona del Cibao is being released in one size  a 6 x 52 Toro.

According to GTO Dominican Cigars Oscar Rodriguez, It is our richest and most smoothest cigar, loaded with complexity and clean burning with no aftertaste.

Photo Credits: GTO Dominican CigarsAt the 2016 IPCPR Trade Show, Fred Rewey and Nomad Cigar Company showcased three cigar lines that would come out of James Browns Fabrica Oveja Negra operation. At the time, the cigars were introduced in a limited fashion in order to avoid an August 8, 2016 deadline imposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that would have required these cigars to undergo pre-market approval. One of those cigar lines would be Fin de Los Mundos, featuring a blend that Nomad Cigar Company founder Fred Rewey described as his strongest one to date. Fin de Los Mundos would have a full-blown release late in 2017. Today we take a closer look at Nomads Fin de Los Mundos in the Robusto size.

The other two cigars that were showcased at the 2016 IPCPR by Nomad were the Nomad GB-19 (a candela offering) and Nomad Signature. The GB-19 would have a national launch in 2016 while the Nomad Signature recently had its national launch. These two cigars essentially sandwiched the release of Fin de Los Mundos, which kicked off at Fort Worths Underground Cigar Shop in December 2017.

GB-19, Fin de Los Mundos, and Nomad Signature would be the final three projects for Rewey at Nomad Cigar Company. In September, Rewey announced he was selling the company to Ezra Zion Cigar Company, who used to be part of the Boutiques Unified distribution arm with Rewey. The name Fin de Los Mundos means End of the World  does that refer to the fact this was up against the 2016 FDA deadline or a precursor to the fact that he would sell the company some time later?

Now we turn our attention to the Nomad Fin de Los Mundos Robusto and see what this cigar brings to the table.

SPECIFICATIONS

Blend and Origin

With Fin de Los Mundos, its not Reweys first time around the block with Pennsylvania Broadleaf. The Nomad Therapy Maduro, which came out of AJ Fernandezs factory, also used this leaf. The remainder of the blend consists of a Nicaraguan Habano binder and fillers from Nicaragua, Pennsylvania, and the Dominican Republic.

Wrapper: Pennsylvania Broadleaf

Binder: Nicaraguan Habano

Filler: Nicaraguan, Dominican, Pennsylvania

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Factory: Fabrica Oveja Negra

Vitolas Offered

Fin de Los Mundos is offered in four sizes. Each is presented in 20-count boxes

Shorty: 4 x 54

Corona Gordo: 5 1/2 x 46

Robusto: 5 x 50

Toro: 6 x 50

Appearance

The Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrapper of the Nomad Fin de Los Mundos Robusto had a deep, rich espresso coffee-bean colored to it. There was a light coating of oil on the surface of the wrapper. There were some thin visible veins, but the dark color of the wrapper did a nice job at hiding the wrapper seams. I found this wrapper to be slightly less rugged than most Pennsylvania Broadleaf wrappers I have seen.

The band to Fin de Los Mundos is black with a metallic red design of the upper portion of a clock in the background. Draped over the clock is the text FIN DE LOS MUNDOS in white font. The far right side of the band has a small winged Nomad logo with the text NOMAD CIGAR CO in a silver-gray font. Just below that in landscape mode is Reweys Twitter handle @GODFADR  also in silver font.

The cigar is finished with a red ribbon surrounding the footer.

PERFORMANCE

Pre-Light Draw

After removing the ribbon from the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto, a straight cut was used to excise the cap of the cigar. The next stage was the pre-light experience. The Fin de Los Mundos Robusto would deliver notes of cocoa powder along with subtle notes of earth and fruit. With a satisfactory pre-light draw, it was now time to light up the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto and move into the smoking phase.

Tasting Notes

The Fin de Los Mundos Robusto opened up with notes of red pepper, mocha, earth, and a slight amount of dried fruit. The mocha and red pepper notes moved into the forefront early. While I categorize mocha as a cross of coffee and chocolate, in this case, the coffee component of the mocha was more prominent. As the cigar progressed through the first third, the red pepper notes subsided and the earth notes joined the mocha in the forefront. Meanwhile, there was an additional layer of red pepper on the retro-hale.

During the second third, the mocha note transitioned fully into a coffee flavor. The earth flavors remained in the forefront with the coffee. Meanwhile, there was an increase in the spice component. Some classic bakers spice notes emerged in the background maintaining a slight edge over the red pepper. As the cigar progressed through the second third, the red pepper slowly increased. Toward the end of the second third, it had the edge over the bakers spice. The dried fruit also remained, providing a touch of additional sweetness.

By the last third, the red pepper was on par with the coffee and earth notes. There still were notes of bakers spice and, to a lesser extent dried fruit, in the background. This is the way the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto came to a close. The resulting nub was slightly soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn

Both Nomad and Fabrica Oveja Negra have established an excellent reputation when it comes to construction and the good news is the Nomad Fin de Los Mundos Robusto doesnt miss a beat in this area. The cigar maintains a straight burn path and keeps a straight burn line with a normal number of touch-ups along the way. The resulting ash was mostly silver-gray in color and was skewed toward the firm side.

Draw

The draw to the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto had a pleasant touch of resistance to it. At the same time, this was a cigar that was low maintenance in terms of deriving flavor.

Strength and Body

The strength of the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto started right at medium to full. The intensity increased and by the 3/5 mark, the strength progressed into full territory  where it would increase slightly more before the end of the cigar experience. Meanwhile, the flavors started out medium-bodied. The body increased gradually and by the midway point, the cigar was in medium to full-bodied territory. There also was a slight increase in body in the second half, but in the end, the Fin de Los Mundos Robsto remained in the medium to full-bodied range of the spectrum.

In terms of strength versus body, I found the strength had the edge with the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto from start to finish.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Final Thoughts

An argument could be made that this is the strongest cigar to come out from Nomad. While the Fin de Los Mundos Robusto is a cigar that is not short on flavor, the one thing to note is that this is going to be a cigar that is strength-forward  and I do think there is a place for a cigar in the market for a cigar fitting this bill. This wont be a cigar with a radically unique flavor profile, but the flavors delivered were solid. This is a cigar Id recommend to a more seasoned cigar enthusiast  especially one looking for a bold cigar. As for myself, I can see myself picking this cigar up and smoking it from time to time.

Summary

Key Flavors: Mocha, Red Pepper, Earth, Bakers Spice, Dried Fruit

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium

Strength: Medium to Full (1st 3/5), Full (Remainder)

Body: Medium (1st 1/2), Medium to Full (2nd Half)

Finish: Very Good

Rating

Value: Buy One

Score: 89

References

News: Nomad Fin de Los Mundos Showcased at 2017 IPCPR Trade Show

Price: $9.50

Source: Purchased

Brand Reference: Nomad

Photo Credits: Cigar CoopTHURSDAY, Oct. 18, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Lisa Hanson was first diagnosed with the leg swelling and fluid retention of lymphedema when she was just 17.

Now in her 40s, she reconciled herself to a lifetime of long pants, compression hose and a nightly, hours-long bout with an electric pump to keep the swelling down. She said her lymphedema made her feel like "a freak."

But now, millions of people like Hanson may have a new treatment option. Researchers from Stanford University and other institutions conducted two new pilot studies, and report that ketoprofen, a common anti-inflammatory drug, significantly eases swelling and other skin damage from lymphedema.

"For a long time I couldn't talk to people about my lymphedema without crying because it's something weird and obscure," Hanson said in a university news release. "Now there is hope for people like me with this disease."

A condition affecting millions

Lymphedema refers to painful fluid buildup in a limb, often after lymph node removal due to cancer treatment.

The prescription medicine ketoprofen is a cousin to over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve), said lead author Dr. Stanley Rockson, director of Stanford's Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders.

Ketoprofen is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for "chronic forms of inflammation that need an aggressive approach" such as arthritis, he said.

But using it for lymphedema -- which affects about 3 million people in the United States -- appears to alleviate the burdensome condition, according to the small new studies.

Lymphedema often results after cancer surgery (most notably breast cancer), but it can also be due to infection or other trauma, according to background notes.

Lymphedema has no cure. Current treatments include compression garments, electric pumps and massage therapy to move lymph fluid manually through tissues. Rockson said ketoprofen could be an important add-on to those treatments.

"What's dramatic for me, having worked with lymphedema patients now for 30 years, is that the traditional thought about lymphedema is it progresses from fluid accumulation to progressive, structural, irreversible damage," Rockson said.

"We're gratified to see that these supposedly irreversible results are not irreversible," he added.

Real improvement

Rockson and his colleagues undertook a pair of small trials. First, 21 lymphedema patients took a 75-gram dose of ketoprofen by mouth three times a day for four months. The researchers performed skin biopsies at the start of the trial and again four months later to measure disease severity.

Based on encouraging findings, the follow-up trial enrolled 34 lymphedema patients, with 16 receiving ketoprofen and 18 receiving a placebo drug. Ketoprofen recipients showed reduced skin thickness as well as improvements in other factors related to skin health and elasticity.

"After a couple of months, I remember going home one day and taking my compression stockings off and looking at my leg, thinking, 'Wow, my skin is wrinkly, that's so weird,'" said Hanson, who took part in the trials. "The skin wasn't so taut or thick. It was more like normal."

She stressed that in her case at least, ketoprofen is "not a cure," but it has produced a real improvement.

"Over time, the swelling has gone down," Hanson said. "It doesn't make it go away, but it has been easier to take care of my leg."

An 'exciting' new option

Rockson said researchers also got the impression that patients treated with ketoprofen experienced a significant decrease in infections, though the studies didn't specifically analyze that aspect. The drug works by blocking an inflammatory pathway in the body, he noted.

Like other NSAIDs, side effects of ketoprofen can include gastrointestinal upset or bleeding. Lymphedema patients who'd like to consider taking ketoprofen should speak with their doctors and weigh their risk factors, Rockson said.

"It's certainly an option," he said, adding he still hopes to tweak the drug's structure to better suit lymphedema specifically in the future.

"It will, for a majority of users, make lymphedema better and hopefully at least prevent progression. But there's a list of adverse effects that need to be considered, so that needs to be an individual decision," Rockson added.

Several experts who treat patients with lymphedema praised the studies for potentially providing a new option for this group.

"The lymphatic system is very complicated and there's not a lot of research on how it functions," said Lisa Marshall, director of oncology rehabilitation at the Graham Cancer Center and Research Institute at Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Del.

"We don't have a lot of options  as lymphedema patients get to the chronic state. So the fact that there's now a drug that could enhance our outcomes that we could use as an [addition] to our treatments is very exciting," added Marshall, who played no role in the new research.

Dr. Shubhada Dhage is director of breast surgical services at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., and also wasn't involved with the new studies. She said she was "highly optimistic" about the results, though small numbers of patients were tested.

"How this [research] will translate and have an impact currently with lymphedema is yet to be known," Dhage said. "If the doctors of a particular patient are on board with [prescribing ketoprofen], it might be worth trying."

The studies were published Oct. 18 in the journal JCI Insight.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute offers more on lymphedema treatment.THURSDAY, Oct. 18, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Cardboard baby boxes are gaining fans, but are they as safe as cribs and bassinets?

Experts say no.

Without supporting evidence, "the cardboard baby box should not be promoted as a safe sleeping space, but as only a temporary substitute if nothing else is available," said Peter Blair, a professor at the University of Bristol in England, and colleagues.

There's no proof the baby boxes reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), as some believe. And they may pose a number of other risks, the researchers said.

The boxes originated in Finland. They come with a mattress that fits into the bottom of the box.

In a letter in the Oct. 17 BMJ, Blair's team called for thorough studies "to better understand how families use the cardboard baby box and its safety implications."

The letter's authors also pointed out a number of possible risks.

Some of the boxes come with lids and are potentially flammable. If a box is placed on a floor, the infant is exposed to low-level drafts, pets and young siblings. If placed at a height, the box may fall. There's also no data on the durability of the box, especially if it becomes wet or dirty, the study authors added.

They also noted that the boxes are too small to be used for most babies older than 3 months. In addition, they aren't designed to be brought into the parents' bed at night, so aren't a better option for bed sharing than a crib, bassinet or Moses basket.

Cribs (with their bars and raised surface), bassinets and Moses baskets (with low sides) allow parents to easily see infants and may also enable better air flow, the authors said. By contrast, someone must stand directly over the cardboard box to see the baby.

"We support any initiative that raises awareness of SIDS, including appropriate SIDS risk reduction advice distributed with cardboard baby boxes," Blair and his team wrote. "But this advice can be undermined if the messages given are incorrect or mixed with non-evidence-based messages about the intervention itself."

The American Academy of Pediatrics also has concerns about the growing popularity of baby boxes.

There is no evidence they prevent infant deaths, and "the boxes are not required to meet safety rules like cribs, bassinets, play yards and infant carriers," the AAP notes.

When being put to sleep, babies should be placed on their backs on a firm mattress. The crib should be free of soft objects such as stuffed animals and loose bedding. And babies should not sleep in beds with other family members, the AAP advises.

More information

There's more on safe infant sleep practices at the American Academy of Pediatrics.Share this: Twitter

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Goma, October 17, 2018Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo should immediately reopen two opposition-owned radio stationsRadio Liberte Lisala and Radio Mwana Mboka (Rammbo)and halt the intimidation of journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Radio Liberte Lisala and Radio Mwana Mboka have been off the air since October 9, when police raided their offices, halted broadcasts, ejected employees, and locked the doors, Yannick Makambo, director of Radio Mwana Mboka and Blaise Lukuta, director of Radio Liberte, told CPJ.

Radio Liberte Lisala is owned by opposition politician Jean-Pierre Bemba and Radio Mwana Mboka is owned by opposition politician Crispin Bungdu, Makambo and Lukuta said. Both stations are based in Lisala city, the capital of the DRCs northwestern Mongala province. Long-delayed presidential elections are scheduled for December in the DRC.

The closure of Radio Liberte Lisala and Radio Mwana Mboka is a grave act of censorship, which should be swiftly reversed, said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. Congolese ruling party politicians cannot arbitrarily decide to silence certain media for airing opposition views, especially as the DRC prepares for upcoming elections.

The police acted on orders from Bruce Bika Malambo, mayor of Lisala city and a member of the ruling party, in response to the stations having aired on October 6 a recorded statement made in an interview with opposition politician Bienvenu Moyengo, president of the provincial assembly, who called for a tax boycott by citizens in protest against poor local services, said Makambo. CPJ obtained a transcript of Moyengos statement.

When contacted by CPJ yesterday, Malambo acknowledged ordering the closure of Radio Liberte Lisala and Radio Mwana Mboka, but defended the decision by alleging that the stations were inciting civil disobedience and working to improve the political position of their owners. These media are being dictated by [opposition] politicians, he said. Malambo also claimed that the stations would be closed indefinitely in compliance with local regulations, but did not clarify which regulations.

No charges have been brought against anyone associated with the stations, Makambo told CPJ.

According to Journaliste en Danger, a local press freedom group, Moyengos statement was also broadcast by other radio stations in the province without repercussion.

Over the last year, media outlets in the DRC have been repeatedly targeted by authorities, according to CPJ research.Share this: Twitter

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Kiev, October 18, 2018Russian authorities should thoroughly investigate threats made against Russias independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. A funeral wreath, a severed goats head, and threatening notes were sent to the newspapers Moscow office this week in what the paper said in an editorial statement were the latest threats against its journalists.

Russian authorities must take immediate action to ensure the safety of the brave journalists of Novaya Gazeta and its offices, said Gulnoza Said, CPJs Europe and Central Asia program coordinator in New York. Such threats would be sickening anywhere, but they must be taken particularly seriously in Russia, where words of warnings to journalists for doing their jobs are all too often followed by violence.

The funeral wreath, which Novaya Gazeta said arrived yesterday, came with a note calling reporter Denis Korotkov a traitor to his country. A basket containing a severed goats head and red carnations, that the paper says was delivered to its editorial office today, included a note that read, To Novaya Gazetas chief editor. Greetings to you and Korotkov!

A basket containing a severed animals head and note, that was sent to Novaya Gazetas Moscow office. The paper says authorities are conducting a smear campaign against its reporter, Denis Korotkov. (Novaya Gazeta/Anna Artemyeva)

Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent news outlets in Russia, is critical of President Vladimir Putin and his government. The newspaper has said that authorities are conducting a smear campaign against Korotkov, whom authorities said endangered Russian soldiers families by publishing the personal information of pilots serving in the Russian Air Force in Syria.

In its editorial statement, Novaya Gazeta rejected the accusations and said it filed a police report in response to the latest threats against Korotkov.

We have only two weapons: publicitywhich is why we continue to do our jobsand the law, Novaya Gazeta said. Russian authorities, the newspaper argued, are required to do everything they can to give us the protection of the law.

Russias Interior Ministry and the Moscow police department did not immediately respond to CPJs email requesting for comment. CPJs calls made late today went unanswered.

Prior to joining Novaya Gazeta, Korotkov worked for the Fontanka news website. According to reports, the journalist was forced into hiding after receiving threats for his reporting at Fontanka about a shadowy Russian mercenary group called Wagner, which according to Russian and international media, has operated in war-stricken areas including eastern Ukraine, Syria, and the Central African Republic.

CPJ documented earlier this year how three journalists who were investigating the Wagner group in the Central African Republic, for the Moscow-based investigative media outlet Investigations Management Centre, were shot and killed.

Five Novaya Gazeta reporters have been murdered for their work since 2000, according to CPJ data.A family of six lost children lives quietly in a small apartment among strangers in this northern Iraqi city. The 'man of the house,' an 18-year-old, heads out each morning looking for day labour jobs to pay the rent. His 12-year-old sister acts as the mother, cooking meals, cleaning and caring for her young siblings.Their home village is less than an hour's drive away, but they can't go back  Shiite militiamen burned down their house because their father belonged to the Islamic State group. And they fear retaliation by their former neighbours, so deep is the anger at the militants who once ruled this area.So the Suleiman children are left to fend for themselves. Their father is in prison. Their mother died years ago. They are traumatised by deaths of loved ones in the war and by their own family turmoil. In their temporary home, they lie low, worried their new neighbours will learn of their family's IS connection.'I am tired,' said the 12-year-old, Dawlat, a slim girl whose face is almost unshakably solemn. 'My mother visits me in my dreams. I get scared when the power is out at night. I would love my father and mother to be here next to me.'Thousands of children of Islamic State group members, many of them abandoned like Dawlat's family, are the innocent victims of the brutal rise and destructive fall of Daesh, the acronym by which IS is known. The stain they carry points to how thoroughly Iraq's social fabric was torn apart by the militants' nearly three-year-rule over much of the country's north and west.When the Sunni Muslim IS took over those territories in a 2014 blitz, it massacred Shiite Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, Sunni Muslim fighters and members of the police or military who fell into its hands. And it drove out others, often either destroying or giving away their homes.It inflicted a radical version of Shariah law on fellow Sunnis, killing many who violated it or those who opposed their rule. Some Iraqi Sunnis joined the group, either out of conviction or because of the economic benefits membership brought. Many more were its victims. Informants turned in neighbours, leading to punishments ranging from lashings to a bullet in the head in a public square.Now that IS has been driven out of almost all its territory, many of its victims want vengeance.A senior police officer in the northern province of Nineveh said he knew of at least 100 homes in and around the city of Mosul that have been demolished by tribesmen angry over IS members living there. Daesh-linked families have been shot at and had grenades thrown at their homes, he said. Members of the Yazidi religious minority  whom the militants singled out for some of their worst brutalities, massacres of the men and enslavement of the women  have retaliated by destroying homes in Arab villages in their heartland in the Singar area, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with his agency's regulations.Thousands of Iraqis are in prison over suspected IS ties and an unknown number of Daesh members were killed in the war. That leaves potentially tens of thousands of children without male heads of households and often without female ones.The stigma against the children is powerful.Even extended families in some cases refuse to take in abandoned children of IS members, said a relief official with an international agency that has worked to find homes for such children. The relatives may worry about being tainted themselves or come under pressure from their tribes not to accept the kids, she said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk about the agency's work.Most children of Iraqi IS members live mingled among the hundreds of thousands still languishing in camps for those displaced by the three years of fighting that brought down IS. More than 1,000 live with incarcerated mothers in overcrowded jails or juvenile detention facilities.A few dozen are in orphanages. One, in Baghdad, houses the children of foreign jihadis who came from abroad to join the IS and are now dead or imprisoned.Police have set up checkpoints on all streets leading to it. There has already been at least one foiled attempt to attack the orphanage.The children at the center of this resentment are often profoundly traumatized, whether from their lives with the Islamic State group or from the war itself.At another orphanage, in Mosul, a 9-year-old Iraqi girl named Amwaj said her father was killed fighting for IS. Then her home was hit by shelling, killing her mother and three of her siblings. She watched her mother's body being dug from the rubble.'Her face was covered with blood,' she said, her hands spread over her cheeks to demonstrate.The girl, whose name means 'waves' in Arabic, looked haunted, her eyes wandering and often near tears, her voice barely audible. In the orphanage, she takes care of her three surviving brothers, 10-year-old Mohammed and Hashem and Tahrir, both younger than her.She said she remembers her father giving her money to buy chips and soda. She dreams of him coming to the orphanage to take her home. She dreams of her mother brushing her hair.Dawlat, her 18-year-old brother Saleh and their siblings  Abdullah, 16; 8-year-old Adam; a 6-year-old sister, Umaimah; and 4-year-old Dawoud  carry on their shoulders the multiple tragedies they endured from the time IS took over their hometown, outside the city of Hawija, in 2014.They suffered at the hands of Daesh, at the hands of Daesh's enemies and at the hands of their own father.Their father joined the group and worked repairing generators for the militants. An older brother also joined and was killed fighting for IS. An older sister was killed by a roadside bomb as she tried to flee IS territory.Family turmoil also tore them apart: It emerged that their father abused one of his daughters. Saleh confronted his father and they lived for months as enemies under one roof. They came to blows several times. Saleh said he even thought of killing his father at night  'but he was awake with his gun next to him.'In retaliation, Saleh said, the father turned him in to Daesh for selling cigarettes, which were banned under IS. The militants flogged Saleh.The teen fled to Kurdish-held territory in March 2016, only to be held for six months by Kurdish fighters on suspicion he belonged to Daesh. Saleh said they hung him from the ceiling by his hands and beat the soles of his feet with a hose.The abused sister was married off to an IS fighter, who was later killed; now 14, she is married again, the second wife of a policeman, and living in a displaced camp.Meanwhile, Daesh found a new wife for their father, forcing a Shiite woman to marry him. The woman, whose own husband had been killed, brought her own four children with her.Two months later, Iraqi forces overran Hawija. The father shaved his beard to shed signs of his IS allegiance and fled with his family, hiding among the tens of thousands of others escaping the city.But his new wife turned him in, telling Kurdish fighters at a checkpoint that he was Daesh. The fighters beat him, then dragged him away  the last any of his family has seen him. The new wife left with her children. She was with them so briefly and wanted so little to do with the family she was forced into that Dawlat and her siblings don't even know her name.The kids were shunted into a camp for the displaced, where they lived for nearly a year. Finally, the husband of another of their sisters arranged an apartment for them in an impoverished Kurdish neighborhood of Kirkuk.Surrounded by neighbors belonging to a community persecuted by IS, Saleh fears being found out. At the same time, members of their extended family have warned them it's not safe to return to their home village, where other relatives might support them. The husband of another of their sisters was arrested a month ago after someone recognised him in the streets as a Daesh member.'I'm often close to tears. I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm 30 after everything I've gone through,' Saleh said.Dawlat's childhood has been stripped away. At their apartment in Kirkuk, she cooks three meals a day; while the younger children are at school, she cleans the house, makes the bed, washes dishes and does laundry. She boasts she can now cook lentils and potatoes and chicken, though she admits she doesn't always get the rice right.There are moments when a smile illuminates Dawlat's face, temporarily sweeping away her perpetual haunted look. She talks of how she once loved school and still hopes to become a doctor or teacher.More immediately, she hopes to get married. In rural Iraq, marriage of young girls is common. Once married, she said, it would be religiously permitted for her to wear make-up. 'I'd like to go to a hairdresser. I have never been to a hair salon,' she said. 'I like my hair long, but I would like to dye it a different color.'But then she reverts to the little girl she is  longing to play, regretting her burdens and, despite everything, missing her father.'He is so dear to me. ... I want him back with us,' she whispered, so Saleh could not hear.-- With Associated PressPhysics teacher Eleanor Wilson will not face a retrial on charges she had sex with a 16-year-old pupil in an aircraft toilet, prosecutors announced yesterday.During a week-long trial at Bristol Crown Court, she was accused of striking up a 'clandestine relationship' with the boy on a school trip to Swaziland, Southern Africa.Jurors, who had been told the teacher lured the teenager into a lavatory on board a flight from Johannesburg to London in the summer of 2015, deliberated for three days. But the case resulted in a hung jury last Wednesday when they failed to reach a majority verdict.The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday announced it would not pursue a retrial. The case is thought to have cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds.Miss Wilson is left without a criminal stain on her character, but her career lies in ruins. Here, we explore the background to a woman with a fine mind but who also possessed a wild streak which contributed to her downfall.HER friends describe her as a 'bit of an attention-seeker'  and who would argue with them?Dressed in vampish black, eyeing the camera coquettishly, her hands placed strategically on her chest, Eleanor Wilson eyes the camera suggestively.This picture, along with another of her provocatively licking a beer bottle, was taken in 2009 while she was a student at York University.It hints at a woman who thrives on drama, a woman who likes to be the centre of attention. A risk-taker.Nine years later, Miss Wilson, who became a physics teacher at a prestigious secondary school in Bristol, was to take the central role in especially lurid scenes played out at Bristol Crown Court.Two versions of what happened on a British Airways flight back to the UK from a school trip to Swaziland were heard during the trial.The first was given by a male former pupil, 16 at the time, who said Miss Wilson had kissed him and touched him intimately before luring him into the toilet, where they had had drunken sex. This sexual encounter, the pupil alleged, resulted in Miss Wilson falling pregnant and subsequently having a termination.The second was given by Miss Wilson herself, who said that far from joining the Mile High Club, she had watched Disney's Cinderella when she wasn't attending to a number of pupils suffering from food poisoning.She had drunk moderately, she said  a mini bottle of red wine and a can of gin and tonic.It was pointed out during the trial that her considerable height  6ft 2in  would have made it nigh on impossible to have sex within a confined aircraft cubicle. Her lace-up hiking boots would also have hindered her.Miss Wilson didn't deny a pregnancy  but said it came about as a result of her relationship with her then boyfriend, Andrew Hall, 29.Last week, the jury told the judge it had been unable to decide who to believe and whether Miss Wilson, 29, was guilty or not. Yesterday the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there will not be a retrial.Yesterday, Miss Wilson's brother, Jethro, speaking at his mother's home, said of his sister: 'I have spoken to her and she is very relieved.'Miss Wilson is free to get on with her life  but the outcome of the trial, unresolved, uncertain, means she will never be able to cast off the shadow of the allegations about joining the 'Mile High Club' with a 16-year-old pupil in her care.It is a humiliating end to what had promised to be a brilliant career for a woman who was regarded as a fine and talented teacher, admired by parents and teachers  as well as pupils  and who had been a star student at school herself.But Ellie Wilson, as well as being brilliantly clever, grew up to be something of an exhibitionist.Her early life was hit by tragedy when her father, Barry Wood, was seriously injured in a motorbike accident the day before her fourth birthday.Mr Wood, a vehicle refinisher who was serving in the RAF when he married her mother, Pauline, in 1984, died days after his little daughter's birthday.And so, in her early years, she was raised by her mother, the manager of a greetings card store, in a terrace house in the former mill community of Silsden, West Yorkshire.Her mother later married Stuart Wilson, operations manager for an electrical equipment manufacturer, and Ellie took his surname.At her comprehensive, South Craven School in nearby Cross Hills, former pupils remember Ellie as a fiercely intelligent, rather 'goofy' schoolgirl , with an insatiable interest in the mysteries of the universe.'School work was something Ellie found extremely easy, but she wasn't remotely practical,' says a friend from those days.'She stuck out wherever she went with her height and blonde hair, but at the same time she was quite goofy and gawky.'ellie's obsession with science made her one of the highest achievers at the school, where she won a coveted Ogden Trust prize for being top of her year in physics.In 2005, she gained six A*s, three As and a B in her GCSEs. They were the second best GCSE results in her year, and merited an article in the local newspaper.'I expected good results, but not this good,' said her mother. 'I am very proud.'Miss Wilson went on to study five A-levels  two more than most of her peers.But another side to the goofy high achiever was beginning to emerge.'She was really intelligent, but she was also flirty and an attention-seeker,' another former friend told the Mail.'She lost her best friends when she came on to the boyfriend of one of them, but she didn't seem to care.'Around this time, she had her first brush with the law.According to local news reports, she appeared in court aged 18 after knocking down a teaching assistant at the school in her car in June 2007 while looking for a parking space.The woman suffered a fractured knee, broken finger and badly grazed her face. Miss Wilson pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention. She said it had been raining hard at the time and she had not seen the woman.Skipton magistrates imposed six penalty points on her licence and fined her 100. She was also ordered to pay 45 costs and a 15 victims' surcharge.But Miss Wilson put this little blip behind her and went on to take a degree in Experimental Physics at the University of York, graduating with first class honours in 2011. She then qualified as a teacher.In 2012, Miss Wilson moved down to the West Country with her then-boyfriend, Andrew Hall, when he won an apprenticeship at a Ministry of Defence office based in Bristol.She took up a position within a secondary school in the city. Her colleagues and superiors were impressed by her teaching ability, and within a year she had been promoted to head of Key Stage Four the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs,The headteacher of the school, which cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court: 'She was an excellent teacher  incredibly hard working. She taught engaging lessons and she was popular among colleagues, students and parents.'Unusually, I had parents emailing me to thank her for the work she'd done with their son or daughter.'But in the summer of 2015, Miss Wilson's brilliant career was to take a dramatic and destructive turn.Whatever did or did not happen on that flight from Johannesburg, there is no doubt Miss Wilson had an inappropriate relationship with the boy.The evidence heard in court suggested that she was obsessed with him. It emerged during the trial, for example, that Wilson exchanged some 339 texts, calls and multimedia messages with the pupil, who had her saved in his phone under the moniker Smurfette. Most of these were deleted before the police could retrieve them.After the trip to Swaziland, Miss Wilson was alleged to have had sexual contact with the boy on three further occasions  once in his bedroom after lunch at Nando's and again on day trips the pair went on to Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire and Ashton Court Estate, a country park in Bristol.In court, Miss Wilson admitted seeing the pupil on these occasions and texting him 'almost daily' over the summer, but said these meetings were innocent and because she had 'no one else to turn to'. The court heard that her relationship with Mr Hall was in trouble and that they rarely had sex  and it was said that the pregnancy was highly unlikely to have come about as a result of Miss Wilson's relations with him.It was alleged she told the boy she was pregnant and told him of her plans to have an abortion. Prosecutor Virginia Cornwall showed jurors a long, angst-ridden note the boy had written on his phone about the termination.'Did you want me to have no choice to kill my own child?' it read. 'Why are you trying to f***ing kill me? You took my happiness, you took my dream, you took my confidence?'Those times on the grass in the summer laughing . . . kissing, touching me, telling me you love me.'The school rumour mill went into overdrive. The pupil's parents and staff at the school became involved and he told his story  that he and Miss Wilson had joined the Mile High Club on the A380 Airbus on the flight back to the UK.Into this already inflammatory situation entered blackmail.In February 2016, Wilson received an email from the anonymous sender which read: 'I know about you and [the boy]. Wouldn't want that coming out, would we. I have a deal, reply if you're interested. Yours, anonymous.' The pupil also attached a picture of his genitals.Rather than immediately reporting the emails to the headteacher, Wilson sent replies to the sender over the course of two days.But the pressure was getting to her. One day she broke down and told the headteacher she was being blackmailed. The messages were traced to a pupil, who was removed from the school. They triggered the inquiry which led to Wilson being dismissed in May 2016. She was banned from teaching by a tribunal in July 2017.After her arrest, she was indignant. In her police interview, she said the boy's story sounded like 'some weird porn film'. But despite her arrest, trial and all its accompanying sensational headlines, Miss Wilson appears to be happy again in a new relationship, and she walked into Bristol Crown Court every day, hand in hand with her new boyfriend, 27-year-old Josh Hawkins.She appears to have moved on with her life. For the pupil she may or may not have had a steamy encounter with on a BA plane, it may take quite a bit longer.Bihar: Wetlands are on a ventilator, but there is still hope from the ground

by Gurvinder Singh

October 18,2018 | Source: Mongabay

Seventy-year-old Narayan Sahni reminiscences the days when he used to catch around 8-10 kilograms of fish from the Kanwar Lake in Bihar almost every day. The catch was enough to run his family of four, including his two children. But for the past decade, he finds it a challenge to even catch 400-500 grams of fish from the lake over two days. Narayan fears that the Sahnis, a traditional fishing community from Bihar, would disappear from the state landscape if no serious steps are taken to save the wetlands.



There is hardly any fish left in the lake as most of the area has been encroached on or transformed into agricultural land. There is no water even during the monsoons. Mass constructions have blocked the entry points of water into the lake, which has led to the destruction of biodiversity and loss of our livelihood, he rued, taking a long breath and getting lost in memories of when the lake alone fed the hungry mouths of thousands of fishermen who depended on it.



A few metres away, Ravindra Sahni (40) has returned, disappointed after spending over five hours in the wetlands. The catch is not enough to feed his family, leave alone selling it. I started early, around 4 am in the morning, in the hope of catching some fish but I got virtually nothing. The handful of fish is too little for my children. I cannot think of selling it. The wetlands have become death lands for us where our epitaphs would be written, he said sounding visibly sad over the present state of affairs.



Situated in Begusarai district of north Bihar, around 125 kilometers from the state capital Patna, the Kanwar Lake Bird Sanctuary best summarises the fate of the wetlands in the state, which are in bad state thanks to excessive encroachments, coupled with the apathy of the administration that is yet to take the issue of dying wetlands seriously.



The rapidly shrinking Kanwar lake



The word lake now appears to be a misnomer for Kanwar, which has the distinction of being Asias largest oxbow lake. It has shrunk rapidly post 2000. An extensive study by Ashok Ghosh, a scientist and incumbent chairman of the Bihar State Pollution Control Board has found that the lake covered 6,786 hectares in 1984, which reduced to 6,043.825 hectares in 2004. By 2012, the lake was a mere 2,032 hectares in area. His research had also found that the net area sown was 60 percent while the land put to non-agricultural use was 5.13 percent; the permanently water-logged area was a mere 2.80 percent.



The local fishermen want the sanctuary area to be reduced to 566 hectares and declared as a Krishi-cum-Pakshi Vihar but so far the demand has remained unfulfilled. Even other lakes like Baraila and Gogabil suffer from similar issues of encroachment and siltation that is turning the water dirty.



Bihars wetlands



The National Wetland Atlas of Bihar in 2010 had identified over 4416 wetlands with around 130 wetlands having an area of over 100 hectares. In addition, 17582 wetlands (smaller than 2.25 hectares) were also identified. The total wetland area was estimated to be around 4032.09 square km  about 4.4 per cent of the geographic area. The state government has declared nine wetlands covering an area of 125 square km as protected areas. Seven of these protected areas are bird sanctuaries. Almost 90 percent of the wetlands are in North Bihar and are dependent upon six major tributaries of the Ganga flowing out from the central Himalaya on to the plains, between the Nepalese border and the Ganga itself.



From the river Gandak in the west to river Mahananda in the east, the northern part of the Gangetic plains is studded with numerous small freshwater lakes and chaurs (tectonic depressions), the vast majority of which are oxbow lakes marking the historical courses of the Bayanadi, Burhi Gandak, Sapt Kosi and Mahananda rivers.



The damage to the wetlands is not confined to these districts alone. The situation is worse in the state capital Patna, where several water bodies have been grabbed thanks to soaring land prices. The disappearance of water bodies leads to massive water-logging during heavy showers in the city. The erratic rainfall due to climate change has increased the importance of wetlands. They are equipped with natural water sinking capacity and absorb the water during the rains which is utilised for fishing and agricultural purposes. In Bihar and especially in Patna, the situation has reached to such a point that even the water bodies owned by the government have been encroached for illegal constructions, pointed out Kumar Deepak, environment officer, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The choking of drains leads to water logging in the state capital and its periphery.



Wetlands are extremely important for Bihar that suffers from high level of arsenic in water. Ghosh claims that a whopping one million people in 18 districts of state are reeling under arsenic poisoning against the official claim of 13 districts by the state government. The worst affected districts include Bhojpur, Buxar, Vaishali, Bhagalpur Saharsa and Khagaria.



In 2004-05, he had found 1900 micrograms of arsenic in one litre of water in the outskirts of Patna against the World Health Organization (WHO) prescribed limit of 10 micrograms. The wetlands are the natural purifiers of toxic water as they dilute the arsenic level and recharge the underground water. The state needs more wetlands for survival but the rapid urbanisation has been leading to the spread of severe ailments like cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases among others as due to high level of arsenic in water, said Ghosh.



Poor management



To add to the misery, a Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by NITI Aayog in June this year had placed Bihar among the worst performing states in terms of water management. The report expressed concern as the states performing poorly on this index are home to around 50 percent of the countrys population and make up its agricultural basket.



The CWMI comprised 9 broad sectors with 28 different indicators covering various aspects of ground water, restoration of water bodies, irrigation, farm practices, drinking water, policy and governance. When quizzed about it, senior state government officials in private raised questions on the authenticity of the report. Wetlands are also home to a large range of birds, mammals, amphibians, fish, insects, crustaceans and reptiles.



Ali Hussain, a well-known naturalist, concedes that the vanishing wetlands have also deprived migratory birds of their safe havens. Their numbers have obviously come down and fast disappearing wetlands is one of the reasons for it. The birds do not get adequate water and food as sugarcane cultivation has replaced the grains in most of the Gangetic wetlands flocked by the birds, he said, while also blaming poaching for their dwindling numbers (despite the ban). In 2016, the Bihar government took a significant step in the conservation of water bodies by banning the construction or re-construction of any building within a strip of land covering 200 metres of any water body.



The state government is serious about the conservation of wetlands and it has already denied permission to construct a medical college over a wetland in Samastipur. We are trying to clear the inflow-outflow mechanism of the lakes so that they get uninterrupted supply of water. The state irrigation department has also prepared a budget proposal of Rs 5 crore for the protection of water bodies in the state, said Santosh Tiwari, nodal officer (wetlands) in Bihar, while adding that the State Wetland Authority is yet to become functional. He said that the government is focusing on the revival of Kanwar Lake, Baraila Bird Sanctuary in Baraila and Kusheshwar Asthan Bird Sanctuary in Darbhanga, all of which need immediate attention.



A ray of hope from the ground



Amidst the grim, there is a story of hope too. A section of people have realised the importance of wetlands and are trying hard to save them. The case at point is Mutlupur in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, where a group of farmers have turned the wetlands into a productive area and source of livelihood.



The area is flood-prone as the rivers Gandak and Bagmati skirt the village on the northern and southern sides. The village had 87 acres of low-lying wetland, which were considered a blight since they were seemingly non-productive. A group of 22 farmers consulted veterinary, agricultural, fishery and horticultural experts to apply on the ground the latest technologies and developments in integrated farming. The farmers have planted over 16,000 timber saplings in a bid to create green cover. The revival of the wetland has also led to an increase in fish catch that has generated livelihoods for several local youth and has managed to arrest migration.



Experts say that conservation of wetlands is necessary as they play host of roles in the ecosystem, The damage to the wetlands stop carbon sequestration as they begin to release significant amounts of the stored carbon back into the atmosphere in the form of methane reducing their ability to sequester additional carbon. Their basic function was to act as sponges and they were natures own initiative at flood control but large scale urbanisation has led to the massive damage during the floods. Their sinking capacity is declining and they have been reduced to cesspools of foul-smelling filth. They were also home to variety of medicinal plant species used by the rural masses to treat many kinds of disorders but their destruction have also spelled doom for natural treatment of ailments, rued Nilanjan Ghosh, Senior fellow and head of economics and water governance at Observer Research Foundation (ORF). He concluded that creating awareness is the best and perhaps the only option to prevent wetlands from becoming wastelands.Iran Human Rights (IHR); October 17, 2018: Three prisoners were hanged in Iranian cities of Maragheh and Isfahan on murder charges.





According to the IHR sources, on the morning of Tuesday, October 16, Mowloud Shah-Hosseini, 29, from the Iranian city of Divandarreh, was executed at Isfahan Central Prison. He was convicted to death on both murder and drug-related charges. However, the execution was carried out for the murder charge.





On the same day, another prisoner, Behrouz Ansari Lenjan, was executed at Isfahan Central Prison. A source close to the prisoner, told IHR, "Behrouz was convicted to death for murdering a man whose name was Majid. Majid owed Behrouz 7 million Tomans. They fought and unfortunately, Majid was killed."





Another prisoner, Aslan Shirani, 33, was executed on Sunday, October 14, at Maragheh Prison. He was from the Iranian city of Miandoab and was executed on murder charges. A well-known source told IHR, "Aslan's business partner, Hatam, owed him 45 million Tomans. They could not solve their financial disputes; they fought and Aslan killed his business partner during the fight. This happened three years ago."





The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned executions so far.

Man Hanged at Ilam Prison

Iran Human Rights (IHR); October 17, 2018: A prisoner was executed at Ilam Central Prison on murder charges this morning.





According to the IHR sources, the prisoner identified as Kourosh (Ali) Behzadian. The source told, "Kourosh was married with two sons. He was addicted to Methamphetamine. Six years ago, Kourosh broke into a neighbour's house for robbery. He killed the elderly neighbour woman and also hit her husband into the head. The man went into a coma, however, he survived and told who was the attacker."





The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned execution so far.

Man Hanged at Ferdows County Prison

Iran Human Rights (IHR); October 17, 2018: A prisoner was executed at Ferdows County Prison on murder and armed robbery charges last Sunday.





According to HRANA, on Sunday, October 14, a prisoner named Ayyub Jahandar, 28, from Torbat Heydariye city, was hanged at Ferdows County prison.





According to the prisoner's relatives, "Mr Jahandar was accused of murdering a person during an armed robbery that happened six years ago. His brother also convicted to 15 years of imprisonment for assisting Ayyub in the robbery."





Ferdows County is a county in the north of South Khorasan Province in Iran. Around 300 prisoners are held in the county's prison.





The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned execution so far.

Two Men Executed in Shahrekord Prison

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Iran Human Rights (IHR); October 15, 2018: Two Prisoners were executed on murder charges at Shahrekord prison yesterday morning.HRANA identified the aforementioned prisoners as Saleh Dehkordi, 38, and Yarali Nouri, 40.Saleh Dehkordi was in prison for 7 years for murdering a person and convicted to qisas (retribution in kind).The Iranian media outlets have not published news related to the aforementioned execution so far.According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges. There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent. Iran Human Rights , October 16-17, 2018Hyderabad: Criticising TRS president and caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for calling his AP counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu shani (bad omen) for Telangana, TS TD president L. Ramana on Wednesday said, KCR has lost his mind. The writing is on the wall about his departure from politics.

He said Mr Rao had presented five Budgets with a total estimated expenditure of Rs 6,75,000 crore but had projected a deficit of Rs 2 lakh crore. He demanded that Mr Rao explain into whose pockets did the Rs 8 lakh crore go.

Ramana said the TRS nominees were being questioned about issues as the people had understood their game plan. They are running away from the people, he said. Even in Gajwel, where Mr Rao was planning to contest, would not be easy for the TRS.

Terming Mr Rao a  traitor in politics, Mr Ramana said Mr Naidus utterances may lack poise but he had been with the people in Srikakulam for four days helping them in the aftermath of Cyclone Titli. Mr Rao did not have the concern to console the victims of the Kondagattu bus tragedy, he said.

He said Telangana society was awakening and the subterfuge and conspiracies of Mr Rao would no longer be tolerated. He called Mr Rao a mundamopi.

TD Politburo member Ravula Chadrasekhar Reddy ridiculed the partial TRS manifesto, and said he had never seen such a document of lies. He said targeting Mr Naidu would not get Mr Rao any votes as the TD was a member in anb alliance. At the zenith of dictatorship, KCR is resorting to spreading lies on TD, he said.

Sources said the TS TD's T. Devender Goud committee had finalised the draft manifesto and was fine-tuning the assurances within the framework of common minimum programme of the Prajakutami to keep the support base of the party intact.Parts of Hanoi's metro line will be invested by Japan's ODA. Photo by VnExpres

Japan is concerned about serious delays in disbursement of funds for major official development assistance (ODA) projects in Vietnam.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) said in a statement on Wednesday that there was undue delay in multiple ODA projects in Vietnam, including one section of the Ho Chi Minh City Metro line, two sections of the Hanoi Metro line and the Maritime Safety Capability Improvement Project.

These delays were happening because of the public debt cap of 65 percent of the GDP that the Vietnamese government has set; as well as other policies issued in recent years to control public debt, JICA said.

The disbursement delay in ODA projects, including those funded by JICA, is becoming more serious, it added.

The Japanese government has had high-level discussions with its Vietnamese counterpart about budget allocation this year and there has been apparent improvement, JICA said.

But Vietnam still needs to allocate more funds for major projects that need capital such as the HCMC Metro line and other projects under the management of the Ministry of Transport, it added.

We hope that the Vietnamese government will soon come up with a solution.

In another statement last month, JICA had affirmed that Vietnam could continue receiving Japanese ODA loans for several decades to come, until the country gets out of the upper-middle income category.

An upper middle-income country is defined as those having gross national income (GNI) per capita in the range of $3,956 - 12,235.

Last year, this figure for Vietnam was $6,450, up 6.3 percent year-on-year.

JICA granted 39.5 billion yen ($350.7 million) in ODA funds to Vietnam in the first six months of this year, and 23.4 billion ($207.6) from April to September.A Vietnamese farmer works on a rice field in the Mekong Delta region in Vietnam. Photo by Shutterstock/Sirisak_baokaew

Vietnam could recall an order that requires companies to re-export wheat cargoes containing Canada thistle, the government said on Wednesday.

Vietnam, whose main wheat suppliers include Russia, Australia and Canada, has been battling with imports contaminated with thistle seed, or cirsium arvense seeds, since May. The government is concerned that the contaminated cargoes could cause the Canada thistle weed to spread across the country and potentially harm domestic crop yields.

Last month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments plant protection department said cargoes containing cirsium arvense would have to be re-exported starting in November.

The department also proposed the agriculture ministry consider halting imports of wheat cargoes contaminated with the thistle seeds, though it did not give a time frame, sparking opposition from local businesses that use wheat.

On Wednesday, Mai Tien Dung, the head of the Government Office, which supports the Prime Minister, and acts as a spokesman for the government, said it would recommend the agriculture ministry recall the re-export order while continuing a comprehensive assessment of the import halt.

In terms of legality, this (order) is beyond (the department)s legal authority... (and) massively impacts manufactures that use wheat as material such as confectionery and instant noodle, said Dung, in a statement on the Vietnamese governments official website.

The agriculture ministry is working to resolve the issue, the statement said.

Russia is the biggest supplier for wheat to Vietnam, accounting for 57 percent of the 3.99 million tonnes of imports in the first nine months of 2018, followed by Australia and Canada, customs data showed.

Russias food safety watchdog has been beefing up quality controls on grain exports due to complaints from major buyers and the lower quality of its crop. Last week, it said it will inspect grain loading at ports to ensure export quality.

Hoang Trung, the head of the plant protection department , said last week there was a high risk of the thistle intruding into Vietnam, possibly causing incalculable consequences, state-run Vietnam Television reported.

Trung said if the seeds are spread in Vietnam, cattle cannot eat them and other countries could immediately create technical trade barriers or ban imports from Vietnam.

He suggested companies import wheat from thistle-free countries such as Kazakhstan, Australia and Argentina.A large number of condotel projects are located in Nha Trang coastal city in the central Khanh Hoa province. Photo by Shutterstock/Nguyen Phuc Thanh

No more condotels should be built in Vietnam and the focus should instead be on developing existing ones, says Vietnam Realtor.

In a report on the market in the third quarter, the association of real estate agents said the supply of condotels exceeds demand, echoing previous warnings of oversupply by many experts and market research firms.

Data from real estate consultants DKRA Vietnam shows high oversupply of condotels in the second quarter, with 2,100 new units coming online, but only 850 sold.

Unsold condotel units accounted for 74 percent in Khanh Hoa province, 78 percent in Binh Dinh province, and 91 percent in Da Nang City. DKRA said that the condotel oversupply situation might worsen in the future as more projects of over 1,000 units each year are being built.

Some 23,000 condotel units were built in the country last year, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA). Last year only 33 percent of condotels were sold, just half the rate reported in 2016, it said.

HoREA in August last year estimated that between 2017 and 2019 around 29,000 condotels would be built.

But buyers are keeping away, one of the reasons being the lack of laws governing condotels, Vietnam Realtor said.

There have been disputes between buyers and management companies over ownership and maintenance of condotels.

Industry insiders said since authorities do not issue title deeds for condotels, many people are wary of buying them.

Management companies and buyers are waiting for a law so that their rights can be guaranteed when investing in this type of property, Nguyen Manh Ha, deputy chairman of the Vietnam National Real Estate Association, told a forum last August.

Vietnam Realtor said high prices are another reason for the anemic sales. Condotels are now sold at VND35-50 million ($1,493-2,133) per square meter, even VND70 million ($2,987) in some places.

This price range makes it difficult for buyers to resell later, the report added.After five years of ups and downs, the $1.4-billion Da Nang  Quang Ngai Expressway has been completed, or not.

Construction of the expressway that runs 139 kilometers (86 miles) between Da Nang City and Quang Ngai Province started in May 2013. The project was divided into 13 packages with a total investment of VND34.5 trillion ($1.4 billion), raised through loans of VND16.79 trillion from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and VND12.42 trillion from the World Bank, and the rest contributed as counterpart funds by the Vietnamese government.

This photo taken in August 2016 shows a house that had to be removed under a site clearance plan for the expressway. The main investor, Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC), claimed 1,180 hectares of land for the project, for which 18,550 families and 175 public projects had to be relocated.

A bulldozer works on the expressway in May 2017.

An underpass was built in August 2017, as part of the expressway. There are 228 roads cutting the expressway in total.

The first phase of the project opened to traffic in August 2017, running 65 km from Da Nang to Tam Ky Town in Quang Nam Province. The expressway has a total width of 22 meters with four lanes, allowing vehicles to travel at 120 km per hour.

Work started in December 2017 on the second phase of the expressway project, running from Tam Ky Town to Quang Ngai Province. The investor promised to get the entire expressway ready for test driving in late June 2018 but kept missing the deadline repeatedly.

When Transport Minister Nguyen Van The (front) inspected the project in early August this year, he said he was satisfied with neither the quality nor the progress of the project.

The quality of the asphalt concrete is not consistent at some sections, he noted.

Following Thes feedback, the investor peeled off the asphalt concrete surface on four sections of the second phase and did the asphalt work all over again.

Those four sections were in areas where the investor had conflict with locals over site clearance and thus, the contractors had to rush to finish work on those sections right after they could take the land, which led to the inconsistent quality, said Tran Van Tam, director of VEC.

The entire expressway fully opened to traffic just last month, reducing the travel time between Da Nang and Quang Ngai from three hours to a little over an hour.

However, the section that had opened in August 2017, or the first phase of the project, is now undergoing repairs after cracks and potholes measuring hundreds of square centimeters wide and 5-10 centimeters deep were seen early this month in the aftermath of a heavy downpour.

On the Transport Ministrys orders, Vietnamese construction firm Tuan Loc began repairing the road on Monday. The ministry has blamed both the projects main investor VEC and the contractor for the damage. It also demanded that VEC supervises other investors in identifying the damaged sections and fixing them, and said the corporation cannot toll fees on the expressway until it is fully prepared.

Nguyen Tien Thanh, director of the expressway management board, claimed that the damage was caused by heavy rain and the fact that heavy trucks were using it, and not because of poor construction work.

However, VEC director Tran Van Tam said Monday that the rain was only a contributing factor to the damage. He said repair work would be completed before Wednesday noon.

The transport ministry has decided to suspend the toll collection until the repair work is finished.Five Vietnamese nationals in Australia have pleaded guilty to roles in a $2.8 million cannabis operation, The Herald reports.

Hundreds of cannabis plants were found in six separate homes in the suburbs of Maitland, New South Wales during multiple raids in the area by local police in February, the Wednesday report said.

Vuong Luu Quoc, Anh Quang Pham, Tuan Dac Trinh and Kim Phuong admitted in the Newcastle Local Court Wednesday to crop sitting the cannabis plants at homes in Tenambit, Heddon Greta and Morpeth in February.

Crop sitting refers to the act of living inside homes while watering and keeping watch on cannabis plants grown there.

Anh Thy Vu, wife of Quoc, pleaded guilty to "concealing a serious indictable offense" after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew a charge of "cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant," quoted The Herald. She was said to not have been involved in the cultivation of the cannabis plants.

Quoc and Pham pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quantity of a prohibited plant.

Quoc, Pham, Trinh and Phuong will appear in the Newcastle District Court to get their sentence dates next week. Quoc is also likely to be deported once hes eligible for parole.

Magistrate Robert Stone placed Vu under a two-year community correction order and ordered her not associate with Quoc.

Last month, another Vietnamese man in Australia was sentenced to five years in jail for cultivating $750,000 worth of cannabis plants and stealing $151,000 worth of electricity. He also faces deportation after hes released from prison.

Australia is fairly relaxed about cannabis use. In February 2016 the Federal Government passed laws to legalize medicinal cannabis to treat patients with painful and chronic conditions with products imported from overseas.

It has also given the green light for licensed companies to legally import, store and sell the drug until domestic production meets local needs.

But cannabis is still illegal in Vietnam and its cultivation is punishable by up to seven years in jail.The US' Business Insider names the Mekong Delta in Vietnam as a one-of-a-kind destination for year-end travel.

The sites editors selected 13 best destinations for year-end travel, based on flight cost trends, climate information and international cultural calendars.

Among three Asian destinations in the list is the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

A boat tour in the mangrove forest in An Giang Province, Mekong Delta. Photo by Shutterstock

The site recommended several must-try travel experiences in ther region, including guided boat tours on the labyrinthine Mekong river and its many distributaries.

It also said visitors should not miss out on the unique floating markets in the Mekong Delta, the most notable of them being the Cai Rang Market in Can Tho City.

A floating market in Can Tho. Photo by VnExpress

The Sam Mountain in Chau Doc District, An Giang Province, is also endorsed as one of the spectacles in the area. Standing atop this 284-meter high mountain, tourists can enjoy a magnificent view of the delta.

Other Asian destinations on the list include Hong Kong, with with its unique Christmas celebration, and Boracay Island in the Philippines. The site also recommends the resort town of Punta del Este, Uruguay, Banff National Park of Canada, and Australia's southernmost state, Tasmania.

Located in the southwest of Vietnam, the Mekong Delta is the nations agricultural hub, known as its rice granary. Also known as the "Western region" of Vietnam, the area also boasts the largest fisheries exports in the country.Chinese tourists arrive in the popular resort town of Nha Trang City in the central province of Khanh Hoa. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Ngoc

Chinese visitors splurged $130 a day on average in Vietnam last year, up from $119 in 2014.

China has maintained its place as the biggest feeder market of Vietnams tourism in recent years, accounting for one third of all international visitors. More than four million Chinese visitors were welcomed last year, up 48.6 percent from the previous year.

The surge in Chinese tourists has been a big boost for the local tourism sector because the visitors are also spending more in the country.

Survey results released Tuesday by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, reveal the average daily spending by the Chinese increased from $118.6 in 2014 to $130 last year.

Compared to other regional countries, the daily spending was below that of Chinese visitors in Thailand ($180), Indonesia ($183) and Singapore ($446).

Tourism authorities are working hard to sustain the strong growth in the number of Chinese tourists.

Many direct flights connecting Vietnamese major cities with China have been launched over the past years to cater to growing travel demand.

Chinese visitors have been encouraged by a new policy that allows groups of travelers to visit the border province of Quang Ninh in northern Vietnam, home to the popular Ha Long Bay, for up to three days without a visa.

The Vietnamese government has allowed Chinese nationals to apply for a 30-day single-entry electronic visas for holidays and business trips.

Last year, figures from CLSA, a Hong Kong brokerage and investment firm formally known as Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia, showed Vietnam has overtaken France to enter the top 10 popular destinations among Chinese tourists.

The rising popularity shows no sign of slowing down. In the first nine months of this year, the number of Chinese visitors reached 3.8 million, up 29.7 per cent year-on-year.

A Bloomberg report in 2016 said Chinese tourists could have a big impact on Vietnams economy. It said a 30 percent increase in spending by Chinese tourists would boost Vietnams economic growth by nearly 1 percentage point. For Thailand, that would be around 1.6 points.

It quoted Edward Lee, an economist with Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, as saying: Chinese tourism is pretty big for ASEAN now, and all the countries rely on Chinese visitors to keep coming and keep spending.Vietnamese bamboo ensemble with classical aspirations

An ensemble of folk bamboo instruments has set its sights on symphonizing traditional and folk Vietnamese music.

It's a warm October night. Dong Quang Vinh, conductor at the Hanoi-based Vietnam National Academy of Music (VNAM), was surrounded by his ensemble, Suc Song Moi (New Life), and the Hanoi Voices Choir, rehearsing for the Tre Mua Thu (Autumn Bamboo) concert this weekend at L'espace. It was an unusual spectacle. A group of Vietnamese bamboo instrument players facing a classical choir, together practicing Libertango by Italian composer Astor Piazzolla. Suc Song Moi is the only pure bamboo ensemble to play music in a symphonic style, Vinh said with evident pride.

Conductor Dong Quang Vinh. Photo courtesy of Dong Quang Vinh Vinh was born to a family with a strong legacy in traditional music. His father is a bamboo instrument maker and a musician, and his mother is a zither player and teacher. Returning to Vietnam after a nine-year study of conducting classical music in Shanghai, Vinh carried with him the dream of "symphonizing" Vietnamese bamboo music. Classical music is one of my big loves. But I always wanted to do something with traditional music, because Im from Vietnam. The dream took material shape in 2013 with the birth of the Suc Song Moi ensemble. The most noticeable instrument in the ensemble is the Trung, the Vietnamese xylophone made with hollow bamboo sections from the Central Highlands. The artists also play the bamboo flute and Dingpa, another kind of xylophone where the bamboo sections are not strung, but placed upright and played by using two drumsticks with round pads on their ends. Yet another unique bamboo instrument is Ko ni, which is played with both the mouth and a bow.

Suc Song Moi artists play different bamboo instruments at a cultural event. Photo acquired by VnExpress

On special occasions, the artists also play the zither, Vietnamese monochord and include other instruments including the piano and the drum. The core members of Suc Song Moi, however, stick to pure bamboo instruments without any electrical music elements. We play a wide variety of music including Vietnamese songs and foreign classical pieces, said Tran Huyen Tran, Bass Trung player of Suc Song Moi. Hearing classical melody comes out from bamboo instrument is an amazing experience. Not easy at all It is a very hard job to make a bamboo instrument. It changes according to the weather, Vinh told VnExpress International. If you make it in summer it will not sound good in winter. You need someone to adjust it, to cut it with his knife, someone with very good skill and ears, and there arent many people who can do it. A member of Suc Song Moi plays the T'rung. Photo by Bao Ngoc While the ensemble is working hard for their performances and towards their dream, many challenges lie in wait.

A lack of compositions for traditional instruments is one of the challenges. It takes a lot of time for the conductor to write his own compositions and arrangements for the orchestra, because very few symphonic music scores for Vietnamese bamboo instruments are recorded and published. The instruments are also difficult to craft. It takes around one month to create a perfect instrument. For 30 people, it takes 30 months, Vinh said. Symphonizing bamboo music Suc Song Moi is not the first group of bamboo instrument artists; it was a continued legacy of Vinh's family band "Tre Viet - one of the few bamboo music bands in Vietnam many years ago.

Suc Song Moi ensemble (L) and Hanoi Voices Choir (R) in a concert rehearsal. Photo by Bao Ngoc

Associating classical elements with Vietnamese traditional music is never easy. Classical music pieces are written for classical instruments. Vietnamese instruments do not work the same way, so the adjustments needed are huge, and care has to be taken to select suitable instruments to deliver the spirit of a classical piece, Vinh said.



Suc Song Moi is not only special for its mixture of Western and Eastern music characteristics, but all of the pieces we play are meticulously arranged to optimize the strength of each instrument, said Truong Thu Huong, a lecturer at the Hanoi-based Military University of Culture and Arts and a five-year member of the ensemble. While many Vietnamese traditional musicians rely on oral instruction and improvisation to play traditional music, Suc Song Moi operates in a classical orchestra manner. We have the music score, so we can see the big picture of a performance, said Vinh. In traditional music we usually learn from oral instruction. In Suc Song Moi, we play according to written music sheet, said Nguyen Quynh Anh, traditional music undergraduate at VNAM and a member of Suc Song Moi since 2013.

The ensemble also has foreign artists as participants. We bring people from different backgrounds. We have Japanese, Chinese, and sometimes, German artists, Vinh said, adding, We are international.

To a wider audience Promoting bamboo music among the general audience is central to the ensembles goals. We started with concerts at embassies, cultural centers and then television, Vinh said. Now the ensemble is booked all year round with shows in cultural centers, chambers and opera houses.

Talking about their upcoming Bamboo Lautomne concert at French Cultural Center Hanoi, Vinh said this was the third time and they were bringing a whole new list of pieces to play "This time, we will have a special arrangement of classical pieces like Libertango and G. Bizets Carmen Suite. We will also play The song of Porotok bird, a Vietnamese song, said Bass Trung player Tran. Tre Mua Thu - Bamboo L'automne concert takes place at L'espace center, 24-26 Trang Tien Street at 8 p.m. this Friday and Saturday (October 19-20), featuring the Suc Song Moi ensemble and the Hanoi Voices Choir. The ensemble sometimes plays some favorite pop songs for young audiences. We play some pop songs, but mostly keep it classical. We try to talk to the audience in concerts about our music, Vinh said, Sometimes, at the end of a performance, we give some time for people to try the instrument, and sing with us." We take our music step by step to the audience. Suc Song Moi ensemble performed at a public event in 2017.Momenta, a China-based autonomous driving company, announced Thursday that it has secured a new round of funding at a valuation north of $1 billion.

Existing investor NIO Capital and Pagoda Investment increased their investments. Strategic investors, including Tencent, government funds from Shanghai and Suzhou, China Merchants Group, and CCB International participated in this round.

Earlier, Momenta announced the close of a $46 million round of B-1 funding led by NIO Capital, a B-2 round led by Cathay Capital, an A round led by Shunwei Capital, as well as angel investment from Blue Lake Capital, Sinovation Ventures and Zhen Fund. Since its inception, Momenta has attracted investment totaling more than $200 million.

"This round of funding has strategic importance to the company," Momenta CEO Xudong Cao said, "Momenta will continue to work closely with its strategic partners in automotive, logistics, big data and other related areas."

Founded in September 2016, Momenta is building intelligent systems for autonomous driving, aiming to provide solutions for Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs. Cao said, "In the past two years, Momenta has undergone three phases of development: Phase 1 - Establish big data and computing platforms; Phase 2 - Develop deep-learning algorithms as foundation for Perception, HD Semantic Mapping, and Planning & Control; and Phase 3 - Develop multi-level autonomous driving solutions for mass production for highway and urban scenarios."

This year, Momenta also formed strategic partnership with the government of Suzhou, where the company will deploy a large-scale test fleet to accelerate its Level 4 autonomous driving development and support the government in building smart transportation systems. Momenta has expanded its business to international OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.

Momenta has world-class deep learning experts, including the authors of the most advanced image recognition frameworks, Faster R-CNN and ResNet, and winners of ImageNet 2015, ImageNet 2017, MS COCO Challenge and many other competitions. The team has grown significantly within the past two years with 80 percent of the Momenta team being researchers and developers.A woman places a candle to commemorate the victims of a fatal attack on a college in the Crimean port city of Kerch, at a memorial by the Kremlin walls in Moscow, Russia October 17, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin

A student in the Black Sea region of Crimea on Wednesday fatally shot 19 fellow pupils before killing himself, Russian officials said.

Eighteen-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov turned up at the college in the city of Kerch on Wednesday afternoon carrying a firearm and then began shooting, investigators said. His body was later found in the college with what they said were self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

There were no immediate clues as to his motive in mounting such an attack, which recalled similar shooting sprees carried out by students in U.S. schools.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 , prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

Many of the victims from Wednesdays attacks were teenage students who suffered shrapnel and bullet wounds.

Pupils and staff described scenes of mayhem as panicked pupils tried to flee the building. They said the attack had started with an explosion, followed by more blasts, and a hail of gunfire.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting in the southern Russian resort of Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, declared a moments silence for the victims. This is a clearly a crime, he said. The motives will be carefully investigated.

"Children's bodies everywhere"

The director of the school, Olga Grebennikova, described the scene that she encountered when she entered the college building after the attack.

There are bodies everywhere, childrens bodies everywhere. It was a real act of terrorism. They burst in five or 10 minutes after Id left. They blew up everything in the hall, glass was flying, Grebennikova told Crimean media outlets.

They then ran about throwing some kind of explosives around, and then ran around the second floor with guns, opened the office doors, and killed anyone they could find.

Soon after the attack, Russian officials said they were investigating the possibility that it was terrorism. Troops with armored personnel carriers were sent to the scene. Local parents were told to collect their children from the citys schools and kindergartens for their safety.

Emergency services carry an injured person after a fatal attack on a college in the port city of Kerch, Crimea October 17, 2018. Photo by Ekaterina Kejzo/Courtesy of Kerch.FM/Handout via Reuters TV

However, the Investigative Committee, the state body that investigates major crimes, said later that it was re-classifying the case from terrorism to mass murder.

An employee at Kerchs hospital said dozens of people were being treated for their injuries in the emergency room and in the operating theater.

Anastasia Yenshina, a 15-year-old student at the college, said she was in a toilet on the ground floor of the building with some friends when she heard the sound of an explosion.

Officials said an explosive device had gone off in the schools cafeteria during the attack and that a second device had been found among Roslyakovs belongings and defused.

I came out and there was dust and smoke, I couldnt understand, Id been deafened, Yenshina told Reuters. Everyone started running. I did not know what to do. Then they told us to leave the building through the gymnasium.

Everyone ran there... I saw a girl lying there. There was a child who was being helped to walk because he could not move on his own. The wall was covered in blood. Then everyone started to climb over the fence, and we could still hear explosions. Everyone was scared. People were crying.

Photographs from the scene of the blast showed that the ground floor windows of the two-story building had been blown out, and that debris was lying on the floor outside.

Emergency services teams could be seen in the photographs carrying wounded people from the building on makeshift stretchers and loading them on to buses and ambulances.

A second pupil at the college, who gave his name as Sergei, said he had taken a few steps out of the building into the street when the first blast went off. He was hit by debris from the blast and injured in the leg.

Sergei, 15, told Reuters he ran to another building, but said he could hear more explosions going off every few seconds. He took cover and after the attack was over, he was taken to hospital in an ambulance.

I arrived at the hospital, the scene there was awful. Theyre bringing in people all covered in blood, some with arms missing, some with legs missing.NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

Highlights of the Transaction

CSAC has executed agreements to acquire 5 existing companies to create an anchor portfolio (the Anchor Portfolio) of vertically integrated operations in the Eastern and Western United States, pending regulatory approval on licensing and structure

The Anchor Portfolio was assembled based on anticipated 2018 profitability and strength of the resulting platform for future growth The Anchor Portfolio consists of positive Adjusted EBITDA 1 , vertically integrated operators in limited license states with large addressable consumer populations The Anchor Portfolio companies comprise proven operators with deep talent pools to contribute expertise to a broader cannabis roll-up The combined operations are expected to have over 325 employees across 3 cultivation and production facilities and 8 dispensaries The quality of the Anchor Portfolio is reflected in the fact that each acquisition target required processes and controls that are expected to be sufficient to pass a 3 year financial audit 2

The Anchor Portfolio possesses a strong growth profile on top of existing positive Adjusted EBITDA 1 Target pro forma revenue of Cdn.$100110 million for 2018, targeted to grow to Cdn.$250270 million for 2019 (excluding additional acquisitions) Pro forma Adjusted EBITDA 1 targeted in the range of Cdn.$30-35 million in 2018, with a goal to grow to Cdn.$130150 million Adjusted EBITDA 1 for 2019 (excluding additional acquisitions) The Anchor Portfolio is anticipated to produce over 5,600 kilograms of finished flower and over 550,000 grams of cannabis oil extract in 2018, targeted to grow to over 31,000 kilograms of finished flower and 3,100,000 grams annually by 2020 3 .

In connection with the Transaction, CSAC has built an outstanding executive team of proven leaders in marketing, operations and finance, areas essential for future CSAC success

Over 35% of the total consideration (valued at share price as of 15 October 2018) to be paid in shares, demonstrating a strong confidence in CSACs value proposition and creating a strong alignment of incentives for all stakeholders.

Going forward, CSAC expects to focus on building beyond its Anchor Portfolio with future acquisitions and organic growth, with a focus on brand and consumer experience

1 See Definition and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures below.

2 CSAC is currently seeking regulatory relief for one target whose 2016 data was lost due to the industry-wide issue involving a cannabis technology service provider in 2016, whereby the technology service provider suffered a complete data loss; it is anticipated that audits will be completed for years excluding 2016 for such Target Business. This relief cannot be assured.

3 Subject to the completion of in place cultivation and product facility expansion plans, anticipated to come on line in 2019 and 2020, including relocating one dispensary, and assuming 2/3 capacity utilization of a new facility in 2020.

TORONTO, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabis Strategies Acquisition Corp. (NEO: CSA.A, CSA.WT, CSA.RT) (CSAC), a special purpose acquisition corporation, or SPAC, that listed in Canada on December 21, 2017, is pleased to announce that it has entered into definitive agreements (the Definitive Agreements) to concurrently acquire the target businesses of Washoe Wellness, LLC (Washoe), The Canopy NV, LLC (Canopy), Sira Naturals, Inc. (Sira), LivFree Wellness LLC (LivFree) and CannaPunch of Nevada LLC (collectively, the Target Businesses or the Anchor Portfolio), which are intended to constitute CSACs qualifying transaction (the Transaction).

The Transaction, upon closing, when final regulatory approvals are received from all applicable jurisdictions, will create a combined enterprise with a strong combination of high-quality assets anchoring the Eastern and Western United States. Assuming closing of the Transaction, CSAC will own three cultivation and production facilities, a facility dedicated to cannabis goods manufacturing, and 8 dispensaries, in addition to key licenses. Summary information, by Target Business, is summarized below:

Company Key Assets Description Washoe 1 Cultivation / Production Facility Washoe is a vertically-integrated cultivator, producer and distributor of cannabis in northern Nevada, focused in Reno in Washoe County and distributing to Las Vegas. Washoe specializes in producing a full spectrum of premium, quality cannabis-based products, including cannabis flower, plant material, concentrates, edibles and topical products through efficient & compliant cultivation, extraction and manufacturing processes. Products include premium cannabis flower, pre-rolls, and a full line of vape pens, disposable vape pens, concentrates, edibles, topicals, & tinctures all made from quality cannabis oil, derived from over 30 different strains of premium THC and CBD cannabis. Washoe is licensed to possess, cultivate, process, and dispense medical and adult-use cannabis throughout Nevada via its well-established KYND brands and through a licensing deal with the recognizable brand --Willies Reserve. The Company began medical sales in Q1 2016 and recreational sales in Q3 2017. LivFree 3 Dispensaries

4 Cultivation/Production Facilities (licensed but not operating) LivFree operates three dispensaries in the state of Nevada: one in Clark County, one in Henderson and one in Reno. In addition, LivFree is separately licensed to operate four additional facilities (two production facilities and two cultivation facilities). LivFrees dispensaries opened in 2016. There will be no impact on the status of the LivFree licenses until the parameters, terms and structure of this transaction is approved by the State of Nevada and all applicable authorities. Canopy 2 Dispensaries Canopy operates two dispensaries in the city of Reno, Nevada, one in downtown Reno adjacent to the casino-resort corridor and a second in the North Valleys, both under the MYNT brand, which was named Best Dispensary in Reno in 2018. The first dispensary (downtown Reno) opened for medical sales in Q1 2017, with adult use recreational sales following in Q3 2017. Adult use recreational sales for the North Valleys location began in Q3 2018. Canopy is Licensed to sell both medical and adult-use cannabis in Nevada. Sira 1 Cultivation / Production Facility

3 Dispensaries Sira is a vertically-integrated producer and seller of medical cannabis and related products in Massachusetts. Sira was among the earliest recipients of licenses to cultivate, manufacture, transport and sell medical marijuana in Massachusetts, and is consistently cited as a best-in-class operator in the state. Sira has also secured provisional licenses to cultivate, manufacturing and transport cannabis and cannabis products for adult use purposes in Massachusetts and intends to apply for licenses to operate adult use cannabis retail establishments. Products include cannabis and cannabis products, including oil, edibles, and vaporizer products. CannaPunch 1 Production Facility

Multiple Brands and Licenses



CannaPunch is a manufacturer and distributor of cannabis-infused products in Nevada and Colorado, and the CSAC purchase entitles CSAC to the rights to the CannaPunch suite of brands across the U.S. outside of Colorado. CannaPunchs key brands include CannaPunch (beverages), Highly Edible (gummies), Dutch Girl (edible), Nordic Goddess (topical salve), and Tumbleweed (oil and other extracts). CannaPunch is licensed to manufacture cannabis products in Nevada.

All information provided herein is pending Nevada, Massachusetts and Colorado regulatory approvals.

Following successful completion of the Transaction, CSAC plans to seek additional growth opportunities through synergy realization, organic growth, expansion of the existing Anchor Portfolio footprint, securing of new licenses and further acquisition activity. The revenue and Adjusted EBITDA1 target ranges for 2019 and 2020 described below incorporate some but not all of the potential areas of future growth for CSAC.

(Cdn$ million) Target Revenue Target Adjusted EBITDA1 2018 2019 2018 2019 Washoe 14.2 40.5 6.1 21.8 LivFree 44.3 56.4 13.2 28.2 Canopy 19.5 23.8 6.2 8.2 Sira 19.9 117.0 4.6 65.0 CannaPunch 8.0 23.2 4.4 16.2 Pro Forma Standalone 105.9 260.9 34.4 139.4

For the year ended 2020, total revenues of Cdn. $500-550 million and total Adjusted EBITDA of Cdn. $300-325 million are targeted from the operations that are proposed to be acquired as part of the Qualifying Transaction. In addition, CSAC is targeting additional company and license acquisitions in each of 2019 and 2020 to add Cdn. $75-150 million in revenues and Cdn. $30-50 million in Adjusted EBITDA each year.

Combined, CSAC is targeting 2019 total revenues of Cdn. $350-375 million, with 2019 targeted Adjusted EBITDA of Cdn. $170-190 million. In 2020, CSACs targeted total revenues are in the range of Cdn. $750-825 million and targeted Adjusted EBITDA in the range of Cdn. $375-400 million.

Following closing of the Transaction, the board of directors and management team of the resulting issuer are expected to be comprised of a group of successful executives and entrepreneurs who are leaders in their fields, with proven track records at large blue chip companies as well as entrepreneurial early stage growth companies, as outlined below.

Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Sandelman

Mr. Sandelman is a 30 year veteran of banking and finance, with a history of generating shareholder value. He served as President of Bank of America Securities after building its capital markets businesses through the early 2000s, building Bank of America beyond its roots as a consumer and corporate lender, and subsequently founded and served as CEO of multi-billion dollar asset manager Sandelman Partners.

Executive Vice Chairman, Mark Smith

Starting in 2014 with the legalization of cannabis in Colorado, Mr. Smith has proven himself a world class cannabis operator. Mr. Smith built a large network of Colorado dispensaries (Tumbleweed), as well as a line of premier edibles and concentrates brands and leading manufacturing capabilities in the Western United States.

Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Burggraeve

Mr. Burggraeve is an award winning global business marketer and active cannabis entrepreneur. He has over 30 years of global marketing experience at Proctor and Gamble, the Coca Cola Company, and AB InBev, where he was global CMO. Chris has also served as a board member and President of the World Federation of Advertisers.

Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer Drake

Ms. Drake is a proven business leader in large blue chip institutions and at lean start-ups. A former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs with extensive M&A experience, Ms. Drake institutionalized the businesses of several multi-billion dollar asset management firms, ensuring compliance with complex regulatory frameworks and creating foundation for accelerated growth.

Head of Wellness (focused exclusively on CBD, Health & Pain Indications), Dr. David Shulkin

Dr. Shulkin is a national thought leader on veterans health and patient-centered care for all Americans. He is a Former Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs under President Trump and Undersecretary under President Obama, with a history of leadership in healthcare organizations including the University of Pennsylvania Health System, Temple University Hospital, Beth Israel Medical Center, and the Morristown Medical Center.

Summary of Transaction

Aggregate consideration for the Transaction payable by CSAC will be comprised of a combination of cash, equity and debt, as follows:

an aggregate of Cdn.$99 million in cash;

the issuance of approximately 7.6 million Class B Shares (upon the exchange of an equal number of exchangeable shares); and

the issuance of promissory notes in an aggregate amount of Cdn.$57 million.

As part of the Transaction, CSAC intends to issue approximately 7.6 million exchangeable shares of a wholly-owned Nevada subsidiary to the vendors of the Target Businesses, which are exchangeable on a one-for-one basis, for Class B shares of CSAC (the Class B Shares) at the option of the holder, subject where applicable to certain contractual lock-up restrictions, and are designed to be economically equivalent (without taking into account tax consequences) to the Class B Shares. True-up provisions apply in certain cases.

After the Transaction, assuming no redemptions of any Class A Restricted Voting shares of CSAC (the Class A Restricted Voting Shares), CSAC expects to have 26.2 million shares outstanding, assuming the exchange of all exchangeable shares. In addition, 16,359,058 warrants of CSAC (the Warrants) with an exercise price of Cdn$11.50 per share are expected to be outstanding, as are rights of CSAC (the Rights) to acquire an additional 1.35 million shares. As described further in the material change report of CSAC to filed in the near future, the fully diluted share count at such date is expected to be 42.6 million shares, before giving effect to any potential future employee stock option plan.

In Nevada, pending final regulatory approval of certain license transfers, CSAC (or its wholly-owned subsidiary) may enter into management services and related agreements with one or more of the Target Businesses, designed to provide CSAC with economically equivalent interests on an interim basis until such time as all necessary approvals are obtained.

The Transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including United States state and local regulatory, Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc. and Canadian securities regulatory authority approvals, as well as certain third party consents and satisfactory completion by CSAC of due diligence. There can be no assurance that these conditions will be satisfied. The Transaction is also subject to CSAC shareholder approval. All of the directors and executive officers of CSAC, along with Mercer Park CB, L.P., CSACs sponsor, have agreed to support the Transaction.

The board of directors of CSAC has unanimously approved the Transaction and determined that it is fair and in the companys best interests. Completion of the Transaction is currently expected to occur, subject to satisfaction of closing conditions, in the first quarter of 2019.

Conference Call Information

Senior management of CSAC will be hosting an investor conference call to allow shareholders an opportunity to hear from and ask questions of management.

Please call in at least 10 minutes prior to the call to register.

Date: Monday, October 22, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. (ET).

Local - Toronto (+1) 416 764 8658 Toll Free - North America (+1) 888 886 7786

CSACs Qualifying Transaction



The Transaction, if closed, will constitute CSACs qualifying transaction and must be approved by CSAC shareholders at a special meeting of shareholders (the Meeting).

The founders of CSAC previously agreed to vote their Class B Shares and any Class A Restricted Voting Shares they have acquired in favour of the Transaction. In addition to CSAC shareholder approvals by majority vote (with both classes voting together), as well as any other CSAC shareholder approval that may be required by law or by the Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc., completion of the Transaction will be subject to the approval of applicable regulatory approvals, including from the Ontario Securities Commission, the Aequitas NEO Exchange Inc. and applicable Unites States state and local regulators. There can be no assurance that these approvals will be obtained.

Pursuant to the Definitive Agreements, CSAC and the vendors of the Target Businesses have each agreed to use commercially reasonable efforts to complete the Transaction. CSAC has agreed, among other things, to take certain steps to implement the Transaction, to file and to seek to obtain a receipt for a final prospectus and to seek to obtain all other approvals required in connection with the Transaction. The vendors of the Target Businesses have also agreed to operate their respective businesses in the ordinary course pending completion of the Transaction. The Definitive Agreements contain various closing conditions, and therefore closing cannot be assured.

Existing Warrants entitle the holder thereof to purchase, for a period of five years, one Class A Restricted Voting Share (and commencing 65 days following the closing of the Transaction, each Warrant would represent the entitlement to purchase one Class B Share). It is intended that subsequent to the completion of the Transaction, the Warrants will remain in place and become exercisable for Class B Shares. Existing Rights represent the entitlement to automatically receive, for no additional consideration, one-tenth (1/10) of one Class A Restricted Voting Share (and following the closing of the Transaction, each Right would represent the entitlement to receive one-tenth (1/10) of a Class B Share). Any Right that has not been converted within two years after completion of the Transaction will be null and void.

Timing and Additional Information

Pursuant to applicable rules, CSAC has agreed to file with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, except Quebec, a non-offering prospectus containing disclosure regarding the Transaction and the resulting issuer assuming completion of the Transaction. The preliminary prospectus is currently expected to be filed with Canadian securities regulatory authorities in November 2018. Subject to the issuance of a receipt for the final prospectus, CSAC intends to file an information circular in connection with the Meeting.

Subject to the required approvals, CSAC intends to mail the information circular to its shareholders by December 2018 and it is anticipated that the Meeting will take place in January 2019. Closing of the Transaction is expected to occur shortly after the Meeting, subject to satisfaction of the conditions in the Definitive Agreements, including receipt of required regulatory approvals. There can be no assurance that these approvals will be obtained.

The founders of CSAC, being Mercer Park CB, L.P. and Kamaldeep Thindal and Charles Miles (or persons or companies controlled by them), previously agreed to vote their Class B Shares and any Class A Restricted Voting Shares they have acquired in favour of the Transaction.

Holders of Class A Restricted Voting Shares will have a right to redeem all or a portion of their Class A Restricted Voting Shares, provided that they deposit their shares for redemption prior to 5:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on the fifth business day before the Meeting with the redemption being effective, subject to applicable law, immediately prior to the closing of the Transaction. Holders of Class A Restricted Voting Shares may elect to redeem their shares whether they vote for or against, or do not vote on, the Transaction.

The Definitive Agreements and an investor presentation will be available shortly under CSACs profile on SEDAR. CSACs preliminary prospectus and information circular are expected to be filed in due course.

About Cannabis Strategies Acquisition Corp.

Cannabis Strategies is a newly organized special purpose acquisition corporation incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario for the purpose of effecting a qualifying transaction. Following the Transaction, CSAC will be a vertically integrated cannabis company with an initial anchor portfolio in the Eastern and Western United States.

About Washoe Wellness, LLC

Washoe is a vertically-integrated cultivator, producer and distributor of cannabis in northern Nevada, focused in Reno in Washoe County and distributing to Las Vegas. Washoe specializes in producing a full spectrum of premium, quality cannabis-based products, including cannabis flower, plant material, concentrates, edibles and topical products through efficient & compliant cultivation, extraction and manufacturing processes. Products include premium cannabis flower, pre-rolls, and a full line of vape pens, disposable vape pens, concentrates, edibles, topicals, & tinctures all made from quality cannabis oil, derived from over 30 different strains of premium THC and CBD cannabis. Washoe is licensed to possess, cultivate, process, and dispense medical and adult-use cannabis throughout Nevada via its well-established KYND brands and through a licensing deal with the recognizable brand --Willies Reserve. The Company began medical sales in Q1 2016 and recreational sales in Q3 2017.

About The Canopy NV, LLC

Canopy operates two dispensaries in the city of Reno, Nevada, one in downtown Reno adjacent to the casino-resort corridor and a second in the North Valleys, both under the MYNT brand, which was named Best Dispensary in Reno in 2018. The first dispensary (downtown Reno) opened for medical sales in Q1 2017, with adult use recreational sales following in Q3 2017. Adult use recreational sales for the North Valleys location began in Q3 2018. Canopy is licensed to sell both medical and adult-use cannabis in Nevada.

About Sira Naturals, Inc.

Sira is a vertically-integrated producer and seller of medical cannabis and related products in Massachusetts. Sira was among the earliest recipients of licenses to cultivate, manufacture, transport and sell medical marijuana in Massachusetts, and is consistently cited as a best-in-class operator in the state. Sira has secured provisional licenses to cultivate, manufacturing and transport cannabis and cannabis products for adult use purposes in Massachusetts and intends to apply for licenses to operate adult use cannabis retail establishments. Products include cannabis and cannabis products, including oil, edibles, and vaporizer products.

About LivFree Wellness, LLC

LivFree operates three dispensaries in the state of Nevada: one in Clark County, one in Henderson and one in Reno. In addition, LivFree is separately licensed to operate four additional facilities (two production facilities and two cultivation facilities). LivFrees dispensaries opened in 2016.

About CannaPunch of Nevada LLC

CannaPunch is a manufacturer and distributor of cannabis-infused products in Nevada and Colorado, and the CSAC purchase entitles CSAC to the rights to the CannaPunch suite of brands across the U.S. outside of Colorado. CannaPunchs key brands include CannaPunch (beverages), Highly Edible (gummies), Dutch Girl (edible), Nordic Goddess (topical salve), and Tumbleweed (oil and other extracts). CannaPunch is licensed to manufacture cannabis products in Nevada.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain information contained in this news release may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always identified by the use of words such as target, "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "foresee", "could", "estimate", "goal", "intend", "plan", "seek", "will", "may" and "should" and similar expressions or words suggesting future outcomes. This news release includes forward-looking information and statements pertaining to, among other things, the Transaction, the receipt of necessary approvals for the Transaction, holding the Meeting and completion of the Transaction, certain anticipated strategic, operational, and competitive advantages and benefits created by Transaction and future opportunities for CSAC.

Numerous risks and uncertainties could cause the actual events and results to differ materially from the estimates, beliefs and assumptions expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the conditions to the consummation of the Transaction may not be satisfied or waived; risks relating to the failure to obtain necessary shareholder, court, third party and regulatory approvals for the Transaction; the risk of high levels of redemptions by CSAC shareholders; anticipated strategic, operational and competitive benefits may not be realized; the Transaction may be modified, restructured or terminated; events or series of events may cause business interruptions; and CSAC's ability to raise additional capital.

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 (as such term is defined in Regulation S 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 is available.

Definition and Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Measures

The Target Businesses report certain non-International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) measures that are used to evaluate the performance of such businesses and the performance of their respective segments, as well as to manage their capital structure. As non-IFRS measures generally do not have a standardized meaning, they may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Securities regulations require such measures to be clearly defined and reconciled with their most directly comparable IFRS measure.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA represents income (loss) from operations, as reported, before interest, tax, and adjusted for removing other non-cash items, including stock based compensation expense, depreciation, and the non-cash effects of accounting for biological assets and inventories, and further adjusted to remove acquisition related costs.

The following is an illustration of how CSAC calculates Adjusted EBITDA and reconciles it to IFRS figures, based on illustrative figures only. It does not at this time represent actual results of any of the target companies, which are in the process of being finalized and audited.

Illustrative Adjusted EBITDA Reconciliation The Year Ended (In USD) 31-Dec-17 Net income (loss) from operations 2,000,000 Non-cash items accounting for biological assets and inventories Fair value changes in biological assets 500,000 Unrealized gain on changes in fair value of biological assets (600,000 ) (100,000 ) Share-based compensation expense 100,000 Acquisition costs 15,000 Depreciation and amortization 275,000 390,000 Adjusted EBITDA 2,390,000

Unless otherwise indicated, all historical financial information included herein was prepared in accordance with IFRS but is unaudited and this subject to change.

This press release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures and cannabis industry metrics. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Rather, these are provided as additional information to complement those IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Target Businesses results of operations from managements perspective. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation, nor as a substitute for analysis of the Target Businesses financial information reported under IFRS. Non-IFRS measures used to analyze the performance of the Target Businesses include Adjusted EBITDA.

CSAC believes that these non-IFRS financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the Target Businesses performances and may be useful to investors because they allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. These financial measures are intended to provide investors with supplemental measures of the Target Businesses operating performances and thus highlight trends in the Target Businesses core businesses that may not otherwise be apparent when solely relying on the IFRS measures.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Jonathan Sandelman

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, Director and Corporate Secretary,

Cannabis Strategies Acquisition Corp.

Chief Executive Officer, Mercer Park CB, L.P.

590 Madison Avenue, 26th Floor, New York, New York, 10022

(212) 299-7666 or jsandelman@mercerparklp.com



Uzbekistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan will remain the main importers of Ukrainian sugar.

Ukrainian enterprises in 2017/2018 marketing year (MY, September 2017  August 2018) exported 564,000 tonnes of sugar, which was 27% down from 2016/2017 MY.

Read alsoAlmost 600,000 tonnes of sugar already produced in Ukraine this season

"In total, according to the results of 2017/2018 MY, Ukraine exported 564,000 tonnes of sugar to foreign markets at the amount of $221 million  27% less than the previous season," the press service of Ukraine's National Association of Sugar Producers "Ukrsugar" said in a statement.

In 2017/2018 MY "Radekhivskyi Sugar" LLC became the biggest sugar exporter, having delivered 138,500 tonnes at the amount of $55,55 million.

The second place in the rating was taken by "Tsukoragroprom" LLC  93,000 tonnes of sugar ($40,65 million). Podillia "Foods Company" PJSC became the third having exported 80,400 tonnes of sugar ($27,66 million).

According to "Ukrsugar" forecasts, in 2018/2019 MY sugar exports are expected at the last year level  about 500,000-600,000 tonnes. Uzbekistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan will remain the main importers of Ukrainian sugar.

In 2016/2017 MY "Vinnytsia Center of Grain Production" LLC became sugar export leader and managed to put on the foreign markets 152,500 tonnes of sugar at the amount of $74,7 million.There are four main reasons why the project is an interesting opportunity for Warsaw.

Polands concerns about Russian military and hybrid threats has induced Europes 9th largest economy to increase its defense spending as a bulwark against further regional interference by Moscow. Such fears have also prompted greater bilateral outreach between Warsaw and Washington.

A big part of Polands hybrid threat vulnerabilities stem from economic and energy-related dependencies on Russia. Importing American LNG is both a symbolic and necessary, but not sufficient, energy security solution for Poland. For Poland to match its rhetoric and ambition of becoming a regional energy and infrastructure security hub, it should also consider the regional energy security dividends conferred by Ukraines Energy Bridge concept, according to an article by Melissa Hersh and Edward Kee for the Atlantic Council.

Energy Bridge offers a compelling enough strategic win-win-win scenario to warrant deliberation of the domestic, regional, and transatlantic near and long-term benefits for Polish, Ukrainian, Central and Eastern European, and Baltic energy security. However, for Energy Bridge to work, Ukraine is dependent upon Polish consent to this arrangement despite Ukraines 2017 accession of its Integrated Power System (IPS) to the European Network of Transmission Systems Operators (ENTSO-E). If Poland does not agree to this scheme, Ukraine will be hard-pressed to quickly integrate with the European grid in a meaningful way.

Energy Bridge asks of Poland the following: to consent to engage in transmission line upgrades and nuclear electricity sales arrangements using an existing transmission line between Ukraine and Poland using unit 2 at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant, and to further deepen its commitment by expanding transmission lines and entering into power sales agreements that would ultimately support the development of two new nuclear reactors at the Khmelnitsky site.

Read alsoEnergoatom says it will stop shipping spent nuclear fuel to Russia in 2020

There are four main reasons why this is an interesting opportunity for Warsaw:

Firstly, in the near-term, Energy Bridge provides Poland with an opportunity to offer Ukraine an energy grid synchronization solution. Here, Poland could also contribute to its own stability and prosperity and regional energy sector resilience. From the Ukrainian perspective, having creditworthy counterparties to take power delivered to Poland would provide a level of revenue certainty for the project. If the power offtake counterparties were government entities, or public-private, this would indicate a high level of political buy-in from the Polish government. Polish national endorsement of Energy Bridge is thus important for the project because it would reinforce Warsaws commitment to regional energy security and would also support broader Polish objectives in relation to NATO and the U.S. Furthermore, U.S. support to Poland could help the country counter a range of hybrid threats.

The second opportunity for Poland would be to use Energy Bridge as a means to provide a domestic solution to its dearth of electricity supply. Such a move would also support Polands expected growth trajectory that stems from its manufacturing prowess.

While LNGof American and Norwegian provenancemay be perceived as a more strategic energy option for Poland, nuclear generated electricity is a clean, competitive, and reliable electricity option that would help ensure Polands energy security and accelerate efforts to reduce electricity-sector carbon emissions. Moreover, attempts to further diversify Polands electricity supplies means that LNG and nuclear generated electricity are not mutually exclusive, rather such moves would only serve to enhance Polish electricity resilience. And while Poland has floated multiple proposals to build nuclear power plants in a bid to diversify energy sources and provide reliable electricity, all such proposals have failed to move forward thus far.

Read alsoNew power line to be built between Ukraine and Slovakia

The initial stage of Energy Bridge offers an opportunity for Poland to quickly add reliable and clean nuclear electricity to its electricity mix. The later stages offer the opportunity to finance, own or co-own, and build two new nuclear power units at the Khmelnitsky site that would be dedicated to supplying reliable and clean nuclear electricity to Poland. In addition to competitively priced nuclear-generated imports for domestic use, Poland has an opportunity to export surplus electricity to the Baltics, consistent with its goals of being a regional energy and infrastructure hub.

A Polish commitment to Energy Bridge would also signal a strong demonstration of its commitment to the EU Third Energy Package and to the European Energy Union.

Thirdly, Energy Bridge would give Poland an opportunity to reduce its reliance on Russian gas and coal. As it stands now, a significant part of Polands energy (coal and natural gas) comes from Russia. Polands ambition to position itself as a regional energy hub leveraging the Three Seas Initiative and to tackle national energy security threats head on makes Energy Bridge an undeniable opportunity for Poland.

And fourthly, a new nuclear project in Ukraine might proceed faster and more surely than Poland's new nuclear program. Energy Bridge offers an opportunity for the Polish government, government-owned utilities, and other entities to take a role in the operation of the Khmelnitsky unit 2. These entities may then take more substantial roles in developing, financing, building, and operating two new units at the Khmelnitsky site. This participation could provide a sound foundation for the eventual development of a larger nuclear power program in Poland.

Read alsoPoland's PGNiG challenges EU decision on Russia's Gazprom  media

Furthermore, China has clearly telegraphed its intentions for export of Chinese nuclear power plants and is expected to bundle Chinese nuclear power technology (e.g., the new Hualong One reactor design) with financing, construction, and operations of the nuclear power project and with other government-to-government arrangements. Polands plans for nuclear power puts it squarely in Chinas sights. The same goes for Ukraine. There is no reason to think that China will not continue to make attractive offers to both Poland and Ukraine. While 2017 Chinese investments into Poland fell behind South Korea, and paled in comparison to intra-European trade volumes, China views Poland as a significant pillar in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into Western Europe.

Currently, on the Polish side, there is private sector interest in supporting and endorsing Energy Bridge. Polenergia International, a subsidiary of the privately owned Kulcyzk International Sarl (Luxembourg) holding company, is waiting for the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers to issue a tender allowing for private investment that would result in a public-private partnership. Also waiting for the Ukrainian Cabinets decision are Polenergias consortia members, Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB and EDF Trading Limited (UK). Ideally, the success of Energy Bridge necessitates backing by the Polish government, which is something that has not happened to date.

As others are showing interest in Ukraines nuclear and energy security strategy, Poland should take a long-term view that Poland can offer Ukraine energy security and uphold transatlantic security as well. More importantly, the Energy Bridge project can offer benefits to Poland.MIAMI, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mutual investment, business, and job-growth opportunities shared by Bermuda and Florida were the focus of talks held in Miami today by Premier David Burt and members of city and statewide chambers of commerce.



The meetings with leaders of the Florida and Miami-Dade Chambers of Commerce were organised by the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA) ahead of its day-long Bermuda Executive Forum in the city tomorrow. Topics discussed ranged from reinsurance, sea-level rise, sustainable energy and healthcare, to construction, shipping and fintech.

When were focused on economic diversification and investment in Bermuda, its valuable to have these types of discussions with chambers of commerce, and todays meetings were very beneficial, said Premier Burt, who was accompanied by BDA CEO Sean Moran, Junior Minister of Finance Wayne Furbert, and Wayne Caines, National Security Minister with responsibility for ICT Policy & Innovation.

Miami is a gateway city to Latin America, with a rapidly expanding economy, so we need to look at how we can do more business with Florida as it continues to grow, the Premier added. Both chambers are interested in continuing the dialogue and in sending delegations to visit us, which is good to hear. We need to attract more people to Bermuda to see the opportunities available, and hopefully attract economic growth.

Bermudas significant role in helping the states communities recover from catastrophic storms was highlighted in the Premiers conversation with Mark Wilson, President & CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the states largest business-advocacy organisation, which has been dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Michaels devastation throughout Floridas coastal panhandle communities over the past week.

Bermuda and Florida are natural partners, and reinsurance is a perfect example of that, said Wilson, whose chamber counts 135,000 member businesses, helping drive the states trillion-dollar economy. If you think about the worlds insurance risk, about a third of it is in Florida. We would be in trouble were it not for reinsurance companies in Bermuda being partners with us. Bermuda reinsurers are very much a part of Floridas economy.

Wilson said other industries also offered opportunities for Bermuda and Florida to explore. I was very impressed with todays meeting, and with what the Premier talked about in terms of economic synergies between Bermuda and Florida, he said. Construction, energy, healthcare, financial connections, workforce development and training. As follow-up, we agreed to do some trade missions, where we would bring business leaders and investors to Bermuda, and then maybe in a year or two, we do the same thing with Bermuda executives back here.

The Bermuda delegation also held a fruitful meeting with board members of the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce, which supports black businesses throughout south Florida. The group discussed economic diversification, including hydroponics, sustainable energy, and blockchain businesses such eco-tech, as well as construction, and training, re-skilling and education.

This has been a tremendous opportunity having a dialogue with the Premier and Cabinet members, said Eric Knowles, Miami-Dade Chambers President & CEO. We look forward to future opportunities to work with your businesses, and for businesses here to engage in trans-Atlantic trade.

Added Miami-Dade Chair Wayne Davis: It was great to dialogue and see what the needs are. We have some strong synergies we can bring together to support each others business communities, and Im personally looking forward to coming to Bermuda to examine the opportunity that exists. Were proud to be part of this discussion and look forward to growing the relationship.

The meetings were the latest in a series the BDA has organised over the past year to connect Bermuda government representatives with civic and business leaders in Florida. Last December, the agency arranged meetings with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, as well as with Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who joins the Premier for a seaside chat at tomorrows forum.

These connections are valuable, and they begin the process of creating real business development opportunities, said BDA Interim CEO Sean Moran. The BDAs mission is to foster an environment for our islands economic growth, and todays discussions certainly set a foundation to achieve that goal. By exploring ways we can partner with onshore business associations and communities with common interests, we help create a win-win environment for all involved.

More than 50 industry representatives will join Bermuda government and regulatory leaders tomorrow in the forum at the InterContinental Miami. Presentations and panel discussions will highlight investment and business opportunities available in Bermuda, while underscoring the islands synergies with Florida. Bacardi and the Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) have partnered with the BDA on the events networking reception.

For agenda details or to register for tomorrows free event, go to: http://bda.bm/bermuda-executive-forum-miami/

MEDIA CONTACT:

Rosemary Jones

Head of Communications & Marketing

rosemary@bda.bm

441 278-6558

441 337-4696

CONNECTING BUSINESS

The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business in Bermuda smooth and beneficial.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a04e8d48-e77d-4492-8d8f-6bb0045a4b05

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a267f6e0-5504-4305-a79c-e645524400e9

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2bc14796-a72f-4c44-8f6b-689be84ae44a"We condemn any attempts at borderisation, as observed since the incursion of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian territory on 12 May" Joint statement

The United States is deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan.ANTONY J. BLINKEN

Statement of the MFA of Armenia

Ookla has awarded Ucom with The fastest fixedline network in Armenia award

UCOM keeps on supporting the 42 YEREVAN programming school

Recognizing the One-Year Anniversary of the Ceasefire Declaration Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

They should not be positioned near civilian communities neither in Armenia nor in Artsakh

Humanitarian and human rights protection needed following the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh

Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched

I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner

Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital

UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Google Ad

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive

Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

1217 new cases

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk GroupNational Children's Library named after Khnko Aper celebrates its 85th anniversary

In 2018, the National Children's Library named after Khnko Aper celebrates its 85th anniversary. On October 15-21, Khnko Aper National Children's Library will carry out a jubilee program dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the library foundation. The seven-day program aims to value the 85-year activity of the library, its role in promoting children's books and reading, promoting interest in books and encouraging reading among children and adolescents. The jubilee week will start on October 15 at the Khnko Aper Library. Thematic exhibitions, scientific conferences, roundtable meetings, poetry hours, meetings with writers, "Reading together" flashmob, literary and theatrical events, quizzes, book presentations and discussions, visits to cultural sites of Armenia are planned during this seven-day program. Head of IBBY International, President of the Children's Book Committee of the United Arab Emirates, Head of the Musical Fund of the National Library of Milan, Founder of the Iranian Children's Writers Association and German renowned children's writer are expected to come to take part in the event. The celebration of the 85th anniversary of the founding of the National Children's Library after Khnko Aper will be held on October 19, at 17:00 in the library and on the lobby. The week will be summarized with a visit to the Achajur Cultural House Library in Tavush region and a prospective roundtable discussion."We condemn any attempts at borderisation, as observed since the incursion of Azerbaijani troops into Armenian territory on 12 May" Joint statement

The United States is deeply concerned about reports of intensive fighting today between Armenia and Azerbaijan.ANTONY J. BLINKEN

Statement of the MFA of Armenia

Ookla has awarded Ucom with The fastest fixedline network in Armenia award

Google Ad

UCOM keeps on supporting the 42 YEREVAN programming school

Recognizing the One-Year Anniversary of the Ceasefire Declaration Between Armenia and Azerbaijan

They should not be positioned near civilian communities neither in Armenia nor in Artsakh

Humanitarian and human rights protection needed following the 2020 outbreak of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh

Galaxy Group of Companies expands its activities in Belarus: a new TIME and Pandora store launched

I think its a good moment to invest in Armenia. Head of Markets at Symbiotics Vincent Lehner

Ameriabank has Raised USD 17.5M Tier 2 Capital

UNIGHT TO UNITE. UCOM CELEBRATED ITS REBIRTH

Ameriabank and HSBC Armenia to provide their customers access to each others ATMs without additional fees

Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Google Ad

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive

Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

1217 new cases

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk GroupFLOW TRADERS 3Q18 TRADING UPDATE



Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Flow Traders N.V. (Euronext: FLOW) releases its unaudited 3Q18 trading update. The highlights for the period are:





Market ETP Value Traded down 12% quarter-on-quarter, Market ETP AuM up 6% quarter-on-quarter (in )

Flow Traders 3Q18 NTI 42.4m, resulting in a record NTI of 309.3m year-to-date

Flow Traders gained market share in all regions in 3Q18

3Q18 Fixed operating expenses grew 5%; fixed operating expenses growing 6% year-to-date

FTEs grew to 425 at the end of 3Q18; FTE growth of 8% year-to-date

Own Funds Requirement (OFR) was 174m on 30 September 2018, resulting in excess capital of 113m



Overview 3Q18 Value Traded

billion 3Q18 2Q18 Change YTD 18 YTD 17 Change Flow Traders ETP Value Traded 184.0 205.0 (10%) 632.8 521.8 21% EMEA (Europe) 96.4 112.8 (15%) 352.1 314.7 12% Americas 79.2 83.9 (6%) 254.9 190.0 34% APAC (ex China) 8.4 8.3 1% 25.7 17.1 51% Flow Traders' non-ETP Value Traded 589 621 (5%) 1,902 1,685 13% Market ETP Value Traded 4,874 5,544 (12%) 16,958 14,207 19% EMEA (Europe) 281 338 (17%) 1,001 967 4% Americas, 4,091 4,621 (11%) 14,329 11,919 20% APAC ex China 198 206 (4%) 707 540 31%



Financial Overview Flow Traders 3Q18

million 3Q18 2Q18 Change YTD 18 YTD 17 Change Net Trading Income 42.4 53.8 (21%) 309.3 126.7 144% EMEA (Europe) 27.5 32.4 (15%) 109.4 87.1 26% Americas 8.1 14.7 (45%) 175.5 28.3 521% APAC (ex China) 6.8 6.7 1% 24.5 11.3 116% Net Trading Income 42.4 53.8 (21%) 309.3 126.7 144% Employee expenses (fixed) 8.9 8.9 - 26.5 23.4 13% Technology expenses 9.1 8.6 5% 26.6 28.0 (5%) Other expenses 5.0 4.4 15% 13.4 11.3 19% Fixed Operating Expenses 22.9 21.9 5% 66.5 62.7 6% Employee expenses (var) 6.8* 12.5 (46%) 76.8 21.2 263% Total operational expenses 29.7 34.4 (14%) 143.3 83.8 71% EBITDA 12.7 19.4 (34%) 166.0 42.8 288% Depreciation/Amortisation 2.4 2.1 6.5 5.2 Write offs, tangible assets - 0.1 0.1 - Results subsidiaries - (3.1) (3.1) - Profit Before Tax 10.4 20.3 (49%) 162.5 37.6 332% Tax 2.2 3.1 27.5 6.0 Net Profit 8.2 17.2 (52%) 135.0 31.7 327% EPS (in ) 0.18 0.37 2.91 0.68 EBITDA margins (%) 30% 36% 54% 34%

* including one-off 1.1m impact related to employees leaving the firm with shares under lock up

3Q18 regional highlights:

AMERICAS:

Flow Traders US ETP market share grew further in 3Q18

Flow Traders US ETP Value Traded reached 79.2bn, lower quarter-on-quarter, but ahead of the market

Number of counterparties continues to grow, momentum in OTC trading is increasing

EMEA:

Flow Traders EMEA ETP market share grew in 3Q18, confirming our leading position in the ETP ecosystem

Flow Traders EMEA ETP Value Traded reached 96.4bn, lower quarter-on-quarter, but ahead of the market

Number of counterparties continues to grow, supported by the impact of MiFID II

FX liquidity providing is live on FastMatch and Currenex with a rapidly growing number of counterparties

APAC:

Flow Traders APAC ETP market share grew further in 3Q18

Flow Traders APAC ex-China ETP Value Traded reached 8.4bn, flat versus previous quarter, but ahead of the market

Flow Traders APAC ETP OTC trading in terms of Value Traded continued to grow in 3Q18



Co-CEO Dennis Dijkstra stated:

"Markets were seasonally slow in the third quarter, as certain geopolitical events only had a short impact on the market. The temporary fall in realized volatility in especially the US, affected profit potential in 3Q18. Flow Traders continued to focus on executing its organic growth strategy, with momentum increasing in its global OTC trading. FX liquidity providing with external counterparties is now live in EMEA and expansion to other platforms is expected to follow soon. All in all, Flow Traders' market share continued to grow in 3Q18, leading to an NTI in the quarter that is above last year's NTI level, adding to what is already our best year since inception. With FX trading live, Flow Traders is accelerating plans to diversify into other asset classes, in addition to its leading ETP business."

CFO Marcel Jongmans added:

"In 3Q18 our focus on cost control continued. The fixed cost increase in the quarter was mainly the result of expected investments, such as the start of new graduate classes in trading and technology and the ongoing expansion of our infrastructure. Our regulatory capital base remained healthy with conservative levels of excess capital in 3Q18. Flow Traders continues to have a strong and unleveraged balance sheet, while generating strong free cash flows. Looking ahead, Flow Traders remains focused on enhancing the performance of its trading infrastructure to maximize NTI, while keeping a tight grip on cost."



Preliminary Financial Calendar

11 January 2019 Start Silent Period ahead of release FY18 results

08 February 2019 Release FY18 results (incl. analyst conference call)

28 February 2019 Release Annual Report 2018

26 March 2019 Start Silent Period ahead of release 1Q19 trading update

16 April 2019 Release 1Q19 trading update (no analyst conference call)

08 May 2019 AGM Flow Traders



Contact Details



Flow Traders N.V.

Serge Enneman / Investor Relations Officer

Phone: +31 20 7996799

Email: investor.relations@flowtraders.com

Important legal information

This press release is prepared by Flow Traders N.V. and is for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and you must not rely on the content of this document when making any investment decisions. The information in this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice and is not to be regarded as investor marketing or marketing of any security or financial instrument, or as an offer to buy or sell, or as a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell, securities or financial instruments.



The information and materials contained in this press release are provided 'as is' and Flow Traders N.V. or any of its affiliates ("Flow Traders") do not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information and materials and expressly disclaim liability for any errors or omissions. This press release is not intended to be, and shall not constitute in any way a binding or legal agreement, or impose any legal obligation on Flow Traders. All intellectual property rights, including trademarks, are those of their respective owners. All rights reserved. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Flow Traders. No part of it may be redistributed or reproduced without the prior written permission of Flow Traders.



This press release may include forward-looking statements, which are based on Flow Traders' current expectations and projections about future events, and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "believe", "could", "hope", "seek", "plan", "foresee", "aim", "objective", "potential", "goal" "strategy", "target", "continue" and similar expressions or their negatives are used to identify these forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future whether or not outside the control of Flow Traders. Such factors may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no undue reliance should be placed on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as at the date at which they are made. Flow Traders expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based unless required to do so by applicable law.



Financial objectives are internal objectives of Flow Traders to measure its operational performance and should not be read as indicating that Flow Traders is targeting such metrics for any particular fiscal year. Flow Traders' ability to achieve these financial objectives is inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Flow Traders' control, and upon assumptions with respect to future business decisions that are subject to change. As a result, Flow Traders' actual results may vary from these financial objectives, and those variations may be material.



Efficiencies are net, before tax and on a run-rate basis, i.e. taking into account the full-year impact of any measure to be undertaken before the end of the period mentioned. The expected operating efficiencies and cost savings were prepared on the basis of a number of assumptions, projections and estimates, many of which depend on factors that are beyond Flow Traders' control. These assumptions, projections and estimates are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those projected. Flow Traders cannot provide any assurance that these assumptions are correct and that these projections and estimates will reflect Flow Traders' actual results of operations.

By accepting this document you agree to the terms set out above. If you do not agree with the terms set out above please notify legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com immediately and delete or destroy this document.

Market Abuse Regulation

This press release contains information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.President Sarkissian hosts His Eminence Archbishop

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian today hosted Papal Legate for the Mekhitarist Congregation of Venice, Primate of the Armenian Catholic Diocese in Turkey, His Eminence Archbishop Levon Zekiyan, the Presidential Office reports. The President welcomed the guest at the Presidential Palace and stated: Our friendship has a history of many years, several decades. Our first and all next meetings are special days in my memory, and during the last meeting in Vienna, it was a pleasure to be at the historic building of the Mekhitarist Congregation, visit the museum together with you. The Armenian President highly valued Archbishop Levon Zekiyans productive activity aimed at making the Armenian peoples spiritual, cultural heritage recognized to the world, preserving the Armenian identity and educating the generations. Your visit is important not only from spiritual and religious, but also from cultural perspective, the President said, adding: For me, you first of all are a professor, expert on Armenian studies, a real teacher, since the spiritual leader firstly needs to be a teacher. I think you are a bridge not only between our compatriots in Armenia and abroad, not only between the Armenian apostolic and catholic churches, but also your role is very important for the preservation and spread of the Armenian culture, literature and language. In his turn Archbishop Levon Zekiyan thanked the President for the warm and encouraging words and stated: I was very happy for your election as the President of Armenia. I firstly was happy for the friendship, but also for your personality in this very high and responsible position. The President and Archbishop Zekiyan also touched upon the activity of the Mekhitarist Congregation, highlighted the irreplaceable and key role the Congregation had, becoming known to the world as a spiritual, educational, literary and scientific-culture center.Garnik Isagulyan: Prime Minister's response to Richard Mills' statement was clear (video)

Garnik Isagulyan, an advisor to the Artsakh Republic permanent representation in the Republic of Armenia, commented on the former US Ambassador Richard Mills' statement: "At the end of his career, Mills realized that there is any territorial concession is unacceptable for the Armenian people. It would be great if he says to the next ambassador from the beginning that the Armenian people do not accept territorial concessions." According to Isagulian, the ambassador's statement had two meaning: "On the one hand, he states that it is possible to solve the problem only in this case, on the other hand, the Armenian people are not ready for it." According to Garnik Isagulyan, both Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's response and leaving ambassadors statement can be as leaving message. He believes that Prime Minister's response to Richard Mills' statement was clear.Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, October 18, passed the Code of Bankruptcy Procedures of Ukraine (bill No. 8060) with 237 supportive votes, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

"Thanks to the adoption of the code we would climb 10 positions in Doing Business," Head of the parliamentary committee for economic policy Andriy Ivanchuk said, presenting the bill.

Representing the code, the deputy said that the document is structured into four books. According to him, the first book regulates the general provisions and deadlines, the second - the activities of the self-governing organization of arbitration managers, the third - the issues of bankruptcy of legal entities.

"And the fourth book is a novelty in the Ukrainian legislation, earlier the country did not have it - it is the bankruptcy of individuals," Ivanchuk said.

He said that this book provides an opportunity for individuals - bona fide borrowers in the event of a difficult economic situation to initiate a bankruptcy procedure and get rid of this debt obligation, while the lender is deprived of this right.

Ivanchuk said that more than 1,300 amendments were received to this bill for the second reading, of which approximately 40% were rejected. According to him, when the code was finalized, its structure was changed: the entire notions were removed from the bill, for example, the amicable agreement, and all remarks related to the amicable agreement lost their relevance.

The head of the committee said that a block of amendments on the introduction of an automated arrest of accounts was rejected, as it had not previously received support in parliament.

"Most of the amendments on the introduction of a unified electronic registry of debtors were rejected. In the process of discussion and in-depth analysis, we were shown fears that there might be a leak of confidential information about legal entities, especially individuals," Ivanchuk also said.

According to him, many questions were transferred to the level of bylaws, in particular, the specification of the regulation of the procedure for the sale of the debtor's property.

First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade Maksym Nefyodov said that the adopted document provides for the sale of bankrupt property at transparent electronic auctions of the ProZorro.Sales system.

The head of the committee also said that the code would be enacted in six months.

Immediately before the vote, Ivanchuk reported that the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada prepared its comments on the document, which the committee promptly took into account on the evening of October 17. In this regard, he read another five pages of amendments with which the code was adopted.The death toll of the incident at the Kerch polytechnic school has grown to 20, Kerch administration deputy head Dilyaver Melgaziyev told the press in Kerch on Thursday.

"Twenty are dead. They brought four bodies from the school, instead of three we expected," Melgaziyev said.

He met with the press near the city morgue where the bodies were being taken all through the night and the identification continued.

Earlier reports said that the explosion and shooting at the Kerch polytechnic school took 19 lives.Two soldiers wounded in 17 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas over past day

Militants have opened fire on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbas 17 times over the past 24 hours, wounding two soldiers, the press center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters has reported.

"Invaders opened fire on the positions of our troops 17 times. Weapons banned by the Minsk agreements were used seven times during the shelling [...] Two servicemen of the Joint Forces were injured during the hostilities," the JFO HQ said in a report on its Facebook page on Thursday.

Over the past day, militants shelled the positions of the Joint Forces near the settlements of Katerynivka, Novoluhanske, Verkhniotoretske, Avdiyivka, Novomykhailivka, Novotroitske, Starohnativka, Pavlopil, Hnutove, Talakivka, Lebedynske, and Shyrokyne.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, four militants were wounded over the past 24 hours.The Verkhovna Rada has adopted at first reading and as a whole the presidential bill No. 9208 on the peculiarities of the use of St. Andrew's Church of the Sophia of Kyiv National Conservation Area.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, 237 deputies supported this decision at a plenary meeting of parliament on Thursday.

According to the head of the committee on spirituality, Mykola Kniazhytsky, the transfer of St. Andrew's Church to the Ecumenical Patriarchate does not contradict Ukrainian legislation.

"It [the bill] is written out within the boundaries of the legislation. It instructs the Cabinet of Ministers to transfer this architectural monument for use, only for use. It does not contradict Ukrainian legislation, but indicates the political position of the Ukrainian president and the Ukrainian parliament," Kniazhytsky said.

The bill foresees that St. Andrew's Church (Kyiv, 23 Andriyivsky Descent), which is an object of cultural heritage and a monument of architecture and state property, is transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for permanent use to perform church services, religious ceremonies, and processions.

"The use of St. Andrew's Church by the Ecumenical Patriarchate is carried out in compliance with the legislation on the protection of cultural heritage," the document says.Ukraine's Foreign Ministry condemns official contacts of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR) with the occupation administration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and sent a corresponding note.

"The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine declares that Syrian officials conducting negotiations with representatives of the occupation authorities of Crimea, including the conclusion of the so-called 'Memorandum of Cooperation between the Crimean 'Council of Ministers' and the SAR Cabinet in the trade and economic sphere,' is a gross violation of the state sovereignty of Ukraine, interference in its internal affairs, as well as violation of the fundamental norms and principles of international law [...] The corresponding note of protest from the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine was transferred to the Syrian side," the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry emphasizes that the aforementioned illegal actions of the Syrian side, with which "the Syrian authorities are trying to please the current Russian regime," cause irreparable harm to diplomatic relations between Ukraine and Syria.

The Foreign Ministry recalled that on October 15-16 in SAR, at the invitation of the Minister of Economic Development and Foreign Trade of Syria, there was a so-called "official delegation" of the occupation authorities of Crimea, along with the so-called "head" of Crimea Sergei Aksyonov.On the initiative of Lozhkin a street was named in Kharkiv in honor of the Righteous Among the Nations

Kharkiv City Council approved the decision about naming a new street after Alexandra Belova  the recognized Righteous Among the Nations. This has been shared by the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin on his Facebook page.

Kharkiv became the first city to join the initiative of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine The Righteous People of My City, noted Lozhkin.

The Righteous Among the Nations is the title established by the Yad Vashem National Memorial to the Holocaust victims to honor the heroes who, risking their own lives, saved Jews during the Second World War. There are more than 2.6 thousand of the Righteous among the Nations in Ukraine, according to Yad Vashem. Of course, in fact there are many more of them, and the work to restore the facts of saving Jews is still ongoing, says Lozhkin.

According to him, in September the JCU appealed to the local councils of the Ukrainian cities with a proposal to name a new street, square or a mini-park with the name of one of the Righteous Among the Nations  a native of this city, and to place a corresponding memorable sign there.

A Kharkiv journalist Alexandra Belova is a recognized Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations, who in 1942 saved two Jewish girls, the children of her neighbor Rosalia Arinberg  an 11-year-old Yelena and a three-year-old Ira. As well as Rosalia herself.

Rosalia Arinberg together with the children got into the ghetto, but was able to escape. Having left the girls on the way to Kharkiv, she went to Alexandra Belova asking for help. Alexandra walked 40 km in the minus 20 degrees freezing cold weather and brought the children to her house on a sled.

The younger child, Ira, was taken by the Arinberg housemaid  Zinaida Logvinenko. Alexandra Belova was hiding Rosalia and her elder daughter Lena. The girl was warned not to approach the window, but once she looked out onto the street, and someone of the neighbors noticed her. Then the family decided to move Lena to the house on the other side of the street, to the pre-war co-worker of Rosalia Arinberg  to Galina Zozulevich. Soon the Arinbergs were able to leave Kharkiv with the prepared by Belova forged documents.

A few months later, Alexandra was shot by the Gestapo for the salvation of a Jewish family and links with the partisans.

Saved by her Rosalia Arinberg lived to be 90 years old. Her younger daughter lives in Germany, and the elder, Yelena Scherbakova, died last year in Kharkiv.

This is a heroic deed of a person who, at the cost of her life, saved the others. This is a tribute to the memory. Kharkiv honors its heroes. Unfortunately, this has not been done earlier, but we have corrected our mistake. I think, we should have named a street in honor of Alexandra Belova a long time ago, and now one of the streets will receive her name, declared earlier the First Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv Igor Terekhov.

I hope that the example of Kharkiv will be followed by the other cities, to which we have made the relevant proposals, says Lozhkin.Oliver Contreras - Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his recent comments about Saudi Arabia's denials of any involvement in the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi were not an attempt to give the oil-rich ally cover.



No not at all, I just want to find out what's happening, Trump told reporters.



He added that he expects to know who is at fault for Khashoggis alleged murder by the end of the week.



His comments came amid swirling speculation that Turkey may have audio tapes that reveal what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and royal insider who has been missing for over two weeks after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Turkish President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu Wednesday but refused to express any doubt or skepticism about the legitimacy of a Saudi investigation into Khashoggis disappearance.



I keep hearing were giving them some benefit of the doubt. Theyre going to do an investigation, and when the investigation comes out, well evaluate it, its not about benefit of the doubt, Pompeo told reporters on his plane before departing Turkey. Its reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it, so they get it right so that its thorough and complete Well evaluate this on a factual, straight up basis.



Khashoggi, who had been living in the U.S., visited the consulate to file paperwork for his wedding and has not been seen since. Turkish officials allege Khashoggi, who has written critically about the Saudi government, was killed, which the Saudis have fiercely denied.



Turkish officials say that a hit squad of 15 Saudis flew to Istanbul for just hours surrounding Khashoggis disappearance, and they reportedly claim to have audio recordings of Khashoggi being interrogated and murdered.



Trump told reporters Wednesday the U.S. has asked for the recordings if it exists.



We don't know if it exists yet. We'll have a full report when Mike [Pompeo] comes back, that's going to be one of the first questions I ask him, he said in the Oval Office.



But Pompeo declined to say anything about the tapes, initially telling reporters, I don't have anything to say about that. His spokesperson later clarified he has not heard any tapes. It's unclear if Turkey offered him the chance to hear any such recordings.



Pompeo also said the U.S. must wait for the investigations to be completed before responding, casting doubt on the Turkish claims and underscoring the importance of U.S.-Saudi ties.



We need to know the facts before we begin to formulate what the appropriate response for this would be, Pompeo said. I do think its important everyone keep in their mind we have lots of important relationships, financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, government relationships, things we work on together all across the world, saying these relationships are in Americans best interests.



President Trump echoed Pompeo on the importance of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia in an interview with Fox Business News this morning. Asked if he was going to walk away from Saudi Arabia if the investigations reveal a hit job on Khashoggi, Trump said I dont want to do that, citing a $110 billion weapons deal with the Kingdom.



I hope that the King and the crown prince didn't know about it. That is a big factor in my eyes. I hope they haven't, Trump said, referring to King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Trump said he planned to see Pompeo either Wednesday night or Thursday morning to get a readout of his meetings with the Saudis and Turks.



Pompeos tone on the Saudi-led investigation is stronger than last week when he released a statement calling for Saudi Arabia to support a thorough investigation and to be transparent about the results of that investigation.



The Turks are leading the investigation and have at times faced some difficulties with the Saudis, who did not grant them entry to the consulate until Monday and stalled Turkish police looking to inspect the Saudi consul general's residence until Wednesday.



Despite that, Pompeo reported that President Erdogan felt the Saudis have been cooperative, and the two countries will share information. Erdogan said there had been a couple of delays, according to Pompeo, but the Turks feel confident now the Saudis will admit them to the consulate to perform their investigation.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.JERSEY, Channel Islands, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serinus Energy plc (Serinus, SEN or the Company) (AIM:SENX, WSE:SEN), announces an operational update.



Romania

The Moftinu gas plant is completed and able to operate at pressure with sustained production, but is waiting for the installation of the Low Temperature Separation (LTS) unit and the Triethylene Glycol (TEG) unit (together, the Units), as previously announced.

Since 21 August 2018, the Company has been awaiting access codes from Romanias National Pipeline Operator, Transgaz, to start experimental commercial gas production during the commissioning of the gas plant, as is the legal right of the Company. Transgaz has so far denied the Companys gas production into the Transgaz system citing that the gas quality is not according to their network specifications due to minimal quantities of water. The Company believes that the very high quality of gas, in excess of 90% methane, should be acceptable into the Transgaz system. Transgaz has maintained that even the very small percentage of water, 0.21% maximum, means that this gas cannot be injected into the system and that until the Units are in place, no gas sales can be accommodated.

It is the Companys view that Romanian law provides for such minor quality differentials during the proscribed experimental production phase and as such the Company is legally entitled to provide this gas to the system. The Company believes that the gas from the Moftinu wells is within the specifications that would allow Transgaz to accept this gas with no discernible impact on the integrity of the Transgaz System.

The Company will continue to pursue the acceptance of this gas into the Transgaz system. Regardless, the Company will be in a position to remove any minor residual water once the Units are installed and there are no further issues that would prevent the Company moving to full production.

The latest timeline provided by the EPC Contractor is that the Factory Acceptance Tests for the Units will be conducted at the manufacturing facility in Canada on or around 17 November 2018 and the Units will be loaded onto a freighter for shipment to Bremerhaven, Germany, on or around 22 November, with installation, commissioning and production anticipated for December 2018. These Units are being constructed by a subcontractor, AVAL Engineering of Calgary, Canada. AVALs delivery of the Units is now expected to be more than 11 months after the original delivery date. AVAL has provided project progress reports to our EPC Contractor with six separate delivery dates over the last 11 months, all of which have been missed. The Company has been required to send senior executives, alongside representatives from our EPC Contractor to inspect the works completed by AVAL as the progress reports from AVAL were unreliable. On consecutive visits, the Serinus team, alongside our EPC Contractor have now been able to verify the progress and are now in a position to have confidence that work is progressing, and the current completion ex-works date can be met. Once the Factory Acceptance Test is completed, the shipment of the Units is estimated to take 10 days to reach Europe, followed by a three-day shipping time by truck to the site. Once the Units have arrived at the site, it is estimated that it will take up to two weeks to install and commission the Units.

Tunisia

Discussions with Tunisian authorities have progressed and the Company believes that, subject to an administrative procedure settlement, it will be in a position to restart the Chouech Es Saida field in Tunisia in Q1 2019. The Company believes that progress has been sufficient that it can now take early steps to re-initiate production in this field. This field has been shut-in since February 2017 due to labour unrest. The Company has started the tendering process for long lead time items and essential production support services. Prior to shut-in, the Chouech Es Saida field produced an average of 488 barrels of oil equivalent in Q4 2016.

About Serinus

Serinus is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company that owns and operates projects in Tunisia and Romania.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").

For further information, please refer to the Serinus website ( www.serinusenergy.com ) or contact the following:

Serinus Energy plc

Jeffrey Auld, Chief Executive Officer

Calvin Brackman, Vice President, External Relations & Strategy



+1-403-264-8877 Numis Securities Limited

(Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)

John Prior

Paul Gillam

Ben Stoop



+44 (0) 20 7260 1000 GMP FirstEnergy

(Joint Broker)

Hugh Sanderson

Jonathan Wright



+44 (0) 20 7448 0200 Camarco

(Financial PR)

Billy Clegg

Owen Roberts +44 (0) 20 3781 8334

Forward Looking Statement Disclaimer

This news release includes forward looking information and statements within the meaning of securities laws. Such statements relate to the Corporations or managements objectives, projections, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future and can be identified by words such as plans, assumes, will, anticipate and may or variations of such words. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses by the Corporation that reflect its experience and understanding of future developments. Such statements are subject to a number of uncertainties, including, but not limited to, continued listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and AIM, the Corporations ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the delisting and other factors identified in the Corporations filings with regulatory authorities in Canada. Many of these uncertainties are beyond the Corporations control and, therefore, may cause actual actions or results to differ from those expressed or implied herein. 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, unless required by law.

Translation : This news release has been translated into Polish from the English original.



Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova has asked Director of Russia's Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov to take measures to return to Ukraine the crewmembers of the YaMK-0041 vessel, Ukrainians Serhiy Kalinichenko, Oleh Blok and Ruslan Skrypnyk, who are still being held in Russian-annexed Crimea.

"They are continuing to illegally hold Ukrainians Serhiy Kalinichenko, Oleh Blok and Ruslan Skrypnyk on the territory of the annexed Crimea. Just because law enforcement officers of the aggressor unreasonably seized their passports for going abroad," she wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.

She noted that after almost six months, all three sailors and their families are physically and morally depleted.

"Serhiy Kalinichenko's health has deteriorated significantly. He suffers from palmar fibromatosis requiring qualified treatment. Oleh Blok, before his detention, took care of his 83-year-old mother. She is now practically in a helpless state without a son, unable to keep house, buy food," Denisova wrote.

In addition, according to her, Skrypnyk's two children have stayed without a father for almost half a year.

"Now the family does not have the funds to support and teach the children, because they were left without a breadwinner," Denisova said.

She recalled that even on September 11, the FSB had informed her that measures of procedural enforcement had not been applied to these three persons.

"Last week, a Russian presidential advisor responded to my request that no one took foreign passports from the ship's crew and their freedom of movement was not restricted. But they still cannot leave the territory of Crimea. Last Sunday, we still managed to return crewmember Hennadiy Otychko to the territory controlled by Ukraine. Therefore, the return of others is also possible. Alexander Bortnikov, whom I sent a letter, should contribute to this," Denisova wrote.

As reported, on October 16, a crewmember of the YaMK-0041 vessel detained in Crimea, Hennadiy Otychko, arrived in Ukraine.Monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (OSCE SMM) have recorded over 3,700 ceasefire violations and the deaths of two locals last week, OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

The security situation did not change over the past week, but the level of violence dramatically increased over the last three days, Hug said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

The mission recorded 1,400 violations over the first four days and over 2,300 over the last three days of the past week; thus, their number grew by 60%, he said.

The monitors also confirmed the deaths of two local civilians, and two others sustained injuries in that period, Hug said.

He put the blame for these casualties on those who do not honor their obligations.

The OSCE monitors have confirmed the deaths of 39 local civilians since the beginning of 2018, and 166 others have been injured over this period, he said.A female Ukrainian citizen has been extradited from Montenegro to Ukraine. She was wanted by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) for committing fictitious entrepreneurship and legalizing proceeds from crime to a total amount of more than UAH 1.6 billion.

"Thanks to the joint efforts of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) and NABU, the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro in September 2018 decided to extradite this person to Ukraine. On October 18, 2018, the citizen was accepted by Ukrainian law enforcement officers and handed over to NABU detectives," PGO's Department of International Legal Cooperation said on Thursday.

The information does not provide the name and surname of the extradited Ukrainian citizen.

The Kyiv-based Ukrayinska Pravda ezine, citing spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General Larysa Sarhan, said Montenegro extradited to Ukraine Iryna Musiyenko, who was detained in Montenegro in April 2017. She is suspected of involvement in the so-called "gas scheme" along with fugitive parliament deputy Oleksandr Onyshchenko.Indictments have been issued against the directors of two Iranian newspapers for publishing reports on Iraqi pilgrims travelling to holy sites in Iran for sex tourism.

A website close to the speaker of parliament and dailies Shahrvand and Sharq published reports in August concerning Iraqis who travel to Iran seeking sexual services while pretending to be visiting Shi'ite holy sites, including Mashhad, northeastern Iran, where the eighth Imam, Ali ibn Moussa al-Reza is buried.

Indictments have been issued against the managing directors of Shahrvand and Sharq dailies, Tehran Prosecutor-General, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said on Wednesday, October 17.

The Islamic Republic's authorities have vehemently dismissed the reports of sex tourism as unfounded.

Nonetheless, hundreds of social media users insist that Mashhad has turned into a destination for sex tourism, competing with Pattaya in Thailand.

In an August 26 story the daily Shahrvand had quoted a tourism industry worker as saying, Some of the Iraqi pilgrims book their rooms in Mashhad provided they come with a woman for sigha (temporary marriage). Shi'a Islam permits temporary marriages in addition to the four legal wives a man can have.

Besides sex tourism, it's a well-established fact that the recent dramatic fall in the value of Irans national currency (rial) has attracted tens of thousands of Iraqis to Khuzestan province markets for an almost free shopping spree that has substantially increased prices for many goods in the cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr, southwest Iran.

Meanwhile, enraged Iranian citizens have accused Iraqis of harassing local young women.

Based on images circulated on social media, protests against the influx of Iraqis in the two cities have turned into large demonstrations where people chanted vitriolic slogans, condemning the behavior of their neighbors to the west.

A footage circulated on social media showed hundreds of demonstrators in Abadan chanting, Iraqis, out, out, in Persian, referring to visitors who came from Iraqs southern provinces.

However, Tehran Prosecutor-General has dismissed the reports as "fake news", accusing their publishers as playing a "divisive" role.

Following the publication of such reports, Jafari Dolatabadi said that a number of website administrators and newspaper managing directors were summoned and officially warned.

Without elaborating on the content of the indictments against Shahrvand and Sharq managing editors, the prosecutor issued a new warning, "The media should pay attention to the politics and interests of the country; for they will be prosecuted if they ignore the establishment's redlines."

Earlier, the Islamic republic's judiciary spokesman, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei had also maintained that [pro-reform] daily Sharq and other news outlets would be indicted for sowing seeds of division among Iranians and Iraqis.

As reporting on the issue became embarrassing for the authorities, the head of judiciary, Sadeq Amoli Larijani, also threatened that those media which publish reports about sex tourism to Iran would be held accountable.

Accusing Washington of having a covert role in the incident, Iraq born Amoli Larijani claimed, "The United States had fabricated the reports of Iraqi sex tourism in Mashhad and is attempting to sow the seeds of division among Iranians and Iraqis, adding, I have ordered Tehrans Prosecutor-General to charge media outlets that seek to promote animosity between Iranians and Iraqis by highlighting these stories about pilgrims to Mashhad.

Immediately after Amoli Larijani's comments, the Interior Ministry also joined the chorus to dismiss reports that Iraqis sexually harass Iranian women in Mashhad, as baseless.

Sex services are offered to Iraqi men and other foreign tourists and pilgrims in up to 6,000 private accommodations called travelers houses in Mashhad, Khabar Online, the website affiliated with parliament speaker Ali Larijani, reported.

Iranian law explicitly forbids unmarried men and women from entering a hotel room together.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has elaborated on his disappointment with Europe during an October 17 meeting with a group his website has described as Iran's "academic elites and prominent scholars."

"We should look East, not West. Pinning our hope on the West or Europe would belittle us as we would beg them for favor and they would do nothing," Khamenei told the group which included Iranian academics returning from various Western countries.

Instead, Khamenei said that Iran should look East, "where countries are taking quick steps on their roads to growth," The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted him as saying on Wednesday.

Khamenei had suggested earlier to President Hassan Rouhani that his government should abandon hope in Europe's initiatives to save the nuclear deal with the West or help Iran's failing economy to improve.

European states promised to save the nuclear deal with Iran, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after the United States withdrew from the agreement in May.

EU officials have also promised to introduce a financial arrangement to protect European companies from the impact of US sanctions. Major European companies have already left Iran fearing US sanctions can damage their interests in other markets.

After the U.S. withdrawal from JCPOA, Khameni had expressed his disappointment with initial European reactions, but had reluctantly agreed that Iran should remain in the nuclear deal as Europe tried to save it.

While allowing talks to continue with European countries, Khamenei reiterated that he was "suspicious" about Europe's promises. This is in line with the aging leaders consistent anti-Western posture and policies.

Khamenei repeated his suspicion of Europe on Wednesday while President Rouhani and his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well as some other Iranian officials have sounded upbeat about Europe's measure, although few details have been released.

Zarif said in a recent interview with the BBC that what Europe has offered "was possibly better than what we originally expected." However, U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced doubts if any EU measures can dissipate the concerns companies might have about violating sanctions. The bottom line is, they insist, whether companies prefer to do business with the U.S. or with Iran, with a much smaller market.

While stressing on the futility of interaction with the West, Khamenei did not mention who in the East Iran should turn to. One can surmise that mentioning quick economic growth, could have been an allusion to India, South Korea and China and perhaps Indonesia and Malaysia to a lesser extent. This comes while South Korea has already stopped importing oil from Iran several weeks ahead of the second round of US sanctions that target Iran's oil exports and international banking operations and the only prospect for trade with India and China is an outdated form of barter trade.

At the same time, a sharp devaluation of Iranian currency, the rial, has increased the rate of exchange for US dollar from 35,000 rials to over 190,000 rials during the past seven months, and unemployment, mismanagement, corruption and discrimination have paralyzed the economy. But Khamenei is still in denial of the country's worst economic crisis ever, and said on Wednesday that reports about the economic crisis were merely disparaging images Irans "enemies" draw.

Khamenei said that "in spite of fluctuations in the foreign exchange market and problems in people's life, the real image of the country is diagonally different from what foreigners portray." However, he did not explain what led him to believe there was nothing wrong with the state of the economy.

Just three days before his latest remarks, Khamenei revealed his vision for the year 2065, saying Iran would be one of the world's top ten economies.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

AzerTelecom, the backbone internet provider which connects Azerbaijan to the international Internet network, participated in the 11th International Exhibition for Telecom and IT Industry Turkmentel 2018, which was held from 10 to 12 October in Ashgabat.

Chief executive officer of AzerTelecom Fuad Allahverdiyev said that, the aim of the company's participation in the exhibition was to present telecommunication services to local and international participants in Turkmenistan, to get acquainted with technological innovations, as well as to expand the company's international relations.

At the exhibition Fuad Allahverdiyev met with the Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade, Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation Konstantin Noskov, Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Turkmenistan for Transport and Communications affairs Mamethan Chakiyev, Minister of Communications Bairamgeldi Ovezov and other guests that visited the booth, and gave information about AzerTelecom, its services and promising projects.

During the exhibition, we exchanged ideas with directors and representatives of various local and foreign companies, discussed future areas of cooperation. Participation at the exhibition Turkmentel 2018 was beneficial for understanding the direction of development of telecommunications and high technologies in Central Asia, creating new partnerships and discussing potential projects, - said the Chief Executive Officer.

Within the exhibition, detailed interviews about the services of AzerTelecom and its participation in the exhibition were provided to various TV channels and newspapers of Turkmenistan.

At the 11th Turkmentel 2018 exhibition, world-famous companies such as Sony, Huawei, Samsung, Nokia, Space Systems International Monaco, Turksat, Airbus, Iskratel, Thales, Lenovo, Rostelecom, Polar Power, and Gospel presented their services and products as well.

It should be mentioned that AzerTelecom is a dynamically developing telecommunication operator of Azerbaijan. The company was established in 2008, and its main shareholder is Bakcell - the first mobile operator of Azerbaijan. The company provides a wide range of services, such as wholesale Internet, leased line services, mobile backhaul, international transit, SIP telephony, FTTx (Fiber to the X point), Data Center services, VSAT services, corporate network, Backbone services, leased line over GSM, VPN (Virtual Private Network), VoIP services, DDoS protection, etc.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 29 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Oct. 18.

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. 18

By Samir Ali - Trend:

Preservation of the leading position among the states of the world by Azerbaijan in the Global Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum using a completely new methodology causes a sense of pride and is commendable, Aydin Guliyev, the editor-in-chief of the Bak Kheber newspaper told Trend Oct. 18.

He noted that despite that the World Economic Forum has changed its methodology of approach to countries, Azerbaijan has managed to maintain its leading position.

"This is a very important result, which once again emphasizes that in Azerbaijan, the dynamics of processes in all directions is progressing. Another important point is that Azerbaijan has achieved great results in approximately 70 new indicators not used in practice previously. This means that Azerbaijan, not knowing in advance what indicators will be used for implementation of assessment around the world, worked in this direction, which means that the motives of the states and President Ilham Aliyevs activities was and is to improve economic well-being of the population, and not to take the first place in the report," Guliyev said.

"Azerbaijan is at a high spot in terms of social justice, which absolutely corresponds to the logic of the policy pursued in the country. This is the main reason of stability in Azerbaijan, public support provided to the President of Azerbaijan, interethnic and inter-religious solidarity, general civil solidarity. Indeed, if there is no high level of social justice in the country, then we cannot talk about sustainable stability and reliable internal security," Guliyev said.

The expert said that the achievement by Azerbaijan of a high rating on such indicators as the dynamics of business, "education" and "infrastructure" is fully consistent with reality.

"This report provides an opportunity for the nations and states of the world to once again get acquainted with the results of the purposeful activities of the President of Azerbaijan. If we consider that the World Economic Forum plays a role of a socio-economic assessment in the world, success achieved by Azerbaijan should be evaluated as achievements that cannot be achieved by every country.

The report once again demonstrated to the world that Azerbaijan is a country where the social well-being of the people is 100% guaranteed, a country that created the opportunity to quickly start a business, a country that has established a strong link between human development and the environment, a country that tirelessly attaches importance to infrastructure projects," Guliyev said.

He noted that only a part of the 15-year activity of the President of Azerbaijan lies behind the latest report of the World Economic Forum, and if all the work carried out in the country was included in the list of indicators of the report of the World Economic Forum, the international rating figures would be even higher.

"The consistent and purposeful policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev gives grounds to say that there are solid bases for success that will meet higher rating requirements in the future. The policy of President Ilham Aliyev is the only source of guarantee for all international rating indicators of Azerbaijan," the expert said.Details added (first version posted on 11:19)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Employees of Azerbaijans State Security Service have arrested a foreign spy, the public relations department of the service said in a message Oct. 18.

Bahram Hasanzada, the arrested foreign citizen, was engaged in espionage according to instructions from foreign services, to the detriment of Azerbaijans state security, the message said.

The information about his criminal actions and that he was engaged in stealing state secrets and the recruitment of Azerbaijani citizens was confirmed.

As a result of a joint operation conducted by Azerbaijans State Security Service and the State Border Service, Hasanzada was detained in Azerbaijan while illegally crossing the state border.

The Main Investigation Department of Azerbaijans State Security Service brought him to criminal responsibility under Article 276 (espionage) and 318.1 (illegal crossing of state border) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

A preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen by a court in his regard.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

In the framework of the visit to the Czech Republic, the delegation led by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov takes part in the International Future Forces Exhibition-2018, held with the support of the ministries of defense, internal affairs, foreign affairs, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic, the headquarters of NATO, the European Defense Agency and several other national and international organizations, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan said in a statement Oct. 18.

This event is a highly reputable, internationally recognized platform and is held to represent and promote national and global security goals, as well as to conduct the exchange of information in the field of defense and security.

About 1,200 companies from 60 countries take part in the exhibition.

The Azerbaijani delegation, having familiarized with the products of the defense industry companies of foreign countries participating in this exhibition, was comprehensively informed about their purpose.

In the framework of the visit, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Hasanov held bilateral meetings with the heads of a number of defense industry enterprises.Conference Call Scheduled to Discuss These Results



HOUSTON, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ORN) (the "Company") a leading specialty construction company, today announced preliminary results for the quarter ended September 30, 2018 and scheduled a conference call to discuss these results.

During the third quarter 2018, the Company experienced unanticipated delays in commencing certain work due to customer schedules. The Company also experienced significant production delays in its Concrete segment, primarily due to continuous rain throughout its market areas in Texas, particularly during September. As a result, the timing of certain projects and opportunities has changed and the Company will see significant revenue shortfall in both segments, which will cause third quarter 2018 results to fall significantly below its expectations, anticipating a loss of ($0.20)  ($0.25) per share. Please note that these third quarter 2018 results are preliminary and therefore subject to the completion of customary quarterly closing and review procedures, including potentially performing an interim Goodwill test. Final third quarter results are expected to be announced on November 1, 2018.

These delays due to customer schedules and weather patterns were outside the Companys control. Given the quick cycle nature of its business, the Company reminds investors to focus on long-term results, rather than quarter to quarter fluctuations.

Although the anticipated results for the third quarter are disappointing, the Company remains confident in its strategic plan, its long-term market outlook and its fundamental business drivers. During the third quarter the Company bid on approximately $871 million worth of opportunities and was successful on approximately $210 million, representing an overall win rate of 24.1%. In addition, the Company is confident in its outlook for future bid opportunities, including over $9 billion worth of potential opportunities the Company is currently tracking.

Despite delays during the third quarter, we remain confident with our long-term outlook due to our solid bid market and the second highest backlog in the Companys history, said Mark Stauffer, Orion Group Holding's President and Chief Executive Officer. Overall, we continue to believe the Company has a solid strategic plan and a strong outlook, with solid prospects for continued bottom line improvement in the future. During the first half of 2018, we outperformed due to solid project execution, continued strong demand, and favorable working conditions. We continue to remain focused on managing cost and reducing underutilized assets.

More detailed information about these events and their impact on third quarter results will be discussed during a conference call today, October 18, 2018 at 9:00 AM CDT / 10:00 AM EDT. To listen to a live webcast of the conference call, or access the replay, visit the Calendar of Events page of the Investor Relations section of the website at www.oriongroupholdingsinc.com. To participate in the call, please dial the Orion Group Holdings, Inc. Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call toll free at (855) 478-9690; participant code: 6593148.

About Orion Group Holdings

Orion Group Holdings, Inc., a leading specialty construction company, provides services both on and off the water in the continental United States, Alaska, Canada and the Caribbean Basin through its heavy civil marine construction segment and its commercial concrete segment. The Companys heavy civil marine construction segment services include marine transportation, facility construction, marine pipeline construction, marine environmental structures, dredging of waterways, channels and ports, environmental dredging, design, and specialty services. Its commercial concrete segment provides turnkey concrete construction services including pour and finish, dirt work, layout, forming, rebar, and mesh across the light commercial, structural and other associated business areas. The Company is headquartered in Houston, Texas with regional offices throughout its operating areas.

Forward-Looking Statements

The matters discussed in this press release may constitute or include projections or other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the provisions of which the Company is availing itself. Certain forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as 'believes', 'expects', 'may', 'will', 'could', 'should', 'seeks', 'approximately', 'intends', 'plans', 'estimates', or 'anticipates', or the negative thereof or other comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, intentions, estimates, forecasts, outlook, assumptions, or goals. In particular, statements regarding future operations or results, including those set forth in this press release (including those under Outlook above), and any other statement, express or implied, concerning future operating results or the future generation of or ability to generate revenues, income, net income, profit, EBITDA, EBITDA margin, or cash flow, including to service debt, and including any estimates, forecasts or assumptions regarding future revenues or revenue growth, are forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements also include estimated project start date, anticipated revenues, and contract options which may or may not be awarded in the future. Forward looking statements involve risks, including those associated with the Company's fixed price contracts that impacts profits, unforeseen productivity delays that may alter the final profitability of the contract, cancellation of the contract by the customer for unforeseen reasons, delays or decreases in funding by the customer, levels and predictability of government funding or other governmental budgetary constraints and any potential contract options which may or may not be awarded in the future, and are the sole discretion of award by the customer. Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future results. In light of these and other uncertainties, the inclusion of forward-looking statements in this press release should not be regarded as a representation by the Company that the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, goals, intentions, or objectives will be achieved or realized. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company assumes no obligation to update information contained in this press release whether as a result of new developments or otherwise.

Please refer to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on March 13, 2018, which is available on its website at www.oriongroupholdingsinc.com or at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov , for additional and more detailed discussion of risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations, estimates or forecasts.

Contact

Orion Group Holdings Inc.

Shane Martin, Investor Relations

(972) 850-2001

shane@stonegateinc.com



Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The members of Parliament of Azerbaijan sent a protest to the chairman and committees of the Lower House of Russian Parliament in connection with the illegal visit of a group of Russian women to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on October 7.

The protest was signed by the head of the working group on Azerbaijani-Russian inter-parliamentary relations Ali Huseynli, and the chairman of the Russian community of Azerbaijan Mikhail Zabelin.

On October 7, in the framework of the Women for Peace initiative put forward by the wife of former Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a group of Russian women visited the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. Among other women, the group also included Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the Lower House of Russian Parliament, Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and founder of the Vera International Charity Foundation Anna Federmesser.

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. 18

Trend:

Azerbaijan has become one of the first countries supporting Chinas One Belt - One Way initiative, and is ready to make contribution to the implementation of this project, the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) Ali Ahmadov said speaking at the fifth annual conference of the Taihu (Lake) World Cultural Forum.

Ali Ahmadov read a message from President Ilham Aliyev to the participants of the fifth annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum.

Noting that the Azerbaijani-Chinese relations have a long history, Ali Ahmadov said Azerbaijan attaches importance to the development of relations with China in all spheres.

The Azerbaijani-Chinese ties built on a solid basis and based on friendship and mutual trust, can now be characterized as dynamically developing multilateral relations of serious partnership. The deputy prime minister added that Azerbaijan was one of the first countries supporting Chinas One Belt - One Way initiative and is ready to make contribution to its implementation.

Ali Ahmadov recalled that as a result of the military aggression of neighboring Armenia, 20 percent of the territories of Azerbaijan were occupied, more than one million Azerbaijani citizens became refugees and IDPs. The deputy prime minister expressed gratitude to the Chinese side for supporting Azerbaijans fair position in resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The international relations, economic, cultural, environmental, philosophical, sociological and other issues are discussed, as well as the discussions related to the One Belt - One Way initiative are conducted at the forum, consisting of six thematic sessions and the final meeting.

Speaking at the panel of leaders of the forum, Ali Ahmadov talked about the economic development of Azerbaijan, the work carried out in order to deepen intercultural and interreligious dialogue in the country, noted the international events held in Azerbaijan in this area.

The deputy chairman of YAP party added that the large-scale energy and transport projects implemented by Azerbaijans initiative, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project, which provides the shortest railway communication between China and Europe, are one of the major contributions made by Azerbaijan to regional and international cooperation and development.

Other members of the Azerbaijani delegation made presentations as speakers at other meetings of the conference.

The fifth annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum began in Beijing city, the capital of China.

More than 1,000 representatives, including state officials, scientific men, public figures, cultural activists, are participating in the current conference, the theme of which is Dialogue of Civilizations: building a community of the common destiny for all mankind.

Azerbaijan is represented at the world forum by the delegation led by the Deputy Prime Minister, Deputy Chairman and Executive Secretary of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party (YAP) Ali Ahmadov.

The World Cultural Forum (Taihu, China) is an independent national non-governmental organization, established in 2008 with the support of China. The International Cultural Forum is a universal, open, multinational platform for top-level discussions, the purpose of which is to develop and exchange creative ideas and proposals. It promotes the development of Chinese culture and cultural ties between the PRC and foreign countries.

In 2011, the first conference of the International Cultural Forum dedicated to the theme of "Dialogue and interaction in the interests of world harmony and common development" was successfully held in Suzhou (China).Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Political consultations between the ministries of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan took place on October 18 in Baku, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan said in a message.

The delegations were headed by the Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov from the Azerbaijani side and the Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov from the side of Turkmenistan.

The sides underlined the importance of traditional cooperation between the two neighboring countries, stressing that the priorities of development of the Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan relations are determined by the heads of state.

In this regard, Rashid Meredov expressed his gratitude for having an opportunity to be received by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev during his visit.

Mammadyarov noted that the consultations are praiseworthy and create a great opportunity to coordinate the positions on a wide range of issues related to the broad agenda of bilateral relations.

As part of the consultations, the sides discussed political-diplomatic, international and regional cooperation. The historic importance of the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which was signed at the Aktau summit, has been highlighted once again.

The positive dynamics observed in trade-economic cooperation between the two countries was noted and the prospects for coordinating the work to be done by various governmental bodies and business circles with a view to improving the quality of bilateral cooperation to a new, higher level were discussed. It was emphasized that there are opportunities to continue the good partnership for further development of relations in logistics, industrial and cultural-humanitarian spheres.

At the meeting, Meredov expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani side for not only the support, but co-sponsoring the initiatives of Turkmenistan in international organizations, and first of all, the UN organizations.

Mammadyarov expressed his gratitude to Turkmenistan for its support to Azerbaijan in different international organizations, especially in the context of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan regarding the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

The sides also exchanged views on mutual support within international organizations, expansion of the legal framework between the two countries, as well as other regional and international issues of mutual interest.

In conclusion of the consultations, the ministries of foreign affairs of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed a cooperation program for 2019-2020 at the ministerial level.Details added (first version posted on 10:36)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.

Noting rich history of Azerbaijani-Turkmen relations, the head of state hailed the successful development of bilateral relations in all areas.

President Ilham Aliyev pointed out active cooperation between the two countries in bilateral and multilateral formats, saying that through joint efforts the bilateral relations have reached a new level in recent years.

The head of state underlined active collaboration between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in political sphere, praising the successful development of relations in a number of other areas, including transport, energy, and culture.

All this is based on our centuries-long brotherly relations and we are optimistic about the future of our relations, President Aliyev said.

The president expressed his confidence that relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan will continue successfully developing, and noted that Rashid Meredovs visit will contribute to the strengthening of brotherly ties between the two countries.

Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov thanked for warm words, and extended President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedovs greetings and best regards to President Ilham Aliyev.

Rashid Meredov noted that the Turkmen head of state instructed him to congratulate President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of the Independence Day of Azerbaijan, and handed over Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedovs congratulatory message to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for attention and congratulations, and asked Rashid Meredov to extend his greetings and best wishes to the Turkmen president.

President Ilham Aliyev described the friendly ties of the Turkmen and Azerbaijani heads of state as an important factor in developing bilateral relations between the two countries.

The sides also exchanged views on prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

EducationUSA will hold a US University Fair in Baku with support from the US Embassy and American Councils for International Education, the US Embassy in Baku said in a message.

The fair is a great opportunity for anyone interested in studying abroad to talk directly to nine US university representatives and graduates of these universities, and get detailed information on university degree programs, application procedures, scholarships, student life, and cultural adaptation in the United States.

Representatives of the US Embassy in Baku will also participate in the fair.

EducationUSA in Azerbaijan promotes US higher education to students around the country by offering accurate, comprehensive, and updated information about opportunities to study at accredited post-secondary institutions in the United States.

EducationUSA is an official source on the US higher education system, and has provided consultations to more than 1,500 people in Azerbaijan since January.

October 20, 2018, 16:00  19:00

Hilton, Baku

Sevda Ballroom

Azadlig avenue, 1

For additional information about the fair, contact Sevinj Huseynova.

Caspian Business Center

40, J. Jabbarl

Tel/fax: (994 12) 436-75-30

E-mail: [email protected]Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Employees of Azerbaijans State Security Service have arrested a foreign spy, the public relations department of the service said in a message Oct. 18.

Bahram Hasanzada, the arrested foreign citizen, was engaged in espionage according to instructions from foreign services, to the detriment of Azerbaijans state security, the message said.

The information about his criminal actions and that he was engaged in stealing state secrets and the recruitment of Azerbaijani citizens was confirmed.

As a result of a joint operation conducted by Azerbaijans State Security Service and the State Border Service, Hasanzada was detained in Azerbaijan while illegally crossing the state border.

The Main Investigation Department of Azerbaijans State Security Service brought him to criminal responsibility under Article 276 (espionage) and 318.1 (illegal crossing of state border) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

A preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen by a court in his regard.

It was also established that on the instructions of foreign intelligence services, Hasanzada collected information about military personnel of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, military strategic facilities located in the country, military equipment and ammunition, relations with foreign countries in the military sphere, as well as other intelligence information in the sphere of state security and defense of Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov and the BHOS students attended the event organized on the occasion of awarding the winners of CanSat Azerbaijan 2018 satellite model competition among students.

At the ceremony, the Minister of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic Jeykhun Bayramov awarded Rector Elmar Gasimov a special Certificate of Appreciation for the support provided by the BHOS management to Interstellar student team representing the Higher School at the competition. The President of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences Akif Alizadeh presented valuable gifts and certificates to the members of the Interstellar team comprising six BHOS students who took the second place in CanSat Azerbaijan 2018.

Speaking at the ceremony, Elmar Gasimov said that taking the second place in the competition, which brought together 31 teams from 11 national higher educational institutions, was a great success for the BHOS undergraduates. He expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Education and Azercosmos OJSC for organizing CanSat Azerbaijan 2018. In the Rectors words, such initiatives help to enable young people to master their skills of creating satellite platforms and to encourage them to participate in space research projects in the future.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

A new checkpoint to be built on the border between Azerbaijan and Georgia will further expand the possibilities of the Silk Road, Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee Safar Mehdiyev said.

Mehdiyev made the remarks at the meeting with Georgian ambassador to Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze in Baku on Oct. 18, the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee said.

He expressed gratification with the relations between the two countries in the customs sphere and said that business and effective relations create favourable conditions for the growth of trade turnover between the two countries and the successful implementation of projects in the field of logistics and transport.

Mehdiyev talked about the projects to modernize the customs system as part of the reforms being carried out in the country.

He spoke about the new checkpoint, to be built on the border of the two countries and which will further expand the possibilities of the Silk Road.

Mehdiyev also spoke about the joint control mechanism of the corresponding structures of both countries.

The Georgian ambassador thanked for the warm welcome and said that the economic and political relations between Azerbaijan and Georgia are developing well.

The business and effective dialogue between the customs bodies of both countries also contributes to the development of these ties, Pataradze said.

The ambassador touched upon the importance of the implementation of new projects in the tourism sector in both countries and spoke about the work and steps to be taken in this direction.

During the meeting it was stressed that Azerbaijan constantly supports Georgia in all spheres, and expressed confidence that these ties will develop in the future.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Taleh Mursagulov  Trend:

The number of appeals from credit organizations to the "BOA" collection agency to collect debt is growing by 10-15 percent annually, the agencys director Samir Mustafayev told Trend Oct. 19.

While earlier the agency itself was looking for entities whom it would contact regarding problem portfolios, now the financial institutions themselves are already turning to the agency, the director said.

Mustafayev noted that the number of requests from individuals and shops is also increasing.

In addition, the director noted that today the debt portfolio of the Azerbaijani collection agency "BOA" is approximately 50 million manats.

According to the data of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, the problem loans of the country's credit organizations in 1H2018 amounted to 1.75 billion manats, or accounted for 14.4 percent of the total volume of loans issued. Compared to the same period last year, the volume of problem loans decreased by 3.6 percent, and their share in the total loan portfolio increased slightly.

The BOA Collection Agency LLP has been operating in Azerbaijan since the end of 2012, and today, it is one of the largest collection agencies in the country.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.18

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Norway is open to explore potential fields of trade cooperation with Azerbaijan, Daniel Bjarmann-Simonsen, state secretary to Norway's minister of trade, industry and fisheries told Trend

Simonsen noted that trade between Norway and Azerbaijan is limited.

"In 2017, we exported goods to Azerbaijan for $119 million and we imported goods for $8.8 million," he said.

The state secretary pointed out that Norway is an open economy, with a small population but with relatively high purchasing power.

"Norway is dependent on importing many of the products we consume. Norwegian companies are also dependent on access to the world markets for their exports," said Simonsen.

He said that Norways main imports from the world are machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment, while it mainly export oil, gas and seafood.

"We are open to explore potential fields of trade cooperation between Norway and Azerbaijan that lie within the interests of our respective business communities," he added

It should be noted that several Norwegian companies are operating in Azerbaijan, the largest one being Equinor. The company has shares in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields, Shah Deniz gas and condensate field and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynHOUSTON, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orion Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ORN) (the "Company") a leading specialty construction company, today announced that Christopher J. DeAlmeida will step down as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer effective November 2, 2018 to pursue a new opportunity with a private company that is not a competitor. As a result, the Company has named Robert L. Tabb, Orions Vice President of Finance, as Interim Chief Financial Officer. The Company will consider both internal and external candidates for the CFO role.



Mark Stauffer, Orion Group Holdings President and Chief Executive Officer said, I am very grateful to Chris for helping Orion grow into the strong Company it is today. Over the past 11 years, Chris has served Orion with strong leadership and integrity. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Christopher DeAlmeida has served as Orions Chief Financial Officer since February 2014 and is leaving to pursue a new opportunity outside of Orion. My years at Orion have been a very fulfilling time for me professionally, said Chris DeAlmeida. While timing is not ideal, this announcement has no correlation to the Companys preliminary third quarter 2018 results. I am proud of the work we have accomplished during my tenure as CFO and I have every confidence that the leadership team will continue the great progress we have made in executing our strategy. I believe Orion is on the right track, with a solid and bright future.

Mark Stauffer, also stated, Robert Tabb has been an integral part of the senior management team for the past 4 years. He possesses a deep understanding of our business, markets, and strategic plan. I have full confidence in Roberts abilities.

Robert L. Tabb Biography

Mr. Tabb has served as Orion Group Holdings Vice President Finance since November 2016. Mr. Tabb has over 12 years of public company accounting and financial management experience and has overseen the Companys financial planning and analysis function since 2014. Prior to his current role, Mr. Tabb served as the Companys Director of Financial Planning and Analysis. Prior to joining Orion, Mr. Tabb held progressively responsible positions in accounting, finance, and M&A with Mattress Firm, Inc., MXenergy, Inc., and J. Richard Claywell, CPA.

About Orion Group Holdings

Orion Group Holdings, Inc., a leading specialty construction company, provides services both on and off the water in the continental United States, Alaska, Canada and the Caribbean Basin through its heavy civil marine construction segment and its commercial concrete segment. The Companys heavy civil marine construction segment services include marine transportation, facility construction, marine pipeline construction, marine environmental structures, dredging of waterways, channels and ports, environmental dredging, design, and specialty services. Its commercial concrete segment provides turnkey concrete construction services including pour and finish, dirt work, layout, forming, rebar, and mesh across the light commercial, structural and other associated business areas. The Company is headquartered in Houston, Texas with regional offices throughout its operating areas.

Investor Contact:

Shane Martin, (972) 850-2001

shane@stonegateinc.comBaku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Domestic car production is a priority for Turkey, said Mehmet Gurcan Karakas, head of the consortium for domestic car production, Turkish media reported.

Karakas noted that the domestic car production in Turkey is also a chance to enter the global car market.

He added that Turkeys domestic cars will be able to compete with global brands.

On Oct. 11, the Turkish "Zorlu Holding" company, together with four other companies which are members of the consortium for development of a domestic Turkish car, presented the first prototypes of the vehicle.

The prototype was developed together with the "Vestel Elektronik" company and is entitled as "VEO".

Earlier, the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology of Turkey Faruk Ozlu said Turkey will invest $3 billion in creating a domestic car.

Ozlu said work is currently underway to develop prototypes of five different models of the domestic car. The minister also noted that one of the cars will be equipped with an electric motor.

The prototypes of the domestic Turkish cars will be presented at the Geneva motor show, which will be held in 2019.

On November 2, 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the names of companies that will participate in the creation of the domestic car - Anadolu Grubu, BMC, Kraca Holding, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding.

Erdogan stressed that the creation of a domestic car will strengthen the economy of Turkey. The president also said that Turkey will export domestic cars to neighboring countries.

The cars developed in Turkey will be manufactured with different types of body and engines.

The purchase of a domestic car in Turkey will be exempt from special consumer tax.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Over 1,000 delegates from 27 countries of the world, including representatives of the public and private sectors of Central Asia, Europe and the USA, arrived in Tashkent to participate in the 8th Central Asian Trade Forum (CATF), organized in the Youth Creativity Palace, Uzbek media reported.

This business forum is being held in Uzbekistan for the first time.

Organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Central Asia and the Foreign Trade Ministry of Uzbekistan, the forum is a platform for development of regional trade and an interactive platform for entrepreneurs to find potential partners.

The theme of the forum, "New horizons in development of trade and investment", reflects the growth of openness of Central Asia for regional and international trade, which is particularly consonant with the complex of socio-economic reforms carried out in Uzbekistan aimed at accelerating economic growth, creating an attractive investment and business climate and development tourism.

The trade show presents over 100 enterprises from various sectors throughout the region, including transport, tourism, information technology, equipment, production and processing of fruits and vegetables, and others. Assistance in development of entrepreneurship at the regional level is one of the priorities of USAID's work.

The forum is organized by the USAID Competitiveness, Trade and Job Creation Project in Central Asia, which aims to promote exports and increase employment in the fruit and vegetable, tourism, transport and logistics sectors in five Central Asian countries [Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan].

By developing the competitiveness of companies in the region and eliminating barriers to trade, USAID contributes to development of a sustainable and competitive private sector to increase export potential.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

A meeting of working groups on customs, standards, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as well as on protection of intellectual property was held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Uzbek media reported referring to the press service of the Foreign Trade Ministry.

This meeting is the first event held in Tashkent in the framework of the US Business Week.

The event was attended by experts from Central Asia, the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The participants exchanged views on ensuring openness of the market, and also discussed further prospects for expanding mutual trade between the participating countries of the agreement.

On Oct. 15-19, 2018, Uzbekistan hosts the US Business Week, which includes the eighth meeting of the Council of the framework agreement on trade and investment, as well as the Central Asian Trade Forum held for the first time in Uzbekistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

On Oct. 17, 2018, the Uzbek-Korean cooperation exchange with participation of business circles of the two countries took place in the City Palace hotel in Tashkent, Uzbek media reported.

The purpose of the meeting was to expand trade and investment cooperation between Uzbekistan and the Republic of Korea.

During event, negotiations were held between Korean and Uzbek companies on implementation of joint business projects in such areas as agro-technologies, modern equipment, ICT, building materials, renewable energy, light industry and others.

Companies producing wastewater treatment equipment using electrolysis, equipment and technologies for growing agricultural products, as well as parts for testing semiconductor chips and eco-switches for solar and wind energy systems and others took part in the exchange.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

The first Forum of Interregional Cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan is being held on Oct. 18-20 in Tashkent at the Uzexpocenter national exhibition complex, Uzbek media reported.

The event was organized by the Ministry of Economy, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan together with the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia.

The purpose of the forum is to expand and develop mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

Within the forum it is planned to hold sessions on various sectors of the economy.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Uzbekistan intends to turn the Navoi International Intermodal Logistics Center (IILC), created on the basis of a cargo terminal at the international airport in the city of the same name, into a logistics hub for Central Asia, Uzbekistan Airways told Trend.

According to the representative of the air carrier, the Navoi IILC plans to become the leading hub specializing in provision of cargo handling services in Central Asia.

"As a result of recent investments in infrastructure and training of employees, the airport provides the highest level of cargo handling quality for airlines and freight forwarders. Today, the airport is one of the most important cargo handling centers in Central Asia, providing efficient and reliable services, taking into account the security requirements," the airlines said.

Currently, regular cargo flights connect the Navoi IILC with the main hubs and logistics centers of Eurasia, including Seoul, Milan, Vienna, Zaragoza, Frankfurt, Delhi, Dubai, Istanbul, Dhaka and Bishkek. The cargo terminal is able to store and process up to 300 tons of cargo per day, thanks to the use of world-class technology.

"The Navoi IILC has ample opportunities for processing and storing agricultural products, as well as large-sized, heavy, dangerous and other non-standard types of cargo both for export and for import," the company said.

In 2016, the Navoi International Airport transported and handled 37,099 tons of cargo, in 2017  33,628 tons in 2017, and by August 2018  228 tons of agricultural products for export.

Earlier the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Luxembourg airline Cargolux expressed interest in the Navoi IILC.

The Navoi IILC was created jointly by the Uzbekistan Airways and the Korean Air on the basis of the international airport of the city of Navoi. The center is one of the largest and most technologically advanced cargo complexes in the region. The total area of the complex is 16,000 square meters.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

MAN Auto-Uzbekistan will supply 14 trucks to Tajikistan worth over $1.4 million, Podrobno.uz. reported.

A contract was signed with Experimental Mechanical Plant CJSC in Tajikistan for supply of 14 MAN TGS 41.400 8x4 BB dump trucks worth $1.4 million.

These dump trucks are also equipped with powerful D20 engines with a modern common rail fuel injection system.

To date, 11 trucks worth $1.1 million have been supplied.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Supplies of agricultural machinery from Russia to Uzbekistan increased by 7.5 times and exceeded $20 million over nine months of 2018 compared to the same period of 2017, Podrobno.uz. reported.

"This year, the exports of agricultural equipment from the Russian Federation to Uzbekistan increased by 7.5 times compared to 2017, Alla Elizarova, director of Rosspetsmash, a Russian association of manufacturers of purpose-built machinery and equipment, said. The value amounted to more than 1.3 billion rubles for nine months.

Russian plants supply a wide range of equipment, in particular, combine and forage harvesters, tractors, mowers, plows, balers, equipment for animal husbandry, grain cleaning machines to Uzbekistan, she said.

The management of Rosspetsmash, as well as representatives of the state bodies of the Russian Federation and Russian industrialists, will visit Uzbekistan. The purpose of the trip is to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, define potential and ways of cooperation.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

Trend:

Uzbek First Deputy Minister for Development of Information Technologies and Communications Olimjon Umarov spoke about the possible causes of technical failures with Facebook, Vkontakte, as well as YouTube, Gazeta.uz. reported.

Technical failures may be caused as a result of the installation of new equipment to increase the capacity of an external internet channel, he said. The ministry plans to implement the project till the end of November.

"We are completing the implementation of the project to increase the speed of the internet [by 10 times], Umarov said on the sidelines of the Forum for Interregional Cooperation between Russia and Uzbekistan on Oct. 18. I think by the end of November our citizens will really feel the effect. New equipment is being bought. Technical failures may be caused as a result of testing of equipment."

There have been problems with access to YouTube in Uzbekistan since early October. Earlier, there were problems with access to Facebook, Vkontakte.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

The new tourism brand of Azerbaijan was presented at the first National Tourism Summit in Baku, held by the State Tourism Agency and the Tourism Bureau of Azerbaijan on Oct. 18.

Brand and Marketing Manager of the Tourism Bureau Fidan Aliyeva said that the main symbols of the new brand are a new logo and a motto.

Along with the fact that the letter "A" is the new tourism logo, it is also the first letter in the name of the country, and conveys the essence of the brand, and the logo will constantly change according to the platform it represents, Aliyeva added.

The main motto of Azerbaijan's new tourism brand is "Take Another Look".

Fidan Aliyeva added that the brand was prepared by the well-known company Landor, which has many years of successful experience in this field.

The presentation of the new brand to the world community will be held in November at the WTM London.Not for distribution in the U.S. or to U.S. Newswires



VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS) (OTCQB: HSTRF) (FRA: GQ4B), (BlissCo) or the (Company) is pleased to announce that its CEO, Damian Kettlewell has been in high demand by media in the wake of recreational cannabis legalization.

Breakfast Television on CityTV kicked off legalization day with Damian breaking down what new legalization regulations mean for consumers: quantities, products and a striking visual representation of allowable medical and recreational quantities. Watch the segment here .





kicked off legalization day with Damian breaking down what new legalization regulations mean for consumers: quantities, products and a striking visual representation of allowable medical and recreational quantities. . Global News invited Damian to discuss recent cannabis industry career training programs that have been gaining traction. Damian helped to create the original content of Kwantlens courses some time ago. This interview was also featured on MSN . Watch the segment here.





invited Damian to discuss recent cannabis industry career training programs that have been gaining traction. Damian helped to create the original content of Kwantlens courses some time ago. This interview was also featured on . CTV featured an image of Damian alongside Charlene, the companys brand director on its recent article profiling the countdown to legalization. View the article here.





featured an image of Damian alongside Charlene, the companys brand director on its recent article profiling the countdown to legalization. CBC showcased an image of dried cannabis flower from BlissCos facility alongside some of its recent articles. View the article here.





showcased an image of dried cannabis flower from BlissCos facility alongside some of its recent articles. The Globe and Mail displayed an image of BlissCos dried cannabis flower in several recent articles. View the article here (paywall).

The biggest opportunity is right in front of us: federal legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada is a milestone for the entire country and as a domestically-focused producer what were most excited for is what comes next - which is the development of new cannabis products, adds Damian Kettlewell, Founder and CEO of BlissCo Cannabis Corp. We really believe this is just the beginning and the future is beyond just smoking cannabis.

The Green Wall across the globe is also falling right now. There are currently 30 countries that have legalized medical cannabis and this gives BlissCo the opportunity to expand into those countries. As well, we are likely to see countries that have not already legalized cannabis do so in the near future which will serve as a great opportunity for the company and for cannabis patients in these regions, added Kettlewell.

About BlissCo Cannabis Corp.

BlissCo Cannabis Corp. (CSE: BLIS) (OTCQB: HSTRF) (FRA: GQ4B) is a wellness-focused, ACMPR licensed producer and future distributor of ultra-premium cannabis. The company sits at the heart of an international ecosystem and is focused on the success of its domestic and global partnerships.

BlissCo leverages the latest technology and is continuously developing its network of top-tier industry experts to drive the success of its brand and channels, moving premium Canadian cannabis to local and international markets.

BlissCo is backed by an experienced team that is deeply in tune and integrated with industry partners and BlissCo's future patients and customers.

Learn more: BlissCo.com

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

BLISSCO CANNABIS CORP.

Damian Kettlewell, CEO, Founder & Chair

For further information please contact:

Ariel Jack Lewinski, Business Development & Investor Relations

# 1-604-377-7533

ariel.lewinski@blissco.com

Cautionary Statement

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively forward-looking statements). The use of any of the word will and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. This news release contains forward-looking statements and assumptions pertaining to the following: the ability to execute on our strategic plans and the impact on our future operations, capital expenditures, receipt of a cannabis oil license and a license to sell dried cannabis and other objectives. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

The CSE has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.Pakistan assured Iran of full cooperation to trace the fate of the border forces of Iran, who had been abducted by terrorists at the border crossing point in Mirjaveh, IRNA reports.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said at his weekly news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday that Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif had called Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to discuss the situation arising following the abduction of Iranian guards near the Pakistan-Iran border point of Mirjaveh, on October 16, 2018.



He said FM Qureshi briefed Mr. Zarif about the active efforts launched by the Pakistan law enforcement agencies to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing Iranian guards, in coordination with the Iranian military and intelligence counterparts.



It was noted that the two Directors General (Military Operations) were in close contact through hotline to coordinate the search and rescue efforts, including enhanced air surveillance and troops deployment in the border area where the incident took place, he said.



He said: Foreign Minister Qureshi said that such incidents are the handy work of our common enemies unhappy with the existing close, friendly relations between Pakistan and Iran.



Reaffirming Pakistans commitment of not allowing anyone succeed in such malicious efforts, Mr. Qureshi noted that Pakistan and Iran have traditionally shared a border of peace and friendship which would be maintained in the same spirit, said the spokesperson.



He said that during the conversation Javad Zarif underscored Irans desire to overcome all hurdles jointly with Pakistan in maintaining complete peace along the Pak-Iran border.



Jaish al-Adl, terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the act.



Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal replying to a question said that Pakistan wants all countries to uphold Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He said that options other than dialogue will not be successful on the matter.



To another question, he said Pakistan authorities are in touch with the authorities in Iran and Iraq to help facilitate pilgrims. He added that Pakistan authorities are working closely with Iraqi authorities to resolve the visa issue.



He said that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and the most viable way forward is an Afghan led and Afghan owned peace process.



He said Pakistan welcomes efforts for negotiated settlement and will extend all possible support in this regard.



Pakistan wishes to see peace and stability in Afghanistan which is an important neighboring and brotherly country, he said.



Dr Mohammad Faisal said Pakistan is fencing its border with Afghanistan to check movement of undesirable elements. He said Afghanistan also needs to take similar steps.



The official added that CASA-1000 and other energy gas pipelines projects are win-win projects involving Pakistan, Afghanistan and other partner countries. He noted these projects will bring shared prosperity and economic development in the region.Irans new ambassador to Ukraine and head of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industries in Kiev explored ways of boosting economic and trade ties between the two countries, IRNA reports.

Manuchehr Moradi and Gennadiy Chyzhykov stressed the need for boosting bilateral relations.



Extending full support to promoting economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries in various sectors, Chyzhykov voiced the institutes readiness for easing communications between private sectors of the two countries.



Irans ambassador also presented a report on the latest situation of the two countries ties and stressed the need for optimal use of opportunities on the ground to help boost mutual collaboration.



The two officials also discussed exchanging economic delegations and holding different meetings.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

Iran has so far fulfilled all commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Deputy Chairman of Irans Atomic Energy Organization for international, law and parliamentary affairs Behrouz Kamalvandi said.

He made the remarks at a meeting with Director at the German Federal Foreign Office Antje Leendertse, according to the website of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

If Irans interests as part of the nuclear deal arent ensured, it will be meaningless to continue to fulfill obligations, Kamalvandi noted.

There are positive signs that Europe adheres to the nuclear deal, he added.

However, given the limited time and economic pressure, Iran expects Europe to take urgent steps to find solutions to combat the US unilateral sanctions, he said.

Leendertse also welcomed Irans commitment to the nuclear deal.

Considering that such cases are taking place for the first time in the history of international relations, Europe is seeking creation of methods to combat US sanctions, Leendertse said.Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17

By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:

The Central Bank of Iran is trying to quit SWIFT and transfer its system to another inter-bank system before the November sanctions are imposed, Fars News Agency reported citing the bank's spokesperson.

The Central Bank has a program to exit SWIFT and access an alternative system to continue banking operations after US Treasury Department imposes sanctions, the spokesperson said, adding the bank hopes the efforts made in this program will be successful.

SWIFT was established in May 1973. The US, the Netherlands, the UK and Hong Kong act as support centers for members. So, the US State Department can inspect the financial transactions between Iranian banks and banks of other countries, and punish those who violate sanctions against Iran.With its staying in a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, Iran has showed its good-will and principled position for dialogue in all areas, Irans ambassador to Russia Mehdi Sanaei said, IRNA reports.

What has caused problem for the world in the current situation is the US unilateral and warmongering policies, Sanaei said, speaking during the 14th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Russian resort city of Sochi.



Although sanction is not a good phenomenon, Irans experiences during sanctions era show sanctioned countries can turn economic pressures into opportunities, the ambassador said.



In the current situation, Iran, Russia and China are expected to rely on national resources and economy, as well as cooperation within the framework of regional mechanisms, he added.



The US President Donald Trump in May announced Washingtons unilateral withdrawal from a hard-won 2015 agreement of world powers with Iran over the countrys nuclear program.



Trump said he will reinstate sanctions on Tehran, the first round of which were imposed in early August and the second round is expected to come into force on November 4.



The other parties to the deal as well as the European Union have expressed their opposition to the US measure, pledging to make every effort to save the deal.



The EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini recently announced that a special mechanism will be introduced before the imposition of the second round of the US sanctions on November 4 to help the EU states continue with economic cooperation with Tehran.



The new system  known as SPV  has been designed to allow the EU countries to continue with their trade cooperation with Iran regardless of the US sanctions.UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura might convene the Syrian Constitutional Commission before his resignation in late November, Vitaly Naumkin, the academic director of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies, told Sputnik.

"I believe he will try to do something in November because it is important for him to leave with the understanding that he had achieved something, let us say, the Constitutional Commission has been formed," Naumkin, who had been de Misturas adviser, said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club, on Wednesday.

Naumkin suggested that if there was an agreement that the commission would convene in December, the new UN envoy should be introduced soon in order to engage in work by December and end the year by gathering the commission.

When asked, if de Mistura would do this, Naumkin said he thought de Mistura would, adding that the UN official "could not leave defeated."

Naumkin suggested that de Mistura indeed had personal reasons to quit his job, recalling that the UN official had told him he did not see his family a lot due to work and multiple business trips.

"Apparently, the time has come for some new players that might move this process and achieve the creation of the Constitutional Commission  I do not see a big tragedy for him due to his resignation. He has developed the background of a major diplomat," the academic noted.

Naumkin insisted that de Mistura had achieved a lot working on his position with limited capabilities.

De Mistura said on Wednesday he would quit in the last week of November due to personal reasons. The diplomat has been working as the UN special envoy for Syria since 2014.

The creation of the Syrian Constitutional Commission was agreed upon during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi in late January. De Mistura is in charge of forming the body that is tasked with rewriting the Syrian main law.Patrice Caine, the chairman and chief executive of French defense electronics group Thales, has decided not to attend a Saudi investment conference next week, amid global concerns over the fate of a missing Saudi journalist, Reuters reports.

A spokesman for Thales added that the French company would nevertheless be represented at the event, due to be held in Riyadh from Oct 23-Oct 25, by Jean-Loic Galle, who is an executive at Thales space division.

The disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has raised concerns around the world.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of the authoritarian kingdoms Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body removed. The Saudis have denied the allegations.

The French state owns 26 percent of Thales while Dassault Aviation has a 25 percent stake.State oil giant Saudi Aramco signed an agreement on Thursday to take a stake in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, Reuters reports.

The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading, according to details released by the Zhoushan government after a signing ceremony in the city south of Shanghai.

Last month, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with the projects operator Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil.

The oil giant had not yet finalised the size of its stake in the project and still needed to complete due diligence, Aramcos Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

Saudi Aramco expects to supply 170,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude to the refinery in Zhoushan when it starts operations, he said.

The first crude carrier supplying the refinery should arrive in December or January, depending on when the project starts, he added.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 percent owned by textile giant Rongsheng Holding Group, has previously said it would start the 400,000-barrels-per-day project in late 2018.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has arrived in China on an official visit, TASS reports.

"In Beijing, Shoigu and the deputy chief of Chinas Central Military Council, Zhang Youxia, on October 19 will co-chair the 23rd meeting of the joint inter-governmental commission for military-technical cooperation," the Russian defense ministers spokeswoman, Rossiyana Markovskaya, told the media.

The two sides plan to summarize the results of activities over the past year and identify priority tasks in developing military-technical cooperation in the forthcoming period.

"The session will end with the signing of a protocol that will determine the priority cooperation guidelines and specify ways of implementing the identified projects," Markovskaya said. Shoigu arrived in China from Mongolia, where he had been on an official visit.Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui called Thursday's speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club "remarkable," noting that China appreciated his views and approaches to relations with Beijing, Sputnik reported.

During the plenary session of the annual meeting of the Valdai Club, Putin noted that Russia and China had reached an "unprecedented" level of trust.

"I listened with great interest and attention to the speech and answers of Vladimir Putin. This is a very remarkable speech. We especially appreciate his approaches and views on relations with China," the ambassador told Sputnik after Putins speech.

Li added that he agreed with the Russian leader that there was great potential within the framework of China's One Belt, One Road initiative, and this project's synergy with the Eurasian Economic Union.

"In fact, we have already achieved significant success in our business cooperation, this is also important and useful for the development of Russia and China. Of course, you know that our leaders have identified promising areas for our cooperation, most importantly for our strategic cooperation. We will try to do everything possible to implement the agreements reached by our leaders, the agreements signed by our governments," the diplomat added.

China's "One Belt, One Road" strategy, announced by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2013, is aimed at developing infrastructure and strengthening ties between the Eurasian countries. The initiative focuses mainly on the Maritime Silk Route and on the land-based Silk Road Economic Belt.

In June, Russian Economic Development Ministry and the Chinese Commerce Ministry signed a joint declaration on a feasibility study of the Eurasian economic partnership agreement following the talks between Putin and Xi.Sellbyville, Delaware, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Worldwide Inland Waterways Vessels Market is set to reach a revenue of over USD 2.2 trillion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. Proliferating domestic trading activities across the globe through inland waterways is driving the global inland waterways vessels market share over the study timeframe.

Increasing preference for these vessels can be attributed to the benefits offered including reliable transportation, cost effectiveness for transporting cargo over long distances, and congestion free movement over the other modes of transportation, are strengthening the market share till 2024.

Make an Inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2498

Non-passenger inland waterways vessel market will dominate the industry place with more than 84% revenue share by 2024. Increasing demand of cargo ships for transportation of agricultural products are boosting the segment share over the forecast timeframe. High adoption of general cargo and fishing vessels along with the increasing adoption of tugboats for proper movement and towing of ships will support the segment dominance.

Passengers ship will grow significantly at approximately 6% CAGR till 2024. Increasing support from the government for enhancing the industry is playing a major role for inland waterways vessel market expansion till 2024. For instance, in 2018, Government of India approved USD 6.7 billion for leasing out cruises and promote cruise tourism providing a positive outlook for the industry growth.

Industry players are continuously investing in R&D to increase the efficiency of inland waterways vessel and improve the safety significantly. The incorporation of multiple sensors and navigational systems enable easier and efficient movement of people and goods providing a positive outlook for the industry growth. The integration of double hulls systems to reduce spillage enable secured transportation of petroleum, further expanding the inland waterways vessels market revenue generation till 2024.

Browse key industry insights spread across 444 pages with 447 market data tables & 13 figures & charts from the 2018 report Global Inland Waterways Vessels Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/inland-waterways-vessels-market

Global inland waterways vessel market from heavy fuel oil will exhibit the maximum volume share of over 72% over the forecast timeframe. This dominance can be credited to the easier availability and increased usage of such fuels in multiple types of vessels. Low sulfur fuel oil will showcase over 10% CAGR over the forecast timeframe. This growth can be attributed to the benefits offered by the fuel including lower emissions and relatively clean burning compared to the other fuels. The compliance with stringent regulatory norms further supports the segment growth till 2024.

Asia Pacific dominated the global inland waterways vessels market place with around 1,645 thousand units in 2017. This can be attributed to the improving water channels across the region. Supporting government initiatives along with increased investments to promote cruise tourism will further strengthen the regional dominance till 2024. Presence of multiple manufacturers including Sembcorp Marine, Samsung Heavy Industries, Wisdom Marine, Ilshin Shipping, and Hyundai Heavy Industries focus on introducing efficient inland vessels along with the proper integration of inland waterways transportation into inland transport and logistics network will further proliferate the business size.

Sneed Shipbuilding, Sanmar, Bayliner, CMA CGM Group, and European Cruise Service are among the key players in the global inland waterways vessel market place. Other significant players include Windcat Work Boats, DFDS, Seacontractors, Norfolk Tug Company, and CIWTC. Industry participants are focused on expanding their portfolio for increasing their market share over the forecast timeframe.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2498





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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:Italys prime minister denied any division between the two parties in his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues, and insisted Rome will move ahead with planned expansionary budgetary measures, Reuters reports.

His remarks came as European Union leaders raised concerns about Romes extravagant budgetary plans that could further increase Italys public debt, which, at 133 percent of gross domestic product, is the largest in the EU after Greece.

In what could be a further source of concern, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star party, said a legislative text on a partial tax amnesty had been manipulated before its final approval.Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday left the door open for France to support the European Union negotiators offer of a one-year extension to Britains post-Brexit transition period, Reuters reports.

Michel Barnier proposed the extension to give London more time to agree an EU-UK customs deal needed to solve the Irish border issue. British Prime Minister Theresa May said in Brussels on Thursday she was willing to discuss an extension of the transition period without ever planning to use it.

Its for the French president to decide whether an extension is in our interests, Le Maire told Public Senat TV, adding that France was making the necessary preparations for a no-deal scenario.

I believe it is in our interest do everything possible up until the last minute to reach a deal with Britain. Our red line is a deal that would weaken the single market and the EU.Equinom is developing a full portfolio of non-GMO legumes that have 50% more protein than varieties currently on the market, Globes reports.

Israeli plant-based protein company Equinom has raised $4 million in a financing round from vegetable protein pioneer Roquette and Fortissimo Capital private equity fund.

Equinom, an innovative breeding technology company based at Kibbutz Givat Brenner near Rehovot, has signed a partnership agreement for the development and sourcing of new pea varieties with high-protein content. This is the first agreement and investment made by Roquette in Israel. Through this collaboration Roquette is able to be involved on the cutting edge of new non-GMO plant variety development addressing industrial needs and consumer expectations.

Equinom founder and CEO Gil Shalev said, The agreement with Roquette is a major milestone for Equinom, and its investment in our company is a vote of confidence in our technology and its ability to transform the plant-protein market. The agreement will guarantee the full commercialization of Equinoms high-protein pea varieties. It will also facilitate the introduction of additional plant protein to market and enable Equinom to attain its mission of increasing the production of high-quality, sustainable food ingredients that are changing the types of foods consumed.

Roquette VP Pea and New Protein business line Pascal Leroy said, This investment represents a great partnership and a major step forward in the implementation of the Groups strategy in plant-based proteins. It enables Roquette to position itself as a pioneer in the whole value chain for plant-based proteins. By contributing to develop new responsible and sustainable high-protein pea production thanks to this collaboration, we are demonstrating our goal of offering products increasingly tailored to the needs of Food, Nutrition and Health markets, and to better answer a growing customer and consumer demand. We are delighted with this partnership with Equinom, a highly innovative company, which enables us to provide our customers around the world with high-quality plant-based ingredients.

Fortissimo Capital partner Yoav Hineman said, The partnership with Roquette is an important achievement for Equinom, enabling it to leapfrog its high-protein pea program and commercialize its varieties with the leading global player in the market. Using its proprietary software-based breeding system, Equinom continues to revolutionize significant global crops by introducing key traits in record time. Since inception, Equinom introduced varieties in sesame that can be harvested mechanically, protein rich legumes, high-yield quinoa, and is currently targeting additional crops. Fortissimo Capital reiterates its commitment to support Equinoms growth plans. The investment is part of our strategic effort to identify and invest in market leading food-tech and ag-tech companies around the world.

Equinom has to date signed several breeding contracts with global leaders in the food industry. These include a multi-year contract with Sabra Dipping Company, LLC, a joint venture of PepsiCo, Inc., and Israels Strauss Group, as well as a commercialization agreement with Mitsui of Japan.The Untied Nations Middle East peace coordinator on Thursday once again called on Israel to cease settlement activities on the occupied Palestinian territories, Xinhua reported.

"I once again called on Israel to cease demolitions (of Palestinian-owned structures) and other measures that run contrary to its obligations under international law," UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council.

A total of 39 structures were demolished or seized in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing 33 people and affecting the livelihoods of over 100 others in the past month, Mladenov said, citing figures from the UN relief wing, or OCHA.

While the rate of demolitions has declined since the beginning of 2017, over 13,000 demolition orders are pending against Palestinian structures in Area C, he said, referring to an administrative area that constitutes about 60 percent of the West Bank territory.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has reportedly approved the allocation of 6 million dollars for advancing the construction of 31 housing units in the Jewish settlement in Hebron, the first new construction there in 16 years, Mladenov added.

"I reiterated the long-standing United Nations position that all settlement activities are illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace," he said.Malaysias anti-graft agency arrested a former deputy prime minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, on Thursday in connection with an investigation into suspected misappropriation of funds from a charity foundation, the agency said, Reuters reports.

Ahmad Zahid leads the opposition as the president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the once-powerful party that ruled Malaysia for 60 years before being ousted in a shock general election defeat in May.

He is the latest former high-ranking official to be arrested over suspected graft since the election.

Ex-premier Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, face multiple charges in connection with a multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Najib has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to 32 criminal charges involving more than 2.3 billion ringgit ($553.6 million) allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.

Rosmah has pleaded not guilty to 17 money-laundering offences.

Ahmad Zahid was arrested following an investigation into alleged abuse of power, breach of trust, and money laundering, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement.Mexicos Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it would ask the United Nations refugee agency for help coordinating with Central American governments related to people seeking refugee status at Mexicos southern border, according to Reuters.

US President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern US border on Thursday as Hondurans and Salvadorans joined thousands of migrants in Guatemala hoping to travel north.Russia's Aerospace Defense Forces will soon a regimental unit of S-400 Triumpf missile systems and three divisional units of Pantsir-S missile systems, Russian Defense Ministry's department of information and communications said, TASS reports.

"The Aerospace Defense Forces have received three S-400 Triumf missile systems this year for delivery to air defense units of military districts. We are expecting another regimental unit of this system to be delivered as soon, along with three divisional units of Pantsir-S missile systems supplied in accordance with the State Defense Order 2018," the defense ministry said.

The ministry noted that by the end of 2018, the share of modern military equipment for the Aerospace Defense Forces will stand at 70 percent.Interaction between Moscow and Cairo in the energy sphere is important, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, TASS reports.

"We discussed in detail issues of bilateral interaction in the energy sector," the Russian President said after talks. "The key joint project in this sphere is construction of a nuclear power plant of the Russian design in Egypt by Rosatom," Putin said. "Preparatory activities started on the site. Contracts with Egyptian companies intended to be proactively engaged as subcontractors are planned to be signed by the year-end," he noted.

"Positive experience of cooperation has also been accumulated in the hydrocarbon resources development sphere," the Russian leader said. "Regular supplies of Russian oil products and LNG to the Egyptian market take place," he added.Washington has agreed to provide security guarantees for a UN humanitarian convoy in the area around the Syrian town of Al-Tunf, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, TASS reports.

"According to incoming information, the United States has finally agreed, after long delays, to provide security guarantees in the 55 km zone arbitrarily established by it around its illegal Al-Tunf base for a UN humanitarian convoy," the Russian diplomat said.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that he hopes NATO will be wise enough to prevent a large-scale war. However, the risk of unintended incidents has swelled without normal dialogue with Russia, he stressed, TASS reports.

"I believe everyone will be wise enough to prevent that. However, we are certainly very much concerned about the total absence of any professional dialogue between the Russian military and NATO," he said in an interview with RT France, Paris Match and Le Figaro, when asked whether NATO drills in Europe pose a threat of a third world war.

The minister recalled that members of the NATO-Russia Council had met three times over the past two years without any results. According to Russias top diplomat, NATOs representatives were only prepared to discuss Ukraine.

"I am trying to be within the bounds of decency," Lavrov stressed. He went on to say that this just means one thing, "attempts were made to use the NATO-Russia Council as another tool to blame all mortal sins on us, and another way of satisfying the whims of our Ukrainian neighbors who dream of sanctions being endlessly perpetuated and want nothing more than Russia to always be subject to intense criticism," the diplomat specified.TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Purpose Investments Inc. (Purpose), is very pleased to announce the recognition of two of its alternative funds at the 2018 Canadian Hedge Fund Awards, which was held the evening of October 16 at a gala dinner with 145 guests in attendance in downtown Toronto. The awards are judged strictly on one-year performance, from June 2017 through June 2018.



Purpose Credit Opportunities Fund (the Fund) won the award for Best 1 Year Return in the Credit Focused category. The Fund is actively managed by our partner Sandy Liang, who leads credit strategies and fixed income at Purpose Investments. Purpose Credit Opportunities Fund posted an annualized return over the judging period of 12.29%, well ahead of the 4.43% annualized return of the HFRI Credit Index. The Fund combines active, bottom-up credit research with risk management through the use of various hedging tools to generate income while reducing volatility without the use of leverage. It is available for accredited investors through an offering memorandum in Series A (LGQ780) and Series F (LGQ781) through FundServ. Since its inception on June 30, 2014, Purpose Credit Opportunities Fund (Series F) has generated an annualized return of 10.67%.

Purpose Multi-Strategy Market Neutral Fund (PMM) won the award for Best 1 Year Return in the Market Neutral category. PMM is managed in partnership with Neuberger Berman Breton Hill LLC, who have more than 20 years of experience running market neutral strategies for institutional clients. Since the founding of Purpose, the partnership with Neuberger Berman Breton Hill has been crucial to developing and making unique risk-managed and alternative investment prospectus-based products available to all investors. Purpose Multi-Strategy Market Neutral Fund posted an annualized return over the judging period of 10.77%, ahead of the 4.98% annualized return of the HFRI Equity Market Neutral Index. PMM employs classic hedge fund investment strategies such as long/short equity, and momentum and carry themes within currencies and commodities. It is available in ETF shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PMM. It is also available in mutual fund Series A (PFC1400) and Series F (PFC1401) through FundServ. Since its inception on October 10, 2014, Purpose Multi-Strategy Market Neutral Fund (ETF Class) has generated an annualized return of 5.06%.

We set out five years ago to help change this industry for alternative investments and these awards validate our goal, said Som Seif, President & CEO of Purpose Investments Inc. What were doing as a company is extremely important, bringing innovation to the investing world. Winning these awards proves our products can compete with and beat the competition. All of our funds are powerful tools to help all types of investors build resilient portfolios to meet their long-term financial goals.

About Purposes family of alternative products

Purpose has been at the forefront of innovation in the alternative investments space, offering them through widely available prospectus-based products since 2013. In addition to the Canadian Hedge Fund Award winners, alternatives with Purpose also include the option-writing strategy, Purpose Premium Yield Fund (ETF ticker PYF), the hedged equity strategies Purpose Tactical Hedged Equity Fund (ETF ticker PHE) and Purpose International Tactical Hedged Equity Fund (ETF ticker PHW), as well Purpose Diversified Real Asset Fun (ETF ticker PRA).

About the Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards

The Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards were first held in 2008 and have a two-fold objective. First, the awards celebrate the talent and accomplishments of Canada's hedge fund industry, and second, they draw attention to Canada's hedge funds by raising the awareness of that expertise in the media and among the wider investment community.

About Purpose Investments

Purpose Investments is an asset management company with approximately $6.3 billion under management. Purpose Investments has an unrelenting focus on client-centric innovation, and offers a range of managed and quantitative investment products. Purpose Investments is led by well-known entrepreneur Som Seif and is a division of Purpose Financial, an independent technology-driven financial services company.

For further information please contact:

Matt Padanyi

Purpose Investments Inc.

Tel: (877) 789-1517

Email: info@purposeinvest.com

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investment fund investments. Please read the prospectus and other disclosure documents before investing. Investment funds are not covered by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government deposit insurer. There can be no assurance that the full amount of your investment in a fund will be returned to you. If the securities are purchased or sold on a stock exchange, you may pay more or receive less than the current net asset value. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy the securities referred to herein. This press release is not for dissemination in the United States or for distribution to US news wire services.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/aa7f1b8c-2faf-4773-b57c-a3314f768f34



U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised White House efforts to remove regulations that he sees as an impediment to economic growth, saying the administration had reduced regulatory costs by $23 billion in the year ending Sept. 30, Reuters reported.

The White House said it had eliminated regulatory costs totaling $23 billion in the most recent budget year but did not specify how much in societal benefits resulted from those eliminated rules. Regulatory costs are estimates by the administration of the costs for businesses and individuals to comply with mandated rules.

The administration said it had approved 14 new significant regulations and eliminated 57 major regulations in the 2017-2018 budget year.

We will have rules, regulations, and other standards which we need, we have to have. But we have knocked out tremendous numbers of unnecessary regulations, Trump said Wednesday at a White House event. One of the reasons the economy is so strong is that were not hampered by the ridiculous regulations.

The deregulatory actions included rescinding a 2015 hydraulic fracturing rule, eliminating a requirement that farms report emissions produced by animal waste, and withdrawing rules that would require air carriers to disclose some fees even if customers did indicate whether they planned to check a bag.

The new regulations included rules on hurricane assistance for agriculture losses, rules for payments of avian flu indemnity claims, mercury reporting requirements and sewer overflow public disclosures.

Lisa Gilbert, vice president of legislative affairs at advocacy group Public Citizen, said none of the 14 regulations finalized by the administration can be credibly described as significantly improving the publics health and safety or saving lives.

Gilbert said in a statement that under the Trump administration, regulators are focused only on boosting corporate profits, not saving lives or protecting the public by holding corporate wrongdoers accountable.

The biggest regulation under review in dollar terms is a proposal to freeze vehicle fuel-efficiency standards at 2020 levels through 2026, one that would save $340 billion in regulatory costs, but add at least $150 billion in higher fuel costs.

Since 2017, Congress and the Trump administration have rescinded rules on bank oversight and broadband privacy. Regulators are also moving to roll back rules on power plants and wetland pollution.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday that it plans to reverse regulations that set specific content requirements for frozen cherry pies and French salad dressing. The FDA said both changes would provide food manufacturers with greater flexibility.Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk will purchase company stock worth $20 million in the next open trading session, the electric carmaker said in a filing on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Tesla and Musk have each agreed to pay $20 million under a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of a fraud lawsuit relating to tweets by Musk in August.

Tesla said the purchase was separate and apart from the settlement between Musk, Tesla and the SEC and did not respond to Reuters requests for more information on the reasons for the purchase.

Shares of the company rose 2 percent in early trading.

The government lawsuit threatened Tesla and Musk with a long fight that could have undermined its operations and ability to raise capital.

However, Musk settled with SEC and agreed to step aside as Teslas chairman for three years, heading off the threat that he would be forced out of company management completely.

The settlement was approved by a U.S. judge on Tuesday.KYODO NEWS - Oct 18, 2018 - 18:47 | World, All

China on Thursday criticized the recent U.S. decision to pull out of a global postal treaty in a further escalation of President Donald Trump's confrontation with China over trade issues.

The White House announced Wednesday that Washington is preparing to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union treaty, accusing it of benefiting China and disadvantaging the United States in its treatment of shipping rates.

The postal union "has played a positive role in bringing countries closer to each other and promoting trade facilitation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a press briefing.

(Lu Kang)

"We regret the United States has decided to pull out of the Universal Postal Union," Lu said, adding, "We have always advocated and actively maintained multilateralism as well as actively taken part in and supported the work of the Universal Postal Union."

The treaty sets rates that national postal services charge to deliver mail and small packages from other countries. Poor and developing nations are assessed lower rates than wealthier countries, a benefit to Chinese companies.

It takes a year to withdraw from the Switzerland-based Union Postal Union. During that time, the United States will try to renegotiate shipment rates, but if that fails Washington will formally withdraw from the treaty, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.

Trump's decision to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union is likely to deal a another blow to U.S.-China trade relations, already severely strained by a series of tit-for-tat tariff increases on hundreds of billions of dollars of shipments in each direction.

Since Trump took office in January 2017, the United States has withdrawn from a number of major multilateral frameworks, such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the Paris Agreement on climate change.KYODO NEWS - Oct 18, 2018 - 01:08 | World, All

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed Wednesday to step up their countries' cooperation in promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific region where China has been increasing its influence.

The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment toward the denuclearization of North Korea and early entry into force of a free trade agreement signed in July between Japan and the European Union.

"Japan and France are both oceanic nations. We would like to join hands for promotion of the free and open Indo-Pacific," Abe told reporters in Paris, while Macron said achieving stability in the region is an important issue.

France possesses territories in the Pacific region, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

Abe has been pushing for the "Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy," which reflects Tokyo'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 their talks at the presidential palace after speaking to the press, the two leaders agreed to step up cooperation toward creating a free and open Indo-Pacific region, Japanese officials said.

Abe and Macron were also united against protectionism in light of the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China, they said.

The Japanese prime minister flew to Paris from Madrid earlier Wednesday as part of his European tour that will take him to Brussels for the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting from Thursday.

Abe is on his first trip to France since Macron took office in May 2017. He had planned to visit Paris in July to attend the opening ceremony of Japonismes 2018, a Japan-themed cultural event, but canceled the trip to oversee the government response to the heavy rain that hit western Japan.KYODO NEWS - Oct 18, 2018 - 18:10 | All, Feature, Japan

Japan is known for its ever-growing list of unique KitKat flavors, but now Nestle Japan Ltd. is taking its premium version of the chocolate bar to the next level -- a new specialty shop in downtown Osaka offering customers made-to-order creations that are chilled at the spot by liquid nitrogen.

While personalized bars have been available for limited occasions at pop-up stores in the past, the KitKat Chocolatory shop that opened Wednesday is the first and only permanent spot in Japan where custom KitKats can be made.

Customers can pick from five types of chocolate and choose three toppings from a selection of nine, such as dried mango, pineapple and marshmallow. The KitKat bar is then chilled at minus 196 C by having liquid nitrogen poured over it.

Prices start from 702 yen ($6) a bar, depending on the choice of chocolate. Customers can also choose to have all nine toppings on their chocolate bar for 2,214 yen, according to Nestle.

Given the popularity of Kitkat products among foreign tourists as souvenirs from Japan, the latest KitKat Chocolatory store is located right in front of the ticket gates at Nankai Electric Railway's Namba Station, which is in Osaka's major sightseeing and business district frequented by overseas visitors.

A train ticket counter with multilingual staff is also available next to the store, the railway company said.KYODO NEWS - Oct 18, 2018 - 17:35 | All, Japan

Satsuki Katayama, the only female minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet, denied Thursday a report in a weekly magazine that she accepted money from the owner of a manufacturing company in return for help lobbying tax authorities.

The regional revitalization minister told reporters the Shukan Bunshun article contains factual errors and she is preparing to file a libel suit.

The magazine said the owner paid 1 million yen ($8,900) to Hiroji Namura, one of her secretaries, in July 2015 requesting that tax authorities be lobbied for special treatment on the company's behalf.

But Katayama's office told the Shukan Bunshun that Namura had quit in May that year and the lawmaker introduced him to the owner as a tax accountant friend.

Katayama, a 59-year-old former elite Finance Ministry bureaucrat, obtained her first ministerial post in the Cabinet reshuffle last month. She doubles as minister in charge of women's empowerment.

The magazine, renowned for its reporting on political scandals, quoted the owner of the company as saying that Katayama called a regional taxation bureau chief during a September 2015 meeting, but her call went unanswered. The owner said Katayama claimed the bureau chief was her junior when she worked at the Finance Ministry.

Although Katayama's request to give the company owner special treatment did not bear fruit, Namura told the owner that the money had passed into the lawmaker's hands, according to the report. Her office denies she received the money.

Katayama first entered politics as a House of Representatives member in 2005, but lost her seat in the 2009 lower house election. She turned to the House of Councillors in 2010 and was re-elected in 2016.

Earlier in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference he believes Katayama will "fulfill her responsibilities as a politician and give a thorough explanation about her political activity."

Natsuo Yamaguchi, who heads the Komeito party, the junior coalition partner of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, echoed the view, telling reporters that Katayama should be held accountable to the public.Roy Joseph Vayalat, who was reportedly questioned for 11 hours on Tuesday, is accused of instructing his staff to destroy the digital evidence connected to the probe into the deaths.Not for distribution to United States newswire services or for dissemination in the United States



VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corp. (CSE:CANN) (Heritage or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Cormark Securities Inc. (Cormark), pursuant to which Cormark has agreed, on a best efforts private placement basis, to offer for sale up to 30,000,000 special warrants (the Special Warrants) of the Company at a price of $0.25 per Special Warrant for aggregate gross proceeds of up to approximately $7.5 million (the Offering).

Each Special Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to receive one unit of the Company (a Unit). Each Unit will be comprised of one common share (a Common Share) and one Common Share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.35 on a date that is the earlier of (i) 30 months following the Closing Date (as defined below) and (ii) the date specified in any Warrant Acceleration Notice (as defined below).

The Company has also granted Cormark an option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the Special Warrants sold under the Offering and shall be exercisable, in whole or in part, until the time of closing on the Closing Date (as defined below)

Each Special Warrant will be automatically exercised, without payment of additional consideration, on the earlier of: (i) the Qualification Deadline (as defined below); and (ii) the third business day after the Prospectus Qualification (as defined below).

The Company has agreed to use its best efforts to obtain a receipt for a final short form prospectus qualifying the distribution of the Common Shares and Warrants to be issued upon exercise or deemed exercise of the Special Warrants respectively (together, the "Prospectus Qualification") on or before the date that is 60 days following closing of the Offering (the "Qualification Deadline"). If the Prospectus Qualification does not occur before the Qualification Deadline, each holder shall be entitled to receive, without payment of additional consideration, 1.10 Units per Special Warrant.

If, at any time after the earlier of an obtained final receipt for the filing of the short form prospectus from the British Columbia Securities Commission or on the date which is four months and a day following the Closing Date, the volume-weighted average trading price of the common shares of the Company is equal to or greater than $0.50 for any 20 consecutive trading day period, the Company may provide written notice (a Warrant Acceleration Notice) that the expiry time of the Warrants shall be accelerated to the date which is 30 days after the date of such Warrant Acceleration Notice, subject to CSE approval.

The net proceeds of the Offering will be used to fund internal grow capacity expansion, increase extraction capabilities, and for other general corporate purposes.

The Offering is scheduled to close on November 6, 2018 (the Closing Date) or such other date as mutually agreed upon by Cormark and the Company.

The Closing Date is subject to certain customary conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the approval of the CSE and the applicable securities regulatory authorities.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of 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 or for the account or benefit of U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

About Heritage Cannabis Holdings Corp.

The Company is currently listed as a marijuana issuer having a 75% interest in PhyeinMed Inc, a Health Canada license holder under the ACMPR (Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations). It is a Parent and Development Company with strategic plans to continue to acquire Cannabis related companies.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF HERITAGE CANNABIS HOLDINGS CORPORATION

Clint Sharples

Clint Sharples

Chairman and interim CEO

For more information contact:

Clint Sharples

Tel: 416-705-8529

info@heritagecann.com

The Canadian Stock Exchange does not accept 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 expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the results of exploration activities -- 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.English Lithuanian

Energijos Skirstymo Operatorius AB (hereinafter  the Company), identification code 304151376, registered address at Aguonu st. 24, Vilnius, the Republic of Lithuania. The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by the Company is 894 630 333; ISIN code LT0000130023.

The Company received the resignation letter from the member of the Board Mr. Ignas Pranskevicius. He was elected the member of the Board of the Company on 20th January, 2017, and was responsible for the area of service provision.

Ignas Pranskevicius resigns from the Board and the position of the Services Director of the Company as of 1st November, 2018.

Information is not confidential.





Representative for Public Relations

Tomas Kavaliauskas

tomas.kavaliauskas@eso.lt,

+370 617 51616







Kathmandu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit neighbor country Nepal to attend the Bibha Panchmi on the invitation of Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli.

Bepannaah actor Jennifer Winget gives you festivity vibes with this elegant Indian wear

As per the reports of Newsagency ANI, Modi will visit the Nepal in December during latters state visit to Nepal. An aide to Nepal Prime told to ANI that Bibaha Panchami is festival which held annually in Janakpur, the birth land of Goddess Sita. As the festive season is going on they are yet to make a detailed programme and inform their other officials regarding it.

He further informed that PM Modi visit invitation for the Bibaha Panchami on December 12 this year is confirmed as Bishnu Rimal has earlier confirmed. A detailed report about it will be released as soon as the festive season is over

Happy Dussehra 2018: PM Modi, Amitabh Bachchan and all Celebs greet nation

During his visit to Nepal PM Modi will not attend the Bibha Panchmi only but will also inaugurate the railway bridge between Janakpur and Bihar's Jainagar, which is being constructed with the aid from India and had been stalled since 2014 over an upgrade.PM is also scheduled to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

It is the fifth time that PM Modi is to visit Nepal in his tenure as PM. Earlier, Prime Minister Modi was confirmed to be visiting the Himalayan nation at end of November.Aerojet Rocketdyne supports the Air Forces critical communications network, from the launch pad of United Launch Alliances Atlas V rocket to orbit to final end-of-life decommissioning of the satellite system.



Aerojet Rocketdyne chemical and electric propulsion onboard the AEHF satellites provide orbit raising, stationkeeping, attitude control, and repositioning capabilities.

Compared to all chemical propulsion, ARs electric propulsion results in a savings of more than 2,000 lbs. of propellant, reducing launch costs.

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla., Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerojet Rocketdyne propulsion continues to support the Air Forces protected communications satellite network, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system, with the successful launch of the fourth satellite of its constellation on October 17. The Lockheed Martin-built AEHF-4 will join its predecessors in providing critical connectivity for U.S. Armed Forces and military operations. Aerojet Rocketdyne propulsion is present on both AEHF-4 and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket that launched the spacecraft.

According to Lockheed Martin Space, the AEHF satellite system delivers global connectivity and protected communications to national leaders and armed forces, 24 hours a day, through a secure constellation. Satellites are jam-resistant, highly-survivable and allow for critical information to be transmitted on ground, air and sea platforms. This fourth satellite will round out the backbone of the network, which will gain another two satellites to complete the six-satellite system.

Seamless and secure communication is vital to the effectiveness and safety of our servicemen and women across the globe, said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake. Aerojet Rocketdyne plays a critical role in supporting the Air Forces communications network, from helping launch the satellites into Geostationary Earth orbit, to providing mission-enabling propulsion capabilities onboard the satellites throughout the mission.

Aerojet Rocketdyne supports the AEHF-4 mission from the launch pad to orbit to final end-of-life decommissioning of the satellite. Starting with the launch vehicle  Aerojet Rocketdyne provides the AJ-60A solid rocket motors that helped boost United Launch Alliances Atlas V off the launch pad; the pressure vessels that support the first and second stages of the launch vehicle; the RL10 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine that provides thrust to power the Centaur upper stage, and MR-106 Reaction Control System thrusters, which provide pitch, yaw and roll control for the Centaur upper stage, as well as settling burns.

Onboard the AEHF-4 space vehicle, Aerojet Rocketdyne provides electric XR-5 Hall Thruster strings and monopropellant rocket engines which enable nearly all propulsive functions throughout the life of the satellite. One XR-5 Hall Thruster string consists of an XR-5 Hall Thruster, a xenon flow controller (XFC) and the power processor that drives and controls the thruster and XFC. The XR-5 Hall Thrusters on AEHF enable a propellant mass savings in excess of 2,000 lbs. when compared to performing the mission with all chemical propulsion.

The five AJ-60A solid rocket booster motors that supported the mission were designed and built at the companys facility in Sacramento, California, while the companys facility located in West Palm Beach, Florida, provides the RL10 engine. Aerojet Rocketdynes Redmond facility developed and manufactured the electric and chemical thrusters on the space vehicle, as well as the reaction control thrusters on the Centaur upper stage. Pressure vessels for the Atlas V were manufactured by ARDE, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne, based in New Jersey.

About Aerojet Rocketdyne: Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion systems and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, and tactical systems areas, in support of domestic and international customers. For more information, visit www.Rocket.com and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com. Follow Aerojet Rocketdyne and CEO Eileen Drake on Twitter at @AerojetRdyne and @DrakeEileen.

Media Contacts:

Ashley Gudzak, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 571-236-4091

Ashley.Gudzak@Rocket.com

Todd McConnell, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 561-882-5395

Todd.McConnell@Rocket.comProgram Includes OneSpin Coverage Tutorial, Advanced Verification Techniques Session Chaired by Raik Brinkmann, Automotive Panel Moderated by Jim Hogan

MUNICH and SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

WHO: OneSpin Solutions , provider of innovative formal verification solutions for highly reliable, digital integrated circuits (ICs)



WHAT: Will demonstrate its comprehensive formal verification solutions in Booth #402 during DVCon Europe . These include formal analysis for automotive and other safety-critical applications, Quantify model-based mutation coverage, formal verification of SystemC/C++ designs and sequential equivalence checking for field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).



WHEN: Wednesday and Thursday, October 24 and 25. Exhibits are open Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. and Thursday from 10:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.



WHERE: Holiday Inn Munich City Centre, Munich, Germany



OneSpin will sponsor a tutorial titled,  Using Mutation Coverage for Advanced Bug Hunting and Verification Signoff , presented by Nicolae Tusinschi, product specialist, design verification, Wednesday from 4 p.m. until 5 p.m.



 Using Next-Generation Methods of Systems Modeling and Virtual Prototyping to Revolutionize the Design, Verification and Manufacture of High-Value, Complex Electromechanical Products across the Automotive Supply Chain , will be moderated by Jim Hogan, a member of OneSpins Board of Directors. The panel will be held Thursday from 9:15 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.



Dr. Raik Brinkmann, OneSpins CEO, will chair the Advanced Verification Techniques session Thursday from 3:15 p.m. until 4:45 p.m.

Attendee breaks at DVCon Europe are sponsored by OneSpin.



About OneSpin



OneSpin Solutions has emerged as a leader in formal verification through a range of advanced electronic design automation (EDA) solutions for digital integrated circuits. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, OneSpin enables users to address design challenges in areas where reliability really counts: safety-critical verification, SystemC/C++ high-level synthesis (HLS) code analysis and FPGA equivalence checking. OneSpins advanced formal verification platform and dedication to getting it right the first time have fueled dramatic growth over the past five years as the company forges partnerships with leading electronics suppliers to pursue design perfection.

OneSpin: Making Electronics Reliable.



Engage with OneSpin at:

Website: www.OneSpin.com

Twitter: @OneSpinSolution

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onespin-solutions

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OneSpinSolutions

OneSpin, OneSpin Solutions and the OneSpin logo are trademarks of OneSpin Solutions GmbH. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

For more information, contact:

Nanette Collins

Public Relations for OneSpin Solutions

(617) 437-1822

nanette@nvc.comROME, ITALY (16 October 2018)-- A new policy brief released today--World Food Day--highlights the link between recognizing community land rights and ensuring global food security and climate protection. The brief notes that the failure of governments around the world to recognize community land rights leaves community lands vulnerable to expropriation for large-scale agriculture, mining, or infrastructure, which typically benefit fewer people and are more environmentally destructive than land use by local communities.

"Communities around the world rely on their customary lands to feed their families. But their lands also feed the world, and their forests regulate the climate that underpins global food security. However the global food system is deeply linked to land grabs, and agribusiness is the most dangerous sector for activists" said Joan Carling, Advisory Board member of Land Rights Now, a global campaign to raise awareness of the contributions of Indigenous Peoples and local communities to myriad global challenges, and recent winner of the Champions of the Earth Award for lifetime achievement, the UN's highest environmental distinction.

Small-scale food producers provide 70 percent of the world's food. Evidence shows that small-scale food production in Africa and Asia is more efficient and has higher crop yields per hectare than larger operations. Secure land rights can also boost farmers' productivity by 60 percent and more than double family income. Women's land rights are particularly important given their crucial role in ensuring local food security and managing community resources.

Community land management also helps regulate the climate that enables global food production. Communities have successfully safeguarded many of the world's forests for generations. Research shows that their lands store massive amounts of carbon--at least 300 billion metric tons--and that secure rights lead to lower rates of deforestation and higher rates of carbon storage. At least one-third of the carbon stored in community forests in the tropics and sub-tropics is on lands that lack formal legal recognition, leaving them vulnerable to land grabs that can destroy livelihoods, devastate the environment, and destroy local food sources. According to the Land Matrix, at least 49 million hectares worldwide have been subject to international large-scale land acquisitions over the last decade. These are largely driven by consumers' demand for cheap food or energy, with oil palm (6 million hectares), jatropha (2.4 million hectares), and sugar cane (1.9 million hectares) dominating.

Indigenous Peoples and local communities highlight their contributions to global food security

The brief, prepared by Land Rights Now, and highlighting cases from around the world, coincides with a global mobilization to raise awareness of the connection between secure land rights of local peoples and the food we all eat.

"This mobilization is about citizens around the world standing with Indigenous Peoples and local communities as they defend their rights and celebrating their contribution to a more food secure and more just world."

Actions across the world this week are part of a growing movement by indigenous and local communities around the world demanding respect for their rights and highlighting the role they play in the global struggle to prevent climate crisis.

"Land Rights Now is a unifying call to respect the rights of up to 2.5 billion people worldwide who rely on community-held lands. These rights underpin global food security and are vital to the fight against climate change. In spite of incredible risks, Indigenous Peoples and local communities are raising their voices and taking action to defend their rights and protect the resources we all depend on. It is time for the world to listen," said Carling.

Kenya: After a court victory, the Ogiek People still await justice

Despite a landmark 2017 ruling by the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights that the Ogiek Peoples are the rightful owners of Mau forest in Kenya, the government has yet to return their customary lands to them.

About 40,000 Ogiek live in the Mau forest, which is the source of their food, income, medicine, shelter, and cultural sites, with beekeeping their primary livelihood source. They have acted as guardians of these lands for generations, yet they face encroachment from logging, tea plantations, and illegal settlements. Thousands have been forcefully evicted from their homes.

"The 2017 Court decision was a beacon of hope--not only for the Ogiek, but for Indigenous Peoples across Kenya and indeed the entire region," said Daniel Kobei, Executive Director of the Ogiek Peoples' Development Program. "But the government has yet to implement this decision. We are still being evicted from our homes. We are still barred from our customary forests."

Myanmar: Roads destroy lands and livelihoods in conflict-prone region of Myanmar

The construction of the Asian Highway through Karen State has already resulted in widespread land confiscations and military clashes that displaced more than 1,000 people. Community advocates fear that the next phase of the road--which will pass through 17 villages and 1 town--is proceeding without the consent of the affected communities and will lead to further conflicts and displacements. The next phase is being funded by the Asian Development Bank and is set to be completed by 2020.

Many lost their lands altogether in the construction of the first segment of the highway. With 70 percent of the region's population dependent on the land for survival, this puts entire communities at risk. Villagers were retroactively informed that they would receive compensation, but it was not enough to buy new land and there was no opportunity for negotiation.

"We disagreed because we would get this only one time in our life, whereas the farm will provide for us forever," said Daw Su, a local farmer. "The farms are the rice pot of our family. We can send our children to school because of this farm."

"Local peoples were left completely in the dark about the construction of the road through their lands and could only deduce project plans when signs were put up and construction was imminent," said Way Lay, Senior Advocacy Coordinator at the Karen Human Rights Group. "Many families are still displaced, without compensation, resettlement options, or even adequate food. We are calling on the government to compensate them or return their lands to them--and to ensure that the next phase does not become a repeat of history."

Peru: The Shipibo struggle for recognition of their land rights while companies easily acquire their territories

The Indigenous Shipibo community of Santa Clara de Uchunya, in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon, is facing invasion of its ancestral lands by corporate oil palm plantations and land traffickers. The community relies on its ancestral territory for hunting, fishing, farming, and gathering fruit. Yet the government has only recognized their rights to a small part of the territory, while companies circumvent the law to turn the forests over to large-scale monoculture.

"Oil palm doesn't bring us any future, it brings misfortune. It brings poverty. They deceive you and in the end they grab your land and you are nothing. Your children become their slaves and you no longer own your territory," said Rodrigo Lopez, a community member in Santa Clara de Uchunya.

Despite the Shipibo's claim to the land, the government gave individual titles to outside settlers, who sold their lands to a palm oil company in 2012, leading to the clear cutting of the forests without the Shipibo's consent. Despite challenges in court and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), palm oil production continues, and new settlers have received title to parts of the Shipibo's lands.

The case has become emblematic of what is occurring in Peru and across the Amazon region. Large-scale agriculture projects--deeply connected to international food and energy markets--are destroying forests traditionally occupied by local peoples.

Uganda: Indigenous Peoples forced from their homes "in the name of conservation" despite court victory

Rather than being recognized for their role in having helped preserved precious wildlife, the Acholi People in Uganda are being criminalized and evicted from their customary lands.

The Acholi people customarily inhabit part of the Amuru District in Northern Uganda, but the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) says they are illegally residing in a designated wildlife area. Since 2011, the UWA has backed a series of forcible evictions, carried out by rangers, police, and soldiers from the national army, the Uganda People's Defence Force. Over 844 huts have been destroyed and 26,000 people displaced.

"The Acholi depend entirely on their land," said Jimmy Ochom, Programs Manager at the Uganda Land Alliance. "Farming not only feeds families but also provides revenue for children's health and education. Many of those evicted now face hunger or must rely on food aid."

A 2017 court case declared that the land belongs to the Acholi and evictions must cease--but they have continued in 2018. One man was killed by an army officer, and an elderly woman died while fleeing an eviction attempt. Two hundred people have been forcibly removed from their lands this year.

Guatemala: Evicted for a sugar plantation, Indigenous Peoples face poverty and hunger

769 Q'echi families were violently evicted from their homes in the Polochic Valley to make room for a sugar plantation. The government promised to return this land, but more than half of the families are still waiting. Large-scale palm oil, sugar, and banana plantations; cattle ranches; and mining and energy project are increasingly encroaching on the lands of the Mayan Q'eqchi and Pomoqchi peoples, who have inhabited the Polochic Valley and the areas around Lake Izabal since pre-colonial times.

This is a common pattern across the country: Indigenous Peoples constitute more than half of Guatemala's population, but still contend with violence, discrimination, and the failure to recognize their land rights. Without land, indigenous families in Guatemala often suffer extreme poverty and hunger. Research finds that local economic development is typically worse under plantation models than the traditional small-scale farming they replace.

Australia: members of the Yuin Nation face criminal charges for subsistence fishing

In Australia, members of the Yuin Nation--a coastal people who have for generations depended on sustainable fishing in their ancestral waters for their subsistence--have faced criminal charges and persecution by the government. This crackdown on small-scale cultural fishing by members of the Yuin Nation belies the fact that commercial fishing operations in nearby waters bring in much larger hauls with more detrimental environmental impacts, and that this production is largely for export rather than sustainable consumption.

"I knew I had a traditional right to do what I was doing, hunting and gathering for my people," said Kevin Mason, a Yuin Nation elder and fisherman who faced jail time for fishing. "Over the years I have just been hounded like a second-class citizen. With all this worry they have put on me, persecuted for something that is traditionally mine in the first place."

###

Land Rights Now is an international alliance campaign that aims to secure indigenous and community land rights worldwide. Since its launch in March 2016, over 800 organizations and thousands of individuals from all corners of the world have joined the campaign. Visit: http://www.landrightsnow.orgWhat happens to those who behave unselfishly and make sacrifices for the sake of others? According to an interdisciplinary study by researchers from Stockholm University, the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, unselfish people tend both to have more children and to receive higher salaries, in comparison to more selfish people. The results have now been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"The result is clear in both the American and the European data. The most unselfish people have the most children and the moderately unselfish receive the highest salaries. And we also find this result over time - the people who are most generous at one point in time have the largest salary increases when researchers revisit them later in time," says Kimmo Eriksson, researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University and one of the authors of the study "Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money".

The result is contrary to theories that selfish people manage to get their hands on more money through their selfishness, as suggested in previous research.

Previous psychological and sociological research has shown that unselfish people are happier and have better social relationships. The study "Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money" focuses on unselfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective. In this collaboration with the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, researchers at Stockholm University have looked at how selfishness relates to income and fertility. Selfishness was measured partly through attitudes and partly through reported behaviors.* The results are based on analyses of four major studies of Americans and Europeans.

"In a separate study, we examined the expectations of ordinary people to see if their expectations aligned with our data. The results of this study showed that people generally have the correct expectation that selfish people have fewer children, but erroneously believe that selfish people will make more money. It is nice to see that generosity so often pays off in the long run," says Pontus Strimling, a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies, who is also one of the authors behind the study.

The authors themselves believe that improved social relationships may be the key to generous peoples' success from an economic perspective, but note that their research does not definitely answer this question.

"Future research will have to delve deeper into the reasons why generous people earn more, and look at whether the link between unselfishness, higher salaries and more children also exists in other parts of the world. And it is of course debatable how unselfish it really is to have more children," says co-author Brent Simpson of University of South Carolina.

###

*Unselfishness is defined in the study as the desire to help others because you care about their welfare. Therefore, attitudes concern how important a person thinks it is to help others and care about their welfare. The behaviors concerned how often and how much the person engaged in various help behaviours, e.g. giving money or their time to help others.

About the study

The study "Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money" was preliminarily published online on 27 September 2018, in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. To gain access to the entire study, contact research assistant Marie Bjornstjerna, marie.bjornstjerna@iffs.se.

For further information

Kimmo Eriksson, researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University, Tel. +46 (0)70-37 67 451, e-mail: kieri@ark.su.se

Pontus Strimling, researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies, tel. +46 (0)733-75 18 62, e-mail: pontus.strimling@iffs.se

Brent Simpson, professor of sociology at University of South Carolina, bts@sc.edu , tel. +1 803 777-3123The most common form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) originated in Europe and spread to Asia, Africa and the Americas with European explorers and colonialists, reveals a new study led by UCL and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

TB takes more lives than any other infectious disease and while its global burden has slowly declined over the past decade, the rise of antibiotic resistance (ABR) presents a major obstacle to its control.

The study, published today in Science Advances, is the most thorough genomic analysis to date of the most widespread form of TB, called Lineage 4 TB, and significantly adds to our understanding of the origin and subsequent spread of the most common form of TB.

The team also mapped the evolution of drug resistant strains to investigate the mechanisms of ABR and found that drug resistant strains of Lineage 4 TB have hardly spread beyond the country in which they originated more recently.

"Our findings strongly suggest that at least for Lineage 4, antibiotic resistance is a local challenge present in multiple countries and regions, but with minimal spread between them. Therefore, countries that succeed in halting transmission of resistant strains within their territory should expect to see a massive decrease of drug resistant TB," explained corresponding author Dr Vegard Eldholm (Division of Infection Control and Environmental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and previously a member of the UCL Genetics Institute).

"This is not to say that we should not be worried about the international spread of resistant strains, as these patterns might well change in the future, especially if the burden of antibiotic resistance keeps growing."

For the study, the researchers analysed genome sequences of 1,669 samples of Lineage 4 TB taken at different points in time from Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and North America. These include samples taken from mummies hundreds of years old up to present day.

Each TB strain was positioned on a genetic family tree and its location was mapped geographically over time.

Of the seven lineage of TB, only Lineages 2 and 4 are truly global in their distribution, probably reflecting a combination of past human migrations and their more effective transmission relative to the other lineages.

Earlier studies have shown that the ancestor of all lineages of TB evolved in Africa 4000-6000 years ago and dispersed out of the continent to the rest of the world.

The new results demonstrate that Lineage 4 subsequently emerged in Europe around one thousand years ago before becoming the globally dominant form of TB.

They show that the earliest introductions of Lineage 4 into Africa happened in the Republic of Congo in the 15th century before spreading across the continent into South Africa, Uganda and Malawi in the late 17th century.

This closely mirrors the European colonial history in Africa south of the Sahara with early Portuguese forts and trading posts established on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) in 1482, which was followed by European colonial expansion and internal African migration.

"In Western Africa, Lineage 4 is the dominant form of TB but Lineages 5 and 6 are also common. These lineages cause a lesser disease burden and do not transmit as well. It is likely that with the arrival of the European Lineage 4 replacing less aggressive lineages in this region, TB became a lot more common and virulent," said study co-author Professor Francois Balloux (UCL Genetics, Evolution & Environment).

The paper further demonstrates that Europeans brought TB to South America relatively shortly after the arrival of Europeans on the continent in 1492, with a sharp increase of Lineage 4 at the turn of the 17th century. The earliest migration events into North America occurred around the 16th century.

By dating and mapping the emergence of every common genetic mutation that causes antibiotic resistance, they found that drug-specific resistance mutations emerged soon after the introduction of every class of antibiotics used to treat TB, such as isoniazid, rifampicin, kanamycin and fluoroquinolones.

Rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance mutations is in itself not overly surprising; however, the team did not identify any event of a resistant strain of Lineage 4 TB spreading beyond the country where it initially emerged, suggesting that the spread of antibiotic resistance tends to happen primarily on a regional scale.

"Successfully mapping past migration in this level of detail is a key first step to understanding the spread of disease in order to predict what might happen next, which is the ultimate goal," concluded Dr Eldholm.

###

The work was kindly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.ABC News(TEL AVIV, Israel) -- An American student whom Israeli authorities had blocked from entering the country over her alleged political views was admitted into the country, following a ruling on Thursday from Israel's top court.



Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old graduate student from Florida, had been detained at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport for more than two weeks as she appealed a decision to deport her.



Israeli authorities allege that she called for a boycott of Israeli goods and that they could deny her entry under a recently-passed law.



Israel's High Court of Justice ruled in Alqasem's favor on Thursday, and her attorneys said she subsequently left the airport and entered Israel.



Her lawyers said they were heartened by the decision, which Israeli prosecutors said on Thursday that they would not appeal.



"The Supreme Court's decision is a victory for free speech, academic freedom, and the rule of law," her lawyers, Leora Bechor and Yotam Ben-Hillel, said in a statement. "Israel has the right to control its borders, but that right does not give the Ministry of Interior unchecked power to turn away anyone it deems unwanted."



They added that Alqasem's appeal "has ensured that no one else should be denied the right to enter Israel based on sloppy Google searches and dossiers by shadowy smear groups."



They called her case a "gross misapplication of the law."



For their part, Israeli officials expressed disappointment in the ruling.



"I am deeply saddened by the Supreme Court's decision, which indicates a lack of understanding of the methods of action of the BDS organizations, and damaged the State of Israel's ability to fight the boycott activists who harm all of us," said Gilad Erdan, Minister of Internal Security and Strategic Affairs, referring to her alleged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, which advocates boycotts as a political tool to protest Israeli policies related to the Palestinian territories.



Alqasem had intended to study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which had joined her appeal. She had been held at Ben-Gurion Airport since she landed there on Oct. 2, pending her appeal.



A recently passed Israeli law allows authorities to ban entry to anyone it deems to have held a senior position in an organization publicly calling to boycott the State of Israel.



Alqasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine -- which an Israeli minister labeled an extremist organization -- and is from the Ft. Lauderdale area of Florida, according to the Associated Press.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.PLANO, Texas - (Oct. 18, 2018) - In accordance with the New York Stock Exchange rules regarding equity inducement awards, J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP) announced that on Oct. 18, 2018, an equity inducement award of 6,711,409 restricted stock units (RSUs) was granted to Jill Soltau, the Company's chief executive officer, in connection with the commencement of her employment. Of the RSUs comprising Soltau's inducement award, 3,611,409 RSUs were granted under the Company's existing 2018 Long-Term Incentive Plan and 3,100,000 RSUs were granted as a standalone equity inducement award. The Company previously disclosed this award in connection with the announcement of Soltau's appointment on Oct. 2.

The RSUs will vest in thirds on the first, second and third anniversaries, respectively, of the grant date, provided Soltau remains continuously employed with the Company through those dates. The award fully vests if Soltau is involuntarily terminated for any reason other than cause, if Soltau voluntarily terminates her employment for good reason and if her employment terminates in certain cases within two years following a change in control of the Company.

Corporate Communications & Public Relations:

(972) 431-3400 or jcpnews@jcp.com

Follow @jcpnews on Twitter for the latest announcements and Company information.

Investor Relations:

(972) 431-5500 or jcpinvestorrelations@jcp.com

About JCPenney:

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE: JCP), one of the nation's largest apparel and home retailers, combines an expansive footprint of over 860 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico with a powerful e-commerce site, jcp.com, to deliver style and value for all hard-working American families. At every touchpoint, customers will discover stylish merchandise at incredible value from an extensive portfolio of private, exclusive and national brands. Reinforcing this shopping experience is the customer service and warrior spirit of approximately 98,000 associates across the globe, all driving toward the Company's mission to help customers find what they love for less time, money and effort. For additional information, please visit jcp.com.

###Glioblastoma is the most common brain cancer, and one of the deadliest cancers known. Unfortunately, there is no cure for these rapidly progressing tumors.

A randomized controlled trial in 2005 showed that a new chemotherapy (temozolomide) given at the same time with radiation therapy increased survival from 12.1 to 14.6 months in 18 to 70-year-old glioblastoma patients. Therefore, today's glioblastoma treatment consists of surgical removal of the tumor followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, so-called chemoradiation. In many treatment centres, chemoradiation is given also to elderly (>70 years) glioblastoma patients, even though this elderly patient group was not included in the randomized controlled trial.

Randomized controlled trials are often referred as "gold standard" studies for assessing treatment outcomes. However, these studies have highly selected patient population that rarely represents the "real-life" populations. For that reason, real-life studies are needed to estimate the true benefit of a new treatment in everyday practice. In a recently published nationwide Finnish study, researched explored if glioblastoma survival has truly improved after the implementation of chemoradiation treatment.

"Finland has a tax-funded and government-subsidised social welfare and health care system, where socioeconomic factors and health inequalities affect much less cancer treatments and treatment outcomes than for example in U.S. Moreover, Finnish cancer treatment outcomes are shown to be among the best in the world. For these reasons, Finland is an optimal country to conduct so-called real-life cancer studies", explains Dr. Rahul Raj, Associate Professor of Experimental Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Hospital, and one of the lead authors of the study.

"We used data from the Finnish Cancer Registry, which enables evaluation of all cancer patients' survival with high quality", says Janne Pitkaniemi, director of statistics at the Finnish Cancer Registry.

The study encompassed over 2,000 patients that had been diagnosed with glioblastoma in Finland between 2000 and 2013. The study was divided into two periods: 2000-2006 (prior to standardized chemoradiation treatment) and 2007-2013 (today's chemoradiation treatment widely established).

According to results, patients treated during the latter period had a 24% lower excess risk of mortality compared to those treated during the earlier period. Time-wise, the median survival time increased by 2.4 months in patients younger than 70 years (from 9.3 months to 11.7 months). Contrary to the randomized controlled trial in 2005, the Finnish study included also elderly (>70 years) glioblastoma patients. The median survival time increased only by 0.9 months in the elderly patient group (from 3.6 months to 4.5 months).

"It is important to notice that the improvement in survival was notable in the younger patient group but only dismal in elderly patients. As the median age of glioblastoma patients is increasing at the same time than the incidence of glioblastoma is increasing, the number of elderly glioblastoma patients grows fast in the future. Today we do not have effective treatment strategies for this patient group, and it is questionable whether current heavy treatments and numerous hospital visits are always justified from patients' perspective", says Dr. Miikka Korja, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Helsinki University Hospital, and one of the lead authors.

Although the prognosis for elderly glioblastoma patients has remained poor, the researchers stress the fact that there has been continuous improvement in treatments.

"We think our results highlight the fact that the future glioblastoma research should more and more focus on elderly, that will soon constitute over half of all newly diagnosed glioblastomas", Dr. Korja says. "We are very hopeful that survival rates will improve in the future."

###Wed., Nov. 17, 12-1 p.m.

Lectures & Meetings

Edwards Group, LLC is an estate planning and elder care law firm. They guide families through their legal, financial and care options as they navigate the journey of aging. This discussion will cover an introduction to basic estate planning and the legal documents involved. By the end of the session, attendees should have an understanding of the differences between, and when one might need, essential estate planning tools: Powers of Attorney, Trusts, and Last Will & Testament. Lunch & Learn Programs are free monthly, one-hour sessions offered to current, future and prior caregivers. AgeLinc, Your Link to Aging Well 217-787-9234Photo: Wikimedia Commons



On Monday, Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York. As a part of the bankruptcy, the company will shut down 142 of the 687 stores it has left, on top of 46 store closings already announced earlier. The company employs 68,000 people, according to a CNBC report, and it is not clear how many of them would be laid off as a result of the store closures.



The CEO of the company, Eddie Lampert, said in an email to company employees that he will be stepping down as CEO. He will, however, remain a member of the board of directors.



Corporate Counsel spoke to Dean G. Rallis Jr., of counsel at Anglin, Flewelling, Rasmussen, Campbell & Trytten, a full-service law firm based in Pasadena, California, with other West Coast offices, and Jack Raisner, a partner at employment law firm Outten & Golden in New York, about what in-house counsel need to consider when their company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.



1. Compliance with state and federal labor and pension laws: With the announcement that stores will be closing, the company will have to make sure it is acting within the guidelines set forth in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Raisner said that any company about to lay off a large number of people must give the employees 60 days' notice to remain compliant with the act. "I think it's likely that it will be a planned closing notice. As long as they do that, they Sears will have complied with the WARN Act," Raisner said.



2. Employee morale. Rallis said that keeping the employees on board is important during a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. For Sears to keep things on an even keel, it needs to have the commitment of its employees. He said he would expect the in-house counsel at Sears to work with HR to build a web portal where employees can have questions asked and answered.



3. Vendor morale. Sears will need to make sure it maintains open communication with its vendors. It will have to consider which vendors would want to continue to work with Sears. Rallis said that many vendors would consider Sears a major source of revenue and will be hesitant to cut ties. On the flip side, those vendors would need to consider whether or not they want to extend credit to Sears, or try to negotiate a cash-on-delivery arrangement to make sure that they are paid.



4. Identify important vendors. In-house counsel will need to help the company identify important vendors so that the company can file a motion in the bankruptcy court to pay those vendors. These will be the vendors that Sears is unable to do business without. It will be unclear who those vendors are until the motion is filed, Rallis said.



Read more:



Sears Files for Bankruptcy in NY: A Look at Which Law Firms Got the WorkHOUSTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Anadarko Petroleum Corp on Monday shut its Marlin and Horn Mountain oil and gas platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and evacuated staff ahead of Hurricane Michael, the company said.

Other offshore producers, including Exxon Mobil, BP and BHP Billiton also shut some production in preparation for the storm, which is anticipated to make landfall along the eastern part of the Gulf on Wednesday. About 19 percent of oil output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico had been shut by midday on Monday, according to regulators. (Reporting by Liz Hampton)TORONTO, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Canada's move to drop a 10 percent duty on U.S.-made aluminum cans is good news for Canadian beer makers battling a shortage of tall cans, according to brewing industry executives.

The aluminum products excluded from tariffs last week include cans that brewers have been struggling to keep in stock, said Luke Harford, president of trade association Beer Canada. Reuters reported in July that some Canadian breweries were scrambling to find aluminum cans.

"It's very positive for us," said Harford. "The 473 ml tall cans are all purchased from U.S. suppliers and that particular can is one of the fastest-growing cans... particularly amongst small brewers."

Canada announced tariff exemptions on a range a products last week after the domestic industry complained of shortages that could affect production of everything from cars to beer. The rollback underscores the unintended consequences of retaliatory tariffs.

The Canadian tariffs on cans were part of its response to U.S. President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs. But they hit a product already in short supply after the closure of a Crown Holdings Inc plant in Massachusetts in January.

At least one small brewery, Alberta's GP Brewing Co, was forced to halt production for two weeks in July after it ran out of cans. Harford said many other producers are still filling cans with beer as quickly as they can get them.

Steve Beauchesne, co-founder and chief executive of Beau's Brewing Co in Ottawa, said his brewery is waiting three to four months for orders to be filled, and has had to delay some product launches.

He said the tariffs had effectively benefited U.S. brewers, whose filled cans of beer were not subject to the tariff when they crossed the border into Canada: "By making us exempt, they're at least putting us on even footing."

While small breweries were most vocal about the shortage, Harford said all Canadian breweries selling beer in tall cans rely on U.S. producers. Tall cans are made by Ball Corp as well as Crown, according to Harford.

Major beer companies with operations in Canada include Molson Coors Brewing Co and Anheuser Busch Inbev's Labatt Breweries of Canada. (Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Dan Grebler)(Adds comment from Albemarle)

SANTIAGO, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Chilean government said on Wednesday it would seek international arbitration over what it alleged was the failure of lithium miner Albemarle Corp to adhere to the terms of a contract drawn up in 2016.

Under the contract, U.S.-based Albemarle had to provide as much as 25 percent of its annual production at a discount to companies seeking to produce battery metals within Chile.

But state development agency Corfo, which leases mining rights to Albemarle in the lithium-rich Salar de Atacama, said on Wednesday the miner had failed to make a "serious" offer to the companies, thus violating the terms of its contract.

The state agency said in a statement it would refer the dispute to the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce.

Albemarle said it regretted the need for arbitration, but decried what it considered the "substantial difference" between the contractual agreement and what Corfo is now demanding.

"We are confident in our position," Eric Norris, head of Albemarle's lithium operations, said in an emailed statement to Reuters. "Our company maintains the highest standards of corporate governance, so we will face this new scenario with the utmost seriousness and with the same good faith that has guided all of our actions in Chile for almost 40 years."

The company said in a statement last week that it had made several price offers, and that it believed it had complied with its obligations to the Chilean government.

Chile is the world's No. 2 producer of lithium, a key component in the batteries that power everything from cellphones to electric vehicles.

Corfo has said the clause that requires Albemarle to provide the ultralight battery metal at a reduced price is intended to help spur a value-added lithium industry.

A similar clause exists in a contract struck in January with Chilean competitor SQM, but Corfo said previously that SQM had complied with the terms of its agreement.

"Corfo wants to find a solution as soon as possible that will allow it to invest ... in the creation of a value-added lithium industry," it said in the statement on Wednesday.

In March, Corfo awarded contracts to Chile's Molymet, China's Sichuan Fulin Industrial Group and a joint venture between Samsung SDI Co Ltd and South Korea's POSCO to produce battery components in Chile using discounted lithium from the Atacama, for a total investment of $754 million. (Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Peter Cooney and Sandra Maler)TIANJIN, Oct 18 (Reuters) -

* Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd, one of China's biggest gold miners, will produce around 37 tonnes of the precious metal in 2018, its chairman said on Thursday.

* The company's gold output will be flat or a little lower than last year, Zijin Chairman Chen Jinghe told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Tianjin.

* Zijin is "paying attention" to Tanzania but "not yet negotiating", he said, after Reuters reported earlier this year that it would set up a joint venture with Acacia Mining, a unit of Barrick Gold, to develop Tanzanian gold mines.

* Zijin, which last month agreed to acquire Canadian miner Nevsun Resources Ltd for C$1.86 billion, has already had some preliminary communication with Freeport McMoRan Inc over development of the Timok copper project in Serbia, Chen added.

* The lower zone of Timok is a joint venture between Nevsun and Freeport (Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Sunil Nair)Lima, PERU, October 18th, 2018 - Credicorp Ltd. notifies you, as a Material Event, that the Board of Directors of its investment banking subsidiary, Credicorp Capital Ltd., in its session held on October 18th, 2018 accepted the resignation of Mr. Christian Laub, Credicorp Capital`s Chief Executive Officer, and appointed Mr. Eduardo Montero, Head of Wealth Management at that subsidiary, as new Chief Executive Officer. As a result, Mr. Montero will also hold the position as Head of Investment Banking & Wealth Management, one of Credicorp`s Lines of Business.

Mr. Eduardo Montero has worked at Credicorp since 1994. His extensive experience in the organization includes expertise in different areas such as Corporate Finance, Business Solutions, Retail and Consumer Banking at Banco de Credito del Peru (BCP). He also held the position as CEO at Atlantic Security Bank, BCP in Miami and Credicorp Securities. Mr. Montero holds a Bachelor`s degree in Economics from Lehigh University (USA), and an MBA from the Wharton Graduate School of Finance (USA).

The aforementioned resolution will be effective as from January 1st, 2019.

About Credicorp

Credicorp Ltd. (BAP) is the leading financial holding in Peru with presence in Chile, Colombia and Bolvia. Credicorp has a diversified business portfolio, which is organized into four lines of business: Universal Banking, through Banco de Credito del Peru-BCP and Banco de Credito de Bolivia; Microfinance, through Mibanco and Encumbra; Insurance and Pension Funds, through Grupo Pacifico and Prima AFP; and Investment Banking & Wealth Management, through Credicorp Capital, Wealth Management at BCP and Atlantic Security Bank. In Universal Banking, we provide a wide range of products to individuals and companies, such as loans, deposits and cash management products and services. In Microfinance, we offer banking products tailored for micro entrepreneurs, promoting financial inclusion in underdeveloped segments. In Insurance and Pensions, we provide a broad range of insurance products for property and casualty, life insurance and health insurance, as well as, managing private retirement funds. Finally, in Investment Banking and Wealth Management, we offer financial and transactional advisory services for asset management, sales & trading, and corporate finance.

Story continues

For further information please contact Credicorp`s IR team:

investorrelations@credicorpperu.com

Investor Relations

Credicorp Ltd.

Credicorp Ltd. announces a change in Credicorp Capital Ltd.`s Mgmt







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: Credicorp Ltd. via GlobeNewswire

HUG#2221218

European Union Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger holds a news conference to present the EU executive's final proposal for the bloc's next long-term budget, in Brussels, Belgium, May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The commissioner for the EU budget, Guenther Oettinger, on Wednesday denied a media report saying the EU Commission had already decided to reject Italy's draft budget for next year.

"I did not say there is a Commission decision on Italy," he wrote on Twitter after German magazine Der Spiegel published an interview with him on its website.

In the article, Der Spiegel said a letter to Italy on its budget from EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici should arrive in Rome on Thursday or Friday, without clarifying the source of this information.

The magazine later corrected its report and said a letter from the commission would only come after final discussions between Moscovici and the Italian government.

"It is my personal opinion that based on the figures it is v (very) likely that we have to ask Italy to correct the draft budget," Oettinger said.

He added that he had not said the Commission would send a letter to Italy on its budget on Thursday or Friday.

Italian ministers, who have repeatedly bristled at what they see as unnecessary interference from Brussels, urged greater respect for Rome.

"I have read Oettinger's comments and I repeat that they should stop invading our field and just let the Italian government work," Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said on Facebook.

The EU Commission is currently reviewing Italy's draft budget and can formally raise concerns about it until next Monday. If it does so, it can then decide to send the budget back to Rome for changes by Oct. 29, in what would be an unprecedented move.

Italy's draft budget for next year boosts welfare spending, cuts the retirement age and hikes deficit spending. This could be in breach of EU fiscal rules that require Rome to lower its large public debt.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels and Angelo Amante in Rome; editing by Andrew Roche)MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bermudas breadth of multi-industry expertise and opportunities the island offers the Latin American region were the focus of a full-day forum in downtown Miami today organised by the Bermuda Business Development Agency (BDA).



Some 200 attendees attended the event, featuring more than a dozen thought-leadership discussions ranging from reinsurance, trusts and high-net-worth services to new blockchain start-ups. Participants included more than 50 industry, regulatory and government experts from both Bermuda and Florida, whose two communities and markets are closely aligned through geographical proximity, tourism, and a range of business interests, as well as the shared coastal challenges of hurricanes and sea-level rise.

In our core re/insurance industry, seeking out new markets overseas and promoting what Bermuda has to offer has always been a key strategy, but this event showcases the full suite of our financial services sector that can benefit US and LatAm clients, said Shelby Weldon, a BDA Director. Its an opportunity to further develop those markets across our jurisdictions broad spectrum of industries and differentiate Bermuda as a centre of excellence.

The event at the citys downtown InterContinental hotel kicked off with a seaside chat between Premier David Burt and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a continuation of a discussion they began during a meeting at Miami City Hall last December. Today, both leaders acknowledged strong economic synergies between Bermuda and Miami and pledged to work closely together on a variety of issues, from resiliency efforts against ocean risks to fintech.

Its always a pleasure to sit down with Mayor Suarezhes dynamic and has had a very impressive first year in office, noted the Premier. We look forward to what the relationship can build for us both. Theres a lot of knowledge we can take from Miami and its economic experiences, and Id really like to welcome the Mayor to Bermuda for a visit sometime.

Mayor Suarez praised the Premier for his innovative and forward-thinking approach. Its comforting to know our city and his country are going to continue to grow in terms of their ties, and share knowledge with each other, and thats a product of the leadership in both regions.

Bermudas role via billions of dollars in reinsurance claims paid to stricken communities after natural disasters was recognised by industry and government representatives alike throughout the day, particularly poignant in the aftermath of Hurricane Michaels devastation of Floridas panhandle just a week ago.

Its important that Bermuda and Florida work together on resiliency issues, because were basically in the same boatwere sharing the same ocean and we have so much to learn from one another, said Kristen Jacobs, a member of Floridas House of Representatives who participated on a panel discussion of climate-risk mitigation.

Our ability to be strong is never just about usits about how we work together as neighbours to be able to make change, she added. The relationship between Florida and Bermuda is more critical than many people realise. Helping elected officials and policymakers here understand reinsurance, the markets, and how pricing works, is going to be very important. This whole effort has begun a conversation that can continue.

Bacardi Internationals Managing Director Doug Mello delivered a powerful lunchtime keynote, underscoring reasons the spirits giant established headquarters on the island more than a half-century ago after fleeing the Cuban Revolution.

Our roots are Latin American, our US headquarters is based in Miami, so its a perfect fit for us to put our support behind the BDA here, said Mello, who urged the audience to consider Bermuda as a jurisdictional choice. Bermuda is a great place to run a global business from. It has accessibility to the rest of the world and is a great domicile to do business in.

Bacardi and the Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) partnered with the BDA on a networking reception concluding the event.

Increasingly the BTA and the BDA are finding synergies of what they want to get accomplished, said Glenn Jones, the BTAs Director of Strategy and Corporate Communications. Today, weve been talking to a high-net-worth audience and that is certainly an audience we want to reach, as well, on the visitor level. It also makes sense as far as superyacht and hotel developments. Well be doing that a lot more of that forward.

Next month, the BDA holds another Bermuda Executive Forum in London on November 27. To register, click here: http://bda.bm/bermuda-executive-forum-london/

MEDIA CONTACT:

Rosemary Jones

Head of Communications & Marketing

rosemary@bda.bm

441 278-6558

441 337-4696

CONNECTING BUSINESS

The BDA encourages direct investment and helps companies start up, re-locate or expand their operations in our premier jurisdiction. An independent, public-private partnership, we connect you to industry professionals, regulatory officials, and key contacts in the Bermuda government to assist domicile decisions. Our goal? To make doing business in Bermuda smooth and beneficial.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/25cb67a9-cf29-48ed-b0d3-a792a2408694(Adds detail on volume in paragraph 3, background)

ZHOUSHAN, China, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday it signed a framework agreement for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal with Zhejiang Provincial Energy Group, the Chinese company's first long-term supply deal.

Peter Clarke, the president of Exxon Mobil gas and power marketing, inked the 20-year supply deal in a signing ceremony during the International Petroleum and Natural Gas Enterprise conference at Zhoushan, in Zhejiang province, the company said in a statement.

The Chinese company will receive 1 million tonnes of LNG per year from Exxon Mobil under the agreement, Zhejiang Energy President Tong Yahui told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

Exxon Mobil said in the statement it will deliver the LNG starting in the early 2020s.

Exxon Mobil is stepping up its efforts to meet soaring LNG demand, coupling multi-billion dollar production projects around the world with its first mainland storage and distribution outlet.

LNG supplies to China would come from a combination of Exxon Mobil's global portfolio - not necessarily from the United States - as the company boosts output from Papua New Guinea and Mozambique, Clarke said on the sidelines of the meeting.

State-owned Zhejiang Energy is a coal producer and utilities operator, and formed a joint venture earlier this year with commodities trader Glencore to trade energy products including LNG.

Zhejiang Energy is teaming up with state-owned Sinopec Corp to build a LNG receiving terminal near the city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per year. The plant is planned for start up by the end of 2021.

(Reporting by Meng Meng and Dominique Patton; editing by Richard Pullin and Christian Schmollinger)HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / October 10, 2018 / The biotech market is moved by events and announcements. There are a few major events currently impacting the companies highlighted below.

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (PPCB), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on development of new and proprietary treatments for cancer patients suffering from solid tumors, such as pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal cancers, just announced initiation of European (EP) validation of its lead patent in most major commercial markets in Europe. EP validation is the process of converting a single granted European patent application into a national patent in one or more contracting member and extension states of the European Patent Convention.

The FDA granted Orphan Drug Designation status to PRP for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. This qualifies the Company for seven-year FDA-administered market Orphan Drug Exclusivity (ODE), tax credits of up to 50% of R&D costs, potential for R&D grants, waived FDA fees, protocol assistance and possible clinical trial tax incentives if conducted in the U.S.

The Company's lead patent, which describes a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer, is currently undergoing validation in 14 European countries - Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Once validated, the Company will have the rights associated with a granted patent in each of these 14 European countries.

Last month, the company's CEO presented at the prestigious 25th Annual NewsMakers in the Biotech Industry Conference. The company has demonstrated using both in vitro (cell line) and in vivo (animal) data that PRP effectively suppresses cancer stem cells by suppressing key genes, which are critical to controlling their population and reducing the risk of tumor recurrence, clinically.

They also discovered a key gene target for drug developers, Rac1B, which increased as a result of PRP treatment. This gene suppresses cellular motility and proliferation of CSCs by ultimately inhibiting TGF-, a known growth factor responsible for tumorigenesis and metastasis.

Story continues

PPCB's CEO James Nathanielsz said "We remain excited by these important discoveries, as suppressing the CSCs population whilst avoiding potential unwanted side effects towards normal stem cells means we have a targeted therapy that can control the spread of cancer. Metastasis, or spreading cancer, remains the main cause of patient death from cancer."

The company is also very close to its first-in-human studies. PPCB has some very exciting events on the horizon. Of all the companies we've highlighted below, PPCB seems to be the most prime for a massive run.

A few companies to watch include: Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (PPCB), Novavax, Inc. (NVAX), Dynavax Technologies Corp. (DVAX), Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARWR), and vTv Therapeutics, Inc. (VTVT).

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (PPCB)

Market Cap: $15.49M Share Price: $0.092

Propanc Biopharma, Inc. (PPCB), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on development of new and proprietary treatments for cancer patients suffering from solid tumors such as pancreatic, ovarian and colorectal cancers, just announced initiation of European (EP) validation of its lead patent in most major commercial markets in Europe. EP validation is the process of converting a single granted European patent application into a national patent in one or more contracting member and extension states of the European Patent Convention.

The Company's lead patent, which describes a pharmaceutical composition for treating cancer, is currently undergoing validation in 14 European countries - Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Once validated, the Company will have the rights associated with a granted patent in each of these 14 European countries.

Novavax, Inc. (NVAX)

Market Cap: $791.96M Share Price: $2.07

In a recent conference call NVAX stated ~3.9 million babies are born annually in the United States. About 70% of them are afflicted with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) before the age of one year. With the high incidence level of RSV, Novavax expects the peak revenue opportunity for its ResVax maternal immunization vaccine program to be ~$750 million in the United States. However, it has only considered babies born full term for its US market opportunity estimate.

Dynavax Technologies Corp. (DVAX)

Market Cap: $701.92M Share Price: $11.21

Dynavax Technologies Corporation announced that data will be presented from its ongoing Phase 1b/2 study investigating SD-101, Dynavax's intratumoral TLR9 agonist, in combination with KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), an anti-PD-1 therapy developed by Merck (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada). Data will be presented in three individual sessions with data for advanced melanoma patients who are naive to anti-PD-1 therapy being presented as a late-breaking abstract poster discussion, at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, being held October 19-23, 2018 in Munich Germany.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ARWR)

Market Cap: $1.22B Share Price: $13.89

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc (ARWR) recently announced Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) would develop and market its gene-silencing Hepatitis B treatment and buy a minor stake in a deal that could be potentially worth more than $3.7 billion (2.8 billion pounds), sending its shares surging 20 percent.

Under the deal, J&J's Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit will obtain a worldwide licence for Arrowhead's ARO-HBV drug and an option to collaborate on up to three new RNA interference (RNAi) drugs, which use gene-silencing technology.

vTv Therapeutics, Inc. (VTVT)

Market Cap: $143.33M Share Price: $3.70

VTVT recently reported its second quarter results. The company reported loss of $0.29 per share for the quarter, which trailed behind the consensus estimates of loss per share of $0.25 by $0.04. vTv Therapeutics reported revenue of $2.47 million, while analysts had expected revenue of $2.46 million. It was revealed at the end of last month that major shareholder Ronald O. Perelman had acquired 1,879,699 shares of vTv Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 6th. The company discovers, develops, and sells orally administered small molecule drug candidates worldwide and has a drug candidate called azeliragon (TTP488), an orally administered, small molecule antagonist targeting the receptor for advanced glycation end products, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

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Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. ACR Communication, LLC, which owns Microcapspeculators.com, is not registered with Finra or any other financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. ACR Communication, LLC [and/or] Microcapspeculators.com does not have a position in the securities mentioned herein and may increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice. ACR Communication LLC, which owns Microcapspeculators.com, is compensated for its services in the form of cash-based compensation or in equity in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. ACR Communication, LLC has been compensated one thousand dollars cash for this article and ninety thousand four hundred dollars total by Regal Consulting. LLC, for news commentary articles for PPCB. PPCB and Regal Consulting, LLC were given an opportunity to edit information included in this article. This article is based solely on public information and the opinions of ACR Communication, LLC, which believes the news commentary to include accurate and complete information. ACR Communications, LLC. and the hiring party Regal Consulting, LLC. may buy or sell additional shares of PPCB in the open market at any time, including before, during or after the Website and Information, provide public dissemination of favorable Information. Currently Regal Consulting has converted debt into shares and currently owns 6,139,176 shares of PPCB which it plans to sell at anytime without notice.

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(Adds Mizuho spokesman declined to comment)

By Liana B. Baker

NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank AG said on Thursday it has hired Matthew Upton, an investment banker at Japan's Mizuho Financial Group, to focus on software deals.

Just about every investment bank has been scrambling to hire bankers specializing in software companies to keep up with demand from clients across industries which are grappling with technological changes.

Upton, a managing director based in San Francisco, will report to Mark Keene, Deutsche Bank's global co-head of technology, media and telecom investment banking, according to an internal memo that a spokeswoman confirmed.

A Mizuho spokesman declined to comment.

At Mizuho, Upton founded the software and technology services group and covered middle and large cap companies and financial sponsors.

Upton joined Mizuho in 2016 from Nomura and has also worked at Bank of America Corp.

The German bank said last month that Ajay Shah would take on the newly created role of head of technology in the Americas.

Christian Sewing, who took over as Deutsche Bank's chief executive last April, has been trying to boost the investment banking franchise while restructuring businesses such as equities and bond trading to revive profits after three consecutive years of losses. (Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Richard Chang)Chief Financial Officer Resigns Due to Health Issues

- Search Launched -

DENVER, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RLH Corporation (NYSE:RLH) announced today that its Chief Financial Officer, Douglas L. Ludwig, has tendered his resignation effective immediately due to personal health reasons. The Companys Chief Accounting Officer, Mr. Nate Troup, will serve as Principal Financial Officer while the Company conducts its search for a replacement.

The RLH team is keeping Doug in its thoughts and we wish him a rapid recovery. Doug has overseen a great deal of positive change at RLH and we are grateful for his efforts during his tenure. The Company has strengthened its financial position with a meaningful reduction of long-term debt since Doug joined RLH in 2017, said RLH President and Chief Executive Officer Greg T. Mount. With the sale of our owned hotels largely completed, our focus is on growing our asset light, franchise model. We are confident that we have a seasoned finance and accounting team in place as we conduct our search.

About RLH Corporation

Red Lion Hotels Corporation is an innovative hotel company doing business as RLH Corporation and focuses on the franchising, management and ownership of upscale, midscale and economy hotels. The company focuses on maximizing return on invested capital for hotel owners across North America through relevant brands, industry-leading technology and forward-thinking services. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.rlhco.com.

Social Media:

www.Facebook.com/myhellorewards

www.Twitter.com/myhellorewards

www.Instagram.com/myhellorewards

www.Linkedin.com/company/rlhco

Investor Relations Contact:

Amy Koch

O: 509-777-6417

C: 917-579-5012

investorrelations@rlhco.com

Media Contact:

Dan Schacter

Director, Social Engagement and Public Relations

509-777-6222

dan.schacter@rlhco.comTreasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend a high-profile investor conference in Saudi Arabia, the latest fallout from the disappearance and presumed death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mnuchin had planned to attend the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, set for Oct. 23-25. But Khashoggi, a powerful critic of Saudi Arabias monarchy, disappeared after entering the kingdoms consulate in Turkey. Widely held worries that Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate has led numerous global government and corporate leaders, including leaders from Google, the World Bank and Uber, to cancel plans to attend the summit.

Last year, FOX Business was among the few to sitdown with the Crown Prince who is pushing economic and social progression in the Kingdom. The country is also building a new futuristic city called NEOM.

U.S. stocks, which were trading lower before the news, saw some additional pressure.

Earlier this week President Trump publicly expressed concern about the journalists fate.

Trump said Tuesday that it is imperative that what happened to Khashoggi be revealed.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are looking at it very strongly and it depends if the king or crown prince knew about it, in my opinion. Number one, what happened? But, whether or not they knew about it. If they knew about it, that would be bad, Trump said during an interview on FOX Business Trish Regan Primetime.

Mnuchins announcement that he was canceling his trip to the summit came shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo briefed Trump on the results of his fact-finding trip to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, where he traveled to learn about Khashoggi's fate.

I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision about how the United States should respond to the issues surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, Pompeo said Thursday from the White House.

Story continues

A growing number of Republican senators are already calling for consequences for Saudi Arabia, according to Fox News. These lawmakers are nudging Trump to take action, while suggesting they could respond through congressional action if he doesn't.

The president needs to be measured -- I get that -- but the world is watching us, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Fox News @ Night.

In an earlier interview Tuesday with Fox News, Graham said he wants to see Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forced out of his position. He also called for Congress to sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters Wednesday the situation is really going to challenge the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, though said its too early to predict what the consequences will be.

"I cant imagine there will be no response," McConnell said.

Khashoggi's body has not been found.

Fox Business Network, which was a sponsor of the Saudi summit, has pulled out. FOX Business Network has canceled its sponsorship and participation in the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia. We continue to seek an interview with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman" according to a statement from FOX Business.

21st Century Fox is the parent of FOX Business.

Related ArticlesNew York AG launches probe into MoviePass parent company for allegedly misleading investors

It's another stumble for MoviePass, which in recent months has repeatedly adjusted its movie subscription plans and taken out hefty loans to cover massive losses.

The New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood has opened a probe into MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson HMNY , a source familiar with the matter told CNBC.

The attorney general's office is investigating whether the company mislead the investment community regarding the company's financials, the source said. The investigation is in the early stages.

The attorney general is using the Martin Act, a statute designed to protect New York investors.

It's another stumble for MoviePass, which in recent months has repeatedly adjusted its movie subscription plans and taken out hefty loans to cover massive losses.

Shares of Helios and Matheson fell 3 percent in extended trading Wednesday, though the stock trades for just 2 cents per share. A spokesperson for Helios and Matheson declined to comment.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.





More From CNBC

Vanda (VNDA) shares have started gaining and might continue moving higher in the near term, as indicated by solid earnings estimate revisions.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL October 17, 2018  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Chevron CVX, Petrobras PBR, Murphy Oil Corp. MUR, Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation COG and Baker Hughes, a GE company BHGE.

Here are highlights from Tuesdays Analyst Blog:

Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: CVX, PBR, VLO & More

It was a week where oil prices took a hit but natural gas futures rallied to their highest levels since January.

On the news front, Chevron is selling its interests in Norway, while Petrobras entered into a strategic joint venture with Murphy Oil Corp. in the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, it was a mixed week for the sector. While West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell about 4% to close at $71.34 per barrel, natural gas prices edged up 0.6% to $3.161 per million Btu (MMBtu). (See the last Oil & Gas Stock Roundup here: Drilling Industry Enjoys M&A Boom)

The U.S. crude benchmark dropped for the first time in five weeks after the Energy Department's inventory release showed that stockpiles recorded another large build. On a further bearish note, OPEC and Russian oil output rose in September that more than offset the loss in Iranian output. Surging production in the United States and a cut in oil demand growth forecast also played spoilsport.

Meanwhile, natural gas jumped to its highest in nearly nine months as inventories remain significantly below their five-year average ahead of the upcoming winter.

Recap of the Weeks Most Important Stories

1. Chevronis set to sell its last stake in the oil exploration license offshore Norway, becoming the first oil supermajor to exit the Norwegian continental shelf. The company will offload its 20% interest in the PL859 exploration license in Norways Arctic to a Norwegian company DNO. The financial terms of the transaction have been still kept under wraps. Subject to satisfactory conditions and regulatory approvals, the deal is set for closure in a few months.

Story continues

The deal brings Chevron a step closer to its intention of withdrawing from the aging North Sea, in a bid to streamline portfolio. The move is part of the Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) companys strategic review of global portfolio to determine the competitiveness of all its projects. The decision seems to be a prudent one, as extracting oil from North Sea is not so economical since production costs are much higher than returns. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Notably, output from North Sea accounts for just about 3% of Chevrons total production, providing around 50,000 barrels of oil and 155 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. (Read more Chevron Bids Adieu to Norway Amid Wider Exodus From North Sea)

2. Petrobras and Murphy Oil Corporation have entered into a joint venture (JV) agreement for deep-water oil exploration operations in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). The JV will comprise GoM producing assets from both Murphy Oil and Petrobrass subsidiary PAI. The transaction, with an effective date of Oct 1, is expected to close by the end of this year. Murphy Oil will be the chief operator of the JV, with 80% stake.

The deal is expected to boost Murphy Oils production in the GoM by 41,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day (Boe/d). Post the completion of the deal, Murphy Oils total output is likely to be approximately 60,000 net barrels. The JV will help Murphy Oil collaborate with the global leader in deep-water developments, leading to shareholder value creation and robust cash flow generation for the company.

Murphy Oil will be paying $900 million in cash to PAI for the formation of the JV. Additionally, Petrobras can earn $150 million if certain price and output limits exceed in the time frame of 2019-2025. On the other hand, the cash consideration is likely to strengthen the balance sheet of Petrobras. (Read more Petrobras and Murphy Oil Form JV for GoM Operations)

3. Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation recently trimmed its daily production growth forecast for 2018 to 7-8% from its prior guided range of 10-12%. This revised guidance reflects the impact of lower-than-expected production in the third quarter.

Notably, during the last reported quarter, Cabot announced that it anticipated net production in the range of 2,100-2,200 million cubic feet equivalent a day (MMcfe/d) for the third quarter. However, it recently issued a statement, expecting its output for the third quarter to stand lower at 2,029 MMcfe/d. Delays in the in-service date of Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project  chiefly operated by Williams Companies  along with slight changes in the timing of pads being placed on production in the third quarter are mainly responsible for lower-than-expected output.

However, the expected production of 2,029 MMcfe/d still represents 7% and 19% increase on a sequential and yearly basis, respectively. (Read more Cabot Slashes Output Guidance, Provides Other Updates)

5. Baker Hughes, a GE company plans to buy 5% stake in Abu Dhabi National Oil Companys (ADNOC) drilling business for $550 million. The strategic partnership makes Baker Hughes the first foreign company to buy interest in the UAE-based state-run energy companys any of the units. The move is expected to enhance Baker Hughes presence in Middle East, where oil and gas operations are rapidly increasing, and entitle it to secure a seat in the Board of Directors of ADNOC Drilling.

The deal values ADNOC Drilling at $11 billion and provides it access to the technical expertise of Baker Hughes, which can aid in making the former an international player. The knowledge that ADNOC will gain from Baker Hughes will enable it to increase drilling efficiencies and well economics, as well as unlock greater value from its conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources.

The deal is anticipated to aid Baker Hughes to generate predictable revenue streams for a long term from operations in the Middle East. The partnership is expected to slash ADNOCs drilling time by 30% within 2019-end. The deal is expected to close in the final quarter of this year and operations will likely start next year. (Read more Baker Hughes to Acquire Stake in ADNOC Through $500M Deal)

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Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.- Petrobras (PBR) : Free Stock Analysis Report



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To read this article on Zacks.com click here.ARRIS International (ARRS) saw a big move last session, as its shares jumped nearly 7% on the day, amid huge volumes.

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL October 18, 2018  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Tilray TLRY, Coca-Cola KO, Constellation Brands STZ, Canopy Growth CGC and ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ.

Here are highlights from Wednesdays Analyst Blog:

Canada Legalizes Marijuana: Stocks & ETF in Focus

Canada is now the first major world economy and the second country after Uruguay to legalize recreational marijuana. Medical use of marijuana has been legal in the country since 2001.

Shares of many cannabis companies, including Tilray, have been soaring over the past few months, are trading down today.

The emerging pot industry is growing fast and gaining legitimacy. Per research firm Euromonitor, the American market for legal marijuana products will reach $20 billion by 2020, up from $5.4 billion in 2015.

Many beverage giants are investing or planning to invest in cannabis. Coca-Cola is reported to be in talks with Canadas Aurora Cannabis to develop cannabidiol infused beverages. Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive substance in marijuana that is known to have some health benefits.

Recently Constellation Brands, invested $4 billion in Canopy Growth, raising its stake to 38%.

Investors should remember that cannabis remains illegal at the federal level in the US while 30 states and the District of Columbia having legalized the use of the drug for medicinal or recreational use.

Further, marijuana stocks are extremely volatile. These are younger and risker companies in an industry that continues to evolve.

The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF--the first and only pure play US listed ETF targeting the cannabis industry--holds 37 companies that are involved in legal cultivation, production, marketing or distribution of cannabis or related products.

Story continues

I talked with Jason Wilson, president of Budding Equity Asset Management in Canada and partner in MJ, in a recent podcast.

Please listen to the podcast to learn more about the outlook for pot stocks and MJ ETF.

Marijuana Stocks and ETF: What Investors Need to Know

Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?

Zacks free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >>

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ETFMG-ALT HRVST (MJ): ETF Research Reports



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) recently announced a 78% increase in its third quarter 2018 gold productions and gold revenue. The company also reported the gold production and revenue for the first nine months of this year.

Major highlights of third quarter 2018 gold productions

The company recorded third quarter 2018 gold productions of 242,040 ounces which is 78% more than the production of gold during the same period last year. The increase in production and revenue is because of the strong performances of Philippines Masbate Mine, Fekola Mine in Mali, and Namibias Otjikoto Mine.

The company registered a consolidated $324 million increase in gold revenue from $170 million of last year during the same period. Fekola mine worked as per the plans of B2Gold Corp producing 107,002 ounces of gold in the third quarter. Masbate Mine produced 57,542 ounces gold which is the second highest ever gold produced by the mine in a quarter. The revised annual production of Masbate based on its year-to-date performance is in between 200,000 and 210,000 ounces of gold.

The first nine-months recorded a consolidated 721,817 ounces production which is 85% more than the first nine months of last year. The consolidated gold revenue recorded year-to-date is $953 million. The company increased the Mali exploration budget for 2018 by $4 million, from $15 million in 2017 to $19 million this year. The company increased the budget on the basis of good drills results and also to increase the speed of the existing Fekola North Extension zone drill program.

B2Gold Corp shares rally sharply

Due to the positive third quarter 2018 gold productions report, the company shares rallied sharply in the last few days. It is because the investors expect much better from the company post declaration of an impressive third quarter figure for this year. A day before B2Gold Corp announced its third-quarter results the shares of the company opened at $3.08. However, within a few days its stock gained by 15.3% reaching a high of $3.55.

The Vancouver-based senior gold producer company earns revenue on gold production through five operating mines and other multiple exploration and development projects in different countries. B2Gold Corp project locations include Namibia, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Colombia, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Finland.Lloyds Banking Group PLC ADR (NYSE:LYG) is setting up its third European Union subsidiary in Luxembourg with the aim to serve its longstanding customers in the life insurance sector. The bank is taking this step as Britain is now quitting the bloc. Incidentally, Lloyds Banking is the largest mortgage lender of the UK. Right now it is waiting to get a license in the city of Luxembourg so that the company can continue providing service to the customers from the EU-based countries.

Luxembourg is one of the most flourishing insurance communities in Europe. That is why Lloyds is doing every possible effort to ensure that it gets a good standing in its insurance market. The company recently completed initial discussions with Luxembourgs regulators and further talks will take place in the coming weeks.

Lloyds increase its chances of opening third European Union subsidiary

If the regulators from Luxembourg accept the application Lloyds dream of having a third European Union subsidiary will become true. The bank will then have legal bases located in Berlin, Britain, Frankfurt and the Duchy which is of great importance now that the reorganization of the UK-based banks is in the process as the Brexit deadline is coming nearer.

The bank as of now is not planning to shift the UK-based employees to work in Luxembourg. Instead, Lloyds is planning to employ around a dozen employees who could fulfill the requirements of its Scottish Widows policyholders based in the European Union. These widows hold the closed book policies that insurance companies do not sell anymore.

Edinburg-based British business will continue to serve the Scottish Widows policyholders in bulk. Similar to its subsidiary in Germany, the entity in Luxembourg will require capital. However, the bank is yet to decide the total sum required with the local regulators.

Lloyds issuing new credit cards post-Ticketmaster data breach

Apart from the plans to set up a third European Union subsidiary in Luxembourg, the bank is also issuing new credit cards post-Ticketmaster data breach. Other banks affected due to the breach include Halifax and Bank of Scotland. As per the report, the Ticketmaster data breach compromised details of tens of thousands of customers of these banks.

Irans Enemies Strike Back



The government in Tehran made its move. Now, its being boxed in.



By George Friedman

An interesting thing happened last week. A Russian reconnaissance plane was shot down by the Syrian army , so naturally Russia blamed Israel, claiming that Israel used the plane to shield its own fighter aircraft, en route to strike Iranian positions in Syria. Interesting though that charge may be, its far less fascinating than Moscows other quibble  that the Israelis had failed to give the Russians sufficient warning that they were entering Russia-controlled airspace in Syria. This runs counter to an arrangement whereby Israel, Russia and the U.S. pledged to inform each other about aircraft movement, so congested have the skies there become. In other words, the Russians didnt object to the fact that Israel entered Syrian airspace  they objected to the fact they werent given much of a heads up.

The Russians knew what Israel was up to. The air campaign against Iran in Syria has been going on for some time. And since Iran tends to be unprepared for these attacks, its safe to assume the Russians arent tipping off the Iranians. The only conclusion that I can come to, being the simple-minded man I am, is that Russia doesnt seem to mind it when Israel bombs Iran. In the ensuing dispute over who was responsible for shooting down the Russian aircraft, accusations abounded, but the fact that the Israelis bombed the Iranians never emerged as a significant issue.

The tectonic plates of the Middle East have been in motion recently, and this episode is part of that realignment. Russia made a deal with Turkey that seems to have taken a Russia-led assault on Idlib off the table, leaving Bashar Assad, who wanted to take Idlib to secure Syrias northwestern frontier, out in the cold. Assad may not like it, but he isnt upset enough to shoot down the plane of one of his biggest benefactors. Even so, Russias relations with Syria are a little shaky, as are its relations with Iran, the would-be target of Israeli attacks.

The realignment may not tell us much we didnt already know in that regard, but it reveals a lot about how far Russia and Israel are willing to cooperate. But it also indicates that Russia very much wants to find some basis for a long-term relationship with Turkey, whose stewardship of the Bosporus is one of Russias oldest geopolitical imperatives. The Bosporus makes any Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean shaky. It can pose a challenge to Russia in the Caucasus, an important Russian buffer zone. And when Turkey is allied with the United States, as it more or less is now, Washington has the ability to project air power throughout the region, particularly in the Black Sea.

And so, for Russia, an alliance with Turkey would be a dream come true. Not so for Turkey, which is historically suspicious of Russia, having fought and conspired against it for years. The government in Ankara knows that an alliance with Russia, without a backup plan, would be unwise. We are far from an alliance, but with the Idlib agreement , at least we know outright conflict has been avoided.

Russia is thus cooperating with Israel and courting Turkey. It has proved what it wanted to prove in Syria, that it is still a global power, unafraid of the U.S. and the West. Assad survived. Russia can claim success . Iran was useful in this regard, but when Syria is secure, Irans value falls. The Turks have no love for the Iranians, whose expansion in the region was never a matter of great enthusiasm for Turkey or Russia. It was situational, and the situation is changing.

The catalyst for change was Iranian expansion. The government in Tehran took advantage of an opportunity created by the defeat of the Islamic State to assert itself in Iraq , a country that is essential to the security of Irans western border. It established a powerful presence in Lebanon long ago and is supporting rebels in Yemen. But it is spreading itself too thin. Iran can project enough power to be politically relevant in all these countries but not enough to hold its position against a determined foreign power.

Enter Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. The Saudis share with Israel a sense that Iran is their primary enemy. Neither Israel nor the Saudis want to see Iranian influence spread any further than it already has. Its little wonder, then, that Saudi and Emirati media have reported that Israel sold Saudi Arabia its Iron Dome missile defense system. (The Saudis and Israelis tend to loathe each other publicly but cooperate with each other secretly.) If true, the sale means their relationship is now out in the open, creating an informal alliance from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Add to this Egypt, with which Israel has engaged on security issues for some time, and that alliance stretches to the Red Sea.

Its a peculiar bloc, constituted as it is by Sunni Arabs and Israelis, but already it is taking action. Israel is attacking Iran in Syria, and it is preparing for a fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon in the not-too-distant future. The Turks are in an uneasy alliance with the Sunnis, but they are allied nonetheless. The Russians are essentially giving the go-ahead to airstrikes. The Iranians are being boxed in.

Missing from this narrative, of course, is the United States. It has adopted a strategy I assumed it would, allowing the local balance of power to deal with matters, and being the last recourse, not the first. The U.S. has not abdicated responsibility entirely. It continues to wage economic war against Iran, and it maintains special operations forces in the region to train and support some of these newfound relationships.Raising Canes Chicken Fingers hasnt opened its first Colorado Springs location, but the chain already is eyeing a second site.

Louisiana-based Raising Canes plans to add a restaurant at the Powers Pointe shopping center, southwest of Powers Boulevard and Barnes Road on the Springs busy northeast side.

Documents submitted recently to city planners show a free-standing, 3,575-square-foot Raising Canes to be built on 1.2 acres at Powers Pointe. The restaurant would have a patio and drive-thru to go along with indoor seating. Its opening date, number of employees and other details werent available.

Raising Canes would join LongHorn Steakhouse, Blaze Pizza, Zoes Kitchen and Tokyo Joes at Powers Pointe, along with Sprouts Farmers Market, Bentleys Pet Stuff, Tuesday Morning and other retailers. A Burlington clothing store also is under construction at the shopping center.

The latest Raising Canes has regulatory hurdles to clear, however. Restaurant chain representatives who submitted the proposal to Colorado Springs planners are seeking city approval of a development plan.

Raising Canes couldnt be reached for comment. Previously, the chain told The Gazette that it is continuously evaluating opportunities to grow restaurants all over the world, and especially in Colorado. A representative of St. Louis-based The Staenberg Group, a real estate company thats developing Powers Pointe, also declined to comment.

Another Raising Canes is planned as part of a new retail center being developed southeast of Academy Boulevard and Agora Point on the site of a now-razed Elephant Bar restaurant in northern Colorado Springs, according to documents filed with city planners in July.

A multitenant building that will be part of that project is taking shape on the site, but construction doesnt appear to have started on Raising Canes. Confluent Development of Denver, which is building the retail center at Academy and Agora, said through a spokeswoman that no information is available about its project.

Raising Canes has become popular among caniacs for its made-to-order, marinated and breaded chicken fingers. The restaurants limited menu also features fries, cole slaw, Texas toast and drinks.

The fast-casual chain opened its first location in 1996 and now has more than 390 restaurants in 24 states and five Middle Eastern countries, according to its website. Raising Canes has five Colorado locations  in Castle Rock, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Fort Collins and Parker. A sixth is coming to Broomfield, the chains website says.The Russians have come, and Colorado Springs is a bit shaken after a Putin-directed military intelligence operation purloined data from a local non-profit.

For decades, Colorado Springs was on the lookout for Soviet spies. But when the Cold War ended, locals lightened up. With federal indictments this month against Russian hackers who targeted the Springs-based U.S. Anti-doping Agency, leaders say It may be high time for a new Red Scare.

Saving liberal democracy from the extremes



Elites must recognise that mismanaged economies have helped to destabilise politics



Martin Wolf





Protesters in Warsaw in July, angry at what they see as an attack on the judiciary  AFP





Nothing to excess. This motto, also known as the golden mean, was displayed in the ancient shrine of Delphi. Such restraint is particularly crucial for the preservation of liberal democracy, which is a fragile synthesis of personal freedom and civic action. Today, the balance between these two elements has to be regained.



Larry Diamond of Stanford University has argued that liberal democracy has four necessary and sufficient elements: free and fair elections; active participation of people, as citizens; protection of the civil and human rights of all citizens; and a rule of law that binds all citizens equally. The salient feature of the system is the restraints it imposes on the government and so on the majority: any victory is temporary.



It is easy to see why this system is so fragile. Today, that truth is, alas, not theoretical. In its 2018 report, Freedom House, a well-regarded federally funded, non-profit US organisation, stated that: Democracy is in crisis. The values it embodies  particularly the right to choose leaders in free and fair elections, freedom of the press, and the rule of law  are under assault and in retreat globally. This democratic recession, as Prof Diamond has called it, is not restricted to emerging or former communist countries, such as Hungary or Poland. The commitment to norms of liberal democracy, including the right to vote and equal rights for all citizens, is in retreat even in the established democracies, including the US. Why has this happened?



In a recent book, The People vs. Democracy, and an earlier article, Yascha Mounk of Harvard University argues that both undemocratic liberalism and illiberal democracy threaten liberal democracy. Under the former, democracy is too weak: social bonds and economic security are sacrificed on the altar of individual freedom. Under the latter, liberalism is too weak: power is captured by demagogues ruling in the name of an angry majority or at least a sizeable minority, who are told they are the real people. Undemocratic liberalism ends in elite rule. Illiberal democracy ends in autocratic rule.



Mr Mounks argument, moreover, is that undemocratic liberalism, notably economic liberalism, largely explains the rise of illiberal democracy: vast swaths of policy have been cordoned off from democratic contestation. He points to the role of independent central banks and to the way in which trade is governed by international agreements created by secretive negotiations carried out inside remote institutions. In the US, he also notes, unelected courts have decided many controversial social issues. In such areas as taxation, elected representatives retain formal autonomy. But the global mobility of capital restricts the freedom of politicians, reducing the effective differences between established parties of the centre-left and centre-right.



How far does such undemocratic liberalism explain illiberal democracy? The answer is: it does, up to a point.



It is surely true that the liberal economy has not delivered what was hoped, the financial crisis being a particularly severe shock. One aspect of such liberalism  migration  has, as the British writer David Goodhart argues in his book, The Road to Somewhere, persuaded many people from somewhere  those anchored to a place  that they are losing their countries to unwelcome outsiders. Moreover, institutions that represented the bulk of ordinary people  trade unions and left-of-centre parties  have ceased to exist or ceased to do their job. Finally, politics has been taken over by people from anywhere  the mobile and the highly educated.



Thomas Piketty suggests that a Brahmin left and a merchant right now dominate western politics. These groups may differ sharply from each other, but both are attached to liberalism  social, in the case of the Brahmins and economic, in the case of the merchants. The public has noticed.



A big point is that if undemocratic liberalism has gone too far for the comfort of a large portion of the voting public, that liberalism is not just economic: this is not just about neo-liberalism. Moreover, little of it has to do with overmighty international institutions, with the arguable exception of the EU. Indeed, the prosperity high-income countries desire is heavily bound up with international commerce. That, in turn, necessarily involves more than one jurisdiction. A future that does not include international co-operation on cross-border regulation or taxation will not work. This, too, has to be recognised.



A view that the economic dimension of undemocratic liberalism has driven the people towards illiberal democracy is exaggerated. What is true is that poorly managed economic liberalism helped destabilise politics. That helps explain the nationalist backlash in high-income countries.

Yet the kind of illiberal democracy we see in Hungary or Poland, which is rooted in their specific histories, is not an inevitable outcome in established democracies. It will be hard for Donald Trump to become a US version of Hungarys Viktor Orban.



Yet we cannot just ignore the pressures. It is impossible for democracies to ignore widespread public anger and anxiety. Elites must promote a little less liberalism, show a little more respect for the ties binding citizens to one another and pay more tax. The alternative of letting a large part of the population feel disinherited is too dangerous. Is such a rebalancing conceivable?



That is the big question.Crashes have increased by up to 6 percent in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington  all of which have legalized recreational marijuana  compared with neighboring states, new research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute shows.

But officials caution that its difficult to directly link crashes to marijuana use because testing is infrequent and inconsistent  and the amount of marijuana in a persons system doesnt necessarily relate to impairment.

Despite the difficulty of isolating the specific effects of marijuana impairment on crash risk, the evidence is growing that legalizing its use increases crashes, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute President David Harkey said in a news release.

The frequency of claims per insured vehicle year rose a combined 6 percent after the start of retail sales of recreational marijuana in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, compared with four control states, Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, the release says.

Retail sales of recreational marijuana began in Colorado in January 2014 and in Washington in July 2014. Sales started in Oregon in October 2015 and in Nevada in July 2017.

The analysis is based on collision loss data from January 2012 through October 2017, the release says. Analysts controlled for differences in the rated driver population, insured vehicle fleet, the mix of urban versus rural exposure, unemployment, weather and seasonality.

A separate study examined police-reported crashes from 2012 to 2016 before and after retail sales began in Colorado, Oregon and Washington, the release says. Estimates show that compared with neighboring states that didnt legalize marijuana sales, the three states combined saw a 5.2 percent increase in the rate of crashes per million vehicle registrations.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute researchers compared Colorado with Nebraska, Wyoming and Utah, and they compared Oregon and Washington with Idaho and Montana, the release says. The study controlled for differences in demographics, unemployment and weather.

The size of the effect varied by state, the release says. Although the study controlled for several differences among the states, the models cant capture every single difference. For example, marijuana laws in Colorado, Oregon and Washington differ in terms of daily purchase limits, sales taxes and available options for home growers. These differences can influence how often consumers buy marijuana, where they buy it and where they consume it.

But the 5.2 percent increase in police-reported crash rates after legalization of recreational marijuana use is consistent with the 6 percent increase in insurance claim rates estimated by HLDI.

The number of highway deaths involving Colorado drivers who had marijuana in their system grew again in 2017, but at the same time, traffic fatalities in which drivers had enough marijuana in their bloodstream to be deemed legally impaired dropped sharply, from 52 in 2016 to 35 last year, a state study shows.

The reason for this seeming contradiction: Marijuana can remain in the bloodstream for weeks, so a positive blood test may not mean a driver was stoned at the time of a deadly crash.

Gov. John Hickenlooper told The Gazettes editorial board this month that one of the big issues facing the next governor will be traffic fatalities.

Last year, 648 people died in crashes across Colorado, the highest total since 2004, the Colorado Department of Transportation reported.

Hickenlooper emphasized the importance of gathering accurate data despite the expense involved.

We need to measure whether people have marijuana in their systems, he said.

The blood test for marijuana use costs $300 and will show someone has used marijuana in the past 30 days, whereas the test for drunken driving costs $30, Hickenlooper said.

When someone is suspected of driving drunk and having used marijuana, often authorities will only test for impairment from alcohol because its cheaper and sufficient for a DUI charge.

State officials dont have the authority to tell local municipalities how to test drivers, Hickenlooper said.

The state offered to pay the local municipalities  they are the ones who more often than not investigate highway fatalities, its not the state troopers that decide who gets a blood test, he said. They say, We dont care.One dog was killed and several others were injured in a mobile home fire early Thursday in southern El Paso County.

The camper was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived at the home near the Ray Nixon Power Plant in the Hanover area about 5 a.m., Hanover Fire Chief Carl Tatum told Gazette news partner KKTV.

Flames were as high as 20 feet.

The homeowners were not there when the fire started, KKTV reported. Neighbors tried to save the eight dogs in the home but weren't able to rescue one.

"The animal was badly burnt and it was suffering. Tatum said, so sheriff's deputies put it down.

The mobile home was a total loss.

The fire was accidental and started near a propane tank, Tatum told KKTV. The Humane Society is helping care for the dogs.Last week, Congressman Dan Donovan put on his go-to uniform of blazer and shiny congressional button and strode into the ShopRite on Staten Islands Hylan Boulevard.

Near the exit, mostly elderly shoppers rolled their carts by, blessing him and shaking his hand.

When you look at all of New York City, theres thirteen members of Congress: twelve Democrats and me. Im the only Republican in the whole delegation, Donovan told Gothamist. But my voters vote for the person,

With three weeks before election day, Donovan said that he was unconcerned about his Democratic challenger, Max Rose, who according to new FEC filings now has $1.4 million to Donovans $280,000 cash on hand. The Rose campaign says it has knocked on roughly 300,000 doors, placed nearly 3,000 lawn signs, and said 200 people are regularly volunteering for him as of last week.

In comparison, Donovans campaign estimated they contacted 125,000 voters via both door knocking and phone calls, placed 1,200 lawn signs, and said the campaign had a couple hundred volunteers not including unions, but did not supply a number. Spending by the candidates has been neck and neck, at about $2 million each,

The congressman, flanked by a Today Show correspondent and cameramen, glad-handed his way towards the glass cases holding heaps of filleted fish.

Of course Im voting for him, you kidding me? said a stout, barrel-chested Bart Brandi, gesturing at Donovan. Unfortunately, Im registered as a Democrat, Brandi said with a grimace, before letting out a burst of laughter. But I vote Republican! he said, glancing ahead at two women who were holding up the line, proclaiming their loyalty to Trump for the cameras.

The South Shore is all for [Donovan] anyway. Im in the middle. Bay Terrace. The only problem is the north shore. They are all for that other guy  Max Rose, Brandi said, before cocking his head to the side and hollering: Can I have a pound of flounder?

In a district that overwhelmingly voted for President Donald Trump (who has endorsed Donovan), the common assumption is that this Staten Island district is Republican territory, but the political geography of the 11th district is more complex. Consider this: More than 30 percent of the districts voters are in South Brooklyn portions of the district, and while Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by nearly 10 points here, Democrats actually outnumber Republicans by a 5:3 ratio.



Max Rose speaking to a Rotary Club on Staten Island (Frank G. Runyeon / Gothamist)

On Staten Island, Democrats make up 45 percent of registered voters, Conservatives and Republicans are collectively 28 percent, and independents are 22 percent, said Jerry Skurnick, an election numbers expert and political consultant at Prime NY. There are more registered Democrats than Republicans there, but a lot of those Democrats are pretty conservative, Skurnick explained.

The political attitudes map like a gradient, from blue to red as you scan southward. Thats one thing thats easy about Staten Island, Skurnick said. North is liberal, south is very conservative and in-between is a marginal areaand so, these ShopRite shoppers were voters in a key battleground.

Donovan found another receptive audience in the produce section, where he met local resident Joseph DiPisa, near the green peppers.

When asked about President Trump, DiPisa proudly offered that he had helped build Trump Tower in the early 1980s. The NBC interviewer pivoted back to the congressman, who was quick to don the mantle of presidential favorite. The president does very well here, Donovan said, rattling off a list of Trumps accomplishments.

But as DiPisa walked away, I asked who he planned to vote for. I dont like the bullying he does, this president, and he makes friends with our enemies, DiPisa said, referencing Trumps kind words for North Koreas totalitarian dictator. Fairness, he said, is the quality hes looking for.

[Max Rose] sounds pretty good. I like veterans. Im a Legionnaire, DiPisa said, noting that hes also a registered independent. Donovans all right. When it comes time, lets see what happens. I havent really decided who to vote for, but I usually lean Democrat. I come from Brooklyn originally, DiPisa said.

Skurnick believes the Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives this election, but for Staten Island, the size of the blue wave nationally will be a bellwether for the outcome of this race in New York Citys lone Republican congressional stronghold.

If it really is a Democratic wave and they pick up 50, 60, 70 seats, then I think Donovans in trouble. But if its a more manageable number, I think hes probably okay, Skurnick said.

Its the mid-island residents, like Brandi or DiPisa, that will likely determine the raceand there are still votes to be won.



Rep. Donovan speaks to constituents outside the ShopRite (Frank G. Runyeon / Gothamist)

At the Chevrolet dealership across the street from the ShopRite, a parade of political campaign signage adorned the perimeter fencing for local Assembly and judicial races, but nothing for the congressional race.

We havent heard from them, said Mike Romeo, one of the dealerships higher ups, who was taking a smoking break in the parking lot. Romeo said he had no preference for Republicans or Democrats. Were for everybody. Tell him to come on over.

While there is little that Rose and Donovan will openly admit they agree on, both say that party-line voting is not Staten Islands brand of politics. People there vote for the person, not the party, they say. There are certainly unique voting patterns, experts note.

One of the interesting things that always catches my eye about this district is when [Michael] Grimm won in 2014, Gov. Andrew Cuomo also won this district, making it likely that voters strategically split their tickets, said Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Mapping Service for the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center. Democrats have won this district, although more so at the executive level than at a congressional level.

In the absence of public polling, however, political prognosticators have called Roses shot an uphill fight against Donovan and several rate the race likely or lean Republican. In other words, pundits have said the deck is stacked against the 31-year-old Democrat.

I can promise you: We are going to win and it is not going to be close, Rose told Gothamist last week.

The candidate was similarly combative at the first of two debates in Bay Ridge last week.

Ive served longer as your congressman than hes lived in the district, thats what Im saying, Donovan said, to a smattering of claps. Hes not one of us. He doesnt understand the issues that were dealing with. He hasnt been here. Ive been here for 62 years.

Congressman, Im sorry I didnt move here earlier, I was too busy defending my country in Afghanistan, Rose shot back, drawing whoops and hollers.

Amid towers of Max Rose for Congress lawn signs in his sparse campaign headquarters, Rose sat back in his tailored gray suit, legs crossed in a metal folding chair. For all his kick-ass veteran messaging in his campaign and his beer-guzzling photo ops, Rose also holds a masters in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics, and he studied at Oxford University before serving as a platoon leader in Kandahar province, where he was injured by a roadside bomb.

Broadly, it appears Rose is campaigning on a platform promising change while hanging Congresss failures and local grievances around Donovans neck, with a distinctly Staten Island flavorfrom economic inequality and pay-to-play politics to the districts commuting woes and the opioid crisis.

I have not had the opportunity to go into the weeds as much as I would like to on the opioid epidemic, Rose said. So many of our policy ideas today are to fight the war of the past. Many people are still dying of pills, but we have such a high number of folks that are dying from Fentanyl-laced heroin right now, he said, and the move by Staten Islands current district attorney to make every overdose a crime scene is an idea that should be replicated nationwide with federal funding.

Theres a need for complex, holistic solutions, Rose said. The opioid epidemic is a great example of that.

You can take that same mindset and try to address very complex health disparities and health crises in this country. Our commuting nightmare. Infrastructure requires that. A crisis that the middle class is enduring right now where its harder and harder to get into the middle class and stay there, Rose said.

Rose strikes a decidedly non-confrontational tone with police officers on racial justice issuesin contrast to many New York City Democrats. When asked whether justice was served with regards to Eric Garner, a black Staten Island man who was killed by a white NYPD officers chokehold in 2014, the candidate only criticized the 4-year duration of the federal civil rights investigation and said hes eager to see what comes of the NYPDs reinvigorated disciplinary process.

Were presented with this false choice that were somehow either anti-cop or anti-communityand Im pro both, Rose said. There is a larger issue here of police-community relations, and a trust deficit, and a legacy of injustice.

While Rose has the endorsement of both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden and Donovan has Trumps, both candidates have taken pains to distance themselves from party leaders. Rose put out an ad criticizing Mayor Bill de Blasio and repeatedly disavowed support for Nancy Pelosis leadership. Some observers have noted that Donovan, meanwhile, has de-emphasized Trumps support in the general election and often highlights that he voted against the Republican tax bill.

Still, Donovan clearly understands that if he can rally enough die-hard conservatives, hes likely to winvoters like Giovannina Fabrizio, a fiery senior citizen who Donovan found in the ShopRite cosmetics aisle.

These Democrats across the bay? Fabrizio made a guttural spitting sound. They stink.

Staten Island is Republican, she said. Its the rest of New York City...theyre not even Americans.

Donovan smiled wryly and waved reporters in her direction.

I think you want to talk to her! Donovan said.

Loading...LETTERS: Need more of this kind of debate; hate in the eye of the beholderSeen here really feeling the heat, this a video of a Weather Channel reporter demonstrating the company's new immersive visualization technology (previously seen in its Hurricane Florence coverage) in a California wildfires segment. I liked how some of the flames and debris pass in front of the reporter. Really makes you feel like you're right there, doesn't it? "Not really." Fair enough. If you had to choose, would you rather die by fire or water? PROTIP: Never choose right away, always try to renegotiate with the evil villain planning on killing you first. You never know, they might just have a change of heart. Unless that evil villain is me, in which case there is no renegotiating, and I don't care what you choose, I'm feeding you to my crocodiles. "You have crocodiles?" Depends -- can you tell the difference between a crocodile and a turtle? "Yes." Then no I do not.

Keep going for the video.

Thanks to Allyson S, who agrees soon all the Planeteers will be represented by the Weather Channel's new immersive technology.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. This week the series is looking at how Democrats would try to change policy if they won Congress. Todays issue: Health Care.

You know how your mom used to tell you that the uncool kids in middle school become the cool kids in high school, and just to hold tight? Well, shortly after Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, Senator Chuck Schumer kinda said the same thing about Obamacare: Its going to become more and more popular, he promised, and urged Democrats to campaign on the issue. That fall, Democrats went on to lose over 60 seats in the House and six in the Senate. Then again in 2014, Democrats campaigned on health care, and again they lost seats13 in the House and nine in the Senate.

It looks like High School is finally here and, and after a long Summer (growth spurt, guitar lessons, suspicious fires destroying most of the neighborhood), Obamacare is looking good, and Democrats are hoping to break their loser streak, I mean losing streak.

With the ACA now popular with over half of Americans, Democrats are once again making it their centerpiece campaign issue. According to an analysis by the Wesleyan Media Project, the topic came up in more than half of the ads put out by Democratic candidates running at a federal level. Thats more than twice the airtime of Democrats second most mentioned policy issue--taxes.

Why does this matter in November?

Mitch McConnell said this week that the Republicans inability to repeal the Affordable Care Act was the major disappointment of the last two years, and, moving forward, hell try to finish the job. Without Senator John McCainwho helped torpedo the last repeal effortyou can bet your Health Savings Account that if the Republicans keep both chambers of Congress they will succeed.

At the same time, Republican candidates seem to realize that disparaging Obamacare (like theyve done to win past elections) when its popular wont make them popular, and everyone wants to be popular! To get out of that particularly tricky bind, some are campaigning on saving pre-existing conditions, one of the most loved provisions of Obamacare. Health policy analysts say those promises arent straightforward or completely honest. After all, according to Vox twenty Republican-led states are suing to overturn the entire health care law, and the Trump administration is joining them to argue that preexisting conditions rules specifically should be struck down.

What can Democrats do?

Even if Democrats win both the House and the Senate, with Trumps veto power the Democrats wont be able to pass much legislation. Obviously with Trump and the drug companies dominating policy, at this moment we are not going to have a national Medicare for All program, Senator Bernie Sanders told Brian Lehrer on Thursday.

In fact, President Trump has gone on the offensive against Medicare for All specifically, claiming without evidence that any expansion of Medicare will come at the expense of seniors. We counted 19 lies in the Presidents piece alone, said Sanders, who claims seniors would actually be better off with Medicare for All because they would receive expanded coverage on things like dental and eye care.

Even so, there are still things that Democrats can do to prevent further ACA sabotage. Democrats may not be able to enact legislation, Heather Howard, Lecturer in Public Affairs at Princeton University, told WNYC. But they could force votes on issues like pre-existing condition protections, and could also conduct oversight hearings into how the ACA is being implemented.

For more, check out Brian Lehrer's conversation with Bernie Sanders:

Loading...New York, NY October 17, 2018, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Foundation Center has launched new dashboards on its Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy site, a nonpartisan data visualization platform featuring tens of thousands of grants, publicly available to anyone interested in understanding philanthropy's role in U.S. democracy. Perhaps surprisingly, the dashboards reveal that only 12 percent of democracy funding from foundations is directed toward campaigns and elections. Civic participation and government each account for about 37 percent, while funding towards journalism and media account for 28 percent of total democracy funding.



The platform defines foundation funding for democracy as efforts by foundations to foster an engaged and informed public and support government accountability and integrity, and includes funding for policy research and advocacy. It compiles over 50,000 grants awarded by nearly 6,000 funders totaling $4.6 billion across four major categories: campaigns and elections, civic participation, government strengthening, and media. The new dashboards, one for each of the four subject categories, allow users to browse through granular grants-level information and provide a detailed picture of how institutional philanthropy is engaging with U.S. democracy.



Recent journalistic and academic interest in philanthropy and its interplay with democratic processes has reinvigorated the enduring debate around the role of philanthropy in a democratic society. A practical starting point is to learn more about what grantmakers are actually doing to affect democracy in the United States.



At a time of increased foundation scrutiny, this publicly-available platform provides transparency to the field and complements broader discussions about the role of philanthropy in a democratic society by offering concrete details about relevant grantmaking, says Anna Koob, knowledge services manager at Foundation Center.



The data is useful for journalists, staff at nonprofits and foundations, and anyone in the general public who is interested in understanding philanthropys engagement with U.S. democracy. The new dashboards allow users to see how funding breaks down for each of the four major categories, and includes data that can help identify:

The largest funders of campaigns and elections work

How grantmaking in support of civic participation is broken down by population type

What strategies are used to affect democracy work

The largest recipients of grants for journalism and media

Some insights from the data:

About two percent of all philanthropic funding in the United States meets our criteria for democracy funding. A modest amount considering that this subset captures a wide range of topics, including money in politics, civic education, civil rights litigation, and journalism.

A modest amount considering that this subset captures a wide range of topics, including money in politics, civic education, civil rights litigation, and journalism. Funding for campaigns and elections is the smallest of the four major funding categories tracked. While most people might think of elections as the basic mechanism of democracy, this category only constitutes about 12 percent of democracy funding represented in the tool.

While most people might think of elections as the basic mechanism of democracy, this category only constitutes about 12 percent of democracy funding represented in the tool. Less than a quarter of funding supports policy and advocacy work. Work to effect policy is often considered front and center when discussing philanthropys impact on democracy, but the data reveal that many funders are working in other ways that strengthen democracy, but have less direct implications for public policy.

The Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy site also features a collection of research on U.S. democracy, powered by IssueLab, links to a number of relevant blog posts, and hosts infographics developed using data from the tool. You can access the dashboards and all other resources for free at democracy.foundationcenter.org.



###



About Foundation Center

Established in 1956, Foundation Center is the leading source of information about philanthropy worldwide. Through data, analysis, and training, it connects people who want to change the world to the resources they need to succeed. Foundation Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. and, increasingly, global grantmakers and their grants  a robust, accessible knowledge bank for the sector. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level. Thousands of people visit Foundation Center's website each day and are served in its five regional library/learning centers and its network of more than 450 funding information centers located in public libraries, community foundations, and educational institutions nationwide and around the world. For more information, please visit foundationcenter.org, call (212) 620-4230, or tweet us at @fdncenter.



AttachmentVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Euro Manganese Inc. (TSX-V/ASX: EMN) (EMN or the "Company") announced today that it has waived the conditions precedent to the closing of an Option Agreement to acquire EP Chvaletice s.r.o. (EPCS), a Czech operating company whose principal asset is a large parcel of industrial zoned land adjacent to the Chvaletice Manganese Project, where EMN proposes to develop its high-purity manganese processing facility.



In addition, EMN is pleased to provide an operational update for its Chvaletice Manganese Project.

Due Diligence Completed and First Payment made on EPCS Option Agreement

Following the satisfactory completion of an environmental, financial and legal due diligence review, the Company reports that it has made the first instalment of 14 million Czech Korunas (approx. CAD$815,000) related to an option agreement dated August 13, 2018 giving it the right to acquire a 100% interest in EPCS (the Option Agreement).

EPCS is a small Czech steel fabrication company which owns a 19.94 hectare parcel of land located immediately south of the highway and rail line that bound the Chvaletice tailings deposit. This brownfield land is expected to be suitable for the Companys proposed ultra-high-purity manganese products processing plant. The land contains numerous buildings, including office, warehousing and other industrial structures, several of which are leased to short-term tenants. The site also contains two rail spurs and is served by gas, water and power.

The Company can acquire EPCS by making two additional instalments aggregating 126 million Korunas (approx. CAD$7.32 million) as follows:

an instalment of 42,000,000 Czech Koruna (approx. CAD$2.44 million) (Second Instalment), within 60 days of final approval of the environmental impact assessment for the Chvaletice Manganese Project, but no later than three years after signing the Option Agreement. The three-year term may be extended under certain circumstances by up to one year; and a final payment of 84,000,000 Czech Koruna (approx. CAD$4.88 million) (Final Payment), due upon receipt of all development permits for the Chvaletice Manganese Project, but no later than five years after signing the Option Agreement.

To view Figure 1, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/26ca6b2d-52d5-4fea-b069-d3222e24f46c

The shares of EPCS are being held in escrow pending release of the Final Payment by the Company. To secure the transaction, liens have been placed by the Company on the property and shares of EPCS, while the Option Agreement is in effect. The vendor of EPCS will continue to operate its steel fabrication business until the Final Payment is received, will retain profits from the business and will remain responsible for any losses incurred by the business during the term of the Option Agreement. EMN will endeavour to retrain and transition into the proposed Chvaletice Manganese Project workforce as many of the EPCS employees as possible.

Marco Romero, Euro Manganeses President and CEO stated:

We are pleased to reveal the proposed site of the Chvaletice process plant. By securing the right to acquire this strategic parcel of land, together with the adjacent property we acquired in 2017, Euro Manganese has taken a significant step towards de-risking the Chvaletice Manganese Project.

OPERATIONAL UPDATE

Summer 2018 Drilling Program:

The Company conducted a second phase of drilling at the Chvaletice Manganese Project in July and August, 2018. The program was designed to build on the successful 2017 drilling campaign and upgrade the confidence level of the resource estimate that was published in June 2018. Most of the drilling was done using a state-of-the-art Sonic drill rig that enabled the collection of large undisturbed core samples of the unconsolidated tailings material. The rest of the drilling entailed shallow hand-held auger holes that tested and sampled the hard-to-access slopes of the tailings pile embankments. A total of 80 holes were drilled, totaling 1,510 metres in length, as follows:

54 Sonic drill holes totaling 1410 metres, consisting of: 35 vertical holes, totaling 661 metres (including the twinning of three 2017 drill holes).

19 inclined holes, totaling 749 metres (focused on sampling the embankment of the tailings piles, which was largely classified as an inferred resource following the 2017 drill program, as it could not be accessed using vertical drill holes). 26 hand-auger holes, totaling 100 metres.

All holes were sampled at an average interval of about 2-metres. A total of 767 samples were sent for assaying and various other tests. An additional 63 samples were sent for analysis, as part of a comprehensive and rigorous quality assurance/quality control program, that included blind insertion of duplicates, blanks and standards, as well as independent check assays. Laboratory work is ongoing. Final results are expected by the end of October and will be incorporated in an updated NI 43:101 Resource Estimate to be prepared by Tetra Tech Canada Inc. (Tetra Tech) shortly thereafter, which will also provide a summary of metallurgical testwork completed to date.

To view Figure 2, please visit the following link: http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/538d95e3-dc63-4688-a4fe-50bba471953b

Metallurgical Testwork, Process Design and Preliminary Economic Assessment Update:

Following the collection of 14.8 tonnes of samples representative of the Chvaletice tailings using a large diameter Sonic drill in the summer of 2017, an extensive metallurgical testwork and process design program was initiated by the Company. It is now nearing completion. The metallurgical testwork has been conducted by the Changsha Research Institute for Mining and Metallurgy (CRIMM), a division of China Minmetals. The process design and engineering work has been done by CINF Engineering, a division of Aluminum Company of China (Chinalco). Tetra Tech is overseeing the testwork program and engineering, and is also providing resource estimation and dry stack residue storage facility design services. GET s.r.o. is providing geological, mine planning and environmental baseline data collection services. Localization studies, including estimation of local costs as well as regulatory and environmental compliance inputs, are being conducted by Bilfinger Czech Republic. The focus of the overall program is the development of technically, environmentally and economically robust alternative process flowsheets for the production of ultra-high-purity electrolytic manganese metal (UHPEMM) and/or ultra-high-purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (UHPMSM). The Company expects to make a decision in early 2019 on the flowsheet that will be advanced to the next stage of evaluation and planning.

The metallurgical testwork program involved completion of over 535 individual bench and pilot-scale tests, and 8,125 assays. It also entailed extensive equipment vendor testing and third-party exploratory, confirmation and verification tests. The program included beneficiation testwork, principally focused on magnetic separation, as well as leaching, solution purification, solid-liquid separation, electrowinning, crystallization wash water reagent recovery and passivation tests. It also included 21 days of locked-cycle pilot-scale test runs, on a pilot plant that was purposely built for this program. Preliminary findings to date are encouraging and the resulting product specifications are excellent. Detailed results are being compiled and interpreted. A summary of these findings by Tetra Tech is expected to be presented in the coming months by Tetra Tech, in the context of a Preliminary Economic Assessment.

Environmental Assessment and Permitting Update:

EMN has been conducting extensive environmental baseline studies at the Chvaletice Manganese Project since the summer of 2016, including collection of fauna, flora, hydrological, climatic, air quality, land use and socio-economic data. A hydrogeological study and local groundwater model is expected to be completed in the coming months. Soil and water sampling were also conducted in the context of the EPCS Option Agreement due diligence review.

Since beginning its work at Chvaletice in 2015, the Companys wholly-owned subsidiary, Mangan Chvaletice s.r.o. (Mangan), has been granted all necessary exploration and drilling permits and licenses in a timely fashion, without objection from local communities. In December 2017, the Chvaletice tailings manganese resource was accepted in the Czech national register, confirming Mangan as the recognized administrator of these resources. In April 2018, Mangan was granted a Preliminary Mining Permit, granting it the right to initiate the Environmental Assessment phase of the project. The Preliminary Mining Permit is a prerequisite for the Environmental Assessment and Mining Lease District applications, and represents one of the key steps towards permitting of the project.

Planning and preparation of the Companys Environmental Assessment application has been recently initiated, with the objective of filing a Project Description/Notification early in 2019 and an Environmental Assessment application shortly thereafter.

Mangan has been proactively and increasingly engaging with local and regional communities, organizations, businesses, NGOs and regulatory agencies. Mangan maintains a project information center in the village of Chvaletice and seeks to actively participate in the life of the community in a meaningful way.

Marco Romero added: Our remarkable team continues to make solid progress on all key fronts. The coming months should allow us to provide much greater clarity about the Chvaletice Manganese Projects value and potential strategic importance to Europes electric vehicle industry and producers of specialty steel and aluminum alloys.

About Euro Manganese Inc.

Euro Manganese Inc. is a Canadian mineral resource company, whose principal focus is advancing the evaluation and development of the Chvaletice Manganese Project, in which it holds a 100% interest. The proposed Project entails re-processing a significant manganese deposit hosted in historic mine tailings, strategically-located in the Czech Republic. The Company's goal is to become a leading, competitive and environmentally superior supplier of ultra-high-purity manganese products, potentially serving both the lithium-ion battery industry, as well as producers of specialty steel and aluminum alloys.

About the Chvaletice Manganese Project:

Chvaletice is one of Europes largest manganese resource, hosted in tailings from 1951-1975 historical mining and milling operations. No hard mining, crushing or milling are expected to be required for its extraction. Manganese occurs at Chvaletice predominantly as highly soluble minerals, amenable to conventional hydrometallurgical processes.

The Companys 2017 drilling program served as the base for a CIM Resource Estimate that reported an indicated resource of 23.37 million tonnes grading 7.4% manganese (excluding inferred resources). A copy of the report, entitled Technical Report on Mineral Resource Estimation for the Chvaletice Manganese Project Chvaletice, Czech Republic and having an effective date of April 27, 2018 (released June 21, 2018), is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under the Companys profile. The Company is targeting the recycling of the Chvaletice manganese-bearing tailings using cleaner, proven and conventional technology. By reprocessing the tailings and implementing a progressive reclamation program on the site, the Company intends to remediate the site and to bring it into compliance with Czech and European environmental regulations and standards.

The Chvaletice Manganese Project is located 90 km from Prague, in the Czech Republic, a tier-one jurisdiction with excellent infrastructure, including rail, highway, natural gas and water, and adjacent to a major power plant at a key node in the Czech national electrical grid.

Mr. Gary Nordin, Chief Geologist for Euro Manganese Inc., serves as Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101 and has approved the scientific and technical information contained in this news release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

This release may contain forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual outcome, results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future outcome, results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements or information relate to, among other things, the continued evaluation and development of the Project, the making of additional option payments, the results of the 2018 drilling program and the results of on-going mineral processing and metallurgical testing. These forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and beliefs, but given the uncertainties, assumptions and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements or information. The Company disclaims any obligation to update, or to publicly announce, any such statements, events or developments except as required by 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.

Contact:English Latvian

Consolidated Results of September and 9 months of 2018

Preliminary consolidated Olainfarm Group sales in September 2018 reached 9.5 million euros, which represents a slight decrease of 1% compared to sales of September 2017. The nine-month preliminary results, in contrary, demonstrated 4% growth vs. the same period of 2017 and reached 89 million euros. In the first nine month of the year Olainfarm Group was selling its products to 50 markets worldwide.

According to consolidated sales data of September, sales in the three largest markets of the group - Russia, Latvia and Belarus - increased respectively by 16% 8% and 4%. In September, a significant increase was also achieved in Tajikistan, Poland, Moldova and Germany. By contrast, the sales volumes in Ukraine have decreased by 67% compared to September of 2017, which can be attributed to the unusually high orders in September 2017. In nine-months perspective, the Ukrainian market shows an increase of 10% and remains one of the three largest export markets of the Olainfarm Group.

The largest sales markets of the Olainfarm Group in the first nine month of the year have remained unchanged - Russia (30%), Latvia (28%), Belarus (12%) and Ukraine (9%). The company's major trading partners also include Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Tajikistan. The fastest increase in sales over the reporting period has been achieved in Tajikistan, where sales grew by 64%, and in Belarus, where sales increased by 42% compared to last year's nine months. Sales in Lithuania increased by 18%, in Uzbekistan by 16%, but in Latvia by 17%.

September 2018, consolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Share in total sales Changes to September 2017 Russia 3 998 42% 16% Latvia 2 951 31% 8% Belarus 699 7% 4% Ukraine 341 4% -67% Germany 226 2% 75% Moldova 142 1% 189% Tajikistan 126 1% 807% Poland 113 1% 290% Kirgizstan 103 1% 22% Lithuania 102 1% -28% Other 727 8% -45% Total 9 528 100% -1%





9 months of 2018, consolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Share in total sales Changes to 9 months 2017 Russia 26 360 30% -7% Latvia 25 329 28% 17% Belarus 10 965 12% 42% Ukraine 8 184 9% 10% Kazakhstan 2 269 3% -14% Uzbekistan 1 165 2% 16% Germany 1 441 2% 10% Lithuania 1 300 1% 18% Poland 1 086 1% 8% Tajikistan 1 071 1% 64% Other 9 358 11% -24% Total 89 009 100% 4%

Non- consolidated data for September and nine months of 2018

According to non-consolidated preliminary data of September 2018, JSC "Olainfarm" sold its products by 6.9 million euros, which is by 8% less than in September 2017. Decrease was mostly impacted by the drop of sales in Ukraine by 67% and in Belarus by 25% vs. the September of 2017 when we faced unusually high orders.

The positive effect on September results gave 8% growth in Russia, 74% increase in Germany, 290% growth in Poland and a very substantial increase of 807% in sales in Tajikistan.

The non-consolidated results of the nine months show that JSC Olainfarm sold production for more than 67 million euros, which is a slight 1% decrease in comparison to the previous year. All major Olainfarm outlets, with the exception of Russia and Kazakhstan where sales decreased by 12% and 13% respectively, worked with a plus sign in the reference period. In 9 months, sales of Olainfarm in Tajikistan grew by 69%, in Lithuania by 35%, in Belarus by 20%, and by 18% in Latvia.

September 2018, non- consolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Share in total sales Changes to September 2017 Russia 3 523 51% 8% Latvia 1 360 20% 2% Belarus 502 7% -25% Ukraine 341 5% -67% Germany 224 3% 74% Tajikistan 126 2% 807% Poland 113 2% 290% Kirgizstan 103 1% 22% Lithuania 92 1% -32% Other 551 8% -37% Total 6 935 100% -8%





9 months of 2018, non-consolidated sales Sales, thsnd. EUR Share in total sales Changes to 9 months 2017 Russia 22 808 34% -12% Latvia 12 460 18% 18% Belarus 9 092 13% 20% Ukraine 8 034 12% 11% Uzbekistan 1 615 2% 16% Kazakhstan 1 539 2% -13% Germany 1 429 2% 11% Lithuania 1 255 2% 35% Tajikistan 1 052 2% 69% Poland 826 1% 4% Other 7 515 11% -27% Total 67 624 100% -1%

Performance of daughter companies in September and 9 months of 2018

Sales of pharmacies of SIA Latvijas Aptieka in September 2018 reached 1,95 million euros and remained at the level of the previous year. Seventy pharmacies were operating during September. Sales of Silvanols in September reached 0.58 million euros, remaining at the level of the last year. Combined sales of Tonus Elast and its Russian sales arm Elast Medical were 0.84 million euros. Combined sales of health care companies Diamed and Olainmed in May reached 0.20 million euros. Sales of NPK Biotest in September 2018 also reached 0.20 million euros.

Sales of pharmacies of SIA Latvijas aptieka in 9 months of 2018 reached 17.3 million euros, which represents an increase by 10% compared to the same period of 2017. Sales of SIA Silvanols in nine months were 4.1 million euros and demonstrated 5% increase in comparison to the same period of the last year. Sales of SIA Tonus Elast in nine months period reached 7.01 million euros. Combined nine- month sales of health care companies Diamed and Olainmed reached 1,9 million euros, but sales of NPK Biotest - 1.7 million euros.

September 2018 9 months 2018 Sales markets of Olainfarm 24 44 Sales markets of the Group 29 50 Number of pharmacies of Latvijas Aptieka 70 Sales of Latvijas Aptieka  1,951,085.85  17,260,306.65 Sales of Olainmed and Diamed  203,741.00  1,893,281.00 Sales of NPK Biotest  196,723.00  1,696,467.47 Sales of Tonus Elast and Elast Medical  841,726.44  7,089,444.86 Sales of Silvanols  584,890.00  4,114,214.64

According to the estimates of JSC Olainfarm, the unconsolidated turnover of the company in 2018 could reach 96 million euros, while the consolidated turnover - 130 million euros. According to the preliminary turnover figures published here, in the 9 months of 2018, 71% of the total unconsolidated turnover planned for 2018 and 68% of the planned annual consolidated turnover has been achieved.

JSC Olainfarm is one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Latvia with 45 years of experience in production of medication and chemical and pharmaceutical products. A basic principle of company's operations is to produce reliable and effective top -quality products for Latvia and the rest of the world. Products made by the Group are being exported to more than 60 countries of the world, including the Baltics, Russia, other CIS, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.English Lithuanian

On the initiative and decision of the Management company of INVL Baltic Real Estate the General Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting of INVL Baltic Real Estate (identification code 152105644, the registered address Gyneju str. 14 Vilnius, Lithuania) is to be held on 9 November 2018 at 9:00 a.m. in the premises located in Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius).

Registration of the shareholders will start at 8:30 a.m.

The total amount of the shares of the Company and the amount of shares granting voting rights during the Extraordinary General Shareholders Meeting is the same and amounts to 13,150,000. ISIN code of the shares of the Company is LT0000127151.

Persons who are shareholders of the Company at the end of the General Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting accounting day, i.e. 2 November 2018, will have a right to participate and vote at the General Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting personally or by proxy, or to be represented by the person with whom an agreement on the transfer of voting rights is concluded.





The agenda of the General Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting of INVL Baltic Real Estate includes:

Regarding election of auditor to carry out of the audit of the annual financial statements and setting conditions of payment for audit services.





Draft resolutions of the General Extraordinary Shareholders meeting of INVL Baltic Real Estate:

Regarding election of auditor to carry out of the audit of the annual financial statements and setting conditions of payment for audit services.

To conclude an agreement with UAB PricewaterhouseCoopers (code - 111473315) to carry out of the audit of the annual financial statements of the SUTNTIB INVL Baltic Real Estate for 2018 financial year and establish the payment in amount of EUR 11,000 for audit of annual financial statements set and opinion on the annual report (VAT will be calculated and payed additionally in accordance with order established in legal acts).





The documents related to the agenda, draft resolutions on every item of agenda, documents what have to be submitted to the General Shareholders Meeting and other information related to realization of shareholders rights are published on the Companys website www.invlbalticrealestate.lt section For investors, also available in the office of Invalda INVL (Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius) during working hours. Phone for information +370 5 279 0601.

The shareholders are entitled: (i) to propose to supplement the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting submitting draft resolution on every additional item of agenda or, than there is no need to make a decision - explanation of the shareholder (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes). Proposal to supplement the agenda is submitted in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email breinfo@invl.com. The agenda is supplemented if the proposal is received no later than 14 days before the General Shareholders Meeting; (ii) to propose draft resolutions on the issues already included or to be included in the agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting at any time prior to the date of the General Shareholders meeting (in writing, sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email breinfo@invl.com) or in writing during the General Shareholders Meeting (this right is granted to shareholders who hold shares carrying at least 1/20 of all the votes); (iii) to submit questions to the Company related to the issues of agenda of the General Shareholders Meeting in advance but no later than 3 business days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting in writing sending the proposal by registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company or by sending proposal to the Company by email breinfo@invl.com. The company reserves the right to answer to those shareholders of the Company who can be identified and whose questions are not related to the company's confidential information or commercial secrets.

Shareholder participating at the General Shareholders Meeting and having the right to vote, must submit documents confirming personal identity. Each shareholder may authorize either a natural or a legal person to participate and to vote on the shareholder's behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued by a natural person must be certified by a notary. The representative has the same rights as his represented shareholder at the General Shareholders Meeting. The authorized persons must have documents confirming their personal identity and power of attorney approved in the manner specified by law which must be submitted to the Company no later than before the commencement of registration for the General Shareholders Meeting. A power of attorney issued in a foreign state must be translated into Lithuanian and legalised in the manner established by law. The Company does not establish special form of power of attorney.

Shareholder is entitled to issue power of attorney by means of electronic communications for legal or natural persons to participate and to vote on its behalf at the General Shareholders Meeting. No notarisation of such authorization is required.

The power of attorney issued through electronic communication means must be confirmed by the shareholder with a safe electronic signature developed by safe signature equipment and approved by a qualified certificate effective in the Republic of Lithuania. The shareholder shall inform the Company on the power of attorney issued through the means of electronic communication by e-mail breinfo@invl.com not later than on the last business day before the General Shareholders Meeting. The power of attorney and notification must be issued in writing and could be sent to the Company by electronic communication means, if the transmitted information is secured and the shareholder's identity can be identified.

The Company is not providing the possibility to attend and vote at the General Shareholders Meeting through electronic means of communication.

Shareholder or its representative may vote in writing by filling general voting bulletin, in such a case the requirement to deliver a personal identity document does not apply. The form of general voting bulletin is presented at the Company's webpage www.invlbalticrealestate.com section For Investors. If shareholder requests, the Company shall send the general voting bulletin to the requesting shareholder by registered mail or shall deliver it in person against signature no later than 10 days prior to the General Shareholders Meeting free of charge. The filled general voting bulletin must be signed by the shareholder or its authorized representative. Document confirming the right to vote must be added to the general voting bulletin if an authorized person is voting. The filled general voting bulletin must be sent by the registered mail to the Company at Gyneju str. 14, Vilnius, Lithuania, or delivered in person to the representative of the Company no later than the day before of the General Shareholders Meeting.





The person authorized to provide additional information:

Real Estate Fund Manager of Management Company

Vytautas Baksinskas

E-mail vytautas.baksinskas@invl.com

AttachmentATLANTA, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WestRock Company (NYSE: WRK), a leading provider of differentiated paper and packaging solutions, today provided updated information on the impact of Hurricane Michael on its containerboard and pulp mill located in Panama City, Florida.



The Panama City area has been substantially impacted by Hurricane Michael, and the priority remains the safety and health of our employees and their families. We are pleased to report that all of Panama City mills employees have been accounted for and are safe. The Company is working to support our team and the community as recovery continues.

As previously reported, the Companys mill in Panama City received extensive damage from Hurricane Michael. Due to the extraordinary efforts of employees, contractors, vendors, our insurance carrier and government officials, the Company has already made substantial progress in assessing the damage and implementing required repairs to return the mill to operation.

The Company expects that the linerboard production system will return to full production capacity within 30 days. Market pulp production is expected to begin by the end of November, but will likely be limited to no more than 50% of the mills market pulp production capacity for an estimated period of approximately six months. The mill has normal annual production capacity of 353,000 tons of linerboard and 292,000 tons of market pulp.

The total cost to the Company from Hurricane Michael is currently unknown. While the Company maintains property damage and business interruption insurance coverage, there will be a time lag between the initial incurrence of costs and the receipt of insurance proceeds as the Company restores the mill back to normal operations.

The Company will provide an additional update on the status of the mill on its November 5, 2018, earnings conference call.

About WestRock

WestRock (NYSE: WRK) partners with our customers to provide differentiated paper and packaging solutions that help them win in the marketplace. WestRocks 45,000 team members support customers around the world from more than 300 operating and business locations spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Learn more at www.westrock.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on managements current views and assumptions and are typically identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "could," "should," "would," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," "target," "prospects," "potential" and "forecast," and other words, terms and phrases of similar meaning. Forward-looking statements include statements such as that (a) we expect the linerboard production system will return to full production capacity within 30 days and (b) market pulp production is expected to begin by the end of November, but will likely be limited to no more than 50% of market pulp production capacity for approximately six months. Factors that may affect these forward-looking statements include any additional damage we discover at the mill and actions taken by our suppliers, and ultimate recovery of our damage claims from our insurance carrier, among other factors. General risk factors include, but are not limited to, economic, competitive and market conditions generally, volumes and price levels of purchases by customers; and competitive conditions in WestRocks businesses and possible adverse actions of their customers, competitors and suppliers. Please refer to the cautionary statements set forth in Item 1A of WestRocks Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2017 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended December 31, 2017, March 31, 2018 and June 30, 2018. WestRock undertakes no duty to update forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashanti Gold Corp. (Ashanti or the Company) - (TSXV: AGZ) is pleased to announce Anastasia Levashova is joining the Board of Directors. Ms. Levashova is current a Portfolio Manager at Blackfriars Asset Management, a London, UK based fund management boutique specializing in equities investment within global emerging and frontier markets. Ms. Levashova has over 20 years experience in emerging markets working in New York, London and Moscow at such institutions as Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas.



Ms. Levashova holds a PhD from Moscow Lomonosov State University in International Relations and an MA in International Finance from Columbia University.

Tim McCutcheon, Ashantis CEO, said: We are very excited to have Anastasia join our board. She has deep experience in emerging markets and has long-standing relationships with financial institutions, private investors and other capital market participants. She is a great addition to the Ashanti team.

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company that targets projects where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how. The Company is driving forward its 100%-owned Kossanto East project in Mali on the prolific Kenieba Belt of Mali, which hosts such deposits as Loulo, Fekola and Sadiola. Ashanti is also working to advance, together with its earn-in partners, the Anumso project and the Ashanti Belt project in Ghana, which are near-adjacent to the Akyem deposit.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

ASHANTI GOLD CORP.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon

CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashanti Gold Corp.

2300  1177 West Hastings Street

Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3

Phone: 604-638-3847

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information



NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. 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 typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.Corning's filters for automotive exhaust help new Changan models meet China 6 emissions standards

CORNING, N.Y.; OCTOBER 18, 2018 - Changan Automobile, one of the largest Chinese automakers, has chosen Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) as its supplier of gasoline particulate filters (GPF). Corning DuraTrap GC gasoline particulate filters will be integrated into the emissions control systems of Changan's next generation of vehicles to help reduce fine particulate emissions, enabling the automaker to meet the upcoming China 6 light-duty vehicle emissions standards. This supply relationship is based on a strong long-term partnership between the two companies.

Starting in 2015, Corning and Changan began joint research and development activities around GPF technology, establishing a project team and running experiments to fully prepare for the China 6 standards. The technology solutions they developed, including the integration of DuraTrap GC filters into the emissions control system of Changan's powertrain designs, are based on this research and will be available starting on Changan's first China 6 engine platform, H15T. This platform has consistently succeeded in meeting tighter China 6 gaseous and fine particulate emissions limits. Vehicles on this engine platform, equipped with DuraTrap GC filters, will begin production at the end of 2018.

"We are very pleased to announce this next phase of cooperation between Changan and Corning, which is the product of years of effective collaboration and builds on Corning's decades-long experience working with major automakers in China and other international markets on emissions control solutions," said Annie Wang, commercial director, Corning Environmental Technologies, China. "Corning is proud to be able to contribute meaningfully to China's clean-air initiatives, and foresees the market for DuraTrap GC filters in China growing as more vehicles leverage this technology to help reduce particulate emissions."

DuraTrap GC filters are designed and optimized to help automakers effectively reduce fine particulate emissions, such as PM 2.5, from gasoline engines. These filters feature a new, cordierite-based material composition with an innovative engineered ceramic microstructure that delivers high filtration efficiency of fine particulates, while maintaining engine performance with low back pressure. A range of wash coat loading needs are also supported for additional catalytic activity to help address tighter gaseous emissions standards as well.

Corning and Changan have been collaborating on emissions control solutions for the China market prior to the introduction of GPF technology. As Changan's light-duty substrate supplier for catalytic converters, Corning has been providing a pipeline of emissions control products and automotive engineering services to support Changan's vehicle design and development. Once emissions regulations are fully adopted in China and Europe, Corning expects its gasoline particulate filter business to add an estimated $500 million in annual sales. Moving forward, Changan is looking to further advance its market position in China by continuing to develop and deploy new technologies that help advance vehicle design and performance.

Corning is a leading supplier of advanced cellular ceramic substrates and ceramic particulate filters for the world's major manufacturers of gasoline and diesel vehicles. The company invented an economical, high-performance, cellular ceramic substrate in the early 1970s that is now the standard for catalytic converters worldwide. In 1978, Corning developed the cellular ceramic particulate filter to remove soot from diesel emissions. Corning continues to leverage its expertise in material science and manufacturing to develop market-leading emissions control solutions that help our customers meet new emissions standards and enable cleaner air worldwide.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995), which are based on current expectations and assumptions about Corning's financial results and business operations, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include: the effects of acquisitions, dispositions and other similar transactions by the Company, the effect of global business, financial, economic and political conditions; tariffs and import duties; currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and other currencies, primarily the Japanese yen, New Taiwan dollar, euro, Chinese yuan, and South Korean won; product demand and industry capacity; competitive products and pricing; availability and costs of critical components and materials; new product development and commercialization; order activity and demand from major customers; the amount and timing of our cash flows and earnings and other conditions, which may affect our ability to pay our quarterly dividend at the planned level or to repurchase shares at planned levels; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity, cyber-attack, armed conflict, political or financial instability, natural disasters, or major health concerns; unanticipated disruption to equipment, facilities, IT systems or operations; effect of regulatory and legal developments; ability to pace capital spending to anticipated levels of customer demand; rate of technology change; ability to enforce patents and protect intellectual property and trade secrets; adverse litigation; product and components performance issues; retention of key personnel; customer ability, most notably in the Display Technologies segment, to maintain profitable operations and obtain financing to fund their ongoing operations and manufacturing expansions and pay their receivables when due; loss of significant customers; changes in tax laws and regulations including the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017; and the potential impact of legislation, government regulations, and other government action and investigations.

For a complete listing of risks and other factors, please reference the risk factors and forward-looking statements described in our annual reports on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events.

Web Disclosure

In accordance with guidance provided by the SEC regarding the use of company websites and social media channels to disclose material information, Corning Incorporated ("Corning") wishes to notify investors, media, and other interested parties that it uses its website (http://www.corning.com/worldwide/en/about-us/news-events.html) to publish important information about the company, including information that may be deemed material to investors, or supplemental to information contained in this or other press releases. The list of websites and social media channels that the company uses may be updated on Corning's media and website from time to time. Corning encourages investors, media, and other interested parties to review the information Corning may publish through its website and social media channels as described above, in addition to the company's SEC filings, press releases, conference calls, and webcasts.

About Corning Incorporated

Corning (www.corning.com) is one of the world's leading innovators in materials science, with a more than 165-year track record of life-changing inventions. Corning applies its unparalleled expertise in glass science, ceramic science, and optical physics along with its deep manufacturing and engineering capabilities to develop category-defining products that transform industries and enhance people's lives. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in RD&E, a unique combination of material and process innovation, and deep, trust-based relationships with customers who are global leaders in their industries.





Corning's capabilities are versatile and synergistic, which allows the company to evolve to meet changing market needs, while also helping our customers capture new opportunities in dynamic industries. Today, Corning's markets include optical communications, mobile consumer electronics, display technology, automotive, and life sciences vessels. Corning's industry-leading products include damage-resistant cover glass for mobile devices; precision glass for advanced displays; optical fiber, wireless technologies, and connectivity solutions for state-of-the-art communications networks; trusted products to accelerate drug discovery and delivery; and clean-air technologies for cars and trucks.

Media Relations Contact:

United States:

M. Elizabeth Dann

(607) 974-4989

dannme@corning.com



Kathleen M. Young

(607) 974-4584

youngkm@corning.com

Europe (Germany):

Andrea Bienko-Osann

49-611-7366-142

bienkoa@corning.com

China:

Cara Xie

86-21-2215-2888

XieZ3@corning.com

Investor Relations Contact:

Ann H.S. Nicholson

(607) 974-6716

nicholsoas@corning.comCheyenne, WY, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NEWMEDIAWIRE -- (OTC: MJTV) MJ Biotech, Inc. (f/k/a Michael James Enterprises, Inc.) announces that MJ Biotech, Inc. has executed a Letter Of Intent to purchase a producing Marijuana Farm facility located in Oregon situated approximately 30 miles north of Portland. Once acquired, the plan will be to increase the current production levels of Organic Medical Marijuana products for distribution in Oregon and eventually produce a high-quality CBD.



MJ Biotech will soon begin production of CBD Coffee Powdered Creamers. MJ Biotech is also in development of a LIQUID form of CBD Coffee Creamers, which is unique product within the market place.

These products can be seen at the corporate website www.mjbiotech.us and also at its subsidiaries website www.mjsyndicated.com. These new products are being sold through clinics in Florida and online at https://mjbiotech.myshopify.com.

About Us

With a mission and commitment to promote health and wellness, MJ BIOTECH, INC., is diligently seeking new Commercial opportunities and relationships. These exciting new avenues range from the Medical Cannabis sector to healthy lifestyle products.

It is the MJ BIOTECH, INC., goal to not only promote and provide products for the public good, but to always remember our prime directive is that of enhancing Shareholder value.

We believe we can achieve both of these objectives by promoting positive lifestyle choices in the Commercial relationships that we create, foster and support.

Safe Harbor Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "will," "expects," and other terms with similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether because of new information, future events or any other reason.

For additional information please contact via email at info@mjbiotech.usWASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Argentina used to be one the worlds wealthiest nations. Yet decades of economic mismanagement and a ballooning state have tanked its economy. Libertad y Progresos massive education campaign showed how absurdly bloated the size of the state was, and prompted many important changes, even in its present economic crisis.

We believe that the recent restructure of the Federal cabinet, merging 21 ministries into 10, confirms that we are finally having some real impact in policy making in Argentina, said Agustin Etchebarne, director general of LyP. With three years of delay the government is implementing part of our agenda to decrease government expenditures, pressured by the economic crisis. This proves that a small team of professionals using social media, videos, and participating in talk shows and media appearances with clear ideas and perseverance, can influence the direction of government policies and public opinion. We are very proud of being a small part of the Atlas Network of think tanks that are contributing to alleviating poverty through improving self-reliance, bringing freedom and prosperity in our countries.

LyP set out to show the real nature of government with Downsizing of Argentinas Government, a comprehensive education, awareness, and advocacy campaign that addressed issues of nepotism, government waste, and public political apathy. LyPs research, media presence, and social activism resulted in the Macri administrations adoption of a series of reforms, including tax and debt reduction, transportation modernization, and regulatory relief, to reduce the size of the state. While Argentina faces ongoing challenges, borne from years of economic mismanagement, LyP's important work is popularizing the understanding that lasting prosperity requires self-reliance, not government intervention.

Government leaders rarely have the will to downsize what they control, said Brad Lips, CEO of Atlas Network. It takes an independent, non-partisan think tank like Libertad y Progreso to hold feet to the fire, no matter who is in power, and show how to implement reforms so government will serve the public, rather than be a burden to it.

What: Libertad y Progreso named one of six finalists for Atlas Network's prestigious $100,000 Templeton Freedom Award for work on downsizing of Argentinas government

When: Nov. 8, 2018, 7:30 p.m.

Where: Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner closing ceremony  Intrepid Museum Manhattan Pier 86, West 46th St & 12th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Press Contact: Daniel.Anthony@AtlasNetwork.org or 202-449-8449

Awarded since 2004, the Templeton Freedom Award is named for the late investor and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. The award annually honors his legacy by identifying and recognizing the most exceptional and innovative contributions to the understanding of free enterprise, and the public policies that encourage prosperity, innovation, and human fulfillment via free competition. The award is generously supported by Templeton Religion Trust and will be presented during Atlas Network's Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner gala dinner ceremony Nov. 8, 2018 in New York City. The winning organization will receive a $100,000 prize and the runners-up will each receive $25,000.

The 2018 Templeton Freedom Award finalists are:

The Buckeye Institute (Columbus, Ohio, United States)  Increasing Safety, Liberty, and Justice: Comprehensive Criminal Justice Reform in Ohio

The Commonwealth Foundation (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States)  A Titanic Shift: Pension Reform in Pennsylvania

The Egyptian Center for Public Policy Studies of Egypt (Cairo, Egypt)  Better Budget for a Better Egypt

Libertad y Progreso (Buenos Aires, Argentina)  Downsizing of Argentinas Government

Lipa Taxpayers Association (Zagreb, Croatia)  Campaign Against the Introduction of the Property Tax in Croatia

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University (Arlington, Virginia, United States)  Unleashing Prosperity by Cutting State Regulations

About Libertad y Progreso

Buenos Aires-based Libertad y Progreso develops and promotes long-term public policies and promotes citizen participation and debate about the role of the state and of the people in society. Its vision is an Argentina transformed into an open society based on respect for individual rights, limited government, private property, free markets, and peace.

About Atlas Network

Washington-based Atlas Network is a nonprofit organization that strengthens the worldwide freedom movement by connecting more than 485 independent partners in over 90 countries that share the vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets.

AttachmentA contentious and expensive fight over the future of a Trump-branded condominium on the Upper West Side ended democratically on Wednesday, with residents voting by a two-thirds majority to "remove the signage" bearing the president's name.

On Thursday, workers began ridding the 46-story tower of the massive gold letters spelling out TRUMP PLACE on the building's east and west-facing facades. The removal will cost an estimated $23,000, according to the building's board, on top of what residents say was over $200,000 in legal fees spent fighting the Trump Organization. Though the tower's legal name will not be affected, the building will now be known as 200 Riverside Boulevard.

The decision comes amid an effort in New York City and elsewhere to remove the president's name from the many buildings it adornsa branding that Trump often licensed to properties that he never owned or managed. Following the 2016 election, neighboring rental buildings at 140, 160, and 180 Riverside Boulevard decided to shed the president's name from their exteriors, in order "to assume a neutral building identity," according to Equity Residential, which owns and operates the rental buildings.

This is the 7th bldg to remove @realDonaldTrump's name since '16. The others: 3 other "Trump Place" bldgs in NYC, plus hotels in Toronto/Panama/SoHo.

Also NYC took his name off a carousel in Central Park, which Trump had unilaterally renamed after himself https://t.co/0ttx9ltCdW https://t.co/CdPgQmf3qH  David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) October 17, 2018

But the condos at 200 Riversideas well as 220 and 240 Riversidecontinue to be managed (though not owned) by the Trump Organization, complicating efforts for those residents to join their neighbors in purging the president's name. At the start of this year, the Trump Organization threatened legal action against the board at 200 Riverside Boulevard if they removed the letters, arguing that such action would "constitute a flagrant and material breach" of a $1 licensing agreement signed in 2000.

Faced with the prospect of an expensive lawsuit, some residents took to internal message boards to oppose the change. I am adamant that the sign should remain on the building," one resident wrote, according to the Times. "We bought in the building with it. There is no reason to take it down."

But in several heated meetings over the last year, the condo's de-Trumpification contingent won out. In addition to not wanting their homes identified with the president for political reasons, some argued that the signage made the building a target for terrorists or protesters, and could potentially hurt the real estate value on their homes.

In May, a State Supreme Court judge sided with the board, finding that the Trump Organization had no basis for its claim that the building should carry the name "in perpetuity." The judge concluded that the decision should be made by the building's condo owners, adding, "the court does not find any of defendant's arguments convincing."

On Wednesday, the results of a formal poll of residents conducted over the last few weeks was released by the board. Nearly 70 percent of residents supported the resolution to remove the signs, with votes tallied from more than 80 percent of unitsa "record turnout" for building elections, according to the email.

"Having clarified our rights in court, we are pleased to have resolved this matter democratically," the email concluded. "Our entire community has engaged in a thorough and respectful deliberative process regarding how to address the signage on our building. We encourage everyone to move forward and respect the will of the community."

UPDATE: The signage has been fully removed, though we're told it's still possible to see "ghost letters" on the building's exterior. A power washer is expected to arrive at some point to remove all traces of the former Trump branding. As for what happens to the letters now? It's not clear, but we're choosing to believe they'll be repurposedanyone need some gold letters for a "Cat Plumper" residence or "Rectal Pump" facility?MONTREAL, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sama Resources Inc. (TSXV: SME) (SME or the Company) today reports that SRG Graphite Inc. (SRG) reported on assay results for 162 new boreholes since announcing mineral resources last June, bringing the total to 557 boreholes over 18,037 metres (m) drilled at its Lola Graphite deposit in Guinea, West Africa. In addition to the planned 2018 exploration program, which is now completed, SRGs management has decided to extend the drill program to take advantage of the cost-beneficial drill rig SRG has on site. The third phase of the drill program is ongoing with 60 additional boreholes over 3,000 m completed so far.



Drill Results Highlights:

Hole LL36-262441: 55.50 m at 8.92% Cg including 48.00 m at 10.07% Cg

Hole LL39-139708: 38.05 m at 8.67% Cg including 23.05 m 13.12% Cg

Hole LL42-112057: 49.10 m at 8.62% Cg including 21.40 m at 17.61% Cg

Hole LL48-177588: 14.85 m at 11.38% Cg including 12.85 m at 12.94% Cg

The current drill-hole results cover approximately 60% of the deposits surface footprint (see Figure 1). To date, only the weathered portion of the deposit has been drilled, representing the first 30 meters from the surface on average. The additional drilling program includes 10 boreholes designed for testing graphitic carbon (Cg) at depths within the non-weathered rock assemblage below the graphite-rich surface saprolite.

These drill results should help further understand the reach and depth of the deposit and, provide additional basis for the mineral resource update to be included in the feasibility study expected for H1 2019.

The following link ( http://srggraphite.com/pdf/20181015_PR_Drill_Results.pdf ) provides a compilation of mineralized intervals for the 557 boreholes drilled and analyzed to date. Mineralized intervals were defined using 1.0% Cg as a cut-off grade (cog). Composite intervals defined using a 3% cog are also presented.

All boreholes were drilled at an inclination of 50 degrees from the horizontal and cross-cut the geological succession as perpendicularly as possible. The graphitic paragneiss displays foliation dipping between 80 and 85 degrees to the west.

Core logging and sampling were performed at the Companys facility in the town of Lola. Sample preparation was performed by Veritas Laboratory in Abidjan, Cote dIvoire. Pulp samples were delivered to Activation Laboratories Ltd., Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. The samples were treated through a multi-stage furnace process to remove organic carbon and carbonate carbon. The remaining graphitic carbon was measured as carbon dioxide in the infrared (IR) cell as gas flowed through the cell. Carbon dioxide absorbs IR energy at a precise wavelength within the IR spectrum. All analyses were performed using Eltra instruments.

The technical information in this release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, PhD Geo., P.Geo, Lead Geologist, SRG, and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

SRG is also pleased to announce that EEM Sustainable Management (EEM), a Canadian-based independent environment consultancy company from Montreal with significant experience in Guinea, has been selected to revise and update the Lola graphite projects environmental and social impact assessment to ensure compliance with local and international standards.

About Sama Resources Inc.

Sama is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company with projects in West Africa. Sama holds a control position in SRG of 24,658,267 shares representing 35.54% of the issued and outstanding shares of SRG and is considered an insider for reporting purposes.



For more information about Sama, please visit Samas website at http://www.samaresources.com .

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

SAMA RESOURCES INC./RESSOURCES SAMA INC.

Dr. Marc-Antoine Audet, President and CEO

Tel: (514) 726-4158

OR

Mr. Matt Johnston, Corporate Development Advisor

Tel: (604) 443-3835

Toll Free: 1 (877) 792-6688, Ext. 5

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain of the statements made and information contained herein are "forward-looking statements" or forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information 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 forward-looking information, including, without limitation, the availability of financing for activities, risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of electrochemical characterization, drill results and the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits, the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, metal price fluctuations, environmental and regulatory requirements, availability of permits, escalating costs of remediation and mitigation, risk of title loss, the effects of accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration or development, the potential for delays in exploration or development activities, the inherent uncertainty of cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, commodity price fluctuations, currency fluctuations, expectations and beliefs of management and other risks and uncertainties.

In addition, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are based on various assumptions. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking information or forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fc439f0a-58e7-42e5-91fd-deb679a68ae6tuanquang269 wrote:

This argument relate to number and statistic. I agree with gmatpill that, if the question is "Weaken", the answer choice will be C.

However, the question is "flaw". Choice A take this job better. Choice A clearly shows that because the lands were hold up because of one policy. So, the construction developers did not buy lands any more. Instead, they'll wait for the expire date of above policy.



Choice C makes a trap that the decrease in percentage will cause the decrease in number.

We are asked to weaken this conclusion; one way to do so would be to find an alternate explanation for the observation that fewer new homes are being built right now.Re: The use of the bar code, or Universal Product Code, which was created [ #permalink

have become readily accepted despite some initial opposition when it was first introduced in 1974.

have become

it was first introduced

has become

they were first introduced

have become

first introduced

has become

the bar code was first introduced

have become

it was first introduced

1. have become vs. has become ( verb tense )

2. it/they/the bar code ( pronoun-antecedent agreement )

Let's start with #1 on our list, which is choosing the right verb tense.

has expanded beyond supermarkets to other retail outlets

have become readily accepted despite some initial opposition when it was first introduced in 1974.

have become

has become

have become

has become

have become

We can eliminate options A, C, and E because they don't uses consistent verb tense/wording for both phrases.

Now that we're only left with 2 options, let's tackle #2 on our list: pronouns!

they

INCORRECT

the bar code

CORRECT

There you have it - option D is the best choice!

Hello Everyone!Let's tackle this question, one issue at a time, to find the correct option! Before we dive in, here is the original question with any major differences highlighted in orange:The use of the bar code, or Universal Product Code, which was created in part to enable supermarkets to process customers at a faster rate, has expanded beyond supermarkets to other retail outlets and(A)readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenin 1974(B)readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenin 1974(C)readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenin 1974(D)readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenin 1974(E) bar codesreadily accepted despite initial opposition whenin 1974After a quick glance over each option, a couple major differences jump out at us:If we look at the original sentence, we see that there are two things that bar codes did for supermarkets:The use of the bar code, or Universal Product Code, which was created in part to enable supermarkets to process customers at a faster rate,andWhenever we're talking about two characteristics, properties, items, etc. they MUST use parallel structure and consistent verb tenses! Since the first part uses "has expanded," we need to use the same wording (has + verb) to match. Let's see how each option stacks up:(A)readily accepted despite some initial opposition when it was first introduced in 1974(B)readily accepted despite some initial opposition when they were first introduced in 1974(C)readily accepted despite some initial opposition when first introduced in 1974(D)readily accepted despite some initial opposition when the bar code was first introduced in 1974(E) bar codesreadily accepted despite initial opposition when it was first introduced in 1974Whenever we're dealing with pronouns, we must make sure the pronouns are clear and refer back to the right antecedent. Let's see how each option handles this:(B) has become readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenwere first introduced in 1974This option isbecause it's not 100% clear what "they" is referring to: bar codes, supermarkets, retail outlets, customers, etc? Since the writer didn't make it absolutely clear, we can rule this one out.(D) has become readily accepted despite some initial opposition whenwas first introduced in 1974This isbecause the writer makes it absolutely clear that bar codes were introduced in 1974, and nothing else! When you have so many nouns that a pronoun could refer back to, sometimes it's best to just repeat the antecedent instead of replacing it with a pronoun. It also uses consistent wording/verb tense throughout.Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it._________________



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.



Heres an ad we havent seen.

Rodney Davis goes low with a top hat.

Hello, Im Rodney Davis. In 2015, I voted for a $1.1 trillion budget bill that exceeded spending limits by $66 billion. Barack Obama called it a Christmas present for the American people. Donald Trump blasted Republicans for cooperating with Democrats, but I took that vote, regardless of political consequences, because it was the right thing to do.

Its impossible to say whether Davis voted for the bill out of conviction or because hes a hack who does what hes told to do by hacks who never dreamed Trump would gain the White House. Were talking about a guy who lost races for Taylorville mayor and the state legislature before lucking out to win a seat in Congress by virtue of a progessive independent getting 7 percent of the vote in a 2012 contest where Davis prevailed by less than one-half of one percent of the vote. And theres now an air of desperation in Davis camp.

With early voting underway, challenger Betsy Dirksen Londrigan on Oct. 8 released a poll showing a statistical dead heat. Two days later, Davis countered with a poll showing he had a 13-point lead. But vice presidents dont waste time stumping for shoo-ins, as Michael Pence did last week at a Panther Creek Country Club fundraiser. Bizarrely, the event began with the song All Right Now, a thinly veiled ode to prostitution:



There she stood in the street

Smiling from head to her feet

I said hey, what is this

Now baby, maybe shes in need of a kiss

I respect your congressman so much Id about be here if he was uncontested, Pence subsequently gushed when he wasnt quoting Abraham Lincoln. I really would.

If you believe that, you surely love the ad Davis released last week that tries chaining his opponent to the fiasco surrounding a stovepipe hat purchased by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, where Londrigan once worked as a fundraiser. The announcer calls Londrigan a lobbyist, which is true enough. She did, after all, register as a foundation lobbyist in 2013. There was wasteful spending that brought the foundation to the brink of bankruptcy. True again, but no public money was involved, and theres no evidence that Londrigan, a hired hand, played any role in the foundations decision to blow money it didnt have on a hat no one can prove ever graced Lincolns head. Then comes the really stinky part.

So Londrigan turned to Mike Madigan, lobbying for a taxpayer-funded bailout, the announcer intones. Betsy Londrigan: a Madigan crony. She cant be trusted with our tax dollars.

Its a trick straight from Gov. Bruce Rauners playbook, and well soon see how well the Madigan-is-evil schtick works. Not being able to show malfeasance, Davis insinuates that Londrigan did something dastardly in doing what she was hired to do, pry loose state money. Davis surely knows that successful lobbyists lean on the most powerful politicians available. Otherwise, they should find other lines of work, which Londrigan has done.

Londrigan called Davis a liar at a Monday debate. Youre saying I have something to do with Abraham Lincolns hat (sic), Londrigan said. Its ridiculous. The hat was purchased years before I worked there, and you know that. I never met with Mike Madigan. Youre lying about that, too.

I dont know whether Madigan and Londrigan are tight, but the speaker hasnt exactly been the foundations friend. Long before other politicians did the political calculus, Madigan treated Londrigans former employer as radioactive. We have instances where the foundation, which is not elected, not appointed by a governor, is actually making spending decisions for the library, the speaker tsk-tskd in 2015. Madigan also refused to cooperate with a foundation-funded study that  surprise  recommended that the state bail out the foundation and put it in charge of day-to-day operations at the presidential museum. Madigan to museum foundation: Drop dead  that was the headline in Illinois Times three years ago. And Davis plasters Madigan with a villainous smile on his face, ghoulish music playing in the background, next to a photo of Londrigan, who, by appearances, wasnt much of a fundraiser or lobbyist.

Meanwhile, Davis is ripping Londrigan for not denouncing an ad created by Women Vote that features footage of the congressmans wife and kids, cribbed from the Republicans own campaign ads. The congressmans smiling kids are juxtaposed against Davis voting record on healthcare issues. Davis whines that his family is being attacked. Leave my kids out of it, Davis complained on Monday. Its not acceptable. Couldnt agree more. Quit using your family like cheap yard signs, congressman, and stick to issues.



Worried politicians are prone to snarling and biting and saying anything  anything  to preserve their own hides. Its second nature in the Beltway, where scoundrels have more lives than cats and less integrity than starving sewer rats. Davis learned from a master, having once been employed by proven liar U.S. Rep. John Term Limits Shimkus, R-Contract With America, whos running for reelection 23 years after vowing that he would serve no more than a dozen years in Congress. And so no one should expect Davis to stop serving up quadruple Whoppers with extra cheese. That doesnt mean that anyone has to eat them.



Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.click to enlarge PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE Jim Hightower

A consortium of national, state and local officials of Republican persuasion have mounted a tawdry campaign over the past decade to slam the ballot box shut on entire segments of Americas electorate.

In a concerted effort, these rabidly partisan officials have targeted African-Americans, students, Latinos, the elderly, union households, the poor, immigrants and other communities of qualified voters to shoo them away on Election Day. Why? Because such citizens tend to vote for Democrats and progressive ballot initiatives. So the GOPs grand strategy is to win, and not by getting the most votes  by aggressively shutting out millions of Americans who might vote against their plutocratic, autocratic, kleptocratic candidates and agenda.

In a depraved, anti-democratic grab for partisan gain, Republican officials have frenetically been planting thick brier patches of ridiculous rules, logistical barriers, intimidation tactics, ballot deceptions and outright voter bans in targeted precincts across the country. These thugs are stealing the peoples most valuable civic property: our votes.



You dont need a Ph.D. in political science to discover a shameful truth about Americas democratic process: Its not all that democratic. In fact, as Chris Rock succinctly put it several years ago, They dont want you to vote.

By they, he means the power elites who benefit by restricting the vote as tightly as possible to people who support candidates and policies that advance their plutocratic rule over Us, the People. We can wring our hands about the rampant voter suppression suffocating the peoples will, or we could join hands to support common-sense measures for voter expansion.

Start with basic ethics. Its an abomination that politicians rig the system to exclude legitimate voters, and those who do so should be publicly shamed and mocked for their pretension that theyre protecting the integrity of the ballot box.

Tear down the barriers. Some 6 million felons whove paid their dues should be restored to full citizenship. Every 18-year-old should automatically be registered to vote. No mass purges of voter rolls. Vote-by-mail. Extended and easy absentee voting. Election Week rather than Election Day. Acceptance of any valid ID. Voting where you live. Restoring the Voting Rights Act. A constitutional amendment ensuring every eligible individuals right to vote. And investing fully in our nations democratic infrastructure with verifiable voting machines, multiple polling places within easy reach of all, an abundance of trained poll workers to eliminate lines and quickly resolved problems.

And heres a crazy idea: Make voting fun! It should be a festive occasion for the whole community. In Australia, for example, most polling places have barbecues. Why not add music, art, games and other enjoyment to make voting a truly civic activity? Americas democratic pageant doesnt have to be a grinding obstacle course, an intimidating experience ... or boring.

Photo by David Blanchette Andy Huston examines ready-to-harvest hemp plants on his Warren County test plot.

Its only been legal since Aug. 26, but there are already farmers throughout the state who want to start growing Illinois latest cash crop.



The Illinois Industrial Hemp Act was signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner this summer. It allows farmers to obtain state licenses to grow hemp for use in a wide range of products, from natural remedies to clothing to insulation. Chad Wallace of rural Ashland is one of the farmers looking to cultivate hemp in 2019.

Photo by David Blanchette Warren County farmer Andy Huston talks about his industrial hemp test plot with Western Illinois University School of Agriculture professor Win Phippen.

Photo by David Blanchette Western Illinois University School of Agriculture professor Win Phippen, left, examines the Warren County hemp test plot with the men who raised the crop, Logan Bird, Andy Huston, and Mateo Gillen.

Photo by David Blanchette Upper Limits Midwest owner Matthieu Fortin displays some of the hemp-based products for sale in his Springfield store.

This is an opportunity with a new industry in agriculture that doesnt come up very often, said Wallace, who farms 120 acres of conventional crops and grows 19 acres worth of farmers market vegetables. I see it as an opportunity that can help a lot of people, from farmers to people with innovative ideas on manufacturing hemp products that will sell.My local elevator has shown an interest and Ive got a couple of farmers that I wouldnt have thought would be interested that are, Wallace said. Those are based on the fact that you can hardly get anything for corn or soybeans now. It gives farmers another crop.The non-hallucinogenic hemp plant looks a lot like marijuana because both are part of the same plant family. When Wallace went to Kentucky recently to talk to farmers about their five-year-old industrial hemp law, he wanted to know if the plants physical similarities had caused problems in that state.The first year they had a lot of trouble. Every kid in the county was coming by and taking some, said Wallace, who plans initially to raise hemp for the fiber. They put up signs saying, This is hemp, and tried to explain the difference, but it didnt matter. So they got through the first year, and the second year nobody took anything.Hemp was first spun into usable fiber about 10,000 years ago and is one of the worlds most versatile plants. Its long, strong outer stem fibers are used to produce thread for all types of clothing, ships sails, rope, sacks, linens and cloth-based home furnishings. The woody inner fibers of the plant are used in a dizzying array of products including building materials, sound insulation, automobile door and ceiling panels, composite plastics, paper and jewelry.Hemp plants are used for animal feed, bird seed and biofuels; hemp seeds are made into a variety of food products for humans, from flour to granola bits; and hemp oil is a key ingredient in many natural remedies, tinctures, lotions and paints.Hemps end use determines what variety of the plant to grow and how to process it. There are hemp varieties that are best for fiber production, others that produce the best seeds for food products and hemp plants that are raised specifically to produce hemp oil.The Illinois Department of Agriculture is required to adopt application and licensing rules within 120 days of the Aug. 26 effective date, which would be late 2018, according to department spokesperson Denise Albert. The proposed rules will be published and the public will then have 45 days to submit comments on them to the department, she added.Rachel Berry of Princeton raises heirloom vegetables and herbs on her 13-acre farm. She was among those who lobbied for passage of the Industrial Hemp Act. Once the rules are in place, Berry plans to start with a five-acre plot of hemp to produce fiber and seeds.At first I think the market will be a little bit shaky but it will take off in no time, Berry said. The surrounding states have been working at this for years, especially Kentucky. They started off with four or five acres and now theyve got thousands. So I dont expect that this is something that will flop in this state.Illinois was one of the top producers of hemp in the country around World War II, Berry said. I think there will be a little bit of time for people to reacquaint themselves with this plant and feel it is something they can grow without a whole lot of drama attached to it.The drama about hemp started when it was banned nationwide under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 for its close relation to the marijuana plant. The Drug Enforcement Administration still classifies hemp as a Schedule 1 drug and prohibits its growth, but Illinois and other states have gotten around the federal ban by legalizing production of industrial hemp for commercial purposes.Berry and other advocates are awaiting passage of the new federal farm bill that currently includes the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 which would remove many of those federal barriers to hemp production and encourage continued growth in the industry.Hemp will be another tool in the farming toolbelt for Ryan Butzow, who raises 920 acres of certified organic crops near Onarga in Iroquois County. Butzow plans to devote 40 acres of land to grow grain hemp to produce flour in 2019.Demand is growing for it domestically and I think Illinois farmers are poised to be able to meet that demand, Butzow said. We are blessed with incredible soil here, and if they can do it in Kentucky we can certainly do it here.It fits well into my rotation. It competes well with weeds, it doesnt require a tremendous amount of fertility like corn does, its adaptable to all sorts of different soil types, and the end uses are somewhat limitless, Butzow said. The industry has figured out how to use corn in a myriad of different ways, and thats the way hemp was before corn became king.Butzow also mentioned that his father has Parkinsons Disease and uses a hemp-based oil to alleviate some of the symptoms, so the new crop has a special significance for him.Many prospective Illinois hemp farmers have visited Kentucky over the last few years to see how their counterparts to the south have fared. Kentuckys hemp law was signed in 2013 and the state had 6,700 acres of hemp under cultivation this season, according to Kentucky Department of Agriculture spokesman Sean Southard.Kentucky farmers have embraced the opportunities and challenges presented by this diverse crop, Southard said. Our goal is to make Kentucky the epicenter of industrial hemp production and processing. According to an analysis in spring of 2018, there was $16.7 million of industrial hemp products sold in Kentucky and our farmers were paid $7.5 million for their hemp.Southard said there are also 72 licensed hemp processing facilities in Kentucky that produce either oil, fiber, seed or grain, depending on the type of hemp that is grown. The state welcomes farmers from other parts of the country and hosted a Hemp Information Session and Expo on Oct. 11 to showcase Kentuckys newest crop.But it hasnt happened without a few hiccups. Southard said the process has been a learning experience.The Kentucky Department of Agriculture runs a program that balances the need for flexibility on the part of our license holders and the safeguards required by law enforcement, Southard said. The law has changed over time to accommodate the needs of our license holders and law enforcement. When issues emerge, the department assists local law enforcement in their investigatory role.Theres no question about it, hemp looks very much like marijuana. Both are the same plant species, cannabis sativa. To be legal, hemp plants need to be bred with tetrahydrocannibinol, or THC content less than 0.03 percent. Any THC level above that puts the plant into marijuana territory.Two hemp research plots were allowed in Illinois in 2018 under the states existing hemp research law. One plot in Mason County had been harvested by mid-September. But one in Warren County was still growing well, waving in the breeze, and looking every bit like what it was  a field of cannabis.The roughly one-third of an acre plot near Roseville consisted of approximately 1,200 plants ranging from three to six feet tall. The plot emitted a pungent, musty scent and the leaves and buds were covered in a sticky oil.Dont let that stuff get on your clothes, or your car will smell for days, said Win Phippen, professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the Western Illinois University School of Agriculture. Phippen had worked with a local farmer to raise the experimental crop this year.The Warren County crop was oily because it was being produced specifically for its cannabinoids, or CBD oils, that are used in natural remedies, tinctures and lotions. Phippen said its important that farmers decide which type of hemp to grow because the process for each is different.It requires a tremendous amount of care and is much more time-consuming than corn or soybeans, Phippen said. With fiber production you try to maximize the amount of stems so its going to be much tighter row spacing, about 30-inch rows and just a couple of inches between the plants in the rows, so very much like corn production.If Im going for CBD oils I want to maximize the vegetative growth, so I want lots of branches and leaves to maximize leaf surface area, Phippen said. So you might go to row spacings of almost four to five feet wide with three to five feet between plants within the row. So it ends up being more orchard management than corn management.Phippen also wanted to dispel the notion that ditchweed, as hemp is commonly known, is easy to grow and hardy because it can be found growing wild alongside the road.It needs some nitrogen so thats why it performs well on fence rows, Phippen said. You will typically see it on the edges or borders of most production fields because of nitrogen runoff or something like that. It needs nitrogen to really perform well.To date, 34 states have industrial hemp laws that allow its production, according to Vote Hemp.Illinois is a relative latecomer to the industrial hemp game, and a 2017 effort to pass the bill fell just short in the Illinois General Assembly. Concerns from previous bills were addressed and the Industrial Hemp Act passed the Illinois House of Representatives this year on a 106-3 vote. The Illinois Senate passed it unanimously.Now all eyes are on the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the rules, regulations and fees they will put in place by the end of December for the first hemp crop that will be planted in spring 2019.The Illinois Stewardship Alliance worked with the Illinois Farmers Union for several years to get the Industrial Hemp Act passed. The Alliance expects the Department of Agricultures rules will include licensing of hemp growers and close monitoring of the crop, but they hope the rules will encourage, rather than discourage, prospective hemp growers and producers.We really hope the department will pick the best of what Kentucky and Colorado have been doing and fold those into our law here, said Molly Gleason of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance. We hope that the rules support farmers, local processing and farmer cooperatives.This really falls into line with supporting farmers, economic development and conservation, Gleason said. Its good for farmers of all sizes, it bridges that gap between the large grain producers and the small specialty crop producers.Kalee Hooghkirk is the president of the newly formed Hemp Industry Association and the co-founder of clinical and medicinal hemp businesses based in West Dundee, Illinois.We hope to see that the rules support small farmers, to make sure there is open access no matter the size of the farm, Hooghkirk said. We hope to see low minimum acreage and diversity in the seed supply.We know that the state of Illinois is a hub for processing, whether its for food or cosmetic manufacturing, Hooghkirk said. I hope to see Illinois become a leader in the manufacturing and processing portion of industrial hemp, not just the growing.And it couldnt come too soon, Hooghkirk said, because for years hemp-based products could be sold in Illinois but the raw material couldnt be grown here. This disparity was the result of a well-entrenched belief that hemp, the kissing cousin of marijuana, was fine as long as it was in clothing or oils, but not if it was growing in a field where any teenager could pick and smoke it.Our thing, no matter what, is locally grown, locally sourced. So for us to not have those options in our business was really heartbreaking, Hooghkiork said. Were really excited to have a local source so we can consult with these artisans to create hemp-based products within the state of Illinois.Industrial hemp states are taking advantage of a market that is expected to surpass $2 billion by 2020 according to the National Hemp Association, which notes that the U.S. imports an estimated $300 million in hemp products and materials each year.Shoppers have been able to buy hemp-based products for years in Illinois, although the hemp from which they were made usually came from other states, Canada or overseas.Walk into Upper Limits Midwest in Springfield at Second Street and South Grand Avenue and youll get an idea of what can be made from CBD oil: Soaps, tinctures, dog treats, vapable oils, natural honey mixed with CBD, concentrates, balms, skin products, gummies and water soluble drops, to name a few.When CBD first came out I was a little skeptical, then I really did my research and I saw how it was helping people, said Upper Limits owner Matthieu Fortin. Ive heard stories from customers about how its changed their lives because it has helped them so much. It has made me a believer. The science is behind it, its really a great product.I see the most success with our customers with inflammation because hemp has anti-inflammatory properties. If you have poison ivy or poison oak, or any irritation or rashes, its like the miracle cream for that, Fortin said. Anything that helps somebody and is a natural product is a great thing, especially with all of the medications that are being pushed down everybodys throats.Hemp-based products dont come cheap. Online companies advertise eyedropper-type bottles of CBD oil for between $25 and $450, based on the concentration each bottle contains. The small bottles at Upper Limits are toward the lower end of that price scale, but its still an investment.Items made from hemp fiber are even more diverse. The fiber has been used in car and wall insulation, in plastics, and even in a product called hempcrete, a form of concrete. Of course, rope is the product most commonly associated with hemp fiber.But you might not associate shirts, shoes, hats or pants with hemp fiber.Hemp fiber is stronger than cotton and will outlast cotton fabric. The more you wear it, the better it fits, said Salvador Jasso, the owner of Don Salvador Hemp Clothing Line in Chicago. Its also known to be UV-resistant and antimicrobial if the cloth is 100 percent hemp.Jasso got the idea for hemp clothing from a college friend and now he buys the hemp fabric, designs the clothing, and has a seamstress create it for him.In the past Ive gotten the hemp from Italy, China and France, Jasso said. Ive recently contacted a few Illinois farmers and we are already talking about finding a certified seed to plant maybe half an acre and see how it turns out.Jasso said you can make just about any textile item from hemp fiber. He doesnt mass produce his clothing but wont rule out expanding the operation if it is merited by supply and demand. Jasso added that hemp clothing production has one additional benefit.Its going to have the ability to give more people in our community jobs, like Im doing now, Jasso said.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iStock/Thinkstock(VATICAN CITY) -- During a visit with Pope Francis at the Vatican, South Korean President Moon Jae-in shared a message from Kim Jong Un: Please come to North Korea.



Moon and the pope met behind closed doors in the Apostolic Palace, with South Korean priest Han Hyun-taek serving as an interpreter, shortly after noon local time.



After their meeting on Thursday, the office of the South Korean president said in a statement that a formal invitation to Pyongyang from Kim would follow the more informal message delivered by Moon.



"If the invitation comes, I will surely respond to it, and I can possibly go," the pope responded, according to the South Koreans.



Moon's seeking a papal endorsement of the continued efforts to achieve peace on the peninsula. The South Korean president also met with the Vaticans chief diplomat, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to whom Moon reiterated his desire for a peaceful resolution.



Parolin on Wednesday celebrated with a "Mass for Peace" at St. Peters Basilica where the leaders prayed for the "gift of peace after years of tension and divisions," South Korean media reported.



Moon spoke at the end of the service, saying the prayers offered at the mass would be welcomed.



The South Korean president has helped spearhead an accelerated effort to normalize relations between the two Koreas, meeting with Kim three times this year, including at a summit in Pyongyang.



Kim told Moon during their most recent meeting that he wished for the pope to visit North Korea, according to the Blue House, South Korea's presidential office and residence.



The Vatican previously has said a papal trip to North Korea may first require the nation to incorporate changes such as allowing for freedom of religion.



The pope has visited South Korea, but no pontiff has ever been to North Korea, which has very few practicing Christians. Pope Francis also is planning to visit Japan early next year.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.The battle for the Senate is being fought on Republican-friendly turf, and with three weeks until Election Day the GOP is increasingly optimistic that the chamber will remain in the party's grasp.

Fears that a fiery Democratic opposition could turn the map upside down have abated some, now that the GOP base is more tuned in following the confirmation fight over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

But the charged political dynamics of 2018 leave open the potential for drama when results come in on Nov. 6, particularly in 10 close races that will determine whether Republican Mitch McConnell or Democrat Chuck Schumer will be running the Senate next year.

More Indiana election coverage at indianapublicmedia.org/election

After last year's upset in the Alabama special election, Republicans have a slim 51-49 edge in the Senate. Given that and other factors, Democrats have an outside chance to win back control of the Senate if they end up with a net gain of two seats  something that is unlikely but not completely outside the realm of possibility.

Republicans have their most favorable battleground in a generation as Democrats are playing almost entirely defense, with 10 incumbents up for re-election in states that President Trump won in 2016.

Some in the GOP were salivating at a five- or even six-seat gain at the outset of the cycle. But even the hugely favorable map hasn't been entirely immune to political gravity. Sensing a poor climate this year with Democrats energized against President Trump, several top GOP recruits passed on running, leaving Republicans with second- or third-tier candidates in many targeted races. Overall, only around half of those 10 Democratic seats are now considered truly competitive.

Republican leaders have thanked Democratic activists for their intense protest tactics over Kavanaugh's confirmation. Polling and campaign donations suggested that it awoke a dormant GOP base. The question is whether they can sustain that energy for the next month, but even a slightly more invested Republican electorate would ease concerns about the party's grip on Senate control.

Here's how the races stand with less than a month until Election Day, including battleground states North Dakota, Nevada, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Montana, West Virginia, Texas  and four states that have dropped off the GOP target list: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Most likely to flip

Photos: Courtesy of Heidi Heitkamp and Kevin Cramer campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR

North Dakota

Both Republicans and Democrats pinpoint Sen. Heidi Heitkamp as the most likely to lose on Election Day. As a Democrat in a state that Trump carried by 36 points, Heitkamp may have sealed her fate with her vote against Kavanaugh. She filmed a video explaining her vote, pointing out that she voted for Trump's first Supreme Court pick, Justice Neil Gorsuch, but it may not matter. The state's at-large GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer hasn't run a stellar campaign to unseat her  especially with some questionable comments about Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford and the #MeToo movement. Such remarks have derailed campaigns before, but in the polarized climate of 2018 it may not matter in such a GOP-heavy state.

True toss-ups

Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR

Nevada

Sen. Dean Heller is the only Republican running for re-election this year in a state that Hillary Clinton carried, so he was always going to be highly vulnerable. At first, he looked like he could lose a primary after antagonizing Trump in the 2016 election. But the two mended their relationship, and the White House even persuaded Heller's chief primary challenger to run for the House instead. However, Heller has had to move to the right and cozy up to Trump in return, which could hurt him in the general election against freshman Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen.

Republicans feel better about Heller's chances than they did earlier this year, and Rosen will need strong Hispanic turnout and union support from former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's vaunted political machine to win. An NBC News/Marist poll last week showed Heller with a 2-point lead but noted that the undecideds leaned Democratic and were anti-Trump, so Heller may have hit his ceiling. Voters don't seem overly enthused by Rosen, but the lean of the state could win out in this environment.

Missouri

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri lucked out in 2012, after her opponent made controversial comments about rape and abortion that derailed his campaign. Her 2018 opponent, state Attorney General Josh Hawley, has avoided any major gaffes, though Republicans early on were grumbling about the state of his campaign and fears that he would be closely linked to the disgraced former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned over a massive sex scandal in June.

Polls show this race is a dead heat. McCaskill voted against Kavanaugh, giving Hawley a fresh opening in the final weeks. It's also a state that has become a lesser battleground at the presidential level, where Democrats haven't won since 1996, and with Republicans also taking back the governorship when Greitens won in 2016.

Arizona

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake was sure to lose his GOP primary after refusing to fall in line with Trump, so he chose retirement instead. Luckily for Republicans, they still got their preferred nominee in Rep. Martha McSally, a retired Air Force colonel who was the first woman in U.S. history to fly a fighter jet in combat and command a fighter squadron. She still had to survive a bitter  and late  primary that forced her to the right to win, particularly on immigration issues. Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, who would make history as the first openly bisexual senator if elected, had a clear path. Sinema has positioned herself as a centrist Democrat, but McSally and Republicans have tried to chip away at her more liberal past when she was a state legislator, including her anti-war activism and calling herself a "Prada socialist."

This will be a close fight until the end. Arizona has been changing demographically. Trump carried the state by only 3 points in 2016, but he still dashed growing Democratic hopes of winning statewide, with the governorship and both Senate seats won by the GOP consistently for a decade.

Indiana

Trump may have branded Indiana Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly as "Sleepy Joe," but the fact that he has been able to hang on in a state Trump won by nearly 20 points speaks to his political skills, which Republicans privately admit they underestimated. Also, GOP strategists have grumbled that their nominee, Mike Braun, a wealthy businessman who defeated two congressmen to win the nomination, took his foot off the gas pedal after the primary and has been underwhelming. The result is a closer-than-expected contest where Donnelly just might hang on, despite his "no" vote against Kavanaugh.

Florida

While other Democratic incumbents were long preparing for their tough re-election challenges, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was seen as the most sluggish. Strategists say they're now happy with the state of his campaign, but wealthy GOP Gov. Rick Scott immediately made this a top-tier contest when he jumped in. Republican optimism about a possible slam-dunk has faded since, and Democrats point out that Scott only narrowly won statewide twice in very good GOP years  which this year may not be. Florida is the ultimate swing state, and the governor's race, with the more energizing Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum, could help boost Nelson. This one may still end up being very close, just given the closely divided nature of the state, but Democrats feel a lot better about this race than they did earlier this year, while Republicans are more pessimistic.

The long(er) shots

Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR

Tennessee

Tennessee's Senate race is competitive solely because Democrats were able to land a quality candidate in former Gov. Phil Bredesen, who carried all 95 counties when he was re-elected in 2006. He is a pragmatist more in the way previous Tennessee senators have been  including retiring GOP Sen. Bob Corker. But Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the GOP nominee, is a firebrand conservative, and this race is a test of whether candidates can trump party tribalism that has only grown in recent years. Blackburn and the GOP have hammered home that electing Bredesen  even if you may have liked him as governor  could mean handing control of the Senate over to Democrats. Bredesen is still popular, but his numbers appear to be coming back down after leading for much of the race. This is a place where the Kavanaugh hearings  even though Bredesen put out a statement saying he would have supported his nomination, too  may have have energized the Republican base at just the right time.

Montana

Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is one of the incumbents who have proved their mettle repeatedly, and 2018 may be no different. Most Republicans are underwhelmed by their nominee, state auditor Matt Rosendale. But Trump is still very popular here, and he has a personal vendetta against Tester for having helped torpedo the nomination of Trump's personal physician, Ronny Jackson, to be veterans affairs secretary. However, Tester has a good brand in the state and a good record, especially on veterans' issues, so that message may ultimately fall short.

West Virginia

Of the Democratic incumbents in states Trump won, the president carried West Virginia by the largest margin  43 points. But the established maverick brand of Sen. Joe Manchin, who previously served as governor, may still be able to overcome that. Republicans are increasingly pessimistic about their chances here, especially after Manchin became the sole Democrat to support Kavanaugh's nomination. Republicans say his re-election was probably a done deal before that, but his crossover only further solidified it for strategists, as they privately grumble that state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has been a lackluster candidate. At first, Republicans were just happy the polarizing former coal executive Don Blankenship didn't grab the GOP nomination, but in hindsight now they wish they had put in more manpower to get a third candidate, Rep. Evan Jenkins, through the primary.

Texas

In Texas, Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke has generated plenty of grass-roots enthusiasm, eye-popping fundraising numbers and national attention with his unconventional campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. And while Texas is a rapidly changing state, it may not have changed enough this year for an upset. It's still worth watching, though, because O'Rourke could help pull Democrats across the finish line in key House races in places like the Dallas and Houston suburbs by boosting turnout in more liberal areas. Cruz is a polarizing figure, including within the GOP, but O'Rourke may find that getting those final few points to topple him is still too big a challenge, blue wave or not.

The much longer shots

Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns; Illustration: Renee Klahr/NPR

Four states with Democratic incumbents that voted for Trump  Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin  have largely dropped off the target list for the GOP. In Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin's numbers are somewhat weak, but Republican nominee Leah Vukmir still remains far behind her in polling. In Michigan, Republicans have been unimpressed with their nominee, John James, against Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Republican challengers in both Ohio and Pennsylvania haven't been able to truly put either Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey or Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on notice.

There is one more Democratic incumbent to watch, though. In New Jersey, Sen. Bob Menendez finds himself in a tougher-than-expected contest after a corruption trial last year. That resulted in a hung jury and an admonishment from the Senate Ethics Committee, and it dented his usually comfortable edge with voters back home. Still, it will take a lot for a Democrat to lose in New Jersey in the political environment of 2018.Libertarian Secretary of State candidate Mark Rutherford says he wants to dramatically improve on the 3.5 percent of the vote his party got in the race four years ago. He faces incumbent Republican Connie Lawson and Democrat Jim Harper. Indiana Public Broadcastings Brandon Smith talks with Rutherford about his views on the issues in this years race.

Brandon Smith: I want to talk about, as a chief election officer, what you do you feel that Indiana isnt doing that you would do differently?

Mark Rutherford: Well, the voting security is a horrible thing. Were not even close to what banks do, what big companies do, small companies do in security. Small companies have better security than the voting systems in Indiana. Its not getting the attention it needs and thats awful because the first thing that a government does to be respected is have voting systems that people trust. We have no backup system paper right now. Why do you have a paper backup system now? Because the electronic system is not secure enough. We had allegations of a couple years ago that the Russians were just kind of meddling around, or somebody with Russian ties were, and that tells me that were nowhere near where we need to be. Its doing what government does so often  its putting its money elsewhere and its not doing it for priority number one, which is that the succession of elected officials and the selection of elected officials is the very first thing that it must do, and it must do well. Just throwing money at it doesnt let alone do it. Its got to be wise and with thought and with the very best to do that  and thats not happening right now.

Smith: Besides that, what else would you do to help guarantee election security in Indiana?

Rutherford: Well, one thing is getting better electronic systems. The systems are not up to par. I dont see the type of companies that need to be doing that, doing that. Not knocking the companies now because theyre doing it from a fair market position, which is this is what they want, this is what we can afford to do to give them what they want and make a decent living off of it. Youve got to put a lot more effort into it. And youve got to go out and find the very best, not do what we normally do in state government, which is try to get cheap.

Smith: Given the criticisms you and others, including Mr. Harper, the Democratic candidate, have sort of lobbed at what Secretary Lawson has done or hasnt done on election security  along with the General Assembly  should Hoosiers be worried about their votes and whether or not theyre secure when they cast their ballot?

Rutherford: They should be worried about their votes and casting their ballots. You never know when I would use the term meltdown happens. You dont know whos doing what. We know that there are people who have always done this. If you study history, historians know this, countries have been delving into other countries business for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. So you need to be ahead of it and have the systems to counter that. And its just not happening right now.

Smith: The Secretary of State oversees elections. Should the Secretary of State also be playing a role in advocating for election reforms like independent redistricting?

Rutherford: Yes. As Secretary of State, if youre paying attention you should be telling the General Assembly whats working and whats not working. It should be the number one advocate for election reform. And we do need election reform. We need it on gerrymandering and redistricting, where its not politicians picking the voters, its voters picking the politicians. Gerrymandering prevents that; we need to have somebody there going This needs to change.

Smith: What other election reforms would you like to see Indiana take part in?

Rutherford: Well, one of them is I like to joke  but its really not a joke  that we have a great election code for 1870. We no longer do a horse-and-buggy or a horse to the courthouse. Theres no need to make sure everybodys together on the same day to make sure that we have only the people who should be voting, voting. You can have voting in other ways that other states are experimenting with. Early voting should be more convenient. Why should we just have one day? Why should it be just six oclock to six oclock when thats not the way this world works anymore, especially here in Indiana? Those hours keep people from voting. Its easier to absentee vote than it used to be but still thats a hassle. Why cant there be more time, more early voting centers? Those are reforms that are desperately needed.For the first time, Hoosier lawmakers considered medical marijuana in a study committee. The committee heard several hours of testimony at the Statehouse.

Physicians were among those testifying both for and against medical marijuana. Dr. Andrew Greenspan says many of the cancer patients he treats question why Hoosiers dont have access to medical marijuana.

"Thirty-one states including our neighbors in Illinois and Michigan have medical cannabis laws based on hundreds of physician supported clinical trials," Greenspan says.

A number of physicians testified that cannabis is a better for chronic pain than opioids. But psychiatrist Ed Gogek says thats not what hes experienced.

"I want to make it very clear, marijuana does not help opioid addicts," Gogek says.

Much research has been done outside of the U.S. because of federal restrictions. Many of the studies point to cannabis as a safe and effective treatment for numerous conditions.

Sen. Karen Tallian (D-Portage) has proposed cannabis related legislation for years and says its time for Indiana to catch up.

"We need to create in Indiana, a regulatory agency for cannabis and we need to do it now," says Tallian.

Last session Indiana lawmakers approved the use of CBD.

Others that spoke against the issue include the Indiana Prosecutors, the Chamber of Commerce and drug-free groups.

The committee could not come to a consensus and did not make any recommendations.Now, as US sanctions on Iran begin to bite, grinding the already failing economy to a near standstill, it looks like the MEK have a very strong chance of overthrowing the Regime, especially with an angry populace calling for regime change in the streets during MEK-led protests.

The beauty of this is that the MEK will be able to do this without US military support, which is good for many reasons. Most importantly, it showcases that regime change in the will of the people, not a foreign power.

But the Regime is terrified of losing power and has attempted to launch large-scale attacks on the MEK in foreign countries at least three times in 2018 alone; one in Albania, one in France, and one in the US.

Surveillance and Plots

The Regime has frequently sent its intelligence agents to Albania to discredit the MEK, after some 3,000 MEK members were given refuge in the country after facing violent persecution from the Regime in Iran and their proxies in Iraq, but in March, during the Iranian new year celebrations, they went one step further.

The Regime sent its agents, disguised as journalists, to the MEK camp in Albania, where they began filming without permission. This was likely one of the first steps in a surveillance operation that would have given the Regime information about the MEK camp that would later be used to attack the MEK members there. Thankfully, the agents were caught by security guards and the attack was thwarted.

This is not unlike the case of the two Iranians that were arrested for spying on the MEK in the US in August. Majid Ghorbani went to a MEK rally to take pictures of and gather information about MEK members in the US, which he then passed on to Ahmadreza Mohammadi Doostdar, who planned to take the information back to the Regime.

Bomb Plot

While in June, the Iranian Regime attempted to bomb the Free Iran Gathering 2018 in Paris; an annual event held by Iranian opposition coalition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), of which the MEK is its biggest group. This event is routinely attended by over 100,000 people and hundreds of diplomats and politicians from the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who was stationed in Vienna, recruited two Iranians living in Belgium and gave them the explosives to bomb the MEK rally. Thankfully, European intelligence was already aware of the plot and arrested the would-be bombers in Belgium and Assadi in Germany. Those three and another man arrested in France are set to be tried on terrorism charges in Belgium.

In response, France has said that the Regimes intelligence ministry ordered the attack on the MEK, frozen the assets of Assadi and another intelligence official in France, called back their diplomats from Iran, and refused to appoint a new Iranian diplomat to France.- Aga Muhlach and Bea Alonzo guested in Vice Gandas GGV to promote First Love

- In one game, Vice asked the Kapamilya pair to ask related or unrelated questions based on a picture thats being posted on screen

- Mixed reactions from the netizens came about after Agas questions about Senator Trillanes

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see

In a now deleted segment of a Sunday show, a netizen was able to capture this part of Aga Muhlach in disgust over a photo.

Vice Ganda has been known to go on no holds barred in her show. One segment involves a showing of some photos and her guests were given the opportunity to ask questions. Note that the questions didnt need to be related to the picture in question but whatever pops in the guests mind.

When a photo of Senator Trillanes was shown, it was clear that the Kapamilya star was shaking his head in disbelief. After which he responded with, nakakapagod na!

PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read

He then shifted gears and while looking at the picture, Aga asked, Bakit ba? Ano kayang gusto mong mangyari? in which Bea Alonzo followed by saying, Hindi pa po ba kayo pagod?

Tumulong ka nalang, Aga added then the video ended shortly after.

POPULAR: Read more news about Aga Muhlach! Read more

Though the clip seemed harmless, it caused some buzz in the internet. There were some interesting comments made by the netizens.

Some were taking his side.

Don't worry aga makukulong na sya

Oo nga naman..tumulong ka na lang sa paglilinis ng basura na iniwan ng dating gobyerno..ang hirap na nga linisin andyan ka pa puro angas..

Yet, there were some who were against him stating him being pro-Duterte.

Solid duterte yan eh inindorso nga nya si tatay digong ng libre eh tunay na gusto ng pag babago yan si vice 50/50 yan hindi yan solid duterte.

What do you think? Leave your comments below.

Aga Muhlach and Bea Alonzo just finished shooting and are now promoting First Love.

This was the first movie where Aga and Bea worked together.

Aga Muhlach is married to former Miss Philippines Charlene Gonzalez since 2001.

In a previous report by , it was a star-studded premiere night for First Love.

Today we are going to ask Tagalog strangers some very funny tricky questions!

Do you think you can answer them correctly? These individuals from the Philippines have their answers! What do you think came first, the egg or the chicken? Can you cry under water? These questions might sound easy, but in reality, they are pretty tricky and it is easy to make a mistake!- on

Source: Kami.com.ph- President Duterte and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi signed an exploration deal with Ratio Petroleum Limited

- The projected expenditure for the exploration is $34,350,000

- The petroleum service contract is up to seven years

PAY ATTENTION: Click "See First" under the "Following" tab to see KAMI news on your News Feed!

Recently, Duterte administration has sealed an exploration deal with Israeli firmRatio Petroleum Limited on October 17 (Wednesday) in Malacanan Palace.

KAMI has learned that the Petroleum Service Contract (PSC) signed by President Rodrigo Duterte and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi along with Ratios President and CEO Itay Raphael Tabibzada is a seven-year-long deal.

Photo from CNN Philippines

Source: Facebook

The aforementioned deal is the first ever PSC signed by the current administration. It allows Ratio to explore Area 4 or East Palawan Basin for possible oil and/or gas sources as reported by GMA News.

The main concern is; what difference does the deal will make for the Filipino people?

The administration firmly believes that the exploration deal will ease the countrys crisis in terms of oil and gas. The country will no longer have to rely on importation that has caused the soaring prices of energy sources. In this case, prices of goods will also roll down.

The President has been very clear  our country needs to attain energy security and sustainability at the soonest possible time. We are currently experiencing how our dependence on importation has left us at the mercy of price movements in the global oil markets, Cusi stated.

We need to boost the exploration and development of our own energy resources and the awarding of the petroleum service contract to Ratio Petroleum is a step in the right direction, he added.

And, who knows? If the exploration would turn out great, maybe time will come that Philippines could compete in the world market.

PAY ATTENTION: Using free basics app to access internet for free? Now you can read KAMI news there too. Use the search option to find us. Read KAMI news while saving your data!

Photo from Rappler

Source: Facebook

The estimated minimum expenditure for the deal is $34,350,00. It covers the studies, information gathering and other activities. The contract is part of Fifth Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR5) that was released in May 2014.

President Duterte was supposed to seal the deal during his visit in Israel, as mentioned by former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.

Ratio was established in 1992 and as reported by Rappler, it owns deep-water petroleum rights across Israel which includes Levant Basin in Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Ratio also has operations in Malta and Guyana.

POPULAR: Read more news about President Duterte here!

Can Filipinos sing? We are going to check it in this episode of HumanMeter! How will we do it? The answer is Filipino karaoke right in the streets! You know, there is a stereotype that Filipinos are amazing singers. But nobody has checked that before! Thats why weve decided to go into the streets of the Philippines and ask random people to stop for a while and sing karaoke.  on KAMI HumanMeter YouTube channel!

Source: Kami.com.phRelevant draft law No. 9208 was backed by 235 MPs registered in the session hall.

Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has handed over the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv for permanent use to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Relevant draft law No. 9208 was backed by 235 MPs registered in the session hall, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

During the first vote, the parliament did not get enough votes - only 216, but later the Verkhovna Rada passed the document immediately in the first reading and as a whole as a law.

Read alsoPoroshenko proposes to hand over Kyiv-based St. Andrew's Church to Ecumenical Patriarch

The law establishes that the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv as a religious state-owned building is to be handed over to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for religious services, rites, ceremonies and processions.

According to the final clauses, the law comes into force on the day following the day of its publication.

The handover of the church is carried out by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

At the same time, this handover does not entail its exclusion from the list of objects of immovable cultural heritage of the National Sanctuary Complex "Sophia of Kyiv."

In accordance with the legislation and taking into account the peculiarities defined by this law, the Cabinet of Ministers must ensure the handover of the St. Andrew's Church in Kyiv for permanent use to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople within a month from the day the law enters into force.21st Century Challenges Require New Mindsets and New Behavior

Notwithstanding the results of the upcoming mid-term elections and the broad horrific support of Donald Trumps presidency, major political and economic developments nationally and locally have significant ramifications for African Americans. We must demand more effective leadership and group-related strategies to survive and succeed in an increasingly uncertain and hostile 21stcentury environment.

Demographic changes in California and throughout the nation are profoundly altering the political landscape. Not the least of such changes is the impact of the huge increase in the Latino population. Cleary, Latinos are already asserting their new found political strength. This threatens many African Americans, who rather than work to strengthen relations with Latinos, for mutual benefit, seem determined to cling to their own highly limited past political and economic gains, real and imagined. Unfortunately, Latinos, by virtue of their newfound political clout, have adopted some of the arrogance of the White majority and therefore, are seen by Blacks as adversaries rather than potential partners in both groups continuing struggle against racism and economic injustice.

The fundamental antidote for the new realities is effective leadership. African Americans must first reassess their political values (actually, values in general that are largely individualistic and materialistic) and begin to develop new strategies that better meet their constituents own best interests. This is no easy task. It involves de-conditioning, i.e., uncomfortable, even painstaking evaluation and introspection about where weve been, how we got there and where we want to go in the 21stcentury.

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Given Blacks history of slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination, it is not surprising that probably most have internalized and adopted wholesale, the values and principles of white America. Of course, white values were never intended for, nor did they really ever work for Blacks, who fail to either see or acknowledge, the difference between individual and group attainment. Color and race remain dominant regarding who receives, or does not receive societys benefits. While this may not be a revelation for Blacks, most continue to function as though individual effort and achievement alone are sufficient to improve Black lives. And most still act as though race is secondary rather than the major determining factor of a groups success or failure in this country.

This denial of the primacy of race is mostly on the surface, since most African Americans know full well that color is an undeniably the major determinant, not only in their individual lives, but in the lives of all Black people. Acknowledging this reality is difficult for many, but the critical thing has always been dealing with each other in a supportive, humane and honest way. This approach and perspective are not new, and are also the basis for working more effectively with other racial and ethnic groups. (Upon reflection, most Blacks would probably agree that theres been little resembling sustained group unity since the 1960s.)

The new paradigm suggested here also takes into account Donald Trumps presidency as well as the crabs in a barrel syndrome, which is only one of many indicators of the need to forge new models for group and community action and success. The new models would be built on reclaimed pride and mutual respect, which have been minimized, or worst, never experienced by those Blacks mired in mythical and misleading individualism.

The complexities surrounding changing attitudes and behavior of African Americans are staggering. However, nothing less than honest and in-depth dealing with the barriers that affect their lives will yield the kind of results necessary to bring about needed change. As mentioned earlier, the new unity would also serve as a basis for mutually beneficial partnerships with other racial and ethnic groups.

We are well into the 21stcentury and an array of issues have major, and in some instances headed up by Trump, a direct impact on the lives of African Americans. These include previously mentioned demographic changes, as well as continuing police abuse, public education, poverty, high technology and, of course, on-going racism and White privilege.

New African American leadership primarily committed to the communitys best interests, as opposed to individual, political party, or any other distractive priority, is essential for returning to a group-oriented leadership model. (Reclaiming ethical and moral values is the basis for a brighter future.) And strong community organizing is the key to mobilizing sustainable community action which is sorely needed in Black communities. In summary, strategic planning and unified action to challenge the issues and problems that continue to plague African American communities throughout the nation is essential. Needless to say, effective community organizing must reflect the desires and priorities of local communities above all else.

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Donald Trumps absurd but dangerous political ascendency signaled an extremely challenging and scary time for African Americans, especially. It is important that we reassess not only where we have been, but where we are, and return to group-oriented strategies that unapologetically serve our own best interests. However, conditioned pressure, both mental and systemic, to maintain a status quo that is not in our best interests is formidable. Nothing short of strong group-oriented leadership will take African Americans to a level required to break the shackles of a history forged by sustained, deliberate oppression.

Arguably, 21stcenturys daunting challenges are the greatest facing Black people since slavery. Meeting these challenges honestly, and with courageous leadership, is essential for both group success and survival..Brookins Reflects on Her Service to God and His Church

God has abundantly blessed the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Rosalynn Kyle Brookins since she answered His call to preach 14 years ago.

The wife of the late Bishop H.H. Brookins, she became the first retired AME episcopal supervisor to be appointed as a pastor in 2011 and in May 2018, she was the first female to earn a Doctor of Ministry degree from Payne Theological Seminary.

The members of Walker Temple AME Church in Los Angeles responded to dedicated spiritual leadership by hosting the seventh pastoral appreciation for Brookins on Oct. 21, where scores of people expressed gratitude for her ministry.

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Recently, the L.A. Sentinel asked Brookins about her service to God and His church. The following is an edited version of the interview.

What are a few memorable moments since you accepted the call to preach?

There are several memorable moments for me, but the first that comes to mind was watching a man with fourth stage cancer being healed within three months after coming to the church for prayer. Now, he serves as a trustee and has become a true worshipper.

The second most memorable moment was one Sunday morning during worship service, we witnessed a lady having a heart attack after fervent prayer, God supernaturally stopped the devil in his tracks. Her life was spared and today she serves as my pastors steward and is also on the steward board.

Our motto at Walker Temple is We are the number one church in the number one district because we serve the number God. We really believe that we are number one. This belief is not because of the number of people in attendance. We have learned to stand on the promises, the power of God and we believe in His ability to save, heal, restore and redeem all those who seek Him. Miracles, signs, and wonders are an inherited right of all who trust in God.

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During your time in the ministry, have you seen a difference in the treatment of men and women pastors/preachers?

While there are some men have fought against various forms of oppression, history reveals that they, however, have not always provided the same equality opportunities for women. Equality of both male and female is grounded in the biblical text of Genesis 1:26-27.

God created all people in His image and He patterned all of us after Himself. Equality represents a state of inclusion and then its provided to all people. It means that the same opportunities that are afforded to one group will also be afforded to another.

Despite various acts of dehumanization, the internal strength of the African American woman, whether enslaved or free, has helped to stabilize the church and the community in which we live. While there are still a lot of mainstream denominations that refuse to see women as equals; Rev. Dr. Theresa Fry Brown, historiographer of the AME Church states, Preaching is our acknowledgement of our need to change. It is consciousness-raising. It is a process of seeking justice, reconciliation and then transformation occurs. In essence, what Dr. Fry-Brown is saying is preaching or proclaiming the word of God must be about liberation and not gender.

While we may not have always been given equal opportunities, one of the things we must hold on to is that we are preachers who happen to be women and we are kingdom-carriers. So, with that, while others may seek to silence our voices, women have decided that they will no longer be looked upon as fragile or helpless.

What advice would you give to a new pastor?

Perhaps the most important advice I would offer to any new pastor would be to genuinely love the people. Loving the people means meeting them where they are and gently guiding them to where God is calling them to be. [This] requires one becoming comfortable enough to embrace his/her own human frailties as well as those for whom they are chosen to serve.

There is often a false expectation of perfection placed upon the shoulders of a new pastor from both the sacred pulpit as well from the sacred pew. Thus, new pastors spend time trying to prove to themselves and to their congregants that he or she is the one in charge.

I have come to learn that love does not require proving who the shepherd is, it simply means over time, becoming the shepherd.

In a perfect world, where would like to see your ministry in the next 5-10 years?

This journey called ministry does not belong to me. I am merely a conduit or an ambassador chosen to do Gods bidding here on earth. Therefore, my only desire for the ministry remains the same as it was 14 years ago when I said, Yes, here am I Lord, send me.

I would like to see heaven kiss earth and in doing so, witness the manifestation of authentic worship, healing, deliverance, and miracles take place in the lives of all of Gods children.

People are in search of true transformation and liberation within their lives and within the lives of their loved ones. Such change takes place when we, the believers of Jesus Christ, become encounter-driven rather than event-driven.Call 2 Worship  October 18

St. Johns United Methodist Church holds a free workshop about trade careers on Oct. 20, at 10 a.m., at 1715 Santa Ana Blvd., in Los Angeles, said Pastor Larry Dozier. The session will outline the new workforce development initiative to train and certify individuals to become heating ventilation and air conditioning technicians, refrigeration mechanics and building maintenance engineers. To learn more, call (310) 502-8136 or visit technicalcareerdevelopment.com.

Bible Enrichment Fellowship International Church hosts the 23rd Annual L.A.M.P.S. Conference on Oct. 21-24, at 400 E. Kelso St., in Inglewood, said Dr. Beverly Bam Crawford, pastor. The theme is Legacy  Apostolic and Prophetic Synergy. The leadership and mentoring event provides teaching, counseling, training and a luncheon. For details or to register, call (310) 330-4700.

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Miracle Temple Church of God Pentecostal celebrates it 36th anniversary on Oct. 28, at 10 a.m., at 109 W. Buckthorn St., in Inglewood, said Bishop Johnny J. Young, pastor. The theme is Bringing Unity to the Body based on Ephesians 4:5.

Greater Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church presents an appreciation service for its choral directors on October 28, at 4 p.m., at 5300 S. Denker Ave., in Los Angeles, said Pastor Rev. DeNon A. Porter. The Music Ministry sponsors the program, which honor the Rev. Harold M. Pittman, Sister Lois L. Gray, Brother Donald R. Hunt, Brother Anthony C. Jones, Sister Seminolia D. Lamar and Sister Debra W. Williams. To learn more, call (323) 759-4996 or visit gembcla.org.

Crenshaw United Methodist Church hosts Light the Night Harvest Festival on Oct. 31, 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at 3740 Don Felipe dr., in Los Angeles, said Pastor Royce Porter. Activities include costume contest, games, jumper, food and candy. Call (323) 291-0141 for details.

Musicians In Action, Inc., plans its 26th Annual Music Ministry Awards Gala on Nov. 3, at 6 p.m., at the Renaissance Airport Hotel, 9620 Airport Blvd., in Los Angeles, said founders Gerald and Jacque Malone. The honorees include Geraldine Coates  Metropolitan Baptist Church, Altadena; Laweta Casiano-Crawford  City of Refuge; Kevin T. Davis  Christ Second Baptist Church of Long Beach & Compton Community Seventh Day Adventist Church; Nichole Buchanan Dodd  Prosperity M.B. Church.; Sonya A. Griffin  Friendship Baptist Church, Yorba Linda; Marquise Henderson  Unity Christian Fellowship and Power of Faith; Christopher E. Johnson  Southern St. Paul Church; Jamelle Jones  New Antioch COGIC and Phillip McQuarters  Bethany Baptist Church. For tickets, call (323) 777-3213 or visit musicians-in-action.com.CBC Chairman Statement on Confirmation of Eric Dreiband to Lead DOJ Civil Rights Division

The Chairman of Congressional Black Caucus, Congressman Cedric L. Richmond (D-LA-02), released the following statement on the confirmation of Eric Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Dreiband was confirmed by a vote of 50-47.

The confirmation of Eric Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice is yet another example of Republicans picking the fox to guard the henhouse.

Mr. Dreiband lacks experience in many of the civil rights issues that fall under the Divisions jurisdiction  most importantly, voting rights, hate crimes, and police accountability. In addition, the civil rights issues that he does have experience in are issues that he has spent his career fighting against  fair employment and ban the box.

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Our civil rights have been under attack ever since Attorney General Sessions was confirmed to lead the Department of Justice. However, confirming Mr. Dreiband to lead the Civil Rights Division  one of the most prominent and powerful divisions at the Department  will make a bad situation worse.

In 2007, Dreiband testified against bipartisan legislation to prevent long-term pay discrimination against women. In 2010, he testified before Congress against legislation to strengthen protections for millions of older Americans facing age discrimination in the workplace.

Dreibands confirmation follows almost two years of attacks on civil rights by the Sessions-led DOJ, attacks which have included a relaunch of the war on drugs and weakened police accountability and voting rights enforcement. In fact, when it comes to voting rights enforcement, it has become clear that the Civil Rights Division is willfully asleep at the wheel ahead of the 2016 midterm election.

On September 5, a day before Dreibands nomination hearing, the CBC sent a letter to the Senate urging that his nomination be rejected.Community Policing Conference Discusses Bias in News Media Reporting

The Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission convened more than 200 key stakeholders at the first ever Community Policing in Los Angeles: A Vision for the Future Conference Monday in downtown Los Angeles. The day of dialogue brought together elected officials, community members, law enforcement, criminal justice professionals, academics and the media to discuss the future of policing in Los Angeles County. Conference highlights included a conversation about bias in news media reporting on issues related to law enforcements and the influence media has on public perception that featured journalist and attorney Manny Medrano, USC Assistant Professor of Journalism Allissa Richardson, Fox 11 Anchor/Reporter Laura Diaz, Director of Strategic Communications for the L.A. County Sheriffs Department and former broadcast journalist Carol Lin and political strategist and journalist Jasmyne Cannick. The conversation was moderated by Chief Administrative Officer at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission and former broadcast journalist Al Naipo.

ADVERTISEMENTCompton Community College District Publishes Citizens Bond Oversight Committee Annual Report

The Compton Community College District (CCCD) Citizens Bond Oversight Committees 2016-2017 Annual Report will be presented to the CCCD Board of Trustees at its October 16, 2018 meeting.

The Annual Report is available on the CCCD website at: http://www.district.compton.edu/measure_cc_bond/annual-reports.asp

As outlined in the Education Code Section 15278, the role of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committee is to inform the public concerning the Districts expenditure of revenues received from the sale of bonds authorized by the voters. The committee comprises a cross section of the citizens who have volunteered their time to represent various constituencies, and fulfill the committees responsibilities.

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As outlined in its bylaws, the committee has met on a regular basis to review expenditures, tour campus renovations, and ask questions. The 2016-2017 Annual Report documents the results of these activities and serves to fulfill the basic tenets of the Citizens Bond Oversight Committees charter.

Within this report is the independent audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, performed by the firm of Clifton, Larson, Allen, LLP. The committee examined and reviewed this audit, the results of which are contained in the Annual Report.

The following is a summary of Bond Expenditures for the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 2017:

Project Totals Student Success Center $ 56,114.00 Swing Space 2,883,692 Master plan 81,400 Allied Health 136,272 Instructional Building #1 214,827 Project Support Services 494,741 Legal and Audit 18,367 Little Theater 2,108,858 Public Safety Facility 272,447 Total Expenditures $ 6,266,718

The CCCD grounds are improving and changing, thanks to funds from the 2002 Measure CC general obligation bond and State Capital Outlay funds. The Annual Report includes a list of construction and renovation projects either in progress or completed during 2016-2017. New construction incorporates energy conservation measures and modern technology and equipment.

The Citizens Bond Oversight Committee 2016-2017 Annual Report, as well as information about the role of the committee and meeting agendas may be viewed on the CCCD website:http://www.district.compton.edu/measure_cc_bond/index.asp.Constructing Justice: Black Workers Graduate From New Painters Pre-Apprenticeship, Preparing Them To Successfully Pursue Construction Careers

A cohort of Black workers have graduated from a new painters pre-apprenticeship program, positioning them to succeed in apprenticeship trade programs that ultimately lead to career track jobs in the construction industry. This cohort represents the first graduating class who has completed the Ready to Work Filling the Pre-Apprenticeship Readiness Gap Program.

The training program was created through a partnership between the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36. A special graduation ceremony was held on Friday to congratulate the students and award them with a certificate of completion.

Hearing the graduates share how they appreciated their training makes me feel confident that this program was life changing for them, said La Tonya Harris, Operations Director for the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, who directed the program. Im excited about how our center is helping them realize quality union careers in the construction field.

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The pre-apprenticeship program focused on teaching life skills that trained students how to enroll and excel in a construction trade apprenticeship program. The two-week training program took place at Christ Temple Church in South Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Black Worker Center originally aligned with Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36 last year to plan the pre-apprenticeship program. Once Southern California experienced a construction boom, the organizations felt it was advantageous to move forward with launching the training program.

Since partnering with the Black Worker Center, over time we developed a curriculum that would prepare individuals how to excel in an apprenticeship program and a job in the construction industry, said Kevin Bass, Assistant Political Director and Business Representative for Painters and Allied Trades District Council 36. After experiencing an upturn in the industry this past year, we felt it was the right time to offer the training program.

UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health also participated in the pre-apprenticeship program by conducting health and safety certification trainings for the students. We wanted to ensure that students received the appropriate safety training needed to enter the apprenticeships, said Yodit Semu, Environmental Career Worker Training Project Coordinator for UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health. I am so grateful that our program could support this process and help Black workers get quality careers.

LaQuan Morales, a father of three whose wife Brianna also completed the same training program, says that the course has already helped him jump start his career. Through this program, Ive received opportunities that Ive never gotten before, like joining the union, says Morales. Now I can start earning money that I deserve so I can provide for my family.

The pre-apprenticeship program was supported by Service Planning Area (SPA) funds allocated by Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas. SPA funds are utilized by County Supervisors to support beneficial programs serving communities in their districts.Councilmember Harris-Dawson brings 1,000 job openings to South L.A.

On Friday, October 12, Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson hosted the Harvard Park Job Fair, his third annual job fair, bringing 1,000 job openings to South Los Angeles. During the event, hundreds of residents who attended had access to 40 employers and several were offered jobs on the spot. South L.A. communities have some of the highest unemployment and underemployment rates in the city.

Bringing jobs to South L.A. is my top priority, and I proud of the amazing turnout from residents and businesses, said Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. We know that a quality job can change a person, a family, and a whole community. I want to create as many opportunities for residents to change their lives.

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This job fair was also a key project of the Community Safety Partnership at Harvard Park, an initiative launched by the Councilmember in 2016. The project dedicates 10 additional LAPD officers to carry out relationship-based policing in an area that has seen high crime over the past several years. In its first year, the program eliminated homicides and reduced violent crime by nearly 25%. A survey of Harvard Park residents indicated that the lack of jobs was a top priority, after gun violence. The Harvard Park Job Fair was hosted in the middle of the community and targeted outreach ensured that residents throughout the neighborhood had access to the programming.

Sponsors included the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, PCL Construction, and the Los Angeles Workforce Development Board. The event also provided supportive services such as interview and resume assistance, record expungement, and reduced cost California Identification Cards. The non-profit Clothes the Deal also provided free professional clothing to residents who were in need. Employers from several industries ensure that residents had a variety of choices. They included construction, hospitality, transportation, security, and public sector jobs.CRCD Enterprises Opens New South Los Angeles Facility

The Coalition for Responsible Community Development Enterprises (CRCD Enterprises) today celebrated the grand opening of a new facility that will expand its offerings in the South Los Angeles community. CRCD Enterprises is a social enterprise with a California State General B Contractors license that offers excellent services in the fields of general construction, facilities maintenance and urban infrastructure.

CRCD Enterprises acquired the 4,000-square-foot site at 2415 S. Central Avenue in response to the growing need to address the disproportionately high unemployment rate in South Los Angeles. Renovation was funded in part by a generous $500,000 grant from the NeighborWorks Project Reinvest: Neighborhoods initiative. The facility is the first of its kind in the area and will provide job- creation and expansion of their programs to at-risk youth and the formerly incarcerated at the new center.

Today is a day the South LA community will remember with gratitude, hope, and a great sense of pride, said Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Brenda Shockley. I applaud the Coalition for Responsible Community Development for continuing to build a legacy of support, and results, for our hard-working families.

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While CRCD Enterprises continues to provide construction, professional painting, facilities management and property maintenance services, the new facility will enable the company to create new jobs in the community allowing team members to exercise their growing skill set to open career pathways and provide family sustaining wages.

The New 9th District is proud to collaborate closely with CRCD Enterprises to keep our streets clean, fix our sidewalks, remove bulky items, and generally beautify our community, said Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price, who was on hand at the grand opening celebration. I am very pleased to see that CRCD Enterprises is addressing the growing need for jobs in our area head on, by providing our community members with the opportunity to obtain meaningful employment.

The inaugural training class, composed of 20 students, will immediately begin an intensive training program that will require trainees to complete several hundred hours of worksite experience. After completing the initial program, trainees will transition to permanent job placement or continue training programs where they can earn nationally recognized certifications, such as OSHA and HBI-PACT.

As Los Angeles skyline continues to grow, we cannot miss out on the opportunity to prepare our youth for skilled jobs, said Mark Wilson, president of CRCD Enterprises. We are excited to be expanding and filling the need to hire locally and sustain our communities.

For more information about CRCD Enterprises services, please visit www.crcdent.com or call (213) 743- 6193.Director Steve James Talks New Starz Docu-Series America to Me

There Would Not Be a Trump If There Wasnt an Obama  Emmy Award-winning Steve James, director of Starz America To Me

Emmy Award-winning Steve James is one of Americas most respected documentarians, working in the field today. In his new Starz doc-series America to Me a 10-part look at race through the eyes of students, teachers and administrators at Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF)  an elite, racially diverse public high school in a suburb west of Chicago, he gives all of the subjects the opportunity to let it all hang out so to speak.

OPRF is known for being one of the most progressive schools in the region and perhaps on paper, and compared to other schools its just that. However, to most people of color, the well-meaning parents and administration (as shown in this documentary) are far from being truly progressive.

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As a filmmaker, James has been nominated for Oscars, twice, the first for Hoop Dreams (1995) and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2018). They are both notable for their intimate portraits of race and class in America. On the narrative side, James directed The Interrupters (2011) and Life Itself (2014).

I caught up with the busy filmmaker Steve James via phone and by the end of the conversation, I wished that I had more time to discuss how their team was trying to stretch beyond just showcasing another documentary about the lives of African American and bi-racial kids, struggling inside White America. He gave me the impression both in his words and his tone, that he wanted to start a conversation to get to the root of something, and that something was to get positive movement.

Here is an edited interview with Steve James about the ten episode docu-series America To Me.

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL: Did you direct all 10 episodes of America To Me?

STEVE JAMES: No, but I am the overall director of the series. We used younger and talented multiethnic filmmakers.

LAS: Why? I am glad to hear that, but why?

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SJ: Well, it was vitally important to me. Even though its about my community, a place that Ive lived for a very long time, to keep it honest and to tell these young peoples stories, it was important to have that kind of team in place.

LAS: Who were those directors? The doc-series covered a year, correct?

SJ: It was a year in the life of the students, yes. The first segment director was Kevin Shaw, who is an African American filmmaker Ive known for some years. This is the first time that weve worked together. Then we had Bing Liu, who made [the film] Minding the Gap and he did a phenomenal job following Charles, Jada, and Grant. Then there was Rebecca Parrish who did a great, strong film called Radical Grace.

LAS: I enjoyed the spoken word part of the series. Word is power. Power is in words.

SJ: I agree. Its one of the reasons that we [and Starz] started a $25,000 scholarship opportunity. Its called Share Your Voice and the spoken word contest is currently accepting admission from students 14 to 19. To answer the question What does America mean to me?

LAS: Thats interesting. I recently received a press release that also said there will be a social impact campaign designed to encourage candid conversations about racism through a downloadable Community Conversation Toolkit. Ten weeks. Ten events. In this current climate where hate is openly encouraged against people of color and sanctioned at the highest level of government, I am just thinking so what?

SJ I dont have the answers but I do feel this there would not be a [President] Donald Trump without [President] Obama.

LAS: Wait, say what now?

SJ: I do feel that when Obama became president in 2008, that played a role. Then to go where we went politically was a huge slap in the face for a lot of people. But I think it was particularly significant for young people and young people of color to just think, Well, wait for a second, where are we going here?

Theres this feeling among them that older generations have failed to address things well. I think they have genuine, well-earned anxiety about the future: the future of work in this country, the future of where were going, and what kind of world theyre going to inherit, on all kinds of levels. I think it really hit home recently for them.

LAS: Anxiety about the future yes, that sums it 2018perfectly.

Entry submissions are being the America to Me $25,000 scholarship Share Your Voice accepted through October 7 via Instagram or Twitter using #AmericatoMeContest and #STARZ hashtags or by uploading it to www.AmericaToMe.com.Dont Forget! You Have Until November 5th to Enter and Win Hyundais Car Giveaway!



Hyundai Motor America (Hyundai) in partnership with Taste of Soul, created a contest to acknowledge the residents who are doing their part to make the city of Los Angeles a better place by awarding one winner with a brand-new car! The contest was so successful in 2017, that Hyundai decided to bring it back and better than ever with a new theme entitled, Reimagine Everything at Taste of Soul Los Angeles.

One of Hyundais commitments as a brand, is to help the society and improve humankind, which is why the company is inviting Angelinos to join them in solving some of the issues that affect the Los Angeles community by entering to win a 2018 Kona Limited Thunder Gray.

Heres How It Works:

Step 1: Download the free Taste of Soul Mobile App using a smart phone from either the Apple App Store, the Android Market, or Google Play

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Step 2: Follow the in-App instructions to register, includes providing the entrants name, age, email address, and city and state of residence

Step 3: Follow the instructions to visit HyundaiDiversity.com

After reading and accepting the terms and rules, follow the instructions to upload an original video (no more than 90 seconds) explaining how you are actively working to make the city of Los Angeles a better place for all.

Hyundais mission and values compliment their contest vision of reimagining a better Los Angeles and it was only right to lead the community by example. Recently, the company launched, Hyundais Road to Taste of Soul, where they highlighted four local organizations to give back to. This year, Hyundai decided to focus on local organizations that were helping children.

One of the things that is unique about Hyundai is that we are a brand that likes to consider the possible and find new solutions to solving societal issues and any issues we have. We have done so from the history of our car company to our products and services and that extends to our commitment to society, said director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity Inclusion at Hyundai Motor America, Zafar Brooks.

The first stop took place in early August at the 20th annual Mothers in Action Back to School Health & Family Festival. During the event Brooks, on behalf of Hyundai, presented the non-profit organization, Mothers in Action with a $2500 check. The second stop took place later this month at the New Image Emergency Shelter for the Homeless. While there, Hyundai presented a $2500 donation. The third stop will take place in early September at actress Wendy Raquel Robinsons Amazing Grace Conservatory. The final stop will take place at the 13th annual Taste of Soul where Brotherhood Crusade will receive a monetary donation.

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We are asking people to be a part of this journey of solving problems that affect our communities, and work together in bringing new solutions, that will benefit people, society, and the planet. That is what its really all about, said Brooks.

In addition to the 2018 Kona sweepstakes, Hyundai will also be sponsoring the Hyundai Soundstage. Legendary artists like Ginuwine, Chante Moore, Kurtis Blow and Teddy Riley are ready to turn up the dial at Taste of Soul and hope you are ready to join them in the festivities.

Taste of Souls annual competition StarQuest, will also be happening in full force, as the audition finalists will get to perform in front of a panel of judges and festivalgoers, hopeful to take home first place.

Please note all videos must comply with all the video requirements and submission information. For a complete list of submission info, video restrictions, prize winner selection, and conditions of entry please visit www.tasteofsoul.org.Hawkins to Preach at Agape-L.A.s Family and Friends Day

The powerful preaching of Pastor Khare Hawkins of Gods Way Ministries in Baltimore, Maryland will highlight Family and Friends Day hosted by Agape Church of Los Angeles on Sunday, October 21, at 11 a.m.

According to Bishop Craig A. Worsham, senior pastor, the worship is an opportunity for loved ones and acquaintances to renew their spiritual bonds with Christ and familial ties with each other. Following the worship, a reception will be held.

We invite the greater Los Angeles community to join us for a service focused on love, unity

growth, fellowship and sharing, said Worsham. The Christ-centered message by Pastor Hawkins will definitely inspire and empower you in your walk with the Lord.

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Agape Church is located at the Consolidated Plaza, 3725 Don Felipe Drive in Los Angeles.

To learn more, visit agapela.org or call (323) 295-5571.Millennial Focus: Elder Aquyla Walker

The millennial generation, people born between 1982 and 2004, is a key demographic that many churches seek to attract and maintain. But, the group may be more receptive than you know.

Despite reports that millennials are spiritual, not religious, ministries such as Greater Zion Church Family in Compton, led by Pastor Michael J. Fisher, contain a significant number of young adults among its multi-generational congregation and his ministerial staff includes Elder Aquyla Walker, who is assigned as Young Adult Overseer.

Walker, who is the first female to be ordained an elder in the churchs 60-year history, just happens to be a millennial as well. Accepting her call to preach in 2010, she was appointed to the position in January 2012, licensed in December 2012 and ordained last July.

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Outlining her ministerial duties, Walker said, My role is to help young adults grow and reach their fullest potential in God. Our ministry focuses on modeling and exemplifying a walk with God that is a healthy balance of a spiritual life that prioritizes God and a young life that experiences the world around us. We try to be intentional about changing a narrative that suggests that being young and saved equates a boring life.

Since Walkers profession is teaching, she is able to apply strategies and techniques she has learned as an instructor to her role as Young Adult Overseer. Still, she admitted that it can sometimes be challenging to lead those in your peer group.

It is often difficult to have to assert authority over those that are your age and those that have watched you grow and even make mistakes during your growth process. Millennials, especially, tend to be more relationship-oriented, so Ive learned the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships to curtail this particular challenge, she said.

Another hurdle that Walker faces is being a female in a male-dominated field. Many believers of both genders are resistant to accepting preachers who happen to be women. To counter those attitudes, Walker credits her unshakable faith as well as the affirming support of her pastor throughout her ministry.

I persist because I am sure of the calling of God on my life; and there are other women in ministry who need to see models of women in ministry, said Walker.

Firmly committed to her calling, Walker works hard to mentor, teach and lead young adults in her church and she shared three recommendations that other ministries should consider in their outreach to millennials  be authentic, include them and be willing to evolve.

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I was raised in church and I think church taught us to cover things up. Were taught the same thing, culturally. Were raised with people dont need to know your business and what happens in this house stays in the house and that created generations of people that showed up to church with masks on.

Rather than pretending all is well in the name of trusting God, millennials prefer an environment that allows for truth about their faults and idiosyncrasies, knowing that God will handle it. Im willing to suggest that its a James 5:16 mindset. Be honest, be authentic, and know Gods will, noted Walker.

She also suggested that churches involve millennials in all aspects of church planning, operations and activities to ensure that their concerns and ideas are heard. In addition, she urged leaders to be receptive to change.

Millennials are probably the last generation that was raised in church. Thus, we know how to do church. We know the traditions and routines and we know that weve been doing it the same way for years. And we also know that a lot of what is done isnt rooted in Biblical principle and were tired of it, insisted Walker.

We want to be a part of ministries that are changing the way church is done, but without compromising the integrity of the Word and the name of Jesus. Its possible.

Hear more from Elder Walker on the Young Adult Takeover on Whats Up With That show that airs every second Sunday on KJLH (102.3 or kjlhradio.com) at 11 p.m. Follow her on social media: @MsAquyla or @KINCMinistry.Re-entry Construction Workers Honored

Juan Mendoza and Dezdon Lewis were recently honored for having turned their lives around with the help of Playa Vista Job Opportunities and Business Services (PVJOBS), a South L.A. nonprofit that places members of the local at-risk community* in construction-related jobs.

Juan and Dezi represent just two of the more than 8,000 positions we have filled since 1998 and their compelling stories demonstrate how jobs can make a difference in creating prosperous, healthy families, PVJOBS Executive Director Erik Miller said.

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Ive been incarcerated five times, said Lewis. Once I started construction, I quit drugs cold turkey.

Lewis began digging the tunnel and shaft work on the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project and today he is an inspector, in charge of Segment Eight Health Safety and Environmental.

Mendoza had a hard time finding employment after incarceration, but now wears a hardhat each day to work with drywall for Jade Inc.

I used to get up early to work out and I saw my friends with their hardhats going to work Meondoza said. And I thought, hey, Im up, I could be working, not just working out.

Additionally, Morley Builders, Inc. and Gloria Gray, West Basin Municipal Water District Board Member, were honored as Contractor of the Year and Visionary of the Year, respectively, for their work in hiring the disadvantaged and partnering with PVJOBS. Awards were distributed at PVJOBS 20th Anniversary recognition luncheon, held September 28.Report Reveals Disturbing Gap Between Cost of Living and Actual Wages in L.A.

The citys fastest growing industries, including healthcare, food service and technical services are hurting, said researchers, because workers cannot afford to live in the L.A. area. High living costs are forcing longer commutes, making it harder to recruit and retain workers.

USC researchers partnered with the Los Angeles Business Council Institute for the report titled, The Affordable Housing Crisis in Los Angeles: Impacts to LAs Fastest Growing Companies.

Housing affordability is a significant concern for the Los Angeles workforce, said Dr. Gary Painter, director of the USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation and the newly created Homelessness Policy Research Institute.

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Commute times are increasing for homeowners who are unable to afford housing in the L.A. region, and housing costs are outpacing wage growth for renters. These conditions are especially burdensome for the regions entry-level and low-wage workers.

In July, the National Low Income Housing Coalition released a report that revealed Californians need to make a little over $30.00 an hour to afford to live in a two bedroom rental here. Those making minimum wage would have to work over 100 hours per week to afford that same rental. That would equal three minimum wage jobs, in order to not have to pay 30 percent of income on rent.

Key findings from the USC report showed that:

Between 2005 and 2015 homeownership rates decreased, and commute times increased for employees across all industries surveyed. Over the same time period, increases in housing costs far outpaced increases in renter wages, forcing households to face difficult tradeoffs in affording other necessities, such as food and healthcare. The burden is greatest for low-income employees, who increasingly face longer commutes and soaring housing costs, factors that can significantly impact ones quality of life.

Firms in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry were more successful attracting and retaining employees, while businesses in the Health Care and Social Assistance and Accommodation and Food industries report a wide consensus that the cost of living and housing harm their opportunities for employee attraction and retention. A possible explanation for the PSTS industrys success with employee attraction and retention as compared to the other industries is that PSTS firms generally offer higher paying jobs to a skilled workforce and factor the cost of living into their hiring packages

Although most employers acknowledged that housing affordability affects employee recruitment, retention, and quality of life, the majority of employers surveyed had not taken any steps to directly assist employees with housing. More than half (61 percent) of all business respondents did not implement any programs to assist employees in reducing their financial burdens. Where employers did provide such programs, these included: homebuyer education, relocation reimbursement, mortgage assistance, and financial education.

The citys booming tourism industry was used as an example in the report, showing that sector accounting for more than 525,000 local jobs, yet 69 percent of workers in this sector earn less than $25,000 annually. A similar situation exists in the field of home health aides they said, where the median annual wage is $22,600, forcing a large portion of these workers to live in poverty.

This trend is extremely worrisome because there will be a breaking point for employees forced to choose between sky-high rents, substandard conditions or long commutes  and they are likely to pick getting out of L.A., said Mary Leslie, president of LABC.

As a business community, we need to acknowledge that housing is not a siloed issue  it has a domino effect far beyond the housing market. To ensure continued success, employers should factor the cost of housing into their overall business strategy, in tandem with wages and traditional benefits, added Erin Rank, president and CEO at Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, Frequently, employers are surprised to find that their employees have qualified to purchase a home through Habitat for Humanity. They are unaware their own employees and coworkers are struggling to find adequate and affordable housing. Through this report, we are encouraging businesses to have a conversation with their employees about the state of housing they experience in an effort to understand the basic needs of their workers and develop a plan of action.

Some of the researchers and government recommendations included looking at housing as an overall business strategy, organizing business leaders to support and advocate for housing on all income levels and developing a coordinated approach to creating affordable housing with unconventional partnerships.

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More than 18 employers representing over 84,000 employees participated in the study.

The report will officially be released on October 19 at the Los Angeles Business Councils 17th Annual Mayoral Housing, Transportation and Jobs Summit, held at UCLA.Thurmond Plans to Bring California Schools Back to the Top

Tony Thurmond has a plan he said, to make public schools the best in the nation. Thurmond is running for State Superintendent for Public Instruction because he believes that every child should get the education they need to realize their potential. If he is elected in November, he will be the first African American to hold the position in more than three decades.

The candidates 14 point plan includes school safety, prioritized funding and transparency.

We cant be satisfied with the status quo, Thurmond said.

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There was a time when education in California was among the best in our nation. Now, by most accounts, California ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending. My plan offers innovative solutions, backed up by real strategies, to take California back to the top. If we have a clear eye on the future, we must be able to take California back to the top.

Currently Thurmond, 50, is a member in the California State Assembly serving the 15th District. He is a member of the California Legislative Latino Caucus, California Legislative Black Caucus, and California Legislative Jewish Caucus. Prior to being elected to the Assembly in 2014, he was a member of the Richmond City Council, a Board Member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District, and social services administrator.

He wont be new to education if elected, having used his time in the State Assembly to make it his top priority, he said.

I introduced a bill that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to fund STEM education so our kids will be prepared for jobs of the future, Thurmond explained.

I passed legislation that provides millions of dollars to school districts keep kids in school and out of the criminal justice system. I successfully advocated for money to make sure all California youth who were in foster care would have the money to go to college

He is also leading the charge to provide mental health services to kids to help combat the pressures of bullying.

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Before the Assembly, Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa School Board from 2008 to 2012 and the Richmond City Council from 2005 to 2008. Thurmond was the council liaison to the West Contra Costa County Unified School District and the West Contra Costa County Education Fund. He also served as council liaison to Richmonds Youth Commission and Workforce Investment Board.[3] He was a member of the Family and Childrens Trust Committee of Contra Costa County.

Education is close to the candidates heart. Born in Monterey, California, Thurmond was six years old when his mother, who was single, died of cancer and left him and his siblings to be raised by a relative. The family struggled, he said, and relied on public assistance. But his benefactor made sure he navigated his way successfully through the states public educational system, a factor that led him to Temple University where he studied social work.

In my life, education has been the great equalizer that allowed me to overcome humble beginnings, said Thurmond,

I want the same opportunities for all of Californias kids.

So far, Thurmond is endorsed by a number of political heavy weights, including Senator Kamala Harris, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the California Legislative Black Caucus and the California Democratic Party.Vaya A Remarkable Look at Innocence Lost in Modern South Africa

One of the most tragic things that can happen in a persons life is the loss of their innocence. Perhaps, if one could rewind the entire history of this world, we would find that the source of evil began just that way, with one innocent soul corrupted, spreading the impact like a fast-moving, all-consuming cancer.

In director Akin Omotosos powerful film Vaya, he takes us deep into one of the meanest streets in South Africas Johannesburg. Here we meet three, young strangers on a train traveling from their simple rural life, in the coastal province of KwaZulu-Natal to Jozi. Once they arrive, they quickly discover the cruel realities of what it takes to survive in a city where the streets are stocked full of con artists and pimps.

Built-in expectations and fears drive the story once they set foot in Johannesburg. Its an adrenaline pumping culture shock for Zanele (Zimkhitha Nyoka), an attractive woman whos chaperoning a wide-eyed girl, Zodwa (Azwile Chamane-Madiba), who is reluctating reuniting with her complicated mother, Thobeka (Nomonde Mbusi). Nkulus (Sibusiso Msimang) task is daunting, a grieving son given the responsibility of retrieving his fathers body from a coal mine for burial; and Nhlanhla (Sihle Xaba), a naive young man dreaming of wealth and making a big name for himself like his gangster cousin Xolani (Warren Masemola). From the very second each character appears on the screen, you find yourself utterly absorbed in their journey and the director, Omotoso, deftly interweaves the narratives with clear purpose, while providing many compelling twists and introducing complicated villains like Madoda (Mncedisi Shabangu), Thobekas boyfriend, who turns out to be Nkulus half-brother from his fathers secret second family. Drama with a capital D.

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The result is gripping and as you follow each characters journey, you inhale, sharply, knowing they are being led astray, but wanting them to win, somehow and defeat the evil thats pulling them deeper and deeper and pushing them closer to the point-of-no-return.

Nkulu has no idea that his deceased father had another family, who have their own plans for his body. Zanele is promised an opportunity to appear on television by a questionable talent scout. Nhlanhla gets caught like a fly in the spiders web, entering into a life of crime with a bang, each struggle to keep their sanity and their souls.

Trying to navigate their way through a wild and unpredictable maze, we can feel their collective panic once they discover that they are just pawns inside a game where they are powerless.

On the technical side, its beautifully shot by cinematographer Kabelo Thathe, making this living, breathing city a character in its own right, a type of ethereal beauty.

Chaotic and suspenseful, Vaya is filled with trigger-happy men with excellent aim. This could be described as a gangster film, but its deeper than most made in the United States. It has an authentic flavor, which Hollywood cant duplicate despite its deep pockets, such as the power of the truth.

Director Akin Omotoso is a gifted storyteller. In this wicked and unforgiving city, he finds little pockets where we witness redeeming moments of honesty and trust. These people struggle and we feel the greater tension between their traditions and the economic survival that shapes modern Johannesburg.

Much of the film is based on the real-life stories of people living on the streetssome of whom appear in the film. To that end, its hard to say whose performance is best, since they are all equally outstanding. That includes every person that appears in every frame of this film. In the faces we see joy and hope, we see vulnerability, naivete and then we witness wisdom and an inner strength make their entrance, leaving us with hope.

Vaya is an entertaining cinematic ride and one that you will find yourself revisiting again and again.

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An ARRAY acquisition, with distribution rights in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand territories, Vaya will debut on November 1, with a national screening tour and simultaneous release on Netflix.Why The Hate U Give Is Not a Black Lives Matter Movie

Some are touting The Hate U Give, as the first Black Lives Matter movie. Red flags should have gone up the moment we learned that Fox, recently acquired by Disney, was behind the film with a massive public relations budget, footing the bill for hundreds of advance screenings with celebrity guests, marketing swag, and heavy media saturation  especially in Black markets. We might also wonder about the choice to have Audrey Wells, a White screenwriter whose credits include Under the Tuscan Sun and The Truth About Cats and Dogs, adapt an urban Black novel for the screen. Angie Thomas New York Times bestseller on which the film is based swapped out the book cover that originally pictured a chocolate-colored Afroed girl, for the light-skinned young actress, Amandla Stenberg, who plays the lead, Starr Carter, in the film. Stenbergs braids hang long as she holds a placard that reads The Hate U Give, a reference to Tupacs THUG LIFE acronym (The Hate U Give Little Infants F*cks Everyone). Tupac, Hip Hop icon, poet, and son of a Black Panther, was intentional with his language. THUG LIFE, tattooed across his mid-section, was a scathing critique of the White-supremacist-capitalist system that treats Black and poor children with contempt, depriving them of resources, and ultimately causing the whole of society to suffer the consequences. The film betrays that analysis by entrenching old tropes. The Hate U Give makes Black people primarily responsible for their own oppression. The film asks viewers not to challenge a policing system that kills Black people at least every 28 hours, but to focus exclusively on Black-on-Black crime, even when unarmed Black boys are killed by White cops.

The film builds around Starr witnessing the killing of her childhood friend, Khalil, by a White police officer. Starr, straddles two worlds, not quite fitting in to the all-Black, inner-city neighborhood in which she resides that is replete with all kinds of stereotypical Black pathologies, and not feeling at home at her affluent prep school either, where her White friends exhibit class privilege and everyday racisms. Her father, Maverick, is an ex-gang member, who has ongoing conflict with the neighborhood drug dealer, King, for whom Khalil was selling drugs and is also the step-father of Starrs half-brother, Seven, who is the exact same age as Starr. If it sounds complicated, it is. We can ignore the technical challenges of the film for the moment, including the fact that if Starrs parents had her when they were 17, they should be 34and, even if Black dont crack, its a reach to have them played by 44-year-old Russell Hornsby and 47-year-old Regina Hall. Director, George Tillman (of Soul Food), is able to pull the audience in emotionally, with early heart-warming scenes of a loving two-parent family and Starrs charming voiceover that feels authentic and honest. However, emotional connection, sometimes causes audiences to set aside their critical lens, and we fail to unpack the message of the movie.

W.E.B. DuBois warns that all art is propaganda. So the question is what political perspective is The Hate U Give attempting to convey. Amidst the beauty of the familial relationships are a bevy of problematic messages, ones advancing respectability, colorism, sexism, Black flight, integrationism, Black pathology, exceptionalism, messianic models of change, White superiority, deracialization, and good-cop narrative. While Starrs family is a place of refuge, her neighborhood exemplifies a Black pathology narrative of poor Black folks who are inherently promiscuous and violent. She and her family are portrayed as the exceptions to this because of their ability to redeem themselves from their teenage indiscretions that include drug dealing, gang-banging, incarceration, and promiscuity, through adherence to a patriarchal nuclear-family structure. While Starrs mother, Lisa, is clear about her desire to escape the neighborhood and build a better life for her children, it is Starrs father who has a sense of community allegiance and Black nationalism that compels the children to memorize the Black Panther Partys 10-point platform in two of the most contrived scenes in the film. Ultimately, Starrs father and good-cop uncle Carlos (played by Common), save the family from the savage attack of the neighborhood drug dealer, who attempts to kill themincluding his own stepson. Although Khalils murder at the hands of a White cop is the crescendo of the film, the officer who killed him is quickly overshadowed by the neighborhood drug dealer as the primary villain, a set-up for an ongoing subtext and primary message about Black-on-Black crime as the root of all evil.

Throughout the film, Starr is working to find her voiceto speak for Khalil. An activist lawyer, April Ofrah (played by Issa Rae), who leads the strangely named social justice group Just Us for Justice, convinces Starr to go on national television to tell what she saw. Ultimately Starr spends more time naming the neighborhood drug dealer than she does talking about the police who murdered her friend. When the cop is exonerated, she, her siblings, andfor a brief momenther White boyfriend, join the protest march that they stumble upon. In an ultimate show of melodrama, Starr is lifted onto the hood of a car, handed a too-small bullhorn, and gives the least compelling speech of all time that ends with tears, a fist, and a declaration Khalil lived! Khalil lived!

As police move in with tear gas, she drags her freshly beaten brother into the back of a strangers pick-up truck and is transported to her fathers corner store to pour milk in their eyes, but the drug dealer is waiting and has his crony throw a molotov cocktail that promises to burn the teens alive. They are ultimately saved with their father shows up and lets them out the backdoor. As Maverick confronts the real villain, King-the-drug-dealer, Starrs eight-year-old brother has somehow gotten ahold of his fathers gun and points it at the drug dealer. Police, who arrive on the scene, in turn, point their guns at the small child, and Starr steps between. No! she saysHer voice gets through to the cops who lower their weapons and see the error of their ways. The entire neighborhood comes out to speak up about King, appealing to the White officers to save them. Then, the point of the film, Starrs voiceover comes in, hitting the audience over the head with the films messagethat Black communities are saved when Black folks rally together, not against murderous police, but against neighborhood drug dealers. We must trust police to save us from the Kings of the world and bring them to justice, the film proclaims. Starrs final voiceover, in a line that is not found in the novel, admonishes Black audiencesBecause its not about the hate YOU give, its about the hate WE give.

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The Hate U Give is propaganda that tells us that the answer to our woes is not addressing the intentional design of policing systems that are rooted in slave-catching and kill our people at least every 28 hours, but to trust that system to bring an inherently pathological Black community in line. While no evidence has emerged that police interests have provided financial support for the film or filmmaker (as Boots Riley uncovered with Spike Lee, shortly before BlacKKKlansman was released), Foxs conservatism, Disneys history of racist indoctrination, and the entrenchment of both in the White-supremacist-capitalist system that Tupac so brilliantly critiqued, offer cause for healthy suspicion.

We are eager for cinematic representations of this current iteration of Black freedom struggle. As Black Lives Matter organizers, we state emphatically that this is not a Black Lives Matter film; it is the antithesis. We encourage Black audiences, all those who reject narratives that make Black victims of police violence responsible for their own deaths, and Tupac fans, to invest their dollars in Black film that uplifts and empowers Black communities. The Hate U Give isnot that.Afghans will mark ballots in long-delayed elections on Saturday.

The Associated Press reports that about 16 percent of the 2,565 candidates are women. They are competing for 249 seats in Afghanistans parliament.

Twenty-nine-year-old Hameeda Danesh is competing against six men for a seat. She is seeking to represent the district of Jalrez in Wardak province.

Jalrez is home to many ethnic Pashtun. The Taliban is said to be in control of the area. People there follow a strict form of Islam, which bars women from a number of activities. Many women are not registered to vote.

Hameeda Danesh told the AP her story about the difficulties women face in Afghanistan.

Danesh claims that she was locked away by her uncles at the age of 13 and beaten every day for six months. The men did this because they did not want her to attend school.

Danesh said she hopes to guarantee education for the next generation of Afghan girls. But resistance to this idea comes from the Taliban and local militia leaders allied with the government.

Danesh said this election is extremely important for women. She noted that traditional ideas of religion in the country are gaining strength and efforts to negotiate with the Taliban are increasing. However, the last time the group ruled Afghanistan, girls were not permitted to attend school or women to work.

She showed the AP marks from her beatings as a child 16 years ago. She said, This is why I struggle, because no woman or girl should ever have to face these tortures.

She added, This election is so important because we need a new generation.

Gains for women slow to arrive

It has been 17 years since a United States-led coalition ousted the Taliban government from power. The U.S. and other nations have provided billions of dollars in aid to help rebuild Afghanistan. Yet rights activists say they struggle to get parliament to approve laws protecting women or guaranteeing education and worker rights.

Abdul Wadood Pedram heads the group Human Rights and the Eradication of Violence Organization, which is based in Kabul.

Pedram said, A lot of members of parliament are against these laws because they dont like some of the articles that allow women to work outside the house, or guarantee their education or their right to divorce or protection from their husbands.

Pedram added that, after 10 years, parliament has yet to approve a law on stopping violence.

However, he noted that women have seen gains since the Taliban leadership was ousted.

Today, Afghan girls are able to attend school, and women appear on television programs and serve in parliament. They are on provincial councils, head government ministries and lead the Independent Human Rights Commission. Women also are members of the High Peace Council, which holds peace talks with rebels, Pedram noted.

Daneshs husband Bilal said he supports his wifes independence. However, he worries when she leaves her home in Kabul to travel to Wardak, about 40 kilometers away.

The security situation before the election remains very tense.

On Thursday, at least two Afghan officials were killed in a shooting incident during a visit of the top U.S. general in Afghanistan. The dead included Abdul Raziq, a police commander who had survived several earlier attempts on his life.

Two American soldiers were injured in the attack.

The Taliban claimed responsibility. It said the targets were Raziq and the American general, Scott Miller, who was unharmed. Miller was visiting the offices of Kandahars governor for a meeting with the governor and other Afghan officials.

Raziq was said to have kept Taliban rebels under control but he also was criticized by human rights activists for abuses.

Afghan officials have promised to protect Afghans who vote and voting stations across the country during the elections.

Im Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter adapted this story for VOA Learning English. His report is based on information from the Associated Press and VOA News. George Grow was the editor.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

article  n. a part of a document; a document setting the terms of an agreement

divorce  v. to officially cancel a marriage

strict  adj. severe; exacting

lock  v. to tie together; to close or make secure

uncle  n. the brother of ones father or mother

allow  v. to permit

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page.Ian Power was one of the first people to buy legal recreational marijuana in Canada, but he has no plans to smoke it. He plans to keep it forever.

Canada became the largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace on Wednesday. Power was first in line at a store in the eastern city of Saint Johns, Newfoundland.

I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall. Im not even going to smoke it. Im just going to save it forever, Power said.

And there was more good news for marijuana lovers. Canadas Public Safety Minister said the government will consider a proposal to pardon those jailed for possessing a small amount of marijuana  as long as they have finished their sentence.

Canada has permitted medical use of marijuana since 2001. For two years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has worked to legalize marijuana for recreational uses. The goal is to admit societys changing opinion about the drug and to create a government supervised market.

Profits out of the hands of criminalsToday #cannabis is legalized, Trudeau wrote in a tweet.

Uruguay was first was the first country to legalize marijuana sales in 2017.

Celebrations on Water Street

As Tuesday night came to an end, hundreds of people were lined up at a store on Water Street in St. Johns, Newfoundland. Some people smoked marijuana on the street while those in vehicles sounded horns to show support.

We just made history, said the 46-year-old Power, who bought one gram of marijuana. I cant believe we did it

Bruce Linton, the head of marijuana grower and store Canopy Growth, made the sale to Power.

It was extremely emotional, he said. Several people who work for us have been working on this for their entire adult life and several of them were in tears.

Linton said Canada is at the head of the industry because it is federally legal in Canada and federally illegal in the United States.

The last time Canada was this far ahead in anything, Alexander Graham Bell made a phone call, said Linton.

Bell, who lived in the United States, was a Canadian citizen.

Linton's company recently received an investment of $4 billion from Constellation Brands, which also sells Corona beer and Robert Mondavi wines.

Tom Clarke, who sold marijuana illegally for 30 years, was also one of the first to make a legal sale in Canada. His store opened early Wednesday morning in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. He made the first sale to his father. A crowd of 50 to 100 people waited outside and cheered him.

Ive been waiting my whole life for this, Clarke said. I am so happy to be living in Canada right now instead of south of the border.

His father, Don, said he was happy that he was one of the first buyers of legal marijuana.

Its been a long time coming. Weve only been discussing this for 50 years. Its better late than never, he said.

Sales across Canada

The Newfoundland stores are among at least 111 legal marijuana stores expected to open across the nation of 37 million people.

Canadians also can order marijuana products through websites operated by provinces or private sellers and have them sent to their homes by mail.

Two provinces, Alberta and Quebec, have set the age for legal purchase at 18, while others have made it 19.

No stores will open in Ontario, which includes the city of Toronto. The province with the largest population is working on its laws and does not expect stores until next year.

Each province in Canada has different laws, but they all must meet conditions set by the federal government.

Im Susan Shand.

The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

recreational  adj. done for enjoyment

frame  v. to create a decorative border around something

cannabis  n. a drug (such as marijuana or hashish) that comes from the hemp plant

tweet  n. a message made on the Twitter message service

horn  n. a wind instrument or something sounding like an instrument

The Vietnamese dissident known as Mother Mushroom has arrived in the United States after her release from prison.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, one of Vietnams most famous dissidents, landed in Houston, Texas late on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, she was released from a Vietnamese prison where she had been serving a 10-year sentence for anti-state propaganda. She was jailed in the northern province of Thanh Hoa.

Quynh was reunited with her two children on the flight from Vietnam. She told VOA, Although I was prepared to meet my family, I was still shocked when my son and daughter hugged me on the plane. We have been waiting for more than two years for this.

She added that Vietnamese officials had kept her from having any contact with her son and daughter until the last minute.

A small group of relatives and supporters greeted Quynh on her arrival in Houston after the 11-hour long flight. She told a cheering crowd, I will not be silent.

She added, "the reunion sends a message to those who have imprisoned me that I am not alone and the voice of freedom is never lost.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is a blogger and environmental activist. She was among 13 women to receive an International Women of Courage Award last year from the U.S. State Department. President Donald Trumps wife, Melania, presented the awards at a ceremony in Washington.

Mother Mushroom was arrested for publishing what police described as anti-state reports on the internet. One message talked about civilians dying while under police control.

She was sentenced last year in a government campaign against dissidents. It began in 2016 when more conservative leaders gained top Communist party positions.

Quynh is the second dissident released this year. Vietnam freed human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai in June. He went to Germany.

Nicholas Bequelin is with the rights group Amnesty International. He says Vietnam is requiring dissidents to promise to leave the country in order to get out of prison.

"While Mother Mushroom is no longer imprisoned, the condition for her release was exile," he said. He added that more than 100 people remain in Vietnamese jails because they peacefully expressed their opinions, in public, on blogs and on social media.

I'm Dorothy Gundy.

Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional material from Caty Waever and the Reuters news service. George Grow was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

greet - v. to meet (someone who has just arrived) with usually friendly and polite words and actions

reunion - n. an act of getting people together again after they have been apart

hug - v. to put your arms around someone as a way of showing love or friendship

blogger - n. someone who writes and posts regularly on a webpage called a blogA robot appeared with British lawmakers earlier this week to demonstrate how machines are being engineered to act like human beings.

The robot is called Pepper. It is known as a humanoid, a machine designed to look and act like a person.

Pepper was called to sit Tuesday with the Education Committee in Britains House of Commons. The parliament announced it was the first time a robot had ever appeared for questioning by lawmakers.

Japans SoftBank Robotics launched Pepper in 2014. The robot appearing in parliament belongs to an engineering and computer science team at Londons Middlesex University. The students are developing the artificial intelligence or AI programs that power Pepper. AI is the ability of a machine, such as a computer, to reproduce intelligent human behavior.

Pepper was welcomed to parliament by Robert Halfon, chairman of the Education Committee.

Pepper, could you please introduce yourself.

Good morning chair. Thank you for inviting me to give evidence today. My name is Pepper and Im a resident robot at Middlesex University.

Pepper explained that it was involved in a special robot development project called Caresses. The European Commission and Japanese government launched the project in 2017. It aims to design robots that can assist older adults and adapt to the culture of the individual they are taking care of.

Robots like Pepper are being engineered to help people carry out many common tasks and other activities. For example, a robot can help someone remember to take medicine or urge them to stay active. The humanoids can also serve as a communication link to help older adults keep in contact with family members and friends.

Engineers working on the Caresses project say they are using machine learning to make Pepper seem intelligent. They say their development methods help robots recognize the daily activities and desires of the people they are assisting.

Pepper told British lawmakers the Caresses project has helped make robots more intelligent and culturally competent.

Assistive, intelligent robots for older people could relieve pressure in hospitals and care homes as well as improve the care delivery at home.

Pepper added that this kind of personal robot can also be used to reduce loneliness and improve a persons quality of life.

Several British lawmakers questioned Pepper about technology subjects. But all of Peppers answers appeared to have been pre-programmed before the committee appearance.

The technology website The Verge reported how AI and robotics researchers noted that Pepper is not equipped to listen to questions and provide answers in real-time.

A spokesman for the Education Committee spoke about the issue with The Verge. It will be clear on the day that Peppers responses are not spontaneous, the spokesman said.

He added that Peppers appearance provided the chance for lawmakers to explore both the potential and limitations of such technology and the capabilities of robots.

Martin Loomes leads Middlesex Universitys School of Science and Technology. He says robots are sure to play a big part in many industries in the future. But Pepper is an example of how robots can do more than purely mechanical jobs and seek to connect meaningfully with people in social and cultural ways, he added.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Quiz - Humanoid Pepper Appears in Britains Parliament Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

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Words in This Story

introduce  v. to make known by an official announcement or act

resident  n. someone who lives in a set or given place

adapt  v. to be able to change to meet new needs or requirements

competent  adj. able to do something well

relieve  v. to ease a burden or load

promote  v. encourage something to happen

spontaneous  adj. happening naturally or sudden and without being planned

capability  n. the ability or power to do somethingFederal officials in the United States are investigating child sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church.

The Associated Press reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially demanded documents and statements from church leaders in Pennsylvania. The orders were presented to church officials last week, the AP says.

In August, a grand jury released a report about such accusations. The report accused 301 priests in Pennsylvania of sexually abusing more than 1,000 children over 70 years. It also said that high-level church officials hid the activities to protect the accused.

Federal government lawyers, called prosecutors, are now taking action. That is what two people who were not permitted to discuss the investigation told AP. They spoke to the AP on the condition that the news group would keep their identities secret.

Marci Hamilton is a University of Pennsylvania professor and leader of Child USA, a nonprofit research group for child abuse prevention.

She said such action would be important. "The federal government has so far been utterly silent on the Catholic cases," she added.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain of Philadelphia released the orders for the documents and statements by Catholic officials. He said he wants to know if officials such as priests, bishops, seminarians or other Catholic leaders carried out any federal crimes.

Such crimes could include taking children across state lines for illegal purposes, sending sexual images or messages electronically or ordering anyone not to contact police. McSwain also said he wants to know if Catholic officials moved suspected abusers to other areas or used money or other possessions as part of such wrongdoing.

The order seeks private church records. The APs unidentified individuals said government lawyers are also seeking records on the local Churchs organization and finances. Details of where clergy worked and the treatment of priests are also being sought.

The Pennsylvania grand jury report was almost 900 pages. It found that church leaders systematically hid evidence of wrongdoing.

However, the report said only two priests could be charged because of time limits on legal action for such crimes. Many accused priests have already died.

Legal experts said local Roman Catholic Churches could possibly be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. That federal law, passed by Congress in 1970, is meant to fight organized crime.

Im Caty Weaver.

The Associated Press news agency reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

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Words in This Story

grand jury - n. a group of people who look at the evidence against someone who has been accused of a crime in order to decide if there should be a trial

utterly - adj. complete and totalRepresentatives from the United States and more than 70 countries met in London last week to discuss the illegal wildlife trade. The delegates promised to work together to protect endangered animals.

Experts estimate that the trade in endangered wildlife, including elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns and tiger bones, is worth $17 billion a year. Now, hundreds of kinds of animals are at risk of dying out.

Britains Prince William spoke at the meeting. He said he understood that many countries do not have enough resources for law enforcement officials.

But I am asking you to see the connections, to acknowledge that the steps you take to tackle illegal wildlife crime could make it easier to halt the shipments of guns and drugs passing through your borders.

Illegal ivory trade activity has more than doubled since 2007.

It has claimed many human lives. The International Ranger Federation reports that more than 100 wildlife protection officials died trying to fight poachers last year.

And rare wild animals have been pushed to the edge of disappearing. More than 1,300 rhinos were killed in 2015 alone. And the number of Asian tigers has decreased by 95 percent in the last 100 years. Their body parts are in demand for Chinese medicines and alcoholic drinks.

But it is not only big mammals that are at risk.

For example, the numbers of an endangered water frog from Lake Titicaca in Peru have sharply decreased in recent years. Thousands have been caught to make a juice that some people believe has medicinal uses. There is, however, no scientific evidence to support those beliefs.

Officials promise action

At the meeting, delegates supported the decision by China at the beginning of this year to close its domestic ivory market. The move is considered a major step in protecting the worlds elephant population.

Aron White is with the Environmental Investigation Agency in Britain. He said other animals need similar protection.

This market was both stimulating demand for ivory and also enabling illegal ivory to be laundered through this legal trade. But that same issue still exists for big cats.

Activists say existing UN rules on international organized crime can help fight the illegal wildlife trade. But they say those rules are not being used effectively.

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions told delegates that the U.S. will give $90 million to programs that fight illegal wildlife traffickers.

He said, These criminals must be and they can be stopped.

The meeting attendees promised to work together to fight the illegal wildlife trade and recognize it as a serious and organized crime.

But it remains to be seen how quickly they will act on those words.

Im Jonathan Evans.

Henry Ridgwell reported this story for VOA News. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

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Words in This Story

acknowledge  v. to tell or show someone that something such as a letter or message has been received; to regard or describe someone or something as having or deserving a particular status

endangered  adj. used to describe a type of animal or plant that has become very rare and that could die out completely

launder(ed)  v. to put something (usually money that you got by doing something illegal) into a business or bank account in order to hide where it really came from

tackle  v. to deal with something difficult

tusks  n. very long, large teeth that stick out of the mouth of an animal such as an elephant, walrus, or boar

domestic adj. of, relating to, or made in ones own countryA court in northern India sentenced a Hindu guru and 14 followers to life imprisonment yesterday in the deaths of four women and a child at his sprawling ashram.

The court ordered the penalty for Sant Rampal in Hisar city in Haryana state, where authorities deployed hundreds of riot police in anticipation of violence by the gurus thousands of disciples in response to his sentencing.

Rampal, 67, was arrested in 2014 following a days-long standoff between law enforcers and his supporters in which six people died and hundreds were injured. At the time, Rampal was wanted for questioning in a 2006 murder case and had repeatedly ignored orders to appear in court.

Rampal and the 14 followers were accused by police of holding the four women and child captive inside the ashram, resulting in their deaths from a lack of food and medicine as the fierce standoff continued.

The court is expected to announce sentences in the death of a fifth woman today.

Hindu gurus and holy men are immensely popular in India, with millions of followers. People often consult gurus before making important personal decisions. But the enormous power wielded by some has led to scandals in which they have been accused of exploiting devotees. APDairy needs political punch says Brokenshire

Former politician Robert Brokenshire says the dairy industry needs to be "stronger" in its negotiations with politicians and not be intimidated by government.Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers

Researchers developed a novel DNA influenza vaccine based on four micro-consensus antigenic regions selected to represent the diversity of seasonal H3N2 viruses across decades. The DNA vaccine protected mice against a lethal challenge with more than one influenza-A H3N2 virus and protected them from severe H3N2-related illness despite the lack of an exact sequence match between the vaccine immunogen and H3 immunogen. The findings are reported in a new Special Issue on DNA Vaccines in Human Gene Therapy," a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

David Weiner, The Wistar Institute of Anatomy & Biology, Philadelphia, PA, and coauthors from Wistar and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Plymouth Meeting, PA conducted the study entitled " A Synthetic Micro-Consensus DNA Vaccine Generates Comprehensive Influenza-A H3N2 Immunity and Protects Mice Against Lethal Challenge by Multiple H3N2 Viruses." This new DNA vaccine strategy was intended to elicit a comprehensive immune response and to represent a step forward in eliminating the need to reformulate a seasonal vaccine each year to protect against influenza-A H3N2.

The researchers designed a vaccine designed to elicit broad immune responses against di-verse influenza-A H3N2 viruses by engineering four synthetic hemagglutinin H3 immu-nogens. The H3 sequences used were chosen by aligning sequences from 233 influenza-A H3N2 strains representing viruses from across multiple decades. The researchers identi-fied four micro-consensus sequences with sufficient sequence similarity to predict cross-reactive immune responses against diverse H3N2 strains.

"Influenza continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, as the virus continuously changes to evade the human immune system," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. "The approach developed by the Wistar Institute team holds great promise as a means to elicit an immune response that the virus will not evade."

Explore further Synthetic DNA vaccine effective against influenza A virus subtype

More information: Sarah T.C. Elliott et al, A Synthetic Micro-Consensus DNA Vaccine Generates Comprehensive Influenza A H3N2 Immunity and Protects Mice Against Lethal Challenge by Multiple H3N2 Viruses, Human Gene Therapy (2018). Journal information: Human Gene Therapy Sarah T.C. Elliott et al, A Synthetic Micro-Consensus DNA Vaccine Generates Comprehensive Influenza A H3N2 Immunity and Protects Mice Against Lethal Challenge by Multiple H3N2 Viruses,(2018). DOI: 10.1089/hum.2018.102Chris Gignoux, Ph.D., University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Credit: Dr. Gignoux

A new approach to genetic analysis finds associations between environmental factors and pharmacogenesgenes associated with a person's response to drugssparking ideas for new research at the interface of population genetics and medicine. Findings were presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

"Humans have developed and used pharmaceutical drugs for a few centuries, but their genes have been functioning on their own and interacting with other environmental factors for long before that," explained presenting author Chris Gignoux, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Like changes in the physical environment, drugs affect the micro- environment within the body, which alters the way its cells and genes function. This suggests that genes with pharmacogenomic relevance may also be useful in studying broader correlations between genetics and environment.

To explore a variety of environmental factors, Dr. Gignoux collaborated with Elena Sorokin, Ph.D., of Stanford University, who created a geocoded resource of over 20 climate, geographic, and ecological variables, using data from NASA, the World Wildlife Fund, and other sources. With collaborators from across the United States, they examined samples from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study, a large initiative to highlight the utility of studying clinically and epidemiologically relevant variation in 51,698 individuals from 99 global populations. In a new type of analysis they termed an Enviro-WAS (environmental-wide association study), the researchers examined 19,690 pharmacogenomically-relevant variants to identify associations between genotypes and the 20 environmental variables.

Dr. Sorokin described the reasons behind building the geocoded resource and applying it to PAGE. "This work was inspired by previous research on human adaptation, coupled with our interest in performing large-scale association studies across diverse populations," she said. "We can use our rich environmental database to identify correlations with genetic variants from globally representative populations in the PAGE Study."

The Enviro-WAS identified novel associations between certain genetic variants and ecological zones and replicated previously known associations between certain variants and environmental variables such as latitude and altitude. The geocoded resource of environmental factor data will be made available for other researchers to use and collaborate on, in hopes of promoting and refining the Enviro-WAS approach and triggering further investigation into environmental factors and genomics.

"We believe these associations may be of interest to both evolutionary and medical geneticists, since this method can show how genes have reacted to environments throughout history," said Dr. Gignoux.

In addition, studying a diverse, global population allows for further examination of a variety of environmental factors and adds to information missing in pharmacogenomics. Such research can help to address unequal representation in clinical genomics.

"Pharmacogenomics data currently have a heavy bias towards people of European descent, and there's a lack of knowledge about diverse populations," said Dr. Gignoux. "This sampling gives us more diversity and could lead to better targeted treatments for subgroups worldwide."

Explore further Combining genetic and sun exposure data improves skin cancer risk estimatesVolunteers aged 9-10 with dyslexia took less time to read passages from children's books, possibly thanks to an attenuated excitability of the cerebral cortex. Credit: Milena Razuk

Reading, one of the most difficult activities for children with dyslexia, can be improved by the use of green filters.

A study described in an article by Brazilian and French researchers reports increased reading speed for nine- and ten-year-old volunteers with dyslexia who used green filters. The filters had no effect on age-matched children without dyslexia.

Colored filters for the treatment of learning disabilities were first patented in 1983. They were also designed for use by children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

"However, studies of their efficacy were methodologically flawed. We used a highly rigorous methodology for the first time," said Milena Razuk, first author of the article, published in the journal Research in Developmental Disabilities.

The filters are not widely used in Brazil owing to a lack of research, although they have been adopted in some countries, such as France.

Razuk, who completed her Ph.D. in April at Cruzeiro do Sul University (Sao Paulo, Brazil), performed the experiment while in France on a research internship at Paris Diderot University (Paris 7), with support from the Sao Paulo Research FoundationFAPESP.

Eighteen children with dyslexia and 18 without dyslexia were selected for the study at Robert Debre Hospital in Paris. The researchers decided to use yellow and green filters in the experiment.

"Twelve colors are available, but we chose two because a very long test would be too demanding for the volunteers," said Jose Angelo Barela, a professor at Sao Paulo State University's Rio Claro Bioscience Institute (IBRC-UNESP) in Brazil and principal investigator for the project.

Faster Reading

All 36 children were asked to read passages from children's books suited to their reading age. The texts were displayed on a computer screen with a yellow filter, a green filter, and no filter.

Their eye movements were recorded with the Mobile EyeBrain Tracker, a French eye-tracking device certified for medical purposes, consisting of goggles fitted with cameras that record the movements of each eye independently via infrared light signals.

"A child with dyslexia has to fix his or her gaze on the words for a longer time to understand a text. Reading speed is slower as a result," Barela told.

While the filters did not affect reading speed for the children without dyslexia, the eye-tracking device detected a statistically significant difference for children with dyslexia, who read fastest with the green filter, fixing their gaze on groups of words for 500 thousandths of a second, compared with 600 thousandths of a second using the yellow filter or no filter. The fixation period with or without filters was 400 thousandths of a second for children without dyslexia.

The authors of the study stress that they did not evaluate whether the use of a green filter improved comprehension of what was read and that further research is needed to explore this dimension.

Dyslexia is poorly understood

The causes of dyslexia are unknown. In addition to reading difficulties, other deficits have been found to be associated with the disorder, including impaired sensorimotor integration. "It's as if some source of noise disturbs the brain's communication with the rest of the body," Razuk said.

Extensive testing has shown that neither impaired eyesight nor intellectual deficiency is part of the condition. "IQ must be normal or above average for dyslexia to be diagnosed," noted the FAPESP-supported researcher.

In the article, the authors of the study say the improvement in reading time with the green filter might be due to changes in the visual stimuli available for central nervous system processing.

Other studies have suggested that colored filters may reduce cortical hyperexcitability in the brain, which may be greater in dyslexic people, thereby attenuating contrasts in visual stimuli and hence improving reading performance.

This suggestion was reinforced by a 2015 study in which functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed significant activation of the cerebral cortex during reading with colored filters (mostly blue in this case) compared with reading without filters. The authors hypothesized that the filters reduced visual stress and distortion, enhancing visual processing and reading performance.

The next step for the group at IBRC-UNESP will be to use fMRI scans to analyze the brain activity of dyslexic children while reading. Barela has purchased an MRI machine with funding from Brazil's National Council for Scientific & Technological Development (CNPq).

Explore further Infant brain responses predict reading speed in secondary school

More information: Milena Razuk et al, Effect of colored filters on reading capabilities in dyslexic children, Research in Developmental Disabilities (2018). Journal information: Research in Developmental Disabilities Milena Razuk et al, Effect of colored filters on reading capabilities in dyslexic children,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.07.006Credit: CC0 Public Domain

By the time we reach middle age, more than half of the oesophagus in healthy people has been taken over by cells carrying mutations in cancer genes, scientists have uncovered. By studying normal oesophagus tissue, scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge and their collaborators uncovered a hidden world of mutations and evolution in our tissues as we age.

The results, published today (18 October) in Science show how mutant cells mutate and compete with each other throughout life, and only the fittest mutations survive.

Every person accumulates genetic changes, or mutations, throughout their lifetime. These mutations in normal tissue, called somatic mutations, are key to understanding the first steps to cancer and likely contribute towards ageing, but are unchartered territory due to technical limitations.

For the first time, scientists have uncovered that on average, healthy cells in the oesophagus carry at least several hundred mutations per cell in people in their twenties, rising to over 2,000 mutations per cell later in life. Only mutations in a dozen or so genes seem to matter however, as these give the cells a competitive advantage allowing them to take over the tissue and form a dense patchwork of mutations.

Professor Phil Jones, joint lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, said: "Under the microscope, the oesophageal tissue looked completely normalit came from healthy individuals who had no signs of cancer. After studying the genetics we were shocked to see that the healthy oesophagus was riddled with mutations. We discovered that by the time an individual reaches middle age, they probably have more mutant than normal cells."

The team used targeted and whole-genome sequencing to map groups of mutant cells in normal oesophageal tissue from nine individuals aged 20 to 75 years. The individuals' oesophageal tissues were considered healthy as none of the donors had a known history of oesophageal cancer, nor were taking medication for problems relating to the oesophagus.

The study also casts new light on the mutations that are found in the squamous kind of oesophageal cancers. One mutated gene, TP53, which is found in almost all oesophageal cancers is already mutated in 5-10 per cent of normal cells, suggesting that cancer develops from this minority of cells.

In contrast, mutations in the NOTCH1 gene, known to control cell division, were found in nearly half of all cells of normal oesophagus by middle age, being several times more common in normal tissue than cancer. This observation suggests that researchers need to reconsider the role of some genes recurrently mutated in cancer in the light of mutations in normal tissue, and raises the possibility that the NOTCH1 mutation may even protect cells against cancer development.

Dr. Jo Fowler, joint first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "For years we have sequenced cancer genomes and looked for genes that are commonly mutated across patients. We assumed that the common mutations are the ones driving the cancer. However, now we have looked at normal tissues we were surprised to find that a gene commonly associated with oesophageal cancer, NOTCH1, was more mutated in normal cells than cancer cells. These results suggest that scientists may need to rethink the role of some cancer genes in the light of sequencing normal tissues."

The discovery that normal aged oesophagus is a dense patchwork of mutant cells carrying mutations previously linked with oesophageal cancer has important implications. It provides insights into key genes that control cell behaviour in normal tissues. It also gives a window into the first steps in the development of some oesophageal cancers, which are believed to arise from these mutant cells, and will be informative for current research efforts on early detection of cancer.

Dr. Inigo Martincorena, joint lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We have found that genetic mutations associated with cancer are widespread in normal tissues, revealing how our own cells mutate, compete and evolve to colonise our tissues as we age. Given the importance of these mutations to cancer, it is remarkable that we have been unaware of the extent of this phenomenon until now. While the work sheds light on early cancer development, it also raises many questions about how these mutations may contribute to ageing and other diseases, opening interesting avenues for future research."

Professor Karen Vousden, chief scientist at Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the study, said: "As cancer researchers, we can't underestimate the importance of studying healthy tissue. Our risk of developing cancer increases as we age, and this research brings us closer to uncovering clues within our normal tissues to help us identify individuals at higher risk of the disease.

"This study shows that some genetic changes linked to cancer are present in surprisingly large numbers of normal cells. We still have a long way to go to fully understand the implications of these new findings, but we hope that studies like this will one day help us to develop targeted diagnostic tests. In particular, oesophageal cancer is very hard to treat so detecting signs of the disease at the earliest possible stage could make a huge difference for patients."

Explore further Scientists uncover why very few of the many mutated cells in our skin go on to eventually form cancer

More information: I. Martincorena el al., "Somatic mutant clones colonize the human esophagus with age," Science (2018). Journal information: Science I. Martincorena el al., "Somatic mutant clones colonize the human esophagus with age,"(2018). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi  1126/science.aau3879Developed countries imposing their own Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes onto nations recovering from war often rely on entrenched colonial attitudes with no guarantee of success.

Research led by the University of Kent specifically looked at the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) and Nepal contrasting their outcomes and examining the reasons for success or failure of SSR policies based on European templates. They question whether the systems even work in their countries of origin where statistics show ongoing institutional racism.

SSR is a key feature of peacebuilding interventions and is usually undertaken by a state alongside national and international partners. Many programmes still aim to create a security sector following a European template, without sufficiently acknowledging that this might not work in countries outside of Europe.

Dr. Nadine Ansorg of Kent's School of Politics and International Relations (POLIR) at Kent, together with Dr. Julia Strasheim, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, Hamburg, found that social and political dynamics, historical and cultural details, and the involvement of other nearby countries all have to be factored into when creating meaningful SSR policies for a nation.

In DRC, the high number of rebel groups from within and outside the country posed a major obstacle to a successful demobilisation of forces. Nepal, in a contained geographical area and without involvement of neighbouring countries and other vested interests, experienced a completely different outcome to DRC.

The research highlights the need to genuinely acknowledge that SSR programmes must respond to their specific contexts. A programme that works in one country will not necessarily work in another which may explain the mixed results in peacebuilding and the co-operation and tensions within reform programmes.

Dr. Ansorg said: 'There is a strong streak of post-colonial, persistent Eurocentric concepts in international SSR programmes, by the United Nations, World Bank, and other donors. After all, the government also persistently embodies a neo-colonial attitude towards countries from the Global South, as the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to Africa showed, and not forgetting the words of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the subject.'

More information: Nadine Ansorg et al, Veto Players in Post-Conflict DDR Programs: Evidence From Nepal and the DRC, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2018). Nadine Ansorg et al, Veto Players in Post-Conflict DDR Programs: Evidence From Nepal and the DRC,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/17502977.2018.1501981Waukegan, IL - Waukegan police arrested a local woman and charged her with murder last week following an incident they described as domestically charged that ended with her allegedly striking and killing her boyfriend with a vehicle.

Arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder was Alfie Abston, 39, of Waukegan, who was held in lieu of $3 million bail, according to a statement released Monday by Waukegan police.

Also on Monday, Lake County Coroner Dr. Howard Cooper identified the victim in the Friday morning hit-and-run incident as 41-year-old Mark Bernard of Waukegan.

According to Cooper, a preliminary autopsy report indicates Bernard died of multiple traumatic injuries and blunt force trauma. Routine toxicology reports are pending.

The investigation into his death is ongoing by our office and the Waukegan Police Department, Cooper said in a statement, and efforts are continuing to contact the victims family.

Anyone with any information on Mr. Bernards family should contact us immediately at 847-377-2200, Cooper said. This is truly a tragedy, and we would appreciate the publics help in this matter.

The statement issued by Waukegan police early Monday reported that investigators recovered the vehicle believed to have been used in the hit-and-run Friday at 6:47 a.m. near Washington and Genesee streets.

The statement added that officers with Waukegans Criminal Investigation Division arrested Abston on the same day of the incident, at around 11:20 a.m.

Based on the investigation, detectives believe that a verbal altercation between Abston and the Bernard escalated to Abston striking Bernard with her vehicle, the statement said. Abston then fled the scene.

According to the statement, Abston and Bernard were involved in a long-term relationship.

Abston is scheduled to appear in court again on Nov. 1.Nappanee, IN - Five people have been charged with felony child neglect in a northern Indiana county after a boy was found with signs of severe abuse throughout his body.

The abuse: clumps of the boy's scalp was missing, his septum had been cut out, both of his arms had multiple fractures, and more, according to court documents.

The case began in March 2018, when Nappanee Police responded to a home on a report of a child in need of service.

At the home, police spoke with the boy's mother, Rune Springer, and stepfather, Travis Tillotson, who said the boy had been under the care of Jammy Stacy for the previous six months and she had brought him back the day prior. Stacy and her mother, Annette Priestley, dropped the boy off at Springer's home on March 1, 2018, "with visible injuries all over his body," according to court documents.

Both Springer and Tillotson told police they did not call police immediately because Stacy told her they'd both be arrested for child abuse, the court documents said.

The boy was eventually taken to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. There, doctors said the boy had injuries in many stages of healing that had occurred over an extended area of time, documents showed.

The boy had pieces of his scalp missing, his septum had been cut out, it appeared fingernails had been dug into his cheek and skin was missing from the bridge of his nose, the report said.

Doctors also found his arms had been broken in multiple places and his arm sockets were broken to the point he could not raise his hands over his shoulders, the report said.

The boy's teeth were broken from trauma, his lower lip had been cut deep, and he was "extremely" underweight and malnourished and had hematomas to the head and "critically low" blood labs, the report said.

The boy's injuries appeared to range from several months old to a few days old, the report said.

One doctor said if the boy had not gotten treatment when he did, he would have died within 48 hours, the report said.

Police learned that Stacy had taken the boy in in October 2017 and was his sole caregiver from then until he was returned to Springer March 1, 2018. Stacy said the boy would occasionally stay with her aunt, Fayette Robinette, and visited her mother, Priestley, regularly.

Police found images of the boy on Stacy's cell phone that showed visible injuries and malnourishment, to which Stacy "took no action to seek medical help" for the boy, the documents said.

It's not clear how old the boy was at the time.

Stacy, Robinette, Springer and Priestley were all arrested and charged with Level 3 felony Neglect of a Dependent Resulting in Serious Bodily Injury. Tillotson was arrested on a charge of Level 6 felony Neglect of a Dependent.NOTICE:

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A Standard Bank spokesperson said that while they will launch soon, they cannot share any additional details at this point.

The move from Standard Bank comes after multiple MVNOs  mobile virtual network operators  have launched services in the country.

This includes FNBs mobile offering, FNB Connect.

FNB Connect runs on Cell Cs network, and offers users voice and mobile data services. FNB Connect has also been integrated into FNBs banking business, and bank customers can receive exclusive rewards and discounts.

FNB has also launched FNB-branded smartphones  its ConeXis devices.

Cell C MVNO

Cell C is the dominant MVNO player in South Africa, providing cellular network services to a range of companies.

Besides FNB, Cell C counts me&you mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Mr Price Mobile among its clients.

It uses the mobile network infrastructure provided by a mobile network operator like Cell C, but offers its own products and services, including billing and fulfilment on top of that network, said Cell C of an MVNO.

Now read: Google switches to a Samsung display for the Pixel 3 XLVodacom CEO Shameel Joosub has stated that if the government and ICASA gave it more spectrum, it could cut mobile data prices in half.

Joosub was speaking at the 2018 MyBroadband Conference about mobile data prices in South Africa.

Mobile operators like Vodacom have been begging the South African government for years for more spectrum, but these calls have fallen on deaf ears.

To provide cheaper data, Vodacom needs to manufacture data at a lower cost. To do this, it needs to roll out fibre to more base stations and receive more spectrum.

With more spectrum, Vodacom can manage its capacity better and invest more efficiently in its network.

At the moment, Vodacom needs to refarm spectrum and cannot invest optimally in its network.

If Vodacom received sufficient additional spectrum, it would rapidly roll out the necessary upgrades to its sites across the country and could reduce data prices by over 50%.

Joosub added that Vodacom is not afraid to invest in South Africa, and has put R9.2 billion into its local network this year.

You have to put money in to see results, said Joosub.

Fibre and IoT

Joosub also spoke about other aspect of their business, including fibre and IoT.

He said Vodacom is close to passing 70,000 homes with its fibre network, and the business is growing well.

They are looking to partner in the fibre space, however, and admitted that more investment from Vodacom was needed here.

In terms of IoT, Joosub said Vodacom has nearly 4 million SIMs in machines in South Africa, and they have 2,000 narrow-band IoT network sites in the country.The 2018 MyBroadband Conference was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a keynote speech, Miguel Geraldes, Chief Strategy Architect of Huawei Southern Africa Region, said that social transformation was always in progress; 2G had enabled the global mobile call era, 3G and 4G have brought man into the mobile Internet era.

The upcoming 5G will work with the latest Fiber technology to launch a new era of global mobile and broadband development, enabling an intelligent world with a higher rate, lower latency, and full network coverage, Geraldes told the gathering.

Like the steam engine greatly improved efficiency and drove mankind into the industrial age, new 5G and fiber technologies will bring new broadband services. In recent years, the number of mobile users in South Africa has increased rapidly. According to the GSMA, the number of users in 2018 has reached 97 million (South Africas population is 57 million). It is estimated that the number of users will reach 100 million in 2021. The number of FTTx broadband access users has increased rapidly in recent years. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is up to 18%. Under the 5G+Fiber technology, it is estimated that the number of FTTx users will reach 2.6 million in 2021, according to IDCs FTTX research project.

However the next generation broadband offerings will not be an overnight feat. In the development process, the global industry faces some common challenges. The 5G industry chain is still to be improved and challenges with terminals, networks, and spectrum and business models are still to be addressed.

Wider fiber deployment is a prerequisite for 5G deployment. In addition, accelerating the development of 5G-oriented applications such as Fiber to Home, and resolving business issues such as lengthy return on investment (ROI), high TCO and insufficient content also needs to be addressed, said Geraldes.

Planning and joint effort to address challenges

These challenges require concerted efforts by all role-players in ICT. At the policy level, we should jointly promote the optimization of ICT industry policies, plan spectrum resources in advance and reduce the difficulty in deploying optical fiber and wireless sites. When formulating the city optical fiber strategy and constructing the city fiber network, we should consider the requirements of wireless network, home broadband, enterprise access and safe city/smart city.

In terms of construction an industry ecosystem, we need to expand content alliances to enrich end users data life, improve user experience, cultivate user habits and promote traffic monetization.

At present, in terms of technology innovation, Huawei has released end-to-end 5G products and solutions and accumulated multiple patents. Huawei has established the Xlab and actively collaborates with more than 270 industry partners around the world to explore 5G applications. There are 47 joint innovation projects ongoing.

Customized solutions for fast developing market

In terms of scenario-based solutions, PoleStar, RuralStar, fiber series, and one-fiber multi-purpose solutions are customized for the fast developing market. At the business level, Huawei will work with global industry partners to help the future broadband development in South Africa and build customer business capabilities from technologies, ecosystems, applications, AI, cloud, professional services and consulting, to help customers build a better future broadband network.The Patent and Market Court in Sweden has ordered Telia, the countrys dominant telecommunications operator, to block access to The Pirate Bay, Dreamfilm, FMovies, and NyaFilmer.

TorrentFreak reported that the interim order comes into effect at the end of October, which was as a result of a complaint from Hollywood and Swedish film studios.

A coalition comprised of the Swedish Film Industry, Nordisk Film, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and Twentieth Century Fox approached the court and obtained the interim order.

This is not the first site-blocking case brought to the Swedish courts. Last year, rights-holders won an appeal to a case which began in 2014 that saw Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) being ordered to block its subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer.

Bredbandsbolaget, which focuses on offering high-speed fibre broadband connections, was the second-largest Internet service provider in Sweden. It merged with parent Telenor Sverige in May of this year.

While other ISPs were free to continue to provide access to The Pirate Bay, a coalition of content companies has now sought and obtained a court order against Swedens largest network operator, Telia Company.

Telia is the formerly state-owned monopoly telco in Sweden. It remains the dominant telecommunications operator, and the biggest mobile network operator in the country. As of 30 September 2018, the Swedish government owns 37.3% of the company.

Now read: The Pirate Bay is mining cryptocurrency with your PC againThe applications enabled by IoT are poised to be implemented in areas with poor service delivery, according to SqwidNet managing director Phathizwe Malinga.

Speaking at the 2018 MyBroadband Conference, Malinga explained that customers are continuously expecting more from businesses, and digitisation is a key factor that will enable companies to meet these demands.

The power has shifted to the consumer. You now have the power of choice, Malinga said. You dont stick around with a company that is not improving their products for you.

While this drives increasing competition and makes it more difficult for businesses to break into mainstream markets, Malinga said that there is a gap waiting for IoT-based services in the low-end consumer market.

If you are a small-to-medium enterprise or entrepreneur, worry about the unserviced market, he said. Use technology to reach the unreachable.

Potential customers in the unserviced market may not have medical aid, power, plumbing, or other amenities.

Subsequently, Malinga said that businesses should leverage IoT technology to supply needs in this market due to the strong demand and lack of competition.

IoT services in poorer markets

Id like to propose IoT as a technology you can use at the core of your business, Malinga said. It is not capital-intensive, and the battery life of IoT devices allow them to be implemented in unserviced areas.

SqwidNet, as the licensed Sigfox network operator in South Africa, has impressive coverage of the South African population, allowing applications to have a broader reach into unserviced areas.

SqwidNet has over 85% population coverage, we reach the unreachable, Malinga said.

IoT also enables ease of installation and low maintenance requirements, it can be used to enable a number of products and services.

He added that businesses who launch IoT-based services in this market will have no competition, and they will be able to provide basic products at a low initial capital cost due to the low price of IoT technology.

Now read: SqwidNet collaborates with Discovery Insure to drive local innovationI worry about the kind of ...Negative campaigning always backfires.

For example, in last weeks Star two letters pointed to a 2017 complaint from Guneet Bajwa, the Sacramento developer of the Las Alcobas hotel project. According to Bajwa, the current mayoral challenger, Geoff Ellsworth, tried to harm his hotels business by responding to ongoing traffic and parking complaints from surrounding neighbors. It seems the hotels design did not include sufficient parking for guests, employees, and deliveries and for months relied on adjacent street parking until angry neighbors forced the hotel to rent a nearby churchs parking lot for the overflow. It helped, but seemingly didnt completely cure the problem. More than one constituent asked Geoff, as a member of the city council, for help. And so, he reached out to the church to discuss possible ways to resolve the remaining issues. That effort was then taken over by a council subcommittee. According to the letter writers, Geoffs initiative on behalf of local residents somehow proves hes anti-business.

But the letters backfired because by bringing up the hotels endless parking problems, they remind all of us of the history of the hotel. After the planning commission denied it in 2010, the owners appealed the decision to the City Council. (Alan Galbraith was appointed to the planning commission in 2011.) In 2015, while serving on the City Council as mayor, Galbraith voted to allow the developers to build several additional rooms beyond their original proposal, again without addressing the obvious lack of parking and creating the very problem Geoff was being asked to solve. Negative campaigning smacks of desperation, implying those employing the tactic cant find anything positive with which to convince voters to choose their candidate.

At this point in the campaign, I think its time to move beyond comparing resumes and rehashing old news. Its time to pick the candidate you believe has the most creative vision for our towns future, who has the communication skills and desire to engage the community to reach consensus, and the proven collaborative skills to work with the rest of the council and city staff to turn vision into reality.

Although I applaud both Alan and Geoff for being willing to serve our community, my choice for St. Helenas next mayor is Geoff Ellsworth.

Doug Barr

St. Helena19222018

Beatrice Rose Purcell was 96 years old when she was called to heaven on October 11th. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island to Leopold and Bertha (Bousquet) Cadoret. Bea had four siblingsRaymond, Lilian, Leo and George. Bea left five childrenPatricia Ann Monaghan from her first marriage, then Lowell, Joel, Bill and Kevin Carpenter in her second. She was grandmother to Lucas and Alex, KayB, Arielle and Hannah and great-grandmother to Elan, Avin, Albie and Quinn. They were all her pride and joys.

Her first husband Tom Monaghan was killed in WWII and her second husband William Carpenter died in 1989. She is also preceded in death by all her siblings and her daughter Patty. Bea remarried in 1999 to a kindred soul, Louis Purcell, settling in Yountville, CA. These are the facts, but not the heart, soul or spirit of this remarkable woman.

As a devout Catholic, Bea exemplified the teachings of Christ by always giving to those less fortunate. Growing up with very little herself, Beas tenacity, resilience and creativity were channeled into good deeds all her life. If she knew of people who were suffering or in need, she found a way to help them. Someone new to the neighborhood? She rolled out the Welcome Wagon. She supported soldiers abroad with gifts at the holidays, sewed pillows and blankets for the sick and disabled, filled stockings for a San Francisco mission at Christmas, organized charity events, gathered donations and wrote letters supporting worthy causes.

Beatrice was happiest when behind a sewing machine and she continued to produce wonderful creations into her 90s. She learned to sew from her mother, but she was trained in the arts at the Rhode Island School of design and the Oakland School of Design, beginning her career in fashion layout advertising for JC Penny in the 1950s. Bea also loved the stage and most enjoyed sewing for theater productions, making costumes for the Ardenwood Historic Farm, the 1986 Vancouver Worlds Fair and the Yountville Wizard of Oz float (at age 90).

A glass half-full kind of a gal, she would sing and dance at the drop of a hat, making every occasion a special one. She elevated everyones spirit with her presence.

Please come help us celebrate her life with a memorial mass, this Friday, October 19th at St. John Catholic Church on Caymus Street in Napa from 10 am11 am, with a reception to follow.Theres new hope on the horizon for harried renters struggling to afford the Bay Areas astronomical prices  rents have started falling.

Median rents dropped in September and August compared to the year before, reversing an upward trend of more than seven years that has pushed prices into the stratosphere, according to a report released Thursday by online real estate company Zillow.

The decreases werent huge  just 0.9 percent in the San Jose area and 0.6 percent in the San Francisco area last month. But one economist says the shift signals a much-needed cooling of the regions overheated rental market, which has priced even well-paid workers out of the Bay Area and sent them hunting for cheaper homes in the Central Valley and beyond.

This is obviously welcome news for renters in the Bay Area who have seen rents rise very quickly over the past half decade, said Zillow senior economist Aaron Terrazas. But its also very important to keep it in context.

In the San Jose area, last months drop means tenants are saving about $30 a month compared to the year before, he said. In the San Francisco area, its just $20.

And rents remain high. The median rent for apartments, condos, co-ops and single-family homes in the San Jose metro area, which includes Santa Clara and San Benito counties, was $3,499 last month  down from $3,532 the year before, according to Zillow. In the San Francisco area, which includes Alameda, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties, the median rent was $3,399 last month  down from $3,419 the year before.

August marked the first month in seven years that Bay Area rents dropped year-over-year, according to Zillow. Since Zillow began keeping track in November 2010, rents have jumped 46 percent in San Jose and 50 percent in San Francisco.

The recent slowdown comes as the Bay Areas housing market also is tapping the brakes, with real estate agents reporting homes are taking longer to sell and arent fetching quite as much money as they did several months ago.

The cooling trend extends beyond the Bay Area  rents are dropping around the country. Nationally, the median rent dropped 0.2 percent last month compared to the year before.

But while the Bay Areas rental market slowdown gives tenants hope of a reprieve from punishing prices, it may not be time to celebrate yet, said Nathan Ho, senior director of housing and community development for the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Ho doesnt believe prices are falling because of a natural market correction or because cities are building more homes  instead, he credits something more alarming.

Its not because were finally meeting the demand, he said. Its that folks have gotten so frustrated and fed up with finding an affordable place to live that theyve moved on.

People are leaving the Bay Area more quickly than theyre moving in, according to a 2018 report by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and Silicon Valley Community Foundation. An average of 42 people per month left San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties in 2016, the most recent year for which data was available. Thats a dramatic change from the year before, when the region gained an average of 1,962 residents per month.

Many of those fleeing the Bay Area are heading to cheaper cities such as Portland, Austin or even Boise. And every person who leaves is one less tenant to fight over the Bay Areas limited supply of rental units  which could push prices down.

This might be the beginning of the tipping point in terms of folks not wanting to deal with the housing crisis anymore, Ho said.

Terrazas believes the slowdown will continue. While Bay Area rents are unlikely to plummet, the period of skyrocketing rents is over, he said.

It has been so hot and so fast for so long, Terrazas said, that its long overdue for a little bit of a normalization.Two Napa County Superior Court judges have announced their retirement.

Judge Rodney Stone will be the first to retire on Dec. 4, while Judge Diane Price will retire on Jan. 31, 2019, according to a statement issued by the Napa County Superior Court. Both were appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

Gov. Jerry Brown will leave office in January, meaning he could fill Stones position before the end of his term. Otherwise, Californias next governor will fill both positions. The two major contenders in that race are Democrat Gavin Newsom and Republican John Cox.

Stone, who moved to Napa in 1981, served in most judicial assignments, including the Civil and Appellate Divisions. He served as supervising judge of the Family Law, Juvenile and Criminal Divisions, according to the statement. Stones peers elected him as the presiding judge from 2014 to 2015 and the assistant presiding judge from 2011 to 2013.

In a statement, Stone said he would miss his colleagues and coworkers, whose commitment to the job particularly shone in the aftermath of the 2014 earthquake that put the historic courthouse out of action. He said he looks forward to spending more time with his family.

Price had a similarly expansive career, serving as supervising judge of the Family Law, Juvenile, Appellate, Civil and Criminal Divisions. Her peers elected her as the presiding judge from 2011 to 2013. Price served for five years as the Napa County Grand Jury judicial liaison, which oversees the recruitment, investigation and reporting efforts of the grand jury.

In a statement, Price said she loved serving Napa as a lawyer and judge for the past 40 years and will leave her role knowing that the community is well-served. Price, a St. Helena resident, said she looks forward to traveling and staying active in the community.

Price and Stone will remain in the Napa Valley and participate in the Judicial Council of Californias Assigned Judges Program, where they may temporarily preside over cases as needed.

Judges Cynthia Smith and Victoria Wood were the last judges to be appointed in December 2017, following the departure of Francisca Tisher and Michael Williams.

Courtney can be reached at 707-256-2221. You can send her an anonymous tip, and follow her reporting on Twitter and Facebook.

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.SANTA ROSA -- It was just one year ago when Tricia Woods lost her home in a single, impossible instant.

The Tubbs fire, the most destructive wildfire in California history, had ripped through Sonoma County and incinerated more than 5,500 homes, including the middle school teacher's own four-bedroom house in the Coffey Park neighborhood of Santa Rosa.

That night, from an evacuation center at her daughter's school, she called her insurance company and property manager. Right away, she knew she would rebuild.

"It was just such an achievement to be a woman on my own, to have bought a home in California on a teacher's salary," said Woods, a 47-year-old mother of three. "I wasn't ready to let that go."

But as Woods and thousands of others struggle to rebuild a year after the fire, they are encountering very different challenges based on class, location and fate.

Residents who face enormous insurance gaps are dipping into savings to construct houses similar to the ones they lost or building smaller ones. Others are buying elsewhere in a county that suffered a serious shortage of affordable housing even before the fires. In this increasingly ruthless housing market, displaced renters have been left to compete with more moneyed families who also lost their homes.

Some, reeling from the emotional trauma, left the area completely.

"For every person we find who's doing great, there are a couple of people who aren't," Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

This is especially true in hard-hit Santa Rosa, where the economics of reconstruction vary wildly from neighborhood to neighborhood.

More than 1,200 of the 2,700 homes lost in Santa Rosa are in the process of being rebuilt, according to numbers from the city. As of early October, 26 were complete.

Most of those finished homes are in Coffey Park, a predominantly middle-income neighborhood that is now a bustling construction zone. Woods herself said that despite a $150,000 insurance shortfall, the process of rebuilding there has been relatively simple.

The ease with which residents can rebuild depends on resources such as time and money, of course, but also location. In Coffey Park, the land is flat and the lots are smaller, making them easier to prepare for construction. Woods' home is expected to be built by Christmas.

But just over Highway 101, in the affluent hillside enclave of Fountaingrove, things have been more difficult. City numbers show that 188 homes were being rebuilt in Fountaingrove as of Oct. 9. That figure was almost triple in Coffey Park.

In Fountaingrove, most of the homes sat on large lots with uneven topography, making them tricky to clear and more expensive to rebuild. On top of that, the neighborhood was plagued with water contamination issues after the fire, which melted plastic pipes and leaked benzene and other contaminants into the water supply.

Some of those Fountaingrove residents who are grappling with massive insurance shortfalls are still deciding whether it's worth the stress and expense to rebuild. Others, like Ian and Lisa Alexander, have chosen to move on.

The Alexanders, both 54, had lived in their Fountaingrove home for 14 years when it burned to the ground. As Ian Alexander put it, the couple "lived like refugees" for months, moving from hotels to friends' places to short-term rentals, while at the same time moving through their grief.

"We'd never wanted to build a house to begin with, and to think about doing it under these circumstances _ it was never appealing," said Lisa Alexander, who is a communications director for a nonprofit.

The couple decided to buy a mid-century modern home about two miles from their old place. It's smaller than their Tudor-style in Fountaingrove, but it has a pool and is close to downtown.

"We're sitting here on the anniversary of the fire, traveling the same streets we've always traveled, in a house that has a solid foundation for us to be happy and comfortable in," said Ian Alexander, the co-founder of a software company. "We feel a tremendous amount of pain and loss, but also tremendous gratitude for being in a position to buy a new home."

Also motivating the Alexanders' decision was the fact that they were woefully underinsured. They would have paid around $700,000 out-of-pocket to build a comparably sized home on their property, which they still own.

The Alexanders are far from alone. In April, two-thirds of North Bay residents who lost their homes reported being underinsured by an average of $317,000, according to a survey by United Policyholders, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps people navigate their insurance policies.

The cause of this problem is manifold. Insurance companies use software programs to calculate the cost of rebuilding, but those estimates do not take into account the inflated cost of labor and materials that follow a disaster like this, said Keith Woods, CEO of North Coast Builders Exchange.

And if your home was built before the early 2000s, changes in building codes can increase the cost of construction by as much as 20 percent, according to Woods, who is not related to Tricia Woods of Coffey Park.

When Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin has talked with contractors about rebuilding her own home in Santa Rosa, she's been quoted $500 to $600 per square foot, whereas building a custom home before the fires would have cost around half that.

"It's clear that insurance is really designed for losing a home in a house fire," said Gorin, who is facing an insurance shortfall of more than $1 million. "It is not intended to cover replacement costs and code upgrades for 5,300 homes all at once."

To complicate matters, contractors will not start a job unless they are sure there is enough money to complete a project, and time is of the essence. Most insurance policies will cover two years of rent, said United Policyholders Executive Director Amy Bach, leaving some residents a year to build homes before they're forced to pay both a mortgage and rent.

Steve Morrow's situation is unique in that he didn't lose his home, but could still end up paying double. His trailer in Journey's End, a mobile home park that sits below the hilly crests of Fountaingrove, was one of 44 that survived thanks to a heroic troop of neighbors and firefighters. The fire destroyed the park's electrical and gas systems and contaminated the community's well water, rendering the homes uninhabitable.

The owner of Journey's End shut down the park, leaving Morrow, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran, paying a mortgage on a mobile home he can't live in. He's renting a camper on an artist's compound for more than $1,000 a month _ an expense that is covered by insurance, at least for now.

Morrow said he's "working like hell" to find an affordable lot where he can move his mobile home, but their cost has skyrocketed since the fire. Most recently, he was offered a small plot for $55,000, a large sum for a man who lives off Social Security and disability payments.

"Sooner or later I'll find a place. I have no choice," said Morrow, who has lived in Santa Rosa for 35 years. "It might just be a ways from here."

The owner of Journey's End is working with a nonprofit, Burbank Housing, to explore redeveloping the property into a mixture of affordable and market-rate apartments. By law, the park's residents _ most of whom were seniors with limited incomes _ would be first in line for the affordable units, said Laurie Lynn Hogan, Burbank's director of funding and communications.

But the proposed project is moving at an excruciatingly slow pace, Hogan said, partly because the nonprofit must work with state and federal agencies to relocate the surviving trailers.

"We are doing everything in our power to move things along as quickly as possible, with minimal success," Hogan said.

Sonoma County, like much of the Bay Area, was already facing a dire shortage of affordable housing before the firestorm. The median home price there nearly doubled since 2009, according to Rick Laws, regional vice president of Pacific Union International, a real estate firm.

Recognizing that the fires would only exacerbate this crisis, the county scrambled to streamline its permitting and review process. Officials have also made it easier for residents to build larger accessory dwelling units, otherwise known as granny flats, on their properties while they rebuild their homes.

Even still, as many as 7,000 residents may have left Santa Rosa in 2017, according to an analysis by the Press Democrat, Santa Rosa's daily newspaper.

"I'm not sure that those numbers really reflect what's happening here," said Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey, a former Press Democrat reporter who believes that fewer people have left. Many residents are still living with family members, he said, and the city's homeless population has grown 6 percent since last year.

It remains to be seen how the disaster will change the demographic makeup of the city. In Coffey Park, many of the homes are being rebuilt as investment properties that will be sold to the highest bidder, said resident Jeff Okrepkie. Before the fire, renters like him made up nearly half the community.

Most renters aren't able to compete in such a red-hot housing market, said Okrepkie, founder of Coffey Strong, a nonprofit formed to aid the neighborhood's recovery.

"This was a very middle-class neighborhood of teachers, mechanics, hospitality industry workers," Okrepkie said. "I'm worried that that's going to change."

For those left in Coffey Park, the neighborhood is irreparably changed. Most of the subdivision was erected in the '80s, and its builders used fewer than 10 floor plans for the tract homes. Now, more than 50 different builders are on-site, leading to a mosaic of modern architecture rising from the raw dirt.

Residents say that before the fire, Coffey Park was the kind of place where you'd wave to neighbors on the street, but you probably didn't know them. Now, they describe the neighborhood as a big, unconventional family united by misfortune.

To witness this transformation, look no further than "Whine Wednesdays," a weekly gathering in Coffey Park organized by Tricia Woods, the middle school teacher.

On the fire's anniversary, a dozen or so displaced residents set up their camping chairs and folding tables in a quiet cul-de-sac. As they chatted over glasses of wine in the fading golden light, neighbors threw their arms around others and shared inside jokes as if they'd been friends for a lifetime.

In truth, it had only been for one very long, hard year.During his nearly 16 years as governor, Jerry Brown has displayed many attributes  some positive, some negative and some self-contradictory.

One consistent trait has been his obvious disdain for nuts-and-bolts management of a very large organizational structure. Brown prefers to explore more interesting, often abstract issues and leave day-to-day management of the bureaucracy to others.

During his first governorship, Browns chief of staff (and future governor himself), Gray Davis, was widely viewed as the real governor within the Capitol. Brown concentrated on high-concept notions and perpetual campaigns for other offices, while trusting Davis to keep the bureaucracy in line.

His lack of interest in managerial duties backfired badly in 1981 when an infestation of Mediterranean fruit flies threatened to devastate the states fruit tree industry.

The straightforward response would have been to fight back with insecticide, but Brown insisted on a non-chemical response of plucking the flies from trees by hand, only to reverse himself when the Legislature erupted in opposition.

The fruit fly debacle clobbered Browns standing in opinion polls and contributed to his rather embarrassing failure to win a U.S. Senate seat the next year.

Brown 2.0 has been more engaged in governance, but he still dislikes hands-on management and tends to shun responsibility when things go awry, such as his infamous comment of shit happens when serious defects in the states project to upgrade the Bay Bridge were revealed.

That brings us to the Department of Motor Vehicles, the state agency that Californians love to hate, most recently for being compelled to wait hours to do their legally mandated business.

Critics called for an audit of DMV operations by the notoriously tough state auditors office. But under pressure from Browns office, legislators refused to approve one earlier this year.

Brown eventually ordered an internal audit by the Department of Finance, which is answerable only to him, but complaints continued. And early this month, the Legislature had another hearing that concentrated on the DMVs slow-as-molasses roll out of new drivers licenses, called Real ID, required by the federal government.

Two years from now, Real ID will be required to board airplanes. But the DMV has issued only a tiny fraction of the 25 million required new licenses even though it has had 13 years to prepare, and is now seeking a second extension of time to comply.

It doesnt appear to me were anywhere near on track. Im just worried about the chaos that may ensue, said state Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat. Theres this huge cloud out there of getting from 1.5 million to 25 million in the course of two years.

Just a few days after that hearing, still another DMV debacle emerged  this time about automatically registering customers to vote when they do business with the agency.

DMV officials had already admitted that the agency botched 23,000 such registrations, and then it was revealed last week that it had mistakenly registered about 1,500 persons in a separate incident due to a processing error.

The possibility, however faint, that some registrants are non-citizens fueled new, albeit unsubstantiated, allegations from the political right that California politicians want undocumented immigrants to vote. Even Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a big booster of motor voter, was incensed, and called for an outside investigation of the agency.

Brown has fewer than 90 days remaining in his governorship, and its likely that as he departs, a massive managerial failure in an agency that affects the lives of virtually every Californian will still be hanging in the air.

CALmatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.Finally, the provisional result of the final round of the Bhutans third parliamentary polls has been out and Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) won the National Assembly elections.

A report published by DD News at 8:39 pm on Thursday, stated that according to the provisional results, DNT has won 30 seats in 47-member National Assembly, the Lower House of the Parliament of Bhutan.

On the other hand, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), which formed the first Bhutan Government following parliamentary electoral process in 2008, has secured a total of 17 seats.

The polling for the third parliamentary elections began in the early morning on Thursday and the voters exercised their franchise in 865 polling stations in 20 districts across the country.

Also read: Who is next PM of Bhutan: Lotay Tshering or Pema Gyamtsho

There were a total of 94 candidates, 47 each from the DNT and the DPT who fought the final round of the Bhutan general polls.

In the preliminary round of the parliamentary polls which was held last, the DNT came first with 31.5% of the votes, followed closely by the DPT with 30.6% while the PDP, which formed Government after 2013 polls, came third with 27.2% of votes and was disqualified for the final round.

Also read: Bhutan polls 2018: Around 47 per cent polling recorded till midday

According to the Constitution of Bhutan only two parties, which get highest votes in the primary round, can participate in the final round of the parliamentary polls.

After the win in the polls, PM-elect DNT president Lotay Tshering while thanking the people of the country, media and the Election Commission of Bhutan, stated: I would like to thank everyone, including the media and the ECB, for playing an important role in ensuring smooth and successful elections. I look forward to working with the other 46 candidates elected today.

"I would like to thank everyone, including the media and the ECB, for playing an important role in ensuring smooth and successful elections. I look forward to working with the other 46 candidates elected today" DNT President Lotay Tshering pic.twitter.com/xJ9ckwp4OK  Bhutan Broadcasting (@BBSBhutan) October 18, 2018

On the other hand, DPT president Pema Gyamtsho congratulated PM-elect Lotay Tshering and all the candidates for winning the polls.

Gyamtsho stated: Firstly, I would like to congratulate DNT President and candidates for their win. DPT focused on economic self-reliance and I feel maybe not everyone understood that well. Democracy is about peoples choice.

The statements of Lotay Tshering and Pema Gyamtsho were uploaded by the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS), the National TV and Radio Broadcaster of the Kingdom of Bhutan, on its Twitter handle.

According to BBS, it was a big win for the women on Thursday with Bhutan electing 7 out of the 10 women candidates who contested in the 3rd National Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, former Bhutan PM and president of Prime Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tshering Tobgay has congratulated Bhutan PM-elect Dr Lotay Tshering and his party, DNT, for winning the third parliamentary polls of Bhutan.

Tobgay on his Twitter handle on Thursday stated: On behalf of PDP, I offer my heartiest Tashidelek to PM elect Dr Lotay Tshering and DNT for securing the peoples mandate to serve as the third government in our Democratic Constitutional Monarchy.

He also congratulated Opposition leader-elect Dr Pema Gyamtsho and his party, DPT.

My congratulations also to OL elect Dr Pema Gyamtsho and DPT, tweeted Tobgay.

He also tweeted: May our beloved Drukyul enjoy continued peace, stability and prosperity under their stewardship.A change of guard in the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission is going to take place as the incumbent Assistant High Commissioner Shakhawat Hossain is leaving Tripura to join as the Director in the Department of External Affairs in Dhaka.

Shakhawat Hossain was the first Assistant High Commissioner in the Bangladesh mission in Tripura after the mission had been upgraded.

He had joined in Agartala after coming from Bangladesh mission in Madrid, capital of Spain, and contributed a lot to the improvement of relations between Tripura and Bangladesh in the larger context of fast-developing relation between India and Bangladesh.

A soft spoken person, known for his sophisticated demeanour, Shakhawat had also been conferred the dual charge of Bangladesh missions Assistant High Commissioner in Guwahati, stated a report in tripurainfo.com.

He will be replaced by Kiriti Chakma, currently posted as counsellor-cum-head of chancery in the Bangladesh mission in Brazil.

While Shakhawat Hossain is a specialist in medicine, Kiriti Chakma is a leather engineer and technologist who hailed from the Khagracherri district in Bangladesh.

He is expected to join his post at Agartala in the first week of December.The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the statements of US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills, who will complete his mission in the country. In particular, Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova commented on the speech of the ambassador to the representatives of the Armenian-American Chamber of Commerce on October 9 during the briefing.

She noted that the ambassador said that the government of his country, or rather, the US Embassy in Yerevan for decades had purposefully supported certain groups in Armenian society and certain representatives in the Armenian government. At the same time, the ambassador spoke about interference in the internal affairs of another state completely without a hint of embarrassment, moreover, even with pride, Zakharova noted.

"As if all this is justified and necessary for the pursuit of good aims to create a more fair society in Armenia," Zakharova said. At some stage, the ambassador nevertheless realized that he should not say that and corrected himself, saying that the recent political changes in Armenia were caused by purely internal reasons, and also spoke about the unbending will of the Armenian people to change.Reuters: UAE's high-ranking delegation to visit Tehran soon

James Langevin: Azerbaijani government again unleashed a volley of unprovoked violence against Armenia

Ambassador to the Holy See: Armenia calls on its international partners to condemn Azerbaijan's actions

Armenia President provides Singapore PM with information about Azerbaijan's aggressive actions

Armenia PM: Trilateral task force's work is not interrupted

Armenia Police's Educational Complex has new head

Jackie Speier: We're witnessing Aliyev's attempted land grab in real time

Mass media: Rustam Muradov bringing bodies of Armenian soldiers to Yerevan

Yerevan to host subsequent session of Eurasian Intergovernmental Council

Zakharova on possibility of enforcing Armenia-Russia Treaty, says consultations are being held

NEWS.am 17.11.21 digest: Latest on Armenia-Azerbaijan border situation

European People's Party issues statement on recent hostilities on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance MP: Resistance movement will help get rid of this catastrophe, namely authorities soon

Armenia PM explains why he appointed new defense minister

Armenian PM: There are territories of Soviet Azerbaijan that are under Armenia's control

Armenia ruling party MP Andranik Kocharyan continues to talk about creation of professional army

Armenia and Russia Security Councils' Secretaries discuss regional security issues

Armenia Security Council Secretary: Azerbaijan fails to maintain ceasefire and isn't implementing reached agreements

Cavusoglu blames Armenia 'for terrorist attack against Azerbaijan'

Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance: Authorities' goal is to stay in power through ongoing concessions

Armenia PM: Our proposals are in effect, including proposal for start of delimitation and demarcation

Resident of Armenia's Shaki village panic when they hear the Azerbaijanis' gunshots

Armenia ruling party MP: Enemy can't achieve any success in Syunik Province

Armenia PM and ministers answering MPs' questions (LIVE)

Ambassador: Armenia Security Council Secretary will probably have separate meeting with Nikolai Patrushev

Armenia health minister: Kapan and Goris will have additional SUVs for paramedics

Armen Sarkissian presents situation on Armenia's borders at Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore

Armenia FM: International community reaction to Azerbaijans provocative, aggressive actions was not targeted, proper

Armenia Prosecutor General receives Egypt Ambassador

Council of Europe Secretary General concerned about tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan

Armenian Assembly of America: Russian-brokered ceasefire is not enough

Armenia Security Council secretary: Yerevan expects diplomatic, military assistance from Moscow

Turkey and US hold talks on defense and security issues

Peskov: Moscow calls for restraint to parties to conflict on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

CSTO chief: There is still tension on line of contact between Armenian, Azerbaijani sides

Kremlin: All parties consent is necessary for contact between Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders

Russia deputy FM, EU representative discuss situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Armenia health minister: We are at reduction phase of Covid cases

2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Biden bans members of the Nicaraguan government from entering US

168.am: Ex-commander of Russia peacekeepers in Karabakh is urgently sent to Armenia

Ambassador to Russia: Not ruled out that Armenia may apply to CSTO for assistance

Armenia, Azerbaijan attending annual meeting of CIS Security Councils' Secretaries

Ambassador: Yerevan continues contacts with Moscow regarding situation on border with Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan reports 7 military casualties during recent aggression against Armenia

Spokesperson: Armenia MFA has informed UN Security Council President on situation

Armenian captives continue to be 'tried' in Azerbaijan

Armenia MFA: Pashinyan, Putin discussed possible joint steps enshrined in bilateral legal framework

982 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Erdogan and Zelenskyy discuss bilateral relations

US Congressman: Azerbaijan must acknowledge, respect Armenia sovereignty

Adam Schiff: US must deter Azerbaijans ongoing aggression, show support for Armenian peoples sovereignty

Armenia legislature observes minute of silence in memory of fallen soldiers

Police forces being brought to Armenia parliament ahead of PM's visit

Armenia representative addresses UN Security Council discussion, speaks about Azerbaijan military aggression

World oil prices falling

Armenia MOD: Situation on eastern border relatively stable

Newspaper: Armenia Constitutional Court is tool in hands of executive branch of power

Russia peacekeepers deliver over 300 tons of humanitarian cargo to needy Karabakh residents in one year

Newspaper: Russia's obligations before Armenia, border situation

Frank Pallone: Azerbaijan's escalation of violence on Armenian soil is unacceptable

Blinken urges Armenia, Azerbaijan to take immediate concrete steps to reduce tensions

Canada FM calls Armenia, Azerbaijan for de-escalation of situation

Contract soldier Meruzhan Harutyunyan died in hostilities

Armenia Ambassador stresses need for targeted condemning calls during talk with Amanda Sloat

Earthquake hits 10 km northeast from Armenia's Tashir, felt in Lori and Tavush Provinces with 3-point magnitude

Minister: Armenian Nuclear Power Plant has major toolkit to protect itself from potential military attacks

US calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to 'resume substantive negotiations'

Armenia ruling party MP: At end of day, Azerbaijan lost advantages it had, Armenian army retrieved many positions

His Holiness Aram I: Silence of Armenia's allies and friendly countries is strange

Pashinyan to Putin: Actions of Azerbaijan are aggression against Armenia's sovereign territory

Russia Ambassador to Armenia fails to comment on current situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

UN calls on Yerevan and Baku to show restraint

US Ambassador to Armenia on escalation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border: We're trying to stabilize situation

Meeting with foreign ambassadors at Armenian MFA is over

France is concerned about escalation of situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Russian MOD: Armenia and Azerbaijan took measures to stabilize situation after talk with Sergey Shoygu

Firing in eastern direction of Armenia's border stopped starting from 6:30 p.m. through Russia's mediation

Azerbaijani and Turkish defense ministers discuss escalated situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Iran MFA calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to show restraint

Russian MFA: Moscow is in contact with Yerevan and Baku to move escalated border situation to peaceful path

CSTO hasn't received official applications from Armenia for assistance with regard to border escalation

Putin, Pashinyan discuss current situation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Opposition 'Armenia' Alliance issues statement on situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border and solutions

Sergey Shoygu calls on Armenian and Azerbaijani MODs to stop operations inciting escalation

Armenia PM holds phone talks with Charles Michel

Armenia PM delivers speech at Security Council session

Republican Party of Armenia demands that authorities stop adventurism and apply to Russia through legal procedure

Armenia Ombudsman: Azerbaijan's attacks of terrorist nature have endangered life and health of civilians

Armenia Ambassador presents situation on Armenian borders to Dereck Hogan

Armenia Ambassador discusses situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border with U.S. Co-Chair of OSCE Minsk Group

Morgan Stanley predicts growth in luxury brand sales in the Metaverse

UN Security Council still hasn't planned discussion on current situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border

Armenia President and PM discuss situation on border

Jon Inarritu calls on international community for measures against continuous provocations of Aliyev regime

BREAKING on Azerbaijani-Armenian border: 12 Armenian soldiers captured

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin calls on intl community, religious structures to suspend Azerbaijan's encroachments

Opposition Homeland Party: All healthy national forces of Armenia need to gather and support army

Armenia MOD releases new footage showing how Azerbaijani armored vehicles are struck

Head of Armenia's Geghamasar: Situation is tense, enemy has accumulated a lot of armored vehicles on borderNew Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Partly cloudy skies. High 84F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

A shower is possible early. Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 53F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph, becoming N and increasing to 15 to 25 mph.YEREVAN.- Armenian President Armen Sarkissian visited on Thursday Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, the Presidential Office reported.

President Sarkissian, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, toured the Fund, got acquainted with the activities of different divisions. He was accompanied by the Funds new executive director Haykak Arshamyan. Thereafter, Armen Sarkissian met with the staff during which he talked about the role and activity of the Fund, the importance to work with new methods and principles in the contemporary world.

The Fund is a great value for our people since it has been created in difficult conditions for the Republic and our people and had a mission which it carried out with a great glory. I am not the one who should tell you about the achievements, programs and respect the Fund had among Armenians all over the world. Its just enough to visit different places in Armenia, depart from Yerevan to Stepanakert and see what high-quality road is constructed. There are multiple similar successful programs. Therefore, first of all I want to congratulate you that you work in a structure which really has a pan-Armenian significance with its activities, the President said.

He expressed gratitude to all Armenians, all citizens of Armenia, friends of the Armenian people who had their contribution to the implementation of the Funds programs. Again addressing my congratulations to our compatriots, I want to state that the Fund is not only alive, but also has a very good professional team. No hardship can affect our faith, love and dedication to the homeland and structures which bring their contribution to that homeland and the great homeland, I mean Armenia, Artsakh and also the Diaspora. As I expect from the Fund to actively operate not only in Armenia and Artsakh, but also in the Diaspora, there must be no doubt that we all should invest our potential, do everything possible for both the homeland, Artsakh and the whole Armenian people to reach their goals. I expect that we all jointly support, assist the Fund so that it will carry out its patriotic work in Armenia and Artsakh.

The President stated that its time for the Fund to revise its past path, assess the achievements and shortcomings. Time moves faster than we can think of. Therefore, the Fund needs to adopt new approaches, have new programs and work in a new way. The processes are moving quickly in Armenia, the world in the 21st century. I believe that the Fund will record new achievements. I believe that the past path, achievements, as well as difficulties will be lesson, the Fund again will move forward its mission. This is my message to you, the Funds staff. This is also my message to all citizens of the Republic of Armenia and all Armenians.

The President also congratulated and wished success to the new executive director, stating that he has a lot of tasks to do. Armen Sarkissian proposed the Funds executive to present the new vision of its activity in a short period of time, taking into account the changes and developments of the time. The Fund has been created in the 20th century and reached many achievements: its time for the Fund to become an institution of the 21st century, he added.US Presidential National Security Adviser John Boltons visit to Armenia is very important, acting Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said.

We will speak about the visit at a closer time to it; now we are preparing [for it], Mnatsakanyan said. Bolton is coming to Russia, coming to the region, and we [Armenia] have our agenda with the US; its an approved agenda, shaped for years. There are bilateral matters; there is a regional agenda around which we will hold meetings with the US.

And asked whether the objective of this visit is to further develop Armenia-NATO relations, the acting FM responded: We [Armenia] have our formed positions, and we remain within the framework of those positions.

Famous Istanbul Armenian photographer Ara Guler has passed away on Wednesday evening.

Guler, who was recognized as Photographer of the Century and was also known as the Eye of Istanbul, had begun his photojournalism career in 1950.

Ara Guler had received many Turkish and international awards and titles, and he had photographed numerous world-renowned personalities.

Armenian Prime Minister and President conveyed condolences on the demise of Guler.

Armenias acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and founder of the Multi Group concern Gagik Tsarukyan participated in the opening ceremony of a cryptocurrency mining farm.

The farm is built in Armenia in cooperation with Omnia Tech and the Multi Group concern.

Armenia's second president Robert Kocharyan is going to found his own political party and act as the opposition, he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Kocharyan said he sees a serious vacuum in the opposition and believes that to fill it in is in the interests of the country.

As to the upcoming parliamentary elections, Kocharyan explained that he simply does not have time to participate.

I had no party affiliation. This means I have to create a party from scratch, ex-president said, adding that he wants to participate in the elections with a new team.

Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan said there are no contradictions between Yelq and Tsarukyan factions in relation to the amendments to the Electoral Code. However, they failed to find a compromise with ARF Dashnaktsutyun.

ARF representatives do not agree with us on a couple of points, and it seems there is no compromise option, he added.

Mirzoyan said he will submit this draft to the Venice Commission. When asked whether they will have time to pass these draft amendments prior to the snap parliamentary electionwhich is planned to be held in December, the first deputy PM responded as follows: If it happens, it will be good. If not, the elections will definitely be [in December]; [they] can be [conducted] with the old [election law].Damascus and Tehran should agree on the withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria, this is not a problem for Moscow, said Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His remark came during the international conference on Thursday.

Its not really our problem to persuade Iran to withdraw from the Syrian territory, the Russian leader said adding Syria and Iran are sovereign states. They should build relationships with each other. 

According to him, Russia has a serious relationship with Iran and Syria.

Moreover, during discussions with our Iranian partners, we resolved some issues, including the withdrawal of strike weapons system from the Golan Heights. The issue of the total withdrawal of the troops should be resolved in a dialogue between Syria, Iran and the US, said Putin.

According to him, Russia maintains the position that after solving a number of such issues, including the final victory over the terrorists, all foreign troops must leave the Syrian territory.Juried art exhibition at SIU is open for student and community entries

by Hannah Erickson

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Artists from across the region are invited to submit entries to the 12th annual C4 Juried Art Exhibition at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, hosted by the Critical Forum student organization.

The event features a variety of art styles and techniques, and is open to the public for both entries and viewing.

The art exhibition is set for Oct. 30  Nov. 2, with pieces on display in the Surplus Gallery at the Glove Factory. The closing reception and awards ceremony will be Nov. 2 from 5-8 p.m., with awards announced at 6:45 p.m.

Juried competition with cash prizes

This years juror for the competition is Brian Jobe. With eleven years of teaching at colleges and universities and experience working at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Blue Star Contemporary in Texas, Jobe has spent his life around art.

In 2015 he, and his wife Carolyn Jobe, founded Locate Arts, an organization that connects and promotes contemporary visual art in Tennessee. Jobe currently acts as co-executive director of this organization while also teaching art courses at Lipscomb University.

Winning entries will be decided by Jobe, and $500 in total cash prizes and awards will be given to graduate, undergraduate and community categories.

Entry opens Oct. 24

All students and community members are welcomed to enter pieces into the competition. An entry fee of $20 covers three pieces, with additional entries accepted at $5 per submission (up to six entries total). All entries must be dropped off in person at the Glove Factory lobby, 432 S. Washington St, Carbondale.

Entries are accepted at the specified times:

4-9 p.m. on Oct. 24.

9 a.m.  2 p.m. on Oct. 25.

9 a.m.  6 p.m. on Oct. 26.

10 a.m.  6 p.m. on Oct. 27.

For more information contact William.sieber@siu.edu.Home | News | Crime/Legal | Nigerian Prostitute R@ped And Murdered In Scotland

A man accused of rape and murder told police he had s*x with a woman he met on the same street where his alleged victim was found, a court has heard.

Bala Chinda, 26, is alleged to have killed 36-year-old Nkechi McGraa  also known as Jessica  at a flat in Union Terrace in February 2016.

It is claimed he spoke to police officers after he was cautioned and told them: I met a lady at 10am on Union Terrace. We had sex and I left.

He denies all the charges against him.

The High Court in Aberdeen heard Mr Chinda was detained after officers investigating the death of Ms McGraa discovered she had travelled to the block of flats where the Nigerian student lived.

She returned to her apartment on Union Terrace with the man at about 13:02 on 11 February and was never seen alive again. Surveillance cameras recorded the movements of a black man walking down the street where she was staying soon afterwards, heading back to the student accommodation on King Street.

A camouflage print jacket and blue trainers similar to the clothing worn by the man seen on the CCTV footage were later found during a search of Mr Chindas room.

Cool, calm and collected

Defending, Ian Duguid QC, asked Det Con Joe McCrystal if his client had offered the information about having sex with a woman after being asked whether he had been on that street on the day of the murder.

The officer replied: No.

Mr Duguid asked: All the time he was with you was he cool, calm and collected?

The officer replied: He was very calm.

However, the officer added that Mr Chinda appeared to be shocked when he was informed of the reason that he had been detained.

Mr Duguid asked: In other words, the revelation that the woman was dead or that he was being alleged to have murdered her was a shock to him?

DC McCrystal replied: Well his demeanour had changed.

Mr Chinda is accused of inflicting blunt force trauma to Ms McGraas head and compressing her neck, forcing her face into a pillow and asphyxiating her.

He is also alleged to have stolen a key and two mobile phones belonging to Ms McGraa and disposed of the phone used by him to contact her.

Mr Chinda is said to have committed this offence to destroy evidence in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

The court had earlier heard that Mr Chinda got his hairdresser to give him 500 days after the death. He asked Solomon Omekefe to have the money transferred from his sisters account.

Mr Omekefe told the court how he met Nigerian-born student Mr Chinda while cutting his hair in a King Street salon earlier that year.

The court heard that Mr Chinda later contacted him to ask if his sister could transfer money into the hairdressers bank account.

Mr Omekefe said: He said he didnt have any money with him.

When he came he told me that as a new student they have to open up an account.

And so he told me that he doesnt have an account.

Church service

The 25-year-old said he could not recall when the two men agreed the 500 money transfer but remembered handing Mr Chinda cash a few days after the alleged murder.

He said he withdrew money on two separate days, with the last withdrawal taken from a Morrrisons supermarket near the church he attends on King Street.

Advocate depute Paul Kearney asked him: You said to police that you gave him 300 on Saturday the 13th and 200 on Sunday the 14th, were you telling them the truth?

He replied: Yes.

Mr Kearney said: You said on Sunday you went to a church service with him and then you went to Morrisons and took out 200 to give him him the remainder of the money?

He replied: Yes.

She was working as a prostitute when she was found dead in a rented flat she planned to sell s*x there for two days.

The trial continues.Home | News | Crime/Legal | LG Chairman Kidnapped by Unknown Police Officers In Borno

The chairman of Bama Local Government Area of Borno State, Modu Guja, has been abducted by fake policemen.

The council boss was said to be arrested by people in mufti who introduced themselves as plain clothes policemen.

Gujas vice was arrested recently in connection with the alleged hiding of a member of Boko Haram at the residence of Mafa council boss.

A security source who spoke on condition of anonymity to our correspondent said that the council chairman was kidnapped Friday evening when some men drove on a tricycle (popularly called Keke NAPEP) to his Lagos Street home in Maiduguri pretending to be plain-clothed security personnel.

He said the chairman was asked out by the two men for some questioning.

The source said: We just received an information from a top government official of Borno state that the Caretaker Chairman of Bama local government areas of Borno state, Ali Guja, was taken away from his residence at Lagos street, Maiduguri, by two unknown men who came in a Keke Napep tricycle.

The two men disguised as security operatives and took him to unknown destination.Till this moment, we do not have any idea about his whereabouts.

This will be the first time a serving government official of Borno State would be abducted in the last four years.Home | News | General | Now that Atiku has emerged

By Godwin Etakibuebu

IT is now a fact of the public market place that Atiku Abubakar, former vice-president to Olusegun Obasanjo, is now the presidential candidate of the People Democratic Party, PDP.. As such, he is expected to carry the banner of his political party [PDP] into the 2019 general election. There is even a greater and herculean assignment, besides just being the flag bearer of his Party, ahead for him, he is now the greatest individual challenger to Muhammadu Buhari in contesting for the presidency, in 2019. It is like saying that Atiku Abubakar, by picking the PDP ticket, has become the only one person to decide the continuity or otherwise of Buhari as president of Nigeria henceforth.

He got the ticket in Port Harcourt during the PDP delegates congress, conducted on Saturday, October 6, 2018, against two major odds and both [odds] are worth mentioning for analysis.

The first and very gigantic odd came from his former boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo as the latter vowed that he would ensure that Atiku never ascends to be president of Nigeria. He even mentioned about a month ago that denying the Waziri Adamawa from becoming president was a great service to motherland  Nigeria. In other words and by implication, he [Obasanjo] would be harming Nigerias interests should he be alive and see Atiku become the president.

Atiku is not president yet while Obasanjo is not dead yet also. On the one hand, by picking the PDP presidential candidates ticket to contest the 2019 presidential election, Atiku might as well be on his way to becoming the president  it is a possibility because he has cleared the first hurdle and every other thing to the Villa might just be falling in place for him. On the other , and this is very pivot, given the good health record of Obasanjo [he confirmed this a few days ago when he completed his medical checkup in that first-class medical facility in Bayelsa Sate], he is most likely to remain alive to see Atiku Abubakar being sworn-in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, 2019.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar,

All these remain permutations on assumption of some other contending factors within the dynamics of political display because getting the ticket to contest in a presidential election is different entirely from garnering enough votes across the country for securing the occupancy of the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja. However, let one fact be made known here, and now. If Obasanjo could not stop Atiku Abubakar from emerging as the presidential candidate of the PDP with all the atrocious venom he deployed into the battle, he might, most likely, not be able to stop voters in Nigeria from voting for the Waziri Adamawa.

This fact of Atiku clinching the PDP cherished trophy  the ticket, has many lessons for humanity generally, and to Olusegun Obasanjo in particular. Let us look at some of these lessons.

One of the lessons is that it is only the ungodly and fools who play God in the affairs of men. This is because the Creator of heaven and earth would always remain God while all mortals remain what they are  perishable elements. As such, the grip one human being has over his or her co-human being is very much limited or non-existent most times. It behooves those whom God exalted and made powerful in affairs of men to always remember that the most powerful is watching the powerful ones.

Another lesson is, it is only God that makes Kings, ditto rulers, to rule over men. In appointing rulers over men, God is merely giving authority, albeit temporarily, to rule over others. It is for the ruler; so made by God, in overseeing affairs of men within the appointed time or allocated time by God for that assignment, to be very conscious that he would be reporting his period of stewardship to the Immortal God and that the Almighty would hold him accountable for every of his daily action while he acted. He, the ruler, will be vicariously liable for his deeds while representing God over affairs of men.

There is yet another lesson Baba Obasanjo might want to learn from this inglorious but failed battle against Atiku  that is if he is willing to learn. Any human being in this world that is not conversant with the word forgiveness is entirely far from God and it will be impossible for God to keep him in His memory for anything good. Every human being is fallible hence we are all replaceable. Any infallibility attached to any human being, be it in temporal or spiritual capacity, is a great fallacy.

Ex-militants dismiss threats against Buharis re-election

Let us just mention one more lesson for Babas attention. There is no individual man on earth that knows it all. Any claimant to that capability is a great delusion. It therefore stands that Obasanjos claim of having solution to all problems in Nigeria, from Independence till date, would always remain one huge exercise in futility.

These are just few of many lessons that former President Obasanjo can learn on this Atiku matter and there is no time or age which is too late for someone to learn in life. There is also nothing as saying that it is too late, as long as one remains alive, to ask the Creator of Heaven and Earth for forgiveness. Let those who have ears hear these words of wisdom.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | We didnt issue strike notice to govt  PENGASSAN

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA  THE leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, has denied the report that it issued a strike notice to the federal government.

NNPC Protest: Members of PENGASSAN and NUPENG protesting over unbundling of NNPC in Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan

PENGASSAN in a statement signed by its National Public Relations Officer, Fortune Obi, on Thursday in Abuja, said that the press conference it held on 16th October, 2018, was for its 40th anniversary celebration to highlight some of the achievements and challenges confronting the association.

According to the statement, Though we listed some of the challenges such as casualization and contract staffing, offshoring of jobs, insecurity, infrastructural decay and capital flight, among others.

At no time did we issue any strike notice to the government on issues. Instead, we appealed to the Federal Government, State Governments, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association, NECA, and organised labour to put machinery in place to resolve some of these issues.

We were taken aback to read in one of the dailies (not Vanguard) ascribing PENGASSAN to have issued a strike notice.

As a responsible trade union with the interest of the masses and the Nigerian nation at heart, we will always work towards the growth and development of the country. We will not embark on any action that will inflict suffering on the Nigerian people.

Supreme Court raises oil revenue for Rivers, Bayelsa, A-Ibom

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | 2019: I am confident Atiku will win  Babatope

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, on Thursday said the partys presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would win the 2019 election. Babatope

Babatope, a former Minister of Transport, said that he was confident that Atiku would defeat President Muhammadu Buhari to return PDP to power.

Buhari, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had defeated former President Goodluck in 2015 to break the PDPs 16-year-rule and emerge president.

Babatope said Atiku was an experienced politician and that he had the capacity, credentials and clout to win and return power to PDP.

Atiku is the new face of the PDP. It is time for the party to win back power because I am confident Atiku will win.

My confidence is based on his political experience from being the founder of the PDM with late Yaradua to being the Vice-President where he did very well.

He also has national appeal as he is a detribalised Nigerian with successful businesses all over. He is a bridge builder, a man with great capacity and passion to lead.

Atiku is the next president. Our People want him. He will rescue Nigeria, I am so sure he will win, he said.

Asked if the former vice-president did not have the ascribed qualities when he failed in his past attempts to be president, Babatope said everyone had his appointed time.

He noted that Buhari also failed in his past attempts under different parties to be president until 2015 when he emerged under APC.

Babatope said 2019 was the destined year for Atikus presidency and that Nigerians would be better for it.

He said the selection of former governor Peter Obi of Anambra State as Atikus running mate would improve the partys victory margin in the election.

He added that the APC had failed Nigerians and that the PDP would return in 2019 to restore hope.

Babatope said though the South-West PDP was not in the zoning equation of the party for now, he believed the region would gain massively at the end of the day.

We know how we do our things in the party to favour everybody. For now, we are preparing for the election, by the time we win, I am sure the South-West PDP will gain big from the power arrangement, he said.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Atiku Campaign Organisation disowns online grant scheme

The Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign Organisation (APCO) has disowned a purported pan to disburse grants to unsuspecting Nigerians.

The organisation, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, said that its attention had been drawn to an on-going scheme that it purported to disburse grants to Nigerians.

Former vice-President Atiku Abubakar speaks during the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)s national convention in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on October 6, 2018.

Nigerias main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has picked Abubakar to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari who is seeking a second term in presidential polls scheduled for February 2019. / AFP PHOTO /

Information available to us reveal that the scheme Code-named Atiku Grant Disbursement Programme (see link bit.ly/2NP4vup) is asking unsuspecting members of the public to contribute a certain amount of money which will be multiplied for them after they have downloaded a particular social media application.

The APCO disclaims this scheme and any other in such manner.

For the avoidance of doubt, the Atiku Presidential Campaign Organisation is not in any way involved in the scheme or any other in such manner and neither did it give a proxy authorisation.

It said the official/verified social media handles of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party are www.atiku.org (Blog); www.facebook.com/atiku.org (Facebook); www.twitter.com/atiku (Twitter); and www.instagram.com/aatiku (Instagram).

The organisation advised members of the public to discountenance communication that did not emanate from any of these social media accounts.

It also advised them to refrain from participating in any online scheme that aimed at defrauding innocent Nigerians and with the ulterior motive to embarrass the presidential campaign of Atiku Abubakar.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | 2019: PDP organs to hit localities

By Dirisu Yakubu

ABUJA- Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the various organs of the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, would be mobilising support for the party particularly at the grassroots during the polls. R-L: PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Deputy Governor Ipalibo Harry Banigo and Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Ikuinyi-Owaji Ibani at the Government House Port Harcourt on Sunday during a Special Thanksgiving Service for the successful hosting of 2018 PDP National Convention

And unlike in the past, members of the various organs as well as stakeholders will help in monitoring the conduct of the polls across the states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory.

A party source who disclosed this to our reporter Thursday said the party has premised reward for its members on performance, stressing that the repositioned platform under the leadership of Prince Uche Secondus would not condone laziness on the part of anyone.

The National Working Committee, Board of Trustees, National Executive Committee as well as the National Caucus are all expected to move to the various wards and polling centres to mobilize, vote and monitor the electoral process on behalf of the PDP.

The excess of this is to ensure that all hands are on deck to get stakeholders engaged in the important assignment of harvesting votes for our great party. This is the only way the party can recognize service and promptly reward those who work for it at the appropriate time, he said.

On what the party would do differently in 2019 following its failure to win the recently held governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun states, the PDP chieftain said it was largely the outings by the PDP in those states that the Secondus-led administration is no longer prepared to take any chances.

UBEC to release N142.5bn to states

It would be wrong to say we lost Ekiti and Osun states. In fact, we won in those states and at the appropriate time, the usurpers of our seats will quit them. Be that as it may, we also know where we failed to push a bit harder.

In 2019, the entire structures of rhe the party will be mobilized to the field. We are to deliver our polling units and in so doing, this failed government will be shown the exit door, he added.

The party which came close to taking Osun from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, in last month election, was blamed by some of its members for the defeat, arguing that it failed to demonstrate sufficient leadership during the re-run despite holding a slight edge over the ruling party on the first ballot.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | World | Africa | Houses mysteriously pelted by stones

Residents of Garikai suburb in Bindura have been rocked by a bizarre occurrence in which stones are thrown at their houses from mysterious sources.

The Dzuda family home at number 1684 is at the centre of the drama with residents saying the family has been tortured for over a month by falling rubbles, quarry stones and even donkey dung coming from all directions.

When the ZBC News arrived at the scene, the most affected family had travelled but neighbours confirmed the strange happenings.

It is believed that members from some apostolic sect failed to exorcise the spirit.

Of concern is that the stones are only targeting houses and not humans.

Neighbours have not been spared and some were afraid to share their experiences because it is believed anyone who expresses disgruntlement is attacked with stones by the mysterious forces.

This news crew spent some time trying to catch a glimpse of the stone shower, but nothing was seen.

Only a large amount of pebbles, rubbles and bricks on the roof top are signs of the unfolding story and it remains to be unpacked where this said mystery emanates from.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: AfricaHome | World | Africa | Witchcraft: Girl pops out thorns from leg

Tales of witchcraft abound in Zimbabwe but some are so bizarre.

A 10 year old girl from Nembudziya in Gokwe is afflicted with a mysterious condition that saw her mother trekking to Harare to find a solution to her daughter's problem.

Many Zimbabweans, especially those who grow up in rural areas, find it difficult to dismiss the existence of witchcraft.

ZINATHA estimates that 75 percent of people in Zimbabwe recognise some aspects of African traditional religion and witchcraft.

Most Christians however prefer to quote the book of Ephesians which acknowledges that witches exist but are powerless before God.

When one listens to the story of the 10 year old girl from Nembudziya, they can just feel sorry for the girl who for the past two weeks has been popping thorns from her leg.

The girl's mother claims that so far she has collected more than 40 thorns that are mysteriously popping out of her daughter's leg.

Early last year, Zimbabweans had the horrific experience of watching yet another bizarre story of a young girl from Buhera who had small pieces of wire coming out of her leg.

The girl was later referred to Sekuru Benjamin Nyaude and the girl from nembudziya was also directed to the same man, who without hesitation claimed that indeed what was happening to the young girl was plain witchcraft and nothing else.

Sekuru Nyaude, who also claims to heal diseases like cancer and HIV and AIDS said most people are losing money by consulting doctors who deal in conventional medicines when their diseases require traditional solutions.

For interest sake, the ZBC News crew requested contact details of the young girl's mother and will be following up on her in a weeks' time to find out if the thorns have stopped popping out of her daughter's leg.

Some people get deeply disturbed that tales of witchcraft, superstition and other ridiculous medieval tales still find many believers.

It doesn't matter how educated people are, they are those willing to believe the tallest and weirdest of tales.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: AfricaHome | World | Africa | Mnangagwa's govt denies banning jerry cans

The government has refuted claims that it has banned the use of jerry cans but noted with concern the increase in the number of people queuing for fuel with containers.

The past few weeks have seen a resurgence of black market fuel dealers who are hoarding fuel in drums, jerry cans and plastic containers and selling it in the streets at exorbitant prices.

This prompted the government to speak on the use of jerry cans and other containers used for buying fuel which led to some sectors of the media reporting that the use of jerry cans had been banned.

The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dr Joram Gumbo said the government cannot ban the use of jerry cans as there are genuine customers who require fuel in the containers and drums

"There are legitimate customers who include farmers, owners of grinding mills, schools and hospitals that require fuel for their generators," he said.

There are some people who have resorted to hoarding fuel for resale, a situation which Minister Gumbo said is resulting in panic buying thereby causing artificial shortages, adding that there is sufficient fuel in the country.

A snap survey by the ZBC News revealed that fuel is available in most service stations in Harare although most are characterised by long queues

According to Statutory Instrument 12 of 2007, fuel is classified under the Hazardous Substances, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Regulations requiring specialised containers for carrying and storing.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: AfricaGiven the recent developments in Zimbabwe and the African continent, it is worthy assessing how Chinese investments can affect the local economy going forward. Critical for Zimbabwe is how the country can turn its close Sino relationship into a mutually beneficial cooperation, not an exploitative one. The People's Republic of China (PRC) surpassed the United States in 2009 to become Africa's largest trading partner.

The import and export value of China-Africa trade has grown from a mere US$10 billion in 2000 to over US$170 billion in 2017. China's exports to Africa reached $94.74 billion while imports from Africa reached US$75.26 billion, thus generating a trade surplus of $19.48 billion in a single year. China has extended more than $110 billion in commercial loans to African governments and state-owned entities (SOEs) between 2000 and 2017, at an average of about $6 billion a year.

Chinese investment into Africa has grown by 40% every year from $1 billion in 2004 to over $68 billion as of 2016. A study by McKinsey in 2017 pointed out that there are over 10 000 Chinese firms operating on the African continent with a large portion of them engaged in manufacturing, retailing and mining. As a result, China has become the biggest creditor, investor and economic partner on the African continent at the expense of the United States and the European Union (EU).

This phenomenal growth comes with widespread criticism especially in most African countries such as Zimbabwe but the fact is that China now has jaw dropping influence in African economics because of its financial muscle. Since the turn of the century in 2000, the Chinese have gradually grown to be Zimbabwe's go to friend on funding due to the country's isolation from the Western nations and renowned financial institutions such as IMF and World Bank. Chinese engagements with Zimbabwe cut across trade, investments, infrastructure financing and military cooperation

Trade between Zimbabwe and China has grown to over $1.2 billion annually with Zimbabwe exporting Tobacco, Cotton and various minerals. Imports from China mainly range from electrical goods, auto parts to various household merchandise. The most imposing Chinese investment in Zimbabwe has been the Long Chen Plaza built by Anhui Foreign Economic Construction Corporation (AFECC) for $200 million in 2013.

Since the opening of the giant mall in Harare, Chinese retailers have occupied strategic positions in almost every town in Zimbabwe making them a force to reckon with in retailing. Other notable projects include the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel in Mutare built by Anjin Investments and National Defense College in Mazowe. In agriculture, the Chinese market is the largest consumer of Zimbabwe's flue cured tobacco with over $200 million worth of trade in the golden leaf in 2017. As a result, a number of Chinese firms are angling towards tobacco processing close to source in Harare. In addition to providing capital for farmers, the out grower scheme has guaranteed a ready market for Zimbabwean tobacco and ensured viability of the sector which now employs thousands of farmers. In the energy sector, China's Sino-hydro entered into a deal with the government in 2015 to expand the Kariba South power plant at a cost of US$533 million and the project was commissioned early this year. The expansion added 300MW to the national grid thereby partially reducing the national power deficit. In June this year, China's Import and Export Bank started releasing funds for the $1.4 billion expansion of Hwange Power Station by the same contractor. According to ZESA, the project is expected to take 42 months and add 600MW to the national grid.

Further, the China Africa Sunlight Energy has expressed interest in the 600MW coal-fired power plant in Gwayi. Other projects of note include the 3 agreements signed between ZESA and CHINT Electrical of China to construct Solar Plants with a generating capacity of 300MW in partnership with Intratrek Zimbabwe. Whether these latest projects materialize or not, time will tell. However their implementation has potential to wipe out the country's power deficit and place Zimbabwe back on the energy self-sufficiency map. In transport and communication infrastructure, the Chinese funded the expansion of the Victoria Falls Airport in 2016 to the tune of $150 million, with China Jiangsu International Group being the contractor. In July this year, Zimbabwe signed another deal valued at $153 million for the expansion of the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport with the same financiers and contractor. The dualisation of the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway was also awarded to the Chinese company AFECC, though the project has already hit a false start and its implementation hangs in the balance. State owned entities such as Netone and Telone have also received loans from China valued over $400 million which have been integral in telecommunications network expansion locally, thereby improving internet connectivity.

The completed projects funded by the Chinese have demonstrated that the Zimbabwean economy can benefit from Chinese deals as long as commercial contracts incorporate sufficient due diligence by parliament to ensure transparency. It is also key to channel loans where they are necessary and have monitoring systems in place to ensure the projects meet international standards. Angles that need serious tightening of screws include border control for anti-smuggling of minerals and externalization of sales proceeds to China though informal corridors. Additionally tax collection systems by ZIMRA need to be water tight to ensure compliance to local regulations by Chinese businesses.

As with various recipients of Chinese loans and investments in Africa, reports of unfair labour practices, corruption, product dumping and counterfeiting, natural resource exploitation, tax evasion, externalization of foreign currency and fabrication of work permits for Chinese nationals have been reported in the local media. In 2014, Anjin Investments and Jinan were caught in a storm over allegations of Diamonds smuggling worth billions of dollars from Chiadzwa. In May this year, the Office of the President and Cabinet released a damning report of funds externalized illegally. Chinese nationals and companies featured prominently on that list with millions of dollars salted away from the local economy illegally. No action was taken on these individuals by the local authorities.

Despite negative perceptions that economic ties between the two countries disproportionately benefit China and the general view among Zimbabweans that the Chinese workmanship is shoddy. Chinese Investments can be used to grow the local economy and create employment as demonstrated in Tobacco farming where Zimbabwe eclipsed the 237.1 million kgs record output this year with the Chinese as key partners. Chinese multinational corporations such as Huawei, Yutong, BAIC, Lenovo, ZTE, CHINT Electrical and Hisense can partner local firms and bring technological development to local suppliers or customers. However without a clear strategy, Chinese investments may bring negative implications of geopolitical influence and unwarranted foreign debt to Zimbabwe as it has done in other parts of Africa such as Zambia, Djibouti and Kenya.

By and large, Zimbabwe needs foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic development after years of negative economic growth and international marginalization. It is impossible ignore the reality on the ground and cherry pick who invests in the country or the conditions preferred on that investment. Like Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa, the government simply needs to ensure that it has a clear strategy that ensures Sino economic agreements benefit the country in the long term. Above all debt should be directed to projects that are self-sustaining or are of economic interest. The Chinese, (like any foreign investor who comes to Zimbabwe) can take advantage of any loophole in the local economy or governance system if the opportunity presents itself. For Zimbabwe to get the best from Chinese deals, it is the duty of the government and parliament to ensure that control measures that safeguard national interests such as local employment, fair labour practices, local industry protection, tax collection and debt repayment are strictly adhered to.

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Victor Bhoroma is business analyst with expertise in strategic marketing and business management aspects. He is a marketer by profession and holds an MBA from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ). For feedback, mail him on vbhoroma@gmail.com or Skype: victor.bhoroma1.The Hippo Valley High School community is enjoying a welcome to the newly appointed substantive educationist Mr Gondo who is a man worthy praise as evidenced by the record of good administration following him.

The school had been having headmasters coming and going due to different reasons some of which are linked to problems with the other admin members who are always eying the top post. The deputy head Mrs Tsingo who is popular in lacking professionalism when addressing meetings using "kupata" meaning foolish, when addressing teachers.

The pupils at this good school are given a feeding scheme. The SDC further on agreed to feed the teachers also. Instead of being a family of teachers partaking of the food, the Animal farm story of animals better than other animals exist which Mrs Chimutimbira who is in charge of the feeding and the other admin members (4 senior teachers, deputy head and head) enjoy food cooked for them in a separate pot through out the whole week while the other members enjoy beans and vegetables(sometimes cooked without/with little cooking oil) cooked for the pupils and sometimes beef is offered.

Feeding the teachers that was meant to help is now a tool used to show that some are important while others are less import thus the school is back to the colonial era where whites were esteemed better than Blacks. One teacher who refused be named for security reasons outlined that it is bad. Jw further on stated that the awards which are given to teachers when the exam results are out intrinsically motivate them and they work harder to achieve good results. May the admin review the above mentioned issues for the good of implementing the curriculum as a family.Home | World | Africa | Lobengula did not disappear

INFORMATION diffused widely in this country after the extermination of the Allan Wilson Patrol by the heroic rear guard of King Lobengula under the command of Mtshana Khumalo was that the last Ndebele monarch had died of smallpox and was buried at Pupu.

This was, in fact, falsely purposely spread by King Lobengula's public relations personnel in order to stop the British South Africa Company (BSAC) armed forces from pursuing that monarch to where he actually went, that is, to Mpezeni Jele's country in what is now Zambia's Eastern Province.

The two people buried at Pupu are King Lobengula's last senior counsellor (Prime Minister to use modern political parlance) Magwegwe Fuyana, and his aide-de-camp, a Mhlanga.

Oral legend has it that as the Ndebele royal group was moving northwards, mounted BSAC armed forces under Colonel Forbes were getting closer daily.

King Lobengula and senior members of his entourage decided that Magwegwe Fuyana must be sacrificed in order for the king to escape.

King Lobengula is said to have told Magwegwe: "Magwegwe, wena nami savumelana ukuthi nxa singahlaselwa yizitha, sizakulwa sifulathelene, wena ubheke le, mina ngale. Usuzakufa, Magwegwe, ukuze abafo bengangibambi."

The literal translation of that statement into the English language is: "Magwegwe, you and I agreed that should we be attacked by some foes, we will stand and fight back-to-back, you facing in one direction and I the other.

You're now going to die, Magwegwe, so that our enemies cannot capture me."

The king's bodyguards seized and killed Magwegwe.

But when they tried to get hold of Mhlanga, he violently defended himself for quite a while during which he used vulgar words as he threw whatever weapon and missile he could lay his hands on.

He was, however, eventually subdued, killed and interred in the same rocky crevice with his chief, Magwegwe Fuyana, on a sultry November afternoon as black clouds rose menacingly from both the south and the east to portend an imminent violent storm.

The king and his group crossed the Shangani River and trundled on towards the land of the BaTonga, into Chief Pashu's territory to be exact.

His rearguard also crossed that waterway before the storm broke, so did a party of BSAC mercenaries under Major Allan Wilson that was in hot pursuit of the king.

The king's party was less than a day's walk from the rearguard, and Mtshana realised that at the rate the king's group was moving, on foot by and large, and that of the BSAC patrol, on horseback, the king's party would be overtaken sooner rather than later.

The commander of that historic, heroic Ndebele military contingent decided to stop and lay an ambush.

Allan Wilson, who had, according to a BSAC subsequent commission, gone further than his senior officer Forbes had instructed him, pressed on with his pursuit of a monarch who had literally yearned to be a friend of the British people.

He wanted to take the king's head back to Forbes and Rhodes. British colonialists had done so in the Cape Colony and elsewhere, and wanted to do the same with King Lobengula.

The mercenaries were moving at a leisurely pace when the Ndebele patriots suddenly attacked from all sides except the rear, where within earshot, the then flooded Shangani River was roaring furiously as a result of the storm cloud that had come down mercilessly in that river's upper and middle reaches.

The Ndebele commander, Mtshana Khumalo, had ordered his warriors to take no prisoners, but to kill whoever of the mercenaries within their striking reach.

He would later narrate how the patrol members tried to ward off spear shafts with their bare hands as they pleaded: "Hayikhona wena bulala zonke!"

The Ndebele warriors showed no mercy for very, very obvious reasons: That war was deliberately provoked by the BSAC, the whites had used devastating weapons at all recent battles and killed hundreds of thousands of black people and there, they were impudently, disdainfully and arrogantly trying to capture an obviously innocent victim of criminal aggression.

The Ndebele monarch, meanwhile, arrived in the land of the BaTonga where he remained under very strict security conditions while arrangements were being made for him to cross the mighty Zambezi River and go to his cousin, Mpezeni Jele, in the eastern region of what is now Zambia.

Tonga oral legend says Chief Pashu actually got some of his men to make a cavity big enough in a baobab tree nearby to enable a person to sit in it with relative comfort.

The stem's colour was rather dark, almost the same as that of a black person who could merge with that of the tree and not be easily distinguishable, a form of natural camouflage.

The BaTonga also carved many canoes with which King Lobengula and his group were ferried across that river.

But most unfortunately, oral legend has it that all the Tonga people who were involved in helping the last Ndebele king to leave their area were killed, after he had crossed to the northern side of the river, on his orders lest they should reveal his whereabouts.

When he arrived at Mpezeni's palace, he is said to have told that Angoni king: "Zimbi indaba ekhaya!"

That means: "Affairs are bad at home!"

Because of that statement, Jele called him 'Ndabambi' (bad news or bad affairs).

King Lobengula was accompanied by a relatively large number of highly seasoned warriors, some of whom had seen action at one or another of the already mentioned battles.

He wanted and tried, but failed to build a big enough army with which to return to free his kingdom from the BSAC.

He died in about 1920 and a Bulawayo-based group of Ndebele royalists sent a seven-member delegation to Mpezeni to pay their last respects to their monarch.

It is of much Nguni traditional politico-cultural interest that King Lobengula was accompanied by a non-Nguni queen when he left his kingdom.

That queen was a Madumani (MaMlalazi), a totem found more in the BaKalanga than in the Nguni cultural cluster.

After he had selected her much earlier from a group of girls who paraded before him as was the socio-cultural norm, his senior counsellors advised him: "Khafula mntwana wenkosi, ulihole." (Spit out, prince, she is of the serf social class).

The king did not act as advised, but ordered all his chiefs to tell their people to come to a meeting below the Tshabalala hillock on a date that has never been officially remembered.

He said people of Nguni and Suthu extraction should be told to sit separately from the indigenous (abetshabi).

The word 'tjaba' is tjiKalanga and means 'people of foreign tribes or nations', and is derived from 'sechaba', a seSotho word meaning exactly the same nation.

However, when used as an adjective such as in the sentence 'Banhu bezwitjaba', it means 'people of foreign tribes or nations'. The Ndebeles adopted the word from the Kalangas.

So, to go back to our story, when King Lobengula arrived at the venue, he commented: "Where are the people whose ancestors came from the south?"

The chiefs showed him where the Ngunis and Sothos were seated, and he remarked: "Just this little group!"

He went on: "I would like you all to realise that when we talk about our nation, we're referring mostly to the people we found here because they are many more than we are.

So, one of their daughters is now one of this nation's queens."

King Lobengula was by that incident nation-building, socially and culturally unifying his multi-ethnic people.

However, in January 1980, an elderly Ndebele man who was accompanied by a boy of about eight or nine years arrived at Zimbabwe House, PF-ZAPU headquarters in Lusaka.

His totem was Msimanga.

He found Andrew Mafu and the author of this account, and said he had been sent by 'amaNdebele ukuzatshela uNkomo ukuthi ayebona lapho okulele inkosi yamaNdebele, uLobengula. Engakayi ekhaya'. (He had been sent by the Ndebeles to Nkomo to tell him that he should go and see the grave of the last king of the Ndebeles before he returned home).

Attempts to reach Nkomo by telephone took the whole day, but eventually, we contacted him and he was at Shabani (Zvishavane).

He was campaigning, and said he found it both ill-advised and well-nigh impossible to return to Zambia at that very critical time.

--------

Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. sgwakuba@gmail.com

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: AfricaHome | World | Africa | ZDF has no adequate accommodation for soldiers

THE Deputy Minister of Defence and War Veterans Victor Matemadanda has said that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces has no adequate accommodation in the barracks that is why some of its members are residing outside the camps.

Matemadanda made the remarks in parliament during senate debate.

"The initial question was that they see soldiers at roadblocks, not in town but I will answer both. The other part of seeing soldiers in town; we do not have enough accommodation in camps to accommodate soldiers. We have soldiers in Dzivarasekwa, Budiriro and everywhere and when they go home, they go through town," he said.

"Every country has got its security system and information on threats to the nation is divulged to the JOC and not anyone everywhere but because our Constitution provides that soldiers should help the police; it is actually the police that should complain if they did not invite the soldiers."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: AfricaWe have a problem and a problem that we saw coming. It's not even a question of what went wrong. You see the political party that is called zanu pf is the problem here. Why we can't get this problem out of our hands is because we so polarized and cannot unite for the right cause. So, we are now the problem. We have been fed with lies after lies by people who call themselves professionals in the business of politics. During the campaign period in preparation for the 2018 elections, every campaigning person had a solution to the problems faced by this country. At least thats what they were telling us. Soon after the elections we plunged deep into an economic problem simply because the government in power did not take the cause out, the black parallel market through "osiphatheleni", why? There are several reasons why they didn't. One is they wanted 'osiphatheleni's votes and two is thst they were printing money to buy forex in the parallel market to purchase cars and campaign regalia outside the country and also for self enrichment. We also did not implement electoral reforms.

As Zimbabweans we should learn to follow people that do things constitutionally. Have you heard people talk about sanctions soon after elections ? Well, what hypocrisy. Sanctions are a result of not meeting the requirements of our 2013 constitution which requires us to reform our electoral system ushering in transparency and accountability. Americans have an act called ZIDERA(Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act) to enforce that. So when we voted for zanu pf we were renewing the sanctions because they had refused to implement reforms. What kind of thinking is that, that you make a decision to restore your problems. Some would say it's living in a fool's paradise. We certainly love oppression, don't we. So we should stop blaming Americans because they are only trying to help. We cannot go to the international Monetary Fund to borrow money because America will vetoe us out of the vote, and the Bretton Woods Institutes are also saying we rigged the elections so we are not credit worthy. We need to understand the diplomatic culture in the language and vocabulary used in such instances. You see the EU Obeserver Mission did not tell us that we rigged the elections, not in so many terms. Hindly the terms put were indicating that the elections had been rigged in favour of zanu pf, period. You see there is a certain political culture in Zimbabwe that was inculcated by Zanu pf which puts government institutions in an inseparable position with government and zanu pf. That is destructive to transparency and accountability. There is need for the electoral commission to be independent and in this election and that electoral commission, it wasn't the case and so elections were rigged, simply. If you refuse to do the right thing then that means you are accommodating the wrong thing.

It is very difficult to imagine or think that the introduction of Mthuli Ncube alone will sulvage the situation. I don't believe we got to this bad scenario because zanu pf did not have the means and knowledge of getting away from it, no. They did this deliberately to block transparency procedures and accommodate corruption. They went lawless in every thing and the worst way possible in order to use lawlessness to shut out other political parties' advancement to power. This is Africa, democracy is for public speeches and conferencing and constitutions are nothing but part of the deceitfulness. They are not meant to be followed and are only referred to during press conferences for point stressing.

Right now we are in the middle of nowhere pinning our trust to one man and one man only - Mthuli Ncube. But there are two animals of destruction here in terms of accommodating policy change. No.1. the politburo - will they accept policy and change and agree to be ruled through parliament? 2. The Junta - their claim circumvents security issues and have the biggest steak. Watch the space.

Clement Moyo

Mediation for Peace Centre

+263 712 708 284/77 662 090

clemenmoyo@gmail comWalmart cut its earnings guidance for the fiscal year 2019, citing its acquisition of the Indian e-commerce company Flipkart  the retail giants biggest deal ever.

Judith McKenna, president and CEO of Walmart International, took the stage at the annual Investment Community Meeting on Tuesday to explain to investors why the $16 billion deal in May is vital for Walmarts global expansion. Walmart may also be able to learn from its previous mistakes while expanding in China, where it was late to embrace the e-commerce boom.

While e-commerce is only about 2% of retail sales today, its growing at four times the rate of total retail. And to give you some context for that, China was at 2% in 2009. And today its at 25%, McKenna said. So we have no doubt that e-commerce in India is the right place to be.

India, which has a population of 1.3 billion with a median age of 28, is late to the e-commerce boom compared to other developed markets, but it is quickly gaining momentum due to increased internet users and cheaper smartphones. The e-commerce market has more than tripled since 2015. Mobile shopping and payments are poised for significant growth with more than 300 million smartphone users in India today.

E-commerce sales in India are expected to hit $32.7 billion this year, a far cry from $526 billion in the U.S. and $1.53 trillion in China, according to eMarketer data. By 2022, Indias e-commerce sector will be worth $71.94 billion.

McKenna explained why Walmart was willing to bid against Amazon (AMZN) to gain a majority stake in Flipkart. After losing the bid, Amazon has committed to spending $5 billion in India, where it sees the fastest Prime membership growth rate.

Walmarts miss in China

Walmart store in China (Getty Images)

Flipkart wasnt cheap, but Walmart learned from its mistakes in China. In 1996, Walmart entered China and opened hundreds of super-centers across the country. But as Chinese shoppers embraced e-commerce, Walmart experienced a drop in same-store sales and it pulled back from opening more stores.

Story continues

In June 2016, Walmart sold Yihaodian, an online grocery business in China, to JD.com, Chinas second-largest e-commerce platform, just one year after buying the site. Last May, Walmart opened an online grocery store on JD.com to leverage JDs logistics and delivery capability.

McKenna acknowledged that to conquer India, Walmart needs local expertise and talent. Flipkart has proven to be a leader of the fast-growing e-commerce market in India, accounting for nearly 40% market share, with dominance in key categories like apparel and electronics. Flipkart was founded by two former Amazon employees in Bengaluru, India in 2007.

There are homegrown businesses with a strong team who are really focused on developing infinitive solutions for the Indian customer, McKenna said. This is a unique market and it needs a unique local approach, and thats because there are many Indians. There are 22 different official languages across 29 states. The cities, towns and villages are at really different stages of developments.

In the fierce competition, Walmart doesnt plan to slow down. In tandem with this shift to online and mobile usage, Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall have been competing fiercely to claim their share of the Indian market. All three of these companies are making large investments, which include improved logistics and payment systems, as well as offering deep discounts, Eric Haggstrom, forecasting analyst at eMarketer wrote in a report.

Walmart (WMT) shares rose by 2% on Tuesday, closing at $95.8 per share.

Krystal Hu covers e-commerce for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.

WRead more:

China is pretending like the trade war isnt happening

Amazon bought Whole Foods a year ago. Heres what has changed

Amazon and Whole Foods clash over products like Coca-ColaAn advertising watchdog group has ruled that a Spotify advertisement featuring Camila Cabello's "Havana" and a creepy doll is way too spooky for kids. https://t.co/9CCMOcTY23  NPR (@NPR) October 17, 2018

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has deemed Spotifys killer songs you cant resist ad too scary for television in the UK. The ASA stated that the ad could likely cause distress to children who saw it.In the ad, every time a housemate playsHavana, a creepy doll suddenly appears  and it gets closer with each listen. A woman in the house begs her friends not to listen to the catchy tune...but too little too late. The creepy doll (well name him Stu) picks them off one by one.Spotify addressed the ban with an official statement: We acknowledge the ruling from the ASA and regret any distress the ad may have caused the complainant. It was created as a tongue-in-cheek horror parody  intended to be a humorous ad that demonstrated just how catchy some tracks can be. We take our responsibilities as a marketer very seriously and continue to be mindful of the ASA's guidance on the effective and appropriate targeting of advertising campaigns.I HATE YOU

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I laughed too hard at this.



Edited at 2018-10-18 01:41 pm (UTC)

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my is that weird? radar is so out of whack at this point in 2018 i dont even know how im supposed to digest this information

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it's all weird

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bad omens bad omens

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M E S S

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That is one rough looking 24 year old. He's edging too close to joining the 27 club :x

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the one she recently ODed in and decided to sell afterwards.



It must be nice to have enough financial security that you could sell your house just because you OD'd in it.

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allegedly its mainly so her dealers/bad influences dont have her living address anymore, which is quite smart imo

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This may explain why Justin wants it. 

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The detail about it being just minutes from Sunset Strip makes it sound less than ideal for someone trying to stay sober.

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The ratio of bedrooms to bathrooms annoys me tbh. I would think such a house would have more bedrooms too...maybe that's just my peasant poor people mind trying to rationalize things lol

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Eh, I think it makes sense to have more bathrooms than bedrooms. If each bedroom has its own full bath, then the other two are probably half baths and located on non-bedroom floors or close to the kitchen, etc so youre not going upstairs to your room every time you have to pee.

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Once you get more bathrooms than bedrooms, you're not going to make a return on investment when you sell.



I am buying a 3 bedroom / 1 bath, though, so the first week in the house I am having contractors come for estimates on adding a bathroom into the bonus room area. A $5,000 new bathroom will bring hopefully $50K to the value of the house.

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idk where you're from but good luck adding a bathroom for 5k

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I think it's crazy when houses have like six bathrooms but I guess if you factor in each bedroom having a bath and then two random bathrooms it's not that odd)

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same. every room doesn't need it's own bathroom plus extras. but what annoys me even more is like beyonce's house having 11 bathrooms.

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I just bought a house. I haven't even closed but it's already been a pain in the ass because the owner (a bank) tried to mask everything with cosmetics so it's beautiful but has defective electricity, needs a new bathroom installed, standing water in the crawl space, half a deck that is rotten, and the bathroom vents vent into the attic. They just gave up before making it to the ceiling.



But it's cheap for the area and a big house with a big yard. Ugh...

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It may be cheap but with all the money youre going to have to sink into that house to fix it youre better off finding something turnkey. Its always better to spend more for something solid or more fixable. I know its not always possible but thats quite a list of defects. From what Ive learned from HGTV defective electricity is pretty costly to fix too



Can you back out and get your deposit back? If the inspection report is really strong I feel like that would be enough to break the contract

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It's like a Property Brothers situation - it's cheaper to do the renovations than to buy what I want. Renovations will be around 20K. To get that same house without the issues - a new house basically - is about 70K more.

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Defective electrical and water in the house would have been a deal breaker for me.



More so the standing water. Did you know where it came from?

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his trash ass would

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The one people say is sliding down the hill....

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seems fitting

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I feel like with his problems they should be looking at homes further away. But Im not running his life so 

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Also I love looking at houses I could never afford. The most relatable part about Lady Bird was when they went to go look at an open house to make her feel better



I felt like such a baller because I once got to see a house that was By Appointment Only but it was disappointing. They botched the construction of the house- its one boring McMansion in the middle of a large ass tract of land. No pool, no landscaping.

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Yeah IA but he's an addict not that long ago he was living in a hotel while his friends were living in HIS house. The whole thing is just depressing.

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LinkI live in TX so the answer is always not great lmao.

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GA here. Definitely not great on our end either. What with one nominee being in charge of the voting machines and all.

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I live in Gwinnett County, which flipped from red to blue in 2016, and now they're reportedly rejecting 1 out of every 10 absentee ballots that come in. I'd be willing to bet anything those rejected ballots are mostly from the liberal areas. Screw Kemp and screw this election.

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SC here but I keeping getting your ads. I am sorry that you are going to get Kemp. 

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I'm so nervous since the polling is SO close. Like honestly I'm reasonably confident that Stacy could win if every vote was counted fairly. But it would be really close even if she does and if it's close enough you know that some GOP fuckery will go down to hand it to Kemp and there will never be any transparency into it ever. (Hello from Fulton county!)

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Louisiana. Hoping we move to a swing state next year so my 2020 vote will count a little more and won't just be a drop of blue in a huge fucking sea of red.



Edited at 2018-10-18 06:04 pm (UTC)

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Oklahoma here. I dont even think Mary Fallins shit two terms is enough to get Drew Edmondson elected. But we did just legalize medicinal marijuana so maybe everyone will just be really high and chill by 2020.

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I register to vote twice in Texas and it still says Im not register really worried I wont be able to vote

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Lol same Im so lucky to live in Houston but then I remember who represents us and Im like 

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Sc here...it is always the same answer here.

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"They didnt just get stuffed in a locker here; they had their lunch money taken"  @brianefallon https://t.co/FMIJngca1R  Eoin Hauntins  (@EoinHiggins_) October 18, 2018











I'm going to break something today. I swear it's almost like the democrats never want to be in power again. Mitch broke his deal with Schumer again, who could've seen this coming....

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democrats are fucking useless, istg

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I don't understand why they won't play dirty like Republicans do. Do they enjoy getting railroaded?

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I would not be shocked if it turned out several high level democrats are republican operatives.

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You will never win against anyone who is willing to play dirty and fuck over whoever they need to unless you are willing to get on their level and do the same.

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Schumer has gotta go

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fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

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Schumer should lose his Minority Leader job after this election no matter what. He fucking sucks. I know the Dems don't have the numbers, but they don't have to roll over and take it either.

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I want Schumer out as leader but wouldn't his BFF and #2 Dick Durbin just replace him and basically do the exact same thing? Before the new senate convenes I'm calling my senators and asking them to vote for someone new as leader.

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We in FL have several ballot questions bundled on our ballots which is confusing as fuck because the ones bundled are completely unrelated.

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vaping and offshore drilling? lol

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LOL I particularly liked how they bundled victims' rights with judges' age limits.

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They do the same thing in Alabama, right at the bottom, the most jumbled issues posed as questions that aren't questions and I'm sitting there as someone with a uni degree and speaks two languages, like, "What am I agreeing or disagreeing to? This is twelve run-on sentences." And of course, it's not like you can ask for clarification of what the hell this means when you get the ballot handed to you.

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LOL can someone nuke this country already?

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From your lips to god's ears.

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idk if anyone has the weapons to nuke america (they do a pretty good job of making sure no one has better weapons than us) but it certainly is deserved after Hiroshima.

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the russians have better nuclear weapons and more.

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i check my registration several times a week ngl, i live in florida

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And there was an annoying op-ed in my local paper about voting No on Amendment 4 (to restore voting rights to felons) because "liberals are trying to buy votes".



Fuck you.

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Some of their great astroturfed reasoning:

Raising pay is not going to make sexual harassment in restaurants go away.  Erica Christian of Tail Up Goat on #Initiative77  Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) September 28, 2018



Well, in DC, they just repealed Initiative 77 (that the majority of voters voted for) that would have raised all tipping positions in the district to actual minimum wage ($15 by 2020).Some of their greatreasoning:

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this shit is disgusting and the democrats worked with the Freedom Caucus republicans to overturn the will of the people



democrats aint shit



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fuck this shit. ugh. i'm just so angry all of the time.

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I was just reading about this, even with the disregard for human decency aside, this was corrupt as shit:



"It was found that D.C. politicians who received more campaign donations from the restaurant industry were also the ones more likely to oppose Initiative 77 and to support repeal. Mayor Muriel Bowser accepted over $65,000, Jack Evans received $44,920, and Councilmembers Vincent Gray, Phil Mendelson, Kenyan McDuffie, and Brandon Todd all took thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Initiative 77 opponents. Mary Cheh, the only D.C. City Council member to support Initiative 77 before the vote, received $1,000 and she is also the only council member to propose an alternative to repeal.

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And on top of that, those employers are basically paying people to spread anti-I77 concern trolling propaganda on social media.

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Its so frustrating.

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politics in DC is a complete mess, between the gentrification lawsuit, initiative 77, the overt corruption, etc. an utter mess.

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lol and they say our votes matter

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i'm 18 so i'm about to vote for the first time soon. i preregistered to vote when i was in high school and it became active the day i turned 18.



however, recently i got a letter sent to my parents house saying that i had "insufficient ID" and would be ineligible to vote unless i mailed in more ID. my passport and permit are expired so i sent in the last four digits of my SSN. idk if i'll be able to vote. i hope so

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where are you registered?

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NC

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what state are you in? there is a scam happening in NY right now that says exactly that.

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My statement on the errors found on official absentee and sample ballots in multiple towns ahead of the NH general election: #nhpolitics pic.twitter.com/BpGyQptw6y  Colin Van Ostern (@ColinVanOstern) October 9, 2018



my state senate candidate was listed in the libertarian column on our town's absentee ballots. strange how it happens during a cycle where we got incredible numbers in the primary and have a good shot of winning in November. my state senate candidate was listed in the libertarian column on our town's absentee ballots. strange how it happens during a cycle where we got incredible numbers in the primary and have a good shot of winning in November.

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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Samuel Jackson did a video for someone too, can't remember who it was tho.

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I'm in NY where there is no early voting.



But I grew up in GA and the reports of 3-hour-long lines in Cobb County were very disheartening. Like, yeah on the one hand maybe that means more people are voting. But I have to think of the people who read headlines about 3-hour-long lines and just don't even bother.

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From what I've read, NY has absentee voting and you just have to come up with some excuse why you'll be out of town election day.

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I just saw this on Twitter and it reaffirmed my fear:

Reasons that your signature might vary:

 Age

 Disability

 Medication

 Stress

 Countless others



We'll see Georgia in court on Tuesday.https://t.co/yG6oRuQWOA  ACLU (@ACLU) October 18, 2018



Yep, they do have absentee voting. But tbh I'm too afraid that something will go wrong with an absentee ballot to ever do a mail vote if I can avoid it (and I will actually be here on Nov 6).I just saw this on Twitter and it reaffirmed my fear:

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I check my voter registration every damn day bc i do not trust the state of texas to not purge me from the rolls even though ive voted jn every possible election since moving here august 2016. Its so messed up that this is the current state of affairs.

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Texas here I have registered twice and still says Im not registered to vote online...hooding my voter is magically shows up anyway

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Did you get your voter card on the mail??

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I've never early voted before, but I'm thinking about doing it this time.

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LinkThat game is the only reason i still own my PlayStation 1.

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Does Baby really have to crack America?

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Do I adore them for nostalgic reasons? Yes



BUT HOW MANY THE FUCK TIMES is Victoria expected to reunite, especially in a 10 year period?! And if she doesn't want to well then she shouldn't be shamed for it. I don't even think she hates them or anything like that but jeez

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Yeah but if the rest of them want to get back together and tour or whatever, she shouldn't be threatening to sue them if they do it without her. Just part ways and be done with it.

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She shouldn't have to leave but IA that she should let them tour with the 4 of them

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I frankly don't believe that happened. That Victoria ever committed to a tour - she's been resolutely saying no forever now, there's no reason for her to have suddenly done an about-face - or that she'd object to them going away and making money on her behalf without her lifting a finger. She'd still be getting any brand or renewed record sale royalties out of it.

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Honestly, its not like she was the one that originally left the group in the first place (ahem ginger my messy fave). She did her time lmao

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So in the 18 years since they broke up, they only actually reunited twice: once in 0708 for the tour, and once for the single performance at the London Olympics. That's not exactly a heavy amount. It might just feel like more because there are constantly reunion rumours.

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This is ridiculous. She is allowed to move on. She has a gd fashion empire to run, board members to answer to, and a family to take care of. She can't just ditch everything to relive her "pop star glory days".



If anything, it seems like Mel B is throwing Victoria under the bus every chance she gets. Getting the press and fans to pressure her is not the way to go, ffs.

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Mel B apparently called Posh to smooth things over and the conversation went south with Scary ending the conversation with: "Fuck off, you bitch!

Sounds just like any regular day in the Spice world... Friendship never ends!

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I get that Posh probably doesn't want to do this anymore but I think she shouldn't stop the others from wanting to continue being Spice Girls, if they're going to perform as a 4-piece group.



Also, I love that the nicest Spice Girl is hosting the most wholesome reality/competition show, awwww.



Edited at 2018-10-18 11:06 pm (UTC)

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Didn't she give them her blessing to do it without her? No one respected or took her seriously and that is a problem.

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Oh no they're making a US version of Bake-Off??? I'm excited and scared???

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lol same. they better not fuck it up.

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wasn't there one already last year with steph curry's wife, but it got immediately shelved when it came to light that one of the hosts/judges, johnny iuzzini, sexually harrasment several women?



edit: looks like the show was called 'the great american baking show', was an adaptation of GBBO, and was on season 3 when it was canceled???



Edited at 2018-10-18 11:14 pm (UTC)

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They've tried it a couple of times. Years ago they did one hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. I think it aired on CBS or NBC? Paul and Mary were the judges, I think.



Then ABC tried it by having it be a holiday baking show. It did.... ok for one season and Mary was one judge and some other guy was the other one. And then mid-airing of the second season, it was pulled from the airwaves because the other judge guy was revealed to have sexually assaulted women.

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There's been like two attempts that I know of. One was on CBS with Jeff foxworthy, and then a holiday special one on ABC with the star of my big fat Greek wedding

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the Canadian version turned out a lot better than I thought it would and we're into S2 now. helps that Dan Levy is so charming

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The new holiday edition with Baby Spice and Sherry Yard at least has the potential to be good.

http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/10/new-judge-and-host-for-the-great-american-baking-show.html



Edited at 2018-10-19 12:57 am (UTC) With all the celebrities/chefs they have to choose from, the US version has been scraping the bottom of the barrel. Jeff Foxworthy, Nia Vardalas, Ian Gomez and an accused sex abuser--that's the best the producers could do?The new holiday edition with Baby Spice and Sherry Yard at least has the potential to be good.

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i feel like every 6 months like clockwork there's a new news cycle of *spice girls will reunite* *everyone signs on* *posh pulls out* *tour postponed*

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Rinse and repeat

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its cos mel b keeps speaking about it when idt they've even decided anything yet. i get that she might need the money thanks to her asshole ex-husband, but its super annoying.

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Bad move, Victoria! Messy tho, she prob has too much going on in ha private life oh well. Even we got Ginger back and like.....

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Its amazing how these hasbeen always feel entitled to have the more successful of them come back years later to prop them up. First the Olsen twins and now Posh - theyre doing their own thing, they dont need to bother reminiscing with the Kimmy Giblers and Baby Spices of their past.

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Mel B actually has a pretty good career, so Id hardly call her a has been. I am tired of all of this will they, wont they crap though. Its tedious now.

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And Mel C has constantly been putting out music and has a respectable career in the industry. And both Geri and Emma have been doing judging gigs in different markets.

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the fuck is that user talking about? all the girls released an album and each doing their own thing. mel c was a judge on x factor china, mel b is a judge in america's got talent and x factor uk and emma is a radio host. they're not like joey fatone selling n sync memorabilia at garage sales.

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Yeah, just because something made someone famous doesn't mean they're obliged to revisit it, but if it's true that Posh is blocking the others from profiting from their band, she's an ass.

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She really is a bitch if shes stopping the other girls from going on without her.

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Yea I didn't know that that's fucked if its true.

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IA. It's totally Victoria's choice not to return, but it's not fair for her to expect them to let her cash in on the group when she's not putting in any work.



Edited at 2018-10-18 11:25 pm (UTC)

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Mel B is a serious fucking mess. I feel so bad for her children.

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Im assuming the amt of b words used in this post+threads are terms of endearments

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baby spice aka the superior spice is doing what?!?! omg im SO in!

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I really don't think the US version of GBBO can ever be as good, why do we even need to try? Just so we can destroy it?

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The Canadian one has some charm and I've been enjoying that. You're right, though, I'm hesitant about a US one. And ever since GBBO moved to Channel 4 with the new hosts, et al., they've been really upping the footage of contestants crying and it's feeling manipulative and icky when GBBO was great because it wasn't about that. I loved reading about how Mel and Sue would swear and bad mouth huge companies on camera whenever a contestant cried so they could make sure the footage wasn't usable because they didn't want to be part of a reality show the exploited people's pain.

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Mel Sue and Mary Berry are gems and I miss them on GTBBO. They always showed genuine interest in helping and wanting all the contestants to succeed. And as someone who saw the season and a half of the American version...well, it wasn't that great. The charm wasn't there.

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LinkThe Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the producer of nearly all of the oil in the UAE, began producing and exporting a new crude grade, Umm Lulu, in October, an ADNOC spokesman told Reuters, in a move that will help raise the Middle Eastern producers exports as OPEC is relaxing the production cuts to offset lost supply from Iran and Venezuela.

The new Umm Lulu crude grade is being pumped from the offshore fields Umm Lulu and SARB, operated by ADNOC offshore in partnership with foreign oil companies.

One of them, Austrias OMV, said that the initial capacity of the two fields is 50,000 bpd, which will increase to 129,000 bpd by the end of this year, and then to 215,000 bpd by 2023. OMV was awarded a 20-percent stake in the 40-year offshore concession in April this year for US$1.5 billion.

According to trade sources who spoke to Reuters, ADNOC has already sold two cargoes of 500,000 barrels each of the Umm Lulu crude grade for November loading to the second biggest refiner in South Korea, GS Caltex, and to Indias Reliance Industry.

Reliance has halted imports of oil from Iran, so it has to look for other options and is taking more crude from the Middle East and from the United States, an executive at Reliance told Reuters on Wednesday.

As of early September, the UAE already started ramping up production to 3 million bpd, thanks to the Umm Lulu and SARB fields.

ADNOC has a target to have production capacity of 3.5 million bpd by the end of this year.

According to OPECs secondary sources, the UAEs oil production in September averaged 3.004 million bpdup by 30,000 bpd from August.

Last month, OPECs biggest producer Saudi Arabia also opened up the taps to add 108,000 bpd of production, lifting output to 10.512 million bpd, as the cartel and its key partner in the production cut deal, Russia, moved to offset losses in Iran and Venezuela.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:As of today, recreational cannabis consumption is legal in Canada. While many Canadian citizens and companies will be celebrating the reform, not to mention preparing to capitalize on this green-golden opportunity, the Canadian oil and gas industry will be ringing in the new era with considerably less enthusiasm.

Canadian oil companies and workers unions are busy scrambling to finalize a plan to maintain safe operating standards in an era of legal and easily attainable marijuana. In Canadas oil sands, workers perform risky maneuvers and operate heavy equipment daily, making health and safety an especially critical issue. Legal weed poses a unique challenge to an industry that has long maintained a zero-tolerance policy for drugs, alcohol, and general on-site impairment in Fort McMurray's oil sands.

Energy Safety Canada (ESC), the domestic oil industrys association for workplace safety, said that it anticipates much higher rates of cannabis use among oil and gas workers in the wake of legalization. Despite the difficulties this change in legislation will likely bring to the oil industry, ESC has already publicly supported workers rights to consume the legal substance when they are not on the job. "We do expect we will see an uptick in usage," said ESC president Murray Elliott. "But it won't be the end of the world."

Cannabis use in workers free time is one thing but being impaired in a site as fraught with potential hazards as the oil sands is another issue entirely. As such, ESC has created guidelines for the industry that helps to identify different levels of impairment, much like what the federal government is using to evaluate drivers who may be under the influence of cannabis. Even with these guidelines, however, much about cannabis use in the oil industry remains unclear. ESCs Elliott acknowledged as much and said that there remain a lot of unknowns about the impact of marijuana use in the workers, but that there will need to be more research (and therefore more funding) on the subject to better understand the potential and actual impact. Related: Saudi Arabia Calls The End Of Russias Oil Prowess

While the industry works to create new standards under changing legislation, oil workers unions are also discussing their own approach to the legalization of marijuana in Canada. Walter Ticas, president of Fort McMurray union Unifor 770 A, which represents Suncor workers, says that Suncor still has not solidified their policies around cannabis, which means that workers will have to get proactive in protecting themselves and anticipating impending policy changes. Ticas is advising union members to be very careful about not only not coming to work high, but also to be sure to leave all marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia at home, going so far as to keep their work and casual wardrobes completely separate. Accidentally leaving a roach in a jacket pocket could lead to big problems thanks to strict zero-tolerance standards in the oil sands.

In response to guidelines for measuring marijuana impairment, Ticas says that they will cause a major challenge to workers and employers alike. Determining someones degree of marijuana impairment is not a simple thing--theres no equivalent to a breathalyzer, for example, no index as black and white as blood alcohol level. In light of this, Ticas is imploring union members and oil industries employees in general to depend upon their own "good judgment" when monitoring their recreational or medical cannabis consumption. "Just respect cannabis and understand the effects it takes on your body," he said. "If you feel different days after consumption, speak up."

Canada is only the second country, after Uruguay, to legalize marijuana for recreational use, which means that there is no manual and next to zero precedent for industry response. In the oil sands, a workplace with unique hazards and correspondingly strict standards for their employees, this means that the coming months will be a big experiment. At a time that the oil sands have much bigger things to worry about, cannabis in the workplace may seem like small potatoes to some. But for workers in the field and everyone who cares about them, the relative lack of preparation for legal marijuana in Canada could have dire consequences if the industry cant get onto the same page about workplace safety in a changing country.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Saudi Aramco signed on Thursday an agreement to invest in a 400,000-bpd refinery and associated petrochemical plants in eastern China as part of Saudi Arabias push to expand its downstream business and secure additional markets for its oil.

The Saudi state oil giant signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zhejiang province to invest in the refinery and petrochemical complex and to cooperate in crude oil supply and trading, Reuters reported, citing details released by the city of Zhoushan, where the complex will be built.

Aramco will take over the 9-percent stake of the Zhoushan government in independent refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical, which is developing the project, Abdulaziz M. Al-Judaimi, Aramcos senior vice president of Downstream, told the Caixin Global news outlet.

According to Caixin calculations, the value of the stake would be US$308 million (2.14 billion yuan).

Total investment in the refinery-petrochemical project is expected at US$24.9 billion over the next two years, according to Caixin.

Aramco will supply 170,000 bpd of Saudi crude oil to the refinery when it starts operations, Al-Judaimi told Reuters.

Earlier this month, sources at Aramco and Zhejiang Petrochemical told Platts that the independent Chinese refiner had secured term crude supplies from the Saudi oil giant, but declined to specify volumes and loading periods.

The deal with Zhejiang was the second term deal that Aramco had signed with an independent Chinese refinerthe first was with Hengli Petrochemicals 400,000-bpd refinery in northeast China.

Last year, Saudi Aramco started a charm offensive with local governments in China in a bid to secure participation in the downstream business in one of its largest single crude oil customers.

Related: The Implications Of A Fractured U.S., Saudi Alliance

Aramco will be heavily investing in increasing its refining capacity and chemicals business in pursuit of securing more downstream markets for its crude oil, Aramcos Al-Judaimi said earlier this year.

Aramco, which produces around 10 million bpd of crude oil, aims to increase its refining capacity from 5 million bpd now to 8 million bpd-10 million bpd, and to double its petrochemicals production by 2030, Al-Judaimi told Reuters in an interview in June.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Now that global oil markets have gotten used to Saudi-Russian oil production cooperation that first hit the scene in early 2017 in an effort to reign in global price concerns, it now appears that the two fledgling allies are also going to cooperate in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. And this time too, it looks as if the alliance could take aim at U.S. energy ambitions.

The kingdoms media savvy energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said at the India Energy Forum in Delhi on Monday that Saudi state-owned Saudi Aramco is open to the idea of marketing some of the LNG from the proposed Russian Arctic LNG 2.

Aramco has the mandate to go global and not only invest in downstream but also invest in gas and LNG. We have looked at projects in Africa and the Mediterranean, and of course the Arctic with some Russian companies, Novatek. The idea is that Aramco will trade that [LNG] globally and bring some of that to India and other markets, Al-Falih said.

We have looked at projects in Africa and the Mediterranean, and of course the Arctic with some Russian companies, Novatek, he added.

Mammoth gas project

Arctic LNG 2 will be a mammoth facility and increase Russias gas ambitions for not only pipeline gas to Europe but to key LNG markets in Asia that account for over 70 percent of global LNG demand, with that demand growth projected to increase amid Chinas ramped up natural gas usage. The project envisages the construction of three LNG trains at 6.6 million tons per annum (mtpa) each, or 535,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. It is seen starting up sometime between 2022 or 2023.

As far back as the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia and Russia indicated that they could become LNG partners when Aramco and Novatek signed a MoU over possible cooperation in Arctic LNG 2. Related: Will The U.S.-Saudi Spat Upend Oil Markets?

Aramco is seriously studying investing in the planned Arctic LNG plant, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told reporters in Riyadh on February 14 at a joint briefing with his Russian counterpart. Saudi King Salman is keen to strengthen energy ties between the two nations following their oil-cuts collaboration that helped drive crudes recovery, according to Al-Falih.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen on developing more LNG projects in an effort to rival top LNG producers Qatar and Australia. However, with Qatar projected to reach 110 mtpa of liquefaction capacity within around five years, thats an ambition that may never materialize. Saudi Arabia for its part is also seeking to double its gas production over the next ten years.

Key take-aways

The possibility of a joint Saudi-Russian alliance in not only oil markets but in gas markets has significant take-aways for both energy markets and geopolitical developments, particularly in the Middle East. First, it comes as the Trump Administration and Riyadh are feverishly trying to do damage control over possible Saudi implication in the alleged killing of U.S. resident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While Trump is trying to tone down criticism both internationally and among an outraged Congress on both sides of the isle, it remains to be seen what will happen if Turkish or even international investigations find Saudi Arabia was instrumental in wrong doing over the incident. Related: The Dark Horse Of The Oil Price Rally

Adding another layer of complexity to the issue, yesterday CNBC reported that Saudi Arabia was even considering a certain level of responsibility over the missing journalist, by admitting that Khashoggi was inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and that he could have even been killed inside the consulate.

Financing problems for U.S. projects

Moreover, Al-Falih comments on Monday over Saudi-Russian gas cooperation come as Russia and the U.S. Jokey for geopolitical leverage in the Middle East. In essence, the U.S. has backpedaled its decades long dominance in the region while Russia, mostly in the ongoing Syrian civil war and with its pro-Tehran stance, is increasing its influence in the Middle East.

However, geopolitics aside, a Saudi-Russian alliance in global LNG markets could create problems for U.S. project proposals that are already facing headwinds as the U.S. second wave of projects seek financing and long term off-take agreements to go forward amid Chinese tariffs on U.S. LNG. With the prospects of a protracted trade war between Washington and Beijing likely, numerous LNG projects in the U.S. could fall behind schedule or not even receive financing and lose out to a host of other eager competitors, including Mozambique, Canada, and bringing the situation full circle - even Russia.

By Tim Daiss for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:The authorities of Zhoushan, an island city in eastern China, said they were in talks with Exxon on the construction of an ethylene plant worth US$7 billion, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing a statement by the city authorities. Today, however, the city withdrew its statement, saying that yesterdays information was not factually correct. Reuters has since withdrawn its earlier story.

According to the statement, the plant was supposed to have an annual capacity of 1.5 to 1.8 million tons of ethylene and will be the second ethylene plant project of Exxon in China announced in the last two months. In September, Exxon said it had struck a deal with a city in the southern Guangdong province for the construction of a 1.2-million-ton ethylene plant. That one should be ready to start operations in 2023.

China is the largest consumer of petrochemicals globally, and Exxon is not the only international oil major seeking to build a presence in this lucrative market, especially in light of projections that in the future, plastics and other oil derivatives will replace fuels as the primary driver of crude oil demand. Today, a new report surfaced that Saudi Aramco had signed an agreement to invest in a 400,000 bpd refinery and associated petrochemical plants in the same city of Zhoushan.

Exxon is on track to take an active part in Chinas LNG market, which is also growing rapidly. Last month, the supermajor inked a deal with the city of Huizhou to build an LNG terminal and to supply the feedstock.

There are only a select few foreign companies moving to take advantage of Chinas growing LNG market as efforts by Beijing to curb pollution saw a lot of utilities switch from coal to natural gas, including LNG.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Reliance Industries has stopped importing Iranian crude oil ahead of U.S. sanctions against Tehran that enter into effect on November 4, a senior company official told Reuters. He added that the company had increased its intake from other Middle Eastern producers and the United States to compensate.

Its no wonder Reliance has stopped importing Iranian crude. One of Indias biggest industrial conglomerates with a substantial international presence has exposure to the U.S. financial system that it needs to reckon with, therefore limiting the chance of violating U.S. sanctions that would close its access to U.S. banks. Earlier this year, an unnamed source from the company had told Reuters that insurers working with Reliance had also advised it to stop buying Iranian crude.

However, other refiners expect India to score a waiver from the sanctions with the U.S. Treasury. The Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals, a subsidiary of Indias Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), said the company expected India to receive a waiver as early as this month.

It is important for India to get some barrels of crude from Iran otherwise if Saudi and major producers are not able to jack up their production, it will impact prices, Reuters quoted Venkatesh as saying on the sidelines of an India energy forum.

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals will be looking to purchase crude oil from Iraq to replace oil from Iran, the official said. It will not be the only one, either.

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.

Whats more, good bilateral relations with Tehran are important to India over the long term as several government officials have made clear in the past few months during the prolonged U.S.-Indian discussions on the oil import topic.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Iraqs Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luiebi decreed on Thursday the transfer of the ownership of nine state-held oil companies from the oil ministry to the newly formed National Oil Company, Reuters quoted oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad as saying in a statement.

AlLuiebi is also head of that new national oil company, and he made the decision in his capacity as company chief, not as oil minister, Jihad noted.

The nine companies that will go under the ownership of the new national oil company are state marketing company SOMO, Iraqi Oil Exploration Company, Iraqi Drilling Company, North Oil Company, Midland Oil Company, Basra Oil Company, Dhi Qar Oil Company, Maysan Oil Company, and Iraqi Oil Tankers Company.

Last week, al-Luiebi was appointed president of the INOC.

Earlier this year, the Iraqi Parliament voted to re-establish the national oil company that was dissolved back in 1987, when it became part of the oil ministry. The new oil company will manage the upstream operations in Iraq, while the oil ministry will be in charge of the strategic and regulatory decisions.

Iraq is in a government transition period after months of political deadlock following the general elections in May. Earlier this month, the new president of Iraq, Barham Salih, picked a former oil minister and finance ministerAdel Abdul-Mahdias Prime Minister-designate.

Abdul-Mahdi called upon outgoing government officials not to sign urgent contracts, make non-essential hires, or make other key decisions, although, according to Reuters, its not clear if that call was related to al-Luiebis decree to transfer the ownership of the state oil firms to the new umbrella company.

The PM-designate Abdul-Mahdi, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that he would present his picks for the new government for approval next week. Abdul-Mahdi has until early November to form the new Iraqi cabinet.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:The United States is mulling over more sanctions against Venezuela, but crude oil exports will not be among the sanction subjects, Reuters reports, quoting a Washington official. The source said Venezuelas oil production is already in a steady decline, suggesting it doesnt need an additional push to sink to the bottom.

Talk about sanctioning Venezuelan oil exports has been on the table ever since Washington began to step up the pressure on Caracas, blaming it for human rights violations and being responsible for the economic crisis that hit Venezuela when oil prices began falling in 2014. Yet the Trump administration never made good on its threats to sanction oil exports. Now, according to this source, there is no point in doing it.

The fact is that the greatest sanction on Venezuelan oil and oil production is called Nicolas Maduro, and PDVSAs inefficiencies, the official told Reuters. At the end of the day, Nicolas Maduro has taken care of really running PDVSA to the ground, and essentially more and more making it a non-factor.

Meanwhile, the Maduro government announced it will stop using U.S. dollars for international transactions and switch to the euro instead. Bloomberg earlier this week quoted a statement from the countrys Vice President in charge of the economy Tarek El Aissami that Venezuela will from now on use only euros and yuan in quotes of foreign exchange auctions. As part of the shift, President Maduro had ordered an injection of 2 billion euro into the Venezuelan forex market.

The shift away from dollars is part of ambitious efforts to restart the Venezuelan economy. Another part is the launch of the petro digital currency that Caracas says is backed by oil and gold reserves. Sales of the petro will start next month and will be made available for trade on six exchanges from November 1 but for private deals. Public sales will begin on November 5, President Maduro said.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Polands main gas firm PGNiG has signed a 20-year agreement with U.S. Venture Global LNG, under which the Polish energy firm will receive 2 million tons of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) every year beginning in 2022, in what is the latest move by Poland to reduce its reliance on Russian gas and oil imports.

Poland is paying around a quarter less for U.S. LNG than it does for Russian gas, PGNiG chief executive Piotr Wozniak told a news conference on Wednesday. PGNiG expects to sign at least one more long-term deal to buy LNG for Poland, the companys deputy chief executive Maciej Wozniak noted.

Under the deal with Venture Global LNG, PGNiG will buy LNG on a free on board (FOB) basis starting from the commercial operation date of the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility, currently expected in 2022, and the commercial operation date of the Venture Global Plaquemines LNG export facility, expected in 2023.

Thanks to the FOB formula, we will be able to decide, independently and based on our needs at a given time, whether the purchased LNG load should be directed to Poland or be used for further trading through our London office, Piotr Wo?niak said in a statement.

These are the first long-term contracts for purchase of LNG from the US announced in Central Europe, Maciej Wo?niak noted.

Currently, more than half of Polands gas supply comes from Russia under a long-term deal with Gazprom that expires in 2022. PGNiG doesnt plan to extend its agreement with Russia and is looking to secure supplies for after 2022.



Related: China Cant Get Enough Of The Worlds Cheapest Crude

Polands Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at a press conference that the previous government wanted to sign a binding deal with Gazprom until 2037.

This would be like putting handcuffs on Poland and making us reliant on Russia for many years, Morawiecki said, as quoted by Reuters.

Poland is also trying to diversify its oil supplies away from Russia.

Polands largest oil refiner, state-run PKN Orlen, has bought its first ever Nigerian crude oil cargo that was expected to arrive in mid-October, the Polish companys chief executive Daniel Obajtek said earlier this month.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Due to operational divergences and geopolitical divisions, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait havent made any progress in talks about the potential restart of jointly operated oil fields that analysts were hoping could soon add 500,000 bpd of oil production in the Middle East, Reuters reported on Wednesday, quoting sources familiar with the talks.

The so-called Partitioned Neutral Zone (PNZ) was established between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in 1922 to settle a territorial dispute between the two countries. As of 2015, the oil production capacity in the neutral zone stood at 600,000 bpd, equally divided between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to the EIA. Production from the zone averaged around 500,000 bpd just before the shutdown of the two oil fields, Khafji and Wafra, in 2014-2015.

At the end of last month, Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Mohammed discussed the restart of crude oil production in the neutral zone during a meeting with Kuwaits Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah. The Saudi Crown Princes visit to Kuwait, however, was cut short, according to Reuters sources, while big divergences between the two sides remained.

Saudi Arabia wants more control over the oil operations, and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are also not entirely aligned in the handling of the Saudi-led embargo on Qatar. Kuwait is trying to be the mediator in the dispute in which Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt severed ties with Qatar last year, accusing it of supporting terrorism.

During the summer, Kuwait was hopeful that it could soon settle the dispute with Saudi Arabia over the oil fields in the neutral zone.

After talks broke down, the prospects for the fields coming back online is dead as a doornail, a source close to the projects told Platts on Tuesday. The only hope for the fields to restart could be through international arbitration, the source added.

According to Reuters sources, maintenance on the inactive fields is expensive and the more the restart is postponed, the more difficult it will be to resume production quickly.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:THE Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) released on Wednesday evening, October 17, one of their kidnap victims after the captive's family paid P1.2 million worth of ransom.In a report, authorities said the ASG

THE Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) released on Wednesday evening, October 17, one of their kidnap victims after the captive's family paid P1.2 million worth of ransom.

In a report, authorities said the ASG released Rufo Roda to a certain Al, who allegedly took part in the negotiation around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in downtown Jolo, Sulu.

Roda, a militiaman, was abducted in Piacan, a coastal village in the town of Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte on August 31 along with his wife, Helen.

A group of five Abu Sayyaf bandits seized the couple following a clash in the evening of August 31 .

The clash resulted to the death of five people while a child was injured.

The family of the victim allegedly paid P1.2 million worth of ransom money for the release of the couple but the bandits refused to free Rondas wife.

Ronda is now undergoing custodial debriefing prior to his turnover to his family.

The police said Roda, escorted by military intelligence personnel, boarded a commercial ferry Wednesday night en route to Zambaonga City.

The Abu Sayyaf bandits are still holding captives: 10 people, including two foreigners--a Dutch and a Vietnamese.

Military focused operation continue in a bid to locate and possibly rescue the remaining hostages. (SunStar Philippines)TAIWAN is eager to capture more arrivals from the Philippines.Following the extension of its trial visa-free access until July 2019, Taiwans tourism ministry is aiming to welcome some 400,000 Filipinos

TAIWAN is eager to capture more arrivals from the Philippines.

Following the extension of its trial visa-free access until July 2019, Taiwans tourism ministry is aiming to welcome some 400,000 Filipinos to visit this year.

Abe Chou, director of Taiwan Tourism Bureau for Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei, said the visa-free access extension will benefit both territories, as destinations like Cebu also aim to attract huge arrivals from strong markets like Taiwan.

Chou said if theres a healthy people exchange between two economies, this will attract more Taiwanese and Filipinos to explore each others tourism offerings.

Taiwans trial visa-free access has yielded positive results. The number of Filipinos who traveled to Taiwan grew by 57.17 percent over the same period last year. It recorded some 285,819 Filipino tourists from January to August 2018.

Chou said they expect more Filipinos to visit Taiwan, not only because of the visa-free access but also because of the direct flights currently serving both destinations.

Carriers offering direct flights to Taiwan out of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport include Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, Philippine Airlines, Eva Air and Tiger Air Taiwan.

Taiwan offered the Philippines an initial nine-month visa-free trial period last November.

Reports said that the visa-free program is part of the governments effort to increase the number of visitors from countries included in its New Southbound Policy covering the 10 Southeast Asian countries, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.

Moreover, Taiwan is one of Central Visayas top travel source markets. The region welcomed 71,739 tourists from Taiwan last year, up by 69.75 percent from 42,261 tourists in 2016.

Arrivals during the first quarter this year stood at 10,564. (KOC)Phuket, Thailand, October 18, 2018  Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach recently welcomed back the winners of its inaugural Dream WeddingFacebook campaign to the resort to celebrate their first wedding anniversaries.

Last years Dream Wedding campaign was hugely successful, and concluded with three ceremonies  two weddings and one engagement  taking place simultaneously at the resort on the evening of September 24th, 2017.

As part of their prize, the couples were invited back to the resort to celebrate their first anniversaries and rekindle magical memories in the spectacular surroundings of Nai Yang Beach.

Phuket Marriott Resort & Spa, Nai Yang Beach hosted an exclusive dinner for the two married couples, Been & Newz and Waew & Sven. The resorts management team joined this celebration at the resorts stunning beachfront.

We would like to congratulate both couples on their first wedding anniversaries. Last years Dream Wedding campaign was a great success and reflects how social media can help us create meaningful connections with our guests in a fun and interactive way. This anniversary also reaffirms our resorts status as the perfect destination for dream weddings and other romantic occasions, said David Ippersiel, General Manager, Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach.

Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach has an extensive array of options for all types of dream wedding, from traditional Thai ceremonies to Western white weddings, classical Chinese occasions and Indian celebrations, all overlooking the spectacular seafront of Nai Yang Beach.Phuket, Thailand, 3rd October 2017  Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beachs recently hosted Dream Wedding ceremonies for the three lucky couples who won the resorts Facebook contest.

This was a hugely successful event for the resort, as it arranged two wedding ceremonies and one engagement ceremony on the same evening, on 24th September 2017. This followed the Dream Wedding Campaign on Facebook, which was launched by the resort to celebrate its first anniversary earlier this year.

Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach hosted the wedding ceremonies for Suwimon & Eam, Been & Newz and the engagement ceremony for Waew & Sven. All three couples were able to celebrate in the luxurious surroundings of the resort, overlooking the stunning sandy beach and azure Andaman Sea.

This event confirms the resorts position as the perfect destination for dream weddings. Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach was recently named as Thailands Best Wedding Venue and Asias Best Wedding Venue at the Asia Property Awards 2017-2018. These awards are testament to the quality of weddings offered by the resort, as well as the propertys exquisite design and the consistently high standards achieved since the resort opened last year.

We would like to congratulate all the three couples and thank everyone who entered our Dream Wedding social media campaign. We are delighted with the positive response the contest received, and thank the winners for spending their wedding and engagement ceremonies with us, as they embark on a lifetime of happiness, said David Ippersiel, General Manager, Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach.

We wish them all the best for their exciting new lives together and look forward to welcoming them back for their vow renewal ceremonies in future, he added.

Phuket Marriott Resort and Spa, Nai Yang Beach has an extensive array of options for all types of dream wedding, from traditional Thai ceremonies to Western white weddings, classical Chinese occasions and indulgent Indian celebrations, all overlooking the spectacular seafront of Nai Yang Beach.Charlie the Tuna was netted by US authorities as part of a canned tuna price fixing conspiracy, as Korean-owned StarKist was fined up to $100 million

The US crackdown on price fixing has netted another big fish in canned tuna, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

StarKist, whose mascot Charlie the Tuna has long been a fixture in American supermarkets, agreed to plead guilty and pay a fine of up to $100 million for conspiring with other companies to fix prices of canned tuna, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

StarKist representatives engaged in discussions and meetings with other packaged seafood firms to manipulate prices from as early as November 2011 and as late as December 2013, according to a statement.

"The conspiracy to fix prices on these household staples had direct effects on the pocketbooks of American consumers," said US Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim.

"All Americans have the right to the benefits of free and open competitionthe best goods and services at a price free from collusion."

StarKist, which is owned by South Korean company Dongwon Industries, agreed to cooperate with the investigation. Its exact fine will be determined at a sentencing hearing.

StarKist joined Bumble Bee Foods in pleading guilty in the scam. The Justice Department's announced in May 2017 that it was fining Bumble Bee $25 million for its role in the conspiracy.

A total of six charges have resulted from the crackdown so far, including some executives who propagated the scam, the agency said.

Explore further US fines Hitachi-LG disk drive firm for price fixing

 2018 AFPCredit: CC0 Public Domain

Known since antiquity, Mercury has not yet delivered all its secrets. The international mission BepiColombo, scheduled to launch in the coming days, will study the planet's surface and compare its magnetic field with that of the Earth.

Apart from Earth, Mercury is the only terrestrial planet with its own magnetic field, and yet it has only been visited by two space missions so far. This is indeed no easy task: because it is so close to the Sun, a spacecraft that misses the Swift Planet's weak gravitational field will inevitably plunge towards the solar surface, heated to a fiery 5,500 C.

The European and Japanese space agencies, ESA and JAXA, have therefore worked in close collaboration to ensure BepiColombo's success. The mission, which comprises two orbiters, is scheduled to launch from Kourou, French Guiana, on the night of 19-20 October aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. After a seven-year journey and two flybys of Venus to benefit from a gravity assist, it will then survey Mercury's surface, atmosphere, and magnetosphere for two years, until 2027.

From Mariner to Bepi

In the 1970s, during a mission mainly focused on Venus, the American spacecraft Mariner 10 carried out three flybys of Mercury. One of the researchers involved was a professor at the University of Padua, Italy, called Giuseppe "Bepi" Colombo. The new spacecraft, the very first collaboration between ESA and JAXA, was named after him.

During the brief flybys, Mariner 10 was able to map half of Mercury and detect its magnetic field. Although it is much weaker than Earth's, it shows that the core of the planet is still active. Mariner 10 also confirmed the presence of an exosphere, an extremely tenuous atmosphere extending to very high altitudes.

Many years later, NASA launched the MESSENGER spacecraft. Placed in orbit around Mercury in March 2011, it crashed onto its surface in April 2015 when it ran out of fuel. It confirmed Mariner 10's observations and carried out further mapping and surveys of the surface. In particular, MESSENGER discovered evidence not only of volcanic activity and plate tectonics, but also of water ice: due to Mercury's extremely small axial tilt, no direct sunlight ever reaches the bottom of impact craters at the poles.

"Although MESSENGER carried a magnetometer and equipment to measure ions and energetic particles, the spacecraft's main mission was to survey the planet, its thin atmosphere and its surface," explains Dominique Delcourt, CNRS senior researcher and director of the LPC2E, in charge of the ion mass spectrometer on board BepiColombo's Japanese-designed orbiter, MMO. "In the presence of an intrinsic magnetic field, a magnetic cavity forms in space. This is called the magnetosphere, where many particle transport and acceleration processes take place."

One Mission, Two Orbiters

The BepiColombo mission comprises two orbiters carrying a science payload of nearly 100 kilograms. The first one, MPO (Bepi), will be dedicated to fully mapping the planet and studying its surface, internal structure, and exosphere, while the second, MMO (renamed Mio), will study its magnetic environment. Once at their destination, Mio will be released first, followed by Bepi, which will be placed into the lowest orbit ever achieved around Mercury.

Delcourt is upbeat: "This wider array of instruments will enable us to not only make new discoveries, but also review MESSENGER's data. By combining observations from both orbiters, we will also be in a position to perform what you might call stereoscopic measurements, something that was previously impossible."

The MMO orbiter will complete one rotation in just four seconds, enabling its instruments to point in all directions in space in search of neutral or ionized particles and electromagnetic waves. With a higher resolution than the MESSENGER instrument, the MSA ion spectrometer, developed at the LPP[6] in collaboration with Japanese and German teams, can distinguish between heavy atoms only one atomic mass unit apart, such as potassium and calcium.

"These measurements will enable us to characterize ejected planetary material," says Delcourt. "As a result of meteorite bombardment and the solar wind, matter is ejected from the surface of Mercury. It can then be ionized by the Sun's ultraviolet radiation, and transported and accelerated around the planet." By studying these ions, it will be possible to analyze the composition of the surface without having to land on it.

A Model Magnetic Field

The magnetic field of Mercury is also an interesting generic model. Observing a magnetosphere that is smaller than ours should improve our understanding of the behavior of both neutral and ionized matter in space. At such a short distance from the Sun, the density of the solar wind means that it has a greater impact on the planet. Another interesting factor is that Mercury's highly elliptical orbit causes significant cyclical variations in this exposure. As a result, BepiColombo's various scientific instruments are likely to be kept extremely busy. Six of them were designed with the participation of eight CNRS laboratories, including the LPC2E, the IAS, IPGP, the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP), the LAM, LATMOS, LESIA and LPP.

At the LATMOS, Eric Quemerais is the lead scientist for PHEBUS. This ultraviolet spectrometer scans frequencies ranging from 50 to 320 nanometers, as well as a few lines used to detect calcium and potassium.

Analyzing Mercury's Surface

"We cover a wider spectral range that includes elements that were invisible to MESSENGER, such as helium, sulfur, ionized calcium, dihydrogen, etc.," Quemerais explains. "Thanks to a better signal-to-noise ratio, we also have an improved detection limit." And whereas the American spectrometer was aligned with its probe, PHEBUS has an independent pointing mechanism. This allows it to choose its direction and provides better spatial and temporal coverage in orbit. "The exosphere gives an idea of the composition of Mercury's surface and of its outermost layers," Quemerais adds. "For instance, we know that we will detect calcium and sodium, but we also expect to find magnesium, potassium, and oxygen, whose presence has not yet been systematically confirmed."

Another advantage of ultraviolet light is that it reflects off ice in a different way, which means that PHEBUS will be able to spot any water ice present. "This technique has already been employed on the Moon," says Quemerais. "We will use these changes in the amount of reflected light to map Mercury's two poles." Because of its specific orbit, selected so that it could survey the North Pole, MESSENGER was only able to map half the planet.

BepiColombo thus promises to provide the scientific community with a wealth of new data. In June 2020 in Orleans (central France), Delcourt will be organizing the next important conference dedicated to the Swift Planet. "Of course, BepiColombo won't have reached its destination by then, but we will nonetheless be able to make use of MESSENGER's data," he explains. No doubt the scientists at that time will have their sights set on Venus, which Bepi Colombo will be about to swing past, propelled on its way to Mercury, its final destination.

Explore further Video: BepiColombo mission to MercuryA peacock mantis shrimp attacking its prey with its dactyl clubs. Credit: Maryam Tadayon / Biological & Biomimetic Materials Laboratory

Researchers in Singapore can now explain what gives the mantis shrimp, a marine crustacean that hunts by battering its prey with its club-like appendages, the most powerful punch in the animal kingdom. In a paper publishing October 19 in the journal iScience, they show that a saddle-shaped structure in the mantis shrimp's limbs, which acts like a spring to store and then release energy, is composed of two layers made of different materials. Measuring the composition and the micro-mechanical properties of the layerswhich are mostly bioceramic and mostly biopolymeric, respectivelyallowed the researchers to simulate how the saddle stores such large amounts of elastic energy without breaking.

"Nature has evolved a very clever design in this saddle," says senior author Ali Miserez, a materials scientist who studies unique biological structures at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. "If it was made of one homogeneous material, it would be very brittle. It would for sure break."

Previous research from the lab of biologist Sheila Patek had examined the mantis shrimp's dactyl clubsthe appendages they use to attack their preyand suggested that muscles alone couldn't be creating the amount of force with which the crustaceans strike. Other research had hypothesized that the saddle might be used to store elastic energy, but studying the structure and mechanical properties of the saddle was challenging. "The movement is so fast that people hadn't been able to focus just on the saddle itself, which is why we needed to study it by computer simulation," says Miserez.

His team analyzed the composition of the saddle, making micro-measurements of the materials' mechanical properties to develop a simulation of the mantis shrimp's strike. They found that the top layer of the saddle is composed mostly of a relatively brittle bioceramic similar to tooth or bone, while the underside contains a higher content of biopolymers, which are fibrous like a rope and therefore strong when pulled on. When the mantis shrimp's muscles and connective tissues load energy into the saddle, the top layer is compressed and the bottom layer is stretched, meaning that each layer is placed under the forces it is best able to withstand.

A mantis shrimp. Credit: Maryam Tadayon / Biological & Biomimetic Materials Laboratory

"If you asked a mechanical engineer to make a spring that can store a lot of elastic energy, they wouldn't think of using a ceramic. Ceramics can store energy if you can deform them, but they're so brittle that it wouldn't be intuitive," says Miserez. "But if you compress them, they're quite strong. And they're stiffer than metal or any polymer, so you can actually store a higher amount of energy than you could with those materials."

The researchers also performed a series of experiments using small strips of actual saddle structures that they cut with a powerful picosecond laser beam. They analyzed how forces were distributed when the strips were bent the way they are in the mantis shrimp and when they were bent the wrong way. When they were bent the wrong way, with the biopolymers compressed and the bioceramics stretched, the strips were less able to withstand strong forces, likely due to tiny fractures in the ceramic layer.

Miserez and his colleagues are continuing to study the structure of the mantis shrimp saddle and have even started 3-D-printing some mantis shrimp-inspired springs of their own, which could potentially be used in microrobotics.

"From a fundamental science perspective, the mechanics of this structure are quite interesting," he says. "But what this design also shows is that you can make a very efficient springand you can make it out of ceramics, which are more efficient than other materials people are using now. You can use materials that you wouldn't have thought about based on your mechanical engineering knowledge."

How a bi-layered saddle structure made of bioceramics and biopolymers powers the mantis shrimp's famous punch. Credit: iScience

Explore further How mantis shrimp evolved many shapes with same powerful punch

More information: Tadayon et al.: "Biomechanical Design of the Mantis Shrimp Saddle - A Biomineralized Spring Used for Rapid Raptorial Strikes," iScience (2018). Tadayon et al.: "Biomechanical Design of the Mantis Shrimp Saddle - A Biomineralized Spring Used for Rapid Raptorial Strikes,"(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2018.08.022Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A two-year cycle in the gamma-ray brightness of a blazar, a galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole, has been confirmed by 10 years of observations from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The findings were announced today at the Eighth International Fermi Symposium meeting this week in Baltimore.

"This is the first time that a gamma-ray period has been confirmed in an active galaxy," said Stefano Ciprini, a researcher at the INFN Tor Vergata division of the Italian Space Agency's Space Science Data Center in Rome. "The gamma-ray period is also seen in other wavebands, including visible light, and additional X-ray and radio data hint at similar brightness peaks."

Some of the matter falling into the blazar, named PG 1553+113, forms a jet of particles that radiates gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light, almost directly toward Earth.

"This result has been achieved after 10 years of continuous monitoring by Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT), said Sara Cutini, a researcher at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Perugia. "We first saw a hint of a periodic modulation in 2014, when we produced detailed analyses of LAT data. Now we can say with certainty that this long-term behavior is real."

A pair of supermassive black holes in the heart of the blazar is the most tantalizing possibility. In this scenario, one of the supermassive black holes would be emitting the gamma rays in a jet, and the direction of this jet "wobbles" due to interactions with its companion black hole. This would make PG 1553+113 a prime target for a future space-based gravitational wave detector, such as the European Space Agency's Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), set for launch in the 2030s, or by the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a giant radio telescope, which is under construction in South Africa and Australia.

The scientists caution that other interpretations can explain the cyclic emission. For example, there could be periodic instabilities in a disk of matter swirling around a single supermassive black hole, or there could be general relativistic effects that cause the gamma-ray-emitting jet to precess.

"The periodic variations in visible light, gathered over 12 years by optical telescopes on Earth and in space, are similar and well correlated with what we see in high-energy gamma-rays from Fermi's Large Area Telescope. It is a totally new discovery for high-energy gamma-ray blazars and active galaxies," said Stefan Larsson, a researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.

Explore further Fermi mission finds hints of gamma-ray cycle in an active galaxy

More information: For more about NASA's Fermi mission, visit For more about NASA's Fermi mission, visit www.nasa.gov/fermiTension in the air: the more nervous moviegoers are, the more isoprene they emita measurable indication of how stressful a film is. Credit: 123RF/Ints Vikmanis

A measurable criterion now exists for determining the age rating of films. A group of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz has found that the concentration of isoprene in cinema air correlates with the cinema industry's voluntary classification of films. Evidently, the more nervous and tense people are, the more variable is the isoprene they emit. This can be used to deduce how "stressful" a film might be for children and adolescents.

The age from which children are allowed to watch a movie has so far been based on subjective judgments. In Germany, the Voluntary Self Regulation of the Movie Industry (FSK) classifies films after carefully examining their content. Some movies such as The Lion King are released for all ages, whereas others such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and Dracula are only suitable for viewers aged 6, 12, 16 or 18 respectively. Ultimately, the classification is fairly subjective.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz have now developed a method that can objectively evaluate the age at which children and adolescents can safely watch a movie. They measured the composition of air in cinemas as well as levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during 135 screenings of eleven different movies. Over 13,000 audience members were involved. For a variety of film genres and age groups, the researchers found that isoprene levels reliably correlate with the age rating of a film. "Isoprene appears to be a good indicator of emotional tension within a group," says Jonathan Williams, group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. "Our approach could therefore provide an objective criterion for deciding how movies should be classified."

Isoprene is released whenever we move

Isoprene is formed by metabolic processes and is stored in muscle tissue. It is released via the circulatory system, expired air and the skin whenever we move. "Evidently, we involuntarily squirm back and forth on our cinema seat or tense our muscles when we become nervous or excited," Jonathan Williams explains. And how intently the audience follows a film is, in turn, a good indication of the movie's emotional impact on children and adolescents.

If the new method were applied to an audience with representative age groups, it could help to determine the age rating of a movie in disputed cases. In addition, the measurements could show how audience reactions and age classification standards change over time.

Do our emotions leave a chemical fingerprint in the air?

In order to detect the chemical clues, the scientists connected a mass spectrometer to the cinema's ventilation system. During the film screenings, the device, which can identify substances even at ppt levels, was used to track changes in the air composition by taking measurements once every 30 seconds. In this way the team analyzed the concentrations of 60 compounds. Based on the data, the scientists then created a model that compares the age classification with the data on how often and in what quantities the audience released those compounds.

Jonathan Williams has now come up with a new research idea for the unambiguous correlation they identified for isoprene. He plans to investigate whether the volatile organic compounds we emit leave a chemical fingerprint in the air, not only of tension but of other emotional states as well. His team was unable to determine this clearly during the film screenings, because scenes that elicit very different emotions follow each other in rapid succession, thereby blurring the potential air-borne chemical traces. However, by taking air measurements under controlled laboratory conditions, in collaboration with other Max Planck Institutes in Frankfurt and Nijmegen, Jonathan Williams now hopes to conduct a thorough investigation into the question of whether specific emotions leave traces in the air.

More information: C. Stonner et al. Proof of concept study: Testing human volatile organic compounds as tools for age classification of films, PLOS ONE (2018). Journal information: PLoS ONE C. Stonner et al. Proof of concept study: Testing human volatile organic compounds as tools for age classification of films,(2018). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203044Young chimpanzee in the Budongo Forest, Uganda. Credit: Adriana Lowe, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent

Research carried out by the University of Kent sheds light on the infanticidal behaviour of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and demonstrates that females are highly sensitive to the relative risks posed to their babies by different males.

Researchers from the Living Primates Research Group in its School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC), and the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, examined the behaviour of female chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, where chimpanzees (at least in the study community) are particularly prone to committing and suffering infanticide.

The study by Adriana Lowe and Dr. Newton-Fisher (SAC) and Dr. Catherine Hobaiter (St Andrews) was carried out during a period in which a mid-ranking male rose rapidly in rank.

Males can benefit from infanticide when they can kill an unrelated infant and replace it with one they have fathered. Because rank is linked to mating access in chimpanzees, a male who rises quickly in rank is surrounded by babies he is unlikely to have fathered, compared to any babies conceived after his rise.

This means a male who rises in rank is suddenly a threat to mothers and their babies.

Mothers, specifically those with younger, more vulnerable infants, reduced their association with the rank?rising male during the period of instability. The research team also found evidence that females preferred to associate with a male of stable high rank on the basis that such males could offer protection against infanticide.

Female chimpanzee with young in the Budongo Forest, Uganda Credit: Adriana Lowe, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent

Ph.D. student, Adriana Lowe said: 'Watching chimps killing infants is really shocking and although it's pretty well reported, it's not been entirely clear why they do it. The mothers' behaviour in our study supports the hypothesis that it's a strategy by the males to get more mating opportunities. Male chimps are often described as great politicians as they use complex alliances to compete for high rank but this shows that the females are just as tuned in to the social environment, watching the males from the side-lines, sensitive to any changes which might put their babies in danger.'

The research builds on pioneering observations of infanticide in this community by Dr. Nicholas Newton-Fisher more than 20 years ago (Infant killers of Budongo, 1999)The paper, titled, Countering infanticide: Chimpanzee mothers are sensitive to the relative risks posed by males on differing rank trajectories has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Explore further Chimpanzees modify grooming behavior when near higher ranking members

More information: Adriana E. Lowe et al, Countering infanticide: Chimpanzee mothers are sensitive to the relative risks posed by males on differing rank trajectories, American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2018). Journal information: American Journal of Physical Anthropology Adriana E. Lowe et al, Countering infanticide: Chimpanzee mothers are sensitive to the relative risks posed by males on differing rank trajectories,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23723Samina Raja, Ph.D., professor of urban and regional planning, University at Buffalo. Credit: University at Buffalo

Governments across the U.S. and Canada have made strides in their food systems planning efforts, with many recognizing within the past decade that the issue of food insecurity is just as important as maintaining other public infrastructure like roads and water systems.

Still, questions remain: How are local governments engaging in the food system? Who are they engaging with, and who are they leaving out? How is government involvement advancing or impeding the creation of equitable and just food systems? How are their efforts being measured, and how should they change what they're doing?

These are among the key questions addressed in a special issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, published Wednesday. It is the world's only peer-reviewed journal focused specifically on food and farming-related community development.

The special issue was co-edited by Samina Raja, professor of urban and regional planning in the University at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning, along with Jill Clark, associate professor in The Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs; Kimberly Hodgson, founder and principal consultant of Cultivating Healthy Places; and Julia Freedgood, assistant vice president of programs for the American Farmland Trust.

Food systems are the soil-to-soil systems that enable food to travel from farm to plate, explains Raja, who is also principal investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab housed within UB's School of Architecture and Planning.

"Engagement in food systems planning is no longer a new concern for local governments," the co-editors write in their accompanying editorial in the special issue. "Local governments across North America have developed, enacted and, indeed, implemented policies that are ostensibly designed to strengthen food systems."

This has all taken place largely over the past 10 years. The key, they add, for the next decade, will be for governments to measure their progress or failure, identify successes and jettison failed policies.

While there have been some successes, Raja and her co-editors also note that local government engagement in food systems planning still varies widely: some are convening conversations, while others are passing laws and ordinances. And some have decided not to act, which, the co-editors argue, is a policy decision.

"It is important that local governments exercise reflection about how policy and planning processes amplify, or dampen, marginalized voices in planning for community food systems," says Raja. "In planning for good food systems, the conversation should not only be about the equitable and inclusive plans, but about the equitable and inclusive planning processes."

The special issue was sponsored by Growing Food Connections, a national initiative aimed at enhancing community food security while ensuring sustainable and economically viable agriculture and food production. The 11 manuscripts in the issue were selected for publication following an open call for submissions developed by the guest editors, in partnership with the journal.

Collectively, the articles in this special issue illustrate new frontiers in, and challenges to, the governance of food systems by:

analyzing how local government policies and plans are being developed to strengthen food systems;

probing the progress and obstacles in implementing policies;

analyzing how local governments are monitoring and evaluating their policies.

The experiences of several local governments are represented, including those from multiple communities in California; Buffalo and New York City, New York; Cass County, North Dakota; Clay County and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington. Also included are multiple municipalities in British Columbia, as well as Toronto, Ontario.

The journal is open access, which will allow governments and policymakers from around the world to learn from other communities' successes and failures. That's key, says Ohio State's Clark.

"We are excited to work with JAFSCD on this special issue. Many of our authors, and all of the editors, are community-based researchers. Therefore, it is critical that the local governments and partners presented here, in addition to communities across the globe, have free access to these research articles," she said.

One article details the collaboration among governments, food systems professionals and community members in neighboring Cass County, North Dakota, and Clay County, Minnesota. The article's authors note some successes, but also caution that the formal institutionalization of collaborative arrangements within local government can stymie the productive capacity of non-governmental partners and slow or shut down policy advancements.

In addition, case studies from a number of American states, plus Ontario in Canada, offer both inspiration and caution about municipalities' involvement in food systems. Another article uses Baltimore as an example of how other local governments can plan for better food system resiliency before, during and after a disaster.Credit: iStock

Graphene has been hailed as the material of the future. As yet, however, little is known about whether and how graphene affects our health if it gets into the body. A team of researchers from Empa and the Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) in Fribourg have now conducted the first studies on a three-dimensional lung model to examine the behavior of graphene and graphene-like materials once they have been inhaled.

Tensile, tear-proof, highly elastic and electrically conductive: Graphene has a startling array of extraordinary properties, which enable revolutionary applications in a vast range of fields. It is not by chance that the EU launched the Graphene Flagship project, which enjoys one billion Euros in funding and is the largest European research initiative. As part of this enormous project, Empa also brings its expertise to the table, since potential health aspects and the impact on the human organism also play a key role within the scope of this pan-European graphene research.

These activities have now spawned an additional project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), which was recently launched at Empa and AMI. It involves using a cellular 3-D lung model, with the aid of which the researchers hope to find out what impact graphene and graphene-like materials might have on the human lung under conditions that are as realistic as possible. No mean feat: After all, not all graphene is the same. Depending on the production method and processing, a vast range of forms and quality spectra of the material emerges, which in turn can trigger different responses in the lung

Three-dimensional cell cultures "inhale" particles

The research team headed by Peter Wick, Tina Burki and Jing Wang from Empa and Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser and Barbara Drasler from AMI recently published their first results in the journal Carbon. Thanks to the 3-D lung model, the researchers have succeeded in simulating the actual conditions at the blood-air barrier and the impact of graphene on the lung tissue as realistically as possible  without any tests on animals or humans. It is a cell model representing the lung alveoli. Conventional in vitro tests work with cell cultures from just one cell type  the newly established lung model, on the other hand, bears three different cell types, which simulate the conditions inside the lung, namely alveolar epithelial cells and two kinds of immune cells  macrophages and dendritic cells.

The lung model at Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) in Fribourg. Credit: AMI

Another factor that has virtually been ignored in in vitro tests thus far is the contact with airborne graphene particles. Usually, cells are cultivated in a nutrient solution in a petri dish and exposed to materials, such as graphene, in this form. In reality, however, i.e. at the lung barrier, it is an entirely different story. "The human organism typically comes into contact with graphene particles via respiration," explains Tina Burki from Empa's Particles-Biology Interactions lab.

In other words, the particles are inhaled and touch the lung tissue directly. The new lung model is designed in such a way that the cells sit on a porous filter membrane at the air-liquid interface and the researchers spray graphene particles on the lung cells with the aid of a nebulizer in order to simulate the process in the body as closely as possible. The three-dimensional cell culture thus effectively "breathes in" graphene dust.

No acute damage discovered

These tests with the 3-D lung model have now yielded the first results. The researchers were able to prove that no acute damage is caused to the lung if lung epithelial cells come into contact with graphene oxide (GO) or graphene nanoplatelets (GNP). This includes responses such as sudden cell death, oxidative stress or inflammation.

In order to also trace chronic changes in the body, the SNSF project is set to run for three years; long-term studies using the lung model are next on the agenda. Besides pure graphene particles, Wick and his team also expose the lung cells to rubbed graphene particles made of composite materials, which are classically used to reinforce polymers.

Jing Wang from Empa's Advanced Analytical Technologies lab is also involved. In order to estimate the number of graphene particles humans are exposed to as realistically as possible, Wang is studying and quantifying the abrasion of composite materials. Based on this data, the team exposes the 3-D lung model to realistic conditions and is able to make predictions regarding the long-term toxicity of graphene and graphene-like materials.

Explore further Natural human enzyme can biodegrade graphene, scientists reportSolar winds make the Earths magnetic field crunch and whistle. Credit: NASA

,We are now truly living in the era of big data. And it's not just companies like Facebook and YouTube that are reaping the benefits, big data is transforming science too. In the space sciences, we have an unprecedented number of satellites and ground-based instruments that monitor Earth's space environment  routinely producing tonnes of data. But how do you process it all? While you may have heard about algorithms and artificial intelligence, there are some decidedly more human approaches too.

One of the things I study are the sounds within the Earth's magnetosphere  the magnetic bubble that protects us from space radiation. These sounds consist of particles vibrating back and forth. Because they are electrically charged, they are affected by magnetic fields, but can also themselves affect magnetic fields, such as those from the Earth, to create a magnetic type of sound waves. However, since there are so few particles in space, these sounds are incredibly weak and only present at frequencies thousands of times lower than we can hear.

We can, however, make our recordings of them audible simply by amplifying them and dramatically speeding them up. This latter part can help with big data  you can get through a whole year's worth of these recordings by just listening to six minutes of audio. And by doing this, we identified the sounds that follow solar storms. Our results were published in Space Weather.

But we didn't do it alone. One way scientists have been trying to cope with big data is by using citizen science, crowdsourcing volunteers from the public to carry out well-defined tasks that help classify or analyse datasets that would be difficult to do using a computer or a lone scientist.

This has proven incredibly successful. For example, the 1.6m users of the citizen science platform Zooniverse have managed to achieve 375m classifications  ranging from distant galaxies to marine invertebrates. However, with these projects, the scientists who set them up have to have an idea of what they're looking for. It's highly likely though that there are phenomena hidden in the data that we are currently missing because we don't know how to look for it yet.

Citizen science 2.0

I had the idea that we could combine these two approaches, having lots of people listening to sounds from space and seeing if anything interesting turned up. And now it has, with our new study revealing the sounds that follow solar storms, found thanks to a group of A-level school students in London. What the students discovered was a loud crunching noise followed by a series of whistling sounds whose pitch decreased. This event in the audio, lasting five or six seconds, corresponded to several days in reality.

By looking into these unexpected sounds in more detail, we found that they started just as a "coronal mass ejection" or solar storm hit Earth's magnetosphere, which caused a big disturbance. Such disturbances are important because they can adversely affect technology such as communications satellites and power grids, known as space weather.

It turned out that the whistling sounds were vibrations of Earth's magnetic field lines  a bit like the vibrations of a guitar string can form a note. While the solar storm stripped away many of the particles present in Earth's space environment, they started to refill again from the top of the atmosphere as it recovered. It was this refilling that caused the pitch of the sounds to drop slowly over time.

Space scientists had barely discussed sounds like this before  they were thought to be incredibly rare. We wanted to find out whether that was actually the case by taking a closer look at our audible dataset. What we found is that similar sounds are in fact quite common following solar storms  in 2013, the year of the first event, 20 others occurred.

By looking in more detail at these whistling sounds, we hope to better understand the recovery process of Earth's magnetosphere during other space weather events. In particular, knowing which classes of solar storms and other phenomena lead to these sounds will allow us to figure out not only how effective they are at driving space weather, but conversely how all that energy gets dissipated during the recovery. By building up a better picture of what happens, we may one day improve our forecasting.

As our research shows, citizen science can clearly turn up interesting and unexpected scientific results. But that's not all  it can also create art. Today also sees the release of an anthology of short films, created by independent filmmakers from across the globe, all of which were inspired by and incorporate these sounds. You can watch it online for free.

Explore further School students identify sounds caused by solar storm

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and colleagues have found that corals living in more productive waters take advantage of the increased food availability. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology on October 18, reevaluate scientific understanding of how corals survive and could aid predictions on coral recovery in the face of climate change.

Coral reefs grow in what are considered oceanic deserts where warm, clear waters are generally less nutrient-rich than colder waters. Previously researchers have tied coral survival to symbiotic algae that live within corals. The algae are provided with shelter and nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates. It is estimated that these algae can supply some corals with up to 95 percent of their daily energy needs.

Scripps scientists found, however, that corals living in waters with higher chlorophyll concentrations get more of their energy from feeding on plankton and other microorganisms, suggesting some corals are less reliant on their algae-which could have implications for coral resilience. Chlorophyll concentration is an important proxy for marine nutrients, acting as an indicator for the amount of phytoplankton in the surface waters of the ocean. Phytoplankton are the base of most marine food webs and the prey for zooplankton, a favorite food of corals.

"This paper is the first to provide robust evidence for such a simple premisethat corals eat more where there is more food," said Michael Fox, a recent Ph.D. graduate of Scripps and lead author of the study. "It's quite shocking that it's something research hasn't focused on, as we tend to think of corals more as plants instead of animals."

As intuitive as it sounds, the scale of coral feeding is something that coral reef ecologists have been unable to examine over the past 30-40 years due to a lack of sufficient data and technology. Fox was able to come to his findings by analyzing differences in isotopic signatures of carbon between corals and their symbiotic algae from coral specimens collected in the central Pacific Ocean. Stable isotopes-variants of chemical elements containing different numbers of neutrons-are commonly used in biological research to track metabolic processes.

Fox started by separating coral and algal cells in a laboratory. This allowed him to analyze the isotopic composition of each and compare them. If the coral in question was deriving more of its food from the algae, its isotopic signature would resemble that of its plant tenant. On the other hand, corals that were eating mostly plankton had isotopic values more similar to that of its planktonic prey.

Using satellite measurements of chlorophyll concentrations across the world's oceans, Fox and his team found that most coral collected from chlorophyll-rich waters were consuming greater proportions of plankton. Across the central Pacific, there is huge variability in nearshore phytoplankton, with concentrations of chlorophyll greatest along the equator and declining to the north and south. Fox then pulled together published satellite measurements and isotopic data from 11 other locations from around the world, finding a strikingly strong relationship between chlorophyll in the ocean and the feeding strategy of reef corals.

"This is not just something that's happening in the central Pacific, it's a pattern that holds on coral reefs across numerous ocean basins, from the Red Sea to the Caribbean," Fox said. "What we now have is a map of potentially more resilient coral reefs. If these corals are relying more on planktonic food, perhaps they can recover from coral bleaching events faster."

How much-and what-corals eat is a critical knowledge gap in coral biology and it is essential for understanding how corals are likely to persist in a warming ocean. Numerous laboratory studies have shown that if corals are fed they are more capable of surviving the stress associated with warming ocean temperatures and decreasing ocean pH. Feeding can also increase the reproductive capacity of corals, which is key to repopulating reefs that have suffered high levels of coral mortality.

But determining these feeding strategies on a global scale has been both logistically and economically challenging; to build such a model would require traveling to many reefs, collecting and processing many coral samples, and then solving the challenge of measuring primary production at each of the study sites. Now, satellite technology is helping coral scientists.

"We wanted to develop a method that would allow people to predict coral feeding strategies for their reef system without having to do all this themselves, so we turned to satellite technology to help us," said Gareth Williams, associate professor at Bangor University in the UK and co-author of the study. "We worked out that you can predict coral feeding strategies in the field from satellite-derived estimates of primary production. We can effectively predict coral feeding from space."

Massive coral bleaching events have swept through large swaths of reefs around the world, most notably the 2016 event on the Great Barrier Reef, which lost 30 percent of its shallow water corals. When waters warm too much, the relationship between the algae and their coral host breaks down. Corals then expel the algae, losing both their color and potentially their main food source. If the corals can survive long enough without the algae and the water temperature returns to normal, corals can regain them. Those corals that are able to eat more or have access to more food have a better chance at surviving and recovering from bleaching than those relying mostly on their algae.

"Our study is the first to take our understanding of coral feeding outside of the lab and show that global patterns of food availability likely influence the health and resilience of coral populations around the world," said Jen Smith, a coral scientist at Scripps and co-author of the study. "It is exciting to know that corals have a lot more food flexibility than we previously thought and this flexibility could help them ride out the climate change storm that is seemingly inevitable."

Recovery patterns from bleaching events can vary by region, suggesting that some areas are more resilient than others. This study and the work described above lays the foundation to begin more detailed investigations into the possibility that reefs in more productive areas have a greater capacity for recovery from disturbance than reefs in other regions.

Explore further Immunity could be key to addressing coral crisis

More information: Michael D. Fox et al, Gradients in Primary Production Predict Trophic Strategies of Mixotrophic Corals across Spatial Scales, Current Biology (2018). Journal information: Current Biology Michael D. Fox et al, Gradients in Primary Production Predict Trophic Strategies of Mixotrophic Corals across Spatial Scales,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.057Credit: Florida International University

Beachside communities beginning to rebuild after two catastrophic hurricane impacts on the United States, they should ask whether beach nourishment offers enough protection from erosion and flooding.

Hurricane Michael recently struck Florida's panhandle as a devastating category 4 storm packing 155mph winds. Barely a month earlier, Hurricane Florence flooded North Carolina when the category 1 storm slowly washed over that state on Sept. 14. In either case, these hurricanes changed coastlines as beaches and dunes were overrun by waves, or in some cases, completely eroded.

Typically, recovery plans call for large-scale beach nourishment and dune construction to protect areas behind the beach from future erosion and flooding. A study by Florida International University coastal geologist Randall Parkinson suggests this practice will become even costlier and more controversial as the availability of sand dwindles.

"Sand is not a renewable resource," Parkinson said. "When sand is eroded from the beach during a storm, it typically accumulates in offshore areas as a very thin layer that can't be dredge again to construct a new beach or dune."

An increase in the rate of sea level rise and the threat of more powerful, slow-moving hurricanes will drive up the demand for sand. With companies already spending more to harvest sand in deeper waters farther off shore, the cost of sand could rise even higher.

In Florida's panhandle alone, Parkinson's study found that nourishment costs rose from about $5 million annually in the 1990s to more than $10 million in the 2000s. Depending on sea level rise, the cost to nourish beaches for the next 84 years just in the panhandle could one day exceed $72 million per year.

To make matters worse, data from the panhandle shows offshore sand deposits might be darker than the fine grains of lighter colored sand favored by tourists and locals alike.

As coastal communities in Florida and around the world rebuild after disasters, Parkinson said they will be faced with difficult decisions regarding the function of future coastal construction projects.

"I think these recent events remind us all that the coastal zone is a really high-risk area that is going to become even more vulnerable flooding and erosion as the climate changes," Parkinson said. "We need to be thinking of Plan B before the next big one arrives."

His research was published in the academic journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.

Explore further Computer model can help coastal managers with nourishment decisions

More information: Randall W. Parkinson et al. Beach nourishment is not a sustainable strategy to mitigate climate change, Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (2018). Randall W. Parkinson et al. Beach nourishment is not a sustainable strategy to mitigate climate change,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecss.2018.07.011Sweat bees nest in the ground in either small colonies consisting of a queen and workers, or alone. Researchers compared the genes of social versus nonsocial bees to find correlations between genes and behavior. Image courtesy of Princeton University researchers. Credit: Princeton University researchers.

Those pesky bees that come buzzing around on a muggy summer day are helping researchers reveal the genes responsible for social behaviors. A new study published this week found that the social lives of sweat beesnamed for their attraction to perspirationare linked to patterns of activity in specific genes, including ones linked to autism.

"Bees have complex social behaviors, and with this species of bee, we can directly compare individuals that live in social groups to those that don't live in social groups," said Sarah Kocher, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, who led the research. "We can ask: 'What are the fundamental differences between a social and nonsocial animal?'"

The researchers found that one of these differences involves the gene syntaxin 1a, which governs the release of chemical messengers in the brain. In all, the study found nearly 200 gene variations that were linked to social behavior, with 21 clustered in or nearby six genes implicated in human autism. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Sweat bees are ideal for studying the genes underlying social behavior, Kocher said, because some are naturally social while others are solitary, even though both types belong to the Halictidae family. Both types nest in the ground, but the social bees live in a hierarchal society consisting of a queen and workers, like their honey bee relatives, while nonsocial sweat bees live alone.

Fields of yellow flowers provide habitat for sweat bees. Credit: Princeton University researchers.

Until Kocher began studying sweat bees, not many scientists had looked at the mechanisms underlying their behavior. One of the few scientists to have studied the bees was Cecile Plateaux-Quenu, an entomologist who in the 1960s documented sweat bee populationsand their social habitsin sites around France.

In 2010, Kocher located the retired scientist and eventually traveled to France to meet her. Plateaux-Quenu helped the younger scientist learn to identify the bees, find their nests, and net the insects as they traveled among the dandelions, asters and daisies.

Kocher, who was then a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, brought the bees back to the laboratory to analyze their genes. She sequenced the genomes of hundreds of bees of the species Lasioglossum albipes, known from locations that Plateaux-Quenu had classified decades earlier as home to either social or solitary bees. Next, the researchers looked through the genetic data to detect correlations between patterns of gene activity and social behavior.

The findings suggest that variations in several genes play a role in causing or contributing to the social behavior of these bees. Many of the variations detected were found in sections of the genetic code that are not genes themselves but rather regulate other genes by enhancing their activity.

Researchers at Princeton University have found genes linked to social behavior in bees that are also linked to autism in humans. Credit: Catherine Zandonella, Princeton University

Social behavior is complex and is determined by multiple genes rather than a single gene. Genes are important for brain developmentthey orchestrate connections between neurons and pruning of those connections during development and childhood.

Another study conducted last year on honey bees also found a link between bee genes and autism genes. One of the differences between that study and this new one, Kocher said, is that honey bees are by nature social, whereas sweat bees can be either social or nonsocial.

"It came as a surprise that we came across the same results independently," Kocher said. "It suggests the existence of a core set of genes that play an important role in shaping social behavior across different species," she said.

More information: Sarah D. Kocher et al, The genetic basis of a social polymorphism in halictid bees, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Sarah D. Kocher et al, The genetic basis of a social polymorphism in halictid bees,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06824-8A new piranha-like fish from Jurassic seas with sharp, pointed teeth that probably fed on the fins of other fishes. From the time of dinosaurs and from the same deposits that contained Archaeopteryx, scientists recovered both this flesh-tearing fish and its scarred prey. Credit: M. Ebert and T. Nohl

Researchers reporting in Current Biology on October 18 have described a remarkable new species of fish that lived in the sea about 150 million years ago in the time of the dinosaurs. The new species of bony fish had teeth like a piranha, which the researchers suggest they used as piranhas do: to bite off chunks of flesh from other fish.

As further support for that notion, the researchers also found the victims: other fish that had apparently been nibbled on in the same limestone deposits in South Germany (the quarry of Ettling in the Solnhofen region) where this piranha-like fish was found.

"We have other fish from the same locality with chunks missing from their fins," says David Bellwood of James Cook University, Australia. "This is an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but the fins of other fishes. It's a remarkably smart move as fins regrow, a neat renewable resource. Feed on a fish and it is dead; nibble its fins and you have food for the future."

The newly described fish is part of the world famous collections in the Jura-Museum in Eichstatt. It comes from the same limestone deposits that contained Archaeopteryx.

Careful study of the fossilized specimen's well-preserved jaws revealed long, pointed teeth on the exterior of the vomer, a bone forming the roof of the mouth, and at the front of both upper and lower jaws. Additionally, there are triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges on the prearticular bones that lie along the side of the lower jaw.

This illustration shows an artist's reconstruction of the piranha-like fish. Credit: The Jura-Museum, Eischstatt, Germany

The tooth pattern and shape, jaw morphology, and mechanics suggest a mouth equipped to slice flesh or fins, the international team of researchers report. The evidence points to the possibility that the early piranha-like fish may have exploited aggressive mimicry in a striking parallel to the feeding patterns of modern piranha.

"We were stunned that this fish had piranha-like teeth," says Martina Kolbl-Ebert of Jura-Museum Eichstatt (JME-SNSB). "It comes from a group of fishes (the pycnodontids) that are famous for their crushing teeth. It is like finding a sheep with a snarl like a wolf. But what was even more remarkable is that it was from the Jurassic. Fish as we know them, bony fishes, just did not bite flesh of other fishes at that time. Sharks have been able to bite out chunks of flesh but throughout history bony fishes have either fed on invertebrates or largely swallowed their prey whole. Biting chunks of flesh or fins was something that came much later."

Or, so it had seemed.

This illustration shows an artist's reconstruction of the head of the piranha-like fish. Credit: The Jura-Museum, Eischstatt, Germany

"The new finding represents the earliest record of a bony fish that bit bits off other fishes, and what's more it was doing it in the sea," Bellwood says, noting that today's piranhas all live in freshwater. "So when dinosaurs were walking the earth and small dinosaurs were trying to fly with the pterosaurs, fish were swimming around their feet tearing the fins or flesh off each other."

The researchers call the new find a "staggering example of evolutionary versatility and opportunism." With one of the world's best known and studied fossil deposits continuing to throw up such surprises, they intend to keep up the search for even more fascinating finds.

More information: Kolbl-Ebert et al.: "A Piranha-like Pycnodontiform Fish from the Late Jurassic," Current Biology (2018). Journal information: Current Biology Kolbl-Ebert et al.: "A Piranha-like Pycnodontiform Fish from the Late Jurassic,"(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.013A DNA-based dendrimer of the fifth generation in a solution with its counterions. Regular voids in the ineterior of this molecule can be used as transport cages for nanoparticles. Credit: Vienna University of Technology

How to create nanocages, i.e., robust and stable objects with regular voids and tunable properties? Short segments of DNA molecules are perfect candidates for the controllable design of novel complex structures. Physicists from the University of Vienna, the Technical University of Vienna, the Julich Research Center in Germany and Cornell University in the U.S.A., investigated methodologies to synthesize DNA-based dendrimers in the lab and to predict their behavior using detailed computer simulations. Their results are published in Nanoscale.

Nanocages are highly interesting molecular constructs, from the point of view of both fundamental science and possible applications. The cavities of these nanometer-sized objects can be employed as carriers of smaller molecules, which is of critical importance in medicine for drug or gene delivery in living organisms. This idea brought together researchers from various interdisciplinary fields who have been investigating dendrimers as promising candidates for creating such nano-carriers. Their tree-like architecture and step-wise growth with repeating self-similar units results in dendrimers containing cavities, hollow objects with controllable design. Nevertheless, decades of research have showed that vast number of different dendrimer types experience back-folding of outer branches with growing dendrimer generations, giving rise to a higher density of constituents in the molecule's interior. The effect of back-folding is enhanced upon addition of salt in the solution, whereby flexible dendrimers undergo significant shrinking, becoming compact objects with no hollow spaces in their interior.

The team of collaborators consisted of Natasa Adzic and Christos Likos (University of Vienna), Clemens Jochum and Gerhard Kahl (TU Wien), Emmanuel Stiakakis (Julich) as well as Thomas Derrien and Dan Luo (Cornell). The researchers found a way to create dendrimers rigid enough to prevent back-folding of outer arms even in the case of high branching generations, preserving regular voids in their interior. Moreover, their novel macromolecules are characterized by remarkable resistance to added salt: they showed that the morphology and conformational characteristics of these systems stay unaffected even upon of addition of salt even at high concentration. The nanocages they created, in the lab and studied computationally are DNA-based dendrimers, or so-called, dendrimer-like DNAs (DL-DNA). The building block they are composed of is a Y-shaped double-stranded DNA unit, a three-armed structure consisting of double-stranded DNA (ds-DNA), formed via hybridization of three single-stranded DNA chains (ss-DNA), each of which has partially complementary sequences to the other two. Each arm is made up of 13 base pairs and a single-stranded sticky end with four nucleobases which acts as a glue. While a single Y-DNA corresponds to the first dendrimer generation, the attachment of further Y-DNA elements yields DL-DNA of higher generations. The resulting dendrimer is a charged and hollow-containing macromolecular assembly with tree-like architecture. Due to the rigidity of dsDNA, the branches of DL-DNA are stiff so that the whole molecule is rigid. Since DNA is charged, the electrostatic repulsion enhances the rigidity of the molecule.

DL-DNA molecules have been assembled in the laboratory by the Julich and Cornell partners with remarkable control and sub-nanometer precision through programmable sticky-end cohesions. Their step-wise growth is highly controllable, unidirectional and non-reversible. This property is of high importance, as it has been shown that DNA-based dendrimers have been envisioned to play a promising role in developing nanoscale-barcodes, DNA-based vaccine technologies, as well as a structural probes involving multiplexed molecular sensing processes. Sizes, shapes as well as additional conformational details invisible to the experimentalists, such as the size of voids and the degree of branches back-folding, have been analyzed by computer simulations in Vienna. To describe the complex structure of DNA units, the group used a simple monomer-resolved model with interactions carefully chosen to mimic the equilibrium properties of DNA in physiological solution. The excellent agreement obtained between experiments and simulations for the dendrimer characteristics validates the theoretical models employed and paves the way for further investigation of the nanocages' properties and their applications as functional and smart nanocarriers and as building blocks for engineering biocompatible artificial materials.

Explore further Scientists create multifunctional protein-polymer films

More information: Clemens Jochum et al. Structure and stimuli-responsiveness of all-DNA dendrimers: theory and experiment, Nanoscale (2018). Journal information: Nanoscale Clemens Jochum et al. Structure and stimuli-responsiveness of all-DNA dendrimers: theory and experiment,(2018). DOI: 10.1039/C8NR05814HCredit: CC0 Public Domain

Much of the published medical research goes unread by the general public and medical community, despite being largely funded by the federal government and private foundations. To reach more people, medical journals have begun using social media to promote new research.

A new Northwestern Medicine study has found social media editors lack established best practices and support from their journals and home institutions, making it difficult for them to successfully promote new research.

In general, the median citation rate for journal articleswhen one paper refers to another paperis zero, meaning a lot of new research isn't being read even in the medical community. If utilized correctly, social media could help journals increase awareness of new research, according to the study. But first, social media editors need more resources and support.

"American tax dollars are paying for research the public never hears about," said senior author Dr. Seth Trueger, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a practicing physician at Northwestern Medicine. "I'm optimistic we can get the word out through social media, but we first need to explore and develop tried-and-true methods to distribute this information to the public."

Study authors urge medical journals to define social media editor roles and responsibilities more clearly and provide more resources to social media editors.

The study was published this week in the journal Academic Medicine. It is the first study to examine this specific role of social media editor at medical journals.

Journals may be able to help social media editors to more effectively get the word out and determine which strategies are most effective, study authors said. Doing so will help journals and social media editors better focus their limited resources.

"Many journals have been building social media editor positions, which is great, but as a relatively new niche, our study found journals didn't really know what these people should be doing," Trueger said. "They would tell new editors to 'take this job and do what you can with it.' It's the wild west."

The study also found: (1) monetary support for these roles is lacking; (2) journals use different metrics to measure engagement and success; and (3) there is no consistency in editor responsibilities among journals.

In addition to his role at Northwestern, Trueger previously was the social media editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine. He is now the digital media editor at JAMA Network Open and said his goal is to "get eyeballs on the science."

Something Trueger has learned in these positions is how impactful social media can be for medical research, if done properly.

"If you have a paper on a Medicare program, you don't just have physicians looking at that research; there are health economists, patient groups and the general public who have an interest in it," Trueger said. "If we can determine which strategies work for online dissemination, a social media editor's success rate for sharing new information to a wide audience can skyrocket."

Medical schools and universities should better incorporate social media engagement with more tangible support, such as academic credit toward promotion and tenure, according to the study.

Given the overall lack of tangible support reported by social media editors in the study, medical journals should consider providing non-physician staff to help manage social media accounts to support editors in their positions, the study suggested.

Explore further Practices should set rules for staff social media use

More information: Melany Lopez et al. The Social Media Editor at Medical Journals, Academic Medicine (2018). Journal information: Academic Medicine Melany Lopez et al. The Social Media Editor at Medical Journals,(2018). DOI: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002496President Eisenhower addressing a joint session of Congress in 1958. Behind the president are Vice President Richard Nixon, left, and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, right. Credit: NASA

Space, that final frontier, is something that catches the attention of a country naturally inclined to believe in ideas like "Manifest Destiny" and American exceptionalism. But how well does a Space Force fit that bill? And would a Space Force reignite a military space race and fuel diplomatic tensions with China and Russia?

Growing up in Florida, I was lucky enough to watch space shuttle launches with something that resembled regularity. As I got older and first learned about the history of NASA, its exploits during the Space Race and then its challenges, I never lost the sense of wonder at what NASA could do. I also gained an appreciation for the difficulties it had to overcome in order to reach those achievements. I've turned this interest into an academic career studying the politics of space, science and medicine.

NASA's influence is clearly seen in these other fields as well as in our everyday lives. Technologies developed to allow space exploration have led to such consumer innovations as scratch-resistant lenses and CAT scans. Our cellphones would not be possible without the miniaturization of chips during the Apollo program or military GPS satellites. Given these benefits, we often forget the difficult nature of spaceflight and the resources required to accomplish it.

Indeed, examining the experiences and political lessons of NASA reveals the difficulties of establishing a new government agency and launching an organization whose job is to do hard things at a high cost. Looking at the ups and downs of NASA's history shows us that there are potential benefits domestically but that they could come with greater international risk.

What is a Space Force, and what would it do anyway?

While at a rally in March this year, President Donald Trump first mentioned the idea of a Space Force. Since then, the president has both tweeted about the idea and directed the Pentagon to develop a plan to create an independent sixth branch of the military. Responding to the president's directives, the Pentagon released a report in August. Although the report was labeled as "final," its 15 pages are short on detail, long on talking points, and light on details on why there needs to be a Space Force.

The White House and Congress have been considering the idea for some time. During the debate over the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, members of the House Armed Services Committee inserted a provision establishing a "Space Corps." The proposed Space Corps was to be housed within the Air Force but the provision was later removed during House-Senate negotiations because of objections from both the White House and Secretary of Defense James Mattis. Although he has expressed support for a Space Force now, Mattis originally opposed it over budgetary and overhead concerns.

The focus on space was also apparent in the National Security Strategy released in December 2017 and the National Space Strategy released in March.

Beyond tweets and mentions, the White House has not, in my opinion, made a compelling case for why such a force is needed. The Pentagon report, which supposedly lays its foundation, states that "potential adversaries are now actively developing ways to deny our use of space in a crisis. It is imperative that the United States adapts its policies, doctrine and capabilities to protect our interests."

The military roots of space exploration and NASA's early lessons

To say that military and space are intertwined is an understatement. Satellites provide civilian communications but also do the same for military units. Space analysts call this "dual-use" and it is also what makes it so difficult to separate peaceful, civilian activities from military ones.

New York City welcomes the Apollo 11 crew in a ticker tape parade down Broadway and Park Avenue. Pictured in the lead car, from the right, are astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The three astronauts teamed for the first manned lunar landing, on July 20, 1969. Credit: NASA

The military and civilian roots of space exploration are bound up tightly with one another. When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in October of 1957, it set off a panic in the United States about the capability not of the Soviets to explore space, but about their ability to launch deadly attacks on Americans. Thus, the Space Race was born not out of a desire to peacefully explore space, but Cold War politics.

President Dwight Eisenhower, careful not to read too much into the Soviet abilities, was cautious in responding to the threat. Although Eisenhower initially wanted the space effort to be run by the military, he was persuaded to create a more open, civilian space program in part to lessen "attention on U.S. national security space efforts." Legislation creating NASA was passed in 1958 with NASA opening its doors Oct. 1 of that year.

There are two lessons to be taken from NASA's establishment and early history. First, it was an agency born of a crisis. The United States was seemingly falling behind its Cold War adversary and the public demanded that the government respond. Crisis often precedes the establishment of new government agencies and provides those agencies with a base of public and political support.

In terms of a Space Force, there is no apparent crisis. We know that both Russia and China have been developing military capabilities in space. China first tested an anti-satellite weapon in 2007 and more recently, Russian satellites have been demonstrating new capabilities. There are most likely other military activities in these states, and perhaps others, they have undertaken that remain classified. If this is the case, then I believe the administration needs to lay a stronger foundation for why a Space Force is needed because lacking a crisis, support is often hard to come by.

A second, and related, lesson is in terms of public support. Although Americans tend to remember the space programs of the 1960s favorably, public support for NASA began to fall in the early 1960s and as Roger Launius, a NASA historian, writes, the data "do not support a contention that most people approved of Apollo and thought it important to explore space." Along with this came a drop in funding that left NASA scrambling in the late 1960s to accomplish Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Studies of public opinion often demonstrate a "thermostatic" relationship between public opinion and funding.

For the Space Force, public opinion is upside down. In recent polls, CNN found that 55 percent of Americans do not support the establishment of a Space Force while Rasmussen (typically a Republican-leaning poll) found that 40 percent of Americans are opposed, while 27 percent were unsure. If support and funding go hand in hand, these findings do not put the Space Force on a sustainable footing.

Consequences of a Space Force for NASA and militarization of space

Should the Trump administration succeed in establishing a Space Force or something like it, the move may have serious consequences for NASA. Depending on its mission, the Space Force is likely to require launch capabilities for satellites and perhaps human missions. Although a Space Force may be able to purchase these services from companies like SpaceX, if they choose to develop an in-house launch system, they may duplicate already existing NASA efforts. Doing so would also likely cause a brain drain at NASA as in-house engineers and experts migrated to the Space Force with promises of new missions and new funding.

There is also a question of whether the Space Force may simply take over current NASA missions. In the wake of the Space Force announcement, the Trump campaign sent out an email to supporters asking them to vote on a potential logo. Although this was a fundraising maneuver, one of the "logos" was themed around Mars with the wording "Mars Awaits." Given that the overall mission of the Space Force remains unclear, there could be a push for human spaceflight efforts to be subsumed under a Space Force. NASA's recent failures in the development of the Space Launch System, or SLS, and the James Webb Space Telescope only further reinforce the image of a NASA spread too thin to accomplish major space endeavors.

Finally, NASA's budget is already quite low considering its mission: US$19.7 billion in 2017 with $19 billion requested for 2018. This represents less than 0.5 percent of the overall federal budget. A Space Force could feasibly take away funding from NASA, especially for the development of human spaceflight capabilities thus cannibalizing NASA's already low budget.

In terms of geopolitics, establishing a Space Force could create a point of no return in of militarization of space. From Eisenhower onwards, U.S. policymakers have avoided the appearance of overt military influence in space. Both the United States and the Soviet Union joined the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which stipulated, among other things, the peaceful use of outer space and a ban on nuclear weapons. Following the Space Force announcement, Russian officials warned about potential violations of the treaty and that Russia might choose to withdraw from the treaty if the U.S. did.

Joan Johnson-Freese, a space policy expert, warns in her recent book that the pace of American militarization of space has been increasing, perhaps to the point of no return. Her warning is that policymakers think about further actions before stepping into an arms race for which no one is prepared. While President Trump has certainly shaken up America's relations with other countries, such a drastic change in American posture could have significant and irreversible effects, creating a second space race. While it could have benefits for American society much as the original space race did, this time, I believe the dangers are likely to be far higher.

Explore further Trump wants a Space Force, but Pentagon has different idea

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.6 hours ago

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It takes all kinds to make the world of investing go round. Youve got your traditional assets like stocks and bonds along with a growing list of alternatives. Within each asset class is further categorization by geography, sector, and style. In the equity asset class, growth and value are two of the most common investing styles.

Read ArticleUnder pressure emanating from other tech companies to cut ties with the Pentagon, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos isnt blinkingregardless of what his employees think: Instead, Amazon will play a role in Americas defense because Bezos thinks its the right thing to do.

But its also a good opportunity to look at the timing and justifications of the bouts of principle of our giant tech companies.

Amazon is favored to win a Pentagon contract worth as much as $10 billionthe same contract that Alphabets Google was vying for before it pulled out, citing principles. Its also the contract that will make whoever wins it one of the biggest federal contractors in the country. The power it implies is immense. After all, it means moving the entirely of the Department of Defenses (DoD) classified and unclassified data on to the cloud.

Bezos has zero qualms about this.

We are going to continue to support the DoD, and I think we should, Bezos said onstage at the Wired 25th Anniversary conference in San Francisco.

If big tech companies are going to turn their back on U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), this country is going to be in trouble. I know everybody is very conflicted about the current politics and so on. But this is a great country and it does need to be defended.

Nor does he have qualms about what his employees might think.

One of the jobs of senior leadership is to make the right decision, even when its unpopular, he said.

The potential $10-billion JEDI contract of immediate significance involves transitioning massive amounts of Defense Department (DoD) data into a commercially operated cloud system. Related: U.S. Deficit Defies Economic Boomtime

Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle and Microsoft were all in the running for this.

Google said the project wasnt in line with its principles, so it announced it wouldnt be bidding last week.

We are not bidding on the JEDI contract because first, we couldnt be assured that it would align with our AI Principles, a Google spokesperson told Bloomberg. And second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications, the spokesperson said, adding that Google was still working to support the U.S. government with our cloud in many ways.

And earlier this year, it also withdrew from Project Maventhe contract for which involved artificial intelligence that could be used for lethal purposes. Google was under pressure from its employeesmore than 4,000 of which signed a petition in protest. Project Maven contractually expires in 2019, and Google will not be renewing.

The Project Maven withdrawal seems to have been decidedly different. The JEDI withdrawal notably suggests a lack of government certifications. More to the point, originally, JEDI was meant to be broken up among multiple vendors for a multi-cloud approach. Now its going to a single vendor, and Google disagrees.

At the end of the day, it sounds less like principle and more like: Amazon was going to get this, anyway.

Indeed, media reports began emerging earlier this summer speculating that JEDI was rigged in favor of Amazon because only Amazon could meet the technical stipulations in the 1300-plus-page proposal request. Most notably, bidders must currently generate more than $2 billion a year specifically in commercial cloud revenues.

In the meantime, Microsoft employees are also protesting plans to bid on JEDI, citing a betrayal of the companys previous pledges, according to an open letter published by Medium.

Related: Saudi Business At Stake Over Journalist Murder Allegations

We joined Microsoft to create a positive impact on people and society, with the expectation that the technologies we build will not cause harm or human suffering. Tuesdays blog post serves as a public declaration of Microsofts intent to bid on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract??a contract that represents a $10 billion project to build cloud services for the Department of Defense. The contract is massive in scope and shrouded in secrecy, which makes it nearly impossible to know what we as workers would be building. At an industry day for JEDI, DoD Chief Management Officer John H. Gibson II explained the programs impact, saying, We need to be very clear. This program is truly about increasing the lethality of our department, employees state in the letter.

Bezos private space company Blue Origin recently won government contracts worth about $2 billion to supply rockets for Pentagon satellite launches. Amazon won a contract to supply its next-generation engines for the massive rocket being developed by United Launch Alliance. The Pentagon is working to ensure that all the rockets it buys are built entirely in the U.S., making Blue Origin a potential propulsion supplier for several companies.

Amazon is firmly on the Pentagons radar, and Bezos is making huge defense waves in Washington. And no amount of employee criticism is likely to change that. Everyone else can play the ethics card, but at the end of the day, the result is the same: American defense is becoming Amazonian (like everything else).

By Michael Scott for Safehaven.com

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." " Visitors celebrate in a beer tent at the opening day of the 2018 Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, Germany. But if climate change continues, even Oktoberfest could be without beer. Alexandra Beier/Getty Images

Ben Franklin once intoned that "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." If Ben were alive today, he, and perhaps God himself, would be crying in his suds at the news coming out of the University of California, Irvine (UCI). It seems that if human-induced global warming continues on its current trajectory, the world's beer supply will dry up.

You read that right: If human-induced global warming continues on its current trajectory, the world's beer supply will dry up. Forget the other aspects of global warming: devastating and more frequent hurricanes; hotter-than-normal summers; longer droughts; wildfires; rising sea levels. We could run out of beer, people!

Advertisement

Researchers, in a study published Oct. 15, 2018, in the journal Nature Plants, ran the numbers and concluded that excessive and prolonged heat waves and droughts will ravage the world's barley supply. As any imbiber of beer will tell you, barley is the main ingredient in any good pint. As these fields of taste and wonder disappear, the laws of supply and demand will muscle in. Beer prices will surge, which means only the well-heeled will be able to afford a frosty mug of brew. No trickle-down economics here. The hoi polis  you, me and our friends  will be left high and dry. Ireland could see a 193 percent price increase, depending on the severity of conditions.

"The world is facing many life-threatening impacts of climate change, so people having to spend a bit more to drink beer may seem trivial by comparison," co-author Steven Davis, UCI associate professor of Earth system science said in a statement. "But there is definitely a cross-cultural appeal to beer, and not having a cool pint at the end of an increasingly common hot day just adds insult to injury."

Davis and his colleagues looked at how much fossil fuels humans are currently burning, and what they will burn in the future. They also looked at the levels of carbon dioxide emissions  the main greenhouse gas. If their models are accurate, the regions of the world where barley grows, especially the prairies of Canada, the northern Great Plains of the United States, and parts of Europe, Asia and Australia, will get hotter and drier, causing crop yields to decline 3 to 17 percent. Even modest warming will lead to more drought and heat in these areas, the scientists say.

As a result, beer prices will go up in beer-loving countries, including Belgium, Canada, Denmark and Poland. If you love spending time chugging in Ireland, you will need an extra $20 to buy a six-pack. Moreover, people in poorer countries will see beer consumption go down. Argentina, the researchers said, will see a 32 percent decrease in beer drinking. As for the United States, you'll see less keggers and beer pong, not to mention the occasional funnel.

"Our results show that in the most severe climate events, the supply of beer could decline by about 16 percent in years when droughts and heat waves strike," Davis said. "That's comparable to all beer consumption in the U.S. Future climate and pricing conditions could put beer out of reach for hundreds of millions of people around the world."

What would Ben Franklin say?

NOW THAT'S INTERESTING Only 17 percent of the world's barley supply is used in brewing. The rest is reserved for livestock feed. What does that mean for the cows?" " In Madagascar, ready-to-eat fruits, such as figs, have evolved to be extremely fragrant and mostly yellow, a color more visible to lemurs, which are red-green colorblind. Wikimedia Commons CC By-SA 3.0

Imagine having to get a specific person's attention in a crowded room without being able to move a muscle or make any noise at all. That sounds impossible, doesn't it? Well, this is the predicament plants have found themselves in since time immemorial: How does one get the attention of a fast-moving animal when one is silent, motionless and also a bush?

Plants have solved the problem, though, because necessity is the mother of invention, and also because they've had around 100 million years to work on it. Many angiosperms  flowering plants, that is  require the help of animals to spread their seeds around since, as we've discussed, they're incapable of doing so themselves. It's one thing for a mango tree to drop its fruit and grow another little tree right underneath the parent, but it's quite another for a monkey to take a piece of fruit a half mile away and drop the seed in a previously mango-free zone. This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to angiosperm dissemination, and angiosperm evolution has depended on individual species concocting new ways to manipulate the animals it's most likely to come in contact with.

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Two recent studies published by the same research team at the Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics at University of Ulm in Germany examine the mechanisms by which plants learned to flag down the right animals. It turns out that though sound and movement are good strategies for getting somebody's attention, animal heads are also turned by smell and color. And, according to this research, plants have worked those angles pretty hard.

The first study, published Sept. 26, 2018, in the journal Biology Letters, investigates how the color of certain fruits can attract specific seed dispersers. The research team compared experiments with fruit-eating primates in wildlife preserves in both Uganda and on the island of Madagascar. The study found the fruit-bearing plants had evolved to cater to the visual capabilities of the main seed-dispersing animals in each place. Though the landscapes in the two parks are very similar, Ugandan seed-dispersers (monkeys, apes and birds) have tri-color vision like humans, whereas lemurs in Madagascar are red-green colorblind. The ripe berries on fruiting plants reflected this: In Uganda, ripe fruit on dark green foliage showed up better to the animals native to that area, whereas in Madagascar, the ready-to-eat fruits were mostly yellow, a color more visible to lemurs.

Similarly, according to the other study published Oct. 3, 2018, in the journal Science Advances, the fruit in Madagascar is also more fragrant  those plants didn't want to leave their seed dispersal entirely up to the visual acuity of a bunch of lemurs. Ripe figs on the island are very smelly, which makes sense, given that color-blind lemurs would have been able to find the smelliest fruits in the forest more easily than they could find the most brightly colored. The figs that produced the most odiferous cocktail of chemical compounds as they ripened were eaten  and their seeds dispersed  more often on Madagascar, suggesting that plants, contrary to popular belief, are no dummies.

Now That's Interesting The fruit of the Balanites wilsoniana tree in Uganda has such a powerful smell (like sweaty gym socks) that it can carry for miles on the wind, calling in elephants  the only animal that can swallow the large seeds whole and disperse them.Security researchers from ESET published a detailed analysis of a recently discovered cyber espionage group tracked as GreyEnergy.

Security experts from ESET published a detailed analysis of a recently discovered threat actor tracked as GreyEnergy, its activity emerged in concurrence with BlackEnergy operations.

ESET researchers have spotted a new strain of malware tracked as Exaramel that links the not Petya wiper to the Industroyer ICS malware.

Experts from ESET speculate the BlackEnergy threat actor evolved into two separate APT groups, namely TeleBots and GreyEnergy.

Following this attack, the BlackEnergy group evolved into at least two subgroups:

TeleBots and GreyEnergy.  reads the report.

The main goal of the TeleBots group is to perform cybersabotage attacks on Ukraine, which are achieved through computer network attack (CNA) operations.

GreyEnergy conducted reconnaissance and cyber espionage activities in Ukraine and Poland, it focused its activities on energy and transportation industries, and other high-value targets.

The APT group leverage the GreyEnergy malware, a malicious code that implements a modular architecture to extend its capabilities by adding the appropriate modules.

Like many complex threats, the GreyEnergy malware has a modular architecture. The functionality of the malware can be easily extended with additional modules. A GreyEnergy module is a DLL file that gets executed by calling the function with the first ordinal. Each module, including the main GreyEnergy module, accepts text commands with various parameters. continues the analysis.

The list of available modules includes components for file extraction, screenshot capturing, keylogging, password, and credential stealing, and of course a backdoor.

Experts pointed out that they havent found modules that specifically target Industrial Control Systems software or devices. ESET pointed out that GreyEnergy operators have been strategically targeting ICS control workstations running SCADA software and servers.

In one case, hackers used a disk-wiping component to disrupt operating processes on the target systems.

GreyEnergy attackers in one case also used a valid digital certificate, likely stolen from Taiwanese company Advantech, to sign a sample.

One of the most intriguing details discovered during our research is that one of the GreyEnergy samples we found was signed with a valid digital certificate that had likely been stolen from a Taiwanese company that produces ICS equipment. In this respect, the GreyEnergy group has literally followed in Stuxnets footsteps. states ESET.

Attackers spread the malware by carryout both spear phishing campaigns and compromised self-hosted web services, in this latter case attackers hack into public-facing web services running on a server that is connected to an internal network. In this was attackers will attempt to compromise the server and make lateral movements in the internal network.

GreyEnergy also used other backdoors, mostly PHP backdoors, and malware implementing several layers of obfuscation and encryption to hide the malicious code.

The spear-phishing messages first drop a lightweight first-stage backdoor tracked as GreyEnergy mini (aka FELIXROOT) to gather information on the target network and gather admin credentials using tools such as Nmap and Mimikatz.

The stolen credentials are used to deploy the main GreyEnergy malware into the target network with administrator privileges.

The malware is written in C and compiled using Visual Studio, it is deployed two ways:

in-memory-only mode without implementing persistence;

Service DLL persistence;

ESET experts also discovered a worm dubbed Moonraker Petya that is similar to NotPetya, they speculate it is a predecessor of the infamous wiper.

Moonraker Petya has limited spreading capabilities and like NotPetya it is able to make machines unbootable, the malware was used against a small number of organizations.

Moonraker Petya may be the result of a collaboration between TeleBots and GreyEnergy APT groups.

GreyEnergy is an important part of the arsenal of one of the most dangerous APT groups that has been terrorizing Ukraine for the past several years. We consider it to be the successor of the BlackEnergy toolkit. The main reasons for this conclusion are the similar malware design, specific choice of targeted victims, and modus operandi, ESET concludes.

Pierluigi Paganini

( Security Affairs  GreyEnergy, APT)

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Share OnSINGAPORE, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Singapore water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd, which is undergoing a court-supervised reorganisation, said Indonesia's Salim Group and Medco Group had agreed to acquire 60 percent of the company for S$400 million ($290 million).

The new joint venture called SM Investments Pte Ltd has also agreed to give the embattled company a loan of S$130 million, Hyflux and the two Indonesian firms said in a joint statement on Thursday.

"The investor was identified by the company through a competitive bidding process undertaken by the company as part of its restructuring plans," Hyflux said.

Loss-making Hyflux had been seeking strategic investors to raise funds even as it negotiated with other parties to sell its Singapore-based Tuaspring, its combined desalination and power plant, to help pay creditors. Malayan Banking Bhd is the project's main lender. ($1 = 1.3778 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Fathin Ungku and Anshuman Daga; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)Activists are calling for a little-remembered balcony on the front of Vienna's town hall to be destroyed because it is where Adolf Hitler gave a speech in 1938, Austrian media reported Wednesday. Hitler made the speech on April 9, 1938 from a specially constructed wooden balcony erected in the centre of the building's imposing neo-Gothic facade, but it was later replaced with a permanent stone one to commemorate the event. The origins of the balcony had since largely faded from memory but an artists' collective entitled "Memory Gaps" is now calling for it to be destroyed. It argues the structure should be removed as part of the commemorations for the centenary of the first Austrian Republic, as well as the 80th anniversary of the "Anschluss", or annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. Memory Gaps has also suggested that prior to it being dismantled, a "speech for peace" could be given from the balcony on November 12 -- a hundred years to the day since the Republic was proclaimed. The city authorities seem to have been caught off guard by the proposal. Vienna's top cultural official, Veronica Kaup-Hasler, said she welcomed the debate and the fact that it had drawn attention to a forgotten detail of the town hall's history, a spokesman told the APA agency. But Kaup-Hasler preferred that the balcony remain in place accompanied by a clearer explanation of its history. The head of the commission responsible for researching into and returning property stolen by the Nazis, Eva Blimlinger, agreed, telling the Kurier newspaper: "This balcony is, like so much that resulted from national socialism, a part of our history." The Anschluss of 1938 was welcomed by a broad swathe of the Austrian public. Shortly afterwards Hitler held a famous speech from another balcony, of Vienna's Hofburg imperial palace on March 15. That speech, and the one in front of Vienna's town hall, drew massive crowds. Austria's relationship with its Nazi past remains a difficult issue even today, not least since the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) entered into a coalition government last year. Earlier this month, Vice-Chancellor and FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache sparked controversy when he unveiled a monument to women who cleared debris from the streets during the war, with some accusing of him of seeking to rehabilitate the reputation of some Nazi-sympathising women.General Abdul Raziq once boasted he had survived "countless" Taliban attempts to kill him. On Thursday the Afghan militant group finally succeeded when an assassin disguised as a governor's bodyguard shot him dead. The controversial Kandahar police chief, described by Human Rights Watch last year as the southern province's "torturer in chief", had risen through the ranks to become one of the most powerful security heads in Afghanistan. Widely seen as a bulwark against the Taliban insurgency, Raziq's death has left a dangerous security vacuum that one observer said could lead to a "meltdown" in the south, the Taliban movement's birthplace. "He was the one guaranteeing security in Kandahar," said a foreign diplomat in Kabul. Raziq, 39, who controlled the province with an iron hand, was admired by many ordinary Afghans and hated by the Taliban in equal measure. Despite accusations of running secret torture chambers, "crushing the testicles" of detainees, and killing thousands of Taliban prisoners -- which he denied -- Raziq was considered an ally by the United States in the fight against the militants. In a tweet on Thursday, hours after escaping unhurt from the same attack that killed Raziq, General Scott Miller expressed his condolences over the death of his "great friend". "We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan," said Miller, the top US Forces and NATO commander in Afghanistan. "The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone." Miller had been meeting with Raziq in a heavily fortified compound in Kandahar city when a member of the provincial governor's security team opened fire on the high-level gathering. The Taliban described the shooter as an "infiltrator". Raziq and two others, including the provincial intelligence chief and a journalist, were killed in the attack. Another 13 were wounded, including two Americans and the governor. Raziq, who was illiterate and had three wives, had been fighting the Taliban since the militants executed his father and uncle in 1994, two years before they succeeded in imposing their oppressive regime over most of the country. When the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Raziq helped defeat the Taliban in the south and was later appointed a district police chief. In an interview with AFP last year, Raziq said the Taliban had targeted him "countless times", adding he could remember 20 of the incidents, including at least eight suicide attacks. Raziq was lucky to survive a 2017 bomb attack that killed six United Arab Emirates' officials, including the UAE ambassador to Afghanistan. He had left the room in the Kandahar governor's compound where the officials had been meeting moments before a bomb hidden in a sofa exploded. "When the Taliban are determined to kill me, my soldiers and my people, I cannot be gentle on them, and I can never forgive them," he said.Bhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results. The result means the country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India, will have chosen a different party to rule at each election since the absolute monarchy was ended in 2008. The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the national assembly's 47 seats, according to the results which are to be officially confirmed on Friday. Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September, with the former ruling party ending up in third place. DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for "nation building" in the country which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs. Both parties had campaigned on promises to boost the economy with Tshering's party using the slogan "Narrowing The Gap". The DPT, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in 2013, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India. The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutan's debt to pay for more power plants. Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects.A seemingly illogical calculation in a 2015 report by the US Postal Service was the justification for President Donald Trumps decision on Wednesday to pull out of the Universal Postal Union, one of the worlds oldest international organisations.

According to the US Postal Service, it would cost around US$20 to mail a small parcel of 2kg (4.4lbs) from one US state to another, but mailing the same package from China would only cost US$5.

Trump claimed China was paying discounted rates for international delivery under the system and that was hurting the US Postal Service.

The move to withdraw from the Universal Postal Union, which oversees international mail exchanges, is Trumps latest protectionist measure aimed at revoking Chinas competitive edge over the US.

It follows his recent accusations that China is meddling in next months midterm elections and the continuing strain of the US-China trade war.

While Trump has distanced the US from several international organisations and treaties, the move to pull out of the UPU could directly impact the daily lives of consumers in an age of e-commerce and globalisation.

What is the UPU and why does it matter?

From mailing a letter to receiving an online shopping parcel, the postal rates paid are determined every four years by UPU for its membership of 192 countries.

This seemingly obscure, Swiss-based organisation coordinates rates and standards between nearly every national postal system in the world.

According to its mission statement, the 144-year old organisations aim is to establish worldwide postal security, encourage and promote the creation of postal security services among member countries.

Why it could be cheaper to mail from Beijing than New York to San Francisco?

The UPUs system of determining terminal dues is at the core of Trumps accusation that China has benefited from the arrangement, as poor and developing countries pay lower rates than wealthier countries.

Story continues

All postal operators pay terminal dues to compensate foreign postal services for delivering their overseas mail. When a letter or parcel is mailed overseas, the postal administration of the senders country  which has received payment for postage, usually in the form of a stamp  pays terminal dues to the destinations postal service for its share of the delivery process.

The UPU system divides countries into categories, based on their level of development, which determines the rates of terminal dues paid to each other. The US is classified as a target country and China as a transitional country.

China is still considered a transitional country by the UPU, which means it enjoys a lower rate for sending mail to a developed nation like the US.

As a result, mail services from China to the US cost less than Americans are charged by their postal service for a comparable domestic delivery.

Trumps administration has said this hurts US businesses because American customers can purchase knock-off products at a lower price, even when the cost of shipping from China is factored in.

The US Postal Service said it lost more than US$135 million handling imports from across the world in 2016.

What will happen if the US does withdraw from UPU?

Under the UPUs framework, it takes a year for a country to withdraw from the framework, during which rates can be renegotiated.

If negotiations are successful, the administration is prepared to rescind the notice of withdrawal and remain in the UPU, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Wednesday.

The president wants to adopt self-declared rates as soon as practical, and no later than January 1, 2020, she said.

There is no information on how rates are likely to be adjusted but, earlier in August, the US State Department said it would push for foreign postal carriers to pay the US Postal Service more to deliver small parcels within the US.

The State Department also said it would push foreign postal services to furnish data that would help customs officials detect drugs and other illegal shipments entering the country, which could also add to costs of sending mail to the US from overseas.

Who will be affected by an official US withdrawal?

Amazon.com and United Parcel Service, both based in the US, have long alleged the current UPU system is unfair and have argued for a review of delivery charges to increase their competitiveness.

However, both US and China consumers are likely to see higher prices reflecting the new shipping rates.

Expanding Chinese e-commerce platforms like Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, that ship overseas, could risk losing trade if postage rates are increased.

In 2017, the volume of Chinas e-commerce transactions reached 8.2 trillion yuan (US$1.1 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 22.3 per cent, according to a report last month by the Beijing-based China Electronic Commerce Association.

Topping the ranks of cross-border shipping destinations for e-commerce products from mainland China were Hong Kong, US, and Russia.

This article Chinas cheap shipping advantage explained first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Chinese carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, long the subject of speculation about its political ties, has moved to dispel a widely held belief its chairman's wife was related to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The carmaker, which owns a major stake in Germany's Daimler and the firm that makes London black cabs, revealed in a filing the name of Chairman Li Shufu's spouse was Li Wang, and she jointly held 4.9 million shares in the firm.

Chinese and international media have named Li's wife as Peng Lijuan, spurring speculation she was related to China's first lady, Peng Liyuan. The two share a surname and similar first name.

"We are trying to correct the rumours that Li Shufu's wife is President Xi's sister-in-law," a Geely spokesman told Reuters.

One of China's fastest-rising carmakers, Geely has been on a global spending spree over the past few years, even as Chinese authorities have cracked down on capital outflows and "irrational" overseas deals.

Any suggestion its success was due to political influence would be highly sensitive, especially given that Xi is overseeing a crackdown on corruption that has snared scores of high-profile officials and business leaders. (Reporting by Norihiko Shirouzu and Yilei Sun in Beijing, Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Stephen Coates)Australia's embattled centre-right government faces a make-or-break test this weekend, with by-election voters in Sydney's wealthy beachside suburbs apparently poised to wipe out Prime Minister Scott Morrison's slender parliamentary majority. Polls show the government losing in Wentworth on Saturday and with it their one-seat parliamentary majority, in what has been described as the most consequential by-election in modern Australian history. Defeat in the once safe Liberal seat would be a huge embarrassment for Morrison -- whose two-month tenure as prime minister has been marked by crisis and party infighting -- and would send him limping into next year's general election. The sprawling constituency takes in the famous Bondi Beach and the haunts of stars like Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman. "It could not come at a worst time for Scott Morrison because sometimes even winning a by-election might not be enough for a new leader -- you have to win it convincingly," politics expert Nick Economou of Monash University told AFP. Analysts believe a loss and a minority government would derail the Liberals' legislative agenda, make Morrison a virtual lame duck prime minister and perhaps even trigger a vote of no confidence in his premiership. - Crumbling before our eyes - The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Malcolm Turnbull as an MP after he was turfed out of the prime ministership in a party coup, despite calls for him to stay on and not jeopardise the coalition's hold on power. "Since the Turnbull demise, they have really been crumbling before our eyes. They are abandoning policies left, right and centre, a reshuffle has left them all at sea, issues that they were strong on they've lost their way on," said Economou. Morrison has invested heavily in the vote, appearing multiple times on the stump with Liberal candidate Dave Sharma and upending decades of Australian foreign policy in a desperate bid to woo Wentworth's Jewish voters. Morrison floated the idea of moving the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that prompted Palestinian anger and infuriated Australia's Muslim-majority neighbour Indonesia. Opinion polls show Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, trailing independent candidate Kerryn Phelps by around ten points. Turnbull has been very notably absent from the campaign trail, despite winning the seat by an 18-point margin, but the rest of the Liberal party has thrown the kitchen sink at the contest. Fears of a collapse in Liberal votes saw former prime minister John Howard, the last leader to serve out a full term, hit the streets of Wentworth on Thursday in a plea to "grumpy Liberal voters" not to abandon their party. "This is really pretty desperate politics," former Liberal party leader and a former member for Wentworth, John Hewson, told AFP. "They just want to win at all costs, they don't care what they do to do that, which will also probably feed people's discontent with the government generally. So it's a big call on their part to run it that way." The campaign has seen voters express anger at infighting and navel-gazing in Canberra and the rising cost of living while wages stagnate. "The people who are disenchanted are not just those who are doing it hard economically," Joseph Camilleri, a professor at La Trobe University told AFP. "It also includes those who feel their views or interests have been ignored... we have had for some time a government that moves from one short-term tactical objective to another without any clear narrative as to where Australia is and where it might be heading." Phelps -- who is gay -- has campaigned on national issues such as tackling climate change and Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers, appearing to gain traction in a traditionally moderate liberal seat. Getting rid of the prime minister has become something of a national sport in Australia -- with six changes of leader in the last decade -- Morrison will be hoping the Wentworth vote does not make him the next victim.US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his intention to nominate a US Air Force veteran to fill the top East Asia diplomat at the Department of State. According to a statement issued by the White House, the US president intended to nominate David Stilwell of Hawaii to be an assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, a crucial role overseeing diplomatic relations with 31 Asian countries and areas, including China.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Stilwell would replace his predecessor Susan Thornton, who was acting assistant secretary and retired from the post at the end of July. Thornton, a veteran officer in the US diplomatic corps, has been, according to The Washington Post and other US media, not hawkish enough on China and therefore out of step with the rest of Trumps Asia leadership team.

Stilwell is an Air Force veteran with more than 35 years of experience as a pilot, commander, and Korean linguist. He retired in 2015 with the rank of Brigadier General, the White House statement said.

Im glad the president has at last nominated a candidate for this important position

Daniel Russel

Other contenders for the position included Matt Pottinger, a senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council, according to ABC News and The Washington Post.

Daniel Russel, a former assistant secretary for the top Asia diplomat post from 2013-17 praised Stilwells nomination.

I have worked with Dave Stillwell over the years and know him to be a real professional with extensive service in the Asia Pacific, Russel said via email. Im glad the president has at last nominated a candidate for this important position and that he has selected an experienced hand.

Douglas Paal, vice-president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, also welcomed the nomination.

General Stilwell is an accomplished veteran of security and defence policy on and in China and the broader East Asian region, Paal said. In my experience, he is a realistic and pragmatic problem-solver and a straight shooter. He is respected by people I respect who know him better than I do.

Story continues

Currently, Stilwell is a director of the China Strategic Focus Group at the US Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East West Centre in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The generals area of expertise is political-military issues in the Asia-Pacific region with a special focus on China-US relations, especially as they relate to US security alliances, according to an introduction posted on the East West Centre.

Before retiring, Stilwell served as served as deputy director for politico-military affairs for Asia at the US Department of Defence, where he was responsible for regional planning and policy, and for the implementation of the national security strategy, supporting the commanders of US Pacific Command and US Central Command.

Before that he served as Defence Attache at the US Embassy in Beijing from 2011-13. He is proficient in Chinese and Korean and has limited capability in Japanese, it said.

This article Donald Trump to appoint Air Force veteran David Stilwell to senior Asian diplomatic role, vital to overseeing relations with China 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:A Taliban-claimed attack on the top US commander in Afghanistan and senior Afghan security officials Thursday killed at least three people and sent the government scrambling to secure the country's restive south. There are fears the attack in the southern province of Kandahar could derail US efforts to engage the group in peace talks and parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20. US and NATO commander General Scott Miller was not hurt in the attack inside a heavily fortified government compound in Kandahar city that targeted a high-level security meeting. But the shooting carried out by a member of the provincial governor's security team killed anti-Taliban strongman and police chief General Abdul Raziq, Afghan and NATO officials said. "Today I lost a great friend LTG Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan, " said General Miller in a tweet posted by a NATO-linked account. "The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone." Provincial intelligence chief General Abdul Momin Hussainkhail and an Afghan journalist also died in the attack that wounded 13 people, including two Americans and the governor, officials added. "The attack carried out by a bodyguard of the governor happened moments after the meeting finished, as they were leaving the compound," Afghan Army chief of staff General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali told reporters. After a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani, "a high-ranking delegation headed by the NDS chief has been deployed to Kandahar to control the situation", Yaftali added. Afghan security forces swarmed Kandahar city after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for violence ahead of Saturday's ballot -- into their homes. The Taliban said in a Twitter post that Miller and Raziq were the targets of the shooting. Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said Raziq or the governor, not Miller, had been the targets. "Eye witnesses reported that the attacker was focused on Raziq," a US embassy official in Kabul said. But the unprecedented attack on a US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and the death of Raziq was "a huge blow to stability and to counterinsurgency more broadly", said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center. "The bottom line here is that no one is safe, no matter how powerful they may be and no matter how much security they may expect to receive." - 'Deep uncertainty' - The security void left by Raziq's death, who was widely seen as a bulwark against the Taliban insurgency in Kandahar, would create "deep uncertainty" in the south, Johnny Walsh of the United States Insitute of Peace said. Raziq long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied. "While General Raziq had long faced accusations of human rights abuses, he was also arguably the most capable military commander in Afghanistan, and widely perceived as the main reason the Taliban have struggled in Kandahar in recent years," Walsh told AFP. Initial reports indicated Afghan officials were the targets of the attack, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said, describing it as an "Afghan-on-Afghan" assault. "We are being told the area is secure." A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details. A witness said the city was "full of military forces". "They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP. Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot. More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house. The election process has already been hit by violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months. At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand. The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes". strs-us-amj/ds/amuThe Hong Kong Journalists Association has urged three news outlets as well as a group of local media chiefs visiting Beijing to explain the highly unusual retraction of multiple reports that included a controversial remark attributed to Chinas top propaganda official.

The organisations chairman, citing concerns over self-censorship in the local media, said on Wednesday that such retractions were unprecedented, unimaginable and very alarming.

On Thursday morning, delegation leader Siu Sai-wo, who has been at the centre of the controversy, told the Post he was considering taking legal action over what he called untrue reports on the saga, though he declined to disclose which and how many Hong Kong media outlets he would target or on what grounds he would file the case.

"I am considering. I won't make further comments," Siu said.

In an earlier statement issued hours after the associations call for clarification, the delegation head said the reports had been handled in this manner to guarantee their accuracy. He did not mention the retractions.

The controversy had erupted on Tuesday after the delegation met Huang Kungming and Xu Lin, head and deputy head respectively of the Communist Partys Central Propaganda Department.

Following the meeting, Siu was asked by reporters whether Huang had commented on a recent incident involving the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) in Hong Kong.

In a live broadcast, Siu replied: [Huang] hoped Hong Kong media would not turn the city into a base for interfering in mainland politics.

Three Hong Kong media outlets  two major television stations and a radio station  that carried Sius comment later took their reports offline or cut the quote from the remaining footage.

Cable News removed its story featuring Sius quote on Tuesday night while a video clip of the interview was deleted from its Facebook page on Wednesday morning.

Story continues

Commercial Radio also deleted its report from its website on Tuesday night.

TVB News did not include Sius quote in its broadcast later but highlighted his comment that Huang said there should be more media reports on the Greater Bay Area, a central government project spanning Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province that aims to create an IT powerhouse to rival Silicon Valley.

Siu provided a late-night clarification on Tuesday after the removal of the reports raised eyebrows.

He told the Post he felt flustered after some delegation members said he had misquoted Huang and later double-checked the correct quote in his notes and confirmed it with other media chiefs.

Siu said the exact quote from Huang was: Under one country, two systems, [you] should prevent external forces from turning Hong Kong into a base for interfering with and destroying the mainland.

In a fresh statement on Wednesday, Siu said: If the oral version of my quote and its written version are different, the written version should be referred to as the accurate one.

The association, the biggest journalists group in Hong Kong, urged the media outlets that had deleted their reports to clarify whether they had done so because of pressure from Beijing.

[Fellow journalists] are concerned about whether it is a case of self-censorship or external pressure on Hong Kong media, it said in a statement.

Association chairman Chris Yeung Kin-hing urged the delegation and the outlets involved to make clarifications to ease concerns over censorship.

Otherwise, their own reputation, and that of the whole news industry, will suffer, he said.

The staff union of RTHK, Hong Kongs public broadcaster, also issued a statement on Wednesday night, urging the stations senior management to clarify whether its report on the Tuesday meeting had been censored. RTHKs report did not mention Sius quote.

In response, a spokesman for RTHK said the news division had handled the coverage as usual, no changes had been made and there was no interference of any kind.

Wong Wing-hang, Commercial Radios director of news and public affairs, told the Post to refer to Sius statement when asked about the stations retraction. Wong, a delegation member who chairs the Hong Kong News Executives Association, said Beijing officials had told them the meeting was for internal communication only and not for reporting.

TVB assistant general manager Tam Sik-yeung said the broadcaster had exercised editorial independence in handling reports on Sius quotes.

Ida Chan, manager of Cable News live news channel, said the story was out of her hands after the live broadcast. Cable News executive director Ronald Chiu Ying-chun did not reply to inquiries from the Post.

This article Hong Kong journalist group urges local media chiefs to explain why reports carrying controversial remarks were removed first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Hong Kong universities suffered drops in the latest Times Higher Education law, and business and economics rankings, with the publisher urging the citys institutions to improve their teaching environment and industry links.

Times Higher Education released four subject rankings on Wednesday. The standings are considered one of the most widely observed international metrics for measuring university excellence.

In the law ranking, Chinese University fell 22 places to 49th this year, while the University of Hong Kong slipped four places to 22nd. Only City University made gains, rising seven places to 45th.

According to the rankings publisher, CUHK received lower scores across the board this year, with particularly large declines in teaching and research and a significant drop in citations.

A Chinese University spokeswoman said: Various league tables use different evaluation criteria and parameters, and as a result produce different rankings.

It is important for CUHK to continue to strive for excellence in teaching and research, with the commitment to education for the benefit of Hong Kong, mainland China and the region, she added.

The National University of Singapore is Asias highest ranked university for law, overtaking both HKU and CUHK to come in 21st this year, up nine places from last year.

Stanford University is ranked first globally, swapping places with Duke University, which this year placed second.

The subject rankings look at five broad areas, namely learning environment; research volume, income and reputation; citations; international outlook in terms of staff, students and research; and industry income. But the overall methodology is carefully recalibrated for each subject, with the weightings changed to suit individual fields.

For the business and economics ranking, the University of Science and Technology fell eight places to 22nd and Polytechnic University dropped one place to 40th.

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HKU went up four places to 27th, while Chinese University remained the same at 52nd.

Baptist University, which has previously not made it into the top 200, is now in the 301-400 band, with rankings published for all 585 universities who met the criteria this year.

Both the National University of Singapore and Beijings Tsinghua University leapfrogged HKUST to rank 17th and 18th respectively.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is placed first globally, swapping places with Stanford University, which is in second place this year.

The rankings publisher explained the drops suffered by Hong Kong universities were in part due to all universities in Hong Kong declining in terms of citation impact.

Moreover, several universities feature in the business ranking for the first time this year, and some near the top of the ranking, partly due to a methodological change which has relaxed the eligibility criteria for academic staff, it added.

On a brighter note, HKU maintained its fourth position for the education ranking, while CUHK went up to joint 18th from 20th last year.

HKU also climbed four places to 26th and Chinese University by three places to 48th in the social sciences ranking, but both institutions were still behind National University of Singapore and Peking University, placed 22nd and 23rd respectively.

Ellie Bothwell, editor of global rankings for Times Higher Education, said, The results also show that mainland China  which has historically performed much better in science and technology disciplines  is fast moving up the rankings and is, in some cases, overtaking institutions in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong needs to focus on improving its teaching environment and industry links in business and economics and law if it wants to maintain its strong position, she said.





But Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho, Lingnan Universitys vice-president and Lam Man Tsan chair professor of comparative policy, said there was no need to be overly concerned with the results as there were changes in the methodology in determining which ones can be included in the rankings.

In terms of citations, even if an article is not cited a lot, that does not mean it is of inferior quality but rather that it might not be of so much of an interest to the global academic field, he added.

But the professor acknowledged that Hong Kong universities could do better in terms of cooperating with industry, which he believed would improve with the current administration promoting measures to encourage companies to collaborate more with institutions.

This article Hong Kong universities take a hit in latest Times Higher Education law, business and economics rankings first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.South China Morning Post

In a landmark resolution released on Tuesday, the Communist Party endorsed Chinese President Xi Jinpings major overhauls on Hong Kong and firm stand on Taiwan as the right decisions for the party and the country. In the full text of the resolution defining its achievements in the last century, the party doubled down on its determination to strengthen its grip on Hong Kong to ensure that the city is governed by patriots. The resolution also said Beijing must take the initiative in steering croStock photo from Getty Images.

While asleep on a window seat on board a Singapore Airlines flight, a woman awoke to a sensation of someone pressing her breast.

She saw the hand of the man beside her on her breast.

The man, 23-year-old Ravichandran Vignesh, admitted he pressed on the womans breast while she was sleeping as he was drunk and high and tempted to do so, court documents showed.

At the State Courts on Thursday (18 October), the Indian national, who pleaded guilty to one count of molest, was sentenced to jail for six months.

Ravichandran and the 31-year-old woman were on a flight from Bengaluru, India bound for Bali, Indonesia with a transit stop in Singapore. It was the first time Ravichandran, who owns a pet shop in India, was taking a flight.

On 1 October this year, at about 1am, the woman had boarded the Singapore Airlines flight and sat at her allocated window seat. Ravichandran took his allocated seat next to the woman.

During the flight, the woman had her meal at about 3.30am Singapore time before falling asleep after covering herself with a blanket.

At about 4.00am, the woman felt someone touching and pressing her right breast. She immediately woke up and saw Ravinchandrans hand on her right breast. Shocked and outraged, the woman shouted at Ravinchandran, who removed his hand and pretended to sleep.

The woman requested for a change of seats, and the cabin crew moved her to an empty seat at the back.

The woman later sent feedback via SIAs online form detailing the incident. She also sent an email to the Deputy Commander of the Airport Police Division.

She lodged police report at about 10.58am the next day with the Airport Police Division.

Police managed to trace Ravichandran and arrested him upon his transit through Singapore from Bali on 4 October.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Amanda Han said that Ravichandran had committed the offence at a confined space where the victim had nowhere to escape to. He had also used some force, she added.

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The DPP urged for a jail sentence of six months.

In mitigation, Ravichandran, who was unrepresented, said through an interpreter that it was his first time taking a flight and that he had toured Bali.

I do not know the laws of Singapore. I have not done this back home in India before, Ravichandran said on Thursday, adding that he came from a poor family in India.

I will not touch any woman again. I will not travel overseas again. I will not come back to Singapore again, said Ravichandran, who pleaded to return to India and promised not to reoffend.

For molest, Ravichandran could have been jailed up to two years, fined or caned, or with caning, or with any combination of the punishments.

More Singapore stories

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At least 27,000 unusual log-in attempts detected on Singapore HealthHub portalLaw Society may plug loophole that allows foreign lawyers to work in Hong Kong, prompting fears of an exodus

Hong Kongs professional body of solicitors is seeking to plug a loophole that allows foreign and mainland Chinese lawyers to work back door on local cases, but this has raised concerns it will only push more of them to go elsewhere, upsetting the balance in the legal profession.

In a letter to consulting law firms earlier this month, the Law Society proposed to restrict the work of lawyers from outside Hong Kong so they would only be able to give legal advice in cases involving the overseas jurisdictions they were registered in.

Hong Kong law firms would also have to employ two local lawyers for every one foreign lawyer, increasing the ratio from 1:1.

While foreign and mainland lawyers are not allowed to directly handle Hong Kong cases, locally based law firms get around the rule by employing them for cases that involve overseas and mainland elements.

While the aim of the Law Societys proposal is to plug the loophole, consultation has extended until the end of this year because of concerns among the legal community.

When it comes to deals involving multiple regions and Hong Kong, the Law Society has hoped to restrict foreign lawyers. This means they would need to secure an express recommendation from a practising Hong Kong lawyer to advise on how Hong Kong law might affect the deal.

It would clarify the rules and deter foreign lawyers from working on local deals

source

There are 1,500 registered foreign lawyers from 34 jurisdictions working in Hong Kong, accounting for 15 per cent of practising lawyers in the competitive legal market.

Aside from 906 local firms, there are 85 pure foreign firms completely practising non-Hong Kong law and 30 joint associations between Hong Kong and foreign firms. The practices range from business transactions, litigations, to offshore wealth management.

Foreign Lawyers Registration Rules currently bar foreign solicitors from practising Hong Kong law.

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In practice, however, multiple legal sources confirmed to the Post, some law firms hire foreign lawyers or mainland law graduates to work on Hong Kong finance and corporate matters involving mainland companies with US businesses.

The lawyers or graduates, who have passed qualifying exams in the US, Britain or Australia, would be appointed adviser or paralegal and legitimately receive billable expenses as part of the deal.

Such arrangements, common to initial public offerings and corporate matters, may escape being counted as practising since it is the local lawyer who signs the legal recommendation.

There are also sometimes economic incentives to hire non-local lawyers.

A mainland law graduate who has just passed the New York bar exam, might work for HK$20,000 to HK$25,000 a month, which is less than what some firms pay Hong Kong trainees, said one legal source with knowledge of the Societys thinking.

Although it may not entirely stop firms from doing so, it would clarify the rules and deter foreign lawyers from working on local deals.

Melissa Kaye Pang, president of the Law Society, said there were grey areas when dealing with cross-border issues related to Hong Kong, but would not comment specifically whether any back door practice triggers such move.

Weve heard of such practices but we have not carried out any studies, said Pang. Asked whether the proposal might drive foreign lawyers away, Pang stressed the professional body is only trying to defend the public interest.

Legal sector lawmaker Dennis Kwok said he is completely on board with defining what foreign lawyers can work on, but cautioned the proposal could be counterproductive.

This would lead to an exodus of foreign lawyers to Singapore

Dennis Kwok, lawmaker

Im worried this would lead to an exodus of foreign lawyers to Singapore, and that it could hurt Hong Kongs international reputation as a legal hub, Kwok said.

He added that some foreign firms that do not deal with any Hong Kong business would also have to follow the new rules, which could hamper job opportunities for the citys young lawyers.

One partner of a registered foreign firm, who preferred not to be named, slammed the new proposal as limiting the options for lawyers in where they can practise, particularly given Hong Kongs common law system is similar to that practised in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

He gave as an example firms advising on cases involving the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands  where lawyers are commonly British qualified and who might be forced to leave Hong Kong under the new rule.

Singapore currently has the exact same rules [for foreign lawyers] as Hong Kong, said the partner.

Were this new law to be introduced, those legal service providers to the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and mainland China would simply move to Singapore. That would have a serious impact on Hong Kongs standing as a financial centre, where users of financial services are able to obtain legal advice on a same-time, same-day basis.

It is understood that, facing a backlash from offshore firms, the Law Society may consider making exceptions for lawyers who may not have to be qualified in the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands to work on cases involving those jurisdictions.

On Tuesday, Pang penned a letter to all lawyers, saying that the society agreed to extend the consultation period from November 1 to December 31. Without mentioning foreign firms, she said the governing council has considered some of the feedback and stressed that it maintained an open-door policy to foreign lawyers.

Pang earlier told the Post that there is no imminent plan to table the proposal to the Legislative Council, which will require a simple majority vote. The Society has also promised a transition period of at least two years, in the event of a change.

This article Law Society may plug loophole that allows foreign lawyers to work in Hong Kong, prompting fears of an exodus 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:Officials from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry had an early morning raid Monday, seizing 6,000 pieces of roti canai and 360 pieces of chapati dough over a dispute over the companys halal logo.

JAIS (Selangor Islamic Religious Department) officers were present during the 10am operation, after members of the public reportedly filed complaints against the company over the last nine months. The dough purveyors are alleged to have used a halal logo on their boxes without certification from the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM).

In total, 60 boxes of roti canai dough, along with 12 boxes of chapati, worth an estimated RM3,063 (US$720), were taken in.

And on that note: Now were hungry.

The post Oh no you dough-nt: Police confiscate roti canai and chapati over halal logo appeared first on Coconuts.Suspect Salahudin Takao Kendayo

MANILA, Philippines  A man was arrested by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for selling drugs inside a mall in Manila.

The suspect who hails from Cotabato was identified as Salahudin Tokao Kendayo.

Authorities conducted the buy-bust operation at the malls parking area where Kendayo was eventually arrested.

Five sachets of suspected shabu worth P3.4 million were confiscated from the suspect.

Ang source niya ng drugs ay nanggaling pa sa Alabang and we are still verifying sa initial investigation namin na connected siya sa malaking grupo sa Mindanao na nagbabagsak din hindi lang sa Mindanao but dito sa Metro Manila, said PDEA team leader operation Gregor Bugalin.

(He sources his drugs from Alabang and we are still verifying our initial investigation that he is connected to a bigger group in Mindanao that supplies drugs not only in Mindanao but also in Metro Manila.)

The suspect said he was just told to transport the drugs by his cousin who is an inmate at the Manila City Jail.

Pumayag po ako kasi bago lang ako sa Manila tapos yun nga, wala pa akong mahanap na trabaho. Tumawag yung pinsan ko. Inutusan ako bibigyan daw ako ng 5,000, said the suspect.

(I agreed to it because Im new in Manila and I couldnt find a job. My cousin called me up and said hell pay me 5,000 for the delivery.)

PDEA said the suspect had been under surveillance for two weeks.

A tip from an informant led to the discovery of the illegal operation Kendayos illegal operations.

The suspect was previously arrested by the PNP in Tondo, Manila for violation of Section 11 Article 2 of RA 9165. Last May 22 he was released on bail, said Bugalin.

Kendayo expressed regret over his decision to act as a drug mule.

Natakot din po pero naisip ko sabi ko magkakapera na ko. Hindi ko na naisip na ikakasira pala ng buhay ko, he said.

(I was also afraid to do it but thought of the money I would be receiving. It never occurred to me that it will ruin my life.)

The suspect is currently detained at PDEA headquarters and will be facing charges for violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.  Victor Cosare

The post P3.4-M shabu seized in Manila mall drug bust appeared first on UNTV News.The funding was led by Japans private venture capital Global Brain with the mission to create a more inclusive financial system for everyone

Southeast Asias fintech service provider Omise Holdings has just announced an undisclosed amount of funding received. The investment was led by Japans private venture capital, Global Brain with the participation of 31VENTURES, the CVC arm of Mitsui Fudosan, one of the largest real-estate developers in the country, along with returning Indonesian venture capital SMDV.

Besides bringing in additional financial support, the funding will also be used to strengthen the reach of the financial infrastructure currently in the development phase by entities under Omise Holdings, like Omise payments, OmiseGO and GO.Exchange.

Also Read: Household services marketplace Helpling raises funding from Swiss media group

For the company that was established in 2013, the goal is to create a borderless open financial system for everyone. Realizing that global expansion is a key growth driver for businesses around the world but without the readiness of the infrastructure of the financial transactions process, Omise champions to conduct payments anytime and anywhere without borders as a necessity.

With an open platform for everyone, the company believes it will allow global buyers and sellers to meet directly, and conduct global settlements, making payments able to happen anywhere in the world.

The companies will leverage on the OMG Network, eWallet Suite, and OMG DEX, which are all currently under development as tools for businesses to provide opportunity for anyone with a mobile device to easily access fast, fair, and secure instant global payments.

Todays announcement with industry leaders like Global Brain, 31VENTURES, and SMDV is another solid step further on our path of developing a new payments infrastructure. We look forward to engaging in broader partnerships and opportunities to tap into Japans rapidly evolving market, said Jun Hasegawa, CEO & Founder of Omise.

Story continues

Also Read: Singapore travellers may soon be able to use NETS for mobile payments in China

Prior to the investment, Omise and Global Brain have shared the similar vision in building the blockchain ecosystem, resulted in partnership on several ongoing foundational projects including the Ethereum Community Fund (ECF) and blockchain focused co-working space, Neutrino.

Global Brain, Mitsui Fudosan and SMDV will leverage its resources to support the businesses under Omise Holdings by assisting its penetration into Japan, Southeast Asia and other key, high-growth markets, including building partnership and alliances with its potential clients.



The post SE Asian fintech Omise just bagged undisclosed funding led by Japans Global Brain appeared first on e27.The two countries commit to a continuous exchange of ideas and experiences in digital and emerging tech areas

Austria and Singapore just joined in a pact to cooperate in digital area to exchange information and technology, especially ideas and know-how on digital economy, digital government, e-commerce, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Both countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday, October 17, during Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs official visit to Vienna, as reported by The Straits Times.

The official signing was done by Communications and Information Minister S. Iswaran and Austrias Federal Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schrambock, witnessed by both PM Lee and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Also Read: Are decentralised apps the key to fighting Digital Maoism?

Both countries are small countries that rely on human talent, both also have a common aim of cultivating a culture of innovation and productivity, and using technology to upgrade our economies and improve our peoples lives. Singapore and Austria share similar perspectives on many issues  embracing openness to free trade, to multilateralism, to the rule of law, said PM Lee said at a press conference with Chancellor Kurz after wrapping up their third meeting this year.

The agreement will focus on the exchange of information and best practices in four areas:

Digital economy and digitalisation strategies, including helping small and medium enterprises and promising start-ups;

Digital government, including digital national identities and Smart Nation applications;

Electronic commerce and digital trade; and

Emerging technologies, including novel applications of blockchain, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, and regulatory approaches.

PM Lee noted there are 220 Austrian companies in Singapore, with investments of over S$2 billion (US$1.5 million), and will open its door as a gateway to Asia for more Austrian firms.

Story continues

Also Read: Blockchain-powered fintech startup OmiseGO bags funding led by Global Brain

We are both small countries in size, but innovative and economically successful, adedd Chancellor Kurz, while at the same time highlighting Austria as a good gateway to southern and eastern Europe.

Chancellor Kurz agreed that climate change and cyber security are two areas in which Asia and Europe could work closely. Tie-ups in research and development and between universities were also areas both sides are keen to pursue.

Furthermore, Singapores role as the presiding ASEAN and coordinator for ASEAN-EU relations makes the partnership is a strategic one with Austria being the current EU President. Austrias consistent support for European Union-Singapore free trade agreement (EUSFTA) is hoped to be the pathfinder for to an EU-Asean FTA.

The EUSFTA will be signed in Brussels on Friday, October 19. This is expected to enable cooperation with ASEAN at large as ASEAN is working towards a digital integration framework to deepen regional connectivity.



Image Credit: Tang See Kit

The post Singapore, Austria sign a pact on future digital tech exchange appeared first on e27.The two countries commit to a continuous exchange of ideas and experiences in digital and emerging tech areas

Austria and Singapore just joined in a pact to cooperate in digital area to exchange information and technology, especially ideas and know-how on digital economy, digital government, e-commerce, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Both countries signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday, October 17, during Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loongs official visit to Vienna, as reported by The Straits Times.

The official signing was done by Communications and Information Minister S. Iswaran and Austrias Federal Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs Margarete Schrambock, witnessed by both PM Lee and Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

Also Read: Are decentralised apps the key to fighting Digital Maoism?

Both countries are small countries that rely on human talent, both also have a common aim of cultivating a culture of innovation and productivity, and using technology to upgrade our economies and improve our peoples lives. Singapore and Austria share similar perspectives on many issues  embracing openness to free trade, to multilateralism, to the rule of law, said PM Lee said at a press conference with Chancellor Kurz after wrapping up their third meeting this year.

The agreement will focus on the exchange of information and best practices in four areas:

Digital economy and digitalisation strategies, including helping small and medium enterprises and promising start-ups;

Digital government, including digital national identities and Smart Nation applications;

Electronic commerce and digital trade; and

Emerging technologies, including novel applications of blockchain, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, and regulatory approaches.

PM Lee noted there are 220 Austrian companies in Singapore, with investments of over S$2 billion (US$1.5 million), and will open its door as a gateway to Asia for more Austrian firms.

Story continues

Also Read: Blockchain-powered fintech startup OmiseGO bags funding led by Global Brain

We are both small countries in size, but innovative and economically successful, adedd Chancellor Kurz, while at the same time highlighting Austria as a good gateway to southern and eastern Europe.

Chancellor Kurz agreed that climate change and cyber security are two areas in which Asia and Europe could work closely. Tie-ups in research and development and between universities were also areas both sides are keen to pursue.

Furthermore, Singapores role as the presiding ASEAN and coordinator for ASEAN-EU relations makes the partnership is a strategic one with Austria being the current EU President. Austrias consistent support for European Union-Singapore free trade agreement (EUSFTA) is hoped to be the pathfinder for to an EU-Asean FTA.

The EUSFTA will be signed in Brussels on Friday, October 19. This is expected to enable cooperation with ASEAN at large as ASEAN is working towards a digital integration framework to deepen regional connectivity.



Image Credit: Tang See Kit

The post Singapore and Austria have signed a pact on future digital tech exchange appeared first on e27.Swiss hospitality management university Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL) backs the mobile-based hospitality learning solution

Singapores hospitality learning platform Boost has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Switzerland-based Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL), a hospitality management university. The investment will support Boosts plan to expand its platform, develop new solutions to address the needs of the hospitality industry, and utilise EHLs expertise.

Using mobile technology, Boost provides team management system with mobile learning, messaging, communication, recruitment (including assessment), measurement and organisational capabilities in the hospitality industry under one platform.

Read Also: Ayala invests in Philippines-based home healthcare services app AIDE

Boost allows individual hotel employees to learn new languages and other skills, and at the same time enable management to organise their teams, recruit new team members and communicate using the mobile platform, said Allan Taylor, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Boost. Boost claimed to have around 20,000 hotel employees using their six different apps of mobile learning solutions, accessing options such as learning Mandarin and learning skills such as upselling hotel revenues.

EHL tunes in with the changing industry and the need of honed language skills for hoteliers by investing in Boost. The platform makes hospitality education accessible to students around the world through learning and upskilling from a screen, and EHL seeks to address the challenge the industry faces in the digital era.

EHL focuses on tertiary hospitality education. We decided to invest in Boost because we support innovation that enables learning from anywhere, including in the workplace, said Remi Walbaum, Chief Innovation Officer or EHL.

Read Also: A Singapore and American partnership hopes to upgrade edge computing technology

EHL is the hospitality management school founded in 1893 and considered as the pioneer in hospitality education, mixing classroom-based teaching with hands-on learning in real hotels adjusting with on-going trends.

The post Singapores hospitality learning platform Boost raises funding from Swiss hotelier school appeared first on e27.(Adds comment from CEO, other details)

By Fathin Ungku

SINGAPORE, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Singapore water treatment firm Hyflux Ltd, which is in the midst of a court-supervised reorganisation, said Indonesia's Salim Group and Medco Group had agreed to acquire 60 percent of the company for S$400 million ($290 million), a move that gives it a lifeline for its struggling business.

The new joint venture called SM Investments Pte Ltd has also agreed to give Hyflux a loan of S$130 million, Hyflux and the two Indonesian firms said in a joint statement on Thursday.

"The investor was identified by the company through a competitive bidding process undertaken by the company as part of its restructuring plans," Hyflux said, adding that the investors would also give it a S$30 million loan ahead of the proposed equity investment to meet its working capital requirements.

Loss-making Hyflux had been seeking strategic investors to raise funds even as it negotiated with other parties to sell its Singapore-based Tuaspring, its combined desalination and power plant, to help pay creditors. Malayan Banking Bhd is the project's main lender.

Hyflux's Group Chief Executive Officer Olivia Lum, who founded the company in 1989 and has grown it into firm employing 2,300 people, said the new investment will enable Hyflux to tap into the Indonesian market.

"Indonesia will be a big market for us," she told a news conference. She said Hyflux would not need to sell Tuaspring but she did not give details.

Hyflux has built two of Singapore's desalination plants that can meet up to 25 percent of the city-state's water needs. In the past few years, the company had expanded in the Middle East and Africa using debt to fund its growth.

The company's total liabilities stood at S$2.6 billion at the end of March. It had previously said it was reorganising its business after lower electricity prices hurt its finances.

"With our experience and strong track record in owning and operating businesses in energy, renewables, utilities and gas across Southeast Asia, we are confident we can unlock the full potential of Hyflux," said Medco Group's founder Arifin Panigoro.

Shares of the company, which went public in 2001, were last traded at S$0.21 in May this year versus a peak of S$2.876 in 2010.

Hyflux started the process of a court-supervised reorganisation of its business in May to protect it against creditors as it restructured its debt. ($1 = 1.3778 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Fathin Ungku; Writing by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri and David Evans)South China Sea is Beijings top foreign policy priority with developing nations, US think tank says

Southeast Asia is the top priority in Beijings foreign policy with the developing world despite its unresolved territorial disputes over the South China Sea, a US-based think tank said.

While the United States and China are competitors on the world stage and appear to be working separately, the two powers that are currently locked in a trade war, may be able to collaborate outside Asia where they have fewer overlapping interests, the California-based Rand Corp said in a study of Chinas policies with the developing world.

Southeast Asia, with its close political, economic and cultural ties, is the most important developing region for China despite its long-standing territorial disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei over the South China Sea.

China has been Aseans top trading partner for the past eight years and also its third-largest source of foreign direct investment. In 2017 Chinas trade with Asean was US$514 billion, with Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand being its biggest trading partners, according to official figures from Beijing.

According to the Rand report, 21 of Chinas 39 maritime trade routes and 60 per cent of Chinese trade pass by the Spratly Islands, a disputed group of islands claimed by China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Unlike other developing regions, Chinas trade with the region is weighted much more heavily towards two-way trade in manufactured items rather than by Chinas purchase of raw materials, the report said.

All 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Asean] are among the 57 founding members of the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which is widely seen as a vehicle for funding the Belt and Road Initiative.

According to the report, four countries in the region  Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam  are central to Beijings interests.

Story continues

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have not taken firm stances against Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, have friendly relations with China, and are among Aseans largest, most developed economies, the report said.

Vietnam, despite its stronger stand against Beijings expansionism in the South China Sea, still has strong ties to China given shared communist political ideology, the report said.

But Beijings policy towards Southeast Asia was largely one of divide and conquer, it said.

While encouraging Asean countries with no disputes with China to stay on the sidelines, Beijing is dealing with dispute claimants on a bilateral basis in an effort to keep external players, such as the US and Japan, out of its game, it said.

China is proceeding cautiously to prevent Asean countries from uniting against China. To dampen regional concerns of Chinese military strength, Beijing has opted to use its coastguard, not the PLA Navy, as the frontline actor in preserving Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, the report said.

China has upheld its claims in the South China while also increasing its military presence and promoting trade and investment, it said.

The report, which was published on Wednesday, comes at a time of growing tensions between China and the US. Earlier this month, US vice-president Mike Pence slammed Chinas aggressive behaviour following a near collision between a Chinese destroyer and an American warship.

US Defence Secretary James Mattis is set to meet his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of an Asean defence ministers meeting in Singapore on Thursday.

This article South China Sea is Beijings top foreign policy priority with developing nations, US think tank says first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.Taipei is considering barring Taiwanese with mainland residence permits from running for public office, one of two measures it may take to deter people from going to live across the strait, a senior official said on Wednesday.

Mainland China began issuing the permits to Taiwanese in September, a move President Tsai Ing-wens government has said was politically orchestrated by Beijing to create the impression of cross-strait unification.

But Beijing says the permits were introduced for convenience, and that the proposal would only hurt Taiwanese.

The government is looking at ways to counter the impact [of Taiwanese obtaining the permits] and removing that civil right is one of the options that is in line with the results of our recent public opinion survey, said Chiu Chui-cheng, vice-chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council in Taiwan, which handles cross-strait policy.

Beijing sees Taiwan as a part of the mainland that must be reunified, by force if necessary. It has suspended talks with the island since Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, became president in 2016 and refused to accept the one China principle, which Beijing sees as the basis for official exchanges to resume.

The mainland residence permits have been viewed by Taipei as a means of enticing Taiwanese to support cross-strait unification in the future  an idea the self-ruled island has long rejected.

Chiu said the government was also considering requiring people who obtained the permits to declare their residency status to the Taiwanese authorities, with fines applicable for those who failed to do so.

Under the draft plan, Taiwanese could be fined up to NT$100,000 (US$3,200) for failing to declare their mainland residency permit.

Chiu said the Mainland Affairs Council would send the proposal to the legislature for review and debate.

A recent survey conducted by the council found 75 per cent of respondents supported the idea of removing the right of any Taiwanese with a mainland residence permit to run for public office, on the grounds that they were not living in Taiwan.

Story continues

The pro-independence New Power Party has called for similar treatment for those who obtain the mainland permits.

Taipei has said mainland authorities have not been clear about what the permits are for, and that requirements  such as having lived on the mainland for six months  had been eased to encourage more Taiwanese to apply for them.

But Beijing said the permits were designed to give Taiwanese access to local benefits and to make their lives more convenient.

We issue these permits to meet the needs of our Taiwanese compatriots and to facilitate their studies, work and daily lives on the mainland, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office under Beijings cabinet, said on Wednesday.

He said the permits had nothing to do with politics and that the authorities had never demanded that Taiwanese based on the mainland apply for them.

Unfortunately, the DPP authorities are doing all they can to wreck this [system], Ma said, adding that the governments proposal would only hurt Taiwanese people.

Taiwanese businesspeople on the mainland have also criticised the proposal, saying it is unfair to them since they are just doing business across the strait and are not involved in politics.

This article Taiwanese with mainland residence permits may be banned from public office first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close the US-Mexican border against an "onslaught" of migrants, stepping up his anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of congressional elections. As several thousand Hondurans made their way through Central America toward the US border, Trump blamed Democrats for an "assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador" with a caravan "INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS." "I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump has made his call for a wall on the southern border a signature issue of his two-year presidency, but Thursday's tweet storm was especially fierce. Trump suggested he was even prepared to put at risk the recently renegotiated North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, redubbed as USMCA. "The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders meanwhile said that "we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration," and that "our administration is doing a great job on the border." US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a tour of the region that took him to Panama on Thursday with a visit to Mexico set for Friday. The Mexican stop is important for future relations because it comes just ahead of the inauguration in December of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign minister designate, downplayed Trump's comments as aimed at his domestic political base. "The position of President Trump is the one he has always raised," Ebrard told local radio station Radio Centro. "It was predictable and also the election process is very close, so he is making a political calculation," he added. - Controversial caravan - The president's message was part of a broad strategy to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and tighten rules for legal migrants. Barely a week goes by without Trump warning about the danger posed by ultra-violent Central American gangs like MS-13, while chants of "build the wall" are a staple of his pre-midterms campaign rallies. The latest focus is on some 2,000 Hondurans who departed Saturday from the city of San Pedro Sula in a caravan headed for the US border. A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican border, where they overflowed a shelter in the town of Tecun Uman, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said. Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms. Several migrants told AFP the group plans to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican immigration authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without papers. The migrants say they organized on social media for the long and difficult journey, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation. "This caravan did not appear organically," a senior Trump administration official told journalists. "There's a political aspect and an organizational aspect which frankly seeks to sow chaos and dissent and that needs to be dealt with," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. - Border forces - In Mexico, hundreds of riot police deployed at a bridge on the border with Guatemala. Guatemala also sent police reinforcements. Responding to a tweet about Mexico deploying police equipped with anti-riot gear, Trump wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!" Mexico's ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, met with migrants camped out in the border town of Tecun Uman to discourage them from crossing illegally. "We are offering documented entry to those who have a passport and visa, and to those who do not, documented entry via an application for refugee status, on humanitarian grounds. We will address every case," he told a large crowd of Hondurans gathered on the town's central square. Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray meanwhile told reporters he had met with UN chief Antonio Guterres, who said the UNHCR would help the Mexican government to process asylum applications for those in the caravan. As for the US border, it remained unclear whether Trump's threat would result in any military deployment. The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed. But at least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a since-abandoned White House policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the border.Two men were charged in Singapore Thursday with supplying luxury goods, including jewellery and watches, to North Korea in violation of UN sanctions. They were the latest examples of illicit trade through the global trading hub, which has been cracking down on the flow of banned goods to the nuclear-armed state. A Singaporean man is accused of having helped companies provide luxury items to North Korea on 43 occasions between 2010 and 2016, police said. Three companies linked to the man, named in local reports as 58-year-old Chong Hock Yen, have also been charged. The second man, a North Korean named in reports as Li Hyon, is charged with abetting two companies to supply similar prohibited items, between 2014 and 2017, police said. "Singapore takes its obligations under the United Nations Security Council Resolutions seriously and implements them fully and faithfully," said a police statement. "We will not hesitate to take action against any individual or entity that breaches our laws and regulations." Pyongyang has been hit with a series of United Nations sanctions aimed at forcing the hermit state to abandon its weapons programme. But there have been several cases in recent years of companies and individuals in the city allegedly supplying banned goods. A Singapore company director was charged in July with providing a wide range of luxury goods, ranging from wines and perfumes to jewellery, to North Korea. In 2016, a shipping firm in the city was fined for its role in an attempt to smuggle Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets from Cuba to the North. The company was initially found guilty of two charges, but it was cleared of one count on appeal and had its fine reduced, local media reported. Singapore suspended trade ties with the North last year as part of efforts to implement UN sanctions. The city-state nevertheless maintains diplomatic relations with Pyongyang and in June hosted a historic summit between US President Donald Trump and the North's leader Kim Jong Un.Two US B-52 bombers have flown over the disputed South China Sea, in a move that could inflame tensions ahead of a key regional defence summit in Singapore where the US and Chinese defence ministers are slated to meet.

The two US Air Force bombers departed from the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam as part of a routine training mission in the vicinity of the South China Sea, the Pacific Air Forces said in a statement on Thursday.

Tuesdays operation was part of the US Indo-Pacific Commands continuous bomber presence operations since March 2004, and was consistent with international law and [a] long-standing commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, it said.

The mission, which is likely to draw Beijings ire, was carried out while US Defence Secretary James Mattis was visiting Vietnam before heading to Singapore on Thursday.

There he will attend the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) defence ministers meeting, where he is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe.

Mattis cancelled a proposed meeting with Wei in Beijing after a near-collision between a US and a Chinese warship last month. The US later said the meeting was called off after Mattis was told that Wei was not available to meet him.

But Randall Schriver, the US assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told reporters this week that Beijing had requested the Singapore meeting, signalling a potential upturn in military relations.

He said there were frictions after Washington slapped sanctions on a key unit of the Chinese military in September for buying Russian fighter jets and missiles, but that may be a relatively short bump in the road.

The fact that hes meeting with Minister Wei is some evidence that the Chinese are interested in keeping things normal and stable, as are we, he said. Our impression is that the [Chinese] military wants to keep things stable.

Story continues

But the latest US operations in the South China Sea this week may anger Beijing. The Chinese government has frequently protested about American bombers routine training missions in the skies above the disputed waters, where Beijing has multiple overlapping claims with its regional neighbours.

Following the most recent B-52 mission in the area in September, Chinas defence ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang called the action provocative, and said Beijing would take all necessary means to safeguard our rights and interests.

Earlier this week, Mattis criticised Chinas predatory behaviour towards smaller countries, although he stressed the US was not out to contain China.

Bilateral ties have been rocked in recent months by a series of events, including the near-collision between the two ships in the South China Sea at the end of September.

In the South China Sea, over many American administrations, we have said that in international airspace, international waters, we will fly or sail. Youve seen that continue, Mattis said on Monday. We remain highly concerned with continued militarisation of features in the South China Sea.

This article US bomber mission over South China Sea risks inflaming tensions ahead of Asean defence summit 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:Mitch McConnell says that Republicans will not take any serious steps to reduce the deficit, unless they can also share blame for unpopular entitlement cuts with Democrats.

He didnt use exactly those words during his Tuesday interview with Bloomberg. But the Senate Majority Leader came close, admitting that changes to programs like Medicare and Social Security might be impossible to achieve as long as Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House. It was a quietly refreshing moment, in which McConnell effectively dropped the entire charade that Republicans are a party that prioritizes fiscal prudencemaking explicit what has long been obvious to anyone who has paid the faintest bit of attention to Washington over the past decades.

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During the interview, McConnell was asked about this weeks Treasury Department report showing that the federal deficit grew by 17 percent during fiscal year 2018, to $779 billion. Rather than acknowledge the obvious reality that the massive tax cuts Republicans passed last year had made the budget picture worse,1 McConnell opted for the standard GOP dodge and cast blame on out-of-control federal spending. Its very disturbing, he said. And its driven by the three big entitlement programs that are very popularmeaning Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Theres been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs, he added. Hopefully at some point here well get serious about this. But we havent been yet.

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Republicans have exercised total control over Washington since 2017, which should have given them an opportunity to make some changes to entitlement programs if they were so inclined. Thats complicated a bit by the fact Donald Trump promised not to touch Medicare or Social Security (with some big caveats). But McConnell didnt attempt to blame the president for his partys inaction. Instead, he simply suggested that Republicans were unlikely to ever tackle spending on their own. I think its pretty safe to say that entitlement changes, which is the real driver of the debt by any objective standard, may well be difficult if not impossible to achieve when you have unified government, the majority leader said.

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To McConnells credit, this is a fair reading of recent history. Republicans, after all, only seem to care about the deficit when they are out of power. During the Bush years, the party was happily profligate. It passed massive tax cuts, funded a disastrous war of choice in the Middle East, and added a prescription drug benefit, then balked when Bush tried to privatize Social Security. Once Obama entered office, the GOP rediscovered its inner deficit hawk, elevating Paul Ryan as its spokesman for fiscal austerity, while insisting that the white backlash movement known as the Tea Party was really a sincere cry for entitlement reform. Of course, once Obama offered to make a grand bargain that would have cut spending while raising taxes, Republicans again rebelled, because they didnt want to increase Federal revenues. (McConnell elided over that inconvenient detail in his interview, insisting that the Obama years would have been the perfect time for entitlement reform, but that, Unfortunately, it was not achieved.) With Trump in power, Republicans came within a hairs breadth of gutting Medicaid under the guise of Obamacare repeal, but were foiled by John McCains thumbs down. Other than that, theyve been happy to pass tax cuts, increase defense spending, and push forward some reductions to food stamps, which would have a negligible budget impact while cutting off aid to needy Americans. Any even-handed observer would have to look at all this and conclude that Republicans mostly see the deficit as a political club with which they can opportunistically beat Democrats, rather than an actual existential concern.

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McConnell isnt quite going that far. Instead, hes simply admitting that Republicans dont have enough courage to put their own necks on the line for fiscal conservatism. Still, its worth dwelling on the political implications of his comments.

1) McConnell thinks the deficit is a longterm threat to the country.

2) He also says that it is driven almost entirely by entitlement spending. (This is absurd, given that we could raise taxes to pay for those entitlements, but lets grant it for arguments sake).

3) Finally, he admits that it will be difficult if not impossible for Republicans to take the supposedly essential step of reforming entitlements as long as they maintain uniform control of government.

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The obvious conclusion to all this is that, if youre the sort of person who supports entitlement reform, you should vote for Democrats, since the cause is hopeless without them.

Thats not the point McConnell is trying to make, of course. Hes just a guy sitting in front of a journalist trying to excuse his partys hypocrisy about the debt. Its OK that Republicans attacked Obama over spending, then did nothing about it themselves, he says, because the debt will only be solved through bipartisan compromise (which, um, Republicans rejected as well). Meanwhile, hes also setting the stage for Republicans to demand entitlement cuts as part of any budget deal with Democrats, should they retake the House in Novemberdespite having failed to do them on their own in the past two years. It should go without saying that Nancy Pelosi and her caucus would be absolutely insane to agree (especially since theres no evidence that the deficit is actually threatening our economy in a meaningful way right now).

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It may also be dangerous to take McConnell at his word. Despite their recent track record, it still seems like that Republicans would happily cut programs like Medicaid and Social Security Disability Insurance if they had large enough Senate majorities (again, they already came close on the former).

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Still, Mitch McConnell has now stated for the record that Republicans may never try to address the debtsupposedly one of their top policy concernsunless Democrats can take some of the blame for it. Moderate squishes of the world, take note.The official trailer for the new, revamped Narcos is here, with a fresh cast and a different geographical focus: Mexico. Producers Doug Miro and Carlo Bernard had originally intended the show, Narcos: Mexico, as a fourth season for the Netflix Original Series, which followed the Colombian drug war of the 70s, 80s and early 90s involving the Medellin Cartel (led by Pablo Escobar) and the Cali Cartel. In the end, the producers decided to release it as a sort of spin-off, instead. Loosely inspired by true events, the new Narcos will trace the genesis of the Mexican drug war in the 80s, when independent dealers gathered into more established criminal organizations.

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Diego Luna stars as Felix Gallardo, known as El Padrino (The Godfather), a police officer turned drug lord who headed the now defunct Guadalajara Cartel in the 80s. Luna is pursued by Michael Pena, who plays former DEA agent Enrique Kike Camarena, whose murder and torturing has been attributed to Gallardo. From the trailer, it seems we can expect that while the location has changed, there are still the familiar action-filled scenes, drugs, and bloodlust. And it should be no surprise since, like the very drug trade the series deals with, the market is driven by demand, and the publics hunger for Hollywoods sensationalism of Latin American drug wars appears to be insatiable. Narcos: Mexico will meet some of that hunger when it premieres on November 16.What can you even say about a person whose response to the news that a Saudi Arabian murder squad chopped a Washington Post journalist into bite-sized pieces and then lied about it is to worry that the scandal might prevent him from selling them more weapons? Heres Donald Trump, a man who weve decided to entrust with the power to inflict a nuclear holocaust at will, explaining that Jamal Khashoggis apparent torture and murder is a fine price to pay if thats what it takes to keep Lockheed Martin in the lucrative business of murdering Yemini schoolchildren:

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Dont forget: Saudi Arabia is our partner. They made the largest order in the history of our country foroutside, outside of our countryfor, for weapons.  So now people say, Well, we want to have you end that order. Well, arent we just hurting our own country?  So we want to be smart. I dont want to give up that $110 billion dollar order, or whatever it is. Its the largest order ever given by an outside country. And I dont want to give that up.

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That is an 89-word moral abyss: There are so many missing priors in Trumps black hole logic that it will take part of your humanity away if you even engage with it. But Trevor Noah dove in anyway:

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Noah does yeomans work pulling together all the things that are horrible about Trumps response, but you dont exactly have to be Harry Caul to solve the mystery. The President of the United States is okay with peopleyou, me, anyonebeing tortured, murdered, and chopped up with bone saws as long as theres the possibility it might make him some money someday, ideally by selling the murderers more bone saws. Ha, ha.No one looks their age in Wildlife, the new 1960s-set coming-of-age drama that marks Paul Danos directorial debut. Even taking into account the earlier ages at which past generations started families, it takes a few scenes to believe the boyish Jake Gyllenhaal and the cherub-cheeked Carey Mulligan as the parents of a teenager. But Wildlife soon turns that disjunction into a strength, as 14-year-old Joe (a sad-eyed Ed Oxenbould) is forced to adapt to his parents abandonment of their responsibilitiesfirst by his neer-do-well father Jerry, then in subtler but far more hurtful ways by his fed-up mother Jeanette. Joes home life isnt so much turned upside down as it is slowly wrenched apart, as each member of the Brinson family begins to assert their competing visions for the future.

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Adapted from Richard Fords novel of the same name, Wildlife is a confident and compassionate first film. But with its protagonist mostly relegated to waiting and observing, its main raison detre is Mulligans masterful turn as a thirtysomething woman coldly testing her abilities to see what shes capable of, while terrified that she wont be able to provide a good life for her son. In the earliest scenes, Mulligans all spun sugarso sweet and fluffy and undemanding you almost forget the effort that goes into such a performance (by both the actress and the character).

When the unemployed Jerry signs up to fight the dangerous wildfires devastating the mountains above their small town in Montana, a high-risk job low in pay and status, Jeanette treats his temporary desertion like the conclusion of a chapter of her life. (We havent been intimate lately, she half-explains to her son.) Its intriguingly unclear whether Jeanette is more reckless or canny when she sets her sights on a wealthy, older, largely charmless divorcee (Bill Camp)the kind of man thats easy to seduce into bed but difficult to tempt into marriage. Her moods ever-shifting and her voice bouncing between octaves, Jeanette tries on different masks to see which one will get her what she wants, then loses patience when she isnt winning her game fast enough.

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Wildlife takes its title from the animals that Joe imagines fleeing the raging fireshe, too, is a refugee from the domestic idyll that he saw burn up before his eyes. The script, by Dano and his partner Zoe Kazan, would have benefited from a firmer sense of the social milieu in which Jeanette decides to break every rule that stands in her way. Theres something feminist about Jeanettes one-sided ending of an unhappy marriage, of course, but the character is much more interesting for being an uncategorizable mystery, often to herself. Shes practical, except when shes impetuous. Her aspirations are simultaneously lofty and grubby. When she gets drunk in the older divorcees home, openly flirting with the businessman in a barely-there dress in front of her confused and quietly seething son, Jeanette is hard to empathize with, and harder still to judge.

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Playing the films most unintentionally destructive force, Mulligan is as fluctuant as a flame, as Jeanette attempts to sew together the young beauty queen she had to stop being when she impulsively got hitched and the world-weary cynic who teaches her son that feeling sorry for the unfortunate is fundamentally pointless. But the films center of gravity is so tilted toward her that theres little of note in the scenes devoted to Jerry and Joe. (The reserved boys inertness is particularly frustrating, even if his helpless paralysis is altogether believable.) Gyllenhaal evinces some of that unpredictable propulsion, too, but the raw nerve Mulligan embodies is so transfixing that, while the films resolution is cogent and satisfying, its an inevitable letdown when it has to suture everything up.

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Fortunately, Jeanettes fieriness is matched by the pastel majesty of the mountains towering over the town, and later, the apocalyptic terror of the inferno that converts proud trees into the standing dead. (Wildlife was partly shot in Montana and for non-residents might well be more transporting geographically than chronologically.) Danos stiff, painterly compositionssome recalling Andrew Wyeth in their austerity and faces turned away from the viewereventually give way to more naturalistic scenes showcasing Mulligans transformations and the push-pull of attraction and repulsion Joe increasingly feels toward his mother. He cant turn away, and neither can we.This piece is part of the Radical issue, a special package from Outward, Slates home for coverage of LGBTQ life, thought, and culture. Read more here.

In the wake of the Kavanaugh hearings, a dyke friend in her twenties posted that, real talk, she doesnt like men. I hit the like button super fast, feeling secretive and sort of guilty about it. Shed come through the same radical queer and trans circles I came up in, and in that click, I felt relieved to acknowledge an obvious truth: Most men treat women like something less than human, whether accidentally or on purpose, and that means its hard to like them.

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Id recently been scanning the men coming into my workplace, wondering about their histories of sexual assault. Is he a rapist? What about him? Where does he fall on the creep scale? It was an old impulse that had returned in force as the nation debated just how many of their husbands, brothers, and sons were perpetrators, given that one in three American women experience sexual violence in their lifetimes. Republicans insisted that men were the ones who should be afraid, while women recounted the everyday, harrowing ways we reroute our lives to avoid assault. My woke male co-workers made #MeToo jokes, as if the whole thing were a funny spectacle. It was enough to make me want to stop talking to men entirely.

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Yet still, inside my head, the #NotAllMen chorus roared. What about the dad of two who likes all my angry tweets? Or the guy who showed up at the hospital with too much food when my spouse was in labor? Or my friends who are trans men?

Frankly, men do not deserve this much mental sympathy, and the few who do already know it.

Patriarchy runs so deep that I defend hypothetical mens feelings right away, even to myself. I am a married lesbian, as far away from needing male approval as a woman can get, and I still feel it, the slow poisonous drip of cultural conditioning that tells me to prioritize men. My imagination, that thing that could break us out of American fascism, is trapped in an old feminist loop, because Ive been trained that the worst thing I can be is a man-hating dyke. But its time to confront the latent homophobia in that insult and our fear that anger makes us seem too gay. Because anger, not fear, is precisely the emotion thats needed these days.

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Of course, certain womens anger had become trendy under Trump: that of straight cis white women, the good girls of the left taking on the big bad president. Rebecca Traister, promoting her new book, Good and Mad, joked on at least two podcasts that writing about rage made her sex life better, reminding the worldperhaps unconsciouslythat womens anger needs a heterosexual qualifier.

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When straight cis white women talk about anger, its sexy resistance fuel. When straight cis black women get angry, they get caricatured and punished. When cis lesbians talk about anger, we get Rosie ODonnelld, used as a shield for misogyny, since men know other women wont defend us. Man-hating dyke is a classic insult, whether aimed at actual lesbians or Hillary Clinton, used to remind queer women that theres something wrong with us. Second-wave straight feminists did whatever they could to distance themselves from lesbians, avoiding the lavender menace and adopting pretty, gender-conforming icons like Gloria Steinem. Straight or queer, angry or not, trans womens mere existence is considered a threat.

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Perhaps thats why the dykes I know have been crying in bathrooms and going to bed early, more riddled with anxiety than boiling over with righteous indignation. For a lot of us, the reminder that none of us is safe is an old feeling. We are tired and despairing, not newly enraged and energized.

Part of that is because dykes have always held cultural space for womens anger, absorbing and reflecting the frustration with men that straight women cant express. We are the friend you call when youre sexually assaulted, the one who drags you to a protest (or who starts the whole movement). Cis and trans lesbians are in a unique position to see misogyny from the outside, because our dates generally understand that women are fully human. We just havent always been explicit about the domestic misogyny we see from a distance or how we feel about it, because homophobia and transphobia make it dangerous to be an angry dyke. Dyke anger is the difference between gay assimilation and queer radicalism, and we are punished for it socially: Why do you have to be such a killjoy? Cant you leave your politics at home?

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Practically speaking, we still have male bosses and landlords and clients and mayors and editors (hi!) who wield power in our actual lives, even if we dont come home to a man on the couch every night, and its hard to publicly state our resentment, lest some of them use that power against us. But what that means is that man-hater remains an insult were afraid of. Weve reclaimed witch and queer and dyke, but we cant seem to own this last, worst stereotype of ourselves. Frankly, men do not deserve this much mental sympathy, and the few who do already know it. But even as men kill women who question them daily, those of us with the least amount of investment in patriarchy are afraid to say what we really think of them.

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In a quick poll, my dyke friends had good reasons to eschew the man-hater label: They like plenty of men; they dont want to hate anyone; and no one wants to be associated with trans-exclusionary radical feminists, or TERFs. Plus, many lesbians are proudly gender-fluid or butch, and it feels icky to reject masculinity wholesale when it feels like something thats a part of you.

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But its time to get the misogyny out of our own heads, because if we dont, we cede a powerful space for womens anger to those who want to control us. We can be angry dykes if we want to, even if all that means is owning that term for ourselves.

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To be clear, I do not mean we should create physical lesbian separatist spaces. There is too much painful, transphobic history in that idea to even entertain it. I watched some women online muse about moving to communesDo those still exist?to avoid the constant negotiation of public space with men. I assumed they were straight and cis, because otherwise they would have known about TERFy womens lands or at least about the drama of Michfest. We dykes have already torn ourselves apart over trans identity and how to separate men from women. There is only one right side, and communes that ban anyone based on their genitalia are not on it.

What I mean instead is reclaiming a phrase that lets us divest from patriarchy in a more serious way. Men have to learn what it feels like when we stop protecting them, and we have to stop seeking male approval. We have to name whos perpetrating violence against cis and trans women in this country: Its white men, with the white women who are invested in patriarchy along for the ride. We need to quiet the last of those self-censoring voices. Reimagining something bigger than resistance, in Michelle Alexanders terms, requires us to get beyond that fear of male approval. Once we do, we can be a source of massive, radical power, and straight women would do well to follow our lead.

Read all of Outwards special issue on Radicalism. And queer your ears with a special radical-themed episode of the Outward podcast.This post was published in partnership with Wirecutter, the site devoted to finding the best gear and gadgets. Every product is independently selected by the Wirecutter team. We update links when possible, but note that deals may expire and prices are subject to change. If you buy something through our links, Slate and Wirecutter may earn an affiliate commission.

Consumer-oriented DNA testing services come with inherent privacy risks, with few legal guidelines regulating use of your data. If youre comfortable with that, we think AncestryDNA is the most effective service for people who want to learn more about their ethnic roots or are searching for contemporary relatives. Weve come to this conclusion after more than 80 hours of research and reporting that included evaluating results from a test panel representing every major population group.

Our pick: AncestryDNA

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Though all of the DNA services we tested provided broadly similar results for the ethnic origins of our panel of testers, AncestryDNA presented this data in a clearer manner and placed the information in a useful historical context. And for people seeking distant cousins or even biological parents, the companys claimed DNA database of 10 million customerstwice the size of its closest competitorsincreases the odds of successful matches. Unlike the other services we tested, however, AncestryDNA cannot track your maternal and paternal heritage independently or trace your ancient migration path out of Africa.

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Our upgrade pick offers the same type of ethnicity estimates (and privacy risks) as AncestryDNA at a similar price, but the Family Tree DNA offers a more comprehensive suite of testing options than any service we evaluated, with additional tools that should satisfy genealogy buffs looking to explore their connections to early human migration or find relatives from one particular side of their family tree. As you would at a good sushi restaurant, however, youll want to watch your bill. Family Tree DNAs a la carte approach can quickly add up; you can easily spend more than than three times the testing cost of our main pick.

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$80, Family Tree DNA

Why you should trust us

Ive written for Wirecutter since 2013 and have reported stories for Al Jazeera, Forbes, The New York Times (now parent company of Wirecutter), and The Atlantic. In researching this guide I spoke with experts in the fields of genetics, anthropology, and medical ethics from the National Institutes of Health, Stanford Law School, and the NYU School of Medicine, as well as genealogists whove provided commentary for television news magazines like Nightline and 20/20. To compare real-world results I recruited a panel of DNA test-takers that collectively represent each of the seven major population groups identified by the companies we evaluated.

Who this is for

DNA testing can have a wide range of use cases, from paternity disputes to letting you know if youre predisposed to genetic-based diseases. For this guide, however, we focus exclusively on services offering ancestral DNA testing: tests that comb through your DNA to help find where in the world you came from, unknown contemporary relatives, or both.

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Using any DNA testing service involves data and privacy risks, which well discuss in more detail in a moment. We recommend these tests only for people who have taken to the time to gain a clear understanding of how their data will be stored, shared, and protected. Privacy policies can vary widely, from multipage PDF documents to a couple of sentences on a website. Making a well-informed decision means that youre actually going to have to read them.

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Even if youre comfortable with the privacy risks, setting realistic expectations is crucial. The marketing hype around these tests suggests a level of certainty that the underlying science simply cannot provide.

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The continental predictions  European versus African versus Asian are pretty solid, said CeCe Moore, a genealogist whos worked as a consultant and writer on the PBS Television series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. If you test at the top companies you should expect that those numbers will all be pretty close. When you get down to country-level labels, however, its very difficult to separate those out. You cant look at the results and say with any confidence that youre exactly 34% Scandinavian, for instance. You just cant.

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For one thing, human history is messy. Its full of mass migrations of people and a resulting mixture of previously geographically separated ethnicities. And if you tend to associate ethnicity with country designations, keep in mind that national borders are an extremely recent occurrence in the span of human history. Further complicating matters is that your results from any DNA service are based on probability or likelihood, with most of the big companies relying on algorithms to assign estimates of your ancestry percentages.

For Jonathan Marks, anthropology professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the big unknown for customers is the margin for error with these estimates. If [a service] tells me Im 95% Ashkenazi Jewish and 5% Korean, he asked, is that really different from 100% Ashkenazi Jewish and 0% Korean? Its all privatized science, and the algorithms are not generally available for peer review. Thats why their ads always specify that this is for recreational purposes only  lawyer-speak for These results have no scientific standing.

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If youre taking on the challenge of building a detailed family tree, a DNA test can provide useful information about your ancestry. It is, however, just one tool in the genealogy tool belt, and is far from the final word in establishing family connections. DNA works hand-in-hand with paper trail documentation, said Judy Russell, genealogy lecturer, educator, and author of the blog The Legal Genealogist. Its something you do with, not instead of, regular [genealogy] research. Except in very close relationships, DNA alone cant provide the answer. It can tell you youre related to someone, but DNA cant distinguish between a first cousin, a half-aunt or half-uncle or a great grandparent.

All of the genealogy experts we talked to stressed that unearthing family history takes a lot of work. And though DNA is a powerful tool, it is just as likely to raise questions as to answer them, and to begin to answer those youll need to turn to family documents, public records, or interviews. And you may not be comfortable with what you find. Moore added that anyone considering using a DNA service must be prepared for unexpected and sometimes unsettling results because though DNA can identify kin, it can also tell you who youre not related to. We see it every single day, she said. Sometimesas with adoptions for instanceour paper trail does not represent our true genetic heritage.

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In the course of testing for this guide, one of our participants learned that a parent was fathered by someone other than the person they grew up knowing as their grandfather, unearthing a family secret and placing a heavy and unwanted burden on our testers shoulders.

Ethnicity, race, and DNA

As a society we make fundamental decisions based on notions of ethnicity and race. The fact remains, however, that 99.9 percent of our genetic makeup is identical for all humans. And of the remaining 0.1 percent that actually is different, 85 percent of those distinctions are unrelated to characteristics we relate to ethnicity or race. So when you submit a DNA sample to trace your ethnicity, you should keep in mind that were dealing with a really small amount of genes that could possibly be different between human beings0.015 percent, to be exact. And thats not even the biggest challenge, said Dr. Lawrence Brody, director, Division of Genomics and Society at the National Institutes of Health. Theres no single gene variant that makes you Tunisian; almost any variant that youll find in Tunisia youll also find in Argentina, he noted. DNA tests simply look at how often these variations occur. Lets say there are 27 variants I find in Tunisia which occur in one percent of Tunisians, Dr. Brody explained, but those same variants are found in 50 percent of Argentines. If a DNA test shows I have 17 of those variants, its more likely that Im an Argentine than a Tunisian. This, Brody said, is how companies build their mathematical algorithms; they use the probability that people with certain gene variantsmutations in the DNA sequencetend to be from one part of the world versus another.

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Brody noted that for scientists, ethnicity and race are problematic terms because DNA simply points to biological ancestry. DNA can place you on a given branchor branchesof the human family tree but doesnt give a precise picture of the time period our ancestors spent living in a particular geographic area, which is how we commonly define our heritage. This is an issue weve been struggling with since the genome was sequenced. Race and ethnicity are really complicated issues and in some ways are outside of the genome, he said, pointing out that DNA analysis can give us insights into ancestry from 10,000 years ago, but most folks are looking for more recent connections like their great-great grandparents. You could have known relatives from Germany and a DNA test could say youre from India, Brody added. These are not mutually exclusive because your people could have migrated from India to Germany thousands of years before youre aware.

Key terms

 Haplogroup: A genetic population sharing a common ancestor. You can think of each haplogroup as a separate branch of the human family tree. We all started out as one haplogroup in Africa. But then as we left, we scattered, people reproduced within these separated groups, and our DNA slowly mutated and the number of haplogroups expanded. Four of the largest haplogroups cover people of European, African, Native American, and Asian descent. Many more subgroupings are still being defined today; to keep them straight scientists identify major haplogroups by a capital letter, and give sub-haplogroups numbers and lowercase letters. For example, R1b is the common sub-haplogroup for people with Western European heritage.

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 Autosomal DNA: This is what we typically think of when we think about DNAthe stuff that makes up 22 of your 23 pairs of chromosomes. This is the genetic inheritance you get from both your mother and your father, combined (the technical term is recombined) to make you. Autosomal DNA testing can tell you about your ethnicity and find matches to living relatives within the last five generations. This is useful because it can tell you about the ancestry on both sides of your family, as opposed to the next two common types of testing.

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 Mitochondrial DNA: Often abbreviated to mtDNA or mDNA, this is the DNA inherited solely from your mothers side, because its passed down to you from the mitochondria (tiny structures with their own chromosomes that provide energy to your cells) in your mothers egg cell. This kind of testing can tell you about ancient migration routes of ancestors from thousands of years ago on your mothers side, and also about your haplogroup. The interesting thing about mitochondrial DNA is that unlike autosomal DNA, it isnt recombinantit doesnt mix with your dads and so yours is exactly like your mothers. Because its an exact match, scientists can trace mitochondrial DNA relatively easily from place to place.

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 Y-chromosome DNA: Usually called Y-DNA for short, this is the DNA that makes up one half of your 23rd, or sex chromosomethe DNA inherited (if you are are biologically male) solely from your fathers side of the family. Biological women have two X chromosomes: XX. Biological males have XY. Y-DNA testing can give you information about your haplogroup and the ancient migration routes of ancestors from your fathers side of the family. But the obvious limitation is that only biological males can give samples for a Y-DNA test.

 Reference population: This is a data set of individuals of known geographical origin that companies compare your DNA sample with to determine your ethnic makeup. These population samples can be a combination of both publicly available research and proprietary data that companies have acquired from their own customers. Though companies strive for reference populations that are as inclusive as possible, individuals of European ancestry usually comprise the vast majority of these data setsweve seen as high as 65 percentcompared with other ethnic populations.

How we picked

A Google Shopping search for DNA test kit returns more than 200 results, revealing companies offering services ranging from paternity resolution to canine breeding. For this guide we limited our research to companies devoted exclusively, or nearly so, to human ancestry DNA testing. We are not covering the biomedical DNA tests that indicate risk for hereditary diseases. In the spring of 2017, the FDA gave 23andMe, one of the most popular DNA services, the go-ahead to resume testing for genetic health risksin 2013 the agency ordered the company to halt such tests pending its review of the tests safety and accuracy. Biomedical data that conveys your individual risk for diseases like Alzheimers or Parkinsons is obviously much more sensitive and potentially difficult to understand the implications of without working with a doctorand much more valuable to third partiesthan results about where your ancestors might have come from. The privacy and psychological factors to consider before participating in these tests are significant and fall well beyond the scope of this guide.

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We identified 15 US-based services offering ancestry DNA testing. Because the major companies now offer DNA testing for as little as $100, we eliminated prohibitively expensive options like Full Genomes, whose least expensive test starts at $800, opting instead for companies with prices that max out at half of that. We further limited our contenders to those with large databases of existing customer DNA. The experts we consulted told us that though DNA testing techniques are well-established and will be similar no matter what firm you choose, the relative sizes of the reference samples that your DNA is matched against for estimating ethnicity and/or finding relatives is one of the big variables among testing services. The larger and more diverse the sample size, the greater the likelihood that youll receive informative results. This narrowed our list of contenders down to just five companies; 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, National Geographic Geno DNA, and African Ancestry. For more information about what we dismissed and why, see the Competition section.

Privacy concerns

Issues around the data security and privacy of your genetic information once you submit your saliva sample to a for-profit company are not inconsequential. Not only is the information inherently personal but the very nature of digitally accessible data makes it impossible to guarantee who will and wont be able to see and use itor who will be able to see it and use it in the future as laws and technology change. And its more and more evident that your choices about what information to share may not only affect you, but may have implications for your relatives, no matter how distant, now and into the future.

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In early 2018, California law enforcement officials solved a murder case by uploading a suspects data to a hobbyist DNA database. In Canada, immigration officials are now using DNA samples and consumer ancestry websites to try to establish the nationality of migrants. And 23andMe made news when it announced a $300 million deal to provide pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline access to its customers genetic data.

Were in an environment in which we dont have rules about big databases, who accesses them and under what circumstances, said Arthur L. Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York Universitys School of Medicine. There are no comprehensive federal laws or guidelines stipulating what a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company can or cannot do with your DNA data. Unlike a doctor or HMO, the vast majority of these companies are not subject to the HIPAA laws governing the privacy of your health and medical records.

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Your protections extend only as far as a companys privacy policy and any consent form you agree to. And the legal recourse youd have should a company (or another customer) violate those policies is unclear. Caplan argues that it is unnecessarily difficult for people to make a well-informed choice. Consumers need to be told [of potential risks], he said. But in a way they can understand. Just doing a truth dump which is what they do when they give you a 20-page consent form is not enough. The goal of these disclosures should be comprehension, not legal protection for the company.

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Because the industry is largely self-regulated with respect to privacy, companies stated commitments to safeguarding your data as well as seeking consent before sharing your information with third parties range broadly. We see everything from a comprehensive 100-page policy from a big company  to a mom-and-pop shop whose privacy policy might be a sentence long, said James Hazel, a Vanderbilt University Medical Center fellow who co-authored a survey of privacy policies at 90 US genetic testing companies.

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In July 2018, many of the largest DNA testing services, including AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA agreed to adopt a voluntary best practices standard of consumer privacy developed by the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit think tank that receives corporate support from a whos who of tech companies, including Ancestry.com and 23andMe. A spokesperson for Ancestry.com confirmed to us via email that the company already abides by these guidelines. Hazel calls them a positive development  that starts the conversation and highlights some of the privacy issues. He points out, however, that the restrictions laid out in best practices documents do not apply to any customer data that has been de-identified. There are circumstances where de-identified data can still be traced back to an individual, he said. So hed like to see clarity on what additional steps companies are taking, such as aggregating data, essentially anonymizing the data of large groups of customers in one go, making it more difficult for a third party to trace data back to an individual.

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When we first reviewed these services in 2017, we commissioned a legal analysis of the terms of service and privacy policies of AncestryDNA and Family Tree DNA by Brian J. McGinnis, a partner with Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a founder of the firms data security and privacy practice group.

McGinnis found the policies to be in line with common industry practices. Theyve made an effort to disclose what theyre doing, with a lot of standardized language you see across different services in the tech industry, he said. And companies do seem to be responsive to requests for more transparency. In 2017 McGinnis saw room for improvement, nothing that AncestryDNAs DNA-specific terms of service and privacy policies were not presented in as clear a manner as the companys general privacy statement. As of this writing, the documents have been streamlined with more user-friendly language and DNA-related policies are now incorporated into an updated terms of service document and a revised general privacy statement.

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In light of news stories highlighting privacy concerns that emerged since the publication of our original guide, we asked Ancestry.com, provider of our top pick, to update us on its data sharing and privacy stance. A company spokesperson told us that as of August 2018, Ancestry is not currently providing any individual-level genetic data to third-party researchers, instead providing summary-level data in its current collaboration with the University of Utah. In addition, the spokesperson said, We commit to not sell DNA data to insurers, employers, or third-party marketers without our customers explicit consent.

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Family Tree DNA CEO Bennett Greenspan confirmed to us via email that the companys Y-DNA and mtDNA tests do not return any biomedically relevant data, saying, we dont want anyone to get into something beyond their comfort zone.

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Company assurances aside, the reality is that submitting your DNA is a personal decision that will be shaped largely by your views on privacy. Even our experts have differing opinions. Caplan received a DNA ancestry kit for Christmas that he has yet to open. I still dont trust it yet, he said. Hazel, when asked for advice by friends, says he recommends the kits only if you have the time to read these policies and get an understanding of whats going to be happening to your data once it enters the direct-to-consumer ecosystem.

We strongly encourage you to read the privacy statement of any DNA testing service before purchasing a kit. Its not uncommon for companies to share aggregated genetic information for either marketing purposes or sale to third parties. And many present you with an opt-in choice to share your genetic information with outside research projects. This isnt the time to blindly click on a consent box like you do with app updates.

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Here are some questions you should make sure are answered before submitting a DNA sample:

 Who is doing the testing? If a company is using an outside lab to sequence your DNA (most do), youll want to read the privacy statement of the testing facility as well.

 How long are my physical samples (saliva and DNA) stored? Some companies destroy them once they complete their analysis. Others may store them for a year or even indefinitely.

 Can I delete my genetic information and analysis from a companys website? Somebut not allcompanies offer this option via an email request. Again, if they used an outside lab to perform the sequencing youll need to make a separate request to the testing company as well.

How we tested

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We knew from talking to experts that the customer databases that companies use to determine your ancestral roots can vary widely in their representation of ethnicity, with European-descended populations overrepresented by a large margin. This means that people with ancestry from anywhere else in the world are less likely to get detailed (or even useful) results from their testing. To see how this bias plays out in actual results we recruited a panel of testers (three men and four women) who, among them, have known ancestry from Africa, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, (native) North America, Polynesia, and South Asia. Because of the sensitivity involved with DNA test results, in this guide we are withholding the names of our test participants.

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In early spring 2017 the seven participants convened at our offices in The New York Times building, where they registered their kits online and provided DNA samples either by swabbing the inside of their cheeks or spitting into a tube. To further evaluate the role that sample size plays in ancestry results, we had our tester of African descent, a biracial teenager with an African-American father and a South Asian mother, submit a sample to African Ancestry, whose promotional materials claim access to the worlds largest database of contemporary African DNA.

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Prices vary by company and range from about $100 on the low end for AncestryDNA and 23andMe to as much as $350 for Family Tree DNA if you opt for the companys high-resolution Y-DNA tests. All companies add shipping charges (of between $7 and $12 at the time of this writing), which cover prepaid mailers to send in your samples.

After shipping a total of 29 kits containing our testers physical DNA samples back to each company, our wait times for results ranged from three to eight weeks.

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Once results were available we asked each tester to complete a survey comparing how companies conveyed basic ancestry information and how easy or difficult it was to navigate to more detailed analyses of results.

Our pick: AncestryDNA

AncestryDNA is the service we recommend for most people who want to learn about their ethnic heritage and/or connect with unknown relatives. Its one of the most affordable services we evaluated, and our testers ranked it among the top in offering useful information in an easy-to-understand presentation. The company also has the largest reported database of DNA customers weve seen, providing significantly higher odds of a successful search for contemporary relatives than its competitors.

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All companies have access to public ancestry data sets like the Human Genome Diversity Project and International HapMap Project. AncestryDNA, like all of the services we tested, also relies on DNA samples from its own customers whove consented to participate in such research. The upshot is that each company has its own mix of DNA reference samples to draw from, explaining why youll get slightly different ethnicity percentages from different companies. AncestryDNAs V2 reference panel contains 3,000 individual DNA samples meant to represent 26 distinct geographic regions.

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Beginning the testing process is easy. Inside the packaging, clearly marked instructions prompt you to register your DNA kit on the companys website, create a customer account, sign off on the terms-of-service agreement, and choose if you want to grant consent for your results to be used anonymously in research projects by AncestryDNA or in collaboration with third parties.

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The next step is to collect your DNA sample by filling the provided tube with saliva. The directions state that you must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, or chewing gum for at least 30 minutes prior to collecting your sample.

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The registration and DNA collection process are straightforward and well-documented. The whole thing takes about 10 to 15 minutes. A small USPS prepaid shipping box is provided for you to send your sample to the testing lab.

Our panel of testers shipped their samples from New York, California, and Texas. The earliest results were available in nine days and the longest took four weeks. Based on feedback weve seen in customer message boards, wait times are likely to vary depending on the current level of demand but the six-to-eight-week time frame that AncestryDNA gives on its website seems to be a reasonably accurate estimate.

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Once results are ready youll receive an email with a link to your user page. From there, a single click takes you to an overview of your ethnicity estimates as well as potential relatives the site has flagged among its customer base due to the similarity of your DNA makeup. Until you join AncestryDNAs subscription service, the information you can glean from these family matches is limited. You can see their username and profile picture and they can see yours.

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Your ethnicity information is presented as a pie chart, showing estimates of where your ancestors came from hundreds or thousands of years ago, the site explains, noting that as analysis improves and reference databases grow over time, your estimated mix of ethnicities may change. Its crucial to understand that these ethnicity percentage estimates are not definitive answers, but probabilities with built-in wiggle room. Its no accident that AncestryDNA refers to its algorithmic process as ethnicity prediction.

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To get a clearer sense of what the numbers mean you can click on any subregion to get a more detailed view of your ethnicity estimate.

The screenshot below is from one of our testers whose known ancestry (based on family records) includes British and Greek heritage, information that is supported by her DNA results. Her ethnic ties to Ireland are listed at 5 percent, yet the range slider indicates that her genetic ties to this region (on AncestryDNA this includes Wales and Scotland) could actually be anywhere from 0 to 16 percentshe shares DNA associated with people from these geographical regions, but as weve discussed above, given the history of human migration, people whove ended up elsewhere share many of those same markers too. So for our tester to use these results to claim with certainty an Irish heritage of exactly 5 percent would be misleading.

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This example is not an indictment of AncestryDNA. All testing companies face the same dilemma; customers want to know their precise ancestral makeup but the science can provide only educated estimates. What we like about AncestryDNA is that it provides a straightforward means of putting your genetic information into context. Clicking on the See Details box (below the range slider in the screenshot above) takes you to a historical overview of the region and a Genetic Diversity page that explains the link between your results and those of natives of that region. In the case of our tester, this reveals the tenuous links between their results and those of a typical person of known Irish heritage.

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As you can see in the above screenshot, AncestryDNA estimates that 5 percent of our testers DNA comes from the Ireland region. A typical nativedescribed by AncestryDNA as a person in their DNA database whose ancestors have lived in that region for centurieshas a median ethnicity estimate of 95 percent. This means that half of the 154 people linked to Ireland in the reference databasepeople with documented family ties going back several generationshave more than 95 percent ethnicity thats native to this region and half of them have less than 95 percent ethnicity native to the region. Given this context, though its statistically possible for our tester to have roots from this region, its certainly not something she can claim with any certainty unless supported by family documents or historical records.

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This is the reality of DNA ancestry testing when it comes to ethnicity. No matter which company you test with, youve got to dig into the data on the website at least a little bit to truly understand your results. And once you do, the picture often becomes less precise than you may have originally assumed. AncestryDNA makes accessing additional detail and context more intuitive than most of its rivals do. Additional information is usually just a click away, easily identified by well-designed icons with plainly worded text.

AncestryDNA also automatically builds what it calls genetic communitiescollections of its customers who share some DNAthat can identify migration routes that have occurred within very recent generations. AncestryDNA was the first company we saw to offer this type of information and, combined with the companys large customer database, it can be valuable to history buffs who want to know how both close and distant relatives ended up in their contemporary locations.

AncestryDNA begins by identifying clusters of customers in its database with similar ancestral DNA, Dr. Julie Granka, the companys manager of personalized genomics, explained to us. Through the process of analyzing historical records like customer-provided family trees and other paper-trail documentation relevant to this collection of individuals, the company is able to piece together the geographical movements of that community over time. This genealogical crowd-sourcing combines the science of DNA with historical context to give a fuller picture of your family history.

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If youre using a DNA test to try to find unknown relatives or biological parents, the biggest advantage to choosing our top pick is that the company claims a DNA database of 10 million customers as of this writing; thats twice the size of its closest competitors. Though youre not guaranteed to find a match, access to such a large database increases the odds of finding unknown cousins or biological parents.

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AncestryDNAs DNA-matching feature automatically compares your DNA with that of its entire customer database, alerting you to any genetic matches alongside an estimate of how closely you may be related. Among our panel of seven testers, three were notified of matches to either first or second cousins.

You can see the username and profile photo of your potential match (they can see yours as well) and using the sites messaging platform you can send them a message. But access to personal contact information for your matches, their family trees, and the companys database of historical records require you to purchase a subscription, an upgrade that over the course of a year is more expensive than the DNA test itself. The company does provide a two-week free trial, however, to help you decide if this data is worth the additional expense.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

AncestryDNA was the only service we tested that is limited to autosomal testing. It cannot track your maternal and paternal heritage independently, nor can it tell you about your ancient ancestors and their migration out of Africa. The company used to provide Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests but dropped them in 2014 to focus exclusively on its ethnicity and family-matching services. We think that for most people getting started in researching their ancestry, these will be sufficient, but those wanting a more granular look at the past may want to look at our upgrade pick.

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Creating a customer account, a requirement when registering your DNA kit, means that any customer that the company deems a potential family match, no matter how distant, can see your username and profile photo (if youve uploaded one), and contact you through the companys Web-based messaging system. This has obvious benefits for people who are looking to expand their family tree. But if you simply want an ethnicity breakdown without the potential to discover unknown family connections, services like Family Tree DNA and 23andMe wont reveal any of your information to other customers until you opt in to their family-matching services.

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In May 2016, AncestryDNA began using a new higher-resolution DNA test chip to help refine its ethnicity results. The new chip, however, also contains some markers currently related to biomedical information, according to a company blog post. As of this writing the company hasnt announced plans to offer DNA health tests. But if youre not comfortable with a company having access to your potentially more sensitive biomedical DNA data, wed recommend Family Tree DNA, who purposefully does not test for or analyze health-related DNA markers, its CEO told us via email.

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BUY: AncestryDNA

$70, AncestryDNA

Upgrade for data-savvy genealogists: Family Tree DNA

Family Tree DNA offers an affordably priced autosomal test that gave our panel of testers results that were broadly similar to those from our top pick. But Family Tree DNAs services extend beyond just ethnicity estimates, with a la carte options for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial testing at various levels of precision. The costs can add up though. Family Tree DNAs most detailed tests can set you back more than three times what youd spend using our main pick. But you get what you pay for, and if youre committed to unearthing family history and are familiar with terms like SNPs (pronounced snips) and centiMorgans, youll feel right at home within the companys community of genealogy-centric customers. The company claims a DNA database of 1.7 million customers. Thats not as large as that of our top pick, but still offers a reasonable chance of connecting with relatives.

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Submitting your sample to Family Tree DNA is just as straightforward as with our top pick, the major difference being that you swab the inside of your cheeks rather than spitting into a tube. Though the companys packaging is not as slickly branded as its rivals and the prepaid return mailer was a bubble envelope rather than a cardboard box like AncestryDNAs, our DNA samples had no problems in transit. Our testers received their autosomal results within about four weeks, but results from the Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests we ordered took anywhere from an additional one to four weeks to become available.

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Like AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA lets you opt in to a family-matching service to find and contact other customers who share your family DNA. There are several differences though. Family Trees DNA customer database is much smaller than AncestryDNAs at 1.7 million customers, CEO Bennett Greenspan told us. Unlike our top pick, Family Tree DNA does not charge an additional fee to fully participate in its family-matching service, though you wont be able to see any information about your potential matches (nor will they see anything about you) until you opt in to the service.

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Our upgrade pick provides separate family matches for each test you order. If you pay for both an autosomal and mitochondrial test, for example, youll have access to two sets of matches. Youll see customers who share your autosomal DNA and could be related on either your mother or fathers side going back five generations. Youll also see customers who share DNA from only your maternal side of the family going back many centuries, potentially resulting in a more complete picture from which to start building your familys genealogy.

Family Tree DNAs website wont win any design awards; outside of its ethnicity estimates your results are presented largely in Excel-inspired table formats. My editor, Erica Ogg, upon viewing a scrollable page showing very detailed haplogroup origin data remarked, This looks like HTML source code.

The sheer amount of information from Y-DNA and mitochondrial tests can be overwhelming and difficult to put into context for people who are new to genealogy. As one of our testers put it, Family Tree DNA had the most complete info  even if you cant really understand some of it.

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The site does offer a collection of user guides and online handbooks that cover key topics. Youll need to devote time to reading them. Even so, as a genealogy newbie, I had to place a call to customer support on more than one occasion for clarification of what some of the data meant in practical terms. The agents I spoke with were very knowledgeable and able to answer my questions. One emailed me a link to even more documents to read.

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We discussed data and privacy concerns earlier, and its worth noting that Family Tree DNA has its own testing lab, a rarity in the industry, as most services contract with outside labs. All else being equal, keeping your genetic data under the roof of a single company with a unified privacy and data policy means a higher likelihood that it will stay private.

If youve already tested with another service, Family Tree DNA is one of just a few companies we researched that allows you to upload raw data from its competitors, which is handy for people who may have reached the limits of what they can find out with a less complete service and want to upgrade. You can upload results from 23andMe and AncestryDNA to search for matches in Family Tree DNAs family-finder database. If you upload raw data from National Geographics Geno project, you can also get Family Tree DNAs estimates of your ethnicity and its haplogroup information at no charge.

BUY: Family Tree DNA

$80, Family Tree DNA

DNA testing for people with non-European ancestry

If you have little or no European ancestry and order a DNA test, your results may be less precise than youd hoped. For one of our testers, an East Asian woman of known Thai, Laotian, and Chinese descent, the vagueness of results from every service we tested was infuriating. I wasnt just disappointed, I was angry. she said. Citing results from our top pick that identified her ethnicity solely as East Asian, with no regional specificity, she said, This is the equivalent of saying All Asians look alike.

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The problem lies in the fact that in the reference population databases that most companies use to compare your sample with, the greatest portion of DNA samples come from people with European ancestry. AncestryDNAs V2 reference panel includes 1,441 samples48 percent of its totalfrom Europeans and only 161 for South Asians and 18 for Polynesians. Disparities like this are by no means exclusive to AncestryDNA. Our testers DNA reports from 23andMe, for example, showed that Europeans make up 65 percent of the companys reference population database.

Europe is much easier, acknowledged Family Tree DNAs Greenspan. There are more scientists  who have studied people of European background  and more opportunity to do DNA testing.

This doesnt automatically mean that DNA tests are meaningless for non-Europeans. But your ethnicity results may be less precise and the story of how your ancestors arrived at their current location may likely be more difficult to assess if your DNA can be compared with only a tiny sample population.

African-Americans face additional hurdles. Its extremely difficult for individuals of African-American ancestry to trace their roots because of the slave trade, said Ancestrys Granka. Family documents for even well-chronicled African-American families typically extend no further than the mid-1800s, the end of the transatlantic slave trade, leaving obvious gaps in the historical record that DNA alone cannot replace.

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Companies are well aware of these disparities. Since the initial publication of this guide, 23andMe launched an African Genetics Project to add more customers with detailed knowledge of their African ancestry to their reference database. And AncestryDNA has now added additional country-level breakdowns for customers of Asian descent.

Our tester of African descent received broadly similar results on his African heritage from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, Family Tree DNA, and National Geographic Geno DNA. All indicated West African roots, which jibes with his known ancestry because his paternal grandfather is from Guinea.

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To better understand the role that reference databases play in ethnicity results we also submitted his DNA samples to African Ancestry, a company co-founded by genetic biologist Rick Kittles, who claims to use a reference population database of roughly 35,000 contemporary Africans, a sample more than 50 times the size of that reported by any other service we tested.

The companys Y-DNA analysis was very surprising. African Ancestry found the largest cluster of identical matches to our tester in a population located in modern-day Angola, some 2,500 miles farther south along Africas western coast than where his documented family history points. In a phone interview conducted after wed received the test results, Kittles examined the results and expressed full confidence in the Angola findings. Kittles did see a cluster of identical matches in Guinea-Bissau but those matches occurred with four times less frequency than they did in Angola, leaving Kittles to make a subjective call in the results our tester received.

This situation is not uncommon, according to Kittles. Sometimes we find identical matches across a broad geographic range, he explained. We then have to come up with the most likely ancestral homeland [for our customer]  based on where the matches are most common. Kittles noted that if the matches in Guinea-Bissau occurred at a frequency close to that of Angola, both populations would be listed in the results.

What could explain this surprising addition to our testers family lineage? One possibility lies in the fact that Angola was a Portuguese colony beginning in the 16th century. Portuguese slave ships would bring their cargo from Angola along the western coast and make a stopover in Cape Verde before heading to Brazil. And Cape Verde lies just off the coast of former slave trading ports in the Senegal/Guinea region of West Africa. DNA cant always provide a definitive answer to your ancestral roots but it can suggest the questions you should ask in search of them.

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The experience with African Ancestry neatly summarizes the balance between science and interpretive analysis that all DNA companies are faced with. Large companies may rely on software algorithms to make these judgement calls but the issue remains the same; the science can tell us only so much about our ancestral histories.

And a closer look at this same testers results from our main picks revealed broader geographic definitions than were evident at first glance. AncestryDNA shows ties to a Senegal region that encompasses Guinea but also to a Cameroon/Congo region that, on its map, extends from Nigeria all the way down to northern Angola. At Family Tree DNA, our testers West African portion of the companys ethnicity map not-so-helpfully stretches from Mali all the way down to the tip of South Africa.

What about 23andMe?

23andMe is one of the most popular testing services, with a DNA database of 5 million customers, and our panel of testers found the companys results and presentation of data to be on a par with those of our main pick. Our only hesitation in recommending 23andMe concerns its collection of your potentially more sensitive biomedical DNA data. We confirmed with the company by email that whether you purchase an ancestry-only test or the combined ancestry plus health package that can indicate a genetic propensity for certain hereditary diseases, the testing and analysis of your DNA is identical.

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A test result indicating that youre at risk for Alzheimers clearly has a different set of ramifications than one that says youre East Asian. Even if you purchase just the ancestry test (as we did for our testers) the lab still captures the raw data that is used for biomedical analysis. The company presents this as a convenience so that if you later decide to upgrade to its health test, you wont need to submit a new DNA sample or even wait for 23andMe to perform an analysis; that work has already been done.

Katie Black, the companys privacy officer, assured us in an email that, Regardless of the Service chosen by the customer, 23andMe will not perform additional testing, include an individuals information in 23andMe Research, or share it for research purposes without their voluntary, informed consent to do so.

The problem is that if youve paid for just the ancestry test and signed the consent form, youve granted access not just to your ancestry data but also to your biomedical data, which youd have no reasonable way of knowing was even obtained. A similar situation exists with AncestryDNA, as we explain in the Flaws but not dealbreakers section.

Both companies are actively monetizing customer health data, again only for customers who opt in by signing a consent form. For 23andMe, selling data to pharmaceutical companies is a key part of its business model, a board member told Fast Company back in 2013. And in July 2018, the company announced a four-year deal with GlaxoSmithKline that gives the pharmaceutical giant exclusive rights to use the genetic data of 23andMe customers (those who have opted in, that isyou can opt out anytime) for unspecified areas of research. According to Engadget, the first project with GSK will focus on finding new treatments for Parkinsons disease. Weve also confirmed that AncestryDNA has agreed to provide anonymized data to Calico, a company looking to use genetic data to develop products aimed at increasing lifespan.

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We do not doubt 23andMes commitment to the safeguarding of customer datathe company has publicly committed to adopt the same 2018 best practices standards as our picksand note that the company says that any customer DNA data it shares for research purposes is both de-identified and aggregated. If data-sharing isnt a concern and finding unknown contemporary relativesin addition to ethnicity estimatesis appealing, we think that most customers will be better served by AncestryDNA given its larger customer database. But if you arent comfortable having your biomedical data analyzed and sold to third parties, Family Tree DNAs DNA analysis intentionally does not return any biomedically relevant genetic data, its CEO told us via email.

The competition

African Ancestry wasnt created to tell you if you have African roots. It has a much more narrow goal: to match a person of African descent with the tribe and present-day country location of their contemporary relatives. Offering tests for either maternal or paternal lineage, the company uses a database of contemporary African DNA thats more than 50 times larger than that of any service we tested. African Ancestry is very conservative in its approach, however, requiring a 98.6 percent or higher genetic match to its reference populations before providing a tribal/country match, resulting in a high number of paternal test results35 percent, the company saidthat come back as European, not African.

The National Geographic Societys nonprofit Geno DNA Project lets you learn about your ancestry while contributing to global research on ancient human migration. Our testers, however, noted that it provided less detail about their more recent ethnic roots than any of the other services we tested. The National Geographic test seemed a bit underdeveloped. I wished it had been more in depth, remarked one tester. And unlike our main picks it doesnt have a mechanism by which to discover close relatives.

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Living DNA is a UK-based service that launched in the US in 2017. The European Union has been active in regulating tech companies concerning consumer privacy and Living DNAs promotional materials highlight that it does not sell or share any of your data. The company declined to provide us with its customer database size but told us that 30 percent of its customers reside in the UK and 55 percent of its customers have British ancestry. Given the disparities that already exist among US companies for customers of non-European descent, people who are not looking to trace ancestry back to the UK are likely better served by one of our picks.

Full Genomes is the most expensive service we researched, with test prices starting at $800, more than twice as much as any other competitor.

The DNA Solutions website indicates a primary focus on paternity testing, with ancestry information limited to a wall chart showing broad migration patterns of your ancient ancestors.

EasyDNA, which also operates as HomeDNADirect, appears to be an aggregator of a few testing companies. It offers a grab bag of genetic services, including paternity testing and bird sexing (yes, its a thing).

As of this writing, Dynamic DNA does not offer autosomal testing, so can give you no information on ethnicity.

MyHeritage has offered DNA tests only since late 2016, which almost certainly means itll have a relatively small database of DNA test-takers from which to generate family matches. Just how small, we dont know. In June 2017 we asked a customer service representative and were told that the size of the companys database was not yet publicly available.

As of this writing, GPS Origins has a relatively small customer database of just 10,000 people with which to compare your samples, while AncestryDNA boasts 10 million customers in its DNA database.

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The tests offered by DNA Tribes cannot trace your maternal or parental ancestry independently. Our top pick shares this limitation but has a DNA database that is more than five times the size of DNA Tribess, for potentially more informative results.

Sources

1. Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist, email interview, March 29, 2017

2. CeCe Moore, Your Genetic Genealogist, phone interview, March 29, 2017

3. Lawrence Brody, director, Division of Genomics and Society at the National Institutes of Health, phone interview, March 31, 2017

4. Jonathan Marks, professor of anthropology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, email interview, May 1, 2017

5. Arthur Caplan, director, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU School of Medicine, phone interview, August 7, 2018

6. James Hazel, fellow, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, phone interview, August 7, 2018

7. Henry Greely, director, Center for Law and the Biosciences, Stanford Law School, phone interview, August 8, 2018

8. Bennett Greenspan, President and CEO, Family Tree DNA, email interview, June 21, 2017

9. Dr. Julie Granka, manager of personalized genomics, AncestryDNA, phone interview, June 21, 2017

10. Dr. Rick Kittles, co-founder and scientific director, African Ancestry, phone interview, June 16, 2017

Read the original article on The Best DNA Ancestry Test.This month, for the first time, the U.S. armed forces are recruiting young men and women who werent yet born when the invasion of Afghanistan took place.

The war has been going on for 17 years now (17-year-olds can enlist with parental consent), making it the longest war in American history. Yet we are no closer than we have ever been to accomplishing our objectives, in part because those objectives have been so sketchily, inconsistently, and unrealistically defined.

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In fact, the Taliban is gaining strength; other jihadist groups, including ISIS and a revivified al-Qaida, are joining the fight (against the Afghan government, Western forces, and the Taliban); the Afghan Army is suffering casualties at an alarming rate; the chaos is spiraling to unsustainable levels.

Just Thursday, a gunman wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire at a security meeting in a government compound, killing two top provincial governors, wounding three U.S. officers, and just missing the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin Scott Miller, who was the apparent target of the attack.

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There is no road to victory in sight. And there probably never was one.

It is worth recalling how we got to this point. One month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a combination of CIA commandos, U.S. special forces, and Afghan guerrillasbacked by brand-new smart bombsoverthrew the Taliban government, which had given sanctuary to Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist group. That December, at a conference in Bonn, Germany, Western leaders installed Hamid Karzai, an Afghan who had spent years in exile, as the interim leader of a Western-style centralized government in Kabul.

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That may have been the original sin in our policy. Afghanistana mountainous, sparsely populated, largely illiterate country, where power has long resided with local or regional tribesmen or warlordsseems inherently ill-suited for that form of government.

The second, and ultimately larger sin occurred shortly after the Talibans ouster, when President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared that the war was won and doneand refocused their attention, and resources, on the impending invasion of Iraq.

As it turned out, Taliban and al-Qaida forces hadnt quite left the premises. Meanwhile, the Karzai government had a predictably hard time securing its hold and providing basic services. The loyalty of the people was up for grabs, as were large chunks of territory, and the Islamist militias contested them.

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In 2006, the U.S. turned over its ever-dwindling military operation to NATOwhose leaders were looking to take on a new kind of mission in the postCold War era and thought Afghanistan might be a testing ground. These allies thought they were signing up as peacekeepers. Yet when they sent their troops out on patrol, the Taliban came out to fight. Suddenly, each country in the coalition insisted on waivers, dozens of them, all told. One country would send air support but not ground troops, another would fight on the defense but not the offenseresulting in a fragmented, feckless command structure. A small contingent of U.S. forces, fighting al-Qaida militias on the eastern border with Pakistan, stayed independent of NATO and killed lots of terrorists, but this had little effect on the shape and security of Afghanistan.

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During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama depicted Iraq as the bad war and Afghanistan as the lamentably ignored good war, and pledged to pull out of the former while doing more in the latter. In his first months in office, he held 10 meetings with his National Security Council to decide on an Afghan war policy. Critics accused him of indecisiveness, but a bigger factor was bureaucratic incoherence. At one meeting, an official suggested that the U.S. support effective provincial governors rather than the central apparatus in Kabul. Obama asked which provinces could best use the support. No one knew, so he scheduled another meeting and told the officials to find out the answer by then.

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The big debate in those meetings was between those who argued that we should merely supply and train the Afghan Army, using U.S. forces only to fight al-Qaida terrorists on the Pakistan border, and those who argued that we should wage an intense counterinsurgency campaign. COIN (as the term was abbreviated) would require a larger U.S. military presence and a huge aid-and-advisory effort to help Karzai run an effective government. The idea was to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people by providing them with security and services. Then, support for the Taliban would melt away.

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All of Obamas military advisers recommended a COIN strategy, which they estimated would require an additional 40,000 U.S. troops. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were the main advocates of the limited approach, which would take only 10,000 more troops. Then Gates changed his mind, persuaded by the COIN sides arguments, and the debate was over.

It is likely that no U.S. military campaign would have much chance of success, and this has been clear for nearly a decade.

However, in a final meeting in December 2009, just with Gates and the top officers, Obama asked whether they were confident that, with the COIN strategy and the extra troops, they could help the Afghan Army control more than half the provinces within 18 months. If youre not confident, he said, Ill go with Bidens approach. If you are confident, keep in mind, this is all youre going to get. If the experiment doesnt work after 18 months, Ill stop the strategy and withdraw the surge troops. Everyone present said they were confidentthough, in fact, most of them were not. Historically, COIN campaigns take years to achieve their goals, if they work at all, but the advisers figured that theyd at least make enough progress after 18 months to convince Obama to give them a few more brigades.

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Exactly 18 months later, Obama announced that he was ending COIN and pulling out the surge troops. Publicly he said that he was doing so because theyd succeeded, citing the killing of Bin Laden in Pakistan (an operation that had no relation whatsoever to the COIN campaign in Afghanistan). But his advisers knewand were shockedthat he was merely making good on his promise: He wasnt giving them the few more brigades that theyd requested.

Obama reverted basically to the Biden plan. Shortly before leaving office, he decided to keep 8,000 troops in Afghanistan, as a counterterrorism force for the region, without any illusions that it would help build Afghanistan itself into a more stable or prosperous country.

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Critics say Obama made a strategic error by publicly announcing when he planned to withdraw the surge troops; this put the Taliban on notice that they could simply wait out the United States, then step up the fight after wed gone. Theoretically, the critics had a point. But in fact, the Taliban put up a very fierce fight during those 18 months; they showed no sign of hanging back.

By contrast, President Donald Trump announced in August 2017 that he was sending a few thousand more troops to Afghanistan and imposed no timetable for their withdrawal; they might stay there forever. This has had no effect on the Talibans behavior either.

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It is likely that no U.S. military campaignwhether based on COIN, counterterrorism, or some other principlewould have much chance of success, and this has been clear for nearly a decade. Early on in the Obama phase of the war, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the main obstacle was clearly the lack of legitimacy of the government. Sen. Lindsey Graham asked, We could send a million troops and that wouldnt restore legitimacy in the government? Mullen answered, That is correct.

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Corruption has long been endemic in Afghanistan. The centralized government, with presidentially appointed governors relying on bribery and patronage, intensified the problem. The flood of money swooshing around the country in the form of U.S. aidbillions of dollars, worth more than Afghanistans GDPonly exacerbated the problem. In some cases, ineffectual governors paid the Taliban not to attack their provincesmeaning U.S. aid was subsidizing the Taliban.

Mullen and Gen. David Petraeus, when he was a commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, frequently said that the war could not be won by military force alone, that there would have to be a political settlement. They also argued that the U.S., NATO, and Afghan forces needed to rack up a series of tactical successes, in order to negotiate from a position of strength. The problem was that these big successes were never achieved, nor were any preparations made for peace talks, in the event of some moment of dominance.

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The main problem was that the U.S. officers and officials running Afghan policy didnt know much about Afghanistan. On at least one occasion, they opened tentative peace talks with somebody claiming to be a Taliban leader who wasnt one at all. They launched drone strikes on native Afghan Taliban militias, who were fighting for myriad motives, making no distinction between them and foreign jihadistsmuch less exploring ways to drive a wedge between the factions.

During the height of the COIN period, they tried to help the Afghan government provide basic services to the population. But David Kilcullen, a former infantry soldier and COIN scholar who advised U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, says they would have done better helping provide justice. In areas where they are in control, the Taliban has set up its own courts, highway checkpoints, and recruitment centersall of which, Kilcullen says, are viewed by local people as fairer and less corrupt than those operated by the Afghan government.

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When Trump came into office, he was inclined to pull the remaining 8,000 U.S. troops out of Afghanistan. He wound up adding another 5,000 (though without announcing the precise number). His national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, helped clinch the deal by showing him a photo from the 1970s of some women in Kabul wearing miniskirtsas if that proved Afghanistan could once again be a normal country. Secretary of Defense James Mattis also briefed him on what he depicted as a new strategypounding the enemy, relaxing the rules of engagement, and integrating diplomatic, economic, and military power to achieve victorywhen, in fact, this was nothing new and certain key terms, for instance victory, were left undefined. More than a year after his escalation, nothing in Afghanistan has changed, except that the Afghan Army is shredding and the deaths are on the rise. Bob Woodwards book, Fear, quotes Trump telling aides that he should have stuck to his instinctsthough he hasnt since acted on his regrets either.

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So, what to do? Most analysts, on all sides of the issue, agree that simply pulling out would spark disasteranarchy, civil war, the return of a terrorist regime, the strengthening of ISISin a region of nuclear powers and great instability already.

A negotiated settlement is the only way out. The Taliban seem disinclined to negotiate at the moment, since theyre winning on the battlefield. But they might be lured to peace talks if the reward were sufficiently enticing, and the only reward that might bring them is the prospect of a U.S. withdrawalthough not an unconditional withdrawal.

Afghanistan is a nexus of international interests and intrigue. China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan all have geopolitical and economic interests in its future. Americas relations with all four countries are dismal at the moment; yet, we depend on at least one of them at any given time for basing and overflight rights to supply our troops therewhich means it isnt entirely out of the question to work with at least two or three to contrive a peace.

China, which has investments in Afghan copper mines, has offered to help train troops to fight off jihadists, if just to protect its mercantilist interests. So has, to a lesser extent, Russia. Washington has resisted on both counts, not wanting to share the territory. This is shortsighted. China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan all have their reasons to oppose a jihadist-controlled Afghanistan, andwhatever our other issueswe should form an international conference, perhaps mediated by a U.N. agency or some other neutral power, on Afghanistans final status. This would have to be done with Pashtun, Tajik, and other ethnic factions, as well as with elements of the Talibanwhich, unlike al-Qaida and ISIS, is made up of local Afghans.

(If we were to look at Afghanistan with fresh eyes, as if the past 17 years hadnt taken place, we might well view the Talibanpreferably a Taliban embedded in a multiethnic Afghan political orderas an ally of convenience in the fight against ISIS.)

Timetables would have to be set, with benchmarks and step-by-step measures of Western military withdrawal and internal political settlement. If we get closed out of mineral rights, if the process ends up strengthening the bonds among Russia, China, and Iran, well, so be it.

Afghanistan isnt likely to settle into a land of harmony for many years. Let someone else take up the burden.Say you live in Georgia. Youre eager to vote in this years electiona tight race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Trump acolyte Brian Kempso you fill out an absentee ballot and mail it in. Then, days or weeks after the election, you receive a notice in the mail. The signature on your absentee ballot, it explains, looked different from the signature on your voter-registration card. So an election official threw out your ballot. There is nothing you can do. Your vote has been voided.

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If Georgias signature-mismatch law remains in effect through the November election, this fate will befall thousands of would-be voters. The statute directs elections officials to apply amateur handwriting analysis to voters signatures and reject any potential mismatch. Nearly 600 ballots and ballot applications have already been rejected for mismatch, a disproportionate number of them cast by minority voters. Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia is suing, demanding that the state give all citizens an opportunity to cure ballots rejected for mismatch. Its suit will help determine how successfully Georgia will suppress minority votes in the upcoming race.

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Signature-mismatch laws are a scourge of American elections. The very premise makes no sense: In a similar lawsuit filed in New Hampshire, a forensic document examiner testified that effective signature comparison requires 10 signature samples at a minimum to account for variability. Even then, experts may struggle to verify a signature, because our signatures often change over time. Voters who are disabled or elderly, or are nonnative English speakers, are especially likely to have variation between signatures. Thats one reason why New Hampshires mismatch law disproportionately impacted seniors, Californias disproportionately impacts first-generation Asian Americans, and Floridas disproportionately impacts Hispanics.

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But theres likely something more insidious going on here too. The extreme racial disparities among those affected by mismatch laws may also reflect the broad discretion that election officials have to toss ballots. In states with stringent mismatch rules, a handful of election officials are frequently responsible for the vast majority of ballots voided for mismatch. And those officials routinely work in counties with large minority communities.

Signature-mismatch laws are a scourge of American elections.

Thats the case in Georgia. The epicenter of the current mismatch crisis is Gwinnett County, the most diverse county in the state. While Gwinnett has just 12 percent of the states total mail-in ballots, its already responsible for 40 percent of statewide rejections this election cycle. Voters who cast absentee ballots very early may receive their rejection letters before Election Day, which allows them to try again by voting in person. But there is no requirement that the state send these letters speedily, so many receive them far too late. And even worse, there is no procedure by which a voter can cure her ballotby, say, verifying her identity to an election official. If she wants to cast a ballot that counts, she must start from the beginning. And if the election is over, she has no ability to exercise her right to vote.

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The ACLU argues that this scheme violates due process. Its well established that qualified voters have a liberty interest in casting a ballot that counts, and so the government must provide some process before depriving citizens of that right. Georgia grants them none. Under long-standing Supreme Court precedent, courts must decide what process is due by weighing the interests at stake, the risk of violating those interests, the value of additional safeguards, and the burdens they will impose on the government.

Here, all these factors weigh heavily in the ACLUs favor. The interest at stake is monumentalthe fundamental right to vote. And the risk of Georgia infringing upon that interest is astonishingly high: The state does not even require election workers to learn rudimentary handwriting analysis, leaving the job to the whims of untrained (and potentially politically motivated) county officials. They may use their limitless discretion to nullify ballots, and victims have no chance of redress.

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To remedy this constitutional flaw, the ACLU has urged a federal district court to impose a backstop for voters whose ballots are voided for mismatch. Sean J. Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia, told me on Thursday that we arent insisting on some hyper-elaborate formal proceeding. Rather, Were asking that voters be able to resolve the discrepancy by emailing or mailing extrinsic evidence to confirm that theyre the same person, like similar signatures on other documents. A voter should also be able to send over a copy of her ID, Young said, or even chat with officials on the phone to verify her identity. A federal district court ordered these kinds of backstops in New Hampshire, and the state has had no trouble implementing them.

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Sounds reasonable enough, right? The problem is that Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kempthe same guy running for governoris a ruthless voter suppressor who is already keeping 53,000 voters, mostly minorities, off the rolls. Kemp is an expert at deploying legally dubious maneuvers to disenfranchise minorities, and he has gone all out for this election. He will surely fight any lower-court decision injecting some fairness into the signature-mismatch mess, since his own shot at the governors office is on the line.

The situation is a distressing but helpful reminder that signature-mismatch laws are useless at best and dangerous at worst. In the hands of a maestro vote thief like Kemp, they can be deployed to quash votes for your opponent. But even in the hands of well-meaning but hapless election officials, mismatch rules are anathema to equal suffrage. The ACLUs proposed safeguards are an excellent way to reform them, but they really need to be abolished altogether. There is no rational defense of signature-mismatch lawsunless youre a politician trying to swing an election.The Justice Department has launched a federal investigation into sexual abuse by clergy across Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The move is considered a major step in addressing the decades-long sexual abuse scandal that has roiled the Catholic church globally. Until now, investigations have largely been left up to state and local authorities.

The federal prosecutors have begun issuing subpoenas to demand church records that would provide any evidence of clergy or other church personnel transporting children across state lines for sexual abuse sending sexual material about children electronically, or evidence of church officials covering up accusations of predatory behavior by reassigning accused priests or in other ways hiding the allegations.

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According to the AP, at least seven of the eight dioceses in the state acknowledged they had received subpoenas and said they would cooperate with the investigation.

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The investigation followed an August report by a state grand jury that found the church had covered up decades of abuse, identifying more than 1,000 possible victims of 300 priests in six of the states dioceses.

According to the AP, federal prosecutors in Philadelphia made the decision to open the investigation, not senior officials in Washington.

Only two of the priests were able to be charged under Pennsylvania law, as some had died and many others fell out of the statute of limitations. The grand jury report had recommended the state legislature extend the statute of limitations for the sexual abuse of children and open a window for victims to sue their abusers, but the Senate did not pass the bill that would have put those recommendations into action.Do businesses have a First Amendment right to discriminate against same-sex couples? The Supreme Court was supposed to answer this question last term in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. But Justice Anthony Kennedy lost his nerve and crafted a compromise ruling that ducked the main issue. He then quit the bench, leaving LGBTQ rights in the hands of his successor, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as well as the cadre of reactionary judges whom President Donald Trump appointed to the lower courts.

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On Tuesday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey, a follow-up to Masterpiece Cakeshop. The 8th Circuit, which recently received an infusion of Trump appointees, looks poised to use Telescope to hobble civil rights laws. It will also tee up a potential Supreme Court showdown that will allow Kavanaugh to do what Kennedy wouldnt and deny same-sex couples equal access to the marketplace. If the court does take that drastic step, then the impact wont be limited to gay rights: Decades of precedent protecting Americansincluding racial minoritiesfrom discrimination could be in grave peril.

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The first thing you need to know about Telescope is that it isnt a real case. Unlike in Masterpiece Cakeshopwhere a baker turned away a gay couple, then insisted upon his right to do sonobody has suffered any injury here. Telescope Media Group is a media production company in Minnesota that films ads and live events for profit. Its owners, a married couple named Angel and Carl Larsen, view their work through the lens of their Christian faith. (Motto: We want to magnify Christ like a telescope.) But the company does not currently shoot wedding videos, so it has never had an opportunity to reject a same-sex couple, and it has not been fined by the state for its anti-gay stance.

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Instead, it was Telescope that sued Minnesota, demanding an exemption from the states Human Rights Act. The act is a standard nondiscrimination law that prohibits commercial businesses from discriminating against customers on the basis of several traits, including sexual orientation. Telescope is represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, an evangelical law firm that specializes in anti-LGBTQ impact litigation. The purpose of this case is not to protect Angel and Carl Larsen from some gay trolls seeking to shut down Telescope because of its owners beliefs. Rather, its part of ADFs long-term strategy to enshrine discrimination in the law by securing special rights for Christian business owners to refuse service to LGBTQ people.

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Jeremy Tedesco, the ADF attorney who argued Telescope on Tuesday, got around the hypothetical nature of the case by claiming that the Larsens want to immediately enter the industry. They are afraid to do so, he explained, for fear of sanctions under Minnesotas Human Rights Act; they fear that if they reject a gay couple, they will be put out of business. Tedesco insisted that the Larsens have a free speech right to refuse to film same-sex weddings because they wish to tell stories about marriage. By forcing them to serve gay customers, Minnesota is regulating the creation of films, which constitutes compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment.

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Tedesco found a mostly receptive audience. He faced Judges Bobby Shepherd, Jane Kelly, and David Ryan Stras. Shepherd is a hard-line conservative who recently defied the Supreme Courts decision prohibiting draconian restrictions on abortion clinics. Kelly is a moderate liberal and the only Obama appointee to the 8th Circuit. (Thank blue slips for that.) Stras is a Trump appointee whose nomination drew fierce opposition from civil rights organizations. Before Tedesco even opened his mouth, he seemed likely to land a 21 decision in his favor.

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Stras and Shepherd did nothing to suggest otherwise throughout the course of arguments. Kelly peppered Tedesco with tough questions, reminding him that same-sex couples have the liberty right to marry. Doesnt the state have a strong interest in protecting their ability to exercise that right? But Tedesco told Kelly that she had it backwardsits Angel and Carl Larsens right that needs safeguarding. The state doesnt tolerate or respect the beliefs of people like Carl and Angel, Tedesco said, when it forces them to express an idea about marriage that they disagree with.

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Alethea Huyser, Minnesotas assistant solicitor general, tried to reframe the case as a straightforward application of settled principles. Minnesotas law regulates discrimination based on protected status, she told the court. It does not regulate message. Moreover, it doesnt target any particular kind of speech; in the parlance of Supreme Court doctrine, its content-neutral. The Human Rights Act isnt designed to compel pro-gay speech or anti-Christian speech or any speech at all. It merely prohibits businesses from turning away certain customers on the basis of a protected trait.

Stras vigorously disagreed. In my view, to the extent [the law] touches speech, it prohibits only discriminatory speech. Thats not content-neutral, he told Huyser. This theory is astonishing. The Supreme Court has long recognized that nondiscrimination laws do not generally implicate the First Amendment because they regulate conduct, not speech. And when the laws do regulate speech, they impose only an incidental burden on expression that does not trigger strict scrutiny. As the Supreme Court has explained, a law that bars an employer from hanging a sign that states White Applicants Only technically regulates speech. But its purpose is to regulate conduct, and so it should not be subject to stringent First Amendment review.

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The entire legal framework that supports civil rights laws would come toppling down.

It seems that Stras disagrees. After all, a law that bars White Applicants Only signs prohibits only discriminatory speech, just like Minnesotas Human Rights Act. Does that mean every nondiscrimination law, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is not content-neutral and must therefore pass strict scrutiny? That would require each law to be narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests. So the question would then be: Does preventing discrimination in the marketplace qualify as a compelling interest, and if so, can laws that preclude such bigoted speech be sufficiently tailored to survive First Amendment scrutiny?

Not to Stras. If the court finds that videography is compelled speech, he asked Huyser, doesnt the state necessarily lose, because they have no interest in compelling somebody to speak?

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This statement has stunning implications. A huge number of activities, from videography and photography to baking, card design, and virtually all wedding services, compel some form of speech. And civil rights measures always compel expression; managers, for instance, must train their employees not to discriminate, promoting the states message of equality in commerce. Under Stras theory, any law that directs businesses to serve customers equallyand do so in a manner that involves speechwould be unconstitutional. The entire legal framework that supports civil rights laws would come toppling down.

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Stras didnt pull this idea out of a hat. He got it from Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, who seized upon Masterpiece Cakeshop to promote a radical reconception of the First Amendment. In a concurrence joined by Gorsuch, Thomas wrote that a vast range of nondiscrimination laws should be held unconstitutional because they compel businesses to communicate a message. Thomas and Gorsuch couldnt get a majority back thenbut with Kennedy gone, they may have more luck using the First Amendment to sabotage nondiscrimination measures. Stras is teeing Telescope up for the justices, even though the plaintiffs in this case have nothing at stake. And next time around, with Kavanaugh on the court, they may have five votes to abolish civil rights laws as we know them.White House counsel Donald McGahn left his position as the presidents lawyer Wednesday, a planned move that was expedited by President Trump, who tweeted that McGahn would depart after the Kavanaugh confirmation, amid what appeared to be a relationship beset by mutual fatigue. As evidence of the deteriorating relationship between the two, McGahns 21-month tenure came to a close without his successor, Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone, ready to take office, as is customary.

While at Trumps side, McGahn helped the president push through the confirmations of two Supreme Court justices, and was widely seen as a moderating influence on Trump, trying to steer him out of legal peril by stopping the president from firing special counsel Robert Mueller and refusing to strongarm Attorney General Jeff Sessions to disregard his recusal and retake control of the Russia investigation. But Mr. McGahn had little tolerance for Mr. Trumps often emotional responses to the legal cloud hanging over his administration, referring to the president as King Kongout of Mr. Trumps earshotbecause of his explosive anger, the New York Times reports. The president blamed Mr. McGahn for the deputy attorney generals appointment of Mr. Mueller in May 2017, saying Mr. McGahn had not done enough to control the Justice Department.

Despite his departure, McGahns legacy within the Trump administration may be far from over, as his participation in the Russia investigation as a witness could be pivotal as investigators weigh whether Trump obstructed justice. McGahn may have [-] caused more damage for Mr. Trump than any other White House official in the special counsel investigation, the Times notes. McGahn has spent at least 30 hours with Mr. Muellers investigators, laying out how Mr. Trump tried to interfere with or quash the inquiry, including by trying to fire Mr. Mueller himself in the summer of 2017.After her not-universally-well-received exploration of her DNA, Elizabeth Warren has returned to what made her into a potential presidential candidate in the first place: needling big companies. Shes written angry letters this week about two of Americas largest and most controversial corporations, Amazon and Wells Fargo.

Warren joined Bernie Sanders in writing to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos about efforts the company made to warn employees about negative consequences of unionizing. Gizmodo published a 45-minute video that was shown to Team Leaders at Whole Foods locations. The video says plainly, We do not believe unions are in the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, or most importantly, our associates. Our business model is built upon speed, innovation, and customer obsessionthings that are generally not associated with union. When we lose sight of those critical focus areas we jeopardize everyones job security: yours, mine, and the associates.

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The letter came after Amazon committed to raising its minimum wage to $15, following a monthslong campaign from Sanders focused on the companys wage and labor practices. We write to express our alarm at recent reports that your company is distributing anti-union materials to Whole Foods managers that directs and encourages potentially illegal interference with the rights of thousands of workers, Warren and Sanders said in the letter, according to the Washington Post. While companies are allowed to criticize unions and union organizing to their employees, they are not allowed to explicitly threaten to retaliate against employees who are organizing or trying to organize a union.

Warrens Wells Fargo letter is vintage Warren. She came onto the national scene as a bankruptcy scholar and into national politics overseeing the postfinancial crisis bank bailouts; more recently, her harsh questioning of former Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf about the companys fake-accounts scandal was followed by his resignation a few weeks later.

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This time, she wrote to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying that the bank shouldnt be allowed to grow until Stumpfs replacement, Timothy Sloan, leaves as well. She said Sloan was deeply implicated in the banks repeated and egregious misconduct.

Warren also called for Sloan to go a year ago, when, during a Senate hearing, she told him, You should be fired, noting how he used to boast of the companys inflated sales numbers to investors.

Wells Fargo is currently restricted by the Federal Reserve from growing in size past $1.95 trillion in assets due to widespread consumer abuses.

Whos next on the Warren letter writing campaign? Comcast? The Trump Organization? Probably not 23andMe.BOSTONAbout 100 people, half of the original crowd, remained in Copley Square on Sunday as a rally against Harvard reached its fourth hour.

The protesters, mostly Asian Americans, sat in a dozen rows of white folding chairs listening to speakers on the massive stage that the Asian American Coalition for Education, an advocacy group based in New Jersey, had rented for the event. The master of ceremonies, AACE Co-Founder Swan Lee, declared, We have gathered here to demand the equal protection promised in our countrys constitution, and legal protection from discrimination based on our race! Her voice boomed from the excessive number of loudspeakers placed throughout the square, overpowering the beat of drums from a nearby union strike at the Westin hotel.

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It was the day before a much-discussed lawsuit alleging anti-Asian bias in the universitys admissions policies went to trial, and the square was festooned with American flags and posters with slogans like, Harvard Stop Asian Quota. Local political candidates had set up stands to hand out stickers on the perimeter. Elementary school children, no doubt restless from the drawn-out proceedings, zigzagged aimlessly through the crowd holding signs supporting the plaintiff.

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Asian people are so stubborn, the protester next to me murmured. Theyll sit out in the cold for three hours. Though temperatures were dropping into the low 50s, the rally would last for another hour and a half.

If not for some measure of stubbornness, the coalition of Asian-American groups attending the rally would not likely have found themselves in Boston last weekend. The Students for Fair Admissions lawsuit against Harvard, filed in 2014, gained steam over the past year as it moved closer to trial, but the contingent of the Asian-American community actively supporting the plaintiffs has been mobilizing around the issue of race in education since earlier this decade. Janelle Wong, a professor at the University of Maryland who studies Asian-American politics, said that the movement had in many ways originated in California in response to a state constitutional amendment proposed in 2012 that would have re-introduced race into admissions for local public universities.

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What is surprising is that you see that [this mobilization] is grassroots, Wong said. Theres a lot of passion, and its visible, but you dont see it in the public opinion data because its still a minority of the Asian-American population that have these really strong feelings about this particular issue.

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Indeed, while polls have consistently found that most Asian Americans believe that affirmative action policies are good and necessary, academics have observed that the faction of largely Chinese American (and some South Asian) activists who are supporting SFFAs lawsuit have outsize visibility on the national stage. Many of the same groups are fighting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasios proposal to increase the number of black and Hispanic students at prestigious high schools in the city, a debate that has also captured national attention.

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In some ways, quite frankly, Im kind of in awe of how organized and politically engaged they are, said OiYan Poon, the director of the Center for Racial Justice in Education at Colorado State University, who has studied and advocated for affirmative action for more than a decade. Thats just very unique from most immigrant communities.

SFFA founder Edward Blum has made it his mission to eradicate explicit considerations of race from all facets of American life. Blum, who is white, is a noted conservative activist with ties to an extensive GOP donor network. In fact, he ran in 1992 as a Republican congressional candidate in Houston. He lost and filed his first major lawsuit as a result, alleging that the districts distorted shape was the product of racial gerrymandering. Blum took the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won there in 1996. Since then, hes mounted more than two dozen lawsuits attempting to kneecap various voting rights and affirmative action policies throughout the U.S.

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Blum more recently engineered a 2013 Supreme Court case that devastated the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was meant to ensure that black citizens were not deprived of their right to vote. He and SFFA were also behind the 2016 Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas, which involved a white applicant named Abigail Fisher accusing the university of committing racial discrimination through its affirmative action policies. The court ruled in the schools favor.

In 2014, SFFA filed its lawsuit against Harvard alleging anti-Asian discrimination, the case that is currently before a federal court in Boston. The plaintiffs, Asian-American students who were rejected from Harvard, are unnamed. However, a groundswell of Asian-American groups have openly supported Blum, drawing the ire of liberal critics who argue that theyre being used for a campaign that will ultimately hurt all people of color.

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There are clear generational and class divides between the Asian-American supporters and critics of the lawsuit, according to Poon. The most active supporters of the lawsuit tend to be recent immigrants from mainland China who are highly educatedthe type of skilled professionals who benefited from H1B and EB1 visas in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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Their immigration patterns are very different than for earlier waves of Chinese immigrants who came when immigration policies in the U.S. allowed for more family reunification [in the 1960s and 1970s], Poon says. And perhaps because the groups on this side of the debate have more recent ties to China, they typically discuss affirmative action and rally their adherents on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, where people who do not understand English can find Chinese-language summaries of documents from the lawsuit. A few of the protesters I spoke to at the rally said that I needed to download the app to properly cover the movement.

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The coalition of Asian Americans opposing the lawsuit tends to be more ethnically diverse, Poon says, encapsulating a wider array of East, South, and Southeast Asians. The pre-eminent groups in this space, such as the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), were largely founded in the civil rights movement era.* There are also a wide range of student culture groups at Harvard, such as the South Asian Association and the Asian American Womens Association, that have recently formed a coalition called Defend Diversity to endorse Harvards use of race in admissions.

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There are clear generational and class divides between the Asian-American supporters and critics of the lawsuit.

In fact, these student activists held a counterprotest on Sunday only a few miles away at Harvard Square. A slightly smaller group, about 150 students and locals, congregated for speeches, musical acts, and call-and-response chants like No Justice, No Peace. The crowd was younger than the one at Copley Square, which was largely middle-aged parents. Students turned the raised platform next to a nearby Boston Metro entrance into a makeshift stage to sermonize about the value of learning alongside a diverse set of peers and the benefits that affirmative action affords to students of all ethnicities. Thang Diep, a Vietnamese Harvard student, talked about how he likely benefited from the admissions officers considering his race as an Asian American. The Asian-AmericanPacific Islander community is often represented as a monolith. Supporting affirmative action means actively challenging that stereotype, he told the crowd.

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Despite the turnout there on Sunday, the issue generally has a large enthusiasm gap. Wong, the University of Maryland professor, has seen more protests among the Asian Americans on the other side of the debate. This is the issue that we see Asian Americans coming out in large numbers for, says Wong, who noted that she has not seen nearly as many Asian Americans come out for DACA or voting rights rallies. People who are proaffirmative action care deeply, but its not triggering the same level of in-person mobilization.

The protest at Copley Square featured an eclectic, and at times outlandish, lineup of speakers. It was a grab bag of leaders from Asian-American organizations, politicians, writers, and a couple of Harvard students. Vijay Jojo Chokal-Ingam, actress Mindy Kalings brother, recounted his much-publicized tale of disguising himself as a black man while applying to medical school. A dozen children from the ages of 5 to 12 described their dream professions. Shiva Ayyadurai, an Independent Massachusetts Senate candidate who claims to be the inventor of email, called on Harvard to be investigated for racketeering. Blum, the conservative activist who orchestrated SFFAs challenge to Harvard, brought up the history of Jewish exclusion at the university in a speech that received a standing ovation and shouts of Thank you, Ed!

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The prevailing motif was the pursuit of a colorblind America, along with repeated invocations of Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream. Conservatives have long appropriated Kings dictums during his campaign to end segregation for their own attacks on affirmative action. Yet, Asian Americans who oppose affirmative action have also taken to interpreting their own traumatic history in the U.S. to vouch for colorblindness. Asian Americans have suffered from race-based policies before, Yukong Zhao, president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, told me. [Affirmative action] is institutionalized discrimination in modern America. We cannot allow it to continue.

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As Poon and other researchers have noted, these activists often take painful memories of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment, racially segregated schooling, and other injustices in Asian-American history as proof that considerations of race tend to be perilous. An amicus brief submitted by the Asian American Legal Foundation and the AACE for a previous affirmative action case read, in part, [O]ur countrys history has always, in the end, demonstrated that classification and discrimination by race was a mistake. (Scholars tend to attribute these policies instead to white supremacy.)

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There is a more directly analogous event in Asian-American history that has sown mistrust toward university admissions. In the 1980s, the Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into Harvard, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of California at Berkeley in light of allegations that they were placing unconstitutional quotas on Asian Americans in favor of white applicants. While the department cleared Harvard after finding that the discrepancy between Asian and white admittances was due to preferences for legacies and athletes, rather than illegal quotas, both UC schools ended up apologizing for discriminating against Asians.

The impetus behind this discrimination, however, was what scholars now refer to as negative action, the preferential treatment of white over Asian-American applicants, rather than affirmative action, the consideration of race in admissions to boost underrepresented minorities and foster diversity. As Poon wrote in the book Contemporary Asian America, The experience with negative action in the 1980s contributed to a collective memory for Asian Americans and wariness of possible anti-Asian quotas.

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Critics contend that these groups have been duped by white conservatives specious claims of anti-Asian discrimination and are now consigned to serve as racial mascots in a pernicious effort to dismantle all race-conscious policies for the ultimate benefit of white people. Academics and affirmative action advocates have often accused conservatives of using these Asian Americans as a wedge that prevents people of color from banding together. Affirmative action opponents are strategically using the argument of discrimination against Asian Americans to condemn the policy, seeking to split interracial coalitions that support the policy, writes Poon. This time they are capitalizing on a unique and recent rise of Chinese American immigrant opposition to affirmative action.

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Academics and affirmative action advocates have often accused conservatives of using these Asian Americans as a wedge that prevents people of color from banding together.

Indeed, conservatives and the GOP had a marked presence at the rally. Tyrell Brown, the youngest black Republican ever elected in Connecticut, gave a speech about the faults of judging people based on race. Some people handed out fliers printed in Chinese promoting the re-election campaign for Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. Ayyadurai, the Independent Massachusetts Senate candidate who gave a speech, has expressed pro-Trump sympathies, and his supporters handed out pamphlets at the rally attacking Elizabeth Warren with the slogan, Only a real Indian can beat a fake Indian.

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However, most of the Asian Americans associated with SFFA seemed skittish at the prospect of bringing explicit partisanship into the debate. For instance, a scuffle ensued early in the rally as a group of activists from Chinese Americans for Trump (CAFT) brought out two 10-foot-by-50-foot banners reading, Thank You President Trump 4 Meritocracy and Chinese Americans  Trump printed in MAGA-hat red. The Justice Department, under Trump, has written a brief in support of the lawsuit and is currently investigating Yales admissions for proof of anti-Asian discrimination.

Protesters with SFFA ran to block the banners from view with their own signs and argued bitterly with the Trump supporters in Mandarin. They even asked nearby police officers to remove the CAFT representativesbut to no avail, because the square is public property. Theyre really hurting our cause, said Yingchao Liu, a member of the Asian American Rights Association. Trump has a 40 percent approval rating. More Americans support our cause.

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There seems to be disagreement among the Chinese supporters of SFFAs case over what, exactly, they are fighting for: the elimination of race-conscious admissions or an adjustment to the policy. Asian Americans are not, after all, a monolith.

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Blum has stated that his goal with the SFFA lawsuit is to eradicate all considerations of race from Harvards admissions, yet affirmative action was never explicitly mentioned on the signs or literature at the rally. I asked a half-dozen people in the crowd whether they opposed the idea of using race in admissions, and all but one told me they werent. Xiaodong Lu, one of the audience members, said, I am not 100 percent against affirmative action. For Asian Americans there is discrimination. S.B. Woo, founder of 80 20, an organization that has donated $35,000 to the lawsuit and the rally, said in his speech, We are not opposed to [affirmative action]. We are only opposed to Harvards upside-down way of applying affirmative action to discriminate against us. On the other hand, Liu, the Asian American Rights Association member, told me that simply reforming the use of race factors in admissions instead of erasing it would be akin to making it to the Super Bowl, but not winning.

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At the end of the trials first day on Monday, I caught up with Zhao, the AACE president, who had come along with a couple dozen other protesters in a show of support for SFFA. I brought up the cases scope: At this stage in the litigation, the issue before the court is whether Harvard improperly applies its affirmative action policies to disadvantage Asian Americans, primarily in relation to white students. The judge has already ruled that Harvard may continue to use race in its admissions process, so that issue is off the table until a potential appeal. As the plaintiffs lawyer Adam Mortara said in his opening argument, The future of affirmative action is not on trial over the next three weeks.

I asked Zhao whether he would be satisfied with a limited ruling that keeps affirmative action in place for underrepresented minorities but alters the policies just enough so that white applicants wouldnt get an advantage over Asian Americans.

He scoffed. We want take race out the equation absolutely, he told me. Even Dr. Martin Luther King would say the children in our nation should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.  Well continue to have lawsuits. This battle, like the Civil Rights movement, will take many years.Shes with him, but also: As the #MeToo movement continues to grow and adapt, it needs to take a harder look at not just the men who have gotten away with sexual abuse, assault, or exploitationbut the women behind them, too. And Hillary Clinton is prominently in that category, Christina Cauterucci writes, as a fraught symbol of feminisms accomplishments and failures and a painful reminder of the overt sexism Americans voted for in 2016.

Rental health: Economists have dismissed rent control for years, arguing that it has deleterious effects on the residents it is supposed to help. New studies from states across the country are disproving these suppositions, Henry Grabar writes.

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Speaker-easy: Should Democrats retake Congress in next months midterm elections, there is a 100 percent chance the next Speaker of the House will be  Nancy Pelosi, according to Jim Newell. Yes, there are plotters lurking in the vipers nest that is the House Democratic Caucus, he writes. But theres just no plot.

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An unlikely story: Could Christine Blasey Fords accusation of Brett Kavanaugh be a case of mistaken identity? Its a convenient theory, but it doesnt apply heretake it from Jennifer Thompson, who misidentified her rapist and sent an innocent man to prison for 11 years. Thompson and law professor Lara Bazelon explain why you cant compare Fords alleged assault with stranger rape.

Get radical: Outward, Slates home for LGBTQ coverage, has published the first piece in its Radical Issueon resisting the Trump administration by working around the machine.

For fun: Never get a couples tattoo.

Till ink do us part,

DawntheaListen to What Next:

Get More What Next Slate Plus members get extended, ad-free versions of our podcastsand much more. Sign up today. Join Slate Plus Subscribe to What Next Copy this link and add it in your podcast app. copy link copied! For detailed instructions, see our Slate Plus podcasts page.

Listen to What Next via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Overcast, or iHeart.

Mary Harris is joined by Voxs Dara Lind to discuss how the latest caravan from Honduras is shining a light on the danger and red tape facing asylum-seekers.

Plus, what else did you miss today?

Well be piloting What Next in public for the next several weeks. Tell us what you think: whatnext@slate.com.

Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at Slate.com/whatnextplus.

Follow us on Instagram for updates on the show, our weekend reading lists, and our occasional posts about pita chips.

Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.

Engineering by Terence Bernardo.Omarosa Manigault Newman is a reality-TV entertainer who worked at a high-paying White House job that involved no actual job responsibilities, got fired, and then made a bunch of mostly unverified claims about Donald Trump being bad. Shes also on to something here:

 I wonder if #45 will ever disclose how much they contributed to his inauguration? pic.twitter.com/YViTFQMKrw  OMAROSA (@OMAROSA) October 17, 2018

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They in this case likely refers to Saudi Arabian oligarchs who seem to have ordered the torture and murder of Jamal Khashoggi (who lived and worked in the U.S.) at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Trump and other senior (U.S.) administration figures have promoted the increasingly implausible official Saudi line that the apparent murder, which appears to have taken place inside a secure Saudi government building and involved several members of the Saudi crown princes security detail, was carried out by rogue actors without the approval of top officials.

Plenty of American officials, oer the years, have let Saudi Arabian figures off the hook for seemingly abhorrent behavior without having been paid corruptly by Saudi Arabia. But the Kingdoms lavish spending on questionably ethical D.C. lobbying has undoubtedly helped maintain its status as a U.S. ally despite its horrific human rights recordand, c.f. Ms. Manigault, there have been a lot of opaque transactions in recent years involving the Saudis and close allies of Donald Trumps that would warrant further scrutiny if we had a functioning legislative branch.

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 Financier Tom Barrackwho was the chair of Trumps inaugural committee and, in 2010, provided a financial lifeline to Jared Kushners debt-ridden 666 Fifth Avenue project in New York Cityhas extensive business ties to the Saudis and their close allies in the United Arab Emirates. The New York Times reported that Barrack has raised more than $1 billion for his own company from Saudi/UAE sources since Trump became president, and while the identities of donors to the inauguration that Barrack chaired have in fact been disclosed, special counsel Robert Mueller appears to be investigating whether any of them were covertly engaged in improperly seeking influence on behalf of Saudi/UAE interests. (Trumps inaugural committee raised twice as much money as any previous presidents committee but seems to have employed fewer staffers and held fewer events. No one really knows where all the money went, but one insanely large chunk of it was apparently paid to a party planning firm run by one of Melania Trumps friends.)

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 Influential Saudis appear to have cultivated a financial relationship with National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, a longtime Trump ally whose publication was involved in efforts to suppress allegations during the 2016 campaign that Trump had affairs with adult entertainers Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal while he was married to Melania Trump. Trump and Pecker may have since had a falling-out related to the prosecution of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen over his actions in those cases.

 The Saudis and Emiratis were reportedly in talks to make $1 billion in consulting payments to George Nader and Elliott Broidy, two shady individuals (Nader served prison time abroad for sexually abusing minors and Broidy pled guilty to a felony charge for rewarding official misconduct that was later knocked down to a misdemeanor) who reportedly then engaged in lobbying on those countries behalves in personal meetings with Trump, his son Don Jr., and former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Broidy also happens to be a major Trump-campaign fundraiser who employed Michael Cohen to handle his own embarrassing adult-entertainer affair hush-money situation. (Update, 3 p.m.: For the record, Broidy and Naders deal with Saudi Arabia appears to have fallen apart before they were paid, but they do appear to have received money from the UAE. Also of note: An individual who the Associated Press reported as having been one of Broidy and Naders Saudi contactsGeneral Ahmed al-Assiriwas just identified by the New York Times as the figure who other Saudi officials may blame for Jamal Khashoggis murder.)

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 Kushner and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn appear to have planned, before Flynn got forced out of his position, to broker a new balance of power in the Middle East between the U.S. and Russia in part by jointly building a bunch of Saudi/UAE-funded nuclear plants, a project in which Flynn appears to have had a financial stake. (Flynn has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Russias ambassador to the U.S.)

In summary: Omarosa, special assistant to the special counsel?Donald Trump embraced his role as a radical nativist from the very beginning of his presidential campaign. Whether it was a conscious strategic decision or a product of his substantial populist instincts is almost beside the point. It was certainly counterintuitive, though, at least from the perspective of the Republican Partys more centrist wing, which had determined, after Mitt Romneys defeat in 2012, that the future of the GOP depended on courting the Latino vote through, among other things, a more moderate stance on immigration. Trump took those calls for moderation and threw them out the window. Instead, he gleefully approached the most radical anti-immigrant voices in the conservative movement and carried out a narrative coup. Nativismthe irrational scapegoating of immigrants, of foreigners, of the otherhas engulfed the Republican Partys mainstream agenda and seems to have taken hold of the conversation among its voters.

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A recent Pew Research Center poll offers a chilling example of just how skillful Trump has become at exploding his bases worst impulses and most groundless fears. The poll asked both potential Republican and Democratic voters to identify which issues in the national conversation were a very big problem for the United States today. The list of options was long and thorough. Those polled could choose between real challenges for the country like inequality, drug addiction, racism, gun-related violence, ethics in government, or health care access. Those who said they would support a Democratic candidate in next months midterm elections chose health care (83 percent) and gun violence (81 percent), and ethics in government (80 percent). Seventy-five percent of Republicans went with  illegal immigration.

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The poll is evidence of Trumps resounding success in pushing the nativist narrative among Republicans. The administrations emphasis on the supposed multiple risks of illegal immigration has brought the issue to the fore in an increasing number of congressional races in which the debate over sanctuary cities and border enforcement has overshadowed discussion of the countrys economy, or other issues that might have driven the conversation among Republican voters before Trump burst onto the scene.

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Most of all, though, the Pews poll results are disturbing because immigration is not one of the countrys most pressing problems. Not by a mile.

Consider two of the options that Republican voters chose to dismissinequality, for example. With wage growth stagnant, income disparity in America is rising at an alarming rate. The gap between the 1 percent at the top of the countys income ladder and the 50 percent at the bottom couldnt be more dramatic. As David Leonhardt has explained, social mobility for low-income Americans has become a fantasy (for the rich, though, living in the United States is quite fantastic). The economic, social, educational, and psychological effects of income inequality are well-known and dramatic. Still, only 22 percent of potential Republican voters identified it as a big problem for the United States.

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The list goes on. Drug addiction claims tens of thousands of lives in the United States every year. The number of fatal overdoses has grown exponentially over the last decade and a half: synthetic opioids alone killed 30,000 Americans in 2017. And yet, fewer Republican voters thought of drug addiction as a big problem for the country than illegal immigration. Then theres gun violence. Even though thousands of Americans are killed every year in gun-related attacks, including the countrys horrendous and recurring mass shootings, a mere 25 percent of Republican voters identify that issue as a big problem. Other perhaps less tangible but equally urgent matters, like climate change and how minorities are treated by the countrys criminal justice system, seemed to concern just around 1 in 10 Republican voters.

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Only the success of the presidents nativist rhetoric explains the disparity between these facts and Republican voters very active and wholly irrational fears of illegal immigration.

And what about immigration? The countrys immigration system does present a formidable set of challenges. The backlog of immigration cases in the courts has reached scandalous numbers in the last few years. Legislative paralysis has condemned millions of undocumented immigrants to a fretful limbo, including 800,000 DACA recipients. The administrations zero-tolerance policy has become a humanitarian crisis and an international embarrassment. And yes, gangs like the MS-13 are dangerous. Still, there is no evidence to support the idea that illegal immigration has become an urgent problem for the United States, much less a national security emergency. As pro-immigration advocates have repeated ad nauseam, various studies suggest that immigrants are considerably less prone to engage in criminal activity than native-born Americans. Take the MS-13. The gang, which originated in the street of Los Angeles, is indeed brutal and merciless, but its numbers throughout the country are far lower than other, similar criminal organizations. Furthermore, despite the administrations claim to the contrary, the number of recent immigrants from Central America who have been identified as members of the MS-13 is actually quite low (228 in 2017, for example).

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Immigration is also not the economic scourge nativists claim it is. On the contrary: Various industries would collapse in the United States without the reliable low-skilled workforce long provided by undocumented immigrants. More than one-quarter of the nations farming, fishing, and forestry is done by undocumented workers. Construction? Thirteen percent; 25 percent if you include legal immigrants. Almost 4 in 10 plasterers and stucco masons, for example, are undocumented. Even the impact of low-skilled immigrants on wage depression, long a talking point of anti-immigrant activists, seems to be overblown or outweighed by the practical economic benefits of their work. The problem with low-skilled immigrants to the United States, then, is not some imaginary threat to national security, but rather that the country hasnt found a way to have a more reliable legal influx of it.

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Only the success of the presidents nativist rhetoric explains the disparity between these facts and Republican voters very active and wholly irrational fears of illegal immigration. With the help of conservative news media (Fox News has played its usual dutiful role in amplifying the presidents prejudices), Trump has convinced a large swath of the countrys electorate of the existence of a foreign-born bogeyman. In doing so, he has doubled down on xenophobic fears that, while not new to the American experience, have never really threatened the stability of the nations social fabric. They do now. Among Republican voters at least, Donald Trumps nativist narrative is indeed winning, and thats a tragedy for us all.Instant classics: Ever wonder what will be considered a golden oldie in, say, 2068? Our culture team posed that question to musicians, critics, and industry execs, whove bravely predicted which hits of the past 25 years will stick with us for the next 100. (Yes, youll probably be hearing Smooth and Uptown Funk for the rest of your life, alas.) Also, check out our critics smart essays on the staying power of Biggies Juicy, the comeback of the cover song, and the role Latino music will play in the American songbook of the future.

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If you cant beat em: Conservative judges use originalism and textualism when it suits them. Law professor Richard Hasen explains how liberals can use these bankrupt judicial philosophies against them.

Masterpiece redux: The Supreme Court punted on the free speech claim at the heart of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission last year. Now, in the follow-up Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey, a federal court has the opportunity to dismantle civil rights law as we know it. Mark Joseph Stern clarifies the stakes.

No easy resolutions: Serial has just released its third season, and Lili Loofbourow writes that the revolutionary podcast has never been better. By taking a look at the moral complications in our broken criminal justice system, she writes, Serial scoops out any just world beliefs we might have had.

For fun: Kim and Kanye are splitting up.

Call me maybe,

VickyTo listen to the discussion, use the player below:

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On this weeks Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, David Plotz, and John Dickerson discuss the Trump administrations response to the apparent murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Elizabeth Warrens proof of her Native American ancestry, and the debate around Georgias voter security measures.

Here are some of the links and references from this weeks show:

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 Shane Harris for the Washington Post: Crown Prince Under Scrutiny in Journalists Disappearance Even as Saudis Search for Exculpatory Explanation

 Glenn Kessler for the Washington Post: Just About Everything Youve Read on the Warren DNA Test Is Wrong

 Ross Douthat for the New York Times: The Elizabeth Warren Fiasco

 The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank by David Plotz

 Ezra Klein for Vox: The Rigging of American Politics

 David Leonhardt for the New York Times: The Senates White-State Bonus

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Here are this weeks cocktail chatters:

 Emily: Reginald Dwayne Betts for the New York Times Magazine: Could an Ex-Convict Become an Attorney? I Intended to Find Out

 John: Meghan Bartels for Space.com: NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Rolls With Punches After Harrowing Soyuz Launch Failure

 David: Leon Neyfakh for Slow Burn, Season 2, Episode 8: Move On

 Listener chatter from Nydia Vasquez @Burntsmurff: James Fallows for the Atlantic: Was Gary Hart Set Up?

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For this weeks Slate Plus bonus segment, the hosts discuss what animals would make better mascots for Democrats and Republicans and the time Emily called the cops on a raccoon.

Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest. Tweet us your cocktail chatter using #cocktailchatter or post it to our Facebook page. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @SlateGabfest. The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank.

Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will not attend the Riyadh Future Investment Initiative scheduled for next week, he announced Thursday. Several finance and technology executives had already canceled their appearances at the conference, last week and earlier this week, following the disappearance and alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.

Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.  Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) October 18, 2018

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Again and again, Mnuchin reportedly confirmed he still planned to attend, indicating that he either got new information that changed his mind or was talked out of going. Meanwhile, Trump has likened the accusations that the Saudi government was responsible for Khashoggis likely murder to the sexual misconduct allegations against SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh, and the administration reportedly tried to come up with a halfway plausible story that would exonerate Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, all the while emphasizing how important Saudi Arabias military equipment orders are to the U.S. economy.

Mnuchin was going to speak at the conference as part of a larger Middle East tour, the New York Times reported. He had been, according to the Times, fielding calls from executives in recent days about the wisdom of attending and had been urging everyone to focus on the facts and evidence.

And then he decided not to go after all.A big crowd gathered at Bet Torah synagogue on Tuesday to rally support for a beloved member of their community, a longtime custodian who faces deportation back to Mexico.

Armando Rojas crossed the border illegally 30 years ago when he was 18. A father of two sons who are U.S. citizens, Rojas has been working for Bet Torah, a conservative synagogue in Mount Kisco, New York, for 20 years.

My family and I had an average life. We were like any other traditional Mexican family, Armando Jr., Rojas first son, said at the rally. To me, honestly, it was my perfect, little family and I loved it.  After my dad was taken from us, everything just changed.

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In February, Rojas was arrested when a fight broke out at Veracruz Restaurant in White Plains. Though he was not involved and was cleared of all criminal charges, Rojas name was passed on, along with those of others who were arrested at the bar, to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Rabbi Aaron Brusso of Bet Torah synagogue.

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Weeks after the arrest, Rojas was sent back to Tijuana, Mexico, without a cellphone, ID, bankcard, or cash. After many efforts to bring him back to America, Rojas returned as a detainee within the U.S. system for seeking asylum and has been jailed in Albany since June. Though his first claim for asylum was rejected, Rojas and his family hopes that the next hearing will bring about a different outcome.

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Rojas is an unassuming, loyal, and sweet co-worker with a quiet presence, said Brusso. The custodian greeted children with a hearty laugh and many high fives.

He was not just a custodian, but he took seriously our mission of building community and engaging people, Brusso added. He knew everyones nameskids names, adults names.

The synagogue had this video made to share Armandos story to more people, hoping that perhaps even the judges who may hear his final appeal will see it.

Armando from MYLKmedia.com on Vimeo.

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His endearing character is what made Rojas sudden deportation so devastating for the community. Tuesdays candlelight vigil was focused on Armando and the communitys sense of loss, Brusso said, not messages with political overtones.

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Its hard not to see the bigger issues because thats what we know, but its simply that we have a loss, and this is not right, Brusso said.

Perhaps behind what makes it increasingly harder for asylum seekers like Rojas to be accepted is Attorney General Jeff Sessions strict criteria for asylum. In June, Sessions ruled that people fleeing from fear of domestic abuse or gang violence do not qualify for asylum.

Rojas has a real fear of return to the country. According to Brusso, when Rojas was in Mexico earlier this year, he received a threatening phone call from a cartel, warning Rojas that they were aware he was back. A number of years ago, his nephews were killed by the same cartel members. However, Sessions ruling that gang violence does not count as grounds for asylum is an obstacle to Rojas claim.*

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Despite how bleak the situation may seem, Rojas family and the Bet Torah community are not planning on giving up.

Theres no amount of exhaustion that would justify stopping everything we could do to try to fix [this], Brusso said. We need to give them their father back.Less than a mile from the vast jail compound on Rikers Island in New York lies an abandoned hospital that once incarcerated a working-class woman for 26 years. Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary, was a single Irish immigrant without children who worked as a cook for wealthy New York families in the early 1900s. Although she was healthy and had developed immunity to typhoid fever, she unwittingly infected others with the deadly bacteria she harbored in her organs.

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Newspapers of the time called Mallon a disease factory, a germ, a witch. She was not immune to those personal attacks. Doctors and government health officials held her at the Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island near New York City for study, under the banner of public safety. Meanwhile, according to Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Terrible Typhoid Mary, other known carriers of typhoid in the state who had infected far more people with the fever, such as a farm worker named Tony Labella and an outdoor guide in the Adirondacks dubbed Typhoid John, roamed free.

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What happened to Mary Mallon beginning in 1907 was not, however, an isolated incident in medical history. Rather, it is merely the most notorious case of a common community response to epidemics across history and throughout the world: confining those suspected to carry a deadly strain of an illness and restricting their movement.

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Quarantine, as its been called due to the 14th-century Venetian practice of detaining ships for 40 days (quaranta giorni) to stave off the plague, can be a powerful tool for fighting disease outbreaks. It was credited with preventing deaths during the 1918 influenza pandemic, when cities around the United States and Europe closed schools and theaters and canceled funerals and sporting events, placing people exposed to the so-called Spanish influenza under house arrest or sending them to city hospitals. The origins of the tactic date back as far as the Old Testament: Leviticus 13: 446 calls for the isolation of suspected lepers by priests.

The list of diseases that justify quarantine in the U.S. and elsewhere has expanded in recent decades as new outbreak fears have emerged. During the 2003 SARS outbreak, quarantine resurfaced in the eyes of public health officials as a response suitable for the pandemics of the modern, interconnected worldnot merely a tool of the bygone eras before antibiotics and sanitation. Quarantines were enforced in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia during the Ebola epidemic of 201416, and imposed by New Jersey and New York on health care workers returning from West Africa. Quarantine, as a matter of law in the United States and much of the world, can be used to restrict the movement of people who seem healthyif suspected to have been exposed to a contagious disease in the recent past. (For some diseases, this makes sense, while during the latest major Ebola epidemic, people were not contagious unless and until they exhibited symptoms.)

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Today, the threat of pandemics is rising, thanks to a growing world population, more frequent movement of people and goods, and a warming climate hospitable to disease-spreading bugs. Thats why its important for us to take a hard look at how quarantines are carried out if we hope to avoid the sins of the past. Long before and ever since the time of Typhoid Mary, the life-saving tool of quarantine has also targeted and harmed the poorest, most vulnerable members of society. In the United States, we would be particularly wise to exercise vigilance about government-enforced quarantine in this historical moment: We live under political leadership that has proved itself unashamed to use executive power to tear apart poor migrant families and turn away religious minorities. Wielding the legal authority of quarantine to target specific populations would be just a small step for a president and White House that has already taken giant leaps encroaching on civil liberties.

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Over the past two decades, I have witnessed firsthand the dangers posed by quarantinesand their frequent sidekick, stigmatization of the ill. When I lived in Vietnam 13 years ago, the government had underway a social evils campaign, aimed at combatting the spread of HIV and AIDS. Officials sent sex workers and intravenous drug users to facilities where they remained under watch and were forcibly rehabilitated from their former lifestyles. Soviet-style propaganda posters hung on roadsides and cafe walls demonizing patients of HIV and AIDS alongside heroin addicts and prostitutes. The stigma of a positive diagnosis drove people who suspected they might have HIV underground and into the closet, where they posed greater harm to those they might have infected unwittingly and to themselves. At the rural leprosy hospital in Thai Binh province where I worked, elderly leprosy patients lived, played cards, attended Buddhist meditation sessions, and even sometimes married each other despite lacking some or all of their limbs. More and more young patients began coming to the isolated leprosy hospital to be tested for HIV, reporting that it was the only place they felt they could escape the eyes of their neighbors, who would stop drinking tea with their parents if they knew the illness afflicted a son or daughter. Leaders from aid organizations warned that the social evils campaign was undermining the ability to treat HIV patients and to curb the spread of the virus, while forcing seriously ill AIDS patients to live in the shadows or in social isolation.

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The scene in Vietnam echoed what I had heard at the start of the millennium, when I lived in Havana, Cuba. Gay HIV and AIDS patients there told me about their experiences being imprisoned in government-run sanatorios, hospitals outside of cities where such patients were routinely isolated from their communities from the mid-1980s until the early 1990s. By 2000, HIV patients were no longer forced to stay at the countryside facilities, but for some, the sanatorios remained the best place to receive medical care and increased their chances of getting access to antiretroviral therapy.

Stories like these might sound typical of socialist dictatorshipsthe kind of incidents that would never happen in liberal democracies. But its not just oppressive regimes that marginalize and stigmatize the sick. The sordid past of democratic government quarantines should serve as clear warnings for the future.

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Harvard medical historian Allan Brandt has documented how, during World War I, the United States government imprisoned nearly 30,000 women in the U.S. who were sex workers or camp girls who fraternized with men because of fears they were spreading sexually transmitted diseases to potential military recruits. In the early 20th century, poor and Jewish immigrants who traveled in steerage and third-class to the United States from Europe were quarantined at much higher rates than rich travelers who were barely examined for possible illness. In 1900, President William McKinley issued a quarantine of all Chinese and Japanese people in the city of San Francisco after a man was found dead from the plague in a Chinatown basement. The decree led many laborers of Asian origin to lose their jobs before it was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

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Fear often overshadows reason amid deadly disease outbreaks.

More recently, in August 2014 during the Ebola epidemic, the democratic government of Liberia quarantined with military forces an entire poor neighborhood in Monrovia known as West Point. The community protests that emerged led to many injuries, one death, and the premature end of the quarantine before the virus incubation period of 21 days. Researchers have documented how many poor families in Liberia were prohibited from conducting burials and stigmatized for violations, while wealthier families could circumvent burial bans through secret bribes to funeral homes. Meanwhile, in the United States, public health experts called for New York and New Jersey to end their mandatory 21-day quarantines of health care workers who had treated Ebola victims, because of the indiscriminate application to people who were healthy and therefore not contagious. They also worried about the chilling effect of quarantines on doctors and nurses volunteering to travel abroad to help stop the epidemic at its source.

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Fear often overshadows reason amid deadly disease outbreaks. The use of segregation or isolation to separate persons suspected of being infected has frequently violated the liberty of outwardly healthy persons, most often from lower classes, and ethnic and marginalized minority groups have been stigmatized and have faced discrimination, writes Eugenia Tognotti, a biomedical researcher at the University of Sassari in Sardinia, Italy. In a 2013 paper, she calls this characteristic almost inherent in quarantine.

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Perhaps the greatest danger of forced quarantines that isolate the poor and vulnerable is that they often dont work. By eroding trust in public health measures, they undermine the ultimate goal of protecting societies from the spread of disease. People find ways to break free. It is thus possible that giving patients and the public more choicesand the option to quarantine themselvescould in some instances be more effective at fighting off pandemics than police or military-enforced quarantine. One study credits the lower death rate in New York City, relative to cities such as Philadelphia and Boston, during the 1918 influenza epidemic in part to the citys decision to impose less stringent restrictions on movement, including keeping schools open where kids could be educated about how the flu virus spreads and encouraging infected families to subject themselves to voluntary quarantine in their homes. A group of researchers who have looked back at successes and failures during the 201416 Ebola epidemic showed that containment led by local community leaders, as opposed to imposed by a central police or military force, had greater success in restricting movement and encouraging sanitary practices; another group argued for using the least restrictive measures needed to fight outbreaks. Governments and public health advocates need to further investigate such cases from the past to establish the conditions and norms under which quarantines can be just and effective in the future. It would be wise to do so before the panic of the next pandemic sets in.

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Mary Mallon was mistrustful of doctors who insisted she was infected with the typhoid bacteria, and who incarcerated her and took blood samples against her will. She felt perfectly healthy at the time of her initial arrest, which likely contributed to cognitive dissonance and her rejection of the scientists hard truth about her role in the outbreak. During a brief period when she was released from her involuntary quarantine, Mallon returned to cooking her signature fresh peach ice cream under a pseudonym at a hospitalin violation of her agreement with local authoritiesand she further spread typhoid fever. It is unclear whether Mallon would have acted differently had doctors and health officials taken a different approach. They could have taken the time to fully and calmly explain their concern about her carrying typhoid before they accosted her. They could have offered her a choice about whether to be studied as the cause of the New York City typhoid epidemic. They could even have initially let her remain in the community but made an effort to help her find work in a trade other than cooking. What we do know is that doctors and officials attitudes toward her as a poor, single, immigrant woman almost certainly shaped both how she was treated and her reaction to being quarantined.

The lesson we can learn from Typhoid Mary, and from much of the history of quarantine, is that societys interest is best served not by punishing the sick and powerless, but by caring for them.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 ...Participants in the Duke of Edinburgh programme admit it is important to stop being lazy and do something to achieve your personal goals.

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320 young Slovaks received the DofE Awards on October 9 in Bratislava. (Source: Courtesy of DofE)

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Kristina Vozarova, a student at Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica, has always been painting. After a break of several years she got the chance to return to her passion by participating in the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) programme.

I wanted to learn a new technique: oil painting, Vozarova said.

But she did not end there. She started selling her works at the HendiKup.sk website, with the aim of donating her earnings to charity. She chose two organisations: Dobry Anjel (Good Angel) and Svetielko Nadeje (Light of Hope).

In this way I wanted to return the favour to Dobry Anjel, which has been supporting me for years, Vozarova, who is handicapped, explained her motivation. As for the latter, she wanted to help children suffering from cancer.

Vozarovas reason for participating in DofE really stands out. She first served as a mentor to other attendees via a programme opened by UMB. It is the only university out of 140 DofE countries, which offers a credited subject called DofE to its students, and thus allows them to be both participants and leaders of the programme.

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After Vozarova saw what her student went through, she decided to try it.

I overcame all prejudices and obstacles, both physical and mental, Vozarova added.

What is DofE?

She is one of 320 young Slovaks who recently received the DofE Awards at the October 9 ceremony in Bratislava. During the past three years more than 3,000 young people aged 14-24 and more than 600 teachers volunteers working with youth have participated in the programme. It has spread to 162 schools and centres across Slovakia.

The main objective of all participants in the programme is to achieve their goals, which includes pushing personal boundaries, gaining new skills and enhancing their CVs and university applications. They need to overcome four challenges: develop their talents, do sports, volunteer and, in the end, attend and complete an expedition.

It is important to spend at least one hour a week doing the activity. There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold), which differ in time (six to 18 months) and difficultness.Dutch activist after 13 years in Slovakia: I am still waiting to have a mayor who will translate the website of the city of Bratislava into English.

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As the date of municipal elections (November 10) nears, The Slovak Spectator addressed a few questions to foreigners living in Slovakia who are eligible to vote. Diego Loyola from Ecuador, James Thomson from the UK, and Illah van Oijen from the Netherlands shared their opinion

Diego Loyola from Ecuador, head of InterNations Bratislava, eight years in Slovakia

Do you plan to vote in the municipal elections?

No, I do not. Even though I am aware that I can vote, I simply don't know anything about any candidate or what their proposals are.Former top media manager Vaclav Mika believes experiences from running the public-service broadcaster can be useful in running the capital.

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In this interview, candidate for Bratislava mayor Vaclav Mika talks about:

- what he believes to be the main problems of the capital besides transport

- how to remove no-go zones from the city centre

- in which cases Bratislavas authorities could provide more information in English

No-go zones have emerged in the centre of Bratislava, says Vaclav Mika, former top media manager now running for Bratislava mayor in the November 10 municipal election.

The Slovak Spectator (TSS): How do you usually get to work?

Vaclav Mika, 55 economist by profession

founder and former director of private Radio Expres, former director of private TV Markiza and the public-service RTVS

running for mayoral post as an independent candidate

Vaclav Mika (VM): Today I attended a discussion with other mayoral candidates. Since I have not completely recovered from my recent illness, I arrived by car. Not only to be comfortable, but also to limit spreading my illness to others. In general, as my main focus is in the centre, I primarily travel on foot. Also, since Im the father of a toddler, I often walk with a pram, especially in the Sad Janka Krala park. I also use public transport and of course I drive my car, too.

TSS: If you had to point out the three main problems of Bratislava, what would these be?

Poll:

Will you cast ballots in the November 10 municipal election? No 2 Yes 8 Voted: 10

Anketa uz bola ukoncena.

VM: It is transport, social inclusion and environment. All these are the common problems of cities. I would particularly highlight transport, including public transport, parking policy as well as the condition of transport and road infrastructure. Secondly, I would stress our future  families with children. Here, the city plays an irreplaceable role in creating conditions for the new generation. We should not forget our seniors since Bratislava will have 100,000 senior citizens as early as in 2020. They deserve a quality life and the city needs to create such conditions for them.

TSS: What solutions to these problems do you offer in your election programme?

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VM: My election programme has 12 points and apart from transport, social inclusion and environment, my big theme is rental housing. Bratislava has no rental housing policy, with only a few rental apartments at its disposal. This is absolutely unacceptable. Not only because the law binds the city to providing substitute housing to people living in apartments returned to their original owners during the post-1989 restitution process. So far, the city has failed to provide them with substitute housing and only covers their commercial rents from its budget. The city needs rental housing also for the employees of its organisations. It now lacks many workers in day nursery schools, kindergartens, senior homes and so on, and the situation will get worse. Providing small rental apartments for people to start their life in Bratislava is one way to get them.

The city also needs rental apartments for people who live outside Bratislava but work here.

Another big topic is the financing of the city. Here, I see a huge space for the usage of EU structural funds that can be used for solving the basic problems of the city, like transport and parking policy. Then there is the topic of the citys master plan and urban development. It must have the courage to determine its own development and foresee it for the next 10-15 years. Last but not least is security, as a new phenomenon in Bratislava. No-go zones are growing in the city and this is absolutely unacceptable.Tax expert points to the heavy burden of income and payroll taxes to which the Slovak middle class is exposed. Higher than in Austria.

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Established in 1991, Volkswagen Slovakia has developed into the biggest private employer in Slovakia. (Source: Courtesy of Volkswagen Slovakia)

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German companies are the biggest foreign taxpayers in Slovakia. They paid more than 450 million in direct taxes to the state coffers in 2017, which accounted for 17 percent. Slovak companies with a 12 percent share followed while Czech companies were third with a 9 percent share. Austria ended fourth with an 8 percent share. This stems from an analysis of the 200 biggest companies in Slovakia, including the financial sector, elaborated by tax advisory company BMB Leitner for 2017.

The analysis shows an increase in payroll taxes over 2017, but also a significant growth of the burden of payroll taxes.

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While revenues of the 200 biggest companies decreased 5 percent compared with 2016, the income tax from the dependent activities of these companies increased by 6 percent, said Renata Blahova, partner of BMB Leitner and the author of the study, when presenting the results of the analysis on October 17 at the Slovak-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Payroll taxes went up by even 17 percent year to year.

Blahova especially ascribes this growth to night, weekend and holiday work surcharges. This burden will grow next year as the minimum wage, serving as the calculation base for some of them, will increase by 40 to 520 as of the beginning of 2019, as well as surcharges increasing within a second phase.

Blahova sees such a steep increase in the payroll tax burden as a risk for the further development of the Slovak economy.

It is of key importance for the sustainable development of Slovak economy that the income and payroll tax burden of the labour force in Slovakia start to decrease, said Blahova. This pertains to low-income labour force but especially to the middle class, if it should continue to be the driving force of Slovak companies.

Blahova pointed out that Slovakias middle class is exposed to a higher burden of income and payroll taxes than in Austria, while it receives lower social services.

The analysis was done on the basis of the Ultimate Parent Company principle, i.e. the official registered office of the parent company was not taken into consideration but its headquarters. Based on this principle, German companies in Slovakia invested 7.4 billion euros according to Bundesbank data and employed 132,000 people by the end of 2016.The country has good macroeconomic stability, but insufficient innovation capacity.

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Slovakias competitiveness dropped slightly compared with last year. The country placed 41st in the Global Competitiveness Report 2018, with an overall score of 67 points. It was two places down compared to the previous report.

The report, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), assessed the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies.

Slovakias position slightly worsened even though our overall score has improved slightly, said Peter Serina, executive director of the Business Alliance of Slovakia (PAS), WEFs partner organisation. We were overtaken by countries that improved the conditions for doing business and economic growth more significantly than Slovakia.

Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 2018 (Source: World Economic Forum)

While Slovakia reported good scores in macroeconomic stability, health infrastructure, its weak points are low innovation capacity, product market and institutions.

The more significant growth of Slovakia in the ranking is hindered by the chronic problems of the business environment, particularly the quality of public institutions, Serina said, as quoted in a press release. We still have to close the gap in improving the independence of courts, law enforcement, fight against corruption and the reduction of administrative burdens.

What is the aim of the report?

The Global Competitiveness Report is designed to help policymakers, business leaders and other stakeholders around the world shape their economic strategies in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, according to its authors.

We hope it will also serve as a call to action to engage in the long-term, holistic, agile and far-sighted leadership required to build the competitive economies of the future, lift living standards and provide opportunities for all members of society, the report reads.

This year, WEF ranked 140 countries, using 98 indicators divided in 12 pillars, measuring them on a scale between 0 and 100. The score indicates how close the country is to an ideal state.

The ranking is topped by the United States with a score of 85.6 points, followed by Singapore (83.5 points) and Germany (82.8 points). On the other hand, the least competitive countries are Chad (35.5 points), Yemen (36.4 points) and Haiti (36.5 points).The ceremony ended the six-day film festival in Bratislava.

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The documentary When the War Comes by the Czech director Jan Gebert, depicting the practices of the Slovak paramilitary group Slovenski Branci (Slovak Levies), won the main prize at the One World international film festival.

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It depicts 18-year-old Peter, who at first sight is no different from his peers. However, a few years ago he established the Slovak Levies. Since then, more than 200 young men have undergone intensive military training in the Slovak woods, wearing camouflage clothing and carrying the models of submachine guns. Peter believes his organisation has a future. He plans to take off the uniform one day and enter politics, as the TASR newswire reported.

The documentary was selected by the international festival jury composed of Slovak director and producer Iveta Grofova, British director and producer Mike Chamberlain, and Czech director and teacher Vaclav Kadrnka.

Other documents awarded, too

Apart from When the War Comes, the jury gave special recognition to the documentary The Limits of Work by Apolena Rychlikova. It follows the Czech investigative journalist Sasa Uhlova, who spent six months in jobs with the worst salaries to show how bad some working conditions in the Czech Republic are.

The Austrian documentary Blue by Karin Holden won the Audience Prize. It does not only report about the alarming condition of oceans and environment, but also captures inspiring stories of people who have become activists, TASR reported.

During the six-day festival in Bratislava, 96 screenings of 67 Slovak and foreign documentaries took place. There were another 29 screenings for schools attended by more than 2,500 students.

Moreover, the festival welcomed more than 60 guests, including directors, producers, environmentalists and reporters from Europe and the USA.

The festival was visited by about 10,000 people in Bratislava. It will now move to Kosice and then to 20 other Slovak towns, TASR reported.No need to create drama, says Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

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Personal friends is what Slovak Parliaments Speaker Andrej Danko calls the top representatives of the Russian government. His coalition partners say he might be well out of line of Slovakias foreign policy.

Danko maintains lively relations with Russia and its representatives. In November 2017, for instance, he addressed the lower chamber of the Russian parliament as a guest speaker.The Dennik N daily has published details of the testimony of a police officer who checked the passports.

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The Vietnamese delegation, which planned to take off from Bratislava bound for Moscow last year, were reportedly missing a Schengen visa in one of the 12 passports submitted to Slovak border control. The Interior Ministry explained that one of the delegations members had lost their diplomatic passport and was given an exception.

This enabled the delegation to take the abducted Vietnamese businessman Trinh Xuan Thanh onto the Slovak governmental plane and transport him to Russia and then Vietnam, where he was later sentenced for life, the Dennik N daily reported.

Smer is silent

Thanh was kidnapped in Berlin last July. This would not have been possible without the help of the then-Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer) who offered the Vietnamese delegation the use of the governmental plane, according to the daily.

Even though Germany started investigating the case shortly after the abduction and turned to Slovakia in August 2017, the police did not act. Moreover, Kalinak kept saying that nothing suspicious had happened during the visit of the Vietnamese delegation.

Smers press department has failed to answer the question of whether Kalinak knew about the problem with the visas, Dennik N wrote.

Testimony confirms missing visa

The Slovak police did not start investigating until this August, after Dennik N published details about what happened in Bratislava. The Interior Ministrys inspectorate interrogated police officer Robert S., a deputy head of the border control department. He said that he checked the passports of the whole Vietnamese delegation on July 26, 2017.

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His testimony is part of the report concerning the criminal complaint that was written in early August, after Dennik N published its story. The inspectorate has recently sent the resolution to the daily.

The passports were handed in by a man from the Interior Ministrys protocol department who did not introduce himself, before the delegation arrived at the airport. He checked six diplomatic passports and six ordinary passports. He found that one passport was missing the required Schengen visa.

The persons name was Trung Viet Luu, a person born on September 2, 1968, Dennik N wrote.

Only 10-minute delay

Slovak security guards described the last three people to enter the plane as two Vietnamese holding a third. It is not clear which of them had the passport and whether it was Thanh, who was born in February 1966.

Robert S. subsequently called the first deputy of the Bureau of Border and Foreign Police of the Police Force Presidium, and told him what was happening. The deputy recommended that he fill out a written application asking for an exception, which he did. During the phone call, the deputy approved the exception, and the problem was solved, according to the daily.

An exception can be granted for three reasons: humanitarian, state interest or international commitment.

Robert S. faxed the application to the bureau and received the necessary permission. They subsequently checked all the documents in the Interior Ministrys system to see whether there was anything suspicious. They then stamped the documents and allowed the delegation to board the plane. The delay was only 10 minutes, Dennik N reported.

Read also:

Read also: Sakova: Germany is not calling Slovakia to account in the abduction case of a Vietnamese man Read more

Kalinak heard too

The inspectorate invited Kalinak and the head of the protocol department Radovan Culik to comment. Neither of them noticed anything suspicious. However, their testimonies differ in what they told each other, Dennik N wrote.

Culak said that he learned about the visit of the Vietnamese delegation one day before from Kalinak, who allegedly said that he wanted the meeting to take place in the governmental Borik hotel. He then said that other questions should be addressed to Le Hong Quang, then-advisor to ex-PM Robert Fico.

Moreover, since the Vietnamese do not speak English well, they often addressed Le Hong Quang. He was also the one who submitted the names of the Vietnamese delegation, but without detailing their functions, Dennik N wrote.

Kalinak, who was heard in early October, said that he learned about the delegation either from Culak or Quang Le Hong one or two days before its arrival.

Police officers meanwhile told Dennik N that while Kalinak was waiting for the delegation, he appeared nervous. He also made a call, saying something about the passport. However, the inspectorate said here was no information about the call in the extract from the call recordings. However, it is not known whether Kalinak submitted an extract from the applications he used, according to the daily.

The police have not heard Quang Le Hong yet.

The investigation will continue, but the police will focus on the kidnappers from Vietnam rather than Kalinak, Dennik N wrote.The official preview day for the 2018 London Selected Yearling Sale is now complete with the first session of the sale slated to begin on Saturday (October 13) at 12:00 p.m. at the Metroland Media Agriplex in London, Ont.

Standardbred Canada and Forest City Standardbred Sales Inc. have collaborated to present the London Selected Yearling Sale, which will take place at the Western Fair District Metroland Media Agriplex in London, Ont. on October 13 and 14, 2018.

Prospective yearling buyers have access to some of harness racings hottest stallions at the London Selected Yearling Sale, such as Bettors Delight, Kadabra, Mach Three, Muscle Mass, Shadow Play and Sportswriter, along with first-time stallions Hes Watching, Prestidigitator, Thinking Out Loud and Wheeling N Dealin, who will be presenting their first crop of youngsters.

Early outs for the sale include: Hip #87 Twin B Tribute, #125 Itsmachmeitsyou, #143 Epic Proportion, #228 Terrace Beach, #233 Macpherson Thunder, #276 Bumblebabynme, #295 Nolan Seelster and #323 Quick Decision.

A total of 101 yearlings will be presented on Saturday, October 13, and the balance of the 320-plus yearlings catalogued be presented on Sunday, October 14. The action begins both days at 12:00 noon. To view the sale roster, click here.

In conjunction with this weekends London Selected Yearling Sale, Standardbred Canada is hosting three educational workshops at the sale, all sponsored by Ontario Racing and Ontario Lottery & Gaming.

Friday, October 12

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!

Saturday, October 13 & Sunday, October 14

How To Read & Understand A Pedigree  (9:30 a.m.  10:15 a.m.) This session will teach you how to decipher all of that valuable info on a yearlings pedigree page.

Conformation Evaluation  (10:15 a.m.  11:30 a.m.) This session will offer information on what you should look for when inspecting a horses physical attributes. One or two yearling inspections will be conducted.

There is no cost to attend any of the workshops but registration is required. A limited number of seats remain available for all three workshops. To reserve your spot in any of the FREE Workshops, email [email protected] or contact Kathy or Hailey at Standardbred Canada at (905) 858-3060 x207 or x243.

If youve never owned a racehorse before and are coming out to the London Selected Yearling Sale this weekend, make sure you stop by the Welcome Centre to enter The Win A Share in a Racehorse contest on Saturday and Sunday.

The winner of this contest, sponsored by the Ontario Sires Stakes and presented in conjunction with the LSYS, will receive a share in Landmark 12 Stable (Value: $2,000) which will include at least one Ontario-sired horse.

Ballots will be available at the Welcome Centre to prospective owners at the London Selected Yearling Sale all day Saturday and Sunday. The draw will be made after the sale and the winner will be notified on Monday, October 15.

The London Selected Yearling Sale also features an Equine Expo presented by Standardbred Canada and sponsored by Ontario Racing and the OLG. The expo features 12 different associations and businesses from within the equine industry.

Follow along with SC on social media or refresh the feed below.If you are looking to get permission before you start writing, well, you might be in for a bit of a wait.

Certainly nobody ever gave me any approval.

Dont wait for someone else to tell you that you can start.

Be inspired! Approach it like a professional.

And make it about the art of it.

When you do, I think you will find that the only person who can give you permission to write, is you.

Do the work. And leave the outcome up to fate.

If youre waiting for the green light, the go-ahead, the reassuring wand to tap your shoulder and anoint you as a writer, youd better pull out your thermos and folding chair because youre going to be waiting for a good long while. Accountants go to business school and when they graduate with their degrees, they dont ask themselves whether they have permission to do peoples taxes. Lawyers pass the bar, medical students become doctors, academics become professors, all without considering whether or not they have a right to be going to work. But nothing and no one gives us permission to wake up and sit at home staring at a computer screen while everybody else sets their alarm clocks, puts on reasonable attire, and boards the train.



-Dani Shapiro, Still WritingTest facility for liquid metals at KIT. Liquid metals are particularly suited for transferring high heat outputs. One of the objectives of NADINE is to study their use in thermal energy storage systems. Credit: Karsten Litfin/KIT

On the way toward a CO 2 -neutral energy system, storage of large amounts of energy is still an unsolved problem. In the future, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Stuttgart University plan to jointly develop appropriate energy storage systems. For this purpose, the research institutions have now agreed on the establishment of a research infrastructure, the National Demonstrator for Isentropic Energy Storage (NADINE). The test facility for the development of power-plant-scale energy storage systems will be built in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

Energy storage systems that are able to cope with fluctuating wind and solar power production are indispensable for the success of the energy transition. So far, however, location-independent and low-cost power-plant-scale storage systems have still been lacking. For this reason, KIT, DLR, and Stuttgart University plan the joint construction of the research facility NADINE (National Demonstrator for Isentropic Energy Storage) for the development of low-cost and nearly loss-free energy storage systems. With the help of NADINE, it is planned to study the use of liquid metals for novel thermal storage systems. The exact design of the research facility is presently being developed within the framework of a project of 18 months' duration that started early this year. The design project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry of Economics. On October 08, 2018 the three research institutions signed an agreement in Stuttgart on the establishment of the research infrastructure in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

"Big challenges facing the society, such as the energy transition, can only be mastered by joining forces and close cooperation," says Professor Oliver Kraft, KIT Vice-President for Research. "I am very happy that we will be able to contribute our expertise in the area of liquid metal technologies to NADINE. Together with our partners, we will decisively push the development of the urgently required power-plant-scale energy storage systems." The new research collaboration is coordinated by the DLR. Professor Pascale Ehrenfreund, who chairs the DLR Executive Board, says: "The energy transition is one of the pressing challenges facing our society. With the development of storage systems, DLR is working on solutions for one of the key topics in energy research. Efficient storage systems can guarantee reliable energy supply with a constantly increasing proportion of renewable energy sources. Moreover, large thermal storage systems can contribute to reducing CO 2 emissions of coal-fired power plants after their reconstruction to heat storage power plants worldwide."

Carnot Batteries in Former Coal-fired Power Plants

Storage of electrical energy on the gigawatt-hours scale is already possible with pump storage power plants and battery storage systems. However, it is hardly possible to build any additional pump storage power plants in Germany. Battery storage systems of this dimension are too expensive and do not have any sufficient durability. The concept of NADINE covers the development of flexible and nearly loss-free energy storage systems, so-called isentropic storage systems. An isentropic process takes place in a closed system without any heat or mass exchange with the environment. A very promising concept for an isentropic storage system is the Carnot battery. Here, electrical power is converted into heat with the help of heat pumps and, if necessary, back into electricity. Implementation of such heat storage power plants on the large scale is feasible when using the existing infrastructure of decommissioned coal power plants. In the coalition agreement, the Federal Government declared its intention to do so as a contribution to climate protection.

The NADINE research infrastructure will be designed for three typical temperature levels in energy storage systems and converters. In Stuttgart, a low-temperature and a high-temperature laboratory for technologies of up to about 700C are planned. They will be used for studying innovative concepts of Carnot batteries. "By a smart combination of heat pumps, heat and cold storage systems, and heat engines, we cannot only store electrical energy, but generate additional benefits, such as cooling of computing centers," says Professor Andre Thess, coordinator of NADINE and Director of the DLR Institute of Engineering Thermodynamics. The module for temperatures beyond 600C will be built in Karlsruhe. It will be applied to study the use of liquid metals for Carnot batteries and thermal storage devices. "Liquid metals have excellent heat transfer properties and can be used at very high temperatures," says Professor Thomas Wetzel of KIT's Institute of Thermal Process Engineering. "Research into liquid metal technology is presently focusing on the development of promising innovative processes for the highly efficient conversion of heat into electrical energy and fuels, which are excellently suited for the NADINE concept." At the NADINE laboratories, heat sinks and heat sources will be made available via a "heat platform". Here, individual components and complete isentropic energy systems will be studied similar to work in a wind tunnel. Researchers will test how the different storage units have to be designed, which materials are suited, and how the individual components interact in the best possible way.

Research into thermal energy storage systems on a large scale is increasingly enjoying popularity in the international scientific community. Physics Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin of Stanford University was the guest of honor when the agreement on the establishment of NADINE was signed. Laughlin is the initiator of the MALTA storage project of Google X. In a lecture given at Stuttgart University, he advocated heat-based electricity storage that now is to be developed within the framework of NADINE.

Explore further Liquid battery could lead to flexible energy storageIssues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacationThe 235-page indictment completed by the Peoples Procuracy of Phu Tho accuses Phan Van Vinh, former general director of the Police General Department under the Ministry of Public Security, and Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former director of the ministrys Hi-Tech Crimes Department, of abusing their positions and power while performing public duty.

The provincial Procuracy has also decided to bring the two to court.

If found guilty, the police duo will face prison terms of between five and ten years according to Vietnamese laws.

The indictment also accuses 90 other defendants in the same case of crimes including gambling, gambling organizing, money laundering, illegal trade of invoices, and assets appropriation via the Internet.

More than VND1.34 trillion (US$57.29 million) was seized by Phu Tho Police during a high-profile crackdown on a massive online gambling ring in April.

In July, the police launched criminal prosecution against 92 suspects, including the two policemen and top leaders in telecom and tech companies accused of maintaining websites where illegal gambling activities took place.

The Procuracy held that Vinhs acts had led to serious consequences and badly affected the prestige of the police force, while Hoa was accused of covering up the case.

The two have been stripped off their ranks and titles in the Ministry of Public Security.

The indictment further points out that three major mobile carriers in Vietnam  Viettel, Vinaphone and MobiFone  raked in more than VND1.23 trillion ($52.59 million) in total from the gambling activities.

Thirty-three local banks also made combined profit of VND965 million ($41,300) from the gambling rings operations.

The Procuracy stands that these revenues stem from illegal activities and therefore must be up for recollection.Read whats in the news today

Society

-- Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, chairwoman of Vietnams lawmaking National Assembly, called for people in the country to join a fundraising campaign for the poor by sending text messages to the number 1409, with each message contributing VND20,000 (just under $1), as she addressed an event on poverty on Wednesday.

-- A court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced three factory workers to more than two years in prison for causing public disorder on Wednesday after they yelled and threw stones to police during a riot against a draft Vietnamese law on economic zones in June.

-- Nguyen Dinh Thanh, 27, received a seven-year prison term on Wednesday for creating, possessing and distributing materials, including over 3,000 leaflets, inciting others to act against the Vietnamese government.

-- Vietnams Ministry of Public Security on Wednesday proposed stopping the use of family book, a household document which manages citizens and causes cumbersome bureaucratic procedures, and instead giving each person a new identity number stored on government database.

-- Police are investigating the death of a Chinese man who suddenly jumped from the second floor of a terminal at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on October 13. He seemed to have mental illness, said a leader from the airports security department.

Business

-- Saigon Premier Container Terminal, the only sea port in southern Vietnam to receive assembled automobiles, imported 6,047 cars in September, an increase of 806 units compared to the month earlier.

Education

-- Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, one of Vietnams two collegiate educational institutions, is formulating a pilot program on training those who want to have a PhD specializing in practical application, rather than just theory. The program is expected to be the first in the country to award applied PhDs.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Dozens of suspects, including two former top police officials, will stand trial next month for roles in a massive online gambling ring busted in April, a court in the northern province of Phu Tho said Wednesday.

The trial is scheduled to last 20 days starting around November 10, with exact dates expected to be announced in late October, a top Phu Tho Peoples Court judge told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Phan Van Vinh, former general director of the General Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, and Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former director of the ministrys Hi-Tech Crimes Department, will be tried for abusing their positions and powers while performing their public duties.

Ninety other suspects will stand trial for charges including gambling, organizing gambling, money laundering, illegal trade of invoices, and asset appropriation via the Internet.

Approximately 70 lawyers have been retained by the defendants, including the two lawyers representing Phan Van Vinh, the Phu Tho court said.

Earlier this week, the Peoples Procuracy of Phu Tho said Vinh had been transferred from his detention cell to a provincial hospital for the treatment of a preexisting cardiovascular condition he has had since his time in office.

Prosecutors do not expect the treatment to affect court proceedings related to the case.

Vinh, 63, and Hoa, 60, are accused of profiting from the rings activities.

When the ring was busted in April, Phu Tho police seized assets amounting to more than VND1.34 trillion ($57.36 million).

In total, it is estimated that gamblers and members of the ring had processed transactions worth VND9.7 trillion ($415.13 million) during its run, including $3.6 million in foreign currencies already transferred abroad.

The rings profits are estimated to have totaled VND3.45 trillion ($147.71 million).

Forty-three million users signed up for online accounts used for gambling on sites run by the defendants, Phu Tho Police said.

In July, police announced their criminal prosecution against the 92 suspects, including the two policemen and top leaders in telecom and tech companies accused of maintaining websites where illegal gambling activities took place.

In an indictment released in September, prosecutors held that Vinhs acts had led to serious consequences and badly affected the prestige of the police force, while Hoa was accused of covering up the case.

The two have been stripped off their ranks and titles in the Ministry of Public Security, which administers Vietnams police force.

If found guilty, the duo will face prison terms of between five and ten years, in accordance with Vietnamese law.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Three people were killed after a taxi crashed into a stopped truck on a bridge in the Mekong city of Can Tho on Tuesday night.

The fatal accident occurred along the Can Tho Bridge at around 11:00 pm, according to the municipal traffic safety committee.

The truck, driven by 35-year-old Le Thanh Cong, was descending the bridge when its tire exploded.

Cong then parked his vehicle on the bridge while waiting for a rescue unit.

Twenty minutes later, a Mai Linh Taxi cab driven by Tran Thanh Mong, 33, rear-ended the truck.

The crash killed Mong and his two passengers, namely Nguyen Thanh Khang, 43, and Nguyen Van Tham, 73, both hailing from the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long.

Traffic police and rescue units later arrived at the scene to deal with the situation.

Cong, the truck driver, did not warn incoming vehicles of his stationary truck on the bridge, according to an officer.

Cong is currently being held in custody to assist police in their investigation into the incident, Colonel Nguyen Van Sang, chief of police in Cai Rang District, Can Tho, confirmed on Wednesday.

Representatives of Mai Linh Taxi have visited families of the deceased to offer their support.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Police in north-central Vietnam have inspected a private residence, after receiving a report with photo and video evidence claiming that bears are being kept illegally at the site, though the search showed no evidence of the animals.

The result of the raid on the house owned by a man only known as C. was a disappointment for Education for Nature  Vietnam (ENV), a non-governmental organization for nature conservation and environmental protection, which claimed to have obtained adequate proof that bears are being illegally caged there.

ENV said it had been told that C. was caging five bears, two of them cubs, at his house in Quynh Luu District, Nghe An Province, and that the man had no documents proving the mammals came from a lawful source.

The NGO also claimed the animals did not have microchips.

Micro-chipping is part of the Vietnamese governments 2005 initiative to phase out the nationwide captivity of bears by requiring farmers to keep the mammals until the creatures die and prevent the birth of new cubs.

ENV managed to collect some pieces of evidence, including photos showing the bears in cages at the residence.

On September 18, ENV reported the case to the provincial government and environmental crime police, and supplied their collected information and evidence about the captivity to authorities the following day.

Two chickens are seen in the cages Education for Nature  Vietnam claims to be also for keeping bears. Photo: Education for Nature  Vietnam

Police officers began their inspection on September 27, not into the house tipped off by ENV, but a licensed bear farm in the area.

Officers only came to C.s house on September 29, or ten days since they received the ENV report. At the location, police officers found only two chickens, four spotted deer and several dogs.

To complicate the matter, Nguyen Manh Cuong, vice-chairman of the Nghe An forest protection department, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that two bears were found at the site.

However, Cuong asserted that the bears both carried microchips, leading to the conclusion that no illegal bear raising was seen at the house.

Disappointed by the results, ENV doubled down on their claim by stating that the house owner looked the same as the person in the video it had provided, and the cages completely matched those shown in the video as well.

Were deeply disappointed, said ENV deputy head, Nguyen Phuong Dung.

Dung underlined that the verification of information about illegal bear raising required a great deal of time and sweat from ENV and even posed a threat to the organization.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Veteran US puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who has nearly 50 years playing Big Bird, is to retire from Sesame Street at the age of 84.

Spinney joined the Childrens Television Workshop in 1969 and whilst he retired from the physical demands of the role in 2015, he has continued to voice the character, along with Oscar the Grouch.

I always thought, how fortunate for me that I got to play the two best Muppets? he said.

His last performances as Big Bird and Oscar were recorded as part of the series landmark 50th season, which will air next year.

His apprentice, Matt Vogel, will succeed him in the Big Bird role. He also plays Kermit the Frog.

Source: Hollywood ReporterRising star Tess Haubrich may be flavour of the month, leading Pine Gap and currently shooting Nines Bad Mothers, but she went through years of rejection before Ridley Scott cast her in her big break, Alien: Covenant.

But looking back on career rebuffs, she now believes it gave her inner strength in a fickle industry.

I feel like all my years of rejection and trying prepared me for where I am now. This industry is constantly evolving so you have to evolve with it. Im glad I had all that rejection. Definitely, she tells TV Tonight.

I think Alien opened a lot of doors for me, especially in the Australian industry.

I wasnt being stimulated. I realised I needed training

Haubrich had previous stints in Home & Away, Jack Irish, SLiDE and short films, but it wasnt enough.

I was getting very one dimensional roles like the girlfriend and I wasnt being stimulated. I realised I needed training to do Shakespeare and Chekhov, and theatre.

Earlier her performance bug began with an interest in music before detouring into modelling.

I only ever wanted to be an actor. When I finished high school I was in a mall with my mum there were all these girls in heels and dresses. We followed them and it was casting for Australias Next Top Model, she recalls.

I ended up getting into the show but I didnt go into it. I thought if I ever want to be taken seriously as an actor.

But I did end up modelling for a couple of years, until I put on 15 kilos and went to the Actors Centre! And never looked back!

Haubrich was cast in an action role on Wolf Creek, attracting widespread acclaim. Producers Screentime then cast her in Pine Gap as Serbian-Australian communications analyst Jasmina Delic. She joins fellow cast Parker Sawyers, Steve Curry, Steve Toussaint, Lewis FitzGerald and Jacqueline McKenzie.

Ive always looked up to Jacqueline McKenzie. I used to usher at Belvoir and watch her perform! she recalls.

Jasminas strong, super-smart, has difficulty finding love because of her work. She wants someone who understands who she is but lots of people dont understand what they do on a day to day basis.

Alice Springs was such an amazing place to film, unlike anywhere Ive ever been. It has such a sense of community.

Its very current but there is also a real human story.

The script for ABC & Netflix by Greg Haddrick & Felicity Packard delves into the famously strong alliance between Australia & the US at the joint defence facility and tests personal relationships.

Its so political so its all about the dialogue. It feels like theatre a little bit. But its different to anything Ive ever done, Haubrich continues.

Theres so much on the page that Greg and Felicity have given you, so research-wise you watch the news and see whats going on in the world. Ive looked into her heritage, but I also grew up with a friend who is Serbian. So I steal a lot from her!

Its very current but there is also a real human story. There are relationships in there where they are trying to work out if they love each other, while staying loyal to their countries. So its quite heartbreaking at times, I think.

But Haubrich confesses she doesnt read reviews or track social media reactions. She even hates to watch herself on the screen.

Definitely not. Unless its a premiere where I have to go. I know actors who are very different but I just love acting and doing the job, but I dont really need to see myself afterwards.

No reviews, keep them away! she laughs.

I dont look at good or bad. Its probably a self-preservation thing.

As she continues to chalk up equal film & television projects, Haubrich can be assured her work is winning wide praise. As for how Pine Gap is received by the analysts & staff who work in Alice Springs, she is probably out of luck. Such is the nature of the facility, those views will remain national secrets.

We will never know. Ever, she smiles.

Pine Gap continues 8:30pm Sunday on ABC.Still winning? Sunday Nights Matt Doran meets with Charlie Sheen who is on a speaking tour to Australia.

Race Against Time

Adalia and Meghan are two beautiful and courageous young girls who are growing up way too fast. Both have a rare and fatal genetic condition called Progeria, a disease that causes rapid ageing  10-times faster than normal. Their life expectancy is very short, usually only into the mid-teens. But, as Sunday Nights Steve Pennells reports, they are making every second of their short lives count. And the good news is, theres now hope for a cure.

Charlie

He was the worlds highest paid actor. Hollywood royalty with a raft of impressive movie credits to his name. But then Charlie Sheen quite literally lost the plot. It was one of the most bizarre and public meltdowns ever  a total train wreck  and we couldnt stop watching. But now the new and improved Charlie is back  older, wiser and keen to explain what drove him off the rails. Reporter Matt Doran went fishing for answers.

Infamous

They not only look the part, theyre the real deal. Muscle-bound gangsters covered head to toe in tattoos. The more intimidating the better. Theyre known as Insta-gangsters. And theyre turning infamy into cold hard cash  becoming everything from fashion models to music stars. But are they really the role models we want for our kids?

Sunday at 8.15pm on Seven.By Nerijus Adomaitis

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian Energy Company (Noreco) <NOR.OL> plans to acquire offshore assets on Britain's continental shelf in 2019, following its purchase of Shell's <RDSa.AS> upstream oil and gas licenses in Denmark, its chairman told Reuters on Thursday.

The Oslo-listed company on Wednesday announced a $1.9 billion deal to acquire Shell's 36.8 percent stake in the Danish Underground Consortium (DUC), which accounts for 90 percent of Denmark's petroleum output.

"I think we should be capable of doing something in the UK, hopefully in the first half of 2019, but definitely in 2019," Noreco Chairman Riulf Rustad told Reuters when asked if the company also planned to buy British assets.

Rustad said Noreco was looking for opportunities in Denmark and Britain because asset prices on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) have been inflated by the country's favourable tax regime, attracting "aggressive" private equity money.

In June, private equity-backed Neptune Energy bought assets of German gas utility VNG, and in 2017 Point Resources acquired Exxon Mobil operated assets off Norway, among other deals involving private equity money.

"That's not the case in Denmark, that's not the case in the UK, which means that the competition is much less," Rustad said.

"The underlying picture there, however, is the same. The majors are leaving, and I think it's a good thing. It creates a number of independents, which have a different approach to things," he added.

Chevron <CVX.N> is set to become the first oil major to completely exit the NCS, while others, including Exxon Mobil <XOM.N>, BP <BP.L> and Shell <RDSa.AS>, have scaled down their presence by selling or merging their assets in the mature region to focus on new growth opportunities elsewhere.

The NCS, however, is less mature than the Danish or British, raising the probability of making new discoveries or boosting production from existing fields, Rustad added.

Story continues

But he said Noreco saw significant value to take out of Denmark, beyond what current production profiles showed.

He declined to quantify the potential, but the company's investor presentation showed its production in Denmark could potentially rise to 80,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day (boed) by 2023.

In the near term, production from the Shell assets was expected to decline to 56,000-58,000 boed in 2018 from 67,000 in 2017 due to maintenance, and to fall further towards 30,000 boed in 2021.

Total, which holds 31.2 percent in DUC, agreed on Sept. 25 to buy an additional 12 percent stake from Chevron <CVX.N>, while state-owned Danish company Nordsofonden has the remaining 20 percent.

(Editing by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker welcoming prime minister Theresa May to the European Council in Brussels (Reuters)

EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker has predicted a Brexit deal will be done despite recent set-backs but said an extension of the UKs Brexit transition period probably will happen.

The European Commission president said he was convinced negotiations would be successful following an EU leaders summit that was dominated by Brexit.

He said: My working assumption is not that we will have a no-deal. A no-deal would be dangerous for Britain and the European Union.

Instead of describing the differences and divergences we have we have to concentrate on and to focus on the large number of agreements we have. Well add to these large number of agreements the two, three missing elements. It will be done.

His upbeat assessment was shared by European Council president Donald Tusk, who had warned before the summit that an impasse over the Irish border issue had left both sides closer than ever to a no-deal scenario.

We are in a much better mood than after Salzburg, said Tusk in reference to a summit last month which ended in a bust-up between him and the prime minister over the Chequers plan.

Tusk said he felt talks were closer to a conclusion than before the summit, but said that was maybe an emotional impression rather than rational one.

But, as you know, emotions matter, he added. That comment summed-up this summit.

Everyone on the EU side made an effort to sound positive in public about negotiations in order to avoid a repeat of the kind of diplomatic breakdown that followed Salzburg amid fears it could spark a no-deal.

German chancellor Angela Merkel revealed EU leaders avoided talking about no-deal preparations because they didnt want to give the impression that we were dealing with this primarily.

Rather our main emphasis was trying to work out how to achieve an exit deal and a solution to our future relationship with the UK, she said, adding: Where there is a will there should be a way.

French president Emmanuel Macron said the UK must bring forward new proposals to achieve a Brexit deal (Reuters)

They pointed to better body language or mood music around talks, but there were no concrete results to match.

Story continues

It was meant to be the meeting at which a Brexit deal was signed-off. In the end, leaders decided that there wasnt even sufficient progress to expect a deal by the middle of next month.

The lack of substance to discuss meant leaders even had enough time to head to the pub afterwards.

Merkel and Macron were spotted having a drink in Brussels Grand Place with the prime minister of Belgium, Charles Michel, and the prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel.

#onokad zavrsi #EUCO a Merkel, Macron & co sjednu medju turiste u 23:00 na Grand-Place u centru Brisela i popiju pivo. Jedino pitanje je  a gdje je @AndrejPlenkovic?  #n1info pic.twitter.com/ONNnjDwd2I  Hrvoje Kresic (@hkresic) October 17, 2018

Tusk said on Thursday he stands ready to convene an emergency meeting to approve a deal, but concluded: For now, not enough progress has been made.

It is now likely a deal will have to wait until the next normal European Council on 13 December.

May also frustrated her EU counterparts by failing to bring forward new proposals to overcome the Irish border impasse during her 15 minute speech to them on Wednesday evening.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar gave a frank assessment of talks, saying: A lot of things have been agreed but there are still big gaps.

French president Emmanuel Macron added: Its now very clearly up to the British prime minister and her staff to come back with a solution based on the necessary political compromise on the UK side.

The only new idea discussed was an extension to the transition period, which May has now admitted that she is willing to discuss despite opposition from within her Cabinet.

MORE: Theresa May admits longer Brexit transition is possible

Juncker said the extension, which would give negotiators more time to find a trade deal that would render the Irish border backstop academic, will probably happen.

Its not the best idea the two of us have had but I think this is giving us some room to prepare the future relation in the best way possible, he said.

Tusk said EU leaders would be ready to consider it positively, suggesting May would have to make a formal request to extend the transition  something that would prove controversial with her party.

It is estimated that a one year extension to the transition period, during which time the UK would remain part of the EUs single market and customs union, would cost 8bn.

MORE: Nightmare before Christmas  Brexit deal may not be ready until December



Has China found a way to spy on computers used by the worlds top tech firms and perhaps even the US government by implanting them with tiny secret microchips? Thats what was alleged in a recent article from Bloomberg Businessweek, which claimed the US is investigating some form of spy microchip thought to have been inserted into Chinese-made circuit boards used by a company that produces video data servers. Its products have, according to Bloomberg, been purchased by Apple, Amazon and many other large firms, as well as the US departments of Defense and Homeland Security, Congress and NASA.

If proved true, these allegations would have huge implications for all the parties involved, as well as global security, trade and international relations. But the supplier of the allegedly hacked hardware, the companies that bought it, and the Chinese government have repeatedly and strenuously denied that the chips exist or that any server hardware was compromised. US and UK officials have backed the denials, while the FBI has stated that it is their policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

The problem is that, at this stage, its impossible to know whos telling the truth. The chip described in the report is said to be disguised as an extremely small and otherwise unremarkable electronic component. Proving that it even exists, let alone what it does, would require careful reverse engineering and security analysis by somebody with access to the allegedly afflicted hardware.

Security technology researchers I have consulted are adopting a wait and see attitude until more information emerges. Bloombergs story relies entirely on unnamed sources. Until somebody comes forward with a credible and detailed technical report, there is little to be gained by speculating about this specific incident. But if it were true, the nature of the incident would make it very difficult for authorities to respond.

The alleged attack quickly captures the imagination because it highlights a well-known challenge in cybersecurity: maintaining the integrity of end-point hardware. End-point hardware in this context simply means any device used to transmit or receive electronic messages. This can include obvious items like smartphones, laptops and servers, but also the growing body of Internet of Things devices such as smart home appliances, self-driving cars and connected industrial machinery.

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If an attacker gains physical access to an end-point device, this can subvert multiple layers of security. A well-known example was publicised in 2013 when a criminal gang installed covert KVM switches onto computers in London bank branches. These simple and inexpensive pieces of equipment let attackers monitor what a computer is doing and then operate it remotely. In this way, accessing the physical equipment effectively gets around a variety of protective measures.

The chips described in the Bloomberg article are a much more technologically sophisticated example of the same basic idea. In this case, it is alleged that the offending hardware is a specially designed chip the size of a grain of rice, manufactured and distributed at a large scale.

If it were to emerge that these chips do exist and work as described, the next challenge would be the attribution problem  demonstrating who was responsible for creating and installing them. This is critical for anyone who wants to respond to a cyber-attack using legal, diplomatic, or military action, but it remains extremely difficult due to limited forensic methods available.

Legal action

If a government was able to prove an attack like this was carried out by another state, there are a range of responses available. A conspiracy to install and operate a system of this type would constitute a crime under the domestic laws of most states. Jurisdictions such as the US and UK could attempt to prosecute people involved in this kind of conspiracy using laws that criminalise unauthorised access to a computer and interception of communications, among others.

But any such criminal prosecution would face three significant hurdles. You would need to identify and indict the suspects involved in the conspiracy and physically arrest or extradite them. Youd then have to present enough evidence to persuade a jury of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

In recent years, US law enforcement officials have announced criminal indictments of individuals accused of international cyber-espionage. But there is no realistic prospect that any of the accused parties, as employees of a state security agency, would be extradited to face charges in a US court. Instead, it is widely believed that such public announcements are designed signal awareness of state cyber-operations and potentially to deter such operations.

If domestic law provides little hope of action, what about international law? Even if overwhelming evidence is produced to demonstrate that the chips exist and that the Chinese government directed their deployment, as a legal matter there is nothing to suggest that these actions actually constitute a cyber-attack as that term is used in international law

There is a sharp distinction between state acts of violence, and non-violent espionage or psychological (propaganda) operations. Principles of international law require that any state response should be proportional and therefore limited in this case to non-violent options such as a diplomatic complaint or economic sanctions.

Nothing in the reporting suggests an outbreak of actual cyber war. At worst, what we see is the latest chapter in a still developing, complex, and poorly understood cyber cold war.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Robert Carolina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has resumed the restoration of Cairo's monumental 13th century al-Zahir Baybars mosque, a sign that vital cultural work is finally getting back under way after seven years of political turmoil.

Workers removed dried weeds from inside the mosque and restored fittings. The mosque was built by the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars bin Abdullah Al-Bindakari between 1266 and 1268.

Work to restore the mosque began in 2007, but stopped in 2011, the year protesters took to the streets and toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt has struggled to fund restoration projects since then, as years of street unrest, political upheaval and militant attacks drove away tourists and foreign investors.

Cairo has a wealth of historic buildings of architectural interest, from the ancient era of the pharaohs through the flowering of Islamic civilisation. But many monuments are crumbling due to lack of funding and neglect.

The Antiquities Ministry said it expected to complete the 100 million Egyptian pound ($5.57 million) restoration project in 12 to 18 months.

(Writing by Lena Masri; Editing by Peter Graff)Reuters

Office property firms in the UK are gradually recovering after battling lower rental levels and steep decline in valuation in the wake of the pandemic, as people increasingly return to cities, while more spacious retail parks have benefited during the health crisis. "Demand is firmly focused on the very best (office) space, with an emphasis on sustainability, wellness, shared and flexible space and excellent transport connections," Chief Executive Officer Simon Carter said in a statement. The Broadgate Estate owner, which counts office space as its biggest segment, said a per-share measure that reflects the value of its buildings, EPRA Net Tangible Assets, rose 5.1% to 681 pence, while overall portfolio valuation increased 2.9%.By Renee Maltezou and Michele Kambas

ATHENS (Reuters) - Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accepted the resignation of his foreign minister on Wednesday, Greece's first major political casualty in a drive to end a decades-old name dispute with Macedonia.

Tsipras has said he will do whatever is required to ensure an agreement reached in June to rename the neighbouring country 'Republic of North Macedonia' gets implemented, but the deal faces opposition on both sides of the border.

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who helped negotiate the name deal, and Defence Minister Panos Kammenos clashed over the issue in cabinet on Tuesday. Kammenos, who heads a small right-wing party, views the deal as a national sellout.

"They are both explosive characters," a witness told Reuters.

Tsipras' acceptance of Kotzias's resignation signalled he was willing to sacrifice one of his closest political allies to keep his fragile coalition government - comprising his left-wing Syriza party and Kammenos's Independent Greeks - in power.

Warning against further dissent, Tsipras said he would take over the foreign affairs portfolio himself.

"It is a decision not to tolerate, from now on, any double-speak from anyone, or any personal agenda (against)... the national line," he said in a televised statement, without elaborating.

Tsipras, whose Syriza party is trailing badly ahead of national elections due next year, is hoping a successful name change deal - a precondition set by Greece for lifting its veto on Macedonia joining the EU and NATO - will help boost his political standing abroad.

NOT A DONE DEAL

Greece's Western allies welcomed the June accord in a region where they jostle for influence with Moscow. Two Russian diplomats were expelled from Greece that same month on Kotzias's watch, accused of trying to foment Greek opposition to the deal.

Athens has insisted on the change because it views the name 'Macedonia' as implying a territorial claim on a northern Greek region of that name.

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But the accord is still far from settled.

It is awaiting approval from both countries' parliaments and, though Macedonians backed the name change in a referendum last month, just 37 percent turned out to vote - too few for the result to be legally valid.

Kammenos has threatened to quit the coalition if it is put before the Greek parliament.

During Tuesday's fractious cabinet meeting, Tsipras asked his ministers to put their difference aside and back him if the opposition calls a no-confidence vote.

In a colourful tweet following his resignation, Kotzias waxed lyrical: "They wanted to bury me deep, but forgot I was a seed."

The irony of his departing to keep Kammenos and his party in the government was not lost on the centre-right opposition party New Democracy, which is leading in the polls.

"I think it's now abundantly clear Mr Tsipras is not just a weak prime minister, but a prime minister being blackmailed. And the quicker this farce ends, the better," New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas and Renee Maltezou; Editing by John Stonestreet and Gareth Jones)FILE PHOTO: Members of the Civil Defence, also known as the 'White Helmets', are seen inspecting the damage at a Roman ruin site in Daraa, Syria December 23, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa al-Faqir/File Photo

AMMAN (Reuters) - Nearly 300 Syrian "White Helmet" rescue workers and their families who fled Syria for Jordan three months ago have left for resettlement in Western countries under an U.N. sponsored agreement, Jordan said on Wednesday.

In July the rescue workers who had been operating in rebel-held areas fled advancing Russian-backed Syrian government troops and slipped over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights frontier and into Jordan, with the help of Israeli soldiers and Western powers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time he had helped the evacuation at the request of U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders and that there had been fears that the rescue workers lives were at risk.

Jordan had accepted them on humanitarian grounds after getting written guarantees they would be given asylum in Canada, Germany and Britain, Jordanian officials said.

The "White Helmets", known officially as Syria Civil Defence, have been credited with saving thousands of people in rebel-held areas during years of bombing by Syrian government and Russian forces in the country's civil war.

Its members say they are neutral. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers describe them as tools of Western propaganda and Islamist-led insurgents.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Qatarneh said 279 of the 422 people who took sanctuary in the kingdom had left, with 93 others due to leave by Oct. 25, near the end of a three-month period the authorities had given them to stay.

Another group's departure would be delayed for two weeks until mid November as there were new-born babies and people receiving medical treatment among them, al-Qatarneh told Reuters.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Andrew Roche and Alison Williams)Kim Jong Un Moon Jae-In handshake DMZ summit

Korea Summit Press Pool/Getty Images

The US opposes a plan by South and North Korea to set up a no-fly zone over their heavily fortified border, the latest sign of a rift between Seoul and its top ally.

Washington and Seoul both publicly insist they are on the same page about dealing with Pyongyang. But behind the scenes, there are growing signs of disagreement.

The United States was not likely to openly protest against an inter-Korean initiative, Seoul officials said, but its deep involvement in sanctions enforcement and military operations give it leverage to delay or change the policy.

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States opposes a plan by South and North Korea to set up a no-fly zone over their heavily fortified border, the latest sign of a rift between Seoul and its top ally, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Washington and Seoul both publicly insist they are on the same page about dealing with Pyongyang. But behind the scenes, there are growing signs of disagreement as South and North Korea forge ahead with plans to defuse military tensions and rebuild economic ties.

The military accord, sealed during last month's summit in Pyongyang, is one of the most concrete agreements between the neighbors this year. But U.S. officials have raised concerns that it could undermine defense readiness and comes without substantial progress on denuclearization.

The pact includes a halt in "all hostile acts," a no-fly zone around the border and a gradual removal of landmines and guard posts within the Demilitarised Zone.

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo expressed "discontent" with the agreement during a phone call, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said last week in a rare disclosure of discord between the allies.

The United States was not likely to openly protest against an inter-Korean initiative, Seoul officials said, but its deep involvement in sanctions enforcement and military operations give it leverage to delay or change the policy.

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The no-fly zone is a key sticking point for the U.S. because it would effectively prevent close air support drills, the sources said, adding that Pompeo raised the issue during the call with Kang. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The zone, effective Nov. 1, will extend 40 kilometers north and south from the Military Demarcation Line in the East and 20 kilometers in the West for fixed-wing aircraft.

The agreement also bars live-fire drills involving fixed-wing aircraft and air-to-ground guided weapons in the no-fly area. South Korea and the United States had held such drills regularly until halting joint exercises in June.

There are different restrictions on helicopters, drones and balloons, with exemptions for commercial and non-military operations such as medical, disaster and agricultural uses.

In close air support, airplanes provide firepower for troops who may be operating near enemy forces. Most fighter jets that U.S. forces operate in South Korea, such as the F-16, can play that role, one of the sources said.

An official at Seoul's foreign ministry said Pompeo had not been "fully briefed" when he complained about the inter-Korean deal, and called back that day to wish Kang good luck with the summit.

The U.S. State Department declined to comment.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan declined to comment on the agreement but said the Department of Defense backs efforts to reduce military tensions.

The department "remains in full support of our diplomats as they work to achieve the verified denuclearization of the DPRK as agreed to by Chairman Kim (Jong Un)," Logan said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A spokesman at South Korea's defense ministry said Seoul cooperates closely with Washington and the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC).

Signs of discord

Donald Trump Moon Jae in

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

South Korea has held more than 50 rounds of talks this year with the UNC, which oversees affairs in the DMZ, to facilitate the inter-Korean commitments but has not yet secured its full support, according to Baek Seung-joo, a lawmaker of the opposition Liberty Korea Party.

On Tuesday, North and South Korea held their first three-way talks with the UNC to discuss "practical" steps to facilitate the military pact, but did not announce any concrete measures, Seoul's defense ministry said.

"They're not even close to an agreed definition of 'hostile acts'", said Baek, who served as a vice defense minister in 2013-15.

"The agreement would make it impossible to carry out air cover and overall exercises, and it would hurt the alliance's reconnaissance capabilities," Baek said.

But the UNC is taking a cautious approach so as not to kindle anti-U.S. sentiment among a public supportive of the two Koreas' push for peace, Baek said.

While maintaining that it remains in lockstep with Washington, the administration of South Korea's Moon Jae-in has forged ahead with efforts to engage with the North, even as critics accused Moon of focusing on feel-good theatrics at the expense of progress.

Kim vowed to work toward denuclearization during his unprecedented June summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. But Pyongyang's actions have fallen short of U.S. demands for irreversible steps to scrap its arsenal, including a full disclosure of nuclear facilities and materials.

"The alliance is being undercut for the sake of confidence-building with the North, while there is little progress on the nuclear issue, which is the root cause of the longstanding tensions," Baek said.

NOW WATCH: How wine is made at an English vineyard that produces 200,000 bottles a year

See Also:MOSCOW (AP)  Russian President Vladimir Putin is hosting his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi for talks focusing on ways to boost trade between the two nations.

The two leaders have developed a close personal rapport and are seeking to expand bilateral ties, which have strengthened considerably over the past few years.

Opening Wednesday's talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said that bilateral trade rose by 62 percent last year.

El-Sissi called on Russia to resume direct flights to Egyptian resorts, which Moscow suspended after a bomb planted by the Islamic State group brought a Russian passenger plane down over Sinai in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

El-Sissi is on his fourth trip to Russia since taking office in 2014, and Putin visited Egypt in 2015 and 2017.

See Also:FILE PHOTO: A picture of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova and a condolence book are seen before her funeral service in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Ruse FILE PHOTO: A photograph of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinova and a condolence book are seen before her funeral service in Holy Trinity Cathedral in Ruse, Bulgaria, October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Photo

SOFIA (Reuters) - Germany has extradited the suspect in the killing of Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova to Bulgaria, an Interior Ministry official said on Wednesday.

Bulgarian Severin Krasimirov, is to be charged in person with the rape and murder of 30-year-old Marinova, whose body was found in a park in her Danube hometown of Ruse on Oct 6. Police said she was beaten, raped and died of suffocation.

Prosecutors have said evidence did not indicate Marinova's death was related to her work and pointed to a random sexual crime although they are still investigating all possibilities.

Krasimirov was arrested in Germany last week where he admitted partial guilt to a German court.

"German authorities have handed over ... the 21-year-old citizen of Ruse," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A German prosecutor confirmed Krasimirov has been extradited via a flight from Frankfurt.

This story has been refiled to remove superfluous word 'in' in paragraph 2

(Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova and Angel Krasimirov in Sofia and Andrea Shalal in Berlin; Editing by Alison Williams)KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  A Taliban bombing in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province killed a candidate running in the parliamentary elections this weekend, a provincial official said, as attacks elsewhere in the country killed six policemen and two soldiers. The attacks came as the Taliban warned teachers and students not to participate in the vote and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers. The insurgents said in a statement that they will target Saturday's elections, which they view as illegitimate, but that they do not want to harm civilians. The blast in Helmand went off inside the campaign office of Abdul Jabar Qahraman, killing him and wounding seven people, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

NEW DELHI (AP)  M.J. Akbar, India's junior external affairs minister, resigned Wednesday amid accusations by 20 women of sexual harassment during his previous career as one of the country's most prominent news editors, becoming the most powerful man to fall in India's burgeoning #MeToo movement. Akbar said in a statement that he would "challenge false accusations" in a personal capacity, referring to a criminal defamation case he filed Monday against the first woman to accuse him. Akbar, 67, first served as a lawmaker for India's then-ruling India National Congress party between 1989 and 1991. He then edited The Telegraph, The Asian Age and other newspapers and wrote several books of nonfiction, becoming one of the most influential people in the Indian news media.

VATICAN CITY (AP)  South Korea's president said he was certain peace could be achieved on the Korean Peninsula as he prepared for an audience Thursday with Pope Francis where he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for Francis to visit. South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivered remarks at a Wednesday evening "Mass for Peace" in St. Peter's Basilica. The pope's top diplomat, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, celebrated the Mass. In his homily, Parolin prayed for the "gift of peace" on the Korean Peninsula so "after so many years of tensions and division, the word 'peace' can ring out fully." Moon spoke at the end of the service, saying the prayers offered there "will also resound as echoes of hope in the hearts of the people of the two Koreas as well as the people of the whole world who desire peace." "Our prayers today will turn into reality for sure," the South Korean leader said.

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HANOI, Vietnam (AP)  Vietnam has freed a well-known blogger after two years in prison on the condition that she leave for the United States. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as "Mother Mushroom," was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming the Communist government. The conviction of the popular blogger, who wrote about human rights and industrial pollution, drew criticism from some Western governments and international human rights groups. Friends of the 39-year-old blogger said she was on her way to the U.S. with her mother and two young children. "After numerous efforts, the family of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was reunited in a free country," her friend Nguyen Tin wrote on his Facebook page.

MANILA, Philippines (AP)  Close allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have resigned from his Cabinet to run in elections next year that will test his popularity and could determine his future political influence. Among those running in the May 13 elections are Duterte's former foreign secretary, who staunchly defended him from international criticism of his deadly anti-drug crackdown, his spokesman, his political adviser and a longtime aide. Wednesday was the final day for aspirants to register as candidates. More than 18,000 government posts are up for grabs, including 12 seats in the 24-member Senate, which stymied efforts by Duterte allies this year to rapidly open the country's constitution to amendments and allow a shift to a federal system of government.

ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistani police say the sons of a suspected drug dealer arrested in the country's northwest have killed a local reporter who wrote about their father's case. Wajid Ali, a police official in Haripur district, says Sohail Khan was gunned down because of his article in the Kay-2 newspaper about the arrest of Musarrat Iqbal in a narcotic case. Ali says police are searching for Iqbal's sons, Ali Sher and Himayun Iqbal, who ambushed Khan's vehicle at a local bazaar and killed him on Tuesday. Khan is the second Kay-2 journalist to be killed in just over a year in Haripur.

BEIJING (AP)  The director of "Air Strike," featuring Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, says the film's release has been canceled in the wake of her disappearance and conviction on tax evasion charges. The World War II thriller, also starring Bruce Willis and Adrien Brody, was to have been released Oct. 26. However, director Xiao Feng posted on his Weibo miniblog Wednesday that it was "time to let go" after eight years of work on the film. Chinese tax authorities this month ordered Fan and companies she represents to pay taxes and penalties totaling $130 million, ending speculation over the fate of one of the country's highest-profile entertainers three months after she disappeared from public view.

TOKYO (AP)  Japan recorded a trade surplus for September of 139.6 billion yen ($1.2 billion), but exports fell 1.2 percent from the previous year in the first decline for the world's third largest economy since 2016. A series of natural disasters took a toll, but the lag in exports also reflects uncertainties over trade tensions after President Donald Trump imposed penalty tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of Chinese exports. Weaker U.S.-China trade generally hurts the export-dependent Japanese economy. Imports rose 7 percent, according to data released Thursday by the Ministry of Finance. During the month, a major earthquake hit the northernmost island of Hokkaido, causing fatal landslides and widespread blackouts, while a typhoon struck the western Kansai area and temporarily shut down a major airport.

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two rebels, a civilian and a counterinsurgency police official, residents and police said. At least a dozen journalists covering the fighting were beaten by counterinsurgency policemen well after the fighting ended, media groups and reporters said. The gunbattle began early Wednesday after troops cordoned off a neighborhood in Srinagar on a tip that some rebels were in a civilian home, police said. The exchange of gunfire lasted about half an hour, police said, leaving two local militants, including a commander, a son of the house owner and a police official dead.

NEW DELHI (AP)  A temple in southern India and one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage centers opened its doors to females of menstruating age on Wednesday to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, but women weren't able to enter as hundreds of protesters fought street battles with police to keep them out. As the gates of the Sabarimala temple were flung open, a crowd of male devotees surged toward the temple. About 1,000 police used batons to try to control the protesters, who attacked them with stones and damaged police and TV vehicles and bullied female devotees to turn back.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  A high-level meeting to lay out security plans for Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections had just concluded when an elite Afghan guard turned his gun Thursday on the departing delegation in an attack that killed the powerful Kandahar police chief but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. The audacious assassination strike, which killed at least one other senior Afghan official and was claimed by the Taliban, underscored the harrowing lack of security in Afghanistan just two days before national elections and more than 17 years after the militant group was driven from power. A Taliban spokesman said Miller was the intended target.

The U.N. Security Council has condemned several recent attacks in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections. On Thursday, an elite guard attacked a delegation leaving a high-level meeting on security plans for the elections. The gunman killed the powerful Kandahar police chief and at least one other senior Afghan official but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. The Taliban claimed the attack and said Miller was the target. The Security Council's statement issued late Thursday from U.N. headquarters said the members underscored the importance of security for elections and that violence or threats intended to disrupt the elections were unacceptable.

SINGAPORE (AP)  U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday the killing of a powerful police chief in southern Afghanistan just two days before national elections is unlikely to fundamentally weaken the security situation. Mattis commented on the attack in Kandahar during a break in meetings at an Asian security conference in Singapore. Mattis called the death of Abdul Raziq a "tragic loss of a patriot." But he said he believes the Afghan security forces have matured to the point where they can continue fighting the Taliban without him. "We remain absolutely committed to an Afghan-led Afghan reconciliation," he said. "Right now, we're going toward the election and we will continue to defend the Afghan people." He said he had not spoken to the top U.S.

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BEIJING (AP)  China's economic growth decelerated further in the latest quarter, adding to challenges for communist leaders as they fight a tariff battle with Washington. The world's second-largest economy expanded by 6.5 percent over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, government data showed Friday. That was down from 6.7 percent for the quarter ending in July and 6.8 percent for the year's first three months. Forecasters expected China's economy to cool after Beijing tightened credit controls last year to rein in a debt boom. But the slowdown has been sharper than expected, prompting Chinese leaders to reverse course and encourage banks to lend.

VATICAN CITY (AP)  Pope Francis indicated a willingness to visit North Korea during a private audience Thursday with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, according to Vatican and South Korean officials. Moon "conveyed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's desire for a papal visit to North Korea," the South Korean presidential office said in a statement. A formal invitation directly from North Korea was expected to follow. The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said of the likelihood of Francis accepting such an invite: "I would say the availability to go is there." A trip that would be the first by a pope to officially atheist North Korea would need "serious preparation and consideration," Parolin said.

BEIJING (AP)  An outspoken former detainee in China's internment camps for Muslims said Thursday his application for a visa to visit the United States was rejected despite an invitation to speak at Congress about his ordeal. Kazakh national Omir Bekali was asked to travel to Washington in September by the chairs of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China. He said his application was rejected by the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 after he was questioned about his employment status. Bekali was one of the first people to speak out publicly about his experience in a camp in China's Xinjiang region, where an estimated 1 million Muslims, mostly from the Uighur and Kazakh ethnicities, are being detained.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  Helicopters are dropping disinfectant on neighborhoods in the earthquake- and tsunami-stricken city of Palu to reduce disease risks from the thousands of victims believed buried in obliterated communities, Indonesia's disaster agency said Thursday. The agency said that 430 hectares (1.7 square miles) of land and nearly 3,500 homes succumbed to liquefaction in central Sulawesi when the Sept. 28 earthquake turned soft soil to mud. Spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said in a statement the disinfectant is necessary for three devastated neighborhoods because of the large number of victims not recovered by the search and rescue effort that ended on Oct.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)  Malaysian police say a British woman has been detained on a resort island for allegedly stabbing her husband to death. Langkawi police chief Supt. Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim says investigators found a blood-stained kitchen knife in the couple's home where John William Jones, 62, was found dead Thursday. He says police were called to the scene after Samantha Jones, 51, asked her neighbor to call an ambulance but her husband was pronounced dead by medical officers. Mohamad Iqbal says Samantha Jones told police she stabbed her husband in the chest during a heated argument. She was taken to court, which allowed her held in remand until Tuesday.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  South Korean progressives accused the government of caving to xenophobic sentiment by rejecting a plea for refugee status by hundreds of asylum seekers from war-ravaged Yemen whose arrival on a resort island earlier this year triggered outrage. Justice Party spokesman Choi Seok said South Korea was neglecting its responsibility as a member of the United Nations and letting public sentiment influence critical decisions on human rights. "The Yemeni refugees have risked every danger to come to our country, just so that they could survive," Choi said Thursday. "It's no different from the people of our own country half a century ago, when they wandered around foreign countries as refugees through war and division.

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP)  Malaysia's anti-graft agency said Thursday it has detained former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a case linked to misappropriation of funds in a welfare group. Zahid, who now heads the opposition Malay party, is the latest notable person after former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife to face graft charges following the shocking ouster of their coalition in May general elections. The anti-graft agency said Zahid was detained at its office shortly after he was summoned as part of its probe into abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering at a welfare group.KodaCloud has come out with a new and lower cost version of its Wi-Fi as a Service. That artificial intelligence-powered solution comes with a Wi-Fi access point included and will sell for $9.99 through the end of the year.

Bernard Herscovici, KodaClouds CEO and a speaker for The Adaptive & Intent-Based Networking Expo early next year, has this to say about the new offering. KodaCloud customers enjoy auto-correction of more than 90 percent of detected network issues and average performance improvement of over 200 percent per auto-corrected issue with little or no involvement of IT personnel. Herscovici also notes that the new pricing makes this next generation Wi-Fi solution accessible even to the smallest of businesses.

The Wi-Fi V2.0 monitors to the device level. It provides automated self-healing. And it offers profile-based quality of experience, enhanced analytics, and portals.

KodaClouds proactive network monitoring identifies and corrects tens of thousands of daily connectivity or performance issues, the company explains. KodaClouds system makes on average over 80 percent corrections and issues network alerts to IT teams where human intervention is needed. The system improves average signal connectivity strength by 29dB and improves employee data rate connectivity by an average of 50 Mbps for each correction made.

Based in Silicon Valley, KodaCloud is a privately held company that also has offices in Ottawa, Canada. Celtic House Venture Partners, Comcast (News - Alert) Ventures, and Voyager Capital are investors in KodaCloud.

And KodaClouds CEO and founder will be on a Jan. 30 panel called How to Use AI to Take Wi-Fi to the Next Level at The Adaptive & Intent-Based Networking Expo. Anand Srinivas, CTO and co-founder of Nyansa, will also be on the panel.

Edited by Maurice NagleSeth Jethro Nehring

Task and Purpose via US Air Force

The US Air Force identified the pilot who died during a routine training flight in Ukraine as Lt. Col. Seth Jethro Nehring.

Nehring, a pilot with the California Air National Guards 194th Fighter Squadron, and Ukrainian Col. Ivan Petrenko were killed during a routine familiarization flight in Ukraine on October 16.

Nehring began his career as an enlisted crew chief before becoming a pilot of F-16 and F-15 fighter aircraft.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the US and Ukrainian governments.

The US Air Force has identified the pilot who died during a routine training flight in Ukraine as Lt. Col. Seth Jethro Nehring, the service said in a press release.

Nehring, a pilot with the California Air National Guards 194th Fighter Squadron, and Ukrainian Col. Ivan Petrenko were killed during a routine familiarization flight while in a Ukrainian Su-27B roughly 175 miles southwest of Kiev on Oct. 16.

We are a close-knit family and when a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the 144th Fighter Wing feels it, US Air Force Col. Daniel Kelly, commander of Nehrings parent unit, the 144th Fighter Wing, said in a statement.

We share in the sorrow felt by Jethros loved ones and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends as well as those of the Ukrainian aviator.

Nehring had been with the 144th Fighter Wing for more than 20 years, beginning his career as an enlisted crew chief before becoming a pilot of F-16 and F-15 fighter aircraft, the service said.

He was taking part in the Clear Sky exercise, a multinational training event involving the US, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, and the United Kingdom.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the US and Ukrainian governments.

NOW WATCH: A French company has designed a fully electric, asymmetric concept sports car thats a vision of 2035  heres what it is like

See Also:South Korea Soldier Demilitarized Zone

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States opposes a plan by South and North Korea to set up a no-fly zone over their heavily fortified border, the latest sign of a rift between Seoul and its top ally, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Washington and Seoul both publicly insist they are on the same page about dealing with Pyongyang. But behind the scenes, there are growing signs of disagreement as South and North Korea forge ahead with plans to defuse military tensions and rebuild economic ties.

The military accord, sealed during last month's summit in Pyongyang, is one of the most concrete agreements between the neighbors this year. But US officials have raised concerns that it could undermine defense readiness and comes without substantial progress on denuclearization.

The pact includes a halt in "all hostile acts," a no-fly zone around the border and a gradual removal of landmines and guard posts within the Demilitarised Zone.

US Secretary of State Pompeo expressed "discontent" with the agreement during a phone call, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said last week in a rare disclosure of discord between the allies.

north korea demilitarized zone

Getty Images / Chung Sung-Jun

The United States was not likely to openly protest against an inter-Korean initiative, Seoul officials said, but its deep involvement in sanctions enforcement and military operations give it leverage to delay or change the policy.

The no-fly zone is a key sticking point for the US because it would effectively prevent close air support drills, the sources said, adding that Pompeo raised the issue during the call with Kang. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The zone, effective Nov. 1, will extend 40 kilometers north and south from the Military Demarcation Line in the East and 20 kilometers in the West for fixed-wing aircraft.

Story continues

The agreement also bars live-fire drills involving fixed-wing aircraft and air-to-ground guided weapons in the no-fly area. South Korea and the United States had held such drills regularly until halting joint exercises in June.

There are different restrictions on helicopters, drones and balloons, with exemptions for commercial and non-military operations such as medical, disaster and agricultural uses.

In close air support, airplanes provide firepower for troops who may be operating near enemy forces. Most fighter jets that US forces operate in South Korea, such as the F-16, can play that role, one of the sources said.

An official at Seoul's foreign ministry said Pompeo had not been "fully briefed" when he complained about the inter-Korean deal, and called back that day to wish Kang good luck with the summit.

The US State Department declined to comment.

south korea

Reuters

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan declined to comment on the agreement but said the Department of Defense backs efforts to reduce military tensions.

The department "remains in full support of our diplomats as they work to achieve the verified denuclearization of the DPRK as agreed to by Chairman Kim (Jong Un)," Logan said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

A spokesman at South Korea's defense ministry said Seoul cooperates closely with Washington and the US-led United Nations Command (UNC).

Signs of discord

South Korea has held more than 50 rounds of talks this year with the UNC, which oversees affairs in the DMZ, to facilitate the inter-Korean commitments but has not yet secured its full support, according to Baek Seung-joo, a lawmaker of the opposition Liberty Korea Party.

On Tuesday, North and South Korea held their first three-way talks with the UNC to discuss "practical" steps to facilitate the military pact, but did not announce any concrete measures, Seoul's defense ministry said.

"They're not even close to an agreed definition of 'hostile acts,'" said Baek, who served as a vice defense minister in 2013-15.

"The agreement would make it impossible to carry out air cover and overall exercises, and it would hurt the alliance's reconnaissance capabilities," Baek said.

south korea

Reuters

But the UNC is taking a cautious approach so as not to kindle anti-US sentiment among a public supportive of the two Koreas' push for peace, Baek said.

While maintaining that it remains in lockstep with Washington, the administration of South Korea's Moon Jae-in has forged ahead with efforts to engage with the North, even as critics accused Moon of focusing on feel-good theatrics at the expense of progress.

Kim vowed to work toward denuclearization during his unprecedented June summit with US President Donald Trump. But Pyongyang's actions have fallen short of US demands for irreversible steps to scrap its arsenal, including a full disclosure of nuclear facilities and materials.

"The alliance is being undercut for the sake of confidence-building with the North, while there is little progress on the nuclear issue, which is the root cause of the longstanding tensions," Baek said.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; additional reporting by Idrees Ali and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

NOW WATCH: A North Korean defector's harrowing story of escape

See Also:The leader of New Zealand's main opposition party has been secretly recorded calling one of his own party's MPs "****ing useless".

National Party leader Simon Bridges said Margaret Pugh had accepted his apology for the remark directed at her and he will not resign over the matter.

The recording was handed to police by another of the party's MPs, Jami-Lee Ross, who has accused Mr Bridges of corruption.

During the conversation, Mr Ross tells Mr Bridges that two men, including Chinese businessman Zhang Yikun, have donated 100,000 New Zealand dollars (50,000) and had expressed interest in having a second Chinese MP.

"Two Chinese would be nice, but would it be one Chinese and one Filipino, or what do we do?" Mr Bridges asks on the tape.

He then talks about a possible "mercenary cull" and how he would like two or three MPs to leave, including Ms Pugh, whom he describes as "***ing useless'.

Ms Pugh quickly forgave Mr Bridges but condemned Mr Ross, posting on Twitter: "Obviously I was disappointed to hear today's comments. But Simon has apologised and I have accepted that.

"I'm glad that JLR [Jami-Lee Ross] a man who deliberately released a recording that he knew would embarrass me is no longer in our caucus. I continue to back Simon and we'll both move on from this now."

Mr Bridges said Mr Ross had been trying to set him up and may have been secretly recording him for months.

"He's a terrible person," Mr Bridges said.

Mr Ross said he believed Mr Bridges had broken electoral laws and he had handed over evidence to police.

He said he recorded the conversation because he was uncomfortable about the donations.

Mr Bridges denies any wrongdoing.

In a statement, police said they had received a complaint and would provide any relevant updates in a timely manner.

The National Party held power in New Zealand for nine years before being ousted last year by a liberal coalition led by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.The University of North Georgia (UNG) welcomed more than 100 high school students from across the state for Future Georgia Educators (FGE) Day on Oct. 16 at the Convocation Center on UNG's Dahlonega Campus.

UNG and the Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) provided interactive workshops, a college recruitment fair, an FGE Knowledge Bowl competition, lunch in the UNG Dining Hall and a tour of the Dahlonega Campus. Allison Kerley Townsend, the 2019 Georgia Teacher of the Year who teaches third grade at Barnwell Elementary in Fulton County, was the keynote speaker at the event.

The event was one of nine that will be held on college campuses across the state during the 2018-19 school year. This is the fourth year of the current format of FGE Day and the third time UNG has hosted. UNG held an FGE Day on the Gainesville Campus during the 2017-18 academic year and the Dahlonega Campus in 2016-17. More than 4,700 students visited events across all campuses in the first three years of FGE Day's current format.

Sydney Bramblett, a senior majoring in early childhood special education from Cumming, Georgia, was one of 27 UNG College of Education students helping lead the event. She is a College of Education Teacher Education Ambassador, and Bramblett would have loved to experience such an introduction to teacher education when she was in high school.

"This would have been so informative to get to see the difference in each college and how they prepare you to be an educator," Bramblett said.

Cindy Sherrill, director of clinical engagement and community partnerships in UNG's Teacher Education Department, organized the event. She was excited to welcome high school students to UNG.

"We want students to become motivated and excited to attend college and to understand the outstanding teacher preparation programs provided by the College of Education at UNG," Sherrill said. "These high school students are the future of teaching, and the UNG College of Education would like to support them in any way we possibly can to understand the benefits of attending college and preparing for a future in education."

Brittney Sikes, a Gilmer High School senior, was at the event with some of her classmates. She appreciated how FGE Day provided a deeper dive than a traditional college fair or what she could learn at her own school.

"You get the chance to meet new people," Sikes said. "And you learn more about the teaching profession."

Ariel Prisco, a Gilmer High freshman, was excited to experience a college campus while learning about teacher education.

"It gives you an idea of what you need to become what you want to be," Prisco said.

Mary Ruth Ray, college services representative and FGE coordinator for PAGE, hopes the day encouraged more high school students to become educators.

"By exposing them to award-winning educators  like the state teacher of the year  and allowing them to participate in interactive workshops about teaching, we hope to inspire them and to begin envisioning what it's like to be on the other side of the teacher's desk, so to speak," Ray said.

Ray said having these events on college campuses is crucial.

"Some of these students may be the first in their family to attend college, and anything we can do to remove barriers and open doors is vitally important," Ray said. "Another advantage of partnering with colleges is that it helps to bring these events to various geographic parts of the state, making them more accessible to high schools that may not be able to travel long distances.""Counting On" fans came out fighting as criticism over cultural appropriation continues on her Instagram account. The accusations started when Jinger and Jeremy went to Chicago in the first week of October. Baby Felicity went with them, and she wore a cute little plum-colored top knot. At the time, a few people were more worried about her headwear than the cute pictures of Felicity at her first ball game.

'Counting On' fans won't stand for the bullying

While many people climbed aboard the Jinger Vuolo criticism train back then, it seems that now Jinger just does not care what people think.

Hollywood Life noted that she once again posted up a photo of Felicity with the top-knot style headwear. Obviously, Jinger and Jeremy really don't care too much what haters have to say about their choice of clothing for their new baby. However, people who went back to the post found plenty of people defending Jinger, but it seems the nasty accusations were removed as they are not there now.

But on the latest post, "Counting On" fans came out fighting this time. They seem to be angry as one commenter made note that Jinger's child is not Muslim, but she's dressing her as one. In fact, one person who does know about the little turban-style headwear origin explained it. @chrissiloohoo817 wrote, "She is so adorable!

I thi[nk] the head wraps are cute! They are known as a partka in Sikhism, the little brother of the turban. Children wear them until their hair grows too long and then they switch to the turban. I love that it has become a western baby trend."

Jinger Vuolo cultural appropriation fuss continues

Other "Counting On" fans are getting very tired of all the mom-shaming.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

It may be that they worry Jinger may just stop posting up pictures of Baby Felicity. The little girl is very cute and to dedicated fans, there's fear that it's quite possible Jinger will just stop sharing them. Nasty comments would be enough to upset any young mum. However, Jinger's part of a controversial family and criticism often comes her way.

Fans came to the rescue and @fatimakhan6003 said that maybe some Christian moms who are critical should read the bible a bit: "Absolutely love her, and to all the momshamers who cry cultural appropriation, especially Christian moms, take out your bible and read 1 Corinthians chapter 11 all of them verses ?... Felicity, youre a gorgeous little darling of God ."

Negativity about Felicity is wrong fans say

@daelitesmom stood up for Jinger, noting that she could dress her daughter any way she chose to. In fact, they added, "Anyone stating that because this beautiful little girl is NOT Muslim thus should not be permitted to wear anything on its head is making a racist statement." The Instagrammer also pointed out that "Children are born innocent, clean slates, and any attempts to inflict negativity on her is simply wrong."

What do you think about all the fuss because Jinger Vuolo dresses her baby in a turban-like headband? Do you think it's culturally inappropriate? Stay in touch with news about "Counting On" by checking in with Blasting News often.Virginia Techs research engine is as important as ever in the commonwealth and in the world.

Its future is even brighter, said Theresa Mayer, the universitys vice president for Research and Innovation, on Thursday as she spoke to a full Steger Hall auditorium during her State of Research and Innovation address.

Mayer highlighted the ways that research at Virginia Tech has grown over the past few decades and the critical role it plays in shaping the universitys mission and goal to become a top 100 global institution.

Research is core to our mission as a land grant institution, she said. We also have a role to play in the commonwealth as we think about economic development.

Mayer compared several of the universitys current research metrics with 1988, the year that she received her undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech. In 1988, Virginia Tech had $89 million in research expenditures. Now, these expenditures total more than $523 million.

Extramural funding for research totaled $272 million, which is up 6 percent from last year.

Total scholarly publications jumped to more than 4,700 this year, from 1,500 in 1999.

We are strong, and we are growing stronger, Mayer said.

She highlighted the 15 faculty who received CAREER awards this year from the National Science Foundation, and she lauded the universitys research across its many disciplines.

Virginia Techs role to lead the process to create a blueprint for the development of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative reflects its influence in the state, Mayer said. This effort will bring together Virginias public institutions and the private sector to conduct cyber security research, train leaders, and develop strategies.

Looking ahead, there are numerous opportunities and locations for Virginia Tech to expand its research footprint and support, Mayer said. That includes in Northern Virginia and in Roanoke where Virginia Techs presence is growing.

There is tremendous opportunity for us to leverage our unique geography to our advantage, Mayer said.

Also, the universitys work with businesses is essential to fueling future initiatives, she said. To support this work, Virginia Tech created LINK, The Center for Advancing Industry Partnerships, last year to streamline the way companies engage with the university. In September, Virginia Tech announced LAUNCH, The Center for New Ventures, which will help turn inventions made by university researchers into applied innovations.

In its first year, LINK helped secure agreements with such companies as aerospace giant Boeing and digital currency pioneer Block.one. Both agreements underscore the universitys strong reputation for forging comprehensive industry partnerships.

Mayer also discussed VT-FAST, a new virtual resource for faculty to help in proposal and grant development, so that they can focus on research. The concept is for VT-FAST to provide Virginia Tech faculty timely access to personnel that can help with a variety of tasks. For example, it can help with grant writing and manuscript preparation and provide a way for faculty to communicate with compliance personnel and the Office of Sponsored Programs.

Mayer introduced two new hires in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Lisa Lee, an associate vice president, will lead a new Division of Scholarly Integrity and Research Compliance. David Schabdach, an associate vice president and attending veterinarian, will advance excellence in research and instruction by providing oversight and direction to ensure the highest standards of well-being and care for animals across the university. He begins his role on Jan. 7.

Its clear that Virginia Techs research portfolio is broader and more balanced compared with other institutions, said Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, at the beginning of Mayers address. Supporting this expanding enterprise is crucial, he said.

Written by Jenny Kincaid BooneThe NY Times has an interesting story about a Missouri Democrat's attempt to bring her party's activist base home to the notion that the state is too conservative for the hard-line stance of the Democratic Party.

It went about as you might expect - being right is more important to the progressives than actually winning elections.

The pro-life Democrat:

She worried that the Democratic Party had moved too far left on abortion. Gone were the days when the party, under President Bill Clinton, called for abortion to be safe, legal and rare. She also noticed fellow Democrats showing contempt for her when they learned her stance on abortion.

...

On June 30, when dozens of Democratic State Committee members gathered in a university conference room in Jefferson City to vote on the new platform, Ms. Barry nervously introduced her plank. It said that the party recognized the diversity of views on abortion and we welcome into our ranks all Missourians who may hold different positions on this issue.

(Full text is here.)

The pro-choice pushback:

My stomach dropped, said Ms. Merritt, who had agreed to join the committee after the partys steep losses of 2016, thinking she needed to do more than criticize from the sidelines.

In her view, Missouri Democrats needed more progressive politics, not less.

I dont understand Democrats who quote Truman and F.D.R. and then act like they are terrified to run as an actual Democrat, said Ms. Merritt, 45, who lives in St. Louis. You have to believe in something in order for somebody to believe in you. You cant be such a watered-down thing.

The fight over abortion in the party, she said, epitomized that. So she sprang into action, talking on Facebook and Twitter with hundreds of angry progressives, some of whom were threatening to stop their donations, calling her fellow committee members, and ultimately the partys chairman.

I felt horrified that someone would associate me with that bizarre, regressive anti-woman language, she said.

The party was trying to placate people who opposed abortion at the very moment that abortion was most under threat, Ms. Merritt said. Days before the vote, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had announced his retirement and the court had backed anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Missouri, one of the most restrictive states in the country, is now down to one abortion clinic.

The last thing we needed was for that language to linger, she said of the plank. It was a foul stench that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.

"Foul stench". Let's pencil her in as "Maybe not open for a calm discussion".

Finally, words of wisdom from an older Democrat about the benefits of compromising:Bjarke Ingels' firm BIG has unveiled plans for a new business center which will be built directly beside the terminal of Luxembourg Airport. Called Skypark Business Center South, the design scheme will be developed with Metaform and construction is set to start in 2019.

Expected to cover a 40,000-square-metre area in total, the first phase of the project will occupy between 10,000  15,000 square meters of office space, with expanded program - including shops, restaurants, childcare facilities, car rental centers, etc.

BIG will use timber construction methods to reduce the footprint of the whole development, as well as other tool to ensure the sustainability scheme of the project.

By using photovoltaic panels, the building is aimed at saving energy, while rainwater will be collected and reused throughout the complex. BIG designed a double facade to reduce energy consumption that is also required to heat and cool the building.

A green roof will wrap the interlaced volumes with a plenty of vegetation, allowing to help rainwater collecting methods. The building's curvy geometry will help to maximize the use of daylight and reduce the need for artificial lighting.

"Im looking forward to seeing the first milestone of our Airport City becoming a reality. The Skypark Business Center South will be a reference for environmentally friendly and sustainable buildings. It helps us to align our economic and ecologic goals," said Rene Steinhaus, CEO lux-Airport.

Envisioned as the first development within Airport City, it is expected to start construction during 2019 and the completion of the building is scheduled for 2021/22.

All images  BIG

> via BIGChristopher Goscha at Literary Review:

According to Max Hastings, it was an epic tragedy for those who lived through it. From start to finish, the wars for Vietnam sowed death and destruction across the land. Starting with the outbreak of the French war with Ho Chi Minhs Viet Minh in 1945 and ending with the inglorious American evacuation from Saigon in 1975, Hastings focuses on how combatants and civilians experienced war. He draws upon an impressive range of sources to take the reader into the line of fire. Through vivid descriptions and moving prose, he shows us the suffering, trauma and death that the French and especially American campaigns inflicted upon the civilians and soldiers on all sides who found themselves caught up in what turned into a conflagration of mind-boggling violence.

High politics is also here. To his credit, Hastings weaves into his narrative a more critical account of the communist regime than many authors have been willing to do.

more here.As the midterm elections approach, consumers should be on the alert for bold scammers that government and industry experts say are increasingly using fake phone calls to prey on potential victims.

Con artists pose as political volunteers in an attempt to lure voters into donating money by asking for cash or a credit card number. Targets may be told that they can register to vote by phone, which is not permitted anywhere in the United States, if they supply a Social Security number. Scammers use analytics to target areas with a high concentration of older adults, such as Florida.

The deceptions are pervasive and persuasive. Political ruses often start with an unsolicited telephone call, email or text. Experts say these communications should be considered suspicious, and they urge consumers not to answer numbers they do not recognize. If you do receive and answer such a call, hang up as soon as the caller asks you for any sensitive personal information.

The National Association of Secretaries of State is warning its membership to be vigilant regarding fake political calls. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are investigating dozens of reported incidents. Scammers are experts at social engineering and they can tell an incredibly convincing story, says Jonathon Nelson, director of product management at Hiya, a worldwide caller ID company. The best thing is to never give anything to someone over a phone call  information or money.

Here are the most-common political fraud schemes and how to combat them:

Cash Donations

When any organization calls and asks for a donation, many Americans already are skeptical. But some politically minded citizens engage in conversations with pseudo-political volunteers, particularly if the callers express like-minded opinions. That leaves them susceptible to giving money to a campaign. While some campaigns legitimately contact citizens, many targets fail to verify that the call is legitimate.

Political donation scams represent one of the most straightforward ways to ask for money, says Nelson. If successful, the person who donated may never even realize they were scammed, so the charges are unlikely to be reversed.

Areas such as the Deep South, Washington, D.C., and states such as Michigan and Texas are targets for scammers because of their politically passionate populations, Nelson says.

The Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office recently cautioned citizens about this swindle. At the end of the call, the thief will ask victims to make a pledge by providing a credit card, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Benyomin Forer says in an online video. Hiya reported that one New Mexico resident received a call asking for a political donation to aid a candidate who wanted to lower taxes. It was another credit-card scam.

Political Surveys

Another election tactic involves fraudulent polling companies offering compensation or prizes for participation to pry sensitive information from consumers. The scammers ask their victims for a credit card number so they can process shipping charges and/or taxes. The Better Business Bureau warns about such hustles that involve freebies, such as exotic cruises.

When in doubt, dont give it out, when it comes to personal information, advises the office of Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson.

Legitimate surveys by bona fide research companies never ask for personal information that could be compromised in order to win a trip. If asked for personal information from a polling company, you should tell the caller not to call back and hang up. To reduce unwanted calls, register your home and mobile phone numbers with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at www.donotcall.gov or call 888-382-1222 toll free.

Voter Registration

The FTC warns consumers about phone calls (landline or mobile), emails and unsolicited in-person visits to homes by phony election volunteers or those posing as representatives of a civic organization. The goal is to convince citizens that they can register to vote over the phone by supplying personal information, such as a Social Security number. Voter registration by phone is not allowed in any state.

Cities and counties provide voter registration forms, which may also be accessed from their websites. Consumers should contact the FTC at 877-FTC-HELP (877-382-4357) if they believe they have been victimized by a scam.

Voting

Only two methods of voting exist in the U.S.  in person at a government-sanctioned location or via absentee ballot using the U.S. Postal Service. If an unsolicited caller offers to register someone, hang up and contact the local election commission or call the Department of Justice at 800-253-3931 toll free.

Anyone who contacts you by landline or mobile phone, computer or in person and says you can vote by calling, emailing or texting is trying to con you. This is an attempt to secure personal information, perhaps a birth date, during what seems like an informal call, email or text. ID theft is common with such fake political calls. Sometimes the scammers spoof the 202 area code for Washington, D.C., to make the calls appear legitimate, or they display a campaign name on caller ID.

Raise Your Voice on Amazon Alexa and Google Home to get AARPs take on the issues that affect you. Then vote with confidence by signing up to get the latest election updates and reminders.(10/17/2018) - Twenty-nine cats were left in a cage dropped off at a local business.

Animal rescuers are quickly working to find 29 felines their forever homes while one of Mid-Michigan's animal activists stepping in to make sure all the cats are in good health.

Sadly one of the cats is in a little rougher shape than his buddies.

"A broken leg that unfortunately will have to be amputated tomorrow and possibly has had a broken skull at some point, Kimberly Goins said.

These feline friends were left out at Relics by Ruby in Davison with nothing but a blanket over their cage. There was no word on who left them there.

The business quickly notified police and then these local animal lovers worked to take care of the cats.

"We've gone through at least 30 pounds of litter and it's time to change it again, Goins said Wednesday evening.

Despite this traumatic experience, these cats are acting playful to each other and to people who are walking by their cages.

"They really didn't appear to be too stressed in the cage with all of them together, Goins said.

She already has accepted donations of cages, blankets, food and litter. That has helped keep all of the cats together under one roof while Goins and her friends work to find homes in the community.

However, the feline friends will be split up soon. They are now heading off to local shelters in Bay County and in Farmington.

Goins will still take donations at Concept Hope on Clio Road. She said this isn't the first or last time the group has seen people drop off several pets like this one.In first trip to state volleyball tourney, Christian opens with Warner

Aberdeen Christian and Warner faced off in a late-August matchup. Now the two teams will face off in the first round of the state playoffs.Srinagar, Oct 17: It was around 12 in the night when the government forces knocked at the gate of Rayees Habibullah Hangas house at Syed Ali Akbar area of Fateh Kadal in Srinagar.

The family said when they could not open the gate, the government forces trespassed and barged into their house.

I and my younger daughter were sleeping. The forces frightened and abused us. They were looking for militants but we told them that no militant is present in our house, said Rayeess aged-mother Shakeela.

Shakeela said she went to her ailing husband Habibullah Hanga and woke him up and informed him that the government forces were in the courtyard of their house.

She said the government forces then went upstairs and brought out her two sons, Rayees Habibullah and Mudasir Habibullah.

In the meantime, Shakeela said her husband collapsed and Mudasir and her brother took him to the hospital.

The government forces asked Rayees to show militants to them who told the forces that they can see that there was no militant in their house, she said. Then they took him to room to room searches of the house but found nothing. They came downstairs but again took Rayees with them upstairs after which we heard him screaming, Sir what did I do? Why you are beating me?

She said Rayees was ruthlessly beaten before the government forces bundled him into a vehicle and that she didnt see her sons face again.

I begged before the government forces to release my son but they told me that he will be released soon, she said.

Shakeela said they didnt hear any gunfire when the government forces searched their house and the firing started in the morning.

She said the family was made to sit in the kitchen and they were evacuated when their house caught fire.

We dont know whether militants were there in the house or not. My son was probably beaten to death by the government forces, Shaleela said amid sobs.

According to Police, Rayees, 30, was the working with the militants and was killed along with two militants in a gunfight at Fateh Kadal area of Srinagar on Wednesday.

The complicity of Rayees, who was part of the group, in providing shelter and logistics to the militants is being investigated, a Police spokesman said.

Two militants Mehrajuddin Bangroo and Faid Mushtaq Waza and a policeman were killed in the gunfight, Police said.

The family contradicted the Police claim that Rayees was an accomplice of militants.

This is all a lie that he was an OGW. We know he was doing his business and needed nothing as his father is a retired Kashmir University employee, getting a handsome pension, they said.

Rayees, a baker by profession and had pursued M.A. and B.Ed. degrees.

He was married and is survived by parents, wife and a daughter besides a sister and a younger brother.The mother of a teenage girl who was housed with a foster father accused of sexually assaulting multiple children over the past 20 years filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging he raped her daughter repeatedly for more than a year and a half.

According to the lawsuit filed in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, the girl told police about the abuse in August 2018 after she was returned to her mother. She does not appear to be one of the seven girls previously contacted by law enforcement and reported on in the Journal.

No criminal charges have been filed against the foster parents, and the Albuquerque Police Department has said it is still investigating prior allegations.

The lawsuit claims foster father Clarence Garcia raped the then-14-year-old almost every afternoon from August 2015 to November 2016 and that his wife, Debbie Garcia, forced the girl to get birth control shots to keep her from getting pregnant.

Treatment care provider Familyworks, which licensed the Garcia family, and the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department are also named as defendants in the suit.

CYFD revoked Familyworks license over the summer, and it was shut down after a CYFD investigator uncovered that the agency continued to place children with the Garcias despite several allegations of sexual abuse dating back to 2001.

At least seven girls have told investigators with the District Attorneys Office about abuse, ranging from inappropriate touching to rape.

Several of those allegations were reported to CYFD as well, but a preliminary review by the department found its workers had followed policies and procedures in their prior investigations. CYFD Cabinet Secretary Monique Jacobson has said they are waiting until the criminal case is completed before doing a more thorough critical review.

However, the lawsuit alleges negligence by both CYFD and Familyworks for failing to prevent or stop the abuse, as well as assault and battery by Clarence Garcia.

CYFD seems to be outsourcing its responsibility to the detriment of kids, said attorney Kate Ferlic, who filed the lawsuit. I think that they have a moral imperative to participate in the selection and certification of foster parents and take seriously complaints of sexual abuse.

Ferlic said the girl, now 17, is developmentally and intellectually disabled, and functions as an 8- or 9-year-old. She said the girl had been living at Desert Hills residential treatment center before being sent to live with the Garcia family. She declined to say why the girl was not living with her mother.

I dont think it matters, Ferlic said. I think families do trust CYFD to take care of their kids when they cant for whatever reason, and CYFD certainly failed here.

A CYFD spokesman said the department is not able to comment on this case given pending litigation and the ongoing criminal investigation. The CEO of Desert Hills, which had a business agreement with Familyworks, did not respond to requests for comment.CHIQUIMULA, Guatemala  A caravan of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trumps threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that dont stop them.

The weary migrants started walking again under a light rain. The day before they covered some 30 miles (50 kilometers) to arrive in Chiquimula, after crossing the border into Guatemala Monday.

Some hitched rides while others walked, as the eagerness of some to make quick progress clashed with the need to remain together as a group for safety.

They expressed faith that obstacles would be removed and were generally undeterred when told of Trumps exhortations.

As stifling daytime heat gave way to an evening downpour Tuesday, Norma Chacon, 31, prepared to sleep on the floor of a town auditorium with her 18-month-old son, who was barefoot and clad in overalls. Town residents brought the migrants bread, beans, cheese and coffee.

Chacon said she had tried selling Avon beauty supplies in Honduras, but people are so poor they cant buy. She left two other children in Honduras, but said she had to bring her youngest because he is still nursing.

As she was settling in, Trump unleashed fresh messages via Twitter saying the U.S. had told the governments of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that aid will be stopped if they allow people to travel from or across their countries intending to enter the United States without authorization.

Anybody entering the United States illegally will be arrested and detained, prior to being sent back to their country! he tweeted.

Late Tuesday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico to respect the rights and ensure the safety of the Honduran migrants traveling in the caravan. Estimates of their numbers ranged up to 3,000.

The groups numbers have snowballed since about 160 migrants departed Friday from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, with many people joining spontaneously while carrying just a few belongings. A Guatemalan priest estimated more than 2,000 were fed at three shelters run by the Roman Catholic Church in Esquipulas, the groups first stop in Guatemala.

Three weeks before midterm elections in the United States, the caravan was bound to draw Trumps fury. But he did not follow through on a similar aid cut threat to Honduras in April over an earlier caravan, which eventually petered out in Mexico.

In his first comments on the latest migrant group, Honduran President Juan Hernandez accused political groups he did not identify of using lies to organize the caravan as a way to cause problems in Honduras.

There are sectors that want to destabilize the country, but we will be decisive and we will not allow it, Hernandez told reporters.

Earlier, Honduras Foreign Ministry said people had been lured to join the migration with false promises of a transit visa through Mexico and the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States.

Mexico has warned that only those who meet entry requirements will be allowed into the country. Hondurans need visas to visit Mexico in most cases.

Still, it remains unclear if Mexico and other governments in the region have the political will to physically halt the determined Honduran migrants, who are fleeing widespread poverty and violence in one of the worlds most murderous countries.

Carlos Reyes, 20, said he was attacked a week ago for being gay and dressing in womens clothing.

Some men were going to kill me.  They wanted to kill me for who I am, Reyes said.

The migrants hope that traveling en masse affords them protection from robbery, assault and other dangers that plague many on the journey north.

On Tuesday, Guatemalan officials detained a former Honduran lawmaker, Bartolo Fuentes, who was traveling with the caravan, along with two other men. Some Honduran organizations had identified Fuentes as a coordinator or spokesman for the caravan, though the migrants said he was merely accompanying them and helping.

Fuentes wife, Dunia Montoya, said her husband would be detained for 72 hours and then deported if interventions by Guatemalan human rights groups were unsuccessful.

Guatemala also closed migration facilities at the Agua Caliente border crossing to prevent the entry of any more Hondurans. Honduran police and soldiers were posted on their side of the border preventing other migrants from trying to catch up to the caravan.

Since 2014, the United States has committed $2.6 billion in aid for Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. For 2019, Washington has earmarked $65.7 million in aid to Honduras for security, democracy building, human rights and economic and social development programs.

Gabriela Natareno, 27, who was traveling with her 16-year-old cousin, said Honduras president is to blame for continued migration by desperate Hondurans.

He keeps the country mired in poverty and corruption, she said.

___

Associated Press writers Freddy Cuevas in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Luis Alonso in Washington contributed to this report.The man shot and killed while breaking into a foothills home earlier this month has been identified as 22-year-old Clayton Jenkins.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in 2nd Judicial District Court, around 5:30 a.m. on Oct. 4 a woman called police to say her boyfriend, Christopher Rivera, had shot a man who was breaking into their home in the 400 block of Avital NE, near Tramway and Copper. She said the man was now lying in the driveway.

When officers arrived they said they found Jenkins dead with a blue plastic putty knife  commonly used to break into cars and homes  near his body. There were defects to his back, according to the affidavit.

Jenkins does not have any criminal history in New Mexico, according to online court records.

When detectives interviewed Rivera he told them the homes security system alerted them to someone trying to break in so he armed himself with a handgun and went to check the garage.

The unknown male had an object in his hand, the detective wrote in the affidavit. Christopher yelled at the intruder to get down on the ground and the male yelled something back at him. Christopher identified the object in the intruders hand as a rock and fired his handgun twice.

Rivera was not arrested and the case was forwarded to the District Attorneys Office to determine if charges should be filed or if the shooting was in self-defense.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

An 18-year-old Albuquerque man arrested earlier this month in connection with a carjacking of University of New Mexico students is now facing federal charges, and authorities believe he was part of a string of similar crimes.

Authorities said in court documents that gang detectives, conducting surveillance on Scott Gibbs as part of an investigation into multiple shootings and armed robberies, saw Gibbs in his home playing with a black gun with a green laser pointer on it  which matched the description of the gun used in at least one carjacking from earlier this month.

A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque last week charges Gibbs with carjacking while using a firearm. Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen ordered Gibbs be detained after a hearing Wednesday morning.

On Oct. 8, Gibbs was arrested on state armed robbery charges for allegedly robbing three UNM students near the 300 block of Redondo NE on Oct. 5. The students said they were parked in a car when a car pulled up behind them and a man with a gun confronted the driver, demanding keys, cellphone and a wallet. The students said one of the suspects then got into the drivers seat of their car and both cars fled at high speeds, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

Gibbs was identified using social media accounts and taken into custody days later, according to the complaint.

UNM police Lt. Trace Peck said at the time that the methods used during the robbery matched the methods used during another carjacking on campus earlier this month, as well as similar crimes in the Albuquerque area.

According to the federal criminal complaint against Gibbs, on Oct. 7 gang detectives with Albuquerque police were watching one of Gibbs known residences in connection with a string of armed robberies and shootings.

They saw him leave the home and urinate in the front lawn, and when he returned inside, he left the front door open, according to the criminal complaint. Then, detectives watched him play in the living room with a black pistol with a green laser attached to the frame of the firearm.

Detectives took Gibbs into custody, and in a subsequent interview he admitted taking part in four carjackings the night before. His description of the carjackings matched what victims had told police, according to the complaint.

In one of those carjackings, a man identified as D.G. said he parked his Toyota Corolla in the 6900 block of Glenrio NW on Oct. 6 and a suspect approached him and pointed a black gun with a green laser attached to it at him and the suspect demanded D.G.s keys, wallet and cellphone, according to the federal court complaint.

D.G. told police that, as he was getting out of his car, the suspect punched him in the face and two other suspects, also armed with handcuffs, surrounded him and threatened to shoot or kill him.

He said the suspects almost ran over him as they fled in his car and that four or five gunshots were fired out the window, according to the complaint.

D.G.s Toyota was found parked down the street from Gibbs home. Inside police found the keys to several other cars that had been carjacked on Oct. 6, according to the complaint.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Officials with the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority have informed developers of the proposed 13,700-acre Santolina planned community that new water capacity and infrastructure will be needed to provide water and sewer services at the site  at an estimated cost of $600 million to the developer over the 50-year build-out.

At full build-out, the Santolina development in southwestern Bernalillo County could see a population of 96,000 people, about the size of Rio Rancho, and include five residential villages and village commercial sites, two business parks, a town center, an industrial/business park and an urban center, along with parks, trails, public open space, educational facilities, roads and utilities.

But water usage has been a topic of debate from impassioned residents as Western Albuquerque Land Holdings has sought approval of the Santolina Master Plan from county authorities for several years.

The Water Utility Authority issued a Water, Reuse and Sewer Serviceability Statement for the development earlier this month. Officials presented the report to the entitys board members on Wednesday.

Bohannan Huston, on behalf of the developer, earlier this year requested the serviceability statement. It sets out terms and conditions by which the Water Utility Authority can provide service to the development bound by Interstate 40 to the north, 118th Street and the escarpment open space to the east, the Pajarito Mesa to the south and the escarpment area adjacent to the Rio Puerco Valley on the west.

Bernalillo County planners have told developers they would not accept final plans unless water is secured under such a statement.

Water Utility Authority officials have told developers that groundwater is available on the property, but no additional water capacity within the Water Utility Authoritys current infrastructure is available for the area.

The statement includes a proposal for a 25-year, three-part phased infrastructure construction plan, which focuses on water reuse. The developer would pay for any needed infrastructure, as Water Utility Authority policy requires new infrastructure to be built at zero net cost to existing ratepayers.

In terms of the additional requirements for Santolina, there are three systems that need to be built: a water system, a reuse system and a waste water system, John Stomp, the utilitys chief operating officer, told board members.

Stomp said about 11,700 acre-feet of water per year is needed to supply an estimated peak demand of 18.5 million gallons of water a day and an average wastewater flow of 7.8 million gallons a day for the property.

This phasing is based on the demand projection from the information that was provided by the developer, Stomp said.

First phase

The first phase of water infrastructure, which could start in 2020, would include a transmission system pipeline, raw water pipeline, storage tanks, pump stations, a river diversion and pump station, a raw water/reuse reservoir, and construction of water treatment plants.

Reuse infrastructure in a first phase includes construction of water reuse plants, transmission system pipelines, six storage tanks and three pump stations.

Future phases, in 2035 and 2045, would include acquisition of more groundwater capacity, as well as construction of pipelines, storage tanks, construction of water treatment and reuse plants and a reservoir.

The statement is effective for one year, so the developer and Water Utility Authority have that time to come to terms on a development agreement, Stomp told board members.

The board took no action on the statement Wednesday, but board approval is required on a potential development agreement as the property is outside the Water Utility Authoritys adopted service area.

Past county action

In June 2015, Bernalillo County commissioners adopted the Level A Master Plan for the entire property, which at the time was described by developers as a big picture concept for how a major development will come together over time.

Commissioners imposed several conditions when they approved the Level A plan. Among them was a requirement that Santolina have a fully executed development agreement with the Water Utility Authority, that it address water conservation and that any water and wastewater issues be resolved prior to the next phase of the master plan being approved.

But the developer asked for those conditions to be modified, asserting that officials at the Water Utility Authority didnt wish to tackle a water plan until there was a Level B Master Plan in place.

County commissioners approved the Level B1 Master Plan, which covers about 4,000 acres and provides more detail about the location of housing, businesses and community services within the development, on a 3-2 vote in September 2017. That approval allowed developers to commence negotiations with the Water Utility Authority over water needs.

If the Level B process sees completion, theres another proposed step in the planning process. Level C development plans would include actual building plans for any subdivision or commercial development.SANTA FE  In sprawling House District 50, a Democratic incumbent seeking his third term faces a well-funded independent candidate hoping to be the first non-major party candidate ever elected to the New Mexico Legislature.

Lamy resident and former Santa Fe school board member Jarratt Applewhite is running against state Rep. Matthew McQueen of Galisteo, an attorney who has represented the district since 2015. Applewhite says hes not running against McQueen per se.

In fact, the two agree on several major issues. At a candidate forum last month, they found common ground on prioritizing economic development, opening up primary elections to all voters regardless of party affiliation, promoting renewable energy and supporting womens reproductive rights.

Applewhite, 67, said hes running against the two-party system. The former Democrat who served on the Santa Fe school board in the 1990s said he became an independent about 10 years ago. Ive seen both parties abandon their middles and become more extreme, he said. And Ive watched the primary process become the only elections that count.

He wants an independent process for establishing political districts, open primaries and more open ballot access for candidates.

Applewhite says District 50  spanning parts of Santa Fe, Torrance, Valencia and Bernallilo counties, from Eldorado east of Santa Fe to the outskirts of Belen  was gerrymandered to be forever blue  Democratic. They took out half of Moriarty (and) half of Edgewood, he said. They took out all of Estancia and replaced those Republicans with Eldoradans who couldnt tell you where the Estancia Basin is if their life depended on it.

McQueen acknowledged the districts challenging shape, citing the long drive to visit constituents in Rio Communities, east of Belen, but says that doesnt mean its gerrymandered. He also supports an independent redistricting process, but said District 50 was drawn by a court with both major parties at the table.

McQueen said he understands the need to represent his diverse district. The people in Chilili and Bernalillo County are just as important to me as the people in this room, McQueen said during the candidate forum at Eldorado. Ive worked my ass off representing the entire district.

Through Oct. 3, McQueen had raised $60,524, compared with $57,990 for Applewhite. The challenger contributed about $5,500 and lent more than $27,000 to his campaign, and much of the rest comes through Unite America, which supports independent candidates nationwide.

Applewhite says he ran away to New Mexico when he was 17. His father worked for the CIA and as a liaison for then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Applewhite was born in Germany, and the family spent time in Beirut and Washington, D.C.

In New Mexico, he started working as a farrier and a vet technician. He transitioned into real estate, co-founded an IT company and headed a venture capital fund to provide financing for local businesses. He briefly worked for the New Mexico Finance Authority before retiring in 2009. Now hes gone back to his horse life, tending to his or other peoples horses.

McQueen, 51, a Southern California native and attorney who specializes in areas such as conservation easements and land use, has lived in New Mexico for more than 20 years.

He recently represented residents opposing development of a Flying J truck stop on Interstate 25 just outside Santa Fe. The plan was denied by the county, and a court appeal has been withdrawn. I think it was a great win for the community, he said. And thats the kind of client I take on. If Pilot Flying J had approached me to represent their side, I wouldve said no. 

Jarratt Applewhite

POLITICAL PARTY: None

OCCUPATION: Retired

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Lamy

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: Created hundreds of jobs, many in New Mexico; served on many boards and co-chaired city and state-wide task-forces; elected to Santa Fe Public Schools board; helped lead the New Mexico Finance Authority as its chief financial analyst.

EDUCATION: GED diploma

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: applewhite4nm.com

Matthew McQueen

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic

OCCUPATION: Attorney

CITY OF RESIDENCE: Galisteo

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: Twenty-five-plus years of practicing law in various capacities; substantial nonprofit and community service; four years as a member of the New Mexico Legislature; father of two small kids.

EDUCATION: B.A., Williams College; J.D., University of Michigan Law School; M.S., University of Michigan School of Natural Resources; MBA, University of New Mexico, Anderson School of Business.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: mcqueenfornm.comEnergy Minister Pun outlines govts plan to develop 15,000 MW power

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun underscored the significance of electricity as a priority sector that has a direct bearing on socio-economic transformation of Nepal.SANTA FE  A national GOP group has waded into New Mexico governors race, launching a television ad Wednesday that features familiar attacks against Democratic nominee Michelle Lujan Grisham.

Meanwhile, Lujan Grisham launched a TV spot of her own that links Republican Steve Pearce to President Donald Trump  in part by displaying a selfie that Pearce took at Trumps inauguration in 2017.

The new TV spots are part of a barrage of political advertisements hitting the airwaves with less than three weeks left until Election Day.

The Republican Governors Association is spending nearly $339,000 to air its new TV ad on several network and cable channels, according to public filings.

The 30-second ad describes Lujan Grisham as a Bill Richardson crony, a reference to her past tenure as state Health Department secretary, although she also served as a Cabinet secretary under two other governors.

It also cites her work with a consulting firm that landed contracts to run New Mexicos high-risk insurance pool. Lujan Grisham divested herself from Delta Consulting last year, and she has defended her past work with the high-risk pool, which assists New Mexico residents who do not have insurance or have been quoted at higher rates than the pools rate.

As for Lujan Grishams new ad, it features side-by-side images of Pearce and Trump, while claiming Pearce has generally voted in favor of Trumps positions as a member of Congress and misrepresented his own business interests.

Lujan Grisham has increasingly sought in recent weeks to tie Pearce to Trump, who had a 38 percent voter approval rating in New Mexico, according to a Journal Poll conducted last month.

SEXIST TWEET: The state Republican Party has deleted a social media post that mocked Michelle Lujan Grishams physical appearance during a televised debate late Tuesday.

The tweet asked whether Lujan Grisham had used Richard Nixons makeup artist from the 1960 debate? She looked just like him!

Nixon is infamous for looking bad during the presidential debate that year  the first televised presidential debate.

Lujan Grishams campaign said the makeup tweet was sexist and disgrespectful and that the Republican Party should apologize.

The state GOP deleted the tweet but didnt offer an apology.Two princes: Kushner now faces a reckoning for Trumps bet on the heir to the Saudi throne

 Washington Post headline, Oct. 15

Excerpted from: Salmanella and the Glass Orb: How Prince Charming Met His Prince Charming

In 2017, there lived a handsome young prince by the name of Jared. Some called him Jared the Silent, but most called him Prince Charming.

And what a charmed existence Jared led! He earned a fortune from his familys investments in commercial palaces but paid almost no federal income taxes. He made a bad investment and lost money, but lenders bailed him out. Others thought Jared was ignorant and easily manipulated. But what others thought about the prince did not matter, for Jareds father-in-law was the king.

But for all Prince Jared possessed, he did not have what he wanted most: Saudi money. Jared saw how the Saudis spent millions at his father-in-laws hotels. Could he not obtain their money, too?

Saudi Arabia was not really the paradise of young Jareds imagination but the dark kingdom that produced Osama bin Laden and his hijackers. It persecuted women and made war on innocent people. But the Saudi leader, King Salman, waved a wand, and the despotic country was magically transformed into the peaceful, reforming society of Jareds fantasy. Jared was captivated. He came to believe that King Salmans heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or Salmanella, was the fairest of them all, not the bloodthirsty climber some feared but rather a young reformer who believed in human rights. Jared believed that Salmanella would bless him with $270 billion in Saudi arms payments, Saudi investments and lots of cheap oil. Prince Charming had found his Prince Charming. Or so he thought!

It came to pass that Jared did everything he could to make the beautiful image of Salmanella fit reality. He looked away when the Saudi prince killed civilians in Yemen, imprisoned rivals in the dungeon of the Ritz-Carlton, kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister and made mischief in Syria. Jared and his friends did all they could to win Salmanellas heart: busting up Middle East diplomacy and tearing up an agreement with Iran, incurring the wrath of the world  whatever it took to charm the charming prince.

But when the clock struck midnight on the day the arms deals were to be signed, there was no $270 billion. The Saudi promises amounted to rags. And when Jared presented his new Middle East peace plan  a plan he had written himself, with love  King Salman and Salmanella rejected it.

Just then, when it seemed the sad princes despair could not be deeper, Jared learned that Salmanella  his Salmanella  was suspected of ordering 15 evil henchman to Turkey to kidnap a journalist living in Jareds own land, and kill him. Salmanella denied it, but there were, reportedly, tapes. To his horror, Prince Jared discovered he was in the wrong fairy tale: His Prince Charming had turned into a beast!

Ridicule rained on the disgraced Prince Jared for his naive trust in the bad prince. And here our story might have ended, had a revelation not occurred to Jared in the depths of his sorrow: Salmanella may be unscrupulous, but he was still super rich! And so Jared decided that, Prince Charming or not, the shoe fit.

Prince Jared and Salmanella did real estate deals together. They didnt pay taxes. They got recognized more and more. And they lived happily ever after.Journal endorsements in this years general election continue today with the statewide races for attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and commissioner of public lands:

Attorney General  Hector Balderas

The attorney general is responsible for fighting crime, enforcing open meetings and public records laws, protecting consumers and providing legal advice to state agencies. AG Hector Balderas, a Democrat who has held the position for nearly four years, has demonstrated he isnt afraid of taking on corrupt politicians of either political stripe, from former Sen. Phil Griego, a Democrat convicted of fraud, bribery and other public corruption charges, to former Secretary of State Dianna Duran, a Republican who pleaded guilty to stealing campaign donations to feed a gambling habit. Nor has Balderas shied away from hammering government officials who have violated state transparency laws, going after such entities as the University of New Mexico. On the crime front, he has prioritized protecting vulnerable children from violent crime, bringing charges in the case of the Albuquerque couple accused of prostituting a 7-year-old relative for drugs.

Balderas, a former state auditor and prosecutor and certified fraud examiner, is running against Republican Michael Hendricks and Libertarian Blair Dunn. The Journal recommends voters keep Hector Balderas as attorney general.

Secretary of State  Maggie Toulouse Oliver

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a Democrat, previously served as Bernalillo County clerk for about 10 years, where she made elections run faster and smoother than her predecessors. As secretary of state for the past two years she has run a statewide primary election and implemented new rules aimed at requiring more disclosure of state political spending; she also supports opening New Mexico primary elections to independent voters. An early adopter of suitable technology, Toulouse Oliver has kept voter rolls up to date. And while she has had a couple of glaring missteps  most notably attempting to reinstitute straight-party voting, an effort quashed by the state Supreme Court in September  on the whole she has brought the office into the 21st century. Shes running against Republican Gavin Clarkson and Libertarian Ginger Grider. The Journal recommends voters keep Maggie Toulouse Oliver as secretary of state.

Commissioner of Public Lands  Patrick Lyons

This is a critical position that oversees 14,000 square miles of state trust lands, leveraging those resources to generate millions of dollars for public schools and other beneficiaries each year. Republican and Quay County rancher Patrick Lyons is an experienced land manager who will work with oil and gas producers, ranchers and other private industries to maximize revenues for public schools and the other beneficiaries of the land trust.

Yes, Lyons had his share of controversy while serving as land commissioner from 2003 to 2010. While that is concerning, the bottom line is oil production in New Mexico is at an all-time high, and the State Land Office must seize the opportunity to maximize revenue for beneficiaries  especially our children in the classrooms. We cannot afford a land commissioner who will throw up roadblocks in front of this opportunity.

Lyons is running against Democrat Stephanie Garcia Richard and Libertarian Michael Lucero. The Journal endorses Patrick Lyons for state land commissioner.

State Auditor  Brian Colon

At its core, the Office of the State Auditor must be a watchdog, someone who will hold public officials accountable and ferret out waste, fraud and abuse. Brian Colons education and experience make him a good fit for the position. Colon, a Democrat and an attorney, earned a finance degree from New Mexico State University and a law degree from the University of New Mexico. He has pledged to build on the strong foundation built by former state auditors Tim Keller and Hector Balderas. That includes such projects as a transparency report on how much taxpayers have forked out on contract buyouts. But he also understands the office must maintain its core mission of ensuring accountability for every government agency in our state.

Colon is running against Republican Wayne Johnson, who was appointed state auditor late last year. The Journal endorses Brian Colon for state auditor.

State Treasurer  Tim Eichenberg

The state treasurer is essentially the states banker, managing and investing cash used to operate state government, running an investment pool for local governments and serving as a member of key state boards, including the State Investment Council and Mortgage Finance Authority. As treasurer for the past four years, Democrat Tim Eichenberg has done all of that. But he has also pushed hard to make paying the state with a credit card more secure, which has saved taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. He has overseen the conversion of the state Treasurers Office computer system to the centralized state government computer system. And he has been pushing for legislation aimed at requiring more public disclosure of how much state agencies pay in investment fees, commissions and similar expenses, arguing the public has a right to know.

Eichenberg is running against Republican Arthur Castillo. The Journal recommends voters keep Tim Eichenberg as state treasurer.

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.Candidates for the 1st Congressional District race on Wednesday night nixed the notion that building a border wall with Mexico is the answer to the Americas immigration problems.

In a televised debate, Republican Janice Arnold-Jones said, Putting a wall across the border doesnt make any sense, and I dont think the president means that. Arnold-Jones, a former state legislator, said technology is the key to securing the border and said she envisioned a worker visa program that would put kiosks along the U.S-Mexico border so potential workers could apply for work before they get to our country.

Democrat Deb Haaland, who in the past has called for abolishing ICE, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, made no mention of that idea during the hourlong debate aired by KOAT-TV and jointly sponsored by the Albuquerque Journal.

Haaland, who is a member of Laguna Pueblo, said any funds for a border wall would be better used to building infrastructure in our own country and that she didnt believe in banning people according to what country they are from or the color of their skin.

Our borders, of course they can be more secure, Haaland added.  We need to be making sure our country gets a comprehensive immigration policy done, to grant citizenship in a timely way. We should not be treating immigrants as criminals as soon as they cross the border.

Libertarian candidate Lloyd Princeton said immigrants are twice as likely to create businesses and there has been no demonstration that they create crimes. He echoed his opponents in stressing the need for immigration reform.

All three are vying for the seat being vacated by Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is the Democratic candidate for governor.

Democrats have held the 1st Congressional District for about 10 years. It covers almost all of Bernalillo County, all of Torrance County, and small parts of Sandoval, Valencia and Santa Fe counties.

Haaland, former state Democratic Party chairwoman, reiterated her campaign theme that universal health care is something we should strive for. She said her worry is that a new Congress will attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has meant the difference for hundreds of thousands of New Mexicans.

Arnold-Jones countered, Its time to talk about affordable health care available to all, but not necessarily run by the government. She backed negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices.

I also want to incentivize, making sure we have enough medical professionals in the area, and that may mean a state incentive as well, Arnold-Jones said.

Princeton, who is self-employed as a recruiter, agreed with Arnold-Jones that a key to improving health care is ensuring competition.

None of the candidates endorsed voting to impeach President Trump, although Haaland added, Theres an investigation that needs to continue on the president.

Arnold-Jones said she hasnt seen any facts to support that (impeachment should be considered).

Princeton and Arnold-Jones backed the idea of a Space Force, as proposed by the President Trump. The creation of a sixth and separate military branch dedicated to countering threats in outer space is estimated to cost $13 billion over five years.

I will advocate for our abilities to bring it to fruition at a reasonable cost, Arnold-Jones said, and we might even be able to use the Spaceport.

Princeton said, however, how does it get paid for? We need to stop deficit spending.

Haaland countered that she supports New Mexicos military bases and possible new missions for them, but,  I really believe very strongly the issue of our time right now is climate change. Any money we can find to spend, we should spend on finding solutions to our climate change issue.

Haaland, who would be the first Native American woman elected to Congress if she wins in the Nov. 6 general election, said she wants common sense gun reform.

When we need to send our kids off to school, we should not be in fear they will be shot right there in the classroom, she said.

Arnold-Jones and Haaland agreed that more emphasis on behavioral health is necessary to prevent tragic school shootings, while Princeton emphasized the importance of deterrence and improving the instant national criminal background check system.MONTREAL  Cam Battley is a top executive at one of Canadas biggest marijuana companies, but he isnt sticking around to savor the countrys historic pot legalization.

Hes off to Germany on Friday and Australia next week  a sign of what a leader Canada has become in the global pot industry, and of the reverberations its decision to legalize could have internationally.

Its a special moment, not just for Canada, but for the world because my strong conviction is that the rest of the world will follow suit, said Battley, chief corporate officer at Aurora Cannabis. Were not known as wild and crazy. Were known for good public policy and I think they will follow our lead.

Battley will attend an investor conference in Germany and then head to Australia, which legalized medical marijuana in 2016. Hell meet with a corporate business partner and talk with policymakers in Sydney and Melbourne.

Battleys itinerary is indicative of the internationalization of the marijuana industry. And with national legalization taking effect Wednesday, Canada has emerged as the world leader. Its the second nation  and by far the largest  with countrywide legalization of so-called recreational pot.

Its deliberate approach, which took more than two years of planning, allows provinces to shape their own laws within a federal framework, including setting the minimum age and deciding whether to distribute through state-run or private retail outlets. That offers other countries a model somewhere between the more strictly regulated system in Uruguay, the only other country with legal sales, and the more commercial version in some of the nine U.S. states that have approved recreational marijuana.

Canadas federal approval has given its industry a huge advantage over its American counterpart, including unfettered access to banking and billions of dollars in investment. Canadians can even order marijuana online and have weed delivered by mail to their door.

Thats all made for some envy among American cannabis entrepreneurs, including Derek Peterson, the chief executive of California-based marijuana producer Terra Tech. Peterson took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal this week urging President Donald Trump to help ease prohibition and eliminate hurdles for the U.S. pot industry before Canada leaves it even farther behind.

Some in the U.S. Congress have also taken notice, pressing for the federal government to get out of the way of states that want to legalize, but it remains unclear what weight Canadas legalization might carry south of the border.

It might have a more immediate effect in countries like New Zealand, where the government has promised a legalization referendum by 2020, said John Walsh, of the advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America. Mexico, the Netherlands and Italy are among other nations that have been mulling legalization. To the surprise of many familiar with Amsterdams marijuana cafes, Holland has only very limited legalization.

This is the genie out of the bottle, Walsh said. Because of Canadas reputation for being fairly careful, for being a good global citizen, and because of the scale of their market, its a more likely example for other countries.

Battley said he expects the global recreational market to develop much as the medical market has done. Canada legalized medical marijuana nationally in 2001.

Once you see Grandma and Uncle Ted using medical cannabis to manage their arthritis pain, suddenly the substance is not so scary and not so stigmatized, he said. That opens up the space for countries to move forward with consumer legalization as well. I think Canada is at the forefront of a global mega trend.

Many customers celebrating Wednesday certainly thought so. Festivities erupted throughout the nation of 37 million.

Ian Power was first in line at a store in St. Johns, Newfoundland, but didnt plan to smoke the 1 gram he bought right after legalization arrived at midnight.

I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall, said Power, 46. Im going to save it forever.

Montreals downtown marijuana retail outlet has a sterile look, like a modern clinic, with a security desk to check identification. The products are displayed in plastic or cardboard packages behind counters. Buyers cant touch or smell before they buy. A small team of employees answers questions but dont make recommendations.

Its a candy store, I like the experience, said Vincent Desjardins, a 20-year-old-student who plans to apply for a job.

In Alberta, lines snaked around some of the 17 legal shops that opened Wednesday, including an Edmonton branch of Fire and Flower, a company that hopes to open as many as 200 marijuana outlets across the country in the next two years. Fire and Flower Chief Executive Trevor Fencott brought his wife and three children  ages 16, 13 and 6  for the opening, even though the kids were too young to go inside.

They cant come in the store, but they can see the line, see this important moment in Canadian history, Fencott said. Legalization is about daylighting a lot of stuff that used to be in the shadows. Our kids are going to inherit this system, for better or worse, and I thought it was important for them to see this sea change in Canadian society.

___

Rob Gillies reported from Toronto. Tracey Lindeman reported from Montreal. Gene Johnson reported from Seattle. Johnson is a member of APs marijuana beat team. Follow him at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle . Find complete AP marijuana coverage at http://apnews.com/tag/LegalMarijuanaNEW YORK  Transportation Security Administration officers in New York bought a shirt for a shirtless boy who was traveling to Denver.

The TSA says the boy and his father arrived at a checkpoint at LaGuardia Airport Wednesday and officers noticed the child did not have a shirt when he removed his coat for screening. The father told officers all their clothes were in a checked bag and he didnt realize his son wasnt wearing a shirt.

Officers were concerned because temperatures in Denver were cold so two of them went to an airport shop and purchased an NYPD T-shirt.

An officer escorted them to their gate for their flight.SANTA FE  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mick Rich said today he still plans to attend an event in Roswell with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, after the state Democratic Party called on him to cancel his planned appearance.

In a statement, Rich described Bannon as anti-elitist and accused his Democratic opponent Martin Heinrich as being a Washington elitist.

Steve Bannon is a global thought leader for economic populism, Rich said.

Bannon is the co-founder of Breitbart News, a far-right website, and became a prominent figure as chief executive officer during Donald Trumps 2016 presidential bid.

However, Bannon left the White House in April 2017 and was criticized by Trump earlier this year for comments he made that appeared in a tell-all book.

Rich, an Albuquerque contractor, is one of three candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat thats up for election this year in New Mexico. In addition to Heinrich, the other candidate in the race is former Gov. Gary Johnson, a Republican-turned-Libertarian.

The Democratic Party of New Mexico earlier this week called Bannon a white supremacist, with party chairwoman Marg Elliston saying there is no place for Steve Bannon or his hatred in New Mexico.

During his appearance this afternoon in Roswell, Bannon is scheduled to deliver a speech and appear at a film showing. Admission to the event is free and open to the public.WASHINGTON  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account , saying that the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mnuchin said in his tweet, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Araba.

His announcement comes after Pompeo told reporters at the White House that the administration would await the outcome of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before deciding how the U.S. will respond.

The Future Investment Initiative conference takes place Oct. 23-25 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was set up last year as a kind of Davos in the Desert for the worlds business elite to network.

Mnuchin joins a growing number of global leaders who have decided to pull out of the summit, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, as well as senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday it certainly looks as though missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he threatened very severe consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered him. His warning came as the administration toughened its response to a disappearance that has sparked global outrage.

Before Trump spoke, the administration announced that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had pulled out of a major upcoming Saudi investment conference and a U.S. official said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned the Saudi crown prince that his credibility as a future leader is at stake.

Pompeo said the Saudis should be given a few more days to finish and make public a credible investigation before the U.S. decides how or if to respond. Trumps comments, however, signaled an urgency in completing the probe into the disappearance of the journalist, last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The messaging underscored the administrations concern about the effect the case could have on relations with a close and valuable strategic partner. Increasingly upset U.S. lawmakers are condemning the Saudis and questioning the seriousness with which Trump and his top aides are taking the matter, while Trump has emphasized the billions of dollars in weapons the Saudis purchase from the United States.

Turkish reports say Khashoggi, who had written columns critical of the Saudi government for The Washington Post over the past year while he lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by members of an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis have dismissed those reports as baseless but have yet to explain what happened to the writer.

Trump, who has insisted that more facts must be known before making assumptions, did not say on what he based his latest statement about the writers likely demise.

Asked if Khashoggi was dead, he said, It certainly looks that way.  Very sad.

Asked what consequence Saudi leaders would face if they are found to be responsible, he replied: It will have to be very severe. Its bad, bad stuff. But well see what happens.

Vice President Mike Pence said earlier in Colorado that the world deserves answers about what happened to Khashoggi, and those who are responsible need to be held to account.

In Istanbul, a leaked surveillance photo showed a man who has been a member of the crown princes entourage during trips abroad walking into the Saudi Consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there  timing that drew the kingdoms heir-apparent closer to the columnists apparent demise.

Turkish officials say Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an autopsy expert Oct. 2 and left that night.

In Washington, Pompeo, who was just back from talks with Saudi and Turkish leaders, said of the investigations in Istanbul:

I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make decisions about how, or if, the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi.

Although Pompeo suggested the U.S. could wait longer for results, an official familiar with his meetings in Riyadh and Ankara said the secretary had been blunt about the need to wrap the probe up quickly.

The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pompeo told the crown prince that time is short. The official added Pompeo had warned him that it would be very difficult for you to be a credible king without a credible investigation. The prince is next in line for the throne held by his aged father King Salman.

Shortly after Trump and Pompeo met at the White House, Mnuchin announced that after consulting the president and his top diplomat I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis had hoped to use the forum, billed as Davos in the Desert, to boost their global image. But a number of European finance ministers and many top business executives have pulled out as international pressure on Riyadh has intensified over Khashoggi.

Pompeo said that whatever response the administration might decide on would take into account the importance of the long-standing U.S.-Saudi partnership. He said, Theyre an important strategic ally of the United States, and we need to be mindful of that.Online privacy lovers could stuff their Christmas stockings this year with a new Made-in-New Mexico, cloud-free social media platform that enables user control over all personal information.

Albuquerque startup Lens will sell its first Lumen privacy devices during a Dec. 6 launch party at the Lobo Rainforest building at the Innovate ABQ high-tech development zone Downtown. The device stores and protects all of a users personal information and online interactions. Its operated through a special app that allows Lens subscribers to control who can access information and what theyre permitted to see.

We will unveil the entire product at the December launch, including apps that will run on mobile devices to control the product, said Lens founder and CEO Mark Chavez. Well do all the manufacturing here in New Mexico. We already completed the industrial design, which is a plastic mold with off-the-shelf hardware for the internal mechanics.

The controlling app includes an alias feature that masks a subscribers real phone number and email address so users can immediately revoke access to anyone at anytime without their real contact information ever being revealed.

The app will soon include a special feature as well for users to instantaneously complete everyday forms like a doctors office questionnaire by taking a simple photo of a document and providing access to the Lens device to automatically fill it out.

That feature comes courtesy of Pencil-In, a startup launched in 2016 by University of New Mexico student Kyle Guin, who sold his company for cash and an equity stake in Lens.

Were collapsing the Pencil-In technology into Lens, said Guin, now Lens marketing director. It made sense to bring the two companies together.

The Pencil-In app allows users like students to instantaneously turn photos of things like course schedules, events or business cards into immediately accessible files logged into note, calendar or contact programs on mobile devices. By merging with Lens and adding the automatic document fill-out feature, information generated by Pencil-In will become protected and controlled by users as part of the online privacy platform.

It will grow the value proposition for our customers, Chavez said. Weve built it out to conform to the Lens network.

Pre-orders for the new Lens device cost $299, but a final market price must yet be determined, Chavez said.

New features will be added as more apps are developed for the Lens platform. The goal is to build a completely cloud-free, protected network over time.

Chavez, a former salesforce.com executive and New Mexico native, returned to Albuquerque last January to build Lens here. The company is currently housed at the Lobo Rainforest building with six employees, including two former Sandia National Laboratory engineers.PM Oli blames emptied state coffers for lack of instant impact

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said that the incumbent government has not been able work properly so as to show the immediate impact as the erstwhile government had emptied the state coffers.FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  In a story Oct. 18 about the sentencing of a man in a murder case, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Derrick Barnett will serve his sentence in a county jail. He will serve the sentence in a state prison.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Man gets 2 life sentences for killing married couple

A man was sentenced to two life terms for killing a married couple at their Arizona home

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  A man will serve two life terms for killing a married couple at their Arizona home.

The Arizona Daily Sun reports Derrick Barnett was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced Wednesday in Division 2 of the Coconino County Superior Court.

A jury found Barnett guilty of fatally shooting Michael and Nora Demuria on May 1, 2017 at their Williams home.

Barnett maintains he is innocent.

In addition to killing the couple, Barnett was found guilty of killing their dog, using weapons while on probation, and theft of the Demurias gun and car.

Barnett will serve out his sentence in prison.This story has been updated with comment from the company.

A Forbes article has unleashed speculation that popular fast food chain In-N-Out Burger could one day open restaurants in New Mexico.

The story, which was published last week, states that the companys CEO Lynsi Snyder abides by the long-standing practice of requiring all new restaurants to be located no farther than a days drive from the nearest warehouse, ensuring access to fresh ingredients.

With the opening of a new warehouse in Colorado Springs, Colo. in 2020, New Mexico may be next, a few years after Colorado, Snyder says, since the new supply center is nearby.

A spokesperson for In-N-Out acknowledged Friday that Albuquerque and other New Mexico communities could be in line to get restaurants, but it will take awhile.

We are still early in the planning process for our distribution and production center in Colorado Springs, CO announced last November, according to an email from the company. I would anticipate that we are still over two years away from opening this facility and our first restaurant in Colorado.

As for a New Mexico timeframe? The email simply says that a restaurant here is possible sometime in the future.

Currently, the closest In-N-Out restaurant for New Mexicans is located in Tucson, Ariz., about 200 miles away from Lordsburg. In addition to other Arizona locations, In-N-Outs can also be found in Nevada, Utah, Texas, Oregon and California, where the company was founded in 1948.

In-N-Out is a private company that does not disclose its sales, though Forbes estimates that its revenue should surpass $1 billion this year. The chain is known for its loyal customer base and so-called secret menu that appears on the companys website but not in its restaurants.Three killed in Chitwan accident

Three people were killed and four others injured in a road accident in Chitwan on Wednesday.Anderson, Calif -

The Shasta County District Attorney's Office says Eric Hancock was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.

He pled guilty to Assault on a Peace Officer with a Deadly Weapon and DUI Causing Injury. On August 5, 2018, Hancock drove to the area of the Factory Outlets in Anderson to sell heroin. Hancock did not realize that the person he had planned to sell heroin to was actually an officer from the Anderson Police Department. Hancock fled the area in a vehicle and led law enforcement on a chase through the Walmart parking lot and back to the parking lot at the outlets. The chase ended when the defendant hit an occupied Anderson Police Department vehicle that was blocking his way. Both the Anderson Police Department officer and Hancocks passenger were injured in the collision. This case was investigated by Anderson Police Department Officer Hallagan and Officer Duncan. It was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Rachel Donahou.

In addition to this case, Hancock is pending federal charges in an unrelated case involving firearms and drugs. That case was investigated by the Redding Police Department and will be prosecuted through the Project Safe Neighborhoods program by the Office of the United States Attorney.OROVILLE, Calif. - Officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Office have captured a man who walked away from a Male Community Re-entry Program in Butte County on Monday.

James Betti, 31, was apprehended around 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, near the Feather River in Oroville.

After he was taken into custody, he was transported to Folsom State Prison.

The case will be referred to the Butte County District Attorney's Office for consideration of escape charges.

Betti was serving five years for vehicle theft and was participating in the Male Community Re-entry Program in Butte County, which allows eligible inmates to serve the end of their sentences in a re-entry center to help with the transition back into society.BIG FM is all set to entertain Delhites with the launch of its campaign Dilli Ka BhukhyaMantri  The Prime Minister of everything related to food. The campaign will be led by celebrity MJ Khurafati Nitin who will engage with and address the concerns raised by listeners regarding their worries related to food available across the city. Kick starting October 16, the show will be aired at 8 am onwards from Monday to Saturday.

Besides this, the well-known MJ will be seen exploring and discovering the real flavours of the capital city along with his ministers across platforms. MJ Khurafati Nitin, who is also known as a BIG foodie himself, would not only offer creative ideas to resolve the food problems, but would also visit famous food destinations along with his Mantri Mandal comprising of cabinet ministers having a passion for food. The MJ would be extending a similar opportunity for listeners to be a part of his ministry and accompany him during his visits to these eateries. The campaign will have various segments where MJ Nitin will interact with celebrity guests and present them with food-related challenges in a fun and engaging way.

Speaking about the campaign, spokesperson from 92.7 BIG FM said, With changing times, the radio industry is also witnessing a major transformation in terms of its approach and content. We at BIG FM have always thrived by keeping up with changing times. The intent behind this campaign is to engage with Delhites and resolve food issues affecting them which will further help in uplifting their food experience. We are confident that the audience will love this format and will associate with this campaign.

While MJ Nitin would be quoting fun tips with an aim to rescue his fans from tricky food related situations, he will also keep listeners hooked with interactive and rich segments throughout the week during the entire campaign. The campaign which will be executed across platforms has received great support from well-known celebrities including the likes of Sonu Nigam, Rhea Chakraborty, Varun Mitra, Aayush Sharma, Warina Hussain, Manushi Chillar and Sharman Joshi to name a few.Taking the Indian traditions forward, ABP News Network (ANN) is all set to celebrate the local festivities through its regional channel network. ABP Ananda & ABP Majha brings a special programming such as ABP Ananda Sharad Ananda, ABP Majha Bappa Majha and ABP Asmita Garba Sanman.

ABP Anandas  Sharad Ananda is the most comprehensive coverage of Durga Puja from across the nation. With 360-degree coverage spread over a period of 50 days, Sharad Ananda will feature 10 unique programming segments delivering the vivid essence of Durga Puja.

ABP Asmitas Gujarat Garba Sanman is a unique initiative to recognize & reward the best Garbas & Garba organizers in Gujarat during Navratri celebrations. The event will be fueled by extensive coverage from Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Baroda, Surat and Rajkot.

ABP Majhas Ganeshotsav  Bappa Majha - will capture the fervor of the festival across Maharashtra. To increase the viewer interactivity and add to the spirit of the festive, there will be regular highlights, updates and pandal coverage throughout the 15-day festival.

Mr. Avinash Pandey, COO, ABP News Network said, ABP News Network has always been the industry leader when it comes to reaching out to local audience with innovative and unique ways of reporting the festivities. We always try to provide our viewers with the best of programming schedule and ABP Asmita ABP Ananda & ABP Majha gives us an edge in reaching out to the three major focal points of the festivities i.e. Gujarat, West Bengal & Maharashtra respectively, which in many ways represents the festive zeal and the cultural heritage of the country.

He added Festive seasons have always been fruitful when it comes to advertising and revenue generation. We have witnessed a double-digit growth in terms of revenue in the entire media landscape, especially during the festive season and this is attributable largely to the engaging and unique programming lineup that ANN offers to its discerning viewers.

These festivities fuel a spike in viewership as the television becomes the common entertainer resulting in collective television viewing as a part of the festivities. The advertising duration increases in the festive season making it a propitious period for brands to come all out with their marketing & advertising campaigns.Hershey India, a part of The Hershey Company, a leading global snacking giant and the largest producer of quality chocolates in North America, has launched its iconic Hersheys Kisses chocolate brand in India. Hersheys Kisses are distinct because of their unique shape.

During the first phase of this launch, Hersheys Kisses will be available only in South India. It will be available in modern trade, large general trade and e-commerce platforms in South India.

Commenting on the launch, Michele Buck, President and CEO, The Hershey Company, said, The Hershey Company has a rich chocolate heritage and we have built our expertise over the past 125 years. Hersheys Kisses is one of our most iconic chocolate treats and a symbol of how our company has spread its goodness around the world.

Steven Schiller, President, International, The Hershey Company, added here, There is a lot of potential for The Hershey Company in India. This market is an important part of our International growth model. The Hersheys brand has been leading our India growth and Hersheys Kisses is a wonderful way to continue that growth by tapping into the growing chocolate segment.

Speaking about the product launch and the brands future plans, Herjit Bhalla, Managing Director, Hershey India, said, We are delighted that consumers are increasingly loving the Hersheys range of products  be it Hersheys Syrups, Spreads, Milk Shakes or Cocoa Powder. I am very excited about Hersheys strategic entry into the large chocolate category with Hersheys Kisses. We know from our intensive consumer testing and product development that Indian consumers will love Hersheys Kisses, and I am sure Hersheys will now spread smiles and happiness to many more homes.

Available in India in three variants  Milk Chocolate, Almonds, and Cookies n Creme, the Hersheys Kisses range in India is the result of intensive R&D and consumer testing to develop the right taste profile for discerning Indian consumers who seek premium chocolate.

The journey of the Hersheys brand in India started a decade ago with the introduction of the Hersheys Chocolate Syrup, and brand has emerged as a clear market leader in chocolate syrups and cocoa powder. More than two years ago, Hersheys launched products in Milk Shake and Chocolate Spreads. According to a company release, in 2018, Hersheys is the No. 2 brand in Chocolate Spreads and the No. 3 brand in Milk Shakes in just two years of their launch. The launch of Hersheys Kisses is expected to further fuel the growth of the Hersheys brand in India.

The Hershey Company brings almost 125 years of chocolate-making experience to the launch of Hersheys Kisses in India. Today, it is a Fortune 500 company with world-class manufacturing expertise and innovation capabilities to deliver great tasting chocolates. The company makes nearly 70 million Hersheys Kisses every day that are sold in nearly 60 countries.

At a Media Roundtable, Michelle Buck, President & CEO, The Hershey Company; Steven Schiller, President, International, The Hershey Company; and Herjit Singh Bhalla, Managing Director, Hershey India, fielded several queries on the companys investment plans in India, marketing strategy, growth trajectory and much more. Excerpts:

How much investment are you are going to make in this project? How are you going to fight the competition from Cadbury, Nestle, Amul, etc., which is about $1.2 billion, as you say?

Michelle Buck: We believe in what we are bringing to the market place, which is a significant investment. We have committed around $50 million over the next 5 years. We have invested in manufacturing capacity. We will be investing in advertising, including TV and digital, as well as in-store activation.

As far as competition is concerned, first of all, this is a growing market and thus, provides us the key opportunity to drive the growth. We believe that Hersheys is a brand that is so unique vis-a-vis anything else that is there in the market place.

What is the projected market share that you have set for yourself in the next 3-5 years?

Steven Schiller: Today, you witnessed probably the biggest surge by Hersheys in India. The shopping market is $1.2 billion, and Hersheys has established itself as a leading player in every single category that we are present in. So, at this stage we would want to consolidate our presence in chocolates. We already launched Brookside three years ago and now with the introduction of Kisses, we will look to solidify our presence among the chocolate brands.

As of now you are only focusing on the Southern markets. How are you going to phase out in the next few months so that the entire country is covered?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: First and foremost, the Hershey Company is committed to driving growth across the country. We are initially launching the product in the Southern part of the country and it is going to be present in larger trade and modern trade like e-commerce soon. That is because the South constitutes one-third of the total chocolate market and secondly, we have done all of these approaches in the past and it has delivered good results for us. So, we personally believe that this is a winning formula that we have and we are sticking to it. We will be going to the rest of the country very soon.

Your launch comes just in time for the festive season. What are you plans?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: This is a really auspicious time of the year, so we were very excited that we could launch right at the start of the festive season. Currently, the aim is to take these two packs and make it available in the South and going forward that is the plan.

From a global perspective, where does India stand for Hersheys as a market?

Steven Schiller: We dont break out the individual markets, but I can say that within the international model as I look each of our global geographies, there is probably more potential in India than any other market based on where we are today and where we are with our portfolio. Just the sheer size of the population and the strong economy which is giving lot of purchasing power to the consumers creates a really ripe environment for people to partake in the snacking spectrum that we offer. I think the opportunity is in front of us and India will become a bigger and bigger piece of the companys performance.

We have four brands that are at our core in India  Sofit, Brookside, Hersheys and Jolly Rancher. These brands are growing at 50 per cent right now and we feel really good about that. The growth, going forward, is also going to be robust. The snacking spectrum opportunities in India are really exciting and because we have a multi brand line-up, each of those brands means different things, which are going to allow us to explore different areas of the snacking landscape. I think you are going to see more category entries from us in the right spaces for the right reasons. Even this year we are going to have a pretty auspicious launch.

How much does India contribute to global revenues?

Steven Schiller: We dont break out revenues from individual segments. We have groups  the North America and Canada segment and an international segment, which includes Mexico, Brazil, India, China and all the export markets. It also includes licensing and world travel retail. That segment is about 12 per cent of the total company. But honestly, what is most important for our discussion today is the potential of India, where we are bringing our most iconic product to a market that has so much potential.

What is the market contribution of e-commerce platforms?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: E-commerce is an emerging channel, especially in the area of groceries. We are looking at driving aggressive growth through e-commerce. The average FMCG companies would be between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of our business contribution. We are looking at doing much more than that.

We committed last year that we are going to invest $50 million in this market over the course of the next five years. This is the first year of that strategy. We are committed to building our strategy for the India business and Hersheys is at the core of that strategy. In the last few years, we have launched milk shakes and chocolate spreads and today, we have come out with Kisses. The focus largely is going to be to build these new brands.

Steven Schiller: We have a multi-year outlook for building these brands for strategic purposes and that investment was part of that. While the Kisses launch is news today, we have been working on this for quite some time. We have a measured way of thinking about our growth model, which includes manufacturing capability, feet on the street for sales, the capability to train our personnel to do the things that we need to do and the investments required to launch and drive various brands.

What is your pricing strategy?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: We are launching at two price points and we believe that to have Hersheys Kisses available at Rs 50 is a very attractive price point. I think the team has done a wonderful job to create a formulation that our consumers love and give value to our consumers in terms of a Rs 50 price point. We believe that we are delivering ahead of expectations and that the consumer should be delighted with it.

What is your marketing strategy?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: Tara Sharma is going to be the face of this campaign. She has been an integral part of our journey for many years. She is the Hersheys mom who is going to continue spreading happiness as we introduce Hersheys Kisses. We have introduced a marketing plan that is a complete 360-degree plan, which includes media, PR, activation, in-store visibility, and we will be driving go-to market excellence so that we can make our product visible and available in the South markets from day one.

Digital is something where we have been developing our capabilities, and this year we have invested in both capability and increased spends online. It is definitely going to be a big focus. Digital is going to be one of the leading drivers as part of the marketing campaign for Hersheys Kisses.

What would be your reach on the e-commerce platforms?

Herjit Singh Bhalla: The reach is restricted to the large metros at this point. Our aim is to ensure that this iconic chocolate brand reaches our consumers in the manner and shape that it is intended to reach  that is the most important part. The consumer needs to have the experience that they simply love. The focus is going to be in ensuring that our consumers get the product at the right places with the right cooling environment.

Steven Schiller: I have spent time with the e-commerce platforms and have seen the way they have evolved and it is very interesting. There are a couple of choices that we are embracing here. The first one is that the evolution from brick & motors to e-commerce happens much faster, starts small and then there is a critical mass which happens very fast. In consumer durables, it is a decision taken after a few researches; but when it comes to fresh food, people want to pick their own stuff rather than relying on somebody else, so fresh moves last. So, you can follow this progression to see how e-commerce is evolving.

Chocolates, like ice cream, create an interesting conundrum for e-commerce  the last mile delivery, how you keep the temperature controlled to have the right experience as consumers can be very discerning if they get something that is melted or not good. That is something that is still to be figured out on a mass scale. For example, in a city like Mumbai, if there is a dedicated warehouse then the product can reach the consumer in a short period of time, so when this happens then all categories will move fast.

China, on the other hand, is in the other end of the spectrum that has the most evolved e-commerce business in the world for all categories  it is already 15-16 per cent, which is a very big number. You have cities of 20 million+ people in China that have the ability to bring the last mile infrastructure in the most cost effective way and that has given rise to the shift in the category. You would think that the US is a much more mature market, but the infrastructure is different. Cost of delivery is more expensive in a city like New York City, which has a population of only 9 million.

In India, if the e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart figure out the last mile quickly and invest in air conditioned warehouses, especially in larger cities like Mumbai and Delhi, then these items will move much faster. We are doing all the right things and are setting up to be part of that evaluation as the customers want to experience it and the infrastructure has to be there.Laqshya Media, one of the largest independent marketing communications bags the prestigious mandate of conceptualising and executing the outdoor branding campaign for LG Air Purifiers. The campaign was held at Delhi and Bangalore Airports and commenced from Oct. 1, 2018. The campaign witnessed a great number of eyeballs as the main aim was to attract multiple audiences who travel via flights during this festive season and thus increasing its brand awareness for LG Air Purifiers.

LG Air purifier offers powerful filtration that reduces the harmful substances in the air, these innovative purifiers leave your home feeling fresh and clean, while potent sterilization removes floating viruses and germs in the air. LG PuriCare Air purifier keeps the space clean and comfortable. From sleek designs to powerful performance and circulation this innovative range of air purifiers are designed to make the air clean and fresh to breathe.

Laqshya Media installs a plethora over 312 digital screens at all terminals of Delhi. The LG Air Purifier commercial was displayed in the digital screens where the commercial used 1/3 rd of the space whereas the rest of the space is utilized to display Live Air Quality Index (AQI). Laqshyas scope of work also comprised of displaying the product placement and branding in premium plaza lounges; out of which 2 of them were displayed in Bangalore and 4 of it in Delhi. With a well-planned thought, the product is strategically displayed at the food joints and near smoking rooms at Delhi Airports which includes 9 units at Terminal3.

On the occasion, Youngnam Roh-Director Home Appliances and Air Conditioners- LG Electronics India said, Health and hygiene are key concerns of consumers and they are looking for solutions to improve the same. Air quality has been of pressing concern for consumers, based on this insight we have developed the latest LG air purifiers, with PM 1.0 Sensor. This distinctive feature purifies even super-ultra dust particles from the air. We wanted to create an experiential marketing platform and Laqshya media has always shown great expertise in outdoor marketing with their campaigns. We wanted to create an eye-catching installation and believed that Laqshya will fit the bill perfectly. The installation of the air filter by Laqshya Media Group, at Delhi and Bengaluru International Airport has now become one of the biggest indicators and has given us an opportunity to celebrate our brand with our customers.

Commenting on the outdoor branding campaign for LG Air Purifier, Amarjeet Singh Hudda, COO, Laqshya Solutions, the Agency arm of Laqshya Media Group, said, It is a privilege to be associated with LG. They are a great brand to work with. The team is extremely passionate and were very helpful in translating the brand needs to us and ensuring that our team could get the same ethos depicted for their campaign. Their brief was very well- defined and they were clear in their objective which helped us suggest solutions to them. The synergies also helped attain a very high visibility for the brand and a lot of buzz. The impact generated in and around Delhi and Bangalore Airports is fantastic. Our team seamlessly has worked hard and dedicated round the hours to deliver the best for this campaign and, the impact is gratifying.Ogilvy India today announces the resignation of Ajay Gahlaut, Deputy Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India, CCO - Ogilvy North. Ajay leaves Ogilvy to pursue his own interests. Ogilvy is thankful for Ajay's years of service and his leadership of and contribution to the growth of Ogilvy North.

Ajay first joined Ogilvy in 2001 and was with Ogilvy until 2005. He then rejoined Ogilvy in November 2007 and between his first term and the second, he has spent a good part of his career with Ogilvy. In the last ten years, he has worked to help build brands such as Pernod Ricard, BMW, KFC, Taco Bell, Dabur, Perfetti Van Melle, Mother Dairy, Pizza Hut, Sprite, Best Foods, HT Mint, Philips, to name a few.

Sonal Dabral, Group Chief Creative Officer & Vice Chairman, Ogilvy India: Ajay did some excellent work in his decade long innings in Ogilvy Delhi. I'd like to thank him for building a great team and wish him all the best for all his future endeavours.

Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy South Asia: Ajay is looking for life beyond advertising and for that reason, I cannot stop him just like I couldnt stop Abhijit. If Abhijit was going to another agency, I wouldnt have let him go. Everyone has a dream and unfortunately, I cant fulfil that dream. He has done a stellar job and I am very proud of him. He worked very closely with me and I will miss him. He is a very dear friend.

Ajays successor will be announced shortly.Piramal Capital & Housing Finance (PCHF), the wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprise Limited, today announced the launch of its new brand campaign, Bada Socho (Think Big). The campaign highlights the ethos of the Piramal Group and PCHF - its financial services business, to create long term value for all its stakeholders. Therefore, the essence of the brand campaign is PCHF enabling customers to pursue their goals and transform their dreams into reality by embracing a new way of life i.e. Think Big.

The campaign also brings out PCHFs expertise across diverse sectors as a key differentiator in the industry and its ability to partner with businesses across the value chain - from the promoter to the end customer. Bada Socho is a brand promise highlighting this unique partnership model that allows our customers to pursue their dreams as we support them in their journey.

Speaking on the campaign, Mr. Khushru Jijina, Managing Director, Piramal Capital & Housing Finance, said, We are excited to launch our brand campaign Bada Socho, across our target markets - Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. This 60-day campaign highlights our expertise in the market while showcasing our approach to do business. Our brand promise encourages our customers to Think Big as we extend our support by partnering with them respectively in achieving their goals whether it is to buy a new home or grow their business.

Campaign Brief: The strategy is to reflect the ethos of the Group at large with a specific relevance on the financial services business. The campaign helps establish Bada Socho conveyed through messaging that talks about this mindset. A series of creatives helps deliver this message in the context of our different business verticals viz. housing finance, real estate finance, emerging corporate lending, corporate finance group and capital markets & advisory. Visual imagery that is positive, confident and focused lends a strong character and maturity to the campaign. The campaign will run across OOH, radio and digital for the duration of 60 days targeting Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore. The messaging will start with brand and then move on to the housing finance communication being retail. The sustenance of the campaign will be supplemented by leveraging on transit/commute and digital platforms.

Bada Socho Credits:Savlon, ITCs leading health and hygiene brand, on World Sight Day has introduced Braille enabled packs of Savlon Antiseptic liquid. In line with ITCs commitment towards an equitable and inclusive society, the first of its kind braille enables packs have been designed not just to enable access but also in its simple way help the visually impaired to identify and access the product easily. This proactive initiative exemplifies the brands commitment to an empowering consumer experience.

Wavemaker strategized and implemented a first-of-its-kind multi-media campaign to enable outreach and communication of this first ever initiative. The genesis of this is a simple life insight, conceptualized by Ogilvy India  Everybody gets hurt. And individuals who are visually impaired are no different. But access to an antiseptic liquid is perhaps not that easy and they would have to wait for somebody to help tend to the wound. This forms the core of the new Savlon film and is the genesis of this initiative - Agar chot aasani sey lage, toh madat bhi aasani se milni chahiye. The TVC narrative brings alive this simple insight through some everyday situations and is designed to provoke thought and encourage inclusiveness.

The campaign needed to reach out to both the visually impaired to tell them about this initiative, as well as drive awareness for it among the larger populace. And to establish emphatically the news of Savlon Braille Enabled packs, Wavemaker partnered with key news channels & publications to deliver News through Braille,

In this first-of-its-kind multi-media campaign:

For the first time, headlines of the day of leading news channels were shared by a visually impaired news anchor using Braille copy.

The widely read Outlook magazine re-created its cover in Braille. For the first time ever the masthead of the magazine was converted into Braille along with the printed cover story.

For the first time ever, the visually impaired got up in the morning and read a Braille newspaper. A special broadsheet in Braille were inserted in newspapers like Vijaywani (selected editions). To facilitate the same, they reached out to a teacher of visually impaired school (who is visually impaired) to translate all the news into Braille.

Dainik Savera  another leading newspaper in Punjab also printed a broadsheet in Braille and carried out on-ground interaction with the visually impaired through it.

White Print, the newspaper for visually impaired featured Savlons advertisement in Braille and wrote about Savlons new packaging. Sameer Satpathy, Chief Executive, Personal Care Products Business, ITC Limited, said, In line with ITCs commitment to serve a larger societal purpose and to create enduring value for all stakeholders, Savlon celebrates World Sight Day with this unique first of its kind braille enabled packaging in the FMCG space. The initiative is a determined step forward to create a more equal and inclusive society by enabling access. 

Speaking on the campaign, Kartik Sharma, CEO, Wavemaker - South Asia, said, It is rare to see brands changing their packaging to support such a noble cause and creating opportunities by enabling access to the empower visually impaired individuals. I am extremely moved to be a part of such pioneering initiatives. We have tried our best to bring alive this noble cause through various media innovations, consumer programs which will make the entire consumer journey experience much more real. In addition to these media campaigns, Wavemaker also decided to offer a unique consumer experience for Savlon by creating consumer contact programs. Through this program, the teams will reach out to visually impaired children in multiple schools and explain them how Savlon packaging has changed and how to use the product.Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier?

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Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page.Officially, Turkey is working with Saudi Arabia to get to the bottom of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. Behind the scenes, however, Turkish intelligence has been leaking a steady stream of lurid allegations of his alleged demise to foreign and domestic media.

Turkey acknowledges this is an international issue and should be dealt with on the world scene, a senior bureaucrat acknowledged to Al-Monitor. We want to keep the attention alive. We do not want to frame this as a bilateral issue with the Saudis alone.

Why it matters: Ankara believes it has been successful in convincing global audiences that Khashoggi was murdered by officials closely linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the same time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has yet to make an official statement about the case.

The dual game of leaks and official silence is widely seen as a bid to both embarrass and extract concessions from a geostrategic rival. Ankara and Riyadh are at odds over a wide range of issues, from Turkey's support for Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood to Ankara's staunch opposition of Saudi-backed Kurdish rebels in Syria. What exactly the Turks hope to gain from their negotiations with the Saudis remains shrouded in mystery.

Bureaucratic CYA: Turkish officials deny any overarching desire to hurt Saudi Arabia. Rather, they say, their aim is to keep the spotlight on Khashoggi even as they continue their quest for answers.

As more information is recovered from the investigation we inform the public, the senior bureaucrat said. Processing the findings of the investigation takes time. We do not want the Turkish legacy to be a botched investigation.

Turkey has been criticized for its piecemeal leak strategy, which marks a change of style in how the government communicates with the media. Sources in Ankara confirmed with Al-Monitor that the change can be attributed to the new communications management under the presidency. The new bureau has managed to streamline the flow of information with a high degree of consistency. Still, they acknowledge some inconsistent leaks after information was shared through internal channels with the security and judiciary agencies.

What's next: Expect more leaks as the investigation continues. There are now allegations that Turkish intelligence has more than one recording of Khashoggis final moments. Despite strong interest from the public and the media, however, the government may not cave to pressure to release its evidence.

Know more: Al-Monitor is closely monitoring the impact of Khashoggis disappearance in Washington and across the region. Read our full coverage here.During an Oct. 17 speech to young scholars and academics in the country, Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei encouraged young Iranian scientists to "look east." Khamenei spoke of the necessity of having scientific relations with countries that are moving in the direction of growth, and added, These countries are primarily in Asia. Khamenei went on, Therefore we have to look east rather than west, because looking toward the West and Europe offers only delay and diminishment.

While Khamenei was speaking in the realm of scientific connections, the speech has political ramifications as well. After US President Donald Trumps exit from the Iranian nuclear deal, the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has been looking to Europe to salvage the deal and maintain economic relations. While the foreign policy chief of the European Union, Frederica Mogherini, has been eager to keep the nuclear deal alive, European companies, fearing the long arm of US sanctions, have been exiting the Iranian market.

Many young Iranian scientists have historically chosen the United States and Europe as destinations to further their academic study. The resources and financial opportunities in Western countries and universities have lured young Iranians for decades. But with the travel ban on Iranians instituted by the Trump administration, Iranians may have no choice but to look eastward.

The "looking east" doctrine is nothing new for Iranian officials, particularly Khamenei and those close to him. Ali Akbar Velayati, Khameneis longtime foreign policy adviser, has in recent months advocated focusing on the countrys strategic partnerships with Russia and China. Rouhani came into office in 2013 promising better relations with the world, particularly the West. But with the fate of the nuclear deal in limbo and Europe unable to guarantee its sustainability despite Irans adherence to it, Iran may have no choice but to look east politically and economically as well as scientifically.

Despite advocating for Iran to turn its back on the West, Khamenei stressed the importance of addressing the propaganda war that is being waged against Iran, particularly enemy countries in the West. Khamenei compared the propaganda and media war against Iran to that of the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s in which the United States, Western Europe and most Arab states supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Our propaganda infrastructure, just like the beginning of the Sacred Defense, is small, Khamenei said, using one of the more popular terms in reference to the Iran-Iraq War. But just like that war, which we won by divine grace, without a doubt we will be victorious in this war as well.

Khamenei added that enemy countries are using propaganda to depict the wrong picture of Iran and encouraged young Iranians to perform their duties for the victory and pride of Iran. Khamenei did not elaborate on how young Iranians should counter this media narrative.

In related news, on Oct. 17, Twitter published an archive of over 10 million tweets it claims originated in Russian and Iranian troll farms to assist investigations into online disinformation campaigns.It is hard to find Israeli leaders commenting on Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared (and was apparently murdered) in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul Oct 2. Cabinet ministers, members of Knesset and officials in the Foreign Ministry  they all avoid the subject like the plague.

Thats because Israel is caught between two polar extremes that suddenly turned upside down. On the one hand, it is an ally of Saudi Arabia, and on the other, its bitter rivalry with Turkey is legendary. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is seen in Israel as an almost liberal reformer, who is leading his country toward a new era, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is regarded as a benighted dictator, who jails journalists and suppresses democracy. And now thats all turned upside down. In the Khashoggi incident, the Saudis are the villains, while Erdogan is having his turn as a mature and enlightened leader who shows responsibility and defends democracy. It is the exact opposite of how things usually are  at least from an Israeli perspective.

Its the Saudis who come out looking like blood-thirsty murderers, who have no qualms about killing a journalist inside their consulate. But they are also sloppy amateurs who leave plenty of incriminating evidence behind. The Turks didnt even have to try hard when they put together all the pieces of this grisly story. And all that's left for Israel to do is to remain quiet and take comfort in the fact that US President Donald Trumps situation is even worse, as he does not have the luxury of keeping quiet on this.

On Oct. 16, Israel's public broadcasting corporation Kan reported that Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot held an informal meeting with his Saudi counterpart Gen. Fayyadh al-Ruwaili at a gathering of chiefs of staff in the United States. As one diplomatic source in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor, The Saudis have to make a decision. They cant have their cake and eat it too. They need to decide whether they want to draw closer to Israel, maintain an alliance with the United States and push through reforms, such as allowing women to drive, or whether they want to turn in the opposite direction and become a dictatorship propped up by the kinds of methods used to eliminate their opponents, which would put Russian President Vladimir Putin to shame." The source asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the unofficial relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and how they share many common interests.

Behind the scenes, Israel continues to side with Saudi Arabia. As such, it has no choice but overlook the Khashoggi incident. The fight against Iran stunts everything else, one senior Israeli minister told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Israels national security and the Iranian threat top our agenda, whereas Saudi Arabias internal affairs are less important and less interesting [to Israel] right now.

The minister added, If this had happened during the Obama administration, the Americans would have turned against Saudi Arabia at full speed, as seen in the presidents Cairo speech [2009].

According to the minister, Trump takes the opposite approach, which is much more suited to the circumstances of the Middle East. It should be remembered, the minister said, that [former President Barack] Obama was quick to throw [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak under the bus, as soon as the demonstrations erupted in Tahrir Square. With him, democracy came before all else. With Trump, that would never have happened. The president understands handling the Iran issue is more important now, and democracy will have to wait. After all, the ideals of President Thomas Jefferson dont really exist here, in the Middle East.

Israel has found itself on the wrong side of history on more than one occasion. The most obvious example is the secret alliance it once had with the apartheid regime in South Africa. But things were different back then. Israel was isolated on the world stage and needed every bit of help that it could get. It found that with the South Africans, and in generous amounts. (But even then, Israel reached out to the other side, training resistance leader Nelson Mandela outside of South Africa before he was arrested in 1962.)

Now the situation is entirely different. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoys free access to the White House and unprecedented influence there. Israels international standing is stronger than ever, and it cannot allow itself to be marginalized anymore. This is also the first time that reports about the clandestine nature of the Israel-Saudi alliance is an advantage, as far as Israel is concerned. It absolves Israel from the public need to come to the Saudis defense in the current, troubling incident. As to whether the journalists murder will impact Israels access to the Saudis and the secretive relationship that the foreign press claims it has with the Saudi crown prince, diplomatic sources say absolutely not.

Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official, who was involved in decades of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, told Al-Monitor last week on condition of anonymity, The myth of Mohammed bin Salmans reforms doesnt hold water. He is not a liberal, and those are not reforms. He is fooling everyone. It is all a show for the outside world. At home, the Saudi regime continues with the same longstanding policies, including the brutal suppression of anyone who criticizes the government. We witnessed the most recent example of this in the Istanbul consulate.

On Sept. 17, Netanyahu met in Jerusalem with the foreign ministers of Greece and Cyprus, both sworn rivals of Turkey. Channel 10 reported that during these talks, Netanyahu expressed his concerns about the Turkish economy, saying that Erdogan has not been making sound economic decisions. The situation in Turkey is not improving, he said, but on the contrary, it is getting worse, and Turkey is becoming an undemocratic country. Erdogan calls me Hitler every two weeks. Its a systemic problem  I dont see light at the end of the tunnel, the prime minister added.

He said that Israel and Turkey had grown closer as a result of the war in Syria, but as of now, there is no intelligence cooperation between the two countries, noting that the Israeli ambassador had been expelled from Ankara. One thing that Netanyahu foretold, which later proved false, was that there would be no improvement in the relationship between the United States and Turkey before the US midterm elections. (Meanwhile, Turkey released Andrew Brunson, an American missionary whom it was holding, and the relationship has improved.) Erdogan is unpredictable and reckless.  Its an oxymoron that a member of NATO has [Russian] S-400 missiles. Im worried about them having F-35 planes, said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has come under serious criticism in Israel because of how he treats the media. While it is not possible to eliminate or even jail journalists in Israel, freedom of the press has nonetheless deteriorated over the past few years. The medias status has grown weaker. Now, almost all of Israels independent media outlets are subject to the kinds of economic and other threats that undermine their ability to criticize the government. Yet despite all that, the status of journalists in Israel is immeasurably better than that of their colleagues in Istanbul and Ankara. In other words, Netanyahu can still be critical of Erdogan. The problem is that there is no assurance that this will be the situation in the future as well.Jordan and Syria reopened a major border crossing on Oct. 15 after more than a month of bilateral technical talks. The Jaber/Nassib border crossing had been closed for the past three years since rebels took control of the Syrian side in April 2015. Jordan insisted that it would open the border point only when the Syrian government regained control, which it did in July.

The crossing is a vital commercial artery not only for the two countries' bilateral trade, estimated at $750 million in 2010, but for the whole region. Since 2011, Syrias losses from the border closure were estimated at $5 billion, while the kingdom lost $800 million and Lebanon $900 million.

Until the closure, goods worth $2 billion had passed through the crossing annually. For Jordan, Syria is the gateway to Lebanese, Turkish and European markets, while goods coming from Syria, Lebanon and Turkey must pass through Jordan to reach the lucrative Gulf markets. Lebanese President Michel Aoun welcomed the reopening of the crossing on Oct. 15, saying that it will restore Lebanons connection to Arab countries.

The border will be open for passengers and freight but it is not likely to see much heavy traffic yet. President of Jordans Truck Owners Association Mohammad al-Dawood was quoted on Oct. 15 by the official Petra news agency as saying that 5,000 Jordanian trucks are ready to transport freight between the two countries and beyond, but only 1,200 trucks will be deployed immediately. Dawood said he expects Jordan to export essential goods needed by Syria and Jordanian trucks will now be able to reach Mediterranean ports. He added that Jordan also stands to benefit from reconstruction projects in Syria once they begin.

Aside from revitalizing the land transportion sector in Jordan, which had lost more than $1.5 billion in the past five years according to Dawood, the reopening of the borders is expected to create jobs in northern Jordan as customs clearance companies resume activities and revive the now idle Jordan-Syria Industrial Free Zone.

Both governments have focused on the economic benefits of reopening the border and avoided making political statements. But Ammon quoted the Syrian charge d'affaires in Amman, Ayman Alloush, Oct. 15 as saying the opening of the borders is one step that will be followed by others toward restoring relations to their normal level.

A Syrian trade delegation visited the Jordanian border on the day of the opening and met with Jordanian businessmen to discuss boosting bilateral trade and ways to facilitate overland freight movement to Gulf and European markets, according to a report by the Amman-based al-Mamlaka TV. It quoted the president of the Syrian Exporters Union, Mohammad al-Halak, as saying the meeting aimed to create partnerships for the future reconstruction of Syria. Both sides avoided mention of the tenuous political climate between Amman and Damascus since the eruption of the Syrian uprising in 2011.

Jordans major concern during the technical negotiations was security, while the Syrian side wanted the opening of borders to mark the return of normal ties between the two countries. For now, it appears that both sides are satisfied. Amman had insisted that only Syrians with security clearance and valid visas would be allowed into the kingdom. Jordanians, on the other hand, do not require visas for Syria.

Local observers believe that Russia had played a vital role in pushing the two sides to reach an agreement. For Syria, the reopening of the border enhances its claims of winning the civil war and recapturing most of its territory. For Jordan, the opening of the border should help its sagging economy, which had suffered as a result of regional crises and the closure of borders with both Iraq and Syria.

But economic gains will not come quickly. For one, Turkeys borders with Syria remain closed and Jordanian trucks will not reach European markets through Turkish territory anytime soon. Moreover, diplomatic ties between Damascus and most Gulf countries are either low-key or non-existent, and that means that Syria will not be able to export goods to these markets.

Apart from the economic benefits, Jordan hopes that reopening the borders will encourage the Syrian refugees that the kingdom hosts, numbering over 600,000, to choose to return voluntarily. By October last year, Jordanian authorities estimated the cost of hosting Syrian refugees at more than $10 billion since the civil war broke out in 2011.

A spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Jordan told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper Oct. 16 that the agency will begin registering refugees wishing to return to Syria and coordinate with the Jordanian authorities.

There is little doubt that as economic relations improve between Jordan and Syria, so will political ties. But a total thaw will take time. Amman is in no hurry to normalize relations as it tests shifting regional currents. For now, economic deals will do just fine.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In September, Libyas capital Tripoli was the scene of violent clashes between rival militias that killed 96 people and injured 306 others. The clashes pitted forces from the 7th Brigade against a coalition of armed brigades in Tripoli, which include the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade and the Deterrent and Intervention Joint Force of Abu Salim.

The 7th Brigade, which is mainly made up of Tarhuna tribal men, announced its affiliation with the Government of National Accord (GNA), even though the head of the GNAs Presidential Council denied this affiliation. The brigades main goal is to put an end to the spread of armed militias in Tripoli.

During the clashes, Libyas tribes announced their support for the 7th Brigade. During the General Gathering of Libyan Cities and Tribes held in the city of Tarhuna Sept. 15 , the tribes expressed their intention to eliminate armed militias and expel them from Libya, specifically from Tripoli.

The clashes came to an end Sept. 26 when a cease-fire was signed by the rival militias. However, Libyans remain concerned that such events would recur in light of the presence of armed militias and in the absence of security and stability in the country.

On Sept. 24, Al-Monitor interviewed over the phone Mawlay Qudeidi, head of the Supreme Council of the Tuareg Tribes, who represents the Tuareg tribe based in southern Libya. Around 150,000 people in the south belong to the tribe, as well as 100,000 who live across different regions of Libya. The Tuareg tribe controls the southern borders with Algeria and western Niger.

During the interview, Qudeidi talked about the situation in southern Libya, plagued by chaos and where armed militias and foreign fighters are spread, as well as illegal immigration. The interview also focused on the tribes stance regarding the recent clashes in Tripoli and the reaction of these tribes in case new clashes recur.

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: What is the position of the Libyan tribes in general and the Tuareg in particular in regard to the clashes in Tripoli that ended with a cease-fire?

Qudeidi: The clashes in Tripoli between armed militias are a matter of concern to all Libyans irrespective of their different backgrounds and not just those living in the city. Tripoli at the end of the day is Libyas capital, so as Libyan tribes, especially as Tuareg, we value all efforts being made in order to spare Libyans more instability. Maintaining stability in Libya starts with stability in Tripoli.

Al-Monitor: During the General Gathering of Libyan Cities and Tribes held on Sept. 15, you announced several steps like disbanding militias. You also gave a period of three days for that to happen, yet as soon as that period was over clashes broke out again  before they later ended. In case clashes return, will tribes have a military role in countering those militias?

Qudeidi: Speaking on behalf of the Tuareg, I could tell you that most Libyans are against militias, and this is why tribes have called for disbanding militias and confiscating their weapons. Yet it is not for tribes to play a military role. Tribes primarily have a social role in most regions, which is far from being of military nature.

Al-Monitor: Do tribes in Libya have the power to resolve the Libyan crisis and disband militias?

Qudeidi: The different tribes and regions in Libya communicate and the spread of militias in Tripoli will be discussed. As Libyan social components, we will specify the best way to resolve this issue [eliminate the spread of armed militias in Tripoli].

Everyone should know that the issue of militias concerns all Libyans, not just one tribe. Libyans must unite against militias present in all of Libya, and specifically in Tripoli. The international community must be held accountable for the crisis because of its involvement in the events on Feb. 11, 2011, and its participation in toppling the regime of former President Moammar Gadhafi are what got Libya to where it is today. After the crisis escalated and civil war started, the international community has reduced its intervention. In other words, they are managing the crisis, but they do not want to solve it.

Al-Monitor: Why did the tribes express during the Sept. 15 General Gathering of Libyan Cities and Tribes their support to the 7th Brigade whose spokesman, Saad Hamali, had announced their affiliation with the GNA and whose forces fought armed militias in Tripoli in order to disband them?

Qudeidi: Actually, the Tuareg sent a group of representatives to participate in that gathering. I believe that the support to the 7th Brigade resulted from learning about the details of its motives, history and battle goals. This is a very sensitive battle, and one cannot support any side without running enough background checks.

Al-Monitor: What role does the Supreme Council of the Tuareg Tribes have in re-establishing security in the south?

Qudeidi: No one is denying the extent to which the south is suffering from lack of security. The different governments and armies in Libya have failed to impose authority and establish security in the south. This is why tribal social components in the south play a major role in unifying positions. The Tuareg tribe has been communicating with the tribes of the south and its cities so that the south has one unified position. We will therefore be holding several meetings with tribes of the south to solve different crises, especially the security issue. We will suggest that tribes take on security and replace the government in providing security given the absence of official efforts in the south.

Al-Monitor: The south is suffering from the presence of foreign mercenaries. How will the tribes contribute to solving this crisis?

Qudeidi: We confirm that there are armed forces from Chadian, Sudanese and other rebel groups in the south of Libya. Members of Libyan tribes are suffering from the presence of such mercenaries who commit crimes such as kidnapping, theft and robbery. At first we thought that some tribes are supporting them, so we got in touch with those tribes that denied controlling such forces and giving them any support. Those mercenaries do not need any tribal support because they have heavy weapons and target all southern tribes. As tribes, we do not play any role in fighting such groups. This is the governments responsibility, but, in reality, we do not see any governmental efforts to drive those groups out of the south. Once they are out, stability would be restored. Tribes of the south are meeting in order to discuss any solutions for this crisis.

Al-Monitor: One of the issues faced by Tuareg members is the fact that they do not have identity cards. What is the base of this crisis and how is the council dealing with it?

Qudeidi: It is true that 17,000 Tuareg families do not have identity cards, and since 2011, all procedures have been taken to submit papers proving their identity and their being of Libyan descent in order to grant them nationality. Yet governments have repeatedly delayed solving this issue. We do not understand the cause of this stalling, but it confirms the sentiment that the Tuareg tribe is being targeted because of fears of its potentially strong political representation.

The Supreme Council of the Tuareg Tribes has been fighting for this right. We have taken all measures, resorted to different official instances and formed a group to meet with Aguila Saleh Issa, president of the Libyan House of Representatives, in April 2015. We explained the problem to him, and he promised to solve it. We also submitted a memorandum to Issa detailing the issue, but we havent heard from him yet.

Al-Monitor: The south has been witnessing inconsistent positions from different political and military elements in Libya like the GNA based in Tripoli, the Interim Government in Bayda, the House of Representatives based in Tobruk and the Libyan National Army under Gen. Khalifa Hifter. What is the position of the Tuareg tribes on these entities?

Qudeidi: Libya has many political and military entities, but they do not treat us as Libyans with rights. Our requests and services are ignored and we are marginalized on different levels, namely when it comes to lack of services in the south. This is why the Tuareg formed a group to meet with the representatives of these entities like the GNA, the Interim Government and Gen. Khalifa Hifter. We will disclose our position on each entity after meeting with them.

Al-Monitor: The Libyan south is considered as a main gate for illegal immigration to Europe and neighboring countries. How would you answer such accusations against the tribes of the south and their participation in aggravating and feeding this crisis?

Qudeidi: First, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Whoever believes this to be true only needs to share evidence implicating the tribes in illegal immigration. We do not deny that the south is witnessing such a crisis and in great numbers due to the fact that the border is not secured. No one is controlling the border and the bodies that have it as their responsibility are not doing their job, so we now have mercenaries controlling the border and facilitating illegal immigration. Unemployment might have pushed a small number of the Tuareg people and other tribal members to work in illegal immigration. Their economic situation leaves them with a choice between illicit work and death. To protect Libya from the dangers of illegal immigration in the south, the government must provide security and social services.

Al-Monitor: Does the Supreme Council of the Tuareg Tribes intend to play a role in the reconciliation between the tribes in the south?

Qudeidi: This is certain. Tuareg tribes do not have a problem with any other tribe or city. They are qualified to play a key role in the reconciliation in the south. We have formed a delegation to meet with all tribes in the south to achieve reconciliation and form a body uniting the south. The delegation will meet with all Libyan tribes to unite their stances and regain their role in Libya to participate in solving the Libyan crisis.

Al-Monitor: What is the take of the Tuareg tribes on the elections announced by the UN mission? Do they consider the elections and political solutions a way to detente in the Libyan crisis?

Qudeidi: We are now convinced that the war between Libyans will not bear fruit, but will shed more blood and force thousands to migrate and flee their homeland for fear of bullets. We realize the elections will settle the conflict with the authority, and everyone should accept this solution. As Tuareg tribes, we announced our participation in the elections and welcomed them as a solution to the Libyan crisis. But we still have a problem, which is that 17,000 families from the Tuareg tribe cannot vote because they do not have identity cards. The goal is to dismiss them from the electoral process because their high numbers would affect the results. We hope the crisis will be solved and these citizens will participate in the elections.A high-level Russian delegation visited the Gulf this week to court the oil kingdoms as Moscow ramps up efforts to end the war in Syria on its terms. The delegation, led by President Vladimir Putins Syria envoy Alexander Lavrentiev, met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials in Riyadh on Sunday before heading to the United Arab Emirates on Monday and on to Oman.

Why it matters: The tour sought to facilitate support for Russian initiatives in the region. In both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, the agenda centered on Middle East security, with a heavy focus on Syria. Russia is seeking to get the Gulf countries to abandon their hope of toppling Bashar al-Assads regime in favor of a political settlement and a focus on battling terrorism. In the run-up to possible major political shifts in Syria, Moscow is testing whether any compromises can be made to align Russian interests with those of the Saudis and the Emiratis.

Looking east: The move comes as Russia is playing an ever greater role in the Middle East while the United States steps back. The Russian delegation arrived in Riyadh one day before Secretary of State Mike Pompeo raced over to discuss the case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose disappearance and alleged murder threatens to harm US-Saudi relations.

With Washington and other Western powers pushing to restrict the disbursement of international aid in Assad-held parts of Syria, reconstruction and post-conflict stabilization were also an important part of Russias conversations in the Gulf. Moscow is looking for external funds to help rebuild the country. In August, Saudi Arabia pledged $100 million to help stabilize parts of Syria liberated from the Islamic State.

Beyond Syria: While in Riyadh, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin also met with UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths. Griffiths reportedly praised Russian support for UN initiatives to end the war between the Saudi-led Arab coalition and the Iran-backed Houthis. In Oman, Russia discussed the overall situation in the Gulf as well as the crisis in Yemen in addition to Syria.

Whats next: UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will be stepping down at the end of November. During his final weeks on the job, Reuters reports, de Mistura has been instructed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to verify once and for all whether a credible, balanced constitutional committee can be convened for Syria.

De Mistura will be traveling to Damascus next week hoping to win the Assad governments approval for a credible and inclusive third list of committee candidates being composed by the UN in addition to those emanating from the Syrian government and the opposition. The Russian position, voiced by UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya, is that the constitutional committee needs to be formed as soon as possible but that setting artificial deadlines in this case would be counterproductive. Russia thus seeks to harness support from key opposition backers in the Gulf as the constitutional committees are being formed and bigger-picture political moves in Syria loom on the horizon.

Know more: Stay abreast of the latest updates on Moscows moves in the region here and read our full Russia/Mideast coverage here.

- Maxim SuchkovTurkeys pro-government media continued to publish new sensational allegations concerning dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished at the Saudi Consulate on Oct. 2, triggering international uproar. The latest claim carried by Yeni Safak on its front page was that one of the 15 members of the alleged Saudi hit squad, who it identified as Meshal Saad M. Albostani, a lieutenant in the Saudi air force, had died in a suspicious traffic accident. It then acknowledged, There is no information about the details of the accident that left Albostani dead.

Indeed, the steady drip-drip of guts and gore, including claims that Khashoggi was tortured, decapitated and dismembered by the men and his remains dissolved in a acid barrels, is beginning to lose its shock effect as the Turkish officials cited as sources have yet to formally disclose any of the information, some of which they say was captured on an audiotape.

US President Donald Trump said yesterday he had asked Turkey to turn over the purported recording. I am not sure yet that it exists, he said, but then threw in an added caveat, Probably does, possibly does.

Until Turkey goes public with the tape, nobody will know for sure that its exists, let alone that it's authentic.

There is growing criticism of Ankara for dangling these lurid tidbits, spurring claims that it's not spending the bullet until it's gauged what, if anything, it can extract from its newfound leverage over the Saudis.

Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has established a reputation for a hard-nosed transactional approach to foreign affairs, manifested most recently with last weeks freeing of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson.

Barcin Yinanc, a columnist for the English-language Hurriyet Daily News, speculated that Turkey might be after what she called the big fish. She was alluding to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who allegedly ordered Khashoggis abduction or death. The Washington Post columnist was a vocal critic of the crown princes crackdown on dissidents and his blood-soaked war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels that has left millions of civilians facing a Biafra-style famine.

Turkish authorities have shared information that would indicate the murder could not have happened without the direct knowledge of the crown prince, the kingdoms de facto ruler. Is Ankara after the crown prince,  who has not particularly been fond of Turkeys policies? Yinanc asked.

But without Washingtons support in the matter, Turkish pressure alone cannot force change in Saudi Arabias succession and so far the Trump administration has been sending mixed signals. Thus, Turkish leaks seem to be designed as much to force Washingtons hand.

The 33-year-old crown prince, who has been touted as a reformer, is seen as critical ally in the administrations efforts to roll back Iranian influence and enjoys warm relations with Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He is also feted in Israel for reportedly having asserted that Israelis have the right to own their own land and for telling the Palestinians to either start accepting peace proposals or to shut up at a March meeting with Jewish leaders in New York.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeos talks with the Saudi king and crown prince failed to provide clarity, as did his subsequent meeting with Erdogan yesterday. But Pompeo was due to sit down with Trump today to chart a course of action. A face-saving exit for the Saudis would be very hard to pull off without Turkeys cooperation and even then, calls for an independent investigation including from the United Nations are growing louder by the day. What sort of concessions, if any, would Ankara accept to help get the crown prince off the hook? The answer may well be none. But the longer Ankara withholds the evidence it claims to possess, the less credible the specifics surrounding Khashoggi's likely death sound.The top Democrat on the Senates spending panel will continue to hold up $105 million in US military aid to Egypt until Cairo shows progress toward releasing an Egyptian-American detained during a military crackdown five years ago.

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, wants the State Department to get an update from Egypt on 53-year-old Moustafa Kassem before the assistance is released. Kassem, a former New York cab driver, was swept up in mass arrests as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2013.

Egyptian authorities sentenced Kassem to 15 years in prison in September for allegedly attempting to overthrow Sisis government in a mass trial that included 700 defendants. Kassem, who suffers from diabetes, recently began a hunger strike.

"The senator will decide about releasing his hold on the funds depending on the response of the Egyptians, a Leahy aide told Al-Monitor. Based on the information we have received, his case should be considered in connection with any decision.

Leahys office previously told Al-Monitor that the senator was withholding Egypt aid until Cairo fulfills a variety of human rights conditions. These include paying for medical treatment for an American citizen wounded in an Egyptian military attack, giving prisoners fair trial rights and overturning the 2013 convictions of NGO workers. Kassems case is now part of that hold. The aid is part of an annual $1.3 billion military aid package.

Leahys hold, which the veteran lawmaker first put in place in May, originally covered an additional $195 million in military aid frozen by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last year. But Tillersons successor Mike Pompeo overruled the decision and released the funds on national security grounds in August. Leahy referenced Kassems case, along with jailed US permanent residents Ola al-Qaradawi and Hosam Khalaf, in a June committee report accompanying the State Departments authorization bill.

The aide said Leahy has become concerned amid reports that Kassems health has deteriorated in recent months. Kassems lawyer, Praveen Madhiraju, told Al-Monitor that Egyptian authorities had given Kassem fruit juices that caused blood sugar spikes, leading to severe vomiting.

Leahys office has requested to visit Kassem in Cairo and discuss his situation with Egyptian officials, as Madhiraju said Egyptian authorities have recently denied family visits. ABC News reported last month that Kassem was forced to dictate letters to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence last month because he was too ill to write them himself.

Another American arrested in the 2013 protests, 27-year-old Ahmed Etiwy, was released in May.

Even though Pence pressed Sisi on the case during a visit to Cairo in January, Madhiraju said he was only able to make contact with the vice presidents office after Kassems sentencing last month. Hes hoping the precedent of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunsons release from a Turkish prison this month after Trump and Pence became personally involved could be replicated.

If you look at the Andrew Brunson case, that was an all-hands-on-deck case. I dont know why Moustafas case should be any different.

For many, many months, this was soft-pedaled in various arms of the US government, said Madhiraju, who runs the Washington-based nonprofit Pretrial Rights. If you look at the Andrew Brunson case, that was an all-hands-on-deck case. I dont know why Moustafas case should be any different.

Trump has sought to carve out a track record in the White House of negotiating the release of Americans imprisoned abroad. But his focus has been selective.

The Treasury Department, for example, only listed Brunsons case in its announcement of sanctions on two Turkish Cabinet members this summer. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who chairs the Helsinki Commission, an independent US agency run by Congress, has called for the extension of US sanctions until Serkan Golge, a NASA scientist, and three US consular employees detained last year return home.

The administration has been vocal on Brunson in a way it has not been vocal on the others, a congressional staffer who has worked on the matter told Al-Monitor. But behind the scenes, the State Department has not dropped focus on the others.

The US sanctions remain in place, even as Pompeo announced today that they were under review following Brunsons release. The secretary of state, however, said the United States continues to press for the release of Turkish employees of the US Consulate in Istanbul as well as Golge. Pompeo visited the families of the detained consular staff in Ankara on Wednesday.

We hope that the administration will keep up the pressure on, and not pretend that things are hunky dory, the staffer added. It seems like the same determination should apply to Serkan Golge and the consulate staff.

But experts arent convinced Brunsons return will lead to a renewed push to free others, including those in Turkey.

Brunsons release could have been an opportunity to discuss the cases of other US citizens, permanent residents and State Department employees, said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish parliament. We dont see much debate on other hostages.The deadline is up for the first two stages of a Russian-Turkish deal to create a demilitarized buffer belt around Syrias rebel-held province of Idlib. The Sept. 17 deal, agreed between the two countries presidents in Sochi, required militants to surrender their heavy weapons by Oct. 10 and the removal of groups deemed as terrorist from the zone by Oct. 15. With a fine adjustment to keep up appearances, heavy weapons were only withdrawn from the front lines, while the condition for the pullout of groups deemed as terrorist, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Hurras al-Din, the Turkistan Islamic Party and Ansar al-Islam, could not be met.

Turkeys state-run Anatolia news agency reported the withdrawal of mortars, cannons, tanks and Grad and medium-range missile launchers, while the Defense Ministry announced Oct. 10 that Turkey has fulfilled its responsibilities as a guarantor country and that the withdrawal of heavy weapons was completed that day.

It is impossible to determine or confirm how many weapons have been surrendered and how many have been stashed away. Skeptics of the deal have little to say, given the Russian nod of approval. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said things were progressing well, signaling Moscows willingness to continue working with Turkey and not cast a shadow on the Sochi accord. The task of highlighting potential gaps was up to Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who said Oct. 10 that Russian experts were trying to verify the pullout of heavy weapons. Over 1,000 militants had left the demilitarized zone, and about 100 pieces of equipment had been withdrawn, she added. The figures appeared quite modest, given the large number of militants in the region. Damascus, meanwhile, said it was awaiting Russias confirmation on the implementation of the deal.

Official statements aside, reports from the field paint a picture that is heavily open to interpretation.

Commanders of the National Liberation Front (NLF)  an umbrella group of rebel factions, formed with Turkish support  say they have enough arms to repel potential attacks despite the withdrawal of heavy weaponry. According to opposition sources, groups that do not want to fall into the trap of the regime and that oppose Russian entry into the zone are reinforcing their areas of control, deploying more light weapons and fighters, including snipers, and fortifying defense positions.

The rebel strategy was perhaps best summarized by a commander of Jaish al-Izza, who said most of the heavy weapons were kept in warehouses away from the front lines, to be brought out when heavy fighting erupted, so they merely stayed there.

Jaish al-Izza, which controls the region of al-Lataminah in southern Idlib, has been intransigent all along. Its leader Jamil al-Saleh rejected the Sochi deal, saying that it eats into liberated [rebel-held] areas and bails out Bashar al-Assad. The group categorically rejected Russian patrols in the buffer zone, while urging Turkey to prevent a repeat of the regimes seizure of the three other de-escalation zones in Syria.

NLF commanders, meanwhile, confirmed compliance with the deal after making conflicting statements. Since the pullout of heavy weaponry was accepted as sufficient, things became easier for NLF factions, many of which joined the alliance to duck the terrorist label. The NLF, which has refused to withdraw its fighters from the buffer zone, is also opposed to Russian military police patrolling the zone along with Turkish troops. In Oct. 2 remarks to Reuters, NLF commander Sheikh Omar Hutheifa said they had told Turkish officials that Russian patrols were a red line and received assurances that there would be no entry of Russian troops.

The al-Qaeda-linked HTS was the group that struggled the most to come up with a clear position. While it did not openly endorse the Sochi deal, it was ambivalent and played a double game to avoid confronting Turkey and the risk of provoking a Russian-Syrian offensive. In late September, an NLF leader said HTS had sent secret signals to the Turkish army through third parties that it would abide by the agreement.

Following heated internal debates, HTS finally issued an official statement Oct. 14, saying, We appreciate the efforts of all those who strive inside and abroad to protect the liberated area. It stressed, however, We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting toward implementing our blessed revolution, signaling an intent to fight until the regime is toppled. The group made it clear it would not surrender its weapons and it would embrace foreign fighters, who are not considered part of the solution process in the Astana process or Geneva talks.

Earlier, HTS heavyweights had harshly criticized the Sochi deal. Abu al-Fath al-Farghali, a member of the HTS Sharia committee, said, Pragmatism is the graveyard of jihad.  Surrendering weapons would be the greatest betrayal of religion and the martyrs blood. Evacuating positions would be an even greater betrayal. Prominent HTS member Abu al-Yaqdhan al-Masri, meanwhile, said that the claim that heavy weapons will be brought back if need be is nonsense and military charlatanry, referring to alleged Turkish assurances to the rebels.

HTS, which controls two-thirds of Idlib province with some 15,000 fighters, is estimated to have about 5,000 men in the buffer zone. No confirmed information exists to suggest that HTS has withdrawn more than a fifth of those fighters from the zone.

In practical terms, a pullout by HTS would mean the surrender of its control of the M-5 and M-4 highways and a significant loss of revenue. By controlling the two highways, HTS enjoys geographical and strategic superiority, while collecting taxes at checkpoints.

After Turkish-Russian technical talks on the implementation of the Sochi deal, the planned buffer zone turned out to be larger than initially expected. Accordingly, the demilitarized strip  15-20 kilometers wide and 250 kilometers long  extends to Jisr al-Shughur, Maarat al-Numan, Saraqib and the southern and western areas of Aleppo, including the routes of the M-5 and M-4 highways. The deal calls for the two highways to be reopened by the end of the year. M-5, which runs from Aleppo to Damascus, passes through Saraqib, Maarat al-Numan and Khan Sheikhoun, while M-4, which connects Aleppo and Latakia, passes through Ariha and Jisr al-Shughur.

Hurras al-Din, formed by 11 factions loyal to al-Qaeda creeds, appeared to partially withdraw heavy weapons, although it openly rejected the deal. Yet, despite the show of flexibility by jihadi groups, they have neither pulled out nor given up on the war.

Hurras al-Din, Ansar al-Tawhid, Ansar al-Din and Ansar al-Islam have formed a joint operation room in Idlib, proclaiming that their objective is not defense but assaulting regime forces. Their first attack took place Oct. 13 in the Hama countryside, targeting the Jurin military base with heavy weapons. Without mentioning locations, the Russian Reconciliation Center at the Khmeimim air base said afterward that armed groups in the de-escalation zone had continued to attack government forces.

Foreign fighters, meanwhile, have not given a hoot about the Sochi deal at all. The Turkistan Islamic Party has no intention of pulling out and is reportedly digging fresh trenches around Kabbani inside the buffer zone.

How long the calm in Idlib will last is hard to predict. According to Syrian army sources speaking to al-Masdar, talks are continuing with the Russians on the next steps in Idlib, Aleppo, Latakia and Hama. They make no mention of an imminent operation, but for Damascus, the deal in Idlib is temporary in any case.

The new situation places heavy responsibilities on Turkey. The groups that pledge compliance with the deal see Turkey as a protective shield against the regime. As such, Turkey is joining the parties that are actively and officially fighting the war.

Second, to prevent the collapse of the deal, Turkey is expected to stem attacks on regime positions by the groups that have no intention of standing by silently. Efforts to restrain them could draw Turkey into fighting.

Third, it is obvious that the current status quo will not last forever. Turkey says it will remain a guarantor of the zone until a political solution is found. Yet the political solution it has in mind may never materialize. How much and how long can Turkey ensure the stability of an extremely troubled and fluid region with scores of armed groups and thousands of fighters? No one has the answer.Turkish cartoonist Sefer Selvi published a cartoon on Oct. 13 that managed to explain several intertwined stories in a few words. The cartoon depicted Recep Tayyip Erdogan talking to the press and saying, After American firm McKinsey, we also expelled American pastor Andrew Brunson [from] Turkey! Indeed, Erdogan has managed to deliver a popular victory on both Justice and Development Party (AKP)-generated problems.

McKinsey is a global management consulting firm that serves a broad mix of public, private and social sector institutions, according to its own description. The firm has been operating in Turkey since 1995.

At the Ninth Turkey Investment Conference  which was organized by the Turkey-US Business Council in New York on Sept. 27  Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak announced, For the Expenditure and Transformation Office within the scope of the NEP [New Economy Program], we decided to work with international management corporation McKinsey. With representatives from 16 ministries, this office will check our goals and results [regarding the economy] every quarter.

Yet street interviews indicate that most people have never heard of the company and did not even know how to properly pronounce its name.

Albayraks statement was widely praised by most sections of the pro-government media, while the majority of the public was trying to understand how an American firm could be trusted to check economic development. Chairman of AKP ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli, who is an economist, came out to endorse the decision to work with McKinsey. In a Twitter flood on Oct. 4, Bahceli argued that in order to attract foreign investment, it would not be wrong to work with a global consulting firm.

Along with Albayrak and Bahceli, several pro-government voices vouched for McKinsey. Yeni Safak columnist Ali Saydam referred to the opposition to new policies announced by Albayrak as stupid and raised the idea of an IQ test for those who are opposed to working with McKinsey. Hilal Kaplan, another columnist for Yeni Safak, penned a piece titled Why McKinsey? and praised the company as one of the most trusted consulting firms, emphasizing that had Albayrak not announced this fact, no one would know. She was confident this decision could have been kept out of the public domain because McKinsey has a strict confidentiality policy.

Indeed, the idea of working with McKinsey might have been more successful if Albayrak had listened to Kaplans advice and not spill the beans to the public. Several segments of the public showed strong opposition to the idea of handing over the economy to an American company. The opposition was so fierce that on Oct. 3, Albayrak lashed out at television reports: This speculative rhetoric [referring to the criticism] is treason if not ignorance.

Only three days later, Erdogan crushed all support for plans to work with McKinsey, saying, I just told all my minister friends [that] you will not even seek consultation services from them [McKinsey]. We are [self]-sufficient."

Why did Erdogan speak so bluntly at the expense of Albayrak and several pro-AKP commentators? There were three lines of opposition to working with the New York-based consulting firm.

First, it is the opposition parties and economists. They argued that because Turkey does not want to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it was compelled to work with McKinsey. Main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu asked a series of questions  the most compelling being, Since Erdogan holds the United States as the main reason for the economic crisis, how can an American firm help us recover?

The personal relationship between McKinsey and AKP elites also raised suspicions. The head of McKinseys branch in Turkey, Ali Ustun, is the son-in-law of Besir Atalay, former interior minister and long-time AKP bigwig. Although Albayrak claimed that McKinsey will not have any executive powers  just advisory  most of the public was not convinced.

The second group consists of current and former technocrats. On the first day of Albayraks announcement, Al-Monitor spoke with a bureaucrat from the security intelligence establishment who, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, We will not cooperate. We will not open our records to a foreign entity. Durmus Yilmaz, the former president of the Central Bank of Turkey and vice chairman of the nationalist Good Party, spoke harshly against working with McKinsey and emphasized this would allow an American company to view all confidential information on the Turkish economy.

Timur Kuran, a professor of economics and political science and Gorter Family professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University, told Al-Monitor, Indeed, the regime is opening itself to the danger of being blackmailed. If Team Erdogan is blackmailed, Turkish foreign policy could be guided by the presidents need to protect himself and his cronies. In itself, that would be nothing new, though. For the past few years, Erdogans own interests have been the fundamental consideration in all Turkish policymaking. Still, it is alarming that Turkeys vulnerabilities are growing, that more wrongs are being added to existing wrongs. Kuran also predicted that if Erdogans base is not pleased, he will promptly sever ties with McKinsey.

The third group consists of Islamists and is led by Abdurrahman Dilipak, a columnist for Islamist daily Yeni Akit and prominent figure among conservative groups in Turkey. Dilipak did not mince words and bluntly called McKinsey a global octopus. Dilipak argued that working with this company would be the end of the AKP. He referred to the situation as a more urgent problem than that of Gulen, adding, This fiasco must be cleaned up as soon as possible. Dilipak said, You cannot do this. If you dare, then the hell with you.

You cannot say, 'I did it [and] so be it.' It is not that simple, he continued. He referred to McKinsey as the curse of God, and he was not comforted by Albayraks statement that McKinsey will have no executive powers. Dilipak replied, If they are to have executive powers, what are you good for? He concurred that the IMF was a much better entity than McKinsey.

All of the opposing groups asked the following questions: What happened to the Court of Accounts, the agency responsible for performance and regulatory (financial and compliance) audits? Why don't the Court of Account's reviews and recommendations suffice? And why not go to the IMF if structural reforms are needed? The government has so far failed to provide any answers.

Although Erdogan announced an abrupt ending to McKinsey, there were still questions about the conditions of the contract with McKinsey and the costs incurred to cancel it. AKP spokesperson Omer Celik stated that, based on Erdogans statement, ministries from now on would seek advice from local firms. He added that no payment has been made to McKinsey yet because there was no contract. Celik said he knows of three ministries that sought McKinseys advice, but they have not made any payments. Again, Celiks explanations left unanswered questions, such as why the need for local advisory firms? Why would McKinsey dispense free advice? What kind of information was provided to McKinsey and other firms for them to generate recommendations?

Erdogans statement was a major blow to Albayraks already shaken public image. Albayrak has had a difficult time in front of cameras expressing himself and convincing the Turkish public and international markets that he is in control of the economy. His colorful, powerful presentations have provided generous material for Turkeys sarcasm-loving social media. His repetition of the line, Look, this is very important, has generated several comments, op-eds and comedy videos. The McKinsey statement from Erdogan tarnished the last bits of Albayraks professional credibility. In the meantime, how the relationship with McKinsey ended and which domestic companies are now auditing the Turkish economy are not yet clear. One sentence from Erdogan, however, was sufficient enough to quiet Turkish Islamists.Tunisia traditionally prides itself on its education system, but the country had a brutal reality check in September, when a key government official announced that its illiteracy levels had risen for the first time since independence in 1956. Tunisia is now working with the United Nations cultural and educational arm, UNESCO, to improve adult literacy levels and reach school dropouts. Experts believe there is a growing need for national campaigns to make education valuable again in the eyes of the people.

Tunisian Minister of Social Affairs Mohammad al-Traboulsi announced during a press conference Sept. 12 that illiteracy in Tunisia had risen from 18.2% in 2017 to 19.1% in 2018. These figures shocked Tunisians, who often pride themselves as the most educated and cultivated society in the Arab region.

Traboulsi outlined the vulnerable groups and geographic areas prone to higher rates of illiteracy. He said illiteracy was steadily rising among rural women, 41% of whom are illiterate, according to 2018 figures. Illiteracy rates are higher in the northwest and central west of Tunisia, at more than 30%. In the agricultural sector, 53% of workers are illiterate, while 22.4% of workers in the service sector are illiterate. Those who drop out of formal education numbered 120,000, 20% of whom are at risk of regressing to illiteracy, according to the information given by Traboulsi.

The government failed in fighting illiteracy among the elderly, Tunisian historian Adel al-Luteifi told Radio Monte Carlo Sept. 15. Luteifi said the decline of literacy could be due to lack of funds amid the economic crisis or because of the 2011 political chaos. Early dropout from schools  caused by the increasing cost of education  is among the key reasons behind the rise in illiteracy, he said, adding that families allow their children to drop out of school because they can no longer afford to keep them there.

Others believe there is more to the rising levels of illiteracy than shaky finances. The increase in the number of school dropouts is not simply due to economic conditions, but the change in the social values, Tarek Belhadj Mohamed, a researcher at the International Center for the Formation of Teachers and Pedagogical Innovation, affiliated with the Ministry of Education, told Al-Monitor. The youths, as well as some of their parents, "no longer think that education is the tool for social mobility and a secure future. Youth role models have also changed  they are no longer workers, teachers or doctors. They have been replaced by people who make quick money or are social media icons.

Amine al-Abdali, a member of the Tunisian General Labor Union who teaches at the Claude Bernard primary school in Tunis, told Al-Monitor, The rise in the illiteracy level depends on many different factors. In the rural parts of the northwest and central west regions, the families lack the adequate financial means to send their children to school. Sometimes, there are no nearby schools or they prefer to put their children to work early in life, rather than educate them.

Tunisian journalist Mohamed Bettaib said the rise in illiteracy is due to post-2011 social and economic developments following the ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Bettaib explained that the country reached its peak in educational reforms some 50 years ago. After independence, former Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba tried to build a modern state that would be centralized and would control the revolution, power and society at once, he said. In order to achieve that, he made radical reforms to encourage education, in order to transform a conservative, mainly agricultural society. The new state administrative institutions also needed educated employees. Bourguiba allocated a huge budget for education.

He added, however, that during Ben Alis regime in the 1990s and 2000s, the esteem for the educated classes had declined, as many people with diplomas were unemployed. Currently, the economic crisis in the country has led people to look for quick money, even if it is through smuggling. Education is no longer a priority, he said.

Belhadj Mohamed told Al-Monitor that the Ministry of Education was working with UNESCO to devise a national strategy to eradicate illiteracy and to educate adults. We will also launch other programs targeting school dropouts," he said. "All this will have a huge impact on curbing illiteracy in the near future.

According to the Global Education Monitoring Report issued by the UNESCO in 2016, Tunisia spends 6% of its gross domestic product  or 17% of its general budget  on education annually. The same report says Tunisia succeeded in 2012 in achieving gender parity in primary education.A new report on "Alabama's War on Marijuana," released today by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law & Justice and the Southern Poverty Law Center, calls prosecution of marijuana possession a wasteful use of state law enforcement that discriminates against blacks.

"This war on marijuana is one whose often life-altering consequences fall most heavily on black people," the report said.

The report features the stories of several people arrested for marijuana possession, such as Wesley Shelton of Montgomery, who spent 15 months in jail on a felony conviction for possession of $10 worth of marijuana.

The report was released in Alabama a day after Canada began legalized sale of recreational marijuana. The report notes that the sale and possession of marijuana is now legal in 8 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, and includes a chapter titled, "Marijuana legalization proving beneficial to states," touting increased state revenue and the virtual elimination of marijuana arrests.

Huntsville police arrested 143 people for marijuana possession in 2016 and 121 were black; Birmingham arrested 38 and 35 were black; Tuscaloosa arrested 331 and 256 were black, the report notes.

The report studied 2,351 arrests in Alabama for marijuana possession in 2016. Among the findings:

The overwhelming majority of people arrested for marijuana offenses from 2012 to 2016, nearly 89 percent, were arrested for possession.

Despite studies showing black and white people use marijuana at the same rates, black people were approximately four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession (both misdemeanors and felonies) in 2016 - and five times as likely to be arrested for felony possession.

Alabama spent an estimated $22 million to enforce the prohibition against marijuana possession in 2016 - enough to fund 191 additional preschool classrooms, 571 more K-12 teachers or 628 more corrections officers.

The enforcement of marijuana possession laws has created a crippling backlog at the state agency tasked with analyzing forensic evidence in all criminal cases, including violent crimes.

"Alabama's war on marijuana is a monumental waste of tax dollars, undermines public safety, and is enforced with a staggering racial bias," said Frank Knaack, executive director of Alabama Appleseed. "The impact of an arrest for possessing marijuana is often significant, and the consequences can last for years. Even an arrest for the possession of a small amount of marijuana can upend somebody's life by limiting their access to employment, housing and college loan programs, and leaving them trapped in a never-ending cycle of court debt."

The report identified wildly disparate arrest rates for white and black people in certain jurisdictions. Among the 50 law enforcement agencies that arrested the most people for possession, seven arrested black people at 10 or more times the rate of white people. Those jurisdictions are: Huntsville, Dothan, Gulf Shores, Pelham, Troy, Etowah County, and Decatur.

"Alabama continues to shoot itself in the pocketbook with harsh, outdated laws that create needless suffering for its residents, particularly for black people who are still living with the legacy of Jim Crow," said Lisa Graybill, deputy legal director for the SPLC. "It's past time to reform laws that perpetuate discrimination."

A fiscal analysis conducted by economists at Western Carolina University found that the enforcement of marijuana possession laws - the police and prosecutors' work, the court hearings and trials, and the incarceration of people in local jails and state prisons - came with a price tag of $22 million in 2016.

"Each of the 2,351 marijuana arrests in 2016 involved a judge, a clerk, law enforcement officers, forensics, storage, and prosecutors, all paid for by Alabama's taxpayers," Dr. Angela Dills and Dr. Audrey Redford, economics professors with the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise at Western Carolina University, said in a joint statement. "Taken together, we estimate the cost of enforcing Alabama's marijuana possession laws to be $22 million in 2016 alone."

Other personal stories in the report include Kiasha Hughes, who aspired to be a medical assistant, but because of a marijuana offense she now works at a chicken plant and struggles to provide for her children; and Nick Gibson, who was a student at the University of Alabama when a marijuana possession charge derailed his education.

"Alabama should follow the lead of other states that have realized marijuana prohibition is self-defeating and counterproductive," Graybill said. "We're draining scarce resources and driving people further into poverty - and there's no public safety benefit. Even Mississippi has decriminalized small amounts of marijuana."

Marijuana prohibition also threatens wider public safety, the report found. The significant backlog at the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences caused by the demand for drug sample tests has siphoned resources away from the agency's Forensic Biology/DNA lab. That lab now faces a backlog of 1,121 cases, of which about half are "crimes against persons," or homicides, sexual assaults and robberies.

"Now in its fourth decade, the war on drugs has failed to eradicate or even diminish marijuana use," Knaack said. "In 2016 alone Alabama spent over $22 million on the enforcement of its marijuana possession laws. At the same time, the state agency tasked with analyzing forensic evidence in all criminal cases, including violent crimes, faced a crippling backlog. It's time for Alabama to invest its resources on strategies and programs that will help keep our communities safe - investigating serious crimes and providing substance abuse and mental health programs."

Polls show that 61 percent of Americans now support full legalization, the report said.This is an opinion column.

Terry Lathan really, really, really wants African Americans to join the Republican party.

The excitable Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman is passionate about it, in fact.

She believes with all her blessed heart that her partys conservative policies--good jobs and safe, high-quality schools, she consistently toutsmore closely align with the desires of black voters in Alabama than those of Democrats.

"These are Republican issues, she told me during a long and spirited conversation this week. Its not about the color of a persons skin as much as it is about the American dream and having the opportunity to achieve it.

Youve got to applaud Lathans efforts. Especially amid headwinds of the indisputable fact that the vast, vast majority of the states near 900,000 registered African American voters are deeply entrenched Democrats whove seen little from Alabama Republicans that demonstrate actions showing inclusion and sensitivity to issues particularly relevant to black voters.

Its well-chronicled that last December black voters practically turned the state into Ala-black-ma, flooding polls in record numbers to help send Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate by a narrow margin over Roy Moore.

Almost a year later, the trenches among Alabama Democrats are still strong (despite state party leadership whose strategiessuch as they areseem rooted in a past long passed). In recent months, a plethora of local organizations fueled voter registration and boosted financial contributions to African-American Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

On Thursday, members of the Democratic National Committees Black Caucus are scheduled to gather in Birmingham for a three-day leadership summit.

In short,, Alabama Dems aint scared.

Yet Lathan remains undaunted and truly believes\state party can make inroads with African-American voters.

You have to have a conversation with people, she said. Its a matter of looking at the big picture of what African-Americans want and what they deserve.

Shes right about that. African-American voterspretty much like all voterswant, as she said, what they want and deserve.

They must be listened to and not just spoken to, not just told, Hey, we care about what you care about.

And they must be heard.

The preponderance of Alabamas black voters will be deaf to Republican overtures as long as the partys national leader regularly spews racial divisiveness. Just last week, for instance, he praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee (a true great fighter) at a rally in Ohio (General Ulysses S. Grants birthplace, by the way).

Theyll be deaf as long as the partys actions appear to put pleasing its base (where are they going anyway?) above issues and strategies vital to black voterslike equitable, high-quality public education, effective strategies to attack poverty and the conditions that create and sustain it, workforce development programs in careers that will support families, and the continued diminution of barriers stymieing access to quality healthcare.

Theyll also be deaf as long as all Republicans in the Alabama state legislature are white, as they are now.

As long as no African-American Republican is put forth by the party for statewide office.

As long as there is still the pain and mistrust engendered by actions such as the closing three years ago of 31 DMV offices in Black Belt and rural areas, where most voters obtain the photo ID they need to vote, by then Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican. (The closings were cited as financial, yet smackedintended or notof yet another way to make it harder for blacks to vote. The state was eventually embarrassed into reopening the offices when a federal investigation found the closings created a disparate and adverse impact on the basis of race.)

As long as Gov. Kay Ivey (and/or here minions) play party over (black) people by blithely supporting and signing a bill preventing municipalities from moving historical monuments (wink: everybody knows it meant Confederate) that have been in place more than 40 years. Or by failing to reappoint Democrat Danny Carr as Jefferson County District Attorney last December, though he had served ably as district attorney pro tem. (Instead, she went chalk and appointed Republican Mike Anderton.)

To overcome these obstacles, Alabama Republicans must show us theyre sincere with true, boots-on-the-ground outreach efforts and not blind to the divisiveness that impacts us all each day.

Call it people over policy, or at least equal to.

Lathan acknowledges such balance is critical to any conversation with African-American voters.

If there is something in partys past or words said that concern people, they should be addressed, she said. [Its a] fair conversation to have.]"

To boost her cause, she cites the 15 African-Americans who qualified to run in the latest Republican primary. We will continue building relationships and meeting with African Americans to run on our ticket with our policy as our common interest and strength.

She also says an African-American absolutely can win statewide office. Voters are interested in good policy and strong candidates who articulate their conservative positions and beliefs on Election Day, said.

Lathan is particularly adamant that Alabama Republicans cannot be blamed for any voter suppression efforts in the state, citing recent record turnouts among black voters as proof.

I have also said for years that if anybody is a qualified voter in the state of Alabama and is denied the right to register or vote at their polling place to call me, period, she said. I will personally help that person in their quest if they fit the qualifications.

There is, truthfully, sentiment among some African Americans that Democratic policies have, in a sense, failed them in many areas, including employment, education and addressing conditions that contribute to overwhelming poverty, crime and hopelessness in too many African-American neighborhoods.

Not enough, probably, to ease Lathans challengeat least not any time soon.

But almost certainly enough to .

Roy S. Johnsons column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Hit me up at rjohnson@al.com or/and follow me at twitter.com/roysj or on Instagram at instagram.com/roysj/Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has offered to meet privately with the general manager of a north Alabama water authority that is suing 3M over water pollution in its source water to discuss the possibility of the state joining the lawsuit, but would not commit to taking legal action against the chemical manufacturer.

Marshall noted that while a recent $850 million settlement between 3M and Minnesota dealt with the same chemicals that were found in drinking water taken from the Tennessee River in Alabama, the Minnesota case was based on Minnesota state law and that Alabama law does not contain comparable provisions; therefore, our evaluation of this matter is complex.

Marshalls letter, which was provided to AL.com on Thursday, was sent in response to a request from the West Morgan East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority that the state join a lawsuit it filed against 3M over man-made chemicals found in its source water.

The water authority says it has spent $4 million to install a temporary filter to remove those chemicals and is still looking to pay for a permanent solution. It serves about 20,000 meters in Lawrence and Morgan Counties.

Gov. Kay Ivey said Wednesday that she will work with local authorities and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to address the water pollution issues in north Alabama and with Marshall to research the water authoritys request.

"I support the Attorney General as he makes the proper determination on any possible litigation, Ivey said.

The controversy surrounding these chemicals -- PFOA and PFOS -- escalated in 2016, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory that those substances could cause human health problems, including kidney ailments and some cancers, at exposure levels lower than previously believed.

After that warning was issued, WMEL general manager Don Sims advised customers of the water authority not to drink their tap water until the situation was corrected. It was, and according to testing results from ADEM, the water provided by the authority meets the new health advisory limits implemented in 2016 for PFOA and PFOS.

The full letter from Marshall is embedded below.Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 83F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening, then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 49F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has responded to a north Alabama water authoritys request for the state to join its lawsuit against the 3M Company related to water pollution in the Tennessee River.

I understand the concerns of the residents in the Morgan/Lawrence county area. My office is aware of the ongoing situation there and will continue to work with ADEM and local officials on those issues, Ivey said in a statement to AL.com Wednesday afternoon.

"We will also be working with the Attorney Generals Office to research the request of the West Morgan/East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority. I support the Attorney General as he makes the proper determination on any possible litigation.

The West Morgan and East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority mailed a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey and Attorney General Steve Marshall Friday, asking the state to formally join their lawsuit against 3M, AL.com news partner WHNT News 19 reported.

In the letter, WMEL general manager Don Sims, said Alabama has not stepped up to help its residents, as authorities in Minnesota, Ohio and New York did when similar issues were discovered in those states. Sims cited a recent $850 million settlement between 3M and the state of Minnesota as an example.

The lawsuit and pollution issues relate to PFOA and PFOS, two man-made chemicals that for years were manufactured at a 3M facility on the Tennessee River in Decatur. In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory that those chemicals were linked to human health problems, including cancer and kidney disease, at lower concentrations than previously believed. Eight Alabama water systems, several of which received their water from the WMEL treatment plant on the Tennessee River, tested above the EPAs new advisory limits.

After the advisory, the WMEL told its customers not to drink their tap water and installed a $4 million temporary filtration system to remove those chemicals from its water supply. It is now suing 3M for damages and to pay for the cost of a permanent upgraded filtration system that can remove those substances from its water. Since then, many north Alabama residents have been afraid to drink their tap water, and many customers of the affected systems have been drinking only bottled water.This is an opinion column.

Tarrant schools will retest their dirt.

Which is something. Which is the right thing. Which is, lets face it, the very least a school system that gave two hoots for children could do.

We just went through a trial in which criminals who represented heavy industry proved theyd stop at nothing to derail federal clean-up plans in north Birmingham and stop expansion of the cleanup into Tarrant. We saw and heard how those now-convicted criminals used pressure and lies and influence and bribery and conspiracy and threats to get what they wanted.

Which was for residents and  yes, even the Tarrant schools  to forbid the federal government from testing their soil.

Because if they found high levels of lead and arsenic and other heavy metals it would  forget the things it might do to elementary children  cost Drummond Co. and other fat cats a bunch of money.

Tarrant Schools Superintendent Shelly Mize agreed in November of 2015 to let the EPA test the soil, but her decision crashed like a big ol arsenic balloon in the shadow of Drummonds ABC Coke.

Briber Joel Gilbert went into conniptions, writing letters, pressuring city officials, doing what he did. Within two months Mize contacted the EPA and revoked her permission to have the soil tested.

Because, as Gilbert had been saying, previous tests looked pretty good, she said. So there was no need for a school system to go the extra mile to let federal environmental regulators double

It didnt look fishy at all. Except for the gills. And the fins. And the scales. And maybe those two heads.

When that trial ended this summer, and the reach of Gilbert and co-conspirator Drummond VP David Roberson became clear, it was natural to wonder about Tarrant schools.

I mean, if there was nothing to fear, why was Gilbert so adamant?

I asked Mize back in September to allow Alabama Media Group to hire an independent environmental tester to come sample the soil. Mize said she would take the request to her board.

Ill be honest. I expected a big fat No, and thats what I got. Sort of. But sort of  not.

On behalf of the Tarrant Board of Education, I am authorized to say that we are receptive to additional testing, she wrote to me this week. However, we think it is appropriate for us to contract for the testing to be done.

Ok. Ok.

Our community and stakeholders can rest assured that should soil samples reveal a concern, it will be handled promptly as a part of our on-going commitment to the families in our community.

OK.

Which is all anybody in that community or any community should expect and demand, that if there is a hint of risk  from an intruder or a student or possible carcinogens in the air or soil  that someone at the schools will take action.

Mize said she is confident the tests will mirror those from a 2013 consultants report that found no elevated risk for two of the three contaminants on the EPAs radar.

But thatll be up to the testing. Which is the right answer.

Mize said shes putting together a list of reputable companies for testing and hopes to have the work done by the end of November. She will make the findings public, she said.

We want to reassure our community that our schools are safe! We will not only send the results to our families but will also post on our website, she wrote. Since the recent AL.com articles, we added a link on our website sharing our soil and air testing.

Which is something. The right thing. And the very least a school system could do.

John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras making its way toward the United States.

In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to stop U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump said in one tweet.

In another, he suggested that the "onslaught" of immigrants could undermine a recently announced reworked trade deal with Mexico and Canada, writing that immigration is "far more important to me, as President, than Trade."

The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, has yet to be signed by the three countries. Congress is not expected to ratify it before next year.

Trump's comments come as he has been urging fellow Republicans to make immigration a central issue in the closing weeks of their midterm election campaigns and blaming Democrats for his inability to pass immigration legislation in the GOP-controlled Congress.

"All Democrats fault for weak laws!" Trump said in one tweet Thursday.

The issue of immigration is certain to be on the agenda Friday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Trump's frustration appears to stem in part from record levels of migrants entering the United States with children in the three months since his administration stopped separating families at the border.

The Washington Post reported this week that Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump has made migrant caravans a symbol of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration policies. In his tweets Thursday, he warned that the latest group includes "MANY CRIMINALS."

Earlier this year, Trump's criticism turned a migrant caravan into a spectacle, with day-by-day media coverage of the journey. That episode caused a spat between the United States and Mexico and was used to justify a deployment of National Guard troops to the border.

When Trump has previously mobilized troops in response to unlawful migration, their missions have been mostly passive support for border agents, such as logistics and surveillance.

The Posse Comitatus Act forbids using the military for civilian law enforcement duties outside military bases in the United States.

Military officials instructed troops to alert border agents if they encountered migrants, rather than intervene themselves, except in cases of self-defense. The Army also restricted the use of weapons to personnel who may need to use force.

The Government Accountability Office looked at Bush and Obama administration mobilizations on the border and found that DHS didn't understand what its military support could and could not do, which frustrated DHS and Pentagon officials.

On Wednesday, Mexican officials said those in the Honduran caravan with proper documentation could enter the country and those without it would have to apply for refugee status or face deportation.

The migrants - who say they are traveling in search of jobs, better lives for their families and an escape from gang threats and violent communities - were blocked at the Honduras-Guatemala border for several hours earlier this week by Guatemalan police in riot gear before being allowed to pass.

The group has swollen in size since leaving San Pedro Sula, one of the world's most dangerous cities, on Friday. By some estimates, it now contains more than 3,000 people.

Trump also threatened in April to withdraw aid from Honduras and other countries that allowed passage for a similar caravan that originated in the Central American country. That caravan dissipated as it approached the U.S. border.Four Birmingham residents, including an 18-year-old arrested earlier this year after he tried to run over two lawmen, have been charged in a double murder in south Alabama.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall on Thursday announced the arrests in connection with the June slayings of Cortez Deez and Luman Williams, both of Evergeen. Their bodies were found on the side of a dirt road  Dilly Hill Road -about 3:50 p.m. that Saturday, June 2, and their car found burning a short time later.

Marshall said three men and a woman are now charged with crimes related to the burglary, robbery, kidnappings and murders of Dees and Williams. Those charged are: Courtney Andrews, 31; Nathaniel Anthony Fortune, 29; Kaia Fortune, 18; and Johnathan Leonard Willis, 35. All are from Birmingham.

According charging documents, the victims were shot multiple times. The suspects, investigators said, robbed the two victims of their property, then forced Dees to direct them to his home while they were driving his car.

While at Dees home, they went inside and stole a large amount of cash and drugs. The suspects then drove the two men to Dilly Hill Road in Dees vehicle. Investigators say they shot them multiple times and then drove Dees vehicle to Tram Road in Georgian where they doused it with gas and set it on fire.

The suspects then fled back to Birmingham in Andrews vehicle.

Andrews was arrested Sept. 21 for making a false statement to an agent of the Attorney Generals Office. Three days later she was charged with four counts of capital murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence. She is being held in the Butler County Jail.

Nathaniel Fortune was arrested Sept. 27 on four counts of capital murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence. He was booked into the Jefferson County Jail that day and has since been moved to Butler County.

Johnathan Leonard Willis was arrested Oct. 9 and charged with four counts of capital murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence. He is being held in the Butler County Jail.

Kaia Fortune also is charged with four counts of capital murder and one count of tampering with evidence. He is in the Jefferson County Jail where he has been held since June 13. The teen was shot that day after authorities said he tried to run over two police officers who were trying to arrest him.

He is charged with two counts of attempted murder in that case, and already had been sought on two unrelated counts of attempted murder for shootings that happened in 2017 and 2018.

The U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task force was trying to arrest Fortune when he fled and some kind of chase ensued. Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Lt. Jon Riley said the task force officers had blocked in Fortune's vehicle with their vehicles and, as he made his getaway, tried to hit the officers.

One of the officers fell on a rock bed and was taken to an area hospital to be checked out. Birmingham police radios indicated shots were fired and it initially sounded as if an officer had been hit. A call for all possible assistance was broadcast.

Birmingham police, Jefferson County sheriff's deputies, U.S. Marshals and some ATF agents responded to the scene in the 500 block of Orchid Road off Five Mile Road. Fortune managed to elude law enforcement officers, but a couple of hours later he turned up at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa and was taken into custody.

Kaia Fortune had been shot in the hand and the leg.

Nathaniel Fortune pleaded guilty in 2015 to abuse of a corpse after a womans body was found burning in Fairfield. He was one of two men charged in the case.

Nathaniel Fortune and Kenneth Lamar Childers were indicted for corpse abuse in January in connection with the body of 22-year-old Megan Elizabeth Monroe, which was found burning April 19, 2014 behind an empty house in the 500 block of 40th Street in Fairfield.

Monroe was already dead from an alleged drug overdose when the two men put Monroe's body behind the house and set it on fire, according to the indictments in the case. Childers came to police nine days later and confessed what he had done and identified Fortune as the second suspect. Police also obtained video of the two men buying gas.

Nathaniel Fortune was sentenced to 10 years in prison to run concurrent with other unrelated convictions. He has a lengthy criminal record. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to attempted murder, and in 2002 to possession of cocaine and carrying a pistol without a license.

In 2013 Fortune was on trial for murder in the 2002 shooting death of Napolean Perry Henderson when the trial came to an abrupt end. The case was dismissed against Fortune after the prosecutions key witness told a judge that he lied to police about Fortune being the shooter.

The cases will be prosecuted by the attorney generals Criminal Trials Division. The Attorney General thanked local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, especially Butler County Sheriff Kenny Harden and the Butler County Sheriffs Office for their contributions to this investigation, and District Attorney Charlotte Tesmers office.A Birmingham native who became a global human rights activist will soon receive the highest honor given by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Angela Davis will be awarded the 2018 Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award on Feb. 16, 2019. Davis will also deliver the keynote speech during the 14th annual event. The award recognizes individuals for their significant contributions to civil and human rights. Davis has been deeply involved in social movements worldwide.

"We are thrilled to bestow this honor on Angela Davis, and excited about her return to her hometown of Birmingham, which is the very launching pad of the modern human rights movement," BCRI President and CEO Andrea Taylor said. "Arguably, shes one of the most globally recognized champions of human rights, giving voice to those who are powerless to speak,"

Born in Birmingham on Jan. 26, 1944, Davis experienced racial prejudice while growing up in Alabama. She joined many groups, including the Black Panther Party, while she was a graduate student at the University of California in San Diego during the late 1960s. In the early 1970s, she was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List" and spent 18 months in jail and on trial before her acquittal in 1972.

Davis has taught at San Francisco State University, Mills College, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Vassar, Syracuse University the Claremont Colleges and Stanford University. She is now at the University of California Santa Cruz as Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness  an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program  and of Feminist Studies. She has authored 10 books and has lectured throughout the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America.

In recent years, a persistent theme of her work has been the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of communities most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. Previous winners of the Shuttlesworth award have included:

Actor and humanitarian Danny Glover, civil rights icons Congressman John Lewis, Rev. Joseph Lowery and Dorothy Cotton, legal activist and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, Ambassador Andrew Young, attorney Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., actor Harry Belafonte and longtime Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington.

We believe the late Reverend Shuttlesworth would also have been proud to see this award in his name bestowed upon her, said Taylor.A state appeals court has asked the Judicial Inquiry Commission to investigate a Jefferson County judge to determine if she violated ethical rules.

The Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling Friday that denied the states motion to hold Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd in contempt of court, but said the court is troubled by Todds repeated failure to abide by controlling law and her seemingly cavalier disregard for the orders of this Court and the Alabama Supreme Court.

Todds actions present questions of grave concern," the appeals court states, and they sent the case to the JIC for the commission to determine if proceedings should be brought against Todd.

The JIC investigates ethics complaints, and if necessary files charges, against judges. Those charges are then heard by the Court of the Judiciary, which could discipline or remove a judge from the bench.

The issues between the state and Todd began in January when, according to the courts ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals directed Todd to recuse herself from Terrell Corey McMullins death-penalty case. The court ordered Todd recuse herself because she had issued prior rulings that directly conflicted with the Alabama Supreme Courts rulings on judicial override of the death penaltywhen a judge can override a jurys recommendation and either sentence a defendant to death or order a sentence of life in prison. Alabama was one of the few states to still allow judicial override, but state law barred it in 2017.

According to Fridays ruling, Todd applied the banning of judicial override retroactivelybut, the Alabama Supreme Court specifically ordered that the ban did not apply retroactively.

The court also noted in the January order that Todd may have violated the Canons of Judicial Ethics when she gave a radio interview about several capital murder cases pending in her court.

Lawyers for McMullin asked the appeals court to reconsider its decision, but the court denied the motion. Todd and McMullin, both represented by attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative, asked the Alabama Supreme Court to review the case, according to the ruling.

The state Supreme Court denied their motion.

In September, Todd set an October date for a conference in McMullins case. The state asked the appeals court to make Todd show why she shouldnt be held in contempt for still not recusing herself and that the matter be referred to the Judicial Inquiry Commission for an investigation into Judge Todds behavior, the motion states. Todd responded, saying she set the case for a conference by mistake and that she did enter an order recusing herself from McMullins case.

According to the ruling, Todd said she never received a notice that the Alabama Supreme Court denied her and McMullins petition for review. Judge Todd states that she did not willfully disobey this Courts mandate, and she asserts that the States motion does not fully consider [her] good faith effort to adjudicate matters in a professional, ethical, and legally sound manner. She further asserts that the State misinterpreted and mischaracterized her actions and that this Court does not have the authority to refer the matter to the Judicial Inquiry Commission.

The appeals court said in its Friday ruling that although Todd claimed she never received notice from the states highest court about their denial to review the case, she has offered no explanation as to how that happened and didnt deny that she did receive a copy of the order to recuse herself. She also has not stated any reason why, since she knew this Court had ordered her to recuse months ago, she did not at least check the case file or the status of McMullins petition with the Supreme Court before she entered an order setting the matter for a status conference," the ruling said.

Even though the appeals court denied to hold Todd in contempt, the court noted that the JIC would be better directed to determine if her actions violated the ethics canon, and ordered that a clerk deliver a copy of their ruling to the JIC. Should a member of the JIC think the case deserves a proceeding, he or she must file a complaint with the commission.

All five of the appeals judges concurred with the ruling, and Judge J. Michael Joiner judge wrote a special opinion to note that Todd has been the subject of more than 20 petitions seeking extraordinary writs over the past two years. Many of those petitions sought Todds recusal, and several were denied on purely procedural grounds.A judge could decide Friday whether a Jefferson County judicial candidate will have her votes counted in the Nov. 6 general election.

A Jefferson County voter filed a lawsuit late last month, claiming candidate Linda Hall isnt eligible for the judicial seat shes campaigning for because she doesnt live in Jefferson County. Fayette County Circuit Judge Samuel Junkins is presiding over the case after all Jefferson County judges recused themselves.

Junkins set the case for trial on Friday at 9 a.m.

Hall is currently the Democratic nominee for Jefferson County Circuit Court Place 16, which is part of the Tenth Judicial Circuit. She is running against Republican incumbent Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam.

The original complaint states Hall isn't eligible for the seat because Alabama law requires a judicial candidate to reside in the circuit they are competing in for at least 12 months prior to the election or appointment. The voter's lawsuit says Hall has lived in Shelby County-- which is not part of the Tenth Judicial Circuit-- for parts of the past 12 months and will not have lived in Jefferson County for a year by election day.

Ballots for the November 6 election have already been printed, and absentee ballots have already been mailed. The complaining voter, who is represented by Barry Ragsdale, claims that the only remedy for the situation is that any votes cast for Hall not be counted.

Halls attorney Kearney Hutsler filed a motion asking Junkins to dismiss the case, stating the court doesnt have jurisdiction and also that the law only applies to state officials or employees and not to candidates. All of the statues [sic] and case law submitted apply to public officers and employees of the State of Alabama, the motion states. The motion calls Hall merely a candidate for state office.

Another filing by Halls attorney states that her true place of residence is in Jefferson County. She bought property and built a house on a street in Jefferson County, the filing claims, but was evicted after an issue arose with her sister with whom she co-owned the property. According to the document, court rulings affirmed that Hall owns two-thirds of the property, and Hall intends to purchase the remaining third from her sister and move back onto the property. Her drivers license and voter registration information are registered to that address, the filing says.

The filing explains where Hall has been living: Because of a medical condition that affects Ms. Halls ability to breath [sic], she has looked for a clean apartment to live in until the litigation with her property is finally resolved. She tried to lease apartments on a temporary basis that turned out to be in Shelby County. She thought they were in Jefferson County but they were not. In each Shelby County apartment, Ms. Hall experienced fumes, mold or smoke that made living in those locations intolerable. Ms. Hall found it necessary to terminate her leases early as a result.

Ragsdale said, It is unfortunate that Ms. Hall has resorted to trying to deceive the voters and the Court in this matter. She has admitted that shes been living in Shelby County for more than a year and even used her Shelby County address on her sworn qualification papers filed with the Alabama Democratic Party. She engaged in outright deception when she used a fake zip code on her filings with the State Party and with the Alabama Ethics Commission and it is readily apparent that she is hoping that voters are not paying attention.

The document also says Hall has maintained her office on Valley Avenue in Birmingham during this period of time, which is the same address she listed in earlier court filings. Hall "denies that she is not a resident of Jefferson County in one filing, and states she has continuously resided at and does reside at a Valley Avenue address, which is an office building called Valley Centre.

Her attorney said in a recent filing, Hall considers her office to be her Jefferson County home but hopes that she can return to her Berry Road property for her residence in the foreseeable future."

In a declaration of candidacy notice given to the Alabama Democratic Party in February, Hall listed an address on Kenley Way. But, the zip code she listed to accompany that address was 35219a zip code that doesnt match the Kenley Way address or her Valley Avenue office address.

Junkins order addresses the jurisdiction claim, stating his court does have jurisdiction based on a 2002 Montgomery case. He also writes, Halls reply brief admits that Hall has been living these past months in Shelby County, not Jefferson County. The qualification statute unambiguously requires that the judge shall have resided in the Circuit for 12 months prior to election.

Hutsler asked the court to reconsider its order denying the motion to dismiss, and Junkins denied that motion Wednesday.

Ragsdale said, While this started out as a mere challenge to Ms. Halls residency, it is now clear that she is willing to mislead people in order to get elected. This is, of course, made even worse by the fact that she is seeking to be a criminal court judge. We expect the evidence, including Ms. Halls own testimony, to clearly establish that she is ineligible and unsuited to stand for election as a judge in Jefferson County and we look forward to proving our case on Friday.Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson is making history.

Richardson was recently tapped to lead the U.S. Army Forces Command, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Known as FORSCOM, it is the largest command in the Army, representing 776,000 soldiers and 96,000 civilians. FORSCOM is responsible for training and preparing active, Reserve and National Guard combatant commanders around the world.

Long before she took the helm at Fort Bragg-based FORSCOM, the Colorado native and helicopter pilot attended the Aviation Officer Advanced Course at Fort Rucker in Alabama from 1991-1992. She went on to become a company commander in the 1st Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment before stints as a trainer at the Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth and executive officer of the 9th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment.

Richardson later served as a military aide to Vice President Al Gore before taking on a series of Army leadership positions, including becoming the first female deputy commanding general for the 1st Cavalry Division in 2012.

She most recently served as appointed deputy commander for FORSCOM.

Richardson joined the Army in 1986 and earned her pilot's license at the age of 16.

Richardson's husband is Lt. Gen. Jim Richardson, who from 2014 to 2016 served as commander of the Army's Aviation and Missile Command at Alabama's Redstone Arsenal. Laura Richardson served as the Pentagon as chief legislative liaison in the Office of the Secretary of the Army during her husband's time in Alabama.

Jim Richardson was recently confirmed as deputy commander of the Army Futures Command.Alcohol won't be sold in at least two Florida counties as they recover from Hurricane Michael.

Gulf County spokesperson Corey Dobridnia told the Northwest Florida Daily News the ban went into effect Monday as stores started to reopen.

"Sheriff Mike Harrison feels like people need to not focus on drinking," she said. "Everyone's upset. We need to not compound the situation with alcohol."

Bay County, home to hard-hit Panama City and Mexico Beach, have also banned alcohol sales until the current state of emergency expires.

Thirty-five Florida counties remain under a state of emergency after the Category 4 storm slammed into the coast last week. Relief efforts are underway in the most storm-ravaged areas, including airdrops of food and water as more than 1,266 people remain in public shelters.

More than 87,000 people remain without power in the central Florida Panhandle. The state is also setting up a large base camp for up to 1,000 first responders and utility workers on the grounds of the Tallahassee Regional Airport. The camp will include multiple large air-conditioned tents for long-term housing of workers.

Some 4,000 members of the Florida National Guard have been activated to assist in recovery efforts, along with 2,400 search and rescue personnel.

Boil water notices remain in place for 45 Panhandle communities.

Schools in Bay, Jackson, Liberty, Washington and Calhoun counties are closed until further notice. Schools in Franklin, Holmes and Gadsden counties are set to reopen this week while Gulf County schools have a tentative start-back date of Nov. 5.

Florida State University's Panama City campus and Gulf Coast State College are also closed until further notice.Two prominent advocacy nonprofits are launching a new campaign aimed at ensuring that felons in Alabama are informed about their voting rights.

The Alabama Voting Rights Project, an initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Campaign Legal Center, will assist felons in the state who have lost the franchise with the process of registering to get their voting rights back.

Thousands of Alabama felons lost the franchise in past years, but a new law signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in 2017 automatically restored many of their voting rights, while thousands more are now eligible to apply to regain the franchise.

"The Alabama Voting Rights Project will take a simple message across the state: A felony conviction does not permanently take away a person's right to vote," the SPLC and Campaign Legal Center said in a joint press release.

"Many Alabama residents who have paid their debts to society are eligible to vote or to have their voting rights restored by obtaining a Certificate of Eligibility to Register to Vote."

But many of them haven't gotten that message, as it has not been widely publicized by state officials. That's where the new initiative comes in, according to Lecia Brooks, outreach director for the SPLC.

"It's over 200,000 people who have been re-enfranchised. That's why we felt it's so important to go out and reach these people," she said via phone Wednesday. "The Secretary of State, John Merrill, said he didn't think it was his responsibility to tell these people that they are registered to vote. So the SPLC and Campaign Legal Center are endeavoring to reach these folks."

The Alabama Voting Rights Project is already online, featuring a full-featured website offering information and assistance for felons who want to vote. It will also include an in-person component in the form of door-to-door information campaigns, educational events for felons and training for librarians, community organizers and others interested in helping felons regain their voting rights.

"The Alabama Voting Rights Project is going to organize door to door, community by community in every region of Alabama to reach tens of thousands of Alabamians affected by recent changes in the law," Blair Bowie, Alabama Voting Rights Campaign Manager and Skadden Fellow at the Campaign Legal Center, said in the joint statement.

The effort comes one year after Ivey signed the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act, which cleared up years of confusion over which felons could vote in Alabama. The law defined several dozen "crimes of moral turpitude," a conviction for any of which results in automatic revocation of voting rights.

Being convicted of one of the less than 10 of the "moral turpitude" felonies results in permanent disenfranchisement. Being convicted of any of remainder of the "moral turpitude" crimes still results in disenfranchisement, but felons convicted of those felonies can submit a form and regain their voting rights once they have repaid their debts to society.

Going forward, anyone who is convicted of any felony not considered "of moral turpitude" will retain their voting rights. And anyone who in the past was convicted of such a crime automatically regained the franchise when the law was passed, though they may not be aware of that fact.

John, a 69-year-old retired refrigeration technician, regained his voting rights under the new law earlier this year after being convicted of drug trafficking. He was arrested in possession of nine pounds of marijuana about a decade ago.

The Hoover man, who requested his name be withheld to avoid negative attention about his criminal past, said via phone Wednesday that he went to an event at a Birmingham library about two months ago during which he learned how to regain the franchise. He said he plans to vote in the Nov. 6 election.

"I got my voting rights back. I really don't think I should have lost them - I mean I didn't have hundreds and hundreds of pounds [of drugs]," he said. "I plan on voting, I plan on exercising my rights."Report a digital subscription issue

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SubmitPresident Donald Trump's approval rating among members of the military has slipped slightly since he took office two years ago, according to a poll by Military Times.

Trump's most recent overall approval rating was 43.8 percent, down from 46.1 percent in 2016. His disapproval rating was 43.1 percent, up from 37 percent two years ago.

Troops overwhelmingly support Trump's handling of military issues over that of former President Barack Obama, however. More than 60 percent said they believe the military is in better shape now than under Obama and nearly the same number have a favorable view of Trump's handling of the military, the poll showed.

Only 13 percent believed the military was in better shape under Obama than Trump.

Trump's approval rating was highest among members of the Marine Corps, with almost 66 percent saying they have either a favorable or very favorable view of the president. The overall favorability rating among the other branches were:

Navy - 49 percent

Air Force - 36.4 percent

Army - 38.1 percent

Men in the military were more likely to have a favorable view of Trump - 47 percent - compared to women - 26 percent.

Military backing remains high for Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general. Almost 84 percent of active-duty personnel said they support Mattis, including 89 percent of officers.

The poll was conducted between Sept. 20 and Oct. 2 with responses from 829 active-duty troops.The matter is settled: On Monday night, Daphne's City Council opted against reversing Mayor Dane Haygood's veto of a highly controversial rezoning near the Olde Towne neighborhood.

Now, for Haygood, there's an opportunity to look ahead to a public planning session that could shape Olde Town's future for years to come.

The meetings and workshops, scheduled for Oct. 25-28, will be hosted by Architects Southwest of Lafayette, Louisiana. The purpose is to develop a future plan for one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, where residents spent a better part of the past year vocalizing their opposition toward a project they feared would redefine the character of the city for the worse.

"The series of workshops will be important to get the community on the same page," Haygood said Tuesday.

He said the rezoning dispute didn't trigger the planning sessions.

"We haven't done this in the recent past," Haygood said. "We have been reacting to what is submitted to us and whether that meets our requirements. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not assertive in moving the community further and to help move the community to reach its potential."

Baldwin planning

Indeed, in Baldwin County - one of the few Alabama counties experiencing soaring growth - increased political pressure is prompting new planning efforts all over the map.

Democratic candidates have even seized on the issue, pressuring Republicans who dominate political offices to be more mindful of growth challenges and improve planning accordingly.

Baldwin's population, according to Census figures, has grown by more than 16.6 percent since the 2010 count, adding 30,300 residents - nearly the equivalent of adding a new city the size of Opelika.

In some cases, cities are expending tax dollars to hire planning experts to help set blueprints for land development, zoning, transportation networks and how to best utilize settlement money from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Some examples:

In Fairhope, the city will undergo a "visual preference survey" during a planning exercise on Nov. 8. The effort will be to focus on "what we want to be," as opposed to what the city doesn't want, said City Planner Wayne Dyess.

Gulf Shores will vote next week on a $93,000 contract with Birmingham-based Skipper Consulting Inc. to develop a 20-year master plan and prioritization list for $48 million in transportation projects.

Orange Beach is preparing for an update of its comprehensive plan that will look at a host of issues, such as quality-of-life, land use, environment and transportation, through the year 2035. The city will team with the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission to develop the process on drafting a plan that will take six to nine months to complete, according to Kit Alexander, the city's community development director.

Foley has numerous planning efforts under way, including updates to an existing comprehensive plan. Those updates include, among other things, addressing the city's historic downtown district. An advisory committee is being chosen and meetings will start soon on a planning exercise that will be completed by March 2019.

Fairhope is also undergoing a planning exercise, paid for with $650,000 in RESTORE Act funding through the state's BP oil spill settlement. The planning will combine land-use planning with utility infrastructure and water and sewer capacity.

"I'm a big believer in long-range planning," said Fairhope's Dyess. "It's important for a city."

'Underdeveloped'

Planning is nothing new for Alabama cities, even if state government takes a hands-off approach.

Alabama has no central planning office, unlike some other states. Planning exercises are often undertaken by cities or counties in coordination with regional planning groups. And they are often paid for by local taxpayers.

"In Alabama, I would say it's somewhat underdeveloped and that's not a bad thing," said Jordan Yin, an assistant professor with the Department of Community and Regional Planning of Agriculture, Life and Natural Sciences at Alabama A&M University, and author of the 2012 book, "Urban Planning for Dummies."

"Traditionally, it's not been an overly bureaucratic state," said Yin. "There is not a strong planning authority, and this isn't Oregon or California. Some of the states with a lot of coastline tend to have stronger state planning, but Alabama doesn't seem to fall into that category. The state is not stepping in and telling people what to do."

For the state's largest cities, planning often involves a focus on specific neighborhoods or niches. For instance, in Huntsville, city leaders are crafting a strategic plan to determine the music landscape and whether the city can benefit economically from promoting and building new music venues, among other things.

Sometimes the taxpayer isn't on the hook as specified neighborhoods invest in planning. In Birmingham, the Five Points Alliance - a non-profit made up of residents, merchants and property owners - is working on a master plan for a redeveloped nightlife hot spot.

Yin describes Alabama's urban planning as a "want-to" as opposed to other states where it's more of a requirement. Cities like Montgomery and Gulf Shores, he said, have engaged in effective planning. Gulf Shores, for instance, redesigned its popular Public Beach after a series of public events and planning exercises several years ago.

"The punch line is that for a state that doesn't require a city to plan, Alabama communities are doing quite well," said Yin. "There are always room for improvement."

Planning growth

In Baldwin County, the desire for more planning exercises is not unlike what's occurring in other high-growth areas in the U.S., according to Marlon Boarnet, chairman of the Urban Planning and Spatial Analysis at the University of Southern California's Price School of Public Policy.

He said that planning is a much better option for a growing city than sporadic moratoriums on development, such as what Fairhope approved in late 2016, lasting for most of 2017.

"What you don't want to do is stop the growth," he said. "What that means is you create a place that is unattractive to the point where people don't want to move there. The best practice is to find a way to communicate and say that 'Given the growth that is coming, what is the best way to sit down and talk about how we plan for that growth?' That can be a tough process ... it's emotionally difficult for some people to think through."

Boarnet said the residents in a city have to be fully engaged in the efforts, and that any outsiders who are overseeing planning must be trust-builders, too. He said, "People will want to have confidence that the purpose of the outside (expert) is to let the people in the community determine their own destiny."

Phil Berke, director of the Institute for Sustainable Communities at Texas A&M University, describes the planning events as "vision exercises" where the question is bluntly posed to residents who participate: "What do you want in the future?"

Dyess, the Fairhope city planner, said Baldwin County residents should be prepared for more planning exercises, especially after development disputes that have arisen in Daphne, Fairhope and Gulf Shores.

In Gulf Shores, for instance, there's loud and ongoing debate about a proposed 206-unit apartment complex that would lie within the center of the city. The City Council is expected to vote Oct. 29 on whether to shift the apartment project footprint 25 feet further away from a townhouse complex where several of the anti-apartment protesters live.

The relocation, however, would place the apartments' developer closer toward a protected wetland.

"We have people moving here from other areas of the country," said Dyess. "In a lot of these areas, planning is stronger. And as an elected official, you don't want to have these (zoning or land use) controversies all the time."

He said, "With a good plan, it helps property values, it helps the development community and the public. Everything is known as you head in the process ... it relieves the controversies when they happen."The civil rights movement gave millions of people a new share in the American Dream. Tragically, many violent crimes committed against black families struggling for equality during this time remain unsolved.

Last Wednesday, the Senate moved one step closer to passing bipartisan legislation that would help these families find justice, when the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs passed our Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act. This crucial bill would release information on cold cases from the civil rights era, with the hope that additional sunlight and public interest will bring revelation, justice, and closure where these things have long been lacking.

Through the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, activists fought for racial equality at great cost, suffering beatings, bombings, lynching, and other forms of harassment and violence simply for seeking to fully realize their rights as Americans under the Constitution.

Some crimes, such as the murder of Emmitt Till and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, remain branded on our national consciousness as among the darkest days in American history. Others, like the car bombing of NAACP Natchez chapter treasurer Wharlest Jackson in 1967, are less widely remembered  though his murder was the focus of a massive FBI investigation at the time  and remain unsolved to this day. Still others, such as the 1955 shooting of 16-year-old John Earl Reese in Gregg County, Texas, resulted in the release of perpetrators with little or no punishment.

While most of the perpetrators of these horrific crimes have never been identified and brought to justice, there have been notable successes like the convictions of Byron De La Beckwith for the murder of Medgar Evers, Sam Bowers for the murder of Vernon Dahmer, and Tommy Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for the murder of four young girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

However, in many cases, witnesses were intimidated into silence and evidence was intentionally brushed under the rug by corrupt officials. Victims and their families were often afraid to pursue justice against their attackers. And despite the best efforts of law enforcement in many cases, they did not have access to modern forensic methods, and trails went cold.

Records and evidence from many of these cases sits locked away in files and vaults, outside of the public eye. As memories fade and witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of decades-old crimes pass away, our window to solve these cold cases shrinks.

The Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act would address this problem by disclosing case records so that private detectives, historians, victims, and victims families can access these files, pursue leads, and document these tragic events.

Our legislation would require government offices to submit files and records about civil rights cold cases to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This office would then create a collection of documents that would be publicly disclosed, although for certain reasons, disclosure of some information may be postponed.

Postponement would be appropriate where disclosure would clearly and demonstrably be expected to cause identifiable or describable damage to national security, military defense, law enforcement, intelligence operations, or foreign relations; pose substantial unwarranted harm to a living person; constitute a grave breach of personal privacy; compromise a confidentiality agreement between law enforcement and a cooperating individual; or interfere with ongoing law enforcement proceedings

This legislation establishes a Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board as an independent agency of impartial private citizens to facilitate the review, transmission to NARA, and public disclosure of government records related to these civil rights cold cases. The Board would also be empowered to hold hearings and render decisions on determinations by government offices that seek to postpone the disclosure of such records, while acting as a conduit for information volunteered by the public.

Many journalists and organizations like the Center for Investigative Reporting have called for a decentralized, crowdsourced approach to breaking cold cases by making their information public, which is exactly the intent of our legislation.

We are hopeful that the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act will add another victorious footnote to the legacy of the civil rights movement, and allow the American people to seek justice for their countrymen who were wrongly persecuted for the color of their skin and their fight for equality.An Afghan Sikh, a female engineer and a 54-year-old from Nangarhar have seen violence and now campaign for security.

Narinder Singh Khalsas father, Avtar Singh Khalsa, was killed last July in an attack claimed by ISIL in Afghanistans eastern city of Jalalabad.

Now, the 38-year-old Sikh Afghan is continuing his fathers legacy and contesting the parliamentary elections on October 20.

Avtar was a long-time leader of the tiny Sikh community, comprising fewer than 300 families in Afghanistan, and the only Sikh candidate in the upcoming polls.

After he and 19 members of his community died in the July suicide bombing, the Sikh community called on Narinder to represent them by running in place of his father.

{articleGUID}

Education, land rights and security for his community top Narinders agenda.

I want to stand up for the rights of my people, I want to get their rights from the government and from the international community, because we have suffered for years, Narinder told Al Jazeera.

The people, our Afghan people, have to know that there are not just Muslims in this country. Whoever is living here, regardless of his or her religious background or ethnicity, is an Afghan.

Across Kabul, candidates posters carry messages pledging to improve security, root out corruption and reform education.

More than 2,500 candidates are running in the third parliamentary election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, including 418 women.

They are competing for the 250 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, Afghanistans lower house of parliament.

But the candidates face continuous risks, with the Taliban promising to disrupt the bogus elections.

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], Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement last week.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said in a statement on Wednesday that at least 10 candidates have been killed since July.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman was killed in his office on Wednesday by a bomb planted under his chair, in the southern Helmand province. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group has repeatedly warned politicians to withdraw from the ballot, but Kabuls independent candidate, engineer Zakia Wardak, says she has seen it all when it comes to violence in the country and will not step down.

My father, General Abdul Ali Wardak, was killed during the communist regime in 1978 in Afghanistan, she said, referring to the years when the Afghan communist party launched a coup against President Mohammed Daoud, killed him and took power until 1992.

And my brother Zalmay Wardak, who was a former Afghan National Army (ANA) general, and a candidate for this years parliamentary elections, was mysteriously murdered at his home in Kabul in August.

Zakia Wardak hopes to win a seat so she can open doors of the parliament to Afghans in need [Courtesy of Zakia Wardak]

Wardak, who also lost her husband in an accident in Kabul in 2011, encourages young girls to pursue education and face difficulties in life with bravery.

Men are responsible to provide for their families and when you lose men, you become helpless. The only way out of helplessness is to be educated and strong. This is why I will fight for education for women if I win a seat in the parliament.

Zakia, who is head of the Women Engineers Association in Kabul, wants to open doors of the parliament to Afghans in need.

As she campaigns, she reminds Afghans of their right to vote and the impact they can have.

I want people to know who they are voting for, do some background research on the candidate. Has the candidate helped anyone before? It is important for them to know the power of a single vote.

I am not willing to vote because due to security and corruption, the election, just like before, won't be transparent. When a parliament member is selected, they don't do anything for us. Zmaria, 50, a taxi driver in Kabul

In spite of the candidates enthusiasm, Afghans have little faith in the political process.

The polls were originally set to be held in early 2015 following presidential elections in 2014, but were delayed to July 7, 2018, and then pushed to October 20 due to security fears and reforms in voter registration.

I am not willing to vote because due to security and corruption, the election, just like before, wont be transparent, Zmaria, 50, a taxi driver in Kabul, told Al Jazeera.

When a parliament member is selected, they dont do anything for us and only work on developing their own lives and businesses.

Why should we trust them when there is a war going on in the country and people are dying every day in the attacks, will they speak to the Taliban or Daesh (ISIL) to not kill us?

According to local media, turnout is expected to be lower than the 8.9 million registered to vote.

An MP helps with making laws and overseeing the government. They receive a monthly salary of between $2,400 and $2,600. They also get immunity from prosecution and imprisonment.

Being a politician is not easy in Afghanistan

Abdul Rahman Shams, a 54-year-old candidate from Nangarhar, said Afghans have suffered and sacrificed so much for decades and deserve sincerity from politicians.

Shamss cousin, Abdul Zahir Haqqani, the director of religious affairs and Hajj pilgrimage department, was targeted and killed when a suicide bomber walked up to his car and detonated his explosives in March in Jalalabad, Nangarhars capital.

Haqqani was a vocal critic of the Taliban and ISIL.

Abdul Rahman Shams says Afghans deserve sincere politicians [Courtesy of Abdur Rehman Shams]

Being a politician is not easy in a country like Afghanistan. I have seen so much in the past decades; children left orphans, women widowed and so much more, but I cant hide from my responsibilities, I will fulfil my promises and try to help, he said.

People have put their faith in me. I hope all of us gather under one flag united and strong.

The elections will be held in 27,000 polling stations in 5,100 polling centers in 33 of 34 provinces. The vote for Ghazni provinces 11 seats has been delayed until next year due high security threat

At least 2,000 polling stations threatened directly by the Taliban will remain closed.

The fighters said in their statement that teachers should prevent their schools from being used as polling stations, warning of attacks.

Local media reported some 50,000 soldiers will be deployed across Afghanistan to provide security.

The parliamentary elections are being seen as a dry run for the presidential vote, expected to be held in April 2019.

War has negative effect on a society, it affects the economy and kills positivity, said Zakia Wardak, the female candidate in Kabul.

I know we are in danger every second, but we love our country and we are here to stand beside our people.

With reporting by Emran Feroz in Kabul, AfghanistanAt least one person has been killed and dozens injured as thousands of protesters took to the streets in Haitis capital, Port-au-Prince, over a corruption scandal, with some marchers calling for the resignation of President Jovenel Moise.

A report by Haitis Senate published in August accused two former prime ministers and former government officials of embezzlement, abuse of authority and forgery stemming from the use of funds in a Venezuelan oil loan programme.

Moise, in a speech on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the death of Haitis founder, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, pledged that a trial would be held to get to the bottom of missing funds.

Once you have stolen government funds, whether you are part of the government, of the opposition or of the population, youll have to face justice, Moise said in his remarks in the northern town of Marchand Dessalines.By Damali Mukhaye.

The lord mayor of Kampala Elias Lukwago has called for the special council meeting to officially receive the resignation letter of outgoing executive director Jennifer Musisi

This follows Musisi handing her resignation letter to the appointing Authority president Museveni after her seven year and a half years term.

Lukwago says in the letter to the president, Musisi did not copy in the office of the lord mayor, councilors nor other officers she works with , asserting that she has to present herself today to hand over a copy to the authority.

He also says that Musisi should also account to the council her achievements and what is pending before she exits.On Sunday, Hayet Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate based in Syrias Idlib, signalled that it might abide by the terms of a September 17 deal between Russia and Turkey to prevent a Syrian government offensive on the rebel-held province. However, only a day later, the group missed a deadline to remove its fighters from a planned buffer zone around the province set in the Russia  Turkey deal. We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution, HTS said in a statement.

Syrian authorities were quick to express their dissatisfaction. In a news conference on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said the national army was deployed near Idlib, ready to attack if the rebels didnt withdraw. After Idlib, our target is east of the Euphrates, the minister added, referring to territory held by predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the US. His statement echoed earlier comments by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the Russia-Turkey agreement over Idlib was only a temporary measure, and that the province will eventually return to the Syrian state. Assad and Moallems comments signalling a military offensive on Idlib came despite assurances by Russias President Vladimir Putin that no further major military actions are planned in the region.

Its vocal objection to the presence of al-Qaeda affiliated fighters in Idlib notwithstanding, the Syrian government has a long history of using groups similar to HTS  whose predecessor, al-Nusra Front, was designated a terrorist organisation by the US, the UK, France, Russia, Turkey, Iran and the UN among others  strategically to undermine the opposition and seize territory. In fact, they used such groups, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) chief among them, for political and military leverage quite frequently throughout Syrias eight-year civil war.

Only a week after Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to create a demilitarised buffer zone in Idlib to avert a looming government offensive, the Assad regime reportedly ferried hundreds of ISIL fighters overnight from the eastern province of Deir az Zor near the Iraqi border to the outskirts of Idlib in northwest Syria.

Regime forces transported more than 400 ISIL fighters late Sunday from the desert near the town of Albu Kamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said. The controversial measure had two distinct purposes: clearing the area around Al-Bukamal, where Iran-backed militia forces have a strong presence, of ISIL fighters and, perhaps more importantly, build a stronger case for the recapture of Idlib.

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In May, the Assad regime transported as many as 1,600 ISIL fighters and family members from the Hajar al-Aswad district and Palestinian Yarmouk refugee camp  an ISIL stronghold in southern Damascus since April 2015  to the Badiya region, a vast stretch of desert in southeast Syria. The transfer paved the way for the government to retake full control of the capital after many years.

The governments chief allies, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah, have also supported such arrangements for military and political gains in the Syrian civil war.

Perhaps the most controversial of all was an Iran-blessed deal between Hezbollah and ISIL in August 2017 which saw hundreds of ISIL fighters and their families leaving, under Syrian military escort, an enclave on the border with Lebanon for the eastern province of Deir az Zor. According to the Hezbollah leader Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Iran-backed group accepted an unprecedented arrangement with a terrorist foe  which drew rare criticism from the Iraqi government among others  to find out the fate of nine Lebanese soldiers in ISIL captivity since 2014.

The deal, however, served a bigger objective, purging the Syrian-Lebanese border regions of ISIL presence and handing a much-needed political victory to Hezbollah whose reputation had suffered at home for sacrificing Lebanese interests to fight Bashar al-Assads civil war. It was also meant to reinforce ISIL ranks in eastern Syria in their fight against US-backed Kurdish forces and thus pit two nemeses of the Syrian government against each other. Rather unsurprisingly, the US warplanes struck parts of the convoy, blocking its progress to Al-Bukamal in Deir az Zor  reportedly the fighters final destination  and forcing it to redirect towards lightly populated areas in the Homs province, central Syria.

The strategic use of groups like ISIL and HTS was, of course, not limited to the Syrian government and its Iranian and Lebanese allies. Turkey and the United States, traditional backers of the opposition since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, have also occasionally taken advantage of the presence of these groups in the country to obtain leverage against the Syrian regime.

Yet, it cant be denied that the Assad regime was the actor that benefited the most from the emergence of groups like ISIL in Syria. Arguably their existence made Assads irreversible victory in the countrys 8-year civil war possible. One of the most effective strategies the Syrian government and its allies adopted to kill Syrias popular revolution was to empower the extremist elements within the opposition. Syrian governments calculated actions helped groups like ISIL and al-Qaeda to overshadow the legitimate opposition in Syria and set the stage for the creation of a toxic secularist-terrorist binary, where the Syrian Arab Republic under Assad was promoted to represent the former and ISIL and al-Qaeda stood for the latter. Over time, the practical and ideological lines between ISIL  al-Qaeda fighters and mostly nationalist rebels got blurry as the revolutionary opposition strived to stay relevant in an increasingly radicalised rebellion, enabling the Assad regime to lump them together as a terrorist constellation that needed to be uprooted altogether. Notably, the international community and particularly western powers, which were originally sympathetic to Syrias Arab Spring, accepted the Syrian regime as the lesser evil and gradually abandoned the opposition.

Assads victory in the Syrian civil war would have been much more difficult absent the likes of ISIL and al-Qaeda.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Growing up in the UK as a black person means that youre living an existence that is constantly erased, particularly in school. Many will recall the history topics that were covered by the National Curriculum: a look at the infamous timeline of Nazi Germany, explorations of the Vietnam war and an in-depth study of the civil rights movement that took place in the US. The latter is often a young persons first introduction to issues related to race and blackness.

The common theme running throughout my history studies was the capacity the learning structure had to critique at length the mistakes made by other governments and how that shaped their nations narrative, however, that gaze is rarely turned inwardly. The only time I learned anything to do with British history was the establishment of the English parliament and the histories of political factions such as the Whigs and Tories. I learned about Benjamin Disraelis hand in shaping the modern Conservative party and his lasting rivalry with William Gladstone but was never taught about how his government attempted to wipe out the Zulu Kingdom through bloody battles  and then cover it up  in order to extend British influence in South Africa. We use the failures of other countries as our teaching aids while still never truly exploring this countrys dark history of imperialism and colonisation.

As a young black person, the struggles faced by African Americans utterly captured my imagination and for the first time, provided me with contemporary role models who looked like me. Rosa Parks defiance, and how it sparked a whole boycott, left me stunned. Martin Luther King Jrs influence and oratory prowess were awe-inspiring. Malcolm Xs casual disregard for white authority, which had him painted as the anti-hero and the bad activist in comparison to Martin Luther King, shocked me. While I was learning about struggles that I could relate to, they still felt so far away. At the time, I didnt have the vocabulary or framework to articulate what I was feeling but now I know what had been niggling at me  what about the black people in the UK? Where were our history-makers?

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But centring Americas relationship with its black people in our lessons, it distracts from the fact that it isnt ours. While the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56 had a huge impact, studying the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott  which resulted in the employment of the first non-white bus conductor  wouldve been more significant. Skimming over the history of the Black Panthers was exciting and showed me a different form of black resistance through building self-sufficient structures for the community. However, what about the black women who led the Black Power movement in Britain? Important figures such as Olive Morris, Altheia Jones Lecointe, and Beverley Bryan headed up key black feminist groups like OWAAD and the Brixton Black Womens Group. With these organisations, they tackled housing, institutional racism, and immigration. And yet, their contributions to history have been erased. I was looking to the likes of Assata Shakur and Stokely Carmichael when I had role models closer to home that I had no idea existed.

What we are and are not taught at school goes beyond the classroom; it trickles through to the rest of societal workings. When youre never taught about black peoples contributions to history, it affects the way you contextualise yourself and your identity. Your frameworks and references are also impacted as a result and limit the extent to which you can engage with the particular content matter. However, it doesnt just stop with the individuals identity. This lack of knowledge around black British contributions and Britains horrific relationship with race can serve racist narratives that assert that we need to go back to where we came from.

2016 saw the UK vote in a referendum as to whether or not the country should withdraw from the European Union, with campaign groups set up to sway voters. A number of pro-Leave groups used scare-mongering tactics around immigration, urging people to take back control of our borders. The Independent reported that the surge in anti-immigrant hate crimes after the referendum was mostly found in areas of the UK that strongly voted to leave. The rhetoric that is often used to try to invalidate the right of black and brown people to exist in the UK is often rooted in beliefs that we have only existed in this country since relatively recently. It is often believed that we only appeared in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation, often neglecting that black people have been part of British society since Roman times, again something that has been omitted from our education.

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By never teaching us about Britains horrific relationship with race, it suggests that this country has never had a problem with race in the same way that the US has. It means that we get to boast about how multicultural our cities are and how we welcome diversity without ever having to take accountability for how many African and Asian nations have had their resources and cultures pillaged and diluted.

Never learning about the legacies of black people to this country within an institutional framework means that we grow up believing that we are yet to earn our place in the UK.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Thabane takes office as part of a coalition three years after an attempted coup and two days after his wifes murder.

Lesothos new prime minister took office on Friday as part of a coalition government, three years after he was targeted by a coup and two days after the murder of his estranged wife.

Thomas Thabanes All Basotho Convention party won snap elections on June 3 but failed to get an outright majority, leading it to negotiate joint rule with the Alliance of Democrats, the Basotho National Party, and the Reformed Congress of Lesotho.

Thabanes new coalition government comes into office with the hope of ending the political uncertainty of party splits and fragile coalitions that have long dogged the mountain kingdom.

He said it was disturbing that Lesotho was increasingly becoming notorious for its failed governments and that it was time for change.

I sincerely hope that political reforms will bring stability in Lesotho and ensure that Lesotho governments last for a normal five-year term, he said in his inaugural speech.

WATCH: Lesotho votes in third election in five years

The new alliance replaces the government of Pakalitha Mosisili, who led a seven-party coalition plagued by infighting and corruption.

Mosisilis government was toppled in March and elections were triggered after he lost a vote of no confidence called by opposition parties.





At the inauguration ceremony, held inside a stadium in the capital Maseru, Thabane thanked his predecessor for facilitating the smooth transfer of power and said the two would remain friends for ever.

Thabane, 78, previously served as premier of Lesotho after the 2012 elections but was forced to flee to South Africa following an attempted military coup two years later.

In his speech, Thabane commented for the first time on the killing of his estranged wife. Lipolelo Thabane, 58, was shot on Wednesday night in a village near Maseru.

I am mourning her death and (the) senseless killing of people like this  is one of many challenges that I am faced with as a new prime minister, he said.

The killing of Lipolelo just two days before her husband took office created a sense of unease in the tiny country of two million people which is completely surrounded by South Africa.

Police spokesperson Clifford Molefe said on Thursday that the motive of the shooting was unknown and that investigations were ongoing.Marq Perez had set fire to the Victoria Islamic Center, a crime seen as part of a wave of bigotry towards US Muslims.

An arsonist convicted of burning down a mosque in the United States last year has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison for a crime prosecutors said was motivated by hate.

Marq Perez, 26, was convicted of hate crime and felony arson in July for setting fire to the Victoria Islamic Center in Texas on January 28, 2017.

At the sentencing, senior US District Judge John Rainey said hate crimes were a cancer to our society and this conduct would not be tolerated in our society, the US Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Texas said.

During a week-long trial in a federal court in Texas, prosecutors called the crime a simple, straightforward case of hate.

The jury also found that Perez possessed an unregistered destructive device for a separate but related incident that occurred on January 15, 2017.

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One person, who was with Perez on the night of the fire, said he was excited and jumping up and down like a little kid while watching the mosque burn, the New York Times reported.

Prosecutors said Perez broke into the mosque a week before the fire, the man later placed papers inside the building and set them on fire with a lighter, a witness said, according to prosecutors.

Everyone in this country has the right to worship freely without fear of violence, said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore.

This defendant terrorised the Muslim community in Victoria, and the Department partnered with federal, state, and local agencies to ensure that the person responsible for this heinous hate crime would be found and prosecuted, he added.

The crime was seen by Islamic rights groups as part of a growing wave of bigotry towards the Muslims in the US.

The court said that the most important factor in determining punishment was stating that this conduct would not be tolerated in our society.

Rainey noted that Perez wanted to send a message to the Muslim community, but the court was also sending a message to Perez and others like him, Texas News reported.

Marq Vincent Perez was just sentenced to over 24 years in prison for his attack on the Victoria Islamic Center. The #FBI investigated the hate crime aspect of Perez's activities and proudly partnered with @ATFHou @VictoriaPDtx @TxDPS to bring this case to a successful conclusion.  FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) October 17, 2018

The mosque was rebuilt after a flood of donations came in to restore the facility.

In July 2017, the Victoria Islamic Centre posted a photograph of the new building on Facebook, Almost there! the post said. Rebuilding with love.

When Perez learned the Victoria Muslim community had raised money to rebuild the mosque, he told a witness he would burn the mosque down again if it was rebuilt, the Department of Justice said.

Mark Di Carlo, Perezs defence attorney, says his client is disappointed in his lengthy sentence and will appeal his conviction.

Incidents of hate crimes in the US went up to 6,121 during 2016, seeing an increase of 4.6 percent compared with the previous year, according to data released by the FBI.

The crimes committed, particularly against African-Americans, Jews and Muslims, rose with a spike of 10 percent from 2014 to 2015.Bhutans voters have handed an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results.

The country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India and known for its Gross National Happiness index, has now chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008.

The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the 47 national assembly seats in Thursdays vote, according to the provisional results released by Bhutans election commision. Official results are to be announced Friday.

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September, the AFP news agency reported.

The last ruling party was excluded from the contest.

DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for nation-building in the country, which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs.

Both parties had vowed to boost the economy with Tsherings party using the slogan Narrowing The Gap.

The DPT, which won Bhutans first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in the 2013 vote, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India.

The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutans debt to pay for more power plants.President Michel Temer is accused of taking bribes in return for helping shape a decree regulating Brazils ports.

Lawyers for Brazils President Michel Temer have asked the countrys top court to annul a federal police report that recommended he and his close associates be charged with corruption and their assets confiscated.

Police have been investigating Temer for allegedly taking bribes in return for helping shape a decree regulating Brazils ports, and in particular for extending concessions in the port of Santos to benefit companies owned by close associates.

Temer maintains his innocence. He has faced several corruption allegations but is immune from prosecution while in office, unless the Supreme Court decides to strip his immunity.

The presidents defence team argued that the federal police should not be able to charge Temer without the authorization of the Supreme Court or the public prosecutors office.

Temers term  during which he has become one of the most unpopular Brazilian presidents in decades  ends on January 1, and with it his immunity from prosecution.

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Congress voted twice last year to block Temer from standing trial in the Supreme Court on three corruption charges levelled against him.

The federal police report recommended that Temer, his daughter Maristela, former adviser Rodrigo Rocha Loures and eight others face charges and have their assets confiscated for their role in allegedly laundering bribes through real estate transactions.

Carlos Marun, Brazils minister of government, said on Wednesday that Temer, who took office in 2016 after former President Dilma Rousseff was impeached, was outraged and shaken by the police report.

Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso, who is overseeing the case, said on Tuesday he would wait to see the findings of Brazils public prosecutors office before deciding on how to proceed.

Haddad replaced jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after he was barred from running [File: Andre Penner/AP]

The allegations come amid a polarising presidential election season in Brazil.

Far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was stabbed at a campaign rally in September, got the most votes in the first-round polls that were held on October 8, with 46 percent of the vote, coming close to an outright majority that would have pre-empted a second-round contest.

Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party is Bolsonaros challenger, but public opinion polls show him trailing the frontrunner.

Second-round voting to determine Brazils next president will take place on October 28.Forests are being felled at an unsustainable rate in the Solomon Islands to meet surging demand for timber from China, according to a new investigation by environmental group Global Witness.

A combination of detailed research, satellite imagery, trade data and on-the-ground and drone photography showed the shocking pace and extent of the growing degradation of the Solomon Islands tropical forests, Global Witness said in its report into logging in the South Pacific country.

The trade volume of its single largest export commodity surged more than 20 percent to just over three million cubic metres in 2017, according to central bank figures.

Global Witness said that is 19 times more timber than is sustainable. It estimated the countrys annual sustainable yield at 155,000 cubic metres a year, the lowest but most recently calculated of several government and expert analyses, according to Reuters news agency.

No questions asked

The Solomon Islands exports 82 percent of its timber to China, the mainlands second-biggest source of tropical logs after Papua New Guinea. Together, the two countries supply half of Chinas tropical log imports.

If China continues to buy its wood with no questions asked, it risks undermining efforts by its trading partners to improve governance, prevent environmental degradation, and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Global Witness said in the report Paradise Lost.

The innovative steps that China is taking to reduce its own carbon emissions will be undermined if it continues to buy so much tropical wood from the Solomon Islands.





The risks of illegal logging in the Solomon Islands are so high that any European or US-based importers of uncertified timber would be unlikely to be able to meet their legal requirements without making extensive site visits, the report said. It warned companies importing timber from processing countries, mainly China, could well find themselves buying Solomon Islands lumber.

The scale of the logging is so unsustainable that natural forests will be exhausted very soon if nothing changes, said Beibei Yin, who led the investigation team.

Logging roads

In 2011, the Solomon Islands Ministry of Finance suggested that if logging activities continued at the pace they were ongoing, the countrys natural forests would be exhausted by 2036.

The Chinese companies which import most of the wood are so significant that if all of them together stop buying there is still a chance to revert back, Yin told Reuters news agency.

Global Witness said its analysis of satellite imagery showed a web of logging tracks now covered much of the Solomons archipelago, putting more than half the countrys lowland areas within one kilometre of a road.

Totalling 12,613km, that road network is twice as long as Chinas Yangtze River, the report said. Satellite imagery showed 669km of road above 400 metres, where logging is supposed to be restricted.

The Solomon Islands, an archipelago of some 990 islands, has more than 2.2 million hectares of forest covering about 80 percent of its land area.Government sends in more troops and cuts power and water in Mutsamudu to quell unrest against constitutional changes.

Security forces in Comoros have intensified their crackdown against anti-government protesters on the island of Anjouan, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire and residents fleeing amid a wave of unrest against constitutional changes.

President Azali Assoumani on Thursday sent in reinforcements to quell a nascent uprising in the opposition stronghold as clashes continued for a fourth day between security forces and armed protesters.

Residents of the island are angry at Assoumanis plans to extend term limits and end rotation of the presidency between the countrys three main islands after one term, a move disadvantaging Anjouan, which was next in line.

An official at Anjouans airport told the AFP news agency a significant contingent of security forces arrived on the island to quell unrest there.

Residents said the old medina quarter of Anjouans capital Mutsamudu, with its narrow, intersecting alleyways, has become the epicentre of the fighting.

Those who were able to fled the old town to seek refuge in the outer suburbs which are a safe haven, said one witness who declined to be named.

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French expatriate Anais Greusard told AFP that there were big explosions late on Wednesday and a lot of shooting in the early hours of Thursday.

Authorities also cut off water and power supplies in Mutsamudu, residents said.

They have cut water and electricity. [But] the hooded protesters are not the ones suffering, it is the population which have been taken like hostages, a resident of Mutsamudu told Reuters.

If this continues, we risk starving to death. We are praying that it ends quickly, added the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

People are revolting

Interior Minister Mohamed Daoudou said on Wednesday that the situation was back to normal in Anjouan after three people were killed in the violence. Witnesses claimed that many more people had been injured in the clashes

He blamed terrorists, as well as drug addicts and alcoholics for the unrest.

The people are revolting they wont stop shooting, said Ahmed Samir, an exiled leader of the opposition Union for the Development of the Comoros (UPDC) party who added that the people wanted to overthrow Assoumani.

Samir claimed that around 40 armed men were leading an armed insurrection against government forces while witnesses described masked men with automatic weapons roaming the medina.

A night-time curfew remained in place on the island.

The United Nations and African Union have called for stalled talks between rival parties to resume.

In August, Assoumani  who comes from the largest island, Grande Comore  said a July referendum had approved the extension of presidential term limits and an end to the rotating presidency. The opposition called the referendum illegal.

Assoumani plans to compete in presidential polls in early 2019. That would deny Anjouan its turn to occupy the presidency from 2021, as would have happened under the previous system that rotated the post among the countrys three main islands.

Assoumani has been in power since 2016 and would have had to step down in 2021 under the old term limits.

The former military official joins a string of leaders in African countries such as Rwanda, Uganda and Cameroon who have extended presidential term limits or otherwise amended the constitution to remain in power.Abdulrahman Siwar al-Dahab, who led the removal of Gaafar Nimeiry in 1985, died at a military hospital in Riyadh.

Former Sudanese president Abdulrahman Siwar al-Dahab has died in Saudi Arabia, Sudans state news agency (SUNA) reports.

The 83-year-old former leader of Sudan died in a military hospital in Riyadh, the agency said on Thursday, without providing further details.

Described by his contemporaries as a deeply religious man who was noted for his high moral behaviour, Siwar al-Dahab was also known for his sense of duty and nationalism.

He was a former military officer, who served as defence minister before he led the removal of Gaafar Nimeiry in 1985; Nimeiry had been president since 1969.

Expelled by Nimeiry from Sudan with no explanation in 1972, Siwar al-Dahab moved to Qatar where he served as adviser to the then-emir, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani.

He was called back to Sudan by Nimeiry in the 1980s and became deputy chief of staff then later chief of staff and minister of defence, the countrys most senior military officer.

In 1985, popular demonstrations erupted, calling for the end of the Nimeiry regime; Siwar al-Dahab, along with a group of senior military officers, removed Nimeiry and declared the Transitional Military Council which undertook to steer Sudans transitional period.

Siwar al-Dahab promised to hold elections in a years time, a pledge few believed in a country exhausted by civil war.

However, the following year, he handed power over to a newly elected government headed by then Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.

Siwar al-Dahab then resigned from the political arena, devoting himself entirely to religious issues and becoming chairman of the Khartoum-based Islamic Call Organization.Colombian students lead nation-wide protest over higher-education budget cuts.

ByThe Saudi dissident journalist has not been seen since entering the Kingdoms consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

The Washington Post has published an opinion piece authored by disappeared Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in which he decried a lack of press freedom throughout the Arab world.

Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the consulate of Saudi Arabia in the Turkish city of Istanbul on October 2, wrote in the article that Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.

There was a time when journalists believed the Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet, he wrote in the article published on Wednesday.

As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives.

Citing crackdowns on the press by Egyptian and Saudi officials, Khashoggi warned such actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community.

According to leaks from Turkish officials, Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in what they have described as a premeditated murder carried out by a 15-man Saudi hit squad.

Some of the individuals involved reportedly have close ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS.

Saudi authorities, meanwhile, have said Khashoggi left the consulate unharmed shortly after he arrived.

A joint probe into the case by Saudi Arabia and Turkey is ongoing.

The last piece

Karen Attiah, The Washington Posts Global Opinions editor, wrote an introductory note to Khashoggis piece, saying his assistant had submitted the article a day after the 60-year-old was reported missing.

The [Washington] Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen, Attiah wrote.

This is the last piece of his I will edit for The [Washington] Post. This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world.

Khashoggi wrote that the ripe hope of future freedoms felt by many during the Arab Spring of 2011, which saw popular uprisings throughout the Middle East, had been shattered.

There are a few oases that continue to embody the spirit of the Arab Spring. Qatars government continues to support international news coverage, in contrast to its neighbours efforts to uphold the control of information to support the old Arab order, he wrote.

[But] Even in Tunisia and Kuwait, where the press is considered at least partly free, the media focuses on domestic issues but not issues faced by the greater Arab world, he added.

They are hesitant to provide a platform for journalists from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen. Even Lebanon, the Arab worlds crown jewel when it comes to press freedom, has fallen victim to the polarisation and influence of pro-Iran Hezbollah.

The Middle East ranks alongside North Africa as the region where press freedom is most in peril globally, according to Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index.Haiti protests over politicians misuse of Petrocaribe Funds

The fund from a Venezuelan oil agreement was to provide social development and improve public services.Activists and others have longed called for a cut in US military aid to Central American country over rights abuses.

Esquipulas, Guatemala  US President Donald Trumps threats against a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants headed to the United States will not deter people from fleeing the Central American country, activists say, adding they would welcome a cut in US military and security aid to Honduran security forces.

With regard to the threats of the United States government, I dont even think people listen to that, human rights activist Yessica Trinidad told Al Jazeera over the phone.

People leaving have no certainty as to whether or not they will arrive. It is like leaping into an abyss, but for them, it is better than living here, said Trinidad, coordinator of the Honduran Network of Women Human Rights Defenders.

The caravan set out Saturday from northwestern Honduras. More than 2,000 people reached Guatemala Monday after a standoff with Guatemalan police at the border. The caravan, now in waves at different points on the route, continues to grow, with some estimates putting it at more than 5,000.

Honduran migrants cross the Lempa river, on the border between Honduras and Guatemala, to cross into Guatemala to join a caravan trying to reach the US [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

On Thursday, Trump ramped up his threats against the caravan, tweeting that in addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in strongest terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

Earlier in the week, he had threatened to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if the caravan wasnt stopped before it reached the US border.

The warnings came less than a week after the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met in Washington for the second Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America. As part of its Strategy for Central America, the US has committed about $2.6bn in aid to Central America for 2015 through 2018.

According to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), US aid to Honduras totalled more than $181m last year. The category of security, the justice sector, and violence prevention received more funding than any other, without including funding for borders and drug control. Most of the aid is channelled through the Department of State and US Agency for International Development, but there was also $47m via the Department of Defense last year, according to WOLA.

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Adam Isacson, director of WOLAs defence oversight programme, said the number earmarked for this year is likely close to that of 2017. The organisation has not yet been able to obtain country breakdowns of regional security funding but does not expect the final tally will be a big shift from last year.

Isacson said Trumps comments show he does not understand how aid works.

Trumps tweets betray that our president actually thinks that US aid is a big cash transfer to those countries, like were just giving them money. And I think a lot of people think that, he told Al Jazeera over the phone.

The presidents tweets seem to [suggest] that youre just turning off a cash spigot and theres this river of cash flowing to Honduras, Isacson said.

But of course not a dime goes to Honduras because of the fear it will be stolen. Its all in kind. Its all training or technical services or contractors or equipment for specific things, he said.

In addressing the caravan on Wednesday, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said: Irregular migration has been going on for decades.

Since 2014, we decided to deal with structural issues that generate migration. Much has been achieved but we know that there is much for us to continue to do because these are historical problems, Hernandez said.

Human rights violations

Many human rights activists in Honduras and in the US have expressed concern over the way the Hernandez government has addressed insecurity. Theyve advocated for years for initiatives that would cut, freeze, or condition US security aid to Honduras.

Honduran police and military forces have been involved in serious human rights violations over the years, according to national and international human rights organisations.

General elections last November that resulted in the contentious reelection of president Juan Orlando Hernandez took place amid widespread allegations of election fraud. Security forces killed more than two dozen people during state crackdowns on protests, according to human rights groups.

Trump would be doing Hondurans a favour if he cut off aid to their government, Trinidad said.

The aid that the US government gives Honduras is invested precisely in the failed security policy, she said.

Honduran migrants react after crossing the border between Honduras and Guatemala, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

Honduran human rights and other civil society organisations have been meeting to sort out how they can best assist in the struggle to safeguard the rights of the people on the move, as hundreds more Honduras continue to attempt to leave the country and join the caravan making its way through Guatemala.

Trinidads organisation and other Honduran human rights groups do not consider the exodus to be immigration, she said.

For us, this is forced displacement. People are fleeing the country. They are fleeing the constant human rights violations but also different kinds of violence, she said.

Human rights violations are also occurring in the context of the migrant caravan, said Trinidad, highlighting the Honduran police actions to block hundreds of Hondurans from leaving through border crossings with Guatemala and El Salvador in order to make their way up to the first wave of the caravan.

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They cannot keep people in the country by force, said Trinidad, highlighting the right to freedom of movement, particularly between Honduras and its neighbours.

Scapegoating immigrants, refugees

Honduran human rights groups long-standing concerns about the actions of security forces are shared by many in the US, including congressional representatives.

Major points of concern have been a 2009 military coup, a 2012 massacre of four indigenous locals during a DEA-assisted drug raid in the Moskitia region, the 2016 murder of prominent Honduran indigenous and social movement activist Berta Caceres, and the violent crackdown on post-election protests in 2017 and this year.

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A proposed bill in US Congress would, if passed, suspend all security aid to Honduras and veto any multilateral loans to the countrys military and police forces. The bill, called the Berta Caceres Human Rights Act, now has 70 House co-sponsors.

We should have cut off military aid to Honduras a long time ago, but for very different reasons. Their complete disregard for worker rights, indigenous rights, and individual freedoms are unacceptable in an ally of the United States, House Representative Jan Schakowsky, a co-sponsor of the Berta Caceres Human Rights Act, said Thursday in a statement.

Hondurans react after crossing the border between Honduras and Guatemala, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

Hondurans are fleeing dire economic conditions and a repressive, anti-democratic president supported by Trump and the State Department, said Schakowsky.

Instead of admitting some responsibility in creating the violent situation in Honduras, President Trump is yet again scapegoating immigrants and refugees, she said. He is painting a picture of this migrant caravan as a threat to our national security instead of the desperate group of refugees that they are.Iraqi security: Camps for displaced are being closed

Iraqi government closes IDP camps but theres concern about where the people there are being sent.Ivory Coast election results revealed

The ruling coalition in Ivory Coast has maintained its majority after municipal elections on Saturday.The United States says it is will place its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians under the authority of its embassy in Israel.

The US Department of State said on Thursday that merging the Jerusalem consulate with the newly opened Jerusalem embassy will achieve significant efficiencies.

But Palestinians say the move has symbolic significance because it effectively downgrades the standing of the consulate.





PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat issued a statement on Thursday decrying the US move. He said: it has nothing to do with efficiency and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological US team that is willing to disband the foundations of (the) international system.

For years, the consulate has served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians, reporting straight to the Department of State in Washington.

Placing it under the authority of the embassy could be seen as American recognition of Israeli control over the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: We will continue to conduct a full range of reporting, outreach, and programming in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as with Palestinians in Jerusalem through a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the US Embassy Jerusalem.

Palestinian officials cut ties with the US after President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital last year and moved the American embassy to the city.

The status of Jerusalem  home to sites holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians  is one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After occupying the citys eastern part in the 1967 War, Israel unilaterally annexed the territory and proclaimed it as its capital. The Palestinians, however, see the city as the capital of their future state.

The Trump Administration is making clear that it is working together with the Israeli government to impose Greater Israel with no Palestinian sovereignty, Erekat said

The Palestinian official promised that the Palestinians will take necessary steps in response to the US move.

The Trump administration is part of the problem, not part of the solution, he said

Ahmad Tibi, the Palestinian member of the Israeli Knesset described the US move as a negative development, calling it an insistence by the US administration to undermine Palestinian national rights.

He said the US has effectively killed the two-state solution that envisioned an independent Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel.

Palestinians reject this arrangement, he said.Saudi-Turkish probe into disappearance represents a front to negotiate interests between the two nations, analysts say.

Istanbul, Turkey  A joint probe team formed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey to investigate the disappearance of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi is nothing more than a cosmetic cover, analysts say.

The case of Khashoggi, who disappeared on October 2 when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, has caused an international uproar, with European and US officials demanding an answer as to his whereabouts.

Over the past two weeks, Turkish intelligence has disclosed a steady stream of uncorroborated leaks to the media, saying it has audio recordings that prove Khashoggi was murdered inside the consulate building.

The killing, according to these leaks, was carried out by a 15-man Saudi hit squad, with some members having close ties to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Saudis, however, have rejected these claims and maintained that they had committed no wrongdoing, saying Khashoggi left the building. Yet they havent provided anything to substantiate that.

Forensic evidence found

As pressure mounts on the Gulf kingdom to disclose the truth of what happened, Saudi authorities suggested last week the formation of a joint investigation team with their Turkish counterparts, which the latter agreed to.

The leaders of the two states, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Saudi King Salman, also talked on the phone last Sunday, with both stressing the importance of having a joint working group as part of the probe.





The king thanked Erdogan for welcoming the Saudi proposal and said no one could undermine their relationship.

A forensics team searched the Saudi consulate for nine hours on Monday, ending their work in the early hours of Tuesday, examining the interior as well as the grounds. On Wednesday, the residence of Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi, which is located a few hundred metres away, was also searched after al-Otaibi left Turkey for Riyadh.

At the residence, Turkish forensic experts found samples identical to those uncovered at the Saudi consulate, providing, according to the attorney generals office further evidence of the conclusion that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate building.

It has not yet been announced when the results of the probe will be ready, but some reports suggest it could be this week.

Bargaining chip

Fulya Atacan, a Turkish expert on the Middle East, told Al Jazeera the joint investigation committee is a curtain to discuss political dealings behind the scenes.

It seems like both sides know what has happened, so they are trying to negotiate [better positions] for themselves before they solve the case, Atacan said. They need some room to manoeuvre, to negotiate.

Mustafa Akyol, a senior fellow on Islam and modernity at the Cato Institute, said the joint investigation represents a formality that Turks are observing in order to demonstrate goodwill.

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But they also seem pretty certain that Jamal Khashoggi was first seized and then killed by a special Saudi team sent for this mission, he said.

Atacan described the joint committee as a bargaining chip, adding that it is the best solution to confer behind the scenes and decide on what to convey to the public.

Both sides have a problem with this case as they dont know how to solve it, she said.

The joint committee might be a tool to overcome these problems, so that they will have enough room to discuss before they accuse each other, or before they issue an official statement about the case.

Joint probe and entente

While it is clear that Turkey  by claiming it is in possession of evidence that proves Khashoggi was killed  has the upper hand over Saudi Arabia, Ankara is not interested in cutting ties with Riyadh over the journalists disappearance.

In this way, the joint committee represents an attempt to prevent a schism with Saudi, Atacan said.

Akyol agreed and said rather than isolate the Saudi government in its entirety, Turkey is prepared to lay the blame on a transgressor within the ruling royal family.

My sense is that the Turks are guessing that the crime has been ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but his father, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, was unaware, he told Al Jazeera.

So, instead of taking a position against the whole Saudi establishment, they may ultimately blame the rogue element in it, which may go up, all the way up to MBS.

Ultimately, he explained, it is a matter of balance.





Turkey seems not willing to escalate tension with Saudi Arabia, [but] on the other hand it is steadily releasing evidence proving the horrible crime committed by Saudi officials on Turkish soil, Akyol said.

While the alliance between the two states is far from strong, Turkey is counting on Saudi to relax its stance on regional issues that have traditionally seen Ankara and Riyadh on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Turkey has important disputes with Saudi Arabia, disagreeing with their hawkish stances on Iran, Muslim Brotherhood, and Qatar, Akyol said.

But in all of them, there are Saudis who are closer to the Turkish position  and Jamal Khashoggi was one of them. Turkey, in my view, would ultimately hope to see Riyadh softening its stance on these three issues.

Khashoggis fate will be revealed

Ahmad Rashed Ibn Said, a Saudi academic based in London, said the results of the joint team will most likely see Saudi Arabia admitting to the death of Khashoggi, but will not go so far as to call it a premeditated murder  unlike what Turkish authorities have initially claimed.

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There will be some kind of admission of the case with the Saudi authorities acknowledging the death of Jamal Khashoggi was the result of an interrogation that went wrong, he told Al Jazeera.

By feeding the media claims of what happened to Khashoggi, Ibn Said continued, Turkey has succeeded in effectively raising awareness of the issue globally, and embarrassed the Saudi government.

I dont think they can get away with it in the face of international concern and condemnation, he said, adding that at the very least, MBS image has been badly hurt and beyond repair.

Ibn Said said the joint committee will have no option but to come up with a coherent and solid story about what happened in the Saudi consulate.

The truth of the fate of Jamal Khashoggi will come out of this investigation, he said.Khashoggi disappearance: Trump asks Turkey for recordings

US president has dismissed allegations against Saudi Arabia as another case of guilty until proven innocent.Lawyers ask police to stop defeated President Abdulla Yameen from leaving country over corruption allegations.

Opposition in the Maldives asked the police to bar President Abdulla Yameen from leaving the country hours after he announced plans to step down in the face of a likely defeat in a court case challenging his election loss.

Yameen, who presided over a five-year crackdown targeting opposition, media and rights activists, must not be allowed to leave the country without facing justice over allegations of corruption, opposition lawyer Hassan Latheef told reporters in the capital Male late on Wednesday.

We are receiving credible reports Yameen may leave the country at any minute, Latheef said outside police headquarters, urging the police to stop Yameens departure given ongoing investigations into allegations of corruption.

The police could not be reached for comment immediately.

Ibrahim Muaz Ali, spokesperson for Yameen, dismissed the oppositions claim, saying the president will never flee and was ready to cooperate with any investigation, according to newspaper Mihaaru.

Yameen, 59, lost the September 23 election by a margin of 16 percent to opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in an outcome hailed as a victory for democracy in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

A stunned Yameen conceded defeat a day after the election, saying he accepted the peoples verdict. Days later, at a ruling party conference, he was visibly distraught as he asked voters repeatedly: What were you thinking? How did you assess me?

The next week, he was angry as he urged supporters across the country to protest against the election outcome.





The call came despite announcements from a wide range of countries congratulating Solih on the result, including the United States, India, and the United Kingdom, as well as from Yameens allies, China and Saudi Arabia, who financed his expansive infrastructure drive over the past five years.

Disappearing ink and magic carpets

Then last week, Yameen, who has said he will stay on in office until the end of his term on November 17, filed a challenge at the Supreme Court, alleging election commission officials used disappearing ink, pen rings, and fraudulent ballot papers to rig the vote in his opponents favour.

As evidence, the president only offered testimony from three secret witnesses.

The opposition dismissed the complaint as pure conspiracy, with one lawyer saying the only thing missing from the case are magic carpets.

Nevertheless, the court accepted the complaint, prompting threats of action by the US and stirring fears of further chaos in the crisis-hit island nation.

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Prior to the election, the Supreme Court had consistently ruled in favour of the president. The only time it defied Yameen  when it issued a ruling in February ordering the release of jailed opposition leaders  he declared a state of emergency and sent in the army to arrest the chief justice and another senior judge.

His party also successfully lobbied the same court in 2013 to annul the results of a first round of polling in which he came second. Yameen went on to win that election with a narrow margin of 6,000 votes.

After assuming power, he crushed dissent by locking up and forcing into exile nearly all of his political rivals, banning protests, stripping disloyal politicians of their parliamentary seats and shuttering independent and critical media outlets.

In a final address on Wednesday, Abdulla Yameen said he had no regrets about any of his actions [Maldives presidency handout]





He also pulled the Maldives out of the Commonwealth in 2016 when the inter-governmental body threatened to take action over alleged rights abuses.

Critics also accuse him of state capture, noting allegations of corruption against him were never investigated.

The most serious of the claims against Yameen include accusations he oversaw the countrys biggest-ever corruption scandal, in which at least $79m from tourism revenues was diverted to private accounts and cashed out, according to an audit report and an Al Jazeera investigation in 2016.

The opposition says Yameen received at least $1m of the embezzled money in his private account at the Maldives Islamic Bank. The countrys anti-corruption watchdog confirmed that but has shelved the probe, saying it could not reach the person who deposited the cash into the presidents account.

Most recently, an anti-money laundering body in the Maldives informed the police that Yameen received 22 million Maldivian rufiyaa ($1.5m) in hard currency days ahead of the election.

Latheef, the opposition lawyer, referred to both cases in requesting the police order to prevent Yameen from leaving the country.

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The Maldives constitution authorises the police to investigate alleged criminal offences by a sitting president.

No regrets

Yameen has denied all accusations against him.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, he maintained his sincerity and said he had no regrets about his actions as he prepared to step down.

What I found most difficult, or what I was incapable of, was learning about the people. In the past five years, I could not comprehend why and how peoples ideologies changed, he said.

His final address came a day after the Supreme Court rejected testimony from the secret witnesses, suggesting the bench will rule against him. The court has not said when it would deliver a verdict.

The police and army have previously pledged to uphold the election result.

The opposition is also waiting on a Supreme Court verdict on eight of the 12 politicians who were removed from parliament by Yameen. An opposition legislator has previously said they plan to impeach Yameen if they regain control of the parliament, a move that will make the president vulnerable to arrest.

Mariya Ahmed Didi, spokesperson for president-elect Solih, said the Maldives cannot move ahead without addressing these allegations, and pledged a fair investigation.

This is not about revenge, she said. The last thing we want to see is politicisation of the process.

Yameens court complaint stirred fears of further unrest in the Maldives [File: Ashwa Faheem/Reuters]





Calls for the president and his associates to face justice are growing.

Hundreds of people protested outside the Supreme Court, calling for Yameens arrest earlier this week, while rights groups have warned the opposition against granting immunity to the president and officials of his administration during the transfer of power.

It would be unacceptable if anyone in the outgoing administration negotiates their way out of facing the consequences of crimes committed in office, said Mariyam Shiuna, executive director of anti-corruption group Transparency Maldives.

The transfer of power must be characterised by transparency and accountability, not by impunity and back-room deal making, she said.

Officials from the presidents party did not respond to calls for comment.If the depression along the Gulf of Mexico turns into a tropical storm, it will be given the name Vicente.

A depression off the coast of southern Mexico may turn into the 20th tropical storm of the East Pacific season by Friday, making 2018 one of the busiest years so far.

If the depression, which has already caused showers and thunderstorms along the Gulf of Mexico, turns into a tropical storm, it will be given the name Vicente.

As the system begins to intensify, flooding and mudslides will be the greatest concern. Thunderstorms could also produce some damaging winds in the region.

By the end of the week, the risk of flooding and travel disruptions could extend to Acapulco and Puerto Escondido.

Through the weekend, there is still uncertainty on where the storm is headed.

If the storm tracks farther off the coast, heavy winds will remain offshore, but downpours capable of causing flooding, mudslides and travel disruptions may occur.

However, if the storm moves northwest, parallel to the coastline, Mexico will be affected next week, with damaging winds expected in areas from Baja California to the interiors of northern Mexico.

The tropical storm may also hit the neighbouring parts in the United States, including Texas, where widespread flooding has already occurred.Authorities carried out arbitrary detentions, torture and use of indiscriminate force, Amnesty says in new report.

Nicaraguan authorities carried out arbitrary detentions and torture and used lethal force against anti-government protesters as part of an intensified strategy for repression, Amnesty International said on Thursday.

In a new report, the rights organisation documented several cases in which police forces and pro-government paramilitary groups committed extrajudicial executions, as well as used weapons of war on protesters.

Not only did President (Daniel) Ortega deploy police to arbitrarily arrest and torture demonstrators, he also used heavily armed pro-government groups to kill, wound and intimidate all those brave enough to stand up to his repressive strategy, said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnestys Americas director.

Ruth Esperanza Tapia Roa, Nicaraguas ambassador to France, told AFP news agency that the report was baseless.

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The unrest in Nicaragua began in mid-April after Ortega introduced non-scrapped pension reform plans. Since then, they have grown into widespread protests, calling for the president and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, to step down.

Rights groups say more than 300 people have been killed and hundreds of others arrested during the violence. The government disputes the figures, saying around 200 people have died.

Ortega has also dismissed UN charges of disproportionate use of force against protesters, enforced disappearances and torture.

He called the UN a tool of lies and infamy, and last month expelled the UN rights mission after it published a report criticising the climate of fear in the country.

Executions as punishment

Amnesty documented cases that it said appeared to be extrajudicial executions, which were carried out as a form of punishment.

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Among the cases examined was that of Faber Lopez Vivas, a National Riot Police officer, who was critical of the behaviour of his department. Lopez Vivas was found dead in July. The National Police said the officer was shot dead by armed terrorists, but in an interview with Amnesty, Lopez Vivass family said the officer had no bullet wounds and a private pathologist reported there were multiple signs of torture. Amnesty said his family believes he was executed by police as a form of punishment.

This is a severe crisis, Pilar San Martin, crisis researcher for the Americas in Amnesty International told Al Jazeera.

We documented different elements of this new strategy carried out by the government, where we could see a strategy of repression that has been intensified.

From June, we could see the use of military weapons [against civilians], this is one of the elements that allow us to say that the strategy has been intensified, she added.

More than 300 people have been killed since protests began in mid-April [Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters]

The rights organisation documented at least 12 cases of possible torture, the report said, including one case of sexual torture against a young woman who had been detained. The report also noted several cases of probable arbitrary arrests and violations of due process that Amnesty said formed part of the governments strategy to break up the protest movement.

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Last weekend, dozens of people were arrested ahead of a planned march against Ortega, which was cancelled after the detentions. AFP reported at least 30 people were released earlier this week. According to the news agency, local human rights groups welcomed the release but said another 500 people also arrested after protesting again the government are still in prison.

We dont know where [or when] will this end, San Martin from Amnesty said on Thursday, but we are calling on the government to stop this crackdown and the excessive use of force against the protesters.Saudi Arabia and Kuwait struggle to resume oil production from joint fields amid souring ties over Turkey, Qatar.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will struggle to resume oil production from jointly operated fields any time soon due to operational differences and souring political ties between the previously close Gulf OPEC allies, sources familiar with the matter said.

The two countries halted output from the jointly run oilfields  Khafji and Wafra  in the so-called Neutral Zone more than three years ago, cutting some 500,000 barrels per day, or 0.5 percent of global oil supply.

As oil prices rose to a four-year high above $85 per barrel this year, Washington has been pressing its top Gulf ally Riyadh to reduce crude prices by increasing production.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Kuwait last month to discuss a resumption of oil output from the zone.

But the sources, who asked not to be identified as they are prohibited from discussing the issue publicly, said the talks failed to move the two countries closer to a deal as Kuwait resisted Riyadhs push for greater control of the fields.

It did not go well because Kuwaiti sovereignty is non-negotiable, one source told Reuters news agency.

Riyadh does not want Kuwaiti laws to apply to US oil major Chevron, which operates the Wafra onshore field on behalf of the Saudi government, the source added.

Another source said Saudi Arabia wanted a bigger say and more control in running oil operations in the zone.

Bin Salman met Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah and Crown Prince Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah but the visit was cut short from the originally planned two days to just a few hours on the night of September 30, the sources said.

Political tensions

In a move that may complicate relations with Riyadh, Kuwait this month signed a defence cooperation plan with Turkey a move it said was meant to strengthen bilateral ties.

Signed in Kuwait City by top military officials from both countries, the arrangement calls for the exchange of experience and know-how aimed at enhancing military coordination.

Kuwaiti and Turkish army officials signed an agreement in Kuwait City on October 10 [Courtesy: KUNA]

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are currently locked in major diplomatic crisis over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

Adding to the friction were tensions between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait over the embargo against neighbouring Qatar and diverging views on relations with Saudi Arabias regional rival Iran.

Kuwait is trying to mediate the embargo, which is being led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Doha last year, accusing it of financing terrorism. Qatar rejects the charges.

Kuwait has sought to maintain neutrality, although the Emirs efforts to mediate the rift have had little success so far.

Kuwait, which has a sizeable Shia Muslim minority, has also maintained dialogue with Shia Iran. Saudi Arabia and Iran back opposing sides in civil wars in Syria and Yemen.

The (regional) situation is not stable, so every country should think how to protect itself, Saleh Ashour, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, said.

Costly idle wells

Oil output in the Neutral Zone, which dates back to 1920s treaties establishing regional borders, is divided equally between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The Wafra field is operated by state-run Kuwait Gulf Oil Co and Chevron on behalf of Saudi Arabia. The Khafji field is operated by state oil giant Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Gulf Oil.

Tensions have been simmering since the last decade when Kuwait was angered by a Saudi decision to prolong Chevrons Wafra concession until 2039 without consulting Kuwait.

In 2014, Saudi Arabia closed Khafji, citing environmental issues. In 2015, Chevron shut Wafra, citing difficulties in securing work permits and materials.

Saudi Arabian Chevron is focused on supporting operational activities to maintain readiness for production restart when that time comes, a Chevron spokeswoman said.

Obviously a restart depends on the discussions between the two countries. But were ready. We are maintaining the equipment, we have put a lot of effort into keeping the pipelines in shape and keeping the key wells in shape.

Shutting off output is expensive because it requires investments of tens of millions of dollars a year for maintenance, sources familiar with field operations said.

The Neutral Zone is the single biggest asset in the world, which was deliberately stopped and hasnt been producing for three years, one of the sources said.

The more the restart is postponed the more it will cost to maintain it. And the more problematic it might be to restart the fields quickly and fully, he added.

Industry sources from both countries say that though Khafji and Wafra are not linked geographically, an agreement to bring one field back online would be tied to the other.US and S Korea insist they are on the same page on dealing with N Korea but there are signs of disagreement.

The United States has opposed a plan by South and North Korea to set up a no-fly zone over their heavily fortified border  the latest sign of a rift between Seoul and its top ally.

Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters news agency on Thursday that US officials have raised concerns that the no-fly zone could undermine defence readiness and comes without substantial progress on denuclearisation.

Washington and Seoul both publicly insist they are on the same page about dealing with Pyongyang.

However, behind the scenes, there are growing signs of disagreement as South and North Korea forge ahead with plans to defuse military tensions and rebuild economic ties.

The military accord, sealed during last months summit in Pyongyang, is one of the most concrete agreements between the two Asian neighbours this year.

The pact includes a halt in all hostile acts, a no-fly zone around the border and a gradual removal of landmines and guard posts within the Demilitarised Zone.

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US Secretary of State Pompeo expressed discontent with the agreement during a phone call, South Koreas Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said last week in a rare disclosure of discord between the allies.

The US was not likely to openly protest against an inter-Korean initiative, Seoul officials said, but its deep involvement in sanctions enforcement and military operations give it leverage to delay or change the policy.

The no-fly zone is a key sticking point for the US because it would effectively prevent close air support drills, the sources said, adding that Pompeo raised the issue during the call with Kang.

Both sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The zone, effective November 1, will extend 40km north and south from the Military Demarcation Line in the east and 20km in the west for fixed-wing aircraft.

The agreement also bars live-fire drills involving fixed-wing aircraft and air-to-ground guided weapons in the no-fly area. South Korea and the US had held such drills regularly until halting joint exercises in June.

There are different restrictions on helicopters, drones and balloons, with exemptions for commercial and non-military operations such as medical, disaster and agricultural uses.





In close air support, aeroplanes provide firepower for troops who may be operating near enemy forces. Most fighter jets that US forces operate in South Korea, such as the F-16, can play that role, one of the sources said.

An official at Seouls foreign ministry said Pompeo had not been fully briefed when he complained about the inter-Korean deal and called back that day to wish Kang good luck with the summit.

The US State Department declined to comment.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan declined to comment on the agreement but said the Department of Defence backs efforts to reduce military tensions.

The department remains in full support of our diplomats as they work to achieve the verified denuclearisation of the DPRK as agreed to by Chairman Kim (Jong Un), Logan said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

A spokesman at South Koreas defence ministry said Seoul cooperates closely with Washington and the US-led United Nations Command (UNC).

Signs of discord

South Korea has held more than 50 rounds of talks this year with the UNC, which oversees affairs in the DMZ, to facilitate the inter-Korean commitments but has not yet secured its full support, according to Baek Seung-joo, a legislator of the opposition Liberty Korea Party.

On Tuesday, North and South Korea held their first three-way talks with the UNC to discuss practical steps to facilitate the military pact, but did not announce any concrete measures, Seouls defence ministry said.

Theyre not even close to an agreed definition of hostile acts', said Baek, who served as a vice defence minister in 2013-15.

The agreement would make it impossible to carry out air cover and overall exercises, and it would hurt the alliances reconnaissance capabilities, Baek said.

But the UNC is taking a cautious approach so as not to kindle anti-US sentiment among a public supportive of the two Koreas push for peace, Baek said.

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While maintaining that it remains in lockstep with Washington, the administration of South Koreas Moon Jae-in has forged ahead with efforts to engage with the North, even as critics accused Moon of focusing on feel-good theatrics at the expense of progress.

Kim vowed to work towards denuclearisation during his unprecedented June summit with US President Donald Trump.

But Pyongyangs actions have fallen short of US demands for irreversible steps to scrap its arsenal, including a full disclosure of nuclear facilities and materials.

The alliance is being undercut for the sake of confidence-building with the North, while there is little progress on the nuclear issue, which is the root cause of the long-standing tensions, Baek said.Fujimori remains under investigation over undeclared financial contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign.

An appeals judge has freed Peruvian opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, a week after she was arrested in an ongoing corruption investigation.

The daughter of Perus former strongman leader, Alberto Fujimori, cried as the judge read his ruling on Wednesday night and was heckled by critics as she left the court.

Fujimori remains under investigation over undeclared financial contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign, totalling some $1.2m. At least 19 others have been arrested in the case.

The money is alleged to have come from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, part of one of Latin Americas largest-ever corruption scandals, affecting politicians and business leaders in more than 10 countries.

A twice-defeated presidential candidate, Fujimori has led the powerful conservative opposition party, Popular Force, which has a majority in Congress, since her fathers arrest in 2007.

She was a key figure in toppling former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in March over his own ties to Odebrecht.

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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 Kuczynski, Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo all took undeclared campaign contributions in exchange for promises to offer lucrative contracts to Odebrecht, prosecutors said.

Fujimoris arrest came a week after her 80-year-old fathers presidential pardon for crimes against humanity was revoked by a top court.

Following his extradition from Japan 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.

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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.

Fujimori has always denied the charges against her, saying that she is a victim of political persecution.

In a handwritten statement on Twitter on the day of her arrest, Fujimori said she had been persecuted for 18 years without proof against her ever being presented.Lara Alqasem, who was barred from studying in Israel, wins Supreme Court appeal over her alleged support for BDS.

Lara Alqasems legal team says Israels Supreme Court has overturned the US students deportation order, allowing her to study in Israel.

Alqasem, who is of Palestinian descent, had been held at Israels Ben Gurion Airport  despite having a valid visa  for more than two weeks since arriving from the US to begin a masters degree in human rights at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was denied entry to Israel over her alleged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS).

The 22-year-old is from the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Southwest Ranches, Florida, and was a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Her defence stated that she is not a boycott supporter, as illustrated by her choice to study at an Israeli university.

Todays hearing will address the question of whether Ms Alqasem is a BDS activist or simply an intellectually curious student who has found herself the target of politicised thought-policing, Leora Bechor, one of Alqasems lawyers said in a statement ahead of the hearing on Wednesday.

In a reaction, Hebrew University said it is looking forward to welcoming our newest student, Lara Alqasem, as she begins her M.A. in Human Rights & Transitional Justice at our law school next week.

Keep fighting

The BDS movement started in 2005, after a call issued by Palestinian civil society groups for people of conscience around the world to help end Israels abuses against Palestinians by cutting off cultural, academic and economic ties with the state.

Alqasems detention was the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case. She was held in not so good conditions, in a closed area with little access to a telephone, no internet and a bed that was infested with bedbugs, according to her lawyers.

The Hebrew University had called on the authorities to allow her in to study and has supported her appeal.

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Israel enacted a law last year banning any foreigner who knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel from entering the country. It also identified 20 activist groups from around the world whose members can be denied entry upon arrival.

Yotam Ben-Hillel, Alqasems second lawyer, said the defence team argued that the law, which denies the entry of a wide variety of people into Israel, is wrong and harms a lot of basic rights.

We challenged how they interpreted the law, Ben-Hillel said.

Last week, Gilad Erdan, a senior Israeli minister who oversees the governments efforts to counter the Palestinian-led boycott movement, said that Israel has the right to protect itself and decide who enters its borders.

He said he would be open to changing his position on the detention if Alqasem personally denounces the boycott of Israel.

But to Alqasem, the appeals process was a means to fight against what she perceives as unjust, instead of accepting deportation.

She wanted to keep fighting, Ben-Hillel, who spoke to Alqasem earlier this week, said. This is important for her.

Israel criticised

Israel was criticised for its handling of Alqasems case.

A group of some 300 international academics published a statement in the Guardian decrying Israels action as an attack on academic freedom and calling for Alqasem to be allowed to pursue her studies at the Hebrew University.

J Street, a US advocacy group working to promote a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, published an open letter to Gilad Erdan saying the action taken against Alqasem showed the deeply counterproductive and anti-democratic nature of the Israeli governments approach to BDS and to criticism of its policies.

Gershom Gorenberg, an Israeli historian and journalist, wrote in the Washington Post that Alqasems case was part of a trend by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government to turn law enforcement, and the law itself, into tools for policing opinions.Thousands of Honduran migrants arrive in Guatemala City

Donald Trump has threatened to cut aid to Guatemala unless they stop the Hondurans.Powerful Kandahar police general killed, along with intelligence chief, in shooting claimed by Taliban.

The top security leadership of Afghanistans Kandahar has been assassinated in a brazen gun attack claimed by the Taliban, leaving a power vacuum in the crucial province ahead of Saturdays elections.

General Abdul Raziq, one of Afghanistans most powerful security officials, was killed along with Kandahars intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin, when a bodyguard opened fire after a meeting in the southern province, officials said.

Deputy provincial governor Agha Lala Dastageri said Kandahar Governor Zalmai Wesa also died of his wounds after being taken to a local hospital, although security officials in the capital maintained Wesa was wounded but survived.

Citing US military officials, TOLOnews reported that Wesa survived the attack after undergoing surgery, adding that he is in stable condition.

General Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan who had been at the meeting with Raziq only moments earlier, was also uninjured in the attack.

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they had targeted both Miller and Raziq, who had a fearsome reputation as a ruthless opponent of the armed group.

The killing of Raziq is a major blow to the Afghan government ahead of parliamentary elections on October 20, which the Taliban have vowed to disrupt.

Al Jazeeras Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Kabul, said two US official were also wounded in the attack.

There was a meeting between the US top commander in Afghanistan Scot Miller and top government representatives in Kandahar. After that meeting, there was gunfire inside the governors compound.

In that gunfire, the intelligence chief, and the top police commander were killed. Two Americans were injured, Ahelbarra reported.

Taliban claim

The Taliban have managed to infiltrate the most secure government meetings on multiple occasions this year, striking at the heart of its command.

The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along several other officials, a Taliban statement said.

Raziq was criticised by human rights groups but highly respected by US officers who saw him as one of Afghanistans most effective leaders, largely responsible for keeping Kandahar province under control.

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A flamboyant commander, he had survived several attempts on his life over many years and narrowly escaped an attack last year in which five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates were killed in Kandahar.

NATO spokesperson Colonel Knut Peters said Miller, who took command of US and forces and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan last month, was uninjured but he confirmed that two Americans were wounded in the crossfire.Moon Jae-in to meet Pope Francis on Thursday; expected to extend invitation from Kim Jong Un to visit North Korea.

South Koreas president said he was certain peace could be achieved on the Korean Peninsula ahead of an audience on Thursday with Pope Francis where hes expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit the reclusive country.

President Moon Jae-in, who is Catholic, spoke at the end of an evening mass at the Vatican, saying the prayers offered at the service would resound as echoes of hope in the hearts of the people of the two Koreas as well as the people of the whole world who desire peace.

Our prayers today will turn into reality for sure, he said. We will achieve peace and overcome division without fail.

The South Korean leader signed a broad agreement with Kim last month designed to reduce military tensions on the Peninsula. Moons office announced during their summit that Kim said the pope would be enthusiastically welcomed in North Korea.





Moon also played an important role in setting up Junes meeting in Singapore between Kim and US President Donald Trump.

Improved relations?

In an article in the Vatican newspaper, LOsservatore Romano, Moon praised Pope Francis for his promotion of dialogue and said he hoped the Korean peace initiative could help the Vatican forge relations with the North.

He wrote that when he visited Pyongyang in September for the summit, he was joined by a Korean Catholic bishop to try and improve relations between the church in North and South Korea.

North Korea strictly controls the religious activities of its people, and a similar invitation to Pope John Paul II to visit after the Inter-Korean Summit that was held in 2000 never resulted in a meeting. The Vatican insisted at the time a papal visit would only be possible if Catholic priests were accepted in North Korea.

Francis, however, has taken a less absolutist approach and recently agreed to a deal with China over bishop nominations, which only allows religious practice in state-sanctioned churches.

North Korea expelled the Vaticans priests long ago and state-appointed laymen officiate services. Estimates of the number of North Korean Catholics range from 800 to about 3,000, compared with more than five million in South Korea.Harare, Zimbabwe  A new dispensation  a term you hear often on the streets of the capital  a progressive change now resting with Zimbabwes new President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The government says its paving the way with a new mantra geared towards economic and political reforms.

Since the removal of longtime president Robert Mugabe in 2017  after the military intervened  and Julys presidential elections, the ruling ZANU-PF party says its been working to relax the rules around traditional and digital media outlets.

The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which restricts media freedom and bars foreign correspondents from working in the country full time, was put in place by Mugabes regime.

The law has gagged the media and access to information.

Roughly seven million Zimbabweans have access to the internet. Mnangagwa is one of them.

The president is active on social media, interacting with citizens on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp.

Monica Mustvangwa, the minister of information, told Al Jazeera a free media is important for a new Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is open for business, weve got everything to benefit from the freedom of press. I think as a country, as a ministry, its our job that we rebrand Zimbabwe. What we are going to do is maybe look at the legislation and maybe we will use a tooth-comb to brush out what we dont need, Mustvangwa said.

A departure from the past  but not everyone is convinced.

Tabani Moyo says a more open media environment has not been actualised [Courtesy: MISA, Zimbabwe]

Open media

The executive director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Tabani Moyo, told Al Jazeera its too early to decide if the political transition will herald a more open media environment.

The government is trying to paint an advertising space of a government that is breaking with a dark past. But it has serious structural problems, you can see that its failing to pick up the low-hanging fruits of media law and policy reforms, Moyo said.

MISA says at least 25 journalists have been arrested or assaulted this year.

Rights groups are demanding that outdated laws on information transparency be reviewed.

They are calling for amendments to the Broadcasting Services Act to democratise the broadcasting sector and the cyber laws developed in 2013.

The transparency of awarding media licenses is still questionable, with only some licenses given to new media houses, while most go to government-funded outlets.

Many Zimbabweans say they are ready for more media and information transparency as the country shifts from an era that was largely criticised for its restrictive tendencies on freedom of expression.

New audiences

Independent tech hubs are springing up and bringing their different narrative to audiences, as journalists and civil society members are trying to figure out where they fit in the new system.

With the new government, so far we havent had any talk back on issues, but we are working in a grey area right now. We are just waiting and will continue to produce content. Hopefully, no one tries to stop us, Sharon Chideu, a journalist with Bustop TV, told Al Jazeera.

Police ordered journalists out of an opposition press conference in August [File: Reuters]

Shoko Festival, which is Zimbabwes biggest urban culture festival, provides a platform for young people to express themselves through media and music.

The younger generation has also embraced comedy and satire as a more comfortable space to challenge political norms.

Comedians such as Comrade Fatso are spearheading this new-found space. He never misses an opportunity to use his shows to pass on political messages.

Laughter is an amazing tool. I think its an amazing way to deal with repressive regimes. I think its a release for you as the activist or the artist to convert all the madness of political reality, Sam Farai Monroe, creative director at Magamba Network, told Al Jazeera.

Zimbabweans will have to wait and see if theyll have a more free media landscape but, for now, many continue to push the boundaries.As anti-racism protests in the US and Europe grew, so did demands for the removal of statues linked to slavery  a city in West Africa is going the other way.At least 16 people have died in the flooding, another 40 are missing, and tens of thousands have become homeless.Parcel and LTL shipping software provider SmartFreight is added to the growing portfolio.



WiseTech global has announced its second acquisition this week, this time IFS Global Holdings (SmartFreight), a parcel and LTL shipping software provider headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

SmartFreight offers multi-carrier shipping software solutions to more than 3,300 customers across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and Asia, according to the acquisition announcement, which said SmartFreight processes more than 50 million parcels annually in Australia alone.

As e-commerce continues its rapid exponential growth, the importance of omni-channel parcel and LTL shipping for customers  and the logistics industry globally  will increase by an order of magnitude, said Richard White, WiseTech global founder and CEO, We value the parcel logistics and technical expertise within the SmartFreight teams and their extensive coverage of parcel and LTL carriers and rates, with electronic connections to over 650 carriers in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the U.K. and South Africa.

These adjacent markets complement those covered by our other WiseTech businesses  parcel shipping TMS provider Pierbridge and specialist LTL TMS provider SaasTransportation, while our Gartner-rated specialist WMS, Microlistics, can beneficially partner with SmartFreight for e-commerce fulfillment domestically in these crossover geographies, White said.

White said SmartFreight will help accelerate the expansion of WiseTechs CargoWise One offering. This innovative solution is in pilot with a major air freight forwarder and will soon be launched globally for country-of-origin depot functionality  a great fit with SmartFreight capabilities.

SmartFreight will remain under the leadership of its managing director, Ken Aitken, who said, Joining the WiseTech Global group allows us to plug our 21 years of experience in first- and last-mile delivery into their leading integrated global platform, which is being continually enhanced and expanded. This is a great opportunity for us to improve and scale up our shipping solutions and grow in key markets.We have the DNA test results of Elizabeth Warren. It turns out she's right: she is part American Indian. That is, about one one thousandth  somewhere between six and ten generations ago, she possibly had a American Indian ancestor, according to expert Dr. Carlos Bustamante of Stanford University. One could say she is vindicated, or one could say the test is inconclusive or fraudulent or the percentage of American Indian heritage in her biology is inconsequential, or one could say, as Donald Trump did, "Who cares?" He might be on to something important. "Who cares?" is the right answer.

Instead of supporting Warren's claim, which on its face is ridiculous, or castigating her, as most Republicans and the Cherokee Nation have done, let's look for the actual culprit.

The bad guy here isn't just Elizabeth Warren. Here's a leftist white female with ambition to "be somebody." She knew that "white privilege" is a myth. She could've allowed herself to be buried in some red-state "Moo U"  hardly a milepost for an energized, motivated leftist  or seen the advantages in checking the box by anything but "Caucasian." If you were a right-wing extremist, you could make the case that a Caucasian woman should have as much right to hiring preference as a Cherokee woman. But as a leftist, Elizabeth Warren just had to be cynical  so she was.

She is guilty only of seeking equal opportunity, or a better opportunity than her female Caucasian peers. By using the system this way to her advantage, Warren has shown what a mockery we have made of "equal opportunity" in America. She was more productive, creative and successful at this than those "honest" citizens who took on the system by beating their brains out on a brick wall. She unmasked the absurdity of a practice put in place by her leftist colleagues and herself. All she has in the way of battle scars are a few unkind words from people she doesn't respect that much anyway  the president and the Cherokee Nation (an insignificant demographic), whose identity she traded on to advance her career. She's a success  Harvard professor and U.S. senator. Warren just used the system she and her colleagues on the left created  a system that required her to pass herself off as a minority, to participate in identity politics.

Not so others, who have said the system is "wrong." There was Allan Bakke, a white engineer, former Marine officer, and aspiring medical student who sued the University of California because although he was qualified and outranked some others who were accepted, his application to medical school was rejected. The Supreme Court decided that although quotas are unacceptable, it is acceptable to use race to evaluate candidates  whatever that means.

Most of us recognize the role race plays in hiring  especially in government jobs. I imagine that few Caucasian applicants fill out those "voluntary" survey forms that ask for their race.

In America, most Caucasians are a mixture of ethnic groups. I can count 16 different ethnic identities within my own knowledge of my family history. They span Europe from Iberia to the Steppes of Central Asia, from the Arctic to the Mediterranean. I have no compunction about listing any of them. In this, I am probably like most white Americans. But there is only one box I could check that would give me an advantage: I am Hispanic.

If you needed the job, and you could check a box that would give you an advantage  or guarantee you the job you desire  and could rationalize your way clear to do it, why would you shackle yourself to the ball and chain of being white in America today?

We shouldn't be too hard on Elizabeth Warren for her sleight of hand with the race box. If we don't like what she did, or we would ridicule her, let's take a look at the real villain: the discrimination of affirmative action itself. We should have arrived at a place by now in America where we can freely reward or recognize those who make the best scores, whether they happen to be of African, Asian, American Indian, or European ancestry. Science and technology now enable us to run DNA tests that can pinpoint all of this data, but what on Earth does it really matter?

Do we want the best candidates to get into medical school? That would be in everyone's best interest, after all. A patient can come in any color and from any ancestry. Would he want the best doctor? A professor is the key person in the education scheme whereby a student indentures himself to literally a lifetime of debt in order to earn a degree. Isn't it in our best interest to ensure that the most qualified people get those jobs, at least as far as we are able to quantify "best" in terms of teaching (always a difficult formula to evaluate)? Do we want a quota system dictating the makeup of our police force?

It is time to put those race survey sheets in the shredder and not ask those questions, but instead concentrate on the qualities of the individual applying.

My father was head of an enterprise large enough to come under the scrutiny of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In his profession and geographic area, no Hispanic candidates ever applied for certain technical positions in the company. Quotas were not being met. There was intense pressure to hire an Hispanic person in this capacity. Finally, someone with a Portuguese ancestor applied and was hired. Who was well served, aside from the successful applicant? This man did not identify as "Hispanic" in any other way. Like Warren, he saw an opportunity and took it. It was a sham, typical of the kind of monster bureaucracy America has become.

We have seen worse results. Mohammed Noor, you may recall, was a star hire for the Minneapolis Police, their first Somali Muslim officer. It didn't work out. The police used race and religion instead of aptitude and qualifications, and Noor is now off the force  after shooting a woman in cold blood. Who might have had the job instead had race and religion not been the sole criteria?

The "bad guy" is not Donald Trump. The culprit is a system that rewards some because of race or ethnicity  or religion  and not on merit. It is the antithesis of the American way, the American dream, and the intent of the Constitution and our laws. It is an abomination of them.

Let's take this opportunity to put an end to this nonsense and start looking at individuals as themselves, not as representatives, willing or not, of some special group.Just in time for the midterms, another "spontaneous" migration from Central America began with a bevy of allegedly oppressed and downtrodden Hondurans leading the way. Pressured by a threat from President Trump to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador if the caravan is not stopped, some moves by these governments have been made. Yet evidence exists that these migrations are not spontaneous, with both of the governments in question encouraging them as a political and economic safety valve and a source of foreign currency, financed in part by foreign leftists with connections to George Soros.

As Fox News's Laura Ingraham noticed in a tweet, this is not a walk in a national park, but an expensive and arduous journey:

Who is funding the migrant "caravan"? Each migrant's passage can cost as much as $7K each. Per capita income Honduras is $2.3 K.

It is doubtful that such sums came from the kiddies' college funds. Evidence of Soros funding of an earlier "spontaneous" migration have been found among the tentacles of support that flow from his Open Society group coffers:

Leftist billionaire George Soros is funding the well-organized anti-Trump migrant caravan invasion from Central America that has been hitting the United States-Mexico border in defiance of immigration enforcement. Several major ultra-liberal foundations and corporations have supported the asylum-seeking migrant caravans, and Soros' funding has been tied to several groups that have spearheaded the "refugee" invasion coalition  also dubbed "the Soros Express." "The caravan is organized by a group called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, [b]ut the effort is supported by the coalition CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project, which includes Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLIN), the American Immigration Council (AIC), the Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services (RICELS) and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA)  thus the acronym CARA," WND reported. "At least three of the four groups are funded by George Soros' Open Society Foundation."

The hands of the Honduran government are not clean in these efforts. Among the alleged asylum-seekers parked on the U.S. border is a contingent of Hondurans, allegedly fleeing persecution, poverty, crime, and oppression. If that is the case, why is the Honduran government helping them, driving them northward under orders given to the Honduran ambassador, who is helping and escorting them?

Leaders of a caravan of Central American migrants traveling toward the United States through Mexico have repeatedly accused the Honduran government of corruption and with failing to address the poverty, crime and economic conditions forcing families to flee by the thousands. So it shocked some observers when the Honduran ambassador joined the migrants protesting outside the Honduran embassy in Mexico City on Wednesday, and then accepted their invitation to walk 9 miles to a migrant shelter. "I have been ordered by my government to support the Honduran migrants traveling with the caravan. There are about 200 Hondurans who we will help out with paperwork and whatever is necessary," Alden Rivera Montes, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico, told El Universal.

Ordered by my government? Why is the country whose oppression they are allegedly fleeing helping them leave? The answer is remittances, the money sent back home by so-called "migrants." Asylum is in large part a colossal scam designed to provide Latin American countries with a political and economic safety valve and a cash cow of foreign exchange. In 2017, remittances sent back to Honduras totaled $4.33 billion and make up a significant part of the Honduran economy:

Within the span of a few short decades, migrants have become an essential engine of economic support for Honduras. Remittances comprised 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, according to World Bank estimates, the second largest share of any country in Latin America or the Caribbean. As such, Honduran emigrants have tremendous significance for the country's economy and for the sustenance of many otherwise impoverished communities and families.

Talk about a trade imbalance. We import alleged asylum-seekers and other illegal aliens, and they send home billions sucked out of a benevolent U.S. government and economy. We have an economy that has some 7.3 million jobs going unfilled because of a shortage of skilled workers. Judging from photos of the latest caravan, one would suggest a paucity of welders, pipefitters, electricians, and long-haul truck-drivers.

Inner-city blacks have long asked which country they get to go to to escape violence and poverty. Although President Trump is succeeding in fighting crime and increasing job opportunities in our urban areas, much remains to be done. We do not need to be importing low-wage and low-skilled competitors to American citizens to drive down poor workers' wages. Inner-city residents have long asked, where's our sanctuary?

Unlike the children of Central America, arriving en masse, the children of Chicago, facing conditions every bit as horrible, have no border to cross to seek asylum or refuge[.] ... "Do something for our children," said one of the protesters in a video posted at the blog Rebel Pundit. "Have the same love for these young people like you got for the ones across the border, and you want to save them." ... A woman, identified only as Elaine, explained the plight of inner-city Baltimore residents on Laura Ingraham's radio show: "My children cannot play outside. I cannot take my trash out without locking the door  it's awful. Who is going to give us anything? Where can I get asylum? Where can I get refugee status?"

Where, indeed? Perhaps this side of a border wall Democrats oppose in favor of sanctuary cities and Medicare for illegal aliens. If any of the alleged asylum-seekers want to learn a trade  how about a crash course in border wall construction? Build it, and they won't come.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.Many critics say our public schools are a train wreck. In Charlotte Iserbyt's memorable phrase, we are all victims of "the deliberate dumbing down of America." Is there any escape? Perhaps, but only if we're candid about what has been done to us throughout the past century.

Here's how bad things are now. Camille Paglia, popular professor and author, declares: "What has happened is these young people now getting to college have no sense of history  of any kind! No sense of history. No world geography. No sense of the violence and the barbarities of history. So, they think that the whole world has always been like this, a kind of nice, comfortable world where you can go to the store and get orange juice and milk, and you can turn on the water and the hot water comes out. ... They know nothing!"

Professor Patrick Deneen at Notre Dame says, "My students are know-nothings. ... Their brains are largely empty. ... They are the culmination of western civilization, a civilization that has forgotten nearly everything about itself, and as a result, has achieved near-perfect indifference to its own culture."

Let's jump farther back to 1983 and the famous "Nation at Risk" report produced by a congressional investigation, which concluded: "The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people." Then came the wonderful deadpan crescendo: "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war." Please savor this. Our schools are so bad that the Russians are probably in charge  that is, the communists.

This shocking statement merely reveals the obvious. A decade earlier, celebrated communist author Herbert Marcuse, in Counterrevolution and Revolt, applauded "the strategy of the long march through the institutions: working against the established institutions while working within them ... by 'doing the job', learning how to program and read computers, how to teach at all levels of education, how to use the mass media[.]"

Such strategies have long been commonplace. After the Russian Revolution was consolidated in 1920, the Communist International proposed that the same methods be pursued around the world. The Long March, the Deliberate Dumbing Down  all proceeded simultaneously in every part of our society. The communists wanted to influence print media, broadcast networks, magazines, publishing businesses, universities, the foundations  and they pretty much expropriated control of everything. That's why they could do to education whatever they wanted and reduce public schools to ignorance factories.

The central fact of this whole story is that the USSR was a police state (and probably better described as a slave state). Khrushchev announced to the world circa 1956 that he intended to bury us  i.e., make us part of his evil empire. The communists assumed this outcome until after 1990 and probably do so today. So throughout the 20th century, these subversives was merely preparing us for our proper place in the world: enslaved. Slaves don't need to read or think.

Decades earlier, John Dewey and his Fabian socialists proposed the strategy that would be endlessly replicated: infiltrate and conquer. And never tell the truth. The New Republic tied together the main threads:

Finally, Dewey arguably did more than any other reformer to repackage progressive social theory in a way that obscured just how radically its principles departed from those of the American founding[.] ... Dewey initially embraced the term "socialism" to describe his social theory. Only after realizing how damaging the name was to the socialist cause did he, like other progressives, begin to avoid it. In the early 1930s, accordingly, Dewey begged the Socialist party, of which he was a longtime member, to change its name. "The greatest handicap from which special measures favored by the Socialists suffer," Dewey declared, "is that they are advanced by the Socialist party as Socialism. The prejudice against the name may be a regrettable prejudice but its influence is so powerful that it is much more reasonable to imagine all but the most dogmatic Socialists joining a new party than to imagine any considerable part of the American people going over to them."

Our secret socialists faced endless packaging and marketing problems. The education commissars had to provide a clever cover story for every excrescence. If professors of education could justify claiming that non-reading is reading, then they could use Whole Word to make children into functional illiterates. If they could claim that garbled, nearly useless arithmetic is as good as real arithmetic, they could make kids learn Common Core Math. If they could create bogus research to prove that Constructivism is a superior way to teach content, they could make sure everyone knew almost nothing, exactly as professors Paglia and Deneen described.

America became a large beetle with a nasty parasite consuming it from the inside. Nineteen fifty-three is roughly the midpoint of our long march to defeat. That year, Hilda Neatby, a world-class professor, published her book So Little for the Mind. Neatby was the first female president of the Canadian Historical Association. Her book provides a shrewd exposition of what happens to a civilization when a parasite is inside. It's easy to fall in love with Neatby's beautiful mind:

It is well, however, to skirt Dewey's philosophy lightly, not through irreverence, but rather through godly fear. He has been looked upon as the fountain at which every novice must drink; in truth he is no fountain, he is rather a marsh, a bog where armies of school teachers have sunk, and, one might add, many of them have never risen, but speak with muffled accents from the depths. Although [the expert] says he wants children to think, when driven into a corner he betrays an uneasy conviction that most children cannot think and he therefore accuses his critics of planning an 'academic' education suited to the few. The faith of our experts is not faith in the ability of all to solve problems but the reverse. The material which would enable the individual to work out his own salvation is practically withheld in order that he may be more receptive to the ready-made solutions that are handed out. Few experts in education show any appreciation of the rewards of disinterested scholarship. And this is not surprising; few indeed have experienced them.

Neatby tells us what happens when communists are loose in the world. Hardly 40 years into the war against these subversives, we were largely pacified. We had 100% literacy in 1915, but it declined steadily thereafter.

This historical review points to an unexpected and unpleasant conclusion. Many of our most important institutions lied to us continually. I suspect that nothing preached by our Education Establishment was ever true, was ever intended to work, was ever intended to help children, was ever intended to be genuinely educational. We're looking back at a century of lies and subterfuge. The commies, if we may call them that, out-schemed us and out-plotted us. These indefatigable enemies, these expert assassins, knew our kill spots. Education was the biggest and softest.

Education, which should elevate a society, was used to devastate ours.

Everybody should acknowledge this shameful acquiescence. Look in a mirror and grin sheepishly: yeah, we were easy, so, so, so easy.

Basically, our socialists and Education Establishment did all the things we accused King George of doing: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. ... He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation."

We stopped King George. Now we need to stop King Ed or, if you prefer, Red Ed.

Bruce Deitrick Price's new book is "Saving K-12  What happened to our public schools? How do we fix them?" He deconstructs educational theories and methods at Improve-Education.org.Republicans love to talk about the Washington bubble, to preach that the Washington establishment has no clue what goes on in the country outside its own echo chamber.

I submit that conservatives have their own bubble, their own echo chamber. They say Democrats can't win because they want to take back our tax cuts, have open borders, get rid of ICE, and impeach the president. All true on a national level, but Democrats aren't running far-left campaigns in conservative or moderate districts.

Anecdotally, I bring you Pennsylvania's 1st District: Brian Fitzpatrick (R) versus Scott Wallace (D). Though Fitzpatrick is the incumbent, it's a tight race, ranked a tossup or leans Republican, not a ringing endorsement.

One big obstacle for the GOP in this race is the 2018 redistricting. This gerrymandering favors Democrats across the board, including in the 1st District.

Another problem for Republicans is that Democrats are running as conservatives, or at least as solid moderates. In Pa., Scott Wallace describes himself as a "patriotic millionaire" who's running against Washington.

Wallace campaign site:

Scott Wallace is running for Congress to be a voice for Pennsylvania families, working to end the dysfunction and division in Washington.

This is the genius strategy of the left: to include some kernel of truth in every lie. In this case, yes, Washington is dysfunctional and divided. That's true. But to say a Democrat will even attempt to fix it is a lie, because it's Democrats who broke it. The Democrat "Resistance" is alive and well, a mutinous cabal that marches lockstep with its leader to obstruct and dismantle our government.

This Democrat strategy of running against Washington is really quite effective. Conor Lamb was an especially strong candidate: a young ex-Marine, Conor ran as an outsider, a fresh voice in the swamp.

The number-one priority on Lamb's website is "new energy and honest leadership." Next on his list are jobs, affordable health care, and protecting our Medicare and Social Security. Conor campaigned on his independence  that he'll vote his conscience, will oppose Nancy Pelosi.

Sounds just like Trump, doesn't it? This conservative whitewash worked: Conor Lamb won his race. In fact, the New York Times issued instructions for Democrats to use this race as a roadmap for Trump country. That is exactly what Democrats are doing.

Will it work in every red district? No, but then, how many seats do they need? Yes, Republicans are energized by the Kavanaugh hearing, and many independents who didn't like what they saw will go red, but is that enough? If we lose red districts because we allow the Alt-Left to run as conservatives, can it dent our majority, flip the House?

The left's overall strategy is to fire up the base with even more extreme rhetoric while they win over middle America with fake candidates. America is a big country, and not everyone watches Fox. Even those who don't watch CNN or drink the Kool-Aid are not necessarily up to speed on the Resistance, the attempted coup, the Democrats' lawlessness.

Another argument against a blue wave is the fact that the GOP is out-raising Democrats. Again, that's on the national level. Many Democrats are surpassing their Republican opponents in fundraising in local races  56, according to Politico.

Conservatives dismiss this reporting because it's Politico, a known propaganda outlet. But I don't doubt that Democrat war chests are overflowing. Liberal oligarchs are pouring cash into Democrat coffers  Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, Warren Buffett, and George Soros are among those opening their wallets to all things liberal. Their PACs virtually run a candidate's ad campaign.

Then there's the matter of dark money  donations by nonprofits and corporate entities not required to publicly disclose their contributions. Dark money primarily benefits Democrats because if Republicans raise $1 of questionable funding, the media crucify them, yet that same press hides Democrats' questionable funding behind its media firewall.

Bottom line: Republicans can't assume that their voters are armed with facts going to the polls. Too many have trusted our "watchdog press" to inform them, not keep news from them; to expose a corrupt government, not shield the corruption. These are people who never noticed that our free press was disappearing, replaced by controlled propaganda. They don't know where to turn for truth if not the press.

One example: Mainstream media don't report on James O'Keefe's newest video. O'Keefe has footage of Democrat Tennessee Senate candidate Phil Bredesen's staff admitting that their boss, Bredesen, is lying when he claims he would be a yes vote for Kavanaugh. This is not an anomaly; many Democrats flat-out lie about who they are, how they would serve.

If we are to win the midterms, Republicans need to think and campaign outside the bubble. This isn't a traditional election; it's Republicans versus Democrats and a Democrat media. Don't just listen to ideas bouncing around our echo chamber; listen to your constituents, what are they thinking, what bill of goods have they been sold.

Information can be a powerful weapon against our republic or a powerful tool to preserve it. Republicans need to reach out, educate people with facts, and shine sunlight where the media cast shadows.

As President Trump said when he threw himself on a media grenade to get the truth out about Dr. Ford, we need to "level the playing field." There are too many things "left unsaid."During a recent visit to Plymouth, Massachusetts, I viewed the National Monument to the Forefathers, completed in 1889 and sitting on a relatively remote site in the town due to ensuing housing developments and other factors. It is a safe bet that most Americans, especially the youth of today, have never heard about this special national monument honoring and symbolizing the labors, sacrifices, and sufferings of America's 102 forefathers (Pilgrim men, women, and children), who landed at Plymouth in 1620. Unlike their fellow Englishmen who landed at Jamestown, Virginia in 1607 with an economic motivation, the Pilgrims came to the New World for civil and religious liberty. History tells us that nearly half of these people died from sickness and exposure during their first year in the New World.

The National Monument to the Forefathers is the largest solid granite monument in the United States, standing 81 feet in total height. By studying the monument, much can be learned by young and old alike about the principles and virtues of the Pilgrim settlers. These principles and virtues were ultimately carried over into the writing of America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Due to the tremendous political divide in America today, I believe that America needs a resurgence of these early principles and virtues to enable the nation to continue as a thriving constitutional republic. To help enable this resurgence, a program is suggested to allow Americans of all ages living in each of the 50 states to view, study, and learn from suitable replicas of this important national monument.

Dedicated in 1889, the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts (hereinafter referred to as "the monument") is truly one of America's most beautiful and meaningful monuments. The below photograph showing people viewing the monument indicates the size and general appearance:

In 1974, the monument was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service as having "exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States." The monument is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation with additional funding provided by Friends of the Forefathers, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity. Due to its relatively remote location in Plymouth, literature describing the monument states that it is "Plymouth's best kept secret" and that "everyone visits Plymouth Rock, but most people miss the statue erected in honor of those 102 brave souls who boarded the Mayflower with hopes for a better life in the New World."

The five virtues symbolized on the monument that were highly valued and practiced by the early Pilgrim settlers can serve as a strategy or roadmap for modern-day Americans to preserve a vibrant constitutional republic. Consequently, exposure to and study of the monument are highly recommended.

The basic message symbolized by the monument is that the ultimate success of the Pilgrims' settlement was mainly due to their unwavering, deep Christian faith in God and His provision for them. Thus, the tallest figure on the monument (see below photograph) is the personification of faith. The right arm and hand of the faith figure are pointing upward toward God, and the left hand holds an open Christian Bible:

Surrounding and located below the faith figure are figures personifying four additional Pilgrim virtues that all stem from their overarching virtue of faith: morality, law, education of youth, and civil and religious liberty. The virtue of liberty, for example, is personified by a sitting figure of a warrior (see below photograph) who has overcome the tyrant king of England, who persecuted the Pilgrims for their deep religious beliefs.

The virtue of morality is personified as a woman holding a tablet of the Ten Commandments in her left hand and the scroll of Revelation in her right. The virtue of law is personified by a seated draped male figure holding a book (the Bible) with his chair supported by justice and mercy. The virtue of education is personified by a seated draped female figure pointing to a book (the Bible) in her lap with her chair supported by wisdom and youth.

In 2012, actor Kirk Cameron produced and released a 90-minute documentary entitled Monumental, describing the hardships and faith of the early Pilgrim settlers both in Europe and at Plymouth. Additionally, the documentary describes the monument in detail, including the five Pilgrim virtues. (See here for a short 15-minute video about the monument.) Cameron then discusses how emulation of these virtues can enable Americans today to return to the successful "virtue strategy" of the early Pilgrims. Such a course of action is deemed essential to the survival of the American republic.

To enable millions of Americans, especially school-age children and young adults, to view and learn from the symbols of Pilgrim virtues depicted on the National Monument to the Forefathers, it is suggested that state governments or private organizations in each of the 50 states develop plans to fund and build suitable replicas of the monument. Replicas might be half the scale, for example, of the original monument and made of materials other than granite stone. Descriptive literature about the monument and each of the five important Pilgrim virtues also needs to be made available to the viewing public, especially schoolchildren. Funding from the federal government for this important and edifying project should also be pursued.

Paul S. Gardiner is an avid lover of America and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel living in Hoschton, Georgia.

Image: Greg Kullberg via Wikimedia Commons.I spent yesterday in Belfast, Northern Ireland, a city that nearly destroyed itself thanks to the embrace of identity politics. For three decades of the late twentieth century, physically indistinguishable Irish people slaughtered each other using terrorism based on their tribal identity as Catholics or Protestants. Terror bombings of pubs were a common tactic, as were kidnappings and torture.

It wasn't even a religious conflict, for the correct path to salvation or any religious doctrine at all was never a point of dispute. The Protestant terrorists identified as British and wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, while the Catholic terrorists wanted to unite with their cousins to the south in a United Ireland. Despite common Irishness and Christianity, people in large numbers felt justified in slaughtering strangers in the name vengeance for wrongs of the past.

It was obvious, driving on Falls Road in the heart of Catholic West Belfast and Shankill Road in Protestant West Belfast  less than a mile away  that grudges are still deeply felt, despite a peace process that began in 1994 with a ceasefire, which continues today. A map of the religious enclaves in Belfast used by British forces during The Troubles, as they are known, shows that Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods are scattered all over. On this map, seen at the Museum of Irish Republican History in Belfast, Catholic neighborhoods are in green, and Protestant areas are shown in orange [i].

So far as I was able to discover, there are still no neighborhoods in Belfast that are integrated today, so deeply held are the grudges.

The violence in Belfast became so terrible that 13 miles of wall were constructed to separate enclaves. Along Falls Road, murals cover remaining parts of the wall, and today one sees how the radical partisans of the IRA side identify with other practitioners of identity politics elsewhere, united in (past  one hopes) terrorism used in the cause of Catalonian independence and Palestinian resistance to the existence of Israel.

One part of the wall remains as an actual barrier. This view is from the Protestant side. I was told that the additions to make the wall higher were done to prevent Molotov cocktails from being lobbed over the wall to firebomb residences:

The Troubles economically devastated Northern Ireland and affected the Republic of Ireland as well, driving out investment and stifling new economic activity. Belfast had been a major industrial center, with shipbuilding, heavy engineering, and linen production powering its growth. It was as badly devastated by de-industrialization as anywhere in the American Rust Belt, but with the added problem of terrorism. Today, Northern Island is dependent on billions of pounds a year in subsidies from Britain.

Today, all of Ireland is riveted over Brexit, with the issue of re-introducing a border and customs duties between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic a major concern. Both sides in Ireland want to continue the economic integration that has resulted from E.U. membership by both Britain and Ireland. The M 1 Motorway between Dublin and Belfast is full of heavy trucks carrying goods produced or imported to one side of the invisible border to the other, just as heavy trucks move across state lines in America. The only visible manifestation of the border today is a sign reading "Welcome to Northern Ireland" along the highway, with "Northern" spray-painted out and replaced by "United" by some vandal.

The conclusion that I draw from my brief experience is that identity politics is poisonous and ought to be shunned by all people interested in peace and prosperity. Alas, hatred of "The Other" is useful as a means of uniting one's own. In terms of American politics, President Trump often makes the point that we are one nation, that "we all bleed red, white, and blue." His opponents seem to be pushing us in the direction of our own Troubles.

Draw the appropriate conclusions and vote next month.Portland's Ted Wheeler, mayor of the certifiably craziest and meanest city in America, won't admit that he quietly encourages mob rule in his city. In Portland, the police stand down as thugs run amok.

Journalist Andy C. Ngo posted a video of protesters  Antifa and Black Lives Matter  obstructing an intersection and ordering motorists to obey their traffic instructions. The activists chased down 74-year-old Kent Houser, hammering his car and smashing a window, because Mr. Houser wouldn't do exactly as the Democratic gang commanded him.

"I was appalled by what I saw in the video, but I support the Portland Police Bureau's decision not to intervene," Wheeler said at a press conference. "This whole incident will be investigated."

Failing to separate obvious irony from transparent mendacity, Wheeler said "motorists should feel completely safe coming into downtown Portland."

I wouldn't feel safe driving in downtown Portland even if Wheeler agreed to be my hood ornament.

Democratic bullies took over the intersection in protest of Patrick Kimmon's death at the hands of police on September 30. Protesters did not acquire a permit before holding the Oct. 6 march.

Mayor Wheeler, a Democrat, tacitly approves of the protests that regularly agitate Portland. When the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building was "occupied" this summer, Portland police declined to support immigration enforcement officers unless they were in physical danger.

Wheeler, who also holds the title of police commissioner, doesn't really mind videotape of honest citizens being harassed, chased, and tormented by Democratic Party foot soldiers. He promises an "investigation" but fails to promise arrests. You and I know there is not much to investigate unless the mayor officially appointed the persecutors a sort of posse comitatus status. At the very least, they were impersonating police officers and disturbing the peace. If the mayor didn't order the police to stand down and the police commissioner didn't order the police to stand down, who did? Maybe it was the Portland dog-catching commissioner. Personally, I think Wheeler is in way over his head.

As mentioned, leftist thugs' shoving around taxpaying citizens and elderly gentlemen doesn't truly bother Mayor Wheeler. What really gets his goat is Fox News. "I'm willing to take criticism all day long from Fox News," he said. "But I'm not willing to accept criticism from Fox News of the men and women of the Portland Police Bureau."

Yes, Mayor, but are you willing to take your chances on a left-hand turn in your fair city if a clutch of mask-wearing, bat-clenching Democrats demands you go right?

"This is the story of Goldilocks and the two [sic] bears. The porridge is either too hot or it's too cold," Mr. Wheeler told reporters. "At any given moment in this city, the police are criticized for being heavy-handed and intervening too quickly, or they're being criticized for being standoffish and not intervening quickly enough."

Sorry, Mayor  reaching back to the last book you read with a moderate aspect of comprehension in an attempt to engage the famous Democratic Party "tell a story" gambit will not excuse the putrefaction that has consumed Portland West. Is the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party frightening and chasing 74-year-old men metaphorically porridge that is too hot; porridge that is too cold; or, you being a Democrat, porridge that is just right?

It is none of the above. It is simply wrong. It is simply wrong that fiends who threaten senior citizens are not confronted with arrest warrants within moments of breaking the law. The mayor of a decent city would waste no time being "appalled" and certainly spend none of his already overtaxed intellect calculating the thermotactic properties of storybook oatmeal. The decent mayor of a decent city would issue arrest warrants for the thugs right now.

Once upon a time, they lived happily ever after; but not today in Portland, Oregon. Today, the wolves are emboldened to chase down and devour Little Red Riding Hood's grandfather.

Mayor Wheeler, there is something intrinsically evil about you and your city.Talk about bad timing.

Pope Francis was pictured whooping it up with radical left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore in big-publicity photos taken outside the Vatican. The two pressed flesh and laughed and whispered and clearly enjoyed each other's company.

Here's the Daily Mail report:

Hollywood director Michael Moore has been pictured meeting Pope Francis outside the Vatican after jetting in to promote his new documentary on Donald Trump. Moore, who rose to fame as the director of harrowing documentary Bowling for Columbine, was pictured warmly shaking hands with the pontiff on Wednesday afternoon. Pictures showed Moore taking snaps on his phone and waiting in line to meet the Pope as he greeted adoring members of the public. The director has previously demonstrated a love-hate relationship with the Church, throwing shade at Pope Francis on social media for some of his teachings.

Sound like a good thing, in the wake of the recent Church scandals  which are intimately connected to a left-wing lavender mafia protection racket? Don't think so.

More to the point, does it sound like a good thing, given Moore's reflexive opposition to everything the Church stands for, as well as his appalling record as a hypocrite, given that the filmmaker-of-the-people was last seen stiffing the help? Sure, some Catholics can say Jesus entertained sinners, but the analogy falls flat because Moore doesn't consider himself a sinner. This is more like Jesus whooping it up with the know-it-all Pharisees and saying hey, maybe the Pharisees had a point.

That said, when you read the facts of the matter, it's pretty obvious that it was the washed up Moore who was using the washed up pope for his own publicity purposes, not the other way around. Moore's out promoting a left-wing anti-Trump movie, and what better way than to be seen pictured with the pontiff who's criticized Trump, as if he's got some impressive Vatican connections? This kind of thing can excite lefties and disgust ordinary Catholics, who have no such access to that kind of power and who don't want to see the pope promoting this anti-Catholic bounder anyway.

It really was publicity for Moore: he was the one who tweeted the pictures all over the place. Meanwhile, his whisperings to the pope in the pictures could only have been minimal conversation, given that Moore doesn't speak Spanish and the pope speaks virtually no English, although he says in his tweet that he's going to write about it. Color me skeptical  what he's going to do is use those pictures as a marketing tool.

Today I met Pope Francis for the first time at the weekly general audience he holds at the Vatican. We spoke for a number of minutes. I had a question I wanted to ask him and he gave me his answer. I will write about this tomorrow. For tonight, I remain deeply moved and grateful. pic.twitter.com/rWL9zRBnjj  Michael Moore (@MMFlint) October 18, 2018

The pope, actually, didn't have all that much control over the scene, so he seems to be less culpable than Moore, but he might have had some. It's significant that Moore was pictured with Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the line for the papal audience and in the pictures, too, because it's quite possible he used her as his "beard" to keep himself from getting thrown out of the line by Vatican bouncers. After all, who would throw her out? And if she's with him, he comes with the package.

But on the other hand, when has the pope ever been pictured with a conservative, let alone whooping it up with one? He hasn't. And that raises the issue of the cronyism of the left brotherhood being the story here, not the pope being a pastoral minister to all. At a minimum, he might have maintained a distance from such an ogre.

So Moore saw his chance to get his picture in the news with a leader whose church he hates and with it some publicity for his film, and the pope didn't stand in his way.

Color me disgusted.A spokesman for the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has been suspended for one week without pay after he joked on Facebook that Republicans will be guillotined after the election.

I guess this is what passes for "humor" among Democrats these days.

The GOP chairman says suspension is not enough.

Washington Free Beacon:

The suspension came days after Minnesota state representative Sarah Anderson was punched in the arm after spotting a man destroying Republican yard signs. She said the attack left her scared, and her attacker only desisted when she fled to her car and threw it in reverse. "It was just insane. He was charging at me, saying, 'Why don't you go kill yourself?'" Anderson told the Washington Free Beacon. "To have someone physically coming after you and attacking you is just disheartening." The Plymouth Police Department investigation into Rep. Anderson's alleged assault remains ongoing. A spokeswoman confirmed the department had identified a suspect, but declined further comment. Anderson was not the only GOP candidate attacked. First-time state representative candidate Shane Mekeland suffered a concussion after getting sucker punched while speaking with constituents at a restaurant in Benton County. Mekeland told the Free Beacon he has suffered memory loss  forgetting Rep. Anderson's name at one point in the interview  and doctors tell him he will have a four-to-six week recovery time ahead of him. He said he was cold cocked while sitting at a high top table at a local eatery and hit his head on the floor. "I was so overtaken by surprise and shock and if this is the new norm, this is not what I signed up for," he said. Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck told the Free Beacon that his department has interviewed the alleged assailant. Investigators are awaiting medical records about the extent of Mekeland's injuries before referring the case to the local district attorney's office. He expects those results to come in the next week. Mekeland said he was disappointed that he had not seen Democrats condemn the attack against him, but was floored to see the party take such a light approach to Davis's comments. "He's a political staffer so you'd think if anybody should know boundaries, I think that'd be it," he said. Anderson was equally harsh about the DFL's response, calling it "incredibly irresponsible."

If Democrats hadn't been so hysterical about the "violent rhetoric leading to violence" meme as a way to blame Republicans for attacks, this sort of "joking" wouldn't cause much concern. The famous GOP ad with the bullseye targeting several Democratic seats, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in an attack by a deranged constituent, has been used for years by Democrats as an example of Republican threats of violence.

A few years ago, if you had said we should "hang Democrats from the highest yardarm," no one would have minded. The metaphor would have clearly been meant in jest (since there are few yardarms around to hang Democrats from).

Say that today, and you may be arrested for making terrorist threats.

Indeed, the atmosphere for politicians has become dangerous. In addition to the two Minnesota GOP candidates, the campaign manager for Nevada Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt was also assaulted, this time by a Democratic party operative:

A tracker for a liberal super PAC was arrested on Tuesday night in Nevada for assaulting the female campaign manager for Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt. Kristin Davidson told police the man grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, leaving visible bruising. Mike Stark, who was following around Laxalt for David Brock's American Bridge 21st Century super PAC, barged into a room where Laxalt, Nevada's attorney general, was meeting with Davidson and two other staffers, Davidson said in her statement to the police. She said she was cornered by Stark before he grabbed her. "I could not move," Davidson said in her statement to police, which was shared with the Free Beacon. "Stark grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind my back, squeezed it very hard, and every time I tried to pull away he pulled me closer and gripped my arm tighter." "I kept screaming help me, stop hurting me, you are hurting me," she wrote. "Stark would not stop and grabbed my arm tighter and pulled me closer to him and the door. I was terrified and at that point saw multiple colleagues try to pull him off me but Stark held tighter."

Stark was also stalking Rep. Devin Nunes. Even for a Democrat, the guy is obviously unhinged.

Just prior to the Civil War, congressmen used to arrive on the House floor armed with pistols. We aren't quite at that point yet. But with the most prominent Democrat in the country, Hillary Clinton, calling for an end to civility with the opposition party, anything and everything could happen.What does it mean today to be a Democrat? The once venerable Democratic Party has devolved into character assassination, thuggery, and mob rule.

In the third and final 2016 presidential debate, Hillary Clinton insisted that Donald Trump accept the upcoming election results. With Trump's upset election, Hillary, the Democrat National Committee, and their mass of media sycophants immediately launched into what can be described only as a temper tantrum. The "resistance" was launched to oppose Trump, the Republicans, and more broadly the will of the American people.

While this spectacle at times has been comical, it is now moving into dangerous territory, with Hillary, Eric Holder, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Maxine Waters, and others calling for violence against the president, Republican members of Congress, and the whole of the American people.

Hillary Clinton suggested on CNN that "we cannot be civil with the Republican Party" and that "civility will return if they're [Democrats] fortunate enough to win back the House and/or the Senate."

The following day, Eric Holder suggested that "when they go low, we kick 'em," referring to Republicans.

The Democrats have unleashed their paid political provocateurs to disrupt town halls; intimidate Republican members of Congress; and take to the streets in Berkeley, Portland, New York, Washington, and elsewhere to threaten civil order. A little more than a year ago, a Bernie Sanders supporter, James Hodgkinson, lathered into anger by the daily drumbeat of doom and gloom propagandized by the major media outlets, shot Steve Scalise and others at a Republican softball practice.

Will Democrats be satisfied if the president, a senator, or some congressmen are shot and killed? Is assassinating a righteous man's character an acceptable price to pay to protect a seat on the Supreme Court? How far is the mob willing to go to regain seats of power, and if and when they regain said power, will civility suddenly reign, or will their newfound lock on power be used to punish opposing political dissent?

This past week, a rural Pennsylvania Democrat was forced to resign from his post by party officials for his Facebook post proclaiming, "I stand for the Flag, and I kneel at the Cross."

Democrats need to ask themselves, do I want to be part of a party that actively opposes the flag and Christ?

Just #WalkAway. Americans (of all stripes) are pulling together to Make America Great Again.In short: The branding stamped on a smartphone can directly impact the overall lifespan of the device more than internal hardware or repairability, according to a recent study led by Yale University doctoral student Tamar Makov. Focusing on the two top brands in mobile, Apple and Samsung, the research began as an examination of environmental sustainability issues stemming from the fact that consumers replace their devices well before they stop functioning properly. More directly, researchers looked to the burgeoning used-handset market to try and gain insight into which devices are bought second-hand and how long different devices remain in use after being sold by the original owner. In total, the study involved an analysis of approximately 500,000 eBay listings for top devices from those manufacturers. The researchers conclude that branding alone can contribute to retention of value and the number of sales, in addition to the length of time a handset remains in use after being bought second-hand. Samsung devices, for example, have an economic lifecycle of just over 4.5 years while Apples stronger brand seems to correlate with an even longer lifecycle of around 5.5 years.

Background: For the most part, smartphone manufacturers have effectively been complicit with regard to concerns about the rate at which users upgrade to new devices. The current release cycle for nearly every flagship Android device falls right around a rate of one new device per year. For those users who want the latest and greatest mobile device, the upgrade cycle itself and the amount of hype typically stirred up around announcements provides ample reason to abandon an older model for a new one. Simultaneously, the upgrade cycle for mobile service providers generally falls somewhere between one-and-a-half years to two years depending on the carriers lease or financing agreement. Some providers, like T-Mobile, also offer options to upgrade at any time. In most cases, the new devices do bring substantial improvements to the table but those dont tend to make much difference to the average user.

Compounding that issue, meanwhile, is the fact that firmware updates and security patches are not consistently pushed out over more than the first year by OEMs. However, thats also one area where at least a few manufacturers are looking to change things. For starters, Googles own hardware  most recently with the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL  is shipped with a promise that software updates will continue to be pushed to each device for a minimum of three years from its announcement. OnePlus has made similar promises but with a minimum of two years promised.

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Impact: Setting aside the underlying issues associated with the longevity of smartphones, it appears as though the brand of a handset is at least as important to buyers as internal specifications. Thats not unexpected given the number of manufacturers that have been brought low by a lack of brand awareness or relevance compared to top OEMs such as Samsung.In Short: Keep Notes aka Google Keep is the latest application to receive Googles new Material Design. The company is rolling the update to everyone as we speak, and this update will revamp the apps design completely, as it will make it far more white than it used to be, while icons will be hollow now, which has already happened for some apps from the company, like Messages (formerly known as Android Messages), Google Photos, and Calendar, to name a few. Now, in addition to adjusting the font in an app (Google Sans has been added), and making the icons hollow, the company has also removed color from the top bar, which is something Google is doing to all of its apps as part of the new design language. Instead of a yellow top bar, youre getting a lot more white. In addition to changing the design of the app, the company has also added support for grid and ruled lines for drawings, and has issued some bug fixes and performance improvements as well. The update is rolling out as we speak for both Android and iOS devices, and while it updates the design, it doesnt really mess with the general concept, youll get pretty much the same usability from the app as before, as nothing in terms of function has been changed, basically.

Background: Google has been rolling out its new Material Design to its applications for some time now, basically ever since Android 9 Pie got released. This new design language actually wasnt accepted all that well by everyone, as quite a few people find it to be lifeless, due to Googles decision to remove color from the top bar in its apps. (Android) Messages no longer sport the blue color in the top bar, same goes for Googles Calendar app, and now for Keep Notes as well. Even though the design is still pretty much flat, Googles apps are starting to look a lot alike, without a major differentiating factor as white is prevailing. Google doesnt seem to know what to call its note-taking application, at first it was known as Google Keep, and it still is in the Play Store, and in the app, but the app is listed as Keep Notes on Android phones now, which is quite confusing. Google Keep aka Keep Notes app is currently holding a 4.4-star rating in the Play Store, and it has been downloaded way over 100 million times, as per its Play Store listing.

Impact: This new Material Design that Google is pushing is creating a lot of debates online, but it is what it is, and Google Keep aka Keep Notes app is the latest one to receive it, whether you like it or not. Google still has quite a few apps to adapt to its new design, apps like Gmail and YouTube, for example, and it remains to be seen when will the company push out an update for those apps as well. While were waiting or that, feel free to update your Google Keep aka Keep Notes app if you want, a Play Store link is included down below.In short: Google has now provided in-depth details about four ways its Titan M chip provides better security for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, from the bootloader to third-party software, than any previous devices bearing the brand. To begin with, the chip is deeply integrated with Verified Boot, allowing validation of the devices Android version against a stored copy of the latest safe version and acting as a safeguard against undesired bootloader unlocking. However, Google takes things further still by preventing the firmware for Titan M from being updated by third-party apps or bad actors without unlocking the display. That stops the lock screen passcode, which is similarly locked in with the chip and prevents built-in decryption from being bypassed, from being circumvented via malware. Those protections are all backed by Titan Ms fully separated processing and flash storage, making it more difficult for malicious entities to interfere with the security.

Simultaneously, the company is allowing third-party applications to utilize Titan Ms features, via the StrongBox KeyStore APIs, to protect sensitive transactions and app functions. Android 9s Protection Confirmation API can be used by developers as well. That will add an additional layer of security to user-confirmed transactions and, Google says, help enable strong protections for everything from e-voting to person-to-person transfers. Specifically, the latter of those APIs enables a system-level check to ensure that it was the user and not malware or other third-party software which instantiated a transaction. The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL ship with those protections out of the box and full integration in the Google Pay application is also said to be in the works.

Background: None of that is to say that the search giant hasnt already been working towards making the entire OS safer regardless of brand. Prior to the recently launched Pixel 3 flagships, the company also began making changes to the underlying update process and working with OEMs to make updating much easier. It also started working directly with companies that manufacture the components that make up the vast majority of Android devices with the goal of enabling a separation of security improvements from firmware updates at the hardware level. The hope is to remove the middleman by ensuring that updates are provided by component manufacturers and reduce the need for system-wide updates on a monthly basis. At the same time, the change could actually improve the rate at which any given handset is patched independently of the device makers themselves.

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Impact: With that said, Googles self-branded handsets serve a similar purpose to the previously used Nexus-branding. Namely, they are intended to act as reference devices for third-party manufacturers. So, the result of the companys apparent renewed interest in on-device security via a dedicated security chip could serve as a catalyst, prompting other OEMs to take a similar approach to harden their own phones and tablets. Whats more, the new chip has also been incorporated into the companys new Chrome-branded device, the Google Pixel Slate, making the device even more secure, beyond the protections provided by Chrome OS. That could spur a similar response for Chromebooks and other Chrome OS gadgets.In Short: Google has just announced some new tools for developers, while the company also announced that it is kicking off Playtime, its annual global event series. Playtime will count over 800 attendees in Berlin and San Francisco, while those two events will be followed by events in Sao Paulo, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo. That being said, lets talk more about what else Google announced today. The company actually introduced a way for developers to build smaller applications in form of a new publishing format for Android called Android App Bundle. The company also said that smaller applications have higher conversion rates, and that app size is a leading motivator in driving uninstalls, so its quite important to have that in mind when developing an app. The company says that by using the Android App Bundles modularization, you can deliver features on demand which can further reduce the size of your application.

Google says that thousands of app bundles are already in production and that on average, they will reduce app size by 35-percent. In any case, the company says that you can now build app bundles in the Android Studio 3.2 stable release and in Unity 2018.3 beta. App bundles will be on average 8-percent smaller on download, and 16-percent smaller on M+ devices, with no developer work, says the company, which is yet another announcement made today. Google says that it solved yet another problem when it comes to building instant apps, and Android App Bundle is the solution. Previously you needed to publish both an instant app and an installable app, but thats not the case anymore, you dont need to maintain separate code, says the company. With the Android Studio 3.3 beta release, you can publish a single app bundle and simply classify it.

The company is also expanding its Try Now service. The company has announced that Umiro and Looney Tunes World of Mayhem are now a part of the Google Play Instant, so you can try it out before you install it. On top of everything, the company also said that it is reducing crash rates and improving quality in general, when it comes to its development tools. The company is also making it easier to manage your app and business with Play, by offering better app management tools. The company is adding tools for retaining subscribers, as it is testing the ability for users to temporarily pause their subscriptions, instead of canceling them. More flexible subscription pricing is also being introduced, as you can now change the price of an existing subscription without needing to create a new SKU in Play Billing Library version 1.2. New tools have been added to the Play Console in order to help developers evaluate core metrics. And last, but not least, developers can now prompt users to update without leaving the app, they can do that thanks to a new API that is called In-App Updates, though this is currently in early access, and will be fully rolled out in the next couple of months.

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Background: Google had announced quite a few tools during this years Google I/O, and most of those are already available for developers. Now, the company introduced even more tools for developers which will not only help them keep better track of metrics, but also build smaller applications, and let users update apps without needing to leave an app, which is quite a handy tool to have.

Impact: None of these changes will impact users directly until developers utilize them, of course, but that was to be expected as this announcement comes from Googles Developers channel. Its quite interesting that Google opted to introduce so many changes all at once, but its nice to see some of them, as users will certainly welcome smaller app sizes, in particular. Once Google rolls out its In-App Updates API, and developers get a wind of it, users will feel the difference as well. How many times have you been booted from an app because its updating? Well, that wont be the case anymore, presuming that the vast majority of DEVs will take advantage of said API, and they probably will. This is not a huge issue, to be honest, as youre able to relaunch an app soon after you end up being booted out, but this is definitely a better solution, no doubt about it.In brief: A Google patent might be providing a good look at how the inclusion of a stylus will offer improved functionality in the future. As the patent details a stylus thats equipped with its own wireless interface, memory and processor. The patent does not particularly emphasize the need for a stylus to contain all of these at the same time, although it could do, or a combination of them depending on need. Whats more integral to the patent, is the notion these components will allow the stylus to copy information from one device to another.

The patent was technically first filed by Google back in 2016 with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) although it has only this week been granted. Which highlights how far back Google has been considering additional use cases for pen-like accessories. In terms of the patent, the descriptions are a little rudimentary in this respect as while the idea is to transfer data from one machine to another, this is almost exclusively described in terms of copy-pasting. For example, a user will be able to highlight text on a computer, send the highlighted data to the pen, then use the pen to send and paste the same text to another machine  like a smartphone. Or of course, vice versa.

Background: Google is not new to styli as the company did make available a Pixelbook Pen (shown above) with the original Pixelbook Chromebook. More recently, the company also announced a revised model to coincide with the launch of the newer Pixel Slate Chrome OS-powered tablet. Although in reality, besides the availability of a different color option, there is very little difference between the two generational pens. That said, both pens do already feature a number of advanced features which may be early indications of what is now described in this latest patent. For example, the current Pixelbook Pens feature a tighter integration with Google Assistant where the user can hold down a dedicated button on the pen while circling or highlighting something to get feedback from Google Assistant on a target word, phase, image. So while it is already possible to get feedback on highlighted text, the new patent alludes to the likelihood a Pixelbook Pen would be able to manually copy the same text and send it to another device. Whats more, it could be the case that the technology will support copy-pasting to any other device, not just those running on Android or Chrome.

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The reason this last point might be possible is due to the Universal Stylus Initiative (USI). As in what seems to be highly unlikely to be just a coincidence, Google was confirmed as a new member of the USI back in January of this year. Like the Google patent described here, the USI is an initiative that has been in development for a number of years and supports an open active stylus standard where a stylus can work across different devices, and according to the USI, across make, model and form-factor. By the same token, the specification also means more than one stylus can be used on the same device at the same time. Google is not alone in supporting the USI either, as the same January announcement detailed the initiative now has the support of more than thirty different companies. So while Google and the other members of the USI look to bridge the gap between devices to ensure a stylus can physically interact with different devices, it would seem Google is keen to build on that support even more through the transmission of data across supported devices  again, irrespective of make, model and form-factor.

Impact: The use of a pen which can copy-paste information is fairly self-explanatory. However, the patent name  Electronic stylus for storing credentials  is a little revealing in itself as it suggests Google might position this as an improved security feature where users can quickly sign-in to other devices by using information gathered from another device and stored on the pen. A point which is reiterated in the description where Google talks about a stylus not only featuring a wireless interface but also a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) which will in effect help to encrypt the information stored on the pen. Thereby making the transmission of credentials a safer process. Elsewhere in the patent, Google reiterates this type of example use case by specifically highlighting that not only will the authentication credentials stored on the stylus offer the option to log into a different computer system, but it could also be used to log into the same computer system the user originally extracted the credentials from. In principle, the user could always log out of a computer at the end of each session and quickly and easier use the stylus to log back in each time.

While the ramifications of this patent are minimal in the sense that Google seems to be primarily talking about copy-pasting, that is likely to only be the start of the support and its conceivable as time goes on and the technology evolves, the scope of what a stylus could technically store and transmit to different devices could grow immensely. In the grander scheme of speculation, it could come to a point where a pen-like device could store and recall when needed full documents, and more. To the point where a user might only need to carry a pen with them and still have access to a wealth of digital data and especially if the data is sensitive enough to opt out of cloud-based storage. The patent very briefly touches on these additional features by suggesting that in addition to storing text, a stylus could also store states with examples given by Google including a particular webpage, contents of a cache of a web browser or contents of an application. Of course, as is always the case with any and all patents, the existence of one, granted or otherwise, is not in any way a confirmation of an upcoming product, service of feature, let alone one that can be defined exactly as described. Although, the existence of this patent, along with the recent support for the USI does suggest this is a stylus feature Google is actively considering.In short: Calling HTC Exodus a blockchain smartphone is a stretch at best and misleading at worst, according to Rong Chen, Chief Executive Officer of Smart Web project Elastos. In an interview with AndroidHeadlines, Mr. Chen said the main selling point of the upcoming handset is essentially a trust zone for storing cryptocurrency tokens locally. This is not really a blockchain smartphone so much as it is merely a smartphone with a more secure way to store your cryptocurrency coins, the industry veteran explained. HTC itself talked about some other blockchain-related features of the Exodus in the past but never claimed the device will actually be fully powered by blockchain technologies. Its still advertising the gadget as the worlds first blockchain smartphone and intends to continue doing so following its launch later this month. Using blockchain to run a smartphone is not very efficient in the first place, Mr. Chen concluded, doubting whether a true blockchain handset will ever be commercialized in the form of something viable for everyday use.

What the Taiwanese tech giant did reveal so far is that it will have every Exodus unit act as a node of a decentralized network and support multiple protocols in order to enable a high level of interoperability between various blockchain technologies. Mr. Chens skepticism about the project isnt shared by all industry watchers; Eiland Glover, CEO of stablecoin startup Kowala, told AndroidHeadlines the idea of a decentralized network based on smartphone nodes is a particularly exciting concept. While Mr. Glover still sees many issues with the concept, including the questions of protocol standardization, demanding latency requirements, and security practices, hes of the opinion that solving one or more of those problems could lead to game-changing technologies even if the Exodus itself ends up being a commercial failure.

Background: The Taiwanese electronics company will be officially announcing the Exodus on Monday, October 22, with the gadget being expected to hit the market by this years holiday season. The company didnt reveal a lot of details about the device so far, so the jury is still out on how blockchain-ey this supposedly blockchain handset actually is, though the skepticism in the industry is already palpable, especially given HTCs recent track record. The last device from the OEM that was met with critical acclaim was the HTC 10 released two and a half years ago, whereas everything that followed it any many products that preceded it received a lukewarm or outright negative response from both critics and consumers alike.

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The former tech darling saw its revenues eroding over the last several years, with its September turnover dropping 80-percent year-on-year, amounting to just over $40.5 million. Over the first nine months of 2018, HTC generated the equivalent of some $634 million, roughly 57-percent less than what it had in the same period last year, according to its preliminary earnings reports. While its original 2018 goal was $1 billion in turnover, HTC is likely to miss that target by a wide margin. Its hence in dire need of a commercial win, whether in the smartphone space, virtual reality, or something else entirely. The firm combined its regional mobile and VR units earlier this year, streamlining its corporate structure and laying off many people in the process of doing so. It also lowered the number of its annual smartphone releases, with the HTC U12 Plus (pictured above) likely being its one and only 2018 flagship.

While the Exodus may end up sporting high-end hardware, the niche nature of the device puts it in a category of its own and one that doesnt seem to be promising a significant return for the company, at least in the near term. Its efforts to promote the device have also been erratic; other than wild claims about the revolutionary nature of the handset that have yet to be substantiated by anything, the firm recently struck a partnership with Axiom Zen whose blockchain-based pet collector Cryptokitties will be pre-loaded on the Exodus.

And while the HTC Exodus will be able to work as a node for the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, Google  the dominant force in the mobile space  isnt thrilled with the idea of having Android handsets be used for actual mining, as evidenced by the fact that it outright banned all mining apps from the Play Store several months back. While the industry as a whole is largely unconcerned with the move, it remains to be seen how Googles reluctance to allow for blockchain applications on Android will affect the HTC Exoduss ability to fulfill its primary purpose.

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HTCs early bet on a combination of blockchain technologies and smartphones may also be premature; Bitcoin has been around since 2009 but by far the most popular cryptocurrency in the world has yet to affect digital payments in any significant way and other applications of solutions based on digital ledgers are even less developed. Its hence unclear how big of a dent the HTC Exodus could actually make in the mobile space seeing how the industry isnt rushing to commercialize blockchain in spite of some massive investments made over the last several years (even Facebook has a blockchain division as of this summer).

Impact: The Exodus is shaping up to be an aggressive innovation attempt on HTCs part but one thats still unlikely to help the company turn things around in the near future. The main problem that the Taipei-based OEM is now facing comes down to the fact that it may be too late for long-term bets such as the Exodus as its eroding earnings are casting doubt over the future of the company as a whole. The disjointed nature of the global blockchain community makes this segment an unreliable driver of commercial success for any product that isnt an actual token, some insiders believe. Ultimately, the Exodus is unlikely to be a solution to HTCs financial problems but it also isnt expected to create a major burden for the firm, especially given how the handset is rumored to only be launching in a small number of markets with limited marketing.In Short: According to a new report, the OnePlus 6T will ship with a dedicated Night Mode in its camera application. This information comes from a website called TrueTech, and the site claims that the info has been provided by an official OnePlus representative. In any case, take this info with a grain of salt, but if its true, you will find a dedicated night mode in the camera app which should help boost the phones low light picture-taking capabilities, it should brighten up the images, and reduce noise in them. That is more or less all the info that the source shared on the matter, details regarding this new mode were not revealed, other than the fact that it will be a combination of hardware and software which will deliver better low light results, though that is understandable, as that is always the case, so its pretty much stating the obvious.

Background: As many of you already know, the OnePlus 6T will become official on October 30, as the company is hosting a press event in New York City. The phone will go on sale on November 6 for most regions out there, and we already have plenty of info when it comes to this smartphone. The company has confirmed that the OnePlus 6T will sport an optical in-display fingerprint scanner, while it will come with a teardrop display notch, which will be considerably smaller than the one included in the OnePlus 6. The phone will ship with a 3,700mAh battery, according to rumors, while the company already confirmed that the device will ship with improved camera capabilities, and a brand new UI. OnePlus will also add some new gestures to its gesture-based navigation offering, and Android 9 Pie will ship out of the box on the device. The OnePlus 6T will include the very same processor as the OnePlus 6, were looking at the Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core SoC here, while the phone will likely ship in both 6GB and 8GB RAM variants. OnePlus proprietary fast charging will be included in the package, while the device will include two cameras on the back.

Impact: We have seen a dedicated night mode in a number of camera applications out there, and the latest company to make a big deal out of it was Google, as the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL come with the so-called Night Sight mode. It remains to be seen what will OnePlus implementation look like, in other words, what will the company do in order to boost the performance of the OnePlus 6Ts camera in low light, but a dedicated night mode will hopefully help with that. It seems like the company is planning to improve the quality of the OnePlus 6Ts camera quite a bit compared to the OnePlus 6, though the OnePlus 6 was quite a solid camera smartphone in its own right, though it was certainly not the best out there, so it remains to be seen how will the OnePlus 6T compare to it.In short: Samsung is still pursuing optical fingerprint readers meant to be implemented below conventional touchscreen panels, according to new patent documentation published by WIPO on Thursday. The companys newly awarded intellectual property, first spotted by Dutch tech blog LetsGoDigital, describes a type of an in-display fingerprint scanner that has already been commercialized by the likes of Vivo and Huawei, with such solutions being in mass production since early this year.

While Qualcomm and several other companies pioneered optical fingerprint sensors, Samsung now appears to be looking to secure its own design of such a biometric system, though its reasoning for doing so remains unclear. The upcoming Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 lineups are both expected to feature ultrasonic readers, a new version of the technology thats superior to optical sensors in everything but production costs. The basis on which Samsung was awarded the new patent is equally confusing as the solution appears to be extremely similar to Qualcomms existing one. Its presently unclear whether Samsung even has the capability to produce in-display fingerprint readers in-house, with the company being relatively slow to embrace the new technology relative to some of its top rivals from the Far East.

Background: Samsung has been trying to commercialize in-display fingerprint readers for years now but just like its foldable phone ambitions, the company kept delaying the project due to a variety of issues, most notably problematic yield rates in mass-production scenarios and end-user experience. Compared to traditional readers, optical module embedded below mobile screens offer less accurate performance, meaning they can either fail to correctly authenticate a user or have a higher chance for false positives, which impacts the overall security they provide. Likewise, theyre simply slower to respond to touch, which is why Samsung steered clear of them even as Huawei and Vivo were jumping to embrace them early this year.

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Ultrasonic scanners promise to alleviate many of those concerns by not only being comparably fast and accurate but by actually doing a better job at handling wet and dirty fingertips. Such solutions have yet to be commercialized, with Qualcomm being the only company thats currently offering production-ready technologies. Samsung was rumored to be one of its first customers along with Huawei, which makes the firms renewed interest in last-generation tech more confusing.

The most likely explanation is that Samsung is looking to embrace optical modules after all due to the heavy competition its facing in the mid-range market segment; for much the same reasons, the company equipped its recently launched Galaxy A9 mid-ranger with no fewer than four rear cameras even as none of its existing flagships feature more than two of them. Before the rise of Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi and OPPO, Samsungs mid-rangers usually only received new features a year or two after the thereof already arrived to the companys flagships but as aggressively priced products from China started embracing them in much shorter cycles, the firm is now forced to ramp up those innovation efforts or risk being pushed out of the mid-range price bracket, which is something thats already happening in India, or at least was until recently.

The inner workings of optical readers still suggest such solutions would perform worse than even conventional sensors mounted on mid-range handsets. That concern is whats causing some skepticism around the launch of the OnePlus 6T thats already been confirmed to be ditching a rear-mounted scanner in favor of an in-display optical one. Samsung already made some inroads in regards to making in-screen sensors of all kinds more secure, having envisioned a technology that would protect such systems against spoofing by quickly taking two successive measurements under slightly different lighting conditions so as to determine whether the object pressed on the display is an actual human finger or just a printed imitation, AndroidHeadlines discovered last month. Its still unclear how close is the company to actually implementing the technology into consumer-grade products.

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Impact: While Samsung was expected to skip optical fingerprint readers altogether in favor of superior ultrasonic sensors, the companys strategy shift may be a result of the increased pressure its facing in the mid-range segment of the global smartphone market. With recent reports indicating some of the companys non-flagship devices will feature under-display scanners, optical modules make some sense as they represent a more realistic choice for such implementations than significantly more expensive ultrasonic readers.

The upcoming Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 lines almost certainly wont utilize the already outdated technology as such a move would mark a backward step for Samsung in terms of authentication speed and accuracy, i.e. security. The tech giants recent patent activity is hence likely an indication of its mid-range product strategy being revamped and not a sign that its next-generation devices will feature last-generation hardware. Regardless, optical fingerprint readers themselves arent expected to go away anytime soon as the industry is only now starting to embrace in-display sensors and many companies are likely to equip their non-premium devices with such modules moving forward, especially as their manufacturing costs go down by a significant margin, which is expected to happen as early as next year. Even some flagships such as Huaweis Mate 20 Pro already utilize these banal sensors, with the OnePlus 6T being set to embrace them as well this fall.

Despite Samsungs willingness to experiment with various authentication systems, the company is expected to go all-out with its 2019 premium lineups, especially after its largely incremental product upgrades  the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 lines  failed to meet commercial performance expectations this year. Besides in-display fingerprint readers, the companys high-end 2019 handsets are also expected to offer triple-camera setups, with select models being planned with 5G compatibility in mind as well. Finally, the electronics juggernauts first foldable smartphone has long been rumored to be featuring an in-display fingerprint reader and it may end up being the first Samsung-made device to do so as its announcement is expected to happen early next month at the OEMs annual developer conference taking place in San Francisco, California.Music streaming platform Spotify has announced its new standalone application for Wear OS smartwatches. It should be noted that Spotify already released an application for wearables running Android Wear, although the latest version of the brings several new useful features. For example, the application now allows people to control the music they are listening to directly on their smartwatches display. Within the app, users may play, pause, and skip music tracks, and they may also rewind the podcasts by 15 seconds to catch the details and conversations they missed. The apps user interface shows the song title and the name of the artist, and located on the lower left corner of the watch screen is a heart icon. Tapping this button will automatically add the music that is currently playing to the users collection.

Furthermore, the application allows users to connect the smartwatch with speakers or other home devices using the Spotify Connect feature. With this functionality, people may select their preferred listening device after tapping the Spotify Connect button, which is located on the bottom right corner of the watch screen. Spotify subscribers may also use the app to remotely control the music that is currently playing on the selected listening device. People may also access their recently played music directly on their smartwatches using the Wear OS app of Spotify. Aside from songs, this section of the app also lists down the playlists that the person recently listened.

Spotify also announced that it partnered with the smartwatch maker Fossil Group to bring its service to more users. As a result of this deal, the Spotify app will now come pre-installed on Fossil Gen 4 and Michael Kors Access Runway wearables. Meanwhile, other users will receive the new Spotify app on Wear OS through the Google Play Store. Aside from its Wear OS application, Spotify also introduced a number of useful features to its Android application. These features include the ability to rearrange songs in a playlist and a more personalized listening experience to the users of Spotifys free tier. The new listening experience for users of the services free tier includes playlists curated based on the music people like to listen.In Short: YouTube for Android now has a beta channel, as Google has rolled out an official Play Store beta program for this application. You can now become YouTubes beta tester on Android as you would for any other app, head over to the Google Play Store, located the YouTube app, and scroll down until you see the beta section. If the beta section is not yet visible to you via the Play Store, as it is not for us, you can head over to Googles official website, and enroll there, heres a link. YouTube has now joined a number of other Google applications which already have a beta channel, like Gboard and Chrome, for example. Thats not the only piece of YouTube-related news, as YouTube Go app has now reached 100 million downloads in the Play Store. An app which got announced back in 2016 and was rolled out to India at first, now managed to reach 100 million downloads in the Play Store.

Background: YouTube Go was announced in September 2016, and it became available in November of 2017. The app quickly hit 10 million downloads, and in February this year, it expanded to 130 countries, so its not exactly surprising that it managed to hit 100 million downloads now. Do keep in mind that these numbers include phones that the app comes pre-installed to, so basically, every Android Go smartphone out there has this app pre-installed, which is also included in these official numbers. Also, when you open the regular YouTube app in the Play Store, you will see a suggestion for YouTube Go, which probably helped the app become so popular. YouTube Go app weighs less than 10MB which is nowhere close to the regular YouTube app, while this app also allows you to watch content offline, if you cache them. You can choose whether you want to watch videos in basic, standard or high-quality modes, while some other options are also available. The design of the app is a bit different than what the regular YouTube app has to offer, but its still quite recognizable that were looking at another YouTube app here. Do keep in mind that this app is meant to be used on lower-end devices, so it may not be available to your device, and its unavailability may also be related to your location, on top of that.

Impact: It remains to be seen how will Google use this beta channel for YouTube, will users get actual updates, or will Google roll out server-side changes, as it does on some of its other applications. It would be nice if Google actually rolled out a new feature in a proper way and allowed beta testers to help the company out before pushing them to the stable version, thats for sure. As far as YouTube Go is concerned, it will be interesting to see if its growth will continue, as its quite a compelling app in its own regard, and needless to say, a lot lighter than the regular YouTube app, while it comes with some options that the regular YouTube app does not have.The Provincial Sister of the Community of the Sisters of the Church in the Solomon Islands, the Revd Sister Veronica CSC, recaps a recent retreat for women on the front line for reconciliation and restoration.

Abraham said, My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on Genesis 18: 3-5.

One of the most important ministries of the Sisters of the Church is offering accommodation and hospitality to many seeking retreat, solitude and silence. The world we live in is fragmented, busy and noisy. The internet and mobile phones control many lives. Although they connect us to our networks, families and friends at a great distance, they also add more stress to many lives.

Tetete Ni Kolivuti (TNK) is a place where people come to find peace and creative / positive solutions to their challenges. This year has been very demanding for us  various groups from different denominations, government groups as well as non- government organisations.

From 9  14 September, we had the honour to host the Women on the Front Line programme. Mrs Caroline Welby, Mrs Jane Namurye, Mrs Karen Lewis and Canon Sarah Snyder from Lambeth Palace facilitated this programme for the bishops spouses, the Mothers Union and the female Religious Communities in Melanesia. Mrs Welby and her team were invited by His Grace, Archbishop George Takeli of the Anglican Church of Melanesia. It was the first time in our history that such a distinguished team has come to the Solomon Islands.

The programme started with a retreat for the bishops spouses from Sunday evening until Wednesday midday. They found the new approach to retreat refreshing and rewarding for them. Each day began with a Meditation, Morning Prayer at 6 am and Holy Communion. The programme was centred on prayer and reflection and so each day followed the offices of the Community.

On Wednesday 12 September at 2.30 pm, Archbishop George Takeli came to give his keynote address to the whole group. The other women had joined them after lunch. The workshop started after the Archbishops address. He had stressed the role of the women at the front line in our society. The Solomon Islands have a very high percentage of domestic violence and women play a key role in bringing reconciliation and restoration to victims in our homes and communities.Marysville, CA (95901)

Today

Cloudy early with peeks of sunshine expected late. Areas of patchy fog. High 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low around 45F. Winds light and variable.Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot, Col. Al Worden, USAF-Ret., will make his first visit to Bahrain next month as a goodwill ambassador for the U.S. aerospace industry, particularly American companies participating in the Bahrain International Airshow 2018 (BIAS) at Sakhir Air Base, November 14-16.



Wordens week-long schedule includes official appearances at the event, the fastest-growing airshow in the Middle East, as well as participation in coinciding military and student programs. Worden will address the Second Manama Air Power Symposium, which will be attended by Chiefs of Air Staff from around the world on the eve of the airshow. He will also make presentations to a gathering of the Royal Bahrain Air Force and a Bahrain University audience, all to promote multilateral cooperation in aerospace and space exploration.



The tour is being led, in coordination with event organisers, by Kallman Worldwide, Inc., the United States representative and organizer of the USA Partnership Pavilion at aerospace and defense events around the world for more than three decades, including BIAS 2018. Kallman has partnered with Worden and a coalition of industry supporters since 2015 to promote excellence in engineering from classrooms to careers.



As one of just 24 people to have flown to the Moon  only 12 of whom are still with us on Earth  Col. Wordens first-ever visit to Bahrain creates new opportunities to encourage sustainable science, industry and business partnerships between our countries, said Kallman President and CEO Tom Kallman. His experience and accomplishments uniquely qualify him to address the dynamic engineering challenges faced by all industries competing in todays global economy, particularly in aviation and aerospace.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.As far as I'm aware, the 6 week applies if you meet certain conditions, not for every applicant. I could be wrong though. Either way, they obviously should be reasonably recent.Statements from certain persons usually barred from applying for a Partner visaIf you: are in Australia; and do not hold a substantive visa; and have had a visa refused or cancelled since your last entry to Australia (other than visa cancellation orrefusal on character grounds or a Partner visa refusal); and wish to apply for a Partner visa; thenin order to make a valid Partner visa application, you must provide statutory declarations from 2 personswho: are aged 18 years or over; are Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents; and can support the existence of your relationship with your partner.These statutory declarations can be either completed by using either the: blank statutory declaration template available from the Attorney-General's Department website www.ag.gov.au or form 888 Statutory declaration by a supporting witness relating to a partner visa application availablefrom the department's website www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/888.pdf or from any office of thedepartment or Australian mission.The statutory declarations must have been made no more than 6 weeks prior to the day you lodge yourapplication.If those conditions apply to you, then according to immigration, you'll need the statements to be within that 6 weeks validity.If those conditions apply to you, you should seriously consider using an RMA as your case wouldn't be straightforward.Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Wisconsin

The pertinent portion of Wisconsin's postconviction DNA testing statute, Wisconsin Statutes Section 974.07(7)(b)(1), states that after a petition for postconviction DNA testing is filed

It is reasonably probable that the outcome of the proceedings that resulted in the conviction, the finding of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, or the delinquency adjudication for the offense at issue in the motion under sub. (2), or the terms of the sentence, the commitment under s. 971.17, or the disposition under ch. 938, would have been more favorable to the movant if the results of deoxyribonucleic acid testing had been available before he or she was prosecuted, convicted, found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, or adjudicated delinquent for the offense.

So, where does that leave pleading defendants?

It is unclear how pleading defendants would fare under this statute. Would a plea proceeding be a "proceeding[] that resulted in the conviction"? If so, a pleading defendant could seek postconviction DNA testing. On other hand, if a Wisconsin court construed this phrase more narrowly to only cover adversarial proceedings, pleading defendants could not seek relief.

-CM

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2018/10/wisconsin-the-pertinent-portion-of-wisconsins-postconviction-dna-testing-statute-wisconsin-statutes-section-974077b1.htmlThis occurred over the weekend at one of our Rocky Mountain contingent's houses. Delicate in the way he opens all the doors, brutal indifference in remembering to shut them ;. @nest #caughtonNestCam @dailycamera @KyleClark https://t.co/dZ1YmH8bmY  Red Van Workshop (@RedVanWorkshop) October 15, 2018

A new video of a bear break-in is making the rounds online. It happened last weekend in Boulder, Colorado, during a snowstorm, when a bear came casually strolling around the house and peeked inside a parked vehicle. It might have been covered in snow, but it still held the promise of a tasty snack, so you cant really fault the bear for trying.The incident was captured by security cameras at IT company Red Van Workshop. The car belongs to one of its employees, and was parked outside without being locked. The bear took advantage of that and opened 3 of its doors as it looked around the place.This occurred over the weekend at one of our Rocky Mountain contingent's houses. Delicate in the way he opens all the doors, brutal indifference in remembering to shut them, Red Van Workshop says on its Twitter page.Indeed, after poking around the car and clearly not finding anything to eat, the bear wandered off back into the woods, leaving the doors open. The post doesnt say anything about the damage done to the car interior, but since it was so careful to get inside through the door, wed venture a guess as to how it was minimal.Bears have broken into cars before and there were times when they also became trapped inside. They panicked and wrecked the inside of the car in their desperate bid to free themselves  like this bear that became trapped in a Subaru last August.In light of this recent video going viral, authorities are using it to highlight the importance of securing all doors when you leave your car, even if its only for a few minutes.Mechanical issue on @FLOTUS plane makes the flight return back to Andrews after it was wheels up to Philly, per pool producer @meghankwelsh who is on board. A thin haze of smoke seen.Plane is already back safely on tarmac. Problem may have been a malfunctioning comms unit. pic.twitter.com/x90mEMtKJb  Fin Gomez (@finnygo) October 17, 2018

Photos from pool producer @meghankwelsh showing @FLOTUS getting off her plane this morning. Meghan reports the First Ladys trip is still on; and a new plane is being readied now. pic.twitter.com/XnvtQlEsWj  Mike Emanuel (@MikeEmanuelFox) October 17, 2018

The photo attached to this article shows Melania Trump leaving the plane, which was forced back to base due to a mechanical issue, People Magazine reports. There was no rush in getting her or the members of the press she was traveling with off the plane, so we know the issue wasnt a serious one.The first lady, 48, was en route to Philadelphia to meet with families affected by neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, when the mechanical problem forced her plane to return to Joint Base Andrews. The plane landed safely, according to reporters tweets, the report notes.When members of the crew smelled smoke and burning, they handed out wet towels to everyone, to use to cover their faces. Reporters were also deplaned, and booked on a later flight that Mrs. Trump also took. FLOTUS honored her engagement with a slight delay.According to the tweets from members of the media, the smoke could have been coming from a malfunctioning comms unit, but there is no confirmation of that yet.When President Trump flies on Presidential business, he does so by Air Force One. Air Force Two is usually reserved as backup, or for use by the First Lady and the Vice President, whenever they have to fly for work engagements.In 2021, as part of a new deal with Boeing, Trump will be getting 2 brand new planes. He recently said that they would no longer be painted in the baby blue we see on the current planes hes using, but in a more patriotic combination of blue, red and white.Polestar has inaugurated its new global headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden. Strategically located on the Volvo Car Group campus, the new building and working environment supports cross-functional collaboration throughout Polestar and further strengthens cooperation between the Polestar brand and its parent company.

The building, which is dominated by the Polestar Cube, was designed by Swedish architecture firm Bornstein Lyckefors, in cooperation with the Polestar brand team. The bright white glass surfacing on the exterior of the Polestar Cube, with its illuminated Polestar logos, is said to symbolize the guiding star role that the entity plays as a design and technology spearhead within the Volvo Car Group.

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Minimalistic, avant-garde design is at the core of the Polestar brand, in our cars and in the way that we interact with our customers. Design also plays a role in how we feel and cooperate in our workplace, said Thomas Ingenlath, Polestar CEO.

With the new headquarters, we wanted to transform an existing structure to create a new, modern building on the Volvo Cars campus that expresses our brand values and which becomes an inspiring and desirable place for our global team to work.

Its opening comes exactly one year after the new Polestar brand was revealed in Shanghai, China.

We have expressed our minimalistic design in our brand appearances since we launched globally last October. In places like the Geneva Motor Show, Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Pebble Beach Concours dElegance, our brand presence has been embodied by a strong architectural statement, said Ingenlath.

In China, another architectural expression is soon to be completed as we finalize the construction of the Polestar Production Centre in Chengdu. In just one year, we have already established Polestar as a global brand with a global footprint.While having a baby without being married was uncommon and stigmatized several decades ago, it's becoming the norm in many European countries  and even the U.S., according to a report released today by the United Nations Population Fund.

Why it matters: If having babies without being married becomes increasingly common, it could help stabilize falling fertility rates and avoid an aging, childless future, Michael Herrmann, a senior adviser for economics and demography at UNFPA, told Axios. But it's also likely to lead to more cultural friction, as social conservatives are unlikely to accept more births outside marriage.

How we got here: Demographers point to three key trends that have led to the rise in births outside of marriage:

The decline in importance of traditional marriage . While non-traditional forms of cohabitation have become more acceptable in many Western cultures, the social revolution has been much slower in many Asian cultures. That's why births outside of marriage are still rare in places such as Japan and Korea, Herrmann said.

. While non-traditional forms of cohabitation have become more acceptable in many Western cultures, the social revolution has been much slower in many Asian cultures. That's why births outside of marriage are still rare in places such as Japan and Korea, Herrmann said. Increased opportunity for women to obtain an education and launch successful careers has enabled them to provide for themselves without a husband. Many women, even if living with men, are opting to "keep their legal options open," said Richard Cincotta, director of the Global Political Demography Program at the Stimson Center.

to obtain an education and launch successful careers has enabled them to provide for themselves without a husband. Many women, even if living with men, are opting to "keep their legal options open," said Richard Cincotta, director of the Global Political Demography Program at the Stimson Center. More American men are facing unemployment or underemployment, drug use, and jail "due to the loss of secure, well-paid blue collar jobs," Jack Goldstone, a professor of public policy at George Mason University and global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, told Axios.

One notable exception: Russia also saw an increase in births outside of marriage in the 1980s and 1990s, when alcoholism and male mortality rose during the chaos following the collapse of communism, according to Goldstone.

But beginning in the early 2000s  as Vladimir Putin came to power  the share of births outside of marriage began to fall. Demographers say that's partly because of Putin's emphasis on traditional family values and new policies encouraging married couples to have more children.

The other side: The trend causes concern for social conservatives. "There's an abundance of evidence in the U.S. to indicate that children are better off with a married mother and father," Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council, told Axios. He added that the increase in births outside of marriage "portends less stability for children."

What to watch: While many of these unmarried parents are in committed relationships, others end up as single parents, and "ending up as a single parent means a huge burden," Herrmann said. Single mothers in the U.S., for example, are some of the most likely people to end up in poverty.President Trump has said it would be "foolish" to cancel billions of dollars in weapons deals with Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's involvement in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi  a remarkably blunt admission of the role the international arms trade plays in U.S. foreign policy.

The big picture: The U.S. is the world's top arms exporter, competing directly with Russia and increasingly China in a global market that's worth upwards of $89 billion annually. Saudi Arabia is currently the No. 1 buyer of U.S. weapons, purchasing nearly three times as much as any other country over the past two years. Arms deals tie ethics to economics, and they can exacerbate geopolitical tensions in high-risk areas like Yemen and North Korea.

Driving the news: India's planned purchase of a S-400 missile system from Russia has put it on a collision course with the U.S., which sanctioned China last month for buying the same system.

Unlike China, however, India is an important strategic ally that is viewed as essential to the U.S. fight against militant groups in Pakistan and other regional threats. If the U.S. imposed sanctions against India, it could stoke domestic backlash and close off U.S. defense sales to India for the foreseeable future.

Trump has suggested that arms deals with Saudi Arabia are too valuable to risk over a missing journalist.

But ethical questions arose even before the Khashoggi affair, as the U.S. has for years sold weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in support of their war in Yemen  which has caused "the world's worst humanitarian disaster."

In August, a bomb responsible for killing 40 Yemeni children on a school bus was reported to have been sold to Saudi Arabia through a State Department-sanctioned arms deal.

South Korea is a key military ally to the U.S. that has played an essential role in ongoing denuclearization talks with North Korea.

But if the Korean peninsula moves closer to peace, the need for arms deals and joint military exercises  which continue as a means of deterring nuclear threats from King Jong-un  may diminish.

The bottom line: The U.S. uses arms sales as a carrot to further its foreign policy aims. But as Trump's statement on Khashoggi shows, the lucrative deals involved can also shape U.S. policy, rather than the other way around.

Go deeper: The global arms race between the U.S. and RussiaThursday, October 18, 2018

The federal government is unlawfully failing to publicly post thousands of final orders and opinions in immigration cases and should be ordered to post them online, the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG) said in a lawsuit filed today by attorneys at NYLAG and Public Citizen.

The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), which is a component of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the U.S. Department of Justice, makes the unpublished orders available to immigration judges and government attorneys but not to immigrants or their lawyers. The orders are required to be publicly posted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the unequal access puts NYLAG clients at a disadvantage, the suit says.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, asks the court to order all decisions made since 1996 to be published online. Public Citizen Litigation Group attorneys, along with NYLAG attorneys, are representing NYLAG.

We are trying to help clients with one hand tied behind our backs, said Danielle Tarantolo of NYLAG, a New York City nonprofit that provides free legal services to low-income New Yorkers in a variety of areas, including immigration. The government lawyers seeking to remove our clients rely on these unpublished decisions, as do immigration judges and the BIA itself  but we cannot even access this body of law. The governments information advantage is fundamentally unfair.

The BIA hears appeals in cases adjudicated by immigration judges and district directors of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Over the past decade, the BIA has voted to designate approximately 30 decisions per year as precedential, which means that BIA publicly posts them online. But thousands of the BIAs decisions are unpublished and are not accessible in an electronic format to the public, including immigrants and their advocates and attorneys, as required by FOIA.

On June 8, NYLAG submitted a FOIA request asking the BIA to comply with its statutory obligations to post online all unpublished decisions since Nov. 1, 1996, and to make all future unpublished decisions available in the electronic reading room. EOIR denied NYLAGs FOIA request, and NYLAG submitted an administrative appeal of the denial. NYLAG filed suit after failing to receive a determination on its administrative appeal by the statutory deadline.

The governments refusal to publicly post these decisions undermines FOIAs goals of piercing the veil of government secrecy and opening agency action to the light of public scrutiny, said Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney Patrick Llewellyn. The law is clear that these decisions must be publicly posted in an electronic format. We hope that the court will promptly order the government to remedy its decades-long violation of FOIAs clear requirement.

Read the lawsuit (PDF).

KJ

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2018/10/justice-department-is-unlawfully-failing-to-publicly-post-thousands-of-decisions-in-immigration-case.htmlSecretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Panama City today, where he'll meet with President Juan Carlos Varela. He'll then head to Mexico for meeting tomorrow with President Enrique Pena Nieto and senior members of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's incoming administration.

What to watch: Per the State Department, the discussion in Panama will focus on defending democracy in Venezuela and Nicaragua," two countries in the midst of political crises, as well as counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and illegal migration. The meetings in Mexico will be part of the Trump administration's efforts to build ties with the leftist administration.Roger Stone is the "special guest" at a campaign reception for Republican House nominee Danny Tarkanian in Florida on Oct. 29, according to an event invite obtained by Axios. Tarkanian  who was convinced in part by President Trump to run for House instead of Senate  is running in Nevada's 3rd district and told Axios he didnt know Stone would be there because he doesnt plan the events.

Why it matters: Stone is facing more scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation about Trump campaign associates' ties to Russia during the 2016 election. Specifically, Mueller is interested in whether Stone or anyone close to him talked with WikiLeaks or Julian Assange regarding the Hillary Clinton campaign emails hacked and released.If U.S.Saudi relations depended solely on President Trumps and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans (MBS) wishes, the tragic Khashoggi affair would likely have blown over by now. But Congress and the U.S. media appear unwilling to let that happen, while MBS' opponents in Saudi Arabia might seize on this fiasco to question his fitness to rule.

The big picture: MBS is gambling that he can escape this crisis by doubling down on support for the Trump administration's policies  confronting Iran, making up for lost Iranian oil, and bankrolling U.S. efforts in northeast Syria, among others. This approach could work with Trump, who concocted the story of potential rogue agents as culprits and compared the unjust treatment of MBS to that of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But it remains to be seen whether attempts to smooth relations at the top can withstand tensions from below.

Members of Congress have increasingly become convinced that Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on high-level orders. This is true not merely for Democrats, and not merely for known Saudi critics. Senator Lindsey Graham, for example, voiced his unqualified condemnation, along with Senators Bob Corker, Marco Rubio and others. This crowd will only expand if the House changes hands next month. The crown prince is about to find out whether his investment in Trump will protect him from potential Congressional action, such as blocking arms sales or defunding support for Saudi-Emirati operations in Yemen.

On the Saudi side, internal debates are far less public and media reports of dissent within the royal family far less substantiated. Still, MBS remarkable ascent, coupled with his rash decisions on Yemen, Lebanon and Qatar, has undoubtedly rankled some, and the fallout from Khashoggis murder validates their concerns.

Reality check: U.S. and Saudi internal dynamics are closely intertwined: If the Trump approach prevails, and U.S.Saudi relations revert to quasi-normalcy, dissenting Saudi voices likely will remain quiet; if Congress acts, the domestic Saudi case against a crown prince who mismanaged the countrys most important bilateral relationship will strengthen.

The bottom line: It would be foolhardy to bet against the TrumpMBS duo getting its way: While a penchant for fabrication on Trump's part and for intimidation on MBS' has gotten both men into trouble, it's also what put them in power. But Trumps rush to look past Khashoggis murder paradoxically has made any cover-up harder for other Americans to swallow or the administration to pull off  as evidenced by Treasury Secretary Mnuchins last-minute decision not to attend a financial conference in Riyadh. The foundation of the bilateral relationship has doubtless gotten shakier.

Robert Malley is president and CEO of the International Crisis Group.Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin tweeted that after meeting with President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he has decided to withdraw from Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative conference next week.

Why it matters: Mnuchin was among the last high-profile holdouts who had not yet dropped out of "Davos in the Desert" over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Occupant Armenia, experiencing a deep political crisis, has turned a serious international event  Francophonie - into a cheap political show, by means of which Yerevan tried to hide its aggressive essence.

The event is only remembered by disrespect to the international community and the attempt to undermine Frances efforts in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The intentions of Armenia to hold such a forum are clear. Being isolated hinders the opportunity to collect benefits and donations from foreign countries, which are of high importance for such a poor and economically unstable state as Armenia.

Yerevan, which has a two-faced nature, is trying to differently present and justify the continuation of the aggression policy against Azerbaijan. This is done with the aim to gain international support in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in its favor.

However, instead of making fun of itself in front of the whole world, Armenia would better return the occupied territories, thus establishing peace in the region. The country has no one to blame for its so-called self-isolation, but itself.

While Armenia tried to show the global community that it allegedly respects the humanistic values and is committed to them, the fact that the Nagorno-Karabakh region was represented by the Armenian pavilion at the event says quite the opposite. It is just another provocative step serving continuation of the occupation policy, and everyone understands that.

Armenia politicized the Francophonie event even further. The Resolution on Crisis situations, Getting out of crisis and Peace-building in the Francophone Area adopted at the summit of the Organization of La Francophonie has a paragraph concerning the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

It was clear from the very beginning that the summit in Yerevan will not be held without provocations, even the tiniest ones.

The countries of the International Organization of Francophonie (OIF) reiterated their position aimed at supporting the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs to resolve the Karabakh conflict in thr final document.

We reaffirm our full support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Karabakh conflict and recall that for the long-term peace all parties to the conflict must be involved in the process, in accordance with the proposals of the co-chairs, the Armenian media quoted the document.

There is one phrase in this statement which changes a lot and shows a different perspective. What does all parties to the conflict mean ?

It is nothing by Pashinyans idea regarding the involvement of Karabakh separatists in the negotiations as a condition for long-term peace. This doesnt correspond to the talks held recently between Armenian Prime Minister and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Dushanbe, which arouse certain positivity among experts earlier. Many interpreted these talks as a sign that Yerevan agrees with the format of peace talks.

It is obvious that the text of the resolution, in any case, was written by the Armenian side.

The appeals sounded as if copied from the speeches of Nikol Pashinyan, including regarding the implementation of agreements reached in the past.

Pashinyan and his team are well aware that there will be no third party in the negotiations. There have been no any other previous agreements with the exception of the ceasefire regime, which the Armenians regularly violate. But such impossible demands and appeals help delay the process of peaceful negotiations for an indefinite period. However, delay of negotiations will bring nothing to Armenia except for growing mistrust from the international community.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenian armed forces have 29 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Oct. 18.

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 Trend

Norway is open to explore potential fields of trade cooperation with Azerbaijan, Daniel Bjarmann-Simonsen, state secretary to Norway's minister of trade, industry and fisheries told Trend.

Simonsen noted that trade between Norway and Azerbaijan is limited.

"In 2017, we exported goods to Azerbaijan for $119 million and we imported goods for $8.8 million," he said.

The state secretary pointed out that Norway is an open economy, with a small population but with relatively high purchasing power.

"Norway is dependent on importing many of the products we consume. Norwegian companies are also dependent on access to the world markets for their exports," said Simonsen.

He said that Norways main imports from the world are machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment, while it mainly export oil, gas and seafood.

"We are open to explore potential fields of trade cooperation between Norway and Azerbaijan that lie within the interests of our respective business communities," he added

It should be noted that several Norwegian companies are operating in Azerbaijan, the largest one being Equinor. The company has shares in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block of oil and gas fields, Shah Deniz gas and condensate field and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

----

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The oil extraction plant of the American Cargill company in the Volgograd region of Russia reached an agreement on the supply of its products to Azerbaijan, the press service of the regional government told TASS.

In addition to Azerbaijan, agreements have been reached with Belarus, the countries of the Middle East, Scandinavia and Africa. The opening of the plant took place today in the Novoanninsky town of Russia's Volgograd region.

"We will support the implementation of such projects. In 2024, agricultural exports should reach $ 45 billion. We are pinning great hopes on Cargill as well. It is gratifying that this enterprise has opened today in a rural area that will provide new jobs," the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Oksana Lut said at the opening ceremony.

The plant in Novoanninsky worked in the technological mode for a year, all operational licenses were obtained this spring, and now the company has switched to full capacity, the company explained to TASS.

The volume of investments in the creation of the plant is about $ 250 million, the company stated. The enterprise will be able to process up to 640,000 tons of sunflower seeds per year, producing 280,000 tons of sunflower oil and 260,000 tons of sunflower oilseed extraction cake (a by-product of manufacture).

It is planned that the work on engineering networks in the amount of 800 million rubles will be completed in 1H2019: based on the agreement with the authorities, the investor will pay for the reconstruction of the wastewater treatment plant and the construction of a new water conduit necessary for the plants operation and development of the citys infrastructure.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Sara Israfilbayova

Turkmenistans connection to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway will give impetus to the further development of trade and economic relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

This was stated by Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Hajibala Abutalibov at a solemn event dedicated to the 27th anniversary of independence of Turkmenistan, organized by the countrys embassy in Baku.

He congratulated the Turkmen side on a significant date, stressing that the peoples of the two countries have common roots and history.

Abutalibov emphasized that Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev, who repeatedly made official visits to Turkmenistan, attached great importance to the relations between the two countries.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyevs policy is also aimed at strengthening ties with Turkmenistan, as a result of which it was possible to implement large-scale projects, such as Turkmenistans further accession to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, as well as the implementation of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project, he said.

Earlier, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure of Turkey Mehmet Cahit Turhan told Trend that three cargo trips are carried out between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan via BTK railway weekly.

The minister also noted that since the start of operation of the BTK railway, 100,000 tons of cargo have been transported in 102 container trains.

Turhan went on to say that with the BTK railway, construction of one of the important sections of the Middle Corridor in Turkey was completed, adding that BTK became a part of the work to revive the Silk Road, which is not only a transport and economic project, but also a political, cultural and social one.

On October 30, a solemn ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the BTK railway was held at the Baku International Sea Trade Port. Two trains from Kazakhstan to Turkish Mersin have already been sent via this route. The first train, consisting of 30 containers, on November 4, delivered 600 tons of wheat to the Turkish city of Mersin. The second freight train left Kazakhstan on November 27. The train has already reached Georgia.

The BTK railway is constructed on the basis of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey intergovernmental agreement. The main purpose of the project is to improve economic relations between the three countries and attract foreign direct investment by connecting Europe and Asia.

In fact, the BTK railway route is the shortest way to deliver cargo from the Russian regions located in the Volga, Ural and Siberian Federal Districts to the Mediterranean ports of Turkey, and further to the countries of Africa and the Middle East.

The project implementation began in 2007 and construction began in 2008. The line is intended to transport one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the first stage. This capacity will then reach 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wencai Zhang plans to discuss in Baku the banks five-year partnership strategy with Azerbaijan, which is under preparation, a source in the bank told Trend Oct. 18.

As part of Zhangs visit to Azerbaijan on October 22-24, meetings in the countrys government are scheduled, the source noted.

Azerbaijan became an ADB member in 1999. The country's share in the bank's capital is 0.5 percent.

Since 2003, ADB has approved loans worth over $4 billion for Azerbaijan for implementation of over 30 projects in the public and private sectors. ADB has also implemented technical assistance projects totaling almost $30 million in the country.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzWednesday, October 17, 2018

The Ohio Supreme Court has issued a significant decision admitting an attorney, summarized by Dan Trevas

A Kentucky attorney who practiced law exclusively in Kentucky from an Ohio office while awaiting admission to practice in Ohio  did not engage in the unauthorized practice of law, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.

The Supreme Court was unanimous in concluding the Board of Commissioners on Character and Fitness inappropriately found Alice Auclair Jones engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. However, the justices were divided in their reasoning for doing so.

In an opinion that Justice Terrence ODonnell authored for the majority, the Court concluded that Jones did not violate Prof.Cond.R. 5.5 because she was providing legal services on a temporary basis, an exception that permits attorneys licensed in other states to practice law in Ohio.

Chief Justice Maureen OConnor and Justices Judith L. French and Patrick F. Fischer joined Justice ODonnells opinion.

In a concurring opinion, Justice R. Patrick DeWine wrote that Jones was working remotely like many employees in todays world and that Ohios rule prohibiting her from doing so is unconstitutional.

Justices Sharon L. Kennedy and Mary DeGenaro joined Justice DeWines opinion.

Attorney Moves to Firms Headquarters

Jones had been admitted to practice law in Kentucky in 2009 and served as an assistant commonwealth attorney before joining a Louisville law firm in 2014, which merged with Cincinnati-based Dinsmore & Shohl.

In 2015, Jones applied for admission to the Ohio bar and relocated to Dinsmore & Shohls Cincinnati office. She continued to practice law exclusively in Kentucky and maintained an office in Louisville for legal matters. The Cincinnati Bar Association recommended approval of her character and fitness to practice in Ohio.

Board Questions Practice

The character and fitness board questioned whether Jones was engaged in the unauthorized practice of law and opened an investigation. Jones argued that under the rules she was permitted to provide legal services on a temporary basis while her application was pending. A board hearing panel determined that Prof.Cond.R. 5.5(c) did not apply to Jones and that she was practicing law without authorization. The panel recommended that she stop practicing and engage only in services that could be provided by a law clerk or paralegal.

The board adopted the panels decision and recommended the Court disapprove Jones application for admission. Jones objected to the decision, arguing that the board misinterpreted the rule and that her constitutional rights under the due process clause and the privileges and immunities clause of the U.S. Constitution were being violated.

Court Examines Rule

Prof.Cond.R. 5.5(b)(1) prohibits a lawyer not admitted to practice in Ohio from establishing an office or other systematic and continuous presence in the jurisdiction for the practice of law. The rule, however, provides exceptions. Prof.Cond.R. 5.5.(c)(2) allows a lawyer to provide legal services on a temporary basis if the lawyer is admitted in another U.S. jurisdiction, is in good standing in that jurisdiction, regularly practices law, provides services reasonably related to pending matters in another jurisdiction, and is authorized by law and expects to appear in the pending proceedings.

Justice ODonnell noted that temporary means lasting for a limited time. He indicated a comment to the rule provides no single test to determine whether a lawyers services are being provided on a temporary basis.

The opinion concluded that Jones satisfied the rules requirements.

She is a lawyer who is admitted in Kentucky, is in good standing in that jurisdiction, regularly practices law, and is providing legal services from an office in Ohio, and those services are reasonably related to pending or potential proceedings before tribunals in Kentucky, where she is authorized by law to appear in such proceedings, Justice ODonnell wrote:

The Court determined that the length of time she has practiced law in Ohio on a temporary basis covers the time it has taken to resolve her application. Because she was not engaged in the unauthorized practice of law, the Court approved her admission without examination.

Concurrence Finds Rule Unconstitutionally Limits Joness Right to Pursue Her Chosen Profession

In his concurrence, Justice DeWine disagreed with the majoritys reading of Prof.Cond.R. 5.5. He found that, as written, the rule did prohibit Joness conduct, but that the rule runs afoul of constitutional guarantees.

[A]s I see it, the problem is not that the board misread the rule; Im convinced that the boards reading is correct, the concurring opinion stated. The problem is that as applied here, the rule is irrational and arbitrary and cannot constitutionally be enforced.

The concurrence noted that Article I, Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution recognizes that all people possess certain inalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life, liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and seeking and obtaining happiness and safety. The Court has long recognized, he explained, that these liberty and property rights of the state constitution encompass a right to pursue ones chosen profession.

The concurring opinion also found that Joness right to continue in her chosen profession free of unreasonable government interference was protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Under long-established precedent, to satisfy constitutional requirements, a state rule regulating the practice of law must have a rational connection with the applicants fitness or capacity to practice law.

Justice DeWine noted that Jones did not hold herself out to be an Ohio attorney, did not practice in Ohio courts, and did not advertise for business in Ohio. Her practice was like that of any other Kentucky lawyerexcept that she was working remotely from Ohio.

Plainly, as applied to such a lawyer, the rule does not further the states interest in protecting the integrity of our court system. Jones, and others like her, are not practicing in Ohio courts. Nor does application of the rule to such lawyers serve the states interest in protecting the Ohio public. Jones and others in her situation are not providing services to or holding themselves out as lawyers to the Ohio public.

2018-0496. In re Application of Jones, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-4182.

View oral argument video of this case

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/10/the-ohio-supreme-court-a-kentucky-attorney-who-practiced-law-exclusively-in-kentucky-from-an-ohio-office-while-awaiting-a.htmlBy Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijan will take part at the SIAL Paris exhibition on October 21-15.

As many as 23 Azerbaijani companies engaged in the production of food, vegetables and fruits, wines, fruit juices, mineral waters, canned products, hazelnuts and dried fruits, tea, etc., will present their products at the Made in Azerbaijan stand at the exhibition.

SIAL Paris is a global showcase for the food industry that brings the key producers and buyers together with a focus on the worlds major challenges and reveals the trends and innovations that shape the food industry of tomorrow.

The exhibition, which will be attended by 7,020 companies from 109 countries, is one of the largest food exhibitions in Europe.

Today, the country eyes to diversify its economy, focuses widely on an export-led growth strategy and aims to expand the list of its foreign trade partners.

President Ilham Aliyev signed the Decree on large-scale promotion of local non-oil products in foreign markets as Made in Azerbaijan on 5 October 2016.

This Decree includes nine different support mechanisms to stimulate exports and promote Made in Azerbaijan abroad.

Depending on the support mechanisms, the costs relating to their realization are fully or partially covered by the state budget.

Made in Azerbaijan is an initiative aimed at entering new markets. The strategic markets for Azerbaijan are also considered to be EU, the countries of the Persian Gulf, China, the CIS countries, Turkey and Russia.

EU is one of the largest markets in the world. And, ultimately, this market is an important direction for entrepreneurs in terms of both competitive opportunities and sustainable income.

Development of the non-oil sector mainly depends on the export of non-oil products and the main goal is to expand access to new markets, besides traditional markets.

The volume of non-oil exports from Azerbaijan in the first half of 2018 amounted to $813.5 million, which is 14 percent more than the same period last year.

In January-June 2018, Azerbaijan, in general, exported products for $ 9.9 billion.

---

Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

YARAT Contemporary Art Space invites you to the next meeting within the scope of "Through the Artist's Eyes" project.

The meeting with the Peoples Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Rasim Babayev, will be held at Museum of 20th-21st Century Azerbaijani Painting on October 23.

Rasim Babayev's son, Elnur, who has chosen to follow in his fathers' footsteps will take part in the event.

Participants will also be able to see personally the works of the great portrait painter included in the exposition of the museum.

Rasim Babayev (1927-2007) was one of the most prominent representatives of the so-called Absheron school of painting. He was an underground and non-conformist artist working outside the ideological frames of the Soviet period.

His creativity has had a significant impact on the contemporary art of Azerbaijan.

The artists works are kept in permanent collections in Azerbaijan and abroad.

The meeting starts at 19:00. Admission is free.

Address: Museum of Azerbaijani Painting of the XX-XXI Centuries(Bayil District, near YARAT Centre)

YARAT is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to nurturing an understanding of contemporary art in Azerbaijan and to creating a platform for Azerbaijani art, both nationally and internationally. Based in Baku, YARAT (meaning CREATE in Azerbaijani) was founded by Aida Mahmudova in 2011.

YARAT is an artist-founded, not-for-profit art organisation based in Baku, Azerbaijan, established by Aida Mahmudova in 2011. YARAT (which means 'create' in Azerbaijani) is dedicated to contemporary art with a long-term commitment to creating a hub for artistic practice, research, thinking and education in the Caucasus, Central Asia and surrounding region.

It comprises of YARAT Art Centre, ARTIM Project Space, YARAT Studios, YAY Gallery and an extended educational and public programme. YARAT Art Centre, a 2000m converted Soviet-era naval building, opened in March 2015 and is the organisation's main exhibition space.

Education has been at the heart of YARAT's activities since its creation. With a dedicated public

programme that includes courses, workshops, lectures, screenings, festivals, literature and theatre clubs and family weekends, YARAT aims to give access to broad audiences of all ages.

Located on the National Flag Square, Museum of 20th-21st Century Azerbaijani Painting was

founded by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. The Museum was inaugurated in June 2015 by the

President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev and the First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva.

It presents works by both prominent and lesser-known Azerbaijani painters from State Collections, such as the National Picture Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

The 50th anniversary of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater has been solemnly celebrated.

Azerbaijani Culture Minister Abulfaz Garayev, First Deputy Culture Minister Vagif Aliyev, Acting Head of Mingachevir Ilham Ismailov, representatives of the theater community attended the event, Trend Life reported.

Next, the participants of the event got acquainted with the photo exhibition in the foyer of the theater. The exhibition reflects the activity of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater.

Addressing the event, Minister of Culture Abulfaz Garayev spoke about the care and attention shown by the state about the sphere of culture and art.

Speaking about the activities of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater, the minister highly appreciated the activities of theater workers.

It was noted that President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan signed a decree in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater.

The minister emphasized the development of the theater art in country.

Abulfas Garayev read out the orders of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on awarding the employees of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater.

The minister congratulated the theater team on the anniversary and wished them further creative success.

In his speech, the head of the Mingachevir Executive Authority, Ilham Ismailov stressed the great role of theater in the cultural life of the city. He noted the great path of development of the Azerbaijani theater and the role of the Mingachevir State Drama Theater in it.

The theater team were awarded diplomas of the Ministry of Culture and the Azerbaijan Union of Theater Workers.

The event continued with spectacular concert program.

The Mingachevir State Drama Theater, which celebrates the anniversary, was founded in 1968, its activities began in 1969 with the play "Diamond" by Jafar Jabbarli. Over the years, the creative team of the theater staged about 300 performances based on the works of Azerbaijani and foreign playwrights.

The Mingachevir State Drama Theater is known for its vigorous activity both in Azerbaijan and abroad. The theater has performed in most cities and regions of Azerbaijan, as well as with tours in Turkey, Georgia, Russia.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The use of the expression "all parties to the conflict" in the comments of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the illegal visit of Armenian prime ministers wife Anna Hakobyan, as well as Russian State Duma member and other Russian citizens, to the occupied Azerbaijani territories causes surprise, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message on Oct. 17.

"As a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Russian Foreign Ministry is well aware that there are two parties to the conflict - Armenia and Azerbaijan, the message said. Armenia and Azerbaijan were defined as conflicting parties in the final statement and other documents of the OSCE Ministerial Council in 1992 in Helsinki.

Currently, negotiations are being held in this format with the mediation of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the message said. We think the comment of the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the provocative visit of Deputy Chairperson of the Russian State Duma committee Svetlana Zhurova - which is illegal and detrimental to the interests of resolving the conflict through negotiations - is ineffective.

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 Abdul Kerimkhanov

Co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group intend to visit the region soon.

This was stated by Spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova at a press conference on October 17.

"During the visit, they intend to specify the position of the countries and discuss what concrete actions could be taken to intensify the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, including the agreements recently reached in Dushanbe," she said.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a conversation on the sidelines of the CIS Summit in Dushanbe. The parties affirmed their commitment to the process of negotiations on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the strengthening of the ceasefire regime for preventing incidents on the line of contact and Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

The sides decided to develop mechanisms for building prompt contacts between relevant authorities.

Zakharova stressed that everybody knows the position of Russia as a co-chairing country of the OSCE Minsk Group.

"This position has been outlined in joint statements made by the presidents of Russia, the US and France in 2009-2013, foreign ministers, as well as co-chairmen of three countries," she added.

Today, Russia is one of Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Conference -- an institution that received "the main mandate to resolve this conflict". For this reason Russia has influence due to the fact that it is not only an intermediary in matters of regulation Karabakh conflict. Russia has significant potential to provide substantial impact on the course of events in the Caucasus, in particular, on the settlement of Karabakh conflict.

Negotiations recognized as the main means of resolving the Karabakh conflict. This agreement continues to this day, largely due to the Russian mediation mission and the political will of the conflicting sides.

Russia has always played a very active role in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and along with the U.S. and France is a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, which spearheads the OSCEs efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Negotiations for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are still underway within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

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

Three foreign journalists who visited the occupied Azerbaijani territories in connection with the Francophonie event in Armenia will be included into the list of undesirable people in Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a message on Oct. 17.

"The press of the Francophonie of Armenia, which failed to achieve the provocative goals pursued by the Francophonie summit, organized an illegal visit of some members of the Board of the International Organization of the Francophonie to the occupied Azerbaijani territories."

"By making this illegal visit contrary to the principles of journalism ethics and objectivity, Jean Kouchner, Francois Dost and Khadijah Ridouane will be included to the undesirable people list of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry," the message said.

The visits to Nagorno-Karabakh region and other occupied Azerbaijani territories without agreeing with the Azerbaijani side are considered illegal, and the names of the individuals who make these visits are included to the list of of undesirable people of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

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

Preservation of the leading position among the states of the world by Azerbaijan in the Global Competitiveness Report prepared by the World Economic Forum using a completely new methodology causes a sense of pride and is commendable, Aydin Guliyev, the editor-in-chief of the Bak Kheber newspaper told Trend Oct. 18.

He noted that despite that the World Economic Forum has changed its methodology of approach to countries, Azerbaijan has managed to maintain its leading position.

"This is a very important result, which once again emphasizes that in Azerbaijan, the dynamics of processes in all directions is progressing. Another important point is that Azerbaijan has achieved great results in approximately 70 new indicators not used in practice previously. This means that Azerbaijan, not knowing in advance what indicators will be used for implementation of assessment around the world, worked in this direction, which means that the motives of the states and President Ilham Aliyevs activities was and is to improve economic well-being of the population, and not to take the first place in the report," Guliyev said.

"Azerbaijan is at a high spot in terms of social justice, which absolutely corresponds to the logic of the policy pursued in the country. This is the main reason of stability in Azerbaijan, public support provided to the President of Azerbaijan, interethnic and inter-religious solidarity, general civil solidarity. Indeed, if there is no high level of social justice in the country, then we cannot talk about sustainable stability and reliable internal security," Guliyev said.

The expert said that the achievement by Azerbaijan of a high rating on such indicators as the dynamics of business, "education" and "infrastructure" is fully consistent with reality.

"This report provides an opportunity for the nations and states of the world to once again get acquainted with the results of the purposeful activities of the President of Azerbaijan. If we consider that the World Economic Forum plays a role of a socio-economic assessment in the world, success achieved by Azerbaijan should be evaluated as achievements that cannot be achieved by every country.

The report once again demonstrated to the world that Azerbaijan is a country where the social well-being of the people is 100% guaranteed, a country that created the opportunity to quickly start a business, a country that has established a strong link between human development and the environment, a country that tirelessly attaches importance to infrastructure projects," Guliyev said.

He noted that only a part of the 15-year activity of the President of Azerbaijan lies behind the latest report of the World Economic Forum, and if all the work carried out in the country was included in the list of indicators of the report of the World Economic Forum, the international rating figures would be even higher.

"The consistent and purposeful policy pursued by President Ilham Aliyev gives grounds to say that there are solid bases for success that will meet higher rating requirements in the future. The policy of President Ilham Aliyev is the only source of guarantee for all international rating indicators of Azerbaijan," the expert said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Within the scope of the working visit to the Czech Republic, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan Colonel General Zakir Hasanov takes part in the Future Forces International Exhibition 2018, the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan said in a message on Oct. 17.

On October 17, after the official opening ceremony of the exhibition, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov held a bilateral meeting with his Czech counterpart Lubomir Metnar.

During the meeting, the sides held a broad exchange of views on the current state and prospects for the development of military cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic, as well as security issues in the region.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The most important direction of Turkmenistans foreign policy is the constant strengthening of relations with fraternal Azerbaijan, Turkmen ambassador to Azerbaijan Mekan Ishanguliyev said.

Ishanguliyev made the remarks at a solemn event dedicated to the 27th anniversary of independence of Turkmenistan, organized by the country's embassy in Baku.

The common history and culture brought the people of the two countries closer, he said.

The ambassador said that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are cooperating in such areas as ensuring of global and regional security, implementation of big energy and transport projects.

Ishanguliyev emphasized that the key role in the development of relations between the two countries belongs to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

In the framework of the visit to the Czech Republic, the delegation led by Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov takes part in the International Future Forces Exhibition-2018, held with the support of the ministries of defense, internal affairs, foreign affairs, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic, the headquarters of NATO, the European Defense Agency and several other national and international organizations, the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan said in a statement Oct. 18.

This event is a highly reputable, internationally recognized platform and is held to represent and promote national and global security goals, as well as to conduct the exchange of information in the field of defense and security.

About 1,200 companies from 60 countries take part in the exhibition.

The Azerbaijani delegation, having familiarized with the products of the defense industry companies of foreign countries participating in this exhibition, was comprehensively informed about their purpose.

In the framework of the visit, the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan, Colonel-General Hasanov held bilateral meetings with the heads of a number of defense industry enterprises.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzWednesday, October 17, 2018

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has denied a reinstatement petition of a former attorney who consented to license revocation in 2010.

Then his problems continued

On May 7, 2012, the State charged Attorney Mularski with two felony counts of theft, alleging that between 2006 and 2009 Attorney Mularski had embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the trust account of his former law firm, Eisenberg, Riley & Zimmerman. On October 23, 2012, Attorney Mularski pled guilty to one felony count of theft and was sentenced to five years of probation with one year at the Milwaukee County House of Corrections as a condition of that probation. He was ordered to have no contact with his former firm. The sentencing court ordered Attorney Mularski to pay, inter alia, restitution to the firm's trust account in the amount of $338,019.96.

He had paid approximately $228,000 by his sentencing.

An adverse witness at the reinstatement hearing

Attorney Mularski's former spouse also appeared and testified. As relevant here, she reported that Attorney Mularski had claimed their children as exemptions on his 2016 federal tax return, despite their marital settlement agreement to the contrary.

Attorney Mularski described the tax issue as an unintentional mistake and emphasized that he had amended that tax return. Attorney Mularski disclosed that he and his former spouse are currently involved in a contentious custody and placement proceeding involving their children.

The court

The question before this court is whether we should reinstate Attorney Mularski's license to practice law. Attorney Mularski reasons that the only way he will ever satisfy his many financial obligations will be if he is permitted to practice law again. He asks the court to reinstate him so he can make headway against his restitution obligations. He suggests he could be reinstated with various conditions and restrictions imposed on his license.

Among the issues

The OLR agrees, noting that during the OLR's investigation and at the hearing, Attorney Mularski was unable to identify the amounts he owed to his former clients, or provide documentation of payment.

Attorney Mularski acknowledges that he has not provided the required accounting, much less satisfied his restitution obligations. He contends this should not preclude his reinstatement because, he says, creating the required accounting is an impossible task. He says that he has "provided all documentation he has available to show what has been paid, and what may be due. No additional records are available, and for the referee to find that [Mularski] has failed to meet his burden is clearly erroneous."

We disagree. The record confirms that this is a challenging problem to unravel, but also demonstrates that there is more Attorney Mularski could do to respond to this court's order and the requirement for reinstatement.

Creating an accounting that will identify the amount of restitution owed to Attorney Mularski's former clients is challenging because there are separate, sometimes overlapping, orders and judgments. As noted, in the criminal proceeding Attorney Mularski was ordered to pay $338,019.96 in restitution to the Eisenberg firm. The allegations in the underlying OLR disciplinary complaint overlap with those in the criminal complaint, but also contained separate claims relating to clients Attorney Mularski represented before he joined the Eisenberg firm.

As to his claim re restitution

...this is revisionist history. The difficulties regarding restitution long predate the criminal proceeding and ensuing criminal restitution and no-contact orders. Before we accepted Attorney Mularski's petition for consensual license revocation in 2010, we were concerned about the clients who were owed restitution, and issued detailed orders seeking to resolve restitution as to the clients implicated in that proceeding...

Despite his first-hand knowledge that this court was keenly interested in ascertaining appropriate restitution to compensate clients injured by Attorney Mularski's misconduct, Attorney Mularski provided this court with no documentation, much less an accounting, even with respect to the clients identified in earlier court orders or those Attorney Mularski represented before he joined the Eisenberg firm. For example, both parties made repeated reference to a "spread-sheet" that apparently reflects Attorney Mularski's best effort to establish an accounting, but this document was not produced in this proceeding. Without it neither the referee nor this court has any way of independently determining whether the accounting challenge is indeed an impossible task.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2018/10/the-wisconsin-supreme-court-has-denied-a-reinstatement-petition.htmlBy Trend

Over 1,000 delegates from 27 countries of the world, including representatives of the public and private sectors of Central Asia, Europe and the USA, arrived in Tashkent to participate in the 8th Central Asian Trade Forum (CATF), organized in the Youth Creativity Palace, Uzbek media reported.

This business forum is being held in Uzbekistan for the first time.

Organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Central Asia and the Foreign Trade Ministry of Uzbekistan, the forum is a platform for development of regional trade and an interactive platform for entrepreneurs to find potential partners.

The theme of the forum, "New horizons in development of trade and investment", reflects the growth of openness of Central Asia for regional and international trade, which is particularly consonant with the complex of socio-economic reforms carried out in Uzbekistan aimed at accelerating economic growth, creating an attractive investment and business climate and development tourism.

The trade show presents over 100 enterprises from various sectors throughout the region, including transport, tourism, information technology, equipment, production and processing of fruits and vegetables, and others. Assistance in development of entrepreneurship at the regional level is one of the priorities of USAID's work.

The forum is organized by the USAID Competitiveness, Trade and Job Creation Project in Central Asia, which aims to promote exports and increase employment in the fruit and vegetable, tourism, transport and logistics sectors in five Central Asian countries [Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan].

By developing the competitiveness of companies in the region and eliminating barriers to trade, USAID contributes to development of a sustainable and competitive private sector to increase export potential.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Domestic car production is a priority for Turkey, said Mehmet Gurcan Karakas, head of the consortium for domestic car production, Turkish media reported.

Karakas noted that the domestic car production in Turkey is also a chance to enter the global car market.

He added that Turkeys domestic cars will be able to compete with global brands.

On Oct. 11, the Turkish "Zorlu Holding" company, together with four other companies which are members of the consortium for development of a domestic Turkish car, presented the first prototypes of the vehicle.

The prototype was developed together with the "Vestel Elektronik" company and is entitled as "VEO".

Earlier, the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology of Turkey Faruk Ozlu said Turkey will invest $3 billion in creating a domestic car.

Ozlu said work is currently underway to develop prototypes of five different models of the domestic car. The minister also noted that one of the cars will be equipped with an electric motor.

The prototypes of the domestic Turkish cars will be presented at the Geneva motor show, which will be held in 2019.

On November 2, 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the names of companies that will participate in the creation of the domestic car - Anadolu Grubu, BMC, Kraca Holding, Turkcell and Zorlu Holding.

Erdogan stressed that the creation of a domestic car will strengthen the economy of Turkey. The president also said that Turkey will export domestic cars to neighboring countries.

The cars developed in Turkey will be manufactured with different types of body and engines.

The purchase of a domestic car in Turkey will be exempt from special consumer tax.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The number of Azerbaijani citizens who traveled abroad from January to September of this year increased by 14.1 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 3,562,900 people, the State Statistics Committee said in a statement Oct. 17.

Of these, 30.7 percent traveled to Iran, 30.3 percent - to Georgia, 19.4 percent - to Russia, 13.2 percent - to Turkey, 1.6 percent - to Ukraine, 1 percent - to the UAE and 3,8 percent - to other countries.

Among those who traveled abroad, 66.4 percent were men, 33.6 percent - women.

During this period, the number of Azerbaijani citizens visiting Iran and Georgia increased by 53.2 and 2.7 percent, respectively, and the number of Azerbaijani citizens visiting Russia and Turkey decreased by 1.4 and 1.3 percent, respectively.

During this period, 80.3 percent of Azerbaijani citizens used rail and road transport, 18.9 percent  air transport, 0.8 percent  water transport.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

In January-September this year, 2,208,600 foreigners and stateless persons from 193 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 6.4 percent more compared to the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee said in a statement Oct. 17.

Some 31.2 percent of those who arrived in Azerbaijan are citizens of Russia, 19.8 percent - Georgia, 10 percent - Turkey, 9.2 percent - Iran, 3.3 percent - the United Arab Emirates, 3 percent - Saudi Arabia, 2.7 percent - Iraq, 2 percent - Ukraine, 1.5 percent - Israel, 17.2 percent - other countries, 0.1 percent - stateless persons.

Some 65.3 percent of those arriving are men, 34.7 percent - are women.

In total, 467,800 people arrived from the countries of the Persian Gulf, that is, almost every fifth tourist was a citizen of these countries.

During the period, the number of tourists from EU countries increased by 8.9 percent, reaching 88,900 people, from CIS countries - by 4.7 percent, reaching 813,700 people.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Abdul Kerimkhanov

First National Tourism Summit kicked off in Baku on October 18.

The event is organized by the State Agency for Tourism and the Bureau of Tourism of Azerbaijan.

Representatives of government agencies, diplomatic corps, tourism sector, local and foreign partner organizations and general public attended the summit. About 1,500 people participate in the event.

In his opening speech, Chairman of the State Agency Fuad Nagiyev stressed the importance of developing tourism in Azerbaijan as one of the priority areas of the country's economy.

"Today is an important day for the State Agency for Tourism. As a state structure, we hold an event for the general public for the first time. As you know, the agency was established by the order of President Ilham Aliyev in April of this year. More than seven months have passed since. We have been instructed to develop this area. In the past few years, tourism in the country has been quite successful, but much remains to be done. The purpose of this event is to acquaint you with our activities," he said.

He also informed that the State Tourism Agency intends to open foreign representative offices.

Nagiyev noted that it is necessary to increase efforts to acquaint the whole world with the tourism potential of Azerbaijan.

The agency established in April of this year, has done a great job over the past period, Nagiyev added.

The agencys chairman stressed the importance of developing education in the area of tourism.

Nagiyev added that the agency will also take measures to improve the quality and range of services for tourists.

He noted that the tourism industry in Azerbaijan was defined by the decisions of the head of state as a priority direction for the development of the economy.

The leadership of the country pays special attention to the tourism sector. It is under this trademark in the coming years, our country will position the full range of tourism goods and services that will contribute to the formation of the state budget, the creation of additional jobs, and incomes for the general population, said Nagiyev.

The State Agency has identified 18 priority markets to attract tourists to Azerbaijan in the coming years. These are the countries of the Persian Gulf, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the countries of Western Europe and Israel.

Then, a new national tourism brand was presented by Fidan Guliyeva, director of brands and marketing bureau.

Guliyeva noted, to achieve the goals, a strong brand is needed.

"Azerbaijan is a country of new discoveries. This logo will help promote Azerbaijan all over the world," she said.

The presentation of a new national tourism brand will also be held at the World Travel Market Exhibition (London WTM), which will be held in London (United Kingdom) in November of this year, Guliyeva stated.

Brand was created with the participation of both local and foreign specialists. The direct executor of the work is the world-famous company Landor Associates, which for many years has been shaping the brands of many developed and developing countries of the world, corporations. Brand got the name "Take another look".

In turn, the Executive Director of the Tourism Bureau , Florian Sengshmid, said that by the end of 2018, six tourist offices in different countries will be opened.

The development of the training program of the Azerbaijan University of Tourism and Management, the opening of the exhibition center in Yanardag, the expansion of infrastructure in the Shahdag ski resort, the opening of information centers, as well as the development of accessible routes are envisaged.

By the end of 2018, official tourist offices of Azerbaijan will be opened in several countries of the world. During 2019, this process will continue.

In January-September this year, 2,208,600 foreigners and stateless persons from 193 countries arrived in Azerbaijan, which is 6.4 percent more compared to the same period last year.

Some 31.2 percent of those who arrived in Azerbaijan are citizens of Russia, 19.8 percent - Georgia, 10 percent - Turkey, 9.2 percent - Iran, 3.3 percent - the United Arab Emirates, 3 percent - Saudi Arabia, 2.7 percent - Iraq, 2 percent - Ukraine, 1.5 percent - Israel, 17.2 percent - other countries, 0.1 percent - stateless persons.

In total, 467,800 people arrived from the countries of the Persian Gulf, that is, almost every fifth tourist was a citizen of these countries.

During the period, the number of tourists from EU countries increased by 8.9 percent, reaching 88,900 people, from CIS countries - by 4.7 percent, reaching 813,700 people.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzThe Catholic Church's canonization of slain El Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero has been overlooked in the crush of midterm election news and Saudi Arabia's alleged killing of a Washington Post writer.

Romero, assassinated by a right-wing hit squad in 1980 as he was conducting Mass, became a saint earlier this month along with Pope Paul VI and several other lesser known Catholics.

Catholic author Paul Elie, one of our best writers on religion and culture, explores in an incisive article in the current Atlantic what Romero's canonization means for Pope Francis and the church's moral stature as sexual abuse allegations against priests mount.

Elie traces how Romero's stand against right-wing violence in El Salvador influenced St. Francis' shift from a supporter of a right-wing regime in Argentina as a top Jesuit official to a staunch advocate of human rights for the dispossessed.

Romero's elevation to sainthood was long stymied by Pope John Paul II and the ultraconservative Pope Benedict XVI. Elie analyzes the Vatican politics behind the opposition to Romero's sainthood, and how Francis accomplished the move.

Following Romero's assassination, El Salvador was torn by a brutal civil war in which the United States backed the right-wing military, which committed further atrocities. After a peace agreement, the country has been relatively stable in recent years.

But Latin American violence continues to erupt, as Donald Trump's recent threats against El Salvador's neighbor Honduras show. Trump this week threatened to cut off aid to Honduras over a large group of Honduran refugees heading to the Mexican-U.S. border. He's also threatened to halt the recent trade deal with Mexico and send troops to the border.

In canonizing Oscar Romero, St. Francis stands for Romero's humanitarian beliefs and against Trump's violent anti-immigation hysteria.Chabad has been in Utah since 1992 and is now opening a third branch in the state. Rabbi Mendy and Chaya Cohen, and their two young children, are setting up shop in St. George.

Located at the southwestern border, St. George is a two-hour drive from the Jewish community of Las Vegas. Its not a big move for Chaya: the twenty-two year old grew up four hours north in Salt Lake City where her parents, Rabbi Benny and Sharonne Zippel, are Chabad representatives. For Mendy, a Montreal native, the citys topography and year-round warm weather are a pleasant change.

As the first Jewish establishment in the fast-growing area, Chabad will be serving the areas 1,500 Jewish residents and Jewish tourists. Some 5-8 million, many of whom are Jewish, visit nearby national parks such as Zion, an hour away from the desert city, each year.

Utah is also known for its over 100 residential treatment facilities for youth. The state is home to schools, centers and living facilities for teenagers challenged with mental health disorders. Each center specializes in a different field, from addiction to eating disorders to OCD and beyond. Chabad has been there for the Jewish teens who come from across the country for treatment. In 1996, the Zippels founded Project H.E.A.R.T. (Hebrew Education for At Risk Teens) serving these youngsters with visitations, classes, kosher food, spiritual guidance and simple love.

Now St. George and the surrounding area have their own Project H.E.A.R.T. In addition to their community activities, the Cohens will be connecting with teenagers in the nearby treatment centers. Weve reached out to nearby facilities and the response was very positive, Chaya says. Each of the twenty or so locations currently houses at least five Jewish residents, some even ten, and the couple has been fielding calls from parents of teens in treatment requesting their help. When they reach a level of stability, residents are given special permission to leave the premises for certain amounts of time and we hope to host them and their visiting families for Shabbat, holidays and events.

St. George was ranked the sixth fastest growing city in the United States, making it ripe for the Jewish infrastructure the Cohens will be bringing.

For more information and to support Chabad of St. George visit JewishSouthernUtah.com

Mendy and Chaya Cohen with their oldest childStumped? Ask us. The FYI column is designed to let readers email (to newsroom@lufkindailynews.com ) or call in (to 632-6637) questions you want answered, whether about road construction, how-to tips, trivia or other information. You do not have to leave your name. You also can use that email address or phone number to give us a news tip  anonymously, if youd like.Evacuation orders were lifted Thursday afternoon for 4,000 Bay Point residents who were forced out of their homes the prior night after an underground vault caught fire, threatening a gas pipeline.

Contra Costa County firefighters extinguished a grass fire in the area of Bailey Road around 6 p.m. Wednesday, but they returned to the scene an hour later after hearing reports of a fire in a nearby Chevron vault, where workers access gas pipeline valves.

Officials sent a drone over the facility Wednesday night and found that a concrete vault had reached 430 degrees.

We realized very quickly there was a high probability of danger, so a decision was made to escalate the incident, which included setting an evacuation zone of a half mile, said Terence Carey, an assistant fire chief for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

As of Thursday morning, the vault had cooled to 100 degrees, but crews spent a total of 15 hours identifying the issue and flowing natural gas out of the pipeline before injecting nitrogen to render the line safe.

We are very happy this went according to plan, Carey said.

Cell phone robocalls went out Wednesday night to residents of 1,400 homes in the evacuation zone near Bailey Road, officials said, but not everyone got the message.

Tony Raymond, 53, worked 12 hours Wednesday at a nearby refinery before taking his wife out to dinner to celebrate her 45th birthday. At 9:30 p.m., the couple got into bed with their two dogs, Camilla and Yoko, and fell dead asleep.

Two hours later, Raymond woke to seven missed calls from his son, who relayed the evacuation orders. Neighbors had already left the area, and the couple had slept through law enforcement knocking on their door.

Raymond walked out his front door around 11:30 p.m. and was met by police officers, who asked him what he was still doing home.

I have to get the pets, Raymond recalled saying. I didnt have time to put my socks on.

He put the dogs in his pickup truck, before going to the familys Toyota with their cat, Princess, and the cage that held their three cockatiels: Summer, Terry and Candy.

Those are our babies right there, Raymond said, pointing at the chirping birds. We had to get them all. It was a nightmare. It was crazy. I hope we dont have to do that again.

Raymond and his wife, Wendy, spent the night in the Bay Point BART parking lot, but neither of them slept.

Early Thursday, officials started moving Bay Point BART Station evacuees to the parking lot of Los Medanos College. Wendy Raymond sat in the back of the familys pickup truck, her hands resting on the cages as she shushed the birds.

I still cant believe this is happening, she said. I was so confused, nauseous at the same time.

A few hundred evacuees also sheltered Wednesday night at the Calvary Temple Church in Concord. Pastor Jason Morgan was leaving a board meeting when he saw a police officer racing through the church parking lot.

The officer told him 1,500 homes were being evacuated and nearly 4,000 people would be displaced, and he asked if residents could use the churchs parking lot.

I said 100-percent yes, Morgan said.

The pastor also unlocked the churchs lobby doors so people could use the bathroom and get water and coffee.

Officials said that three buses were dispatched to get people out of the evacuation zone.

We recognize we probably have many individuals who dont have the transportation, said Lt. Paul OMary, a member of the county Sheriffs Office. We went down literally every street.

Busloads of people arrived at the church, where volunteers prepared cots and couches, brought in groceries and ordered hundreds of Grand Slam breakfasts from a nearby Dennys.

The whole building was just lined with people, Morgan said. The lobby was full. People were standing in the cold. It was very somber. Some people were in tears when they first started arriving. A lot of people were scared, a lot of people were confused  they hadnt grabbed anything.

Sarah Ravani and Gwendolyn Wu are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani, @gwendolynawuThe continent's largest body painting competition is celebrating its 11th year this November with a themed event in San Antonio.

Thirty artists will cover 30 live body "canvases" with colorful designs as they compete for more than $2,000 in prizes and awards. Contestants are coming from as far as Canada, Italy, Florida, California and Louisiana, according to a spokesman.President Donald Trump is facing increased pressure from Congress over his handling of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance, exposing a widening rift between the White House and Capitol Hill over the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Lawmakers from Trump's own party, including the president's ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, are openly voicing their discontent and threatening to sanction the Saudi government over the objections of the president, who has sought to build a closer relationship with Riyadh.

The stark differences underscore that Saudi Arabia enjoys far greater respect in the Oval Office than in the Capitol. Many lawmakers harbor a distrust of the kingdom dating back to its connection to the Sept. 11 attacks. Its bloody involvement in Yemen's civil war and interference in Lebanese politics have cost it further U.S. support.

The Trump administration, meanwhile -- led by the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner -- has drawn ever closer to the Saudis as it fashions a strategy in the Mideast that revolves around the kingdom.

"There are a number of constituencies in Congress that are hostile to Saudi Arabia," said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. U.S. lawmakers have complained about the kingdom's egregious human rights record, its suppression of religious freedom and civilian deaths in the Yemen war.

"The Khashoggi case provides a central rallying point for all of these people to criticize the Saudis and the president's relationship with them," he said.

Should Congress act against Saudi Arabia despite Trump's reservations, it would mark yet another defeat in Washington for the kingdom. Just two years ago, Congress passed legislation allowing Saudi Arabia to be sued for its involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks. Though the Saudi government wasn't found to have had a formal role in the attacks, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, a fact not forgotten by lawmakers or the American public.

Turkish officials have said that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Instanbul shortly after he arrived Oct. 2 to retrieve a document related to his wedding. A team of 15 Saudi agents arrived in Instanbul and left the same day of Khashoggi's visit, according to reports by the New York Times and Washington Post.

The U.S. can condemn Saudi Arabia's conduct "without blowing up the Middle East and without destroying our ability to talk with them," Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said Wednesday. "Our foreign policy has to be anchored in values."

U.S. options include expelling Saudi diplomats, securing a United Nations resolution criticizing the kingdom's behavior, curtailing arms sales or enacting sanctions on Saudi officials, Kennedy said. Trump opposes canceling a $110 billion arms deal with the kingdom that he said Wednesday would create 500,000 U.S. jobs.

Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is one of Trump's most stalwart allies in Congress, called Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, "toxic" and a "wrecking ball" in an interview on "Fox and Friends" on Tuesday.

"Nothing happens in Saudi Arabia without MBS knowing it," Graham said.

Trump chose Saudi Arabia for his first overseas trip as president and he has rejected the idea of reassessing the U.S.-Saudi relationship over Khashoggi's disappearance. The Trump administration has made Saudi Arabia a linchpin of its Middle East policy, which seeks to isolate Iran financially and diplomatically. The Saudis have been a key partner in that effort, and Trump has defended the kingdom even as it engaged in a crackdown on members of the royal family and pursued the war in Yemen.

Trump and his Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have placed inordinate weight on Saudi Arabian denials that the kingdom is responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance, and the president has sought to downplay the affair. Trump has repeatedly noted that Khashoggi was not a U.S. citizen and on Monday floated the notion that "rogue killers" may have murdered him. Trump admitted in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday that the idea had been suggested to him by Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

Trump lamented in the same interview that the Saudis were considered "guilty until proven innocent." On Wednesday, he called them a U.S. "ally."

"They are a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment but other things," he said.

After meeting with Saudi Arabian leaders including Prince Mohammed in Riyadh on Tuesday, Pompeo issued a statement underscoring their denials.

"My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials," Pompeo said.

"It's important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships -- financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the world," Pompeo told reporters aboard his plane Wednesday after it left Turkey. "The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us."

Congress isn't buying it, and Trump may soon face a second overwhelming vote to impose sanctions on a country with which the president has sought to improve relations. Last year, veto-proof majorities in Congress approved sanctions on Russia to punish its 2016 election interference, over Trump's objections.

"This is not rogue killers," Graham said Tuesday on Fox News radio. "This is a rogue crown prince."

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week that "there will have to be significant sanctions placed at the highest levels" if Khashoggi was killed in the consulate. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has said he'll seek a vote to block future arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Sen. Todd Young, an Indiana Republican, tweeted Wednesday "The Khashoggi murder and actions in Yemen are both part of a pattern of immoral and reckless behavior by Saudi Arabia." Young penned an op-ed with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the Washington Post last month to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for contributing to the war in Yemen.

A bipartisan group of senators also invoked the 2016 Magnitsky Act in a letter to Trump, giving the administration 120 days to respond to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with a decision on potential sanctions against officials responsible for human rights violations.

Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, called Wednesday for an international investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance and criticized Trump for focusing on arms sales to Riyadh.

"It's always important to see arms sales as a means to a larger end, not as the end in themselves," he said on CNN.

Democrats have been even more direct in their criticism, with some insinuating that Trump's approach to the Saudis is driven by his financial interests. Trump said in a Twitter post on Tuesday that he has no holdings in Saudi Arabia.

--Bloomberg's Steven T. Dennis and Jennifer Epstein contributed.WASHINGTON - Facing a spike in unauthorized immigration, President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at Democrats and the leaders of Latin American nations, seeking to deflect blame and mitigate political damage by riling up his base just weeks before the midterm elections.

The president's mounting frustration was evident in a series of tweets in which he threatened to summon the military to guard the southern border, cut off aid to Central American nations and upend a recent trade deal with Mexico if those governments fail to stop a large caravan of migrants from Honduras making its way toward the United States.

Trump likely lacks the legal authority to carry out all of those drastic measures without congressional approval, but the threats highlighted the potentially perilous political implications for the White House as voters prepare to go to the polls with Republican control of Congress in the balance. In recent campaign rallies, Trump has sought to rally conservatives by asserting falsely that Democrats are in favor of "open borders" and that they favor increased crime.

"All Democrats fault for weak laws!" Trump wrote in one tweet, adding later: "Can you believe this, and what Democrats are allowing to be done to our Country?" The second tweet included a video clip of unknown origin that showed men, speaking in Spanish, handing out slips of paper to people in lines carrying bags. The footage was identical to a clip posted by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who claimed it showed cash payments to Hondurans to join the caravan and suggested without evidence the money came from a Democratic megadonor.

Republicans are facing a difficult election on Nov. 6, with polls showing Democrats holding an advantage on the general ballot and prognosticators favoring them to win control of the House. As pressure mounts, nerves have begun to fray inside the White House, with national security adviser John Bolton and Chief of Staff John Kelly engaging in a shouting match over immigration just outside the Oval Office on Thursday, according to White House aides.

Bolton had accused Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of not doing enough to stem the surge in border crossings, said aides, who described the argument as profane and loud enough to draw stares from others in the West Wing. Kelly, who preceded Nielsen in the homeland security job and handpicked her as his successor, came to her defense.

A White House official said Nielsen came in Bolton's office after the fight and the two had a positive conversation about DHS and the border.

While some GOP leaders in the House had initially hoped to focus their election message on the economy, Trump has continued to highlight immigration, confident that his hard-line views on enforcement will motivate his base and carry significant crossover appeal to independent and moderate voters who helped him win in 2016.

Many Republican candidates, especially in Senate races in states Trump won in 2016, have modeled attack ads on Trump's rhetoric, aiming to raise public fears over the dangers of illegal immigration. Recent polls show that voters in both parties rank immigration among the top issues that will affect their choices in next month's elections.

"The border is a big issue for Republican base voters who are already energized after Kavanaugh," said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster working on battleground races, referring to the contentious Supreme Court confirmation battle over Justice Brett Kavanaugh. "A reminder that illegal immigration is a real problem and that we just don't know who is entering our country can only boost Republican interest."

Democrats dismissed Trump's accusations as a sign of weakness from a president desperate to escape electoral consequences for failing to make good on his signature campaign promise to reduce illegal immigration.

Border Patrol agents arrested more than 16,000 immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border in September, the highest total on record and an increase of 80 percent since July, when Trump reversed his administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents after a public outcry.

In all, more than 107,000 family members were taken into custody in fiscal 2018, obliterating the previous high of just under 78,000 in 2016.

"It's pretty clear that the things this administration has attempted to address the situation at the border are failing," said Cecilia Munoz, an analyst at New America who served as White House domestic policy adviser in the Obama administration. "As is typical, this president is trying to lay the blame elsewhere."

The immigration spike this year, after a sharp decrease in the first six months of his presidency, has complicated Trump's immigration message. In response, he has exhorted aides to enact more extreme policies, including making it more difficult for immigrants to seek asylum protections and measures aimed at increasing criminal prosecutions of unauthorized border-crossers.

The White House is also considering a new policy, known as "binary choice," which would detain migrant families together and give parents a choice - stay in immigration jail with their child for months or years as their asylum case proceeds, or allow their child to be assigned to a government shelter while a relative or guardian can apply to gain custody.

In his tweets Thursday, Trump aimed to ramp up pressure on foreign governments.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump said in one tweet.

In another, he suggested that the "onslaught" of immigrants could undermine a recently announced reworked trade deal with Mexico and Canada, writing that immigration is "far more important to me, as President, than Trade."

The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, has yet to be signed by the three countries. Congress is not expected to ratify it before next year.

In recent years, Mexico has detained and deported far more Central Americans attempting to cross Mexico on the way to the United States. Still, Mexico's southern border with Guatemala remains relatively easy for migrants to cross.

In the wake of Trump's warnings, the Mexican government has signaled that it would take a more restrictive stance on the caravan of migrants this time around. Planeloads of federal police have arrived at Mexico's southern border and are positioned at crossing points. The Mexican foreign ministry on Thursday requested assistance from the U.N. Refugee Agency in processing Central American refugee claims.

The incoming government of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office in December, campaigned on a softer approach to migrants, saying protecting their human rights should be a top priority and that they shouldn't be treated like criminals.

But in response to the latest caravan from Honduras, said to number up to 4,000 people, top officials on Lopez Obrador's transition team have suggested that they would move to block such large groups of people.

"Mexico can't say that any caravan can pass to the United States," Marcelo Ebrard, the incoming foreign minister, said on Mexican radio on Thursday.

Mexican government leaders are "trying to perform a very difficult balancing act - on one hand with Trump watching and an the other hand with the Mexican population watching," said Carlos Bravo Regidor, professor at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City.

Immigration is likely to be discussed Friday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.

In Washington, no matter how the midterm elections play out, the issue could come to a head in December.

Trump had threatened to force a partial government shutdown in the fall to force Congress to authorize billions of dollars for his proposed border wall. Instead, he signed a stopgap spending measure, setting up a potential fight over the wall in the congressional session between the election and the new Congress.

"Any purely enforcement-oriented solution will only move the needle in the short term," said Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney who served as an aide to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Over the long-term, in order to solve that, he has to either be realistic about a bipartisan solution and work with Congress - or continue to demagogue it as a political issue, but that's not going to solve it."

- - -

Partlow reported from Esquipulas, Guatemala. The Washington Post's Josh Dawsey, Sean Sullivan and Alex Horton in Washington and Kevin Sieff in Mexico City contributed to this report.Tony Kilgore, CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates, discusses the biggest challenges and best opportunities for the company going forward.

Mr. Kilgore is participating on the keynote panel at the Becker's ASC 25th Annual Meeting in Chicago, Oct. 19, 2018 at 8 a.m.

Question: What are the top challenges facing ASCs today? What factors in the market place are driving those trends?

Tony Kilgore: For the past several years, we have seen a marked shift from physicians in independent practice to hospital employment. The number of independent physicians dropped from 57 percent in 2000 to just 33 percent in 2016. Specialists (surgeons) have been somewhat immune from this shift -- approximately 60 percent of physicians across subspecialties are still independent and are trying very hard to maintain their independence in a challenging environment.

We know that many physicians choose hospital employment due to pressure on their reimbursement, declining referral base and general practice cost and complexity. Successful models for independent physicians include joining large, branded groups and alignment with health systems, health plans and medical groups to build mutually beneficial partnerships that support the interests of patients, providers, health systems and health plans.

Establishing relationships with physicians early in their careers  whether they are in residency or just starting their practice  is another key success factor. Helping the next generation of physicians understand their options and sharing which models have been effective will be critical to the future success of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).

Another trend we are seeing is the shift to value-based care. This is more of an opportunity vs. challenge, although many ASCs are not ready to take on value-based reimbursement on their own. ASCs and other high value sites of care play a critical role in preparing and supporting markets in a value-based environment. Currently more than half of SCA facilities are in value-based arrangements and we expect that number to grow, quickly. Having the right value levers and paths to risk arrangements are crucial attributes for ASCs.

Q: Where do you see the best opportunity for ASCs to take advantage of value-based care and build a sustainable foundation for future success?

TK: ASCs by nature are built to deliver high-quality, lower-cost surgical care. Inherently, they are optimally positioned to be a part of value-based reimbursement. The challenge they have is ensuring the appropriate patients, right alignment with the risk-ed based entity, and appropriate contracting to monetize or benefit from the value they are creating.

Based on our experience at SCA, savings programs have been extremely well received because they align the interest of the payer and provider, ultimately delivering better care at a lower cost. It's a win-win and we've gotten very good at building these arrangements over the years.

Q: How do you see SCA growing over the next few years and what are you most excited about as CEO of the company?

TK: When SCA joined OptumCare in 2017, we were instantly connected to one of the largest physician networks in the country, many of which currently practice value-based care or are on their way.

As CEO, the potential for SCA's growth as part of OptumCare is very exciting. We expect to expand the number of SCA facilities significantly in the next five years. By aligning with OptumCare medical groups (39,000 physicians and growing), we have a compelling opportunity to meaningfully improve surgical care for millions of people.

At the same time, we must be thoughtful about our growth. We choose the right partners that we know of the potential to be successful with us, and in the right markets. As we unlock markets, we will invigorate independent physicians and we'll have even more tools for growth and relevance on a national basis. Our multi-payer approach is strong, and we can meaningfully engage in the value discussion.

Growth is exciting, especially when we know it directly translates to fewer infections, more convenient and comfortable care, and substantially lower cost. Im proud to be part of the movement to improve health care in America, one patient at a time.Panama City (Fla.) Surgery Center is closed until further notice due to the effects of Hurricane Michael, according to a statement on the center's website.

Here are three details:

1. The storm reportedly caused a power outage at the surgery center.

2. The surgery center will notify patients about resuming regular operations once power is restored.

3. Despite the closure, the facility plans to process payroll for employees the week of Oct. 15-19.Colorectal cancer screening rates increased when people had universal access to healthcare, according to a study published in Cancer.

Researchers examined CRC screening rates in an equal-access military health system to examine the impact of universal healthcare. They used Tricare claims data for 24,944 patients from 2007 to 2010 and followed the patients for four years to identify their first lower endoscopy or fecal occult blood test. About 69.2 percent of the patients were white, 20.3 percent were black, 4.9 percent were Asian and 5.6 percent were other races.

Here's what researchers found:

1. Fifty-four percent of the patients underwent screening. Of that subset, 83.7 percent received an endoscopy and 16.3 percent received a fecal occult blood test.

2. Black patients had higher screening rates (56.5 percent) and higher risk-adjusted odds of being screened.

3. Asian patients had a screening rate about equal to white patients.

4. Females, active-duty personnel and military officers were more likely to be screened.

Folasade P. May, MD, PhD, of University of California Los Angeles, told Cancer Network, "They found that black/white disparities seen in typical healthcare settings do not exist when there is universal healthcare. A universal healthcare system might be beneficial to increase utilization of preventive services like colorectal cancer screening and might help mitigate healthcare disparities that we currently see in screening."Dapper Holdings purchased 13.78 acres in Bossier City, La., and plans to build a 10-bed short-stay hospital and ASC on the property, KSLA News 12 reports.

Here's what you should know:

1. Bossier City sold the land for $1.4 million.

2. Dapper Holdings is constructing the facilities for an undisclosed tenant.

3. A boutique hotel and office space will be developed alongside the center.

4. City Attorney James Hill said while a medical facility wasn't what the city had in mind for the property, the development will allow them to rethink what's possible for the property.After Pauls Valley (Okla.) Hospital closed Oct. 12, about 130 people were out of jobs, and many of them said they have not received pay for weeks, according to KWTV.

The hospital's former employees said money taken out of their paychecks for taxes and benefits were never applied.

Maddy Williams, who worked as a nurse at the hospital for 38 years and is fighting cancer, said she is finding out the benefits she paid for do not exist.

"I just had my double mastectomy two weeks ago today. And about 10 days before my mastectomy, I found out that I no longer have any insurance," Ms. Williams told KWTV.

Pauls Valley was managed by several management companies over the years, but it is owned by the city.

City manager James Frizell said the city council was recently informed of the problems with payroll taxes and benefits.

"We are given financial reports. The hospital authority is given hospital reports, the insurance reports, all those to look for. To be honest with you I can't say that we would see that those were or were not being paid," Mr. Frizell said.

Frank Avignone, CEO of Alliance Health Partners, the interim hospital operator, said issues at the hospital have been ongoing.

"This has been going on for years folks," Mr. Avignone said. "And we've uncovered stuff since we've been here which is egregious at best."

When asked what the "stuff" was, Mr. Avignone said, "I can't talk too much about them because there are probably things that are going to lead to litigation."Arlington Heights, Ill.-based Amita Health, the joint operating company created through the merger of St. Louis-based Ascension and Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System subsidiaries, revealed plans to cut the number of outpatient care sites in half, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

Amita Health President and CEO Mark Frey confirmed Amita Health's plan to Crain's to consolidate the services offered at 250 outpatient facilities and medical offices to 125 ambulatory care locations. The transition will occur during the next two years.

The consolidation efforts are part of the system's $150 million ambulatory care expansion plan, which was announced last year, according to the report. A second Amita Health official told Crain's the cost of the plan may change, as Ascension added 170 care sites after acquiring Chicago-based Presence Health in March 2017.

The goal of the plan, officials said, was to update Amita Health's business model by bringing smaller facilities together under one roof. Mr. Frey pointed to some of Amita Health's physician practices, which typically include one or two physicians. That type of business model is not substantial, Mr. Frey told Crain's. Instead, officials aim to combine groups of six to nine physicians with specialists and ancillary services, he said.

Amita Health was formed through the merger of Ascension's Alexian Brothers Health System in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Adventist Health System's Adventist Midwest Health in Hinsdale, Ill., in 2015.

To access the full report, click here.

Editor's note: Becker's Hospital Review reached out to Amita Health for comment and will update the report as more information becomes available.Massachusetts lawmakers are preparing to tackle healthcare again after they failed to agree on a bill in July, according to a report from State House News Service published on MassLive.com.

The state House and Senate have worked on legislation to provide financial stability for community hospitals and contain healthcare costs.

The state House on June 19 approved a bill that raised funds for community hospitals by imposing $247.5 million in assessments on insurers and $90 million on large hospitals. The bill also included new assessments on urgent care centers, retail clinics and surgery centers.

In the state Senate, lawmakers passed a bill last November that called for a "rate floor" for insurer payments to hospitals at a minimum of 90 percent of the average service price, according to The Boston Globe.

This week, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said that "no one is more disappointed than am I" that both chambers did not agree on and pass a consensus bill, but he said the House's previous work on legislation will lay groundwork for the upcoming session, according to the report on MassLive.com.

"This coming legislative session, the House will try again," he said. "Despite our success at slowing spending growth, we know that patients are still forgoing care due to costs. Our community hospitals and our health centers are still struggling to survive."

Over the summer, Senate President Karen Spilka said the Senate would "regroup and start again" addressing healthcare issues, according to the report on MassLive.com.

"We look forward to doing this work next session," Ms. Spilka said this week.

The new legislative sessions are scheduled to begin in January.

Morgan Haefner contributed to this report.

More articles on healthcare finance:

Northwell Health seeks to raise $530M for capital improvements, initiatives

New Jersey hospital to pay $550K annually to city after challenge of tax-exempt status

Hospitals slow in cost-cutting efforts, survey findsThe country of Qatar provided Texas with $30 million to be used toward Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Now, part of the funding will be used to reopen Houston-based Riverside General Hospital, which closed in 2015, according to Houston Public Media.

Of the $30 million in funding, $2.5 million will go toward Riverside General Hospital's reopening; another $2.5 million will go to the city of Houston; and $5 million will be deposited into the Rebuild Texas Fund. The remaining $20 million will go toward projects that have yet to be finalized, according to the report.

Riverside General Hospital closed in 2015 after a financial scandal. Harris County purchased the hospital property earlier this year.

A county official told Houston Public Media the specifics of the plan have not been finalized, but the hospital will provide primary and mental healthcare services as part of the Houston-based Harris Health System, which is operated by the Harris County Hospital District.

The county official said the entire hospital reopening project will cost roughly $39 million and is expected to be completed within the next few years.

To access the full report, click here.William Hanson III, MD, chief medical information officer at Philadelphia-based UPenn Health System, discusses his top priorities as CMIO and the future of voice recognition.

Responses are lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: How has your role as CMIO evolved over the past two to three years? How have your responsibilities changed since you took on the role?

Dr. William Hanson: Where previously the work involved deciding upon and implementing an enterprise EMR, my team and I have been involved in EMR optimization and the workflows associated with its use in the clinical environment more recently. My work also includes a growing portfolio of mobile health, telemedicine and predictive analytics projects.

Q: What do you consider your No. 1 priority as CMIO? How do you ensure you're successful?

WH: Broadly said, my main priority is to ensure that our aggregate work in the digitization of medicine is focused on improving the care of our patients and the ability of our clinicians to do their work. To do this, I need to be engaged in a continuous feedback and modification loop with patients, providers and our IT team as we roll out new technologies, releases and expectations. Much of what we've done to date has been welcomed. However, we're also aware of concerns about provider burnout and a sense that clinicians are increasingly engaged in servicing the EMR at the expense of direct patient engagement and/or their own personal time.

Q: Which apps and technologies do you find most helpful, and which do you think will be passing fads?

WH: Mobile devices and apps that connect with core clinical applications and free clinicians from desktops, pagers and phones have become essential to efficient care and enthusiastically adopted by providers while also increasingly adopted by patients. We are engaging with our patients about participation in their own care with open notes, labs and radiology results and through condition-specific apps.

While I believe augmented reality may come to have a role in medical care, I am less convinced that virtual reality will do so.

Q: How do you feel about the use of voice recognition technology, such as Amazons Alexa and Google Assistant, in healthcare? Is there a place for its use within the EHR?

WH: While Alexa, [Apple's] Siri and Google Assistant dont yet have real, scalable applications in healthcare, I think voice recognition, when paired with artificial intelligence, may soon become a common background technology during clinical encounters, acting as a scribe, clinical documentation assistant and potentially, a decision support tool.

To learn more about clinical informatics and health IT, register for the Becker's Hospital Review 2nd Annual Health IT + Clinical Leadership Conference May 2-4, 2019 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register.

To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Jackie Drees at jdrees@beckershealthcare.com.Lauren Koniaris, MD, chief medical informatics officer of the Northern Region at Hackensack (N.J.) Meridian Health, discusses her changing CMIO role and her team's focus for 2019.

Responses are lightly edited for clarity and length.

Question: How has your role as CMIO evolved over the past two to three years? How have your responsibilities changed since you took on the role?

Dr. Lauren Koniaris: My job has changed tremendously in the last several years due to the creation of Hackensack Meridian Health, the largest, most comprehensive and integrated health network in New Jersey. I am now helping to oversee the Epic rollout at 16 hospitals, which covers eight counties in the state. To do this effectively, Hackensack Meridian Health will regionalize the CMIO position into three markets: North, Central and South. I very much look forward to our new structure and working with my new CMIO colleagues as they are hired and on-boarded.

Q: What is the biggest challenge you're facing as CMIO? What keeps you up at night?

LK: My biggest challenges are twofold. First, ensuring all clinical workflows and processes at each hospital division are accounted for and modified as needed to ensure safe and effective patient care as the EHR goes live at every hospital.

Second, and this is what keeps me up at night, is ensuring that as these workflows change the physicians across the network continue to receive all patient data, lab and radiology results, etc., for all the patients under their care. Accounting for all the ways in which physicians receive information and how that will change is critical and detail-oriented work for IT departments.

Q: Which apps and technologies do you find most helpful, and which do you think will be passing fads?

LK: I thoroughly embrace the move to mobility in all things related to health IT. I believe our patients want and will continue to demand smartphone, app-based technologies of all types in the coming years. Physicians, as well, are clamoring to be able to do more and more healthcare work utilizing app-based platforms, and I hope the EHR vendors will accelerate the availability to do this in a secure manner.

I think health system IT departments will also be involved more and more in creating in-house applications for their clinicians and patients. I think anything desktop-based will become less and less utilized as time goes on.

Q: What is the vision for your team in 2019? How will you approach your role and meeting your goals?

LK: 2019 is the year that the 'rubber will meet the road' for getting Epic live at all the hospitals in Hackensack Meridian Health. That will obviously be the primary focus for a majority of the IT team  both on the Epic side of the team as well as the associated infrastructure needs.

Our team's approach will be to stay on task and focused day-to-day on meeting all the milestones for this project. I am so excited that once this is completed at the end of the year, Hackensack Meridian Health will be positioned to leverage our EHR to positively impact healthcare throughout the state of New Jersey and beyond.

To learn more about clinical informatics and health IT, register for the Becker's Hospital Review 2nd Annual Health IT + Clinical Leadership Conference May 2-4, 2019 in Chicago. Click here to learn more and register.

To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Jackie Drees at jdrees@beckershealthcare.com.Albia, Iowa-based Monroe County Hospital and Clinics CEO Veronica Fuhs will serve as chief executive of Davis County Hospital in Bloomfield, Iowa, as well, the board of trustees of both facilities decided.

Here are five notes:

1. The two critical access hospitals signed a shared CEO service agreement. Both entities' governance will remain independent, however.

2. Ms. Fuhs has served as CEO of Monroe County Hospital since February 2015.

3. Under her leadership, Monroe County Hospital received a $589,000 Rural Health Care Services Outreach Program grant and began a $19 million construction project.

4. Ms. Fuhs earned her master's degree in healthcare administration from Des Moines (Iowa) University.

5. Both Monroe County Hospital and Davis County Hospital are affiliated with Clive, Iowa-based Mercy Health Network.Large technology companies in Silicon Valley often compete for talented hires with specialized skills in artificial intelligence or programming. Now, those companies are also competing for a new kind of talent: cardiologists.

Apple, Amazon and Alphabet  Google's parent company  have begun recruiting physicians and medical professionals to their teams as they move further into the healthcare space. Apple hired cardiologist Alexis Beatty, MD, in July as part of its health team; Amazon hired Maulik Majmudar, MD, also a cardiologist, one month later. Alphabet's life sciences company Verily hired cardiologist Jessica Mega, MD, as CMO three years ago.

While Drs. Beatty, Majmudar and Mega's backgrounds in cardiology may be a coincidence, their specialized knowledge of medicine, nutrition and exercise science bodes well for tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Alphabet that are more focused on creating wellness and fitness applications and products that track individuals' heart health. For example, Alphabet created its Google Fit device; Apple has a fitness tracker available in its Apple Watch, which also has an electrocardiogram monitor, among other health features; and Amazon has begun looking into health and wellness applications for its Alexa voice assistant.

Cardiology is also one of the most well-studied fields in medicine, meaning there is a plethora of evidence to understand cardiac conditions like heart disease, which is the No. 1 killer in the world, and strokes, which are also a leading cause of death. The extensive research available in the field is attractive to tech companies, which tend to base their development decisions on available data, the report states.

To access the full report, click here.A nurse is accusing Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital of hindering unionization efforts, according to a Baltimore Business Journal report.

Molly O'Connell, RN, MSN, BSN, an oncology nurse involved in unionization efforts, claims there is an "intense anti-union campaign" at the hospital, even after an unfair labor practice charge against Johns Hopkins.

Nurses filed the charge with the National Labor Relations Board in June, alleging the hospital hindered nurses' legal right to discuss organizing with National Nurses Organizing Committee, which is part of National Nurses United.

Ms. O'Connell told the Baltimore Business Journal the unfair labor practice charge is pending and claims "all the same problems" are still going on at the hospital.

Hospital officials told the publication: "We deeply respect our nurses, their contributions to our organization, and all of their rights as employees, including their right to support or oppose a union."

Johns Hopkins Hospital nurses began organizing efforts this year to address registered nurse turnover they attribute to staffing and pay issues.

For a vote on unionization to occur, most of the hospital's 3,200 nurses have to sign cards expressing their interest in such an election.

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Healthcare workers to deliver petitions to Kaiser Permanente executives over job outsourcing

University of California healthcare workers schedule strike

Nurses from 17 HCA hospitals reach tentative labor dealEDITORIAL: Turn Around, Dont Drown: East Texas motorists need to know how to respond to flooding, should it occurThe union representing public employees in Oklahoma will sue the state's health department over employees it says were wrongfully terminated, The Oklahoman reported.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association seeks $3 million to pay nearly 200 laid-off employees.

Sterling Zearley, executive director of the union, told The Oklahoman state agencies have certain guidelines to follow with layoffs, but the department laid off employees based on "false pretenses."

The health department laid off the workers amid what it said was a $30 million budget shortfall. But the state's multicounty grand jury said the department was not facing that shortfall, according to the report. The report states the department's finances had become complicated and unclear. Oklahoma Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones and Attorney General Mike Hunter told The Oklahoman the job cuts were not necessary to prevent defaulting on bills.

"That prompted us to say, 'Then you illegally terminated those employees because you didn't need to do that,'" Mr. Zearley told the publication.

The union's attorneys notified the state Sept. 28 of its plans to file a lawsuit. The notice of the claim stated employees lost earned benefits and pay because they were terminated, forced to resign or forced to retire early in December 2017 and last March, according to the Tulsa World. It alleges this all happened because of "negligent mismanagement and mishandling of state finances."

A health department spokesperson told media it regrets "the impact that the reduction-in-force had on our former employees."

"The agency had been in discussions with OPEA and their counsel, and there are still legal and financial questions that must be carefully reviewed surrounding the reduction in force," the health department spokesperson said.

The agency said it rehired some of the affected employees, but most went back to different jobs in the department, The Oklahoman reported.

"OSDH has also aggressively engaged in recalling classified positions that were vacated during the reduction in force," the health department spokesperson said. "We feel the strain on our service delivery around the state, primarily in county health departments, from this forced departure and have tried to expedite the recall process within the boundaries of current law."

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Healthcare workers to deliver petitions to Kaiser Permanente executives over job outsourcing

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Nurses from 17 HCA hospitals reach tentative labor dealTwo physicians in Dallas and three nurses were sentenced to prison Oct. 16 for their roles in an $11.3 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to the Department of Justice.

From 2007 through 2015, the healthcare providers submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare through a home health agency and physician house call company partly owned by two of the defendants, according to evidence presented at the trial.



Patience Okoroji, a vocational nurse and the part-time owner of Timely Home Health Services, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for submitting false claims to Medicare, according to the department. Kelly Robinett, MD, former part-owner and supervising physician at Frisco, Texas-based Boomer House Calls, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for certifying Medicare beneficiaries, even though he did not see them, for medically unnecessary services.



Two other nurses  Joy Ogwuegbu and Kingsley Nwanguma  were sentenced to three and a half years in prison for falsifying nursing assessments and nursing notes, the Justice Department said. Another physician involved in the scheme, Angel Claudio, MD, was sentenced to six months in prison.More than 600 physicians have stopped prescribing opioids altogether in North Carolina, according to a survey from the North Carolina Medical Board cited by North Carolina Health News.

For the survey, the North Carolina Medical Board surveyed 2,661 licensed physicians in the state to gauge how they are responding to the opioid epidemic.

More than half (58 percent) of respondents indicated their practices have been affected by the epidemic. Of these individuals, 43 percent  or about 663 physicians  said they stopped prescribing opioids.

In response to the survey findings, the medical board said it is "pro-appropriate care, not anti-opioids," according to the North Carolina Health News.

"Treat with opioids when it's appropriate," Jean Brinkley, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Medical Board, told the publication. "Prescribers should be thoughtful, and carefully documenting treatment and reasons. If it's appropriate, make sure the record is clear. That's the boards expectation."

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2 Advocate hospitals give naloxone kits to overdose patients upon dischargeFirst lady Melania Trump visited Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson Hospital Oct. 17 to speak at the National Convening on Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome hosted by HHS.

HHS created the conference to help launch a new initiatives to measure the long-term health outcomes and needs of infants suffering from NAS. HHS Secretary Alex Azar also attended the convening, along with leaders from Thomas Jefferson Hospital's Maternal Addiction, Treatment, Education and Research program. MATER has offered treatment programs designed to support mothers and infants since the 1970s.

After her speech, Ms. Trump toured the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit to learn how clinicians care for newborns suffering from opioid and drug withdrawal. She met mothers and babies born with NAS and spoke with NICU nursing staff.

"Thank you to the dedicated staff at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for all they are doing to help families affected by NAS," Ms. Trump said in a press release. "I enjoyed speaking with the mothers and staff of the MATER program. Programs like MATER are vital in helping mothers and babies have the best opportunities and care in order to overcome NAS. I  look forward to learning more about HHS's plans to develop and implement their new tracking system."

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48% of hospitals see patients with drug-seeking behavior daily, survey finds

Pennsylvania hospitals treat record 37K patients for opioid use disorder in 2017D.C. Council members unanimously approved an emergency bill that may keep the 283-bed Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C., open, according to The Washington Post.

St. Louis-based Ascension, the owner of Providence Hospital, announced last month it would close the facility by December. While most services will end, the Catholic healthcare network said it would keep open a skilled nursing facility and primary care clinic. The move caused widespread concern since the hospital is in an area plagued by disparities in healthcare access and outcomes.

The bill, written by council member and health committee chairman Vincent Gray, would give D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's administration the power to force the hospital to stay open. The legislation doesn't ensure the hospital will remain open, since the administration may choose not to exercise the authority the bill grants it.

"The council of the District of Columbia, all 13 members sent a powerful message today that yes, the Department of Health has the authority to make the decision not to approve the closing. Obviously, we are urging to do just that," said Mr. Gray, according to a WJLA news report.

It is unclear if Ms. Bowser will sign the bill into law.Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana signed a definitive agreement Oct. 17 to acquire majority ownership of regional Vantage Health Plan for an undisclosed amount.

Pending approval from Vantage shareholders and regulators, BCBS of Louisiana will absorb Vantage's 45,000-plus members and contracts with more than 15,000 providers.

Gary Jones, MD, CEO of Vantage, said the transaction will help Vantage move into markets outside of Louisiana, and could allow the health plan to create more jobs.



Should the deal close, Vantage would be run as a separate entity and will retain its management team. BCBS of Louisiana and Vantage would also keep their brands.



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Mississippi health system blames Humana split on improper denialsInsys Therapeutics used several tactics to fuel sales of the common opioid fentanyl, including an aggressive speaker program and compensation incentives tied to dosage strength, according to a report released by U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

To compile the report, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reviewed more than 1 million internal documents from Insys, provided at the request of Ms. McCaskill.

The report, "Fueling an Epidemic: Inside the Insys Strategy for Boosting Fentanyl Sales," details how Insys' internal policies boosted the strength and volume of prescriptions for its fentanyl drug Subsys.

Insys reportedly u paid physicians to promote Subsys to their peers and rewarded sales representatives for pushing providers to write patients high-dosage prescriptions.

The report detailed several other marketing practices used by the drugmaker to push opioid sales, including punishing sales representatives who failed to generate enough prescriptions.

Company executives continuously reminded sales representatives that strong Subsys dosages yielded higher bonus payouts. And they emphasized the importance of "owning" a physician, or monitoring and controlling a physician's prescribing behavior, the report said.

An outside consultant firm found compliance issues with Insys' speaker program, including the absence of safety content and failure to disclose that the content was sponsored by the drugmaker. But despite knowing about the speaker program's deficiencies, the company still hosted the talks, according to the report.

"Insys took an 'anything goes' approach to push sales higher and distorted the doctor-patient relationship with outside compensation, just so pharmaceutical executives could line their pockets. Its disgusting," wrote Ms. McCaskill. "How does it serve the public interest to allow a pharmaceutical company to tie sales incentives to the dosage strength of a highly addictive and potentially deadly drug? Its unethical, its immoral, and it should be illegal."

Read the full report here.Ahead of planned layoffs next year, pharma giant Pfizer is offering buyouts to U.S. employees in the form of an early retirement program, according to CNBC.

While the drugmaker didn't disclose the number of people it plans to lay off, the company told employees in a memo that all business units will likely lay off nonunion workers.

"As we prepare for growth we are creating a simpler more efficient structure which will affect some managerial roles and responsibilities. We are offering enhancements to certain benefits to lessen this effect," Pfizer spokesperson Sally Beatty told CNBC.

In July, Pfizer announced plans to reorganize into three units: a science-based innovative medicines business; an off-patent branded and generic established medicines business; and a consumer health business. The layoffs are part of this restructuring.

Employees eligible for the early retirement program must be at least 55 years old and have at least 10 years of service at the company. The program will offer severance packages that pay a base salary of 12 weeks, plus three weeks of salary for each year the employee worked with Pfizer, capping at 104 weeks.

Employees that volunteer for the buyout can take any vested equity with them and will have health insurance and other benefits for up to three years.

Employees have until Nov. 2 to opt into the early retirement program. Their last day at the company would be Dec. 31.Becker's Hospital Review compiled a list of recent infection control stories in honor of International Infection Prevention Week, which runs from Oct. 14-20.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology spearheads the annual event, which was created by former President Ronald Reagan in 1986. This year's theme for the week is "Protecting Patients Everywhere."

Here are seven infection control findings from the past month, beginning with the most recent:

1. Hospital linens may be source of C. diff outbreaks, study finds

Commercial laundering processes using industrial detergent and high disinfecting temperatures do not completely eliminate the presence of Clostridium difficilebacteria on hospital sheets, according to a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

2. Stanford scientists use bioinformatics to trace hospital-acquired bloodstream infections to patients' digestive tracts

Researchers at Stanford (Calif.) University found hospital-acquired bloodstream infections are often caused by a patient's digestive tract, according to a small study published by Nature Medicine.

3. WHO-based intervention increases hand hygiene compliance to 80%+

A study published in the Journal of Hospital Infectionexamined the effect and sustainability of a multimodal improvement program for hand hygiene based on the World Health Organization strategy.

4. Hand sanitizer more successful than soap, water for preventing respiratory infections in kids, study finds

Kids who clean their hands using hand sanitizer instead of traditional soap and water contract fewer respiratory infections, miss fewer school days and receive less antibiotics, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

5. Therapy dogs may spread MRSA to pediatric patients, Johns Hopkins study finds

Therapy dogs may serve as a mechanical vector for hospital-associated infections, according to research from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine presented at ID Week 2018 in San Francisco.

6. Hospital sink traps may harbor antibiotic-resistant bacteria, study finds

Sink traps may pose as hidden reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

7. Hospital privacy curtains are breeding MRSA, study finds

Privacy curtains in hospitals can pose a threat to patient safety, with high percentages of curtains testing positive for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control found.

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Video monitoring linked to better TB treatment adherence, researchers findCommercial laundering processes using industrial detergent and high disinfecting temperatures do not completely eliminate the presence of Clostridium difficile bacteria on hospital sheets, according to a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

For the study, researchers assessed bacterial contamination before and after washing sheets naturally or artificially contaminated with C. difficile spores. In one washing process, researchers inoculated cotton sheets with C. difficile spores and washed them with sterile uncontaminated pieces of fabric using an industrial bleach detergent in a simulated washing extractor cycle.

Researchers also assessed spore survival on naturally contaminated bedsheets from C. difficile patients using the United Kingdom National Health System's healthcare laundry decontamination process. The sheets were washed with industrial detergent at a high disinfecting temperature in a commercial washer before being pressed and dried.

Neither washing process eliminated the presence of pathogenic bacteria. The U.K.'s commercial laundry process only reduced C. difficile spore counts by 40 percent.

Researchers concluded current thermal disinfection standards for hospital sheets do not adequately remove C. difficile spores. They said hospital linens could be a source of sporadic C. difficile outbreaks at healthcare facilities.

"The findings of this study may explain some sporadic outbreaks of C. difficile infections in hospitals from unknown sources, however, further research is required in order to establish the true burden of hospital bedsheets in such outbreaks," lead author Katie Laird, PhD, head of the Infectious Disease Research Group, School of Pharmacy, at De Montfort University in the U.K., told Science Daily. "Future research will assess the parameters required to remove C. difficile spores from textiles during the laundry process."

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Congo reports 24 Ebola deaths in 1 weekLunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nevada, urged physicians from Reno-based Loannis A. Lougaris VA Medical Center to use an experimental addiction and post-traumatic stress treatment from a company linked to one of his senior aids, according to ProPublica.

The experimental treatment method, which relies on electromagnetic brain stimulation, comes from a company called CereCare. The treatment is considered off-label, which means it uses FDA-approved equipment in an unapproved way.

Mr. Heller met with several VA officials and leaders from CereCare last December, since a senior aid in his office had a business connection to the company's leaders. However, the aid said she never had any financial stakes in the company.

The group discussed four veteran patients with mental health problems that could receive the experimental treatment as part of a pilot program, according to ProPublica. Mr. Heller also co-sponsored a bill for the VA to start a pilot program using CereCare's procedure, although no such program ever took shape.

Mr. Heller did not answer ProPublica's questions about the meeting, but issued a statement saying he "will never apologize for supporting policies that could lead to additional treatment options for Nevada veterans because no one who has served this country should be waiting for care once they return from combat."

The Trump administration encourages the VA to use more alternative treatments for veterans with mental health issues. However many physicians and mental health experts discourage the use of using treatment methods that are not scientifically demonstrated to be safe or effective.

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WHO: Congo's Ebola outbreak not international emergencyAngel Goss, a 38-year-old lupus patient in Ohio, learned she would receive a new kidney the week of Oct. 8-12. However, the plane transporting the organ donation from the Carolinas was grounded when Hurricane Michael hit, according to Fox19 Now.

By the time Hurricane Michael passed, the kidney meant for Ms. Goss was no longer viable. Ms. Goss has been on the transplant waiting list at Columbus-based Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Cincinnati-based Christ Hospital since 2011.

"I was upset. I was mad at the world, but I know it's not anyone's fault," Ms. Goss told Fox19 Now.

Ms. Goss is back on the transplant waiting list and still receiving dialysis three times a week. Physicians told her that she is only a match to 2 percent of people in the United States.

"Because of all the blood transfusions, it changed the antibodies in my body," Ms. Goss told Fox19.

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Congo reports 24 Ebola deaths in 1 weekNurses at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and Hahnemann University Hospitals, both in Philadelphia, want patient limits to be written into their union contract, which expires at the end of November, according to KYW Newsradio.

Nurses at both hospitals said they see anywhere from five to six patients at once and cannot give patients all the time and attention they deserve.

"Optimal care. That's the idea here," Maria Plano, RN, a pediatric nurse at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, told KYW Newsradio. "I can give you care, but it might not be the best care because I have too many patients. I'm juggling too much."

Ms. Plano also said the limits are a matter of patient safety.

"If you're running from room to room, you know, you're not able to do the check and the care like you're taught, like you're supposed to," she told KYW Newsradio.

El Segundo, Calif.-based American Academic Health System, which owns both hospitals, shared the following statement with Becker's Hospital Review:

"American Academic Health Systems first and foremost priority is the health and well-being of all patients who come to us for care. Driven by our commitment to providing high-quality and safe care, we staff to patient acuity levels. Since acquiring Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children earlier this year, American Academic Health System has been strategically reviewing operations to learn where improvements and enhancements need to be made. We encourage colleagues to bring forward issues and concerns to hospital and system leadership. The focus is to enact positive changes that will improve employee morale and patient satisfaction to the communities that we serve."

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Maryland medical center seeks 20 healthcare workersTobias Mattei, MD, a neurospine surgeon with SLUCare Physician Group based in St. Louis, has a practice focused on complex spine surgery as well as artificial disc replacement.

He is an assistant professor and chief of spine surgery in the department of neurosurgery at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Dr. Mattei was recently named to the inaugural "20 Under 40" list by the North American Spine Society's publication, SpineLine.

Here, Dr. Mattei examines the key factors affecting his practice and where the best opportunity for growth is in the future.

Question: What are the biggest concerns for your practice today? What keeps you up at night?

Dr. Tobias Mattei: The mission of providing excellent care in complex spine surgery certainly involves many challenging aspects, ultimately requiring utmost dedication from the whole multidisciplinary team involved in the integrated care of such patients. Such efforts are not exclusively related to the technical aspect of performing complex spinal operations, but involve a constant strive for efficiency and cost-effectiveness at every step of the care of patients with spinal disorders, from the referral process to initial evaluation, ordering of ancillary tests, proper coordination of initial conservative care with other healthcare members such as physical therapists and pain management, timely processing of authorizations for tests and surgeries as well as postoperative rehabilitation and coordination of follow-up in a multidisciplinary fashion. The responsibility of playing a central leadership role in such a complex and integrated process unquestionably involves a significant amount of time as well as personal efforts and concerns.

Q: What are you most excited about in terms of technology advancement in the spine space? Where do you see the best opportunity for growth?

TM: The possibility of incorporating intraoperative imaging guidance to intraoperative CT scan and spinal robotics represents a major development toward improving surgical accuracy and precision, which are crucial technical aspects especially when considering complex spine surgeries for correction of spinal deformity. Additionally the development of a new generation of spinal implants, such as expandable cages and cages with improved bone-implant interface to enhance fusion, has opened a new avenue which is expected to enable better correction of severe spinal deformities through minimally invasive approaches.

Despite the exponential growth observed in the past few years, the technological landscape in spine surgery is still quite incipient and the next decades will definitely witness even greater innovations, such as the possible incorporation of micro-electro-mechanical sensoring devices to current spinal implants in order to provide live feedback regarding the biomechanical status of that specific spinal segment.

Q: Where do you see your practice growing or evolving in the next 5 years? What is the next step or evolution in your career?

TM: As the tertiary reference center of SSM Health and with an expressive referral basis spanning both Missouri as well as a large portion of the state of Illinois, the spine division of the department of neurosurgery at Saint Louis University has the potential of becoming a major national reference center in complex spine surgery for a broad spectrum of pathologies from traumatic spinal injuries to spinal deformity as well as primary and metastatic spinal tumors.

The building of a new hospital  a $550 million project which is expected to inaugurate in 2020  represents a crucial milestone in the development of our level I trauma center which will include state-of-the-art technology in spine surgery, such as the already in use O-Arm technology integrated with spinal navigation as well as spinal robotics. From the scientific standpoint, the Walter E. Dandy Society, an international academic entity focused on collaborative educational efforts in the field of neurosurgery and which has its headquarters at Saint Louis University, is expected to be launching a new scientific periodical 'The Walter E. Dandy Archives of Neurosurgery' in the near future.

The prospect of leading such a journal which is expected to play a central role in the global neurosurgical scenario certainly represents a great and exciting personal challenge.

Learn more about the big trends in spine at the Becker's 17th Annual Future of Spine + Spine, Orthopedic & Pain Management-Driven ASC Conference in Chicago, June 13-15, 2019. Click here

To participate in future Becker's Q&As, contact Laura at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com.Regional airline Flybe has said it's business as usual at George Best Belfast City Airport, despite the group's shares plummeting by 39% after profit warnings.

The regional airline, which flies to 15 UK destinations from Belfast, saw shares fall by as much as 39% after it warned over full-year profits following a 29m hit from rising fuel costs, easing demand and the weak pound.

The low-cost UK carrier said it is now expecting to report losses of around 12m for the year to the end of March 2019, even with a 10m one-off boost to its accounts.

The airline, which recently celebrated 35 years at Belfast City Airport, says it can fly up to 90 flights a day from Belfast, where it has eight aircraft and employs 200 people.

The latest warning comes just six months after the last profit warning from the group, which suffered amid the Beast From The East snow and freezing weather disruption earlier in the year.

As well as an expected 29m impact from fuel costs and a fall in the value of sterling, Flybe said it was also seeing consumer demand weaken in domestic and near-continent markets in recent weeks. The airline also cautioned that this is set to continue into its second half.

A spokesperson for Flybe at George Best Belfast City Airport said: "Belfast is one of Flybe's main bases and they are fully committed to operations at the airport."

The overall gloomy outlook comes despite a solid first half for Flybe.

It expects to hold interim underlying pre-tax profits largely firm against the 9.4m posted a year earlier, despite cost increases of around 17m.

It also said revival efforts had helped boost its load factor, a measure of how well it fills its planes, by 7.2% to a record 86.6% over the quarter to the end of September.

Passenger revenue per seat lifted 6.8% as it reduced its flight capacity by 10%.

Christine Ourmieres-Widener, chief executive of Flybe, said: "We have made progress in driving our unit revenues across the summer season, but we are now seeing a softening in the market.

"We are reviewing further capacity and cost-saving measures, while continuing to focus on delivering our sustainable business improvement plan."

Ms Ourmieres-Widener said the group would ramp up efforts to make savings in the face of rising costs. She said: "Stronger cost discipline is starting to have a positive impact across the business, but we aim to do more in the coming months, particularly against the headwinds of currency and fuel costs.

"We continue to strengthen the underlying business and remain confident that our strategy will improve performance."

The company's shares rocketed in February when the Stobart Group said it was considering a bid for the company.

Stobart and Flybe already work together and have a franchise arrangement between the two groups' airlines.

However, Stobart walked away from its bid in March after the two firms failed to agree terms.Jonas Mallard of Stargime; Suzanne Wylie of Belfast City Council, and Rory McConnell at Artola House launch

The commercial property market will finish 2018 on an upbeat note despite Brexit fears and the lack of an Executive hitting investment prices, according to research.

Commercial property agent CBRE's market update for the third quarter said there had been "solid progress" although political uncertainties in the background remain a concern.

There have been a number of major investment sales in recent months, including disposals of the Metro Building and Obel 68 - leading to a total spend of 122.2m.

And retail assets are also hitting the market, including Crescent Link Retail Park in Londonderry, which has an asking price of 40m, and Bow Street Mall is 18.5m.

And Canadian coffee and doughnuts giant Tim Horton's is due to open a drive-thru in Belfast's Connswater Shopping Centre, its second store in the city.

Brian Lavery, managing director, of CBRE Northern Ireland said: "Lack of local government and Brexit are impacting upon pricing, but it is clear that investor appetite in Northern Ireland remains encouraging from both locals and new institutional entrants."

Meanwhile, a Grade A office development on Belfast's Victoria Street has been launched after a revamp. Artola House dates back to the 1870s and once served as a linen warehouse.

It has been refurbished by owners Stargime Group, based in Paris.

The five-storey building was acquired in 2014 by McConnell Chartered Surveyors on behalf of Stargime Group.Northern Ireland surveyors are the least optimistic in the UK due to falling public sector workloads and a growing skills shortage, according to a survey today.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said public sector and infrastructure building work were in sharp decline as a lack of government paralyses decision-making.

Their research, which is carried out with law firm Tughans, found there were also concerns over the effects of Brexit on the industry.

However, growth in projects to build houses was resulting in a skills shortage as builders were occupied in building homes.

That growth in private house building, along with a rise in commercial work, led to overall growth in workloads in the third quarter.

And as well as a shortage of builders and other so-called blue collar workers, there were also shortages of quantity surveyors and other construction professionals.

Looking ahead, Northern Ireland respondents were the least optimistic in the UK about what the next year might hold when it comes to both workloads and employment.

RICS Northern Ireland construction spokesman Jim Sammon said: "While it is encouraging that we are seeing rises in the private housing, private commercial sector and public housing sub-sectors, the picture across other areas, particularly infrastructure, continues to cause concern.

"The fact that infrastructure and public non-housing workloads are in decline gives an indication of the impact the lack of decision-making in government is having on the ground.

"It is perhaps unsurprising that surveyors here feel a lack of optimism around workloads compared with the rest of the UK.

"In addition to being worried about the pipeline of public infrastructure work, the confidence of local surveyors is being impacted by the ongoing noise around Brexit."

Michael McCord, head of construction at Tughans, said: "In some respects, it appears that there is a two-tier construction market at present, with some private sector activity forging ahead, while surveyors report declines in infrastructure and other publicly-funded activity. When we look at the cranes in the skyline around Belfast city centre and the number of houses being built across Northern Ireland, it's not hard to understand the rises in private commercial activity and housebuilding in the last quarter."

But the infrastructure picture was "much less optimistic" he said.

That is a finding which was backed up by the latest construction bulletin from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Last week's bulletin pointed to a further fall in new public projects, "effectively meaning that new infrastructure work has flatlined", Mr McCord said. Overall, the volume of work in the second quarter was up by 6.2% compared to the first quarter of 2018.A hub for tech businesses on the site of the former Mackie's factory in west Belfast is marking the creation of 200 jobs.

The business centre on the Springfield Road opened in October 2016 with the aim of encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, and helping new high-tech businesses to grow.

Now the Innovation Factory has said its 70 businesses have created 200 jobs in areas such as 5G technology, software development, film production and digital applications.

Majella Barkley, innovation director, said: "The key to the success of Innovation Factory has been flexibility and support - modern businesses need to be able to change and adapt their environment rapidly.

"We work closely with them to ensure they have all the tools they need to thrive.

"We have exceeded our target in the first two years and have helped boost the economy in this part of Belfast by being at the forefront of new ideas and technologies. We look forward to this trend continuing as more and more start-up companies see the benefits of locating in a vibrant business hub in the west of the city," she added.

Innovation Factory is owned by Belfast City Council and operated by Oxford Innovation.

The 9.1m business hub was funded by the council and Invest NI, with support from the European Regional Development Fund.

Ninety-six per cent of its procurement deals are spent in Belfast, and it has developed relationships with other west Belfast businesses.Pictured at the launch, from left, Artemis Technologies Chief Executive, double Olympic gold medalist Iain Percy OBE, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Belfast Harbour CEO Joe ONeill and Mark Gillan, Head of Innovation, Artemis Technologies.

Commercial shipbuilding is set to return to Belfast Harbour with Artemis Technologies establishing a new facility in the area, creating 35 jobs.

The company led by double Olympic gold medalist, Iain Percy OBE, will use its expertise of world yacht racing to develop new green maritime technologies and build an Autonomous Sailing Vessel (ASV).

The ASV will be a zero-emissions 45 metre catamaran, that will require no fossil fuels, offer unlimited range, and has the potential to travel at 50 knots, with a cruising speed of 30 knots in any condition.

The company has received the backing and collaborative support from stakeholders including Belfast City Council, Belfast Harbour, Stena Line, Bombardier, Harland and Wolff, Queens University, Ulster University, Belfast Met, NIACE, Creative Composites and Catalyst Inc; and is the lead applicant on a UK Research and Innovation, Strength in Places funding call.

So inspirational to attend the launch of Artemis Technology in Belfast this morning. Such an exciting vision for the future and 35 new jobs to start with. pic.twitter.com/RvYcyqOZlG  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) October 18, 2018

Artemis Technologies, Chief Executive, Iain Percy OBE, a veteran of four Americas Cup challenges, most recently as Team Manager and Tactician of Artemis Racing says the company has a clear vision: We aim to lead in the decarbonisation of the maritime industry by building on our Americas Cup heritage and expertise in hydrofoils, wing sails and control systems to develop and manufacture green-powered commercial vessels, helping to ensure a sustainable maritime future.

The ASV has a variety of applications including City to City passenger transportation and will be the first in a series of commercial maritime products developed by Artemis Technologies in Belfast using the wind and innovative energy recovery systems.

Through collaboration, research and innovation we plan to utilise Belfasts rich maritime history and the regions world-class expertise in aerospace and composite engineering to create the UKs most advanced maritime manufacturing facility.

The Artemis Technologies team already consists of experts from the fields of motor sport, aerospace, yacht design, simulation, electronics and aerodynamics. We plan to share our expertise with Northern Ireland and work in collaboration with stakeholders to grow this sector by delivering innovative yet sustainable maritime products.

At todays launch in the historic offices of Belfast Harbour, with Artemis Racings AC45f Americas Cup yacht moored in the channel outside, Iain Percy set the context and outlined the plans for Artemis Technologies. He said: Under a new international agreement, issued by the International Maritime Organisation, the global maritime sector has committed to cutting emissions by at least half by 2050.

We believe, given our expertise and the strength of the skills base here in Northern Ireland, that we can position the region at the forefront of helping deliver these targets, by developing new green innovations to assist in the decarbonisation of maritime.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, said the company had lofty ambitions.

I am delighted to attend the launch of Artemis Technologies in Belfast Harbour and support their ambition to research and develop a zero-emissions shipbuilding facility," she said.

"Its fantastic news that the company has chosen Belfast to build a 45 metre passenger vessel using a design based on the America's Cup catamaran yacht. To begin there will be 35 high-skilled jobs created but a clear ambition to expand rapidly.

"Building on Belfasts rich history of shipbuilding and combined with our current world-class expertise in technology and engineering, Artemis will collaborate with local universities and the aerospace sector to help kick-start a modern, shipbuilding resurgence in the city.

"This is brilliant news for Belfast and another example of a world-class company choosing Northern Ireland as the best place to invest, innovate and grow a world-class workforce."The Taoiseach has said that the key issue of agreeing the backstop deal is not only an issue of substance, but an issue of trust.

Leo Varadkar reiterated the Republics position on the backstop, which he said must be legally operable and would prevent a hard border emerging between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels.

Both leaders spoke by telephone earlier this week. However, there were no indications they are closer to resolving the outstanding Irish border issue.

Mr Varadkar said that he welcomes fresh thinking, but added that time is running out.

We have always been abundantly clear about what our objectives are and they have been the same since the referendum happened, and that is there should be a withdrawal agreement that allows us for an orderly exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, he added.

The Taoiseach travelled to Brussels yesterday ahead of a working dinner with the leaders of EU 27 in which they will discuss the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Speaking about the Irish border issue, Mr Varadkar added: We cant have an expiry date, it can only be temporary unless and until we have an alternative agreement that also ensures us that there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland.

Thats what we agreed in writing with the European Union and the United Kingdom back in March so this is not just an issue of substance, its also an issue of trust.

He also signalled his support for extending the UKs Brexit transition period, saying that he welcomed any proposal that would help bring about a solution.

Following reports that EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was open to pushing the implementation period back to end in December 2021, Mr Varadkar said that negotiating a new economic and security relationship between the EU and the UK within two years would be a real challenge.

Certainly were willing to listen to any proposals that might help to bring us to a solution.

I really need to say though that any extension to the transition period couldnt be a substitute to the backstop, it would still need to have that.

And perhaps that would give people greater confidence that it would never need to be invoked.

Last week, Irish opposition leader Micheal Martin wrote to Mr Varadkar suggesting they commit to maintaining the government in the current form until a Brexit deal is ratified.

He wants his party Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to commit to no election before Brexit is ratified by Westminster on January 21.

Mr Varadkar, however, said he had a difficulty with the suggestion, adding that no Irish government should ever fall on the basis of a vote that happens in the British parliament or any foreign parliament.The rally will take place at Belfast City Hall.

A major anti-Brexit rally is taking place in Belfast on Saturday.

People from across Northern Ireland are expected to gather at Belfast City Hall at 3pm for the 'Rally for Remain' to show their opposition to Brexit.

Read More

It will take place at the same time as a similar rally in London to demand a People's Vote on the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

The People's Vote campaign is calling for a public vote on any final Brexit deal.

The Belfast rally is being organised by Alliance Party Executive Member Sorcha Eastwood and SDLP activist Seamas de Faoite.

"The creation of new barriers and borders threatens 20 years of progress and will undermine efforts to build a united community here," the organisers said in a satement.

"We are calling on people to step up and make it clear to Governments in London, Dublin and Brussels and across Europe that the views of the people of Northern Ireland are not represented by those who seek hard borders or a hard Brexit."

Mrs Eastwood said the rally would be an opportunity for people to express their feelings on Brexit.

"Northern Ireland voted to remain- opposition to Brexit here is cross-community; this is a chance for people to have their voice heard and to send a message as a united community: that they want an internationalist, positive future within the European Union," Mrs Eastwood said.

Mr de Faoite said that Brexit would pose challenges to everyone across the UK.

Expand Close Sorcha Eastwood of the Alliance Party / Facebook

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Whatsapp Sorcha Eastwood of the Alliance Party

"Brexit represents the single greatest challenge to face this generation. Whether your aspirations lie within a United Kingdom or a United Ireland, Brexit is bad for everyone on these islands," he said.

"The value of the totality of the East-West, North-South and internal Northern Ireland relationships are worth protecting. 20 years ago we recognised that through the Good Friday Agreement."Police in Londonderry have hit out at the "complete morons" who lit a fire next to an oil tanker / Credit: PSNI

A property in Londonderry has narrowly avoided a major disaster after "some complete morons" lit a fire next to an oil tanker.

It happened in the Ballyarnett area of the city, at a house in Bracken Park.

The fire was set on Tuesday evening at around 8.30pm with two fires lit next to the domestic oil tanker.

Writing on Facebook, a spokesperson for PSNI Foyle appealed for any witnesses to the fire to come forward.

"Message to young people: look at how close that fire came to the oil tank! Youre hanging out in a group, youre trying to be cool, throw in a little peer pressure and youre setting fires," the spokesperson wrote.

"If that oil tank explodes - maybe the whole house goes up - maybe people inside.

"Is it honestly worth potentially killing an entire family and spending the rest of your life in prison for a laugh and a kick? You think the people who egged you on will come visit you in prison? Fat chance."

The fire is being investigated by members of the Ballyarnett Neighbourhood Team.

Anyone with information about the fire is asked to contact the PSNI on the non-emergency number 101, quoting the reference 1295 with the date 16/10/2018.

Alternatively the public can contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.A solicitor accused of making fraudulent legal aid claims has told a court of the unbearable pressure he has been under.

Damien McDaid denies eight counts of false accounting by submitting fraudulent claims to the Legal Services Agency between July 2010 and January 2012.

McDaid (44), from Templegrove in the Buncrana Road area of Londonderry, is alleged to have fraudulently claimed in the region of 10,000.

The jurors at Derry Crown Court sitting in Coleraine were earlier told that the Legal Services Agency withheld almost 200,000 of payments from the defendant over a six-year period.

Questioned by his barrister, Brian McCartney QC, the defendant said he set up his sole practice in October 2007 and initially worked long hours. He described his early work routine as madness and did not realise that he was gradually burning out.

The defendant told the jury that in January 2012 he was informed he had been investigated by the agency, referred to the Law Society and police, and payments were suspended. He attended a Law Society disciplinary hearing in May 2013, then ordered to pay costs of 2,900 and told that he could no longer work as a sole practitioner.

Asked by Mr McCartney what personal impact these matters have had on him for the last five years, the defendant said the pressure was at times unbearable. He described it as overwhelming, humiliating, embarrassing and life-changing.

He said he constantly had sleepless nights, he no longer socialised and he had put on eight stones in weight.

The defendant became emotional when he told jurors that he opened his practice in October 2007, which was just two weeks after his brother had died. He said he did so to throw himself into his work in a bid to take his brother's death off his mind but struggled to cope with it.

The defendant said the legal aid forms at the centre of the case contained mistaken rather than intentionally misleading information. The trial continues.An alleged senior member of an organised crime gang distributing large amounts of drugs in Northern Ireland must remain in custody, a High Court judge ruled today.

Co Dongeal man Benjamin Quinn, 27, was refused bail amid claims he controlled and directed couriers involved in the illicit trade.

He faces charges linked to the seizure of 720,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis valued at 58,000.

The drugs were discovered in a car stopped in the Duncrue area of Belfast back in February 2017.

Prosecutors said it was the fifth of six interventions made as part of an ongoing investigation into the gang's activities.

Quinn, of Rossgier in Lifford, was arrested with a second man last month and charged with conspiracy to supply Class A and B drugs.

Crown lawyer Robin Steer claimed a forensic examination of telephone evidence connects Quinn to contact between suspects on behalf of the "principal" member of the gang.

"Police say this applicant is a senior member of an organised crime group distributing a large quantity of cocaine and cannabis in Northern Ireland," Mr Steer said.

"He's involved in the running of couriers."

Defence counsel stressed Quinn only faces charges connected to one specific drugs seizure.

He mounted a renewed bid to be released from custody based on the co-accused who was detained with him having since been granted bail.

That development, coupled with potential delays in the case, amounts to a change of circumstances, it was contended.

But Mr Justice Colton held there were no reasons to overturn previous refusals.

Denying bail once more, the judge pointed out: "The background here is that it's alleged this man is intimately involved in the significant supply of drugs."The scene of the shooting at an ice cream parlour on the Lisburn Road in 1988

The son of an RUC man who was gunned down in a Belfast ice cream parlour in 1988 has attacked a Police Ombudsman investigation report after it found no evidence that other officers colluded in the murder of their colleague.

Constable John Larmour was shot dead by the IRA in October 1988 at Barnam's on the Lisburn Road.

No one has ever been prosecuted for the murder, and a previous Ombudsman's report published in 2008 found the police investigation of the attack was "not thorough" and that "not all information had been passed to detectives".

Gavin Larmour, who was just 13 at the time of his father's murder, said he was left "bitterly disappointed and frustrated" that it had taken over 14 years since his initial complaint for the Ombudsman to tell him nothing different.

Mr Larmour had brought new information to the Police Ombudsman's office and separately made a range of allegations implicating RUC Special Branch officers and police informants in the killing.

The allegations made links to a series of other murders and terrorist incidents over a 17-year period.

Despite more than a decade of putting evidence together to present to the Ombudsman's office, Mr Larmour said he is no nearer to getting justice for his father.

"I have never had any truth or justice and this report doesn't change that at all," said Mr Larmour.

More than 40 witnesses, many of whom were retired police officers, were interviewed as part of the investigation, which also looked at case papers and forensic files and examined intelligence held by police.

Police Ombudsman Dr Michael Maguire said in the report: "We found no evidence to suggest that Special Branch, or any other element within the RUC aided, abetted, counselled or procured John Larmour's murder, nor that they could they have prevented it.

"Similarly, we found no evidence to support allegations that police failed to charge suspects in the murder or that they protected IRA members from being brought to justice."

The Police Ombudsman's office did establish that one of the weapons used to kill Constable Larmour was likely to have been originally owned by the RUC.

"PSNI records do not show to whom it was issued nor are they able to establish if it was ever lost or stolen," Dr Maguire said.

Mr Larmour, though, said he simply can't believe the history of the weapon was untraceable.

"We're talking about a police force who had a duty of care to the public over the handling of weapons. Surely they are keeping track of them?

"I'm left feeling like I've been pulling teeth for 10 years for nothing. This is simply a rehash of the previous Ombudsman report.

"It's extremely disappointing for me and my family.

"Looking at the report, my view is that it's a cynical exercise in getting rid of me. But people should know that the truth will come out in the end and this was a chance to tell it.

"It seems to have been all too easy to accept the official narrative. But I'm not going away."

Many of the allegations brought to the Ombudsman were underpinned by a belief that there was a fraught relationship between Special Branch and Constable Larmour, and as a consequence some of its officers became complicit in his murder.

The Police Ombudsman investigation found that "something of a fractious relationship almost certainly developed" between the two.

However, it found that the weight of evidence did not support an allegation that a charge of perverting the course of justice made against Constable Larmour was initiated by police in order to get rid of him from the force.

Nor did it substantiate an allegation that Constable Larmour intervened to stop a robbery being carried out by police informants, that the police then sought to protect from justice.

Police Ombudsman investigators also considered a complaint that Constable Larmour and colleagues were prevented from intervening in a terrorist attack in which an off-duty UDR soldier was killed.

They spoke to a number of the officer's colleagues.

The officers had little or no recollection of the incident and there was a general view that their unit would not have been tasked to such an incident.

It was alleged that Special Branch officers who had been secretly recording meetings in an IRA 'safe house' during a period between 1988 and 1989, had heard Constable Larmour's murder being planned but allowed it to go ahead.

It was further alleged that officers listened afterwards, heard a number of men discuss what happened, but rather than passing this information to detectives investigating the killing, used it to recruit one of these men as a police informant.

"This allegation was based on the existence of secret recordings in IRA 'safe houses'," said Dr Maguire.

"Police have told us they have insufficient records to establish if the covert listening and recording referred to took place."

Another allegation was made that a member of the public made admissions to police of his involvement in events leading up to the murder, but that the RUC ensured this was not investigated properly.

Police Ombudsman investigators uncovered evidence that this person had been receiving psychiatric treatment at the time he spoke to police, and that it was the DPP which decided it could not rely on the admissions he made.

The Police Ombudsman investigation found no evidence to support an allegation that the IRA murder of a retired police officer - whom it was alleged was going to provide a member of the Larmour family with sensitive information - was linked to the constable's murder.

Constable Larmour's brother George said he "never believed the Ombudsman would be allowed to find any evidence".

"I'm not surprised they say there are 'insufficient records' for the Ombudsman to investigate. In my view the truth will never be admitted and remain hidden," he said.

"This report is the meaningless document I always expected it would be.

"I already had no faith in the Historical Enquiries Team.

"That's why I wrote my own version of what I believe to be the truth in my book in 2016, They Killed The Ice Cream Man.

"And I stand by my version of what I believe to be the truth," he said.

"My brother was assassinated by the IRA in 1988 and I consider the report by the Police Ombudsman to be essentially a character assassination of my brother John."

Gun used in slaying 'belonged to Army'

Constable John Larmour (42) was off-duty and helping out at his brother's ice cream parlour in south Belfast when he was shot dead by the IRA in October 1988.

His son Gavin, who was just 13 years old at the time of the murder, believes it was not properly investigated to protect a high-level republican informer, and made a complaint to the Police Ombudsman.

An Ombudsman's report in 2008 found the initial police investigation of the attack was not thorough and that not all information had been passed to detectives.

Gavin claimed the gunman was recruited as a police agent after detectives presented him with evidence that would have led to his conviction for the killing.

One of the guns, a Browning 9mm, used in the attack on Barnam's World of Ice Cream on Belfast's Lisburn Road in October 1988, belonged to Corporal Derek Wood, who was murdered by the Provos alongside Corporal David Howes after they drove into the path of an IRA funeral in March 1988.

Their weapons were taken by the IRA during the attack.

The gun was later discovered in Germany, where it was believed to have been used in IRA operations on mainland Europe.

A second gun used in the attack was identical to a gun used by loyalist killer Michael Stone when he attacked the funeral of three IRA members shot by the SAS in Gibraltar.

George Larmour, brother of the victim, published his book They Killed The Ice Cream Man in 2016 about his quest for the truth.The sister of a young model who died suddenly has paid tribute to her "beautiful best friend", saying she is back in the arms of their late mother.

Mairead O'Neill (21), who was from the Markets area of Belfast and had worked for top local agency CMPR Models for five years, died on Monday.

Read More

Police have said that they are not treating her death as suspicious.

Mairead's death is the second tragedy to strike her family recently after her mother Karen Pelan passed away from bowel cancer 10 months ago.

Mairead's funeral will take place tomorrow.

A GoFundMe page set up by her late mother's friend Julie Rooney to cover the costs of the funeral had raised over 10,000 in just 24 hours.

Yesterday Mairead's grieving sibling Bronagh McIlvenny described her heartbreak at the loss.

In a social media post which was accompanied by a photo of her sister, she wrote: "Where to start?

"My stunning baby sister, my beautiful best friend, you're really gone. I tried so hard to be like mum, but I know I could never be the mum she was to you.

"She was one of a kind, and that's why you needed to be with her and back in her arms.

"Let her hold you tight and never let you go - I know she won't, because you were her baby girl, her life, and now she has you back.

"I love you so much Bows and please help me be strong.

"Love you now and forever and you finally sleep tight."

Bronagh's partner Jamie Scully said that he "didn't just lose a friend" but had "lost a sister".

He said: "It doesn't seem real. Mairead, I loved you to bits, and I know you're at peace now looking down on us.

"Just look out for your sister please. Rest in perfect peace."

Hazelwood Integrated College, where Mairead was a former pupil, extended its "sincere condolences" to her family.

Posting a picture of the Mairead in her school uniform, the school wrote: "We were saddened to learn of her passing on Monday night.

"Mairead will always be remembered fondly by us here in Hazelwood.

"May she rest in peace."

In addition to modelling at several Belfast Fashion Week events, Mairead had worked at a Carl Frampton fight at the SSE Arena and had founded her own make-up business, Mairead Leigha Make Up.

She had also been a former student of Belfast Met.

Meanwhile, Cathy Martin of CMPR Models revealed that the young woman's colleagues are planning to fundraise in tribute to her at a Belfast Fashion Week event tomorrow.

"The models have been talking and considering how to show their support," she said.

"We have had buckets from the Samaritans delivered to the office, and most, if not all, of the models in Friday's show are going to go out into the audience during the finale and collect.

"The support for the GoFundMe page shows the generosity of people at such a sad time.

"There has been a huge interest globally and people want to know what happened.

"Mental health issues can happen to anybody."

Mairead's funeral will take place at 1pm tomorrow at St Malachy's Church on Belfast's Alfred Street.

This will be followed by a service at Roselawn Crematorium at 3pm.

Her funeral notice states that her death is "deeply regretted by her loving family and friends".

To donate to the fundraising campaign to cover Mairead's funeral costs, visit: www.gofundme.com/maireads-funeralUsername: Password: or Register

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Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia Laserz

let there be light

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10-18-2018 06:22 PM



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Post: #1 After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

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One approach is finding all the facts, getting the facts out and holding the guilty responsible.



And then there is coming up with a story you can get away with.





Quote: Eric Trump on Thursday pushed back against criticism that President Trump may be friendlier to Saudi Arabia and Russia because of personal financial interests involving the two countries.



"There's zero investments in Russia. There's zero investments in Saudi. We have absolutely nothing to do with those countries," the younger Trump, who helps oversee the Trump Organization, asserted on "Fox & Friends."





https://thehill.com/homenews/administrat...udi-arabia

Anyone with internet access can find out this statement above, from Eric Trump is a lie.



Donald Trump registered eight companies during his presidential campaign that appear to be tied to hotel interests in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in The Washington Post.



Trump registered the companies in August 2015, shortly after launching his presidential bid, according to The Post.



The names of the companies registered appeared similar in pattern to how Trump named other companies connected to hotel deals registered in foreign cities, according to the Post. Trump names companies after cities in the state in which he is dealing with. Jiddah, also spelled Jeddah, is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, located on the Red Sea coast about 60 miles west of Mecca.



The Post reported that by the time of Trump's May financial filing, four of those companies in which Trump was the president or director were still active. Trump has in the past said he wants to protect the oil-rich Arab kingdom.



During a rally on August 21, the day Trump created four of those companies, he said he gets along well with Saudi Arabia.



https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-...udi-arabia







https://www.washingtonpost.com/ There are two approaches when dealing with a crime.One approach is finding all the facts, getting the facts out and holding the guilty responsible.And then there is coming up with a story you can get away with.Anyone with internet access can find out this statement above, from Eric Trump is a lie.Donald Trump registered eight companies during his presidential campaign that appear to be tied to hotel interests in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in The Washington Post.Trump registered the companies in August 2015, shortly after launching his presidential bid, according to The Post.The names of the companies registered appeared similar in pattern to how Trump named other companies connected to hotel deals registered in foreign cities, according to the Post. Trump names companies after cities in the state in which he is dealing with. Jiddah, also spelled Jeddah, is the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, located on the Red Sea coast about 60 miles west of Mecca.The Post reported that by the time of Trump's May financial filing, four of those companies in which Trump was the president or director were still active. Trump has in the past said he wants to protect the oil-rich Arab kingdom.During a rally on August 21, the day Trump created four of those companies, he said he gets along well with Saudi Arabia. (This post was last modified: 10-18-2018 06:22 PM by Laserz .) Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 447127

10-18-2018 06:23 PM



Posts: 41,089









Post: #2 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia





"I would want to protect Saudi Arabia," he said during the interview. "But Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically. They were making, before the oil went down ... they were making $1 billion a day.



https://thehill.com/homenews/administrat...udi-arabia In January of this year, Trump said on Fox News he "would want to protect Saudi Arabia."I would want to protect Saudi Arabia," he said during the interview. "But Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically. They were making, before the oil went down ... they were making $1 billion a day. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 468551

10-18-2018 06:25 PM











Post: #3 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

It's none of our business...unless they want to admit he was working for us... Laserz

let there be light

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10-18-2018 06:28 PM



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Post: #4 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia





https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-...udi-arabia The companies were registered under names such as THC Jeddah Hotel and DT Jeddah Technical Services, according to financial disclosure filings. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 444061

10-18-2018 06:31 PM











Post: #5 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

Like it matters.



This is a issue between Turkey and the Saudis.



It's none of our business and we should not be involved in any part of it.



We are supposed to be staying out of arguments and spats....remember?



That was kind of a big reason he was elected.



I don't know this journalist. I have no idea if he was really killed and neither does anyone else...Don't care. Maybe he should have minded his words better.



you and the other NPCs follow whatever bullshit the MSM pumps into your head if it suits your warped and twisted world views.



Let Turkey and the Saudis fight it out....mind your own f*cking business loNe-RPT

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10-18-2018 06:33 PM



Posts: 2,982









Post: #6 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

grin



.. he's designed to collude with us kitten . Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 447127

10-18-2018 06:35 PM



Posts: 41,089









Post: #7 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia





According to Trumps May 2016 financial disclosurewhich was not verified by regulators and therefore may not include all of his foreign deals or assetsTrump owned, had ownership interest in, or was a managing member of several companies potentially related to business in Saudi Arabia:



DT Jeddah Technical Services Advisor LLC, member, president

DT Jeddah Technical Services Advisor Member Corp., director, chairman, president

DT Jeddah Technical Services Manager LLC, member, president

DT Jeddah Technical Services Manager Member Corp., director, chairman, president

THC Jedda Hotel Advisor LLC, member, president

THC Jeddah Hotel Advisor Member Corp., director, chairman, president

THC Jeddah Hotel Manager LLC, member, president

THC Jeddah Hotel Manager Member Corp., director, chairman, president







According to The Washington Post, the Trump Organization, which created these companies as it prepared to build a luxury hotel in Saudi Arabia, canceled the corporations in December, suggesting at the time that the project was not moving forward. Even so, the Saudis clearly have many different avenues to pursue if they wish to enrich Trump and his family and essentially buy favorable policies.



The actions of the Saudis suggest that foreign governments believeand they have ample reason to do sothat spending money on Trump properties will encourage Trump to put their interests ahead of average Americans. Until and unless Trump and his family fully divest, American taxpayers will continue to face a situation in which wealthy Arab despots are in a position to purchase influence with the Trump administration, often to the detriment of U.S. citizens.



https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/...di-arabia/ Follow the paper trailAccording to Trumps May 2016 financial disclosurewhich was not verified by regulators and therefore may not include all of his foreign deals or assetsTrump owned, had ownership interest in, or was a managing member of several companies potentially related to business in Saudi Arabia:DT Jeddah Technical Services Advisor LLC, member, presidentDT Jeddah Technical Services Advisor Member Corp., director, chairman, presidentDT Jeddah Technical Services Manager LLC, member, presidentDT Jeddah Technical Services Manager Member Corp., director, chairman, presidentTHC Jedda Hotel Advisor LLC, member, presidentTHC Jeddah Hotel Advisor Member Corp., director, chairman, presidentTHC Jeddah Hotel Manager LLC, member, presidentTHC Jeddah Hotel Manager Member Corp., director, chairman, presidentAccording to The Washington Post, the Trump Organization, which created these companies as it prepared to build a luxury hotel in Saudi Arabia, canceled the corporations in December, suggesting at the time that the project was not moving forward. Even so, the Saudis clearly have many different avenues to pursue if they wish to enrich Trump and his family and essentially buy favorable policies.The actions of the Saudis suggest that foreign governments believeand they have ample reason to do sothat spending money on Trump properties will encourage Trump to put their interests ahead of average Americans. Until and unless Trump and his family fully divest, American taxpayers will continue to face a situation in which wealthy Arab despots are in a position to purchase influence with the Trump administration, often to the detriment of U.S. citizens. Laserz

let there be light

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10-18-2018 06:36 PM



Posts: 41,089









Post: #8 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 06:25 PM) shill team finally give up on the Russian collusion?





If you are calling me a shill you can knock off the ad hominem attacks.

LOP doesn't need the drama from posters like you. If you are calling me a shill you can knock off the ad hominem attacks.LOP doesn't need the drama from posters like you. LoP Guest

lop guest

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10-18-2018 06:46 PM











Post: #9 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 06:25 PM) shill team finally give up on the Russian collusion?





Don't you have some Tranny Alex Jones videos to be watching or something Don't you have some Tranny Alex Jones videos to be watching or something Isabella

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10-18-2018 07:00 PM



Posts: 27,066









Post: #10 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia





Saudi Arabia Wires U.S. $100 Million as Trump Proclaims M.B.S. Innocent



"Meanwhile, Turkish officials have unearthed even more grim details of journalist Jamal Khashoggis alleged murder."

by

Bess Levin

October 17, 2018 1:46 pm



"Over the summer, the Saudi Arabian government promised the Trump administration $100 million for the U.S.s efforts to stabilize parts of Syria liberated from the Islamic State , a coup for Donald Trump, who regularly complains about other countries not coughing up enough money on defense.



But despite the pledge, one official involved in Syria policy told The New York Times that it was unclear when, if ever, the money would actually materialize in American bank accounts.



But as luck would have it, just this past Tuesday, it didthe same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh to get some answers on the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and dissident who entered the kingdoms consulate in Turkey on October 2 and was never seen again.



Some people have dismissed the notion that the two events are connected The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, told the Times"



But others arent so convinced!"



more

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/...s-innocent Nuff said, eh?"Meanwhile, Turkish officials have unearthed even more grim details of journalist Jamal Khashoggis alleged murder."byBess LevinOctober 17, 2018 1:46 pm, a coup for Donald Trump, who regularly complains about other countries not coughing up enough money on defense.But despite the pledge, one official involved in Syria policy told The New York Times that it was unclear when, if ever, the money would actually materialize in American bank accounts.to get some answers on the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and dissident who entered the kingdoms consulate in Turkey on October 2 and was never seen again.The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, told the Times"more (This post was last modified: 10-18-2018 07:01 PM by Isabella .) LoP Guest

lop guest

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10-18-2018 07:04 PM











Post: #11 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

Problem with spoiling countries, and spoiling corporations, is that they become arrogant and greedy, just like little kids. Saudis have been spoiled by the US and the Brits, as much as these countries spoil corporations. Laserz

let there be light

User ID: 447127

10-18-2018 07:05 PM



Posts: 41,089









Post: #12 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

Isabella Wrote: (10-18-2018 07:00 PM) Nuff said, eh?



Saudi Arabia Wires U.S. $100 Million as Trump Proclaims M.B.S. Innocent



"Meanwhile, Turkish officials have unearthed even more grim details of journalist Jamal Khashoggis alleged murder."

by

Bess Levin

October 17, 2018 1:46 pm



"Over the summer, the Saudi Arabian government promised the Trump administration $100 million for the U.S.s efforts to stabilize parts of Syria liberated from the Islamic State , a coup for Donald Trump, who regularly complains about other countries not coughing up enough money on defense.



But despite the pledge, one official involved in Syria policy told The New York Times that it was unclear when, if ever, the money would actually materialize in American bank accounts.



But as luck would have it, just this past Tuesday, it didthe same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh to get some answers on the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist and dissident who entered the kingdoms consulate in Turkey on October 2 and was never seen again.



Some people have dismissed the notion that the two events are connected The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State, told the Times"



But others arent so convinced!"



more

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/...s-innocent

Thanks for posting this info.



Thanks for posting this info. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 450686

10-18-2018 07:10 PM











Post: #13 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 06:25 PM) shill team finally give up on the Russian collusion?





On to the next fake outrage. On to the next fake outrage. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 467376

10-18-2018 07:14 PM











Post: #14 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

He is protecting himself for what they did in Yemen. Strategos

Against Dystopia

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10-18-2018 07:15 PM



Posts: 9,878









Post: #15 RE: After not colluding with Russia, Trump is now not colluding with Saudi Arabia

Why does everyone avoid talking about Israeli collusion?



Because I could prove that a whole lot faster than Mueller ever could. Advertisement



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90 cats were used in scientific experiments across NI in 2017

102 dogs were used in scientific experiments across NI in 2017

A rise in animal testing in Northern Ireland has been slammed by an MLA, who said more that 60 were subjected to "painful and damaging" tests every day.

The Department of Health has released figures showing 24,166 live animals were used in experiments here for the first time in 2017 - nearly 3,000 more than the previous year.

Approximately half the animals were mice, a third cattle, 102 dogs - specifically beagles - and 90 cats.

Nearly 5,000 of the animals - mice and rats - were also bred specifically with genetic modifications.

Green Party MLA Steven Agnew has called on the department to explain the rise, and claimed thousands of the animals were often subject to painful and even deadly tests.

The report, Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Northern Ireland 2017, outlined the main purposes of the experiments.

These include: research into disease; testing drugs and foodstuffs; protection of the natural environment; preservation of the species; higher education or training for vocational skills, and forensic inquiries.

Two-thirds of tests were carried out in universities or medical schools. Government departments carried out a fifth of the procedures, 10% were done by non-profit organisations, and commercial organisations carried out 924 procedures.

The harm the tests cause to animals is also broken down into categories.

The highest level is 'severe', accounting for 2% of tests.

These usually involve long-term disease testing and can cause "a major departure from the animal's usual state of health and well-being" including "animals found dead unless an informed decision can be made that the animal did not suffer severely prior to death".

'Moderate' tests, accounting for nearly two-thirds of experiments, cause "a significant and easily detectable disturbance to an animal's state, but is not life threatening".

'Non-recovery' (1.4%) is when the entire procedure is carried out under general anaesthesia without recovery.

'Sub-threshold' (1.8%) and 'mild' procedures (57%) cause only minor and transitory discomfort.

The dogs and cats involved were only subjected to mild procedures, while over 6,000 mice underwent moderate or severe procedures.

Mr Agnew said more needed to be done to find alternatives to testing live animals.

"According to these stats, on average every day last year 66 animals were subject to often painful and damaging experiments," he said.

"These animals were subjected to procedures that are often painful, distressing and which cause long-term harm.

"Specifically, 8,000 procedures were described as moderate or severe which inflict pain, suffering and sometimes death upon the animal."

He added: "I'm disturbed at this rise. I want to know why we are using more animals in experiments rather than seeking alternative methods.

"I'll be writing to the permanent secretary for the Department of Health to ask how we can phase out the use of animals in these often painful and deadly experiments."

The report states The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 established "a rigorous system of controls" for scientific work on living animals.

This includes a requirement that projects and researchers are licensed as well as "stringent safeguards on animal pain and suffering" are in place and general requirements to ensure the care and welfare of animals.

This month personal care company Unilever, which owns skincare brand Dove, called for an international ban on animal testing on cosmetics.

The controversial practice has been banned in the European Union since 2013, but research from the group Cruelty Free International suggests 115 million animals are still being used around the world to test beauty products every year.

Humane Society International has said it hoped Unilever's stance would inspire other beauty brands to abandon animal testing completely.

In September the State of California announced it would ban all brands tested on animals by 2020.

The Department of Health, Queen's and Ulster University had not replied to requests for a response at the time of going to press.A lack of funding could see nearly 90,000 social homes fall into disrepair within two years, according to a letter written by a top-ranking civil servant (Joe Giddens/PA)

A lack of funding could see the start of the decommissioning of half of Northern Ireland's 86,500 social homes within two years, according to a letter written by a top-ranking civil servant.

Investigative website The Detail reports the Northern Ireland Housing Executive is preparing for "the longer-term decommissioning" of more than 43,000 properties from the start of next year if they are unable to cover a budgetary shortfall of 140m.

Permanent secretary of the Department for Communities Leo O'Reilly has outlined his fears for the decommissioning in a letter to DUP MLA Mervyn Storey.

The letter states the move will allow the Housing Executive to prioritise the maintenance of its remaining homes - but that such a move would place additional pressure on waitings lists and could increase homelessness.

As of March, there were 36,198 applicants on a waiting list for a home in Northern Ireland, with 24,148 being considered priority and 11,877 deemed to be homeless.

The letter from Mr O'Reilly also outlined a number of possible solutions, although these may be hamstrung by the absence of an Assembly.

The Housing Executive will start planning for this from the start of 2019," Mr O'Reilly writes in the letter.

"It will be a plan involving difficult decisions from the board of the Housing Executive as it seeks to prioritise the maintenance of part of its stock while planning for the longer-term decommissioning of the rest of its stock.

A spokesman for the Housing Executive told The Detail that withdrawing financial support for housing was a "worst case scenario", and options being explored would include the sale of homes to the private sector, the transfer to housing associations, or the demolition and development of the homes.

The Housing Executive, as would others, has also major concerns about the significant loss of stock and the detrimental impact on meeting increasing social housing need in Northern Ireland, the spokesman added.

Dessie Donnelly, from the human rights group Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR), said: We are concerned that this political choice to decommission public housing stock could lead to an explosion of housing waiting lists and an overall increase in homelessness.The scene after the Shankill bombing in October 1993

Twenty-five years ago, on October 23, 1993, two Provisional IRA bombers carried a bomb into a fish shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast.

The bomb exploded prematurely and nine innocent Protestants were murdered  the shop owner Desmond Frizzell; his daughter Sharon McBride; George and Gillian Williamson; Michael Morrison and his partner Evelyn Baird, as well as their daughter Michelle Baird, who was just seven years old; Leanne Murray, aged 13, and Wilma McKee.

Children were robbed of parents, grandparents were robbed of grandchildren and fathers and mothers were robbed of sons and daughters. The Shankill bomb brought death and grief, pain, tears and heartache and, 25 years later, there are still broken hearts and broken homes.

One of the IRA bombers, Thomas Begley, died in the explosion and afterwards he was buried with full IRA honours in the republican plot at Milltown. Then-Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams carried his coffin.

Describing that funeral, the book The Fight For Peace said: The crowds gave no inkling of believing that Begley had done anything wrong, apart from causing his own accidental death. That is a chilling observation.

The second IRA bomber, Sean Kelly, was badly injured but survived and, in January 1995, he was given nine life sentences.

The judge told him: This wanton slaughter of so many innocent people must rank as one of the most outrageous atrocities endured by the people of this province in the last quarter of a century.

Yet, in November 1995 Begley was commemorated with a parade through republican Ardoyne and, 20 years later, and just three days before the anniversary of the atrocity, a plaque commemorating Begley was unveiled in Ardoyne.

On the plaque Begley is described as Oglach Thomas Begley of the Belfast brigade, who died on active service.

There is also a quotation from Seamus Twomey, one of the founders of the Provisional IRA in 1969, and commander of the Belfast brigade when it launched its bombing campaign in Belfast, including Bloody Friday.

The quotation is: It takes courage and devotion to your people to take the hard road to freedom.

The implication is that the man who murdered nine people was a man of courage and devotion.

The event was organised by his former IRA comrades and the main speaker at the unveiling was the other Shankill bomber, Kelly.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds described the plaque as grotesque. However, Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly defended the decision to erect the memorial.

More recently the name of Begley appeared, along with the names of other IRA men, on a controversial memorial in Ardoyne.

The memorial was erected on land leased from the Housing Executive, and it was officially opened by Gerry Kelly.

There is a long tradition of terrorist bombing within Irish republicanism.

A botched republican prison escape in London in December 1867 resulted in the deaths of 12 innocent people and left 120 injured.

Irish republicans saw the terror that this created and the fact that, within days, Liberal leader W E Gladstone was proposing reforms in Ireland.

That led on to the republican dynamite campaign, which started in 1881.

The same tactic was adopted by the IRA before and during the Second World War when it launched a bombing campaign in Britain that resulted in the deaths of seven innocent civilians.

At that time the IRA was courting the Nazis. More recently, the strategy that was devised by the dynamiters in the 19th century was revived by the Provisional IRA and the Shankill bomb was part of that campaign.

Clerkenwell was 150 years ago, and surely a century-and-a-half of terrorist bombing is more than enough. That is why, instead of the defiant shout of Up the rebels and an annual Sinn Fein calendar of IRA commemorations, Mary Lou McDonald should face up to the truth that every IRA killing was murder and that murder is wrong, always wrong.

She often calls for politicians to show leadership.

Well, that would be real leadership.

There has been too much terror and too many tears.A survivor of clerical child sex abuse in Northern Ireland has said she felt interrogated during her benefits application.

Kate Walmsley has been left with a series of health complaints and lingering trauma caused by her childhood experience.

She met officials from the Social Security Agency in Belfast on Thursday to express concern over her treatment by staff during the transition to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefit.

She said: When I did go (for a benefits interview) I was ashamed, I felt interrogated, I just felt ashamed and looked down on.

With @SAVIA_NI campaigners after meeting @CommunitiesNI We called the meeting so DfC could hear directly from victims & survivors of institutional abuse about their retraumatization by the #PIP process. Was a positive meeting. Proof will be in the actions taken in response. pic.twitter.com/pX0BYt8M5c  Nichola Mallon (@NicholaMallon) October 18, 2018

A priest assaulted her while she was a child. By the time she was 12, he was having sex with her, she told a public inquiry.

She has waived her right to anonymity.

Ms Walmsley said she had post-traumatic stress disorder, bulimia and a series of other health problems.

She has tunnel vision, and when she worked in a shop she knocked the models down behind her.

Her PIP case is still being processed by the authorities.

On Thursday she explained to officials how upset the process made her.

I felt as if I was begging to live, for somebody who had her life taken from her, her childhood taken from her, her whole life in fact because I am still suffering because of it allKate Walmsley

She said it triggered feelings associated with when she was 15 and living in a derelict house in Londonderry and could not get benefits because she was too young.

She said: I used to have to wait until the evening until the people came out of the pubs and ask them for a shilling to get a bag of chips.

I was shoplifting because I had no money to clothe myself.

I felt as if I was begging to live, for somebody who had her life taken from her, her childhood taken from her, her whole life in fact because I am still suffering because of it all.

She was accompanied to the meeting by other abuse survivors and SDLP Assembly member Nichola Mallon, who said the PIP process had re-traumatised many victims.

This is a group in our society that is very vulnerable, who have been spectacularly failed by the state and suffered horrific abuse.

They need to be treated with greater compassion, decency and fairness and for many of them when it comes to the welfare system they are not, and that needs to change.

She added: We felt it was a positive meeting, we felt that the department (for Communities) listened, but the proof will be in what the department actually does and the measures it puts in place to better support this group of people.

A public inquiry led by retired judge Sir Anthony Hart recommended a care package be established for survivors.

His recommendations have not been acted upon because of the collapse of power-sharing.Northern Ireland fans are being warned to check their bank statements after a supporter who travelled to the recent match against Bosnia-Herzegovina discovered his card had been 'skimmed' by fraudsters.

Gary McAllister, spokesman for the Amalgamation of Official Northern Ireland Supporters' Clubs, tweeted the warning yesterday, in the wake of Northern Ireland's 2-0 loss in Sarajevo.

"Word of warning for fans who travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina - a Northern Ireland fan has contacted me to say that his card was skimmed at an ATM and a number of attempts have been made to use the card by the scammers. Check with your bank, if you have any concerns," he stated.A student who lost his leg during a cancer battle and had to learn to walk again is starting a technology degree in Belfast in a bid to help improve the lives of others.

Azhar Hussain was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of the disease that affects bones and the surrounding area, when he was just 17-years-old.

The 20-year-old, who grew up in Enniskillen, was living in Pakistan at the time.

Azhar, whose parents are both doctors, said he went for scans on a lump on his leg in 2015.

He said: "My parents were worried by it and my mum insisted that we get it checked out because an unusual lump in your extremities should be considered cancer until proven otherwise.

"Unfortunately, that's what it turned out to be.

"My parents immediately brought me back to Northern Ireland because they knew the treatment here was so good."

Azhar had to give up his studies and was warned from the beginning that part of his right leg would have to be amputated if he wanted to survive.

"My mum and dad were hoping my leg could be saved, but I definitely didn't want the cancer to reoccur later in life, so amputation was the way to go.

"I actually had to convince my parents that amputation was the way I wanted to go, I had decided that whatever happens would happen, I was just going to go with it."

Azhar underwent his chemotherapy at Belfast City Hospital, while the amputation and his subsequent recovery took place at Musgrave Park Hospital.

During his treatment, Azhar made the decision to turn his back on a career in medicine.

"With both my parents being doctors, it did seem like the natural way to go," he explained.

"But then when I saw how busy the doctors are, how physically demanding their jobs are, how they spend so much of their time on their feet, I realised I wouldn't be able to do that.

"Technology had always been another option, I was always into video games and programming."

Having left school before sitting his A-levels, Azhar took up a place on a university access course at Belfast Met once he had recovered and subsequently secured a place on the PwC technology degree at Queen's University.

Students spend Easter and summer doing paid placements at PwC and are offered a job at the end if they graduate with a 2:1 degree.

Azhar, who now lives in south Belfast with his parents, Dr Rashid Hussain and Dr Fatima Bushra, and sisters, Zobia (21) and Dua (15), said he was delighted to learn his application for the course had been successful.

He said: "When you find out you have cancer, you can't think ahead. All you can think about is your next scan, your next treatment, when you're going to be back in hospital, it takes over your life."

Through his career, Azhar hopes to give back to the community.

"When I was going through my treatment, we had so much help from the charity CLIC Sargent, who arranged for accommodation for us in Belfast," he said.

"This degree will allow me to give back and working for PwC will help me to do that because they also have a charitable ethos and hold charitable events during the year, so it's a good company to work for from that respect as well."The leader of the Scottish Conservative party has been accused by a leading expert of risking peace in Northern Ireland with her party's stance on a special deal for Northern Ireland.

Ruth Davidson, along with Scottish Secretary David Mundell, reportedly threatened to resign if a backstop agreement goes ahead for Northern Ireland - over fears it could spark a push for Scottish independence.

In a joint letter to Theresa May from Mr Mundell and Ms Davidson obtained by The Scotsman published earlier this week, the pair wrote they "could not support" an exception being made for Northern Ireland.

"Having fought just four years ago to keep our country together, the integrity of our United Kingdom remains the single most important issue for us in these negotiations," the letter read.

It was later reported the letter had not been meant as an ultimatum.

Read More

Under the current proposal being brought to Brussels by the UK, and included in earlier rounds of negotiations, Northern Ireland would retain regulatory customs alignment as a means of avoiding a hard border - until such time as an alternative arrangement is reached.

The view of Scottish Conservatives was outlined in a Financial Times article by Adam Tomkins, the party's constitutional affairs spokesman.

"From a Scottish Conservative and Unionist perspective, what goes for Northern Ireland must go for Scotland also," he wrote.

Hitting back at points made in the article, Kirsty Hughes, director of influential think-tank the Scottish Centre on European Relations, wrote on Twitter: "Ruling out a NI-specific backstop implies a readiness to risk v damaging no deal Brexit for UK &/or to damage Irish peace process."

Do Scottish Tories think UK/EU border will be frictionless, almost so or damagingly hard after Brexit? Scotland staying in EU single mkt not damaging if rUK has a frictionless border with EU. So which is it  frictionless or hard (the latter v damaging for all UK economy)? 11.  Kirsty Hughes (@KirstyS_Hughes) October 17, 2018

"Why are Scottish Tories so fearful differentiation for NI means the same for Scotland? Scotland has diffferent economic structures, land & sea borders, so copying a NI deal may not make sense. It wd need May to ask for it, EU to accept  May wont, EU unlikely & now too late," she added.

"Theres no special deal in sight for Scotland but Scottish Tories, the party that brought us Brexit, are ready to damage Irish peace process for own unionist concerns. If they really want to protect the Union, they wd speak out for remain & against growing damage of Brexit."The region has been without devolved government since January 2017 (Lynne Cameron/PA)

A new Bill intended to assist senior civil servants who have been left to take decisions in Northern Ireland must ease UK disparity in healthcare workers pay, a trade union has said.

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley introduced the new Bill to the House of Commons on Thursday.

The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Exercise of Functions) Bill is intended to encourage political parties to agree a return to powersharing government.

It also offers guidance to senior civil servants at Northern Ireland departments who have been left to make decisions in the absence of ministers.

The region has been without devolved government since January 2017 following a breakdown of relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Trade union Unite has welcomed the legislation and said it should open the door to movement on healthcare workers pay.

As a direct result of the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland Executive, healthcare workers here have been denied the pay increase that has been agreed and extended to workers in all other parts of the United KingdomKevin McAdam, Unite

Unite regional officer Kevin McAdam said Northern Irelands healthcare workers have been left behind the rest of the UK.

As a direct result of the absence of a functioning Northern Ireland Executive, healthcare workers here have been denied the pay increase that has been agreed and extended to workers in all other parts of the United Kingdom, he said.

NHS workers in England, Scotland and Wales voted to accept a three-year pay deal tied to changes in their terms and conditions. This pay deal was funded by HM Treasury to the tune of 4.2 billion.

Unfortunately political failure in Northern Ireland has left the corresponding funding here tied up. Healthcare workers know the money is waiting for them but cant receive it.

In this context, Unite welcomes this legislation which offers some hope that the logjam on NHS pay can be broken.

We call on the Permanent Secretary for the Department of Health, Richard Pengelly, to open negotiations with the trade unions on pay immediately now that he has the authority to make this decision.The UUP has hit out at the DUP's "strategic blunder" which has made the backstop to keep Northern Ireland in the Customs Union and Single Market a central part of Brexit negotiations.

Ulster Unionist peer Lord Empey, a former leader of the party who served as a Member of the EU Committee of the Regions in Brussels for eight years, said the origins of the current impasse comes from an agreement reached in December 2017, in the Joint Report from the EU and UK.

"After amendment, this agreement was supported by the DUP and by David Davis and Boris Johnson. Now all of them are trying to distance themselves from the time bomb they created last year," said Lord Empey.

Alongside the backstop, the agreement between the UK and EU laid out terms for the rights of EU citizens, the Irish border, and the amount the UK should pay as part of its 'divorce bill' - allowing negotiations to move onto the next stage.

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In the aftermath of the agreement, then Brexit secretary David Davis was criticised for saying the talks were a statement of intent and not legally binding.

On Thursday, RTE reported Theresa May told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar she accepted the backstop to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland could not be time limited.

"Reports from London say that the Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox MP, has warned the Cabinet that the backstop would become 'legally binding in perpetuity, unlike a political treaty or declaration and that Britain would suffer huge reputational damage if it failed to honour it in full.'" said Lord Empey.

"This is what I mean by a huge strategic blunder by the DUP, Boris Johnson and David Davis. Its a millstone around our necks.

"There is no doubt that the question of the Irish border is being used by Brussels and Dublin as a battering ram in these talks.

"The level of trade on this island is tiny in European terms and everybody knows that no Irish Government could survive if it erected a physical barrier at the border. London has said it won't put up a border, so where is a hard border coming from?"Police have appealed for information.

Police are appealing for information following a collision in the Culmore Road area of Londonderry on Sunday.

A male and female aged in their 70s were taken to hospital for treatment following the collision.

The female remains in hospital in a serious but stable condition.

"Anyone with dashcam footage or info, contact police quoting reference number 968 14/10/18," a PSNI spokesperson said.Marie Wilson who was killed in the Enniskillen bomb

The IRAs 1987 bombing of the Cenotaph in Enniskillen killed 12 people

The Sinn Fein candidate for President of Ireland Liadh Ni Riada has said that the Enniskillen bombing should be condemned, describing it as an "atrocity".

MEP Ni Riada made the comments during a debate featuring all six Presidential hopefuls on Irish channel Virgin Media One.

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Twelve people were killed and 63 injured in the Enniskillen bombing which took place on Remembrance Day (November 8) 1987.

The IRA planted a bomb near the town's war memorial and it exploded during the Remembrance Sunday service.

They later said the bombing had been a mistake and had been intended to target British soldiers.

During the debate Ms Ni Riada was asked by host Pat Kenny about a Hot Press interview during which she said she was "uncomfortable" with using the word terrorism to describe IRA atrocities such as Bloody Friday, the Warrington bomb and Birmingham pub bombings.

Mr Kenny asked if she considered the Enniskillen bombing to be a terror attack.

"I think any atrocity like that (Enniskillen bombing) should be condemned, but look, the IRA have been gone the last 20 years, we have a peace process in place, we should be cementing that and working on building that rather than constantly revisiting what labeling and semantics and all of that," Ms Ni Riada replied.

She asked Mr Kenny if he would consider former South African President Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

The host also challenged Ms Ni Riada on whether or not Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Liadh Ni Riada (Niall Carson/PA) PA Wire/PA Images A man's body is recovered after the Enniskillen Bomb. Picture by Raymond Humphreys / Facebook

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"The IRA are gone, you keep bringing it back," she said.

The Sinn Fein candidate said that she would leave party politics aside if elected.

"I'm proud to be nominated by Sinn Fein but this is about being a president for everybody and that inclusivity," Ms Ni Riada said.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Diana visits the injured from the Enniskillen bomb. Samuel Gault Alberta, who died in bomb attack Stephen Gault with his mother Gladys at his fathers funeral Alberta Quinton was killed in Enniskillen Enniskillen bomb / Facebook

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"There's no denying it, I'm a Sinn Fein candidate, but I would be a president for everyone."

During the debate incumbent Michael D. Higgins was targeted by fellow candidate Derry-born Peter Casey over his expenses while President.

Mr Casey criticised the President for flying to Belfast using the Government jet and having a driver meet him there.

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President Higgins rejected the criticism of his expenses describing them as "fantasy".

He said that he had been advised to travel to Belfast by plane due to "security concerns".Theresa May was facing a backlash from Brexiteers after indicating she is ready to consider extending Britains transition out of the EU for a further year, to the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister told a crunch European Council summit in Brussels that she was ready to consider the extension floated by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to give time to resolve the intractable problem of the Irish border.

If agreed, the change would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019, and more than five years after the referendum vote to Leave.

Furious Brexiteers said that the move would delay yet further the moment when the UK could sign new trade deals around the world, and would cost taxpayers billions of pounds in additional contributions to the EU.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that it would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 and may mean we never leave at all.

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Tory MP Nadine Dorries repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace Mrs May as leader.

We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit, said Ms Dorries.

And Mr Daviss former chief of staff Stewart Jackson asked: If you cant  or in the EUs case wont  resolve the backstop issue now because its an issue of principle than why will it take another three years to resolve it? Will it not be an issue of principle once we have coughed up billions more in UK taxpayers cash?

If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. Its time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader. Ive done my bit. Its time for my colleagues to do theirs. #Brexit  Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 17, 2018

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU states ditched proposals for a special Brexit summit in November, after chief negotiator Michel Barnier told them he needed much more time to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

With just 160 days to go to the official date of Brexit, Mrs May urged the EU27 to find a creative way out of the current dilemma.

We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively, the PM said. I remain confident of a good outcome.

And she told them: The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides.

After her Chequers plan for Brexit was humiliatingly rejected in Salzburg last month and efforts to seal a last-minute deal foundered last weekend over the EUs demand for a backstop arrangement for Ireland, Mrs May was fighting to keep the door open for an agreement to deliver an orderly withdrawal.

EU leaders gave her 20 minutes to make her pitch before discussing Brexit in her absence over a dinner of turbot cooked in wheat beer.

The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said: Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table and would have to be looked into.

A senior EU official later said Mrs May had indicated she was ready to consider a longer transition period.

Mrs Mays acceptance of an extension to the transition period will take us to the next general election which may mean we never leave at all.  Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 17, 2018

Mrs May initially suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit, to give the UKs authorities and companies time to prepare for the new arrangements.

But she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

It emerged on Wednesday that Mr Barnier was ready to discuss a further years extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials stressed that the Prime Minister was not proposing any extension to the period already agreed.

This weeks summit had been billed as the moment of truth when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification in the Westminster and European parliaments.

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But Mrs May did not come forward with the new concrete proposals on the border issue which European Council president Donald Tusk said were needed to break the deadlock.

While expressing their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal, a number of EU leaders said their countries were beginning preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively. I remain confident of a good outcomeTheresa May

In a speech to the German parliament before travelling to Brussels, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the possibility of a Brexit deal was still there, but added that Berlin was making plans for a no-deal withdrawal.

And in Paris, Emmanuel Macrons government published details of legislation to authorise preparations for a no-deal Brexit, which could see the restoration of customs checks and health inspections for animals at French ports, and even a requirement for Britons to seek visas for stays of three months or more.

Mr Macron, who held separate talks with Mrs May ahead of the three-hour dinner, said it was time to accelerate talks.

But Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said there would be no breakthrough this week because Mrs May lacked a strong mandate from her party and parliament.

Britain needed to decide finally what they want and to rally behind the Prime Minister all together, not split, she said, adding: Today we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they want. It is a problem.An extended transition period would not solve a fundamental problem with the EUs backstop proposals, the DUP said.

The UK would continue to pay contributions to the bloc while having no say post-Brexit, deputy leader Nigel Dodds warned.

He said: Such an extension would cost United Kingdom billions of pounds, yet our fundamental problem with the EU proposal remains.

He repeated his partys criticisms of the EUs Irish border backstop position.

I am glad that it is not just unionists in Northern Ireland who recognise the dangers of the EU proposals on the backstop to the Union.

An extended transition period means the United Kingdom continues to pay but have no say in Brussels. pic.twitter.com/Lx1Ixpo9Ha  Nigel Dodds (@NigelDoddsDUP) October 18, 2018

Such a backstop is unacceptable to many others from right across the United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, his Sinn Fein counterpart Michelle ONeill said Prime Minister Theresa May had refused to hold a joint meeting with the leaders of Northern Irelands main anti-Brexit parties.

She said Mrs May had turned down a request for talks with the leaders of Sinn Fein, the nationalist SDLP, cross-community Alliance Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland.

Mrs ONeill said: In order to preserve her toxic alliance with the DUP, she is trampling over the rights of citizens by acquiescing to that partys refusal to share power (at Stormont) on the basis of equality.

And by refusing to meet their representatives, Theresa May is also ignoring the democratic will of the majority in the north who voted to reject Brexit.

She said the British Government was incapable of acting responsibly or with any semblance of impartiality while it remained wedded to the DUP.

Theresa May is showing nothing but disdain for the people of the north, for the Good Friday Agreement, for our economy and rights and for the peace process.

It is an appalling failure of her responsibilities as a co-equal guarantor of our peace and political process and there is an onus on the Irish Government and EU27 to defend our best interests during this critical stage of the Brexit negotiations.Irish premier Leo Varadkar has warned that businesses in the United Kingdom will soon make decisions that bite after admitting that reaching a Brexit deal could roll into the new year.

The Taoiseach said that while politicians and negotiators can make last-minute decisions on Britains withdrawal deal, firms are already making plans in preparation for Brexit.

While the two-day European Council summit was billed as the deadline for signing off a deal between the European Union and the UK, Brexit negotiating teams are now looking towards the December summit and perhaps beyond to reaching an agreement.

Business, banks, employers, airlines will start making decisions and they will start making decisions that bite.Leo Varadkar

When asked if January was a likely month for a deal, Mr Varadkar admitted he did not know.

There is another summit in December, I really hope we can have it done in November, and if we dont then we will do it in December, but to be honest I just dont know, I really think its in everyones interest that we get an agreement as soon as possible, he said.

Politicians may be able to make late, last night decisions in rooms in the new year or in December but businesses are going to make plans long before that.

Business, banks, employers, airlines will start making decisions and they will start making decisions that bite, particularly in the United Kingdom but also in Ireland and other places and I think its in the interests of all of our citizens that the politicians and officials get on with this and get it done as soon as possible.

In a press conference at the end of the summit, Mr Varadkar said some progress has been made in the last couple of weeks but said there are still big gaps in terms of the future relationship between the EU and the UK and the backstop.

According to Mr Varadkar, British Prime Minister Theresa May did not attempt to row back on her commitment to the backstop during their bilateral meeting on Wednesday.

The Democratic Unionists, however, have threatened consequences if the British government does anything which could undermine the constitutional integrity of the UK.

It is adamant it will not agree to anything which results in imposition of customs or trade checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, known as a border in the Irish Sea.

Mrs May relies on her DUP allies 10 MPs to prop up her minority government in key votes and there have been suggestions the Northern Irish party could vote against the Budget.

Mr Varadkar told reporters on Thursday that while there was a political context between the DUP and the Conservatives, the Brexit negotiations were between the UK and the EU, and not political parties.

He added: I certainly understand where they (DUP) are coming from. I understand their position, which is that they dont want there to be any differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

I suppose where Im coming from is a slightly different position, in that we have the Good Friday Agreement and if you think about the Good Friday Agreement there are three basic philosophical principles.

He also said there would be huge difficulties within the EU 27 member states to consider making the backstop UK-wide, adding that the EU is willing to make exceptions to treat Northern Ireland as a special case because of its difficult history and unique geography.

He added: It will have a land border with the European Union which is not a land border and so allowances can be made by the European Union for Northern Ireland.

I would feel very strongly about this as well as a European as well as an Irishman, you couldnt a situation whereby the UK had access to the single market which is our market and at the same time was able to undercut us in terms of standards whether it was environmental standards, labour laws, state aid competition and I dont think any country or any union would be asked to accept that.

The Fine Gael leader said that the EU acknowledges the difficulties which Mrs May faces in securing a deal that she can get through Westminster, adding that the EU wants to help her.

We know how divided British politics is at the moment, not just the Government, and the Government party but also Parliament itself.

But we also have to bear in mind the other side of that equation  any agreement also has to be ratified by the European Parliament.

And the European Parliament would not or should not approve a deal that undermines the single market and doesnt give Ireland what we need in relation to the backstop.Irish Presidential hopeful Peter Casey has been accused of adding "insult to injury" by doubling down on his criticism of Travellers.

The Londonderry-born businessman will face protests when he visits Tipperary today to view six unoccupied houses at the centre of a dispute between the county council and Traveller families.

He faces mounting calls to withdraw from the election race from Dublin ministers, Traveller groups, his election rivals and even the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

But an unapologetic Mr Casey continues to fuel racism debate by insisting Travellers should not be considered an ethnic minority. Last night he said they should "think and act as Irish people".

He has also stood over remarks made on Independent.ie's 'Floating Voter' podcast that Travellers are "basically people camping in someone else's land".

Reacting to Mr Casey's latest comments, the co-director of the Traveller advocacy group Pavee Point, Martin Collins, said the millionaire's latest contribution has "compounded the situation".

"He has added insult to injury," Mr Collins said.

A number of councillors who helped Mr Casey get on the ballot paper have said they do not regret giving him their vote, although most said they disagree with his comments.

Despite the controversy, Mr Casey plans to travel to Cabra Bridge in Thurles to see a 1.7m development that has been built for Travellers who are currently living on an unauthorised site nearby.

It has been reported the families want access to two stables and at least half-an-acre of land each for their horses.

Mr Casey has been critical of the role played by Pavee Point in the dispute, saying they should tell the Travellers about people "sleeping on the streets of Dublin".

Mr Casey was asked by presenter Pat Kenny about his controversial comments yesterday on the first televised Irish Presidential debate with all six candidates.

"We have so many wonderful nationalities here, it's wrong to single out one particular ethnic group differently," he said.

"One of the county councils who endorsed me was Tipperary, and as you know we have a housing crisis at the moment.

"When I was down there, there was 1.7m spent building six houses that the Travelling community wouldn't move into because they wanted sheds and two stables and one acre of land.

"Why should they be given the right to turn down a house? I think that is wrong."

Current President Michael D Higgins has highlighted that Traveller men have 11 years' less life expectancy than other males, and are six times more likely to commit suicide.

Kenny asked candidates if they would like Traveller people to live next door to them.

Mr Higgins said: "Yes, I have a halting site a couple of hundred yards from my house and they are wonderful people."

And speaking earlier on RTE's Six One News he defended his position, saying: "There's far too much political correctness in society... I say what I think and I think what I say."

He has received a considerable level of support on social media.

However, Mr Collins said that Pavee Point has represented the Travelling community well and the candidate's view of the situation in Tipperary is "misinformed".

He said the decision by Mr Casey to arrange a media event at the site was "strange" given the "hurt and pain he has caused".Theresa May says she remains confident of a deal (Jack Taylor/PA)

Theresa May has told EU leaders that courage, trust and leadership will be needed on both sides to achieve a Brexit deal.

Speaking to leaders of the 27 remaining EU states in Brussels, Mrs May said she remains confident that a good outcome can be reached to negotiations which stalled last weekend over the intractable issue of the Irish border.

But Mrs May did not come forward with the new concrete proposals on the border issue which European Council President Donald Tusk has said are needed to break the deadlock.

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EU leaders made clear they were expecting no breakthrough at the European Council summit, which had long been billed as the moment of truth when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification before Brexit day in March.

The EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that much more time was needed to bridge differences between the two sides, and promised to continue the work in the next weeks calmly and patiently.

A number of EU leaders voiced their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal. But several also noted that their countries were beginning preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit.

We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively. I remain confident of a good outcomeTheresa May

In her 20-minute address, Mrs May stressed that significant progress had been made in many areas of the negotiations and urged them to find a creative way out of the current dilemma.

We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively, the PM said. I remain confident of a good outcome.

And she told them: The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides.

Following her comments, Mrs May left for a fish dinner at the UK ambassadors residence, leaving the EU leaders to discuss Brexit in her absence over a dinner of pan-fried mushrooms, turbot cooked in wheat beer and a trio of fig, pear and grape sorbets.

Arriving in Brussels, Mrs May insisted there had been very good progress since Salzburg, but acknowledged that differences remain over the key issue of the backstop arrangement to keep the Irish border open in the absence of a broader trade deal.

She said: I believe everybody around the table wants to get a deal  I believe a deal is achievable and now is the time to make it happen.

Mrs May held separate talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, Irish Tiaoseach Leo Varadkar and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, as well as Mr Tusk, in what British officials characterised as constructive and serious conversations.Mr Cooper said he believed that a lack of qualified accountants across all Stormont finance divisions played a role (stock picture)

A former Stormont finance director has told a public inquiry that most staff in government finance divisions lack the qualifications to do the job.

Trevor Cooper, who chaired a committee meeting which resulted in the then Department of Finance and Personnel granting approval for the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme in 2012, made the claim as he appeared before the probe into the botched energy scheme for the third time yesterday.

Inquiry panel members struggled to keep straight faces as they probed how officials in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (Deti) had mistaken RHI spending forecasts for agreed budgets.

The exchange led to chair Sir Patrick Coghlin having to apologise for finding the mismanagement of public money "a source of amusement".

Mr Cooper said he believed that a lack of qualified accountants across all Stormont finance divisions played a role.

"I think there's an issue... where finance teams don't have finance experts in them," he said.

"They are being asked to do a job which is unfair to them."

He also claimed finance officers spent "around 70% of their time" implementing cuts and trying to identify savings.

He accepted mass confusion over a series of email exchanges in 2014 and 2015 led to numerous opportunities being squandered.

Mr Cooper failed to account for why no one ever sought written confirmation of budgets or clarity on regulations despite widespread ignorance of how the Treasury's annually managed expenditure scheme worked in practice.

Dame Una O'Brien said it did not "make a lot of sense" that Mr Cooper, who lacked policy experience, did not attempt to discuss Department of Energy and Climate Change regulations with colleagues within Deti's energy division, who would have been "steeped in detail".

It prompted her to question if there was "a culture of not engaging with junior staff", but Mr Cooper insisted there was not.

He also accepted that there was "total confusion" over what was discussed in budget meetings due to the volume of retrospectively added notes to official minutes.

Concerns grew in spring 2015 when Deti energy officials became alarmed by a surge in RHI applications and began to pose long overdue questions to its finance division. But emails seeking "urgent" clarification were ignored until the latter part of May.

Mr Cooper agreed the slow response was "absolutely not" acceptable and conceded budget fears should have been escalated to the permanent secretary Andrew McCormick, but they weren't.

However he did say that he "verbally" informed his superior, senior finance director Eugene Rooney. Mr Cooper said he "cannot remember" Mr Rooney's reaction, prompting Sir Patrick to note that he believes he would have expressed "at least some mild interest" in the serious budget crisis.

The inquiry continues.Claire Hart and her 19-year-old daughter Charlotte, who were fatally shot by husband and father Lance before he turned the gun on himself (Family handout/PA)

A man whose mother and sister were killed in an attack by his father has made a tearful plea for understanding of the plight of victims of domestic abuse.

Briton Luke Hart was comforted by actor Amber Heard, who appeared emotional, as the crowd in a packed auditorium rose to its feet following his speech at a global summit in the Netherlands.

Mr Harts mother Claire, 50, and 19-year-old sister Charlotte were shot dead by husband and father Lance Hart in a leisure centre car park in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in July 2016.

The killer, 57, then turned the shotgun on himself.

Mr Hart said the struggles he and his brother Ryan faced after the killings became invisible due to some of the media coverage about the deaths.

Speaking at the One Young World summit, he said: My fathers abuse of my family was an active choice that he made every single day. Violence against women and children cannot be blamed on the mental health of perpetrators or on victims.

Expand Close Luke and Ryan Hart have written a book about their ordeal (Family handout/PA) Press Association Images / Facebook

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It can only be understood by the perpetrators demand for control.

An inquest in October 2016 heard a 12-page murder note was found stored on a USB stick in the killers car.

Speaking on Thursday, Mr Hart said: Even something as trivial as the media referring to the suicide note that our father had written made our struggles invisible, and it showed the control that our father still had over the narrative, the same control he had always exerted over our lives.

It was a suicide note to our father but it was a murder note to my mum and sister.

Cruelty is always a choice and so is the perspective that bystanders take towards that use of violence. Only when we choose to understand victims perspectives do we truly stand in solidarity against the abuse of women and children.

The Hart brothers, both aged in their 20s and based in Surrey, have become advocates for domestic abuse awareness, and Luke appeared at the summit in The Hague during a session focused on human rights.

Justice League and Aquaman star Heard is one of the speakers at this years gathering, which has also featured addresses from Sir John Major and Bob Geldof.Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner (right) listens as Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses college students and teachers during a protest in Westminster (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the Government for its disgraceful treatment of college staff.

He was speaking at a protest at Parliament which was staged to call for increases in college funding.

Mr Corbyn paid tribute to all college staff and told protesters, including students and lecturers who had gathered in the rain in Parliament Square: I have to say that the way that the staff have been treated by this government is disgraceful.

The way that college lecturers have seen their conditions deteriorate over many years and their treatment over this summer is why I, and on behalf of the Labour Party, am proud to support the UCU (University and College Union) and the action it has taken.

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It was part of Colleges Week which saw a national lobby of Parliament on Wednesday where thousands of principals, staff and students protested about the impact of the funding issues they face. The week forms part of the Love Our Colleges campaign.

Mr Corbyn said: We stand today for properly funded colleges and properly paid staff.

We stand today for the principles of education for all as a right.

He called for an end to austerity and described it as an incredible waste of resources to deny some people the education they need.

Great honour along with @jeremycorbyn today to speak at the rally near parliament in support of our colleges and the F.E. sector. We must reverse the government cuts and invest in our colleges, they have had resources slashed and this cannot continue anymore! #LoveOurColleges  pic.twitter.com/pJOUD53WYO  Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) October 17, 2018

The Love Our Colleges campaign is a partnership between the Association of Colleges, NUS students union, Association of College and School Leaders, University and College Union (UCU), GMB, TUC, National Education Union and Unison. Its aim is to raise awareness of the funding challenges faced by colleges.

A short march to Whitehall, which was organised by education and students unions, was held before the further education (FE) funding rally.

Protesters held banners which read FE funding an investment not a cost, make my future fair  and we love our college.

There were chants of When they say cut back, with the crowd replying We say fight back.

Some colleges shut down for the day to allow staff and students to attend.

New City College (NCC) in Redbridge, east London, said it was closing to allow staff and students time to raise awareness of the demands being made of Government.

These include providing immediate exceptional funding ring-fenced for pay, to cover the costs of a fair pay deal for college staff from 2018/19 onwards, increasing the funding rate for 16 to 19-year-olds in education by 5% a year for the next five years, and extending the pupil premium for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to benefit post-16 students too.

An NCC tweet read: Well be at the#LoveOurColleges national day of action today. Classes back to usual tomorrow. Happy #CollegesWeek!

More than 31,600 people had signed an online petition calling for increased funding to sustainable levels and declaring that all students deserve equality by the time Wednesdays march got under way.

The petition states: We call on the Government to urgently increase college funding to sustainable levels, including immediate parity with recently announced increases to schools funding.

This will give all students a fair chance, give college staff fair pay and provide the high-quality skills the country needs.

The central London protest came as small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) warned the UK risked being left behind if the Government did not address the skills gap through education.

Research released by the Association of Colleges (AOC) said that 51% of SMEs were finding it more difficult to employ people with the right skills, compared to five years ago.

Some 58% of them said finding skilled candidates was the biggest concern about the future of their business.

Of the 534 SME leaders and decision leaders surveyed, 48% said colleges were best placed to skill the future workforce, compared to universities (30%) and schools (21%).

A separate survey of 70 college principals in England revealed that four in five feared cuts to college funding may limit their ability to fill skills gaps.

Almost all of them (95%) were concerned about the effects cuts were having on their college.

The data shows that in the past five years the average college in England has had to cut 15 courses due to lack of funding, and teaching hours have been cut by around nine hours per week.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton later thanked schools and colleges for the vital role she said they played in ensuring people of all ages had the skills they needed to get on in life.

She said: I am very aware of the funding pressures in further education which is why we are conducting an assessment of education, funding and the sustainability of the sector.

This government plans to invest nearly 7 billion this academic year to make sure there is a place in education or training, including apprenticeships, for every 16 to 19-year-old and we have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19-year-olds until 2020.

We are also investing in the sector as we introduce our new gold standard T Levels from 2020, which will be backed by an additional 500 million every year once they are fully rolled out.

Officials are to continue to look carefully at funding for the sector in preparation for the next Spending Review, according to the Education Department.Failures led to the death of a student who died hours after doctors did not spot he had sepsis and sent him home from hospital, a coroner has ruled.

Tim Mason, 21, had flu-like symptoms and told doctors he felt like he was dying but was discharged just after 8am on March 16 without further treatment, an inquest in Maidstone, Kent, heard.

He was rushed back into Tunbridge Wells Hospitals accident and emergency department hours later for the second time that day where he was appropriately treated and died hours later.

Had he been correctly diagnosed it is most likely he would have been prescribed intravenous antibiotics and he would not have diedSenior coroner Roger Hatch

Senior coroner Roger Hatch, delivering a narrative inquest verdict, said that given the results of his blood test, temperature and heart rate, Mr Mason should have received a sepsis screening and been reviewed by a senior doctor.

The coroner said: Had he been correctly diagnosed it is most likely he would have been prescribed intravenous antibiotics and he would not have died.

This should have occurred when he attended the hospital six hours earlier on March 16 when he first presented.

The initial failures to correctly diagnose and treat Mr Mason did not amount to neglect, the coroner said.

The coroner and Mr Masons family accept that he was appropriately treated when he returned to the hospital.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has accepted liability and admitted breaching a duty of care by discharging Mr Mason with such symptoms.

The coroner also described it as unfortunate that Mr Mason did not receive a vaccination.

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Staff missed several chances to test him for sepsis during the extremely busy day despite him displaying signs of the deadly infection, the inquest was told.

The diagnosis was delayed by more than six hours and he would not have died if properly treated, the hearing heard.

The Sussex Downs College student, who was training as an electrical engineer, had also developed the rare but life-threatening W strain of meningitis.

He died after his organs began to fail and he had a cardiac arrest while in an induced coma.

Mr Mason first felt unwell eight days earlier with flu-like symptoms, had taken time off work and college, was seen by a GP but appeared to be recovering.

The court heard how the trusts policy on detecting sepsis at the earliest opportunity was not followed.

Mr Masons high temperature  at its height more than 39 degrees  and fast heartbeat should have triggered alerts of sepsis and a screening.

His mother Fiona Mason, a personal assistant to the next lord mayor of London Peter Estlin, wept as she told the inquest they first took their son to hospital in the early hours of the morning after he began vomiting more violently than we have ever seen.

She said he was treated for an uncontrollably high temperature but this did not desist.

Mrs Mason had described him as being frightened and saying to her and the doctors that he felt like he was dying.

She told how doctors said he had a virus and the symptoms would get worse before they got better and he could be discharged.

When he came back to the emergency department seven hours later  in so much pain he could not walk or sit up  he was made to wait to be seen, the hearing was told.

When he was assessed again by other doctors they found it evident he had septic shock and organ failure, describing him as extremely ill.

Junior doctor Max Bacon, who had been qualified for just over a year, said he discharged Mr Mason after seeking guidance from a senior colleague and being falsely reassured by blood test results.

Dr Bacon, who said he had considered sepsis but a screening was not ordered, added: I wish I had put him through the sepsis protocol.

I see from hindsight he should have had it.

The coroner said he would be writing to the trust and NHS England about the problems highlighted during the inquest.

Our house used to be full of laughter and life. It is now quiet and we are all struggling. If changes are made that result in lives being saved, that will be of some small comfortFiona Mason

After the hearing, Mrs Mason said she hoped these issues would be acted on with all seriousness as she remembered her son as a popular man who was looking forward to his career and going travelling.

She said: Our house used to be full of laughter and life. It is now quiet and we are all struggling.

If changes are made that result in lives being saved, that will be of some small comfort.

The conclusion was stated by the coroner that it was a treatment and diagnosis problem. He also found significant problems with the vaccination system.

Warning that this is not just a local problem, she added: Our fight is to ensure that every GP surgery across the country has the patient alert system switched on and offers the vaccine to all of their 18 to 25-year-old patients.

We also hope that all hospitals update their sepsis protocols and make sure their staff are trained to follow them without exception.

In a statement, Paul Sankey, of the familys legal team, said: For Tims family nothing can make up for his loss, but the acknowledgement of responsibility will go a small way to helping them move on.

We should now be able to resolve a legal claim on behalf of the family.

We have carried out a full review of Timothys care and have taken a series of actions to address areas of our practice that fell short of the high standards we want for all of our patientsDr Peter Maskell, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust

After the hearing Dr Peter Maskell, the trusts medical director, said: We are truly sorry that we did not do everything that we could have clinically to help diagnose Timothys sepsis sooner, and take steps to treat this diagnosis.

I would like to personally apologise unreservedly to Timothys family and friends for this tragedy.

While no words can adequately address their loss, we will ensure that lessons are learnt by our doctors and nurses.

We have carried out a full review of Timothys care and have taken a series of actions to address areas of our practice that fell short of the high standards we want for all of our patients.

These include new protocols for the senior review of all patients due to be discharged from emergency units with abnormal observations.

The importance of following the trusts sepsis protocol, in light of Mr Masons experiences, is also stressed to all medics during teaching sessions.The extension of the transition period in which the UK leaves the EU "does nothing significant on the key issue of the unacceptable EU backstop proposals," the DUP's deputy leader Nigel Dodds has said.

The North Belfast MP made the comments in a statement released shortly after a speech in Brussels by Theresa May, following two days of crunch talks with EU leaders.

Speaking during a press conference, the Prime Minister was quizzed on reports she had made a commitment to the Republic's Europe Minister Helen McEntee that any backstop would be permanent.

The Prime Minister did not address the matter and instead moved to clarify what the backstop was and what it was intended to do.

"Its if there is a gap between the end of the implementation period, which I said is December 2020. And the introduction of the future relationship. If there is a period of months. And I think we would only be talking about a matter of months when there is that gap," she said.

Mrs May added the measure was in place to ensure "there is no return to a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland" during a transition period, and that "nobody wants the backstop to actually be used".

Read More

Nigel Dodds said any extended transition would mean the United Kingdom continues to "pay but have no say" in Brussels, and that "such an extension would cost United Kingdom billions of pounds, yet our fundamental problem with the EU proposal remains".

"The DUP wants a Brexit deal that works for our nearest neighbours in the European Union but which respects the constitutional and economic integrity of the precious Union. The backstop as proposed by the EU would undermine the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom," he said.

"I am glad that it is not just unionists in Northern Ireland who recognise the dangers of the EU proposals on the backstop to the union. Such a backstop is unacceptable to many others from right across the United Kingdom."

Sinn Fein's Irish presidential candidate and MEP Liadh Ni Riada said the Brexit negotiations were reaching their "defining moments" and said "the latest British proposal is for a time limited backstop which, in reality, means no backstop".

We must listen to the majority of the people in the north who do not want a hard border and seek to remain within the customs union and single market," she said.Police have launched a murder investigation after the incident in Battersea (Peter Byrne/PA)

A man has died after being assaulted at a block of flats in south-west London.

Scotland Yard said officers were called at about 5.30pm on Wednesday to reports of a group of men fighting at the building on Charlotte Despard Avenue, Battersea.

A 46-year-old man was found injured and was pronounced dead at the scene at 6.15pm.

All the suspects had fled before police arrived.

The Metropolitan Police has launched a murder investigation, and said the incident happened in a communal area of the flats.

The victims next-of-kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination will be held in due course. No arrests have been made.

Anyone with information on the incident should call 020 8721 4005, contact police via Twitter @MetCC, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.It comes amid growing concern at Russias use of internet troll factories (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Theresa May is to call for a robust new EU sanctions regime to deter cyber attacks.

Speaking at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, the Prime Minister will call for a proportionate response to those inflicting harm on the economies and democracies of the EU.

And she will tell fellow leaders it was time to impose costs on all those who seek to attack us, regardless of the means they use to do so.

Mrs Mays call comes shortly after the exposure of four suspected spies from Russias GRU military intelligence agency attempting to hack into the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague.

And it comes amid growing concern at Russias use of internet troll factories to disrupt elections and foment divisions within Western countries.

EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed a new sanctions regime on chemical weapons, tabled by the UK and France in the wake of poison attacks in Salisbury and Syria.

Now Mrs May is calling for the EU to go further and introduce similar sanctions for cyber attacks.

As well as protecting ourselves against attack, we must impose proportionate consequences on those who would do us harmTheresa May

Individual efforts to protect ourselves, and to call out irresponsible behaviour, are not enough, she is expected to say.

Malign cyber activity causes harm to our economies, and undermines our democracies. As well as protecting ourselves against attack, we must impose proportionate consequences on those who would do us harm.

We should accelerate work on EU restrictive measures to respond to and deter cyber attacks, including a robust sanctions regime.

I believe that we have an opportunity to show our collective political leadership.

Expand Close Theresa May arrives in Brussels for the European Council summit (European Commission Audiovisual Services) / Facebook

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We have demonstrated significant steps forward against other challenging threats. And should today make clear that malicious cyber activities are no different; we will impose costs on all those who seek to attack us, regardless of the means they use to do so.

Mrs May is expected to argue that online attacks have real-life consequences for the security and prosperity of our nations.

I strongly believe that malicious actors too must face the real consequences of their actions, she will say. The UK stands ready to share its experience of work on cyber attacks to support the development of an effective regime.

Mrs May will say that the attempted hacking of the OPCW earlier this year was a stark example of the very real threats that we face but also a clear example of where these attacks can be prevented.NHS workers were among those who took part in the survey (Lynne Cameron/PA)

Calls have been made to introduce tougher legislation to tackle violence against public sector workers, after staff reported more than 40,000 attacks for the third consecutive year.

Union Unison published figures which show employees have been subjected to 40,568 violent assaults over a 12-month period.

That follows 42,241 incidents last year and 41,166 reported in the 2016 survey.

We now need action by employers and stronger legislationScott Donohoe

Scott Donohoe, Unison health and safety committee chairman, said: The massive scale of violence against public service workers  and those in the community and voluntary sector  has been at least partially revealed, with more than 40,000 reported assaults each year for the last three years.

We support the extension of legislation covering violence at work to cover all workers engaged in delivering public services  and not just the emergency services.

The Scottish Government must move to address this issue.

We now need action by employers and stronger legislation, regulation and oversight by government to end the aggro. It really isnt part of the job.

The figures were being revealed by the union ahead of its health and safety seminar in Stirling on Friday.

Unisons first survey of violence on public workers  in 2006  returned figures of half the amount of the latest reports.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: Attacks against our NHS staff are despicable and the perpetrators must be dealt with in the strongest possible terms.

No-one should be the victim of abuse or violence while at work. We continue to encourage all NHS organisations to support criminal proceedings against anyone who assaults our staff.

The Emergency Workers Act includes a penalty of up to 12 months imprisonment, a 10,000 fine, or both. In 2008 this government extended the act to include GPs and doctors, nurses and midwives working in the community.Britains biggest and most powerful warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, will be welcomed to the United States by the Statue of Liberty as the aircraft carrier arrives in New York on her maiden deployment.

The 3.1 billion behemoth warship, which has more than 1,000 personnel onboard, will anchor two miles from Manhattan in the Hudson River at around lunchtime on Friday.

Ahead of the visit, Captain Jerry Kyd who is due to hand over command of HMS Queen Elizabeth on Wednesday, addressed the ships company for the last time, telling those gathered in the vast hangar to enjoy New York.

Thanking and praising them for their efforts, team work and professionalism during his stint at the helm, he said HMS Queen Elizabeth is now the future of the Royal Navy.

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When the Prince of Wales joins this ship next year, this is a navy we can be really proud of. We are back on the world stage, we are back in power projection operations, and we are back in protecting your families, the British people at home and our interests around the world, he said.

The arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth into New York comes after two test versions of the multimillion-pound stealth fighter F-35B Lightning jets landed on the flight deck and took off from the ships ski-jump ramp for the first time on September 25.

With more than 98 ski-jump take-offs logged since then, the two planes left the carrier on Tuesday for maintenance and will return for more flight trials at the end of the month.

It means HMS Queen Elizabeth will arrive in New York without any F-35 jets on deck.

The first bombs have been dropped from #F35 Lightning fighter jets conducting trials on board Britains newest aircraft carrier @HMSQnlz.



Full story: https://t.co/WIR08CBxDi pic.twitter.com/HrXZN0l6zp  Royal Navy (@RoyalNavy) October 18, 2018

Officially accepted into the Royal Navy fleet in December, the ship left her home of Portsmouth Naval Base in August and sailed across the Atlantic to begin her maiden four-month deployment, named Westlant 18.

As well as the F-35 flight trials, the Royal Navy said the deployment will also test the ships ability to operate with other nations ships and aircraft, and a US Navy Osprey helicopter has already landed on deck.

During his speech to the ships company, Captain Kyd revealed that in the 17 months since the ship left Rosyth dockyard she has steamed 32,000 miles, and has seen nine different aircraft types on the deck.

Our F35-B's aren't the only aircraft on here today with Short Take-Off Capability.



Today we had a 'flying' visit from an MV-22B Osprey from @USMC #CapabilityIncreased #GlobalReach pic.twitter.com/XwtvguYDzL  HMS Queen Elizabeth  (@HMSQNLZ) October 10, 2018

Stressing the importance of a continued professionalism, even after he departs the aircraft carrier, Captain Kyd said the crew will always be reliant on each other  something he said will be tested when the ship one day goes into combat.

Captain Kyd added: I know you will serve your new captain well, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart this ship has been something truly special.

Once anchored in New York, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is expected to visit the vessel on Saturday where he will make a speech during a special Trafalgar Day dinner held onboard.

Other dignitaries and special guests, including the head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, will also attend.

During her half-century working life, the 65,000-tonne ship could be pressed into action for tasks such as high-intensity war fighting or providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief. She will also serve as a floating military base for the F-35 jets.

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The UK has embarked on a 9.1 billion programme to buy 48 by 2025 of the F-35B from American aviation giant Lockheed Martin  but has pledged to purchase 138 eventually.

Britain currently has 16 of the F-35B  the short take-off and vertical landing variant  with nine based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, and the rest being tested and flown in the United States.An economist has claimed forecast funding for healthcare in Scotland may be underestimated (Jane Barlow/PA)

An economist has said the Scottish Government may have underestimated healthcare funding needs by more than 400 million.

Economist John McLaren criticised the governments recent paper on its medium-term financial framework for health and social care, for what he claims is a lack of clarity.

He raised concerns over untenable discrepancies between the governments estimates of its future funding needs for healthcare and those detailed in an independent assessment for the healthcare system in England.

The report states: The best like-for-like comparison suggests that the Scottish Government estimate is for around 3.5% annual, cash terms, funding needs growth over the next five years, as compared to around 6.7% estimated for England.

Such a discrepancy seems untenable. The funding implications differ by over 400 million a year, moving from an extra 455 million being needed at 3.5%, to over 870 million being needed at 7%.

His analysis here is based on a modernisation option for England, which he claims is the best fit for the Scottish aspirations for improvement.

Mr McLaren also cast doubt on the forecast efficiency savings in the Scottish Government paper of 1.3%, above what he claims is the best comparison of 0.8% in the English analysis.

Much more clarity is needed in this vital area of government fundingEconomist John McLaren

However, in this analysis he uses the status quo option for England rather than modernisation, which would put both countries roughly equal at a projected 1.4% for England.

He said: The Scottish Governments recently published medium term financial plans for health and social care do not allow for a clear picture to emerge of future funding needs.

This confusingly presented document appears to suggest that Scottish funding needs in this area are considerably below those estimated for England.

It is difficult to see why this would be the case.

In addition, projected efficiency savings are anticipated to be higher for Scotland than for the UK and heighten the degree of over-optimism that seems to pervade the report.

Much more clarity is needed in this vital area of government funding as well as further analysis than has hitherto been undertaken.

Scottish Labours health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: This report should be taken seriously by the SNP government.

If such a gap exists, it would raise serious concerns about the funding of our NHS.

The SNP must ensure that the health service has the resources it needs to help staff deliver the care patients deserve.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: Our health spending per head is over 7% higher than the UK as a whole  amounting to over 850 million more spending on health services for Scotland.

Our financial framework, which has been welcomed across the service and by independent experts, outlines both investment in and reform of our health and social care sector.The structure of the United Nations is out of date and its core members should be shaken up to include India and South Africa, Sir John Major has said.

The former prime minister called for the removal of the veto power available to the five permanent members  the UK, China, France, US and Russia  and claimed they no longer represent the five most powerful nations in the world.

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Describing the UNs sustainable development goals, which include ending poverty and hunger, as absolutely crucial to peace and security in the world, he accused permanent members Russia and China of stifling some of the aims of the organisation.

Speaking at the One Young World summit in The Hague, he said: Those sustainable goals can only be met if the world gets its act together and one of the problems, it has always seemed to me, is that the UN was formed immediately after the last war 70 years ago and its structure is out of date.

The five permanent members no longer represent the five most powerful nations in the world. And the permanent structure, the permanent members of the United Nations, need to change. It needs not to be the permanent five weve got now.

Name-checking India and South Africa as would-be permanent members, he added: Once you do that, and once you remove the single nation veto that Russia for example and sometimes China uses so rigorously, you will be in a position to unshackle the good that the United Nations was intended to be able to do but often cannot do.

Sir John spoke on the first of this years three-day gathering of more than 1,900 young leaders from 196 countries, at a summit which will consider issues ranging from climate change to conflict resolution and human rights.Username: Password: or Register

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Page: 1 2 3 Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct. Von_Zolta

harshtog#@Queezie?

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10-18-2018 09:21 PM



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Post: #1 Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Advertisement What the Media Isnt Telling You About the

Jamal Khashoggi Affair

October 16, 2018/by Conservative Review



The legacy media isnt telling you the full truth about Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi exile who is feared dead after he was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. His disappearance has created a media firestorm, resulting in tensions between the United States and its traditional Middle East partners.



Weve been told that Khashoggi  who was living in the U.S. for the past year  was a voice for reform and democracy in a Middle East that is in desperate need of such individuals. However, a closer look at Khashoggis past activities reveals a man with an extremely regressive, anti-Western worldview and a consistent pattern of supporting fringe Islamist movements in the region.



Of course, no one deserves to be harmed for his views. However, Khashoggis disappearance (and likely death, at this point) does not give the foreign and domestic media a green light to play fast and loose with the facts.

Khashoggi the journalist



Pretty much the entirety of the legacy media has attached a wildly misleading journalist label to Jamal Khashoggi. While he was once a journalist for several state-controlled Gulf media enterprises, Khashoggi has not been anything resembling a journalist for quite some time.

Prior to his disappearance, Khashoggi was an opinion writer for the Washington Posts Global Opinions section. He was also working with Islamists tied to the Muslim Brotherhood to create an organization called Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN).

Why does the journalist label continue to stick to Khashoggi?



We know that Saudi Arabias rivals, such as Turkey, Qatar, and Iran, seek to undermine the U.S.-Saudi alliance by any means necessary. And the optics are much worse for Riyadh if the Saudi monarchy is found to have executed a journalist rather than an Islamist activist.

Domestically, perhaps the media stubbornly insists on calling Khashoggi a journalist because it helps to advance the false media narrative that President Trump is waging a war on the free press. Notably, legacy reporters have been leveraging the Khashoggi situation to take shots at the presidents rhetoric.



Lee Smith over at The Federalist also points out that the Obama echo chamber of former Obama officials and their media lackeys have used the Khashoggi situation to score points against the Trump administrations foreign policy.

Khashoggi the reformer

Jamal Khashoggi was never a reformer in the sense that he wanted to advance individual rights and overall freedoms in the Middle East. In fact, all of the evidence points to the reality that he was a regressive thinker and a dedicated Islamist who wanted to move Saudi Arabia to a more cleric-led society.



As an early ally to al Qaeda founders Osama Bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, Khashoggi has been an Islamist for decades. While he may have disagreed with his old friend Bin Laden about how to impose an Islamic state on the world, the two shared the same endgame.

While Bin Laden preferred a much more aggressive strategy, Khashoggi appeared to be a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood model of governance advanced by groups like Hamas and the short-lived Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt.

Both Hamas and the Morsi regime in Egypt were elected through the democratic process. Yet almost immediately after seizing power, the Brotherhood-aligned groups sought to impose extra-constitutional measures that would tighten their grip on power and ensure that there would never be another election.



Khashoggis democracy project is nothing more than a facade that would allow for the empowerment of Islamist actors. For the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, history shows us that their first victorious election campaign quickly becomes the last election.

Khashoggi the man of peace



Todays Middle East reform movements are largely backed by individuals and leaders who have rejected calls for perpetual Islamist warfare. Those in the U.S.-allied reformer camp  such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed  have preferred to focus on bolstering patriotism, combatting Islamism, pursuing secularization and modernization, and encouraging foreign and domestic entrepreneurism and investments.



The soft-spoken Khashoggi, on the other hand, has sought to drag the Islamic world into endless conflict. And as is typical for many Islamists, Jamal Khashoggi had a serious bloodlust when it came to violence against the state of Israel. He expressed these violent aims in a 2014 piece for the Muslim Brotherhood-tied Middle East Monitor, in which he wrote that he hoped one day Islamic nations would join the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas in its campaign to destroy Israel. In another piece he wrote that year, Khashoggi shamed Arab states for not supporting the jihadi terror group.

Whats next?

Of course, violence is never the answer to political disagreements, and that is a clear message to all of our Middle East partners. The Khashoggi affair, however, is no reason to destroy all of the progress that the Trump administration has made in supporting historic, measureable Middle East reform efforts. The White House must continue following the pro-reform message articulated in presidents Riyadh speech in May 2017. To abandon reform now would empower Americas adversaries, strengthen Islamist movements, and jeopardize our Middle East allies.

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE. October 16, 2018/by Conservative ReviewThe legacy media isnt telling you the full truth about Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi exile who is feared dead after he was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. His disappearance has created a media firestorm, resulting in tensions between the United States and its traditional Middle East partners.Weve been told that Khashoggi  who was living in the U.S. for the past year  was a voice for reform and democracy in a Middle East that is in desperate need of such individuals. However, a closer look at Khashoggis past activities reveals a man with an extremely regressive, anti-Western worldview and a consistent pattern of supporting fringe Islamist movements in the region.Of course, no one deserves to be harmed for his views. However, Khashoggis disappearance (and likely death, at this point) does not give the foreign and domestic media a green light to play fast and loose with the facts.Khashoggi the journalistPretty much the entirety of the legacy media has attached a wildly misleading journalist label to Jamal Khashoggi. While he was once a journalist for several state-controlled Gulf media enterprises, Khashoggi has not been anything resembling a journalist for quite some time.Prior to his disappearance, Khashoggi was an opinion writer for the Washington Posts Global Opinions section. He was also working with Islamists tied to the Muslim Brotherhood to create an organization called Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN).Why does the journalist label continue to stick to Khashoggi?We know that Saudi Arabias rivals, such as Turkey, Qatar, and Iran, seek to undermine the U.S.-Saudi alliance by any means necessary. And the optics are much worse for Riyadh if the Saudi monarchy is found to have executed a journalist rather than an Islamist activist.Domestically, perhaps the media stubbornly insists on calling Khashoggi a journalist because it helps to advance the false media narrative that President Trump is waging a war on the free press. Notably, legacy reporters have been leveraging the Khashoggi situation to take shots at the presidents rhetoric.Lee Smith over at The Federalist also points out that the Obama echo chamber of former Obama officials and their media lackeys have used the Khashoggi situation to score points against the Trump administrations foreign policy.Khashoggi the reformerJamal Khashoggi was never a reformer in the sense that he wanted to advance individual rights and overall freedoms in the Middle East. In fact, all of the evidence points to the reality that he was a regressive thinker and a dedicated Islamist who wanted to move Saudi Arabia to a more cleric-led society.(For more from the author of What the Media Isnt Telling You About the Jamal Khashoggi Affair please click HERE)Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE. (This post was last modified: 10-19-2018 03:21 AM by Von_Zolta .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 459261

10-18-2018 09:23 PM











Post: #2 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Spreading Democracy, one Middle East Country at a time. Or more LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-18-2018 10:50 PM











Post: #3 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.





https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpz7tIlUcAAmQdK.jpg



Jamal Khashoggi and his boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meeting the management team of Twitter in 2012 AFTER 300 million dollar investment in twitter. Well well.Jamal Khashoggi and his boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meeting the management team of Twitter in 2012 AFTER 300 million dollar investment in twitter. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-18-2018 10:52 PM











Post: #4 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 10:50 PM) Well well.



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpz7tIlUcAAmQdK.jpg



Jamal Khashoggi and his boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meeting the management team of Twitter in 2012 AFTER 300 million dollar investment in twitter.

Obama's buddy Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. #Muslimbrotherhood Obama's buddy Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. #Muslimbrotherhood LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-18-2018 10:59 PM











Post: #5 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.





http://bahrainmirror.com/en/news/28877.html He sure gets around. Strategos

Against Dystopia

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10-18-2018 11:00 PM



Posts: 9,878









Post: #6 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

He was killed by MBS because of his latest project - D.A.W.N.



Democracy in the Arab World Now



He wanted to continue the Arab spring until it took down all monarchies. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 431632

10-18-2018 11:05 PM











Post: #7 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 10:50 PM) Well well.



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpz7tIlUcAAmQdK.jpg



Jamal Khashoggi and his boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meeting the management team of Twitter in 2012 AFTER 300 million dollar investment in twitter.

Obama bragged how easy Twitter and Facebook made it to overthrow all the Arab spring countries. Many times. They are clearly warfare platforms. Obama bragged how easy Twitter and Facebook made it to overthrow all the Arab spring countries. Many times. They are clearly warfare platforms. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-18-2018 11:19 PM











Post: #8 RE: KASHOGGI_ No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 11:05 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 10:50 PM) Well well.



https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpz7tIlUcAAmQdK.jpg



Jamal Khashoggi and his boss Prince Alwaleed bin Talal meeting the management team of Twitter in 2012 AFTER 300 million dollar investment in twitter.

Obama bragged how easy Twitter and Facebook made it to overthrow all the Arab spring countries. Many times. They are clearly warfare platforms.

Renegade was a Muslim Brotherhood mole. He let bin Talal pick his cabinet and who knows what else.



And this dickhead needs his lights punched out. Tick tock the #timehascometoday



https://twitter.com/zyntrax/status/1052974535748784129







Renegade was a Muslim Brotherhood mole. He let bin Talal pick his cabinet and who knows what else.And this dickhead needs his lights punched out. Tick tock the #timehascometoday Von_Zolta

harshtog#@Queezie?

User ID: 417346

10-18-2018 11:38 PM



Posts: 687









Post: #9 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 11:19 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 11:05 PM) Obama bragged how easy Twitter and Facebook made it to overthrow all the Arab spring countries. Many times. They are clearly warfare platforms.

Renegade was a Muslim Brotherhood mole. He let bin Talal pick his cabinet and who knows what else.



And this dickhead needs his lights punched out. Tick tock the #timehascometoday



https://twitter.com/zyntrax/status/1052974535748784129









Is the 'cracker' in the scene a bona fide member of the group? If so let's just call a spade a spade. Best estimate for a skin shade do-over? Dunno! Is the 'cracker' in the scene a bona fide member of the group? If so let's just call a spade a spade. Best estimate for a skin shade do-over? Dunno! (This post was last modified: 10-18-2018 11:40 PM by Von_Zolta .) LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-18-2018 11:44 PM











Post: #10 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Von_Zolta Wrote: (10-18-2018 11:38 PM) LoP Guest Wrote: (10-18-2018 11:19 PM) Renegade was a Muslim Brotherhood mole. He let bin Talal pick his cabinet and who knows what else.



And this dickhead needs his lights punched out. Tick tock the #timehascometoday



https://twitter.com/zyntrax/status/1052974535748784129









Is the 'cracker' in the scene a bona fide member of the group? If so let's just call a spade a spade. Best estimate for a skin shade do-over? Dunno!

Ha ha yea he was. Many of us crackers go together with black people like peas and carrots. It's not a big deal. Ha ha yea he was. Many of us crackers go together with black people like peas and carrots. It's not a big deal. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 467376

10-18-2018 11:50 PM











Post: #11 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Trump just as responsible. Thats why they are freaking out so much. Duh. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 467376

10-18-2018 11:51 PM











Post: #12 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Our planes flying bombing mission with Saudis. Iran knows the truth about this and they will handle it the way they know how to handle these matters.



No Shia. NormalIsSubjective



User ID: 461465

10-19-2018 12:20 AM



Posts: 21,752









Post: #13 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.







Khashoggi Was No Critic of Saudi Regime



By As`ad AbuKhalil, October 15, 2018





The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week has generated huge international publicity, but unsurprisingly, little in Saudi-controlled, Arab media. The Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote, and other Western media, have kept the story alive, increasing the pressure on Riyadh to explain its role in the affair.



Its been odd to read about Khashoggi in Western media. David Hirst in The Guardian claimed Khashoggi merely cared about absolutes such as truth, democracy, and freedom. Human Rights Watchs director described him as representing outspoken and critical journalism.



But did he pursue those absolutes while working for Saudi princes?



Khashoggi was a loyal member of the Saudi propaganda apparatus. There is no journalism allowed in the kingdom: there have been courageous Saudi women and men who attempted to crack the wall of rigid political conformity and were persecuted and punished for their views. Khashoggi was not among them...





Apparently, this was his last column:



Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expression



By Jamal Khashoggi, October 17





[...]



I was recently online looking at the 2018 Freedom in the World report published by Freedom House and came to a grave realization. There is only one country in the Arab world that has been classified as free. That nation is Tunisia. Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait come second, with a classification of partly free. The rest of the countries in the Arab world are classified as not free.



As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change...





A couple of other interesting articles:





Jamal Khashoggi: Where The Road to Damascus & The Path to 9/11 Converge





Posted on October 16, 2018. By Kristen Breitweiser, one of the four 9/11 widows  known as the Jersey Girls  instrumental in forcing the government to form the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 2001 attacks. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter:



Road to Damascus Conversion: Derived from the Biblical story of Paul, the term Damascus road conversion is commonly used to refer to an abrupt about-face on a serious issue of religion, politics or philosophy. In this type of change, a single, dramatic event causes a person to become aligned with something he or she previously was against or support a position that he or she previously opposed.



As a 9/11 widow who has spent the last 17 years fighting for accountability with regard to the 9/11 attacks that killed my husband and 3,000 others, I find the recent uproar over Jamal Khashoggis disappearance and alleged murder interesting and out of character for many of those decrying his disappearance and demanding an investigation and accountability...





Did Saudis, CIA Fear Khashoggi 9/11 Bombshell?



Finian CUNNINGHAM, 14.10.2018





The macabre case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi raises the question: did Saudi rulers fear him revealing highly damaging information on their secret dealings? In particular, possible involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks on New York in 2001.



Even more intriguing are US media reports now emerging that American intelligence had snooped on and were aware of Saudi officials making plans to capture Khashoggi prior to his apparent disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. If the Americans knew the journalists life was in danger, why didnt they tip him off to avoid his doom?



Jamal Khashoggi (59) had gone rogue, from the Saudi elites point of view. Formerly a senior editor in Saudi state media and an advisor to the royal court, he was imminently connected and versed in House of Saud affairs. As one commentator cryptically put it: He knew where all the bodies were buried. It's pretty clear he certainly wasn't the Saudi regimes harshest critic, so what did he do to deserve such a fate?Khashoggi Was No Critic of Saudi RegimeBy As`ad AbuKhalil, October 15, 2018The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week has generated huge international publicity, but unsurprisingly, little in Saudi-controlled, Arab media. The Washington Post, for whom Khashoggi wrote, and other Western media, have kept the story alive, increasing the pressure on Riyadh to explain its role in the affair.Its been odd to read about Khashoggi in Western media. David Hirst in The Guardian claimed Khashoggi merely cared about absolutes such as truth, democracy, and freedom. Human Rights Watchs director described him as representing outspoken and critical journalism.But did he pursue those absolutes while working for Saudi princes?Khashoggi was a loyal member of the Saudi propaganda apparatus. There is no journalism allowed in the kingdom: there have been courageous Saudi women and men who attempted to crack the wall of rigid political conformity and were persecuted and punished for their views. Khashoggi was not among them... https://consortiumnews.com/2018/10/15/kh...di-regime/ Apparently, this was his last column:Jamal Khashoggi: What the Arab world needs most is free expressionBy Jamal Khashoggi, October 17[...]I was recently online looking at the 2018 Freedom in the World report published by Freedom House and came to a grave realization. There is only one country in the Arab world that has been classified as free. That nation is Tunisia. Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait come second, with a classification of partly free. The rest of the countries in the Arab world are classified as not free.As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change... https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...810d9040d5 A couple of other interesting articles:Jamal Khashoggi: Where The Road to Damascus & The Path to 9/11 ConvergePosted on October 16, 2018. By Kristen Breitweiser, one of the four 9/11 widows  known as the Jersey Girls  instrumental in forcing the government to form the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 2001 attacks. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kdbreitweiser. Road to Damascus Conversion: Derived from the Biblical story of Paul, the term Damascus road conversion is commonly used to refer to an abrupt about-face on a serious issue of religion, politics or philosophy. In this type of change, a single, dramatic event causes a person to become aligned with something he or she previously was against or support a position that he or she previously opposed. https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-damas...youknowout As a 9/11 widow who has spent the last 17 years fighting for accountability with regard to the 9/11 attacks that killed my husband and 3,000 others, I find the recent uproar over Jamal Khashoggis disappearance and alleged murder interesting and out of character for many of those decrying his disappearance and demanding an investigation and accountability... https://washingtonsblog.com/2018/10/jama...verge.html Did Saudis, CIA Fear Khashoggi 9/11 Bombshell?Finian CUNNINGHAM, 14.10.2018The macabre case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi raises the question: did Saudi rulers fear him revealing highly damaging information on their secret dealings? In particular, possible involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks on New York in 2001.Even more intriguing are US media reports now emerging that American intelligence had snooped on and were aware of Saudi officials making plans to capture Khashoggi prior to his apparent disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. If the Americans knew the journalists life was in danger, why didnt they tip him off to avoid his doom?Jamal Khashoggi (59) had gone rogue, from the Saudi elites point of view. Formerly a senior editor in Saudi state media and an advisor to the royal court, he was imminently connected and versed in House of Saud affairs. As one commentator cryptically put it: He knew where all the bodies were buried. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2...shell.html LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 467626

10-19-2018 12:30 AM











Post: #14 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

How dare you defend the killing of this journalist...



SHAME. ON you. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 424701

10-19-2018 12:34 AM











Post: #15 RE: Jamal Khashoggi -- No angel was he. Here's the reality vs the fictional acct.

Khashoggi







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Four men found guilty of plotting a Lee Rigby-style terror attack are challenging their convictions, claiming they did not receive a fair trial.

Naweed Ali, Mohibur Rahman and Khobaib Hussain, who dubbed themselves the Three Musketeers before recruiting their fourth member, Tahir Aziz, had prepared to strike police and military targets on British soil.

They were arrested in August 2016 after MI5 went to bug Alis car and discovered a bag containing a terrorist kit, including a partially-complete pipe bomb and a meat cleaver.

The West Midlands-based gang, who sought out radical preacher Anjem Choudary, were found guilty at the Old Bailey in August last year of preparing terrorist acts.

They maintained their innocence throughout the trial, claiming the incriminating evidence was planted by an undercover police officer known as Vincent, the boss of a fake firm called Hero Couriers.

They are now seeking to overturn their convictions at the Court of Appeal, arguing their four-month trial was unfair because it was allowed to continue amid four separate UK terror attacks.

Lawyers for the four argued on Thursday that the trial should have been postponed following major incidents in Westminster, London Bridge, Manchester and Finsbury Park.

Stephen Kamlish QC, for Ali, told senior judges the trial jury was likely to have found it impossible to consider the case properly in the circumstances.

He said: We say that resulted in them being unable to follow their oath  not because they were avoiding it, but because they just couldnt risk letting them [the defendants] go.

All we asked for was an adjournment, we submit we should have got it.

The lawyers also said it was at least arguable that the trial jury was tainted after one juror  who was discharged  asked if a detective involved in the case was single on behalf of another juror.

Joel Bennathan QC, for Rahman, told the court it was clear one juror had an affection at some level for Detective Sergeant Ryan Chambers, which was repeatedly pursued, and that the other jurors said nothing to court staff.

He said: It is beyond doubt this takes away any idea that they are a conscientious jury, properly equipped to deal with the seriousness of the task.

The mens legal teams further argued that they should have been given more information about Vincent, and said Mr Justice Globes summing up of the case was biased in relation to the undercover officer.

Lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service opposed the appeals and argued there was no unfairness during the trial which was capable of rendering the convictions unsafe.

Ali, 30, and Hussain, 25, both of Evelyn Road, Sparkhill, Birmingham, and Rahman, 34, of High Lane, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, were each given minimum terms of 20 years.

Aziz, 39, of Wulstan Road, Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, was jailed for at least 15 years for his lesser role.

Lord Justice Holroyde, sitting with Mr Justice King and Judge Keith Cutler, said the court will give its ruling on the case at a later date.Prime Minister Theresa May has admitted that the transition period for the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union could be extended.

Mrs May said that the Government was considering an extension of a "matter of months" in an attempt to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

Read More

The UK is set to leave the EU on March 29 2019, with a transition period in place until the end of 2020, however if the new plan goes ahead the transition period will extend into 2021.

The Prime Minister indicated she was willing to consider an extension during a European Council meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

Expand Close Theresa May was facing a backlash from Brexiteers (Stefan Rousseau/PA) / Facebook

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EU Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier proposed the idea as a potential solution the Irish border issue.

If agreed, the change would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations until the end of the transition period.

Following intense speculation Mrs May admitted the proposal was under consideration on Thursday morning.

"A further idea that has emerged - and it is an idea at this stage - is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months - and it would only be for a matter of months," the Prime Minister said.

"But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

Im clear that it is possible to do that and that is what we are working for. In those circumstances, there would be no need for any proposal of this sort and Im clear that I expect the implementation period to end at the end of December 2020.

Any extension would have to be agreed to by Parliament and Mrs May would need the support of the DUP to ensure the passing of the legislation.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that a longer transition period would not work as a replacement for the backstop.

However he said that "if it did help to reassure people that the backstop would never be activated it could be a positive thing".

The backstop would keep Northern Ireland in the EU single market and customs union in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

It is intended to ensure that there will be no hard border in Ireland and the Irish Government have been adamant it must be included in any deal.

Brexiteers have rejected the move saying it would delay the signing of new trade deals around the world, and would cost taxpayers billions of pounds in additional contributions to the EU.

It is estimated the plan could cost the UK as much as 10billion.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that it would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 and may mean we never leave at all.Theresa May has risked enraging Brexiteers by indicating she is ready to consider extending Britain's transition out of the EU for a further year to the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister told a crunch European Council summit in Brussels that she was "ready to consider" the extension floated by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to give time to resolve the intractable problem of the Irish border.

If agreed, the change would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019 and more than five years after the referendum vote to Leave.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that it would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 and "may mean we never leave at all".

After her Chequers plan for Brexit was humiliatingly rejected at the last EU summit in Salzburg last month and efforts to seal a last-minute deal foundered last weekend over the EU's demand for a "backstop" to avoid a hard border in Ireland, Mrs May was fighting to keep the door open for an agreement to deliver an orderly withdrawal.

Addressing leaders of the 27 remaining EU member states in Brussels, she stressed that significant progress had been made in many areas of the negotiations and urged them to find a "creative" way out of the current dilemma.

"We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively," she said.

"I remain confident of a good outcome."

The Prime Minister added: "The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides."

Following her 20-minute speech, Mrs May left to eat at the UK ambassador's residence in the Belgian capital, leaving the EU leaders to discuss Brexit in her absence over dinner.

The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said: "Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table and would have to be looked into."

A senior EU official later said Mrs May had indicated she was "ready to consider" a longer transition period.

Mrs May initially suggested an "implementation period" of around two years after Brexit to give the UK's authorities and companies time to prepare for the new arrangements.

But she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

It emerged yesterday that Mr Barnier was ready to discuss a further year's extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials stressed that the Prime Minister was not proposing any extension to the period already agreed.

Any further extension is likely to be fiercely opposed by Eurosceptics, who warn the UK would become a "vassal state" of Brussels, bound by its rules but unable to influence them.

And it is certain to involve a demand from Brussels for a further year's contributions towards EU budgets, which could cost the UK as much as 9 billion.

This week's European summit has long been billed as "the moment of truth" when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification before Brexit day in March.

But Mr Barnier made clear no breakthrough was now expected, saying that "much more time" was needed to bridge differences between the two sides, and promising to "continue the work in the next weeks calmly and patiently".

Mrs May did not come forward with the new "concrete proposals" on the border issue which European Council president Donald Tusk has said are needed to break the deadlock.

A number of EU leaders voiced their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal.

But several also noted that their countries were beginning preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit.

In a speech to the German parliament before travelling to Brussels, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the possibility of a Brexit deal was "still there", but added that Berlin was making plans for a no-deal withdrawal.

In Paris, Emmanuel Macron's government published details of legislation to authorise preparations for a no-deal Brexit, which could see the restoration of customs checks and health inspections for animals at French ports, and even a requirement for Britons to seek visas for stays of three months or more.

Mr Macron, who held separate talks with Mrs May ahead of the three-hour dinner, said it was time to "accelerate" talks.

But Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said there would be "no breakthrough" this week because Mrs May lacked a strong mandate from her party and parliament.

Britain needed "to decide finally what they want and to rally behind the Prime Minister all together, not split", she said, adding: "Today we do not know what they want.

"They do not know themselves what they want.

"It is a problem."Honduran migrants who are travelling to the United States as a group, get a free ride in the back of a lorry in Guatemala (Moises Castillo/AP)

President Donald Trump has threatened to close the USs southern border with Mexico.

Mr Trump lashed out as a caravan of Central American migrants sought to reach the US.

He tweeted to say that, if Mexico does not intervene, he will use the military to close our southern border.

Mr Trump said he wanted Mexico to stop this onslaught.

He also appeared to threaten a revamped trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

Mr Trump did not detail his military threat.

During his campaign for the White House, he repeatedly promised to build a wall on the southern border which he insisted would be paid for by Mexico.

Expand Close President Donald Trump speaking during a Cabinet meeting (Evan Vucci/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Earlier this year, some National Guard members were deployed to the border on a limited mission that does not include contact with migrants.

More than 2,000 Hondurans are in a migrant caravan trying to reach the United States.

Mexicos government says migrants with proper documents can enter and those who do not either have to apply for refugee status or face deportation.New York prosecutors say the former lead police detective in the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault investigation urged one of his accusers to delete information from her phone before turning it over to prosecutors.

The Manhattan district attorneys office detailed the alleged misconduct in a letter to Weinsteins lawyer that was made public Wednesday.

The new allegations against Detective Nicholas DiGaudio involve an unidentified woman who says Weinstein raped her in his Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Prosecutors say the woman did not delete any information, which was personal and unrelated to the investigation.

DiGaudio was removed from the Weinstein case last week after evidence surfaced that he instructed a witness to keep quiet when she raised doubts about another accusers claim of sexual misconduct.

That disclosure led prosecutors to drop a charge related to that allegation.In one sense, it is an enormous honour that a Belfast writer, Anna Burns, has won the Man Booker Prize for her novel, Milkman. An equally creditable response would be: isn't it about time?

For we have a huge tradition of fiction writing here. My own first encounter with the Belfast novel was through Brian Moore. He took me through adolescent uncertainty against the backdrop of the Belfast Blitz in The Emperor of Ice Cream, a young Catholic's first encounters with Protestants, cynical, work-shy men, jobsworths in the ARP and the IRA.

This was our local version of Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a depiction of a boy's efforts to be an adult among adults who have not yet managed to be more than boys.

I first read it when I was the age of his character, struggling in much the same way. The Catholic school system, as I knew it, wasn't just as dark as the version of St Malachy's that he presented in The Feast of Lupercal. I suppose the thought of being sexually inexperienced at 37 was just too dark a prospect for me to empathise with. And he put a Belfast street onto the literary map in The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.

Her struggles with alcohol and loneliness occupied a Belfast I had not known before the emergence of the housing estates. Camden Street was yet to be the grubby flat-land of the university area, but a still respectable, slightly pretentious, area, where a woman falling apart might feel that she was still clinging to her dignity.

What I valued in Moore was that he was not replicating the Belfast of simple sectarian division. And it is true of our best writers that they don't fall back on the propagandist versions of life here, but unweave its complexity.

Some of the best novels doing this have come from Glenn Patterson. No 5 just told the story of a house over the years, as occupants changed, exploring racism, religion and family life.

What a novelist like Patterson does is open a window onto a Belfast that, in its ordinary everyday ways, defies the cliches and the image of the city that you would pick up from the news.

Which is not the same as avoiding the Troubles. In The International, Patterson took us back to the moment before this place came apart, in the International Hotel, where the SDLP was formed, to remind us of the character of the city then, the lightness of life here, the fact that the dark cloud that would cover us was not inevitable. And this is an important idea he develops in other books, the survival of simple humanity with ordinary concerns even while the city is viewed by the world as a warzone.

Frances Molloy took us into the life of a growing girl in the Derry countryside in No Mate For The Magpie. She wrote in dialect before the term "Ulster Scots" was coined and recreated life around a housing estate nicknamed "Korea", when Korea was the big story on the news on the wireless.

And this child grew up to contemplate being a nun and then to march to Burntollet, again, like Patterson, bridging the bad times with the times when Northern Ireland was not just like anywhere else, but distinctively amazing in ways far more interesting than you could know from newspapers and television.

Yet the Troubles were important. One of the most shocking depictions of what the violence was like is in Robert McLiam Wilson's description of a bomb explosion in Eureka Street. It just breaks into his story the way a real bomb would and yet he slows it all down to give us the lacerations by plate glass and the slow realisation of what is happening.

Eoin McNamee first appeared as a novelist who would look plainly at the full horror of the Troubles in Resurrection Man, but then went on to explore the undercurrents of this society by reimagining our pre-Troubles past in Blue Tango, in which he deals with the murder of Judge Curran's daughter, Patricia. In later books, he explores the Robert Nairac murder, the death of Princess Diana and the last hanging in Crumlin Road jail.

And the tradition of Northern Irish fiction writing continues. Bernie McGill's novel, set on Rathlin Island, when Marconi was experimenting with Morse Code. The Watch House looks at rural Irish life at the arrival of technology, the mix of magical and rational thinking. A wonderful book that puts you right there, in the peasant, obsessed world.

Even in the last year, we have had terrific novels by Bernie McGill, David Park, Sheila Llewellyn, Paul Burgess, Michael Hughes, Henry McDonald and Richard O'Rawe.

I don't know how this output compares to that of a comparably sized patch of England, or Germany, but it seems to me to be flourishing here as never before.

O'Rawe has given us one of the most daunting characters I have ever encountered in fiction - Ructions O'Hare, the master of the tiger kidnapping and surely one of the scariest men on the printed page.

Wendy Erskine's depiction of how a loyalist thug interacts with his community in Sweet Home, her first collection of short stories, will tell readers about the grim life in the meanest parts of Belfast with a sensitivity that few others approach.

Richard O'Rawe, like Gerard Brennan and Henry McDonald, are probably regarded as genre writers less likely to have a look-in at the big literary prizes, but that is a characterisation imposed from outside and does no justice to them.

Some of our writers, like David Park, can make a mystical epiphany real, daring to draw on the evangelical vision for modern fiction and others, like Thomas Paul Burgess, can step right outside to imagine hell in the aftermath of 9/11. Similarly, Jan Carson's engagements with weirdness and death-in-life are bizarre and grounded at the same time, sometimes as unnerving as HP Lovecraft.

It is just fantastic news that Anna Burns has won the Man Booker Prize for Milkman.

The best that can come of this now is that the world will look more closely at what we have here and wonder if it is something in the water that produces great local fiction, or just the horror we have been through.Last updated: September 30, 2020

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The Beliefnet.com web site (https://www.Beliefnet.com) (the Site) is a general audience web site, and we do not knowingly collect PII from children under 16 years of age.

Our Privacy Policy applies to "Visitors, which means that you simply browse or use the Site, Subscribers, which means that you have subscribed to receive one or more BN Media newsletter, email alerts or partner emails, and "Members," which means that you have registered with BN Media. The term "User" refers to a Visitor, Subscriber or a Member. By using the Site, you signify your agreement with all the terms of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Site. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to those web sites that do not display or link to this Privacy Policy or that have their own privacy statements.

BN Media may modify this Privacy Policy at any time. Each such modification will be effective upon posting on the Site and the effective date will be noted at the beginning of such revised Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Site after BN Media posts a revised Privacy Policy on the Site signifies your acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy. Therefore, you should review the Privacy Policy periodically so that you are up to date on our most current policies and practices. If BN Media materially changes its practices regarding collection or use of your PII, your PII will continue to be governed by the Privacy Policy under which it was collected unless you have been provided notice of, and have not objected to, such change. In the event the last e-mail address you provided to us is not valid or is not capable of delivering the notice to you, BN Medias dispatch of an e-mail containing the notice to that e-mail address shall nonetheless constitute effective notice.

Because the BN Media services are hosted in the United States, if you are a User located outside the United States, you understand and consent to having any PII and non-PII you provide transferred to and processed in the United States. The data protection and other laws of other countries, such as the United States, may not be the same as those in your jurisdiction. As a result, please read this Privacy Policy with care.

A. COLLECTION: COLLECTION OF PII AND NON-PII BY BN MEDIA (What Data Do We Collect, Where We Collect It From, and Why)

1. General . When BN Media collects PII from you it is because you are voluntarily submitting PII to us in order to register as a Member or a Subscriber. BN Media may also collect PII from you so that you can participate in activities like creating a personal profile (Your Profile), sweepstakes, contests, surveys, forums, in connection with questions you submit to us, or because you want us or a third party to furnish you with products, services or information. You are responsible for ensuring that the PII you provide is accurate and up-to-date. We may also obtain PII from reputable third parties or supplement PII that we have collected directly from our Users with additional PII or non-PII from reputable third parties.

In addition, BN Media collects non-PII including, without limitation, IP address, aggregate User data, and browser type. This non-PII data is used to manage and improve the BN Media services, enhance your experience on the Site, track usage, and for security purposes. Our primary service provider for collecting and processing site data and behavior is Google. You can find more information on Googles processing activities, by clicking on the following link (https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/partner-sites/). We have also entered into Data Processing Amendments with third-party data and advertising partners, where necessary, to ensure compliance with all relevant local, national, and international regulations.

You may also choose to voluntarily provide or store non-PII in Your Profile (as described in Section A (1) (a) below) or on message boards or other public forums, including but not limited to, text, files, images, photos, video, musical works, works of authorship, personal statements, comments or any other materials (collectively Content) that you choose to post to the Site (Content posted by any User is "User Content"). If you choose to store your Profile Information (as defined below in Section A (1) (a)), User Content or any PII on Your Profile, or provide any Profile Information, PII or User Content on message boards or other public forums provided on the Site, this information and content will be made public and you do so at your sole discretion and risk.

As noted above with regards to Googles Data Activities on our site(s) as well as others across the web, the following resources may be helpful for you in understanding, changing, updating, and maintaining your profile data with Google. These pages provide you with detailed information and give you control over your data with Google:

Myaccount.google.com

Myactivity.google.com

Privacy.google.com

Important Information about Changing and Updating your Registration Data and Your Profile Information. Members can change, correct, edit or remove their Registration Data (as defined below in Section A (1) (a)) and Your Profile information at any time and can control how Users and BN Media communicate with them by controlling their profile settings and privacy settings, available within the Edit Profile portion of the Profile section located in the Community section of the Site.

BN Media collects information from you at several different points on the Site in the manner set forth below:





(a). Member Registration and Your Profile : In order to access certain information and services on the Site, you must first register to become a Member by completing the BN Media registration credentials. During the Member registration process you will be required to provide registration data, which may include PII such as your full name and e-mail address (such PII is the Registration PII) and non-PII such as a password (Registration Non-PII, collectively with Registration PII, the Registration Data). You may also choose to voluntarily provide or store PII (such as your first and last name), non-PII and User Content in Your Profile (such information is your Profile Information). During the registration process you will also be required to create a User Name. The User Name you provide will automatically be incorporated into Your Profile and will be made public. Please choose your User Name carefully; if you do not want your full name to be public, do not use it as your User Name. The Profile Information you include in Your Profile will automatically be made public and you provide it at your own discretion and risk.

(b). Newsletters; Email Alerts : During the subscription process you will be required to provide subscriber data, which may include PII such as your full name and e-mail address (such information is the Subscriber PII) and zip code (such information is the Subscriber Non-PII, collectively with Subscriber PII the Subscriber Data). If you would like to unsubscribe from any BN Media newsletter or email alert, please use the unsubscribe link on the bottom of such newsletter or email.

(c) Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions : On the Site, you may have the opportunity to participate in sweepstakes, contests and other promotions that may require you to provide PII or other information about yourself. If and when we sponsor sweepstakes, contests or other promotions, or third parties sponsor such sweepstakes, contests or promotions with us, either we or the third party will post relevant privacy information in the official rules and/or registration area for the sweepstakes, contest or promotion. That privacy information, to the extent it conflicts with this Privacy Policy, will govern that particular sweepstakes, contest or promotionplease remember to read it carefully.

2. Cookies . Cookies are small bits of information that the Site places on the hard drive of your computer. BN Media uses cookies to identify your Internet browser, store your BN Media username for easy logon, store Users preferences, keep you logged in, and identify parts of the Site you have visited, applications you are using, advertisements you have seen and/or products you have purchased. Information about your activities on the Site and other non-PII about you may also be used to customize the online ads you encounter to those we believe are consistent with your interests.

BN Media, or data providers we have engaged, use cookies to enable you to receive customized ads (either on our site(s) or in our outbound marketing efforts on other sites and platforms), content or services, and to provide BN Media with certain information that enhances and enriches the user experience and our ability to understand our audience and inform our content strategy.. No PII is placed into these cookies. The cookies may reflect demographic or other data linked to data you voluntarily have submitted to us, e.g., your e-mail address in hashed, non-human readable form. To opt-out of these cookies, please go to http://www.privacychoice.org/companies and http://www.aboutads.info/choices.

You can opt out of our in-app behavioral targeted advertising by changing the settings on your mobile device. On Apple devices, the setting may be under Settings-Privacy-Advertising-Limit Ad Tracking. On Android devices, the setting may be under Settings-Account & Sync-Google-Ads-Opt Out of Interest-Based Ads. For further information, please go to the following links with device-specific opt-out instructions.

iOS - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202074

Android - https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en

Third party advertisements displayed on the Site may also contain cookies set by Internet advertising companies or advertisers. BN Media does not control these cookies and Users of the Site should check the privacy policy of the Internet advertising company or advertiser to see whether and how it uses cookies. (See Section C (Notice)

below for more information on third party advertisements).

For personal, browser-specific information on how you can adjust your cookie and privacy settings and configurations on your devices, weve compiled the following list of resources:

Internet Explorer

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Firefox

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-cookies-remove-info-websites-stored

Chrome

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop&hl=en

Safari

https://support.apple.com/kb/ph21411?locale=en_US

BN Media may use cookies and similar technology to relate your use of the Site to PII obtained from you or a reputable third party. For example, if you have asked us to provide you information about our upcoming products or promotions, cookie and/or click stream data about your activities on the Site may allow us to limit the materials we provide you to items we think you will find interesting, based on your prior online activities and preferences.

You can program your computer to warn you each time a cookie is being set or to refuse cookies completely. However, without cookies you may not have access to certain features on the Site.

A pixel tag or web beacon is a tiny image inserted in a webpage and used to record the number and types of views for that page. BN Media may allow third party pixel tags or similar technology to be present on the Site for purposes of advertising, providing services or data and statistics collection. We also may use this type of technology in order to recognize Users and assess traffic patterns, and we may include pixel tags/web beacons in our e-mail messages, including newsletters, in order to understand the time and date of when a User has opened an e-email and when he/she has utilized a link within the e-mail to visit a website. These pixel tags/web beacons do not contain PII. Users wishing to disable our pixel tags/web beacons should do so by turning images off in their email client (e.g., Outlook, Outlook Express). Please see your e-mail client for more information.

Notwithstanding anything else in this policy, we or a data provider we have engaged may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser to enable customized ads or content. No personally identifiable information is placed into these cookies. The cookies may reflect de-identified demographic or other data linked to data you have submitted to us, e.g., your email address, in hashed, non-human readable form. To opt-out of these cookies, please go tohttp://www.aboutads.info/choices.

Uses of cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies:

Our uses of such technologies fall into the following general categories:

1. Operationally Necessary. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that are necessary to the operation of our sites, services, applications, and tools. This includes technologies that allow you access to our sites, services, applications, and tools; that are required to identify irregular site behavior, prevent fraudulent activity and improve security; or that allow you to make use of our functions such as shopping-carts, saved search, or similar functions;

2. Performance Related. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies to assess the performance of our websites, applications, services, and tools, including as part of our analytic practices to help us understand how our visitors use our websites, determine if you have interacted with our messaging, determine whether you have viewed an item or link, or to improve our website content, applications, services, or tools;

3. Functionality Related. We may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies that allow us to offer you enhanced functionality when accessing or using our sites, services, applications, or tools. This may include identifying you when you sign into our sites or keeping track of your specified preferences, interests, or past items viewed so that we may enhance the presentation of content on our sites;

4. Advertising or Targeting Related. We may use first-party or third-party cookies and web beacons to deliver content, including ads relevant to your interests, on our sites or on third party sites. This includes using technologies to understand the usefulness to you of the advertisements and content that have been delivered to you, such as whether you have clicked on an advertisement. This information enables us to tailor our advertisements on third-party platforms like Facebook, Google, and other buying platforms and ensures that we can serve and target relevant ads to users on behalf of us and our advertising partners.

3. Message Boards and Public Forums : The message boards and public forums and similar features offered on the Site are for public and not private communications, and you have no expectation of privacy with regard to any PII, User Content or other information posted, submitted or distributed on or through a message board or public forum. BN Media cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose through any of the message boards or public forums available on the Site, and you make such disclosures at your own discretion and risk.

4. Third Party Ad and Service Provider Disclosures and Resources

Certain of our Third-party Advertisement and Data Service Providers have provided resources and disclosures to help you understand their positions in our site, data, and privacy framework. Below are those disclosures and resources:

Exponential

Subject to your consent, Exponential Interactive, Inc collect and profile personal data in the form of IP address and cookie ID from users on our website in order to provide targeted online advertising and ad measurement. You may change your consent decision at any time via <insert details of your consent mechanism or Consent Management Platform here>. For more details including access requests and complaints, review their privacy policy or contact their data protection officer via privacy@exponential.com.





Criteo

The purpose of Criteo Email is to find visitors of Criteo advertising clients properties (websites, apps and newsletters) and send them personalized emails. Criteo uses cookies to single out users and then personalize ads based on their browsing experience. To learn more or opt out of Criteo Email click here

(link to Criteo privacy policy at http://privacy.criteoemail.com/us/privacy-policy.html)



Nativo



Subject to your consent, Nativo, Inc. collects and processes personal data in the form of IP address and cookie ID from users on our website to measure user engagement and personalize ads and content based on your interests. You may visit Nativos Privacy Policy and Interest Based Ads Privacy Policy for more information and to object to such processing.

B. Collection of Personal Financial Information on the Site by an independent Third Party company

BN Media may use an independent third party company to process purchases and financial transactions on the Site. When an independent third party company selected by BN Media collects, transmits and/or processes your PII and your personal financial information, such as your credit card information or other payment information (collectively, Personal Financial Information), on the Site it is because you are submitting such Personal Financial Information in order to purchase any products or services offered from time to time on the Site. At the time of your purchase, BN Media will notify you of the identity of any third party that is collecting, transmitting and/or processing your Personal Financial Information. You must be 18 years of age or older to submit Personal Financial Information on the Site, including to place an order on the Site.

You acknowledge and agree that this Privacy Policy will not apply to any Personal Financial Information that you provide to any independent third party company on the Site and that all payment obligations related to such purchase shall be governed solely by the applicable independent third party companys privacy policy. You further acknowledge and agree that BN Media will have no liability for or control over such independent third party companys use or protection of your Personal Financial Information. You should check the privacy policy of the independent third party companys website to determine how it will handle any Personal Financial Information it collects from you and/or processes.

You acknowledge and agree that in the event that such independent third party company experiences a data breach that compromises or otherwise affects your Personal Financial Information, BN Media shall in no way be responsible or liable to you for such breach. You should contact the applicable independent third party company regarding any such data breach.

C. NOTICE: BN MEDIA WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH NOTICE ABOUT ITS PII AND NON-PII COLLECTION PRACTICES

When you voluntarily provide PII to BN Media, we will make sure you are informed about who is collecting the information, how and why the information is being collected and the types of uses BN Media will make of the information.

At the time you provide your PII, BN Media will notify you of your options regarding our use of your PII, including whether we will share it with outside companies (See Section D ( Choice ) below). This Privacy Policy describes the types of other companies that may want to send you information about their products and services and therefore may want to share your PII, provided you have given BN Media permission to do so (See Section E ( Use ) below).

Sometimes we collect PII from consumers in an off-line or manual format, such as by mobile phone. Providing detailed notice in those situations often proves impractical, so consumers will instead be provided with a short notice that describes how to obtain the full text of this Privacy Policy and other relevant information from us.

The Site may be linked to Internet web sites operated by other companies. Some of these third party web sites may be co-branded with a BN Media logo, even though they are not operated or maintained by BN Media (for example, the co-sponsored chat pages, advertising sponsor pages or product purchase pages). The Site also carries advertisements from other companies. BN Media is not responsible for the privacy practices of web sites operated by third parties that are linked to the Site, for the privacy practices of third party or national Internet advertising companies or for third party payment processing companies selected by BN Media. Once you leave a BN Media Site via such a link or by clicking on an advertisement, BN Media's Privacy Policy no longer applies and you should check the applicable privacy policy of the third party or advertiser web site to determine how they will handle any PII they collect from you.

The Site may also be linked to web sites operated by companies affiliated with BN Media. Visitors to those affiliated web sites should still refer to their separate privacy policies and practices, which may differ in some respects from this Privacy Policy.

Some of the advertisements that appear on BN Medias Site are delivered to you by national Internet advertising companies. These companies utilize certain technologies to deliver advertisements and marketing messages and to collect non-PII information about your visit to the Site, including information about the advertisements they display, any cookie they place on your computer and your IP address. To opt out of information collection by these companies, or to obtain information about the technologies they use or their own privacy policies, please visit:

http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

D. CHOICE: BN MEDIA WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH CHOICES ABOUT THE USE OF YOUR PII

BN Media will not use the PII you provide to us for purposes different from the purpose for which it was submitted unless otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy (See Section E ( Use ) below). BN Media will not share your PII with third parties that are not affiliated with BN Media, unless we obtain your permission or as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy (See Section E ( Use ) below).

E. USE: BN MEDIAS USE OF PII

BN Media will use your PII provided under this Privacy Policy in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy. If BN Media obtains PII from a third party, such as a business partner, our use of that PII is governed by this Privacy Policy.

BN Media may occasionally send Users information about special offers, Site updates, contests and other offerings via e-mail. We may also send information about products and offerings of our partners or other affiliated companies that we think may be of interest to our Users. To opt out of receiving these messages, click on the opt-out link at the bottom of our e-mails.

BN Media may also share your PII with affiliated companies. In addition, BN Media may share your PII with advertisers and business partners that are not affiliated with BN Media, but would like to send you information about their products and services. For example, BN Media may share your PII with the companies who supply prizes for BN Medias contests and may have special offers or promotions that might be of interest to BN Media users.

BN Media employees, agents and contractors must have a legitimate business or legal reason to access your PII. BN Media may share your PII with outside contractors or agents who help us provide you with services or products or who help us manage our information activities, but they may only use your PII to provide BN Media with a specific service and not for any other purpose. For example, if you enter a sweepstakes on the Site, your PII may be shared with our sweepstakes administrators.

BN Media may also enter into agreements with outside companies that possess the technology that allows BN Media to customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive on the Site. Your Non-PII and click stream data about your activities on the Site may be shared with these companies so this customization may be accomplished. Anonymous click stream and demographic information may also be shared with BN Media's advertisers and business partners.

There may be instances when BN Media may disclose PII without providing you with a choice in order to protect the legal rights of BN Media, other affiliated companies or any of their employees, agents and contractors; to protect the safety and security of any person, including, without limitation, Users of the Site, or the public; to protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; or to comply with the law or legal process. In addition, if BN Media sells all or part of its business or makes a sale or transfer of assets or is otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, BN Media may transfer your PII to a third party as part of that transaction.

F. SECURITY: BN MEDIA PROTECTS THE SECURITY OF PII

BN Media uses reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard PII in its possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification. However, no security system is impenetrable. BN Media cannot warrant or guarantee the security of its servers, nor can it guarantee that any information, including, without limitation any PII, that you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to BN Media over the Internet. Additionally, as outlined in our DPAs with third-party processors, BN Media will also be notified promptly by our third-party data processors of any breach of their systems so we can notify users immediately.

G. California Privacy Rights

Under California law, California residents have certain rights. The following describes how California residents may exercise those rights:

Right to Know

You may request that we disclose to you, for the 12 months preceding your request, the following: (i) the categories of personal information we have collected about you, (ii) the categories of sources from which the personal information is collected, (iii) the business purpose for collecting or selling personal information, (iv) the categories of third parties with whom we shared your personal information, and (v) the personal information we collected, used, disclosed, and sold about you.

To receive such information, please submit a request by email at copyrightagent@bnmediallc.com or call us at 1-833-796-0136 (enter PIN: 141439). We will use the information you provide to us solely for the purpose of verifying your request and locating your data, if any, within our records. In some instances, we may ask for (and require) additional information to verify your identity before we can release the information requested. Please note, under California law, such requests can be made a maximum of twice per twelve-month period.

Well respond to your request in a manner consistent with the laws of your state.

Disclosure or Sale of Personal Information

We share PII with third parties in exchange for something of value. The laws of some states consider this a sale of PII. For example, sharing an advertising or device identifier to a third party may be considered a sale under the laws of certain states. Some states allow you to opt out of the sale of your PII.

Categories of PII Collected, Categories of Sources, Purpose of Collection, and Categories of Third Parties to Whom We Disclose or Sell PII

We collected the following categories of PII over the past 12 months. For each category, we have indicated the categories of sources from which the PII was collected, the business purpose for which we collected the PII, and categories of third parties to whom we disclose or sell the PII.

Category of Information Sources Examples of Information and Purpose of Collection Third Parties to Whom We May Disclose Information Identifiers User Provided Data through forms, opt-ins, and subscriptions to our sites. Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters Name, Address, Email address, IP Address, Cookie ID, Zip Code, and other information collected through signup forms across our sites. Uses of this data include helping improve and customize experience on our sites and in our emails Affiliates, Service Providers, third-party advertisers and analytics providers Internet or other electronic network activity information: Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters Browsing activity on our sites and apps, browser type and browser language. This also encompasses other information that gets collected automatically when you use our sites and apps or interact with us through social media. Used in analytics and personalization on our site to allow us to understand activity and improve experience for our readers and users. We also use their search behavior to personalize content and advertising Affiliates, Service Providers, Third parties, such as third-party advertisers and analytics providers Geolocation data Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters IP addresses and inferences made from IP address. Used in analytics and personalization on our site to allow us to understand activity and improve experience for our readers and users. We also use their search behavior to personalize content and advertising Affiliates, Service Providers, Third parties, such as third-party advertisers, and advertising and list brokering networks and analytics providers Inferences Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters preferences, predispositions and behavior as they relate to our sites and apps. Used in analytics and personalization on our site to allow us to understand activity and improve experience for our readers and users. We also use their search behavior to personalize content and advertising Affiliates, Service Providers, Third parties, such as third-party advertisers, and advertising and list brokering networks and analytics providers

In addition, we may disclose PII and Non-PII as follows:

To service providers or parties that we have engaged to perform business-related functions on our behalf. This may include service providers that conduct research and analytics, create content, provide customer, technical or operational support, conduct or support marketing, fulfill orders and user requests, administer contests, maintain databases, send or support online or mobile advertising and otherwise support our Products and Services.

In response to legal processes such as court orders or subpoenas, law enforcement or government agency requests or similar requests.

With our affiliates so they can provide, improve and communicate with you about their own, or their marketing partners, products and services.

In the event that we consider the transfer our assets or sale of our business, either in whole or in part, Data, including PII, may be one of the assets transferred or sold, and may therefore be used by a third-party acquirer in accordance with this Policy. Such use by a third party may include review of PII, using such PII to contact you either before or after such a transfer or sale, use or transfer of non-PII before or after such a transfer or sale, or for other purposes.

In addition, we may share your information as described below:

Information You Elect to Share: You may choose to share information with Third Parties by clicking on links to those Third Parties from within the Products. In addition, you may elect to share information, including PII, through the Services offered on the Products by, for instance, posting comments on comment boards or listing classified advertisements. Some of your activity on the Products, including content you have posted, is public by default. Some of this content may include PII.

Third-Party Advertisers and Web Sites: We may share your PII and non-PII with Third Parties as described in the section above titled Third-Party

Advertising and Third-Party Web Sites.



Information Disclosed to Vendors, Partners, Service Providers, and Others for Business Purposes: We contract with vendors to provide services related to the Products and may share information with such vendors in order to provide products or services to you or to help maintain the Products. We also may share PII and non-PII with our partners, service providers and other persons with whom we conduct business.

Information Disclosed for the Protection of the Products and for Others. We may disclose PII and Non-PII when (1) required by law or to respond to legal process or lawful requests, including from law enforcement; (2) when we believe it is necessary to prevent, investigate, or address (a) possible illegal activities, including fraud, (b) violation of our Terms of Use, (c) violation of this Policy, or (d) threats to the physical safety of any person; or (3) to protect our rights or property.

Right to Delete

You may request that we delete any personal information about you which we have collected during the preceding twelve months. To have such information, if any, deleted, please click this link or call us at 1-833-796-0136 (enter PIN: 141439). We will use the information you provide to us solely for the purpose of verifying your request and locating your data, if any, within our records. In some instances, we may ask for (and require) additional information to verify your identity before we can comply with your request. Please note, under California law, such requests can be made a maximum of twice per twelve-month period.

Once we have determined a verifiable request has been submitted, the information will be deleted. Please note, we may retain any and all information if it is necessary for us to: complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, provide a good or services requested by you, perform a contract between you and us, detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, or prosecute those responsible for that activity, debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing functionality, exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech or another right provided for by the law, comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or comply with our legal obligations.

Well respond to your request in a manner consistent with the laws of your state.

Right to Opt-Out

At any time, you may direct us not to sell your personal information to third parties. To opt-out, please click this link: Do Not Sell My Info or call us at 1-833-796-0136 (enter PIN: 141439).

Non-discrimination

You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights under the CCPA.

Authorized Agent

You may be entitled, in accordance with applicable law, to submit a request via an authorized agent acting on your behalf. To do so, we must receive written authorization or a power of attorney, signed by you, for the agent to act on your behalf. You will still need to verify your identity directly with us.

H. California NOTICE

Categories of PI Collected and Business Purpose for Collection

Category of Information Examples of PI Collected Business Purpose for Collection Identifiers User Provided Data through forms, opt-ins, and subscriptions to our sites. Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters. Internet or other electronic network activity information: Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters. Geolocation data Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters. Inferences Browsing activity across our websites on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Interaction or Engagement with emails and newsletters.

To opt-out of the sale of your PII, please click this link: Do Not Sell My Info

California Do Not Track Disclosure

Certain web browsers may allow you to enable a do not track option that sends signals to the websites you visit indicating that you do not want your online activities tracked. This is different than blocking cookies as browsers with the do not track option selected may still accept cookies. Right now, there is no industry standard for how companies should respond to do not track signals, although one may be adopted in the future. We do not respond to do not track signals at this time. If we do so in the future, we will modify this Policy accordingly. More information about do not track is available at www.allaboutdnt.org.Predicting the end of the world has been a past time of religion almost as long as religion has existed. Men and women tried to read the stars, the clouds and the various natural phenomenon around them to determine if the end was nigh. Such soothsayers looked to myths and legends to see what was supposed to happen before the end. In many ancient cultures, the end of the world would come in a cataclysmic battle. The Norse Ragnarok, for instance, involved the death of almost every god and goddess in the pantheon.

Just like their ancient cousins, modern predictors of the end times often base their expectations on religious writings and the signs that are meant to indicate that the end is near. Some cultures and religions have more explicit warnings in their scriptures to work with than others. As such, those with an interest in predicting the end know what they should see in the last days, and those signs are making a number of Christians very nervous. Here are seven reasons Christians think the end times are near.

Israel is increasing in importance. Israel is everywhere in the Bibles descriptions of the end times. The nation is at the center of the Bibles overarching story, so it is no surprise that the small country is central to the end of days as well. Dozens of biblical prophecies revolve around the Temple, the fate of the people of Israel and, of course, Jerusalem.

The modern day state of Israel has been increasing in importance for years. From a purely geographical standpoint, the country is absolutely tiny. The entire nation is roughly the size of Vermont and could fit inside Lake Michigan with room to spare. That said, the question of Israel has loomed large in international politics for decades. The entire Arab world wants the state wiped off the map, but Israel is the United States ally and the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. The entire region turns on this tiny country, and Christians are wary of what will come after all eyes are fixed on Israel.

Lack of interest in the truth. Shutterstock.com Whether you are practically screaming at how the media distorts and spins stories to fit their agenda or wondering whether or not your Tinder matches really look that attractive in real life, you find yourself running into the same overarching issue. Truth has become less and less important as time goes on. People deliberately ignore facts in order to fit events into their predetermined narrative, lies and fake news run rampant on social media and it is a shock when advertisements state that they used an actual photograph instead of a heavily doctored image. People have forgotten what the truth is, and worse, most people really do not care. To anyone with a brain, this complete indifference to truth and reality spells disaster, and to Christians, this warns that the end may well be coming. Whether you are practically screaming at how the media distorts and spins stories to fit their agenda or wondering whether or not your Tinder matches really look that attractive in real life, you find yourself running into the same overarching issue. Truth has become less and less important as time goes on. People deliberately ignore facts in order to fit events into their predetermined narrative, lies and fake news run rampant on social media and it is a shock when advertisements state that they used an actual photograph instead of a heavily doctored image. People have forgotten what the truth is, and worse, most people really do not care. To anyone with a brain, this complete indifference to truth and reality spells disaster, and to Christians, this warns that the end may well be coming.

Increasing number of natural disasters. Shutterstock.com It seems like there is a new tragedy in the media every day. Of those disasters, many are caused by nature. Earthquakes, massive floods, hurricanes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, you name it, and it has been in the news lately. Human on human violence is horrific, but there is something especially chilling about nature itself turning against humanity. The body count is usually high and the damage catastrophic. There is also nothing anyone can do. When Kilauea erupted in May 2018 and continued to spew molten rock and poisonous gasses for nearly three months, all residents of Hawaiis Big Island could do was try and get out of the way. When Hurricane Harvey dumped so much water on Houston that the Earths crust under the city actually sank down two centimeters, humans could do nothing to hold back the water.

Christians are concerned that the rising number of natural disasters indicates that the end is near. It is, however, always possible that the number of disasters has not risen as much as many believe. Social media and technology now keep people tuned in to events all over the world, so people might simply be more aware of natural disasters than before. After all, the media may like nothing better than a scandal, but tragedy runs a close second.

Political turmoil is running rampant. Shutterstock.com Politics has gotten nasty in recent years, no one with eyes can deny that fact. Politics have also, in a painfully large number of places, simply failed. War and strife seems to be tearing the globe apart one region at a time. Terrorist groups like ISIS cause unrepentant slaughter in the Middle East and call for attacks in nations half a world away. The Rohingya face genocide in Myanmar, Christians are being murdered more or less with impunity in multiple countries and North Koreas dictatorial Kim dynasty is making attempts at producing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Europe has repeatedly covered up the crimes of refugees and immigrants, India is facing a massive surge of Hindu extremism and the United States escaped civil war by the skin of its teeth when some Democrats called on electors to ignore the will of their states and cast their Electoral College votes for Clinton instead of Trump. Given how the world seems to be falling apart at the seams, is it any wonder that Christians are getting nervous?

Minor divisions have split families. Shutterstock.com Families fight. No one likes it, but that is the reality. Siblings, parents and spouses disagree and argue. Sometimes, it is minor. Other times, it is vicious. Never is it pleasant. Usually, however, those fights can be patched up. That does not seem to be the case anymore. There are increasing numbers of stories about families that have split over the most minor of issues. In the last few years, political differences have caused children to stop speaking to parents or adult siblings to cut off contract from each other.

Beyond the splits that happen in messy, protracted fights, there is a fundamental disconnect that exists in many families along generational lines. Parents who grew up before the explosive growth of the internet, social media and technology sometimes struggle to relate to their children who truly do not know how to function without their devices. This breakdown of the family concerns many Christians.

Increasing debates over what is Christian. Shutterstock.com Biblical prophecies that talk about the end times often emphasize that large numbers of the faithful will abandon their religion and begin to follow false prophets or worship false gods. Today, there are many debates over what exactly is allowed in Christianity. Many Christians, especially young Christians, advocate for pluralism and mix the practices of other faiths with those that are traditionally associated with Christianity. Many Christians practice yoga, originally a Hindu spiritual practice, or engage in Buddhist inspired meditation. To the fury of many traditionalists, a large number of Christians take part in New Age and Neopagan practices such as divination. Among the most popular of these faith crossovers are angel cards which act as a combination of tarot card divination and shamanic communication with the spirit realm. There is no clear consensus among Christians over what is and is not permitted, and that worries many. Biblical prophecies that talk about the end times often emphasize that large numbers of the faithful will abandon their religion and begin to follow false prophets or worship false gods. Today, there are many debates over what exactly is allowed in Christianity. Many Christians, especially young Christians, advocate for pluralism and mix the practices of other faiths with those that are traditionally associated with Christianity. Many Christians practice yoga, originally a Hindu spiritual practice, or engage in Buddhist inspired meditation. To the fury of many traditionalists, a large number of Christians take part in New Age and Neopagan practices such as divination. Among the most popular of these faith crossovers are angel cards which act as a combination of tarot card divination and shamanic communication with the spirit realm. There is no clear consensus among Christians over what is and is not permitted, and that worries many.

Fall of many prominent Christians. Shutterstock.com In the last few decades, Christianity has accumulated a number of black eyes as the result of painfully public scandals. The Catholic Church has repeatedly been embroiled in child abuse and sexual scandals and responded by trying to cover them up. Protestants have not fared much better. Numerous radio and television evangelists have been arrested for everything from sexual misconduct to fraud. Heads of prominent churches were named as predators during the #MeToo movement, and toxic cultures on Christian college campuses were called out across the nation. This struck many Christians as a warning that there were many false prophets and poor leaders lurking in modern Christianity. They were, whether through deliberate malice or their own failure to tame their vices, leading the faithful astray. Some Christians felt that this was a warning to the faithful that the end of days was far closer than anyone seemed to realize. In the last few decades, Christianity has accumulated a number of black eyes as the result of painfully public scandals. The Catholic Church has repeatedly been embroiled in child abuse and sexual scandals and responded by trying to cover them up. Protestants have not fared much better. Numerous radio and television evangelists have been arrested for everything from sexual misconduct to fraud. Heads of prominent churches were named as predators during the #MeToo movement, and toxic cultures on Christian college campuses were called out across the nation. This struck many Christians as a warning that there were many false prophets and poor leaders lurking in modern Christianity. They were, whether through deliberate malice or their own failure to tame their vices, leading the faithful astray. Some Christians felt that this was a warning to the faithful that the end of days was far closer than anyone seemed to realize.

Christians who predict the end of the world are often the subjects of mockery, but there are very good reasons that many of the faithful are nervous. Plenty of the things that are going on around the world seem to indicate that the end times are rapidly approaching. Such events, however, do not comprise proof. The end may be near, or it may be centuries away. There will be no way to know for certain until Christ returns again and the final battle begins.There are very few questions on which more depends than the question of whether or not Jesus Christ rose from the dead 2,000 years ago. If the Christian claim that He did is true, then there is good reason to believe that Christians truly know God. If Jesus did not rise, however, then more than 2 billion people are living a lie. To raise the stakes even further, most religions would agree that there is nothing more or less than billions of souls at stake given that the question of whether or not Jesus was resurrected ties directly into the claim of whether or not He was actually God.

Christians have been acquiring and sharing evidence that Christ really was resurrected for centuries, and skeptics have argued their own case for why the Resurrection is a myth for almost as long. One question that comes up repeatedly in these debates is how much the Bible can be relied upon as an objective source. Some people claim that the New Testament should not be used as a historical source at all because it is a religious text first and foremost. On the other end of the spectrum are people who claim the Bible should be treated as a completely objective and accurate historical text. In the middle are those who believe that the Bible is a decent reference but its stories need to be confirmed through other sources and that it should be treated with no more or less scrutiny than any other first century document.Given how contentious the use of the Bible can be in a debate, it is best to have other sources to back up an argument about the Resurrection. So, what would those sources be? Is there evidence for the Resurrection outside of the Bible?The short answer is that yes, there is. The Bible is by far the greatest source of information about the Resurrection, and there are non-theological reasons to treat the Bible as a legitimate source when investigating first century Israel and the life of Christ. It is one of the most complete and oldest sources that describes the events of Jesus life. The Bible is also far easier to fact check than many ancient documents as the Bible has a habit of including specifics. Places, people and dates are often referenced in its pages, many of which can be confirmed as fact or fiction. Early non-Christian sources for the life and resurrection of Christ are more difficult to find simply because it took time for Christianity to spread and for non-Christians to become interested in the life of Christ. For decades after Christs death, Christians were a small but unnervingly zealous religious group. It was not until they began to increase in number and strength that people from outside Judaism and Christianity became curious about the man for which the religion was named. That said, there are some early sources besides the Bible that point toward confirming the Resurrection.One of the most trusted sources for information on ancient Israel is the Jewish historian Josephus. He was more interested in the history of his people than with the birth and growth of the strange new offshoot of Judaism that was beginning to be known as Christianity, but he does reference Jesus twice. One of the times Jesus is mentioned by Josephus is actually when he is discussing Jesus brother, James. In the Antiquities of the Jews book 20, chapter 9, Josephus names James as the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ. As a Jew, Josephus does not claim that Jesus of Nazareth was the prophesized Messiah, but he does use Jesus identification as Christ as a way to differentiate Him from the 20 other people named Jesus who are mentioned in Josephus work. Josephus other reference to Christ is in what is called the Testimonium Flavianum. The text, as it normally stands, reads in many ways, like something a Christian would write:About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who performed surprising deeds and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. And when, upon the accusation of the principal men among us, Pilate had condemned him to a cross, those who had first come to love him did not cease. He appeared to them spending a third day restored to life, for the prophets of God had foretold these things and a thousand other marvels about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.This, of course, is not something that a Jew would write. That said, the structure of the passage and the way the passage about James is constructed strongly suggests that the Testimonium Flavianum is not a complete construction by later Christian readers. Josephus makes it clear in the passage about James that he has already referenced Jesus, who was called Christ elsewhere. The Testimonium Flavianum is the only other place Jesus is referenced by name, and it comes before the passage about James. As such, it is believed that the Testimonium Flavianum originally reference Christ but was tampered with later. The discovery of another version of Josephus Antiquities, however, contains what is most likely the original passage:At this time there was a wise man called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. Many people among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. But those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah, concerning whom the prophets have reported wonders. And the tribe of the Christians, so named after him, has not disappeared to this day.This is something a Jew could write without converting to Christianity, and it lines up with what other ancient sources either explicitly state or imply about the beginnings of Christianity.Unsurprisingly, Josephus has little to say about the actual Resurrection, but he is one source that helps to prove that the disciples, at least, believed the Resurrection occurred. Josephus also confirms that Jesus was crucified by Pilate, and His disciples claimed He rose on the third day. This is far more than most ancient sources have to say about a carpenter from a Mediterranean backwater. Tacitus, a Roman historian and senator, confirms Josephus account that the Christians who Tacitus so loathed were named for a Judean man who was called Christ who had been put to death. It is worth noting that even Roman aristocrats were aware that Christianity, a most mischievous superstition, had originated in Judea, a place most Romans regarded as the back end of the universe.Outside of non-Christian textual evidence, some of the best proof in the Resurrection was the actions of Early Christians. Roman and Jewish persecution set in almost as soon as Christianity began. That said, most Christians refused to give up their faith. As Christ had only died 30 years before, a number of Early Christians would have been people who had actually known Him. They would have been the ones that could not have been fooled by lies and could have confirmed or denied the Gospel accounts. Those accounts were already circulating, as Rabbi Tarfon stated in the second half of the first century that Christian texts should be burned even if they contained pieces of the Hebrew scriptures.Rather than claiming the accounts were false, eyewitnesses suffered horrifically under Roman rule. When the Great Fire of Rome broke out in A.D. 64, Nero used Christians as scapegoats for the fire. The torturous executions of identified Christians following the fire were brutal even by the standards of Romes dark creativity. Tacitus specifically mentions the most famous of those gruesome punishments, that of the human torch. In this horrific method of murder, captured Christians were nailed or tied to crosses and then burned alive to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Other Roman sources confirm that Christians were persecuted throughout the Empire, though Neros cruelty was legendary enough to stir a feeling of compassion for a class hated for their abominations even among Romans who were used to viciously creative methods of execution and public displays of exquisite tortures.Another source of evidence for the Resurrection is actually what did not happen in Judea. As Christians became a problem, Jesus body was never displayed. In fact, Jewish polemics claimed that His body was stolen. They never claimed that the body was still in the tomb. There was also not a shrine erected over Jesus tomb until nearly 300 years after His death. In the first century, it was customary to set up a shrine over the bones of a holy man or prophet. Jesus was publically executed and then buried by a member of the Sanhedrin. His burial place would have been easy to discover, but it was never used as a place of veneration or mocking, possibly because there was nothing there to venerate or to mock.Innumerable books have been written on the subject of Christs resurrection, both for and against its historicity. As such, there is a great deal of evidence out there on both sides of the argument. What really happened 2,000 years ago is still up for debate, but whatever occurred reverberated throughout the ancient world with enough strength that it was noticed not just by Christians but by those who wanted the fledgling Church crushed before it could go on to become the global force it would one day become. Although there is not proof for what specifically happened in Judea 2,000 years ago, there is no doubt that it was something huge as the ripples from it shook the ancient world to its foundations and continue to echo into modernity.Christianity, Islam and Judaism collectively are called the three Abrahamic religions. This is because all three faiths honor Abraham and see him as the beginning of their faith or as starting the religious lineage of which their faith is a part. As such, there are a number of similarities between the three religions. There are also, however, a number of differences.

In Favor

In Opposition

The three Abrahamic religions form a religion family, and no one would disagree with the assessment that they are three very different faiths. What is sometimes debated is whether or not the three religions worship the same God. This question has been hotly debated by laypeople of all three religions, religious experts from all three faiths, academic scholars, theologians and religious historians. There are books written on the subject with evidence both supporting and denying the claim that the Abrahamic religions share a God as well as a distant founder. So, what are some of the arguments for and against the idea that Christians, Muslims and Jews all worship the same God?All three Abrahamic religions are defined as monotheistic. They all claim that there is one God, and they worship Him. In the texts of all three religions, God is defined as the God of Abraham. As the name Abrahamic suggests, Christianity, Judaism and Islam all trace their faith back to Abraham. He is the one with whom God made His covenant and from whom later faith leaders came. All three religions claim to trace their worship back to Abraham without ever having broken the chain.Islam and Christianity also both identify Judaism and its stories as the forerunner of their religion. Islam also claims Christianity as a religious forerunner. In Christianity, Christ is the Messiah the Jews were waiting for from the beginning. In Islam, Moses and Jesus were both great prophets sent by God ahead of Muhammad. Both Christianity and Islam seem to agree that they are worshipping the same God as Judaism. They argue that the Jews are worshipping God incorrectly or incompletely, but they do not claim that the Jews are worshipping a different God.The three Abrahamic religions also share a number of the same stories and the lessons those stories carry. Islam, Christianity and Judaism all honor Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament. Islam also honors Christ. Furthermore, all three religions see worshipping a false or different God as one of the worst if not the worst sin a person can commit. They also agree on the power of prayer and, to a certain extent, pray in similar manners. God even has a similar personality in each faith. When the holy books of all three faiths are read in their entirely, God appears to be kind, merciful and benevolent toward those who are righteous and follow His laws and listen to His prophets. Toward the enemies of His people and the unrighteous, He is harsh, strict and terrifies with His power. These are far more similar than many closely related religions can claim, and there are no other large, distinct religions that are as closely related and intertwined as the three Abrahamic faiths.All three Abrahamic religions claim to be the correct way to worship the God of Abraham. No one can deny, however, that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship differently. If all three religions follow the same God, why do they worship in different ways? Did God demand something different of each people? The answer from each religion would be that they are worshipping correctly and the other religions misunderstood or made a mistake that has led to their descendants worshipping incorrectly. Accepting this answer, however, requires accepting that one of the three faiths is correct and the others are wrong.Arguing that the three religions all come from Abraham and his faith also runs into a similar problem. Jews and Christians both trace their faith back through the line started by Abraham and Sarahs son, Isaac. Muslims, however, trace their religious lineage to the son of Abraham and Hagar, Ishmael. This may or may not be a problem from a worship or theological standpoint, but it is worth mentioning.One could argue that doctrine is created by man, but since all three religions have very different rules that are supposedly from the same God, it does need to be addressed. Islam and Judaism both have specific purity codes that prohibit certain foods. Christianity does not. Christianity is defined by the doctrine of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. Islam and Judaism both disagree with the idea of the Trinity and the idea that Jesus was the Son of God. Islam holds that He was a prophet. Some Jews agree with this assessment while others believe Jesus was at best insane and at worst an agent of evil sent to lead people astray.Evil and sin are also ideas on which the religions disagree. Islam, for example, believes that when a person is judged their sins and virtues are weighed against each other. If virtue wins, the person earns Paradise. Christians, however, believe that entrance into heaven depends on Gods grace and Jesus salvation. Where sin came from and what role, if any, Satan plays in creating and encouraging sin also varies between the three religions as do beliefs in angels, demons, jinn and other spiritual beings.Islam, Christianity and Judaism share a great deal of history and have more in common with each other than any other set of major religions on the planet. As such, some people both inside and outside the religions claim that the Abrahamic faiths all worship the same God. Whether or not that is true is a subject of hot debate, and both answers lead to more and equally pressing questions. So far, however, no one has been able to give an answer to the question that satisfies everyone, and it is unlikely that anyone will succeed in doing so. After all, the three Abrahamic faiths together contain more than half the human population. Finding something that 4 billion people can agree on, especially in a matter as important and personal as faith, would certainly be a modern day display of the incredible power all three religions attribute to God. What a miracle to remember that would be.We all have been there. Sunday mornings as a kid, being dragged to church despite or cries to go play outside instead. We might not have understood why our parents kept bringing us to Sunday School, but as we grew up we began to learn more and more about Jesus, the Christian faith, and spiritual journey we would be going on.

However your parents, despite their best intentions, many have made some choices that caused you to be confused and disconnected to the church. Maybe as a teen you started questioning why God would allow a tragedy to happen and your parents didnt know how to answer. Maybe your parents actions didnt always align with how you interpreted the Bible, but they didnt have answers for that either. You might have hated the church your family raised you in, but couldnt make any changes to the situation. Whatever it was, doubt crept into your mind.

Recent statistics have suggested that 60 to 70 percent of kids raised in Christian homes leave the faith in college years. Its not necessarily surprising. Parents tend to get in the habit of strapping their kids into the pew seats for eighteen years and expect their teens to just arrive at a mature faith. Parents think that they set enough of a Christian foundation in their children to where they never have to worry, however that almost never is the case.

Did your parents show you that God was more than just rules and church attendance? Did you feel like they just handed you over to the youth leaders and expect them to teach you about the faith? Did they ever show you their own person faith struggles? These are just some of the reasons your parents faith didnt stick to you like they may have expected.

Parents think that there child should be at whatever arbitrary milestone that they created in their head, and when the child isnt quite there yet with Christ they panic. When teens begin to rebel against the faith, parents will try hard to push the Christian faith back on their children. This almost always backfires and leaves the child feeling more against the faith than ever.

What parents need to understand is that their personal faith isnt always going to match their childrens. What kids need to understand is that their own personal faith journey doesnt have to match their parents.

We all are going to go through very personal faith journeys. You might be someone that frequently questions God and arent ready to fully except Him into your heart yet, despite that your mother is a high ranking church official. On the flip side, you might be someone that believes you should read the Bible and pray daily, while your family doesnt do the same. All of this is OK, because God loves you just the same. God already has a plan for you and your journey, and it might bring you to places your parents never discovered.

Your faith journey is yours and yours only. Its a relationship that is built between just you and God. He knows where you stand in life, the struggles and doubts you may be going through, and the spiritual path you are ready to begin taking. It might lead you to a church that is different to the one your parents go to, or lead you to a period where you dont listen for God at all. Life has its ups and downs, and your faith journey will reflect that.

Its important to remember that no matter what your parents think, as long as you are happy with where you currently stand with God thats all that matters. Your mom may have found salvation and accepted Jesus into her heart at 14, while you might never do so until your 65. You should always worship and praise God because you want to. Not because you think it will please your parents.

God wants you to be the true version of yourself and no one else. While your parents were able to bless you by giving you a place to begin your faith, what you choose to do after that is entirely up to you and the Lord.Walk past almost any gym that offers group fitness classes, and there will probably be a sign advertising yoga classes. Browse through stress relief blogs, and there will almost certainly be a series of images that feature people either in various yoga positions or meditating. Look through the internet for information on increasing energy levels, and there are likely to be a list of suggested yoga positions to refresh and energize those that practice them. Yoga, it seems like, is everywhere.

Yoga has absolutely exploded in the West. Yoga studios pop up across cities like particularly Zen dandelions. People compete to see who can hold the most complicated pose for the longest. Social media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest are covered in images of people doing yoga on the beach or in front of beautiful sunsets. Yoga in many ways seems like any other fitness craze at first. Those who begin to dig into it, however, quickly find that yoga is couched in a great deal of spiritual language. Even yoga classes at gyms that are meant as exercise often have a religious feel to them. Does that mean yoga is a spiritual practice by nature?Yoga originated in ancient India as a form of religious practice that later went on to become its own theological school. It is considered to be one of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism , a strange concept on its own given that Hinduism is far more varied by nature than any of the other major world religions. Yoga as a Hindu theological school is seen as a form of mysticism, but it has the same goals as any school or tradition in Hinduism. Yogis, or yoga practitioners, aim to obtain moksha or liberation from the suffering of samsara, the cycle of birth, death and rebirth that is at the center of Hinduism.Many traditions practice some form of yoga, but the goal is always to achieve moksha. The so called orthodox school of Yoga argues that a living being is made up of a consciousness and of matter. These are then subdivided into senses, feelings, activities and elements that make up a human being. In Yoga, some of these elements overwhelm the others. When this happens, a person is trapped in bondage. Yoga helps balance out those elements. When balance is restored, a person achieves moksha and will not be reborn into the suffering of samsara after they die. Other schools of yoga see a person achieving moksha in different ways. Kundalini yoga in Shaivism, for example, is an attempt to awaken Kundalini, a form of primal energy located at the base of the spine. Kundalini is awakened by deep meditation and is said to result in a feeling of enlightenment and bliss that comes along with a feeling of electricity running up and down a persons spine. Yoga is then used to direct Kundalini, which is often depicted as a snake, up the body through the various chakras to the crown of the head where the Kundalini can either escape to the sun or unite with Shiva depending on the tradition.Kundalini yoga has been growing in popularity in the West, but it is unlikely that most practitioners are aware of the deep religious significance the practice originally carried. The same is true of more traditional Western yoga.Yoga in the West usually downplays the religious elements of yoga. The spiritual language and feeling is not removed entirely, but the explicit references to Hinduism have been removed in order to make it possible for people of any religion to take part in yoga classes. As such, yoga has flourished across religious, ethnic and generational lines.In addition to deliberately removing many of the religious references from yoga, the actual practice of yoga as it is carried out in the West looks very different from most Indian traditions. Yoga in India is more focused on the breathing, meditative and other spiritual elements. Yoga in the West focuses almost solely on the various poses or asanas. These are an important part of the branch of yoga known as Hatha Yoga in India. The asanas, while a defining part of Hatha Yoga, are only a small part of the greater religious practice.Given how many of the religious elements have been deliberately removed from the Western version of yoga, it is safe to say that Western yoga bears very little resemblance to Indian yoga. One focuses primarily on physical exercise while the other is more concerned with helping the soul escape from samsara. The focus on the physical in the West in many ways gives it more flexibility and attracts a greater and more diverse crowd. This means that people from all walks of life can enjoy the benefits of yoga without feeling like they are compromising their own religions. As such, yoga can be used as a spiritual practice that is disconnected from the faith in which it originated. How much religion or spirituality a person wants to put back into their yoga practice really does simply depend on the individual in the West. There is no doubt, however, that yoga was originally meant to be a form of spiritual practice far beyond what many Western yogis experience today.Maggie's Farm We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.Updated at 12:49 p.m. ET on 2018-10-18

Malaysian authorities on Thursday arrested opposition leader and former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is expected to be taken to court on Friday to face money-laundering and corruption-related charges, officials said.



Zahid is the next highest-ranking official from Malaysias previous government to be taken into custody by the national anti-graft agency, after former Prime Minister Najib Razak was arrested twice and charged in connection with a massive financial scandal linked to 1MDB, a state investment fund.



Zahid, 65, was placed under arrest at the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Putrajaya, soon after arriving there in the mid-afternoon in response to a summons from the agency. It said his arrest resulted from its probe into Zahid over alleged corruption involving money from a foundation that he chaired.



The MACC has arrested former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in connection with our investigation related to power abuse, criminal breach of trust and money laundering linked to a foundation after we received a green light from the Attorney Generals Chamber, it said in a statement.



[Z]ahid will be facing several charges under the MACC Act 2009 and Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, the agency said, adding he would be charged at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Friday morning.



Zahid was to be held in MACC custody overnight before Fridays court appearance, according to a source at the agency.



Yes, he is arrested and will spend the night at the headquarters in Putrajaya, the source told BenarNews via a text message.



Zahid is president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the anchor party in the Barisan Nasional coalition, which lost a general election in May after ruling the country for 61 years.



His arrest is the first of a sitting UMNO president in the partys 72-year history. He is also the second top party leader to be arrested over suspected corruption and abuse of power after Najib, who resigned as chief of Barisan and UMNO soon after the electoral defeat.



Zahid served as Najibs deputy from July 2015 until Barisan was upset in the May 9 polls by the Pakatan Harapan alliance. It won on a platform of promising to rid government of corruption and to investigate the alleged theft of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a sovereign wealth fund started by Najib in 2009.



MACC was investigating Zahid on suspicion that he misappropriated 800,000 ringgit (U.S. $192,000) from the Akal Budi Foundation to pay off credit bills accumulated by him and his wife, according to Malaysian media reports. Zahid chaired the charity, which gave money to religious schools and provided students with grants.



On the eve of his arrest, Zahid told Benar that his expected arrest and the charges to be brought against him were politically motivated. He did not answer any more questions.



Zahids lawyer, Hamidi Mohd Noh, said his client was officially arrested at 3:42 p.m. after being brought to the commissions subterranean investigation room.



Despite usually being allowed to follow Zahid, lawyers are not allowed to go with him this time, the attorney told BenarNews in a text message. Nobody was allowed to follow him after 3 p.m.



Questioned multiple times



Before his arrest Zahid spent some 32 hours being questioned in four separate interviews with MACC that took place on July 3 and between Oct. 10 and Oct. 12.



In July, he was also grilled by the agency over his knowledge of the 1MDB affair, where he purportedly claimed to have met with a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family who was said to have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to former Prime Minister Najib. The ex-leader has denied any criminal wrongdoing in MACC investigations targeting him.



In early October, Najibs spouse, Rosmah Mansor, was arrested and charged with money-laundering and tax fraud in connection with the 1MDB scandal. She pleaded not guilty.



Revenge burning in their hearts



At 9 p.m. on Thursday (local time), hours after Zahid was arrested, a crowd that included his daughter and granddaughter gathered in front of the agencys headquarters in a show of solidarity with the former deputy prime minister.



Zahids wife, Hamidah Khamis, called on the UMNO faithful to give the partys president their full support.



He has given his support for his race, religion and country in the past, she said in an audio recording obtained by BenarNews.



She also urged the Pakatan government to be fair and not point fingers at people.



There are still elements of revenge burning in their hearts that pit Malays against Malays, she said, adding that this could lead to the destruction of the countrys ethnic majority.



When asked on Thursday whether Zahids arrest would affect his standing as party chief, UMNO Secretary General Annuar Musa replied that it was too soon to say.



We shall follow the legal process. We as UMNO are very obedient to the law as long as it is carried out through the right process, Annuar said.A police officer stands next to the body of one of the policemen killed in an attack blamed on the communist New People's Army (NPA) near Lupi town, in the eastern Philippine province of Camarines Sur province, Oct. 18, 2018.

Communist guerrillas killed three police officers and wounded three others in an ambush Thursday, a day after the Philippine government announced the capture of five guerrilla leaders, a police report said.

The officers were aboard a vehicle travelling on a highway near Lupi town in the eastern province of Camarines Sur when they were attacked by about 20 gunmen believed to be members of the New Peoples Army (NPA), the report said.

The policemen were part of a police escort for Nela Charade Puno, the director of the Food and Drug Administration, whose party was on its way to a nearby province. Puno was apparently not harmed, authorities said.

The police vehicle was initially hit by a blast from an improvised explosive device before the rebels opened fire, according to the government-run Philippine News Agency, which cited investigators. It said the wounded officers fought back, preventing the rebels from taking away their rifles.

Police in the area were able to immediately respond to the area and retaliate, thereby suppressing the enemy and preventing further damages, casualties, the report said.

It identified those killed as police officers Percival Rafael, Carlito Navarroza and Ralph Jason Vida.

The attack came a day after the military announced the capture of five senior communist rebel leaders who were allegedly involved in an October plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

Among those caught was Adelberto Silva, a consultant for the underground Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and Edical Legaspi, a rebel leader in the northern Philippines, the military said.

The military did not explain what roles the captured rebel leaders were to play in the alleged ouster plot codenamed Red October, which involved Dutertes ouster in a conspiracy involving the CPP and some political figures.

The alleged plot, however, has largely been discredited and denied by opposition figures.

Tens of thousands have been killed since 1969 when the CPP and its NPA armed wing began what is now Asias longest-running insurgency.A boy views the destroyed commercial district of the southern Philippine city of Marawi from atop a building, Oct. 18, 2018.

Updated at 1:55 p.m. ET on 2018-10-18

President Rodrigo Duterte may extend martial law in the southern Philippines beyond this year, his spokesman said Thursday, noting that tight military rule in the volatile south has effectively kept Islamic State-linked militants at bay.

Congress had earlier approved a one-year extension of the martial law covering the entire southern island of Mindanao until December this year, giving the military enough time to round up militants who had escaped from Marawi last year.

The gunmen, led by Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged IS chief in the Philippines, included fighters from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, who sacked Marawi for five months, leading to vicious gun battles that destroyed the lakeshore city, displaced 200,000 of its residents and killed 1,200 people, mostly militants.

Well, according to the military, the martial law has helped in the peace and order situation. And it has dissuaded the terrorists from inflicting the usual violence against the population, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.

There might be a need to extend military rule, he said. But according to the president, it will depend on the advice, the recommendation of the military because they are the ones on the ground.

Earlier this year, the government had warned that dozens of followers of the slain Hapilon remained at large in Mindanao and were trying to recruit Muslim youths in remote areas.

The military also said that at least 48 foreign militants were known to have landed on Mindanao island and were in charge of recruitment.

Congress extended martial law until end of this year

Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law on May 23, 2017, after the IS-inspired militants laid siege to the predominantly Islamic city. Military rule was set to expire in December 2017, but Congress had agreed to extend it until the end of this year.

Rights groups have been calling on the president to lift the martial law, accusing the military of carrying out atrocities. Officials had denied the allegations.

Col. Romeo Brawner, the militarys deputy commander in Marawi, said martial law had helped maintain security.

But we are not resting. We are making sure the city is indeed safe because of martial law implementation, Brawner said.

He said that he favored that the military retained control in Marawi, where the rebuilding efforts had been slowed down by construction delays.

Brawner said the prevailing situation was entirely different to the previous martial law, noting that soldiers now were more professional than in the past.

He was alluding to martial law imposed by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1972 until 1981, during which he jailed opposition leaders, imposed curfews and padlocked media outlets.

Thousands of activists went missing or killed, while state coffers were raided. Anti-graft investigators said Marcos and his cronies stole up to $10 billion during his two decades in power until he was toppled by a popular revolt in 1986, sending him into exile in Hawaii, where he died of natural causes three years later.

Militant attacks, according to authorities, have continued in parts of Mindanao despite tight military rule that included security road blocks. Just this month, six anti-narcotic policemen were slain by gunmen in an ambush near Marawi.

In August, Filipino militants set off homemade bombs that killed at least two peoples and injured dozens of others in Isulan town, also in Mindanao.

On July 31, a suicide bomber set off a van loaded with explosives, killing at least 10 people on Basilan island.

In both incidents, the IS had claimed responsibility even as Filipino military officials had blamed local militants.

Froilan Gallardo in Marawi contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version wrongly reported that the presidential spokesman came out with comments about martial law on Wednesday.

Rescue workers and forensic officials dig out skeletons from shallow graves covered by bamboo at the site of a mass grave at an abandoned jungle camp in Sadao, a district of southern Thailands southern Songkhla province, May 2, 2015.

A Thai court on Thursday convicted two military officers and sentenced each to 27 years in prison for being involved in a transnational crime syndicate that smuggled Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, officials said.

Natthasit Naksuwan, an army colonel, and Kampanat Sangthongjeen, a navy captain, undertook the unauthorized and non-recorded removal of dozens of undocumented Rohingya migrants, who were being held by police in southern Satun province, and shipped them off in a truck, the Bangkok Criminal Court found.

As per the courts consideration, the two are found guilty of organizing transnational crimes, human trafficking and harboring illegal migrants. Being government officers [found guilty], the sentences are doubled, the court ruled.

The two officers were responsible for intercepting Rohingya who fled from Myanmar and sailed across the Andaman Sea, where they landed on Thailands western coast between January 2011and May 2015, the court said.

Both men will appeal the verdict, one of their lawyers told BenarNews.

There were some 50 migrants, the officers had no place to keep them. He retrieved them from the police and kept them under the marine police but they vanished. No one admitted fault in having let them go, Wuthichai, an attorney representing Natthasit, told BenarNews. The attorney asked that Benar only use his first name, citing privacy reasons.

He said the case of the two officers was tied to the May 2015 discovery of mass graves in the jungle along Thailands southern border with Malaysia that contained the bodies of 32 Rohingya and Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking.

The grisly finding led to Thailand imposing a maritime blockade on boats that smuggled people to the countrys western coast. That move, in turn, precipitated a regional migration crisis that saw thousands of desperate Rohingya and Bangladeshis come ashore in nearby Indonesia and Malaysia in May 2015.

After the discovery, the Thai authorities launched a crackdown on illegal migration, in which a three-star army general, police and government officials were implicated as part of a transnational criminal ring that smuggled in the people whose bodies were buried in those jungle graves.

In July 2017, former Army Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was sentenced to 27 years in prison, when he and 61 other defendants were convicted in Thailands largest human trafficking case.It is common for companies to organize various informal events where workers can come with their partners. One of those...The Alliance for Consumer and Protection of Environment Inc. asked the Bureau of Internal Revenue to investigate the alleged tax deficiency of companies owned by Davao City-based businessman Dennis Uy. Acape, in a letter to BIR dated Oct. 16, asked the revenue body to probe the alleged tax deficiency of businessman Dennis Uy from his oil and other businesses. As BIRs mandate to collect taxes, Acape believes that the bureau has the responsibility to look into uncollected tax deficiencies of every taxpayer, particularly high-profile businessmen, it said. Acape said Uys oil business, Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc., allegedly incurred a tax liability amounting to P3 billion. Sought for comment, Phoenix vice president for external affairs Raymond Zorrilla said the company was following all the legal processes and that Uys transactions were above board. Since we have not received a copy of the alleged letter, we are not in a position to comment as we have no information was to what allegations are contained in said letter, Zorilla said.Besides, it may also be premature as we do not know whether the BIR will act on the letter or not. What we can assure everyone is all our transactions as well as that of Mr. Dennis Uy are all above board and legal, he said. Zorilla said Phoenix was following all the legal processes and mandates of all government agencies. Nevertheless we are surely wanting in any idea why such issues suddenly arise simply because of the emergence of the business dealings of Mr. Dennis Uy and his companies, he said. Acape wanted the BIR to look into Phoenixs tax payments. In line with these, Acape would like to request from your good office to conduct an investigation on this matter, particularly on the tax liability of the company and businessman himself Dennis Uy, the group said. Darwin G. Amojelar The group earlier asked the Bureau of Customs to reinvestigate the alleged anomalous P6-billion smuggling activities of Phoenix that was filed by the agency in 2011 but was dismissed by the Court of Appeals in 2014.You must be logged in to react.

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Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesFor Immediate Release, October 18, 2018 Contact: Elise Bennett, (727) 755-6950, ebennett@biologicaldiversity.org Arkansas Proposes Curbing Commercial Wild Turtle Trapping, Orders Study Protections Would Limit Some Killing, But More Restrictions Needed LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Responding to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and several Arkansas-based environmental organizations, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission today proposed regulations to restrict commercial trapping of wild freshwater turtles and study the effect of commercial trapping on wild populations. The new regulations would ban commercial harvest in the Gulf Coastal Plain and the St. Francis River in Greene and Clay counties. The rules would also ban the harvest of the razorback musk turtle across the state and clarify permitting and reporting requirements. The commission will conduct a three-year study from 2019 to 2021 to determine the effect of commercial trapping on wild turtle populations in the Delta region, where the majority of trapping occurs. During the study period, the sale of commercial turtle harvest and dealer permits will be capped at 150 permits per year. This is a much-needed step toward protecting Arkansass turtles and understanding the grim toll of commercial trapping, but stronger safeguards are critical, said Elise Bennett, a Center attorney dedicated to protecting rare reptiles and amphibians. Tens of thousands of turtles are taken from the wild each year. Arkansas needs to fully ban this unsustainable practice once and for all. Right now trappers can legally collect unlimited numbers of 14 types of turtles from roughly half the state to sell domestically or export to foreign food, pet and medicinal markets. The new regulations would still allow commercial collection of 13 types of turtles, but with additional geographic limitations. Scientists have repeatedly documented that freshwater turtles cannot sustain any significant level of wild collection without population-level impacts and declines. One study of common snapping turtles demonstrated that a modest harvest of 10 percent per year for 15 years could result in a 50 percent reduction in population size. And an Arkansas study found that turtles from populations in heavily harvested areas were significantly smaller than those from areas where harvesting is not permitted. Conservative records show that more than 1.3 million wild turtles were harvested from Arkansass waters over the past 13 years. Most of these were large, sexually mature turtles important to the survival of wild populations. Were confident the commission will reach the same conclusion through its proposed study that others across the country have already reached, that commercial trapping of wild turtles is simply not sustainable, said Bennett. Well continue to urge the commission toward a full ban. A growing number of states have already dedicated themselves to protecting wild turtles. In February Missouri banned commercial turtle trapping, and in August Texas followed suit. In 2017 New York ended commercial trapping of diamondback turtles, Nevada halted commercial reptile collection, and Iowa reined in trapping with new harvest limits. In the past decade, Florida and Alabama completely banned commercial turtle trapping, and Georgia and Mississippi approved stronger regulations on the industry. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is now accepting public comments on the proposed commercial trapping regulations.For Immediate Release, October 18, 2018 Contact: Jean Su, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 770-3187, jsu@biologicaldiversity.org

Natalia Lima, Animal Legal Defense Fund, (201) 679-7088, nlima@aldf.org

Rebecca Bullis, Defenders of Wildlife, (202) 772-0295, rbullis@defenders.org Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration's Texas Border-wall Waivers Construction Threatens Wildlife Refuge, State Park, Clean Air, Water

WASHINGTON Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today for waiving 28 conservation laws to speed construction of the border wall along the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Border-wall construction 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 family farms and other private property. The Trump administration is casting aside bedrock environmental protections with no regard for human health, wildlife or the law, said Jean Su, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Waiving these laws is disastrous for border communities and imperiled animals, and its unconstitutional. We hope the courts stop Trumps reckless abuse of power before bulldozers destroy some of the most spectacular wildlands in Texas. Todays filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. says the Department of Homeland Security does not have authority to waive the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act or other laws that protect clean air, clean water, public lands and wildlife in the borderlands. The department wants to sweep aside these laws to speed construction of 18 miles of 30-foot-high, levee-style border walls in Hidalgo County, as well as gates and other border-wall infrastructure in Cameron County. The levee-style walls planned for construction will block the natural migration of wildlife and cause dangerous flooding. Existing walls have been implicated in the deaths of hundreds of Texas tortoises and other animals due to flooding, which is common in the Rio Grande Valley. The waivers also will allow bulldozing of a 150-foot enforcement zone south of the wall and installation of surveillance equipment, lighting and other infrastructure with no meaningful environmental review. These most recent waivers of vital environmental and animal-protection laws demonstrate the administrations continued disregard for wildlife, including the most fragile species that could be pushed to extinction by these projects, said Animal Legal Defense Fund Executive Director Stephen Wells. Building a wall that cuts through the heart of vital parks, wildlife refuges and the National Butterfly Center will have devastating effects on these critical areas and the wildlife that calls these areas their home. Dozens of rare wildlife species, including the ocelot, jaguarundi and aplomado falcon, make their homes in this region of Texas, as do hundreds of species of migratory birds and butterflies. The area is also within historic jaguar habitat. The administrations latest actions spotlight their willingness to gamble with our countrys natural heritage and environmental health, said Bryan Bird, Southwest program director for Defenders of Wildlife. Ignoring environmental and public-safety laws puts wildlife and borderland communities in the region at unnecessary risk and denies the public due process. We will do whatever it takes to fight these reckless decisions and to protect the Lower Rio Grande Valley for future generations.



Todays lawsuit states that the waiver authority, granted in 2006, expired years ago and is an unconstitutional delegation of power to the department. The waiver authority applied to border-wall construction under the 2006 Secure Fence Act, which required the agency to build hundreds of miles of border barriers. That mandate was met several years ago, with the department using REAL ID authority five times to waive more than 35 laws on 625 miles of border-wall and barrier construction. Last weeks border-wall waivers were issued in the middle of a public comment period that remains open until Nov. 6. So far more than 9,000 people have said they oppose the plan. U.S. Customs and Border Protection opened the comment period after the Center and 42 groups requested public input and increased transparency. 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.For Immediate Release, October 18, 2018 Contact: Jason Totoiu, Center for Biological Diversity, (561) 568-6740, jtotoiu@biologicaldiversity.org

Judy Rodd, Friends of Blackwater, (304) 345-7663, info@saveblackwater.org Trump Administration Clearcut Plan Threatens West Virginia National Forest ASHEVILLE, N.C. The U.S. Forest Service is targeting more than 2,800 acres of West Virginias Monongahela National Forest for logging, about half of it clearcutting, which would threaten endangered animals and the areas waters. The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of Blackwater submitted formal comments today challenging the nearly 400-acre Spruce Mountain Grouse Management Area logging project. A second project would allow logging on more than 2,400 acres in the Big Rock area  the largest timber operation in decades. The Forest Service must conserve this magnificent forest, said Jason Totoiu, a senior attorney at the Center. Federal law requires the agency to look at the damage this ill-advised plan could do to our public lands and wildlife and consider less damaging alternatives. As todays letter notes, the greatest harm could come from construction of more than 70 miles of new logging roads, which would cause erosion and runoff into rivers and streams. Many of these waters are already polluted by acid rain from coal-fired power plants, so disturbing the soil could increase acidification in local rivers and creeks. This would further endanger the rare candy darter, which is under review for federal protection. The forest is home to a diverse array of wildlife, including wild brook trout, the pearl dace, the West Virginia northern flying squirrel and federally protected Indiana and northern long-eared bats. The squirrel was recently removed from the Endangered Species List with the expectation that the Monongahela National Forest would protect the animal. Logging threatens to destroy the squirrels critical breeding and nesting sites. Bats are already experiencing dramatic population declines caused by white-nose syndrome and other threats. The logging projects further threaten these bats by cutting down the trees where they roost. This proposal would violate our nations bedrock environmental laws so that logging companies can turn a profit, said Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater. Clearcut logging in this part of the forest would destroy prime habitat for the flying squirrel and could put this animal back on the path to extinction. Logging roads will pollute high-mountain streams at Spruce Knob and the Sinks of Gandy and leave permanent scars on the hillsides. The 919,000-acre Monongahela is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the nation and considered to be an area of global ecological importance. From Blackwater Falls State Park to the states highest peak to Cranberry Glades Botanical Area, the national forest is within a day's drive of about half of the nation's population. The comment period for the Big Rock project ends Oct. 29. The public can find more information and offer comments on the Forest Service website.On 28 October 1918, a state was born. Czechoslovakia broke off the collapsing Habsburg Monarchy to create a union of provinces with no previous historic connections: Bohemia, Moravia, Czech-speaking Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Despite this diversity, it soon built an image of a successful democracy, which was economically sustainable and catered for minorities that had shared the geopolitical space for centuries. Such was the image. The reality of the cohabitation was rather different.

The move to create an independent political unit was preceded by activities of a group of politically active figures (most of them Czech, a few Slovaks) who towards the end of the First World War formed a provisional exile government led by Tomas Garrigue Masaryk who would become Czechoslovakias first president. They composed the so-called Washington Declaration, a proclamation of independence from Austria Hungary, which was published on 18 October 1918 in Paris.The idea of a republic, however, was only one of the options discussed during WWI, alongside remaining an autonomous part of Austria turned into a federation; establishment of a kingdom with a potential ruler from Russia, installment of a centralized dictatorship backed by the military, or becoming a part of a new pan-Slavic superstate.

Representatives of emigres from Central Europe, negotiating with the Allies, eventually settled on a new political union of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Jews, Hungarians, Poles, and Rusyns, the inhabitants of Subcarpathean Ruthenia. The new Czechoslovak government felt that this assortment had to be justified in the construct of a Czechoslovak nation. In this, the two Slavic groups of Czechs and Slovaks could form a majority against the substantial minorities of especially Germans and Hungarians who had lived in the Czech and Slovak parts respectively. To illustrate the split, in the census of 1921, the Czechoslovak inhabitants consisted of nearly 7 million Czechs, over 3 million Germans, nearly 2 million Slovaks, three quarter of a million of Hungarians, and half a million of Rusyns.

The idea of the Czechoslovak people, language and culture was widely promoted by the press and politicians both for domestic and international consumption. To legitimise such a construct, it was also necessary to (re-)create a common cultural history according to which the Czechs and Slovaks consisted of a single entity. The Czechs and the Slovaks were treated as a single group. Within this setup, Czech identity prevailed as it was placed in a historically and economically advantageous position. Already within Austria Hungary, Bohemia was a prospering industrial province while more eastern regions tend to rely on agriculture. Slovakia, which in the Habsburg monarchy was a subject to Hungarian rule, was popularly and to an extent officially regarded as under-developed.

There were further challenges the states identity faced. The little-known, easternmost region of Subcarpathean Ruthenia joined Czechoslovakia as a result of negotiations that started in 1917 in the USA between Masaryk, US President Wilson and Rusyn-Americans. The Rusyns did not fit the picture of a joint Czechoslovak historic heritage and remained the obscure inhabitants of a rural eastern province distant from the industrialised west; one might even say that they were the inhabitants of the Czechoslovak Orient. A comment from a Czech geographer from 1924 aptly describes this colonial attitude:

The Czech who came here after the coup is a man with a Western European education, an honest and efficient official, who easily understands the Rusyn people; he is a real democrat. In his relationship to the local people, he is not a master or a commander, but an honest and friendly fellow citizen and adviser. We bring order, discipline, Western European democracy, and culture to this land of former oriental chaos and disorder .

The largely rural territory remained under direct Czechoslovak governance until 1924 when the Ruthenians gained representation (however small) in the national parliament, while the region did not become fully autonomous until 1938.

The entire uneven union of the ethnic groups in Czechoslovakia was not meant to last. Slovak, German, Hungarian and Polish nationalism within the republic and outside of its territory intensified during the late 1920s and eventually caused weakening of the states internal and international position. The Second Czech-Slovak Republic, created after the Munich Agreement in September 1938 introduced a hyphen in the name of the state to indicate Slovak emancipation. Eventually, too, the German border regions of the Sudetenland inhabited mainly by Germans were ceased by the Reich in events leading up to WWII. As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of Czechoslovakia, we can also be reminded of the fragile and unbalanced identity politics of the state.

References:The Department of Transportation and San Miguel Holdings Corp. have resolved the issues on right of way and local government permits for the P735-billion New Manila International Airport project in Bulacan province. Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said San Miguel Corp., the original proponent, agreed to bear the cost of right-of-way acquisition and local government permits to ensure that the Swiss Challenge would be completed this year. I will issue a certificate of successful negotiation by next week. Then on that basis it will go to Neda [National Economic and Development Authority], Tugade told reporters at the sidelines of the 44th Philippine Business Conference in Manila. We have agreed the Swiss Challenge will be done before the end of the year, Tugade said. San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang confirmed that his company would shoulder all costs related to ROW and LGU permits. We will pay for right of way and local government permits. In short, we will shoulder everything so that there is no dispute, Ang said. Ang said the project would be a game changer and would bring more foreign tourists to the Philippines. The New Manila Airport Project will be undertaken over a period of five to seven years to full completion.The project, which was approved by the National Economic and Development Authority chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte in April, involves the construction of a world-class, major international gateway with four to six parallel runways, modern terminals, a sea port and an industrial zone. It is located 27 kilometers from Ninoy Aquino International Airport, or 45 minutes from any point in Metro Manila via multiple expressways. The new airport is expected to create one million jobs during the construction phase, according to Ang. San Miguel proposed to build the massive airport complex on a 2,500-hectare property in Bulakan, Bulacan. San Miguel said earlier it tapped Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. as co-financial advisors for the planned project. Ang said SMC, the parent company, was fully backing SMHC for the airport project. Ang said he agreed with the Department of Finances position that both companiesSMC and SMHCshould sign a joint liability agreement.The biggest group of businessmen on Thursday submitted a list of resolutions to President Rodrigo Duterte during the 44th Philippine Business Conference in Manila. Traffic is costing us losses of up to P3.5 billion a day or P1.2 trillion a year, and wasting millions of man-hours. We propose more elevated roads that will allow passage through Bonifacio Ave., Shaw Boulevard, straight to Santolan in Quezon City. This will decongest traffic further, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a letter addressed to the president. The group also aired concerns about airport congestion that is costing stakeholders more than P3 billion daily in added operational costs and productivity losses.We must build a new international airport with four parallel runways within an hours drive of major cities within Metro Manila, and connected by mass transit and major toll roads spanning north to south and east to west, the PCCI said. The group said seaport congestion was also costing businesses billions of pesos a day that effectively pushed up the cost of doing business. On the average, we are losing P3 trillion to 4 trillion per year to traffic, airport and seaport congestion. If we can solve this, our cost of doing business will improve tremendously. This is what foreign investors are looking for, the group said.The National Privacy Commission asked social media platform Facebook to provide identity theft and phishing insurance and establish a dedicated helpdesk for 750,000 Filipino users who were affected by data breach last month. The agency said in an e-mail to Facebook the incident might have compromised the privacy of more than. It gave the social media company six months to address the situation. NPC commissioner Raymund Liboro said the agency also asked Facebook to submit a more comprehensive data breach notification report, notify all affected Filipino users and implement a program in the Philippines to increase awareness on identity theft and phishing. Facebook discovered the breach on Sept. 25 when an unexpected traffic was noticed on the site allegedly due to a feature called View As. Facebook said it was able to fix the glitch three days later. Affected were personal data of users like username; first, last and nickname used on the profile; email address; phone numbers; address; hometown and location; birthday and relationships; websites browsed through Facebook and search data; work history and educational background, among others. Facebook informed the National Privacy Commission on Oct. 13 that of the 30 million people with stolen access tokens, a total of 755,973 Philippine-based Facebook user accounts might have been compromised that forced Facebook to log out users from their accounts on Sept. 28. From the tenor of the document, we now understand that the breach exposed the personal information of persons with accounts that fall under any of the three buckets, to different degrees. Be that as it may, Facebook contends in its letter dated 13 October 2018 that there is no material risk of more extensive harm occurring. This commission does not agree; the risk of serious harm to Filipino data subjects is more than palpable, Liboro said.He said the main potential impact for affected users would be an increased likelihood of getting targeted for professional spam operations and phishing attacks, according Facebook. However, the risk and vulnerability of Filipinos to spam and phishing are regarded as one of the highest in the world. According to the Are You Cyber Savvy Report from Kaspersky Lab, approximately 9 out of 10 Filipinos are susceptible to phishing attacks, he said. Liboro said as the level of awareness for spam, phishing and identity theft in the Philippines was not the same as those of the United States and the other developed nations, considerations of risk should always consider the cultural milieu in which the risk was appreciated. The commission said the identity verification systems throughout the Philippines were quite weak. It said Facebook should contemplate this cultural gap when notifying the affected data subjects. Facebook should also modify its approach and provide a more conducive method that enables affected Filipino data subjects to better grasp the risks they face, it said. READ: 755K Facebook users data breached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Canada NewsWire

NORTH VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 18, 2018

NORTH VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 18, 2018 /CNW/ - To continue to commemorate their 40th Anniversary, The BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund celebrated by hosting over 40 local fire fighters at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, a major sponsor of the Burn Fund since 2007. Click here to watch the video.2007 was the year that Capilano Suspension Bridge Park met the BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund under mutual circumstances. Severe winter storms caused major damage to Bright Nights in Stanley Park severely impacting donations to the Burn Fund. At the same time a 46-ton tree fell onto Capilano Suspension Bridge, closing the park for five months. To celebrate Capilano's re-opening, owner and CEO of Capilano Group, Nancy Stibbard, decided to hold a fundraiser for the Burn Fund to help replenish lost donations from their annual holiday event. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship, as partial proceeds from Canyon Lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park has been donated to the Burn Fund ever since.

The Burn Fund is a registered charity established in April 1978 by the BC Professional Fire Fighters Association, and provides life saving, life supporting, and life enriching services to the people in British Columbia.

Throughout their 40-year history, The Burn Fund continues to play a big part in enhancing the quality of care a burn and trauma patient receives from bedside through to recovery.

Through the generosity of donors such as the Capilano Group, The BCPFF Burn Fund has achieved many significant accomplishments. This includes the notable achievement of completing a $13.1 million capital campaign to raise funds to build the new Burn Fund Centre in 2015  a home away from home for burn and trauma survivors.

Nancy Stibbard's donations have exceeded $425,000 and her continued financial support through Canyon Lights has played a significant role in bringing awareness to the Burn Fund for which she will be recognized at this year's Responder Dinner Gala on April 27, 2019.

SOURCE British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters Burn FundPR Newswire

GENEVA, October 19, 2018

GENEVA, October 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Released today by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), a new report looking at the burden and management of fragility fractures in six European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom), has highlighted the hidden, but very real, burden of fragility fractures - with the estimated associated cost at 37.5 billion per year threatening to cripple European healthcare systems by stealth.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8421451-iof-warns-fragility-fractures-cost-billions/

As the European population ages, the prevalence of chronic conditions, such as osteoporosis, is also set to rise, leading to an exponential rise in the prevalence of fragility fractures.

Every year 2.7 million fragility fractures occur across these six EU nations. This number is expected to increase by a further 23 per cent by 2030, with the associated cost impact escalating further, estimated to hit 47 billion in the same time period. The burden of fragility fractures exceeds those of many other chronic diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], rheumatoid arthritis, and hypertension.

In addition to the cost burden, the physical and emotional impact must not be overlooked. Professor John Kanis, IOF Honorary President, explains: "In Europe, over 20 million people are affected by osteoporosis. Worldwide, fragility fractures affect one in three women and one in five men aged 50 or above. Fragility fractures can result in significant impairment, often making daily activities such as eating, dressing, washing or shopping difficult. For hip fracture sufferers, there is a 40 per cent chance that they will not be able to walk independently. The physical and psychological impact is huge."

The report, "Broken bones, broken lives: A roadmap to solve the fragility fracture crisis in Europe" provides evidence that despite the availability of effective preventative therapies and management approaches for fragility fractures, 73 per cent of women and 63 per cent of men over 50 years of age with osteoporosis do not receive adequate management or treatment. After a fragility fracture, patients are five times more likely to experience a second fracture within the next two years, yet still the majority of patients do not receive treatment that could prevent the next fracture.

The social and economic impacts of fragility fractures highlight the need and urgency to implement best in class models of care. Models such as Orthogeriatric Services and Fracture Liaison Services have shown to deliver improved patient outcomes and cost saving treatments in an effective manner, in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Sweden, UK and the United States.

With appropriate medical treatment, many fragility fractures can be avoided. Policy makers play a crucial role in funding diagnostic services and cost-effective interventions such as pharmacological treatment, falls prevention programs and coordinated care models, as well as enforcing necessary standards for healthcare professionals and institutions.

Professor Cyrus Cooper, IOF President, comments: "With the rising burden of fragility fractures imposing on healthcare systems across Europe, it is our ambition that these reports can support stakeholders in taking the necessary actions to cut associated costs and stop broken bones from breaking lives. As the economic stranglehold of fragility fractures tightens on healthcare systems, now is the time to take action and up-scale our response to this silent threat. We call on health authorities to accelerate this process by prioritising care standards and funding to support the effective management of fragility fractures, thus avoiding escalation of related costs."

Alongside the European report, detailed country reports are available for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Cooper concludes: "At times of constraints on healthcare spending, we can no longer afford to ignore the prevention and management of fragility fractures."

For more information about the reports, visit www.iofbonehealth.org/broken-bones-broken-lives

Notes to editors:

Osteoporosis is a condition where bones weaken at a faster rate than normal; making them fragile and more likely to break. Even the slightest bump or fall can result in a broken bone (known as a 'fragility fracture'). After experiencing the first fracture, the likelihood of incurring another greatly increases. Worldwide, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 will fracture due to osteoporosis.

Alongside the referenced European report, detailed country reports are available for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

See country-specific releases: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, UK.

Reference: Broken bones, broken lives: A roadmap to solve the fragility fracture crisis in Europe

About IOF

The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including scientific experts and 240 patient and medical societies worldwide, work together to make fracture prevention a global health care priority. http://www.iofbonehealth.org

World Osteoporosis Day, October 20 www.worldosteoporosisday.org

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/771422/International_Osteoporosis_Foundation_Infographic.jpg )

Video: https://www.multivu.com/players/uk/8421451-iof-warns-fragility-fractures-cost-billions/Oil refiner Petron Corp. on Thursday offered to supply diesel products to state-run PNOC Exploration Corp. at a cheaper cost. Petron president Ramon Ang made the offer, after the board of PNOC-EC approved the plan to import 50,000 metric tons of diesel that would be P5-per-liter cheaper than the current pump prices. Ang said instead of buying diesel from other countries, PNOC-EC should secure it from Petron which has a refinery in Bataan to save on logistics cost. Definitely, our price is very competitive to be exported to Singapore. Freight alone, they will have huge savings. Why will they import there? Thats dollar outflow, Ang said, referring to PNOC-ECs plan. If they import, there is a huge risk of peso devaluation. There is a huge fluctuation if the price of oil and freight cost is already P5 if you import, he said. PNOC-EC president Pedro Aquino said Angs offer was worth considering. Ang said PNOC EC would not need to pay for excise tax and value added tax if they would buy from Petron. They can buy from us and sell it and get BIR certification, so there will be no VAT and excise tax, he said. Excise tax and VAT, that is already P11 to P12 [in savings], plus freight [of] about P5, Ang said. Ang said Petrons fuels are Euro 5 and Euro 6-compliant, cleaner than the Euro 4 products that PNOC-EC was planning to import.The board of PNOC-EC earlier approved the import plan and expects the first shipment to arrive this month. Aquino earlier said the imports would be around P5 cheaper per liter than the prevailing pump prices. Aquino said in a radio interview the company received an offer that was below the benchmark price of the Mean of Platts Singapore. MOPS is the benchmark pricing used by oil refiners in the region. He said the company had not chosen a supplier yet because negotiations for the final price was still ongoing. It depends on the price we will get, but if we are able to get a price lower than the MOPS of Singapore, initially that is P5 less than the pump price, Aquino said. Aquino said the initial plan was to import 50,000 metric tons of diesel that would cost around P2 billion. I think it will be approved [by board] because what we aim to achieve is to bring down the cost of petroleum, he said. Aquino said the company would tap aggregators to distribute the lower-priced diesel to consumers. The program runs like this. The gasoline station owners or dealers, they will have aggregators because we really lack the machinery to distribute it. The aggregator will stand as distributor to dealer members in their specific region, he said.PR Newswire

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 18, 2018

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Neighborhood National Bank announced that Scott R. Andrews has been appointed as the President & CEO and Director of Neighborhood National Bank and Neighborhood Bancorp. Mr. Andrews is an experienced community bank chief executive officer with a banking career spanning over 42 years.

Mr. Andrews most recently was the President and CEO of Commerce Bank of Temecula Valley in Murrieta, California, and prior to that was the CEO of Pacific Commerce Bank in Los Angeles and Sunrise Bank in San Diego. During his distinguished career, he has assisted in the development of six de novo community banks and held executive management roles at community, regional and national banks.

"I am very pleased to join Neighborhood National Bank, and to work closely with the Board to improve the financial performance of the Bank. Neighborhood National Bank has a long history as a Community Development Financial Institution serving the needs of small businesses and individuals in underserved markets in San Diego County," said Mr. Andrews. "San Diego County has seen a marked decline in the number of community banks, and Neighborhood National Bank has a tremendous opportunity to succeed and to serve the needs of small-to-medium sized businesses and the local community."

"The Board and Neighborhood National Bank welcome Scott and looking forward to working closely with him," commented Stephen S. Taylor, Jr., Chairman of the Board.

Neighborhood National Bank, a Community Development Financial Institution, is a full-service, business-focused community bank providing financial services to businesses, professionals, non-profit organizations, investors and individuals throughout San Diego County, focusing on underserved markets in South and East San Diego County. The Bank has two full-service branches in San Diego and El Cajon. Additional information may be found at the Bank's website.

Information contained herein may contain certain forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations regarding economic, legislative, and regulatory issues that may impact the Bank's ability to be approved and open in the future. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. The Bank undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

For Further Information Contact:Scott R. AndrewsPresident & CEO, Neighborhood National Bank [email protected] 619-789-4423

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neighborhood-national-bank-announces-scott-r-andrews-as-president--ceo-300733844.html

SOURCE Neighborhood National BankPR Newswire

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors and Officers of Esterline Technologies Corporation ("Esterline" or the "Company") (NYSE: ESL) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty relating to the sale of the company to TransDigm Group Inc. ("TDG"). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Esterline will only receive $122.50 in cash for each share of Esterline that they own.

Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/esterline-technologies-corporation. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer.

If you own common stock in Esterline and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PCThe Empire State Building350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405New York, NY 10118United States of [email protected]: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2018 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shareholder-alert-monteverde--associates-pc-launches-an-investigation-of-the-board-of-directors-and-officers-of-esterline-technologies-corporation--esl-300733350.html

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PCCanada NewsWire

VANCOUVER, Oct. 18, 2018

VANCOUVER, Oct. 18, 2018 /CNW/ -

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

AUTOMOTIVE FINCO CORP. ("AFCC")BULLETIN TYPE: Declaration of DividendBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

The Issuer has declared the following dividend(s):

Dividend per common share: $0.0171Payable Date: November 30, 2018Record Date: October 31, 2018Ex-dividend Date: October 30, 2018

________________________________________

MOONCOR OIL & GAS CORP. ("MOO")BULLETIN TYPE: DelistBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at the close of business, Tuesday, October 23, 2018, the common shares of Mooncor Oil & Gas Corp. will be delisted from TSX Venture Exchange at the request of the Company.

The delisting of the Company's shares was approved by the majority of the minority shareholders.

For further information, please refer to the Company's comprehensive news release dated October 18, 2018.

________________________________________

TRUE NORTH GEMS INC. ("TGX")BULLETIN TYPE: ConsolidationBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Pursuant to a special resolution passed by shareholders January 29, 2018, the Company has consolidated its capital on a 10 (ten) old for 1 (one) new basis. The name of the Company has not been changed.

Effective at the opening Monday, October 22, 2018, the common shares of True North Gems Inc. will commence trading on TSX Venture Exchange on a consolidated basis.

Post - Consolidation

Capitalization:

Unlimited

shares with no par value of which

30,773,538

shares are issued and outstanding

Escrow

nil

shares are subject to escrow

Transfer Agent:

Computershare Trust Company of Canada

Trading Symbol:

TGX

(UNCHANGED)

CUSIP Number:

89784R303

(new)

________________________________________

WATERFRONT CAPITAL CORPORATION ("WFG.H")[formerly Waterfront Capital Corporation ("WFG")]BULLETIN TYPE: Resume Trading, Transfer and New Addition to NEX, Symbol ChangeBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Resume Trading:Waterfront Capital Corporation ("Waterfront") announced on October 17, 2018 that it will not be proceeding with its previously announced letter of intent between Waterfront and Water Street Profile Services Inc. "Water Street"), with respect to the proposed acquisition by Waterfront of all the shares of Water Street.

The letter of intent was initially announced May 3, 2018.

Effective at the open, Monday, October 22, 2018, the common shares of Waterfront will resume trading.

Transfer and New Addition to NEX, Symbol Change:In accordance with TSX Venture Policy 2.5, Continued Listing Requirements and Inter-Tier Movements, the Company does not meet Continued Listing Requirements. Therefore, effective at the opening on Monday, October 22, 2018, the Company's listing will transfer to NEX, the Company's Tier classification will change from Tier 2 to NEX, and the Filing and Service Office will change from Vancouver to NEX. The trading symbol for the Company will change from WFG to WFG.H. There is no change in the Company's name, no change in its CUSIP number and no consolidation of capital. The symbol extension differentiates NEX symbols from Tier 1 or Tier 2 symbols within the TSX Venture market.

________________________________________

NEX COMPANIES

GLOBAL VANADIUM CORP. ("GLV.H")[formerly WINDFIRE CAPITAL CORP. ("WIF.H")]BULLETIN TYPE: CorrectionBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018NEX Company

Further to the TSX Venture Exchange Bulletin dated October 17, 2018, the Bulletin should have read as follows:

Trading Symbol:

GLV.H

(new)

CUSIP Number:

37891M105

(new)

All other information in the bulletin remains unchanged. The effective date of the name change remains October 19, 2018.

________________________________________

18/10/18 - TSX Venture Exchange Bulletins

TSX VENTURE COMPANIES

AZUCAR MINERALS LTD. ("AMZ")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced October 16, 2018:

Number of Shares:

222,834 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.5581 per share

Number of Placees:

1 Placee

Insider / Pro Group Participation:

Insider=Y /

Name

ProGroup=P

# of Shares

Newcrest Canada Holdings Inc.

Y

222,834

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company issued a news release dated October 17, 2018 announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold periods.

________________________________________

GEOMEGA RESOURCES INC. ("GMA")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement:

Number of Shares:

6,250,000 common shares

Purchase Price:

$0.08 per common share

Warrants:

3,125,000 warrants to purchase 3,125,000 common shares

Warrant exercise price:

$0.15 for a period of 24 months following closing

Number of Placees:

14 Placees

The Company has issued news releases announcing the closing of the Private Placement on May 3 and 15, 2018.

RESSOURCES GEOMEGA INC. ( GMA )TYPE DE BULLETIN : Placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtierDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 18 octobre 2018Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance

Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte le depot de la documentation en vertu d'un placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtier :

Nombre d'actions :

6 250 000 actions ordinaires

Prix :

0,08 $ par action ordinaire

Bons de souscription :

3 125 000 bons de souscription permettant de souscrire a 3 125 000 actions ordinaires

Prix d'exercice des bons :

0,15 $ pour une periode de 24 mois suivant la cloture

Nombre de souscripteurs :

14 souscripteurs

La societe a emis des communiques de presse annoncant la cloture du placement prive les 3 et 15 mai 2018.

________________________________________

GEOMEGA RESOURCES INC. ("GMA")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing the documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement:

Number of Shares:

2,652,000 common shares

Purchase Price:

$0.10 per common share

Warrants:

1,326,000 warrants to purchase 1,326,000 common shares

Warrant exercise price:

$0.15 for a period of 24 months following closing

Number of Placees:

14 Placees

The Company has issued a news release announcing the closing of the Private Placement on May 22, 2018.

RESSOURCES GEOMEGA INC. ( GMA )TYPE DE BULLETIN : Placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtierDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 18 octobre 2018Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance

Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte le depot de la documentation en vertu d'un placement prive sans l'entremise d'un courtier :

Nombre d'actions :

2 652 000 actions ordinaires

Prix :

0,10 $ par action ordinaire

Bons de souscription :

1 326 000 bons de souscription permettant de souscrire a 1 326 000 actions ordinaires

Prix d'exercice des bons :

0,15 $ pour une periode de 24 mois suivant la cloture

Nombre de souscripteurs :

14 souscripteurs

La societe a emis un communique de presse annoncant la cloture du placement prive le 22 mai 2018.

________________________________________

INTELGENX TECHNOLOGIES CORP. ("IGX") ("IGX.DB")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 1.22 p.m. PST, October 17, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

INTELGENX TECHNOLOGIES CORP. ("IGX") ("IGX.DB")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 7.30 a.m. PST, October 18, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

INTERNATIONAL MONTORO RESOURCES INC. ("IMT")BULLETIN TYPE: Warrant Price AmendmentBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018 TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has consented to the reduction in the exercise price of the following warrants:

Private Placement:

# of Warrants:

7,905,000

Expiry Date of Warrants:

October 12, 2019 and December 27, 2019

Original Exercise Price of Warrants:

0.10

New Exercise Price of Warrants:

4,005,000 at 0.065 and 3,900,000 at 0.06

These warrants were issued pursuant to a three private placements totalling 8,705,000 shares with 8,705,000 share purchase warrants attached, which was accepted for filing by the Exchange effective October 11, 2018, Dec 20, 2017, and Dec 22, 2017

________________________________________

MEDGOLD RESOURCES CORP. ("MED")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced September 24, 2018:

Number of Shares:

4,902,800 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.30 per share

Warrants:

4,902,800 share purchase warrants to purchase 4,902,800 shares

Warrant Exercise Price:

$0.40 for a two year period, subject to an acceleration clause.

Number of Placees:

41 Placees

Insider / Pro Group Participation:

Name

Insider=Y /

ProGroup=P

# of Shares

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc.

Y

1,079,700

Europac Gold Fund

Y

736,000

Aggregate Pro Group Involvement

P

163,000

[4 places]

Finder's Fee:

Haywood Securities Inc. $19,513.80 cash payable.

PI Financial Corporation $2,394 cash payable.

Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. $500 cash payable.

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company must issue a news release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s). The Company must also issue a news release if the private placement does not close promptly. [Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.]

________________________________________

MOBI724 GLOBAL SOLUTIONS INC. ("MOS")BULLETIN TYPE: MiscellaneousBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted the Company's early warrant exercise incentive program (the "Warrant Exercise Program) designed to encourage the exercise of 11,640,000 existing warrants of the Company. Each of the Warrants entitled the holder to acquire one Common Share at a price $0.15 per share till the August 31, 2018.

Pursuant to the Warrant Incentive Program, each of the holders of Warrants that exercised warrants during an early exercise period (the "Early Exercise Period") received an additional warrant entitling such holder to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.46 per share until April 21, 2019, subject to an acceleration clause (collectively, the "New Warrants").

The Early Exercise Period commenced on March 22, 2018 and expired on April 13, 2018.

In connection with the Warrant Incentive Program, a total of 6,200,000 Warrants were exercised, providing gross proceeds of $930,000 to the Company and resulting in the Company issuing 6,200,000 Common Shares and 6,200,000 New Warrants as follow:

Number of shares issued upon exercise of existing warrants:

6,200,000 common shares

Purchase Price (exercise price of the existing warrants):

$0.15 per common share

New Warrants:

6,200,000 share purchase warrants to purchase 6,200,000 shares

New Warrant Exercise Price:

at a price of $0.46 per share until April 21, 2019

Number of Placees:

5 Placees

Name

Insider=Y /

Number of

ProGroup=P

Shares

Allan Rosenhek

Y

1,000,000

All warrants that were not exercised under the Warrant Incentive Program continued to entitle the holder to acquire one Common Share at the exercise price of $0.15 per Common Share until August 31, 2018 in accordance with its terms and the terms of the warrant indenture governing the Warrants.

For further details, please refer to the Company's news releases dated March 19, 2018 and April 17, 2018.

MOBI724 GLOBAL SOLUTIONS INC. ("MOS")TYPE DE BULLETIN : DiversDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 18 octobre 2018Societe du groupe 2 de TSX Croissance

La Bourse de croissance TSX a accepte l'avis de la societe concernant le depot d'un programme incitatif a l'exercice de bons de souscription (le programme incitatif) visant a encourager l'exercice de 11 640 000 bons de souscription existants. Chacun des bons de souscription permettait a son porteur d'acquerir une action ordinaire a un prix de 0,15 $ par action exercables jusqu'au 31 aout 2018.

Aux termes du programme incitatif, chacun des porteurs de bons de souscription qui ont exerce des bons de souscription au cours de la periode donnee (la periode d'exercice incitative) a recu un bon de souscription permettant d'acquerir une action ordinaire a un prix de 0,46 $ par action exercables jusqu'au 21 avril 2019, sujet a une clause d'acceleration (collectivement, les nouveaux bons de souscription).

La periode d'exercice incitative a debute le 22 mars 2018 et a expire le 13 avril 2018.

Dans le cadre du programme incitatif, 6 200 000 bons de souscription ont ete exerces, procurant a la societe un produit brut de 930 000 $. La societe a emis 6 200 000 actions ordinaires et 6 200 000 nouveaux bons de souscription comme suit :

Nombre d'actions emises lors de l'exercice des bons existants:

6 200 000 actions ordinaires

Prix de souscription (prix d'exercice des bons existants):

0,15 $ par action ordinaire

Nouveaux bons de souscription:

6 200 000 bons visant 6 200 000

actions

Prix d'exercice des nouveaux bons de souscription:

0,46 $ par action jusqu'au 21 avril 2019

Nombre de souscripteurs:

5 souscripteurs

Participation des inities et du Groupe Pro :

Nom

Initie = Y /

Nombre d'actions

Groupe Pro = P

Allan Rosenhek

Y

1 000 000

Les bons de souscription existants qui n'ont pas ete exerces dans le cadre du programme incitatif on continue de permettre au detenteur d'acquerir une action ordinaire au prix d'exercice de 0,15 $ par action ordinaire jusqu'au 31 aout 2018 et conformement a leurs termes.

Pour plus de details, veuillez-vous reporter aux communiques de presse de la societe dates des 19 mars 2018 et 17 avril 2018.

________________________________________

MOUNTAIN BOY MINERALS LTD. ("MTB")BULLETIN TYPE: Property-Asset or Share Purchase Amending AgreementBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Further to TSX Venture Exchange bulletin dated June 15, 2017 the TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing an amendment to the terms of the original agreement. In consideration of extending a cash payment due August 20, 2018 to March 20, 2019, the company will issue 600,000 common shares to Great Bear Resources Ltd.

________________________________________

NEW CAROLIN GOLD CORP. ("LAD")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 11.05 a.m. PST, October 18, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

PETROTEQ ENERGY INC. ("PQE")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

This is to confirm that TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced September 26, 2018:

Number of Shares:

833,269 shares

Purchase Price:

US$0.98 per share

Warrants:

520,408 share purchase warrants to purchase 520,408 shares

Warrant Exercise Price:

US$1.50 for a period of two years (10,204 warrants)

US$1.35 for a period of two years (510,204 warrants)

Number of Placees:

9 Placees

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company has issued a new release dated October 17, 2018 announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s).

Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

_______________________________

PRO REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST ("PRV.UN") BULLETIN TYPE: Prospectus-Trust Unit OfferingBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

The Issuer's short form prospectus dated September 21, 2018 (the "Prospectus") was filed with and accepted by TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") and filed and receipted by the securities regulatory authorities in each of the provinces and in Canada, pursuant to the provisions of the applicable securities acts.

Underwriters:

Canaccord Genuity Corp., TD Securities Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc., National Bank Financial Inc., Haywood Securities Inc., Industrial Alliance Securities Inc., Raymond James Ltd., Laurentian Bank Securities Inc. and Leede Jones Gable Inc.

Offering:

15,100,000 trust units of the Issuer ("Trust Units")

Trust Unit Price:

$2.32 per Trust Unit

Underwriters' Commission:

Up to 5% of the gross proceeds of the Offering in cash (2.5% for the president's list).

Underwriters' Warrants:

N/A

Greenshoe Option:

The Underwriters may over-allot the Trust Units in connection with the Offering and the Issuer has granted to the Underwriters an option to purchase, for a period of 30 days, additional Trust Units, for up to 15% of the Offering, at a price of $2.32 per Trust Unit.

For further information, please refer to the Issuer's Prospectus dated September 21, 2018.

The Exchange has been advised that a total of 17,365,000 Trust Units, including 2,265,000 Trust Units pursuant to the exercise of the greenshoe option, have been issued at a price of $2.32 per Trust Unit pursuant to the closing of the Offering, for aggregate gross proceeds of $40,286,800.

FONDS DE PLACEMENT IMMOBILIER PRO ( PRV.UN ) TYPE DE BULLETIN : Emission de parts par prospectusDATE DU BULLETIN : Le 18 octobre 2018Societe du groupe 1 de Bourse de croissance TSX

Le prospectus simplifie de l'emetteur date du 21 septembre 2018 (le  Prospectus ) a ete depose et accepte par la Bourse de croissance TSX (la  Bourse ) et a ete depose et vise par les autorites en valeurs mobilieres de chacune des provinces et du Canada, et ce, en vertu des dispositions des lois sur les valeurs mobilieres applicables.

Preneurs fermes :

Corporation Canaccord Genuity, Valeurs Mobilieres TD Inc., Scotia Capitaux Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Marches mondiaux CIBC inc., Financiere Banque Nationale Inc., Valeurs mobilieres Haywood Inc., Industrielle Alliance Valeurs mobilieres Inc., Raymond James Ltee, Valeurs mobilieres Banque Laurentienne Inc. et Leede Jones Gable Inc.

Offre :

15 100 000 parts du capital de l'emetteur (les  parts )

Prix des parts:

2,32 $ par part

Commission des preneurs fermes:

Remuneration au comptant jusqu'a 5 % du produit brut du placement (2,5% dans le cas de la liste presidentielle)

Bons de souscription des preneurs fermes :

N/A

Option de surallocation :

Les preneurs fermes peuvent effectuer une suralloccation de souscriptions en vertu du placement et l'emetteur a octroye aux preneurs fermes, pour une periode de 30 jours, une option leur permettant de souscrire pour des parts additionnelles equivalant a 15 % du placement, au prix de 2,32 $ par part.

Pour plus de renseignements, veuillez consulter le Prospectus de l'emetteur date du 21 septembre 2018.

La Bourse a ete avisee qu'un total de 17 365 000 parts, incluant l'exercice de l'option de surallocation portant sur 2 265 000 parts, a ete emis au prix de 2,32 $ par part, dans le cadre de la cloture du placement, pour un produit brut de 40 286 800 $.

_________________________________________________

RAINY MOUNTAIN ROYALTY CORP. ("RMO")BULLETIN TYPE: Warrant Term ExtensionBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has consented to the extension in the expiry date of the following warrants:

Private Placement:

# of Warrants:

7,651,916

Original Expiry Date of Warrants:

October 26, 2016

New Expiry Date of Warrants:

October 26, 2020

Exercise Price of Warrants:

$0.10

These warrants were issued pursuant to a private placement of 7,651,916 shares with 7,651,916 share purchase warrants attached, which was announced by the Company on September 6, 2016.

________________________________________

REPLICEL LIFE SCIENCES INC. ("RP")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced July 11, 2018:

Number of Shares:

5,357,900 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.95 per share

Warrants:

1,071,580 share purchase warrants to purchase 1,071,580 shares

Warrant Exercise Price:

$0.95 for a two year period

Number of Placees:

1 Placee

Insider / Pro Group Participation:

Name

Insider=Y /

ProGroup=P

# of Shares

YOFOTO (China) Health Industry Co. Ltd.

Y

5,357,900

(Huang Jin Bao)

Pursuant to Corporate Finance Policy 4.1, Section 1.11(d), the Company must issue a news release announcing the closing of the private placement and setting out the expiry dates of the hold period(s). The Company must also issue a news release if the private placement does not close promptly. [Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.]

________________________________________

SDX ENERGY INC. ("SDX")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

Effective at 9.00 a.m. PST, October 18, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

SERENGETI RESOURCES INC. ("SIR")BULLETIN TYPE: HaltBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

Effective at 5.51 a.m. PST, October 18, 2018, trading in the shares of the Company was halted at the request of the Company, pending news; this regulatory halt is imposed by Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada, the Market Regulator of the Exchange pursuant to the provisions of Section 10.9(1) of the Universal Market Integrity Rules.

________________________________________

SERENGETI RESOURCES INC. ("SIR")BULLETIN TYPE: Resume TradingBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 1 Company

Effective at 9.45 a.m. PST, October 18, 2018, shares of the Company resumed trading, an announcement having been made.

________________________________________

SIRONA BIOCHEM CORP. ("SBM")BULLETIN TYPE: Private Placement-Non-BrokeredBULLETIN DATE: October 18, 2018TSX Venture Tier 2 Company

TSX Venture Exchange has accepted for filing documentation with respect to a Non-Brokered Private Placement announced Oct 15, 2018:

Number of Shares:

7,095,100 shares

Purchase Price:

$0.10 per share

Warrants:

7,095,100 share purchase warrants to purchase 7,095,100 shares

Warrant Initial Exercise Price:

$0.18

Warrant Term to Expiry:

3 Years

Number of Placees:

20 Placees

Finder's Fee:

PI Financial Corp

$9,532.00 cash; 71,320 warrants

Finder Warrant Initial Exercise Price:

$0.18

Finder Warrant Term to Expiry:

3 year

Note that in certain circumstances the Exchange may later extend the expiry date of the warrants, if they are less than the maximum permitted term.

The above information is a summary only. Neither TMX Group Limited nor any of its affiliated companies guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document. Readers should consult the issuer's continuous disclosure record for complete details of the transaction.

________________________________________

SOURCE TSX Venture ExchangeDue to recent developments, Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday announced that she was taking a leave of absence effective Oct. 18, Thursday, as President of the United Nationalist Alliance. With my absence, I will be focusing more on my job as a Senator and put all my efforts in advancing pending legislation in the 17th Congress, she said in a letter to the partys secretary-general, lawyer JV Bautista. However, as an official senatorial candidate of UNA in next years elections, Binay vowed to continue to advance the partys core agenda of competence and the Binay brand of service. Binay said she expects the party to handle her leave appropriately in accordance with their rules and charter. It is my wish that the secretary -general grants my request in good faith, said the reelectionist senator. Bautista said the partys Executive Committee, chaired by former vice president Jejomar Binay, who is seeking a congressional seat in Makati, will meet to decide on the senators successor. Senator Binay could not be reached for comment to expound on the recent developments that prompted her to take a leave of absence, but some observers surmised that this could be due to the existing feud between her two siblings who are both running for mayor of Makati City. Incumbent Mayor Abby Binay-Campos and her younger brother, former Mayor Junjun Binay, had filed their respective certificate of candidacy as both of them stood their ground to run for mayor of Makati. Abby had appealed to Junjun to drop his mayoralty bid amid a publicized rift that has left the political family divided. This will divide our family even after the elections. You know my brother...through all the joy and the sorrow I have been with him. In all the crises that he has been through, personally and politically, I was with him, said Abby. I was with him at the Senate, I was with him in city hall. I was standing up for him. Ate (older sister) ako e, di ba. I wish he would give me a chance, said Binay. Abby said her brother will have his turn...and he had his turn, and it was inconceivable for them to be rivals. But Junjun, unfazed by the appeal of his older sister, proceeded in filing his COC. He was accompanied by Nancy, the eldest of the Binay children, and his mother, former Makati City Mayor Elenita Binay. But the senator had clarified that joining her brother in the filing of his COC did not mean that she was taking sides. The senator added that she will not meddle in the feud between her two siblings, as she also to focus on her fight to keep her seat in the Senate. At this point, I also have a fight so I first need to focus on this (re-election, the senator said.While the senator admitted that she is closer to Junjun since they had spent more tie together, she was non-committal when asked if she would help campaign for her brother. I still do not know. I dont want to think about it. Perhaps, I must attend first to my (senate) run since this is more difficult because it involved the whole Philippines, the senator said. Lets see. But at this time, let us avoid first. Anyway, our house is just near Manila, so it would be easier to cross, she added. She said that their father, who is seeking a congressional seat in Makati, had acceded to the desire of both Abby and Junjun to slug it out in Makatis political arena but reminded both to stick to their platform and avoid saying hurting words. She reiterated the elder Binays statement that it was not for him to decide on the political fate of his two children, but the Makati electorate. The senator recalled that when she first ran as senator in 2013, her father never told her to run, but had repeatedly asked she was sure to run or if that was really her decision. So hes just like that among his siblings. It will always be up to our decision. Asked whether there is a chance that either of her two siblings might lose to another mayoralty bet, the senator said she was not aware if there is another candidate vying for the top local post in the city. But she admitted that the clash between Junjun and Abby would divide their family, saying the resulting dynamics would not be easy. She added that the familys priority at the moment is to isolate the siblings children in the upcoming political fight. Describing their family situation as complicated, the senator said they try to avoid to talk about the situation. The senator said the Binays sibling rivalry in politics could deeply affect their parents. I know and I understand the dilemma of our parents right now. She also admitted that she is worried about landing a place in the next Senate since there are many prominent personalities who are running for senator. She recalled her fathers advice when she joined the senatorial race in 2013 that she should always be running scared all the time. So I guess its still the same. Despite being a re-electionist, Binay said she is still not confident about her chances of winning in the midterm elections although shes doing well in all surveys on senatorial candidates preferred by the voters.The Duterte administrations implementation of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program is the primary reason why the insurgency in the country is now on a decline, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said. Our government is here, led by President Rodrigo Duterte. He will give everyone a chance to return to the fold of the law, live a new life in peace and make everyone able to contribute to development, Lorenzana said in a statement sent to reporters Wednesday. Through this program, more rebels are sending surrender feelers to the government, he said. The DND chief made this comment during the final leg of the two-day Peace Summit for the Former Rebels at the Northern Luzon Command headquarters in Tarlac. The event also included the surrender of firearms and the ceremonial acceptance of 125 FRs from Regions 1, 2, 3 and Cordillera.E-CLIP is the flagship program of the Duterte administration that seeks to effect social healing and national unity through a whole-of-nation approach towards the higher objective of having just and lasting peace. It also provides social equity to former members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army-National Democratic Front and the Militia ng Bayan by devising a different modality of providing benefits and services to the FRs, in order to reintegrate them into mainstream society. Lorenzana also commended the efforts of all agencies under the Task Force Balik-Loob, headed by Defense Undersecretary Reynaldo Mapagu, which implements the E-CLIP by consolidating all the programs of TFBL lead and partner agencies, as well as local government units which implement the reintegration program in their localities through the E-CLIP Committees headed by provincial governors.THE Southern Police District on Thursday alerted the public against various modus operandi this coming holiday season. SPD spokesperson Jenny Tecson also warned the people against members of Ipit Gang who operate by casually ganging up on an innocent person, with one accomplice stealing the victims valuables while the others create distractions for the victim and bystanders. Tecson said these groups operate in Light Railway Transit (LRT 1 and 2), Metro Railway Transit (MRT-3) and also target bus commuters on both the north and south bound of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, and along the stretch of Senator Gil Puyat Avenue (formerly Buendia Avenue) in Makati. She added some of the gang members had been apprehended by the Makati City Police Station and charged in court for theft. Since the crime committed is bailable, they were released from detention and continued with their illegal activities, said Tecson. The SPD also revealed that the gang was being protected by a certain Police Officer 1 Tamondog, formerly assigned at the Makati City Police Station. The leader of the group identified as Ruel Bautista was arrested recently by Makati police operatives. Makati City police commander Rogelio Simon said they had intensified their security measures and enhanced anti-criminality campaign in light of the high number of theft and other modus as the holiday season draws near.Part of anti-criminality campaign is setting up of aggresive patrol operations and detective beat patrols on Edsa-Makati area and Ayala MRT (Metro Railways Transit), said Simon. Just recently, Simons men arrested four notorious members of Tira-Tira Oslow Gang along Edsa corner Ayala Avenue. Simon identified the suspects as Dennis Naveles, 34; Kevin Coltivo, 21; Rolando Bernardo, 26, and Rowel Concepcion, 26, all jobless and residents of Pasay City. The authorities chanced upon the group members after they alighted from a passenger bus around 5:30 am. The gangs modus operandi is they operate in a group and ride in a public utility vehicle preying (on) their targets. In swift motion, the perpetrators with the assistance of other members take the belongings of the victim and leave away (sic), said Simon. In crowded areas like open public markets and commercial centers, the authorities called on the public to be aware of the Pasa-Bilis Gang whose crime tactic was done by a gang whose members quickly pass from one person to another stolen items to avoid being detected.Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

WashingtonTwo weeks after he disappeared, The Washington Post on Wednesday published what it said appears to be, in which the missing Saudi journalist writes of the importance of a free press in the Arab world.Such a forum is currently lacking, says Khashoggi, a Post contributor and US resident who disappeared enteringin Istanbul on Oct. 2. The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power, he writes. READ: Saudi faces new claim over journalists death The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices, Khashoggi writes. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face. The ultimate fate of Khashoggiwhose writings have been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmanis still unknown, but leaks by anonymous Turkish officials have painted a picture of him allegedly meeting a grisly demise in the consulate at the hands of Saudi agents.Saudi Arabia has denied to the United States having knowledge of what happened at the consulate. In the introduction to Khashoggis columnwhich was accompanied by a photo of the smiling writerthe Posts Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah said the newspaper held off on publishing it in the hopes that he would return. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post, Attiah wrote. This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for. READ: Saudi journalist believed killed in consulate hitThe Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency on Thursday proposed the conduct of ain next years mid-term elections. Wala naman plano. Bigla lang pumasok sa utak ko. [The drug test] should be a surprise, otherwise, we are not doing (it) properly. It doesnt serve the purpose. Mas maganda surprise drug test sa lahat ng kandidato [There is no definite plan. It just entered my mind. The drug test should be surprise, otherwise, we are not doing it properly. It doesnt serve the purpose. It would be better if there would be a surprise drug test for all candidates], PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said in radio interview. Hindi ko pa alam kung legal or not. Kung ako tatanungin, mas gusto ko yung ganun (I am not sure yet if this is legal or not. If you ask me, I would rather it happens), he added. In a related development, the Dangerous Drugs Board encouraged aspiring candidates to submit to a mandatory drug testing once they are elected. DDB Regulation No. 13, series of 2018, provides for the establishment and institutionalization of drug-free workplace policies in all government offices, including the conduct of authorized drug testing for local officials and appointive public officers. This covers all appointive public officers in all offices, including all constitutional bodies, departments, bureaus, and agencies of the national government, government-owned- and -controlled corporations, state and local universities and colleges, and elective officials of local government units. Any personnel found positive for use ofwill, at first offense, will be charged with grave misconduct and may be dismissed from public service. Heads of agencies or local chief executives who fail to formulate or implement a Drug-Free Workplace Policy within two months after the effectivity of the Board Regulation will also be penalized under Section 32, Article II of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 or Republic Act No. 9165. A prison term of six months to four years and a fine ranging from P10,000 to P50,000 would be imposed on any person found violating any regulation issued by the Board. As civil servants, we must lead by example of living a healthy and drug-free lifestyle. We cannot expect the Filipino people to be drug-free if we, ourselves, are involved in these substances, DDB Chairman Catalino Cuy said in a statement on Wednesday. Board Regulation No. 13, series of 2018, supplements an existing regulation on a one-strike policy among government officials and employees through establishing clear protocols to ensure that the. The regulation was signed on Aug. 30 and took effect on Oct. 6 after publication in three newspapers of general circulation. Meanwhile, Malacanang on Thursday reiterated Presidentto ensure clean, honest and fair elections in 2019. The President conveys to the nation his steadfast and unwavering commitment to strictly enforce the election laws to ensure a clean, honest and fair elections reflective of the genuine will of the electorate, Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement. Panelo said Duterte has also assured the public that his government will not tolerate offending practices that give undue advantage to a candidate or group of candidates. The Chief Executive guarantees that all laws will be implemented and applied to everyone regardless of political color or position, he said. He said Duterte is really committed not to allow government resources to be used during the election campaign. Not a single centavo from the taxpayers money nor any government property will be spent or used for or against a candidate, he said. Panelo warned officials not to hamper campaign rallies, saying the mid-term elections will serve as a vital part of the countrys democratic way of life. Any official that restricts the issuance of permits to peaceably assemble and to hold campaign rallies, marches and motorcades shall be held accountable before the law, he warned. The President respects the right of suffrage as the hallmark of our democracy. The government will thus act accordingly to protect the sanctity of the ballot and ensure that those who will win will be proclaimed winners without delay unless restrained by the courts, he added. READ: Palace to PDEA: Drug tests voluntary The period for the filing of COCs ended on Wednesday, with 152 individuals, composed of first-timers, former and incumbent senators, vying for 12 senatorial seats at stake. Former members of Dutertes Cabinet were among the senatorial bets. These are former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Presidential Political Adviser Francis Tolentino, Bureau of Corrections chief Ronald Bato dela Rosa, and Special Assistant to the President Christopher Bong Go. Old-timers led by 94-year-old Juan Ponce Enrile and Sergio Osmena III, also joined the senatorial race. Other positions at stake in next years elections include seats for party-lists, the House of Representatives as well as provincial, city and municipal positions. In the same press briefing, Panelo said he expects that Dutertes candidates for senators will prevail in the 2019 midterm elections. Panelo said that with the rockstar attitude of the president, the administrations candidates would have a very good chance on winning the upcoming elections. Well, given the popularity of the President, the chances of these senatorial candidates of the administration certainly are very good, Panelo said. The Palace official said they will not discount the fact that some opposition candidates will also win in the elections. On Monday, the Liberal Party of the Philippines released its line-up of eight senatorial candidates to go head-to-head with the seven Senate aspirants from the ruling party PDP-Laban. The oppositions list include former senator and Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, Incumbent Senator Bam Aquino, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, De La Salle University Law Dean Chel Diokno, Former Bangsamoro Transition commission member Samira Gutoc, former deputy speaker Erin Tanada, and election lawyer Romy Macalintal. Panelo said that those who will be elected, may they be a member of opposition or not, have to cooperate with the administration. Our feeling is that whoever is elected, the message of the electorate would bewe trust this administration. And, therefore, those who have been elected will have to cooperate with the administration in terms of services that will be beneficial to the electorate and the rest of the nation, said Panelo. The Palace official also said that aside from relying on the Presidents endorsement and popularity, the administrations senatorial aspirants are definitely competent enough to vie with the Opposition 8. They have their own credentials to speak of. I think they will meet the standards, said Panelo. The PDP-Labans list of senatorial aspirants include party president Aquilino Koko Pimentel III, Ferdinand Pascual, Bureau of Corrections head Ronald dela Rosa, Maguindanao Rep. Zajid Mangudadatu, former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Bong Go, Jangao Leborio Jr., and former Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Francis Tolentino.Site traffic information and cookies

We use cookies to collect and analyse information on our site's performance and to enable the site to function. Cookies also allow us and our partners to show you relevant ads when you visit our site and other 3rd party websites, including social networks. You can choose to allow all cookies by clicking Allow all or manage them individually by clicking Manage cookie preferences, where you will also find more information.The Tourism department says the number of hotel rooms in Boracay will not be limited once the tourist resort reopens next week, belying the earlier pronouncements of the Environment department. The Environment department on Thursday vowed to go after the litterbugs in Boracay after Undersecretary Benny Antiporda expressed disappointment over the trash found on Boracays beach front during the first day of its reopening dry run. He said the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy against litterbugs was the best way to prevent littering problems on the island. Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific Air is rolling out the second module of its Juan Effect program as the airline donated trash bins to be used in time for the reopening of Boracay before the end of the month. Cebu Pacific continues to push for sustainable tourism as it rolls out the second module for Juan Effect in Boracay, in time for the impending reopening of one of the most beautiful islands in the Philippines, the airline said in a statement. Environment Undersecretary Sherwin Rigor earlier told ANCs Headstart that the Tourism department will assign a certain number of rooms to accommodate the 19,000 tourist limit for the island.DOT does not limit the number of hotel rooms in the island. We only accredit those who are compliant with the standards, the department said in a statement. As of Oct. 12, only 68 hotels and resorts have complied with the governments requirement to either have their own sewage treatment facility or be connected to accredited sewage pipes and have their facilities moved at least 30 meters away from the shore. There is no deadline for submitting requirements; once compliant, we accredit and they can open, the department said. Stricter building and operating guidelines were imposed on businesses in Boracay in a bid to rehabilitate the overcrowded and polluted beach destination. Boracay was closed to tourists on April 26 after President Rodrigo Duterte said it had turned into a cesspool.The British Irish Chamber of Commerce has said it is "extremely concerned" at the outcome of last nights European Council meeting in Brussels on Brexit.

It comes as British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed she is ready to consider a delay of a matter of months in Britains final departure from the EU in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

However, she said she does not expect any extension of the so-called transition to Brexit to be needed, because she still hopes to conclude a deal on the UKs future trade and security relationship with the EU by its scheduled end-date of December 2020.

Speaking after last night's meeting Director General of the British Irish Chamber, John McGrane, said: We are extremely concerned that the expected progress in negotiations has not been achieved last night.

"Businesses have long warned of the dangers of a no-deal Brexit and of the importance of delivering a transition period to provide adequate time for them to prepare for any new arrangements.

Concern is growing that we are now heading towards a no deal outcome.

Such an outcome would be wholly unsatisfactory to businesses who would face the prospect of severely disrupted supply chains, new barriers to trade, and significant cost increases that will impact on growth and jobs.

While we welcome indications that a longer transition period may be on the table, the clear matter of focus now is that a Withdrawal Agreement is secured. "

Mr McGrane urged negotiators to work quickly over the coming weeks to conclude a deal.

He said: "This would help secure a Withdrawal Agreement and the transition period that is so vital to businesses across Ireland, the UK and the EU.

The British Irish Chamber stands ready to deliver support in any way that it can to this process.By Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Correspondent, in Brussels

Update 6.58pm: Irish and British businesses, banks and airlines will "bite back" and make Brexit decisions for themselves that could have dire consequences for both economies if a deal is not struck by Christmas, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned.

Mr Varadkar made the claim as he admitted a realistic Brexit deal deadline date is "anyone's guess" and could be as late as January, and refused to rule out an extension to the March 29, 2019, cut-off point for Britain to formally leave the EU.

Speaking after a European Council summit undermined by fresh Brexit delay and fears a dreaded no deal scenario is now inevitable, Mr Varadkar said decisions must be made soon.

And, noting businesses work "on a quarterly basis" and cannot wait for politicians to make a last minute March breakthrough, he said if no progress is made within weeks firms may take action themselves regardless of the wider economic consequences.

"Politicians may be able to make late, late night decisions in rooms in the new year or in December but businesses are going to make plans long before that because the business sector operates on a quarter by quarter basis.

"Business, banks, employers airlines will start making decisions and they will start making decisions that bite back particularly in the United Kingdom but also in Ireland and other places.

"I think it's in the interests of all of our citizens that the politicians and officials get on with this and get it done as soon as possible," he said.

Mr Varadkar was speaking as he separately admitted a realistic Brexit agreement deadline date could be as late as January, despite repeated warnings in recent months about June, September and now October cut-off points.

Asked when he believes a deal can now be agreed just days after European Council president Donald Tusk said an agreement is "further away than ever", Mr Varadkar said the date is now "anyone's guess".

The Taoiseach said a now seemingly off the cards special November summit will only take place if there is a deal to sign off on or if "talks break down", and added that while a scheduled December EU summit could see a deal struck he could not rule out the crisis dragging on into January.

I don't know. I've always said October was the deadline, I know there are suggestions that it could have been done earlier, but October is the deadline and it looks like we are going to miss that deadline now.

"There is another summit in December, I really hope we can have it done in November, and if we don't then we will do it in December. But to be honest I just don't know," he said.

While stressing he is "not calling for" an extension to the March 29, 2019, date for Britain to formally leave the EU amid fresh speculation over the potential move, Mr Varadkar also twice noted it is "legally possible" if London requests a delay.

The Taoiseach added that while some may view Brexit as a short-term "storm", the reality is it is the political equivalent of climate change that could ravage both Ireland and Britain if not tackled properly, warning: "It's a permanent change."

Earlier: Businesses will make 'decisions that bite' long before politicians resolve Brexit, says Taoiseach

Update 5.48pm: The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned businesses will "bite back" if politicians cannot agree to a Brexit deal by Christmas.

Mr Varadkar was speaking after EU leaders failed to make substantive progress in negotiations with the UK at a summit this week.

It does look likely however that Britain will get an extra year after leaving the EU to negotiate a trade deal.

The Taoiseach said first a withdrawal agreement has to be put together, and it will need to happen soon because businesses will make decisions long before politicians.

He said: "Businesses are going to make plans long before that.

"The Business sector operates on a quarter by quarter basis. Businesses, banks, employers and airlines will start making decisions that bite."By Ann O'Loughlin

A 52-year-old finance director has launched a High Court action challenging a contention by the pharmaceutical company where she has worked many years that she is "deemed to have resigned".

The action has been brought by Barbara Whooley, against her employer Merck Millipore Ltd of Tullagreen, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork whose German parent is Merck KGaA, based in Darmstadt, Germany.

The court heard Ms Whooley of Lindville, Blackrock Road, Cork spent the last four years on secondment to the German parent.

She had recently returned to work in Ireland.

However on her return to Cork in early October, she was asked to leave the premises by a HR manager at the firm.

She then took a flight to Germany and attended for work at the parent company, but at the end of the working day was told to "go home" by a superior, the court heard.

Ms Whooley who is a qualified accountant was subsequently told by her employer that she was "deemed to have resigned" from the company in early October, and said it would pay her a further three months salary.

At the High Court, Tom Mallon Bl for Ms Whooley said his client strongly disputes her employer's contention and also fears that her employer's actions will damage her reputation.

Counsel said there is no concept in Irish law where an employee is "deemed to have resigned".

Counsel said that in 2014 his client agreed to an initial two-year secondment to Germany, which involved a lot of travel over and back to Germany. The secondment was extended by another two years and finished up earlier this year.

Counsel said that his client's work in Germany was "highly successful".

She received a "triple-A rating", which only the top 2% of employees achieve, counsel said.

However, things had recently gone awry after his client decided to return to work in Cork, and did not want to continue the secondment agreement.

While it was accepted her job in Cork had long since gone counsel said she was looking for a similar position that she had before the secondment or an appropriate severance package.

Counsel said that his client was now concerned that given her purported departure that her reputation will be damaged.

She now seeks damages and various orders against the defendants including a declaration that she did not resign from her employment with the Irish based company, and that she remains an employee of Merck Millipore.

She seeks injunctions preventing the defendants from dismissing her or interfering with her salary or benefits and if necessary and an injunction compelling her employer to pay her a severance package.

She further seeks an order restraining the German parent company from unlawfully interfering with the contractual relationship between her and Merck Millipore.

At the High Court this week Ms Whooley's lawyers secured permission to serve short notice of her proceedings on Merk Millipore Ltd and Merck KGaA.

The judge, who granted permission on an ex parte basis said the case can come back to court next week.Padraig Hoare

Ibec has cancelled an event with the Irish Saudi Arabia Business Council due to take place in Dublin today, following an international outcry over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The council had said the event was to focus on the opportunities that now exist in Saudi Arabia for Irish business and was due to be attended by the Saudi ambassador, Hail Al Jubeir, and Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy as well as possible ministerial representation. Mr McCoy said Ibec cancelled the joint trade and investment event.

Irish secretary of the NUJ, Seamus Dooley, said the prompt reaction was the correct decision by Ibec.

This conference had been planned for some time and it is appropriate that, in the worsening situation in Saudi Arabia, that the Government and Irish companies take a new look at plans to strengthen links with the Saudi regime, he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the IMF has deferred her trip to Saudi Arabia, where she had planned to attend an investment conference, later this month, adding to a growing number of business and finance leaders who have decided to skip the event after the disappearance of the Saudi journalist.

IMF managing director Christine Lagardes previously scheduled trip to the Middle East is being deferred, a fund spokesperson said. Ms Lagarde had said last week that she still intended to attend the Future Investment Initiative.

The one-sentence statement from the IMF didnt give a reason for the change or mention the summit.

A string of financial and business leaders has pulled out of the summit, which is organised by the Saudi crown prince, including JP Morgan Chases Jamie Dimon and Credit Suisse Group chief executive Tidjane Thiam.

The New York Times, which was a media sponsor of the conference, has pulled out. CNN has also withdrawn. The Khashoggi affair is eclipsing the three-day Future Investment Initiative, nicknamed Davos in the Desert, intended to showcase Prince Mohammed bin Salmans modernisation plan for the desert kingdom. Billionaire Richard Branson sees the case as a potential gamechanger for companies doing business with Saudi Arabia, halting Virgin Groups talks for the Saudi sovereign wealth fund to invest in a space venture.

A part of bin Salmans plan to overhaul the Saudi economy is an attempt to attract foreign direct investment into the kingdom. In a recent interview he said the event would see the sealing of a major investing agreement in the non-oil economy.

- Additional reporting BloombergThere are 25 new jobs coming to Dunboyne, Co Meath.

Mobile telecommunications supplier, EMR Integrated Solutions, is to increase its headcount to 50 over the next 12 months.

Their 500,000 investment aims to recruit apprentice electricians, mechatronic, electrical, automation engineers and project managers.

It comes on the back of revenue increase of 18%, due in large part to the success of its recent entry to the UK market and several contract wins in the utility and wind energy sectors there.

The company has moved to a new 5,000 sq. ft premises at Dunboyne Business Park in Co. Meath to accommodate the new recruits, while their existing premises, also in Dunboyne, will be retained as EMRs primary engineering and logistics centre.

EMR specialises in designing and building telemetry networks and management systems for energy suppliers and water companies.

Mark Quinn, managing director with EMR, said: This investment represents the culmination of targeted execution and tremendous teamwork. Early on, we recognised the rapidly changing nature of the utility industry at home and abroad, and set about developing the skills and expertise required to assist these organisations with the digital transformation of their networks.

Were now viewed as a trusted partner for many global organisations and were ambitious about the potential for further expansion into the UK market.

The company also operates a graduate program with the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology, where mechatronics students can benefit from practical work placements during their period of study.

Forging strong links between academia and business is very important to us, explained Derek Glynn, chief operating officer with EMR.

Getting the right staff with the right qualifications at an early stage allows us to embed them into our own mentoring program. Continued skills investment in all of our staff keeps us ahead of the competition, he said.

EMR was founded in the early in the 1980s and its clients include Irish Water, Northern Ireland Water, SSE and PowerHouse Generation on the island of Ireland as well as Affinity Water, Welsh Water and Greencoat UK Wind in the UK.

The company has also completed communications projects for ESB, Eir, RTE NL, Virgin Media, the Defence Forces and many of the countrys county councils.Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapena is said to be in hot water following the discovery of billions of pesos worth of shabu that slipped past the Manila International Container Port and were hidden in four magnetic lifters that were cleared and released by the agency, an official said Thursday. The official made his statement even as Customs spokesman Dino Austria on Thursday denied that Lapena did not act on the supposed evidence that the magnetic lifters found in Cavite contained something, and possibly shabu. Interviewed on Dobol B sa News TV, Austria said Lapena ordered an investigation on the alleged shabu smuggling, contrary to the claim of Deputy Collector for Operations and Assistant Project Manager of CMTA PMO Maria Lourdes Mangaoang. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency discovered the four emptied magnetic lifters in Cavite that were said to have contained P6.8 billion worth of shabu and were found to have traces of the illegal drug. Mangaoang said the magnetic lifters recovered in a warehouse in Cavite contained shabu as shown by x-ray images, but Lapena did not take action on the matter. Mangaoang said the X-ray images of the magnetic lifters revealed cloudy parts, indicating that something was inside the containers.The lifters had reportedly been emptied by the time PDEA operatives got to the warehouse. The 1,000 kilograms of shabu entered the country through four magnetic scrap lifters, making them undetectable through X-ray. PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino said government agents found the magnetic lifters empty in a warehouse inside the CRS Subdivision, Barangay F. Reyes, in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite. The PDEA and PNP have listed at least 19 people of interest, which includes 11 Chinese. Meanwhile, Lapena denied the rumors he would soon be axed from his post. I would like to inform the public, the men and women of the Bureau of Customs and the BOC stakeholders that there is no truth to the rumors circulating that I will soon be replaced as Customs commissioner, Lapena said in a statement.Ryanair will press ahead with plans to move Polish staff on to self-employed contracts, the airlines chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said.

Ryanair is already trying to cope with an industrial relations revolt across the region, with pilots and cabin crew staging strikes in several countries over employment conditions.

In Poland, a union representing Polish cabin crew has refused to sign the new contracts which the companys local subsidiary wants to introduce.

But Mr Jacobs said the new contract reflected the local market. Its the local type of contract, the same as [national Polish carrier] LOT and other airlines.

Many Polish Ryanair staff are currently on contracts provided by the parent company, but are being asked to transfer to the new contracts as Ryanairs main operation in Poland is handed to Ryanair Sun, a local subsidiary.

Paulo Conceicao, secretary of the Polish cabin crew union, CWR, who works as cabin crew at Ryanair, said that the self-employed contract would mean staff would lose important rights such as sick pay and maternity leave.

All the rights embedded into your labour contract are liquidated, he said.

Analysts have said that the transfer to self-employed contracts gives airlines more flexibility and will save them money.

Mr Jacobs said staff would get higher salaries as a result of the shift and could also be relocated elsewhere in Europe if they are not satisfied with the contracts.

Ryanairs shares were up marginally, by just under 1%, yesterday.

ReutersPadraig Hoare

Some 1.5bn worth of so-called warehoused mortgages  where some regular payments are agreed and the rest of the sum is parked to the end of the term  will become the next controversy involving Irish customers.

That is according to one of the main players who exposed the tracker mortgage scandal, financial advisor Padraic Kissane, who told TDs and Senators at the Oireachtas Finance Committee that split mortgages were another potential crisis kicked down the road for thousands of homeowners.

Split mortgages became popular in the years following the financial crash to alleviate pressure on homeowners struggling to make repayments.

A homeowner agrees to make repayments on part of the loan, with the other chunk of the loan sum then warehoused until the end of an agreed term or when their financial position improves.

Mr Kissane said the full circle had not been drawn on warehoused mortgages.

As night follows day, the next area that will be looked at is warehoused loans because they are now the next non-performing loans. Nobody is asking what is going to happen with all these warehoused loans at the end -- are you going to have all these 70-year-olds out of their homes because they are going to have to sell?

Some will absolutely take the view that they will have to trade down and move to a smaller home and so forth, but nobody is asking the question...I do not know as a financial advisor today what is going to happen with warehousing, Mr Kissane said in response to Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath.

Mr McGrath said it was a concern as to what would happen with warehoused loans: There is 1.5bn of warehoused mortgaged debt in split-mortgages, in the average of 50,000. They pay the active part of the mortgage and 15 years down the line, when the mortgage comes to an end, the debt is sitting there. This is untested because these agreements have not come to an end yet. Its about 1.5bn debt parked, he said.

Mr Kissane said there was now an added pressure on homeowners who warehoused part of their mortgage with the arrival of vulture funds.

What is even more serious is that most of these (warehoused) arrangements have three-year reviews on them, which are now currently in play to the vulture fund. (Homeowners) are back in with their contracts in three years after being told it was going to be reviewed with a pillar bank, but it is now in the hands of a vulture, he said.

Mr Kissane said vulture funds buying distressed loans in the Republic in recent years had also contributed to the rental crisis throughout the country, leaving many properties vacant.

The contributory effect to the rental market because of vulture funds is the amount of properties that are empty because receivers are appointed. I am at meetings with clients and the bank cannot tell me who has the keys, nobody knows who has the keys, and the property is empty. It is astonishing, he said.

The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) and SME lobby group Isme told the Finance Committee that vulture funds had put untold pressure on farms and businesses.

IFA president Joe Healy accused vulture funds of preying on families, and killing off farm businesses.Last night saw the first televised debate of the Presidential election to feature all six candidates and viewers had their phones at the ready to share their thoughts on the big talking moments.

Pat Kenny hosted presidential hopefuls President Michael D Higgins, Gavin Duffy, Sean Gallagher, Joan Freeman, Sean Casey and Liadh Ni Riada as they tackled the big issues facing the next president.

Around 738,400 of us watched the debate and according to figures people across the country sent over 15,000 tweets during the 90 minute show.

Pic: Social Media Live with Olytico

Last night's showdown got people talking more than Monday night's eventful Claire Byrne Live debate with a 60% increase in online discussion.

The race for #Aras18 presidential campaign is heating up with a 60% increase in discussion after last night's #PKDebate verses Monday's #CBlive debate. Check out the top stats below. pic.twitter.com/ksTUy54j3O  eightytwenty (@eightytwenty) October 18, 2018

The candidates were grilled by Pat Kenny on the major issues facing the country at the moment and in the year's ahead - from the homelessness crisis to Brexit there was a lot to cover.

But what seemed to catch viewers attention the most was the shade thrown, the audience antics and the feeling that maybe we've seen this all before.

Here is just some of what Twitter had to say as the race to the Aras continues.

President Higgins had the quote of the night when he responded to criticism of his absence at previous debates.

"I just want to address not turning up...I've been turning up since 1969," he said. And Twitter LOVED it.

New campaign slogan:

"Michael D - Turning Up Since 1969." #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/cA1TMjNyal  Pauline Murphy (@RealPMurphy) October 17, 2018

Its like they all won a competition to stand up there beside Michael D.

Ive been turning up since 1969

Someone press the golden buzzer for him  #PKDebate  Laurence Kinlan (@laurencekinlan) October 17, 2018

OH Michael D you legend.... "I have been turning up since 1969.... " #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/c6BUCIh0mi  o (@curiouswoman_) October 17, 2018

Hahahaha Michael D is so sassy. "I've been turning up since 1969" #pkdebate #Aras18 pic.twitter.com/xQQcRcpyjk  Cormac Mc (@cormac_mcgee) October 17, 2018

The presidential shade didn't stop there as people relished a retort to expense claims directed at Michael D from Peter Casey.

President Higgins said that Mr Casey was creating a "fantasy list" of expenses he had claimed during this seven-year term.

After Mr Casey accused the President of taking a private jet to Zurich, he was dismissed with a simple: "Add it to the list".

Michael Ds Add it to the list (bitch) put down to Peter Casey is a Miggledy meme waiting to happen #PKDebate #Aras18  Oliver Callan (@olivercallan) October 17, 2018

The Roast of Peter Casey courtesy of @MichaelDHiggins Add that to the list #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/pAHTw7ZJrV  Warren Farrell (@WarrenJJF) October 17, 2018

A live look at Peter Casey adding to his fantasy list. #PKdebate pic.twitter.com/6MrlyFHltb  Breanne Christina  (@HarleyHEELS_x) October 17, 2018

"Just add it to the list"....love this guy @MichaelDHiggins #PKDebate    (@Stephenteap) October 17, 2018

There were many experiencing debate fatigue and let their feelings be known.

This man's face sums up the mood of an entire nation. #pkdebate pic.twitter.com/jeV6RKYZcX   Ed Smith  (@EdTodayFM) October 17, 2018

Well, after watching that for the last 90

minutes Im just glad that blasphemy is soon to be legal because, otherwise, Id be looking down the barrel of a five stretch #Aras18 #pkdebate  Karl Brophy (@KarlBrophy) October 17, 2018

Why are we not settling the Presidential debates the traditional way, through the time-honoured practice of batin' each other with sticks via faction fighting #PKDebate  Ciara | Ciaraioch  (@Ciaraioch) October 17, 2018

Would be so fab if the #PKDebate was conducted in French royal costume  pic.twitter.com/bi0kdwwEuN  James Kavanagh (@JamesKavanagh_) October 17, 2018

As always, there were a few people in the audience that caught some attention.

Watching the #pkdebate and just spent the past 2 minutes staring at this girl in the background! Shes literally so fab! Get it girl pic.twitter.com/RoQcGJYTLQ  Danielle Williamson (@_DanielleW_x) October 17, 2018

Arra Pat will you shift yourself there #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/0OKfY3lJHW  TracyClifford (@TracyClifford) October 17, 2018

Thought this guy bought the jumper for a second! #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/IeYRtA4VOj  Brian McGowan (@flash04ster) October 17, 2018

It wasn't just the candidates that came in for criticism from Twitter users, Pat Kenny had people talking too.

Pat hasn't asked the only question that matters tonight.

Do any of ye own dogs? #PKDebate  @sinead_ryan (@sinead_ryan) October 17, 2018

That look when Pat asks Sean Gallagher if he felt cheated and entitled to the presidency #pkdebate #aras18 h/t @GerryMcBride for the idea pic.twitter.com/WxTBAFZ80i  Mike McLoughlin (@zuroph) October 18, 2018

If you missed last night's debate, here is each candidate outlining their vision for the next seven years.

If you're just itching for some more election debate fun then fear not because before we head to the polls on October 26 there will be not one, but two more debates.

David McCullagh will welcome the candidates on RTE's Prime Time on Tuesday while Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates will host a Tonight Show: Presidential Election Special on Virgin Media One on Wednesday.An extra 2m in funding has been allocated to the regeneration of Dublins north east inner city from the Department of Rural and Community Development.

This brings the total allocation to the area for 2019 to 5.5m.

The funding will go towards providing infrastructure and supports for local community development initiatives in areas such as childcare, youth services, support for the elderly and environmental improvements.

It will also be used for the 50 additional community support jobs which have been created in the area this year.

Speaking today at the Lourdes Day Care on Sean Mac Dermott St, the Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring said he was "really excited" to see what can be achieved next year.

"This area, which is at the very heart of our capital city, continues to receive the support and investment from Government which it needs in order to help it realise its potential," he said.

This will benefit not only the local community, but the city as a whole.

Nowhere is the regeneration of this area more evident than in the Lourdes Day Care Centre which is undergoing significant extension and alteration. The Centre is just one of 34 community projects in the area which has being supported through 3.5 million in funding from my Department this year.," he said.

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, who was also at the centre today, said: The supports provided by Government are helping to build confidence in this thriving community and helping it to achieve its full potential.

"The community spirit in the Lourdes Day Care Centre is a shining example of the resilience of this locality, which is at the heart of my constituency, Dublin Central. I look forward to the further progress we will make together across the coming period.

Digital DeskThere were 92.3% more new apartments built in 2017 than in 2016, new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show.

The Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2018 shows the number of new houses granted planning permission last year rose by 23.7% while there was a 37% increase in the number of new apartments granted permission.

Between 2008 and 2017 the number of new houses granted permission decreased by 67.7% and the number of new apartments granted permission decreased by 73%.

Reacting to the figures, General Manager of Glounthaune Property Development (GPD) Aaron Willis said the pace of building in Ireland remains too slow.

"While the volume of construction output has been rising steadily over the last number of years, the pace of building remains too slow," Mr Willis said.

"The 20% increase in total building and construction in 2017 can only be welcomed with caution, considering the volume of output in building and construction decreased by 53.8% in the last decade.

"Whats more, the smallest sector in the business economy in Ireland in 2015 was construction, with a turnover of 15billion. These figures spell out, in no uncertain terms, that this sector needs help."

The number of new homes built dropped from 6,994 in 2011 to 4,575 in 2013. However, the number of new dwellings built has increased steadily each year since 2013 to stand at 14,446 in 2017.

In 2017, there were 4,269 new single dwellings compared with 3,660 in 2016, an increase of 16.6%.

There were 7,913 new scheme dwellings in 2017, an increase of 55.8% on 2016 when 5,078 were built.

The number of new apartments built in 2017 was 2,264, an increase of 92.3% on 2016.

The county with the most new dwellings completed in 2017, with 5,602, was Dublin, the majority of which were scheme houses.

The most single dwellings were completed in County Cork with 562.

Outside Dublin and Cork, counties Meath (1,108) and Kildare (985) had the most dwellings completed, while Leitrim (73) and Longford (75) had the least.

In the majority of counties new single dwellings outnumber new scheme dwellings and apartments.

In 2011 and 2012, almost two-thirds (62%) of all new dwelling completions were rural. This trend is reversed from 2014 onwards when more than half of all new dwelling completions are urban (54%).

In 2017, more than three-quarters of all new dwelling completions are urban and 23% are rural.

The number of new dwelling Final BER audits for new domestic dwellings in 2017 was 10,290, an increase of 73% on 2016.

Output in total building and construction increased by 20% in 2017 when compared with 2016. Between 2007 and 2017, the volume of output in building and construction decreased by 53.8%.

In 2016 there was an annual increase in construction turnover of 30% from 14.9 billion in 2015 to 19.4 billion. The year on year change showed that the number of persons employed in construction in 2016 rose by 10.7% to 120,341.

"The country needs more houses. This is an unquestionable truth. And so, we need to put in place the supports, process, incentives and structures that will enable the goal of greater construction output to be achieved," Mr Willis added.

The report reveals that 108,720 were employed in the construction sector in 2015  but less than 10 years before that we had a labour force of 281,800 in the Irish construction industry.

"Clearly, something must be done about the fact that our building and construction workforce has depleted by so much."

He called for multi-trade courses to be introduced for tradespeople.By Fiachra O'Cionnaith

Update 5.55pm: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has called on the public to send "a very clear message" to Peter Casey in the imminent presidential election vote by rejecting his deeply "divisive" and "regrettable" views about the Travelling community.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, Mr Varadkar said the businessman's comments was wrong to make the controversial comments "to gain attention" and said he expects voters to vote against him next Friday.

In recent days, Mr Casey has made a number of questionable comments about the Travelling community which have dominated the presidential campaign.

In particular, Mr Casey said he does not believe the remarks are racist because he does not see the Travelling community as a different race of people.

Asked about the comments at a Brexit press conference after the European Council summit on Thursday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he disagrees entirely with Mr Casey's views.

Labelling them as "divisive" and "regrettable", the Taoiseach said he hopes voters give people with the same views as Mr Casey "a very clear message" come the presidential vote on Friday, October 26.

"In relation to the comments by Peter Casey, the presidential candidate, all I can say is I think his remarks were very divisive, I think they were designed to gain attention for him and his campaign, and I think that's really regrettable.

"I hope when the people of Ireland come to Ireland to vote next Friday they will give Mr Casey and anyone who holds those views a very clear message," Mr Varadkar said.

Earlier: Traveller children scared and nervous after presidential candidates comments

Update 5.50pm: Traveller children have been left scared and nervous after hearing of presidential candidate Peter Caseys comments about their community at school.

Mr Casey first made the comments on a podcast where he denied Traveller people were an ethnic minority, and were camping on other peoples land.

The comments have come under severe scrutiny from the media and the public, however Mr Casey has stood by his word, and travelled to Tipperary today to visit the site of a housing development which has been a cause for dispute between the county council and the local travelling community.

We are an amazing melting pot of nationalities here and that's the beautiful thing about Ireland. I think it's wrong to pick out one ethnic group to say 'you're special.' #Aras18 #PeterForPresident  Peter Casey (@CaseyPeterJ) October 17, 2018

The houses, at Cabra Bridge outside Thurles, have been uninhabited for months after the travelling community who were due to move in to the new homes say the local authority built the houses with no room for horse grazing.

The travelling community say horses are a lifeline and an integral part of their culture, and they could not move into the houses without appropriate land guaranteed for grazing.

Presidential candidate Peter Casey and his wife Helen arrive to visit a number of homes at Cabra Bridge, Thurles (Brian Lawless/PA)

The children are very frightened about this, this talk hes coming out with, its very frightening for kids, Mr McCarty said.

Theyre listening to other kids in school who are talking to them about this situation.

I never thought this issue would ever come to this, we would be happy with the houses, but this isnt what they promised us.

There is no reason for Mr Casey to come down here and talk down to us, what does he know about us?, he added.

TJ Hogan, a social policy writer for the Irish Traveller Network, says he would like Mr Casey to retract the statements.

Id like him to retract what he said, hes not a president who would represent me, or my family and would not represent the diverse communities that we have here in Ireland, he said.

On Wednesday night during a live television debate, Mr Casey accused the other candidates of lying when they said they would have no issue with travellers living next door to them.

He stood by his comments on Thursday in Thurles, but did not make an effort to speak to any of the travelling community who were nearby.

My position is the proclamation says we should cherish all the children of the nation equally, it doesnt say we should cherish some more than others, Mr Casey said.

I want to get attention to this, people need to stand up and say something is wrong when its wrong, there are people sleeping in the streets.

Its wrong were separating one group and saying; Youre different.

When asked if he believed the four generations of families who have lived in the area had a right to stay, he replied: No, I dont.

The president is the voice for the majority as well, I would seek to be the voice of everyone in Ireland.- Press Association

Earlier: Defiant Peter Casey refuses to back down on Traveller comments

Update 5.30pm: Presidential hopeful Peter Casey has once again criticised Travellers representative groups as he visited a new housing estate for Traveller families in Thurles, Co Tipperary.

Six families are refusing to move into the 1.7m development, because of a dispute with Tipperary County Council over their horses.

Mr Casey is facing mounting calls from Travellers' representative groups to pull out of the Presidential race after claiming Travellers should not have special ethnic minority status.

"A lovely area. It's so sad," he said, commenting on the six newly constructed houses that are at the centre of the dispute.

Mr Casey, who visited the site an hour earlier than planned, is facing mounting calls to pull out of the Presidential race after his comments on Travellers, where he said they shouldnt have special minority status, and claimed they were basically people camping in someone elses land.

Mr Casey was defiant this afternoon and once again hit out at Pavee Point.

"Pavee Point leadership needs to come here and needs to explain to the Travelling community that they're really not doing a justice to the Travelling community.

"I thought that Martin Collins would be here today, that was one of the reasons that I came down. This is just wrong."

Protests were expected to greet him, however around a dozen protestors arrived shortly after Mr Casey had already left.

Barry McCarthy is a member of one of the six families refusing to move into the new houses.

"We'll just stay where we are and they can give them to the homeless," Mr McCarthy said.

We're not racist against anyone.

Mr McCarthy said he would like to meet with Mr Casey to discuss his comments.

"He came down, he took the trip today, he took the long road down. We're willing to meet him but he ran off as quick as he can.

"He is very racist against Travellers, to be honest about it. Why, I don't know.

"I would have loved to have met him to ask him that story, to hear his side of it."

Earlier: Casey travels to Cork amid controversy over Traveller comments

By Catherine Shanahan

Update - 2.40pm: Presidential candidate Peter Casey received a largely warm welcome in Corks English Market today despite controversially describing Travellers as de facto trespassers yesterday.

Peter Casey met Sean and Laurel Beaudette from Canada during his visit to the English Market in Cork today. Photo: Denis Minihane.

The overwhelming reaction among those the Irish Examiner spoke to was that Mr Casey has said openly what others express privately.

Mr Casey said Travellers are basically people who are camping on someone elses land during an interview on Wednesday.

He said it is ridiculous that Travellers are refusing to move into luxury homes built by the local authority in Tipperary at a cost of 1.7m because they dont have stables for their horses.

Asked if he regrets his comments, Mr Casey said: Of course I dont. I havent said anything wrong.

After his meet-and-greet in the English Market, Mr Casey was heading to Tipperary to see for himself the houses he has described as state of the art.

Peter Casey to visit Thurles development amid planned protests by Travelling Community

Presidential hopeful Peter Casey will visit a housing development which has been built for Travellers in Tipperary today.

Mr Casey stood by his comments during the presidential debate last night, referencing an ongoing dispute over housing between Travellers and local authority in the county.

We have so many wonderful nationalities here, its wrong to single out one particular ethnic group differently, he said.

Meanwhile, a protest is due to take place later in Thurles when Mr Casey visits a number of houses left unoccupied in a dispute between a traveller family and the county council.

The 1.7m development was built for members of the Travelling Community near their current site at Cabra Bridge in the town.

However, they have refused to move into the houses.

Mr Casey will visit the site today amid criticism for describing Travellers as people who are camping on somebody else's land and shouldn't be given special status.

The Minister for Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan says he fundamentally disagrees with Peter Casey's comments about Travellers.

Earlier: Peter Casey stands by remarks on Travelling community in presidential debate

The first televised presidential debate featuring all six candidates was held last night.

The candidates, current President Michael D Higgins, Senator Joan Freeman, Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada and three businessmen, Sean Gallagher, Peter Casey and Gavin Duffy, took questions from broadcaster Pat Kenny.

Mr Casey faced calls to withdraw from the race yesterday morning after he said Travellers are people camping on someone elses land.

Mr Casey claimed Irelands recognition of them as members of an ethnic minority was a load of nonsense.

He stood by his comments on the Virgin Media One show last night, referencing an ongoing dispute over housing between Travellers and local authority in Tipperary.

We have so many wonderful nationalities here, its wrong to single out one particular ethnic group differently, he said.

One of the county councils who endorsed me was Tipperary, and as you know we have a housing crisis at the moment.

When I was down there, there was 1.7 million euro spent building six houses that the travelling community wouldnt move into because they wanted sheds and two stables and one acre of land.

Why should they be given the right to turn down a house? I think that is wrong.

Mr Casey accused the fellow nominees of lying about their feelings towards Travellers and said: Its like giving chocolate to a diabetic, youre not helping them.

Liadh Ni Riada (Niall Carson/PA)

Sinn Feins Ms Riada was asked about her ambivalence to violence in regard to past comments about IRA atrocities.

I think any atrocity like that (the Enniskillen bombing) should be condemned, but look, the IRA have been gone the last 20 years, we have a peace process in place, we should be cementing that.

Would you call Nelson Mandela a terrorist?

Mr Kenny then suggested that Brexit could bring back the IRA, before he moved on to the next question.

Later in the programme, Ms Freeman, who voted No in the Repeal the 8th referendum, was accused of being out of step with the majority of the public who voted to repeal Irelands abortion laws.

I dont think the Irish people are as judgmental as you have just been, Pat (Kenny), she said.

I reflect what Ireland is, this is what makes us democratic, were able to discuss and debate.

It was my personal conviction, that has nothing to do with my public duty.

Michael D Higgins speaks of the importance of the largest number of people possible exercising their right to vote on Oct 26, especially since it is the centenary of women getting the vote #PKDebate #aras18  Michael D Higgins (@MichaelDHiggins) October 17, 2018

During the debate, the three businessmen admitted they supported water charges.

Mr Higgins, Mr Gallagher and Mr Duffy revealed that they were landlords when asked directly about the housing crisis.

"The Presidential salary should be halved.



"The office has to be fully transparent & accountable. This should have been dealt with seven years ago." #Aras18 #LiadhForPresident #ANewIreland #PKDebate  Liadh Ni Riada (@LiadhNiRiada) October 17, 2018

When the debate turned to presidential expenses, Mr Casey repeatedly levelled charges at Mr Higgins about his spending.

Mr Higgins labelled the charges a fantasy list.

I dont draw my ministerial pension, Im perfectly happy to accept any salary that the government suggest, he said.

About the 317,000 euro you ask about, I have no problem appointing an independent audit.

It would be entirely wrong to personalise or politicise this.

The vote will be held on October 26.

- Press AssociationThe potential deportation to China of a nine-year-old boy who has lived in Wicklow his whole life has been branded "cruel" and "inhumane".

Fianna Fail TD for Wicklow, Stephen Donnelly has said that it is entirely unacceptable that Eric Zhi Ying Xue and his mother, Leena are facing imminent deportation after her last appeal to stay in Ireland was rejected in June.

Over the past year, Ive been working hard with Erics mother to stop her family from being plucked out of their home," Deputy Donnelly said.

"Ive written to the Justice Minister on their behalf and have tried to convince the authorities how cruel it would be to send young Eric to the other end of the world from the only home he has ever known."

He said he considers Eric an Irish citizen and added that the child will not have access to healthcare or education if he is removed to China.

Eric was born and raised here. He doesnt speak Chinese and, as far as Im concerned, he is Irish.

"We must remember that he wasn't born in China he will have no access to their health or education system if he's sent there.

Deporting him under these circumstances would be inhumane. And Im not alone in this belief; tens of thousands of people have already signed a petition set up by Erics school, St Cronans."

Almost 40,000 people have added their names to the petition set up by the Bray school.

Deputy Donnelly called on the Justice Minister to grant citizenship to Eric.

"Minister Flanagan must show compassion," he said.

"Citizenship should be granted to little Eric straight away and his mother should be given permission to reside so she can continue to raise him in the caring and loving environment she has developed in Bray for her son."

The Health Minister Simon Harris has voiced his support for Eric.

Simon Harris, who represents Wicklow, says he has lobbied the Justice Department on the case.

The Health Minister tweeted to say Eric is Irish and "part of our community".

"I stand with Eric Zhi Ying Xue in Bray," he said.

"He is 9. He is Irish. He was born in Holles Street. He is part of our community.

"On humanitarian grounds alone, this should be resolved. Common sense must prevail. Have made representations to that effect."By Tom Tuite

Dashcam footage led to the arrest of three youths for a sickening attempted robbery of a taxi driver in Dublin, a court heard today.

A 17-year-old boy who allegedly choked the driver during an attack appeared at the Dublin Childrens Court on Thursday.

He was charged with attempted robbery of the taxi man at Briarswood Lawn, Blakestown, Dublin 15 on July 7, 2018.

In an outline of the prosecution evidence, Detective Garda Michael Parry Jones told Judge John OConnor that a taxi collected a young woman and three males from a house in north Dublin.

The driver was asked to bring them to a number of locations until eventually reaching a cul-de-sac at which the female got out.

Det Garda Jones alleged the teenager, who had been sitting behind the driver, chocked him during an assault while demands for money were made.

However, the driver told them he did not have any because they had been his first fare that day.

A rear window in his car was smashed and a door was damaged while the driver suffered superficial cuts and bruises to his face.

The summary of the allegations was given for the judge to decide if he would accept jurisdiction or instead send the teens case forward to the circuit court which has tougher sentencing powers.

Judge OConnor heard the taxi had a dashcam which could could film both the front exterior of the car and also inside it, as well as having audio recording.

Det Garda Jones played the footage commencing at the point where the young woman got out of the taxi. Afterwards the three youths had a smoke and had a discussion in the back seat.

During the playback of the footage, the teenage defendant was shown putting his hands around the drivers neck from behind while a second youth proceeded to punch him in the face a number of times.

There were shouted demands of give me the money, give me the money as the man tried to resist. At one point another youth jumped into the front on top of the driver and his keys were taken.

The footage showed the youths getting out.

Meanwhile, the driver could be heard screaming, begging them to give the keys back while demands were made for money. The footage also showed the rear drivers side window smashing and glass bursting in over the back seat.

The dashcam memory card was recovered and the footage led to three youths being identified. The 17-year-old boy cannot be named because he is a minor.

His barrister pleaded with the court to accept jurisdiction. Counsel asked the judge to note the teenager had left the scene earlier than the other two suspects.

The defence accepted the footage was shocking and the driver had said in his statement that he was now considering giving up taxi work.

The judge was asked note that the boy, who is on a training course, had a supportive family and no prior convictions.

Getting arrested and having fingerprints and DNA samples taken was a sobering experience for him, the barrister said.

Refusing jurisdiction, Judge John OConnor described the incident as absolutely sickening. The teenager was remanded on continuing bail with conditions including one banning him from travelling in a taxi.

He will appear again next month when it is expected he will be served with a book of evidence and sent forward for trial to the circuit court.

Two other youths are facing separate proceedings.By Ann O'Loughlin

A High Court action which had potential to halt the promotion of hundreds of gardai to the rank of sergeant has been resolved.

Garda Keith Blythe had sought an injunction restraining the progression of the Garda Sergeant Promotion Competition until an internal appeal he had lodged in regards to an inappropriate question he claimed he was asked at an interview was fully investigated and completed.

Blythe's action arose of his concerns when he was asked the question regarding "whistleblowers" by a senior garda officer in the course of an interview conducted in April last as part of the competition for sergeant process.

As part of his action against the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice Garda Blythe also sought a declaration that the conduct of the garda sergeant promotion system was tainted with irregularity and flawed and that he is entitled to advance to the Central Board interview.

He further sought damages for what he claims is a breach of contract and breach of duty on the part of the defendants.

The Minister and the Garda Commissioner, represented in the proceedings by Conor Power SC, had opposed the application, and rejected the Garda's claims about the promotion process.

Garda Blythe's case first came before the High Court last month, and was adjourned on occasions to allow discussions take place between the sides.

Today Andrew Walker Bl, for Garda Blythe told Ms Justice Caroline Costello that the matter had been resolved and the proceedings could be struck out.

No details of any settlement agreement were given in open court.

In his action Blythe, who is attached to the legal department in Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin had claimed the promotion system was without transparency, probity and fairness and was not based on merit as it was supposed to be.

He claimed he was the subject of a flawed interview as a result of inappropriate comments made by a Board member.

He claimed he had scored 205 out of 250 in the interview section and believed his performance had been hampered and his scores impacted by the whistleblower remarks resulting in him not being selected to advance to the next stage.

He said that when the remarks regarding whistleblowers had been made he deemed it as completely inappropriate and off-putting. Whilst he tried to maintain concentration and focus he said he had been left very much uneasy about the interjections.

Garda Blythe claimed that in other relevant sections of competence he had scored much higher and claimed that many candidates who got lower marks than him had been selected to go forward to the next stage of the competition.

After Garda Blythe was informed in June that he had not been selected to go forward he had made a formal complaint about the inappropriate comments of the Garda officer.President Rodrigo Duterte has signed a seven-year oil exploration contract with Israel hoping the deal would boost the countrys energy resources, Malacanang said Thursday. Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte signed the Petroleum Service Contrac on behalf of the Philippine government with Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as the witness. He said Cusi attended the ceremonial signing of the contract for Area 4 of the East Palawan Basin of the Fifth Philippine Energy Contracting Round. He said President Raphael Tabibzada signed and represented the Israeli firm Ratio Petroleum. He said Cusi said the event bodes well for the Philippine-Israel economic relations and the countrys upstream petroleum industry. If you remember, the President made statements that our country needs to attain energy security and sustainability at the soonest possible time. The problem with us is we dont have oil resources, thats why its hard for us if we are compared to other countries that have oil, Panelo told reporters. We have been dependent on oil-producing countries for our oil, s we need to boost the exploration and development of our own energy resources.Panelo said Petroleum will be able to explore 416 hectares across the East Palawan Basin for potential oil and gas resources. He said the minimum expenditure would be $34,350,000. This will, of course, be derived from studies, data gathering and drilling activities over the initial seven-year contract duration. Hopefully, we will see and acquire oil. It will definitely help our country, Panelo said. He said the contract with Ratio Petroleum was the first petroleum service contract signed by the Duterte administration. Established in 1992, Ratio Petroleum has a number of large-scale operations at the Levant Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel, as well as offshore operations in Malta and Guyana.By Stephen Maguire

Sinn Fein has been forced to take down a large Presidential election poster of Liadh Ni Riada after it was vandalised with offensive slogans.

The poster had been erected on the outskirts of Letterkenny in Co Donegal.

However, it was removed today after it was daubed with red paint and writing which said: "Wear your blood stained poppy".

The writing was in reference to Ms Ni Riada's comment's in which she said she would wear a red poppy if elected President of Ireland.

Last night Sinn Fein Senator Padraig Mac Lochlainn, who also features in the poster, condemned the attack.

He said "This happens in all elections that posters are attacked but I would obviously condemn it. It is disappointing but it happens."

Senator Mac Lochlainn said that Ms Ni Riada was an intelligent woman who speaking if elected as the President of Ireland.

However, he added that he and many other Sinn Fein members would never wear a poppy.

I have been to many First World War commemorations but I will never wear a poppy.

"The reason for this on a person level is that I believe the poppy represents all British soldiers in all conflicts.

"Liadh is her own person and she was speaking in a personal capacity with a view to representing the people of Ireland as President," he said.Alison ORiordan

A man who was on trial accused of murdering Noel Duck Egg Kirwan in the driveway of his Dublin home has pleaded guilty to facilitating a criminal organisation in carrying out the offence.

Jason Keating (27), of Lower Main Street, Rush, Co Dublin admitted today to participating in or contributing to activity intending to facilitate the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence, namely the murder of Mr Kirwan (62) at St Ronans Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 between November 8 and December 22 ,2016, both dates inclusive.

Keating had originally pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Kirwan on October 2 and the trial has been underway since that date.

State Solicitor Michael ODonovan this morning told the three-judge court that the DPP had directed that Keating be brought before the court and charged with the offence of facilitating the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.

Detective Sergeant Damien Gannon, from Lucan Garda Station, gave evidence that he met Keating this morning and handed him a copy of the charge sheet, explaining the charge to him.

When the registrar put the new count to Keating and asked him how he was pleading, he replied: Guilty.

This is believed to be the second time a person has been convicted for this offence under the organised crime legislation brought in in 2006.

Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, asked the court that a nolle prosequi be entered on the charge of murder at the sentencing hearing next month. This means the State will not be proceeding with the prosecution in relation to the count of murder.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the first instance of this offence was dealt with by the court last Monday. He told counsel for both sides that the court would need to know at the sentence hearing what was offered in terms of assistance by Keating and what was the defendants state of mind in relation to the offence that actually took place.

If you look at the sentence from Monday you will see what was required to assist us in the exercise, he added.

Martin Aylmer (31), of Casino Park, Marino, Dublin 3 was sentenced last Monday to three years and nine months for helping a criminal organisation murder Dublin bar manager, Michael Barr (35) at the Sunset House, Summerhill Parade, Dublin 1 on April 25 2016.

The judge said today that the law of homicide in this country as it is currently structured is inflexible, adding that it was long overdue for reform in its substance and in its mandatory sentencing.

This new charge is most useful in cases where people play parts which fall short of actually pulling the trigger. It provides for some flexibility but also for serious penalties.

"This has advantages for both sides of the case, he remarked.

Mr Kirwan was sitting in his new car, a Ford Mondeo, when a gunman shot him six times with a Makarov handgun which was later recovered at the scene.

The 62-year-old, a long-time friend of Gerry the Monk Hutch, suffered eight gunshot wounds in total to his head, right arm, chest and abdomen.

The court has heard that the murder of Mr Kirwan arose from a "notorious feud" between two criminal factions but the deceased had no connection with either side.

The deceaseds partner, Bernadette Roe, was in the passenger seat of his car at the time of the attack. They had just returned from a Christmas lunch in a restaurant in Crumlin with Ms Roes daughter.

It was the prosecution's case that a 'Gotek7 tracking device was put under Mr Kirwan's car in the weeks leading up to his killing and this could be linked to Keating.

The getaway vehicle, a white Peugeot van, was later found on fire at the rear of Neilstown Shopping Centre in Clondalkin, just a minutes drive from St Ronans Drive.

Mr Justice Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Sinead Ni Chualachain and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded Keating in custody until November 22, when he will be sentenced.By Eoin Reynolds

A man who pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing his nephew's friend has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Tadhg Butler (37), with an address at Seafield House, Tramore, Co Waterford pleaded guilty last July to the unlawful killing of 25-year-old Michael O'Dwyer on January 10, 2014.

Justice Michael White today said the headline sentence for the offence was between 12 and 14 years. Aggravating factors included that Butler's actions led to the death of a completely innocent man in violent and tragic circumstances. He also noted Butler's criminal history and propensity to violence.

Mitigating factors included that he showed genuine remorse and didn't intend to cause serious injury. Justice White backdated the sentence to when Butler went into custody.

Mr O'Dwyer's brother Paul told the court that the family has no comfort knowing that Michael died "afraid and alone". He said Tadhg Butler had shown no remorse and Michael's violent death will affect the family for the rest of their lives.

Butler was initially charged with murder over the death of Mr O'Dwyer and first went on trial in April 2015 but the jury was discharged due to a legal issue on the first day. A second jury found him guilty a few weeks later and he received the mandatory life sentence.

That decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal before a third trial earlier this year ended when the jury could not agree a verdict. Following that, the State accepted a plea of guilty to manslaughter.

Previous evidence

Mr Butler, who was previously known as Thomas O'Grady, told his trial last April that he accidentally stabbed Mr ODwyer while taking a knife from his nephew to prevent him self-harming.

His nephew, Anthony O'Grady, told gardai that Mr Butler walked over and stabbed his friend with a butcher's knife. However, when called to give evidence, he said he couldn't remember anything, that he was a drug addict with psychiatric problems and he accepted that his uncle's version of events could be true.By Elaine Loughlin, Political Correspondent

Update 9pm: Two more meetings between former Communications Minister Denis Naughten and businessman David McCourt have been revealed following the National Broadband Plan controversy.

The Department of Communications last night released further documents detailing meetings which had not previously been disclosed.

The latest revelation came as Minister of State Pat Breen rejected calls for his resignation, insisting he has nothing to resign for, after criticism of an invitation he issued for a private dinner between Mr Naughten and Mr McCourt, who is involved in the one remaining consortium bidding for the State's multi-million rural broadband contract.

The new documents were released after a thrawl of all diary meetings over the past two years between the former minister, senior officials with Enet, Mr Mc Court or the Granahan McCourt company.

The vast majority of the 40 meetings identified in the comprehensive review were only attended by officials, however, Mr Naughten, who resigned over the controversy last week, was present at two.

No minutes were taken for the first meeting which took place on October 20, 2016 and which was attended by Mr Naughten, Mr McCourt and officials from the Department.

However, it is understood the State-owned Metropolitan Area Networks was discussed at this meeting and not the NBP.

The second meeting took place on June 26, 2018 and was attended by Mr Naughten, Mr McCourt and the Assistant Secretary at the department in charge of the National Broadband Project, Ciaran O hObain. This was ahead of a NBP sponsors meeting which took place on the same day.

Mr O hObain's note of the meeting was also published and revealed: Mr McCourt communicated that he remained committed to investing in building high speed broadband infrastructure in rural Ireland and he asked as to the most likely approach of the Department to the sponsors meeting later that day.

"I outlined to Mr McCourt that my expectation was the Minister and the Department would speak very directly to what were considered the key issues which the consortium needed to address in order for the procurement to proceed to conclusion.

All details will now be forwarded to Peter Smyth, the independent process auditor to the NBP procurement, to consider as part of his review.

Meanwhile Mr Breen said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is happy with his explanation about a dinner he organised between Mr Naughten and Mr McCourt.

I have nothing to resign for. We are living in a very funny world, where people are looking for heads. I have nothing to account for, because I wasnt involved in the broadband process and I am not the communications minister.

Speaking to the Clare Champion he said that the NBP plan had not been discussed at the dinner.

"David McCourt and his wife were over from New York at their house, which they do on a regular basis. He had an informal dinner and, during the course of the conversation, asked me to pass on an invitation to the then communications minister, Denis Naughten, for dinner.

I passed on the invitation to Minister Naughten. It was up to Minister Naughten if he wanted to accept or reject it.

"I didnt decide who the guest list was or who Mr and Mrs McCourt should invite. If Denis Naughten had rejected the invitation, I would have passed this on to Mr McCourt."

Earlier: Pat Breen 'never' discussed broadband plan with David McCourt and Denis Naughten

Update 5pm: Junior Minister Pat Breen says he never discussed the national broadband plan with bidder David McCourt or former Communications Minister Denis Naughten.

The Fine Gael politician has admitted he passed on an invitation for dinner meeting between then-minister Mr Naughten and the Irish-American investor.

Mr Naughten resigned last Thursday as the row escalated, and Mr Breen has experienced criticism for his role in the evening.

Junior Minister Pat Breen

Speaking for the first time in the wake of the controversy, Minister Breen insists he has done nothing wrong.

"At no stage did I ever discuss the broadband plan with either Denis Naughten or with David McCourt," he said.

The last time I saw David McCourt and Denis Naughten together was in Mr McCourt's house where this issue was not discussed.

To be fair to both individuals, let's be quite clear on this, they never asked me to get involved in it. I never did get involved in it.

Digital DeskThe Dail has heard a call for the expulsion of Saudi diplomats over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The government has been accused of hypocrisy in not taking measures against the Saudi government.Update - 4.04pm: Lombardi has been jailed for three years for a charge of violent disorder which he had pleaded guilty to at a pre-trial hearing.

Recorder of Preston Judge Mark Brown said: "There is no doubt in my mind that your purpose was to cause a violent clash with the Liverpool fans and that's demonstrated vividly in film footage.

"The footage shows that you had an active role and your assertion in evidence and in your basis of plea that you were just looking for signs for away supporter sections and were suddenly confronted by Liverpool fans is, in my judgement, nonsense."

Judge Brown said Lombardi's sentence would have been considerably longer if he had been convicted of the attack on Mr Cox.

But, he said: "Nonetheless, it is a feature of the case that during the violent disorder he was severely injured and that cannot be ignored.

"The violent disorder did not end with the attack on him because as he was lying unconscious on the ground it carried on regardless near to him and you, as is clear from the footage, were in the thick of it."

Alison Gurden, defending, said Lombardi was of previously good character and had played as a goalkeeper in the AS Roma academy between the ages of 13 and 16.

She said: "Mr Lombardi has a background of someone who, since he was a young man, has been very responsible and very hard working."

She said he had had a "huge maturity increase" after spending nearly six months in prison.

Judge Brown said footage showed Lombardi using his belt "as a whip".

He said: "Your actions and those of the other Roma supporters in the group are likely to have scarred the good name of football.

"In my judgment, you have brought disgrace on AS Roma supporters."

He added: "The game will probably be remembered not because of the football skill on the field or the result, but because of the awful tragedy Mr Cox endured and the violent disorder that took place outside the ground."

The court heard another man had been arrested in Rome in connection with the attack and was awaiting extradition.

Earlier: Roma fan cleared of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Sean Cox

Roma supporter Filippo Lombardi has been found not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Meath man Sean Cox.

The 21-year-old was acquitted of the charge at Preston Crown Court today in connection with the attack on 53-year-old Liverpool fan, Sean Cox, outside Anfield ahead of the Champions League semi-final on April 26.

The prosecution claimed he lashed out with his belt after another man knocked Mr Cox unconscious with a punch.

A jury of six men and six women found Filippo Lombardi not guilty after deliberating for just under nine hours.

About half a dozen members of Sean Cox's family, including his wife Martina, sat in the public gallery at Preston Crown Court as the verdict was announced.

Sean Cox's wife, Martina.

Three members of Lombardi's family were also in court.

He will be sentenced for a separate charge of violent disorder, which he admitted before the trial.

Summing up the case, Recorder of Preston Judge Mark Brown said: "Football has been described as the beautiful game but the terrible events that took place outside Anfield stadium when Sean Cox was assaulted, and suffered catastrophic injuries, surely have blighted its reputation."

Mr Cox suffered a severe, traumatic brain injury in the attack and is still unable to talk or sit up unaided.

The court was told another man, referred to as N40, was responsible for the punch which knocked Mr Cox to the ground, causing his injuries, but the prosecution alleged Lombardi swung his belt towards Mr Cox as he fell and was jointly responsible for the attack.

The trial, which began last Thursday, heard Lombardi arrived at the ground after walking from Liverpool Lime Street train station with a group of 20 to 30 Roma supporters.

The jury was shown footage of the student appearing to swing his belt in the direction of Mr Cox, who was standing with his brother Martin, as he fell.

Sean Cox's brother, Martin.

Martin Cox told the court he and his brother had been excited as they made their way to the ground.

However, he said he heard aggressive chanting from a group of people wearing dark clothes as they walked along Walton Breck Road shortly after 7pm.

He said: "I turned to Sean as if to say 'let's get out of here', or whatever.

"But as I turned Sean was lying on the ground."

Lombardi told the court he had been lost when he wandered on to Walton Breck Road, which was full of Liverpool fans, just after 7pm and had wrapped his belt round his hand because he feared he was walking into a "dangerous situation".

He said he had heard a man standing behind Martin Cox say something to him about a fight and had swung the belt at him to get him away.

He said he had not noticed Sean Cox until he saw him lying on the ground.By Stephen Maguire

A solicitor has told a court that to be called a "sheep stealer" is the worst thing a farmer can be called in rural Ireland.

Solicitor Patsy Gallagher was speaking at Falcarragh District in Co Donegal after his client had been charged with handling 35 stolen lambs.

John McBride (47) of 11 Firmount pleaded guilty to a total of 35 sample charges.

Solicitor Patsy Gallagher told the court there was a stigma attached to the offence saying: "To be called a sheep stealer in rural Donegal is the worst.

Garda Enda Jennings said that in April, 2017, he had been approached by a local farmer Michael Cullen, who informed him that 76 of his lambs had been stolen.

He had carried out an investigation and lambs had been traced to a location at Carrownagannonagh, in Milford. After getting a warrant, they seized 37 lambs.

McBride claimed the sheep and lambs were his and told gardai that he had bought the lambs from a man who he had failed to identify.

He said he bought the lambs for 20 each although the court was told that lambs cost 50 each and the accused should have known the real value.

Defending solicitor Patsy Gallagher said his client, who was on Social Welfare, had paid the money for the lambs but there had been no suspicion that he had been involved in the theft of them. He had bought them with the intention of selling them on.

Pointing out that McBride was deeply remorseful for his actions, Mr Gallagher repeated that he had had no hand or part in the theft of the livestock.

Referring to the stigma to such incidents within the farming community, the solicitor claimed: To be called a sheep stealer in rural Donegal is the worst.

Judge Paul Kelly said there might have been more sympathy for the defendant if he had assisted the Gardai with their investigation initially. He is dealing with the consequences of failing to cooperate, he said.

Taking to the witness stand, Mr Cullen told the court he had 76 lambs stolen in total.

He went on to claim that Mr McBride had been working at the mart in Milford and was not unemployed.

On the 35 sample charges before the court, Judge Kelly sentenced the defendant to three months imprisonment suspended for two years on his own bond of 250.

He also ordered the defendant to meet the costs incurred by the Gardai in transporting the lambs, totalling 3,300, and also the costs of 6,423 to the Department of Agriculture in the case.Ann O'Loughlin

The Supreme Court has directed a fresh hearing to decide if the Minister for Education had the power to terminate a 12,000 annual allowance paid to the chief executive of a VEC.

Because the issue of the Ministers power was not specifically pleaded or argued before the High Court in 2013, the Supreme Court ruled today that the Ministers right to fair procedures was breached.

On that basis, it overturned a High Court finding the Minister had no such power under the Vocational Education Committee (Amendment) Act 2001.

Mr Justice John MacMenamin, giving the three-judge courts judgment, directed a rehearing on that issue only.

The Minister had appealed the High Court decision by Mr Justice Gerard Hogan that the 2001 Act gave the Minister "absolutely no role" in terminating allowances or otherwise varying the terms and condition of the employment of the CEOs and therefore the termination was unlawful.

In the appeal, lawyers for the Minister argued had that issue been explicitly pleaded or argued in the High Court, the point would have been successfully countered by the Ministers side.

The finding was made in High Court proceedings brought by then Galway VEC CEO Seosamh Mac Donncha, a former GAA President - who has died since the High Court judgment - and Mayo VEC CEO Dr Katie Sweeney.

The case arose against the background of the Government's plan to abolish the country's 33 VECs and replace them with 16 new Educational and Training Boards.

At the time they brought the case, both CEOs were on annual salaries of some 100,000 and claimed the axing of the allowance would affect their pension entitlements.

Under the Government's plans for reorganising the VECs, Dr Sweeney also claimed she faced being reassigned while Mr MacDonncha claimed he would take over the running of three counties for no extra remuneration and a 300km commute.

In directing a rehearing, Mr Justice MacMenamin noted, when the appeal was heard, Mr McDonnchas estate had not sought to reconstitute his case.

The Supreme Court had decided to proceed in relation to Ms Sweeneys case and it was open to representatives of Mr MacDonncha to reconstitute his case when the matter returned to the High Court, he said.

In his 2013 High Court judgment, Mr Justice Hogan found the Minister's June 2012 revocation of the Transport Liaison Officers Allowance in the case of the two CEOs was unlawful.

The State had argued it was entitled to revoke the allowance as administering the school transport scheme had not been part of their role as CEO for some two years.

Mr Justice Hogan found that, while the Minister must consent to relevant employment terms for CEOs including remuneration and allowances, the legislation unambiguously assigned the role of determining terms and conditions of the CEO to the local VECs.

There was no evidence to show the relevant VECs decided to terminate the allowances and that decision was instead "clearly taken" by the Minister for Education, he said.

He rejected other claims the Minister had violated the terms of the Croke Park Agreement in how redeployment of the CEOs of VECs was organised.By Ruaidhri Giblin

A woman on trial for the attempted murder of a civil servant, stabbed a woman in the face at a LUAS stop two weeks earlier, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Laura Kenna (35), of no fixed abode, is charged with the attempted murder of Fionnuala Bourke on Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9 on January 3, 2017. She is also charged with assault intending to cause serious harm.

Ms Kenna has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts.

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecuting counsel, Anthony Sammon SC, said the central issue was the state of mind of Ms Kenna at the time. He said the jury would hear evidence from two consultant psychiatrists from the Central Mental Hospital and there would be a conflict in the opinions of the doctors.

Mr Sammon told the jury that Ms Bourke, a civil servant, was walking home from work around 5pm on the day in question when she was attacked by Ms Kenna with a knife. Mr Sammon said Ms Bourkes throat was slit and she suffered severe facial scarring.

Upon her arrest the following day the jury heard how Ms Kenna told gardai:

Im guilty. Yeah, I fucking did it. Is she still alive? Yeah I did it, I sliced her like you would a goat. You couldnt have stitched that up, I cut through her like butter.

On the third day of the trial today, the defence called Dr Stephen Monks, consultant forensic psychiatrist based at the Central Mental Hospital, to give evidence on Ms Kennas state of mind.

Dr Monks told Barry White SC, for Ms Kenna, that he interviewed the accused on two occasions in 2018 and, in his opinion, Ms Kenna did not know what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke and couldnt stop. As such, Dr Monks said Ms Kenna fulfilled the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had schizophrenic affective disorder and, at the same time, exhibited psychotic delusions and hallucinations.

He said Ms Kenna believed she was receiving messages from the television and could communicate with celebrities. He said she believed other people could hear her private thoughts which was a classical symptom of schizophrenia.

He told the jury that two weeks before the alleged attempted murder of Ms Bourke, Ms Kenna stabbed a woman at a LUAS stop in the face with a pen.

Ms Kenna believed the woman had been saying things about her under her breath but it was most likely the woman hadnt said anything at all. She had intended to stab her in the eye, the jury heard.

Shortly after being released from garda custody for the LUAS incident, Ms Kenna stated that she thought she was going to be eaten and that if she didnt kill somebody she wouldnt survive. She stated that she was being talked into killing somebody by the voices in her head.

Under cross examination from Mr Sammon, for the prosecution, Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had been labouring under delusions about killing people for a long time before the attack on Ms Bourke and was allegedly killing someone for a purpose that wasnt related to stealing a handbag.

For the prosecution, Professor Harry Kennedy, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, told the jury that he and Dr Monks were in agreement on many matters including Ms Kennas diagnosis.

However, Prof Kennedy said Ms Kenna did know what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke and was not entitled to the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

By Ms Kennas own account, Prof Kennedy said she had gotten a sharp knife to rob somebody and selected an appropriate victim. He referred to Ms Kennas comments that she had let another woman go and selected Ms Bourke because she was only little.

Referring to Ms Bourkes statement in which she recalled Ms Kenna telling her if you give me your bag, Ill let you go in a normal tone, Prof Kennedy said that had nothing to do with delusion. It was straightforward and part of the negotiated robbery.

Prof Kennedy said Ms Kenna knew what she was doing was wrong - she took the bag and ran away - and there was no evidence that she was unable to refrain from committing the attack on account of her condition. She had an ability to cease and desist which she exercised once she had achieved her primary goal which, Prof Kennedy said, was to rob Ms Bourkes handbag because she had no money.

He said he was unable to connect delusions about supernatural forces with a robbery at knifepoint and a demand to Ms Bourke to give up her bag.

In contrast, Prof Kennedy said he believed Ms Kenna was entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity for the LUAS stop attack - which was recorded by a jury in a previous trial. Prof Kennedy said the victim of the LUAS stop incident gave an account of what Ms Kenna was saying at the time of that assault. It was independent evidence that Ms Kenna was responding to hallucinations at the time. Furthermore, she waited very near to the scene of the assault until the gardai arrived.

In summary, Prof Kennedy said it appeared Ms Kenna knew the nature and quality of what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke, which meant she was not entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The jury of seven men and five women will hear closing speeches from the defence and prosecution today/tomorrow(FRIDAY) before Mr Justice Robert Eagar advises the jury on the evidence they have heard.

Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had left school after the Junior Cert and was heroin dependent from the age of 17 to 22. She lived a transient existence characterised by homelessness, substance abuse and repeated contact with the criminal justice system without any mental health intervention.

He said the onset of mental illness occurred around 2007 and the onset of serious aggression commenced from 2015 onwards. In the year before the alleged attempted murder, she spent time with the Welcome Organisation in Belfast where she perpetrated three violent incidents, two of which were attempted eye gouges.

He said she had been admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in January 2017 and, following treatment, her aggressive behaviour reduced. She had stated that she no longer experienced delusional beliefs and was beginning to develop some insight into her previous mental health problems.A party-list lawmaker on Thursday admonished Elections Commissioner Rowena Guanzon that in 2013, the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing political parties and groups not representing marginalized and unrepresented sectors to participate in the party-list election. AKO-Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. challenged Guanzon for seeking the passage of a law banning political dynasties and the amendments of Republic Act 7941 or the Party-List Law to prevent a family affair in various elective positions. Garbin underscored the need for Guanzon to always be guided by the Supreme Court ruling when making comments. The high court has ruled that political parties, including party-list groups, do not need to represent the marginalized or underrepresented sector. Commissioner Guanzon, being a lawyer, must abide by it (ruling) because all SC decisions form part of the law of the Land. She should focus more on the strict implementation of RA No. 7941 or the Party-List law, he said. Rodolfo Javellana, who is running under the United Filipino Consumers and Commuters party-list group, said Guanzon should have been more careful in making such sweeping pronouncements. All these questions on the party-list system has already been addressed by the SC ruling. Commissioner Guanzon, and the Comelec, in general, should be more circumspect since they will supervise the elections next year. We should all uphold the rule of law, which means the SC ruling must be respected, Javellana said. For his part, Ako Bicol Rep. Rodel Batocabe, president of the Party List Coalition, said the issue of a family dominating public positions should be submitted to the sound discretion of the people who would choose their leaders. Meanwhile, Rep. Salvador Belaro Jr. of the 1-Ang Edukasyon party-list group said there was a need to upgrade the qualifications for all elective posts.While we strive to serve well, contrast that to all of these people who are not fit to hold public office. Completion of a college education, actual experience running a working business, successful practice of a chosen profession, and prior government work experience must be among the minimum qualifications, he said. Nuisance candidates, other ill-prepared aspirants for elective public office, and the pervasive menace of drug addiction are more than enough reasons for the country to upgrade its constitutional qualifications for all elective posts, he said in a statement. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian urged his colleagues in the Senate to pass a bill that institutionalizes the definition of nuisance candidates and hold them liable for election offenses. In filing Senate Bill 911, Gatchalian said candidates who do not intend to launch a viable campaign are wasting the time and resources of the Comelec. The lawmaker argued that although the 1987 Constitution guarantees equal access to opportunities for public service, the Supreme Court has ruled that running for public office is a privilege, not a right. We are happy we have a lot of people who want to be involved in nation-building by offering themselves to be public servants, he said. But this seeking an election is subject to the limitations imposed by law and must take into account practical considerations. This bill will penalize people who do not take this privilege seriously and merely use the COC filing period as a platform to disrespect our electoral process, he said. Under Gatchalians bill, the Comelec may cancel a COC if, after affording due process to the filing party, it finds that the certificate was filed to obtain money, profit, or any other consideration.British girl band Little Mix have announced two show dates for Ireland as part of their new upcoming tour.

'The LM5 Tour', a UK and Ireland Arena Tour for 2019, will come to Dublin's 3Arena on Thursday, October 10 and the SSE Arena in Belfast on Sunday, October 12.

Other venues include Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, London, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester and Leeds.

Little Mix recently announced the release of their fifth album, LM5. The band have spent the last year writing and recording the album with an A-List cast of writers and producers such as Ed Sheeran, Jess Glynne, Camille Purcell, MNEK, Timberland, Loose Change, TMS and RAYE.

The album's first single 'Woman Like Me' featuring Nicki Minaj, was released last week.

Fans that pre-order a copy of the new album from the official store before 3pm on Tuesday, October 23 will receive a pre-sale code for early access tickets to the tour.

General tickets go on sale Friday, October 26 at 9am. Tickets can be purchased on Ticketmaster and start from 37.50 including booking fee.

Digital DeskThe developer of a controversial West End housing project has delivered on its promise to create an inner-city public park the size of Brisbanes Post Office Square.

The Common at West Village will open to the public on Saturday and is the first significant inner-city park delivered since Milton's Frew Park in 2014.

The Common, West Village

Sekisui Houses development of the 2.6-hectare former Absoe site attracted resistance from the community since it was lodged with the council in April 2015.

In 2016, the $800 million development was called in by Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, who made a doubling of publicly accessible green space one of the conditions of approval, including one fronting Boundary Street and another fronting Mollison Street.Menlo Park: In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook's expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads "War Room." Behind the door lies a nerve centre the social media giant has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections.

Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, "Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem."

Entering the election 'War Room' at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Credit:Bloomberg

That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago  and which the company's critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.

Days after Donald Trump's surprise victory in the US presidential election, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea "pretty crazy."Former ACTU president Martin Ferguson has come out swinging against the union peak body to back employer groups, after Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer revealed plans to intervene in a test case examining casual loading, leave entitlements and "double dipping".

Ms O'Dwyer said on Thursday she will apply to intervene on behalf of the Commonwealth in a Federal Court case filed by labour hire firm WorkPac, which seeks to clarify whether an employer can be forced to pay twice for the same workplace entitlement.

In August, the full bench of the Federal Court found that a casual truck driver employed by WorkPac was entitled to paid leave entitlements, sparking concern among employers that it could lead to "double-dipping" by workers who had already been paid casual loadings.

Former ACTU president and Labor minister Martin Ferguson says casual workers should not be entitled to annual leave. Credit:Chris Pearce

WorkPac has now filed a separate action seeking a declaration that another employee, Robert Rossato, was a casual employee and not entitled to leave.Poor judicial conduct, a lack of sleep and stressful workloads are among the issues affecting the mental health of some of Victorias barristers, a survey has found.

Thats not to say they don't find their jobs satisfying and meaningful, according to Victorian Bar president Matt Collins QC.

Victorian Bar president Matt Collins QC: "We understand that to a certain extent some of those negatives come with the territory." Credit:Elke Meitzel

The survey of nearly 1000 members of the Victorian Bar found 90 per cent got a sense of achievement from doing their jobs. Four in five respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed they were satisfied with their jobs as a whole.

The work is meaningful and its rewarding and we understand that to a certain extent some of those negatives come with the territory, Dr Collins said.As any parent knows, it's almost impossible to work, or study, or go to complex medical appointments with a two-year-old in tow. For asylum seekers with little financial or family support, it's infinitely more difficult.

Yet those fleeing Iraq, Myanmar or Afghanistan cannot access a childcare subsidy while they are on bridging visas, so they must pay $100-plus a day. Most can't afford it, so can't work, or learn English, or attend trauma counselling.

Samuel, Hiwa and Emmanuel are unable to attend childcare because their families are in Sydney on refugee bridging visas. Credit:Janie Barrett

But in an Australian first, Canterbury Bankstown Council has voted to offer free childcare to asylum seekers in its council-run centres.

The year-long pilot program will offer one free place a day at the Punchbowl Children's Centre, Carrington Occasional Care and Lakemba Children's Centre. In NSW, Lakemba is home to the largest number of people seeking asylum."That was the sometime uncomfortable irony, while I was writing this my two sons had a sort of full-blown fire-fighter obsession. You couldn't move around the house and not trip over a fire truck; you'd be driving in the car and there'd be these nee-na-nee-na sounds coming from the back." And if you can't look at Sokaluk with a degree of humanity, she says, you have missed an opportunity to understand something deeper about why this fire occurred. Hooper went to the Latrobe Valley soon after that terrible day. To her it seemed incomprehensible that someone could have lit the fires and she was intrigued by who becomes an arsonist and why. "I found it sort of horrifying and intriguing." The Tall Man, her nuanced account of the death of Indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island and the subsequent trial of Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, had been published the previous year and was in the process of garnering accolades and awards across the country. And by then she had turned her focus onto her second novel, The Engagement. So she went to Churchill with a journalist's curiosity  Hooper won a Walkley Award for her initial reports into Doomadgee's death in The Monthly  but wasn't convinced she would write about the fires. When she did, it was after the whole business had been through the courts.

In The Tall Man she identifies the moment that she was hooked on the story as a dinner with Domadgee's family, at which they ate goat meat that he had hunted. In The Arsonist she identifies no such occasion, but in hindsight talks about going with the arson-squad detectives to the eucalypt plantation where Sokaluk lit two fires. "I do think it's extraordinary that 30,000 hectares can go up in flames and that these detectives and arson chemists can trace a fire back to three square metres. Seeing that and being there with them was a powerful moment." It took a long time for Hooper to get permission from Victoria Police for the detectives and chemists to speak to her officially. Finding an entry point to a story was rather like trying to enter a foreign country. She tried from different angles, and it was as a last resort that she rang detective senior constable Paul Bertoncello, who handled more than 600 witness statements during the investigation, to sound him out on the idea of cooperating. "He was quite receptive, but didn't speak to me until he had official permission. But at the end of that (initial) conversation I had to say to him I've got to tell you my last book was about police corruption, and he said, well, that's not a problem for me."

Legal Aid sought permission from Brendan Sokaluk and his family for his lawyers to speak to Hooper. And they sent an independent lawyer to see him in prison to ensure things were done correctly; that he understood. Without their input and thereby Sokaluk's point of view, Hooper was concerned she would simply be writing a police procedural. "It seemed ironic also after having written about police corruption, that was not a book I wanted to write." Hooper's initial question  why does someone commit arson  brought her into areas she didn't expect and issues she didn't bank on. "Crime stories in Australia are often actually about disadvantage and dysfunction and the Latrobe Valley is a place where both exist alongside the coalfields in quite stark ways," she says. "I have found it difficult. I have become close to a woman who lost two children in the fire and I think that balancing her loss and the losses of really hundreds of people due to this act and also holding onto his story and trying to look at that even with some sympathy has been complicated." The first time I sat down to talk with Hooper about her work was when her first novel, A Child's Book of True Crime, was published n 2002. It was something of a sensation as while studying at Columbia University in New York she had been signed up by the literary agent to the big names, Andrew Wylie, and he had flown into Sydney to conduct a weekend auction for the publishing rights. During the course of our chat about The Arsonist I referred to a comment she made back then about the care the writer of true crime has to take between showing moral outrage at whatever violent act has occurred without actually investigating why the writer is herself fascinated.

Today she says that the genre is problematic because of the fine balance required between prurience and sociology. Yet those stories can tell something deeper about the place we live in. "People are interested in human affairs, and human affairs involve general bastardry," she says. "There's very little in non-fiction or fiction that doesn't involve some crime. Is it more prurient to imagine a horror that occurred or to write about one that in fact occurred? Another area of confusion." However, she isn't convinced The Arsonist does fit into the true-crime category because there isn't the generic pleasure of a crime being solved, the social body being restored to order. "I don't know how many answers that I provide in this book, but it touches on issues connected to intellectual disability and the law. But also, we are living now in the pyrocene, this age of fire, and these fires aren't going to stop. We have a government with no climate policy and a PM who brings coal into parliament; this is a look at coal country from another perspective," Hooper says. And she points out that of the 173 people who died on that day, 161 of them died as a result of failings of the electrical infrastructure.MEMOIR

Crippled Immortals: Shaolin Enlightenment on a Singapore High-Rise

Chris Murray

Australian Scholarly Publishing, $29.95

This is a gritty, sweaty, intelligent, well-written pregnant book  swollen with martial-arts legends and wisdom handled judiciously. The art in question is gongfu, or what most of us called kung fu until recently, the fighting style that originated in the Shaolin Temple back in fifth-century China. To protect the temple the monks developed their soft and hard techniques with mind and body and spirit, the latter often defined according to the Buddhist precepts of the Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Buddhism to China. Thereafter Buddhism consorted with Taoism, producing that other soft-hard philosophical practice called Zen.

Crippled Immortals by Chris Murray.

A rich tradition, then, that Chris Murray handles without too much reverence, even as his respect for it and the master teachers he's had, drives the narrative. The brilliant title comes from the tale of a master, Li Chuan, who attained immortality while meditating. Such was his stillness, he was declared dead and cremated. When his spirit returned the only body he could find to inhabit was that of a crippled old beggar. Thereafter Li Chuan practised under the name of Crippled Immortal.

The droll story seems to suit the temperament of Murray, who was born in Dublin, has had a book on Coleridge published by Cambridge University Press and now teaches English literature at Monash University, specialising in the romantic poets. The blurb also tells us that Murray has also been broadcast internationally as a musician, which further sets the scene of this book, which is a kind of melodic pilgrimage regarding his deepening love and commitment to the dance of his martial art. He recounts the grind of his progress from being an underdeveloped teenager with spinal problems to a straight-backed maturing man disinterested in machismo.Thats key, indeed the point of an offset and why I like them so much: unlike with an all-in-one style line of credit or a loan that simply offers a redraw facility, your money is quarantined from a bank freezing it due to your personal circumstances taking a turn for the worse, like illness or job loss. (They also offer the full flexibility to withdraw funds down the track, say, if you wanted to use them to purchase a new property.)

The same is not true with any offset account with a non-bank lender. Such lenders are not authorised to take deposits so it was curious when several years back they began offering offset accounts. These are what I call fake offsets: your money is held in the loan itself, and just displayed to you separately.

So, were a non-bank lender to go bust, dosh could certainly be subsumed by a now-lower-balance loan. ASIC has raised the alarm about this precise thing.

Note, non-bank lenders are just about always more price competitive  for me the lack of a genuine offset is the price you pay. (For other readers: weigh it.)

Which brings me back to your question, Melinda. Your money  well, $250,000 of it  is in the safest possible place.A Canberra brothel madam will fight alleged immigration offences.

Jamaree Suksom, 57, pleaded not guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court on Thursday to charges of allowing unlawful non-citizens to work and allowing a non-citizen to work in breach of a visa.

Jamaree Suksom leaves the ACT Magistrates Court. She has pleaded not guilty to allowing unlawful non-citizens to work and allowing a non-citizen to work in breach of a visa. Credit:Fairfax Media

Suksom was arrested during July raids at the Pink Girls and Chok Dee Massage which allegedly found five Thai nationals who had been working illegally in Australia.

Checks revealed the women had held either current or expired student or tourist visas, and did not have the right to work in Australia.Jessica Mauboy and David Rosetzky at the National Portrait Gallery launch of 20/20. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

You did it - you've made it to the end of another working week. I have some wonderful news, we're in for a sunny day today, with a top of 26 degrees. So get out there and soak up some sun because on Saturday, even though it'll be warm we're in from some showers with a possible storm.

When Jessica Mauboy is doing a photoshoot shes usually surrounded by a production team, stylists, hair and make-up people, record label management  people deciding how she looks and how she will be portrayed.

As one of 20 prominent Australians featured in the National Portrait Gallerys new 20/20: Celebrating twenty years with twenty new portrait commissions, this time it was a completely different story.

Karen Hardy caught up with Jess, you can read it here.

Canberra Student dies after accident at Mount Ainslie"The best way of explaining his degree of hearing loss is putting your fingers in your ears when you can hear only muffled sounds,'' Mr Paterson said.

Elliot is the couple's first child and they were initially put in a spin by the diagnosis. But it didn't take them long to understand that this was just their boy, as beautiful as ever.

Elliot Paterson's dad Hugh says his little boy is a ball of energy

"Obviously, it's very confronting. You have your first child and you assume everything is going to be perfect and nothing ever is going to go wrong,'' Mr Paterson said.

"But I remember being in the paediatric ward at the Canberra Hospital walking past a father who was pushing his daughter in a wheelchair. She was four or five with IV and oxygen tubes going everywhere and we realised we've still got a happy and healthy, beautiful boy. There are so many other worse things that could happen.Lawyers for David Eastman told a jury Thursday that there are gaps in the Crown case that cannot be filled.

Defence counsel George Georgiou SC said that no amount of squeezing or pulling the puzzle pieces into place would show the picture the prosecution wanted them to see.

"There is simply too much that is unknown in this case, too much that is uncertain," he said.

David Eastman is on trial accused of the 1989 murder of police chief Colin Winchester. Credit:Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong

He warned the jury that speculation, guesswork and conjecture had no place in the court.It seemed fitting that week eight of the Morrison government ended with the lights flickering on the Parliament House computer network and the communications coming to a halt.

Scott Morrisons new administration was left with frozen screens as everyone waited for emails that never arrived. Those who thought Australian politics was broken suddenly had an online apocalypse to prove it.

Everything else has stopped working, so why not the network as well? The past week has been an astonishing shambles for the new government and makes a mockery of claims of a comeback for Morrison and his team.

The stakes could not be higher ahead of the Wentworth byelection on Saturday, yet Liberals and Nationals are falling over themselves to display their chaos to voters. They do this even though they know they could lose a seat that should be unassailable.By the time they reached Melbourne on the second anniversary of David's death earlier this month, there would have been an estimated 3128 deaths by suicide in Australia during the year. NSW couple Tony and Liane Drummond have met with federal ministers in Canberra trying to address the mental health funding shortfall. Credit:Jamila Toderas "We wanted to do the walk to raise awareness to the broader community around what the numbers are for those who didn't know and to just hear stories, to just hear what other experiences were. And we didn't have to go looking for them," she said. "People would come up to us whether we had the van at a supermarket or a free camp or a caravan park. We've heard an enormous amount of stories.'' Mrs Drummond, a nurse, said David had his first mental health episode when he was 14 when he needed a term off school, saw health professionals and went on medication.

"He was quite vocal about not wanting to be here, even then,'' she said. "I sought services straight away and he seemed to do well and got off the anti-depressants and was engaged with life. And then at age 23 he rang me and said he needed help. He had had a suicide attempt and failed.'' The family assumed someone in that situation would receive immediate help. But what they quickly discovered was a severe lack of in-patient beds for people facing a mental health crisis. David would instead have to be supervised around-the-clock at home by his parents for two weeks, with twice daily visits by medical professionals. After that finished, David attempted to take his life again. He was admitted as a mental health patient and discharged a day later. He never accessed the public health system again. The Drummonds' support bus showed how many days they had been walking and the corresponding number of estimated deaths by suicide for that time period. The bus led many people to tell the couple their story about losses they had suffered through suicide. The Drummonds met in Canberra this week with Health Minister Greg Hunt, shadow health minister Julie Collins, the Greens mental health spokeswoman Rachel Siewert and Assistant Minister for Health Ken Wyatt. They hope the approach to mental health funding can be bipartisan and the blame for any shortfalls not bounced between states and the Commonwealth.

"There's a $90 billion health budget - mental health gets five per cent and yet it's 15 per cent of the burden of our mental health system. I want to know why," Mrs Drummond, 56, said. "Immediately, I think we need more inpatient beds. They can do that tomorrow. They actually need to chose to put the money in there. "In the meantime, they can be working out the models of care to bridge that gap. But there needs to be that service delivery so the crisis patients have somewhere to go. Because there is nowhere. There is nowhere." Mrs Drummond said she heard many heartbreaking stories on their trip of people whose lives had been shattered by the suicide of a loved one. "But I've also heard good stories. I've heard stories about people who have had appropriate, timely intervention and they are so glad that they are so here. This is after a suicide attempt. They are so glad to be here. And I've heard that time and time again."

Two days after her son's death, Mrs Drummond suffered a heart attack. She tells that story "not so people feel sorry for me" but because she received excellent immediate medical care that wasn't available to her son who was facing an equally life-threatening condition. "We're failing. We're failing them," she said. Lifeline 13 11 14.A clandestine parental abduction ring has been smashed by the Australian Federal Police, after a two-year investigation into the group that allegedly organised and financed the abduction of children in breach of family law orders.

Two Grafton men, a Townsville man and Perth woman have been charged over their role in the syndicate, which allegedly helped two separate women abduct and hide their children.

All three children involved have since been safely located by the AFP.

Dr William Russell Massingham Pridgeon, a Grafton GP and the founder of the Australian Anti-Paedophile Party, which ran senate candidates in the 2016 federal election, was one of the four people arrested and charged on Wednesday morning.Loading Superintendent Fleming said police suspected more than one person was involved in the fire. He said there were indications anyone involved may have fire-related injuries. "We know people talk, so if anyone knows anyone that has reason to suspect not only that type of injury but some sort of connection with that area around that time we would very much like to hear from them," he said.

Police are yet to reveal the reason why the fire started or if any kind of accelerant was used. Students displaced by the Morningside State School fire were welcomed at their temporary school on Wednesday, as words of support and donations flooded in from the community. Six classrooms - home to year 2, year 3 and year 4 students - as well as a music room were lost in Tuesday's early-morning fire, destroying almost 100 years of history. The school's 480 students and staff were relocated to Balmoral State High School on Wednesday, so they could resume classes for the rest of the week. Large demountable classrooms have been set up at the Balmoral school to accommodate the Morningside students.

Department of Education regional director Helen Kenworthy said half the high school campus had been cleared for the primary students. Loading "The little anxious ones have actually settled down now and theyre quite happy and ready to go off into the classrooms," she said. Emergency packs of school supplies were delivered to replace what was lost in the fire and computers had been brought in for the students. "Its a really enormous operation, not only with the relocation of the whole school and the resources they need," Ms Kenworthy said.

"Were also going to work through over the weekend to have a look at the site at Morningside with the Department of Environment and see what we can do there with the clearing of the site and getting more temporary buildings ... so the children can be back there next week." Morningside P&C spokeswoman Suzanne Newman said the school's "Fangtastic" fete would go ahead on the final Saturday of the month, October 27, and all money raised would go towards rebuilding the lost classrooms. "The first thing we thought after we got over the shock was, we will have this fete and it's going to be huge," she said. "We would love to say we are going to have the fete at Morningside State School, I think that is becoming increasingly unlikely. In the event we don't hold it at our school, Balmoral State High School has kindly offered for us to have the fete here." The P&C set up a fundraising page where tax-deductible donations can be made.

"Our students are so resilient, to see them all working up hand in hand with their parents and the greeting they received from the Balmoral State High School students who were waiting at the gate and the people who talked to them and reassured them as they entered the hall - it was gorgeous." The children will return to Morningside State School on Tuesday, with Monday a pupil-free day, and demountable buildings will be put on the grounds to replace the lost classrooms. A Department of Education spokesperson said they had been working with the the Department of of Housing and Public Works to undergo the clean-up process and rectification works. "Morningside State School students and staff have successfully completed the week at Balmoral State High School following Tuesday mornings devastating fire," they said.

"There has been tremendous support received from the Queensland Police Service, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and many local business and community organisations." The spokesperson said departmental staff and DHPW would remain onsite over the weekend to continue works while students could prepare to return to Morningside State School next week. "The department is on track for students to be back at Morningside State School next week with the installation of new prefabricated buildings to accommodate students who will return following the student free day on Monday 22 October 2018." Education Minister Grace Grace, who visited Balmoral State High School on Friday, said it was a pleasure to see the Balmoral school welcome students with open arms. "...Its great to be here, great to have visited the site and to of course discuss already the opportunities that open up to for that school so we can rebuild the facilities that will see those students receive the best education in the future as well," she said.An engineering consultant who certified Dreamworlds fatal Thunder River Rapids Ride as safe days before the 2016 tragedy said he stopped asking for maintenance logs for the ride for fear of being supplied with falsified documents.

Hired by Dreamworld to certify the theme parks rides in September 2016, on Wednesday engineering consultant Thomas Polley told the coronial inquest into the tragedy that he repeatedly requested all daily and annual maintenance logs for the Thunder River Rapids Ride.

However, Mr Polley said he was given blank documents and was told Dreamworld had not been keeping written logs of the Thunder River Rapids Rides maintenance.

Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett and Roozi Araghi were killed on October 25, 2016, when the raft they were riding in collided with another raft, flipping their raft up and into the rides conveyor belt.The Pacific Solution is septicaemic and threatening the political life of the Coalition. Legitimate refugees and failed asylum seekers languish on Manus and Nauru desperately waiting for resettlement. The much-vaunted US deal is turning slowly with the anticipated uplift of 1250 refugees failing to reach even half of that target. The level of mental ill-health among both refugees and asylum seekers has reached an appalling state.

Its time to get them off Manus and Nauru. There is no longer any advantage to keeping them there, except to the host countries, which have been living off the largesse of the Australian taxpayer for five years. Even the mantric justification of "preventing drownings at sea" is no longer valid. The desired deterrent effect is well and truly seared into the psyche of people smugglers and asylum seekers  if you try to get to Australia by boat, youll be intercepted and taken to a hell hole in the Pacific for at least five years. This has deterred all but the occasional probing venture.

Its what the Coalition does next which can make or break that deterrent effect, influence its prospects of retaining government, and either redeem its international reputation or further corrode it.

Bringing all of those who dont make it to the US to mainland Australia is an unpalatable option for the Coalition. First, it will feel like buckling, which is not within the political character of either Peter Dutton or the hardened conservatives of the party.Barnaby Joyce has made one thing perfectly clear, to me at least. We must put the responsibility for handing sexual harassment claims straight into the Fair Work Commission.

We must urgently remove that responsibility from individual companies and organisations. There must be legislation in place to immediately notify the Fair Work Commission if there are allegations of sexual harassment. Some companies and organisations have no processes in place that are sufficient or fair. So many women go to human resources and assume they will be treated justly and that their complaints will be taken seriously.

They are disappointed. Time and time again.

Thats been starkly played out in the case of Barnaby Joyce (and here was I thinking I would never have to write those words again). Joyce, whose chaotic private life made it impossible for him to lead the Nationals, is back. As Bevan Shields wrote on Thursday, the push to undermine the current leader of the Nationals Michael McCormack is real and gathering speed.Class action law firm Maurice Blackburn says it will launch a case against Uber imminently on behalf of more than 1000 taxi and hire car drivers, operators and licence holders, with the lawyers claiming the ride share giant could be forced to pay "hundreds of millions of dollars".

The firm is poised to file a statement of claim against Uber in the Victorian Supreme Court after spending about a year investigating whether the company operated illegally in Victoria from April 2014 to July 2017.

The firm is set to allege that Uber engaged in conspiracy by unlawful means, causing harm to drivers and operators in the industry.

Taxi driver Rod Barton is part of a class action against Uber. Credit:Jason South

The class action is backed by Harbour, a UK litigation funder.Mass murderers and serial killers will not be considered for release under new laws set to be introduced into State Parliament on Thursday.

Serial killer Catherine Birnie in custody in 1985.

Currently they are considered for release every three years by the Prisoners Review Board.

But the Sentence Administration Amendment (Multiple Murderers) Bill 2018 will allow the Attorney General of the day to direct that mass murderers and serial killers must not be considered for parole or a re-socialisation program by the board.

The government says it is a key election commitment intended to limit trauma to survivors, family and friends of murder victims.A livestock export licence has been granted to a Perth subsidiary of Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading, allowing the second shipment to the Middle East following the Emanuel Exports sheep scandal earlier this year.

Sheep and cattle being loaded onto the Al Messilah vessel earlier this year. Credit:AAP

Rural Export and Trading WA general manager Mike Gordon said the Al Shuwaikh and the Al Messilah ships would be stocked at least 17.5 per cent below the rate set by the federal government.

"The two-to-three week procurement and pre-export process will now commence, with approximately 130,000 sheep to be sourced from WA producers and prepared for export from Fremantle to the Arabian Gulf," Mr Gordon said on Thursday.

RETWA will supply to markets including Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.Former public service commissioner John Lloyd has attacked an inquiry into his conduct and alleged it was compromised by a potential conflict of interest, a claim met by a defence from the investigator who conducted the probe.

The investigation into Mr Lloyd's decision to email a document to pro-free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs - where he was a member and former director - ended with a finding in August he failed to uphold his agency's good reputation.

Mr Lloyd, who retired that month, has told a Senate committee the inquiry findings had damaged his reputation and rejected its finding he had failed to meet high ethical standards.

"The impact of the adverse references was amplified by what I consider were most unsatisfactory processes adopted in the handling of the complaints leading to the report," he said.

"My rights to a fair hearing were not respected."The earlier decision by the Full Bench of the Federal Court has sparked concern among employers that it could lead to "double dipping" by workers who had already been paid casual loadings.

WorkPac, the labour hire firm subject to a ruling that a casual truck driver employed by the company was entitled to paid leave entitlements, has filed a separate action seeking a declaration that another employee, Robert Rossato, was a casual employee and not entitled to leave.

Ms O'Dwyer will make an application to join the Commonwealth as a party to a case being heard in the Federal Court today, which considers whether an employer can be required to pay twice for the same workplace entitlement.

Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer will apply to intervene in a test case over the definition of casual workers, after employer groups raised concerns about "double dipping" of leave entitlements.

Unions argue this characterisation is misleading, as truck driver Paul Skene was paid 30 per cent less than the full time employees he worked alongside at a Rio Tinto mine, meaning he was still worse off even after leave was paid on top of his 25 per cent casual loading.

Ms ODwyer said the government had decided to intervene in Workpac's latest case because of the "considerable concern across Australias three million small businesses and given the impact it could have on job creation and existing jobs".

It is understood that the new case, which Workpac is expected to pursue all the way to the High Court if necessary, also seeks to establish the right for employers to offset casual loadings against any leave entitlements they may be deemed to owe workers.

"If you're a casual and you've been paid a 25 per cent loading, it seems completely incongruous to think that that 25 per cent loading that would have paid for your holiday pay, all the rest, that you would be able to equally be paid for those holidays and other entitlements," Ms O'Dwyer said.

Small businesses must be able to operate with clarity and certainty of the law, which will ensure not only their success, but the success of Australians employed in small businesses across Australia.Emiratis will no longer need a visa to travel to Mexico after the Central American country removed visa requirements.

An agreement signed this week between the two countries exempt citizens of both countries with regular UAE and Mexican passports from visa requirements.

UAE ambassador to Mexico Ahmed Hatem Al Menhali signed the agreement on behalf of his country. The Central American country was represented by Carlos de Icaza, the Mexican undersecretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

The announcement comes less than a month after Dubai carrier Emirates said it was scrapping a route to Mexico via Barcelona after it was unable to get permission to operate the service daily.

Several countries including Canada and Ireland have also this year removed visa restriction for citizens of the Gulf country.

The UAE passport has become the most powerful in the Middle East according to Henley & Partners Passport Index. The recent edition of the global ranking for countries passports, last month ranked the Emirati passport 21st. It was ranked 62nd in 2006.The Home Affairs Department wants its junior and middle-ranking bureaucrats protected from having their names revealed in documents released to the public under freedom of information laws.

Changes to rules for government agencies releasing their documents should make it easier to withhold the names of lower-ranking public servants and contractors, the agency told a Senate committee in a submission.

Home Affairs championed reforms lowering the bar for withholding the personal details of its non-senior executive officials, saying they would protect staff mental health and safety, and safeguard bureaucrats against grooming by criminal organisations.

"Releasing the names [and] other identifying information of medical personnel who undertake medical assessments of visa applicants generally poses unacceptable safety risks to these personnel," the department said.

Revealing the identities of detention services staff exposed them to recriminations.The Sydney Anglican diocese is set to ban same-sex weddings from any Anglican church or building, and prohibit its properties from being used to promote homosexuality or "transgender ideology".

Critics within the church say the far-reaching policy could stop pastors and teachers from speaking in favour of marriage equality, and stifle student-led LGBTI support groups at Anglican schools.

Documents obtained by Fairfax Media also reveal the church sees the current debate about its right to fire gay teachers as a "key threat" to its ability to foster a Christian ethos at its schools.

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The 51st Synod of the Sydney diocese will next week debate the introduction of a property policy to ensure church-owned buildings are used only for "acts or practices which conform to the doctrines, tenets and beliefs of the diocese".The United Nations has cautioned against unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and called on all countries to support the Iran nuclear deal in the wake of the Morrison government's shock decision to rethink conventional and bipartisan Middle East policy.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week announced the government would consider shifting its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, saying he found case for change "persuasive". Mr Morrison also announced a review of Australia's support for the Iran nuclear deal, which is maligned by Israel.

The announcement  timed just days out of a high-stakes byelection in Wentworth, an electorate with a large Jewish community  has been praised by the Israeli government, Liberal Party heavyweights and the Trump administration. It has been met with dismay from the Muslim and Arab world, foreign policy experts and Labor.

Israelis wave national flags outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, in Jerusalem. Credit:AP

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, declined to comment on Australia until the government comes to a final decision but said the UN's view was that Jerusalem was a final status issue to be decided in direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.An incensed pro-life group has vowed to target MPs who voted to support historic abortion law reform at the next Queensland state election.

On Wednesday night, Queensland politicians exercised a conscience vote to remove abortion from the criminal code, with the bill passing 50 votes to 41.

Protesters hold placards during a pro-life rally in Brisbane on September 1. Credit:AAP Image/ Glenn Hunt

LNP members Tim Nicholls, Jann Stuckey and Steve Minnikin voted to support the bill, standing on the opposite side of the chamber to the remainder of their party colleagues.

Labor's Linus Power abstained during the final vote, while maverick MP Jo-Ann Miller voted against the bill.A scathing report describes Queensland's coronial system as failing and under stress, with a backlog of cases two years or older.

It reveals a shocking case, where a government undertaker was allegedly late to transport a body, did not show compassion to a grieving family, damaged their floors, and had a "disgusting mess" of a van.

An undertaker was accused of not showing appropriate compassion to a grieving family. Credit:Michele Mossop

The Queensland Audit Office investigation, by auditor-general Brendan Worrall, spoke to senior people across the coronial system who said they believed it was "failing".

The coronial system involves the Coroners Court, forensic and scientific services and the Queensland Police Service and investigates deaths that occur under certain circumstances.A controversial state government review of content broadcast on screens at city train stations will not be released publicly.

The review came after Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan told Metro Trains to stop playing Sky News updates because it had aired an interview with ultra-right nationalist Blair Cottrell in August.

The interview, which Sky News later removed, was not shown on City Loop screens.

On Thursday, as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Melbourne, Ms Allan announced the review had been completed and found there was no compliance regime to monitor all content shown on the screens.

Ms Allan announced the government would take new steps to ensure that material shown on City Loop screens met community expectations.New Delhi: An Indian minister was forced to resign on Wednesday after 21 women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment, making him the most prominent figure so far to be felled by the #MeToo movement sweeping the world's largest democracy.

The minister, M.J.Akbar, said he was stepping down to fight his accusers in court. On Thursday, an Indian court will hear the defamation case that Akbar and his 97 lawyers have brought against Priya Ramani, the first woman to publicly accuse him of harassment dating back to a time when he was a prominent newspaper editor.

India's Junior Foreign Minister M.J. Akbar, centre, hugs Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini in New Delhi, India, last year. Credit:AP

"I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge the false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity," Akbar's resignation letter said. "I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of minister of state of external affairs." The position is akin to a deputy foreign minister or secretary of state.

After a slow start, India's #MeToo movement has shaken the country over the past two weeks, as dozens of women in journalism, entertainment, the arts and advertising have accused powerful men in their fields of sexual harassment or assault. The allegations have led to apologies, resignations, professional shunning and in some cases, counter-attacks.Washington: The United States will merge its consulate general, which serves Palestinians, with its new embassy in Israel into a single diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, drawing a quick rebuke from Palestinians.

"This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations," Pompeo said in a statement. "It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank or the Gaza Strip."

US President Donald Trump outraged the Arab world and stoked international concern by recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital in December and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.

The consulate general in Jerusalem is the top mission for Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem for their capital.The Saudi Defense Ministry has lambasted Israeli media that the Chief of Staff of the Saudi army held talks with his Israeli counterpart during a top military conference in the U.S. early this week.

A source who did not want to be named told the kingdoms state-run news agency SPA that general Fayyad bin Hamed Al-Ruwaili did attend an international meeting of defense chiefs in Washington at the Andrews Air Force Base but Israeli reports that the Saudi Chief of Staff met with Gadi Eizenkot on October 15-16 are untrue.

The source told SPA that the two military commanders did not hold any bilateral talks.

The conference hosted by chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford discussed ways to combat terror groups.

Several reports emerged in the past over secret high-key meetings between the kingdom and Israel.

Saudi Arabia, which does not officially recognize Israel, has always denied the reports but Israeli authorities have boasted good ties with the Arab world in many areas, including security and cooperation to overcome Iran, the archenemy of both Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, during the U.S. leg of his international tour in March, sounded in favor of a rapprochement between the two countries. The change in dynamics pushed his father to renew support to the Palestinians and the kingdoms position regarding Jerusalem that Israel and President Trump claim is the Israeli capital.The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria, told the Security Council on Wednesday that he is stepping down at the end of next month, after four years and four months on the job

Staffan de Mistura, said that he had been discussing with the Secretary-General his desire to move on for purely personal reasons. I have deeply appreciated his constant support and wise counsel on this matter, he said.

But briefing the 15-member Council on an invitation from the Government of Syria to visit Damascus next week, he said he would continue in his post up to the end of November, in an effort to get UN-backed peace talks on track, and help lay the groundwork for a new constitution.

We still have a very intense and hopefully fruitful month ahead. I am not laying down the charge until the last hour of the last day of my mandate, Staffan de Mistura said.

I plan to engage them on the work that has been done on the Constitutional Committee, in the Syrian capital, he told the Council, adding that without steps on a safe, calm and neutral environment, the work of a constitutional committee will not end up being very meaningful.

Staffan de Mistura hoped progress would be made not only on a fresh constitutional settlement for a post-war Syria, but also the Working Group on the release of detainees and abductees, the handover of bodies and the identification of missing people, which had met again last week in Tehran. We keep urging for the first tangible results. Many, many people in Syria are waiting for that, he said.

Objections from Damascus were holding up the committees launch, he said, adding that the Government objected to the 50-member delegation put together by the UN, representing Syria experts, civil society, tribal leaders and women, among others.

Turning to conditions on the ground for the millions of Syrians displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance after more than seven years of brutal fighting, he said a catastrophe has so far been averted in Idlib, and the Russian-Turkish memorandum of understanding appears to be being implemented. Major strides have been taken in defeating terrorism and this should continue to be a priority.AION Capital Partners, an entity formed by ICICI Venture with Apollo Global, has been one of the few private equity (PE) funds which have been able to close an acquisition of a stressed asset under the National Company Law Tribunal, with Indian partners.

Parth Gandhi, managing director, talks to Surajeet Das Gupta on strategy, performance and how it chooses investment targets. Edited excerpts: How has your first fund done and when do you plan to raise the second one? AIONs first fund is an India-focused one, with $825 million in committed capital; if we consider co-investments, it ...Dear Reader,

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Digital EditorPower transmission capacity for the Kashmir Valley has increased by 70 per cent with the commissioning of the 414-km-long Northern Region Strengthening Scheme (NRSS) by Sterlite Power, a company official said.

The NRSS-29, with a project cost of Rs 30 billion, connects the northern grid to Jammu and Kashmir and would enable power transfer of 1,000 Mw to the Valley, CEO Ved Mani Tiwari told reporters in Srinagar on Thursday.

He noted that there was only one line for power transmission network which connected the Valley with the northern grid.

"Now, you have two and the capacity to bring in power has increased 70 per cent. So, 70 per cent more electricity can be brought to the valley and we have made this possible," Tiwari said



"The project was started on August 4, 2014, and we completed it on August 8 this year. So, it has been commissioned two months ahead of the deadline given to us. It was a very challenging project, but it will ensure reliable access to power for the Valley," he said.

Tiwari said the transmission line is 414 km long route-wise and has a length of 880 circuit km, having about 1,200 towers -- one of them at a height of 13,000 feet.

He said about 10,000 people from the state were employed by the company during the peak construction of the project.

Sanjay Johri, COO Sterlite Power, said the company has tied up with a helicopter company to inspect the transmission line in the Valley, especially in the winter months when the routes become inaccessible.

The NRSS-29 is one of the largest private sector transmission projects awarded in the country, Tiwari said, adding that it is critical for meeting the power requirements of the state, especially Kashmir, which suffers massive load-shedding during winter when electricity demand rises sharply and generation from hydel-power plants dips.Indian business conglomerate Tata Group has held preliminary discussions to buy a large stake in debt-laden Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the Times of India reported on Thursday. Tata has sought management control of Jet, seeking at least 26 per cent initially and another 26 per cent via an open offer later, the paper said. Jet Airways has been facing a financial crunch amid rising oil prices and a depreciating rupee. In a bid to revive itself, Jet said in August it will inject funds and cut costs to turn around the business, without elaborating further. Jet Airways, however, ...U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday denied he is giving Saudi Arabia protection in the alleged killing of Saudi critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who, according to Turkish media, was tortured and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The journalist went missing following his visit to the Saudi consulate on October 2 for some paperwork.

President Trump and the White House have been cautious to charge Saudi Arabia over Khashoggis disappearance.

Turkish media and Turkish security sources believe The Washington Post contributor who has been living in the U.S. since September last year was tortured, killed and decapitated in the consulate by a squad that arrived from Riyadh the same day aboard private planes.

No, not at all, I just want to find out whats happening, Trump told reporters in the White House when asked if his consistently cautious approach to the scandal amounts to a cover-up. Im not giving cover at all.

Trump also told reporters that the truth will emerge after he meets with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who has been dispatched to Riyadh and Turkey.

We will probably know that by the end of the week, he said.

Early on last week, the U.S. President threatened to take action against Saudi authorities if they are proved to be tied to the journalists possible death. The threats did not scare the Saudi royal court, which vowed to hit back.

Trump has also urged Turkish authorities to release alleged audio recordings of Khashoggi being tortured by the squad whose members are known to be close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

The Turkish investigation team of the alleged crime said it was able to get some audio recordings of torture operation from Khashoggis two cell phones that he left to his Turkish fiancee outside the consulate. The phones were connected to an Apple watch he was wearing when he entered the diplomatic mission.

The Saudi consul to Istanbul Mohammed al-Otaibi appears to be involved in the killing, according to press reports. Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday on a scheduled flight for Riyadh. According to Turkish daily Yeni Safak, a media close to Ankara, could be heard on one tape saying during Khashoggis torture: Do this outside. You are going to get me in trouble.

The diplomat on another tape was answered by one member of the hit squad: If you want to live when you return to Saudi Arabia, be quiet!A Delhi-based female who managed to climb up the pathway to reach the famed Sabarimala temple, was on Thursday forced to abandon her trek following a massive protest.

Suhasini Raj, who works as the reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall before her.

According to witnesses, the protesters forced the two journalists to return.

As she was ascending, Raj kept saying that she did not come to pray but to do her work.

"It was a massive protest by the devotees. The protesters were sitting on the pathway shouting slogans against her. She had no other way but to return and she did that," said a witness here.



ALSO READ: Sabarimala temple opens amid protests over Supreme Court verdict

On Wednesday, the protesters, who opposed the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Sabarimala temple, clashed with the police and heckled female journalists as the pilgrimage season opened.

The temple opened for the first time on Wednesday after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

The district authorities have clamped a 24 hour Section 144 in a 30 square km radius of the temple town and the state is observing a statewide shutdown on Thursday called by a Hindu organisation backed by the BJP-led NDA.are breaking away from the traditional routines, which was earlier limited only to visit friends, family or pilgrimages and are now travelling more for leisure, a study has revealed.

The average Indian is now unabashedly a holiday enthusiast and the frequency of holidays have also gone up drastically with over 80 per cent of respondents having admitted to having indulged in at least four holidays in a year, according to a study by market research and analysis company Velocity MR.

The results of the pan-India study included a sample size of 2,103 and covered metro cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Chennai.

"With the advent of technology the average Indian has never had it better. They are discovering that and holiday destinations are in fact within reach and not a faraway dream as once imagined. Indulging in offbeat travel plans, planning holidays with a twist and international travel are popular these days," Velocity MR managing director and CEO Jasal Shah said.

Till a couple of years ago festival celebrations were limited to family homes, today entire families travel together for the celebration and enjoy the festival and a vacation both at the same time, he said.

"Mobile apps have expanded individual research capabilities and helps people make well thought out plans basis online reviews and user feedback," he added.

Further, the study revealed that holidays are no longer special times that people have to wait years for.

Annually people go for multiple breaks and eight out of 10 people have taken up to four breaks in the past year, it added.

Weekend getaway as well as well-planned vacations are on the rise, the study has found.

It also said that more than 60 per cent of respondents used mobile apps for hotel booking and ticketing apps.

Payment, hotel booking and ticketing, social networking and navigation were the most sought-after apps, it added.As the "#MeToo" movement rages on in India, the government is set to form a group of ministers to look into the lacunae in the existing law on sexual harassment, official sources said Wednesday.

They added that the group of ministers will be notified "soon".

Earlier, there were indications that the panel could be headed by a senior women cabinet minister but now, the sources said, it could be headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The development comes days after Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi proposed the formation of a legal panel to look into the legal and institutional framework in place for handling complaints of sexual harassment and advise her ministry on how to strengthen it.

India's "#MeToo" movement, which started with actor Tanushree Dutta accusing another actor -- Nana Patekar -- of harassing her during the shooting of a Bollywood film in 2008, has escalated sharply with more and more women coming forward with their complaints against various personalities.

M J Akbar, who resigned as the Minister of State for External Affairs Wednesday, filmmakers Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Rajat Kapoor and actor Alok Nath are among those who have been accused of sexual misconduct.Former MP's son Ashish Pandey, accused of brandishing a gun at guests and threatening them at a five-star hotel, said in a video message he was being subjected to media trial and alleged only one side of the story is being shown, portraying him as a "terrorist".

A Delhi court had Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Pandey. He surrendered before the Patiala House Court on Thursday.

"I have been subjected to a media trial. I am being portrayed as a terrorist. I am not denying that the incident happened but it is being shown from one side," he said in a video message he released before he surrendered.

Pandey said the CCTV footage should be properly checked to ascertain whose fault it was.

"They should check CCTV footage and see who entered the ladies' washroom and after exiting from it, who threatened whom. When I came out, I took the licensed gun from my vehicle. I did not aim the gun towards him and the weapon was pointed downwards.

"Everyone is saying I threatened a woman with a gun but I did not even address the woman, who was with him. She pushed me and even made obscene gestures at me using her hands. Her male friend said things to me," he said.

He said he will tell his side of the story to the police and has full faith in the judicial system.

After a video of the incident that occurred early on Sunday went viral on social media resulting in public outrage, Pandey had requested his friends on WhatsApp to not circulate the video and had even apologised for what he did.

The video of the incident at Hyatt Regency Hotel here prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident.

Pandey's father Rakesh Pandey is a former MP and his brother Ritesh Pandey is a sitting MLA from UP.Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday and categorically rejected the media reports that he had accused India's intelligence agency of plotting his assassination as "utterly baseless and false".

In the telephonic conversation, Sirisena apprised Modi of the urgent steps taken by him personally and the Sri Lankan government to publicly reject these reports, which he described as "mischievous and mala fide", the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in New Delhi said in a statement.

The media reports came ahead of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's three-day India visit from Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Modi to speed up the India-backed projects, including the East Terminal project, in the island nation.

The economynext.com, quoting a ministerial source after a heated cabinet meeting Tuesday, reported that Sirisena had accused his senior coalition partner, the United Party (UNP), of not taking seriously an alleged conspiracy to kill him and the former secretary to the ministry of defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The minister, who declined to be named, claimed that the president said that India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the plot.

The Lankan Foreign Ministry termed the reports "baseless and false".

The Lankan president, during his phone call with Modi, categorically rejected the reports.

"He mentioned that the mischievous and mala fide reports were utterly baseless and false and seemed intended to create a misunderstanding between the two leaders as well as damage the cordial relations between the two friendly neighbours," the PMO statement said.

Sirisena also stated that he regarded Modi as a true friend of Sri Lanka. He stressed that he greatly valued the mutually beneficial ties between India and Sri Lanka, and remained steadfast on working with the prime minister for further strengthening them, the statement added.

Modi appreciated the prompt steps taken by Sirisena and the Lankan government to firmly refute the malicious reports by publicly clarifying the matter.

The prime minister also reiterated India's emphasis on the "neighbourhood first" policy and the priority the Indian government and he personally attached to developing even stronger all-round cooperation between the two countries.

The Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said it wished to emphasise that the relations between Sri Lanka and India, including at the highest levels of the governments, were strong, encompassing multiple spheres including intelligence sharing.

"It is disappointing therefore that matters of this nature have become the subject of distorted and erroneous media reports, taking the President's remarks out of context, which has given rise to further media and social media speculation and the spread of unfounded fear among the public," the ministry said in a statement.

It added that in continuation of the close and regular interactions between Sri Lanka and India at all levels, including at the highest levels of the governments, President Sirisena had discussions Wednesday morning as well at a meeting with the High Commissioner of India in Colombo.

Earlier in the day, Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne also dismissed the media reports at a press conference in Colombo.

Senaratne, also the Minister of Health, read out a statement by Cabinet Secretary S Abeysinghe, which stated that the president had not said anything about the plotting to assassinate him.

"The president, as the Head of the Cabinet of Ministers, has paid attention to the print and electronic media reports on the matters discussed during the cabinet meeting at the Presidential Secretariat on October 16. It is stressed that those news are completely untrue.

"Any cabinet paper relating to the infrastructure development projects planned to be implemented in Sri Lanka by the Indian government or Indian companies was not included in the agenda of that cabinet meeting," he said.

According to the media reports, Sirisena said he was unhappy with the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) inquiry into the plot and faulted the law and order minister for what he called the "very slow progress of the inquiry".

The president, however, did not give the details of how India was involved in the plot and several cabinet ministers were aghast at his claim, the report said.

The cabinet meeting witnessed heated exchanges when the ministers discussed the awarding of the East Terminal of the Colombo port to India, reports said.

Sirisena was opposed to granting India access to develop the terminal just next to the China-run Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT), the report said.

The cabinet spokesperson, however, said Sirisena had not expressed opposition to the Eastern Port Terminal deal with India.

Wickremesinghe, who will arrive in New Delhi Thursday evening on a scheduled visit, will hold wide-ranging talks with Modi Saturday.

The two prime ministers are likely to review the status of the India-assisted housing projects in Jaffna during Wickremesinghe's visit. They are also likely to deliberate on the Tamil issue -- the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in the Tamil-dominated areas.The Trump administration has said it is coming out with new proposals to not only revise the definition of speciality occupations under H-1B visas, but also the definition of employment under this foreign work visa category which is popular among Indian companies.

Such a move, which is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration will have a detrimental impact on the functioning of Indian IT companies in the US and also small and medium-sized contractual companies in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian Americans.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January, 2019.

It will "propose to revise the definition of speciality occupation" to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.

It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, DHS said. In addition, DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to holders, the administration said.

The DHS reiterated that it is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation.

The DHS said it is also finalising its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification.

This rule precludes an individual from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker. This rule also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, DHS said it is proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications. This will allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for these H-1B petitions, it said.Armies of India and will hold their first ever joint exercise from November 1 at a jungle warfare school in Mizoram's Vairengte with a focus on strengthening counter-terror cooperation, officials said Thursday.

The focus of the two-week-long exercise 'Dharma Guardian" will be to increase interoperability between the two forces and enhance coordination in dealing with various security challenges, they said.

"Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well developed tactical drills for neutralisation of likely threats that may be encountered in urban warfare scenario," the Army said in a statement.

Security experts from both sides will also hold detailed discussions to share their views on various aspects of military operations as part of the exercise, it said.

The Indian contingent will be represented by 6/1 Gorkha Rifles while the Japanese contingent will be represented by 32 Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force.

"It will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other's militaries and also facilitate tracking the worldwide phenomenon of terrorism," the statement said.

The Army also described the exercise as yet another step in deepening the bilateral strategic ties.Chinas global telecommunication company Huawei will provide its expertise to provide Saudi Arabia with 5G after the kingdoms telecom entity ties up with the Chinese giant on a five-year plan.

The plan dubbed Network 2023 will enable Huawei to assist Mobily with its 4.5G to 5G evolution, and its target network planning (including spectrum and user experience).

The Chinese firm as per the tie-up signed in Shenzhen, will also act as Mobilys consultant from an industry and consumer perspective, offering market and business insights and strategy, Trade Arabia reports.

Through the collaboration, both companies will combine end-to-end (E2E) services and products and excellence customer services with which to create new digital services and revenue streams, enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, decrease time-to-market, and increase Mobilys customer base, the Bahraini media says.Source said a few meetings between DoT officials and telecom operators have already taken place but no final decision has been arrived at. The DoT has asked for the opinion of the attorney general about the SCs order and what could be done for customer verification that will comply with the order, a source said. As of now, mobile operators ...

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Digital EditorIndia is continuing to engage with the US and all other stakeholders regarding the S-400 missile deal with Russia and import of crude oil from Iran following Washington's sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

"On S-400, I can tell you that this is dictated by our national interests," ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing here.

"We are engaged with the US on this matter and we have shared our position with the US at different levels," Kumar said.

"These discussions have contributed to a better understanding by the US on our objectives, our concerns, as well as our sensitivities and expectations."

The S-400 missile deal, signed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi earlier this month, has been an issue of much speculation after the Trump administration's Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law came into effect in January. CAATSA targets countries doing business with Russian, Iranian and North Korean defence companies.



A group of US senators imposed the sanctions on Russia over what they called Moscow's continued involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria and its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Following the signing of the S-400 deal, the US Embassy spokesperson here said that the intent of her country's implementation of CAATSA was "to impose costs on Russia for its malign behaviour, including by stopping flow of money to Russia's defence sector".

Spokesperson Jinnie Lee said that CAATSA was "not intended to impose damage to the military capabilities of our allies or partners".



There have also been concerns in New Delhi following fresh US sanctions on Iran, set to come into effect on November 4, since the West Asian nation is a major supplier of crude oil to India.

The US pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Tehran had signed with the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, Germany and the European Union and imposed the new sanctions on the West Asian nation over its nuclear programme.

Under the sanctions, the US wants all countries in the world to stop importing oil from Iran.



"On the Iran issue and the issues growing out of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, again we are engaged with all stakeholders in this matter," spokesperson Kumar said.

"Our expectations have been made known to the US side."

Kumar said that India appreciates the statement made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the intention of imposing sanctions on Iran is not to hurt India.

"We do intend to continue our engagement with the US and other stakeholders to ensure our energy security and to protect our national interest," he stated.



He also said that Brian Hook, the Special Envoy of the US on Iran, visited India and held discussions with several officials and interlocutors in different ministries.

"Basically, he also wanted to understand our position and our perspective on this matter," Kumar said.

"We have conveyed to him that the price of crude oil is a matter of concern for the domestic economy and directly impacts the common man."Sri Lanka has reversed a decision to award a $300-million housing deal to China in favour of a joint venture with an Indian company, the government said, ahead of a visit by the prime minister to its South Asian neighbour. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet his counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday in New Delhi, the Indian capital, for talks. The two countries have long-standing ties, partly because of cultural and ethnic links with Tamils, many of whom live in the island's north and east. In April, state-run China Railway Beijing Engineering Group Co Ltd won a ...Sanjeeb Mukherjee explains why the government chose this route and what that company aims to achieve What is the broad plan of the government so far as the Section 8 company for rural products is concerned? The central government reportedly plans to have its own Section 8 company to promote select rural products and create an end-to-end value chain for them with the help of professionals and experts. These will be for products made by women-led self-help groups, village organisations, farmers-producers ...

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Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorThe chartered accountants body - The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) - has expressed displeasure with the government for not including it in discussions to frame rules for the (NFRA), a body recently set up for regulating auditors.

There are fears that the role of the will significantly diminish once rules are framed.

In a letter to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the had stated that even the appointment of the chairman of the came to its knowledge from media reports.

The letter, which Business Standard has reviewed, says the is unhappy that the government, despite assurances that it will be included in discussions on NFRA, has been dismissive.

Recently, a former bureaucrat - Rangachari Sridharan - was appointed chairman. The appointment was made after a search committee rejected all the 200 candidates who were in the fray, sources said.

NFRA will take over from the ICAI powers to investigate accounting professionals of listed companies. While NFRA will look into cases of listed companies, the ICAIs role will be confined to private limited or unlisted public companies below a threshold, which is yet to be decided.

The ICAI will also remain an institution that will give away certificates to accounting professionals.

Further, the ICAI will continue to play an advisory role with respect to accounting and auditing standards as well as policies, by making its recommendations to NFRA.

To instil accountability, NFRA can recommend penal action against auditors if they are found non-compliant or there are lapses in their duties. If the authority finds or has reason to believe that any law or accounting standards has been violated by an auditor, it may decide on the further course of investigation or enforcement action.

In March this year, the Union Cabinet had approved the authority. As the government sets up the authority, the Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) is the first case to be investigated by it. The ICAI is also looking into the crisis.US officials say they sense that relations with the Chinese military, after a rocky few months, may be stabilizing, although face-to-face talks between their respective defence chiefs Thursday produced no new agreements.

US Defence Secretary met for nearly 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than scheduled, on the sidelines of an Asian security conference with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Wei Fenghe.

A participant, Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's top official for affairs, said Mattis described the talks as "straightforward and candid" and asserted that high-level talks are especially valuable during times of tension.

Schriver said the discussions covered numerous issues but focused especially on the disputed South Sea, where Chinese military activity is viewed by as irresponsible and complains of an inappropriate US military presence. Mattis asserted that the US view is widely shared in the region and beyond.

"That's an area where we will continue to have differences and talk through," Schriver told reporters after the meeting.

Mattis and Wei discussed an existing US invitation for Wei to visit the US, but details remain to be worked out, Schriver said.

"There was a commitment on both sides to try to find a time" for such a meeting, he added.

did not immediately comment to US media outlets at the conference after the meeting between Mattis and Wei.

Just weeks ago, Mattis had planned to travel to for talks with Wei, but that fell through when the Chinese made it known that Wei would be unavailable, one of several signs that tension in the overall US- relationship was spilling over into the military arena.

Wei and Mattis were in this week for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Schriver had told reporters on Wednesday that the Chinese had requested the meeting with Mattis. He said US officials took this as a sign that the Chinese are interested in stabilizing the military relationship.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him earlier this week, Mattis acknowledged that the relationship has been difficult in recent times.

"We're two large powers, or two Pacific powers, two economic powers. There's going to be times we step on each other's toes, so we're going to have to find a way to productively manage our relationship," he said.

"And the military relationship is to be a stabilizing force in the relations between the two countries." As recently as June, when Mattis was in for his first visit to China as chief, called the US-China military relationship the "model component of our overall bilateral relations."



Since then, however, a series of irritants have shaken military-to-military ties. Schriver said the trigger for recent tensions was the Trump administration's decision in September to sanction the Chinese military for buying Russian fighter planes and missiles.

That action was taken under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act passed by in 2017. Beijing also strongly criticized a US announcement of further arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing insists is part of China.

China responded to these events with strong criticism, followed by a decision to cancel a planned visit to the by the head of the and a confrontation in the between a Chinese warship and a US Navy destroyer, the USS Decatur.

The Chinese also denied a request for a US Navy ship to visit Hong Kong.

"That may turn out to be a relatively short bump in the road," Schriver said Wednesday, suggesting that the meeting between Wei and Mattis could nudge things back in the right direction, although the US administration remains concerned that the Chinese have achieved a key goal by militarizing disputed land features in the that warned against.

China views Washington's criticism of its activities in the as unnecessary meddling in internal Chinese affairs.

Earlier this year, Mattis cited China's military presence on some land features in the South China Sea as his reason for disinviting the Chinese military from an naval exercise in the Pacific.

As part of a US effort to enlist support for countering and limiting China's militarization of the South China Sea, Mattis earlier this week visited Vietnam, which has its own disputed territorial claims there. Schriver noted that smaller nations like Vietnam, with limited naval and economic power, have reasons to express their concerns about China privately rather than in public.

"They do face potential risk angering China," Schriver said.The top United Nations human rights official has called on Saudi Arabia and Turkey to reveal everything they know about the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi journalist and critic of the Kingdom has not been seen since he visited his countrys consulate in Istanbul on October 2 at noon, Michelle Bachelet said in a statement.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva amid news reports that details of Mr. Khashoggis death may surface soon, indicating that it was an accident, UN human rights office (OHCHR) spokesperson, Rupert Colville, noted the High Commissioners belief that two weeks is a very long time for the probable scene of a crime not to be subject to a forensic investigation.

He noted that in view of the seriousness of the situation, the High Commissioner had also called for diplomatic immunity to be waived immediately to allow for a prompt, thorough, effective, impartial and transparent investigation.

Protection from national jurisdictions is bestowed on consular premises and officials by treaties such as the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Mr. Colville explained, before noting that Ms. Bachelet had welcomed the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Turkey allowing investigators to enter Saudi buildings in Istanbul.

But potentially serious crimes had been committed, he insisted, and the perpetrators should be held accountable.

The one thing we really know as a solid fact is that Mr. Khashoggi went into the consulate and hewas never seen coming out again, Mr. Colville said, adding that it seemed very probable that some crime had been committed.

Enforced disappearance or murder, if that has occurred, extra-judicial killing, either way, those are very serious crimes, he added. We all need to know what it was, how it happened and who was responsible and where the evidence leads.

Responding to a question about whether there was a chance that the probe into Mr. Khashoggis disappearance risked becoming a whitewash, Mr. Colville said there was no question of impunity.

Anyone responsible should be held accountable, and that means anyone, he said, who committed a crime or who was involved in the planning of the crime or executing it. There should be accountability; if its a serious crime, thats a fundamental principle of law; national law and international law.The European Union and Britain have given themselves a few more weeks to break the deadlock in their Brexit talks but for Brussels the delay seems mainly about Prime Minister Theresa May dealing with critics back in London. An accord sketched by officials from both sides last weekend stalled because May's fractious government rejected a "backstop" insurance clause the EU wants in case future talks fail to forge a trade pact that avoids customs posts on the Irish border. An EU offer to extend a status-quo transition period by a year to end-2021, keeping ...China is trying to use the Tibetan Buddhism as a soft power tool to further its ambitious multi-billion dollar (BRI) in the region as it developed Tibet to become Beijing's gateway for trade to South Asia through Nepal, according to experts.

China is vigorously pursuing the BRI, a pet initiative of President Xi Jinping, which offered billions of dollars of loans for infrastructure projects to different countries as it looks to expand global influence.

The BRI, however, evoked negative reactions in India as the controversial multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) remained its flagship project. India has protested to China over the as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In a new initiative, China held a two-day symposium in northwest China's Qinghai Province on Tuesday to discuss how Buddhism could better serve BRI and resist separatism, state-run Global Times reported.

Tibetan monks and scholars took part in the event, the report said.

Tibetan Buddhism in which the Dalai Lama plays a pivotal role has following in different countries besides India. It has strong following in countries like Nepal and Mongolia.

Elaborating on the symposium, Qin Yongzhang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times that Tibetan Buddhism can serve as a bridge between the BRI countries to better communicate with each other, since the religious and cultural beliefs are similar in Central and South Asia.

One immediate challenge of promoting the BRI through Tibetan Buddhism comes from India, which has been holding back for geopolitical reasons, Qin said.

The Dalai Lama has established a separatist base in India, and has been advocating the "traditional culture" as leverage to expand his influence, Qin added.

China in recent years has developed infrastructure in Tibet with rail, road and air connectivity. It is now in the process of establishing a rail link to Nepal with plans to connect to India.

The CASS and the state-run China Tibetology Research Centre attach strategic importance to the project to promote China's BRI through Tibetan Buddhism, Qin said.

Soft power like religion, if used properly, will convert to hard power, Xiong Kunxin, an ethnic studies professor at Tibet University in Lhasa, told the daily.

During this year's Buddhist Conference, Yin Shun, the deputy head of China's Buddhist Association, noted that the construction of the China-proposed BRI has injected new energy into China-Nepal ties, the report said.

China also built a relationship with Mongolia through Tibetan Buddhism, Qin said, noting that Mongolia has sent monks to study at the Lama Temple and High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China, both located in Beijing.

Buddhism has a significant role in curbing separatism, religious extremism and terrorism while implementing the BRI because it pursues harmony and opposes violence, Xiong said.

The Tibet Autonomous Region will benefit from the BRI, which will stabilize the region and boost its economy by developing border trade and cultural tourism, wrote Zhao Kejin, deputy director of Tsinghua University's Institute of Studies in an article published on ifeng.com.

Tibet has more than 1,700 Tibetan Buddhist temples, 46,000 monks and nuns, Zhou Wei, chief of the China Tibetology Research Centre's Institute for Religious Studies, had said.President Trump plans to withdraw from a 144-year-old postal treaty that has allowed Chinese companies to ship small packages to the United States at a steeply discounted rate, undercutting American competitors and flooding the market with cheap consumer goods. The withdrawal, announced by the White House on Wednesday, is part of a concerted push by Trump to counter Chinas dominance and punish it for what the administration says is a pattern of unfair trade practices. The White House, in a statement, said sufficient progress has not been made on reforming terms of the ...The 25 per cent duties that loom next year are another matter. Ben Yang, a furniture maker producing contemporary designs out of his facility in Dongguan -- about 30 miles from Hong Kong -- says that if those higher charges materialize from January as planned, the US share of exports from his Sunrise Furniture Co. could plunge from 90 per cent to less than a third. Our major rival is Vietnam and 10 per cent tariffs arent enough ...

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Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorNot only were the Trumps more than the mere licensors they claimed to be, extracting millions in fees from nearly every facet of these projects, but they often misled buyers and investors on key information  such as the level of sales and the Trumps role and investment in the deals. (Read our full investigation.) The Trump Organization did not respond to our questions, and the White House didnt have a comment. Projects Where a Trump Family Member Overstated Sales ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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Digital EditorSome of the richest people in the world lost everything when the Titanic sank. Now a consortium of new-money risk takers is poised to profit from turn-of-the-20th-century artifacts that curators had hoped to claim. Three hedge funds banded together to submit a $19.5 million bid to buy the once-lost treasures of the ocean liner, thwarting a group of British museums backed by the National Geographic Society and James Cameron, who directed the 1997 movie Titanic. The museums could muster only $19.2 million and withdrew this month. The new owners  Apollo Global ...Cameroons Constitutional Council on Tuesday dismissed sixteen of eighteen post-poll petitions presented before it by aggrieved opposition members and parties.

Ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party of President Paul Biya has been accused of massive electoral fraud to keep the 85-year-old leader in office for another seven years.

Self-acclaimed poll winner, Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, was himself present in court to submit his petition.

According to Kamto, the military rigged polls in the restive northwest and southwest English-speaking regions, where they were sent to secure polling stations.

Professor Kamto had also advanced an argument of partiality on the part of the Constitutional Council as he sought the disqualification of six of its members. He accused them of being persons who had interest in the ruling CPDM.

Leader of the Council, Clement Atangana, has long been accused of been a loyalist of incumbent Paul Biya.

Other petitions are expected to be heard on Wednesday by the Constitutional Council sitting in the capital Yaounde. Individuals and parties are seeking partial and in some cases total cancellation of the October 7 presidential polls.

Thirteen of the petitions to annul the election were from a would-be presidential candidate, Bertin Kisob, who is on pre-trial detention for supporting Anglophone separatists.

Biya was challenged by seven other candidates. He is Africas longest-serving president, having entered office in 1982.Pakistan may not have to approach the IMF for loans as it has received "positive" responses from some "friendly countries", Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, days after Islamabad formally approached the global lender for a bailout to tide over the economic crisis.

Talking to a delegation of senior editors on Wednesday, Khan said his government was in touch with some "friendly countries" and has sought cooperation to address the mounting balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Though he did not name any countries, Pakistani media has reported that the government was consulting allies like China and for financial help.

"Their response is positive. I am quite hopeful that we will not have to approach the Monetary Fund for our economic needs," he was quoted as saying by The News.



Imran's comments follows some tough talking by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the US on Pakistan's bailout plan, demanding absolute transparency on the country's debts, including those owned by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Apart from selling off surplus luxury cars, Prime Minister Khan's proposals include turning state-owned buildings into universities, dispensing with VIP security protocol and cutting air conditioning in government offices to keep the afloat.

ALSO READ: IMF loan may come with a political cost for Pakistan PM Imran Khan

Khan has vowed to steer Pakistan out of a looming balance-of-payments crisis, saying it needs USD 10 to 12 billion.

He said Pakistan's has been badly hit. He said the previous governments borrowed so much that it has become hard for his government to repay the loans.

"Had the former government not received loans or the amount so received was utilised properly, the of the country would have been in a good shape," he said.

Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar met IMF chief Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Indonesia on October 12 and formally requested a "stabilisation recovery programme".



Umar said that a team of the IMF will arrive in Pakistan on November 7.

He said the government don't want to fully rely on the IMF and would do anything to bring improvement in the economy. He said the loan programme with the IMF is almost final, but the government will have to see that the IMF does not place any undoable conditions for Pakistan in return.

Lagarde has made it clear to Umar that the IMF would require absolute transparency on Pakistan's debts, including those owned by China under the multibillion dollar CPEC.

The CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect China's Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan province. It is the part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

The US has said that the huge Chinese debt was responsible for the economic challenges facing Pakistan, adding that it will review Islamabad's bailout plea to the IMF from all angles, including the country's debt position.

Umar said the Pakistan government was also exploring other options to avoid problems if the IMF programme did not materialise.Since the disappearance and apparent killing of a dissident journalist in a Saudi Arabian consulate, some of the most powerful figures in business are distancing themselves from the kingdom. There is one prominent exception: Masayoshi Son, chief executive of the SoftBank Group. Son, the 61-year-old founder of SoftBank, the Japanese internet, energy and financial conglomerate that owns Sprint, is one of Saudi Arabias biggest business partners. His company oversees the SoftBank Vision Fund, a technology investment fund that sought $100 billion in investments and received ...US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would no longer attend next week's investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration awaited the outcome of investigations into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mnuchin announced the decision in a post on Twitter following a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently returned from meetings with top leaders in Riyadh and Ankara. "Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment ...The Sabarimala Protection Committee has called for a 12-hour statewide strike on Thursday in Kerala.

The Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, which opened to devotees on Wednesday, witnessed incidents of violence and protests in Pamba, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam, and Elavungal.

A bus carrying journalists and other passengers was allegedly vandalised by protesters at Laka near Nilakkal base camp. The protesters were lathi-charged as they gathered at the Nilakkal base camp of Pathanamthitta district. Stones were also pelted.

Amid intensifying protest in the region against the entry of women in the menstrual age group in the Sabarimala temple, the state administration has imposed Section 144 in four places - Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilakkal, and Elavungal- prohibiting the assembly of more than four people in an area.

Meanwhile, women above 50 years of age were seen entering the Lord Ayyappa temple on Wednesday evening. Women between 10 to 50 years of age did not arrive due to security concerns.

The shrine of Lord Ayyappa, located on the mountain range of the Western Ghats, opened for the first time today after the Supreme Court verdict allowed women of all ages to enter the temple. The temple will close on October 22.

Scores of protesters, including women, have been up in arms since the verdict was pronounced. Traditionally, women of menstruating age were barred from entering the temple.

As a mark of protest against the verdict, the devotees stopped vehicles and prevented women belonging to the 'prohibited' age group from moving towards the holy hill.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ashish Pandey, the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Rakesh Pandey, has surrendered before Patiala House Court on Thursday in connection with Delhi hotel brawl case.

Ashish claimed that he did not brandish his gun in premises of Hyatt Hotel and carried it for safety purposes. "I took the gun with me for safety. I didn't brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. I didn't even address that girl; she pushed me and made obscene hand gestures," he said.

He further stated that he has decided to surrender owing to his faith in the legal system, "I have faith in the judiciary and so I decided to surrender. There is no history of police case against me."

Pandey also explained that he did not threaten anyone when the incident took place on the night of October 13. "I am being projected like I am a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me. Look Out Circular has been issued against me. If you check CCTV footage, you'll find who went to ladies toilet that night and who threatened whom," he stated.

On Wednesday, Delhi's Patiala House Court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Ashish, following a brawl with Kanwar Gaurav - son of ex-Congress MLA Kanwar Karan Singh.

Over 50 persons, including Ashish's father, uncle and 12 employees of hotel Hyatt Regency were interrogated in the matter and the search was underway in all known hideouts, offices, and residences of Ashish, his family members and friends in Lucknow and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has taken over the regular security of the newly-constructed Kannur International Airport in Kerala ahead of the launch of commercial operations in the end of November.

The induction ceremony was held on Wednesday, headed by a Commandant rank officer. The sanctioned strength of the CISF personnel for Kannur International airport is more than 600.

"With this induction, total airports under the CISF security cover raised to 61 as on date. The administrative control of this airport will be under DIG, CISF South Zone Airport, Chennai," the CISF said in its statement.

Kannur International Airport, located in Mattannur -about 20 kilometres away from the city of Kannur- is spread over an area of more than 2330 acres and is the biggest airport in Kerala in terms of land area. The airport has a 3050 meter-long runway.

This would be the first airport in India which would dispense with stamping of hand baggage from day one of its operations due to the surveillance systems in place as well as other prerequisites in place for doing away with stamping.

In the light of the increased threat perception to the aviation sector across the country, security of Kannur International Airport is of utmost importance as thousands of tourists, including foreigners, will visit Kerala through this airport.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said that Hindu brothers don't invite him for campaigning anymore, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy asserted that Congress is becoming victim of its own propaganda created against the Hindu community.

Speaking to ANI, Swamy said, "That is a problem with them (Congress), they are the ones who started creating all this Hindu terror and so on, and now they are becoming the victim of their own propaganda."

He further added, "What can we do? Ask him to get some rest and recover from this malady that he is having presently."

Speaking at an event on Wednesday in Lucknow, Azad said, "Since the days of the Youth Congress, I have been campaigning across the country from Andaman Nicobar to Lakshadweep. 95 per cent of those who used to call me were Hindu brothers and leaders, and just five per cent were Muslim brothers. But in the last four years, I have observed that the figure of 95 has dropped to just 20 per cent. This means that there is something wrong. Today people hesitate in calling me, thinking that it would affect their vote banks.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ethiopias prime minister on Tuesday created a new Ministry of Peace to tackle a wave of ethnic violence in the Horn of Africa nation.

In a sweeping cabinet reshuffle that kept only four of the former post holders in their jobs, Abiy Ahmed named new finance and defense ministers.

The populist Prime Minister also merged ministries to cut the cabinet to 20 from 28 and for the first time handed half of the top jobs to women.

Former construction minister Aisha Mohammed was named defense minister  the first woman to hold that position in the country, if not in the continent.

42-year-old Abiy said Ethiopias main problem is the lack of peace. I his words, the peace ministry will be working hard to ensure it prevails.

The new peace ministry will be led by former parliament speaker Muferiat Kamil, and will oversee the intelligence and security agencies.

Abiy has extended an olive branch to several rebel groups and promised to follow a policy of reconciliation and rein in the powerful security agencies.

As a reminder, The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the rebel coalition that ousted the Derg military regime in 1991, has been split by factional battles between four ethnically based parties.

At the heart of Abiys reforms is a drive for national reconciliation. The government has released political prisoners, allowed exiled dissidents to return home, decriminalized armed opposition groups, and lifted a contentious state of emergency.Farmers in Aurangabad's Marathwada region have demanded that Maharashtra government should declare the region drought-hit.

"We are undergoing a very difficult situation due to severe lack of rainfall. Farmers are committing suicide. Dams have huge capacity but no water for the past three years. We urge the government to declare it drought-hit area," a farmer told ANI.

Earlier, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said that a total of 200 talukas in the state had been identified as scarcity-like conditions.

Fadnavis had said that the state ministers were apprised of the prevailing conditions and were also asked to submit a report to him on the issue.

"The main focus is how to tackle the drought-hit talukas in the state. One of the main reasons behind the drought is the low rainfall which has been recorded 77 per cent only, less than the average mark in the state. We are following the drought manual given by the Centre and that has helped us in planning everything well in advance," he had said.

The Chief Minister also said that a central team will soon be visiting to these talukas to review the situation. "Be it water-scarcity issues or crop damages, I have instructed the ministers to make a detailed plan after they visit the drought-hit talukas. This not only helps in understanding the situation but allows to a counter-check. Above all, we are well prepared to control the situation that has come before us," Fadnavis had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) is set to win National Assembly elections in Bhutan.

The centre-left party's mandate was to have better relations with India before going to polls for the 47-member lower house of the Parliament.

Provisional results show the DNT winning at least 30 seats, with royalist Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) leading on remaining 17.

The tiny Himalayan nation went to polls earlier on Thursday.

Both the DNT and DPT fielded 47 candidates each in the final round in a bid to lead the young democracy for the next five years.

Bhutan transitioned from a century-old monarchy to democracy in 2008.

According to the Buddhist country's constitution, only two parties with highest votes in the primary round qualify for the final round.

The ruling People's Democratic Party of Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay faced a drubbing in the round held in September and got ousted from the contest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gunman Mahipal, who shot an additional session judge's wife and son in Gurugram, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.

On October 5, the Gurugram Police detained the assailant's mother and cousin for interrogation.

The police arrested the gunman on Saturday and said that they are yet to ascertain the motive behind the crime.

The incident took place on October 13, when the additional sessions judge Krishan Kant's wife Ritu and their 18-year-old son Dhruv had gone to shopping in Gurugram's Sector 49.

The gunman opened fire and injured both of them. While the judge's wife was pronounced dead, the son of the additional sessions judge has been declared brain dead and put on life support system.

Soon after the incident, a forensic team was sent to the spot and an investigation was launched to look into the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Calling actor "indecent", Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief has said the 'Me Too' movement is a serious matter, and should not be debated on social media.

Speaking at an event here, the chief said, "I know Nana Patekar; he is indecent. He does crazy things but I don't think he can do such a thing. Court will look into it. What is the media to do with it? #MeToo is a serious matter, the debate over it on Twitter isn't right."

Discussing the 'Me Too' movement, which sparked off following allegations of misconduct levelled against Patekar, Thackeray claimed that the movement might have been fuelled in a bid to divert attention from skyrocketing petrol prices, dip in rupee value against dollar and unemployment in the country.

He further said that if any woman faces something unwarranted, she can approach the for help. Thackeray also stated that women should raise their voice as and when they face oppression, and not after 10 years.

"It seems it is being done to divert attention from petrol price, rupee value, and unemployment. If anything like #MeToo happens, women can come to We will teach a lesson to accused. Women must raise the voice when they face oppression, not after 10 years," the MNS Chief said.

The 'Me Too' movement gained momentum in India after actor accused Patekar of allegedly misbehaving with her during a film shoot in 2008.

Since then, scores of women have come out to speak about their ordeals on social media, including actors, musicians, journalists, and politicos.

The 'Dhol' actor had also claimed that MNS party workers were involved in the attack on her car after she opted out of the 2008 film 'Horn OK Pleassss' after allegedly being harassed by Patekar.Resolute Support Commander General Austin Scott Miller, who escaped uninjured in Thursday's attack at the Kandahar Governor's house, tweeted that he "lost a great friend" while referring to Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq, who was killed in the attack.

Gen Scott Miller took to Resolute Support's official Twitter account to state, "Today I lost a great friend Lt. Gen. Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan. The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone."

Taliban has since claimed responsibility for the attack which also killed the head of the provincial National Directorate of Security (NDS) Gen. Abdul Momin Hassankhail and injured Kandahar's Governor Zalmai Wesa, the commander of Maiwand 404 police zone, a coalition force member and two Americans after a high-profile meeting on Thursday.

Taliban further stated that they had targeted both Raziq and Miller, according to Al Jazeera.

TOLOnews reported that the attack was initiated by at least one of the governor's bodyguards.

The attack occurred when officials were on their way to the helipad after the meeting, which included the Resolute Support Commander. Saturday's parliamentary elections were discussed during the meeting held between the officials.

Colonel Dave Butler, the spokesperson for US Forces-Afghanistan tweeted that the attacker had been killed in the "Afghan-on-Afghan" incident. "This was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident. Three Americans were wounded, have been medically evacuated and are stable. General Miller is uninjured. We are being told the area is secure. The attacker is dead."

He has since updated his statement to claim that one US service member, one US civilian and one non-American coalition contractor were wounded in the incident, while the Resolute Support Commander Gen Scott Miller escaped unscathed.

In the wake of the attack, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended condolences and condemned the terrorist attack.

"Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar. India condemns it most strongly and mourns with our Afghan brethren the loss of life, including that of Kandahar's senior leadership. We stand in solidarity with the brave people of Afghanistan in fighting terrorism imposed on them," he tweeted.

The attack comes ahead of the Afghanistan parliamentary elections, slated to be held on Saturday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues of bilateral importance.

Pompeo, while interacting with travelling media persons, stated that he had a "good, constructive" conversation with the Turkish President, where the statesmen talked about Iran and the sanctions which are supposed to be levied on the nation. The US Secretary of State outlined how the US would like Turkey to buy "less" Iranian crude oil than they do at the moment and mentioned that working groups have been engaged to cater to the issues surrounding this.

He further said that the return of Pastor Brunson to the US "opens up a lot of opportunities" for US-Turkey relations. He also indicated that there may be "logic" in removing Brunson-related sanctions on Turkey while stating that no final decision has been made.

The two leaders also discussed the Jamal Khashoggi case, during which Erdogan assured Pompeo that Saudi Arabia is cooperating with the investigation that Turkey is engaged in. Erdogan further said that the Turkish side will be sharing the information that they have with the Saudis.

Despite delays from Saudi's end, the Turkish side is confident of their cooperation in the thorough investigation into the missing scribe's case, he added.

However, no new information regarding Khashoggi's case was given out during the US Secretary of State's remarks. Pompeo refused to say anything about whether he knew or if he had heard the alleged audios of Khashoggi's "murder" that Turkish officials claimed to be in possession of, and reserved his comments until the investigation is finished.

"I'm going to be very consistent: We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," was Pompeo's reply to a question put forth by a member from the travelling press.

He outlined that Saudi Arabia and the US shared "important" relationships when asked about the tenor of the private conversations between him and Saudi officials.

"I do think it's important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships - financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the - efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world's largest state sponsor of terror, Iran. The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues. I could go on about places where the Saudis and the Americans are working together," Pompeo said while stating that the US is going to have to be mindful about "America's best interests" while approaching decisions made by the US government once the findings of the investigation come to light.

Pompeo further refused to speculate and said "if a country engages in an activity that is unlawful, it's unacceptable. No one is going to defend activity of that nature. We'll see what happens," when asked about US' response in case investigations proved Saudi's hand behind the Khashoggi incident.

He further rallied for Saudi Arabia and urged the press to give time to the investigation, which will be evaluated on a "factual, straight-up basis" by the US upon completion.

Pompeo also stated that he had met Jamal Khashoggi's fiance, Hatice Cengiz, and hoped that the investigation wraps up quickly as "sooner is better than later for everyone."

The two sides also talked about issues related to strategic cooperation on systems like S-300 and S-400 between US and Turkey during the meeting held in Ankara. However, Pompeo stated that he had "nothing to add in terms of where we'll go from here".

Pompeo had visited Turkey at the request of US President Donald Trump. His trip to Turkey came right after his visit to Saudi Arabia to meet King Salman and Foreign Minister al-Jubeir in Riyadh, where discussions were held regarding the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brother of Kerala nun who has accused former Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal of rape, on Thursday expressed dissent over the bail granted to the cleric.

Speaking to ANI, he said, "I am shocked to hear that he got bail, he is a rape accused. Police found all the evidence against him. Had he been innocent, there would not have been so many evidences against him."

He said, "He (Bishop Mulakkal) has no repentance, no remorse, and he is not even sad, that shows what kind of indecent man he is. He is trying to show that he is innocent but the truth is in everyone's mind. He is not a religious person; he is not even a decent person. He does not deserve to be a Bishop."

Bishop Mulakkal was released from Kottayam jail on October 16, a day after being granted conditional bail

The nun's brother was also astonished by the kind of welcome the bishop received when he went back to Jalandhar. "The court granted him bail, and I respect the decision, but that doesn't mean that he is innocent. I am saddened to see the grand welcome he received after being released. Being a religious figure, he should be ashamed of himself. He seems to be unapologetic."

The bishop received a grand welcome with garlands and rose petals on Wednesday when he reached Jalandhar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kristen Bell might be playing the role of a Disney princess on screen, but that doesn't mean she is okay with the lessons it teaches to her two daughters.

The 'When in Rome' actor, who is the Voice of Anna in the animated Disney film 'Frozen', told Parents magazine that she has issues with the kind of message 'Snow White' sends out, especially when it concerns her young daughters Lincoln (5), and Delta (3).

"Don't you think that it's weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission? Because you cannot kiss someone if they're sleeping!" she said while stressing on the importance of consent.

Bell pointed out that she finds the part, where Snow White eats an apple from the witch who is a total stranger, problematic.

"Every time we close Snow White I look at my girls and ask 'Don't you think it's weird that Snow White didn't ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got the apple?' I say, 'I would never take food from a stranger, would you?' And my kids are like, 'No!' And I'm like, 'OK, I'm doing something right,'" she said.

Earlier this week, Keira Knightley had revealed that she has banned her daughter from seeing Disney movies which don't uphold her feminist values.

The list of banned movies includes 'Cinderella', "because she waits around for a rich guy to rescue her. Don't! Rescue yourself. Obviously! And this is the one that I'm quite annoyed about because I really like the film," Knightley had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Liam Hemsworth is all set to star in 'Arkansas', which will mark the directorial debut of Clark Duke of 'Hot Tub Time Machine' fame.

Duke, who has written the plot of the film, will also star in a pivotal role, alongside 'Wedding Crashers' actor Vince Vaughn, confirmed The Hollywood Reporter.

The film revolves around low-level drug runners in the Dixie Mafia. Kyle (Hemsworth) and Swin (Duke) live by the orders of an Arkansas-based drug kingpin named Frog (Vaughn), whom they've never met. But things take a turn for the worse as the duo are forced to face the dire consequences of a botched-up deal.

While Patrick Hibler, Jeff Rice, Martin Sprock and Storyboard Media are producing the film, executive producers include Media Finance Capital's David Gilbery and Charles Dorfman, who also funded the film.

'Arkansas' is set to go on floors next week in Alabama.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following a request of the Indian Women's Press Corps (IWPC), Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi has decided to examine the institutional mechanisms of all the media organisations amid multiple allegations of sexual harassments by women at work place.

On Wednesday, the IWPC penned a letter to Gandhi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and the Commission for Women (NCW) demanding an "impartial and fair inquiry" into the multiple sexual harassment allegations levelled against former Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs MJ Akbar.

The IWPC had also urged them to implement the Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace Act in media organisations.

In reply to their letter, Gandhi said, "I am definitely going to look into the institutional mechanisms of each media organisation immediately. We will send you the findings. Regarding anything else, I am going to ask NCW to look into the matter."

On behalf of NCW, Chairperson Rekha Sharma said, "The Commission for Women strongly condemns any act of invasion of the private space of women and has taken a serious note of all the instances of sexual harassment of women that have figured in the media recently."

Sharma added, "The Commission has been regularly and promptly registering, and taking actions on all written complaints regarding sexual harassment at workplace filed at the Commission for Women till date."

As many as 20 women, one after another, have come forward and alleged Akbar of sexually harassing them during his journalistic days. The storm around the 67-year-old gathered momentum after the #MeToo campaign raged in India. He resigned as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs on Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rustavi 2 Releases Audio Recordings in Which ex-Official Threatens the Govt

By Tea Mariamidze

The opposition-minded Rustavi 2 TV channel released audio recordings on Sunday in which currently detained former official of the Chief Prosecutors Office Mirza Subeliani says that he has compromising materials against the Georgian Dream leadership which he may use if needed.Subeliani was detained in June this year for not reporting the murder case of teenage boys in central Tbilisi on 1 December.The case is also known as the high-profile Khorava Street murder case when two 16-year-old boys were stabbed by other teenagers in a school brawl.The court sentenced one of the detained minors for the murder of one of the killed boys Levan Dadunashvili, while the court failed to say who killed another boy David Saralidze.David Saralidzes father Zaza Saralidze had stated that Subeliani created obstacles for the fair investigation into the case, and stated it was Subelianis relative Mikheil Kalandia who killed his son and who still walks free.Subeliani was detained on 9 June 2018 and he admitted only that he did not report the crime.In the recordings, Subeliani allegedly speaks with two representatives of the Georgian Dream ruling party and says that he is disappointed with the governments actions towards him when the Georgian Dream owes him.In the recordings, Subeliani mentions several high profile cases and says how he tortured people to make them confess.Subeliani also says that minors who were involved in the Khorava street case were beaten during the interrogation.The parliamentary opposition called the recordings alarming as it includes the signs of the systemic crime.The Georgian Chief Prosecutors Office said that they launched the investigation regarding the recordings on 12 October, before they would be released by the TV.The Office said that an employee of the Ministry of Corrections addressed them with the recordings.The individual told us that an unidentified person handed him the recordings and threatened him to release them, otherwise he would make his personal life videos available to the public, the Prosecutors Office said.The office says that they have more audio recordings than the TV channel released.The recordings need to be checked whether they are authentic. Based on the initial analyses of the recordings the investigation is actively discussing the version of staging the recordings by a group for their following release, the Prosecutors Office says.Zaza Saralidze said that the recordings proved that his demands to the government were fair.I urge the Interior Ministry to detain Kalandia. It will be the only right step in the situation when the government is fully in the mud, Saralidze said.Head of the Transparency International Georgia Eka Gigauri says that the ruling party is in the serious crisis and the crisis is becoming more and complicated in the situation when the government is trying to ignore the problems.Members of the Georgian Dream say that the audio recordings could be staged and are waiting for the results of the investigation.Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, who has kick-started campaigning in poll-bound Mizoram, said that the state will soon witness a corruption free and a pro-development government in the state.

Addressing statewide booth level workers at Aizawl's R Dengthuama Indoor Stadium on Wednesday, the BJP chief said, "In Nagaland, Meghalaya, wherever BJP contested, it won. I am quite confident that the BJP will win the forthcoming state election and Mizoram will soon see a corruption free, the pro-development government in the state."

Shah, who also inaugurated the Mizoram BJP headquarters, announced that the party will contest all the 40 seats on its own. "We will not go with the Congress or the Mizo Front (MNF). We will fight all seats on the basis of the strength of our workers," he said. Shah also inducted senior Congress leader BD Chakma into the party.

Hitting out at the Congress, Shah said that poll-bound Mizoram has lots of possibilities in hydro-power and tourism but the Congress government failed on all fronts.

"Mizoram has lots of possibilities in hydro-power and tourism but Congress government failed on all fronts. The inefficiency of state government can be seen in the fact that let alone promoting new businesses, their corruption led to the closure of three existing PSUs," he said.

The BJP president further said that the next Christmas in Mizoram will be celebrated under the BJP's rule.

"After seeing so many of you here, I am reassured that the next Christmas Mizoram celebrates will be a Christmas under the BJP government," said Shah.

Mizoram is the only state in the entire North-East where the Congress is in power presently. The BJP has been reiterating that they would make all efforts to remove the Congress from power.

Single-phase Assembly polls in Mizoram will be held on November 28. Counting of votes will be done on December 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bollywood veteran actor Nana Patekar's advocate Aniket U. Nikam has sent a detailed response to Cine and TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA) over the notice issued against his client based on the sexual misconduct allegations made by Tanushree Dutta.

The response stated that the allegations levelled against Patekar by Dutta are baseless, unsubstantial, false and far from the actual truth.

"My client denies to the baseless and unsubstantiated allegations, insinuation levelled by Dutta against my client and nothing contained therein shall be deemed to have been admitted and accepted unless specifically done so," Nikam stated.

"My client states that the entire allegations levelled against my client are not only unfounded and baseless but the same are false and far from the truth. My client has been unnecessarily subjected to mental harassment due to the motivated and malicious vilification campaign undertaken against my client," the statement from Patekar's advocate further read.

The advocate went on to defend Patekar in the statement by citing his contribution to the Indian cinema as well as his social work and charities.

"The false allegations levelled against my client have immensely affected his reputation beyond repair and your organization should not entertain such groundless and baseless accusations particularly when such allegations are levelled after almost a decade," he added.

According to the statement, the FIR lodged was based on the objection to one scene and not to any conduct of Patekar.

"My client further states that in the year 2008 father of Dutta had lodged an FIR with Goregaon Police Station wherein it was alleged that Dutta informed her father that she did not like one scene with Nana Patekar and she requested the choreographer to change that scene however the choreographer did not agree to the same. It is pertinent to note that in the said FIR the objection was to the scene and not to any conduct of my client."

The statement also claimed that Patekar is in the process to take appropriate legal measures against Tanushree Dutta for maligning his image in public.

CINTAA had earlier expressed regret for not paying adequate heed to the complaint filed by Tanushree Dutta against Nana Patekar and others in 2008.

Amit Behl, senior joint secretary of CINTAA, had claimed that the 34-year-old actor would now have to file a new complaint for them to act upon the matter.

Tanushree has alleged that Patekar misbehaved with her on the sets of 'Horn Ok Pleasss' in 2008 while shooting for a special dance number for the movie, and filed an FIR against the 'Welcome' star.

An FIR has also been lodged against director Rakesh Sarang, producer Sami Siddiqui and choreographer Ganesh Acharya under Sections 354 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The 'Me Too' movement gained momentum in India after Dutta came forward and took a stand against Nata Patekar.

Since then, scores of women have come out to speak about their ordeals on social media, including actors, musicians, journalists, and politicos.

Over the last week, women have leveled allegations of sexual misconduct against Subhash Ghai, Alok Nath, Kailash Kher, Chetan Bhagat, Sajid Khan, and Varun Grover, among various others.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli will invite his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to attend the "Bibaha Panchami" celebrations in December during the latter's state visit to the Himalayan nation.

"Bibaha Panchami' held annually in Janakpur, the birth land of Goddess Sita. As the festive season is going on we are yet to make a detailed programme and inform our other officials regarding it," an aide to the Nepal Prime Minister confirmed to ANI.

"His visit invitation for the Bibaha Panchami on December 12 this year is confirmed as Bishnu Rimal has earlier confirmed. A detailed report about it will be released as soon as the festive season is over," he added.

Along with the visit to Janakpur, Prime Minister Modi will also be inaugurating the railway bridge between Janakpur and Bihar's Jainagar, which is being constructed with the aid from India and had been stalled since 2014 over an upgrade. Previously, Prime Minister Modi was confirmed to be visiting the Himalayan nation at end of November.

During the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Janakpur, his fifth visit to Nepal since taking office, Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

"As the Nepal Government is set to write to Indian Prime Minister inviting him over visit the previous schedule is sure to be changed. As they are working on the schedule we haven't got any information here though. But his visit to Lumbini as of now remains intact," an official inside the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu told ANI.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chitrangada Singh, who claimed Nawazuddin Siddiqui did not take a stand against her alleged harassment, has said she is not pointing a finger at the actor.

While recalling her harassment story, Singh had reportedly said that Nawazuddin did not come out in support when she was allegedly harassed on the sets of 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz'. She was cast alongside the 'Gangs of Wasseypur' star in the Kushan Nandy-directorial, but was later replaced.

However, while talking to the media at an event on Wednesday, the 42-year-old said, "I don't want to blame Nawaz entirely because I think he didn't know how I was feeling. I am sure he must have had his reasons. So I am not pointing a finger at him."

When asked if she is planning to file a complaint with regards to the matter, the 'Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi' actor said, "I don't intend to take a legal action. The producers had told an altogether different story, that's why I had to come forward and share all that."

Chitrangada further explained how she felt the need to talk about the alleged incident in the wake of the ongoing #MeToo movement. "Since the #MeToo movement has started, the issue came up again and that's the reason I explained it again but there are cases which are worse than this," she stated.

She further stated that there are cases worse than hers and they need to be dealt with responsibly while adding that people cannot be forced to share their #MeToo stories. The 'Soorma' actor also said that it is important for big names of the industry to support the movement.

On the work front, Chitrangda will next be seen in 'Baazaar' alongside Saif Ali Khan and Radhika Apte. The flick will hit the big screens on October 26.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Thiruvananthapuram Inspector General of Police (IGP) Manoj Abraham on Thursday rebutted reports that Suhasini Raj, who is reportedly a New York Times journalist, was forced to return midway from Kerala's Sabarimala Temple.

In response to questions pertaining to Raj's forced return, Abraham told ANI that she was "not forced to go back, she went back".

There are two versions to her retreat. Media reports suggest that Raj, along with a colleague, was forced to return on Thursday morning after crossing the Pamba gateway, allegedly by the protestors as they turned violent. However, the police claim that she was not forced but returned on her own.

The Thiruvananthapuram IGP's comments come in the wake of the heightened incidents of violence and protests against the Supreme Court's verdict on September 28, allowing women of all ages to enter the Lord Ayappa shrine. Traditionally, women of menstruating age were barred from entering the temple.

Places around the temple such as Pamba, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam and Elavungal have witnessed the majority of the violent protests since the doors of the shrine reopened on Wednesday. Protestors allegedly vandalised a bus carrying journalists and other passengers at Laka near the Nilakkal base camp. The police lathi-charged the protestors as they resorted to stone -pelting.

Elderly women were seen entering the Lord Ayyappa temple on Wednesday evening but women between 10 to 50 years of age refrained from visiting the shrine for the sake of their own safety.

Elaborating on the security measures being deployed, Abraham said, "We will be giving protection to everybody who is trying to go up (the hill to the temple). That is our job, to give protection and security to all pilgrims. We will put more manpower and secure all routes."

Owing to the protests and violence, Section 144 (prohibiting assembly of more than four people) has been imposed in Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilakkal and Elavungal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 150 terrorism suspects have been detained and extradited by the special services of Russia and Central Asian countries over the past year, Vice Chairperson of the Kyrgyz State Committee on National Security Asylbek Kozhobekov said on Thursday.

"Via joint efforts made by competent bodies of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018, over 150 citizens wanted in line with fight against terrorism, were identified, detained and extradited," Kozhobekov said during the meeting of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (RATS SCO).

He added that a large number of terrorist acts had been thwarted on the territories of SCO member countries, noting that particular attention was paid to people who were going to regions with an increased level of terrorist activities and to those who were coming back to the SCO countries.

The 33rd meeting of RATS SCO takes place in Bishkek and is attended by the delegations from all permanent members of the organisation -- Russia, Kyrgyzstan, India, China, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former National Directorate of Security (NDS) Chief Amrullah Saleh stated that Pakistan's intelligence services and army have "hijacked the hopes of the people" of both Afghanistan and Pakistan by supporting terrorist organisation Taliban and influencing the situation in Afghanistan through violence.

"We have been suffering many of these years because Pakistan has unleashed, in the words of my President, an undeclared war on the Afghan state. They (Pakistan) created the Taliban, and they still continue to provide training, equipment, logistical support and sanctuary for the Taliban. Even the Taliban leaders who travelled to Doha to meet the US envoy for negotiations, they travelled from Pakistan," Saleh told ANI.

The politico further opined that had there been no Pakistan support for Taliban, Afghanistan would have been a peaceful country. "The Afghan people have always desired a normal relationship with Pakistan, but unfortunately Pakistan Army, Pakistan intelligence services have hijacked the hopes of both the people in Afghanistan and people in Pakistan and have tried to dictate a relationship based on their willingness to support terrorist groups like Taliban and influence the situation in my country through violence," he added.

Saleh, while launching a scathing attack against the "outdated manifesto of the Taliban", stated that they are politically not appealing to the Afghan people. "Violence is like their shield, violence is their skin. If they stop violence as a political movement they will not survive long, that's why they insist on the continuation on violence." Saleh further stated that he believes that the Taliban will not survive long if they join negotiations and agree to be a part of the democratic processes.

"As a victim of terrorism and as a victim of violence unleashed by the government of Pakistan against us, we have always desired for peace, harmony, trade and for cooperation, expansion of cultural ties, but none of those wishes have been realised or come true and the agenda has unfortunately been dominated by the issue of terrorism and violence."

Dwelling upon the relationship between India and Afghanistan, Saleh said "India has assisted and stood behind democracy and democratic processes in Afghanistan, which has empowered Afghan people to freely express their will, elect their leaders. India's principled position on policy to work with Afghanistan has given it special status of trusted neighbour."

Saleh also highlighted India's support for democracy in Afghanistan, and mentioned how India built the Parliament building in Afghanistan and supported democratic process in the form of capacity-building as a staunch supporter of Afghanistan to entrench the culture of democracy. "India is not afraid of democracy getting further entrenched and institutionalised in Afghanistan. It sees strengthening of democracy as good for expansion of relations (between the two countries)," he added.

Speaking about Afghanistan's investment in India-backed Chabahar port, Saleh stated "investment in Chabahar is not a waste. Iran will not remain under sanctions forever. India is a rising economy and power in the region. Investment in Chabahar is a good investment, it's a noble idea. It will bring India and Afghanistan strategically closer. Trade between the two countries will expand; we will bypass the physical barriers which has caused trade between India and Afghanistan to remain limited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, one of the most-wanted terrorists in South Asia, has lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government for seeking aid from the Trump administration and walking into what he termed as an American trap of giving aid for the killing of Kashmiri and other 'Mujahideen' in the country.

"The U.S. has ordered Pakistan to capture Afghan and Kashmiri Mujahideen with an aim to convert Pakistan into an extended territory of the U.S.", Saeed said while addressing a huge crowd at Markaz Al Qadsiya in Lahore city.

He added, "The US puts pressure on Pakistan government to close the madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and stop teaching the Holy Quran. They say those studying here are all 'jihadis'. The US gives such diktats while coming to Pakistan. They also want syllabus on religious teachings to be removed as it gives birth to 'jihadis'. The government of Pakistan agrees on such orders and informs them about banning 'jihadi' outfits in return of receiving monetary aid and support."

Saeed founded Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, which waged the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks. The organisation is on the United Nations list of global terrorist groups.

Emphasising on the need to promote religious teachings, Saeed said, "We must reform our educational syllabus and to train our professors in accordance with Islamic education based on Quran and Hadith so that they can handle the economic, political and the various problems created by the U.S.".

Saeed, who carries a USD 10 million bounty for his role in terror activities, criticised the Pakistani government for accepting suggestions to ask the US and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for aid.

He further asked Imran Khan to fulfill promises made during the election campaign of turning Pakistan into a true Islamic State.

"We have to safeguard Islam and Pakistan and should not get trapped into the US and IMF's entrap", said Saeed in his address.

Saeed strongly criticized those studying and supporting the Western education system in Pakistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)People in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) continue to face troubles due to the incompetence of the local authorities.

In Kotli city, the residents have protested against the doctors of District Headquarter Hospital Kotli over the negligence in the treatment of a female patient.

The protesters alleged that doctors removed the woman's uterus without any emergency and she was thrown out of the hospital without any medical treatment.

They also accused the doctors of allegedly assaulting them. "When doctors came out, I requested them to listen to us. But, the doctors, including the MS (Medical Superintendent) pushed us and threatened us. The victim is lying on the ground for the past one week, but there is no one to take care of her," a protester said.

Another protester said, "We were sitting on a protest when 60-70 doctors came in a group. When we asked them about negligence in providing treatment to the woman and asked as to why no inquiry has been initiated in the matter, they started beating us badly."

Meanwhile, in Bagh district of PoK, education remains disrupted as teachers have been on a strike since the past few days. The Bagh Teachers' Organisation under the leadership of Sardar Arif Shaheen carried out a protest rally demanding a better pay scale.

The protesting teachers told the government that they will continue to hold rally until their demands are met.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo has asked US President Donald Trump to give Saudi Arabia a few more days to investigate the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Pompeo met Trump after he returned from an official trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He met with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well as other officials during his visit.

"We made clear to them that we take this matter in respect to Khashoggi very seriously. They assured me that they will conduct a thorough and detailed investigation in the case," he said.

Pompeo addressed the media and asserted that Saudi and the US have a history of strategic partnership and Riyadh's investment in Washington.

Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, went missing in Turkey on October 2. According to the journalist's fiancee, he was invited to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul but never left the consulate building.

According to media reports, Turkish investigators believe the journalist was murdered inside the consulate, but Saudi Arabia claims that Khashoggi went missing after he left the building.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States (US) Secretary of State Micheal R. Pompeo is slated to travel to Panama City and Mexico City on October 18 and 19, respectively, to advance priority issues in bilateral relationships with Panama and Mexico.

In Panama City, Pompeo will meet with President Juan Carlos Varela and Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel de Saint Malo de Alvarado on Thursday to discuss the ongoing US-Panama collaboration on regional priorities, including defending democracy in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and on issues including counternarcotics, counterterrorism, and illegal migration, as per an official statement.

The US Secretary of State will then proceed to Mexico City on Friday, where he will meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto and Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso, as well as with Foreign Secretary-designate Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon.

During the meeting, Pompeo will reaffirm the US' commitment to cooperate with both the current administration and the incoming administration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on economic issues, shared security challenges, and reducing illegal immigration, the statement noted.

"These meetings will advance priority issues in our bilateral relationships with Panama and Mexico, in support of shared efforts to secure a safer, prosperous, and democratic region," it added.

Pompeo's visit to Mexico comes less than two months after US President Donald Trump reiterated his demand for the establishment of a wall along the US-Mexico border to curb the entry of immigrants into the United States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Minister for State for External Affairs, MJ Akbar's counsel told a Delhi court that Journalist Priya Ramani has caused a dent into the image of the former minister, which he had built over 40 years.

Arguing on Akbar's behalf, advocate Geeta Luthra told the court that Tweets posted by Ramani defamed the journalist-turned-minister.

"Tweets by Priya Ramani are defamatory in nature. Articles in international, media quoted these tweets. Tweets are defamatory unless Ramani proves anything," Luthra told the court.

The senior advocate further argued that Akbar has been an acclaimed journalist and has had a long political career.

ALSO READ: Editors Guild asks M J Akbar to withdraw defamation case against Ramani

"He resigned from the ministerial post yesterday, he had a long political career. He has been an acclaimed journalist. His reputation is getting dented, which he has earned over the last 40 years. His reputation is tarnished in the eyes of the people," she added.

The court will now examine statements of and other witnesses on October 31.

On Monday, Akbar had filed a defamation case against Ramani - one of the first women, who publicly accused Akbar, her former boss, of sexual misconduct.

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday accepted MJ Akbar's resignation as the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, who is facing flurry of sexual misconduct allegations.

As many as 20 women, one after another, have come forward and alleged Akbar of sexually harassing them during his journalistic days. The storm around 67-year-old gathered momentum after the #MeToocampaign raged in India.

Akbar had been facing flak over allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards women, with opposition parties also mounting attack on the government and demanding his ouster.Amidst protests in Kerala against the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala Temple, its chief priest has expressed displeasure over the apex court's ruling that allowed women of all ages to enter the temple premises.

Kandararu Rajeevaru, the head priest, said that the court did not consider the age-old traditions and customs while delivering the verdict.

"The Supreme Court only cares about the law, it does not care about the customs and traditions. I stand by the old customs and tradition," he told ANI.

Urging the protestors to not take law in their hands, Rajeevaru said, "It is a panic situation, it has become very dangerous. Most of the devotees have become desperate after the Supreme Court verdict. It is my personal request, please respect the system and customs of the Sabarimala Temple. I do not support any form of violence."

He asserted that the people indulging in violent activities are not the followers of Lord Ayyappa, who is the deity of the Sabarimala Temple.

"Don't blame the devotees. It is not the devotees, who are creating all the violence," he said.

In the wake of violence and protests across Kerala, the Sabarimala Protection Committee has also called for a 12-hour statewide strike beginning Thursday morning

Angry agitators clashed with police, attacked women and journalists on Wednesday, ahead of re-opening of the Sabarimala Temple- the first time since the top court allowed women of all ages into the holy shrine of Lord Ayyappa.

Tension prevailed in the area as police also baton-charged stone pelting protestors at the Nikkal base camp, en route to the shrine. Similar incidents were also witnessed in Pamba, Sannidhanam, and Elavungal, the areas around the temple.

Section 144 (prohibits assembly of more than four people) has been imposed in Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilakkal, and Elavungal, following incidents of violence.

While women above 50 years of age were seen entering the temple on Wednesday evening, women between 10 to 50 years of age refrained from visiting due to security concerns.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday stated that the recent Supreme Court verdict, allowing women of all ages to enter Kerala's Sabarimala Temple, did not account for traditions accepted and followed by the people for years.

In his Vijayadashami speech here, Bhagwat said that "decisions taken without considering all aspects and patiently creating the mindset of the society, will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order in tune with changing times and positions."

"The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala Temple shows similar predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into consideration," Bhagawat added.

His comments come in the wake of the 12-hour statewide strike called by the Sabarimala Protection Committee earlier today over the incidents of violence and protests across Kerala in opposition to the September 28 SC verdict, rescinding the ban on the entry of women aged 10 to 50 in the Lord Ayappa shrine.

Bhagwat said that in order for the country to progress, a 'Swa' (self) - based system will have to be adopted, which will include rejuvenating all precincts of life.

The RSS chief further stated that in the context of honouring the 'Swa' of the nation, the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya "is necessary from the self-esteem point of view," adding that "it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country."

"This matter of interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains," Bhagwat said.

"The place of Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place. There is an obvious game-plan of a few elements to stall the judgment by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process. It is in nobody's interest to test the patience of the society without any reason," the 'Sarsanghchalak' said.

Bhagwat further underscored that the initiatives being taken to enhance the armed forces and their morale is one of the factors for the country's rise in prominence in the world.

"Border Security and internal security of the country are the issues of foremost consideration for prosperity and development. In this regard efforts are being initiated and accelerated to enhance the morale of our armed and security forces, making them well-equipped and to provide them with the latest technologies. Along with this, it is essential to be more attentive in enhancing the basic amenities of armed and security forces and their families. There have been some laudable efforts in this regard by the government. This is one of the reasons that the prestige of Bharat is rising in the world.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after protests and violence against the entry of women of menstruating age at the Sabarimala temple was witnessed, devotees visiting the shrine reiterated that the sanctity of the temple and Lord Ayyappa "must be preserved at any cost".

One of the male devotees told ANI, "Lord Ayyappa is a 'Nithya Brahmachari', this must be preserved at any cost. Sanctity of the temple should be preserved."

Meanwhile, another devotee, Ganesh Kumar, said that while coming to the temple, villagers thoroughly checked vehicles for women of 10-50 age group. "I took Kambamedu route to Sabarimala Temple, locals at every village were checking vehicles for women. Police didn't intervene as locals checked the vehicles," he said.

Calling the attack on women journalists near the holy shrine "unfortunate", Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kerala president PS Sreedharan Pillai has accused the Communist Party of India (Marxist) of orchestrating the violence.

"That is unfortunate; it was part of the plan designed by the CPI (M) people. They did this. 300 police personnel, who had not completed their training, were taken there and this scene was created," he said.

Places around the temple such as Pamba, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam, and Elavungal have witnessed the majority of the violent protests since the doors of the shrine reopened on Wednesday.

Protestors allegedly vandalised a bus carrying journalists and other passengers at Laka near the Nilakkal base camp. The police were forced to lathi-charge the protestors as they resorted to stone pelting.

Elderly women were seen entering the Lord Ayyappa temple on Wednesday evening, but women between 10 to 50 years of age refrained from visiting the shrine for the sake of their own safety.

Owing to the protests and violence, Section 144 (prohibiting assembly of more than four people) has been imposed in Pamba, Nilakkal, and Elavungal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As India's # grips the country, Cine and TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA) secretary Sushant Singh said that a special committee consisting of actor Raveena Tandon, Renuka Shahane, director Amole Gupte and others will handle the cases relating to the matter.

Speaking to ANI, Singh said, "We will form a special committee to handle the cases. Raveena Tandon, Renuka Shahane, Amole Gupte, journalist Bharati Dubey, three members of POSH at Workplace (Prevention of Sexual Harassment at the workplace) has agreed to be a member of the special committee. We have sent emails to a few others to join the committee."

Singh further stated that it was necessary to send a show cause notice to actor Alok Nath in connection with the sexual misconduct allegation levelled by producer Vinta Nanda. "Every case is different. Allegations on Alok Nath by Vinta Nanda are very serious. She had given us a formal complaint. It was necessary to send him a show cause notice."

Nanda had accused Alok Nath of rape and narrated her horrifying ordeal in a Facebook post. She was the writer and producer of the teleserial 'Tara' in the 90s, in which Nath played the lead role.

The 'Satya' actor went on to say "No one ever asked Nana Patekar to present his case. It was sexual harassment, misconduct at borderline. We sent him a letter and he replied. The investigation is underway. We can't take action against anyone without knowing what the police investigation says."

Echoing similar sentiments, actor Chitrangada Singh said that it is inspiring to see the change in the society. "We need to handle with a lot of responsibility and honesty. I am so happy that corrective measures are being taken. It is very inspiring to see the change in the society where truth is being supported. But people should not be forced to join it," she added.

The 'Me Too' movement gained momentum in India after actor Tanushree Dutta accused Nata Patekar of allegedly misbehaving with her during a film shoot in 2008.

Since then, scores of women have come out to speak about their ordeals on social media, including actors, musicians, journalists, and politicos.

Over the last week, women have levelled allegations of sexual misconduct against Subhash Ghai, Alok Nath, Kailash Kher, Chetan Bhagat, Sajid Khan, and Varun Grover, among others.Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for compensation to farmers in lieu of stubble burning.

Captain Amarinder apprised Prime Minister Modi that the problem of stubble burning could get aggravated and needed to be urgently addressed.

The Chief Minister also took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for the Central Government's decision not to disturb the 60:40 ratio with respect to appointment of officers in the UT of Chandigarh.

Captain Amarinder had, in recent weeks, expressed his strong protest over the constant efforts being made to disturb the fine balance in sharing of officers and other resources between Haryana and Punjab that had been achieved over a period of time after a great deal of effort.

He also urged the Prime Minister to ensure settlement of the Rs. 31000 crore CCL gap and requested for assistance for the preparation of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji.

Giving details of the meeting, an official spokesperson of the Punjab government later said the Chief Minister had urged Modi to advise the Finance Ministry to urgently settle the Rs. 31000 crore CCL gap on the principle of shared responsibilities.

Reiterating his demand for resettlement of gap in Food Cash Credit Account of Punjab, which had resulted from systemic and structural reasons, the Chief Minister told the Prime Minister that this should be settled on the principle of shared responsibilities amongst the stakeholders in procurement of food grains for the country. In fact, he pointed out, the matter had been discussed in detail in internal report of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, referred as the PK Jha Committee Report.

Noting that the Ministry of Finance, GoI, which was looking into the matter on a reference received from the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, was yet to finalise the matter, Captain Amarinder sought the Prime Minister's intervention to resolve the issue.

He urged the Prime Minister to advise the Ministry of Finance to reconsider and review conversion of Rs. 31,000 crore as long term loan as it cannot be solely attributed to the State of Punjab given the principle of shared responsibilities.

Citing similar commemorative events held in the past, when generous assistance packages were given by the Centre to the state government, the Chief Minister reminded the Prime Minister of his assurance that the Centre would provide due assistance to the Punjab government to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji next year in a befitting manner.

He also urged the Prime Minister to issue suitable directions to the Ministry of Culture and the Implementation Committee, instituted in June this year, to provide the necessary support to the state to make suitable arrangements for the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Ravish Kumar in reference to Pakistan reiterated that terror and talks don't go together.

In his weekly briefing here on Thursday, Kumar said that Islamabad needs to create a conducive atmosphere for the talks. He said, "The onus is on Pakistan to take credible steps and create conducive situations. Pakistan needs to take actions against terrorist infrastructure."

In the backdrop of the three-day visit of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the spokesperson said that the latter has been called on by the Home Minister and the External Affairs Minister.

The Sri Lankan Prime Minister is also scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday, Kumar added.

Amid the now-rubbished media reports claiming that Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has accused India of hatching a plot to assassin him, Kumar said that the reports have been dismissed.

"It has been dismissed by three releases. Media reports are false. All shades of political opinion in Sri Lanka call for closer ties with India," Kumar asserted.

Talking about India's S-400 deal with Russia, he said that India is engaged with the United States closely and has shared the position with the US. The S-400 deal is dictated by national interest, he underlined.

When asked about India-US relations with respect to Iran sanctions, Kumar clarified, "Our expectations are made known to the US side. We are engaged with all stakeholders." He further underscored that India's relations with Iran is aimed at protecting energy security and national interest.

Kumar also mentioned about Washinton's special representative for Iran Brian Hook's visit to India. Hook held discussion with ministers to understand India's position and perspective on the matter.

The spokesperson asserted that Hook was informed about the fact that the price of crude oil is a matter of concern of domestic economy and directly impacts common people.

Speaking about the H1b visa and the reports that the spouses of the visa holders will not be allowed to move to the US, Kumar said,"H1 b visa issue is an important issue for India; we are closely engaged with the US authorities."

He further clarified that the matter was raised during India and US 2+2 dialogue.

"We have informed the US administration that Indians who are working in US are highly skilled and have been contributing to US economy," Kumar added.

Addressing questions related to India-France relationship post-Rafale deal controversy, he asserted: "India continues to enjoy very good relations with France; Rafale deal issue has not impacted New Delhi's relations with Paris."

On India's relations with the Maldives, Kumar said that New Delhi is looking forward to work closely with Male.

When asked if Prime Minister Modi will take part in the oath-taking ceremony of new Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih, Kumar said, "A verbal invitation was extended. We are in close touch with the new government."

"There is a need to preserve the acceptance of the will of people. We are confident that the will of the people will be accepted," Kumar added.

Kumar also talked about the extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi saying that India is determined to extradite the economic offenders of the country. On Choksi, he clarified, "Antigua will examine and respond on their position on the extradition request by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Upset with the delay in the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday announced that he would visit the city in Uttar Pradesh on November 25.

"We warn everyone who thinks that Hindutva has died. We are still alive. We are saddened that Ram Temple has not been constructed yet. I will visit Ayodhya on November 25," Thackeray said while addressing party workers here.

His statement comes weeks after Shiv Sena intensified its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, and warned the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government that it would be thrown out of power if it fails to build the temple, as promised.

The Shiv Sena, in an editorial published in their mouthpiece Saamana, had opined that the temple issue has been reduced to a mere poll promise and ,therefore, has become a topic for ridiculing Hindutva. "Ram Mandir banao, nahi toh Ram naam satya hai," read the headline of the edit piece.

Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray also said that his party supports all the women, who have spoken against sexual harassment and abuse in the wake of the viral #MeToo movement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu arrived in Brussels on Thursday ahead of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit.

During his visit, the Vice President is slated to participate in the Plenary Session of the Summit and hold interactions with various stakeholders. He will also call on His Majesty, the King of the Belgians and have bilateral meetings with the heads of state/government from Austria, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries on the sidelines of the Summit.

Naidu will also address the Indian Diaspora at the Jain Culture Centre in Wilrijk, Antwerp and offer a floral tribute at a sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi located in the Governorate at Antwerp.

This will be the first multi-lateral summit the Vice President will be attending after assuming office in August last year.

The theme of this year's ASEM Summit is 'Global Partners for Global Challenges'. The bi-annual event is considered the highest platform for dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe in the areas of trade, investment, security and tourism.

As many as 51 heads of states/heads of government are expected to participate in the two-day summit, where a wide array of issues ranging from climate change to terrorism are expected to be discussed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, who is in Brussels ahead of the 12th Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) summit, called on Belgian King Philippe at the Royal City Palace on Thursday.

Recalling the friendly ties between the two countries based on shared commonalities and commitment to rule of law, pluralism and federalism, the two leaders discussed their expectations from the 2018 Summit which is centered on the theme, "Global Partners for Global Challenges".

King Philippe had hosted the ASEM Summit in 2010, when Belgium had held the rotating Presidency of the European Union.

Naidu elaborated on the priority accorded by India to the urgent need for collective efforts of the global community in addressing the menace of terrorism.

He also shared his perspective on the successful flagship initiatives by the Government of India, including innovative governance to address the complex challenges faced by India as the world's largest democracy and to simultaneously put India on a faster, inclusive growth and development trajectory.

India further expressed gratitude towards Belgium for their consistent support for India's candidacies at the UN and other international organizations.

India also thanked Belgium for its support to India's candidacy at the UNSC for the term 2021-22.

Naidu had earlier met King Philippe when the King and Queen of the Belgians visited India in November 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 116 police officials have been suspended from their posts for their alleged involvement in a June 2014 tragedy that killed at least 14 persons in Lahore in Pakistan's Punjab province, media reports said.

The suspended policemen included Deputy Superintendent of Police, Inspectors and Investigation in-Charge, said local Urdu TV channel ARY News on Wednesday, adding that the removed officials have been directed to report to their respective headquarters for further orders.

Earlier this month, anti-terrorism court in the country's eastern city also indicted former Punjab police chief Mushtaq Sukhera over his role in the tragedy that took place in Model Town of Lahore. The official, however, denied all the allegations levelled against him, said a Xinhua news agency report.

On June 17, 2014, at least 14 people, including two women, were killed when Punjab Police allegedly opened fire on protesters of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT). Around 100 workers were also injured in the clashes over removal of barricades outside the PAT secretariat in the Model Town area.

Since then, PAT chief Tahir-ul-Qadri has been demanding justice in the case and seeking suspension of all policemen involved in the operation to conduct free and fair investigation in the case.

Earlier on September 27, Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured the PAT chief that strict action would be taken against those behind the Model Town tragedy.

"The Chief Minister Punjab needs to ensure that action as per law was taken against all those responsible for the killings. They need to be removed of their posts so that impartial legal action may proceed," said the Prime Minister.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China-based search engine giant Baidu Inc. has become the first Chinese member of the US-led alliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) -- the Partnership on AI (PAI).

PAI, which includes some big names in Silicon Valley such as Apple and Amazon, is focussed to addressing the challenges and impacts of AI.

The US supergroup on PAI development said in a statement on Tuesday that Baidu has in recent years involved into a diverse technology conglomerate, with ventures in autonomous driving, smart assistants and AI platform services, Xinhua news agency reported.

Baidu has pushed forward a series of initiatives aimed at limiting AI's unintended consequences as the Chinese Internet leader has taken "safety and security" as its first principle in the development of autonomous driving, the PAI said.

Baidu is currently working on three new AI products, with Apollo being the largest open source autonomous driving platform.

Its two other AI products are DuerOS, a voice-enabled digital assistant, and Baidu ABC, a smart cloud for the enterprise market.

"Admitting our first Chinese member is an important step toward building a truly global partnership," said Terah Lyons, PAI Executive Director.

The growth and scope of work on AI in China is extensive, and any conversation about the future of AI that does not involve China is an incomplete conversation, Lyons said.

Baidu President Ya-Qin Zhang said AI's safety, fairness and transparency should not be "an afterthought but rather highly considered at the onset of every project or system we build".

He added that Baidu's AI leaders will join the existing PAI Working Groups and forthcoming lines of programming to help develop policies, tools and principles that will drive responsible AI development.

The PAI was set up in 2016 to formulate the best practices on AI technologies and advance the public's understanding of AI evolution.

--IANS

vc/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday criticised the Supreme Court's decision allowing entry of women of all ages to the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, saying it was flawed as it did not consider all aspects and hence would not be easily adopted.

"The decisions taken without considering all aspects, will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order in tune with changing times and positions," Bhagwat told Rashtriya Swayamsevaks on the occasion of Vijayadashmi in Reshimbaug here.

Bhagwat said the situation that was witnessed on Wednesday in Sabarimala due to the apex court's September 28 verdict happened only because of "the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years was not taken into consideration".

"The idea was to have gender equality, which is fine. However, there should have been talks (with the followers of the tradition). The faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account."

"A large number of women, who follow the tradition, were not heard; their emotions weren't respected. There has been no effort to discuss with the followers of the faith and that has given rise to unrest and divisiveness in society instead of peace and equality."

The temple doors opened for the first time on Wednesday after the verdict came over two weeks back. The protesters, who opposed the entry of women in the 10-50 age group clashed with the police as the state government tried to enforce the court's decision.

Bhagwat said that the origin of a tradition should be analysed properly.

"It should be understood why a particular tradition came into existence. The reasons from which it arose, and whether they were still valid even today."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Secured borders are of paramount importance to ensure prosperity and development of India given the current complex international scenario, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said here on Thursday.

"Border security and internal security are issues of foremost consideration as they ensure space and opportunity to the nation for prosperity and development.

"Fruitful efforts have been made to entwine the web of international relations by appraising the nations with our security concerns and getting their cooperation," Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief said.

While the government and the armed forces have displayed "clear intent to maintain peaceful and cordial relations with all the countries, including the neighbouring ones", at the same time it was necessary to remain firm and make prudent use of our capabilities while taking bold actions wherever necessary in the context of our security, he said.

For this, Bhagwat said efforts were underway to enhance the morale of our armed forces to make them well-equipped with the latest technologies, which is one of the reasons India's prestige is rising in the world.

He was addressing the much-anticipated annual Vijayadashmi celebration of the RSS at its Reshimbaug headquarters in Maharashtra, also known as the Orange Country.

Bhagwat also said attention must be paid to improve the basic amenities of the armed forces and their families, so that they can fight for the security of the borders without harbouring worries for the social security and wellbeing of their loved ones.

Though there are some laudable steps taken by the government, its implementation needs to be expedited as they pass through various departments like Defence, Home and Finance.

"All these actors (departments) need to be more sensitive and respectful to the endeavours of these forces and their readiness to make a supreme sacrifice even by putting their lives at stake that is a natural expectation that comes up in many discussions," Bhagwat pointed out.

Besides securing the land borders, the RSS Sansanghchalak urged the need to boost India's maritime borders in view of the dynamic international developments.

"There are hundreds of islands in the coastal area of India from Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Lakshadweep Isles, situated at strategically important locations. Their maintenance and strengthening the facilities there must be implemented urgently from the security point of view," Bhagwat added.

He called for prioritising coordination, cooperation and resources among the Indian Navy and other forces guarding the maritime borders and the islands, since Indians living along the sea borders firmly hold their ground despite facing several peculiar challenges.

"If their wellbeing is taken care of these locals in the border areas can be of great assistance to tackle problems like infiltration, smuggling, among others.

"For this proper relief, education, healthcare and employment opportunities must reach them promptly and they should be imbued with patriotism, valour and virtues," Bhagwat said.

Commenting on the ongoing border skirmishes, the RSS chief said that the newly formed government in Pakistan has not resulted in any decline in its "overt and covert provocative activities" in states like Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab... "which was neither expected nor happened".

He added that security without "total self-reliance" in the field of defence production cannot be assured and the pace of national efforts in that direction must be accelerated while continuing with the international multilateral exchanges wherever required.

Internationally-acclaimed child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest for this year's programme.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP on Thursday said the Congress was running a 'Modi Hatao' campaign in Pakistan and accused it of 'demeaning' and defaming the Hindu community in India.

The party alleged that the Congress was deliberately targeting the Hindus for crying foul over glorification of "terrorists" in university campuses.

"The way in which Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the Hindus don't call him anymore for campaigning was against the secular fabric of the country. And it is a big abuse to Hindus," Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters.

Azad made the remarks at the 201st birth anniversary of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Accusing the Congress of running sponsored advertisement in Pakistan, Patra said, "Modi hatao (remove Modi) campaign was being run in India and Pakistan."

He said that India is a democratic country and they could advertise against BJP here. "But what sense does it make to do so in Pakistan?" he questioned.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rome, Oct 18 (IANS/AKI) Amid an escalating trade war between the United States and China, Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday voiced "deep concern" at the danger of resurgent protectionism after they held talks in Rome.

"The leaders expressed deep concern about the threat of protectionism in the world and affirmed strong support for free, fair and rules-based trade and multilateralism," Conte and Moon said in a joint statement.

Conte and Moon pledged to "further strengthen their shared commitment to the expansion of mutually beneficial, free and multilateral trade," the statement said.

"In this regard, the leaders acknowledged the role of the existing Free Trade Agreement between the South Korea and the European Union and agreed on the need to strengthen its implementation."

Moon's two-day visit to Italy through Thursday -- the first by a South Korean President since 2014 -- is part of a European trip that included France and Belgium, where he attended an EU-Asia summit in Brussels.

Defence, civil aviation and other cooperation accords were expected to be signed during Moon's visit, which was also aimed at garnering support for his diplomatic struggle for peace with North Korea and goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.

--IANS/AKI

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hundreds of files and documents were gutted after unidentified miscreants on Thursday set on fire a chamber of a court in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district, police said.

The court of the Special Additional District Judge, where the incident happened, functions out of the premises of a degree college in the district. Employees raised an alarm when they saw smoke billowing from one of the chambers.

Fire tenders were rushed to control the blaze.

The windows of the chambers was found removed, and the miscreants apparantly slipped through it to set the documents on fire, police said.

An official informed that a forensic team had been called to help in the probe, and night watchman Pawan Pandey had been detained for interrogation.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi cabinet on Thursday restored the increase in the minimum wages that was junked by the High Court on August 4, and approved a proposal to give a 10 per cent discount on metro cards used in state-run buses.

"Payment to those who have been directly employed on contract by the Delhi government, boards and corporations at minimum wage rates or those who have been employed by contractors in various works of the Delhi government shall continue to receive payments at rates prevailing before August 4," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters here after the cabinet meeting.

The move comes after the Delhi High Court on August 4 quashed the Aam Aadmi Party government's March 2017 notification fixing higher wages in the city.

With Thursday's decision, the minimum wages of unskilled workers stand increased from Rs 9,724 to 13,896 per month, for semi-skilled workers from Rs 10,764 to Rs 15,296 and for skilled workers from Rs 11,830 to Rs 16,858.

These rates had come into effect on April 1, 2017, but were subsequently quashed by the High Court.

The High Court had said that the March 2017 notification that raised the minimum wages was completely flawed, and a decision taken in haste.

Sisodia said that the "Delhi government will also compensate the salaries as per the increased rates" to all those whose payment was either deducted or not given during the two months after the High Court order.

He asserted that the state government had "all the rights to give an amount above and beyond the minimum wage rates" in the national capital.

The state Chief Secretary has been mandated to ensure that every worker gets his money before October 31 so that he could celebrate Diwali with dignity.

The cabinet also approved the Transport Department's proposal for a 10 per cent discount on fares for travellers using the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation card in DTC and cluster buses.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on January 8 launched a pilot project for implementation of Common Mobility Card, under which people could use metro cards in 200 DTC and 50 cluster buses.

Subsequently, the Common Mobility Card scheme was fully rolled out on August 24, but without any discount.

Sisodia was of the opinion that the use of metro cards in buses will not only curb pollution, but also limit expenditure of the government.

Using metro cards to realise the fares through Electronic Ticketing Machines will save costs that would otherwise be incurred on printing of tickets, stocking and then redistributing them, he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court here on Thursday admitted a criminal defamation suit filed by former Minister M.J. Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani, the first in a long list of female journalists to have accused him of sexual harassment.

After taking cognisance of the defamation suit, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at the Patiala House court listed the matter for October 31 when the statements of the plaintiff and his witnesses would be recorded.

Akbar, through his counsel, told the court that Ramani's defamatory statements had damaged his image, lowering his esteem in the eyes of the public.

The BJP leader is facing a long string of sexual harassment accusations from women journalists who worked with him at several publications that he edited at various stages of his journalistic career.

Akbar has denied the charges as "false, wild and baseless".

Akbar, in his plaint, said that it was apparent that the false narrative against him was being circulated in a motivated manner and for the fulfilment of an agenda.

He resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday and said he would fight the legal battle in his personal capacity.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With Delhi air quality worsening, Minister Imran Hussain on Thursday formed an inspection team to carry out surprise checks in the capital to check air pollution violations.

Hussain asserted that the inspections by the six-member committee will be carried out to check "ground level steps" being taken by various municipal and local bodies -- North and East Municipal corporation, Public Works Department (PWD) and Delhi Cantonment Board (DCB) - for prevention, control and mitigation of air pollution in Delhi.

"The Minister has also sought details and schedule of the operation of mechanical sweeping and sprinkling vehicles being operated by these bodies," a statement by Hussain's office said.

The six-member team comprises a representative of Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), Delhi Police, PWD, two representatives of MCD and New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and a representative of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) - area in-charge, not below the rank of Environmental Engineer.

The statement said, Member Secretary the Delhi Pollution Control Committee will accompany Hussain during surprise inspections.

Hussain has also directed development agencies to ensure that all construction sites adhere to the Construction and Demolition Waste Rules, 2016 to avoid any dust emission from construction activities.

"No Construction Material should be kept open and regular sprinkling of water at all construction sites must be done," Hussain instructed.

"All high-rise buildings should have the arrangement of water sprinkling for dust suppression. Strict action against the violators of norms should immediately be initiated by the respective authority," he added.

Hussain has further directed all the stakeholder departments to "intensify their actions as per the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)".

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia appealed to the Central and the Union Ministry to "immediately intervene and put an end to crop residue burning".

"Direct pro-active measures in other NCR states to bring down the factors contributing to air pollution," Sisodia said.

He slammed the neighbouring state governments -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh -- for failing to provide subsidies to the farmers, which he said, ultimately led to rampant stubble burning.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran writer Honey Irani, maternal aunt of director Sajid Khan who has been accused of sexual harassment, says it's important not to "mock" the #MeToo movement.

"It's sad that now that women are talking, most people don't listen, and ask why did you not speak up then? Well this is exactly why, when you can't deal with it now, imagine how could you 10 or 15 years back. If you can't support this movement fine, but please don't mock it, the "Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai" writer tweeted.

Sajid has been named by multiple women for sexual misconduct. The actor-director stepped down as "Housefull 4" director, saying he was doing so "till the time I can allay the allegations and prove the truth".

When the accusations against Sajid emerged, his sister Farah Khan and cousin Farhan Akhtar expressed disappointment, saying if these are true, he has a lot to atone for.

The #MeToo wave has been on high tide in India ever since Tanushree Dutta renewed a 10-year-old allegation against Nana Patekar, leading several women from across professions to name and shame sexual offenders and predators. In some cases, matters have gone to court.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Editors Guild of India on Thursday hoped that former Union Minister M.J. Akbar will withdraw his criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani, the first female journalist to accuse him of sexual harassment.

In a statement, the Guild also offered to provide legal assistance to women who had accused Akbar of sexual harassment and also urged eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono if the former editor does not withdraw his criminal defamation case or files more such cases.

The Guild said it salutes the courage shown by several women journalists in bringing to light instances of how they were sexually harassed.

It said Akbar's resignation from the union council of ministers was a result of these women journalists' courage to fight for a high principle - gender equality in the newsroom.

"We hope that Akbar will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed against one of the complainants," the statement said."

"While Akbar is entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation. More so for Akbar who happens to be a former President of the Guild.

"But if he doesn't, or in case he files such cases against other women too, the Guild offers its support to them. If any of them were to need legal advice or assistance, the Guild will do the best it can to help and also appeals to eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono," it added.

Several women journalists have accused Akbar of sexual harassment, misconduct and molestation when he was a newspaper editor.

Akbar resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister N.D. Tiwari died on Thursday -- on his 93rd birthday -- at a private hospital in the national capital following prolonged illness, doctors said.

He was treated at Max Hospital, Saket, for several months for complications related to a brain stroke and age-related ailments. He breathed his last at 02:50 p.m.

He is survived by his wife Ujjwala and son Rohit Shekhar.

Tiwari was the only politician to have served as a Chief Minister of two states.

Born on October 18, 1925 in Nainital, he was thrice Chief Minister of the undivided Uttar Pradesh -- 1976-77, 1984-85, and 1988-89. He served as Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2002 to 2007.

He also served as a Union Minister in the Indira Gandhi government and subsequently in her son Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet, holding key portfolios including finance and external affairs.

Appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh in 2007, Tiwari had to relinquish his post in 2009 over his involvement in a sex scandal.

He became an MLA from the Nainital constituency in the first post-Independence election in 1952. He joined the Congress in 1963 and later quit the party in 1994 to form his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari). He rejoined the grand old party in 1996.

He also participated in India's Freedom Movement during 1942-44, undergoing a 15-month incarceration.

In January 2017, he had met BJP President Amit Shah and extended support to the saffron party, but did not formally join it.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi were among a host of political leaders who condoled Tiwari's death.

Kovind in his message hailed Tiwari's contribution to the development and public welfare of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

"A towering leader, he was known for his administrative skills. He will be remembered for his efforts towards industrial growth and working for the progress of UP & Uttarakhand, a state he steered in its initial days," tweeted Modi.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee said: "A colleague in the Congress Party and in the government for decades, he was an able administrator committed to the cause of his people."

"I have lost a friend and the Nation has lost one of the leaders who was closely associated with Nation Building in the post-Nehruvian era," added Mukherjee.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also mourned Tiwari's passing away, and said the country had lost a great leader who will always be remembered for his services as a Chief Minister, Union Minister and Governor.

Gandhi said that Tiwari was an important and illustrious member of the Congress family, who was respected and admired across party lines.

Shah called Tiwari's death an irreparable loss to Indian

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday said he has cancelled his plan to attend an upcoming business conference in Riyadh, following the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist.

"I will not go to Riyadh next week. The president of the Republic has said it very clearly: The events are very serious," Le Maire said in a statement to Public Senat TV.

Jamal Khashoggi went missing on October 2 when he entered Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up the paperwork needed for his planned marriage to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, reports Efe news.

Le Maire added he called his Saudi counterpart on Wednesday to inform him of his decision to cancel his participation at the October 23-25 Future Investment Initiative, which aims at showcasing the Saudi Vision 2030 plan.

Turkey has claimed it is in possession of audio and video evidence that Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate building, but Saudi Arabia has vehemently denied.

Over the past week, many corporates and houses have announced their decision to shun the Saudi tech summit.

Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC and the Financial Times have withdrawn themselves for attending the forum.

Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, former AOL CEO and venture capitalist Steve Case, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Ford Chairman Bill Ford, and Google Android creator Andy Rubin also withdrew.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief of the German Navy, Vice Admiral Andreas Krause met Admiral Sunil Lanba on Thursday as part of his four-day visit, dubbed by the government as a "significant milestone in Indo-German Naval relations".

During his visit, Krause laid a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti here and was accorded a traditional Guard of Honour. He also held "extensive interactions" with the senior hierarchy of the Indian Navy and with the Chief of the Army Staff, Defence Secretary and the Vice Chief of Air Staff.

"The visit by the Chief of German Navy is a significant milestone in Indo-German Naval relations and would strengthen military ties between the two countries," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Krause had led a German naval delegation to the Southern Naval Command on October 16 and 17 and had left for the national capital on Wednesday.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Harsh Rajput says it's been his childhood dream to be an action hero and that he looks up to Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.

"It was my childhood dream to become an action hero. Akshay Kumar has been a huge inspiration to me, not only as an actor, but also for his effortless and excellent performance of stunts," Harsh said in a statement.

"It is remarkable that he performs his own stunts and this encouraged me to come out of my comfort zone and try my hand at performing stunts and doing action sequences."

In the upcoming sequence of "Nazar", the audience will get to see Ansh (Harsh) doing stunts to win the supernatural fight over 'daayan'.

For the sequence, he watched Akshay's movies like "Khiladi 420" and "Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi".

Harsh is also a huge fan of the supernatural genre.

"It opens doors to try something new and exciting instead of the 'saas-bahu' dramas. Also, for a short period of time, people can escape from reality," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Electricity-generating fusion power plants -- one of the biggest inventions in history -- might be safe, efficient, reliable and environmentally responsible. But, how far are we from turning science fiction into reality -- meaning a world where nuclear fusion energy will be powering our day-to-day lives? Some 60 years.

The upcoming International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest fusion reaction research facility in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, some 35 km north of Aix-en-Provence in southern France, aims to develop fusion technology to make commercially-viable fusion energy, the world's clean energy, a reality by the second half of this century.

So, what is fusion energy?

With its high-energy yields and low carbon primary energy source, fusion, the same source that powers stars, could provide an alternative to conventional energy sources like coal-fired power plants.

Scientists say the ITER facility aims to fuse two isotopes of hydrogen -- tritium and deuterium -- to deliver a powerful, clean source of electricity. This requires the containment of plasma at temperatures 10 times higher than the sun's core.

In a power plant, conventional steam generators, turbines and alternators transform the heat into energy.

India is among the six nations and one grouping, which represent more than 50 per cent of the world's population and about 85 per cent of global GDP, pursuing the construction of the world's largest tokamak fusion device, a donut-shaped configuration designed to produce 500 ME of thermal fusion energy.

The other partners are Russia, the US, Japan, China and South Korea, as also the European Union.

At a cost of over $24 billion, the ITER facility could be the answer to the world's clean energy needs -- but that won't be possible till 2035.

"The ITER project is very much on track. By the second half of this century this fusion technology will be available," ITER Director General Bernard Bigot told this visiting IANS correspondent.

"Fossil fuel will not be so easy to use any more. We will have a competitive fusion technology which will be available for the whole world," he said.

Bigot, who believes a global challenge needs a global response, said the first plasma would be achieved by 2025.

This means the reactor in the Cadarache facility is able to generate a molten mass of electrically-charged gas -- plasma -- inside a core.

In the ITER, the Latin word for 'the way', burning plasma is expected to reach 150 million degrees Celsius.

How will it be confined?

According to Fusion for Energy -- the European Union's joint undertaking for ITER -- 18 powerful superconducting magnets, known as toroidal field coils, will be powered to generate a magnetic field of 11.8 tesla -- approximately one million times stronger than the earth's magnetic fields.

In this "cage" they will entrap the energy of a small sun.

Europe will manufacture 10 of the toroidal field coils, which will confine the super-hot plasma, and Japan will produce eight plus one spare. They will be the biggest niobium-tin magnets ever produced.

At the cryostat workshop, managed by ITER India, the massive shell is progressing. The European tanks of the cryoplant and cold boxes are also fully installed.

India contributes through the Gujarat-based Institute for Plasma Research by manufacturing major components of the plasma chamber where the fusion reactions are going to take place for the first time in 2025.

Europe's poloidal field coils are also manufactured on-site at a facility exclusively set up for their production.

The ITER components, their weight and size are truly impressive!

The biggest fusion machine in history, counting at least one million pieces of equipment, will weigh approximately 23,000 tonnes and will be housed in a 60 metre high building, scientists say.

According to them, the end of this year promises to be a turning point with the completion of some key civil engineering works and the arrival of more components.

Fusion energy has a long history.

The breakthrough in the peaceful use of fusion as an energy source began in Russia in 1968 when a magnetic confinement device was tested with an unseen capacity for containing high-temperature plasma.

"We need an energy source that will last millions of years. Fusion offers a massive and continuous power supply. It poses no concerns related to long-lived radioactive waste. And it is sustainable, with abundant natural fuel resources," an optimistic and elated Bigot added.

After achieving the milestone mark of 50 per cent to first plasma in November 2017, ITER project implementation progresses by 0.7 per cent per month.

How will the ITER facility benefit society?

Developing fusion science, engineering and technology to a point where fusion energy can be supplied to the grid is one of the most exciting challenges of the 21st century, and potentially one of the most rewarding.

A full-scale demonstration power plant will built on the lessons learned from ITER in 2045. The industrial fusion power plants connected to the grid and operating on a competitive energy market -- but that won't be for another 57 years.

Critics are not very optimistic that just throwing money at fusion will result in a commercially viable source of electricity.

"There is an even more difficult challenge -- to make all of this economical. I don't think we are going to see fusion reactors supplying safe, clean energy for the world -- certainly not in our lifetimes," 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, told IANS.

(Vishal Gulati's visit to Cadarache in France was at the invitation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor [ITER]. He can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said it is important to give time and space for the investigation of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking to the at Brussels International Airport, after wrapping up his travel to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had "made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in, and that they're going to share information that they learned with the Saudis as well," reported Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.

"There's been a couple of delays, but they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis were going to permit them to do the things that they needed to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation as well," Pompeo noted.

"They want to complete their investigation, and they will have a process. I'm sure they will have their own prosecutors looking at this as well since it took place in their country, albeit on consulate property," he said.

However, Pompeo refused to say whether he had asked to hear the alleged audio on the disappearance of Khashoggi.

"I'm not going to get ahead of...we have two countries conducting investigations. We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," he said.

"As for responses that the US will take, we need to know the facts before we can begin to formulate what the appropriate response for this would be," he noted.

Although Pompeo said the alleged death of the journalist is "unlawful" and "unacceptable", he said: "I do think it's important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships between the US and Saudi Arabia."

Speaking of his visit to Turkey, Pompeo said that he had "a good, constructive" conversation with President Erdogan on the release of US pastor Andrew Brunson, Turkey's purchase of Iranian oil and Syria as well, without giving more details about whether there is an agreement reached.

"We have Iran sanctions taking place November 4. We are working with the Turks to make sure that we get to the right place," he said. "They buy Iranian crude oil; we'd like them to buy less."

"President Erdogan is fully engaged in ensuring that Idlib Province remain inside the agreement that he struck, and we are hopeful that that will remain the case as well," he added.

US President Donald Trump also on Wednesday said that his nation has requested Turkey to give the audio and video materials related to the alleged death of the Saudi journalist.

Denying that he had ever been "giving cover" to the Saudi side at all, Trump said "we will probably know that by the end of the week" after he got a "full report" from Pompeo upon his return.

The case of Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, has become a major source of tension between Saudi Arabia and the West.

Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Unconfirmed reports said that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, a claim denied by Saudi officials as "baseless".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lelectricite est devenue, de nos jours, un besoin dune importance majeure, et cela, dans tous les domaines dactivite. Que ce soit dans les maisons ou []Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned "most strongly" the terror attack earlier in the day in Kandahar, Afghanistan, that claimed the lives of three top provincial officials.

"Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted quoting Modi.

"India condemns it most strongly and mourns with our Afghan brethren the loss of life, including that of Kandahar's senior leadership," Modi said.

"We stand in solidarity with the brave people of Afghanistan in fighting imposed on them," he added.

Abdul Raziq, police chief of Kandahar, and Momin Khan, head of the intelligence department, were killed on the spot in a shooting at a meeting attended by Afghan and US officials in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar while the provincial Governor Zulmay Weesa died from serious wounds in a hospital.

Raziq was a key anti-Taliban figure in southern Afghanistan and he had escaped over two dozen direct attacks and suicide bomb blasts in the past, the source said.

The shooter, who served as the Governor's bodyguard, was also killed in the incident.

Austin Scott Miller, top US-NATO commander in Afghanistan, escaped unhurt, but three US soldiers and several other people were injured in the attack, claimed by the Taliban insurgent group.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India is continuing to engage with the US over the H-1B visa, largely availed of by Indian IT companies, after the proposed changes to the programme, a senior official said on Thursday.

"It is a very important topic for us and that is the reason why we have time and again at various levels, we have taken up this matter with the US side," spokesperson said in response to queries by journalists here.

Kumar said that most recently, the issue was raised during the first ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Meeting held here last month that was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Nirmala Sitharaman, US Secretary of State and Defence Secretary

On Wednesday, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January 2019.



The DHS said it was also proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation.

The move to end the rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 holders, who have work permits.

The H-4 visas are issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the holders of

The DHS said it will propose to revise the definition of speciality occupation to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the



It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, the DHS said.

In his remarks on Thursday, Kumar said that India is closely engaged with the US administration as well as the US Congress on this matter.

Stating that there are certain bills which have been introduced, he, however, said that "it is important to note that none of these bills have been passed so far".

"When we have engaged with the US, we have emphasised that our partnership which we have in the digital sphere have been mutually beneficial," the spokesperson said.

"We have highlighted the role which has been played by the highly skilled Indian professionals who have actually contributed to the growth and development of the US economy," he stated.

"And also they have helped the US to maintain a competitive edge in the world towards innovation and science and technology."Tension prevailed on Thursday a day after the opening of the short five-day pilgrimage season as the state observed a shutdown against the alleged police attack on protesters even as a senior member of the Sabarimala priest's family urged women of the hitherto barred age group to respect tradition and not visit the Lord Ayyappa temple.

While on Wednesday a couple of women devotees were prevented from undertaking the trek to the hill temple and some women journalists were stopped from proceeding with their coverage amidst violence by activists of Hindu groups affiliated to the BJP and RSS, no women devotee of the ages that have been allowed darshan by the Supreme Court turned up on the day.

On Thursday morning, Suhasini Raj, who works as the India reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall before her.

"I had reached half way and then the protests grew stronger. I was hit by a stone and then we decided to return. The police had provided us all the security," said Raj, who had earlier pointed out that she came to do her job to speak to devotees.

Pathanamthitta District Collector P.B. Nooh told the media on Thursday afternoon that Section 144 was in force and would be there till Friday midnight. Police would provide security to any woman who wished to go and pray, he said.

Of the 30 protesters, who was arrested on Wednesday, 20 were produced before the Magistrate Court in Ranni near here. They were remanded to two weeks judicial custody. The arrested activists included a member of the Tantri family, Rahul Eashwar.

A dawn-to-dusk shutdown backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was called against Wednesday's police attack on protesters who were opposing the entry of women within the age group of 10-50 years to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

At a few places in Kozhikode, Malappuram and here, protesters stoned buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corp following which their operation was suspended.

On the occasion of Mahanavami, all state and central government offices, banks and educational institutions were closed.

Shops and markets also remained shut. There were poor attendance at the IT park here and in Kochi. Railway commuters faced the brunt of the shutdown as they failed to get taxis and public vehicles from the stations.

Speaking to the media at the temple premise, Chief Priest Kantararu Rajeevaru said: "We have the highest regards for women. And those who otherwise come to pray at the temple are treated with utmost respect.

"We always respect the law of the land but in the wake of the apex court's ruling, we humbly request women that they should not try to break the tradition of this hallowed temple."

He said it was most unfortunate that there had been a wrong campaign that if any woman in the hitherto banned age group entered the temple, he would close the temple.

"I have never ever said such a thing. We all wish and want that the Sabarimala temple is not turned into a conflict zone as there are lakhs and lakhs of devotees of this temple all over the world."

The temple opened on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for the first time after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

As part of the convention, the temple opens for five days on the first of every Malayalam month. It will now be open till October 22.

Strong protests were witnessed on Wednesday as political and religious groups turned out in large numbers. Some protesters opposed to the entry of women in the 10-50 age group clashed with police and heckled women journalists.

Some demonstrators and police engaged in stone throwing, leading to a lathi charge on the protesters.

On account of the violence, the Pathanamthitta district collector has clamped Section 144 in around 30 sq km around the temple.

State BJP chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai on Thursday said all this happened because of the Left government.

"We condemn the violence that took place there and we will bring this to the attention of the Centre. This is outrageous.

"We have decided to intensify our protest. From today, till October 22, every day at 11.30 a.m., 41 Yuva Morcha activists will break Section 144 and will get arrested," he said.

Vijayan, now in the UAE, wrote in his Facebook post that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were trying to turn the hallowed temple into a conflict zone.

"The devotees of the temple should realise this ploy but the state government is determined to thwart all such attempts and would deal with the situation in the appropriate manner," said Vijayan.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Police on Thursday warned of tough action against all those who spread canards on the social media about Sabarimala in the present situation.

--IANS

sg-vsc-in/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The state-wide shutdown called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithi on Thursday saw huge response with near total effect while just a few private vehicles moving on road.

The dawn to dusk shutdown backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance was called against Wednesday's police attack on protesters who were opposing the entry of women within the age group of 10-50 years to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

At a few places in Kozhikode, Malappuram and here, protesters stoned buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation following which their operation was suspended.

On the occasion of Mahanavami all state and central government offices, banks and educational institutions were closed.

Shops and markets also remained shut. There were poor attendance at the IT parks here and in Kochi. It was the railway commuters who faced the brunt of the shutdown as they failed to get taxis and public vehicles from the stations.

The temple opened on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for the monthly pujas. It was first day after the Supreme Courts September 28 verdict allowing women of all ages to enter the shrine revoking the traditional ban on all those girls and women who are within the puberty limits.

Traditionalists came up in arms against the new norm as the state government deployed a huge police force to enforce the top court's order. The temple will remain open till October 22.

--IANS

sg/in/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Spain's Jorge Lorenzo on Thursday said he was disappointed over the possibility of not being able to participate in the upcoming Japanese MotoGP in Motegi.

Lorenzo, who suffered a dramatic crash during practice in Thailand, was officially passed fit to take part in the race this weekend but said he was unsure of racing as he has not yet fully recovered, reports Efe.

"I am very disappointed because I knew the fracture existed after the scan but I thought after 13-14 days the injury would improve and I would feel much better here," Lorenzo said in the pre-race press conference.

"In the first days I felt some improvement, that is why I started to swim and make some exercises, but when I slightly force the wrist, I feel quite a big pain after some hours," he added.

"The wrist is quite inflamed, the feeling is not good, the pain is quite big, (when) making some movement," said the rider from Mallorca.

Lorenzo said Motegi was one of his favourite circuits and he was going to test himself in practice on Friday, adding that his participation depended on the rate of recovery.

--IANS

gau/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Huma Qureshi says love is not restricted to any gender, and believes it is an individual's right to choose who they want to love.

"I've always believed in freedom of choice and that includes an individual's right to choose who they want to love. I support the LGBT community because love is free and not restricted to any gender," Huma said in a statement to IANS.

"I've often spoken very strongly about civil liberties and equal rights."

Huma also walked the ramp in support of the community at the recently concluded Lotus Make-up India Fashion Week (LMIFW) in Delhi. The fashion show brought together over 40 renowned designers including names like Manish Malhotra, Samant Chauhan and Gaurav Gupta to celebrate the power of genderless love and the Supreme Court's decision to repeal Section 377, which criminalised homosexuality.

"This should be treated as a historic occasion where the entire fashion fraternity has come together to cherish love, humanity and equal rights in support of the LGBT community," she said.

After doing some short films, Huma, who hails from Delhi, came into the spotlight with Anurag Kashyap's dark thriller "Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2" in 2012.

She is known for playing strong female characters in films like "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana", "Ek Thi Daayan", "Dedh Ishqiya" and "Jolly LLB 2".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was arrested by the country's anti-corruption body on Thursday on charges of misuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering.

Ahmad, who is also President of the country's main opposition party the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), has been called in by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) several times for questioning this year.

In a statement, the MACC said that Ahmad was detained shortly after being summoned to its headquarters in Putrajaya and faces charges of misuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering, Efe news reported.

The UMNO President will be presented at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Friday.

He was arrested in relation to the alleged misappropriation of funds worth RM800,000 ($192,424) from Yayasan Akal Budi, a welfare foundation that he chairs. The money were used to pay his credit card bill.

Ahmad denied the corruption charges and said that the payments were made due to an error by the accountants.

His arrest came after former Prime Minister Najib Razak was charged in a corruption scandal involving the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund.

Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering on October 3 during the investigation into the former Prime Minister.

The US Justice Department estimated that about $4.5 billion were diverted from 1MDB, of which about $1 billion could have been laundered in the US through the purchase of real estate, yachts, jewellery and works of art, among other goods.

The UMNO-led coalition was the ruling party from Malaysia's independence in 1957 and held power till it suffered its first defeat in the May 9 general election.

--IANS

soni/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maldives High Court on Thursday overturned the jail sentence of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom weeks after he was freed on bail.

Gayoom was sentenced to one year and seven months in prison for obstruction of justice when he refused to hand over his mobile phone during a police investigation, Efe news reported.

But the High Court ruling said that the 82-year-old former strongman's trial in the criminal court was conducted in "violation of procedure".

The High Court also said that the criminal court's order to cancel Gayoom's license to practice law and preach Islam was "unlawful".

Gayoom was found guilty in July but was freed on bail following the presidential election victory of opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

Gayoom was arrested during a state of Emergency in February after the Supreme Court ordered the release of political prisoners and the reinstatement of 12 opposition lawmakers.

He was among dozens jailed for an alleged coup plot against the government of his half-brother and defeated President Abdulla Yameen.

--IANS

soni/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor and general secretary of the Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) has appealed to the not to run one-sided #MeToo stories as several "fake stories" are being highlighted through the social

Sushant Singh was interacting with the at a press conference organised here by CINTAA on Wednesday to put forth their perspective about the ongoing #MeToo campaign.

Sushant Singh said: "I think film industry has been singled out. But if you see, the problem persists in other sectors as well -- whether it's corporate or politics. 'You have to please your boss' -- this line has been used so many times in films as well. So yes, we do know this problem exists in our industry but we have been ignorant about it..."

He welcomed the #MeToo movement as it encouraged the survivors to voice their agony.

Appealing to the media not to get swayed by one-sided #MeToo stories, he said: "I think the flag-bearers of this movement have to be very careful, because some quarters are trying to hijack the campaign and they are trying to label sane voices as the guilty to discredit them. If flag-bearers will get discredited, the movement will die a natural death.

"People are posting fake stories on social media, which can easily get discredited... This can lead to even real survivors being discredited and then everyone will be looked upon suspiciously and the real culprits will automatically get clean chit. I, therefore, appeal to the media that they shouldn't run one-sided stories and should also approach the opposite side to hear their version."

Sushant Singh also said that CINTAA will try to address sexual harassment cases with Producers Guild of India.

"We will try to address these issues with producer's body (Producers Guild of India) because at the end of the day, producers are the employers."

CINTAA is cooperating with investigation agencies on sexual harassment cases, the actor said. "We are looking into the cases of Nana Patekar-Tanushree Dutta, Alok Nath-Vinta Nanda and Flora Saini-Gaurang Doshi cases and we are co-operating with police. We are taking legal advice to decide our plan of action in the coming days. We hope that in the end truth will prevail."

Sushant Singh announced that CINTAA will form a sub-committee to look into sexual harassment cases.

"We will form a sub-committee, apart from a committee which will look into sexual harassment cases, which will generate awareness people on sexual harassment. Raveena Tandon, Renuka Shahane, Amol Gupte, Swara Bhasker, journalists, lawyers and psychologists will be part of the sexual harassment complaints committee," he added.

The CINTAA general secretary was accompanied by Vikram Gokhale (President) and Amit Behl (Senior Joint Secretary) at the press conference.

--IANS

iv/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Meghalayas most wanted separatist leader and Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) General Secretary Cheristerfield Thangkhiew surrendered before Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday at the Police Headquarters.

Thangkhiew arrived in Shillong on Thursday from Bangladesh following several rounds of discussions between his family members and the Deputy Chief Minister for his surrender.

"He arrived in Shillong today (Thursday) from Bangladesh via Dawki (near the India-Bangladesh border) and travelled by road to Shillong to surrender before the government," a Meghalaya Police official told IANS.

The surrender of the General Secretary is believed to be a major blow to the Khasi secessionist outfit which now is left with its military wing commander Bobby Reagan Marwein, who is hiding in Bangladesh with a few of his trusted lieutenants.

Deputy Chief Minister Tynsong said that "frequent discussions" were held between him and Thangkhiew's family members and his brother Gray to facilitate the separatist leader (Thangkhiew) to come overground.

Thangkhiew, one of the founding members of the HNLC, was hiding in Bangladesh after he along with Bobby Reagan Marwein, Dilash Marak and Jerome Cherian Momin of the A'chik Liberation Matgrik Army (ALMA) and two cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah faction escaped from Shillong Jail in 1995.

HNLC Chairman Julius Dorphang was the first top leader of the outfit to surrender before Chief Minister D.D. Lapang on July 24, 2008. Dorphang later successfully contested the 2013 Meghalaya Assembly election but was later arrested on January 7, 2017 for raping a minor girl. He is currently lodged in Shillong prison.

"I am sure his (Thangkhiew) decision to comeback will send a message to other cadres who are in Bangladesh to follow his footsteps. I am sure you (Thangkhiew) will be instrumental in taking part in the programme of the government," Tynsong told the separatist leader.

Asked whether Thangkhiew will face trials for various crimes he had committed, Tynsong said: "...The government has handled such cases a number of times in the past. You have seen how the government handled the issue of people coming overground. Therefore, just leave to the wisdom on how to handle this issue to the government."

Thangkhiew, who said that he has no regrets for joining the HNLC that had killed several civilians and security forces, offered himself to play the role of a negotiator with the HNLC.

"If the government needs me, I am ready to be a negotiator but it all depends on the government. I have discussed with members of the outfit about my decision (surrender). This is my personal decision. There is no personal enmity or differences and I still have a good relationship with all the members of the HNLC," he told journalists.

Hitting out at the previous Congress government in Meghalaya for not taking seriously to the HNLC's offer for peace talks, Thangkhiew said: "From the inception of the Indian union, there has been problems created by the Indian National Congress and they did not take it seriously. I also had a telephonic conversation with the previous Meghalaya Home Minister Roshan Warjri for dialogue but the then Congress government in Meghalaya did not take it seriously."

The HNLC, which runs hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi homeland in Meghalaya.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.

--IANS

rrk/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karnataka's Mysuru is all decked up to welcome thousands of visitors for the royal victory parade on Friday marking the grand finale of the 10-day Dussehra festival.

The victory parade involves a grand procession of caparisoned elephants, horse-drawn carriages, tableaux and thousands of artistes from the Amba Vilas Palace, popularly known as Mysuru Palace, till the Bannimantap Grounds through the city's lanes.

To be flagged off by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, the grand finale begins at the auspicious time in the afternoon with the Chief Minister invoking Hindu goddess Chamundeshwari and showering flowers on her idol replica in the 750-kg golden palanquin, astride caparisoned jumbo Arjuna at the gates of the palace.

The iconic Mysuru Palace built in 1912 has been lit up with thousands of light bulbs during the evening on all days of the fest.

The spectacular royal victory procession, which draws thousands of visitors to the streets of the city, later takes off and proceeds to the Bannimantap Grounds for the torch light parade at 7 p.m. after Governor Vajubhai Vala receives the guard of honour.

The royal family's adopted scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar will be the chief guest at the main event (victory march) on Vijayadashami day, the final day of Dussehra.

Mysuru, located about 150 km from the state capital Bengaluru, attracts visitors from across the world during Dussehra, which has been celebrated over centuries to mark the triumph of good over evil.

The festival dates back to 1610 when a ruler of the erstwhile Kingdom of Mysore from Wadiyar dynasty, Raja Wadiyar, organised Dussehra celebrations.

Ever since, the royal family has played a significant part in the grand event which earned popularity across the world.

The festive celebrations, which are usually filled with pomp and pageantry, draw at least 10 lakh visitors.

Due to heavy flood damage in adjacent Kodagu district in August, the 10-day festive activities have been drawing relatively lesser crowds compared to previous year, according to the officials.

Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty had flagged off the festival celebrations on October 10.

--IANS

bha-fb/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Toxic smog has once again threatened to engulf the National Capital Region (NCR) as farmers in parts of Haryana and Punjab have begun to burn their crop residue. And the zika virus, spread by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes, has mysteriously raised its head in Rajasthan, having already infected about 90 people and worrying health officials.

Now a team led by Sabyasachi Sarkar, visiting professor and nano-technologist at the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST) in Shibpur, West Bengal, has proposed a single solution to solve these twin problems.

The novel method (for simultaneous mosquito and smog control) has been reported in a recent issue of the Journal of Vector Borne Diseases.

The female Aedes mosquitoes that spread dengue, chikungunya, and zika viruses, lay eggs in water bodies along the roadside and in decorative flower pots and vases in homes or offices.

In laboratory studies, the researchers have now shown that water-soluble nano-carbon particles (wsNCP) dissolved in water prevent respiration of mosquito larvae, causing anoxia (lack of oxygen) and ultimately their death. In fact, the larvae exposed to these nano-particles fail to reach even the pupae stage -- one step before becoming an adult mosquito.

"And interestingly, these nano-carbon particles, that are a potent new weapon against the Aedes mosquitoes, can be obtained from 'controlled burning' of crop residue," Sarkar, formerly a chemistry professor at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, told this correspondent.

The odorless nano-carbon thus produced is friendly and is non-toxic to humans. It has also been shown to be harmless to fish and other living species in water, the report says.

For their study, the researchers collected a few Aedes aegypti mosquito larvae from a shallow pool near their institute and reared them in an aquarium containing "fluorescent" wsCNP at a concentration of three micro-grams per millilitre (3ig/ml).

According to the report, "fluorescent imaging" of the entire life cycle of mosquitoes revealed that larvae exposed to the carbon nano-particles died even before attaining the pupae stage. The nano-particles displayed a unique property by getting deposited over the air tube of the larvae choking their respiration causing anoxia and death.

"Based on these observations it can be concluded that the use of non-toxic, wsCNP is safe to prevent growth of mosquitoes in water pots and other hot-spots around house-hold premises," says the report.

"These nano-particles could be economically produced and preserved in the solid form for a long time and can be used as and when required by people without any need to spray chemical insecticides or fogging," Sarkar said. "Once added to water, being non-destructive, it may not require much replenishment."

Sarkar said their study has incidentally shown a solution to the air pollution over the nation's capital due to uncontrolled crop residue burning in neighboring states.

"Under controlled burning of the crop residue, one can get tonnes of such nano products with little chemical modification," Sarkar said. "This carbon based nano-powder so obtained can be distributed to the people for application on any suspected waterbody near homes, offices and schools."

However some experts are sceptical about nano-carbon emerging as a weapon against mosquitoes.

"This will work only in a petri-dish," Payyalore Rajagopalan, former director of the health ministry's Vector Control Research Centre in Puducherry told this correspondent in an email, adding: "But not in nature."

(K.S. Jayaraman is a veteran science journalist. He can be contacted at killugudi@hotmail.com)

--IANS

ksj/vm/tb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The number of people infected with the Zika virus has gone up to 100 in Jaipur, officials said on Thursday.

State Chief Secretary D.B. Gupta held a review meeting and directed the officials to carry out anti-larvae activities in educational institutions and administrative buildings in Jaipur.

Veenu Gupta, Chief Secretary (Medicine and Health) said, "Medical teams in Jaipur are carrying out screening and fogging activities. A total of 1,11,825 houses have been screened. Special precautions are being taken in the Zika-affected areas."

She said that there was no shortage of medicines at health centres. She also directed district officials to monitor the regular availability of medicines and testing equipment in hospitals.

Gupta directed officials to take measures to prevent breeding of mosquitoes in the Rajasthan Police Academy, Police Line and the RAC Battalion.

She asked the Army officials to check the spread of mosquitoes and larvae in their area.

Gupta instructed officials to pay special attention to tourist places such as Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar and Albert Hall.

--IANS

arc/shs/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)It was once a much sought-after destination for tourists who wanted to experience camel safaris, golden sands, mesmerising dunes, and the rich culture and heritage of the Thar desert. Then came the Khalistan Movement of 1986 and since the borders of Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district were bound on the west and southwest by Pakistan, tourists weren't permitted beyond 45 km of this World Heritage City.

Around 2/3rd of the district was brought within the ambit of the Protected Area Permit (PAP), which barred any kind of tourist activity in its vicinity without prior permission from police and administration.

The Khalistan movement left a sad imprint on this border area. Even the once popular 14-day safari from Jodhpur/Bikaner to Jaisalmer came to a tragic halt with the implementation of the PAP here.

Those affected the most by this harsh initiative were the locals who survived on the decent incomes being generated from tourists. Even the numbers of camels dwindled substantially as demand fell, drastically cutting the income of their masters.

"Until 1986, the area was absolutely open and people used to do long safaris from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, right along the border. There were royal desert safaris too which lasted 10-15 days. Many dignitaries from India and abroad were a part of these safaris," Vikram Singh Bhati, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaisalmer, told IANS.

"In the 1970s, the border of Jaisalmer bustled with the activities of Bollywood stars during the shoot of Bollywood hit 'Reshma Aur Shera'. Film stars such as Waheeda Rehman, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachhan and more camped on the golden sands, went on camel safaris and created many memories for the locals to cherish. What made the difference was that the film was shot right at the border," Bhati added.

As Khalistan movement was growing strongly and Jaisalmer had a 450 km-long border with Pakistan, the authorities preferred shutting down the area.

"Now, whoever wants to visit the border areas needs to take permission from the police. One can enter Jaisalmer but can't go beyond 45 kilometres. Beyond this, they need to go to the local police station and take permission and only then can they go ahead," Bhati said.

"People want to come and see desert and the real desert starts from 45 km and beyond. That's the best part of the Thar desert, the second-largest desert of the world, which now remains inaccessible to people, he added.

If the area is opened up again, it can help generate better incomes for locals. The infrastructure can also improve and the number of camels, which is dwindling, can be increased, he said.

"If people are allowed to go there, they can see camels, culture and heritage."

"Sadly, the villagers are now switching to lucrative cash crops on land once used to graze camels. We have the best breed of camels in Asia with us, and now this is dwindling because the locals can't bear the cost of retaining the camels," he said.

Bhati said the tourism ministry can take up the issue with the home ministry, adding the defence ministry too had no problem with this as Lt. General Cherish Mathson, Army Commander, Southwestern Command, has also pitched for the prospects of battlefield tourism in the state.

At the Indian Heritage Hotels' Association conference last month, Lt. General Mathson had said: "Rajasthan's history is replete with battles which form an integral part of the state's heritage and culture. Historical battles attract the interest of the general public owing to their tremendous emotional pull due to displays of bravery and valour. There is a huge bank of people ready to respond positively to battlefield tourism if the right infrastructure to facilitate the same can be developed."

Meanwhile, as the rounds of discussions and debates continue on the issue, the sufferers are those who want to experience the real Thar, which spreads far and beyond the 45 km stretch of the city as permitted at present.

(Archana Sharma can be contacted at archana.s@ians.in)

--IANS

arc/vm/tb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One person was injured in an explosion in West Bengal's Swarupnagar in North 24 Parganas district on Thursday, police said.

"The man was injured after an explosion took place inside a garage in Swarupnagar," said an official of Swarupnagar, situated near the Indo-Bangladesh border.

He said some explosives have been recovered, details of which are yet to be investigated.

"The man is in a stable condition now," he added.

--IANS

bnd/dm/prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi seeking Prime Minister Imran Khan's disqualification over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

Rejecting the review petition, a bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar said that "no lawful point has been raised in the petition" that needs to be reviewed, Geo News reported.

During the hearing, Abbasi's lawyer Akram Sheikh said that "Imran (Khan) provided documents in pieces which were not verified and not acceptable".

The Chief Justice replied, saying that it was upto court to decide whether it was satisfied with the documents that were submitted. "... and we are satisfied with the ones we received."

Last month, the apex court had refused to form a full bench to hear Abbasi's review petition against the court's decision to dismiss the disqualification case against Khan, the report said.

Abbasi, in his 13-page review petition, had demanded Khan's disqualification over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies. The petition stated that now, since Khan has become the Prime Minister, the matter was more pertinent for the public.

The original petition, filed by Abbasi in November 2016, had sought Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen and Khan's disqualification over non-disclosure of their assets and ownership of offshore companies.

It accused the PTI leaders of not declaring their assets to the poll body and violations of the lncome Tax Ordinance, 1979, and Peoples Act, 1974. It also claimed that the PTI was a "foreign-funded" party.

In its December 15, 2017 ruling, the Supreme Court had disqualified Tareen but ruled in favour of Khan.

The Chief Justice had cleared Khan in the case as the petitioner was not directly affected in the foreign funding case.

--IANS

soni/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"Bluffmaster" director Rohan Sippy says it was fun to tell the story of a side hero in Bollywood with his series "Side Hero".

"I have been working in the business for so long and (have seen that) the spotlight is on the heroes. I thought that there are so many wonderful actors and people who I have worked with, who don't come into that category. I thought it will be lot of fun to tell their story," Sippy told IANS over the phone.

"It becomes an excuse to look at the film industry itself as a setting of the story. That is how we started off and it kept growing from there," he added.

"The Side Hero", an eight-episode series, has a humorous take on Kunaal Roy Kapur's character's life who is juggling between the willingness to get a lead role but always ending up being the side hero.

It revolves around how he is trying to strike the perfect chance to make it big in Bollywood, but failing every time. The series, which went live on Eros Now, a video OTT platform, also stars Gauahar Khan.

Sippy joined forces with Kunaal after "The President Is Coming" and "Nautanki Saala!".

On working with Kunaal, the director said: "We have worked together so we know that we have a similar kind of sensibility. He has been a side hero of a film and has kind of lived out that part...He is playing a version of himself... And the number one reason that I wanted to work with him was because we thought of creating something fun."

--IANS

sug/rb/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Liverpool could face the setback of losing Sadio Mane for a few weeks along with other injury scares after the pacy winger broke his left thumb while on international duty with Senegal.

Mane underwent surgery on Wednesday after returning from international duty where Senegal trounced Sudan 3-0 on Saturday.

"The surgery, conducted at a north-west hospital and supervised by club medics, was successful," Liverpool said in a statement on their official website.

"Mane's recovery will be monitored over the next couple of days ahead of the Reds' return to action at Huddersfield Town on Saturday."

Besides Sane, Liverpool have the likes of Mohamed Salah (groin), Virgil van Dijk (ribs) and Naby Keita out of action with injuries.

--IANS

dm/ajb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi Arabia transferred $100 million to the US on the day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh seeking answers in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi amid mounting pressure on the kingdom for a fuller explanation in the case, the media reported.

The amount was pledged by Saudi Arabia in August to support Washington's stabilization efforts in Syria, but the timing of the transfer raised questions about a potential payoff as Riyadh sought to manage the backlash over allegations that its agents were responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance, the New York Times reported.

The State Department denied any connection between the payment and Pompeo's discussions with Saudi officials on Tuesday about the Washington Post's contributing columnist.

"We always expected the contribution to be finalized in the fall time frame," said Brett McGurk, the State Department's envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition.

"The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretary's visit."

Khashoggi, a permanent resident of the US in self-imposed exile, was a fierce critic of Riyadh's human rights violations and of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's policies. Turkish officials say he was killed on October 2 during his visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for paperwork needed for his planned marriage.

A pro-government Turkish newspaper reported gruesome details alleging the journalist was tortured and killed while inside the consulate.

Trump initially promised "severe punishment" for Saudi Arabia, an oil rich monarchy and staunch US ally, if Washington determined that Saudi agents killed Khashoggi. But the President has since floated an alternative theory involving "rogue killers".

Middle East experts said the timing of the transfer likely sent a clear message to the Trump administration. "In all probability, the Saudis want Trump to know that his cooperation in covering for the Khashoggi affair is important to the Saudi monarch," said Joshua Landis, a professor at the University of Oklahoma.

"Much of its financial promises to the U.S. will be contingent on this cooperation."

The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)It's quite a task to convince one's tastebuds to try vegetarian food when you belong to the opposite world. The probability of liking the place in question drops significantly when it is also alcohol-free. Still, I dared to land in Burma Burma -- a completely vegetarian restaurant and tea room -- that is making waves in foodie circles for its authentic Burmese cuisine and enhanced tea experience.

Located in the DLF Mall of India, this recently-opened Burma Burma outlet is its fifth in India and the first in Noida.

Visiting here is a visual treat as it gives one a fascinating insight into Burmese culture and art. This establishment brings to forefront Mandala art -- an ancient Buddhist art form -- which is an essential element of Burmese culture. Digitally printed bright Mandala patterns on the walls, a pagoda statue, colourful furniture and cane chandeliers all over the place gives it a lively and artistic vibe.

Once seated, I was offered sunflower seeds to munch on while I went through the vast food menu to decide my meal for the evening.

Burma Burma juxtaposes spicy, sour, sweet and raw flavours of the cuisine and presents that beautifully on your plate in varied forms -- soups, salads, noodles, curries and fried snacks.

The tea bar here has a suspended designer display rack above it showcasing beautiful Burmese artefacts made from paper, cane and bamboo.

One can take their pick from the huge variety of white, black, green teas and herbal infusions.

Without further ado, I started with Nutella bubble tea. A harmonious blend of black tea, milk and gooey tapioca pearls with Nutella, it was refreshing and well-balanced.

Coming to soups, I tried the "Samosa soup" which is highly recommended for people who love spicy food. A little samosa was served in the tangy soup with spring vegetables and spiced black chickpeas. It was tangy, bursting with intense flavours and alluring aromas. This was hands down my favourite.

Other options that can be tried in this category were chickpea tohu soup and pumpkin and basil soup.

Next came the Thoke sampler or a salad platter that comprised of a raw mango salad, tea leaf salad and sunflower leaves and crispy wheat flakes salad. Being a person who doesn't enjoy salads, I was pleasantly surprised.

The salads were fresh, crunchy and savoury. I loved all three varieties, but the sunflower salad topped with crispy wheat flakes and tossed with tamarind chilly dressing, outshined.

In starters, I was served tohu mok palata -- chickpea mash cooked with onions, tomatoes and spices. It came with a Burmese-styled layered flaky parantha that looked like a mini Malabari parantha. It was delicious.

Next up were Burmese falafel, panfried rice dumplings and paukse or steamed buns with crunchy tofu patty.

Falafel -- made of yellow lentils, spices, onions and coriander and finished in zesty garlic sauce was decent and the gravy was quite interesting.

However, the rice dumplings topped with papaya salad fell flat and were kind of bland.

The cute white mini burgers or steamed buns with tofu patty looked tempting and were juicy and delectable.

While gobbling down these appetisers, I pampered myself with heavenly Seabuckthorn Mary and Spiced Ginger coolers.

Seabuckthorn Mary with pink salt rim is by far the most fascinating and unique thirst quencher I have ever had. It was a mix of seabuckthorn, multiple spices, tabasco sauce, kaafir lime, jalapenos and fizz. Topped with a lemon wedge, this beauty was mentally-stimulating. This one should not be missed.

The Spiced Ginger cooler, decorated with a red chilly and lemon wedge, came with inverted cranberry popsicle. It was equally enticing and left a lingering aftertaste on the palette.

A visit to Burma Burma is incomplete without trying the traditional Khowsuey or noodles which come in different versions like dry, medium dry or in curry form. I ordered Taungyi shan khowsuey with pounded mock meat, sweet soy and pickled greens. Six toppings -- peanuts, fried garlic, pepparica, fried onion, diced spring onion and lemon -- were presented separately with the delicacy.

The dessert range here is elaborate and stellar -- from sinful smokey avocado and honey caviar ice-cream to Rangoon baked milk -- house-based milk served with saffron pistachio cream, vanilla whipped ganache, raspberry gel, fried brioche and almond nougatine.

What makes the latter special and easy-to-love is that after it is served, a frozen rose is sprinkled over it.

Overall, Burma Burma provides a memorable and classy dining-cum-artistic experience and it is totally worth the hype.

P.S. You won't miss the booze at all!

FAQs

Where: Third floor, DLF Mall of India, Noida

Timings: 12.30 p.m. to 4 p.m; 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Price: Rs 1,500 for two

(Parul Soni was at Burma Burma at its invitation. She can be contacted at parul.s@ians.in)

--IANS

parul/vm/sac

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP has formally started its hunt for a leadership alternative to ailing Manohar Parrikar, party leaders, as well as an alliance partner, said on Thursday.

The issue of leadership change had been a taboo subject for most of the leadership, including MLAs and state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, who until late on Wednesday had maintained that there was no question of even discussing possible alternatives to Parrikar's leadership as the Chief Minister, who is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, was "recovering" and "governing the state well".

The obduracy over the issue of leadership alternatives to Parrikar appears to have given way to a sense of pragmatism in the BJP ranks, especially with their President formally broaching the subject with leaders from Goa's ruling coalition parties.

"Amit Shahji spoke to leaders from our coalition parties today in They discussed possible leadership options for the near future. A final decision will be taken after consultation with the party high command and state leadership," a BJP leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.



Among the names of leaders discussed as possible Chief Minister alternatives at the meeting held between Shah, Goa Forward party President Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party leader Sudin Dhavalikar and other BJP leaders including Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, Speaker Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, the party official said.

Sardesai, who met Shah earlier today, has also maintained that the BJP leadership is "seriously looking" at the leadership issue. "Some names have been discussed," Sardesai said.

The failure of Chief Minister Parrikar to attend to day-to-day administrative and political chores due to prolonged treatment of has thrown Goa into a political crisis for several weeks.

The BJP earlier this week inducted two MLAs from the Congress into its own party, in a bid to foil a government-toppling plan being engineered by the opposition party.



Ever since Parrikar's health conditioned worsened, allies like Goa Forward as well as the MGP had been in touch with Congress leaders tinkering with a possible regime change, even as they had also been pressurising the BJP to allocate more plum portfolios to ministers from the coalition parties.US President Donald Trump awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour to retired US Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. John L. Canley for his heroic actions 50 years ago during the battle of Hue City, one of the bloodiest scuffles of the Vietnam War.

"Fifty years ago, an American Marine fought with unmatched bravery in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War - the Battle of Hue City," Trump said on Wednesday during the ceremony.

"The name of that heroic Marine is Sgt. Major John Canley."

The 80-year-old veteran received the nation's highest military honour during an event at the White House.

One day before he turned 30, Canley's unit headed to the city of Hue to provide support to the troops cornered by the North Vietnam Army in the former imperial capital.

When his commanding officer was gravely wounded, Canley took the lead of his garrison, which provided support to other US and South Vietnamese troops waging against approximately 6,000 enemy soldiers, Trump added.

For six straight days, the two armies faced off against the adversaries, during which time he was caught in a "deadly crossfire", darting into the open so his Marines could seize a building and carried wounded soldiers to safety while exposing himself to the enemy.

"Despite sustaining serious injuries - very, very serious injuries - John continued to face down the enemy with no thought for his own safety," praised Trump.

Throughout his military career, from which he retired in 1981, Canley received many military awards, including the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the military to close the border with Mexico if a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants bound for the US continues its journey.

In a series of tweets, Trump said the caravan was Democratic Party-led, claimed that many of the migrants were criminals and urged Mexico to intervene to stop the group from reaching the border.

"If (Mexico is) unable to do so I will call up the US military and close our southern border!.." the President said.

Trump has threatened in recent days to immediately halt foreign aid to the Honduran, Guatemalan and Salvadoran governments if they do not put an end to the latest flow of migrants.

Organizers say the people who make up the caravan are fleeing violence and poverty, according to the US media.

Trump also criticized the leaders of those three Central American countries, saying they were "doing little to stop this large flow of people, including many criminals, from entering Mexico to the US".

He also claimed the Democrats were behind the caravan "because they want open borders and existing weak laws", an accusation he has repeatedly levelled since taking office in January 2017.

A first group of migrants taking part in the caravan arrived on Wednesday at Guatemala's border with Mexico, according to the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala's National Office of Human Mobility Pastoral.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Wednesday that the "massive" influx of Honduran migrants posed a risk to the country and its inhabitants, adding that with the help of international organizations he was trying to ascertain the group's intentions.

In addition to the caravan of Honduran migrants that set out on Saturday (a group of 3,000 people, according to the UN), a second large group of migrants left that same Central American country bound for the US on Tuesday.

The Salvadoran government said it had allowed "415 Hondurans" belonging to that second caravan to enter its territory on Wednesday, although hundreds of other people also make up that same group.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)will now highlight when it takes an action on a bad tweet - making its over 330 million users understand that the tweet was forcibly taken down and not deleted by its user owing to public outrage.

According to the micro-blogging platform, once it requires a tweet to be deleted, it will display a notice stating that the tweet is unavailable because it violated the rules.

It will also show a link to the rules and an article that provides more detail on how it enforces them, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.

"This notice will be displayed on both the account's profile and the specific Tweet for 14 days after the Tweet is deleted. You'll see this change rolling out to both the app and on com in the coming weeks," said Twitter product manager Sam Toizer.

Twitter has also got feedback that users don't want to continue seeing tweets they have reported.

"Starting today (Wednesday), once you've reported a tweet, it will be hidden behind a notice like the one below. If there's a need to see the Tweet you reported, you can tap the notice to view it," Toizer informed.

Since early 2017, Twitter has brought more than 100 changes or experiments, made more than a dozen policy updates, expanded its teams and enforcement to build a safer platform.The Uttar Pradesh government will start on November 1 the process to recruit 56,808 people in the state police, officials said on Thursday.

The government will announce the results of the three-phase recruitment process in June 2019, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar and Director General of Police O.P. Singh told reporters here.

The government aims to appoint 51,216 constables, 3,668 jail wardens and 1,924 firemen following a written test and physical examination. Interviews for the posts have been done away with, they said.

This is the second such recruitment drive since the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath came to power in the state in 2017.

Besides providing reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, the government has set aside 20 per cent of the seats for women candidates.

Authorities have decided to deploy the Special Task Force to prevent irregularities in the recruitment process.

--IANS

md/mag/shs/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's administration has barred American aid groups from travelling to North Korea as it pressures Pyongyang to dismantle the countrys nuclear weapons programme.

Sanctions imposed by the UN last year have already forced aid groups to severely limit some activities, such as shipping farming equipment into the country, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

North Korea is one of the world's poorest nations, and its citizens grapple with food shortages.

The moves by the administration seek to tighten sanctions as part of its maximum-pressure campaign during nuclear negotiations, as well as sever non-government exchanges between Americans and North Koreans.

Since last month, the State Department has refused to grant special permission to aid workers to travel to North Korea.

It had done so in some cases in the year since the Trump administration enacted a general ban in September 2017 on Americans travelling to North Korea.

Asked for a comment, the State Department told The New York Times that it was still reviewing exceptions to the general travel ban "on a case-by-case basis, taking into account a range of factors".

Last year's travel ban was issued after an American student, Otto F. Warmbier, died as a result of brain damage suffered in a North Korean prison. Warmbier was arrested in 2016 while on a tour in Pyongyang.

--IANS

ksk/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) swung marginally in favour of Hindustan Aeronautics in the Rafale purchase controversy by asserting that while it was necessary to provide security forces with state-of-the-art equipment even if it had to be procured from foreign nations, the country cannot be assured about its security without the total self-reliance in the field of defence production even while continuing with the multilateral exchanges wherever necessary.

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Digital EditorAuthorities in Pakistan's Punjab province have suspended at least 116 police officials, including top officers, in connection with the killing of demonstrators during a public protest here in 2014, according to a media report.

The incident occurred in 2014 at Model Town area of Lahore where at least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured when the police opened fire to disperse protesting Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers during an anti-encroachment operation outside the residence of Canadian-Pakistani cleric Tahirul Qadri.

The newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Amjad Javed Saleemi in Punjab province, this week removed 116 police officers, including Deputy Superintendents of Police, inspectors and the investigation officer from their posts in connection with the killing of 14 people, the International reported.

The officials who were removed have been directed to report to the Police Lines in Lahore for further orders.

As part of the investigation into the killings, four Superintendents of Police and other senior officials were already transferred.

Since then, PAT chief Qadri has been demanding justice in the case and suspension of all the accused policemen to ensure free and fair investigation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan authorities have suspended at least 116 police officials, including top officers, in connection with the killing of people during a public protest here in 2014, according to a media report.

The incident occurred in 2014 at Model Town area of Lahore where at least 14 people were killed and 100 others injured when the police opened fire to disperse protesting Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers during an anti-encroachment operation outside the residence of Canadian-Pakistani cleric Tahirul Qadri.

The Punjab's newly appointed Inspector-General of Police, Amjad Javed Saleemi, this week removed 116 police officers, including Deputy Superintendents of Police, inspectors and the investigation officer from their posts in connection with the killing of 14 people, the International reported.

The officials who were removed have been directed to report to the Police Lines in Lahore for further orders.

As part of the investigation into the killings, four Superintendents of Police and other senior officials were already transferred.

Since then, the PAT chief has been demanding justice in the case and asking for suspension of all the accused policemen for free and fair investigation in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twelve Pakistani nationals including four women have been detained in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan for alleged visa norms violation, police said.

Station House Office of Jetsar police station Vijay Singh said that the Pakistanis were detained from Saroopsar area as they did not have permission to visit the area.

The Pakistani nationals arrived India on October 13 for visiting Haridwar. Instead of returning to their country, they arrived here to meet their relatives, he said.

They are being interrogated by intelligence agencies, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A motley group of young changemakers, working in areas ranging from law to technological innovation, is visiting Paris as part of a maiden Indo-French leadership programme that seeks to promote France as an economic and cultural destination.

"Launched by French President Emmanuel Macron, during his State visit to India in March, the Club Young Leaders India-France aims to build an influential advisory network to promote Indo-French bilateral action," the French Embassy in New Delhi said in a statement Thursday.

The first batch of the Club YL programme is in Paris on a tour (October 15-19) highlighting France as a cultural, tourist, investment, economic, educational and innovation destination, it said.

The group of 13 young Indian leaders include, a lawyer, an author, journalists, tech innovators, and a sommelier.

"Club YL's programme in France comprises meetings with high-level French authorities: President Emmanuel Macron at the Elyse Palace; Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian over a reception at Quai d'Orsay; and Ministers of State Mounir Mahjoubi (Digital Affairs), and Marlene Schiappa (Gender Equality)," the statement said.

The group will also meet researchers from Institut Pasteur and journalists from Le Monde; visit Herms manufacturing workshop; talk to makers of various science and industry FabLabs at La Villette and the world's biggest start-up campus, Station F, the embassy said.

They will also interact with young French parliamentarians; meet students of Ecole 42, a private, non-profit and tuition-free computer programming school; listen to a piano concert at the Philarmonie de Paris, and, sample the country's cheese and wine, and other French cuisine, it said.

Sponsored by Naval Group, Dassault Systmes, Thales, Total, EDF, and SNCF, the Club Young Leaders India-France project is spearheaded by the Embassy of France in India with the support of Campus France, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three suspected Khalistani militants arrested for allegedly looting rifles from a police post in Shamli district early this month were remanded in police custody Thursday for ten days by a court at Kairana near here.

Judicial Magistrate Mukta Tyagi entrusted the custody of the three alleged Khalistan Liberation Front militants - Amrat Singh, Gurjan and Karan Singh to the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad on a plea by the investigating agency that they have to be taken to various places in Punjab for a deeper probe into their terror links and activities.

The counsel for UPATS also submitted to the court that the trio confessed during their interrogation that they were planning to attack former Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and it needed to probed thoroughly.

Additionally, they also have to be interrogated about the whereabouts of the two of their absconding accomplices involved in looting the rifles and ammunition from a police check post from Jhinjhana police station area in the district, the counsel said.

On the prosecution counsel plea, the court remanded the trio in police custody till October 28.

Talking of the confessions made by the three, Jhinjana Circle Officer Rajesh Kumar Tiwari told PTI that the "militants" have to be taken to various places in Punjab, including Amritsar and Ludhiana for a through probe into the matter.

The trio were arrested Sunday after an encounter with the police and the two rifles and ammunition that they had looted from Kamalpur Police checkpost in Shamli after attacking policemen and injuring two of them, were later recovered from a gurdwara at their instance.

The Uttar Pradesh Police announced an award of Rs 50,000 for the police team which arrested the accused.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rajpal Solanki, the West Delhi in-charge of the AAP, Thursday resigned from the post citing health reasons, just four days after assuming charge, the party said.

The AAP said Solanki had developed "health complications" and had informed the party about his decision to quit.

Solanki had on Wednesday skipped a crucial party meeting in Vikaspuri.

Later, he said in a letter that he had suffered cardiac arrest on Tuesday.

It was the widely held view that Solanki would be the party's Lok Sabha candidate from West Delhi.

Though the party is yet to declare candidates for the general elections, it is believed that in-charges of the constituencies would contest the polls from those seats.

The AAP had announced appointment of Solanki, who runs several educational institutes, as the party in-charge of West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency on Sunday.

His announcement had come as a surprise to many within the party because Solanki was not associated with the AAP.

Two AAP leaders said Solanki skipped a crucial party meeting in West Delhi citing health issues.

One of them said, "The BJP could be pressuring Solanki not to contest the polls."



"The development has embarrassed the AAP, and it is a lesson for the party which should preference to a insiders over outsiders," said another party leader.

Besides Solanki, the AAP has announced Atishi Marlena (East Delhi), Raghav Chadha (South Delhi), Brijesh Goyal (New Delhi), Ghuggan Singh (Northwest Delhi) Northeast Delhi (Pankaj Gupta) as constituency in-charge for seven Lok Sabha seats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Akal Takht jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh on Thursday extended support to a call for a Punjab Bandh on November 1 given by various Sikh outfits.

The bandh has been announced to protest the genocide of Sikhs during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the incidents of sacrilege.

Singh said the Akal Takht, Sikh's highest temporal seat, has called on the community to unite on one platform to get the long-denied justice.

Nearly 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in 1984 following the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards when the Congress government was in power at the Centre.

Singh also urged all the Sikh political outfits to extend support to the bandh to mount pressure on the state government to get justice.

He said the bandh will not be successful if all do not unite for the cause.

Singh also trashed rumours about his resignation.

"My health may not be good but it doesn't mean that I am going to resign in the near future," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Giani Gurbachan Singh Thursday night resigned as Jathedar of Akal Takht, thehighest temporal seat of Sikhs, citing ill health as reason.

He forwarded his resignation letter to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Gobind Singh Langowal and the executive members of the SGPC, the release issued to the media said.

"Because of age-related health issues, it has become tough for him to serve this spiritual and pious seat ,the release said



"In the light of my ill health, I am unable to serve this religious position and request the SGPC president and SGPC executive to appoint some appropriate personality in my place while reliving me from this pious seat, the release quoted him as saying.

Singh had created a controversy by pardoning Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmit Ram Rahim Singh in September 2015 in a blasphemy case. However, he had to revoke the pardon after facing backlash from the Sikh community.,



On the pardoning issue, he said, "The decision to extend pardon to him (Dera head) during his tenure was objected to but later on pardon was withdrawn with the consent of five Sikh head priests. Sikh community also expressed deep anguish over the pardon extended to him.

He also cited couplets from Guru Granth Sahib and said, "to err ishuman.

After the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents was tabled in Punjab Vidhan Sabha, his act of pardoning Ram Rahim again gained limelight. The report had pointed towards alleged role of Badals in getting pardon for the Dera chief.

Besides several Sikh organisations, senior Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa had also demanded removal of Giani Gurbachan Singh from the post of Akal TakhtJathedar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will hold extensive discussions with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on a wide range of subjects of mutual interest during his five-day visit to Jerusalem beginning October 21, an official spokesman said.

Singh, who will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, will also meet several Israeli ministers and top-ranking officials during the visit, he said.

Among those the chief minister is scheduled to meet include Minister for Agriculture Uri Ariel and Minister of Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz, the spokesman said.

He said it is expected that two important MoUs in the field of water management will be signed between Punjab and Israel.

Singh, who is scheduled to reach Israel on Sunday, will leave the country on October 25.

He is slated to visit several historic and culturally important sites, as well as some major centres of hi-tech irrigation, agriculture, horticulture and dairy farming. He will also visit the Commonwealth Cemetery for Battle of Haifa martyrs, the spokesman said.

The chief minister will be accompanied by his media advisor Raveen Thukral, Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Vini Mahajan, ACS Development Viswajeet Khanna, DGP Intelligence Dinkar Gupta and Secretary Water Resources Arunjit Maiglani, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire is being "examined" by Antigua and Barbuda, the said Thursday.

Answering a question on Choksi, MEA Spokesperson at a briefing said, "According to the information that I have, the extradition request by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate), is being examined by them (Antigua and Barbuda authorities) and after they have examined it, they have said they will convey their response to India."



External Affairs Minister had met Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda E P Chet Greene last month on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the and raised the issue of extradition of Choksi, who is currently in the Caribbean island.

Greene had conveyed to Swaraj the assurances of his Prime Minister for fullest cooperation of their government in the matter of extradition of Choksi to India, Kumar had said after the meeting.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the $2 billion scam in state-run Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire He is wanted in India by the CBI and ED probing the fraud.

On a question on absconding businessman and Nirav Modi, Kumar said that in the case of Nirav Modi, extradition requests from the CBI and ED are pending with the UK authorities.

"The requests are under consideration," he said.

"We are committed to take this matter forward and to bring back the economic offenders," he said.

On Mallya, he said the Westminster Magistrates' Court has fixed December 10 as the date for verdict in the case.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's mysterious disappearance, Kumar said, "I think I have seen media reports that this matter is still under investigation and so at this stage I have no comments.The BJP on Thursday accused the Congress of "demeaning and demoralising" Hindus and termed as an "abuse" a reported remark by the opposition party's leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically.

Azad reportedly made the comments at an event of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Lucknow on Wednesday, apparently to criticise the political climate in Uttar Pradesh under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the simple reason behind fewer people calling Azad for campaigning is the falling stock of the Congress.

For this Azad has invented the Hindu-Muslim angle, he added.

"These are not ordinary words. It is an abuse for the country's secular fabric and Hindus. It is yet another attempt by the Congress to demean and demoralise Hindus," Patra told reporters.

He also rejected Azad's allegation that the BJP is defaming the AMU and targeting Kashmiri students, saying if prayer meetings are held for terrorists then it will be condemned.

Three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended and booked for sedition last week for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani, who was killed in an encounter in north Kashmir.

The varsity revoked the suspension of two students on Tuesday.

Patra said Azad had earlier claimed that the Army kills more civilians in Kashmir than terrorists.

It seems he wants to campaign in Pakistan, the BJP spokesperson said.

He accused the opposition party of conspiring against Hindus and said its leaders have used terms like "Hindu Taliban", "Hindu Pakistan" and "Hindu terrorists" in the past.

Patra also demanded a response from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress will never use such remarks to refer to any other community, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat Thursday demanded a law to pave the way for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying an organised Hindu society is the bedrock of unity and the acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the "panacea" for fundamentalism.

In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, at the RSS headquarters here, Bhagwat also spoke about "urban maoism", the Sabarimala row and the need to strengthen the country's borders.

Bhagwat said the sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma.

The acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the panacea for fundamentalism, selfishness, unrestrained consumerism arising out of hardcore materialism and insensitivity, he said.

"Temple construction is necessary from self-esteem point of view; it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness," he said.

Bhagwat also hit out at Maoism, saying it has always been "urban" and the "neo-Left" doctrine of urban naxals is to establish an "anti-national" leadership with blind followers solely committed to them.

In an apparent reference to the arrest of a number of activists by Pune police for their alleged links with Maoists, Bhagwat alleged that "urban Maoism" was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in society.

"These people (Maoists) take strength from the country's enemies and always malign the nation wherever they go," he alleged.

He said in the last four years, a specific tone has been given to agitations originated in some undesirable incident in the society, old and new issues bothering different sections of the society and long-standing or emerging demands.

"The selfish power hungry politics with sheer disrespect for the social harmony, legal and constitutional discipline and with an eye on votes in the upcoming elections have been apparently clear behind these machinations," he charged.

"But this time an atmosphere of divergence, separatism, violence, acerbic hatred and going to the extent of fuelling anti-national sentiments is being created by exploiting these grievances," the RSS chief said.

The leading faces of the groups from whom the slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' emanated, have been at the forefront with their provocative speeches in such incidents at some places, he said.

When violent activities in remote forest areas were dealt with firmly, those leading and abetting violence were seen at the forefront of these agitations as votaries of urban naxalism, he said.

On the ongoing Sabarimala row, he said the Supreme Court verdict on the issue had not taken the nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and and has given rise to "divisiveness" in society.

Questions such as why only the Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith, obviously arise in the public's mind and lead to unrest, Bhagwat said.

"The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows a similar predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into consideration," he said.

The Supreme Court had last month lifted the centuries- old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine located in Kerala.

Nobel Prize winner and social activist Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest on the occasion.

In his nearly 80-minute speech, Bhagwat called for securing the country's borders, strengthening the armed forces and focussing on internal security.

Noting that India always stood for peace and brotherhood, he stressed the need to maintain a balance between strengthening armed forces and raising their morale and at the same time propagating peace with neighbours.

Without naming Pakistan, he said attacks on borders have not stopped despite a new government taking over (there).

He noted that India's foreign policy has always been for peace, tolerance and friendly relations irrespective of governments.

Highlighting the importance of internal security, he said steps should be taken to ensure law of the land and Constitution is followed.

He also said that the society's role is important in ensuring that the internal security is strong.

The country cannot be assured about its security without the total self-reliance in the field of defence production even while continuing with multilateral exchanges wherever necessary. The pace of national efforts in this direction has to be accelerated, Bhagwat said.

He also said that the process of cultural awareness was continuing in the country.

"Like cultural awareness, Mahatma Gandhi's experiments with truth and non-violence gave the ordinary citizens moral courage to fight the British during independence struggle."



"This year is the 550th Prakash Parv of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji. It is Shri Guru Nanak Deo ji's legacy that gave the country a magnificent and majestic tradition of 10 gurus who removed our state of penury and inferiority,"He said.

"When our entire society, forgetting the truth inherited from the natural self of Bharat, became defeated, Sri Guru Nanak ji showed a new path of self-enlightenment through his life, gave the society a new life of oneness by ameliorating the strayed tradition," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition parties and Muslim leaders Thursday said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's demand for a law to enable construction of Ram temple was "politically motivated" as it comes ahead of assembly polls in some states.

In his customary Dussehra address to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cadres at its headquarters in Nagpur on Thursday, Bhagwat had said that the Ram temple was necessary from the "self-esteem point of view" and it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness.

"The statement on Ram temple given by RSS chief is a political statement before the upcoming elections," Samajwadi Party spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI here.

"The RSS has not desisted from using the names of gods for political means and this statement proves their intentions in this regard once again," Chaudhary added.

Congress spokesman Anshu Awasthi said it was now an open secret that whenever the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) speak about Lord Ram it should be understood that elections are round the corner.

"In the over four years of their government they failed on all fronts, even the promise of bringing Ram Rajya was not fulfilled," Awasthi said.

"Now they are out to raise the name of Ram shamelessly at election time to serve their political interests," Awasthi added.

Backing the opposition parties, rector of Darul Uloom Farangi Mahal, Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangimahli said even a child in the country knows that the Ram temple issue is raised by the RSS-BJP everytime before elections.

When the issue of triple-talaq can be raised in Parliament with fanfare, why was this matter not debated till now, Farangimahli ,who is also member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) said.

Since there is a rule of law in the country and the matter is pending in the Supreme Court, raising such a demand is against the law, he said.

It is in the interest of all that the decision of the apex court is implemented, he added.

Convenor of Babri Masjid Action Committee Zafaryab Jilani said Bhagwat had issued similar statements in the past as well wherein he exhorted people to ensure that temple is constructed before 2019.

Bhagwat is trying to influence the court but I am sure he will not succeed, Jilani who is also a senior lawyer said.

The judges will not be influenced and will act as per the apex court's procedures and law of the land, he added.

He further said that an ordinance cannot be issued for annulment of any order of the SC or the High Court as it is unconstitutional and against the settled law laid down by the apex court.

As of now the SC has ordered status quo on the issue, Jilani said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)(RSS) chief Thursday said the government should clear the path for construction of the in Ayodhya through an appropriate and requisite law.

In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said the temple construction was necessary from the "self-esteem point of view" and it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness.

The sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma, Bhagwat said.

"The place of janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place," he said here



There is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgement by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, he said, adding that it is nobody's interest to test the patience of society without any reason.

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir," he said.

Despite such machinations, the decision on ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the "grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law".The CPI Thursday accused the BJP-RSS combine and Congress of indulging in "double-talk" and playing "dirty games" over the Sabarimala issue to target the Left government in Kerala by exploiting people's sentiments.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the second biggest constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy termed as "very unfortunate" the protests in Kerala against the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages to the hill shrine.

"They (agitators) should respect the SC judgement in spite of the sentiment which they may be having (against it)," Reddy said.

"Gender equality has to be accepted in the 21st century. The old things cannot continue like this," he told PTI.

On Wednesday, protesters opposing the apex court order allowing the entry of women of menstrual age group into the shrine turned violent at Nilackal and clashed with the police, who resorted to baton-charge.

Reddy said there was a "political angle" vis-a-vis the agitation because Kerala is ruled by a Left front government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine welcomed the judgement at the national level but are opposing it in the state, he said.

"So, this is a dirty game. They want to fight behind communalism. There are many such beliefs among people which are unscientific. This should not continue and the RSS-BJP should not indulge in double talk, one at the Centre and one at the state level," he said.

If the BJP-RSS have "got any morality", they should control their people at the state level and make them withdraw the agitation, he added.

On Congress lending its support to the stir, Reddy said the party was behaving in a "very irresponsible" manner.

"This is all third-rate type of politics," Reddy said adding, the Congress being the main opposition party in Kerala was "very irresponsible in behaving like this".

The veteran Communist leader said both the BJP and the Congress were unnecessarily politicising the issue and exploiting the religious sentiments of the people.

He also clarified that the government cannot file a review petition in the court as it has already filed an affidavit in the SC stating it has no objection over women praying at the shrine.

"(Travancore) Devaswom Board (which manages over 1,200 temples in the state, including the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala) can go for an appeal if they want... They should discuss with the state government but the state government cannot do this (file review petition)," Reddy said.

"On October 19th, there is a meeting of the Devaswom Board, they may discuss and decide," he said.

On the agitation drawing significant support in the state, he admitted that there was quite a big section of people on the streets but stressed that emotional issues can be dealt with only if the people are objective.

"But if the RSS wants to take advantage of the sentiment and Congress too wants to utilise this (opportunity) to fight against the LDF government, it will not be possible (to deal with this issue properly)," he added.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the SC, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Several BJP leaders Thursday supported RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's push for a law to enable construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying legislation is a constitutionally valid option.

Opposition and Muslim leaders, however, linked Bhagwat's call for legislation to allow a Ram temple where the Babri Masjid stood to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, saying his demand is politically motivated.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Bhagwat's remarks indicated that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party believed in totalitarianism and not in the rule of law.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said Bhagwat made a constitutionally valid demand and the government should bring an ordinance for construction of the temple.

Shrikant Sharma, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and its spokesperson, echoed the view.

He said the legislation to build the temple at Ayodhya will be in accordance with the Constitution



Sharma said there have always been two options for constructing the temple - one is to take the legal course and another to build a consensus. An ordinance can be part of the legal route, he said.

He said the matter has been delayed long in courts.

In his customary Dussehra address at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Bhagwat said the government should clear the path for the construction of a grand temple through an appropriate law.

"What Mr Bhagwat said is within the Constitution, is constitutionally valid. We have been seeing that the Sunni Waqf Board lawyers are only trying to delay the proceedings in the court. There is nothing really left, except delay, government should bring an ordinance," Swamy said.

Terming Bhagwat's speech historic, former BJP MP Vinay Katiyar rejected the contention that he made the demand for a law for the temple with an eye on the 2019 elections.

BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said a grand Ram temple must be built at the birthplace of Lord Ram. He said this is the desire of all Hindus.

In Lucknow, opposition parties and Muslim leaders said Bhagwat's call was meant to serve political interests.

"The statement on Ram temple given by the RSS chief is a political statement before the upcoming elections," Samajwadi Party spokesman in Uttar Pradesh Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI.

UP Congress spokesman Anshu Awasthi said it is an open secret that whenever the RSS and the BJP speak about Lord Ram it should be understood that elections are round the corner.

"Now they are out to raise the name of Ram shamelessly at election time to serve their political interests," Awasthi added.

Darul Uloom Farangi Mahal rector Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali said even a child knows that the Ram temple issue is raised by the RSS-BJP every time before the elections.

Babri Masjid Action Committee convenor Zafaryab Jilani said Bhagwat is trying to influence the court, referring to the title suit for the disputed site in Ayodhya.

In Hyderabad, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Bhagwat's demand indicated that that the RSS and the BJP believe in "totalitarianism".

Do it, he said, referring to the demand for enacting a law on Ram temple. Who is stopping the RSS and their government?



The RSS and the BJP believe in totalitarianism. They don't believe in pluralism or rule of law," Owaisi told reporters.

The Hyderabad MP said the Supreme Court had clearly stated here cannot be an exclusive law for any particular religion.

Firebrand Hindu leader Pravin Togadia questioned why such a law was not enacted in the last four and a half years of the BJP rule.

The RSS is raising the issue now because elections are round the corner and the BJP government's performance is dismal, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP's central brass is "seriously looking at" the leadership issue in Goa to provide a stable government to people, state minister Vijai Sardesai claimed Thursday after meeting party chief Amit Shah in Delhi.

Sardesai, whose Goa Forward Party (GFP) is a key constituent of the BJP-led coalition government, met BJP chief Amit Shah this afternoon to discuss the current political situation in the coastal state against the backdrop of the ill-health of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

"I explained to him (Shah) the aspirations of Goans in the current political scenario. The BJP's central leadership is seriously looking at the leadership issue and to give Goa a stable government. We discussed the political scenario including the aspirations of the Goan people," the town and country planning minister told PTI over the phone from Delhi.

Shah had invited leaders of the key constituents of the Manohar Parrikar-led government to Delhi to meet him on Wednesday, but the meeting was rescheduled to Thursday.

Shah will meet Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader and state minister Sudin Dhavalikar later in the day.

The CM is away from office for long due to ill health, triggering speculation over the stability of his coalition government.

The opposition Congress had claimed the government was in disarray and has become rudderless. The party had also demanded a floor test in the state Legislative Assembly.

Shah has already ruled out change of guard in Goa.

Parrikar, 62, had gone to the US for treatment of pancreatic ailment earlier this year.

He was admitted to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on September 15. He was shifted to Goa on October 14 and is currently recuperating at his private residence.

In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Parrikar government enjoys the support of 23 MLAs, including 14 of the Bhartiya Janata Party, three each from the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP), and three Independent legislators.

In a setback to the Congress in Goa on Tuesday, two of its 16 MLAs-- Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar --resigned as members of the House Tuesday and joined the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Trade minister has pulled out of a Saudi investment conference over the kingdom's involvement in the disappearance and alleged slaying of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is the latest high-level Western official to drop out of attending next week's summit in Riyadh.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra have also cancelled, along with several senior business executives.

Britain's Department for International Trade says Fox "has decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative."



Britain says it is "very concerned" about the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

Turkish officials say he was killed and dismembered there.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The apex body of the Bru refugees has appealed to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat to set up polling booths in their relief camps in Tripura so that they could exercise franchise in the Mizoram assembly election on November 28



In a letter to CEC and Mizoram Chief Electoral Officer S B Shashank, the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF) president A Sawibunga and general secretary Bruno Msha on Tuesday said that 8,777 Bru refuges lodged in relief camps were enrolled in Mamit district of Mizoram bordering Tripura.

"The voters in the relief camps are mostly women and elderly persons making it impossible to cast their votes inside Mizoram," the letter said and appealed to them set up polling booths in the relief camps in Tripura.

The MBDPF leaders also expressed apprehension that the Brus would be facing serious security risks if they go to Mizorm to cast their votes.

The CEC while interacting with media on Wednesday was not categorical on questions whether Bru voters in the relief camps would exercise franchise in Mizoram as committed by the Election Commission on April 7, 2014.

"Certain decisions have to be made in view of fresh developments after free ration and cash dole were stopped by the Centre in the relief camps," Rawat had said.

He said that the Election Commission has been assessing the situation closely.

The NGO Coordination Committee, a conglomeration of three major NGOs and two student bodies, had on Tuesday urged the EC to defranchise all the Bru voters who chose to stay back in Tripura and did not return to Mizoram.

Only 40 of the 5,407 Bru refugee families returned to Mizoram from the six refugee camps in Tripura during the stipulated one month of repatriation process that ended on September 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An alliance of 400 organisations working to promote sustainable agriculture Thursday said it stood in solidarity with Greenpeace India after its office was raided and bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) recently, and asked the Centre to refrain from using "coercive methods" to silence NGOs.

The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) said the freezing of accounts is part of a "broader pattern of intimidation" of organisations and individuals that are raising difficult questions for the government.

It also asked the Centre and its agencies to understand that Greenpeace and several such bodies are essentially acting as a medium for thousands to contribute to conserving the and such work is an essential part of nation-building and public service.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen over a dozen bank accounts of environmental NGO Greenpeace and a linked entity after conducting searches at their premises in Bengaluru on charges of alleged forex violations recently.

After the raids, Greenpeace India had strongly denied all allegations and said that the ED action was "part of a larger design to muzzle democratic dissent in the country".

The ASHA said the duty of the government is to engage with the dissenting voices, even those which are highly critical of the very development model being pursued by the government, rather than trying to shut down such organisations.

"ASHA stands by Greenpeace India at this critical time, and demands that the government refrain from using coercive methods and heavy-handed force to silence such organisations," it said in a statement.

Official sources in the central probe agency had said the searches, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), were conducted on October 5 in Bengaluru as it was detected that it incorporated a commercial entity called DDIIPL in 2016 after the Union Home Ministry cancelled Greenpeace India Society's (Chennai) FCRA registration the previous year for alleged violation of norms.

The ASHA said it expresses its alarm at these developments, and stood in solidarity with Greenpeace India as the government makes repeated attempts to go after an organisation that is playing a crucial positive role on environmental issues such as climate change, air pollution, forests and sustainable agriculture among others.

"We are very concerned that the raids on Greenpeace and freezing of accounts are part of a broader pattern of intimidation of organisations and individuals that are raising difficult questions for the government," ASHA said.

The ASHA places great value on the work of Greenpeace India and its approach of taking up challenging, emerging issues related to environmental justice even when the situation requires confronting government policies and actions, it said.

"Furthermore, Greenpeace India has been playing a valuable role in raising awareness among citizens about these issues and rallying the support of lakhs of people who express solidarity or make donations for work on such causes.

"In India, Greenpeace India has been able to establish sustainable farming and renewable energy solutions convincingly, which governments have picked up for scaling up. Globally, Greenpeace's contribution to numerous international environmental frameworks is well known, and India has been a signatory to such international agreements," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A six-member Chinese delegation Thursday called on Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the AAP government's Public Relations Secretary Jayadev Sarangi to share "best practices" and enhance cooperation between Beijing and Delhi in the field of publicity work, according to an official statement.

According to the statement issued by the Delhi Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP), the delegation led by Publicity Minister of Beijing government DU Feijin interacted with DIP officials.

It said that Sarangi gave detailed information about the DIP's set up and informed delegates about various modes of publicity the directorate has adopted for the city government.

Feijin said that the delegates is on a visit to Delhi with an aim to improve the relationship on publicity and social security between the two cities.

Mutual cooperation between the two cities would help in improving various developmental works, the statement quoted him as saying.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bihar Governor Lalji Tandon and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday condoled the death of veteran leader N D Tiwari.

In his condolence message, Tandon termed Tiwaris death as an irreparable loss to the country and recalled the political and administrative acumen that the late leader had as a Union minister, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and, later of Uttarakhand, besides his gubernatorial stint.

Kumar said Tiwari always stood for strengthening of parliamentary democracy.

Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, former Bihar Chief Ministers Rabri Devi and Jitan Ram Manjhi and leader of the opposition in the state Assembly Tejashwi Yadav also expressed grief over the death of the veteran leader.

In Ranchi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das condoled Tiwari's death. He prayed for peace of the departed soul and strength to the family at its hour of grief, according to an official release.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi on Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India Thursday said the recently-concluded elections in Maldives mark the triumph of democratic forces in the country and expressed confidence that the mandate of the Maldivian people will prevail.

In a surprise turn of events in Maldives, united opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih was declared the winner in the elections last month. President Abdulla Yameen initially said he accepted defeat but later launched a Supreme Court challenge seeking a fresh vote.

On Wednesday, Yameen told the nation in a televised address that he has accepted defeat.

Asked about India's stand on the Maldives election and Yameen's remarks, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said New Delhi has consistently held the position since the imposition of emergency early this year that there was a need to protect democracy in Maldives and preserve the mandate of the people.

"India welcomes the acceptance of the verdict of the people of Maldives. This election marks not only the triumph of democratic forces in the Maldives, but also reflects the firm commitment to the values of democracy and the rule of law. We are confident that the mandate of the people will prevail," he said.

India had welcomed the successful completion of the third presidential election process and congratulated Solih on his victory, he noted.

"Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) subsequently spoke to President-elect Solih and offered his personal congratulations. Other world leaders have also welcomed the successful conduct of the elections.

"In keeping with our 'Neighbourhood First' Policy, India looks forward to working closely with the Maldives in further deepening our partnership," Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress on Thursday released its first list of 12 candidates for the first phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on November 12.

AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, in a statement, announced the candidates for seats in southern Chhattisgarh, which is infested by Naxals.

Among the candidates fielded by the party are Devati Karma from Dantewada-ST seat, Lakheshwar Baghel from Bastar-ST seat and Shishu Pal Sori from Kanker-ST.

The party also decided that its leader Rekhchand Jain will contest from Jagdalpur assembly seat. These seats are highly sensitive and affected by Naxal violence.

A total of 18 assembly seats will go to polls in the first phase of polling on November 12.

The second phase of polling for the remaining seats 72 will be held on Novmber 20 and results will be out on December 11.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At a time when opposition parties are stressing on forging a joint front to take on the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls, CPI national secretary Atul Anjaan said the Congress should have a large heart and be brave in forming an alliance as it is the biggest party.

Anjaan, the Communist Party of India's man in-charge of forming a non-BJP alliance in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana, said that to defeat the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha election, an alliance of non-BJP political forces is a must and it should be state specific.

He also reminded the Congress of the Gujarat Assembly election, claiming it could have won the polls had it joined hands with smaller parties.

"The Congress must have a large heart to attain its big political ambition. With a small heart, it can't attain a large political goal," said Anjaan.

He said regional and smaller political parties should also shed their differences in forming an alliance to defeat the BJP in the next general elections.

Noting that seat sharing is the key to striking successful alliances in 2019 polls, the CPI leader cited the example of Gujarat.

"The BJP's defeat in Gujarat was almost certain had Congress formed alliance with more small political parties. The Congress had lost about 20 seats with a margin of 300-1900 votes. Forming an alliance with smaller parties could have won at least 10 more seats," said Anjaan.

He added that "Gujarat model of BJP was almost a close chapter but due to Congress' miscalculations, it is still alive".

Taking a swipe at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi for his temple visits before starting campaign in poll-bound states, the CPI national secretary said, "By visiting temples alone you cannot win. You have to be realistic, you must have sense on ground reality."



On the issue of seat sharing in Telangana, Anjaan said other parties of the Congress-led grand alliance cannot wait for long.

"We can't keep waiting for Congress' formal announcement. We are preparing for the elections. Our primary objective is to defeat the BJP," added Anjaan.

The CPI wanted to have alliance with the Congress in both Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan but the grand old party declined it.

The CPI has already tied up with Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) of Ajit Jogi and BSP in Chhattisgarh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here Thursday that for his government the Constitution is a more important document than any religious text.

He was speaking before a huge gathering at Deekshabhoomi here to celebrate the 'Dhammachakra Pravartan Day'.

The day marks the conversion of iconic Dalit leader Dr B R Ambedkar and his six lakh followers to Buddhism in 1956 at Deekshabhoomi.

"The Indian Constitution framed by Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is the best constitution in the world," the chief minister said.

"When I face challenges as chief minister on various complicated issues, the Constitution shows us the way in a better manner than the Gita, Bible and Quran as to how to move forward to give justice and serve people," said Fadnavis.

"This government runs by the values of the Constitution. Constitution is more important for us than any religious book," he said.

Fadnavis handed over a cheque of Rs 40 crore to the Nagpur Improvement Trust as the first instalment of Rs 100 crore the government has promised for the development of Deekshabhoomi.

Speaking on the occasion, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said the creation of 'Buddhist Circuit' will increase the number of Buddhist tourists visiting India.

Half the work on the project, which will connect important places in Buddha's life, is complete, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Delhi court Thursday agreed to hear the criminal defamation case filed by M J Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani, who has accused him of sexual harassment around 20 years ago, and will record the statement of the former union minister on October 31.

Taking cognisance of the complaint, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing Akbar, that the "controversial" tweets and identical social media posts of Ramani caused irreparable loss to his reputation built over a period of 40 years.

"Let the matter be fixed for examination of the complainant (Akbar) and his witnesses for October 31," the magistrate said. Akbar, 67, was not present in the court.

A criminal defamation case, as against a civil defamation case, is significant as an accused could be sent to jail if found guilty. Section 500 of the IPC provides for the sentence for the offence of defamation and an accused may be awarded two-year jail term or fine or both.

In a related development, the Editors Guild of India asked Akbar to withdraw the defamation case and came out in support of the women journalists who accused him of sexual harassment.

The Guild also offered legal support to women journalists who levelled the allegations against Akbar in case he does not withdraw the present case or files such cases against other women too.

Ramani was the first one to call out Akbar and publicly accuse him of inappropriate behaviour.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications.

During the 20-minute-long court hearing in the Patiala house courts complex, Luthra, a senior lawyer, referred to the sequence of events and said Akbar resigned from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs yesterday following these allegations and this showed the extent of damage caused to his reputation.

She also referred to the reputation of Akbar as a journalist and sought judicial intervention in the matter by taking cognisance of the complaint.

As per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied there is prima-facie substance in the complaint.

Akbar tendered his resignation after making it clear he had filed the case in his "personal" capacity and would fight it out in the court of law.

"Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity," Akbar said in his letter.

Akbar on Monday filed the defamation complaint against Ramani, alleging she "wilfully" and "maliciously" made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

Expressing her readiness to fight the defamation allegations, Ramani said, "Rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he (Akbar) seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment."



Akbar's plea had listed alleged defamatory imputations made by Ramani on social media and also referred to his "long and illustrious" career as a journalist while terming the allegations of Ramani as a "figment of her imagination".

"Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda," it alleged.

It had termed as "scandalous" the allegations made by Ramani and said the "very tone and tenor" are "ex-facie defamatory" and they have not only damaged his goodwill and reputation in his social circle but also affected Akbar's reputation in "the community, friends, family and colleagues" and caused "irreparable loss" and "tremendous distress".

In a statement, the Editors Guild said it salutes the courage shown by several women journalists in bringing to light instances of how they were sexually harassed.

"The resignation of Mr M. J Akbar from Union council of ministers is a result of these women journalists' courage to fight for a high principle: gender equality in the newsroom.

"We hope that Mr Akbar will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed against one of these complainants," it said.

While Akbar is entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation, the Guild said, adding, "more so for Mr Akbar who happens to be a former president of the Guild".

"But if he doesn't, or in case he files such cases against other women too, the Guild offers its support to them. If any of them were to need legal advice or assistance, the Guild will do the best it can to help and also appeal to eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono," the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Delhi court Thursday decided to record the statement of former minister M J Akbar's criminal defamation complaint of being accused of sexual misconduct by journalist Priya Ramani, on October 31.

The court took judicial note of the complaint against Ramani, who has accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago, and decided to record the statement in the case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing the former minister, that the "defamatory" tweets and similar social media posts of Ramani have caused irreparable loss to his reputation built over 40 years.

"Let the matter be fixed for examination of the complainant (Akbar) and his witnesses (six) for October 31," the magistrate said.

Luthra mentioned that Ramani' objectionable tweets have been merrily retweeted by a number of other people and various items were written on their basis in national and international newspapers and other media platforms.

Luthra said calling Akbar a "predator" in tweets was "defamatory" and also referred to an article written by Ramani herself.

"My (Akbar) reputation lowered in public. People have read tweets and the article (by Ramani). Number of retweets and 'likes' crossed thousands which showed the extent of defamation," the counsel said.

The senior lawyer referred to the sequence of events and said that Akbar has resigned from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to these allegations made in the "defamatory" tweets and other posts.

She also referred to the reputation of Akbar as a journalist and sought judicial intervention in the matter by taking cognisance of the complaint.

"My position has been damaged. My reputation has been damaged. I have been elected to Parliament. I am a longstanding journalist and have written various books. This shows I had a reputation, which has been damaged," the senior counsel said.

As per Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied that there are prima-facie substance in the complaint.

Akbar on Wednesday had tendered his resignation after making it clear that he had filed the case in his "personal" capacity and would fight it out in the court of law.

"Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs. I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country," Akbar had said in his letter.

Akbar on Monday had filed the criminal defamation complaint against Ramani alleging she "wilfully" and "maliciously" made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

Expressing her readiness to fight the defamation allegations, Ramani had said, "Rather than engage with the serious allegations that many women have made against him, he (Akbar) seeks to silence them through intimidation and harassment."



Akbar's plea had listed alleged defamatory imputations made by Ramani on social media and also referred to his "long and illustrious" career as a journalist while terming the allegations of Ramani as a "figment of her imagination".

"Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda," it alleged.

It had termed as "scandalous" the allegations made by Ramani and said the "very tone and tenor" are "ex-facie defamatory" and they have not only damaged his goodwill and reputation in his social circle but also affected Akbar's reputation in "the community, friends, family and colleagues" and caused "irreparable loss" and "tremendous distress".

It had claimed that the woman journalist, while putting forward the allegations relating to incidents which allegedly occurred 20 years ago, "intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated, and salacious imputations to harm the reputation of the complainant".

"The conduct of the accused person, of not taking any action before any authority, qua the alleged incident against the complainant also clearly belies the sanctity of the article and allegations made by the accused person, which evidently goes on to prove that the said defamatory articles are only a figment of her imagination," it said.

Section 500 of the IPC provides for the sentence for the offence of defamation and an accused may be awarded two-year jail term or fine or both in the event of conviction.

Akbar's name had cropped up in the social media campaign #Metoo against alleged sexual harassment when he was in Nigeria.

Hours after returning home, Akbar had termed the allegations levelled against him by several women as "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment, included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government asked the Centre Thursday to release an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for relief-and-restoration work in 17 districts as last week's Cyclone Titli and the subsequent flood caused a loss of about Rs 2,765 crore and affected 60.11 lakh people.

Apart from a severe damage to infrastructure, the natural calamities had claimed 57 lives in the state, officials said.

"I would request you to kindly consider the grave situation in the state on account of the Very Severe Cyclonic Storm 'Titli' and its associated impacts and request you to please release an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore to the state to enable taking up relief and restoration works of immediate nature," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This apart, Patnaik mentioned in the letter that keeping in view the fact that 57,131 houses were damaged, the Government of India should consider a special allocation of the same number of houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

Noting that the state government had already submitted a preliminary memorandum to the Centre, pegging the funds required at Rs 2,770.28 crore, Patnaik said, "We are seeking central assistance of Rs 2014.09 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund, over and above the funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19."



Besides the loss of human lives, there had been an extensive damage to private and public properties, Patnaik said, adding that the standing crop on about 2.73 lakh hectares of land had also suffered massive damage.

The chief minister said the damage to the electrical infrastructure in Ganjam and Gajapati districts was immense and the roads in the rural as well as urban areas were also in a very poor shape.

These needed to be repaired on an urgent basis, he added.

Stating that his government had fully utilised its resources to tackle "Titli" and the resultant flood, Patnaik said the natural calamities had caused damage and destruction in 17 districts and affected 60.11 lakh people.

"A non-coastal district, namely Gajapati, has been the worst affected. Besides the cyclone and the flood, a massive landslide occurred in the Mahendragiri hills, which completely destroyed one village, namely Baraghara, under Gangabada GP of Gajapati district," the chief minister said, adding that 57 people lost their lives in different districts and 10 were reportedly missing due to landslides, wall-collapse incidents and drowning.

Meanwhile, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from Odisha, visited Gajapati and Ganjam districts and expressed concern over the plight of the people even eight days after the cyclone hit the coast.

Unhappy over the manner in which the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in the state undertook the relief-and-restoration activities, he said, "The government should wake up from its slumber and swing into action to mitigate the miseries of the affected people.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cyprus-based airline Cobalt Air suspended all its operations indefinitely after failing to find new investors to keep it flying, officials said Thursday.

As stranded passengers scrambled to find alternative flights to reach their destinations, Cyprus' government said it will compensate all Cobalt Air ticket holders who fly back to the Mediterranean island on other carriers. It was unclear how foreign travellers stranded in Cyprus will be helped.

A senior executive from the airline, Philokypros Roussounides, told The Associated Press that Cobalt's six Airbus passenger jets have been grounded, although the airline still exists as a legal entity. Cobalt flies to 22 destinations in Europe and the Middle East.

Roussounides said there's still interest by some companies to invest in the airline because of its successful branding, strong reputation and high level of services.

Roussounides said passengers were eligible for full refunds whether they paid by credit card or made arrangements through travel agencies.

In a statement, Cobalt Air called the suspension of its operations "a sad day" for the airline and its employees after "working relentlessly during the last months to secure long-term financing of the airline." "This is an enormous disappointment after the incredible hard work and dedication put into building the airline," Cobalt said.

Michaelides said the airline's Chinese backers had given assurances last month that they would continue to finance Cobalt, even if the airline continued to lose money.

But a bid to inject fresh money from new investors failed, forcing the airline to shut down operations, said Michaelides.

Cobalt Air began flying in 2016 in the wake of the collapse of national carrier Cyprus Airways. It was recognized as the best startup airline for 2017 by industry analysts CAPA-Centre for Aviation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Alleging that the Gujarat government's lax attitude led to the death of 23 lions in Gir forest, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Paresh Dhanani Thursday sought explanation from Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on this "man made tragedy".

In a letter written to Rupani on the issue, Dhanani sought action against those responsible for not devising a proactive action plan to deal with Canine Distemper Virus (CDV), believed to be the main reason for the deaths.

He alleged that although the government knew that the disease has killed a large number of lions in Africa in the past, the vaccine for CDV, which was imported at the last moment, was not brought in advance.

"The government knew that a vaccine is available to deal with CDV. However, we imported it (from the US) only after 23 lions succumbed to the infection. Such last minute arrangement led to this man-made tragedy. Why didn't we bring the vaccine well in advance?" asked Dhanani in the letter.

"Lions could have been saved had the vaccine been made available well in advance. I firmly believe that action must be taken against those who were responsible for this man-made tragedy," the Congress leader said.

He asked Rupani to probe whether the unavailability of vaccine was a "conspiracy".

Referring to the provisions enlisted in the Gir Management Plan for conservation of lions, Dhanani alleged that senior forest officials are not carrying out their duty properly.

He claimed that the plan mandates that officials need to walk inside the protected forests for at least 50 kms in a month.

"In reality, officials hardly follow this provision of conducting foot patrolling. They only roam around in vehicles. As a result, health status of lions living inside deep forest is not known immediately," Dhanani claimed.

Referring to a 2013 Supreme Court judgment asking the state government to find a new home for lions, Dhanani asked Rupani what steps his government had taken since then in that regard.

He alleged that the state government had only given assurances to the Supreme Court, but failed to undertake any concrete step to save the lions.

Earlier, the state government had admitted that CDV and Protozoa infection is responsible for the death of at least 11 of 23 lions in Gir forest last month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi's air quality remained in the "very poor" category for the second consecutive day Thursday, with several areas in the national capital nearing "severe" levels of pollution, according to the authorities.

The PM2.5 level (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) touched a new high at 158 as authorities predicted further deterioration of air quality in the coming days.

The PM10 level (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres) stood at 332.

The PM2.5 is said to have a greater impact than PM10 on health and is said to be more dangerous.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 315, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor" and 401 and 500 "severe".

As the air quality worsened, Delhi's Minister Imran Hussain formed a six-member team to carry out surprise inspections in the city to check violations which contribute towards air pollution.

The minister said inspections would be carried out to check steps being taken by various bodies on the ground. He has also sought the details and schedule of working of the mechanical sweeping and sprinkling vehicles being operated by these bodies, including the PWD.

Hussain also directed the development agencies to ensure that all construction sites adhere to the Construction and Demolition Waste Rules, 2016 to avoid any dust emission from their activities.

Meanwhile, to encourage the use of public transport, the Delhi Cabinet Thursday approved a proposal by which one can avail 10 per cent discount on using common mobility cards (metro card) in DTC cluster buses.

"The metro card usage started in DTC cluster buses on August 24. This was necessary in view of rising air pollution to encourage more and more people to use public transport," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters.

He further appealed to the cental government and the governments of Haryana and Punjab to initiate measures in the wake of the deteriorating air quality in north India, including Delhi.

"The Centre should intervene. Farmers have not been given subsidy. This is the failure on the part of the central and the state governments. As December and January is nearing, the entire north India, including Delhi, is close to becoming a gas chamber," Sisodia said.

He said the state government had made several efforts since last year which improved Delhi's air quality and had requested the Centre, as well as the governments of Punjab and Haryana, to take measures in this regard, but despite assurances, the air quality has deteriorated.

The Supreme Court-empowered Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) has already imposed since Monday the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which prescribes a set of measures to curb air pollution, after Delhi's air quality deteriorated to "poor" category a few days back.

A senior Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) official said the situation was being monitored and depending upon the quality of air, more stringent measures like increase of parking fees and complete ban on construction activities would be imposed.

"We are hoping that with slight improvement of meteorological conditions, the air quality would improve. But if it doesn't, we will impose stringent measures," he said.

In case of further deterioration of air quality to "severe" level, measures like stopping entrance of trucks, among others, can be enforced.

On Thursday, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 315, Dwarka Sector 8 369, ITO 256, Jahangirpuri 337 and Rohini 368, according to the CPCB.

The AQI on Wednesday was also recorded at 315. Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Greater Noida had all recorded very poor air quality.

The data released by the CPCB shows that the air quality in the last three years has not improved much but officials also said a clear picture would emerge by end of this month.

A CPCB official said a number of factors were responsible for the deteriorating air quality, including vehicular pollution and construction activities.

On Wednesday, Hussain had said that satellite images showed crop residue burning at "dangerous" levels and had asserted that it should be stopped immediately or the entire north India would suffer serious health hazards.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi's air quality remained "very poor" for the second day this season, with several areas in the national capital nearing "severe" levels of pollution, according to the authorities.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 315, same as Wednesday, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research.

Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Noida and Greater Noida all recorded very poor air quality.

The PM2.5 (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) touched a new high at 158, even as the authorities said it could increase further.

The PM2.5, also called "fine particulates," is a more serious health concern than PM10.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor" and 401 and 500 "severe".

A senior Central pollution Control Board official said the situation is being monitored and depending upon the quality more stringent measures like increase of parking fees and complete ban on construction activities would be imposed.

"We are hoping that with a slight improvement in meteorological conditions, the air quality would improve. But if it doesn't, we would impose stringent measures," he said.

On Thursday, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 315, Dwarka Sector 8 369, ITO 256, Jahangirpuri 337 and Rohini 368, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The PM10 level (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres) in Delhi stood at 297 and the PM 2.5 level was recorded at 140, according to the CPCB data.

Further deterioration of air quality has been forecast for the coming days with the PM10 level reaching 332 and the PM2.5 level 158.

The data released by the CPCB shows that the air quality in the last three years has not improved much but officials also said a clear picture would emerge by end of this month.

A CPCB official said a number of factors were responsible for the deteriorating air quality, including vehicular pollution and construction activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)#MeToo's India chapter has come like a reckoning for many but actor Renuka Shahane says there are still uncountable, unknown stories of women who have faced sexual harassment and abuse that are waiting to be heard.

The actor says she also has a story but she was not wronged by someone famous.

"I don't think there's a single woman who does not have a #MeToo story. My story does not involve anyone famous. It happened a long time ago but it impacted me for the longest time. It has coloured how I view things.

"I have spent my entire life travelling in local trains and buses. You are constantly aware that you will get pinched, your breast will be pressed and so on. It doesn't matter if you're underage, married or pregnant. It's a never-ending list," Shahane told PTI in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

The actor, who unfailingly voices her opinions on important issues on social media, was recently announced as a member of an advisory committee by CINTAA (Cine And TV Artistes' Association) to tackle sexual harassment in the industry, where the movement first began with Tanushree Dutta reiterating her decade-old harassment story against Nana Patekar.

Many more names have followed since with people like Alok Nath, Sajid Khan, Subhash Ghai, Kailash Kher and Rajat Kapoor being accused of sexual harassment and in some cases of rape.

Shahane, 53, says she did not face any sexual harassment in the industry but "it's just a matter of luck".

"There have been propositions but when I refused the people respected my decision, so there's that."



Nath's misbehaviour was one of industry's worst-kept secret, Shahane says, corroborating accounts of Sandhya Mridul, Himani Shivpuri and Deepika Amin.

She adds it was years after she worked with the actor in Rajshri Productions' "Hum Aapke Hain Koun!" and DD show "Imtihaan" that she got to know about Nath's alleged behaviour when magazines splashed the of "Tara" star Navneet Nishan slapping him.

"Tara" writer-producer Vinta Nanda has accused Nath of sexual harassment and rape from almost two decades ago.

"Everyone knew that once he downed a drink, he would become another person. When I read Sandhya Mridul's account, I thought at least he admitted it to her. But we see over the years, the behaviour just went on and on. I was not a party person, perhaps that's why I never experienced anything with him," she says, adding Rajshri always maintained strict discipline on its film sets.

"Everybody behaves in a very different way on a Rajshri set," she says.

Some sections of the society have branded #MeToo as a "witch-hunt" or "public lynching" with even innocent men's reputation being torched on social media.

Shahane disagrees, saying nobody wants an innocent person behind the bars but the movement has come into existence because the legal route is long and tedious.

"The burden to prove the truth is heavy. That's why the movement has been important because at least they are being named and shamed. Yes, there will be some posts that will be shared out of revenge but most of the people who have been named and shamed like MJ Akbar and Alok Nath have been known to be serial offenders for years.

"These people have made life miserable for women for years altogether. I don't see it as lynching. They are moving court for defamation cases. Women are standing up. If they were not sure of such accusations, they would not be standing up," she says.

Shahane is happy that industry bodies such as CINTAA, Indian Film & Television Directors' Association and Screen Writers' Association and Producers Guild of India are taking steps to ensure safe working environment for women in showbiz.

The actor says now the people who have faced sexual harassment in the industry will have a place to go to where they can be heard.

"All these associations have taken a very positive and strong reaction on the issue.

"CINTAA has taken it seriously from day one. I'm really happy that men like Sushant Singh and Amit Behl have stood up and decided that 'enough is enough'. It is important to understand that it is not a women's movement, it's a human movement. Irrespective of the gender, we all have to work together.

"Sexual harassment has no place in the workplace and it has to be done away with. It can't be a rule rather than being an exception. That so many people knew about it and did nothing, now that cannot be acceptable," she says.

Shahane, who will be next be seen in the second season of Dice Media's webseries "What the Folks", says working on the sets of the family comedy, was a breath of fresh air for her.

"It is so easy to work in a non-misogynist environment," she says.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Taking note of the allegations of indiscipline against two of his grandsons, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) president Om Prakash Chautala Thursday suspended Hisar MP Dushyant Chautala and youth leader Digvijay Chautala from the primary membership of the party.

The INLD chief also referred the matter pertaining to accusations of "indiscipline" against Dushyant and Digvijay to the party's disciplinary committee.

The decision was taken at an executive committee meeting of Haryana's main opposition party held in Gurugram.

"The matter of accusations of indiscipline against Dushyant Chauatala, Member, Lok Sabha (from Hisar), and his younger brother Digvijay Singh, national president of the now dissolved Indian National Students' Organisation (INSO), was referred to the disciplinary committee of the party.

"The disciplinary committee has been asked to submit its report by October 25 and till then, both of them will remain suspended from the primary membership of the party," a release issued by the INLD said.

Giving details of the meeting, it said Dushyant and Digvijay were also accused of "hooliganism during the 105th birthday celebrations of Chaudhary Devi Lal at a Gohana rally on October 7 and encouraging forces to disrupt the biggest ever rally held in Haryana".

The meeting was presided by Om Prakash Chautala, who is serving a 10-year jail term in a teacher recruitment scam and is currently out on parole.

At the meeting, the former Haryana chief minister emphasised on the importance of discipline in the party and repeatedly warned that anyone found violating discipline will be strictly dealt with irrespective of his position and status.

"The INLD has earned the reputation of being a disciplined party and therefore, the unruly scenes witnessed during that rally have been found very disturbing to the party leaders and workers," Om Prakash Chautala said.

Notably, the power struggle within the Chautala family had come to the fore a week back when Om Prakash Chautala dissolved the party's student and youth wings, headed by Digvijay and Dushyant respectively.

Earlier, senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala had warned against indiscipline in the party.

Abhay Chautala had recently called Digvijay and Dushyant, sons of his elder brother Ajay Singh Chautala, who is also serving a jail sentence in the teacher recruitment scam, "our children", even while warning that anyone violating party discipline would face action.

Abhay Chautala is the younger son of Om Prakash Chautala.

Meanwhile, at the Gurugram meeting, Om Prakash Chautala lauded the efforts of the party in raising pro-people issues and building pressure on the state and central governments to implement the Supreme Court verdict regarding the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Ashok Arora, state president of the INLD, meanwhile, announced that from November 1, a statewide agitation to get the SYL canal constructed will be launched by the INLD-BSP alliance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Dutch finance minister has pulled out of a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the "very serious" disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the government said Thursday.

Wopke Hoekstra's withdrawal from the October 23-25 Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh -- dubbed the "Davos in the Desert" -- follows that of French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and IMF chief Christine Lagarde.

The Netherlands announced it was also cancelling a planned trade mission visit to Saudi Arabia in December.

"The disappearance of #Khashoggi is a very serious matter. Saudi Arabia has not yet been able to provide any clarification," Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said as he announced the decision on Twitter.

"That is why we decided @WBHoekstra will not travel to Riyadh today. The Netherlands stands for press freedom, worldwide."



Blok, in a letter to the Dutch parliament, later added that the decision was taken after direct talks with Le Maire.

The Netherlands will now in "close discussions with the EU and other like-minded partners look at ways international concerns about Khashoggi could be addressed," Blok said.

"A great responsibility rests on the Saudi authorities to give clarity over Mr Khashoggi's whereabouts," the minister said.

"Every disappearance -- or worse, murder -- is repulsive but where it involves a journalist it's extra shocking for legal order and freedom of speech, because journalists have a special role in our society," he added.

An array of policy-makers and corporate chiefs have already pulled out of next week's conference in Saudi Arabia, risking the loss of lucrative business with the kingdom.

Khashoggi, who was living in self-imposed exile in the United States where he contributed to the Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

He was critical of some of Saudi Arabia's policies.

Turkish officials claim he was killed and dismembered in the consulate by a hit squad that arrived from Riyadh -- claims denied by the Saudi government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In Facebook's "War Room," a nondescript space adorned with American and Brazilian flags, a team of 20 people monitors computer screens for signs of suspicious activity.

The freshly launched unit at Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters in California is the nerve centre for the fight against misinformation and manipulation of the largest social network by foreign actors trying to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere.

Inside, the walls have clocks showing the time in various regions of the US and Brazil, maps and TV screens showing CNN, Fox News and Twitter, and other monitors showing graphs of Facebook activity in real time.

Facebook, which has been blamed for doing too little to prevent misinformation efforts by Russia and others in the 2016 US election, now wants the world to know it is taking aggressive steps with initiatives like the war room.

"Our job is to detect ... anyone trying to manipulate the public debate," said Nathaniel Gleicher, a former White House cybersecurity policy director for the National Security Council who is now heading Facebook's cybersecurity policy.

"We work to find and remove these actors." Facebook has been racing to get measures in place and began operating this nerve centre -- with a hastily taped "WAR ROOM" sign on the glass door -- for the first round of the presidential vote in Brazil on October 7.



It didn't take long to find false information and rumours being spread which could have had an impact on voters in Brazil.

"On election day, we saw a spike in voter suppression (messages) saying the election was delayed due to protests. That was not a true story," said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's head of civic engagement.

Chakrabarti said Facebook was able to remove these posts in a couple of hours before they went viral.

"It could have taken days."





At the unveiling of the war room for a small group of journalists including AFP this week, a man in a gray pork pie hat kept his eyes glued to his screen where a Brazilian flag was attached.

He said nothing but his mission was obvious -- watching for any hints of interference with the second round of voting in Brazil on October 28.

The war room, which will ramp up activity for the November 6 midterm US elections, is the most concrete sign of Facebook's efforts to weed out misinformation.

With experts in computer science, cybersecurity and legal specialists, the center is operating during peak times for the US and Brazil at present, with plans to eventually work 24/7.

The war room adds a human dimension to the artificial intelligence tools Facebook has already deployed to detect inauthentic or manipulative activity.

"Humans can adapt quickly to new threats," Gleicher said of the latest effort.

Chakrabarti said the new centre is an important part of coordinating activity -- even for a company that has been built on remote communications among people in various parts of the world.

"There's no substitute to face to face interactions," he said.



ALSO READ: Specialists to monitor ads and content on Facebook for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

The war room was activated just weeks ahead of the US vote, amid persistent fears of manipulation by Russia and other state entities, or efforts to polarise or inflame tensions.

The war room is part of stepped up security announced by Facebook that will be adding some 20,000 employees.

"With elections we need people to detect and remove (false information) as quickly as possible," Chakrabarti said.

The human and computerised efforts to weed out bad information complement each other, according to Chakrabarti.

"If an anomaly is detected in an automated way, then a data scientist will investigate, will see if there is really a problem," he said.

The efforts are also coordinated with Facebook's fact-checking partners around the world including media organisations such as AFP and university experts.



Gleicher said the team will remain on high alert for any effort that could lead to false information going viral and potentially impacting the result of an election.

"We need to stay ahead of bad actors," he said. "We keep shrinking the doorway. They keep trying to get in."A few passenger trains were cancelled in Punjab Thursday due to a rail roko agitation by farmers in support of their demands, including payment of outstanding sugarcane dues and financial assistance to manage paddy straw.

The protesters, who gathered under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Samiti, squatted on the railway tracks in Gurdaspur, Jalandhar and Tarn Taran districts. The agitation started at 1 pm and went on till 4 pm.

The one-day 'Rail Roko' agitation led to the cancellation of five passenger trains Bhagtanwala-Khemkaran-Bhagtanwala, Amritsar-Qadian-Amritsar, Ferozepur-Jalandhar City, Jalandhar City-Amritsar and Amritsar-Jalandhar city, a railway official said.

Besides, two trains -- Pathankot-Verka-Pathankot and Fazilka-Ferozepur-Fazilka were short terminated, the official said.

A Jammu Tawi-Ahmedabad train was diverted via Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Moga and Ferozepur.

Satnam Singh Pannu, the president of the farmers' organisation, said they protested the apathetic attitude of the government towards their demands.

An outstanding payment of Rs 600 crore towards Punjab cane growers has not been cleared yet. We have not been given our money for the last one year. As a result, we are being forced to borrow money for meeting household expenses. Some farmers are even committing suicides, said Pannu.

Farmers also demanded Rs 200 per quintal as bonus on paddy for management of crop residue.

Farmers are being harassed. The government is imposing a fine and registering cases gainst them for stubble burning, he said.

They also demanded relaxation in the norms for paddy procurement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Better days are ahead for the as rural incomes are forecast to rise faster given the increasing shift to safer crops like paddy and in anticipation of further hike in minimum support prices (MSP) and other government doles.

Facing elections, the Centre had woken up to woo with steep hike in MSPs twice since June and the new procurement policies are more visible in the electorally important states in the north and central regions, while other states are only seeing patchy efforts, says a report.

"Overall, we see the strength in rural incomes persisting for this crop cycle, given the shift to safer crops and with hope of continued government support," says the eighth edition of the Rural Safari by

'Grow rice, get fat!' is the mantra that the seem to be following, says the report which observes that farmers have moved away from "riskier" crops like pulses and coarse cereals to "safer" crops such as paddy and to capitalise on the better procurement available to them.

Even within paddy, there is an increasing shift towards non-Basmati varieties, says the report which attributes this to the higher MSP for normal rice.

"These "safe" crops, generally grown by larger farmers (those who own over 10 acres), have seen faster adjustments to the minimum support price, smaller and marginal farmers (or those who own under 5 acres), on the other hand, have seen a faster increase in input costs than in the prices for their main produce (fruits, vegetables, dairy) and thus will need more government support in coming days as wage increases are also only fleetingly higher," says the report.

This will increase farm incomes as these crops carry higher prices, leaving more money in the hands of the farmers, says the seventh edition of the Rural Safari, but without quantifying the increase.

The survey covers 12 states or over 70 per cent of the key farming areas.

Near-term farm income to be higher on y-o-y basis as regions under paddy to benefit from the double digit MSP hike, await procurement pick-up for other crops.

It can be noted that paddy sowing is up 2.4 per cent y-o-y this year with more growth in the South and other paddy growing regions, despite 9.4 per cent lower rainfall.

There has been a shift to paddy and from cotton, pulses and coarse cereals as the procurement mechanism is better for these "safe" crops and their prices adjust to the new MSPs more quickly.

Given that the income from is higher for larger farmers as a percentage of overall income, larger farmers stand to benefit.

As per the report, smaller and marginal farmers or those who own less than 5 acres, on the other hand, have seen faster increase in input costs than in the prices for their main produce (fruits, vegetables and dairy) and hence, would need more government support in the coming days as wage increases are also only fleetingly higher.

It can be noted that agri-inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides form a significant portion of overall production cost. For vegetables this is as high as 40 -60 per cent of the total cost, while in the case of cereals it is 20-35 per cent.

"Therefore we believe that additional government intervention is on the cards such as partial waiver of power bills in Already, the Centre's rural spending is up 29 per cent so far this fiscal," notes the report.

Another reason for higher income projection is the rising power consumption in large states like UP and Bihar, which along with improved financial inclusion continues to drive alternative sources of income.

The feedback around Mudra (MSME loans) indicate that the "over-dues" are beyond normal levels, but these are limited findings and need further checking.

On the flip-side, the wealth effect still remains weak, impacting large-ticket consumption.Former USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny, who resigned from his post last year, was arrested in connection with the Larry Nassar molestation scandal, US media reported.

The arrest on Wednesday came after Penny was indicted three weeks ago by a grand jury on felony charges of allegedly tampering with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of former gymnastics doctor Nassar, the Huntsville Item newspaper reported.

Penny was arrested by a police task force in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and is awaiting extradition to Texas, prosecutors said in a press release Wednesday night.

According to the indictment, Penny is alleged to have tampered with evidence during the investigation of Nassar by ordering the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch in Walker County, Texas that were related to the activities of Nassar at the ranch.

The indictment alleges the removal of the documents was done to destroy or hide the documents and impair the investigation.

"During the investigation by the Texas Rangers and the Walker County Sheriff's Office, several sources reported that Penny ordered the removal of the documents from the ranch after learning that an investigation was underway," the Item quoted Walker County district attorney David Weeks saying.

The documents in question were from the Korolyi Ranch, the base for the gold-medal winning US Olympic teams. It is also the location where several athletes say Nassar molested them.

In February, Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison after he pled guilty to molesting 10 girls.

Penny could be facing between two to 10 years in jail on a third degree felony charge.

"Deputy U.S. Marshals and task force officers from the Southern District of Texas and the Eastern District Tennessee worked tirelessly to locate Penny," US Marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee David Jolley said in a release.

"Good police work ensured that Penny was swiftly and safely apprehended. He will now face the charges against him."



Penny's arrest also comes a day after the newly appointed interim president and chief executive of USA Gymnastics, Mary Bono, resigned just days after being named to the job following stinging criticism by Olympic stars Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.

The 56-year-old Bono drew the ire of Olympic superstar Biles over a tweet posted by Bono last month in which she was critical of apparel maker Nike following the company's ad campaign featuring ex-NFL star Colin Kaepernick.

Penny's arrest and Bono's resignation are further blows to USA Gymnastics, which has lurched from one self-inflicted crisis to the next as it struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of the Nassar sex abuse scandal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government is expected to come out with a comprehensive soon to promote the metal industry and the sector, which is a major contributor to the export basket, sources said.

The policy also aims at creating jobs in the gold sector.

It is likely to focus on promoting domestic gold industry and exports of gems and jewellery, which contributes about 15 per cent to total merchandise outbound shipments, they said.

In February, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced formulation of a comprehensive to develop gold as an asset class.



Government think-tank NITI Aayog in August suggested the government to bring down import duty on gold from the existing level of 10 per cent and also asked to slash the rate on the precious metal from the current 3 per cent.

Besides, it had recommended review and revamp of the gold monetisation scheme, sovereign gold bond scheme besides setting up of a gold board and bullion exchanges across the country to have greater financialisation of the yellow metal.



ALSO READ: Time to increase gold allocation in your portfolio this Dussehra

The report had also suggested exemption of 3 per cent Integrated Goods and Service Tax (IGST) to be paid by the exporter in line with customs duty with a provision of bank guarantee.

To promote exports, the Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has asked for support in terms of increasing incentives under the Merchandise Exports from India Scheme (MEIS) to boost shipments.

Under MEIS, the government provides duty benefits depending on product and country.



Rewards under the scheme are payable as percentage of realised free-on-board value and duty credit scrip can be transferred or used for payment of a number of duties including the basic customs duty.A government veterinary doctor has been arrested in Jharkhand's Pakur district on charges of luring a minor girl "with Rs 500" into converting to Christianity.

Acting on a complaint lodged by the girl's father, the police conducted raids at Sawanlapur village on Tuesday and rescued the 13-year-old girl after arresting the doctor, Dalu Soren, said Pakur Superintendent of Police Shailendra Prasad Burnwal on Wednesday.

He said a religious meeting was going on during that time.

The veterinary doctor-cum-flying animal husbandry officer is currently posted at Chatarpur in Palamu district.

The case was registered against the senior veterinary doctor under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Jharkhand Anti-Conversion Act, 2017, on the basis of the statement of the girl's father on Monday, the SP said.

Burnwal said the accused has previous record of converting children and villagers to Christianity.

In the FIR lodged at the Littipara Police Station, the girl's father, a farmer of Rodego village, said the veterinary doctor had recently lured his daughter and took her away in his vehicle after offering Rs 500.

The accused, who was a frequent visitor to Rodego village, had told the girl that she would be converted to Christianity at the religious meeting and assured her that missionary authorities would take care of her studies and other requirements, the SP said quoting complaint.

Officer-in-Charge of Littipara Police Station, Bimal Kumar Singh said, "We are investigating the links of the accused with any specific missionary organisation."



Soren runs a school at Sawanlapur village, Singh said.

Following allegations of conversion against the accused in 2015, he was transferred to Chatarpur, Singh said.

The girl has been sent to a child welfare centre for counselling and Soren has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a Pakur court on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested a popular male Keio University student over the alleged rape of an intoxicated woman in Yokohama last month, reports the Sankei Shimbun

Over an approximately 20-minute period beginning at 4:05 a.m. on September 29, Yota Watanabe, 22, a second-year student living Tokyoas Minato Ward, is alleged to have sexually assaulted the woman, a first-year student at another university, in a stairwell of a multi-tenant building in Nishi Ward.

Watanabe, who has been accused of quasi-coerced intercourse, denies the allegations. aSince I was drunk, I do not remember,a the suspect was quoted by the Kanagawa Police Station.

According to police, Watanabe was not acquainted with the woman. The incident took place after the suspect spotted her walking alone after she had been out drinking. He then took her to the building to commit the alleged crime.

The arrest of Watanabe is his second in connection with the woman. After committing the alleged sexual assault, the suspect allegedly kicked her in the abdomen on a road about 150 meters from the building. An officer arrested him at the scene on suspicion of assault.

Following that initial arrest, Watanabe admitted to the allegations. However, the charges have been put on hold.Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani Thursday took stock of ongoing preparations at the site of the 'Statue of Unity' at Kevadiya in Narmada district.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to unveil the world's tallest statue at 182 metres, dedicated to the country's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on October 31.

It is being built on Sadhu Bet island near the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel also accompanied Rupani, stated an official release.

Meanwhile, Patel refuted media reports suggesting that the prime minister would board a sea plane to reach the site to unveil the statue on October 31.

"The PM is not coming to Kevadiya in a sea plane," he told PTI.

After the visit, Rupani held a high-level meeting at Kevadiya with government officials on the ongoing preparations, stated the release.

During the meeting, Rupani told officials to stay prepared to handle a huge rush of visitors after unveiling the statue due to upcoming Diwali vacation, it said.

Apart from the statue, the administration is working on setting up many other "world class" attractions near it, such as the 'valley of flower', which is spread across 230 hectares, and a tent city near the statue.

Rupani instructed the officials to lit up the statue as well as other attractions, including the dam, with lighting, it said.

Meanwhile, state Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said in Ahmedabad that the BJP would take out "Ekta Yatra" ahead of October 31 as a tribute to Sardar Patel to spread awareness about his contribution in uniting the country.

The Yatra would be taken out in two phases during which it will cover 10,000 villages, said the minister.

The chief minister would flag off the first 'Ekta Yatra' chariot Friday at Bardoli town in south Gujarat, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The hartal called by Hindu outfits in Kerala over the Sabarimala issue evoked a good response with buses keeping off the roads and shops remaining closed Thursday.

Barring a few minor incidents of violence in which some Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses were pelted with stones, the day-long shutdown passed off peacefully, police said.

KSRTC operated services in the morning in some routes.

Hartal supporters blocked roads and forced shops to be closed in some places, they police said.

Private vehicles were seen plying in some parts of the state.

However, there was no major disruption to normal life as Thursday was a public holiday on account of "Mahanavami".

The hartal was called by Sabarimala Samarakashna Samithi, an outfit of Lord Ayyappa devotees, to protest against the state government's decision to implement the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups to enter the hill temple and the 'police lathicharge' at Nilackal, the base camp, Wednesday.

The BJP and its NDA partners have extended their support to the hartal call.

Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad led by Parvin Togadia has also called for a hartal demanding that the CPI-M led LDF government promulgate a law to get around the apex court verdict.

Special security arrangements were put in place at various locations including Pamba, Nilackal and Erumeli en route to the Sabarimala temple, located in Pathanamthitta district, officials said.

District authorities have promulgated ban orders under section 144 of CrPc in four places including Pamba and annidhanam (the temple complex) to check protests and violence.

Protesters opposing the apex court order allowing the entry of women of menstrual age group into the shrine turned violent at Nilackal and clashed Wednesday, leading to the police making the baton-charge to disperse them.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, lifted the centuries-old ban on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 into the shrine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)These are the top stories from the northern region at 6 pm



NEWDELHI DEL31 LD TIWARI



New Delhi: Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who served in various positions at the Centre and in states, died on his birthday at a private hospital here on Thursday after prolonged illness, doctors said.

DEHRADUN DEL23 TIWARI-OBIT



Dehradun/New Delhi: Narayan Dutt Tiwari's long political career included helming Uttar Pradesh three times as chief minister, becoming the only Uttarakhand CM to complete a full term and holding key portfolios at the Centre.

PATIALA/LUDHIANA DEL30 PB-STUBBLE-FARMERS



Patiala/Ludhiana: Mid-afternoon, Upender is busy tossing paddy residue into the fire he started over an acre of land.

CHANDIGARH DES13 PB-STUBBLE BURNING



Chandigarh: Punjab is expecting not more than 12,000 stubble burning incidents this season, a reduction of about 70 per cent compared to last year, on the back of a "vigorous" awareness drive and distribution of crop residue management machinery, an official said.

SRINAGAR DEL17 JK-GUV-INTERVIEW



Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik said there is no move to deploy 'Black Cat' commandos of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) in counter-militancy operations in the state, and made it clear that the specialised force could be used only in the "gravest of grave" situations



LUCKNOW DES16 UP-BHAGWAT



Lucknow: Opposition parties and Muslim leaders Thursday said RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's demand for a law to enable construction of Ram temple was "politically motivated" as it comes ahead of assembly polls in some states.

NEWDELHI LGD14 DL-COURT-2ND LD HOTEL



New Delhi: Ashish Pandey, a former BSP MP's son who is accused of brandishing a pistol in the foyer of a five-star hotel here, surrendered before a Delhi court Thursday and was remanded to one-day police custody.

NEWDELHI DEL9 DL-BSP LEADER-SON



New Delhi: Former BSP MP's son Ashish Pandey, accused of brandishing a gun at guests and threatening them at a five-star hotel here, said in a video message he was being subjected to media trial and alleged only one side of the story is being shown, portraying him as a "terrorist".

JAIPUR DES11 RJ-EXAMS-INTERNET



Jaipur: The Rajasthan government is considering a ban on social messaging apps like WhatsApp around exam centres to prevent cheating, instead of the current practice of disabling the mobile internet services entirely.

LUCKNOW DES5 UP-POLICE RECRUITMENT



Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government will recruit 56,808 personnel in the state police force to fill the vacant posts and the process for the same will start in November.

NEWDELHI DES7 DL-BJP-AAP-METRO



New Delhi: Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari offered to donate Rs 1,11,100 to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday, but on one condition: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal clears the passage of Delhi Metro Phase IV project caught up on funds issue.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hillary Clinton appears to have been unharmed when the Secret Service vehicle she was riding in was involved in a crash.

The 2016 Democratic presidential candidate was headed to a fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in Jersey City on Tuesday night. The vehicle pulled into a parking garage, made a left turn and hit a concrete crossbeam.

Clinton emerged from the van and walked to the fundraiser, where she was the featured guest.

The Secret Service says no injuries were reported, and the Jersey City Police Department is investigating.

In its accident report, police say the driver told them she drove into the garage and struck a concrete crossbeam that was not marked with its height. All passengers refused medical attention.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Haryana Police Thursday donated Rs 2.5 crore towards relief and rehabilitation of flood victims in Kerala.

A cheque was handed over to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar by Director General of Police (DGP) B S Sandhu here, an official statement said.

All officers and ranks of the Haryana Police had contributed their one day's salary towards the cause, it said.

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S S Prasad, ADGP (CID) Anil Kumar Rao and Inspector General of Police (Modernisation) H S Doon were also present on the occasion.

Kerala had suffered huge damages in the torrential rains that lashed the state in August last, claiming 493 lives and leaving a trail of destruction.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)/ -- The 6th Global Tea Fair Xi'an and the 2018 Silk Road Shaanxi Tea Culture Festival, hosted by Shenzhen Huajuchen Industry Group, were held in the Xi'an Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Center from October 10 to October 15. The five day exhibition highlighted the cultural heritage of Xi'an and the Chinese tea industry. The variety of tea and utensils attracted more than 100,000 people to participate and injected new life into the festival over cups of the best tea in western China.

The Xi'an Tea Expo had a total exhibition area of 50,000m2, 2,400 international standard booths, and more than 800 well-known domestic and foreign enterprises. The international exhibition area included exhibitors from tea producing areas such as Sri Lanka, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia.

One of the highlights of this exhibition was the "Silk Road Shaanxi Tea Exhibition Hall", with an exhibition area of 10,000 square meters. It focused on publicizing and demonstrating the achievements of Shaanxi Tea, expanding the influence of Shaanxi Tea at home and abroad, and promoting tea companies to cooperate with enterprises around the world. In addition to exhibitions, a variety of activities revolving around the Shaanxi culture propagation and meticulous planning were also unveiled to promote the charm of silk road Shaanxi tea.

Activities included:



Forum



The 6th "Tea and Silk Road" Summit ForumPorcelain Silk RoadWorkshopDimensions of tea spaceAsia Music Festival, Winding River, and Floating CupCompetitionTea Artist Star Competition Xi'an Division FinalsThe First Tea Artist Star Teahouse & Northwest Teahouse Competition Awards CeremonyFrom the data and feedback of the tea fair held in Xi'an this year, it appears that the popularity of tea culture is growing. We are looking forward to the next fabulous event - 2018 Shenzhen Autumn Global Tea Fair, which will be held from December 13 to December 17. This tea fair will invite well-known global experts to develop the diversity of tea culture and international tea standards.

For more information about 2018 Shenzhen Autumn Global Tea Fair, event introduction and exhibition services, and event photos please visit: www.globalteafair.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary on Thursday clarified that he was always supposed to attend the ICC meeting underway in Singapore and has not gone there as a substitute to BCCI CEO Rahul Johri, who has been accused of sexual harassment.

Johri did not go to Singapore as he has been asked by the Committee of Administrators to submit his stance on the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him.

"Ever since it was decided that Mr. Rahul Johri would not attend the ICC-CEC meeting, an impression has been created that Mr. Amitabh Choudhary, Acting secretary BCCI, is being sent as a 'substitute' for Mr Johri.

"It must be noted Mr. Choudhary is a Director on the ICC Board of Directors, the highest ICC forum, for nearly two years now and has been representing India/BCCI at the meetings in his capacity as the ICC Board Director," read the BCCI statement quoting Choudhary.

In Johri's absence, Choudhary, who anyway was going to attended the ICC Board of Directors meeting, will also be part of the Chief Executives' meeting.

"Choudhary was scheduled to attend the ICC Board of Directors meeting in the ongoing ICC conference even if Mr. Johri was going to attend the Chief Executives' meeting.

"Owing to certain circumstances, Mr. Johri is not attending the current meeting, which is attended by the respective Chief Executives of the full member countries. Mr. Choudhary, is, therefore, only, additionally standing in for Mr. Johri," the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat Thursday said India cannot be assured about its security without becoming self-reliant in defence production, while underlining that the country should purchase defence equipment from international market on its own terms.

Bhagwat was delivering his annual Vijyadashmi speech at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. The Sangh was founded on the occasion of Vijyadashmi in 1925, and its chiefs' annual speech has been used to put out the organisation's perspectives on issues of national and social importance.

Bhagwat's remarks on defence production assume significance as the BJP-led government is under attack from the Congress over the Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

"The country cannot be assured about its security without becoming self-reliant in defence production," Bhagwat said.

He said that to sell its products in the international market, sometimes a country needs to purchase something from a foreign nation. Thus, buying defence equipment may be a part of trade strategy, or at times required also, the RSS chief said.

"This process of give-and-take in trade should not be stopped. It should be on our terms and we should not be dependent on anyone else for our security. We should get technology and enhance our domestic capacity," he added.

Bhagwat said the country is not careless about its security but there is a need to be more active and vigilant. He asserted the country should become so powerful that no one dares to attack it.

"India has always displayed its clear intent to maintain peaceful and cordial relations with all countries, in words and deeds -- standing and acting firm and making prudent use of our capabilities while initiating bold actions wherever necessary in context of national security," Bhagwat said.

Speaking on border and internal security, he said these are issues of foremost importance as a secure border and internal landscape provide opportunity to the nation for making efforts towards prosperity and development.

Underscoring the importance of keeping the morale of armed forces high, he said it was essential to be more attentive towards their and their families' needs.

"There have been some laudable efforts in this regard by the government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mid-afternoon, Upender is busy tossing paddy residue into the fire he started over an acre of land.

Huge, thick clouds of smoke rise into the air and engulf the neighbouring fields before the wind blows them away. After about 15 minutes, the fire is out, leaving only the ash and a question - Have the efforts of the Punjab government to check stubble burning failed?



The administration is making serious interventions to curb stubble burning, but the farmers in the state continue to defy the ban on the practice amid a lack of financial incentives.

The state government is providing 50 to 80 per cent subsidy to farmers and cooperative societies to buy modern farm equipment for in-situ management of paddy straw and running a massive awareness campaign against stubble burning.

It made stubble burning a punishable offence in 2013 and continues to issue challans to erring farmers under the 2015 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), says Karunesh Garg, member secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

The Punjab government says around 25,000 machines of different kinds are being distributed to farmers and cooperative societies this year for the management of paddy straw in the fields itself.

The Centre has sanctioned Rs 669 crore to the Punjab government -- for 2018-19 and 2019-20 -- for providing subsidy on agri-implements like straw management system (S-SMS), happy seeder and straw chopper, according to the PPCB.

However, farmers claim it is unimaginable for everyone to buy the expensive modern farm machinery to manage stubble. They say they cannot afford to rent it as the rising diesel prices have increased the input cost manifold.

Sarabjeet Singh of Rola village in Ludhiana district has hired a daily wager to set fire to paddy straw in his fields for Rs 300 a day.

He says farmers generally do this in the evening to dodge NASA satellites and Punjab government officials tasked with reporting incidents of stubble burning.

"This irresponsible government has imposed sophisticated machinery on small farmers who cannot afford such costly equipment," Sarabjeet Singh claims.

Asked if stubble burning in Punjab affects Delhi's air quality, he says, "Delhi's air is already polluted. The city government should close down the factories that lead to air pollution."



Nearly 23 million tonne of straw is produced in 30 lakh hectares under paddy cultivation in Punjab, says Manjeet Singh, the head of the department of farm machinery and power engineering at the Punjab Agriculture University.

Most farmers in Punjab use combine harvesters for paddy harvesting. The state government has made it mandatory for farmers to install the S-SMS on their combine harvesters to deal with the stubble.

"After the harvester reaps paddy, thick bunches of plants with their roots deep in the soil and loose stubble remain. The S-SMS, which costs Rs 1-1.15 lakh, chops and evenly spreads the loose stubble in the field. Thereafter, the turbo happy seeder (THS), costing Rs 1.25 lakh, can be used to directly sow wheat in the soil, from above the straw," explains Subhash Sharma, an agricultural scientist.

Other option are the rotary drill and the mulcher that incorporate the stubble into the soil.

"Small farmers, who own two to three acres of land, have to spend Rs 4,000-5,000 per acre if they use the machinery to prepare the field for wheat sowing, while it takes just a matchstick to burn the stubble. We will continue to burn our paddy straw. We are not bothered if the government registers cases against us," Sarabjeet Singh says.

"There are around 50 brick kilns within a radius of four kilometres. Why are we being blamed for pollution?" he asks.

Karnal Singh (64), a resident of Jaspal Bangar village, says around 50-60 litres of diesel is needed to operate the combine harvester, the rotavator, and the mulcher in an acre. At Rs 75 per litre, that is an expenditure of around Rs 3,750-4,500.

"It doesn't cost a penny if we set fire to stubble. Only Rs 1,000-1,200 is spent on around 15 litres of diesel used for ploughing the field and a lot of time is saved," he says.

The Krishi Vikas Kendras are also impressing upon the farmers to adopt early-ripening rice varieties so that after its harvesting, they have enough time to prepare the field for wheat sowing.

However, Karnal Singh says the yield decreases if they use early-maturing rice varieties.

An 80 per cent subsidy on the machinery for cooperative societies isn't helping either.

Jitendra Pal Singh (48) says there are 800 members in the village's cooperative society, which recently purchased three S-SMS, three happy seeders, two rotavators and a mulcher.

"Not everyone can use the machinery in the three-week window between rice harvesting and wheat sowing. The farmers will burn the stubble if they do not get the equipment," he says.

Karnal Singh says he didn't burn the stubble for two years and used the machinery to manage it, but he suffered losses. "I will restart burning stubble if I keep accruing losses," he says.

Karam Singh (45) from Sahnewal Khurd village says, "Twenty-five to 30 quintal of rice is harvested in an acre of land. If the government gives us Rs 200 per quintal, it will take care of everything. The government can also give a subsidy on diesel. Ultimately, everything boils down to cost."



Last year, 42,000 incidents of stubble burning were reported from Punjab and fines totalling Rs 65 lakh were imposed on the erring farmers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Just two weeks into her appointment, the only female minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abeas new Cabinet found herself in hot water Thursday after a weekly magazine alleged that she was paid to use her bureaucratic influence to get a tax break for a business owner in 2015.

Satsuki Katayama, the minister in charge of regional revitalization and female empowerment, swiftly blasted the report as afactually erroneousa and ainaccurate,a saying she is preparing to sue the Shukan Bunshun magazine for defamation.

The denial by Katayama a a former elite bureaucrat of the Finance Ministry a was in response to an article published the same day by the magazine, which alleged that in 2015 she received A1 million from a troubled business owner and approached the National Tax Agency on his behalf to negotiate the preferential tax treatment he was seeking. The Finance Ministry has jurisdiction over the National Tax Agency.

aThe article makes it sound as if I had requested the A1 million myself and intervened in the process of a tax probe, but I have never influenced tax authorities in the interest of a specific company or received money,a Katayama said during a joint interview with media outlets on Thursday.

The article, she says, risks asignificantly undermining my reputation as a politician.a

It was the first major ministerial scandal to emerge since Abe revamped his Cabinet earlier this month, following his successful re-election in September as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Katayama was the only woman who made it into Abeas 19-member Cabinet, despite the leaderas purported awomenomicsa commitment to putting more women in leadership positions.The Indian Women's Press Corps Thursday expressed "deep shock" over heckling of journalists who were covering the march of women towards the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.

The women press body also appealed to the Kerala government to "book the culprits involved in the intimidation and assault of all the affected mediapersons".

The journalists were on duty reporting women devotees' bid to enter the historic temple as permitted by a recent Supreme Court order.

"The IWPC wishes to express its deep shock and outrage over the assault on mediapersons who were assigned to cover the entry of women in the Sabarimala Temple, Kerala on October 17," the press body said in a statement.

On Wednesday, the iron gates of the Sabarimala Temple were opened for the first time since the apex court allowed women of menstrual age to enter the shrine, but no one from the "banned" age group could make it to its sacred premises amid protests and violent clashes.

The women journalists were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of Hindu right activists besieged the road leading to the hill-top temple, abode to Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity.

"As per reports, both television and print media journalists were set upon by protestors who were opposing the entry of all women into the temple. Journalists were heckled, equipment and vehicles smashed by the protestors at the Nilackal base camp. Vehicle checks by vigilante groups intimidated and obstructed the movement of media personnel present on duty," the IWPC statement said.

"While the state government made arrangements for women to enter the temple as per the Supreme Court order, it is shocking that not only did certain elements brazenly violate the order by not allowing women to enter but also attacked media persons who were present at the spot as part of their official assignments," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das Thursday offered prayers at the famous Deori temple in Ranchi district on the occasion of Mahanavami.

An official release quoting Das said that he prayed for the prosperity of 3.25 crore people and the resource-rich state.

The chief minister announced that a statue of late Sahadeo Munda, who had donated land for the temple would be set up in its premises so that the people were inspired by it.

He also expressed gratitude to the Mundas widow, Sumitra Devi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Javier Bardem says he does not approve of Woody Allen's "public lynching" in the child sexual assault allegations that have resurfaced over the past years against the filmmaker.

The 49-year-old actor, who worked with Allen in 2007's "Vicky Christina Barcelona", said he collaborate with the director in a heartbeat if he called him.

"At the time I did 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', the allegations were already well known for more than 10 years, and two states in the US deemed he was not guilty.

"If the legal situation ever changes, then I'd change my mind. But for now I don't agree with the public lynching that he's been receiving, and if Woody Allen called me to work with him again I'd be there tomorrow morning. He's a genius," Bardem said.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor was speaking at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon Tuesday.

Dylan Farrow, Allen's adopted daughter with former wife Mia Farrow, accused the director of sexually abusing her in the early 1990s while she was a child.

She reiterated her claims in a 2014 New York Times op-ed and other articles.

The allegations caught steam in the wake of the #MeToo uprising.

Last month, Allen's wife Soon-Yi Previn broke her decades-long silence over claims against her husband, calling them "unjust" and said that her adoptive mother Mia had "taken advantage of the #MeToo movement".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Thursday criticised the varsity's move to imposeCentral Services Rules (CCS) on the teachers.

The JNUSU claimed that48 teachers were issued show cause notices in Augustfor participating in a day strike on July 31 to oppose the vice-chancellor's decisions.

They termed the varsity's move as "absurd, illegal and unconstitutional".

"Universities are autonomous spaces, and teachers are not part of the executives as Government servants are. The ruling regime must not impose the CCS rules on university faculty members, as these are actually framed for the government servants who have to carry forward specific duties and programs of the government," the JNUSU said.

The imposition of CCS rules will completely destroy the academic spirit and excellence of universities as now speaking or researching on pressing concerns of our times like caste discrimination, minority witch hunt, gender inequality, economic plunder of natural resources by corporate companies, poverty, unemployment and many more will surely invite the wrath of the ruling regime, it claimed.

"The idea of critical thinking, research, progress and development will all be criminalised and destroyed.JNUSU strongly condemns the imposition of CCS rules and immediately demands that the government must stop all intimidating tactics to impose CCS rules," the student body said.

In its academic council meeting, the varsity had approached bringing teachers under the CCS Rules, which would mean teachers won't be able to criticise the administration or the ruling party.

Earlier, the JNU Teachers Association (JNUTA) had also opposed the move.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Wednesday accused some Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (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 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.

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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford has met his Pakistani counterpart General Zubair Mahmood Hayat and discussed the current security environment in South Asia, the Pentagon has said.

Dunford this week hosted the Counter Violent Extremist Chiefs of Defence Conference in which over 80 international chiefs of defence participated at Joint Base Andrews to discuss countering violent extremist organisations.

Gen Hayat also attended the conference.

"The senior leaders (Dunford and Hayat) discussed the current security environment in South Asia," Joint Staff Spokesperson Colonel Patrick S Ryder.

"The senior military leaders participated in discussions that reinforced the main themes of the conference, to include security cooperation and capacity building, applying military pressure and countering violent extremists," the Pentagon said in a statement.

Throughout the conference, Dunford highlighted the need to expand the military network and build upon past successes through unity of effort, cooperation and collaboration to counter violent extremism.

"We recognise that violent extremism is a trans-regional threat that affects the security of all of our countries.

"Defeating trans-regional violent extremist organisations requires a broad network of like-minded nations to share intelligence, information and best practices," said Dunford.

Participants also discussed the current threats generated by violent extremist organisations worldwide as well as the importance of partnerships, alliances and increased military-to-military communication in identifying, countering and defeating those threats, the Pentagon added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A former senior producer of a private television channel was booked by the Noida Police for allegedly sexually and mentally harassing a junior reporter, officials said Thursday.

The accused, however, has alleged that the complainant woman and her fiance were trying to blackmail him and extort money. He too has made a complaint to the Ghaziabad police, according to officials.

In a written complaint to the Noida Police, the woman accused one of her former colleagues of ill treatment in December 2016, prompting the police to register a first information report (FIR).

"He asked me about the shape of my body parts and told me that he was conducting a survey. But eventually, his questions kept getting worse. He also mentally harassed me in the office," she alleged.

The woman said she could not say anything then because she was "new in the job" and "scared" to speak up.

"But when I got to know from some other women that he had done the same with them also, I decided to take this step, although the other women do not want their names to come up," she claimed.

The junior reporter said even though the accused had apologised to her, she wanted "legal action against him so that he does not repeat it with other women in the future".

The police said on the basis of the complaint, an FIR was lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), besides invoking charges under the Information Technology Act.

"The FIR was lodged Thursday and we have initiated a probe in the case. The statements of the complainant and accused will be recorded in a magistrate's court and evidence will be gathered during the course of the investigation," Station House Officer, Sector 20 police station, Manoj Pant told PTI.

The accused has also made a complaint at the Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad against the woman and her fiance, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Ghaziabad, Vaibhav Krishna said.

"He has alleged in his complaint that the woman and her fiance were trying to blackmail him and extort Rs 25 lakh," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after devotees opposing entry of women into clashed with the police at Nilackal, the government Thursday charged that the was trying to "destroy" the Lord Ayyappa shrine by "unleashing terror".

The BJP, however, countered the allegation, saying the CPI(M)-led LDF government was trying to tarnish the Ayyappa Temple and was responsible for creating tension at the holy shrine.

Blocking devotees from proceeding to the Ayyappa Temple and forcing them to return by creating terror were part of the RSS-Sangh Parivar's move to "destroy" Sabarimala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan charged in a Facebook post.

The chief minister claimed that right wing forces had always been disturbed due to the unique nature of where devotees, irrespective of caste, creed and religion, offer worship.

The saffron groups' attempt was to destroy this basic quality of the hill shrine and the present developments could be seen as part of that move.

" is trying to destroy the Lord Ayyappa shrine by unleashing terror,"the Chief Minister alleged.



"The final objective of the Sangh Parivar forces is to establish the upper caste dominance by destroying the acceptance enjoyed by all sections of the society at the shrine," he said.

Making it clear that the government would not allow the temple to be turned into a "riot zone", he said any attempt to check people from trekking the holy hills would be dealt with.

Reacting to developments at Sabarimala, BJP state president P S Sreedharan Pillai Thursday demanded a judicial probe into the circumstances that led to the violence and lathicharge by police against protesters at Nilackal, the base camp.

The protesters were opposing the state government's decision to implement the Supreme Court order, permitting women of all age groups into the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

Pillai said the police had "deliberately" triggered provocation and turned Sabarimala into a "war zone".

He also alleged that police personnel had destroyed the make-shift shelter put by the devotees to conduct their prayer meeting protest at Nilackal.

"We also saw on TV, the policemen threw away the framed pictures of Lord Ayyappa," Pillai charged and questioned the police action of arresting and evicting even senior members of tantri family and Pandalam Palace who were conducting a peaceful protest at Pamba.

He said the party would continue its support to the devotees and protest at Nilackal till October 22, the day when the Ayyappa shrine would be closed.

Criticising the decision of the police to impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 at Sannidhanam (the temple complex), Nilackal and Pamba, the BJP leader said the matter would be brought before the Centre.

"Who created tension and how the violence erupted? Why were the media persons attacked? All these things have to be inquired. So, we demand a judicial probe into the incidents," he told reporters here.

The Left government should have placed before the Supreme Court sentiments of women devotees of Lord Ayyappa, Pillai added.

Addressing media, Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said, "fascist forces were behind the violence and the government has no ulterior motive in implementing the Apex court order."



During the press meeting, Surendran released an audio tape purportedly by a Hindu activist asking his followers to come to Sabarimala by wearing the sacred bead chain and customary "irumudikkikettu" (sacred bundle containing ghee-filled coconuts they offer to the deity) to defy prohibitory orders.

He charged that this was an attempt by Sangh forces and BJP to mobilise people at Sannidhanam (temple complex) to create trouble.

Surendran alleged that BJP was adopting double standards on the Sabarimala issue.

"The Centre is with you...why do not you bring an ordinance to overcome the Supreme Court verdict if you are sincere in opposing it," the minister added.

Senior BJP leader and the party's lone MLA in the state Assembly, O Rajagopal wanted the government to convene a special assembly session to discuss the developments of the Sabarimala issue.

Several people including mediapersons were injured and vehicles damaged after the protest by devotees turned violent resulting in police using baton-charge at Nilackal Wednesday.

Trouble broke out as the agitators continued to block vehicles of pilgrims and pelted stones, disregarding repeated requests by police to desist from such acts.Civil liberties activist Gautam



Navlakha, arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima case and his alleged links with Maoists, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the case lodged against him by Pune Police.

In his petition filed earlier this month, Navlakha urged the high court to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him, claiming there was no evidence against him and that he was being falsely implicated.

His petition will be heard Friday by the high court's division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharti Dangre.

Navlakha, prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao, activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves and trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj were arrested in August this year by the Pune police.

However, the Supreme Court had later ordered for the activists to be kept in house arrest.

The apex court had last month refused to interfere in the case and said the Pune Police could go ahead with its probe.

Earlier this month, the Delhi High Court had allowed Navlakha to be freed from the house arrest.

It granted him the relief, saying the Supreme Court had earlier given him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum within four weeks to seek further recourse.

The Pune Police had claimed earlier that that they seized documents and communication exchanged between the accused persons which allegedly revealed their links with Maoist leaders and their role in facilitating weapons and funding.

The five activists were arrested on August 28 in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave -- 'Elgaar Parishad' -- held on December 31 last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at the Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune.

They were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action.

Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and Navlakha from Delhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived here Thursday on a three-day visit with an aim to boost ties in a range of areas including trade and investment and maritime security.

His visit comes in the backdrop of controversial media reports that Lankan President has accused Indian intelligence agency RAW of plotting his assassination, a claim firmly rejected as "false" by Colombo.

Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold wide-ranging talks on Saturday.

"You are aware of close friendship between India and Sri Lanka. Development cooperation will be one of the agenda items," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing.

He further said, "All shades of political opinion in Sri Lanka are for close relationship with India. We do enjoy very strong bonds of friendship."



The two sides are also likely to review the status of the India-assisted housing projects in Jaffna during Wickremesinghe's visit. They are also likely to deliberate on the Tamil issue -- the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated areas.

Sources said both sides are expected to discuss modalities of India taking charge of operating Sri Lanka's loss-making Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota.

The USD 210 million facility, 241 km south-east of Colombo, is dubbed the "world's emptiest airport" due to a lack of flights.

India is likely to operate the airport under a joint venture with the island nation.

The sources said the two sides are also likely to discuss ways to deepen maritime security cooperation.

During the visit, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on Wickremesinghe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lankan authorities have beefed up the security of President Maithripala Sirisena following an alleged plot to assassinate him, presidential officials said Thursday.

"People in charge have taken measures to strengthen his security. Certainly his security has been beefed up," Shiral Lakthialaka, one of the presidential advisers, told reporters here.

On the probe about the alleged plot to assassinate the president, he said that political attempts are being made to undermine the credibility of the investigation by questioning the conduct of the man who had bared the plot.

"There is a concerted effort to undermine the investigation. This could be a political conspiracy," he said.

"We need a broad investigation into this," he added.

An Indian national named M Thomas is currently under detention in Lanka for his alleged involvement in the plot.

portal the economynext.com, quoting a ministerial source after a heated cabinet meeting Tuesday, reported that Sirisena had accused his senior coalition partner, the United National Party (UNP), of not taking seriously an alleged conspiracy to kill him and the former secretary to the ministry of defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

The minister, who declined to be named, claimed that the president said that India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was behind the plot.

The Lankan Foreign Ministry Wednesday termed the reports "baseless and false".

President Sirisena called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday and categorically rejected the media reports that he had accused RAW of plotting his assassination as "utterly baseless and false".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Astronomers have discovered the largest and most massive galaxy super cluster yet found in the early universe, just over two billion years after the Big Bang.

The galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, was identified using the VIMOS instrument on European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile, said researchers from the University of California, Davis in the US.

has a calculated mass more than one million billion times that of the Sun, making it the largest and most massive structure to be found so early in the formation of the universe, they said.

"This is the first time that such a large structure has been identified at such a high redshift, just over two billion years after the Big Bang," said Olga Cucciati of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Italy.

"Normally these kinds of structures are known at lower redshifts, which means when the universe has had much more time to evolve and construct such huge things. It was a surprise to see something like this evolved when the universe was relatively young," Cucciati said.

Located in the constellation of Sextans, was identified by a novel technique to analyse the vast amount of data obtained from the VIMOS Ultra-Deep Survey.

The VIMOS instrument can measure the distance to hundreds of galaxies at the same time, making it possible to map the position of galaxies within the forming supercluster in three dimensions.

The team found that has a very complex structure, containing at least seven high-density regions connected by filaments of galaxies, and its size is comparable to superclusters closer to Earth, though it has a very different structure.

"Superclusters closer to tend to be a much more concentrated distribution of mass with clear structural features," said Brian Lemaux from the University of California, Davis.

"But in Hyperion, the mass is distributed much more uniformly in a series of connected blobs, populated by loose associations of galaxies," Lemaux said.

The contrast between Hyperion and less distant superclusters is most likely due to the fact that nearby superclusters have had billions of years for gravity to gather matter together into denser regions -- a process that has been acting for far less time in the much younger Hyperion.

Given its size so early in the history of the universe, Hyperion is expected to evolve into something similar to the immense structures in the local universe such as the superclusters making up the Sloan Great Wall or the Virgo Supercluster that contains our own galaxy, the Milky Way.Legendary Turkish photographer Ara Guler, famed for iconic images of Istanbul which captured almost three quarters of a century of the city's history, has died aged 90, state media said.

Guler passed away after being rushed to hospital in Istanbul for emergency treatment for heart failure, state-run Anadolu agency said.

He won fame with extraordinary images of Istanbul in black-and-white that admirers believe capture the soul of the city more than any other photographer.

His work ranged from images of the city's best known mosques and landmarks, pictures of workers going about their daily lives to rare pictures of Istanbul covered in a blanket of snow.

In a city that is now changing at a frenetic pace, Guler's work preserved facets of Istanbul that have now become irrevocably lost.

Celebrated Turkish writer and Nobel Literature Prize winner Orhan Pamuk famously used Guler's images in his book "Istanbul: Memories and the City" in which the smoky and misty photos provided the perfect accompaniment to the text.

For many, the work of Guler was shot through with the spirit of huzun, the Turkish word for melancholy, which is seen as a particular Istanbul characteristic.

But in a wide-ranging career, he also photographed famous personalities including Salvador Dali, Alfred Hitchcock and Winston Churchill. Another famous subject was the artist Picasso.

Born to an Armenian family in Istanbul, Guler attended an Armenian school there and began working as a photographer on Turkish newspaper Yeni.

He got his first big international chance as a photographer in 1958 when US magazine Time-Life opened a Turkey office.

He then met the likes of Marc Riboud and Henri Cartier-Bresson who signed him up to join the celebrated photo agency Magnum.

Fans liked to call Guler the "Eye of Istanbul", but he insisted he was more.

"People call me an Istanbul photographer. But I am a citizen of the world. I am a world photographer," he said once.

His work took him around the world to Africa and Afghanistan as well as his native Turkey and resulted in numerous books, which remain a favourite of Istanbul souvenir-hunters to this day.

Guler was a well-known face in Istanbul and even in his last months could regularly be seen at the outside tables of the cafe he owned -- Ara Cafe -- in central Istanbul which is adorned with his pictures.

On August 18 this summer, a photography museum in Istanbul opened in his name.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) has awarded over Rs 75 lakh as compensation to the victims of a road accident which resulted in the death of a woman and injured six others.

MACT presiding officer Pawan Kumar Jain asked New India Assurance Company Limited, insurer of the offending vehicle, to pay a total of Rs 75,96,482, including the interest to the victims and the next of kin of the deceased woman.

The tribunal clubbed together seven pleas on behalf of the victims and awarded varying compensation amounts to the affected persons based on the injuries suffered by them.

"Since the offending vehicle was insured with respondent no. 2 (The New India Assurance Company Ltd.) it is directed to deposit the award amount of Rs 18,67,000, Rs 5,48,000, Rs 40,41,000, Rs 3,29,000, Rs 77,000, Rs 46,000 and Rs 92,000 with interest @ 9 per cent per annum from the date of filing of claim petitions i.e. 30.10.2017 till realisation of the amount, within 30 days," the tribunal said.

It also said that the owner of the bus, Yog Dutt Sharma, "shall be jointly and severally liable" to pay compensation, along with the insurance company, to the petitioners.

The tribunal awarded Rs 20,26,091, including interest to Dinesh Kumar Verma and Manish Verma, the husband and son of Delhi resident Renu Verma, who was killed in the accident on June 11 last year while travelling to Khatushyam, Rajasthan after sustaining fatal injuries.

Manish, who was also injured in the accident leading to amputation of his right leg below the knee, was awarded Rs 43,85,342 (with interest) towards cost of an artificial limb implantation and his father, Dinesh, was granted a compensation of Rs 5,94,696 for the injuries he suffered.

The court also awarded the other petitioners -- Manju Rani, Yogesh Sharma and minors Nevaidh Sharma and Nayasa Sharma -- amounts ranging between Rs 46,000 and Rs 3.29 lakh based on the injuries suffered by them in the accident.

The victims were travelling in a bus to Rajasthan, when it collided with a truck, injuring all the petitioners. Renu Verma died by the time she was taken to the hospital.

The complainant alleged that the bus was being driven at fast speed.

The tribunal noted that though the accident in question had not taken place within its jurisdiction, yet the claims have been filed before it as all the petitioners and the respondent (bus owner) are residing in Delhi and the insurance company is also based in the national capital.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the expansion of his Cabinet will happen soon, but refused to commit any specific deadline for the much-awaited exercise.

Fadnavis' comments came Wednesday, a day after BJP president Amit Shah held a meeting of select leaders of the party in Mumbai, amid talks of the expansion of Cabinet.

"The expansion of the council of ministers will be carried out soon," the chief minister told reporters in Solapur, around 400 kms from here.

Responding to a query on the proposed reshuffle, Fadnavis said, "Who will be in and who will be out will be known at appropriate time".

Fadnavis is heading the BJP-led government, in which the Shiv Sena is a key partner, since October, 2014.

There have been talks of a possible expansion of the state Council of Ministers for the last few months.

Interestingly, Fadnavis had last September also said that his cabinet will be expanded soon.

A vacancy arose when Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar of the BJP died in May. His portfolio is now being handled by PWD and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.

The number of ministers in Maharashtra cannot exceed 42 (as per the constitutional upper limit of 15 per cent of the number of MLAs).

The current strength of the state ministry is 38, of which 22 ministers are of the Cabinet rank and rest 16 are the ministers of state.

Of the 22 Cabinet ministers, 16 ministers are from the BJP, 5 from the Shiv Sena and one from the RashtriyaSamaj Paksh (RSP).

Of the 16 ministers of state, eight ministers are from the BJP, seven from the Shiv Sena while one minister belongs to a BJP ally.

The Fadnavis government completed four years on October 31.

While the talk of Cabinet expansion has been on for the last many months and different deadlines were committed, the actual exercise is yet to be carried out.

Assembly elections are due in Maharashtra in October next year.

Sources in the BJP had said that the reshuffle, which may be the last before Lok Sabha and assembly polls, could be aimed at course correction and finding a right balance of caste and region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 26-year-old Muslim man in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra allegedly gave triple talaq to his wife through WhatsApp, and was booked following a complaint lodged by her, police said Thursday.

The man, Javed Saber Pathan, a resident of Khandala village in Vaijapur taluka in the district, was booked on Wednesday under section 4 of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Ordinance, 2018, a police officer said.

"Javed had married Shabana Nisar Shaikh alias Sabha in December 2016. Things were fine between them for about a year. However, after that they regularly started arguing over small issues," police inspector Anant Kulkarni said.

"On September 9 (2018), Javed dropped Shabana at her maternal aunt's house in Kannad tehsil (in the district), but did not return to take her back. Shabana's parents visited his house to request him to patch up with her. But on September 23, Javed sent a triple talaq message on her WhatsApp," he added.

Shabana lodged a complaint against him with Vaijapur police station on Wednesday, following which a case was registered, Kulkarni said.

Javed was yet to be arrested, the inspector said adding that an investigation has been launched into the case.

On 28 December 2017, the Lok Sabha had passed The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017. The bill made instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp illegal and void, with up to three years in jail for the husband.

The Union cabinet last month approved an ordinance making triple talaq a punishable offence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A pro-government Turkish newspaper has published surveillance video images showing a man who previously travelled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage to the United States walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there.

The Sabah newspaper's report on Thursday shows the man also later outside the Saudi consul general's home, checking out of a Turkish hotel and leaving Turkey on October 2.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle later distributed by The Associated Press show the same man was in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

The AP couldn't immediately verify the man's identity. Saudi Arabia has not responded to repeated requests for comment from the AP over recent days, including Thursday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A man wanted by Punjab police in a case of theft has been arrested in Thane district of Maharashtra, police said Thursday.

Local police and a team of Ludhiana police raided a house in Irani Nagar in Kalyan area of the district Wednesday and nabbed Lalu Khani Irani (55).

A case of theft has been registered against Irani in Ludhiana, said inspector Ranveer Bias of Thane crime branch.

Irani, who hails from Thane, allegedly committed a theft in Ludhiana and fled back to Maharashtra, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday condoled the death of Narayan Dutt Tiwari, describing him as a great leader who was respected and admired across party lines.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

Singh, in a letter to Tiwari's wife Ujjwala, conveyed his condolences on the bereavement.

"I have learnt with profound sorrow about the sad demise of your beloved husband Narayan Dutt Tiwari. In his death, our country has lost a great leader and an efficient minister of the Union government.

"His services to the nation as chief ministers of two states, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Union minister of external affairs and finance minister and as governor of Andhra Pradesh will always be remembered for a long time to come," he said, in a letter to Tiwari's wife.

Singh said his wife joins him to convey to her and other members of his family their heartfelt condolences on this loss.

"I pray to God to give all of you the strength to bear this great loss with courage and fortitude," he said.

Gandhi expressed grief over Tiwari's death and described him as an "illustrious member" of the Congress.

"I'm sorry to hear about the passing of Shri N D Tiwari ji an important and illustrious member of the Congress family, who was respected and admired across party lines. My condolences to his family in their time of grief. Om Shanti," the Congress president tweeted.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "My deepest condolences on the passing away of veteran Congress leader, former Union minister, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Shri N D Tiwari ji. My thoughts and payers are with his followers and family members. May his soul rest in peace.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) militant involved in a grenade attack in which three police personnel were injured in Baramulla district was killed Thursday in a gunfight with security forces in Pulwama district, police said.

Showkat Ahmad Bhat was wanted in Wednesday's Pattan grenade incident and was killed in the gunfight in the south Kashmir district, a police official said.

He said some arms and ammunition were recovered from his possession.

Bhat had managed to escape Wednesday while his accomplice, Faizan Majeed Bhat - a resident of Tral in Pulwama - was arrested by the police who chased them after the militants lobbed a grenade on a police party at a naka in Pattan area.

Three police personnel, including Deputy Superintendent of Police Zafar Mehdi, were injured in the attack.

The duo had recently joined Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen outfit, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed Thursday on the need to hold more joint exercises by various stakeholders such as the NDMA to improve coordination between agencies in disaster relief management.

Chairing the sixth meeting of the National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi, he reviewed the activities of NDMA to effectively manage and respond to disasters. He also reviewed ongoing projects undertaken by the authority, a brief statement by the Prime Minister's Office said.

Modi emphasised on the need for better coordination among various stakeholders and undertake more joint exercises to bring about effective response to save life and property. He also stressed on the need to bring in global expertise in the field of disaster management, the statement said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh were present at the meeting, along with members and officials of NDMA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari died at a private hospital here Thursday after prolonged illness, doctors said.

He was 93.

Tiwari was admitted at the Max Super Speciality Hospital and died at 2.50 pm, the doctors said.

The politician was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital on October 26. He was suffering from fever and pneumonia.

A team of doctors was monitoring his condition in the ICU round the clock.

The veteran leader has also served as a Union minister in several Congress governments and as the Andhra Pradesh governor. He also served as Uttarakhand chief minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress Party (NCP) would contest five of the 40 seats of the Legislative Assembly in the forthcoming election to be held on November 28.

NCP state unit president Lalawmpuia Chhangte told newsmen Thursday that the party wants to contest from Hachhek, Dampa, Mamit, Aizawl East-I and Aizawl West-I Assembly constituencies.

Chhangte will be in Delhi on Monday to receive the approval of the names of candidates from the NCP headquarters after which the names would be announced, he said.

He said that out of respect for the appeals made by the NGO Coordination Committee, a conglomerate of all major civil society groups and student organisations in Mizoram, the NCP has not arrived at any decision about fielding nominees from two seats - West Tuipui and Tuichawng - in Chakma Autonomous District Council areas.

The NGO Coordination Committee had appealed to political parties not to put up candidates from the Chakma community from these two specific seats.

The NCP would contest from the two seats only if other parties field candidates belonging to the Chakma community, he said.

He expressed hope that the NCP has chances of winning the election from at least Hachhek and Mamit seats, where the party candidates had bagged 2,467 votes and 2,368 votes respectively in the 2013 assembly polls.

The NCP, which has been contesting Assembly polls in since 2003, had not won a single seat in 2013 assembly poll.Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked the Modi government over the Rafale issue alleging that Indian pilots were at risk flying the "ancient" Jaguars due to the NDA renegotiating the Rafale aircraft deal that did not allow transfer of technology to the country.

In a Facebook post, Gandhi alleged the NDA renegotiated the UPA deal to benefit crony capitalists and reduced India's prestige globally.

India could not get transfer of technology as negotiated during the UPA rule and it was shameful that Indian pilots have to put their lives at risk flying the ancient Jaguar aircraft as the new technology did not come into the country, he said.

He cited a media report to allege that instead of getting 126 Rafale aircraft together with transfer of technology that would have transformed the Indian Air Force, the NDA government renegotiated the deal to get only 36 aircraft made in France.

"Since 2014, instead of taking to closure deals that had been negotiated by the UPA Government, the present government has focussed on renegotiating those deals to benefit crony capitalists.

"For instance, the UPA's Rafale deal for 126 aircraft would have transformed the Indian Airforce allowing us to scrap and replace ancient aircraft like the Jaguar.

"It involved the transfer of technology to HAL which would have helped make us become more self reliant in the future. Instead, the deal was re-worked for Anil Ambani's benefit and reduced to just 36 aircraft - all made in France. These aircraft will take years to arrive in India," he claimed in his post.

Gandhi later tweeted, "Thanks to the PM's massive corruption, the best pilots in the world now have unlimited access to French junkyards for Jaguar spare parts, rather than new, Indian made planes."



Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group has denied the Congress' allegations in connection with deal.

Gandhi and his Congress party have been attacking the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal, alleging corruption and favouritism.

The Government has dismissed Rahul Gandhi's allegations, while the BJP has accused him of spreading lies on the issue.

The Congress chief alleged that India's pilots are forced to put their lives at risk each day, flying ancient Jaguars, that are kept in the air "using parts scrounged from junk yards in France and other parts of the world".

"Not only is this shameful, it reduces India's prestige globally and puts the lives of our pilots at risk," he said.

He cited a media report claiming that "India is the only air force in the world still flying the Jaguar aircraft, and will now cannibalise' retired aircraft for spare parts".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nirmala Sitharaman will attend two key meetings of the defence ministers of the ASEAN grouping to be held here from Friday.

will host the 12th (ADMM) and the 5th ADMM-Plus to be held on Oct 19th and 20th.

The ADMM and ADMM-Plus serves as key Ministerial-level platforms in the regional security architecture, promoting strategic dialogue and practical cooperation between ASEAN and its partners.

The conference will also be attended by defence ministers from Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the US.

Singapore's Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen welcomed many of the defence ministers on Thursday as they arrived in ahead of the meetings.

The 12th ADMM and 5th ADMM-Plus are the pinnacle meetings of Singapore's 2018 ADMM and ADMM-Plus chairmanship.

This is the second time that is chairing the ADMM since its establishment in 2006 and the first time to chair the ADMM-Plus since its establishment in 2010.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional intergovernmental organisation comprising 10 Southeast Asian countries, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational, and sociocultural integration.

Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, (Burma), Cambodia, Brunei and Laos comprise the 10-member ASEAN.

is a full dialogue partner of the ASEAN.The government has no plans to scale down its target for steel production unlike other countries as consumption of the alloy in India is growing slower than expected, Union Minister Birender Singh said Thursday.

"...as far as China is concerned they reduction is 112 million tonnes (MT)....We are on a different footing and that's why we (have) decided in 2017 to have a capacity of 300 MT, which is at present...is more than the double, rather 2.5 time more than our present capacity," the steel minister said.

Excess production of steel world over is a point of discussion globally, he said, adding "but in India the government stand is to augment it to 300 MT".

"But, we made our stand very clear in that global forum of 34 countries and they have also accepted what we argued. And the level of consumption in the last two years has been 7.9 per cent (growth) in our country. That is one argument for having a capacity of 300 million tonnes.

"And if you see last eight months steel production figures in the current calendar year 2018 India has become the second largest steel producer in the world," Singh said.

India's steel production has been growing at the rate of 6.7 per cent, which is highest growth in output amongst the major economies of the world, he added.

The National Steel Policy (NSP)2017 that envisages Rs 10 lakh crore investment, to take capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31, has been reduced to 8.8 lakh crore.

"We are organising one mega conclave on capital goods in steel sector manufacture in India. When we released our national steel policy in 2017 to create a capacity of 300 million tonne (MT) and about 260 MT production. So, that required about (initial estimates) about 10 lakh crore but now it is 8.8 lakh crore and out of that we will have to have machinery from other countries to the tune of 1,60,000 crore," he said.

The government is expecting that 20 memorandum of understanding (MoUs) worth USD 5 billion will be signed between India manufacturers, foreign technology provider and foreign capital good manufacturers during the conclave next week.

These foreign manufacturers are from eight countries, including Spain, Italy, Germany and Netherland.

Well known world renowned steel technology companies such as Paul Wurth and Kawaski will be involved in the signing MoUs, the minister said.

"Total MoUs till today is worth about Rs 36,000 crore. Tatas may also join the signing some of the MoUs. Then ..This is good beginning," Singh said, adding that "Our ultimate objective is to transform India into a world class manufacturing hub through massive collaborative efforts with best in class institutes industry around the world".

NSP 2017 envisages setting up of 300 MT steel capacity by 2030-31. This means increasing the present capacity by 2.5 times from 138 MT to 300 MT in the next 12 years.

There will be a huge investment of over Rs 8,00,000 crore. Based on the current experience, about USD 25 billion worth of capital goods equipment is expected to be imported by 2030-31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Noida Police Thursday said it had busted a fake call centre operating from the city and arrested the mastermind for allegedly duping Canadians and other foreign nationals.

Working on an input from the Canadian police, the fake call centre operating out of Sector 63 was busted, the police said.

"The Noida police and its cyber cell tracked down the conmen, who were offering 'tax benefits' to foreigners in return for money," Station House Officer, Phase 3 Police Station Akhilsh Tripathi said.

Sahil Verma, the kingpin of the racket, was a resident of Shahdara in Delhi, he added.

The police raided the office of the fake call centre and seized laptops, computers, wi-fi routers, a mobile phone and other gadgets used in the fraud, Tripathi said.

He added that Verma was sent to jail, while a search was on for the other members of the racket.

Verma has been booked under Indian Penal Code section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) as also the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The North Central Railways (NCR) launched on Thursday two mobile apps, 'NCR RASTA' and 'Yatri RASTA', for its employees and passengers, respectively, for locating assets and stations.

"NCR RASTA (Railway assets Summerised Tracking Application) and Yatri RASTA(Railway Approach to Station Tracking Application) were launched Thursday by NCR General Manager Rajiv Chaudhry," North Central Railway PRO Amit Malviya told PTI.

The 'NCR RASTA' app is for the use of railway officers and staff and has exact mapping of all railway assets.

"It will enable railway staff to reach desired asset using Google Navigation in case of any emergency," he said.

Likewise, the 'Yatri RASTA' app will allow general public to locate the railway stations easily. It is already available for smartphones running on Android and can be downloaded free of cost from Google Play Store, Malviya said.

General Manager Chaudhry said the NCR was committed to leveraging the latest technology for making the journey of railway passengers easier, pleasant and memorable.

"We are also committed to the use of cutting-edge technology in better maintenance of railway assets and for handling emergencies. Both these apps are aimed at helping us fulfil our twin objectives of passenger service and asset maintenance," he said.

The were developed by the IT department of the NCR, headed by Chief Manager(IT) Anshoo Pandey, Chaudhry said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)M J Akbar attended official meetings on Monday and Tuesday as the junior external affairs minister after returning from a trip abroad, the ministry said Thursday, in first comments on the issue.

At a press conference, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, replying to a question, said he was not aware of any specific meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Akbar on the allegations levelled against him.

Akbar, a former journalist, stepped down Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him by several women journalists.

He was on a trip to Africa when the allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him as part of the #MeToo movement in India.

Hours after returning home on Sunday, he issued a statement trashing the allegations. However, he quit following increasing pressure on him as more women came out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by him.

Asked whether it was his own decision to quit or whether Swaraj or Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent any communication to him to resign, Kumar only said, "The minister has resigned. He has also issued a statement and I think beyond that I have nothing to add."



"As far as meeting is concerned, I can only share with you that since he has returned to India, there were certain officials meetings in the MEA on Monday and Tuesday. He was part of those meetings. But I am not aware of any specific meeting between the external affairs minister and the MoS on this matter," Kumar said.

He did not reply when asked whether Akbar was asked to resign.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications.

Following these allegations, opposition parties as well as many media organisations have been demanding his resignation.

Akbar on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who accuse him of sexual misconduct.

In his complaint, Akbar accused Ramani of "wilfully" and "maliciously" making imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

A Delhi court Thursday took judicial note of Akbar's complaint and decided to record his statement on October 31 in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)leasing increased by 15 per cent in eight cities to 33.3 million sq ft during January-September this year driven by higher demand from corporates and co-working operators, property consultant (C&W) said Thursday.

The absorption stood at 29 million sq ft during the year ago period in eight cities -- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

The consultant said leasing could touch a record 50 million sq ft this calendar year. It expected absorption in the current quarter to remain strong like July-September period, during which 18.5 million sq ft space were leased.

"2018 progresses on a note of exciting developments in office sector leasing. The compass for demand points north, for it is forecasted to spike to an unparalleled 50 million sq ft in the next few months, which surpasses records," C&W India Country Head and MD Anshul Jain said.

He said, flexible workplaces was an overall contributor to leasing activity since the beginning of 2018 and and the trend is likely to continue.

Leasing by co-working has risen two-fold so far this year as compared to the full year 2017, led by strong demand and low entry barriers.

Flexible operators (co-working and business centers) overtook Ecommerce, Consulting and BFSI sectors to emerge as the third highest contributor to leasing activity so far this year.

"A strong business environment is catalysing strong pre-commitments for future space in top markets," Jain said.

As per the data, went up in Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and and dropped in the rest four cities.

saw maximum rise of 53 per cent in at 7.4 million sq ft during January-September 2018 compared to 4.8 million sq ft in the corresponding period of last year. Absorption rose by 44 per cent in to 3.7 million sq ft, while saw 29 per increase to 12 million sq ft during the period under review.

The market witnesses a 10 per cent growth in leasing at 6.3 million sq ft.

Among cities that faced decline in leasing activities, saw 52 per cent fall at 0.4 million sq ft, followed by Ahmedabad that recorded a dip of 47 per cent at 0.2 million sq ft.

Leasing fell by 44 per cent in to 1.7 million sq ft and 33 per cent in Pune to 1.6 million sq ft during the period under review.One Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrim was killed and three others were injured on Thursday when the bus they were travelling in hit a security barricade in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, police said.

The bus was on its way to Katra from Jammu when the driver lost control of the bus and hit a security barricade at Moori Naka in Reasi, they said.

Four pilgrims, hailing from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, were injured in the accident, the police said.

Ratan (40), a resident of Haryana, succumbed to injuries at Katra hospital, while the others are undergoing treatment, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hospitality firm OYO Thursday said it has forayed into and also confirmed an investment of over $100 million in the country as part of its expansion in

Starting operations with over 30 exclusive hotels and more than 1,000 rooms in three cities - Jakarta, Surabaya and Palembang, the company is ready to offer benefits of its hospitality experience to asset owners, property investors and travellers to Indonesia, OYO said in a statement.

The company will be working towards transforming the Indonesia's hospitality industry by leasing and franchising assets and renovating them into beautiful living spaces, it added.

Commenting on the development, OYO Founder and Ritesh Agarwal said: "We intend to invest over USD 100 million in this high growth market and plan to expand to the top 35 cities in Indonesia, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Bali, over the next 15 months".



is one of the top choices for both global and Indian travellers and with OYO's market learning and expertise the company is ready to tap this opportunity, he added.

"This expansion is in line with our quest to support the country's hospitality ecosystem and creating infrastructure for asset owners to grow and run successful businesses, all of this while ensuring high standards of quality," Agarwal said.

The company looks forward to creating over 60,000 (direct and indirect) livelihood opportunities in Indonesia, he added.Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned a terrorist attack in Afghanistan that killed at least three senior government officials, including a powerful Afghan police chief.

"Pakistan strongly condemns the terrorist attack reportedly resulting in the sad demise of senior Kandahar security officials and causing injuries to many others," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Pakistan stands with the Afghan government and people and reiterates its support for the Afghan democratic process, it added.

"We hope that the Parliamentary elections due to take place the day after tomorrow would be held peacefully. Strengthening of democracy is key to long term peace and security in Afghanistan," it said.

At least three people, including a powerful Afghan police chief, were killed in the Taliban attack Thursday in the southern city of andahar .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's former spy chief Asad Durrani was on Thursday denied relief from the high court here on his petition seeking lifting of a ban on his foreign travels following a row over a book he co-wrote with India's ex-intelligence chief.

Durrani's name was placed on a no-fly list on May 29 at the behest of the Pakistan Army due to the controversy generated by his book titled 'The Spy Chronicles' which he co-authored with Amarjit Singh Dulat, former chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

Durrani had petitioned the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on October 2 to remove restrictions on his foreign travels.

He wrote that he wanted to go abroad for a conference on November 26-27 and his name should be removed from the Exit Control List (ECL) - a list of those who are barred from going abroad.

IHC Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiyani refused to give immediate relief and ordered the interior ministry to submit why Durrani was not allowed to go out of Pakistan.

He also ordered the defence ministry to submit a report on an inquiry instituted by the army after it summoned Durrani on May 28 to explain his position on the controversial book.

Justice Kiyani further observed that the petition of Durrani will be decided after the replies by the ministers of interior and defence.

He also postponed the hearing until December 3, which meant that Durrani will miss the commitment to attend the November conference.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Saudi Arabia on October 23, his second to the cash-rich kingdom in just over a month, a media report said Thursday as Pakistan tried to keep its economy afloat.

Quoted unnamed sources, Geo reported that Khan will visit Saudi Arabia for a day before his maiden visit to China from November 3.

He is expected to hold talks on economic cooperation with Saudi officials during his visit, it said.

Khan, who assumed office in August, last toured Saudi Arabia on September 18 and met King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

After that, he visited the United Arab Emirates for talks with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

The report also said that a top-level delegation from the United Arab Emirates will visit Pakistan soon to discuss expanding economic cooperation.

The about the possibility of Prime Minister Khan visiting Saudi Arabia for a second time came after he told senior editors on Wednesday that Pakistan may not have to approach the IMF for loans as it has received "positive" responses from some "friendly countries".

Khan said his government was in touch with some "friendly countries" and has sought cooperation to address the mounting balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Though he did not name any countries, Pakistani media has reported that the government was consulting allies like China and Saudi Arabia for financial help.

"Their response is positive. I am quite hopeful that we will not have to approach the International Monetary Fund for our economic needs," he was quoted as saying by The

Islamabad formally approached the IMF last week for a bailout to tide over the economic crisis.

But some tough talking by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the US on Pakistan's bailout plan, demanding absolute transparency on the country's debts, including those owned by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects, has upset Islamabad.

Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar has said the government don't want to fully rely on the IMF and would do anything to bring improvement in the economy.

He said the loan programme with the IMF is almost final, but the government will have to see that the IMF does not place any "undoable conditions" for Pakistan in return.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar dismissed the review petition filed by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, saying that "no lawful point has been raised in the petition", Geo TV reported.

During the hearing, Abbasi's lawyer said, "Imran provided documents in pieces which were not verified and not acceptable."



At this, the chief justice said, "The court decides whether it is satisfied with the documents that are submitted and we are satisfied with the ones we received."



Abbasi's lawyer, however, said, "If the court was advised then it would have clarified the law."In response, Chief Justice Nisar said, "We have clarified the law in our decision."Last month, the apex court had refused to form a full bench to hear Abbasi's review petition against its decision to dismiss the disqualification case against Prime Minister Imran.

In his 13-page review petition, Abbasi had demanded the disqualification of Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

The petition stated that now, since Imran has become the prime minister, the matter is more pertinent for the public.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Manohar Parrikar will continue as the Goa chief minister, Sudin Dhavalikar, leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), a BJP ally in the coastal state, said Thursday after meeting the high-command of the saffron party in Delhi.

However, another ally, Vijay Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party (GFP) who also met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah separately, claimed that the saffron party was "looking at who will succeed Parrikar".

Parrikar returned to Goa on October 14 after being treated for a pancreatic ailment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi for about a month.

With Parrikar ailing, Shah had called Dhavalikar and Sardesai for separate meetings.

On his return to the coastal state, Dhavalikar told reporters that it was decided at the meeting that "the chief minister will continue in the chair. He (Parrikar) will rule till he is there".

It was also decided at the meeting that Parrikar will give some additional portfolios to other members of the cabinet, he said.

Dhavalikar, the state PWD minister, told the BJP leaders that they should "give credit" to the alliance partners, which would help the saffron party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Goa, he told reporters.

"If they care for the alliance partners, they will definitely win with a good margin," the MGP leader said.

However, Town and Country Planning Minister Sardesai, who also met Shah, said the BJP was looking at "who will succeed Parrikar and there is a serious discussion on it".

"The coalition which we had cobbled for Parrikar will continue," he added.

Asked who were the probable chief ministerial candidates, the GFP chief said, "There is no decision as yet, only some names were discussed."



He also took a dig at the Congress over its failure to stop two of its MLAs from crossing over to the BJP.

Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte quit the Congress and joined the BJP Wednesday.

"The state Congress president (Girish Chodankar) had said they will topple the government and they do not require (help from) Vijai Sardesai for it," he said.

"Even now, some Congress MLAs called me to say that we are with you. What does this mean? The Congress, the grand old party of India, is acting immaturely. The reason is, those who cannot get elected even as municipal councillors have become the president of the party in Goa," Sardesai said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the refurbished national police memorial, including a newly built museum of these forces in khaki, in Delhi this Sunday, officials said Thursday.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, his two Ministers of State Kiren Rijiju and Hansraj G Ahir and the top brass of central armed police forces (CAPFs), central security agencies and state police units will be in attendance during the event on October 21 at the memorial based in central Delhi's Chanakyapuri area.

"The day is observed to pay homage to 10 policemen killed in an ambush by Chinese troops in 1959 in Ladakh's Hot Spring area. Numerous other personnel who laid down their lives protecting India's unity and integrity are also remembered on the occasion," CRPF Director General R R Bhatnagar said.

This supreme sacrifice made by the personnel of the CRPF, during the valiant combat with the Chinese PLA, is the source of inspiration for policemen and officers across the country, the Central Reserve Police Force chief said.

He added that the about 3.25-lakh personnel strong paramilitary has been the recipient of the maximum gallantry awards over the years for action in Naxal violence hit and militancy affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir and north eastern states.

Elaborate arrangements have been made for the event and the family of at least one personnel killed in the line of action from each force and police unit has been invited for the ceremony, officials added.

The memorial has been refurbished and the central structure has been enhanced, they said.

A large stone engraved in a raised platform has been erected at the memorial few years back at the same location.

Over 34,000 police personnel have been killed in action till now in the country and during the last about one year time (September 1, 2017 to October, 31 this year) a total of 414 personnel have laid down their lives or died due to unnatural reasons, a latest data said.

The PM, during the event, will also unveil the country's first national police museum.

The museum depicting the history, artefacts, uniform and gear of central and state police forces is coming up as an underground facility in the premises of the national police memorial.

The museum project is being steered by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in coordination with the central armed police forces (CAPFs) that function under the command of the Union home ministry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Manufacturers' Association of (PMAI) has sought government support to open up Karnataka's industry, which at present can not export the product due to a court ruling.

Iron ore fines are agglomerated into pellets and then indurated using a furnace to create iron ore pellets. These are typically fed to a blast furnace or DRI (directly reduced iron) plant as part of the process to make

"At present, cannot export iron ore also. Pellets are made from iron ore. As per a ruling, pellets also cannot be exported," PMAI Secretary General Deepak Bhatnagar said.

He said PMAI requests the government to take immediate steps so that exports can take place.

"Export will also help in getting foreign exchange," Bhatnagar said.

A meeting was also held earlier this month in the Ministry of under the chairmanship of Puneet Kansal in which pellet makers have put their case in front of the officer, he informed.

"We told him, there is sufficient iron ore in the state. Pellets made from the ore can also not be exported. So, we requested him to save the pellet makers, whose operations are in a limbo due to these ban. Pellets must be allowed to export...Pellets are requirement of the industry," Bhatnagar added.

According to PMAI, currently has 7 pelletisation plants and if exports are not allowed, these units will face closure, resulting in heavy job loss.

While has a pelletisation capacity of 85 million tonne per annum, majority of the plants are lying idle in want of domestic market demand. In FY18, only 10 million tonnes of pellets were exported, it said.

(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.)Police Thursday prevented Delhi Congressmen from torching a specially-designed effigy having 16 heads, two of them in the centre representing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Dussehra.

The Congress unit wanted to torch the 50-foot effigy to register their protest over the sealing of illegal commercial establishments in Delhi.

The 16 heads of the effigy represented the seven BJP members of Parliament from Delhi, Kejriwal's Cabinet colleagues and the prime minister and the chief minister.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken termed the police action "suppression and strangulation" of their democratic right to protest.

"Whether PM or CM, if they work like Ravana, their effigies would be torched," Maken told reporters.

A large number of police personnel were deployed near Shyamlal College in Shahdara area, where Delhi Congress members had organised the 'Ravan Dahan' event.

"The policemen objected that effigy of the prime minister and chief ministers can not be torched. They carried away it despite our protest," party leaders said.

Torching effigy of BJP and AAP leaders on Dussehra was part of Delhi Congress's ongoing "Nyay Yudh" against the ongoing sealing drive.

"The BJP government at the Centre and the ruling AAP in Delhi have completely failed to find a solution to the problems faced by people due to the sealing drive. The Nyay Yudh will continue," Maken said.

He asserted that an effigy will be torched at the same venue later.

Nyay Yudh convenor Mukesh Sharma said the Congress will respond democratically to the police action and torch effigies in all assembly constituencies in Delhi after October 25.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP national secretary H Raja Thursday alleged that police personnel were unleashing violence against Lord Ayyappa devotees at Sabarimala and demanded resignation of Kerala chief minister Pinaryi Vijayan.

Amid continuing protests against the entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine, Raja, who has courted controversies for his remarks, said akin to exemptions given to some mosques in restricting women, Sabarimala should be exempted too.

"Policemen are indulging in violence. They are hurling stones at devotees. Are you (LDF government) not ashamed?" he asked and demanded that Vijayan tender his resignation.

Speaking to reporters here, Raja said the Sabarimala imbroglio would come to an end only with the ouster of the LDF government.

The BJP leader asked if all women went to mosques.

"So, sentiments of Hindus must be respected too," he said, adding that BJP would stand by protesters.

He also hit out a Delhi-based woman journalist, who on Thursday attempted to trek to the shrine, saying the temple "is not a lodge or a restaurant."



A Delhi-based woman journalist of a foreign media outlet, who trekked the Sabarimala Hill, was Thursday stopped midway by devotees opposing her entry into the hill shrine.

"Those visiting the shrine must know that it is not a picnic spot or a lodge or a restaurant....," he said.

Raja, known for his controversial speeches, has cases registered against him in different places of Tamil Nadu for his alleged defamatory remarks against late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and also against some temple staff.

A case has also been filed against him following an altercation with police in Pudukottai district in connection with a Vinayaka Chaturthi procession on September 16.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 27-year-old man, son of a police officer, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a policeman at Kalyan in Thane district of Maharashtra, an official said Thursday.

The incident took place Wednesday night and the accused was identified as Abhijit Shinde, police said.

"Assistant police inspector (API) A M Khatib attached to MFC police station was on Dassehra bandobust duty at Shivaji chowk last night along with other policemen when a shopkeeper drew their attention to a man, who was beating up a girl," a police official said.

"The police team rushed towards them and tried to rescue the girl. When they asked the man why he was beating her, he started abusing them and asked them to mind their own business. He told them she was his girlfriend," the official added.

When the policemen tried to pacify him, he threatened them saying his father was also a cop, and pulled the API by his collar. The accused also tore Khatib's uniform, police said adding that he was thereafter taken to MFC police station.

"During his interrogation, he said his father is an inspector posted in Mumbai police headquarters," the officer said.

Shinde was booked under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), police said adding that further investigation into the case is on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A powerful Afghan police chief and a journalist were among at least three people killed on Thursday when a gunman opened fire on a high-level security meeting attended by top US commander General Scott Miller, officials said.

At least 12 people were wounded, including three Americans and a provincial governor, in the Taliban-claimed attack that comes two days before Afghanistan's long-delayed parliamentary elections. Miller was not hurt.

Security forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for attacks -- into their homes.

The Taliban said Miller and General Abdul Raziq -- the police chief of Kandahar province who had a fierce reputation for brutality -- were the targets of the shooting.

"General Raziq and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition," a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governor's security personnel, the official said.

The shooter had been killed, he added.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.

An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting.

Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," Peters said.

"We are being told the area is secure."



A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was "full of military forces".

"They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far, including Abdul Jabar Qahraman who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Noted social worker Dr Prakash Amte Thursday appealed to youths to take up social service in villages to build a peaceful and humane society.

Addressing students at the 65th convocation ceremony of the Gujarat Vidyapeeth (GV) here, Dr Amte invoked Mahatma Gandhi who had founded the GV in 1920.

The Vidyapeeth was awarded a deemed university status in 1953.

"As rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi, real India lives in villages. Today's youth should work in rural areas to help those who are in need. Instead of just pursuing personal ambitions, youths should also take up social service. It will give you great sense of fulfilment and satisfaction," he said.

Dr Amte (69), son of social activist Baba Amte, and his wife Dr Mandakini have dedicated their lives for the welfare of tribals in Gadchiroli district of east Maharashtra.

"We need a few more dedicated workers to build a humane community where people can live in peace and harmony. We need to build bridges between the haves and have-nots, in every sphere," said the Ramon Magsaysay-awardee.

On the occasion, Vidyapith Chancellor Elaben Bhatt awarded degrees to 816 students, including 32 Ph.Ds, 23 M.Phils, 393 post graduates, 293 graduates and 75 post-graduate diploma holders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The alleged mastermind behind a plot to kill former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was arrested Thursday in Bikaner in a joint operation by Punjab and Rajasthan police, an official said.

The arrested man, German Singh, is the leader of a pro-Khalistani module which had attacked and looted police rifles in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on October 2, he said.

Three men were arrested earlier on Sunday for allegedly looting two rifles and ammunition from a police check post in UP's Shamli district after attacking the policemen and injuring two of them.

The trio - Amrat Singh, Gurjan and Karan Singh - had later revealed that they were linked to militant group Khalistan Liberation Front and were planning to attack former Chief Minister Badal during his political rallies.

On Thursday, the Rajasthan Police arrested pro-Khalistani member Garman Singh from a Gurdwara in Bikaner's Kolayat, the official said.

"We received some inputs from the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Punjab police about Garman Singh who was hiding in Bikaner. On the basis of that, the accused was traced and nabbed in a Gurdwara in Kolayat area," Bikaner IG Dinesh M N told PTI.

He said Singh is wanted by the ATS of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh police.

"The accused is the leader of a pro-Khalistani module that had attacked and looted two rifles from policemen in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on October 2 and was also planning to target former Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal," he said, adding, that the arrested accused will be handed over to the Punjab ATS.

Meanwhile, the three suspected pro-Khalistan militants, arrested by Uttar Pradesh police Sunday for their alleged involvement in looting police rifles at Shamli, were remanded in police custody for ten days by a magisterial court in Kairana in the district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab is expecting not more than 12,000 stubble burning incidents this season, a reduction of about 70 per cent compared to last year, on the back of a "vigorous" awareness drive and distribution of crop residue management machinery, an official said.

Stubble burning in Punjab and neighbouring Haryana is a major cause of air pollution not only in the two states but also in the national capital.

"We are not expecting more than 10,000 to 12,000 stubble burning incidents this season," Punjab Agriculture Secretary K S Pannu told PTI on Thursday.

The number of farm fires have dropped over the years.

In 2016, Punjab witnessed 80,879 stubble burning incidents, which came down to 43,814 in 2017, official data said.

So far in 2018, the state has recorded 1,212 cases of paddy stubble burning as against 3,141 and 6,733 in the corresponding periods in 2017 and 2016 respectively.

According to the data, Amritsar has reported 412 stubble burning incidents so far this year, the state's highest. It is followed by Tarn Taran with 225 incidents and Patiala with 159 incidents.

Satellite images of farm fires are being captured by Ludhiana-based Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC). Based on the images, the concerned district authorities are alerted, officials said.

The state has also launched a massive awareness drive for farmers to check the stubble burning incidents.

As many as 8,000 nodal officers have been appointed to spread awareness about the ill-effects of stubble burning in paddy growing villages.

"A large number of farmers in the state are cooperating with us in this drive. We have several instances in which villagers have sworn to not burn paddy straw," Pannu said.

Schoolchildren have been roped in this awareness drive and asked to convince their parents to not burn paddy residue, he said.

Besides running an awareness drive, Punjab is betting on machinery for effective crop management.

The state has set a target to deliver 24,972 farm equipments including happy seeder, paddy straw chopper/cutter, mulcher, reversible mould board ploughs, shrub cutter, zero till drill, super straw management system on combine harvesters, rotary slasher and rotavator for managing paddy straw.

"So far around 20,000 machines have been delivered to individual farmers, cooperative societies and custom hiring centres and within a week the rest of the machines will also be distributed," Pannu said.

When asked about the farmers claim that the use of machines puts an additional cost burden of Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per acre on them, he said, "The cost of managing paddy residue through these machines is minimal."



For promotion of agricultural mechanisation for in-situ management of crop residue, the Centre has sanctioned Rs 695 crore to Punjab and Rs 137 crore to Haryana.

In addition to this, the two states are giving a 50 per cent subsidy on machines to individual farmers and 80 per cent to cooperative societies.

Every year as winter approaches, the smoke from the farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, combined with vehicular and industrial emissions and low wind speeds result in thick smog enveloping parts of north India.

The two states annually generate 220 lakh tonne and 65 lakh tonne of paddy stubble, respectively.

Punjab has so far earned Rs 10.77 lakh by penalising farmers who burnt paddy stubble.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)SAD chief Thursday accused the government of having "failed" to incentivise farmers to check in the state, prompting Chief Minister to term his charges as nonsensical and misleading.

Badal had sought to know from the chief minister as to "why has his government failed to incentivise a single farmer to prevent stubble burning".

Sukhbr, in his statement, had also asked as to why he was "indulging in of lies and deceit by photo ops with the prime minister to befool the farmers of the state".

The chief minister met Prime Minister in Delhi Thursday to press for Rs 100 per quintal compensation to farmers to check problem of

told Modi that the problem of could get aggravated, despite various steps being taken by the state government, with the close of the harvest season, and needed to be urgently addressed.

The Shiromani Akali Dal chief said the chief minister should first give a report card of the utilisation of Rs 385 crore received from the Centre to manage paddy straw.

A "huge scam" was in the making and would be uncovered by the SAD in the coming days, Badal said, raising doubts over the utilisation of the Rs 385 crore.

"Isn't it strange that Capt Amarinder is asking the centre for more money to compensate farmers before telling why the state has been unable to disburse a single paisa to the anndaata (farmer) for this purpose," he asked.

Sukhbir said the government should immediately release Rs 3,000 per acre to all paddy growers to cover the cost of managing paddy straw.

"Once you do this, we will accompany you and ask the Centre to give more funds for farmers. However, if you do not do this, you will have to answer why you misused the central funds and did not give any direct benefit to farmers of Punjab," Badal said.

The former deputy chief minister said the SAD would stand with the farmers and would not allow the state government to "prosecute them in any manner".

Reacting to Sukhbir's charges, Amarinder lambasted him for his baseless and unfounded allegations against the government over the issue of incentivising farmers to prevent stubble burning.

Reacting strongly to Sukhbir's charges of "misuse of central funds", Amarinder Singh came out with "facts" to flay the former deputy chief minister for misleading the people with his completely unsubstantiated statement.

Asking him to stop talking nonsense, the chief minister told Sukhbir that contrary to his claims, the Government of India has given only Rs 269 crore out of Rs 665 crore sanctioned for stubble management.

"And we have already spent Rs 250 crore to provide 25,000 machines, of which 15,367 have actually been delivered and rest will be given by October end, said the chief minister.

He took a dig at Sukhbir over his remarks on the former's Delhi trips to pressurise the Centre to come to the rescue of the distressed farmers.

"Since you know so much about my Delhi trips, I am sure you would know that I've been seeking Rs 100 per quintal as stubble burning compensation for our farmers. Evidently you don't want that. But that won't stop me from doing everything for the farmers," he said.Punjab Health Minister Brahm Mohindra said Thursday the state government will hold civil surgeons personally accountable if they fail to crack down on illegal drug de-addiction centres being run in their respective districts.

Mohindra's statement came two days after police freed 250 young men from an illegal drug de-addiction centre near Chamkaur Sahib in Rupnagar district.

The young men, confined in a big room, were being treated as bonded labourers and beaten up everyday, according to police.

"As per the instructions issued, civil surgeon of the respective district would be held personally accountable in case any case of illegal drug de-addiction centre being run in their district is reported," Mohindra said in a statement.

He expressed shock that the illegal drug de-addiction centre in Rupnagar functioned without coming to notice of the authorities.

He said illegal activities under the guise of social service would not be tolerated and people behind such de-addiction centres would be punished.

Also, the district health authorities would be brought to the books for their negligence, adding that a departmental inquiry has been initiated against the Rupnagar civil surgeon and senior medical officer of Chamkaur Sahib.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian President Vladimir Putin starts his first state visit to Uzbekistan under new leadership on Thursday as the Kremlin attempts to recalibrate a once thorny relationship with billions of dollars in business deals.

The last time Putin jetted off to ex-Soviet Central Asia's most populous republic in 2016, Uzbekistan was in the throes of political uncertainty following the death of long-term ruler Islam Karimov.

Now the two countries are preparing to sign contracts worth over $20 billion, more than half of which will be for an atomic power station built with Russian financing in the west of the country.

Karimov, an obstinate authoritarian wary of Moscow's influence became Uzbekistan's paramount leader even before the country's formal independence from the Kremlin in 1991.

More than two years after his death, his protege Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has used significant political and economic reforms to position himself as the republic's undisputed leader.

While publicly Mirziyoyev has honoured Karimov's memory he has also abandoned some of his predecessor's more repressive policies while projecting an image of a country more open to foreign investment and tourism.

Despite the pair meeting in Moscow last year, the two-day visit carries special significance for both men, according to Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Moscow-based Political Expert Group think tank.

"For Putin it is important to show he has partners. For Mirziyoyev it is important to show how respected he is in Moscow," Kalachev told AFP.

In the long-term, Kalachev said, Moscow's aim will be to turn Uzbekistan "from a partner into an ally."



The trip offers an opportunity for Moscow to reinforce its economic clout in the Muslim-majority country of 32 million whose main export to Russia remains people - around two million Uzbeks are estimated to be working or seeking work there. They are a key source of hard currency remittances back home in Uzbekistan.

The high point of Putin's visit is likely to be a groundlaying ceremony for the nuclear power plant.

The project is worth USD 11 billion and is expected to come online in 2028, according to Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, who called Uzbekistan the Kremlin's "strategic partner" in the region.

The plant has "breakthrough" importance for Uzbekistan, according to Bakhtiyor Ergashev of the Ma'no Centre for Research Initiatives in Tashkent.

It will be the first of its kind in Central Asia, where attitudes to nuclear power have been shaped by the Chernobyl nuclear plant tragedy and atomic weapons testing in the steppes of Uzbekistan's neighbour Kazakhstan.

The nadir in relations between Russia and Uzbekistan came about in 2012 after Tashkent walked out of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc that now consists of six ex-Soviet members.

Relations picked up towards the end of Karimov's reign, however, and have been lifted to a "new level" by investment-hungry Mirziyoyev's ascent to power, according to Ergashev.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean Uzbekistan will be rushing to re-join the CSTO or other Moscow-led blocs, he said.

Uzbekistan's foreign policy remains based on "keeping equal distance from the main centres of global power", of which Moscow is one, Ergashev told AFP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an embarrassment for the Congress, senior leader and Karnataka water resource minister D K Shivakumar has conceded that his party committed a "major blunder" by recommending religious minority status for the Lingayat community in the run-up to the May 12 assembly polls.

Seeking pardon from people, he said in the name of religion was unacceptable.

The previous Siddaramaiah government's gamble to play the Lingayat card with a religious minority tag turned out to be a costly misadventure electorally, leaving Congress poorer in terms of assembly seats.

The open admission gives a potential weapon to the opposition BJP to attack the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The saffron party had accused the previous Siddaramiah-led government of dividing society to draw political mileage.

Shivakumar made the admission during the 'Dasara Sammelan', organised by the Rambhapuri Seer Veerasomeshwara Shivacharya Swamiat Gadag Wednesday.

"Our government in Karnataka committed a major blunder. I wont say we did not commit it.

We the people in and in government should never ever lay hands on the matter pertaining to religion and caste. It was a crime committed by our government," he said.

He even admitted that the Congress' poor show in the assembly election was proof that people did not like the move.

"I would like to say that the peoples verdict (assembly elections) is proof that no government should never ever lay hands in religious matter," Shivakumar said.

"We beg your pardon for the blunder committed by our government. Please pardon us wholeheartedly....," he said.

Rambhapuri seer had opposed the move to accord religion status to Lingayat as it did not incorporate Veerashaivas in it.

Later, speaking in Bengaluru Thursday, Shivakumar said as a minister he felt he should express his views.

"I am not bothered about how people read it, react to it and what they call me. I felt I must speak my mind on this issue," Shivakumar said.

He claimed that many senior Congress leaders had advised him that government should not interfere in the matter.

Shivakumars statement has created a rift within Congress as another Congress heavyweight and former minister M B Patil, who was at the forefront of recommending religious status for the Lingayats, said he would raise the matter in the party forum.

"I dont know in which context he spoke. We will discuss the matter within the party forum," he said.

An MLA from Babaleshwara constituency, Patil said "There wasnt any loss in the election.

Let him (Shivakumar) introspect. We have to analyse how much votes we garnered in Hassan, Mandya and Vokkaliga belt. There isnt any connection between Lingayat religion tag and Congress party," Patil said.

The May 12 Karnataka assembly polls threw up a hung verdict with BJP emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats. Congress was next with 78 and JD(S) followed with 37. The BSP has one MLA and two seats went to Independents.

Shivakumar belongs to the Vokkaliga community.

Many seers have welcomed Shivakumar's statement.

Hailing Shivakumar, Srishaila seer Channasiddarama Panditaradya Swamiji said the statement was an endorsement that politicians should not interfere in religious affairs.

Ahead of the assembly polls, the previous government notified the Lingayats and VeerashaivaLingayats as religious minority, but said it would come into effect after the central government's approval to the state government's recommendation on the issue.

The move backfired, exemplified by the defeat of three prominent ministers, Vinay Kulkarni, Dr Sharanprakash Patil and Basavaraj Rayareddi.

All the three ministers were the prominent faces of the Siddaramaiah government, who had aggressively pushed for the religious minority tag to the Lingayat community.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four prominent human rights and press freedom groups on Thursday urged to request a investigation into the possible murder of Saudi dissident journalist to prevent a "whitewash" of the alleged crime.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders said such a probe established by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would shed light on the fate of the prominent journalist.

Khashoggi, a legal resident of the who wrote for The Washington Post, disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Media reports citing Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents within minutes of entering the consulate and that his body was dismembered.

" should enlist the UN to initiate a timely, credible, and transparent investigation," said Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh." has denied any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, while President Donald Trump has suggested that "rogue killers" may have carried out the alleged crime.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington that had "a few more days" to wrap up its own investigation and that the would decide on a response afterwards.

The Khashoggi affair has triggered a backlash against amid reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing.

Asked about the appeal from the rights groups, a Turkish diplomat told AFP that there was "no need" for a UN investigation for the time being.

"There's no need for the moment to go to the UN," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

"The Turkish police and the Turkish prosecutor are doing everything and collecting the evidence to find out what happened and how it happened," he said.

"We don't see it as something that we need because they don't have the expertise. What can the UN do?"



At a news conference held at the United Nations, the rights groups said evidence collected by a UN investigation team could be preserved for use in prosecutions.

The team should have access to all potential witnesses or suspects and recommend avenues for bringing to justice anyone against whom credible evidence is found.

"Partial explanations and one-sided investigations by Saudi Arabia, which is suspected of involvement, aren't good enough, said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch.

"Only the UN has the credibility and independence required to expose the masterminds behind Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and to hold them to account." Guterres at the weekend said in a BBC interview that the world should know "the truth" about Khashoggi's disappearance, and expressed fear that such incidents were becoming a "new normal." said Saudi Arabia has the most to gain from an impartial UN investigation.

"Without a credible UN inquiry, there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over Saudi Arabia, no matter what its leadership says to explain away how Khashoggi vanished," said Sherine Tadros, head the New York office of

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the suspected murder of Khashoggi as "one of the most shocking and extreme cases in recent years.Even as a row is raging in Kerala over the Sabarimala temple, the entry of a woman into the Kollur Sri Mookambika temple's Laxmi Mantapa, open only for priests, has kicked up a controversy in Karnataka.

Udupi district Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis has asked sub divisional officers to submit a report on the entry of T R Uma, a former executive officer of the temple, into the Laxmi Mantap where only priests are allowed.

Uma reportedly entered the Laxmi Mantap without the knowledge of the current executive officer.

A video clip showing her entering the mantap located outside the sanctum sanctorum has gone viral on the social media Wednesday.

Uma, who had functioned in the past as the executive officer of the temple, was allowed entry into the Laxmi Mantap on the occasion of Navaratri festival by some temple staff.

Other staff and devotees objected to the act saying it was not in order.

The current temple administrator H Halappa told reporters that action would be initiated against the temple staff who allowed her to enter the Laxmi Mantap and those who relayed the information to media, he said.

Temple priest K N Narasimha Adiga has also urged the deputy commissioner to take relevant action as the act will hurt the beliefs of hundreds of devotees of the temple.

According to temple management committee president Harish Kumar Shetty, the entry of Uma into the Laxmi Mantap during the 'Suvasini Pooja' of Navaratri is against tradition.

Suitable action will be taken on the matter after eliciting the views of the administrative officer and management committee members, he said.

The row has erupted even as Kerala is being rocked by the lifting of the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10-50.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat demanded a law to enable the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, firebrand Hindu leader Pravin Togadia on Thursday questioned why such a law was not enacted in the last four and a half years of BJP rule.

The RSS is raising the issue now because elections are around the corner and the BJP government's performance is dismal, Togadia, who quit the Vishwa Hindu Parishad earlier this year, alleged.

Bhagwat demanded in his annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur on Thursday that the Centre bring a law to pave the way for Ram temple.

"Why the Ram Temple law was delayed for four and a half years despite BJP having a full majority in Parliament?" Togadia, who now heads the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad, said in a statement.

"After failure of the BJP-led government at the Centre on all fronts, and with elections approaching in several states and (for) Parliament in 2019, the issue of Ram temple is being raised," he said.

Calling the BJP "RSS's party", he said its governments at the Centre and in states have "faltered on almost all promises of so-called development".

Several sections of society are upset due to its "knee-jerk" policies, "so now the party and its mother organisation remember Bhagwan Ram?" the statement said.

He alleged that earlier those who were pressing for a law for Ram temple were forced to remain silent.

"In a special meeting called by RSS in Bhopal with us in October 2017, we were categorically told to shut up on the Ram temple law in Parliament," Togadia claimed.

"For demanding the law, I and (other) Ram (temple) law supporters were punished by the same organisation," he said.

The Centre should bring an ordinance for Ram temple immediately, he demanded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat Thursday demanded a law to enable construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying it was necessary for "self-esteem" and to usher in an "atmosphere of goodwill and oneness".

In his customary Dussehra address to the Sangh cadres at the RSS headquarters here, he also referred to the ongoing Sabrimala row, saying the Supreme Court verdict has not taken into consideration the nature and premise of the tradition and it has led to "divisiveness" in the society.

During the 80-minute speech, Bhagwat spoke on various other issues like "urban maoism" and the need to strengthen the country's borders.

Nobel Prize winner and social activist Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest on the occasion.

The RSS chief said the sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of people in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma.

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

"The 'janmabhoomi' (birth place) is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place (in Ayodhya)," Bhagwat said.

He said "politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir" and that it is in "nobody's interest to test the patience of the society without any reason."



The Ayodhya case is currently before the Supreme Court and the next hearing is scheduled for October 29.

"There is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgement (of the Supreme Court) by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process," Bhagwat said.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains," he said.

"Despite such machinations, the decision on ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law," the RSS chief said.

On the Sabarimala row, he said, "questions such as why only the Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith, obviously arise in the public's mind and lead to unrest."



He added, "The situation arising out of the recent (Supreme Court) verdict on Sabarimala temple shows a similar predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into consideration."On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine located in Kerala.

The iron gates of the temple opened Wednesday for the first time since the court order, but none from the "banned" age group could make it to its hallowed precincts amid a welter of protests and violent clashes.

"The verdict has given rise to unrest, turmoil and divisiveness in the society in place of peace, stability and equality, the RSS chief said, referring to the apex court order.

"The version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account. The plea by a large section of women, who follow this tradition, was not heard too," Bhagwat said.

"Decisions taken without considering all aspects and patiently creating mindset of the society will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order, in tune with changing times and positions," he added.

Bhagwat also hit out at Maoism, saying it has always been "urban" and the "neo-Left" doctrine of urban naxals is to establish an "anti-national" leadership with blind followers solely committed to them.

In an apparent reference to the arrest of a number of activists by Pune police for their alleged links with Maoists, he alleged that "urban Maoism" was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in society.

"These people (Maoists) take strength from the country's enemies and always malign the nation wherever they go," he alleged.

He said in the last four years, a specific tone has been given to agitations originated in some undesirable incident in the society, old and new issues bothering different sections of the society and long-standing or emerging demands.

"The selfish power hungry politics with sheer disrespect for the social harmony, legal and constitutional discipline and with an eye on votes in the upcoming elections have been apparently clear behind these machinations," he charged.

"But this time an atmosphere of divergence, separatism, violence, acerbic hatred and going to the extent of fuelling anti-national sentiments is being created by exploiting these grievances," the RSS chief said.

The leading faces of the groups from whom the slogans like 'Bharat tere tukde honge' (India, you will be torn into pieces) emanated, have been at the forefront with their provocative speeches in such incidents at some places, he said.

When violent activities in remote forest areas were dealt with firmly, those leading and abetting violence were seen at the forefront of these agitations as votaries of urban naxalism, he said.

Bhagwat also called for securing the country's borders, strengthening the armed forces and focussing on internal security.

Without naming Pakistan, he said attacks on borders have not stopped despite a new government taking over (there).

Noting that India always stood for peace and brotherhood, he stressed the need to maintain a balance between strengthening armed forces and raising their morale and at the same time propagating peace with neighbours.

The country cannot be assured about its security without the total self-reliance in the field of defence production even while continuing with multilateral exchanges wherever necessary, Bhagwat said, adding the pace of national efforts in this direction has to be accelerated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The South African military said that budget cuts have hampered its defence capacity at home and its ability to participate in foreign peacekeeping operations.

National army chief Lieutenant General Lindile Yam sharply criticised the government for the funding shortage, saying the army was even struggling to buy uniforms.

"These budget cuts impacts negatively on our force operations efforts," Yam told journalists at the army headquarters in Pretoria.

"There is a danger coming that seems no one is seeing here."



Yam said the army's defence budget was 28 per cent of the GDP during apartheid, but has been whittled down to less than one percent of the GDP.

"We have gone to less than one per cent and maybe we are going to zero, I don't know," said Yam, saying politicians were playing "dangerous games" with the budget.

Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has previously said that funding problems have been caused by the post-apartheid government prioritising spending on previously neglected poor black communities.

Yam, who took over command of the army two years ago, said South Africa was not immune to extremist attacks, pointing to an Islamist insurgency that erupted a year ago in neighbouring Mozambique.

"Look at what is happening in our neighbour. Terrorists... cutting people's necks. If it's in Mozambique it's here."



As one of Africa's military powerhouses, South Africa has deployed troops to peacekeeping operations in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in Sudan's Darfur region.

It currently deploys around 1,300 soldiers as part of a UN intervention brigade deployed in the strife-torn eastern DRC region.

Its army has also assisted with elections logistics in countries such as Madagascar.

"But we do not have the capacity to do that now... so we are also going to lose credibility of calling ourselves an African renaissance nation," Yam said, calculating that an extra 50 billion rand (USD 3.5 billion) was needed to lift standards.

The country's new finance minister, Tito Mboweni, is due to present his mid-term budget statement next Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Scores of scribes, lawyers and onlookers thronged the small court room at Patiala House district courts complex Thursday to witness the first hearing of the high-profile defamation case filed by former Union minister M J Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani for levelling sexual harassment allegations against him.

The curiosity, however, subsided drastically the moment they came to know that neither Akbar nor Ramani would visit the court for their first judicial face-off.

A few lawyers started moving out of the packed court room of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who was to commence the hearing at 2 PM.

A similar media frenzy was witnessed at the complex when the 2G-scam verdict was to be delivered in December last year.

On Thursday, scribes jostled to enter the court room before the proceedings were to start as advocates unconnected to the case had crowded the court room, making it difficult for journalists to negotiate space inside and through the way.

While some scribes managed to enter the court room, photo and video journalists waited outside to capture the celebrity litigants who did not turn up.

The judge entered the court room at 2.10 PM and the case was called for a hearing.

Senior lawyer Geeta Luthra, appearing for Akbar, started the argument leading to the magistrate taking cognizance of the complaint.

Live updates of brief proceedings were reported from inside the court room by journalists.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Authorities have tightened security for Sri Lanka's president as police investigate an alleged plot to assassinate him, officials said Thursday.

Presidential adviser Sarath Kongahage told reporters that precautionary measures have been taken to protect President

He declined to give further details.

Another adviser, Shiral Lakthilaka, said the allegation "deserves deep investigation" since it involves "a severe attempt to deal with our president's life."



"We are very serious about this," he said.

A police informant said last month that he had a taped conversation with a senior police officer who spoke to him about a plan to assassinate Sirisena through a hired killer.

Police are investigating the claim and no arrests have been made.Making a strong pitch for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Thursday said he would visit the Uttar Pradesh town on November 25 and "question" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

Addressing the party's annual Dussehra rally in central Mumbai, a few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Thackeray said a "2014-like wave" is not prevailing in the country.

The BJP had attributed its 2014 electoral success to the "Modi wave".

Thackeray also asked Sena workers to be prepared for polls.

In the party convention held earlier this year, the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra and the oldest member of the NDA, had declared to go solo in future polls.

"I will go to Ayodhya on November 25. I will ask questions to the prime minister (over alleged delay in constructing the temple)...We are not enemies of the prime minister, but we don't want to play with the emotions of the people," Thackeray told a huge gathering of the party workers.

He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four and half years, after becoming the prime minister.

Thackeray asked the ruling BJP to declare its promise to construct the Ram temple as a "jumla" (gimmick) if it is not going to implement the same.

The Sena chief also sought to dispel perception that his party is sticking to power in Maharashtra even as it has been unrelenting in criticising the BJP and the prime minister.

Thackeray said his party has been targeting the government over non-performance of the BJP government.

"Now the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is also speaking the same language as ours... Recently, RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said it is the duty of Raja (king) to keep people happy. We all know who is the king in democracy," Thackeray said, without naming anyone.

"You ask us to walk out of the government (when the Sena criticises the government)... Why don't you ask the RSS to tell the BJP to walk out of the government now (for its criticism by the Sangh)?" Thackeray asked.

He also hit out at the BJP-led government over several issues, including price rise, alleged delay in implementing the promise of abrogating Article 370 and for not acting tough against Pakistan.

Thackeray also criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government for "delay" in declaring drought in the state despite several parts reeling under water shortage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP president Amit Shah Thursday condoled the death of Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari, describing him as a pillar of value-based politics and said his demise was an irreparable loss to Indian politics.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

He was an outstanding politician and a social worker, Shah said in a statement.

The BJP chief recalled Tiwari's tenure as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, besides as a parliamentarian and later as a governor, and said he always remained the voice of the people.

"He will always live in the hearts of people for the works he has done," Shah said, noting that Tiwari had also fought against the British during the freedom struggle.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Barely three months after he joined the BJP, former Congress MLA Mahendrasinh Vaghela, son of former Gujarat Congress strongman Shankersinh Vaghela, resigned from the ruling party on Thursday.

Mahendrasinh sent his resignation letter to Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani on Thursday.

Without elaborating much about his sudden decision to quit the party, he said in the letter that he was resigning due to some "personal reasons".

Mahendrasinh, who represented Bayad seat in north Gujarat as a Congress MLA, had quit the opposition party last year ahead of the Assembly elections and joined the BJP in July this year. However, he had not contested the 2017 polls.

His move comes days after his father, Shankersinh Vaghela, expressed his desire to play the role of a coordinator between all the regional parties in the country to fight against the ruling BJP during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Last month, Shankersinh had claimed that his supporters have urged him to unite various parties to create an anti-BJP front ahead of the general elections.

In August 2017, Shankersinh along with seven other Congress MLAs, including his son Mahendrasinh, had reportedly cross-voted in favour of the BJP candidate during the Rajya Sabha polls and then resigned from the party.

Despite the cross voting, Congress candidate Ahmed Patel had won the election by defeating the BJP's Balwantsinh Rajput.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)DMK president M K Stalin Thursday defended his party obtaining court stay against the probe into alleged irregularities in the construction of a building complex during his party's rule to house the secretariat, saying the allegations were fabricated.

A day after Chief Minister K Palaniswami hit out at DMK for obtaining a stay from the Madras High Court, Stalin claimed there were no corruption allegations, not even irregularities in the construction.

"They (AIADMK government) said it was excessive expenditure. These allegations are fabricated," he said.

It was their right to approach the court and since "justice," was on their side, the court had granted a stay, Stalin said.

The DMK leader, addressing a party event at Madurantakam near here, however, said his party was ready to face any case on the matter



Stalin, who is the leader of the opposition, said since the Palaniswami government did not have the guts to appeal against the stay, he had "lamented" on the issue.

Addressing an AIADMK meet on Wednesday, Palaniswami wondered why the main opposition party went on seeking stays on the secretariat matter if it was upright and had done no wrong.

"Why are you doing it?...does it not mean that there is something fishy...people are learned and they know that..you have something to fear," the chief minister had alleged.

Stalin said Palaniswami should have resigned after the Madras High Court recently ordered a CBI probe into alleged graft in the award of contracts by the highways, a portfolio held by the chief minister.

Rather than doing it, Palaniswami had sought only to divert the issue, Stalin charged.

The Justice R Reghupathy Commission of Inquiry was set up in 2011 by former chief minister, late J Jayalalithaa, to look into alleged irregularities into the construction of the secretariat complex.

Late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi had, however, obtained a stay against it in 2013.

Called 'new secretariat,' the building was refashioned into a super speciality hospital after AIADMK assumed power in 2011.

The Commission was wound up in August after a High Court directive.

The court had, however, said the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption may launch prosecution if a prima facie case was made out against public servants and government officials in the secretariat construction.

Following this, when the DVAC was given the go-ahead by the government to probe the matter, Stalin filed a plea in the high court seeking quashing of a government order and a letter in this regard that accorded sanction for probe.

Party treasurer Duraimurugan too had filed a similar plea since he was the public works minister during the period of construction and both the pleas are pending before the court.

On October 12, Justice A D Jagadish Chandira had ordered a CBI probe against Palaniswami.

The matter relates to a plea by DMK leader R S Bharathi to the DVAC seeking probe on the award of contracts.

The DVAC had told the high court that its inquiry based on DMK's petition revealed no cognizable offence.

Justice Chandira had said the court was not satisfied with the agency's report and tasked the CBI with a probe.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Taliban said an attack on a high-level security meeting in Afghanistan on Thursday had targeted top US commander General Scott Miller, who NATO said survived the shooting.

"The target was General Miller and General Raziq," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Abdul Raziq, the police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, was killed in the attack, Afghan officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Taliban suicide bomber slammed into a NATO convoy near the Afghan capital, killing two civilians and injuring five Czech troops, Afghan officials and the Czech military said Thursday.

The attack, which took place late Wednesday in the district of Bagram in Parwan province, also wounded three Afghan civilians, said Wahida Shakar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor.

Bagram is about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Kabul and is also the home of a sprawling US military base. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Of the five Czech soldiers, one was seriously injured when their vehicle overturned following the explosion.

The soldier underwent surgery and the Czech military said he was not in life-threatening condition.

Earlier, NATO spokeswoman Sgt 1st Class Debra Richardson had said three alliance service members were hurt in the bombing but didn't provide more details.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said an insurgent suicide bomber rammed his car into the NATO convoy.

The attack on the NATO convoy came at the end of a particularly violent day across Afghanistan as tensions are rising ahead of the country's parliamentary elections on Saturday.

A Taliban bombing in southern Helmand province killed a candidate running in the elections.

The Taliban also attacked checkpoints in the northern Baghlan province, killing six policemen and wounding two others in a four-hour battle.

Also, in eastern Maidan Wardak province, a suicide car bomber targeted a military vehicle, killing two Afghan army troops.

The Taliban have threatened the polls and warned teachers and students not to participate in the vote and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers.

The insurgents said in a statement Wednesday that they will target Saturday's elections, which they view as illegitimate, but that they do not want to harm civilians.

In recent months, Afghan troops have come under near-daily attacks.

NATO troops, which handed over security to Afghan forces at the end of 2014, mostly train and assist with air power.

So far this year, eight US soldiers and three other NATO service members have died in Afghanistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tata Sons is mulling acquiring stake in crisis-hit Jet Airways, according to sources.

The diversified Tata Group owns majority stakes in two airline joint ventures -- Vistara and AirAsia India.

Sources said Tata Sons is mulling purchasing stake in Jet Airways and that the plans are at a very early stage.

Tata Sons is the promoter of the major operating Tata companies.

When asked about reports that Tata Sons is in discussions with Jet Airways for purchasing stake, an airline spokesperson said the information is "totally speculative".

Query sent to a Tata Sons spokesperson remained unanswered.

Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways, in which Gulf carrier Etihad holds 24 per cent stake, is grappling with financial woes and has even delayed payment of salaries to staff.

Tatas has 51 per cent stake each in full service airline Vistara -- a joint venture with Singapore Airlines -- and budget carrier AirAsia India -- where 49 per cent is with Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad.

The proposal for snapping up stake in Jet Airways also comes at a time when Vistara is looking to fly overseas.

Sources said that Vistara could be looking at having stake in Jet Airways, which operates on a significant number of foreign routes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A teenager was killed and his friend critically injured after their speeding motorcycle rammed into a DTC bus in west Delhi's Punjabi Bagh, police said Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Harsh (16), a resident of Madipur in west Delhi, they said, adding that the driver of the bus was also injured in the incident.

The incident took place on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday when Harsh and his friend Bablu were on their way to a temple, the police said.

A DTC bus had broken down, the police said, adding that the driver and conductor were looking for another bus for the passengers.

The motorcycle carrying Harsh and Bablu first hit the driver, before ramming into the bus, a senior police officer said, adding that the two-wheeler was being driven at a speed of over 100 km per hour.

The helmet of Harsh was broken into pieces as his head hit the bus, the police said.

Both Harsh and Bablu were rushed to a hospital, where the former was declared "brought dead", while the latter was in coma, they added.

The driver of the bus, Inderjeet (42), a resident of Nangloi, sustained multiple fractures in his legs, the officer said.

The body of the deceased was handed over to the family members after post-mortem.

The police were trying to ascertain who let Harsh ride the two-wheeler, despite knowing he was underage, the officer said.

The victim had dropped out of school after Class 8. His father is a labourer. The father of Bablu, another school dropout, is also a labourer.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund (JNMF) has been asked to appear before a quasi-judicial body of the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry within seven days in connection with the alleged illegal possession of the Teen Murti Bhavan premises.

The ministry's direction comes days after it issued a notice to the JNMF, chaired by senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, to vacate the property.

"A notice has been issued to the JNMF, asking it to appear before the quasi-judicial authority and present its stand on the matter.

"Also, the Directorate of Estates will be heard. After hearing both the sides, the quasi-judicial authority will issue an order," a senior official, who did not wish to be named, said.

A row had erupted after the ministry issued an eviction notice to the Fund last month.

A source said the ministry was not satisfied with the JNMF's response to the eviction notice.

In its notice, the ministry had said the JNMF was being asked to vacate its premises at Teen Murti Bhavan to preserve the legacy of "other former prime minister's of India".

Established in 1964, the Fund is located at Teen Murti, once the residence of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, since 1967. Its offices are not part of the main building but occupy a set of barracks on its eastern side with a separate entry from Teen Murti Marg.

The government is planning a museum for all the former prime ministers of the country on the 25-acre Teen Murti Bhavan complex housing the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial and needed space to expand, the notice sent to JNMF had said.

The Fund also said that it was "fully entitled to using this property as it has functioned in the public interest over the past half century or more in fulfilment of both its own objects and those of the (Nehru Memorial Museum and Library)".

The Housing Ministry has said that the Fund was liable to pay damages for "illegal occupation of the premises with effect from August 28, 1967".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav Thursday disapproved of the posters put up outside his residence and the party office a day ago, depicting him as Lord Ram and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as demon king Ravana.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Yadav, however, urged the chief minister to introspect as to why "there is so much public anger against him and which are the promises he did not keep".

Sharing a report about the posters put up by a junior party functionary, the RJD heir apparent said in a Tweet that he did not endorse this.

"But Nitish too should spare a thought as to why the people are so angry with him. He must pay heed to his 'inner voice' and introspect as to which are the promises he has not kept. He must ponder over the public outrage," said Yadav, the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly.

Yadav's "inner voice" remark was an apparent dig at the chief minister's stance of resigning last year after corruption cases had surfaced against the RJD leader, triggering demands of his removal.

Kumar had then said he was putting in his papers in accordance with his "inner voice" but formed a new government within less than 24 hours after forging an alliance with the BJP which was in the opposition till then.

The RJD has been vehemently criticising Kumar ever since, accusing him of negating the 2015 assembly polls mandate, which the Grand Alliance of RJD and JD(U) had won handsomely.

An RJD spokesman had said Wednesday that the posters were not put up as per directions of any senior leader but by "over enthusiastic workers" who were enraged over the betrayal of mandate by Kumar last year.

He had also insisted that depiction of Kumar as ten-headed Ravana was not a personal attack on him but was to criticise his government which, he said, has failed on all fronts.

A controversy erupted here Wednesday over the posters put up by an RJD leader.

Besides attracting criticism from the ruling JD(U), which Kumar heads, the posters were also disapproved of by the RJD ally Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mobile service customers who want to get their Aadhaar details removed from the records of telecom operators would need to provide alternative verification documents, industry body COAI said Thursday.

The Cellular Operators Association of India, as also directed by the Department of Telecom, said that the services will not be disconnected during the change in documentation process.

"Telecom players had a meeting with the Department of Telecom and they have been clarified that customers willing to get their Aadhaar details deleted from telecom operator data base should be allowed to do so against valid identity and address proof," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said.

COAI, whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea etc, said Aadhaar remains a valid document for customer verification like other government authorised documents including passport, PAN card, Driving License, Voter ID etc, however, while getting a new connection, no authentication of subscriber details by UIDAI will be done now.

"Telecom operators always comply with instructions and regulations passed by DoT and we will adhere to the Hon'ble Supreme Court's verdict. We shall await further orders and instructions from DoT," Mathews said.

He said that Aadhaar is a robust and convenient method of subscriber authentication.

"The industry is prepared to work closely with DoT to find viable and legal solutions of using Aadhaar based identification process which also fits with the Government's Digital India mission. Currently, we are closely working with DoT to build a completely hassle-free alternate digital verification process. Customers' convenience tops the priority for our member operators and the industry is committed to ensure that subscribers face no disturbances whatsoever," Mathews said.

He said customers who want to get their Aadhaar erased from operators database will need to call their operators to check about point of sales or service where they need to go with request for deletion of Aadhaar records.

The government Thursday said there is no threat of discontinuation of mobile numbers issued using Aadhaar, following the Supreme Court ruling that barred use of the national biometric ID by private companies.

Debunking reports that over 50 crore, or half of the mobile SIMs in the country, face deactivation, the Department of Telecommunication and the 12-digit unique identity number-issuing authority UIDAI in a joint statement said, mobile phone users at their choice can seek a change of their Aadhaar-based authentication done in the past with alternate proof of identity without any disconnection of the number.

An alternative form for buying new SIMs through a mobile app that will time capture photograph of persons along with ID proof such as Aadhaar card, voter ID or passport is in the works.

"The Supreme Court in its judgement in Aadhaar case has nowhere directed that the mobile number which has been issued through Aadhaar e-KYC has to be disconnected," it said.

Terming the report as "completely untrue and imaginary", the government said there is no reason for panic or fear at all.

"People should not believe in such rumours," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttarakhand government Thursday declared a three-day state mourning following the death of Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari with Governor Baby Rani Maurya, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and PCC president Pritam describing his demise as an "irreparable loss" to the country.

The state government declared a three-day mourning during which the national flag will fly half mast at government buildings in the state till October 20.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

In a condolence message, Governor Maurya prayed for the departed soul and commiserated with the bereaved family.

"Tiwari ji was a popular leader and an efficient administrator. Apart from helming the affairs of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand as a chief minister, he had successful stints at the Centre as a Union minister.

"His death is an irreparable loss to the country and the society," she said.

Chief Minister Rawat also remembered him as a man who made significant contribution to the industrialisation of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during his chief ministership.

"N D Tiwari dedicated his entire life to the service of the nation both during the country's freedom struggle and after it attained independence," he said.

"He was a Union minister and held charge of key portfolios like finance and external affairs," Rawat said.

"He contributed significantly to the industrialisation of Uttar Pradesh as its chief minister and also that of Uttarakhand when it was still in its infancy after attaining statehood," he said.

He also described him as a large-hearted man who could rise above petty political considerations when it came to matters of public interest.

Led by PCC president Pritam Singh,hundreds of Congress workers observed a two-minute silence at the state Congress headquarters here to pay tribute to the party veteran.

Speaking on the occasion, Singh said,"The eminence that Tiwari ji attained in his political career despite his modest roots is an example for others to follow."



"He made great contribution to building an infant state by giving it a sense of direction," he said.

A three-day state mourning till October 20 has been declared in Uttarakhand in the honour of the departed leader, Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)District authorities here are maintaining a tight vigil in the areas bordering neighbouring Nepal in view of Dussehra, which is celebrated with religious fervour on both sides of the border.

Maharajganj, Additional Superintendent of Police, Ashutosh Shukla said all border posts have been alerted along the porous Indo-Nepal border as there is possibility that terrorists and anti-national elements might sneak into the Indian territory.

"The Sashastra Seema Bal, police and local intelligence units are keeping a special vigil. Instructions have also been issued to the Special Task Force (STF) to remain alert," he said.

Shukla said CCTV cameras have been installed at vulnerable places along the border and also on the main roads.

The dog squad has been deployed and one platoon of women wing will also be there, he said.

"We are planning to organise a combing operation with the SSB, police and forest officers, along with villagers, on the Indo-Nepal border Friday," Shukla said.

He said searches have been intensified at bus and railway stations, market places and border posts in Sonauli, Nautanwa and Thothi Bari areas.

Maharajganj district shares an 86-km-long border with Nepal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami Thursday greeted governor Banwarilal Purohit on the eve of 'Vijayadasami' which marks the conclusion of the nine-day long navarathri festival.

The chief minister sent a bouquet and a greetings message to him, an official release said here.

"On the auspicious occasion of Vijayadasami, I convey my best wishes to you and your family," Palaniswami said in the message.

Also, he wished the governor and his kin continued peace, happiness and good health.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Treasury Department employee was accused Wednesday of leaking confidential banking reports of suspects charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, and an unidentified high-ranking colleague was cited in court papers as a co-conspirator but was not charged.

Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, a senior official at the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, is accused of leaking several confidential suspicious activity reports to a journalist, whose name was not disclosed in court papers. But the documents list about a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed over the past year and a half.

A spokesman for the organization declined to comment.

According to the government, the material included reports on former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and political consultant Richard Gates, as well as Maria Butina, who is accused of trying to infiltrate U.S. political organizations as a covert Russian agent.

Edwards is currently on administrative leave, FinCen spokesman Steve Hudak said.

Banks must file the suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department when they spot transactions that raise questions about possible financial misconduct such as money laundering.

When federal agents confronted Edwards this week, she described herself as a whistleblower and said she had provided the reports to the reporter for "record-keeping," the court papers said.

Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, where the criminal complaint was filed, said Edwards "betrayed her position of trust by repeatedly disclosing highly sensitive information." Edwards is alleged to have taken photographs of the confidential documents and sent them to a reporter using an encrypted messaging app, according to court documents. Edwards also sent the reporter internal Treasury Department emails, investigative memos and intelligence assessments, prosecutors allege.

When she was arrested, Edwards was in possession of a flash drive containing the confidential reports, prosecutors said.

Edwards had worked from 2007 to 2010 in the human resources and professional development office at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, spokeswoman April Langwell said.

She made an initial court appearance Wednesday in Virginia and was released on a $100,000 bond. Her attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Court papers also list another FinCEN employee as a co-conspirator, noting that this person exchanged more than 300 messages with the reporter via an encrypted messaging application. This person has not been charged and was not named in the court papers and was identified only as an associate director at FinCEN to whom Edwards reported.

According to court papers, federal investigators obtained a court order to monitor the calls to and from the associate director's personal cellphone, and the monitoring captured the frequency of contacts with the reporter via the encrypted messaging application. Court papers do not detail the contents of those messages.

"Protecting sensitive information is one of our most critical responsibilities, and it is a role that we take very seriously," said Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President has denied "giving cover" to US' "important ally" in the suspected murder of and sought a full report from Secretary of State in the dissident Saudi journalist's mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for 'The Washington Post'.

Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless".

Amidst mounting pressure in the US, Trump on Wednesday appeared to be resisting any move to take strong action against Saudi Arabia, arguing that it was a key ally of America.

Trump told reporters at the that he had asked for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi.

"We've asked for it, if it exists," he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

"I'm not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. I'll have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back," Trump said, referring to his meeting with on Thursday on his return from and Turkey.

"That's going to be the first question I ask him," he said.

On his way back from and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

"Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder?" he was asked.

"I don't have anything to say about that," Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

"They're going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. I'm going to be very consistent: We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened.

"He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and he's going to have a full report. I'm not giving cover at all," he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

"Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the We are stopping Iran. We're not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about?" he asked.

"They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the But if you look at Saudi Arabia, they're an ally and they're a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things," he said.

"When I went there, they committed to purchase USD 450 billion worth of things, and USD 110 billion worth of military (equipment). Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been any order for USD 450 billion," Trump said.

However, lawmakers continued to call for action against the Saudi establishment.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as additional questions and reports accumulate around the disappearance and reported torture and assassination of Khashoggi, so too does the list of misstatements, falsehoods, and denials from the Saudi Arabian government.

"These responses intended to answer criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's regime have included everything from categorical denials to claims that operatives of the Saudi government may have inadvertently murdered Khashoggi while attempting to detain, interrogate, and torture him in violation of law," he said.

"Yet despite so much evidence to the contrary, President Trump appears ready to believe the Saudi Arabian government's denials. While President Trump may accept Saudi Arabia's denials about the disappearance and death of Khashoggi at face value, the American people won't," Krishnamoorthi said.

Senator Patrick Leahy said the credible, detailed reports from the Turkish government and the press that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in on October 2 had shocked the world.

"While we do not yet have definitive proof, neither is there any other plausible explanation," he said.

Meanwhile, 11 Democratic Senators wrote to Trump seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This comes days after a bipartisan group of 22 senators recently triggered a probe and a Global Magnitsky Act determination relating to the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi's disappearance and possible murder.

"It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and US policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your family's deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia," the Democratic senators wrote.President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to close the US' southern border with Mexico and deploy the military to stop the flow of illegal immigrants from Central America.

In a series of tweets, Trump also threatened to stop all American financial assistance to countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala from where illegal immigrants flow in, and blamed the opposition Democratic party for supporting such illegal migration.

"I am watching the Democrat Party-led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to US," Trump said in his first tweet.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the US military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" said the president in a strongly-worded tweet.

Trump said the assault on the US at its southern border, including the criminal elements and drugs pouring in, is far more important to him as president, than trade or the recently agreed upon US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats' fault for weak laws!" he tweeted.

The tweets came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is set to visit Mexico ahead of the December inauguration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as Panama.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President threatened on Thursday to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the "onslaught" of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed opposition Democrats.

The attack comes less than three weeks before midterm elections where Trump's Republicans are fighting to retain control of Congress, and as thousands of migrants from impoverished Honduras were marching north through Guatemala toward the United States.

"I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS," Trump said.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"



The tweets came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to embark on a tour of the region that will see him visit Mexico ahead of its December inauguration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as Panama.

....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a keystone of his presidency, but his animus toward Mexico had cooled in recent times with Obrador's election.

Despite their ideological differences, the pair have so far been able to make progress on several issues, including the signing of an updated transcontinental trade pact, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

....The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

But, possibly with an eye ahead to the forthcoming polls that will be crucial in determining whether the White House will continue to be able to set the legislative agenda, Trump appeared willing to return to his previous fiery rhetoric.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said.Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat Thursday expressed grief at the death of Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari, describing him as a tall leader whose life was dedicated to the service of the nation.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

Rawat also remembered him as a man who made significant contribution to the industrialisation of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during his chief ministership.

"N D Tiwari dedicated his entire life to the service of the nation both during the country's freedom struggle and after it attained independence," he said.

"He was a Union minister and held charge of key portfolios like finance and external affairs," Rawat said.

"He contributed significantly to the industrialisation of Uttar Pradesh as its chief minister and also that of Uttarakhand when it was still in its infancy after attaining statehood," he said.

Rawat also described him as a large-hearted man who could rise above petty political considerations when it came to matters of public interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)America has asked Turkey for an audio recording in the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi, US President Donald Trump has said as he sought a full report from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dissident Saudi journalist's mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for 'The Washington Post'.

Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless".

Trump told reporters at the White House that he had asked Turkey for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi.

"We've asked for it, if it exists," he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

"I'm not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. I'll have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back," Trump said, referring to his meeting with Mike Pompeo on Thursday on his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

"That's going to be the first question I ask him," he said.

On his way back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

"Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder?" he was asked.

"I don't have anything to say about that," Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

"They're going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. I'm going to be very consistent: We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened.

"He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and he's going to have a full report. I'm not giving cover at all," he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

"Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran. We're not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about?" he asked.

"They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the Middle East. But if you look at Saudi Arabia, they're an ally and they're a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things," he said.

"When I went there, they committed to purchase USD 450 billion worth of things, and USD 110 billion worth of military (equipment). Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been any order for USD 450 billion," Trump said.

However, lawmakers continued to call for action against the Saudi establishment.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as additional questions and reports accumulate around the disappearance and reported torture and assassination of Khashoggi, so too does the list of misstatements, falsehoods, and denials from the Saudi Arabian government.

"These responses intended to answer international criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's regime have included everything from categorical denials to claims that operatives of the Saudi government may have inadvertently murdered Khashoggi while attempting to detain, interrogate, and torture him in violation of international law," he said.

"Yet despite so much evidence to the contrary, President Trump appears ready to believe the Saudi Arabian government's denials. While President Trump may accept Saudi Arabia's denials about the disappearance and death of Khashoggi at face value, the American people won't," Krishnamoorthi said.

Senator Patrick Leahy said the credible, detailed reports from the Turkish government and the international press that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 had shocked the world.

"While we do not yet have definitive proof, neither is there any other plausible explanation," he said.

Meanwhile, 11 Democratic Senators wrote to Trump seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This comes days after a bipartisan group of 22 senators recently triggered a probe and a Global Magnitsky Act determination relating to the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi's disappearance and possible murder.

"It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and US policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your family's deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia," the Democratic senators wrote.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A top Republican lawmaker has urged the to immediately designate as a state sponsor of terrorism and terminate its non-NATO ally status, asserting that Islamabad consistently defends terror attack mastermind and condemns US' counterterrorism efforts.

Congressman Ted Poe said in the House of Representatives that will not receive any financial support from the US if terrorists continue to live safely in the country.

"Now is the day of reckoning. All assistance to must end, its Major non-NATO ally status must be terminated, and the State Department should immediately designate it as a state sponsor of terrorism," Poe said last week, according to Congressional records.

In his remarks, the Republican Congressman from Texas slammed Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi for what he described as lecturing the US on aid.

"While I do not oppose open engagement with Pakistan, our position must be clear: Pakistan will not receive a dime of US support if terrorists continue to live safely on their soil," he said.

"For too long the opposite has been the case. Fortunately, President Donald Trump has disrupted the status quo and suspended most of the funding we give to Pakistan, specifically calling them out for their support to terrorism. But more should be done," he said.

Poe said if Qureshi was truly interested in restoring the relationship between the two countries, he would accept responsibility and acknowledge that countless terrorists still live inside Pakistan.

"His country has been the epicenter for extremism for decades, where extremists are still able to hold massive public rallies to incite young men to violence. This isn't conjecture, the evidence is well documented," he asserted.

Poe said terror attack mastermind and the founder of the US and UN-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba operated freely in Pakistan.

Despite his role in the 2008 attack, Saeed leads public rallies and can raise money for extremists causes, he said.

"Yet, Pakistan, including its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consistently defends Saeed and condemns US counterterrorism efforts," Poe said.

He said Qureshi even claimed terrorist groups that target Pakistan had safe haven in Afghanistan under the US' watch.

"Yet it is Pakistani officials who somehow claim there is a 'good' Taliban, while the US makes no distinction," he said.

"If the Foreign Minister wanted to earn our trust, his government could demonstrate good faith by taking action. This includes handing over Saeed, the leaders of the and Haqqani Network, and banning all extremist groups on its soil. But this is a fantasy," Poe said.

The relations between Pakistan and the US nosedived this January after President Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

The US Congress also passed a bill to slash Pakistan's defence aid to USD 150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than USD one billion per year.

The had announced early this year that it was suspending security assistance to Pakistan over differences on Afghanistan.The United States on Thursday downgraded the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by placing it under the authority of the US Embassy to Israel.

The move, which was immediately denounced by the Palestinians, is a victory for US Ambassador David Friedman. He had long sought to end the Jerusalem consulate's independent status but had faced resistance from within the State Department.

Friedman's push picked up steam in May after the Trump administration moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem over the objections of the Palestinians, who claim the eastern part of the city as the capital of an eventual state.

The consulate had for years served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians but will now be known as the Palestinian Affairs Unit of the embassy. It will remain in its current location, at least for now.

The step, which was announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, means that the Jerusalem consulate will no longer have a separate channel to Washington to report on Palestinian affairs. The consulate had for years served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians.

In a statement, Pompeo said the merger of the consulate into the embassy is intended to "achieve significant efficiencies and increase our effectiveness" and denied that it signalled any change in US policy toward Jerusalem or the Palestinian territories.

"The United States continues to take no position on final status issues, including boundaries or borders," he said. "The specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties."



Although Pompeo sought to portray the move as a bureaucratic management shift, the downgrading of the consulate has potent symbolic resonance, suggesting American recognition of Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The Palestinians, who cut off nearly all contacts with the Trump administration after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, quickly denounced the downgrading of the consulate.

Nabil Shaath, the international affairs adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said it was a "very bad decision" that violated past agreements and continued Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"Now, he is cutting the last connection he is said to have with the Palestinian people. He is practically saying Jerusalem is for Israel," Shaath said. "This decision has nothing to do with peace. It complicates peace and makes it impossible."



It is just the latest in a series of decisions by President Donald Trump that the Palestinians say shows bias against them.

The administration late last year recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, ending a decades-long US position that the status of the city should be determined in negotiations.

In January it slashed, and then ultimately, ended funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees as it also did with the vast majority of bilateral assistance to the Palestinians. Last month, the administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, citing US law that mandates its closure unless credible peace talks with Israel are underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Morrison said on Tuesday he was open to moving Australia's mission to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

While the Palestinians insist on drawing the demarcation lines along the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem serving as the capital of the future Palestinian state, Israel claims historic rights to the entire city. The Australian prime minister said one possibility could include recognising a Palestinian Authority capital in East Jerusalem and Israeli capital in West Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday confirmed Canberra was considering the major foreign policy shift with opponents immediately accusing the government of using the issue to try and win over voters.

Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita said Jakarta was not considering putting the agreement on hold, despite Australia's new stance on Israel, Reuters reported.

Morrison cited former Australian Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, who is now running for election in Australia in a heavily Jewish district, as a huge influence on the Jerusalem case.

Morrison will have to negotiate with independent lawmakers in order to continue governing in a minority if the coalition loses Saturday's by-election.

Arguing that a two-state solution has failed to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that his government is contemplating moving the Australian embassy to the Holy City, to somehow rejuvenate the negotiation process.

Mr Morrison said Australia remained committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ambassadors from 13 Arab countries met in Canberra on Tuesday and agreed to send a letter to Australia's foreign minister expressing their concern, Egyptian ambassador to Australia Mohamed Khairat said.

Australia could still support a two-state solution and recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital - something that Australia had "to date assumed" was unfeasible, Mr. Morrison said.

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki, who was attending solidarity events in the country, said Morrison's statement was "very sad news" that would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

While many Arabs and Muslims expressed sharp opposition to the USA relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May and threatened action, the strong rhetoric did not manifest itself in violent protests. "Is the prime Minister so panicked about Wentworth he is willing to make the most cynically timed foreign policy decision in living memory?" If Australia went ahead with the move, it would join just the USA and Guatemala, who also relocated their embassy this year.

The free trade deal with Indonesia is set to unlock education opportunities in the Asian country, which has a workforce of more than 130 million people but half of them only have a primary school education.

Asked in parliament about media reports the potential embassy move could damage Indonesian-Australian relations, Morrison said he had explained his announcement to President Joko Widodo and had been "very pleased with the response".

Global consensus has been that Jerusalem's status should be settled in a peace deal and recognising it as a capital for either side would prejudice one party over the other.The US on Thursday expressed concern over recent proliferation of digital protectionism worldwide, including

"We are concerned by the recent proliferation of digital protectionism worldwide, including and other data restriction measures," a State Department spokesperson told PTI.

The spokesperson, however, refrained from naming India given that several US companies have opposed a recent RBI move in

"The seeks to facilitate digital trade, the growth of the digital economy, and data security," the spokesperson said.

Several companies like Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and have said that they needed more time to comply with the RBI orders in this regard which came into effect on October 15.



Last week, two top American Senators wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to reconsider the RBI's decision on data localization.



Data localisation is an act of storing data on any device that is physically present within the borders of a particular country where the data was generated.

The (RBI), in a circular in April, said all system providers will have to ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India. It gave time till October 15 to comply with the mandate.Two weeks after he disappeared, The Washington Post has published what it said appears to be Jamal Khashoggi's final column, in which the missing Saudi journalist writes of the importance of a free press in the Arab world.

Such a forum is currently lacking, says Khashoggi, a Post contributor and US resident who disappeared entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

"The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power," he writes.

"The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices," Khashoggi writes.

"Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face."



The ultimate fate of Khashoggi - whose writings have been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - is still unknown, but leaks by anonymous Turkish officials have painted a picture of him allegedly meeting a grisly demise in the consulate at the hands of Saudi agents.

Saudi Arabia has denied to the United States having knowledge of what happened at the consulate.

In the introduction to Khashoggi's column - which was accompanied by a photo of the smiling writer -- the Post's Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah said the newspaper held off on publishing it in the hopes that he would return.

"Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post," Attiah wrote.

"This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After a rocky few months, Pentagon officials say they sense that relations with the Chinese military may be stabilizing.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis was meeting Thursday with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, on the sidelines of an Asian defence ministers' conference.

Just weeks ago, Mattis had planned to travel to Beijing for talks with Wei, but that fell through when the Chinese made it known that Wei would be unavailable -- one of several signs that tension in the overall US-China relationship was spilling over into the military arena.

Wei and Mattis were in Singapore this week for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations conference where China's increasing assertiveness on the world stage was an expected topic.

The Pentagon's top policy official for Asia and the Pacific, Randall G. Schriver, told reporters on Wednesday that the Chinese had requested the Singapore meeting with Mattis. He said U.S. officials took this as a sign that the Chinese are interested in stabilizing the military relationship.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him earlier this week, Mattis acknowledged that the relationship has been difficult in recent times.

"We're two large powers, or two Pacific powers, two economic powers. There's going to be times we step on each other's toes, so we're going to have to find a way to productively manage our relationship," he said.

"And the military relationship is to be a stabilizing force in the relations between the two countries."



As recently as June, when Mattis was in Beijing for his first visit to China as Pentagon chief, President Xi Jinping called the US-China military relationship the "model component of our overall bilateral relations." Since then, however, a series of irritants have shaken military-to-military ties.

Schriver said the trigger for recent tensions was the Trump administration's decision in September to sanction the Chinese military for buying Russian fighter planes and missiles. That action was taken under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act passed by Congress in 2017.

Beijing also strongly criticized a U.S. announcement of further arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing insists is part of China.

China responded to these events with strong criticism, followed by a decision to cancel a planned visit to the Pentagon by the head of the Chinese navy and a confrontation in the South China Sea between a Chinese warship and a US Navy destroyer, the USS Decatur. The Chinese also denied a request for a US Navy ship to visit Hong Kong.

"That may turn out to be a relatively short bump in the road," Schriver said Wednesday, suggesting that the Singapore meeting between Wei and Mattis could nudge things back in the right direction, although the US administration remains concerned that the Chinese have achieved a key goal by militarizing disputed land features in the South China Sea that Washington warned against.

"The Chinese have changed some facts on the ground. That's clear," Shriver said, referring to the placement of military infrastructure and weapons on some of their land reclamation projects in the South China Sea.

"That's a change that they were able to successfully pull off. The question is: To what end, and how effective is that in terms of enforcing a very expansive, illegitimate sovereignty claim?" China views Washington's criticism of its activities in the South China Sea as unnecessary meddling in internal Chinese affairs.

Earlier this year, Mattis cited China's military presence on some land features in the South China Sea as his reason for disinviting the Chinese military from an international naval exercise in the Pacific.

As part of a U.S. effort to enlist support for countering and limiting China's militarization of the South China Sea, Mattis earlier this week visited Vietnam, which has its own disputed territorial claims there. Schriver noted that smaller nations like Vietnam, with limited naval and economic power, have reasons to express their concerns about China privately rather than in public.

"Countries choosing to be more public and vocal, there is a level of risk with China, but I think confidence is growing that our presence is going to be consistent," Schriver said. "They do face potential risk angering China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan on Thursday said that the US should stay in Afghanistan until peace was achieved in the war-torn country.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said that withdrawal of US troops could result in chaos seen after Soviet troops' pullout in the late 1980s.

"Pakistan has been reiterating that the US forces should stay in Afghanistan till the achievement of complete peace and stability. I would like to draw your attention to the chaos in the aftermath of the withdrawal of USSR in the late 1980s. The region cannot afford anything similar, at this time," he said.

To a question about the reported meeting of US officials with Taliban leaders in Qatar, the spokesman said it showed that there was no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

"We are pleased that other important actors are also arriving at the same conclusion (that there is no military solution) and are exploring possibilities of initiating a peace and reconciliation process," he said.

He said Pakistan is building border management infrastructure along the Afghan border with a view to stop the cross-border movement of terrorists, smugglers and other undesired elements while facilitating legitimate trade and travel between the two countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US takes the matter of missing Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi "very seriously", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, adding so does Saudi Arabia whose leadership has assured him of a complete and thorough probe in a timely manner.

Pompeo briefed President Donald Trump on the issue and the talks he had this week with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Turkey in this regard. Pompeo returned from his trip to Riyadh and Ankara on Wednesday night.

Pompeo said during his visit both the Saudi and Turkish governments reiterated their commitment to a full investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance.

He said he told his foreign counterparts that "we take this matter very seriously," and said they reciprocated that sentiment.

The US is looking forward to a "complete and thorough investigation in a timely fashion," he said.

Pompeo said he advised the president that the US should give Saudi Arabia "a few more days" to conduct that investigation but did not specify a hard deadline.

At the same time, he said "we have a long, strategic relationship" with the kingdom and that "we need to be mindful of that as well" throughout the process.

The Turkish government, he said, is conducting its own investigation and will share the results with the US and Saudi Arabia.

He, however, declined to answer more specific questions about what exactly happened to Khashoggi. "I'm going to allow the process to move forward," he said.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for The Washington Post.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime, vanished on October 2 after entering the consulate. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by Saudi operatives.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United States has said it would appoint an ambassador to Qatar, after a 16-month gap during which Doha has been at the centre of a regional diplomatic crisis.

The White House announced on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump intends to nominate Mary Phee, who previously served as US ambassador to Sudan, after Dana Shell Smith resigned last year.

Smith -- who has criticised Trump's handling of the State Department -- stepped down from her post just days after the diplomatic crisis erupted between Qatar and its neighbours.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Doha on June 5, 2017 over allegations it seeks closer ties with Saudi Arabia's arch-rival Iran and supports radical Islamist groups.

Qatar denies the charges, accusing its neighbours of seeking regime change.

The four countries continue an embargo of the small gas-rich Gulf state, which on Thursday marked 500 days.

In the beginning, Trump appeared to back Saudi Arabia's diplomatic stand-off with Doha -- especially over the issue of terror funding.

However, in a White House meeting in April with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the US president emphasised strategic ties between the two countries.

Qatar is home to America's largest military base in the Gulf, Al-Udeid, where some 10,000 US troops are stationed and from which Washington deploys warplanes used in the battle against the Islamic State group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he has decided against attending a Saudi investment summit later this month following global outrage over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

With this he has joined a long list of top US and global leaders, corporate executives and International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials in opting out of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

In a tweet, Mnuchin said he met President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House.

"We have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," he said.

The decision by Mnuchin comes in the wake of mounting pressure on the Trump administration in the aftermath of the missing Saudi dissident journalist who is feared killed inside Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey early this month.

Saudi Arabia has denied allegations that its officials planned Khashoggi's murder. It has assured the US of a thorough investigation into the matter.

Pompeo on his return from Riyadh and Ankara said the US takes the matter very seriously, but would wait for the investigations to be over and look at the probe report before taking a call on it.

Britain's Trade Minister Liam Fox also pulled out of the conference and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra have also cancelled, along with several top business executives, following rising global indignation over the matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Claiming there is "no opposition" to the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya now, a senior minister in the Yogi Adityanath government on Thursday advocated achieving the aim through Parliament.

"Over 500 years ago, foreign invaders came to India and tried to ruin our cultural heritage. There should be a Ram temple in Ayodhya where Ramlala's idol is situated as it is a matter of faith of crores of Hindus. A lot of has been done over the issue," Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson and energy minister Shrikant Sharma told PTI.

"Why should there be a delay in construction of the temple?" he asked.

"The matter has already stretched for a long period. Now no should be done over it and the Parliament alternative should be seriously considered," he said.

Sharma appeared to be suggesting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government should bring about a legislation for construction of the Ram temple.

His comments came after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat earlier on Thursday said the government should clear the path for the construction of the "grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law



The minister said there is no opposition to the temple's construction now as "those who were opposed are now chanting 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Bhole'".

"If they (Opposition) protest against the temple's construction, they will be exposed. Their fake reverence will be exposed," he said.

Sharma also criticised senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's reported remark that the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically as they are "afraid" of its impact on voters.

"Congress leaves no chance to humiliate Hindus. The problem lies in the Congress's DNA. It believes in division and spreading venom," he said.

He also attacked Azad over his allegations that the BJP is defaming the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and targeting Kashmiri students.

"The AMU's students are ours. But if anti-india slogans are raised and they talk of dividing the country, then it will be taken care of. The Congress promotes elements doing this and the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Hyderabad University are examples of this. There will be no such relaxation here," Sharma said.

Three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended and booked for sedition last week for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani, who was killed in an encounter in north Kashmir.

The varsity revoked the suspension of two students on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A senior veterinary



doctor has been arrested from Pakur district in Jharkhand on charges of forcing religious conversion on a minor girl, a senior police officer has said.

A case was registered against the veterinary doctor under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Jharkhand Anti-Conversion Act, 2017 on the basis of the statement of the girl's father on Monday last, Superintendent of Police, Shailendra Prasad Burnwal said Wednesday.

Taking cognizance of the matter, the police conducted raids at Sawanlapur village on Tuesday, arrested the veterinary doctor-cum-flying animal husbandry officer and rescued the 13-year-old girl from the village, where a religious meeting was on.

In an FIR lodged at Littipara Police Station, the girl's father, a resident of Rodego village, said that the veterinary doctor, Dalu Soren, had recently lured his daughter and took her away in his vehicle after offering Rs 500.

The accused had told the girl that she would be converted to Christianity at a religious meeting and assured her that missionary authorities would take care of her studies and other requirements, police said.

The police was also looking into allegations that Soren had converted villagers in the past, the SP said.

The girl has been sent to a child welfare centre for counselling and Soren has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by a Pakur court on Tuesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu met King Philippe of the Belgians on Thursday and the two leaders expressed their commitment to boost bilateral investment, trade and people-to-people ties.

Naidu, who is here to attend the 12th ASEM Summit, recalled the friendly ties between the two countries based on shared commonalities and commitment to rule of law, pluralism and federalism, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

"Both sides expressed their commitment to boost investment, trade and people-to-people ties," it said.

The Vice President called for the collective efforts of the global community to counter terrorism.

He also shared his perspective on the successful flagship initiatives of the Government of India including innovative governance to address the complex challenges faced by India as the world's largest democracy and to simultaneously put the country on a faster, inclusive growth and development trajectory.

Naidu thanked Belgium for its support for India's candidacies at the UN and other international organizations. He also thanked Belgium for its support to India's candidacy at the UN Security Council for the term 2021-22.

The two leaders also discussed their expectations from the 2018 ASEM Summit which is centered on the theme, 'Global Partners for Global Challenges'.

King Philippe had hosted the ASEM Summit in 2010 when Belgium had held the rotating Presidency of the European Union.

The ASEM summit is considered the highest platform for dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe in the areas of trade, investment, security and tourism.

As many as 51 heads of state and government are expected to participate in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) where a wide range of issues from climate change to terrorism are expected to be discussed, an official statement said.

The Vice President will also have bilateral meetings with leaders from Austria, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries on the sidelines of the summit.

He will address the Indian diaspora at the Jain Culture Centre in Wilrijk, Antwerp and pay tributes at a sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi in the Governorate there.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall". "I'm going to save it forever". All the years of activism paid off. Cannabis is legal in Canada and everyone should come to Canada and enjoy our cannabis.

The federal government announced Wednesday that legislation will be introduced to waive the waiting period and fee for those seeking a pardon for minor pot possession offences.

Ian Power was the first person to purchase legal marijuana in Canadian history. "It is the end of an era, it is the end of a prohibition". "We're doing it because we know it's not good for our children", Mr Trudeau said. I think we expected that, some of the LPs couldn't get enough to us online.

"I'm happy that [the majority of our product] sold", said Canopy CEO Bruce Linton.

"It was extremely emotional", he said. "We are working hard to get it up and running".

"Regardless of Canada's legalization of marijuana today, nothing will be changing on the US side or with CBP policies and procedures at the border", Malin said via email.

Shops in the province of Newfoundland, the most easterly time zone in Canada, opened as midnight struck for the first legal sales of cannabis in the country. "Young Canadians have the highest usage of marijuana anywhere in the world. criminal organizations and street gangs make over C$6 billion a year on the sale of marijuana across the country".

"I am living my dream".

Until retail locations are more widely available, some unlicensed cannabis retailers, which have flourished in the years since the law was first proposed, may stay open.

"U.S. laws will not change following Canada's legalization of marijuana", said a statement issued by U.S. Customs last month.

The products are displayed in plastic or cardboard packages behind counters. Washington, D.C. also reversed its recent ban that kept Canadians who work in the legal cannabis industry from entering the U.S. In Quebec, a newly-elected government has promised to hike it to 21.

Hours before they opened, though, a federal official told The Associated Press that Canada will pardon all those with convictions for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, the now-legal threshold.

Canada has invested C$274 million to enforce the new laws and some provinces have allocated their own funding, but Palmer said police will not crack down on illegal stores right away.

Legalisation began at midnight with shops in Canada's eastern-most provinces the first to sell the drug. A patchwork of regulations has spread in Canada as each province takes its own approach within the framework established by the federal government. Some are operating government-run stores, some are allowing private retailers, some both.

Earlier on Wednesday, cannabis enthusiasm was on full display in dispensary lineups and at celebratory gatherings across Canada, while investors soured on pot stocks.

But "if they're coming to the United States. with the express interest to facilitate or develop the marijuana industry, they would generally be deemed inadmissible". And while it is a major development, it doesn't mean everything marijuana-related is now legal.

As Canada welcomes legalization, supply shortages could develop, as happened in some USA states when legalization arrived.

Becky Prete drove from Kelowna to be among the first customers at the BC Cannabis Store. "Their product is showcased in the store, they're here to support growth".

"We are just ecstatic", she said. "That's not even paying someone's salary".

Tracey Lindeman from Montreal. Rob Gillies reported from Toronto. Gene Johnson reported from Seattle.A wanted militant of the banned militant organisation Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) on Thursday surrendered before authorities here, police said.

Cheristerfield Thangkhiew, the self-styled general secretary of the organisation, surrendered before Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong at the police headquarters in the presence of Director General of Police R P Agarwal, among others.

A founding member of the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council in 1987, Cheristerfield held the post of general secretary of the HNLC when it was re-christened in 1997.

Welcoming the peaceful surrender of the militant leader, Tynsong said he was happy to welcome Cheristerfield who has given up arms and militant life to join the mainstream society.

The wanted militant leader fled to Bangladesh in 2004 and resided in that country till his return today, Special Branch SP M Kharkrang told PTI.

The surrender of the general secretary is seen as a major blow to the group which is now left with its 'commander-in-chief' Bobby Marwein.

The group's self-styled chairman Julius Dorphang had surrendered in 2007.

The groups 'army in charge' Bobby Marwien is, however, still at large, official sources said.

Known to be close to Nagaland's NSCN (IM) and Tripura's NLFT, the HNLC is a product of a 1992 split in the Hynniewtrep Achik Liberation Council (HALC), the first militant tribal outfit in Meghalaya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will invest 2 billion yuan ($288.25 million) in domestic wine and spirits importer and retailer 1919.cn to tap into resurgent demand for imported wine in China. The wine and spirits platform, listed on China's over-the-counter equities exchange, said in a statement to the National Equities Exchange And Quotations (NEEQ) on Thursday that Alibaba would buy over 39.3 million shares in a share subscription. ALSO READ: Zomato raises $210 mn from Alibaba's payment affiliate Alipay Singapore China is expected to become ...By Ana ManoSAO PAULO (Reuters) - A Brazilian appeals court denied a request this month by Monsanto's local unit to suspend licensing of its popular Intacta soy seed technology to privately owned seed maker Sementes Talisma, according to a ruling seen by Reuters.Monsanto sought to suspend the licensing of the genetically modified seed technology after Talisma filed for bankruptcy protection in January, one of the seed maker's lawyers, Daniel Amaral of DASA Advogados in Sao Paulo, said."Monsanto sought to end the licensing contract to try and negotiate better terms in Talisma's ongoing ...BRUSSELS (Reuters) - London is willing to discuss an extension of the transition period after Britain leaves the European Union, without ever planning to use it, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday at a summit of EU leaders."I'm clear that I expect the implementation period to end at the end of December 2020," May said, referring to the time after Britain's departure to allow business to adapt to being outside the bloc."The point is that this would not have to be used," May said of the transition period idea until the of 2021.At a dinner on Wednesday evening, May assured EU ...By Richa Naidu and Svea Herbst-BaylissCHICAGO/BOSTON (Reuters) - Activist investor Daniel Loeb and Campbell Soup Co hardened their positions in the battle over the soup maker's future on Thursday as the hedge fund manager tried to woo retail shareholders and the company's interim chief executive told Reuters that Loeb had left no room for compromise.Campbell has been embroiled in a proxy fight since early September with Loeb's Third Point LLC, which wants to replace the entire board of the 149-year-old company, accusing it of mismanagement and destroying shareholder value. Keith McLoughlin, ...By Cate Cadell and Adam JourdanBEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com Inc said on Thursday it would add a FedEx-style parcel delivery service to its e-commerce offerings, a move which could help the firm leverage its network of warehouses and drivers to bolster flagging profits.The shift pits JD.com into greater competition with major rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Cainiao network, as well as dedicated domestic parcel delivery firms such as ZTO Express and YTO Express Group Co Ltd.China's second-largest e-commerce firm said the new service would allow businesses and ...(Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co on Thursday appointed company veteran Brian Smith as its chief operating officer, a role that has been vacant since former COO James Quincey became chief executive officer last year.Smith, 62, joined the beverage company in 1997 and is currently president of its Europe, Middle East and Africa group, which has generated organic revenue growth in every quarter during the last two years.In a previous role leading Coke's Latin America business, Smith oversaw the company's acquisitions of several brands, including AdeS in Argentina and Santa Clara in Mexico."(Smith) is the ...(Corrects to say that Powerloop is an affiliate of Uber Freight, not a part of Uber Freight, in second paragraph)(Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc said on Wednesday it is entering the trailer leasing business.The new business, called Powerloop, is affiliated with Uber Freight, which connects truckers with shippers, the company said https://medium.com/@UberFreight/how-powerloop-helps-unlock-access-to-power-only-loads-e83268b06ead.Powerloop, which would rent trailers to carriers, is currently available in Texas, Uber said, adding that it expects to expand the new business to other U.S. ...By Silke Koltrowitz and John RevillZURICH (Reuters) - Nestle's highly regarded Asia chief Wan Ling Martello is leaving the world's largest packaged food company, taking the shine off the faster sales growth over the last three months.The maker of KitKat chocolate and Nescafe instant coffee said it was seeing improved momentum in North America and infant nutrition as it reported sales growth of 2.9 percent in the third quarter, up from 2.6 percent rate in the second quarter and in line with Reuters forecasts.Nestle's figures were overshadowed by the departure of Martello, its former chief ...Goldman Sachs Group Inc will not send any of its executives to a Saudi investment conference next week, Chief Executive Officer David Solomon said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. A number of top bankers and business leaders, including JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, have decided not to attend the high-profile event in Riyadh amid mounting international pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday abandoned plans to attend. Solomon said he had not planned to attend and the bank was not ..."We just made history", said the 46-year-old Power, who bought a gram.

"This is never actually going to be smoked".

"I've been hearing that the retailers in Alberta are saying it's going to be $8.68 a gram - that's their wholesale price from the government".

October 17 marks the day that federal legislation comes into effect, legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. California, the largest legal market in the USA, earlier this month became the first state with a law mandating expungement of criminal convictions for marijuana-related offenses that no are longer illegal.

"We'll leave it to the a Ontario Cannabis Store to continue to put products out there that the people of Ontario are looking forward to purchasing", he said.

"I'm extremely elated", said Stairs, who slept outside in the below-freezing temperatures with provisions including a tent, sleeping bag and marijuana.

The entry into force of the Cannabis Act makes Canada only the second nation after Uruguay to legalise the drug.

However, Ontarians are only now allowed to purchase weed online, after the province's Conservative government introduced legislation that would change the policies adopted by its predecessor on where weed will be sold.

Cars drove by honking their horns, a few shouting "Happy Cannabis" at the excited crowd.

"It feels great to have it happen in my home town", Power said. That event was attended by Bruce Linton, CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation, which owns the Tweed brand.

The federal government and many provinces have been cautious, starting with limited stores and products, including no edible cannabis products for a year, and tight control over supply. The vote ended a 95-year-ban on the substance.

On Wednesday, October 17, Canadian citizens will have the option of legally buying recreational marijuana.

But not every province and territory has brick-and-mortar locations available.

Provinces and territories are responsible for setting out numerous details for where cannabis can be bought and consumed within their jurisdictions.

The dramatic legal and policy shift also has implications for many other facets of Canadian society, ranging from law enforcement and testing for cannabis-impaired drivers to corporate policies governing consumption restrictions for certain industries such as air travel.

But it also warned that "if a traveler is found to be coming to the USA for reason related to the marijuana industry, they may be deemed inadmissible".

Other countries around the world, many of whom are just approving medical marijuana, are watching Canada's recreational legalization, which combines federal rules with varying provincial regulations.

Whether the selection of cannabis products, and pricing, will be enough to entice existing cannabis users away from the illicit market remains to be seen.

Beverley Ware, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, which oversees cannabis sales in the province, said stores had only about 40 percent of the inventory they'd been anticipating.

The chief executive of Ontario-based licensed cannabis producer Aphria Inc., Vic Neufeld, last week warned that there would be "sold out" signs due to supply chain issues plaguing every licensed producer.

There are still details to be anticipated with the news, as analysts predict a shortage in recreational marijuana this first year with production and licensing rising to meet the demand.

In Nunavik, where there's no planned cannabis outlet, residents must also rely on online orders through the province's new cannabis supplier, the Societe Quebecoise du cannabis. "That needs to stop and that's exactly what we have done".MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's capital markets regulator has asked Fortis Healthcare to recover 4.03 billion rupees ($55 million) from its founder brothers and firms related to them, pending an investigation into loans made by the company.Tycoon brothers Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh and eight firms related to them should jointly pay the sum with due interest to Fortis within three months, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in its order on Wednesday."A detailed investigation of the entire scheme employed in this case is necessary to find out the role of each entity in ...ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi has issued a decree transferring the ownership of nine state-owned oil companies, including state oil marketer SOMO, from the oil ministry to the newly-formed National Oil Company which he also heads, a ministry spokesman said on Thursday.Luaibi took the decision in his capacity as National Oil Company chief, not minister, according to a statement by spokesman Asim Jihad. The decision will be "followed by others within the same framework," Jihad said.The Iraqi government had last week named Luaibi as head of the new National Oil ...By Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister defended the country's "beautiful" 2019 budget on Thursday, brushing off criticism of it from Brussels as European authorities stepped up pressure for changes to a draft that breaches the bloc's fiscal rules.Giuseppe Conte also denied a rift over the fiscal plan within his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues.The draft, signed off by Italy's cabinet on Monday, will hike the deficit at a time when under EU regulations it should be falling, as well as boosting welfare spending and cutting the retirement ...By Francesco GuarascioBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italy's prime minister on Thursday denied any division between the two parties in his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues, and insisted Rome will move ahead with planned expansionary budgetary measures.His remarks came as European Union leaders raised concerns about Rome's extravagant budgetary plans that could further increase Italy's public debt ratio, which at 133 percent of gross domestic product is the highest in the EU after Greece.In what could be a further source of concern, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, ...SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com Inc said on Thursday it was launching a parcel delivery business, a move which could help the firm leverage its network of warehouses and drivers to bolster flagging profits.The shift pits JD.com into greater competition with major rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Cainiao network, as well as dedicated domestic parcel delivery firms such as ZTO Express and YTO Express Group Co Ltd.China's second-largest e-commerce firm, which counts Tencent Holdings Ltd, Walmart Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google as investors, has been looking to squeeze more ...By Ludwig BurgerFRANKFURT (Reuters) - Industrial gases group Praxair and Linde are set to win U.S. antitrust approval for their planned $86 billion merger, clearing the last major hurdle for the deal, German monthly Manager Magazin reported.The Praxair board has been given verbal assurance by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the conditional go-ahead was imminent, and the ruling will be issued in writing in the next few days, the magazine said on its website, without specifying its sources.Linde, which declined to comment, had said on Monday it had agreed with FTC staff on remedies ...By Alexander CornwellDUBAI (Reuters) - Middle East ride-hailing company Careem said on Thursday it had secured $200 million in fresh funding from existing investors and that it expects to raise more to finance expansion plans.Careem, which counts German car maker Daimler and China's largest ride-hailing company DiDi Chuxing among its other backers, was estimated to be worth around $1 billion as of December 2016.One source close to the deal told Reuters the latest investment, combined with previous fund raising and expansion of the company into new segments and markets, gave the company an ...By Alex LawlerLONDON (Reuters) - Oil slipped below $80 a barrel on Thursday as the fourth weekly increase in U.S. crude inventories suggested ample supply, while Saudi-U.S. tension and falling Iranian exports lent support.U.S. crude inventories rose 6.5 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, the fourth straight weekly increase and almost three times what analysts had forecast.Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 70 cents at $79.35 a barrel at 1010 GMT. It has dropped over $7 from a 2014 high of $86.74 reached on Oct. 3. U.S. crude was down ...By Osamu TsukimoriTOKYO (Reuters) - Oil steadied on Thursday as support from ongoing tensions over the disappearance of a prominent Saudi journalist offset a big drop overnight due to a jump in U.S. crude stockpiles.U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery was up 1 cent at $69.76 a barrel by 0650 GMT, after falling 3 percent in the previous session to settle below $70 for the first time in a month. Front-month London Brent crude for December delivery was down 5 cents, or 0.1 percent, at $80.00, having ended down 1.7 percent.U.S. crude stocks rose 6.5 million barrels last week, ...KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Troubled national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is suffering operational losses of 2 billion rupees ($15 million) each month and has had trouble paying employees this month, the Dawn newspaper said on Thursday.The losses were aggravated by a fuel price hike and a depreciation of more than 20 percent in the rupee currency within a year, Aviation Secretary Mohammad Saqib Aziz told a Senate committee on Wednesday, it added.Hemorrhaging money and losing market share to Gulf-based rivals such as Etihad and Emirates, PIA has suffered management turmoil ...Here are photos and videos from the bridge's collapse and flooding in Central Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbot on Tuesday issued a state disaster declaration for 18 counties affected by the flooding, including Llano County.

A flash flood warning is in effect, and forecasters describe it as a "very risky situation".

The lake is situated where the Llano (LA'-noh) and Colorado rivers meet.

The river is expected to recede through Tuesday afternoon, but should stay in the major flood stage - over 23 feet - though Wednesday morning.

The National Weather Service said water levels along the Llano River had dropped back down to just below 15 feet on Wednesday morning, but emergency managers cautioned it's not yet safe for residents to return.

Llano County emergency management coordinator Ron Anderson reported roughly 105 people being evacuated on Tuesday.

Major flooding is happening in the Central Texas area. No one appeared to be on the bridge, and no injuries were immediately reported.

The governor's warning came little more than a week after four people were washed away when the South Llano River, which becomes the Llano River downstream, overran an RV park in Junction, Texas. The bodies of three were recovered and one person remains missing.

In Austin, fire officials temporarily banned all watercraft.

Marble Falls residents in some neighborhoods along the river were also told to evacuate. At least two deaths have been blamed on the flood waters.

The Llano River's crest of 39.91 feet in Llano was just below the record high of 41.5 feet there in June 1935. There, swollen river water rushed against the top of the 2900 bridge for hours, eventually causing it to collapse, video from CNN affiliate KEYE showed.

Water levels along the Llano River at Llano have subsided but are still well above major flood stage.

Patricia Sanchez, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said the transition from fall to winter usually brings elevated levels of rainfall - but nothing compared to the amount of precipitation over the last month.By Dominique VidalonPARIS (Reuters) - Demand in China and India powered a 10.4 percent rise in quarterly sales for France's Pernod Ricard, helping the maker of Absolut vodka and Martell cognac offset slower progress in its main U.S. market.Pernod, the world's second-biggest spirits group behind Britain's Diageo, however cautioned sales growth would moderate in the full 2018-19 financial year, notably for Martell cognac in China after a stellar first quarter.Chief Executive Alexandre Ricard told Reuters his group was closely monitoring trade tensions between the United States and China, ...By Neil Jerome Morales and Anshuman DagaMANILA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp said it is looking to raise about $920 million through a sale of shares in its food unit, slashing the size of the offering by almost half due to weakness in the stock market.The sale of a minority stake in San Miguel Food and Beverage is part of the parent firm's restructuring plan that was announced in August 2017.In a regulatory filing to the stock exchange, the food unit said San Miguel is seeking to sell a total of 523 million shares in a price range of 85 to 95 pesos per ...(Reuters) - Britain's Rank Group reported a 4.9 percent year-on-year decline in comparable group revenue for the 16 weeks to mid-October, hit by a drop in sales and traffic at its casinos and bingo halls. Grosvenor casinos like-for-like sales fell 7.2 percent, hurt by a fall in betting by high spending customers, while sales at Mecca bingo fell 5 percent as fewer customers visited halls.In August, the company said trading for the first six weeks of its fiscal year had been challenging, hit by an unusually hot British summer that made its indoor venues less attractive.Rank's online business ...WALLDORF, Germany (Reuters) - SAP, Europe's most valuable tech company, will continue to do business in Saudi Arabia, a top executive told Reuters, saying he hoped the circumstances of the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi are clarified."We can't put a long-term commitment to a market into question in response to an isolated incident," Chief Financial Officer Luka Mucic told Reuters. "Having said that, I would hope that this case can be cleared up as soon as possible."Mucic had not been planning to attend a conference in Saudi Arabia next week that has been hit by high-profile ...State oil giant Saudi Aramco signed an agreement on Thursday to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally. The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading, according to details released by the Zhoushan government after a signing ceremony in the city south of Shanghai. Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 per cent owned by textile giant Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, is building a ...RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell plans to invest $1 billion to $2 billion annually in oil exploration and production in Brazil through 2025, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Thursday. The investment will be made regardless of the outcome of presidential election Oct. 28, Wael Sawan, executive vice president for Shell's deepwater division, said in an interview with Valor. Shell is the no. 2 oil producer in Brazil, where oil majors have spent top dollar in recent months to lock in stakes in its prolific offshore pre-salt play, where billions of barrels of oil lie ...(Reuters) - Indian business conglomerate Tata Group has held preliminary discussions to buy a large stake in debt-laden Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the Times of India reported https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/tatas-in-talks-to-pick-up-stake-in-struggling-jet/articleshow/66267478.cms on Thursday.Tata has sought management control of Jet, seeking at least 26 percent initially and another 26 percent via an open offer later, the paper said. Jet Airways has been facing a financial crunch amid rising oil prices and a depreciating rupee. In a bid to revive itself, Jet said in ...By David ShepardsonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Commerce Committee's Republican chairman and ranking Democrat said on Wednesday they had asked top U.S. executives at Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp to testify at a Nov. 14 hearing on reports of engine fires involving vehicles from the Korean automakers.The call to testify comes after safety advocates raised concerns about fires in vehicles not involved in collisions. The non-profit, consumer advocacy group Center for Auto Safety said last week that 103 fire complaints had been filed with U.S. safety regulators since June 12 and urged ...While excited tourism officials see the visit as an endorsement of the country's tourism potential, some Ugandans wryly pointed out that Museveni cracked down on hoodies earlier this year when he announced that motorcycle riders could no longer wear them in a bid to fight rising crime. He subsequently banned political parties, saying that people would have to run for office as individuals, and has more recently been cracking down on democratic opposition through violent attacks on candidates and dispersing rallies. "We're not here to take a photograph and look like we're doing something positive", he said. Kanye, who is now in Uganda recording his forthcoming album Yhandi, made a decision to meet with Museveni despite his recent attacks on Wine and his rampant crackdown on the opposition.

Kanye West will also make a donation at the home which is located in Wakiso district.

Bobi Wine, a musician-turned-lawmaker who says he was tortured after being arrested in August, said that it was "immoral" of West to "rub shoulders" with Museveni, TIME report.

"I held fruitful discussions with them".

But it seems we're not the only ones who've been feeling a bit baffled by her lifestyle, as she and Kanye West learned on their recent trip to Uganda, where the country's president, Yoweri K Museveni, outright asked her what the hell she does.

"I didn't finish it", Kanye told TMZ's Harvey Levin a few weeks ago.

Trump continued to compliment the rapper, who talked about spreading love through the country.

Prior to West's visit to Uganda, he went to the White House to have lunch with Trump and be present for the Music Modernization Act.

"A lot of people are surprised Kanye supports Donald Trump, but I am not because I have met Kanye, and I am incapable of being surprised by him", Meyers said. "I just need to go and find out what it's really called". "That whole time I was telling you that story, you thought it was based on him interrupting Taylor Swift. Kanye did a sketch about how insane it was he interrupted speeches, then two years later he was at an awards show and thought, 'I should do it again'".LONDON (Reuters) - British trade minister Liam Fox has decided not to attend an investment summit in Riyadh, a government spokesman said on Thursday.Earlier the French and Dutch finance ministers said they too had pulled out of the summit as international pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi grows. "The Secretary of State for International Trade has decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 23 October," the spokesman said. "The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance ... ...By Florence Tan and Chen AizhuSINGAPORE/BEIJING (Reuters) - An unprecedented volume of Iranian crude oil is set to arrive at China's northeast Dalian port this month and in early November before U.S. sanctions on Iran take effect, according to an Iranian shipping source and data on Refinitiv Eikon.A source from the National Iranian Tanker Company said the company is shipping more than 20 million barrels of oil to Dalian."As our leaders have said it will be impossible to stop Iran from selling its oil. We have various ways of selling our oil and when the tankers reach Dalian, we will decide ...The proposal confirms the validity of the European antitrust regulators' complaint: The search giant really wants consumers to use only two of its mobile apps -- Google Search and Google Chrome. That's a good reason not to use them. "The pre-installation of Google Search and Chrome together with our other apps helped us fund the development and free distribution of Android," Google said, adding that phone manufacturers will have to pay for ...

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Digital EditorThe Tata Group is eyeing a bigger slice of India's aviation pie. Citing sources aware of developments The Times of India reported that it has held preliminary talks to buy a large stake in the beleaguered Jet Airways. In fact, Tata Sons, the investment holding company of the $103-billion conglomerate, has sought management control and is interested in buying a 26% stake at least, which would trigger an open offer to buy an additional 26% from the airline's shareholders.

The Tata Group already owns stakes in two other airlines - AirAsia India, its joint venture with Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad, and Vistara, the joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, which directly competes with Jet Airways. So a deal with the latter would help the Tatas scale up in the aviation business, in terms of market share, network depth as well as fleet presence.

While a Jet Airways spokesperson reportedly said the news report was "totally speculative", there's no denying that such a deal could give the struggling airline a breather. The Naresh Goyal-founded airline has delayed salaries to pilots and is staring at payment defaults. Earlier this month rating agency ICRA downgraded its long-term borrowing programme.

Though both camps are exploring ways to take the discussions forward, contentious points like full management control and the future role of Jet Airways chairman Goyal, who owns a 51% shares along with his wife, could throw a spanner in the works. According to the daily, Jet Airways is keen on an equity collaboration. Previously, the beleaguered airline's talks with buyout investor TPG reportedly fell apart due to differences over controlling rights.

If the negotiations manage to progress to next base, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways may end up selling its 24% stake in Jet Airways, partially or entirely, to the Tatas.

Whether this deal works out or not, one thing seems clear: Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran is looking to push the Group's aviation business through mergers and acquisitions. In April, he had said that the group would consider whether adding another airline to its aviation business would make sense to its business prospects, fanning speculation about its interest in Air India, which was then on the block. But ultimately the Tatas did not bid for the Maharajah.

More recently, the Group has been trying to revamp its existing portfolio by inducting new leadership and infusing funds in both AirAsia and Vistara. If the grapevine is to be believed, it may also bring in former IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh, currently an advisor to Tata Trust's cancer care initiative, to steer its aviation business.

(Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal)The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Wednesday seized assets worth over Rs 218 crore in the nearly Rs 13,000 crore loan fraud case probe, officials said. They said three provisional orders under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were issued by the central investigative agency's zonal office in Mumbai for attachment of the properties in India and abroad.

The beneficiaries of these assets put under attachment, they said, are absconding diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi, Mihir Bhansali, a close aide and US-based executive of main accused in the case Nirav Modi, and a company named A P Gems and Jewellery Park. The total value of the attached and seized assets is Rs 218.46 crore, they said.

The ED is probing this case along with the CBI where it is alleged that Nirav Modi and Choksi defrauded the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Mumbai to the tune of about USD 2 billion (over Rs 13,000 crore) in alleged connivance with officials.

Earlier in an interview with Hindustan Times, Choksi, who obtained the citizenship of Antigua & Barbuda in November 2017, claimed that he is a victim of political persecution ahead of elections in 2019. "There were complacencies in the bank operations, systems, procedures guidelines etc as many bank officials have been charged for not doing their job according to the banking norms and policies. The bank is squarely liable for the lapses however I have been made a scapegoat," the absconding diamantaire said.

When asked if he is still interested in settling his dues with PNB, Choksi said, "My brand value has come to zero. Everything I have has been seized. They can sell off my assets and pay whoever has to be paid. They should take it from ED, I am in no position to return any money."

(With PTI inputs)Indian banks that were left in a lurch when liquor baron Vijay Mallya fled the country could be looking at a significant recovery in the days ahead. According to The Times of India, the London High Court recently issued an order stating that the court's enforcement officers are "at liberty to sell" six of the 62-year-old's posh cars to pay off the Rs 10,000 crore debt he owes to the consortium of 13 lenders.

The cars to be sold include four with personalised number plates using his initials VJM. For instance, he owned a Porsche Cayenne with registration 'OO07 VJM' in a nod to James Bond and a 2006 Ferrari F430 with registration 'BO55 VJM', clearly meaning Boss VJM. While his 2014 Range Rover carried the number plate 'F1 VJM', referring to his former ownership of Force India Formula 1 team, he kept things simpler with his 2012 Maybach 62 with VJM1 on the plate.

The October 11 order issued by Justice Cockerill made it clear that the cars mentioned above along with Mallya's 2016 Mini Countryman and a Ferrari F512M must be sold for no less than GBP 404,000.

This development follows a separate UK High Court ruling in May that refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets, maintaining that the Indian banks were entitled to recover funds. This reportedly marked the first recorded case of a judgment of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in India being registered by the English High Court, setting a legal precedent. A month later, the London HC granted permission to enforcement officers to enter Mallya's properties near London "to search for and take control of goods belonging to [him]".

Meanwhile, the ruling in Mallya's extradition trial at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London is scheduled for December 10. India has been seeking Mallya's extradition from the UK for trial at home on allegations of money laundering and fund diversion.

Edited by Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal with PTI inputseir has today announced 750 new positions across its regional locations in Sligo, Cork and Limerick. The announcement was made as the company launched 350 of the new positions at its new state of the art facility at Rathedmond in Sligo town.



The roles will be mainly in customer services and are part of eirs overall programme to bring all customer-facing functions back in-house. The goal of this programme is to deliver a higher quality of service for customers and greater levels of ownership and responsibility for eir employees.



eir plans to invest 1bn in the coming years, on top of the 1.5bn it has already invested in recent years. eir also plans to provide broadband across the country and through a self-funded 250m rural investment programme to deliver super-fast broadband directly to 330,000 rural premises by June 2019, with 236,000 having already been completed nationally.



Welcoming the news, Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Sean Canney said, "I am very happy to welcome eir to Sligo. This Government is committed to ensuring the benefits of the economic recovery continue to reach well beyond our cities, and todays announcement is in recognition of the immense talent that exists in every part of Ireland. Projects located in the regions also tie in with the Programme for Government commitment to the Atlantic Economic Corridor to act as a counterbalance to overdevelopment in urban regions."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

It was announced this month that approximately 700,000 is to be awarded to companies under Enterprise Irelands Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) initiative which will enable them explore innovative solutions to address challenges faced by Local Authorities.

Twenty one companies have been awarded Phase One funding to progress the feasibility of their solutions. Phase One funding will allow each recipient to carry out a feasibility study/prototype of their project.



The announcement was made last week by Smart Dublin, in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, at Fingal County Council. The event was opened by Fingal County Council Chief Executive Paul Reid and Enterprise Irelands Head of Innovation and Competitiveness Tom Kelly.

The project is supported by Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, South Dublin County Council, Belfast City Council, Cork City Council, Waterford City and County Council and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland.



Speaking at the event, Head of Innovation and Competitiveness at Enterprise Ireland, Tom Kelly said, "Its encouraging to see how the four Dublin local authorities have embraced Enterprise Irelands SBIR initiative over the last few years and are successfully addressing and finding solutions to challenges facing communities. The process is competitive and allows local authorities to collaborate and work closely with innovation-led SMEs to tackle real-life issues and problems. The solutions produced through these collaborations can potentially be employed to improve local, national and even global societies, with far-reaching benefits for both people and innovative SMEs with global ambition. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to seeing the results of these innovation contracts early next year."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

Some of the individuals involved reportedly have close ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely known as MBS. "I think we have to find out what happened first", he said.

The United States denied on Wednesday that it was helping ally Saudi Arabia cover up the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and asked Turkey to provide the audio and video evidence it has claimed to have showing that the veteran reporter was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The prosecutor's office said after the Levent Police Station was told by Khashoggi's Turkish citizen fiancee Hatice Cengiz on October 2, 4.40 p.m. local time (1340GMT) about the disappearance, the investigation "began immediately".

Earlier this week, former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind called for Britain to impose sanctions against Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of a Saudi journalist. Those suspicious of Riyadh's involvement have pointed to the odd travel plans of several Saudi nationals, who arrived on a private jet in Istanbul in the middle of the night on October 2 and left later that same day. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also met with Pompeo, said there was evidence that some materials had been freshly painted. And he has cautioned against rushing to blame Saudi leaders, telling the Associated Press news agency that they were being treated as "guilty until proven innocent".

On Wednesday afternoon, Turkish investigators entered the Saudi consul's residence, about 200m (650ft) from the consulate.

In an interview with Fox News, a prominent Trump ally in the Senate called on Saudi Arabia to reject the crown prince, known as MBS, who rose to power past year and has aggressively sought to soften the kingdom's image overseas and attract foreign investment. "I will not be going", he said. Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account.

An alleged member of a hit squad has been seen entering the building where journalist Jamal Khashoggi vanished hours before his disappearance. Lindsey Graham of SC, turning to speak to the camera. "The behavior is so morally repellent, so totally and universally, except perhaps in Saudi government, unacceptable that he has to do something", said Napolitano, adding that the administration has many factors to weigh with regard to the relations with the Saudis. Trump has resisted any action, pointing to huge US weapons deals pending with Saudi Arabia and saying that sanctions could end up hurting the American economy.

He said it was too early to say whether he endorsed other countries' actions.

"I don't want to talk about any of the facts".

The Saudi journalist was weeks away from marrying his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, when he disappeared. Khashoggi went to the consulate on October 2 to obtain documents that would allow his marriage to move forward.China has denied its lending to Pakistan for infrastructure projects caught the country in a debt trap, after Islamabad reached out to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a billion-dollar bailout package.

The cash-strapped country has made a formal request to the IMF for an aid package between $6 billion to $12 billion this month. If passed through, this will be Pakistans 13th IMF loan package since 1988.





Pakistans foreign debt reached $95.1 billion in the second quarter, up 40% since the IMFs $6.6 billion loan to the country in September 2013, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

Pakistan has been a key part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative. Under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) program, the Pakistani government was granted Chinese loans to build billions of dollars of infrastructure projects, from railways to roads, according to CPEC data.





China does not publish data on the size or conditions of its loans to Pakistan, which has led to criticism over the opaque nature of the deals.

Chinas Foreign Ministry said in a statement (link in Chinese) Monday that the debt caused by corridor construction accounts for a very low proportion of Pakistans debt, and certainly is not the cause of the current financial difficulties in Pakistan.

It also said China wants the IMF to make a fair assessment of Pakistans debt situation.

Contact reporter Charlotte Yang (yutingyang@caixin.com)news, latest-news

Woden is set to have a new community centre that would hopefully cater to the need for more space for community activities. On Thursday, Minister for Community Services and Facilities Chris Steel will announce the government has started plans for work on the centre. "Woden is the only town centre without a dedicated fit for purpose community centre, and so I am bringing agencies from across government together to consider the options for a future community centre in consultation with the community," Mr Steel said. "As Wodens regeneration continues, a community centre in the town centre to meet the future needs of the area is my priority." "I have heard from the community that we particularly need to look at how to improve the availability of space for events, the arts, meetings and other community activities." Mr Steel said the government was also considering how it would accommodate Woden Community Services in the new community centre. It's currently spread across four locations within Woden. "Woden Community Service has expanded significantly over recent years and provides much-needed support for children, families, and vulnerable people in Woden and the region," he said. "The governments work will build on the previous feasibility study and the Woden Town Centre Master Plan. It will also identify suitable sites and opportunities for consideration, and provide recommendations to Government on how to deliver a future fit for purpose community centre for Woden." Woden Community Service chief executive Chris Redmond said the new facility would allow for much-needed services that currently was not available on the south-side, to reside in the new Community facility.

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We should all be alarmed at the news that cane toads have been caught in Campbell ("Two adult cane toads caught in Canberra", October 17, p8). Having spent many months working as a geologist in various parts of far-north Queensland, where cane toads are numerous or in plague proportions, I have learnt a few things about these ugly creatures. Most reptiles and other animals that eat cane toads die. Only a few animals, such as the tawny frogmouth and the crow, which have learnt the technique of flipping the toad onto its back and attacking its belly, can eat them and survive. I have been told by many people in north Queensland that animals can die even ifthey only drink water in which cane toads or their tadpoles are or have been swimming. Cane toads breed at a phenomenal rate, so it is vital that any new population is nipped in the bud. One way of catching them is to look in areas that are lit at night. The light attracts insects, and cane toads are attracted to the easy meal. The toad should be picked up by a rear leg  don't touch the poisonous glands behind the top of the head  and consigned to the freezer in a plastic bag. We have to stop these awful creatures becoming established in the Canberra area. Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin The ACT may have contributed 54 per cent of Australia's renewable energy projects in 2016 ("ACT steps into federal climate policy vacuum," canberratimes.com.au, October 16), but Canberrans remain among the world's biggest [individual] contributors to climate change. In 2004 the average person caused eight tonnes CO2-e of greenhouse emissions. At about the same time the average Canberran caused 23tonnes to be emitted each year, as estimated by the Australian Conservation Foundation. The ACT Greenhouse Gas inventory shows that four of those 23 tonnes were emitted from within the ACT. The government's so-called Zero Net Emissions target aims to eliminate those four tonnes. The inventory shows that another eight tonnes were emitted outside the ACT, in producing electricity that Canberrans consumed. The government's 100 per cent renewable energy target aims to eliminate those emissions. That leaves 11 tonnes unaccounted for. Those emissions are caused in producing goods outside the ACT for us to consume here, and from interstate transport. Unless we Canberrans drastically reduce our consumption of greenhouse-intensive products  and our travel  we will continue to cause more emissions than the current world average, even as the rest of the world approaches zero. Leon Arundell, Downer Our political leaders can't understand why turning the Opera House sails into an advertising billboard is unacceptable. Why would anyone be surprised given that philistines and fundamentalists now flourish in our parliaments? But it could get worse. In Barry Day's affectionate study of Raymond Chandler's writing there is this extract about The Little Sister (1949): 'On his way home from a case ... Marlowe stops at a bar for a brandy. As he leaves: "I stepped into the night air that nobody had yet found out how to option. But a lot of people were probably trying. They'd get around to it." Ian Dillon, Garran I feel for Bob McDonnell and CJohnson (Letters, October 12 and October 17, respectively) along with others, who have experienced problems after connecting to the NBN. In an attempt to avoid similar experiences I'll be taking very seriously the advice provided by a representative of my telco when they called to say the NBN would soon be available in our area: "wait for about six weeks after the NBN is made available before connecting to it as there are sure to be problems with it so let them be sorted out before you sign up."On reflection, perhaps I should wait six months, or six years, or ... Col Shephard, Yamba, NSW The ACT education minister and directorate have at last been forced to face up to what their employees have been enduring at an escalating rate for many years ("WorkSafe takes action over school assaults", canberratimes.com.au, October 16). However the massive cultural change that is needed, from the top down, to give higher priority to staff well-being and safety and the broader issue of resourcing schools to manage students with complex needs, will not occur magically because the directorate has now adopted a 'nation-leading' occupational violence policy and management plan and promised yet more staff training. Nor will encouraging more staff to report workplace violence work unless the previous tendency to minimise the seriousness of incidents, particularly those encountered by support staff, is eradicated and reporting does not carry with it any sense of failure on the part of victims, or individual schools which often do not have the on-site resources to provide the assistance and support needed. School-based staff at all levels must be able to inform, influence and monitor the new policy's implementation processes. Perhaps the AEU can be funded to conduct annual confidential surveys of ACT school staff to determine the degree to which the new policy and plan are reversing WorkSafe ACT's very concerning yet unsurprising findings. Sue Dyer, Downer These columns have sheltered so much criticism of Canberra that I think any contemporary appreciation of the city should be welcomed. Trevor Dickinson's exhibition of prints at the Canberra Museum and Gallery celebrates our extended family of chubby concrete bus stops in all climates, times of day, states of repair and in the complete range of their suburban environments. I think perhaps the homely shape of our bus stop works better as an icon of our city than the Eiffel Tower speaks of Paris. It is more widely distributed and speaks of our links between each other. Dickinson's loving portrayals certainly help. The other feature of our city which I predict will become iconic is its growing system of wetlands and accompanying bike tracks. They are beginning to shelter some surprisingly beautiful vistas and again they link us together. Such important features of our city ameliorate our much-reported urban loneliness. Jill Sutton, Watson PM Morrison is considering establishing "facts on the ground" about Jerusalem in relationship to Israel and, by non-acknowledgement, to a future Palestinian State. There's no question Jews, Christians, and Muslims all have deep historical ties to Jerusalem. And no question that the final status of Jerusalem is not yet determined. So if Morrison recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which version of Jerusalem will it be? The choices are many. They include: 1947's mandate for an international city administered by the UN; Jerusalem west of the 1949 Armistice line; "Unified" Jerusalem after the 1967 war; Jerusalem as annexed unilaterally by Israel in 1977; the Jerusalem Municipality, with its fluctuating boundaries; the parts of Jerusalem that Israel actively administers; the parts of Jerusalem the American "peace plan" doesn't excise for having too many Palestinians or the parts of Jerusalem west of the "security barrier". I write from West Bank, Palestine, a Jewish-Australian, home from another day of another year's olive harvest. I implore Morrison not to change Australia's stance on Jerusalem, especially before a byelection in an electorate with a large Jewish population, the former ambassador to Israel as one of the candidates, and an evangelical Prime Minister. Judy Bamberger, O'Connor The decision by Scott Morrison that Australia will even consider moving the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is beyond belief on every level. The Middle East is a complete mess and a lot of the blame for that can be sheeted home to Israeli policy over the last 20 years. As the government of Israel lurches further to the right its policies become more extreme. The argument that moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem will aid the achievement of a two-state solution is completely absurd. Less and less of the Israeli political establishment now believe in such an outcome as they get more and more of what they really want through other means. Israel's colonisation of the Palestinian Territories continues unabated. At the broader international level we are proposing to align ourselves with the United States lead by that outstanding international statesman Donald Trump, and with Guatemala. Great company for a country that preaches support for a rules-based international order. We have already got one response  a suggestion that Indonesia will suspend or at least drag its feet on the Free Trade Agreement which Morrison trumpeted just a couple of weeks ago. We can expect other disapproving responses. Scott Morrison, recently praised by Tony Abbott as just the sort of leader the Liberals need, has demonstrated on this issue that he is completely out of his depth. Both sides of Australian politics are closer to the state of Israel than genuine Australian interests warrant. I am certainly waiting for the ALP to resolutely oppose this absurd proposal. Jeff Hart, Kingston David Wroe, ("Controversial shift on Jerusalem status flagged by Morrison", canberratimes.com.au, October 16) writes that Australia would become only the second country in the world to shift its position on our embassy in Israel. However, Guatemala has also moved its embassy, the Czech Republic has recognised West Jerusalem as Israel's capital and its President has stated he would like to move his country's embassy, Romania and Slovakia are moving in that direction while Russia and Vanuatu have also recognised West Jerusalem is Israel's capital. As Dave Sharma argues, putting the embassy in West Jerusalem, where Israel's parliament and governmental institutions are, and which no-one who supports a two-state doubts will remain part of Israel, does not preclude a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem. Israel should not be discriminated against by being the only country not entitled to nominate its own capital, just because of fear of offending the Palestinians who are refusing to negotiate peace anyway. Showing them their intransigence will no longer work may be the only way to get peace talks to resume. Bill Arnold, Chifley So, Australia will meet its carbon emission climate change targets "in a canter", somehow despite federal persistence in an ideological dogma that coal and gas are the only viable sources of energy. Now Dave Sharma seems to have had no trouble convincing the PM and local Zionists that being in a global group of two with the Trump administration in recognising occupied Jerusalem as Israel's capital "can be done consistent with Australia's [and the world's, diametrically opposite] long-running position" on not destabilising the Middle East terminally. As can going along with whatever else that prominent moderate, Netanyahu, demands. Obviously. After all, as the PM sagely notes, it's high time for a new tack  decades of desperate, even-handed efforts by the Anglo-led West to bring peace to the region having failed. Why, Britain even appointed Tony Blair as its Middle East envoy, after he was finished helping Bush turn Iraq to ashes. You can't reasonably ask for more than that. And, as the PM says, our radical new Middle East directions are 100 per cent Aussie-grown and free of foreign pressure, least of all American  like all our foreign policy historically. Alex Mattea, Kingston Vasily Martin says that on religious matters we should defer to the experts, as we would on car repairs to a mechanic or on medical treatment to a doctor (Letters, October 14). So we should follow theologians and live as they tell us. But I don't ask a mechanic whether I have a car. And I wouldn't trust a mechanic who couldn't agree with other mechanics what car I have, or what I can do with it. Does Martin want me to go to a Muslim mechanic, or an Orthodox one? How about a Vedic mechanic, or a Zen one? Christopher Hood, Queanbeyan EXCLUSION POLICIES The discussion about the churches' attitude towards people of a different sexual orientation reminds me of a story when apartheid was at its height. A black man was thrown out of a white church. He went down on his knees and prayed, "Lord, they won't let me into your church". The answer came: "Don't worry, they won't let me in either". Audrey Guy, Ngunnawal OMINOUS SIGNS In supporting Hanson's OK to be White stunt and talking about moving the embassy to Jerusalem, is it now ScoMo Trump? T. Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld FAUSTIAN SHENANIGANS Last week, it was choosing coal and current economic advantage over climate and our future. Now, the federal government is cynically proposing to reverse a long-term policy and take hard partisan positions on the Middle East. Will these Faustian, mercenary political shenanigans ever end? J. Schmidt, Monash TRUMP LOOKALIKE Has our exalted leader done a deal with Donald Trump to become the latest state of the US behind our back? You could for forgiven for thinking so after he spoke of moving our Israeli embassy in lock-step Trump or was he just doing a Donald Trump after he became our exalted leader. D. J. Fraser, Currumbin, Qld PM MUST RECONSIDER The Australian government should not move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem or recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It will be seen as a betrayal of the Palestinian people, and will not have the support of most Australians. Scott Morrison must reconsider these proposals. Bill O'Connor, Beechworth, Vic LEARNING CURVE Our friends the Saudis appear to have taken successful lessons from their friends, the CIA and Mossad, and from nobody's friends, the Russians and the North Koreans, on how to assassinate people, on how to be found out and on how to get away with it. Jochen Zeil, Hackett SMART COALITION? NO Members of the Coalition are so clever they are smarter than the IPCC. In claiming that "we will meet our Paris commitments in a canter" they have shown how much smarter they are than all the experts who observe that our emissions continue to rise. T. J. Marks, Holt DELIGHTFUL WHINGES But, Alex Wallensky (Letters, October 16), it is the way Ian Warden whinges that is so delightful. Warden is another of those great writers with the three vowels a, e and i in his name and no others  further proof of the validity of this interesting theory. Michael McCarthy, Deakin Email: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au. Send from the message eld, not as an attached le. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610.Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include the date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published).

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/0aa3e298-3b75-4e73-b421-abd3acb19566/r0_130_1024_709_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg"If we were to accept (...) the slippages compared to the european rules, it is true that in some countries, this would have the outcome of we to cover of insults and invectives, because my Committee and myself, we are accused by several governments in Europe (...) have been too flexible for Italy", he insisted.

"If we were to accept everything that the Italian government offers us, we would have counter-political backlash in other countries of the euro area", said Mr Juncker in an interview given to several radios and televisions in italy. "I am increasingly convinced that the financial lobbies in Brussels can not accept our presence in the government", he said.

While attracting worldwide criticism, the budget is popular with Italians. Should any corrections fail to appear, the Commission eventually has the power to recommend opening an excessive deficit procedure, setting out a fiscal path for Italy to balance its public accounts.

His comments came a day after Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini had described the European Union sanctions as a "social, cultural and economic absurdity". He added that it was no wonder that a Eurobarometer poll on Wednesday showed only 44 percent of Italians would vote to stay in the European Union in a referendum.

Already in July during a visit to Moscow, Salvini said he wanted to end sanctions against Russian Federation. "It's clear that it makes no sense that they are in place".

European Commission officials have expressed dismay and frustration at Italy's rebellious stance over spending but the coalition is largely unrepentant about its plans, throwing down the gauntlet to Brussels. Nearly two-thirds of the spending hike of 36.7 billion ($42.35 billion dollars) would be funded by a higher deficit in 2019. The government is forecasting a deficit of 2.4 percent next year, three times the previous government's projection.

The EU Commission is now reviewing Rome's budgetary plans and can formally raise concerns about it until next Monday.

On Friday, witnesses reported seeing a French police van cross the mountain border at Claviere, near the Italian ski resort of Sestriere, and making two black men get out in a wooded area before driving back the short distance to France. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism.news, latest-news

Dreamworlds former attractions manager says he believes both human error and a lack of mechanical controls caused the 2016 fatal incident on the theme parks most popular family ride that killed four people. I believe it was a combination of factors. I believe that there was operator error, thats my professional opinion, Andrew Fyfe told the coronial inquest investigating the four deaths. In hindsight and upon what we have heard since the incident ... there was recommendations that some additional mechanical controls could have been put in place. Mr Fyfe admitted sensors to monitor water levels on the Thunder River Rapids Ride had been raised as a control that could be installed to react to pump failures. The ride malfunctioned on October 25, 2016, killing four tourists - Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi. Counsel assisting the coroner Ken Fleming, QC, showed Mr Fyfe two memorandums issued to ride operators, one published in February 2016 and another in October 2016, days before the tragedy. The two memorandums had been shown to the inquest repeatedly, and focused on when, or if, ride operators should press the emergency stop buttons on the Thunder River Rapids Ride. The memorandums offered conflicting rules on when the emergency buttons could be pressed. Mr Fyfe admitted he should have seen both memorandums before they were sent out to staff. I do not know to this day who authored those documents, he said. He agreed the second memo had been sent out to clarify the first after ride operators expressed confusion about what they should and shouldnt do with the emergency stop buttons. He further agreed that the two emergency stop buttons at the Thunder River Rapids Ride - one that stopped the conveyor in nine seconds and one that stopped it in two seconds - should have been exactly the same. Mr Fyfe said Dreamworlds training drilled into ride operators that if there was any doubt at all about the ride, they should shut it down immediately. Mr Fleming also showed Mr Fyfe details of a 2001 incident on the Thunder River Rapids Ride where several empty rafts were allowed to bank up on the conveyor, with several rafts colliding and flipping at the edge of the unload area. Mr Fyfe, who began work at Dreamworld in the same year, said he was never made aware of the incident. Dreamworlds investigation determined there was nil chance of the same event happening again, concluding operator error was the fault of the 2001 incident. Barrister Matthew Hickey, representing the family of victim Cindy Low, questioned Mr Fyfe about a November 2014 email from a Dreamworld employee and staff union representative, Jarad Drysdale. Mr Drysdale wrote the email to the theme parks management after an incident on the Thunder River Rapids Ride that saw ride operator Stephen Buss fired. The email alleged staff were afraid of shutting down rides for fear of being fired, and viewed some supervisors as untrustworthy. Perception is reality at Dreamworld, Mr Drysdale wrote. Some staff believe that supervisors are out to get them. These fears are unhealthy and you can see staff performance drop the more they worry. Mr Fyfe told the inquest that he rejected any suggestion ride operators would be punished or fired if they shut down a ride, saying the operators training prioritised shutting down a ride if there was a problem. People were not disciplined for shutting down an attraction, I have to be very clear about that, Mr Fyfe said. Mr Drysdales email also suggested automating the Thunder River Rapid Rides emergency shutdown to a single button, instead of the four buttons operators had to press in sequence. Mr Fyfe said he believed that suggestion was passed down to engineering to investigate, but he had heard nothing back from engineering about the possibility. His email response described managements alarm at Mr Drysdales allegations of staff covering up mistakes to avoid being fired. Questioned about his emailed reply, Mr Fyfe disagreed with a suggestion from Mr Hickey that his email was just verbage. We were doing everything we could to build trust, Mr Fyfe said. The inquest continues.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/8159ac67-dbf9-4114-8da3-20a0c7efeffe/r0_129_2285_1420_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.Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Stipendiary Trainee in various cadres. As the post name suggests, this is a paid training opportunity.

Selected candidates can earn up to INR 35,400. The selection process will include a written test and a personal interview. The questions in the written test will be from subjects such as mathematics, science and general knowledge.

NPCIL Recruitment 2018 For Various Posts

NPCIL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Stipendiary Trainee Organisation Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited Educational Qualification Diploma or ITI certificate in relevant field Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Technical skills Job Location Uttar Pradesh Salary Scale INR 21,700 to INR 35,400 per month Industry Power Application Start Date October 18, 2018 Application End Date November 12, 2018

Age Limit: 18 to 25 years



Also Read: Railway Job Opportunity For 2907 ACT Apprentices At Eastern Railway

How To Apply For NPCIL Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for NPCIL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1 Log on to the NPCIL official website. Step 2 Click on the REGISTER button on the right-top corner. Step 3 The registration form will open. Select the relevant details against each field from the drop-down list box. Step 4 The rest of the registration form will now open. Enter your details in the fields provided. Step 5 Enter the captcha code. Step 6 Click REGISTER and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Follow the link - https://npcilcareers.co.in/NAPSST2018/documents/Advt.pdf to read the detailed official notification.IIT Guwahati

BRICS Rank: 48

India Rank: 10

Overall Score: 64.1

IIT Guwahati is one of the popular IITs in India which was founded in 1994. It earned a perfect score in the staff with a PhD indicator. The institute has been deemed good in research and earned a high score in the papers per faculty and citations per faculty member indicators. Explore more about the institute here.

https://www.careerindia.com/colleges/iit-guwahati-kamrup-assam-cp433

IIT Roorkee

BRICS Rank: 47

India Rank: 9

Overall Score: 64.9

IIT Roorkee is one of the oldest technical institutions in Asia. The institute gained IIT status in 2001. IIT Roorkee is scored well in research output and impact. It also stands tall in the international students indicator. Explore more about the institute here.

University Of Delhi

BRICS Rank: 42

India Rank: 8

Overall Score: 66.1

The University of Delhi, which was established in 1922, is the second non-IIT institutions in the top 10 list. The university which is the largest in the country in terms of hosting regular students, scored well in employer and academic reputation indicators. Explore more about the institute here.

University Of Hyderabad

BRICS Rank: 36

India Rank: 7

Overall Score: 69.6

The University of Hyderabad was established in 1974 and around 5000 students are pursuing their education in almost 150 programs. The university earned a place in the top 10 with an increase in the number of foreign students enrolling in the university. Explore more about the institute here.

IIT Kanpur

BRICS Rank: 25

India Rank: 6

Overall Score: 75.9

IIT Kanpur, which was founded in 1959, is known for quality education and a sprawling residential campus. It scored full-marks in the staff category with a PhD indicator. It also scored well in the papers per faculty and academic reputation indicators. Explore more about the institute here.

IIT Kharagpur

BRICS Rank: 23

India Rank: 5

Overall Score: 76.7

IIT Kharagpur, which was established in 1951, scored well in the international faculty indicator. The institute has also started offering courses in humanities and social sciences along with shaping future engineers. Explore more about the institute here.

IIT Delhi

BRICS Rank: 18

India Rank: 4

Overall Score: 80.5

The institute, which was declared as an Institute of National Importance, scored well in the academic stature and employer reputation indicators. The institute is also popular across the country for great autonomy and academic collaborations. Explore more about the institute here.

IIT Madras

BRICS Rank: 17

India Rank: 3

Overall Score: 80.6

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), an institute which has a self-contained residential campus, was established in 1959. Over 8,000 students are enrolled in the 16 academic departments. The institute also scored full-marks in faculty staff with PhD. Explore more about the institute here.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

BRICS Rank: 10

India Rank: 2

Overall Score: 84.7

The institute located in the city of Bangalore received perfect scores in both the Staff with PhD and papers per faculty indicators. The institute is popular across the world for its research work. Explore more about the institute here.

IIT Bombay

BRICS Rank: 8

India Rank: 1

Overall Score: 86.7

IIT Bombay stands tall at the first position with an overall score of 86.7 per cent. The institute, which was established in 1958, has scored well in the academic and employer reputation indicators. It offers a range of engineering courses and is believed to be the best in placements. Explore more about the institute here.

24 Indian Universities Listed In The QS World University Rankings 2019Photo: The Canadian Press Lorrainda Smith, right, and husband Wilmer Capps prepare to spend the first night out of the hospital with their two-day-old son Luke in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018.

Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their son Luke, born just three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle.

So Capps, wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the longest of nights in the best spot they could find: The parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm.

On a starry night, mother sat in the bed of the family's pickup truck; her child sat in a car seat beside her. Dad sat in the dark and pondered how it could be that his son's first night out of a hospital could be spent outside a big-box retailer because of a lack of help.

"It really upset me, man, because I've always been the type of person who would help anyone," Capps said in an interview with The Associated Press, which found the family outside the store Monday night. An AP photographer accompanied them on a journey from the lot to a hospital and met them again at a hotel where donors later provided them a room.

Luke is healthy and so is Smith, his mom. But she said her newborn deserves better than the stormy life he's had so far.

"We had everything. Full-time job, a place to live. One day we had it all, the next we had nothing," said Smith. "This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to."

The story of Luke's birth is just one amid the chaos that life has become in areas of the Florida Panhandle hit hardest by Michael.

With the hurricane bearing down on their native home of Panama City, Capps and Smith sent their three other children to stay with relatives. Doctors had planned to induce labour on Oct. 11, the day after Michael made landfall between here and Mexico Beach, wiping out a wide expanse of buildings and timber.

Smith went to the hospital as planned that day, courtesy of a ride in a police car along streets crisscrossed with downed trees and powerlines. Smith said workers at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center told her they couldn't deliver a baby that day, so she walked several miles (kilometres) home after being unable to find a ride back.

Anya Mayr, a Gulf Coast Regional spokeswoman, said the hospital has operated only as an emergency room and hasn't admitted patients since Michael. About 560 people have been treated for injuries ranging from storm wounds to heart attack and chainsaw cuts, she said, and more than 170 have been transferred to other hospitals by ambulances and helicopters.

Labour pains started the next day, so Capps drove Smith to a hospital about 80 miles (130 kilometres) to the north in Dothan, Alabama, which was flooded with coastal refugees from Michael. She gave birth at 1 a.m. last Saturday, three days after Michael's landfall.

Discharged from the hospital and unable to find a hotel room nearby, the couple drove back to Florida, where conditions had improved only slightly since Michael.

Still unable to stay at their storm-damaged home amid oppressive heat and bugs, Capps settled on the Walmart parking lot because they were low on gas and were fearful of driving at night with a curfew in place. The store has a reputation for letting travellers sleep in the parking lot overnight, and Capps knew it.

"I had no choice, (Luke) would have had a heatstroke. When he started acting like he was getting sick from the heat and wouldn't eat, that's when we went to Walmart," Capps said. "There was kind of a breeze there, there was no bugs biting us. I said 'We're all right now."

Police officers who showed up after the AP photographer realized the couple's plight and escorted them back to Gulf Coast Regional, where workers checked out Luke but couldn't provide a bed for the night, frustrating Capps. Fearful of safety and sanitation problems at a shelter suggested by workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the family returned to the Walmart lot.

There, they met a security guard who helped secure them a hotel room in nearby Panama City Beach with air conditioning, water and power Tuesday night. Capps doesn't know how long the aid will last, but he intends to repay the donation.

"These people have been a godsend, because otherwise we'd be back in the parking lot tonight," he said.Photo: The Canadian Press Samidh Chakrabarti, Director of Elections and Civic Engagement, from left, listens with Katie Harbath, Global Politics and Government Outreach Director and Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy as Tom Reynolds, Policy Communications, speaks to them during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018.

In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook's expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads "War Room." Behind the door lies a nerve centre the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections.

Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, "Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem."

That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago  and which the company's critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.

Days after President Donald Trump's surprise victory, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea "pretty crazy ."

But Facebook's blase attitude shifted as criticism of the company mounted in Congress and elsewhere. Later that year, it acknowledged having run thousands of ads promoting false information placed by Russian agents. Zuckerberg eventually made fixing Facebook his personal challenge for 2018.

The war room is a major part of Facebook's ongoing repairs. Its technology draws upon the artificial-intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify "inauthentic" posts and user behaviour. Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6.

"There is no substitute for physical, real-world interaction," said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's director of elections and civic engagement. "The primary thing we have learned is just how effective it is to have people in the same room all together."

More than 20 different teams now co-ordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people  mostly contractors  devoted to blocking fake accounts and fictional news and stopping other abuses on Facebook and its other services. As part of the crackdown, Facebook also has hired fact checkers, including The Associated Press, to vet new stories posted on its social network.

Facebook credits its war room and other stepped-up patrolling efforts for booting 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past year and jettisoning hundreds of pages set up by foreign governments and other agents looking to create mischief.

But it remains unclear whether Facebook is doing enough, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters For America, a liberal group that monitors misinformation. He noted that the sensational themes distributed in fictional news stories can be highly effective at keeping people "engaged" on Facebook  which in turn makes it possible to sell more of the ads that generate most of Facebook's revenue.

"What they are doing so far seems to be more about trying to prevent another public relations disaster and less so about putting in meaningful solutions to the problem," Carusone said. "On balance, I would say they that are still way off."

Facebook disagrees with that assessment, although its efforts are still a work in progress. Chakrabarti, for instance, acknowledged that some "bugs" prevented Facebook from taking some unspecified actions to prevent manipulation efforts in the first round of Brazil's presidential election earlier this month. He declined to elaborate.Dangote starts work on Niger plant

ICR Newsroom By 18 October 2018

Dangote starts work on the construction of a XOF180bn (US$315.8m) cement plant in Keita, Niger, according to the countrys national TV organisation.



The new works will also included a 100MW coal-fired power plant. Dangote Cement Niger was granted approval to carry out research on coal and related substances on four permits in the region of Agadez (north) and Tahoua.



The new cement facility is scheduled for delivery at the end of 2020 and will have a capacity of 2.5Mta. It is expected that output from the works will help lower prices and help to reduce import volumes. Currently Niger imports 80 per cent of its cement requirement, mainly from Nigeria and Benin.

Published underAl Jouf Cement to supply Palestinian market

18 October 2018

Al Jouf Cement of Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with Palestine-based Sanad Trading and Marketing to export 50,000t of cement and clinker annually.



Al Jouf made the announcement in a bourse staement on Thursday and said the finanical deal will show in mid-4Q18. Sanad is the largest distributor of cement in Palestine and meets 65 per cent of cement demand.

Published underSibirsky Cement's cement production falls in 9M18

18 October 2018

Russias Sibirsky Cement has seen a minor fall in cement production from its three plants in the 9M18, slipping to 2.507Mt from 2.516Mt in the year-ago period.



The companys Topkinsky facility recorded a flat YoY result of around 1.7Mt, while Krasnoyarsky increased its production by three per cent to 268,100t. However, Timlyuysk noted an eight per cent drop to 268,100t. The decline is due to a reduction in cement consumption in the Buryat Republic, eastern Siberia, which decreased 12.6 per cent in the nine months, according to Beton.

Published underThe disagreements between the GCC countries were irrelevant when it comes to expressing support for Moroccos territorial integrity and sovereignty over the Sahara.

All Gulf countries have expressed their full support for Moroccos unity before the UN Fourth Committee, saying that the autonomy initiative offered by the Kingdom stands as a serious and credible solution.

Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar all spoke with one voice in support of the Moroccan stand on the Sahara issue mirroring long standing ties and principled position regarding the Sahara issue.

Saudi Arabias permanent representative to the UN, Abdallah Al Mouallimi, said before the Fourth Committee that Morocco continues to participate, seriously and in good faith, in the search of a permanent solution to the Sahara issue. He reaffirmed that Saudi Arabia has welcomed Moroccos autonomy proposal as a constructive, equitable and realistic solution, in accordance with international law and UN resolutions.

Echoing the Saudi diplomat, the delegates of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Yemen have reiterated a similar position and expressed support to the Moroccan autonomy initiative. They likewise welcomed the efforts made by Morocco to achieve a definitive solution, underlining that the Security Council has, in all its resolutions since 2007 and until 2018, qualified these efforts as serious and credible, paving the way towards a final settlement.

Morocco in turn did not shy away from expressing support for the UAEs legitimate demands to its islands that are still under the yoke of Iranian occupation.The UN Fourth Committee adopted without a vote a resolution reiterating support for the UN-led political process to settle the Sahara issue after Morocco protested at keeping the artificial dispute on the agenda of the Committee.

Moroccan permanent representative said it is an anomaly to list the Sahara issue on the decolonization agenda of the Fourth committee as the issue is tackled by the UN Security Council.

The Fourth Committee, as was expected, voiced support for the political process based on the Security Council resolutions adopted since 2007, with a view to reaching a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara.

The UN committee also called on all parties to cooperate fully with the Secretary General and his Personal Envoy, and with each other, in order to reach a political solution that is mutually acceptable.

The UN Envoy for the Sahara Horst Kohler invited Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Separatist Polisario front to a round table on the regional conflict in Geneva early December. The round table is meant to bridge the differences in the prospect of a resumption of negotiations.

Morocco was the first invitee to accept Kohlers invitation to take part in the round table, being eager to settle once and for all this conflict that is hampering Maghreb integration.

Algeria, a party to the conflict, has not responded to the invitation publicly, but Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary General, said last Monday (Oct. 15) at his daily briefing that Algeria and Mauritania, an obser country, had accepted the invitation.

Dujarric also said that the UN Chief urged the parties and the neighbors to respond positively to the invitation of his Personal Envoy, Horst Kohler, to come to the negotiating table in good faith and without preconditions.A Tunisian military aircraft crashed Wednesday into the Mediterranean during a military exercise involving 10 other countries bordering on the sea.

The Defense Ministry of the North African country said the pilot was unharmed as he was able to eject safely before the aircraft, an F-5, plunged into the sea.

The pilot was rescued by a Tunisian helicopter, Defense Ministry spokesman Mohamed Zekri told AFP. Two Italian helicopters also took part in the search, The New Arab reports citing the Italian Defense Ministry.

The joint military drills, according to the Italian ministry, are aimed at testing surveillance and air defense systems in the western Mediterranean as well as improving the coordination of air operations.

Tunisias air force also held its first joint exercises with Saudi forces this month.Local Problems, Global Tech Egypts Lake Nasser is the worlds largest man-made lake. The lakes sediment can be used to reforest areas of desert. Photo: A. Vergani/De Agostini/Getty Images

According to the U.N., about 12 million hectares of land are lost to desertification each year, an area a little smaller than New York State. Desertification has many causes, but its usually used to describe a relatively dry area that becomes drier and drier, losing water, arable land, and plant and animal life. Fighting desertification has become a global cause  the U.N. has its own convention specifically to address it  with thousands of people taking up the cause. One NGO has a novel approach: just use garbage dirt.

Serbian-born Vesela Tanaskovic got her Ph.D. in geoengineering from the Technical University of Vienna. Her focus during that time was on desertification, and a process she came up with there became the basis of Afforest4Future, a nongovernmental organization thats tackling desertification all over the world.

To explain what Afforest4Future does, we have to first look at man-made lakes. Throughout the world, but especially in drier areas, man-made lakes support whole populations, sometimes the vast majority of the population in a region. Wherever you have deserts and people, in North Africa or Central Asia or wherever, there are man-made lakes because this is how we survive, says Tanaskovic. Those lakes are often made by damming rivers. All very ordinary stuff.

The problem lies with the way those lakes are maintained. All rivers contain large amounts of sediment; they pick it up along their routes. Ordinarily, thats not a problem because the velocity of the river, its carrying power, just carts that sediment along, maybe dropping it into a delta or the ocean eventually. But when you dam up a river, its velocity slows down or stops, and that sediment drifts to the bottom. Theres a huge industry in dredging, hauling up sediment (or other stuff, but often sediment) from the bottoms of lakes to keep them working properly. If that sediment isnt removed, the capacity of the lake slowly shrinks as the bottom literally rises upward. They can lose 20 percent or more of their capacity, or even overflow.

But in the worlds developing countries, many of which are in quickly desertifying areas, it can be expensive to regularly dredge. Dredging can be seen as a low-priority expense, compared with the vast infrastructure needs of countries in, say, Central Asia or around the Sahara. So these countries sometimes dont bother. Its estimated that 68 dams fail in China each year.

Dredging might be a pain, but that sediment is far from useless. This is good, virtuous silt, cleansed by a river and containing excellent quantities of minerals and nutrients. The moment you take it out, its viable topsoil, says Tanaskovic. So thats exactly what Afforest4Future does. It uses existing dredging companies to haul out the lake sediment and process it only minimally; theres no need, says Tanaskovic, to treat it or add anything to it. The processing is simply to remove any larger objects that might clog pipelines, which are sometimes used to transport the sediment.

That sediment can then be spread over land. A depth of five centimeters, for example, is enough to enable people to plant all kinds of local forestry crops, like moringa, a drought-tolerant plant native to South Asia and East Africa that is often touted as a superfood. Plenty of other plants and crops can thrive in this lake-garbage topsoil: legumes, some native cereal grains, date palms, or clover, which replenishes nitrogen back into the soil and is also a beloved food by grazing animals.

This is potentially a solution with much broader possibilities than it sounds; there are millions of these lakes, some of which are enormous. Lake Nasser, in Egypt, is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world, at over 2,000 square miles. Tanaskovic says it contains about 7 billion tons of silt, which if you removed and covered to a depth of five centimeters would cover an area about the size of Latvia. The entire country of Latvia.

This topsoil isnt just useful for agriculture; soil as a sink for carbon sequestration is tremendously promising. Soil, when treated the right way with nutrient-injecting plants like clover or legumes, can store vast amounts of carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. The silt from that one Egyptian lake, says Tanaskovic, would store about 1.2 billion tons of carbon  about the same amount emitted by the whole nation of Russia in a year.

Afforest4Future works with the U.N. and various governments  its working on a pilot program in Dubai right now  to implement its technology, which includes machine learning to adapt to changing conditions in newly greened deserts. It makes money, Tanaskovic says, but as an NGO, it filters that money back into the business to expand. And theres no shortage of lakes to dredge, or deserts to green.Its no secret that Chip and Joanna Gaines kill it in the home renovation (and decor) field. But, their dedication to food, shopping, and making memories is just as notable. To the Gaineses, Magnolia Market at the Silos in Waco, Texas is more than just a business. Its a place where people can gather and make memories together  aka, the one thing Joanna Gaines always tries to incorporate in her design and decor. With that in mind, the former HGTV couple host an annual festival known as the Magnolia Market Silobration.

Magnolia Market Silobration

If a trip to Magnolia Market at the Silos sounds like a dream, try an entire weekend celebration  aka, Silobration  with plenty of Joanna Gaines-approved fun. From the food to the shopping to the outdoor activities, heres everything you need to know about the annual Magnolia Market Silobration.

Vendor fair

Theres a lot to do at the Magnolia Market Silobration  including, shopping of course! That said, the typical Magnolia Market stores arent the only ones open for business during the Silobration. As it turns out, vendors from all over the place set up shop for the weekend-long festivities. Vendors from across the country will be lining the streets surrounding the Silos to set up shop and share their products with you, notes Magnolias website.

The vendors at Magnolia Market Silobration range from clothing and accessories, home goods, paper goods, kids, and some miscellaneous shops.

Food trucks

Another favorite part about the weekend-long festivities? The food! Silos Baking Co. is open for all your sweet cravings, as well as a variety of food truck vendors, including the Magnolia Table food truck. For more insight on food truck vendors, here are the ones participating in the 2018 Silobration:

Churros Time

Cousins Maine Lobster

Donut Darlin

dOugh M G

Easy Slider

Helbergs BBG

Little Brisket

The Mix Cafe

Waffle Love

Wildflower Caramel Co.

Urban Sips and Sweets

Chucks Gourmet Popcorn

Summer Snow

Co-Town Crepes

Cheddar Box

Alabama Sweet Tea

900 Pizzeria

Luna Juice

Magnolia Table

Captain Billy Whizzbangs

Club Sandwich

Steel City Pops

H.O.T. Dog House

Daytime activities

According to its website, the Magnolia Market Silobration also has plenty of daytime activities for all ages to enjoy  including a green space with plenty of fun to be had. Some activities include cornhole, swings, frisbee, and plenty of balls to kick around.

Concerts

In addition to activities, food, and shopping, the Silobration also features some incredible artists. Throughout the day, guests can enjoy free performances from a variety of musicians, including Autumn Anderson, Dawson Hollow, Union Revival, Mountain Natives, Catherine Michelle, That Dog Dont Hunt, Colton Venner, and Patrick Meek.

In the evening, Johnnyswim and other artists play an after-hours concert, too. That said, youll need to snag a ticket for this event as it is the only activity that isnt free. In addition, it tends to sell out fast.

Fun fact: According to a tweet from Chip, he and Joanna conceived baby crew at the Johnnyswim Silobration concert in 2017.

Decor

It wouldnt be a Magnolia event without a touch of Joanna Gaines decor magic! At the Silobration, you can expect plenty of fall-inspired decorations. This years Silobration includes plenty of trendy items like pampas grass, rustic pumpkins, and a sweet photo opportunity in front of the Silobration backdrop  which reads: Silobrate good times, come on!

Weather

The Silobration is a rain or shine event. However, Magnolia takes guest and vendor safety seriously and will shut the festival down if weather conditions are dangerous. If rain is in the forecast, the website suggests bringing a rain jacket or poncho, as umbrellas are not permitted.

Check out The Cheat Sheet on Facebook!Pueblo police officer shoots and kills man said to have been armed

newsEDITOR'S NOTE , Friday, October 19, 10:44 a.m. EDT: Morning Star News has added updated information to this story about the case of Idir Hamdad.

***

TIZI-OUZOU, Algeria, October 18, 2018 (Morning Star News)  Authorities in Algeria sealed shut a church site on Tuesday (Oct. 16) even after Christian leaders complied with orders to meet building codes, sources said.

In Azaghar village near Akbou, about 185 kilometers (114 miles) east of Algiers in Bejaia Province, Kabylie Region, eight policemen sealed shut the doors of the Church of Jesus Christ, pastor Ali Benkhelat told Morning Star News.

Government officials had ordered the closure in February after local administrators visited the 300-member churchs worship site in December 2017 and January, he said.

After their visit to our place of worship, they asked us to provide another emergency exit door and fire extinguishers, which we have done, Pastor Benkhelat said. We even had to close the premises for three weeks for different development work. If they let us work until today, its because they had nothing to reproach us for.

The five-year-old church is a legal entity by virtue of its affiliation with the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA), but the government order stated that its building was originally meant to be used for a poultry business. Christian leaders said it was clean and never had chickens in it.

Police first went to the building owner, Da Amar, at 4 p.m. on Monday (Oct. 15) and asked him to go to the police station at 5 p.m., which he did, Pastor Benkhelat said. The officer on duty told Amar, who makes the building available to the church free of charge, that police would close the building the next day on orders from Bejaia provincial officials.

This after having reminded him of a notification which had been delivered to him on Feb. 18, 2018, and in which he had been informed of the closure of the premises for reasons of nonconformity, Pastor Benkhelat said.

Besides citing lack of an emergency exit and fire extinguishers, the Feb. 18 order mentions use of the building to receive foreign pastors as being against Law No. 11-08 of July 25, 2008, as a reason to stop using the building, under pain of making a decision to close the premises within 15 days.

After Amar called Pastor Benkhelat on Monday (Oct. 15), the church leader immediately made contact with EPA President Salah Chalah, who arrived from about 100 kilometers (62 miles) away with EPA Vice President Youcef Ourahmane on Tuesday (Oct. 16).

The owner, pastor and EPA representatives went to the Akbou police station to try to get the closure order reversed.

We presented the necessary documents, including the affiliation of the church to the EPA, but unfortunately their decision only obeyed an order issued by the head of Bejaia Province, the EPAs Pastor Ourahmane said.

The closure order this week was issued by a new Bejaia Province head who took office on Oct. 1, the Christian leaders said.

It was ordered to proceed with the closing of the premises of the church with the sealing of the main entrance door, Pastor Benkhelat said. A brigade of eight gendarmes thus appeared around 11:30 and proceeded to execute the established order.

The sealing of the church building comes amid a rash of church closures in the past year in Algeria. Three churches closed in Oran have since been allowed to re-open, but church buildings closed in Maatkas, Tizi-Ouzou Province, in May, and in Riki on July 11 remain shut, Christian leaders said. The Riki church, near Akbou, continues to hold worship services in the open air outside their closed premises.

On May 26 authorities ordered the closure of a church building in Ait-Mellikeche, also in Bejaia Province.

In addition to orders to close Protestant places of worship, Algerian authorities are trying to block evangelical activity in the country, Christian leaders said. In Oran Province, pastor Rachid Segheir visits provincial offices weekly to appeal for the reopening of his bookstore, which was closed and sealed by police in Oran city.

All churches affiliated with the EPA have been visited by investigators and ordered to comply with requirements for non-Muslim places of worship or face closure.

A 2007 executive decree requires all non-Muslim places of worship in Algeria to register with the state, according to the U.S. State Department, but a government freeze on new EPA members has kept churches from registering.

Idir Hamdad

At the same time, the case of a Christian previously acquitted of frivolous charges again surfaced this month.

Idir Hamdad, a 29-year-old convert from Islam, had been acquitted on July 8 of importing unauthorized (Christian) items without a license, but a prosecutor appealed the decision. A judge on Oct. 9 rejected the appeal, acquitting Hamdad again and ruling that he was prosecuted solely for his faith, though the court did not reveal the decision to his lawyers until Thursday (Oct. 18).

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.Its not easy being Dave Brat. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

Dave Brat is stressed. Four years after booting Eric Cantor from what seemed to be a safe seat in Congress, the Republican representative for Virginias Seventh Congressional District has entered troubled waters. Monmouths most recent poll places him in a dead heat with his Democratic challenger, Abigail Spanberger, who raised $3.6 million last quarter. During their first debate, Brat misrepresented The Washington Posts rating of a Spanberger ad. According to Brat, Glenn Kessler of the Posts Fact Checker column had given Spanberger four Pinocchios for an ad that attacked Brat for voting against protections for people with preexisting conditions. According to Kessler, The Fact Checker did no such thing.

During the same debate, Brat brought up House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 21 times. Though Pelosi is assigned godlike powers by Republicans, who trumpet the alleged depravity of her liberalism every time they need to win a tight race, shes not challenging Brat for office. Abigail Spanberger is, and she might just win.

So yes, Brat is having a hard time. He reinforced this point on Wednesday. Audio tweeted by WCVE TV/FM reporter Ben Paviour captures Brat relating his woes to an addiction recovery support group at the Chesterfield County Jail. You think youre having a hard time? Ive got $5 million of negative ads going at me. How do you think Im feeling? Brat complained, responding to a woman describing the challenges shell face upon release. Nothings easy for anybody. You think [because] Im a congressman, my life is easy? This guys off having steaks. Baloney!

The inmates have it hard, Brat conceded. Youve got some fears, real anxieties coming up with a job, he said. He urged the groups members to find a support network, and to exercise, read books, and go to the Bible as a substitute for drug use.

An odd moment from @DaveBratVA7th's visit to an addiction support group at Chesterfield County Jail: After an inmate describes some of the difficulties she'd face upon release, Brat says his life isn't all roses either, pointing to attack ads from @SpanbergerVA07 pic.twitter.com/uVDW4jsAhs  Ben Paviour (@BPaves) October 18, 2018

Brat had a different take on the interaction.

Shortly after I sent out this Tweet, @DaveBratVA7ths team sent out a press release that included the clip I sent them. Still waiting to get a comment from them. pic.twitter.com/DtLvCWaocp  Ben Paviour (@BPaves) October 18, 2018

It is perhaps not a surprise that Brats solutions are individual ones, emphasizing behavioral changes. Brat has disputed the notion that he is an Ayn Rand devotee, but as Zack Beauchamp reported for Vox in 2014, he clearly values Rands libertarian ideals while placing his own idiosyncratic spin on libertarianism. The representative, who has a master of divinity degree in theology from Princeton Theological Seminary and once taught economics at Randolph-Macon College, links economic growth to the spread of Protestantism  certainly not a new idea, but one Brat approaches with pronounced evangelical fervor. Binyamin Appelbaum detailed Brats views further in a 2014 piece for the New York Times. If we all did the right thing and had the guts to spread the word, we would not need the government to backstop every action we take, Brat wrote in an article for Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology.

As a congressman, Brat has an unparalleled opportunity to advance his peculiar meld of Protestant theology and Randian economics. But his constituents may have tired of him, and of the values he says he represents. Perhaps Brats previous appeal to voters was a product of anti-Establishment fervor rather than something more substantive. Brat now faces a humiliating possibility: He may be unable to replicate his astonishing victory. Not only could he lose his seat, he could lose a district Donald Trump won by six points two years ago, and in the process, push Virginia more comfortably into the arms of the Democratic Party. No wonder hes come unmoored.A caravan of some 4,000 immigrants is headed toward the United States from Honduras and President Trump is threatening to close the southern border if the Mexican government fails to stop them.

According to the Associated Press, the Mexican government deployed additional police to its shared border with Guatemala on Thursday after the Casa del Migrante shelter in Guatemala reported that hundreds of Hondurans had already arrived there.

AP reports that Mexican officials will not let the Hondurans enter as a group and that they will need to have official documentation to enter into Mexico from Guatemala.

If the Hondurans, who are reportedly fleeing violence and poverty in their country, do not have a passport or visa, Mexicos ambassador to Guatemala has said that they will be deported.

Mexican officials have also said that the migrants could also have the option to apply for refugee status, but this would require a 90-day approval process.

As the caravan nears the United States, President Trump has fired off several warnings on Twitter.

The President wrote, I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to the U.S.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Trump then threatened to cease aid provisions to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, given that they have let the caravan proceed through their countries to the U.S.

The President wrote, In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Trump then pointed fault at weak immigration laws enacted by Democrats saying, The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!

....The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Fox News reports that the caravan started last Friday from San Pedro Sula which is the second-largest city in Honduras. San Pedro Sula is also reportedly considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. When the caravan began AP estimates that there were around 160 people. The caravan is now hosting an estimated 4,000 Hondurans.

Photo courtesy: Filip Gielda/UnsplashAt some point in your faith journey, somebody probably handed you a copy of the Gospel of John. Turns out Christians have been doing this for a long time.

In 2015, the website Bible Gateway conducted a survey asking participants to choose their favorite book of the Bible. Guess which one came out on top: the Gospel of John.

All Scripture is God-breathed, of course, but John has long been a favorite. It was, after all, written by the disciple whom Jesus loved, one of the Lords inner circle within the Twelve, and the only male disciple to have stayed by Christs side all the way to the cross.

Johns Gospel is unique. Its structured differently than the other three Gospels: half the book describes three years of Jesus life and the other half describes the last week of Jesus life. John interspersed carefully selected miraclesseven of themwith seven discourses or sermons. Its flow finally culminates in the resurrection, the greatest miracle, which is followed by a final discourse of sorts to Peter, on the beach, after making them breakfast.

The Gospel of John has been aptly described by biblical scholar Leon Morris and others as a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.

It is also the New Testament book for which we have the earliest manuscript evidence, a papyrus fragment the size of a business card, possibly dating back to the early second century, within a few years of its authors death.

In a month or so, a much later manuscript of this gospel will be on display. Its story reveals that this beloved gospel has offered comfort to Christians through the ages.

St. Cuthberts Gospel, a leather-bound, Latin copy of John acquired by the British Library in 2012, is believed to be Europes oldest surviving book. Written sometime in the late seventh century, this beautifully-preserved segment of Gods word was slipped into the coffin of a man regarded as a saint, perhaps by a friend thinking of Jesus words recorded in John 11:25: I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

The book lay with St. Cuthbert for over 400 years. It was removed when his remains were relocated to Durham Cathedral.

The book, with its red cover, elegant, double vine scroll and pristine condition, will go on display later this month at the British Library as part of an exhibit called Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War. The library has published scanned images of every page of the gospel. If you come to BreakPoint.org, well link you to it.

But as beautiful as the book is, its the word inside that has captured the churchs attention for centuries.

The Word, or the Logos, is central to Johns theology. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

With this opening line, John immediately connects Jesus with the Genesis account of creation. When God spoke the cosmos into existence, His speech was a Persona Person who took on flesh and came to dwell among us.

Johns Gospel, treasured today as it was in St. Cuthberts time, reveals Jesus in ways the other gospels do not. He is light and life, something not only clearly said in Johns prologue, but revealed by the miracles and sermons John chose to include.

He is our Good Shepherd. He prays for our unity. He uses His last breaths to ensure the care of his mother. From John we know of Jesus post-resurrection appearances to Mary Magdalene and Thomas, and of His glorified breakfast of fish with His disciples.

Because John portrays the Jesus who knew and loved him, his gospel has kindled faith and comforted many throughout the centuries. Johns Gospel is still handed out in booklet form by evangelists to this day, and its summary of the good news in chapter three, verse 16 is perhaps the most quoted Bible verse in history.

That this 1,300-year-old saint and those who laid him to rest cherished the Gospel of John should inspire in us a profound gratitude, not only for the printed word and how common and even commonplace its become, but for the way Johns word allowed believers across the ages to see, and believe, the glory of the Word made flesh.

BreakPoint is a Christian worldview ministry that seeks to build and resource a movement of Christians committed to living and defending Christian worldview in all areas of life. Begun by Chuck Colson in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on todays news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print. Today BreakPoint commentaries, co-hosted by Eric Metaxas and John Stonestreet, air daily on more than 1,200 outlets with an estimated weekly listening audience of eight million people. Feel free to contact us at BreakPoint.org where you can read and search answers to common questions.

John Stonestreet, the host of The Point, a daily national radio program, provides thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.

Publication date: October 18, 2018

Photo courtesy: Anthony Garand/UnsplashOver the past two years, few statistics have sparked as much debate both inside and outside evangelicalism as the fact that 81 percent of white evangelical voters picked Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Depending on your views, its either a sign of solidarity or one of compromisea number wrought with opinions and commentary to the point where fact and fiction are blurred.

The statistic has often been used in the media and in academia to represent the idea that all evangelical Trump voters were all in for everything that encompasses Trumpism. As Americans (both evangelical and non-evangelical) tried to understand one of the most polarizing and surprising elections in our countrys history, the 81 percent became the go-to narrative for many. It fit longstanding criticisms that evangelicalism had become over-politicized, under-discipled, and hijacked by some of its most belligerent elements.

In the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections, the Billy Graham Center Institute at Wheaton College worked with LifeWay Research to better understand the 81 percent and evangelicals political engagement. We polled 3,000 Americans in three categories: those who self-identify as evangelicals, those with evangelical beliefs, and those who neither see themselves as evangelicals nor hold certain core evangelical theological views (such as a belief in salvation through Jesus Christ alone).

Among other insights, the data reveal six key facts about the 81 percent statistic that are worth highlighting. [The institute and CT will feature more analysis in the coming weeks.]

The 81 percent fails to differentiate the motivations behind voting.

In every election, people can vote with varying levels of enthusiasm and ...

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Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

On January 9, 2015, I wrote an article titled, "The Mayor of Atlanta Declares War on Religious Freedom." Now, more than three-and-a-half years later, sanity has prevailed and religious freedoms have been preserved. Atlanta must pay up.

The case involved Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran, a man who had served the city of Atlanta for more than 30 years, working with distinction and without blemish. But when he self-published a 160 page book for use in his home church, gay activists rose up against him, demanding that he be fired.

What was his crime?

On his own time and on his own dime, he dared to write a book which contained a few lines  yes, just a few lines  speaking against homosexual practice. (And note that he spoke against other sexual sins as well, based on Scripture.)

According to Cochran, he did this with proper clearance from his authorities, even giving a copy to the mayor, who, Cochran claims, promised to read it.

But at the behest of LGBT activists, Cochran was first suspended for 30 days without pay (seriously!), ordered to go to sensitivity training, then fired.

To add insult to the injury and madness to the circus, Mayor Kasim Reed then explained that Cochran was fired because, "We will not discriminate on the basis of race or gender or religion or creed or sexual orientation or physical ability or gender identity."

This is a line to make George Orwell proud: "Because we will not discriminate based on religion, we are firing you because of your religious beliefs!"

Thankfully, sanity has prevailed and religious liberty has been preserved. As the Daily Wire reported, "Atlanta To Pay Out $1.2 Million To Christian Fire Chief After Violating His First Amendment Rights."

The initial ruling in Cochran's favor came back in December, 2017. Now, the city council "agreed to pay out $1.2 million to the former chief for damages and attorneys' fees." (Cochran was represented by the ADF, which has been on the front lines of major religious freedoms victories in recent years.)

In the words of ADF attorney Kevin Theriot, "The government can't force its employees to get its permission before they engage in free speech. It also can't fire them for exercising that First Amendment freedom, causing them to lose both their freedom and their livelihoods."

Precisely so.

The outrage is that this happened in the first place. The outrage is that anyone thought they had the power or right to terminate Cochran for his biblically-based, religious beliefs. And remember: At no point was there a single charge of discrimination brought against him. In other words, he treated all his employees and colleagues in a proper and professional manner.

The issue was what he believed about homosexual practice. And the city of Atlanta had the gall to tell him, "If you hold to these beliefs and express these beliefs, you cannot work for us."

To repeat: That is a Constitutional outrage.

But around the world, similar outrages are occurring.

Most recently, the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, announced that new legislation would "make it clear that no student of a non-state school should be expelled on the basis of their sexuality."

In other words, a Christian school (or, any religious school) in Australia cannot require its students to live by its moral and religious code.

This is beyond chilling, as once again, gay rights trump religious rights.

Thankfully, in America, there continues to be a pushback against the all-out attack on our First Amendment rights. Rights which are foundational to the well-being of our nation. Rights which have formed the very warp and woof of our country since our inception.

To lose those rights is to lose our freedoms. To lose those rights is to forfeit our liberty and descend into ever-increasing captivity and bondage.

But all is not lost, and Kelvin Cochran's victory is a victory for us all.

And, the truth be told, his victory is not an attack on those who identify as LGBT. He should not have been fired in the first place, and the Bible says what is says. People can accept that or reject that by their own choice. Those are the freedoms we enjoy.

Back in 2003, I noted in one of my sermons that, "The heightened moral crisis in society, led especially by the homosexual agenda, . . . will produce a holy backlash."

It's taken a while, but as LGBT activists continue to overplay their hand, that holy backlash has increased as well. May it abound and grow until sanity and freedom prevail across the land.Freed American pastor Andrew Brunson prayed for hours to keep his sanity while in prison

Now that he's back in the United States and free from his two years of detention in Turkey, Pastor Andrew Brunson is opening up about the struggles of his imprisonment and how God was using it for His good.

Brunson, a North Carolina native who along with his wife spent over two decades preaching the Gospel in Izmir before being charged with terrorism in 2016, made the rounds with cable news networks this week after he finally landed back on U.S. soil last weekend.

During those interviews, Brunson shed more light on the details of his widely publicized detention that has soured relations between Ankara and Washington.

In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Brunson said that he might be one of the "most hated men in Turkey" right now because of the fact that he was falsely accused of not only supporting a terrorist movement blamed for trying to overthrow the Erdogan regime but also supporting Kurdish terrorists.

When Brunson and his wife, Norine, were first arrested in October 2016, Brunson said they were "shocked."

"We were arrested on our oldest son's birthday and this was for deportation. Then we were told that we were a threat to national security and within a very short time it became clear to us that this was unusual and that we weren't allowed to see a consular official and my wife and I were kept for 13 days with no contact from the outside," Brunson explained. "It just kept extending and extending. We were really shocked because we spent 23 years telling people about Jesus in Turkey. We did this very openly and had never had a problem with it."

Although Norine Brunson was eventually released, Andrew Brunson was not.

"Just being in prison is pretty rough. At the beginning, I was held in solitary confinement for a number of days. That was very difficult and the way I survived that was by just by spending hours in prayer just to keep my sanity," Brunson explained. "Then I was kept in a cell for eight people but there were over 20 of us in there. It was very crowded. I was very isolated both by language and by culture and nationality and also by religion."

Brunson explained that all of his cellmates were "very strong Muslims" who had been arrested during the crackdown on the same terrorist movement that Brunson was accused of supporting to overthrow the Erdogan government.

"So it was like living in a mosque in a lot of ways," Brunson explained.

The evangelical Presbyterian pastor elaborated further on his treatment in prison in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, saying that even though the fellow prisoners treated him well, it "was very difficult to be the only Christian among them."

During his time in prison, the only consistent contact Brunson had with the outside world was the half-hours each week that his wife would visit. They married couple could talk through a window and phone but Brunson said that his wife would tell him that people all over the world were praying for him.

There was much concern during Brunson's imprisonment about the fact that he had lost over 50 pounds and seemed to be suffering mentally and emotionally.

Despite the conditions, Brunson told ABC News that he began to realize in prison how God was using his situation as a "blessing."

"This is one of the very surreal things," Brunson said when asked about Christians in the U.S. rallying to push for his release. "[My wife and I] are not known people. We are not very important people. We have been working in Turkey in obscurity for a number of years. Around the world, I think millions of people in many countries were praying for us. Even though this caused us a lot of hurt, I think that God has used this or was planning to use this to bring blessing to Turkey. Now there are millions of people who are praying for Turkey."

After about a year-and-a-half in prison, a court ordered Brunson to be released and put in home detention in July. In response the U.S. government put more pressure on Turkey to outright release Brunson and allow him to return to the U.S. through use of sanctions and a vow to double tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum exports. The pressure led to further declines in the Turkish economy.

Brunson assured Stephanopoulos that even in light of his two-year detention, he still "loves Turkey.

Upon returning to the U.S. on Saturday, Brunson prayed over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office and asked God to guide the president and give him "supernatural wisdom."

"My wife and I have prayed for every president," Brunson told ABC News. "We have just never had the chance to do it in the Oval Office. Before we went to the Oval Office, my wife and I prayed together that we would have the chance to pray for him. We believe in the power of prayer and we think this president needs a lot of prayer. Every president does. So we ask God to give us that opportunity."

Brunson told Hannity that Norine wanted to pray verses over Trump from the Old Testament book of Isaiah and to ask that the "spirit of God to come upon him."

Courtesy of The Christian PostPastor pretends to be homeless man outside his own church to see what congregation would do

Illinois megachurch Pastor James MacDonald recently disguised himself as a bearded homeless man and camped outside of two Harvest Bible Chapel campuses before Sunday services to see how congregants would react.

MacDonald, the founder of the seven-campus Chicagoland area congregation whose "Walk in the Word" radio and television programs are seen by millions worldwide, posted the video of the experiment on his Facebook page Monday.

As Christ calls on his followers to help the "least of these" in society, MacDonald wanted to put Harvest Bible Chapel congregations to the test to see how well they are living out the biblical commands to not only love God but also "love your neighbor as yourself."

The video starts off showing MacDonald dressed in layers with a fake beard and long gray fake hair as he rolls a shopping cart down the street toward one of the Harvest campuses.

MacDonald then takes a seat right in front of the building, putting out a cup for change and a sign.

Churchgoers in the video couldn't help but notice the hairy homeless man sitting with his legs crossed by the entrance as they walked by him to enter the church.

The beginning scenes of the video show congregants walking right past the homeless MacDonald without offering much in the way of help.

Another scene shows the homeless MacDonald sitting outside of another Harvest Bible Chapel campus as churchgoers walk by him to get to their Sunday services.

"The closer a person is to us and the less common the struggle, the easier it is to love," MacDonald says in the video. "God forbid I find out my wife has three months to live, I would quit my job and quit everything, right? What if it's just an acquaintance of yours and what if the problem is recurring. ... How common is homelessness? How frequently is the homeless person someone dear to us personally? Never."

The video then shows the bearded homeless MacDonald walk through the church sanctuary with his shopping cart. He then walks on stage and begins to take off his beard and layers of clothes to reveal his true identity.

"So I took a few moments a couple of weeks ago and camped outside of a couple of our campuses and I wanted to see how we were doing when it is hardest to love," MacDonald told the congregation. "Do you know that your father in Heaven is giving the same graces to the person that is hardest for you to love? He is giving it. He doesn't play favorites. He is giving the grace to everyone. If we are going to love like our father in Heaven loves, we don't get to play favorites. By favorites I mean, so often we love the people when there is some benefit in it for us."

MacDonald used the video experiment to make a point during his sermon that Sunday that "it's hardest to love when the problem is most common and the people are least known."

"So how did our church do in the video?" he asked. "I am going to tell you now  awesome."

MacDonald explained that he was "crying inside that beard" because of the generosity and love shown to him by the congregants who either brought him food or took the time to pray with him.

Although the first few scenes of the video showed congregants walking past the homeless MacDonald, the final minutes of the video show the numerous churchgoers who offered him prayer, food, drink, money and even "the Word of God." Others even invited the homeless man into the church to join them in worship.

"I dressed up as a homeless man and sat outside our church. What I witnessed blew me away," MacDonald wrote on Facebook.

Pastor James MacDonald is an esteemed Bible teacher whose "Walk in the Word" radio and television programs are followed by millions throughout the United States and around the world. He's the Founding and Senior Pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel whose seven campuses are spread throughout the greater Chicagoland area.

Courtesy of The Christian PostScottish churches may be exempted from future gender identity rules

Churches in Scotland may be exempted from future changes to the law in respect of people who identify as non-binary, a senior civil servant has suggested.

SNP ministers plan to introduce the option of full legal recognition for non-binary children and adults - those who do not identify as male or female. The proposals would also remove the need for a medical diagnosis or treatment prior to changing gender by allowing people to instead make a self-declaration about the gender they want on their birth certificate.

At present, the Catholic Church in Scotland is exempted from some aspects of gender equality laws, allowing it to exclude women from the priesthood.

According to the Herald Scotland newspaper, Simon Stockwell, head of family law at the Scottish Government, suggested in emails released under the Freedom of Information Act that a similar exemption could be put in place if the proposed non-binary option comes into effect.

This would allow the Catholic Church and other religious institutions to refuse the appointment of non-binary clergy.

'Clearly, a further issue is non-binary people. I think it clear that the Roman Catholic Church would refuse to accept a non-binary person in the priesthood,' Stockwell wrote in the emails sent two months before the Scottish Government launched a consultation into the plans, according to the Herald.

'There are, perhaps, potential issues here at the moment for the Church, even if we do nothing at all.

'If a priest says 'I am no longer a man; I am non-binary', that priest may not be in the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment'.

'However, as the civil law stands, I think the Church could say 'There are only two sexes. We regard this priest as a male.'

'If we change the law to recognise non-binary as a gender and as a sex, that does suggest to me that the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment' would need to be changed to protect the Church, as well as non-binary people.'

The Catholic Church in Scotland is opposed to the plans to introduce a non-binary option. Anthony Horan, director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office, previously said the plans were 'deeply disturbing'.

The Free Church of Scotland has also raised objections, with former Moderator the Rev David Robertson warning the change would be harmful to children.

'The SNP seem to be working on the unproven and somewhat bizarre notion that children get to choose their own gender and sexuality,' he said.

'We believe that this will result in confusion and brokenness amongst our children rather than fulfilled potential.''We are crucifying God's earth' - Christians look for tougher action on climate change

Christians in the UK are calling on the Government to take tougher action to stop harmful climate change.

The Christian Climate Action group (CCA) will be holding a non-violent protest in front of the Houses of Parliament in London on October 31 to demand that the Government declare a state of emergency on climate change.

CCA wants the Government to take steps towards a zero carbon economy by 2025 and set up a national assembly comprising members of the public to decide on what a zero carbon future might look like.

The group said zero carbon targets were not possible in the current global market economy, which is expected to double in size over the next two decades, and that instead a completely new economic model was needed.

CCA said it will begin a 'non-violent rebellion' if the Government does not agree to the demands by November 12.

CCA member Fr Martin Newell said: 'We are crucifying God's earth, creating ongoing climate change that will cause disasters that would completely undermine any practical good work otherwise done. As a Christian I am called to act in solidarity with the crucified, and witness to God's sacrificial love for His people and His creation.'

Fellow CCA member Phil Kingston said there was 'very little time left' to limit the 'enormous dangers' facing the planet.

'None of the main political parties are responding with the level of ambition which is essential if we are to respond with the necessary commitment and sacrifice,' he said.

Minister for energy and clean growth, Claire Perry, recently asked the Committee on Climate Change to clarify what level UK greenhouse gases should be by 2050 and how these targets should be achieved as an 'appropriate contribution' to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

The Church of England's lead bishop for environmental affairs, Nicholas Holtam, welcomed the move as a 'sensible response to our changing and very pressing circumstances'.

'It is more and more obvious that climate change needs our urgent attention,' he said.

Last week's report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) outlined the threat to the planet if global warming is not limited to 1.5C. Alarmingly, the report warned that greenhouse gas emissions would need to fall by 45 per cent by 2030 to stay on track to meet that target.

Bishop Holtam added, 'The recent IPCC report helpfully summarised the implications of what we know and the need to pick up the pace and ambition of our response.'World Council of Churches reiterates call for release of Syrian archbishops

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has repeated its call for the release of two archbishops abducted in Syria five years ago.

Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi were kidnapped at gunpoint outside Aleppo in April 2013 and haven't been seen since.

No extremist groups have claimed responsibility for the kidnappings or demanded ransoms, and the fate of the pair remains unknown.

The WCC called for the safe return of the two church leaders in June this year and has reiterated the call after the 2,000-day mark since the kidnapping was passed last week.

WCC general secretary Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said: 'Sadly, the statement issued by the WCC Central Committee at its bi-annual meeting in June this year calling for a safe return of our Christian brothers to their churches, their communities and their families, needs to be repeated. We continue to pray for them, as a sign of hope for all the Christians of Syria and the region.'

The WCC voiced concerns over the continued conflict in Syria as well as deteriorating conditions for Christians across the Middle East.

'As Christian witnesses, we will continue to stand by victims of war and injustice, and cry out loud against human rights violations,' Tveit affirms.

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed this week that ISIS attacked a refugee camp in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province and took 700 people hostage. Vladimir Putin said the terrorist group had threatened to execute 10 a day unless its demands were met.

'They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute ten people every day.

'The day before yesterday they executed ten people,' Putin said, according to to the Daily Mail, adding: 'This is just horrible, it is a catastrophe.'

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told the newspaper that ISIS wants medicine and food in exchange for the release of the hostages.Trump. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The problem with our society, said Donald Trump, is the victim has absolutely no rights and the criminal has unbelievable rights.

This was a 1989 interview with Larry King, and the future-president was explaining his decision to buy full-page ads in four New York City newspapers. The ads have since become notorious. Bring back the death penalty, they trumpeted in bold letters. Bring back our police! Their implied targets were five children who had confessed to a brutal rape in Central Park.

Three facts matter most in our cultural memory of the Central Park Five case. First, the rape victim  Trisha Meili  was white. Her accused assailants  Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam, and Antron McCray  were black or Latino, at a time when huge swaths of both communities had been decimated by crack, poverty, and police violence, but were nevertheless blamed for many of the citys problems.

The third is that all five boys were innocent. Trump bought his ad well before any of them went to trial, but all were convicted in 1990 and sentenced to between six and 13 years in prison. Only after the real rapist confessed in 2002 and DNA evidence affirmed his guilt were their convictions vacated. The boys had been coerced by New York City police officers into lying about their guilt. They, too, were victims.

Trump has rarely been shy about making outlandish, racist, and often violent proclamations. But his views on criminal guilt, innocence, and victimhood are too uniform to be dismissed as impulsive rants. They express a relatively coherent belief that such verdicts hinge not on truth or facts, but whether they advance Trumps interests. Such hypocrisy may not be unique to him. But he is remarkably shameless in deploying official resources to the defense of his own power.

This has not changed with time. Jamal Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago and, most agree, is probably dead. The Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and never came out. The same day, a handful of government officials, security personnel, and a forensic doctor linked to Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in the city. Turkish officials allege that Khashoggi  who was outspokenly critical of bin Salman  was murdered and possibly dismembered by the Saudi officials inside the consulate.

Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate, Trump tweeted Wednesday. He  told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter.

That Trump is parroting what evidence suggests are outright lies to cover for bin Salman makes some diplomatic sense. The Saudi governments ties to the U.S. are well known, most notably their military alliance and business arrangement facilitating the flow of Saudi oil into American markets. But it is a brazen use of Trumps platform. In defiance of mounting evidence and even members of his own party, the president could be lending official credence to a murder cover-up simply because entertaining bin Salmans guilt might spell the end of a lucrative financial relationship.

So instead of doing so, Trump has distanced himself from Khashoggi, the victim, by reiterating that he is not a United States citizen. And he has recast bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, as the real victim. Here we go again with, you know, youre guilty until proven innocent, he told the Associated Press on Tuesday. We just went through that with Justice [Brett] Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as Im concerned. On Wednesday, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was visiting Riyadh to discuss the Khashoggi case, $100 million of previously promised money landed in the U.S., courtesy of the Saudi government.

There are clear parallels between these cases. Both involve credible allegations of wrongdoing against powerful men whose power happens to materially benefit Trump (Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court on October 6 despite allegations he had committed sexual assault as a teen). The president has openly defended both men, while seeking to undermine claims that their alleged victims deserve his concern  and, in the case of Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, ridiculing them outright. And in all three instances, including the Central Park Five, he has weaponized his significant financial and political resources to discredit less powerful groups he already has a history of attacking: journalists, women, and racial minorities.

Yet when asked earlier this month by Ayesha Rascoe and April Ryan  both black women journalists and White House correspondents  about the presidents attacks on the Central Park Five and hypocrisy regarding due process and who deserves it, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dodged the question. Id have to look back at the specific comments, she said. Trump has reiterated several times over the years that he still believes the boys were guilty, despite the DNA evidence to the contrary.

It remains undeniable that Trumps ideas about guilt and innocence are largely dictated by what benefits him personally. But his willingness to spend money  a reported $85,000 in the case of the Central Park Five ad  and use his political platform as a bully pulpit to advance those ideas sets him apart from many of his American political contemporaries. The main difference is shamelessness. He makes no effort to hide his biases or shroud them in dog whistles. And he achieves this naked power grab by ascribing innocence  and often, by extension, victimhood  to powerful men like himself.

Whether hes defending bin Salman and Kavanaugh or claiming to be facing the greatest witch hunt in American history, he is the ultimate purveyor of victimhood. The truth only matters if it helps him. Otherwise, it is as disposable as the lives he and his fellow so-called victims upend.5 minutes with A Yongzheng-period moonflask

This stunning flask  almost 300 years old and, standing at 54 cm high, one of the largest of its kind ever seen at Christies  is offered in London on 6 November. Specialist Marco Almeida explains why it is expected to realise well over 1 million

For porcelain collectors, a moonflask like this represents the zenith, says Marco Almeida, International Senior Specialist in Chinese ceramics at Christies. In front of him is a unique blue and white porcelain moonflask from the Yongzheng Period (1723-1735), which is being offered in London on 6 November. Moonflasks require an exceptionally high level of skill to make. This is an incredibly difficult object to fire because its so heavy, Almeida explains. It would have been made in different sections, put together and then fired. Many of them collapsed in on themselves in the kiln, or fell over because they were so top-heavy. Moonflasks are usually big, but this is one of the largest weve ever seen, standing at about 54 cm tall, continues the specialist. Its also striking because the colours are so vibrant. Only the highest quality refined cobalt ores produce such bright blues, indicating the quality of this example. The flask is decorated with a floral design and each flower has a symbolic meaning, representing a season or a personal quality of the Yongzheng Emperor.

A rare and large Ming-style blue and white moonflask, bianhu. Yongzheng six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1723-1735). Sold for 1,928,750 on 6 November 2018 at Christies in London

The Yongzheng period lasted only a decade, but some of the finest, most delicate pieces of porcelain were created during this time because of the patronage of the Imperial court. The Yongzheng Emperor was a connoisseur and keen antiquarian, and a significant number of artworks commissioned for his court were made in an antique style, including this moonflask, which copies porcelain from the early Ming dynasty, some four centuries earlier, the specialist explains. In the same vein, Ming-dynasty (1368-1644) porcelain had copied designs from Persian and Central Asian metalwork, which was imported into China along the Silk Road. Persia and Central Asia have a long history of working with metal, and from the Tang dynasty (618-907) trading along the Silk Road brought in new shapes, forms and materials, says Almeida.

You look at this moonflask and you know that youre standing in front of something important  Marco Almeida

During the Ming dynasty many of these metalwork shapes were reproduced in porcelain and adapted to Chinese tastes. Unlike Chinese moonflasks, however, which serve as decorative objects, their Persian prototypes were practical, and used for carrying liquids. This particular moonflask would have been a prominent piece in any collection, even the Yongzheng Emperors, confirms the specialist, who suggests that despite there not being any surviving evidence, the superior quality of this flask and its imperial reign mark indicate that it may have been in his court collection.

The imperial reign mark on this moonflask indicates that it might have been owned by the Yongzheng Emperor, or a scholar in his courtCollecting guide: Middle Eastern Modern and Contemporary art

Specialist Hala Khayat explains how post-independence optimism in the region generated a new form of Modernism that transcended borders. Illustrated with works offered in Middle Eastern, Modern and Contemporary Art in Dubai

Since 2003 the market has been growing steadily for art from the Middle East, with prices hitting the 2.7 million mark for paintings by Fahr El-Nissa Zeid. The recent opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi, the continued success of Mathaf in Dohar, and major exhibitions of painters such as Saloua Raouda Choucair, reveal there is a vigorous appetite for art from the region.

The origins of Middle Eastern Modernism To understand the beginnings of Arabic Modernism it is important to go back to the spirit of optimism forged in the post-war era, when, having gained independence from imperial masters, artists in the Middle East and North Africa began to search for a unifying Pan-Arabic cultural identity that would span new national divisions. Movements like the New Vision Group in Iraq, spearheaded by the innovative artist Dia Al-Azzawi, championed the idea of an Arab Modernism united on ideological grounds rather than style. Then there were other artists, says Christies specialist Hala Khayat, like Mahmoud Said, who started to look inward and say, OK, I dont want to paint a woman who looks European, I want to paint a picture that looks like my mother or my sister, I want to paint the street outside my window.

Mahmoud Said (Egyptian, 1897-1964), The Whirling Dervishes, painted in 1929 . 38 x 27 in (97.5 x 69.8 cm). Sold for $2,546,500 on 26 October 2010 at Christies in Dubai

Today collectors are actively looking for artworks that were part of this pioneering moment in the history of Middle Eastern art. It defines an era and it defines us, as a people, says Khayat.

What are the hot trends in Middle Eastern art? The big trend in the Middle East right now is female artists, says the specialist. There are a lot of works empowering women. Painters like Afifa Aleiby and Shirin Neshat are amazing artists who have provided stepping stones for a younger generation. Such artists paved the way for the likes of the young Iraqi-born painter, Hayv Kahraman. Iranian artist Shirin Aliabadi (below) is another one to watch.

The war and the ongoing political unrest in the region is also a big theme: these are key moments in the socio-political scene, explains Khayat. The Syrian painter Naim Ismail and the Lebanese artist Zena Assi look beyond the atrocities to the lives of individuals caught up in the struggles, and seek to find a common identity.

For many years, countries like Egypt, Lebanon and Syria were the leading producers of Middle Eastern Modern art, but Khayat is less certain now. With people migrating there is a lot of lost identity. But one overriding theme that continues to dominate the market is Arabic calligraphy. A lot of people look for a calligraphic element, the specialist says, and a lot of works explore abstraction. Paintings by the Iranian artists Mohammed Ehsai and Farhad Moshiri look calligraphic to someone who doesnt understand the script, but it is actually Lettrism, a form of art that uses letters but is not supposed to mean anything. It is really about the beauty of the thing.

Ultimately, Khayat thinks collectors are looking for a good story, particularly one that bridges the gap between the East and the West in a universal way. A good example of this is The Last Supper by Fateh Moudarres, which reflects the artists experience of living on both sides of the divide. A lot of the works we are selling now from collectors are the fruits of friendship, adds Khayat. Someone believed in the artist back in the 1950s when no one was looking at his work. It takes a long time  you have to be passionate, and not look for the monetary value.

Who are the important artists to know in Middle Eastern Modern art? Mahmoud Said (1897-1964) is renowned as the father of Modern painting in Egypt. His oil paintings employ Western techniques to depict scenes of contemporary life that reference the countrys long history. The son of an Egyptian prime minister, he left a career in law to study painting in Florence. Dia Al-Azzawi (b. 1939) is an Iraqi abstract artist and founder of the New Vision Group in the late 1960s, which sought to create a new Arabic Modernism. He divides his time between London and Dohar and was recently celebrated with a joint retrospective at Mathaf and the Qatar Museums Gallery Al Riwaq. Shirin Neshat (b. 1957), one of the most famous artists to have come out of Iran, is known for her photographs and films that explore ideas of femininity in relation to Islamic fundamentalism and militancy in her home country. She won the International Award at the Venice Biennale in 1999. Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925-2004), the founder of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, wanted to create a distinctive Iraqi cultural identity, picking up the thread of Iraqi art from where it had been cut short by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. He later formed the mystical One Dimension Group that sought to reveal, through Arabic symbols, the hidden essence of being.

Burhan Dogancay (1929-2013) is regarded as Turkeys leading Modern artist. In the 1970s he moved to New York and became fascinated with the dynamism and spontaneity of street art; works from this period, including the renowned Ribbons series, are the most sought after by collectors. Lebanese artist Paul Guiragossian (1926-1993) is acclaimed for his Expressionist paintings in which groups of women are a recurring theme, symbolising hope, continuity and freedom. In the 1980s his work became less figurative, and his vibrant colour palette and intense brushstrokes laid the groundwork for the completely abstracted works that followed. Farhad Moshiri (b. 1963) has been described as the Warhol of the Middle East. His works play on the kitsch, the material and the banal to highlight the gulf that exists between Islamic history and tradition on one side, and contemporary attitudes within Iran and the Western world on the other. The Lebanese artist Nabil Nahas (b. 1949) lives and works in New York, where he blends Western techniques with traditional motifs from his homeland in richly coloured abstract works that celebrate nature. After living in New York between 1945 and 1957, Monir Farmanfarmaian (b.1922), who is now in her nineties, returned to live in her Iranian homeland before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 forced her to back to the United States, where she spent a further 26 years in exile. It was in New York that she variously befriended artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Her re-appropriation of the traditional Iranian technique of mirror-mosaic has produced mirror balls that exude the glitz of the pop culture the artist encountered in 1970s America. In 2015, the Guggenheim in New York staged a major retrospective of Farmanfarmaians work.Oil prices took a beating Wednesday after U.S. crude stockpiles showed a significant increase last week, adding to concerns about a slowdown in global demand for oil.

The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, closed at $69.75 in New York, dropping below $70 a barrel for the first time in weeks after reaching a four-year high of more than $76 per barrel earlier this month. The international benchmark, Brent crude, hovered near $80 a barrel.

U.S. crude stockpiles last week surged by 6.5 million barrels, exceeding analysts expections. Commercial inventories have increased for four consecutive weeks and now sit about 2 percent above the five year average for this time of year, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

The increase in inventories clearly took the market by surprise, said Andy Lipow, an energy analyst and president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.

The surge has exacerbated concerns about a slowdown in oil demand after the International Monetary Fund earlier this month reduced its projections for global economic growth in 2018 and 2019. Days later, the International Energy Agency deemed oil markets adequately supplied in the near term and moderated its demand forecasts, pushing prices lower.

Analysts said the sharp declines will likely level out  if not reverse  as the U.S. prepares to reimpose sanctions on Iran come Nov. 4, measures expected to further restrict that nations crude oil exports as production in Venezuela, battered by long-running political and economic crises, continues to plummet.

Bill Herbert, a senior energy analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in Houston, said the price declines to some degree corrected a market that had surged on the misperception that global oil supplies were exceedingly tight. He said that falling production in Venezuela and Iran could boost prices in the near term, but noted the sanctions could have a softer-than-anticipated impact if the Trump administration offers waivers to buyers of Iranian oil.

If they dont want oil prices to go marketedly higher, they may have to be more concillatory on waivers, he said.

Lipow said he anticipates oil markets to rebound ahead of the sanctions, particularly if tensions flare between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Friction arose earlier this week after the Trump administration threatened severe punishment for Saudi Arabia if the country played a role the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia threatened retaliation, roiling oil markets, though it has since tempered its response and launched an investigation.

Regardless, Lipow said the slide in the international benchmark could prompt OPEC producers to scale back production to keep prices at current levels after the two-year downturn.

They dont want to see an oversupplied market, he said.

katherine.blunt@chron.com

twitter.com/katherinebluntTheres a new kind of oil coming out of West Texas.

Oil producers in the Permian Basin have started selling a new stream of light crude, said people familiar with the matter, securing a market for the increasingly less dense oil being pumped from the largest U.S. shale play.

Sales of West Texas Intermediate Light, or WTI Light, started in September with deliveries into Midland, Texas, the people said. Most of the supply for WTI Light would likely be coming from more recently drilled parts of the region, such as Loving and Culberson counties, with initial volumes estimated at around 100,000 barrels a day, they said.

IN THE PERMIAN: Pipeline from West Texas to Brownsville receives funding

The new stream is being primarily blended to produce so-called Domestic Sweet crude, WTI Midland or benchmark WTI for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma, the people said. While lighter oil is typically higher-priced, the new grade is being sold at a discount to WTI Midland, the people said.

Separating the light grades would ensure a more consistent specification for the premium crudes, said Sandy Fielden, director of research for the commodities and energy group at Morningstar Inc. Theres a lot of relatively light streams coming out of the Permian, particularly the Delaware Basin, where most of the new drilling is taking place, he said.

"Typically, people try and blend the lighter crude with heavier streams," Fielden said. "But because theres more light oil, the genuine WTI Midland gets a premium because thats what refiners want."

SUPPLY: Oil prices fall as crude inventories rise

WTI Light has a gravity of 45-50 API, lighter than the typical 38-42 API of WTI Midland, the mainstay sweet benchmark.

The sales began after the construction of enough tanks in the region to enable different oil grades to be separated. The new grade will be shipped from Midland in pipelines including those operated by Enterprise Products Partners, Magellan Midstream Partners, Plains All American Pipeline LP, the people said.

Enterprise can transport numerous grades of crude oil, including WTI Light, Rick Rainey, a company spokesman, said by email.

UP NORTH: Houston company cleared for $1.5 billion project in Alaska

"Theres room for more segregation instead of just West Texas Sour and WTI Midland crudes," Neil Earnest, president of industry consultant Muse Stancil & Co., said in a phone interview. "The growing production from the Permian has given rise to increasing variety of crudes."

Magellan spokesman Bruce Heine couldnt immediately comment. Plains All American didnt immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

In fact, the segregation of lighter oil might pave the way for more U.S. crude exports because steady quality of grades that are in demand would ensure regular buyers. "The U.S. has to be competitive in price, a key driver of crude exports," Fielden said. "But its more convenient for producers and refiners if the U.S. can compete on quality."

2018 Bloomberg L.P.Josh Brolin holding a dead wahoo over his you-know-what might just be the phallic imagery required to protect the EU's oceans from overfishing.

A U.K. organization aptly called Fishlove got a bunch of famous people, including Brolin, to pose naked with fish. The seafood the celebrities cradle in the photographs are dead, but the point of the campaign is to keep the fishes alive  or to at least kill them in a sustainable way.

Fishlove began convincing celebrities to strip for the sea in 2009 to draw attention to overfishing in the EU's waters. The current campaign features Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern (of "Downton Abbey), Cressida Bonas (a London socialite and Prince Harry's ex), and Paris Jackson (the daughter of Michael Jackson). Past celebrity participants have included Dame Judi Dench, Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter.

All of the fish shown in the photographs are commercially fished, and some are threatened or over-fished.

"We believe that the use of these fish in these photographs is justified so that we can highlight what species could be lost if over-fishing continues," the website says. None of the fish were caught specifically for the photographs. Most of them were eaten afterwards.

If anyone knows how to properly filet a fish, it's the folks at Fishlove. The campaign is run and funded by Moshimo, a Japanese restaurant in Brighton that says it serves only sustainable seafood.

Mobile posters of the fishy photos are being displayed around Berlin this week as part of the global Our Fish campaign, which seeks to achieve sustainable fish stocks in Europe, Forbes reports.

The photos have previously supported campaigns for organizations including the Marine Conservation Society, OCEAN2012, Deep Sea Coalition, The End of the Line, and the Blue Marine Foundation.

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.The annual Ridgefield Independent Film Festival will return this year with a Wilton graduates directorial debut and a new award dedicated to a late Ridgefield resident.

The festival, now in its third year, begins Thursday evening with a screening of Wildlife, an adapted version of Richard Fords American classic written by Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano, who graduated from Wilton High School in 2002. The film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, is directed by Dano.MIDDLETOWN  A 22-year-old city man who allegedly shot a man in the face Thursday on Long Lane, about a half-mile from an elementary school, fled the scene, police said.

The suspect is identified as Kyshone M. Jackson Jr., a man known to police, according to department spokeswoman Lt. Heather Desmond, who said the shooting was an isolated incident. Jackson is described as a black male who is 6 feet tall and weighs 140 pounds. His address is unknown, police said, although he has family in Middletown.

There is no threat to the public because there is no reason for him to act out again, Desmond said.

The incident took place shortly after noon in the backyard of a house just north of Kieft Road, in the 500 block of Long Lane, near a housing project and Snow Elementary School. About eight officers worked within a cordoned-off area. The victims hat, which appeared to be a baseball cap, could be seen in the street.

Police Chief William McKenna said the shooter and victim knew one other.

The suspect, who was identified through witness accounts, fled the scene prior to police arriving, Desmond said. The victim collapsed in the middle of the road and was taken to St. Francis Hospital for treatment, she said. The extent of his injuries is unknown, according to police.

Its a facial wound, so we have concerns, but we are hoping he will pull through and be able to recover from his injury, Desmond said.

Police used a canine to track the shooter.

Schools originally on lockdown were Wesley, Snow and Farm Hill elementary schools, and two high schools, Mercy and Vinal Tech, all within a two-mile radius, a standard distance for police investigating such an incident, according to McKenna.

Authorities said once the Board of Education was notified, it was up to individual principals to decide whether they would put their school in full or soft lockdown.

Witness Shaneya Robinson lives near the scene and heard a ruckus then saw the victim lying in the road with his face covered in blood. Robinson also saw a woman who claimed to be the victims sister screaming while holding an infant. She was so discombobulated and couldnt keep it together, she said.

Her first impression was the victim was hit by a car. I didnt know if he was dead or alive, but then I could see him moving around a little, said Robinson. Seeing the victim brought her to tears.

Its scary. I just thank God all the kids were in school because there are a lot of kids around here, said Robinson, a mother of four. .She and other parents called her sons school but were unsuccessful. Still, Robinson said, she felt assured he was safe.

Were not used to things like that happening around here, she said.

The area of Long Lane and Santangelo Circle was blocked off to the public to allow police to continue their investigation, Desmond said. You will see police presence in the area for quite some time as evidence is collected.

She noted that police took extra precautions for the dismissal at Snow School.

Anyone with information is asked to call Middletown police at 860-638-4000.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day

@hearstmediact.com.A joint venture has signed a deal with the Port of Corpus Christi to use a crude oil export dock to load Suezmax tankers.

The Pin Oak joint venture between Dauphine Midstream and Mercuria Energy Group signed the contract with the port to load Suezmax crude oil tankers at Public Oil Dock 14, which can load product at a minimum rate of 40,000 barrels an hour, or 960,000 barrels a day. A Suezmax tanker can hold 1 million barrels of crude oil.BP

BP said Thursday it started up its expansion of its massive Thunder Horse field in the Gulf of Mexico a few months early.

The Northwest Expansion project in the Thunder Horse is expected to increase production in the field by 30,000 barrels a day, bringing total production to more than 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily.Jair Bolsonaro speaks at a National Confederation of Municipalities event in Brasilia, Brazil, on May 23, 2018. Photo: Sergio Lima/Bloomberg via Getty Images

I would be incapable of loving a homosexual son, Jair Bolsonaro told Playboy magazine in 2011. I wont be a hypocrite: I prefer a son to die in an accident than show up with a mustachioed guy. Hed be dead to me anyway.

Brazils far-right presidential candidate hasnt moderated his rhetoric much since 2011, and he seems to have little incentive to do so. A new Ibope poll puts Bolsonaros lead over his opponent, Fernando Haddad of the center-left Workers Party, at around 18 points, despite  or perhaps because of  a public persona shaped by racism, nationalism, and an authoritarian affection for Brazils military. Bolsonaro has said that some black Brazilians arent fit for procreation, that a female politician is not worth raping, she is very ugly, and that the countrys violently repressive military dictatorship was a period of glory for Brazil. The politician, who has served in Brazils Chamber of Deputies since 1991, has been compared to Donald Trump repeatedly, and for obvious reasons.

If Bolsonaro does win October 28s runoff election, he wont just score a victory for Brazils right wing. A Bolsonaro presidency would also provide new strength to an increasingly powerful, global far-right movement. In Poland, 60,000 right-wing nationalists marched through Warsaw streets chanting slogans like pure blood, clear mind and Europe will be white or uninhabited in January. In Hungary, Viktor Orban consistently stokes anti-immigrant sentiment. Italys populist far-right gained new power in the countrys last general election, and immigrants, again, bear the greatest burden. Matteo Salvini, Italys new interior minister, recently demanded the removal of all refugees from the town of Riace. And then, of course, there is Trump.

Right-wing strongmen like Bolsonaro dont win power without learning to manipulate a particular set of interconnected prejudices. Religious voters, usually conservative Catholics and Evangelicals, have repeatedly aligned themselves with nationalist leaders, who in turn deploy religion to justify their policies. Italys Salvini, a Catholic, recently said he would exert all the power possible to defend the natural family founded on the union between a man and a woman. The Russian Orthodox Church provides key support for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Polish president Andrzej Duda, another conservative Catholic, has taken steps to tighten the countrys already-restrictive abortion laws and in February, he signed a new law criminalizing speech that asserts systemic Polish participation in the Third Reichs crimes against Jews. (After an international outcry, Duda signed an amended version of the law that did not criminalize speech.) In May, Hungarys Orban announced to parliament that the era of liberal democracy is over and added, Rather than try to fix a liberal democracy that has run aground, we will build a 21st-century Christian democracy. Orbans vision of Christian democracy bears little resemblance to German chancellor Angela Merkels party, the Christian Democratic Union; as the New York Times noted at the time, Orbans concept stems from his personal conviction that Christianity is in mortal conflict with Islam. And while Trump hardly behaves like a regular churchgoer, he would not have won the presidency without the overwhelming support of white Evangelical voters. That bloc remains committed to him despite his moral scandals.

Right now, it looks like the thrice-wed Bolsonaro can also rely on the support of his countrys Evangelical voters. Though he is Catholic, Bolsonaro maintains close links to Brazils powerful Evangelical movement, which spans a wide range of Protestant denominations and traditions, like neo-Pentecostalism. His wife and son are both evangelicals, as The Atlantic reported in January, and Bolsonaro himself says he attends an Evangelical church. Sixty-six percent of self-identified Evangelicals say theyll vote for him over Haddad. He leads Catholics, too, but by a much smaller margin; 48 percent say they intend to vote for him on the 28.

As in the United States, Evangelicals and devout Catholics are brought together by their common opposition to abortion and gay rights, gay marriage in particular, Omar Encarnacion, a professor of political studies at Bard College, told New York. The two groups have experienced tension, he added, because Brazil historically privileges Catholicism. That may explain the disparity between Evangelical and Catholic voters on the subject of Bolsonaro. But that religious divide may not be enough to cost him the election.

Encarnacion says Bolsonaros antagonism toward LGBT rights is an interest he shares with the countrys Evangelicals. That said, the roots of Bolsonaros opposition to LGBT rights, feminism, the environment, and the like is, first and foremost, his fondness for authoritarianism, which flows from his admiration of the military, he added, noting that Bolsonaro was once a parachutist with the Brazilian army. What triggered his now famous attack on his congressional colleague, Maria do Rosario, the one he referred to as too ugly to rape, was her criticism of the Brazilian military regime in place between 1964 and 1985, he continued.

Evangelicals are hardly the only demographic to back Bolsonaro. His pledges to fight corruption and end violence  with more violence, if necessary  are key to his popularity, and have earned him the support of a wide swathe of the Brazilian population. Bolsonaro isnt a messiah figure, so much as hes a popular strongman in a deeply conservative country. But while a Bolsonaro government might not be a theocracy in the literal sense, there are warning signs that his potential presidency would widen certain cracks in Brazils democracy in other ways. Evangelical politicians have been complicit in that process.

Back in 1964, right-wing marchers affiliated with a conservative wing of the Catholic Church took to the streets to call for military intervention. The Church discouraged this kind of reaction after the dictatorship fell, but neo-Pentecostalists have revived it, Bryan McCann, president of the Brazilian Studies Association, recently wrote in Dissent. In more recent years, he added, the the Evangelical bloc or bancada evangelica in Brazils congress helped drive support for the anti-corruption campaign that led to Dilma Rousseffs removal from office in 2016. Rousseff, like her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, belonged to the Workers Party, and Lulas supporters have condemned his imprisonment for corruption charges as a politically motivated bid to keep the popular former president from running for office. Haddad is challenging Bolsonaro because the Brazilian Superior Electoral Tribunal forced Lula to end the presidential campaign hed been running from a prison cell.

Some Brazilians fear, not precise parallels with the past, but frightening new scenarios, journalist Vincent Bevins recently noted in a piece for The New York Review of Books. Perhaps Rousseffs removal was just the prologue, the first act, to be followed by a Bolsonaro win, and then consolidation of authoritarian rule: a digital-era dictatorship that does not need direct army intervention to suppress dissent and rule by fiat. Some of Bolsonaros supporters have already committed hate crimes. Agencia Publica, an investigative journalism group, has connected at least 50 attacks on journalists, left-wing activists, and LGBT people to Bolsonaro supporters since September. After The Guardian published those numbers on Friday, news broke that assailants reportedly murdered Aluisio Sampaio, a leading figure in Brazils landless workers movement. Sampaio, who went by the name Alenquer, had long received death threats, but as environmental journalists Sue Branford and Mauricio Torres reported for Mongabay.com, Bolsonaro has publicly condemned landless activists, calling them scoundrels and bums, and Sampaios murder coincides with other acts of violence against demographics Bolsonaro has attacked. In contrast, Bolsonaro supporters themselves have been subject to six attacks  a number that includes Bolsonaro himself, who got stabbed during a campaign rally.

If democracy does suffer under Bolsonaro, either because he keeps an older promise to start a dictatorship right away or because his followers decide to act upon his violently anti-LGBT and misogynist rhetoric, it will occur with Evangelical assistance. Brazil would become the latest entry in a disturbing ledger, another government in the grips of the far-right.

The Christian right has always been a global entity, and culture war is a conflict without borders. The nationalism of figures like Bolsonaro concerns itself not just with the physical or economic security of a nations ruling class, but builds itself around a claim to moral hygiene too. The conservative Christians who send men like Bolsonaro into office do so with the understanding that they will be able enforce an agenda that strips minority groups of civil rights. From Bolsonaros disgust for gay men to Orbans supremacist definition of Christian democracy, the goal of this Christian-inflected nationalism is to shape a nations government into its own anti-democratic image.Sam's Club plans to deliver groceries in the Houston area through Instacart.

The discount retailer, a division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart, announced Thursday it has expanded its partnership with the San Francisco-based e-commerce company to offer its grocery delivery service to more than 100 stores in 90 new markets, including Houston.

Houstonians, by the end of October, will be able to shop for groceries, household goods and small appliances from Sam's Club's and have items delivered through Instacart in as little as an hour.

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The partnership will allow Instacart customers to shop Sam's Club without a store membership. Sam's Club members will receive a lower, members-only pricing by shopping online. Instacart charges a delivery fee based on the size of the order and delivery time.Within a month, 2-year-old Jose Gabriel traveled to Tomball and received surgery that changed his life before heading back home.

Gabriel and his mother, Kerly Gabriela, were flown into Houston by HeartGift, a nonprofit organization providing lifesaving heart surgery for children around the world with lack of resources, with six patients being given care a year. After arriving Sept. 11, Gabriel received heart surgery and stayed with a host family in Tomball before going back to his home in Catacamas, Olancho, Honduras.

Rachael Wright, executive director for the Houston branch of HeartGift, said Gabriel was selected after Dr. Sheree Lynchs  codirector of Centro Medico Monte Sinai, Catacamas, Olancho and family physician  recommended him for surgery. Gabriel was born with ventricular septal defect, aortic septal defect and patent ductus arteriosus, meaning he had a hole in his heart.

We connect with different doctors and families and organizations who work in developing countries, she said. We presented [Gabriels] case to a medical committee here in Houston and they said he's a good candidate for the heart surgery.

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After being selected, Gabriel and Gabriela were set to stay with his host family in Tomball. Wright said host families are required to have one family member that knows the patients native language and are required to have a spare room for the patient and their family members. HeartGift patients typically stay in the area for one month for surgery, recovery and follow-up appointments.

Rachel McCorkle, who hosted Gabriel and his mother, said the experience was overall positive for her and her family, although she was the only one that knew Spanish well enough to talk to Gabriela.

It's been challenging and rewarding, she said. It's just a process I've never experienced before, having people in my home that long. I think one of the things I was disappointed with was that as the only Spanish speaker in my community, I've been the only one that's been able to really interact with Gabriela.

On Sept. 20, Gabriel received his surgery at Childrens Memorial Hermann Hospital, which HeartGift has a partnership with along with UT Health Center at Houston.

Dr. John Breinholt, associate professor of pediatrics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth and pediatric cardiologist at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center, said Gabriels conditions affected his growth and ability to move. Breinholt had discussions with Gabriela about her sons recovery, including when he will be able to walk.

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The surgery closed the hole between the left and right side of Gabriels heart. The hole caused Gabriels body to work harder than needed due to his lungs having to pump up to four times the amount of blood than necessary, Breinholt said.

These kids, when they're babies, they often sweat a lot when they're feeding because feeding is the most exercise you get when you're a baby, he said. So it is basically like getting a workout, or trying to coordinate feeding and breathing and all this work that's going on.

Breinholt said the operation gives Gabriel the potential to have a healthier life, but that he may have other conditions unrelated to his heart.

Typically, we would do this surgery at six months of age, sometimes sooner if they become very symptomatic, Breinholt said. As a result of that, often times children are smaller, their development is delayed. His is definitely delayed, but his is delayed for a little bit more reason than typical.

Wright said HeartGift and Wright continue to stay in contact with children after their surgery to provide them resources in their home country. One patient of HeartGift from Belize is seen on a regular basis by a group in Omaha, Nebraska, Breinholt said.

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Gabriels surgery gives him the ability to recover from other potential health problems through physical therapy in Honduras. Prior to surgery, physical therapists were wary of working with Gabriel because of his condition. Gabriel may not have been able to safely go through physical therapy, but with the hole in his heart now closed, Gabriels body will be able to handle more exercise than before.

We were actually talking about how much he can be pushed and stuff like that. He's a normal kid from that standpoint, Wright said.

Gabriel returned home Oct. 11 after his last checkup on Oct. 9. He is expected to recover quickly due to being a child, Breinholt said.

He has the ability to gain weight because he's not burning calories all of the time, he said. He's had his repair and now he's just kind of recovering from it. It's pretty fast. Children are extraordinarily resilient.

chevall.pryce@chron.comDayton twins are learning life lessons from their parents and the world around them.

The 10-year-old boys have already figured out their niche in life, and its in the barn working with animals. On Monday, Tanner and Dawson Lott finished another obligation in their journey, that of helping others, when they donated $2,000 to the Santa Fe High School shooting victims families.

That willingness to help came from their hearts last May 19, the day Dayton ISD FFA hosted their annual livestock show and rodeo. The even was at noon on Saturday, the day after the school shooting at Santa Fe High School.

We were watching the news and told our boys about what had happened, said Heather Lott, their mother. She and her husband Allen talked to the boys about school safety and not bullying and why the guy probably did what he did at the school.

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One of the boys spoke up and asked if they could give $100,000, she said.

Touched by their sweet spirit to give and help, she explained to them that they didnt have that kind of money but reminded them that they had an auction the next day.

Tanner and Dawson conferred and then asked if they could donate some of their proceeds.

I told them I thought that was a good idea, and their mom and dad agreed.

The following day, the auctioneer announced the boys had made the decision to donate a portion of their lot sales to the victims of Santa Fe High School.

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They were 9 years old at the time and made an adult decision with a good bit of their own money.

The fraternal twins earned good money at the auction and once it was all collected, they made a trip down I-45 to the SFISD administration building.

This past Monday, we drove down there and they each gave the Education Foundation a cashiers check for $1,000 each, their mom said beaming.

The money was presented to Jodi Gidley, executive director of Santa Fe ISD Education Foundation. It was given through the National Compassion Fund which falls under the umbrella of the National Center for Victims of Crime. All donations are tax exempt under IRS code 501(c)(3).

The Fund is overseen by the National Center for Victims of Crime and an expert panel made up of victim representatives and individuals who have experience with compensating crime victims and dealing with mass casualty crimes.

Since the expenses of the Center are sponsored, 100 percent of the donations are made to the victims families of those tragedies.

The Lott twins designated Santa Fe High School as their sole receivers of the donations.

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Were very open with our boys and explained to them how the money was going to be used, she said. The money would help family members who needed counseling, medical treatment, and assistance with other expenses related to the ongoing issues with having lost a child.

Tanner and Dawson are students at Stephen F. Austin Elementary and are in fourth grade and have normal, but busy lives outside of their classwork.

Allen and Heather own A & H Services in Dayton, a sandblasting and painting business.

We mostly do sand-blasting and painting of ground storage tanks, she said.

None of it would have been possible had the young couple made a decision to move to Dayton and build their lives.

Allen moved to Dayton in 1989 and enrolled as a freshman at the high school.

Heather attended Sam Houston High School in Houston ISD.

When the two met and got married, they made Dayton their home.

We have 76-acres in the Eastgate area and a very noticeable barn to raise the boys animal projects in, she said.

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They love the country life.

I know we couldnt do what were able to do with our boys if we lived in Houston, she said.

Heather wears many hats.

I take care of the animals at home, the two-legged and the four-legged ones, she laughed, and I help run the business.

The boys have been raising animals since they were 6 years old, and they truly love it.

Of course, they complain at times, especially when its really hot outside, she said, but theyre hard workers.

The family travels all over the state showing animals.

The boys are currently in 4H and plan on joining FFA when they get into high school.

While they might look like identical twins, they are fraternal.

They dont like being dressed alike because they have their own personalities, she said.

They both have their own accounts at Prosperity Bank.

They know money goes in and money goes out to purchase new animals.

If theyre successful selling their animals, they get to put more money in.

They say its not fair with the money coming out part, she laughed.

The family wanted to say a big thank you to those companies and individuals who take their time out of their busy schedules to come sit in the auction stands and generously bid on community kids livestock projects.

Without them, this opportunity to donate wouldnt have happened, she said.

The boys have gone back to getting their next animal projects ready for the Trinity Valley Exposition.

dtaylor@hcnonline.comFive Texas counties land on a ranking of places with the largest domestic migration in the last five years. According to a study by rental research site RentCafe, Texas' sprawl beat out other states for the most counties to claim spots on this roster.

That's due in large part to the affordability counties near so-called "second-tier cities afford": It's less expensive to live in a suburb of a major Texas metro than to settle down near New York City or Los Angeles.A local history lesson called Whats in a name? and a spook house haunted by Disney villains will highlight Friendswoods eighth annual Histor-Ween on Saturday, Oct. 27.

It is a great way to learn some of the more interesting history of Friendswood and have fun at the same time, said the events coordinator, Steve Rockey, a member of Friendswood City Council.

Histor-Ween is a word coined by combining history with Halloween, he said.

Come for a spook house at the Old Junior High, scary storytelling on the front porch of the museum, historical re-enacting of past residents, an after-dark cemetery tour, a hayride and a great time, Rockey said.

Histor-Ween will be from 7-9 p.m. at Old Friendswood Junior High, 300 W. Spreading Oaks, Friendswood. Cost is $10.

The Friendswood Historical Society splits proceeds from the event between a business and professional club at Friendswood High School and the schools student council, whose members decided to decorate this years haunted house with Disney villains.

I think that is very creative, Rockey said.

Over the past seven years, about $30,000 has been raised from the event for the high school groups, who used last years earnings to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey.

Want to go? What: "Histor-Ween" Where: Old Friendswood Junior High, 300 W. Spreading Oaks, Friendswood When: From 7-9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 Cost: $10 Information:www.friendswoodhistoricalsociety.org See More Collapse

This years Whats in a name? segment will regale guests with the origin of how various streets and locations around town got their names.

How chiggers saved some settlers

For example, Chigger Creek is an interesting story, Rockey said.

A character in vintage clothing will tell guests, Seems that some of the early settlers to the area before it was Friendswood were camped along a little stream. In passing through the timber, they became infested with (tiny parasites called) chiggers  so infested that they found it difficult to sleep. So, they broke camp early and were preparing to leave when they were attacked by Indians. Being up early and alert, they were able to fend off the attack. They gave credit for their lives to the chiggers that kept them up and in gratitude named the creek after them.

Next, guests will be guided to the nearby cemetery for an after-dark tour, in which about 10 re-enactors rise from graves to portray former Friendswood residents.

The risen characters will speak in the first person, giving a five- to 10-minute history of their lives and standing in the community.

All of the event locations are within 100 yards of each other, said Rockey, and the final event is a hayride back to the original starting point.

Several hundred people are expected to attend Histor-Ween.

Although Rockey coordinated the event, fellow City Council and historical society member Sally Branson will be in charge on the evening because Rockey will be out of town for a potentially terrifying present-day event.

His son, Michael Rockey, is getting married in Dallas.

Its scary, said the grooms father.

Don Maines is a freelance writer who can be reached at donmaines@att.netThe city of Friendswood, which has been struggling to fund emergency medical services through donations and property tax revenue, could begin billing health insurance companies to cover expenses for those services by the beginning of 2019, a city official said.

The EMS arm of Friendswood Volunteer Fire Department costs the city around $2 million per year to operate, and the donations and the portion of tax revenue the city collects to fund it havent been enough for a long time, City Councilman Steve Rockey said.

Friendswood has a very high insurance coverage rate, Rockey said. We are one of the last cities in Texas that do not charge people for for EMS. The single biggest thing was we werent really saving our citizens money (by not billing insurance), we were saving the insurance companies money.

In August, the city awarded a contract to Emergicon, a Dallas based company, for medical billing services, according to city documents.

City Council authorized staff members to begin work on putting the systems for insurance collection in place in July 2017, city spokesman Jeff Newpher said. City officials have talked and discussed the issue for seven years, Newpher said.

When claims for fire department EMS service do begin to be filed, the city wont go after patients to pay if insurance policies dont cover the entire cost of the services, Rockey said.

Were not in the business of ruining our citizens credit, he said.

Insurance companies for residents in surrounding communities like Pearland and Alvin would also be billed for calls to policy holders.

The city projects that insurance payments will bring in anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million annually based on previous service levels. But switching to a billing system from a totally free service for residents of Friendswood and surrounding communities could alter behavior and how often some will request service, Rockey said.

Residents can still volunteer to pay $3 per month to help pay for the services.Journalist Dan Rather visited the elementary school he attended in the late 1930s to spend time with its current students and plant an oak tree.

On Oct. 12, he took a tour of Love Elementary School, answered questions from a few students in a roundtable discussion and offered words of inspiration to all its current students.

Rather said the school was much smaller when he was a student. Back then, with no air conditioning, the windows were kept open, and he could smell the trees and flowers outside as he sat in class. After Easter, most of the students went barefoot. Many years later, he said the names of all his teachers are still etched in his memory.

Addressing students on the schools front lawn, Rather said he remembered planting a tree each Arbor Day and recognized some of them that are still there today. Rather urged the students to on occasion slow down and observe trees.

From time to time, stop and think about a tree and trees, he said. In our current, fast-moving world of digital information, social media, news breaking all the time, theres something centering, theres something lovely about just contemplating the solitude of a tree.

The oak tree Rather helped plant will remind generations of future students to have big goals and work to see them through, said Love Elementary PTO President Diana Vining.

This new oak tree will serve as a symbol of lasting strength, knowledge, endurance, a fresh start, positive energy and a bright future, she said. The students have been learning about Mr. Rather and all of the accomplishments he made during his career. We want them to know that when you set goals and work hard, great things will grow.

Across a library table, Rather answered questions from a few Love students and some Heights High School media students.

Starting in newspapers when he was 14 just years old, his journalism career has spanned seven decades. He said every day as a reporter was a different adventure and that life could be fairly chaotic, never knowing what stories each day would bring.

He said he never expected to be so successful and that his giant dream spurred him on to do well as a reporter.

At 86, Rather still has a great sense of humor and said he is grateful for each day he is given.

Lets face it: Im at an age now where I dont even buy green bananas, but I treasure every day, he said with a laugh.

Houston Heights Association Executive Director Emily Guyre said having Rather visit the school and share about his memories and knowledge was a great experience for the students and the Heights community at large.

It is so wonderful to have him because hes a piece of Love Elementarys history, and thats something that we like to celebrate here in the Heights, she said. But to have the alumni come back and support the school and draw attention to the school is just so great for the students and teachers that are here. It excites the community and really rallies them around supporting their local schools.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.comThe fight for the U.S. Senate seat between U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-El Paso) and incumbent Ted Cruz (R-Texas) continues to make national headlines and with both early voting starting and President Donald Trump's visit to Toyota Center set for Monday, the political atmosphere in Houston is heating up.

Trump's rally for Cruz falls on the same day as early voting, and some Houstonians are feeling the heat from the race that has neighbors divided throughout the city. While there may be evidence showing why there seem to be more Beto signs than Cruz ones, Houstonians' crazy acts in support of each candidate are harder to explain.A black SUV ran a red light southbound on Jones Road at Fallbrook and slammed into the side of a Toyota Scion about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, authorities say.

A passenger in the Toyota had to be rescued with Jaws of Life and was flown by Lifeflight helicopter to the hospital. The driver was taken to the hospital by ambulance in serious but stable condition.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, on October 16, 2018. Pompeo held talks with Saudi King Salman seeking answers about the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Photo: Leah Mills/AFP/Getty Images

Last night, the Washington Posts Shane Harris broke a blockbuster scoop. The Trump administration and the Saudis are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation  i.e., a lie  for the apparent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The fact that the administration is conspiring in the dissemination of a lie has all kinds of implications. One of them is likely the violation of normal policy making  after all, the United States government has a foreign policy and intelligence bureaucracy designed to produce factual analyses, so burying the correct conclusions in order to produce fabricated ones is probably going to entail some shenanigans, if not outright illegality. Another Washington Post story reports that, according to Senator Bob Corker, the administration has clamped down on sharing intelligence with Congress, and that a scheduled briefing on the matter had been cancelled. Corker called these moves disappointing.

Well, yes, they are disappointing. But Corker is not some man on the street offering his opinions on the issue. Hes the Foreign Relations Committee chairman of the U.S. Senate, which is part of a co-equal branch of government. If the administration cancels a briefing, Corker has more powerful recourse than expressing his disappointment to the Post. He can schedule a hearing. He can issue subpoenas. Corker has not so much rejected these options as treated them as unimaginable.

The saga of Khashoggis apparent murder touches on the U.S.s relationship with a gulf kingdom whose value has gone unscrutinized for a long time, and on Trumps evident lack of any public ethics whatsoever. But it is also a story about the Republican Congresss refusal to conduct oversight  a refusal embedded so deeply in the partys mind that it is impossible to find Republicans even mulling an alternative.

The air in Washington is thick with smoke, as the administration suspiciously dodges the inescapable conclusion and appears to be implicating itself in a cover-up. The most benign explanation at this point is that Trumps administration is simply too dedicated to preserving the alliance to allow its valued partner to suffer the public-relations debacle of blame for the murder; the worst-case scenario is that Trump is accepting bribes from the Saudis. Congress refuses to examine either possibility. Only a wave large enough to flip at least one chamber of Congress will create some mechanism of accountability and oversight to ensure American foreign policy is not being grotesquely corrupted.

I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia, Corker tells the Post. Only?Continue to celebrate the month of October as Texas Wine Month with a special event called SPIRITS OF TEXAS. This event features some of the BEST Texas Wines along with Texas Craft Beers, and Texas Distilled Spirits paired with local Texas Restaurant foods this coming Tuesday, Oct.23, right before Halloween. Hence the event name, SPIRITS OF TEXAS.

Costumes are optional. Tickets for this event are $25 per adult for sipping and tasting great Texas Wines, Craft Beers, Distilled Spirits and awesome foods. This event is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Conroe with tickets available online at www.Conroe-Rotary.org. This event will be held at the North Montgomery County Community Center on the north side of Willis at 600 Gerald Street. Limited tickets are available at the door. Wineries represented at this event include Llano Estacado, Fall Creek, Duchman, Becker, Messina Hof, Bending Branch, and Pedernales. One of the wines to be served, Fall Creek Meritus, is a Double Gold Medal winner at the recent San Francisco International Wine Competition. Did I mention this event is an official GO TEXAN Event and was featured in the Texas Department of Agricultures October Magazine Edition! This charity event benefits the END POLIO NOW program of Rotary International along with local programs of the Rotary Club of Conroe Foundation. You will need to experience the full celebration of the SPIRITS while knowing you are helping a worthy cause!The League of Women Voters is back in Montgomery County after a five-year hiatus.

A nationwide civic group known for its non-partisan voter guides, the League of Women Voters was last active in Montgomery County in 2013. But it closed that year because there werent enough people willing to help run the organization, said Erin Baker, president and chairwoman of the reformed group.

Now, its officially back. After spending August dealing with logistics  like finding a leadership team and setting up a website  they had their first chapter meeting on September 6.

Theyre already busy. Recently, they released guides for districts 3, 15 and 16 of the Texas House of Representatives, which are available at Vote411.org. Theyve also had a total of seven voter-registration drives  at the Conroe YMCA, The Woodlands Farmers Market, the Exxon Mobil Spring campus, an area apartment complex and three local libraries.

We just registered 55 people last Tuesday, Baker said of the drive at Exxon Mobil, calling it the groups most successful voter-registration effort yet.

Baker attributes the surge of local interest in the league to a few factors. Most importantly, she said, Montgomery County is getting more populous.

More than 100,000 people have moved to Montgomery County since 2010, according to U.S. Census figures. Projects like the new Exxon Mobil campus, located juts south of The Woodlands in Harris County, have brought in tons of new residents  including Bakers family, who moved here in 2015.

And then theres the political climate. The #MeToo era has toppled powerful male predators and drawn more women into politics. And a surge of new Democratic candidates means that everyone has more incentive to watch the races.

More Information Want to know more? Website: https://my.lwv.org/texas/montgomery Email: lwvmontgomerycounty@gmail.com To Join: https://lwvtexas.kindful.com/?campaign=262281 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LWVmontcoTX/ See More Collapse

I think that people were getting very excited that for the first time in a very long time that there were actual races with opponents, Baker said. Contested races, which havent happened for many positions in a very long time.

Who else besides the League of Women Voters provides non-partisan information? she added, describing the League as the gold standard in our country for that.

The reopening of the Montgomery County chapter is part of a larger trend, said Grace Chimene, president of the League of Women Voters of Texas, the parent organization for local Texas groups.

League groups have recently reformed in La Vaca, Brazoria and Bell counties, according to Chimene. Theres also talk of reforming in Brazoria and Matagorda counties, as well as in the towns of Laredo, Eagle Pass and Galveston.

A reformed Galveston chapter would be significant because Galveston  once the states largest city  had one of the first leagues in Texas, Chimene said. She wasnt sure when that chapter shuttered.

Chimene said she was thrilled about the reformed chapters across Texas. Its a really exciting time to be in the League, she said. Expect more forums, debates and voter guides with information that Montgomery County voters will really appreciate.

When a group of Montgomery County women started meeting in July to discuss reforming, they quickly realized they would need people to help run the organization, Baker said. So she and four other women stepped up, agreeing to serve as an interim board.

Still, Baker stressed that she is just the temporary president to help get the group off the ground. Asked if she wanted to remain president, she said she was not sure.

If theres someone whos really really interested, Id prefer that she do it, you know what I mean? Baker said. If someone is interested and has great ideas, I would happily support and encourage that person.A Houston man accused of molesting two children, including a 6-year-old boy, has been arrested in Boise, Idaho, according to the Houston Police Department.

Lee Smith III, 29, was charged with sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child in attacks on Aug. 1, 2017 at an apartment complex in the 13100 block of Northborough Drive. The other victim, authorities said, was 15.A jury Thursday sentenced a fired Harris County constable deputy to prison for eight years for sexually assaulting a pregnant mother during a traffic stop last year.

The district court jury took four hours to decide on prison time for 31-year-old Brandin Glispy, an ex-deputy with the Precinct. 6 Constables Office, who prosecutors said assaulted two women in the six months he was on the job.

Glispy was facing up to 20 years after being convicted this week in a case that has raised criticism that Constable Sylvia Trevino did not move fast enough to get Glispy off the street.

Glispy, in a blue shirt, khaki pants and blue shoes, shook his head when the punishment was read in court Thursday. He started to cry as he was led to a holding cell in handcuffs. Because he was convicted of sexual assault, he has to serve at least four years of his sentence.

We wish it had had been a not guilty, but we respect the jurys decision, said defense attorney Andrew Martin.

The sentence brought harsh words from Harris Count District Attorney Kim Ogg.

Rapists posing as police officers are still rapists, Ogg said. While he wore a uniform , he violated the public trust and the sanctity of this womans body.

Assistant District Attorney Lauren Reeder called the officers actions an abuse of power.

Abuse of power

This was an utterly grotesque abuse of power, said Reeder. Brandin Glispy used the power of the badge and his uniform to get what he wanted, when he wanted it. Theres no place in our community for that sort of entitlement.

During the trial, Reeder had urged the jury to sentence Glispy to 20 years.

The defendant was The Law and he thought he was above the law, she told jurors in closing arguments. Look at what he did to these women. That justifies the maximum sentence.

Glispys attorney had argued that he should be put on probation.

He was convicted of putting his hands down a pregnant mothers pants during a search after a 9 p.m. traffic stop in the 5800 block of Martin Luther King on April 24, 2017. After the initial stop, Glispy directed her to another parking lot, but when he saw people milling about, he directed her to a secluded gravel lot next to an abandoned fast food restaurant.

After the assault, Glispy gave the victim his phone number.

He testified in his own defense and said he only spoke to the woman through her car window. He said she wanted to talk to him, but he did not give any details about his claim that they had a conversation.

That woman, who did not speak to reporters after Thursdays verdict, was the officers second victim. Four months earlier in January 2017, the deputy cornered another woman in the restroom of a Popeyes chicken restaurant. He sexually assaulted her, and then attempted to force her to perform oral sex, prosecutors said. She was able to get away, and she testified against Glispy during the punishment phase of his trial.

Constable criticized

Because two women were victimized four months apart, Paul OSullivan, a businessman and resident of Precinct 6, watched the entire trial to see how the incident was handled.

After the verdict, he blamed Precinct 6 Constable Sylvia Trevino, who was elected after her husband, Victor, was convicted of public corruption in 2014.

After nothing happened to him after the first time, he was allowed to stay out there and hunt for four more months, OSullivan said. He was a rookie with no supervision.

OSullivan, who is not connected to the case except as one of Trevinos constituents, said that if there had been a thorough investigation when the first incident happened, there wouldnt have been a second Jane Doe.

Lillian G. Lozano, chief deputy of Precinct 6, released a statement Thursday noting that Glispy was hired by the previous Constable Heliodoro Martinez, who held the office from 2014 until December 2016.

She said the office under Constable Sylvia Trevino fired on Glispy on April 27, 2017, three days after the second allegations surfaced. He was charged on July 5, 2017, after Precinct 6s internal affairs unit coordinated with the Houston Police Department to investigate.

As I will continue to reiterate, I will take immediate action against any employee that is found to be involved in criminal conduct or policy violations both on and off duty, Lozano said. We are grateful to the complainants that came forward so we could fire this predator and get him off the street.

Glispys trial, presided over by District Judge Nikita Harmon, began Monday and ended with him being taken into custody after his conviction and transferred to the Harris County jail. His attorney said he would ask the judge to set bail so Glispy can be free while he appeals the case.

brian.rogers@chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogersA family of six who survived a fiery crash aboard an Aeromexico flight in July are suing the airline, a new lawsuit filed this week in Texas reveals.

The case argues that members of the Olguin family a woman, her four children and grandmother from Clute in Brazoria County were injured in the crash due to the decision of Aeromexico pilots to take off during a storm. They suit states it was the first leg of their return flight from Mexico to Houston.

"Despite the visibly dangerous weather conditions, [Aeromexico's] pilots, for reasons unfathomable, chose to challenge the violent forces of nature rather than wait for the tempest to pass," the lawsuit alleges. "The pilots gambled with the 103 lives on board, presumably betting they could outrun the storm."

On July 31, 2018, the connecting Aeromexico flight destined for Mexico City crashed when it veered off the runway during take off. Eighty-five passengers were injured and zero were killed in the crash.

Cellphone video taken by passengers show the aircraft accelerating for take-off during heavy winds, rain and hail. The plane lost both its engines during the crash and burst into flames when it came to a stop more than 300 yards from the runaway, reported CBS News.

LATEST: Saudi man suspected of being involved in journalist's possible death visited Houston, photo shows

The lawsuit takes issue with the emergency procedures conducted by Aeromexico staff, the decision by pilots to take off during the storm, and Aeromexico's failure to reveal that one of the pilots was a trainee.

The family is seeking compensation them for their injuries, mental anguish, medical expenses and loss of pay. The lawsuit did not detail or demand a sum of money, noting that the amount of compensation would be determined during the trial.

In August, 11 other passengers aboard the flight also filed lawsuits against the airline.

See photos of the crash above.

Fernando Ramirez is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93

Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message





More than 200 cats found in poor living conditions were seized from a home in Spring on Wednesday, authorities said.

The Houston SPCA assisted the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office by taking custody of nearly 230 cats from a home in the 3300 block of Hickory Hollow Road.

Law enforcement officials recently learned that the cats were in "desperate need" of veterinary care, according to HSPCA.

After reviewing evidence from the scene, a judge signed off on the seizure warrant for all 230 cats.

RESCUED: Pony pulled from Houston storm drain

The cats were found suffering from several different types of medical conditions, including breathing problems.

The cats will be cared for by HSPCA staff in Houston, authorities said.

HSPCA officials are going to try and win custody of the cats through a civil suit in Montgomery County in the coming weeks, officials said.

It is unclear if anyone will be charged.

Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.comThe Shenandoah City Council adopted an ordinance during an Oct. 8 meeting, effectively making it illegal for a person listed on the Texas sex offender registry from living within 1,000 feet of the citys many parks and public spaces.

It was important for us to send a message out that said, Look were not a sanctuary city for sex offenders, said Council Member Ted Fletcher, who proposed the creation of the ordinance. Theres not a welcome mat here.

Shenandoah is the latest of dozens of general law cities  cities of less than 5,000 residents governed by state laws  to adopt a sex offender residency restriction ordinance. The ordinance dictates that sex offenders are not allowed to live within 1,000 feet of a designated child safety zone  defined by the ordinance as a playground, school, day care, arcade, pool or youth center.

Its ultimately designed to protect citizens and children from sexual predators, Fletcher said.

Fletcher approached City Attorney William Ferebee in April after reviewing laws passed by the Texas legislature in 2017 that might apply to the city of Shenandoah.

Dozens of general law cities in Texas had ordinances in place restricting where registered sex offenders could live, but a 2007 decision passed down from then-attorney general Greg Abbott ruled that general law cities could not adopt their own residency restrictions because the state of Texas itself does not have a law regulating where registered sex offenders can live.

Instead, paroled offenders were required to register with the local police departments and stay out of the designated child safety zones. After their sentences were completed, there was no restriction on the movements of registered sex offenders.

We had (no protection), Fletcher said. A parents worst fear is to have something happen to their child and as a parent, I had those same concerns.

In 2017, the state legislature passed House Bill 1111, which granted general law cities the right to limit the movement of sex offenders with some exemptions and leniency toward those already living in the city. In Shenandoah, the four registered sex offenders already living within city limits will be able to apply for an exemption based on their already-established residence.

Its limited, but its not being designed to force people out, said Shenandoah Communications Manager Debbie Pilcher. But to create safe havens for children  if (a sex offender) does leave they dont have a chance to come back.

Shenandoahs sex offender residency restrictions  and similar ones in other small Texas towns  are not without their opposition. Anti-sex offender registry group Texas Voices for Reason and Justice has, in the past, threatened lawsuits against towns with similar ordinances, calling them unconstitutional.

Most small cities dont have city attorneys, Fletcher said. It would be extremely costly (for them) to go through litigation.

But, said Texas Voices executive director Mary Sue Molnar, not only are residency restrictions ineffective and create homelessness among registered sex offenders, the sex offender registry itself could be counter-productive to keeping communities safe.

If someone breaks the law, there should be a punishment, Molnar said. But at some point, that punishment needs to be over.

Molnar said the group was unaware of Shenandoahs ordinance prior to being interviewed, but said that the registry and its consequences can not only permanently affect the lives of the 100,000 registered offenders in Texas, but also of their families.

The Shenandoah ordinance provides exemptions for registered sex offenders that are minors and still reside with their families, those that were minors at the time of the offense and those who already lived within 1,000 feet of a safety zone before the law was enacted.

Shenandoah police officer John Ferrand was tasked as the sex offender registrar for the city, and is responsible for keeping tabs on registered sex offenders residing in the city.

Chief of Police Raymond Shaw said before the ordinance was passed, the police could do close to nothing if a registered sex offender was seen in what is now called a child safety zone.

(The ordinance) is going to give us more teeth, so we can keep track of that, Shaw said.

Supervision of the four registered sex offenders in the city will continue, Fletcher said, as the council and police department work to prevent any more from moving into Shenandoah.

It doesnt matter if youre on parole, Fletcher said. If youre registered (as a sex offender) in Texas, our ordinance says you cannot live within city limits.An antiviral pill taken daily by thousands of men across Sydney and other parts of Australia led to a globally unprecedented reduction in new HIV cases, showing that a targeted, preventative approach may accelerate progress on ending the AIDS epidemic.

New cases of HIV among gay and bisexual men fell by almost a third to the lowest on record, according to the world's first study to measure the impact of Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Truvada pill on reducing the AIDS-causing virus in a large population. The results, published Thursday in the Lancet HIV medical journal, may pave the way for other states and countries to stop transmission of the virus with the use of a treatment called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP.

"The speed of the decline we've seen in new HIV infections in gay and bisexual men is a world first," said study leader Andrew Grulich, head of HIV epidemiology and prevention at the Kirby Institute of the University of New South Wales. "These numbers are the lowest on record since HIV surveillance began in 1985."

Progress against AIDS over the past 15 years has inspired a commitment by U.N. member states to end the epidemic by 2030. The number of people newly infected with HIV fell to 1.8 million worldwide in 2017, from more than 3 million a year through most of the 1990s. While the study results can't be generalized to indicate similar efficacy in heterosexual populations, they do demonstrate that PrEP is "highly cost-effective" in certain high-risk groups, Grulich said in a phone interview.

New HIV infections occurred in 102 gay and bisexual men in the state of New South Wales in the first year after the study began, compared with 149 infections in the 12 months prior.

"While we've known for at least three or four years now of individual-level efficacy of PrEP, there has been some reticence around the world by policy makers to properly fund the roll out of PrEP because the population impact hasn't been shown -- and that's what we set out to do," Grulich said.

There were about 180,000 people in the U.S. taking Truvada for PrEP at the end of June, Robin L. Washington, Gilead's chief financial officer, said on a conference call in July.

The blue, oval-shaped pill is a fixed-dose combination of the drugs tenofovir, disoproxil and emtricitabine. Generic versions of Truvada made by Mylan, Cipla and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries have made the medication available more cheaply.

"We see the nice steady growth of Truvada for the use of PrEP," Gilead's Chief Executive Officer John F. Milligan told the Morgan Stanley Global Health Care Conference last month. Areas of the U.S. with the highest uptake of PrEP had achieved some of the best reductions in HIV infections, he said.

"I'm more confident now that the policymakers are being very innovative in thinking about how to increase access to PrEP," Milligan said. "So we'll be working on a number of things in the coming year that could really increase the number of patients on PrEP and could be very good for preventing the infection, and of course good for our business as well."WASHINGTON - Applications from people vying to become Washington's first-ever nightlife director have been pouring into Mayor Muriel Bowser's office from across the country and around the world.

Just weeks into the search, the mayor's office said it has received more applications for this job than any other cabinet position.

The new director of District of Columbia's inaugural Office of Nightlife and Culture will be in charge of "the after-hours economy" and all that goes along with it - after-hours noise complaints, crime, street cleanup, traffic congestion and, of course, rats.

"This job, man. People are excited about it. Around the country, across the oceans," said Lindsey Parker, Bowser's deputy chief of staff. "We've received a very diverse group of resumes."

The concept of having an after-dark government official whose job it is to create order from the chaos of nightlife is not a new one.

Other cities -- New York, London, Orlando, even smaller ones like Iowa City - have created such positions. They vary in title (night mayor, night czar, night manager) and responsibilities. Some, like London's night czar, work only part time.

In Washington, it will be a full-time job - with odd hours.

"There's not going to be a normal schedule," Parker said. "I'm sure this person will have a lot of meetings between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m., but you'll also have residents who want to meet up and show you the rat issue they're seeing in the alley nearby at 9 or 10 p.m."

All establishments that are open between 5 p.m. and 2 a.m., including bars, restaurants, theaters, clubs, art spaces and more, will be considered part of the director's purview.

The appointee will be expected to work with other organizations, including city police, the D.C. Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works to address the types of problems that tend to arise after dark.

That might mean cordoning off an area where ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft can pick up patrons outside bars without blocking traffic on busy streets, city officials said. Or help ease the transition of a neighborhood that used to be largely residential and is now attracting new businesses - and noisy patrons.

"What we're looking for in this director is someone who really knows the city, understands its history and its growth, and understands that we're trying to solve tough challenges in areas that didn't used to have bars and restaurants operating at night," Parker said.

Some business owners and neighborhood advocates have expressed concerns over how the new government office will balance the interests of new businesses with the needs of the communities into which they are moving.

"We know change is coming to D.C. so, to the extent that our government can be focused on how this change takes place and how we can make it work for everyone, we should be," said D.C. Councilman Brandon Todd, who introduced a bill creating the Office of Nightlife and Culture about one year ago. "Our city is growing by leaps and bounds every day. . . . This person can help us figure out how everyone gets something that's close to what they want."

The ward where Todd lives, or example, has transformed from quiet neighborhood center to a popular strip of bars and restaurants that offer music, shows and drink specials that attract visitors from around the region.

"We need someone thinking about how we, as a government, can address the nighttime economy but also address neighborhood concerns from people who may or may not want to see that kind of change occur," Todd said.

The number of restaurants and bars in Washington has ballooned from 1,729 in 2006 to nearly 2,300, according to 2016 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The city's hospitality industry is valued at about $7.5 billion annually, Parker said, and more liquor licenses are being requested every day.Bars and restaurants made about $3.8 billion in revenue in 2017, and employs about 9 percent of Washington's workers. Over the next decade, that number is projected to grow by 6 percent, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Nighttime liaisons in other cities, like New York's night mayor, Ariel Palitz, come from the city's club and bar scene. Palitz used to own a nighttime haunt called Sutra that shut down after a 10-year stint.

One of her primary mandates has been to explore quality of life issues, including the so-called DIY club scene in New York, wherein makeshift clubs are set up in unconventional spaces for one or several nights. The DIY venues often operate on the margins of legality, and have been increasingly shut down due to their lack of proper licenses.

Washington officials declined to say whether they were seeking a bureaucrat or a barkeeper to run the office, but Parker noted the resumes submitted so far have come from people of all walks of life.

Todd added the ideal candidate would likely have a mix of experience in the public and private sectors.

The job - which comes with an annual salary of $97,434 to $118,000 - will be filled as soon as possible, Parker said, noting the mayor is expected to sign a bill Thursday that will officially create the Office of Nightlife and Culture.

Then, the bill heads to Congress for a 30-day review.

Washington's newest director will oversee a commission of five volunteers, who will help direct programs and decisions around the city's nightlife.

Just don't call him or her the "night mayor."

"We've already got a morning, noon and night mayor," Parker said. "We're not looking for another mayor. But we are looking for a director."CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Interest in the midterm election is at a fever pitch in much of the country, with both Democrats and Republicans far more passionate than they've been in more than a decade.

Could this be the year that Tennessee's Montgomery County shows up to vote?

Located northwest of Nashville along the Kentucky border, this county often has one of the lowest voting rates in the state - in a state that often has one of the lowest rates in the country, and in a country that has one of the lowest rates in the world, trailing most developed nations.

A SURGE: 100,000 more voters registered in two weeks for the midterm election in Texas

During the divisive 2016 presidential election, Montgomery County registered its lowest turnout in the past six presidential elections. Of residents who were old enough to vote, just 42 percent actually did, according to a Washington Post analysis. Meanwhile, the national rate was 61 percent and statewide was 51 percent, according to the U.S. Elections Project. Historically, those numbers fall in midterm elections.

"I had no reason to," said Austin Batey, 25, a call-center operator and libertarian who didn't vote in the 2012 or 2016 presidential elections and doesn't plan to vote in November. "I just don't feel I can change politics. Or, if I could help change it, I'd just be voting for someone whose solutions I don't agree with."

He continued: "For every one thing I like about a politician, there are 10 things I don't like. Take Trump, I like his tax cuts but then he's jacking up the deficit . . . it's trading off one evil for another. . . . I'll just stay at home and not have my blood pressure raised."

He's not alone.

The reasons for not voting may vary by location but feature similar strains of disillusionment and skepticism. Tennessee has harsher voting restrictions in place than states with higher turnout rates, but few people cite those as reasons for not voting.

The Washington Post

Montgomery County residents offered a list of reasons: The state mostly has been controlled by Republicans for years, so many right-leaning nonvoters say their chosen candidate doesn't need their support to win and left-leaners say their candidate will never win. Both sides ask the same question: Why bother?

Others said they don't care about politics - often citing its nastiness - and don't want to pick a side. And still others said they just can't get excited about the candidates on the ballot.

"I just think that it's a waste of my time," said Leo Meeks, 39, a lifelong Clarksvillian who majored in political science in college but hasn't voted in at least eight years. Even if he did vote, he said, the winner is often determined by gerrymandered districts or the electoral college, not voters. "Because whoever's going to get into office is not going to be influenced based on what my goals are or what my needs are or what the public's needs," he said. "It's going to be driven by capitalism, by big companies . . . Money controls."

The Washington Post analyzed voting data from more than 3,000 counties in the 2016 election and found that those with lowest rates of participation, as measured by those eligible to vote, were concentrated in a handful of states: West Virginia, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arizona.

Politically speaking, these are states that are mostly controlled by Republicans and all voted for Trump in 2016. Demographically, the counties with the lowest participating rates are often impoverished, sparsely populated and rural; their residents make less money than most Americans and are less likely to own their home or have a college degree. The wealthiest counties in the country had the highest rates of participation, while the poorest counties had the lowest rates.

"No one's ever pushed me to do it; no one's told me it was important," said Zantwinette Ellis, 20, a single mother who has lived in Clarksville her entire life, and has spent most of it bouncing between homes and, in recent years, between low-paying jobs. "They pound you about jobs. 'Get a job, get a job.' They didn't pound you about voting growing up. It doesn't feel relevant to me. It's not a big thing in my life."

Montgomery County is home to Tennessee's fifth largest city, Clarksville, and its poverty rate is average. Some of its residents are military members stationed at nearby Fort Campbell who remain registered to vote in their home states, although that population alone doesn't explain the county's low rate.

Trump won more than 56 percent of votes cast in the county in 2016, even though its demographics more closely align with those of Democratic strongholds: Its population is one of the youngest in the state, thanks to a university and the nearby military base, and it is more diverse than Tennessee as a whole, as 71 percent of residents are white, 20.5 percent are African American and 10 percent are Hispanic.

Typically, young Americans and minorities have lower voting rates than older, white residents. Homeownership and having children in the school system, among other means of rooting in civic life, generally propel people to vote, studies have shown.

Logan Russell, an 18-year-old college student studying music, said that once he is done with school, he will deeply research candidates and vote - but he's not willing to make the investment of time now.

"I'd be one person versus millions who probably have spent less time thinking about their vote than I have," Russell said. "We make point-zero-infinite percentage difference. I can do more by spending that time helping a friend out. I mean, really, that's helping their life more than voting for somebody who may or may not be pressured into voting for something I may or may not like."

Democrats and Republicans have pushed to change Tennessee's embarrassingly low standing in the nation when it comes to voter participation.

Before the Oct. 9 registration deadline, activist groups across the state held registration drives. But they also used a tool deemed more effective: talking up voting to their relatives, friends, co-workers and people they encounter in their communities.

A leader of the county GOP wrote personal letters to everyone she knows who doesn't regularly vote. The executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project handed out fliers promoting voter registration when he stopped for gas or food. A transgender college student posted links to voter registration information whenever a friend complained about politics or the president on Facebook. When members of Clarksville Indivisible, a liberal grass-roots organization, met for lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant downtown, they asked their two servers if they were registered to vote. A member of the group said she has been registering members of her mosque and recently helped to register a salesman who called her home with an offer to replace her windows.

But the results have been sobering at times. The activists have been surprised by the number of people they have encountered who have never voted and proudly want to continue that streak. According to data obtained by The Post, this year's final registration tally is 109,923 - barely an increase over the 108,538 registered in 2016.

"I'm struggling. I mean, what do you say to someone who says, 'I don't vote,' " said Karen Reynolds, a Clarksville Indivisible organizer. She became politically active in early 2017 when Tennessee state lawmakers considered legislation that would limit the rights of LGBT individuals, including her son.

On a recent Friday afternoon, Clarksville Indivisible and other activist groups set up a voter registration booth at Austin Peay State University and registered more than 50 students to vote.

Dozens of students said that they plan to vote in the midterm election this fall - but few could name any of the statewide candidates, even those in the contested Senate race between Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen, the state's governor from 2003 to 2011. Many others said they have no plans to vote.

"I would rather not vote in something I don't know about," a freshman nursing major said as she had lunch with classmates. "If I voted, I would probably just vote however my parents voted."

Another young woman at her table agreed: "I'm not into politics."

Sitting nearby, D'Andrea "Dede" Holloway, 20,said she has no interest in voting because she doesn't believe that politicians from either party can attain any of the things that they promise. In 2016, she found Trump's promises shallow and empty, especially coupled with proposals that she considered anti-immigrant. During the Democratic primaries, she loved the message of Bernie Sanders and was angered by how she felt he was treated by Democratic Party officials.

"I've thought about voting, but I just don't want to put my faith in a person," said Holloway, who is from Knoxville and is studying early childhood development and social work.

Mike Rittenberry - a 58-year-old former drug addict and born-again Christian who owns a tire shop decorated with signs reading "Honk for Jesus" and "Jesus is Coming Back" - similarly would rather put his faith in God than a politician.

"I don't know who to believe or who not to believe when it comes to the president and senators and Washington and this and that. I just put it all in God's hands," said Rittenberry, an ex-felon who has never explored having his voting rights restored. "I know God is really the one who's running this country. I really believe God has placed President Trump there for a reason."

In keeping with statistics showing lower participation during nonpresidential elections, several Clarksville residents who voted in 2016 said they don't plan to do so this fall.

Blanca Zamarron, a 29-year-old restaurant manager at the El Toro Mexican taqueria, said that she voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 but hasn't seen her life change much under Trump's leadership, so she doesn't think voting in the midterms this fall is "a big thing."

And Rachelle Batey - who is married to Batey, the call center operator - said that she plans to join her husband in not voting this year because politics has become too divisive. One of her close friends defriended her on Facebook after they disagreed about the allegations of sexual abuse against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"I just stay away from it all," said Batey, 27, a former massage therapist who home-schools her two children and usually votes Republican, as she did for Trump in 2016. "I'm one of the biggest fence sitters and sometimes I feel like I'm alone on my little fence. These days, you're either right or you're wrong. Well, I like some things Republicans do, I like some things Democrats do. I view myself as a feminist, but I see some feminism is getting turned into hatred. So I can't vote this time."

Batey recalled going into the voting booth with her father, a Southern Baptist preacher, when she was a child. But now, she said, it's all too exhausting.

"I'm one of those people who believes if you don't vote, you can't criticize, because you don't put your voice in," she said. "But now I'm done with it. This time I don't want to put my voice in."

---

The Washington Post's Scott Clement, Reuben Fischer-Baum, Jon Gerberg and Ted Mellnick contributed to this report.Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Photo: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump threatened Thursday to send the U.S. military to Americas southern border, in order to stop a caravan of more than 2,000 Central American migrants from exercising their legal right to seek asylum in the United States.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S, the leader of the free world tweeted. In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

There are reasonable arguments for reforming American immigration law, so that asylum seekers are not incentivized to make long, dangerous treks up the North American continent to press their claims in the United States. And it is also true that previous migrant flows have already exhausted our governments resources for detaining asylum-seekers and processing their claims (although, this is partly because the Trump administration refuses to expand alternatives to mass detention, largely out of a principled commitment to treating migrants with wanton cruelty).

Nevertheless, its hard to make a rational case for why our government should regard Central American migrants as a threat to the safety and material well-being of the American people.

Contra Trump, there is no basis for believing that undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers are predisposed to criminal activity. In fact, we have long known that native-born Americans commit violent crimes at far higher rates than either legal or undocumented immigrants. And newer research into immigration and criminality has proven even more devastating to the nativists case: States with higher concentrations of undocumented immigrants tend to have lower rates of violent crime  and this correlation persists even when controlling for a given states median age, level of urbanization, and rate of unemployment or incarceration.

While theres little basis for believing that Central American migrants have brought crime and lawlessness to our country, theres good reason to think that we brought such conditions to theirs. After all, it was the CIA that overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954, and thereby subjected its people to decades of dictatorship and civil war. It was the streets and prisons of California that gave birth to MS-13, and American immigration authorities that deported that gang back to El Salvador. And it is Americas taste for narcotics that sustains the drug trade in Honduras  and our war on drugs that ensures such trade is conducted by immensely profitable and violent cartels. One can debate what, precisely, America owes the people of Central America in light of this history. But allowing the regions most desperate people to assert their right to seek asylum  without kidnapping their children  seems safely in the least we can do territory.

Separately, the American economy is actually in great need of young, unskilled workers (like many of those currently marching toward the southern border). On the Labor Departments list of the 15 occupations that will experience the fastest growth over the next six years, eight require no advanced education. And with the baby-boomers retiring  and birth rates plummeting  the future of American economic growth depends on an infusion of foreign labor. It is true that there is some basis for believing that mass, low-skill immigration depresses the wages of native-born high-school dropouts (although that claim is contentious). But there is no basis for believing that restricting immigration will do more to boost such workers take-home pay than encouraging unionization through labor-law reform, or expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), or a host of other progressive policies that Donald Trump vehemently opposes.

All this said, there is abundant evidence that a significant portion of the American electorate finds the idea of large masses of brown-skinned people crossing the U.S. border to be psychologically threatening. And there is also social science research suggesting that, when the median white voter is primed to contemplate rapid demographic change, her political views become more conservative, even on issues unrelated to immigration. Thus, the story of an invasion by Central American hordes  egged on by Democrats, and vigorously opposed by Republicans  might well be a politically convenient fiction for our president.KABUL, Afghanistan - A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire Thursday on participants in a meeting with the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, killing three top southern provincial officials and wounding at least three Americans. But Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller, the target of the attack claimed by the Taliban, escaped unharmed.

Among those killed in the attack inside the governor's compound in southern Kandahar province was the region's top police general, Abdul Raziq, who was seen as the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan.

U.S. military officials confirmed that a U.S. soldier, a contractor and another civilian were wounded in the attack, which occurred shortly after a high-level meeting attended by Miller.

In a news conference later Wednesday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed that Abdul Raziq and the Kandahar provincial intelligence chief "were martyred" in the attack. He said he has sent security authorities from Kabul to assess the situation.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said the provincial governor, Zalmai Wessa, was wounded in the shooting and was rushed to a local hospital, where he was later reported to have died of his wounds. The ministry said Miller was not hurt and returned to Kabul.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yusuf Ahmadi, said in an email to journalists that the group carried out the attack and that its "main target" was Miller. Ahmadi asserted that Miller had been killed, a claim also denied by U.S. military officials. He claimed that in addition to Abdul Raziq, whom he described as "the savage commander of Kandahar," the dead included Wessa and the Kandahar intelligence chief, Abdul Momin.

The attacker opened fire as the officials were in the governor's compound following a security meeting about crucial parliamentary elections on Saturday, officials said.

The lone attacker was killed after fatally shooting Abdul Raziq and wounding several of his bodyguards, Afghan and U.S. security officials said. He was reported to be a member of the provincial governor's security team.

Several current and former officials lamented the death of Abdul Raziq, 39, a close U.S. ally and fierce anti-Taliban fighter.

"It is a big loss for Afghanistan," Shakeba Hashimi, a legislator from Kandahar, said by cellphone as she was en route to his funeral at a hospital there. "We have security in Kandahar that we don't have in the capital. It is because of this honorable general."

Amrulleh Saleh, a former Afghan national intelligence chief, tweeted that Abdul Raziq had been "an architect of stability" in Kandahar who had established "deep political networks" in support of the government. "This is a pan-Afghan loss," he wrote.

Afghanistan's ambassador to Pakistan, Omar Zakhilwal, tweeted that Abdul Raziq's death was "a dark day" for the country and that he was "shocked and heartbroken by the demise of close friend, great patriot & national hero." He said Abdul Raziq had "single-handedly restored stability to a volatile Kandahar and the greater south."

Abdul Raziq, a lieutenant general in the Afghan National Police, was a controversial official who had been repeatedly accused of torturing detainees and other abuses during his rise to power in Kandahar. At the same time, he earned a reputation as a ferocious opponent of the Taliban and gained the respect of successive American and NATO military officials in Afghanistan.

He had survived a number of assassination attempts, including suicide attacks, but had managed to strengthen security in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban militants.

A slight and youthful-looking man, Abdul Raziq earned a reputation for brutality and corruption in the border police beginning a decade ago. But in recent years, as a top police official and ruthless anti-insurgent fighter, he was widely praised for bringing Kandahar and the surrounding region under government control. His forces received Western training and funds, and U.S. military officials often consulted him.

Last year, a United Nations report said the worst torture in Afghanistan took place in police jails in Kandahar, and the U.N Committee Against Torture called for the investigation and prosecution of Abdul Raziq. A decade earlier, a 2006 U.S. State Department study found that he had been removed from his post with the border police for arresting and tormenting a group of men from a rival clan. In 2011, the Atlantic magazine quoted two men who described being tortured with electric shocks in a prison operated by Abdul Raziq, who by then had been promoted to a senior police post. He categorically denied any wrongdoing.

Miller, 57, took over last month as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, replacing Gen. John Nicholson. A veteran of some of the U.S. military's most secretive combat units, he formerly served as commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command and participated in numerous combat operations, including in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001.

The brazen attack followed a spate of insurgent and political violence during the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled for Saturday. The Taliban has threatened to "severely disrupt" the elections and warned Afghans against participating in what the radical Islamist group regards as a pretext for perpetuating U.S. intervention in the country.

The Taliban warned students and teachers in particular to stay away from voting places, many of which are located in schools. But the group said it would seek to avoid harm to civilians.

The attack in Kandahar narrowly targeted senior U.S. and Afghan security officials, as well as the provincial governor and intelligence chief. The lone attacker reportedly opened fire at close range as those officials were finishing a meeting in the government compound.

But the lethal shooting seemed likely to have a chilling effect on voter participation Saturday, especially in the south, where several candidates have been assassinated.

On Wednesday, a prominent candidate, former army general Abdul Jabar Qahraman, was killed in neighboring Helmand province by a hidden bomb that exploded while he was holding a meeting at his campaign headquarters in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Qahraman, an ardent opponent of the Taliban, was the 10th candidate killed during the campaign in the past two months.

In a suicide attack later Wednesday near the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, a bomber killed two Afghan civilians and wounded at least five Czech soldiers belonging to the U.S.-led NATO coalition in the country, officials said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing near Bagram air base about 30 miles north of the capital, Kabul.

---

The Washington Post's William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.John Badman | The Telegraph

MARION, Illinois  The Illinois Emergency Management Agency teamed up with the St. Louis Cardinals Thursday to educate southern Illinois students about the importance of earthquake preparedness. With two seismic zones in the southern part of the state, and Illinois residents who travel throughout the world, its important that everyone know how to stay safe during an earthquake.

Gov. Bruce Rauner declared Oct. 18 Great U.S. ShakeOut Earthquake Drill Day in Illinois to encourage people to participate in the annual earthquake drill. This year, more than 364,000 people in Illinois registered for the event, including more than 309,000 students from educational facilities across the state.As Italy's euro-skeptic government gears up for a confrontation with the European Commission over its budget, a separate clash has erupted between the two party leaders within the coalition.

Luigi Di Maio, head of the Five Star Movement, used a popular political talk show Wednesday night to claim that a tax decree approved along with the 2019 budget Monday night had been secretly altered to extend the scope of an amnesty. He called on the courts to find out who was responsible and press charges.

Matteo Salvini, the League leader who was on a trip to Moscow, denied that there'd been any fiddling while his office in Rome said the language in the decree had not been altered. Italian newspapers reported that in private Salvini was furious with Di Maio's comments.

From Brussels, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte played down any split in the government.

"There's no fracture," he said as he arrived for a European Union summit. He said he'd review the decree "line by line" when he returns to Rome Friday, before deciding whether to send it on to President Sergio Mattarella for approval.

The dispute cuts to the heart of the differences between the two parties who forged an uneasy coalition after the March 4 elections. Five Star grew out of citizens protest movements, and its mostly southern electorate is very sensitive about anything suggesting corruption or amnesties. The League was born out of small businesses in the north who think they are over-taxed by Rome.

"This text was not agreed in the Cabinet. I don't know if it was a political or a technical hand" that intervened, Di Maio said Wednesday evening on the state television channel, RAI. "But we will not back this decree in parliament if it goes through like this. There is money laundering in it, there is everything."

The government had sought to sell the measures as a mechanism for settling tax disputes, rather than an amnesty. The limit for accessing the process was set at 100,000 euros ($115,000). The League had pushed for a ceiling of 1 million euros, according to local press reports. Di Maio said that language in the bill had been changed so that the decree would apply to amounts over 100,000 euros and to undeclared accounts held abroad.

Conte, meanwhile, is in Brussels Thursday for an EU summit where he'll have to defend an Italian budget that European leaders and the EU Commission say breaks Italy's commitments to bring down its deficit. Finance Minister Giovanni Tria will meet Thursday in Rome with EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici to discuss the government's financial plans.

Conte described a Thursday morning meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "very cordial and serene."

The budget calls for a deficit equal to 2.4 percent of GDP, compared with the 0.8 percent shortfall agreed by the government swept out of power in March, and makes assumptions about economic growth that Italy's budget watchdog says are overly optimistic.

The budget and the tax decree agreed at a cabinet meeting Monday evening resulted from compromises between Five Star, whose signature campaign promise of a citizens income for the poor is seen as giveaway to southerners by many League voters, and the League's wish for tax breaks for businesses, which are seen as too generous by many Five Star voters.

"We know this is not the budget that the Commission was counting on, we expected the criticism," Conte said. "I'll explain the logic which is that we are targeting growth. We'll sit at a table and illustrate it. We are convinced by it, and I'm more convinced as the days go by that it's a very good budget."

- - -

Bloomberg's John Follain and Chiara Albanese contributed.WESTPORT  An affordable housing proposal Westport residents raised $50,000 to fight has been officially rejected by the towns Planning and Zoning Commission.

The need for public safety outweighed, in the end, the small gains we would realize with this project in affordable housing units, Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) Chairman Paul Lebowtiz said of the commissions unanimous vote on Oct. 11 to reject the proposed 81-unit housing on Lincoln Street near the Saugatuck River and downtown Westport.

The development application, brought by Cross Street LLC, proposed a 137,000 square-foot building on 3.15 property on Lincoln Street and planned to include 27 one-bedroom and 54 two-bedroom units, 25 of which would be deemed affordable.

Because the application met the 30 percent affordable benchmark, the project qualified under the 8-30g statute of the Connecticut General Statutes. In towns like Westport that dont have enough affordable housing in the eyes of the state, any 8-30g application brought before the towns zoning board can skirt local building regulations and only be denied on traffic or safety grounds.

At a zoning hearing on the development on Oct. 6, former Westport Fire Chief Andrew Kingsbury, who was working for the town as a consultant on this project, said a single point of access to the southernmost point of the development on Lincoln Street is inadequate for fire trucks to enter in case of a fire at the building.

If the a fire occurred at the proposed complex during the summer, the fire department can not guarantee it has enough water to fight it because towns water infrastructure have not kept pace with the construction of large buildings in town, current Fire Chief Robert Yost said at the same meeting.

The risk to the public safety with fire and traffic safety outweighed the potential gain of those 25 units. They could easily accomplish the goal of adding affordable housing on that site utilizing a different configuration of the building. One that fits within our existing zoning regulations without having to result to an 8-30g structure, Lebowitz said.

A neighborhood group, Westport Neighbors United LLC, formed to lobby against the Lincoln Street development proposal and over the past months, the group raised $50,000 to battle the development and amassed a following of about 300 people, Tina Torraco, one of the groups leaders, said.

The developers were less please with the decision. Were disappointed, but were going to file an appeal pursuant to the statute and the appeal will ultimately go through the process and be adjudicated in court, John Fallon, attorney for Cross Street, said.

svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1NEW HAVEN  Donnie and Sade, growing up in abusive households, said neither of them ever had a proper place to live and, as adults, they still dont

The tragjectory of their lives led to drug addiction for both of them, with jail time for Donnie and, for Sade, eventually the loss of her child to state custody.

Standing on the steps of City Hall Wednesday, they addressed several-dozen supporters advocating for more affordable housing for low-income individuals and for the those who already have fallen into homelessness.

They read a homeless persons bill of rights that would include the ability to enjoy a public space without being told to move , the right to medical care and the right to access clean bathrooms.

Both said city police are criminalizing homelessness. The pair said they are now a couple and only feel safe in a homeless encampment they have made for themselves, far from residences.

The city has an affordable housing task force looking for answers to the problem, and this new coalition that announced itself Wedneday said they are speaking up to make sure that group comes forward with actionable solutions.

Kerry Ellington of the community and economic developmemt unit of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, said residents are being priced out of the neighborhoods where they grew up.

Between 2002 and 2015, apartments renting for more than $2,000 a month have increased 97 percent, while apartments renting for $800 or less decreased by 2 percent, Ellington said.

To afford the median rent in New Haven at $1,090 a month, a family would have to bring in $53,000 a year, she said, while the average household here is closer to $38,000.

Most working-class New Haven residents pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing, a situation that puts them one check away from eviction and a host of related problems, Ellington said. She estimated that this applies to some 41 percent of families in New Haven.

New Haven is experiencing a hot real estate market with 863 new units built since 2015 with 950 approved or under construction and 1,300 more in the planning stages, Ellington said.

We want to ensure that these new housing units include rent that is affordable for everyone, including housing for the homeless, she said.

When New Haven sells land it owns to developers, it has negotiated that a certain percentage of housing units be put aside as affordable, but Ellington said more needs to be done.

We need new measures introduced on behalf of local residents, Ellington said.

In a letter to the task force members, in care of Alder Aaron Greenberg, D-8, they advocated for a set of community-led recommendations that at a minimum feature an inclusionary zoning ordinance and ways to preserve existing affordable housing.

Greenberg is facilitating the study.

Attorney Liam Brennan, a former U.S. attorney who recently joined NHLAA, said several cities have inclusionary zoning, such as Stamford, Boston and Washington, D.C.

He said mandated inclusionary zoning would require developments over a certain size to also include affordable units.

He said there is also non-mandatory inclusionary zoning in which the city would allow such things as a faster-track approval process, denser developments or reduced parking requirements in exchange for affordable units.

New Haven already is requiring 30 percent of the estimated 1,000 replacement units at the former Church Street South, currently being razed, be set aside for low-income tenants and the new owners of the 9th Square have agreed to 56 percent.

Brennan said the city needs to come up with policies that also key affordability to the median income in New Haven as opposed to the region.

He said you could make some of the required units available to people in certain income ranges lower than the usual 80 percent of area median income used by federal standards.

That is a way to try and jigger it, he said.

To address the whole issue will take more innovation, including the preservation of existing housing, he said. That requires the Livable City Initiative and the Building Department work together to keep them in good shape.

Another demand of the group was more transparency by having the task force meetings at night.

The group has only been meeting since June, when the alders took hours of impassioned testimony from experts, tenants, landlords and the homeless weighing in on the subject, Greenberg said.

Since then they have brought in experts on funding sources and the need in New Haven. On Monday there will be a meeting at City Hall at 11 a.m. where LCI and the Housing Authority will testify about the real estate maket.

He said it has been extremely difficult to get a night meeting schedule for the members of the task force but they will try to do that in November. Greenberg said the plan is to have its set of recommendations by December.

Greenberg said they have received hundreds of pages of testimony. We will be in good shape to produce recommendations, he said. He said he couldnt attend the rally Wednesday, but was excited to see it happen as it reflects the urgency of the problem and the need to act quickly.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president's closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries.

But it will be difficult for the young ruler to escape scrutiny, as mounting evidence points not only to the Saudi government's knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, but to Mohammed's connection to his disappearance.

U.S. intelligence reports, accounts from Khashoggi's friends, passport records and social media profiles paint a picture of a brutal killing that at least had its roots in Mohammed's desire to silence Khashoggi, a former palace insider turned critic of the government and the prince in particular.

The analysts and officials said it was inconceivable that such a brazen operation as the one alleged by Turkish officials, involving a team of 15 agents sent to Istanbul, who then killed and dismembered Khashoggi, could have been pulled off by a group of "rogue killers," as President Donald Trump speculated this week, moments after a phone call with Saudi Arabia's King Salman.

Even one of the president's closest advisers, Rudy Giuliani, said many senior members of the administration concluded more than a week ago that the Saudis had killed Khashoggi.

"The only question is, was it directed from the crown prince or the king - or was it a group that was trying to please him?" Giuliani said in an interview.

Before Khashoggi ever set foot in the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, Mohammed was trying to get his hands on him.

In recent months, the crown prince, known by his initials, MBS, ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia, according to U.S. intelligence intercepts of Saudi officials discussing the plan.

In September, a high-ranking Saudi official close to the prince, Saud al-Qahtani, called Khashoggi and promised him safety and the prospect of an important job working for Mohammed if he returned home, said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab-American political activist and friend of Khashoggi's.

"He said: 'Are you kidding? I don't trust them one bit,' " Saffuri said of Khashoggi's response.

Other friends of Khashoggi's, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns, told similar stories of calls from Riyadh on the crown prince's behalf.

On Oct. 2, Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document he needed to marry his fiancee, a Turkish citizen.

Members of the Saudi security team that Turkish officials say were waiting for him there, and others who flew to Istanbul for the operation, also have links to Mohammed and the Saudi royal court.

For instance, one alleged member of the team, Khalid Aedh Alotaibi, made several visits to the United States that overlapped or coincided with trips by senior Saudi officials.

Earlier this year, he arrived in the United States three days before Mohammed touched down for a nationwide tour, passport records maintained by the U.S. government show. Alotaibi is identified online as a member of the Saudi Royal Guard.

Alotaibi is one of 11 Saudis included in the group of 15 men who have ties to the Saudi security services, according to their posts on social media, emails, local media reports and other material reviewed by The Washington Post.

"It's inconceivable that an operation using royal guards, other court officials and the consulate was not authorized by the crown prince. That's not how the kingdom functions, especially with MBS as heir apparent," said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on Saudi Arabia and the royal family who served more than 30 years at the CIA.

"As much as the White House is eager to absolve MBS, the rogue coverup is unraveling before it's even official," Riedel added.

Mohammed is not considered to be the kind of leader to condone operatives' acting outside the chain of command.

"He has a reputation as a very hands-on manager," said Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He noted that the crown prince has been directly involved in the implementation of reform policies and leads an ambitious effort to diversify the Saudi economy.

"When you talk to people working on [these initiatives], the story one hears is about his attention to detail and accountability," Alterman said.

Trump was defensive this week about the suggestion that his administration is trying to give the Saudis room to come up with a statement absolving Mohammed.

"I'm not giving cover at all," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. "They are an ally. We have other good allies in the Middle East."

The Saudis are long-standing allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorist networks, but analysts said the credibility of the U.S.-Saudi relationship depends on candor and accountability.

"It's not clear what the Trump administration will do in the face of continued deflection by the kingdom, but what does seem clear is that the Trump administration must not give the kingdom a pass," said Lisa Monaco, who was a homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to President Barack Obama.

"It is in our interest to maintain a relationship with Saudi Arabia, especially on issues like counterterrorism cooperation and regional stability initiatives, but prior administrations have been able to do that while still pushing for reforms and holding nations accountable for human rights abuses," Monaco said.

Privately, U.S. officials have said they have no reason to doubt Turkish officials, who say they have an audio recording that proves Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. And while there is still no clear evidence that Mohammed personally ordered the killing, there is no reason to believe he was unaware of the Saudi team's presence and planned operation in Istanbul, they said.

Even if the president doesn't come round to that view, the White House's relationship may be indelibly altered by Khashoggi's death.

"I know the bloom is off the rose with the crown prince," Giuliani said.

---

The Washington Post's Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.The tug of war over Pocahontas - the Indian chief's daughter who was born on the James River and died on the Thames River - has been going on for more than 400 years.

Since the first years of the Virginia colony, the girl with a short life and a long history has been a pawn, moved this way and that to serve the interests of colonists, nations and tribes, tobacco sellers, moviemakers and activists.

Now she's been dragged into 21st-century politics, her name regularly invoked as a slur by a U.S. president against a U.S. senator - Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. - who might try to unseat him.

On October 16, President Donald Trump tweeted: "Pocahontas (the bad version), sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Warren, is getting slammed. She took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, 'DNA test is useless.' Even they don't want her. Phony!"

Appearing in a presidential tweet is only the latest incarnation of a name that first showed up in colonial reports written by quill and then in 17th-century London newspapers. After a long absence from public attention, she reappears in the discourse of antebellum Virginia, celebrated as the first ally of white settlers in the New World.

"They were sick of hearing about the pilgrims and the Mayflower as the beginning of it all, when really it all began in Virginia," said Helen Rountree, a professor emeritus of anthropology at Old Dominion University. "They were trying to assert a national identity, and they used her to do it."

In 1995, Pocahontas joined the pantheon of modern Disney princesses, an animated blockbuster that has played out ever since on DVDs and in academic papers alike. Books, reenactors and toymakers have all put their spin on Pocahontas, portraying her as a thrilling girl-power heroine at one turn, a tragic emblem of cultural appropriation at another.

Whatever the myths, her real life was a painful one. She lost a husband, left her homeland and died abroad, all by her early 20s. The historical record is conflicted and controversial, but there are settled facts. Her actual name was Matoaka, and she was born in about 1596 to a Powhatan chief ruling over more than 30 Algonquin-speaking tribes, according to the National Park Service history of the Jamestown Colony site. Pocahontas was a nickname of sorts, often translated as "playful one."

The English settled Jamestown in 1607. Relations with the native residents were mixed, with the Powhatans providing food but also chafing under the demands of colonists, who died by the hundreds in the settlement's early years. They were constantly seeking more help. Pocahontas, often portrayed as a sprightly 11- or 12-year-old, frequently accompanied deliveries of food to the English and became something of a darling to them.

English Captain John Smith, in later years, related the story of Pocahontas saving his life at a time of conflict with the tribe, stopping the blow that would have killed him by placing her head on his. This thrilling drama driven by a young maiden's love has been irresistible to storytellers from the early colonists to Disney animators.

But scholars say it is unlikely - not to mention unseemly - that a child was romantically involved with a grown foreigner. Today's Pamunkey Indians, descendants of Pocahontas's tribe, cite their oral tradition to contend that she would have seen Smith as an elder to be honored and that his life was unlikely to have been in danger.

In any case, Smith went back to England, and Pocahontas married a man from a related tribe. In 1613, a new English captain, Samuel Argall, hatched a scheme to kidnap Pocahontas as a way of gaining leverage over her chieftain father. He had her lured aboard his ship and then demanded a ransom for her release, possibly food and the release of English prisoners.

The captive was placed in the care of an English priest, Alexander Whitaker, who reportedly instructed her in English and Christianity. By the colonists' telling, she willingly converted and fell in love with one of the settlers, John Rolfe, who had introduced tobacco as a promising crop to the colony. They wed with her father's blessing (her husband agreed to a divorce), she was baptized "Rebecca," and the couple left for England.

By the Pamunkey telling, which is also included in the Park Service history, she left her people only because she was dragged or duped, acquiescing only because it was the best way to help her people. Rather than being in a marriage of love, Pocahontas was a prop the English would use to promote the colony back in London.

"She was being used as a PR ploy by the colonists," said Angela "Silver Star" Daniel, co-author of a history of Pocahontas based on oral tradition, during a 2008 C-SPAN interview. The colonists wanted "to show to the English people and the Crown that everything was fine and that people were getting along in the colony."

Pocahontas did tour the British capital with her husband and their new son. They had just embarked on a return trip to Virginia in 1617 when she fell ill and was taken ashore at Gravesend, died and was buried there. Researches note that a dysentery outbreak was reported aboard. The Pamunkey history suggests she was poisoned.

Rolfe returned to the colony, and, eventually, so did their son, Thomas Rolfe. They became part of the state's genealogical fabric, and Pocahontas's family line extends down the generations. Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, could claim her as an ancestor, as could Edith Wilson, first lady to President Woodrow Wilson.

And she is, in fact, a direct ancestor of a U.S. senator from New England. That senator is Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire.WINSTED  The Winchester Board of Education will interviews candidates Tuesday for the seat left open by the resignation of Republican Jamie Duffy earlier this month.

Duffy was elected last November.

Only two candidates, Dale Denning and Kristin Peterson, responded to a letter from the board seeking applications for the seat. The letter was posted on the towns website and the school districts Facebook page.

According to the website, Denning serves on the Charter Revision Committee and the Hinsdale School Renovation Committee. Peterson is a member of the Board of Recreation.

In planning for the interviews, the board decided to compile more in-depth questions than were asked in previous interviews with perspective appointees.

At a special school board meeting on Oct. 16, which lacked a quorum, four members discussed the formal interview process and what additional questions should be asked. Those in attendance were Chairman Doug Pfenninger, Secretary Nora Mocarski, Cheryl Heffernan and Christine Royer.

The agenda for the recent meeting called for members to interview and select a candidate. However, Pfenninger said they would instead discuss planning for the upcoming interviews.

The interviews are expected to be open to the public, the board noted, unless a candidate asks the board to meet in a closed session.

The Town Charter requires that any vacant seat on a town board must be filled by appointment rather than through an election. The charter also notes that new members must be chosen within 30 days of the vacancy.

In addition, the town charter requires minority party representation on any elected or appointed board; therefore, because the majority of the school board members are Democrats, candidates for the open seat must be registered as Republicans or unaffiliated.

Proposed interview topics discussed at the last meeting included: how the candidates would respond to the time commitment required to serve on the board and to what committees they would be interested in being assigned.

This is a really good board, Pfenninger said. There are no personal agendas with individual members.Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof with Ron Jeremy and one of his employees. Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The day after Dennis Hof won the Republican primary for a seat in the Nevada State Assembly, the states GOP establishment shunned the brothel owner and star of HBOs Cathouse. Senator Dean Heller, Governor Brian Sandoval, and Attorney General Adam Laxalt, the Republican nominee to replace Sandoval, immediately declined to support Hof. They were followed by the Nevada Assembly Republican Caucus, which voted to stay out of the race following Hofs primary win over incumbent Republican assemblyman James Oscarson.

But something changed for the Nevada Republican Party this week. Hof died. Now, the GOP is planning to do everything it can to get the late pimp elected, according to the Nevada Independent.

Nevada Republicans are planning a campaign to persuade voters to cast ballots for former Assembly candidate and brothel owner Dennis Hof, who died suddenly on Tuesday, a knowledgeable source confirmed Wednesday.

Although details are sparse, the effort is a clear indication of Republican efforts to ensure they hold a reliably Republican-leaning Assembly District despite the untimely death of the candidate.

Despite the reliably Republican district, carrying Hofs corpse over the finish line could be a challenge. Though his name will still appear on the ballot  Nevada law says it has to  signs will be posted in polling places alerting voters that Hof has died.

If Hof wins though, and the expectation is that he will, the Nevada GOP is guaranteed to keep the seat. State law holds that if the deceased candidate wins an election, the office is considered vacated and must be filled by the board of county commissioners with a person of the same political party, the Independent reports.

In answer to the big question we're being asked: If the Democrat wins on Nov. 6, Republicans will lose this seat despite a 2-1 GOP registration advantage. If Dennis still wins, then a Republican will be appointed by the 3 country commissions in the district to serve out his term.  Friends of Hof (@ElectHof) October 17, 2018

Before he died, Hof was the heavy favorite to win the general election in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by a two-to-one margin. He also held a sizable fundraising advantage. His Democratic opponent, Lesia Romanov, raised only $1,405 in the primary, while Hof loaned himself $200,000.

Now that hes dead, theres a chance Hof gets even more votes, his campaign manager told Reuters. There are a lot of Republicans who were uncomfortable voting for Dennis because of the nature of his business and they now know that he is not the one who will be serving, Chuck Muth said. They will feel much more comfortable casting the ballot for him knowing there will be another Republican to replace him.

Hof rode to victory in the June primary by modeling himself after President Trump, a man who served as a his Christopher Columbus, he said. He found the way and I jumped on it, said Hof, who gave his book the Trumpian title The Art of the Pimp. He also adopted the nickname Trump of Pahrump, after the Nevada town he called home. And his campaign slogan was Make Nevada, Nevada Again.

Am I riding the Trump train? Hell yes I am, Hof told the Las Vegas Sun in July. He blazed the trail for me. I would have never won the primary without what Donald Trump did. He carved a new dimension into the political realm, and Im one of the beneficiaries of it.

Like Trump, Hof relished the opposition from mainstream Republicans. In fact, he saw it as an advantage. Governor Sandoval, he said, could come down to any of my ranches once a month for free as long as he continued to withhold support.

As for who may take Hofs place if he wins the election posthumously, incumbent James Oscarson, whom the Bunny Ranch owner beat in the primary, seems the likeliest candidate, even if Hof would have probably preferred someone like his buddy Ron Jeremy.Houston ISD leaders have about three and a half months to decide whether to temporarily surrender control over four long-struggling campuses in exchange for a reprieve from potentially major sanctions tied to low academic performance, according to timelines recently established by the Texas Education Agency.

The TEA has set a deadline of Feb. 4, 2019, for school districts to submit applications for public-private partnerships under a state law known as SB 1882. The legislation gives school districts a two-year break from sanctions if they give up control over academics, governance and staffing at low-performing campuses to outside organizations. Such organizations include nonprofits, higher education institutions, charter school networks or governmental entities.

HISD officials are considering whether to employ partnerships at four chronically underperforming campuses  Highland Heights Elementary School, Henry Middle School, and Kashmere and Wheatley high schools  as a method for improving academic outcomes and staving off punishment. Some HISD trustees and community members have been sharply critical of SB 1882 partnerships, arguing that they represent an improper privatization of public schools.

If HISD does not surrender control over all four campuses and any one of the schools fails to meet Texas academic standard this year, the district risks as a state takeover of its locally elected school board or forced campus closures. Any potential partners would take control of campuses starting with the 2019-20 academic year.

In an August interview with the Houston Chronicle, HISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan said she is open to partnerships for 2019-20 at long-struggling campuses under the right circumstances. At the time, Lathan said district administrators had started preliminary discussions about how to identify potential organizations that are willing and able to operate some of HISDs most challenging campuses. Since then, HISD administrators and trustees have not provided public updates about any discussions or plans surrounding private partnerships.

In April, when HISD administrators recommended giving control of 10 campuses to a charter school network starting with the 2018-19 school year, community backlash crescendoed at a raucous school board meeting in which two people were arrested and the entire crowd temporarily was ordered to leave the districts administrative headquarters.

HISD trustees did not vote on the recommendation, and misdemeanor charges against the two arrested individuals later were dropped. The districts recommended partner, Energized For STEM Academy Inc., drew scrutiny over its academic and financial history.

Local education leaders had been eagerly awaiting deadlines for submitting SB 1882 partnerships to the state. TEA officials previously suggested deadlines could be as early as November, though they cautioned the timeline could be pushed back.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com

twitter.com/chronjacobTo the dogs in Houston who have been having an incredibly stressful week on the couch, I have some good news.

The Bayou City recently made a list of the 25 most dog-friendly cities in the United States. That means your owner doesn't have an excuse not to walk you, take you to eat at one of the city's 476 dog-friendly restaurants or show you off at one of the three dog-friendly shopping centers.

DOG BEER: Houston bar owners launch a line of beer for dogs

The list, released over the summer by Smart Asset, a financial services company, ranks Houston No. 15 out of the 25 most dog friendly cities in the country.

The company determined the ranking with each city's median home value, dog parks, walkability score, dog-friendly restaurants, dog-friendly shops and average amount of precipitation per year.

For the dog owners in the city, the ranking could mean digging into your pocket books.

"According to our data, none of the 20 most affordable cities in the country are a top 10 dog-friendly city," according to the study. "In fact, two of the most dog-friendly cities are also among the 10 most expensive cities."

RELATED: Houston's dog-friendly bars & restaurants to visit

Houston ranked relatively low among the 25 cities when it came to walkability and dog parks per 100,000 residents (0.7). But only three cities offered more dog-friendly restaurants.

Overall, the study found that Tuscon, Arizona, was the most dog-friendly city in the country, while Madison, Wisconsin, was last on the list.

View the slideshow above to see some of the most extravagant places to take your dog in the city.

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 | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageA man died Wednesday night after being struck by a train in east downtown, Houston police said.

Officers were dispatched to the 2300 block of Congress around 10:50 p.m., after a Union Pacific Railroad conductor saw a man already lying on the tracks, said Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department.

AMBUSHED: Pizza delivery man robbed at gunpoint

The man had been struck by a train that had passed through before, Crowson said. He was dead on the scene.

Its unknown why the man was on the tracks in the first place.A pony rescued from a southwest Houston storm drain Wednesday is in good health, authorities say.

But even as the horse is recovering from the ordeal, officials are still searching for the miniature horse's owner.

The pony was found by a passing officer in the 4700 block of Simsbrook Drive around 11:30 a.m.

The officer heard what he thought was a dog barking for help from inside the drain, but instead found the pint-sized horse trapped.

It took two more hours for firefighters to saw through a metal beam and free the small horse, which a BARC spokeswoman said was a male. His age was not immediately known.

The pony was initially checked out by Houston BARC veterinarians but has since been moved to the Harris County Sheriff's Office livestock facility.

Samuel Harris Jr., who owns a nearby ranch, recognized the hurt horse as his neighbor's Shetland pony who often wanders to his property on Player Street.

"He's always getting out," Harris told the Houston Chronicle. "They come chasing him, they say, 'come in here!'"

He believes a pack of stray dogs responsible for killing two of his Shetlands in the past year may have chased the escape artist to the storm drain. The dogs recently killed more than a dozen of his neighbor's sheep, he said.

"They're defenseless," Harris said of the ponies.

The recent death of a miniature horse similar to the rescued equine brought a Houston police officer to Harris's ranch in April after he said three dogs attacked and killed it. The officer who responded was unable to access the ranch and did not see any dogs when he got there, said Jarrad Mears, BARC's animal enforcement manager.

On Wednesday, Harris told the Houston Chronicle he believed the same pack of dogs to be responsible for driving his neighbor's chestnut and white horse to the storm drain. He said the horse lives down the road from him and often wanders onto his property.

Mears said Thursday it's not uncommon for unattended dogs to pack up and chase after other animals.

"It's irresponsible owners for allowing their dogs to run loose," he said. "Dogs have a natural instinct to chase and when something runs, it's on."

Anyone who believes they know who owns the rescued pony is urged to call HCSO's livestock division at 281-454-6235.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageOriginally scheduled to be held at the NRG Arena on the NRG Park grounds, President Donald J. Trump's planned Oct. 22 rally for Senator Ted Cruz has been moved to the larger Toyota Center in downtown Houston.

Trump had taken some heat from critics for previously promising that the event would be held at the "biggest stadium in Texas we can find" and instead settled for a smallish arena with a capacity of 8,000.VICTORIA - Marq Vincent Perez was sentenced Wednesday to more than 24 years in federal prison for burning down the Victoria Islamic Center last year, a hate crime that came to symbolize anti-Muslim sentiments in the country.

You burned down the mosque to send a message to Muslims, said U.S. District Judge John Rainey before delivering the sentence.

My sentence needs to send a message to you and every one of a like mind: This conduct will not be tolerated, said the judge, who delivered a brief civics lesson to Perez about religious tolerance. This must stop. Its like a cancer on our society.

The arson came during a heated national debate about immigration policy, occurring a day after President Donald Trump moved to impose a travel ban on seven majority Muslim countries.

Perez, 26, an electricians helper, declined to address the court. His lawyer, Mark Di Carlo, asked the judge for mercy based on the defendants age and lack of a criminal record.

DiCarlo also downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 28, 2017 fire, which reduced the gold-domed mosque to ashes, noting that no one was injured and referring to it as a property crime.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharad Khandelwal asked the judge to impose a long prison term.

This case strikes at the heart of what it means to be an American, Khandelwal said. The defendant deliberately burned down a house of worship. He did not believe the Muslims who worshiped here were true Americans.

The fire, which drew national attention, was one of 99 fires started by arsonists at houses of worship last year, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Of those, 99 were listed as arson. Another 48 fires were listed as undetermined and 17 remained under investigation.

Houses of worship are sacred places, said Special Agent-in-Charge Fred Milanowski, who oversees the ATFs South Texas office. If you cant feel safe at your church or mosque or synagogue, where else can you feel safe?

Milanowski said the impact of the Victoria arson went beyond the mosque.

There is a whole sense of community in Victoria that felt punched in the gut over this, he said.

Peace has been shattered

The sentencing Wednesday came just weeks after the grand reopening of the new Victoria Islamic Center with its two gold domes.

It was rebuilt with more than $1 million raised in a GoFundMe.com site that drew donations from around the world. More than 300 people turned out for the reopening event, including local religious and political leaders.

About two dozen people were in court Wednesday, including Perezs parents and members of the local Muslim congregation. Several spoke out strongly about the need for justice and for forgiveness of Perez.

Dr. Shahid Hashmi, a surgeon and one of the founding members of the mosque, said the congregation felt a sense of shock and terror last year to suddenly become a target.

The peace has been shattered. We have several members who are still afraid to come to our new mosque for prayers, he said. Our mosque used to be open. Everyone was welcome. Now, if a stranger comes to our mosque to pray, we look at him with suspicion.

Abe Ajrami at times turned to speak directly at Perez.

This incident is bigger than Victoria, and its not about Mr. Perez. Videos of the fire are being shown all over the world, he told the judge. They are saying, Look what the Americans are doing to the Muslims. This video is being used by radicals for recruitment.

Sending a message

Perez was found guilty on July 16 of burning down the ornate mosque, committing a hate crime and using an unregistered explosive device in an unrelated crime.

Jurors at his trial heard evidence of Perezs hatred and contempt for Muslims, often expressed in his own words in social media postings and in comments to friends.

The critical witness against him was his admitted accomplice, a juvenile identified only as K.R. who agreed to cooperate with police.

The youth described how he and Perez had twice burglarized the mosque, with Perez setting it afire on the second visit on Jan. 28, 2017 in an attempt to send a message.

According to K.R., Perez was convinced that the Muslims in Victoria were a threat to the community and that they were stockpiling weapons at the mosque.

He wanted to look for guns and bombs, K.R. testified.

No weapons were found in the break-ins. Instead, the two burglars made off with two laptops, and numerous cell phones belonging to the imam that they sold online. Perez did not testify.

At the close of the Wednesday hearing, as spectators slowly left the courtroom, R. Hashmi said the verdict was appropriate.

Hopefully it will be a deterrent to anyone else who tries to commit a hate crime against anyone of any faith, he said.

The Anti-Defamation League in Houston praised the sentence.

This sentence sends a clear message that crimes like these against Muslims and other religious groups will not be tolerated in Texas, or anywhere else in the United States, said Gail Glasser, ADL interim southwest regional director. No one should feel afraid to practice their religion or express their beliefs.

Staff writer St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this report.

jmaccormack@express-news.netPat Robertson at a presidential candidate forum in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on October 23, 2015. Photo: Steve Helber/AP

Theres nothing new about Christian right warhorse Pat Robertson saying offensively stupid things about politics that make you worry about his idea of Christianity. His infamous post-September 11 colloquy with Jerry Falwell blaming the catastrophe on Americas tolerance for abortion and homosexuality was about as bad as it gets. On another occasion he suggested that Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharons debilitating stroke was attributable to divine anger over his dividing Gods land by ceding Gaza to Palestinians. Hes also claimed that last years massacre in Las Vegas was ultimately caused by disrespect for authority  and disrespect for President Trump.

Now the CBN founder has gone on his network to counsel caution in sanctioning Saudi Arabia over the apparent murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His rationale was rather interesting for a Man of God, as Vox notes (based on reporting from Right Wing Watch):

Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, appeared on its flagship television show The 700 Club on Monday to caution Americans against allowing the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia to deteriorate over Khashoggis death.

For those who are screaming blood for the Saudis  look, these people are key allies, Robertson said. While he called the faith of the Wahabists  the hardline Islamist sect to which the Saudi Royal Family belongs  obnoxious, he urged viewers to remember that weve got an arms deal that everybody wanted a piece ofitll be a lot of jobs, a lot of money come to our coffers. Its not something you want to blow up willy-nilly.

You have to figure Robertson got this idea from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently quashed staff concerns about the horrific civilian casualties accompanying the U.S.-backed Saudi war in Yemen on grounds that it could undercut plans to sell more than 120,000 precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Or President Trump, who just shot down the idea of withholding future arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the journalists killing, saying that would be hurting us. Robertson probably finds it easy to adopt the views of his friends in the Trump administration.

You could argue, though, that the 1988 Republican presidential candidate (he finished ahead of ultimate nominee George H.W. Bush in Iowa) has by now become so contaminated by politics that he sees nothing wrong with an alleged follower of the Prince of Peace fretting about weapons sales in order to defend a a murderous authoritarian regime. Its the same twisted thinking that led him to call Trump Gods man for this job. Robertson is free to prefer the administrations policies at home and abroad. But he should really, really leave God out of it.Political candidates who are trying to grab the youth vote in Texas may want to temper expectations ahead of the midterm elections, as the state remains one of the least-politically engaged in the country, according to a new Wallethub survey.

VOTER TURNOUT: Voter turnout in Texas is dead last in America, study finds

It's no secret that Texas has low voter turnout compared to other states, especially during midterm elections. A Washington post study published last month found that only about one in three Texas voters show up to the polls during midterms -- the lowest mark among states with voting representation in Congress.

The Wallethub survey ranked Texas 41 out of 50 states (plus the District of Columbia) when it came to political engagement. The rankings were determined by the number of registered voters in the 2016 Presidential Election, the percentage of people who actually voted, political contributions among the adult population and several other factors.

The report noted that the U.S. ranks 26 out of 32 when it comes to overall voter turnout.

"Large proportions of the public fail even simple knowledge tests such as knowing whether one's state requires identification in order to vote," according to the survey.

THE REALITY: Despite rampant voter enthusiasm, many don't plan to vote in November

Texas ranked in the bottom five when it came to the state's percentage of registered voters in the 2016 presidential election, as well as the percentage of the electorate who voted in the 2014 midterm elections and the 2016 presidential election.

The state also recorded one of the lowest percentages of politically-engaged young voters (31.9 percent). Texas ranked slightly better when it came to the percentage of engaged voters older than 65 (69 percent.)

According to the Texas Tribune, the state's historically poor voter turnout is usually chalked up to voter suppression efforts, non-competitive races and an unmotivated electorate. But the young age of Hispanics and the percentage of the voting population who aren't citizens likely plays a role, the Tribune reported.

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 | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageAUSTIN  A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered Texas to improve investigations of child abuse in its foster care system and address long-standing problems with the caseloads of workers tasked with checking in on the children.

Whats more, state officials have been deliberately indifferent to the threat to childrens welfare caused by high caseloads and insufficient monitoring, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

"This is a huge victory for Texas children," said Houston attorney Paul Yetter, who is working with New York-based advocacy group Childrens Rights, which filed a class action suit in 2011 on behalf of the roughly 11,000 long-term foster children in the care of the state.

The order, however, invalidated costly reforms ordered by a lower court judge that would have likely required a dramatic increase in the number of foster homes.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Ken Paxton didnt say whether he plans to appeal.

The Fifth Circuits decision affirmed many of the significant changes the state has made to our foster care system, said Kayleigh Lovvorn. While the program still faces challenges, the Fifth Circuit upheld significant parts of the program as constitutional while finding that the district court engaged in judicial overreach in entering an overbroad and impractical injunction.

The Department of Family and Protective Services is reviewing the order and had no immediate statement.

The class action suit alleged youth were bounced between homes, had too little contact with overworked caseworkers and were not sufficiently protected from abuse.

In 2015, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack of Corpus Christi ruled the states foster care system was unconstitutional, finding that foster children in Texas almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they entered. In January, Jack ordered the state make dozens of sweeping changes. Paxton appealed.

The panel of appellate judges upheld some of Jacks remedies, including reforms to shore up abuse investigations by ensuring timely contact with alleged victims and setting deadlines for closing cases. The 103-page order also called for new workers to have different caseloads than more experienced staff.

But it invalidated dozens of others such as a requirement the state to set caseload caps at 17 children per worker, saying that move could exacerbate a staffing crisis and destabilize children in care. Instead, the family and protective services department must determine how many cases workers can safely carry and set internal standards.

"The evidence in the record establishes that the State is deliberately indifferent to the risks posed by its policies and practices toward caseload management, the order said. The State is well-aware that caseworkers have unmanageable workloads. It also knows that high caseloadswhich are a direct cause of high turnover rates  have a negative impact on (foster) childrens welfare.

In past court filings, the state has argued the plaintiffs dont represent the thousands of children in care, most of whom do not experience maltreatment. The court did find, however, the plaintiffs are representative of what happens to foster children, Yetter said.

"What we proved at trial and what the circuit court affirmed is Texas has failed to protect vulnerable children. There are too few caseworkers and there is an inadequate system to monitor foster placements, Yetter said.

Several of the original plaintiffs are now adults who will not benefit from reforms. After aging out of foster care, some of the original plaintiffs faced homelessness and unemployment. At least one had a child of her own, who is now in state care, according to interviews and court records.

Paxton and state officials have argued Texas is already taking steps to improve child welfare, which legislators named a priority last year. A plan is underway to further privatize foster care, including in Bexar County, with the hope that putting decision-making at the local level will help improve care and keep siblings together in their communities. Critics argue that eventual plans to shift case management duties to a private contractor are ill-advised.A mass-market villain. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today, the fallout of Jamal Khashoggis apparent murder by the Saudis, Donald Trumps seeming defense of the Kingdom, and what the polls are telling us about the midterms.

The U.S. has a history of largely looking the other way when allegations that raise questions about its relationship with Saudi Arabia appear  of a war-crimes cover-up in Yemen, of endangered dissidents, of complicity in the 9/11 attacks. As the details increasingly point to Jamal Khashoggis death being directed from the highest levels of Saudi Arabias government, why has this case been different?

Two words: bone saw. Its safe to say that only a tiny fraction of Americans had heard of Khashoggi before his disappearance. But in a culture riveted by true-crime horror tales, this one is gripping in its cruelty and grotesquerie: The torture, beheading, and dismemberment of an about-to-be-married newspaper columnist who lived in Washingtons Virginia suburbs, carried out in the supposedly safe place of a consulate and apparently recorded besides. The nightmarish account of a single murder has captured the American imagination in a way that thousands of Saudi human-rights atrocities in Yemen, many of them victimizing children, have not. (Yemen itself is known to only a fraction of Americans.)

But will the attention and outrage linger? We can hardly be certain. The Saudis are proven masters at winning (and often buying) support in the corridors of governmental, corporate, and journalistic power in America. Though 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, the George W. Bush administrations propaganda campaign persuaded a large segment of the American public that many of the hijackers were Iraqis (none were) and that Saddam Hussein had been the mastermind of the attack rather than Osama bin Laden, who was born in Riyadh to a wealthy family intertwined with Saudi royals. (The Bush family had a decades-long history of financial and personal synergy with the Saudis.) By the time the classified pages of the congressional 9/11 report dealing with Saudi complicity in the attack were belatedly made public in 2016, most of America had moved on. And those pages werent fully made public in any case: some three pages worth of findings (out of 29) are still redacted.

In a post at The New Yorker this week, Dexter Filkins, who has done some of the toughest on-the-ground reporting on the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, laments how this vindictive autocrat has been unquestioned, and even fawned over, by many in the American government and press. At The Atlantic, David Frum points out the extent to which Bob Woodward carries water for the Saudi royals in Fear. At the Times, one need read only the curated Readers Picks comments on Thomas Friedmans most recent column about Khashoggi to find blistering citations of his paper trail on the subject. Then again, the list of those who had eagerly promoted the image of M.B.S. as a reformer after having been lavishly stroked by him and his family for years cuts an enormous swath through the top echelons of American power: Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Washington think tanks, news organizations, and Wall Street, as well as politicians of both parties.

When the music stopped with Khashoggis murder and embarrassed CEOs started bailing from the crown princes Davos in the Desert jamboree, the revelations of American deference to a criminal despot were a searing indictment of our own elites. The indictment found its meme when the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, shuttled off to Riyadh on a supposed fact-finding mission that yielded no facts but plenty of images of him toadying and yukking it up before the Saudi royals. Dont underestimate the ability of the Saudis to use its economic and political power to make this story go away, as it has with so many others in the course of its oil-greased relationship with America.

When talking about Saudi state involvement in Khashoggis death, Donald Trump has been employing a version of the Brett Kavanaugh defense: Here we go again with  youre guilty until proven innocent. Is this a sign that he thinks the defense will work again, or that he feels too boxed in by the evidence?

Nothing boxes in Trump. He will keep defending the Saudi prince as he has his putative paramour Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, and virtually every other despot on the planet who has crossed his path. Trump defends authoritarian leaders no matter what they do because he aspires to be one (and sometimes succeeds at it). While a few Republican senators in Washington have, for the moment, decried his effort to cover for the Saudis  notably Lindsey Graham  youll notice that many others, starting with Mitch McConnell, have ducked the issue. Theres an election going on, and theyd rather talk about the evils of the Democrats than a butcher in the Middle East and Jared Kushners complicity with him.

Trump has asked to see a recording of Khashoggis murder if it exists, but even if he gets it, hell find a way to label it a hoax and fake news as he did the Access Hollywood video. If the FBI ends up being part of the Khashoggi investigation, hell find a way to make its role as limited and opaque as it was in the Kavanaugh investigation. Again, we shouldnt underestimate the ability of Trump, like every other Saudi pawn in America, to drown this story out. His first tactic  distracting cable news with a tweet calling Stormy Daniels horseface  didnt quite do the job, but surely it is only the first in a series.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Nate Silver warns that Americans are once again misreading the polls. In the countdown to the midterms, what should be be watching for?

The polls are so volatile, contradictory, and, in some states and congressional districts, sparse, Im not sure how to read them or misread them, let alone what to watch for. After the embarrassments of 2016, some poll analysts (like those at the Upshot at the Times) are so careful to lace their prognostications with qualifiers that its often hard to decipher what exactly they are saying. In any case, as Silver explains, anyone who expresses certainty about anything is likely to be humbled on November 6. The only thing everyone can agree on is that this is a battle of the bases, and turnout is all.

Its a fact that the Democrats have not turned out as Republicans have in recent midterm elections. Its a fact that Republicans are trying to depress any uptick in minority turnout by voter suppression tactics not just in Georgia but in at least eight other states, as well, as clocked by the voting-rights watchdogs at the Brennan Center for Justice. Its also a fact that Democrats are brilliant at shooting themselves in the foot  witness the already endangered North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamps now recanted newspaper ad incorrectly naming victims of sexual abuse.

The partys stars are no better. Bill and Hillary Clinton are not on the ballot, and Elizabeth Warren has a safe reelection bid in Massachusetts this year, but they nonetheless felt compelled to grab the spotlight from candidates who are in political dogfights during the preElection Day stretch. Warrens gratuitously announced DNA test in response to Trumps Pocahontas taunts seems to have consumed more oxygen in these final days of the campaign than McConnells post-election plan to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for the GOP tax cut. As for the buck-raking Clintons  whose foundation has collected at least $10 million from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia  their unwanted and unseemly rollout of a joint post-election speaking tour, with top tickets costing hundreds of dollars, is nothing if not another incitement for Trump voters to go to the polls and for potential swing Democratic voters to stay home. One is tempted to wish that someone would lock them up.Sen. Ted Cruz is getting backup from President Trump on Monday when he comes to Houston to rally for the senator fending off a challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

Trump's theme at campaign rallies around the nation has been that a vote for the candidate he supports equates to a vote for him. Will such a message help or hurt Cruz heading into early voting starting on Monday?CIOs should hope for the best but prepare for the worst when transferring personal information across the Atlantic. Thats the advice of experts watching the European Commission conduct its second annual review of the Privacy Shield data-sharing agreement.

Privacy Shield allows businesses to export the personal information of their customers or employees to the U.S. while still complying with the EUs strict privacy laws, and replaced the Safe Harbor Agreement, which was invalidated by the EUs top court in October 2015.

The Commission made 10 recommendations for improvement in its first review last October, and if it is unhappy with the response of the U.S. administration to these, it could theoretically suspend or cancel the agreement.

That would be the worst-case scenario. There would be a lot of uncertainty regarding data transfers around the world, said Thomas Boue, director general of policy, EMEA, at BSA The Software Alliance. BSAs members include Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and Workday, all of which rely on the processing of personal data for part of their business.

That scenario is something Aaron Tantleff, a partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, is telling his clients to prepare for. I'm advising everyone that's relying on Privacy Shield to make alternate arrangements, to have a backup plan  not because I suspect Privacy Shield is going to be suspended in the next 30 days but because Privacy Shield will be, in the future, modified or suspended at some point.

The backup plan Tantleff has in mind is to adopt another legal basis for data transfers, such as binding corporate rules (BCRs) or model clauses. BCRs govern intra-company transfers, and so are ideal for businesses transferring data to or from subsidiaries for payroll processing or for other HR matters. Model clauses are standard contract terms covering personal data transfers that already have the approval of EU authorities. Some enterprises may already have these in place, or at least have studied them during the interregnum between Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield.

The U.S. has made progress on some of the recommendations contained in the first review, including the confirmation of a new chairman and additional members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), which ensures that the U.S. executive branch weighs privacy and civil liberties concerns when developing new anti-terrorism legislation.

The Senate has still not confirmed the appointment of an independent ombudsperson to respond to questions about access by U.S. law enforcement officers to the personal information of Europeans, although an acting ombudsperson, Manisha Singh, was designated in September. Boue is unconcerned by the lack of confirmation: as he notes, the ombudsperson is backed up by a team of 200 or so staff dealing with cases, and they will continue to do that, confirmation or no confirmation.

Another area may prove trickier to resolve: possible conflicts between EU and U.S. legislation, notably the Cloud Act. This extends U.S. jurisdiction to personal information stored outside the U.S. -- potentially the very same personal information that the EUs recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to protect. The fear is that, if a business hosting such data receives a request from U.S. law enforcers to turn it over, it could be damned if it does (by the GDPR), and damned if it doesnt (by the Cloud Act).

According to Tantleff, A number of clients are sitting there biting their nails. They dont believe theyre compatible with one another.

The Commission may be looking for clarity on this point, and also raising concerns that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, renewed since the last Privacy Shield review, erodes EU citizens fundamental privacy rights by allowing U.S. surveillance of their communications.

As for the other outstanding issues highlighted in the last review, the Commission is pragmatic. Despite a call from the European Parliament to suspend Privacy Shield if the U.S. did not address them all, it knows that EU businesses rely on the transatlantic flow of data as much as their counterparts in the U.S. do, and is likely to delay action or seek compromise rather than risk disrupting a trade relationship worth around $1.1 trillion.

The Commission said Friday that it will publish a report containing its findings on the functioning of the Privacy Shield before the end of the year.

Principles, not pragmatism, reign at another EU body, the Court of Justice. This is the court that so suddenly and unexpectedly put an end to Safe Harbor in 2015, on the grounds that the protections it provided were inadequate under EU privacy law. It has also been asked to rule on the adequacy of Privacy Shield, although its judgment will come much later than the Commissions, probably some time next year.

Once again, enterprises can hope for the best  but they should also prepare for the worst.

And it could get a lot worse, as the Court of Justice is also deliberating another case, challenging the use of model contract clauses to protect transatlantic data transfers. This was brought by Max Schrems, the same plaintiff who triggered the ruling overturning Safe Harbor.

Boue encouraged enterprises to prepare by ensuring that they have the most appropriate data transfer mechanisms in place for their purposes. Many companies are already counting on a combination of Privacy Shield, BCRs, model clauses and customer consent to cover all bases.

We live in this period of uncertainty about data transfers. Let's hope all goes well but if it doesn't, they should have a plan in place to shift and switch, he said.27314

Rockville, MD  Former diplomatic liaison to U.S. Coalition Forces Jill Kelley became a focus of media coverage when her name was leaked as part of an FBI investigation that led to the resignation of CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus in 2012. Six years later, she is now spearheading Space-SkyFi -- a new public/private venture backed by both aerospace and cellular partners that will create a microsatellite constellation offering protected global internet coverage. Kelley will unveil new details about this initiative and talk about critical 5G network security and privacy policy at the DC5G 2018 event on Tuesday, November 13.

Currently the President of Military Diplomacy Strategies, Kelley is an expert on international advocacy and foreign policy, and has been recognized as one of the most globally instrumental Arab-American women. Her work at the highest levels of international leadership played a crucial role in supporting U.S. military operations expanding over the multi-national forces of 60 countries. She served as the first Honorary Ambassador to the International Military Coalition Forces at United States Central Command under U.S. Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis.

Space-SkyFi began in late 2017, when Kelley began building a military collaboration to support a Public-Private Partnership (P3) on White House initiated infrastructure projects. By advancing disruptive diplomacy, Kelleys P3 aims to, fast track traditional government bureaucracy while simultaneously addressing U.S. national security strategy through a counterbalance of government, military and industry partners to gain the most efficient and economic impact.

She will join Rural Broadband Association Vice President and Assistant General Counsel Jill Canfield and OST Program Manager Asghar Meraj on the DC5G 2018 panel What is the Ideal Collaborative Industry/Government Strategy to Address 5G Security and Privacy Concerns? on Tuesday, November 13 at 11 a.m. at the Washington D.C. Capitol Hilton.

Additionally, experts from companies such as T-Mobile, Samsung, Google, Discovery, Intelsat, Qualcomm, Nokia, Crown Castle, City of Richmond, VA and more will take the stage during the two-day event to participate in holistic conversations and beneficial debates that surround the rollout of 5G networks.

To learn more and view the full conference program, visit www.DC5G.com

Those interested in attending should register by Tuesday, October 23rd to take advantage of Early Adopterrate discounts. To register, visit www.DC5G.com and use VIP Code: PR4 to lock in this low rate. Government and military special prices are also available.

DC5G will be held November 12-13, 2018 at the Capital Hilton, Washington D.C. located at 1001 16th Street NW, Washington D.C., 20036. To register for press credentials, please contact Isabel Burnham at iburnham@accessintel.com.An extreme cult? Photo: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

If your only source of information about American politics in 2018 were the GOPs campaign ads, you would think that the Democratic Party was a radical left-wing organization, whose principal constituents were anarchists, misandrists, literal terrorists, and acolytes of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. If you supplemented those 30-second spots with Donald Trumps stump speeches, and Fox News prime-time lineup, you might further conclude that Nancy Pelosi was the chair of The House Antifa Caucus (which roams the National Mall after dark, their masked faces lit only by the glow of burning flags); Dianne Feinstein was the lead sponsor of the MS-13 IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD ACT; and Chuck Schumer regularly delivers tearful filibusters, in which he memorializes the victims of American imperialism, recites the SCUM Manifesto from memory, and apologizes for the ineradicable sin of his whiteness.

In other words: The GOPs message-makers are working round-the-clock to collapse the distinctions between the Democratic Party and the most radical activists at the far-left fringes of its big tent (while also, of course, caricaturing the latter). And it isnt hard to understand why theyve pursued this gambit: The GOPs donor-driven governing agenda is deeply unpopular, and thus, the partys primary source of mass appeal is traditionalist, white Americas fear and loathing of the radical left, and the alienating demographic and cultural changes that theyre supposedly fomenting.

The actually existing Democratic Party might be a compelling villain to conservative activists who believe that legal abortion is genocide, and that the welfare state is tyranny. But rank-and-file Republicans think that universal background checks are a good idea, dont want Roe v. Wade overturned, support an immigration compromise that combines a path to legal status for law-abiding undocumented residents of the U.S. with increased border security, and want the federal government to spend more on ensuring universal access to affordable health care. If such voters understood that Joe Manchin has more influence over the Democratic Party than Colin Kaepernick or Saul Alinsky, theyd have little reason to turn out for Republicans this November.

Fortunately for the GOP, many centrist pundits share their bases misconceptions about Team Blue, and, as a result, mindlessly translate Republican propaganda into conventional wisdom.

True, commentators like the Washington Posts Charles Lane do not think that antifa runs the Democratic Party  but Lane does write that progressive ideologues dominate it in a recent column. And while the New York Times David Brooks wouldnt mistake Chuck Schumers caucus for a Leninist vanguard, he has, ostensibly, mistaken it for an extreme cult.

Lane and Brooks offered those assessments of the Democrats this week, after each perused the same study of political attitudes in the United States. Said study, which was released by More in Common, a nonprofit dedicated to combating political polarization, found that American voters actually have more in common than our political discourse tends to suggest. In fact, the report argues that the appearance of an irreconcilable red-blue divide is driven by tiny  but loud  minorities on both the far right and far left. In More in Commons typology of the electorate, about 8 percent of American voters consistently espouse extreme left-wing attitudes, while 6 percent consistently voice extreme right-wing ones. The report dubs these two tribes Progressive Activists and Devout Conservatives, and notes that, for all their ideological differences, the two groups have many demographic similarities: Both are whiter, wealthier, better educated, and more politically active than the average American.

These extremists exert disproportionate influence over our politics, leaving an Exhausted Majority alienated from their government, and starving for compromise. As Brooks explains:

The good news is that once you get outside these two elite groups you find a lot more independent thinking and flexibility. This is not a 50-50 nation. It only appears that way when disenchanted voters are forced to choose between the two extreme cults. [my emphasis]

Roughly two-thirds of Americans, across four political types, fall into what the authors call the exhausted majority. Sixty-one percent say people they agree with need to listen and compromise more. Eighty percent say political correctness is a problem, and 82 percent say the same about hate speech.

Theres some cause for skepticism about these findings. To state the obvious, More in Common was never going to release a study showing that Americans have very little in common. And this bias shows up in some aspects of its survey design  most conspicuously, in the authors decision not to define political correctness for their respondents. A supermajority of the American public would (almost certainly) agree that special interests have too much influence over the federal government. But that unanimity would disappear the moment one started naming specific interest groups (say Evangelical Christians or environmentalists). Similarly, while 80 percent of Americans might abhor political correctness, the Exhausted Majority would likely splinter when asked whether that oppressive phenomenon keeps politicians from telling the truth about, say, the violent nature of Islam.

That said, the reports broader argument  that the American public is much less polarized than the American elite  is consistent with a large body of political-science literature. And theres certainly some value in remembering that the loudest partisans in your Twitter feed arent necessarily the most representative.

But if the More in Common study is somewhat edifying, the centrist commentariots repackaging of it is not. The problem with the latter is simple: Centrist pundits falsely presume that Progressive Activists enjoy the same hegemonic control over the Democratic Party that Devout Conservatives command over the GOP. And this leads them to erroneously suggest that the Exhausted Majority has no political home in the existing two-party system. As Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei instruct their savvy readership:

Be smart  Good news for third-party dreamers: Two-thirds of Americans (the studys Exhausted Majority) have had it with this white fight  and yearn for something new.

As an upper-middle-class white left-winger  who believes the conservative movement poses a threat to both American democracy and humanitys medium-term survival  I would love it if the Democratic Party were slavishly beholden to my extreme cult. But it isnt.

Now, its true that the lefts influence over the Donkey Party is growing. Progressives are overrepresented among both Democratic primary voters and the partys rising intellectual class. For these reasons, most of the partys 2020 hopefuls have embraced a wide range of social-democratic reforms, and policies for redressing race and gender-based disadvantage. We are, indeed, a long way from the Third Way.

But even the most progressive elements within the congressional Democratic Party dont take marching orders from the PC police. If youre an exhausted American who despises Trumps demagoguery  but also disapproves of protesters shutting down conservative speech on campus, or shouting at Trump administration officials at restaurants, or imposing their politically correct vocabulary on everyone else  then you might be Bernie Sanders!

Furthermore, the left-wing ideas that progressive Democrats do endorse  like, say, that the government should provide universal health care, establish tuition-free college, and give workers a voice on large corporate boards  are neither extreme in relation to median public opinion in the U.S. nor when compared to the policy regimes in other advanced democracies.

That said, even if we (baselessly) stipulate that the Exhausted Majority longs for policies that are more conservative than Elizabeth Warrens, but more liberal than Mitch McConnells, such voters would still be well represented by the Democratic Party.

On the Republican side of the aisle, ideological conservatives  and corporations whose policy preferences lie far to the right of the general publics  provide the GOP with virtually all of its campaign donations and the lions share of its think-tank funding. With the aid of such donors, the GOPs far-right faction routinely defeats (perceived) moderates in primaries. And the biases of Americas congressional map, which gives disproportionate voice to predominantly white, rural areas of the country, inflates the clout of the partys most extreme forces.

The Democratic Partys ideological extremists do battle on far less hospitable terrain. While Devout Conservatives are at odds with corporate America on a handful of the latters secondary issues  like immigration and LGBT rights  they are pulling in the same direction on just about everything else. Progressives, by contrast, are forever trying to override their partys corporate wing on its bottom-line concerns (taxes, regulations, and labor policy). And thats not easy, when Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Pharma are among the Democratic Partys largest shareholders. Meanwhile, the left still hasnt done much to put the fear of primary challenges into moderate Democratic incumbents  who arent white men representing diverse, deep-blue districts. The triumphs of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley notwithstanding, the tea party of the left has thus far proven far less potent an electoral force than the original brand.

One possible cause of this asymmetry is the aforementioned bias of the congressional map: Thanks to Republican gerrymandering and the Senates malapportionment, right-leaning voters punch well above their weight in American elections. Its possible that this years blue wave will allow Democrats to overcome this disadvantage, and put the party in a position to claim majorities in both chambers by 2020. But even if they are so fortunate, their legislative majorities will live and die on the whims of senators like Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, and Joe Donnelly (whose latest campaign ad is a declaration of war against Progressive Activists)  along with those of a wide array of House members who were elected on the strength of their support from college-educated white women with centrist sensibilities. At present, Nancy Pelosis caucus is already home to 18 Blue Dog Democrats (a faction of moderate lawmakers who derive their name from the sentiment that liberal ideologues have choked them blue)

and the 68 self-professed pro-business lawmakers of the New Democrat Coalition.

Which is to say: Even if Democrats elect Bernie Sanders president in 2020, the partys governing agenda will almost certainly end up being center-left by the Exhausted Majoritys standards; or center-right, by Canadas.

I personally do not want the Democrats to be a party that David Brooks could comfortably support, if his personal brand didnt require him to do otherwise. And I dont think that it has to be, at least not indefinitely. The rise of small-dollar, online donor armies  and idiosyncratic, class-traitor billionaires  is already mitigating the Democrats reliance on corporate cash. When and if the millennial generation begins turning out in large numbers, and the lefts myriad social movements gain sufficient scale and organization, progressives will have a fighting chance to consolidate power in the Democratic Party.

But for now, the actually existing Democratic Party is a centrist organization that champions fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets, procedural norms, a civil public discourse, strong border enforcement, a globe-spanning military empire  and, like the vast majority of the American people, a more ambitious and generous social-welfare state, higher taxes on the rich, abortion rights, a path to legal status for the undocumented, more regulatory protections for consumers and the environment, and various incremental reforms aimed at increasing labors share of economic growth.

The actually existing Republican Party, on the other hand, is an extreme, reactionary formation that champions procedural radicalism, nativism, voter suppression, far-right militia movements, the stigmatization of the Islamic faith, sheriffs who habitually violate the law and their constituents civil rights, the subordination of federal law enforcement to Donald Trumps whims  and, unlike the vast majority of Americans, a smaller and less generous social-welfare state, lower taxes for the rich, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, fewer regulatory protections for consumers and the environment, and various reforms aimed increasing Wyatt Kochs share of economic growth.

When the (unfortunately existing) centrist commentariat elides these distinctions  and wishes a pox on both extreme cults  they are helping the most ideologically extreme major party in the developed world blind the American people to how much they have in common.When Purva Browns first child was still an infant, her husband James introduced the idea of homeschooling. An electrician, he spent much of his time in public schools, installing and repairing fire alarms and doing other work. Perched on his ladder, an outsider with an inside view, he gained a valuable perspective on American public schooling. The political bias and unfairness toward boys jolted him. Intrigued by the homeschooling idea, Purva devoured books by John Holt, the educator and homeschooling pioneer whose many books include How Children Learn (1967) and Teach Your Own (1981), and by John Taylor Gatto, the former New York State Teacher of the Year who famously announced that he was quitting his 30-year teaching job in a 1991 oped in the Wall Street Journal. In Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, Gatto writes: It is time we squarely face the fact that institutional schoolteaching is destructive to children.

Like a growing number of families, the Browns, who live in Sacramento, chose not to send their children to school, opting for homeschooling. Purvas popular blog and book, The Classical Unschooler, describe blending a classical education philosophy (the grammar, logic, and rhetoric trivium) with the values of self-directed education, or unschooling. She and her childrenages ten, nine, and sixspend about two hours a day on academic content. The remainder of the day is devoted to the childrens emerging passions.

The most recent U.S. Department of Education data on homeschooling indicate that nearly 2 million young people learned at home in 2016, compared with just 850,000 in 1999. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, suggests that todays homeschooling numbers are much higher, and that the growth trend continues. Some of this growth could be attributed to the strong academic outcomes of homeschoolers, who typically score well above public school students on standardized tests. Federal data suggest that the primary motivator for homeschooling families in 2016 was concern about the school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure. This priority represents a shift from earlier years, when desire to provide religious or moral instruction was a top goal for homeschooling families. The homeschooling population has changed, too, over the last two decades. Todays homeschoolers are more demographically, geographically, and ideologically diverse. Fifteen percent of todays homeschoolers are Hispanic, up from just 5 percent in 2003; 8 percent are black. The number of black homeschoolers doubled between 2007 and 2011.

Maleka Diggs didnt intend to homeschool her children. She and her husband, along with their two young daughters, moved to an apartment in a sought-after Philadelphia neighborhood with top-rated public schools. But when Diggs took her older daughter to kindergarten registration, bringing the necessary paperwork to prove residency and eligibility, the school principal didnt believe that she lived where she did and made disparaging remarks, including asking if coupons paid her rent. I was angry and hurt, she recalls, but it was the best day because it was the beginning of my journey toward homeschooling.

She quit her job in corporate America and began replicating school at home. She was determined to create a rigorous academic environment for her daughters, complete with worksheets, cubbies, and bells, but the rigidity began to strain the mother/daughter relationships and to hinder learning. She began exploring self-directed education, avoiding the teach-and-test model of schooling in favor of interest-led learning. Today her daughters, now 13 and 11, learn in and from the city, becoming immersed in the vibrancy around them. Her older daughter leads a book group for tweens and teens and is starting a business based on her talent for cooking. Her younger daughter plays Brazilian drums in an adult ensemble group. Diggs has launched the Eclectic Learning Network to create connections among city homeschoolers and to partner with local organizations and businesses to offer homeschooling programming. My mission is to build community one family at a time, she says.

Grassroots homeschooling networks like these are sprouting alongside brick-and-mortar learning centers that can make homeschooling a realistic option for more families. Never in a million years did I think I would do this, says Britt Hamre, an education professor at Columbia Universitys Teachers College. Her son, Finn, disliked school, finding it both boring and anxiety-inducing. She decided to homeschool him when he was in second grade, hiring tutors and finding classes for him while she and her husband stretched the flexibility of their work schedules. I thought I would just try it for a year, she recalls. Finn, now 14, has never been back to school. He spends part of his week at Dida Academy, a self-directed learning center for homeschoolers ages 11 to 18 in Brooklyn, where he works on individual projects, hangs out with peers, and gets support from adult facilitators. I am a huge advocate for public schools, says Hamre, whose daughter attends a New York City public school. But the thing I have learned about kids, teaching, and education over my career and while being a mother is that as schools become more like little factories, focused on compliance, not all kids fit into that mold.

With the opportunities that homeschooling provides for tailoring high-quality education to childrens needs, it is no surprise that more American parents are deciding to give it a try.

Photo: UberImages/iStockThe international development secretary has announced a raft of measures, including the creation of a passport system for aid workers, at a summit on safeguarding in international aid.

Penny Mordaunt's speech was interrupted by a protester, who accused her of not listening to women and working with organisations who were part of the problem.

Mordaunt announced that DfID is supporting a pilot led by Interpol, The Association of Chief Police Officers Criminal Records Office and Save the Children, to create a system that will prevent sexual predators from moving between aid organisations.

She said that since February there has been unprecedented level of co-ordination and unprecedented weight being thrown behind this issue and that we are now at a pivotal moment.

The Interpol pilot, named Operation Soteria, will cost 10m and take five years. DfID has committed 2m.

Mordaunt said that there will be a disclosure of misconduct scheme across the NGO sector to prevent known perpetrators. She said 15 aid organisations had already signed up and she hoped this would reach 100 by the end of the year.

New resource hub

Mordaunt said that todays summit was partly to strengthen capacity and capability and announced the creation of a resource hub for aid charities.

This will include research, guidance and training for everyone involved in delivering aid and also offer access to specialist investigators.

Other measures

Mordaunt announced that DfID was among 21 international donors who had signed up to new standards for their partners around ethical behaviour, recruitment, complaints processes.

She said this will mean tougher language in our funding agreements and that "no one must be above scrutiny".

Institutional donors are committed to listening she said and making sure that beneficiaries are included in the design of programmes.

Mordaunt also said she was committed to funding a programme that will harness technology to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector.

She announced that the Disasters Emergency Committee will launch a shared reporting hotline and review of how they respond to community feedback.

"The Charity Commission, in consultation with the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs Council, is introducing a standard approach to criminal reporting," she said. "This will help us identify and root out cases of suspected abuse in the aid sector."

DfId is also supporting the development of a statement of victims rights.

Disgusted protester

Mordaunts speech was interrupted near the end by a protester, who accused DfID of excluding people who wanted to contribute.

The protester said: A number of us would like to be on that platform but we have been kept back by DfID and your attempts to control the women who are speaking out in this sector, very eloquently put by Paula Donovan who refused to get on a plane last night to come to this summit.

Donovan, who works for Code Blue  a campaign to end impunity for sexual exploitation and abuse by UN Peacekeepers, decided not to attend the summit. In a letter to Mordaunt she accused DfID of haphazard, last-minute organisation and criticised the lack of consultation about the agenda.

The protester told Mordaunt that other women had had similar experience and suggested this meant the summit was not dealing with the real change that needs to happen because we have been kept back.

She continued: We have heard this morning from excellent panels that women have been doing this work for decades unheard, unseen. We do not need fancy new systems. We do not need technology. We need systematic change. We need to understand the sexism, racism and abuse of power that happens from the very top of the leadership.

She also criticised DfID for choosing to work with Save the Children.

I was disgusted to learn on my way here to the summit that Save the Children will be awarded a headline project to try and tackle sexual misconduct in the sector when they are still under investigation by the Charity Commission, she said.

She described the silencing of potential critics and lack of opportunity at the summit for questions was what compels me to come up here and speak to you in person.

Mordaunt gives away closing slot

Moraunt thanked the protestor for speaking out and said she had not been aware of the letter from Donovan until this morning.

Im sorry that I wasnt aware of the specific issue with Code Blue until today and I will ensure that that doesnt happen again, she said.

She said that it was important that people felt included to contribute and set the agenda. "We havent done some that as well as we should have done, she said.

Mordaunt offered her closing slot to the protestor or someone else.

What I can do today is I will give up the summary slot of this summit to you or colleagues that want to speak, if you would be happy with that? she said

But she defended the progress that has been made so far and the announcements about new systems.

We want to do this well, she said. We wont be perfect in what we set out to do, but there are some dry things that need to be done.

NGO Insight, Civil Society Media's specialist event for international development professionals taks place on 27 November. For more information and to book click here.



Government cuts mean charities are taking chunks out of each other as they compete for the same pot of money from the public, Joe Jenkins from the Childrens Society said yesterday.

Speaking at the International Fundraising Congress in Holland yesterday, Joe Jenkins, director of supporter impact and income at The Childrens Society, highlighted the increasing levels of competition between charities in the UK.

He said this was one of a number of "drivers of change" which meant the sector needs to change its model.

He said shrinking government spending meant that more charities are now moving into the fundraising sphere.

This in turn has put increased pressure on charities to compete with one another over the same pot of income, which as a percentage of household spending hasnt increased in half a century.

In the UK, we know that competition has increased, because the core sources of funding that weve relied on over the last 30 or 40 years are either contracting or declining," Jenkins said.

"The National Council for Voluntary Organisations projects there is going to be at least a 4bn gap between the rates that voluntary income can grow, compared to the rate at which government funding will contract.

"So we have more organisations competing for more income and were not getting any greater share of peoples household spend, which means were taking chunks out of each other.

Jenkins said this has led to a situation where if one charity was succeeding that meant another is almost certainly doing less well as a direct result.

Jenkins also highlighted that a number of outside factors, including changes in fundraising legislation; shifting age-demographics and the threat of automation means that charities must move away from a product-led approach to a supporter-led one in order to stay relevant.

Jenkins said fundraisers must move away from current models that focus on the short-term values of products, to the long-term value of supporters contributing.

The Charity Technology Conference takes place on 7 November 2018. For more information and to book click here.



The 50 largest charities by fundraising income were collectively responsible for over 21,000 fundraising complaints last year, analysis of annual accounts for the 2017/18 financial year has shown.

New reporting requirements were added into the Charities Act 2016 on 1 November 2016, requiring all charities to report the number of fundraising complaints they had received from members of the public for that financial year.

The changes apply to charities reporting from 2018, affecting those organisations with either a December 2017 or March 2018 year end.

Civil Society News has since analysed the accounts data of the 50 largest charities in terms of annual fundraising income.

This analysis found that of the 50 largest fundraising charities, those that fell within the deadline of the new reporting requirements or voluntarily published their complaints figures, were collectively responsible for 21,072 fundraising-related complaints.

Macmillan most complained about charity

The most complained about fundraising charity in the last financial year was Macmillan Cancer Support, whose latest set of accounts for the year ending 31 December 2017 showed it received 6,600 complaints from members of the public, up from more than 4,000 the previous year.

A spokesman for Macmillan told Civil Society News: At Macmillan we take complaints very seriously. We rely entirely on generous donations from members of the public and work hard to maintain their trust. We actively encourage people to tell us about their experience of Macmillan, so we can continue to be the most trusted charity in the UK.

The spokesman said that the increase in complaints was due to Macmillan updating its definition to any expression of dissatisfaction, meaning that more customer feedback has been recorded as a complaint, particularly in the area of social media.

In addition, we had an issue with one of our suppliers around a particular area of donations which resulted in increased complaints in 2017, the spokesperson said. We addressed this as soon as the issue was highlighted and no longer work with this supplier.

The second most complained about charity was Cancer Research UK, which received 1,821 complaints directly related to its fundraising.

Marie Curie with 1,428 and the British Heart Foundation with 1,025, were the only two other charities to receive more than 1,000 fundraising complaints in the 2017/18 financial year.

Amanda Bringans, director of fundraising at the British Heart Foundation, said: Were committed to ensuring the millions of people who are in touch with the British Heart Foundation every year have an excellent experience  whether its at our fundraising events, its our 20,000 volunteers, or those who support us in any other way, such as with a regular donation.



While the number of complaints we receive in comparison to the volume of people we interact with is very small, we take all complaints seriously and will do all we can to resolve a supporters concerns.



Our supporters are at the heart of everything we do, and were completely reliant on their generosity to fund our life saving research in to new treatments and cures for heart and circulatory diseases. Its only by listening to these supporters that we can constantly improve what we do.

Ten charities outside accounting period

Ten of the top 50 charities were not required to publish this information as their most recent set of accounts were published before the complaints requirements came into effect.

However four of these charities  The National Trust, World Vision, Plan International UK and the Royal British Legion  either provided an up-to-date complaints figure upon request, or published the information of their own accord.

Collectively these four charities were responsible for 809 complaints.

Six of the top 50 charities which have not yet filed accounts  Salvation Army, the Royal Opera House, Age UK, Comic Relief, BBC Children in Need and Help for Heroes  did not release the figures upon request.

Both the Tate and British Museum reported no fundraising-related complaints for the last financial year. However, as both are non-departmental public bodies funded and regulated by the Department for Digital, Media, Culture and Sport rather than the Charity Commission, neither was required to report complaints.

Regulator to focus on top 50 in next complaints report

A spokesperson for the Fundraising Regulator told Civil Society News that it would be publishing its own complaints report, focused on the 50 biggest fundraising charities, before the end of the year.

The spokesperson said: Under the Charities Act 2016, charities are required to report on the number of complaints received about their fundraising activities. Noncompliance with this requirement may be a matter of concern to auditors and independent examiners.

The Fundraising Regulator will publish its latest complaints report, focusing on the 50 biggest fundraising charities, before the end of the year.

Last year, the regulator published its first complaints report since taking on the role of fundraising regulation from the Fundraising Standards Board. Its report, gathered from complaints data submitted by 893 charities of different sizes which contributed to its levy, found that those organisations had received 42,782 complaints from the public.

Daniel Fluskey, head of policy and external affairs at the Institute of Fundraising, told Civil Society News that complaints themselves are not necessarily a problem for charities so long as they are handled properly and are treated as important pieces of information from the public".

"Charities should welcome complaints as useful feedback from the public to improve how they work and justify their fundraising campaigns moving forwards," he said.

Fluskey also said that the IoF would be launching a new "effective complaints handling" course in December, to be run in conjunction with the Fundraising Regulator. He said complaints handling is an area where the sector can still improve.

A Charity Commission spokesman said: The public place great faith in charities when they donate money so it is essential that fundraising is done responsibly and in a way that protects donors. Charities must treat the generous public with the respect they deserve by displaying the highest standards of conduct and behaviour when raising funds.

We welcome the light that is being shone on charities fundraising practices following the introduction of the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act. It is vital that this is matched by robust action from charities themselves and close scrutiny from the Fundraising Regulator.

The Trump administration has now indicted at least five journalists sources in less than two years timea pace that, if maintained through the end of Trumps term, would obliterate the already-record number of leakers and whistleblowers prosecuted under eight years of the Obama administration.

The latest case, which broke on Wednesday, shows the administration taking advantage of a new avenue to go after a potential whistleblower. Instead of using the archaic Espionage Actthe 100-year-old law meant for spies, not sourcesprosecutors are pursuing the latest alleged leaker using financial laws.

A senior Treasury official named Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards has been arrested and charged by the US Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York for allegedly sharing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) about financial red flags with a news organization and its journalist for a series of stories related to the Russia investigation in 2017 and 2018.

While the news organization went unnamed in the complaint, the story titles and dates identified correspond with a series published by BuzzFeed that showed, in part, that Trumps campaign manager Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, an associate of Manaforts, engaged in suspicious foreign transactions in the lead-up to the 2016 election. The BuzzFeed stories were widely viewed as important contributions to the Russia story when they were first published.

ICYMI: The New York Times election needle is back

For her alleged crime, Edwards faces one count of unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports and one count of conspiracy to make unauthorized disclosures of suspicious activity reports under Section 5322 of Title 3 and federal regulation Section 1020.320(e)(2) of Title 31 of the US Code, which deal with the protection of information involving foreign financial transactions.

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Edwardss case is the second involving news publications about potential Russian interference that the Justice Department has prosecuted so far. The first case was that of Reality Winner, who shared an intelligence document showing how Russian actors allegedly tried to gain access to voter information in several states. For her act of public service, she was given more than five years in prisonfar more than anyone has received so far in the Mueller investigation. Each charge against Edwards carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Like almost all leak cases, this one involves the ensnarement of a journalist and news organization. The indictment contains several excerpts of text messages from an encrypted messaging application allegedly between Edwards and the unnamed journalist. Prosecutors claim they searched the defendants phone and got the messages directly, and filed several legal orders to get the metadatawho Edwards allegedly talked to, when she talked to them, and for how longon several other communications that allegedly took place between journalist and source. We dont know if any journalists were spied on directly in Edwardss case, but we do know the Trump administration isnt afraid to take that step, as it did against The New York Times Ali Watkins, in another leak case that broke earlier this year.

(A reminder to journalists: While encrypted messaging apps provide some great protections that regular SMS texts do not, they dont completely protect journalists or sources. If prosecutors get your sources phone, end-to-end encrypted texts are not necessarily going to help. Signal, for example, lets users set automatic disappearing messages after a certain time frame, a function that should be always be turned on for conversations with sources who may be in danger of investigation. Metadata can still give the government a lot of informationthough its unclear what encrypted messaging app the journalist and source used in this caseand Signal stores less metadata than, for instance, WhatsApp.)

The complaint contains an interesting allegation, albeit one buried in a footnote: Edwards, according to prosecutors, told investigators she considered herself a whistleblower. The government also admitted she had filed a whistleblower complaint within her agency and had talked to Congressional staffers about the issue as well. The government contends the whistleblower complaint was unrelated to the case, but its hard to tell for sure since, so far, we only have the governments side of the story.

As Adam Klasfeld at Courthouse News noted, The New Yorkers Ronan Farrow also wrote an important story about SARs information, involving Trumps personal lawyer Michael Cohen, at around the same time. Farrow noted in his story that, According to FinCEN, disclosing a SAR is a federal offense, carrying penalties including fines of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars and imprisonment for up to five years. The official who released the suspicious-activity reports was aware of the risks but said fears that the missing reports might be suppressed compelled the disclosure. [Emphasis added.]

As far as I can tell, Farrows story is not mentioned in the governments complaint. But it shows how important whistleblowers can be to the public interesteven when they are breaking the law.

Sources frequently risk their careers and sometimes their freedom to get important information to citizens. Its hard to quantify how many times the Trump administration has been the subject of an expose in the media that contains information the government considers a crime to leak. But often these stories are the most important to get to the public.

Leak investigations strike at the heart of the presss job. We should all consider this growing crackdown on leaks a danger to investigative journalism and stick up for the alleged sources involved. The laws involved almost never provide whistleblowers any public interest defense. The Justice Department reportedly has dozens of other investigations open, and we dont know who will be next.

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Trevor Timm is the executive director of Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports and defends journalism dedicated to transparency and accountability. He is also a twice-weekly columnist for the Guardian, where he writes about privacy, national security, and the media.What comes next in the story of Jamal Khashoggi? As the grisly details of the Saudi journalists murder have become public and the focus has shifted to the official response from the White House, The Washington Post is trying to ensure that the man at the center of the story is not forgotten.

The Posts Thursday op-ed page features an illustration of a smiling Khashoggi above his final column, received the day after he went missing in Istanbul. In the piece, Khashoggi notes the lack of free expression across the Arab world and argues for an independent international forum for Arab voices and stories. The Arab world was ripe with hope during the spring of 2011, Khashoggi wrote, lamenting that grand expectations were quickly shattered; these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions than before. Asked by CNNs Anderson Cooper about the decision to publish Khashoggis column, his editor Karen Attiah said, We wanted to bring it back to his words. To his ideas. To his thoughts, and who he was as a person.

Meanwhile, the Saudis gamble that the international community would not much miss a single journalist has gone bust amid a deluge of coverage that has been driven by the slow drip of information from Turkish and American officials. Reporting by the Post, The New York Times, and other outlets has unearthed mounting evidence that suggests the Saudi crown prince at least knew of plans to harm Khashoggi and may have been directly involved in the operation that resulted in his murder. Yet President Trump appears eager to avoid any conclusions that would damage the USSaudi relationship. The Posts Shane Harris reported Wednesday night that the Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggione that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the presidents closest foreign allies.

RELATED: Reexamining coverage of MBS after Khashoggis disappearance

Trumps willingness to float the rogue killers theory, as well as his insistence that the kingdoms leaders are being judged guilty until proven innocent has focused renewed attention on his penchant for excusing the actions of authoritarian leaders. The president has had harsher words in the last week or so for Stormy Daniels, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Taylor Swift, than he has had for the Saudis responsible for the likely butcher and slaughter of a Washington Post columnist, CNNs Jake Tapper said on the air Wednesday.

As the details of Khashoggis murder trickle out and the global implications reverberate, one conclusion seems clear: MBS, a rising star on the international stage, is now tarnished. If there is any lesson to be learned from this terrible affair, writes The New Yorkers Dexter Filkins, its how blind so much of official Washington and the American press were to MBSs true nature.

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Below, more on the latest developments in the Khashoggi case.

Other notable stories:

ICYMI: Civils token sale fails to hit target. What now?

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.Shift Technology and NICB Partner to Offer Insurers an Edge in Detecting, Combating Fraud

Shift Technology, a solution provider with a focus on enabling insurance organizations to successfully tackle the ongoing and growing claims fraud challenge, and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated exclusively to fight insurance fraud and crime, announced the two organizations have entered into strategic partnership. As a result, Shift customers can now access NICB data within their FORCE implementations to further combat insurance fraud.

NICB maintains extensive databases on behalf of its member companies. Under the new partnership, Shift Technology customers using the companys artificial intelligence (AI) driven claims fraud detection solution FORCE and who are also NICB members can now use NICBs data within their respective fraud detection models. Delivered via an automated real time feed or a batch data transfer process, this important data enables an additional level of fraud detection capabilities and insights at no additional cost.

Shifts AI supports multiple data inputs including external third-party data sources, such as those from NICB. The ability to leverage NICBs cross industry data ensures that Shift is taking a holistic approach to the detection of fraud at both the claim and network level for its clients. NICB database assets available and integrated with Shifts FORCE include: ForeWARN Alerts, Questionable Claims, MedAWARE Alerts, and additional proprietary NICB data assets.

Pie Insurance Begins Offering Workers Comp Coverage in California

Pie Insurance has begun selling policies in California, offering small business owners in the state the convenience of shopping online to meet their workers compensation needs. California is the ninth state in which Pie has launched this year.

Using sophisticated algorithms to segment and price workplace risks, Pie can accurately price policies and offer savings to its small business customers.

Insurance offered by Pie has earned an A rating from A.M. Best. For more information, visit www.pieinsurance.com.

Willis Towers Watson Announces Significant Investment in its Claim Resolution Services

Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company, announced its Resolutions team, which will facilitate efficient financial recovery on its clients most significant, complex and contested insurance claims. The development extends Willis Towers Watsons traditional claim advocacy services into the dispute resolution arena to provide an effective alternative to disruptive, costly and contentious legal proceedings.

The Resolutions team, led by Rob Lane, executive vice president, consists of five former practicing coverage attorneys with expertise in all major lines of business and insurance markets.

Additional team members include Jim Dorion, head of liability claim consulting and carrier relations; Henry Daar, leader, national property claims; Brian Weiss, head of claims and legal group, FINEX; and Will Eustace, head casualty coverage officer.The impact of Arizona beef distributor JBS Tollesons recent recall of nearly 7 million pounds of ground beef sold nationwide has yet to be determined. The recall, prompted by 57 cases of salmonella across 16 states, will likely lead to a loss in profits, supply chain losses and potential reputational damage.

This recall highlights some major challenges for food businesses and their insurers, said Jason McNerlin, legal director at Clyde & Co., a global law firm to the insurance industry. Foodborne pathogens including salmonella species are widespread in nature, so its not necessarily a surprise to find them in food. This is particularly true for foods of animal origin, but also fruit, vegetables, eggs and other foodstuffs.

The raw beef items, including ground beef, were packaged between July 26-Sept. 7, 2018 and are part of a Class 1 recall, considered the most serious of the three U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recall classifications. A Class 1 recall is considered a health hazard situation where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death.

According to the USDAs Food Safety and Inspection Service, consumption of food contaminated with salmonella can cause salmonellosis, a common bacterial foodborne illness. Symptoms of salmonellosis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after eating the contaminated product. The illness usually lasts four to 7 days. Most people recover without treatment, though children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems could develop a severe illness.

Simon Oddy a New York-based partner at RGL Forensics, said that a recall of this magnitude, encompassing multiple states isnt typically considered by food suppliers.

While there appears to be an increase in the number of food suppliers buying some type of recall insurance, in many instances this is driven by a customer contract mandating that recall cover has been purchased, Oddy explained. Its a cost of doing business with certain large retailers. However, the limits requirements may or may not be specified. This may mean some cover is taken, but it could be insufficient and perhaps limited due to internal insurance program budgets and a companys other insurance purchases.

He added that food processors believe in their abilities to keep a clean, sanitized production process to minimize the risk of large recalls.

McNerlin said that consumers have an expectation that ready to eat food is free of foodborne pathogens.

The consumer can expect ready-to-eat food to be free of salmonella, and this depends on food businesses adequately applying control measures during production, said McNerlin. For other food, such as raw meat and poultry, risk control depends on a number of factors, including adequate instructions, thorough cooking and sound hygiene.

He explained that, Any one case of salmonellosis suggests a possible breakdown at one or more points in this chain. When the number of cases grows, the spotlight starts to focus more and more on identifying the responsible food and its producer. Technology is helping to identify where multiple sickness cases actually involve a single outbreak, and better science is also helping to identify the source of an outbreak.

McNerlin said that a record of inspection issues could lead to a recall being more likely.

For non-ready-to-eat foods, the presence of salmonella per se may not necessarily mean that the food is adulterated and must be recalled, but the existence of insanitary conditions during manufacturing can lead to such a determination and a recall, he added.

For foodborne sickness outbreaks caused by bacteria, McNerlin said another aggravating factor may exist when antibiotic-resistant bacteria is present.

An expert in product recall claims, Oddy said that though hes seen increasing limits purchased over the past five years, his firm continues to be involved in cases where limits are inadequate for a large loss.

He explained how JBS can minimize the sales and reputational damage of a recall of this size and what that will cost, especially given the fact that it has documented problems in the past.

Repeat problems certainly lead to reputational issues. Customers will vote with their feet in response to brands affected by a recall, said Oddy. The result is that retailers, looking to sell certain volumes of branded product, may switch their loyalty to a different brand within the supply chain. But this may only be possible where the volumes of product they need are readily available elsewhere. There are a lot of supply and demand economics in play within the supply chain, and the players affected in this case are so large  this one has JBS and Walmart involved, both industry powerhouses.

JBS will need to proactively respond, said Oddy, creating the right message to its customers where it acknowledges the situation, identifies all the affected product and shows it has worked with regulators and retailers to remove the product from harms way. This is all done at their cost, he added.

McNerlin said the event has already given rise to at least one lawsuit and offered his take on potential losses related to the recall.

In addition to products liability exposure, there is a wide range of potential losses, said McNerlin. One obvious category of loss is the product itself. There have been major salmonella losses in the past  as recently as April 2018, one incident involved around 200 million eggs. In addition to loss of product, and the expenses that accompany its recall, such as transport, storage and disposal, there is great potential for loss of business, and third-party claims by downstream supply chain parties for their loss of business as well.

Retailers, too, will share the burden of proving to customers theyve appropriately handled the recall of the affected brands.

Their response may include in-store messaging or in-store promotions, the costs of which they will likely anticipate passing back to the supplier. The respective leverage of the supply chain relationship and the terms of the supply agreements will play a large part in who has to pay for the brand rehabilitation, which is sometimes included with the insurance program or can be purchased as a separate endorsement and can be extremely useful, said Oddy.

Oddy noted that JBS share prices reflected an initial drop after the recall was announced but appears to have rebounded rather quickly.

Interestingly, as a side note, a look at JBSs share price, which might reflect the markets view of the impact of this event, shows a drop immediately after the event was announced on October 4, but is now back to $4.78 by October 8, which is actually above the pre-loss level, said Oddy. Granted, there are many things affecting the share price of a global company such as JBS, but this is an interesting situation, given there has been a lot of discussion recently in the insurance market about whether share price is a good indicator of loss of reputation.

Since the beef recall, a Louisiana company that sells ready-to-eat chicken and pork has recalled 15 tons of packaged products in two states that wasnt federally inspected and another food maker has recalled ready-to-eat salads from convenience storms in Texas due to salmonella and listeria concernsA barge-mounted crane has slammed into a Louisiana bridge, shuttering a travel artery for what Louisiana officials say will be at least a few months.

Operators for Marquette Transportation hit the Sunshine Bridge at Donaldsonville early Friday morning, The Advocate reported. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Commander Raymond Wagner said it was not clear what exactly the barge was doing, where it was headed or who was on board when it ran into the bridge.

Repairs to the bridge are expected to take months rather than days, according to a statement from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Because of the extensive damage, permanent repairs to the bridge are necessary prior to reopening it to vehicular traffic. The Department continues to find damage to the structure, the statement said.

The 1.5-mile (2.40-kilometer) bridge connects communities throughout the states industrial corridor. Chemical plant workers use the four-lane bridge to reach plants lining the banks of the Mississippi River, while other commuters take the bridge to shorten drives around Donaldsonville, Gonzales and Baton Rouge.

Marquette Transportation President Damon Judd said there were no injuries and no impact to the environment. But the state Department of Transportation and Development said Sunday that damage is extensive and several vital components of the bridge are in need of repair.

Our hope was to be able to use a portion of the bridge for traffic while emergency repairs were being made, DOTD Secretary Shawn D. Wilson said in the statement.

Wilson recognized that the closure is inconvenient to commuters, but he said the bridge just simply isnt safe. In the meantime, the Plaquemine ferry is extending its hours.

Highway officials suggest motorists use the bridge at Gramercy, 20 miles (32.2 kilometers) south, or the ferry at Plaquemine, 28 miles (45.1 kilometers) north. The next closest bridge is at Baton Rouge, a 33-mile (53.1-kilometer) one-way drive to the north.

Marquette is the same company that was operating the towboat that crashed barges into Mardi Gras World in New Orleans this year.

Fridays crash was also not the first time a Marquette Transportation vessel hit a bridge. The company managed the towing vessel that hit the U.S. 80 bridge near Vicksburg, Mississippi in 2008.

Marquette was also listed as an involved organization in another collision in 2014 with the U.S. 190 bridge in Baton Rouge. A barge carrying corn hit a beam supporting the bridge and took on water, but did not sink, according to Coast Guard records. The bridge was not damaged, according to records.

Federal court records show Marquette was involved with a 2014 collision in East Baton Rouge Parish when a vessel operated by Marquette crashed into another vessel.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Gabbard. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call,Inc./Getty Images

Tulsi Gabbard, a popular Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, is a rising star on the left. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 2012 and is both the first American Samoan and the first Hindu elected to the U.S. House. Her young career in U.S. politics has already catapulted the Iraq War veteran to national fame  she became one of the most polarizing, and popular, figures in the progressive movement when she broke with the Democratic Party Establishment and endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary. Congresswoman Gabbard is one of the important voices of a new generation of leaders, Sanders said in response to the endorsement. As a veteran of the Iraq War she understands the cost of war and is fighting to create a foreign policy that not only protects America but keeps us out of perpetual wars that we should not be in.

In the two years since that endorsement, Gabbard has become a vehicle for the hopes of those who see a potential Gabbard 2020 candidacy (shes working on a book to be published next year and addressed grassroots organizers in New Hampshire in September) as a way to continue Sanderss political revolution. (Multiple requests for comment to both Sanderss and Gabbardss offices went unanswered.) Gabbard has touted her foreign policy credentials as a strength: her campaign website boasts that the Hawaiian congresswoman has more foreign affairs experience and understanding than most others who are twice her age. And shes used her position to push for legislative change on U.S. foreign policy. Her Stop Arming Terrorism Act would severely curtail U.S. interventionist policies by preventing the U.S. government from funding armed groups that are fronts for known terror organizations.

But ironically, while it was Gabbards anti-war bona fides that were both the motivation for her initial run for Congress and the impetus for her rising profile, it is her foreign-policy views that are raising questions on the left.

In her public rhetoric, Gabbard rejects much of U.S. intervention across the world. As a Democrat, that anti-interventionism puts Gabbard to the left of her partys Establishment. Shes been critical of former President Barack Obamas foreign-policy positions and priorities, and, again, her Stop Arming Terrorism Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Senator Rand Paul, would severely curtail U.S. interventionist policies by stopping American funding of armed groups that are fronts for known terror organizations, specifically Al Qaeda in Syria.

But a steady drumbeat of criticism from progressives claims that Gabbard also has sympathies with Steve Bannonstyle nationalists on the hard right, whose foreign-policy view is also fundamentally anti-interventionist. Her detractors argue that her policy overlap with the hard right is consistent and substantive enough that it ought to undermine her credibility as someone who could represent consensus progressive values in the White House.

If Gabbardism is a foreign-policy school of thought, it is perhaps best captured by her own words. In short, when it comes to the war against terrorists, Im a hawk, Gabbard told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald in 2016. When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, Im a dove. Its a sentiment that wouldnt be out of place in Ron Pauls 2008 presidential campaign  or in Pat Buchanans in 1992.

In Gabbards own telling, her non-interventionist views are the result of her seeing the cost paid by American soldiers while deployed in Iraq  the cost paid by the Iraqis themselves goes unmentioned. And according to her critics, Islamophobia underlies her hawkishness. Gabbards idiosyncratic foreign policy is an uneasy fit next to her orthodox economic populism, and suggests a deeper question: what are progressives foreign-policy priorities in the first place? America is still fighting the borderless and interminable War on Terror, launching surgical strikes and drone attacks in countries around the world with impunity  in such an environment, is it enough to be just against wars of regime change?

Gabbard said last year that one of the the reasons she came to Congress was to oppose such wars. As early as 2015, for example, Gabbards views on the Syrian conflict  she stated the U.S. should reverse thenPresident Barack Obamas policy of financially backing and providing limited tactical support to the anti-government rebels in the country  represented a departure from her party. A visit to Syria in 2017 to visit the countrys president, Bashar al-Assad, earned Gabbard headlines around the world as the congresswoman attempted to keep America from getting more deeply involved in the Syrian civil war.

The combination of her anti-interventionist stance with her progressive domestic record has earned her support in some corners of the left, particularly the Sanders wing of the Democratic Party.

Shes a terrific package, said Our Revolution Labor Chair Larry Cohen. Whether its health care for all, financial regulation, or workers rights, Cohen said he believes that Gabbard is on the right side of the issues  including foreign policy. Shes clear on non-intervention  whats wrong with U.S. foreign policy since World War II.

But supporters attracted by Gabbards old-left anti-interventionism are likely to be less enamored with her stances on anti-terrorism measures. A 2015 vote on a bill that would subject Iraqi and Syrian refugees to the predecessor of Trumps extreme vetting won Gabbard friends in Republican circles. The bill  which did not pass the Senate  required every refugee admitted to the country to receive individual vetting that, according to Representative John Conyers at the time, would effectively deny refugee status for Syrians and Iraqis who are victims of terrorism in their own homelands.

Its important for anyone who really cares about keeping our refugee programs open to seriously consider the negative impact to such programs if a terrorist attack occurred and a refugee were involved, said Gabbard in a statement after the vote. She said this as progressive groups were, for the most part, lobbying the Obama (and then Trump) administrations to accept larger numbers of Syrian refugees.

Steve Bannon, Trumps former adviser, spoke highly of Gabbard during the 2016 election. A source from the transition team told the Hill that Bannon loved Gabbard and wanted to work with her on everything. That praise precipitated a meeting with the then-incoming president and his team at Trump Tower shortly after the election, at which time it was rumored that Gabbard was in the running for secretary of State.

She would fit perfectly too [inside the administration], the source told the Hill. She gets the foreign policy stuff, the Islamic terrorism stuff.

Gabbard wasnt appointed to the position  that dubious honor went to Rex Tillerson  but she remains in the Trump orbit: Trump 2020 Advisory Board member Tony Shaffer met with the congresswoman in her office this April.

The Hawaiian congresswomans visit to Syria in January 2017, her meeting with Assad, and her perspective on the conflict has earned her criticism from her political adversaries in the Democratic Party  particularly Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden. Tandens critiques only increased after Gabbard expressed skepticism over claims that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was responsible for a sarin gas attack in April 2017. In a statement, Tanden downplayed her disagreements with Gabbard, which she said were personal and did not reflect the views of CAP.

Im personally concerned about her support for Russian military action in Syria while excusing Assads murderous regime, Tanden wrote. But she has positions on other issues that are admirable, like campaign finance reform.

The Democratic Socialists of America, an organization which has seen its membership rapidly expand in the wake of Sanderss campaign, have concerns about Gabbards record that illustrate the tension on the left about her foreign-policy views.

We support Rep. Gabbard on many issues, including some on which she has moved left, and of course theres how she took a stand to support Bernie, said Maria Svart, the DSAs national director. Svart, though, is not sure Gabbard is sufficiently anti-interventionist. She falls short on some issues compared to what wed expect from a democratic socialist, particularly around supporting U.S. intervention abroad and the Hindu nationalist policies of Modi in India.

Gabbard has been close to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and his right wing Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, a party known for its ethnocentric views and its anti-Muslim sentiment. Modi is a Hindu nationalist whose rise was fueled by exclusionary appeals to religious identity. Modi was the governor of Gujarat, a state in the west of India, when riots killed over 2,000 Muslims in 2002. Gabbard, who is Hindu but not of an Indian background, visited India at Modis invitation in 2014 and was a guest of honor of the extremist Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on the trip  one contemporary report referred to her as the groups newest mascot. Shes also kept in close contact with members of the BJP, meeting with BJP politician Shivraj Singh Chouhan during Chouhans October visit to the U.S.

In a moment when progressives are increasingly in need of a coherent foreign policy, someone like Gabbard is very threatening, Syrian American activist Ramah Kudaimi told New York in an email. There used to be a time, Kudaimi said, when politicians proclaiming we should be backing brutal regimes in order to fight terrorism were condemned by progressives; now progressives embrace them and call them heroic.

To the extent that there is a coherent foreign policy orthodoxy on the left, Gabbard departs from it. Whether Democrats will overlook that in 2020 is another question.Hurricane Michaels devastation could spur policymakers to better prepare vulnerable communities for the effects of climate change.

The images of entire towns in Floridas panhandle all but erased by storm surges, as well as accounts of bodies pulled from shattered homes, offer potent evidence of the need to rethink how and where Americans build homes, according to safety advocates, insurers and policy experts. They say that together with last years record storms and Hurricane Florence last month, the latest scenes of destruction could generate better laws and regulations around the country.

Hurricane Michaels devastating impact on Florida can only strengthen the urgent and profound case for better building code adoption and enforcement, said Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and chief executive of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, an advocacy group in Tallahassee.

A record 12 months of storms across the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico has intensified the debate over climate adaptation: Whether, and how much, to tighten the rules that govern home construction in areas prone to flooding, hurricanes and other dangers that are increasing because of climate change. Insurers have typically argued for more stringent codes and standards, while home builders and realtors often warn higher up-front costs could deter buyers.

That debate reflects a division of responsibility among different levels of government, one that experts say hinders action. Local and state governments have jurisdiction over building codes, but also have the most to lose from tax revenue if tougher codes slow new development. The federal government, meanwhile, pays most of the cost for disaster recovery, yet has no authority over the rules that determine the extent of those costs.

On Friday, that dispute burst into the open. At a press briefing on Hurricane Michael, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long took the rare step of publicly scolding lower levels of government for not doing more to protect their residents.

Until we get building codes passed at local and state levels that are meaningful, then were going to continue to see a lot of damage and destruction, Long said. You see this enough in your career, you get ticked off.

Long also acknowledged that the federal government could do more to prepare for storms, from reinstating federal flood risk standards that President Donald Trump rescinded last year to reforming the National Flood Insurance Program, which pays people to rebuild even in areas that keep flooding.

Its like screaming in the wind, Long said of his calls for more action on climate adaptation. Nobody hears it.

People who work in resilience cite early indications that the record disasters of the past two years may be starting to shift the discussion  even if the effects of that shift are still hard to see.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria made the case, once again, for real mitigation, said Roy Wright, a former senior official at FEMA who now heads the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, an industry-backed group. Florence and Michael are the exclamation points.

For example, Congress earlier this month passed a bill that increases funding for toughening homes and communities against hurricanes, floods and other disasters before they strike. The bill also gives state and local government a financial incentive to adopt up-to-date building codes. Long praised the bill on Friday, calling it huge.

The laws passage reflects the increasingly unaffordable cost of disasters, according to Marion McFadden, who oversaw disaster recovery programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Members of Congress are taking this very seriously, said McFadden, who is now vice president for public policy at Enterprise Community Partners. They dont want to throw good money after bad.

Elected officials around the country have also become more willing to impose stricter standards on development in flood plains, according to Forbes Tompkins, an expert in resilient infrastructure at the Pew Trusts in Washington.

At the local and state level, more and more folks are getting it, Tompkins said. Hurricane Michael should only reinforce interest at all levels of government to more proactively mitigate risk.

Among the most prominent signs of change is Houston, a city known for its aversion to building codes and land-use planning. In April, Houston adopted a requirement that the first floor of new homes in much of the city must be at least two feet above the floodplain. Last month, officials in Chatham County, Georgia, which includes Savannah, proposed going even further, requiring that homes in some parts of the county be at least three feet above the height of a 100-year flood.

Vulnerable communities have also become more open to buying and demolishing homes that keep flooding. In August, voters in Harris County, which includes Houston, approved a $2.5 billion bond to protect against future hurricanes and floods. Almost $200 million of that money will be used for buyouts.

In North Carolina, the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence could leave the state better prepared for the next storm. Last year, the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association, which provides insurance against wind damage, announced a policy to pay homeowners to rebuild their roofs to a more resilient standard, called Fortified. Florence could lead to large numbers of homeowners taking advantage of that program.

The real test will be whether state and local governments revert to a more hands-off approach on building and development as the memory of these latest storms fades, according to Chapman-Henderson, of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes.

Once the weather calms, unfortunately, sometimes the will fades as well, Chapman-Henderson said.

Perhaps no state demonstrates the ability of disasters to force change better than Florida. In the wake of Hurricane Andrew, which leveled parts of Miami-Dade County in 1992, Florida eventually imposed one of the toughest building codes in the nation. Chapman-Henderson of the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes warned that state lawmakers have recently loosened the system of updating those codes, a move she called shortsighted.

FEMAs Long echoed the concern that memories of disasters will fade, along with the appetite to prepare for them.

What Im afraid of is hurricane amnesia, Long said on Friday. Ten years are going to go by and were going to forget what happened in Mexico Beach.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- Drug abuse, Interstate 77: On Sept. 15, police observed a speeding GMC Sierra traveling north on I-77.

While talking to the Cleveland driver, the office smelled cologne and marijuana. At first, the driver denied having marijuana.

He eventually gave the officer a yellow plastic bag with marijuana that belonged to his Pennsylvania passenger, who didn't speak English.

The driver then admitted to having more marijuana in a suitcase. While searching the Sierra, police found a bong, a grinder, a water pipe and a blue metal pipe.

The officer used Google Translate to inform the passenger of his rights. He admitted to owning most of the marijuana. He was cited for drug abuse and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The driver was cited for speeding and drug abuse.

Warrant, Brecksville Road: On Sept. 14, police observed a Chevrolet Trailblazer with a heavily cracked windshield traveling east on Miller Road. The SUV was pulled over on Brecksville Road.

The Cleveland driver told the officer that he didn't have his driver's license. It turned out that the man had a warrant from the Cleveland Police Department. He was arrested and held for transport.

The driver was cited for driving with a suspended license and having a cracked windshield.

An adult passenger and two small children were taken to a Richfield gas station, where her mother picked them up.

Warrant, Brecksville Road: On Sept. 14, police observed a blue minivan with expired plates in the parking lot behind the Oaks of Brecksville. The van was pulled over on Brecksville Road.

The Garfield Heights driver, who was sweating profusely, told the officer he didn't have his license. It turned out he had a warrant from the Brooklyn Heights Police Department, as well as a suspended license.

The officer also observed that the temporary tag's expiration date had been altered. The man was arrested and held for transport. While searching the van, police found a syringe, cotton filters and a burnt spoon.

The driver was also cited for possession of drug paraphernalia, expired plates, altered license plates and driving with a suspended license.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- In voting to raise the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products, "e-cigs" and "vapes" from 18 to 21, City Council received personal thanks on Monday from Cuyahoga County Health Commissioner Terry Allan.

Allan and his department will be handling enforcement of the new "Tobacco 21" law in Cleveland Heights, which takes effect on Jan. 1 and involves civil penalties for underage sales by vendors, as well as possible permit revocations for multiple offenses.

Allan pointed to statistics showing that only 5 percent of smokers start the habit after age 21. At the same time, e-cigarettes and vapes seem to be targeting a younger crowd, with flavors like "bubble gum."

And while vapes are promoted as an alternative to smoking, a single Juul pod has the nicotine content of a pack of cigarettes.

"This is about protecting our kids from dual use," Allan said, "because it's not one or the other -- it's both."

The measure passed 6-0, only because Councilman Mike Ungar, who brought it to Committee-of-the-Whole in April, was advised to recuse himself since his daughter serves as the executive director of Tobacco 21 in Columbus.

"I commend my colleagues on their otherwise unanimous vote, leading the way on this issue of importance to our entire community -- to the extent that our county health commissioner was in attendance," Ungar said afterward.

That in itself "speaks volumes" as to the importance of this "cutting edge" issue, Ungar added.

The minimum age for purchasing tobacco has also been raised to 21 in Cleveland and Euclid.

"It's always a great thing when we encourage health-seeking behaviors," said Mayor Carol Roe, a registered nurse.

The law will also affect businesses that deal in other "alternate" smoking paraphernalia, from selling pipes and rolling papers to establishments like the City & East Hookah Bar on Coventry, where patrons under 21 cannot drink, but those over 18 have been allowed to smoke tobacco.

In an unrelated matter, Police Chief Annette Mecklenburg said that City & East ownership has been cooperating with local officials after the city lodged an objection earlier this year with the state liquor control board over the bar's alcohol permits.

That hearing, along with a separate objection to the alcohol license renewal for the neighboring B-Side Liquor Lounge & Arcade on Coventry, is still scheduled for November.

No increase in parking fines

In other business, council cleaned up some of the language in its traffic code dealing with parking violations, with no increases in fines being imposed through the amended legislation.

The housekeeping measure relates indirectly to the city's investigation of $5 overpayments on certain parking tickets due to misprints, an oversight that is expected to surpass $100,000 when the money is paid back.

After an executive session, council voted to accept a Fact Finding Report from the State Employee Relations Board (SERB) regarding contract negotiations with the police union and its more than 100 members represented by the Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (OPBA).

The current three-year contract expired March 31, and the findings were issued following a hearing in mid-August that determined that the city can afford the 2 percent annual pay increases being sought by the union.

The added cost should be covered at least into the year 2020, with the city maintaining a 13 percent to 15 percent cash balance of its total projected expenditures, at least until then.

The fact-finding report addresses a total of nine contractual issues, and negotiations can now continue, city officials said.

Cedar-Lee Candy Crawl

Vice Mayor Melissa Yasinow announced that the Cedar-Lee Candy Crawl is set for 5 to 7 p.m. Friday (Oct. 19). Trick-or-treaters of all ages can also visit the Costume Exchange Pop-Up store in the former Heights Music Shop at 2174 Lee Road.

Gently used costumes will be sold for $5 a set, with proceeds benefiting the Patti-Jackson Music Scholarship Fund through the Reaching Heights organization.

More than $5,000 was raised for the Cleveland Heights Youth Scholarship Fund through the Happy 5K-10K Run starting in Cedar-Lee on Oct. 7, with about 600 runners and walkers participating, Yasinow added.

Immigration Task Force and Top of the Hill

Councilman Kahlil Seren said that the final meeting for the Immigration Task Force is set for Oct. 25, with a set of recommendations expected to be drafted on city policy for interacting with refugees and immigrants in the community.

Council will hold a brief special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday (Oct. 22) to introduce Top of the Hill design guidelines that will be referred to the city Planning Commission.

This will be followed by a meeting of council's Safety and Municipal Services Committee to discuss trash collection, as well as a municipal broadband initiative.

During Monday's Committee-of-the-Whole meeting, Councilwoman Mary Dunbar asked about the 186 trees that were planted by the city this year, compared with the 301 that were taken down.

Some of those removals came as part of the Dominion gas line replacement project, and the city has instituted a new tree inventory program to help address any issues, City Manager Tanisha Briley said.

"I'm interested in keeping our tree canopy up," Dunbar said after learning that there is no reciprocal tree replacement policy.

Briley also provided a brief update on council priorities that have been met, with the two main ones being the passage of foreclosure bond legislation, as well as the creation of a community development corporation with the Future Heights organization.

"Not all of the priorities will be accomplished this year, but we are making great progress," Briley said.WESTLAKE, Ohio -- A Lakewood man accused of robbing a Westlake convenience store Friday was arrested Monday in Cleveland, according to Westlake police.

The Westlake Police Department used tips from the public and other police departments to identify, locate and arrest a man accused of robbing the Convenient Store on Detroit Road at Dover Center Road just before 10:30 p.m. Friday, Westlake police say.

Mousa H. Abukhalil, 29, was arrested about 7:20 p.m. Monday at East 61st Street and Superior Avenue in Cleveland, Westlake police say. He faces one first-degree felony charge of aggravated robbery, court records show.

Abukhalil made his initial appearance Wednesday before Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Donna Congeni Fitzsimmons who set his bond at $250,000, court records show. His case was bound over to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas where Abukhalil is scheduled to appear at a Tuesday morning arraignment.

Westlake police and Lakewood police executed a search warrant Thursday afternoon at Abukhalil's home on the 14000 block of Clifton Boulevard.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.ELYRIA, Ohio -- Four people were arrested Wednesday morning after Elyria police, Special Response Team officers and an FBI agent executed search warrants on two homes, according to Elyria police.

Leon Robinson, 29, was named in an Oct. 12 federal indictment charging him with three counts of trafficking in heroin and fentanyl, court records say. An FBI agent assisted detectives in executing a search warrant about 7 a.m. Wednesday at his home on the 300 block of Furnace Street, Elyria police Capt. Chris Costantino said.

Law enforcement found 2.1 grams of crack cocaine and 50 Percocet pills on Robinson, Costantino said. Detectives also found a loaded AK-47 assault rifle in the trunk of a vehicle parked in the driveway, which Robinson told police was his.

Robinson faces felony charges of having weapons under disability, receiving stolen property, two counts of possession of drugs, two counts of trafficking in drugs and a misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia, police say.

He pleaded not guilty Wednesday in federal court to the three trafficking charges in the indictment, court records show.

Gerica Newson, 25, was also inside Robinson's home Wednesday morning. Police learned that she had an active warrant through the Lorain County Sheriff's Office so she was taken into custody.

Law enforcement executed a second search warrant Wednesday morning at a home on the 200 block of 13th Street, Costantino said.

Lynnea Baker, 38, faces a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge of drug paraphernalia and a fifth-degree felony charge of possession of drugs. She was brought to the Lorain County Jail, Costantino said.

Just as Newson was in Robinson's home, Dale Given, 55, was inside the residence with Baker, Costantino said. Police learned that Given had an active warrant through the Parma Police Department so he was taken into custody.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- Residents on Election Day will be asked to renew Fairview Park City Schools' Issue 5, which brings in $2.69 million annually to the district. Originally approved in 2003, the 7.5-mill levy has been renewed twice and costs the owner of a home valued at $100,000 $229 a year.

"At 17.25 percent, this certainly is a major part of our operating budget," Superintendent Bill Wagner said. "It was passed by voters to really help us keep moving forward. It's certainly nothing to sneeze at.

"The good news is, it's no new taxes, it's a renewal and it raises the same amount of money that it did when it was first approved," Wagner said.

The operating levy is tied to teacher/staff salaries, benefits, building maintenance, supplies, fuel, utilities and instructional supplies. Wagner said considering that 80 percent of the district's operating budget is staffing, the failure of Issue 5 would result in significant reductions across the board in administrative, teaching and support staff.

"We made a lot of progress over the past several years academically in our buildings that would take a huge step backwards," Wagner said. "Back in the late '90s and early '00s, the community had a real long stretch of very lean times having difficulty passing levies.

"One of the things we certainly don't want to do is go back to those types of times, because that will just cause our district to struggle immensely," he said.

While Issue 5 is listed as an emergency levy, Wagner said residents shouldn't misconstrue its meaning.

"That adds some confusion for some people," Wagner said. "All emergency really means is that's what the state calls a levy that raises a flat dollar amount. It was approved the very first time for $2.69 million and it will generate that same amount each time it's renewed."

Set to expire at the end of 2018, the levy renewal could have appeared on previous ballots over the past year. Wagner said waiting until November was a calculated move by the district.

"This is our one and only shot, but that wasn't so much of a concern for us," Wagner said. "We discussed it. We know we had just come off the November 2016 bond and permanent improvement issue. We just wanted to give the voters a little reprieve.

"We also knew that midterm elections were coming up, and generally folks come out to the polls. We want to make sure we get the largest percentage of our voting populous an opportunity to vote on this renewal."

So far, Wagner said he's received overwhelmingly supportive comments from the community regarding Issue 5.

"I'm cautiously optimistic, but the real important message is for those people to make sure they go out and vote on Nov. 6 -- or through early voting -- and make their voices known," Wagner said.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Brady Lake Village may be gone, but it's not forgotten.

Definitely not in Franklin Township which absorbed the village after the residents of this municipality in Portage County, near Kent, voted to disincorporate in 2017.

According to Ann Hanna, one of the three Franklin Township trustees, and Lise Russell, township fiscal officer, a loan that Brady Lake arranged with Hometown Bank, of Kent, in 2004 has come back to bite them.

The $450,461 obligation bond was used for the purchase and improvement of the Brady Lake village hall, adjacent properties and a ball field near the lake, and a fire truck.

Brady Lake Village made twice-yearly payments until the end of 2017.

An outstanding balance of approximately $203,000 in principal and $48,000 in interest remains on the debt, according to Russell.

Russell said that the township was notified by Hometown Bank in July, a month after the regularly scheduled payment was not made, that it wanted the township to assume the debt.

That debt came up during discussions with state and county officials late last year about making Brady Lake part of Franklin Township, according to Russell.

She said nothing was resolved at that time, nor when Portage County commissioners voted to make Brady Lake Village part of Franklin Township. The township had no vote on the matter.

There also has been no resolution in recent meetings with bank officials, she added.

"Our position is that not a penny of township funds will be used to satisfy that debt," Russell said. "It's not our debt."

In addressing the uncertainty of the situation, she added, "I think we're in uncharted water here. I don't think a precedent has been set. We'll see how it goes."

Scott Flynn, an attorney representing Hometown Bank, said Hometown "does not publicly discuss private banking matters."

A public meeting to discuss the issue will be held Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. in the township hall, according to Hanna.

"Anyone and everyone is encouraged to show up and give their opinion," she said.

"Hometown bank is threatening to sue us," Hanna added. "We're obviously trying to figure out why the bank thinks this is our debt. We do not want to use Franklin Township to pay a debt we did not take out."

The township owns the properties involved and could sell them, according to Hanna.

Franklin Township also owns the namesake lake. Hanna has not been a fan of that arrangement and said, "We're not really in the business of owning lakes."

She noted, "Originally we were going to liquidate those things that we have to pay insurance and utilities on, that we're not going to use for anything.

"But we are not going to sell it and use that money to pay back a bond that's not ours," she added.

Hanna said she would be in favor of turning ownership of the property covered by the bond over to the bank, "and the bank can deal with it."

But for now, the bygone business of Brady Lake Village still lingers.

"It might be our ghost for Halloween," Hanna quipped.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland teen was found safe one day after witnesses saw her ex-boyfriend throw her into a car on the city's East Side, police said.

The 15-year-old girl was unharmed when she was found Thursday morning on Bush Avenue near Fulton Road, police said. Further details were not immediately available.

The incident does not appear to be a kidnapping but it remains under investigation, police said. Authorities classified the incident as a possible kidnapping in a Thursday morning news release.

The girl was sitting on a curb about 7:30 a.m. when her 18-year-old ex-boyfriend and another man pulled up in a car. The ex-boyfriend grabbed her by the shirt collar and threw her into the car before he drove away, witnesses said.

Detectives later contacted the other man in the car, who said the teen was with the ex-boyfriend voluntarily, a police report says. He last saw the teen and ex-boyfriend at a Burger King, the police report says.

The ex-boyfriend has not been charged with a crime in connection with the incident, court records show.

Detectives searched multiple locations before the girl was found safe.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Icelandair is pushing back its return date to Cleveland, resuming service in May instead of March.

A spokesman for the airline said Cleveland did not yet have the volume of business to warrant service outside the busy summer months.

"We are committed to making Cleveland a success and will continue to review what schedule works best for our network and our customers," said Icelandair spokesman Michael Raucheisen. "The loads outside of summer still do not appear to warrant year-round service, yet."

Icelandair is one of two Iceland-based carriers that started flying out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in May. The other, Wow Air, announced this week that it would discontinue its Cleveland service altogether, at the end of October.

Both airlines offer service to numerous destinations in Europe, following a quick change of planes in Reykjavik.

Originally, Icelandair had intended for its Cleveland service to be year-round, and was selling tickets through the winter as recently as last month.

However, it announced in September that it was canceling its late fall and winter flights into and out of Cleveland Hopkins, starting in late October. At the time, it said it would resume service in late March.

That resumption date has been pushed back until May 17.

Travelers who have purchased tickets between March 22 and May 16 will be offered an alternative flight, through a connecting city, or a refund.

Icelandair's decision to delay its return to Cleveland puts to rest, at least for now, any hope that the carrier would fill in some of the void left by Wow's departure.

Following Wow's announcement earlier this week, many Cleveland travelers expressed hope that Icelandair might expand its schedule in Cleveland - either by extending service into additional months or adding more flights per week. Icelandair currently flies the Cleveland-to-Reykjavik route five times per week.

Said Raucheisen: "Other airlines will not currently affect our strategy."

Related: Cleveland air travel enters the Iceland age; Wow Air to launch this week, Icelandair soon afterCLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man accused of beating another man to death was arrested Thursday in California.

U.S. Marshals arrested Cory Moorer in Richmond, which is located just north of Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area, the agency said in a news release.

Marshals found Moorer hiding out at a home. He tried to escape in a vehicle, but authorities took him into custody, the news release says.

Moorer fled Cleveland after he was charged with murder in the Aug. 18 killing of Ricky Williams, authorities said.

Williams, 33, argued with Moorer outside a home on East 85th Street near Superior Avenue. Moorer then attacked and severely beat Williams, police said.

Williams was taken to University Hospitals, where he died from blunt force trauma to the head and complications from an enlarged heart, court records say.

Moorer ran away after the fight, but authorities obtained a warrant for his arrest on Sept. 6.

Moorer has a violent criminal history with felony convictions dating back to 1997, according to court records.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.Photo: Courtesy of the retailers.

Wearing sneakers every day (even to work) is normal for many guys by now. But not every guy is ready or willing to dip into the latest sneaker trends: fashionably ugly silhouettes, chunky soles and lots of color and pattern mixing. Monochrome sneakers, however (those with matching soles as well as those with classic white, black, or gum soles), go with everything you already own, making getting dressed everyday quick and easy.

But because theyre so minimal  like a simple white T-shirt or pair of chinos  the design has to be on point. Thats why we talked to a couple stylish experts about their favorite monochromatic shoes (and added a few of our own favorites).

The Best Monochrome Black Sneakers

House of Future Original Low Top Sneaker $120 now 63% off $45 For something a little sleeker these pale aqua leather low tops do the job of a traditional lace up derby shoe just much lighter and more comfortable. $45 at Saks Fifth Avenue Buy

Eytys Angel Chunky Leather Trainers $360 $360 For something that walks the line between a sleek dress sneaker, a nostalgic nod to the 90s, and a chunky-soled pair of fashion kicks, these from Eytys are a great bet. $360 at MatchesFashion Buy

The Best Monochrome Gray Sneakers

COMMON PROJECTS Achilles Low sneakers $375 Woolf is also a longtime fan of all-gray Common Projects. I own a gray pair of Common Projects Achilles sneakers that Ive had for three years and will never get rid of. I wear them on every single first date. Its only later I introduce weirder kicks into the mix. $375 at Farfetch Buy

Adidas Ultra Boost $180 $180 When we asked what Woolf recommends for guys who use standing desks at work, he suggested a cushy yet stylish pair of Adidas. Probably Ultra Boosts because they have that little bounce you need if youre gonna be standing all day. $180 at Macy's Buy

The Best Monochrome Brown Sneakers

Koio Capri Castagna $248 Baldwin is pro neutral-tone sneakers for their talent at hiding dirt. For guys looking to play it a little safer, a new pair of monochrome sneakers in taupe, tan, or even all brown. Theyll show less dirt and depending on the shoe, could look more elevated that an all white trainer. $248 at Farfetch Buy

Adidas Campus Shoes $55 But if youre looking for brown sneakers with matching brown gum soles  or not into worrying about scuffs on white soles  these caramel-colored suede low tops are great for fall and much more budget-friendly. Bonus: gum soles are Woolfs preference Gum, if its available, otherwise white. $55 at Adidas Buy

Nike Blazer Low $75 $75 For diehard Nike fans who are more used to wearing basketball-inspired shoes than soccer versions, this pair of Blazer Lows in ochre brown are it. $75 at Nike Buy

The Best Monochrome Navy Blue Sneakers

Maison Margiela Calfskin/Suede Replica Trainer $470 If your closet is full of rich blues and indigos these leather and suede low tops from French brand Maison Margiela will fit right in  and add a touch of luxe. $470 at Need Supply Buy

New Republic Grayson Sneaker $45 But if you tend to wear sneakers into the ground fast, give these inky blue New Republics a try. $45 at New Republic Buy

The Best Monochrome Olive Green Sneakers

Axel Arigato Cap-Toe Sneaker $225 $225 Swedish sneaker brand Axel Arigato is injecting some Scandinavian design sense into the sneaker world with their minimal leather silhouettes available in a whole host of perfect-for-wearing-with-a-suit menswear colors. These in olive drab will ensure you never show up to the party in the same kicks as your friends. $225 at Axel Arigato Buy

PUMA Roma Distressed Green Sneakers Green may not be your first thought when it comes to picking out new kicks, but dont forget the color is considered a neutral as long as its on the olive rather than the kelly side of the spectrum  meaning it goes with most everything you own. Buy at Amazon Buy Buy at Amazon Buy

The Best Monochrome White Sneakers

Adidas Stan Smith Premium Sneakers $130 According to Woolf, you cannot go wrong with Stan Smiths. Stan Smiths have a hint of green, but I still think they count. Plus theyre pretty unimpeachable style wise. The classic version comes with a touch of green on the back, but we prefer these in all-white. $130 at Farfetch Buy

Vans Old Skool From $90 Vans Old Skool sneakers probably already grace the feet of every man and woman you know  for good reason. But the shoe that GQ declared the next Stan Smith is far from being overhyped, especially when you wear it in all white. From $90 at Amazon Buy From $90 at Amazon Buy

Nike Air Max 90 $110 Baldwin likes the extra arch support you get from a pair of Air Max 90s especially when running around seeing clients. Any shoe that has great arch support like a Nike Air Max or New Balance 574s [included above] would be my go-to options. I know these are not the only options  I just like the way they look and feel if I have to stand for awhile and still look stylish and well put-together. $110 at Nike Buy

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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.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A 20-year-old man was shot and killed early Thursday in Cleveland's Stockyards neighborhood, police said.

The man was shot multiple times just after 4:15 a.m. on West 46th Street near Storer Avenue, police said.

He died after Cleveland EMS took him to MetroHealth.

The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released the man's name.

The fatal shooting happened while the man and a woman were picking up food at Dina's Diner, police said.

The woman stayed in a car while the man went to get the food. He was walking back to the car when an unknown man approached him, police said.

The two argued, and the unknown man pulled out a gun and shot the 20-year-old man, police said. The woman provided first aid until Cleveland EMS arrived.

No arrests have been made in the case, police said.

Correction: A Cleveland police spokesman initially provided an incorrect age for the man.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- No one was hurt in a fire that destroyed a home Thursday morning on Cleveland's East Side.

Firefighters believe a space heater caused the fire that broke out about 7 a.m. at a home on East 68th Street near Dunham Avenue, in the city's Hough neighborhood, the Cleveland Fire Department said.

UPDATE on Dunham: Occupant located safe. No injuries reported. Thanks to @clepublicpower for assistance controlling utilities. #CLEFIRE Companies still working. pic.twitter.com/gztPDaaJDZ  ClevelandFire (@ClevelandFire) October 18, 2018

Firefighters found the home engulfed in flames when they arrived at the scene, Cleveland fire spokesman Lt. Michael Norman said.

No one was in the home when firefighters arrived. Firefighters initially could not account for a resident, but they learned he slept elsewhere last night, Norman said.

The blaze destroyed the home, which could be demolished as early as Thursday afternoon, Norman said.

To comment on this story, visit Thursday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - A million years ago, when I was a young, wet-behind-the-ears journalist in San Francisco, my mentor at the paper, Jim Wood, gave me some sage advice: "No good reporter ever wasted his time at a bar." Meaning, good reporters in bars talked to people and found stuff out.

I want to amend that piece of advice: No good reporter ever wasted his time at a liquor store. I mention this because I was in Minotti's Beverage the other day when I found they were selling alcohol based on the HBO series "Game of Thrones." Say what? The eighth and final season is coming up next year.

Yep. It was true. I bought a bottle of stout called "Mother of Dragons." It was described on the label as a "smoked porter & kriek ale blend. Brewed for those who nurture dragons."

I haven't nurtured any dragons lately, but it was tasty stuff.

But that wasn't all that was being offered at Minotti's. There is also a bottle of something called the Queen of Seven Kingdoms, which contained a beverage called a "Sour Blonde Ale." But there is also Hand of the Queen Barley Wine Ale. HBO, which airs "Game of Thrones," is really getting on the last-season bandwagon.

I recently read a story that said instead of striking the sets in Northern Ireland where "Game of Thrones" was shot, they are turning it into a tourist-style theme park. When I think of theme parks, I think of family-friendly kinds of places. If you're unaware, "Game of Thrones" is anything but family-friendly, unless you're from the Manson Family.

"Game of Thrones" made its bones, as it were, with very graphic violence, not to mention nudity and sex. This is no Disney "Sword in the Stone" or "Excalibur" proper English history. This is blood-and-guts fantasy. GOT author George R.R. Martin has a very feverish imagination when it comes to all this grisly and sexual stuff. I think the R.R. stands for "Rivers of Red." And I'm not talking Kool-Aid.

My friend Shorty and I were fooling around with what we thought would make nice ads for the new "Game of Thrones" theme park. Here's what we came up with:

"Fun for the whole family! Plot to betray your friends and relatives. Let your kids fight with real weapons. Children also get to drink mead. Watch hundreds of people get burned alive on the Dragon Breath Ride. We also host unusual wedding ceremonies. Be one of the few who leave the reception with all your limbs intact!"

As I was leaving Minotti's with my bottle of "Mother of Dragons," I asked a clerk if people were really buying this stuff. He said they were. But he said the best-selling beverage named after a television show wasn't "Game of Thrones" at all. He pointed another wine out to me: "Walking Dead Cabernet Sauvignon." He said it was flying off the shelves. He said if you take a picture of the bar code with your phone, you get different scenes of zombies attacking and eating people.

Cheers!CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Social Security leapt to near the top of the list of Ohio's most-searched political issues this week, according to data compiled by Google in a partnership with cleveland.com.

From Wednesday through Thursday morning, Social Security was the second most frequently searched political topic in Ohio. (As has been the case for weeks, health care was a strong number one.)

For the full week starting on Oct. 11, the federal retirement program, which previously has not rated highly on Ohio's search list, tied with immigration as the state's second-most searched issue. Interest in Social Security was highest in Ohio's 13th Congressional District, represented by Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, and Ohio's 16th District, represented by Republican Jim Renacci.

The spike in interest coincided with a news cycle that began on Monday, when the Trump administration announced a $779 billion federal budget deficit for the 2018 fiscal year. In a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg News, Republican Senate President Mitch McConnell blamed the deficit on unwillingness by Congress to take steps to reduce the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

"It's very disturbing," he said in the interview. "And it's driven by the three biggest entitlement programs that are very popular: Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid."

McConnell went on to say that both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for avoiding difficult decisions on those programs, and that unless Republicans and Democrats each controlled at least part of the federal government -- and shared the political blame for any public backlash to any changes -- it seemed unlikely that any reforms would be accomplished.

On Wednesday, Democrats pounced in response, saying the Republican tax-cut law, which will add a projected $1 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years, was actually to blame for the shortfall. This Wednesday tweet, from Ohio's Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, is a representative example:

In case there was any question about how Washington Republicans planned to pay for their corporate tax cuts



The bottom line: theyre trying to steal the money Ohioans have paid into Medicare and Social Security to fill the hole theyre blowing in the deficit. https://t.co/toyLD1ElLI  Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) October 17, 2018

For reference, here's Google's chart:

Brown has opposed any changes to Social Security, the full benefits for which currently are available to all Americans born between 1955 and 1959 at age 66, but will gradually rise to age 67 for those born after 1960. Renacci, who is challenging Brown for the Senate rather than running for re-election, has said he supports making the program means-tested -- cutting off access for people at a certain income level -- as a step toward making the program fiscally sustainable.

"The problem is career politicians like Sherrod Brown and others," Renacci said during a Thursday interview on WTAM. "Look, it's Republicans too. They're more worried about the next election than the next generation. If we don't do anything with Social Security, it's going to be insolvent."

Without changes, Social Security's reserves will be depleted in 2034, meaning the program will not be able to cover its full benefits, according to the program's administrative trustees.

Other top-searched issues for the week were abortion, the minimum wage, tariffs and guns. Medicare, Medicaid and mental health -- all typically top issues -- didn't make the cut this week.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In a Wednesday interview with one of Ohio's biggest newspapers, Republican Rep. Jim Renacci made explosive but entirely unsubstantiated allegations against Democrat Sherrod Brown, his opponent who is strongly favored to be re-elected to the U.S. Senate.

During an interview seeking the Cincinnati Enquirer's endorsement, Renacci told editors and reporters that "multiple" women recently have reached out to his campaign, claiming that Brown had assaulted them sometime between 1987 and 2004. He said he referred the women to a lawyer who specializes in domestic abuse, but provided no proof or specifics, according to an article The Enquirer published online on Wednesday night about the interview. Renacci refused to identify the lawyer.

Renacci's campaign on Wednesday confirmed his comments to cleveland.com, provided no further details or evidence to verify the allegations.

"They're serious and they're detailed and they're specific," James Slepian, who's serving as a general consultant for Renacci's campaign, said of the allegations the Renacci campaign says it received.

Preston Maddock, a Brown campaign spokesman, said: "Congressman Renacci is both pathetic and irresponsible. He has known that his attacks on Sherrod's family are inappropriate. He has decided to ignore Sherrod's former wife [Larke Rechie's] demand that he stop. And his political desperation is both stunning and disgusting."

Renacci's allegations are remarkable in several ways. One, Renacci has no proof to back up the allegations. Two, it comes in the closing weeks of a campaign in which Brown has consistently led in public polls by 10 points or more, and amid increasing frustration from Ohio Republicans that Renacci has failed to mount a viable campaign.

And three, Renacci for weeks has been weaving Brown's nasty 1986 divorce into a critique of how Democrats and the media handled allegations against Brett Kavanaugh during the contentious process that ultimately saw Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court. As has been widely covered, Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Kavanauh, while a high-school student, had sexually assaulted her during a party.

"He [Kavanaugh] has done so much good, and we're going after him for unsubstantiated claims," Renacci said during an Oct. 5 interview with the editorial board for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. "Dr. Ford's claims haven't been substantiated. The only thing people from Ohio are claiming is that this is ridiculous."

On Wednesday, Renacci told The Enquirer: "It's got to be substantiated. Kavanaugh's wasn't substantiated. In fact, I believe Dr. Ford, her testimony was... to hear that, you know something happened in her life. But it wasn't substantiated that Judge Kavanaugh did it. Here's the problem, when there's substantiation, you shouldn't be attacking people."

During Brown's 1986 divorce, Recchie, his then-wife, alleged in court filings he had been rough with her and frightened her. She is now a supporter who has said their divorce led only to "angry words."

Recchie issued a statement after "Me Too Ohio," a Super PAC, formed by Renacci's political allies, launched a digital campaign calling attention to the divorce allegations on Sept. 13.

"This isn't the first time someone has gone after my family to score cheap political points," Recchie said in a statement at the time. "I'm dismayed that Congressman Renacci would do something this shameless, despite the fact that I've already addressed this matter."

After Renacci and Me Too Ohio launched statewide TV ads on Friday calling attention to the divorce, saying Brown had "physically abused" his ex-wife, the Brown campaign responded by releasing a video from Recchie. The ad was Renacci's first since June.

"Divorce can be difficult and ours was no different. But the political attacks against our family are just wrong," Recchie said in the ad. "...I understand politics can sometimes be nasty, but Jim Renacci should be ashamed."

Renacci raised the issue again on Sunday during a debate in Cleveland with Brown.

"My opponent, Sherrod Brown, has a voluminous record, substantiated claims of abuse," Renacci said. "The people of Ohio need to look at that abuse and understand it. He will say his ex-wife forgave him, God bless her... That situation is a standard of conduct that Sherrod Brown violated, and he should not be serving anymore."

"My former wife asked you to stop attacking our family," Brown said in response. "She called these charges and your attacks despicable."SOLON, Ohio -- Menacing, S.O.M. Center Road: At 2:10 p.m. Oct. 10, police were called to the Verizon Wireless store, 6440 S.O.M. Center Road, where a customer was creating a disturbance and threatening to "shoot up the store."

Police spoke with the customer, a Euclid man, 28, who acknowledged that he had become upset because the store did not have the color phone he wanted.

The man denied threatening to shoot up the store, but customers who witnessed the scene said that the man did, in fact, make such threats.

Police issued the man a misdemeanor citation for menacing.

OVI, U.S. 422: At 12:50 a.m. Oct. 14, police saw a car driven by a Brecksville man, 49, traveling only 35 mph in a 60 mph zone. The car was also seen weaving and crossing over the fog line until police conducted a traffic stop.

The driver showed evidence of impairment and was arrested. At the Solon jail, the man was found to have a blood-alcohol count of .153, above the state minimum for drunk driving of .08.

Police charged the man with OVI, having a prohibited blood-alcohol content and not driving within marked lanes.

OVI, U.S. 422: At 2:40 a.m. Oct. 14, an officer saw a car stopped partially on the median of U.S. 422. When the officer pulled up to check on the vehicle, the car sped away. The officer caught up with the car and initiated a traffic stop.

The officer saw that the driver, a Chagrin Falls woman, 27, showed signs of impairment and arrested her. At the jail, the woman was found to have a blood-alcohol content of .148.

Police charged the woman with OVI, prohibited BAC, not driving within marked lanes, possession of two Ohio driver's licenses and having an open container of alcohol in her car.

The woman fought with officers and, at the jail, spat in the face of a corrections officer. She was then additionally charged with resisting arrest and harassment by an inmate, the latter charge a fifth-degree felony.

OVI, Parkland Boulevard: At 7:45 a.m. Oct. 15, police were called to the business Superior Flux, 6615 Parkland Blvd., where a Cleveland woman, 58, was harassing her boyfriend, an employee of the business.

After speaking with officers, the woman agreed to leave. Police, however, were called back to Superior Flux 30 minutes later, as the woman had returned and was throwing items at her former boyfriend's car.

As police arrested the woman for trespassing, officers noticed on her person the the odor of alcohol. The woman was charged with OVI. Additional charges are pending the results of lab work.

OVI, Solon Road: At 6:30 a.m. Oct. 15, an officer saw a car weaving while being driven on Solon Road. A check of the car's registration revealed that its owner, who appeared to be the person driving the car, had a suspended driver's license.

As the officer caught up with the car, it pulled into a business' parking lot and partially entered a parking space. The officer spoke with the driver, a Bedford man, 49, and learned that he did not work at the business. The man smelled of alcohol.

Field sobriety tests revealed that the man was impaired. He was later shown to have a blood-alcohol content of .121.

The man was charged with OVI, prohibited BAC and driving under suspension.

Drug trafficking, Aurora Road: At 5:30 p.m. Oct. 15, an officer stopped a car that had dark, illegally tinted windows.

The car's driver, an East Cleveland woman, 33, was found to have a suspended driver's license and to be wanted on three police warrants.

The passenger, a Cleveland man, 32, was wanted on four warrants. The man also had in his possession a backpack that held 36 individually wrapped bags of marijuana and a digital scale.

A back-seat passenger was released, while the driver was charged with driving under suspension, illegal window tint and drug possession. The woman was also held on the warrants.

The Cleveland man was charged with drug trafficking and held on the warrants.

Disorderly conduct, Aurora Road: At 7:55 p.m. Oct. 16, an employee of BP/7-Eleven, 34050 Aurora Road, reported that a fellow employee had argued with and threatened her.

The male employee was agitated and loud as he spoke to officers. The female employee wanted him to leave the store and did not wish to pursue charges.

While police were present, the male employee's mother was in the store, yelling profanities and engaging the complainant. Police observed that the mother appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

After being told to calm down, the mother continued to escalate the argument and was eventually arrested. The mother fought with officers as she resisted arrest. Officers had to take the mother, 31, of South Euclid, to the ground in order to place handcuffs on her.

Police charged the mother with disorderly conduct, obstructing official business and resisting arrest.

If you would like to discuss the police blotter, please visit our crime and courts comments page.Acadia Healthcare shares soared Thursday after Reuters reported that the U.S. behavioral health centers operator is in talks with private equity firms about selling itself.

Acadia, which operates a network of nearly 600 behavioral health-care facilities with approximately 17,800 beds in 40 states, has been approached by private equity firms KKR and TPG Global, among others, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the situation. Reuters said no deal was certain.

Shares of Acadia rose by more than 9 percent in morning trading Thursday. Acadia, which has a market cap of $3.4 billion, has seen its shares rise more than 18 percent so far this year. However, its shares have fallen 8 percent over the last 12 months.

Private equity firms have been flocking to health-care companies recently, consolidating the market.

KKR completed a multibillion-dollar deal earlier this month to acquire Envision Healthcare, the nation's largest provider of emergency room doctors.

Acadia, KKR and TPG Global did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.European leaders gathered in Brussels seemingly have a new idea to try to break the current stalemate in Brexit negotiations, but it could prove costly for Prime Minister Theresa May and the U.K.

May is reportedly willing to extend the transition process. This is the portion of time after the U.K. has officially left the EU but when it is allowed to negotiate its future relationship, including a new trade deal with the rest of the EU. It will also give companies and people on both sides time to prepare for the new arrangements. This is currently set to last 21 months, between the exit day on March 29 next year and the end of 2020.

The idea behind the proposal for the extension is to have enough time to negotiate a trade deal with the rest of the EU that will avoid having to use the so-called Irish backstop. This backstop is a future proposal that both the EU and the U.K. need to agree on to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It will only be triggered if both sides do no reach a future trade deal. The EU and the U.K. want to have a backup solution in case that ends up being the case.

This is the issue that is currently blocking progress in Brexit talks.

Danielle Haralambous, U.K. analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC via email: "With the current phase of negotiations in deadlock over the Irish border issue, an extension of the transition period could in theory provide more time to negotiate a trade arrangement that permanently solves it. But this will be a hard-sell to the Brexiteers (those U.K. politicians that have campaigned to leave the EU)."

"They will reject the prospect of another year of financial contributions to the EU and adherence to EU rules," she added.As President Donald Trump continues to ramp up trade pressure on China, Beijing may be "less motivated to cooperate" with the U.S. over sanctions against North Korea, an expert told CNBC Wednesday.

"China has been taking steps to relax its enforcement of sanctions even before the trade tensions with the United States flared up," according to Scott Seaman director of Asia at political risk consulting firm Eurasia Group.

But as the trade war between the world's two largest economies drags on, China could find more reasons to relax its enforcement of sanctions against North Korea, he said.

The U.S. and China are currently embroiled in a trade spat, with each side slapping additional duties on each other in the past few months. The U.S. has imposed extra tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports  with Trump threatening to impose levies on all $500 billion worth of goods from the Asian giant. Beijing has retaliated with additional tariffs on $110 billion worth of U.S. imports.

"The more that Trump puts pressure on China in the economic front, it stands to reason that the Chinese will be less motivated to cooperate well on North Korea. Even if U.S. keeps sanctions in place  which is the expectation  there is a lot of room for China, Russia and other countries to simply ease up on enforcement," Seaman said.China would still like to have a close economic relationship with the U.S. despite current trade tensions, the Asian nation's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

"We believe the overall trend (toward deeper exchange) will not reverse," spokesperson Gao Feng said during a press briefing, according to a CNBC translation. "(We) hope the U.S. and China can look beyond the current situation and realize an even closer economic and trade cooperation with mutual benefits that resonate between the two business communities."

In the last several months, the Trump administration has levied tariffs on an increasing amount of imports from China. The rate of U.S. duties on the latest $200 billion of Chinese goods is also set to increase to 25 percent from 10 percent at the end of the year. China countered with its own tariffs on $60 billion worth of goods from its largest trading partner. That followed tit-for-tat tariffs on $50 billion worth of imports from the other.

But the world's second-largest economy is still relatively more reliant on exports than the U.S. is on imports.

While the effect on most Chinese companies is limited, those whose products have a weaker competitive edge will face a definite impact, Gao said.

"At this time, most businesses are still full of confidence in the face of these challenges," he added. "Individual governments will also implement appropriate measures to help businesses and workers cope any difficulties that may appear."Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing with Tim Sloan, chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Co., not pictured, in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017.

The Fed slapped the bank with the penalty in response to Wells Fargo's 2016 fake accounts scandal, in which employees opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts. The order limits Wells Fargo from growing its balance sheet until it takes actions that improve its governance and oversight, "including holding senior management accountable."

In her Thursday letter, Warren writes that Sloan is "deeply implicated in the bank's repeated and egregious misconduct," and urged the central bank to continue to enforce a February order that bars Wells Fargo from growing any larger until it improves its internal controls.

Warren, a consumer advocate who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, has long been Wells Fargo's chief critic in Congress, repeatedly calling for top officials at the lender to be removed.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell calling on the Fed to maintain its growth cap on Wells Fargo until the bank replaces CEO Tim Sloan.

In a statement, a Wells Fargo spokesperson said the company "continues to have constructive dialogue with the Federal Reserve to ensure that we fully satisfy our consent order requirements."

"We are also confident that the transformation of the company over the last two years, including our efforts to make things right with our customers, will contribute to resolution of the issues cited within the consent order, especially in our operational and compliance risk management structure," the spokesperson said.

In response to the order, the bank pledged to replace a number of board members. John Stumpf, who was the CEO at the time of the 2016 scandal, resigned in October 2016, elevating then-COO Sloan to the position.

Sloan has spent more than 30 years at the bank, including stints as its chief financial officer and head of the wholesale banking division.

Sloan told analysts Friday on the bank's third-quarter earnings call that he expects the order to be enforced through the first part of 2019. The order has been of concern to shareholders, and Wells has seen its stock trail rivals like J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America.

For its part, the bank has said that the cap hurt its performance less than it originally anticipated. It's a sentiment shared by analysts, despite some sluggishness in the company's revenue growth.

"Realistically, we do not believe that the asset cap has had quantitative ramifications so much as qualitative ones. Nevertheless, we get enough questions about it to believe that investors will be relieved when it is gone," analysts at Sandler O'Neill and Partners wrote earlier this month.

Warren and Sloan have gone back and forth over the bank's response to that scandal, as well as a number of more recent charges of misconduct against the lender. In addition to the fake accounts scandal, last year it was reported that Wells Fargo charged more than 800,000 customers for auto insurance that they did not need. The bank has also landed in hot water for overcharging clients for a variety of other transactions.

Wells Fargo has apologized for the scandals and pledged to refund affected customers.

After Warren criticized Sloan's compensation package earlier this year, in which Sloan saw a 35 percent raise, Sloan told reporters that "most of her comments are both ill-informed and inappropriate."

"It's not surprising I disagree with almost everything Elizabeth Warren says," Sloan said of the Massachusetts senator in March.

The letter from Warren marks a return for the former Harvard Law School professor to her bread-and-butter issues.

The Democrat, widely considered to be a potential 2020 presidential contender, has been dogged by criticism this month after she released a DNA test defending her claim of Native American heritage. The move earned criticism from the left and right, and angered Native American groups.

Warren's gambit was in response to repeated goading from President Donald Trump, who derisively refers to Warren as "Pocahontas."

WATCH: Five market experts break down how to invest as interest rates spikeOne of the many morsels of palace intrigue found in Bob Woodward's explosive book about the Trump administration published earlier this year revealed one of President Donald Trump's curious strategies to reduce the U.S. deficit.

"Just run the presses  print money," Trump told his top economic advisor, Gary Cohn, according to Woodward's account. Cohn, who entered the White House from Goldman Sachs despite being a registered Democrat  and an ardent supporter of free trade  declined.

"You don't get to do it that way," he told the president, according to Woodward. "We have huge deficits and they matter. The government doesn't keep a balance sheet like that."

Trump has said the quotes in the book, "Fear," were made up. He called the book "a con on the public." For his part, Cohn, who resigned earlier this year, has issued what could be called a nondenial denial, saying that the book "does not accurately portray my experience at the White House."

In an interview Thursday on CNBC's "Fast Money Halftime Report," the former administration official again declined to issue an outright denial.

Asked directly by CNBC's Scott Wapner if the president asked him to print money, Cohn demurred.

"Look, the president wants to grow the U.S. economy," Cohn said, after a pause. "The president ran on a platform of growing the U.S. economy, bringing jobs back, and creating wage growth, and you're seeing that. Look at the data now. There are 7 million unfilled jobs in the United States. We are finally starting to see some wage growth in the system."

Wapner asked again, "I get it, but did the president ask you to do that to deal with the deficit?"Goldman Sachs pulled one of its top executives from attending a conference in Saudi Arabia after the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to CEO .



The firm was set to send Dina Powell to the conference but decided against it amid the uproar over Khashoggi's apparent murder, Solomon said in an interview with CNBC's Wilfred Frost on Thursday. Khashoggi vanished earlier this month following a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Powell serves on the New York-based bank's powerful management committee and had a stint as a senior advisor to the Trump administration.



"This incident is unacceptable, and clearly they have to answer questions," Solomon said. "How they answer those questions and how more information becomes apparent around this will have an impact on how we all interact."



Solomon, who officially began as CEO of Goldman on Oct. 1, is tasked with continuing the transformation of the company from a primarily Wall Street firm to one that reaches far more retail and corporate customers. Part of his challenge is to seek more revenue from the firm's traditional clients among governments and sovereign wealth funds.



"With respect to Saudi Arabia over the last couple of years, we've listened as they've talked about their vision to participate more broadly in the global economy and diversify economically and also to remake or remodel their society," Solomon said. "We've listened and watched that. And to the degree that they could deliver on that, that would be good for Saudi Arabia and good for the world."

 CNBC's Tom Franck contributed to this report.Goldman Sachs warned clients about a downturn coming for the semiconductor sector but still recommends some chip stocks.

"We foresee a cyclical correction approaching and recommend investors to stay selective in Semis," Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari said in a note Thursday.

Nvidia is Goldman's top choice in the industry, as the firm believes Nvidia continues to have a strong balance sheet. The firm reiterated a buy rating on Nvidia shares and added the stock to its conviction list of stock picks. Nvidia stock fell 0.5 percent in trading Thursday.

Goldman downgraded Analog Devices and Maxim Integrated Products to sell from neutral, as well as Teradyne to neutral from buy, as the firm said there is "an increasingly negative outlook for" analog chipmakers "in particular."

The firm said its No. 1 reason for a coming correction in the industry stems from the number of monthly semiconductor units "tracking meaningfully above what we consider to be the long-term trend-line."Cannabis retail in the United States is fraught with "points of dissonance" in the stores that exist today, retail industry veteran Peter Horvath, who now runs a cannabis-focused consumer products company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Horvath, a former L Brands and American Eagle Outfitters executive whose newest employer, Green Growth Brands, will come public later this year, said he realized this when he visited 100 cannabis stores in the United States on a mission to understand the landscape.

The idea was to visit all of them quickly "so that, eventually, you can see what the patterns are," Horvath told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer in an exclusive interview.

"In most retail experiences, there's too many points of dissonance. In cannabis, it's the same, except they're even more extreme," the CEO said. "There are things to admire, but generally, every single store is underperforming its true market potential."

Horvath described his experiences at the stores as "overwhelming." Often, he said, there's a security guard at the door in a bulletproof vest and a gun who verifies each customer's age  "very inviting," he quipped  followed by a well-staffed, but disorganized retail experience.

"It's not organized in a way that's intuitive," Horvath said. "You're worried: am I in line? Are they going to make me buy something if I just want to ask a question? In this case, I got to the desk, ready to buy something, and they said, 'Did you register?' Uh, no. 'Oh, you have to register at the desk in the front.'"

That experience spoke to the disarray at many marijuana retailers that are currently operating in the United States, Horvath said, qualifying that "everybody's doing the best they can."

And, as an experienced retail executive leading a company backed by the Schottensteins, a family that helped build retail giants like DSW and American Eagle Outfitters, Horvath is setting out to trounce the competition.

"We've been fortunate enough to be part of the teams and leading the strategies that yielded the No. 1 lingerie business in the world [in L Brands' Victoria's Secret], the No. 1 personal care products business in the world in Bath & Body Works, the No. 1 denim business in North America in American Eagle, and the No. 1 shoe specialty business in North America, DSW," the CEO said.

"We think not only are we maybe the first guys you've met in this industry who've operated multi-billion-dollar businesses, have taken them public in the U.S. markets and done all those earnings conference calls, but also, we've built brands from scratch and brought them to consumers, competed for consumers with everyone else and the result is we came out on top," Horvath continued. "So I'd say the team we've put together is arguably one of the strongest retail teams in any market, let alone cannabis."Digital cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethernum, Dash, Monero and Litecoin. Chesnot | Getty Images

When Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke learned in January that hackers cracked a 40-character password and cleaned out their cryptocurrency wallet, they did not go to the police or alert the tokens' issuer, the Berlin-based technology group IOTA. They bought more coins. The Cyprus-based German couple, who describe themselves as financial educators, figured they had no chance of recovering the coins and it was not even clear who might take up their case. Yet they took the roughly $14,000 loss in stride  something that comes with the territory when one bets on a new, exciting technology in a yet unregulated market. "We really believe in cryptocurrencies. We have studied this for about a year before investing, so we are aware of the risks," Peggy Lachmann-Anke said. "There was nothing we could do." Far from unusual, the episode is emblematic for a market where few rules apply and where investors' faith in the blockchain technology goes hand in hand with the belief that it also helps criminals cover their tracks so well that trying to catch them is a fool's errand. Patrick Wyman, FBI supervisory special agent at the financial crimes section of the agency's anti-money laundering unit acknowledges cryptocurrencies pose some unique challenges. "A decentralized currency system like bitcoin, or another form of virtual currency is not governed by any entity, suspicious reporting activity, and any anti-money laundering compliance," Wyman told Reuters. Various estimates show cryptocurrency crime is on the rise, keeping pace with the market's rapid growth. That forces investigators to focus on high-profile cases, security professionals and officials say, effectively leaving small investors to their own devices. "We do not pretend that every law enforcement agency is devoting resources to every single crime. That would not be possible," said Jaroslav Jakubcek, an analyst at Europol, which serves as a center for the European Union's law enforcement cooperation, expertise and intelligence.

Unreported cases

Officials still encourage people to report cryptocurrency theft to local police like any other crime, saying failing to do so only emboldens criminals. Yet because many victims simply do not see the point, cryptocurrency theft is far more common than any published estimates suggest, security professionals say.

According to financial research firm Autonomous NEXT and Crypto Aware, which works with investors affected by crypto scams, about 15 percent of cryptocurrencies have been stolen between 2012 and the first half of 2018, representing a cumulative $1.7 billion in value at the time of the theft and with a rising tendency. In the first half of this year alone, more than $800 million has already been stolen, according to the data. Yet Lex Sokolin, a partner and global director of fintech strategy at the firm, estimates that as much as 85 percent of crimes go unreported and says the published statistics only represent publicly reported heists. Reuters interviews with half a dozen victims paint a similar picture. Out of that group only two reported their losses to the authorities and one soured on cryptocurrency investments. Armin Fischer, a Vienna-based IT specialist said he lost about $5,300 in ether coins in a phishing scam in the summer of 2017 and immediately alerted the local police just to find out that the duty officer had no idea what he was talking about. He said it took many months of knocking on doors to get his case ultimately taken up by Vienna prosecutors' office, but it is still pending. Fisher says by now he has had enough. "I have seen firsthand how big the security leaks are." Others are more philosophical. Dave Appleton, a blockchain developer for HelloGold, a gold trading app company in Kuala Lumpur, said he lost about $3,000 of ether coins when scammed by a fake site touting a startup's token pre-sale. He said he just moved on, glad he did not lose more. "The point is there's no one to report the crime to," Appleton said. "I am not sure what country or jurisdiction it would come under." According ICO tracker Coinschedule a record $21.3 billion flowed into new tokens so far this year as investors keep snapping up "initial coin offerings," undeterred by high-profile heists, bitcoin's and other currencies' slide from late 2017 peaks, and government warnings of widespread fraud and theft.

Millions at stake

David Jevans, chief executive of cybersecurity firm CipherTrace in Menlo Park, California, estimates that even when exchanges or trading platforms get hacked, perhaps only a fifth of stolen coins is recovered because of the ease with which digital tokens can move across several borders. "You have to get law enforcement in five countries interested enough, have time enough, and have evidence enough to open a case," he said. "By the time they agree, get the information, do all the paperwork, the money has been moved."

Security experts say in most cases millions need to be at stake to justify such an effort. U.S. entrepreneur and long-time cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin, who says he got robbed twice, learned firsthand that not all hacks are created equal. He said first time when criminals accessed his cellphone with stolen SIM card credentials, emptied a wallet connected to it, and tricked his friends into sending money by impersonating him on Skype, he contacted a friend at the FBI. But once she learned that only $60,000 got stolen, she advised him to file a report via the FBI's internet crime center website. Terpin said he did, but never heard back. Then, when last January he lost almost $24 million in tokens from his mobile account, he went straight after the service provider AT&T, filing a $224 million lawsuit accusing it of negligence that allowed "digital identity theft," a claim AT&T denies. Undeterred, Terpin says he remains committed to blockchain comparing it to the early days of Amazon.com Inc when the online retailer faced much skepticism and even derision. "That's similar to today's narrative that all ICOs (initial coin offerings) are scams and nothing will ever be developed of value because they're not already fully deployed," he said. Steadfast commitment to the new technology and belief that it gives sophisticated criminals the upper hand mean that even some multimillion heists go unreported. For example, when hackers stole about $9 million worth of ether tokens from a Zug, Switzerland-based company Swarm City in July 2017, the peer-to-peer digital platform did not report the theft to the police, business leader Bernd Lapp said. "It's impossible to track and return the funds. We live and die with this technology."

WATCH: Should you invest in a cryptocurrency?Jamal Khashoggi, the missing Washington Post columnist who was allegedly murdered by a Saudi government-backed hit squad in the country's consulate in Turkey, warned of Arab governments' efforts to quash free expression in what is apparently his final piece for the newspaper.

"Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate," Khashoggi wrote in the column, which was sent to the Post by his translator a day after he was reported missing in October.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi royal family who had been in self-imposed exile in the U.S., reportedly entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to pick up a document for his wedding. He was never seen outside the building again, and Turkish officials say they have audio recordings proving he was murdered and dismembered by a team of 15 Saudi agents.

In his column, Khashoggi lamented the lack of an adequate international response in cases where journalists or media outlets have been stifled by Arab governments.

"These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence," Khashoggi wrote.

The Saudi government maintains that Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he entered. But multiple news outlets, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the kingdom is currently preparing a report that will admit Khashoggi was accidentally killed during an interrogation gone wrong. That report, which may still change, will aim to distance the Saudi royal family from culpability, according to news outlets.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that U.S. spy agencies are "increasingly convinced" that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has ties to some of the suspected killers, bears some responsibility in the alleged murder.

But President Donald Trump has signaled that he is not yet on board with the criticisms leveled against Saudi Arabia by the media, Congress and the international community.

"Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent," Trump said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. He compared the allegations against the Saudis to multiple sexual misconduct allegations made against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process.

Observers say Trump is reluctant to condemn the Saudis because of his own business ties to them. "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million," Trump said during a presidential campaign rally in Alabama in August 2015.

He denied having financial interests in Saudi Arabia in a tweet Wednesday.

Trump tweet

The president sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to speak with King Salman about Khashoggi's case. In a statement that day, Pompeo said, "During each of today's meetings the Saudi leadership strongly denied any knowledge of what took place in their consulate in Istanbul."

Khashoggi's column, published by the Post on Wednesday night, said that "domestic forces vying for power" in Arab countries have created a version of the "Iron Curtain," the metaphorical barrier isolating the former Soviet Union during the Cold War.

To counteract the authoritarian trends, Khashoggi said Arabs should be given ways to consume more international media in order to be informed about global events.

"Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed," he wrote. "They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change."A freighter is anchored at the international container pier at Tokyo port in Japan.

Japan's exports fell in September for the first time since 2016 as shipments to the United States and China declined, adding to concerns about the broadening impact of an escalating Sino-U.S. trade war.

The data comes days after a Reuters poll showed a third of Japanese companies have been affected by the trade conflict between the world's two biggest economies with firms fretting about slower Chinese demand.

Japanese policymakers also worry about the overall economic impact of the international trade tensions. A powerful typhoon that hit Japan last month has added to the strain on factories, disrupting output and physical distribution.

Ministry of Finance (MOF) data out on Thursday showed Japanese exports fell 1.2 percent in September from a year earlier, against a 1.9 percent increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll, following a 6.6 percent gain in August.

It was the first decline since November 2016.

"The continued weakness in exports in September suggests that economic activity may have stagnated in Q3," Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.

Japan's exports to the United States declined 0.2 percent in the year to September, dragged down by falling shipments of construction and mining machinery, auto parts and medicines.

U.S.-bound auto exports amounted to some 143,000 cars, down 7.0 percent in a snapback from the previous year's brisk shipments.

Imports from the United States rose 3.1 percent in September, led by crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, helping reduce Japan's trade surplus with the United States by 4.0 percent year-on-year to 590 billion yen ($5.24 billion).

The U.S. Trade Representative's office told Congress on Tuesday it would open trade talks with Japan, describing the country as an important yet underperforming market for U.S. exports.

Tokyo and Washington last month agreed to start trade talks in an arrangement that, for now, avoids the worst-case scenario of an imminent 25 percent tariff on cars.

Trump has made clear he is unhappy with Japan's $69 billion trade surplus with the United States - nearly two-thirds of it from auto exports - and wants a two-way agreement to address it.

Tokyo pushed back on a straight bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Washington had sought, fearing it could put Japan under pressure to open politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture.

Thursday's trade data showed exports to China, Japan's biggest trading partner, fell 1.7 percent in the year to September, the first decline in seven months, dragged down by semiconductor production equipment.

Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japan's overall exports, rose 0.9 percent.

Overall imports rose 7.0 percent in the year to September, versus the median estimate for a 13.7 percent annual increase.

The trade balance was surplus of 139.6 billion yen, compared with the median estimate for a shortfall of 50.0 billion yen.Filipino fast-food chain Jollibee is set to open its first U.K. store this month in London's Earl's Court.

Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC), which has a market capitalization of around $5 billion, owns 14 brands with 4,300 restaurants around the world. Its Jollibee brand has over 1,300 locations and is the largest fast-food chain in the Philippines, operating a domestic network of over 1,000 stores.

The corporation has also embarked on a self-confessed "aggressive" international expansion strategy that has resulted in operations in the U.S., Vietnam, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Brunei.

Ernesto Tanmantiong, Jollibee's CEO, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" Thursday that the company had built on its previous international experience to draw up a strategy for its U.K. venture.

"We've learned from the past, and what we do now is build the brand better and build the international team," he said. "In the past we have just sent the Filipino team, but now we have a dedicated international team and they're quite competent in international markets. We also make sure that the supply chain is properly established."

Tweet1

Tanmantiong noted that Jollibee's challenge in new markets wasn't adapting the product base to suit market tastes  it was finding the right location.

"We usually look at where the Filipinos are  and Earl's Court is a highly populated area for Filipinos," he said. "So we start from there and then work on marketing to cross over into the mainstream market."

He added that Jollibee's flagship product, fried chicken called "Chickenjoy," was "universally accepted" in international markets.Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, went after China on Thursday for digging in its heels in trade talks with the U.S.

"They are unfair traders. They are illegal traders. They have stolen our intellectual property," Kudlow said at the Detroit Economic Club on Thursday. "China has not responded positively to any of our asks."

"America has the greatest technology in the world; it is the backbone of our economy," he said. "China can't seem to do that, so they steal it. We can't allow that."

Kudlow's comments come as the U.S. and China have slapped tariffs on billions of dollars worth of each other's goods. These protectionist trade policies have stoked fears of a possible slowdown in the global economy and have kept investors on edge for most of 2018.

"We have to defend America's interests; we have to defend American workers and farmers," Kudlow said. "We have used tariffs as part of [President Donald Trump's] negotiating strategy, and he won't let go of his criticism that China must change."

Kudlow also pointed out that the U.S. economy is stronger than China's, noting the Chinese yuan's fall is a sign that investors have lost confidence in their economy.

"We are in a boom, and they know it," Kudlow said.

WATCH: This trade deal may be what Trump needs to take on ChinaView of the City of London at dusk Martin Keene/PA Images via Getty Images

London's financial services sector attracted more foreign investment last year than any of its global counterparts, according to a new report by the city's governing body. The city's financial district secured more foreign direct investment (FDI) last year than eight other major hubs, according to a report from the City of London Corporation published Wednesday. It said that London secured 55 FDI projects in 2017  more than twice the number of those received by New York and Frankfurt. An FDI project is generally an overseas investment into a new or existing project where the foreign investor secures majority-ownership. Despite Brexit uncertainty, London attracted 28 percent of all FDI projects secured by the nine financial centers assessed (London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, New York City, Paris, Singapore, and Tokyo).

Singapore first for total value

However, the total value of foreign investment into the city's financial services sector was 4.23 billion ($5.54 billion) last year  placing the city in second place to Singapore, which received capital investments from overseas worth 4.73 billion. Hong Kong's financial services received investments worth 3.37 billion, while New York's FDI totalled 0.71 billion  placing the city behind Tokyo, Dublin and Paris. Meanwhile, financial services across the U.K. secured overseas investments worth 8.6 billion between 2013 and 2017.

Political tensionLondon's Gatwick Airport has unveiled a growth strategy which includes a controversial plan to use an existing taxiway as a permanent second runway.

Gatwick was recently overlooked for expansion by a U.K. government decision to back a third runway at rival airport, Heathrow. Campaigners have now accused Gatwick's New York-based owners of expansion "by the backdoor."

At present, the second runway at Gatwick is currently only allowed to be used for emergencies or when the main runway is closed for maintenance. However, that 40-year restriction is set to expire at the end of 2019.

Gatwick said Thursday that it believed it could bring the standby runway into routine use for departing flights by the mid 2020's, potentially years before additional capacity is online at Heathrow.

The Chief Executive Officer at London Gatwick, Stewart Wingate, said in a statement Thursday that with the U.K. set to leave the European Union, global connections are "needed more than ever," before adding that bringing the standby runway into routine use would unlock "much-needed new capacity."

At present, the main runway and standby runway are just 198 metres apart, 12 metres too close to satisfy official guidelines set down by The International Civil Aviation Organization. However, Gatwick believe they can lay additional asphalt, repaint markings, and move landing lights to satisfy the legal requirements.

The airport also claimed that their plan would meet safety rules, reduce delays, and would have no impact on noise footprint. But some local residents disagree and are furious at the announcement.

"This is totally underhand, a stab in the heart for residents that thought they could get on with their lives after the runway debate was won by Heathrow Airport," said Sally Pavey chair of CAGNE (Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emission).Andrew Burton | Getty Images

Oil prices fell on Thursday as the fourth weekly increase in U.S. crude inventories suggested ample supply, while Saudi-U.S. tension and falling Iranian exports lent support. Crude futures came off one-month lows in early trading as U.S. stock markets bounced. But equities turned sharply lower in late morning trade, and the oil market fell to session lows. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude ended Thursday's session down $1.10, or 1.6 percent, at $68.65, after hitting a one-month low at $68.47 earlier in the session. WTI plunged 3 percent on Wednesday. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 67 cents at $79.38 a barrel at 2:30 p.m. ET. It fell as low as $78.69 earlier in the day, down $8 from a nearly four-year high reached on Oct. 3. On Wednesday, government data showed U.S. crude inventories rose 6.5 million barrels last week, the fourth straight weekly increase and almost three times what analysts had forecast.

Inventories rose sharply even as U.S. crude production slipped 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 10.9 million bpd due to the effects of offshore facilities closing temporarily for Hurricane Michael. "Stocks are building," said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix. "It's a continuous trend. Week after week, it does start to add up." Helping to support prices, traders on Thursday said a report by market intelligence firm Genscape showed that stockpiles at Cushing rose less than 1 million barrels from Friday through Tuesday. Oil prices had been rising this week on concern about a decline in Iranian exports due to U.S. sanctions and tension between the United States and Saudi Arabia after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. lawmakers pointed the finger at the Saudi leadership over the disappearance of the Saudi critic, suggesting sanctions could be possible. Saudi Arabia denies that it had any role in Khashoggi's disappearance. But President Donald Trump on Wednesday gave Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt in the journalist's disappearance, suggesting the White House may not take additional action against Saudi Arabia. Investors worry Saudi Arabia could use oil supply to retaliate against critics. But Saudi Arabia has assured OPEC that it is "committed, capable and willing" to ensure there will be no shortage in the oil market, OPEC's secretary-general said on Wednesday.Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said "there will be consequences" if missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi was indeed murdered, and that the U.S. will not "solely rely" on information provided by Saudi Arabia.

"If what has been alleged occurred, if an innocent person lost their life at the hands of violence, that's to be condemned," Pence told reporters on a tarmac in Colorado.

"If a journalist in particular lost their life at the hands of violence, that's an affront to the free and independent press around the world," he added. "And there will be consequences."

Pence appeared to take a tougher stance on Khashoggi's disappearance than either President Donald Trump or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had up to that point. Both men had said in public comments this week that the Saudis denied killing the journalist.

But as he left to board Air Force One for an event in Montana, Trump said for the first time that Khashoggi appears to be dead.

"It certainly looks that way to me," Trump said when asked by reporters, adding that the consequences for Khashoggi's death will have to be "very severe."

The White House did not immediately reply to CNBC's request for an additional comment on Pence's remarks.

Trump had pushed back on the growing chorus of criticism against Saudi Arabia, saying in an Associated Press interview Tuesday that he did not like how the process was playing out as a case of "you're guilty until proven innocent."

Khashoggi, who wrote columns for The Washington Post and had criticized Saudi Arabia's royal family, has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, on Oct. 2, reportedly to collect a document for his wedding. Turkish government officials told The New York Times that audio evidence proves Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered by a crew of government-backed Saudis.

Saudi officials told news outlets that Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he arrived. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assured Pompeo this week that his government is conducting a "thorough, transparent, and timely investigation that provides answers," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Tuesday.

On Thursday, after briefing Trump on his overseas meetings with Saudi and Turkish officials this week, Pompeo said he advised the president to give Saudi Arabia "a few more days to complete" that investigation.

The U.S. wants to "allow the process to play out," Pompeo added in his remarks. He also said the U.S. would look at the findings from Turkey's investigation.

Pence said the U.S. "won't solely rely on" the information provided by the Saudis. "We'll collect all the evidence, and then the president will have a decision about what the proper course of action is for us going forward," Pence said.

While cautioning that the U.S. will "wait for the facts and wait for all the information to come in," Pence said that "the world needs to know what happened here, and those who are responsible need to be held to account."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks after his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, October 18, 2018.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday he told President Donald Trump to give Saudi Arabia "a few more days to complete" an investigation into the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Pompeo said that Saudi officials told him during a visit to the kingdom this week that "they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion."

Minutes after Pompeo spoke to reporters, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuhin announced in a tweet that he had also met with Trump and Pompeo in the White House. They decided during that meeting that Mnuchin would rescind his attendance at the Future Investment Initiative summit scheduled to start next week in Riyadh, the secretary said.

Mnuchin tweet

Numerous other media outlets, including CNBC, have also dropped out of the conference.

Pompeo's remarks came just after the meeting, in which the Trump administration's top diplomat briefed the president on his overseas trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey as tensions continue to rise over unanswered questions surrounding Khashoggi.

A Saudi journalist and critic of the kingdom's royal family, Khashoggi entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 2 and has not been seen since. Turkish officials have told news outlets that Khashoggi was murdered by a Saudi-backed hit team inside the consulate, but Saudi Arabia insists Khashoggi left the consulate shortly after he arrived.

U.S. lawmakers of both parties have criticized Saudi Arabia in the wake of Khashoggi's disappearance. A bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to Trump last week triggering a statute that requires the administration to investigate the incident.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Thursday morning, Pompeo said the U.S. wants to "allow the process to play out."

Javers tweet

Trump, in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, said he did not like how the process was playing out as a case of "you're guilty until proven innocent." Trump compared the treatment of Saudi Arabia to allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process.

"I will say they were very strong in their denial about themselves knowing," Trump added during that interview.

The president announced in a tweet Monday that he was sending Pompeo to speak with Saudi Arabia's King Salman. On that trip, Pompeo also flew to Ankara, the capitol of Turkey, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the missing journalist.

In his remarks Thursday, Pompeo also said it was important to be mindful of the United States' "long strategic relationship" with the Saudi kingdom.

Trump previously batted away questions about his financial ties to Saudi Arabia, saying in a tweet Tuesday that he has "no financial interests in" the kingdom.

Trump tweetPresident Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and had executed some of them and promised to kill more.

Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals, adding that Islamic State was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces.

Putin did not specify what the militants' demands were.

"They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day. The day before yesterday they executed 10 people," Putin told the Valdai discussion forum in Sochi.

The TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that IS militants had taken around 700 hostages in Syria's Deir-al Zor province after attacking a refugee camp in an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces on Oct.13.

TASS said the militants had kidnapped around 130 families and taken them to the city of Hajin.Qatar Airways, a longtime foe of the biggest U.S. carriers, is still considering an investment in an airline in the United States, CEO Akbar Al Baker told reporters at an event in New York on Thursday.

Qatar Airways in the summer of 2017 surprisingly expressed intent to buy up to 10 percent of American Airlines, a move that was rebuffed by the Fort Worth-based airline.

American, along with Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, had feuded with government-owned Qatar Airways and two other Middle Eastern airlines, Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways, over alleged government subsidies and their rapid expansion. The Middle Eastern airlines agreed earlier this year to make financial statements public to quiet the conflict, but the agreement stopped short of forcing the foreign carriers to cut flights.

Tensions continue over the issue, despite the agreements. Al Baker said he is considering pulling out of the Oneworld alliance, which includes American Airlines; British Airways' parent, International Airlines Group; Cathay Pacific; Qantas and Latam.

American Airlines announced it was ending its code-sharing agreement with Qatar Airways in March and a similar agreement with Etihad, saying "relationships between American and these carriers no longer make sense for us."

Al Baker accused American of creating a "bad feeling" and said the Qatar government can invest in its state-owned airline. He said he expects to make a decision "soon."

"American is a founding member of Oneworld, and we hope the alliance's membership remains intact," said American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller about Qatar Airways' threats to leave the group.

"As in any family, there are differences of opinion from time to time between individual members of the alliance," said Michael Blunt, a spokesman for Oneworld. "We always hope that they can be resolved quickly so all parties can come together to focus on the key issue for us all  providing great service for our customers all around the world."

But Al Baker, whose airline is a major customer of both Boeing and European rival Airbus, said he is still open to investing in a U.S. airline.

"Any stable CEO of an airline would want to invest in the United States," said Al Baker.

JetBlue Airways and Qatar Airways each have an investment in JetSuite, a private and scheduled charter company, but Al Baker declined to say whether his carrier would invest in JetBlue directly or any other airline.

"At the moment we are happy with what we have," he said. "As you know, there is a lot of resistance to Qatar Airways investing" in one of the three big U.S. airlines, but if the opportunity were to arise and it had the blessing of the U.S. government the carrier would be open to it, he said.

Al Baker also said he expects Qatar Airways to privatize in the next decade.

WATCH: Qatar: The little country causing some big headaches in Trump WorldRep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., arrives for the House Republican Conference meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call Group | Getty Images

If you believed 2016 candidate Donald Trump, you could hardly have expected what you're hearing in 2018 campaigns  from fellow Republicans or the president himself. Candidate Trump promised to build a border wall financed by Mexico and restore public safety. He promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a better, cheaper alternative. He promised to give middle-income Americans big tax-cuts and still reduce federal debt  even while rebuilding infrastructure and protecting Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Trump's failure to do those things is emblazoned across the up-is-down messages from Republican candidates and the White House two weeks before Election Day. There is no border wall. Underscoring that fact in capital letters, Trump now implores Mexico on Twitter to stop an immigration "onslaught" or "I will call up the U.S. military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" He warned of "MANY CRIMINALS" on the way, blaming Democrats even though Republicans control Congress.

There is no Obamacare replacement. And because voters fear the all-GOP government threatens one of its core innovations  guaranteed coverage for people with pre-existing conditions  Trump now claims to embrace it. There is no infrastructure program. Middle-class tax cuts proved so small that many families barely notice them, while cash-rich corporations use theirs to reward affluent investors. Treasury data shows the deficit soaring. The result: Trump brought his Cabinet before television cameras this week to demand 5 percent budget cuts while blaming out-of-power Democrats for over-spending. Since most voters believe the tax-cut helped corporations and the rich more than them, Republican candidates have sidelined it as a campaign theme. Instead, Republican candidates echo Trump in seeking to alarm a conservative base disproportionately composed of older, less-educated whites in small towns and rural areas. Across the country, they link Democrats with financial ruin, cultural disorder, and physical danger. Along with familiar foils like House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, those warnings often rely for emotional punch on images of non-whites. One GOP video highlights African-American Democrat Maxine Waters exhorting "an unhinged mob"; another uses violent street scenes from Venezuela to depict "the Democrats' socialist future." In individual House races, those arguments can be difficult to make. Republicans try nevertheless, sometimes with flimsy evidence.

A screenshot from Rep. Duncan Hunter's attack ad against Democratic rival Ammar Campa-Najjar. Source: Duncan D. Hunter For Congress

In Minnesota's 1st district, one Republican attack uses an image of African-American athlete Colin Kaepernick to rip Democrat Dan Feehan for backing protestors who kneel during the national anthem. "Real patriots stand," the ad declares  even though Feehan is a combat war veteran. In Virginia's 7th district, another Republican ad links Democrat Abigail Spanberger to terrorism for her brief stint as a substitute English teacher at a Muslim school outside Washington. Spanberger later became a CIA counter-terror agent. In New York's 19th district, a Republican ad shows African-American Democrat Antonio Delgado as a hoodie-wearing "big-city rapper," referring to his one decade-old album. Delgado is a Rhodes Scholar who graduated from Harvard Law School. In Ohio's 1st district, a Republican ad accuses Aftab Pureval, an Ohio-born Democrat of Indian-Tibetan descent, of "selling out Americans" over his former law firm's lobbying related to Libya's 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103. Pureval had nothing to do with either the lobbying or the attack, which occurred when he was six years old. In California's 50th district, another GOP ad calls Democratic candidate Ammar Campa-Najjar a "security risk" seeking to "infiltrate Congress." A San Diego-born Christian of Palestinian and Mexican-American descent, Campa-Najjar held a security clearance while working in the Obama White House.Richard Branson didn't understand the difference between two business terms for years. When a colleague finally set him straight, it taught him an important lesson about strengths and weaknesses.

Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Branson never pursued formal business education. A dyslexic, he dropped out of school at 16 to run his first company. That hustle and vision eventually led to a slate of successful companies.

As he ran his businesses, he learned on the job. Still, some business terminology was never completely clear to the founder. "I've been running the largest group of private companies in Europe, but haven't been able to know the difference between net and gross," he said with a laugh during a TED talk. "So board meetings have been fascinating."

Net profits are a company's earnings minus its expenses and gross profit is a company's total earnings.

Branson hid that he didn't know the difference for years, he said in a 2010 interview with the Financial Times when answering the question "Have you ever lied at work?"

While he thought he'd hid it well, his confusion was obvious to those attending board meetings when he'd ask if the numbers presented meant good news or bad news. Finally, around 18 years ago, an executive took him aside for a lesson.

Branson's colleague drew a diagram of a net in the sea to help him grasp the concept. The fish in the net were profits left over. The fish not in the net were the gross. With his colleague's help, Branson "finally worked it all out," he said. At the time, Branson was in his 50s.

"If I'm not interested in something, I just don't grasp it," Branson said. "As somebody who's dyslexic, you often have some bizarre situations."

Though his dyslexia made some teachers think he was lazy while in school, Branson says his dyslexia helped him think creatively and to simplify complicated topics. This "has been a huge asset when building our Virgin businesses," he wrote on his blog.

His dyslexia also encouraged him to delegate and lean on experts who knew topics such as finance better than he did. This is an essential skill since entrepreneurs must learn to delegate in order to grow, he writes in a blog post.

"I was never great with numbers, so rather than do the job badly, I found [Virgin Group's first accountant] Jack," he said.

Branson knew to put his focus on areas that were more critical to his vision of success. "What matters in business is that you can create an airline that people actually want to fly on," he wrote.

Still, it's important to ask for help, no matter the topic. If you're honest with yourself, you can learn a lot, Richard Branson wrote recently on his blog. "There's no shame in admitting the places where you may fall short, and engaging with people who can help," he writes.

This article has been updated to clarify that he hid the fact he did not know the difference between the two terms.

Like this story? Subscribe to CNBC Make It on YouTube!

Don't miss: This bad habit annoys Richard Branson and will get you fired from TeslaCrude oil storage tanks stand in the Juaymah tank farm at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and terminal at Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, Oct. 1, 2018.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco plans to ink an agreement later on Thursday to take a stake in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, a senior official said on Thursday.

"We will have a signing ceremony later today with the Zhejiang government to invest in the Zhejiang refinery-petrochemical project," Aramco's Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi told an industry event.

Last month, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with the project's operator Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 percent owned by textile giant Rongsheng Holding Group, plans to start its 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China in late 2018.Investors would do well to avoid stocks of popular Japanese cosmetics companies amid a crackdown on Chinese visitors to Japan who would buy beauty products in bulk and re-sell them back home, according to one expert.

Speaking to CNBC on Wednesday, Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equities at SooChow CSSD Capital Markets (Asia), warned about four stocks in particular: Japanese beauty brands Pola Orbis, Kose, Fancl and Shiseido.

There have been multiple reports since the beginning of October about Chinese customs stepping up checks on travelers bringing in beauty goods purchased overseas. For the last few years, there have been many informal cosmetics dealerships making a profit by selling goods at prices cheaper than official distributors in China but higher than the prices in Japan.

Since the beginning of October, when reports of the crackdown started surfacing, shares of those major Japanese names have plunged. As of Wednesday's close, Shiseido and Pola Orbis had dropped about 18 percent, and Kose and Fancl had both fallen about 16 percent.

Shiseido, Kose and Pola  a subsidiary of the Pola Orbis group  sold a combined 93.9 billion yen ($834 million) in beauty products to foreign visitors in 2017. That was up 80 percent from 50.5 billion yen in 2015, according to media reports.

In particular, Jackson singled out Pola Orbis as his "No. 1 short," referring to the process of selling borrowed shares in the hopes of buying back the same stock at a lower price and turning a profit.

"At this point, you want to be looking at names that don't have a very extensive distribution network domestically within China. Pola Orbis stands out because their hit product, (which) is called Wrinkle Shot, that has been selling like crazy everywhere else except for China, where it's yet to get China's equivalent of FDA approval," he said Wednesday on CNBC's "Street Signs," referring to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

Travelers  The insurer reported quarterly profit of $2.54 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 a share. Revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts. Travelers saw growth in both personal and business insurance, as well as strong retention numbers.

Blackstone  The private-equity firm's economic net income beat Street forecasts by 2 cents a share at 76 cents per share, while revenue was above estimates, as well. Assets under management surged 18 percent from a year ago to a record $457 billion.

Bank of New York Mellon  The bank beat estimates by 2 cents a share, with quarterly earnings of $1.06 per share. Revenue was below Street projections. The company characterized its revenue growth as only "modest" but added that it is confident it can boost revenue performance.

Danaher  The science and medical technology company beat estimates by 2 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.10 per share. Revenue also came in above forecasts and Danaher raised its full-year forecast.

Textron  The aircraft and defense systems maker reported adjusted profit of 61 cents per share, falling short of the 76 cents a share consensus estimate. Revenue also missed forecasts, on declines in its industrial and systems businesses. Textron gave forward guidance that falls below analysts' forecasts.

Philip Morris  The tobacco producer beat estimates by 16 cents a share, with adjusted quarterly earnings of $1.44 per share. Revenue also exceeded forecasts. Shipment volumes were helped growth in so-called "heat but not burn" smoking products.

Snap-On  The tool and equipment maker fell a penny a share short of forecasts, with quarterly profit of $2.85 per share. Revenue also missed expectations. The company noted "sales turbulence" in one of its key units, but said it saw overall "encouraging progress" in other areas.

Constellation Brands  Chief Executive Officer Rob Sands is stepping down on March 1. He'll remain with the company as executive chairman, and will be succeeded by the spirits maker's president, Bill Newlands.

Visa  Visa is raising its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 21 cents, an increase of 19 percent. The increased dividend will be paid on December 4 to shareholders of record as of November 16.

Alcoa  Alcoa reported adjusted quarterly profit of 63 cents per share, well above the consensus estimate of 36 cents a share. Te aluminum producer's revenue also came in above forecasts. Alcoa saw higher aluminum prices during the quarter, prompted by supply disruptions, and the company also announced a $200 million stock buyback program.

Sealed Air  Sealed Air cut its annual earnings forecast, with the industrial gas maker citing a negative impact from currency translation as well as higher costs.

Shire  Japanese regulators approved Takeda Pharmaceutical's $62 billion acquisition of the British drugmaker. The deal has already gotten clearance from the U.S., Brazil, and China, and awaits clearance from the European Union.

SAP  SAP raised its outlook following a 41 percent jump in third quarter cloud revenues. The business software maker now expects revenue growth of 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent this year, up from the prior range of 6 percent to 7.5 percent. It also raised the lower end of its profit forecast range. Some analysts are expressing concern about profit margins, however.

Novartis  Novartis is buying U.S. drugmaker Endocyte for $2.1 billion or $24 per share in cash. That represents a 54 percent premium over Endocyte's Wednesday closing price of $15.56. Endocyte specializes in radiopharmaceutical drugs, which carry radioactive substances directly to cancer cells.

Facebook  Facebook thinks a recent hack of 30 million user tokens was done by spammers seeking to make money through deceptive advertising, according to The Wall Street Journal.

EBay  The online marketplace operator is suing Amazon.com, alleging the online retail giant of illegally poaching eBay sellers using its internal messaging system. Amazon said it is investigating the accusation.

Gap  Gap was downgraded to "underweight" from "neutral" at JPMorgan Chase, which points to sales weakness at the apparel seller's flagship Gap stores as well as profit margin pressures.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced Thursday he will not attend next week's international investment conference in Saudi Arabia, the latest high-profile dropout amid a global outcry over the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mnuchin wrote in a post on Twitter.

tweet

Mnunchin did not provide a reason. Just last week, he told CNBC he was still planning to attend.

"We are concerned about what is the status of Mr. Khashoggi  (but) I am planning on going at this point," Mnuchin said.

Many other Wall Street power players and international finance leaders have announced that they would no longer be attending the conference, dubbed "Davos in the Desert."President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi is likely dead, amid a rising firestorm over the journalist's disappearance.

"It certainly looks that way to me. It's very sad," the president said as he prepared to leave for a campaign rally in Montana. If Saudi Arabia is found responsible for Khashoggi's death, Trump will consider "very severe consequences" for the oil rich U.S. ally, he added.

The comments come as Trump faces mounting criticism from lawmakers for taking too soft a stance on the kingdom's conduct. Some members of Congress have called for sanctions on Saudi Arabia, which Trump has resisted as he questions the role of that country's regime in Khashoggi's disappearance.

Earlier Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump wanted to give Saudi Arabia "a few more days to complete" an investigation into what happened. At the time, he did not answer reporters' questions about whether Khashoggi died.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said Thursday that he would not attend an international investing conference in Saudi Arabia. CNBC and other media outlets, as well as leading financial figures such as IMF Chief Christine Lagarde and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have dropped out of the event.President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the military and close the southern U.S. border on Thursday if Mexico did not move to halt large groups of migrants headed for the United States from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

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Trump threatened to withhold aid to the region as a caravan with several thousand Honduran migrants traveled this week through Guatemala to Mexico in hopes of crossing into the United States to escape violence and poverty in Central America.

Trump's threat came as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to travel later in the day to Panama and then Mexico City, where he was to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday.

Mexico's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who has sought to curtail immigration and build a border wall on the Mexican border, this week threatened to halt aid if Central American governments did not act.

Frustrated by Congress' failure to fully fund his proposed wall at the border with Mexico, Trump in April ordered National Guard personnel to help the Department of Homeland Security secure the border in four southwestern U.S. states.Former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya has joined the board of Reliance Industries (RIL) as independent additional director, the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate said in a regulatory filing. The former SBI Chairman has been appointed to the RIL board for a period of five years starting from October 17, 2018, subject to shareholder approval, the statement further said.

"The Board of Directors at its meeting held today, i.e. October 17, 2018 has appointed Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya as an Additional Director of the Company, designated as an Independent Director," the RIL statement to stock exchanges said.

The appointment comes days after India focused private equity firm ChrysCapital Advisors LLP announced Bhattacharya as an 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.

Bhattacharya is credited with supervising the merger of six asscociate banks with SBI, creating an entity three times larger than its nearest competitor, after the exercise went for six weeks and without any disruption to customer service. Under her tenure as the chairperson of SBI, she took several technology initiatives such as launching fully digital branches and wallet 'Buddy'.

In other news, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), today acquired 12.7 per cent shareholding in SkyTran Inc. SkyTran is a US-based technology company which aims to solve traffic congestion by introducing personal rapid transit systems.

Reliance said it has made the investment in SkyTran with the aim to foster an exclusive partnership in India, where it would work closely with SkyTran to develop pilot implementations followed by implementation of its network in India at scale.

Reliance invests in Skytran to develop personal rapid transportation system in IndiaTurkey searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for a second time overnight as part of a probe into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, while the French and Dutch finance ministers pulled out of a Riyadh investment summit amid global criticism of the kingdom.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was awaiting a full report on what had happened to Khashoggi from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the envoy met with Saudi and Turkish leaders, and said he did not want to abandon his Saudi ally.

Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi  a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist critical of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman  was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body removed.

Saudi Arabia has denied involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump has speculated without providing evidence that "rogue killers" could be responsible.

How Western allies deal with Riyadh will hinge on the extent to which they believe responsibility for the affair lies with Prince Mohammed and the Saudi authorities.

Trump, who has forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia and the 33-year-old crown prince in an effort to counter Iranian influence in the region, has appeared unwilling to distance himself too much from Riyadh. He has cited tens of billions of dollars in potential arms deals.

Other Western nations have expressed concern about Khashoggi's disappearance, but face a similarly delicate situation in their dealings with the world's top oil exporter.Iranians walk by a mural painting of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, on the wall of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran on August 7, 2018.

Saudi Arabia's alleged involvement in the disappearance of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi could place Riyadh's longstanding rival Iran at an advantage.

A linchpin of America's foreign policy in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is a crucial component of President Donald Trump's plan to isolate Iran. The White House needs Riyadh to stabilize the energy market when U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil production take place in November.

But if the U.S.-Saudi relationship turns sour over accusations that Riyadh killed Khashoggi, Trump's strategy may not go as planned  and that could lead to economic and political gains for Tehran.

"The fallout from Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance is the latest political misstep from Saudi Arabia that will geopolitically benefit Iran," Sanam Vakil, a senior consulting research fellow at U.K. think tank Chatham House, wrote in a note this week. "Saudi Arabia has already threatened to retaliate against [U.S.] sanctions by using its leverage here, and oil prices have accordingly risen, thereby benefiting Iran in its last few weeks of oil sales before sanctions take effect."

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi national, was a critic of the kingdom's Crown Prince . He was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Turkish officials allege that he was murdered by a team of Saudi operatives, but Riyadh has denied those accusations.

There have been growing calls for the U.S. to punish Riyadh if the allegations were found to be true. "What I would do, I know what I'm going to do, I'm going to sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina said on Tuesday. Trump, whose close links to the kingdom has been scrutinized, may now be forced to act amid international and domestic pressure.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.India's mobile phone accessories market is expected to grow at a compounded rate of over 10% till 2024. Moreover, according to a recent report by Research Nester, a leading service provider for strategic market research and consulting, this market is projected to mushroom to $3.54 billion by then.

No wonder Chinese mobile accessories companies are now eyeing this red-hot pie. According to The Economic Times, Hong Kong-based WK Life plans to open 200 outlets across India in the next two years, selling mobile phone cases, power banks, earphones and speakers to tap the Rs 10,000-crore market.

"India is the second largest mobile phone user base in the world but the accessories market is unorganised as one company is selling cable, other is selling earphones ... But this brand is selling everything under one roof," Rohit Sahani, co-founder of WK Lifestyle India, the master franchisee for WK in the country, told the daily.

WK currently operates outlets in the US, Cambodia, China, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, Kuwait, Iran, Philippines, Norway and Sweden. WK Lifestyle India plans to open its first store in Noida's Mall of India later this month, and plans to expand its store network through sub-franchisees.

Then there's ZMI, a Chinese mobile accessories company funded by Xiaomi, one of India's leading smartphone sellers. ZMI has reportedly partnered with Shyam Telecom group to launch more than 50 products in the country in a phased manner. The product lineup includes power banks, chargers, wireless charger, cables, projectors, batteries, IOT cameras and audio products, among others.

Edited by Sushmita Choudhury AgarwalDamian Collins has got a bit of select committee chairmanitis. So says an observer who adds that Collins is amiable and quite bright  in different circumstances one could quite easily imagine him as a minister.

For the past two years  the exact anniversary falls tomorrow  Collins has been Chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, a role in which, to put it mildly, he is determined to go for his shots. His critics, who on the Leave side of the EU Referendum are numerous and furious, accuse him of being a complete grandstander.

The most extreme example of select committee chairmanitis ever seen at Westminster was Keith Vaz, who for nine years as Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee displayed his genius for drawing the medias attention to himself. One recalls the occasion when, in flagrant defiance of the House authorities, he whirled Shilpa Shetty, an Indian film star, round the Palace of Westminster with a pack of photographers in tow.

Collins has set out to make his name by taking up causes which are almost as fashionable. He and his committee decided to investigate fake news.

The first difficulty with this topic is that it has always been with us. Here is Thomas Jefferson in 1807, while serving as President of the United States:

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.

The second difficulty is that Collins and the ten other members of his committee, all of whom voted Remain, allowed themselves to become obsessed, in a no doubt sincere and public-spirited way, with the fake news allegedly spread by Leave campaigners, with the help of Facebook and perhaps of Russian gold.

A tantalising thought lured the committee on: the referendum had been stolen by Vladimir Putin, so did not really count.

One can see the attractions of this theory for Remainers. Democracy has been subverted, so democracy must be rescued from itself. The targeted disinformation which brought about the No vote was paid for by Moscow, which cannot be right.

Collins and his committee summoned Arron Banks, a large donor to UKIP who also had Russian links, to appear before them. Banks and his sidekick Andy Wigmore did so, but then humiliated Collins by insisting on leaving for lunch before the committee had finished its questions, which had gone on for longer than forecast.

The grandstander had been grandstanded. Nor was this the only time this occurred. When Dominic Cummings, who ran the official Leave campaign, received a summons to appear before the committee, he declined to appear, and instead dispatched a series of almost unbelievably rude replies to Collins:

Sending a summons is the behaviour of people looking for PR, not people looking to get to the bottom of this affair. A summons will have ZERO positive impact on my decision and is likely only to mean I withdraw my offer of friendly cooperation, given you will have shown greater interest in grandstanding than truth-seeking, which is one of the curses of the committee system.

Once again, Collins found himself upstaged. Instead of showing how powerful his committee was, and what authority he himself possessed, he had revealed that it could not even compel the attendance of an important witness. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook likewise declined numerous requests to attend, though he eventually sent a colleague.

This was not, however, the end of the matter. For among liberal-minded journalists on both sides of the Atlantic, Collins won golden opinions as the man prepared to defy Facebook, investigate various alleged conspiracies and call for the prosecution of those involved.

The Washington Post hailed the plucky little panel, led by Conservative lawmaker Damian Collins. So too, on numerous occasions, did Carole Cadwalladr of The Guardian. And they were right to want to know if the referendum had been stolen by the nefarious use of algorithms and other underhand or at least hard to understand methods, paid for with funds from dubious sources.

But delineating the boundaries of fake news is an almost impossible business. For any campaign tries to put its own case in a favourable light, is likely to be attracted by the most up-to-date techniques for identifying target voters (one recalls the praise the Barack Obama campaign garnered for using social media to reach its supporters), and may quite reputably speak with differences of tone and emphasis to voters with different outlooks.

Nor does money necessarily buy victory. In the EU Referendum, Remain far outspent Leave, yet ended up losing. Many voters regarded with scepticism the implausibly exact forecasts which the Remain campaign issued of how much worse off we would all immediately become if we were foolish enough to vote Leave. That version of fake news discredited itself without any need for a long and ponderous inquiry by a committee of MPs.

A Conservative MP who has seen much of Collins says: I like him. Hes more intelligent and thoughtful than his public manner gives one to expect. He has a distinct style of politics, very tied to the media.

The trouble with running a media-type agenda is you can get pulled into a grandstanding style of politics, and there are moments when that can just smack you on the head.

But as Oscar Wilde said, there is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. The two previous chairmen of the DCMS committee, John Whittingdale and Jesse Norman, were both given ministerial posts, and it is possible Collins will be too.

He entered the Commons in 2010 as successor to Michael Howard in Folkestone and Hythe, where he defeated Harriet Baldwin and Laura Sandys for the nomination. In an interview Collins gave soon after becoming an MP, he recalled his previous career in advertising: I loved the never say die, nothing is impossible attitude of M&C Saatchi in my near ten years working there.

There is a faintly James Bond tone to that remark. Collins is attracted by the dashing and the dramatic. He wrote Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon, a biography of his exotic predecessor as MP for Hythe.

But although that book is an impressive piece of research into a distant and fashionable milieu, Sassoon himself, who guarded his innermost thoughts most carefully, never springs to life. And something similar might be said of Collins. His reticence inhibits his ability to connect with the wider public, and our ability to know what he is really like.

He was born in 1974 and educated at St Marys Roman Catholic High School in Herefordshire, at Belmont Abbey School, and at St Benets Hall, Oxford, where he read Modern History and in 1995 was President of Oxford University Conservative Association. He is married to Sarah Richardson, who was for 12 years a Conservative councillor in Westminster, and was a keen figure in the Conservatives In campaign during the EU Referendum. They have two children.

The final report of the DCMS committees investigation into fake news will appear shortly, and meanwhile Collins himself keeps calling for the Metropolitan Police to investigate possible breaches of the law by Leave campaigners. But in a major setback for him and his colleagues, the High Court recently found that the Electoral Commission had given totally erroneous guidance to the official Leave campaign, which amounted to advice to break the law.

Collins and his committee would like more powers to be given to a regulator, the Electoral Commission, which already looks as if it is out of its depth and in need of reform. As so often, there is a danger that the cure  additional regulation  will be worse than the disease, especially if the excessive burden of compliance on honourable volunteers deters them from taking on the various thankless and unpaid tasks which have to be performed during an election.

It is entirely reasonable to ask what responsibility platforms like Facebook have for the content which appears on them, what effect social media may be having on elections, and whether these media offer a channel for illegal, undeclared donations and surreptitious influence by Russia and other foreign powers. But by seeming only to be interested in the supposed transgressions committed by the Leave campaign, the committee has given the unfortunate impression that its real motive is to seek to discredit the EU Referendum, and thereby to overturn the result.

Collins certainly has the ability and the energy to be a minister, and in fields such as doping in sport his boldness has been admirable. He knows a lot about sport, for which he has a genuine passion. But on the EU Referendum question, his gung-ho pursuit of headlines has raised questions over his judgment.Cant #endpoverty without ending capitalism! Its the type of trite and nonsensical slogan were all used to certain outlets chucking around. So when this tweet popped up in my Twitter timeline earlier today, I had a shortlist of usual suspects instantly in mind before I saw the handle of the account posting it. The Canary, Skwawkbox, Novara Media, Rachel Swindon, JC4PM

But on closer examination this was a new platform for the hard leftwait a secTeen Vogue?

Owned-by-Conde-Nast, part-of-a-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-a-year-publishing-empire, have-you-even-seen-what-the-fashion-industry-involves Teen Vogue?

Yep, thats the one. Having been driven out of the hard-copy magazine market by the cruel medium of people not wanting to buy it any more, the online-only version is apparently set on wreaking its dreadful revenge on capitalism. Either that, or it needs the clicks to keep going.

Thats not to say that the tweet is stand-alone nonsense, or simply an untrue headline with nothing underneath. Far from it: its backed by a real depth of inaccuracy in the linked article, too. Here it is in all its, ahem, glory.

Lets begin with the first sentence:

Capitalism is defined as an economic system in which a countrys trade, industry, and profits are controlled by private companies, instead of by the people whose time and labor powers those companies.

Except, of course, it isnt. That distinction between companies and individuals is simply false  had the author clicked on her own link to Merriam Websters dictionary, shed find a more reasoned definition regarding private ownership, decision and competition, where private means people and businesses. Where the dictionary says private, Teen Vogue has wrongly concluded it to mean corporate.

It doesnt really get much better from there. Heres the history part:

Where did capitalism come from? The origins of capitalism are complicated, and stretch back to the 16th century, when the British systems of power largely collapsed after the Black Death, which was a deadly plague that killed off up to 60% of Europes entire population. A newly formed class of merchants began trade with foreign countries, and this newfound demand for exports hurt local economies and began to dictate overall production and pricing of goods. It also led to the spread of colonialism, slavery, and imperialism.

Ruh-roh. The origins of capitalism are complicated  full marks, definitely true  and stretch back to the 16th century  hmm  when the British systems of power largely collapsed after the Black Death, which was a deadly plague that killed off up to 60% of Europes entire population. Woah, woah. What?

In the 16th century, there wasnt a British system of power. Britain wasnt a country yet. Maybe the author means England, or the countries of England and Scotland? But the systems of power in those countries were very much alive and kicking in the 16th century. You might know them from such hits as the Reformation, Henry VIII being in charge, Elizabeth I being in charge, defeating the Spanish Armada, and various people being burned at the stake in quite a powerful way.

I digress. What was meant to have collapsed these systems of power, which didnt collapse, in a country that didnt yet exist, again? Oh, right  the Black Death, which was a deadly plague that killed off up to 60% of Europes entire population.

That would be the Black Death, which did indeed kill up to 60 per cent of Europes populationin the 14th century, having first arrived in England in 1348, a good 152 years before the start of the 16th century. Bubonic plague was around in the 1500s, and later, of course  Pepys wrote about the outbreak in London in 1665  but the author is a whole two centuries out on the date of the pandemic she is referring to. So far, so all over the place.

What were the effects of this misdated plague? A newly formed class of merchants began trade with foreign countries Er, nope. Trade with foreign countries, and merchants, were a thing well before the 16th century. They were a thing before the 14th century, when the plague actually happened. Indeed, thats how it got to England in the first place  aboard merchant ships, engaged in trade with foreign countries..

Its probably worth noting that the source for these assertions is an article published on Marxists.org and written by a former senior activist in the Socialist Workers Party. Big whoop for facts.

The author goes on and on in this vein. Apparently trade hurt local economies and began to dictate overall production and pricing of goods, for example, which makes it hard to explain its visible beneficial effects, or the fact that trade in itself dictates nothing.

Despite the existence of masses of genuine academic texts on the topic, the chosen source on the history of the Industrial Revolution in England is the Solidarity Federation, an obscure anarcho-syndicalist collective.

Supporters of capitalism are presented as caricatures  fat, wealthy, and selfish, with their supposed views defined by their opponents  while there is no mention whatsoever of the extensive data demonstrating the vast numbers of people lifted out of poverty by the power of the free market (the actual delivery of the #endpoverty goal claimed in the original tweet).

Readers may not be that bothered by the news that Teen Vogue presents to its audience such a misleading account of both history and economics  though you probably should be, given the number of people it claims to reach. But what I find more interesting is the process by which an inherently capitalist company, sitting at the pinnacle of the conspicuous consumption denounced in the article, came to be pushing such bogus ideological rot.

The term late stage capitalism is often used to highlight the obscene extremes of indulgence, wastefulness, and counter-productive misbehaviour which Marxist true believers expect to eventually undermine the capitalist system. The old Leninist critique of social democrats was that it was a mistake to seek to alleviate the suffering and misery of workers, because doing so would delay the revolution  far better to allow capitalism to drive the people to the barricades.

I wonder if theyve got the transposition of theory to practice a bit wrong, though. Perhaps rather than provoking the revolution by glorying in a repellent orgy of capitalism, corporations will bring on socialism by promoting it in a desperate search for clicks and revenue. All that time wasted spent bashing big businesses, when the left should have had the confidence in their own theories to sit back and wait for them to do the job for them.The Trump administration has decided to do away with the practise of granting work permits to H-4 visa holders. The move to end the Obama-era rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, mostly Indians, who have work permits. However, it will benefit some US workers, the Department of Homeland Security believes.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its Unified Fall Agenda released on Wednesday stated that abandoning the current practice of granting employment authorisation to H-4 dependent spouses would benefit some US workers. The DHS said the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labour market early and was on its way to stop them from getting work authorisation.

In its agenda, the DHS said it could estimate and quantify two primary impacts of denying work permits to H-4 visa holders. Firstly, the cost-savings accruing to forgone future filings by certain H-4 dependent spouses, and secondly, labour turnover costs that employers of H-4 workers could incur when their employees' employment authorisations are terminated.

"Some US workers would benefit from this proposed rule by having a better chance at obtaining jobs that some of the population of the H-4 workers currently hold, as the proposed rule would no longer allow H-4 workers to enter the labour market early," it said.

The H-4 visas are given to immediate family members of H-1B visa holders, which include spouses and children below 21 years of age. Work permits for H-4 visa holders were issued under a special order by the previous Obama administration in 2015. As of December 25, 2017, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had approved 126,853 applications for employment authorisation for H-4 visa holders. These count all approvals since May 2015 when the rule was implemented. This number includes 90,946 initial approvals, 35,219 renewals, and 688 replacements for lost cards.

The Trump administration is also planning to "revise" the definition of employment and specialty occupations under the H-1B visas as USSCIS plans to introduce its new proposal by January next year. Such a move, which is part of the Unified Fall Agenda of the Trump administration, will adversely impact the functioning of Indian IT companies in the US and also small and medium-sized contractual companies in the IT sector, which are mostly owned by Indian-Americans.

It will "propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation" to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme. It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, the DHS said. In addition, the DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders, the administration said.

The H-1B visa, most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology firms depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. The H1-B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 visas each fiscal year as mandated by the Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master's degree or higher are exempt from the cap.

The DHS said it was also finalising its interim regulation governing petitions filed on behalf of alien workers subject to the annual numerical limitations applicable to the H-1B non-immigrant classification. This rule prohibits an applicant from filing duplicate petitions on behalf of the same alien temporary worker. It also makes accommodations for petitioners to create a more efficient filing process for H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limitation.

Observing that the demand for H-1B visas has often exceeded the numerical limitation, the DHS said it was proposing to establish an electronic registration programme for such applications. Such a system will allow USCIS to more efficiently manage the intake and lottery process for H-1B applications.

Edited by Vivek Punj with PTI inputsFox. Go for the Export Dividend. Based on a ten per cent uplift in exports, the budget deficit could reduce by some 20 billion. His trade speech: full text.

Good evening. Its an absolute pleasure to be here tonight. I would like to thank, in particular, the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress, and all the staff of Mansion House for hosting us this evening.

Charles has been an advocate of DIT from the very beginning, so thank you for your support and for your unwavering commitment to spreading the message of free trade around the world on behalf of the City of London.

I would also like to thank my three excellent ministers  George Hollingbery, Rona Fairhead and Graham Stuart, and our trade envoys, all of whom contribute so much to Britains trade and investment performance.

And I wish to extend a particular welcome to the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Roberto Azevedo, who youll all be fortunate enough to hear from once youve sat through my speech.

Winston Churchill said that Free Trade is a condition of progress; it is an aid to progress; it is a herald of progress.

Those words were written more than a century ago, yet he was speaking from a tradition which stretched back far further  almost a quarter of a millennium  to Adam Smith and David Ricardo.

In all our recent history the Governments of this country, whether Labour or Conservative, have recognised the strategic advantages of international free trade.

In this, of course, they have been right. All trade is strategic. It is also economic. It is also social.

It represents one of the oldest forms of human interaction, and one of the most enduring.

It has linked civilisations, crossed the deserts and the oceans, and bridged the chasm of time.

It spurs innovation, rewards enterprise, and fosters interdependence.

Trade is the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the TVs we watch, the mobiles we use, and the cars we drive.

All these elements contribute to the trade dividend, and that is what I wish to discuss tonight  the human dividend, the security dividend, and the economic dividend of trade  before briefly turning to Brexit.

The Human Dividend

The first part of the trade dividend  the human dividend  is not always acknowledged given the credit it deserves. But it is, perhaps, the most important of all.

As economies across the world have liberalised, opportunities for employment, or commerce, have allowed billions of people to lift themselves from poverty.

According to the World Bank, the three decades between 1981 and 2011 witnessed the single greatest decrease in material deprivation in history.

It is hard to imagine an international aid programme  even one as generous as our own  that would or could have been so effective.

Such a reduction in human suffering should rank among the greatest of mankinds achievements.

At a fundamental level, free and open trade allows people to improve their own lives, by giving them access to global opportunities, sharing knowledge, skills and experience and fundamentally, by the exchange of goods and services.

As a consequence, living standards across the globe are at their highest level in history.

The desire for comfort, for financial security, to provide for your family and to leave something for your children is innate in humankind. We should all strive to ensure that the next generation can have an easier start in life than the one before.

The dream of achieving what once only existed in the developed world, increasingly blossoms in all parts of the globe  and more importantly is increasingly possible.

Our aim, as a Department and as a country should be to continue this remarkable progress. To give the worlds poorest the ability to trade their way out of poverty.

Yet those in the anti-trade lobby would deny them this possibility. As part of their wider ideological anti-capitalist agenda, they would stop the clock on the social progress and poverty reduction of recent decades.

We must take head-on the destructive arguments of those whose narrative is that free trade is nothing more than a global corporate conspiracy. In fact, our ability to trade is a condition of our freedom.

Indeed, as the American economist Milton Friedman said:

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Free trade is intrinsically linked to personal and political freedom. And that brings me onto the second of our trade dividends  the security dividend.

It is important to understand that trade is not an end in itself but a means to an end  to grow and spread our collective prosperity.

The Security Dividend

I have always believed that prosperity underpins social cohesion. That social cohesion underpins political stability, and that political stability is the building block of our collective security.

These are all part of the same continuum; you cannot disrupt one of these without disrupting the whole.

To deny people their access to prosperity, or the economic freedom to achieve it, is to risk political extremism, uncontrolled migration, and diminished security.

For the United Kingdom, trade contributes directly to our safety, helping to fund our armed forces and our security services.

It ensures that vital supplies, such as energy and raw materials, continue to enter the UK from abroad.

And the denial of trade  the ability to impose effective economic sanctions on external aggressors  provides a vital tool in dealing with global dangers and rogue states.

Looked at another way, the clamour for economic freedoms against an authoritarian state can help to liberate the innovation, enterprise and individual aspiration that are hallmarks of a free society.

By this reckoning, the promotion of free and open international trade, will in turn foster political stability, promote social security, and build a safer world.

The Economic Dividend

Of course, the benefits of prosperity are not only felt internationally, but in this country as well.

It is as true today as it always was that there is no such thing as government money  only taxpayers money.

And, 186 billion of that taxpayers money comes, in one form or another, from business. So, it follows that if we improve the profitability and productivity of business through exporting and investment, then the public coffers benefit too.

When I arrived in the newly created Department for International Trade, I was amazed to find that we had no mechanism to enable us to translate the value of our exports into returns for the Treasury  although, as I am finding, this is not unique to the UK.

Since that day, the United Kingdoms exports have risen dramatically. In 2017 alone, we saw a 10.9% increase. This means that since the time of the referendum we have added 111 billion to our annual exporting total with all the financial implications of tax receipts that this brings.

The result of this is what we might call the economic, or more precisely, the export dividend.

As a government, we have been elected to be fiscally responsible whilst, of course, continuing to fund public services.

This can only be achieved through a strong economy that brings rising tax revenues without increasing the individual tax burden.

But fiscal balance is not solely about whether to raise taxes or cut spending  it is also about how to generate more revenue by growing the economy domestically and selling more of our goods and services abroad. Put simply as a country, if we want to spend more, we must earn more.

Increasing GDP, however, is not the sole preserve of government. I need hardly tell a room full of business leaders, the head of the City of London Corporation, and the Director-General of the WTO, that economic activity is led by private enterprise and through the demand and supply of a free market, rather than by government directive.

But where government does have a role to play is in facilitating enterprise  creating the optimum conditions for our businesses to succeed and thrive.

And thrive they have.

This remarkable achievement belongs to the thousands of exporters across the United Kingdom who have worked tirelessly to develop and manufacture great products and expand into global markets.

Many of you have joined us here this evening. Your success is Britains success.

Exporting, generates wider benefits for the economy, including productivity gains, greater profitability and increased longevity for those that participate in it.

That is not to downplay the importance of imports. It would be naive indeed to ignore the huge and necessary role that imports play in the production of goods and services for export, as well as consumer benefits: with more choice of higher quality products at lower prices.

Our global era is one where interdependence is increasing  one of the reasons why protectionism and economic nationalism are likely to be inefficient, ineffective, and damaging.

Of course, to benefit fully from the opportunities of the global economy we have to be fully match fit.

Which is why it is important that supply side reforms, such as those set out in the Governments Industrial Strategy, complement our push to transform the UKs exporting potential. The two are mutually reinforcing. We must, create the right conditions for firms to move up the value chain, improving their productivity, competitiveness and profitability.

It is here that we can see the coal face of the potential intersection between exports and GDP and its impact on government finances.

We know that higher incomes and economic activity translate into higher tax revenues, both at a business and personal level.

This obviously raises the question of just how great an export dividend could be.

Last month the Institute of Economic Affairs attempted to work this out  I stress that this is not government analysis. But, where they got to suggested that a 10% increase in the gross value of our exports  currently at 620 billion  could lead to a 50 billion increase in GDP.

Put simply, increased exports could mean increased economic activity. Increased economic activity increases labour demand, raising employment and pushing up wages. And the resulting increased output leads to higher profits and higher corporate tax revenues.

And what of our budget balance. Based still on the 10% uplift in exports, the budget deficit could, according to the IEA, reduce by some 20bn. The potential for us to balance our budget, is real.

Of course, raising the value of a countrys exports by 10% is no easy task, even for a nation as dynamic, resourceful and competitive as the United Kingdom. But not impossible. 20 years ago, Germanys exports were where ours are today, and now they stand at 47% of GDP.

So we have accepted this challenge.

Our Export Strategy, launched in August, set out the ambitious target of raising exports as a proportion of the UKs GDP from 30 to 35 percent, putting us towards the top of the G7.

That is the scale of our ambition.

For Britain to fulfil its whole potential we must access all the available global markets. It is not a choice between the EU and the rest of the world  we need to sell to both. The EU remains the market for 44% of our exports, but the EU itself accepts that 90% of global growth in the next five years will come from outside the EU.

Tonight, the PM is in Brussels for the October EU Council. We have made our position clear: that we will honour the democratic decision of the British people made at the referendum.

We will leave the customs union and the single market. We cannot accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. We will leave the Common Fisheries policy and the Common Agricultural Policy. We will end free movement. We will have our own independent trade policy and we will not accept any solution that divides the United Kingdom by treating Northern Ireland differently to any other part of our country.

We hope that we will achieve agreement that leaves all European countries able to take advantage of both our own and growing global markets.

Conclusion

Trade, and the rules-based international system that upholds its freedoms, underpins everything, from political stability and security, to economic prosperity and the livelihoods that have lifted a generation out of poverty.

We are opening a new chapter in this nations history. It is a once in a generation chance to shape a better future for our own people, realise the highest ambitions of our businesses, and offer real leadership on free trade in an often uncertain and divided world.

It is also a chance to address the legitimate concerns of those who have been left behind by the pace of global change, and to build a global economy that works for everyone.

We in government have a responsibility to ensure that the dividends of trade are evenly spread. The rising tide of prosperity must lift all boats.

In fact, the dividends of trade are perhaps greater than for almost any other human activity. Yet in every place in the world, and at every time in history, trading freedoms have been under threat.

We all have a duty to defend it.Theresa May has a rationale for seeking to extend the transition period. If it could be agreed as part of a grand bargain, whereby we stayed in the Customs Union for longer, but had the right to leave the backstop after it expires, either by way of a pre-2022 set time limit or of a unilteral departure mechanism, the Prime Minister would gain the outline of a good deal. We would be out of the Customs Union and gain the freedom to negotiate meaningful trade deals before the date by which the next election is due.

However, there is no way of knowing, as we write, that such is Mays plan  since Downing Street, on the one hand, wasnt ruling out an extension yesterday but, on the other, wasnt setting out why. The Prime Minister was presumably unwilling to spell out her negotiating tactics only a few hours before the EU summit opened, which is understandable. But Number Tens reluctance to speak scarcely detracted from an impression of drift. This fits reality.

The hard truth is that the EU rejected Chequers last month at Salzburg and that the Cabinet rejected the backstop last week. There is no sign that the EU has budged on the former, which in its view menaces the coherence of the internal market and threatens to undercut its competitiveness, and no suggestion that it will move on the latter, which would separate Northern Irelands economy from Great Britains, have serious implications for Scotland, and thus threaten the Union.

Furthermore, an extended transition would have very considerable downsides as well as upside. We would be what Barry Gardiner called a vassal state for longer, unable to vote when EU decisions are made, but none the less being bound by them. There is an argument for claiming that the role of voting on this decision-making is over-hyped  see Daniel Hannan here  but being bound by EU laws and regulations for longer than has been agreed would be a very big political problem, particularly over free movement. After all, once a transition period has been extended once, whats to stop it happening again and again?

Brexiteer MPs fear that the longer transition runs on, the more opportunities there will be for the EU to pass measures antithetical to our interests, such as a financial transaction tax, and add that, if transition spills over into the next round of the EUs multi-annual framework, there will be nothing to stop us being deprived of our rebate. It is also unclear why the EU needs a longer transition to prepare for a UK-wide customs union  for such seems to be the rationale for the move  when it doesnt need this to prepare for a Northern Ireland-only one.

In short, there is an impasse. The EU seems to be unwilling to move and May herself is unable to move. She tried floating the acceptance of the backstop without an escape mechanism last week to Cabinet members  as apparently agreed by Olly Robbins in Brussels  and was rebuffed. If she attempts a wriggle too far, she risks Cabinet resignations and a leadership challenge. Until or unless she does, its members are likely to stand with her, hoping too that the EU backs off, together with enough Conservative MPs to ward off a ballot.

The Prime Minister is like a woman on raft, adrift at sea, proclaiming that she commands a ship, sailing with a clear sense of direction. As her fellow-passengers peer through the driving rain, they can see the good (or bad) ship Chequers gently slipping, with the occasional plop and gurgle, beneath the waves. If she is to avoid the turmoil of No Deal, she needs an alternative which has a chance of success, both with the EU and Parliament. The David Owen plan looks like her best shot, of which more soon, but the odds are long.Net neutrality found itself at another fork in the road over the weekend, with the Texas State House of Representatives considering a bill to make throttling data during emergency situations unlawful.

Specifically, State Representative Bobby Guerras proposed bill lays out that, effective September 1, 2019, mobile Internet service provider(s) may not impair or degrade lawful mobile Internet service access in an area subject to a declared state of disaster.

Having had its fill of recent disasters like Hurricane Harvey, Texas wants to make sure it doesnt suffer the same money grab that California did in the midst of its 2018 firestorm. During the Golden States incendiary ravage, Verizon was heavily criticized when it throttled the data plans of firefighters working at the Santa Clara County fire department.

This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to provide emergency services, Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden said at the time. Verizon imposed these limitations despite being informed that throttling was actively impeding County Fires ability to provide crisis-response and essential emergency services.

Money over sense?

Reportedly, Bowden's staff approached Verizon to try to remedy the situation. While Verizon confirmed that throttling did occur, it agreed to restore the fire department to essential data speed if -- and only if -- the fire department upgraded to a new plan.

If that situation sounds slightly ridiculous to you, you certainly aren't alone, wrote Techspot. The fire department was frustrated by Verizon's response, to say the least, and sent Verizon account manager Silas Buss a series of hectic emails in a desperate attempt to get the restrictions lifted.

Reports say that Buss finally relented somewhat and offered a $99 plan that would cost the fire department an extra $8 per gigabyte once it reached its 20GB cap. Ars Technica reported the fire department decided that plan was the best fix, but only for the short-term.

Evan Greer, deputy director of the nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future, points out that Texas' proposed law could be a good first step towards restoring protections that were overturned by the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

"Telecommunications companies like Verizon, Comcast, and AT&T hold tremendous power. We saw during the wildfires in California that, without proper oversight, they can abuse this power in ways that not only undermine free speech but also public safety. It's great that states like Texas are pushing for legislation to hold these mega-corporations in check, but it's not a replacement for a functional FCC that is actually doing its job and protecting the public," Greer said in a statement to ConsumerAffairs.

"Congress should act immediately to reverse Ajit Pai's repeal of basic open internet protections, and demand that the FCC engage in proper oversight of internet providers to ensure they don't behave in ways that put people in danger."

Debate over an even internet playing field continues

All of this push-and-pull goes back to net neutrality -- the assumption that internet service providers should treat all transmission of data over the internet equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on user, content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, or method of communication.

In its power to the people stance, California has spared no effort to try to reverse the FCC's controversial decision to roll back Title II net neutrality protections.

However, the states attempts might be an uphill climb. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai claims that net neutrality, as envisioned by California law, hurts consumers. Pai says that under the law, large service providers like Verizon would be prohibited from offering some free data plans that he says allow consumers to stream video and music, exempt from any data limits.

They have proven enormously popular in the marketplace, especially among lower-income Americans, Pai said. But notwithstanding the consumer benefits, this state law bans them.CORNWALL & SDG, Ontario  The upcoming Municipal Election is just ten days away.

Advance polling stations opened in Cornwall yesterday, attracting a few eager individuals.

Each entitled voter must be a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years of age on Voting Day, and reside in, own land in, or tenant land in the city/municipality in which they or their spouse is voting.

Voters must show a piece of identification to vote and they must but on the voting list. Voters are recommended to bring their voting card when casting their ballot if they received one.

The following is a list of advance polling stations in the City of Cornwall:

Cornwall SDG Paramedic Services

Election Headquarters

Benson Centre

The three above locations will be open on the following dates:

Oct. 11 to Oct. 12, between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 13 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Oct. 15 to Oct. 19, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 20 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The following is a list of Voting Day locations which will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 22.

Benson Centre

Centre dachats Cornwall Square Shopping Centre

Cornwall Election Headquarters

Cornwall SDG Paramedic services

Eamers Corner Public School

Ecole elementaire Publique Rose des Vents

Ecole Secondaire catholique La Citadelle

Glen Stor Dun Lodge

Sacred Heart Catholic School

St. Lawrence College

In the neighbouring municipalities of South Stormont and South Glengarry, voters can cast their ballots online at southstormont.evote2018.ca and southglengarry.evote2018.ca from Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 9 a.m. to Monday, Oct. 22 at 8 p.m.

The following is a list of advance voting locations in South Stormont:

Woodland Villa Long Term Care Facility (for residents of the facility only) on Thursday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to noon.

South Stormont Municipal Office, Oct. 17 to 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Oct. 20 to 21 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The following is a list of Voting Day locations in South Stormont, all open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.:

South Stormont Municipal Office

South Stormont Seniors Support Centre

Newington Fire Hall

St. Andrews West Fire Hall

To cast your ballot in person in South Glengarry, the Voter Help Centre located at 6 Oak St. in Lancaster will be open from Oct. 17 to 19 at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 20 to 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Monday, Oct. 22 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For further details and more information about voting, visit the website of your city or municipality.Editor's Note : Pastor Roger Barrier's "Ask Roger" column regularly appears at Preach It, Teach It. Every week at Crosswalk, Dr. Barrier puts nearly 40 years of experience in the pastorate to work answering questions of doctrine or practice for laypeople, or giving advice on church leadership issues. Email him your questions at roger@preachitteachit.org.

Dear Roger,

What does the Bible say about cursing and spells? Can a person be cursed? And by cursing I mean, when someone says something bad is going to happen to you...that kind of cursing, cursing your future. Sincerely, John

Dear John,

In the Bible curses and spells are forbidden practices (Deuteronomy 18:10-12).

Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you(NIV).

Are Curses and Spells Real?

To curse is to wish that bad things happen to someone or to something.

On the other hand, to bless is to wish that good things happen to someone or to something.

When we think of curses, many of us immediately think of Voodoo. We picture someone pushing pins in little dolls which represent those they hate so that bad things can come upon them. We think of persons casting spells.

However, Voodoo is much more than that.

Voodoo a religion practiced chiefly in the Caribbean countries, especially in Haiti. It is a mixture of Roman Catholic rituals and the animism and magic of slaves from West Africa. In Voodoo, God rules over a multitude of local deities, deified ancestors and saints, who communicate with dreams, trances, and ritual practices.

We have become de-sensitized to witchcraft, curses, and spells in today's culture.

One Sunday evening I had this terrible sense of dread that I would never see another Sunday. The sense of death was overwhelming. Each day was agony. I was peddling furiously on the exercise bike Thursday evening when the phone rang. One of our counselors had just finished a session when a woman confessed that she and her friends in a witches' coven had prayed a death curse on me the previous Sunday night.

I was overcome with relief. I now knew the spiritual battle I faced, and I knew how to handle it. I climbed off the bike, fell to my knees and prayed for the Holy Spirit to cancel any curses or demonic attacks placed against me. I asked Him to build a hedge of protection around me to protect me from any evil Satanic intention to harm my family or me. The dread disappeared.

I have no doubt that we can postulate a number of theological frameworks to reconcile the experiences like those I mentioned above with Biblical truth.

Can Christians Be Cursed?

One well-known theological construct guarantees Christians that they need not worry about curses and Satanic attacks because "...nothing can separate us from God's love" (Romans 8:37-39, and "greater is He that is in us (the Holy Spirit) than he who is in the world (Satan) (1 John 4:4). This theological construct assures us that God's love for us is never in doubt and that the Holy Spirit is greater than Satan; therefore, we need not concern ourselves with things like curses and spells and Satanic interference. Upon closer examination, however, what these verses don't declare is that we are free from all of Satan's attacks and demonic curses.

My theological construct (and you certainly don't have to agree with it) is that we face a constant spiritual battle. We do need to be concerned with such things. After all, Peter reminds us:

"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith " (1 Peter 5:8-9).

We must consider that we have a demonic adversary who has a backpack full of dirty and deceitful spiritual tools designed to inflict harm and destruction upon unsuspecting Christians.

God gives us a number of spiritual tools to resist, incapacitate and frustrate Satan in his attacks against us. I will mention them momentarily.

If we define "curse" as wishing bad things to come to someone or to something, I suppose that we can consider the death threats I've received over the years as curses. I own two bullet-proof vests. No one ever told me that I would need even one. Death threats aren't over in one week.

I remember preaching for over six months in my new vest while living in fear that Bill J would make good on his threat to kill me. He was angry with me for allowing his wife to give an offering to our church. Unfortunately, I was not the only one he was cursing.

One night Bill J began a murder spree that killed two men in a nearby town, and was on his way to our home to kill again when the police encircled him and he committed suicide in his car. The police found 9 guns and 400 rounds of ammunition in the front seatand a bazooka at his house. Fortunately, this undeserved curse did not come to rest on me.

Few of us have curses as dramatic as Bill J had for me and eleven others.

Let's assume, however, that there have been times when we have hurt or disappointed people. Depending upon how much we hurt them and their ability to forgive, they may consciously or unconsciously wish harm upon us.

What Does the Bible Say About Curses?

The Bible is full of cursing. The word "curse" appears almost 200 times; therefore, it is a significant issue for us to address.

The Bible begins with God Almighty doing a lot of cursing.

We don't read three chapters into Genesis before God Almighty began to curse. He cursed Satan for tempting Adam and Eve into sin (Genesis 3:17). He indirectly cursed all mankind when He cursed the ground so that weeds would sprout and man would work hard and sweat profusely in order to make a living from the cursed earth (Genesis 3:17-19). In Genesis 4:10-12 God placed a curse upon Cain for killing his brother. All of these curses were well deserved.

As we read through the Bible we quickly discover that God provided blessings to those who obeyed Him and cursed those who disobeyed Him.

To curse is to wish that bad things happen to someone or something. God cursed only as a punishment for not obeying him.

On the other hand, to bless is to wish that good things happen to someone or to something. God promised blessings to those who carefully followed His commands.

Deuteronomy 27-30 is a great example of the God Who both blesses and curses.

In Deuteronomy 28, God announced to Israel that if they fully obeyed His commands He would pour out great blessings upon them. They would receive the following blessings: safety in travel; healthy children; bountiful crops; increased livestock, abundant food; victory over enemies; full and overflowing barns; success with all of their endeavors; successful investments; abundance of rain; and primacy over all other nations.

It doesnt get much better than that.

On the other hand, God was just as determined to bring curses upon Israel if they ignored His commandments: "However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you" (Deuteronomy 28:15).

God is not the only one in the Bible who pronounced curses. Most of the curses in the Bible involve one person cursing another.

Noah cursed his son Ham when Ham peeked at him while he was drunk and naked (Genesis 9:18-27).

Shimei cursed and spit on David as David was fleeing Jerusalem ahead of Absalom's army of rebellion. Shimei was upset because David took over the Kingship from the family of Saul (2 Samuel 16:5-8 and 1 Kings 2:32-46). Joab wanted to kill Shimei on the spot; but, David stopped him by admitting that the curse was deserved. (By the way, David never got over the curse. As he laid dying he asked that Joab sever Shemei's "white-haired head" from his body).

Intriguingly, Mrs. Job tried to get Job to curse God and die (Job 2:9;19:17).

Satan prompted Mrs. Job's pleading to her husband. This was Satan's backhanded attempt to force Job to curse God.

Spiritual Protection Against Satanic Attacks

Before we go any further, let me share with you the spiritual tools I use to protect myself from Satanic attacks--including curses. Perhaps you will find one or more of these practices helpful in navigating the spiritual waters of life.

First and foremost I pray for God to encircle me with a spiritual hedge of protection to insulate me from any personal or demonic designs. After all, if God put a hedge around Job that Satan couldn't penetrate without God's permission, then He can erect one around me. I pray Job 1:10: "Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." I want the protection and I want the blessing of prosperity as well.

Next, I try to keep my life righteous and holy so that I open no door and give no opportunity for any curse to debilitate me in any way. I pray Proverb 26:2: "Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest."

Then, I try never to leave the house spiritually naked. I want to be clothed in the armor of God against any spiritual attack. I pray Ephesians 6:10-17:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that  when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions (NIV).

In addition, I think of people who have hurt me. Instead of wishing them evil and harm, I try to pray for their blessing and prosperity.

After all, Jesus instructed us in Luke 6:28 to: "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

You see, if we curse those who've hurt us, we put ourselves in danger of Christ's judgment. Jesus said in Matthew 5:22: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, Raca, is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, You fool! will be in danger of the fire of hell."

Finally, with gratitude, I remember that sin has placed the entire world under a curse. All of us have "sinned and fallen short of God's glory" (Romans 3:23). We know that payment for our sin is death (Romans 6:23; Deuteronomy 21:23). Fortunately, when we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, Jesus dies in our place on the cross. He takes the curse of death for us and the curse against us is now underserved. Death no longer rests upon us (Galatians 3:13).

I have tried to deal with some of the practical out workings of curses.

I have shared some the biblical foundations and practices regarding cursing. I hope that reading my response may give you more insight into the Biblical reality concerning curses.

Sincerely, Roger

Dr. Roger Barrier retired as senior teaching pastor from Casas Church in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to being an author and sought-after conference speaker, Roger has mentored or taught thousands of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders worldwide. Casas Church, where Roger served throughout his thirty-five-year career, is a megachurch known for a well-integrated, multi-generational ministry. The value of including new generations is deeply ingrained throughout Casas to help the church move strongly right through the twenty-first century and beyond. Dr. Barrier holds degrees from Baylor University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Golden Gate Seminary in Greek, religion, theology, and pastoral care. His popular book, Listening to the Voice of God, published by Bethany House, is in its second printing and is available in Thai and Portuguese. His latest work is, Got Guts? Get Godly! Pray the Prayer God Guarantees to Answer, from Xulon Press. Roger can be found blogging at Preach It, Teach It, the pastoral teaching site founded with his wife, Dr. Julie Barrier.

Photo courtesy: Getty Image/abtopFirefight killed four in IHK

SRINAGAR: A firefight near a 14th century Muslim shrine killed at least four in the capital of Indian-held Kashmir Wednesday and sparked protests in the city, police said.



While deadly violence has increased in recent months across the restive region, such shootouts are rare in Srinagar.



Police said three fighters and a police officer were killed in the battle in streets near the Khanqah-e-Moula shrine in Srinagars Old City. The clash sparked a showdown between protesters and police, who fired tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators shouting anti-India slogans. City shops and schools shut as news of the deaths spread.



Indian government forces cordoned off the Fateh Kadal locality, close to the shrine, after they received information about armed fighters hiding in a house, a police statement said. Witnesses said the gunfire broke out after soldiers knocked at the door of a house and took away a young man. We dont know where he is and now we hear (police) say he was a militant, the young mans brother Asif Nabi told reporters outside his home, which was burned down in the clash.



As the firefight wound down, officers turned on journalists reporting at the site of the encounter, injuring at least one reporter and two cameramen. They (police) just lunged at us and started beating us with sticks and then fired in the air. The empty cartridges hit my head, Asif Qureshi, a journalist with an Indian news station said.



The capital has largely been spared the violence which frequently breaks out between anti-India fighters and government forces across the occupied region. India has some 500,000 troops deployed in Held Kashmir, where Kashmiri groups demand independence or a merger with Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) is hosting expedition industry stakeholders in what it calls an open dialogue meeting in Longyearbyen on Oct. 24 (2018)

NMA stated that its objective is to develop and introduce stricter safety regulations for ships operating in Svalbard.

With an enhanced cruise port facility in Longyearbyen and with a growing fleet of expedition ships, as well as more traditional cruise ships, the NMA said it expects increased traffic to Svalbard and particularly in Isfjorden.

In addition, there are new safety concerns as the melting ice makes new and uncharted sailing areas accessible.

Among the topics being considered is enhanced medical facilities aboard and deck area to hoist people for helicopter evacuation; tender vessel requirements; route planning in charted waters in prescribed distances from shore and glaciers; procedures and equipment to protect people from polar bears if evacuated on ice or ashore.

Operators can also apply for exceptions to the rules, provided they can demonstrate an equal level of safety within the spirit of the new regulations.

The NMA commented that for new ships, the new rules are not expected to have any significant cost impact, but for older and smaller vessels the new rules may require rebuilds that exceed their value.

For ships that have operated in Svalbard for the past three years, a five year transition is proposed.Scenic has released a new video showing the time-lapse construction of the new Scenic Eclipse through October 2018. The ship is due to enter service from Uljanik Shipyard in Croatia in late January.

Video:MSC Cruises is continuing its impressive growth in the cruise industry as the company today announced an agreement to build four ultra-luxury cruise ships at Fincantieri.

The 1,000-guest, 64,000-ton ships will enter service in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The memorandum of agreement is for a total value in excess of two million euro, MSC said, and marks the company's first dedicated luxury ships.

Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises Executive Chairman, said: It is off the back of the great success of our ship-within-a-ship luxury concept that our guests asked us to enter into the ultra-luxury segment, as a natural evolution of the MSC Yacht Club. These ships will be able to offer unique itineraries, thanks to their size, and the guest services will be taken to another level, including our personalized MSC Yacht Club butler service, available 24/7."

By 2027, MSC will have 25 megaships in service, up from 15 today. The additional four ships will put the MSC fleet at 29 ships by 2027 with over 98,000 berths and a market capacity of over 5 million guests annually, according to Cruise Industry News estimates.

I am especially pleased to be able to further extend our partnership with Fincantieri through this new order. The award-winning Seaside and Seaside-Evo class have already been recognized as ground-breaking and innovative designs. We are now introducing another new class, which will establish a new standard of ultra-luxury at sea with ships that will showcase the quality and highest standards that are associated with Made in Italy," Vago said.

Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri, stated: It is with pride that two great brands  an Italian one and one with a strong Italian DNA -, well-known all over the world, today announce an important construction program. We are extremely satisfied that to launch a new class of ships in the luxury segment, MSC Cruises has acknowledged that our project will allow to create a new generation of cutting edge units from both a technological point of view, safety and with particular attention paid to passenger comfort. With this project Fincantieri can count on 53 cruise ships in its order book, confirming to be absolute market leader in all the cruise shipbuilding segments."Brandy D. Christian, Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) President and CEO, and New Orleans Public Belt Railroad Corporation (Rail NOLA) CEO, highlighted the successes and challenges of the agencys diverse business profile in 2018 at the annual State of the Port address Oct. 17 hosted by the International Freight Forwarders & Customs Brokers Association of New Orleans. Christian also outlined key short- and long-term strategies to capitalize on current momentum and galvanize the gateway for future success.

According to Christian, Port NOLA is on target to surpass 1 million cruise passenger movements for the fifth consecutive year in 2018, thanks in part to ocean and river cruise lines homeporting newer and larger ships in New Orleans.

Disney Cruise Line recently announced its first ship ever to be homeported in Louisiana with six homeport calls in 2020 by the Disney Wonder.

Next month, Port NOLA will welcome the largest cruise ship in both length and passenger occupancy to sail from New Orleans when the 3,963-passenger Norwegian Breakaway arrives replacing the Norwegian Pearl. Next fall, the sister ship, the Norwegian Getaway, will replace the Breakaway.

Royal Caribbean returns to New Orleans in December 2018 to homeport the Vision of the Seas. Carnival will increase capacity on its short cruise program in 2019 by replacing the Carnival Triumph with the Valor. And in 2019, the Carnival Glory takes over the seven-day itinerary of the Carnival Dream.

Earlier this month, American Cruise Lines increased its presence by launching the first modern riverboat in the U.S. on the Mississippi River, the American Song. The second modern riverboat in the companys series, American Harmony, will take over on the Mississippi River in 2019 replacing the Song.

Christian said Port NOLAs cruise sector reinforces the tourism industry, and local small and medium businesses in New Orleans. Ninety percent of cruise passengers travel from out-of-state, 73 percent spend a day or two in New Orleans either before or after their cruise, and 75 percent report making a purchase in the Crescent City, Christian explained. These passengers generate over 306,000 rooms a night in New Orleans-area hotels.

Port NOLA is even stronger on the cargo side. This year it expects to handle 30,000 containers and are working with Louisiana Economic Development and the U.S. Maritime Administration to expand the service, according to Christian. She said: Aside from repositioning equipment, container-on-barge capability reduces congestion impacts on our roadways and gates, and has become a key strategy for managing our growth in an environmentally friendly way.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently cleared the way to ensure larger ships can access ports on the Lower Mississippi River by approving dredging to 50 feet at the mouth of the river.

Breakbulk cargo, sensitive to manufacturing trends and economic fluctuations, experienced erratic trends in 2018. Preliminary data indicate breakbulk imports declined 30 percent Fiscal Year 2018 versus 2017 in large part due to trade policies involving tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum.

Imported rubber continues to be a bright spot and the Port continues to look for export opportunities, and has seen significant increases in exported logs and frac sand.

Christian said despite the current challenges, breakbulk is still vital to the Ports growth and contributes to the diverse business profile.

We are continuing to invest in our breakbulk facilities, including $50 million in our breakbulk wharves, so we can continue to serve as a top U.S. import port for rubber, steel, aluminum and other non-ferrous metals, she said.

Christian also highlighted data from an economic impact study that underscored Port NOLA as an economic catalyst for the region.

Christian added that Port NOLAs growth and success is fueled by people including the Ports Board of Commissioners, employees, tenants, stakeholders, and economic development and community partners.Silversea has launched a new series of voyages to Cuba departing from the United States for the first time in the cruise lines history, according to a prepared statement.

Seventeen voyages are scheduled and start in 2019.

"Since opportunities have opened for Americans to enjoy travel to Cuba, we have eagerly awaited this moment," said Roberto Martinoli, Silversea's CEO. "Cuba is a remarkable island and we are delighted to offer our guests the opportunity to discover the most authentic sights, sounds and flavors of its culture, as they connect with its people on thoughtfully orchestrated voyages."

Mark Conroy, Silversea's managing director for the Americas, added: "We are thrilled to announce the addition of Cuba to our 2019 and 2020 voyage collections. Cuba is arguably the fastest growing destination in the Caribbean, and one that many luxury travelers are eager to explore, knowing that they can be uniquely enriched by a fresh perspective on the people, traditions and natural wonders of this island nation."

The Silver Wind will inaugurate the company's sailings to Cuba when she sets sail on February 14, 2019, on a seven-night voyage from San Juan to Fort Lauderdale. The itinerary will include visits to Havana and Santiago de Cuba, and Bimini.

The Silver Spirit will depart San Juan on a 10-night voyage on February 22, 2019. An overnight in Santiago de Cuba is on the cards, as are calls in Cienfuegos and Havana, as well as stops in George Town, Key West and Bimini, before finishing in Fort Lauderdale.

Departing San Juan on March 31, 2019, the Silver Wind will visit both Santiago de Cuba and Havana on overnight calls, as well as Cienfuegos, on a 10-night voyage. The itinerary will also incorporate George Town in the Cayman Islands and Bimini.

Also aboard Silver Wind, a nine-night round-trip voyage from Fort Lauderdale - departing April 10 - will call in Santiago de Cuba overnight and Havana, in addition to Bimini, Nassau and Port Canaveral.

There is also a 14-night sailing aboard the Silver Whisper which will depart Fort Lauderdale on November 22. The round-trip voyage will feature a visit to Cienfuegos, plus overnight stays in Santiago de Cuba and Havana. The itinerary also includes calls in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize City and Key West.

In 2020, another 12 voyages are scheduled to Cuba.With the new era of Windows as a service, Microsoft is rolling out changes to the operating system twice a year. Many of those changes will allow you to improve your security posture and offer more security choices. You no longer have to wait for a new operating system to deploy new security features.

Windows 10 21H1

The May 2021 release of Windows 10 may be the most stable Windows 10 release ever. Because of the pandemic, and due to potential more changes in the next version of Windows 10, this release is nearly anti-climatic in its release. If you are already on 2004 or 20H2, the install will be fast and should not cause any major issues. If you have never used Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or Intune to approve and manage feature releases to Windows 10, this might be the release youll want to test the process with. Look for the Feature Update to Windows 10 Version 21H1 x64-based systems 2021-05 via Enablement Package and approve that in your WSUS console to upgrade to 21H1. In a sign that this release is not major, the ADK for 2004 and 20H2 still works for 21H1. Servicing stack changes As with 20H2, Windows 10 21H1 combines the update with the related servicing stack update so you no longer need to install the servicing stack first if you manually approve updates. Rather, the two are combined for easy installation and the experience is similar using Windows Update for servicing. Windows Intune changes For those moving to cloud-only connections, Windows Intune is maturing as a potential replacement for WSUS. Windows Update for Business can be used to manage patching versus using WSUS. If you have Windows 10 Professional, you can use Group Policy to manage and deploy the Windows update for business settings. If you have Microsoft 365 E3 or higher, you can use Intune to manage the settings. More information about Windows Intune and its ability to manage patches can be obtained online. Additional features can be reviewed online. Windows Hello Multi-camera support has been added to 21H1, which allows users to choose an external camera priority when external and internal Windows Hello-capable cameras are present. Windows Defender Application Guard Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) has been improved to increase the document opening times, in particular when opening a file over a universal naming convention (UNC) path or server message block (SMB) shares. Finally, the performance of robocopy is improved when copying large files. Whats been removed The biggest change between 21H1 and its predecessors is the removal of the original Edge browser. The Chrome-based Edge browser is now the new recommended browser of the Windows 10 ecosystem. Microsoft will also be making a big change with its Internet Explorer browser in June 2022 by finally retiring it in versions of Windows 10. Note that this does not impact LTSB (long term servicing branch) versions of Windows as those will still support IE. While the launching of the browser will be removed, components of the application will remain under the operating system for developers to still call on for legacy desktop applications. For those that love the WMI command line (WMIC), 21H1 announces the beginning of the end. The WMIC tool is deprecated in Windows 10 version 21H1 and the 21H1 semi-annual channel release of Windows Server. This tool is superseded by Windows PowerShell for WMI. WMI itself is not affected.

Windows 10 20H2

Microsofts semi-annual Windows 10 feature release for Windows 10, called 20H2, for the second half of 2020 is the smaller May incremental release to version 2004. The naming changed to align with the Windows Insider channel releases. You can move from any older version of Windows 10 to the 20H2 release. If you move from 2004, the installation time will be quick as 20H2 is an enablement package for software already installed. Installing from any older release will take longer as it will go through the normal installation and staging process.

Microsoft has also released a draft of the security baseline documents for 20H2. (Security baselines for Edge are released separately as you can install it separately from the operating system.)

Version 20H2 is supported through May 10, 2022, for Home, Pro, Pro Education, Pro for Workstations and IoT Core, and through May 9, 2023, for Enterprise, Education and IoT Enterprise.

Chromium-based Edge browser

The major change in 20H2 is the inclusion of Microsofts new Edge browser based on the Chromium engine. To download the Group Policy files to control the new Edge in your environment, go to the Edge for business web page. Click the drop-down menu item Select Channel/Build, then choose the version of Edge you plan to use. Next, select the platform from the drop-down menu and select your operating system. Click on Get policy files to download the Cabinet (CAB) Group Policy files you need to manage Edge.

Service stack update changes

Deployment of servicing stack updates has changed with 20H2. You no longer must look for and approve servicing stack updates separately from the latest cumulative updates. Servicing stack updates help keep Windows 10 updating healthy. Before 20H2 when a servicing stack update was released and you used Windows Server Update Service (WSUS), System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or another patching platform to look for and approve latest cumulative update and then find and approve the servicing stack released for the month (if there was one). If both were not approved, you risked having patching issues with the operating system. Now both are included in one update, like the streamlined process for consumer patching.

DisableAntiSpyware setting

In 20H2 Microsoft has deprecated the DisableAntiSpyware setting. Now when Microsoft Defender sees another antivirus tool installed, it will automatically turn itself off. Note that if you deploy Windows Server or Long Term Servicing Branch (LTSB) versions, you might still need this setting or to manually disable antivirus tools as those versions dont sense all antivirus vendors.

Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office

The 20H2 release also includes support for Microsoft Defender Application Guard for Office. With this enabled, untrusted Office documents sent from outside of your organization automatically open in an isolated sandbox. This prevents malicious content from compromising your system. You will need a Microsoft 365 E5 license to fully implement this solution.

Expanded Windows Sandbox policies

Windows Sandbox policies have been expanded to support Windows Intune policies. The additional policies include:

WindowsSandbox/AllowAudioInput allows you to enable or disable audio input to the Sandbox.

WindowsSandbox/AllowClipboardRedirection allows you to enable or disable sharing of the host clipboard with the sandbox.

WindowsSandbox/AllowPrinterRedirection allows you to enable or disable printer sharing from the host into the Sandbox.

WindowsSandbox/AllowVGPU allows you to enable or disable virtualized GPU for Windows Sandbox.

WindowsSandbox/AllowVideoInput allows you to enable or disable video input to the Sandbox.

Biometric authentication via Windows Hello

Windows Hello offers support for fingerprint and face sensors in virtualization so it further isolates and ensures that a users biometric authentication.

Four new security settings

Four new settings included in 20H2 are an interesting mix, and one addresses a recent security vulnerability that has been in the headlines.

The first new setting is Domain controller: Allow vulnerable Netlogon secure channel connections. This is needed due to the Zerologon vulnerability that has been recently patched. It allows exclusions for non-complying devices that cannot connect to a domain after these patches (CVE-20201472) have been applied to your domain controllers. It is located at Machine, then Security Options.

The next new setting is Turn off cloud optimized content. This is located at Machine then Windows Components\Cloud Content.

Another new setting relating to Windows Update is Disable Safeguards for Feature Updates. Microsoft blocks feature updates to systems that are not able to properly deploy the feature releases. This setting allows you to override that block. It is located at Machine and then at Windows Components\Windows Update\Windows Update for Business.

The final new setting is Configure the inclusion of Edge tabs into Alt-Tab. It is located at User and then at Windows Components\Multitasking.

Windows 10 2004

Microsoft released Windows 10 2004 to developers in mid-May 2020 and then to the general public at the end of May. Many organizations are on 1903 and have not moved to 1909. Version 2004 has new security features that might make an upgrade worthwhile.

Windows 10 2004 is a spring feature release, so has an 18-month servicing time from release date. Version 1909 will be supported until May 11, 2021 for Home, Pro, Pro Education, and Pro for Workstations editions, and until May 10, 2022 for Education and Enterprise versions. This extended due date in response to the impact of the public health situation. Version 2004 was built to minimize update processing time and does not share the code of Windows 10 1903/1909, and thus is a more impactful feature release than version 1909.

Windows 10 Hello

Windows 10 Version 2004 emphasizes passwordless technology and lets you use Windows 10 Hello biometric security system to sign on. To turn this feature on, launch Settings. Then click on Accounts and Sign-in options Under Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts, select On. Once Hello is enabled you can then login for Microsoft services on company devices.

Windows Hello allows for log in with your face, iris, fingerprint, or a PIN. Support depends on youre your devices support for authentication. Windows Hello can take data from a camera, iris sensor, or fingerprint reader. The data is then encrypted before its stored on the device. Research if your hardware supports Windows Hello before deploying it.

Windows Defender Application Guard upgrades

Windows Defender Application Guard is a security tool originally developed for Microsofts HTML-based Edge browser. It protects users by isolating files received from untrusted or potentially dangerous sites. In Windows 10 2004 Pro or Enterprise. Application Guard also works in the new Chromium-based Edge and allows Edge extensions to run in containers. This is a change from prior versions, which allowed Device Guard/ Application Guard policies to be created only on Enterprise but enforced on any SKU. Version 2004 allows Application Guard policies for Windows 10 Pro specifically for the new Edge version.

Windows Update Delivery Optimization

Microsoft has enhanced Delivery Optimization to allow for more control over the bandwidth used during Windows 10 updates. You can set a limit cap at which the computer will stop Delivery Optimization features to more efficiently use network resources while downloading installation packages.

Susan Bradley Delivery Optimization settings

Controlling rebooting

Microsoft has long struggled to make updates more dependable and take less time. The company claims that user downtime during feature updates for version 2004 has been reduced to 20 minutes and requires just one reboot. Updates are optimized when the computer has adequate resources. Even with these changes, its still recommended to optimize your Windows 10 deployments by providing devices with SSD hard drives and adequate RAM for the function you need them to perform. Unless the device is purpose built, I recommend at least 8GB of RAM.

Resetting the PC

Microsoft has made the process of deploying Windows 10 extremely fast. This process has normally required an ISO file mounted locally. Windows 10 2004 allows you to reset the PC with the option of downloading the media from online. If any of the following optional features are installed, However, the reset from cloud will not work if any of these optional features are installed:

EMS and SAC Toolset for Windows 10

IrDA infrared

Print Management Console

RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)

RIP Listener

All RSAT tools

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Windows Fax and Scan

Windows Storage Management

Wireless Display

WMI SNMP Provider

Susan Bradley Reset PC now allows for cloud downloads

The cloud download option can use more than 4GB of data, so plan accordingly.

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

A new version of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is released in 2004. Unlike the prior version that used an emulator, WSL 2 uses its own kernel. This should increase compatibility and performance. The new version allows you to run ELF64 Linux binaries on Windows. Individual Linux distros can be run either as a WSL 1 or WSL 2 distro. They can also be upgraded or downgraded at any time, and you can run WSL 1 and WSL 2 distros side by side.

The new Microsoft Edge browser

While not part of Windows 10 2004, the new Edge browser based on Chrome should be included in your deployment plans. The major advantage of the new Edge is that its based on Chromium, the same foundation as Googles Chrome, so any Chome extensions you use can be easily ported over to the new Edge.Okay, so its October and that means its Cybersecurity Awareness Month. And, for the past four years, I have maintained that cybersecurity is everybodys business. I maintain this is, in fact, the case. However, its clear that, for many of us, our responsibilities related to cybersecurity are, well, not clear.

According to newly released ISACA and CMMI Institute research on cybersecurity culture, only 34 percent of employees have a sound understanding of their role in their organizations security culture. While some may find this statistic startling, I see it more as sobering. Its a stark reminder that a culture change does not happen overnight, and when it comes to cybersecurity, it comes as no surprise that 95 percent of respondents indicate a significant gap between the culture their organization desires versus the its current state. The ISACA and CMMI research also found that a lack of employee buy-in is the primary factor inhibiting a strong culture of cybersecurity. And a subtle irony of this is that employees are the weakest link in the cyber threat chain. However, as pointed out in a 2017 ENISA report, employees also offer the potential to become robust human firewalls against cyber attacks.

Make this a widespread movement

Critical to an organizations culture is the high dependency on its shared beliefs, its values, and most importantly, the actions of its employees. Workplace culture expert and author Jamie Notter notes that culture is, at best, difficult to change, often taking as long as eight years to evolve into its desired state. But with the threat surface expanding at an exponential rate, and the threat landscape moving at the speed of change, how long do we really have to make the cultural shift?

I suggest thinking differently. Instead of simply referring to the need to change our organizational culture, lets invest our efforts in making this a more widespread movement to combat cybersecurity threats. In a 2017 Harvard Business Review article, Bryan Walker and Sarah Soule reference five practices for leading a movement:

Appropriately frame the issue

Why is a movement to combat cyber threats important? It is a risk management and business issue in support of the organizations success, profitability and sustainability. Nine in 10 respondents to the ISACA and CMMI survey indicate establishing a stronger cybersecurity movement would increase their organizations profitability and viability  two variables that are essential to any enterprises well-being. But wait, theres more. Link the movement to local and global economic prosperity, and to assurances of public safety. Create experiential training around this to embed it into employee thinking and behavior.

Demonstrate quick/small wins

Employees share concerns about cybersecurity and want to do the right thing. However, they find themselves unsure of what they can do in their current role. There is a lack of understanding of what actions are deemed by the organization to be representative and valued in the fight against cyber threats. Enterprise leaders need to share accountability for removing this ambiguity by showcasing examples of successful employee efforts, no matter how small. Then employees will have the confidence to rise up and take further action.

Harness networks

This means that coalitions should be formed both inside and outside of the organizations. If your internal coalitions get together, they will breed energy that will be contagious across all other groups. If the organization can shape relationships with other enterprises, the movement spreads beyond the organizational boundaries and the return on investment increases exponentially.

Create safe havens

Fostering trust between the security team and employees is another important component of healthy organizational cyber culture. Even with the deployment of coherent policies and regular training, mistakes will inevitably be made. Sketchy attachments will be opened, unapproved software will be down loaded, and employees will plug in unidentified devices. When these and other mistakes occur, employees must feel comfortable reaching out to their organizations security team to report any concerns so that corrective action can swiftly be taken. Organizations must strike the appropriate balance between emphasizing accountability for all employees actions without discouraging them from sharing issues that arise for fear of the consequences.

Embrace symbols

It may sound trivial but consider things as simple as providing employees with a T-shirt, bumper sticker, or button supporting the cybersecurity cause and giving the wider employee and customer network an increased sense of purpose, pride and resolve.

Our work to date can be classified as one small step for the movement. Lets now double down and cause the movement to take a giant leap toward a unified and global stand against cybersecurity threats and attacks, while creating assurance that innovation, economic prosperity and safety for all the worlds citizens can be an inspired reality. The cultural change will be a natural outcome of our movement.I have to admit: I have not been very focused on IoT.

When I hear IoT, I often think about connected homes, cars and security cams.

Its so much more  and its growth projections are worth noting.

Some recent IoT facts that caught my attention:

Global IoT market share is projected to grow from 249 billion in 2018 dollars to 457 billion dollars in 2020

$ 6 trillion will be invested in IoT solutions over the next five years

In 2020, 90% of vehicles will be internet connected

In 2020, 173.47 million wearable devices will be in use

In 2020, smart cities will have a 26% share of IoT

In 2020, industrial IoT will have a 24% share of IoT

In 2020, connected health will have a 20% share of IoT

In 2020, smart homes will have a 14% share of IoT

Source: SC magazine, Oct 2018

What does all of this mean? How will we manage and secure all of these devices? We already stumbled pretty bad moving from mainframes to client server, connected laptops and smart phones. We simply moved too much data too fast to unsecured devices. See the OPM data breach. The same government that wanted to hurry and get all medical data online could not secure its most prized clearances of its highest-level staff, including military officers and the FBI director.

I like to explain it like this: Early computer systems in the 70s were like a castle with one gate in and out. Then client-server came, and it was like an apartment complex with hundreds of doors in and out of the enterprise. Now were about to experience a tsunami, a 100-foot tidal wave of IoT devices within every sector.

45% of IoT buyers say concerns about security remain a significant barrier

93% of executives said they would pay more for devices with better security

Source: SC magazine, Oct 2018

Brian Krebs of Krebs on Security recently called out Xiongmai as the technology giant doing the most damage in polluting the web. Xiongmai is a Chinese maker of electronic parts that power cheap digital video recorders and IoT security cameras. These cheap devices have poor default passwords and other security settings. IoT devices are not easily configured, so most consumers just plug and play/

What users of these devices should do instead is plug and prayas in pray that the device has some standard of security out of the box.

But generally, this simply isnt the case. In 2016, we witnessed the disruptive power of Mirai, a powerful botnet that chocked the internet via IoT cheap cameras and DVRs with poor security settings.

This is just the beginning of just how devastating these IoT devices can be if not properly managed and secured. The time to let manufacturers know that we wont tolerate substandard cheap devices flooding the internet is now!

This is not so hard for corporations with security departments that know better, but how do we educate our families and friends? Todays consumers seem to buy anything that appeals to them: the devices are tempting, and fueled with impressive, cant-say-no marketing techniques.

I believe our government has to step in and set standards of whats acceptable. If not, we will continue to be flooded with these cheap and destructive devices that will steal our identities, violate our privacy and disrupt our internet connectivity.

Look at the smartphone. What was once a luxury is now the preferred way we all communicate.

I love my AT&T carrier, Apple Iphone XS Max, 7 billion transistors that do 5 trillion operations per second. Its a great phone, with applications galore and wonderful internet connectivity. If only I could stop all the unsolicited calls that constantly violate my peace and privacy.

Every technological advance can and will be exploited at some point, but if we think before we quickly push devices out into consumers and corporations hands  if we build security and privacy in to start with  well have a better handle on what can go wrong.

Take medical devices, for instance. Per a recent study by Trend Micro, more than 100,000 medical devices were discovered to be insecure. Think of an infusion pump precisely monitoring the flow of a lifesaving fluid into your loved one. Dont think it can be hacked and the dosage changed? Think it doesnt happen? The HIPAA journal recently featured a study done by Vanderbilt University that suggested healthcare data breaches cause 2,100 deaths a year. Was this IoT related? I dont know, but the evidence of what can happen with unmanaged, unsecure IoT is powerful and must be addressed.

So, where to now? Want to learn more about IoT? It really applies to everything: medicine, health, transportation, smart cities and smart homes. The excellent book Internet of Things, for Things and by

Things by Abhik Chaudhuri has my full attention. Its well written and covers all things IoT.

Those of us in security, privacy, governance and risk management cant ignore IoT any longer! Its coming like a tsunami and we better hold on and have a plan.

One things for sure: IoT will change everything, in all sectors!PTI govt did not believe in victimization of political opponents: Fawad Chaudhry

Federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry Wednesday said the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government did not believe in victimization of the political opponents, adding that only the Motu Gang was crying foul over the ongoing accountability process.



Whenever the process of accountability starts against the looters and plunderers, the opposition makes hue and cry claiming that they were being victimized and that the democracy was in danger, he told reporters outside the Parliament House. However, no hue and cry can hinder the ongoing accountability process in the country and across the board accountability process will continue, he said, adding that there was no involvement from the government in the process of accountability. Fawad reminded that the cases of accountability being prosecuted now in the courts were registered during the PML-N tenure and the NAB chief as well as prosecutors were appointed by the PML-N and the PPP through mutual consultations. The PTI has nothing to do with it, he added.



The minister said he had submitted a resolution in the National Assembly Secretariat calling for formation of a parliamentary panel to investigate the financial wrongdoings during the past 10 years.



Criticizing the double standards of the opposition, he said that when the PTI wins, they claim that the elections are rigged but if they win they call it free and fair. Government is ready to hold debate on the process of accountability and if there are weaknesses in the law, it can be amended but this can happen only if it is discussed in the parliament, he said.



Fawad said National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser created history by issuing production order of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif during remand, as this has not been the tradition in the past. The government also did not oppose the idea of Shehbaz Sharif attending the National Assembly session, he said.



He said on Tuesday Asif Zardari appeared in a Karachi court, Shehbaz Sharif in a Lahore court and Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad. The reason is that they ruled the country for past 10 years, he said, and advised the PML-N not to talk about fairness in accountability as they had appointed a crony  Saifur Rehman  as chairman of the then accountability commission and Benazir Bhutto suffered the worst victimization at his hands. He said during past five years, not even a single case was registered against opposition parties in KP, however 32 cases were registered against PTI Chairman Imran Khan in Punjab and Islamabad. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has rightly said that there were about 50 persons who were worried over the ongoing accountability.



Fawad strongly condemned the attitude of PML-N during the Punjab Assembly session on Tuesday and supported the decision of the speaker to suspend some of the members. He said now that the noose of law was being tightened, they are crying but there should be no letup in the process.When Kristin Lubeck and her long-term boyfriend were planning a seventh-anniversary trip to Las Vegas, she told him not to buy her a ring. But he didn't listen. During the trip's final hours, he proposed - and she said yes.

Months later, when Lubeck and her fiance went to get her engagement ring sized to fit her finger, she couldn't go through with the alterations.

"I wanted it to remain a generic size so it could be reused again. If it fits my finger, he might not get as much money for it," Lubeck remembers thinking, the kind of reaction that screams: Do not go through with this.

It took her a few more months to really listen to her hesitations and break off her engagement. She worried about what others would think and if her fiance's family might be upset.

"When I actually did it, it wasn't as bad as I thought," Lubeck recalls now, five years later. Now she tells anyone who's unsure about fulfilling their engagement: If you don't think it's right, don't do it.

This week, Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson became the latest celebrities to break off an engagement. It's unclear how much their wedding was planned, but TMZ reported that Davidson would get the $93,000 custom-made engagement ring and Grande would keep the pig they adopted together.

Lauren Kay, deputy editor of the Knot, likens a broken engagement to a miscarriage: There's a lot of shame attached to it - and they are more common than you might think, she says - even if you don't have millions of Instagram followers rooting for your relationship. "If you're in the situation, you feel like you've failed in some way. But a lot people go through it," Kay says, adding that two of her friends have called off their weddings.

When engagements end, some things (such as rings or honeymoon funds) can be returned or split down the middle, while others (such as deposits on a dress or venue) might end up as losses. And some things are impossible to erase: Grande will always have a song named "Pete Davidson," and People has reported that the former couple has several tattoos that either match or commemorate their months-long relationship.

In the wake of Grandson's split, we spoke to wedding experts and several people who have broken off their own engagements or canceled weddings - and everyone said the dread about spreading the news was worse than the actual announcement. If you're facing a big breakup, here are some tips they offered.

Getting the word out: When Caitlin Reagan called off her wedding about six months before the big day, the save-the-dates hadn't gone out yet, and she remembers the hardest call she had to make was to the wedding coordinator at the church where she had planned to get married. She had written out what she needed to say before making the call and was worried about bursting into tears on the phone. Luckily, she got to leave a message, and the coordinator called her back and was very understanding.

Kay says that if invitations haven't been mailed, the wedding's would-be hosts (such as the parents) can send a card saying they're no longer hosting the wedding of so-and-so and so-and-so. If invitations have already gone out, every guest should get a phone call notifying them that the wedding is no longer happening. It's best to be candid and get the news out as soon as possible, Kay says, but you don't have to explain why the wedding has been called off. If emotions are raw, the would-be couple might draft friends or siblings to circulate the news, Kay suggests.

What to do with any gifts you may have received: Typical etiquette says that the couple should return any engagement, shower or wedding gifts they've received, even if they were personalized, Kay says. But if the guests insist that the would-be couple keep the gifts, do so. Mike Cramer, who called off a wedding about four years ago, says that when he and his ex-fiancee returned gifts to guests, most people told him to keep whatever they had sent. "I don't think I took everyone up on it," Cramer recalls, "but I did get a really nice coffeemaker out of the whole thing." He did not, however, get the ring back.

What about the engagement ring? Typically whoever proposed should get the engagement ring returned to them, especially if the ring was a family heirloom. Receiving an engagement ring is essentially agreeing to a contract that you will marry the person who gives it to you, says Caroline Krauss-Browne, an attorney in the matrimonial and family law department of Blank Rome.

However, there are exceptions. Krauss-Browne recalls a situation she worked on in which a man proposed to a woman while he was still married. "When you ask a person to marry you and you were not capable of fulfilling the contract, she doesn't have to give the ring back - because she was entering a contract he couldn't perform."

Krauss-Browne also advises not to return the ring to the proposer right away, if the party holding the ring lost money on a deposit for a venue. She has negotiated exchanges where the ring is traded for part of the un-recouped wedding costs.

Canceling on wedding vendors: Unfortunately, wedding cancellation insurance usually covers things such as cancellation or postponement due to weather or a death or illness in the couple's immediate family, but not a change of heart. And each individual vendor contract is different. Reagan says she's never really been able to talk to her parents about how much they lost on her would-be wedding venue, band, caterer and custom-dress designer.

The big day that's now just a normal day: After the logistical work of canceling a wedding is complete, the emotional toll can set in. When Reagan's wedding day arrived - a Friday - she was insistent on making it just be a normal day. While on the bus to work, she typed a note to herself on her phone: Today was supposed to be my wedding, but it's not. Today's going to be a great day anyway.

And it really was a great day. She went out for happy hour with new friends at work. Later on, she hosted a blowout 30th birthday party with money that had been set aside for her honeymoon.

Every year on his would-be wedding day, Cramer and his friends celebrate "Mike Emancipation Day." It's usually just a happy hour, a date that his friends have in their calendars every year. His current girlfriend has even celebrated two Mike Emancipation Days. After all, it's part of the reason they're together.

The digital remains: Everyone we spoke to noted how the digital footprint lingered long after the breakup. It took Reagan months before she realized her wedding website was still live, with a ticker still counting down. She and her ex-fiance had purchased four different URLs for their wedding website, and even after she stopped paying for them, she would get emails from GoDaddy letting her know that one of the URLs was still available. "It was haunting," she said.

And then there's the impulse to use social media to prove you're winning the breakup. "The worse I was feeling," Cramer recalls, "the more I was posting on Facebook about how great everything was."A Darien man has waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud relating to his theft of more than $57,000 from a former U.S. Navy service member

Christopher Teixeira, 34, used the stolen funds to pay his own personal expenses, and transferred $25,000 to another individuals account.

John H. Durham, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut and Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Special Agent in Charge of the DCIS Northeast Field Office said in a release that Teixeira made the plea in Hartford federal court on Wednesday.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service is the agency of the U.S. Department of Defense that administers all payments to U.S. service members. DFAS operates the MyPay online portal, through which service members may provide and obtain information related to payments from DFAS.

A U.S. Navy service member (the victim) was scheduled to receive a medical severance payment from the Navy in January 2017. The victim provided his MyPay login and password information to Teixeira, who he trusted with certain financial responsibilities, the release said.

On Jan. 10, 2017, before the victim was to receive the medical severance payment, Teixeira changed the victims direct deposit information to a bank account controlled by Teixeira. DFAS then sent the victims $57,255.66 medical severance payment to Teixeiras account. In order to avoid detection, Teixeira logged back into the victims MyPay account and reverted the direct deposit instructions back to the victims bank account.

Teixeira and the victim communicated after Teixeira stole the medical severance payment. Instead of admitting to the theft, Teixeira told the victim that he would assist in finding the money. When the victim indicated he was in need of funds, Teixeira transferred approximately $6,500 to the victim without telling him that Teixeira had stolen the money.

The charge of wire fraud carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. Teixeira is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant on February 20, 2019.

Teixeira is released pending sentencing.Hearst Connecticut Media / Tara ONeill

MILFORD  A New Haven resident was charged after he allegedly tried to cash a fraudulent check at a city bank, police said.

Jamar Brooks, 19, of Lombard Street in New Haven, was charged with third-degree forgery and criminal attempt at fifth-degree larceny.No one would mistake Sherrod Brown for a Donald Trump supporter.

Yet one of the most solidly liberal Democrats in the U.S. Senate is lining up behind the president on trade in his bid for a third term in Ohio, a state critical both in this year's congressional elections and the 2020 presidential contest.

Brown, who is comfortably ahead in polls, says he has a winning formula. He sees his stance as a way for Democrats to peel away Trump voters -- especially in the industrial Midwest and blue-collar areas in Ohio, where the president's populist stance on trade and restoring manufacturing jobs helped propel him to the White House.

"I will get a number of Trump voters because I fought for the things that Trump campaigned on, long before he did,'' said Brown, who has long opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade deals. "My position on trade is the mainstream position for the country.''

Brown's strategy is unusual for a Democrat. The party's candidates for the House and Senate in parts of the country where trade has emerged as a key issue are largely taking the opposite position ahead of the Nov. 6 elections that will determine which party controls both chambers of Congress. They're faulting Trump's trade policies in states that are being hit with the effects of retaliation from other countries that have pushed up costs or shrunk markets.

In North Dakota, Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp has highlighted the impact of China's retaliatory tariffs on the state's farmers. In a tight race in Missouri, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill has blamed the Trump tariffs for threatening jobs at a local nail factory. And U.S. House candidate Lisa Brown, a Democrat from Washington, has touted the risks to local farmers and ranchers and says her opponent -- Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the No. 4 House Republican -- hasn't done enough to oppose the president's "reckless trade and tariff war."

The president's trade policies put many Republicans in a difficult position: If they fault Trump, they risk offending his supporters. If they back his approach on trade, they offend businesses that have historically supported the party and opposed the tariffs. So many of them are treading lightly. Democrats in some red states are doing the same, as faulting the president could limit their ability to win GOP and independent votes.

Scott Paul, president of the Alliance of American Manufacturing, a coalition of domestic industry and the United Steelworkers, said he warned Democrats about attacking Trump's trade policies.

"I've cautioned Democrats that thinking that you're going to score political points by opposing the president on trade is both short-sighted and is not going to produce many electoral returns for you,'' Paul said.

Trump won the industrial Midwestern states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan in part because he connected with working-class voters who thought both mainstream parties had abandoned them on economic issues and blamed free-trade deals such as NAFTA for the loss of manufacturing jobs, said John Brabender, a Republican strategist who served as a senior adviser to former Pennsylvania senator and 2016 presidential candidate Rick Santorum.

A candidate's record on trade and the culture of their state plays a big role in how they approach the issue, Brabender said.

Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania are among the states with more than 175,000 jobs supported by goods exports in 2016, according to the International Trade Administration. Pennsylvania has lost the 4th most manufacturing jobs among states since NAFTA took effect in 1994, while Ohio is 5th and Michigan is 7th, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

Brown has been open about supporting Trump on trade and said he's just following the same stance he has his whole career. He's worked closely with the White House on a renegotiated NAFTA and even blocked a bipartisan effort to derail Trump's power to impose tariffs.

The senator sent a letter to the president eight days after the 2016 election urging to keep his promises on trade, and Brown's first call to the future Trump administration went to Dan DiMicco, former Nucor Corp. chief executive officer who led Trump's trade team during the transition. Brown often mentions his contacts with fellow Ohio native Robert Lighthizer, the president's trade representative.

The Ohio senator also promised in February to deliver some Democratic votes for a renegotiated NAFTA, provided it protected workers. Now that the deal -- known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA -- has been struck, Brown is among a handful of Democrats who are publicly supportive but have been hardcore opponents of other deals.

Labor-friendly politicians such as Brown have felt frozen out by the party's trade establishment for decades, and they're getting more access to policy making under Trump, said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Whatever one thinks of the new USMCA, it does check some of labor's boxes,'' he said. "Brown and others in the party are at least going to give it a serious look.''

The trade deal, which requires congressional approval, hasn't become much of a campaign issue nationally.

For Brown, his approach on trade has cut off an avenue for his Republican opponent, Jim Renacci, a four-term congressman who has Trump's endorsement but has also backed free-trade deals.

"It has inoculated him against criticism from those who agree with Donald Trump on the trade issue,'' said Ted Strickland, a former Democratic Ohio governor and congressman who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2016. "It's quite frankly given Renacci nowhere to go.''

Renacci has played up Brown's long tenure in Washington and opposition to other administration policies, such as judicial appointments -- Brown opposed Trump's nominations of both Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh -- and his own access to Trump.

"I'm the person who has the relationship with the president, who supports the agenda but disagrees with him when I have to,'' Renacci said.

Some Republicans see cynicism in Democratic efforts to connect with working-class voters.

"Sherrod Brown wants to eat the trade cheesecake without getting the Trump calories,'' said Mark Weaver, a Republican strategist in Ohio. "The Democrats who want to speak to Trump voters will pick and choose the issues where they agree with the president.''

Brown, who voted against NAFTA in one of his first acts as a member of Congress in 1993 and wrote a book entitled "Myths of Free Trade,'' said he's not worried about angering Democrats by working with Trump because constituents know his record.

"They don't expect me to flip my position because they don't personally like the president,'' he said. "I'm not a supporter of his on almost every other issue.''WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's approach to his wife's travel and activities sparked concerns among the department's ethics officials, according to a report issued Thursday by Interior's inspector general office.

The report determined that staff in the department's solicitor office "approved Lolita Zinke and other individuals to ride in Government vehicles with Secretary Zinke" although Interior policy prohibited this practice. The employee who authorized the move told investigators that "she routinely advised" Zinke's aides "that it would be 'cleanest' and 'lowest risk' if she did not ride with him" but could find a way to justify it. This summer, Zinke changed Interior's policy so that family members could ride with him.

Zinke confirmed to investigators that he had directed his staff to research the possibility of giving his wife a volunteer job at Interior, a move that one ethics official objected to on the grounds that it was designed so that Zinke wouldn't "have to pay" for his wife's travel. Zinke subsequently "denied that it was an effort to circumvent the requirement to reimburse the DOI for her travel," the report states.

The new findings came after a chaotic week at the Department of Interior. Hours before the report was released, Interior Department officials said that they did not approve the hiring of a political appointee as their agency's acting watchdog, calling the announcement of her move by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson "100 percent false information."

The backtracking on Suzanne Israel Tufts' move drew widespread scrutiny, raising questions about how and why she was supposedly chosen to lead Interior's inspector general's office, which is conducting at least four investigations into Zinke's activities. Last week, investigators issued two subpoenas for documents to entities tied to the probes, according to two individuals familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said the new IG report shows that Zinke had run his travel decisions by the relevant authorities at the department.

"The Inspector General report proves what we have known all along: the secretary follows all relevant laws and regulations and that all of his travel was reviewed and approved by career ethics officials and solicitors prior to travel," she said in an email.

Swift added that previous secretaries had received "the same exact legal advice" from the solicitor's office and that the department's motor vehicle policy "has been updated to reflect the reality of the long standing situation."

But critics of the administration said the report, which also found that taxpayers paid $25,000 to send an unarmed security detail with the Zinkes on their vacation to Turkey and Greece last summer, documents a breach of the public trust.

"This report shows Secretary Zinke's dogged determination to use his office for personal gain, even going so far as to tell Interior's top lawyer to lie to the public to justify his wife's travel," said Jen Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, an advocacy group. "Secretary Zinke owes the American people an apology - and a refund."

Rep. Raul Grijalva, Ariz., the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement: "Republicans have known about Secretary Zinke's scandals for eighteen months and done nothing. Putting Democrats in charge of Congress is the only way to stop these abuses."

The IG inquiry also found that the secretary had invited two individuals who had hosted a fundraiser for him when he served as a congressman to go on an official trip to California's Channel Islands, at government expense, and had not notified Interior lawyers about the fact that they were former political contributors.

Top White House officials said Thursday that they had not been made aware of the plan to move Tufts to serve as acting inspector general at Interior. She is a lawyer from Queens who worked on President Donald Trump's campaign and has served as HUD's assistant secretary for administration since December.

"Ms. Tufts is not employed by the Department and no decision was ever made to move her to Interior," Swift said in a statement Thursday.

And in a striking public rebuke of another Cabinet agency led by a close friend of Zinke's, Swift wrote that HUD "sent out an email that had 100 percent false information in it." She affirmed that Deputy Inspector General Mary Kendall, who has led the office for nine years, is still in the job.

In an email Friday with the subject line "A Fond Farewell," Carson wrote to HUD staffers: "It is with mixed emotions that I announce that Suzanne Israel Tufts, our Assistant Secretary for Administration, has decided to leave HUD to become Acting Inspector General at the Department of Interior."

"I am extremely grateful to Suzanne for her service to HUD and am confident that she will thrive in her new role," Carson added.

Swift said Tufts was referred to Interior officials by the White House "as a potential candidate" for a position in the inspector general's office. Swift did not say what position. "At the end of the day, she was not offered a job at Interior."

HUD officials did not respond to a request for comment. Tufts could not be reached.

The about-face came after mounting criticism by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and watchdog groups of what appeared to be an unorthodox arrangement between the agencies to bring in a political appointee to oversee Kendall. President Barack Obama nominated Kendall for the position of inspector general, but the Senate never voted on it. Tufts, meanwhile, is a former consultant who has no experience as an investigator and would have been leading one of the government's most active inspector general offices.

Kendall is conducting at least four investigations of Zinke's conduct, including his involvement in a Montana land deal and his activities in connection with two Connecticut tribes' application to open a casino.

In an interview Thursday, Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt said that he had developed a good working relationship with Kendall but that department leaders were scouting for someone the president could nominate to serve on a permanent basis.

"Mary would agree that it would be good for the inspector general to be a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed individual," Bernhardt said. "I think she would agree with us that the job has been vacant since [former Inspector General Earl] Devaney left, for almost a decade. That's not good, because that's not the way we run the country."

Tufts' appointment, which Carson announced to HUD staff last Friday, came to light this week through reports in The Washington Post and other outlets. White House officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters, said the move was a surprise to them.

Interior officials declined until Thursday to answer questions on Tufts' hiring, saying instead that the post has been vacant for almost a decade and that any announcement on a Senate nomination would come from the White House.

While presidents have the right to hire and fire inspectors general, the Inspector General Act of 1978 specifies that candidates should be chosen "without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability in accounting, auditing, financial analysis, law, management analysis, public administration, or investigations."

Michael Bromwich, who served as inspector general at the Justice Department from 1994 to 1999 as well as head of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management from 2010 to 2011, called the move to hire Tufts "highly unusual."

"The statute says that alone among political appointees, this is a nonpartisan position to be staffed on a permanent basis by those with appropriate backgrounds," Bromwich said. "It's a real breach of protocol to put someone who's only qualification is political allegiance to the Trump administration."

- - -

The Washington Post's Tracy Jan and Robert O'Harrow contributed to this report.Sue Hatfield, candidate for Attorney General, is just what Connecticut needs as our senior legal officer.

Why? It comes down to character, concern and competence. Sue was an all-state athlete in high school. It takes character to train hard and to work as part of a winning team.

A registered nurse, Sue Hatfield understands the plight of those who are ill, and need care and support.

This history of concern is found in her legal work, too. As a state prosecutor, Sue has effectively prosecuted cases including human trafficking, sexual assault, securities violations and home invasion  fighting the good fight for victims of all kinds.

Also, as someone who has first-hand experience with pregnancy discrimination, I am encouraged by her commitment to strengthen Connecticuts reporting process for all victims of discrimination and sexual harassment. What people want is a fair shake. Sue Hatfield will continue to work hard to see they get it.

Our next attorney general will have much on her plate. Sue will rise to the challenge as she always has, and keep the divisive politics out and the concern for hard-working people in. Sue Hatfield deserves our vote for Attorney General.

John J. Kriz

New CanaanWhether you're looking to call the Nutmeg State your new home or you're planning to swap one Connecticut zip code for another, chances are you are facing a list of questions as dense as the housing market itself. From home style to budget to location, there's a lot to consider when hunting for your dream Connecticut property  but a new report by HomeArea.com is helping to simplify the process.

Using the U.S. Census Bureau's latest estimates from the American Community Survey for all Connecticut cities with a population exceeding 60,000, HomeArea.com estimated these locales' price to rent ratio, or the median home value divided by the median annual rent. House hunters can then use this information to better understand whether it is better to rent or buy in a particular Connecticut city or town.

While HomeArea.com says that any price to rent ratio under 15 is more suitable for buying a home and ratios above 20 are better for renting, Connecticut's overall price to rent ratio has fallen 2.1 percent, down to 23.6 from 24.1. This makes the state as a whole a better climate for renting than buying.

How did individual cities fare? New Britain saw the biggest increase in price to rent ratio at 7.1 percent, making it the second-best city in the state for purchasing a home instead of renting. Norwalk, however, had the largest percentage decrease at 5.6 percent, making it second to last on the list.

Click through the slideshow above to see which locales made HomeArea.com's list of best Conn. cities that are better to buy in than to rent.

But when deciding whether to rent or buy, licensed real estate salesperson for Houlihan Lawrence's New Canaan Brokerage Office Libby Mattson says there are a few factors that may tip the scales toward home ownership instead of renting.

"With mortgage rates going up, that would be a very strong factor to lock in a lower rate before they go up," Mattson said on home ownership. "Rental prices are much higher, and therefore, your monthly payment would be much lower with a mortgage payment."

Another pro of home ownership?

"There's building your personal wealth that comes with owning real estate," something she said works in union with property choice and mortgage rates. Additionally, Mattson offered that home owners don't have to face the potential of the property they're renting being put up for sale by the owner, forcing them to potentially relocate as quickly as they settled in.

While some areas in Connecticut seem ripe for renting, Mattson warned to be wary of some of the perceived conveniences that come with such temporary ties.

"With renting, you don't have deal with the maintenance, but you have to call the landlord to fix things all the time," she said. "But there are hidden move out fees, and you can get clobbered with your security deposit getting held up, so there's risk involved for the renter."

With renting and buying each coming with their own set of pros and cons, one thing is for sure: Connecticut is full of great places to call home.From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...The Ophthalmological Society of Ghana (OSG) has said there is a looming decline of eye specialists in the country.



OSG is made up of eye specialists in Paediatric Ophthalmology, Community eye health and Cornea and Anterior segments.



Dr Michael Ekouba Gyasi, the National President of the OSG, said more than half of the 90 ophthalmologists in the country were billed for retirement in the next 10 years.



Describing the situation as a national challenge, Dr Gyasi said currently there were 20 eye specialists residents in training but the number has to double if the country can achieve a sustainable growth.



He was addressing the opening session of the 28th Annual and Scientific Meeting of the OSG currently underway in Sunyani.



The two-day meeting is being held under the theme: "Universal Eye Health: A Global Action Plan".



Dr Gyasi said there is the need to train more eye care professionals and also ensure that trainees get adequate hands-on skills training.



If nothing at all, their cataract surgical skills, including phacoemulsification, must be spot on," he said.



Dr Boateng Wiafe, a renowned eye specialist, said research show that 56 per cent of all visually-impaired cases in the country were due to cataract.



He said there is the need for government to improve access to comprehensive eye care services and integrate the services into general health systems.



Dr Wiafe said high cost of service remains a key challenge to access to eye care and called for the inclusion of eye care services into the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Source: GNA









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45,000 U.S. bridges are crumbling. How do yours rate?Sell Charcoal Premium plus Premium A+ A I A II B C Origin : Indonesia and Thailand Can customise with your own brand Regards YonkbieOur company supplies fuel pellets for export to Japan. Shipment of large batches is possible (thousands of tons per month).To some degree, the villain of the piece is George Osborne. In 2015, the then Chancellor announced, not unreasonably, that the Beeb should share some of the pain of austerity

The BBC believes it is strapped for cash. And so it is contemplating a move that would make it unpopular with many people  one that might even call the licence fee into question.

Aunties plan is to scrap or restrict free television licences for people over 75. The cost of this subsidy is expected to be about 745 million a year by 2021-22, which is about a fifth of the Corporations licence fee income.

Who can doubt that many older pensioners  who tend to watch television much more than the young  would find such a development extremely distressing?

You may ask why on earth it is the BBC, rather than the Government, which is proposing to withdraw a benefit that is of such value to millions of people. It is a good question.

To some degree, the villain of the piece is George Osborne. In 2015, the then Chancellor announced, not unreasonably, that the Beeb should share some of the pain of austerity.

But instead of demanding a reduction in the licence fee, Mr Osborne made the BBC gradually take on the cost previously borne by government of subsidising free television licences for those over 75. The process will be complete by 2020, when Auntie will have full responsibility. In effect, she has been put in charge of a branch of social policy.

No one should be surprised by the outcome. The BBC has an insatiable appetite for money. It finds itself footing a bill it doesnt want to pay. And so, rather than paying it, the Corporation intends to get rid of it.

The consequences will be deplorable if the plan goes ahead. On the management floor of the BBC, where six-figures salaries are commonplace, the annual 150.50 cost of a licence fee may look like chicken feed. To many pensioners, however, it is a significant amount.

And here, it seems to me, Auntie has been playing dirty. She has commissioned a consultancy called Frontier Economics to review the options. Does this mean the firm has felt under pressure to come up with recommendations favourable to the Beeb?

In a preliminary discussion paper published yesterday, Frontier Economics argued that there had been profound economic changes since the benefit was introduced in 2001. Pensioners are now the least likely age group to live in poverty.

Here, of course, the BBC and Frontier Economics are deliberately playing into a common perception: namely that oldies are making hay while many millennials are unable to imagine owning a house or even having expectations of a decent standard of living.

It is certainly true some young people are having a hard time of it. But it is not the case that most pensioners are living high on the hog. This is a canard that must be exposed.

For although the state pension has risen in recent years faster than other benefits, it remains paltry compared with what is available in other developed countries. So said the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) earlier this year.

It claimed that the basic pension of 122.30 a week (it has since gone up very slightly) was the least generous in the West. According to the OECD, it is worth just 29 per cent of average earnings.

By comparison, in the Netherlands the basic state pension is 100.6 per cent of average earnings. In France, it is 74.5 per cent. In Germany, 50.5 per cent. Britain even came behind poorer countries such as Chile, Poland and Mexico.

So the idea that pensioners in this country are somehow uniquely well off is tosh. Admittedly, some of them also receive private pensions, but in many cases these rarely exceed a few thousand pounds a year.

That is why the BBC should not be allowed to get away with the fashionable misconception that old people are on some sort of roll, and have been enjoying huge privileges at the expense of the young.

Needless to say, I accept there are some older residents in the 4.5 million homes receiving a free television licence who could afford to pay. But I doubt whether it is practicable, without a vast, costly and very possibly inequitable bureaucracy, to identify them.

Wouldnt it be more seemly if, before hammering the elderly, the Corporation took a closer look at its own gigantic expenditure? The apparent conviction of its senior management that it has already cut itself to the bone is pretty laughable.

For example, is it really plausible that no further inroads could be made into BBC1s massive annual budget of 1,125 million? Trimming a few salaries of so-called stars earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year would be a useful start. I doubt Gary Lineker would walk away from Match Of The Day if his 1.7 million salary were slashed.

The BBC spends 196 million a year on online and digital services. Couldnt its ubiquitous website (which has probably helped drive some local newspapers to extinction) be reined in? It seems no less imperial in its scope than when George Osborne justly used that word to describe it a few years ago.

Then there is the BBCs unwieldy management, which still accounts for hundreds of millions of pounds. While its true there has been some cost-cutting on this front, it is nearly always the case that public bodies forced to accept some savings are capable of making more. Not so long ago, the BBC advertised for a Head of Change on a salary of 78,000, no less  though what the job entailed wasnt remotely clear.

It would rightly be viewed as an outrage if Auntie  who, despite everything, still has a place in many hearts  were to deprive ordinary pensioners of a cherished and long-established perk while failing to put her own house in order.

Old people, after all, can be vulnerable. Sometimes they are even confused. I cant imagine the Beeb wants to be held answerable for spreading dismay and unhappiness among this particular group of people, who ironically are often its biggest fans  even though the BBC sometimes gives the impression it is obsessed with attracting younger viewers.

The risk of going ahead with this ill-conceived proposal, I suggest, is that many of us would be strengthened in our suspicion that, when it comes to securing its own funding, the apparently public-spirited BBC can behave like the most rapacious commercial organisation.

In an ideal world, of course, the licence fee would be jettisoned, and replaced with some sort of subscription service, since it makes no sense in a multi-channel world to make people who seldom, if ever, watch the BBC stump up to keep it going.

But that argument has been put on ice for the foreseeable future following the Governments probably rash agreement in 2016 to maintain the licence fee until at least 2027.

We can most of us sympathise with the predicament the BBC finds itself in. Thanks to a sleight of hand by Mr Osborne, it has been cast in the role of social provider, discharging a duty that should properly be the Governments.

But, for better or worse, it is a burden the Corporation must bear. Scrapping free television licences would hurt millions of hard-pressed elderly people  as well as the BBC.Would the Brexit process need yet more time? Oooh yes, yes, yes, the Europeans liked that idea. Time means more of our pounds sterling. Time means a chance to screw us harder to their Titanic deck.

Donald Tusk, the Pole who chairs the European Council, smiled wolfishly in Brussels yesterday when asked about it at a press conference.

Im sure the leaders [of the EU countries] would be ready to consider this positively, he purred. Translation: our embuggeration strategy is working better than we dared hope and the British officials havent a clue what were up to. Were luring Madame May on to the flypaper.

After the summit meeting last night (clockwise around the table from back right) French President Emmanuel Macron, Mrs Merkel, Belgian PM Charles Michel and Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel went out for drinks at a bar in Brussels

Ditto his comedy partner Jean-Claude Juncker, who runs the European Commission. With those hooded, diagonal eyes, an avuncular, seemingly sober Juncker said: This prolongation of the transition period probably will happen. Its a good idea. It would allow more room for negotiations.

More time, more room, more possibilities for stiffing democracy, for cementing the technocrats in their spanking palaces and for exasperating the voters. Already it has been 28 months since we elected to leave the EU. Yet the elite is still not ready. And they are doing this, or we are letting them do this, by confecting an entirely non-problem of an Irish hard border.

When a BBC reporter asked the two men about various customs proposals and border fixes being discussed over Brexit, Tusk shrugged and said happily it is for me too complex. Juncker retorted: For me, its too easy. The commissions president was having a ball. And with our pathetic Whitehall officials, who can blame him?

Both Tusk and Juncker wheezed with laughter. Delighted tinkles of mirth. They were taking the pils.

Talking of which, EU leaders went out for beers in the Brussels Grand Place on Wednesday night, sans Theresa May. Aw, guys. Shes such fun on a night out!

Reports today suggest discussion was focused on Mrs May's (pictured at the summit today) domestic political problems after the 27 leaders agreed to say 'nothing happened at dinner'

Shortly before the Tusk-Juncker double-act, doggychops Angela Merkel  the only person in European politics who makes Mrs May look chirrupy  grunted zat she was neither more pessimistic nor more optimistic about the Brexit talks. As she hunched there in front of a banner saying Europaischer Rat, it was worth stressing that Rat is German for council.

Were Tusk and Juncker quite as happy as their public performance suggested? Film footage showed Tusk shouting at Junckers svengali Martin Selmayr, shaking his limbs with animation. It looked quite a bate.

Mrs Mays press conference came a short while later. I watched it on the BBCs News Channel. Jeepers, theyre blatant. One bloke, talking about the Irish backstop, rhapsodised about the sincerity of the Irish government.

Mrs Mays mood was not as brittle as after the Salzburg punch-up but she still seemed twitchy, an impression not helped by that dreadful barbed-wire necklace. She does not radiate confidence at these summits. Its like seeing a learner driver on Hyde Park Corner.

Theresa May made her speech in the lurid European Council room (pictured today) before leaving the EU leaders to discuss Brexit over dinner

We heard the usual cotton wool about good progress and intensifying the work. Why does she bother trying to sound constructive? Theyre not being remotely constructive to her. Why even turn up? Why kiss Juncker? Why go through the diplomatic motions?

She should try being intemperate, monosyllabic, molten, sulky. Trump would do that and he would extract many more concessions from these swine.

When she talked about her aims, she did not, for once, mention leaving the single market and the customs union.

Did she just forget or was this significant? She did repeat her mantra about delivering on the vote of the British people, but if she keeps us in the customs union that will not have happened. She will have ignored the 2016 vote. The country will be stuffed. The Tories will be bogwashed in the next election.

After a few questions she sped from the room, top waddle, off to more meetings and another dinner with Europeans. If only she would leave Brussels at similar speed. The longer she stays there, the more they will con her out of our money.Calm down, dears - Theresa May's plan may work... says DOMINIC SANDBROOK

Theresa May's suggestion that Britain might need an extended transition period in leaving the EU could be viewed as weakness

On the face of it, Theresa Mays suggestion that Britain could extend its period of transition after leaving the EU looks like weakness.

And its easy to see why ardent Brexiteers are infuriated, not least because it could leave us facing a bill for an extra 10billion. And this on top of a divorce bill currently standing at some 39billion!

But there is a difference between a sign of weakness and a recognition of reality. And Mrs May is nothing if not a realist. The central, unanswerable fact is that negotiations with the 27 member states have stalled over the Irish border.

And although some insist the issue can be solved through some miraculous but hitherto undiscovered technological fix, no such solution has presented itself.

Mrs Mays idea of an extended transition is an attempt to deal with that problem. In effect, she is offering to keep Britain inside the customs union and single market for another year  or as she puts it, a few months  so there is no border in Northern Ireland before a new arrangement is found.

Judging by some of her opponents more hysterical effusions, you might think she had offered to tear down Nelsons Column and invited Jean-Claude Juncker to move into Buckingham Palace. In fact, she has merely suggested it might be worth abiding by EU rules for a little bit longer  if it buys us a better deal. Of course its not ideal. I dont like the idea of paying an extra 10billion more than anybody else. But given that we have spent the last 45 years in the EU, a delay of a few months, even a year, should not strike even the most ardent Leaver as the end of the world.

Also, an extra 10billion seems a small price to pay to avoid crashing out without a deal. A no-deal would be a disaster. A drop of 2 per cent in our annual economic growth in the next two years  which would be an unrealistically good outcome  would cost us at least 22billion.

By comparison, even an additional 12 months under the EUs umbrella, would hardly be economic Armageddon. We might not like it in principle, but in practice I suspect most of us would barely notice.

The fact that Mrs May is a pragmatist is why her MPs put her in Downing Street in the first place. It would be an unconscionable act of treachery and irresponsibility if they stabbed her in the back now.

Betrayal leaves us humiliated... says DANIEL HANNAN

Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the worst imaginable outcome of our EU talks? Is there something so ghastly that Eurosceptics and Europhiles alike would see it as more painful than either leaving or staying?

How about this? What if we kept every dot and comma of our existing EU obligations with only one change, namely that we lost our say over what they were. All of us, surely, can agree that that would be the most injurious status of all. Wed still be subject to the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, to freedom of movement, to the budget levies, to the supremacy of EU over British law.

The only difference is that wed no longer be able to block proposals we didnt like. Indeed, the EU might bring forward measures that were specifically designed to hurt us  by, for example, seeking to shift financial services from London to Frankfurt  and wed have to comply.

Brussels likes the idea of extending the transition period. It is better than anything Eurocrats had hoped for  better even than the prospect of undoing Brexit, and seeing a humiliated Britain begging for readmission without its rebate

You can see why Brussels likes the idea of extending the transition period. It is better than anything Eurocrats had hoped for  better even than the prospect of undoing Brexit, and seeing a humiliated Britain begging for readmission without its rebate. It would give them full control of the UK economy with no British veto.

Why are we contemplating the idea? If reports are to be believed, we are ready to be a Euro-colony for at least three years. I say at least because, once Brussels had us in such a position, it would have no incentive to discuss anything further. Our thraldom might become permanent.

Were told that we need time to sort out the outstanding withdrawal issues, but hardly anyone believes that. The only outstanding issue is the Irish border. Even if you accept there is a problem  and the relevant customs officials say there is no logistical need for physical checks at the frontier  it is hard to see how an extra year would solve anything.

The two sides have set out their positions, and either London or Brussels will have to give way. If thats going to happen, it might as well happen now. An extra year wont solve anything.

Supporters of this climbdown seem to think that the only thing that matters is having something that can be technically called Brexit  even if that something patently fails to address all the concerns that both Leavers and Remainers have expressed. In fact, literally any outcome  Norway, Switzerland, no deal, postponing our departure  would be better than non-voting membership. Its extraordinary that that should need saying.As the summer months draw closer, Australian women are beginning to dig out their favourite fake tans in a bid to have a healthy, bronzed glow.

And while many get their application spot on, others end up with streaky, orange skin scattered with brown spots and irritation.

So, to help Australians put their best bronzed foot forward this summer, the co-founder of Australia's most popular tan, Bondi Sands, has revealed how to get the tan every time.

Blair James told Body+Soul it's important to thoroughly exfoliate prior applying as it gives the formula a fresh and even layer of skin to adhere to.

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The co-founder and director of Australia's most popular tan, Bondi Sands, has revealed how to get the perfect streak free tan every time

Blair James said it's important to thoroughly exfoliate prior applying as it gives the formula a fresh and even layer of skin to adhere to

How do you get a perfect fake tan? 1. Exfoliate everywhere 2. Hydrate the dry areas that tend to soak up a lot of colour, such as the palms, knuckles, elbows and feet 3. Use a mitt to apply self-tanner 4. Enlist the help of your hair dryer to dry the formula faster 5. Wipe away excess formula 6. Rinse with warm water and pat dry Advertisement

'It's important to give your skin enough time to settle from the exfoliation. For the best result, exfoliate and shave about 24 hours prior to applying a fake tan,' he said.

Sometimes people find that when they apply fake tan straight away their skin becomes irritated and red spots appear.

Mr James explained that this is because fake tan is attracted to dryness.

'So moisturise any dry areas such as your knees, elbows and ankles before applying it, as this will help the product blend evenly,' Mr James told the publication.

'Once the moisturiser has absorbed into your skin, stand in front of a mirror with good lighting and apply with a tanning mitt, making sure you coat every part of your body evenly.'

Mr James explained that fake tan is attracted to dryness, so it is important to moisturise any dry areas

'It's important to give your skin enough time to settle from the exfoliation. For the best result, exfoliate and shave about 24 hours prior to applying a fake tan,' he said

Sometimes people find that when they apply fake tan straight away their skin becomes irritated and red spots appear

To keep tan from fading or looking patchy he said it's also important to moisturise with a gradual tan or apply more product to any patchy areas.

Bondi Sands is the best-selling fake tan brand in the world and recently they released their latest innovation, dubbed Liquid Gold Self Tanning Foam, which is set to shake up the industry once again.

It delivers a perfect golden glow as well as hydrates thirsty, winter-starved skin.

Retailing for $22.95 and available online and in pharmacies, the Liquid Gold product is likely to fly off the shelves like other Bondi Sands' offerings.

To keep tan from fading or looking patchy he said it's also important to moisturise with a gradual tan or apply more product to any patchy areas

People can also enlist the help of their hair dryer to dry the formula faster

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.

'Bondi Sands Liquid Gold Self Tanning foam really is the perfect match [of Liquid Gold and Self Tanning Foam],' Mr Blair James previously told FEMAIL.

'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.'A leaked email shows staff at a cult beauty brand loved by celebrities were 'instructed to post glowing fake reviews' for its products online.

A post on Reddit apparently by a former employee at Sunday Riley - whose fans include Victoria Beckham and Helen Mirren - said 'a lot of the really great reviews you read are fake'.

The post included a link to an email which was reportedly sent by bosses to employees at the US-based beauty brand - which is stocked by Sephora, Net-a-Porter and Space NK - in which staff were asked to write 'at least 3 reviews' for the $55 (42) Saturn acne mask in the week to come, and given instructions on how to download a VPN which the email said was 'essential so the reviews don't get traced back to our IP address'.

The claims were shared on Instagram by anonymous beauty blogger Estee Laundry, who later posted a lengthy reply apparently received from Sunday Riley's official account that confirmed the leaked email had been 'sent by a former employee to several members of our company'.

It went on to say that 'we did encourage people to post positive reviews at the launch of this product, consistent with their experience' adding that 'it doesn't really matter what the reasoning was'.

'Our products and their results stand for themselves,' the post concluded.

But it appeared to be of little comfort to customers, some of whom commented on the Estee post to blast Sunday Riley's response as 'pathetic' and a 'cop-out'.

FEMAIL has contacted Sunday Riley for comment.

The cult beauty brand Sunday Riley appears to have confirmed from its official Instagram account that a leaked email in which its staff were encouraged to post positive online reviews of its products was sent by a 'former employee to several members of our company'

An excerpt from the email, which was reportedly posted on Reddit by an ex-Sunday Riley employee, in which staff are urged to write 'at least 3' reviews for the Saturn acne mask in the week to come. It included instructions on downloading a VPN so prevent the feedback being traced back to the brand

A former staff-member posted the allegations on social media site Reddit about the company

Victoria Beckham, seen left, previously gave Sunday Riley a shout-out on Instagram after using its products on her models in one of her fashion shows. Helen Mirren, seen right, is said to be a fan of the brand's Good Genes treatment, which costs 85

The email - which had the subject heading 'homework time' - appeared to have been sent out in advance of new launches - the Saturn acne mask, and the Space Race acne treatment kit, which included Saturn and other products with blemish fighting properties.

In it, staff were urged to address specific aspects of the product in reviews on the Sephora beauty website, including its 'non-drying' effect, and to emphasise its 'radiance boosting' properties.

They were also encouraged to look at any negative feedback in existing customer reviews, and to ensure their own said the opposite.

'If you notice someone saying things like I didn't like "x" about it, write a review that says the opposite,' the email said.

Employees were told to feel free to ask the author of the email or Sunday - believed to be the brand's founder Sunday Riley - if they needed 'help with things to come up with to say'.

The email, which Sunday Riley appears to have confirmed via its official Instagram account came from a former member of staff, included a breakdown of how to install a VPN to ensure that none of the staff reviews could be traced back to the brand. Staff were urged to read existing reviews and address any negative points flagged by customers by saying 'the opposite'

A reply apparently sent from the official Sunday Riley Instagram account to the Estee Laundry blog struck a defiant note.

It said: 'The simple and official answer to this Reddit post is that yes, this email was sent by a former employee to several members of our company.'

Admitting it did 'at one point encourage people to post positive reviews consistent with their experiences', it said there were 'a lot of reasons for doing that, including the fact that competitors will often post negative reviews of products to swing opinion'.

'It doesn't really matter what the reasoning was,' the post went on, insisting that it would be impossible for any reviews generated by Sunday Riley staff to represent even a 'fraction' of the 'hundreds of thousands of reviews across platforms around the globe'.

Sephora said in a statement to FEMAIL: 'At Sephora, we believe in the power of the beauty community and that knowledge should be shared to benefit all.

'Sephora has very strict brand rules regarding our Ratings and Reviews, which we know are an important decision tool for our clients. Additionally, we have teams dedicated to protecting the integrity of our ratings and reviews, ensuring through detailed moderation that its a constant trusted, unbiased, authentic source for all.

'We do not believe this incident is representative of the Sephora Ratings and Reviews culture, or the countless hours our clients have spent sharing their product experiences with us and others. We've been in touch with Sunday Riley on this matter, and they have committed to adhering to our review policy.'

When beauty blogger Estee Laundry shared the claims on Instagram, a response what appeared to be the official Sunday Riley Instagram account was posted with this lengthy reply in the comments section, in which it said 'in the end, our products and their results stand for themselves'

The Texas entrepreneur Sunday Riley launched her eponymous beauty brand in 2009.

It became a cult hit thanks to the buzz surrounding its Good Genes exfoliating lactic acid treatment, which 73-year-old Oscar winner Helen Mirren, fashion designer Stella McCartney, 47, and model Jourdan Dunn ,28, are all said to be fans of.

Fashion mogul Victoria Beckham posted a personal shout-out to Sunday Riley on her Instagram feed for the 'fresh-faced' models in her SS/16 show.A father has spoken of his joy after adopting a fifth disabled child - and says other single people should follow his lead.

Ben Carpenter, 34, from West Yorkshire, is already dad to Jack, 11, Ruby, seven, Lily, six and Joseph, three - all of whom have disabilities.

The full-time dad, believed to be the youngest gay adopter in the UK when he became a parent at 21, has welcomed baby Noah, 15 months, after seeing him in a magazine about adoption and deciding to go through the process for a fifth time.

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Ben Carpenter, 34, from West Yorkshire, pictured with four of his five children (clockwise from top: Jack, 10, Ruby, 6, Lily, 5 and Joseph, 2)

Ben pictured with his new son, 15-month-old Noah; the little boy was born with a rare syndrome that causes severe birth defects and affects his arms and legs

The single dad says he has endured difficult times with his young family but that he loves being a father and would encourage others to consider adoption, single or otherwise

Noah was born with a rare syndrome that causes birth defects that affect the use of his arms and legs.

While Ben is single, he has a robust support network, living with his mother, Rita, 65 and getting help from the children's godmother Michelle Jackson and close friend Jeanette Bottomley.

Of his new son, Ben, a former special needs worker, told the Mirror: 'I could see he had profound disabilities and I instantly fell in love.'

After spending years struggling to adopt as a single, gay man, Ben became father to his eldest son Jack, who has autism and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), ten years ago.

Since then, the doting dad has spent thousands of hours caring for his severely disabled children. Ruby has a condition called Pierre Robin syndrome, which affects the head and face as well as problems with movement in her arms.

Biological half-sister to Ruby is Lily, who is deaf, and there's also Joseph, who needs a colostomy bag and has Down's syndrome.

Ben told the Mirror that although parenthood in his house can be 'trying' at times, he loves being a father: 'It has its moments, I cant sugarcoat that, we have some really trying times.

'I have five children all with really complex needs, there is a lot of appointments up and down the country which can be quite draining.'

He adds: 'People say it is hard work but I love every bit of what I do.'

Ben explained that going into nursery homes in his youth inspired him, adding: 'The love and support has grown with me and my love has grown with the family.'

The 34-year-old single father was previously named Adopter Champion of the Year after he adopted four disabled children since 2010.

Speaking to Femail, Ben said the attention in the media was lovely but that he hopes his story will inspire others to adopt.

Ben Carpenter, pictured with his four adopted children has been described as a 'super dad'. His children, from left Jack, 11, Ruby, 7, Lily, 6 and Joseph, 3 all have disabilities

Mr Carpenter said everyone in his home is taught the importance of a 'can do' attitude

Mr Carpenter said it took three years to convince authorities he would make a good father

Mr Carpenter says: 'People have called me a saint and say what I do is remarkable but I just wanted to be a dad and adopting is my way of becoming a dad.

'I only ever wanted one child when I started on the process of adoption. I am a believer in fate - this is what I was meant to do.'

Mr Carpenter's adoption journey began more than 10 years ago when he became one of youngest gay men in the country to adopt a child.

It had taken him around three years to convince the authorities that he was serious about adopting and, more importantly, had the maturity and skills to be a good dad.

All children have made significant progress since being adopted and have surprised social workers and medical professionals alike.

Mr Carpenter said: 'I get called a saint all the time and "how do you do it?"

My mum Rita is a huge support to me and my friend Jeanette is an amazing woman and help to me.

'The charity Adoption UK has also been lovely and deserves praise for the work they do and support they provide.'

He remains single to this day and doesn't see it as an issue.

Mr Carpenter, pictured, is a previous adopter champion of the year as a result of his dedication to his growing family

Mr Carpenter said: 'I have never sought a relationship, it never interested me.

'I like to do my own thing. At the end of the day I like a cup of tea and a slice of cake and to not listen to someone snoring!'

When he's not looking after the children - which is pretty much 24/7 - Mr Carpenter works to educate other prospective adopters and sits on a local adoption panel.

He said: 'I celebrate and promote adoption. It's the most rewarding, satisfying and challenging thing I have done.

'I am not going to sugar-coat it because it's not for the faint-hearted.

You have to be 100% committed. If you are considering adopting, make sure you have childcare experience. If you are not already a parent make sure that it's right for you.

'I have always said that adopting a disabled child isn't right for everyone. You have to be totally honest with yourself.'

His driving motivation is seeing his children learning new skills and growing in confidence.

When he first met Ruby she was hooked up to a feeding machine, couldn't speak and was reliant on a wheelchair.

Mr Carpenter said when he first met his daughter Ruby, pictured, she was hooked up to a feeding machine but has made tremendous progress as she grows up

Mr Carpenter said: 'She looked a very sorry little girl.

'She was petrified and shaking and it broke my heart. She is eating and walking now, although she has life-long needs.

'I am quite proud of myself that I have turned her life around. Seeing the changes in her is just outstanding.

'Seeing my children and how they are now is why I get up in the morning.

'In this house we have an "I can do" attitude and we try to teach them as much independence as we can. Disability isn't the be all and end all.'Sometimes it can feel as if the news is an endless stream of negativity, so it's good to have a reminder that there are plenty of positive stories out there too.

To reassure readers that there are plenty of heartwarming tales amid the negativity, Bored Panda has collected a selection of feel-good stories that won't fail to warm your heart.

Twitter user Jake from Utah revealed how his little sister would secretly slip a dollar into his pocket every time he was feeling down, while another post shows a policeman proposing to his boyfriend, a fellow officer, at London's Pride festival.

From a man who adopted a severely disabled dog because nobody else would want him... to the grandfather who left a loving note for his wife in his will, these tales are guaranteed to warm your heart:

Steve, from New York, owns seven dogs and a pig named Bikini - all of which are rescue animals. He picked up Engelbert, pictured, from a rescue centre when he went to inquire about another dog who had already been adopted. He chose Engelbert, who had a number of health problems, because he was worried nobody else would want to take him

Twitter user Jake from Utah, who uses the handle @squidslippers, shared a sweet story about his little sister who would hide a dollar in his pocket every time he appeared down. He only found out the truth about the mysterious money after he mentioned the story to his parents

Rhys O'Neill, from Vermont, knew that his girlfriend Lindsy was the one way back in college. The then 21-year-old bought a peach tree from a local nursery and told her 'someday we will eat peaches from it years from now, because we will still be together'. Now 30, Rhys shared this sweet snap of their 19-month-old son eating peaches from the tree on Reddit last month. Rhys told the BBC: 'I loved her very quickly, so the peach tree was appropriate. We just knew we were right for each other'

In August, an unnamed Redditor from the US, shared a picture of a note his grandfather left for his grandmother before he died. The loving note was attached to his will so that she would only find it after he passed away

Last year Amanda Diesen and her husband Todd Kreig from Ohio took a tongue in cheek photo for their pregnancy announcement to declare 'it still works'. They then posted the photo on Reddit with the caption 'I hear Reddit likes seeing paraplegics defy the odds...'

Last month Redditor Steph from the US shared these two pictures of her 90-year-old neighbour's pet dog Buddy. The poor pooch was left severely overweight as the pensioner was unable to walk him. But after she volunteered, the dog was able to slim down and looked far happier

Earlier this year another Redditor from the US shared a story about his best friend who was left homeless after his father lost his job. He didn't want his friend to find out that he knew he was homeless, but told his mother he had seen him eating from a garbage can. She bought lunch cards so he and his sisters could have at least one good meal a day, and disguised the good deed by convincing the school dinner lady to tell them they won them in a raffle

In August 2018 Walmart cashier Ebony Harris, from Burton, Michigan, skipped her break when she spotted the in-store nail salon refuse to serve a customer because her hands shake due to her cerebral palsy in August. She helped the woman pick out some nail polish, then settled down in the Subway across the mall where she painted her nails. Ms Harris told Abc12: 'I just wanted to make her day special. I didn't really want her day to be ruined. That's why I did it. And plus she's a sweetie'

Out of desperation, this truck driver wrote on the back of his truck to say that their daughter needed a kidney. When a kind soul named Willie stepped in, they quickly paid tribute to him, saying 'thank you Willie! For your selfless gift of life' for all the world (or at least anybody driving behind them) to see. The picture was taken earlier this month in an unknown location before being posted on Reddit

Justin Gallegos, from Eugene, Oregon, became the first athlete with cerebral palsy to be signed by Nike. He was surprised with the endorsement deal on Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day on October 7. Writing about the achievement on Instagram, he said: 'Growing up with a disability, the thought of becoming a professional athlete is as I have said before like the thought of climbing Mt. Everest! It is definitely possible, but the odds are most definitely not in your favor!'

In Athens, Georgia, there is a tree that cannot be cut down because it has its own legal rights. The tree was given legal rights in the 1800s by Colonel William Jackson who had many wonderful childhood memories from there and wanted to protect it. The original tree was knocked over in 1942 but an acorn from the original tree was replanted, and has the same legal rights as the offspring of the original. It is called the Son of the Tree That Owns Itself

In 2016, PC Sam Philpot (left) proposed to his boyfriend Martin Coughlan at London Pride . It was the second of two proposals by Met Police officers on the day and went viral with one clip of the happy moment being viewed 14 million times

Celeste Ayala was pictured breastfeeding a malnourished baby at the Sor Maria Ludovica children's hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August. Hospital staff allegedly called the baby 'dirty' but Ms Ayala stepped up anyway when she saw the infant was hungry

Last month a doctor in Belem, Brazil, created a special prescription sheet for a patient who can't read. The medic used tape in different patterns and colours to explain what time each pill should be takenA father who admitted to taking his children out of classes to go on their 'first ever family holiday' has slammed a 360 fine issued by the school as 'unfair'.

The angry dad, who says he'd saved hard all year to pay for the break, said insult to injury had been added because a family member had done exactly the same thing - and received no financial punishment.

Sharing his story on parenting website Netmums, the father explained that his children weren't in their GCSE year and he felt the fine was unduly harsh.

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An angry father posted on parenting website Netmums about being fined 360 by his children's school after he decided to take all three of them on their 'first ever family holiday' during term-time

He wrote about the trip to the Isle of Wight: I had to save and save and save just to treat them, while my family member doesn't do anything all day and can afford two to three holidays a year (abroad).

He added: The system is so wrong, why should my kids go without when I try to show them you have to earn anything in life...and they look over at my family member who gets everything handed to them.'

There were, unsurprisingly, mixed reactions to the post, with many taking a hard line against the dad, saying he was wrong to take his children out of school.

Lisa W wrote I'm sorry but why moan you can't find 360 in 21 days? Every parent knows if you take kids out you can get fined. It's common knowledge! If you can't afford the fine don't take them out - simple!'

Another, Jo M, wrote: 'Holidays are a luxury not a right so nobody is being penalised. Family time can be had anywhere, it doesn't need to be away from home in school time.

'You knew the risks when deciding to take a holiday in term time so should have made the funds ready to pay the fine.

'If another school hasn't fined then that's up to them.'

Others though felt some sympathy towards the family. Netmums user Caroline B added: 'To be honest youre preaching to the choir. No-one likes that holidays cost so much more in the holiday breaks. Or that some parents get penalised for taking their kids out of school when others dont. But its just the way it is.'

Helen Y added: 'I don't blame you one bit!. I'm one of the ones taking mine out of school for a week and wont get fined. OHs holidays dont fall in line with any of the school ones due to his rota so thats why we are doing it.'

And Katherine H penned: 'A friend of mine had the same problem. The school accepted a letter from her husbands boss stating the company could not give him time off during term time and they were allowed to take their kids out for 2 weeks without being issued a fine.'Prince Harry has cheekily mocked a camera-shy young girl who refused to pose for a photograph with the visiting royal.

While thousands of fans have clamoured for a piece of the Duke of Sussex and his wife Meghan Markle, this toddler in Dubbo had other ideas.

She placed her left hand on her hip and stubbornly refused to move forward and say hello to a bemused prince.

He in turn placed his hands on his hips to playfully mimic the young girl before bending down to give her a hug.

The girl's parents were heard in the background giggling at their daughter's behaviour during the meet-and-greet in Dubbo on Wednesday before pushing her slightly forward to chat to the prince.

Prince Harry has cheekily mocked a young girl (pictured) who put a hand on her hips and refused to take a photograph with the royal

They finally took the photo they so eagerly wanted - as the toddler slowly warmed to the occasion.

The video, taken by Seven News, could be a telling snapshot of how Prince Harry will interact with his new baby.

The Duke and Duchess announced their pregnancy soon after arriving in Australian on Monday.

The Duke of Sussex, who spent Wednesday with his wife Meghan Markle in the regional town of Dubbo, playfully copied the stance before bending down to give her a hug

Her parents can be heard in the background giggling at their daughter's behaviour before pushing her slightly forward to chat to the prince

Her parents weren't letting her get away without a photo though (pictured)

The stubborn toddler was just one of many captivating moments during the royal couple's visit to Dubbo on Wednesday.

The most viewed was footage of Prince Harry playfully swatting flies away from a woman.

His hilarious parody of the 'Aussie salute' - where Australians in country areas have to constantly wave their hands in front of their face to keep flies away - happened as Ruth Sandow, a representative of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, delivered a speech about the body's importance to remote areas.

Prince Harry waved his hands around in an attempt to drive away the pests as Ms Sandow spoke - much to the amusement of the crowd and his wife Meghan.

The footage won public approval, with many praising the prince for his genuine gesture.

'If this doesn't put a smile on your face I don't know what will,' one said.

'Refreshing funny side of Harry! What a sweet family they make!' another wrote.

Another posted: 'Harry is just himself and we love him for it.'

Another commenter said: 'Oh my God! I have never seen Prince Harry so funny like that. That's so cute and hilarious.'

The couple met with the Royal Flying Doctor Service to learn more about the aviation organisation's provision of emergency health services for people living in remote areas.

Prince Harry has playfully swatted flies away from a woman who was delivering a speech, prompting his pregnant wife Meghan Markle to burst out laughing

Meghan was in hysterics after her royal husband did the 'Aussie salute'

The footage won public approval, with many praising the prince for his genuine gesture

Earlier on Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unveiled the RFDS fleet's newest plane.

The team of doctors said meeting Prince Harry and Meghan was a welcome change of pace.

'I explained to them some of the equipment we take on our retrievals and they were really interested in it and the amount of things that we can do in pretty much a hospital environment,' doctor Shannon Townsend said.

She said the couple was 'lovely', describing them as 'very personable, easy to talk to - beautiful people'.

Fellow doctor William Ibbotson said the royal couple visit would deliver a boost to the RFDS.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unveiled the new aircraft for the Royal Flying Doctor Service

The team of doctors said meeting Prince Harry and Meghan was a welcome change of paceIt's the pink clay mask being flaunted by every IT Girl on Instagram - and for good reason.

Launched as Alya Skin's breakout product earlier this year by best friends Manny Barbas and James Hachem, both 23, the Kaolin-infused offering was dubbed the world's 'must-have' beauty find.

So the Australian men decided to add to their brand by launching two new products, both of which have already pre-sold 18,000 units in a week.

Launched as Alya Skincare's breakout product earlier this year the Kaolin-infused offering was dubbed the world's 'must-have' beauty find (pictured)

So the Australian men decided to add to their brand by launching two new products, both of which have already pre-sold 18,000 units in a week (before and after transformation)

The pomegranate facial exfoliator - which retails for $26.99 - can be used on a daily basis and works to reduce skin inflammation and eczema.

Meanwhile the native berries moisturiser - which is $24.99 - contains macadamia oil and shea butter to rehydrate the face after the mask is used.

It works as a three-part routine now, with product already selling out once - sometimes twice - in Priceline stores across the nation.

For Manny Barbas and James Hachem, both 23, one tub of Australian Pink Clay is earning them six-figures - and they only started their company this year

It works as a three-part routine now, with product already selling out once - sometimes twice - in Priceline stores across the nation

'This is a product that does what it says. I noticed a difference in my skin in only a few days. The longer I use it the better it works,' one reviewer said of the moisturiser.

'I have super dry, sensitive skin that can flake and gets red and irritated easily. But when I tried this product, my skin feels so smooth and no flakes or dry patches, and it actually feels clean,' someone said of the exfoliator.

Previously, FEMAIL spoke to the owners about their young business and the miracle-working properties of the mask.

'We were blown away by the growth in sales when we launched. After our first two weeks we had completely sold out of stock,' Manny told FEMAIL

The mask also uses aloe vera and pomegranate to assist in removing acne and inflammation, with witch hazel added to heal the skin faster

Alya Skin's pink clay mask retails online for $49.99 per 120g tub and has a host of five star reviews.

'We were blown away by the growth in sales when we launched. After our first two weeks we had completely sold out of stock,' Manny told FEMAIL.

'In our third week we were already over the $50,000 revenue mark per week. This number has grown steadily since launch, and we expect revenue to rise by 300 per cent next year.

'We have now sold over 30,000 jars and this number is continuing to rise quickly.'

The mask also uses aloe vera to assist in removing acne and inflammation, with witch hazel added to heal the skin faster.

Online the popular vegan product is being heralded as the cure-all treatment, particularly because it's safe for pregnant mothers and sensitive skin owners

If you use it 2-3 times a week it'll last two months - making it good value for money

Online the popular vegan product is being heralded as the cure-all treatment, particularly because it's safe for pregnant mothers and sensitive skin owners.

If you use it 2-3 times a week it'll last two months - making it good value for money.

At present the ingenious skin solution is only available online (where it's currently 30 per cent off) and in selected Priceline stores, with more room for expansion across retailers next year.Advertisement

The Duchess of Sussex may have committed her first sartorial faux pas after donning a businesslike trench coat and black dress for a casual stroll on South Melbourne Beach.

Meghan, who is expecting her first child next spring, arrived in the coastal city wearing a smartly tailored navy dress by Australian label Dion Lee, before slipping off her coat - and changing into the black buttoned Club Monaco dress to hit the beach with Prince Harry for the third day of the royal tour.

The duchess, 37, paired her first Dion Lee dress with 556 ($928 AUD) Manolo Blahnik BB navy stilettos, a 1,510 ($2,650 AUD) Gucci Sylvie chain bag, and the same Martin Grant trench coat she wore earlier this week in Sydney.

She later swapped the blue number for a black Miguellina Dress by American brand Club Monaco that wouldn't have looked out of place in the boardroom, and slipped into her favourite Rothy's black pumps.

At 325 ($268 AUD), the Club Monaco dress is among the cheaper items that Meghan has worn on the Pacific tour so far, and she promptly crashed the retailer's website.

Her first fashion faux pas? Meghan's normally flawless style took a turn on Thursday when she was forced to swap her sharp tailoring and pointed stilettos (left, with Prince Harry at Melbourne's Government House) for a black midi from Club Monaco, which she teamed with a pair of flat woven shoes from Rothy's (right, on South Melbourne Beach)

Meghan opted for comfort over style as she hit the beach in Melbourne today; priced at $125 USD (110), her shoes are from Rothy's , an environmentally-conscious company based in San Francisco whose products are made from recycled water bottles destined for landfill

While the Duchess of Sussex opted for an oddly businesslike ensemble, her husband opted for a practical pair of brown leather walking boots (pictured) as the couple enjoyed a stroll along South Melbourne Beach on Thursday

Different look: Meghan's comfortable flats were a far cry from Kate's towering cork wedges which she wore on the second leg of her Australia tour in 2014 (pictured on Sydney's Manly beach on 18 April 2018)

Proving that the 'Meghan effect' is alive and well, her outfit also crashed the Dion Lee website, after the 'Folded Sail dress' from the Pre-Fall 19 collection became available for pre-order online at Thursday lunchtime (local time).

'The dress was custom made for Meghan Markle and will now go into production in the Resort 2019 collection,' a spokesperson from Dion Lee told Daily Mail Australia.

'It will drop into store in January 2019. The dress is called the Folded Sail Dress and retails for $1290 RRP. Pre-order of the style will be available on www.dionlee.com from this afternoon.'

The duchess' Rothy's shoes - made from recycled bottles once destined for landfill - have already proven a hit on the trip, after she wore them following her visit to Taronga Zoo on Thursday.

Dion Lee is one of the most critically lauded and awarded designers to emerge from Australia in recent times.

Boasting celebrity fans including Chrissy Teigen, Cara Delevingne, Gigi Hadid and other young starlets, the duchess is just the latest high-profile woman to wear the 30-year-old's designs.

Quick change! The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited Melbourne on Thursday, with Meghan opting first for a sleek navy dress by the Australian designer Dion Lee, worn with navy Manolo Blahnik heels (left); she later removed her Martin Grant trench (centre) before switching to a Club Monaco dress and her Rothy's flat shoes (right)

Look 1: After touching down in Melbourne with Princes Harry on Thursday, Meghan wore her Martin Grant Resort SS19 beige trench coat, which retails for 1,287/ $2,260 AUD. She previously wore the Australian-designed coat on Tuesday in Sydney

Look 2: Meghan in her second ensemble of the day after she slipped off her trench coat to reveal a stylish navy Dion Lee dress. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a busy day in Melbourne, filled with meetings with the public and visits to schools (pictured at Government House on Thursday)

Look 3: The Duchess of Sussex later swapped her blue frock for a 325/ $268 AUD black Miguellina Dress by American brand Club Monaco underneath her trench coat, and added her trusty Rothy's black shoes

Meghan's skin and hair looked as glowy as usual, and she added a gold cuff bracelet worn previously for Her Majesty's 92nd birthday concert, by British label, Shaun Leane (pictured in Melbourne)

The duchess again tuned into some of Australia's top designers for her outfit, this time plumping for a dress by Dion Lee - the dress will be available online later on Thursday

Meghan looked glowing in her Dion Lee dress (pictured). 'The dress was custom made for Meghan Markle and will now go into production in the Resort 2019 collection,' a spokesperson from Dion Lee told Daily Mail Australia

The couple began the third day of their Pacific tour with a short walk to Melbourne's Government House. A demonstration of various sporting activities took place in the grounds, with ambassadors from the This Girl Can campaign attending

The Duchess of Sussex greet crowds in Melbourne on Thursday. Meghan's royal tour wardrobe has delighted fans thus far, with numerous brands reporting a spike in sales following an appearance by the Duchess in their clothes

Meghan began the day in a Dion Lee dress and Martin Grant trench (pictured at Melbourne's Government House on Thursday). Dion Lee is one of the most critically lauded designers to emerge from Australia with a host of celebrity fans

The royal couple met with members of the public along the way, after enjoying a short walk from Government House in Melbourne on Thursday. The Duchess turned once again to her trench coat from Australian designer Martin Grant

The Duke and Duchess shared a tender moment as they walked through the crowds in Melbourne (pictured). The couple, who tied the knot just five months ago, announced on Monday that they are expecting their first child in the spring

While Wednesday's Dubbo outfit was all about country chic, on Thursday the 37-year-old royal (pictured) returned to the sharply tailored look she is known for today, championing Australian fashion in her Martin Grant trench coat

The Duchess of Sussex in her third look of the day as she explores Melbourne with her husband. The Club Monaco dress, pictured, is among the cheaper items that Meghan has worn, and promptly crashed the Club Monaco site

Meghan completed her look with a gold cuff bracelet worn previously for Her Majesty's 92nd birthday concert, by British label, Shaun Leane.

She also paid tribute to Australian fashion with a chic Martin Grant Resort SS19 beige trench coat, first seen earlier this week in Sydney.

The couple began the third day of their Pacific tour with a short walk to Melbourne's Government House, meeting members of the public along the way, before attending an official reception there with a diverse group of young Victorian leaders and community members.

A demonstration of various sporting activities took place in the grounds, with ambassadors from the This Girl Can campaign attending.

Following the reception, the Duke and Duchess visited a social enterprise cafe which offers leadership, mentoring and training programmes for young Aboriginal people.

At the beach, they joined volunteers and school children from the local Beach Patrol group.

They also enjoyed a lunch of native cuisine at Melbourne's Charcoal Lane, including an entree of mushroom and quinoa nest and chargrilled kangaroo and main courses of wild boar, saffron risotto and barramundi.Former royal butler Paul Burrell has urged the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to name their baby Diana if it is a girl.

Mr Burrell, 60, who served both the Queen and Princess Diana, said in a tweet the couple should 'be brave' and name any daughter after Harry's late mother as it would 'make her so proud'.

The former royal staff member, who has repeatedly hit the headlines over the years for his claims about Diana, also took the opportunity to publicly congratulate the couple on their pregnancy news as he is no longer in touch with the family.

Speaking out: Former royal butler Paul Burrell, 60, said in a tweet the couple should 'be brave' and name their child after Harry's late mother if it is a girl as it would 'make her so proud'

Making headlines: Mr Burrell, pictured with Princess Diana weeks before her death in 1997, has repeatedly attracted attention over the years with his comments on the royal family

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they are expecting their first child together shortly after landing in Sydney on Monday ahead of a 16-day royal tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. The baby is due in Spring 2019.

Delivering a speech in Sydney this week, Harry, 34, suggested he and wife Meghan, 37, did not know whether they will welcome a son or a daughter.

Bookmakers have already revealed the odds on the Queen's eight great-grandchild will be called, with Victoria, Albert and Arthur among the favourites.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they are expecting their first child together shortly after landing in Sydney on Monday ahead of a 16-day royal tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji. Pictured, the couple on the beach in Melbourne on Thursday

However Mr Burrell claimed there should only be one choice when if they have a daughter.

He tweeted yesterday: 'Dear Meghan and Harry, Many Congratulations to you both on your wonderful news.

Australia has taken you to their hearts and have seen at first hand the inspirational people you are. If your baby is a girl, be brave and call her Diana which would make your Mother so proud.'

Public figure: The former royal staff member, who served as a footman to the Queen before working for Princess Diana, has also appeared on Good Morning Britain (pictured) this week

The former royal butler appeared on Good Morning Britain this week to discuss the royal baby news alongside Lady Colin Campbell.

Mr Burrell said that he 'knew it would happen', telling GMB: 'Harry has always wanted to be part of a larger family.'

He also said he hopes Meghan can try reconciling with her family 'behind closed doors' and believes it should be done in private.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Stephen Hawking's children have opened up about what it was like to grow up with a genius physicist for a father - and the surprisingly normal arguments they'd have with him as teenagers.

Lucy, 47 and Timothy Hawking, 39, recalled how they would get mobbed by fans in the street after his most famous work A Brief History of Time was released when they were just children.

Professor Hawking died in March aged 76 following his almost lifelong battle with motor neurone disease, which affects the brain and nerves and causes people to grow weaker and weaker over time.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, Lucy revealed that she would frequently ask her father 'what would you know?' when she was a teen, then later came to realise that he knew 'quite a lot'.

Lucy, 47, (right) and Timothy Hawking, 39, (left) appeared on Good Morning Britain to talk about what life was like growing up as the children of Professor Stephen Hawking, who died in March aged 76 following his almost lifelong battle with a generative motor neurone disease

Lucy recalled arguing with her father as a teen and asking him 'what would you know?' before growing up and realising it was actually 'quite a lot'. Pictured: Lucy and Timothy with their parents Stephen and Jane Hawking at the premiere of The Theory of Everything

The siblings were on the ITV chat show to discuss Professor Hawking's final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, which is on sale now following its posthumous release.

They were asked what it was like to grow up with such an extraordinary and world-renowned father, and both said it felt normal to them, because they simply didn't know any different.

Lucy said: 'It's really hard to sum it up because I haven't had another life so I can't really give you a comparison, but he was an extraordinary man with a massive intellect, he was very, very brave, had a great sense of humour, overcame enormous challenges but he was our dad.

'When I was a teenager I'd be like ''What would you know anyway?'' and then when I grew up I was like ''Yeah quite a lot.'''

The siblings were on Good Morning Britain to promote Professor Hawking's (pictured) final work Brief Answers To The Big Questions, which has been released after his death and is on sale now

The siblings revealed how they would get mobbed by fans in the street after his most famous work A Brief History of Time was released when they were just children. Pictured: Lucy and her other brother Robert Hawking, now 51, as children with their father

Lucy is one of Professor Hawking's three children with his first wife Jane, along with her siblings Robert and Timothy.

After the release of A Brief History of Time in 1988 Professor Hawking's fame skyrocketed, changing the family's life forever.

The siblings recalled being mobbed by fans when they would go out in Cambridge with their father.

Lucy continued: 'It was very odd going out with him in Cambridge because it was like this ripple effect going down the road before him. You'd hear people going ''Stephen's coming, Stephen's coming, Stephen's coming".

'People would leave the kebab van and rush over.'

Lucy said that while her father was a brilliant and supremely intelligent scientist 'he was our dad'. Pictured: Lucy on Good Morning Britain on Thursday

Timothy spoke about how 'emotional' he was to read his father's final book Brief Answers To The Big Questions. Pictured: Timothy on Good Morning Britain

Despite the daunting presence of all his fans, Lucy explained that her father thought it was important to be visible as a disabled person that was very successful.

She explained: 'He was a profoundly disabled man and thought it was really important for him to go out there and show other people with disabilities he could do anything he wanted to do. He hoped that would serve as an example.'

His final book Brief Answers To The Big Questions gives answers to questions like 'How did the universe begin?' and 'Could artificial intelligence ever outsmart us?' in an accessible way.

Professor Hawking (pictured) was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease just before he turned 21, and was given just a few years to live

The cosmologist's (pictured) account of the mysteries of space, time and black holes in 'A Brief History of Time' won him international acclaim

Timothy said it was 'emotional' to read the book knowing that it was his father's last work.

He said: 'It's been quite an emotional experience to read the book, it's definitely the book I found of his that's the easiest to understand.

'I think it's even more poignant of course because we have lost him, but reading the book and hearing his voice in my head has been a really nice way to feel that he's still with us in a way.'

The cosmologist's account of the mysteries of space, time and black holes in 'A Brief History of Time' won him international acclaim. His work went on despite being diagnosed at age 21 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

After being diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease in 1963, Professor Hawking was only expected to live for a few years. But he went on to win international acclaim as one of the world's best known scientists.A bride-to-be who got cold feet just weeks before getting married and called off her big day has donated her entire wedding to a complete stranger.

Kolbie Sanders, 24, from Texas, decided to turn the end of her four-year-relationship into a positive by raffling off the $3,500 (2,700) day at a wedding venue that she'd booked.

The University of Texas at Tyler student told friends on Facebook that she had just 24 hours to find a couple prepared to get married at Belle Vue wedding venue in a week.

She was inundated with messages from hundreds of husbands and brides-to-be desperate to win her big day.

After whittling down the applicants to a shortlist of 45, Kolbie, from Lindale, Texas, plucked lucky winner Halie Hipsher, 22, out of a hat.

Happy to be single! Kolbie Sanders, 24, from Texas decided to offer her entire $3,500 wedding to complete strangers after she changed her mind about marrying fiance Skylar

Still friends: Kolbie says that her fiance Skylar is on board with offering their wedding to another couple and the story of their raffle has since gone viral on social media

We're getting married! Halie Hipsher and Matthew Jones were the lucky names picked out of the hat; the pair will wed this Saturday 19th October, a year before they had planned to marry. Halie says her ailing grandfather Edwin Truett Hipsher will now be able to see her wed

Insurance worker Halie's story stood out because her grandfather Edwin Truett Hipsher, 81, is suffering from pancreatic cancer and doesn't have long to live.

Halie said: 'As he is nearing the closing of his chapter this donation will put us a year ahead of schedule and he will be able to attend.'

The mother of seven-month-old Riley will wed Matthew Jones, 24, an oil field worker, at the venue in Tyler, Texas, USA, this Saturday - and Kolbie will be guest of honour.

Kolbie called off her own wedding to Skylar, 25, an oil well worker, when she realised the passion had left their relationship.

She said: 'There was no scandal. We fell out of love and it didn't feel right to get married.

'We were together for four years and engaged for one and a half years but we grew apart. I woke up one day and realised I didn't want to marry him. We had both lost passion for one another.

'It was short notice but you can't get married if you feel it won't work out in the long run.

'The venue told me that I could still get married there at some point in the future and keep my booking but by that point I thought, 'I'd like another couple to enjoy it'.

She says the former couple remain really good friends and that he was 'on board' with her plans to donate the venue.

She took to social media to find a betrothed couple to take the booking on October 20th.

La vie est belle! Halie and Matthew will walk down this aisle and enjoy the services of a florist, hair and make-up person and even a photographer - after local wedding companies chipped in to make the prize even more enticing

Halie penned a heartfelt response to Kolbie's raffle, telling her that having her grandfather, 81, at the wedding before he passes away would mean the world to her

The elementary education major wrote on Facebook on Sunday: 'With my engagement ending, I've come to find tremendous peace knowing that I did the right thing for both of us.

'With that being said, now I want to do the right thing by others and let some good come out of this decision.

'This is a long shot but since my wedding venue has been paid for in full already, I have decided to donate my venue valued at $3,500 to a couple to use for their wedding day!

'The catch: I have 24 hours to find the couple and they would need to be ready to get married on the date that my venue is booked for - this Saturday, October 20th!

I woke up one day and realised I didn't want to marry him. We had both lost passion for one another... Koblie Sanders

'I have partnered with the venue and we are both excited to see if we can help a couple in need of making their wedding that much more beautiful with a free venue.

'This is for couples who can't afford a fancy venue or who are spending too much money on their kids to be able to afford a nice wedding. This is for couples who love each other and will continue to choose each other for the rest of their lives.'

Kolbie asked husbands and brides-to-be to send her details of their relationship and was followed with heartfelt messages from couples eager to tie the knot.

Her generosity was soon matched by a local photographer, caterer, florist, hair stylist and makeup artist who offered their services to the winning couple.

She said: 'I couldn't even count the messages, I got hundreds and hundreds. I stayed up until 5am reading them all.

'I didn't think I'd have to choose from so many people. It was difficult to compare their stories. I knew I'd never be able to decide so I picked the ones that stood out and wrote them down.

A shortlist of 45 couples were put into a kitchen container by Kolbie, before she picked out the winner - and Halie's name came up

'I reached out to them all to make sure they were 110 per cent sure that they could get married in a week.'

She compiled a shortlist of 45 couples and placed their names in a bowl before plucking Halie's name out of the bowl on Monday.

The new bride-to-be, who has a seven-month-old son with fiance Matthew, said: 'Thank you. I can't say that enough. I'll probably be saying it 20,000 times.

'I am beyond excited and thrilled but I have to be honest, I'm a little nervous. We were planning for next fall so it was all kind of planned in one week.'

She is of course delighted that her ailing grandfather will be in the congregation watching his granddaughter marry Matthew.

She said: 'This is more than a love story between two love birds, but also a love story between a girl and her pawpaw.'

There will be another guest of honour at the wedding: the original bride-to-be.

Kolbie said: 'She invited me and I am going to the wedding. I wanted to see it followed through. I want to see her get married, it will make me feel complete.

'I'm really glad I gave it away and another couple got to benefit.'A breathtaking gown worn by Princess Margaret will go on display as part of a new exhibition celebrating the work of Christian Dior.

The stunning soft pink tulle creation, captured in the royal's 21st birthday portrait, will form the centrepiece of the presentation at the V&A Museum, London, next year.

It will be shown alongside dresses worn by actress Jennifer Lawrence, author Nancy Mitford and ballerina Margot Fonteyn - just a few of the dazzling women dressed by the French fashion house over its 71-year history.

Princess Margaret's Dior gown, captured in Princess Margaret's 21st birthday portrait, pictured, will form the centrepiece of the presentation at the V&A Museum, London, next year

Left: Custom-made Jadore dress, designed by then-creative director John Galliano in 2008. Right: Jardin fleuri bustier dress, designed by current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2017

Princess Margaret, left, with the Duchess of Marlborough, behind, presents Christian Dior with a scroll entitling him to Honorary Life Membership of the British Red Cross in November 1954. The French designer used to stage private fashion shows for Margaret and the Queen Mother

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams will be the largest ever exhibition of Dior's work staged in the UK, featuring more than 200 dresses - every single one made by hand - as well as accessories, film, vintage perfume, original make-up and fashion photography.

Princess Margaret's beautiful ballgown, painstakingly designed by Christian Dior himself, is being loaned to the V&A from the Museum of London following vital conservation work.

Christian Dior at an early stage fitting with a model named Sylvie, circa 1948. The designer launched his eponymous label in 1947 and made waves in the fashion world with his 'New Look'

Left: The Bar Suit, an example of Dior's New Look, from Haute Couture, Spring Summer 1947. Right: The Ecarlate afternoon dress, by Christian Dior, from Autumn-Winter 1955

Ballgown by John Galliano, from Haute Couture, Autumn/Winter 2004. Galliano, creative director of Dior from 1996-2011, promised drama and spectacle on the runway. This dress epitomises Gallianos talent for fantastical story-telling through garments

The exhibition will also explore the private fashion shows held by Dior in London for Princess Margaret and the Queen Mother.

One anecdote reveals how the Queen Mother was so taken by Dior's design that she instructed a model not to exit the room backwards - as was protocol when in the company of royalty - and instead turn to walk away so that she could properly see the back of the dress.

Among the highlights will be an early 1947 example of the now-iconic Bar Suit, to the typically ostentatious work of former creative director John Galliano and a flawless ballgown from current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Christian Dior considers the draping of a design on a model named Sylvie, circa 1948. The image of the designer at work will be among the photographs on display at the V&A Museum

Left: A sketch from the archives by Christian Dior for model Londres, Autumn-Winter 1950. Right: Sketch by Dior for model Oxford, Spring-Summer 1947 Haute Couture collection

Current creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first woman to hold the position, created this stunning Haute Couture, SpringSummer 2018. It features the 'Christian Dior' signature

A section of the exhibition will explore how the French designer, who once said 'I even love English cooking', was fascinated by the country's culture.

Oriole Cullen, fashion and textiles curator at the V&A, said the show would celebrate the expertise and craft behind Dior, which 'changed the face of fashion' in the 1940s, redefining 'the female silhouette and reinvigorated the post-war Parisian fashion industry'.

An shot of the Christian Dior Atelier at 30 Avenue Montaigne, in Paris, circa 1947

Christian Dior: Designer Of Dreams, will run from February 2 to July 14 2019.Bookmakers have slashed the odds on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle having twins after a flurry of bets by royal fans.

Coral reduced the odds on the couple having twins in Spring 2019 from 8-1 to 4-1.

The bookmaker are also offering odds of 50-1 on triplets, and 10-11 on the pair welcoming a royal baby boy, reports the Sun.

Scroll down for video

Bookmakers Coral have slashed the odds on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex having twins in Spring 2019 from 8-1 to 4-1 . The couple broke the news they're expecting earlier this week as they began their royal tour of Australia

According to Helen Turier, the head of family and professional support at the Twins and Multiple Births Association, Meghan, 37, is more likely to have twins, or even triplets, because women in their late 30s have a higher chance of releasing two or more eggs each cycle

Meghan and Harry announced the happy news on Monday, after supposedly telling family members at Princess Eugenie's wedding last week.

The Duchess of Sussex, 37, is more likely to have twins because older women have a higher chance of releasing two or more eggs every month.

Helen Turier, the head of family and professional support at the Twins and Multiple Births Association, said: 'Older women, so women in their late thirties, early forties, are more likely to hyper-ovulate.

'This means they're more likely to release two eggs or more per cycle than younger women.

'Therefore it is believed that's why there's a higher incidence of multiple birth babies in older women. As far as we understand, it's due to changing levels of hormones.'

Meghan has said they cannot wait to become parents, telling Australian TV personality Eddie Woo: 'We're ready! We're excited to join the club'

The royal couple announced the happy news on Monday following much speculation, in part thanks to Meghan's baggy coat at Princess Eugenie's wedding on Friday (pictured)

There had been much speculation over the pregnancy and royal fans will be eagerly waiting as the due date approaches to see if their predictions are correct.

John Hill, PR Manager at Coral, said: 'Many punters feel as though Meghan and Harry will have their hands full with not one but two babies next year as we have seen a rush of bets since their announcement for the couple to have twins.'

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are currently on their first official tour, and are travelling around Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

Meghan and Harry kicked off their tour at the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday and will fly back to England on November 1.Holly Willoughy has defended Disney films following criticism by celebrities that they set bad examples for little girls by implying princesses needs to be saved by a man.

The TV host, 37, said Disney was a huge part of her childhood and she grew up to be 'empowered' and 'independent'.

This Morning was hosting a debate on the issue after Keira Knightley, 33, said she has banned her daughter from watching Cinderella because she is rescued by a man, while Kristen Bell said she's wary of her children watching Snow White because the prince doesn't ask the princess for permission to kiss her.

Holly, who shares Harry, nine, Belle, seven, and Chester, four, with her husband Dan Baldwin, revealed that she named her daughter after Belle from Beauty and The Beast, and even walked down the aisle to a Disney song.

She branded it 'insulting' that critics think women can't differentiate between a Disney film and real life.

Holly Willoughby, 37, has defended Disney films from critics who say they set a bad example for little girls. She said the films were a huge part of her childhood and she grew up to be 'empowered' and 'independent'

Keira Knightley, 33, (pictured) said she has banned her daughter from watching Cinderella because she is rescued by a man

Speaking on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week, Kiera said her three-year-old daughter Edie was banned from watching Cinderella because the character 'waits around for a rich guy to rescue her.'

However, Holly said she grew up watching films like Cinderella and it didn't do her any harm.

She said: 'For me that was my childhood and I've grown up pretty empowered and I've grown up pretty independent.

'I think that, in a way, is it not insulting to suggest a woman as she grows older can't differentiate from fact and fiction?'

Holly, who shares Harry, nine, Belle, seven, and Chester, four, (pictured) with her husband Dan Baldwin, said it is 'insulting' to suggest that women don't know the difference between real life and fairytales

In the Disney film Cinderella is kept as a servant by her family until she meets Prince Charming (pictured), who rescues her by marrying her

This Morning welcomed Liv Lorent MBE, who rewrites the old fairytales to make them more modern and inclusive.

Ms Lorent said: 'Growing up as a little girl I knew very quickly there was never going to be a prince, there had to be some other alternative life.'

Holly argued that women know they're not going to marry a literal fairytale prince, but will find someone with qualities like the princes in Disney films.

She said: 'That prince might not be a prince that comes out of a castle but to you individually, the man you marry and fall in love with has prince-like qualities because he's the one for you.'

Holly revealed that she named her daughter after Belle from Beauty and The Beast, and even walked down the aisle to a Disney song. Pictured: Holly and her husband of 11-years Dan Baldwin

Liv Lorent MBE, who rewrites the old fairytales to make them more modern and inclusive, said the films teach girls to wait around for a Prince. Pictured left to right: Phillip Schofield, Holly, Ms Lorent and glamour model Linda Lusardi

Glamour model Linda Lusardi was also in the debate and agreed with Holly.

She said: 'You want someone that treats you like a princess, all the men in Cinderella and Snow White they're all very gallant and polite and they're lovely men who treat the women perfectly.'

This Morning viewers agreed, with one tweeting: 'Are fairy tales sexist? For god's sake what is the world coming to.'

'Now Disney is sexist is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard,' a fellow outraged commenter said.

Another wrote: 'The worlds going mad! How many of us watched and loved these fairytales and grew up with a strong mind and to be independent!?The Duke and Duchess of Sussex use holding hands as a way to send signals to each other - and to the public - when in the spotlight on royal engagements, a body language expert has revealed.

The loved-up couple, who are expecting their first child together next Spring, are known for their public displays of affection and have been inseparable as they whip through a packed programme of outings in Australia this week.

Today the parents-to-be arrived hand-in-hand at Melbourne's Government House and were never far apart from each other as they met children at Albert Primary School. Later, they once again held hands as they strolled through the sand at South Melbourne Beach, before boarding a plane back to Sydney in the evening.

It follows a similarly tactile pattern of behaviour seen in Sydney on the first day of engagements and Dubbo, a city in New South Wales, on day two of the tour.

Now author and body language analyst Judi James has explained the meanings behind the Sussexes' constantly clasped hands - be it communicating reassurance, offering guidance, or simply keeping each other running on schedule.

'It helps them move well together and to read one another's thoughts and emotions,' Judi explained, especially at times when they cannot speak openly.

This level of communication is particularly important for Harry and Meghan given the relative newness of their relationship, Judi added.

'Unlike other royal couples, like William and Kate, Harry and Meghan don't share decades of "growing up" together, or even living together, meaning their rapport and empathy needs to be worked at.'

Here, Judi decodes the hidden signals behind six of Harry and Meghan's gestures captured on camera over the last three days...

The hand on top: Protectiveness

Protective prince: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, pictured on a beach in Melbourne on Thursday, both present as confident individuals but Harry's habit of placing his hand on top in a hand clasp (as above) implies a level of protectiveness over his pregnant wife Meghan

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex both present as confident individuals when on public engagements together.

However Prince Harry's habit of placing his hand on top in a hand clasp implies a level of protectiveness over his pregnant wife.

Analysing this image taken on a Melbourne beach on Thursday, Judi noted Meghan was happy to be looked after by her husband as they strolled along the sand.

'Meghan responds in a congruent, complimentary way here, pulling his arm towards her body and nestling slightly behind it to suggest a more vulnerable moment.'

The 'tow along': Dominance

Staying on schedule: Prince Harry uses the 'tow-along' hand hold to physically guide Meghan through appearances. It is also a subtle way of ensuring his 'chatty' wife does not get waylaid and stays on schedule. Pictured, Harry demonstrates the gesture in Melbourne on Thursday

With decades of royal engagements under his belt, it is of little surprise Prince Harry often takes the lead when it comes to public appearances.

This is reflected in the way he often adopts the 'tow-along' hand hold where he walks ahead and physically leads Meghan, adopting a move favoured by celebrities on the red carpet.

Judi explained it also has a practical use: 'This is often a leading gesture but we are seeing it more frequently on royal visits as Meghan will often be more chatty than her husband who had had years of sticking to royal schedules.'

The arm rub: Reassurance

Triple the reassurance: When arriving at Dubbo Airport on Wednesday, Meghan clasped her husband's hand to offer reassurance. She enhanced this signal by pulling his arm into her torso and then rubbing his arm with her left hand (as seen above)

'The clasp and arm-rub will be Meghan's way of reminding her husband of her loving presence and offering him reassurance at the same time,' Judi explained.

The Duchess of Sussex is 'tripling up' on this reassuring signal by pulling his arm into her torso and then rubbing his arm with her left hand.

'This acceleration form of touch makes it look as though it is Meghan primarily wanting to keep the tactile nature of their appearances alive,' Judi noted.

'Her reassurance rubbing like this is quasi-maternal, boosting his confidence and ego in public.'

The 'hidden' double hand hold: Intimacy

Stolen moments: The hand behind the back clasp is a moment of added intimacy, mainly because the hands are 'hidden', making this less of a display and more of a secret signal. Pictured, Harry holds his wife's hand as they stop to speak to a well-wisher in Melbourne today

Judi said: 'The hand behind the back clasp is a moment of added intimacy, mainly because the hands are 'hidden', making this less of a display and more of a secret signal.

'The touch between fingers and palm and the clasping of hands in this way will be guaranteed to transmit quite a complex series of loving messages.

'Royal men often disconnect slightly socially by placing their hands behind their backs but the way Meghan "invades" this gesture suggests she also wants to boost her husband up and keep him happily chatty too.'

The lingering hold: Solidarity

Unbreakable bond: Even at moments like this when they could easily break apart and walk in their separate directions, Harry and Meghan choose to hold hands. This signals a 'fully-integrated double act'. Pictured, the couple in Dubbo, New South Wales, on Wednesday

Even when it comes time to part and walk in opposite directions, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex extend their arms for a lingering hand hold.

Judi explained: 'A couple that keeps touching like this during 'break' moments... are emphatically defining themselves as an unbreakable team.'

The body language analyst explained it is like using the word 'we' when they talk, 'it's a public announcement of the desire to be seen as a fully-integrated and linked double act.

'If they do part here they will have let us know that its only with reluctance first.'

The part-hold with pointed fingers: Preparedness

Well choreographed: The light hand hold on show at Admirality House, Sydney, on Tuesday, indicated that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are ready to break apart at any moment to greet their hosts, Australia's Governor General and his wife, ahead of a photo opportunity. By opening his grip and pointing his fingers, Harry is subtly communicating that it is time to let go

This type of partial hand hold with pointed fingers conveys a more practical message, according to Judi.

'Harry's part-hold with pointed fingers announces that they a only a few paces from meeting their hosts and so should prepare to drop the clasp in time to perform their greeting rituals.'

This is a lighter hold than the 'fully entwined or meshed fingers that take the longest to drop out of and show the strongest of loving, intimate bonds.'

Judi added: 'This is a great example of the kind of tie-sign choreography that they are using to keep their public appearances look smooth and synchronised.'

Meg-mania hits Melbourne: Pregnant duchess and Harry take to the beach (in their coats) and catch an iconic tram after greeting thousands of adoring fans - and even have a go at Aussie Rules

Harry and Meghan-mania hit Melbourne today with thousands more people turning out to see the royal couple than in Sydney as their successful Australian tour continues

By REBECCA ENGLISH, ROYAL CORRESPONDENT, IN MELBOURNE FOR THE DAILY MAIL and ALEX CHAPMAN FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA and MARTIN ROBINSON, CHIEF REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were treated to an authentic Aussie day with a lunch of delicacies including chargrilled kangaroo and barramundi before a trip on the city's famous tram to the beach.

But in typical British style they kept their coats and shoes on while walking hand-in-hand across the sand of South Melbourne beach where they met crowds of children with hugs and high fives before speaking to lifeguards.

The royal couple have taken Australia by storm as they started their historic first international tour together also taking in New Zealand , Fiji and Tonga over the next 16 days.

The couple arrived at South Melbourne Beach where they join a group of volunteers, lifesavers and schoolchildren

Harry and Meghan share a laugh as they headed to the beach to pick up litter with local schoolchildren - but kept on their coats and shoes on the sand

Prince Harry high fives school children on South Melbourne Beach where they all took part in a litter pick

Meghan even gave Aussie Rules a crack, demonstrating solid form for an ecstatic crowd when she was shown how to handball at Government House where she clearly enjoyed herself

Inside the buildiong he Duchess of Sussex and her husband laugh during a reception where they played a racing game

Hours after arriving they announced they are having a royal baby next year, having told the Queen and other royals at Princess Eugenie's Windsor Castle wedding last Friday.

Crowds waiting to see Harry and Meghan are growing every day  already far larger than those seen in Sydney two days ago - with some in Melbourne reserving their spot as early as 4am.

At their first engagement today they were received at Government House for a reception where they played games with young people.

Meghan, who was wearing an Australian-designed Dion Lee dress and camel coloured Martin Grant trenchcoat, later tried Aussie Rules in the garden and then changed into a navy Club Moncao dress and Rothy's shoes made from recycled water bottles for her trip to the beach.

The couple started their day at Government House in Victoria before a series of authentic Aussie events throughout the day

The Duchess of Sussex has taken Australia by storm with thousands turning out every day to catch a glimpse of her or meet her (pictured at Government house today)

Harry's hug for one young woman at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, reduced her to tears of joy

Crowds waiting to see Harry and Meghan are growing every day and thousands more turned out in Melbourne compared to Sydney days earlier

Harry meets a little princess and crouches down to speak to her near Melbourne's Government House at the start of their third day in Australia

Meghan was swamped by crowds seven or eight deep in Melbourne today as the couple tore up much of their strict timings to make sure they said hello to as many people as possible

A giant banner hangs above South Melbourne Beach congratulating Harry and Meghan on having their first baby next year

After a long but enjoyable day in Melbourne, the royal couple arrived at a soggy Sydney airport where a member of the armed forces was waiting with an umbrella

Lunch followed at Fitzroy's Charcoal Lane, which offers Aboriginal youths employment, which would have thrilled foodie Meghan.

A visit to Albert Park Primary School followed where young students then took them by tram to South Melbourne Beach for a plastic clean up.

The couple have asked to take part in some of Australia's environmental activities, especially related to reducing plastic use, and Meghan told the children: 'It's amazing what you guys are doing' while Harry questioned 'whether people really need to use straws at all, and if they do, to use bamboo or metal straws.'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge whisper something to each other on another enjoyable and busy day in Australia

School children wave to Harry and Meghan as they warned children against using plastics, especially throwaway straws

Harry and Meghan walk across the sand at South Melbourne Beach today as their extraordinary three-week tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, and Fiji continues

Meghan and Harry wore jackets, coats and shoes as they crossed the white sands of South Melbourne beach today

Harry and Meghan have really enjoyed meeting young people in Australia who are also similarly enthusiastic

There were high fives all round for the youngsters who waited for the couple to come along to speak to them

Meghan meets a group of children at the beach who lined up the length of the sands to see the couple up close

Harry puts his arm around his wife, who announced she was pregnant at the start of the Australian tour on Monday

As part of a day of more Aussie experiences the royal couple who patrol the beaches of Melbourne to keep people safe

Meghan and Harry are carrying out 76 engagements in 16 days on their first international royal tour of Australasia and the south Pacific.

Yesterday Meghan, 37, admitted that she is a 'bit tired' and 'running on adrenaline' but loving her new life.

The couple have sparked a whirlwind by announcing they are having their first child just hours after touching down in Sydney and huge crowds are turning out to see them, some of whom arrive in the middle of the night.

Many were carrying flowers and signs including two witty notices reading: 'Worth the detention' and saying they had skipped work to be there.

The royal couple spoke to the men and women who patrol a mile-long section of beach at South Melbourne

Meghan speaks to a female lifeguard ahead of a litter pick where they warned about the use of plastics and throwaway fashions as Harry pulls a funny face

It wasn't just keen to get the Duke and Duchess' attention, there were many adults at the beach to see them too

Meghan and Harry speak to some local 'Waste Warriors' as they helped with a school plastic beach pick-up event

One little girl even gave Meghan the tiara she was wearing and a teenager who received a hug from Prince Harry just burst into tears during a walkabout ahead of the reception at Government House in Melbourne.

After a school visit the couple headed to Melbourne's famous South Beach.

On their journey Charlie Wolf, a 12-year-old student from Middle Park primary school asked if the couple had any names for their baby.

Meghan replied: 'We've been given a long list of names from everyone, we're going to sit down and have a look at them.'

Before heading to the beach they greeted children warmly during their visit to the Albert Park Primary School

Harry kindly mimics a young girr excited to say hello to him as he visited Albert Park Primary

Meghan smiles and rubs a beautiful blonde baby among the thousands of people who came to see them in Melbourne today

He added: 'If you didn't know who he was you would just think he's a good Aussie bloke'.

But he admitted if Australia should have a British Royal family and replied: 'Probably not, but they can come and visit any time they like.'

Meghan, who had changed into a navy Club Moncao dress and, appropriately, vegan Rothy's shoes made from recycled water bottles, from her navy blue heels for black flats and a matching dress, caught one of Melbourne's iconic trams with Harry.

They visited South Melbourne beach, where they joined volunteers and schoolchildren from the local Beach Patrol programme, who keep the local beaches litter- free and reduce the impact on the marine environment.

Meghan returns a cheery wave to primary school children on day three of their 16-day tour of Australia and the South Pacific

Harry shakes the hand of a pupil at Albert Park Primary School in Melbourne as a teacher and schoolmate smile behind

The youngsters attend nearby Albert Park Primary and Albert Park College.

The children showed them bags full of plastic cups, bottles and straws they had collected, which are then analysed for environmental impact.

Speaking to Albert Park College student, Ashley Soja, 14, Harry said: 'There is literally plastic everywhere. And, you know, microplastics are a real problem, especially the microplastics from fast-fashion. Did you know that's one of the biggest culprits?'

Bonnie Sheppard, 15, another Albert Park College student, said: 'Meghan was really interested in the effect of microplastics. I told her that there are more microplastics in the ocean than stars in the Milky Way, which she was surprised by.'

'It's amazing what you guys are doing,' said Meghan. 'Well done, you're doing a really great job. Keep it up.'

Harry and Meghan wave to the well-wishers after taking a ride on a tram in Melbourne

On the way to the beach Meghan smiled and showed Harry a little stuffed toy as the rode the tram in Melbourne

The couple took Melbourne's iconic tram system to the beach, catching it with student leaders at a local school

After lunch, the Duke and Duchess made a quick wardrobe change, the latter changing from heels to flats

The couple were also treated to lunch at Fitzroy's Charcoal Lane, which offers Aboriginal youths employment

Crushing a leaf of Strawberry Gum, a type of eucalyptus, the chef encouraged the royal visitors to smell it. 'Is that what Koalas eat in the Bush?' asked the Duke.

Among other plants, Harry bites into some eucalyptus, but not before he had to ask: 'Isn't that what koalas eat?'

Executive Chef Greg Hampton (right) told the royal couple how they provide opportunity to young Aboriginal peopleWith a 15-hour time difference between Toronto and Sydney, Jess Mulroney could be forgiven for suffering a hint of jet lag.

And the Duchess of Sussex's unofficial stylist poked fun at her exhausted husband Ben as the couple enjoyed a night out in the Australian city on Thursday.

The Canadian socialite shared a mirror selfie on Instagram, showing her dressed up to the nines in a rainbow striped top and skinny jeans as Ben took a well-deserved break against the wall.

Posting at around 10pm local time, the mother-of-three wrote: 'When your husband falls asleep in the elevator before you dinner you know A) After almost 10 years of marriage, romance is certainly not dead, and B) Tonight is gonna get cray C) He found someone else in Australia who took all his attention.'

Jess Mulroney, the Duchess of Sussex's unofficial stylist, has poked fun at her exhausted husband Ben after the couple enjoyed a night out in Sydney on Thursday (pictured)

Jess Mulroney is in Australia to support her best friend Meghan, currently pregnant with her first child, who is on her first major overseas tour with husband Prince Harry (pictured in Melbourne on Thursday 18 October)

The fashion guru flew out from Canada earlier this week to join her pregnant best friend Meghan, 37, on her first major overseas tour with Prince Harry.

She is not believed to have joined the couple in Melbourne, however, instead taking in the sights of Sydney including the 'spectacular' Opera House and Taronga Zoo as documented on her Instagram page.

The high-society Canadian, who met Meghan when the actress was filming Suits in Toronto and has been helping the former actress curate her royal wardrobe, was spotted picking up groceries in Sydney earlier this week.

Jess and Ben, the son of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, are joining the Duke and Duchess in an 'unofficial' capacity - meaning they will cover their own expenses.

Jessica Mulroney and husband Ben (left) have been taking in the sights of Sydney including the Opera House (right) and Taronga Zoo as documented on her Instagram page

Mother-of-three Jessica, seen with the now Duchess in Toronto in 2016, was Meghan's unofficial maid of honour at the royal wedding in May. Her daughter Ivy was a flower girl, and her twin sons John and Brian were page boys

But although she's not officially on the payroll as a member of staff, well-connected fashionista Jessica, 38, is on hand to give Meghan style advice, and in return is getting a golden opportunity for her to promote the Canadian brands she's associated with.

Her influence has prompted Meghan to favour little-known Canadian labels for her royal engagements since marrying Harry in May, rather than outfits by British designers.

Jessica is said to be the inspiration behind some of Meghan's most headline-grabbing looks since joining the royal family, including a thigh skimming tuxedo dress she wore to a charity performance of Hamilton the musical in London in late August.

After spending their first week in Australia, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - whose first baby is expected next spring - will travel to New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji.The Queen welcomed ambassadors from around the globe - including Bulgaria, Burkina Faso and Malta - to Buckingham Palace this afternoon.

Looking in cheerful spirits, the Queen donned a bright pink dress for the formal diplomatic occasion as she was presented with letters of credence by visiting diplomats.

Wearing a three-tiered string of pearls, pretty black shoes and a matching black bag, the Queen spent several minutes talking to Jacqueline Zaba Nikiema, the ambassador for West African country Burkina Faso.

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After spending the summer at Balmoral - and last week in Windsor for Princess Eugenie's wedding to Jack Brooksbank - the Queen returned to Buckingham Palace today for a letters of credence ceremony. Here, she meets the ambassador of Burkina Faso, Jacqueline Zaba Nikiema

The pair, both colourfully dressed in pink and purple respectively, spent several minutes chatting after Mrs Zaba Nikiema handed over her letter of credence

Here it is! The regal-looking red letter of credence is handed over to the Queen

Mrs Zaba Nikiema wore a colourful purple hat and a matching purple sash and spent several minutes conversing with the royal before handing over her letter of credence.

The letter formally asks one head of state to give credence to whatever the ambassador may say on his country's behalf.

Also at the palace was the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev, who towered above the Queen, and his wife Desislava Radeva.

Mrs Radeva, dressed in cobalt blue, dropped an elegant curtsy as her husband looked on, before the ambassador to Malta, Joseph Cole, also arrived to hand over his own letter.

It is the first time the Queen has been back at the official London residence since the early summer.

The Queen spent the summer months at Balmoral before returning to Windsor last week with Prince Philip, 97, for the wedding of her granddaughter Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank.

Also on the guest list today was the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev and his wife Desislava Radeva. Mrs Radeva, dressed in cobalt blue, drops a curtsy as her husband looks on

The Queen raises her head to shake the hand of smartly attired Bulgarian president Rumen Radev as he extends a hand to meet the royal

Let me take that: The Queen is presented with the Maltese government's letter of credence by Joseph Cole, the country's High Commissioner, after he arrived at Buckingham Palace today

Earlier this week, it was announced that the Queen's famous handbag will feature in a portrait for the first time.

Award-winning artist Ben Sullivan included the accessory in a new portrait of the Queen to help show the person behind the head of state.

The royal is rarely seen without her handbag  usually a black patent design by Launer  and in the painting, commissioned by the RAF Club to mark its centenary, she is shown sat in an ornate chair in Windsor Castles white drawing room with the item by her feet.

The painting will hang in the RAF Club and the Queen watched her portrait being unveiled when she visited the institution in Londons Piccadilly to celebrate its 100th anniversary.Harry, 34, was seen with phone in his pocket while in Dubbo, New South Wales

Appeared to be iPhone X, which costs 999, due to positioning of the camera

Meghan, 36, was seen holding phone with Gucci bag when leaving Melbourne

Eagle-eyed fans spotted Meghan with her mobile phone out while in Melbourne - in a rare move for a senior royal.

The Duchess of Sussex, 36, was seen holding her phone with her Gucci bag while departing the city on Thursday, in a photograph shared on Twitter by the Governor of Victoria Linda Dessau.

Fan account Meghans Mirror was quick to spot the unusual display, tweeting: 'One interesting thing to note... It certainly looks like Meghan has a phone in her hand next to her clutch!'

It comes as Prince Harry, 34, was also seen with his phone in his pocket while landing in Dubbo, New South Wales, on Tuesday.

Meghan, 36, was spotted Meghan breaking royal protocol - by having her mobile phone out (circled) while leaving Melbourne

Royal watchers were quick to spot the unusual display, including fan account Meghans Mirror

The phone (close-up, above) held by Meghan appeared to be the iPhone X, which costs 999, due to the positioning of the camera on the back

It is extremely rare for a member of the royal family to be seen with their phone while on an official engagement.

The phone held by Meghan appeared to be the iPhone X, which cost 999, due to the positioning of the camera on the back.

It comes after Harry broke royal protocol by taking a photograph of Meghan with a girl in Sydney on Tuesday, after the Duchess noted how much the youngster looked like her.

The Duke of Sussex, 34, was seen calling over his wife after he spotted Sethunya Gibbons, nine, in the crowd during a walkabout by the Sydney Opera House on Tuesday, asking her 'Do you want to meet my wife?'

Prince Harry, 34, was also seen with his phone in his pocket (circled) while landing in Dubbo, New South Wales, on Tuesday

Harry can then be heard asking the girl, 'Do you want me to take a picture of you two together?', with the youngster nodding enthusiastically in response.

Her grandmother can be heard telling Meghan - who is pregnant with her first child - 'We feel she looks a bit like you', to which the Duchess responded: 'I was literally about to say the same thing.'

Harry then proceeded to take a photograph of Meghan and Sethunya with the youngster's phone.

Following a day in Melbourne on Thursday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex flew back to Sydney.

They will conduct a series of engagements, including a visit to Bondi Beach on Friday, before attending the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony on Saturday.

Harry took a photograph of young Sethunya Gibbons (pictured centre, with her grandmother and cousin) with Meghan during a walkabout in Sydney on Tuesday

Harry can be heard asking Sethunya 'Do you want me to take a picture of you two together?', before proceeding to do soPrincess Eugenie's wedding to Jack Brooksbank last Friday was awash with adorable moments - and the sight of the Duchess of Cambridge spotting her children walking down the aisle is the latest to be unearthed.

Prince George, five, and Princess Charlotte, three, stole the show when they dutifully played the roles of pageboy and bridesmaid trailing behind their second cousin Eugenie.

In a sweet shot captured by television cameras, Kate, 36, can be seen beaming at her two eldest children as she sees them walking down the aisle behind Eugenie, 28 in their wedding attire.

La reaction de Kate quand elle voit George et Charlotte descendre l'allee de la chapelle Saint-Georges au mariage de la Princesse Eugenie.  #RoyalWedding pic.twitter.com/NR8f7WrlxR  RoyalSourceFR (@RoyalSourceFR) October 16, 2018

In a sweet moment captured by television cameras the Duchess of Cambridge, 36, is seen beaming as she notices Prince George, five, and Princess Charlotte, three, walking down the aisle at the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank last Friday. Pictured: Kate and the Duke of Cambridge at St George's Chapel, Windsor on October 12th

Well, we are pretty cute! George, five, and Charlotte, three, (pictured) acted as a pageboy and bridesmaid for their second cousin's wedding

It was tweeted by French Twitter account @RoyalSourceFR, who called it 'Kate's reaction' when she saw her children in their pageboy and bridesmaid roles.

George and Charlotte joined Robbie Williams' daughter Teddy, six, Mia Tindall, six, Savannah Phillips, seven, her sister Isla, six, Maud Windsor, five and Louis de Givenchy, six.

The group followed behind Eugenie as she entered St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on the arm of her father Prince Andrew.

In the clip, Kate is seen noticing her children enter the church, and her expression suddenly breaks into a proud grin.

Seemingly reacting to Kate's proud mother moment, Prince Harry, 34, appears to smile at her in amusement.

The cute siblings, elder brother and sister to five-month-old Louis, joined, from left, Robbie Williams' daughter Teddy, six, Mia Tindall, six, Savannah Phillips, seven, her sister Isla, six, Maud Windsor, five and Louis de Givenchy, six

Beatrice's sister and maid-of-honour Princess Beatrice, 30, is also captured, giving a reassuring thumbs up to the children.

@RoyalSourceFR shared a GIF of the moment, writing in French followed by a love heart: 'Kate's reaction when she sees George and Charlotte coming down the aisle of the chapel of St. George at the wedding of Princess Eugenie.'

At the wedding, Kate giggled as she pinned down the skirt of her stunning deep pink Alexander McQueen dress as she battled the elements outside St George's Chapel, at Windsor Castle.

The duchess opted for a structured dress featuring puffed sleeves by her wedding dress designer for the ceremony.

Princess Eugenie wed her long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel on Friday at a ceremony attended by 850 guests last Friday. Pictured: An official photo released by Buckingham Palace of the couple and their bridesmaids and pageboys

Kate giggled as she pinned down the skirt of her stunning deep pink Alexander McQueen dress after a gust of wind caught her off guard (pictured) outside St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, following the wedding

The mother-of-three teamed the frock with a matching fascinator by milliner Philip Treacy, along with burgundy heels and a co-ordinating clutch bag.

Wearing her glossy locks up in an elegant up-do, she finished off the chic ensemble with a pair of diamond pearl drop earrings.

The look marks a departure for Kate, who often recycles outfits she has previously worn when attending weddings, to prevent taking attention away from the bride.

Princess Eugenie wed her long-term boyfriend Jack Brooksbank at St George's Chapel on Friday at a ceremony attended by 850 guests.

She wowed in a pink Alexander McQueen dress as she arrived at Princess Eugenie's wedding at St George's Chapel with Prince William

Eyebrows were raised over the size of the celebrations, which set the taxpayer back 2million for security, but Prince Andrew rejected calls from within Buckingham Palace for a more modest wedding.

Determined that his daughter have her moment in the spotlight, Eugenie and Jack took a carriage ride around Windsor following the church ceremony and enjoyed two days of celebrations.

Guests attended a lunch at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen after the ceremony, followed by a black tie dinner hosted by Prince Andrew at The Royal Lodge on Friday night, which went on until the early hours.

On Saturday, it was time for round two at a fairground themed party complete with a carousel in the grounds of The Royal Lodge.New father James Matthews made a quick trip to the office just three days after welcoming a baby boy with wife Pippa Middleton.

Millionaire Mr Matthews, 43, was seen popping into the headquarters of his capital management firm in Mayfair, London, on Thursday morning.

The father-of-one was smartly turned out in a pink open collar shirt, blue chinos and a black belt as he pulled up at his office building in a black 4x4. He stepped outside to let himself into the underground car park before driving into the property.

The father-of-one was by his wife's side as his wife Pippa, 35, gave birth to their son at the private Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, on Monday afternoon.

New father James Matthews has been seen for the first time since welcoming a baby boy with wife Pippa Middleton. He popped into his office in Mayfair, London, on Thursday morning

Millionaire Mr Matthews was smartly turned out in a pink open collar shirt, blue chinos and a black belt as he pulled up at his office building in a black 4x4, pictured

Mr Matthews and wife Pippa Middleton attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank on Friday, pictured. They welcomed their son just three days later, on Monday

Their baby was delivered at the 7,500-a-night private maternity unit where her older sister, the Duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to her three children.

The little boy is the cousin of future King Prince George, five, his brother Prince Louis, five months, and their sister Princess Charlotte, three.

The couple are believed to have left the hospital through a side door on Tuesday night and quietly returned to their 17million mansion in Chelsea, West London.

Mr Matthews, CEO of Eden Rock Capital Management, is believed to have left his wife resting at home as he made a swift trip into the office on Thursday.

The couple, who wed last year, were last seen together when they attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank at Windsor Castle last Friday.

Mr Matthews stepped outside his car briefly to let himself into the underground car park, pictured, before driving into the property. He was by his wife's side as she gave birth this week

Mr Matthews, pictured, whose family own Eden Rock Hotel, St Barths, arrived at the office building in Mayfair on Thursday. Wife Pippa is believed to be resting at their Chelsea home

Mr Matthews, pictured today, released a statement saying their were 'delighted' following the birth of their son, who is a cousin of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis

A little more than 48 hours later, Pippa was seen smiling as she entered the Lindo Wing on Tuesday morning, a short time before Mr Matthews arrived.

Just three hours after being admitted, Pippa gave birth to their son at 1.58pm.

Their baby was born on the same day the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed they are expecting their first baby together next Spring.

A spokeswoman for Pippa Middleton and her husband said in a statement on Tuesday: 'James and Pippa have had a baby boy.

'He was born Monday 15th October at 1.58pm, weighing 8lb and 9oz. Everyone is delighted and mother and baby are doing well.'

Mr Matthews climbed back inside his car and drove into the office building in Mayfair, pictured, on Thursday. The father-of-one is CEO of Eden Rock Capital Management

Mr Matthews, pictured today, and his wife Pippa welcomed their son on the same day the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they are expecting their first child together next Spring

The highly-respected hospital is known for providing a premium service for its clients. Patients are each given a private room with their own en suite bathroom, as well as satellite TV offering 'major international channels'.

Gourmet food is also available via the wing's extensive menus, while new parents are also offered a wine list to celebrate their new arrival. A standard room at the wing costs 5,900, while a deluxe room starts at 6,275.

The price for a stay in one of the unit's suites - where Kate is believed to have given birth - is available on request, but is thought to be closer to 7,500.

Kate suffered from severe morning sickness when she was expecting her children, but Pippa has boasted that she was enjoying a Zen-like pregnancy - using meditation to cope with the last few weeks before she gives birth.Princess Eugenie appears to have put rumours of a potential rift between her and Meghan to bed - after liking a photograph of the Duchess on an Instagram fan account.

Eugenie, 28, liked a photograph of Meghan, 37, in Dubbo, New South Wales, while sporting an oversized blazer by friend Serena Williams and earrings by Australian designer Natalie Marie, which was posted by @_duchess_of_sussex on Wednesday.

The fan account later posted a screenshot showing that Princess Eugenie had liked the snap, commenting: 'IM CRYING PRINCESS EUGENIE LIKED MY PICTURE!!! THIS IS SOO MAJOR!!!!'

It is understood that Meghan and Harry told members of the royal family they were expecting a baby at Princess Eugenie's wedding on Friday, causing eyebrows to be raised.

Princess Eugenie has liked a photograph of Meghan on her royal tour in Australia, which was shared on an Instagram fan account

It comes after Eugenie, 28, shared a candid snap of her and Jack with their bridesmaids and page boys on Instagram on Tuesday

Posting on social media, Eugenie, 28, thanked 'everyone who was involved in making our day so special', as she and Jack, 32, 'start married life laughing together' (above)

The couple officially announced that Meghan is pregnant on Monday, just three days after Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank's wedding.

Eugenie has not commented publicly on the pregnancy announcement, but shared a candid snap of her and Jack with their bridesmaids and page boys on Instagram on Tuesday.

Posting the picture, she commented: 'Jack and I would like to thank everyone who was involved in making our day so special and for all the wonderful wishes as we start married life laughing together.'

Meanwhile, her mother Sarah Ferguson posted a series of photographs on Twitter and Instagram on Monday - just moments after Prince Harry and Meghan announced they were having a baby.

The _duchess_of_sussex fan account later posted a screenshot showing that Princess Eugenie had liked the snap, which showed Meghan in Dubbo, New South Wales, wearing earrings by designer Natalie Marie

The person behind the fan account said they were 'crying' and 'overwhelmed' after finding out the royal had liked the photograph

Some saw the flurry of posts to be a swipe at the couple for telling members of the royal family about their baby news at Eugenie's wedding.

Fergie, 58, shared a series of photographs from the wedding, including one thanking the designer of her dress for the outfit she wore for the evening reception on Friday night.

She then posted three further messages saying how 'proud' she was of Eugenie and Jack - but made no mention of Harry and Meghan.

It is believed that Eugenie and Jack are currently enjoying their honeymoon, but the destination is not known.

It comes after Eugenie's mother Sarah Ferguson posted a series of photographs on Twitter and Instagram on Monday from the wedding, including one of her in her evening dress

The Duchess of York also shared a number of pictures of daughter Eugenie and son-in-law Jack from the wedding day, just moments after Harry and Meghan announced they were expecting their first baby together

Sarah said how 'proud' she was of Jack and Eugenie following their wedding in Windsor on Friday, but made no mention of Harry and MeghanA Californian pizzeria is selling what is believed to be the largest deliverable pizza in the world: a mammoth contraption spreading over 2,916 square inches of dough, which can be acquired for a basic price of $299.99.

Big Mama's & Papa's, which has 19 locations including six in Los Angeles, says its gargantuan Giant Sicilian pizza is the largest pie that can be purchased for delivery across the globe.

Each square pie measures 4.5 feet on each side and is made with seven traditionally-sized mounds of dough.

Mammoth: Big Mama's & Papa's, a Californian pizza chain, says its gargantuan Giant Sicilian pizza is the largest pie that can be purchased for delivery across the globe

Process: Each square pie measures 4.5 feet on each side and is made with seven traditionally-sized mounds of dough. Employees spread out the dough before adding the sauce

Steps: After the pie cooks for two minutes, employees add the cheese and toppings

Understandably, customers might get tired after eating several slices of the same flavor and they might want to make the most out of the pizza's enormous surface.

That is why Big Mama's & Papa's makes it possible to customize the pie, by asking for different combinations of toppings on each half or quarter, as explained in a video shared by the chain.

Big Mama's & Papa's made headlines in 2014 when it famously delivered pizzas to the Oscars, which were then dished out by host Ellen DeGeneres, now 60, to the many celebrities in attendance.

The chain's Giant Sicilian pizza has recently attracted renewed attention on social media, with some Twitter users salivating at the thought of the large pie while some worried it wouldn't fit through their front door.

Employees can be seen in a video shared by Insider Food earlier this week making a giant pie, using an impressive combination of 20 pounds of dough, five pounds of cheese, and three pounds of pepperoni.

Variety: Customers can ask for various toppings combinations on each quarter of the pie

Journey: Employees then deliver the pie to customers  and as seen in this image, the pizza requires a mammoth box big enough to take up most of the back of a pickup truck

Sharing: Each pie is big enough to feed 50 to 70 people according to the pizza chain

Sweet ride: While the pizza chain used to deliver the giant pies in traditional vehicles, it has since acquired a custom yellow and black car. The pizzas can be transported on its roof

Oshin Gregory, then an assistant manager at Big Mama's & Papa's, detailed the preparation process in an archive clip for the chain, explaining that cooks combine seven mounds of dough, stacking them on top of each other, before spreading the dough.

They then add the sauce, place the pie in the oven for two minutes, take it out, and add the cheese and toppings.

While customers are free to let their creativity run wild while designing their pie, they should be ready to pay the price: each additional topping costs $19.99, while a request for extra cheese will come at a $34.99 price tag.

The pie is then cut into numerous small slices before being taken out for delivery.

While the pizza chain used to deliver the giant pies in traditional vehicles, fitting them, for example, at the back of a pickup truck, it has since upped its game and acquired a custom vehicle.

The yellow and black car has Big Mama's & Papa's written on it in several spots, in addition to the chain's phone number and the name of its website  but its most fascinating feature is found on its roof.

On the top of the vehicle rests a giant delivery box in which the mammoth pizza can be placed during deliveries  enabling employees to transport the pie with ease.

At the site of the delivery, employees can then pull out the large pizza box with its content intact and ready to be devoured.Queen Letizia of Spain looked elegant in a sleek LBD as she joined her husband King Felipe at a concert tonight.

The royal, 46, teamed the classic number with black stiletto heels as she attended the Princess of Asturias Awards event in Oviedo, north-west Spain.

Letizia finished off her sophisticated look with a diamond cuff around her wrist, which she paired with a set of dazzling earrings.

Her appearance tonight comes after she joined legendary director Martin Scorsese in meeting young filmmakers earlier in the day.

Queen Letizia of Spain opted for an elegant look as she attended Princess of Asturias Awards concert in Oviedo, north-west Spain

Letizia, 45, opted for a sleek LBD as she joined her husband King Felipe (left) for the night of music tonight

Earlier in the day, Letizia joined legendary director Martin Scorsese (left) in meeting young filmmakers in Oviedo

Wearing her brunette locks in an up-do, Letizia showed off a glamorous make-up look for the concert on Thursday night, accentuating her lips with a berry colour.

Felipe, 50, meanwhile looked dapper in a pinstripe suit and blue tie for the evening of music.

The couple were attending the 27th edition of the concert of the Princess of Asturias Awards 2018, which typically takes place the night before the awards ceremony.

The Princess of Asturias Awards are given every year to personalities or organisations from all around the world who make significant achievements in the sciences, arts, literature, humanities and sports.

Letizia teamed her classic black dress with black heels as she joined husband King Felipe for the Princess of Asturias Awards concert

The couple were attending the 27th edition of the concert of the Princess of Asturias Awards 2018, which typically takes place the night before the awards ceremony

Letizia showed off a glamorous make-up look for the concert on Thursday night, while wearing a pair of dazzling earrings

Letizia and Felipe looked in good spirits as they took their seats for the concert in Oviedo, north-west Spain

Earlier in the day, Letizia joined Martin Scorsese to meet young filmmakers at the old weapons factory in Oviedo.

The Spanish royal looked chic in a checked top featuring a bow around the waist, which she teamed with black tailored trousers.

The mother-of-two finished the look with a pair of black patent heels, and a co-ordinating clutch bag.

Letizia and Scorsese were meeting young filmmakers as part of the 'Fabrica Scorsese', or Scorsese Factory, programme that has been running this week.

Letizia looked chic in a checked top featuring a bow around the waist as she met film director Martin Scorsese earlier in the day

The Spanish queen teamed the checked top with a pair of tailored trousers for the engagement earlier today

The mother-of-two (pictured arriving for the engagement) finished off the look with a pair of patent heels and an embellished clutch bag

Letizia looked in high spirits as she chatted to legendary film director Martin Scorsese

A number of events and screenings have been taking place to honour the work of the American filmmaker, who has been awarded the Princess of Asturia prize for the Arts.

Letizia has had a busy month so far, attending the National Day celebrations in Madrid last week.

The royal schoolgirls looked perfectly put together in co-ordinated check ensembles as they arrived for a high profile military parade in Madrid.

Leonor, 12, who is heir to the Spanish throne, wore a red knee-length dress with a pair of dainty red Mary-Janes while 11-year-old Sofia wore a blue top and skirt with the same shoes as her sister in blue.

National Day in Spain commemorates when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas in 1492.

The Spanish Queen posed for photographs with Scorsese and his wife Helen Morris (left)

The Spanish Queen was seen taking her seat in the cinema as she attended a meeting with young directors as part of the 'Fabrica Scorsese' programme

Letizia was later seen inspecting the yellow taxi from Scorsese's 1976 film Taxi Driver, while accompanied by the director (far left)The Duchess of Sussex gave her first nod to British fashion of the royal tour when she stepped out in a dress by royal favourite Roksanda on Friday.

Pregnant Meghan, 37, opted for the 1,295 (AUD$2,376, USD$1,690) two-tone blue midi as she joined Prince Harry at Macarthur Girls High School, Sydney, and kept it on for back-to-back meetings with the Australian Prime Minister and leader of the opposition.

The mother-to-be paired the flattering A-line frock with nude suede pumps by Stuart Weitzman and simple jewellery from Canadian brand Birks.

Earlier the duchess showed her support for Australian design by donning a 880 (AUD$1,615, USD$1,148) maxi dress by Melbourne-born designer Martin Grant for a morning trip to Sydney's Bondi Beach, pairing it with wedge espadrilles.

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Afternoon: The Duchess of Sussex sported a 1,295 (AUD$2,376, USD$1,690) two-tone blue midi dress by British label Roksanda for a visit to Macarthur Girls High School in Sydney

Morning: Meghan stepped out in a 880 (AUD$1,615, USD$1,148) maxi dress from Melbourne-born designer Martin Grant as she joined Harry on Bondi Beach on Friday morning

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who are expecting their first child together in Spring next year, are on their fourth day of a 16-day tour of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji.

So far the Duchess has used her wardrobe choices to shed light on a number of Australian designers, alongside favourites like US label Brandon Maxwell and and high street chain Club Monaco.

She has also shown her support for close friend Serena Williams' new eponymous label by sporting one of her blazers on an outing, while heirloom jewellery from Princess Diana's personal collection has been a way to pay tribute to Harry's mother.

Today's outing in Roksanda is the first nod to British fashion on this royal tour.

Evening: The Duchess of Sussex wore the same Roksanda dress as she joined Prince Harry to meet Australia's opposition leader Bill Shorten and his wife Chloe Shorten at Admiralty House, Sydney. However Prince Harry changed into a suit and tie for the occasion

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also stopped at Kirribilli House in Sydney on Friday evening, where they met Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife Jenny Morrison

Serbian-born Roksanda Ilincic has become a firm favourite of A-listers and royals alike, with Meghan's sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge donning her designs for a number of high-profile occasions.

Meghan opted for the 'Athena' dress from Roksanda's pre-autumn/winter 18 collection, which draws on the typically feminine shape of 1950s design with its nipped in waist and A-line skirt with gentle pleating.

Meghan paired the flattering frock with Stuart Weitzman's 'Legend' Pumps, available for 287 (AUD $528, USD $375), and a pair of 498 (AUD$914, USD$649) blue topaz earrings by Canadian jewellery brand Birks.

The Duchess of Sussex's Roksanda dress, pictured, is the first nod to British fashion on this royal tour. She wore it with 287 (AUD $528, USD $375) Stuart Weitzman 'Legend' Pumps

The royal mother-to-be kept her jewellery simple with a pair of 498 (AUD$914, USD$649) blue topaz earrings and a $3,650 (GBP 2,538) white gold bracelet, both by Canadian jeweller Birks

Fashion fans noted Meghan's choice of colours perfectly complemented the Macarthur Girls High School uniform, pictured. The royal couple spent time meeting local schoolchildren

She finished the look with Briks' 2,538 (AUD$3,650, USD$2,596) 'flex wrap bracelet' in white gold.

Earlier on in the day, Meghan wore a striped by Martin Grant to Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The 880 (AUD$1,615, USD$1,148) style featured a straight, sleeveless neckline and full pleated skirt, with contrasting caramel and white stripes.

The pregnant Duchess, 37, paired the contemporary design with 80 (AUD$147, USD$104) Castaner canvas wedge espadrilles, but she ditched them to step onto the sand.

Meghan kept accessories to a minimum, wearing a simple 228 (AUD$418, USD$297) teardrop pendant from Los Angeles jewellery designer Adina Reyter.

Meghan Markle stunned in yet another Australian designer on Thursday, when she plumped for a Martin Grant khaki dress and espadrilles to visit Bondi Beach

The royal paired her dress with Castaner canvas wedge espadrilles, but swiftly removed them once she stepped on the sand (pictured)

The 880 (AUD$1,615, USD$1,148) gown worn by Meghan (pictured with Prince Harry) featured a straight, sleeveless neckline and full pleated skirt, with contrasting caramel and white stripes

Meghan's shoeless look was a far cry from Kate's towering cork wedges which she wore on the second leg of her Australia tour in 2014 (pictured on Sydney's Manly beach on 18 April 2014)

The Pleated Stripe Long Dress is currently unavailable with online sale starting from December 15.

It's not the first time the Duchess has worn Martin Grant, after she plumped for the French-based Australian on Tuesday and Thursday with her stylish trench coat.

The Australian brand boasts a laundry list of celebrity clients including Cate Blanchett, and Blake Lively and Cameron Diaz, as well as international royals like Queen Rania of Jordan who is a long time fan of the brand.

Prince Harry also opted for an Aussie label, opting for a blue shirt by Jac + Jack.

The delicate, yellow gold necklace is made with 14 carats and pave diamonds, and will be available online from October 22.

The couple (pictured) enjoyed taking part in the 'Fluoro Friday' session - within 20 minutes of the royal visit, OneWave's official website had crashed due to the volume of traffic

Meghan kept accessories to a minimum, wearing a simple $418 teardrop pendant from Los Angeles jewellery designer Adina Reyter (pictured on the beach with Prince Harry)

Since the start of their official engagements earlier this week, the Duchess' wardrobe choices have caused sartorial stock to sell out around the world.

Dubbed 'The Meghan Effect', her outfit selections have crashed the sites of fashion labels including Karen Gee, Club Monaco and Dion Lee, despite the Dion Lee dress only being available for pre-order at present.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met with a local surfing community group OneWave early on Friday morning.

This is an initiative dedicated to raising awareness for mental health and well-being in a fun and engaging way.

Their Royal Highnesses took part in the 'Fluro Friday' session, where people of all ages share their experiences of mental health issues, before meeting with members of the public

Meghan kicking off her shoes was a stark contrast to her sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, who famously kept hers on when visiting Sydney's Manly

Later on Friday, the Sussexes' will participate in a youth advocacy programme which aims to unite and inspire young people to be inclusive

Despite the early call time, Meghan was up at 4.30am to practise yoga before the busy day.

This comes after reports that the Duchess shipped in yoga mats to Admiralty House, where she and Prince Harry are staying for the week.

Their Royal Highnesses took part in the 'Fluro Friday' session, where people of all ages share their experiences of mental health issues, before meeting with members of the public gathered alongside the beach.

Within 20 minutes of the royal visit, OneWave's official website had crashed due to the volume of traffic.Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has suggested a very bizarre ingredient she swears by for making a simple yet delicious plate of pasta.

The 58-year-old English food writer called on Australians to mix the iconic breakfast spread Vegemite into their dish, sending foodies into a meltdown.

Appearing on the Today show on Thursday morning, the TV personality shared her surprisingly easy cooking method to make the meal.

Hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger were presented a bowl of freshly made pasta with Vegemite to taste during their interview with Lawson.

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Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has suggested a very bizarre ingredient she swears by for making a simple yet delicious plate of pasta

The 58-year-old English food writer called on Australians to mix the iconic breakfast spread Vegemite into their dish (stock image)

Nigella Lawson's ingredients to cook Vegemite pasta Spaghetti

Butter

Vegemite

Parmesan cheese Advertisement

'You know, an Italian introduced me to this [recipe]. What would the Italians say? Well it was an Italian food writer who brought her children up making Marmite pasta,' Lawson told the Australian hosts.

To make the simple pasta dish, just salt the water as usual, put the spaghetti in the pot, and bring to boil.

Next prepare the mixture. All you need is butter, Vegemite and Parmesan cheese.

'Melted butter, tinny bit of the pasta cooking water, get some Vegemite or Marmite melted and some Parmesan,' Lawson said.

Once pasta is cook until al dente, stir the mixture through and serve.

'You're welcome,' Lawson added.

Eating a mouthful of the pasta, Kruger was impressed as she said: 'It's delicious. That flavour that you can't quite define, it's amazing.'

Vegemite comes in four different jar sizes - prices ranging from $3.30 to $8.

Tasting the controversial recipe, hosts David Campbell and Sonia Kruger (pictured) were presented a bowl of pasta with Vegemite to try during their interview with Lawson

Foodies from around the world have been trying the controversial recipe with Marmite

Vegemite comes in four different jar sizes - prices ranging from $3.30 to $8

The interview comes just days after Lawson shared her simple recipe on Instagram.

'One for the ages: #recipesoftheday is Marmite Spaghetti,' she wrote.

'And, what's more, I have to inform you that I was actually introduced to this by an eminent Italian, in the form of the great Anna del Conte.

'Rest assured my Australian friends, you may of course use Vegemite here.'

Many Australians were quick to weigh in on her recipe.

One foodie wrote: 'This is actually amazing! I use Vegemite.'

Another said: 'From an Aussie to you Nigella, I must say this especially good with sharp Aussie tasty cheddar grated on top.'

One commented: 'Confession. I put Vegemite in my meatballs.'

Another posted: 'Not sure I could go there!! Love Vegemite but only on toast.'

And another said: 'I would have never thought of that. Even as a Vegemite loving Aussie.A drug being launched today to treat terminal breast cancer could stop tumours growing for more than twice as long as current alternatives.

Afinitor is billed as the biggest advance for sufferers in years after a study found it could halt the growth of tumours or even shrink them for nearly eight months.

Its maker Novartis says up to 14,000 women a year with advanced breast cancer could potentially benefit from precious extra time with their families with stable or reduced symptoms.

Could new drug Afinitor extend the lives of patients with terminal breast cancer? It's makers think so

However, the ability of Afinitor to extend life expectancy is still being tested, and cancer charities urged caution until the claim is confirmed.

Around 3,500 women a month are diagnosed with breast cancer. A third will become advanced, with their cancer spreading to other tissue in the breast, or to other parts of the body. The drug could help those with ER positive, the most common advanced form of the disease, who have failed to respond to other treatments.

Life expectancy for ER positive patients, once breast cancer has spread to other areas of the body, is 18 months to three years after diagnosis.

NICE, the drugs rationing body, is assessing whether Afinitor  at 2,935 a month  will be cost effective for the NHS to use.

In the meantime, it should be available through the Governments Cancer Drugs Fund, which pays for treatments that have not been approved.

Most women with ER positive are given aromatase inhibitors, hormones that block the production of oestrogen, which feeds the cancer. But patients eventually develop resistance to this treatment.

In a study of 724 patients, women taking inhibitors went for an average of 3.2 months without any deterioration in their cancer, while those who also took Afinitor managed 7.8 months.

Half the patients saw their tumours stop growing or shrink, compared with a quarter of those taking only the inhibitors. Twelve per cent of patients on Afinitor saw their tumours shrink by 30 per cent or more.

Half of those taking the new drug saw their tumours stop growing or shrinking in the study

Afinitor, the trade name for the chemical everolimus, targets a protein called mTOR, which causes cancerous cells to multiply.

Stephen Johnston, professor of breast cancer medicine at the Royal Marsden NHS Trust in London, said it was the first time a drug could seemingly circumvent treatment resistance and substantially reduce the risk of cancers worsening.

He added: Everolimus has the potential to redefine the way this common form of advanced breast cancer is treated and importantly offers women an effective alternative to a chemotherapy regime.

Cancer expert Professor Karol Sikora said: It gives great hope to women, as its the first drug shown to change the course of breast cancer that has spread.

'The effect is quite dramatic and if we can work out what its doing on a molecular level, it paves the way for personalised treatments which could potentially help people live for many years.

But he added: Theres an awful lot of people affected and unless the cost comes down substantially it will be very difficult to get in on the NHS.

Cancer Research UK said it was not clear life could be extended and patients should consider side-effects including inflammation, nausea, fatigue and diarrhoea that made a fifth of patients drop out of the trial  far more than in the hormone group.Finnish-style baby boxes are being promoted as a safe alternative to cots, bassinets and Moses baskets without any evidence, experts warned today.

Cardboard baby boxes have routinely been given to every expectant mother in the Scandinavian country since the 1930s.

They are provided for all new babies in Scotland and are being piloted in certain NHS trusts in England but not in Wales or Northern Ireland.

But in a letter to the British Medical Journal, researchers have warned they should only be used as a 'temporary substitute' if nothing else is available.

Finnish-style baby boxes are being promoted as a safe alternative to cots, bassinets and Moses baskets without any evidence they actually reduce cot death, experts warned today (stock)

The cardboard boxes come with a mattress that fits into the bottom of the box and are said by some to cut cot deaths.

Professor Peter Blair, from Bristol University, and his colleagues argue there is no evidence these boxes reduce cot death.

Rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), as it is also known, are low in Finland.

However, rates are similarly low in countries that neighbour Finland, such as Sweden and Denmark, where boxes are not given out.

Professor Blair also questioned how safe the boxes really are.

They pointed out the bars and raised surfaces of cots means babies can be easily seen by their parents.

While the low sides of bassinets and Moses baskets facilitate air flow, unlike the cardboard boxes, which have high, opaque sides.

Parents can therefore only see their babies if they look directly over the box, the scientists wrote.

Other potential hazards include the lids that baby boxes come with, as well as them potentially being flammable.

WHAT ARE CARDBOARD BABY BOXES? The concept originates from Finland, where new parents are given a cardboard box, which can be used as a bed, filled with baby products and a mattress. The tradition has been cited as helping reduce the rate of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)  known as cot death - because of Finland's low rates. In Scotland, parents of all babies born after August 15 this year will be presented with the boxes despite concerns over the cost. Included in them during the pilot scheme was a changing mat, a digital thermometer, a fleece jacket, several babygrows, a reusable nappy and liners, a baby book and an organic sponge. Cot sheets, a mattress and a blanket were also inside the boxes to give babies the best start in life. The scheme is also being piloted in certain NHS trusts in England but not in Wales or Northern Ireland. Advertisement

If placed on a floor, babies are also susceptible to low-level draughts, pets and young siblings. And if placed at a height, the box may fall.

There is also no data on how durable the boxes are, particularly when wet or old, the scientists add.

They are also often too small for most babies older than three months old, according to Professor Blair and his colleagues.

'We support any initiative that raises awareness of SIDS, including appropriate SIDS risk reduction advice distributed with cardboard baby boxes,' the authors wrote.

'But this advice can be undermined if the messages given are incorrect or mixed with non-evidence based messages about the intervention itself.'

'Population-wide initiatives should have to meet high standards of safety and efficacy and should be subject to rigorous evaluation before implementation.'

They said this is 'because the potential to cause inadvertent and unintended harm is much greater than for those that target a selected population'.

The researchers are calling for high quality studies 'to better understand how families use the cardboard baby box and its safety implications'.

It comes after the Royal College of Midwives urged for all new mothers in the UK to be given Finnish-style baby boxes for their newborns to sleep in last August.

The RCM argues giving out Finnish baby boxes would particularly reduce cot death in deprived areas, where it tends to be higher.

This is due to such babies often not having a cot and therefore nodding off on sofas or in their parents' bed, which raises their risk of suffocation.

Cot death kills around 300 babies in the UK and 3,500 in the US every year.Men suffering from with a low libido could get a boost in the bedroom from a 'kiss hormone'.

Up to one in three men suffer from a sexual problem, such as low desire, which is psychological rather than physical.

But men who have gone off sex have new hope from kisspeptin - a 'Viagra of the mind' - which a study suggests may increase sexual desire.

It is called the 'kiss hormone' because it was discovered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and is named after Hershey's Chocolate Kisses sweet.

Kisspeptin was found to light up the parts of men's brains linked to sexual arousal.

Kisspeptin is called the 'kiss hormone' because it was discovered in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and is named after Hershey's Chocolate Kisses sweet

In a trial of 29 men, given the hormone or a placebo treatment, those on kisspeptin also showed more interest in erotic images.

The hormone, produced naturally in the brain and simply increased in treatment, is believed to have no side effects and will be tested next on women.

The latest results, from a study led by Imperial College London, are the first to show kisspeptin can affect whole brain networks linked to sexual arousal and mood.

Known to trigger puberty in teenagers, the hormone is thought to play an important part in human sexuality.

The findings could see scientists create a pill based on kisspeptin which men and women could take to get them in the mood for sex.

Dr Alexander Comninos, first author of the study and an honorary senior lecturer at Imperial, said: 'Psychosexual problems, such as low sex drive, affect up to one in three people, and can have a devastating effect on a person's, and a couple's wellbeing.

'These findings open avenues for kisspeptin as a future treatment for these problems, although there is a lot of work still to be done.'

The only treatment currently licensed for patients with low sexual desire is Flibanserin.

WHAT IS KISSPEPTIN? Kisspeptin was first identified by British researchers in 2003. It gained its unusual name because its production is controlled by a gene known as KISS1. This gene was discovered in 1996 in Hershey, a town in the US home to the famous brand of chocolate. Kisspeptin is produced by the hypothalamus region of the brain and is now the subject of several clinical trials across the world. Early studies suggest it could help prevent miscarriage in women and offer a safer form of IVF, as well as treating delayed puberty in boys. Advertisement

Available for women only, an academic study found it provides just one extra satisfying sexual encounter every two months on average.

It is hoped that kisspeptin could better help women and men, being potentially available for people with low libidos within five years.

Researchers asked men how interested they were in sex using a questionnaire which asked them to rate how 'frigid' or 'unattractive' they felt.

These ratings improved for men given kisspeptin, who also saw increased activity in brain pathways linked to sexual arousal, which include the amygdala and cingulate regions.

Waljit Dhillo, a research professor from Imperial funded by the National Institute for Health Research, and co-author of the study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, said: 'We have seen this effect in men shown sexual images before but this is the first time we have seen global effects throughout the brain.

'This natural hormone, already found in the body, works like a Viagra of the mind. The next stage is to test it on people with low sexual desire.'

The hormone was also found to improve men's mood, when they rated their feelings of upset and irritability, while lighting up areas in the brain linked to happiness, such as the hippocampus.

That could see kisspeptin used to treat depression following further studies.

Dr Comninos said: 'Our findings suggest it can actually influence entire networks in the brain even when we are not doing anything, and this is linked to subsequent sexual and emotional function.

'Taken together, these findings provide the scientific basis to investigate kisspeptin-based treatments in patients with psychosexual and mood disorders, which are both huge health issues, and frequently occur together.'Doctors say it is 'unthinkable' children in this country can't have the therapy

Children under the age of two are dying of a curable disease because the NHS won't buy the new 'wonder drug' which can stop it, doctors say.

The creators of Spinraza, which is proven to cure spinal muscular atrophy, this week won a $3million (2.29m) prize for their life-saving work.

And medics say it is 'unthinkable' that health bosses in the UK refuse to pay for the 450,000-a-year drug which could help the 1,300 Britons estimated to have SMA.

The worst form of the muscle wasting condition  type 1  affects one in 10,000 children and kills them all before their second birthday, experts say.

But the regulator deciding which drugs the NHS can buy says not enough is known about the medicine, Spinraza, for the health service to fork out for it.

Spinraza works by targeting the faulty gene which causes SMA and changing the way the body reacts to DNA, making it build more proteins which can develop nerve cells and regain muscle strength

Professor Kevin Talbot, a neurology expert from the University of Oxford, says it is 'unthinkable' that the UK won't pay for the drug and that patients should be given it.

'This is a disease that is uniformly fatal in its most severe type,' he told The Times. 'By the age of two years it kills 100 per cent of children. With this drug, 100 per cent live.

'Its the beginning of a revolution in complex neurological genetic diseases that were untreatable. This is a new era of medicine.

'One way or another we need to find a way to give it to patients.We are the last developed nation to license this; that is unthinkable.'

The creators of Spinraza this week won the $3million (2.29m) Breakthrough Prize, sponsored by billionaire entrepeneurs including Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It is dubbed the 'Oscars of Science'.

And there have been numerous case studies of children doomed to die from crippling spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) who have recovered after taking Spinraza.

SMA is a genetic condition with which children are born, and in its severe forms it damages nerves and causes muscles to weaken until the child can no longer move or breathe.

Symptoms include floppy or weak arms and legs, difficulty sitting up, crawling or walking, swallowing problems and breathing difficulties.

Spinraza works by attaching itself to the gene which is causing the nerve and muscle damage and effectively repairing it so the body is sent the correct signal by DNA.

As a result the body makes more of the protein need to build nerve cells, which makes muscles grow stronger and nerves work better.

BOY'S ILLNESS 'MADE HARDER' BY KNOWLEDGE OF WONDER DRUG George Lockley, eight, from Hertfordshire, suffers from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and has been weakened by it since he was an infant, losing strength in his limbs and torso. Although he was born apparently healthy, when he was around eight months old his mother, Liz, noticed his leg and neck muscles were weaker than those of his twin brother, Harry. Genetic tests just before George's first birthday revealed he had SMA  not type one, which is fatal in infancy, but severe enough to disable him  and he began to get weaker. George Lockley (right) was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy before he was one year old and cannot be treated, leaving him much weaker than his twin brother, Harry (left) It is incredibly painful watching George struggle and get weaker, Mrs Lockley told the Daily Mail in February. But knowing theres a drug out there that could stop this happening has made everything much, much harder. Evidence suggests the earlier Spinraza is given, the more effective it is. At six, Georges spine was straight. In the past 12 months, despite regular physiotherapy and a spinal brace, he has developed a 35-degree curvature. And with every growth spurt the curve will increase, because his steadily weakening muscles cannot support his increasing weight. Liz is under no illusion that Spinraza is a cure, it isnt, but it could help George retain some strength. One of the worst aspects of SMA is that George cant cough effectively so a chest infection could kill him, she says. If Spinraza could give George the ability to cough effectively then SMA would no longer be such a threat to his life. Advertisement

It has been proven to work, but the UK's National Institute for Health and Guidance (Nice), rejected the drug in August.

It said there were uncertainties about the long-term benefits of the drug, so it could not justify the 'extremely high' cost  estimated at 450,000 per child for a year.

When Nice's guidance was issued four months ago, its director of the centre for health technology evaluation, Meindert Boysen said: '[Spinraza] is a promising treatment that has been shown to improve a range of outcomes important to patients.'

But she added: 'The very high cost meant [Nice] could not recommend the drug as a cost-effective use of NHS resources.'

The medicine is available in the US and the manufacturer, Biogen, offered it to some British children as part of an access programme, but that is coming to an end.

And the decision not to offer it on the health service will affect the parents of children born with SMA for the rest of their lives, says Professor Adrian Krainer, a prize-winning creator of the drug.

Professor Krainer said: 'They should keep in mind that this is the only approved treatment, patients are deteriorating without it.

'While there are discussions, patients are waiting and deteriorating and dying.'

Nic Bungay, director of campaigns, care and information at Muscular Dystrophy UK said: 'SMA is a life-limiting rare condition and patients desperately need access to Spinraza  the first and only treatment for this devastating condition.

'Without it, babies with the most severe form of SMA are likely to die, while others will irreversibly lose the ability to walk, crawl, breathe and swallow.

'Spinraza is an award-winning drug, yet NICE is denying patients access.

'Its crucial that the drug manufacturers, Biogen, and NHS England negotiate on the price of the treatment.

'NICE also needs to look at its appraisal processes, which are clearly not fit for purpose when it comes to assessing treatments for rare conditions. Failure to come to an agreement will impose a death sentence on many infants.'A case of mad cow disease has been confirmed on a farm in Scotland, officials revealed today.

Routine testing found an animal which died on October 2 was infected and its four calves will now have to be put down as a safety precaution.

One expert thinks the infection was caught from the animal's food, suggesting other cows at the farm  believed to be in Huntly, Aberdeenshire  could be infected.

The farm is on lockdown while officials investigate the source of the disease and the Scottish Government has confirmed the diseased animal did not go near the human food chain.

If passed on to humans when they eat contaminated beef, BSE can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD)  a fatal, degenerative brain disorder.

The case is the first in Scotland since 2008 and mad cow disease was last found in the UK in 2015, when a dead cow in Wales was found to have had it.

At the disease's peak in the early 1990s, it was infecting more than 30,000 cows a year but, until today, there had been only five cases in the UK since 2012.

Today's case of mad cow disease is first in the UK since it was found in a dead animal in Wales in 2015  the disease wreaked havoc on the UK in the 1990s when entire herds had to be destroyed and Britain was banned from exporting beef to the European Union

Mad cow disease infected tens of thousands of cows in the 1990s and led to many being culled (pictured: a photo from 1996 of cows killed because of mad cow disease)

Mad cow disease, which can spread to humans and cause a deadly brain infection, led to the slaughter of all cows over the age of 30 months in 1996 (pictured: a herd of 124 cows in France had to be killed in 1996 because one of them had the disease)

The Animal and Plant Health Agency has stopped animals going in or out of the farm as a precaution while it works to figure out how the cow got the disease.

The five-year-old animal died more than two weeks ago but the diagnosis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) was confirmed this morning.

BSE first emerged in the mid-1980s as a result of feeding natural grass-eating cows beef offal, but it can also be caused by a random genetic mutation.

When it is caught from food, abnormal BSE-causing proteins  known as prions  infect the animals' brains, spinal cords and bodily tissues.

Today's case was found on a farm in Huntly, a town around 38 miles (61km) north-west of Aberdeen, STV reported.

Chief veterinary officer for the Scottish Government, Sheila Voas said: 'While it is too early to tell where the disease came from in this case, its detection is proof that our surveillance system is doing its job.

'We are working closely with the Animal and Plant Health Agency to answer this question, and in the meantime, I would urge any farmer who has concerns to immediately seek veterinary advice.'

Cows exposed to BSE must be slaughtered and disposed of to ensure they never make it near the food chain (pictured: a cow being cremated during the 1996 cull)  the Scottish Government today said the offspring of the infected cow in Aberdeenshire will be destroyed

More than 70,000 cows were infected with mad cow disease in 1992 and 1993, and the raging crisis in the UK led to the EU banning British beef exports three years later (pictured: cows being slaughtered on a French farm in 1996)

A statement from the Scottish Government said all animals over the age of four which die on a farm are routinely tested for BSE.

This 'isolated' case was identified because of that strict testing system, and Food Standards Scotland confirmed there is no risk to human health.

Although the disease is not directly transmitted from animal to animal, cows which had been in contact  including any calves  with the infected animal will be killed.

One expert has warned it is important to check whether the disease is isolated or whether it could have been caught from somewhere on the farm, potentially infecting other animals.

HOW BAD WAS THE 1990s MAD COW DISEASE OUTBREAK? Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)  more commonly known as mad cow disease  was first discovered in 1984 in Sussex. In the ensuing outbreak British beef exports were banned, cows were culled, and people died because of a brain illness caused by BSE. The first cow to be diagnosed, known as cow 133, had an arched back, had lost weight, suffered tremors and lost its co-ordination  it died within six weeks. Officials found giving cows 'cannibal' feed with protein from other cows or sheep was the cause of BSE, so banned the practice in 1989. The Government ordered that infected cows be killed but only offered a 50 per cent compensation to farmers, leading some of them to illegally sell infected animals for human food. By 1992 and 1993, thousands of cows were infected. In those two years alone, 72,370 cows in the UK were found to have mad cow disease. In comparison, there have been just six cases since 2012  including today's. By 1996, people had begun to die from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which occurs in the brain of people infected with mad cow disease. In the same year, all beef exports from Britain were banned by the European Union and the ban wasn't lifted until 2006. Cows over the age of 30 months were ordered to be killed to halt the spread of the disease  called the Over Thirty Months Scheme. Sources: New Scientist and World Organisation for Animal Health Advertisement

Professor Matthew Baylis, chair of veterinary epidemiology at the University of Liverpool said: 'It is too early to say if this case is significant.

'It is described as "classical BSE", like the vast majority of cases we have seen in the UK. This form of BSE is acquired by cattle from BSE-contaminated food.

'At this stage, we need to know if it was a very old animal, infected long ago; or if it is younger and there is still an active source of infection on the farm, such as a contaminated feed bin.

'The agent that causes BSE, and related diseases, can remain infectious in the environment for a very long time, even decades, and so odd cases are probably to be expected.

'This particular animal did not enter the human food chain; but it is important to remember that at its peak the UK recorded nearly 37,000 BSE cases in one year, while the number of deaths of people from the human form, called variant CJD, is fewer than 200.

'The risk to the public from a single case of BSE has proven to be exceedingly small.'

As part of control measures, 'risk material' where the disease can build up  such as the spinal column, brain and skull  is removed from dead animals.

The disease originally spread when cows were given animal feed made with ground up parts of other dead, infected cows.

Although this was banned in 1989 when it became clear it was causing disease, cow feed can still contain unwanted parts of animals which have eaten potentially contaminated cow-based feed, according to PETA.

The disease can also be caused by a genetic mutation, which would only pose a risk to the offspring of infected animals.

Rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing, added: 'I have activated the Scottish Government's response plan to protect our valuable farming industry, including establishing a precautionary movement ban being placed on the farm.

'While it is important to stress that this is standard procedure until we have a clear understanding of the diseases origin, this is further proof that our surveillance system for detecting this type of disease is working.

'Be assured that the Scottish Government and its partners stand ready to respond to any further confirmed cases of the disease in Scotland.'

There is no suggestion that the disease has entered the human food chain, the government says.

And Scotland's food standards agency says shoppers' safety is the priority and any products thought to be contaminated would be removed from the supply chain.

People can become terminally ill if they eat beef infected with BSE because it can cause variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a degenerative brain disorder (pictured: ground beef made from infected cattle being moved at RAF Quedgeley in Gloucestershire, 1996)

Regular testing for bovine spongiform encephalopathy is done to make sure mad cow disease is detected before infected meat can make it near the food chain  all cows over the age of four which die on farms in Scotland are tested for BSE (pictured: dead cows on a farm in France during a 1996 outbreak)

Ian McWatt, director of operations in Food Standards Scotland said: 'There are strict controls in place to protect consumers from the risk of BSE, including controls on animal feed, and removal of the parts of cattle most likely to carry BSE infectivity.

'Consumers can be reassured that these important protection measures remain in place and that Food Standards Scotland Official Veterinarians and Meat Hygiene Inspectors working in all abattoirs in Scotland will continue to ensure that in respect of BSE controls, the safety of consumers remains a priority.

'We will continue to work closely with Scottish Government, other agencies and industry at this time.'

The incident is thought to mean Scotland will be stripped of its mad cow disease 'negligible' risk status, which was granted by the World Organisation for Animal Health in May last year.

This meant the country was at the lowest possible risk of having meat contaminated by the disease.

Nations with higher risk status  gained when farm animals are confirmed to have the disease  may be restricted on where they can export meat.

'It is disappointing to learn of this BSE case within the Aberdeenshire area,' Andrew McCornick, president of the National Farmer's Union in Scotland said.

'Whilst we lose our negligible risk status, it is not unexpected to see a new case and demonstrates the efficacy of the surveillance measures in place.

'This simply brings us back in line with the rest of Great Britain, reverting back to where we were 18 months ago.

'When Scotland applied for BSE negligible risk status it was with the full knowledge that there was every possibility of a sporadic case of BSE emerging as has been the case in France and Ireland.'

THE NUMBER OF MAD COW DISEASE CASES IN THE UK SINCE 1987  including Great Britain, N. Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man and Alderney (Source: World Organisation for Animal Health) Year Total BSE cases in the UK Year Total BSE cases in the UK 1987 and before 446 2002 1,144 1988 2,514 2003 611 1989 7,228 2004 343 1990 14,407 2005 225 1991 25,359 2006 114 1992 37,280 2007 67 1993 35,090 2008 37 1994 24,438 2009 12 1995 14,562 2010 11 1996 8,149 2011 7 1997 4,393 2012 3 1998 3,235 2013 3 1999 2,301 2014 1 2000 1,443 2015 2 2001 1,202 2016 0Flavored e-cigarettes could cause disease by triggering inflammation, according to new research.

Additives that make them taste like fruit, sweets, soft drinks or even desserts change their chemistry - making them potentially more harmful.

It could make teenagers, in particular, more prone to irritation, allergies and asthma as their lungs are still developing, scientists warn.

The finding adds to increasing evidence that flavors like bubblegum, orange, creme brulee and mango smoothie may trigger serious health problems - including tumors.

The study from Yale adds to increasing evidence that flavors may trigger serious health problems

Senior author Professor Sven-Eric Jordt said the sweet, fruity flavorings react with vaping liquid, or e-juice.

These create different compounds that increase the risk of irritation and inflammation when inhaled.

Prof Jordt, a cancer biologist at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, explained: 'These individual ingredients are combining to form more complex chemicals that are not disclosed to the user.

'When inhaled, these compounds will persist in the body for some time, activating irritant pathways.

'Over time, this mild irritation could cause an inflammatory response.'

A study earlier this year found some flavors, particularly citrus and floral based ones, produce free radicals - toxins associated with cancer.

Last month the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) described teen vaping as 'an epidemic' and said flavored e-cigs could be banned, before launching a raid on the Juul headquarters - the biggest raid in the agency's 100-year history.

Now Dr Jordt and colleagues have found when flavorings like vanilla, cherry, citrus and cinnamon mingled with the e-cig solvents polypropylene glycol and glycerol, they turned into acetals.

Lab experiments showed these chemicals created from mixing flavors into e-liquids fired receptors that cause lung irritation.

These are the same molecules that maintain irritation and inflammation in people with asthma - or those who have inhaled smoke or fumes, reports Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

Co author Dr Hanno Erythropel, a chemical engineer at Yale University, Connecticut, said: 'Individuals who use e-cigarettes frequently should know they are exposing themselves to these chemicals, and that the long-term effects of these chemicals on the airways are unknown.'

Dr Jordt pointed out that children and teenagers may be particularly susceptible to those effects.

He added: 'In some countries, there's a consensus that e-cigarettes might help chronic smokers quit traditional cigarettes.

'However, in the US, we are seeing increasing numbers of adolescents using them. Adolescents with developing lungs are more prone to irritation, allergies and asthma.

'It's important for families and kids to know about the potential dangers.'

E-liquid manufacturers have not widely documented or disclosed the presence of acetals in the vapors users are inhaling, he said.

Some research has suggested higher vaping temperatures can produce harmful chemicals including formaldehyde, a suspected carcinogen.

Advocates suggest low or adjustable vaporizers to reduce the risk.

But Dr Erythropel said chemical changes occur even before the liquids are heated. So users may be endangered when inhaling the aerosolized ingredients at any temperature.

He said: 'Our findings show even in the absence of heating and combustion, chemical reactions are occurring in e-cigarette liquids and the resulting compounds could be harmful to the user's airways.'

Vaping liquids contain anywhere from 0.5 to 10 percent flavor additives depending on the desired intensity, the researchers said.

So they analysed liquids well within this range, from 0.8 to 2.5 percent.

When mixed with the e-cig solvents, at least 40 percent of the flavoring substances converted to acetal compounds.

Further tests showed half to 80 percent of the acetals in the liquid transferred into the vapor to be inhaled.

Flavor additives are commonly used in foods and cosmetics in the form of acetals which can provide longer lasting fragrance in perfumes for instance, Dr Jordt said.

The chemicals are approved for these uses, and might not aggravate the gut or skin.

But these offer more protection against environmental irritants than the delicate airway.

Other chemical flavorings used in food and cosmetics called aldehydes are known to cause irritation when inhaled. But Prof Jordt said the e-cig acetals were even more effective at doing this.

E-cigs and vaping pens come with a tiny sensor and computer chip that activate a heater, which warms up the nicotine inside every time a person takes a draw.

When the liquid nicotine warms up it vaporizes, creating a vapor that users can then suck through the mouthpiece.

Unlike normal cigarettes, the devices don't produce tar and carbon monoxide

In September the FDA said it was concerned the battery controlled devices are creating a new generation of nicotine addicts.

A ban on flavored e-cigs, which are particularly attractive to the young, is being debated in the US, and campaigners in the UK are worried the UK may follow suit.

They fear banning flavors would 'undermine' the progress made to help smokers quit. Last year, more than two million teenagers used e-cigs in the US.

The FDA has given e-cigarette makers 60 days to show how they plan to stop sales to youngsters.

Recent research by anti smoking charity ASH shows in the UK two per cent of young people use e-cigs on a weekly basis, while another two per cent vape every so often.An outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella linked to raw chicken has sickened 92 people across 29 states, a new report has revealed.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 21 people have been hospitalized, but there have been no deaths.

The strain - linked to raw chicken pet food, raw chicken products and live chickens - is resistant to at least 13 antibiotics used to treat the infection.

Because of this, the CDC has not been able to identify a single, common supplier and the agency fears the strain may be widespread in the chicken industry.

A new report from the CDC says that a salmonella outbreak linked to raw chicken has sickened 92 people across 29 states. The strain is resistant to at least 13 antibiotics

The first reported illness was on January 19 and the last on September 29, and people infected have ranged between less than a year old and 105.

'In interviews, ill people report eating different types and brands of chicken products purchased from many different locations,' the CDC said in a statement on Wednesday.

After speaking to 54 of the infected people, the CDC said that 89 percent had either prepared or eaten 'chicken products that were purchased raw, including ground chicken, chicken pieces, and whole chicken.'

On person became ill after pets in their home ate raw ground chicken pet food and another sick person lives with someone who works in a facility that raises or processes chickens.

THE GROWING THREAT OF SUPERBUGS Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change to 'outsmart' or resist antibiotic medicine, making it close to impossible to treat the infection. The bacterium that carries resistance genes to many different antibiotics is called a superbug. Most of these infections occur in hospitals or in medical care facilities, such as nursing homes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that more than two million people are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria every year. More than 23,000 people die from these infections each year. Experts say that if the epidemic is not brought under control, superbugs may kill more people than cancer by the year 2050. There are multiple factors that have contributed to the rise of superbugs: Overuse of antibiotics: Doctors have prescribed antibiotics when unnecessary and people have taken antibiotics when unnecessary.

Evolution of bacteria: Currently, bacteria are evolving to develop resistance to antibiotics faster than we can create new medicines to treat them, leaving doctors with fewer tools in their arsenal to fight against bacteria.

Antibiotics in agriculture: The use of these drugs to promote livestock growth contributed to a rise of antibiotic resistance in animals, which has transferred to humans. Advertisement

The affected states are: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Salmonella infections occur after eating raw meat and eggs or foods that are contaminated with the bacteria.

Symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain that generally last between four and seven days.

According to the CDC, salmonella is the cause for 1.2 million illnesses, 23,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths in the US annually.

Most people can recover without treatment, although there are cases where antibiotics or IV fluids are needed.

The CDC has not issued a recall of any chicken products, but it is urging consumers to take safety precautions to avoid infections.

This includes washing hands, cutting boards, counters and utensils with hot water and soap after handling raw meat.

Health officials advise that chicken be cooked to at least an internal temperature of 165F to kill any germs or bacteria.

Forbes calculated that this incident marks the 16th outbreak of salmonella in the US this year.

In June, Kellogg voluntarily recalled its popular children's cereal Honey Smacks, which has been linked to a massive salmonella outbreak that infected 100 people.

In July, Mondelez International recalled 16 varieties of Ritz Cracker Sandwiches and Ritz Bits products over salmonella risks, with two people falling.

Last month, Gravel Ridge Farms in Cullman, Alabama, issued a recall of its eggs after salmonella was found in them.

An updated report released this month found 38 people in seven states were left sickened by the eggs.Vaping prevents wounds from healing properly, warns new research.

Patients are already advised to stop smoking normal cigarettes for at least a month before operations such as plastic surgery.

Nicotine, the addictive ingredient, is known to restrict blood flow and raise the risk of of complications for cigarette smokers.

Although e-cigarettes strip out the combustible chemicals of tobacco, a new study shows the devices have the same effect, hampering the process where injured flaps of skin join together.

E-cigarettes strip out the combustible chemicals of tobacco, but a new study by Boston University shows vapes have the same effect, hampering the process where injured flaps of skin join together (file image)

The finding has implications for how doctors counsel patients before they go under the knife.

They need to consider the impacts of both traditional and battery powered cigarettes on their wound healing progress and safety, said the US team.

Study corresponding author Dr Jeffrey Spiegel, chief of facial plastic surgery at Boston Medical Center, said: 'Based on our findings, e-cigarettes are not a safe alternative to traditional cigarettes as it relates to timely wound healing,'

'Providers, and patients, need to understand the risks of both types of smoking so they can make the best decision to keep the patient as safe as possible before and after surgery.'

In experiments on rats, Dr Spiegel and colleagues found vaping affected skin wound healing, causing damage similar to that of conventional smoking.

Both forms resulted in more of the tissue dying, which delays wound healing. They said the same would apply to humans.

It follows a warning by other American experts two years ago that nicotine in e-cigarette vapor increases the risk of blood flow-related complications - just like smoking real ones.

The study, published in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, is the first direct evidence that they were correct.

Dr Spiegel said the adverse effects of traditional cigarette smoking on wound healing has been well established in the surgical field.

Surgeons recommend patients quit smoking for several months prior to surgery, whenever possible.

But vaping is gaining popularity and there has not yet been significant research done about whether it is a safer alternative - particularly before an operation.

So the researchers exposed rats to traditional cigarette smoke, e-cig vapor or neither, checking for levels of a nicotine causing chemical cotinine in the blood to ensure comparable amounts.

They then created skin flaps created from the animals, which were grafted back onto each individually to measure viability and wound healing.

After two weeks, there was a statistically increased rate of tissue death on grafted flaps in groups exposed to traditional cigarettes - or e-cigs.

Dr Spiegel said they were inspired by a call from the US Food and Drug Administration for more research on the safety of e-cigs.

He said: 'Vaping is gaining popularity among youth, first-time, and current smokers; however, evidence of its safety, particularly its association with wound healing, is inadequate.'

Studies suggest e-cig fluids contain more cancer causing chemicals, such as formaldehyde. Others show vaping pens can release heavy metals, chemicals and glass particles found in the welding material and tubing for the device.

Manufacturers of e-cigs have not published a complete list of compounds that make up the various fluids.

Dr Spiegel said: 'The unfavorable association of traditional cigarette smoking with wound healing and flap viability has been well documented.

'However, the literature on how e cigarettes affect wound healing and flap viability is lacking.'

He added: 'Smoking and vaping appear to be equally detrimental to wound healing and to be associated with a statistically significant increase in tissue death.

'The results suggest vaping should not be seen as a better alternative to cigarette smoking in the context of wound healing.

'Surgeons are advised to appropriately counsel their patients and to regard those who use e-cigarettes as having equivalent pre-operative healing risk as those who smoke cigarettes.'

Shaun Desai, a plastic surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, welcomed the findings and said patients should be screened for e-cig use before surgery.

He said: 'This study presents evidence of the detrimental potency of e-cigarettes in rats, but there is a paucity of clinical evidence in humans.

'Often, patients may not volunteer this information, mistakenly thinking vaping, because it is not smoking traditional cigarettes, is not relevant medical history that needs to be shared.

'Similarly, until further studies are completed, all e-cigarette use should be stopped four weeks prior to any surgical procedure, as recommended by the current literature for traditional cigarettes.'Pregnant women in Britain have been told to not travel to a region of India amid fears they could be struck down with Zika.

Public Health England has upgraded the risk status of catching the virus in Rajasthan - which borders the Taj Mahal - to high.

At least 80 people are known to have caught the virus in the region since the start of October, according to local health officials.

Zika can cause microcephaly for children in the womb, causing babies to be born with abnormally small skulls.

Public Health England has upgraded the risk status of catching the virus in Rajasthan - which borders the Taj Mahal - to high

Guidance dished out by the National Travel Health Network and Centre advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Rajasthan.

On its website, it said: 'Pregnant women are advised to postpone non-essential travel [to Rajasthan] until after pregnancy.'

In Jaipur, the capital of the region, 330 special teams have been spraying and fumigating houses and almost 440,000 people are under surveillance.

'Awareness is key in controlling vector borne diseases,' Indian Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said. 'No stone should be left unturned to reach out to the people.'

Zika was also detected in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu in July 2017. The World Health Organization has said no vaccine is likely to be available until 2020.

There are eight other countries considered high risk for Zika: Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and Puerto Rico.

WHAT IS ZIKA? The Zika virus is spread by mosquito bites, between people during unprotected sex, and from pregnant mothers to their children. It cannot be cured or prevented with medicines. Although most adults do not become seriously ill from the infection, it can cause serious birth defects if pregnant women get it. Foetuses' brains can be affected by the virus when it is passed on from the mother and it can cause microcephaly. Microcephaly is a condition in which babies' heads are unusually small, which can lead to seizures, delayed development and other disabilities. The virus can also increase the risk of unborn children developing Guillain-Barre syndrome  an uncommon illness in which the immune system attacks the nerves and can cause muscle weakness and paralysis. Advertisement

Excluding Rajasthan, which is home to around 70 million people, travel to India is listed as being a moderate Zika threat.

More than 800,000 Britons visit India every year, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Rajasthan is the country's largest state.

The Taj Mahal, built in the 17th century, is one of India's main attractions for tourists and described as the 'jewel of Muslim art'.

It lies in the ancient city of Agra, situated 25 miles (40km) east from Uttar Pradesh's border with Rajasthan, at its closest point.

The most recent pandemic - defined as the worldwide spread of a new disease - was the mosquito-borne Zika virus that rocked South America in 2016.

The infection, which struck 70 countries, sparked widespread fears that that year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro would have to be cancelled.

Zika was listed as one of the ten pathogens that pose the most urgent threat to humanity by the WHO back in February.

Zika virus is also present in the Pacific Islands such as Fiji and Tonga, where the pregnant Duchess of Sussex will visit on her 16-day royal tour this month.

It goes against travel advice that pregnant women should consider not travelling to the countries because of the 'moderate risk' of catching the tropical disease.

But Kensington Palace said the couple had sought medical advice and decided to continue with their plans, with no change expected to their itinerary.Pharmacists have been told to check whether young children really need EpiPens, which are routinely doled out by the NHS and used by millions of allergy sufferers.

Amid a 'critical' global shortage, the NHS has told chemists to ask parents how many adrenaline pens they have at home before deciding how many to give out.

Only children with no pens should get the standard prescription of two auto-adrenaline injectors, even if the ones they have are expired, the guidance states.

This comes after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died of an allergic reaction after eating a Pret a Manger sandwich.

She 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 sandwich that did not fully list its ingredients.

Dr Sean Cummings, who presided over the inquest of Natasha, has slammed the pens as 'inherently unsafe' because they are too short to reach muscle and do not contain enough adrenaline.

Pharmacists have been told to check whether young children really need EpiPens (pictured), which are routinely doled out by the NHS and used by millions of allergy sufferers

The NHS has issued the above 'validation protocol' flowchart for pharmacists and dispensing doctors to follow before issuing out auto-adrenaline injectors (AAIs)

The Department of Health told the BBC's flagship Victoria Derbyshire show new supplies are 'expected within the next week'.

In the meantime, patients with the greatest needs will be prioritised, it added.

A shortage of 150mcg EpiPens, which are the most common brand of adrenaline auto-injectors, has had a knock on effect on the other brands Jext and Emerade, which are now also in short supply.

EpiPens, which are manufactured by Pfizer, 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.

ALK, the company that manufactures Jext, said it has 'significantly increased production' of its devices in the wake of the global EpiPen shortage.

The NHS states the supply issue is 'critical' and pens should be saved for those who 'truly need them'.

Pharmacists and dispensing doctors have therefore been told to follow a 'validation protocol' flowchart before dispensing the pens 'other than when there is an immediate clinical need'.

The flowchart instructs pharmacists to give out:

Two pens for those with none

One for those with a pen that is usable, even if expired

A delayed prescription for those with two pens in date or one that is in date and the other expired. Delayed prescriptions can only be used by patients at a later date

Children weighing less 4st (25kg) should be given priority, it adds.

The guidance does not include pens that are to be kept in schools or nurseries

'The purpose of the validation is to ensure that every eligible patient has at least one in-date device and that a situation is avoided where some patients have two in-date devices, whilst others have none,' the guidance states.

'This does mean that many patients will have to carry one in-date pen and one expired pen.

'We are aware of this and clinical experts have agreed this advice until the shortage eases.'

This comes after the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency agreed to extend the use of certain batches of Jext 0.15mg and 0.3mg four months beyond their labelled expiry dates.

These devices will continue to 'work safely and as intended' beyond their use-by date, the MHRA states, after reviewing evidence on the products' shelf lives.

Although ALK has upped its production of Jext, the scale of the demand means it has not been able to make up the shortfall.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'We are working closely with all the manufacturers of adrenaline auto-injectors to improve the supply situation as quickly as possible.

'Guidance has been given to patients, their parents and caregivers, to explain what they should do if they need a new auto-injector device.

'New supplies are expected within the next week - patients with the greatest clinical need will be prioritised.'

The first indications of the global shortage came in April when Mylan, which distributes the pens, warned of supply problems.

Adrenaline auto-injectors are prescribed to people with serious allergies, which may be to nuts, dairy, fish or eggs.

Allergy sufferers are told to keep two devices with them at all times in case they suffer the life-threatening reaction anaphylaxis.

Two are recommended in case one is not enough to stop the reaction, which can cause throat and tongue swelling, lightheadedness and low blood pressure in a matter of minutes.

Each injector can only be used once and lasts for at least a year.

Patients jab the needle into their thigh, which should give them an immediate dose of adrenaline to temporarily stop symptoms and allow them enough time to get to hospital.

EPIPENS HAVE 'FATAL FLAWS' AND ARE 'UNFIT FOR PURPOSE' Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, died of an allergic reaction after eating a Pret a Manger sandwich despite being given two EpiPen injections from her father In a damning report written after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse's inquest, Dr Sean Cummings demanded answers from EpiPen manufacturer Pfizer over the inadequate length of the needle and the dosage in the device. He 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 and therefore 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. EpiPens, which are distributed around the world by the 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 had to rely on an EpiPen Junior - the child's version of the life-saving device. Dr Sean Cummings, who presided over the inquest of Natasha, has slammed the pens as 'inherently unsafe' because they are too short to reach muscle and do not contain enough adrenaline But they contain only 0.15mg of adrenaline - half the adult dose - and have a 13mm needle. 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. The two other brands available in the UK are Jext and Emerade. 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. Natasha died after begging her father to help her before collapsing on a British Airways flight to Nice. She fell ill within three minutes of eating 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. Advertisement

This comes after children with severe allergies across the US were forced to stay home from school due to a nationwide EpiPen shortage, DailyMail.com reported earlier this month.

Chiquita Morris claimed her five-year-old son Eden was sent home on his first day of kindergarten at Spanaway Elementary School in Washington.

School officials reportedly told her that, due to her son's severe allergies, he would not 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.A measles outbreak has spread across New York after several people returned from a trip to Israel with the highly contagious disease.

Health officials say six children in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and 11 children and adults in Rockland County have fallen ill - all in Orthodox Jewish communities.

The Williamsburg cases are all in children ranging from 11 months to four years old while the Rockland County cases are in both children and adults.

Now doctors are imploring residents to have their children vaccinated before the virus continues to spread throughout the state - and potentially out of state.

Health officials say six people in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and 11 people in Rockland County have fallen ill with measles - all in Orthodox Jewish communities

Measles is a highly contagious infection caused by the measles virus.

When someone with measles coughs, sneezes or talks, infected droplets are sprayed into the air, where other people can inhale them and are then infected.

Symptoms present themselves between 10 to 14 days after infection and include fever, cough, runny nose, and a total-body skin rash.

Once common, the disease is now rare due to the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends children receive the first dose at 12 to 15 months old and the second dose at four to six years old.

Before the measles vaccine was available, more than 500,000 cases were diagnosed in the US every year, with about 500 annual deaths.

According to the CDC, as of September 8, 2018, 137 individual cases of measles have been confirmed in 24 states and Washington, DC.

Five of Rockland's 11 confirmed cases came from people who brought the virus in from out of the country.

Rockland County spokesman John Lyon said three of the measles carriers were from the area traveling together in Israel, one was from the area traveling alone in Israel, and was from Israel traveling alone.

The other six patients have secondary cases, meaning they became sick after being exposed to one of the primary patients.

According to Israel's Ministry of Health, the country is facing a measles outbreak with at least 623 Israelis contracting the virus this year.

The first case was reported in September and the latest case was reported in just the last couple of days.

Officials in Rockland County say they are seeing its biggest outbreak since the 1990s.

Rockland County Health Commissioner Dr Patricia Schnabel Ruppert is imploring residents that they stay up-to-date on their vaccination schedules.

'As we see the number of cases grow, the potential for further exposure increases as well,' she said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

'Measles is a very serious disease and we are looking to limit the spread.'

The New York City Health Department (NYCHD) says that the Brooklyn cases also began after a child returned from a trip to Israel.

Of the six children that are sick, four had been held back voluntarily from vaccines while one child was too young. Another child had received the first dose of the vaccine, but not the second.

The NYCHD says it plans to meet with rabbis and elected officials in Williamsburg on Thursday to talk about the importance of vaccines.

'Although measles is preventable, too many families are choosing to not vaccinate or delay vaccination, putting their children and other children at risk,' acting Health Commissioner Dr Oxiris Barbot told NBC4.

One member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg told the station that there are several residents that believe there is a link between vaccines and autism, a claim that has been debunked by scientists.

'We have that debate every single day in our synagogues and our community,' Volvi Einhorn said. 'And most of our people do get it, and the reckless people who don't get it have a responsibility and they should take action.'THE SECRET LIFE OF THE MOUNTAIN HARE

by Andy Howard (Sandstone Press 24.99, 192 pp)

THE SECRET LIFE OF THE MOUNTAIN HARE by Andy Howard (Sandstone Press 24.99, 192 pp)

With the news that culling of the Scottish mountain hare has left the population at less than 1 per cent of its number 60 years ago, what better time to celebrate the magnificence of these creatures?

Wildlife photographer Andy Howards vivid images brilliantly capture this elusive animal (above), which has been hopping about on the British Isles for 10,000 years, in all its long-eared, wiggly- nosed fabulousness.IN A HOUSE OF LIES by Ian Rankin (Orion 20, 384 pp)

IN A HOUSE OF LIES

by Ian Rankin (Orion 20, 384 pp)

The laconic, irascible DI John Rebus is one of British crime writings greatest characters, alongside Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Morse.

Though he is now retired, he shows no signs of decline  quite the reverse  and he is still consulted by his old sparring partner, DI Siobhan Clarke.

Here, the body of a missing private investigator is found in a car buried deep in the woods. Clarke is part of the inquiry team charged not only with finding out what happened, but also why the body was not found when the woods were thoroughly searched after the investigator first went missing more than a decade ago.

As always with Rebus, there are old enemies to be confronted, including, of course, crime lord Morris Gerald Cafferty. Beautifully told, superbly constructed and utterly engrossing, this is vintage Rebus.

LETHAL WHITE

LETHAL WHITE by Robert Galbraith (Sphere 20, 656 pp)

by Robert Galbraith (Sphere 20, 656 pp)

Even before the world found out Robert Galbraith was a pseudonym for Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling, I warmly welcomed the arrival of the disabled army veteran Cormoran Strike into the ranks of modern private eyes.

This is his fourth outing and he has lost none of his wry appeal, nor his appetite for the underdog  this time epitomised by a mentally troubled young man who arrives in his office to insist that he witnessed a murder as a child. At the same time, Strike is asked to help a minister of the Crown fight off a blackmail attempt.

Robin, now his partner, rather than just an assistant, goes undercover in the House of Commons in pursuit of the truth.

Shifting between Parliament and a menacing English manor house, it confirms Rowlings exceptional ability as a storyteller and skill at handling intricate plot lines.

THE SYNDICATE

THE SYNDICATE by Guy Bolton (Point Blank 16.99, 400 pp)

by Guy Bolton (Point Blank 16.99, 400 pp)

London-based screenwriter Bolton burst on to the scene last year with his debut The Pictures, set in the golden days of Hollywood.

It introduced LAPD detective Jonathan Craine, who worked with the film studios.

Hes now retired  until the mob kidnaps his son, Michael, and forces the former detective back to work in Tinseltown to find out who murdered the notorious gangster Bugsy Siegel. If he fails to do so, Michael dies.

Again, Bolton skilfully weaves fact with fiction, as the 1947 Siegel murder is one of the towns most famous unsolved crimes.

With the help of a gorilla-like, ageing hit man and a female crime reporter, Craine descends into a maelstrom of murder.

This is a razor-sharp evocation of the links between the movies and the mob and cements Boltons promise as a master of vintage Hollywood noir: it reeks of James Ellroys L.A. Confidential.RED BIRDS by Mohammed Hanif (Bloomsbury 16.99, 304 pp)

RED BIRDS

by Mohammed Hanif (Bloomsbury 16.99, 304 pp)

A much-abused pet dog is one of the narrators of Mohammed Hanifs scabrous new novel, set among the scorching sands of an unnamed Muslim country under siege from aerial attacks by Western forces.

A crash-landed U.S. pilot arrives at a refugee town near an abandoned military base and is trying to pass himself off as an aid worker, rather than the enemy.

Momo, a teenage cynic and would-be money-maker at the camp, doesnt believe him for a second, but hopes the pilot can be of use in tracking down his older sibling, who once worked for the Americans, but has disappeared.

Deploying a relentlessly grim gallows humour, Hanif skewers the entrenched insanity of a conflict in which occupying powers send therapists into a war zone largely of their own making to understand the teenage Muslim mind, but plays, I think disastrously, with reality itself, as events take on the hallucinatory untrustworthiness of a desert mirage.

Hanifs bleak, formidable use of irony burns deeply, but the novel is also, alas, a bit of a shaggy-dog story.

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KILLING COMMENDATORE by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker 20, 704 pp)

KILLING COMMENDATORE

by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker 20, 704 pp)

I have always suspected that there is something of the emperors new clothes about Haruki Murakami and, while it would be unfair to offer a novel thats far from his best as proof, this sex-obsessed trip down the rabbit hole does him few favours.

After the break-up of his marriage, the nameless narrator, a respected portrait painter, holes up in the empty mountain home of his best friends father, a famous, but now senile, artist. His subjects include an enigmatic tech boom entrepreneur who lives across the valley.

Its soon apparent that something weird is going on, involving odd noises at night, a shrine that the narrator possibly shouldnt have broken open, and a 13-year-old girl who may or may not be the neighbours daughter.

Events turn plain silly, however, when a painting of Don Giovanni with anti-fascist overtones comes to life.

Visual perspective, thwarted parenthood and middle-aged loneliness are recurring riffs in a story that, like so many Murakami novels, loads its meaning on to a network of signs, riddles and ruptures with reality, but, at around, 700 baggy pages, its more punitive than profound.

SHELL by Kristina Olsson (S&S 12.99, 384 pp)

SHELL

by Kristina Olsson (S&S 12.99, 384 pp)

Can a novel be too beautifully written? You begin to wonder, reading this latest by Kristina Olsson, set in Sydney in the Sixties.

A Swedish glass artist has arrived to honour the ambition of architect Jorn Utzon, whose visionary plans for the new opera house are severely testing engineering know-how and the governments purse strings.

There, he begins a relationship with Pearl, a politically minded young journalist haunted by the fact she abandoned her two younger brothers to an orphanage after their mother died and who is now trying to atone by preventing them from being drafted to serve in Vietnam  if she can find them first, that is.

The growing physical intimacy between the two allows each to unburden hidden feelings of historic legacy and personal shame. Yet the artful writing is so determined to reflect the same languid shimmer of light on water that obsessed Utzon, it perversely distracts attention from the novels themes.BOOK OF THE WEEK

SCHUMANN: THE FACES AND THE MASKS

by Judith Chernaik (Faber 20, 368 pp)

Do composers need to suffer so that they can pour bucketloads of anguish into their music and thus help future generations plumb the depths of their own emotions?

Reading this harrowing biography of the composer Robert Schumann, I felt that God himself was saying to the poor boy at birth: Ive brought you into the world to suffer, Robert, in order that others might be helped and healed by your music.

I will give you a strong melancholic and depressive streak and I will ensure that you are forcibly separated from the woman you love for years on end, so you can call to her, endlessly, poignantly, helplessly, in your wonderful, powerful music.

You will eventually be allowed to marry her and will enjoy some brief contentment.

But youll be spending the last two-and-a-half years of your life alone in an asylum, cut off from your remembered happiness, going madder and madder until you die.

Judith Chernaik recalls the influences throughout Robert Schumann's life that inspired his compositions in a new biography. Pictured: Song Of Love: Paul Henreid and Katharine Hepburn as Schumann and his wife Clara

Its a most touching and moving story, beautifully told by Judith Chernaik, the woman who first came up with the inspired idea of Poems On The Underground.

She understands the poetry of Schumanns soul and she communicates with quiet urgency the pity of his story and the beauty of his music. If her intention was that by reading this, wed be inspired to go back to his music with a deeper appreciation, it has worked for me.

And one other thing, said God to Schumann. You have the potential to be a great pianist but, in fact, youre going to wreck your chances of that by wearing a contraption round your middle fingers  meant to strengthen the others during piano practice  but this will actually partially paralyse your middle fingers, making it impossible for you to be a pianist. Youll have to be a composer instead.

As I read this engrossing book, I had to brace myself: how much worse can things get? The one abiding, cheering fact that makes everything else bearable is that Schumann did marry the love of his life, the woman of his dreams  the angelic, beautiful, famous and brilliant virtuoso pianist of her day, Clara Wieck.

The two lived a devoted married life and had seven surviving children, one of whom (Ludwig) would be incarcerated in an asylum for nearly 30 years and die there, blind, aged 50.

If Clara is the angel of this story  and she is, sacrificing her own potential career as an equally great composer by giving prestige concerts all over Europe to promote her husbands music, and to earn the money to make it possible for him to compose more  then Claras father, Friedrich Wieck, is the villain. Hes absolutely vile.

Young Robert met this dreadful man when he went to Leipzig University in 1828, aged 18, to lodge with him as a piano pupil. Wiecks daughter Clara was then nine and already a piano prodigy.

At first, Wieck was Schumanns mentor, supporter and friend. Schumann did have an affair with a servant and may well have picked up syphilis from her or from other women with whom he had affairs during that time  but that was not the problem.

When Robert and Clara fell in love in 1835, and Robert asked Wieck for permission to marry her, Wieck was furious and disgusted.

Robert who spent the last few years of his life alone in an asylum fell in love with Clara in 1835. The couple were forcibly separated for 18 months in which Robert spent time expressing himself through composing. Pictured: Song Of Love: Paul Henreid and Katharine Hepburn as Schumann and his wife Clara

As Chernaik puts it: How dare a man of no consequence aspire to the hand of an artist who had already conquered Paris?

In Wiecks eyes, Schumann was nothing but a drunken, stuttering composer of incomprehensible compositions. Wieck wanted to marry his daughter off to a rich banker instead.

For 18 months, the couple were forcibly separated, and thus began a period of astonishing composing from Schumann, piano sonatas and fantasies in which (now that I know it) you can hear Schumann calling to Clara.

Then they had to endure another year apart, when Wieck insisted Clara must live with him and that if she had anything more to do with Schumann, he would disinherit her. Robert and Clara made a pact always to think of each other at nine oclock every evening.

Even for a normally rational human being, such enforced separation would be hard to bear.

But Schumann was intoxicated by Romantic thoughts brought on by Schuberts songs and Goethes poems: feelings of isolation and a banishment from happiness and the temptation to end ones life. He pined and kept a diary, in which he wrote such things as: This has been the most terrible day of my life. He poured out his soul into his music.

SCHUMANN: THE FACES AND THE MASKS by Judith Chernaik (Faber 20, 368 pp)

Even adults in those days could not marry without the permission of the brides father. Robert and Clara managed to go over Wiecks head to the Court of Appeals, who did, eventually, give permission for them to marry. Wieck was sent to prison for defamation of Schumanns character  but he was locked up for only 18 days.

Please be happy now, I begged  and they were, sort of, except that they found any separation unbearable and Clara still needed to travel Europe for concerts.

Schumann suffered a nervous collapse four years into their marriage, which led to an assault of terrible thoughts, bringing me to the edge of despair, he wrote.

Then he took an ill-advised post as a music director in Dusseldorf. He was totally unsuited to directing a large crowd of amateur music-makers and the burghers of the city couldnt stand him  nor he them.

His undying passion for Clara gave his music exuberance and joy, which counteracted the melancholy and despair. Its the intermingling of the emotions, suggests Chernaik, that makes the music speak to us so deeply.

What was it that caused his final illness, his piteous, slow descent to death at the age of 46 from madness and paralysis?

On one occasion in 1854, he got up in the middle of the night, scribbled down a musical theme that the angel had sung to him, left the marital home in his dressing gown and slippers, walked to the Rhine, threw his wedding ring into it  and then threw himself in, too.

He was rescued by boatmen and taken to a private asylum near Bonn, where  shockingly, it seems now  he was not allowed visits from his wife, as his doctor thought this would cause him too much agitation.

Clara only saw him in 1856, at his deathbed, by which time he could only mumble My . . . and not get as far as My Clara.

Schumanns medical notes came to light in 1988. The cause of death is thought to be tertiary syphilis, with its common manifestation, general paralysis of the insane, or GPI.

Clara lived on for another 40 years and was the muse for another of our greatest composers, Johannes Brahms. Clara, we thank you.Volkswagen has launched another financial incentive to help remove dirtier diesel cars from German roads - but Britons won't be benefiting from the same deal.

The auto maker said it would offer 'exchange premiums' of between 500 and 7,000 on top of the value of an old pre-Euro 5 vehicle when the owner bought a newer, cleaner VW model.

And if drivers choose to swap to a low emissions cars they will be given an 'environment incentive' worth between 1,500 and 8,000.

A VW spokesman confirmed to This is Money that 'there are no plans in the UK currently to launch a similar scheme'.

Trade in: Volkswagen has launched another new incentive for owners of to trade-in their older diesel cars - but only in Germany

The move comes as cities in Germany now have the powers to ban older diesel cars and trucks, following a federal court ruling in February.

The first of these is already in place in Hamburg (though only banning older diesels from two main roads) while a second is due to be introduced for the entire city centre of Stuttgart from January 1 2018.

Only diesel cars that conform to the latest Euro 6 emissions standards will be grated access.

Some 12 other cities with high levels of pollution that are in breach of EU laws are also likely to follow suit with similar restrictions.

As a result, car makers have faced intensifying political pressure to either retrofit older diesel cars with expensive systems to reduce their emissions or renew their fleets.

Volkswagen hopes its latest scrappage deal will help remove some of these motors, having already stripped 210,000 older diesel cars from German roads with a previous incentive that ran from August 2017 to June this year.

And according to a report from Transport and Environment, some dirty second-hand models have already left the country.

It said that 350,000 used diesel cars - mainly from Germany - were exported to Poland during 2017.

It said the country had imported over 850,000 second hand cars last year, mainly from Germany (70 per cent), with about 40 per cent of these being polluting diesels.

While the new deal is eligible for Euro 1 to Euro 4 cars owned in Germany, the 'exchange premiums' will be extended to Euro 5 models for those living in the 14 cities with the highest pollution levels.

More than 350,000 used diesel cars - mainly from Germany - were exported to Poland during 2017, T&E said

Volkswagen already removed some 210,000 older diesel models from the road using previous incentives offered in 2017 and 2018

Those living in 14 cities with pollution levels so high that they have the power to ban older diesel cars can trade-in any diesel model that doesn't conform to the current Euro 6 standards

Dr Christian Dahlheim, head of group sales said: 'The Volkswagen Group is making a significant contribution to improving air quality in German cities with this comprehensive package of fleet renewal measures.

'We are thus supporting the federal governments efforts to prevent possible driving bans and offering our customers unrestricted individual mobility.'

The 'diesel swapping program' comes into effect immediately and is valid 'until further notice'.

It's also likely to be offered by other VW Group brands - Audi, Seat and Skoda.

Owners of VW affected by the dieselgate scandal in the UK have until 26 October to make a claim for compensation against the car maker.

The High Court Justice confirmed the deadline for the group litigation order led by consumer action law firms Slater and Gordon and Leigh Day back in May.

An estimated 1.2 million UK models are believed to be affected by the German car-maker's misconduct when it was found to have fitted diesel cars with 'defeat devices' to reduce emissions during official tests.Savers looking to earn income by investing in the UK stock market are set for a good year, with the total dividend payout from FTSE 100 companies expected to grow by 10.6 per cent.

The record 89.8billion payout means the Footsie's yield - dividend payouts as a proportion of share prices - will be about 4.3 per cent, according to research by investments firm AJBell.

In an era of rock bottom interest rates, many savers are looking to the stock market for returns. But small investors looking to tap into blue-chip dividends should be aware that 10 stocks (see box below) are responsible for 54 per cent of total FTSE 100 dividends.

The dominance of certain stocks, and certain sectors, must be considered by income-seekers weighing up how to target blue-chip dividends.

The total dividend payout from FTSE 100 companies is set to grow 10.6 per cent to nearly 90billion according to research by AJ Bell.

The top 10 payout stocks are dominated by certain sectors: there are two oil stocks (Royal Dutch Shell and BP), two banks (HSBC and Lloyds), two miners (Rio Tinto and Glencore), and two pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithkline).

The biggest dividend payers are rarely also the highest-yelding stocks as the two boxes below show. Vodafone is the only company in both top 10s.

But the phone giant's share price has fallen 37 per cent this year (the main reason its yield is so high) and its earnings do not cover its dividends, which raises the likelihood of payouts being cut at some point.

Thanks in part also to falls in share prices, housebuilders Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey are set to yield 10.2 per cent and 9.3 per cent in 2018.

Just three stocks - Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC and BP - paying out 28.9 per cent of total dividends,

The biggest dividend payers are rarely also the highest-yelding stocks.

Miner Evraz is set to yield 10.0 per cent despite a stronger share price performance.

The dominance of certain stocks, and certain sectors, must be considered by income-seekers weighing up how to target blue-chip dividends.

Buying high-dividend or high-yield shares avoids the fees associated with funds but comes with the all the risks associated with individual stocks: loss of capital value and dividend reduction or cancellation.

Commodity and mining share prices tend to be sensitive to the global economic outlook and wider market sentiment, and oil stocks to the world crude price.

AJ Bell notes that, with just three stocks - Royal Dutch Shell, HSBC and BP - paying out 28.9 per cent of total dividends, further oil prices rises would be a 'welcome development for income-seekers... as it would help to boost the oil majors' profits and cash-flow'.

Certain sectors tend to dominate dividend payouts.

A blunt but cheap instrument with lower risks than individual stock picking is to buy into a passive tracker fund or ETF that simply tracks the FTSE 100: it's not targeting the highest income stocks, but some investors will be happy with a return of 4.3 per cent this year (minus fees).

Investors can also buy into a managed fund that targets income, of which there are many. Here it's a case of deciding whether the likely performance justifies the fees that must be paid.

Investment trusts can help protect investors by stashing away some dividends in the good years to help support payouts when times are leaner. This has helped some in the AIC's Dividend Heroes list to raise payouts for 50 years in a row.

Finally, there also exist a handful of ETFs that target income stocks in various ways, with lower fees than managed funds.

AJ Bell's quarterly Dividend Dashboard - which aggregates all the leading City analyst forecasts - warns that earnings cover (see box below) is wearing thin for some of the high-yielders.

Vodafone, SSE and Standard Life Aberdeen all score below 1.0, and that means those firms are paying out more to shareholders than they are earning in profit this year, which is unsustainable in the long term.

More encouragingly though, overall cover is improving with forecast profits of 225.8billion covering the 89.8billion total divi payout by 1.74 times - the best cover since 2014.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: 'Not one member of the FTSE 100 is expected to cut its dividend in 2018, while 78 members of the index are forecast to increase it. In 2019, analysts are looking for 80 stocks to hike their pay-out.

'The presence of three house builders in the top ten highest yielders is testimony to the size of their capital return programmes, but it may also hint at investor scepticism that the industry can maintain its current lofty levels of profitability without the benefit of Government assistance, via the Help to Buy and Lifetime ISA schemes.

'It must be noted that the average cover across the 10 highest yielding stocks in the FTSE 100 has however slipped back to just 1.13 times.

'This is partly because recent share price falls mean that Vodafone, SSE and Standard Life Aberdeen are now among the ten highest yielding stocks and their cover ratios are 0.68, 0.85 and 0.95 times respectively  SSEs cover has gone below 1.00 following its September profit warning.

'Earnings cover for the three housebuilders is also thin although all have net cash balance sheets.'A Silicon Valley billionaire has accused rivals of hoarding money instead of using it to make the world a better place.

Marc Benioff, the boss of cloud computing giant Salesforce, attacked tech firms for opposing a tax that would help the growing number of homeless people in San Francisco.

He singled out Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, who spoke against the 0.5 per cent levy on company revenues above 38million.

Salesforce boss Marc Benioff, pictured with wife Lynne, has accused rivals of hoarding money instead of using it to make the world a better place

Officials argue the rapid growth of technology companies  and the influx of staff looking for housing  have caused property prices to surge, triggering a homelessness crisis.

The tax is designed to raise as much as 230million, but Dorsey said it wasn't the best way to fix the city's homeless problems.

Benioff, 54, said: 'This is a critical moment where it kind of illuminates who is willing to be a San Franciscan and actually support our local services.'

The Salesforce boss, who is worth 4.8billion, said it didn't surprise him Dorsey had opposed the tax, adding: 'There's lots of chief executives and companies and billionaires in that category.

'You're either for the homeless or you're for yourself.'The one that got away: Daniel Quinn is no longer joining Fishing Republic

The businessman appointed to lead sinking angling company Fishing Republic has cancelled plans to join as boss, sparking fears the chain is headed for collapse.

Daniel Quinn, the former commercial director of Go Outdoors, had been drafted in as chief executive to lead the turnaround of the troubled business, which employs 117 staff.

He was due to start yesterday, but instead the 14-store chain said he would not be moving into his role or joining the board.

Fishing Republics shares were suspended from trading earlier this week, after the firm announced that major investors, who had been propping up the business, had withdrawn their support.

The firms shares were worth just 5.3p before they were suspended  down 87 per cent from a year ago.Property entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz has withdrawn legal action against Grant Thornton

Property entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz has refused to say sorry to Grant Thornton over a multi-million pound lawsuit he abandoned earlier this week.

On Monday Tchenguiz withdrew legal action against Grant Thornton, two of its partners and a lawyer for Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

He struck a confidential last-minute deal with the lender  hours before he was due to take to the stand.

Judge Robin Knowles yesterday said Tchenguiz owed defendants an apology for the 'very serious allegations' he had made.

Tchenguiz said he was disappointed in the judge for expressing personal opinions, adding: 'The last 10 years have been very difficult and I will now move forward ... and put this case behind me.

'I am definitely not providing an apology.'

A spokesperson for Grant Thornton said the firm welcomes the judge's view.Defiant Unilever boss Paul Polman has defended a controversial attempt to move the companys headquarters to the Netherlands, after the bid was sunk by a shareholder rebellion.

Speaking publicly about the climbdown for the first time, he said the proposal was the right thing to do and defended his legacy as chief executive.

The 62-year-old spoke at a gathering of celebrities and business leaders to launch the One Young World conference, which encourages young people to aid important global causes.

Defiant: Unilever boss Paul Polman said his attempt to move the companys headquarters to the Netherlands was the right thing to do

His comments came ahead of Unilevers third-quarter results today, with analysts predicting lacklustre sales growth at the giant behind household brands such as Persil and Marmite.

The humiliating U-turn on ditching Unilevers British headquarters and basing the company solely in the Netherlands came after a huge backlash in the City.

Asked about the debacle by the Mail, Polman said: One of the things with leadership is, is it the harder life or is it the easier one? We would like always to propose the harder, right one and go for that and not the easier one.

We have run Unilever for the last ten years, it is run it under that principle and we have done that for all of our stakeholders.

Polman said that shareholder returns had reached 300 per cent during his time in charge. Asked if he had any regrets from his time as Unilevers boss, he quipped: We would not be sitting here if we didnt learn a lot in life.

During his time as chief executive of the Anglo-Dutch giant, Polman won plaudits for tackling climate change and reducing the use of plastics.

But he also faced criticism for what some investors see as lacklustre performance and a 10.3million pay packet that even he has admitted he is embarrassed by.

The botched plot to ditch Unilevers British base cast fresh doubt on Polmans future.

He is thought to be heading towards retirement next year, but critics now say he should depart sooner.Tax avoidance is costing countries around the world 190billion a year and a crackdown is desperately needed, a top economic group has warned.

Figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which represents the world's major economies, will pile pressure on efforts to stop giant corporations from shifting profits into tax havens.

And they come as the European Union prepares to launch a tax raid on foreign tech firms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon so they are forced to pay their fair share.

Earlier this month it was revealed that Facebook paid just 15.8m of UK corporation tax last year, despite revenues of 1.3bn

In Britain, Chancellor Philip Hammond has threatened to impose a tax on tech firms unless international action is taken.

Pascal Saint-Amans, head of tax at the OECD, said: 'Around 190billion a year of tax is lost through tax avoidance. This is a really conservative figure, so it's probably bigger.'

A string of major foreign firms have been accused of paying too little tax in Britain. Earlier this month it was revealed that Facebook paid just 15.8million of UK corporation tax last year, despite revenues of 1.3billion.

Meanwhile, US food firm Mondelez  the owner of Cadbury  has paid no net tax through its main UK arm since 2010.

And Amazon's warehouse arm Amazon UK Services paid only 4.5million of corporation tax in its most recent financial year.

1,000 jobs at Amazon Amazon is to open a new office in Manchester as part of plans to create more than 1,000 research and development jobs in the UK. The new site, in the city's Hanover Building, is set to house 600 highly skilled workers focusing on software development, machine learning and R&D. As part of a recruitment drive, the online giant will also beef up numbers at its 'development centres' in Edinburgh and Cambridge, with the cities seeing 250 and 180 jobs created respectively. Doug Gurr, Amazon's UK country manager, said: 'With the UK taking a leading role in our global innovation, we are delighted to announce plans to create capacity for over 1,000 new highly skilled roles across the country. 'These are Silicon Valley jobs in Britain, and further cement our long-term commitment to the UK.' Amazon said that since 2010 it has invested more than 9.3bn in the UK, and is on course to grow to 27,500 employees.

The internet shopping giant has also come under fire over its business rates bill. Amazon pays just 14million in rates for its 14 giant warehouses in England and Wales  far lower bills than many smaller companies that are struggling to survive on the High Street.

Saint-Amans said that the EU or UK will not be able to solve the problem on their own. Instead, he said global tax rules must be changed to prevent tech firms from dodging taxes.

The OECD tried to take action three years ago but its efforts have since stalled. Saint-Amans said: 'We've not delivered as much as we expected to, because the US at that time was opposed to any form of solution.

That's why a number of countries were very frustrated and said, 'Well, if you can't reach a deal at the OECD then let's do something immediately.'

But you need all the countries in the world, starting with the US, to agree on a set of rules that would allow you to tax without a physical presence.'

An Amazon spokesman said its total business rates bill is much higher than 14million once other offices are taken into account  but it refused to say what the figure was.

A spokesman said: 'Amazon pays tens of millions of pounds more in business rates in England and Wales than suggested by the research, and our business rates bill has increased significantly in 2018, including an overall increase at the 14 sites mentioned.'

Earlier this week the OECD named and shamed 21 countries which offer so-called golden passport schemes that are damaging efforts to stop tax evasion.

These nations  which include Malta and Cyprus inside the EU  allow the ultra-rich to buy a passport with an investment into the country, even if they have never lived there.

This gives them access to the nation's financial system and may help criminals shift dirty money into mainstream banks.

Other countries, including the US and UK, also let wealthy people buy citizenship through a substantial investment, but their schemes are not deemed to be problematic by the OECD because of stricter rules.Last month, This is Money assistant editor Lee Boyce revealed why he believes we would regret it if Britain turned into a cashless society.

He also recorded a podcast debating whether a cashless society would work.

Today, industry insider Natalie Ceeney, the former chief Financial Ombudsman and now independent chair of the Access to Cash Review, reveals how the death of cash could unfold...

Cashless: The rise of contactless technology has been quick in recent years - could it soon be curtains for physical money?

How would you react if a shop you used regularly stopped taking cash? Would you shrug your shoulders and use a card, or be irritated that someone else had decided how you should pay?

This might be something you've already experienced. Over the past 20 years we've been prodded to pay our bills by direct debit and use contactless cards for public transport.

We now use contactless cards to pay for one in seven of all transactions and even the Church of England now accept donations by contactless in many churches.

Last year, debit card payments overtook cash as the main way we pay for things, according to banking trade body UK Finance.

And yet, the reality is that while more of us prefer to use cards, phones or even our watches, cash will be needed for decades to come.

Many consumers want the option to use cash, more vulnerable people rely on it, and as a country it's the fallback if parts of the complex IT networks that support digital payments fail.

Natalie Ceeney: Many consumers want the option to use cash

However, we simply can't take our cash infrastructure for granted.

As fewer consumers use cash, the economics supporting the provision of a cash infrastructure are under threat.

The entire UK cash infrastructure costs around 5billion each year.

That includes: the printing of new notes, the running of cash machines and the distribution networks that supply ATMs and retailers with cash.

This is an infrastructure largely run by commercial companies and it's funded largely through fees per cash transaction paid by retailers and banks (not directly by consumer)  i.e. every time we withdraw money from an ATM, or each time a business deposits cash at its bank  the provider of the infrastructure gets paid.

Twenty years ago, when around three out of four of all payments were made using notes and coins, the high cost of storing and moving cash around made sense.

All parts of the economy relied on cash payments, so paying for the security vans that moved the money to banks or topped up ATMs was shared across a massive base of transactions.

In 2017, this volume has more than halved to just one in three of all payments, and it's forecast to halve again in ten years to just one in six.

New 50 note This is Money interviewed chief cashier of the Bank of England, Victoria Cleland, last year. At the time, we asked about the potential for new polymer 50 notes, after 5 and 10 versions were released - and 20 notes soon to come. She said they were looking into it. This week, it has been revealed there will be a new plastic 50 note, indicating that the Bank sees a future in physical cash and the 50 note.

Fewer transactions means less income for the commercial providers running this infrastructure.

But at the same time, costs are largely fixed and don't fall away as cash usage drops.

So basic economics tells us that either retailers and banks need to pay a lot more for using cash, or providers of the infrastructure need to radically cut their costs.

This is where the pressure points will develop.

For retailers, as fewer customers pay in cash - particularly in towns and cities, and where there are fewer bank branches - the process of cashing in or collecting notes and coins at their bank becomes increasingly expensive.

There will come a point (and there are many examples already) when the easiest thing for a retailer to do is to stop accepting cash.

When only a small fraction of customers pays in cash, it's worth risking losing them to save on the costs of handling cash.

Just as many retailers refuse to accept cheques or 50 notes, there is nothing to stop them from not taking cash at all.

Legal tender is a concept based on paying a debt. It does not prevent a shop from rejecting a payment in cash.

PrayPal: The Church of England now accepts contactless donations

For companies providing cash machines, they will simply look to close them in areas with low transaction volumes.

Unfortunately, these are often in rural areas where there is no bank branch, leaving communities with no other means of accessing cash.

This is not a theory. There is no single point of regulatory oversight that controls the way this infrastructure is managed.

The distribution networks are run by commercial organisations who will make decisions based on their own commercial interests.

In some parts of the cash infrastructure, there are only one or two companies playing a critical role.

If they decide it's no longer commercially viable to undertake that activity, then cash in circulation could simply stop.

Sweden is a case study to observe closely. It is the poster child of a 'cashless society', with only 15 per cent of Sweden's payments currently made using cash.

Sweden's central bank forecasts the country could be cashless within a decade; others suggest it may be much sooner.

Contactless: Now, one in seven transactions is via contactless technology

Here, shops and transport accept payments through cards or via an app and only a small number of banks handle cash.

The issue is not just that cash is difficult to get, but that even if you have it, it can be difficult to spend.

If you're someone who can't or won't use digital payment  for many reasons  you can be left excluded from many parts of society.

This should raise many questions for regulators and policymakers in the UK.

First, how robust is the digital system when we have seen multiple IT failures in recent months alone that restrict access to online banking and card payments? Is cash actually an essential part of our UK infrastructure?

Is cash really that filthy? Comment by Lee Boyce In the last few weeks, since writing a column about Britain going cashless, I spotted the annual 'cash is filthy and full of germs' story that gets picked up by the press. Allegedly, the cash and coins we carry are covered by up to 19 types of bug and potentially deadly bacteria, 'experts' say. Banknotes, coins, purses, pockets and wallets are mostly contaminated by bugs associated with people failing to wash their hands properly after going to the toilet, researchers at London Metropolitan University showed. We've been using physical cash for centuries. Bacteria is everywhere. Let's get a grip and treat these stories with a pinch of salt.

And critically, do we want to leave people behind?

There are around 2.2million people who are almost entirely dependent on cash to live their lives.

These are vulnerable groups such as elderly people, the disabled and people in debt or with low incomes, or those who live in rural communities where digital payments simply don't work.

Improving our national infrastructure with better broadband and innovative banking solutions will help include some. But for many, this is not an answer - cash is vital.

There isn't yet an easy alternative for the elderly person living alone who has a neighbour help with occasional shopping  giving over a 20 note limits their risk to 20, whereas handing over a card risks losing all of their savings.

Nor is there yet a digital alternative for the domestic violence victim who survives by squirrelling away cash from their partner who controls everything they spend online.

Or, for someone living on the breadline, of making sure that they cannot go overspent  after all, with cash, you either have it or you don't.

As our society shifts 'digital', is it acceptable that people who depend on cash should have their choice of shops limited? To be excluded from certain activities? To pay more for what they buy? Or lose their independence because their ways of coping simply don't work in a digital economy?

I don't think that's a society that many of us would want.

In fifteen years, changes to the payments landscape mean that we will pay for things tomorrow in very different ways than we do today.

This change needs to be managed properly, not just by encouraging innovation which enables more people to participate in the digital economy, but also by planning for a viable cash infrastructure which means people aren't left behind.

We can be creative in how this is done, and it's going to require us to bring together banks, government, the post office, charities and regulators to work together on solutions.

Without this happening, a cashless future, and its negative consequences, could happen sooner than we think.First lady Melania Trump toured a hospital's neonatal care unit Wednesday to learn about the treatment given to newborns experiencing opioid withdrawal, after she was initially delayed by mechanical problems on her plane.

Her flight was forced to return to a Washington-area military base because of smoke in the cabin, and she took a different plane to make the trip to Philadelphia.

Mrs. Trump spoke briefly at a conference at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on newborns who have been exposed to opioids while in the womb.

The hospital has provided care to mothers with opioid use disorder and their newborn children for more than 45 years.

Melania Trump cradled an infant baby Wednesday at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

The first lady toured the hospital's neonatal care unit to learn about the treatment given to newborns experiencing opioid withdrawal

Mrs. Trump spoke briefly at a conference at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Adorable writings from inside the unit read: 'Eat, sleep and meet the First Lady' and 'Rest, grow and meet the First Lady'

She was introduced by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who said the Trump administration's plan to fight the opioid epidemic was 'comprehensive and driven by the best science we've got.'

She began her remarks by saying 'sorry for a little delay.'

Mrs. Trump said there are few things harder than seeing a newborn suffering from opioid withdrawal, and that she wants to shine a light on the issue.

'As the caretakers of the next generation, it is our responsibility to protect our most valuable and vulnerable, our children,' she said.

Melania took to Twitter later to thank the hospital 'for a productive visit'

After touring Jefferson's neonatal care until, the first lady was also going to visit with mothers who are in addiction treatment in a program that allows them to have their children with them.

According to reporters traveling with the first lady, the original flight was in the air about 10 minutes when smoke filled the cabin.

A member of the crew handed out damp washcloths for passengers to put over their mouths, and Secret Service agents rushed to the front of the plane.

It was not immediately clear what caused the problem on the aircraft, a Boeing C-32A identified as 'Bright Star.'

The visit was one of a number of stops planned to promote her 'Be Best' campaign, which focuses on issues affecting children, including the importance of healthy pregnancies.

First lady Melania is pictured during her visit to the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia on Wednesday

The first lady speaks during her visit to the hospital in Philadelphia on WednesdayPresident Donald Trump made plain that his third campaign trip to Montana Thursday is driven by a desire to hit back at Democratic Sen. Jon Tester for helping torpedo the nomination of White House physician Ronny Jackson to run the VA.

Trump brought up Tester's role in the fiasco of Jackson's nomination to run the Department of Veterans' Affairs in a tweet Wednesday evening  blasting Tester for 'vicious' statements about Admiral Jackson.

Tester, who is in a toss-up race that will help determine control of the Senate and leads narrowly in polls, revealed information that came to the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, where he is the top Democrat, which helped lead the nomination to blow up.

President Donald Trump continues to go at one of his favorite targets - Senator Jon Tester (above).

'Ever since his vicious and totally false statements about Admiral Ron Jackson, the highly respected White House Doctor for Obama, Bush & me, Senator John Tester looks to be in big trouble in the Great State of Montana!' Trump wrote on the eve of his trip here.

'He behaved worse than the Democrat Mob did with Justice K!' Trump added, in reference to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination was narrowly confirmed on a 50 to 48 vote. Tester voted against both Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump's previous nominee.

While vulnerable, Tester has led in three recent polls, and has a three point edge over his opponent in the latest RealClearPolitics average.

Jackson was revealed after his nomination to be close to Trump, with regular contact with him in the East Wing. But he soon came under fire for his office's practice of liberally distributing prescription medications on presidential trips  evening earning the moniker 'Candy Man' during the Obama administration.

'That's not a nickname you want in a doctor. And if you consider the prescription drugs [problem] we have a problem within this country right now, it's not the example we need to have set,' Tester told CNN in April.

'Ever since his vicious and totally false statements about Admiral Ron Jackson (above), the highly respected White House Doctor for Obama, Bush & me, Senator John Tester looks to be in big trouble in the Great State of Montana!' Trump tweeted on Wednesday

'We were told time and time again, the people above him, he treated like gold. The people below him, he belittled, screamed at them, really created a very toxic environment to the point where the people that worked around him felt like they had to walk on eggshells because of his lack of respect for their jobs,' he said, based on information that sources gave his committee

Trump called out the Democrat for accusing former White House doctor Ronny Jackson of drunken behavior after he was nominated to head up the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The president also suggested that Tester is in 'big trouble' in his race with Matt Rosendale in the build-up to the crucial midterms.

Outside groups and individual donors have poured more than $45million into Montana's U.S. Senate race as Trump prepares a third trip to the Big Sky state in his crusade to unseat two-term Tester.

The contest is on pace to be the most expensive in Montana history, and it's been driven by Trump's apparent personal interest in Tester's defeat and his efforts to ensure Republicans keep power in the Senate.

Republican challenger and Trump loyalist Matt Rosendale is far behind in fundraising.

But he's stayed competitive with $14million spent by deep-pocketed conservative groups on his behalf, largely on ads attacking Tester on guns, immigration and taxes, according to an Associated Press review of spending reports.

Tester says it's a case of outside interests trying to influence Montana politics.

But he also has out-of-state backers: Political committees representing conservation groups, hospitals and banks.

Trump targeted Tester for defeat after the Democrat made allegations public that derailed the president's Veteran Affairs nominee, Jackson, in April.

The allegations against the White House doctor included drunken behavior, overprescribing prescription drugs and fostering a hostile work environment.

Jackson has denied the accusations.

Trump is expected to again go on the attack against Tester during a Thursday campaign rally for Rosendale at the Missoula airport.

Trump is expected to again go on the attack against Tester during a Thursday campaign rally for Tester's opponent, Matt Rosendale, at the Missoula airport. Trump is seen right with Rosendale (left) in Billings, Montana on September 6

It's the latest in a parade of White House visits to Montana that have included Vice President Mike Pence and the president's son, Donald Trump, Jr.

Montana voters backed Trump by 20 percentage points in 2016.

Rosendale, currently serving as state auditor and insurance commissioner, has staked his campaign on a bet that those voters will come out for him in November.

Like Trump, Rosendale has sought to capitalize on anger over the Supreme Court confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh - by attempting to draw parallels with Tester's actions involving Ronny Jackson.

'The people across the state have witnessed the tactics of Washington Democrats - which Jon Tester has clearly become a part of - simply trying to smear people and distort facts and maintain power,' Rosendale said in an interview.

Tester voted against confirming Kavanaugh, citing his stance on campaign finances and personal privacy, and the sexual assault allegations against the judge by Christine Blasey Ford.

The Democrat rejected the argument that he's changed since he took office and said Republicans employed similar strategies during the campaigns that he won in 2006 and 2012.

'In order to beat me you've got to make me into something I'm not. And that's what they've done their level best to do,' Tester said.

'Look, Montanans know who I am, they know I'm a lifetime Montanan, they know I understand rural America, they know I understand public lands and not privatizing them.'

The race could soon surpass the state's previous most costly election, when $47million was spent leading to Tester's narrow win over former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg in 2012.

Outside spending in this cycle already exceeds $25million, according to the AP's review.

That figure includes more than $1million spent by groups that favored Rosendale and attacked his GOP opponents in the June primary.

Trump targeted Tester for defeat after the Democrat made allegations public that derailed the president's Veteran Affairs nominee, White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, in April. Trump and Jackson are seen at the White House in August 2017

Among those backing Rosendale and opposing Tester are two political committees, Restoration PAC and Club for Growth, that are funded by Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein and another committee, the Senate Reform Fund, that's primarily funded by Texas oil executive Tim Dunn.

Tester meanwhile has benefited from than $11million in outside spending promoting his candidacy and attacking Rosendale.

That includes spending by the political arms of the League of Conservation Voters, the American Hospital Association and the American Bankers Association, which endorsed Tester following his leading role in the effort to change the Dodd-Frank financial law.

Between the candidates themselves, Tester holds a commanding advantage in fundraising, with $17million in contributions so far this election cycle and $1.8million in the bank as of Sept. 30, according to campaign filings submitted this week to the Federal Election Commission.

Rosendale brought in about $3.7million in contributions and had $622,000 in cash Sept. 30, the filings show.

At some point, said Jeremy Johnson, a political analyst at Carroll College in Helena, the money imbalance can get lost in the wash, amid the flood of advertisements now saturating voters' mailboxes and television screens and the websites they visit.

Montana State University analyst David Parker said Tester's cash lead is significant, because candidates typically get better rates when buying advertisements than outside groups.

'Tester, as a result, can have more penetration and control his own message,' Parker said.

'The outside groups - the money goes less far - and is overwhelmingly negative.

'You have to tell your own story in the way you want to tell it. Tester can, Rosendale can't.'The best friend and former fiancee of 'Making a Murderer' Steven Avery has revealed the imprisoned felon will be a free man next year, DailyMailTV can reveal.

Sandy Greenman's bombshell disclosure comes as 'Making a Murderer Part Two' is released by Netflix on Friday.

Speaking exclusively to DailyMailTV, Sandy explained how Avery's lawyer Kathleen Zellner will prove he had nothing to do with the 2005 murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach for which he was jailed for life.

Sitting in her home in Neenah, Wisconsin, 76-year-old Sandy said, 'Kathleen is 100 per cent sure she will free him. He'll be free next year. She has assured him the new evidence pointing to the real suspect will prove his innocence.'

Sandy Greenman, 76, with former boyfriend Steven Avery , 56 at Waupan Correctional Institution, Wisconsin. Avery is serving a life sentence for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach after her body parts were found in his salvage yard in Two Rivers, Wisconsin

'Making a Murderer Part Two' will focus on Avery's lawyer Kathleen Zellner proving Avery had nothing to do with the death of photographer Halbach, 25

'Making a Murderer Part Two' will focus on Zellner's attempts to show how another person murdered Halbach, a photographer for Auto Trader, after Halbach visited Avery's salvage yard in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

Sandy said, 'There is enough to show that someone else had motive and opportunity. A lot more than Steven did.'

She also believes 56-year-old Avery's release will free his nephew Brendan Dassey, now 28, who was also given a life sentence after confessing to helping Avery kill Teresa.

Sandy said: 'It's proven that Brendan's confession was coerced, that the police spoon fed him information to say.'

In June 2017, Federal magistrate William Duffin ordered Dassey released or retried, saying police made false promises to him.

However Duffin's order was overruled and, in June 2018, the US Supreme Court said it would not hear an appeal by Dassey's lawyers.

Sandy Greenman (above) tells DailyMailTV Steven Avery's lawyer Kathleen Zellner will file her bombshell evidence with the Wisconsin Court of Appeal on December 20

Pictured at Waupan Correctional Institution on July 9, 2018, Sandy Greenman (far right) revealed that, once freed, Steven Avery (second right) plans to take his parents Allan (far left) and Dolores (second left) and move out of Wisconsin.

'Steven thought Brendan would get out because he had previously been exonerated. But it didn't mean a darn thing,' said Sandy.

'He believes proving his own innocence is the only way to free Brendan. Once it is proven someone else killed Teresa, the authorities will have to let Brendan go.'

It was Sandy who first contacted Zellner, a Chicago-based attorney who has had 19 wrongful convictions overturned, and brought her attention to Avery's case.

Sandy said, 'Kathleen Zellner is the best in the country and my first thought was, that's the one that's going to get Steven out of prison.'

Zellner was just granted permission to delay presenting her evidence to the Wisconsin Court of Appeal until December 20.

Sandy explained, 'She wants to get it right, get the brief right, that's why she needs the extra time.'

Steven Avery (left) would refuse a pardon and instead wants to walk out of prison by proving his innocence, says his best friend Sandy Greenman

Sandy also revealed Avery would refuse a pardon if it was offered to him. In 2016, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, up for re-election next month, refused to consider one.

But, she said, 'Steven isn't even interested in a pardon, if you want the truth, that's what he told me.

'There will be an election coming up next month. We might have a new governor. I don't know, if he's voted out, if the new governor would even consider a pardon. He's not interested in that. He wants to prove that he is not guilty, that he didn't do this. That's his main focus.'

Sandy has always believed Avery was innocent, pointing out that at the time of his arrest for Halbach's murder he was suing the local police for $36 million for wrongful conviction.

Avery had just been freed from prison, where he had served 18 years of a 32 year sentence, thanks to DNA tests which proved he had not committed the 1985 rape and attempted murder he was convicted of.

Kathleen Zellner (far right), has overturned 19 wrongful convictions. She plans to show how another person had stronger motive and opportunity to kill Halbach than client Steven Avery

His lawsuit accused Manitowoc police of focusing their efforts solely on him rather than Gregory Allen who was later convicted of the crime.

Sandy said: 'I absolutely believe that he was set up because of his lawsuit. Why would they zero in on him? There were other people living on the property. There were people coming and going all the time.

'When his case came to light my husband Wally and I both paid a lot of attention to it and then when he was convicted we couldn't believe it because we just couldn't see that what they had for evidence could possibly be enough to convict a man.'

Sandy began corresponding with Avery and Wally, who suffered from Parkinson's Disease, asked her to make the seven-hour round trip to visit him.

Avery and Sandy immediately became friend and Sandy tried to visit once a week, with Avery calling her up to twice a day.

When Wally died in 2008, Sandy explained how it was Avery who became the pillar of strength.

'Steven helped me very much through my husband's illness and everything else, the death and everything,' Sandy said.

Avery expects an influx of love letters when 'Making a Murderer Part Two' is released on Netflix but Sandy Greenman (right) did not rule rekindling their romance

Love blossomed for the pair and they became engaged in 2009. But Sandy explained why she called the engagement off after six years.

She explained: 'It was my fault. I will take all the blame for that. A lot of factors played into it. He wanted to get married in 2015 after moving to Waupun Prison and I just wasn't ready to do it. I didn't want to get married in prison.

'I just had a lot of personal problems in my life. When I told him, he took it as a break up, which it wasn't.

'He told a friend, 'She wouldn't marry me and now I want a wife, I don't care who it is.' He proposed to a woman in 2016 but they split up soon after. By 2017, he and I couldn't have been better friends again. We finish each other's sentences. We have a special bond. I know he's my best friend.'

Sandy revealed Avery predicts he will get an influx of love letters from women when 'Making a Murderer Part Two' is released.

But she said he will be more skeptical of their intentions. Sandy revealed: 'He said this time, when the doc comes out, he is going to have his antenna up and know exactly who he wants to answer and who he doesn't.

Steven Avery (pictured) has vowed to help free other prisoners he believes were wrongfully convicted, his best friend Sandy Greenman tells DailyMailTV

'He's not going to be as stupid as he's been in the past. He liked the attention, of course, but he's learned a very valuable lesson.

'He was hurt especially by one woman. I could tell right away she was not who she said she was. I knew she was after something and he wouldn't believe it. She was after money and popularity. She got both. That was a rough time in his life.'

Sandy said she did not rule out a rekindled romance with Avery in the future.

She described how Avery told her she was the most important person in his life. Sandy said: 'Steven just said that to me last night. We don't know what the future holds. So we will see when he gets out. We'll go from there.'

Describing his plans for the future, Sandy revealed: 'He has so many ideas in his head. He wants to get a place somewhere away from the state of Wisconsin and he wants to take his parents Allan and Dolores with him. He would never leave them.

'He also wants to devote his life to helping free other innocent men and women who were wrongfully convicted.

'He does not want to go into politics but he wants to see laws created so law enforcement in Wisconsin can no longer have immunity. Currently they can get away with anything. They should have accountability like the rest of us.'

Steven Avery's 28-year-old nephew Brendan Dassey (pictured) was also convicted for Teresa Halbach's 2005 murder. Avery hopes his own release will lead to Dassey's freedom

Sandy explained Avery is trying to keep his record clean at Waupun Correctional Institution. But it can sometimes be difficult.

Sandy said: 'He works in the kitchen at Waupun. He sometimes can't get along with the people there but he realizes, even if it was just a verbal fight, they would throw him in the hole.

'There's a lady, a guard, who liked to give him a rough time. He made a comment about her smile and she thought he was coming on to her. She made some kind of remark like, 'That'll be the last time you say something like that.' I believe she's no longer in the kitchen.'

Waupan Correctional Institution (pictured) where Sandy Greenman told DailyMailTV Steven Avery had a run-in with a female guard who claimed he was 'coming onto her'

Sandy, a devout Christian, described how she avoids talking about religion with Avery.

Sitting by a crucifix on her wall, Sandy said, 'I know Steven believes in God and he prays but he still feels, 'God has forsaken me or why would I be here?'

'He'd say, 'Your God isn't very kind to me. Look what he's done to me for the second time.' He said he'd talk about 'my religion', as he called it, when he got out.'

Steven Avery's best friend Sandy Greenman said people should not forget about murder victim Teresa Halbach (pictured)

While she waits for the evidence to be presented in December, Sandy said she did not want murder victim Teresa to be forgotten.

Sandy said: 'I haven't forgotten her. She's a victim . We want the right person for her murder to be put away.

'Whatever they did to Teresa is horrible but don't put it on somebody that didn't do it.'President Donald Trump presented the nation's highest military honor Wednesday to an 80-year-old retired Marine sergeant major who five decades ago 'fought with unmatched bravery' at the beginning of one of the Vietnam War's longest and bloodiest battles.

John Canley's heroism includes twice scaling a hospital wall in view of the enemy to help wounded Marines and carry them to safety.

'I like brave people. You meet them right here,' Trump said as he opened the ceremony.

'Fifty years ago, an American Marine fought with unmatched bravery in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War, the battle of Hue city.'

John Canley, 80, was awarded the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Wednesday

According to the White House, Canley, a native of Caledonia, Arkansas, now living in Oxnard, California, fought off multiple enemy attacks over several days in January and February of 1968 while his company of about 150 men carried out a counter-offensive to retake the city of Hue from North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces, which numbered into the thousands.

The operation by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces became known as the Tet Offensive because coordinated attacks against targets in South Vietnam, including Hue, were launched as the Vietnamese celebrated the lunar new year, or Tet holiday.

'He assaulted enemy strongholds, killed enemy fighters and with deadly accuracy did everything you had to do,' Trump said.

'He raced into heavy machine gun fire on many occasions - all to save his fellow Marines.

'In one harrowing engagement after another, John risked his own life to save the lives of those under his command.'

Canley's heroism includes twice scaling a hospital wall in view of the enemy to help wounded Marines and carry them to safety

Canley took over after his commanding officer was severely wounded in the battle to retake Hue, which was held by at least 6,000 communist fighters, Trump said.

On the fifth day of combat, Canley's company was charged with liberating the Joan of Arc school, which had become the communists' strategic and symbolic stronghold in the city.

Machine gun fire greeted them. Canley and a colleague charged forward with rocket launchers, killing enemy fighters and driving them from their positions, Trump said.

'The enemy didn't know what the hell happened,' Trump said.

Canley personally saved the lives of more than 20 Marines during seven days of 'unrelenting combat,' the president said.

As the years passed, some of the Marines who fought alongside Canley pushed for him to receive the highest commendation for a U.S. service member.

After a review of the case, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis agreed in December 2017 that Canley was deserving of the honor.

Congress passed legislation waiving a five-year time limit on awarding the medal. Trump signed the bill into law in January.



This is the peadophile police officer who hid behind a gagging order after he abused nine children.

Robert 'Bob' Gommeson held a police-issue revolver to the head of one of his victims as he brutally raped her.

He also attacked two children in a police station and another in the back of a divisional van.

In 2016, the 68-year old was convicted for abusing nine kids between 1967 and 1983 when we worked as a police officer in Hastings, Victoria.

This is the peadophile police officer who hid behind a gagging order after he abused nine children.

But until now Commeson has been able to hide behind a gagging order, WA Today reported.

The suppression order was made when proceedings for the Victorian crimes first began in 2012, to ensure a fail trial.

But because the order was made under the Magistrates' Court Act, there was no expiration date, meaning that Gommerson couldn't be named in reports.

Yesterday, Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg finally lifted the order, to the relief of his victims.

Tracey May fell pregnant to Gommeson at 11 and miscarried.

She has been fighting to name her abuser who was inexplicably protected by the Victorian legal system for two years.

She said: 'It gives us, the survivors, our voice back.

'It is one of the biggest reliefs, but it's more the empowerment and knowing he can't hide behind a suppression order any more.'

A parent reported Gommeson to police in 1979, but he wasn't charged.

He resigned from the force and moved to New South Wales (NSW), where he continued to abuse another seven children.

It was revealed that as early as 1979 Victoria police were made aware of his offending when a parent of one of his victims reported his actions to police (stock image)

The suppression order was made before a law change that made it compulsory for magistrates to put expiry dates on such orders (stock image)

Gommeson was hit with 18 charges in 2012 and was issued a suppression order to protect his identity.

In 2014, a Sydney judge jailed him for 17 years for violating boys aged between nine and 16.

In June 2016, he was sentenced to at least 15 years behind bars.

Mr Rozencwajg said he was 'surprised' the 2012 order still existed and said he had no difficulty in revoking it.

The suppression order was made before a law change that made it compulsory for magistrates to put expiry dates on such orders.

The earliest Gommeson will be eligible for parole is 2024.

Last year a review stated that Victoria was responsible for more suppression orders than any other state combined.A 21-year-old man who was wrongly convicted and jailed for murdering his father's pregnant fiancee is speaking out for the first time since his release from prison.

Jordan Brown talks about the confusion he felt for years following his detention in a juvenile delinquency facility for the death of 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk, in an interview with Juju Chang on ABC's 20/20.

He was pulled from his bed, arrested and was then charged less than 24 hours after her body was found.

Brown was released in July, 10 years after he was convicted for a crime he didn't commit, and claims it took him almost two years into his sentence to realize why he was in custody.

'I cant remember if they told me what happened. I knew that my step mom passed away. I didn't how, or what was going on. And I didn't know that I was there because of that,' Jordan said.

'I didn't know until, I don't know, maybe until I was like 13, 14 maybe.'

On July 18, the Supreme Court overturned Jordan's adjudication of delinquency on a first-degree murder charge, and he was set free.

His full interview with Chang airs on Friday at 10pm Eastern on ABC.

Jordan's father, Christopher Brown, spoke about the case in a press conference on July 23.

'You go from hours, to days, to weeks, to months and then years  and here we are nine years later,' Christopher said.

'Half of his life he spent in this system to get to our final day today. To me thats an issue. Thats an issue.'



Jordan spent at least seven years locked up in a facility for juvenile delinquents, for a murder he didn't commit, that seemingly occurred at his childhood home in Lawrence County Pennsylvania.

Jordan Brown, 21 (left), is speaking out for the first time since being freed in July, after being wrongfully jailed since age 11 for the murder of his father's pregnant fiancee in Pennsylvania; Jordan is shown in a still image beside his father, Christopher Brown (right), from his interview with ABC's 20/20, which airs on Friday at 10pm Eastern

Jordan's soon-to-be step mother, Kenzie Marie Houk (pictured), was found dead on February 20, 2009 in their home

'I was 11 years old when this all happened. I had no idea what was going on,' he told ABC, in his first official interview since he was released three months ago.

'All I remember is waking up, the police taking me, and I was in jail, and that was it.'

Before Jordan's whole life changed in an instant, Jordan had been living with his father, Kenzie, and Kenzie's daughters, Jenessa, seven, and Adalynn, four, in their home on Wampum-New Galilee Road, in New Galilee, Pennsylvania.

Jordan's soon-to-be step mother, Kenzie, was found dead on February 20, 2009, in their home shortly after Jordan had left for school that day, along with Jenessa.

According to her obituary, she died of a gunshot wound to the head. Her unborn child, who had been named Christopher Houk-Brown, did not survive.

After Kenzie's body was found, police found a youth-sized shotgun in the home that they claimed smelled like it had been recently fired and discovered gunshot residue on Jordans shirt and pants. Yet there was no physical residue from the murder anywhere to be found on the firearm.

According to her obituary , Kenzie died of a gunshot wound to the head. Her unborn child, who had been named Christopher Houk-Brown, did not survive; She's seen here with her two daughters, Jenessa and Adalynn

After Kenzie's body was found, police found a youth-sized shotgun in the home that they claimed smelled like it had been recently fired and discovered gunshot residue on Jordans shirt and pants, yet there was no physical residue from the murder anywhere to be found on the firearm

Without warning, Jordan (pictured in his mugshot as a child) was abruptly arrested for the deaths, despite there being no DNA, blood or fingerprints linking him to the crime

Jordan was adjudicated delinquent (which is the term used rather than "convicted" in juvenile court) in 2012 of first-degree murder and first-degree homicide, and would spend the next nine years fighting to clear his name.

And then without warning, Jordan was abruptly arrested for the deaths, despite there being no DNA, blood or fingerprints linking him to the crime.

He was adjudicated delinquent (which is the term used rather than "convicted" in juvenile court) in 2012 of first-degree murder and first-degree homicide, and would spend the next nine years fighting to clear his name.

Finally, in July, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously overturned his adjudication of delinquency related to the murder charge.

In a 47-page opinion, which can be read in full here, the court cited insufficient evidence, and Jordan was finally freed.

'At the end of the day, if anything positive comes of this is maybe some of the higher-ups look at this juvenile system and how broken it is,' Christopher said.

Finally, in July, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously overturned his adjudication of delinquency related to the murder charge

In a 47-page opinion, the court cited insufficient evidence, and Jordan was finally freed

The 20/20 special on this extraordinary story includes interviews with Jordan's father, Christopher, who stood by his son and fought for his innocence, along with Jordans attorneys Dennis Elisco and Stephen Colafella, and Marsha Levick, Deputy Director and Chief Counsel of the Juvenile Law Center that worked with Jordans lawyers on the case.

ABC also talks with former Pennsylvania State Police officers Jeffrey Martin, Troy Steinheiser and Robert McGraw, who worked on the case, with John Bongivengo, the initial District Attorney who prosecuted the case.

Local reporter Bob Mayo, who closely followed the story for years, also weights in.

Watch Brown's full interview with Chang, covering his journey over the past nine years, airing on Friday at 10pm Eastern on ABC.Tear-jerking photos of an eight-year-old husky rescued from the wilderness this week show the horrendous injuries he suffered as a result of getting shot and biting off part of his own leg.

The gray husky, named Hatcher, wandered away from his owner, Shae Kosmalski, during a September 29 outing with 14 other sledding dogs to Frog Lake in the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.

Kosmalski did everything in her power to locate her lost husky - but had zero luck initially.

Hatcher the husky was rescued Monday after he wandered away from his owner, Shae Kosmalski, during a September 29 outing

The dog was found five miles from where he went missing at Frog Lake (pictured) in the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon

'I got all the sled dogs to howl and make lots of noise so hopefully he would hear his pack and come in. He didn't,' the owner told KATU.

'We drove... we put up flyers... we started Facebook campaigns,' Kosmalski said.

Several concerned locals who came across the flyers and others who learned about the missing dog on social media helped in the frantic search to find him.

Hatcher was finally found by a volunteer worker Monday, five miles from where he was last seen.

The dog is currently receiving treatment at the VCA Southeast Portland Animal Hospital.

Doctors believe Hatcher was shot in the woods after they found metal fragments near his wound as well as in his digestive system. They say he likely bit off his leg and ate it in attempts to survive.

The gray husky is currently receiving treatment at the VCA Southeast Portland Animal Hospital

Doctors believe Hatcher was shot in the woods after they found metal fragments near his wound as well as in his digestive system

Hatcher is pictured above with his relieved owner, Kosmalski

'He had an open wound on his back leg with bones projecting out of the wound,' veterinary surgeon Dr. Petra Ost, who performed a full leg amputation on the dog, told KATU.

'We suspect that these are the lower part of his leg, so he probably chewed off what was remaining of the leg and ate it.

'It was probably hanging there by a little bit and at that point it doesn't have any sensation and he hadn't eaten in two weeks. So, he took care of it.'

Kosmalski told the news station she is relieved to have her baby home, despite the turmoil he has been through.

'I have my baby boy back... I don't care how many legs he has. I don't care.'

Concerned locals who came across the flyers and others who learned about the missing dog via social media frantically helped in the search to find him

Kosmalsi, however, expressed disgust toward the person who shot her helpless dog.

'Maybe they thought it was a coyote and maybe they thought it was a wolf... but you're not supposed to shoot those animals, so these are some pretty sick people,' she added.

Hatcher's medical bills totaled over $5,300, according to the Facebook page, 'Finding Hatcher'. He is expected to fully recover.

Good Samaritans pitched it to donate. Kosmalski said Tuesday 'Hatchers bill has been 100% paid!'

She wrote on her Facebook page: '[There] just arent words for how amazing everyones generosity has been.'

Dr. Petra Ost, who performed a full leg amputation on the dog this week, is picturedThe founder of the Australian Antipaedophile Party has been accused of masterminding a criminal syndicate which allegedly kidnapped children and their mothers.

Dr William Russell Pridgeon, 64, his friend Patrick O'Dea, 64, and an 83-year-old man have been charged in relation to the alleged criminal operation, which plotted to transport women and children on a $140,000 yacht from Australia to start new lives in New Zealand or Zimbabwe.

Patricia Plaisted, 78, and a 37-year-old vigilante who calls himself a 'paedophile hunter' have been issued with notices to appear in court in relation to the operation.

The children were allegedly taken after marriage breakdowns or custody battles - often contravening Family Court orders - with the mothers claiming their partners were paedophiles, the Courier-Mail reported.

Police allege Pridgeon undertook sailing lessons in order to use the yacht 56 South, and had sold his assets for gold bullion - at one point having 11kg (worth $750,000) at a storage facility in Sydney.

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The syndicate allegedly plotted to transport women and children on a $140,000 yacht (pictured in Fremantle, Western Australia) from Australia to start new lives in New Zealand or Zimbabwe

Patrick O'Dea, 64 (pictured in red shirt) was arrested on Wednesday and charged in relation to the operation

Dr William Russell Pridgeon (left), 64, was arrested on Wednesday. He founded the Australian Antipaedophile Party

Pensioners and professionals are believed to be part of the syndicate, which allegedly used encrypted messages in order to avoid detection.

Pridgeon - who was arrested at his home in Grafton, New South Wales on Wednesday - is a GP and founded the Australian Antipaedophile Party.

He allegedly used Commonwealth money to create a network of 40 people which were part of the operation.

Police allege O'Dea, who was also arrested on Wednesday, was given the job of driving around Australia for days at a time to pick up women and their children.

O'Dea - who once served in the Rhodesian army - allegedly stalked and threatened a father who eventually had his children returned to him years after they were taken.

It is alleged Pridgeon ran a Facebook page where women would send messages asking to escape from men they claimed to be paedophiles.

Pridgeon allegedly wrote prescriptions in different names to give mothers drugs - also performing surgery on one of the women.

Pridgeon has been charged with conspiracy to defeat justice, dealing in the proceeds of crime and aid and abet child stealing, and will face court on Thursday.

The operation allegedly spanned across the country, from Perth to New South Wales.

The children were allegedly taken after marriage breakdowns or custody battles - often contravening Family Court orders - with the mothers claiming their partners were paedophiles

The arrests came after a two-year operation in which Pidgeon's yacht was raided by police.

Ten search warrants were carried out in Grafton and Dubbo in NSW, in Perth and in Townsville, Queensland.

Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Debbie Platz said the group were 'organised and well-resourced'.

'The actions of this group do not protect children. What it does is potentially endanger the safety and wellbeing of them,' she said.

'During this two-year investigation, 10 missing children have been safely located in the custody of a parent who has abducted them. Five of these are believed to be linked to this group of people.

Police allege O'Dea (pictured in red shirt) was given the job of driving around Australia for days at a time to pick up women and their children

'We believe this group has sought assistance from other people  some who may be unaware of their involvement in criminal activity  so we are urging anyone with any knowledge about these activities to come forward to the AFP.'

AFP lead investigator Sergeant Darren Williamson said the alleged syndicate acted in a 'clandestine' way.

'So if parents and children went into hiding, (Pridgeon) provided his vehicle. He provided a car to move these people around the country,' Williamson said.

'He's also given them provisions (like) food (and) medical support and everything suggests so far that it was off the books.'Australia is desperate for new blood donations but despite the demand, there's a surprisingly high number of people the Red Cross block from rolling up their sleeves.

Currently, one in 30 Australians give blood, but this number isn't enough to meet the one in three people who will need blood in their lifetime.

Despite the dwindling numbers of people who are willing to donate, the Red Cross has a blanket ban on many potential donors.

Among the large populations excluded from giving blood include most gay men, the majority of British expats, and people who have recently got a tattoo.

Australia is desperate for new blood donations - but despite the demand, there's a surprising few people the Red Cross block from rolling up their sleeves

Australian Red Cross Regional Communications Manager Erin Lagoudakis told Daily Mail Australia the process of making blood donation easier is complicated.

'It is our challenge to do this while fulfilling our obligation to keep blood and blood products as safe as possible for patients, and ensuring Australia continues to have one of the safest blood supplies in the world,' Ms Lagoudakis said.

According to the Australian Red Cross Blood Service website, a suitable donor is someone who is fit and well, aged between 18 and 70, and weighs more than 50kg.

Being 'healthy' is essential to the donation process so someone may temporarily be unable to donate blood if they are feeling unwell or have certain medical conditions.

'Common activities such as sexual activity, overseas travel, getting tattoos, and even taking asprin can all increase the risk of a patient receiving a potentially fatal infection or impact the blood product patients receive,' Ms Lagoudakis said.

Currently, one in 30 Australians give blood, but this number can't meet the demands of the one in three people who will need blood in their lifetime

Probably the most surprising restriction - especially for millenials - is the ban for anyone who lived or visited the UK for six months between 1980 and 1996.

People who were in the UK during this period may have been exposed to the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - the human version of 'mad cow disease'.

Being 'healthy' is essential to the donation process, and although someone may technically be fit an well, experts still don't know the full extent of disease exposure.

Despite the dwindling numbers of people who are willing to donate, the Red Cross has a blanket ban on a select 'healthy' few they deem unsuitable.

Men who have engaged in homosexual sex are another group excluded from the donating process - although not indefinitely.

Men who fall into this category are only blocked from donating blood if they've had sex within the last 12 months due to an increased HIV transmission risk.

According to the latest data by the Australian Federation of AIDS organisations, about 70 per cent of new HIV diagnoses in Australia are men who have gay sex.

But with access to new testing and treatments, there has been a stabilisation of new diagnoses, and the Red Cross has previously said they are interested in lowering the donating wait period for such men to six months, news.com.au reported.

Being 'healthy' is essential to the donation process so someone may temporarily be unable to donate blood if they are feeling unwell or have certain medical conditions

Other banned groups include women who have recently being pregnant or given birth, or anyone who has had a serious heart condition or blood disorder or disease.

Someone may also be excluded if they've had a tattoo or piercing in the past four months or have injected recreational drugs in the past five years.

While there are many 'healthy' people who might be surprised to find they can't donate, Ms Lagoudakis said the good news is most of these deferrals are temporary.

'As no test can accurately detect the early stages of an infection, we screen donors and ask them to come back when its safer for them to do so.'

Ms Lagoudakis also said the Red Cross also regularly reviews its blood donation eligibility to ensure it remains at the leading edge of blood safety.An heroic female police officer has been praised for pulling over in the pouring rain and helping a man push his four-wheel-drive.

The officer described as 'going above and beyond the call of duty' was pictured by a bystander as she pushed a vehicle on the side of the road in Erskine Park, west of Sydney, at about 2pm on Wednesday.

NSW Police Force took to social media and publicised the female officer's efforts prompting users' praise.

A female police officer has been pictured pushing a four-wheel-drive in the pouring rain

'Great feedback for Nepean Highway Patrol received from a member of the public this week,' the post wrote.

The remarkable picture attracted many comments from ordinary people. This one praised the force

One user commented said the officer went 'above and beyond the call of duty', echoing the sentiments of many others

A user on Facebook pointed out the officer and praised her for doing an ordinary job

'Big [thumbs up] to the solo female officer giving a bloke a push start in the drizzle today.'

One user said he was pleased to see police authorities recognised for their 'above and beyond' service.

Another was impressed the officer went out of her way to do what was an ordinary and 'thankless job'.

An impressed user pleaded for the officer's name to be announced so she could be personally praised

The heroic act posted by NSW Police Force yesterday attracted a mass of users in support of the officer's efforts

One other user pleaded NSW Police force to 'name and praise' the officer.

NSW Police Force has told social media the officer's supervisor has been informed of her good work.Damien Russell, 25, and another man, Anthony Johnson Jr, were arrested in connection with the August 25 shooting death of Tiavonni Hodo (seen above)

A six-year-old boy was called to testify against his father who is set to stand trial in court for murder.

The son of 25-year-old Damien Russell took the witness stand during a preliminary hearing in a Flint, Michigan courtroom on Tuesday.

Russell and another man, Anthony Johnson Jr, were arrested in connection with the August 25 shooting death of Tiavonni Hodo, according to MLive.com.

Russell has been charged with first-degree murder, felony firearm, carrying a concealed weapon, and obstruction.

Johnson, 21, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon, and accessory after the fact.

Russells son took the stand and told the court that he was scared to testify.

Judge Vikki Bayeh Haley tried to reassure him, telling him: You wont get in trouble for anything you say here.

Youre safe here.

The boy then started to recall that days events.

He said he was outside of a vehicle on Keyes Street in Flint after his mother, father, and brother drove to another persons home.

The boy said his mother and his brother went inside the home.

He said he then heard his father get into an argument with someone standing on the other side of the car.

I heard him say, I want you to stop seeing my baby mama, the boy testified.

He said, I ain't doing that. I ain't doin' that.

The son then testified that his father pulled out a silver-and-black handgun that he said hes seen before.

Russell's son, 6, was called to testify against his father on Tuesday during a preliminary hearing. The Genesee County Courthouse in Flint is seen above

I heard a gun say Pow, the boy testified.

The boy testified that he saw Hodo suffer a gunshot wound.

Where was [Hodo] hurt? Genesee County Assistant Prosecutor Lia Perryman asked the boy.

The boy then pointed to the middle of his forehead.

After the shooting, his father and Johnson fled the scene, the boy testified.

Lawyers for Russell and Johnson declined to comment.

The next court date has been scheduled for October 29.One of Australia's biggest roast chicken restaurant chains is trialling a halal gravy as it chases the Muslim dollar in areas where the Islamic population is surging.

Red Rooster's traditional gravy sold at its 360 stores contains pork fat and has been a popular sauce to put on the chicken and chips since the company began in 1972.

The chicken chain's Bass Hill store in south-west Sydney has been trailling halal gravy for two weeks - in a suburb where 28 per cent of residents are Muslim.

One of Australia's biggest roast chicken restaurant chains is trialling a halal gravy that won't offend Muslim customers (pictured is the Bass Hill store in south-west Sydney)

Red Rooster's traditional gravy sold at its 360 stores contains pork fat and has been popular sauce with a quarter chicken and chips since the company began in 1972

Company spokeswoman Lisa Owen told Daily Mail Australia Red Rooster was reviewing its existing gravy containing pork.

'We have had requests from many people,' she said.

The trial at the company-owned Bass Hill outlet, which isn't a franchise, would see whether a new gravy could be produced that was suitable for both Muslims and vegetarians.

'This is a trial that will roll out across our stores,' Ms Owen said.

The chicken chain's Bass Hill store (pictured) in south-west Sydney has been trailling halal gravy for two weeks - in a suburb where 28 per cent of residents are Muslim

'It's a trial to see what the flavour base is like.

'It's a very long-winded process to bring a product to market.'

Red Rooster continues to serve bacon in its burgers and doesn't pay third-party Muslim groups to certify that its products are halal.

Should the trial prove successful after a year, Red Rooster would consider offering traditional gravy and halal gravy choices.

'If the product is deemed successful it will be rolled out across the restaurant network,' Ms Owen said.

Red Rooster also has a store at Lakemba (pictured) , in south-west Sydney, where 59 per cent of its residents are Muslim

In Sydney, Red Rooster's 20 stores are mainly scattered in suburbs with a higher proportion of migrants.

It doesn't have any outlets in Sydney's affluent areas such as the North Shore or the eastern suburbs.

The chain, however, does have a store at Lakemba, in south-west Sydney, where 59 per cent of residents are Muslim.An engineer has defended his decision to issue a safety certificate for Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride despite never seeing any maintenance logs.

Thomas Polley was appointed by Dreamworld to complete an inspection as part of workplace health and safety regulations a month before four people died on the 30-year-old ride.

Mr Polley deemed the ride to be mechanically and structurally safe to use in a report dated October 17, 2016.

Thomas Polley was appointed by Dreamworld to complete an inspection as part of workplace health and safety regulations a month before four people died

Mourners leave flowers at Dreamworld Theme Park on the Gold Coast where four adults, two men and two women, died on the thunder River Rapids Ride.

On October 25 a malfunction on one of the ride's water pumps led to two rafts colliding and flipping.

Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozi Araghi died.

At an inquest into their deaths on the Gold Coast, Mr Polley refuted a suggestion he should have not issued a certificate due to the lack of logbooks being non-compliant with legislation.

The four people who tragically lost their lives, Kate Goodchild (top left), Roozi Araghi (top right), Luke Dorsett and Cindy Low.

'I don't agree with that because the ride to me was structurally and mechanically safe,' Mr Polley told the Southport Coroners Court on Wednesday.

Mr Polley was also queried on why he had marked the logbook area of his report as 'no fault found' when regulators relied on the information to ensure compliance.

'Whether the regulator looks at it or not is not a big issue for me,' he replied.

Mr Polley will continue giving evidence when the inquest resumes at 9.30am on Thursday.

The inquest is also expected to hear from Dreamworld attractions manager Andrew Fyfe.

Four people died on the 30-year-old Thunder River Rapids ride on October 25, 2016A man has blamed his mother for packing his bag after Transportation Security Administration officers found a collapsible rifle in his carry-on bag at the airport.

Ryan Joseph Moore, 22, was arrested on Friday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland after placing the carry-on through an X-ray scanner.

Officers manning the scanner said they detected the unloaded collapsible .40-caliber rifle and contacted the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, who responded to the checkpoint.

'The man claimed he did not know that he was carrying a rifle because he his mother packed his bag,' the TSA said in a statement.

TSA officers at Baltimore-Washington International said they found this rife in the carry-on bag of a man who blamed his mother for packing for him

Police confiscated the gun and arrested him on weapons charges.

It is the 20th gun seized at a security checkpoint in Baltimore-Washington so far this year, according to the TSA.

Moore was held over the weekend without bail, but was released on personal recognizance after a bail hearing on Monday, court records show.

He is charged with misdemeanor illegal possession of a gun, violating airport security, and having a weapon in an airport, court records show.

In a statement, the TSA said: 'When someone brings a firearm to a checkpoint, it closes the checkpoint lane until the situation can be resolved, thus forcing the other travelers to shift into another lane and delaying their passage through the checkpoint.'

A security checkpoint at BWI is seen in a file photo. TSA officials say that this is the 20th gun they have confiscated in the airport so far this year

'As a reminder, individuals who bring firearms to the checkpoint are subject to possible criminal charges from law enforcement,' the agency added.

'Even travelers with firearm permits are not allowed to bring guns onto airplanes.'

Moore is next due in court on December 19. Neither he nor his mother could be reached for comment.

His attorney, Anthony Gorski, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com late on Wednesday.Chocoholics are rejoicing after investors struck an eleventh hour deal to save the Max Brenner cafe chain in Australia from liquidation.

The trendy chocolate cafe chain announced it was in voluntary administration last month and that half of its Australian stores would close due to 'escalating costs and tighter retail trade'.

Investment company Tozer & Co, operated by brothers David and Craig Tozer, struck a deal late Wednesday to acquire the licence for Max Brenner's Australian business, just hours before it was due to go into liquidation.

Chocoholics are rejoicing after investors struck an eleventh hour deal to save the Max Brenner cafe chain in Australia from liquidation

'In conjunction with the franchisor, we are excited by the prospect of investing, growing and developing a highly successful business,' David Tozer told Fairfax Media.

'The brand has a rich history across the world and also within Australia.'

The new licencees will seek to finalise a transaction over the coming months.

Nine stores remain open in NSW, four in Victoria, three in Queensland and one in the ACT after 20 stores closed last week.

Chocoholics on social media welcomed the news.

'I think I'll visit a Max Brenner sometime soon,' one person commented.

Investment company Tozer & Co, operated by brothers David and Craig Tozer, struck a deal late Wednesday to acquire the licence for Max Brenner's Australian business. Food at Max Brenner is pictured

Another added: 'This is great news for the business, but more importantly reassuring hopeful news for the workers. Invest in Australian business - invest in people.'

Max Brenner's Australian operation were owned and run by husband and wife team Tom and Lilly Haikin, who made BRW's Young Rich list in 2013 with a fortune of $40 million.

The Max Brenner brand was created by Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner in 1996 and initially consisted of a small chain of chocolate shops in Israel.

Tozer & Co's asset range includes technology, consumer products and financial services.

Craig Tozer is on the board of Craveable Brands which operates Red Rooster, Oporto and Chicken Treat and is the current chief executive of Oporto.

His brother David is the managing director of Tozer & Co and is a former owner and investment banker with Houlihan Lokey Australia.Multiple asylum seeker families have left Nauru and flown to Australia for medical reasons as pressure builds on the Morrison government to get children off the island.

Refugee advocates confirmed 15 people across three families left the Pacific nation on Monday, while Iranian, Somali and Lebanese families left on Tuesday.

A Tamil father and daughter and another Lebanese family left the island on Wednesday.

Multiple asylum seeker families have left Nauru and flown to Australia for medical reasons as pressure builds on the Morrison government to get children off the island (pictured: public health centre on Nauru)

Refugee advocates confirmed 15 people across three families left the Pacific nation on Monday, while Iranian, Somali and Lebanese families left on Tuesday. A Tamil father and daughter and another Lebanese family left the island on Wednesday

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been under pressure from his own backbench to get asylum seekers off Nauru, as doctors say they are mentally 'shattered' after years in limbo.

He is talking to Labor and crossbench senators about reviving a stalled 2016 bill to send asylum seekers to New Zealand, as long as they can never travel to Australia.

One of the senior doctors Australia paid to be on Nauru left on Wednesday after she took a photo of an asylum seeker child.

International Health and Medical Services senior medical officer Nicole Montana arrived back in Australia but the Nauru government denied she had been deported.

'There was no removal order issued against the doctor nor was the doctor deported from the island as reported in media,' Nauru said in a statement on Thursday.

'It is regrettable that this occurred as the doctor has been an integral part of the medical services.'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been under pressure from his own backbench to get asylum seekers off Nauru, as doctors say they are mentally 'shattered' after years in limbo (pictured: 12-year-old girl who attempted to self-immolate herself with petrol)

Under Nauru's local laws governing its regional processing centre, taking a photograph of the asylum seekers Australia put on the island is banned.

'The doctor has a valid visa and a right to practice medicine on the island and we welcome the doctor back on the island as her services are needed,' Nauru's statement said.

The Law Council of Australia has also called for asylum seeker children to be taken off Nauru.

'When you have the leading medical bodies in Australia saying unequivocally that the physical and mental health of children is deteriorating dangerously as a result of detention then urgent attention is required,' council president Morry Bailes said on Thursday.Police have been accused of a cover-up after letting a woman who worked for them off with a slap on the wrist after she crashed a car 'while swerving to avoid a fox because she is scared of them.'

Chantelle Tavitian was an unsworn employee of Victoria Police's intelligence and covert support unit and driving an unmarked police vehicle when she crashed head-on into a parked Toyota Landcruiser on November 13 last year.

The 35-year-old, who held the position of divisional manager, was arrested for misconduct in public office and careless driving, however, she was only charged with careless driving and failing to keep left.

She was later granted a diversion order, meaning she did not need to enter a plea, and could avoid a possible conviction and cancellation of her licence.

Police are accused of a cover-up after letting a woman (pictured) who worked for them off with a slap on the wrist after she crashed a car 'while swerving to avoid a fox'

She told investigators at the time that she swerved to avoid a fox as she was driving along Kilcunda Drive in Rowville, east Melbourne, because she had a phobia of the animals since childhood.

The case is now being investigated by a Victorian anti-corruption unit after officers involved in the initial investigation were angered that inconsistencies in the driver's account were ignored.

Police sources have told The Age that the decision to apply a diversion order was either inappropriate, unusual or extremely lenient under the circumstances, with a senior officer describing it as a 'blatant cover-up'.

During the initial investigation Ms Tavatian also erased her phone the day before she was due to be interviewed by professional standards command.

The 35-year-old was later granted a diversion order, meaning she did not need to enter a plea, and could avoid a possible conviction and cancellation of her licence

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission is currently investigating the incident as part of a larger investigation into nepotism, alleged cover-ups, and leaking of information in the Victorian police force.

Victoria Police on Wednesday defended the handling of the case.

'This investigation was reviewed by Assistant Commissioner Russell Barrett, head of professional standards, in May this year. He remains completely satisfied with the process and thoroughness of this investigation,' a spokesperson said.

'Police investigations follow the evidence, and it is not uncommon for an investigation's focus and outcome to evolve and change as the evidence unfolds.'A devastated young family have shared their heartbreak after a freak camping accident criticially injured their baby daughter and crushed their dog to death.

Max and Brenda Robins were camping at Nanga Brook in Peel, Western Australia with their three-month-old daughter Luna on Sunday during a violent storm.

A six-metre-high pine tree was ripped from the ground by the swirling wind and crushed the couple's tent while they were sleeping inside at Lane Poole Reserve.

Mrs Robins and her baby daughter were knocked unconscious by the falling tree, and the family's beloved pet dog Mila was killed.

The couple have spoken out about the tragic accident, saying they are 'broken right now, both physically and emotionally'.

Mrs Robins and her baby daughter were knocked unconscious by the falling tree, and the family's beloved pet dog Mila (pictured) was killed

A six-metre-high pine tree was ripped from the ground by the swirling wind and crushed the couple's tent while they were sleeping inside at Lane Poole Reserve

The couple were celebrating their nephew's first birthday with extended family at the reserve having recently moved back to Western Australia after living in Melbourne, and stayed overnight.

'Things turned south when night time came about,' the couple posted on Go Fund Me.

'We have sustained serious injuries and our daughter is currently being treated in the intensive care unit of the (Perth) children's hospital.

'We were full of dreams and hopes for this move back to the west. Those dreams now feel broken and almost impossible to reach.'

Mrs Robins had been on maternity leave to look after Luna but was hoping to return to work by mid-November - but the severity of her injuries means this is no longer possible.

'Our daughter will need 24-hour monitoring for at least a month, which we won't be able to provide on our own,' the couple said.

'We were prepared for life with ups and downs in the west but definitely not for this.'

The couple expressed their sadness at losing their 'beautiful' pet dog Mila.

'We know our beautiful, hairy girl is looking down on us and this will soon be a distant memory and a reminder of how strong we are as a family and how much love we have around us.'

Police were called to Lane Poole Reserve early on Sunday morning, with reports the trio were trapped inside.

The couple were celebrating their nephew's first birthday with extended family at the reserve having recently moved back to Western Australia

Nearby campers quickly came to their assistance, reportedly removing large limbs from the fallen tree off of the family.

A Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions spokesperson said the area at Nanga Brook was taped off to restrict public access.

'DBCA will continue to work closely with WA Police Force as investigations continue,' the spokesperson said.A missing Wisconsin girl's parents were shot to death in their house while she was home, authorities said on Wednesday, as they urged the public to keep phoning in tips about the teenager's whereabouts.

Investigators have been searching for 13-year-old Jayme Closs since deputies responded to a 911 call early on Monday, finding her parents dead in their home in Barron.

Jayme, who was ruled out as a suspect on the first day, was gone when deputies arrived, but evidence from both the house and from the 911 call indicate Jayme was in the family's home when her parents were killed.

Autopsies confirmed that James and Denise Closs had been fatally shot and that their deaths have been ruled homicides, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said during a news conference on Wednesday.

There was no gun found at the scene.

Jayme is described as 5ft and 100 pounds, with green eyes and blonde or strawberry-blonde hair.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts or anyone that has contact with Jayme is asked to contact the Barron County Sheriffs Department at 715-537-3106.

The parents of missing 13-year-old girl Jayme Closs (pictured) were shot to death in their Barron, Wisconsin house while she was home, and no gun was found at the scene

Speaking about Jayme, Fitzgerald said investigators still have a '100 percent expectation that she's alive,' but that even though they've received more than 400 tips, none have been of a credible sighting.

He implored the public to share any suspicions, including any behavioral changes in people they know, no matter how small.

'We want to bring Jayme home and put that smile back in her family's hands,' Fitzgerald said. He added that investigators don't know whether the attack was random or targeted.

Jayme was first reported missing after officers were summoned to her home in Barron just before 1am on Monday; . The teen is not a suspect in the homicides

Authorities have now revealed Jayme's parents Denise Closs, 46, (left) and James Closs, 56, (right) were killed by fatal gunshot wounds; No gun was found at the scene

Jayme, who has been missing since her parents were found dead in their home, isn't believed to be a runaway and investigators believe she's in danger, the sheriff said on Tuesday

Relatives of the family said that the front door of the Barron home where Jayme disappeared from without a trace was shot in

Relatives of the family said that the front door of the Barron home where Jayme disappeared from without a trace was shot in.

It is one of the few details about the crime scene that have been released as police continue to keep a tight lid on their investigation.

Fitzgerald said on Tuesday that the 911 call came from a cell phone while inside the home, but no one was communicating to the dispatcher.

'Some kind of disturbance could be heard, and that's why law enforcement came to the house,' he added.

The sheriff called a meeting on Wednesday evening with Barron County residents, but he barred reporters from attending, saying he wanted to have a private dialogue with the people who elected him.

Barron County Officials Hold Press Conference on Missing Teen WATCH: Officials in Barron County, Wisconsin, provide an update on the search for missing teen Jayme Closs. Posted by KSTP-TV on Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Law enforcement personnel bring in a search dog on Tuesday at the house where Jayme Closs's parents were found dead in Barron, Wisconsin

Autopsies confirmed that James and Denise Closs had been fatally shot and that their deaths have been ruled homicides, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald (pictured) said during a news conference on Wednesday

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, called the decision to bar the media 'offensive.'

'The media are uniquely able to help, in terms of getting out information and encouraging people to share tips,' Lueders said. 'Does he want to find this girl, or does he just want to make a public display of his dislike for the press?'

The sheriff said on Tuesday that a tip claiming Jayme had been spotted in Miami was not credible.

Fitzgerald said the information had been tweeted by the Miami police directly, without consulting investigators in Barron.

'We have no credible information that that was a credible tip,' he added.

A person had reported that a girl resembling Jayme was seen at a Sunflex gas station in Miami on Monday with two men who appeared to be in their thirties.

Fitzgerald said Jayme was last seen at a family gathering on Sunday afternoon, but he provided no details.

Robert Naiberg, Jayme's grandfather, said she had been 'quiet as always' at his grandson's birthday party on Sunday afternoon.

Naiberg said Jayme was a 'thoughtful person' and had brought a 'little gift for everybody' to the party.

Jayme's father was working at the time of the party, he added.

Fitzgerald said Jayme is not considered a suspect in her parents' deaths and that he believes she is in danger.

He declined to elaborate as to why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation.

The sheriff also revealed on Tuesday that a tip claiming Jayme had been spotted in Miami in a car with two bearded men (pictured) was not credible

'At the end of the day, I want a 13-year-old here safe and sound,' he said during a press conference on Monday. 'That's our goal. That's our only goal right now.'

Fitzgerald has received hundreds of tips, but pleaded with the public for more information that could lead police to Jayme.

'Often, someone in the community will have knowledge of a crime and may not realize it,' he said.

'Individuals who commit acts of violence may display changes in their behavior and individuals around that person may observe those changes.'

Fitzgerald also admitted during Tuesday's press conference that he was 'struggling' with the case's many unanswered questions.

'I don't have the answers that I want to give you, that I want to give the family,' he said.

'I've never seen anything like this in rural Wisconsin. We just don't see this.'

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald revealed on Tuesday that someone called 911 from a cell phone while inside the home, but no one was communicating to the dispatcher

Fitzgerald said police have since identified whose cell phone the 911 call came from, and that evidence from the call showed Jayme was inside the house when her parents died

Community members held a candlelight vigil for Jayme at St Peters Catholic Church in Barron on Tuesday night.

Attendees were given blue and green ribbons to wear during the vigil. Blue is Jayme's favorite color, and green is a symbol for missing children.

'Everyone is feeling very helpless right now,' family friend Melissa Salmonson told WKOW.

'I think being able to come together as family and friends and being able to pray together, and maybe just feel like those prayers are helping in some way will maybe just make us feel a little better.'

Diane Tremblay, a superintendent at Jayme's school, described her as a 'sweet, quiet girl' and a 'loyal friend'.

She shared one story from a teacher who had asked Jayme's class what they would do if they were given a million dollars.

Community members held a candlelight vigil for Jayme at St Peters Catholic Church in Barron on Tuesday night (pictured)

Authorities continued to process Jayme's home on Tuesday for the ongoing investigation

Authorities have also used drones and infared equipment to search the family home, but have discovered no helpful clues

Jayme's response was 'feed the hungry and give the rest to the poor,' Tremblay revealed.

An Amber Alert for Jayme was issued on Monday, although it did not include any information about a suspect or vehicle.

The Barron County Sheriff's Office has also enlisted the help of the National Center for Missing Exploited Children and the FBI.

Authorities have also used drones and infared equipment to search the family home, but have discovered no helpful clues, according to WPLG.History lessons are too Eurocentric and should have less time devoted to slavery as it puts black children off the subject, a new report has claimed.

The Royal Historical Society said there was a 'relentless focus' on slavery, which it said was 'limiting and, at times, alienating' for black pupils.

The report, titled Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History, added: 'It is important that the history of race and ethnicity is integrated fully into the curriculum, rather than being relegated to a dedicated session or course.'

The aim of the report was to try and identify why the number of History students from black and minority ethnic background lagged behind the national average of other courses in universities (stock image)

The aim of the report was to try and identify why the number of History students from black and minority ethnic background lags behind the national average of other courses in universities.

The report claims that 89 per cent of history and philosophy students are white, in comparison to 77.3 per cent of all students.

It also added racism is a shared experience for some black and ethnic minority staff and students.

Teachers have been encouraged to include BME authors in their reading lists as it may help to reduce 'barriers' for students.

The Royal Historical Society polled 700 members for the report and found 86 per cent of respondents were broadening their curriculum beyond Britain and Europe.

Universities minister Sam Gyimah said higher education authorities should be 'cautious' about phasing out subjects simply because they were unpopular with students.

He added that students should challenge ideas instead as part of the process of learning.Politics can sometimes make for strange bedfellows. I know this myself from occasions when Ive challenged Labours entrenched viewpoint and placed principle before party loyalty.

In 2003, for example, I opposed the Iraq war which Tony Blair led us into, and more recently I campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

But there are alliances that are too unholy to contemplate, and one is being forged now between some of my fellow Labour MPs and John Bercow, the embattled Speaker of the House of Commons.

Labour MP Kate Hoey, left, believes that House of Commons Speaker John Bercow should stand down following an independent report published this week by Dame Laura Cox into bullying and sexual harassment in Westminster

The issue at hand is an independent report published this week by Dame Laura Cox QC on bullying and sexual harassment at Westminster. What she uncovered, involving serial offences by some MPs, is shocking.

In a damning indictment of life at Westminster, Dame Laura pulls no punches, describing a culture, cascading from the top down, of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence, in which bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been able to thrive and have long been tolerated and concealed.

We owe it to all those brave people who came forward not to sweep this under the carpet. Which is why you would expect Labour  with its long and honourable history of fighting for gender equality and the protection of employees  to be in the vanguard of those calling for the resignation of the Speaker.

He is the one who has presided over this abusive culture, and is even now trying to cling on to office by hinting that he will step down quietly ... next year.

It must be added that Mr Bercow himself has been accused of bullying staff  an allegation he firmly denies.

Ms Hoey accuses Mr Bercow, pictured, of presiding over the abusive culture and has even faced accusations of bullying staff, which he strongly denies

If these allegations in Dame Lauras report  including the groping of female staff  were made about staff in a private company, my colleagues on the Labour benches, normally so keen on womens rights, would be clamouring for the chief executives head ... before breakfast. This is the party that likes to call itself progressive, even though it has never had a female leader, while the Conservatives have had two women Prime Ministers.

So did Labour demand immediate action when the Speaker granted an urgent question on this matter in the Commons on Tuesday? Well, no. While female Tory MPs angrily called for Mr Bercow to step down, some Labour MPs, including Dame Margaret Beckett  a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life  and Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry seemed anxious to ensure his survival.

Emily Thornberry said later on Sky News: I think this is absolutely not the time to be changing Speaker.

The reason for such pusillanimity from Labours ranks of feminists became plain when Margaret Beckett admitted: If it comes to it ... the most difficult decision weve made for hundreds of years trumps bad behaviour. She was of course referring to Brexit  which is the real reason the Speaker was let off the hook.

Ms Hoey criticised her fellow Labour MP Emily Thornberry, pictured, who believes Mr Bercow should remain in post until after Brexit

For he is the pro-Remain controller of parliamentary business, and that means they are willing to ignore the blindingly obvious  that this discredited occupant of one of the highest offices in the land must go. And go now.

The Speaker is meant to be a neutral figure, conducting business free of party political taint. As William Lenthall, a holder of that office, explained to Charles I: May it please your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me.

But Mr Bercows pedigree as a Remainer is undisputed  witness the sticker affixed to a car occupying his personal parking space earlier this year proclaiming B*****KS TO BREXIT. Indeed, he made no secret of his Remain sympathies while speaking to students back in 2017.

He is, of course, entitled to his personal views, but as Speaker not only should he be impartial, he must be seen to be impartial. Betty Boothroyd, in my view a great Speaker, would never have allowed herself to get caught up in this kind of controversy. She put Parliamentary dignity before her own ego.

We are now entering the closing scenes of the protracted and tortuous drama that is the United Kingdoms departure from the EU. After years of behind-closed-doors negotiations in Brussels and in Cabinet, Parliament is about to take centre stage.

The role of Speaker will be central in this closing act, and his or her decisions matter. But the idea that Mr Bercow is uniquely qualified for this role through experience is ridiculous: all the Deputy Speakers are perfectly capable of taking over.

She also criticised Dame Margaret Beckett for her failure to call for Mr Bercow's resignation

With the publication of Dame Lauras report on harassment and abuse in Parliament, we are beginning the cleansing of the Augean stables. The document makes sometimes painful reading: several offenders were named repeatedly by those who gave evidence (though not named in the report), and several departments kept cropping up, too.

Witnesses spoke of a macho culture in which women were not welcome. Female members of staff would be told to make the tea, or asked if they needed to work or had a husband. Shockingly, there were allegations of racial abuse, also.

The human cost of this is all too clear. People who believed themselves to be strong, capable individuals suddenly found that they were unable to eat or sleep properly, or they were shouting at their children or partners, or were prone to sudden bouts of crying or panic attacks, writes Dame Laura.

One of the 200 people interviewed privately by Dame Laura spoke movingly of her feelings, and neatly sums up what is at stake. We are proud to work in the House of Commons, but when we are abused those who lead us should support us, not abandon us to our fate and cover up the traces. And those who abuse us should be held accountable.

Establishing a new complaints and grievance process wont come close to solving the problems in this place. We need a seismic shift. But the institution is worth fighting for.

I take no pleasure in supporting the call for the Speaker to step down. He has made some useful changes which have helped hold the Executive to account, but he himself must be held to account and, as the report makes clear, without real change at the top there is doubt that anything will change down the line.

The right of people going about their daily work to be treated with dignity, free of abuse at the hands of the powerful, be it sexual or otherwise, cannot be trumped, in the words of Margaret Beckett, by any political consideration  even one as momentous as Brexit.

It may be that some individuals will want to think very carefully about whether they are the right people to press the reset button and to do what is required to deliver that change in the best interests of the House, says Dame Laura.

No name is mentioned, but you dont have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out the identity of one of those she is talking about.

Some years ago, I played a small part in the downfall of the previous Speaker, Michael Martin. This was during the MPs expenses row, when he sought to cover up the details. He was sensible enough to listen to voices of concern and was able to leave while still retaining some dignity. Speaker Bercow should do the same.

But as long as the Remainers in Labour  including those women MPs who are normally obsessed with equality  turn a blind eye in the name of political expediency, then he will stay right where he is in the crucial months ahead.Bhanu Choudhrie, 40, with his estranged wife Simrin

The son of an Indian billionaire and Lib Dem donor caught up in the Rolls-Royce corruption scandal is reportedly bidding to stop his estranged wife from sharing confidences during their ongoing divorce proceedings.

Bhanu Choudhrie, 40, is the son of Sudhir Choudhrie, 69, a friend of senior Lib Dems who has donated more than 1.6million to the party.

In 2014 both men were both arrested over their alleged links to firms that received secret pay-outs from Rolls-Royce in a bid to boost profits.

A joint investigation by the BBC and The Guardian had revealed that Rolls-Royce hired a network of agents to help it land lucrative contracts in at least 12 different countries.

Both men denied wrongdoing and were released without charge, although the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into the affair is ongoing.

Bhanu Choudhrie is splitting from his wife, Simrin, who once appeared in popular Channel 4 series The Secret Millionaire, financial news service Bloomberg reported yesterday.

But in an unusual legal move, he is reportedly attempting to stop her repeating what he told her about his feelings and concerns relating to the investigation.

She knew, or ought to have known that what he was telling her was being disclosed to her in confidence, he said in the papers, according to Bloomberg.

The documents, which Bloomberg reports were lodged at the High Court last month, say that Mrs Choudhrie is aware of her duties of confidentiality and will abide by her obligations.

Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for fighter jets and commercial airliners, was sucked into a multinational corruption scandal in 2012. It became the subject of a bribery probe by the Serious Fraud Office.

The ongoing investigation into the affair concerns intermediaries, middlemen who help seal business deals when a company has a limited local presence.

Rolls-Royce hired law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, which launched an internal investigation, ending with information being passed to the SFO.

The internal probe is said to have unearthed evidence of corruption in a number of countries.

The fresh evidence apparently shows that the firm made secret payments of around 10million to an unregistered Indian agent.

Simrin once appeared in popular Channel 4 series The Secret Millionaire (pictured)

The money included a suspicious payment of cash that may have helped Rolls-Royce win a major contract for engines on Hawk aircraft.

A representative of Mr Choudhrie could not be reached last night.

But his spokesman reportedly told Bloomberg that he has never embarked on any kind of illegal activity and that Mrs Choudhrie could still cooperate with any lawful authority.

Choudhries legal action has been taken to prevent his wife sharing confidences of a personal and commercial nature with third parties, the spokesman said.

He has made it clear in the legal papers that this in no way prevents her helping any lawful authority with any inquiry whatsoever.

Mrs Choudhries spokesman could not be reached for comment.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said: We are continuing to co-operate with the UKs Serious Fraud Office (SFO). We cannot comment on any aspect of the SFOs investigation.

The Serious Fraud Office declined to comment.

A spokesman for of Bhanu Choudhrie said: 'Mr Choudhries legal action has been taken to prevent his wife sharing confidences of a personal and commercial nature with third parties.

'He has made it clear in the legal papers that this in no way prevents her helping any lawful authority with any inquiry whatsoever.

'Mr Choudhrie has never embarked on any kind of illegal activity.'Council tax payers are forking out about 500 a year for town hall workers pensions after the cost of their retirement schemes rocketed 27 per cent in a year.

Local authorities had to contribute 9.5billion in the last financial year towards pensions for two million staff.

In 2016-17, the contribution was 7.4billion.

Britain's Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary James Brokenshire arrives to attend the weekly meeting of the cabinet in Downing Street last week

This means almost a third of all money raised in council tax goes towards pensions, equivalent to 500 for an average Band D taxpayer.

Council workers typically enjoy gold-plated pensions. The leap in costs comes as council chiefs demand the Government gives them billions more.

Michael Johnson, of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said: This is unsustainable.

Almost a third of all money raised in council tax goes towards pensions, equivalent to 500 for an average Band D taxpayer

The cost manifests itself in a reduction in council services but councils have not been upfront or transparent on this.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: Employer pension contributions are set every three years by independent experts.

We know some councils have made larger payments up front and it is likely their contributions will fall next year.Almost 60 penguins have been killed in a suspected dog attack.

Authorities are investigating the death of 58 penguins at the Low Head Conservation Area, north of Tasmania, which occurred this week.

The Department of Primary Industries have concluded that the animals were killed by a dog after the carcasses were collected and subjected to a post-mortem examination.

Rangers were alerted as almost 60 penguins were killed in a suspected dog attack at a nature reserve

Park and Wildlife Service (PWS) officer Michael Spaulding has called for dog owners to take responsibility for their pets.

He is also appealing for anyone with further information to come forward.

The penguins killed in Low Head were fairy penguins, which grow up to an average of 40 centimetres in height and weigh only one kilogram at most.

In June, 13 penguins were reported dead in another suspected dog attack at Low Head Coastal Reserve

Mr Spaulding told ABC News there are restrictions on dog access in reserves and penalties for alleged unlawful harm of wildlife.

BirdLife Australia spokesperson Eric Woehler has called for stricter laws to protect animals.

He said: 'We really need strong laws so that anytime a dog is found to have killed penguins or other forms of wildlife in Tasmania that the dog owners think twice about letting their dogs loose at night when they have no control over them.'

George Town Mayor Bridget Archer said the deaths were 'completely unacceptable' and the area was 'off limits for dogs'.

At least 13 penguins were found dumped in a garbage bin in the same reserve in another suspected dog attack, in June.A Labour MP shocked Parliament yesterday as she described how a House of Commons employee had been sexually harassed by a colleague.

MPs gasped as Teresa Pearce raised the case of a constituent who is employed by the Commons and had been targeted at work. Her remarks prompted Theresa May to vow to make a very serious response to the case and the findings of a damning report into sexual harassment and bullying in Parliament.

Miss Pearce told the House: Despite many months of meetings with her HR and line management, shes been treated like the problem rather than the victim.

MPs gasped as Teresa Pearce raised the case of a constituent who is employed by the Commons and had been targeted at work

Could the Prime Minister advise me what I can do to help my constituent return to work and feel safe  when her employer is this House? Mrs May replied by acknowledging her concern over the findings of the Cox Report which identified a culture of bullying and abuse.

I hope there will be a very serious, full response and a proper response to Dame Laura Coxs report, she said.

This should worry all of us and what I want to see is a situation where [Miss Pearces] constituent is able to ensure she can come to work in this House, be treated with dignity and respect, and not be subject to bullying, harassment or abuse.

It is understood that the Erith and Thamesmead constituent is employed directly by the House of Commons, rather than an MP. Miss Pearce said: After many months of trying to support my constituent through the proper channels, out of sheer frustration, I felt that I had to raise it on the floor of the House today, especially after the report that was published yesterday.

I am not willing to divulge any details about my constituent, other than to say that she has my full support.

The report continued to cause issues for Labour after leader Jeremy Corbyn was forced to slap down his MPs over controversial comments yesterday.

The Cox Report called for a change in the leadership of Parliament to enable the negative culture to be defeated. It prompted calls from Tory MPs for Speaker John Bercow to go, but Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Dame Margaret Beckett, the partys former acting leader, said it was important that Mr Bercow stayed to oversee Brexit. Mr Corbyns spokesman distanced himself from their comments, saying Miss Thornberry was only expressing a personal view.Hollywood director Michael Moore has been pictured meeting Pope Francis outside the Vatican after jetting in to promote his new documentary on Donald Trump.

Moore, who rose to fame as the director of harrowing documentary Bowling for Columbine, was pictured warmly shaking hands with the pontiff on Wednesday afternoon.

Pictures showed Moore taking snaps on his phone and waiting in line to meet the Pope as he greeted adoring members of the public.

The director has previously demonstrated a love-hate relationship with the Church, throwing shade at Pope Francis on social media for some of his teachings.

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Michael Moore was pictured on the steps of St Peter's shaking hands and exchanging words with the pontiff

The film director waited among some of the Church's most senior cardinals to be granted an audience with Pope Francis on Wednesday

Moore was raised a Catholic, but is no longer a practicing member of the Church according to an interview he carried out with a magazine back in 2012.

He has also previously stated that he disagrees with the Church on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage, but believes there is a God.

In a seemingly sarcastic tweet in October 2016 Moore posted: 'Pope Francis has asked the United States, North Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia to take one year off from killing people via execution.'

But prior to that, Moore had expressed confidence that Pope Francis would be a breath of fresh air for the Church after he was announced in 2013.

'Say Our Prayers Tonight That This Pope Is Going to Be a Different Pope' he said at the time.

Moore is currently in Rome to promote his recently released documentary 'Fahrenheit 11/9.'

Moore could be seen taking photos on his phone as the Pope arrived to give his weekly address

He was pictured next to the youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Bernice Albertine King (right) as they met Pope Francis

The film is a dissection of the 2016 Presidential election and the subsequent Trump presidency and has grossed $6 million since its release last month.

Outspoken Trump-critic Moore has admitted that the film is unashamedly partisan and defended comparisons between the President and Hitler.

'People said to me you're comparing Trump to Hitler,' says the 64-year-old filmmaker, author, comedian and activist, in London for the documentary's UK premiere.

'I said, no, that is a scene where Hitler is speaking like Trump. I am comparing Hitler to Trump, not Trump to Hitler. If you don't understand the difference, I can't explain it.'

The Pope himself has also previously levelled criticism at Trump over his immigration policies.

In May last year Pope Francis said he supported statements by U.S. Catholic bishops who called the separation of children from their parents 'contrary to Catholic values' and 'immoral.'

'It's not easy, but populism is not the solution,' the Pope said.

Moore and Bernice Albertine King shared a joke after they met with the Pope on WednesdayThe Trump Organization has filed a lawsuit seeking $90,000 in condo fees and charges from the estate of the man who died in an apartment fire in Trump Tower.

A lawyer representing the board of Trump Tower Condominium filed the suit against the estate of Todd Brassner and his heirs on Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, the New York Post reported.

Brassner was 67 when he died in the April 7 fire, which investigators said was caused by overloaded power strips inside the Trump Tower apartment.

The art dealer had defaulted on his common charges in 2015 and filed for bankruptcy, and friends have said he was desperate to move from the 50th-floor apartment but was unable to find a buyer after the election of President Donald Trump.

In April, the New York Fire Department said on social media that multiple power strips were overloaded and confirmed the apartment lacked a smoke detector

'The fatal 4-alarm fire on April 7 at 721 5th Avenue in Manhattan was accidental, caused by multiple overloaded power strips. There was no smoke alarm present in the fire apartment,' the post said.

Brassner bought the apartment in 1996 and was recently trying to sell it before the fire

A firefighter continues to work at the scene of a blaze on the 50th floor of Trump Tower on April 7. Six of his colleges were injured but all have now been released from hospital

The New York Fire Department confirmed that the four-alarm Trump Tower fire was an accident caused by overloaded power strips in Todd Brassner's apartment

When an apartment is sold in New York, the building owners are supposed to make sure a smoke detector is in the unit - but residents are responsible for maintaining them after they buy it.

The fire department also encourages residents to be mindful of using power strips and extension cords for long periods.

'Overloaded electrical outlets are one of the major causes of residential fires,' the department said. 'Always plug appliances directly into wall outlets.'

It is unclear what might have overloaded the power strips in Brassner's apartment.

The art dealer bought the $2.5million unit in 1996 and had recently been trying to sell it.

The 50th-floor apartment in the Manhattan high-rise did not have sprinklers either.

As previously reported, president Donald Trump fought against a 1998 law that said sprinklers needed to be installed in all residential buildings in New York City.

The legislation was proposed after two major fatal fires in Brooklyn and Manhattan - which sparked building code changes across the city.

And early talks for the bill said all buildings would be required to pay to install sprinklers, at the displeasure of many real estate moguls, including Trump.

Art dealer Todd Brassner, 67, died in the flames. He was pulled from his apartment unconscious and was pronounced dead at hospital later

The blaze broke out at 6pm on April 7. One person died and the six injured were all firefighters

After the bills were compiled Trump called city officials and made the argument that installing sprinkler systems throughout entire buildings was too expensive, the New York Times reported at the time.

The cost of the installation is roughly $4 per square foot.

Then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani agreed with developers, saying the cost of installing sprinklers was going to be too high.

After the proposal was tweaked to say existing buildings and those with approved permits didn't have to install sprinkler systems - Trump backed off and left the city council alone.

Giuliani signed the bill, which added the provision that if the high-rise rentals underwent renovations developers would have to install sprinklers.

The bill as it was initially written would have impacted two of his buildings, Trump Tower and Trump World Tower, which had already been approved but began construction in 1999.

He ended up spending $3million on sprinklers for the Trump World Tower, but they were never installed in the Upper East Side Fifth Avenue building.

Brassner was a fan of Andy Warhol and was involved in selling some of his paintings but had recently fallen on hard times. There were no sprinklers inside his apartment

Earlier this month, New York City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee said it plans to push for laws to require residential high-rises to have fire sprinklers.

The commissioner of the New York Fire Department said that the building stood up well despite not having sprinklers in the units.

The president later echoed that sentiment in a tweet, applauding firefighters for putting out the flames quickly.

'Fire at Trump Tower is out,' he wrote.

'Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!'

He did not mention the potential victims in his tweet.

This is reportedly the second fire this year at Trump Tower. In January a roof top fire broke out in the heating and cooling unit of the building.Sydney's draconian lockout laws that have wiped out the city's nightlife could be axed as soon as next week.

The NSW parliament is set to debate ending the 1.30am curfew after widespread condemnation across the city.

MP for the Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party, Robert Borsak, gave a notice of a bill to repeal the lockout, which will be debated on October 25.

Mr Borsak said: 'The 1:30am lock-outs across the Sydney CBD are killing our city.

'No other international city of similar standing to Sydney has such a law striking at the heart of its nightlife.'

Robert Borsak (pictured) announced a new bill which aims to abolish the Sydney lockout laws

The law has attracted much criticism from patrons and business owners alike, who blame them for killing off Sydney's vibrant nightlife

The lockout laws, which have already seen the Kings Cross entertainment precinct wiped out in just four years, were introduced following a scare campaign led by the NSW Police Association after a string of one-punch attacks in 2014.

Poll Do you want to see the lockout laws abolished in Sydney? Yes No Undecided Do you want to see the lockout laws abolished in Sydney? Yes 386 votes

No 44 votes

Undecided 18 votes Now share your opinion





Despite none of the victims dying after midnight, the NSW Government folded to police and media pressure, with the then Premier Barry O'Farrell rushing through the curfew for licensed premises from Kings Cross to Pyrmont.

But the law has attracted much criticism from patrons and business owners alike, who blame them for killing off Sydney's vibrant nightlife.

In a statement on his Facebook page Mr Borsak said: 'I've lost count of the number of small business owners, residents, and young people who have contacted my office to register their anger at this situation.

'It is time that the Liberal Party and the National Party stopped interfering in people's lives under false pretenses.

Mr Borsak said he decided to make the submission after National Party Leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro also called for the lock-outs to be repealed.

'Since Barilaro has no pulling-power in Cabinet to get this off the ground, I'm doing it for him,' he said.

Mr Borsak said he had first hand experiences with a number of business owners and others who he said have been unfairly impacted by the law

The current laws prevent patrons entering a venue after 1:30am and drinks are not served after 3:00am, and were introduced after a string of attacks and fights in the street

With a supportive cabinet, all that stands in the way of the change is the state's Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, who is yet to come to a decision on the proposal.

The current laws prevent patrons entering a venue after 1:30am and drinks are not served after 3:00am, and were introduced after a string of attacks and fights in the street.

The Police Association are opposed to any prospective changes to the law.

Mr Borsak said: 'It wasn't enough for the Liberal Party and the National Party to grind Sydney to a halt with light rail that nobody wants and that goes to nowhere: they had to kill the nightlife in our city as well.

'Sydney deserves better.'An autistic woman whose condition meant she sought risky sex was allowed to be 'pimped out' to strangers by carers so she could 'learn from her mistakes', according to a report.

The 23-year-old, who has learning difficulties, went through a two-month trial approved by a court during which random men would visit her Manchester care home for sex during daylight hours.

The scheme was ended after two months after a psychiatrist told a judge that continuing to expose the woman to high risk situations could lead to 'sexual abuse, violence, injury or death'.

The 23-year-old, who has learning difficulties, went through a two-month trial approved by a court during which random men would visit her Manchester care home for sex during daylight hours. File pic

Documents about the case were released to The Times after a court order.

Her family condemned the scheme, accusing care authorities of allowing an 'experiment' that resulted in the 'pimping out of a highly vulnerable young woman'.

The woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, had been in care under the direction of the Court of Protection since she turned 18 in 2013. The court's role is to safeguard adults who do not have the mental capability to look after themselves.

In 2015, a judge ruled the woman could consent to sex but was unable to 'make decisions on her contact with men'. Carers feared she was at risk of sexual harm if she was allowed unsupervised access to males.

With permission from the court, Manchester City Council employed an organisation, Engage Support, to give her 24-hour support.

A year ago, the woman began making a series of risky attempts to have sex with strangers.

According to The Times, Engage Support threatened to terminate its contract unless the woman was given more freedom.

Court documents say a psychologist employed by the firm believed it would be 'in her best interests' to give her 'unsupervised contact with men'.

The woman's family condemned the scheme, accusing care authorities of allowing an 'experiment' that resulted in the 'pimping out of a highly vulnerable young woman'. File pic

The council opposed the plan out of concerns it would expose her to sexual harm, but in June Judge Jonathan Butler gave the go ahead.

Engage Support were allowed to leave the woman alone at home 'to have sexual relations with others during daytime hours [10am to 4pm]'.

If she asked for sex in public, the documents said, carers would not be expected to physically intervene, but should 'remain present'. Over the next few weeks she slept with six men.

In August, Engage Support called a halt to the visits, out of concerns about the woman's sexual behaviour and the welfare of its staff.

She is now looked after by a new care provider and the case has gone to the High Court.

Mark Lever, Chief Executive of the National Autistic Society, said: 'We were shocked to hear about this distressing, unusual and complex case. We don't know all the details but this clearly needs urgent attention.

'Autistic people have a right to a sex life, just like everyone else. Some autistic people with complex needs may lack capacity but others are able to make a range of decisions about their own life.

'However, even where this is the case, it has to be understood that they may still need support to keep them safe.

'That might mean support to understand the nuances of relationships and the motivations of others, in order to make sure that their relationships are safe and positive.'A gravesite dedicated to slain bikies from one of Australia's most feared gangs has been slammed due to its proximity to a memorial for fallen soldiers.

A $230,000 memorial for dead Comanchero bikies sits at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park on the New South Wales Central Coast.

The gravesite is often visited by gang members during their annual ride from Milperra in western Sydney, and is just metres from a memorial dedicated to war heroes.

Four Comancheros who were killed in the notorious Milperra Father's Day Massacre in 1984 are buried at the site, as well as Faalau Pisu who was shot to death while at a friend's wedding in Sydney in 2012.

The memorial has space for the graves of 60 Comanchero members, and features the gang's patch and colours prominently.

A gravesite dedicated to slain bikies from one of Australia's most feared gangs has been slammed due to its proximity to a memorial for fallen soldiers

A $230,000 memorial for dead Comanchero bikies sits at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park on the New South Wales Central Coast

Eighteen bikies are buried at the site, and a compacted Harley-Davidson is buried beneath a large rock.

The gravesite is often featured on Instagram by Comanchero bikies who hold vigils in the area.

NSW Labor MP David Harris said the gravesite was inappropriate.

'The gravesite of veterans who have given their life in service to our country should hold a special status in our community,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

The gravesite is often featured on Instagram by Comanchero bikies who hold vigils in the area

A Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park spokeswoman defended the gravesite

'The private operator of this facility should pay deference to this community expectation when placing other memorials nearby.'

A Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park spokeswoman defended the gravesite.

'We are a non-denominational cemetery and respect and honour every person without a prejudice no matter their race, religion or culture,' she said.

Faalau Pisu who was shot to death while at a friend's wedding in Sydney in 2012, is buried at the gravesite

'Our war memorial was built in our most premier position closest to our chapels to honour our heroes, the Comanchero estate is not visible from the war memorial.'

A Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park spokeswoman said the Comanchero gravesite was not visible from the war memorial.

She said the cemetery had not received any complaints about the Comanchero memorial.

'Unless you went looking for it, you wouldn't know it was there,' she said.

'Our war memorial has been there for a long time, and so had the Comanchero memorial.'

The Milperra Father's Day Massacre was sparked by the defection of Comanchero members to create the Bandidos in 1984.

Their feud ignited a shootout in a car park in Sydney's southwest, leaving six bikies and a 14-year-old bystander dead.

The violence broke out at the Viking Tavern in Milperra, and resulted in nine men being convicted of the seven murders and 21 convicted of manslaughter.

Eighteen bikies are buried at the site, and a compacted Harley-Davidson is buried beneath a large rock

The Milperra Father's Day Massacre (pictured) was sparked by the defection of Comanchero members to create the Bandidos in 1984The remains of four more people were discovered inside the shuttered Detroit funeral home where 11 infants, including 10 fetuses, were found last week.

The additional remains brings the total of unattended remains found in the Cantrell Funeral Home on Detroit's east side to a grisly 38 since April when the home was shut after several decomposing bodies were found inside.

'My construction workers found the remains in the basement,' said Naveed Syed, CEO of Quality Behavioral Health Services, who purchased the building with the intent on turning it into a community center.

'They were all in individual containers with the person's name on the container,' Syed told the Detroit News.

'I (kept) seeing this black box that was in my way,' Joseph Summers, a worker who found the ashes told ABC7 Detroit. 'So as I moved it to the right, I happened to notice that it was the remains of ashes of someone- some loved ones that was basically thrown away like trash.'

Grisly find: Cremated remains of four more people were found inside the Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit this week after 11 dead babies were found on Friday. This small casket contained three of those babies

A small crawlspace where the babies were found Friday was accessed by this pull down ladder at the former Cantrell Funeral Home

The funeral home was shuttered in April after several badly decomposing bodies were found

While the newly discovered remains were in boxes and labeled with the persons' names, there was no medical paper work was attached.

'This shows how negligent people were and how unprofessional it was,' Syed said. 'This is not how you practice mortuary science. This is not ethical or moral.'

The remains were discovered over the course of the week with one found Monday, another Tuesday and two more uncovered Wednesday as workers were clearing out the basement.

The remains of the babies were found in a drop ceiling of the funeral home on Friday.

The state of Michigan closed it six months ago for violating rules.

Eight were stored in a cardboard box and three were found in separate garbage bags that were stuffed into one casket, reported The Detroit News.

The Wayne County Medical Examiner took custody of the remains after the discovery at around 5.30pm.

Jameca LaJoyce Boone, who was the funeral home's manager for a year before it was shut down and had her individual mortuary licence revoked, said she had no idea what was going on with the baby's bodies.

'I didn't know anything about that,' she told The Detroit News. 'I really don't know how that could even have happened. I don't know how long that's been going on there it's very unfortunate and they definitely need to find out who put them there.'

Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) suspended the license of the funeral home in April after inspectors found decomposing embalmed bodies and other violations.

LARA had told the business to reassign prepaid contracts or refund the people who's requests they could not carry out. They had had up to 90 days to wrap up the tasks depending on which route they took, reports WXYZ.

'Based on a new complaint, LARA investigators today searched Cantrell Funeral Home and found the decomposing bodies of 11 infants. We then immediately contacted local authorities,' they said in a statement last week.

In April, LARA suspended the mortuary licenses of both the home and its manager Jameca LaJoyce Boone for many violations including the improper storage of decomposing bodies of adult and infants.

'That suspension order remains in effect as does our investigation. We will use the evidence gathered today to add to our open investigation and will continue to work with local law enforcement as this case proceeds.'

Of 20 corpses thought to have been decomposing for months when they were found earlier this year, three were in cremation containers, seven in coffins and 10 laying out on tables, reports ClickonDetroit.

Violations also included two bodies in a garage covered in what appeared to be mold due to not being held in a proper refrigerator. A third body had unknown fluids covering the facial area.

A report from April states that the owner was being charged with 'fraud, deceit, dishonesty, incompetence, and gross negligence in the practice of mortuary science'.

The charges are for receiving more than $21,000 in prepayments by no less than 13 people who had signed agreements for future funeral services, but failing to register for a new license to do so, reports Freep.com.

They also included having unclean embalming rooms.

He may be guilty of a felony punishable by a fine of '$5,000 or imprisonment of not more than five years, or both,' according to the LARA website.

Fox2 reported that Raymond Cantrell took over the half-a-century-old funeral home in 2017. He said he only held the bodies because some people were unable to pay for a proper burial.

Eight bodies of the babies were found in a cardboard box and three were found in a casket

'If I had them in the funeral home then my funeral home wouldn't smell fresh,' he previously said. 'So yes they are embalmed and serviced we put them in the garage.'

It's not clear if loved ones of the deceased were aware of the exact conditions but he added that people knew the bodies were still in his care.

Others who could afford to bury and cremate their loved ones were not however.

Cantrell also mentioned he was trying to contact people who had ashes to collect but was not able to get in touch with everyone.

'Flat out disgusted, I can only tell them the truth,' Cantrell said in April about customers who were unaware.

'Those who have asked me to hold their loved ones will know I was doing them a favor to accommodate them. For those that weren't, like the many of the cremated they are trying to take from here or that they are taking from here. Those individuals we called we've tried to notify and they haven't been picked up.'

On Monday, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said a criminal complaint will be opened against the owners of the funeral home. As of early Tuesday afternoon, no arrests had been made.A Muslim Labor MP has tweeted a link to an anti-Semitic article from a KKK leader's website which claimed Israel controls Australian foreign policy.

Shaoquette Moselmane shared the article link about 10pm on Wednesday, titled: 'Israel Lobby Controls Australian Foreign Policy - Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr'.

The link went through to David Duke's website, who is known as a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and a former Republican Louisiana State Representative.

Shaoquett Moselman claimed that he was unaware of the background of the author and immediately deleted to the tweet

Shaoquette Moselmane shared the article link about 10pm on Wednesday, titled: 'Israel Lobby Controls Australian Foreign Policy  Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr'

Mr Moselmane was elected in 2009 as the first Muslim in the NSW Parliament.

He shared the link in response to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's comments about being 'open to moving the Australian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem'.

He claimed that he was unaware of the background of the author and immediately deleted to the tweet.

'When it was brought to my attention, I googled the name to find out who the author was,' he said.

'It is a lesson to learn from. So I can only say it was a bit of carelessness of me for not checking the author and it was bad mistake.'

NSW Labor leader Luke Foley said he was 'unaware of any post' and will be investigating.

'It is a lesson to learn from. So I can only say it was a bit of carelessness of me for not checking the author and it was bad mistake,'he said

Mr Morrison's announcement to move the embassy came from the Liberal Party's Wentworth by-election candidate Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, with raising the issue.

'He's arguing it can be done consistent with Australia's long-running position ... He's actually changing the way in which the issue is conceived,' Mr Morrison told Fairfax Media.

Wentworth, the former Sydney blue-ribbon electorate of Malcolm Turnbull, has a large Jewish community and voters will go to the polls this weekend.

If Australia does proceed, it will be following the US which earlier this year moved its embassy, effectively recognising the holy city of Jerusalem as the 'true' capital of Israel.

The ABC reported that if Australia does go ahead with moving the embassy, then Indonesia could cancel an $11billion trade deal with Australia.A desperate search is under way for a woman who has vanished from central Queensland.

Annalise Munro, 30, was last seen on Sundew Street in Gladstone, on Wednesday before she disappeared.

Ms Munro's family and loved ones are extremely concerned for her welfare, revealing she suffers from a medical condition.

Annalise Munro, 30, was last seen on Sundew Street in Gladstone on the North Coast of Queensland, on Wednesday before she disappeared

Ms Munro is described as Caucasian with a slim build, about 168cm tall, with blonde hair and green eyes

Ms Munro is described as Caucasian with a slim build, about 168cm tall, with blonde hair and green eyes.

She was last seen wearing a black shirt and shorts.

She may be driving a Toyota LandCruiser.

The public has been urged to keep an eye out for a silver Toyota LandCruiser with Queensland registration 642XEW.

Police believe she may be travelling in the Gladstone area.

Anyone who has seen Ms Munro or have any information in relation to her whereabouts are asked to contact Queensland police on 131 444 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Pictured is the street Ms Munro was last seen on. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers



The Liberal Party's candidate in the upcoming Wentworth by-election has conceded he could lose to high-profile independent Kerryn Phelps.

Dave Sharma said the wealthy Sydney eastern suburbs electorate 'isn't a safe seat' - after leaked Liberal polling showed he would lose to the former TV doctor, 55 per cent to 45 per cent after preferences on Saturday.

'Ive been saying all along this is going to be a very tight race,' he told Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Ben Fordham on Wednesday afternoon.

Scroll down for audio

The Liberal Party's candidate in the upcoming Wentworth by-election Dave Sharma (left) has conceded he could lose to high-profile independent Kerryn Phelps (centre)

'It's going to be tough for us to hold this seat.'

Mr Sharma conceded Dr Phelps was a 'strong independent' several hours before the ABC revealed an email had circulated falsely claiming his chief rival had HIV.

The Liberal Party's campaign denied being behind the vile email and there is no evidence to suggest they had knowledge of the bizarre smear campaign against the former head of the Australian Medical Association.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who held Wentworth with an 18 per cent margin at the 2016 election, has been absent from the Liberal by-election campaign, even though Mr Sharma was his preferred candidate.

Dave Sharma (left with former prime minister John Howard) said Wentworth 'isn't a safe seat' - after leaked Liberal polling showed he would lose to Kerryn Phelps, 55- 45 per cent

Alex Turnbull, the Singapore-based son of the former PM who quit Parliament in August, last week made a Facebook video calling on Wentworth voters to shun the Liberal Party, and on Wednesday named former prime minister Tony Abbott as among the top five 'craziest' Liberal MPs.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this week flagged moving Australia's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

While Wentworth is home to Australia's biggest Jewish population Mr Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, downplayed the timing of the idea ahead of this Saturday's by-election.

Alex Turnbull, the son of the former PM who quit Parliament in August, last week made a Facebook video calling on Wentworth voters to shun the Liberal Party

'There's no one who's a single-issue voter in Wentworth,' he said.

Mr Sharma, 42, would be in danger of losing Wentworth, which the conservative side of politics has held since 1901, were Dr Phelps, 60, to finish second on primary votes, ahead of Labor.

The Liberal polling, given to The Australian, had Mr Sharma with about 35 per cent of primary votes and Dr Phelps well into the 20s, which could see her elected with Labor and Greens preferences.

The Morrison Government would lose its one-seat majority should the Liberal Party lose Wentworth.A brothel-owning Republican candidate for the Nevada state legislature who died this week will remain on the ballot and win his election in November, his campaign manager predicted on Wednesday.

Dennis Hof, 72, who died on Tuesday, styled himself as America's best-known pimp and a strip-club owner who ran multiple brothels. He had nicknamed himself the 'Trump from Pahrump,' after the town where he lived in Nevada.

'I feel very comfortable predicting that he is still going to win the election on November 6,' campaign manager Chuck Muth said in an interview, adding Republicans had a 2-to-1 advantage over Democrats in the state Assembly district in terms of voter registration.

Dennis Hof's name will remain on the ballot as the Republican candidate for the Nevada state legislature

Hof died on Tuesday

Hof was running for a seat in a heavily Republican district and had been favored to win.

The Democratic candidate for the seat, Lesia Romanov, was not immediately available for comment.

'There are a lot of Republicans who were uncomfortable voting for Dennis because of the nature of his business and they now know that he is not the one who will be serving,' Muth said.

'They will feel much more comfortable casting the ballot for him knowing there will be another Republican to replace him,' he added.

In a June interview from one of his brothels, Hof said his political fortunes had parallels with those of President Donald Trump.

'This really is the Trump movement,' Hof said in the interview at Moonlite BunnyRanch, his brothel near his home in Pahrump. 'People will set aside for a moment their moral beliefs, their religious beliefs, to get somebody that is honest in office.'

After Hof won the June nominating contest for the state Assembly seat, some evangelicals in his district said they had voted for him because they believed he would clean up politics and not be beholden to special-interest groups and their money.

Hof was the Republican candidate in a heavily GOP state legislative district who brought in popular Trump supporters in his campaign, including Trump adviser Roger Stone and Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff.

Wayne Thorley, deputy Nevada secretary of state for elections, said Hof's name will remain on the November ballot. Thorley said ballots with Hof's name have already been mailed to voters but signs will be posted at polling places notifying voters of his death.

If Hof wins the state assembly set, officials will nominate another Republican to fill the vacancy, Thorley said.

Hof was running against Democratic Las Vegas educator Lesia Romanov in the race for a sprawling assembly district that touches both California and Utah, covering rural southern Nevada, largest stretches of desert and the Nevada National Security Site where nuclear weapons were tested.

He upended Nevada politics this summer when he ousted an incumbent Republican lawmaker in a primary, celebrating at an election night party with former Madam . Heidi Fleiss.

Hof also ran for the state Legislature in 2016 as a Libertarian but lost the race.

The thrice-divorced author of 'The Art of the Pimp,' who appeared on HBO's 'Cathouse,' owned a strip club and five legal brothels in Nevada, the only U.S. state with legalized prostitution.Carlo Brewer, the father of Evan Brewer, 3 (pictured), who was abused and tortured for months before being killed, testified in the trial of the child's mother's boyfriend and suspected murderer Stephen Bodine in Kansas on Tuesday

The father of the three-year-old Kansas boy who was abused and tortured for months before he was killed and entombed in a concrete slab, testified in the trial of the suspected murderer on Tuesday.

Carlo Brewer fought back tears on the witness stand, as he described the last time he saw his son, Evan Brewer, alive at the south Wichita home of his child's mother, Miranda Miller, and her boyfriend, suspected killer Stephen Bodine.

Carlo testified that Evan had told him that Bodine was responsible for a gash around his eye and nose, before being questioned by his mom and immediately changing his story.

'He looked at Miranda and she said, "What did you say?" He said, "I mean, I falled,"' Carlo said. 'Out of nowhere she made him stand against the front door put his nose against the front door and I could see him, looking back at me the whole time like he wanted me to take him.'

Carlo said that on that March 2017 day Miller said Carlo could have him the next day, so he left Evan there, and never saw him again.

Evan's mother testified in April during a preliminary hearing in the case that Evan was killed by Bodine following months of torture.

Video and audio recordings showed during the April hearing depicted Evan being forced to stand naked in the basement of his home with his hands behind his back and a belt around his neck, as well as the child being taunted and slapped while he screamed and cried.

Bodine has been charged with first-degree felony murder, child abuse, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment in connection with Evans May 2017 death.

Evan's body was found on September 2, 2017, encased in concrete in the laundry room of the rental home where he lived with his mother and Bodine.

Scroll down for video

Prosecutors said that Carlo called the police on multiple occasions to get authorities to check on his son, and stopped by the home of Miller and Bodine several times between March and September, but never saw his son, according to KAKE.

It wasn't until Miller and Bodine were arrested on September 2 that Evan's body was found.

'Stephen Bodine was the king of his domain. Wherever he lived, whoever was with him he was in charge, it was his rules that everyone had to live by,' Sedgwick County Deputy District Attorney Justin Edwards told jurors during his opening statements on Tuesday.

Those rules included saying, 'Good morning, daddy' before Evan could even go to the bathroom in the monring, Edwards said in court, adding, 'There are punishments for breaking those rules.'

Carlo Brewer fought back tears on the witness stand, as he described the last time he saw his son, Evan Brewer, alive at the south Wichita home of his child's mother, Miranda Miller, and her boyfriend, suspected killer Stephen Bodine

The boy's mother, Miranda Miller, testified in April (above) that Bodine killed the boy at the home while she was there. They are both charged with first-degree murder

Videos played in court in April showed that Evan was forced to stand naked in the basement of his home with his hands behind his back and a belt around his neck

Miller, who is also charged with first-degree murder in her son's death, testified on April 16 that Bodine killed the boy at the home while she was there.

Miller had waived her preliminary hearing earlier that same day, and pleaded not guilty. She acknowledged on the witness stand that she shared responsibility for Evan's death.

Miller testified that Evan died sometime between May 18 and May 22 or 23, in 2017.

She said on the day he died, Evan was being punished for not eating and Bodine hit the boy so hard he became unresponsive. She said Bodine took Evan into the bathroom, and when he came back out with her son, she tried CPR on the boy for 45 minutes.

She said the next thing she remembered was waking up and asking about her son. She said Bodine told her that Evan had gone away because they couldn't take care of him anymore.

Miller said that a few days later in the laundry room, Bodine mixed up several bags of concrete and buried Evan's body in it.

Bodine (left) has been charged with first-degree felony murder, child abuse, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated child endangerment in connection with Evans May 2017 death; Miller (right) has also been charged, but has reached a plea deal in exchange for testifying against Bodine, that will keep her in prison for 27-and-a-half years.

'Stephen wanted to hurry up and take care of Evan before he started to smell,' she told the court.

She said she spanked her son sometimes but Bodine 'would take over' if he 'didn't feel like I was being hard enough on Evan.'

An autopsy didn't reveal a specific cause of death because the boy's body was too significantly decomposed when it was found, a forensic pathologist testified.

Prosecutors showed three clips from a surveillance system set up in several locations at the couple's home, with old cellphones that started recording when they detected motion.

In one recording, a man's voice, which Wichita police Detective Christian Cory testified matches Bodine's, can be heard taunting the boy: 'That attitude, Evan? It's done. And if it's not going to be done, you're going to be done.'

The video coincides with photos prosecutors entered into evidence on April 16 that show Evan standing naked next to a basement wall with his hands behind his back and a belt tightened around his neck.

Miller testified that she put the belt around Evan's neck because Bodine told her that 'children need to be treated like dogs.'

The boy's body was found on September 2, 2017, encased in concrete in the laundry room of a Wichita rental home (pictured above) where he lived with his mother and her boyfriend

An autopsy didn't reveal a specific cause of death because the Evan's body was too significantly decomposed when it was found

A police affidavit previously released by the court showed that the family of Evan's father, Carlo, tried repeatedly to get the Kansas Department for Children and Families, Wichita police and judges to intervene for the boy.

Family spokesperson Shayla Johnston said in December that the child protection system failed the boy, who was the grandson of former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, a Democratic candidate for Kansas governor.

Records that DCF released to The Wichita Eagle in March showed that for more than a year, people reported to the state that Evan was suffering in a home of chronic methamphetamine users.

The records also said Bodine abused Miller and bragged about choking her and the boy until they were unconscious.

Records that DCF released to The Wichita Eagle in March showed that for more than a year, people reported to the state that Evan was suffering in a home of chronic methamphetamine users and that Bodine (left) abused Miller (right), bragging about choking her and the boy

Records that DCF released toThe Wichita Eagle in March showed that for more than a year, people reported to the state that Evan was suffering in a home of chronic methamphetamine users. The records also said Bodine abused Miller and bragged about choking her and the boy until they were unconscious.

'Simply put, the system is broken,' the former Wichita mayor said in April in a statement. 'And our children, the ones we should be protecting the most, are suffering.'

Miller has worked out a plea agreement with prosecutors the Kansas City Star reported, that will put her behind bars for 27-and-a-half years in exchange for testifying against Bodine.

Bodines defense attorney, Casey Cotton, argued that Bodine helped Miller dispose of Evan's body after he passed away, and that he was helping her with her son because 'she was having difficulty taking care' of Evan on her own.

Miller is expected to testify again as the trial goes on.

Others expected to take the witness stand include police officers who investigated Evans whereabouts and death, others who reported seeing signs of abuse against Evan, and Bodines own daughter, who has said he abused her when she was a child.A schoolgirl has been dragged into bushes and sexually assaulted at knifepoint in broad daylight.

The 14-year-old girl had just got off a bus along the Pacific Highway in Windale, south of Newcastle, on Wednesday.

She was walking along Yertala Close about 3.30pm when she was approached by a man with a knife who then dragged her into nearby bushes and sexually assaulted her.

The 14-year-old girl had just got off a bus near Smith St in Windale (pictured) when a man wielding a knife approached her, before dragging in her to nearby scrub and sexually assaulting her

After the sickening assault the man ran from the scene and is believed to have driven away in a silver vehicle, police said.

The girl then ran home and reported the incident.

She was taken to hospital for examination by ambulance but has since returned home into the care of her family.

The man is described as being in his 30s or 40s, with a heavy build, a large belly and legs and a prominent nose and lips.

He was last seen wearing a black hooded jumper, long dark-coloured pants, and white sneakers.

Investigators are urging anyone who may have been in the Windale area yesterday afternoon, particularly anyone with a dashcam who had been driving along the Pacific Highway or South Street between 3pm and 4pm, to contact Crime Stoppers.

A crime scene has been established around the area and is being examined by specialist forensic officers.

Detectives from the Child Abuse and the Sex Crimes Squad are investigating.Former Vice President Joe Biden says that if the Democrats do win control of the House in November they should wait to move to impeach Trump.

During his interview with CBS This Morning, the 75-year-old said: 'I don't think there's a basis for doing that right now.'

He says that the Democrats should wait until special counsel Robert Mueller finishes his investigation.

Biden also urged Mueller not to being his probe to an 'arbitrary' end before the crucial midterms.

'I think it should be issued when they finish the investigation,' he said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden says he hopes Democrats don't move towards impeaching the president if they gain control of congress as there isn't a basis for it just yet

Biden on impeaching Trump: "I hope they don't" Former Vice President Joe Biden said that if Democrats retake the House of Representatives, he hopes "they don't" impeach President Trump. https://cbsn.ws/2QYjvYJ More on CBS This Morning Thursday. Posted by CBS Mornings on Wednesday, October 17, 2018

'I've been around a long time,' Biden explained. 'You wait until the investigation's finished. You don't put an arbitrary end to it. You wait until it's finished. And let's see what it has to say.'

'I think we should focus on all the terrible things that are happening now in terms of interest of the middle class people and working class people,' Biden added.

Biden's recent comments come amid increasing questions of whether he will run for president.

During a speech in Michigan on Tuesday, he said it would be fair if he was questioned about his age if he decided to run for president in 2020.

At 75, Biden is three years older than Trump and would be 77 by the time his party's primary contest got underway.

'I think age is a totally legitimate thing to raise,' said Biden.

'It's totally appropriate for people to look at me and say if I were to run for office again, 'Well God darn you're old,'' he said in remarks carried by CNN. 'Well, chronologically I am old.'

Former US vice president Joe Biden, pictured at Senator John McCain's memorial service on August 30, 2018, is often cited as a potential Democratic candidate with a solid resume

Biden is often cited as a potential Democratic candidate who packs a solid resume and has some of the common touch needed to lure voters from Trump's populist movement.

Among other big Democrat names seen as potential candidates are populist leftist Bernie Sanders, 77, and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who is 76.

Trump was the oldest American in history to begin a first presidential term when he entered the White House at age 70 years and 220 days in 2016. He says he is '100 percent' sure to seek reelection.

Biden's full interview with CBS This Morning will air on Thursday.A mother who was arrested in Lebanon after a botched 60 Minutes plot to rescue her 'kidnapped' children has opened up about her heartache.

Sally Faulkner has expressed her grief as she awaits the birth of her fourth child, two years after losing the right to bring Lahela, eight, and Noah, five, home from their father, Ali Elamine.

The Brisbane mother who has another son, Eli, with partner Brendan Price, is now expecting her fourth child, Isaac.

Sally Faulkner has expressed her grief as she awaits the birth of her fourth child, two years after losing the right to bring Lahela, eight, and Noah, five, home from their father, Ali Elamine

Sally Faulkner lost the right to bring Lahela and Noah home from Lebanon

The expectant mother shared a photo to Instagram with a heartfelt message showing her heartache of missing her two children

The expectant mother shared a photo to Instagram with a heartfelt message showing her heartache of missing her two children.

'Sometimes depression means ignoring every phone call for an entire month because yes, they have the right number. But you're not the person they're looking for, not anymore,' the quote read.

Next to the post, she wrote: 'Unfortunately, over the past few years Ive become very withdrawn from social interaction.

'Only a few days of a month do I have it inside of me to talk to others.

'Grief changes youand no matter how hard you try to make that charge for the best  something will always give.'

Ms Faulker with her ex-husband and their two children in Australia during happier times together

Ms Faulkner and Channel 9 hired agents who snatched her kids from their father, but she and a 60 Minutes crew, including Stephen Rice (pictured) were caught and locked up in Beirut

Ms Faulkner hit headlines in 2016 when she travelled to Beirut with a Channel Nine TV crew to find her young children and take them back to Brisbane.

But the operation ended with crew being arrested and her losing the right to bring Lahela and Noah home.

Their alleged abduction came as a shock after a two-year amicable separation between Ms Faulkner and Mr El Amine.

After their separation Mr El Amine resided in Lebanon, but he frequently visited every couple of months to see Lahela and Noah.

'I never once denied him any access or relationship with the children  he was free to come and go,' Ms Faulkner said.

She said she was reluctant to let her children travel with their father to Lebanon to visit his family for a holiday, but she 'didn't want to be one of those mums that kept the kids from their dad.'

She claims he planned to never return with the children.

Ms Faulkner only realised this horrifying fact when she noticed that her children's immunisation booklets were missing.

She said: 'He knew what he was going to do. I just want him to be reminded that what he's done is wrong and what he's continually doing is not appropriate.'Caffeine lovers can soon get a double shot of Coca-Cola and coffee in one sweet addictive fix.

Coca-Cola Australia has announced the launch of its new Batch Blends range, which consists of two coffee flavours infused with chocolate and caramel.

The company describes its latest range as sophisticated with a dark and mysterious edge to the Coca-Cola classic designed to appeal to adult tastebuds.

Coca-Cola Australia's latest Batch Blend range won't be found on supermarket shelves

The new coffee drink blend has around 35ml of caffeine per 250ml can, compared to 40ml in a 100ml cup of coffee and 48.75 in a 375ml can of the Coke classic.

Both flavours contain no sugar and include blend of real coffee sourced from Brazil.

'Coca-Cola Batch Blends have been crafted for the curious mind and those after drinks with more adventurous flavours,' a Coca-Cola spokeswoman said.

'This premium range gives Australians the chance to explore sophisticated tastes in social settings when out and about enjoying a drink or a meal with friends.'

The news sparked a divided reaction on social media.

'Seriously guys? did you learn nothing last time? You've tried to put Coke and coffee together before and it was disgusting,' one woman tweeted.

With coffee flavoured chocolate or caramel infused Coca-Cola to choose from, the 250ml cans will only be available in selected bars, hotels, cafes and restaurants

The new products can be enjoyed as a refreshing standalone treat or served in a mixer or cocktail.

They will only be available in 250ml cans in a selected bars, hotels, cafes and restaurants and not on store shelves.

'Youll need to keep your eyes peeled as weve chosen a limited selection of venues where Batch Blends will be ranged,' the spokeswoman said.

The Batch Blend 250ml can will have less caffeine than a 100ml cup of coffee and normal 375ml can of classic Coca-Cola

The launch comes a year after Coca-Cola unveiled its limited edition Coffee Plus range specifically designed for the Australian market.

The Batch Blends are in addition to the recent Coca-Cola flavour innovations of orange, raspberry and ginger currently on store shelves.

The spokeswoman said the cinnamon-infused Christmas version that was recently announced in the UK will only be available there.

Other Coca-Cola infusions previously launched in Australia included vanilla, cherry and lemon.An English backpacker has allegedly been raped by a man who recruited her to work on his rural farm in Australia.

The 23-year-old claims she was sexually assaulted on a number of occasions after she went to work at the farm in Mondure, Queensland last year.

A 48-year-old man has been charged with 'deceptively recruiting', sexually assaulting and raping the young woman.

Allegations: The 23-year-old British citizen claims she was raped by a 48-year-old man who hired her to work on a rural farm in Mondure, northwest of Brisbane, Queensland, last year

The 23-year-old had arrived in Australia on a Working Holiday visa, and had travelled to work at the property northwest of Brisbane in January 2017.

The man was recently arrested following a joint police and border force investigation, local police said.

He was charged with two counts of rape, one of sexual assault and one of deceptive recruitment.

Backpacker: The 23-year-old woman had gone to work on the farm as part of the conditions of her Working Holiday visa

The 48-year-old is expected to appear in Magistrates Court in nearby Murgon today or Friday.

Police say the investigation is ongoing and they are appealing for information from anyone who knows of similar offences in relation to this case.UN Ambassador Nikki Haley's remarks to a secretive conservative conference have been revealed.

Haley spoke before the Council for National Policy, a group of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country, at a conference in Charlotte on October 4 - five days before announcing she would resign.

The conservative gathering was so secretive that organizer Tony Perkins threatened that anyone caught recording would be 'taken to a room and be forced to watch Rachel Maddow', according to Harper's reporter Max Blumenthal, who infiltrated the gathering.

Haley told the crowd that in 2016, when she was initially offered the position of Secratary of State in President Donald Trump's administration, but she declined.

Haley said that she told Trump in 2016: 'Honestly, I don't even know what the UN does.' She is seen at the 2016 Republican National Convention

'I thought the job should go to someone who didn't have the same learning curve,' Haley, then the governor of South Carolina, said of the Secretary of State role, the highest level cabinet position.

Then Trump offered her a job as US ambassador, Haley recalled.

'I told [Trump], 'Honestly, I don't even know what the UN does,' she told the CNP crowd to uproarious laughter.

Haley regaled the crowd with her experiences at the UN, and said that she often portrayed Trump as a loose cannon in negotiations to scare other countries into line - the 'madman theory' of diplomacy utilized by President Richard Nixon.

Trump shakes hands with Haley on October 9 as she announces her surprise resignation

'My boss is kind of unpredictable, and I don't know what he'll do,' she said she warned her Chinese counterpart when haggling over North Korea after a missile launch in September of 2017.

The threat of a U.S. invasion of North Korea was enough to get China to allow a tough new sanctions package to pass through the US Security Council, Haley recalled.

'I tell the president, 'I do this all the time,' Haley assured the crowd. 'And he totally gets it.'

The week after the North Korean sanctions passed, Trump was scheduled to address the UN general assembly for the first time.

Haley says she implored him not to refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the pejorative moniker 'Little Rocket Man' before the international body.

Haley says she implored him not to refer to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by the pejorative moniker 'Little Rocket Man' when he addressed the UN in 2017 (above)

'I told the president, 'This is the UN; it's a little more formal of a setting than a campaign rally,' Haley remembered, holding back laughter.

But Trump insisted that he liked the ring of the insult, she recalled.

'So I said, 'Okay, Mr. President, you're the boss,' Haley recalled. A few hours after the speech, Haley says that the president of Uganda walked up to her and casually referred to Kim as 'Rocket Man'.

Haley concluded by saying: 'I have been able to lead the state that raised me and been able to serve the country I love so much. I have been such a lucky girl.'

Less than a week after the conference, Haley made a surprise announcement that she planned to step down as US ambassador, effective at the end of the year.An influential member of the Liberal Party in Malcolm Turnbull's old electorate has slammed the former Prime Minister for 'selfishly' sparking a by-election and then refusing to campaign.

Emeritus Professor David Flint, who has been a party member since 1999 and belongs to the Rose Bay branch, accused Mr Turnbull of disregarding taxpayers and his party, two days out from the Wentworth poll in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

'This is really the mother of all dummy spits,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday.

'It would be reasonable for people to assume that this is selfish.

An influential Liberal member in former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's (right with wife Lucy) own electorate has slammed him for 'selfishly' sparking a by-election

'It's certainly not generous, either to the people of Australia, in terms of cost and stability but also the party he led.'

The by-election is set to cost taxpayers at least $1.5 million, only six months out from the next federal election.

The government will lose its one-seat majority should the Liberal Party's Wentworth by-election candidate Dave Sharma lose to high-profile independent Dr Kerryn Phelps, as recent polls suggest.

That will then leave the government vulnerable in any no-confidence motion.

New South Wales National Party senator John Williams said he was disappointed Mr Turnbull had stayed away from the Wentworth campaign, following two Liberal leadership challenges from Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in August that sparked his resignation from Parliament.

Emeritus Professor David Flint (pictured), who has been a party member since 1999, accused Mr Turnbull of disregarding taxpayers, two days out from the Wentworth by-election

'Disappointing, isn't it? 'I wish Malcolm had been a lot more involved,' Senator Williams said.

Sally Betts, a close political ally of Mr Turnbull who worked in his electorate office for six years, defended the former prime minister's absence from the Wentworth campaign as he holidayed in New York.

Malcolm Turnbull ally Sally Betts (pictured)

'His opinion is that had he been here, Liberal voters would have been angry that he'd been dumped and voted accordingly,' she said.

'He explained his point of view to me and I accept it.'

Ms Betts, a Waverley councillor, is the president of the Liberal Party's Federal Electorate Conference in Wentworth and is in charge of volunteers at this Saturday's poll.

Professor Flint, who won't be available to hand out for the Liberal Party on Saturday, said Mr Turnbull would have been a better leader of the Labor Party.

'He would he been happier in many respects with the policies of the Labor Party,' he said.

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma (left with former prime minister John Howard in Double Bay) is in danger of losing the Wentworth by-election to independent Kerryn Phelps

A leaked Liberal Party poll released to The Australian this week showed Kerryn Phelps (pictured) beating Dave Sharma, 55 to 45 per cent after preferences

'He may have turned out to be a better leader of the Labor Party than he was of the Liberal.'

Prof. Flint, the national convener of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, joined the Liberal Party in 1999, in the same year Mr Turnbull led the doomed 'yes' referendum campaign for a republic.

A leaked Liberal Party poll released to The Australian this week showed Kerryn Phelps beating Dave Sharma, 55 to 45 per cent after preferences.

It had Mr Sharma's vote falling to the mid-30s as Dr Phelps garnered support in the 20s, which could see her get elected with Labor and Greens preferences.A teenage girl who was dragged into bushes and sexually assaulted as she made her way home from school was told by her attacker: 'If you tell anyone I'll kill you'.

The 14-year-old was sexually assaulted at knifepoint just moments after stepping off a school bus at Windale, in the Lake Macquarie, NSW, on Wednesday.

Detectives from the Child Sex Crimes Squad have launched an investigation into the attack, which happened when the man approach the teen as she walked along Yertala Close about 3.40pm.

A resident of the street told Daily Mail Australia her own daughter heard the attacker verbally threaten the teenage girl after carrying out the shocking sexual attack.

A teenage girl who was dragged into bushes and sexually assaulted as she made her way home from school at Windale (pictured) was threatened by her attacker: 'If you tell anyone I'll kill you'

'No one really saw anything. My daughter was with a friend down the corner and she heard the man say something to the girl,' a local said.

'He said to the girl: "If you tell anyone I'll kill you".

'My daughter told me and then when police knocked on my door I told them, and we had to go and make a statement.

'I mentioned it to detectives and they said the girl who was attacked had told them the same thing.'

The teenage girl is believed to have been grabbed as she cut through grassland from a bus stop on the Pacific Highway.

As she walked along a track in the direction of home, police said she was grabbed at knifepoint, before being sexually assaulted.

The neighbour said no one on the street saw the attack, but many noticed a mystery man walking around the area during the day.

'I didn't see anything out of the ordinary except for one fella. He came down the hill and I didn't see him walk back up,' the local said.

The 14-year-old got off a school bus near Smith St in Windale (pictured) when a man wielding a knife approached her and dragged in her into nearby scrub, before sexually assaulting her

John Kerlatec (pictured) from the state Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad said the attack was

'There's a little bush track that connects to the Pacific Highway, which is where the girl got off the bus.

After the sickening assault the man ran from the scene and is believed to have driven away in a silver vehicle, police said.

The girl then ran home and reported the incident.

Superintendent John Kerlatec from the state Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Squad said they were after 'any information' to help get the 'perpetrator off the streets'.

The man is described as being in his 30s or 40s, with a heavy build, a large belly and legs and a prominent nose and lips.

The girl was walking along Yertala Close (pictured here) when the attack happened, with the man fleeing the scene in a silver vehicle

He was last seen wearing a black hooded jumper, long dark-coloured pants, and white sneakers

Investigators are urging anyone who may have been in the Windale area yesterday afternoon, particularly anyone with a dashcam who had been driving along the Pacific Highway or South Street between 3pm and 4pm, to contact Crime Stoppers.

A crime scene has been established around the area and is being examined by specialist forensic officers.A Hindu temple has been attacked by vandals who lit fires, destroyed furniture and smashed more than 30 sacred statues of gods on Sunday night.

Barathiye Mandir Temple, in Western Sydney's Regents Park, is still reeling from the incident which destroyed sacred statutes, leaving worshippers struggling to understand the motive behind the attack.

Head priest Pundit Para Maharaj told SBS 'we never expected anything like this to happen in Australia' and are in a 'state of shock.'

Barathiye Mandir Temple, in Western Sydney's Regents Park, is still reeling from the incident which destroyed sacred statutes Sunday night

The temple in Regents Park is a meeting place for the tight-knit Hindu community

Smoke billowed out from inside the temple as people arrived on Sunday night to worship.

Emergency services were called, but by the time they arrived to fight back the flames, many of the relics and furniture had already been destroyed.

The worshipers who discovered the temple ablaze, told the Bankstown Express they saw people escaping through the windows as they arrived.

Mr Maharaj also told the paper that damage will cost them upwards of $50,000 to replace the statues along with the rest of the destruction.

Once an Anglican church, the building has been used as Hindu temple since 1998 and serves as a meeting place for a tight-knit Hindu community.

The temple opens it doors to and attracts as many as 250 people on Friday nights, when they provide free meals to people.

In the aftermath of the attack, worshippers have created a makeshift prayer room so they can continue using the temple until it can be repaired.

Head priest Pundit Para Maharaj says repairs and replacement statues will cost over $50,000

Auburn police are investigating the incident that took place in Regents Park on Sunday night

Mr Maharaj believes this could be a crime that was motivated by hate, as it took place during one of the holiest times on the Hindu calendar and the till box was left untouched, despite it being clearly visible.

Surinder Jain, a director at the Hindu Council of Australia penned a moving blog post stating 'this is our home too', commending Australia as 'a very fair society' and one that allows Hindu's the 'freedom to practice our religion.'

'A few miscreants among them can not scare us away' he said.

Auburn police are investigating the incident.

You can donate to help the temple here.A severe thunderstorm created widespread chaos across Sydney and other New South Wales regions on Thursday afternoon.

The Bureau of Meterology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Sydney metropolitan area and parts of NSW Mid North Coast, Hunter and Illawarra districts.

A similar warning was later issued for Gosford and Terrigal on the NSW Central Coast.

The afternoon thunderstorm brought flooding to Sydney Olympic Park (pictured)

The Bureau of Meterology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Sydney metropolitan area and parts of NSW Mid North Coast, Hunter and Illawarra districts

A severe thunderstorm created widespread chaos across Sydney on Thursday afternoon

'Heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding is likely in these storms,' the bureau tweeted.

Around 6,000 lightning strikes were detected within a 50km radius of Sydney, according to Weatherzone.

The storm caused delays at Sydney Airport.

Lightning struck a tree in Winston Hills in western Sydney.

'Crews are on route to assess the tree and make the area safe,' NSW SES West Sydney tweeted.

Around 6,000 lightning strikes were detected within a 50km radius of Sydney, according to Weatherzone

The storm caused destruction as trees were struck in backyards (pictured)

The NSW Central Coast is being lashed by a severe thunderstorm, according to this weather map

Social media users commented on the crazy turn around in weather as the city quickly cleared up following the storm

Sydneysiders reported flash flooding near Strathfield train station, where a woman was pictured crossing a flooded road.

Pictures taken at Sydney Olympic Park show vehicles attempting to navigate through flooding that was brought by pelting rain.

'Fortunately I got home before the skies opened up, but Im feeling sorry for that person's shoes,' one person tweeted.

Another Twitter user shared two pictures ten minutes apart to show how quickly the storm passed through Olympic Park before the sun appeared again.

It was mostly sunny in Sydney before the storm hit at about 2.30pm, one Twitter user pointed out (pictured)

The storm comes after Penrith, in Sydney's west, was hit with one month's rain in half an hour last night

BOM recorded 61.4 millimetres in half an hour, much greater than the October average of 51mm

Sydney Trains warned the severe storm could create possible delays and urged commuters to check for timetable changes.

The storm comes after Penrith, in Sydney's west, was hit with one month's rain in half an hour on Wednesday night.

BOM recorded 61.4 millimetres in half an hour, much greater than the October average of 51mm.A pilot in New Zealand has died in a helicopter crash, just three months after his brother was killed in eerily similar circumstances.

Nick Wallis, from Wanaka, in the South Island, is understood to have been one of three people killed in the crash near Wanaka Airport this morning.

Two Department of Conservation (DOC) staff were also on board and police have confirmed that there were no survivors.

Nick Wallis (pictured) from Wanaka in the South Island is understood to have been one of three people killed in a helicopter crash near Wanaka Airport this morning

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash, but it is understood that Nick and the DOC staff were on their to bring a herd of wild goats under control, in the Haast area.

The helicopter left Wanaka Airport at 10.51 this morning, headed for Landsborough Valley, and the aircraft was allegedly seen bursting into flames after it crashed into a nearby paddock, the NZ Herald reports.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash near Stevenson road at about 11am.

Nick was the youngest of four brothers and less than three months earlier, his older brother Matthew also died in a helicopter crash.

Two Department of Conservation staff were also on board and police have confirmed that there were no survivors

Nick was the youngest of four brothers and less than three months earlier, his older brother Matthew (left) also died in a helicopter crash

Matthew crashed near Stevensons Island, in Lake Wanaka, during a short solo flight from Wanaka Airport to Mt Aspiring National Park in July.

Nick, Matthew and their other brothers Toby and Jonathan together ran an Alpine Lodge called Minaret station, and all four are highly experienced fliers.

They are also the sons of helicopter pioneer Sir Tim Wallis.

The family is well-known and much-loved in the area, and Nick leaves behind him a wife and their twin 7-year-old daughters.

We acknowledge this is the second helicopter crash in the Wanaka area in recent times and the impact this will have on the local community, Inspector Olaf Jensen said.

Matthew crashed near Stevensons Island in Lake Wanaka during a short solo flight from Wanaka Airport to Mt Aspiring National Park in July

He added that police were working closely with victims families to provide support.

Nick had been flying a brand new Hughes 500 helicopter, and a former DOC worker who has flown with Nick many times, was baffled as to the cause of the crash.

It will be really interesting to find out what has happened here, he told local reporters.

I cant believe it would be a pilot error as Nick was super experienced and a really talented pilot.

Nick, Matthew and their other brothers Toby and Jonathan together ran an Alpine Lodge called Minaret station, and all four are highly experienced fliers

DOC Director General Lou Sanson said he knew all involved in the crash and said the DOC staff involved were like family.

We are still trying to come to terms with this mornings tragedy, he said.

Our hearts go out to the families of the DOC workers involved.

He added that the DOC would be liaising closely with the police but would not be commenting further at this stage.

The site of the crash is being secured overnight as police work with other agencies to examine the scene and recover the victims bodies.A Virgin Australia flight from Perth to Brisbane has been forced to make an emergency landing in Brisbane after passengers noticed a burning smell in the cabin.

Flight VA465 flight left Perth Airport at 7am Thursday but shortly after take off a passenger alerted crews to a distinct electrical burning smell in the cabin.

At about three hours into the journey the captain advised passengers of an electrical issue and announced the flight would need to land prematurely in Adelaide, WA Today reported.

A Virgin Australia flight from Perth to Brisbane has been forced to make an emergency landing in Brisbane after passengers noticed a burning smell in the cabin (stock photo)

One passenger noted flight crew appeared to become anxious throughout the duration of the flight.

After landing in Adelaide the plane was followed by fire trucks and boarded by a team of firefighters before passengers were allowed to disembark.

'In accordance with standard operating procedures, the captain made the decision to divert to Adelaide Airport as a precautionary measure after an odour was detected in the cabin,' a Virgin Australia spokesperson said.

'The aircraft was met on arrival by emergency services as a precaution and all passengers and crew safely disembarked the aircraft'.Hindu hardliners threw stones at police and attacked female reporters as they tried to bar women from one of India's holiest temples.

The Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in the southern state of Kerala was meant to allow women from Wednesday following an order last month by India's highest court.

But hundreds of traditionalists, attacking baton-wielding police, defied the order - surrounding and shouting at any woman attempting to make it to the hilltop site.

Furious young men smashed the car windows of female television reporters and threatened others, kicking one female correspondent.

Police beat a Hindu activist in protests over women's access to a Hindu temple in Kerala

A policeman pulls sharply on a protester's shirt as he is hauled away from the road

Overnight Hindu groups declared a 12-hour shutdown of local businesses, telling drivers that their vehicles would be attacked if they took anyone towards the temple.

'Some men came to the parking lot early Thursday and warned taxi drivers against defying the shutdown call,' said taxi driver Praveen, in the town of Pathanamthitta.

'They warned drivers at several nearby parking lots and hotels. Anyone who defies it will be risking damage to his vehicle,' he added in an account corroborated by other drivers.

'No one will get to the temple today because all the drivers are scared for the safety of their cars,' one hotel receptionist reported.

State authorities insisted they will ensure access to the temple, imposing restrictions on public gatherings that came into force from midnight.

An officer launches a stone back at protesters as violence spills onto streets around the shrine

Young men look terrified as they are corralled by Indian riot police using batons and shields

Kerala police, who have drafted 500 hundred extra officers, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms, provided escorts to buses.

They patrolled through the night and reinforced their presence at Nilackal, the base camp below the temple.

But groups of between 50 and 100 young men, gathered at junctions on Thursday, preventing any vehicles from continuing towards the temple.

'Traditions that have existed since before courts cannot be tampered with,' said Krishna Kumar, a tall muscular man in his 20s at one crossroads in the town of Kozhencherry.

Another activist appears to protect his head as an officer grabs the scruff of his shirt

Stone-throwing activists face off against police on roads around the Kerala temple

Last month India's Supreme Court overturned a ban on females of menstruating age - between 10 and 50 years - entering and praying at the hilltop temple, reached by an tough uphill trek.

Women are permitted to enter most Hindu temples but female devotees are still barred from some.

The entry of women at Sabarimala was long taboo but a ban was formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991, a ruling overturned by India's Supreme Court last month.

This enraged traditionalists, including supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP, with thousands protesting in the days before the scheduled opening on Wednesday afternoon.

The restriction reflected the still prevalent belief among many that menstruating women are impure, and the fact that the deity Ayyappa was reputed to have been celibate.

A protester is surrounded by armour-clad riot police as he puts his hands up to his face

Biju S. Pillai, a local man in his 30s, was one of those opposed to the court ruling, and told of his return from working in Dubai to 'protect the sanctity of the temple'.

'No one should be able to change the way this temple has functioned for centuries,' he said. 'If any change is made they will have to kill us and go over our bodies.'

EP Jayarajan, a minister in the Kerala government, blamed the violence on 'goons' from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group seen as close to Modi's BJP.

The head of the BJP in Kerala, P.S Sreedharan Pillai, said on Wednesday that their party advocated 'peaceful protest against the court verdict.'

'The overwhelming majority of women oppose the Supreme Court ruling,' he added.Britons could need visas to visit France if the UK does crash out of the EU without a deal.

The French government ramped up its preparations for a no-deal Brexit and said Britons would become 'nationals of third parties' and would probably need travel permits to visit.

Angela Merkel also warned Germany is making contingency plans, raising questions about the future of tens of thousands of Britons currently living there.

The German Chancellor warned life would be 'different' for the UK once it leaves the EU and said her government was 'seriously' preparing for talks to fail.

It came as fears Britain will crash out without a deal grew massively last night as Theresa May's desperate plea to EU leaders for a Brexit breakthrough fell flat.

She was accused of having 'nothing new' to say and a crunch summit penned in for next month where both side shad hopes to seal the deal has been shelved.

And this morning she admitted the Brexit extension period could be extended in order give both sides more time to frantically thrash out a deal.

But her remarks have been met with fury from Tory Brexiteers - sparking fresh calls for her to quit as PM.

Theresa May (pictured in Brussels tonight) and Donald Tusk held private talks today before the Prime Minister's make-or-break pitch for a Brexit deal

All EU member states are thought to be stepping up their plans for a no-deal Brexit.

But Environment Secretary Michael Gove said yesterday a deal could still be struck, even if it is not until December.

France was the first to ratchet up the tension yesterday, publishing guidance on the Senate website.

Ministers push for yes-or-no vote on any final Brexit divorce deal MPs have voiced anger after the government argued the Brexit divorce deal must be either accepted or rejected by MPs. Remainers and Brexiteers have been plotting to try and sway the process their way by changing the final agreement. But ministers have now suggested amendments to the final package will not be possible. In a memo to a Commons committee, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said: 'Once the deal is presented to parliament, the procedure through which it is voted upon must allow for an unequivocal decision, and one which is clear to the British public.' The government blueprint suggests the motion will be amendable. But the amendments might only be taken if the main motion itself passes - reducing the scope of MPs to make meaningful changes. Advertisement

It said Britons would become 'nationals of third parties' after March 29 next year if there is no breakthrough in talks and that visitors would 'in principle' need a visa to visit the country.

Those wanting to stay for longer than three months would need a 'long stay visa'.

Britons currently living in France would become 'illegals' and need to apply for residency status and work permits.

There will be 'consequences' for certain professionals, including British doctors, pharmacists or tobacconists, who may no longer be able to practise in the country.

It warned there would be border checks on 'goods and passengers' and that animal and plant controls would be reimposed, affecting people who want to take pets abroad. These checks would also apply to Eurostar passengers.

And in what German media dubbed her 'big Brexit speech', Mrs Merkel said preparations for a no-deal outcome were under way.

'This brings with it a whole array of questions, such as: how, the day after Brexit, do we manage the estimated 100,000 British citizens who, in some cases, have been living in Germany for years?

'How do we deal, for example, with teachers of British citizenship, who are classed as German civil servants, and how should that continue?

Arriving for the second day of a fraught EU summit this morning, the PM admitted she is looking at options for any 'gap' between the end of the current mooted transition period in 2020 and a trade arrangements coming into effect

'How do we appropriately prepare our authorities for the added burdens to do with customs issues?'

The sabre-rattling came as Mrs May's long-awaited bid to win a breakthrough in talks hit the rocks last night.

The PM addressed EU leaders before dinner last night urging them to find a compromise to get a deal.

May faces calls to quit as she admits Brexit transition period could be extended Theresa May is facing Tory calls to quit today amid claims she could keep Britain lashed to the bloc for longer to ease the Irish border standoff. Arriving for the second day of a fraught EU summit this morning, the PM admitted she is looking at options for any 'gap' between the end of the current mooted transition period in 2020 and a trade arrangements coming into effect. But she insisted she did not 'expect' that there would be a gap and suggested it would last 'a matter of months' rather than the year suggested by the EU. Mrs May is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night. The idea means longer subject to EU rules without any say in writing them - and paying potentially another 15billion into the bloc's coffers. It has already been roundly rejected by the DUP as a distraction tactic that would not help cope with the Irish border backstop issue. Tory MP Nadine Dorries said Mrs May should be ditched and replaced with ex Brexit secretary David Davis. She said: 'We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit.' Advertisement

But her words fell flat as the leaders said there were 'nothing new' in her words and the key sticking point - what to do about the Irish backstop - remains unsolved.

As hopes for a deal take a fresh blow, EU leaders shelved plans for another summit in November where both sides had hoped to seal the deal.

Instead it looks as though negotiators will be pushing talks right up to the wire in December.

Arriving for the Brussels summit this morning, Mrs May admitted that she is considering extending the Brexit transition period 'for a matter of months'.

She said the UK had already put forward a proposal to avoid the need for either a hard border or a customs border down the Irish Sea.

And she added: 'A further idea that has emerged - and it is an idea at this stage - is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months - and it would only be for a matter of months.

'But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

'I'm clear that it is possible to do that and that is what we are working for, and in those circumstances there would be no need for any proposal of this sort and I'm clear that I expect the implementation period to end at the end of December 2020.'

But her words will inflame tensions back in Britain where she is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night.

Meanwhile, a top government official told MPs yesterday he 'can't tell you it will all be fine' at Britain's borders if the country does crash out without a deal.

Jon Thompson, head of HM Customs and Revenue, told Parliament's Brexit committee he could not give any assurances about such a scenario.

He revealed the French authorities would not talk to the UK about whether there will be extra border checks at Calais if no deal is reached.

He said: 'They won't have a conversation at all.'

He called for a 'practical approach' to the border, warning 'the impact on France, Belgium, Ireland and Holland will also be dramatic'.

Pet owners should see a vet next month to ensure they will still be able to take their animals abroad if there is a 'worst case scenario' Brexit, Michael Gove warned yesterday.

The Environment Secretary said the UK risked becoming an 'unlisted third country' if there was no deal, which would lead to onerous new measures for pet owners.Security staff at a Chinese train station were caught by surprise when they saw the image of a child on their monitor last week.

A boy reportedly crawled into an X-ray machine when his father was not paying attention at a station in Zhongshan, southern China's Guangdong Province.

After the father passed the body scan, he couldn't find his son. As he started looking for the child, he was stunned to see the boy climbing out from the other side of the X-ray machine.

Chinese railway staff were stunned to see the image of a child on their monitor on October 9

The incident took place at the Xiaolan station at the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Railway on October 9, according to Guangzhou Daily.

The newspaper also published a surveillance video which captures the unusual incident.

Guangzhou Railway Police released an X-ray picture which apparently shows the child inside the machine.

Surveillance footage shows the father bringing his son into the station in the city of Zhongshan

But when the father is being scanned by a worker, his son climbs onto the conveyor belt

The clip shows the father and son did not bring any luggage with them.

Neither the boy's father nor the train station staff appeared to be paying attention to the child when his father was being checked by a worker.

After the boy jumped off the X-ray machine, the father talked to a security worker briefly before leaving the station with the child.

The police have urged parents to take extra care of their children while going through security check after the incident.

Another passenger who is picking up his bag looks at the child as he comes out of the machine

The boy's father who is looking for him finds the child at the other side of the machine

A similar incident took place this February also in Guangdong Province.

A female passenger insisted that she climb into an X-ray machine with her handbag at a train station in Dongguan because she feared it might be stolen otherwise.

Security staff were shocked to see the silhouette of a woman as they monitored the X-ray screens.

A female passenger also climbed into an X-ray machine at a station in China earlier this year

It is reported that the woman insisted she go into the machine to 'protect' her handbag

X-rays are a type of radiation that can pass through the human body. They are mainly used for medical purposes and are often carried out on one part of the body.

According to NHS, being exposed to X-rays carries a 'small' risk of causing cancer 'many years or decades later'.

An X-ray of one's chest, limbs or teeth is equivalent to a few days' worth of background radiation, and has less than a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of causing cancer, said NHS.Former Apprentice star Summer Zervos claims President Trump is hiding evidence that could prove he sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel in 2007, it was reported last night.

Ms Zervos, who claims Trump kissed her twice on the mouth and groped her breast without consent, is suing Trump for defamation, claiming her restaurant business lost customers when he called her a liar.

In a new Supreme Court filing, she claims Mr Trump has refused to hand over calendars, phone records and files belonging to his former lawyer Michael Cohen which she says could back up her claims.

Former Apprentice star Summer Zervos claims President Trump is hiding evidence that could prove he sexually assaulted her in a hotel in 2007, it has been reported

Denial: Trump claimed she had made up the tale for fame or to help his opponents

The president's lawyers say they either don't have the information or that it's too 'burdensome' to produce, reported the New York Post.

Today, the parties will meet in a Manhattan appeals court to debate where the US Constitution's Supremacy Clause shields Trump from civil litigation.

Ms Zervos leveled her accusations against Mr Trump during the 2016 election campaign and he hit back at political rallies, describing her as a lair.

Mr Trump claimed she had made up the tale for fame or to help his opponents.

Summer Zervos is demanding Trump's lawyers hand over information from his other sexual accusers as she sues the President for defamation

Zervos, a former Apprentice contestant (pictured on the show in 2005), says Trump kissed her twice on the mouth and groped her breasts without consent in 2007

The statute of limitations has expired on Trump's alleged crimes, but Ms Zervos subsequently filed suit for defamation, saying Trump went too far in his denials.

'In an effort to convince the public that Ms Zervos supposedly had lied about his groping, the defendant did not merely deny the truth of the specific facts she reported,' a statement from Ms Zervos' lawyer said.

'He went further, attacking her by stating falsely that she had lied for fame or to aid his political opponent.'

Mr Trump denied ever inappropriately touching any woman, saying 'that is not how I've conducted my life.'

His attorneys have said that his statements about Ms Zervos were true and that his remarks were 'non-defamatory opinions' that came amid the heated public debate of a national political campaign.

Trump denied the claims, telling rallies that Zervos had lied to get fame or help his opponents in the election. She is now claiming that his denials went too far

In a filing in August, lawyer Mariann Wang accused Mr Trump's lawyers of failing to hand over evidence his other accusers gave at pre-trial hearings.

Ms Wang argued that the evidence will be essential in determining whether it was true that Trump 'had never inappropriately touched any woman', as Mr Trump claimed.

The information will also help prove or disprove whether Mr Trump established patterns of behavior which included touching women suddenly.

The President, who denies Ms Zervos' allegations, is trying to get the case dismissed or postponed until after his presidency.

A request to delay the lawsuit was thrown out earlier this year, but Mr Trump's lawyers had a bigger bone of contention, saying that a sitting President can't be sued in a state court.

The New York courts refused to deal with that allegation, saying it could be debated at a later date.Advertisement

Britain's transition through Brexit will 'probably' take a year longer than expected, Jean-Claude Juncker said today despite Tories erupting in fury at the idea of being kept under EU rules.

The EU Commission President said the idea of an even longer transition period - which is supposed to expire on December 31, 2020 - was on offer to Britain to help deliver a free trade deal.

Theresa May insisted at the end of the latest summit failure Britain was not asking for a longer transition after Brexit day in March but admitted there could be a mechanism to extend it for a few months.

Endorsing the plan in a speech last night saw new calls for Mrs May to quit today, with critics branding the idea 'mad' amid claims it could cost Britain an extra 15billion in EU subscription fees.

Mr Juncker said it was 'a good idea' and added 'this prolongation of the transition period probably will happen.'

French president Emmanuel Macron did not offer any words of comfort as he gave a press conference closing the summit, saying the standoff was down to Mrs May's own 'political' problems and it is her 'responsibility' to find a solution - even insisting 'no deal' would not be a catastrophe for France.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Mrs May's much-trumpeted speech to leaders last night had left her 'neither more pessimistic nor more optimistic'.

EU council chief Donald Tusk said 'not enough progress' had been made and confirmed another Brexit summit would only be called 'if and when' Michel Barnier says a deal is ready. In further unhelpful remarks, commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said a transition was a 'good idea' and will 'probably happen'.

At her press conference, Mrs May said: 'There is a lot of hard work ahead. There will be more difficult moments in the final stages of the talks.

'But I am convinced that we will secure a good deal that is in the interests of the UK and of the European Union.'

Theresa May (pictured today in Brussels) insisted at the end of the latest summit failure Britain was not asking for a longer transition after Brexit day in March but admitted there could be a mechanism to extend it for a few months

Britain's transition through Brexit will 'probably' take a year longer than expected, Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured today during his press conference) said despite Tories erupting in fury at the idea of being kept under EU rules

At a press conference tonight, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that 'time is of the essence' to strike a Brexit deal with the UK after another fruitless summit

EU council chief Donald Tusk said 'not enough progress' had been made and confirmed another Brexit summit would only be called 'if and when' Michel Barnier says a deal is ready

After a fraught EU summit, the PM tried to put a brave face on complaints from fellow leaders that effectively no progress had been made

As pressure mounted on the PM today, Tory Eurosceptic Nadine Dorries said she must be kicked out and replaced as leader by David Davis, while usually loyal MP Nick Boles said she was 'losing the confidence' of the party.

In a thinly-veiled swipe, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said it was 'vita' that Brexit happened at the 'earliest possible point'.

DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told MailOnline the blueprint suggested the government was in a 'mad panic' and it would do nothing to help solve the Irish border 'backstop' issue.

Former Brexit Secretary Mr Davis penned a joint letter with Boris Johnson warning that the 'moment of truth' was approaching and the British public 'would not forgive' the government for caving into Brussels.

The comments came after Mrs May's efforts to break the deadlock with a speech to counterparts last night fell flat.

Following the 15-minute address, leaders said the premier had offered 'nothing new' despite being urged to come forward with 'concrete proposals'.

In a sign of the rising tensions with the clocks ticking down to exit day, Michel Barnier warned that the two sides need 'much more time' to reach a divorce agreement.

Standing alongside Mr Juncker, Mr Tusk said 'not enough progress' had been made in talks to call another summit.

'I stand ready to convene a council on Brexit if and when the chief negotiator says enough progress has been made,' he said.

Mr Tusk suggested 'rationally' there had been little change from the gathering but 'emotionally' he felt there had been progress.

Mr Juncker said: 'My working assumption is not that we will have a no deal. A no deal would be dangerous for Britain and for the EU... It will be done.'

The premier chatted to Spainish counterpart Pedro Sanchez (pictured left) as the summit continued today

The premier is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night

Mrs May insisted she did not 'expect' that there would be a gap and suggested it would last 'a matter of months' rather than the year suggested by the EU

The leaders gathered at the EU council's headquarters in the Belgian capital today for the second half of the summit

Mrs Merkel did not seem the worse for wear at the summit today, kissing EU council chief Donald Tusk (left). After the summit meeting last night (clockwise around the table from back right) French President Emmanuel Macron, Mrs Merkel, Belgian PM Charles Michel and Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel went out for drinks at a bar in Brussels

The suggestion the transition period could be extended sparked renewed calls for Mrs May to be replaced as Tory leader (left). The DUP dismissed the idea that a transition extension to smooth over the Irish border issue, pointing out that it would not stop the backstop having legal effect

French President Emmanuel Macron told a press conference in Brussels that Brexit was 'no longer a technical issue, it's for the political ability of the UK to reach an agreement that can be presented to us'.

He added: 'Today it's for Prime Minister May and for her team to get back to us with a solution on what could be the basis of the political compromise to be found in the UK... It's a message of responsibility.'

What is the Brexit transition and how could it be extended? What is the Brexit transition period? The EU and UK agreed in March that there would be a 21-month transition after Brexit day on March 29, 2019. It is due to expire on December 31, 2020. In the period Britain will still obey all EU rules without having any say in setting them, pay membership fees, and have the same trade terms. The current plan has not yet been voted on in Parliament. How long could it be extended? There is a new proposal to extend transition for another few months, possibly to the end of 2021. Why is there talk of extending it? March's agreement also included a commitment to create a 'backstop' on the Irish border - a back up plan to ensure the border stays open in the absence of a long term trade deal. There is a deep dispute over how this should work so the new suggestion is a longer transition could allow a full trade deal to be completed in time for the backstop never to be used. The theory is this takes pressure off the exact form of the backstop, making it easier to agree and solving the last issue in the divorce deal. Does anyone support extending it? The EU says it is willing to adopt a longer transition if Britain asks for it. Theresa May says Britain is not asking for a longer transition - but might accept a mechanism for extending the current transition. Tory Brexiteers hate the idea, fearing it will just be extended again and again and leave Britain facing billions in extra charges. Government sources tried to calm the row today by insisting an extension would only be acceptable if the EU accepted the UK's version of the backstop. Would it solve the Irish problem? Nobody knows. Both sides are still far apart on how the backstop will work and there is doubt a full trade deal can be finished even by the end of 2021. What happens if transition is extended? Britain would continue to follow all EU rules without having a say on how new ones are made - meaning continued free movement, European Court judgements and bills to Brussels. Trade across the Channel would also continue under today's rules. Advertisement

At her press conference, Mrs May said: 'These were always going to be tough negotiations and things were always going to get tougher before we got to the closing stages of the negotiations.'

Pressed on the issue of an extension to the transition, Mrs May said it could be a 'further solution to the issue of the backstop'.

She said: 'I have always been very clear that we negotiated a strict implementation period with the EU, and we negotiated that that implementation period should end at the end of 2020

'What has now emerged is an option to extend the implementation period could be a further solution to this issue of the backstop in northern Ireland.

'What we are not doing is we are not standing here proposing an extension to the implementation period. What we are doing is working to ensure we have a solution to the backstop issue in northern Ireland - which is currently a blockage to us completing the deal  that enables us to get on with getting a deal which delivers on the vote of the British people and is good for the future of the UK.'

Government sources tried to calm the row today by insisting an extension would only be acceptable if the EU accepted the UK's version of the backstop.

Mrs May was given about 15 minutes to make her pitch to counterparts in Brussels last night.

But she then had to leave while the other leaders feasted on a dinner of pan fried mushrooms and fillet of turbot cooked in wheat beer.

She stayed at the British ambassador's residence in the Belgian capital overnight, where she ate a fish supper, but will only be allowed to attend some of the proceedings on the second day of the summit.

In her address, Mrs May stressed that significant progress had been made in many areas of the negotiations and urged them to find a 'creative' way out of the current dilemma.

'We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively,' the PM said.

'I remain confident of a good outcome.' And she told them: 'The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides.'

But European Parliament president Antonio Tajani said after the speech that despite demands for 'concrete proposals' she had not put forward 'anything substantially new in terms of content'.

Mr Tajani told reporters: 'I listened carefully to what May had to say... but I did not perceive anything substantially new in terms of content.'

He jibed that 'there is a readiness to reach agreement but there is no change in content'.

An EU source said the 27 leaders had decided not to call a special Brexit summit in November as 'not enough progress has been achieved'.

The leaders also reaffirmed their 'full confidence' in Mr Barnier and refused to change his guidelines.

The original hope was that a deal might have been ready to sign off at this summit - but the chances of any real advances at the gathering in Brussels are now close to zero.

The main impasse is over EU demands for Northern Ireland to stay within its customs jurisdiction after Brexit.

Mrs May says she could never accept such a plan, but Brussels has rejected the UK's counterproposals.

In a bid to make its blueprint more palatable, the bloc is offering to extend a mooted transition period by a year to the end of 2021. Currently Britain is due to quit EU rules on December 31, 2020 - almost two years after Brexit day itself on March 29, 2019.

European Parliament president Antonio Tajani (pictured in Brussels today) said after Mrs May's speech that despite demands for 'concrete proposals' she had not put forward 'anything substantially new'

The body language between Mrs May and Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured right) has been closely watched during the gathering in the Belgian capital

Emmanuel Macron (pictured left with Mr Juncker today) has said he is still hopeful of a deal - but the French government yesterday published a draft law making clear Britons will need visas to visit the country if there is no agreement

The EU hopes to persuade Britain a long transition means the backstop will never kick in because a wider trade arrangement will have been sealed.

However, the idea does not seem to address the UK's fundamental objection that the backstop could kick in - and the EU's version would effectively split the UK.

Mr Varadkar said yesterday that an extension 'couldn't be a substitute for the backstop'.

The costs of the transition are also likely to be considerably higher than the UK's current net membership contribution of around 10billion.

The bloc's budget commissioner Gunther Oettinger said last week that he wants national rebates - worth around 5billion a year to the UK at present - to be scrapped after the end of 2020.

Mr Rees-Mogg said an extension risked 'very substantial costs' for the UK, which would have to make additional contributions running into billions of pounds into EU budgets and would almost certainly lose its current rebate.

What are the Brexit sticking points between UK and EU? The concept of a 'backstop', to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic whatever the future trade relationship, was agreed by both sides in December last year. But they have dramatically different idea on how the mechanism would work - which have given rise to two distinct sticking points. Border in the Irish Sea Brussels says the only way of avoiding a hard border is for Northern Ireland to stay under its customs jurisdiction. Under the model, the province would also follow single market rules to avoic the need for checks. But Mrs May says that would be unacceptable as it would split up the UK. Ministers are unanimous in opposing anything that splits the UK. Critically, the premier's DUP allies - who prop her up in power - are adamant they will not allow it to happen. Credible exit plan from EU customs rules The PM is trying to break the deadlock by proposing a new 'backstop' arrangement for the Irish border. The blueprint could mean the whole UK staying in the EU customs union 'temporarily' and accepting regulatory checks between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. Brussels seems implacably opposed to having a hard 'end date' written into the deal. As a result, the government is mooting a 'break clause' that would ensure the customs arrangement will end - without explictly stating when. Some Cabinet ministers and Tory MPs fear that in reality this could keep the UK subject to Brussels rules indefinitely. But they are thought to be holding off all-out mutiny until they see the final shape of the proposal. Advertisement

An extended transition period 'means we are in the EU for longer when the EU can make rules for the UK over which we would have no say and we would be paying for the privilege', the North East Somerset MP told Sky News.

'The Government doesn't have endless money. It has to make choices. The question the Government has to answer is if this costs billions of pounds, is it better to give the money to the EU or better to sort out the issues with Universal Credit?'

Mr Rees-Mogg said an extension would not break the deadlock in withdrawal negotiations, because the EU would still demand a 'backstop' arrangement to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials said that Mrs May continues to regard the EU backstop - under which Northern Ireland would remain within the European customs union until a broader trade agreement was finalised - as 'unacceptable'.

Mr Rees-Mogg questioned whether Cabinet had given its support for an extended transition when it met for a mammoth three-hour discussion of Brexit on Tuesday.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Environment Secretary Mr Gove said it was 'vital' that Britain leaves the EU at the 'earliest possible point'.

And International Development Secretary Ms Mordaunt said: 'The Prime Minister was very clear this morning in the statements she has given that she recognises the need to do things swiftly, not least because that is what the public expects.'

Mr Wilson said the concession on the transition offered 'no reassurance' that the UK would not be split.

'It makes no difference on solving the problem we are facing,' he told MailOnline. 'It makes all the difference in getting us out of the EU.

'The EU want to simply string us along for as long as possible.

'They are hoping for a change of mind if not a change of government.'

DUP MEP Diane Dodds said of the transition idea: 'All very well, but this doesn't do anything to actually change the backstop, as it would be in the legal text of the withdrawal agreement.'

'Therefore it does not address any concerns, it offers no reassurance.'

Tory MP Nick Boles, who has been urging a close Norway-style relationship with the EU, said the idea was 'madness'.

'I'm afraid she is losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion, people who have been supportive of her throughout this process,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'They are close to despair at the state of this negotiation because there is a fear that both the government and the EU are trying to run out the clock, that they are trying to leave this so late that they can then credibly say that there's no alternative but a no deal Brexit. And most people agree that would be chaos. Now that is not an acceptable way for a leader of a government to behave.'

Ms Dorries said: 'If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. It's time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader.'

Ukip MEP Patrick O'Flynn said: 'Here we go. The woman who can't take decisions wants to leave her country in limbo for longer.'

Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey said: 'If a backstop is such a good idea to sort the border issue why do we not go for a backstop around the entire British Isles then Irish Republic can be part of it too.'

Mr Johnson and Mr Davis signed a letter demanding a change of approach from the PM along with former ministers Priti Patel, Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson, and leading Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.

'Talk of either a UK or a Northern Irish backstop is inimical to our status as a sovereign nation state,' they wrote.

'Both are unnecessary: indeed they are a trap being set by the EU which it is vital we do not fall into.

Mr Macron (pictured today) has struck a notably softer term at this summit after leading a savage attack on the PM's Chequers plan at Salzburg

Irish PM Leo Varadkar (left) warned the leaders they could not risk a return to the Troubles. EU council president Donald Tusk (right) has been taking a hard line over the talks

'Using existing techniques and processes, with political co-operation, we can ensure that trade continues between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

'The necessary procedures can all be implemented within the existing legal and operational frameworks of the EU and the UK.

'Rational and pragmatic approaches can ensure that trade across the border is maintained. There need be no threat to the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.'

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington today played down the prospect of Britain facing a multi-billion pound bill.

'That would be one of the things that would be teased out in the negotiations,' he said.

'There may be other approaches we can take.'

He added: 'The key point is that neither side wants to us to be in the position where the insurance policy is needed.

'There isn't a detailed proposal, this is an idea that has come up. One would need to flesh it out in the next few weeks.'

During the private summit meeting last night, Mr Varadkar showed EU leaders a copy of an Irish newspaper which featured the story of an IRA bombing of a border customs post.

The Taoiseach brought a copy of Monday's Irish Times edition to the summit dinner to emphasise how far Northern Ireland and Ireland had come.

A spokesman for Mr Varadkar said that he held up a hard copy of the newspaper to show 'how far we have come in 30 years, from violence to peace'.

Boris Johnson, left in the Commons this week, and David Davis, pictured right, have ramped up the pressure on Mrs May by demanding she ditches the idea of an Irish border backstop

As EU leaders stepped up their criticism of the UK yesterday, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters she wanted the UK 'to decide finally what they want'.

'We very much want for Prime Minister May to come with a strong mandate, which we have not seen yet in the UK,' she said.

'We need very concrete understanding of what the UK really wants. To stay one leg in the continent and one leg in the UK is really not possible.

'Today we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they want. It is a problem.'

Slovakian premier Peter Pellegrini said: 'I think we will receive information that there is no deal and I think we should do the maximum to the last day to try to have an agreement.

'But the 27 should be prepared also for a no-deal result and I think maybe we will finish like that.

'My hope was that today we would have already some concrete solution on the table but it looks like there will not be a deal today.'

French President Emmanuel Macron said he came to Brussels with a message of both 'confidence and urgency'.

'Confidence because progress has been made and we see a collective will to move forwards, but we are not there yet and now it is time to decide,' he said.

'I believe there is urgency to reach a withdrawal agreement, which is indispensible, and to look forward to our future relationship.'

Mr Macron said: 'Lots of things have been done, but we must now accelerate the work. I have trust in Michel Barnier and his team who have done remarkable work.'

Mrs Merkel said she was determined to 'do everything' to get a deal.

Mr Barnier warned that 'much more time' was needed to try to strike an agreement.

Ministers push for yes-or-no vote on any final Brexit divorce deal MPs have voiced anger after the government argued the Brexit divorce deal must be either accepted or rejected by MPs. Remainers and Brexiteers have been plotting to try and sway the process their way by changing the final agreement. But ministers have now suggested amendments to the final package will not be possible. In a memo to a Commons committee, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said: 'Once the deal is presented to parliament, the procedure through which it is voted upon must allow for an unequivocal decision, and one which is clear to the British public.' The government blueprint suggests the motion will be amendable. But the amendments might only be taken if the main motion itself passes - reducing the scope of MPs to make meaningful changes. Advertisement

'Brexit must be orderly, for everyone and for all the issues, including on the island of Island,' he said.

'So we need time, we need much time, much more time, and we will continue to work in the next weeks calmly and patiently, calmly and patiently.'

The draft no-deal law published by the French government yesterday warns checks on goods at the borders could cause huge disruption.

The document says: 'In the event of withdrawal from the United Kingdom without agreement, British nationals who enjoy the right of free movement and free establishment throughout the European Union, as well as members of their family, will become nationals of third parties and will therefore in principle be subject to common law, that is to say to the requirement to present a visa to enter the French territory and to justify a residence permit to stay there.

'In case of withdrawal from the United Kingdom of the European Union without agreement, British nationals currently residing in France and their family members would be staying illegally.'

Meanwhile, Mrs Merkel delivered a speech at the German parliament stating for the first time that her government was preparing for no-deal.

'The chances of reaching in time a good and viable exit agreement is still there,' she said.

'At the same time, it is only fitting as a responsible and forward-thinking government leadership that we prepare for every scenario, that includes the possibility of Great Britain leaving the European Union without an agreement. We have begun in the government to prepare ourselves appropriately for this.'

But Mrs Merkel gave little indication that the EU was willing to give ground.

'In the negotiations with Great Britain on these and other issues it must always be clear, that, even if we want to avoid hardships at the end, there always needs to, and will be, a difference between having membership of the European Union and a partnership with the European Union as a third party,' she said.A teenage driver is facing jail for using his car 'as a weapon' to plough into two women sitting on a kerb outside a nightclub while trying to run over a rival.

McCauley Cox, 19, slammed into Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls while they waited for a taxi home at 5.30am in Newport city centre on April 29.

At the time, he was trying to drive his Ford C Max into another unidentified man who was fighting with his friend Ben Thomas.

McCauley Cox, 19, was found guilty of driving into two women after a fight broke out outside a nightclub in Newport city centre on April 29

Prosecutor James Wilson said: 'He deliberately drove a car at a man with the intention to cause really serious harm.

'At the time he was fighting with a friend. The man managed to get out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.'

Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls were on the kerb after a night in the Courtyard nightclub in Newport, South Wales.

Mr Wilson said: 'They could not get out of the way of the defendant who ran them over. They were the ones who suffered the really serious injuries instead.'

CCTV used in the trial was released on Wednesday showing Cox's car approaching the crowd of pedestrians outside the Courtyard nightclub as some begin fighting.

The car clips one of the pedestrians, leading some to kick the Ford C-Max people carrier and confront Cox at either side of his vehicle.

Moments later the car darts forward and turns on to the pavement towards a group of people, including victims Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls who are sitting on a kerb.

Cox runs over the two girls before reversing back over them, then darting forward once more over their bodies and reversing further down the street.

Witnesses begin to attack his car and smash its windscreen, prompting Cox to accelerate out of the road at speed, missing other pedestrians by inches.

Police found the car later that day 'engulfed in flames'. Cox said he decided to park it up after its engine began to smoke, and denied intentionally torching it.

CCTV used in the trial was released on Wednesday showing Cox's car approaching the crowd of pedestrians outside the Courtyard nightclub as some begin fighting

The car clips one of the pedestrians, leading some to kick the Ford C-Max people carrier and confront Cox at either side of his vehicle. Cox runs over the girls before reversing back over them, then darting forward once more over their bodies and reversing further down the street

Newport Crown Court heard both women remember being hit by the careering vehicle.

'Miss Poole describes that she heard a noise and turned around to see the wheel of the car coming towards her,' Mr Wilson said.

Cox, from Newport, denied by was found guilty of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent

'She was screaming to stop and then she blacked out,' Mr Wilson said. '[Miss Nicholls] felt a crushing pain to her back and she thinks she then blacked out.'

Newport Crown Court had previously heard the university friends suffered 'really serious injuries' after being repeatedly run over, with Miss Poole needing specialist skin grafts and Miss Nicholls suffering a lacerated spleen.

Earlier in the trial, Mr Wilson told Cox: 'Today you say you wanted to try and break up the fight.

'But you know full well you weren't breaking a fight up. You were using the car as a weapon.

'You know full well the reason you went for that man is because he was confronting a friend of yours. You deliberately drove that car at that man with intent to cause him very serious harm.

'And you are responsible for those girls' injuries because of your anger and annoyance at that man who was confronting your friend.'

Cox, of Ringland, Newport, denied two counts of inflicting GBH with intent but was found guilty by a jury at Newport Crown Court.

Two other defendants, Callum Banton and Benjamin Thomas, both pleaded guilty to affray in connection with the fight and were sentenced in June.

Banton began a fight with a group of men after which Thomas joined in.This is the hilarious moment a protective pooch jumps into a pool to save its 'drowning owner'.

Lauren Bright was relaxing along with her faithful dog Kaiser at a pool when her friend Bria jumped in for a swim at her home in America.

As she pretends to struggle in the water, splashing around as the one-year-old German Shepherd instantly jumps in to rescue Bria.

The one-year-old German Shepherd leaped into action to rescue an owner from drowning

Kaiser grabbed hold of Bria's (pictured) hair and doggy paddled her across the pool to safety

Kaiser immediately runs to the side of the pool and jumps in to save Bria who is wearing a blue striped swimsuit.

When he gets to her, he grabs hold of her hair causing Bria to scream out before she bursts out laughing at how Kaiser reacted to her prank.

He pulls her up to a ledge and takes a breather after the rescue effort leaving his owner stunned.A scary advert has been banned after a parent complained the video showing a creepy doll was 'distressing' to their child.

In the spooky video, which Spotify say was intended to be a 'humorous spoof of a horror film', a group of friends are taunted by a frightening doll every time they play Camila Cabello's hit song Havana.

The video was seen in June on YouTube gaming channel DanTDM and figures provided by the streaming company showed 11 per cent of viewers were aged 13-17.

The ad starts by showing a group of carefree friends asking to play the 'wake up playlist' while they eat breakfast

As the first few seconds of Camila Cabello's hit song Havana are played the video changes to a shot of a dark room with the creepy doll (pictured) sat on a sofa

The clip starts with one of the friends asking for 'the wake up playlist' as the others chat in the kitchen and start to dance.

As the music plays, a horror film style doll in a dilapidated old room is seen raising its head and tense music is played to accompany the pop song.

The creepy doll appears again when one of the women plays the song while sitting in bed. It is then seen ambushing the characters in the ad whenever they press play on the track.

Scenes reminiscent of famous horror movies are shown with the doll sneaking up on a woman in the bathroom mirror, haunting the friends as they take out the rubbish and eerily walking down a hallway.

The doll then starts to appear every time the friends play Havana including when they are sat in bed (pictured), in the shower and walking around the house

The doll stalks the hallway of the house, haunting the friends. Spotify said the ad was supposed to be 'a humorous spoof of a horror film'

One frightened character then attempts to convince the other not to play the song saying: 'I know it's a great song with its catchy melody and sing-a-long lyrics but we can't play that song.'

The ad then shows one of the spooked-out friends taking hold of the another's hand to stop him playing it but then the doll's hand reaches out to press play.

In a final shot text appears alongside the doll's face which reads, 'killer songs you can't resist'.

A parent complained to watchdogs that their children saw the ad and found it 'distressing.' They claimed the ad had been 'irresponsibly targeted'.

An investigation was launched by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) which found the ad breached rules regarding 'social responsibility' plus harm and offence.

Spotify bosses claimed the dialogue at the end of the ad would 'dispel any remaining tension and make clear that the ad as a humorous spoof of a horror film.'

When the people try to stop pressing play on the song the doll's own hand appears to play it

The video ends with the words 'Killer songs you can't resist' which Spotify bosses claimed would 'dispel any remaining tension'

They also said that the ad had appeared on Youtube, and had a function so users could skip it after five seconds, and that the doll's head only appeared after 12 seconds.

The ad had appeared prior to a clip about a video game that was marketed as a stealth and horror game and so counted as adult-targeted content.

But the ad was banned, and Spotify was warned in future to ensure ads that were unsuitable for viewing by children were 'appropriately targeted'.

An ASA spokesman said: 'We considered that although some might find the ad mildly scary, most adult viewers would find the ad overall to be humorous rather than frightening.

'However, we did consider that the nature of the ad meant it was not suitable to be seen by children because it was likely to be distressing to them.Doctors' failures to detect sepsis caused the death of a 21-year-old man, a coroner has ruled.

Tim Mason told medics he 'felt like he was dying' in hospital on March 16, only to be discharged and then readmitted the same day in a serious condition.

Medics failed to carry out the relevant checks on him and he later went into septic shock before his death as his heartbroken family watched on.

He had become ill on March 8 with flu-like symptoms, having to take time off college to recover and started to feel better.

Trainee electrical engineer Tim Mason, 21, told medics he 'felt like he was dying' in hospital on March 16

Tim Mason, pictured with his brother Nick (left), first became ill with flu-like symptoms on March 8 and had to take time off college

But the illness returned, and the trainee electrical engineer was admitted to hospital in the early hours of March 16, his inquest heard.

Mr Mason was discharged after four hours and had not had a sepsis screening, which doctors have conceded should have happened.

He had been suffering from sepsis symptoms such as high heart rate and body temperature above 38C, but was not checked for the life-threatening illness.

The inquest heard on Wednesday he was instead diagnosed with gastroenteritis and given antibiotics and fluids before being sent home.

Tim Mason (pictured second from left), with his brother Alex (far left), father Gavin (centre right) and other brother Nick (pictured far right) in Gibraltar

But he was taken back by his parents hours later after suffering drowsiness and continuously collapsing, and died that night.

Giving evidence, his mother Fiona said: 'On March 16 he began to vomit violently - more than anyone we've ever seen. It continued at least seven times.

'It was a mother's instinct that this was not normal.'

She added: 'He had a seriously high heart rate and uncontrollably high temperature.

'In the afternoon he said he was feeling even worse... at 2.48pm we set off back to the hospital.'

Mrs Mason said when she took her son to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital, in Kent, he could not support himself and started collapsing in a wheelchair.

She said she 'begged' a receptionist to let her son be seen by a doctor immediately, but they told her she had to re-do the admission process.

'I explained we had been here in the morning,' Mrs Mason said.

'I explained the symptoms had been worse.'

She added: 'I begged for him to be seen now.

'I begged for a doctor to attend urgently. Nothing happened.'

Mr Mason, from Tunbridge Wells, was in such a bad state that three people gave up their seats in the waiting room so he could lie down.

When eventually seen by a doctor, Mr Mason 'was frightened, and expressed this to both me and his doctor', his mum said.

Mr Mason, pictured in Gibraltar, was discharged after four hours and had not had a sepsis screening, which doctors have conceded should have happened, an inquest heard

Mrs Mason, who is the personal assistant to Charles Bowman, the Lord Mayor of London, added: 'He said he felt like he was dying.'

He was admitted to the intensive care unit and suffered a cardiac arrest at 9.03pm.

Signs of circulation returned as doctors treated him, but he suffered another cardiac arrest eight minutes later, to his family's 'absolute horror', Mrs Mason said.

Mrs Mason, her husband Gavin and their two other sons Alex, 27, and Nick, 23, watched him die in hospital.

The family were represented at the inquest by lawyer Jessica Elliott.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has admitted had Mr Mason been assessed for sepsis, on the balance of probabilities, he would not have died.

Doctors would have been able to give him correct antibiotics and possibly save his life, the court heard.

The trust also accepted a breach of duty with the decision to discharge Mr Mason, its assessment of him.

Mrs Mason thanked the doctors for allowing Mr Mason's family to watch as they tried to save him, saying it was 'the right and sensitive decision'.

Mr Mason had initially been taken to Tonbridge Cottage Hospital, Kent, but Mrs Mason was advised to take him to Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

Dr Maxim Bacon, the first doctor to see Mr Mason during his initial admission, had expected his patient to have been checked by his colleagues.

The junior doctor said: 'If he had triaged for sepsis protocol when he came in, I would have expected it to have happened before I saw him.

'He should have been screened for the sepsis protocol.'

It took doctors six hours to diagnose the sepsis, and Mr Mason had not been seen by a senior doctor during his first visit.

Today his mother Fiona told his inquest he had been 'vomiting violently - more than anyone we've ever seen', adding: 'It was a mother's instinct that this was not normal.'

Despite her 'begging' hospital staff to see her son, Mrs Mason was told they would have to wait their turn.

Mr Mason's temperature was clocked at above 39C when he arrived at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent - one of the symptoms of sepsis.

He also had a 'seriously high heart rate', his mother said - another symptom.

Tim Mason pictured on his first day of secondary school. The inquest into his death will resume in Maidstone, Kent, today

Mr Mason's initial illness was meningitis W, the inquest was told and he developed sepsis as a result of that.

His family said he was not offered the vaccination for the disease by his GP from 2015 to the day he died - and Mrs Mason criticised this, believing had he received it, he might not have died.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, has admitted had Mr Mason been assessed for sepsis, on the balance of probabilities, he would not have died.

Doctors would have been able to give him correct antibiotics and possibly save his life, the court heard.

The trust also accepted a breach of duty with the decision to discharge Mr Mason and its assessment of him.

In a statement issued after the inquest Dr Peter Maskell, Medical Director, of the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, said: 'We are truly sorry that we did not do everything that we could have clinically to help diagnose

Timothy's sepsis sooner, and take steps to treat this diagnosis.

'I would like to personally apologise unreservedly to Timothy's family and friends for this tragedy.

'While no words can adequately address their loss, we will ensure that lessons are learnt by our doctors and nurses.

'We have carried out a full review of Timothy's care and have taken a series of actions to address areas of our practice that fell short of the high standards we want for all of our patients.'

The trust says three specific actions have been identified and acted upon as a direct consequence of what the Trust learned from Timothy's death.

The Trust has:

-Implemented a new protocol for senior review of all patients due to be discharged from A&E with abnormal observations.

-Implemented a new protocol for review and escalation where there is a high volume fluid infusion in young adults, as this may indicate more severe illness.

-Re-emphasising to all clinicians, in learning and reflective teaching sessions based on Timothy's actual care experience, the importance of following the Trust's Sepsis protocol.

Speaking after the inquest, Mrs Mason said of her son: 'He was popular, with an enormous range of friends to which he was totally loyal.

'He had an unshakeable sense of what was right and wrong, and was passionate about so many things - his work, friends, family, animals, and those less fortunate than him.

'Debating, arguing and righting wrongs were high on the agenda, and family suppers could become very loud as a result.

'He was full of plans for the future, mapping out the next few years to include travelling with his brother and completing his apprenticeship.

'Our house used to be full of noise and laughter and life. It's now quiet and we are all struggling.

'Tim's life is precious and private for the family, but the events surrounding his death can be learnt from, and if changes are made that result in lives being saved then that will be of some small comfort.

'The conclusion clearly states it was a treatment and diagnosis problem at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, and he (the coroner) also found significant problems with the vaccination system.

'We hope that the two reports that will be sent by the coroner to NHS England and Tunbridge Wells Hospital addressing the systemic problems the inquest revealed will be acted on with all seriousness.

'We have agreed to work with the hospital to try and affect changes locally, but this is not just a local problem.'

She also said the family would campaign for all GP surgeries to offer the meningitis W vaccine for all 18-25 year olds.

She added: 'Our fight is to ensure that every GP surgery across the country has the patient alert system switched on, and offers the vaccine to all of their 18 to 25-year-old patients, as Public Health England wishes.

'We also hope that all hospitals update their sepsis protocols and make sure that their staff are trained to follow them without exception.'

Paul Sankey, clinical negligence partner for law firm Enable Law representing Tim's family said after the verdict: 'For Tim's family nothing can make up for his loss, but the acknowledgement of responsibility will go a small way to helping them move on.

'We should now be able to resolve a legal claim on behalf of the family.'

Recording a narrative conclusion at the end of the inquest today Coroner Roger Hatch said: 'On the balance of probabilities, Tim Mason, when he presented at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital on March 16 at around 3.03pm, given the results of his blood tests, temperature and heart rate, should have received a sepsis screening.

'In addition, he should have been reviewed by a senior doctor.

'Had he been correctly diagnosed, it is most likely he would have been prescribed intravenous antibiotics and he would not have died.

'This should have happened six hours earlier when he first presented.'

Mr Hatch said Mr Mason's cause of death was meningococcal septicaemia.

He added: 'I am satisfied his death was caused due to the failure to diagnose and treat him at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital and, had he been correctly treated, probably would not have died.'

The coroner ruled out neglect, saying Mr Mason eventually received the correct treatment during his second admission.Body language experts have revealed the tell-tale signs that prove the 'homeless hero' of the Manchester bomb attack was lying about rushing to help victims.

Psychologists and linguists have analysed footage of interviews given by Chris Parker in the aftermath of the terror attack in May last year, in which 23 people died.

They claim to have exposed 'tells' that gave away Parker's guilt and how he lied about helping victims when in fact he had stolen phones and purses as they lay dying.

Footage reveals numerous signs of deception in an interview given moments after a bomb had exploded inside the Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert.

Scroll down for more video

Chris Parker (pictured left in his mugshot and right, outside Manchester Crown Court) ransacked victim's bags in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017

Parker tells the interviewer he had 'ran back into the arena' to help victims as others ran away, but becomes visibly agitated as his friend unwittingly contradicts him.

The friend, a fellow homeless man, says 'he's got pictures', referencing the fact that Parker had taken photographs of the dead which he intended to try and sell.

Body language analyst Cliff Lansley explains how Parker's 'eyes are closing, his lips are tightening, his brows are coming down, his eyes are glaring and he's switching around to the right towards his colleague' in anger.

In another video, Parker is shown back on the streets following his supposed heroics and is interviewed about a 52,000 donation fund to help get him accommodation.

Parker reminds viewers that he is 'very homeless at the moment' as he reveals his impatience at not having the funds released to him.

He is also shown given a head shake and then an exaggerated nod while claiming he 'would do it again', revealing that he was lying before attempting to cover it up.

Parker tells the interviewer he had 'ran back into the arena' to help victims as others ran away, but becomes visibly agitated as his friend (shown left) unwittingly contradicts him

In another video, Parker is shown back on the streets following his supposed heroics and is struggles to contain his excitement about a 52,000 donation fund to help get him

Dawn Archer, professor of linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, explains: 'He points out "I'm not a hero". This is the truth.

'He is wrestling with the knowledge that he is now playing this role and he's showing that he's not comfortable.

'By being the hero he's going to get the funds and the funds become the focus of attention from this point on.'

Who are the Met's super recognisers? The super recognisers team was first created in the aftermath of the 2011 riots, as certain officers showed an ability to spot suspects from different pieces of footage. They have an uncanny ability to recognise faces, remembering people they have not seen for decades, who have substantially changed in appearance, and who they have only fleetingly encountered. Super recognisers might assist with the matching of faces captured on CCTV footage, the comparison of faces to identification documents, or the scanning of crowds for known troublemakers, wanted perpetrators or even missing persons. They may also help with victim identification, or deciding whether a person moving between borders is using a fraudulent identity or is even a missing child. Popular tests assess participants' ability to recognise photographs of celebrities that were taken a long time before they became famous. Advertisement

Mick Neville, retired detective chief inspector at Scotland Yard, explains how an elite unit knows as 'Super Recognisers' were used to inspect the CCTV from the attack.

He said: 'Super Recognisers dont forget faces so they may well have seen Parker on the news broadcasts and seen it was him going to those people in the CCTV.'

Parker's lies will be revealed in a new TV documentary called Faking It: Tears of a Crime, airing on Friday at 10pm on Investigation Discovery.

The 33-year-old was jailed for four years earlier this year after he shamelessly ransacked victim's bags following the devastating bombing.

He admitted stealing a purse belonging to Pauline Healey, 64, whose 14-year-old granddaughter Sorrell Leczkowski was killed in the terror attack.

Parker also stone an iPhone from a 14-year-old girl who was badly injured in the atrocity and rejected calls from her worried family members.

A heartbreaking victim impact statement was read out in court today which was written by the mother of a girl whose phone was stolen by Parker.

She spoke of the frustration caused as people tried to ring her daughters phone to find out how she was.

Parker declined calls made to the phone and sent a message back saying: 'Sorry I can't speak right now.'

The court was shown CCTV footage showing the immediate aftermath of the bomb, in which Parker can be seen looking through bags and taking items from them.

Parker - who had been sleeping rough near the Arena - had originally described wrapping an injured girl in a T-shirt and cradled a dying woman in his arms.A man who plunged 120ft from the top floor of Westfield Stratford City shopping mall has been arrested for GBH after landing on a woman who has been left with life-changing injuries.

Footage posted online showed onlookers screaming after the man fell at the complex in east London at around 4pm yesterday.

Pictures were also circulated of two people lying on the floor being tended to by emergency responders.

Police have confirmed today a 24-year-old man has now been arrested at hospital on suspicion of GBH and reckless endangerment of life and the woman has been left with life-changing injuries.

Security staff at Westfield assisting after a shopper fell from the upper levels. Both the man and the woman's condition are not thought to be life threatening

Footage posted online showed onlookers screaming after the man fell at the complex in east London at around 4pm yesterday

This Snapchat image, taken from an upper floor, shows at least two people being tended to by emergency responders following the incident at around 4pm today

Horrified witness Kelly Buttle told the Mirror Online today the man fell through 'mid-air' as she sat down to have something to eat in the food court.

The 21-year-old said: 'I was just sitting down on the phone waiting for my best friend to arrive. And I was just looking forward kind of day dreaming and suddenly I just saw someone fall right in front of my face.

'There was no sound made by the person that was falling, it seemed so silent, and then when they fell I heard the loudest smack on the floor.

'I saw bags on the floor and when I stood up to see what had happened I saw two people lying on the floor in complete silence.

'I was in such shock I didn't know what to do so I just sat down again as I felt really dizzy from what I'd just seen.'

Westfield security staff at the scene of the incident which occurred next to an escalator close to the food court in a very busy part of the shopping centre

One shopper told how she was making her way towards the escalators on the floor beneath.

She said: 'It was so, so quick, it was the last thing I was expecting.

'I was walking towards JD sports by the glass when I saw a flash in the corner of my eye.

'It didn't look like a figure but something falling. I was too far away to see what it was.

'Everybody was running and rushing and shouting that he'd dropped.

'I was panicking and in shock, I thought somebody had a knife.

'I was so worried. I thought somebody got stabbed and when I looked down, I was shocked.

'I saw the lady laid out on the floor on her back and everybody running towards her and crowding around.

'She was conscious but her eyes were rolling into the back of her head like she was dizzy.

'The man was on his side by the escalator and I could see he was moving his fingers.'

She added: 'It was strange I didn't hear him scream or shout when he fell through the air.'

Onlookers watched in shock before security started to clear the area minutes later.

A waitress confirmed the man fell over the glass barrier by Caffe Concerto on the top floor but did not know how it happened.

A manager said: 'I received a call from security on the radio that an incident had taken place and we were told to close the shop.'

Another shop worker on the second floor said: 'I heard screaming and when I went to the barrier.

'I just saw him two floors down laying on the floor.'

A Met Police spokesperson said: 'Neither person's condition is deemed to be life-threatening, however the woman's injuries are believed to be life-changing.

'The man, aged 24, was arrested at hospital on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and reckless endangerment of life.

'He remains in hospital.

'Enquiries into the circumstances remain ongoing.'

A video taken in the immediate aftermath of the fall showed three security guards urging members of the public to give space to allow paramedics to reach the two people on the floor.

The incident occurred next to an escalator close to the food court in one of the busiest parts of the centre.

Today a spokesman from Westfield said: 'We are deeply saddened to learn that a woman injured yesterday is believed to have life-changing injuries.

'Our thoughts are with her and the family. The safety and security of our customers is our highest priority and our security team were immediately at the scene to help. We are continuing to offer support to the emergency services as they investigate the incident.'

People were seen peering down from the upper floors before a cordon was put up to obstruct their view.

Tatiana Baio, who was working in the Disney Store on the ground floor of the shopping centre during the incident, told MailOnline: 'I just saw a load of people running towards the place where it happened.

'I got a bit scared and customers were a bit surprised after it took place but it's been a normal working day.

'Where he fell was right by the escalator but people were looking down and looking at what happened.'

An anonymous witness told Essex Live: 'I was walking through the shopping centre to get to the station when I saw the barriers.

'They landed right outside the food court, which is the busiest place.

'It didn't look good at the scene, the ambulance crew weren't in a rush, which is never a good sign.'

Did you witness the incident? Do you know the man or woman involved? Contact joe.middleton@mailonline.co.uk

Others expressed their disbelief on Twitter, with one woman writing: 'It was crazy! I saw the man mid air and then saw his friend on the middle floor looking around for him.

'Luckily there was a woman who ran from behind me, off the escalator who looked like a healthcare professional and ran to their assistance.'

Another man said: 'Just seen the guy that's fallen over the balcony at Westfield Stratford. Doesn't look good man, hope he's ok.'

He later added: 'Falling at that height... Very much doubt anyone could survive.'

Another video taken in the immediate aftermath of the fall showed three guards urging members of the public to give space to allow paramedics to reach the two people on the floor

The main part of the shopping centre has three floors. The top floor is thought to be around 120-feet high.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed the incident yesterday afternoon.

'Police were called at approximately 4pm on Wednesday, 17 October to reports of a man fallen from a height and a woman injured at Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford,' a spokesman said.

'Officers and the London Ambulance Service are in attendance. We await an update on both the man and woman's condition. Enquiries continue.'

The London Ambulance Service said: 'We were called at 3.59pm today to Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford to reports of an incident.

'We sent two ambulance crews, an incident response officer, an advanced paramedic and two single responders in cars to the scene. We treated two people at the scene and took them both to hospital as a priority.'

Yesterday Westfield said: 'The safety and security of our customers is our highest priority and our security team were immediately at the scene to help. We are working with the emergency services as they investigate the incident.'

Police said the woman's condition is not life-threatening but have no update on the man. Pictured: A screen set up near where the man fell

The main part of the shopping centre, which is still open today, has three floors. The top floor is thought to be around 120-feet high. This is a file photo which shows the layout of the centre

The incident yesterday was a chilling echo of a similar incident in 2013, when a teenager was seen hanging from a second-floor balcony by his fingertips before plunging to the floor and crashing a 47-year-old man.

Security guard Lakhdar Segar, 31, rushed to help when an onlooker told him the 18-year-old was about to jump, but could not stop him.

'I looked outside and I saw a man hanging onto the balcony by both hands and dangling over the edge,' Mr Segar said.

'He was just hanging there very still. He was holding on and within a couple of seconds he let go and he was gone. He didn't say anything when he fell down, he just fell in silence.'

The two men were taken to hospital and later recovered. Police later said the teenager had been attempting to commit suicide.Fashion retailer Topshop has been slammed by an eating disorder charity for 'idealising thinness' after they used a rake thin model to advertise one of its dresses.

The model drew attention to online shoppers after customers browsing the Topshop website said she was too skinny to be featured.

One Twitter user posted: 'How are you supposed to imagine your averagely sized body in clothes when the models look like this @Topshop*'

The photo of the model wearing this yellow wrap frill mini dress sparked outrage on social media after Twitter users questioned Topshop over the size of the model

Twitter users were annoyed by the photo and slammed Topshop for a lack of diversity when it comes to the size of their models

'Nothing against the model she is beaut, I'd love to look like this but hardly the average sized bod?' she continued.

Another young woman commented: 'Lol. Boobs not allowed in that dress!'

Eating disorder charity Beat's head of communications, Rebecca Field, said that it was time companies like Topshop bowed to pressure and showed people of all different sizes.

She said: 'The idealisation of thinness that is often presented by the fashion industry can be a key factor in exacerbating the illness.

'Fashion retailers should recognise and respect the diversity in people's natural body shapes and sizes.

'Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses with multiple causes, so pressure to fit certain size clothes would never be the sole and direct reason for someone developing one.'

Other users hit back and questioned the size of the dress and how they would fit into it

Topshop also came under fire in 2015 after it was forced to remove a number of its mannequins from stores across the country

This isn't the first time that Topshop has come under pressure for glamorising extreme slimness.

In 2015, they had to remove all of their thin mannequins after there was an outcry online about the 'famine victim' dummies. Despite backlash from this, the brand has continued to use extremely thin models.

Parents were concerned about the mannequins promoting unattainable figures for young girls.

Topshop's has previously had to remove some of its mannequins from stores following backlash

The model was featured elsewhere on the Topshop website wearing a red blouse and tan trousers

Topshop is one of the only UK retailers which does not sell clothes in a UK size 18

Other online retailers including ASOS have started to use bigger models for their campaigns and have even created Curve ranges for their brand.

This is while online retailer Pretty Little Thing has also recently launched a campaign with body activist and model, Ashley Graham, who has previously campaigned for women of all sizes to be featured on the catwalk.

But Topshop is one of the only brands on the high street still not providing clothing sizes above a UK 18.

MailOnline has contacted Topshop for comment.

If you need help or advice on eating disorders then visit the Beat website at www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk or call their helpline on 08088010677.Sergeant Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, criticised the 'politically correct court of Twitter'

A police federation chairman has warned that officers now have less time to investigate serious crimes because of the 'politically correct court of Twitter'.

Sergeant Richard Cooke, chairman of the West Midlands Police Federation, said that officers are now forced to follow up on reports of non-crimes such as wolf whistles and impolite comments, even when no offence has taken place.

Sergeant Cooke added that this forces officers to go out and visit people just to give them advice on what they can and cannot say - a drain on their already 'scant' resources.

The police chief believes that political correctness is to blame for the shift in policing priorities.

Sergeant Cooke represents 6,500 rank and file officers from the West Midlands Police, which is the country's second largest police force.

Writing in the Telegraph, he said: 'I fear a dangerous precedent could be set, where our scant resources are skewed further and further away from the genuine crisis in public safety taking place on our urban homes and streets.

'Are we really going to be required to routinely record, and potentially act on, incidents like a builder's wolf whistle or an insensitive comment towards an elderly driver?

'I do not believe for one second that this is what the public, outside of the politically correct "court of Twitter", expects or wants us to do.'

Mr Cooke insisted that he supported the idea of protecting people at risk of offensive comments but said that he sees it as more of a social issue rather than something for the police to tackle.

He said that officers did not want to see minorities, elderly people or women subjected to crimes - but pointed out that there are already laws to tackle anti-social behaviour.

The West Midlands Police Federation chairman, who represents 6,500 rank and file officers, said that they are forced to dispatch officers to record incidents 'like a builder's wolf whistle' (stock photo)

The latest comments come after Home Secretary Sajid Javid asked the Law Commission earlier this week to consider whether misogyny and ageism should become hate crimes.

He said: 'Hate crime goes directly against the long-standing British values of unity, tolerance and mutual respect - and I am committed to stamping this sickening behaviour out.'

Labour MP Stella Creasy has long been leading a campaign calling for the verbal abuse of women to be punishable in the same way as religious hate crimes.

In September, the Law Commission announced that it will review whether acts of misogyny should be classed as hate crimes.

John Apter (pictured) who represents 120,000 rank-and-file officers, said the police feel like they can't do the job they signed up to do

This will include cat-calling, whistling at or yelling at a person in a 'sexually suggestive' manner.

In September, the newly elected chairman of the Police Federation, John Apter, claimed that police are too busy intervening in trivial social media rows rather than tackling more serious crimes.

Mr Apter, who represents 120,000 rank-and-file officers, said the police feel like they can't do the job they signed up to do and were being sent out to deal with social media feuds rather than dealing with more serious crimes.

He told The Sunday Telegraph: 'As a police officer on the street there is still that desperation to do the job and very often then can't because their hands are so tied.

'Where we get drawn into local disagreements, the argument over the remote control, the dispute in the playground, the row on Facebook, it is frustrating.'

Also last month, South Yorkshire Police asked people to report insults on social media, even if they were not considered a hate crime.

The message put out to advertise a new anti-hate crime drive said: 'In addition to reporting hate crime, please report non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing.

'Hate will not be tolerated in South Yorkshire. Report it and put a stop to it.'

The tweet was seized upon by Twitter users who shared their frustration at police priorities in the wake of budget cuts.MPs could spend their Christmas Eve voting on a Brexit deal amid accusations that ministers are trying to railroad a deal past them without proper scrutiny.

Brexit talks hit the rocks last night as Theresa May's desperate plea to EU leaders for a breakthrough fell flat amid accusations she had 'nothing new' to say.

They shelved plans for a special summit next month where they had hoped to seal the deal now negotiations are expected to go right up to the wire.

Negotiators are now trying to thrash out a deal in time for the next EU Council summit on December 13 and 14 - the final moment a deal can be done in time.

Layla Moran, Lib Dem MP and campaigner with the anti-Brexit group Best for Britain, said: 'Brexit could be the Grinch that stole Christmas.

'It is farcical that MPs might have to vote on Christmas Eve but this shows the total car crash. The government will all be on the naughty list for this disaster.'

Tory chief whip Julian Smith today tried to dampen down fears that MPs will have to spend their festive season in Parliament.

MPs could spend their Christmas Eve voting on a Brexit deal after Theresa May's (pictured in Brussels today) desperate plea to EU leaders for a breakthrough last night fell flat

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured leaving No10 on Tuesday) has said that any vote by MPs must a straight deal or no deal vote

Tory MP Dominic Grieve (pictured left in the Commons) and Labour's shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer (pictured right last month at Labour's annual conference in Liverpool) have both slammed minsters over attempts to make any Brexit deal vote a straight deal or no deal vote

He wrote to MPs to reassure them that they will get to take their Christmas holidays as planned from December 20.

In the letter, he said: 'There is much parliamentary business to get through in advance of the Christmas break and I have heard of rumours suggesting that the Christmas holidays will be delayed.

'I am pleased to be able to confirm that this is not the case and the House will rise as planned on December 20 and return on 7 January 2019.'

May faces calls to quit as she admits Brexit transition period could be extended Theresa May is facing Tory calls to quit today amid claims she could keep Britain lashed to the bloc for longer to ease the Irish border standoff. Arriving for the second day of a fraught EU summit this morning, the PM admitted she is looking at options for any 'gap' between the end of the current mooted transition period in 2020 and a trade arrangements coming into effect. But she insisted she did not 'expect' that there would be a gap and suggested it would last 'a matter of months' rather than the year suggested by the EU. Mrs May is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night. The idea means longer subject to EU rules without any say in writing them - and paying potentially another 15billion into the bloc's coffers. It has already been roundly rejected by the DUP as a distraction tactic that would not help cope with the Irish border backstop issue. Tory MP Nadine Dorries said Mrs May should be ditched and replaced with ex Brexit secretary David Davis. She said: 'We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit.' Advertisement

Ministers insist a deal has to voted on by Parliament by the end of the year - meaning that MPs face having to stay in the Commons all night and right up until Christmas day to vote on the deal.

The PM's spokeswoman today said she was not aware of any plans to move the Christmas holiday dates.

And Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said Parliament's February recess will go ahead 'subject to the progress of business'.

The comment follows reports that Number 10 was considering dropping the break in order to push through Brexit legislation.

Ms Leadsom told MPs the House of Commons would rise on February 14 and return on February 25.

It comes as furious MPs have accused ministers of trying to push through whatever deal the PM may come back with without proper scrutiny.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has said that any vote by MPs must a straight deal or no deal vote.

But Tory backbenchers have accused the Government of breaking their promise that MPs would be able to be make meaningful amendments to the motion, which would allow them to effectively have a say on what the Brexit deal should be.

Mr Raab has written telling MPs they must make an 'unequivocal decision' on the deal and warning that anything else would risk 'huge uncertainty for business, consumers and citizens'.

He said: 'Once the deal is presented to Parliament, the procedure through which it is voted upon must allow for an unequivocal decision, and one which is clear to the British public.

'Anything other than a straightforward approval of the deal will bring with it huge uncertainty for business, consumers and citizens.'

But his warning has been blasted by MPs who say that it effectively breaks the promise ministers made that MPs would have a meaningful vote.

Tory MP Dominic Grieve told the BBC Radio 4 World Tonight programme: 'The letter is quite astonishing. It doesn't refer really to the matter on which I withdrew my amendment or didn't vote for my amendment

'It refers to the assurances given by the government put before parliament to approve a deal would be amendable.

'This was said repeatedly at the despatch box repeatedly in private assurances, both in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords.'

Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer said: 'Labour doesn't accept that the choice facing Parliament will be between whatever deal Theresa May cobbles together or no deal.

'That is not a meaningful vote and ministers can't be allowed to silence Parliament.

'MPs must be given the opportunity to scrutinise, consider and, where appropriate, amend any resolution the Government puts forward.'

Ministers insist a deal has to voted on by Parliament by the end of the year - meaning that MPs face having to stay in the Commons all night and right up until Christmas day to vote on the deal (pictured, parliament)Heartbreaking video shows a lion killing a baby giraffe just two hours after it was born.

The mother is seen watching over her infant as a lion peers over bushes at his prey.

He then rushes on the stumbling youngster and is joined by a lioness in ripping it apart.

Claire Radloff, from East London, shot the video whilst on safari in Shamwari Private Game Reserve, South Africa on October 12.

The lion brings his weight down upon the frail calf, plunging his teeth into its back

A calf will learn to stand within half-an-hour of being born but even then they are targeted by predators.

Giraffes choose to have their babies at birthing grounds and will often return to the site of their own births as mothers.

The calf bereft of its mother stands frozen as the lion pounces from the bushes

The calf tries to stand and falls back as its mother appears to spot the approaching lion

The lion brings the young giraffe down rapidly as the lioness enters the scene

The Lion and Lioness feeding on the calf after it has been subduedA Co-op shop has been criticised for banning pupils from a local comprehensive school - but allowing students from a nearby 31,000-a-year private school in.

A sign in the window warns that 'only two Ralph Allen pupil at a time' are allowed to enter the store in Bath.

The shop is one mile away from the state secondary school and half a mile away from independent school Prior Park College.

The sign was stuck on the inside of the store in Bath which stated that only two pupils from Ralph Allen would be allowed in at one time

Ralph Allen School (pictured) is just one mile away from a 31,000-a-year private school

The store manager of the Co-op said the decision to put up the sign had been 'made for the right reasons'.

Ralph Allen School, which is in the Combe Down area of the city, was rated 'Good' in its last Ofsted inspection.

The outside of the Co-op store in Bath (left) which had banned the children, the sign which permits only two pupils was placed next to adverts (right)

There are several other schools in the area which were not singled-out by the shopkeeper.

When asked about the sign, a spokeswoman for Ralph Allen, said the school had no comment to make.

Prior Park College (pictured) charges 31,000 a year for school fees

Local reports say the sign has been amended this week to say 'pupils', rather than Ralph Allen pupils specifically.

Ralph Allen school became an academy in August 2012 and a member of the Palladian Academy Trust in 2016.

It has around 1000 pupils and takes 180 pupils in each year in six forms of entry (Years 7-11), with approximately 230 pupils in the sixth form.

Prior Park Schools consists of Prior Park College (established in 1830), The Paragon Junior School (which joined in 2006) and Prior Park School, Gibraltar (which opened in September 2016).

Ralph Allen School Ralph Allen School is situated in the Combe Down area of Bath, Somerset and currently has around 1000 pupils The school has recently come under fire due to the unreliable bus services which have left many pupils late for school and in some cases has meant they have arrived late to exams. Earlier this year during the UK's heatwave, students also hit headlines as some of the boys donned school skirts after being told they were not allowed to wear shorts. They said they had worn the skirts as girls were allowed to wear them and that it was too hot for boys to wear trousers in summer. The school is named after Ralph Allen (1693-1764), the Bath mine owner, entrepreneur and philanthropist who contributed to the building of Georgian Bath. The school was built in 1957 and has been further extended and developed since then. AdvertisementTurkish police are searching an area of woodland outside Istanbul as well as a farm house across the Marmara Sea, in the hunt for missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to local reports.

Investigators are said to have collected CCTV images from the entrance to Belgrad Forest to the north of the city amid fears the US-based Saudi writer's body was dumped there.

After tracing the route of the convoy of cars which left the Saudi consulate on the day the journalist went missing, the search has moved to woodland near the city of Yalova, a 90-kilometre (55 mile) drive south of Istanbul.

They are reportedly also preparing to 'excavate' a villa in Yalova province, where one of the vehicles linked to the Saudi 'hit squad' was seen, according to Turkish media.

Khashoggi, 60, went missing having entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago sparking claims he was tortured and murdered in the building.

NTV's report of the forest search comes after it was claimed that one of the 15 Saudis who flew to Turkey on the day Khashoggi disappeared had been killed in a 'suspicious' car crash. Meshal Saad M. Albostani, a lieutenant of the Saudi Royal Air Force, is said to have died in the capital Riyadh.

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Meshal Saad M. Albostani (left), one of the 15 Saudis who flew to Turkey on the day journalist Jamal Khashoggi (right), disappeared has been killed in a car crash, it has been claimed

Investigators are said to have collected CCTV images from the entrance to Belgrad Forest to the north of the city amid fears the US-based Saudi writer's body was dumped there

Turkish police are searching Belgrad Forest (pictured) outside Istanbul in the hunt for missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to local reports

Jamal Khashoggi (right) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He has not been seen since and Turkey has accused Saudi agents of murdering him

CCTV images have emerged purportedly showing another of the 15 suspects, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, entering the consulate building at 9.55am (pictured) hours before the writer entered the same building in Istanbul

Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, reportedly now being sought by Turkish authorities for questioning over Khashoggi's disappearance, can be seen in the background as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visits a Habitat for Humanity in Houston, Texas in April





Turkish pro-government Yeni Safak, which carried the report, is the same newspaper that published what it said were details from audio recordings purportedly documenting Khashoggi's torture and interrogation at the Consulate building.

But Turkey has yet to share with the U.S. government or key European allies any graphic audio or video evidence it allegedly collected on the US-based Saudi journalist's visit to the embassy.

Saudi Arabia's leaders are considering blaming a top Saudi intelligence officer for the apparent murder - according to the Hill.

The man who could be blamed for the killing, Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, is a top adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Meanwhile, CCTV images have emerged purportedly showing another of the 15 Saudis, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, entering the consulate building at 9.55am on the day the writer vanished having entered the building at 1.14pm the same day.

Yeni Safak reported that there was little more detail about the car crash that supposedly left Albostani dead.

Last week, Turkish newspaper Sabah released CCTV images of Albostani among a group of men who flew into Istanbul on the day Khashoggi went missing. They were pictured arriving at Ataturk airport's border control having flown into Turkey in two private jets from the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Meanwhile, a Saudi team investigating the disappearance has left the Saudi consul general's residence in Istanbul, a Reuters witness said early on Thursday.

A group of Turkish police crime scene investigators had left the consul general's residence earlier on Thursday after an almost nine-hour search at the premises.

Turkish investigators had also searched the Saudi consulate for some nine hours on Monday as part of the investigation.

Two weeks after the disappearance on October 2, the United States and allies have collected some intelligence through their own sources and methods, which partly confirms news reports based on leaks of audio recordings, four sources told Reuters.

CCTV images printed by the Sabah newspaper show Mutreb in Turkey on the day of the journalist's disappearance

According to Sabah, this CCTV image shows Mutreb 'and his people' with a large suitcase at a hotel in Turkey

Sabah published pictures which it said showed Mutreb and others at Ataturk Airport at about 5.58pm

A frame grab from a police CCTV video made available through Turkish Newspaper Sabah shows a private jet alleged to have ferried in a group of Saudi men suspected of being involved in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance

Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, pictured in Switzerland in 2011, may have been murdered because he knew too much about the Saudi royal family, one of his friends has said

Politicians, tycoons and CEOs pull out of Saudi investment conference Three European government ministers have joined an array of corporate chiefs in pulling out of an upcoming investment conference in Saudi Arabia, following the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Company leaders risk losing lucrative business with the kingdom by shunning the conference, and countries such as the United States, Britain and France have several defence deals at stake. But Turkish claims - denied by Riyadh - that Khashoggi was killed by a hit squad in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 have put them in an awkward spot. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has already withdrawn from the Future Investment Initiative taking place on October 23-25 in Riyadh, which is billed as a showcase for the economic reforms of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he would decide later on Thursday whether to attend, after reviewing the outcome of a diplomatic dash by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The conference's website previously featured a star-studded list of speakers. But that has been removed amid the steady flow of defections. Here is a list of no-shows: POLITICS - French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire - British International Trade Secretary Liam Fox - Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra FINANCE - HSBC chief executive John Flint - Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam - MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga (HSBC, Credit Suisse and MasterCard are listed among the eight 'strategic partners' of the conference. Another is Siemens, whose boss Joe Kaeser says he is still mulling whether to come.) - BNP Paribas chairman Jean Lemierre - Societe Generale CEO Frederic Oudea - JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon - BlackRock chief Larry Fink - Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman - Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters - London Stock Exchange CEO David Schwimmer INDUSTRY/TECHNOLOGY - Ford chairman Bill Ford - Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi - British billionaire Richard Branson - Thrive CEO Ariana Huffington - Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene MEDIA - Viacom CEO Bob Bakish. In addition, multiple media groups have withdrawn executives or journalists who were due to take part in the conference, including CNN, Bloomberg, The Economist, The New York Times, CNBC and the Financial Times. Advertisement

This morning, images emerged in another pro-government Turkish newspaper purporting to show a man who previously travelled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage to the US entering the Saudi Consulate just before Khashoggi vanished.

The Sabah newspaper's report showed the man, named as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, also later outside the Saudi consul general's home, checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side, and leaving Turkey on October 2.

The Sabah report showed the man walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9.55am with several men trailing behind him.

Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1.14pm, then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general's official residence, some 1.2 miles away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside.

The Sabah newspaper showed an image of the man at 4.53 pm at the consul's home, then at 515pm checking out of a hotel. He later cleared airport security at 5.58pm.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show the same man was in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the flags of Saudi Arabia and America intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The three-week trip across the U.S. saw Prince Mohammed meet with business leaders and celebrities, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Post.

Yeni Safak had reported that Khashoggi's alleged torturers severed Khashoggi's fingers during an interrogation, and that he was killed within minutes. According to the report, his body was later beheaded and dismembered by his killers.

A New York Times report on Wednesday cited a senior Turkish official confirming the details published by Yeni Safak. Two Turkish government officials contacted by Reuters declined to confirm the report.

Turkish sources told Reuters earlier this week that the authorities have an audio recording indicating that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate and that they were sharing it with countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The reluctance of the Turks to turn over hard evidence they have said they have documenting Khashoggi's fate has led U.S. and European security officials to assess that the most brutal accounts of Khashoggi's demise are likely accurate, the sources said.

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to confirm the lack of evidence in U.S. hands when he said on Wednesday that the United States had asked Turkey for any audio or video evidence it may have related to Khashoggi.

'We have asked for it, if it exists ... I'm not sure yet that it exists, probably does, possibly does,' Trump said.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives for talks at 10 Downing Street earlier this year

'I'll have a full report on that from Mike (Pompeo) when he comes back ... That's going to be the first question I ask,' he said.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi policies and columnist for the Washington Post who was living in the United States, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to get marriage documents.

Pompeo refused to blame Saudi Arabia for the alleged killing of Jamal Khashoggi after his visit to Turkey for talks with President Recep Erdogan.

Pompeo headed straight to the Turkish capital, Ankara, after visiting Saudi Arabia to discuss the progress of the investigation into the Washington Post writer's alleged killing.

His arrival in Riyadh came just hours after Turkish forensic teams searched through the consulate to find evidence of what happened to the Saudi journalist.

Pompeo said after meeting the Saudi royal family that officials in the kingdom told him their investigation into the disappearance and alleged killing won't spare anyone, including royals.

Meanwhile, sources familiar with the case have claimed that the alleged mission that resulted in the journalist's disappearance was organised by a high-ranking officer with Saudi Arabia's main intelligence service - the General Intelligence Presidency.

CNN reports one of the sources as saying that the officers was close to the inner circle of the powerful Crown Prince and that the officer assembled and sent his own team to interrogate Khashoggi suspecting him of having ties to Qatar - the kingdom's arch rival. CNN reports that there has been no evidence to substantiate such a link.

This afternoon, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin will wait for the outcome of a probe into the disappearance of the dissident writer before deciding what impact it may have on relations with Saudi Arabia.

Speaking on Thursday at an international policy forum, Putin said 'those who believe that there was a murder must present evidence.'

He noted that 'the disappearance was a tragedy, but we need to understand what happened' before deciding what impact it may have on Russia's relations with Saudi Arabia.

Putin noted that 'the U.S. bears a certain responsibility' for what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who went into self-imposed exile in the U.S.Sacked ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie is suing the national broadcaster on the back of claims of unfair dismissal.

A spokesperson for Ms Guthrie told the ABC the former managing director had lodged a claim with the Fair Work Commission at the start of the week to jump-start the lawsuit.

According to the ABC, Ms Guthrie also made a complaint, but the spokesperson said 'details of the complaint are not a matter of public record.'

A spokesperson for Michelle Guthrie told the ABC the former managing director had lodged a claim with the Fair Work Commission at the start of the week to jump-start the lawsuit

According to the ABC, Michelle Guthrie also made a complaint, but the spokesperson said 'details of the complaint are not a matter of public record'

The lawsuit follows on the back of a fiery saga between Ms Guthrie and Justin Milne, after the then-chairman gave Ms Guthrie the boot midway through her five year tenure.

At the time of her shock departure, Mr Milne said directors had resolved it was 'not in the best interests of the broadcaster' for Ms Guthrie to remain in her position as managing director.

He claimed the decision was made in the interest of 'the millions of Australians who engage with ABC content every week.'

Although he would not share the exact details that led to the decision, Mr Milne said her 'leadership style' had played a part in the decision-making process.

Mr Milne resigned shortly afterwards, amid claims he pressured Ms Guthrie to sack two prominent reporters because the Government 'hated them.'

Ms Guthrie claimed her termination was unjustified.

'While my contract permits the board to terminate my appointment without cause and with immediate effect, I believe there is no justification for the board to trigger that termination clause,' she said at the time.

The lawsuit follows on the back of a fiery saga between Ms Guthrie and Justin Milne (pictured), after the then-chairman gave Ms Guthrie the boot midway through her five year tenure

'At no point have any issues been raised with me about the transformation being undertaken, the Investing in Audiences strategy, and my effectiveness in delivering against that strategy.'

Fairfax Media claimed Mr Milne pushed Ms Guthrie to fire senior journalist Emma Alberici in an email he sent to her in May.

Mr Milne shot back and denied sending emails of any such nature.

'I have never sent an email to Michelle Guthrie or anybody else that says you must sack Emma Alberici or Andrew Probyn or anybody else,' Mr Milne told 7.30.This is the moment two illegal immigrants were found hiding in a packed car boot and a British Army soldier's 5,000-a-time people-smuggling racket disintegrated.

The Iraqi and Syrian nationals, both men in their twenties, were discovered laying on top of each other in the Hyundai after it was stopped by immigration officials at the Channel Tunnel in Calais in May 2016.

The hire vehicle was being driven by a 'nervous and sweating' Lance Corporal Kyle Harris, who hid his human cargo under his combat jacket and other items of army kit.

The 29-year-old was serving with Ist Battalion Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment based at Barker Barracks in Paderborn, Germany, at the time.

This is the moment border force staff found two illegal immigrants hidden in the boot of a British soldier

Lance Corporal Kyle Harris, who hid his human cargo under his combat jacket and other items of army kit, hiding them from view

Having been stopped by Border Force officers just after 3pm on May 6, Harris told them he was a serving soldier and produced his army identification card. He added he was on his way to visit his mum in Epsom, Surrey.

But Maidstone Crown Court in Kent heard the lance corporal appeared 'wide-eyed and scared' as he was asked a series of standard questions.

It was when he was asked to step out the car and open the boot that he confessed to having the two migrants hidden in the cramped space.

Kurdish Syrian Zinden Ahmed (pictured outside court) is accused of being the ringleader of the people smuggling operation and is on trial

Harris, from Epsom, Surrey, subsequently pleaded guilty to conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration and awaits sentence. He has been discharged from the army

On trial facing the same charge is Kurdish car wash owner Zinden Ahmed, who is accused of being the mastermind.

Giving evidence on Wednesday about the shocking discovery at Coquelles, Border Force officer Stewart Henderson said that having established Harris's identity he began to ask him about any goods he may have had, such as cigarettes or alcohol.

He was also asked about prohibited items including drugs, guns and indecent material.

'I asked him standard questions we ask anyone we stop, and I asked him if he understood he was in a British control zone,' said Mr Henderson.

'I then asked him normal questions about understanding the law and about what was illegal to import. I asked him what unit he was in and he said he was in the PWRR.

'I then asked him to step out of the car, come to the rear and open the boot.

'Throughout the conversation he appeared to be very wide-eyed and very sweaty even though I wasn't sweating myself.

'We walked around to the back of the car and he said to me 'I have to own up to this. There's two people in the back of the car.'.

'I opened up the back and in there was a lot of his baggage, some army equipment and kit, all covering the whole rear.

'I had to move some of it to see deeper into the boot and having moved the baggage and camouflage coat I saw two men lying down in the boot.'

Asked why Harris had been pulled over, Mr Henderson explained another official had selected him out as he was 'exhibiting nervousness'.

'Most people stopped are calm, some are angry, but not many appear scared,' he added. 'He was goggle-eyed, he was wide-eyed. His eyes were darting.'

Lance Corporal Kyle Harris was involved in bringing illegal immigrants into the UK and has been since discharged from the armed forces

Harris' haul of illegal immigranyts was discovered at Coquelles, near the Eurotunnel site at in Calais (file picture)

Harris was arrested and claimed it was an isolated people-smuggling trip, triggered by alcohol problems and drug and gambling addictions.

He said he was to be paid 10,500 by an 'unknown male' after dropping them off in Solihull.

But a subsequent Home Office investigation revealed it was part of a much wider conspiracy to smuggle immigrants from Calais's notorious Jungle encampment over the course of two months.

Lance Corporal David Plumstead leaves Maidstone Crown Court where he was cleared of being part of the conspiracy

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby said it was initially agreed between Harris and other gang members that he would bring the stowaways in at a rate of 'one every Friday' during trips back to the UK from the army base.

But this was then increased to two a week, with a payment of 5,000 per migrant. They would be collected by prior arrangement from a McDonald's in Calais.

At one stage, Harris even suggested escalating the operation by recruiting a second car and driver so four people could be smuggled in at a time.

By the time of Harris's arrest on May 6, he had carried out five other people-smuggling journeys. Although not all were successful, he could be linked to three immigrants who were brought in.

He was even said to have boasted to other soldiers in his regiment of his illegal activities.

It is alleged Ahmed was the 'central figure' orchestrating the people-smuggling operation from the UK. One of the three migrants Harris successfully smuggled in was the 36-year-old's brother.

Two mobile phones belonging to Harris provided 'a compelling narrative of what was happening within this conspiracy', said the prosecutor.

One text message in broken English and allegedly from Ahmed to Harris on March 14 read: 'Hello mate. Somebody my friend gave me your number. You did bring in brother so can you bring my brother as well if you can.'

The court heard contact continued between them 'to discuss the mechanics' of the plot, with a reference to 'lots people in'.

'The inference is that there was a lot more in the pipeline and it was not just about Zinden Ahmed's brother,' said Mr Hornsby.

'This wasn't simply about getting his brother in the country for humanitarian reasons. What Zinden Ahmed was proposing was a commercial operation involving a number of other individuals not related to him.'

Barker Barracks, Paderborn, where the two men were based with the British Forces in Germany

Harris eventually smuggled Ahmed's brother, then aged 21, into the UK in his Ford Mondeo on April 8 2016.

In another text message allegedly sent to Ahmed two weeks later, Harris offered 'to do two', saying they would have to lie on top of each other.

The court heard the men found in the Hyundai on May 6 were handed over to the French authorities.

After his arrest, Ahmed denied using the mobile that was communicating with Harris or having any involvement in the conspiracy.

At the start of the trial on Monday (Oct 15) Mr Hornsby said: 'The essence of it is that this was an agreement to bring illegal migrants into the UK from what is referred to as The Jungle in Calais.

'In law, a conspiracy means no more than an agreement. It doesn't have to have any formality about it or be in writing....The agreement was to bring illegal immigrants into the UK.

'The agreement was, and we will see this clearly in text messages, one every Friday, later increased to two, and the going rate being 5,000 per immigrant.'

The court heard Harris planned or carried out the six illicit journeys from his army base to the UK between March 20 and May 6, 2016.

'He met up with Zinden Ahmed by arrangement at various venues within the UK. Money was handed over, normally 2,500 in advance and 2,500 when the migrant was handed over,' continued Mr Hornsby.

'In return, Harris brought over the illegal immigrant from Calais. He was directed to a McDonald's in Calais, met the immigrant and put them, either one or two, into the back of his car, through immigration, onto a train into the tunnel and thereafter on to various venues in the UK where they were collected.

'Three were successfully brought in, including Ahmed's brother. The other two are unknown individuals.'

A second soldier serving in the same regiment as Harris, Lance Corporal David Plumstead, was also accused of involvement in the plot after he accompanied his fellow servicemen on a failed trafficking trip on April 29, 2016.

Harris was driving his Mondeo and Plumstead was the passenger when they stopped at the fast food restaurant. Harris had been due to pick up two migrants from the camp but was unable to make contact with a go-between.

Plumstead, 24, from Portsmouth, denied conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and was formally cleared on Wednesday after Judge Philip St.John-Stevens ruled there was insufficient evidence against him.

He is still serving with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.

The trial of Ahmed, from Middlesbrough, Cleveland, continues.Sir Michael Caine (pictured in London this week) insisted today he still believed in Brexit and said it was better for Britons to be poorer but in charge of their own future

Sir Michael Caine insisted today he still believed in Brexit and said it was better for Britons to be poorer but in charge of their own future.

The veteran actor - worth an estimated 57million according to Celebrity Net Worth - said quitting Europe was more important than being better off in the bloc.

Sir Michael, 84, was one of the highest profile celebrity backers of Brexit at the referendum in 2017.

And he said his faith in the project was undimmed despite the breakdown in negotiations and negative economic forecasts.

He told the Today programme: 'People say 'Oh, you'll be poor, you'll be this, you'll be that'.

'I say I'd rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I don't know making me rich by running it.'

Sir Michael insisted he could see evidence on the continent of major firms pushing their governments to strike a deal.

He said: 'I've finally seen this week a little something of what I've said all along.

'They've said ''imports, we're gonna impose these taxes from Britain'' and you go ''wait a minute, has anybody told the boss of Volkswagen or Mercedes about this?''.

'And the German car companies have started to grumble about this tax.'

Best for Britain chief Eloise Todd dismissed Sir Michael's intervention.

She told MailOnline: 'On Today Brexitier Michael Caine said ''I'd rather be poor and a master of my own fate''.

'Fine, when you're a multi-millionaire. For the rest of us Brexit blows the whole bloody country up.

'That was a classic viewpoint from a Miami resident.'

With little sign of progress in the negotiations and increasing alarm among business, Theresa May (pictured today in Brussels) is facing Tory calls to quit today amid claims she could keep Britain lashed to the bloc for longer to ease the Irish border standoff

With little sign of progress in the negotiations and increasing alarm among business, Theresa May is facing Tory calls to quit today amid claims she could keep Britain lashed to the bloc for longer to ease the Irish border standoff.

Arriving for the second day of a fraught EU summit this morning, the PM admitted she is looking at options for any 'gap' between the end of the current mooted transition period in 2020 and a trade arrangements coming into effect.

But she insisted she did not 'expect' that there would be a gap and suggested it would last 'a matter of months' rather than the year suggested by the EU.

Mrs May is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night.

The idea means longer subject to EU rules without any say in writing them - and paying potentially another 15billion into the bloc's coffers.

It has already been roundly rejected by the DUP as a distraction tactic that would not help cope with the Irish border backstop issue.Daron Wint (pictured) is on trial over the slaying of a wealthy family and their housekeeper

A man charged with the brutal murder of a wealthy family and their housekeeper claims it was his brother who killed them  and the prosecution has also raised the possibility that he may not have acted alone.

Daron Wint, 37, is the only person charged with the slaying of the Savopoulos family at their home in a wealthy Washington DC neighborhood in what became known as the 'Mansion Murders.'

The bodies of construction firm owner Savvas Savopoulos, 46, his wife Amy, 47, their 10-year-old son Phillip and the family's housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, were found on May 14, 2015.

They had been tied up, beaten and stabbed before being doused with gasoline and the house was set on fire.

Wint, who was born in Guyana, has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping and arson.

Prosecutors argued that Wint acted alone in order to claim a $40,000 ransom, the Washington Post reports.

The bodies of construction firm owner Savvas Savopoulos and his wife Amy (pictured) as well as their son and their housekeeper were found on May 14, 2015

But his defense team claimed he was set up to take the fall by his half-brother Darrell Wint and his stepbrother. Neither of them have been charged in the case.

Now, prosecutors have raised the possibility that Wint had help because four people had been taken hostage for 36 hours before they were killed, ABC 7 reports.

Wint's brother Darrell  who the defense say is the killer - is scheduled to testify, according to the station.

Last week, Wint took the stand, telling the jury that he was lured to the Savopoulos home in Upper Northwest Washington by Darrell.

He gave a detailed account explaining how he ended up leaving his DNA on a pizza crust at the house  which led to his arrest.

He testified that he only went because Darrell had asked him to come for a paint and drywall job  and later asked for his help in 'unloading the house' of valuables.

Wint told jurors he refused to help steal from the house after Darrell told him to put on a construction hat and green reflective vest to be less conspicuous.

Ten-year-old Phillip (right) and the family's housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa (left), also died

He insisted that he had stayed in a room on the main floor of the house and wasn't aware that anyone else was in the house or being hurt.

According to Wint's testimony, he met Darrell at a construction company on May 13  the day authorities say a killer broke into the Savopoulus' home.

Wint claims that during that meeting, Darrell asked to use his minivan  which he would pay him at least $300 for  and that night, he spent the night at a friend's house.

He claims he didn't hear from his brother again until the morning of May 14 when Darrell turned up at the friend's house driving a Porsche.

Wint says they drove to the Savopoulos home and Darrell let them inside with a key.

He says his brother was wearing construction gloves when he brought him a pizza box after he mentioned that he was hungry  which he had thought was odd, according to the Post.

Wint, who was born in Guyana, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder, kidnapping and arson

The fire-damaged Savopoulos home is in Washington, DC, is pictured on May 21, 2015

Wint said he put an uneaten slice of pepperoni pizza back into the box because it was 'cold and hard.'

He claimed that he and his brother argued after his brother asked for help stealing from the house and he left the hard hat and vest there.

Authorities found Wint's DNA on the pizza as well as on the hard hat and vest.

But Wint couldn't explain how his DNA ended up on a knife in the basement, according to the Post.

He said his brother told him to get in the Porsche and he would be driven back to his minivan, but says, his brother took him to a parking lot in Lanham, Maryland.

Wint claims his brother spoke about getting 'rid' of the minivan and some time after the incident, Wint claimed Darrell gave him $6,000 to 'buy a new car.'

He also says he was given two white iPhones which Darrell told him were found in a park, but which authorities say were stolen from the Savopoulos home.

Wint also claimed that he only made Google searches after the incident  including 'how to beat a lie detector test'  because 'I didn't want to go to jail for a crime I didn't commit.'

He said he began doing searches online after seeing a story about the fire on the news and was worried that his minivan would be linked to the case.Jose Lagares (pictured) was spared jail during his hearing at Wimbledon Magistrates Court

A detective who stalked a female officer leaving her unable to sleep for months was spared jail after he said he had followed her because he was extremely lonely, a court has heard.

Detective Constable Jose Lagares, 48, had visited Svetlana Puzovics home 10 times and was spotted hiding in a stairwell opposite the property.

Ms Puzovic, who also worked a detective, had bumped into Lagares, a father-of-two repeatedly as she took the bus to work and went to the gym.

She had previously confided in Lagares about problems with her ex-boyfriend, an American officer, who was being investigated for allegedly harassing and threatening her.

Lagares, from Buckinghamshire, who works in Scotland Yards Central North Command Unit, covering the boroughs of Camden and Islington, tried to get involved in the police inquiry.

Julie Idowu, prosecuting, said: They are both serving in different police stations.

She had a bad relationship with a police officer from the US.

As a result of that relationship an investigation was opened up into the matter. During the investigation the defendant contacted the officer in the case and proposed himself as the person to contact.

Detailing the officers stalking activities the prosecutor said: He was seen outside her home address, at her bus stop and even on the way to her gym.

The complainant saw the defendant outside her home address and at a nearby park.

Jose Lagares had said he had stalked the female officer because he was lonely

She actually recorded him and told him his behaviour was unwanted and told him to stop contacting her.

During the hearing at Wimbledon Magistrates Court, Lagares admitted to stalking his colleague between September 2017 and August 2018 but blamed his behaviour on extreme loneliness.

Robert Morris, defending, said: There is no escaping the fact that he has plead guilty to a very serious charge.

He does recognise the impact that his actions have had. He felt incredibly lonely and not able to talk about what he needed to talk about.

He felt desperate to reignite his platonic relationship with his colleague. On each and every occasion he emphasised that he just wanted to talk.

Magistrate Helen Jones told Lagares: You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity recognising that this is behaviour that you should not have engaged in.

You will receive a community order.

No restraining order was sought but Ms Jones warned the officer: You know that if you go anywhere near the house she will call the police and you will be in trouble.

Lagares was sentenced to a 12 month community order and ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay costs of 85 and an 85 victim surcharge.

Referring to Ms Puzovics impact statement Mr Idowu added: She wonders whether he is hiding in bushes or how long she will spend worrying about this.

She has been unable to sleep for months. She says that most of the time she has a lot of anxiety.

She says most of the time she is looking behind her. She states that she is scared and lost for words.The tragic story of a conscientious objector who was branded an outcast being dying in a suspected suicide is to be retold as part of a new documentary series.

Alfred Martlew was shunned by his own community in York and labelled a coward as a teenager for refusing to fight during the First World War.

He was 19 when war was declared but refused to sign up alongside other men from the area, stating resolutely at his tribunal: 'I will not kill another human being.'

He added: 'I have a conscientious objection to participating either voluntarily or compulsorily in the taking of human life or to be an instrument for aiding others.'

Alfred Martlew (pictured spinning in 1917) was shunned by his own community in York and labelled a coward as a teenager for refusing to fight during the First World War

Alfred was eventually buried in a grave at nearby St Andrew's church in Bishopthorpe, away from other graves in the churchyard.

The factory worker was one of the Richmond 16, a group of pacifists who were held at Richmond Castle in Yorkshire for refusing conscription.

All 16 men were eventually taken to France in 1916 to join the Non-Combatant Corps, where they would be required to perform roles such as carrying stretchers.

While on the front, the group were given just 24 hours to make the decision to join the war effort fully of face a firing squad, but still Alfred refused.

But at the eleventh hour his life was saved after Prime Minister Herbert Asquith ordered no objectors in France be shot for refusing to obey military orders.

An initiative gave 'sincere' objectors the opportunity to undertake civilian work as an alternative to prison, and Alfred took on working a quarry (pictured) and as a tree feller

Pictured is Alfred's military exemption application. He was 19 when war was declared but refused to sign up alongside other men from the area

He returned to England was imprisoned at Winchester before being offered a place n on the Home Office Scheme.

The initiative gave 'sincere' objectors the opportunity to undertake civilian work as an alternative to prison, and Alfred took on working a quarry and as a tree feller.

However he continued to battle with the idea that his work was still contributing to the war effort and he ran away from the posting in 1917, back to York.

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

It was here that he would meet up with his fiancee Annie Leeman. Alfred handed over his money and watch to Annie before telling her he intended to hand himself into police.

Just over a week later, Alfred's badly decomposed body was found in the River Ouse at Bishopthorpe. He was 23 years old.

An inquest held into his death the next day returned an 'unsolved verdict', however the coroner ruled that it was likely he had taken his own life.

He was eventually buried in a grave at nearby St Andrew's church in Bishopthorpe, away from other graves in the churchyard.

His story is set to be retold as part of a documentary series called Emmerdale 1918, in which stars of the soap look at the lives of people from Yorkshire during the war.

In Friday night's episode, Bhasker Patel, who plays factory owner Rishi Sharma, is moved to tears as he recounts Alfred's steps.

He says: 'I stood in the town hall in York, where Alfred faced a tribunal 100 years ago and he said, 'I will not kill another human being.'

'That really got to me. A young guy who stood right there and said, 'No, I won't kill.' I am not for war. I am into sitting down and talking. Today there are many Alfreds out there.'

The actor also visited the cells at Richmond Castle in order to get a sense of the dire conditions the Richmond 16 were forced to live in.

He says: 'They were given only bread and water, and when they complained about sleeping on the wooden floor the guards removed the planks so they would sleep on only cold stone.

'They were strong-willed men who would not compromise their principles, no matter what the punishment.'A grieving widower claims Telstra demanded he pay a fee to cancel his dead wife's phone account because she 'broke her contract'.

Richard, who did not give his surname, lost his wife just a month ago and had expected a bit of compassion from the staff at his local Telstra shop in Wodonga - 300 kilometres north east of Melbourne.

But when Richard told a staff member he no longer needed the account, he claims he was told he'd have to pay to cancel it as his wife was still contracted to her plan.

A grieving widower claims Telstra demanded he pay a fee to cancel his dead wife's phone account because she 'broke her contract' (stock image)

Talking to 3AW's Neil Mitchell, Richard claimed he was told he couldn't just cancel the mobile phone plan just because his wife had died.

'There's no compassion. Aren't they making enough money?' he said.

Richard claimed that staff had no sympathy for his situation and he was required to pay the $101 cancellation fee.

Despite being a Telstra customer for more than 20 years, Richard claimed the company still refused to cancel the account without payment.

'I've been their customer from the dot. When I first got a phone it was Telstra, sorry it was Telecom back in the old days,' he told Mitchell.

'Now I've had a phone and mobile number with Telstra for the last 23 years.'

A Telstra spokesman said: 'We contacted the customer yesterday to apologise and have resolved the issue.'A woman in central China is in critical condition after her boyfriend of 20 years stabbed her more than 100 times during a breakup.

The suspect, identified as 50-year-old Zhang, got upset after his 38-year-old girlfriend asked for a breakup on September 30 in Qinyang, Henan province, Chinese media reported.

The woman, named Liu Shuangping, was reportedly fed up with her unemployed boyfriend's addiction to playing cards and gambling, prompting her decision to leave him.

A woman in Qinyang, central China's Henan province is in critical condition after her boyfriend of 20 years stabbed her more than 100 times during a breakup on September 30

Zhang has been detained and police were investigating the incident, according to Dahe Daily.

The woman's family is now appealing to the public for donations to help cover their medical expenses following the horrific incident.

Following an argument about their breakup, Zhang reportedly took a knife and went looking for Liu at her workplace at about 8pm on September 30. While she was in the toilet, Zhang launched the violent attack on her.

Neurosurgeon Dr Zhao Zhansheng at Jiaomei Central Hospital told reporters that the woman suffered serious wounds to her head, face, body and arms.

'There were more than 100 stab wounds on the woman. The injuries were really horrific and our medical staff were shocked,' Dr Zhao said.

Liu lost three fingers, had part of her palm cut and is left with heavy facial disfigurement, according to the report.

Liu lost three fingers, had part of her palm cut and is left with heavy facial disfigurement

She has been under intensive care at the hospital for a week following a 10-hour surgery. Doctors said the woman could still develop infections in her central nervous system which may put her life at risk again.

The family spent everything they had on Liu's medical expenses, which amounted to more than 100,000 yuan (11,000).

They currently owe the hospital 30,000 yuan (3,300) and need another 130,000 yuan (14,000) for follow-up surgeries, according to the report.

Although they were not married, the couple have been living together for 20 years and have an 18-year-old son together.

'My dad is a lot older than my mom. When they fight, he always hits her,' their son Liu told Metropolis Daily.

'I can't recognise my own mother anymore,' he said.China flaunted one of its most powerful unmanned fighting jets this week in a dramatic video that captured the drone in action during a recent live-fire exercise.

Stealth bomber Wing Loong II, which can avoid radar detection, successfully destroyed targets with laser-guided missiles during the drill above the Gobi Desert, reported People's Daily which released the footage.

As China's new generation combat drone, Wing Loong II boasts a top speed of 370 kilometres (230 miles) an hour and can reach an altitude of 9,000 metres (30,000 feet), according to a previous report by Xinhua News Agency.

The war plane is considered by Chinese media as Beijing's answer to MQ-9 Reaper, the most feared military drone in the U.S. Air Force.

Wing Loong II (pictured) is a new generation combat drone developed by China. The war plane boasts a top speed of 370 kilometres an hour and can reach an altitude of 9,000 metres

It is considered by Chinese media as Beijing's answer to MQ-9 Reaper (pictured) in the U.S.

First unveiled in September last year, Wing Loong II was developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China and can be sold to overseas buyers.

WING LOONG II: WHAT WE KNOW Length: 11 metres (36 feet) Height: 4.1 metres (13 feet) Wingspan: 20.5 meters (67.2 feet) Maximum take-off load: 4.2 tonnes (9,259 pounds) Flight endurance: 20 hours Maximum external load: 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) Advertisement

Propelled by a turbine engine, the jet can carry out scouting and combating missions and carry as many as 14 missiles.

It's capable of flying 20 hours without refuelling.

The plane's chief designer Li Qidong told Xinhua that Wing Loong II could automatically choose an airport and perform emergency landing under unexpected circumstances.

The latest edition of Wing Loong II, which was featured in People's Daily, is equipped with small AG-300 laser-guided air-to-ground missiles capable of hitting targets 30 to 40 kilometres (18 to 25 miles) away, said a recent report on Sina Military.

China's People's Daily has released a video showing Wing Loong II striking targets in a drill

The state news outlet said the drone destroyed multiple targets using laser-guided missiles

Its maximum speed of 370 kilometres an hour means it's one of the fastest unmanned fighter jets in China. The current top speed for unmanned service aircraft in the world is around 480 kilometres (300 miles) per hour, achieved by the US MQ-9 Reaper drone.

However, reported from earlier this year suggested that China had developed a supersonic unmanned fighter jet, called Dark Sword.

It was claimed that Dark Sword could fly at 1,190 kilometres (740 miles) per hour, an unprecedented speed for unmanned military aircraft.

Wing Loong II (pictured) is said to be capable of carrying 14 missiles and avoid radar detection

Last year, China started mass-produced its largest and most powerful drone bomber CH-5, also known as Rainbow-5.

The aircraft can carry 16 missiles and fly up to 60 hours without refuelling, reaching a maximum range of 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles).

The mass-produced model has a wingspan of 21 meters (69 feet) and a maximum external load of 1,000 kilograms (2,204 pounds), said Xinhua News Agency.Broadcaster Red Symons has paid tribute to 'remarkable' son who died two weeks ago from a long battle with cancer.

Samuel Symons, 27, died of a brain tumour after battling with the disease from the age of four.

'Samuel, I have always loved you. I will always love you. I shall always have you,' Mr Symons said on 3AW on Thursday.

Samuel Symons, 27, died two weeks ago from a brain tumour. Broadcaster Red Symons has paid tribute to 'remarkable' son who died two weeks ago from a long battle with cancer

Samuel was just four when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

He spent many years in and out of treatment. He was diagnosed with another brain tumour in 2017.

'At four years old you sort of come to terms with the fact that he's not going to be here.

'Twenty years later, he's got a masters degree. He was the most qualified person in the family.'

As one of the risks of his cancer treatment was that it could hinder his intellect, Mr Symons said his son's intelligence must have started pretty high.

Samuel was part of many ethics committees and contributed to policy making in the healthcare system, drawing from his ow experience within the health system.

'Rather than complain, he accepted his illnesses with humour, dignity and grace and continued to amaze us by achieving the unachievable,' his mother Elly Symons said.A 48-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Leisl Smith, who has been missing from her New South Wales home for more than six years.

Since her disappearance from Wallarah on the Central Coast on August 19, 2012, extensive searches conducted by Strike Force Wehl have been carried out.

Their efforts culminated in the arrest of a man about 5.10pm on Thursday on Gwydir Highway, with him then taken to Inverell Police Station and charged with murder.

A 48-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Leisl Smithm (pictured), who has been missing from her New South Wales home for more than six years

Since her disappearance from Wallarah on the Central Coast on August 19, 2012, extensive searches conducted by Strike Force Wehl have been carried out

He was refused bail and will appear in Inverell Local Court on Friday 19 October.

Ms Smith's Honda Accord was found abandoned at the Tuggerah Railway Station car park on Wednesday September 26 2012.

Strike Force detectives spoke to a then 42-year-old man before searching two properties in Wallarah and Brookfield in April 2013, seizing a number of items.

Further properties were searched bordering the Golden Highway at Merriwa, approximately 60km west of Scone, in the upper Hunter Valley.

Ms Smith's Honda Accord was found abandoned at the Tuggerah Railway Station car park on Wednesday September 26 2012A protester interrupted a speech by Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt and walked up to her today in a shocking security breach similar to the BBC drama Bodyguard.

Ms Mordaunt was speaking at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London today when Alexia Pepper de Caires appeared on stage and walked straight to the podium.

The moment was strikingly similar to an assassination scene in Bodyguard where an aide walked toward Keeley Hawes' Home Secretary character moments before a huge explosion.

A protester interrupted a speech by Aid Secretary Penny Mordaunt and walked up to her today in a shocking security breach similar to the BBC drama Bodyguard (Alexia Pepper de Caires is pictured arriving at the left of the stage)

Ms Mordaunt (right at the podium) was speaking at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London today when Alexia Pepper de Caires (pictured centre on stage) appeared on stage and walked straight to the podium

The moment was strikingly similar to an assassination scene in Bodyguard where an aide walked toward Keeley Hawes' Home Secretary character moments before a huge explosion

@je_ne_tweet_pas, co founder #NGOSafeSpace, interrupts @PennyMordaunts speech @DFID_UK #SafeguardingSummit2018 asking for real accountability for survivors #AidToo survivors and why @savechildrenuk given money to hold systems accountable - org stand accused of covering abuses pic.twitter.com/GjEdAAz4qS  Shaista Aziz  (@shaistaAziz) October 18, 2018

Ms Mordaunt initially continued her speech without a pause but stopped when the woman did not move away from her podium. She then listened to her speak for more than a minute.

Ms Pepper de Caires, a former whistleblower from Save the Children, complained those fighting against abuse were not properly represented.

Ms Mordaunt said she had not been aware of the situation and offered to give up her second speaking slot at the end of conference to her and her colleagues.

Following the intervention Ms Pepper de Caires - who founded the group NGO Safe Space - was led away by officials.

Ms Mordaunt was announcing that the UK will help launch a global register which aims to stop suspected sexual predators who are working in the aid sector.

A charity today highlighted continuning concerns about charities under-reporting alleged serious incidents.

Ms Mordaunt (pictured in Downing Street this week) was announcing that the UK will help launch a global register which aims to stop suspected sexual predators who are working in the aid sector

The Department for International Development (Dfid) has joined forces with Interpol and the Association of Chief Police Officers' Criminal Records Office (Acro) on the five-year project.

Ms Mordaunt believes it is needed as part of a 'concerted global effort' to tackle the issue.

The scheme will be kickstarted with 2 million of British aid cash, and harness Interpol's green-notice system, which issues international alerts over those 'considered to be a threat to public safety'.

Dfid said the project aims to stop perpetrators of sexual exploitation, abuse and sexual harassment from working in the aid sector.A Chinese man who was mauled by a 330lb bear in the wild has survived after jumping off a cliff out of desperation.

Tan Huajiang, from China's Shaanxi Province, was out picking mushrooms earlier this month when he got attacked by the adult bear, he told Shaanxi Net TV Station.

He fought the 4ft 3in beast for nearly 10 minutes before managing to escape its grasp and leaping off the cliff, he said.

A picture released by Shaanxi Net TV Station shows Tan Huajiang's wound on his arm

The man, from China, had to be given more than 100 stitches after being attacked by a bear

Mr Tan revealed the details of the horrifying experience in an interview with the First News programme on Monday.

According to him, the incident took place on October 8 in the mountains near Beiba Town in Hanzhong.

He had been picking mushrooms in the wild and while he was walking back, he saw two bears on the tree, one adult one young.

Upon seeing Mr Tan, the adult bear jumped onto him and started biting him.

The bear was said to be about 1.3 metres (4ft 3in) tall and weighed about 100 to 150kg (220 to 330lbs).

Mr Tan said he had to fight the bear for about 10 minutes after being mauled by it in the wild

He told the reporter: 'The bear was growling, and I was growling too.'

'It caught me and grabbed me with one move, ripping my clothes off me. I carried on running without my clothes.'

Mr Tan tried to escape from the bear's grasp three times, but the bear quickly caught up with him three times and continued attacking him.

On his fourth attempt of escaping, Mr Tan saw a cliff nearby and he thought that was his last chance to survive.

He said: 'At the time I was thinking: 'If I don't jump, I could be mauled to death by it; but if I do jump, maybe I could survive and that would be my fortune.''

He said he escaped from the bear three times and was caught up again three times (file photo)

A heavily wounded Mr Tan managed to free himself from the bear again, running for some 200 metres (656 feet) and leapt off the cliff, which he said was about five metres (16 feet) high.

After he landed on the rock, Mr Tan called his neighbours in the village who came to rescue him and take him to the hospital.

Dr Li Jinhong, who treated Mr Tan, told First News that Mr Tan was not in a critical condition when he got admitted into the hospital, but sustained severe blood loss and soft tissue injuries.

The man underwent a two-and-a-half-hour-long surgical operation, in which he was given more than 100 stitches.

He is currently recovering in the hospital and is expected to go home in two weeks, according to the report.Miss Earth Lebanon has been stripped of her title after posing for a photograph with Miss Earth Israel during the international pageant in the Philippines.

The photo shows Miss Earth Lebanon Salwa Akar standing with her arm around Miss Israel, Dana Zreik, with both of them making a 'peace' sign with their hands.

After the image was shared online, the organizers of Miss Earth Lebanon issued a statement to local media saying they 'categorically rejected the relationship with Israel' and that they had withdrawn Miss Akar's title.

Controversy: Miss Earth Israel, Dana Zreik, left, and Miss Earth Lebanon Salwa Akar, right, posed for a photograph during the Miss Earth pageant in the Philippines, making peace signs

Miss Earth is an international beauty pageant promoting environmental awareness, and is considered one of the 'big four' along with Miss World, Miss Universe and Miss International.

The pageant is currently underway in the Philippines, with 90 aspirants from all over the world taking part in the competition, which culminates in the finals held next month.

Yesterday, a defiant Miss Akar confirmed that she has been stripped of the title, but pledged to continue competing in the pageant.

'I don't need a 'title' to be myself,' Miss Akar wrote on her official Facebook page. 'I, the Soul am peace.. and I will finish what I started with or without your support and love ..

'God is always beside me, he knows me more than anyone.. and he knows what's in my heart . Om Shanti.'

Stripped: Miss Earth organisers in Lebanon stripped Miss Akar of her title after the photo with her Israeli counterpart

Not giving up: Miss Akar has remained defiant, and wrote on social media that she would continue to take part in the pageant 'with or without your support'

Competing: Miss Earth Israel is seen parading before photographers in the Philippines flanked by Miss Earth Japan and Miss Earth Indonesia, last week

Lebanon is the base for Islamist militants Hezbollah, which receives backing from Israel's arch enemy Iran.

The Jewish state has fought several conflicts against Hezbollah, whose forces control south Lebanon bordering Israel and Beirut's southern suburbs, the last in 2006.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hezbollah in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly of setting up rocket factories near Beirut's airport and using civilian infrastructure to hide them.

Holding up an aerial image of the alleged missile sites, he claimed Hezbollah was converting missiles on behalf of Iran.

'In Lebanon, Iran is directing Hezbollah to build secret sites to convert inaccurate projectiles into precision-guided missiles, missiles that can target deep inside Israel within an accuracy of 10 metres (yards),' he said.

He accused Hezbollah of 'deliberately using the innocent people of Beirut as human shields.'

In response, Lebanese President Michel Aoun tweeted that Netanyahu's allegations were 'baseless,' calling them a 'new Israeli threat to Lebanese sovereignty.'A father who was told his aching testicles could be an STI was actually suffering from a terminal brain tumour.

Jack Donovan, 29, made numerous trips to A&E where he complained of the seemingly unrelated symptoms acid reflux, headaches and testicular pain.

Doctors thought he may have an STI or a twisted testicle, until a CT scan eventually revealed his devastating cancer diagnosis.

Medics now think the tumour was pressing on various nerves, which caused symptoms in different parts of his body.

Two years on, Mr Donovan's tumour has grown by 10 per cent despite treatment to try and reduce it.

He is awaiting surgery to remove as much of the oligodendroglioma tumour as possible. Medics will then be able to give the father-of-one a new prognosis and treatment plan.

Jack Donovan, 29, (pictured with his 11-month-old son Jaxon and wife Amy, 26) was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour after going to A&E numerous times with aching testicles

Speaking of his scan, Mr Donovan said: 'That's when they spotted this shadow.

'I was told it was either MS, meningitis or a brain tumour.

'Unfortunately it was a tumour.

'And on top of that we've found out I'm missing an important chromosome to fight it and so my life expectancy was halved from 15 years to just seven.'

Mr Donovan was living in Australia with his 26-year-old girlfriend - who is now his wife - Amy when he received the shattering news.

Before the diagnosis, Mrs Donovan claims she once found her husband lying in the dark on the bathroom floor in agony.

The couple were planning to stay in Australia after Mr Donovan had surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible.

But six months on they were surprised to discover Mrs Donovan was pregnant with Jaxon, which prompted them to return to their native Pentwyn, Cardiff.

Mr Donovan moved from Australia back to Cardiff when his wife became pregnant

'Absolute godsend': Mr Donovan says his adorable son keeps him positive and helps him focus on something other than his diagnosis

'Having Jaxon has been an absolute godsend for me and Amy,' Mr Donovan said.

'He makes the hard days easier and always makes us laugh. Having a child takes the focus away from you and there are days when I really need that.

'I just want to spend as much quality time with my family as I can.'

Mr Donovan is awaiting surgery at University Hospital of Wales Cardiff, which he will be awake for.

The family have documented their ordeal on the YouTube channel 'Jack Donovan - Life Is One Big and Beautiful Struggle.'The alleged mastermind of the murder of a 15-year-old teenager has been arrested at Sydney International Airport after hiding from authorities for over a year.

Abdul Abu-Mahmoud was met by investigators after he got off a flight from Thailand on Thursday morning at about 11am.

The 33-year-old was taken to Surry Hills police station, in the inner-city, where he was charged with murder.

Abdul Abu-Mahmoud (pictured) was arrested at Sydney International Airport on Thursday morning for his alleged involvement in the murder of a teenage boy

Brayden Dillon (pictured), 15, was shot as he slept in his home in Glenfield in April 2017

The 33-year-old (pictured) was taken to Surry Hills police station, in the inner-city, where he was charged with murder

Brayden Dillon was shot in the head while he slept in his Glenfield, south-west Sydney, home in April 2017.

Conrad Craig, who has also been charged with murder, allegedly barged into the home and fired the fatal bullet as part of a 'revenge killing'.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Abu-Mahmoud's alleged orchestration of the murder plot.

Mr Abu-Mahmoud, a suspected Brothers For Life member, allegedly fled the country to Thailand at the same time the 15-year-old was killed and was in contact with Craig just weeks before the murder, police said.

According to police, the shooting was pay-back for the stabbing death of Adam Abu-Mahmoud at the hands of his older brother Joshua Dillon.

Last month, Investigators from Strike Force Wongala arrested Craig's sister, Kimberly Craig.

According to police, the shooting was pay-back for the stabbing death of Adam Abu-Mahmoud (pictured) at the hands of his older brother Joshua Dillon

Conrad Craig (pictured), who has also been charged with murder, allegedly barged into the home and fired the fatal bullet as part of a 'revenge killing'

The 35-year-old was charged with being an accessory after the fact to murder, intent to pervert the course of justice, knowingly participating in criminal group, and drug supply.

Investigators have also arrested Sophie Massie and Torek Ayoub for their alleged involvement.

Abu-Mahmoud been refused bail and will appear at Central Local Court on Friday.

Mr Abu-Mahmoud allegedly fled the country to Thailand at the same time the 15-year-old was killed and was in contact with Craig just weeks before the murder, police saidWelcome Guest! You Are Here:

Home Regional News EastA senior Tory experienced an awkward moment in Parliament today as he repeatedly failed to understand a Scottish MP's accent.

Sir Paul Beresford was taking questions on behalf of the ruling Commons Commission when the embarrassing incident happened.

The SNP's David Linden, who represents Glasgow East, rose to ask Sir Paul whether the Parliamentary estate would be made more accessible for disabled people as part of the planned multi-billion pound restoration project.

Sir Paul Beresford was taking questions on behalf of the ruling Commission commission when the embarrassing incident happened

The SNP's David Linden, who represents Glasgow East, rose to ask Sir Paul whether the Parliamentary estate would be made more accessible for disabled people as part of the planned multi-billion pound restoration project

But Mole Valley MP Sir Paul, who was born in New Zealand, said: 'I'm sorry, it must be something to do with my Antipodean background.

'Could he please repeat the question, because I didn't understand it.'

Amid laughter, a bemused Mr Linden tried again.

But once again Sir Paul was unable to follow his words.

'Really sorry. Please could he do it very slowly in Antipodean English.'

A clearly frustrated Mr Linden appeared to be about to try for a third time when Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle intervened.

'I think the answer might be helped if you can reply in writing,' he said.

Labour MP Chris Elmore then said: 'I'm Welsh so God help him.'A man who witnessed a worker die after he fell into a trench filled with water and dirt has explained the harrowing experience.

The construction worker fell and became trapped in the three-metre ditch in Perth's Mosman Park at about 2.30pm on Wednesday.

Harvey Street Park resident, Thomas Carew-Reid immediately called emergency services when he heard screams at the work site across from his home.

It took crews up to eight hours to retrieve the man's body, using specialised equipment.

A worker died after he fell into a water-filled trench on a construction site in front of his horrified work mates (pictured)

Emergency crews attempted to get to the construction worker, who fell and became trapped in the three-metre ditch

Mr Carew-Reid told Perth Now that he rushed over and arrived to several workers attempting to reach the young plumber as he sank into the sand and water mix.

'It was traumatic to see these grown men screaming, trying to get their friend out of this situation,' he said.

'There were three or four men at one stage trying to pull this man out of the water. It was quicksand.'

Mr Carew-Reid rushed across the street to the work site just two minutes after hearing the first screams.

But by the time he arrived the worker was already under water.

They frantically attempted to get a snorkel and tube to the man to allow him to breathe, but it was unsuccessful.

Despite the worker's best efforts to save their friend, the man unfortunately died.

Emergency crews also took out a pump outside a building site on Harvey Street in order to take the water out of the hole

Workers frantically attempted to get a snorkel and tube to the man to allow him to breathe, but it was unsuccessful

Firefighters and a rescue team were immediately sent to the scene to recover his body from the trench.

Emergency crews also took out a pump outside a building site on Harvey Street in order to take the water out of the hole, according to Perth Now.

CEO of Badge Construction, Roger Zammit, offered condolences to the man's family.

'We're shattered,' Mr Zammit said.

Firefighters and a rescue team were immediately sent to the scene to recover his body from the trench

The company is working together with WorkSafe to provide assistance with the ongoing investigation.

The accident is the third workplace death to happen in Western Australia in a week.

A tree lopper in his 40s died after being fatally hit by a falling branch while using a cherry picker.

Another worker died in the hospital after he was found with head injuries at a construction site last week.The EC3 Brokers staff member (pictured) called Sheikh Ahmed a 'brown dog'

A finance boss who racially abused a couple has been barred from every pub, bar and nightclub in central London for a year.

Robert Tolley had been boozing for six hours at a bar near Liverpool Street Station at a colleagues leaving do on 21 February this year.

The 48-year-old EC3 Brokers director left shortly after 7.30pm and walked to the train station.

The father-of-two bumped into couple Sheikh Ahmed and Sayema Khanom, pushed both of them and told Mr Ahmed he was a 'brown dog'. He also called Ms Khanom a prostitute and Mr Ahmed a dog in Arabic.

He was sentenced to a community order that also bans him from drinking in any pub in his home county of Wiltshire for 12 months.

Tolley will also be on curfew for nine weeks from 8:30pm to 4:30am, during which time he must not leave his village home in Manton.

District Judge Michael Snow told him: Since you cannot control yourself while you are drinking we are going to try and curb your drinking.

His lawyer, Ricky Yau, asked the court to alter a curfew order placed on him because of business trips to Palma and Barcelona, Spain in November.

He explained: They are his clients. He has already set up the meetings. If he does not attend then the transaction wont go through and he will have to answer to his CEO.

Tolley - who works at EC3 Brokers (pictured) in central London - has been banned from pubs in both central London and Wiltshire

Judge Snow said the curfew will not apply when Tolley is in Palma on 1 and 2 November and Barcelona from 17 to 19 November.

Mr Yau added: He has a decent job in the financial services. It was a lunch time leaving do for a colleague that started at 1 oclock and ended at 7:30pm.

The broker (pictured outside court) also insulted the couple in Arabic

Tolley, who appeared in the dock in a navy suit with a white shirt and blue tie, admitted two charges of racially aggravated common assault.

The broker - who lives in 500,000 semi-detached house - was deeply ashamed of what he had done, Westminster Magistrates Court heard.

Marcia Evans, prosecuting, said: On 21 February at about 8:15pm at Liverpool Street Station the complainants had been exiting Bishop Gate exit when Mr Ahmed noticed the defendant.

He was on the escalator with his partner.

The defendant came quite close to her. He goes down the escalator he pushes Mr Ahmed and Ms Khanom tries to intervene in the centre of that dispute. There is a suggestion of a punch but nothing landing.

District Judge Snow said: The aggravating features of this offence are that there were two victims here not one and the incident took place at a very busy central London station.

That would have cased extra distress for anybody who had to witness what you did. From your own point of view, the reason this is going to be dealt with by community order is because the court will not tolerate this type of offence.

A spokesman for EC3 Brokers told MailOnline: 'EC3 Brokers first became aware of this terrible incident today and we can confirm Robert Tolley, a divisional director at EC3 Brokers, has been suspended until the conclusion of a disciplinary procedure.

'We take the behaviour of our staff inside and outside the office very seriously and we are proud of the otherwise excellent reputation of our brokers. Wed like to offer our own condolences to the two victims.'Hospital worker Koffi Kouakou has become the 11th person jailed after Grenfell.

He swindled 24,572 worth of handouts when he was put up in a hotel for three months.

He told the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea that he had been living in flat 115 with Zainab Deen, which officers soon discovered was a lie.

Bangladeshi Mohammed Syed Rinku claimed he was in a gay relationship with a resident of the 20th floor of the west London block and his boyfriend had died in the blaze.

But when he was asked about his affair by the police, it became clear he had researched who had died in the fire. Officers then found heterosexual porn and dating apps on his phone.

The 46-year-old was jailed for 18 months for the fraud.

Anh Nhu Nguyen pretended his wife and 12-year-old son were killed in the blaze so he could claim charity handouts.

He pocketed 11,270 as he was put up in hotels and given clothing, laptops and cash.

But police discovered the 53-year-old had 28 convictions for 56 offences spanning more than 30 years, including theft, dishonesty offences, arson and grievous bodily harm.

Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam, even tried to apply for a passport by claiming his had been incinerated. He was jailed for 21 months in February.

Another fraudster, Anh Nhu Nguyen, met Prince Charles during his time posing as a victim

Elaine Douglas and Tommy Brooks falsely claimed they lived in Grenfell Tower to claim more than 120,000.

The illegal immigrants spent eight months living in a four-star hotel, with taxpayers footing the 400-a-night bill.

They also spent more than 20,000 on meals and clothing on pre-paid credit cards which were given to them by Kensington and Chelsea council.

The pair entered Britain illegally from Jamaica 16 years ago on separate flights and were ordered to leave by immigration officials only to vanish  reappearing in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy last year.

Douglas, 51, was jailed for a total of three years while Brooks, 52, received a sentence of three years and three months.

Joyce Msokeri falsely claimed to have lost her husband in the blaze so that she could claim thousands of pounds.

The conwoman travelled 14 miles from her own flat to the tower block and convinced charity workers she had survived the inferno.

She feigned trauma to obtain handouts of 19,000 in cash, food, clothing, three mobile phones and free stays at a Hilton hotel. The 47-year-old would have received 203,000 in handouts if she had not been caught.

When Msokeri, from Zimbabwe, kept giving them different numbers for her flat in the tower block, her apparent forgetfulness was put down to trauma. She was jailed for four-and-a-half years in April.

Mohammad Gamoota is pictured

Mohammad Gamoota trawled a list of the dead then told officials his father was Abdeslam Sebbar, who had died after becoming trapped in his flat.

The 31-year-old said he had survived only because he was attending midnight prayers at his mosque when the inferno took hold.

In reality, he was not related to Mr Sebbar, 77, and did not live in Grenfell Tower, but took the details from a newspaper.

Two days later, Gamoota presented himself as a bereaved relative. He was given 500 and booked into a Holiday Inn hotel where he racked up a 374 room service bill.

He tried to claim a further 5,000  but a technical issue with his bank account prevented the money being paid in. He was jailed for 18 months.

Yonatan Eyob falsely claimed 81,000 in cash and free hotel stays, as well as 11,000 towards a new permanent home.

Eyob claimed he had lived alone in a flat that actually contained a family of five who perished in Britain's worst fire for a generation.

Neighbours said he didn't and CCTV proved he had never been there.

He was later charged with dishonestly making a false representation for accommodation and subsistence between June 2017 and June 2018.

The 26-year-old pleaded guilty and was jailed for more than six years.

Council worker Jenny McDonagh blew money for victims on holidays and meals out

Jenny McDonagh stole pre-paid cash cards while working as manager of the Grenfell Fire fund at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

In total she took about 62,000 from pre-paid cash cards meant for several survivors, including Fadumo Ahmed, Sacha Salaabi and Christos Fairbairn, the court heard.

The money was spent on online gambling and foreign holidays.

She was jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Antonio Gouveia, 33, lied about escaping the inferno.

The fraudster claimed to be the flatmate of 80-year-old Hermine Harris who was living in the block of flats on the night of the tragedy which left 72 people dead in June 2017.

He has been jailed for three years.

Abdelkarim Rekaya, 28, took advantage of the governments policy of providing amnesty for illegal immigrants living in the gutted tower block in June last year.

He had been in the country since 2009 and by 2010 he had been cautioned by police for trying to steal bicycle.

Rekaya first claimed he was living in flat four when the inferno claimed the lives of 72 residents.

He later changed his story to say he was homeless and sleeping in the stairwell of the 11th and 12th floor.

Shortly after the blaze he was put up in a luxury Chelsea hotel at a cost of 60,000 for just under a year.

Judge Robin Jonathan warned him he faced a substantial custodial sentence.Steven Procopio (pictured) is charged with three counts of criminal homicide

Police have arrested a 19-year-old man after three people, including a mother and her 10-year-old daughter, were found shot dead inside a home in Pennsylvania.

Steven Procopio said 'I didn't hurt her' as he was taken into custody on Wednesday evening, WPXI-TV reports.

Procopio, of New Wilmington, has been charged with three counts of criminal homicide.

Authorities found the bodies of Nichole Pumphrey, 31, her 10-year-old daughter Amariah Emery and 31-year-old Lawrence Cannon at a New Castle home on Tuesday.

They believe the victims died on Monday night, KDKA reports.

Police believe Procopio may have been a babysitter to Pumphrey's children in the past.

Authorities found the bodies of Nichole Pumphrey (left) and her 10-year-old daughter Amariah Emery (right) at her New Castle home on Tuesday

'We believe he used to babysit the children. He was an acquaintance with Nichole, one of the victims,' New Castle Police Chief Robert Salem said.

Mother-of-five Pumphrey and her daughter lived at the home, but Cannon lived elsewhere, police said.

Officials said the woman was shot twice and the other two victims were each shot once.

Salem said four other children were found in the home. All were interviewed and then released to relatives.

Lawrence Cannon (pictured) was also shot dead at the New Castle home. Police said he doesn't live at the address

Steven Procopio said 'I didn't hurt her' as he was taken into custody on Wednesday evening

Officers found the bodies after a family member called 911 after finding the bodies.

New Castle Police said Procopio is being held at the Lawrence County Jail and is expected to be arraigned on Thursday morning.

The department added that it expects to release more information about the incident on Thursday.A four-year-old boy was killed after a swing collapsed on him while staying at an AirBnB rental property.

Marco Seraji had been sitting with four other children on the swing at a Queensland's Sunshine Coast Hinterland property on September 22 when the wooden structure fell, crushing the small boy.

His father Arastoo Seraji watched the horrific seen unfold, the Courier Mail reported.

Scroll down for video

Marco Seraji (pictured), 4, had been sitting with four other children on the swing at a Queensland's Sunshine Coast Hinterland property when the wooden swing fell on to the small boy

The Kurdish family, who moved to Brisbane five years ago, were on a weekend away with three other families.

They had gone for a walk in the morning, had lunch and then the kids went off to play on the swing.

'When the swing fell down, they were all trapped under there,' Mr Seraji told A Current Affair.

Marco was rushed to hospital but tragically died before arriving.

The family has been left devastated with the young parents now mourning their 'active and bubbly little boy'.

Mr Seraji said he had not received a call from the owner of the property.

'I'm really angry for that because if you have any accident on my property, I have to be responsible for that and I have to help you.'

The tragic incident has highlighted insurance holes in the share economy.with experts warning users of AirBnB to check if they are covered.

Marco Seraji's parents have been left heartbroken after their son was killed while on a swing at an Airbnb property

The swing at the Sunshine Coast Hinterland property collapsed as five children played on it.

Maurice Blackburn personal injuries lawyer Jillian Barrett said homeowers could risk being found liable for such incidents because the letting would be class as a business.

She said traditional owner occupier insurance may not fully cover a host and warned hosts to read the fine print.

RACQ insurance expert Kirsty Clinton said both users and providers need to read the details to ensure they are protected if something goes wrong.

The Seraji family are considering their legal options.

An AirBnB spokesperson said the company continues to offer support to the family and are cooperating with authorities throughout the investigation.George Orwell's son has slammed plans to build a enormous fish farm just 200ft from the house where the author penned Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm.

Kames Fish Farming wants to build a sea trout farm off the west coast of Jura in the Scottish Highlands - prompting an angry response from the famous writer's son.

The farm - which could hold 600,000 fish at a time in a dozen cages - would be close to Orwell's 'bothy' where he penned his most famous works.

George Orwell's son has slammed plans to build a enormous fish farm just 200ft from the house where the author penned 1984 and Animal Farm. Richard Blair (pictured left as a boy and right in 2009) said Jura is an area of outstanding natural beauty and should be protected

The company has submitted details of the plans to the council for advice ahead of potentially submitting a full application for the project.

His son Richard Blair, 74, has slammed the plans. He said: 'Jura is a natural beauty spot which is beyond complete and needs to be protected.

'I would be extremely unhappy if this went ahead as there are no fish farms around Jura and so it would be extremely upset if this was to go ahead.'

The writer penned 1984 in the cottage on the Hebridean island which is home to 200 people and 6,000 deer.

The cottage in Knockrome, on the west coast of the island, has two bedrooms and has been modernised to become a family home now privately owned.

Orwell spent several years on Jura and spent up to 10 hours a day writing and relaxing whilst spending his evenings fishing and checking lobster pots.

Orwell said that Jura was a 'peaceful' and 'quiet' place which allowed him to escape from the 'Big Brother' of the city.

The company is proposing a dozen cages around 350ft in diameter each, which would raise around 600,000 fish at a time.

he farm - which could hold 600,000 fish at a time in a dozen cages - would be close to Orwell's 'bothy' where he penned his most famous works. Orwell once said that Jura was a 'peaceful' and 'quiet' place which allowed him to escape from the 'Big Brother' of the city

An online petition against the proposals has attracted more than 2,600 signatures, set up by gamekeeper Craig Rozga, and backed by campaign group Friends of the Sound of Jura.

Craig said: 'West Coast of Jura is a truly unspoiled wilderness so the plan would be devastating for wildlife found on the west coast.'

Campaign group Friends of the Sound of Jura added that the plans would devastate the 'peaceful' and 'tranquil' setting of the island.

Kames Fish Farming submitted the 'screening and scoping opinion' application for advice.

The application is for advice ahead of them potentially submitting a full application, which would also go to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency.

A spokesman for the Kames Fish Farming said: 'Plans for the development are at an early stage and we are currently encouraging members of the public to have their say.

'Following comments - some encouraging, some less so - and in light of further consultation with the community, stakeholders and regulators, we may make adjustments to the proposal.

'We may carry out further surveys and, after extensive research and consultation, may or may not make a formal application to the regulators.'

They added that there was no other possible location which would be 'technically feasible' for the project.Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to seal America's southern border with military force unless Mexico intervenes to stop the flow of illegal immigrants traveling to the U.S. from Central America.

The stern, tweeted warning came as a group of more than 4,000 travels north through Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States, despite having no visas or other legal papers to enter.

Trump blamed his Democratic rivals for the resulting chaos, saying 'they want Open Borders and existing weak laws.'

He resurrected the claim that launched his White House campaign in 2015, saying that 'this large flow of people' includes 'MANY CRIMINALS' and putting the words in uppercase letters for effect.

'I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!' Trump wrote.

'All Democrats fault for weak laws!' he added.

President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the U.S. military to close the southern border unless Mexico helps stop flow of Central American immigrants traveling from the south

Honduran migrants walked north toward the U.S. on Wednesday from Chiquimula, Guatemala, part of a massive surge that has infuriated the president to threaten financial penalties on Central American nations

The president renewed his complaint that the Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran governments are doing nothing to stop a massive flow of people northward, 'INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS'

Trump on Thursday also renewed Wednesday's threat to stop all payments to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including humanitarian aid, if their governments 'allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to fly to Mexico on Friday.

News emerged Wednesday that the number of illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has jumped 80 per cent since Trump ended his 'zero tolerance' policy in June, with U.S. Border Patrol agents arresting 16,658 family members in September. That's the highest one-month total on record.

The Washington Post obtained unpublished Department of Homeland Security statistics and published them three weeks before a contentious midterm election, while Trump is urging Republicans to make immigration their number one issue on the campaign trail.

The number of immigrant families crossing into the U.S. illegally has jumped 80 per cent since Trump ended his 'zero tolerance' policy

'We're getting hammered daily,' said one Border Patrol agent in South Texas told The Post.

The new numbers also come as a wave of immigrants is on the march from Central America.

Thousands of people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are fleeing to the United States in an effort to escape the poverty and violence that has engulfed their countries.

The Department of Homeland Security, in a statement, blamed congressional inaction and said the high illegal immigrant flow would likely continue without movement on on Capitol Hill.

'Our nation faces a dangerous crisis on the border that threatens American communities. Congress refuses to close catch-and-release loopholes in the law that would allow authorities to detain and remove family units safely and expeditiously. While we do not have official numbers to report at this time, current trends indicate enforcement efforts against single adults entering illegally have been hugely successful,' said Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Katie Waldman.

'However, the removal of actual family units, or those posing as family units, has been made virtually impossible by Congressional inaction  which will most likely result in record numbers of families arriving illegally in the United States this year. At the direction of the President, DHS is continuing to examine all options to secure the border and keep American communities safe, including working with our partners in Central America and Mexico.'

The new numbers have left the president furious, White House aides told the Post.

'We're actually getting crushed,' said one.

Trump is said to be considering reinstating the controversial separation policy that was criticized by members of his own party and the first lady. He sees 'zero tolerance' as the one thing that worked.

A migrant caravan set out on October 13 from impoverished, violence-plagued Honduras and is headed north on the long journey through Guatemala and Mexico to the U.S.

A helicopter with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) searches in the background as a group of men from Central America are apprehended for illegally crossing into the United States from Mexico in Penitas, Texas in early October

Trump has received regular updates on the stats and has told senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who has taken the lead on immigration issues, and Chief of Staff John Kelly that something has to change.

He tweeted about on Wednesday morning, pushing Republicans to make immigration an issue in the November election.

'Hard to believe that with thousands of people from South of the Border, walking unimpeded toward our country in the form of large Caravans, that the Democrats won't approve legislation that will allow laws for the protection of our country. Great Midterm issue for Republicans!,' he tweeted Wednesday morning.

'Republicans must make the horrendous, weak and outdated immigration laws, and the Border, a part of the Midterms!,' he added.

The president has long viewed immigration a winning issue for Republicans and partially credits his White House victory on his tough stance on the matter.

Independent political prognosticators are giving Democrats strong chances of retaking the House in November while Republicans are increasingly confident they will hold the Senate.

Immigration is an issue the president has consistently used as a hammer in his dealing with Congress and Democrats.

He has threatened to shut down the government if he doesn't getting funding to build his border wall.

Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has prepped legislation that would fully fund the president's border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border with a $23.4 billion price tag.

But Congress is in recess until after November's election although the House could take up the matter when it returns in mid-November.

Democrats, however, oppose any legislation funding for the border wall that does not include protection for the so-called Dreamers, the children of illegal immigrants brought by their parents to the U.S. when they were young.

Trump thinks immigration can be a winning issue for Republicans

Trump sees immigration as one of issues that helped put him in the White House

Trump has threatened to cut off funding from Central American countries that don't stop their immigrants

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is seeking to be speaker of the House should her party retake control, said one of their first priorities would be legislation to protect Dreamers.

She also told Politico she does not see any Democrats voting to fund the wall.

'I don't see any of us voting for wall funding.  We have a responsibility to secure our borders. There are ways to do that that are consistent with civilization, humanitarianism and who we are as a nation. We have to remove all doubt about that,' she said.

And the president is gripping about a headline on an interview he gave the AP that said 'Trump tells AP he won't accept blame if GOP loses House.'

The president, when asked in the interview whether he'd 'bear some responsibility' for losses, replied, 'No, I think I'm helping people.'

'AP headline was very different from my quote and meaning in the story. They just can't help themselves. FAKE NEWS!' he tweeted without context on Wednesday.Advertisement

Tony Blair was joined by Gordon Brown and David Cameron at a memorial service celebrating the life of Dame Tessa Jowell today.

More than 1,000 mourners including the three former prime ministers and most of New Labour's big hitters were at Southwark Cathedral - five months after she lost her battle with brain cancer at the age of 70.

Before his eulogy Mr Blair, 65, was seen smiling and talking with Mr Brown, 67, the first time they have been photographed together for several years after a bitter battle for party leadership wrecked their friendship.

In his tribute Mr Blair revealed he was opposed to the London 2012 Olympics but Dame Tessa, who was an MP between 1997 and 2015 and a cornerstone of New Labour, convinced him to back the bid.

To roars of laughter he said: 'I resisted, she persisted, I desisted.'

Mr Blair said his former culture minister was a woman whose 'compassion did not pass when the news cycle moved on' at a service also attended by David Blunkett, Alastair Campbell, Sadiq Khan and Ed Miliband.

But Jeremy Corbyn stayed away and went to an anti-fracking event in Chesterfield, Derbyshire - 150 miles from Southwark Cathedral.

Baroness Jowell's daughter Jessie also spoke and recalled her mother's 'endless, heart-bursting, infinite love' while Dame Tessa's husband David Mills revealed his wife's last words were 'love forever'.

Tony Blair, pictured in discussion with his former chancellor Gordon Brown, spoke emotionally about Dame Tessa Jowell at a memorial service at Southwark Cathedral in London today that brought many of New Labour's former stars together

This photograph of Tessa with her daughter Jess (right), daughter-in-law Ella (left) and Ella's baby daughter Ottie was released when she died of brain cancer in May

Tony Blair shakes hand with David Cameron - the pair were one of three former prime ministers at the memorial service today

Jess and Matthew Mills, children of the late Tessa Jowell MP and her husband David Mills at the memorial service where they paid tribute to her compassion, parenting and love

Former Labour colleagues David Blunkett and Alistair Campbell were in attendance. The former home secretary (left) and Mr Blair's spin doctor (right) were key figures in the New Labour administration that governed from 1997 to 2010

Blair and Brown, the architects of New Labour, reportedly fell out over the so-called 'granita pact' carved out in a Mexican restaurant in 1994.

In his memoir Mr Blair said he and Mr Brown were initially like lovers, then a married couple who argued, and finally hated rivals.

Mr Blair twice reneged on agreements with Mr Brown over the Labour leadership. Firstly, he stood against him having repeatedly promised in the years before Mr Smiths death that he would support Mr Brown. Secondly, after pledging in 2003 to stand down before the next election, which took place in 2005.

He said he stood again for a third time after his chancellor broke his end of the deal by refusing to back his market-driven reforms of public services - and when Mr Brown finally took over in 2010 he lost to David Cameron.

Baroness Jowell, a driving force behind the 2012 London Olympics elected in Blair 1997 landslide general election win, was commemorated by her friends, family and former colleagues in an emotional service that paid tribute to her 'endless, heart-bursting, infinite love'.

The Labour politician, who served under Mr Blair, died in May aged 70 after being diagnosed with the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme.

In his eulogy Mr Blair drew roars of laughter as he recalled how she had successfully persuaded him of the merits of hosting the London 2012 Olympics - her 'brainchild'.

He said: 'I resisted, she persisted, I desisted.'

The New Labour leader paid tribute to Dame Tessa, saying 'not a day goes by' without him thinking of her.

Her love for her family and friends was 'a beautiful thing to witness and a pleasure to be near', he said.

She was 'unafraid to stand up for her friends, unafraid to stand up to them, but always standing by them', he added.

The former Labour leader drew roars of laughter as he recalled how she had successfully persuaded him of the merits of hosting the London 2012 Olympics.

He said: 'I resisted, she persisted, I desisted.'

His friend and former colleague grew in character in the months after her diagnosis, he said.

He said: 'Tessa died with so much still to give, but if life is measured not in how long you live but by how much you give, she lived a length of biblical proportions.'

He ended: 'Tessa, we love you, we thank you and we will never, ever forget you.'

In his eulogy Mr Blair drew roars of laughter as he recalled how she had successfully persuaded him of the merits of hosting the London 2012 Olympics. He said: 'I resisted, she persisted, I desisted'

The former prime minister revealed he was not sure about going for London 2012 - but Dame Tessa would not give up until he gave in

Prime Minister Tony Blair and Tessa Jowell pictured together in 2005 after he won his third term as Prime Minister

Labour leader Tony Blair poses with Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Clare Short, Tessa Jowell, Mo Mowlam and John Prescott in 1997

Dame Tessa's political career spanned more than 40 years (pictured left in 1978) and her brave public battle with brain cancer inspired many people until her death this year

Dame Tessa celebrates winning the bid for London 2012 with David Beckham on July 6, 2005

Dame Tessa is survived by her husband David Mills, pictured at her investiture in 2013, her daughter Jessie and son Matthew, pictured shortly before her death

Mr Blair's successors at 10 Downing Street were also in attendance, among the dozens of senior politicians who gathered to pay tribute to the late culture secretary.

Gordon Brown and David Cameron were seated in pews near former Labour leader Ed Miliband, former home secretary Lord Blunkett, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Commons Speaker John Bercow and London 2012 chairman Lord Coe.

The memorial came as Mr Khan announced a walkway in the Olympic Park will be named in her honour.

Laughter rang out at several moments during the one-and-a-half hour service - as colleagues remembered her insistence on holding multiple meetings and always being on a diet.

Dame Tessa's daughter Jessie recalled her mother's 'endless, heart-bursting, infinite love'.

She said: 'To be loved like this since the moment we were born and to be her children is the single greatest privilege of our lives.'

And Dame Tessa's husband, David Mills, gave the final tribute.

She demonstrated a love that was 'unchanging, uncomplicated, unquestioning and selfless', he said.

His wife's last words were 'love forever', he added.

He said: 'To know that she was held in such high esteem, was loved by so many... all that is a consolation which will in some measure always beguile our grief.'

Tony Blair kisses Gordon Brown's wife Sarah at Southwark Cathedral today as they remembered Dame Tessa Jowell

Mr Blair also said that Dame Tessa's love and compassion was genuine and not to make headlines for herself or Labour

David Cameron spoke with Gordon Brown at the service who he took over from as prime minister in 2010

The head of Labour's spin machine at the height of Mr Blair's power, Alastair Campbell, laughs in conversation with Mr Blair and another mourner

Also attending the service were former Labour leader Ed Miliband (left), former home secretary Lord Blunkett, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan (pictured), Commons Speaker John Bercow and London 2012 chairman Lord Coe

The New Labour leader paid tribute to Dame Tessa, saying 'not a day goes by' without him thinking of her shown chatting with Ed Miliband

Mr Cameron sat alone reading the order of service at Southwark Crown Court, which is close to London Bridge station

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband laughs with Gordon Brown with Tony Blair in the foreground of the photograph

Commons Speaker John Bercow also attended the memorial service along with 1,000 people who wanted to remember her life

Lord Coe, who attended the memorial service at Southwark Cathedral, worked closely with the former culture secretary to make London 2012 happen

Dame Tessa was Tony Blair's culture secretary (pictured with the Queen in 2004) and she campaigned despite her terminal illness, pictured with then health secretary Jeremy Hunt and his Labour counterpart Jon Ashworth ahead of a debate on cancer treatment a month before she died this year

Mr Mills said how, as she neared the end of her life, Dame Tessa found it increasingly difficult to communicate.

But, he said: 'One word - which we have heard a lot today - was on her lips more than any other - love.'

'Love forever - they were Tessa's last words,' he added.

A long queue which snaked around the cathedral's perimeter an hour before the service started was testament to her enduring popularity.

Dame Tessa died in May after suffering from a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour which was diagnosed the previous year.

A well-liked figure in Parliament, she played a major role in securing the 2012 Olympics for London when she served as culture secretary.

She also championed the SureStart initiative, which aimed to give children the best possible start in life through improvements and better access to childcare, early education, health and family support.

In the months before her death, she moved fellow peers to tears as she used the House of Lords as a platform to discuss her condition and call for patients to have better access to experimental treatment.On Thursdays I post from the vault. This post is from September 2008.

Last night we had the pleasure of getting together with several other families adopting from Haiti for a beach bonfire. Its always so fun to hang out with other adoptive parents. For one, its nice to just get together and chat with people who know all the dirty details about the Haitian adoption process. We mulled over the changes in IBESER, the Gassant firing, the 1974 law, the mess in Parquet, the timing of MOI, how passports are printed, when to file the I600 . . . Confused?? Exactly why its nice to have some folks to share in the insanity of it all.

But I also love these gatherings because it is so neat to meet other families who are passionate about adoption, with children who resemble mine, and see them all play together. When we first arrived, we met Debbie and her husband, who are in the process to adopt a 16-year-old girl. We saw Angela with her three new Haitian children, who just came home this summer! Seeing her newly enlarged family gives me hope that our own adoption will happen. As soon as we arrived, Angelas 16-year-old started holding India, and her son Jude started playing with Jafta. Her 4-year-old daughter crawled right up into my lap. Despite the fact that these kids are just learning English, they immediately took to my family, and it was a lovely picture. Then our friends Alida and her family came, who are hoping to start the process of foster adoption. Her oldest boys hit it off with Jafta, too. They were running around the beach pretending to spar with light sabers in no time! Finally Donica and Paul came, who we have so much in common with. They have two kids similiar ages to ours, and are also adopting a little boy from Haiti who will be the same age as their bio daughter. So we are both creating virtual twins. It was fun to talk about how life will change once we can bring our kids home.

I really appreciate the relationships I have with these families, and they are a support to me, even when we just sit around a bonfire singing worship songs. Their presence gives me strength.

And who said meeting people online was a bad thing??? 

********the photo above was taken on our last trip to Haiti *************A doctor has been charged after he allegedly drugged and indecently assaulted a female patient.

A 48-year-old man is set to face Downing Centre Local Court on November 9, where it will be alleged that he drugged the woman without her consent or knowledge before he indecently assaulted her.

The allegations against the man come after Leichhardt Police Area Command officers started an investigation in August, when a 20-year-old woman visited Glebe Police Station to speak with detectives.

A doctor has been charged after he allegedly drugged and indecently assaulted a female patient (stock photo)

A 48-year-old man is set to face Downing Centre Local Court (pictured) on November 9, where it will be alleged that he drugged the woman without her consent or knowledge before he indecently assaulted her

Three other victims have been identified since the investigation was launched.

A search warrant was subsequently carried out at the doctor's medical practice in Auburn, a western Sydney suburb on October 18.

His home in Rydalmere was also searched, where police seized numerous items and arrested the man.

He has been charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault and using intoxicating substances to commit indictable offence.

Further charges are expected to be brought against the man.

The man was conditionally bailed until his upcoming court appearance.Three murder suspects have today denied killing five people in a shop blast and plotting with one of their alleged victims to make a bogus insurance claim.

Arkan Ali, Hawkar Hassan and Aram Kurd are alleged to have conspired together and with Viktorija Ljevleva to commit fraud during the two months before she was killed when an explosion destroyed a shop and flat in Leicester.

The charge against the three men alleges that they conspired with 22-year-old Ms Ljevleva to make a gain, by dishonestly 'pursuing an insurance claim in respect of a fire' at the store in Hinckley Road.

Ms Ljevleva, Mary Ragoobeer, 46, her teenage sons Shane and Sean, and 18-year-old Leah Beth Reek, 18, who was Shane's girlfriend, were all killed in the blast on Sunday February 25.

All three defendants appeared in court in person and each of them was assisted by a separate Kurdish interpreter during the proceedings.

Aram Kurd (pictured) is among three men accused of murdering five people by plotting to explode a shop in Leicester as part of an insurance fraud with alleged victim Viktorija Ljevleva (right)

Five people died in the explosion that decimated the shop and the flat above in Hinckley Road in February

Beth Reek, 18, was one of five people killed in the February explosion

Ali, 37, Hassan, 32, and Kurd, 34, pleaded not guilty to five counts of murder and five alternative counts of manslaughter at Leicester Crown Court and will face trial.

A hearing on Thursday was told the charge of conspiracy to commit fraud covers a period between December 31 last year and February 26.

Ali, of Drake Close, Oldham, Hassan, of no fixed abode, and Kurd, of Hillary Place, Leicester, were accompanied in the dock by three security officers as they spoke only to enter their pleas.

The Polish Zabka supermarket in Leicester exploded on Sunday February 25.

Five people died after a huge fireball tore through the supermarket and flats above, causing the entire building to collapse like a 'pancake'.Liam Fox (pictured last night at Mansion House) has bowed to pressure and pulled out of a trip to Saudi Arabia amid fury at the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Liam Fox has bowed to pressure and pulled out of a trip to Saudi Arabia amid fury at the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The International Trade Secretary has been under pressure to abandon plans to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.

The Department for International Trade said Dr Fox has decided the 'time is not right' for him to go to Saudi Arabia, adding the 'UK remains very concerned' about the disappearance.

Major sponsors have been pulling out for the past week since Mr Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and never emerged.

Reports suggest he was killed on the orders of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in retaliation for critical journalism in the Washington Post - a claim the Saudi regime denies.

Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tughendhat demanded Mr Fox scrap his plans five days ago.

He said: 'The idea that we can treat Saudi as a normal state if it practises state-sponsored murder outside its borders is simply not true.'

He added: 'We may be talking about downgrading diplomatic relations, we may be talking about restricting support for certain areas'.

Earlier this week, former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind called for Britain to impose sanctions against Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of a Saudi journalist.

He told BBC's Newsnight: 'If the current Crown Prince remains in power for the indefinite future, then in the first instance the United Kingdom must work with the United States, France and other countries to see if there can be a combined response, a punishment of some kind, of sanctions of some kind.

'If the United States was not willing to take part then the United Kingdom has to consider action that it will take in its own name.'

Missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, pictured in Switzerland in 2011, may have been murdered because he knew too much about the Saudi royal family, one of his friends has said

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi (file) was thrown onto a desk and dismembered by a Saudi 'hit squad' while he was still alive, according to an anonymous source

A Government spokesman said: 'The Secretary of State for International Trade has decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on 23 October.

'The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance.

'We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent, and prompt investigation, as announced. Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account.'

A critic of Saudi Arabia'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 he vanished.

He 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 removed.

Saudi officials have denied the allegations as baseless.Kayla Parker of Dayton, Ohio, has been charged with sexual abuse, exploitation of children and other offenses

An Ohio mother is accused of sexually abusing her three-year-old daughter with the help of her boyfriend.

Kayla Parker, 26, has been charged with sexual abuse and the exploitation of children, endangering the welfare of a child and indecent assault.

Parker was brought back to Pennsylvania from Ohio where she  along with her ex-boyfriend, David Carbonaro, allegedly made the recordings in 2014.

'This is an egregious case  a mother who preyed upon and sexually abused her own three-year-old daughter,' Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

A search of Carbonaro's Upper Darby home in July and found images and video files showing a three-year-old girl in various stages of undress.

Authorities said they found over 150 photos of the child posing either partially or completely naked.

One of the graphic images showed a woman's hand reaching into the little girl's underwear.

Carbonaro was arrested in July and charged with possession, production and distribution of child pornography.

Investigators then said his ex-girlfriend, Parker was involved and directed cops in Ohio to arrest her in Dayton, Ohio, where she was living with the child.

Her ex-boyfriend, David Carbonaro, 25, is awaiting trial in Delaware County

According to the complaint, Parker told agents she knew Carbonaro had inappropriate photos of the girl but never reported him to police.

Parker also told investigators that Carbonaro had her perform sexual acts on the girl on more than one occasion while he took pictures, the complaint said.

Parker told investigators how on several occasions she took her daughter's clothes off and left her in a bedroom alone with Carbonaro, 25, but claimed not to have seen any abuse, according to WJAC.

After about a year together, Parker said they separated and she lost all contact with Carbonaro.

'The crimes that this mother is accused of are absolutely appalling, and although she may have believed that she left her alleged crimes behind her when she moved to Ohio, we were pleased to assist Pennsylvania Attorney General Shapiro to find, interview, and arrest the defendant on these allegations,' said Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.

'My office's Crimes Against Children Unit works every day to keep kids safe and hold predators accountable, and we are happy to have helped Pennsylvania authorities with their investigation.'

Parker's trial is set for October 26. She is currently being held on $1 million bail.A mother in Georgia has been arrested after a disturbing video showed her dunking her babys head in water in an apparent row over child support.

Police in Griffin confirmed the arrest of Laquanda Lenea Mosley, 27, saying she was being held in the Spalding County Jail on felony aggravated assault with attempt to murder, child cruelty, and terroristic threats.

Laquanda Lenea Mosley sent Kevin Banks a video of her dunking their five-month-old babys head in water via Facebook, which then went viral on social media.

Laquanda Lenea Mosley is facing child cruelty charges after she tried to drown her five-month-old baby by repeatedly putting her headfirst in water upside down to get the father's attention

The mother of the infant told officers she shot the video Tuesday and sent it to the childs father because he refused to give her money.

In the video she can be heard saying: 'This is what you f*****g want right here'.

The father made the video public before contacting the police.

Kevin Banks, the infant's father, told Fox5 : 'My heart dropped in my stomach and I'm grown, I'm not a crybaby, I immediately start crying and bust into tears because this is my daughter.'

Medical staff at the Spalding Regional Hospital conducted a health check of the infant following which she was released. It remains unclear if the infant was injured.

After the clip was posted, police investigated and arrived at the woman's home where they found her with three children.

All three children were placed in the custody of the Division of Family and Children Services.

She initially told investigating officers that Banks had made the video and sent it to her a couple of months previously.

But after viewing the video officers confronted her saying it appeared she intentionally was trying to drown the baby.

She later confessed and said she did it to try and get attention from the babys father.

The footage shows the tiny baby's head (pictured) being repeatedly submerged in water

Mosley sent the baby's father a video of her shocking deed with messages on Facebook

She sent Banks a series of messages saying 'send me my money now or she bouta die live' as she continued submerging the tiny baby's head under water.

Mosle also gave a 'thumbs-up' sign to her estranged partner before posting the video.

Griffin Police Lieutenant Michael Natale said additional warrants were being secured against the mother as they investigated the case.

He added the incident came to light after they were contacted by the childs father who lived out of state.

'Its tough to watch. Its tough to watch. I think we all can agree on that,' said Captain Chris Wilson, Griffin Police Department.

He said officers made the arrest after conducting a welfare check at the mothers apartment on the 800 block of North Eighth Street.

'Through our initial investigation and talking to her, I will say she did it early in the morning which would have put the kids at school, the youngest kids at school, so, yeah the young kids would not have been there.

It is unclear of the baby (pictured) was injured in the incident and she is now in care

'I believe they're in Pre-K and Kindergarten age,' said Captain Wilson.

He added: 'If it wouldn't have been posted we wouldn't have known. That's the kind of the double-edged sword'.

All three children are now in the custody of the Department of Family and Children's Services.

Atlanta Police asked people not to share the deeply disturbing video any further. Police are in the process of trying to get the video taken down.

The fathers family started a GoFundMe page to raise money for him so he can make the trip from Minnesota where he lives to visit his children in Georgia.

He recently moved to Minnesota to better himself for his children. He currently resides with me in my home, and he currently doesnt have the funds to make the trip to see about his daughter.

'He also doesnt know if he has the proper means to care for her.

We would like to ask our Facebook family if they could help donate $1 towards helping him get to his daughter and to also check up on the other three siblings.

'We greatly appreciate anything you can contribute, and if you cannot we still thank you all for sharing and saving her life were very grateful'.John Waddell, 62, was rescued with two broken legs on Wednesday night after spending three days at the bottom of a 100ft mine shaft

An Arizona father has been rescued from the bottom of a 100ft mine shaft which he fell into while searching for gold and spent three days inside fighting off rattle snakes.

John Waddell, 62, fell into the shaft on Monday while combing the area between Eagle Eye Road and milepost 13 near Aguila.

He had told his neighbor about his plan to go to the area to look for treasure and told him to come looking for him if he hadn't returned home by Tuesday.

Tuesday came and went with no sign of him. On Wednesday morning, the neighbor went to look for him.

As soon as his truck arrived near the site, the man said he could hear Waddell screaming for help.

'As I pulled up my truck, I could hear him hollering help, help, you know,' the neighbor Terry Schrader told ABC 15.

Schrader threw his friend some water and Coca Cola and then went to find a cell phone signal to call for help. Waddell had broken both of his legs by falling into the shaft.

Somehow, he told his friend he was able to kill three rattle snakes over the course of his time alone.

Waddell is pictured being rescued on Wednesday night. His neighbor alerted authorities after he did not come home within a day of going to the dessert to look for gol



ABC15 Privacy Policy div class="scripps_iframe_embed" style="position:relative;">

Emergency teams spent hours trying to rescue the man on Wednesday. They eventually pulled him out of the shaft on Wednesday evening

The shaft is located near Aguila, around 80 miles northwest of Phoenix

Emergency teams arrived soon after Schrader and pulled the man out.

He was taken to the hospital where he is expected to make a full recovery.

Schrader told authorities how he and Waddell had a 'deal' that he would come to rescue him if he did not return home on time.

'He called me Monday and told me he was coming to the mine. And we always had a deal, if he is not back by Tuesday [to come check on him].

'Since he didnt come home yesterday, I was bound determined to come out here today,' he said.

He added that he felt guilty for not going to check on his friend sooner.#MeToo founder Tarana Burke is slamming Hillary Clinton for claiming that her husbands affair with Monica Lewinsky was not an abuse of power.

Burke created the #MeToo movement which went viral last year and has led to seismic change in gender power dynamics and addressing sexual assault in workplaces across the nation.

She says that Bill Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, then an unpaid 22-year-old intern while he was 49, was 'certainly an abuse of power'.

'When I think about the things that Hillary Clinton said about the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton affair not being an abuse of power, that is just tragic and it's wrong,' she said in a sit down interview with The Root.

Scroll down for video

#MeToo founder Tarana Burke is slamming Hillary Clinton for claiming her husband's affair with Monica Lewinsky was not an abuse of power

Burke said: 'Its certainly an abuse of power. You're talking about an age dynamic but you're also talking about the President of the United States'

'But its certainly an abuse of power. You're talking about an age dynamic but you're also talking about the President of the United States. The amount of power, the amount of accumulated power that is in that position alone, versus an intern, it's absolutely an abuse of power,' she added.

She qualified her statement saying that although the relationship was consensual, it doesn't mean that Clinton didn't abuse his position.

'Sexual violence isn't about sex, right? It's about power and the abuse of power,' Burke said.

'Two people made that choice and one of those people was the most powerful man in the world. And I just think thats unfortunate,' she added.

In an interview with CBS Sunday, Hillary Clinton shocked the world when she defended her husbands affair with the White House intern saying Bill didn't exploit his position because Lewinsky 'was an adult' at the time.

In the interview CBS correspondent Tony Dokoupil asked 'It wasn't an abuse of power?'

Hillary responded 'No. No.'

During an interview with CBS, Hillary emphatically said that her husband's affair, when he was 49 and president, with his 22-year-old unpaid intern was not an abuse of power because she was an adult at the time

The ex-Secretary of State said Bill was right to not step down from the presidency after he was impeached. Clinton pictured emphatically denying having an affair with Lewinsky on January 26, 1998

When asked if her husband should have stepped down, Hillary said: 'Absolutely not' in the CBS interview on Sunday. The Clintons pictured above in New York City in January 2018

Dokoupil noted how many people believed a US President couldn't have a consensual relationship with an intern because the power imbalance was too great.

'But let me ask you this: Where's the investigation of the current incumbent, against whom numerous allegations have been made, and which he dismisses, denies, and ridicules?' Hillary said.

'So, there was an investigation [of Bill], and it, as I believe, came out in the right place.'

She stood by her husband saying she believed it was right that he didnt resign from his presidency despite being impeached for lying about the affair.

She also rejected the idea that the accusations against her husband were anything like the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump or the newly sworn-in Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Clinton pictured above in 1997 photo with Lewinsky

Burke is the founder of the #MeToo movement that went viral just one year ago

When asked if her husband should have stepped down, she said: 'Absolutely not'.

She also rejected the idea that the accusations against her husband were anything like the sexual misconduct allegations against Trump or the newly sworn-in Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Clintons are about to embark on a joint speaking tour that could prompt questions about what the Clintons went through, Bill's 1998 impeachment and allegations of sexual harassment.

The House in 1999 voted to impeach Clinton of perjury and obstruction of its investigation into the 1998 affair. The Senate acquitted him.

New York Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand came out last year amid the #MeToo movement saying she believed the former President should have stepped down as a result of his affair.

Bill Clinton said earlier this year that he disagreed with Gillibrand's comments.Don McGahn, the West Wing's top lawyer, is no longer working at the White House.

The New York Times reports that Wednesday was McGahn's final day as White House counsel. A day prior the president confirmed in an interview that he had tapped Department of Justice veteran Pat Cipollone for the job.

'A very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people,' the president told the Associated Press.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that lawyer Emmet Flood would take on McGahn's responsibilities until Cipollone starts.

'President Trump has a great deal of respect for both individuals and is glad to have them on his team,' she said in a statement.

President Donald Trump announced that White House counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his post.

Trump announced that McGahn would be leaving this fall in late August tweet that reportedly took the exiting White House official by surprise. The president said that McGahn, the premiere legal adviser to the West Wing, would vacate the position after he had seen through Trump's latest Supreme Court nomination.

The president has tapped Department of Justice veteran Pat Cipollone for the job

Reports claimed that McGahn had been pushed out by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, but the president and other sources familiar with the matter denied that.

Trump also swatted down speculation that he'd given McGahn the boot, because he gave an interview to the special counsel.

The president said he personally green lit McGahn's conversations with Robert Mueller's investigators.

Lauding McGahn hours after he broke the news of the White House lawyer's retirement on Twitter, Trump said: 'Hes a good man. Very good man. Don  excellent guy.'

McGhan was reported to have spoken to investigators for 30 hours. But Trump suggested that McGahn was loyal to him, having had a prior relationship with the real estate mogul before he was elected to the office of the presidency.

'Don McGahns a really good guy. Been with me for a long time. Privately before this he represented me,' Trump said.

'A lot of affection for Don. Hell be moving on probably the private sector, maybe the private sector. And hell do very well. Hes done an excellent job,' he added.

Trump said he didn't have a problem with McGahn talking talking to Mueller, whose Russia probe has continued for more than a year.

He asserted: 'I knew he was going also. You know, I had to approve it. We didnt claim executive [privilege].'

Trump doesn't have the power to keep his employees from appearing before the special counsel if they are ordered to, even if he exercises privilege.

A moment later, Trump acknowledged that he mispoke, telling reporters, 'No, I dont have to be aware - we have, we do everything straight, we do everything by the book. And Don is an excellent guy.'

Earlier that day Trump announced that McGahn  who cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller but whom the president defended as not being a 'RAT'  would be leaving his post.

He said in a tweet: 'White House Counsel Don McGahn will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.'

Trump wrote. 'I have worked with Don for a long time and truly appreciate his service!'

The Washington Post reported that McGahn learned about his departure from the tweet, without receiving advance notice.

CNN said in the aftermath that McGahn intended to stay through the mid-term elections, and yet he had already departed a day after Trump named his replacement.

White House counsel Don McGahn follows Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh to a meeting on Capitol Hill. McGahn was said to be leaving after Kavanuagh's confirmation

The two men have clashed and are said to have had tense relationship, in spite of Trump's claims that he has a lot 'of affection' for the former White House lawyer.

McGahn threatened to quit when Trump threatened to fire Mueller last June, the New York Times reported.

Trump in a tweet invoked former White House counsel John Dean, who cooperated with prosecutors during Watergate, helping to ultimately bring down Richard Nixon, to defend McGahn this summer.

'The failing @nytimes wrote a Fake piece today implying that because White House Councel Don McGahn was giving hours of testimony to the Special Councel, he must be a John Dean type "RAT," 'Trump wrote, misspelling 'counsel' in the tweet.

'But I allowed him and all others to testify - I didn't have to. I have nothing to hide......' the president added.

Dean responded: ''Trump, a total incompetent, is bungling and botching his handling of Russiagate. Fate is never kind to bunglers and/or botchers! Unlike Nixon, however, Trump won't leave willingly or graciously.'

McGahn  who was present throughout the chaotic early days of the Trump administration as national security advisor Mike Flynn was fired, the travel ban was drafted, Trump fired Comey, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself and Mueller was appointed  cooperated with the consent of Trump's original legal team.

Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, told NBC's 'Meet the Press' that Trump didn't did not raise executive privilege in hopes of bringing the probe to a speedy close.

'The president encouraged him to testify, is happy that he did, is quite secure that there is nothing in the testimony that will hurt the president,' Giuliani said.

Trump announced the coming departure on Twitter

Cipollone comes to the job from a private firm, Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato & Missner. He'll bring a fresh set of eyes to the special counsel probe that's said to be wrapping up. White House lawyer Emmet Flood will continue to run point on the probe but Cipollone will have a hand in the White House's response to Mueller's wrap-up report.

A former DOJ official, Cipollone worked in the executive branch prior to the White House job in George H.W. Bush's administration.

His firm biography says the attorney has 'substantial expertise in defamation counseling and litigation,' which may have bolstered his attractiveness for the position to Trump.

McGahn previously served as a commissioner on the Federal Elections Commission and as the top lawyer on Trump's campaign.

He also oversaw the successful confirmations of Justices Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, which Trump touts as one of his main accomplishments, and Brett Kavanaugh.

Out of the spotlight, he has also helped steer Circuit Court and District Court judges through the system.The girlfriend of a man accused of throwing homemade bombs while driving around Philadelphia suburbs earlier this year has now been charged in connection to the blasts.

Tina May Smith, 31, was arrested last week on more than four dozen criminal counts, including conspiracy to possess or manufacture a weapon of mass destruction, reckless endangerment and related offenses.

Officials say she helped her long-time boyfriend, 30-year-old David Surman Jr, distribute and detonate the improvised explosives that accounted for a spate of blasts in a rural part of Bucks County, starting in early April.

David Surman Jr, 30 (left), and his girlfriend, Tina May Smith (right), 31, are accused of driving around Pennsylvania and detonating bombs earlier this year

Surman (pictured) was arrested on June 28 after a raid on his Milford Township home

Video courtesy of WFMZ

The bombs were mostly detonated in sparsely populated areas at night. No injuries were reported.

Surman was arrested on June 28 on charges of possessing a weapon of mass destruction and reckless endangerment, after a raid on his Milford Township home and his chemical company, Consolidated Chemicals and Solvents, turned up makeshift explosives, among them black, round bombs looking like something out of a comic book.

Law enforcement officials were led to Surman after his girlfriend's SUV was spotted by a state trooper speeding away from the site of a blast in mid-June, reported Philadelphia Inquirer.

Surman is suspected of detonating 30 bombs at seven sites around his hometown. He also has a separate child pornography case pending against him.

On Tuesday, Bucks County District Attorney Weintraub issued a warning to local residents to be on the lookout for additional bombs that have failed to blow up, reported Lehigh Valley Live.

'This is more an FYI than an SOS,' Weintraub said in a statement. 'Nonetheless, we will continue to do our best to protect you by working hard to find any unexploded devices that may remain. If you find something suspicious, please do not investigate it on your own. Call 911.'

Around the time of Surmans arrest, authorities released pages from notebooks seized from his home that featured a collage depicting a woman driving him in a black Ford Explorer as a cartoonish bomb explodes in the distance.

Law enforcement officials seized homemade explosives (left and right) from Surman's home and nearby business selling chemicals

The photo on the left shows a bomb described as 18 inches long with four connected fuses. The image on the right depicts a different type of explosive

Authorities have released this collage seized from Surman's home depicting a woman driving him in a black Ford Explorer as a cartoonish bomb explodes in the distance

Police were led to Surman's home in Milford Township on June 28 (pictured) following a traffic stop two weeks earlier

Omfg! You just blew s*** everywhere! a speech bubble reads.

According to a probable cause affidavit, detectives found a photo of the same collage on Smiths phone, along with another photo taken at one of the last sites.

When interviewed by police, Smith reportedly admitted to being with Surman on three occasions when he lit something with a lighter and threw it out the window of a vehicle.

During her arraignment on Friday, Smiths attorney told a judge his client poses no danger to the community.

Smith has reportedly admitted to being with Surman on three occasions when he lit something with a lighter and threw it out the window of a vehicle

The 31-year-old Smith now faces dozens of criminal charges, including both felonies and misdemeanors. Surman also has a child pornography case pending

Surman and Smith have been in a relationship for at least a decade

Smith was released after posting $100,000 bail. She is due back in court on October 23.

Her boyfriend is scheduled to be arraigned in the explosives case on November 2. Surman is still awaiting a preliminary hearing in connection to the cache of pornographic photos and videos featuring children that police found on a hard drive in his house in June.

According to prosecutors, one of the images depicted a young girl engaging in a sexual act with an animal. Suman remains free on bail.

Social media posts indicate that Surman and Smith have been in a relationship for at least a decade.A British man has been stabbed to death on the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi after rowing with his wife who has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

John William Jones, 62, was found on the floor of his house with a stab wound to the chest at 2.30am this morning, local police chief Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim told AFP.

His wife Samantha, 62, has been detained and is suspected of having murdered him following a row, he said.

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Mr Jones' wife, Samantha, has her hands held behind her back by a Malaysian law officer

Mr Jones and wife Samantha, both 62, pictured above in happier times

The pair had lived on Langkawi, a jungle-clad, tropical island in northwest Malaysia that attracts millions of tourists annually to its palm-fringed beaches, for the past 11 years.

His wife was arrested in the early hours of the morning the Star Online reports, and she has been remanded in custody.

'The couple were believed to have engaged in an argument. The wife then took a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her husband in the chest,' Mohamad Iqbal said.

A 12 inch knife was found on the floor of the couple's bedroom covered in blood stains, he said.

Police and forensic teams are seen searching the property where Mr Jones was found dead

The couple had been granted residency on Malaysia's 'My Second Home' program which allows people to stay beyond normal visa periods.

Local media reported the victim's body was discovered early Thursday after neighbours alerted police.

Under current laws, the wife will be sentenced to death by hanging if she is found guilty of murdering her husband.

Murder carries a mandatory death sentence in Malaysia.

The government recently pledged to abolish the death penalty for all crimes but lawmakers still have to approve the changes.

A view over the lush paradise of Langkawi island where millions of visitors travel each year

In 1989, English drug runner Derrick Gregory was hanged in Malaysia after being caught with a pound of heroin at Penang airport.

During his trial jurors heard he had 14 packets of the opioid stashed in his boots and underwear.

Gregory was bound for Los Angeles via Singapore and claimed he was forced to smuggle the drugs by organised crime bosses.

He was convicted despite his defence lawyer arguing Gregory was brain damaged and had spent his childhood at special schools.

Then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, appealed for mercy on the British national but Malaysian authorities proceeded with the execution.

The MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.Posthumous mental examination scheduled for Crimea college shooting suspect

 Yekaterina Keyzo, TASS

11:48 18/10/2018

MOSCOW, October 18 (RAPSI)  Investigators have scheduled several examinations in the case over a deadly attack in Crimeas Kerch Polytechnic College including a posthumous mental assessment of an alleged shooter, the press service of Russias Investigative Committee reports.

On October 17, an explosive device composed of metallic items detonated in a student canteen of the college, investigators said. Later, an alleged criminal identified as a student of the colleges fourth grade Vladislav Roslyakov, 18, shot people present in the building and then committed suicide, the statement reads.

According to the latest information, 20 persons were killed in the incident, over 40 people were wounded.

A criminal case was opened over mass murder. Searches were conducted in dwellings of Roslyakovs relatives and rental apartment where the suspect was living with his mother. The colleges principal Olga Grebennikova was questioned. Interrogation of teachers, students, other witnesses and victims is underway.Footy star Shannon Grant has escaped with just a fine of barely more than $1,000 after he assaulted his ex-girlfriend for the fourth time.

The former North Melbourne premiership player had pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order when he attacked the woman twice in Duporth Tavern at Maroochydore, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Queensland Police prosecutor Senior Constable Stuart Lydford told the Herald Sun that on January 13 Grant had an argument with his ex-girlfriend before he walked out of the tavern.

Shannon Grant pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order when he attacked the woman twice in Duporth Tavern at Maroochydore, an urban centre on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland

Shortly afterwards, he returned to throw an item of clothing over her face.

According to Sen. Const. Lydford, Grant picked up another item of clothing, which he pushed into her face, which caused 'her head to move backwards.'

To top it off, Grant was on a two-year community corrections order for three previous assaults on the woman.

Even though he was on a two-year community corrections order for three previous assaults on the woman, Grant was let off with a small $1,200 fine.

In June 2017, the woman was treated at hospital after she was thrown into a fence at a dinner party.

In November, Grant dragged her to his car and later choked her, all after throwing a beer bottle at her head.

Despite his history of violence, Grant was handed a $1,200 fine for the latest incident

Then as the pair were enjoying the Christmas holidays at Yarra Valley's Balgownie Estate winery, the woman was stepping out of the bath when Grant stomped on her foot and dragged her across the floor by her hair.

Despite the history of violence, Grant was handed a $1,200 fine for the latest incident.

It came after Magistrate Rod Madsen was told Grant had joined a domestic violence perpetrators program and was looking to treat his alcoholism.A husband and wife dubbed the 'Fred and Rose West' of a seaside town were today jailed for a total of 36 years after 'a campaign of rape' on young girls.

Evil wife Avril Griffiths, 61, groomed the three victims for her husband Peter Griffiths, 65, to rape.

The couple were well known in the seaside town of Barry in South Wales, where they carried out multiple sex attacks together.

Their sickening campaign of abuse saw them ply one victim with vodka before forcing her to pose for indecent photos with them while they were naked.

Evil wife Avril Griffiths (left) groomed the three victims for her husband Peter Griffiths (right) to rape

One victim said: 'Everyone hated them. They were the Fred and Rose West of the town - people would avoid them.'

Their third victim said: 'I think if you ask most families in Barry, they'd hate them'.

She said she had felt 'broken' ever since she had been raped by Griffiths as a teenager.

The couple groomed the girl by buying her cigarettes and alcohol and Mrs Griffiths had dressed her in mini-skirts and heels.

'She was making me look like her, a mini-me,' the victim told the court.

The couple were found guilty of rape, indecent assault and taking indecent photographs of children after a two-week trial.

Peter Griffiths is pictured arriving at Cardiff Crown Court ahead of his sentencing

Prosecutor Caroline Rees said the pair 'repeatedly sexually abused three young girls' between the 1970s and 1990s.

The couple exploited three victims 'in order to satisfy each of their sexual needs'.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the couple gave one girl vodka before forcing her to pose for indecent photos with them while they were naked.

Peter Griffiths then raped the girl and said she could not get pregnant 'because he had a vasectomy.'

Ms Rees said the couple would also take the girl 'dogging' in a van painted in the colours of TV series the A-Team.

The girl was also taken on a boat in the Bristol channel where she was raped by Peter Griffiths while police officers were present.

Avril also sexually assaulted the girl on the boat. She later told police she had been 'ripped apart physically' after suffering injuries.

Peter raped another girl in bed while she was 'held down' by Avril. The girl was around 13-years-old at the time.

In a statement read in court one victim said: 'I am still scared of them and I hate that, even though I am a mother in my 40s.

'I have flashback of what they did to me. It's a recurring nightmare that I relive constantly.'

Another said: 'What has happened to me at their hands has destroyed my life. They destroyed my childhood by what they did to me.

The couple (pictured ahead of their conviction) were found guilty of rape, indecent assault and taking indecent photographs of children after a two-week trial

'For almost 30 years I have been dealing with the mental torture of what Peter and Avril did to me.'

The third victim said: 'I never felt able to tell anyone what happened to me because of the shame I felt.'

Avril was found guilty of five counts of rape, three counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and two counts of indecent assault.

Husband Peter Griffiths was found guilty of eight counts of rape, three counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and three counts of indecent assault.

Avril Griffiths is pictured arriving at court ahead of an earlier hearing

Judge Jeremy Jenkins said: 'The offences were committed upon young, vulnerable and impressionable young girls.

'They were offered cigarettes and occasionally alcohol. I am quite satisfied you were systematically grooming those children.

'The two of you had few, if any, sexual boundaries. You engaged in group sex as a matter of course.'

He said one of the victims had suffered under 'a campaign of rape.'

Avril Griffiths was jailed for 15 years and her husband for 21 years - both must register as sex offenders for life.

Speaking after the sentence, South Wales Police said they were investigating the allegations that police officers were on a boat when one of the victim's was raped.

They said that since the trial further alleged victims had come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Justin Evans said: 'Following the convictions of Peter and Avril Griffiths, two people have reported allegations of non-recent sexual offences to police.

'We are investigating these allegations and they are being supported by specially trained officers.

'Since the trial, further information concerning allegations of contact between police officers and the defendant Peter Griffiths have been reported to police. This investigation is ongoing.'Zachary Meadors, 28, was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student at Freedom Middle School. He was found dead on Wednesday

The Georgia middle school teacher who was accused of having sex with a male student has been found dead, according to police reports.

Zachary Meadors, 28, was found dead in a vehicle on the 1200 block of Scenic Highway around 5.15pm on Wednesday, a Gwinnet County police news release stated.

The Lawrenceville resident appeared to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Meadors had been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a male student at Freedom Middle School.

He was facing charges of child molestation, computer pornography and child exploitation.

The man hadn't been seen since the afternoon of October 13. His father reported him missing two days later, according to a Gwinnett County Police report obtained by 11 Alive.

Meadors' father informed police that his son was under investigation for the relationship and his phone had been taken away.

Meadors was fgound on the 1200 block of Scenic Highway with self-inflicted gunshot wound

The DeKalb County School District teacher had been missing since October 13, after he had his phone confiscated by local police in connection to the allegations

Surveillance camera footage showed him fleeing his family's Lawrenceville home but not before placing letters and an iPad on the front porch stoop.

According to his father, one of the letters was addressed to an individual and included an apology from Meadors for all the 'chaos' he caused.

The second letter was made out to family and apologized for 'the image they may have of him now'. The third included clear instructions for the teacher's finances.

Meadors is said to have left three letters on his family's Lawrenceville porch: an apology to an individual, another addressed to family and a third about his finances

Police took the letters as evidence.

The DeKalb county school district released a statement stating that they were 'angered and disappointed to learn of the allegations'.

'The safety of our students is a top priority, and we are determined to protect them, under any circumstances, from harm,' the statement added.

'The community should know that the district will take whatever steps necessary to meet that standard. DCSD Public Safety officers are investigating the allegations in this case.'A Facebook executive is demanding answers after her brother died while being repeatedly Tasered by police in San Francisco earlier this month.

Chinedu Valentine Okobi, who had been darting in and out of traffic on a busy downtown suffered a heart attack after being tackled to the ground by county sheriff's deputies and Tasered at least four times.

He was unarmed when San Mateo County sheriff's deputies took him to the ground to subdue him on October 3.

Authorities say the 36-year-old black man may have been suffering from a 'mental break' at the time he encountered police.

Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo district attorney investigating his death, told reporters the 6ft 3in tall, 330 pounds, man was subdued due to his size as he 'immediately assaulted' a deputy.

Chinedu Valentine Okobi with his 12-year-old daughter. He died when he was tackled to the ground by police and Tasered at least four times

Unarmed Chinedu suffered a heart attack after the encounter with San Mateo County sheriff's deputies in San Francisco this month

At least five deputies were involved in the detention and one was assaulted as soon as officers approached, with two deputies firing their stun guns a total of four times, police say.

A recording of the incident is said to show part of the moment he was tackled, with Chinedu shouting 'what have I done?, as he broke free before being grabbed again.

John Burris, a civil rights attorney representing the Okobi family, told the San Francisco Chronicle: 'All I know is a young man's dead and he was in custody of the police. He was unarmed, not engaged in any serious crime.'

The public statement from the sheriff's department suggested deputies intervened to stop Chinedu getting injured by passing vehicles, his sister Ebele Okobi said.

Facebook's director of public policy for Africa, who moved to London four years ago due to the racial tensions in America, is demanding an investigation into the police tactics used to subdue her brother in the fatal incident.

She says the family have been given little details about the case and do not even know when or where Chinedu, who has a 12-year-old daughter, died.

His sister Ebele Okobi is calling for an investigation into the death of her brother as she says the family have not been given any information about what happened

The 44-year-old told the Guardian: 'Chasing him down and tasing him, there's a protocol for dealing with people in crisis, and that's not it.

'All we know is what we're piecing together from news reports and from video that people are sending us.'

Ebele has accompanied Facebook boss, Mark Zuckerberg, to Africa and adds there has been an outpouring of support from top executives at the technology giant, including chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

Her brohter's death Millbrae, California, happened just miles from her company's headquarters in Silicon Valley.

She told USA TODAY: 'There's a part of me that's angry that this is the reality for everybody black I know and that people can live completely oblivious to that reality.

'I didn't think this could happen to someone I know.'

In a recording of part of the incident, Chinedu is said to be heard shouting 'what have I done? as police tackle him to the ground

'I think this has helped people who aren't African American and who aren't in the African American community recognize that this is something that every black person faces.

'I definitely think within Facebook, for a lot of my friends and my colleagues, there has been this realization and this recognition that this is a significant national problem.'

A memorial service for Chinedu, who was the youngest of five siblings, was held on Monday.A Virginia homeowner found a near 50-pound snapping turtle in their yard last Friday.

According to the Richmond Wildlife Center, the 48.6-pound common snapping turtle was found in the homeowner's front yard near the roadway in Chesterfield.

The center said the resident was concerned it had been hit by a car and called wildlife experts.

A Virginia homeowner found a 48.6-pound snapping turtle (pictured) in their yard last Friday. The center said the resident was concerned it had been hit by a car and called wildlife experts

Employees from the center said the turtle was 'too aggressive to examine in the field' so they brought him back to the center for an exam.

'Only finding a very old and healed carapace fracture we determined that he was completely healthy and was most likely only basking in the sun after the effects of Michael's storm,' the center wrote on Facebook.

The center said the turtle was the largest of its kind to ever be admitted to their center. And since he was found in good health, he was returned to a neighboring pond.

The common snapping turtle ranges in size from 8 to 14 inches with a record length of 19.3 inches.

Their average weights range from 10 to 35 pounds, with a record of 75 pounds.

The common snapping turtle is not protected and is considered locally abundant in Georgia.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the White House Thursday that Saudi Arabia deserves a 'few more days' to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi amid a growing uproar about the alleged murder of the Saudi dissident.

Pompeo spoke after he briefed President Donald Trump on his meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, where he warned the Saudi royal family they have 72 hours to finish the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance.

Sources described a tough meeting between Pompeo and the crown prince, after smiling photos of the two men fed a narrative that the U.S. was willing to assist the Saudis in finding a cover for story for the killing.

The Saudis assured him 'they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi and that they'll do so in a timely fashion, and that this report itself will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about, and to inquire with respect to its thoroughness,' Pompeo told reporters Thursday morning.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Saudis 'assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi' following his disappearance

All smiles: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday

'And I told President Trump that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that. At which point, we can make decisions about how or if the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,' he said.

Pompeo's word choice discussing 'the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi' called it neither a disappearance nor a murder.

Kshashoggi has not been seen since he entered the consulate on October 2.

Trump, who has shown patience with the Saudis throughout the uproar, tweeted following their meeting that Pompeo was 'waiting for the results of the investigations.'

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin suggested that the fallout is Trump's problem and  at least for now  won't affect his country's relationship with the Saudis.

'As far as I know, the journalist who went missing used to live in the USA. He did not live in Russia. In this regard the U.S. has a certain responsibility,' Putin said, according to the Financial Times.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he has no plan to alter his country's relationship with the Saudis, and that 'the U.S. has a certain responsibility' to investigate because Khashoggi lived in America

Pompeo spoke to the press at the White House following reports he had delivered a stern warning to the Saudis in private

'If someone knows what happens and there was a murder, I hope some evidence is provided. And dependent on that, we will make some decisions.'

Khashoggi 'was connected to certain circles in power,' Putin said. 'We do not know what happened in reality. So why should we undertake any steps to deteriorate our relations with Saudi Arabia?'

Pompeo said the crown prince made a 'personal commitment' to him about the nature of the investigation, which is taking place amid intelligence leaks from Turkey that are already providing gruesome details of Khashoggi's alleged torture and murder inside the consulate in Istanbul.

'We're all going to get to see the work product, we're all going to get to see the response that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes with this,' Pompeo said.

Pompeo met with the president for less than an hour.

Turkish authorities are conducting their own investigation, with stunning details emerging in a pro-government newspaper in Turkey.

There have also been calls for a form of international investigation as a way to try to ensure Saudi officials do not overlook evidence that would show them to be culpable.

'When we see that we'll get a chance to determine, all of us will get to make a determination with respect to the credibility and the work that went into that. Whether it's truly accurate, fair, transparent in the very way they made a personal commitment to me, and the crown prince also made a personal commitment to the president when he spoke to him, I believe it was the night before last,' Pompeo said.

President Trump tweeted after his meeting with Pompeo

Straight from the horse's mouth: The president used language that diverged form his typical tone on Twitter

His public comments follow statements by anonymous sources familiar with his meeting that his meeting with the crown prince was a tough encounter that belies the smiling public images of their talks.

A source told CNN Pompeo warned Mohammed bin Salman the Saudis must 'own' the situation, adding that 'that every fact is going to get out.'

He also communicated bluntly that 'if they don't, the U.S. will have to deal with this,' according to the source, and 'will take action because the world will demand it and that President Trump's hand will be forced by the global pressure.'

Shortly after Pompeo's comments, the White House revealed that Secretary of State Steven Mnuchin would no longer be attending the upcoming 'Davos in the Desert' financial conference in Saudi Arabia.

A variety of top executives and media figures have already pulled out.

President Trump tweeted using unusually subdued language. 'Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned last night from Saudi Arabia and Turkey. I met with him this morning wherein the Saudi situation was discussed in great detail, including his meeting with ... the Crown Prince,' Trump wrote in a pair of missives.

'He is waiting for the results of the investigations being done by the Saudis and Turkey, and just gave a news conference to that effect,' Trump added.

Although Pompeo took questions from reporters, he spoke for only a few minutes in something that fell short of a press conference.

Pompeo spoke following his meeting with President Trump

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shake hands in front of a picture of Ataturk yesterday

Pompeo speaks to reporters while his plane refuels in Brussels and says the US will wait for the outcome of the investigation and it was not 'about giving benefit of the doubt'

The top U.S. diplomat arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, Wednesday straight after visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the progress of the investigation into the Washington Post writer's disappearance.

Turkish media published grisly new allegations that Khashoggi was killed by being gradually dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad just hours before Pompeo's plane touched down for talks with King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman.

As Pompeo prepared to leave Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he spoke to reporters on the plane, and continued to say the US would give the Saudis the benefit of the doubt.

He said: 'I keep hearing that we're giving them some benefit of the doubt. They're going to do an investigation.'

Pompeo was slammed for the warm, smiling images of his photo opportunity as he greeted the crown prince in Riyadh, the man accused ordered the interrogation and killing of the dissident journalist critical of the young ruler's crackdown on outspoken voices.

The New York Times reported the day before the visit that a suspect identified by Turkey was a bodyguard of the prince's, known as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was seen entering the Istanbul consulate hours before Khashoggi arrived to collect divorce paperwork on October 2.

Three other suspects have been linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, the Times said.

But the United States has refused to rebuke its ally despite the mounting claims, with President Donald Trump insisting on the principle of innocence before being proven guilty and Pompeo saying after talks in Riyadh that, 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts'.

Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2

A still image from surveillance camera footage taken the day Khashoggi entered the consulate of a man previously seen with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed entourage during a visit in April

Pompeo told the media as he left Saudi Arabia: 'My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials.

'They made a commitment that they would show the entire world the results of their investigation. They also indicated they would get this done quickly.'

Echoing tweets from President Donald Trump who called in to Pompeo's dinner with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the top US diplomat said the Saudi leadership 'strongly denied any knowledge of what took place in their consulate in Istanbul'.

President Trump also refused to accuse Saudi Arabia and even drew a parallel with the case of new US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh who had faced a swirl of sexual assault allegations in the lead up to his confirmation hearing.

When asked Wednesday whether Saudi officials told him whether Khashoggi was dead or alive, he responded: 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts, and they didn't want to either.'

But according to a source in the US State Department, Pompeo's friendly demeanor changed when cameras were no longer on him and the Prince Mohammed.

A source told CNN that the former CIA chief told the crown prince during their dinner: 'Bluntly that if they don't [complete the investigation soon], the US will have to deal with this, and will take action because the world will demand it and that President Trump's hand will be forced by the global pressure.'

Pompeo told the prince he had to 'own' the situation, and 'that every fact is going to get out', the source added.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee

A Turkish police officer walks outside the Saudi Arabia consul general's residence in Istanbul today as officers searched the premises after he left for Riyadh

It comes as American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Mohammed bin Salman is culpable in the killing of Khashoggi, a source told the New York Times.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaib, who was reportedly heard on an audio recording telling the assassins, 'do this outside, you're going to get me in trouble', as they cut off journalist's fingers one-by-one inside embassy.

It was reported last night he had been fired and subjected to an investigation following his return to Riyadh after he fled Turkey, but this is unclear.

Turkish government sources have said police believe the journalist was killed by a special team of 15 Saudi officials sent to Istanbul especially to carry out the 'hit' and were lying in wait for Khashoggi.

The controversy has blown a hole in attempts by Crown Prince Mohammed to promote himself as a modern reformer and led to a spate of cancellations of top CEOs from a major Riyadh investment conference, dubbed 'Davos in the desert', which was due to start next week.The Baltimore Police Department announced it will deploy 230 desk officers to the streets after 11 people were shot and three of them killed in just 24 hours on Tuesday.

Speaking in a press conference on Wednesday, Interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle said all hands are on deck in wake of the horrifically fast-rising murder toll in Maryland.

He announced that the department will shut down administration operations at police headquarters and 230 officers assigned to administrative duties will go on patrol, putting a total of 650 officers on the streets.

The troubled Baltimore Police Department announced it will move 230 administrative officers onto patrol, putting a total of 650 officers on the streets. Interim Commissioner Gary Tuggle (pictured in July) made the announcement on Wednesday

Tuggle (above during press conference Wednesday) announced that the officers would be on patrol until further notice. He and Mayor Catherine Pugh believe illegal drug trade is behind the murders

They will remain on patrol until they're no longer needed or until administration needs them back, according to the Baltimore Sun.

They added that department is struggling to fill 500 vacancies and have enough cops on patrol. According to the Sun it is recommended for the force to have 910 officers on the streets - the new number of 650 still falls short of that goal.

Tuggle and Mayor Catherine Pugh say illegal drug trade is the cause of the murders.

'Its just not acceptable, and one of the common denominators that were seeing with this violence is drugs,' Tuggle said in the press conference.

'Weve gotten to a point where weve become desensitized to levels of violence in this city that are just totally, totally unacceptable,' he added.

Even with the 650 officers on patrol, the police force is falling short of the 910 officers recommended to be on patrol

A total of 650 Baltimore police officers will be on patrol and remain there until further notice

The Baltimore Police Department has struggled to fill 500 vacancies on the police force

'Youve heard about the war on drugs. There is a drug war. People are protecting their territories with guns,' Mayor Pugh said.

'There are still too many small markets in that area that are harboring those who are selling drugs. Ive said it before and Ill say it again: That is not the kind of activity we want operating in our communities,' she added.

Tuesday's violence shook the city as 11 people were shot and three died from their wounds. The shootings were concentrated in West and Northwest Baltimore.

Baltimore has recorded 250 homicides so far this year, 44 of them in the last 30 days.

Last year was the deadliest year on record on a per-capita basis with the city recording 342 homicides.Advertisement

A European princess represented herself despite facing a crack legal team as she fought over money with her estranged husband in a divorce trial.

Princess Tessy of Luxembourg had no help from solicitors or barristers during her battle with the country's Prince Louis at the High Court in central London.

Prince Louis - whose full title is His Royal Highness, Prince Louis Xavier Marie Guillaume of Luxembourg, Prince of Nassau and Prince of Bourbon-Parma - had senior barrister James Ewins QC lead his legal team.

The princess - whose full title is Her Royal Highness, Princess Tessy of Luxembourg, Princess of Nassau and Princess of Bourbon-Parma - represented herself.

The couple's controversial marriage came to a bitter end just ten years after they married as love-struck teenagers.

Prince Louis renounced his succession rights to the throne in 2006, a month after marrying Tessy - who was not born of royal blood - but to a modest family in the small town of Niederkorn.

Their fairy tale romance captured hearts around the globe and sent shock waves through the royal family once again, when they announced they would divorce.

Princess Tessy (pictured, left, with Louis and their children Noah, left, and Gabriel) represented herself during divorce proceedings from her husband (right, the couple on their wedding day)

Princess Tessy and Prince Louis just months before the news of their marriage troubles. The pair met as teenagers and caused a royal scandal when Tessy fell pregnant out of wedlock

Prince Louis (pictured with the princess on their wedding day) sacrificed his claim to the throne when he married somebody not of royal descent

'I was nervous, we were young': Prince Louis revealed he was afraid the day he got married because he and his bride were just 19

Tessy Antony came from a normal family in the town of Niederkorn in Luxembourg which has a population of just a little more than 3,000 people

Princess Tessy of Luxembourg looked more civilian than royalty when she arrived to court on Thursday wearing a quilted jacket and grey trousers

Prince Louis (pictured outside the High Court) had a crack legal team while his estranged wife who he renounced his succession rights to the throne for, represented herself

The history of Luxembourg's royal family: The current royal family of Luxembourg was established after the Dutch monarch King William III died without a male heir. In 1890 the grand duchy passed to Adolf, Duke of Nassau who ruled until 1905. The Grand Duke Adolf I was famed for his efforts to strengthen the territory's autonomy. But, during the war, Luxembourg was occupied by German troops. The royal family fled and a government-in-exile was established in London. In 1964 Grand Duchess Charlotte abdicated in favour of her son, who becomes Grand Duke Jean. In 2000, Crown Prince Henri becomes Grand Duke of Luxembourg on the abdication of his father, Jean. Crown Prince Henri remains in his position today. Much of the executive power lies with the prime minister - a grand duke appointee - and his cabinet.The duchy's figurehead remains a powerful and influential figure. Advertisement

From the beginning the couple presented the royals with a constitutional crisis.

Aged 19, Tessy Antony gave birth to their first son Gabriel but they pair, both 19, were not married, sparking a problem for the royals.

According to reports, the family were completely unaware of Tessy, until she fell pregnant.

At the time, Tessy was in the army having joined aged 18.

Louis was the third son of Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, the head of one of Europe's richest royal families, and grew up in a palace.

Seven months after giving birth and providing the Grand Duke with his first grandchild - the couple got married.

Prince Louis and Tessy exchanged vows in September 2006 in a modest church wedding in Gilsdorf, with Tessy taking the last name De Nassau, the surname of the Grand Ducal family.

Aware of the they had created by having a child out of wedlock, Prince Louis renounced any claim to the title of Grand Duke, around one month later.

The couple had another son 10-year-old Prince Noah but were delivered the cruel news Tessy miscarried their third child, some time later.

Speaking in 2016, the Princess said she was devastated.

She said: 'My divorce was definitely one of the most difficult situations I have ever faced.

'I experienced the same feelings and emotions when I miscarried my third child. I cried for years over these two situations.'

Prince Louis of Luxembourg and Princess Tessy of Luxembourg in 2012 at the civil wedding ceremony of Archduke Christoph von Habsbourg Lothringen and Adelaide Drape-Frisch

The couple had two sons and Tessy suffered a miscarriage with their third child, an event which caused her a lot of grief, she later admitted

Princess Tessy and Prince Louis of the Luxembourg Royal family arrive at the Notre Dame Cathedral, as part of the Luxembourg National Day celebrations in 2007, a year after they were married

Prince Felix, Princess Tessy and Prince Louis of Luxembourg pass members of the armed forces. Tessy herself was a solider when she met the prince after joining aged 18

Princess Tessy of Luxembourg has enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle as part of the royal family but her friends have insisted she is not after money

Princess Tessy and her two sons aged 12 and 10 pictured on a sunshine holiday in Dubai. The boys' parents are locked in a battle over finances

Princess Tessy , once Tessy Antony, was just 19 years old and came from a normal family when she married Prince Louis

The couple - pictured with their sons - have been battling it out over divorce money in the High Court, London where it is believed Tessy now lives

( from L to R) Princess Tessy of Luxembourg, Princess Alexandra of Luxembourg, Prince Louis of Luxembourg, Prince Sebastien, Princess Claire, Prince Felix of Luxembourg

Outside court on Thursday, the princess would not say why she had not employed lawyers.

However, she proved herself to be an extremely intelligent woman fluent in French and German and English.

In court, she addressed Mr Justice McDonald in English and summarised her case with a speech lasting the best part of an hour.

The Family Division trial lasted several days and the private hearing has limits on what can be reported.

The princess (pictured with her husband) has not revealed why she chose to represent herself throughout the trial

Princess Tessy (pictured with her sons and Prince Louis) elected to address the judge in English herself despite it not being her first language

Princess Tessy and Prince Louis enjoyed a fairy tale romance but they split just ten years after their wedding and are now locked in a bitter court battle over money

Princess Tessy of Luxembourg with her eldest son Prince Gabriel of Luxembourg, who was born seven months before his parents married

Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg and his sister in law Princess Tessy of Luxembourg attend the Men's Road Race Road Cycling on day 1 of the London 2012 Olympic Games

Mr Justice McDonald is expected to make decisions on how money and assets should be split in the near future.

He said Prince Louis and Princess Tessy, both 32, could be named in media coverage of the case, but ruled to stop the reporting of financial and personal details.

Prince Louis is the third son of the Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg. The princess is a former soldier, who now lives in London.

Mr Justice McDonald heard that the couple began a relationship in 2004, married in 2006 and had two children.

When married the couple had lived in the United States and in London. Their marriage broke down during the summer of 2016 and another judge granted a divorce decree - a decree nisi - in February 2017.

Despite being divorced Tessy may be able to keep her title of princess because she was given it in 2009 and it was only three years later, in 2012, the House Law which states a spouse will lose a title in the event of splitting was introduced.

It is not currently clear if it states on the decree which she was named princess, what will happen in the event of a divorce.The serial sperm donor who has fathered nearly 40 children, dubbing him the 'Sperminator', is now the face of a male fertility supplement.

Ari Nagel, 43, is flaunting his prowess in a new commercial for the male fertility drug Sperm XL as their celebrity pitchman.

'People often ask me what's my secret to having a high sperm count,' Nagel says in the promo for the $40 pills while wearing a Maury Show t-shirt. 'I recommend Sperm XL.'

The married New York professor says the drugs help him increase his sperm 'the natural way', allowing him to father 39 children with more than 20 women in both traditional and non-traditional ways.

'Sperminator' Ari Nagel, 43, is endorsing male fertility drug Sperm XL in a new commercial

The New York college professor has fathered 39 children to date with more than 20 women through sperm donations both traditional and non traditional ways

Nagel, who has been donating sperm for more than a decade, has been doing so free of charge.

He donates his sperm free of charge and said he didn't get paid for his endorsement

He tells the New York Post, he did not get paid for endorsing Sperm XL either but did get a free bottle.

The pills are fortified with folic acid, zinc, e-carnitine and more, but on the supplement's website it notes the supplement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Nevertheless, Nagel claims the Sperm XL has the 'optimal nutrients and vitamins and minerals' that he needs to keep 'my motility, morphology, and my sperm count performing optimally.'

'It helped me, it could help you too,' he says.

Nagel has said in the past it's his life goal to get women pregnant and described how he's donated semen women in cups in Target bathrooms and 'the old fashioned way' by sleeping with lesbian women while their partners are in bed.

'If someone asks me for my semen, I will not turn them down. Women have offered to pay for my flight to Israel, Taiwan, Vietnam and almost every state in the US,' he said on the Maury Show.

'Any race, any religion, gay or straight - I won't turn any woman away,' he said.

Nagel's child-bearing venture began 13 years ago when he answered a Craigslist ad from a woman who was looking for a donor and it has since spread to more than 20 women in need of sperm.

The $40 pills are made with folic acid, zinc, and more but have not been tested by the FDA

Nagel keeps track of his 39 children in a spread sheet (above)

Nagel, above with three of his children, says he remains as involved as the children's mothers want them to be

Among his children are three he had with his wife and to whom he is a full-time parent.

Others he sees on weekends, at birthday parties and other events where their mothers would like him present.

Some, who do not live with him, also spend time with each other as half-siblings and go on vacations together.

In June, he learned he could no longer donate sperm in Israel -where he first fathered a child using artificial insemination- after a would-be mother flew him to Asia and the private clinic they had selected destroyed his specimen on the spot.

The Israeli Health Ministry had banned the use of his sperm under a law that requires donors to be anonymous.

Despite being banned in Israel, it seems he is not done spreading his seeds and will do so with the help of Sperm XL.A startling number of barristers have claimed they've fallen victim to extreme levels of 'judicial bullying'.

Almost two thirds of Victorian barristers reported negative experiences on a well-being survey, many citing humiliating and abusive behaviours as the norm.

Of 2000 barristers who anonymously responded, 59 per cent said they were subject to a form of denigration and bullying from those at the top of the hierarchy, the ABC reported.

A startling number of barristers have claimed they've fallen victim to extreme levels of 'judicial bullying' involving 'shouting and yelling' from judges and magistrates (stock photo)

The courts with the highest rates of belittling according to survey respondents were Victoria's magistrates courts and the County Court.

One in six female barristers noted being victims of sexual harassment, with some claiming there was still a high degree of sexism evident in courts across the state.

A female barrister claimed there was 'Gender discrimination/bias towards counsel of (the) opposing gender,' while another claimed herself and the opposing female counsel were abused by a magistrate.

A whopping 68 per cent accepted stress as a typical part of their job, while 33 per cent said they never had adequate amounts of sleep.

Almost two thirds of Victorian barristers reported negative experiences on a well being survey, many citing humiliating and abusive behaviours as the norm (stock photo)

Among the most damming accusations were barristers stating they had to deal with 'patronising', 'sarcastic' and 'arrogant' judges and magistrates.

'Eye-rolls and inappropriate comments from the bench', one barrister commented.

'Rude and unnecessarily and unjudicial personal comments from the bench,' said someone else.

'Harassment verbal abuse emotional abuse,' also featured in the comments.

Victorian Bar president Dr Matt Collins QC described the findings as 'concerning' and said such behaviour was not acceptable 'in any workplace'.

Justice Ferguson, who chairs Victoria's Courts Council, has committed to developing protocol to make it easier for barristers to raise concerns about judicial conduct.Prison sentence of former vice-governor of Chelyabinsk Region gets appealed

  gorodskoyportal.ru

13:59 18/10/2018

MOSCOW, October 18 (RAPSI)  The former deputy governor of the Chelyabinsk Region Nikolay Sandakov has appealed his 5.5-year prison sentence in a 2-million-ruble ($30,000) bribery case, his attorney Sergey Kolosovsky has told RAPSI.

The Sovetsky District Court of Chelyabinsk issued the ruling on October 5. In addition to the prison term, ex-official was fined 7 million rubles ($105,000).

The sentence was also challenged by regional prosecutors believing that it was unjustly mitigated.

According to the courts ruling, from 2013 to 2014, the defendant facilitated the conclusion of a government contract on the guardianship of one of the regions officials on conditions beneficial for the private security firm Python.

Sandakov received a bribe worth about 2 million rubles from the companys CEO.Advertisement

These are the stunning pictures of a church decorated with a sea of poppies in tribute to those who fought and died in the First World War.

Parishioners at Carmunnock Parish Church, Clarkston, Glasgow spent more than eight months stitches a whopping 9,000 knitted poppies to adorn the historic church.

It was completed in time for Remembrance Day, on November 11, honouring all those involved in the war - including 13 Carmunnock locals.

Photos show the Carmunnock Parish Church in Glasgow covered in a bright tapestry of poppies

The flowers are to commemorate those who fought and died in World War One, including the 13 locals

Over 3,000 of the flowers were knitted together to create the tapestry which was weaved with plastic tags

Parish member Sandra Hawkins, who led the community run project, says this year is particularly special as it marks 100 years since the end of World War 1.

She said: 'As a parish member I had asked the church if they were willing to let us do this as a community, which they accepted.

'One lady knitted 517 poppies to show respect to those who fought in the war.

'This is because we want to show tribute to them especially those who came from our village Carmunnock.

'At first the target was to knit 3,000 poppies but we all got carried away and the church has been great in letting us do this.

'We know the weather is terrible in Scotland so to combat that we've had to knit our poppies and weave them through plastic tags and pull it tight just so they don't fall off when they are hanging.'

An up-close shot of the poppies shows the level of detail that each one knitted together needed

It was completed in time for Remembrance Day, on November 11, honouring all those involved in the war

One parish member knitted 517 poppies to show respect to those who fought and died in the warA dairy farmer's son who 'doesn't like cows' is fighting his parents in the High Court as he insists that he has the right to inherit their farm.

Clive Shaw, 55, says he was put to work on the farm, worth almost 1million, from the age of seven and promised by his parents that it would one day take it over.

But after a falling out at Christmas in 2016, allegedly caused by his mother's dislike for his girlfriend, the elderly couple wrote Clive out of their wills.

Gillian Shaw, 78, claims Clive's partner Lesley Hollis is a 'gold digger' who is out to get her hands on the spoils of three generations' toil, the court heard.

Clive Shaw (shown left, outside the High Court) insists he has the right to inherit the farm owned by his parents Walt and Gillian (right)

She and her husband, Walt, 78, also claimed that Clive has not worked hard enough to deserve the farm, and should not get 'something for nothing'.

They never gave up the 'right to change their minds' about what to do with their property when they die, their lawyers argue.

But Clive says he was still in short pants when put to work on a tractor, and sacrificed most of his adult life to Whaley Farm in New York, Lincolnshire.

And he claims his parents are stuck with the 'unconditional assurances' they gave him that he would get the farm.

'It was always suggested that it would be me who would take over the running of the farm,' he told Judge John Linwood.

'It was told to me by people working on the farm, too. I was in a position where I felt I had to carry on in that direction. It was expected.'

For the parents, barrister Katherine Hallett claimed Clive had exaggerated the extent of the work he did on the successful dairy farm.

He would keep out of the way when his father was working with the herd, she told London's High Court.

Clive says he was still in short pants when put to work on a tractor, and sacrificed most of his adult life to Whaley Farm in New York, Lincolnshire

And Clive's sister Cheryl told how he would often say things like cows were 'stinking, horrible, rotten creatures'.

'You frequently said to members of your family that you hated the cows over the years,' Miss Hallett put to him.

Clive replied: 'I said I didn't like them; I didn't hate them.'

He eventually stopped full-time work on the farm and now runs an American show-truck business from the land.

But he still lives on the farm with Ms Hollis, in a caravan or one of his lorries, 'cheek by jowl' with his parents, said his barrister Leslie Blohm.

Mr Blohm claimed it was Gillian Shaw's attitude towards Miss Hollis that lay at the heart of her decision to disinherit her son.

'Mrs Shaw has a history of finding fault with her son's partners, and the present dispute has been prompted by her belief that Ms Hollis is a gold digger', he said

Ms Hallett said the couple had hoped that Clive would show interest in farming, so as to continue the family firm and inherit it when they died.

'Indeed, it was their biggest dream,' she said. 'They accept that they spoke and conducted themselves on that basis.

'However, their case is that they never promised Clive the farm unconditionally. He was expected to work for it.

'Walt and Gill say that Clive never demonstrated the hoped-for interest in farming and never worked on the farm to the extent he now claims.'

And she told the judge that the couple's wish is 'not to provide for Clive in their wills'.

'He has lived his entire adult life on his parents' farm. He has - together with his girlfriends - never paid for utilities and, for long periods, did not pay for food and other essentials.

'For long periods, his mother cooked and washed for him and his girlfriends.'

Judge Linwood is expected to reserve his decision on the case until a later date.ISIS has kidnapped 700 people, including dozens of women and children, from a refugee camp in eastern Syria, and will 'kill ten hostages every day' unless their demands are met, Vladimir Putin said today.

The Islamist terrorists have already murdered a number of hostages, and have warned of daily executions to come, the Russian President said.

ISIS fighters attacked the refugee camp in Syria's Deir-al Zor province last week, and kidnapped some 130 families, including several U.S. and European nationals, who may be foreign fighters or aid workers.

Images shared on social media by terrorist monitoring groups allegedly shows ISIS fighters attacking and kidnapping fighters from the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the same area the day before.

ISIS attacks: Photos are said to show an ISIS attack on U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the same area as the refugee camp where terrorists kidnapped hundreds

The images shared on social media show men being kidnapped at gunpoint in Syria, allegedly by ISIS fighters in an attack last week

Moving in: The photos allegedly show ISIS fighters attacking on foot in eastern Syria, last week

ISIS militants attacked the refugee camp in an area of eastern Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces on October 13, kidnapping around 130 families before taking them to the nearby city of Hajin.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's ongoing civil war, said the families are mostly made up of foreign women, including widows of ISIS fighters.

Speaking at the Valdai discussion forum in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said ISIS leaders had made demands, but did not specify what they were.

However, The Observatory reported this week that negotiations have begun, and that ISIS are demanding 'food and medical supplies' in exchange for the hostages' safe return.

'They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute ten people every day.

'The day before yesterday they executed ten people,' Putin said, adding: 'This is just horrible, it is a catastrophe.'

Convoy: This is reportedly the moment ISIS fighters leave the SDF camp - ISIS flags can be seen being flown on two of the cars

Last week's attack - separate from the kidnappings at the refugee camp - was allegedly also carried out near Hajin in Deir ez-Zor province, and saw ISIS set buildings on fire

Attack: ISIS fighters attacked the refugee camp near Hajin last week, and kidnapped some 130 families - nearly 700 people - including several U.S. and European nationals

ISIS fighters attacked the refugee camp in Syria's Deir ez-Zor province, and are now threatening to kill ten people every day unless their demands are met, Vladimir Putin said

The attack on the refugee camp in Deir ez-Zor last week came after several days of intense clashes between ISIS and the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

The SDF said in a statement that the fighting in the Hajin refugee camp on October 13 which resulted in the kidnapping, had left 20 ISIS gunmen and 'several' SDF fighters dead.

Since ISIS lost most of its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq over the past two years, the extremists have been resorting to attacks on civilians to show that they are still effective, the Observatory said.

Earlier this week, the United Nations warned that the fight for Hajin, where the SDF estimates some 3,000 ISIS fighters remain, was having a 'devastating' effect on thousands of civilians.A sightseeing trip almost ended in disaster when huge lava bombs came crashing down around a tourist boat.

Thrill seeker Matthew Davison, 34, captured the sudden eruption from the Anak Krakatau volcano near Jakarta, Indonesia, from the boat.

Mr Davison, who is from Auckland, New Zealand, said 'car-sized' pieces of molten rock came hurting down the volcano and splashed into the water around him.

Huge 'car-sized' pieces of molten rock can be seen hurtling down the volcano towards the boat

Adventurer Matthew Davison filmed the eruption's plume of black smoke rising into the sky

In the dramatic footage filmed on Tuesday, glowing rocks can be seen flying through the air, surrounded by smoke and people can be heard shouting.

After a few seconds the camera zooms out to show a huge plume of black smoke coming from the volcano and going high into the sky.

Mr Davison said: 'It was only when I heard loud splashing sounds near our boat that I realised we were in real danger.

'Huge lava bombs were dropping around us and, if hit, would have easily destroyed the small boat we were on. Thankfully, the captain got us quickly to safety.'

Mr Davison, (pictured) who is from New Zealand, said the event was 'mesmerizing' to watch

The thrill seeker said he knew the boat's passengers were in danger when huge rocks started to make loud splashing sounds near the vessel

When he's not in the pursuit of danger Mr Davison, who describes himself as a 'born traveller and adventurer', works as a team leader in an office.

Despite his close encounter on the boat, Mr Davison described the experience as 'mesmerizing.'

He said: 'While dangerous, watching the eruption was mesmerizing. The lava bombs were coming in so fast, it was impossible to dodge them.

'We had luck on our side that nothing hit our boat. While Mother Nature is sometimes a very destructive and fearsome force, she puts on an amazing show.'

The island of Krakatoa erupted in 1883, killing thousands in one of the worst geologic disasters of modern times.

A new island, Anak Krakatau, emerged from the caldera and is the current location of the eruption.A dog who was used for sex by his Colorado owners had to be euthanized after the traumatic experience left him too aggressive to be safely adopted.

Bubba, an Akita-mix, was put down by Aurora Animal Services on Tuesday just hours after one of his owners was jailed for having sex with the dog.

The dog's handlers at the animal shelter said he had become increasingly aggressive ever since authorities took custody of him this past summer when his owners were arrested.

Shelter staff had determined that Bubba was unable to be safely adopted given the traumatic ordeal.

Bubba, an Akita-mix, was put down by Aurora Animal Services in Colorado on Tuesday just hours after one of his owners was jailed for having sex with the dog

His owners, Frederick Manzanares, 51, and his ex-girlfriend, Janette Solano, 49, pleaded guilty last month to animal cruelty charges after repeatedly having sex with their dog in a backyard motor home that they converted into a sex chamber.

Manzanares was sentenced to six months in prison on Tuesday and will be placed under supervised probation for two years.

His ex-girlfriend negotiated a two-year deferred judgement and sentence, which means she will not be convicted or serve time in jail unless she violates the terms of her release.

In handing down Manzanares' sentence, Judge Cheryl Rowles-Stokes acknowledged that she had taken Bubba's condition into account when decided on a punishment, the Denver Post reports.

'This dog cannot safely be adopted,' she said. 'This dog cannot safely be transferred. This dog cannot recover.'

Jenee Shipman, the manager of Aurora Animal Shelter, had written to the judge prior to Bubba being euthanized.

'The dog has exhibited unpredictable behavior and shows signs of aggression towards veterinary services staff, volunteers, community service workers and staff members that the dog is not especially familiar with,' she wrote.

Owners, Frederick Manzanares, 51, and Janette Solano, 49, admitted to repeatedly having sex with the dog in a backyard motor home that they converted into a sex chamber

'It is my opinion this dog is not a safe adoption candidate or transfer candidate based on the history, kennel behavior and continued increase in aggression observed daily.'

The dog had been living in the animal shelter ever since Manzanares and Solano forfeited custody of Bubba as part of their plea deal.

Police said they found footage of the couple having sex with Bubba after they were initially called in to respond to a domestic violence incident.

Solano had called authorities in March last year saying the couple had an argument and that she was leaving Manzanares because he pressured her into having sex with their dog.

Solano claimed that she first discovered pictures of bestiality on the couple's shared laptop and then confronted her boyfriend about them.

She said Manzanares told her to have an open mind and convinced her to start having sex with Bubba.

Manzanares had created a customized red padded bench in their motor home to make it easier to have sex with the dog.

He used dog hormone spray to arouse Bubba and would film them having sex with him.

Solano said she started to become 'somewhat jealous' of her boyfriend's relationship with their dog and that it would often lead to arguments.This is the adorable moment a groom carries his bride on his back down the aisle so that she doesn't have to walk through the mud on the ground.

Twiz and Nicole Stanley, of Alvarado, Texas spent two years meticulously planning out their outdoor wedding on Saturday, but Mother Nature had other plans in store.

The couple's dream ceremony on their property was nearly ruined when two tornadoes rolled through Hill County on their wedding day and the city was inundated with heavy rains.

Groom Twiz Stanley carried his bride Nicole on his back down the aisle at their outdoor wedding in Texas on Saturday so that she didn't have to walk through the mud and puddles on the ground

Swept off her feet! After the bride made her entrance guests shouted 'Carry her! Carry her!' Twiz Stanley immediately obliged and carried his bride Nicole on his back

Off we go! The couple laughed and smiled as they made their way down the muddy and flooded aisle at their outdoor wedding, Nicole's feet never touching the ground

'Since Texas weather is so unpredictable at times we just kept our fingers crossed,' Nicole said to Fox.

'By the time we realized that the rain was going to remain in the forecast there was nothing we could really do to change our plans or move to another venue or anything,' she added.

Some areas of Texas saw historic flooding with waters reaching above 30 feet over the weekend, according to CBS.

The weather was so vicious and rains so 'catastrophic' it even blew away all of the tents the couple set up for the nuptials, except for one.

The couple made do by cramming the guests under the single still-standing tent and by scooping water out of the aisle for the wedding ceremony on Saturday.

The crowd cheered for the couple as they walked to the altar, some shouting 'That's true love!'

The bride said: 'He's always rescued me in so many ways but that day and that moment he was truly my knight in shining armor'

Together forever! The massive flooding and muddy puddles can be seen on the floor of the aisle at their outdoor wedding in Hill County, Texas on Saturday

'There were about 15 guys under the main tent trying to scoop water out of the aisle so none of us ladies would have to walk through it. I had no idea how much it had rained and how flooded everything was until I walked out of the limo down the aisle with my mom and dad and saw it,' Nicole said.

In a video showing the bride's grand entrance, she holds up the ends of her dress and prepares to walk through the sludge in her sneakers.

That's when wedding guests began to jokingly shout 'Carry her! Carry her!' to the groom.

Twiz immediately jogs down the aisle to meet his blushing bride Nicole and have her jump onto his back.

They he piggy-back carries her all the way to the altar so that her feet don't have to touch the ground.

Married! Eventually Nicole ditched her shoes and went barefoot in the mud

Married! Speaking on the piggy-back moment Nicole said: 'My heart almost burst out of my chest'

The two tied the knot in an outdoor wedding on their property in Hill County, Texas

The couple will head to New Orleans for their honeymoon where luckily there is no rain in the forecast

Guests cheered for the adorable couple and one man shouted 'That's true love!' during their walk.

Video of the adorable altar walk shows the massive puddles that completely flood the grassy aisle.

Several guests of the wedding party walk through the sludge after the bride, but thankfully her feet didn't even have to touch the ground for the special moment.

'My heart almost burst out of my chest,' Nicole said.

'Hes always been my best friend and hes always rescued me in so many ways but that day and that moment he was truly my knight in shining armor, my hero,' she added.

The couple will head to New Orleans for their honeymoon where luckily there is no rain in the forecast.Former Vice President Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump's 'love affair with autocrats' and charged the White House with coddling dictators like Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un.

'I'm very worried that the president seems to have a love affair with autocrats,' Biden told CBS 'This Morning' on Thursday.

He was referring to Trump's meetings with Kim, the head of North Korea, and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Former Vice President Joe Biden blasted President Donald Trump's 'love affair with autocrats'

Biden is seen a possible challenger to President Trump in 2020

'This administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from Putin to Kim Jong-un,' Biden said.

Trump is working on a second meeting with Kim, after their June summit in Singapore, as part of his goal to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. But critics say the agreement signed by the two leaders has no timetable and no benchmarks for that to happen.

The president also came under fire for his July press conference with Putin in Helsinki, where he backed the Russian president's assertion Moscow didn't meddle in the 2016 presidential race. U.S. intelligence agencies said Russia did, indeed, interfere. Trump later clarified he backed the U.S. intelligence findings.

The former vice president's comments come among growing reports that Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is alleged to be behind the disappearance - and reported murder - of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

And Trump has repeatedly searched for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship, The Washington Post reported, concerned about having an ally in the Middle East who will purchase U.S. arms, help with Iran, and provide oil.

The president has also suggested a rogue killer could be responsible for the suspected killing of Khashoggi but U.S. intelligence agencies are increasingly Crown Prince Mohammed is culpable, The New York Times reported.

Trump has spoken with Saudi King Salman and says he claims to have no knowledge of the whereabouts or condition of Khashoggi. King Salman is elderly and increasingly seen as being a figure head.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with MBS - Crown Prince Mohammed is known by his initials - in Riyadh on Tuesday, where he told him he had to 'own' the situation, and 'that every fact is going to get out,' CNN reported.

Biden used the interview with CBS to get in multiple shots at the president, who he is considering challenging in the 2020 presidential race.

'I don't want to speculate on my worst fears, but either he doesn't know what he's doing, or he has an absolutely convoluted notion of what allows America to lead the world,' he said of Trump's relationships with other world leaders.

Biden has said he will decide on a presidential bid in January. And he told CBS that the polling numbers - which show he is the Democrats top pick to challenge Trump - won't be a factor in his decision.

'I don't think about the polling data. I think about whether or not I should run based on very private decisions relating to my family and the loss of my son and what I want to do with the rest of my life,' Biden said. 'But I don't think of it in terms of can I win, can I  will I lose. That's not part of the calculation.'

The 75-year-old also said his age would be a 'legitimate issue' if he were to run.

Trump is three years younger than him.

'I think people are going to judge it, if I were to run. I think they're gonna judge me on my vitality. Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I  do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it's totally legitimate people ask those questions,' Biden said.

He also refused to comment on tough words from other possible Democratic contenders about Trump.

'I don't want to get down in the mosh pit with these guys. It's not a place I want to play. He just drags you and it's part of his strategy. Part of their strategy. Drag you down and talk about, attack each other personally,' he said.

Biden slammed Trump's close relationships with 'autocrats' Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (right)

President Donald Trump met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office in March

Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and hasn't been seen since then

Trump told CBS News in June that Biden would be a 'dream' challenger.

'I dream about Biden. That's a dream,' he said.

'Look, Joe Biden ran three times. He never got more than 1 percent and President Obama took him out of the garbage heap, and everybody was shocked that he did. I'd love to have it be Biden,' Trump added.

It's unclear what Trump meant when he said Biden ran three times. The former vice president sought the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008 but didn't get it. There was speculation he would throw his hat into the ring in 2016 but he ultimately didn't run that year.

Biden was asked about Trump's remarks but refused to rise to the bait.

'Well, I tell you what  well, I shouldn't say anything,' Biden said. 'Age has given me some wisdom.'EU leaders agreed Theresa May had told them nothing in her 15 minute Brexit speech and went out for beers after the shortest dinner in a decade last night, it has emerged.

Just 12 of the EU leaders contributed to the brief discussion on Brexit, including Irish PM Leo Varadkar who wielded a copy of the Irish Times warning of renewed border violence.

Reports today suggest discussion was focused on Mrs May's domestic political problems after the 27 leaders agreed to say 'nothing happened at dinner'.

With a commitment to avoid the rows that marred the last gathering in Austria last month, an aide who was in the room told The Times: 'There was unanimous agreement that was the common line and no one would go beyond it.'

A diplomat who has attended summits for years said he could 'not recall a shorter dinner' - with proceedings being among the shortest in a decade.

After the summit meeting last night (clockwise around the table from back right) French President Emmanuel Macron, Mrs Merkel, Belgian PM Charles Michel and Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel went out for drinks at a bar in Brussels

Theresa May made her speech in the lurid European Council room (pictured today) before leaving the EU leaders to discuss Brexit over dinner

Mrs May was not present. She left after her speech to eat at the British diplomatic residence up the street while dinner was served to EU leaders.

They dined on a starter of pan-fried mushrooms, a fillet of turbot cooked in wheat beer with glazed vegetables and a trio of fig, pear and grape sorbets.

After dinner, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor; Emmanuel Macron, the French president; Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister; and Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg then went out for drinks at Le Roy dEspagne bar on Grand Place.

Mrs Merkel opted for a red wine while Mr Michel picked one of Belgium's Abbey beers - with a side of 'frites' despite his three course dinner.

In the most striking moment during the two hour dinner, Mr Varadkar brought in a copy of an Irish newspaper to the summit dinner on Wednesday evening which featured the story of the IRA blast which killed nine people in August 1972.

Four customs officials, two lorry drivers and three IRA men died in the explosion at Newry customs clearing station.

Mr Varadkar held up a copy of Wednesday's Irish Times during the meeting to stress the importance of how far Northern Ireland and Ireland have come since the Troubles, journeying from violence to peace.

Just 12 of the EU leaders contributed to the brief discussion on Brexit, including Irish PM Leo Varadkar (pictured at the summit last night) who wielded a copy of the Irish Times warning of renewed border violence

Reports today suggest discussion was focused on Mrs May's (pictured at the summit today) domestic political problems after the 27 leaders agreed to say 'nothing happened at dinner'

The family of one of the lorry drivers said they fear Brexit could spark renewed violence along the border.

Jack McCann, from Co Monaghan, died in the explosion which was the worst attack on a Northern Ireland customs post during the Troubles.

Mr McCann's daughter Mary Casey, who was 21 when her father died, spoke of her fear of border custom posts returning in the wake of a no-deal Brexit.

She told the newspaper that she believes there will be a hard border.

'I don't know how else it is going to work, to be honest. It would be scary. I imagine it is going back to the way it was.'A self-described Tory feminist says being called a 'sl**' online is part of daily life after a social media user said she looks like Margaret Thatcher did when she had a stroke.

Kings College London student Aine Lagan has spoken out over extreme internet trolling after she was told she looks 'disabled' and has a hexagonal head.

The 21-year-old says that even a Tweet commenting on the weather can prompt a flurry of abuse due to conservative views she expresses elsewhere.

The young Tory (pictured with Theresa May) suffers a barrage of abuse including being told she looks disabled because she identifies as a Conservative online

Aine - who is from Northern Ireland - says that people have insulted the shape of her head and told her she looks as though she's had a stroke

The Politics, Philosophy and Law student, whose Twitter profile picture is of her and Theresa May, has been told that identifying as a Northern Irish Tory is as embarrassing to Ireland as it producing a Nazi.

'Ive been called things that nobody should ever have to hear,' she said. 'People say things to me like: I hope youre infertile because you shouldnt be able to reproduce.

She has also come in for heavy criticism for being a Conservative Party supporter from Northern Ireland

The self-described feminist regularly posts pictures defending LGBT rights, but has been compared to a Nazi

'Its not even as if I have extreme views. I often dont post about party politics at all but people see my profile picture and that I describe myself as a Conservative and they think its okay to insult me.

'I get so much abuse its not healthy looking at it. I can post something like oh its a lovely day and I will get a load of abuse just because I have the word Conservative in my bio and a picture of Theresa May.'

She recently tweeted a photo of a bus shelter which had 'Israel is a racist endeavour' written on it and was abused for her condemnation of the message.

One user responded: 'Good. You f***ing tory scumbag. I hope the truth made you choke.'

Aine joined the Conservative party as a teenager but says her parents would probably describe themselves as Irish nationalists.

She regularly gets abuse targeting her appearance, with one Twitter user calling her a 'big foreheaded Tory c**t. It looks like your whole face had a stroke like Maggie Thatcher.'

Another said: 'Your head is shaped like a hexagon you speccy conservative c**t.'

She says she is also regularly insulted over her Irish heritage, with one Twitter user commenting: 'How could anyone named Aine be a tory? Worlds gone to s**t.'

Aine said that she has never complained to Twitter about the offensive tweets and says she does get messages of support from Conservative MPs.

Many of the people who troll Aine use accounts with fake names and cartoon pictures so they cannot be identified.

The deputy chairman of the Conservative party and Member of Parliament for Braintree, James Cleverly, said: 'Social media could, and should, be a place for debate and ideas. It saddens me that it is too often used to intimidate and abuse.'A Tesco worker is suing the supermarket chain and claiming he suffered racism after a senior colleague farted in his face.

Atif Masood, 42, is a customer assistant at a branch in Thornton Heath, south London and he is demanding 20,000 in compensation because of the 'bullying'.

He says a colleague broke wind in his face while another watched and laughed as part of a campaign of acts against him because of his Muslim background.

Tesco denies that the man has suffered discrimination - though an internal investigation revealed that there was sufficient evidence of the farting allegation being true.

He is demanding 20,000 in compensation because of the 'bullying'. He claims he suffered racist abuse - though the supermarket chain deny it

Rather than racism, Tesco's investigation found that the incident and statements were intended 'as a joke'.

Mr Masood believes that he is being 'bullied' by colleagues in the store and in legal papers claimed it was because he is Pakistani.

The papers were submitted to the London South employment tribunal and a hearing is due to take place next year.

Mr Masood also claims in the papers, seen by the Evening Standard, that he received abuse on Whatsapp and received comments such as 'Muslims are terrorists'.

He also says that he was abused in front of customers.

The documents claim that the farting incident occurred in December last year and was in the presence of another worker.

The papers were submitted to the London South employment tribunal (pictured) and a hearing is due to take place next year

Both workers are said to have started laughing at Mr Masood after the one 'broke wind in his face'.

Through Rahman Lowe Solicitors, Mr Masood says the incident was: 'Unwanted conduct which had the purpose or effect of violating his dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive [situation].'

Mr Masood has worked for Tesco since 2006 and first raised the matter internally.

In February this year, Tesco upheld the farting allegation but said that there was no evidence of racial discrimination.

The supermarket chain also said that Mr Masood's colleague denies farting in his face.

In papers to the employment tribunal, Tesco said that Mr Masood failed to substantiate his allegations and also denied all claims on behalf of the shop assistant's accused colleagues.

In the papers, Tesco added: 'For the avoidance of any doubt, the respondents deny that they discriminated against (whether directly or indirectly), harassed or victimised the claimant because of, or for a reason related to race, religion or belief, as alleged in the claim form, or at all.'

A Tesco spokesperson told MailOnline: 'Everyone is welcome at Tesco regardless of their gender, race, background or education. We are unable to comment on ongoing legal proceedings or the specifics of this case.'Blog Archive November 2021 (41) October 2021 (67) September 2021 (59) August 2021 (56) July 2021 (57) June 2021 (66) May 2021 (63) April 2021 (75) March 2021 (73) February 2021 (61) January 2021 (69) December 2020 (62) November 2020 (62) October 2020 (70) September 2020 (51) August 2020 (52) July 2020 (60) June 2020 (57) May 2020 (79) April 2020 (56) March 2020 (52) February 2020 (50) January 2020 (69) December 2019 (58) November 2019 (64) October 2019 (44) September 2019 (49) August 2019 (71) July 2019 (71) June 2019 (71) May 2019 (67) April 2019 (74) March 2019 (85) February 2019 (64) January 2019 (73) December 2018 (66) November 2018 (81) October 2018 (87) September 2018 (66) August 2018 (76) July 2018 (84) June 2018 (86) May 2018 (64) April 2018 (83) March 2018 (78) February 2018 (69) January 2018 (69) December 2017 (82) November 2017 (87) October 2017 (89) September 2017 (77) August 2017 (75) July 2017 (76) June 2017 (90) May 2017 (86) April 2017 (59) March 2017 (61) February 2017 (82) January 2017 (92) December 2016 (90) November 2016 (80) October 2016 (75) September 2016 (95) August 2016 (104) July 2016 (93) June 2016 (96) May 2016 (98) April 2016 (99) March 2016 (113) February 2016 (82) January 2016 (98) December 2015 (113) November 2015 (94) October 2015 (93) September 2015 (98) August 2015 (97) July 2015 (105) June 2015 (103) May 2015 (95) April 2015 (100) March 2015 (102) February 2015 (93) January 2015 (114) December 2014 (110) November 2014 (103) October 2014 (105) September 2014 (96) August 2014 (96) July 2014 (112) June 2014 (119) May 2014 (109) April 2014 (116) March 2014 (117) February 2014 (109) January 2014 (116) December 2013 (117) November 2013 (121) October 2013 (125) September 2013 (93) August 2013 (115) July 2013 (110) June 2013 (102) May 2013 (115) April 2013 (113) March 2013 (119) February 2013 (108) January 2013 (119) December 2012 (132) November 2012 (115) October 2012 (121) September 2012 (115) August 2012 (124) July 2012 (102) June 2012 (121) May 2012 (121) April 2012 (127) March 2012 (130) February 2012 (112) January 2012 (131) December 2011 (129) November 2011 (118) October 2011 (118) September 2011 (110) August 2011 (138) July 2011 (146) June 2011 (139) May 2011 (144) April 2011 (127) March 2011 (140) February 2011 (116) January 2011 (134) December 2010 (133) November 2010 (136) October 2010 (148) September 2010 (128) August 2010 (155) July 2010 (129) June 2010 (138) May 2010 (152) April 2010 (161) March 2010 (119) February 2010 (149) January 2010 (155) December 2009 (177) November 2009 (171) October 2009 (176) September 2009 (159) August 2009 (156) July 2009 (170) June 2009 (157) May 2009 (185) April 2009 (179) March 2009 (183) February 2009 (170) January 2009 (181) December 2008 (189) November 2008 (183) October 2008 (164) September 2008 (164) August 2008 (177) July 2008 (179) June 2008 (170) May 2008 (191) April 2008 (175) March 2008 (195) February 2008 (162) January 2008 (188) December 2007 (187) November 2007 (189) October 2007 (194) September 2007 (156) August 2007 (194) July 2007 (163) June 2007 (176) May 2007 (190) April 2007 (177) March 2007 (192) February 2007 (165) January 2007 (170) December 2006 (182) November 2006 (177) October 2006 (185) September 2006 (180) August 2006 (156) July 2006 (160) June 2006 (177) May 2006 (173) April 2006 (157) March 2006 (158) February 2006 (146) January 2006 (144) December 2005 (135) November 2005 (138) October 2005 (128) September 2005 (141) August 2005 (136) July 2005 (133) June 2005 (119) May 2005 (143) April 2005 (52)A man charged with shooting and stabbing his future mother-in-law to death in Ohio has pleaded no contest to all charges on the first day of his trial.

Jeffrey Scullin, 20, allegedly stabbed and shot Melinda Pleskovic inside her Strongsville home on the night of October 23, 2017, then joined the victims unsuspecting husband for dinner at an Applebees, where his bride worked as a waitress.

Scullin later called 911 to report finding Pleskovic, 49, lying dead in a pool of blood and even acted as a pallbearer at the womans funeral, three days before he was arrested for her murder.

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Bloody trial: Police arrested Jeffrey Scullin Jr, 20, for the murder of his future mother-in-law, 49-year-old Melinda Pleskovic (right), after finding a tactical knife with the victim's blood on the blade and his own DNA on the handle inside a truck he had been driving

After the killing, police say Scullin met his future father-in-law and his wife-to-be Anna for dinner at the at the Southpark Mall Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar restaurant

Court officials said Scullin agreed to plead no contest to all charges on the day his murder trial was to begin.

A plea of no contest is technically not an admission of guilt, but the judge finds the defendant guilty as charged and sentences them accordingly.

He was indicted on charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, making false alarms and endangering children in connection with the death of Melinda Pleskovic.

His sentencing is scheduled for October 29.

Pleskovic's family was not present, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley said the family was appraised on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that Scullin may enter a plea.

'The nature of this crime was such that putting forth these facts in court was going to be very difficult for this family, and so certainly I think it's some relief to the family that this thing was brought to closure today and that Mr. Scullin has accepted responsibility for the brutal act that he had committed,' O'Malley said.

Jeffrey Scullin (pictured) pleaded no contest to all charges for the murder of Melinda Pleskovic

The victim's family members hug each other as judge rules all evidence is deemed permissable

The victim's friend claps in court last month as the judge lays down charges against Scullin

Scullin's lawyer Jospeh Patituce said his client's decision to plead no contest was also motivated the family's reaction to gruesome evidence discussed during the suppression hearing.

'He saw the pain that the family was suffering and despite how he might be portrayed, he's not a cold-blooded killer,' Patituce said.

Details of the case and charges laid against Scullin were previously revealed by Fox8.

He added that his client has legitimate defenses challenging DNA evidence and evidence collection by police.

Police were able to identify Scullin as a suspect after searching a 2002 Chevy pickup truck that he had been driving and recovering a large tactical knife with blood on the blade.

The weapon was hidden beneath various items on the backseat, according to the records.

Scullin was living with the victim's family at the time of the murder. He was engaged to marry her daughter Anna, who he shared a daughter with, and was a pallbearer at her funeral

Melinda Pleskovic was found with stab wounds to her back and a medical examiner said she died of 'gunshot wounds and sharp force injuries'

The weapon was hidden beneath various items on the backseat, according to the records.

More blood was found on the inside door handle of the passenger seat, which matched the murder victim, and Scullin's own DNA was found on the handle of the knife leading to his arrest on Tuesday.

According to a narrative presented by police, Scullin killed his future mother-in-law, with whom had a history of disputes, then met his future father-in-law Bruce Pleskovic and his wife-to-be Anna for dinner at the at the Southpark Mall Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar restaurant.

Scullin, who had been living with Pleskovic's family, was breathing heavily when he told a 911 dispatcher that he and the victim's husband Bruce had found her on the kitchen floor with blood all around.

Scullin (pictured) being questioned by investigating officers after he was arrested for murder

She was found with stab wounds to her back and a medical examiner said she died of 'gunshot wounds and sharp force injuries'.

Police released no information about a possible motive when they revealed on Tuesday that he had been charged with aggravated murder.

During the 911 call, Scullin told authorities that he had taken his 18-month-old daughter and the victim's 18-year-old son, who has Down syndrome, out of the house after discovering her body.

'We just came home. She's on the kitchen floor. I took her son and my daughter outside. Her husband is inside with her now,' he told dispatchers.

'We found her in the kitchen. She's not moving. I took the kids and I walked outside... There's a lot of blood.'

The victim's husband told 911 dispatchers that people had been trying to break into their home (pictured) 'all year' and blasted Strongsville police for not investigating the strange incidents

It's not clear yet whether Scullin, who is an HVAC worker, has an attorney. He was being held on a $1 million bond.

The victim's husband also spoke to 911 dispatchers telling them that people had been trying to break into their home 'all year' and 'now someone killed her'.

Police have released little information and would not say whether the suspect was linked to a series of attempted break-ins and suspicious activities at the home in the months leading up to the killing.

Pleskovic blasted Strongsville police for not investigating the strange incidents that were happening at the home.

Just days before, police investigated a report that an unknown man tried to enter the home by forcing open the back door.

Records show police investigated a report of a theft from a car in January, and they went to the house again in July to investigate a suspicious person.

Officers also were called in September when Melinda Pleskovic told officers a set of car keys were missing and that she kept finding her car unlocked and the alarm kept going off.Top US commander General Scott Miller has survived a targeted Taliban-credited attack in Afghanistan that killed a powerful Afghan police chief and two others, as well as injuring American troops.

Miller was not hurt in the assault claimed by the militant group that also wounded at least 12 people, including three Americans and a provincial governor, in the southern city of Kandahar on Thursday.

Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq and two other Afghan officials were killed in the attack that was carried out by one of the official's own guards.

In a Twitter post, the Taliban said Miller and Raziq were the targets of the shooting that occurred as they were leaving a security meeting ahead of the country's parliamentary election on Saturday.

A powerful Afghan police chief was among at least three people killed in a Taliban-credited attack that targeted top US commander General Scott Miller (above last month) on Thursday

NATO officials said Miller, the commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, escaped unharmed.

The three Americans who were wounded and evacuated from the scene included a soldier, civilian and contractor.

Raziq and intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin died immediately in the attack and provincial governor Zalmay Wesa died of his injuries at a hospital.

Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers were wounded in the attack.

The shooter, who was of the provincial governor's elite guards, was killed.

The security meeting took place inside the sprawling provincial governor's residence.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq (above) and two other Afghan officials were killed in the attack that was carried out by one of the official's own guards

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on 'democratic processes'.A Mexican cop and his partner have been dismissed from the police force and are under investigation after a suspect who fired at a unit of cops outside a mall was tortured during an investigation.

The officer in question places a plastic bag over the head of one of the three hitmen who fired at two state police officers and a worker outside a shopping plaza in Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday morning.

Hours after the cops apprehended Jose E. Herrera, 21; Rogelio Celaya, 30, and Luis. A. Retena following the wild morning firefight, El Diario de Juarez was anonymously tipped off by an officer from the municipal police with a video in which the station house's commander, identified by his uniform's badge last name tries do draw additional information out of Celaya.

Three men pulled up on a foreign currency exchange market at a plaza in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Wednesday and got into a gun battle with two state cops. They were arrested later

Mexican police arrested (from left to right) Rogelio Celaya, Jose E. Herrera and Luis. A. Retena after the men were involved in a shootout with cops in Ciudad Juarez on Wednesday

Celaya, who is an alleged member of La Linea Cartel, is ordered by Commander Armengol and another cop to 'close the eyes' as another police officer stands to the left side the suspect. Two other officers looked one from behind inside a room that resembles a restroom.

One of the cops asks ,'where are there more weapons?', as the clear plastic bag covering the gang member's face is tighten up even more by Commander Armengol.

The hit man, who was part of the brazen attack against the two law enforcement agents and a worker outside El Dolarate, a foreign currency exchange market at a commercial plaza, is heard crying during the almost minute-long video.

Celaya could barely mutter, 'they are there, they are there.'

Seconds later, Commander Armengol tells the screaming thug to shut up as he covers Celaya mouth.

Commander Armengol then eased off pressure and proceeded to slightly lift the plastic bag off Celaya face.

Ciudad Juarez municipal police commander Armengol tortures Rogelio Celaya during an investigation. Armengol and another cop were dismissed

Despite the hail of 27 bullets that were unleashed by the three suspects, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Armando Cabada condemned the course of action taken by Commander Armengol and the second cop who was also fired.

'I categorically declare that I am not aware that this type of practice was being carried out,' Cabada told reporters.

'Under no circumstances will I allow this type of inhuman practices, that we believe have already been discontinued by our police from occurring. We will act against those who are responsible.'

Cops were able to seize the vehicle and weapons used by the three men.

On Thursday, their friends and family members showed up at the Chihuahua Attorney General's office demanding justice for the trio of gunmen, holding hand written signs.

Juana Lidia Cedano, who showed up to support the three men, told El Diario de Juarez that they had shown up at the plaza to meet someone in hopes of receiving assistance from smugglers to cross the Mexico-U.S. border.

On Thursday, friends and family members show up to demand justice for Rogelio Celaya, Jose E. Herrera and Luis. A. Retena, all whom were involved in a gun battle with cops a day earlierA California man has been charged with trespassing after police say he was found sleeping in the bed of an 11-year-ol girl with his genitals exposed.

According to the district attorney's office in Oakland, at around 5.30am on Monday, a man was sleeping at his home in Burlinsgate when his 11-year-old niece woke him up saying that there was a stranger sitting on the edge of her bed.

The uncle went into the girl's bedroom and found an intruder, later identified as 35-year-old Jared Enix, laying in his nieces bed.

Intruder: Jared Enix, 35, has been charged with misdemeanor trespassing and obstructing an officer after a California homeowner found him sleeping with his pants down in his niece's bed

The homeowner grabbed the girl and her eight-year-old sister sleeping in another bed and fled the house to call for help, reported NBC Bay Area.

When police responded to the scene, they reportedly came upon Enix still sleeping under the covers in the 11-year-olds bed.

When officers removed the blanket, they found Enix with his pants around his ankles and his privates exposed. District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said when police woke him up, the intruder told them, 'I was raped.'

Enix has a lengthy criminal history stretching back to at least 2008 (pictured in an undated mugshot)

Enix refused to state his name or answer any questions. Law enforcement officials were able to identify the man by his fingerprints when he was booked into the San Mateo County jail on charges of misdemeanor trespassing and obstructing an officer in the performance of his duties.

Officials say there is nothing to suggest that Enix had forced his way into the familys home, or had any physical contact with the girls.

According to Wagstaffe, Enix has a lengthy criminal history stretching back to at least 2008, which includes mostly minor offenses.

During his initial court appearance on Tuesday, Enix was heard making guttural, animal-like growling noises. His bail was set at $15,000.

Enix is due back in court on Friday, at which time a doctor will be appointed to evaluate his mental state.A baby born three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle has started life in a Walmart parking lot.

Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their newborn son Luke.

So Capps, his wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the longest of nights in the best spot they could find: the parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm in Panama City.

On a starry night, mother sat in the bed of the family's pickup truck; her child sat in a car seat beside her.

Dad sat in the dark and pondered how it could be that his son's first night out of a hospital could be spent outside a big-box retailer because of a lack of help.

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Wilmer Capps and Lorrainda Smith settled in for their baby's first night out of hospital in the parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm

'It really upset me, man, because I've always been the type of person who would help anyone,' Capps said in an interview with the Associated Press, which found the family outside the store on Monday night.

An AP photographer accompanied them on a journey from the lot to a hospital and met them again at a hotel where donors later provided them a room.

Luke is healthy and so is Smith, his mom - but she said her newborn deserves better than the stormy life he's had so far.

'We had everything. Full-time job, a place to live. One day we had it all, the next we had nothing,' said Smith.

'This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to.'

The story of Luke's birth is just one amid the chaos that life has become in areas of the Florida Panhandle hit hardest by Michael.

Lorrainda Smith gave birth to baby Luke at 1am last Saturday, three days after it made landfall

Luke is healthy and so is Smith, his mom - but she said her newborn deserves better than the stormy life he's had so far

With the hurricane bearing down on their native home of Panama City, Capps and Smith sent their three other children to stay with relatives.

Doctors had planned to induce labor on October 11, the day after Michael made landfall between here and Mexico Beach, wiping out a wide expanse of buildings and timber.

Smith went to the hospital as planned that day, courtesy of a ride in a police car along streets crisscrossed with downed trees and powerlines.

Smith said workers at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center told her they couldn't deliver a baby that day, so she walked several miles home after being unable to find a ride back.

Anya Mayr, a Gulf Coast Regional spokeswoman, said the hospital has operated only as an emergency room and hasn't admitted patients since Michael.

Capps settled on the Walmart parking lot because they were low on gas and were fearful of driving at night with a curfew in place

About 560 people have been treated for injuries ranging from storm wounds to heart attack and chainsaw cuts, she said, and more than 170 have been transferred to other hospitals by ambulances and helicopters.

Labor pains started the next day, so Capps drove Smith to a hospital about 80 miles to the north in Dothan, Alabama, which was flooded with coastal refugees from Michael.

She gave birth at 1am last Saturday, three days after Michael's landfall.

Discharged from the hospital and unable to find a hotel room nearby, the couple drove back to Florida, where conditions had improved only slightly since Michael.

Still unable to stay at their storm-damaged home amid oppressive heat and bugs, Capps settled on the Walmart parking lot because they were low on gas and were fearful of driving at night with a curfew in place.

Fearful of safety and sanitation problems at a shelter suggested by workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the family returned to the Walmart lot

The store has a reputation for letting travelers sleep in the parking lot overnight, and Capps knew it.

'I had no choice, (Luke) would have had a heatstroke. When he started acting like he was getting sick from the heat and wouldn't eat, that's when we went to Walmart,' Capps said.

'There was kind of a breeze there, there was no bugs biting us. I said 'We're all right now'.'

Police officers who showed up after the AP photographer escorted them back to Gulf Coast Regional, where workers checked out Luke but couldn't provide a bed for the night, frustrating Capps.

Fearful of safety and sanitation problems at a shelter suggested by workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the family returned to the Walmart lot.

There, they met a security guard who helped secure them a hotel room in nearby Panama City Beach with air conditioning, water and power on Tuesday night.

Capps doesn't know how long the aid will last, but he intends to repay the donation.

Pulled back from the brink after doubting the kindness of humanity on that night in the parking lot, Capps still has little money and no permanent home. But things are looking up because of the kindness of strangers.

'These people have been a godsend, because otherwise we'd be back in the parking lot tonight,' he said.In the waning days of the U.S. Senate race that could oust her husband from federal office, Heidi Cruz opened up about her marriage and an infamous tweet spilling 'the beans' on her from the 2016 presidential race in an expansive interview.

The senator's wife revealed that her husband, Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, insisted that they closeout their wedding ceremony with a tape of the song 'A Whole New World' from the movie Aladdin, a song that had ended up shaping the next 17 years of their lives together.

'And I do appreciate that Ted started our life together with that song, because theres some truth to it,' she told The Atlantic. 'Hell be like, "Its such a great life! We have so much adventure ahead! Its like our magic-carpet ride." And sometimes Im like, "I hope we dont hit the cement." '

Which is exactly when happened when her husband when he husband ran for the GOP nomination for president, coming in second to Donald Trump after a nasty campaign that enveloped the two men's wives.

In the waning days of the U.S. Senate race that could oust her husband from federal office, Heidi Cruz opened up about her marriage and an infamous tweet spilling 'the beans' on her from the 2016 presidential race (pictured) in an expansive interview

Heidi Cruz swears that she and her husband laughed off a meme that the president tweeted comparing her, on one of her less flattering days, to a photo-ready Melania Trump

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have made amends since the nastiness - they're hitting the campaign trail together next week in Houston

Heidi Cruz swears that she and her husband laughed off a meme that the president tweeted comparing her, on one of her less flattering days, to a photo-ready Melania Trump when Ted and Donald were sworn enemies.

'These things dont bother Ted. Hes not saying, "Oh, I feel so bad; they think my wifes ugly. Youre so pretty, Heidi. Youre not ugly," ' she said. 'Hes like, "Hah! That was the worst move hes ever made." '

The senator's wife recalled feeling self conscious about the Fox News interview from which the screen grab was taken and that she hadn't wanted to do it, because she knew she needed to get her hair highlighted.

But she laughed about it all the same, The Atlantic reported, letting the incident roll off her back two and a half years later.

The Twitter battle was one of the low points of the Republican primary in 2016.

It started with Trump claiming that 'Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!'

Cruz responded: 'Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you're more of a coward than I thought. #classless'

The exchange inspired one Twitter user to create a meme of Heidi and Melania.

'No need to "spill the beans," ' the graphic said. 'The images are worth a thousand words.'

For the most part, Heidi Cruz said she was able to see beyond the campaign. She said she also laughed off a National Enquirer story about her husband's alleged cheating.

'I called up Ted and I was like, "Have you had five affairs? Ha-ha-ha," 'she said of her initial reaction to the story that claimed he'd had 'five secret mistresses' over the years but didn't identify them.

The Twitter battle was one of the low points of the Republican primary in 2016. It started with Trump calling her husband 'Lyin' Ted'

The exchange inspired one Twitter user to create a meme of Heidi and Melania

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) kisses his wife Heidi after a debate with Rep. Beto O'Rourke on September 21, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. The Democratic representative is seeking to boot Cruz, a Republican, from the U.S. Senate

Enraged, her husband blamed the story on Trump, who's a close friend of the tabloid's publisher, David Pecker.

'This National Enquirer story is garbage,' the freshman senator said. 'It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.'

Heidi Cruz says she 'literally laughed' at first mention but was affected by the story when she saw it at the grocery store in person.

'I called my mom and I was like, "This actually is out there. Like, this is really a thing. It hasnt bothered me, but now Im seeing thisdo you think people read this? Do you think people believe this?" '

In the interview with the Atlantic, the mother-of-two acknowledged 'you do have a moment of doubt' like that as a candidate's spouse, and by the end of the vicious race, she was ready for her husband to drop out.

'I dont know that I even shed a tear,' she said of his announcement on May 3 of 2016 that he was he was stepping down.

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have made amends since the nastiness - they're hitting the campaign trail together next week in Houston - and Heidi Cruz says she and her husband don't regret supporting the billionaire's general election bid.

'What I did talk to Ted about  was if we support him and he ends up not being a conservativenot appointing conservative justices, not doing tax reform are we part of a damaging decision in history?' she said.

Trump has checked both of those boxes since taking office, signing a tax overhaul and appointing two Supreme Court justices who had the support of conservatives.

Heidi Cruz said her husband's influence on Trump's lifetime appointments to the court is enough for the family to feel that they made the right decision.

This year, Ted Cruz is squaring off against Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke for reelection in a comparatively calmer race that resurrected the president's nickname for him from before - Lyin' Ted.

The incumbent senator's wife said she believes he'll keep the job that O'Rourke accused him of trying to abandon for the Oval Office.

'I dont know the future,' she acknowledged. 'I think hes gonna win.'A woman dubbed the 'Angel of Woolwich' for confronting Lee Rigby's killers won a speeding fine appeal after realising criminals had cloned her car registration when she spotted the scam on Midsomer Murders.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, from Helston, Cornwall, received a fine for speeding in October 3 last year, after a car registered to her was spotted doing 39mph in a 30mph zone in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Ms Loyau-Kennett, who has anxiety, was stressed at receiving the letter, and on the advice of a carer sent it back immediately to get it off her mind. But later she realised her number plates had been cloned and she was actually in France at the time.

Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, from Helston, Cornwall told a hearing at Truro Crown Court that she was in France when the offence took place in Berkshire, on October 3 last year

'Having seen Midsomer Murders I realised that 'la doublette' as it's called in France sometimes happens to expensive cars,' she told a hearing at Truro Crown Court.

'That's what must have happened to me - the lighting in the picture of my car made me think it had been photo-shopped,' she said after her court appearance.

During the speeding appeal hearing prosecutor Ramsay Quaife said that her car had been clocked doing 39mph in a 30mph zone in Thatcham on October 3.

On October 12, Miss Loyau-Kennett then returned a 172 notice to the court acknowledging that she was the driver at the time.

Miss Loyau-Kennett, defending herself, explained that she suffers from severe anxiety caused by 'verbal and physical abuse' that she receives in Helston.

She said that on the day when she received the form, a visiting helper to her home had told her to sign and send back the form immediately, to reduce her anxiety.

Ms Loyau-Kennett became a national hero when she confronted Lee Rigby's bloodied killers

Only when she later attended Bodmin magistrates' court did she realise what she had signed, prompting her to change her original guilty plea to one of not guilty.

'I was in France from September to November - I go there every year to help a family who has an autistic child.

Victim: Ingrid Loyau-Kennett was praised by David Cameron for her actions when Lee Rigby was killed in May last year

'I like to help them because I am autistic myself.

'I have never, ever been on that road, I only ever go to visit my children in London and I don't have to go on a road that far north,' she said.

When asked under oath by Judge Carr if she had any evidence of being in France she was unable to produce any documents.

He asked if she had a ticket from her ferry to France, or if she had proof of changing sterling to Euros, or any evidence of using her bank cards whilst she was abroad.

She was unable to provide any of them.

After a brief adjournment, Judge Carr said: 'We are unable to remove from our minds the possibility that she was not the driver.

'The compelling, consistent way in which she has explained it has left us with a doubt and therefore the appeal is allowed.'

What is car cloning? Cloning is where criminals are able to adopt a car's identity and is the motoring equivalent of identity fraud, says SAGA. At its most simple, it involves fitting the registration number from one car to another. The police estimate there might be in excess of 10,000 cloned cars on the United Kingdom's roads. If you fear you car has been clonded, you should notify both the police and the DVLA. If you have received any fines or tickets, you should return the paperwork, together with any evidence to prove that you weren't present at the time of the incident. Advertisement

Back in 2013 Miss Loyau-Kennett was 'threatened' with arrest after police were called to a disturbance at her home.

An ambulance had been called to Mrs Loyau-Kennett's home after she briefly collapsed following the altercation with police.

She had said it started after she went outside to speak to three local youths but denied she was threatening or aggressive.

Other residents said tensions had been rising in recent days because of Mrs Loyau-Kennett's opposition to a community playground.

'I suffer from anxiety and stress,' she said five years ago.

'And it has been getting worse since Woolwich.

'I have been told I have post traumatic stress disorder but I get no help.'

Ms Loyau-Kennett made national headlines in 2013 after urging one of the soldier's attackers to drop his meat cleaver.A former soldier has combined his fascination with the Second World War - and love of Germany - to build a toddler-sized replica tank for his grandchildren.

Roy Stratford, 76, can often be found pulling along his two-year-old grandson Archer and step granddaughter Lala, four, in the the replica German MKI Tiger tank in his home village of Trimley, in Suffolk.

Mr Stratford, who has five daughters and six grandsons, joined the army as a 15-year-old soldier in Northamptonshire.

While he was serving, he met a German soldier called Manfred and the pair became pen pals for more than 56 years and still regularly write to each other.

The pair swapped British and German badges and Mr Stratford grew fond of Germany through their friendship.

It was his love for the country that drew him to create the German-built World War II tank.

His wife thought he was mad when he decided to start building it. But once he started it kept him busy for a long time so she got some peace and quiet. She said it stopped my dad from falling asleep in the afternoons.

Daughter Karen Stratford and mother of Archer said: 'Since retiring he tries to keep busy with fishing or reading books mostly on tanks and WW2.'

He was in the army for 15 years and served in Aden, Germany, Northern Ireland & Cyprus.

Roy Stratford (left) 76 and Archer Stratford 2 (right) in self-made tank trailer built by Roy

'My dads wife regularly helps out with grandchildren and great grandchildren.

'My dad tries to help but makes more noise than all of them put together! He loves Germany and had a keen interest in the German tanks.'

The tank featured is said to be based on the tank on a MKI Tiger tank of Lt Michael Wittman 2nd Henry tank regiment Normandy who put a lot of allied tanks out of action with his tigers.

'My dad tried to make it as life like and include the detail as close as possible. He even had me help make a copy outfit of the tank uniform for my son Archer.

Mr Stratford pulls his grandson along in the trailer designed to look like a WW2 tank

Mr Stratford spent 15 years in the army after joining as a 15-year-old from Northamptonshire

'The tank even has space for a stereo which my dad loves playing German marching music on!,' she added.

Hes spend hours on this, he has said he would make another one. I have put a request in for a British centurion.

Mr Stratford has admitted the hardest part is pulling the tank on a rope even though it certainly helps keep him fit.The United States downgraded its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians on Thursday, placing it under the authority of the U.S. embassy to Israel.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the consulate general, a separate office which handled dealings with the Palestinians, would be replaced by a new Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the controversial new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

The move was quickly condemned by the Palestinians and it could leave the U.S. as the only major power without a specific representative office dedicated to the Palestinians.

President Donald Trump's administration told the Palestinians they have to communicate through the U.S. Embassy in Israel

The U.S. Embassy (seen above) was relocated to Jerusalem in May

It would also leave the ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who is reviled by Palestinians over his support for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as the main interlocutor with the Palestinian leadership.

Pro-Israel advocates hailed the decision, saying it confirmed the U.S. recognized the whole of Jerusalem as part of Israel.

Pompeo denied the decision represented a shift in policy, but it came after a series of moves, including shuttering the Palestinian mission in Washington and moving the US embassy from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

'This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. It does not signal a change of U.S. policy,' Pompeo said in a statement.

He said the United States 'continues to take no position' on how any peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians would take shape.

A State Department official, however, confirmed that the role of U.S. consul general will cease to exist and its current head will return to Washington.

- 'Unprecedented' -

The Palestinian leadership condemned Washington's decision.

'The US decision... has nothing to do with 'efficiency' and a lot to do with pleasing an ideological US team that is willing to disband the foundations of American foreign policy, and of the international system, in order to reward Israeli violations and crimes,' the Palestinians' chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

'The Trump administration is part of the problem, not part of the solution,' Erekat said in a statement.

Israel seized control of east Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East war in a move never recognized by the international community.

More than 200,000 Israelis now live in the Palestinian eastern part of the city and its future is one of the thorniest issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

International powers have for decades maintained separate and autonomous representations to Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of supporting the two-state solution and the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump unveil an inauguration plaque during the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, 2018

'This decision is driven by our global efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our operations. It does not signal a change of U.S. policy,' Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said of the decision

They have insisted the status of Jerusalem, which both the Israelis and Palestinians see as their capital, should be negotiated between the parties.

Last December, President Donald Trump, a long-time pro-Israel advocate, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to boycott his administration.

The embassy was officially transferred on May 14, sparking violent protests in Gaza in which more than 60 Palestinian protesters were killed by Israeli fire.

Ofer Zalzberg of the International Crisis Group think-tank said Thursday's announcement meant that the U.S. would be the only major power without a separate, independent representative office for the Palestinians.

'Other countries have gone to great lengths to avoid having the same representatives to Israel and the Palestinian Authority,' he told AFP, pointing out even small countries separate their Palestinian and Israeli operations.

'As far I know this is unprecedented.'

Eugene Kontorovich, a law professor with the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum and advocate for the embassy move, said the decision was more evidence the US considered Jerusalem to be fully part of Israel.

'This step confirms that the U.S. recognizes the entire city as Israel's capital,' he said.

Trump has been angered by the Abbas boycott and has cut hundreds of millions of dollars in aid in a bid to force them back to the negotiating table.

His son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Friedman and peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, have been working for months on a still-secret peace proposal.

On September 13, the United States shut down the Palestinian mission in Washington.Zachary Miller, 34, walked into the Gwinnett County eatery around 10.15am on Monday

A man seen on camera robbing a Georgia Subway, who was wanted in two states, has been captured in Tennessee.

Zachary Miller, 34, walked into the Gwinnett County eatery around 10.15am on Monday, according to the Gwinnett County Police Department.

Security camera footage shows Miller ordering a sandwich. He appears to be casing the store as he waits for his order, hopping over the counter once the cashier began ringing him up.

'He told me, 'My kids are hungry. They need food, so I need money. Give me money,'' the Subway employee explained to WSB-TV.

Miller was said to have stolen $100 in cash from the store before fleeing, according to police.

But later in the video, the suspect can be seen rushing back inside so that he can snatch his sandwich.

'He told me, 'My kids are hungry. They need food, so I need money. Give me money,'' the Subway employee explained

Miller had active arrest warrants in Tennessee and throughout Georgia.

He is said to have robbed several restaurants between the two states.

Miller is currently being held in the Knox County Sheriff's Office in Tennessee without bond. He was arrested on October 12.WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN

U2 mixed the blues and the gospel - rock and roll and B. B. King - to create a genre-bending sound that honored tradition while creating something new. My sense is that the holy continues to break through our popular culture in startling but creative ways if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. John O'Donohue writes: "Beauty does not linger, it only visits. Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it call us to feel, think and act beautiful." More than ever before I sense that this era cries out for a spirituality of tenderness in small, real ways that touch our ordinary lives. Artist Anita Rolls gets it right with "Jesus on the Tube."Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin caved to pressure on Thursday and said he would join a slew of CEOs in dropping out of a Saudi investment conference.

'Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,' Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin had been under intense pressure to drop out of the conference that the White House had cast as intrinsic to their effort to dry up funds for terrorists.

He had maintained until now that he would participate, in spite of Turkish assurances that Saudi-born journalist Jamal Khashoggi was not missing but had been kidnapped and murdered by a Saudi Arabian hit squad.

The Dow fell sharply after Mnuchin revealed he was bowing out of the event. It dropped 327 points, or 1.3 per cent, throughout the whole day, but the slide accelerated as the news surfaced.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin caved to pressure on Thursday and said he would join a slew of CEOs in dropping out of a Saudi investment conference

Mnuchin had been under intense pressure to drop out of the conference that the White House had cast as intrinsic to their effort to dry up funds for terrorists

The Dow fell sharply after Mnuchin revealed he was bowing out of the event. It dropped 327 points, or 1.3 per cent, throughout the whole day, but the slide accelerated as the news surfaced

After a meeting with Trump and the secretary of state, who was fresh off a trip to both nations, Mnuchin suddenly changed course.

The announcement came minutes after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced at the White House that Saudi Arabia deserves a 'few more days' to get to the bottom of the disappearance of Khashoggi amid a growing uproar about the alleged murder of the Saudi dissident.

'We made clear to them that we take this matter very seriously, and they made clear to me that they too understand the serious nature of the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi,' he said. 'They also made clear that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion.'

Pompeo spoke after he briefed President Trump on his meetings with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, where he warned the Saudi royal family they have 72 hours to finish the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance.

Reports described a tough meeting between Pompeo and the crown prince, after smiling photos of the two men fed a narrative that the U.S. was willing to assist the Saudis in finding a cover for the killing.

Trump insisted on Wednesday that that wasn't the case.

'Im not giving cover at all,' he argued. 'With that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Saudis 'assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi' following his disappearance

Trump said he wanted to speak to Pompeo before deciding on a course to take. He said he had not personally gotten his hands on a reported audio tape of the journalist's killing.

'We have asked for it, if it exists. We have asked for it,' Trump said.

The president had suggested earlier in the week that the suspected death was a 'rogue' killing that was not ordered by the Saudi kingdom after a conversation with the nation's king.

Pompeo revealed little additional information about the state of internal investigation that's being conducted by Saudi Arabia. Turkey is also doggedly pursuing leads into the disappearance of the journalist who was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

'I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision about how the United States should respond to the issues surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,' Pompeo said.

Pompeo said the crown prince made a 'personal commitment' to him about the nature of the investigation  which takes place amid intelligence leaks from Turkey that are already providing gruesome details of Khashoggi's alleged murder and torture inside the consulate in Istanbul.

'We're all going to get to see the work product, we're all going to get to see the response that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes with this,' Pompeo said.

'When we see that we'll get a chance to determine, all of us will get to make a determination with respect to the credibility and the work that went into that. Whether it's truly accurate, fair, transparent in the very way they made a personal commitment to me, and the crown prince also made a personal commitment to the president when he spoke to him, I believe it was the night before last,' he asserted.

Pompeo's public comments follow statements by anonymous sources familiar with his meeting with the crown prince that it was a tough encounter that belies the smiling public images of their talks.

A source told CNN that Pompeo warned Mohammed bin Salman the Saudis must 'own' the situation because 'every fact is going to get out.'

Pompeo spoke to the press at the White House following reports he had delivered a stern warning to the Saudis in private

He also communicated 'bluntly that if they don't, the US will have to deal with this,' according to the source, and 'will take action because the world will demand it and that President Trump's hand will be forced by the global pressure.'

The top U.S. diplomat arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the progress of the investigation into the Washington Post columnist's disappearance.

Turkish media published grisly new allegations that Khashoggi was killed by being gradually dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad just hours before Pompeo's plane touched down for talks with King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman.

As Pompeo prepared for his meeting with Trump after his conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he told reporters that he wanted to see the results of the investigation before arriving at any conclusions.

'I keep hearing that we're giving them some benefit of the doubt. They're going to do an investigation,' he said on Wednesday.

'I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision about how the United States should respond to the issues surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,' Pompeo said

All smiles: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan and Pompeo shake hands in front of a picture of Ataturk in Ankara on Wednesday

Pompeo speaks to reporters at a refueling stop in Brussels and says the US will wait for the outcome of the investigation and it was not 'about giving benefit of the doubt'

Pompeo was slammed for the warm, smiling images of his photo opportunity as he greeted the crown prince in Riyadh, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia and the accused orchestrate of the interrogation and killing of the dissident journalist.

The New York Times reported that a suspect identified by Turkey as a bodyguard of the prince's, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was seen entering the Istanbul consulate hours before Khashoggi arrived to collect divorce paperwork on October 2.

Three other suspects have been linked to the crown prince's security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, the Times said.

But the United States has refused to rebuke its ally, with President Trump insisting on the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

Pompeo, a former CIA chief under Trump, has refused to dole out any information on the suspected murder,telling his traveling press in Riyadh, 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts.'

Pompeo told the media as he left Saudi Arabia: 'My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials.

'They made a commitment that they would show the entire world the results of their investigation. They also indicated they would get this done quickly.'

Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2

A still image from surveillance camera footage taken the day Khashoggi entered the consulate of a man previously seen with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed entourage during a visit in April

President Trump also refused to accuse Saudi Arabia and even drew a parallel with the case of new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had faced a swirl of sexual assault allegations in the lead up to his confirmation hearing.

'Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent,' Trump told the Associated Press.

American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Mohammed bin Salman is culpable in the killing of Khashoggi, a source told the New York Times.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaib, who was reportedly heard on an audio recording telling the assassins, 'do this outside, you're going to get me in trouble', as they cut off journalist's fingers one-by-one inside embassy.

It was reported Wednesday night he had been fired and subjected to an investigation following his return to Riyadh after he fled Turkey, but independent sources have not corroborated that information.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee

A Turkish police officer walks outside the Saudi Arabia consul general's residence in Istanbul today as officers searched the premises after he left for Riyadh

Turkish government sources have said police believe the journalist was killed by a special team of 15 Saudi officials sent to Istanbul especially to carry out the 'hit' and were lying in wait for Khashoggi.

The controversy has blown a hole in attempts by Crown Prince Mohammed to promote himself as a modern reformer and led to a spate of cancellations of Mnuchin and top CEOs from a major Riyadh investment conference, dubbed 'Davos in the desert', which was due to start next week.

Trump would only say Thursday in a matter-of-fact statement that he had spoken with his secretary of state.

'Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned last night from Saudi Arabia and Turkey. I met with him this morning wherein the Saudi situation was discussed in great detail, including his meeting with the Crown Prince. He is waiting for the results of the investigations being done by the Saudis and Turkey, and just gave a news conference to that effect,' the president tweeted.A fire that ignited in an underground natural gas storage area in the San Francisco Bay Area has prompted the evacuation of thousands of residents.

Chevron emergency crews worked tirelessly on Thursday to purge gas from a pipeline in Bay Point, California and prevent an explosion, after a brush fire appeared to spread to the vault overnight.

An evacuation order affecting 4,000 was issued late Wednesday for about 1,400 homes near the pipeline after the fire broke out, with the order still in effect at midday on Thursday.

Workers spent the night purging natural gas from the pipeline and were injecting nitrogen 'which will extinguish the fire' burning in the underground vault, Chevron spokesman Cary Wages told reporters.

Homeowners Wendy and Tony Raymond, who holds his dog Yoko, wait to be allowed back in to their home after they were evacuated due to a threat of explosion of a Chevron gas line

Infrared drone footage shows the fire inside the vault of a major Chevron pipeline junction

The location of the pipeline junction is circled in red. A fire broke out in the underground vault, after fire crews extinguished a nearby brush fire on Wednesday night

The underground fire began inside a Chevron natural gas pipeline vault, where workers access pipeline valves, about an hour after a fire crew had been called to the area and extinguished a nearby grass fire, said Terence Carey, an assistant fire chief for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

It was not clear if the grass fire caused the fire inside the pipeline vault.

Chevron officials did not respond to repeated questions sent by email asking for details on gas disruptions to the area and how many people would be affected.

Carey said officials realized very quickly Wednesday night 'that there was a high probability of danger' and issued an evacuation order for homes within a half-mile of the pipeline.

Officials went door-to-door to tell people to leave their homes in the suburban area about 40 miles east of San Francisco.

A woman lifts the yellow tape across one of the streets that has been closed because of evacuations, as residents drive out to a safe distance while the fire is extinguished

A police officer stands in front of one of the streets that has been closed because of evacuations ordered for over 4000 people put in place due to a threat of explosion

Willow Cove Elementary School is closed because of evacuations ordered for over 4000 people due to a threat of explosion of a Chevron gas line due to a fire

Some evacuations began as early as 10:30pm on Wednesday and continued through the night as fears of an explosion grew.

Many people slept in their parked cars at a light rail station where the Red Cross set up a station distributing food, coffee and blankets, while others parked and slept in outdoor parking lots, KTVU reported.

Evacuation centers were opened later on Thursday morning.

Officials said they would not lift the evacuation order until the underground fire was extinguished and it was safe for fire officials to examine the area.

In 2010, a Pacific Gas & Electric Co, natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes.

The utility was subsequently convicted by a federal court for violating pipeline safety regulations and fined $1.6 billion.Helen Washington, 75, shot her grandson in the leg after he repeatedly ignored her request to move his tea cup from her furniture

A grandmother has been arrested for shooting her grandson in the leg over a cup of tea.

Helen Washington, 75, faces second-degree assault charges after she shot her grandson for ignoring her repeated demands to keep his tea cup off her furniture.

Police arrived to Washington's Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, home last Friday to find her unnamed grandson in the front yard with a gunshot wound to his thigh, claiming his grandmother was the shooter.

Officers found a .38 Special revolver with five rounds of ammunition, one of which had been fired, and Washington was arrested at the scene.

Officers spoke with a minor at the scene who said he saw Washington get upset when her grandson refused to keep his cup off the furniture.

The minor said she then poured the tea out and left the room to apparently fetch the gun.

When she returned, her grandson had poured a new cup of tea, placing in on the furniture once more.

That's when Washington pulled the gun out and shot her grandson in the leg, according to prosecutors.

While she was being arrested, the police complaint says Washington told officers that she didn't think she should go to jail and asked them where the bullet had hit her grandson.

This week, a judge ordered Washington to be evaluated to see whether she is competent to stand trial.

She now faces felony charges of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon.

Washington is next scheduled to appear in court on December 18.

When police arrived to her Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, home (pictured) they found her unnamed grandson outside with a gunshot wound to this right thigh



Commuters and school children along the London to Brighton line were left stranded after a person walked in front of an express train.

Emergency services were called to Hassocks railway station after a Gatwick Express train heading to the coast hit a person on the track.

The person was hit by the southbound express train just outside the station.

Police attended the incident at Hassocks Railway station earlier this afternoon

Train staff and members of the public were advised to stay away from the track.

Another Gatwick Express heading north was stopped in the same station just before 4pm as school children gathered on the platforms on their way home.

Train services in both directions are expected to be cancelled or delayed until at least 8pm tonight.

Station managers along the London to Brighton line organised bus services so stranded passengers could complete their journeys.

Commuter Jane Sherwood, 45, from Hassocks said: 'There's a lot of suicides on this line.

'It's a real shame for their families. I can't think what the drivers must go through.'

The incident has caused chaos at railway stations as the Victoria to London line south of Gatwick will now be closed for the next four hours

The person was been hit by a train between Haywards Heath and Brighton. All trains in the area are at a stand, and the power to the lines switched off whilst Network Rail response staff and the British Transport Police attend to this tragic incident.

Where possible, Southern and Thameslink services will be diverted to run between Three Bridges /Haywards Heath and Brighton via Lewes or Horsham.

This is while some services will terminate at either Three Bridges or Haywards Heath and begin their next journeys back towards London from there.

The person was hit by a train between Haywards Heath and Brighton. All trains in the area are currently at a stand still

Other services will be cancelled. Tickets will be accepted on the following alternative services: Metrobus between Gatwick, Three Bridges, Crawley and Brighton, Brighton and Hove Buses between Preston Park, Brighton, Hove and Shoreham-by-Sea.

This is while Mutual ticket acceptance is in place between Southern and Thameslink and the London Underground via any reasonable route.

Trains are also unable to call at Burgess Hill, Hassocks and Preston Park.

Services are currently serving Wivelsfield to and from Lewes . Southern had advised that customers from Burgess Hill may wish to use Wivelsfield as an alternative, which is approximately a 20 minute walk from Burgess Hill station.

Replacement buses are in operation between Haywards Heath and Brighton serving all stations; however, these will not run to a timetable and will be under the control of local station staff.A staffer who was in charge of a campaign ad that revealed the identities of women who were victims of sexual assault without their permission - and named some women who were not victims at all - has left Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's team.

The senator said they are still investigating how several of the women were named in the ad when they either hadn't authorized the use of their names or are not survivors of abuse.

'We continue to be reviewing how this happened. We haven't gotten to the bottom yet of how this list was released. And the person who was responsible - who was part of that gathering - is not with the campaign anymore,' Heitkamp told KFYR-TV.

A campaign staffer who worked on the ad that identified women who were victims of sexual assault has left Sen. Heidi Heitkamp's team

North Dakota voter Lexi Zhorela, who was named in the ad, said Heitkamp lost her vote

The campaign did not say if the person - who was not identified - resigned or was fired, according to the Associated Press.

And one of the women named in the ad said Heitkamp, who is the most endangered Democrat running for re-election, lost her vote.

'I do plan on voting, but I'm definitely going to have to do my research and figure out the right choice for this situation,' Lexi Zhorela said on CNN's 'New Day' Thursday.

'As of right now, she definitely lost my vote,' Zhorela noted.

Heitkamp has apologized multiple times to the women and reached out to some of them personally.

But Zhorela said she has yet to hear from the senator.

'I was told that she was going to reach out to every one of the women that was put in this without our consent but she has yet to reach out to me,' she said. 'The damage has kind of already been done.'

The Heitkamp campaign, looking to attack her Republican opponent Kevin Cramer, ran an open letter last week in several North Dakota newspapers addressed to Cramer to show him 'what prairie tough looks like.'

But several of the women named in the ad took to social media to note they had not given permission for their names to be used nor were some of them victims.

The ad slammed Cramer for comments he made on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court where he said 'tough people' do not identify with the national conversation around sexual assault.

Heitkamp is the most vulnerable Democratic senator running for re-election. President Donald Trump won North Dakota in 2016. Her and Cramer's matchup is seen as crucial in the battle for control of the upper chamber.

The ad was targeted at Heitkamp's GOP opponent Kevin Cramer

After it was published several women took to social media to say they had not given permission for their names to be used and some said they weren't victims of assault

The two have their first debate Thursday evening in Bismarck.

The ad is expected to come up.

Cramer said he considered the mistakes in Heitkamp's ad 'a revictimization of victims.'

He supported Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while Heitkamp voted against his nomination.

Heitkamp is on a media blitz to apologize for the ad.

The letter featured in the ad had 127 names at the bottom. It's unclear how many were misidentified or named without permission.

'We recently discovered that several of the women's names who were provided to us did not authorize their names to be shared or were not survivors of abuse, Heitkamp said in a statement. 'I deeply regret this mistake and we are in the process of issuing a retraction, personally apologizing to each of the people impacted by this and taking the necessary steps to ensure this never happens again.'China's state broadcaster has released footage purportedly showing Muslim trainees inside a vocational training facility in the far west region of Xinjiang in response to reports that up to one million Uighurs are being held in internment camps.

On Tuesday night, China Central Television aired a 20-minute current affairs programme that introduced the 'professional vocational training institutions' in the southern oasis city of Hotan.

Clothed in bright school-like uniforms, dozens of students were shown at their desks learning Chinese and law. In another shot, students were shown at various workshops and factories in front of sewing machines, working with wood, weaving carpets or baking bread.

Dozens of students are shown at their desks learning Chinese and law in the programme aired by CCTV that introduced the 'professional vocational training institutions' in Hotan

The Hotan Vocational Education and Training Center sits behind barbed wire in Xinjiang

Muslim trainees work in a factory at the Hotan vocational education and training centre

'If I hadn't been learning here I can't bear to imagine the consequences. I may have continued to follow those religious extremists onto a path of crime,' one young female student told the programme.

In a rare interview with China's official Xinhua news service published Tuesday, the chairman of Xinjiang's government, Shohrat Zakir, issued an ardent defence of the use of the centres, saying that the region was now 'safe and stable'.

He insisted that the authorities are preventing terrorism through such centres but did not say how many people were being held.

Satellite images have also recently emerged purporting to show the internment camps where the ethnic Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic minorities are believed to be held.

Young Muslims read from official Chinese language textbooks in classrooms at the centre

Satellite images purported to show the internment camps where Muslim minorities are held

Muslims receive graduation certificates from instructors at the vocational training centre

These buildings, equipped with guard towers and other security measures, are reportedly located in the regions of Kashgar, Korla and Makit.

Former inmates have said they found themselves incarcerated for transgressions such as wearing long beards and face veils or sharing Islamic holiday greetings on social media, a process that echoes the decades of brutal thought reform under Mao Zedong.

Other former detainees have said they were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, as well as denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the ruling Communist Party.

Beijing has sought to counter a global outcry against the facilities with a series of op-eds and interviews and a roll out of new regulations that retroactively codify the use of a system of extra-judicial 're-education' camps in Xinjiang.

Muslim trainees are seen confess their ways to local officials in the training centre

A top government official on Tuesday issued an ardent defence of the use of the centres

Shohrat Zakir insisted that the authorities are preventing terrorism through such centres

The programme has come under increasing fire from the international community, receiving particular censure from the United States and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Chinese authorities initially denied the existence of the facilities. But they have changed their tune as satellite imagery and documents issued by their own government have made that position untenable.

In recent weeks the story has shifted from outright dismissal to acknowledgement that the camps exist, with the caveat that they are being used primarily for 'vocational education' in a bid to halt separatist sentiments and religious extremism.

In the interview, Zakir did not mention detention, but he said the institutions provided free programs such as 'collective courses, boarding schools and hands-on training'.

Entrance to a jail which locals say is used to hold those undergoing political indoctrination program in Korla, Xinjiang. Local laws have now been revised to allow such establishments

China has admitted to the alleged use of internment camps for Muslim minorities in Xinjiang

'Xinjiang has established a training model with professional vocational training institutions as the platform, learning the country's common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, along with de-extremisation education,' Zakir said.

'Through vocational training, most trainees have been able to reflect on their mistakes and see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and religious extremism,' he said.

Zakir said the facilities were intended to improve job skills and Mandarin abilities among minorities with 'a limited command of the country's common language and a limited sense and knowledge of the law'.

Those who struggled to find work as a result, he added, were 'vulnerable to the instigation and coercion of terrorism and extremism.'

He said that the 'free' programmes were limited in duration, 'trainees' signed a contract with the centres that laid out a clear plan of study and included a stipend.Tracey Britten (pictured) is due to give birth to three girls, including identical twins, and a boy with her roofer husband, Stephen, after the pair opted to pay for IVF

A grandmother-of-eight, 50, who is set to become the UK's oldest mother of quads is now 30 weeks pregnant and booked in for the birth.

Tracey Britten is due to give birth to three girls, including identical twins, and a boy with her roofer husband, Stephen, after the pair opted to pay for IVF.

Mrs Britten will reach 30 weeks tomorrow, despite doctors previously saying there was 'no way' she would make that milestone.

The babies are due 'anytime now', according to doctors, although she is due to have a c-section in early November

'I had my scan last week and they have booked me in for a c-section in around two or three weeks time,' she told The Sun.

'The consultant said he doesn't think I'll get to that stage, but then they all said I wouldn't get to 28 weeks. I'm on weekly scans now.'

Mrs Britten spent 7,000 of her mother's inheritance on the miracle fertility treatment in Cyprus to ensure that she conceived despite her age.

Due to the risks of the birth, the babies will need to be split up immediately after birth. Mrs Britten will also have to be given steroids to boost the youngsters' lungs.

Mrs Britten already has three children aged 22, 31 and 32 with her first husband, who she divorced in 2003.

Mrs Britten is pictured at her home in London last month, (left) while on the right is a scan of one of her four babies

Another scan that shows all four of Mrs Britten's babies growing in her womb. She already has three children aged 22, 31 and 32

Within a year of meeting Stephen in 2005 she fell pregnant although the pair decided to terminate the pregnancy as the time was not right for them.

Mrs Britten previously spoke about the difficult decision to abort the baby.

'It was incredibly traumatic,' she told The Sun. 'It's a big part of what led me to wanting another child.'

IVF treatment is notoriously expensive, but the soon-to-be mother-of-seven used the money left to her by her late mother, Pauline Smith, to have the treatment.

The process began in April, when she received hormone injections at home before flying to Cyprus.

Although Mrs Britten told friends that she was going on holiday, she actually went to the private Kolan British IVF Center where her eggs were extracted, fertilised by Mr Britten's sperm and then implanted back into the 50-year-old's womb. A total of four embryos were implanted.

Mrs Britten, whose grandchildren range from seven months to 11-years-old, will bring up the four children in her three-bedroom home alone and her husband, who does not live with her, will visit.Easyjet have apologised after a severely disabled woman claims she was not allowed to stay with her carer while getting off the plane.

Bridget Willard, 48, claims she was left feeling 'humiliated' and 'in tears' after a flight attendant wouldn't allow husband, Michael to assist her off the plane, despite not having her walking frame.

Mrs Willard also claims the flight assistant 'rolled her eyes' when she pleaded that her husband stays by her side.

Bridget, Michael, and mother-in-law had been travelling to London, Gatwick, on an EasyJet flight from Dalaman, Turkey, which departed on September 27.

Bridget Willard, 48, with husband Michael who she said was not allowed to help her off the flight

Easyjet later apologies to Mrs Willard after the incident on the flight from Dalaman, Turkey to London Gatwick [file photo]

Suffering from numerous conditions, including PTSD, agoraphobia, and fibromyalgia, a condition which causes pain all over the body, Mrs Willard said the incident caused her 'tremendous stress' after already having to endure a four hour flight.

When they arrived at London Gatwick, all able-bodied passengers were first disembarked.

Mrs Willard was then led to the front of the plane as part of EasyJet's special assistance service, where disabled passengers are given assistance leaving the plane.

There Mrs Willard claims she was questioned by a female flight attendant who said there was not enough room on the ambulift shuttle to disembark her husband as well and that he would have to go ahead to the baggage carousel.

After Mrs Willard explained that she needed to be with her carer, she claims the flight attendant rolled her eyes and asked to know the reasons why.

Mrs Willard suffers from PTSD, agoraphobia, and fibromyalgia, a condition which causes pain all over the body

Mrs Willard refused, uncomfortable with explaining her numerous disabilities and conditions, some of which are extremely personal, to the stewardess and in front of other passengers.

She claims that after insistence from her husband that she not be left alone, she was allowed to disembark in the ambulift with her elderly mother-in-law but that this was insufficient for her 'complex needs'.

By the time she found her carer Mr Willard at the baggage claim, Mrs Willard said she was an 'emotional wreck'.

She said the stress of the incident caused her to lose her personal belongings, as her carer would usually help with memory and organisation.

Mrs Willard was told there was not enough room on the ambulift shuttle to disembark her husband as well

Mrs Willard initially filed a customer complaint seeking compensation, on October 1.

She received a response from EasyJet on October 4 by email, which said: 'I am really sorry to hear the experience you have on our flight.

'I can only imagine how stressful it must have been for you.' The email then goes on to detail how Mrs Willard could continue to make her claim at which point EasyJet would notify Mrs Willard of her eligibility of compensation.

Speaking today about the ordeal, Mrs Willard said: 'I felt agitated, anxious, humiliated and angry that the flight attendant wanted to know why I needed my carer/husband.

'I don't think she had any right to question me and my needs, especially in the manner that she did it.

'I know I look able-bodied and I know I look too young for a frame or a carer but not all disabilities are visible.

'I face this type of discrimination all the time and sometimes I despair that these things still happen in 2018.'

A spokesman for EasyJet commented: 'We are sorry that Mrs Willard was dissatisfied with her experience disembarking the aircraft after her flight.

'We are aware that she was travelling with two companions and unfortunately there was only room in the ambulift for her and one companion.

'We are in contact with Mrs Willard about her experience and are investigating with the special assistance provider for Gatwick Airport, Wilson James, and the cabin crew to see if any lessons can be learned.'A former attorney serving 12 years in prison for kidnapping charges related to hypnotizing and sexually assaulting his female clients has been ordered to pay more than $2.3 million to one of his victims.

Michael William Fine, 61, of Avon, Ohio must now pay one of his victims the seven-figure sum, after she won a lawsuit alleging that he hypnotized her and made unwanted sexual advances toward her, Cleveland.com reported on Wednesday.

The order was entered by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Lee Sinclair on October 5.

Fine, who surrendered his law license in August of 2015 and has since been barred from ever practicing in the US again, represented himself in the matter.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Former Ohio attorney Michael Fine, 61 (pictured), who is serving 12 years in prison for kidnapping charges related to sexual assault of female clients has been ordered to pay more than $2.3 million to one of his victims

Judge Sinclair ordered Fine to pay the bulk of the judgment in punitive damages, to the tune of $2 million. He'll also have to fork over $100,000 in legal fees and $250,000 in compensatory damages, court records show.

'It's a bizarre, unthinkable scenario that required justice and justice has been served,' attorney David Corrado, who represented the former client who brought the civil lawsuit, said.

Six women came forward alleging that Fine hypnotized them and forced them to perform sexual acts between 2004 and 2013, according to an indictment from August 29, 2015

Six women came forward alleging that Fine hypnotized them and forced them to perform sexual acts between 2004 and 2013, according to an indictment from August 29, 2015.

Police began investigating the divorce attorney back in 2014 after two women came forward saying they believed they had been hypnotized after losing track of time and being unable to recall meetings and phone calls with Fine.

One of the six women also recalled being 'wet in her vaginal area' and that 'her bra was disheveled' after she left his office or had conversations with him.

Fine's criminal activities were exposed once and for all after a female client who had hired him for a custody recorded two telephone conversations in which Fine used explicit sexual language in calls on legal matters.

Authorities then helped the woman conceal audio and video recording equipment before a meeting at Fine's office on November 7, 2013, in which he hypnotized her and spoke sexually,w which was caught on camera.

One of the six women also recalled being 'wet in her vaginal area' and that 'her bra was disheveled' after she left his office or had conversations with him

The video, obtained by Fox 8, shows Fine going through some relaxation techniques with the woman before she was put in a hypnotic trance.

'Let's take a deep breath ... one more time. Ok, I gotta calm down, let's do this together,' Fine says in the video.

'Each time I say the word sleep, you're gonna go deeper and deeper, ten times deeper. One, two, three, sleep ... one, two, three sleep,' Fine said.

The session then moved to the couch where it became sexual in nature.

Grasping the hand of the client - whose eyes are closed, and with his other hand resting on her shoulder, Fine told her: 'Every time I say the word pleasure, you cannot constrain or hold yourself back, your entire body is a vessel of pleasure,' he said.

'When is the last time you made love?' he asked.

'Every time I touch you, it's gonna be an incredible sensation,' he said.

'At the count of three, you won't be able to control yourself,' Fine also said.

After a few minutes, Fine wakes the woman out of her trance and resumes talking about her case when police burst in.

Fine's criminal activities were exposed once and for all after a female client who had hired him for a custody recorded two telephone conversations in which Fine used explicit sexual language in calls on legal matters

Authorities then helped the woman conceal audio and video recording equipment before a meeting at Fine's office on November 7, 2013, in which he hypnotized her and spoke sexually

'I think my client is very brave in the fact that she was able to bring this matter to the attention of the police,' Corrado said.

The publicity generated by the initial criminal investigation led other women to contact authorities.

Another woman, who hired Fine to represent her in a divorce, suspected she had been hypnotized after Fine started discussing relaxation and meditation techniques during their first meeting.

She told police the same thing happened in their next three meetings and she felt as though she had lost time.

Other women also sought to bring their own lawsuits against Fine, Corrado said.

However, only Corrado's client in this particular case was able to get to trial in a civil court, with three other women left without any recourse.

'Other victims filed civil actions but they've all been dismissed or they all felt that they couldn't survive a summary judgment motion,' Corrado said.

He went on: 'Michael Fine is a lawyer, and even though he is now disbarred or no longer licensed to practice law, he fought this tooth and nail.

'He's in prison and I guess he has some time on his hands,' Corrado said, noting that Fine filed all kinds of motions to slow down and impede the case.

There is at least one more woman who has reached out to Corrado for possible representation related to Fine's criminal acts.

'There's a lot to be said for the women who stood up to this man and came forward with regard to this,' Corrado said.

One of his victims read an impact statement to the court at his sentencing in November of 2016, describing how Fine manipulated her three weeks after her divorce was finalized

One of his victims read an impact statement to the court at his sentencing in November of 2016, describing how Fine manipulated her three weeks after her divorce was finalized.

'I have come to realize it was not my vulnerability that caused this to happen,' she said in court, according to The Chronicle.

'I went to Michael Fine with help in getting out of a terrible and abusive situation. I paid him to help me. He used my trust and his position as my attorney to gain information about my vulnerabilities.

'He then used that information not only to protect and defend me, but also to manipulate, hurt and take advantage of me.'

Statements from his other victims were read out in court, including a woman who now suffers from panic attacks and struggles with relationships.

'He gets a 12-year sentence. I get a life sentence. Is 12 years long enough? Is this enough time for the pain, hurt and suffering that I now have to live with?' it read.

'This will be a part of who I am to become. This is now part of my being  not by choice, but by circumstance. Twelve years compared to a lifetime  just doesnt seem fair, does it?'

The judge in the criminal case ordered Fine to be classified as a registered sex offender.

The judge noted that in this civil case, a statutory cap of $250,000 prevented a compensatory damages award of $1 million.

'This is a great example of how the required statutory caps stand in the way of doing justice,' Sinclair wrote in the judgment entry. The judge emphasized the 'permanent and life-changing emotional damages proximately caused by Michael Fine.'



Fine was sentenced to one dozen years behind bars in November of 2016 after pleading guilty to five counts of kidnapping and one count of attempted kidnapping.

Fine was married at the time of carrying out these assaults. It's not known whether he remains married at this time.A grieving 22-year-old man kept telling his family he 'wanted to be with' his brother in the weeks before he tragically took his own life, an inquest heard.

Barber Darryl Smith, 27, was found hanged in his home on June 13 in Blyth, Northumberland, a coroner ruled.

Just one month later, Darryl's younger brother Dylan took his life the same way.

Dylan described his brother as his 'best friend, brother and dad all in one' in a glowing post on social media and said he 'couldn't put into words how devastating' the loss of Darryl was.

Dylan Smith (right) with brother Darryl (left) both took their own lives within a few months of one another

An inquest heard that Dylan 'kept tell family members he wanted to be with Darryl' in the weeks before he was found hanged in his own home in the same town.

During the hearing into his death, coroner Eric Armstrong said Dylan's family described him as suffering from mental health problems for 'most of his life'.

Mr Armstrong said: 'He had been very close to Darryl and his death raised his mental health issues to the surface.'

The inquest heard that Dylan, who was one of six brothers, was described as 'too happy' following the death of his brother, with his family believing it was a facade to 'cover his grief'.

Dylan began to drink heavily following the loss of Darryl. He visited his mother's house on July 14 and was seen with a bottle of vodka. He told his mother he was going to visit a friend, just hours before he took his own life.

At 6pm, Dylan sent a message to his partner Steph Wylam which worried her. She tried to call him and asked a friend to go to his home but when she could not get an answer.

He answered the door but slammed it in his friend's face and refused to talk.

Dylan's partner Steph Wylam, 18, (pictured together) said today he was 'perfect in every way'

Police and paramedics then attended and smashed into the home to gain entry after no response - but despite their best efforts to revive him, Dylan passed away and was pronounced dead at 1am.

The cause of death was hanging but elevated levels of alcohol and cocaine in his system could have caused 'violence or confusion', the post mortem ruled.

Mr Armstrong recorded a narrative verdict that, 'Dylan Smith, having taken excess alcohol and cocaine, took his own life by hanging'.

He added: 'I don't believe the short form conclusion of suicide is relevant because I'm not satisfied he took a clear, rational decision to take his own life because of the presence of alcohol and cocaine.'

It was revealed by MailOnline that Darryl and Dylan Smith were childhood friends with former Love Island star Sophie Graddon - who was found dead on June 22 this year.

Darryl and Dylan's father Billy revealed the link between his sons' deaths and Sophie Gradon and her partner Aaron Armstrong to MailOnline to highlight what he calls an 'epidemic' of young people secretly battling mental health problems and said: 'Things need to change'.

Darryl with his surviving brother Liam at school together. The brothers were close friends with Sophie Gradon and her boyfriend Aaron

They all grew up together in Blyth and were close friends - and police have said that none of their deaths are being treated as suspicious. Their deaths are not thought to be linked.

Speaking at his home in the town, Darryl and Dylan's father Billy Smith said: 'They were all friends, they had grown up together.

'They'd known each other all of their lives. It's simply tragic they have all died within such a short space of time.

'These deaths highlight the fact there is a mental health epidemic among young people. There needs to be more help out there. The problem is it's not spoken about.

'It's a cultural thing, especially among young men, they do not open up. Things need to change. Schools should teach about mental health more, and young people should be encouraged to open up.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for detailsSNc Channels:



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Oct-17-2018 22:30 TweetFollow @OregonNews Oregon Taxes Fall Hardest on Poorest Families This is one sure way to keep the poor, poor.

A states tax fairness is only partially determined by the mix of these three broad tax types. Equally important is how states design the structure of each tax. By design, some personal income taxes are far more progressive than others.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Oregons poorest families pay more in taxes as a share of income than any group of taxpayers in the state, while the richest Oregonians pay the smallest share of any group. That is the conclusion of a new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Oregons tax system is upside-down, said Daniel Hauser, tax policy analyst with the Oregon Center for Public Policy, who examined the report. Our tax system should reduce Oregons record-high levels of income inequality, not widen the gap. Oregon is one of more than a dozen states that currently allow substantial tax breaks for the wealthy that undermine tax progress. Two of the most regressive state income tax loopholes are capital gains tax breaks (Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin) and deductions for federal income taxes paid (Alabama, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon). The ITEP report found that Oregon's overall tax structure is regressive, with the lowest-income taxpayers paying 10.1 percent of their income in combined state and local taxes  a higher share than the 8.1 percent paid by Oregons richest 1 percent. Oregon families in the middle 20 percent of taxpayers also pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the richest, at 9.1 percent. Even so, when considered in a national context, Oregons tax structure still looks better than that of most other states. According to the study, Oregon has the 10th least regressive tax system among all states and the District of Columbia. Oregons northern neighbor, Washington, has the nations most regressive tax structure. The ITEP study, Who Pays?, takes into account all major state and local taxes, including personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, estate taxes, and excise taxes such as gasoline and cigarette taxes. Oregons lowest-income residents are struggling to afford rent and put food on the table. Asking these Oregonians to pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the highest-income Oregonians is a disgrace, said Hauser. He called on the Oregon legislature to take steps to reverse this situation by working on both ends of the income ladder. Higher income tax rates on the most well-off needs to be on the table, said Hauser. This would not only help correct our unfair tax structure, but also raise revenue to invest in our schools and essential services. Hauser also urged lawmakers to ramp up Oregons Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a refundable tax credit that helps low-income working families. The Oregon EITC largely mirrors the federal tax credit that goes by the same name. Both in Oregon and nationally, the tax credit has enjoyed a long record of bipartisan support, said Hauser. A big boost to the Oregon EITC would help to correct Oregons flawed tax structure by lowering the taxes of those who earn the least, said Hauser. More importantly, it would help struggling families make ends meet. The Oregon Center for Public Policy is a non-partisan, non-profit institute that does in-depth research and analysis on budget, tax, and economic issues. The Centers goal is to improve decision making and generate more opportunities for all Oregonians. Source: Oregon Center for Public Policy _________________________________________

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Articles for October 16, 2018 | Articles for October 17, 2018 |Nyishia Corbitt, 33, was arrested and charged with murder on Wednesday for killing 22-month-old Alina Barnes who she was looking after for several weeks

A Pennsylvania woman has been arrested and charged with murder after the body of the two-year-old girl she was caring for was found suffocated to death and buried in a shallow grave in a public park.

Nyishia Corbitt, 33, was arrested and charged with murder on Wednesday for killing 22-month-old Alina Barnes who she was looking after for several weeks.

'It's a terrible tragedy. This shouldn't happen to a child,' Philadelphia Police Captain Jack Ryan said during a news conference.

Corbitt was caught on surveillance camera leaving the Barnes home with a stroller on Tuesday October 9.

Cops believe that Alina was dead inside that stroller at the time, according to The Inquirer.

But Corbitt didn't say anything to the child's mother until six days later on Monday October 15.

Corbitt was looking after Alina as her mother Brooke Barnes has been jailed in Montgomery County since October 2 on retail theft charges. She also has previous arrests for narcotics and theft.

Investigators say that Alina's father was working as a Lyft and Uber driver at the time the child went missing. Alina's father and Corbitt have two children, aged four and five, together, according to Fox29.

She suffocated the child then brought her body to Kemble Park in Philadelphia where she buried her in a shallow grave. On Tuesday she led cops to the grave site

Cops swarmed the park to find Alina's body after she was buried for nearly a week

Cops believe Alina was killed on October 9. Corbitt didn't say the child was missing until October 15, leading the mother to call the cops

She may have been his current girlfriend and watching Alina in addition to her own children.

Once Brooke Barnes heard the news, she called police.

'Her mother did the right thing and called police. She reported the child missing,' Police Captain Jack Ryan said.

Cops investigated and came to the Barnes home where Corbitt confessed to killing the child, police say.

Corbitt led investigators to Kemble Park on Ogontz and West Olney avenues where the body was hidden on Tuesday morning.

Corbitt was caring for Alina for several weeks. She and Alina's father share two young children

She was looking after the child when she suffocated her and buried her. Cops are still investigating the case NBCUniversal Privacy Policy

The child was found fully clothed and buried in a shallow grave with the top of her head exposed from the surface.

The medical examiner's office determined the toddler died from suffocation, but Ryan said he could not say whether there were any other signs of abuse. He said the state Department of Human Services was involved in the case, but said he could not provide details.

Corbitt was arrested and in addition to murder has been charged with making false reports, tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse among other charges.

According to court documents, she was denied bail.

Her children are now staying with other family members.

Although cops didn't detail Corbitt's questioning, they said she was 'very distraught'.A Democratic operative has been arrested for assaulting the female campaign manager of Nevada's Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Wilfred M. Stark III was taken into custody on Tuesday after allegedly grabbing Kristin Davison by the arm and refusing to let go after bursting into a room where candidate Adam Laxalt was in the East Las Vegas Community Center during a campaign event.

Stark, who worked for the George Soros-funded super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, allegedly twisted her arm behind her back and refused to let go, telling Laxalt: 'Adam, theres only one way you can make this stop.'

He was detained by people at the scene and then was booked into county jail.

Wilfred M. Stark III, 50, was taken into custody on Tuesday after allegedly grabbing Kristin Davison by the arm, twisting it behind her back and refusing to let her go

Davison described how he charged at her and other members of Laxalt's team. She said she and Laxalt were in a room when Stark 'burst' in and lunged towards her.

'Were used to trackers, but this guy was very physicalpushing me, pushing into members of my staff, screaming.

Davison is the campaign manager for Republican candidate Adam Laxalt

'This man was physically, almost body-checking me. I was getting nervous for my safety, so we left, and went into an open room,' she told Fox News.

They moved into a different room to get away from him but he followed them, she claimed, and burst open that door too once they had closed it.

'Two male staffers were trying to hold him back. He was so aggressive, he looked like he was going to towards the candidate to physically harm him,' she said.

Stark then allegedly grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back.

'He twisted my arm, and contorted it behind my back.

'I was scared. Every time I tried pulling away, he would grab tighter, and pull me closer into him,' she said.

He pulled her head towards his chest, she went on, and ignored her as she screamed: 'You're hurting me!'

Lark then told her boss: 'There's only one way you can make this stop,' she said, which 'really scared' her.

Eventually they got him off of her and called the police.

It is not the first time Lark has been arrested for similar antics.

In March, he was accused of pushing the spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke outside a congressional hearing.

Davison said she was left 'traumatized' by the incident and was left with bruises on her arms which she photographed

In March, Stark was arrested for pushing Heather Swift (left), the spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (pictured right)

He has also been convicted of disorderly conduct in the past after blocking the start of the Annandale Chamber of Commerce Parade in October.

Stark has been fired from the Democratic Super PAC where he worked as a 'reporter'

After Tuesday's incident, Laxalt's campaign slammed him for his behavior.

'Assaulting the female campaign manager of the opposing campaign is disgusting and it has no place in our system.

'This mob behavior from the left is out of control. Encouraging violence, as many prominent Democrats like former Attorney General Eric Holder have recently done, is having real, dangerous consequences,' Laxalt campaign spokesperson Parker Briden said.

He was fired from American Bridge 21st Century on Wednesday evening.A Somali student told how she and her family were refused service and told to leave a Dunkin' Donuts store in Maine for apparently 'yelling' in their native language.

The store owner met Hamdia Ahmed, 20, a Portland college student and activist, and apologized to her Muslim family after she criticized the company on social media on Wednesday.

Ahmed felt that the employee discriminated against her and two relatives for speaking Somali as they waited to order coffee at the drive-thru of St John Street Dunkin Donuts on Monday.

Hamdia Ahmed (pictured) claimed she and her family felt discriminated against after they were accused of 'yelling' and told to leave Dunkin' Donuts by staff members

Ahmed, who is also a model, said she and her relatives drove to the coffee shop around 12.30 pm and waited for a store employee to ask for their order.

As the family chatted in Somali in the car, a womans voice crackled through the speaker and admonished them for yelling, Ahmed said.

'All of a sudden we heard a woman say, stop yelling, stop yelling, and Were like whats happening.

Were just having a conversation. We were talking in Somali. She told us shes not going to take our order and for us to leave and she was going to call the police'.

Ahmed, a refugee from Somalia who arrived in the United States more than a dozen years ago, has emerged in recent years as an outspoken anti-racism social justice activist and organizer.

After the argument in the drive-thru lane, Ahmed said she parked her car and went inside the store to speak with someone.

Hamdia posted a picture of the staff member who told her to stop yelling and to leave the store

Hamdia (pictured) complained on social media and got a swift response. She is seen (left) crying at a protest against children being separated from families at the Mexican border

A store employee called Portland police, and after an officer spoke to Ahmed and store employees, the police issued Ahmed a no-trespass notice barring her from returning to the store for a year.

Ahmed claims that she was called a 'b***h' by another employee before the woman called the police.

The officer listed the cause of the no-trespass notice as 'disturbance  yelling at staff'.

Ahmed posted an image of the no-trespass notice to her Twitter and Facebook accounts, as well as posting a video showing parts of the encounter.

The store at St John Street where Ahmed and her family members were told to leave

The video recording does not depict the initial exchange at the drive-thru kiosk, only a portion of the argument that followed.

'Youre going to disrespect me because I speak a different language than you?', Ahmed said in the recording. Is that what it is?'.

'It has nothing to do with your language,' the employee said through the loud-speaker.

'You can leave. I dont want to hear it. Im done with it.

'You can leave, or Ill call the cops'.

Following the online post, Ahmed organized a protest Tuesday night outside the store and about 12 people showed up to demonstrate.

The owner of the St. John Street store, Dave DaRosa, met with Ahmed Wednesday and also apologized, Ahmed said.

They discussed how to avoid these types of encounters in the future and he rescinded the no-trespass order, according to Ahmed.

'He gave a sincere apology. He acknowledged that the police should have never been called'.

Ahmed became the first Miss Maine contestant to wear a hijab and burkini during the pageant

The apology incident that Hamdia Ahmed and her family received after the incident

Ahmed, a University of Southern Maine student who has been an outspoken anti-racist activist in Portland, said she felt compelled to speak up and publicize her encounter through social media.

In December last year, she became the first Miss Maine contestant to wear a hijab and burkini during the pageant.

'I cant just ignore stuff like this because that would mean Im allowing it to happen,' she said.

In a statement, Dunkin Donuts said: Dunkin and our franchisees are committed to creating a positive customer service experience for all of our guests.

'The franchisee who owns and operates the store has confirmed he has met with the guest, sincerely apologized to her for the poor experience and is working on providing additional customer service training to his store crew.'Kristian Lewis, 36, solicited children in the United States to send him naked photographs even though he was prevented from contacting youngsters as part of a previous sexual harm prevention order

A British sex offender who convinced an eight-year-old American girl to take naked photographs of her little sister as she slept has been put behind bars after a transatlantic police investigation.

Kristian Lewis, who was subject to a sexual harm prevention order used a secret mobile phone to contact young children over the internet by claiming to be a 15-year-old boy.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the 36-year-old sent 10,000 messages under the fake name and over a period of just eight days had contacted 24 young children, who he engaged in explicit, sexual chat while trying to convince them to take naked photographs to send to him.

A judge said there is 'likely to be many more' youngsters who were spoken to by Lewis, who was already banned from having any contact with children under the terms of a sexual harm prevention order.

Lewis, formerly of South Shields, was arrested when police in Minnesota, USA, received a report from a worried mother who showed detectives a chatlog, from messenger site Kik, between her eight-year-old daughter and a UK stranger.

Prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court: 'In the conversation, the defendant incited her to take indecent images of her four-year-old sister, who was asleep in the same bedroom at the time.

'In the chat, he also tried to get her to take pictures of herself and engage in sexual activity with her younger sister.'

The court heard US detectives were able to trace the IP address of the sender who set up the account that had sent the messages to the little girl.

The information was then sent to Northumbria Police, who found a phone, that Lewis had not declared to his risk management officer, hidden in a wardrobe.

Newcastle Crown Court heard Lewis asked a young girl in Minnesota, USA to take naked photographs of her four-year-old sister and send them to him over messaging app Kik

Two indecent pictures of the four-year-old, taken by her sister, were recovered from the device.

He had also kept a 'clean' phone, which he did declare to the authorities and would hand over for inspection, as required by the terms of a sexual harm prevention order imposed in 2015.

The order had been imposed as part of a suspended sentence, for having indecent images of children.

Lewis, of Tynedale Drive, Blyth, Northumberland, admitted two offences of breach of a sexual harm prevention order, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and making indecent photos of children.

Judge Edward Bindloss sentenced Lewis to five years and three months behind bars and said he must sign the sex offenders register and abide by a sexual harm prevention order for life.

The judge told him: 'The US authorities tracked what had happened, theyinvestigated it, traced it to your IP address and informed the British police, who came and found the phone and exposed what had been going on.'

Judge Bindloss said Lewis poses a 'high risk of serious harm to children'.

Kate Barnes, defending, said Lewis had initially complied with the orders made in 2015 but reverted to his previous, illegal, conduct after his relationship broke down and he moved out of the family home.

Miss Barnes said Lewis had been drinking to excess and added: 'He struggles to explain his conduct.'A rare Atlas moth with a 12-inch wingspan has been returned after being stolen from a butterfly farm.

Paige Firkins, 19, gloated online that she 'kinda took the biggest cocoon' during a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm, Warks, last week.

The teenager had boasted about taking a rare cocoon from a butterfly sanctuary, only for it to hatch into a moth in her bedroom.

In her original post, which has since been deleted, Firkins, 19, above said: 'So we kinda took the biggest cocoon from the butterfly farm and out come the BIGGEST butterfly I've ever seen [sic]. I GAVE BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY!'

The 19-year-old then boasted about how it had hatched into 'the biggest butterfly I've ever seen' and shared images of the creature trapped in what appears to be a decorative birdcage.

However, Paige was quickly slammed on social media as users pointed out that the 'butterfly' was in fact a rare and huge Atlas moth and compelled her to return it.

The 30cm giant Atlas Moth was stolen last week while still wrapped in a tight cocoon, with the thief proudly announcing her steal on social media, bizarrely claiming she 'gave birth' to the butterfly.

The Atlas moth is one of the biggest insects in the world, seen posing on an officer's vest after returning to the farm. The 12-inch giant Atlas Moth was stolen last week while in a cocoon

Paige Firkins posted pictures of the cocoon in her bedroom on social media after removing it from the sanctuary, left. In a post on Facebook, the butterfly farm, right, had branded her actions 'completely irresponsible, cruel and criminal' and had appealed for her to return the 'beautiful' female moth

Firkins said when approached for comment that she initially believed the cocoon was hollow. It is one of the largest insects in the world with their 12 inch wingspan. They have 7-10 days to find a mate and even lay up to 300 eggs at a time

The butterfly farm had branded her actions 'completely irresponsible, cruel and criminal' and had appealed for her to return the 'beautiful' female moth immediately before it started laying eggs.

The farm were happy to announce that the giant moth is back on display in its enclosure, in the discovery area of the Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly farm after it was recovered by police on Thursday.

The moths, that are sourced from Thailand and the Philllipines, are cared for by the farm as they that will often pass away within the first few days without specialist care.

The status received more than 2,000 comments, shares and reactions - the most common being an 'angry' face - before Firkins deleted it. In response to her status, Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm said: 'Dear Paige what you have done is completely irresponsible, cruel and criminal'

Paige Firkins, above, gloated online that she had taken the cocoon during a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm last week. The 30cm giant Atlas Moth was stolen last week while still wrapped in a tight cocoon, with the thief proudly announcing her steal on social media

The teenager had boasted about taking a rare cocoon from a butterfly sanctuary, only for it to hatch into a moth in her bedroom. The giant moth is back on display in its enclosure

In her original post, which has since been deleted, Firkins said: 'So we kinda took the biggest cocoon from the butterfly farm and out come the BIGGEST butterfly I've ever seen [sic]. I GAVE BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY!'

The status received more than 2,000 comments, shares and reactions - the most common being an 'angry' face - before Firkins deleted it.

In response to her status, Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm said: 'Dear Paige what you have done is completely irresponsible, cruel and criminal.

'You need to return the moth immediately to Stratford Butterfly Farm. It is a female and will start to lay eggs very soon.'

Dubbed one of the largest insects in the world, the large fliers have 7-10 days to find a mate and lay up to 300 eggs at a time.

Paige had told MailOnline: 'But the butterfly farm offer you dead butterflies, there are dead butterflies and moth all over the farm [sic]. Some are squashed soaked and even [trodden] into the floor.

'The cocoon was just with a load of others looked like it had fallen off a tree. We just thought that they were empty. It just looked hollow.

'The cocoons on a nearby tree look[ed] smaller so they didn't look the same.

The Atlas moth that has been returned to Stratford-upon-Avon Butterfly Farm, Warks, is pictured with a member of staff following its return. The moths are sourced from Thailand and the Philllipines

'Before we went in my partner asked if you was allowed dead butterflies. The man in the gift shop told us that they do give them out but went to see if they had any but someone else was on the counter when we came out.

'So you are allowed to take dead ones. I didn't think the cocoon would be much different especially [an] empty one. Just happens it wasn't empty.

'Only the cocoon was caged and when hatched it was taken out. The moth is being taken to a specialist as it's in perfect condition.

'A specialist is to decide what's best [and if I should take it back to the butterfly farm]. It's too far to go to take it back [to the farm] in [this] weather.'

A spokesperson for Warwickshire Police, said: 'We are pleased to confirm the moth was collected this morning and safely returned.'

The 19-year-old woman from Birmingham was given a community resolution.A British mother whose son died shortly after birth while she was on holiday in the Caribbean has said doctors asked for nearly 3,000 in medical bills and threatened to dispose of his body if she did not pay.

Chloe Sullivan was in the Dominican Republic with her partner Michael Parrott and her four-year-old daughter Esme when she went into premature labour on Saturday.

Ms Sullivan was taken to a private hospital and given an emergency C-section but doctors could not save her baby Arlo, who died on October 15 in the neonatal ward from circulatory and respiratory problems.

Chloe and Michael's newborn son Arlo died on October 15 in from circulatory and respiratory problems

The couple, who are from London, have thanked people for donating nearly 19,000 after their medical bills skyrocketed to 16,000

Chloe Sullivan (pictured right) started to feel abdominal pains while on holiday in the Caribbean and was taken to a private hospital where she underwent an emergency C-section. However doctors could not save her baby Arlo, who died on October 15

A crowdfunding campaign page set up by Michael's cousin Harry Cottam says that neither parent was allowed to see their son at all.

Cottam wrote: 'Upon arrival, Chloe and Michael paid a deposit to see the doctors and advised that any further treatment would need to be covered by their insurance, and that if it couldn't be then they would be unable to pay and continue.

'The hospital was aware that their insurance unfortunately could not cover however did not give Chloe and Michael the opportunity to leave and said they needed to operate immediately. They originally quoted just under $11,000.'

The couple, who are from London, claim doctors handed them the 2,780 medical bill and said they would not let them keep their son's body unless it was paid.

Chloe and Michael say they were told they could not leave the hospital until they had settled up.

The couple say they were banned from leaving the country until they had settled up, with officials confiscating their passports and threatening to call Interpol

They wanted to take Arlo home to the UK, but claim that the hospital said they needed the money at once to get him to a funeral directors, or would have to dispose of the body.

According to the crowding funding page - which has raised nearly 19,000 - Chloes father was able to help with the immediate cost. The medical costs have since increase more than five-fold to 16,000.

Chloe and Michael say their passports were confiscated to prevent them from leaving the country, and Cottam wrote on the GoFundMe page that the hospital even threatened to call Interpol.

Cottam wrote: 'Their hearts are broken and they just want to get home, however the hospital refused to let them leave until they paid the medical fee which had now increased to over $20,000.

Chloe, Michael and Chloe's daughter Esme, 4, are now preparing to return home to the UK and bury Arlo

'They physically do not have that kind of money nor can they access that easily.

'Chloe and Michael asked if they would allow them to pay in installments and the hospital refused, keeping them in a room surrounded by security and police.

'Chloes four year old daughter was with them the whole time, I cant imagine how scared she must have felt.'

The page claims that Chloe reminded hospital authorities that she had told them before having treatment that they could not pay, but that the hospital responded with we saved your life, you should be grateful and, Cottam wrote: 'went on to dismiss the life and death of baby Arlo and told them to "try again."'

Chloe, Michael and Esme are now preparing to return home to the UK and bury Arlo.

Cottam wrote on the page: 'Target has been reached in less than 24hrs to bring Home Michael, Chloe, Esme & Baby Arlo Home.

'Thank you so much to everyone who donated, the generosity of every single person has been amazing and I'm sure Michael and Chloe will never forget it.'

Support for the couple has flooded in online, with hundreds of people leaving heartfelt messages on their crowdfunding site.

Sheila Burgman wrote: 'My heart goes out to them, to lose your baby is bad enough but to be held hostage through lack of funds is horrendous...I pray they get home soon.'

Scott Flanagan wrote: 'Reading this has touched me massively I couldnt imagine what you are all going through. I hope you all make it home together'

Chloe responded today to the outpouring of compassion, writing on Facebook: 'We just want to say thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, to all of our friends, family and people we dont know who have generously donated to allow us the opportunity to receive both mine and Arlos medical records, my passport and the medication I need to allow me on a flight back home.

Chloe wrote to the people who donated money: 'I honestly do not know how we will ever repay you. Just thank you so so much. We are eternally grateful and forever in your debt'

'We have raised the funds we need now so thank you all. I cannot believe how amazingly kind people can be.

'We are incredibly lucky to have so much support from you all. In a very dark and hard time you have helped to shine a little ray of light and given us the breathing space to start to grieve for our son.

'I honestly do not know how we will ever repay you. Just thank you so so much. We are eternally grateful and forever in your debt.'Authorities responded to a cryptic 911 call early Monday and found the parents of 13-year-old Jayme Closs (pictured) dead in their home in Barron, Wisconsin

Investigators searching for a missing Wisconsin girl have recovered the phone used to make a 911 call from inside the home where her parents were found shot dead as they continue to piece together clues four days after she vanished.

Authorities responded to a cryptic 911 call early Monday and found the parents of 13-year-old Jayme Closs dead in their home in Barron.

The girl, who was immediately ruled out as a suspect and runaway, was missing by the time deputies arrived just four minutes later.

Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald revealed on Wednesday that Jayme was in the family's home when her parents, James and Denise, were killed based on evidence from both the scene and from the 911 call.

Fitzgerald told CNN the phone the 911 was made from had been recovered and they had since determined who it belonged to. He would not identify the owner of the phone.

He said no one was communicating to the dispatcher on the 911 call but 'some kind of disturbance could be heard'.

Authorities say Jayme was in the family's home when her parents, Denise and James Closs, were killed based on evidence from both the scene and from the 911 call

Authorities responded to a cryptic 911 call early Monday and found the parents of 13-year-old Jayme Closs dead in their home in Barron (above)

Relatives of the family said that the front door of the Barron home where Jayme disappeared from without a trace was shot in

No gun was found at the scene but autopsies confirmed that Jayme's parents had been fatally shot. Relatives of the family said that the front door of the home was shot in.

Meanwhile, the FBI has since joined the investigation as authorities urged the public to keep phoning in tips about Jayme's whereabouts.

'(The FBI) are the experts in breaking down 911 tapes, looking at our phones, and taking care of all evidence in that manner,' Fitzgerald said.

The sheriff has so far declined to elaborate as to why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation.

'I'm telling you, Jayme is missing and endangered,' Fitzgerald said.

He said that even though they've received more than 400 tips, none have been of a credible sighting.

He implored the public to share any suspicions, including any behavioral changes in people they know, no matter how small.

The sheriff has so far declined to elaborate as to why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation

The missing girl is described as 5-feet tall and 100 pounds, with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes

'We want to bring Jayme home and put that smile back in her family's hands,' he said.

'Is it a random attack or a targeted attack? I don't know that answer. That's why those leads are so important.'

The sheriff said that a tip claiming a girl resembling Jayme had been spotted at a gas station in Miami on Monday afternoon was not credible.

Fitzgerald said the information had been tweeted by the Miami police directly, without consulting investigators in Barron.

'We have no credible information that that was a credible tip,' he said.

Jayme was last seen at a family gathering on Sunday afternoon. Robert Naiberg, Jayme's grandfather, said she had been 'quiet as always' at his grandson's birthday party.

Jayme, who has been missing since her parents were found dead in their home, isn't believed to be a runaway and investigators believe she's in danger

Naiberg said Jayme was a 'thoughtful person' and had brought a 'little gift for everybody' to the party.

Jayme's father was working at the time of the party.

The missing girl is described as 5-feet tall and 100 pounds, with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes.

The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are helping in the search.

An Amber Alert was issued without a description of a suspect or vehicle.

Meanwhile, deputies searched the area around the family's home with drones and infrared equipment and talked to Jayme's friends and middle school classmates, hoping to develop some leads.

Community members held a candlelight vigil for Jayme at St Peters Catholic Church in Barron on Tuesday night.

Attendees were given blue and green ribbons to wear during the vigil. Blue is Jayme's favorite color, and green is a symbol for missing children.Gourmet Burger Kitchen has pulled its new promotional campaign after receiving a barrage of abuse online.

The fast food chain's new social media advert shows a representative of the firm starting a 'curry war' with restaurants, telling passers-by the other establishments were 'not real Indians'.

Using a megaphone, a GBK worker urges people to try its new Ruby Murray burger - a play on the cockney rhyming slang for the word curry.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen has pulled the advert after recieving abuse for its campaign

Online the firm wrote 'Your favourite curry is not authentic. Try a proper Indian.'

Their 'tone deaf' social media campaign to promote their Ruby Murray burger has been heavily criticised online. Users online called for the firm to take their controversial marketing ploy down.

One said: 'Probably want to take this one down, guys, nobody wants to buy anything from a company that is harassing and attempting to take business away from small business owners.

'Issue some apologies to those businesses, and try another direction in advertising.'

Another said: 'You seriously need to rethink your public relations and question how diverse your workforce is if you think this is an acceptable campaign. Shocking how this managed to get approved by anyone in your team!'

Others criticised the campaign for being tone deaf and expressed their dismay at how it was given to go-ahead by the head office.

One said: 'Were there any Indian people on the team, or in the room? This is just in poor taste. Aggressive cultural appropriation rather than cultural appreciation. Not a good look.'

During the campaign, a representatie of the firm is seen urging people not to go into restaurants but instead try its new burger

GBK claimed that its burger was a 'proper Indian' - which has sparked anger among social media users

The Ruby Murray burger is associated with curry as it uses seasonings and other ingredients used in traditional Indian starters and side dishes. Spices, samosa aloo, mango chutney, cucumber raita, and poppadom are all used in the burger.

A spokesman for GBK told the Metro: 'To all those who have been offended by the Ruby Murray advertising campaign, we humbly apologise. The campaign to launch our latest burger was intended to be humorous.

'We know that a GBK burger could never truly pass off as an authentic Indian dish. Having read all of your comments and messages, we have made the decision to take down the content. Unreserved apologies again.'A baby was injured after a shooting in the early hours of Thursday after bullets shattered the windows of a house in Birmingham.

The dramatic shooting, which took place in the city's Alum Rock district, saw the bay window of a terraced house peppered with bullet holes after the incident at around 3am.

Glass from the shattered window pane was said to have injured the sleeping tot.

The shooters reportedly went on to shoot up another property nearby around five minutes later before a car was seen speeding off.

West Midlands Police teams flooded the area as a senior officer condemned the 'reckless' attack.

Figures released by the Home Office on Thursday showed Birmingham, has seen gun crime rates rise above those of London over the past year.

An enormous bullet hole could be seen in the bay window of the terraced house in Birmingham after the shooting

Police said a second house nearby had been shot at during the early hours of Thursday morning five minutes after the initial incident

The shooting comes as a father-of-two who is the son of a Windrush immigrant was beaten to death after telling drug dealers to stop selling outside his home in London on Thursday.

Rubbish collector Ian Tomlin, 46, is the 113th victim of murder in the capital after being brutally battered at the block of flats in Battersea, south London where he lived.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, shortly after his assailants fled following the attack yesterday afternoon.

The 46-year-old is the son of Cecil Tomlin who came to the UK by boat from Jamaica in 1958 and is a member of the Windrush generation- who are a group of immigrants from Carribean countries who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1971 at the invitation of the British government, who were facing a labour shortage after World War Two.

The incident in Battersea comes amidst more violence in the past 24 hours in Wild West Britain after a murder investigation was launched in Liverpool where a man was shot.

West Midlands Police teams were said to have flooded the area as a senior officer condemned the 'reckless' attack

The baby was revealed to have been injured after the window of the house shattered during the shooting

Murder rate rockets by 14% and knife crime soars by 12% in a year - as stats show offences solved are at lowest in three years

By Richard Spillett

The number of murders in the UK has soared by 14% as the number of knife crimes and robberies also rises.

London is at the centre of fears of rising levels of violence, after the number of killings in the capital topped 100 this summer.

But statistics released today show the number of homicides nationwide is up from 630 to 719, with overall recorded crime up by almost 10%.

The number of offences registered as involving a knife or sharp instrument, 39,332, was the highest since 2011, when comparable records started.

Worrying crime statistics released today show homicides, knife crimes and robberies all up, after another 24 hours of worrying violence in Wild West Britain

The data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed jumps in the numbers of recorded robberies (up 22%), sexual offences (up 18%), vehicle-related theft (up 7%) and burglaries (2%).

Meanwhile, separate Home Office data showed that only 8.7% of recorded offences resulted in a charge or summons.

In 46.6% of cases, the investigation was completed without a suspect being identified. This percentage was down slightly year-on-year.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: 'These figures are a tragic indictment of this Tory government's policies.'

The other measure used to track levels of offending, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), showed that most types of crime have stayed at similar levels to the previous year, including violence.

However, estimates drawn from the survey did show an 8% increase in theft compared with the previous year.

London recorded its 100 murder in September, with even long-serving Met detectives shocked by the volume of violent crime and ferocity of some attacks in the capital this year.

Graphs show the number of homicides in the UK rising in the last two years. London recorded its 100 murder in September, with even long-serving Met detectives shocked by the volume of violent crime and ferocity of some attacks in the capital this year

A breakdown of the London killings released today shows 55 happened in public places and 22 are believed to be gang-related. Forty of those killed were aged under 25.

Of the grim total, 64 of the deaths were caused by stabbings, 10 were shootings and 18 were violent assaults. A breakdown of the victims shows 43 were described as Afro Carribean, while 36 were white.

Meanwhile, Britain's second biggest city, Birmingham, has seen gun crime rates rise above those of London.

There have already been over 33 homicides in the city this year alone, with over 25 gun crimes per 100,000 people, higher than in London.

Commenting on today's stats, Joe Traynor from the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice said: 'Over recent decades, we've seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has been more stable.

'The latest figures show no change in the total level of crime but variation by crime types.

'We saw rises in some types of theft and in some lower-volume but higher-harm types of violence, balanced by a fall in the high-volume offence of computer misuse.

'There was no change in other high-volume offences such as overall violence, criminal damage and fraud. To put today's crime survey figures into context, only two out of 10 adults experienced crime in the latest year.'European banks could be banned from trading in US markets if Brussels forces new reading trading rules on Brexit Britain.

A top US regulator said the EU's threats were 'completely irresponsible' and 'wholly unacceptable'.

Christopher Giancarlo, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the EU should not be ordering rafts of regulatory changes.

Christopher Giancarlo, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the EU should not be ordering rafts of regulatory changes

European Union financial regulators want more oversight of how markets outside the EU handle transactions customers inside the bloc.

The rules are due to be in place before March and would apply to the City of London after Brexit.

Mr Giancarlo warned the changes are too 'expansive' and must be blocked or could be subject to sanction by the US.

He said the CFTC has 'strong and blunt' tools it can deploy unilaterally as a last resort without new legislation - including a ban on US firms using European banks.

Mr Giancarlo added: 'I am ready to jump on even more planes, trains and automobiles bound for any European capital to work out a sensible approach.'

The watchdog has privately warned European officials that the bloc would suffer far more than the United States in an all-out clearing war because US firms are much larger liquidity providers to European exchanges than vice versa.

The rules are due to be in place before March and would apply to the City of London (file image) after Brexit

European Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said the proposed EU regulations were actually based on existing US rules.

He said: 'It is the prerogative of the EU legislator to set the general supervisory framework for central counterparties (CCPs) active in the EU and we would expect third country authorities to respect that, just as we respect the rules and legislative procedures in other countries.

'We reiterate that the cooperative oversight we have proposed is modelled for systemically important cross-border CCPs on the United States' own supervisory system.'SEATTLE  The Coast Guard cutter Polar Star arrived home Oct. 17 following a six-month maintenance period at Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, California, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in a release.

The 42-year-old icebreaker received extensive repairs and upgrades to engineering and electronic systems while completing the dry dock availability at Mare Island for the second time in as many years.

We successfully accomplished an annual dry dock availability valued at over $7.6 million, stated Lt. Cmdr. Chris Pelar, Polar Stars engineering officer. More than 50 work items were completed while in dry dock. We will complete remaining maintenance requirements in Seattle before departing for our upcoming Antarctic deployment.

Polar Star received extensive overhauls to equipment, most notably in auxiliary systems, generator upgrades and replacing propellers in preparation of supporting Operation Deep Freeze (ODF) 2019, the U.S. militarys contribution to the National Science Foundation managed U.S. Antarctic Program.

Polar Star, the nations only operational heavy icebreaker, deploys annually to Antarctica in support of ODF. The 399-foot, 13,000-ton cutter and crew transit through the Ross Sea and forcibly break through ice up to 21-feet thick clearing a path through frozen waters for supply ships to reach Antarcticas logistics hub, McMurdo Station, Scott-Amundsen South Pole Station and other international bases. The critical supply deliveries allow the stations to stay operational year-round, including during the dark and tumultuous winter.

The Coast Guard has been the sole provider of the nations polar icebreaking capability since 1965 and is essential to ensuring national presence and access to the Polar regions.Rising star Tory MP Johnny Mercer (file) has warned Theresa May he would not vote Conservative if he were not a politician and branded her Government a 's*** show'

A rising star Tory MP has warned Theresa May he would not vote Conservative if he were not a politician and branded her Government a 's*** show'.

Johnny Mercer said he would never have run for Parliament under the current regime. He fought and won Plymouth Moor View under David Cameron.

In an interview with The House magazine, he warned that if Tory internecine rows over Brexit let in Jeremy Corbyn 'I don't think we'd be forgiven for a generation and we wouldn't deserve to be'.

The 37-year-old father of two said that with hindsight his pre-MP self 'wouldn't vote', adding: 'There's no doubt about it that my set of values and ethos, I was comfortable that it was aligned with the Conservative Party.

'I'm not as comfortable that that's the case any more.'

Mr Mercer is an Afghan veteran who served with 29 Commando, part of the Royal Artillery, before becoming an MP.

He took his Devon seat from Labour in 2015 and increased his majority to more than 5,000 last year, but warned the party was being led by 'technocrats and managers' who were exposing it to 'ridicule' over Brexit.

Since being elected he has joined the Defence Select Committee and campaigned for veterans, including those with mental health problems and others facing prosecution for alleged crimes during the Troubles.

Johnny Mercer said he would never have run for Parliament under Theresa May (pictured in Brussels today). He fought and won Plymouth Moor View under David Cameron.

He gained notoriety and column inches after being elected when it emerged he had appeared in a shower gel advertisement, in which he was shown soaping himself while half naked.

It is not the first time Mr Mercer has criticised the Conservatives from within.

In November he told the Telegraph the party 'still seems punch-drunk' and was 'in danger of losing credibility' after the snap general election in 2017 which saw the Tories lose their majority in Westminster.

The Remain supporter, who describes himself as being centre-right, told The House that Theresa May's Chequers deal was 'your classic professional politician's answer' that pleases no one.

Mr Mercer warned that if Tory internecine rows over Brexit let in Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in the East Midlands today) to Downing Street

'People who pay our wages and vote for us expect us to make decisions and get on with government, not be fixated on us retaining our position,' he added, warning that the party had 'lost this ability to fight, to scrap for what we believe in'.

He added: 'The party will never really change until you have somebody who is leading the party who has won a seat and knows what it's like to go out every weekend and advocate for what you just voted for that week.

'I sat down with a colleague the other day and I was stunned when [she] told me she had never been canvassing.

'A lot of these candidates, these safe seats come up and they just bounce around one to the other. It becomes something I don't really recognise.'Marvin Frantzen, 31, was jailed for 14 years and ten months for his role leading a Merseyside durgs gang who established an outpost in Wrexham, North Wales

A 'county lines' drugs gang who sent out group texts urging customers to get in their orders for Christmas were jailed today.

The Merseyside gang were operating from a property in Wrexham, North Wales, where they had stored cash, drugs and firearms.

Mold Crown Court heard the gang sent out hundreds of 'flare texts' to customers. One of the messages claimed: 'Christmas come early, deliveroo to you' and another 'Christmas in a min deliveroo to you. Get your orders in.'

Ring leader Marvin Frantzen, 31, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and wounding with intent, where he stabbed another man repeatedly in a 'frenzied' attack. He also admitted dangerous driving where he sped at up to 120 mph in an effort to escape from police before crashing.

He was jailed for 14 years and ten months. The court heard police also seized more than 33,000 from him following his arrest.

Fellow gang member Shaun Coleman, 26, was jailed for 11 years after he admitted conspiracy and a firearms offence. Police recovered a loaded Walther pistol from a property connected to him in Penda's Park, Wrexham. The gun and bullets were found hidden in the loft.

As well as the lengthy jail term, Coleman was ordered to forfeit some 11,466.

Shaun Coleman, pictured, was jailed for 11 years after he admitted conspiracy and firearms offences. Police recovered a loaded Walther pistol in the loft of a property in Wrexham connected to him

Mother of two Sandra Mathias, 40, left, was handed a four-and-a-half year jail term after the court heard she was the gang's driver, while Lee Jones, 39, right, received a two-year suspended sentence for operating as a courier for the gang

Police recovered this Walther P38 pistol when raiding one of the gang's locations in Wrexham

Officers also recovered more than 44,000 in cash from members of the gang

Shaun Coleman, 26, was jailed for eleven years after he admitted conspiracy and a firearms offence. Mold Crown Court heard a loaded Walther pistol had been in the loft of a property in Penda's Park, Wrexham, connected to Coleman.

The judge confiscated 11,466 from him.

Sandra Mathias, 40, of Greenfields, Rossett, Wrexham, who also admitted conspiracy charges was handed a four-and-a-half year jail term.

Her counsel said the drug addict was used as a driver and led a 'double life' running drug dealers around and being a 'decent' mother of two.

Lee Jones, 39, of Pisgah Hill, Pentre Broughton, on benefits, who delivered drugs, got a two-year suspended prison sentence with rehabilitation. His lawyer said he feared for his safety in jail.

Judge Timothy Petts said a significant drugs conspiracy lasted six months. Frantzen and Coleman were 'leading players.'

Police found cash and drugs hidden around the house after they raided the property

Frantzen, pictured, gave a peace sign as he arrived in Mold Crown Court today for sentence

Fellow gang members Shaun Coleman and Sandra Mathius, right, looked less happy as they were led into court earlier today to discover how long they would remain in custody

Prosecuting counsel John Philpotts said Frantzen and Coleman were from Merseyside. Police kept watch on properties at Wrexham.

But in April Frantzen also left a block of flats at nearby Llangollen and climbed in the boot of a Mercedes. When police stopped the car 33,000 was seized.

Mr Philpotts said hundreds of 'flare' texts had been sent daily to customers. One stated : 'Christmas come early, deliveroo to you' and another 'Christmas in a min deliveroo to you. Get your orders in.'

DI Mark Hughes of North Wales police said: 'Operation Bypassed focused on taking action against a Merseyside Organised Crime Gang supplying heroin and cocaine around Wrexham. The gang was prepared to use violence and intimidation, but the operation shows that North Wales is not a soft target for criminals like this who do so much damage to our communities.'The body of a missing Vermont man has been found in a shallow grave in Costa Rica.

Thomas Cook, 62, had been missing since August 23 when his remains were found by a pedestrian two hours away from his rental home, his family revealed last week.

Cook had moved from South Burlington, Vermont, to the beach town of Jaco, Costa Rica, this summer after retiring from working as an electrician.

His family says they're relieved to have found his body but are still left with questions surrounding the death of Cook.

The body of Thomas Cook, 62, has been found in a shallow grave in Costa Rica

Cook, a retired electrician, had just moved Costa Rica this summer

'We're grateful that we were able to find him, because most people don't,' Cook's sister Sandra LaFrance said. 'It's like nine out of 10 don't, so I'm very grateful that we were able to find him even though it was horrible what happened to him.'

Cook was reported missing in late August when his rental home was found to be completely empty.

His sister said they visited the home he rented and everything was gone.

After weeks of searching, a pedestrian spotted his remains in a shallow grave.

LaFrance took to Facebook to share the news that her brother's body has been found.

'He was murdered by some very bad people,' she wrote.

The family worked with the Missing Americans Project to connect with Costa Rican authorities in the search for Cook.

LaFrance told MyChamplainValley: 'I worked with quite a few people, and it's a nonprofit so they did everything on their own time, and they were vital in getting us information we needed to find my brother.'

He was reported missing on August 23 after his Costa Rica home was found completely empty

The family say Cook had met a young woman with whom he had a relationship while in Costa Rica.

They say she is a potential person of interest in his disappearance and now death.

LaFrance said her brother 'was a very trusting person' and said they are now 'finding out a lot of alarming information' about the woman.

Her identity and details of their relationship have not been made public.

The family say that both Cook's things and the woman's items were cleared out of the house, which was cause for alarm.

Now the family is working out arrangements to bring the body of Cook back to Vermont.

'Some people don't ever get closure, and so for that fact I'm very, very grateful we'll be able to bring him home and put him in his final resting spot,' LaFrance told NBC 5.The mother of a baby who was found stabbed and baked inside an oven has spoken out after her own mom was charged with the little girl's murder.

Royalty Marie Floyd was found dead in the oven at her grandmother's home in Shaw, Mississippi on Monday night.

Her grandmother, Carolyn Jones, 48, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Veronica Jones, the 20-month-old girl's mother, said she is still coming to terms with the fact her own mother is allegedly responsible.

Video courtesy of WREG

Twenty-month-old Royalty Marie Floyd was found dead in the oven at her grandmother's home in Shaw, Mississippi on Monday night

'Royalty Marie Floyd was the best thing that ever happened to me. She's my one and only daughter. My first love,' she said.

Royalty's grandmother, Carolyn Jones, 48, has been charged with first-degree murder

Veronica said her daughter's death was 'the hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my life'.

'My heart has been ripped from my chest.

'I'm being told that my mother stabbed my daughter and baked her in the oven but my mother loved my daughter. She always treated Royalty like Royalty and everybody that knows us know that.'

Authorities say the little girl had been living with her grandmother.

Police were called on Monday night after Jones' brother came home to find Royalty's body in the heated oven.

Investigators are still trying to determine exactly when the girl died, as well as her cause of death, to see if she was already deceased before being placed in the oven.

The child's body has been sent to the state Crime Lab in Pearl for an autopsy.

Veronica Jones, the 20-month-old girl's mother, said she is still coming to terms with the fact her own mother is allegedly responsible

The grieving mother said her 20-month-old daughter's death was 'the hardest thing that I ever had to go through in my life'

'I've been doing law enforcement for 25 or 26 years now. This is one of the most horrible things I've seen in doing law enforcement. The hardest part... is to see a child victim,' Bolivar County Sheriff Kelvin Williams Sr. said.

He said authorities had no immediate answers in the death of the Jones' granddaughter.

Jones made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday night where a judge set bail at $500,000.

Police said Jones was the only person in the home with Royalty at the time.

Police tape still surrounded part of the home in the days after Royalty's body was found. A stroller, high chair and a trash barrel of toys, including a scooter, sat near the curb in front of the house.

Williams said those toys had belonged to Royalty.

Authorities said they had no immediately information about the circumstances leading up to the child's death.

'That's hard to say,' Williams said. 'We don't know.'

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help cover funeral costs.This is the shocking moment a rowdy UFC fan was hit in the face by a chair during a drunken bust-up in a Las Vegas casino after a Conor McGregor fight.

Violence erupted in the Victoria Gate Casino following the Irishman's bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov in the T-Mobile Arena on October 7.

Footage shows a man shouting across the room at a group of people off camera.

A rowdy UFC fan was hit in the face by a chair during a drunken bust-up in a Las Vegas casino

His friends try to pull him back before the situation gets out of hand but someone chucks a drink over his face.

That doesn't deter him from shouting though and seconds later a chair is thrown at his head, smashing him right on the nose.

He's sent flying backwards by the impact of the wooden stool which reportedly burst his lip open and left him with chipped teeth.

The 11-second clip has been viewed more than 194,000 times since it was shared on Twitter by Luca Joannides today.

The man was seen leaning across and shouting at a group off camera after Conor McGregor fought Khabib Nurmagomedov on October 7

His friends try pull him back before things escalate but a drink is tossed in his face (pictured)

Seconds later a wooden stool is launched directly at his face - sending him flying backwards

The footage was re-posted on Reddit - where someone in the comments section claimed to be one of the men in the video.

The user, handsome_haddock, wrote: 'I'm actually the dude in the red shirt holding him back as he takes the chair right in the kisser.

'My pal (one who made-out with the chair) was having a war of words with a group of dudes about the result of the fight when the chair came flying out of nowhere.'

The man was needed stitches in his lip and suffered several chipped teeth, according to commentators on social media

The 11-second clip has been viewed more than 194,000 times since it was shared on Twitter

The drama unfolded after Conor McGregor suffered his second UFC loss to Lightweight Champion Khabib

The commentator claimed that the man needed stitches on his lip and was left with chipped teeth.

A spokesman for the Victoria Gate Casino told the Sun Online: We can confirm there was an isolated incident at the casino on 7th October around 5.30am.

'Our security acted immediately and the male in question was escorted off the premises. VGC have a zero tolerance policy to violent behaviour in our casino.

'The safety of our staff and customers is of utmost priority.'A woman who was apparently angry with her mother helped suffocate her before watching her boyfriend and his brother set her body on fire.

Sasha Gonzalez, 29, was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday after police found burnt clothing and charred bones at the South Miami property where the woman lived with her mother, Hilda Gonzalez, 70.

She had told police she paid someone $50 to hurt her mother but not to kill her at the house in Dade where they live.

Sasha Gonzalez, 20, (left) is accused of killing her mother with the help of her boyfriend Yancel Castillo (right) because the victim was angry that a male relative was staying over

Hilda Gonzalez (pictured was suffocated by her daughter and boyfriend and her remains were then set alight because she was angry they had invited a male visitor to stay at the house

But after interviews and gathering evidence, police believe that Gonzalez, her boyfriend and his brother suffocated the woman, set her body on fire in the homes yard and tried to hide the bones.

Gonzalez was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Her boyfriend, Yancel Castillo, 30, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact, tampering with physical evidence and abusing a dead human body.

Castillos bond was set at $25,000. Both were taken to the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center.

By late Wednesday afternoon police had not released the name of the dead woman.

Miami-Dade property records show the homeowner of the property where the alleged murder took place to be Hilda Gonzalez, 70.

Acording to the Miami Herald, the couple told police that Gonzalezs mother was angry at them because Castillo's brother, Santy, stayed at the home against her wishes.

Friends set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the funeral costs of Hilda (pictured) who was described as 'one of the kindest and most selfless people to ever walk the earth'

According to police, Santy Castillo and Sasha Gonzalez removed the door knob to the mothers bedroom and entered.

Gonzalez then lifted her mothers head and Santy Castillo placed a bag over it in order to suffocate her, police said.

Sasha Gonzalez told police that the next morning, on Monday, she watched as the brothers carried her mothers remains out of the house, placed branches over her and set her on fire.

Gonzalez said the men then dragged a large Miami-Dade garbage bin around back of the home to try and hide the evidence.

Sasha Gonzalez and Yancel Castillo have a child together. As of late Wednesday afternoon, Santy Castillo had not been charged with a crime and was still being interviewed by detectives.

Police believe Yancel (left) and his brother Santy Castillo (right) were involved in the brutal killing of Hilda Gonzalez because she was angry that Santy had stayed at her home

Santy (left) and Yancel Castillo (right) are seen with a female relative in another picture

Police say Yancel Castillo, Sasha Gonzalezs boyfriend, helped try to get rid of the body of his girlfriends mother, who was killed.

Authorities were unable to make contact with anyone inside, but the victim's daughter, Sasha Gonzalez, 29, soon arrived at the home and allowed officers inside to search for her mother.

According to an arrest report seen by 10 News, officers found burned clothing in the front yard of the home, apparent bones in a trash bin in the front of the house and a large, charred area in the side yard.

Police said officers also smelled bleach in the air throughout the home and saw open cleaning containers in the victim's bedroom.

The house (pictured) which was owned by Hilda Gonzalez and where she was murdered

Sasha Gonzalez told detectives her mother had been hurting her and she had paid someone $50 to hurt her mother. She said she didn't know that person would kill her mother, police said.

Sasha Gonzalez told detectives her mother had been hurting her and she had paid someone $50 to hurt her mother. She said she didn't know that person would kill her mother, police said.

The victim was identified by relatives as Hilda Gonzalez.

Relatives said they had warned Hilda Gonzalez about the people who were staying at her home.

The arrest report stated the victim was sleeping in her locked bedroom Sunday night before she was killed. Details about the killing were redacted from the report.

Sasha Gonzalez was arrested on charges of first-degree murder and attempting to tamper with physical evidence.

Yancel Castillo faces charges of being an accessory after the fact, attempting to tamper with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.The former head of the US military has warned pursuing British veterans through the courts system could threaten the UK's military alliance with America.

General David Petraeus, who oversaw US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Britain's military capabilities could be 'greatly diminished' if human rights laws were not balanced against the laws of warfare.

Speaking on Thursday, Petraeus said: 'The very special relationship between our two militaries, which has been built over decades of serving shoulder-to-shoulder in the hardest tests of battle, could be put at risk by the present situation.'

General David Petraeus, who oversaw US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Britain's military capabilities could be 'greatly diminished' if human rights laws were not balanced against the laws of warfare

He added there was an 'overly expansive interpretation' of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) could place the UK in an 'untenable position' where its forces' combat ability is limited because they are operating under different laws.

Petraeus added: 'The UK's armed forces are, of course, among the most accomplished and capable in the world, recent reductions in their numbers notwithstanding.

Conservative MP Johnny Mercer, who was under the general's command in Afghanistan, was also on the panel

'But Britain's considerable fighting capacity will be greatly diminished if it cannot reform the legal framework within which it fights, restoring the primacy of the law of armed conflict.'

His comments come as a debate rumbles on about investigations into soldiers who served the Troubles and allegedly committed crimes, including murder, as well as those who have served in conflicts post 9/11 wars.

Petraeus was speaking at the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank in Westminster, and said the historic Northern Ireland investigations were 'relentless and seemingly unending'.

Conservative MP Johnny Mercer, who was under the general's command in Afghanistan, was also on the panel.

Labour peer Lord West disagreed with Gen Petraeus that recruitment was being hampered by the current situation, but said retention of personnel and their morale has been damaged.

'It is outrageous that we shouldn't look after our people - that should be the absolute driving thing,' he said.

But, he added, if personnel fall foul of the Geneva Convention, they 'should be hammered'.Lawyers for President Trump appeared in a New York state appellate court on Thursday afternoon hoping to get a lawsuit filed last year against the real estate scion dismissed on account of his new profession.

Summer Zervos was also on hand for the hearing Thursday, one year after she filed a complaint seeking damages from President Trump for making statements she deemed defamatory, alleging in court papers that these remarks hurt her family restaurant business.

She is now suing for compensatory and punitive damages as well as an apology and a retraction.

This is now the fourth time President Trump has tried to have the case dismissed or delayed, with his legal team failing in their past three efforts.

Two of those efforts failed twice in Supreme Court when they were denied by New York Supreme Court Justice Jennifer G. Schecter and once in new York Appellate Court when Trump's legal team requested a stay back in March.

Apprent this: Summer Zervos and her lawyer (above on Thursday leaving court) appeared in a New York Appellate Court on Thursday while lawyers for President Trump tried to get her case dismissed

Sustain: President Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz (above) has argued that the case should be dismissed on two grounds, the first being that the Supremacy Clause

He did however have success just last weekend when a lawsuit filed against him by Stormy Daniels was dismissed by a judge, and is now hoping to score another critical court victory on Thursday.

President Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz has argued that the case should be dismissed on two grounds, the first being that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution prohibits a sitting president from being sued in court.

It will be argued by Kasowitz that this clause 'immunizes the President from being sued in state court.'

There is no precedent for a sitting president being sued in a state court, but Bill Clinton was successfully sued in federal court by Paula Jones during his time in office.

That case ultimately went the way of the plaintiff, with Clinton agreeing to a $850,000 settlement.

Kasowitz will also argue that President Trump has a First Amendment right to express his opinion while in the course of politics.

That was the argument which secured him a victory in getting Daniels' suit dismissed just last week.

Zervos first came forward with her story in October 2016, just two weeks after the release of the infamous Access Hollywood hot mic tapes in which Trump said he would 'grab [women] by the p****.'

Zervos appeared at a press conference in Los Angeles alongside attorney Gloria Allred to recount the alleged encounter that occurred between herself and the Republican nominee in his room at the Beverly Hills Hotel back in 2007.

She claims that she reached out to Trump a year after her season of the Apprentice aired to speak about possible business opportunities, and when she met with him he kissed her 'open mouthed' multiple times, and at one point placed his hand on her breast.

History?: It will be argued by Kasowitz that this clause 'immunizes the President from being sued in state court,' which has never been done before in history (Trump above on Wednesday)

Herstory: Zervos filed a complaint seeking damages from President Trump for making statements she deemed defamatory

Trump then allegedly had Zervos lie in bed with him she said telling her he wanted to watch 'telly telly,' but soon after began 'thrusting his genitals' at her despite her pleas asking him to stop.

Zervos broke down in tears throughout the press conference, and said towards the end of her remarks: 'After hearing the released audio tapes and your denial during the debate, I felt I had to speak out about your behavior.

'You do not have the right to treat women as sexual objects just because you are a star.'

She stated that she told two friends about the incident at the time.

And despite not taking questions after reading her statement she did chime in when reporters questioned Allred about why she made the decision to come forward after all these years, saying: 'Because I want to be able to sleep at night when I'm 70.'

Trump denied Zervos' allegations in a statement saying that he only vaguely remembered the woman. He also claimed that she had contacted him as recently as April inviting him to dine at her restaurant.

Those denials quickly became attacks on the campaign stage and Twitter, where he called Zervos and his other accusers 'liars' who were spouting 'totally made-up nonsense to steal the election.'A former Florida middle school teacher has pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old student and sending him nude pictures.

Stephanie Peterson, 27, pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal to one count of lewd or lascivious battery sex act with a child and one count of transmission of harmful material to minors by electronic means. Both are felonies.

Peterson will face a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years in prison when she is sentenced.

The former New Smyrna Beach Middle School science teacher was arrested in February after the 14-year-old told his parents about their relationship.

Former Florida middle school teacher Stephanie Peterson, 27, has pleaded guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old student and sending him nude pictures

He confessed to his parents that Peterson would pick him up from their home at 11pm and that they often spent hours together at her home while her firefighter husband was at work.

The teen claimed he had sex with Peterson in her house and car as well as a barn behind his own house from November 2017 to January 2018.

He also revealed that Peterson had sent him nude photographs of herself and that she bought him marijuana and a 'bowl to smoke it' in.

The teen reportedly told his parents that his relationship with the teacher was hurting his grades.

Snapchat messages between Peterson and the teen were released by the State Attorney's Office earlier this month.

The messages show Peterson panicking after finding out that the teen's mother knew about them and was planning to go to the police.

Peterson (pictured in court in March) pleaded guilty to lewd or lascivious battery sex act with a child and transmission of harmful material to minors by electronic means

Peterson (pictured in March) will face a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years in prison when she is sentenced

'So she's planning on doing something with it,' Peterson messaged the student.

'I hate you,' she added. 'So much.'

Peterson then told the teen to tell his mother that it was the 'worst decision of my life'.

'I know it was and idk where my brain was but I somehow fell in love with you briefly and idk why [sic].'

'I'll never been the same person because of it.'

Peterson then asked the teen if she should call his mom, before begging him to 'delete everything'.

The former middle school teacher had originally planned to enter a no contest plea in court on Tuesday, according to Daytona Beach News-Journal.

But Judge Raul Zambrano said he did not accept no contest pleas in sex cases.

The former New Smyrna Beach Middle School science teacher was arrested in February after the 14-year-old told his parents about their relationship

The teen said he had sex with Peterson in her home while her now ex-husband (pictured together) was at work. They also had sex in her car and in a barn behind the teen's home

'The component of any sentence is treatment, and a component of treatment is admitting that you did what you did,' he told Peterson.

'If you plead no contest here, they go to treatment and they don't want to admit anything.'

Peterson then talked to her attorney for a minute before telling the judge without hesitation that she would be pleading guilty.

She also told Zambrano that she was taking 'psychotropic medication' as prescribed.

'Do you have a clear understanding of what's happening here?' Zambrano then asked her.

'Yes, sir,' she replied.

He then asked Peterson to describe in her own words what she was doing in the courtroom.

'Uh, pleading guilty to those two counts,' she replied.

The teen also revealed that Peterson had sent him nude photographs of herself and that she bought him marijuana and a 'bowl to smoke it' in

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a second count of lewd or lascivious battery sex act with a child, but Peterson will be required to register as a sex offender.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.

Peterson's defense team plans to ask the judge for a downward departure from the minimum sentence, meaning they will argue she should get less than five years in prison.

The former teacher was accompanied by her father and several others in the courtroom.

She divorced from her husband of two years, DeLand firefighter Brandon Ferri, a month after her arrest.

Peterson's victim was not in court but some of his family members attended.Timmy Kinner, 30, will face the death penalty for stabbing nine people and killing one in June

A man suspected of going on a stabbing rampage at a children's party, killing a little girl celebrating her third birthday and wounding eight others, will face the death penalty.

Timmy Kinner, a homeless man who had been asked to leave a Boise apartment complex the day before, returned the following day and began attacking children and others at the outdoor birthday party in June.

A judge this summer entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to one count of first-degree murder and eight counts of aggravated battery in connection with the June 30 attack.

'After careful consideration, we have concluded that pursuing the death penalty is appropriate in this case,' Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts said in a statement Thursday.

Police said Kinner didn't know any of the victims, who were all refugees from Ethiopia, Syria and Iraq.

They also said the attack did not appear to be a hate crime.

Kinner, pictured in court in July, did not know any of the victims, who were all refugees from Ethiopia, Syria and Iraq

Ruya Kadir was at her third birthday party when Kinner, armed with a large knife, attacked and killed her

Kinner, 30, has refused to meet with a psychologist to evaluate his health.

Ruya Kadir was at her third birthday party - complete with a pink doll-shaped cake and a Disney princess banner - when police say Kinner, armed with a large knife, attacked.

Ruya and five other children were badly injured, along with the three adults who tried to protect them.

Some children hid in a closet until police told them it was safe to come out.

Police say Kinner had recently been asked to leave the apartment complex because of bad behavior.

He was arrested shortly after the stabbing. Investigators recovered the knife he was believed to have used in a nearby canal.

Kinner has a lengthy criminal record.

He has served prison time in Kentucky and has been arrested for 'violence against others' in the past, according to Bones.

The Ada County Public Defender's Office, which is representing Kinner, declined to comment.PENSACOLA, Fla.  The Navy League and Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) announced the requirements and solicited applications for the Alaska Sea Services Scholarship for academic year 2019-2020, Oct. 17, according to the Navy News Service.

The program awards up to four $1,000 scholarships annually for undergraduate education to dependent children and spouses of Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel who legally claim Alaska as their state of residence.

NETC is proud to once again team with the Navy League to support dependents of Alaskan members of our sea services through this scholarship, said Dr. Cheral Cook, NETC advanced education coordinator. This is an outstanding opportunity for eligible dependents to attain a scholarship that will help them begin or continue their educational goals.

The scholarships are made possible by funds raised by Alaskan citizens for a war bond as a gift to USS Juneau (CL 52) during World War II. After the sinking of Juneau, the governor of the territory of Alaska and the secretary of the Navy agreed to keep the bond monies on deposit until an appropriate application could be found. In 1986, the Navy established the Alaska Sea Services fund.

Alaskan citizens originally gathered these funds for the light cruiser USS Juneau; however, the ship was sunk at the Battle of Guadalcanal before the gift could be presented, said Ryan Donaldson, Navy League senior vice president for business operations. What better way to honor the memory of Juneau Sailors than by helping educate Alaskas future?

Applicants must be the dependent (child or spouse) of a legal resident of the state of Alaska who is, or was at the time of death/designation as missing-in-action, a Regular or Reserve U.S. Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard member on active duty, inactive duty or retired with or without pay.

The Navy League will screen all applications and submit their recommendations to NETC to select the winners, said Cook. Selection will be based on academic proficiency, character, leadership ability, community involvement and financial need.

Students must provide proof of acceptance at an accredited college or university for full-time undergraduate study toward a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree. No more than two scholarship awards may be received by an individual during the pursuit of a four-year degree.

Applications are now being accepted and will close on March 1.

For additional information and a link to apply for the Alaska Sea Services Scholarship, visit www.navyleague.org/scholarship or contact either Navy Leagues Ryan Donaldson at (703) 528-1775/(800) 356-5760/[email protected], or Dr. Cheral Cook at (850) 452-3671/DSN 459/[email protected]Donald Trump Jr. has been spotted doing the school run in New York with his estranged wife Vanessa, just one day after wearing a Michael Cohen-like sport coat for a Republican rally event in Michigan.

President Trump's eldest son braved Manhattan's chilly temperatures on Thursday morning as he stepped out with Vanessa and their children.

Wearing a pink shirt and carrying a thermos in his hand, Don Jr. walked beside his estranged wife as they left the apartment building with their children in tow.

Donald Trump Jr. braved Manhattan's chilly temperatures on Thursday morning as he stepped out with estranged wife Vanessa and their children for the school run

Vanessa, who was married to Don Jr. for 12 years, was spotted linking arms with their daughter Kai as they walked down the street flanked by secret service agents.

The former couple, who are set to finalize their divorce next month, have frequently been spotted on outings with their five children since the split.

Meanwhile, Don Jr.'s girlfriend and former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle was nowhere to be seen during the most recent early morning outing.

The night before, however, Don Jr. and Kimberly held hands as they took to the stage in Pontiac, Michigan, to rally in support of Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James.

Don Jr. donned a checked sport coat for the rally.

Wearing a pink shirt and carrying a thermos in his hand, Don Jr. walked beside his estranged wife as they left the apartment building with their children in tow

The former couple, who are set to finalize their divorce next month, have frequently been spotted on outings with their five children since the split

His attire bore a striking resemblance to those blazers favored by his father's former attorney Michael Cohen.

During the rally, Don Jr. spoke to the cheering crowd of Trump supporters, telling them he thought the President was wrong when he said Republican voters would get sick of winning.

'I want to keep this winning going,' he said.

'In 2016, you all believed in my father. Michigan believed in my father. You believed in him when it was just talk... guess what? He's delivered, time and time again.'

Both Don Jr. and his girlfriend were critical of Democrats during the rally, saying: 'If Donald Trump today passed a bill in favor of oxygen, the Dems would be vehemently against it'.

The night before, Don Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle held hands as they took to the stage in Pontiac, Michigan, for a Republican rally

Don Jr. donned a checked sport coat for the rally. His attire bore a striking resemblance to those blazers favored by his father's former attorney Michael CohenNidal Hasan, 48, is shown in a 2010 court appearance. In letters he wrote last year that have just been published, he stands by his act of terror against Fort Hood soldiers in 2009

Newly published letters written by Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan have revealed he has no remorse for killing 13 people in an shooting in 2009 and that he did it to 'save his mother's soul'.

Hasan, 48, made the chilling remarks in letters to a George Washington university researcher last year. They were published in the researcher's report on Thursday.

In one, he answers enthusiastically 'of course!' when asked if he thought he was doing a good thing by committing mass murder.

'I considered those who were trying to help the U.S undermine the Talibans attempt to establish Shariah (Gods) Law as the supreme law of the land and replace it with something else like a democracy that doesnt rule by Gods law the enemies of God, and thus worthy of fighting/killing.

'I would prefer convincing them to accept Islam and be part of Gods people (i.e., Muslim), but my threshold was their deployment, and the fact that the Taliban were asking for help worldwide,' he wrote.

Elsewhere, the researcher describes how he felt his actions would outweigh any sins his mother had committed and ensure her place in heaven.

She died in 2001 after a cancer battle but had only been devout in her religion for a few years beforehand.

Hasan opened fire in the army base on November 5, 2009. Soldiers are pictured trying to save one of the people shot

Tributes to the 13 people Hasan killed at Fort Hood army base in Killeen, Texas, in 2009

He feared that it was not enough and because she also sold alcohol in the convenience store his family owned, she would be condemned.

'In 2001, Hasans mother passed away following a long battle with cancer. He moved in with her to take care of her during her illness, and watching her deteriorate from disease profoundly impacted his psyche.

Hasan was a psychiatrist in the military. He killed 13 people in a shooting spree in the name of Islam in 2009

'Although Hasan was raised as primarily culturally Muslim rather than religiously devout, after her death, he began to worry about the state of her soul in the afterlife.

'According to one of Hasans letters, his mother had only started to become religious in the last years of her life, and he was worried that it would not be enough to earn her a place in heaven.

'Hasans parents owned a convenience store that sold alcohol, which Hasan came to believe as forbidden by Islam. The sin of selling alcohol would, in Hasans mind, damn his mother to an eternity of burning in hell.

'This religious interpretation was one he believed to be entirely literalhis mother would spend an eternity burning in a pit of fire. Hasan felt that there was a way for him to help his mother and prevent her from suffering this terrible fate. Her sins, as he saw them, could be outweighed by good actions he did on her behalf.

'Thus, good deeds and actions as a devout, pious Muslim could gain him a sort of religious karma that could be spent on erasing his mothers earthly sins,' the researcher wrote.

After her death, his family began seeing a change in how interested he was in his religion, the report says.

Hasan slaughtered 13 of his comrades at the Texas army base in 2009.

He was sentenced to death but is still alive, fighting his conviction while in custody.The mystery surrounding the gruesome death of Nicole Cartwright (pictured) has deepened

The mystery surrounding the gruesome murder of a woman who was found dead in a park with a dog collar around her neck has taken another baffling turn.

Nicole Cartwright's body was discovered at Buffalo Creek Reserve in the affluent Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill on October 3.

An autopsy revealed the 32-year-old had been badly bashed, but found she did not die from those injuries, news.com.au reported.

'(Ms Cartwright) had injuries consistent with an assault but those injuries did not kill her,' a police source said, adding that her cause of death was still unknown.

Detectives found Ms Cartwright's belongings at the park - but her mobile phone was notably missing.

Police have sifted through her phone records and data, but have so far refused to reveal what they have found.

Detective Superintendent Scott Cook said police were 'working through the vast amounts of information received' after appealing for public information last week.

An autopsy revealed the 32-year-old had been badly bashed, but found she did not die from those injuries

A woman is overcome by emotion at a community vigil in memory of Ms Cartwright this week

'It is very clear that Nicole was a great friend and well-liked, and members of the community are providing whatever information they can to help us provide answers about her death to her family,' he told the publication.

'That said, we are still piecing her final movements together - and anyone who spoke with or saw Nicole over the long weekend is urged to get in touch with us as soon as possible.'

Ms Cartwright stopped using social media for months before she died, deleting her Facebook account and not posting on Instagram since April 17.

Her friend Lisa said it was out of character for Ms Cartwright not to contact her on social media.

Nicole Cartwright (pictured with a friend) was found dead at a Sydney park on Wednesday October 3

'We were in contact a fair bit.... if she ever had a problem she would message me and I would try and give the best advice I possibly could,' Lisa told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'But the last couple of months of her life... I don't know, because she disappeared off Facebook. She just disappeared.'

It took a week from when Ms Cartwright's body was found until she was formally identified by police.

Lisa said she contacted police after seeing Ms Cartwright's photo - revealing she had information which may lead to her killer being uncovered.

'Yes I have suspicions... someone she had spoken to me about. That's why I went to Crime Stoppers. Every bit of information helps.'

When Nicole Cartwright wasn't out visiting friends, she was doing what she loved most - caring for her parents.

Ms Cartwright regularly walked her dog Bella (pictured) through local parks, a deliberate effort to aid in her ongoing battle against mental health

Ms Cartwright (pictured) lived with her parents at their home in Lansvale, in Sydney's west

The 'bubbly' woman still lived at home with her mum Brenda and dad Terry.

In the aftermath of her shocking death, friends have recounted how Ms Cartwright proudly cared for her parents and relished that role.

Her older brother Ben lived nearby with his wife Jackie, but Ms Cartwright still lived at the family's Lansvale home, in Sydney's south west.

'Her parents are older, she was always at home looking after them,' a friend said.

'She was in love with animals... she loved dogs especially. She was a really kind hearted person.'

Now police fear that kind-heartedness might have been what her killer preyed upon.

Ms Cartwright was last seen alive on September 30 at 9.14pm, when she CCTV captured her at Museum train station in the city.

They are now piecing together who she met with and what happened in the three days before she was found dead.

Her body was found severely injured and with her hands tied together at Buffalo Creek Reserve (pictured) at Hunter's Hill, on Sydney's lower north shore, on September 30

Friends said they noticed Ms Cartwright's demeanour change over the last six months, when she began to discover online sexual fetish websites.

'She was posting pictures of herself in corsets and skimpy dresses and saying that she was ''nasty''... I asked her, are you OK?' the friend said.

'We also both had depression and mental health issues, so we often talked about that. She was into some kind of BDSM and alternate sex.'

Her social media posts used to be filled with plush toys, her beloved black Labrador Bella and food pictures.

More recently, Ms Cartwright began posting photos of herself in dark makeup. She wore collars and chokers and dyed her hair different colours.

It's understood she broke up with a boyfriend a few months ago, but police are still working to establish her more recent dating habits.

The park where Ms Cartwright's body was found (pictured) was almost 30 kilometres from the home she shared with her parents. Terry and Brenda Cartwright reported her missing after hearing a report about the grim discovery

Two days later on Sunday, September 30, she was spotted tapping her opal card at a gate at Ashfield train station at 8.42pm

A high school boyfriend, who met Ms Cartwright when they were both students at Canley Vale High told Daily Mail Australia she was a 'bubbly' girl.

'Nicole was a fun loving girl who would help anyone out and just loved life,' he said.

'She was always joking, smiling and laughing. She had a really bubbly personality.'

A local council worker made the grim discovery of Ms Cartwright's boy at 7.30am on October 3 at Buffalo Creek Reserve in Hunter's Hill, on Sydney's lower north shore.

She had gruesome head injuries, had her hands tied behind her back and was covered in a blanket.

Drag marks up to 30 metres long were spotted nearby, indicating she may have been killed elsewhere before being dumped at the park.

Friends say the change may have been to do with her use of fetish websites and dating apps

Prior to her 'dark' online posts, Ms Cartwright would regularly share photos of her plush toy collection (pictured)

Some 30 kilometres away at their family home in Lansvale, in Sydney's west, Mr and Mrs Cartwright were unaware their daughter was in trouble.

'She wasn't really missing  she lived here but it wasn't unusual for her to leave for a week or so,' her father Terry Cartwright told The Australian.

'We heard the description report (on the news) and thought something was off.'

A close friend told Daily Mail Australia that she used to chat regularly with Ms Cartwright until she suddenly removed her accounts.

'We used to chat on Snapchat or Skype and all of a sudden everything was gone,' the friend said.

'She did begin to reach out sexually, as a lot of people do when they are struggling.

'We fear she's got involved with the wrong person.'

It is understood the websites used by Ms Cartwright included Fetlife - a 'BDSM, fetish and kinky' network - and Vanilla Umbrella - a dating app for 'open minded singles'.

A community vigil for Ms Cartwright was held at Buffalo Creek Reserve on Thursday, with dozens of locals turning out to remember the young woman.

Police are now investigating whether Ms Cartwright met her killer through one of these fetish websites

Dozens turned out to pay tribute to Ms Cartwright at Buffalo Creek Reserve

Police said the hunt for her killer has reached advanced stages and they are 'confident' of soon making an arrest.

'We are confident we can get to a result and find those responsible for this but that unfortunately will take time,' Inspector Anthony Boyd said this week.

Police previously appealed for the public's help in an effort to catch her killer, releasing an array of CCTV footage from her last moments alive.

On September 28, she caught the bus from Town Hall station to Ashfield, with CCTV capturing her stepping onto the bus at 4.35am.

A few hours later she sent a selfie taken at Maroubra Beach to her family.

Two days later on Sunday, September 30, she was spotted tapping her Opal card at a gate at Ashfield train station at 8.42pm.

She got off the train 30 minutes later at Museum train station - the last time she was seen.

Ms Cartwright did not have a car and caught public transport in the days before her body was discovered. She is pictured on a bus from Town Hall station to Ashfield on Friday, September 28

Some 30 minutes later at 9.14pm she was last seen at Museum train station (pictured). Three days later on October 3 her body was found near the Buffalo Creek Reserve kids playground

Three days later on October 3 her body was discovered by the council worker about 7.30am.

Ms Cartwright's shattered family paid tribute to her, with brother Ben sharing an emotional message after his sister's death was confirmed.

'Rest in peace my little sister. I love you with my all,' he wrote on Facebook.

'It is with very sad and heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved daughter, sister and friend Nicole Cartwright has sadly passed away.

'Thank you for all the love and support we have received from family and friends over the last few days.'

Ms Cartwright will be farewelled by family friends at a funeral service on Wednesday, October 24 - a date that marks exactly three weeks since her body was discovered.White House chief of staff got into an angry and profane shouting match with National Security Advisor John Bolton just steps from the Oval Office on Thursday.

The argument grew so tense that some aides wondered whether one of the men would step down, according to reports.

Bolton has seen his influence rise since joining the administration in March, while Kelly has survived repeated rumors of his pending departure.

Bloomberg first reported the spat, although without identifying the source of friction between the two men.

National Security Adviser John Bolton has carved out a series of hardline positions, and clashed with Kelly steps from the Oval Office

President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the U.S. military to close the southern border unless Mexico helps stop flow of Central American immigrants traveling from the south

Chief of staff John Kelly previously ran the Homeland Security Department

The clash took place just steps from the Oval Office, where Trump on Thursday met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the fury over the disappearance of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

CNN reported the substantive issue between the two men was a spike in border crossings, despite Trump's vow that as president he would get illegal immigraiton under control.

The network reported that Trump took Bolton's side in the standoff. Bolton has been cultivating the press and has taken a tough line on Iran and international institutions during his short tenure.

There has been a pronounced spike in crossings, even as Trump has deployed tough rhetoric, $1.6 billion in fencing and border security he says is the begging of wall construction, and a family separation policy that the administration rolled out as part of 'zero tolerance' but then pulled back.

In August there were 46,560 total apprehensions people crossing the border illegally, according to DHS statistics. That is a 50 per cent jump compared to last year, when there were 30,567. There were 42,415 that month in 2015 and 51,893 in 2016 in the midst of a surge.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement following reports on the clash, saying no one was 'angry' and bashing Democrats but not specifically denying a profane shouting match occurred.

'While we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration, we are not angry at one another. However, we are furious at the failure of Congressional Democrats to help us address this growing crisis,' she said.

'They should be ashamed for pushing an open borders agenda and are only doing this for strictly political reasons.'

With the midterm elections just weeks away and the GOP in danger of losing the House, Trump on Thursday attacked Democrats and issued the border threat.

He resurrected the claim that launched his White House campaign in 2015, saying that 'this large flow of people' includes 'MANY CRIMINALS' and putting the words in uppercase letters for effect.

'I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!' Trump wrote.

'All Democrats fault for weak laws!' he added on Twitter.

The president renewed his complaint that the Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran governments are doing nothing to stop a massive flow of people northward, 'INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS'

Trump on Thursday also renewed Wednesday's threat to stop all payments to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, including humanitarian aid, if their governments 'allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States.'

'If you cross us, our allies or our partners,' Bolton threatened Iran in September, 'if you harm our citizens, if you continue to lie, cheat and deceive, yes, there will indeed be hell to pay.'

Adding to the tension inside the White House is the Khashoggi matter. The president has continued to make efforts to explain the Saudi position, stressing important commercial ties, even as grisly details of the alleged murder come out.President Trump admitted Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi is probably dead, as hope that the missing journalist would turn up alive dissipated.

'It certainly looks that way to me. It's very sad,' Trump told journalists as he prepared to board Air Force One for a flight to Montana. 'It's bad, bad stuff, but we'll see what happens.'

Trump said that the punishment would be 'severe' if he finds out that Saudi Arabia harmed the journalist.

He ignored questions as he left the White House on about the suspected murder and his earlier claim that it may have been perpetrated by rogue killers.

President Trump admitted Thursday that Jamal Khashoggi is probably dead, as hope that the missing journalist would turn up alive dissipated

Trump said that the punishment would be 'severe' if he finds out that Saudi Arabia harmed the journalist

Hours before a family member of Khashoggi's - a cousin still living in Saudi Arabia- suggested the writer who lives in America could still be alive.

Motasem Khashoggi told CNN in a statement that Khashoggi family considers the Saudi-born writer to be a 'missing person' and they have 'no legal or official proof' that would prove otherwise.

CNN says the family pushed backed on claims that Khashoggi is a Saudi dissident whom the government would want to target.

The statement said that the family had been in 'close contact with the Saudi government at the highest level' and that they were assured that 'many steps that are being taken at the very top to answer many of the questions we, and the world have, regarding Jamal's disappearance.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday from the White House that he advised the president to give the Saudis a few more days to conclude their investigation before jumping into action.

Suggesting a shift in U.S. opinion, however, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin caved to pressure and said he would join a slew of CEOs and foreign officials in dropping out of a Saudi investment conference slated to begin on Oct. 23 in Riyadh.

'Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,' Mnuchin tweeted.

Mnuchin had been under intense pressure to drop out of the conference that the White House had cast as intrinsic to its effort to dry up funds for terrorists.

He had maintained until now that he would participate, in spite of Turkish assurances that Khashoggi was not missing but had been kidnapped and murdered by a Saudi Arabian hit squad.

The U.S. backed away from the three-day conference that's known 'Davos of the Desert' after top American CEOs and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde pulled out.

Fox Business followed suit shortly after - depriving Saudi Arabia of it's last media sponsor.

Thrive's Ariana Huffington, the LA Times' Patrick Soon-Shiong, MasterCard's Ajay Banga, UK trade minister Liam Fox, JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim were among the other major business and government leaders who said this week that they would no longer attend, CNNBusiness reports.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin caved to pressure on Thursday and said he would join a slew of CEOs in dropping out of a Saudi investment conference

Mnuchin had been under intense pressure to drop out of the conference that the White House had cast as intrinsic to their effort to dry up funds for terrorists

After a meeting with Trump and the secretary of state, who was fresh off a trip to both nations, Mnuchin suddenly changed course and said he's also dropping out of the conference.

He did not provide a reason for the about-face other than the White House conversation.

The announcement came minutes after Pompeo announced that Saudi Arabia deserves a 'few more days' to get to the bottom of the disappearance in spite of a growing uproar over the alleged murder of the Saudi dissident.

'We made clear to them that we take this matter very seriously, and they made clear to me that they too understand the serious nature of the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi,' he said. 'They also made clear that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion.'

Pompeo spoke after he briefed President Trump on his meetings with the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh, where he warned the Saudi royal family they have 72 hours to finish the investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance, and the president of Turkey.

Reports described a tough meeting between Pompeo and the crown prince, after smiling photos of the two men fed a narrative that the U.S. was willing to assist the Saudis in finding a cover for the killing.

But Trump insisted on Wednesday that that wasn't the case.

'Im not giving cover at all,' he argued. 'With that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East.'

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Saudis 'assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi' following his disappearance

Trump said he wanted to speak to Pompeo before deciding on a course to take. He said he had not personally gotten his hands on a reported audio tape of the journalist's killing.

'We have asked for it, if it exists. We have asked for it,' Trump said.

The president had suggested earlier in the week that the suspected death was a 'rogue' killing that was not ordered by the Saudi kingdom after a conversation with the nation's king.

Pompeo revealed little additional information about the state of internal investigation that's being conducted by Saudi Arabia. Turkey is also doggedly pursuing leads into the disappearance of the journalist who was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

'I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision about how the United States should respond to the issues surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,' Pompeo said.

Pompeo said the crown prince made a 'personal commitment' to him about the nature of the investigation  which takes place amid intelligence leaks from Turkey that are already providing gruesome details of Khashoggi's alleged murder and torture inside the consulate in Istanbul.

'We're all going to get to see the work product, we're all going to get to see the response that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia takes with this,' Pompeo said.

'When we see that we'll get a chance to determine, all of us will get to make a determination with respect to the credibility and the work that went into that. Whether it's truly accurate, fair, transparent in the very way they made a personal commitment to me, and the crown prince also made a personal commitment to the president when he spoke to him, I believe it was the night before last,' he asserted.

Pompeo's public comments follow statements by anonymous sources familiar with his meeting with the crown prince that it was a tough encounter that belies the smiling public images of their talks.

A source told CNN that Pompeo warned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman the Saudis must 'own' the situation because 'every fact is going to get out.'

Pompeo spoke to the press at the White House following reports he had delivered a stern warning to the Saudis in private

He also communicated 'bluntly that if they don't, the US will have to deal with this,' according to the source, and 'will take action because the world will demand it and that President Trump's hand will be forced by the global pressure.'

The top U.S. diplomat arrived in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Wednesday after visiting Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss the progress of the investigation into the Washington Post columnist's disappearance.

Turkish media published grisly new allegations that Khashoggi was killed by being gradually dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad just hours before Pompeo's plane touched down for talks with King Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman.

As Pompeo prepared for his meeting with Trump after his conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he told reporters that he wanted to see the results of the investigation before arriving at any conclusions.

'I keep hearing that we're giving them some benefit of the doubt. They're going to do an investigation,' he said on Wednesday.

'I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so we can get a complete understanding the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make a decision about how the United States should respond to the issues surrounding Mr. Khashoggi,' Pompeo said

All smiles: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday

Turkey's President Recep Erdogan and Pompeo shake hands in front of a picture of Ataturk in Ankara on Wednesday

Pompeo speaks to reporters at a refueling stop in Brussels and says the US will wait for the outcome of the investigation and it was not 'about giving benefit of the doubt'

Pompeo was slammed for the warm, smiling images of his photo opportunity as he greeted the crown prince in Riyadh, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia and the accused orchestrate of the interrogation and killing of the dissident journalist.

The New York Times reported that a suspect identified by Turkey as a bodyguard of the prince's, Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, was seen entering the Istanbul consulate hours before Khashoggi arrived to collect divorce paperwork on October 2.

Three other suspects have been linked to the crown prince's security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, the Times said.

But the United States has refused to rebuke its ally, with President Trump insisting on the principle of innocent until proven guilty.

Pompeo, a former CIA chief under Trump, has refused to dole out any information on the suspected murder,telling his traveling press in Riyadh, 'I don't want to talk about any of the facts.'

Pompeo told the media as he left Saudi Arabia: 'My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials.

'They made a commitment that they would show the entire world the results of their investigation. They also indicated they would get this done quickly.'

Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2

A still image from surveillance camera footage taken the day Khashoggi entered the consulate of a man previously seen with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed entourage during a visit in April

President Trump also refused to accuse Saudi Arabia and even drew a parallel with the case of new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who had faced a swirl of sexual assault allegations in the lead up to his confirmation hearing.

'Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent,' Trump told the Associated Press.

American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Mohammed bin Salman is culpable in the killing of Khashoggi, a source told the New York Times.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaib, who was reportedly heard on an audio recording telling the assassins, 'do this outside, you're going to get me in trouble', as they cut off journalist's fingers one-by-one inside embassy.

It was reported Wednesday night he had been fired and subjected to an investigation following his return to Riyadh after he fled Turkey, but independent sources have not corroborated that information.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect divorce papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee

A Turkish police officer walks outside the Saudi Arabia consul general's residence in Istanbul today as officers searched the premises after he left for Riyadh

Turkish government sources have said police believe the journalist was killed by a special team of 15 Saudi officials sent to Istanbul especially to carry out the 'hit' and were lying in wait for Khashoggi.

The controversy has blown a hole in attempts by Crown Prince Mohammed to promote himself as a modern reformer and led to a spate of cancellations of Mnuchin and top CEOs from a major Riyadh investment conference, dubbed 'Davos in the desert', which was due to start next week.

Trump would only say Thursday in a matter-of-fact statement that he had spoken with his secretary of state.

'Secretary of State Mike Pompeo returned last night from Saudi Arabia and Turkey. I met with him this morning wherein the Saudi situation was discussed in great detail, including his meeting with the Crown Prince. He is waiting for the results of the investigations being done by the Saudis and Turkey, and just gave a news conference to that effect,' the president tweeted.Anjem Choudary walks free today despite becoming hardened in jail and more determined than ever to spread his toxic Islamist propaganda.

The hate preachers already militant views became far more extreme and aggressive while locked up and he now sees regards himself as a martyr, according to those who met him in prison.

And he is plotting to circumvent strict control orders aimed at stopping him spreading his message that has radicalised hundreds of disaffected young Muslims and helped incite dozens of murders, it was alleged.

The new counter-terrorism bill should reduce the legal threshold for incitement, making it easier to prosecute the Choudarys of this world

There are fears Choudary, who previously mocked up a picture of Buckingham Palace as a mosque, could go back to radicalising young men after his release this week

Choudary is being released to a probation hostel after serving half his sentence for swearing an oath of allegiance to Islamic State  despite security experts warning the Pied Piper of jihad would inspire more terror attacks.

Parole board's plan to keep Anjem Choudary from spreading poison Choudary will face 25 licence conditions. Any breach could result in a return to custody. They have been drawn up by the security services, police, probation service and the Ministry of Justice, they include: Being forced to live in an approved hostel Electronic tagging A night-time curfew Keeping in contact with his supervising probation officer Handing over his passport A ban on travelling outside the M25 Only being allowed to attend pre-approved mosques Only being allowed one mobile phone, which he must hand over to the authorities for checking on request A ban on contacting individuals who he knows or believes to have been charged with or convicted of extremist-related offences without prior approval No use of the internet unless with prior permission No unsupervised contact with children Not being allowed to speak to the media A ban from preaching Not being allowed to convene meetings Advertisement

However, he will be subject to a huge security operation, including surveillance teams, monitoring devices and demands that he adhere to up to 25 rules controlling his activities.

Choudary, 51, a married father of five, is one of Britains most notorious firebrand clerics. He was jailed for five-and-a-half years for inviting support for IS, but is due for automatic release after serving half his sentence. The release came as:

Campaigners said he remained Britains most dangerous extremist after research showed he is already linked to over 120 Islamist terrorists.

It was revealed that the huge security surrounding him is estimated to cost the taxpayer more than 2million a year - compared to the 50,000 to keep him in jail.

An imam who has met Choudary in jail suggested he had used human rights laws to be placed in a half-way house in North London  close to where he used to preach  by claiming he had to be near his children.

The release is a landmark moment for the Government, which is still reeling from a string of atrocities which left more than 30 dead last year.

The preacher, who once led banned group Al-Muhajiroun, was sentenced in 2016. Fiyaz Mughal, head of anti-extremist group Faith Matters, has spoken to the imam who was brought into jail to try to de-radicalise him.

Choudary was put in containment that stops him engaging with other prisoners, but also given pastoral care to see if they could get through to him, he said. I asked the guy who spoke to him if the de-radicalisation programme had worked and he said, No, hes got worse. Hes hardened. He speaks in the mind-set of the victim. He sees himself as a martyr the state tried to silence.

Choudary does not plan to directly challenge the conditions of his release, but instead is working out ways to get round them, Mr Mughal said.

Hes said things like, if someone wants to upload my videos Im not going to stop them.

Mr Mughal added: He should have served the full term. Its a terrible day for victims of the attacks he has helped incite.

We need a change in the law so that anyone named as the inciter in two terrorist attacks should automatically serve the full sentence.

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary - who inspired some of Britain's most notorious terrorists - is to be released on Friday and moved to a bail hostel

Dr Michael Kenney, of the University of Pittsburgh, who followed Al-Muhajiroun for five years for his research, said its followers were very excited about his release.

They had been dormant following his arrest, but are now expected to try to rebuild and revitalise, he said.

And he warned it was entirely possible that more of his followers would turn to terrorism, like Khuram Butt, who was part of last years London Bridge terror attack and Lee Rigby killers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale.

Security expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, said: He is charismatic and a very gifted orator  he is the Pied Piper of Jihad.

Those who are vulnerable to his warped messages will see him as a hero  who has been through the fire of imprisonment.

Security sources say Choudarys conviction has raised his credibility among fanatics. In the past, his desire not to go to prison and, what was seen in some quarters as his cowardice by not going to Syria, raised suspicions that he was a stooge for the security services. Campaign group Hope not Hate found he has been directly or indirectly linked to at least 123 Islamist terrorists.

Anjem Choudary will remain the most dangerous extremist in Britain today, said Nick Lowles, chief executive. This is a man who has inspired dozens to commit acts of violence.

The security operation will include surveillance teams, monitoring devices and demands that Choudary adhere to up to 25 rules. He also faces being targeted by UN sanctions to freeze his assets, prevent him travelling and even enforce arms embargo provisions.

Theresa May yesterday insisted safeguards were place to protect people from him.If you're planning to send a package as the holidays approach, you would be forgiven for having a deep sense of unease after watching this video of a FedEx employee carelessly chucking boxes into the back of his truck.

The clip has been viewed 3,000 times on YouTube and shows how little care is taken by the trusted employee who is supposed to carefully deliver valuable items.

In the footage which lasts for just under a minute, a FedEx worker can be seen throwing packages from one van to another without even looking where they are going to land.

On several occasions throughout the clip, boxes are seen landing on the floor.

A FedEx delivery driver was caught on camera throwing packages into the back of a truck with reckless abandon

The man was filmed at an airbase in Houma, Louisiana chucking 'fragile' packages with quite some force

'International mechanic shop on the airbase in Houma, Louisiana around 4pm. Fedex truck was being dropped off to get maintenance work done and offloaded packages to a U-Haul truck,' wrote the anonymous poster who uploaded the clip online.

'They use U-Haul trucks when they need other sources of transportation for deliveries. The man in the video seems to be off duty but he is an actual FedEx employee, just not in uniform,' said the person who shot the footage.

FedEx say they are currently working to identify the rogue employee.

'The behavior depicted in the video is unacceptable and inconsistent with the professionalism FedEx Ground contracted service providers demonstrate every day in safely and securely delivering millions of packages to our customers.

'We are committed to treating our customers' shipments with the utmost care and are taking the appropriate steps to address this matter.'' said a FedEx spokeswoman to DailyMail.com.

The shocking footage was filmed by a woman sitting in a nearby car

FedEx are looking into the video and are trying to establish the identity of the lazy employee

'The employee will face disciplinary processes. We understand why it went viral but the silver lining is that here is a learning opportunity for FedEx.

'We want to remind employees that they are expected to be professional... even when they don't think someone is looking.'

Company executives were said to be 'shocked' when they saw the video on Thursday and have called the handling of the package 'unacceptable.'Crisis-torn Saudi Arabia has been lavishing hundreds of thousands of pounds on British MPs, the Mail can reveal.

The kingdom  under fire over the suspected state-sponsored murder of a journalist  has been pouring cash into a charm offensive.

In just two years it has tripled the amount of money spent on MPs to pay for luxury hotels, business-class flights and magnificent feasts.

Conservative MP Helen Whately visited Saudi Arabia last year. In just two years it has tripled the amount of money spent on MPs to pay for luxury hotels, business-class flights and magnificent feasts

Campaigners say 38 MPs who got freebies over the past five years are accessories to a cynical bid to brush up the oil-rich Gulf nations tarnished image.

Saudi Arabias slick PR offensive comes as it battles international condemnation over the suspected murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Screaming Mr Khashoggi, 59, is said to have been recorded in his countrys consulate in Istanbul apparently being chopped up while alive  as the chief Saudi government hitman listened to music on earphones.

Conservative MP Leo Docherty pictured with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, in a smiling selfie last year. The kingdom  under fire over the suspected state-sponsored murder of a journalist  has been pouring cash into a charm offensive

Saudi Arabia is also under intense scrutiny for staging bombing raids across Yemen that have killed thousands of civilians.

In 2016, British parliamentarians accepted 35,062 of junkets, gifts and other benefits from the authoritarian regime. But this year the figure is more than three times higher at 106,418  and it is only October. The total since 2015 has been put at 208,000.

The Mails investigation into MPs financial links with Saudi Arabia came as:

The backlash against the kingdom intensified with trade minister Liam Fox joining an international boycott of next weeks Davos in the desert conference;

British military sales to Saudi Arabia soared by two thirds from 2016 to 2017, an increase of more than 450 million;

The final newspaper article Mr Khashoggi wrote before he went missing was published, and called for free expression in the Arab world;

An alleged member of the Saudi hit squad was seen on CCTV strolling into the consulate hours before he went missing

Last night Andrew Smith, from Campaign Against the Arms Trade, said: At the same time as the MPs were enjoying luxury flights and hotels, human rights defenders were being abused and Yemen was being bombed.

'MPs should be speaking out and taking action, not accepting gifts and hospitality.

The Saudi regime has one of the most appalling human rights records in the world, and MPs should not be supporting it.

Labour MP Mike Gapes also visited Saudi Arabia. This year's benefits for British MPs from the Saudi state are worth 106,418  and it is only October. The total since 2015 has been put at 208,000

The Saudi authorities are not lavishing hospitality on MPs because they want to promote dialogue, it is because they want to buy influence and power in Westminster.

Saudi Arabia lavishes more treats on British MPs than all the other Gulf states put together, the Mails analysis shows.

Under parliamentary rules, MPs have to declare the freebies on the register of members interests  the official record of financial benefits which others might reasonably consider to influence his or her actions or words as a Member of Parliament.

So far this year, eight Conservative and five Labour MPs have accepted lavish junkets to Saudi Arabia to the tune of 106,418.

They flew business class and were pampered in top-end hotels, with the Riyadh regime taking care of all the bills. Leo Docherty, Conservative MP for Aldershot, lavished fawning praise on Saudi Crown Prince Salman in the Commons last year while failing to mention he had received more than 16,000 in donations from the kingdom.

Security members of the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul open police barriers as a Saudi diplomatic vehicle arrives, where Jamal Khashoggi was allegedly murdered by the regime

Last night he said he had been unfamiliar with the correct procedure as a new MP when he failed to declare his interests, but had swiftly rectified the omission to the satisfaction of the House.

Mr Docherty said: Its important to note that these visits are not treats or donations but working visits that take time and effort to a serious purpose  i.e. better understanding a key ally for our country.

Joining him on the January junket were two other Conservative MPs, Richard Bacon and Philip Hollobone.

The trip, hosted by the Saudi defence ministry, lasted four days and cost 8,257 each in flights, accommodation, internal transport and food.

Tory MP Andrew Mitchell also visited Saudi in the same week on a 6,629 trip.

How our British MPs accept benefits and EVEN trips from the Saudi regime North Dorset MP Simon Hoare, Con South Basildon MP Stephen Metcalfe, Con Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier, Con Fylde MP Mark Menzies, Con In 2016, British parliamentarians accepted 35,062 of junkets, gifts and other benefits from the authoritarian regime. But this year the figure is more than three times higher at 106,418  and it is only October. The total since 2015 has been put at 208,000. Under parliamentary rules, MPs have to declare the freebies on the register of members interests  the official record of financial benefits which others might reasonably consider to influence his or her actions or words as a Member of Parliament. Saudi Arabia lavishes more treats on British MPs than all the other Gulf states put together, the Mails analysis shows. Campaigners say 38 MPs who got freebies over the past five years are accessories to a cynical bid to brush up the oil-rich Gulf nations tarnished image. Saudi Arabias slick PR offensive comes as it battles international condemnation over the suspected murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. These MPs include: Simon Hoare After a 3,187-a-head fact finding junket to Riyadh in 2017, North Dorset Tory MP Simon Hoare, right, and Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, above, both defended Saudi Arabia without declaring their financial interest. In a Commons debate, Mr Hoare suggested a quiet conversation would be better than shouting at the regime. Mrs Whateley said: The Government of Saudi Arabia are taking steps to improve their actions on human rights. Stephen Metcalfe Runnymede and Weybridge MP Phillip Hammond, Con The Conservative MP for South Basildon was among four MPs who each declared 7,802 for flights, transport, food and accommodation to visit Saudi. He said: I accepted on the basis it broadened my knowledge of Saudi Arabia. Mark Garnier The Tory MP for Wyre Forest went on the same four-day visit. Afterwards he wrote: We should not force another society to adopt all our values. Mark Menzies Mr Menzies, Tory MP for Fylde, led a delegation to Riyadh in 2017. He wrote: The close relationship the UK has...means that we have more diplomatic clout. Phillip Hammond The Chancellor accepted a 1,950 watch, despite a ban on ministers receiving gifts worth more than 140. He declared the private gift from one of Saudis richest men after the unveiling of a statue of the Queen in his constituency. His spokesman said that civil servants had advised him the gift was not related to him being a minister. Advertisement

A month later, four other Conservative MPs were VIP guests of the countrys foreign ministry.

Mark Garnier, James Heappey, Stephen Metcalfe and Keith Simpson accepted 7,802 worth of freebies each  or 31,208 in total  to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic links between the two countries.

Mr Metcalfe told the Mail he had wanted to broaden my knowledge of the Gulf state.

Asked about the Yemen crisis, he said: Im not sure the Saudis are bombing civilians on purpose. They need to take more care in their targeting, and Ive told them that.

Mr Garnier said Saudi made a great holiday destination because there were no drunken brawls outside noisy nightclubs.

In April, it was Labours turn  with their 43,810 freebie the most expensive of the lot.

Five of Jeremy Corbyns MPs took treats of business-class flights, hotel accommodation and hospitality totalling 8,762 each.

Yemenis displaced from the port city of Hodeidah receive humanitarian aid donated by the World Food Programme last month. The Saudi-backed government is fighting a rebel government. With Saudi bombing, the lack of food means Yemen is on the brink of famine

A Yemeni child suffering from malnutrition is weighed at a hospital in the northern district of Abs. Asked about the Yemen crisis, Mr Metcalfe said: Im not sure the Saudis are bombing civilians on purpose. They need to take more care in their targeting, and Ive told them that

The visit by Mike Gapes, John Spellar, Dr Paul Williams, John Woodcock and Kevan Jones, as guests of the countrys Shura Council  which advises the king  lasted four days and was to discuss issues of mutual concern.

Dr Williams, the MP for Stockton South, tweeted: My previous notions have been blown out of the water. Ive seen a modern, progressive Saudi Arabia that has totally changed my view of this country.

Mr Gapes, the MP for Ilford South, told the Mail he had long had an interest in the Middle East and the Arab world.

Alex Burghart, the Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar in Essex, who went on a 7,800 visit to Saudi in September 2017 to support and understand British-Saudi ties, told the Mail: I wanted to find out more about the country and the region. I was lucky enough to be there on the day when the King announced that women would be allowed to drive.

Two Tory MPs had to apologise after speaking up for Saudi in the Commons but failing to mention their 3,187-a-head junket to Riyadh in April 2017.

So far this year, eight Conservative and five Labour MPs have accepted lavish junkets to Saudi Arabia to the tune of 106,418

North Dorset Conservative MP Simon Hoare and Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, both defended the regime during a July 2017 Commons debate about the imminent execution of 14 Saudi activists.

Mr Hoare, 49, suggested a quiet conversation would be better than shouting at the Saudi regime, and Mrs Whateley, 42, stood up to say the House should appreciate that the government of Saudi Arabia are taking steps to improve their actions on human rights.

After both were rebuked by the Speaker, Mrs Whately said: I perhaps should have drawn the Houses attention to my entry in the Register of Members Financial Interests, and Mr Hoare said: Ditto.

Two months later, Mr Hoare accepted a 7,800 return visit to the kingdom to support and understand the British-Saudi relationship. Yesterday Mrs Whately said her trip was declared and registered in accordance with Parliamentary rules.

Conservative Charlotte Leslie - who lost her seat at the last election - accepted a food hamper worth 500 from the Saudi regime, while Chancellor Philip Hammond got a 2,000 wristwatch as a gift.

Mr Hammonds spokesman said civil servants had advised him the gift was not related to him being a minister, but an MP, and therefore he could keep it.

Last night a separate Channel 4 investigation found that Saudi representatives have also given government ministers expensive gifts  including gold-plated, diamond-encrusted bookends and a silver horse ornament.

And Conservative MP Rehman Chishti was paid 46,000 of Saudi money over 23 months to work as an adviser for a Riyadh-based organisation set up by the Saudi royal family.

Braintree MP James Cleverly, pictured left, also made the trip to Saudi Arabia. Mrs Whateley, 42, dressed in blue on the right, stood up to say the House should appreciate that the government of Saudi Arabia are taking steps to improve their actions on human rights

Many of the MPs contacted by the Mail said Saudi was a key ally of the UK. Some cited the fight against terrorism while others pointed to UK defence jobs that rely on arms sales.

Allan Hogarth, Amnesty International UKs head of policy and government affairs, said: Any MP tempted by a lavish trip to Saudi Arabia ought to bear in mind that jailed Saudi human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail, while the Saudi coalitions lethal bombing of Yemen is making lives miserable for thousands of poor and malnourished Yemenis.

Saudi Arabias appalling human rights record is well-documented, and no parliamentarian should go to the country without being prepared to publicly raise human rights.

George Graham, of Save the Children, said: For three years Saudi Arabia has been killing children in Yemen, quite possibly with British-made weapons. The fighting has driven millions of families to the brink of famine and created the worst cholera epidemic in living memory. Our leaders must do whats right and stop fuelling this conflict with military and political support for one side in this brutal war.

Saudi Arabia dished out nearly three times as much money in gifts and expenses-paid junkets to MPs than its nearest Middle East rival UAE.A throng of topless protesters embraced the chilly New York City temperatures Thursday afternoon as they rallied against the upscale outerwear brand Canada Goose.

The PETA demonstration kicked off around noon outside the winter apparel flagship store located on Wooster Street in SoHo.

A modest number of women were pictured outside shop windows where they bared their breasts and marched the city streets in the crisp 40-degree cold, sans shirts.

Protesters sported black pants, matching boots and writings across their chests that read: 'Canada Goose Kills.' On their backs, the brand logo was painted in dripping blood.

A handful of men attended the animal rights rally, holding signs that said things like, 'Coyotes Suffer for Canada Goose!' and 'Fur is Dead!'

A group of PETA supporters protest Canada Goose's use of coyote fur, with 'Canada Goose Kills' painted on their backs in New York City on October 18, 2018

Women are pictured outside the Canada Goose flagship where they bared their breasts and marched the city streets to protest

The demonstration kicked off around noon outside the winter apparel flagship store located on Wooster Street in SoHo

The protesters sported black pants, black boots and writing across their chests that read: 'Canada Goose Kills'

Other attendees of the Thursday rally in SoHo held up signs condemning the use of fur

Signs said things like, 'Coyotes Suffer for Canada Goose!' and 'Fur is Dead!'

Smoke bombs were set off and a banner flew during the riot that showed a bloodied version of the company logo.

The purpose of the demonstration was to disclose Canada Goose's coyote killing practices. Many of the brand's costly fall and winter fur jackets are priced over $1,000.

PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement: 'Every Canada Goose coat represents the suffering of coyotes who were caught in painful steel traps and geese whose throats were slit.

'PETA is calling on shoppers to refuse to give a dime to this cruel company until it stops selling items for which sensitive animals are tormented and killed.'

The nonprofit's website said Thursday's protest was the only beginning - and more will take place this fall and winter.

'Coyotes used for the companys fur trim can suffer in traps for days before theyre shot or bludgeoned to death,' PETA said.

'Trapped coyote mothers desperate to get back to their starving pups have even attempted to chew off their own limbs to escape.'

PETA said the protests are only just beginning - and more will take place this season and into the winter

Two women are seen outside the Canada Goose store protesting the clothing company and animal cruelty

An edited version of the brand logo is seen on a woman's back with painted blood

The PETA demonstration kicked off around noon outside the winter apparel flagship store Thursday

In 2016, the organization released an expose about the brand's practices shortly before the flagship opened in New York City.

'Proudly Torturing Animals since 1957,' a PETA ad read, next to a man holding what appeared to be a deceased coyote.

PETA has also condemned the outwear brand for its bird abuse.

The organization said: 'We now know that the company is filling its jackets with down from abused birds.'

One of their eyewitnesses found that the company workers 'rounded up panicked geese, grabbing and carrying them by the neck, as they struggled with their entire weight hanging from their necks, and crammed them into densely packed cages for transport to slaughter.'

PETA said in a statement: 'Every Canada Goose coat represents the suffering of coyotes who were caught in painful steel traps and geese whose throats were slit'

The organization said it is 'calling on shoppers to refuse to give a dime to this cruel company'

Smoke bombs were set off during the riot Thursday afternoon in SoHo

Other signs read: 'Canada Goose: Shameless Cruelty' and 'Here's The Rest of Your Canada Goose Coat'

Canada Goose said they 'respect that some people think animal products should never be used in any consumer products' but they 'do not share that view.'

The statement said: 'Ethically sourced down, fur, wool and shearling are an important part of our story.

'We believe all animals are entitled to humane treatment in life and death, and are deeply committed to the responsible use and ethical sourcing of all animal materials in our products.

'We do not condone any willful mistreatment and neglect of animals or acts that maliciously cause undue pain, injury or suffering.

'We recently implemented comprehensive traceability programs for both Fur and Down to ensure they are sourced from animals that have not been subjected to any unfair practices, willfull mistreatment or undue harm.'

Many of the brand's costly fall and winter jackets are priced over $1,000Theresa May was inching towards a Brexit breakthrough in Brussels last night, but only after she gambled by offering fresh concessions that enraged Tory Eurosceptics.

The Prime Minister confirmed reports that she was willing to extend Britains transition out of the EU by a matter of months if it helped clinch a deal.

And she did not dispute a claim by Helen McEntee, Irelands Europe minister, that she had dropped her demand for a fixed end date on a controversial backstop plan that could see the UK remain in a temporary customs union after the transition ends.

However, extending the transition  which is due to finish at the end of December 2020  means the UK would continue to accept EU laws and the free movement of people, and would involve billions more in payments on top of the 39billion divorce bill. Critics said an extra year could cost 16billion.

The premier is facing a furious backlash from Brexiteers and the DUP after the idea was floated in talks last night

There were indications in Brussels that Mrs Mays gambit could break the deadlock over the issue of the Irish border, which has threatened to derail hopes of a deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reported to have told EU leaders it was time to show flexibility in Brexit negotiations.

But Mrs Mays diplomatic gamble caused a political firestorm at home, with both Brexiteers and some Remainers warning that the concessions were a step too far. It was unclear, however, whether the anger would end in a leadership challenge, with much of the criticism coming from those who were already attacking Mrs Mays approach. A Tory source added: Its the same people, theyre just shouting louder.

Former minister Nick Boles, who campaigned for Remain, warned that Mrs May was losing the confidence of the party, while fellow Remainer and former Brexit minister Lord Bridges said the idea of a longer transition was dead on arrival.

Jacob Rees-Mogg said a longer transition was a poor attempt at kicking the can down the road, while a source on the European Research Group said Tory MPs were on a hair trigger to call for Mrs May to go.

Mrs May insisted she did not 'expect' that there would be a gap and suggested it would last 'a matter of months' rather than the year suggested by the EU

Eurosceptic Nadine Dorries urged MPs to follow her own lead by submitting a letter of no confidence in the PM.

But Mrs Mays willingness to extend the transition is thought to have the support of some prominent Cabinet ministers.

Business Secretary Greg Clark, Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox all told the PM she was on the right track.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Commons leader Andrea Leadsom  both Brexiteers  are also said to have indicated they could live with the compromise. Yesterday, other Tories urged the party to get behind Theresa May and stop sniping.

Former minister Gary Streeter said: We are making the mistake of reacting to the ebb and flow of negotiations rather than judging the deal at the end.

The row came as:

 Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier hinted at a breakthrough, saying he was ready to resume negotiations.

 Irish PM Leo Varadkar brandished a newspaper warning of a return to IRA violence as he tried to persuade EU leaders to continue backing his hardline stance on the Irish border.

 Deputy DUP leader Nigel Dodds warned extending the transition would do nothing on the key issue of the unacceptable issue of the Irish backstop.

The leaders gathered at the EU council's headquarters in the Belgian capital today for the second half of the summit

But there were positive noises from Brussels, with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker saying an extended transition was a good idea and a deal will be done.

Speaking in Brussels, Mrs May played down the criticism back home, and hinted that further concessions may be needed to seal a deal, warning of more difficult moments as we enter the final stages.

However, some Brexiteer ministers gave coded criticisms, with International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt dismissing the idea of staying bound to the EU for longer, adding: That is not the position. The Prime Minister has been very clear about when the implementation period will come to an end.

Mr Gove said it was vital that Brexit occurred at the earliest possible point.

But Tory moderates urged MPs to back the PM. Simon Hart, founder of the Brexit Delivery Group of 80 Tory MPs, said critics were weakening our negotiating position.

A Whitehall source said Mrs May had offered concessions on the Irish border to unblock talks that collapsed at the weekend, adding: We have got to get movement on this issue. It is holding everything back. If we dont solve it, were stuck.A boy has been arrested after allegedly slashing a schoolgirl in the face with a knife in a random, 'horrific' attack as she walked to school.

Police allege that a 17-year-old wearing a high-visibility shirt attacked the 12-year-old while she was walking through a pedestrian tunnel off Princess Street, Kingston, south of Brisbane at 7.40am on Thursday.

Detective Acting Inspector Grant Ralston said the girl fought back against her attacker despite being slashed in the face with a box-cutter knife about 20 times.

'The assault could only be described as vicious and cowardly,' he said.

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Police allege that a 17-year-old wearing a high-visibility shirt attacked the 12-year-old while she was walking through a pedestrian tunnel off Princess Street, Kingston, south of Brisbane

Detective Acting Inspector Grant Ralston said the girl fought back against her attacker despite being slashed in the face about 20 times

'She fought as best she could and after being struck approximately 20 times across the face, incredibly she managed to pick herself up and run towards her school at Kingston  and the offender ran off in the other direction.

The teenage girl was bleeding profusely from her face when she arrived at school.

'It's hard to believe this has happened. And to strike her so many times in the face, and for her to actually have the courage to fight him off. He was bigger than her, he was older than her.

'She is really incredible and will make a recovery but it's horrific.'

Police said the teenage victim was given first aid at school before she was taken to Queensland Children's Hospital to undergo emergency surgery.

She is recovering with her family by her side.

A manhunt involving as many as 30 detectives from the Logan Child Protection and Investigation Unit led to the boy's arrest.A married mother has been sacked after she was allegedly caught having an affair with her boss, a Labour council leader  who has kept his job.

Hayley Selvester, 33, was personal assistant to Councillor Aaron Shotton, 42, when claims about their relationship surfaced in June.

Reports at the time suggested the pair had been having sex in his office at Flintshire Council in North Wales.

Mrs Selvester was fired last week for gross misconduct but sources at the council say her colleagues are furious that Mr Shotton is still in his post.

The Leader of Labour-controlled Flintshire County Council, Aaron Shotton, 42, pictured with his wife Ceri, 36

Amid calls for his resignation, he has kept his job while the local government ombudsman for Wales investigates.

If Mr Shotton is found to have broken the councils code of conduct, he could be referred to the authoritys standards committee or the independent adjudication panel for Wales, which has the power to suspend him or ban him from office.

Mrs Selvester declined to comment when approached by the Daily Mail at her home in Hawarden, North Wales. It is understood she has lodged an appeal against her dismissal.

However, a source told the Mail: Hayleys colleagues are absolutely livid. While she has been sacked, the council leader is still strutting around determined to hang on to office. But if people think Hayley is going to let him get away scot- free they are in for a shock.

Hayley Selvester, 33, was Mr Shotton's PA. She is pictured with her husband Dale, 34, who is a housing officer with the same council

Flintshire County Council's head office - County Hall at Mold - where the pair are said to have had sex in Mr Shotton's office

She is a smart, resourceful woman. She is waiting to see what the ombudsmans inquiry decides. If she feels an injustice at the end of the day, stand by for fireworks.

Twice married Mr Shotton has been leader of Flintshire Council for six years. In 2015 he boasted he would run the first Corbynista council in the UK after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour leader.

His second wife Ceri, 36, is a volunteer support worker for cancer victims. He has two children with first wife, Sarah.

Talk of an affair emerged when mother-of-two Mrs Selvesters husband Dale, 34, a housing officer with the council, turned up at Connahs Quay Labour Club  of which Mr Shotton is chairman  looking for him.

He showed other councillors text messages allegedly sent between his wife and Mr Shotton which suggested they had sex in his council office.

Last night Mr Shotton did not respond to requests to comment but opposition members on the council called for him to resign or at least step down until the investigation is completed.

Clive Carver, leader of the Conservative group, said: It would have been honourable for him to go. Independent group leader Mike Peers said there was a lot of disquiet and disappointment that Mr Shotton remained in post while Mrs Selvester had been forced out.

If its serious on her part, it must be mirrored for the other party, Mr Peers said. He and other opposition leaders wrote to Mr Shotton asking him to step down but received no response, he added.

Flintshire Council said it was unable to comment.Cody Haynes, 30, called the police to tell them his home had been broken into by armed intruders and were holding his family hostage- police found no evidence but they did find meth

A mechanic who assists in maintaining the White House helicopter fleet was busted for meth after he called 911 about three men breaking into his Florida home, in an incident that apparently never occurred.

Cody Haynes, 30, called 911 Wednesday night and told police his family was being held captive by three armed intruders. Eight officers raced to the home he shares with his girlfriend and their young daughter in Port St. Lucie.

When they arrived, Haynes told police that his home had been stormed by three 'masked African American subjects,' according to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.

He told police the intruders held his family captive for hours, but that he was able to escape with his daughter and believed his girlfriend 'remained inside of the home with the perpetrators.'

Haynes works as a mechanic on the presidential helicopter fleet- he has top secret clearance

He admitted to police he was doing meth earlier in the day, and his girlfriend Tara Frew (pictured) told police he was doing it as well

Police searched the home and found no evidence of a break in but did find what appeared to be meth, as well as drug paraphernalia inside a box in the master bedroom.

Meanwhile Haynes was sweating profusley as he spoke with the responding officers who noticed his pupils looked slighted dialated.

The police report stated his 'breathing was slightly labored' as well as he was questioned by the cops.

He admitted to the police he had smoked meth earlier at the home.

When police asked him to pull up his girlfriend's number on his cellphone they noticed in his browser a website about drug hallucinations before he clicked off it for her contact.

Police asked his girlfriend Tara Frew to come to the home. When she arrived she told police that Haynes had anxiety and had been using meth at the home.

She also told police he 'mainly works in Maryland,' where he is employed as a helicopter mechanic with Sikorsky Aircraft.

Haynes arrest affidavit after he called 911 to tell police there were intruders in his home. He ended up behind bars

Frew told police Haynes earns more than $150,000 annually and maintains a top secret security clearance 'due to his work with the Presidential Helicopter fleet.'

Sikorsky is the company that manufactures the helicopters used by the president and top administration officials.

They work from Andrews Air Force base and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, both of which are in Maryland.

Both his father, who lives nearby, and his girlfriend confirmed to police that he spends a majority of his time working in Maryland and comes home to his family in Florida when time permits.

Haynes was arrested on felony narcotics possession and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug equipment. He was also hit with a felony child neglect charge for allegedly smoking meth while responsible for the care of his daughter.Lord Bridges, who served in the Department for Exiting the European Union between July 2016 and June 2017, joined a chorus of criticism after the Prime Minister raised the possibility of the new concession

Theresa May is facing the most dangerous week of her premiership after angering Tories of all stripes over her proposal to extend the Brexit transition period, an idea one former Brexit minister called 'dead on arrival'.

Remainer Lord Bridges, who served in the Department for Exiting the European Union between July 2016 and June 2017, joined a chorus of criticism last night after the Prime Minister raised the possibility of the new concession.

The news has unleashed a new frenzy of plotting against the Prime Minister, with former Brexit secretary David Davis calling round ministers to call for a change in the negotiations - prompting rumours of a leadership challenge.

'He is definitely on manoeuvres,' one recipient of a call told The Times.

Although friends of Mr Davis insist he is only seeking a reversal of policy, not a change in leader, there are said to be a small but growing group of Tory MPs who would like to install him in a caretaker capacity.

One senior Conservative said the 'current was flowing' against Mrs May as Brexiteer MPs met to discuss submitting letters of no confidence - with 48 needed to dislodge her.

Mrs May's willingness to extend the transition is thought to have the support of some prominent Cabinet ministers. She is seen yesterday in Brussels

Eurosceptic Nadine Dorries urged MPs to follow her own lead by submitting a letter of no confidence in the PM.

Jacob Rees-Mogg said a longer transition was a 'poor attempt at kicking the can down the road', while a source on the European Research Group said Tory MPs were 'on a hair trigger' to call for Mrs May to go.

On the Remain side, groups representing more than 100 pro-EU Tory MPs held a meeting to discuss ways of blocking a no-deal Brexit.

Former minister Nick Boles, who campaigned for Remain, warned that Mrs May was 'losing the confidence of the party'.

Extending the transition  which is due to finish at the end of December 2020  means the UK would continue to accept EU laws and the free movement of people, and would involve billions more in payments on top of the 39billion divorce bill. Critics said an extra year could cost 16billion.

There were indications in Brussels that Mrs May's gambit could break the deadlock over the issue of the Irish border, which has threatened to derail hopes of a deal.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reported to have told EU leaders it was time to show 'flexibility' in Brexit negotiations.

But this did little to put out the political firestorm at home, with both Brexiteers and some Remainers warning that the concessions were a step too far.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Seen today) was reported to have told EU leaders it was time to show 'flexibility' in Brexit negotiations

There was also concern that Mrs May did not dispute a claim by Helen McEntee, Ireland's Europe minister, that she had dropped her demand for a fixed end date on a backstop plan that could see the UK remain in a temporary customs union after the transition ends.

It was unclear, however, whether the anger would end in a leadership challenge, with much of the criticism coming from those who were already attacking Mrs May's approach. A Tory source added: 'It's the same people, they're just shouting louder.'

Despite the firestorm of opposition, Mrs May's willingness to extend the transition is also thought to have the support of some prominent Cabinet ministers.

Business Secretary Greg Clark, Chancellor Philip Hammond and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox all told the PM she was on the right track.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Commons leader Andrea Leadsom  both Brexiteers  are also said to have indicated they could live with the compromise. Yesterday, other Tories urged the party to get behind Theresa May and stop sniping.

Ease up on Theresa May, Merkel and Macron tell Barnier Germany and France have told Michel Barnier to be 'more flexible' with the embattled Prime Minister over the Irish border question. Angela Merkel and Emanuel Macron used a private meeting of European leaders on Wednesday to urge the EU's chief negotiator to give Mrs May a legal guarantee that any deal would not include a customers border at the Irish Sea, diplomats told The Times. They are said to be worried that without such a guarantee there would be no way for Mrs May to get a Brexit deal through Parliament. Brussels has insisted the only way of avoiding a hard border is for Northern Ireland to stay under its customs jurisdiction. But Mrs May says that would be unacceptable as it would split up the UK. Critically, the premier's DUP allies - who prop her up in power - are adamant they will not allow it to happen. Advertisement

Former minister Gary Streeter said: 'We are making the mistake of reacting to the ebb and flow of negotiations rather than judging the deal at the end.'

The row came as:

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier hinted at a breakthrough, saying he was 'ready to resume negotiations'.

Irish PM Leo Varadkar brandished a newspaper warning of a return to IRA violence as he tried to persuade EU leaders to continue backing his hardline stance on the Irish border.

Deputy DUP leader Nigel Dodds warned extending the transition would 'do nothing on the key issue of the unacceptable issue of the Irish backstop'.

But there were positive noises from Brussels, with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker saying an extended transition was 'a good idea' and a deal 'will be done'.

Speaking in Brussels, Mrs May played down the criticism back home, and hinted that further concessions may be needed to seal a deal, warning of 'more difficult moments as we enter the final stages'.

However, some Brexiteer ministers gave coded criticisms, with International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt dismissing the idea of staying bound to the EU for longer, adding: 'That is not the position. The Prime Minister has been very clear about when the implementation period will come to an end.'

Tory MP: I wouldn't even vote for my party now Johnny Mercer, an ex-Army officer who was elected in 2015, described Mrs Mays administration as a s**t show. He is pictured in 2015 A Tory MP launched an extraordinary attack on his own Government last night as Theresa May faced open speculation in the party about her future as leader. Johnny Mercer, an ex-Army officer who was elected in 2015, described Mrs Mays administration as a s**t show, questioned whether the party still shared his values and ethos and said he would never have run for Parliament if the situation was like it is now. In an interview with The House magazine, he warned that if Tory Brexit rows let in Jeremy Corbyn I dont think wed be forgiven for a generation and we wouldnt deserve to be. The Remain supporter said that with hindsight his pre-MP self wouldnt vote, adding: Theres no doubt about it that my set of values and ethos, I was comfortable that it was aligned with the Conservative Party. Im not as comfortable that thats the case any more. Mr Mercer claimed Mrs May is too focused on Brexit and accused her of being a technocrat leading the Tories in the wrong direction. He branded Mrs Mays Chequers deal your classic professional politicians answer because it is down the middle. He added: It doesnt make anybody happy. I think if we forget that at the crucial moment on Brexit, and I say that as a Remainer, the disdain with which people have held politicians will reach a crescendo if we dont deliver on that referendum result and make people feel like theyve left the European Union. He said Mrs May needs to change course and stop taking the country or MPs for granted, adding that it is not just Brexiteers who could topple her. Im not going to sit at the back of the bus and watch it head towards the edge of the cliff. Im not going to let us go down without a serious s**t fight. Advertisement

Mr Gove said it was vital that Brexit occurred 'at the earliest possible point'.

But Tory moderates urged MPs to back the PM. Simon Hart, founder of the Brexit Delivery Group of 80 Tory MPs, said critics were 'weakening our negotiating position'.

A Whitehall source said Mrs May had offered concessions on the Irish border to 'unblock' talks that collapsed at the weekend, adding: 'We have got to get movement on this issue. It is holding everything back. If we don't solve it, we're stuck.'

So is it a sell-out - Or plain common sense?

Calm down dears - the plan may work, says Dominic Sandbrook

On the face of it, Theresa May's suggestion that Britain could extend its period of transition after leaving the EU looks like weakness.

And it's easy to see why ardent Brexiteers are infuriated, not least because it could leave us facing a bill for an extra 10billion. And this on top of a divorce bill currently standing at some 39billion!

But there is a difference between a sign of weakness and a recognition of reality. And Mrs May is nothing if not a realist. The central, unanswerable fact is that negotiations with the 27 member states have stalled over the Irish border.

Theresa May made her speech in the lurid European Council room (pictured today) before leaving the EU leaders to discuss Brexit over dinner

And although some insist the issue can be solved through some miraculous but hitherto undiscovered technological fix, no such solution has presented itself.

Mrs May's idea of an extended transition is an attempt to deal with that problem. In effect, she is offering to keep Britain inside the customs union and single market for another year  or as she puts it, a few months  so there is no border in Northern Ireland before a new arrangement is found.

Judging by some of her opponents' more hysterical effusions, you might think she had offered to tear down Nelson's Column and invited Jean-Claude Juncker to move into Buckingham Palace. In fact, she has merely suggested it might be worth abiding by EU rules for a little bit longer  if it buys us a better deal. Of course it's not ideal. I don't like the idea of paying an extra 10billion more than anybody else. But given that we have spent the last 45 years in the EU, a delay of a few months, even a year, should not strike even the most ardent Leaver as the end of the world.

Also, an extra 10billion seems a small price to pay to avoid crashing out without a deal. A no-deal would be a disaster. A drop of 2 per cent in our annual economic growth in the next two years  which would be an unrealistically good outcome  would cost us at least 22billion.

By comparison, even an additional 12 months under the EU's umbrella, would hardly be economic Armageddon. We might not like it in principle, but in practice I suspect most of us would barely notice.

The fact that Mrs May is a pragmatist is why her MPs put her in Downing Street in the first place. It would be an unconscionable act of treachery and irresponsibility if they stabbed her in the back now.

Betrayal leaves us humiliated, says Daniel Hannan

Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the worst imaginable outcome of our EU talks? Is there something so ghastly that Eurosceptics and Europhiles alike would see it as more painful than either leaving or staying?

How about this? What if we kept every dot and comma of our existing EU obligations with only one change, namely that we lost our say over what they were. All of us, surely, can agree that that would be the most injurious status of all. We'd still be subject to the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies, to freedom of movement, to the budget levies, to the supremacy of EU over British law.

The only difference is that we'd no longer be able to block proposals we didn't like. Indeed, the EU might bring forward measures that were specifically designed to hurt us  by, for example, seeking to shift financial services from London to Frankfurt  and we'd have to comply.

After the summit meeting on Wednesday night (clockwise around the table from back right) French President Emmanuel Macron, Mrs Merkel, Belgian PM Charles Michel and Luxembourg PM Xavier Bettel went out for drinks at a bar in Brussels

You can see why Brussels likes the idea of extending the transition period. It is better than anything Eurocrats had hoped for  better even than the prospect of undoing Brexit, and seeing a humiliated Britain begging for readmission without its rebate. It would give them full control of the UK economy with no British veto.

Why are we contemplating the idea? If reports are to be believed, we are ready to be a Euro-colony for at least three years. I say 'at least' because, once Brussels had us in such a position, it would have no incentive to discuss anything further. Our thraldom might become permanent.

We're told that we need time to sort out the outstanding withdrawal issues, but hardly anyone believes that. The only outstanding issue is the Irish border. Even if you accept there is a problem  and the relevant customs officials say there is no logistical need for physical checks at the frontier  it is hard to see how an extra year would solve anything.

The two sides have set out their positions, and either London or Brussels will have to give way. If that's going to happen, it might as well happen now. An extra year won't solve anything.

Supporters of this climbdown seem to think that the only thing that matters is having something that can be technically called 'Brexit'  even if that something patently fails to address all the concerns that both Leavers and Remainers have expressed. In fact, literally any outcome  Norway, Switzerland, no deal, postponing our departure  would be better than non-voting membership. It's extraordinary that that should need saying.

What is the Brexit transition and how could it be extended? What is the Brexit transition period? The EU and UK agreed in March that there would be a 21-month transition after Brexit day on March 29, 2019. It is due to expire on December 31, 2020. In the period Britain will still obey all EU rules without having any say in setting them, pay membership fees, and have the same trade terms. The current plan has not yet been voted on in Parliament. How long could it be extended? There is a new proposal to extend transition for another few months, possibly to the end of 2021. Why is there talk of extending it? March's agreement also included a commitment to create a 'backstop' on the Irish border - a back up plan to ensure the border stays open in the absence of a long term trade deal. There is a deep dispute over how this should work so the new suggestion is a longer transition could allow a full trade deal to be completed in time for the backstop never to be used. The theory is this takes pressure off the exact form of the backstop, making it easier to agree and solving the last issue in the divorce deal. Does anyone support extending it? The EU says it is willing to adopt a longer transition if Britain asks for it. Theresa May says Britain is not asking for a longer transition - but might accept a mechanism for extending the current transition. Tory Brexiteers hate the idea, fearing it will just be extended again and again and leave Britain facing billions in extra charges. Government sources tried to calm the row today by insisting an extension would only be acceptable if the EU accepted the UK's version of the backstop. Would it solve the Irish problem? Nobody knows. Both sides are still far apart on how the backstop will work and there is doubt a full trade deal can be finished even by the end of 2021. What happens if transition is extended? Britain would continue to follow all EU rules without having a say on how new ones are made - meaning continued free movement, European Court judgements and bills to Brussels. Trade across the Channel would also continue under today's rules. Advertisement

EU banks could be BANNED from trading in US markets if Brussels imposes 'completely irresponsible' new trading rules on Brexit Britain

By Tim Sculthorpe, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

European banks could be banned from trading in US markets if Brussels forces new reading trading rules on Brexit Britain.

A top US regulator said the EU's threats were 'completely irresponsible' and 'wholly unacceptable'.

Christopher Giancarlo, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the EU should not be ordering rafts of regulatory changes.

Christopher Giancarlo, head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said the EU should not be ordering rafts of regulatory changes

European Union financial regulators want more oversight of how markets outside the EU handle transactions customers inside the bloc.

The rules are due to be in place before March and would apply to the City of London after Brexit.

Mr Giancarlo warned the changes are too 'expansive' and must be blocked or could be subject to sanction by the US.

He said the CFTC has 'strong and blunt' tools it can deploy unilaterally as a last resort without new legislation - including a ban on US firms using European banks.

Mr Giancarlo added: 'I am ready to jump on even more planes, trains and automobiles bound for any European capital to work out a sensible approach.'

The watchdog has privately warned European officials that the bloc would suffer far more than the United States in an all-out clearing war because US firms are much larger liquidity providers to European exchanges than vice versa.

The rules are due to be in place before March and would apply to the City of London (file image) after Brexit

European Commission spokesman Johannes Bahrke said the proposed EU regulations were actually based on existing US rules.

He said: 'It is the prerogative of the EU legislator to set the general supervisory framework for central counterparties (CCPs) active in the EU and we would expect third country authorities to respect that, just as we respect the rules and legislative procedures in other countries.

'We reiterate that the cooperative oversight we have proposed is modelled for systemically important cross-border CCPs on the United States' own supervisory system.'Prime Minister Scott Morrison's personal website has been hacked by a prankster, who replaced it was a song about a man who sleeps with his mate's girlfriend.

The online troll seized control of the expired domain scottmorrison.com.au and renewed it before his staff could.

Melbourne man Jack Genesin, who purchased the available domain, told his social media followers the prank was the 'most fun I've had with $50 in a long time'.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison's (pictured) personal website has been hacked by a prankster, who replaced it was a song about a man who sleeps with his mate's girlfriend

Taking to social media on Wednesday, Mr Genesin shared the news about the heist on his Facebook page

Now, when unsuspecting visitors head to the PM's website, instead of being redirected to his personal details, the page plays a song about cheating on loop.

The song Scotty Doesn't Know by American band Lustra became famous after it was featured in the 2004 teen film EuroTrip about a man who goes on a quest to find his sexy German pen pal.

In the song, the lyrics describe how a man called Scotty doesn't know that his mate and girlfriend Fiona have been sleeping together behind his back.

Taking to social media on Wednesday, Mr Genesin shared the news about the heist on his Facebook page.

'So, the PM forgot to renew his website and it expired today ... Most fun I've had with $50 in a long time,' the Facebook post stated.

According to Domain Registration Services, if someone forgets to renew their domain name they have a window period where they can still renew it.

During this time, the domain falls into a 'serverUpdateProhibited' and 'serverHold' status for 30 days, during which time the website address can still be renewed.

After this period, an Australian website is deleted from the register and can be registered by anyone else the following day - with varying prices from $10 upwards.

There's no telling just how long the takeover will last, but so far the seized website has been playing the cheeky song on a loop for about 12 hours.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Scott Morrison's office for comment.Karl Stefanovic has clashed with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on live television in the lead up to Saturday's crucial Wentworth by-election.

The Today Show host didn't hold back when Mr Morrison appeared on his program on Friday morning.

The grilling comes after independent candidate Dr Kerryn Phelps threatened to bring down the government if she is elected as the new MP for the seat of Wentworth in Sydney's eastern suburbs this Saturday.

Karl Stefanovic (left) went head to head with Prime Minister Scott Morrison (right) on the Today Show on Friday morning

A well renowned GP, Dr Phelps is the hot favourite to win former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull's seat and is $1.30 odds with Sportsbet, ahead of Liberal candidate Dave Sharma ($3.50).

Dr Phelps is 10 per cent ahead of her Liberal rival in the latest poll with 55 per cent of the two-party preferred vote, compared to 45 per cent.

The Morrison Government currently holds a one seat majority in what will become a hung parliament if Dr Phelps claims victory.

'You need a miracle in Wentworth. Have you prayed for one?' Stefanovic asked the prime minister.

He later asked: 'You've lost your way, haven't you?'

Mr Morrison stood his ground and denied the claims.

'Not at all. I don't get distracted by the Canberra bubble and the commentary. It's not something I get distracted by,' he responded.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) acknowledged that Wentworth voters are 'grumpy' with his government

The prime minister's on the Channel Nine program comes after Dr Phelps repeatedly refused to rule out a vote against the Morrison Government on a motion of no confidence during an interview with Sky News on Thursday.

'We have chaos now. The government has gone from confusion to chaos,' she said.

Stefanovic warned that Dr Phelps may not guarantee supply for him and could be a game breaker, which Mr Morrison agreed with.

'It throws a real big question mark,' the prime minister said.

Dr Kerryn Phelps (pictured) is the hot favourite to win the Wentworth by-election on Saturday

Mr Morrison said he's known Dr Phelps for many years and has seen and spoken to her several times on the campaign trail during the Wentworth by-election, unlike federal opposition leader Bill Shorten, who hasn't been sighted.

Mr Morrison acknowledged Wentworth voters are 'grumpy' with the government in the wake of recent events.

'I know there has been the events of a couple of months ago,' Mr Morrison said.

'It was difficult. As people know, I supported the then Prime Minister very strongly. What is at stake now is locally, having a fantastic candidate in Dave Sharma, who is real quality.'Sydney's controversial lockout laws have another critic - shock jock Kyle Sandilands.

On his Friday morning radio show, Sandilands told New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian she was trying to 'ruin' his life because he can't go outside for a cigarette after 1.30am.

The topic was raised on the breakfast program amid speculation the lockout laws could be abolished as soon as next week.

Shock jock Kyle Sandilands (pictured) has hit out at Sydney's controversial lockout laws

The radio host told premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) she was trying to 'ruin' his life

Sandilands asked whether there was any truth to the speculation, to which Ms Berejiklian said there wasn't.

'No, we've already tweaked them, we've already extended the hours,' she said.

She is referring to an extension given to live music venues last January, which are now allowed to serve alcohol for half an hour longer than anywhere else.

But this wasn't good enough for the controversial radio host, who asked why they couldn't go back to the 1980s when he was able to 'go and get blind (drunk) 'til 6am.'

The premier defended the laws, saying it was still possible for patrons to get intoxicated if they wanted to and that the laws were only in place for revellers to pick somewhere and stay there.

Again, Sandilands wasn't satisfied with this answer and complained that it meant 'you can't even go for a cigarette', concluding he would just have to smoke inside.

Sandilands, pictured with girlfriend Imogen Anthony, wants to go back to the 1980s when everyone could go out and 'get blind until 6am'

Sandilands (pictured) says he'll just have to smoke inside if the lockout laws aren't abolished

The controversial lockout laws were introduced in 2014 following a string of one-punch attacks.

Then Premier Barry O'Farrell rushed the legislation after police and media pressure to crack down on alcohol-fuelled violence.

While none of the victims died after midnight, the NSW Government saw it fit to force venues to close their doors at 1.30am and stop serving drinks at 3am.

The law has attracted plenty of criticism from partygoers and business owners alike, who say the curfew has killed Sydney's once-vibrant nightlife.

Reform could be on the way after MP for the Shooters, Farmers and Fishers Party, Robert Borsak, gave notice of a bill to repeal the lockout, which will be debated on October 25.

With a cabinet in favour of reform, all that stands in the way of the change is Ms Berejiklian, who is adamant the laws are serving their intended purpose.

The law has attracted much criticism from patrons and business owners alike, who blame them for killing off Sydney's vibrant nightlifeLongtime Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen in December will give a deposition about the nondisclosure agreement he arranged with porn star Stormy Daniels, her lawyer Michael Avenatti announced.

Avenatti, who suffered a setback days ago when a court ruled against Daniels in a separate defamation suit, tweeted out a court document setting the deposition.

It would give him the chance to ask Cohen, who signed the agreement with Daniels, with both using pseudonyms, direct questions about what Trump knew about the arrangement, now that he has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations surrounding the deal.

Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, got a $130,000 payment as part of the deal, with Cohen paying her and then getting paid by the Trump Organization.

Off to meet the investigators: Michael Cohen was photographed by DailyMail.com as he left his New York apartment to meet state and federal officials probing Trump's business affairs and allegations of misusing his charitable trust

Trump said he will force Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels to pay 'a lot' of legal fees. 'Donald Trump should be ashamed of himself ... No man should call a woman a horseface,' Avenatti said Tuesday, responding to Trump's attack on his client

'We have set Michael Cohen's sworn deposition for the date after his sentencing - December 13, 2018. We have also requested all recordings he has of communications between him and Donald Trump,' Avanatti tweeted.

'We look forward to disclosing the truth about what Trump's fraud and deceit. #Basta,' he wrote.

During his guilty plea, Cohen testified that he violated campaign finance laws 'at the direction of candidate'  Trump, when he negotiated agreements with Daniels and another that involved former Playboy cover model Karen McDougal.

Cohen's sentencing also is set for December.

He was spotted this week meeting with state and federal prosecutors in New York.

Porn star Stormy Daniels alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006. President Donald Trump called her 'horseface' in a new tweet

President Donald Trump called lawyer Michael Avenatti 'not a serious person,' on a day the president branded Stormy Daniels 'horseface'

The longtime Trump loyalist and fixer also registered as a Democrat, his lawyer Lanny Davis revealed.

Avenatti is exploring a bid for president and visiting swing states.

Trump on Tuesday slammed Avenatti as 'not a serious person' and vowed to sue him in Texas to recover reimbursement for 'a lot of legal fees' following a legal win.

The president went after Avenatti when asked about the lawyer's possible 2020 run for president. Avenatti has been battling Trump in court while also visiting Iowa and saying he may challenge Trump if a sufficiently tough Democrat does not step forward.

'Oh, I dont think hes a serious person,' said Trump. Hes not. I dont think Avenatti -- the lawyer? I dont think hes  I just beat him in a big case,' Trump told Fox Business Network in an interview that airs Wednesday night.MPs have called for a controversial ban on all new petrol and diesel cars to be brought forward by eight years to 2032.

In a hard-hitting report, a cross-party committee has poured scorn on the Government's watered down target for all new cars and vans to generate 'effectively zero' emissions by 2040.

It describes the commitment as confusing and demands an outright ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars  including hybrids, which can travel for shorter distances on electric battery power alone but also have a petrol or diesel engine that kicks in for longer journeys.

MPs want a ban on all new petrol and diesel cars to be brought forward to 2032

Rachel Reeves, chairman of the Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee said that sales of the greenest plug-in hybrids should be banned by 2032

Ministers have already climbed down from more radical plans to outlaw the sale of all new conventional cars and vans by 2040 by allowing the lowest emission hybrids following a backlash from the car industry and motoring groups.

But its revised target is today dismissed by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee as 'vague and unambitious'.

Arguing that 'zero should mean zero' the committee said the 'lack of clarity on what an 'effectively zero emissions' car means makes it difficult for manufacturers to know what type of vehicles they will be able to sell in the near future.

Following a year-long inquiry the committee concluded that the sale of all new diesel and petrol cars and vans that produce exhaust fumes, which includes even the greenest 'plug-in' hybrids, should be banned by 2032.

The committee also criticised a 'perverse' decision last week to cut grants for electric cars and scrap them for hybrids, arguing this would discourage drivers from switching to greener alternatives.

Chairman Rachel Reeves said: 'Electric vehicles are increasingly popular, and present exciting opportunities for the UK to develop an internationally competitive EV industry and reduce our carbon emissions.

'But, for all the rhetoric of the UK becoming a world leader in EVs, the reality is that the Government's deeds do not match the ambitions of their words.'

The demands infuriated car manufacturers. Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: 'The 2040 ambition was already extremely challenging, so to fast-track that by eight years would be nigh-on impossible.

'Zero emission vehicles make up just 0.6 per cent of the market meaning consumer appetite would have to grow by some 17,000 per cent in just over a decade.

'This is unrealistic and rejects the evidence put forward by SMMT on behalf of the industry, which is investing billions into these technologies but which recognises consumers need greater confidence and support if they are to buy these vehicles in the numbers we all want.

'We need world-class infrastructure and world-class incentives to have any chance of delivering so the recent cuts to the Plug-in Car Grant and lack of charging facilities  both of which are severely criticised by the committee  show just how difficult it would be to accelerate this transition.'

Mike Hawes, chief executive at the SMMT said the fast-tracking on the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars was 'nigh-on impossible' because the country needed a 'world-class infrastructure and world-class incentives'

Just 13,597 zero emission battery power cars were sold last year, official figures show

Although sales of electric vehicles have risen sharply, just 13,597 zero emission battery power cars were sold last year  just half a per cent of the total number sold. The vast majority of alternatively fuelled cars are hybrids, which still rely on a petrol or diesel engine.

A Government spokesman said: 'Our Road to Zero Strategy outlined our ambition for the UK to be the best place in the world to build and own an electric vehicle. We also outlined measures to bring forward a major uplift in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.'

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes also blasted the timing of the announcement.

'There are still significant barriers that are putting drivers off alternatively fuelled vehicles  these include the upfront cost, access to charging infrastructure, and ease and time to charge a vehicle,' he said.

'Recent government announcements, in particular the recent decision to cut the plug-in car grant for alternative-fuelled vehicles, could have the unfortunate effect of discouraging motorists from opting for one.

'We think the Government should look again at this decision, given pure electric cars are too expensive for most people when compared to petrol or diesel equivalents.

'There is also an argument for reduced VAT rates on the sales of the cleanest vehicles to stimulate greater interest, alongside local policies such as free parking for owners of such vehicles.'

Car sharing firm ZipCar has recently launched a fleet of 235 electric vehicles in London, but says the capital's infrastructure is still not suitable for the wider adoption of plug-in cars.

General manager Jonathan Hampson said: 'For many cities, the EV infrastructure and plans for development are simply inadequate.

'In London, we need an ambitious, clearly structured strategy and plan for EV infrastructure that has the support and buy-in from all city authorities, including the boroughs, and the GLA who need to collaborate closely with the private sector to deliver this as a sustainable business model.'

He added: 'Already 20,000 trips by 6,000 Londoners have been taken in our EV fleet.

'We believe an all-electric car sharing fleet could be delivered by 2025 to London if there is the appropriate infrastructure in place.'

But for other organisations, the 2032 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars isn't soon enough.

Morten Thaysen, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace said: 'The IPCC made it very clear that were now playing catch up to limit irreversible damage from climate change.

'UK emissions from transport have reduced just 2% since 1990, and a growing chorus of advisers in climate, energy and industry are saying a phase out date of 2040 is too late.

'We need 100% electric car and van sales by 2030 if the government is serious about meeting its obligations under the Paris agreement.'

j.salmon@dailymail.co.ukAn email telling civil servants not to destroy documents relating to the contaminated blood scandal was never sent, a minister has admitted.

It was meant to go out on April 3 to all government departments telling them to preserve all information that might be relevant to the ongoing contaminated blood inquiry.

But yesterday Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said it wasnt actually sent because the group email recipient list didnt work.

Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said 'no material harm' had occurred by the failure to send an email around to government departments advising them to preserve any files that may be relevant to the public inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal

Some 250,000 patients were infected with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C during the 1970s and 1980s after the NHS purchased contaminated blood products from the US

Mr Lidington apologised for the mistake and said that a second email had been sent out on June 11, this time successfully. He said the error had resulted in no material damage and that officials were now trying to establish whether any government departments mistakenly deleted emails in the three months between April and June.

In a statement, Mr Lidington said the original email did not reach its recipients, due to the failure of the collective IT address used.

He added: I can reassure the public that this has resulted in no actual harm, but it is an error for which I apologise to the Inquiry, and most importantly, to the people infected and affected.

The contaminated blood scandal was the NHSs worst treatment disaster and resulted in up to 25,000 patients being infected with diseases such as HIV in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many had the blood clotting disorder haemophilia which meant they required regular injections of Factor VIII  a product derived from human blood plasma which enabled their blood to clot.

But at the time Britain was low on supplies and imported additional stocks from the USA, which had been donated by the homeless, prisoners and drug addicts. Many had HIV and hepatitis C.

A public inquiry into the scandal got underway last month, and this is expected to hear how the Government knew the products were infected but continued giving them to patients.The German battleship Tirpitz posed a serious threat to Allied ships during the Second World War. It was so dangerous to Allied forces that Winston Churchill made its destruction a priority.

In January 1942, he said: 'The destruction or even crippling of this ship is the greatest event at sea at the present time. No other target is comparable to it.'

Operation Goodwood was a series of air raid against the Tirpitz conducted by Fleet Air Arm aircraft under the command of the Royal Navy.

The attacks took place in late August 1944 and attacked the ship at its anchorage in Kaafjord, Norway.

The German battleship Tirpitz was anchored in Kaafjord, Norway and posed a big threat to allied ships. In fact, Winston Churchill said: 'The destruction or even crippling of this ship is the greatest event at sea at the present time. No other target is comparable to it'

The first attack took place on the morning of August 22, however, the attack failed and a smaller evening raid also did little damage.

This continued on August 24 and 29 with the Tirpitz surviving both attacks - despite being hit by two bombs on August 24.

During the course of the operation, Britain lost 17 aircraft, a frigate sunk by a submarine and an escort carrier was also badly damaged.

German forces, on the other hand, suffered the loss of 12 aircraft and damage to seven ships.

The failure of the operation was seen as a significant blow to the Fleet Air Arm of the Navy and following Operation Goodwood, the responsibility for attacking Tirpitz was transferred to the Royal Air Force.

In three heavy bomber raids conducted during September and October 1944, the battleship was first crippled and then sunk.

Historians believe the failure and shortcomings of the Fleet Air Arm can be blamed on its aircraft and their poor armament.What is the Brexit transition period?

The EU and UK agreed in March that there would be a 21-month transition after Brexit day on March 29, 2019. It is due to expire on December 31, 2020.

In the period Britain will still obey all EU rules without having any say in setting them, pay membership fees, and have the same trade terms.

The current plan has not yet been voted on in Parliament.

How long could it be extended?

There is a new proposal to extend transition for another few months, possibly to the end of 2021.

Why is there talk of extending it?

March's agreement also included a commitment to create a 'backstop' on the Irish border - a back up plan to ensure the border stays open in the absence of a long term trade deal.

There is a deep dispute over how this should work so the new suggestion is a longer transition could allow a full trade deal to be completed in time for the backstop never to be used.

The theory is this takes pressure off the exact form of the backstop, making it easier to agree and solving the last issue in the divorce deal.

Does anyone support extending it?

The EU says it is willing to adopt a longer transition if Britain asks for it.

Theresa May says Britain is not asking for a longer transition - but might accept a mechanism for extending the current transition.

Tory Brexiteers hate the idea, fearing it will just be extended again and again and leave Britain facing billions in extra charges.

Government sources tried to calm the row today by insisting an extension would only be acceptable if the EU accepted the UK's version of the backstop.

Would it solve the Irish problem?

Nobody knows. Both sides are still far apart on how the backstop will work and there is doubt a full trade deal can be finished even by the end of 2021.

What happens if transition is extended?

Britain would continue to follow all EU rules without having a say on how new ones are made - meaning continued free movement, European Court judgements and bills to Brussels.

Trade across the Channel would also continue under today's rules.Johnny Mercer, an ex-Army officer who was elected in 2015, described Mrs Mays administration as a s**t show. He is pictured in 2015

A Tory MP launched an extraordinary attack on his own Government last night as Theresa May faced open speculation in the party about her future as leader.

Johnny Mercer, an ex-Army officer who was elected in 2015, described Mrs Mays administration as a s**t show, questioned whether the party still shared his values and ethos and said he would never have run for Parliament if the situation was like it is now.

In an interview with The House magazine, he warned that if Tory Brexit rows let in Jeremy Corbyn I dont think wed be forgiven for a generation and we wouldnt deserve to be.

The Remain supporter said that with hindsight his pre-MP self wouldnt vote, adding: Theres no doubt about it that my set of values and ethos, I was comfortable that it was aligned with the Conservative Party. Im not as comfortable that thats the case any more.

Mr Mercer claimed Mrs May is too focused on Brexit and accused her of being a technocrat leading the Tories in the wrong direction.

He branded Mrs Mays Chequers deal your classic professional politicians answer because it is down the middle. He added: It doesnt make anybody happy. I think if we forget that at the crucial moment on Brexit, and I say that as a Remainer, the disdain with which people have held politicians will reach a crescendo if we dont deliver on that referendum result and make people feel like theyve left the European Union.

He said Mrs May needs to change course and stop taking the country or MPs for granted, adding that it is not just Brexiteers who could topple her.

Im not going to sit at the back of the bus and watch it head towards the edge of the cliff. Im not going to let us go down without a serious s**t fight.Sunlight really may be the best disinfectant, as letting light into a house kills off the bacteria in household dust.

Letting natural light into a room destroys around half of living bacteria in dust, a study has found.

Sunshine could eradicate potentially harmful bugs linked to respiratory disease, and researchers say hospitals as well as families should take note.

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Letting natural light into a room destroys around half of living bacteria in dust as well as Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula which is heavily involved in respiratory diseases (stock)

Scientists at the University of Oregon collected dust from household vacuum cleaners and left it in miniature rooms for 90 days.

The rooms were kept in darkness or had windows letting in sunlight and ultraviolet light.

When the dust was analysed, sunlight was found to have destroyed bacteria closely related to Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula.

More research is needed on whether this is harmful in household dust but Saccharopolyspora rectivirgula can trigger 'farmer's lung' in agricultural workers, causing coughing and shortness of breath from the dust in mouldy hay.

Dr Ashkaan Fahimipour, who led the research from the University of Oregon's Biology and the Built Environment Centre, said: 'We need a lot more research before we can apply this to real life but, based on our findings, I don't see any harm in letting a little more sunlight into our homes.

'There are a lot of procedures to prevent infections in hospitals already and in future we might also suggest sunlight as a cheap and easy measure to take.'

For their experiment, the US researchers created 11 climate-controlled rooms approximately one thirtieth the size of a household living room, at 14 feet (4.3 metres) wide.

Household dust, collected from the vacuum cleaners of ordinary homes, was placed in petri dishes within the rooms.

That dust was exposed to sunlight through a window, UV light filtered from outside or to complete darkness from an aluminium plate placed over the window.

Three months later dust samples from dark rooms had 12 per cent of bacteria alive and able to reproduce, compared to only 6.8 per cent of dust bacteria exposed to daylight and 6.1 per cent exposed to UV light.

Dust left in the dark contained more bacteria from human skin and less from outside. Researchers say hospitals as well as families should take note to maximise the benefits of the sunlight (stock)

HOW CAN SCIENTISTS TURN SUNLIGHT INTO FUEL? Scientists have developed a way to transform sunlight into fuel that could lead to an 'unlimited source of renewable energy'. Researchers from the University of Cambridge have done this by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. They did this through using a technique called semi-artificial photosynthesis that is based on the same process plants use to convert sunlight into energy. Artificial photosynthesis has been around for decades but it has not yet been successfully used to create renewable energy. This is because it relies on the use of catalysts, which are often expensive and toxic. Researchers used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen using a mixture of biological components and manmade technologies. Researchers reactivated a process in algae that has been dormant for millennia. They did this using hydrogenase, an enzyme present in algae that is capable of reducing protons into hydrogen. 'During evolution, this process has been deactivated because it wasn't necessary for survival but we successfully managed to bypass the inactivity to achieve the reaction we wanted  splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen', said Katarzyna Soko, first author and PhD student at St John's College. Ms Soko hopes the findings will enable new innovative model systems for solar energy conversion to be developed. Advertisement

Dust left in the dark contained more bacteria from human skin and less from outside.

The results suggest sunlight is a 'bactericide' which can destroy bugs, according to the study published in the journal Microbiome.

It may cause a chemical reaction which eradicates the micro-organisms.

Scientists monitored the dust for 90 days to reflect how long it typically stays in our homes before being cleaned away during housework.

Dr Fahimipour said: 'Our study supports a century-old folk wisdom, that daylight has the potential to kill microbes on dust particles, but we need more research to understand the underlying causes of shifts in the dust microbiome following light exposure.

'Humans spend most of their time indoors, where exposure to dust particles that carry a variety of bacteria, including pathogens that can make us sick, is unavoidable.

'Therefore, it is important to understand how features of the buildings we occupy influence dust ecosystems and how this could affect our health.'Over 450 Amazon employees have urged CEO Jeff Bezos to quit selling the tech giant's controversial facial recognition technology to cops.

That's according to a new account, written by an anonymous Amazon employee, who joined other staffers in delivering a letter to Bezos laying out their demands.

The facial recognition technology, called 'Rekognition,' has been attracting scrutiny since May when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) revealed Amazon had been selling it to several police departments around the country.

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Over 450 Amazon employees have urged CEO Jeff Bezos to quit selling the tech giant's controversial facial recognition technology, called Rekognition, to cops

It comes a day after Bezos appeared at the Wired25 summit and defended his firm's involvement in government contracts.

'We know Bezos is aware of these concerns and the industry-wide conversation happening right now,' the employee wrote in a letter published to Medium.

'On stage, he acknowledged that big techs products might be misused, even exploited, by autocrats.

'But rather than meaningfully explain how Amazon will act to prevent the bad uses of its own technology, Bezos suggested we wait for societys immune response.

'If Amazon waits, we think the harm will be difficult to undo,' the letter continues.

Medium said it verified the authenticity of the letter as well as the identity of the writer.

The employees also demanded Amazon kick software company Palantir off Amazon Web Services, noting that Palintir 'powers' much of ICE's deportation and tracking program

In the letter, the employee also demands Amazon kick controversial software company Palantir off Amazon Web Services, noting that Palintir 'powers' much of ICE's deportation and tracking program.

So far, the employee said they have received no response from Bezos or any higher-ups at Amazon.

The employee noted in the letter that they worried the facial recognition technology would end up in the wrong hands.

'Companies like ours should not be in the business of facilitating authoritarian surveillance. Not now, not ever,' the letter states.

'But Rekognition supports just that by pulling dozens of facial IDs from a single frame of video and storing them for later use or instantly comparing them with databases of millions of pictures.'

Civil rights advocates such as the ACLU laid out similar concerns earlier this year.

'People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government,' the ACLU wrote in a letter to Amazon.

So far, the employee said they have received no response from Bezos or any higher-ups at Amazon. The company's Rekognition contracts also appear to be unaltered

HOW DOES FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY WORK? Facial recognition software works by matching real time images to a previous photograph of a person. Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points across the eyes, nose, cheeks and mouth which distinguish one person from another. A digital video camera measures the distance between various points on the human face, such as the width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, distance between the eyes and shape of the jawline. A different smart surveillance system (pictured) can scan 2 billion faces within seconds has been revealed in China. The system connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets. The military is working on applying a similar version of this with AI to track people across the country This produces a unique numerical code that can then be linked with a matching code gleaned from a previous photograph. A facial recognition system used by officials in China connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets. Experts believe that facial recognition technology will soon overtake fingerprint technology as the most effective way to identify people. Advertisement

'Facial recognition in American communities threatens this freedom.'

Amazon isn't the only tech giant receving backlash from employees inside the company.

Earlier this week, a Microsoft employee hit back at the firm's plan to bid for a controversial $10 billion Pentagon contract.

In a letter published on blogging site Medium, the employees wrote that they joined Microsoft with 'the expectation that the technologies we build will not cause harm or human suffering.'

They also accused Microsoft executives of betraying the company's artificial intelligence principlesones that state A.I. should be 'fair, reliable and safe, private and secure, inclusive, transparent, and accountable'in pursuit of 'short-term profits.'The 'largest living thing' on the planet is dying due to relentless human interference, scientists have revealed.

The Pando aspen forest in Utah, known as the 'trembling giant', is believed to be 80,000 years old but scientists warn that it is unlikely to exist in as little as 50 years time.

The incredible 'forest of one tree' is made up of 40,000 trees all of which are genetically identical and come from a single underground parent clone.

Weighing in at an estimated 13 million lbs (5.9 million kg), it is widely considered to be the largest and heaviest single living thing in the world.

The Pando aspen forest in Utah (pictured), known as the 'trembling giant', is believed to be 80,000 years old but scientists warn that it is unlikely to exist in as little as 50 years time

'While Pando has likely existed for thousands of years - we have no method of firmly fixing its' age - it is now collapsing on our watch', said co-author Paul Rogers from Utah State University's Wildland Resources Department.

'One clear lesson emerges here: we cannot independently manage wildlife and forests', he said.

The forest covers 106 acres (43 ha) in south-central Utah's Fishlake National Forest.

It consists of more than 47,000 genetically identical above-ground stems or 'ramets' originating from a single underground parent clone.

Researchers have now conducted the first assessment of the Pando aspen clone and created a 72-year historical aerial photo sequence that visually chronicles the steady thinning of the forest.

This decline has happened because humans have expanded into the forest and cut down areas without giving them time to recover.

Grazing deer have also but pressure on the park and a long-standing drought has further added to its decline.

Researchers have now conducted the first assessment of the Pando aspen clone and created a 72-year historical aerial photo sequence (pictured) that visually chronicles the steady thinning of the forest

Pictured is the Pando aspen clone. The photo captures about half the total grove. A close look reveals many dead trees on the ground

According to the paper, published in Plos One, early protection from fencing showed great promise in reducing the impacts of grazers such as deer which have meant that young trees have been unable to grow for decades now.

However, follow-up fencing of a larger area (in combination with about half of Pando remaining unprotected by fencing) is currently failing according to this study.

'After significant investment in protecting the iconic Pando clone, we were disappointed in this result', said Dr Rogers.

He sees trends found at Pando occurring across the western states.

'In addition to ecological values, Pando serves as a symbol of nature-human connectedness and a harbinger of broader species losses.

'Here, regionally, and indeed internationally, aspen forests support great biodiversity.

'It would be shame to witness the significant reduction of this iconic forest when reversing this decline is realisable, should we demonstrate the will to do so.

'In particular, mule deer appear to be finding ways to enter through weak points in the fence or by jumping over the eight-foot barrier', he said.A mating ritual between two scorpions has been captured on camera showing the deadly beasts grappling with their locked pincers.

The predatory arachnids can be seen advancing and retreating as they negotiate where the male will deposit his spermatophore, or sperm packet.

Tiny babies are then shown being born in the clip, squirming out of their mother and clinging to her back - where they stay for up to 20 days before crawling away.

Jim Bartholomew, 62, captured the captivating moment his two unusual pets began to mate.

His Arizona bark scorpions are engaging in the 'promenade a deux' ritual - a dancelike motion exhibited during the graceful procreation process.

Once the male lays down his sperm packet, he leads the female over it so that she can take it up into her genital opening.

Arizona bark scorpions engaging in the 'promenade a deux' ritual - a dancelike motion exhibited during the graceful procreation process

A tiny baby scorpion with a soft shell wriggles out of its mother before clinging to her back

The ritual lasts for less than 30 seconds but can result in a pregnancy lasting between nine and 18 months.

As many as 100 scorpions can be born in a single litter. They are born alive rather than being hatched from eggs.

They stay with their mother for up to 20 days after birth to give their soft exoskeleton (outside shell) time to harden.

A second baby follows. They will remain on their mother's back for up to 20 days, giving their soft exoskeletons time to harden

A scorpion mother carrying her babies on her back. As a last resort, the mother can eat her babies if there are not enough insects to eat

Male scorpions use pheromones to search for females before the mating process begins.

In some cases, female scorpions can resist the male's moves by refusing to dance, pushing him away or even stinging him.

Scorpion mothers sometimes resort to eating their own babies when they cannot find enough insects to eat.Ancient sea monsters that accidentally swallowed sea water when eating their prey had a clever way of getting rid of it, scientists have revealed.

Ichthyosaurs, which were marine reptiles living during the dinosaur age, had salt-secreting glands on their snouts which removed excess sea water.

The huge animals, which remained at the top of the food chain for millions of years, developed a streamlined, fish-like form built for speed.

They also had odd glands on either side of the skull which were ancient versions of modern glands that many of today's marine animals now have.

Ichthyosaurs (pictured), which were marine reptiles living during the dinosaur age, had salt-secreting glands which removed excess salt

These glands were located by researchers led by Judy Massare, a professor emerita at The College at Brockport, State University of New York, writes Live Science.

Professor Massare and her colleagues were looking at the skull of an Ichthyosaur, which was a highly successful sea-going reptile that became extinct around 90 million years ago.

The largest species of ichthyosaur is thought to have grown to over 20 metres (65 ft) in length.

The researchers spotted the glands behind the naris, which the creature used for breathing.

'When we saw odd structures in bones that border the external naris, we suspected that they were defining the position of a salt gland duct,' Professor Massare said during a presentation at the 78th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The kidneys of marine creatures such as turtles and crocodiles are not effective enough to remove all the excess salt.

'So, they have evolved salt glands to remove salt from their bodies', Professor Massare said.

Professor Massare and her colleagues were looking at the skull of an Ichthyosaur, which was a highly successful sea-going reptile that became extinct around 90 million years ago

Previously, scientists were not sure if the ancient reptiles (artist's impression), which had a cruising speed of 22 mph (36 kmh), had glands. The glands themselves are were made of soft tissue so are not preserved, leaving only projections of bone where they would have been

Previously, scientists were not sure if the ancient reptiles, which had a cruising speed of 22 mph (36 kmh), had glands.

The glands themselves are were made of soft tissue so are not preserved, leaving only projections of bone where they would have been.

Scientists, who have yet to publish their research, believe these glands would have created eddies that meant the salt was flushed out.

'A concentrated salt solution could be carried away easily by the water as the ichthyosaur swam', Professor Massare said.

Often misidentified as swimming dinosaurs, these reptiles appeared before the first dinosaurs had emerged.

They evolved from an as-yet unidentified land reptile that moved back into the water.Advertisement

Facebook has revealed a physical 'war room' at its California headquarters as part of its efforts to tackle election interference tactics.

In September, in the run-up to elections in both Brazil and the US, it created a physical room at its Menlo Park campus from where it says its elections interference prevention experts can work together.

Inside the secure room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards.

They are only allowed to leave the room for short bathroom breaks or to grab food to eat at their desks.

On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, 'Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem.'

Facebook worker Erin Landers leaves the company's 'War Room,' during a media demonstration . The war room, which will ramp up activity for the November 6 midterm US elections, is the most concrete sign of Facebook's efforts to weed out misinformation.

Facebooks 'war room' at its Menlo Park headquarters. It has over two dozen experts from across the company and will allow staff to monitor activity around election issues in real time

FACEBOOK'S BATTLEGROUNDS The Brazilian general elections are scheduled to be held on October 7 to elect the President and Vice President, the National Congress, state and Federal District Governors and Vice Governors, state Legislative Assemblies and Federal District Legislative Chamber. The United States midterm elections are due to be held on November 6 2018. It will see all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate contested. Advertisement

That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago  and which the company's critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.

Days after President Donald Trump's surprise victory, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea 'pretty crazy .'

Earlier this week the social network introduced new rules around political advertising in the UK, requiring anyone who wants to post political ads to verify their identity and location, and added the UK to its library of political adverts which also includes the US and Brazil.

Its technology draws upon the artificial-intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify 'inauthentic' posts and user behavior.

Director of product management for civic engagement Samidh Chakrabarti said: 'The war room has over two dozen experts from across the company  including from our threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams.

'These employees represent and are supported by the more than 20,000 people working on safety and security across Facebook.

'When everyone is in the same place, the teams can make decisions more quickly, reacting immediately to any threats identified by our systems, which can reduce the spread of potentially harmful content.'

Expert include those examining threat intelligence, data science, software engineering, research, community operations and legal teams.

Facebook said the space could be used to monitor activity around election issues in real time, including efforts to prevent people from voting and increases in spam content.

Mr Chakrabarti said the teams involved had also prepared responses to different techniques that could be used by those seeking to use the platform to influence voters or mislead them.

'These preparations helped a lot during the first round of Brazil's presidential elections,' he said.

'For example, our technology detected a false post claiming that Brazil's Election Day had been moved from October 7 to October 8 due to national protests. While untrue, that message began to go viral.

'We quickly detected the problem, determined that the post violated our policies, and removed it in under an hour. And within two hours, we'd removed other versions of the same fake news post.'

Employees work in Facebook's 'War Room,' The Brazilian general elections are scheduled to be held on October 7 to elect the President and Vice President, the National Congress, state and Federal District Governors and Vice Governors, state Legislative Assemblies and Federal District Legislative Chamber.

Physical 'war room' at California HQ is part of social network's efforts to tackle election interference

Facebook has been repeatedly accused of failing to adequately prevent previous efforts to meddle in elections, something the company itself has also admitted.

Mr Chakrabarti said the company would continue to invest in security in an attempt to stay ahead of 'adversaries'.

'The work we are doing in the war room builds on almost two years of hard work and significant investments, in both people and technology, to improve security on Facebook, including during elections,' he said.

Facebook declined to let the media scrutinize the computer screens in front of the employees, and required reporters to refrain from mentioning some of the equipment inside the war room, calling it proprietary information.

While on duty, war-room workers are only allowed to leave the room for short bathroom breaks or to grab food to eat at their desks.

Although no final decisions have been made, the war room is likely to become a permanent fixture at Facebook, said Katie Harbath, Facebooks director of global politics and government outreach.

It is a constant arms race, she said. This is our new normal.

(L to R) Samidh Chakrabarti, Head of Civic Engagement, Katie Harbath, Global Politics and Government Outreach Director, and Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy, in the war room at Facebook in Menlo Park

in September, in the run-up to elections in both Brazil and the US, it created a physical room at its Menlo Park campus from where it says its elections interference prevention experts can work together.

'Our machine learning and artificial intelligence technology is now able to block or disable fake accounts more effectively  the root cause of so many issues.

'We've increased transparency and accountability in our advertising.

'And we continue to make progress in fighting false news and misinformation.

'That said, security remains an arms race and staying ahead of these adversaries will take continued improvement over time.

'We're committed to the challenge.'The 150-million-year old remains of the world's first flesh-eating fish have been found in a German quarry.

The 'remarkable' bony fish lived in the sea when the dinosaurs roamed the Earth and had teeth like a piranha, which it used to rip off chunks of flesh from other fish.

Scientists also found the unfortunate half-eaten victims of this predator on the same limestone deposits in the quarry of Ettling in the Solnhofen region of south Germany.

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The 'remarkable' bony fish lived in the sea at the same time as the dinosaurs roamed the Earth and had teeth like a piranha, which it used to rip off chunks of flesh from other fish

Scientists led by David Bellwood of James Cook University have described the remarkable new species of bony fish, called Piranhamesodon pinnatomus.

The researchers call the new find a 'staggering example of evolutionary versatility and opportunism.'

'We have other fish from the same locality with chunks missing from their fins,' said Dr Bellwood.

'This is an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but the fins of other fishes.

'It's a remarkably smart move as fins regrow, a neat renewable resource. Feed on a fish and it is dead; nibble its fins and you have food for the future', he said.

Careful study of the fossilized specimen's well-preserved jaws revealed long, pointed teeth on the exterior of the roof of the mouth.

It also had terrifying teeth at the front of both the upper and lower jaws as well as triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges on the side of the lower jaw.

The tooth pattern and shape, jaw morphology and mechanics suggest its mouth was well-equipped to slice flesh or fins, the international team of researchers report.

The early piranha-like fish probably fed in the same way as modern piranha, according to the paper published in Current Biology.

'The new finding represents the earliest record of a bony fish that bit bits off other fishes, and what's more it was doing it in the sea,' said Dr Bellwood said, noting that today's piranhas all live in freshwater.

'So when dinosaurs were walking the earth and small dinosaurs were trying to fly with the pterosaurs, fish were swimming around their feet tearing the fins or flesh off each other.'

The evidence points to the possibility that the early piranha-like fish may have fed in the same way as modern piranha, according to the paper published in Current Biology

The newly described fish is part of the world famous collections in the Jura-Museum in Eichstatt.

'We were stunned that this fish had piranha-like teeth,' said Martina Kolbl-Ebert of Jura-Museum Eichstatt (JME-SNSB).

'It comes from a group of fishes (the pycnodontids) that are famous for their crushing teeth. It is like finding a sheep with a snarl like a wolf.'

Dr Kolbl-Ebert said it was particularly remarkable considering it was from the Jurassic period.

'Fish as we know them, bony fishes, just did not bite flesh of other fishes at that time', she said.

'Sharks have been able to bite out chunks of flesh but throughout history bony fishes have either fed on invertebrates or largely swallowed their prey whole.

'Biting chunks of flesh or fins was something that came much later.'A rare state of matter in which atoms are chilled to within a billionth of a degree of -273.15C (-459.67F) has been produced in space.

This Bose-Einstein condensate was created for six minutes in microgravity on-board a rocket before it fell back to Earth.

It is believed that the matter was the coldest object in the universe during its brief lifespan.

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A rare state of matter in which atoms are chilled to within a fraction of absolute zero has been produced in space for the first time, raising hopes of further breakthroughs in physics. Pictured: the atom 'trap' used to create the Bose-Einstein condensate

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) were predicted in 19241925 by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein but the technology required to create them is only just emerging.

They require temperatures to drop to absolute zero before they form and the atoms have so little energy they stop moving independently and combine into a large mass.

Scientists conducted 110 experiments in the six-minute window and believe the condensate could be used to make highly responsive sensors to measure phenomena such as gravitational waves.

The German space agency DLR carried out the tests in January last year on the MAIUS 1 rocket, beating Nasa's Cold Atom Laboratory who have also since produced a BEC in space.

The findings have been published this week in the journal Nature.

Scientists at 11 German research facilities miniaturised the technology for the production of Bose-Einstein condensates which normally fills a whole lab room.

To produce a Bose-Einstein condensate, a cloud of atoms, in this case rubidium atoms, are cooled to almost absolute zero - the lowest temperature possible.

Tiny lasers in the space device were used to slow the rubidium atoms and force them into a magnetic trap to allow for the intense cooling.

WHAT ARE BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATES? Bose-Einstein Condensates are ultra-cold clouds of atoms first theorised by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein 71 years ago. In this state, the condensates are a superfluid, with zero viscosity. This allows the atoms to move without friction as if they were all one solid substance. Then, they can be observed by scientists more like waves than particles, as rows move with each other like mysterious waveforms. Researchers hope to study them to understand fundamental principles about how gravity interacts with the tiniest particles. Advertisement

Scientists produced a Bose-Einstein condensate and conducted 110 experiments in the six minutes it spent in space. Pictured: The experiment was launched from northern Sweden on the rocket MAIUS 1 on January 23, 2017

Usually the resulting BEC falls to the floor in a fraction of a second but the experiment in the near weightless of space allowed scientists to examine it for longer.

The scientists said: 'Our results provide insights into conducting cold-atom experiments in space, such as precision interferometry.

'[They] pave the way to miniaturizing cold-atom and photon-based quantum information concepts for satellite-based implementation.

'In addition, space-borne BoseEinstein condensation opens up the possibility of quantum gas experiments in low-gravity condition.'Female chimpanzees keep their babies away from males who are rising through the ranks as they are most likely to kill them.

This is according to a new study which revealed that female chimps know which males are most likely to kill their young ones.

Instead, female chimps are likely to associate with a male of stable high rank status on the basis that he could protect them against infanticide.

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Female chimpanzees keep their babies away from males who are rising through the ranks as they are most likely to kill them

Scientists from the University of Kent studied the behaviour of female chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda where chimpanzees (at least in the study community) are particularly prone to committing and suffering infanticide.

Males can benefit from infanticide when they can kill an unrelated infant and replace it with one they have fathered.

Because rank is linked to mating access in chimpanzees, a male who rises quickly in rank is surrounded by babies he is unlikely to have fathered, compared to any babies conceived after his rise.

This means a male who rises in rank is suddenly a threat to mothers and their babies.

Mothers, specifically those with younger, more vulnerable infants, reduced their association with the rankrising male during the period of instability, researchers found.

The research team also found evidence that females preferred to associate with a male of stable high rank on the basis that such males could offer protection against infanticide.

Female chimps are likely to associate with a male of stable high rank status on the basis that he could protect them against infanticide

Because rank is linked to mating access in chimpanzees, a male who rises quickly in rank is surrounded by babies he is unlikely to have fathered, compared to any babies conceived after his rise

PhD student, Adriana Lowe, who led the research said: Watching chimps killing infants is really shocking and although its pretty well reported, its not been entirely clear why they do it.

'The mothers behaviour in our study supports the hypothesis that its a strategy by the males to get more mating opportunities.

'Male chimps are often described as great politicians as they use complex alliances to compete for high rank'.

However this latest paper shows that the females are just as tuned in to the social environment.

Mothers, specifically those with younger, more vulnerable infants, reduced their association with the rankrising male during the period of instability, researchers found

They watch the males from the side-lines, 'sensitive to any changes which might put their babies in danger', Ms Lowe said.

The research builds on pioneering observations of infanticide in this community by co-author Dr Nicholas Newton-Fisher who first studied the group more than 20 years ago.

The paper has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.Apple is expected to unveil a highly anticipated update to its iPad at a special event in New York later this month.

Invites were sent out for the 'There's more in the making' event today - with each featuring a a personalized version of the Apple logo.

It will take place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and could also see new MacBooks and Airpods unveiled.

The new iPads are expected to have the same FaceID system as Apple's iPhones, and a redesigned casing with no home button and smaller bezels.

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The event will take place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and could also see new MacBooks and Airpods unveiled. Invites were sent out for the 'There's more in the making' event today - with each featuring a a personalized version of the Apple logo. Pictured, Dailymail.com's invite

WHAT IS RUMOURED TO BE INCLUDED IN THE NEW iPAD PRO? Numerous reports suggest Apple is gearing up to release a new iPad Pro in October 2018. Code buried in iOS 12 suggests a new iPad will indeed launch in 'fall 2018'. The company historically holds standalone iPad launch events in October. New icons for iPad found in the software's coding suggest it will have a thin bezel and 'notch' like the iPhone X. Apple recently added landscape support for its FaceID system to iOS. Some experts suggest this is in anticipation of a new iPad that uses the facial recognition software. Advertisement

Earlier this month the firm inadvertently shared plans for its hotly anticipated new iPad  and it could be coming as soon as next month.

Software developers combing through the latest beta code  early versions of the operating system shared with app creators to check for compatibility issues and bugs  have uncovered references to an unannounced device labelled 'iPad2018fall'.

This suggests Apple will release its next-generation iPad this autumn, adding weight to widespread rumours the firm is planning to unveil a new iPad Pro in October.

Numerous reports suggest the Cupertino company is poised to release an iPad Pro with no Home button, slim bezels, and Face ID facial recognition next month.

Apple has declined to comment on the rumours, but the company has historically held standalone iPad launch events in October.

The cryptic iPad code was uncovered in iOS 12.1  the forthcoming upgrade to iOS 12, which was rolled out to Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners worldwide on Monday.

Looks like a large variety of designs going out for these invites for the (likely) iPad Pro launch (thanks to @stuartmiles @caro_milanesi @tldtoday @MKBHD @panzer for alternatives...) pic.twitter.com/aA3ihLr8q6  Gareth Beavis (@superbeav) October 18, 2018

While the public won't have access to 12.1 until next month, Apple hands out pre-release versions to app developers to allow them to test their software.

One such app developer, Guilherme Rambo, rummaged through the code that makes up the update, and found clear evidence of an iPad due for release this year.

Pictured is an artist's impression of the next iPad Pro based on the rumours so far. Numerous reports suggest the tablet will have no Home button, slim bezels, and Apple's Face ID facial recognition system

He wrote in 9to5Mac that the newly uncovered code labelled 'iPad2018fall' did not exist in previous developer versions of iOS software.

Also discovered in iOS 12.1 was support for FaceID when users are holding their device sideways.

Current versions of the facial recognition software only work when users hold their iPhones in a portrait orientation  something that would not necessarily be possible with the iPad Pro, which is required to be used in landscape when docked with Apple's Smart Keyboard accessory, for example.

A tech expert digging through the code that makes up Apple's newest iOS operating system has uncovered hidden software labelled 'iPad2018fall' (highlighted in green)

Mr Rambo suggested this upgrade was a useful tweak for tablets, which are bulkier than phones and so require more flexibility to use the software correctly.

Apple's next tablet is expected to feature ultra-thin bezels and no physical home button, to make way for its facial recognition technology, called Face ID, according to 9to5Mac.

The technology blog identified a device icon last month that looked remarkably different from previous illustrations included in Apple's mobile operating systems.

A tiny blue icon showed an iPad with thin bezels and a row of icons at the bottom of the device  instead of the circular home button.

That differed from the current icon, which shows a front-facing camera at the top, in addition to a home button at the bottom.

This icon, which is used to illustrate the device when it is plugged into a computer, hints the iPad could be in for a significant overhaul.

Tech experts spotted a new icon (right) in iOS 12 last month that looked remarkably different from previous designs (left). The icon showed an iPad with thin bezels and a row of icons at the bottom of the device

What's more, the new iPad icon appeared to show the absence of a notch design.

Apple introduced the notch on the iPhone X at its September event last year.

It houses vital sensors and cameras that power Face ID, but it received criticism from users who felt it obstructed the iPhone X's edge-to-edge screen.

It's possible that Apple will make the bezels wide enough so that they can fit the TrueDepth camera that enables facial recognition.

In the past, iOS leaks have served as an accurate predictor of Apple releases.

A firmware update for the HomePod smart speaker rolled-out in 2017 revealed the front-facing design of the iPhone X, so it's plausible that the iPad icon could serve as a solid indicator of what's to come.

What's more, analysts have been predicting for the past several months that Apple will introduce a bezel-less screen and Face ID in the next iPad.

They've also predicted that Apple may choose to ditch the headphone jack in the upcoming iPad Pro.As fetching as that latest trendy addition to your wardrobe might be, you are unlikely to have ever considered it literally good enough to eat.

Unpalatable as it seems, you probably have swallowed some of it  or, even less appetisingly, something very similar which someone else was wearing.

Not that anybody would have noticed  let alone, thankfully, tasted it  at the time. For we are talking about tiny plastic fibres that end up in the food chain after being shed by clothes made from synthetic materials such as nylon, polyester, elastane and acrylic.

Often these fibres come out in the washing machine, and from there make their way to our oceans where they are eaten by fish and other sea creatures including crabs, lobsters and mussels, which can then end up on dining tables.

Often tiny microfibres found in our clothes come out in the washing machine, and from there make their way to our oceans where they are eaten by fish and other sea creatures including crabs, lobsters and mussels, which can then end up on dining tables

Prince Harry correctly alluded to the problem yesterday as he and Meghan visited South Melbourne beach and met primary school students who have been trying to keep the local coastline litter-free.

There is literally plastic everywhere, the Duke of Sussex said. And, you know, microplastics are a real problem, especially the microplastics from fast fashion. Did you know thats one of the biggest culprits?

If not, they should.

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex walk on South Melbourne beach in Melbourne on October 18. 'There is literally plastic everywhere, the Duke of Sussex said

Fast fashion involves transforming ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture into cheap, synthetic garments in High Street stores at breakneck speed.

With Britons buying twice as many clothes as a decade ago  last year we spent 50 billion  and replacing them more frequently, fast fashion is flying off the shelves.

In a 2017 report, Greenpeace warned: About 60 per cent of todays clothing contains polyester. The global consumption of synthetic fibres has literally exploded: from 2000 to 2016, the use of polyester by the global garment industry increased from 8.3 million to 21.3 million tonnes annually.

Microfibres from fleeces and sportswear made from synthetic materials are one of the most significant causes of plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans.

Microfibres from fleeces and sportswear made from synthetic materials are one of the most significant causes of plastic pollution in our rivers and oceans

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation  a charity launched by yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur and fashion designer Stella McCartney to campaign against waste  released a chilling report about the scale of the problem last year, concluding that the situation is now so bad that we are eating our own clothes.

Expressed in those stark terms, it is a deeply unappetising thought. But it isnt the only damaging consequence of our relentless dumping of yet more plastic into our oceans.

Large plastic litter is an obvious problem  anybody who has been to a beach will have seen the mountains of plastic bottles, packaging and other items that have been washed up on the tide.

The key problem with plastics is that they are almost impossible to break down. Rather than rotting, they eventually find their way back into the food chain in tiny pieces smaller than five millimetres known as microplastics.

There are two types of microplastic. Secondary microplastics refer to the tiny slivers of plastic produced when larger items are broken down by the sun and sea.

Fast fashion involves transforming ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture into cheap, synthetic garments in High Street stores at breakneck speed

But there are also primary microplastics, which are pieces of plastic that are tiny before they get to the ocean  such as the microfibres from our clothes  which are estimated to make up 35 per cent of the primary microplastics entering our oceans.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundations believes around half a million tonnes of these microfibres pollute our oceans every year  16 times more than plastic microbeads from cosmetics. To put these stark figures into perspective, this is the equivalent of more than 50 billion plastic bottles.

And this number doesnt look like dropping. The amount of microfibres released into the environment as a direct result of washing textiles could grow to 0.7 million tonnes a year by 2050  the equivalent of dumping 4 billion polyester T-shirts into the sea.

Richard Thompson, a professor of Marine Biology at Plymouth University who is known as the godfather of microplastics, has pinpointed just how much plastic is being released by our washing machines.

In a recent laboratory study, his International Marine Litter Research Unit filled an everyday washing machine with separate loads of jumpers made from three different synthetic fabrics, and used a micro-sieve attached to the drain hose to catch the fibres that were released.

A team at Ghent University in Belgium led by Professor Thompson discovered in 2016 that one third of UK-caught fish were contaminated with plastic  that included haddock, cod, mackerel and shellfish

They found that an average UK washing load of 13lb can release 140,000 fibres from polyester-cotton blend, nearly half a million fibres from polyester, and more than 700,000 fibres from acrylic clothing.

In normal domestic conditions, these microfibres would have drained out of the washing machine and then travelled along with the rest of the households waste water to sewage treatment plants.

Some of the fibres would have been intercepted when the water was treated, but some  due to their small size  would still have escaped into the environment.

Worryingly, even those which are filtered out can still end up polluting our planet if sewage sludge  a by-product of water treatment  is used as fertiliser.

As rains fall on the fertilised fields, some of those fibres will be washed into rivers and streams, and from there into the sea. Once in the ocean, the microfibres are eaten by sea creatures such as plankton, shellfish and anchovies.

The fibres also end up in other fish which either eat contaminated fish or accidentally eat the microplastics themselves.

And, worryingly for us, studies have found they ultimately end up in seafood  particularly shellfish  consumed by humans. Indeed, a Mail investigation this year found microplastics on every sample of fish tested from the eight major supermarkets.

Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium (a country where mussels and chips is considered the national dish) have estimated that the countrys average shellfish consumer could be eating a staggering 11,000 pieces of microplastic each year.

The team led by Professor Thompson discovered in 2016 that one third of UK-caught fish were contaminated with plastic  that included haddock, cod, mackerel and shellfish.

Indeed, a Mail investigation this year found microplastics on every sample of fish tested from the eight major supermarkets

Fortunately, Professor Thompson says that there is  for now, at least  no evidence to suggest that eating microplastics consumed by fish presents a problem for human health.

But with research into their effects on humans still in its early stages, nobody can afford to be complacent. Changes are needed to create better, harder-wearing clothes that last longer and are good for the environment.

A study by the Italian National Research Council found that the number of plastic microfibres released in washing can be cut by almost a third using fabric softener, which reduces the friction between fibres  but Greenpeace warns that it results in harmful chemicals entering our waterways.

More comprehensive solutions are needed and the Commons Environmental Audit Committee has turned its attention to finding out how the fashion industry can remodel itself to be both thriving and sustainable.

There has been much research into developing textile fibres from alternative materials such as algae, banana peels and even milk though the Ellen MacArthur Foundation says it is unrealistic to assume that plastic-based fibres will be eliminated soon.

Cynics will doubtless respond to the prospect of such a revolution by claiming: Ill eat my hat if that ever happens.

But surely investing in new research is a more savoury alternative than continuing to eat our clothes by filling the ocean with yet more plastic.Helios & Matheson Analytics, the owner of beleaguered e-ticketing company MoviePass, is in hot water.

The firm is facing a fraud investigation by the New York Attorney General, over claims that it misled investors.

It comes as the firm struggles to deal with its money-losing business model.

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Helios & Matheson, the owner of beleaguered e-ticketing company MoviePass, is in hot water as it now faces a fraud investigation by NY's Attorney General alleging it misled investors

'We've launched a securities fraud investigation into @MoviePass' parent company,' New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said in a tweet.

'My office is committed to protecting New York investors and the integrity of our financial markets.'

The probe was first reported by CNBC, which said Underwood is using the Martin Act, a powerful New York State statute that allows the attorney general to go after suspected instances of fraud.

As part of the statute, the attorney general can bring either criminal or civil chargies against defendants.

The investigation is still in the early stages, according to CNBC.

'We are aware of the New York Attorney General's inquiry and are fully cooperating,' Helios and Matheson said in a statement.

'We believe our public disclosures have been complete, timely and truthful and we have not misled investors.

'We look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate that to the New York Attorney General,' the firm added.

It comes as Helios & Matheson CEO Ted Farnsworth indicated that MoviePass had secured $65 million in new funding last month.

He also insisted Moviepass was not going bankrupt, according to the Wrap.

The company has not provided additional details on the new investment.

'We're still here, and we're not going anywhere,' Farnsworth told the Wrap.

'We're doing [mergers and acquisitions], we're looking at all kinds of acquisitions at any given time and we'll grow the company that way and I think you'll see over the next few weeks.'

Moviepass has experienced a tumultuous last few months, as the service was temporarily shut down in July after its owner ran out of cash.

The CEO of Moviepass parent Helios & Matheson, Ted Farnsworth (far right), claims the firm 'isn't going anywhere,' and is looking to mergers and acquisitions as a way to stay afloat

The firm was forced to take out a $5 million emergency loan to pay its payment processors after it missed payments, forcing the site to go offline for a brief period of time.

What's more, as Helios & Matheson has grappled with financial setbacks, it has also gotten hammered on Wall Street, with its stock tumbling over 99 percent in the last three months.

It made a last-ditch effort to save some cash by announcing changes to its monthly subscription plan.

In August, Moviepass attempted to raise its monthly subscription fee to $15 per month.

Users immediately criticized the move, prompting the firm to keep the rate at $10 a month.

However, the firm announced it would impose a cap of three movies per month, instead of one every day.

Moviepass rival AMC said its subscription service, 'Stubs A-list' had already amassed 400,000 subscribers. The service lets users watch three movies per week for $19.95 per month

WHAT IS MOVIEPASS? MoviePass is a discount movie ticket service that allows users to see multiple movies per month for a flat rate. It's grown to 3 million subscribers, from about 20,000, since it slashed monthly rates nearly a year ago to $10, from as high as $50. The firm changed its business model last summer to offer a Netflix-style subscription that lets you see a movie a day for a flat fee of $9.95 a month. But, because MoviePass typically pays theaters the full cost of tickets - $15 or more in big cities - a single movie can put the service in the red, and its financial stability has come increasingly into question. In summer 2018, MoviePass revealed a plan to raise its monthly fee by 50% to $15, and allow subscribers to see one movie per day. Days later, it backtracked on the plan. It now says it will continue to charge just $10, but you can only see three movies per month. In recent months, MoviePass also stopped letting subscribers view the same movie multiple times and began requiring moviegoers to send photographs of ticket stubs as proof. Advertisement

So far, that move seems to be paying off for Moviepass, according to Farnsworth.

'People are going to less than one movie a month,' he told the wrap. 'So technically, subscription alone right now is doing just fine, now it's tacking on all the other things on top of it.'

Now, the firm is looking to diversify its business model by offering access to not just big ticket titles, but also indie movies, as well as ramping up its targeted marketing efforts, Farnsworth said.

However, skeptics have pointed out that Moviepass has been known to give numbers that don't exactly pan out, so many are taking the announcement of a fresh funding round with a grain of salt.

The move comes as one of Moviepass' foremost competitors appears to be taking off.

AMC's 'Stubs A-List' subscription service, which lets users see three movies per week for $19.95 per month, said it had amassed 400,000 subscribers after just 14 weeks.

The theater chain said it had hoped to have 500,000 subscribers by the end of the year and it seems well on its way to achieving that goal.Brits heading to Spain this weekend for the half-term holidays are being warned to brace themselves for a deluge of rain and flooding.

Weather warnings have been issued covering tourist hotspots in the east of the country including Benidorm, Alicante and Majorca.

And forecasters predict that some parts are expected to see up to 19 inches of rain over the next two days with the heaviest of downpours due to come tomorrow.

Forecasters are predicting that eastern Spain is going to be hit with a deluge of rain and flooding ahead of the half-term holidays. Pictured is flood damage in Majorca last week after flash floods

The rain and thunderstorms are being caused by a strong warm air conveyor system bringing a large amount of moisture to the region.

It comes just days after Hurricane Leslie battered Spain and Portugal, which also caused heavy rain and flash floods.

The Spanish meteorological agency has now issued both red extreme risk and orange important risk warnings for areas such as the Costa Brava, Valencia, Catalonia and the Balearics.

And police in the Alicante region are said to be stepping up patrols warning locals and tourists of the 'severe weather conditions'.

The Spanish meteorological agency has issued red and orange warnings for bad weather covering areas such as Benidorm, Alicante and Majorca

Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the Met Office, told MailOnline Travel: 'Eastern Spain is going to be experiencing some very, very heavy rainfall, and red warnings have been issued.

'This is partly because of a weather pattern affecting the region, which is a strong warm air conveyor system that is carrying a significant amount of moisture.

'These areas can expect to see rainfall totals in excess of 250mm rising to 500mm over the next few days.

The heavy rain will come just days after Hurricane Leslie battered Spain and Portugal

'This brings a significant risk of flash flooding and there is also a strong possibility of thunder and lightning.'

Spain-bound tourists might wish they'd booked a holiday elsewhere in Europe.

Destinations set for pleasant conditions across this weekend and into next include Paris, Nice, Rome, the Greek islands, Cyprus and the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik.

A week ago flash floods hit Majorca, killing an elderly British couple who drowned when their taxi was swept away.

At least eight other people died after eight inches of rain fell in four hours and a river burst its banks.

Locals swam for their lives as a 13ft wall of water raced through Sant Llorenc des Cardassar  where TV's Love Island is filmed  battering houses and sweeping cars away with people stuck inside.

Locals in Sant Llorenc des Cardassar earlier this week after water raced through the town, battering house and sweeping cars away

Last month, the holiday resort of Benidorm was also hit with torrential downpours.

Holidaymakers were filmed floating down flooded streets on lilos, refusing to let the horrid weather ruin their break.

Some tourists were even spotted using an upside-down table as a makeshift surfboard.

The south of France was also battered with bad weather as was Porto in Portugal, which was hit with 125mph winds.Former Home And Away star Tess Haubrich, 29, has replaced Jessica Marais, 33, in Channel Nine's upcoming drama series Bad Mothers.

The show was left in the lurch last month when Jessica pulled out before filming, but Nine hasn't wasted time in announcing her replacement.

On Wednesday, the network announced the news in an official statement that read: 'Bad Mothers boasts a stellar cast including Home And Away's Melissa George, Love Child's Mandy McElhinney, Daniel MacPherson, Don Hany, Jessica Tovey and Tess Haubrich.'

New leading lady! Tess Haubrich, left, has joined the cast of Nine's new drama series Bad Mothers... replacing Jessica Marais, right who pulled out of the show 'to focus on health and family'

Slated for release next year, Bad Mothers will follow five women dealing with the pressures of love, their careers, infidelity and- most intriguingly- murder.

'When their lives collide following a series of shocking events, the Bad Mothers will learn that life can get a whole lot more complicated, more outrageous  and a whole lot more fun  than they ever imagined,' the press release teased.

The announcement comes after Logie Award-winner Jessica pulled out of the drama before it began filming in October.

In a statement to 9Honey last month, the actress' management announced: 'Jessica has decided to step away from acting for the remainder of 2018 to focus on her health and spend time with her family.'

'Jessica has decided to step away from acting for the remainder of 2018 to focus on her health and spend time with her family,' said a statement released by Marais' management company last month.

'She is disappointed that she will not be a part of the Bad Mothers production with such an incredible cast and team behind it, but knows that it is important to take time out to maintain ongoing balance and wellbeing.'

Quit: In a statement to 9Honey last month, Jessica's management announced that she had 'decided to step away from acting for the remainder of 2018 to focus on her health and spend time with her family' (Pictured: Jessica Marais)

Previously, the mother-of-one was forced to miss the Logie Awards in July in order to receive treatment for 'urgent' issues at a mental health facility in Bronte, Sydney.

When Jessica won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress during the ceremony, her Love Child co-star Miranda Tapsell accepted the award on her behalf.

Following a four-week stint in the facility, the 33-year-old praised her boyfriend Jake Holly for giving her 'hope' and support in her time of need.

Taking time out: Previously, the mother-of-one was forced to miss the Logie Awards in July in order to receive treatment for 'urgent' issues at a mental health facility in Bronte, Sydney (Pictured: Jessica with daughter Scout)

Taking to Instagram, she captioned a photo of the couple: 'You can go 40 days without food, four days without water, four minutes without air, but not a moment without hope.

'So grateful for hope-filled and faith-filled humans who have contagious kindness. Love transcends all barriers both internal and external, the world could do with more of it.'

Jessica, who shares a six-year-old daughter Scout with her ex-fiance James Stewart, has spoken about her struggle with bipolar disorder in the past.

She previously told TV Week: 'I just think it's important to talk about depression. It's nothing to be ashamed of. And the more we talk about it as a community, the more we can remove the stigma.'The truth came out in a big way during last weeks episode of A Million Little Things, but this week the gang is forced to deal with the consequences. While some issues were resolved, others are just getting started.

The episode begins with a flashback to two years ago. Jon (Ron Livingston) is still alive and the whole group is over for pizza, which we learn is a Friday night tradition at the Dixon household.

Delilahs (Stephanie Szostak) father, Lenny (Gerald McRaney) is also over and tells Sophie (Lizzy Greene) about how her parents first met.

The episode begins with a flashback to two years ago. Jon (Ron Livingston) is still alive and the whole group is over for pizza, which we learn is a Friday night tradition at the Dixon household

Delilahs father, Lenny (Gerald McRaney) is also over and tells Sophie about how her parents first met, which seemed like it was all meant to be

Regina is still struggling with the news of Delilah and Eddies affair. Though they are best friends, Regina finds herself unable to even talk to Delilah anymore

We learn Jon and Delilah serendipitously met while at an airport many years ago  he was on his way to Los Angeles and she was heading to France. Jon then proceeds to remind Sophie that everything happens for a reason, which has definitely come to be one of his signature lines.

Meanwhile, in present day, Regina (Christina Moses) is still struggling with the news of Delilah and Eddies (David Giuntoli) affair. Though they are best friends, Regina finds herself unable to even talk to Delilah anymore.

Gary (James Roday) and Rome (Romany Malco) decide to bring each of them to the restaurant theyre opening to hopefully hash out their issues, but their plan doesnt go so well. In fact, Regina inadvertently blames Delilah for Jons death. Yeah, thats definitely not how friends are supposed to make up.

However Regina, who is truly the MVP of the whole show, ultimately forgives Delilah for the affair and apologizes for the way she acted at the restaurant. In fact, she even comes over to help Delilah with pizza night. Not to mention, when Rome comes home saying he hates his job and wants to make his movie instead, she supports him. We need more Reginas in the world!

Gary and Rome decide to bring Regina and Delilah to the restaurant theyre opening to hopefully hash out their issues, but their plan doesnt go so well

The gang are reminiscing about happier times when Jon was alive and they were over in his house, blissfully unaware of Delilah and Eddie's affair

Eddie heads to a bar he used to spend a lot of time in back when he used to drink. In fact, in a flashback we learn Eddie was wasted the day Theo was born

Maggie (Allison Miller) has a doctors appointment and learns the extent of her cancer diagnosis. Bottom line  if she does absolutely nothing she has less than a year to live.

Though she wants to tell Gary about her diagnosis, the pair get into a blowup fight after she finds out he used cancer support groups to hookup with various women.

Gary stops by Maggies apartment to apologize, but shes not home. While on his way out he runs into Tom, a man from Maggies past, who is dropping off a care package full of grape soda, her favorite.

Anyway, Gary finds out through Tom that Maggies cancer has returned. Probably not the way Maggie wouldve liked him to find out but hey, at least he now knows!

Gary returns to Maggies apartment later in the day and, in an attempt to prove hes a changed man, finally shows her his cancer scar. Maggie ultimately forgives Gary, but she still doesnt tell him about her cancer returning.

Gary finds out through Tom that Maggies cancer has returned. Probably not the way Maggie wouldve liked him to find out but hey, at least he now knows!

Gary returns to Maggies apartment later in the day and, in an attempt to prove hes a changed man, finally shows her his cancer scar

Maggie ultimately forgives Gary, but she still doesnt tell him about her cancer returning and that she has less than a year to live

Elsewhere, Eddie and Katherines (Grace Park) marriage is holding on by a thread  no surprise there, following the affair bombshell from last week.

Though theyre putting on a brave face for their son Theo (Tristan Byon), its safe to say things arent going well.

Eddie heads to a bar he used to spend a lot of time in back when he used to drink. In fact, in a flashback we learn Eddie was wasted the day Theo was born. Eddie acknowledges his own wrongdoings and apologizes to Katherine for all the pain hes caused, but shes still not ready to forgive him.

Though the affair news is out in the open, there are still so many other secrets waiting to be uncovered.

Maggie needs to tell Gary about her cancer, Regina needs to find out about Romes depression, and we need to find out what was in that envelope Jon left for Delilah!

In next weeks episode it looks like somebody is pregnant, but its unclear who is having the child. Are Delilah and Eddie expecting a love baby? Is Maggie pregnant? Are Rome and Regina about to become first time parents? Heres hoping we get all our answers next Wednesday!She was arrested back in June for domestic battery for reportedly 'beating up' her on-and-off boyfriend Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and 'dragging him with a car'.

And it appears as though Jersey Shore: Family Vacation's Jen Harley is now in a great place with her love and father of their six-month-old daughter Ariana Sky.

Taking to Instagram Stories on Tuesday, the 33-year-old new mom answered a series of Q&A questions for her fans where she denied the alleged attack and called her beau her 'soulmate'.

Putting it in the past? Taking to Instagram Stories on Tuesday, Jen Harley answered a series of Q&A questions for her fans where she denied allegedly dragging her on-and-off boyfriend Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and called him her 'soulmate'

When asked if money was the reason she was with the popular reality star, the busty brunette said it was solely for love.

'Lol let me be clear I had my own money owned my own house cars etc. before Ron. I've never been broke or needed to live off of someone ever,' she began the response.

'I'm with him because I love him and we have a connection that most people do not have and it sucks you guys do not get to see it on JS [Jersey Shore} but it's there and it's real and I do believe he's my soulmate.'

Love: When asked if money was the reason she was with the popular reality star, the busty brunette said it was solely for love

The post also saw Jen add the sticker: 'I love you like Kanye loves Kanye'.

And although she claimed that love was in the air, the beauty said she wasn't planning on walking down the aisle anytime soon.

Jen's open chat also saw her address her June Las Vegas incident in which she was charged for domestic battery for reportedly 'beating up' and 'dragging Ronnie with a car'.

Taking their time: And although she claimed that love was in the air, the beauty said she wasn't planning on walking down the aisle anytime soon

Speaking out: Jen's open chat also saw her address her June Las Vegas incident in which she was charged for domestic battery for reportedly 'beating up' and 'dragging Ronnie with a car'

When a fan asked her: 'Why did you drag Ron with a car lol?' she strongly denied the claim.

'Lol I'm going to go ahead and address this since I haven't ever!' she wrote.

'Do u guys think i hooked him up and dragged him down the street lmao.'

Jen continued: 'Whoever first reported this story made that s**t up ad everyone RAN with it and it got DRAGGED out.'

According to TMZ at the time, the mom-of-two told law enforcement that Ronnie had struck her 'multiple times' but that 'cops concluded she was the one in the wrong'.

Harley was been found to be 'the primary aggressor' in the domestic dispute with Ortiz-Magro, during which he was allegedly 'dragged' by her car after being caught in his seatbelt.

Caught up in the law: Harley was been found to be 'the primary aggressor' in the domestic dispute with Ortiz-Magro, during which he was allegedly 'dragged' by her car after being caught in his seatbelt

The Blast later reported that the case was 'denied due to insufficient evidence'. She was released from jail on a $3000 bail.

Jen's attorney told E! News: 'I can confirm that the charges against Jennifer Harley have been dismissed. It is the District Attorney's policy to review each case to determine whether there is sufficient evidence or probably cause to prosecute a case.

'They have determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove Jennifer committed the crime of Battery Constituting Domestic Violence.'She is the daughter of legendary supermodel Cindy Crawford.

But Kaia Gerber was spotted giving a nod to an older pop culture phenomenon when she stepped out for soft-serve ice cream.

The 17-year-old, who has followed her mother's footsteps into modeling, was seen in Los Angeles Wednesday wearing a colorful Beatles t-shirt.

Celeb scion: Cindy Crawford's daughter Kaia Gerber was spotted giving a nod to an older pop culture phenomenon when she stepped out for soft-serve ice cream

It just so happens that Kaia led the red carpet this month at the Paris Fashion Week show for Stella McCartney, the daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney.

The same day she as glimpsed in her Beatles tee, Kaia posted an Instagram selfie in while wearing a yellow blouse and matching shades.

Kaia, who has had two small tattoos applied over the course of this month, captioned dryly: 'sometimes Im a true ray of sunshine'.

She's a fan: The 17-year-old, who has followed her mother's footsteps into modeling, was seen in Los Angeles Wednesday wearing a colorful Beatles t-shirt

Friendly collaborator: She recently told the Guardian that Karl Lagerfeld 'called me his Choupette once, after his cat, which is the biggest compliment coming from him'

One of her tattoos is of her middle name Jordan written in cursive, according to Page Six, and the other one is theorized by People to be a rocket.

Although she has shown off the body art on social media in recent days, it is not entirely clear which tattoo she got first.

She recently told the Guardian that Karl Lagerfeld 'called me his Choupette once, after his cat, which is the biggest compliment coming from him.'

'ray of sunshine': The same day she as glimpsed in her Beatles tee, Kaia posted an Instagram selfie in which she looked disgruntled while wearing a yellow blouse and matching shades

Karl, who has collaborated on a new line with Kaia, is famous for how much he dotes on Choupette, even releasing a book of his photographs of her.

Her father is businessman Rande Gerber, who married Cindy in 1998 and who started the tequila brand Casamigos with George Clooney and Mike Meldman.

Kaia has also got a 19-year-old brother called Presley, who like Kaia went into the modeling business as a teenager.Steve Jacobs' estranged wife Rosie has struck up a new romance with a man named 'Matt' after a string of failed relationships over the past year.

Rosie, 39, who separated from her husband, Steve, 51, last year and her Canadian boyfriend, Dylan Nash, 32, in recent months, revealed she's found 'love' with a handsome 'viking man.'

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday a close friend of the mother-of-two confirmed the blossoming relationship, sharing: 'Yes, they are super happy!'

EXCLUSIVE:'Yes, they are super happy!' Steve Jacobs' estranged wife Rosie (left) new romance with 'viking man' Matt has been confirmed by a close friend of the mother-of-two

The television presenter took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a loved-up selfie of her cosying up to her new beau at the Bronte rock pool in Sydney.

'Me and my Ragnar,' she captioned the image, clearly referencing the renowned Danish and Swedish Viking hero and ruler - Ragnar Lodbrok.

She accompanied the pair's happy snap with a number of telling hashtags, including: 'couldn't be happier, no regrets just love, my viking man and it's out now.'

The beaming brunette also playfully poked fun at the shirtless blonde hunk, adding: 'stop pouting Matt.'

Moving on! Steve Jacobs' estranged wife Rosie (pictured) has struck up a new romance with a man named 'Matt' after a string of failed relationships over the past year

Rose and Today show weatherman Steve are both settling back into their separate lives in Sydney after returning from Vanuatu following their devastating split.

The couple relocated to Vanuatu with their two daughters, Isabella, seven, and Francesca, five, in mid-2017, in what friends reportedly said was a 'last-ditch attempt' to save their marriage.

However the relationship broke down within a matter of months and after the couple split, Rose began dating Canadian commando, Dylan.

Rose and Dylan, who reportedly met through mutual friends in Vanuatu also parted ways in recent months.

A source told Daily Mail Australia in July that the brief relationship 'fizzled out' and had been 'the talk of the expat community in Port Vila, Vanuatu'.

Back home: Rosie moved back to Australia from Vanuatu with her two daughters - Isabella, seven, and Francesca, five, in July

Divorce: Rosie and her estranged husband Steve had relocated to Vanuatu with their children in early 2017, in what friends say was a 'last-ditch attempt' to save their marriage

Rosie then decided to return home to Sydney.

'About to take the leap! Leaving the Pacific Islands to restart a life in Australia. My beautiful girls by my side,' Rosie wrote on Instagram earlier this year.

She added the hashtag: 'Couldn't be happier'.

Whirlwind romance: Rose began dating Canadian commando, Dylan following her split with Steve but the relationship soon fizzled

In March, a source close to Rosie and Steve claimed they had 'grown in different directions' and split several months after moving overseas.

'They've grown in different directions and want different things in life now,' a friend said at the time.

'Steve and Rosie had such a public image of the perfect happy family, but behind the scenes there were struggles that would put a strain on even the best marriage.'

The former couple were together for 11 years and married for seven.There's less than two weeks to go until Halloween.

But Charlize Theron got a head start to all the fun as she took her children, August and Jackson, to Disneyland in Anaheim on Wednesday.

Dressed up as Edna from The Incredibles, Charlize, 43, had a blast spending quality time with her kids while wearing a floral print kimono, black wig, and trademark bottle coke glasses.

Head start to Halloween! Charlize Theron got a head start to all the fun as she took her children, August and Jackson, to Disneyland on Wednesday

Family first! From exploring the theme park to getting in an adrenaline rush on the Cars ride, Charlize couldn't have looked any happier enjoying a day of family fun

From exploring the theme park to getting in an adrenaline rush on the Cars ride, Charlize couldn't have looked any happier enjoying a day of family fun.

The actress let out a huge laugh as she strolled about the park while supervising her youngsters.

The Atomic Blonde actress wore a sensible pair of trainers for her long day of walking through the sprawling theme park.

But it wasn't all just walking for the trio.

Life is good: Theron threw her head back in laughter as she pushed August in her stroller

Putting her best foot forward: The Atomic Blonde actress wore a sensible pair of trainers for her long day of walking through the sprawling theme park

The actress got in an adrenaline rush as she headed onto the Cars ride with her children by her side.

Charlize adopted August in 2016 and Jackson in 2012.

An Academy Award winning actress who will be returning to her role as a spy in the upcoming Atomic Blonde sequel, Charlize recently admitted even she still has her insecurities.

Adrenaline rush! Theron couldn't stop smiling on the thrilling ride

Start your engines! The actress was clearly having the time of her life on the Cars ride

'Every single time I start a job, I still have the fear, "I'm gonna get fired. They're gonna find out I'm a terrible actor. This is gonna be where they find out that I'm just a total lie."' she told ELLE.

Charlize discussed the double standard in Hollywood and the importance of having support from both sexes to achieve equality.

'[Women] have to work so much harder to come back from a failure. It's not so dependent on the star when its a male. Its more, "Well, maybe the movie didnt work."Vicky Pattison has reportedly gone on a make or break holiday with her fiance John Noble to Dubai.

The Geordie Shore star, 30, and her long-term partner have allegedly been clashing over her showbiz lifestyle in London and reluctance to settle down and have kids.

Until Tuesday, the duo - who got engaged in July 2017 - were apparently not on speaking terms and had severed ties on social media, with sources claiming their relationship is 'hanging by a thread'.

Rumour has it: Vicky Pattison has reportedly gone on a make or break holiday with her fiance John Noble to Dubai (pictured)

'Vicky and John's relationship is hanging by the thinnest of threads, but they both think what they've got is worth fighting for,' an insider told The Sun.

'When they first rekindled their flame two years ago John was exactly the kind of stable man Vicky wanted, but as time's gone on she's found it harder to commit to a quiet life up North when all her mates are still down here in London.

'It's been causing massive rows and John has warned her if she doesn't start making him a priority over her pals and work it's over.'

Vicky reportedly asked John to accompany her in Dubai where she's working at the moment so they can 'talk things through'.

Claims: The Geordie Shore star, 30, and her long-term partner have allegedly been clashing over her showbiz lifestyle in London and reluctance to settle down and have kids

John had allegedly felt like he was playing 'second fiddle' to Vicky's busy lifestyle in London. The businessman is also reportedly desperate to start a family while Vicky was said to be less keen.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Vicky for comment.

Vicky appeared to hint at troubles in their romance when she shared a cryptic post about the 'perfect relationship' on Instagram on Wednesday.

Sharing a snap of the couple enjoying a rooftop dinner, she wrote: 'I can't promise you a perfect relationship, but what I can promise you is if you're trying, I'm staying.'

Oh dear: Until Tuesday, the duo - who got engaged in July 2017 - were apparently not on speaking terms and had severed ties on social media, with sources claiming their relationship is 'hanging by a thread'

Hmm: A source said: 'As time's gone on she's found it harder to commit to a quiet life up North when all her mates are still down here in London' (pictured, the couple's hotel room and welcome cake)

The claims come after Vicky sparked concern among her fans with a series of emotional posts over the weekend.

Taking to her Instagram stories, she claimed she's having a 'breakdown' as she spilled wine on herself.

The TV personality also shared a cryptic quote which read: 'I'm going to make a very beautiful life for myself no matter what it takes.'

What's going on? Vicky Pattison sparked split fears among her fans with a series of emotional posts on Instagram over the weekend

In one clip, Vicky opted for a fresh-faced appearance as she wolfed down a packet of cheese straight from the packet.

Shortly after, the reality star spilled white wine on her clothing and captioned the clip: 'I am pretty sure this is what a breakdown looks like.'

Continuing her self-indulgent display, Vicky went on to share of glimpse of her sweet snaps, which she captioned: 'Sometimes you just have to say: f**k today.'

Candid moments: Taking to her Instagram stories, the former Geordie Shore star, 30, claimed she's having a 'breakdown' as she spilled wine on herself

Close: John and Vicky postponed their wedding after her best pal's tragic death

Following her posts, fans flooded her account with encouraging comments, with one penning: 'Fighting talk! Live your life and don't give a fig for what others might think. They don't have to live it xx'

Another wrote: 'YES! Find what makes you feel good and do more of it. You've got this! '

'Thank you for sharing this. A daily struggle of mine, time to put myself first', a third agreed.

Another social media commented: 'I have learnt how can we look after others when we don't look after ourself'. MailOnline has contacted Vicky's representatives for comment.

'You've got this': Following her posts, fans flooded her account with encouraging comments

Vicky has had a tough few months after her best friend, Paul Burns, tragically passed away aged 37 this summer.

The brunette exclusively spoke to MailOnline about her late pal Paul, who was known as 'Mr Newcastle', and her dedication to helping others in need.

Vicky went on to reveal that her best friend's shock death gave her a shake up and made her discover what's important to her.

Concerns: Shortly after, the reality star spilled white wine on her clothing and captioned the clip: 'I am pretty sure this is what a breakdown looks like'

She said: 'I have just experienced one of the worst summers of my life and through that loss and pain, and subsequent road to recovery, I have discovered what is important and that's being there for people.'

'It's being honest, it's being kind and genuine, helping when you can. So I think I've had a real shake-up this year, what's important and what my priorities are,' she continued.

'You will see me doing a lot of charity work, and still working hard trying to further my career, but you'll also see me spending a lot more time with my friends and my family. I have definitely realised what is important in life.'

Vicky had to push back her wedding by a year after Paul's shock death and her fiance John's grandparents suddenly passed away.

Yet the devastating experience has made the couple 'stronger' after supporting each other and the reality star admitted that she loves him even more after learning more about him.

She said: 'John has been an amazing support for me, after our summer, it's been very difficult to enjoy planning a wedding, as you know, it ground to a halt throughout the summer because he lost both his grandparents, I lost a best friend.

Sweet tooth: Continuing her self-indulgent display, Vicky went on to share of glimpse of her sweet snaps, which she captioned: 'Sometimes you just have to say: f**k today.'

Sad: Vicky has had a tough few months after her best friend, Paul Burns, tragically passed away aged 37 this summer

'Planning a wedding was a no go for me, we just needed to support each other, we tried our hardest to look after each other.

'Now we have started wedding planning and are looking forward to happier times, we are definitely stronger as a couple.

'What's changed? There's a definitely a bit of sadness now that I have lost Paul but I am looking forward to making a recovery from everything, but in the meantime, yeah, we have each other, which is a great support.He is set to welcome a new arrival when his wife Alejandra Silva gives birth to the couple's first child together in a few months.

And Richard Gere was seen hard at work on new BBC series MotherFatherSon in Seville on Wednesday as the Spanish city was transformed into Mexico for filming.

The Hollywood actor, 69, cut a dapper figure in a grey suit as he clutched onto a beer while shooting the eight-part drama.

Back on the small screen: Richard Gere has been spotted hard at work on new BBC series MotherFatherSon while filming on location in Seville, Spain, on Wednesday

Switching the big screen for the small screen, Richard looked perfectly at home as he got into character while jugging a tray of beers on set.

The Pretty Woman star was dressed to impress in his latest scenes and was seen sporting a two-piece suit with a white shirt underneath.

Gere was seen raising a beer with his co-stars, before stealing sips of coffee in between takes.

Richard appeared in high spirits as he stole a moment away from the cameras.

Suave: The Hollywood actor, 69, cut a dapper figure on set in Seville, Spain clad in a grey suit and clutching onto a beer, as he films for the eight-part drama

You better beer-live it: Gere stepped out on location in Seville - with the Spanish Andalusian capital being transformed into Mexico for the purpose of the new TV series

He stars alongside Helen McCrory and Billy Howle in MotherFatherSon - created and written by Tom Rob Smith (known for his work on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story).

The series is set to air on BBC Two and fans will see Gere take on the role of Max - a self-made businessman.

McCrory plays his estranged wife Kathryn following the breakdown of their marriage and the duo share a son Caden, 30, (played by Howle) who is set to follow in his father's footsteps while running Max's UK newspaper.

Easy does it! Switching the big screen for the small screen, Richard looked perfectly at home as he got into character while jugging a tray of beers on set

Re-fuelling: Gere was seen raising a beer with his co-stars, before stealing sips of coffee in between takes

However, the future of the family and its empire is threatened when Caden spirals out of control and causes devastating consequences.

Speaking about the series, Gere insisted he was 'so pleased' to be a part of it.

'It's been almost 30 years since I worked in television. I'm so pleased to be working now with the BBC on this extraordinary 8 hour project with such talented people and which resonates so much to the time we live in.'

Helen added: 'Tom Rob Smith has written the most astonishing script - completely original and full of surprises.'

Howle said of his role in the series: 'I feel humbled to be given the opportunity to portray such a complex role with such a specific set of challenges, for me as a person and an actor. I really hope that I can do it justice.

And action! Richard appeared in high spirits as he stole a moment away from the cameras

New project: He stars alongside Helen McCrory and Billy Howle in MotherFatherSon - created and written by Tom Rob Smith

'And what better people to be collaborating with?! I can't wait to get going.'

Richard's new project comes as the veteran actor is preparing to welcome his first child with third wife Alejandra Silva, 35.

The couple confirmed their baby news in September, with Alejandra sharing a photo of herself and husband Gere meeting the Dalai Lama - who put his hand on her bump to bless the unborn child.

Gere is a long-term friend of the Dalai Lama, Tibets exiled spiritual leader.

A Buddhist himself, Gere is a a prominent advocate for human rights in Tibet - something he says led to him being blacklisted in Hollywood. His support for the state also led to him being banned from entering China.

Drama: The series is set to air on BBC Two and fans will see Gere take on the role of Max - a self-made businessman who's son spirals out of control leading to damaging consequences

Happy news! Richard's new project comes as the veteran actor is preparing to welcome his first child with third wife Alejandra Silva, 35

Their baby news comes after screen icon Richard tied the knot with Alejandra in April, after four years together.

Respected Madrid-based daily newspaper ABC broke the news of Geres wedding to the pretty Spaniard, 33 years his junior, earlier this year and first reported the pregnancy last month.

The actor tied the knot with Alejandra at a civil ceremony in Spain in April before celebrating the occasion with friends and family at his home near New York the following month.

Both Alejandra and Richard are already parents to a child each from previous relationships.

Smitten: The actor tied the knot with Alejandra at a civil ceremony in Spain in April before celebrating the occasion with friends and family at his home near New York the following month

Richard has an 18-year-old son called Homer with former wife Carey Lowell.

They married in 2002 and split 14 years later. He had previously been married to first wife Cindy Crawford for four years between 1991 and 1995.

Alejandra, who met her current husband while divorcing her first husband Govind Friedland, the son of mining magnate Robert Friedland, has a five-year-old son called Alberto she calls Albertino.

Gere met his future wife at a luxury Italian boutique hotel Alejandra bought with her former husband and was managing at the time.Halle Berry and her ex husband Olivier Martinez missed a court date on Tuesday.

The 52-year-old Catwoman actress and her 52-year-old Unfaithful actor ex failed to appear because of 'a clerical error' according to The Blast.

Despite it not being their fault, the pair 'could face sanctions failing to comply with a court order and missing the hearing,' according to the gossip site.

Happier times: Halle Berry and her ex husband Olivier Martinez missed a court date on Tuesday. Seen here in 2013

A new hearing date has been set for January 2019.

Even though the couple have been divorced since 2016, they regularly put on a united front for the sake of their son, Maceo.

Earlier this month, they celebrated the boy's fifth birthday at The Coop in Woodland Hills.

Whoops: The 52-year-old Catwoman actress and her 52-year-old Unfaithful actor ex failed to appear because of 'a clerical error' according to The Blast. Seen here in 2012

Their son's lavish, Halloween themed bash included spooky decorations, scrumptious cupcakes, and even a petting zoo.

Olivier bravely draped a python over his neck as his ex stood close by.

Halle gushed about her youngest child as she posted a clip of his candlelit cake.

'We love you SO much, Macey Mace!! Happy birthday!!!!!' she wrote.

Doing it for the kids: Even though the couple have been divorced since 2016, they regularly put on a united front for the sake of their son, Maceo

Halle married Olivier on July 13, 2013, and the couple welcomed Maceo a few months following their nuptials.

Halle also has daughter Nahla, 10, from her previous relationship with model Gabriel Aubry.

Meanwhile, the actress recently confirmed her 1992 movie Boomerang will be adapted into a TV series.She never puts a foot wrong with fashion while attending the hottest parties among all the stars in London.

And Georgia Toffolo upped the style stakes when she made her entrance at the glittering bash hosted by the Prince's Trust, in London on Wednesday.

The Made In Chelsea star, 23, looked out of this world in her fuchsia pink dress with stars printed all over the pleated number.

Flirty and feminine: Georgia Toffolo cut a ladylike figure in her star-print fuchsia pink dress as she attended the glitzy Princes Trust event, in London on Wednesday

Ribbons were tied in bows, neatly at both the collar of the dress and the waist, for a decorative element as well as adding to the femininity of Georgia's appearance.

Tying her fringe off her face, the This Morning presenter made the most of her face and she enhanced her features with heavy make-up.

The bash was held to honour The Prince's Trust's new Women Supporting Women initiative which helps young women across the UK have the confidence to succeed.

Ladylike: Ribbons were tied in bows, neatly at both the collar of the dress and the waist, for a decorative element as well as adding to the femininity of Georgia's appearance

Georgia's appearance at the dazzling event for women comes after she revealed her plans to pause her reality television career to focus on other projects.

She confessed to MailOnline: 'I have stepped away from other things just to test the waters for now and see if I can get better at presenting and stuff.

'I do want to work more on projects to do with my skin. I felt that someone in my position who has that condition can help others. I had so much positive feedback from it.'

Moving up in the world: Georgia's appearance at the dazzling event for women comes after she revealed her plans to pause her reality television career to focus on other projects

Although she is stepping away from reality television, Georgia wouldn't rule out returning to the show that brought her fame.

She explained: 'I may have stepped away for now, but, as I say, it's to do other things and test things out.'

As for romance, she is enjoying her flourishing relationship with Youtuber Jack Maynard after the pair met on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here last year.She's set to wed fiance David C. Meyer this weekend in Hawaii.

But on Wednesday, Camille Grammer ditched her wedding responsibilities to lounge on the beach in a blue bikini.

'Morning training Hawaiian style,' the 50-year-old reality star wrote on Instagram. 'Just finished a wonderful 2.8 mile paddle and swim.'

Body goals: On Wednesday, Camille Grammer lounged on a beach in Hawaii in a blue bikini

The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star has agreed to film her wedding, according to Hollywood Life.

Kyle Richards, Teddi Mellencamp, and Lisa Rinna will all be present for Camille's big day.

Meanwhile, Lisa Vanderpump has 'refused' to attend despite Bravo begging her to show up.

'Morning training Hawaiian style,' the 50-year-old reality star wrote on Instagram. 'Just finished a wonderful 2.8 mile paddle and swim'

Natural beauty: Grammer opted to go makeup free as she relaxed in the sand and surf

Back in April, Grammer revealed a few ceremony details when speaking with Us Weekly.

'It's gonna be in Hawaiiand I want to feel authentic,' she said. 'He's gonna wear a tux and I'm going to wear a full-length wedding gown.'

Camille's daughter Mason, 16, will serve as her maid of honor.

Going to the chapel: Camille is set to wed fiance David C. Meyer this weekend in Hawaii

David proposed to Camille in October 2017 after nearly two years of dating.

'I miss being married. I dont miss my ex, but I really loved being married, so I really look forward to having somebody to spend my life with and share special moments with,' she told Us at the time.

The Bravo personality was formerly married to actor Kelsey Grammer from 1997-2011.They're the best friends who seem to do everything together.

And on Thursday, Sophie Monk and Oscar Gordon proved that includes attending radio interviews side by side.

The pair cut casual chic figures as they arrived at the KIIS FM studios in Sydney, before Sophie opened up about her love life in an interview on the Kyle & Jackie O show.

Keeping her friends close! The Bachelorette's Sophie Monk (left) cut a casual chic figure alongside best friend Oscar Gordon (right) as she arrived at KIIS FM studios in Sydney on Thursday

The Bachelorette bombshell looked effortlessly stylish in an outfit consisting of jeans teamed with a black tank top, blazer and ankle boots.

Meanwhile her bestie Oscar went for an equally smart casual ensemble.

For the outing, he also donned a black blazer, which he wore over a pale blue dress shirt and dark trousers.

Low-key style: The Bachelorette bombshell looked effortlessly stylish in an outfit consisting of jeans teamed with a black tank top, blazer and ankle boots

Quizzed on her love life by radio hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson, Sophie confirmed she had been ghosting Jarrod Woodgate.

The Bachelorette runner-up revealed earlier this week that he had tried to get in touch with Sophie, but hadn't heard back.

On the radio show, Sophie admitted she had read it but said she probably won't respond.

Out and about! The radio appearance comes after the duo attended the Nine Network's Upfront event the night before

The radio appearance comes after the duo attended the Nine Network's Upfront event in Sydney the night before.

At the event, it was announced Sophie would return for the second season of Love Island.

The racy reality series has been a hit with young viewers and will be upgraded to Nine's main channel instead of 9Go on its return.He partied hard with girlfriend Katie Holmes at the Lumiere De Vie Hommes launch event in New York over the weekend.

But by Tuesday, Jamie Foxx was hard at work on the New Orleans set of his latest film, Power.

The 50-year-old knocked out a few push ups between takes to get a pump going for the shirtless scene.

No one man should have all that Power: On Tuesday, Jamie Foxx was hard at work on the New Orleans set of his latest film, Power

During the scene, the Ray star switched out of a Hawaiian style floral shirt for a NASA print T-shirt.

But before the cameras rolled, the Academy Award winning actor made sure his muscles were as impressive as possible, by pounding out a few reps on the asphalt.

Maximum pump achieved, Jamie leaped to his feet and removed his shirt while the cameras rolled.

Costume change: During the scene, the Ray star switched out of a Hawaiian style floral shirt for a NASA print T-shirt

More energy: The 50-year-old knocked out a few push ups between takes to get a pump going for the shirtless scene

Down, up: But before the cameras rolled, the Academy Award winning actor made sure his muscles were as impressive as possible, by pounding out a few reps on the asphalt

Roll cameras! Maximum pump achieved, Jamie leaped to his feet and removed his shirt while the cameras rolled

Few details are known about the plot of the film, which is a science fiction film 'which long-time collaborators Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are directing off Mattson Tomlins screenplay,' according to Deadline.

Joseph Gordon Levitt and The Deuce star Dominique Fishback are set to co-star in the movie.

Foxx recently finished shooting the courtroom drama Just Mercy opposite Michael B. Jordan.

Mystery: Power is a science fiction film 'which long-time collaborators Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman are directing off Mattson Tomlins screenplay,' according to Deadline

Busy man: Foxx recently finished shooting the courtroom drama Just Mercy opposite Michael B. Jordan

Jamie and Katie arrived to the Lumiere De Vie Hommes launch event aboard the superyacht Utopia IV in NY on Saturday, but spent the evening apart, according to Us Weekly.

'Jamie was holding Katies hand when they got out of their car and then they walked onto the boat together,' an onlooker told the mag.

The sourced noted that 'Jamie held her hand as she stepped up onto the ramp and they looked very much like a couple.'

However they then 'walked quickly through the party and were taken to private quarters in the back, where Katie stayed the rest of the night.'

Smitten: Jamie and Katie arrived to the Lumiere De Vie Hommes launch event aboard the superyacht Utopia IV in NY on Saturday. Seen together here in January

new love: 'Jamie was holding Katies hand when they got out of their car and then they walked onto the boat together,' an onlooker toldUs Weekly

The pair have been linked since a year after Katie ended her six year marriage to Suri's father, Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise.

The very private couple have reportedly been dating since being spotted dancing together at the Hamptons a year after the Dawson Creek star's highly-publicised separation from Cruise.

They have taken extraordinary measures to keep their relationship secret amid claims Katie's ex-husband included a clause in her 2012 divorce settlement banning her from publicly dating for five years.

Rebound? The pair have been linked since a year after Katie ended her six year marriage to Suri's father, Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise

His lady love: Katie Holmes arrives at the 2018 American Ballet Fall Gala in New York City on Wednesday

Lady in gray: Holmes rocked a gray suit for the eveningDawson's Creek alum Katie Holmes showcased her unusual, eccentric sense of style by donning in a bizarre feather-infused power suit to attend the American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala in Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

The 39-year-old actress went bra-less beneath a grey single-breasted blazer and matching pleated pants featuring ostrich feather trim as well as simple black stilettos.

It was a special mother-daughter night for the Logan Lucky star, who brought along her own philanthropist matriarch Kathleen.

Doesn't have a stylist: Dawson's Creek alum Katie Holmes showcased her unusual, eccentric sense of style by donning in a bizarre feather-infused power suit to attend the American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala in Manhattan's Lincoln Center

Former designer: The 39-year-old actress went bra-less beneath a grey single-breasted blazer and matching pleated pants featuring ostrich feather trim as well as simple black stilettos

Katie flashed her mega-watt smile as she excitedly posed beside the silver-haired homemaker on the red carpet.

Kathleen paired a Bardot-style cobalt blue gown featuring split sleeves with her black-framed spectacles and sparkly silver Mary Janes.

As usual, hairstylist DJ Quintero coiffed Holmes' Star Wars-inspired triple-bun while make-up artist Genevieve Herr brought out her beautiful hazel eyes.

Perhaps the Ohio-born beauty was inspired by A Star Is Born's Lady Gaga, who wore an oversized grey Marc Jacobs pantsuit (David Byne tribute) to ELLE's 25th Annual Women In Hollywood Celebration in Los Angeles on Monday.

Family affair: It was a special mother-daughter night for the Logan Lucky star, who brought along her own philanthropist matriarch Kathleen

Matching black clutches: Katie flashed her mega-watt smile as she excitedly posed beside the silver-haired homemaker on the red carpet

Shake what your mama gave ya! Kathleen paired a Bardot-style cobalt blue gown featuring split sleeves with her black-framed spectacles and sparkly silver Mary Janes

Rey! Hairstylist DJ Quintero coiffed Holmes' Star Wars-inspired triple-bun

Keeping it simple: Make-up artist Genevieve Herr brought out her beautiful hazel eyes

Who wore it better? Perhaps the Ohio-born beauty was inspired by A Star Is Born's Lady Gaga, who wore an oversized grey Marc Jacobs pantsuit to ELLE's 25th Annual Women In Hollywood Celebration in Los Angeles on Monday

'I feel very fortunate to have had a lot of women influence me in my career and take care of me and protect me and inspire me. When I was a new actor, I was lucky to work with Jane Adams [in the 2000 film Wonder Boys] when I was young, who taught me a lot,' the Ocean's 8 actress told ET on Tuesday.

'That's the way I grew up - women supporting women. I went to an all-girls high school and so I got very used to that female support system. That's definitely something that is celebrated in my house, and you can see the benefits.'

Missing from Katie's side was her 12-year-old daughter Suri with ex-husband - Mission: Impossible  Fallout action star Tom Cruise - who hasn't been pictured with his child since 2012.

Missing from Katie's side was her 12-year-old daughter Suri with ex-husband - MI5 action star Tom Cruise - who hasn't been pictured with his child since 2012 (pictured July 1)

Still going strong: Holmes hasn't been pictured with her rumored boyfriend of five years - Cruise's Collateral co-star Jamie Foxx - since September 18 in Atlanta where the Oscar winner is shooting Warner Bros. flick Just Mercy (pictured January 27)

Holmes hasn't been pictured with her rumored boyfriend of five years - Cruise's Collateral co-star Jamie Foxx - since September 18 in Atlanta where the Oscar winner is shooting Warner Bros. flick Just Mercy.

The Kennedys: After Camelot stunner was reportedly banned from publicly dating anyone for five years due to a clause in her 2012 divorce settlement with the 56-year-old Oscar nominee.

Coincidentally, also rocking feathered sleeves at the ballet was The City alum Olivia Palermo - who styles herself - in a plunging asymmetric top, black silk maxi-skirt, and golden-strapped stilettos.

As always, the 32-year-old perpetual party-goer was joined on the red carpet by her tuxedo-clad husband of four years, German model Johannes Huebl.

Socialite: Coincidentally, also rocking feathered sleeves at the ballet was The City alum Olivia Palermo - who styles herself - in a plunging asymmetric top and black silk maxi-skirt

Still going strong! As always, the 32-year-old perpetual party-goer was joined on the red carpet by her tuxedo-clad husband of four years, German model Johannes Huebl

Side boob alert! Newly-blond Billionaire Boys Club actor Ansel Elgort donned a maroon suit selected by stylist John Tan as he posed in front of his on/off girlfriend, ballerina Violetta Komyshan (L)

Unveiled his golden locks on September 8: The 24-year-old Golden Globe nominee once studied at the School of American Ballet for five years

Newly-blond Billionaire Boys Club actor Ansel Elgort donned a maroon suit selected by stylist John Tan as he posed in front of his on/off girlfriend, ballerina Violetta Komyshan.

The 24-year-old Golden Globe nominee - who unveiled his golden locks on September 8 - once studied at the School of American Ballet for five years.

Also glamming up the David H. Koch Theater was Family Guy actress and poker champ Jennifer Tilly wearing a pink and gold-brocade embroidered mini-dress with a matching cape.

Bound beauty: Also glamming up the David H. Koch Theater was Family Guy actress and poker champ Jennifer Tilly wearing a pink and gold-brocade mini-dress with a matching cape

Diva! The 60-year-old Oscar nominee rocked a statement Marina B ring, a dramatic red pout, and a partial updo for the ballet bash

Woman of the hour! American Ballet Theatre's Principal Dancer Misty Copeland showcased her fit 5ft2in figure in a b&w David Koma dress selected by stylist Kah Li Haslam

Esquire: The View guest co-host Star Jones flaunted substantial cleavage in an eye-catching coral-colored gown, matching fur stole, garish necklace, and bejeweled heels

The 60-year-old Oscar nominee rocked a statement Marina B ring, a dramatic red pout, and a partial updo for the ballet bash.

American Ballet Theatre's Principal Dancer Misty Copeland showcased her fit 5ft2in figure in a b&w David Koma dress selected by stylist Kah Li Haslam.

The View guest co-host Star Jones flaunted substantial cleavage in an eye-catching coral-colored gown, matching fur stole, garish necklace, and bejeweled heels.This photo, taken from the print edition of the Seguin Gazette-Enterprise on Dec. 27, 1998, shows Dan and Jennifer Dykstra as they take another look at the aftermath of the October flood.It was reported last month that she was 'seeing' multi-millionaire pub baron Justin Hemmes after they were pictured together in Sydney.

But Montana Cox was flying solo on Wednesday night when she attended an exclusive launch event hosted by Salvatore Ferragamo.

The former Australia's Next Top Model star, 25, looked simply striking as she opted for androgynous chic in a black pantsuit.

Going solo! Montana Cox opted for androgynous chic at the Salvatore Ferragamo launch party in Sydney on Wednesday night... after being romantically linked to Justin Hemmes

Posing by the media wall, Montana appeared every inch the modern fashionista.

The catwalk queen paired her double breasted blazer with billowing black trousers and a decorative button-up shirt.

She completed her edgy look with gold hoop earrings and shiny black shoes.

Fashionista: The former Australia's Next Top Model star, 25, looked simply striking as she opted for androgynous chic in a black pantsuit and billowing trousers

Montana enhanced her already flawless complexion with a nude makeup palette.

Meanwhile, she styled her hair slicked black in a manner reminiscent of European models of the late '60s.

Back in September, it was reported that Merivale CEO Justin, 45, was dating Montana - but the claims were never verified.

High fashion! Montana enhanced her already flawless complexion with a nude makeup palette and styled her hair slicked black in a manner reminiscent of European models of the late '60s

The Sunday Telegraph alleged the businessman had begun 'seeing' the former David Jones ambassador around April this year.

The report followed Justin's announcement in July that he'd split with Kate Fowler, who is the mother of his two children, six months earlier.

'Kate and I have the utmost love and respect for each other,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

'At the beginning of 2018, Kate and I decided our friendship and respect for family life would become the focus of our relationship. We love our children dearly and for now continue to live together happily in our family home.'

Rumours: Back in September, it was reported that Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes was dating Montana - but the claims were never verified. Pictured in Melbourne on October 8 2018He's an actor about to star in a remake of the musical West Side Story and she's a dancer.

So it was natural that Ansel Elgort and Violetta Komyshan should grace the American Ballet Theatre's 2018 Fall Gala in New York.

The 24-year-old Fault In Our Stars leading man and his high school sweetheart put on a very stylish show as they walked the red carpet at the David H. Koch Theater Wednesday night.

Stylish couple: Ansel Elgort and Violetta Komyshan walked the red carpet as they arrived at the American Ballet Theatre's 2018 Fall Gala in New York on Wednesday night

Ansel opted for a burgundy tuxedo that he paired with a pale blue dress shirt and black bow tie.

The actor also sported a mop of bright blonde hair.

Violetta chose a full-length embellished black dress and wore her long brunette hair loose.

The sleeveless number was backless and revealed a generous amount of sideboob as she posed for photos.

Posed and poised: Ansel, who sported a mop of blonde hair, opted for a burgundy tuxedo paired with a pale blue dress shirt and black bow tie. Violetta chose an embellished black gown

Dared to bare: Violetta's sleeveless dress was backless and revealed a generous amount of sideboob as she posed for photos

Devoted: The actor and the dancer were high school sweethearts and have kept their romance strong as Ansel's Hollywood career took off

On October 1, it was announced that Steven Spielberg had cast Ansel as the male lead in his remake of West Side Story.

The star of Baby Driver was chosen following an extensive search by the Oscar-winning filmmaker that has taken the best part of the year, THR.com reported.

The musical debuted on Broadway in 1957 with a book by Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim and music by Leonard Bernstein.

It was turned into a movie released in 1961 that starred Richard Beymer as Tony and Natalie Wood as the girl he loves, Maria.

The two are star-crossed lovers in the re-imagining of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

New role: Ansel, pictured in May, has just been cast to star as Tony in Steven Spielberg's remake of the musical West Side Story

A classic: The musical debuted on Broadway in 1957 and was made into a film released in 1961 starring Richard Beymer as Tony and Natalie Wood as Maria

Star-crossed lovers: West Side Story is based on Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet. The action takes place in New York where Tony is a former member of the Jets street gang while Maria is the sister of the rival Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks

In West Side Story, the action takes place in New York where Tony is a former member of the Jets street gang while Maria is the sister of the rival Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks.

Thousands of actors and dancers in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Puerto Rico were looked at for the movie, according to THR.com.

It's thought that the film will aim for a summer 2019 start date for principal photography.

The role of Maria has still to be cast.

Big search: Spielberg took almost a year and reviewed thousands of actor and dancers before tapping Ansel as his leading man

Has chops: Ansel won acclaim for his role in the 2017 movie Baby DriverOlivia Palermo and husband Johannes Huebl attended the American Ballet Theatre's fall gala in NYC on Wednesday night.

The 32-year-old fashionista dazzled in plunging, satin dress, while Huebl, 40, looked dapper in a velvet smoker's jacket and a silk cumberbund.

The handsome couple were joined at the event by Katie Holmes and Ansel Elgort.

Date night: Olivia Palermo and husband Johannes Huebl attended the American Ballet Theatre's fall gala in NYC on Wednesday night

Palermo teamed her chic ensemble with a feathery cloak and bedazzled heels.

She carried her belongings in a velvet crossbody purse and accessorized with a single helix piercing.

The NYC native's glam included bright red eyeshadow and bold brows.

Monochromatic moment: The 32-year-old fashionista dazzled in plunging, satin dress that she paired with a feathery cloak

Pop of color: The NYC native's glam included bright red eyeshadow and bold brows

Huebl, a German model, paired his velvet jacket with a white button down and sleekly designed loafers.

He accessorized with a bow tie and an expensive gold watch.

Johannes and Olivia have been married since 2014.

Dressed to impress: Huebl looked dapper in a velvet smoker's jacket and a silk cumberbund

The pair wed during an intimate ceremony in Bedford, New York.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar Australia, Palermo shared her secret to a happy marriage.

'We try not to ever be separated more than seven days,' she explained. 'Its just something we have always done.'Ali Oetjen's season of The Bachelortte debuted to the lowest ratings in the show's history last week.

And on Wednesday night, there was very little improvement - with the show drawing in a measly 544,000 viewers - the same as Channel Seven's Beach Cops, according to OzTAM's overnight metro figures on Thursday.

Wednesday marked the second lowest rated episode in the show's history, despite a slight jump in ratings from last week's 539,000.

Not again! Channel Ten's The Bachelorette flops after delivering the lowest ratings EVER in its first week... as rival Nine's The Block dominates the top spot

Even little known journalist Georgia Love's season managed to draw in more viewers than headline-making Ali, with 570,000 during episode three in 2016.

Ali's drama-filled show was no match for Channel Nine ratings juggernaut The Block, which dominated the top spot for most watched non-news program - with 921,000 sets of eyeballs.

It comes one week after The Bachelorette drew just 539,000 viewers on Thursday night in the five major cities, putting it well below programs such as the ABC Evening News (692,000) and Gogglebox (677,000).

Flop: Wednesday marked the second lowest rated episode in the show's history with 544,000 viewers, despite a slight jump in ratings from last week's 539,000

The show was beaten by the ABC's 7.30 (570,000) and Channel Seven's Home and Away (567,000) in its 7.30pm time slot.

Last week's premiere drew 631,000 viewers, and those numbers dropped by a whopping 92,000 people the following night (last Thursday).

David Knox, the editor of TV Tonight, previously told Daily Mail Australia that Ali could be the reason behind the low ratings.

Even little known journalist Georgia Love's season managed to draw in more viewers than headline-making Ali, with 570,000 during episode three in 2016.

'You have to wonder if Ten painted themselves into a corner with the casting coup of Sophie Monk [star of The Bachelorette in 2017],' he said.

'She was so self-deprecating and good-humoured that viewers embraced her, warts and all. They pulled it off again with the Honey Badger [Nick Cummins, star of The Bachelor 2018], notably drawing in more male viewers.

'It was not surprising that viewers were underwhelmed with the announcement of Ali Oetjen who we have watched twice before [on The Bachelor in 2013 and Bachelor in Paradise in 2018].'

Low ratings: Channel Seven's Beach Cops also pulled in 544,000 metro viewers - the same figure as The Bachelorette

David added that the new season of The Bachelorette has aired too soon after The Bachelor - and Bachelor in Paradise before that - leading to viewer fatigue.

'The other concern is whether three seasons in one year is just too much. Several years ago, Ten realised they were damaging MasterChef by having too many spin-offs in a calendar year and wisely pared it back to the 'mother ship',' he said.AFL WAG and model Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) is currently enjoying a lavish getaway in the Maldives with her husband, AFL star Buddy.

And on Thursday, the couple took thing to a whole new level, staying inside an outrageous $800-a-night 'bubble tent'.

Taking to Instagram to share the experience with her fans, Jesinta was clearly impressed by the glamping location.

Now that's glamping! AFL WAG Jesinta Campbell, 26, shared peek inside her $800-a-night 'bubble tent' as she and husband Buddy Franklin continue their lavish getaway in the Maldives

Jesinta and Buddy were given uninterrupted views of an idyllic beach-side location, with the 'bubble' almost entirely transparent.

'This is insane,' she was heard saying in a small clip of the tent she posted on Instagram.

Later in the evening, the loved-up couple did some stargazing from the bed of their bubble.

'This is Insane': Jesinta and Buddy were given uninterrupted views of an idyllic beach-side location, with the 'bubble' almost entirely transparent

Jesinta and Buddy have been living it up this week in the Maldives, and sharing a number of envy-inducing snaps from the exclusive Soneva Fushi Resort.

Rooms at the resort can cost upwards of $1,000 a night.

Prior to landing in the Maldives, the couple had a short stop over in Singapore, staying at the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel.

Suites at the Marina Bay Sands can be booked for up to $779 a night.

Lavish! The opulent 'bubble tent' is just one of the very lavish places Jesinta and Buddy have stayed during their getaway this week

Living it up! Jesinta and Buddy have been living it up this week in the Maldives, and sharing a number of envy-inducing snaps from the exclusive Soneva Fushi ResortThe Bachelorette has featured some of Australia's most desirable men in the past, but this year's cast has been falling flat with viewers.

From a Channing Tatum wannabe to a fame-seeking First Dates reject, many of this season's suitors just aren't up to par with leading lady Ali Oetjen.

On Wednesday's episode, Ivan Krslovic had viewers questioning his intentions after he revealed his dream of moving to America to launch a dance career.

Are they the best Australia has to offer? Bachelorette fans have been left very unimpressed by this year's crop of desperate, fame-hungry suitors. Pictured (left to right): Ivan Krslovic, Ali Oetjen and Daniel Harris-Wolf

'I sorta wanna be in Step Up,' he told Ali, who looked distinctly unimpressed.

'I hate to say it, but I'd love to be in a Magic Mike movie with Channing Tatum!'

The 29-year-old later put on a cringeworthy display by performing a hip hop dance routine in front of Ali and the other contestants.

'I sorta wanna be in Step Up!' Dancer Ivan Krslovic (pictured) had viewers questioning his true intentions after he revealed his dream of moving to America to be a professional dancer

Of course, Ivan isn't the only contestant who may not be on The Bachelorette for the right reasons.

Taite Radley previously appeared on Channel Seven's First Dates, where he happily stripped off on camera to flaunt his muscular physique.

He enjoyed a date with Dee Nguyen, who later went on to star on Geordie Shore.

After fame? Taite Radley (right) previously appeared on Channel Seven's First Dates, where he happily stripped off on camera to flaunt his muscular physique. Pictured left: Dee Nguyen

Charlie Newling, who received a favourable edit in early promotional trailers, has since received backlash from fans for being a 'stage-five clinger'.

The builder's aggressive behaviour hasn't gone down well with viewers, especially after his clash with fan favourite Bill Goldsmith.

Also leaving a lot to be desired is loud-mouthed Englishman Paddy Colliar, who is shaping up to be one of the show's 'villains'.

Red flag! Charlie Newling, who received a favourable edit in early promotional trailers, has since received backlash from fans for being a 'stage-five clinger'

Marriage material? Also leaving a lot to be desired is loud-mouthed Englishman Paddy Colliar, who is shaping up to be one of the show's 'villains'

In addition to his constant trash talking, Paddy also has a reputation for outrageous behaviour like running around the mansion in his underwear.

Another suitor unlikely to impress Ali is 23-year-old party boy Nathan Favro, who doesn't seem ready to settle down just yet.

Finishing up the batch of undesirable suitors is Damien Rider, 42, who is currently facing assault charges after an alleged incident at Splendour in the Grass.

Too immature? Another suitor unlikely to impress Ali is 23-year-old party boy Nathan Favro, who doesn't seem ready to settle down just yet

Uh oh! Finishing up the batch of undesirable suitors is Damien Rider, 42, who is currently facing assault charges after an alleged incident at the Splendour in the Grass music festival

Fortunately, there has also been a few diamonds in the rough this season, including Robert Colangelo.

The handsome plumber has already enjoyed several steamy kisses with Ali and has been picked as a potential winner by fans.

The Bachelorette continues Thursday at 7:30pm on Network TenShe's Australia's most famous beauty queen whose age-defying looks have made her an in-demand fashion model.

And former Miss Universe Jennifer Hawkins has revealed the secrets behind her gorgeous skin and lithe figure.

In an interview with InStyle on Thursday, the 34-year-old shared her essential beauty products - and they're surprisingly affordable.

So that's her secret! Jennifer Hawkins has revealed the surprisingly affordable beauty products she can't live without. Pictured in Melbourne on February 16 2017

Jennifer can't live without Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara ($13), Thermal Water spray by Avene ($20) and Jbronze's Face Flawless Tan ($20).

'I definitely gravitate to more natural makeup looks, and really like to focus on dewy skin,' she explained.

And when it comes to taking care of her skin, the entrepreneur swears by drinking plenty of water and eating clean.

Shopping list: Jennifer can't live without Maybelline's Great Lash Mascara ($13), Thermal Water spray by Avene ($20) and Jbronze's Face Flawless Tan ($20)

'My skincare regimen focuses on the inside. I nourish my body with healthy food and water, water, water!' she said.

Jennifer also uses coconut oil as a hair treatment and prefers a 'sexy beach vibe' when it comes to styling.

Meanwhile, her sensational physique is the result of yoga, Pilates and cardio.

'I run on the treadmill a bit, do yoga once a week and fit in a couple of Pilates sessions, too,' she told the publication.

Body goals! Jennifer's sensational physique is the result of yoga, Pilates and cardio. Pictured in Sydney on August 23 2016

Speaking to Beauty Crew earlier this year, Jennifer confessed that tanning is a major part of her beauty routine.

'I'll exfoliate my body completely once a week, then I tan,' the former Myer ambassador said.

'I can't live without tanning, a pedicure and a massage. It's nice to pamper yourself.'Gwyneth Paltrow and Demi Moore were together in London earlier this month to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Paltrow's online business GOOP.

And on Wednesday night, the two friends reunited at a party for the opening of pal Jennifer Meyer's jewelry boutique in Los Angeles.

Paltrow, 46, was stylish as always in a soft black sweater and calf-length black leather skirt while Moore, 55, looked lovely in a long-sleeved black jersey dress with a v-neckline.

Stylish stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, left, and Demi Moore, right, attended a launch party for the opening of pal Jennifer Meyer's jewelry boutique in Los Angeles on Wednesday night

Paltrow, who just married TV producer Brad Falchuk, left her signature blonde hair loose and stepped out in a pair of black heels.

Moore paired her frock with black nylons and leopard print heels and carried a small purse.

The ageless actress wowed in a stylish black dress with a v-neckline and long sleeves along with a sapphire and diamond heart pendant.

Perfect: Paltrow, 46, who just married TV producer Brad Falchuk, was stylish as always in a soft black sweater and calf-length black leather skirt (pictured with Monique Lhuillier)

Radiant: She complemented her features with a pink-toned make-up palette and soft curls

Beaming: The blonde appeared in high spirits as she shared a hug with the woman-of-the-hour Jennifer Meyers

Flower power: Gywneth joined Molly Sims, 45, showed off her cleavage in a low-cut floral-themed orange frock that she paired with dark red sandal heels

In good company: The mother-of-two chatted up a storm with Monique, Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant

She kept her makeup light and accessorized with a blue and silver heart pendant and hoop earrings.

Meyer, 41, is the ex-wife of actor Tobey Maguire and the daughter of NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer.

She has been able to call on her celebrity pals to help promote her jewelry designs, starting her line in 2004.

Ageless: Moore, 55, looked lovely in a long-sleeved black jersey dress with a v-neckline

Taking a walk on the wild side: The screen star paired her frock with black nylons and leopard print heels and carried a small purse

Radiant: She kept her makeup light and accessorized with a blue and silver heart pendant and hoop earrings

High spirits: The raven-haired beauty beamed with delight as she celebrated the jewellery designer's success

So much choice: Demi sported her reading glasses for a closer look at the jewellery

Reese Witherspoon also came out to support the store opening and chose to wear a black frock.

She paired the short-sleeved number with platform-soled black heels and carried a small black clutch.

Meyer was in black, too, wearing a strapless mini dress and black sandal heels.

Industry pals: Reese Witherspoon also came out to support the store opening and chose to wear a black skater dress

Support: Jennifer was joined by ex-husband Tobey Maguire, left, and dad Ron Meyer, vice chairman of NBCUniversal

Unexpected: The power player paired a pair of black teva-like sandals with gold toed sweat socks for the occasion

Showbiz pals: Kris Jenner and James Corden looked like the best of pals as they caught up at the boutique opening party

Reunited: The self-proclaimed 'momager' of the Kardashian clan, 62, and The Late, Late Show host, 40, were the epitome of friendship as they posed up for a sweet photo, before snapping a playful selfie at the launch

Youthful: Reality queen Kris looked typically chic in a tailored suit, featuring a three-quarter length blazer with shimmering silk lapels

Lady of the hour: Kris whipped out her best pout as she posed with Jennifer

Cosy: James, Ron and Gwyneth appeared happy to support Jennifer's boutique opening

Color was brought to the occasion by guests Leslie Mann, Rachel Bilson and Molly Sims.

Mann, 46, who was accompanied by husband Judd Apatow, stood out in a shiny red dress belted at the waist.

The outfit had long sleeves and a tiered hem and she paired it with black ankle boots.

In love: Katharine McPhee, 34, and fiance David Foster, 68, cosied up at the starry launch

Sweet: The couple, who have a 34-year age gap appeared upbeat, with Katharine wearing a black silky camisole tucked into a burgundy leopard print skirt

Seen something you like? Sara Foster and Katharine checked out the jewellery on offer

Rachel Bilson, 37, opted for a rainbow-colored full-length dress that had a black belt and she added a black leather jacket.

Sims, 45, showed off her cleavage in a low-cut floral-themed orange frock that she paired with dark red sandal heels.

Sara Foster, 37, was all business in a gray jacket belted over a black turtleneck and faded blue skinny jeans and black heels.

Chic: Sara, 37, was all business in a gray jacket belted over a black turtleneck and faded blue skinny jeans and black heels

VIPs: Sarah Wright, 35, and husband Eric Christian Olsen, 41, were also on the guest list for the exclusive bash

Striking: Rachel Zoe, 47, paired an asymmetrical black top with silver edging with a fluffy white wrap and wore dramatic makeup

Colorful: Rachel Bilson, 37, opted for a rainbow-colored full-length dress that had a black belt and she added a black leather jacket

Two of a kind: The fashion mavens, who share the first same name, were in great spirits at the glitzy event

Her father, music producer David Foster, 68, also attended the party accompanied by his fiancee Katharine McPhee, 34.

McPhee wore a silky black camisole top and a long red and black patterned skirt and dark red heeled boots.

Kris Jenner, 62, wore a black top coat over a black top and trousers and carried a black purse on a silver chain.

Date night: Leslie Mann, 46, who was accompanied by husband Judd Apatow, stood out in a shiny red dress

Socializing: She posed for photos with Julia Corden, the wife of The Late Late Show host James Corden, who wore a pretty black and silver patterned dress and white heels

Beaming with pride: Jennifer couldn't contain her excitement as she planted a kiss on Gia Coppola's cheek

Bottoms up: Demi quenched her thirst with a refreshing drink as she joined Maeve Reilly

Meanwhile, Gwyneth has gushed over her wedding and marriage to new-husband Brad and the importance of sexual health in a new interview with Glamour.

The actress and health guru, who wed her second husband in a secret ceremony last month, is the publication's first ever digital cover star and in the accompanying interview gave a rare candid insight into marital bliss.

While chatting about her lifestyle brand Goop, Gwyneth, who shares children Apple, 14, and Moses, 12, with her ex-husband Chris Martin, admitted to paying emphasis to women's sexual health in her brand.

In awe: Jennifer was showered with praise from Eric Buterbaugh, Demi and Maeve at the event

Star-studded: Gwyneth and Jennifer took a cosy snap with businessman Rick Caruso at the bash

Gwyneth married TV producer Brad, 47, on Saturday, September 29, in The Hamptons. The pair met when the actress made a guest appearance on Glee which Falchuk co-created with Ryan Murphy.

Their star-studded wedding included guests such as Steven Spielberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Cameron Diaz and Robert Downey Jr. The newlyweds then jetted off to Paris for a stay at the luxurious Four Seasons in the French capital.

It seems things are certainly going wonderfully, as she was grilled by the magazine about her energy and warmth - which she attributed to her beloved beau.

Newlywed bliss: Gwyneth recently married TV producer Brad, 47, on Saturday, September 29, in The Hamptons

Lavishing praise on her new love, she said: 'Well, you have my husband to thank for that! Its fantastic. I feel so lucky and I am so grateful...

'[Marriage] is different to be in your mid-forties; do it again and bring all your experience, your pain, your happiness, suffering  everything. Its actually very heartening, I feel very optimistic!'

As well as marriage, Gwyneth touched on the importance of sexuality in women and how she is on a quest to banish stigma attached. She said: 'One of the things we really try to do is eliminate shame...

Important: She recently gushed over her wedding and marriage to new-husband Brad and the importance of sexual health in a new interview with Glamour

Family first: Jennifer also racked in support from her father's ex wife Kelly Meyer

'Women, I think have a lot of shame around their sexuality  we have been conditioned that way for a long time. We feel if we open up conversations, sell a product and we shine a light on it, the shame starts to dissipate...

'Women should have a great and satisfying sex life! I think that sexual health is important for a womens overall health.'

Gwyneth also discussed life as a 'girl boss', as she said: 'I think I am very much a girl boss meaning that I try to lead from my feminine.'Flipping Out star Jeff Lewis has enlisted his fans to sound off to Bravo about his contract with the network.

The 48-year-old reality star wrote on social media Wednesday, 'I'm normally not political, but this is an important cause,' linking to a Change.org petition urging the cable channel to keep Lewis and his real estate series on the air.

The Southern California native earlier this week revealed he could be done with the network, as his contract has expired and it's unclear if he will be re-signed.

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Giving his all: Flipping Out star Jeff Lewis, 48, has enlisted his fans to sound off to Bravo about his contract with the network via a Change.org petition

The petition, which had amassed nearly 38,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening, read: 'Fans of Bravos hit television show Flipping Out are devastated Bravo executives made the decision not to renew Jeffs contract, essentially ending the series with this decision.

'Though the series is not without controversy, what Bravo TV franchise isnt?'

The petition, started by a fan named Andrew Holdaway, noted how the program featuring Jeff and his partner Gage Edward has been running 11 years and eclipsed 100 episodes last month.

'We just watched Jeff and Gage hit another milestone: becoming fathers for the first time and inviting their daughter Monroe into the world,' the petition read. 'Flipping Out isnt just about flipping houses, or interior design.

Longevity: Flipping Out eclipsed 100 episodes last month after more than 10 years

Collision course: Lewis and Bravo exec Andy Cohen have had tense exchanges amid the situation

'The show follows Jeff Lewis and the work he puts in day in and day out to be the best father, the best for his clients, and provide for everyone that relies on him ... Bravo executives need to sit down and work out their differences with Jeff, and renew his contract, without delay.'

Lewis said in an appearance on Jenny McCarthy's SiriusXM show earlier this month that he's had 'a lot of problems' with the network amid ongoing lawsuits that have been in the headlines - one from a former co-star, and another from the surrogate he and Gage used for their daughter - as well as a show he has on the SiriusXM satellite service.

'I've had a lot of heat from Bravo,' Lewis said, later adding, 'I am looking for a job.'

Lewis on Tuesday likely exacerbated the tension on his radio show, reading off texts he received from the network's Andy Cohen expressing his frustration over Lewis bringing attention to the issue publicly.

Bravo officials told People 'nothing official has been determined' in regards to whether Lewis will remain on-board.

Flipping Out can be seen on Bravo Tuesday at 10/9c.Former child star Kyle Richards Umansky reunited with Halloween killer Michael Myers inside a recreation of his creepy house at the Hollywood premiere of the slasher sequel on Wednesday night.

'I cannot wait!' the 49-year-old RHOBH reality star - who boasts 4.3M social media followers - gushed on Instagram.

'Maybe it will be less scary for me to watch since I'm not actually in this one...Doubt that.'

Jump scare: Former child star Kyle Richards Umansky reunited with Halloween killer Michael Myers inside a recreation of his creepy house at the Hollywood premiere of the slasher sequel on Wednesday night

The 49-year-old RHOBH reality star gushed on Instagram: 'I cannot wait! Maybe it will be less scary for me to watch since I'm not actually in this one...Doubt that'

The American Woman executive producer was only 9 years old when she portrayed Lindsey Wallace, whose babysitter Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes) gets killed by Myers in the 1978 John Carpenter horror classic.

Both Kyle and her castmate Jamie Lee Curtis (who played Lindsey's replacement babysitter Laurie Strode) opted for strong black suits and heels for the black carpet outside TCL Chinese 6 Theatres.

'I always have that memory of me, on the last day of shooting, of you carrying me all the way back to my dressing room, and I never forgot that,' Richards told the 59-year-old Golden Globe winner on ET last month.

The nepotistically-privileged daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis replied: 'I have beautiful memories of you.'

40 years ago! The American Woman executive producer (R) was only 9 years old when she portrayed Lindsey Wallace, whose babysitter Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes) gets killed by Myers in the 1978 John Carpenter horror classic

Twinning! Both Kyle and her castmate Jamie Lee Curtis (who played Lindsey's replacement babysitter Laurie Strode) opted for strong black suits and heels for the black carpet outside TCL Chinese 6 Theatres

Richards told the 59-year-old Golden Globe winner (M) on ET last month: 'I always have that memory of me, on the last day of shooting, of you carrying me all the way back to my dressing room, and I never forgot that'

The aunt of Paris Hilton gave her blown-out brunette locks a boost with waist-length extensions and her false lashes brought out her hazel eyes.

The Little House on the Prairie alum accessorized her power pantsuit with black patent leather wedges featuring flame detail.

Kyle was supported there by her second husband Mauricio Umansky, whom she wed in 1996, and they have three daughters - Alexia, 22; Sophia, 18; and Portia, 10.

Fierce after 40! The aunt of Paris Hilton gave her blown-out brunette locks a boost with waist-length extensions and her false lashes brought out her hazel eyes

Hot heels: The Little House on the Prairie alum accessorized her power pantsuit with black patent leather wedges featuring flame detail

'Scaredy cat': Kyle was supported there by her second husband Mauricio Umansky, whom she wed in 1996, and they have three daughters

The 48-year-old real estate agent was nervous because he's a 'scaredy cat' with horror movies and he usually has to watch cartoons afterwards otherwise he 'can't handle it.'

Richards will next appear in the ninth season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills - likely premiering this December on Bravo - alongside Denise Richards (no relation), Dorit Kemsley, Camille Grammer, Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave, and Erika Jayne.

And fans can catch Jamie reprising her scream queen role in David Gordon Green's reimagined direct sequel, set 40 years later, which hits US/UK theaters this Friday.

Premiering this December on Bravo! Richards will next appear in the ninth season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alongside (from L-R) Denise Richards, Dorit Kemsley, Camille Grammer, Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave, and Erika Jayne (pictured September 14) "Evidence-Informed Criminal Justice" | Main | Washington Supreme Court declares all juve LWOP cruel punishment and unconstitutional under state constitution 

October 18, 2018

Remarkable sentencing where district judge decided crooked cops needed more punishment than federal prosecutors sought

This local article from Florida reports on a sentencing in a remarkable federal case under the headline "Ex-Biscayne Park officers get year in prison for roles in framing black teen in crimes." Here are the details from the start of the article:

By helping the feds make a case against a corrupt ex-Biscayne Park police chief, two convicted former officers were hoping to avoid prison time for their roles in framing a black teenager with a string of burglaries. Instead, Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were handcuffed and led by U.S. Marshals into custody on Tuesday after U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced them to the maximum: one year in prison for the false arrests. As family members cried in disbelief, Moore chastised federal prosecutors for agreeing to recommend eight months of home confinement for Dayoub and one year of probation for Fernandez based on their grand jury testimony and other assistance in helping target former Chief Raimundo Atesiano, who had pressured officers in the mostly white suburban town to pin property crimes on people of color. He pleaded guilty last month. It would have been a slap on the wrist, and it would have sent entirely the wrong message  particularly to the minority community, Moore told Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Wallace. To think that they can come into court and get a slap on the wrist is insulting to the men and women in law enforcement. Moore challenged the prosecutor about his recommendation of leniency for the two defendants, who pleaded guilty in August to depriving a 16-year-old of his civil rights after framing him for four unsolved burglaries in 2013 at the direction of the ex-chief, Atesiano. The misdemeanor conviction carried up to one year in prison, while under the plea agreement prosecutors dropped a more serious civil rights conspiracy charge with a maximum 10-year sentence. Wallace said his decision allowed the U.S. Attorneys Office to use testimony by Dayoub and Fernandez to compel Atesiano to plead guilty to the felony civil rights conspiracy. We were faced with a Hobsons choice, Wallace told the judge. But Moore, who accused the prosecutors of sentencing manipulation, rejected Wallaces argument. The judge said had the prosecutors gone to trial against the ex-chief and the two officers, it would have been a slam dunk. The sentencing outcome was a shock to everyone in the courtroom, especially the defendants, who were expecting leniency because the prosecutors joined their defense attorneys in support of no prison time. The reason: The two former Biscayne Park police officers testified before a federal grand jury about how the departments ex-chief pressured them to arrest people of color and others for crimes they did not commit in the leafy bedroom community north of Miami. Dayoub, 38, and Fernandez, 62, testified that Atesianos goal was to achieve a 100 percent burglary clearance rate, even if it meant pinning unsolved break-ins on people who were innocent victims, according to newly filed court records. Atesiano, 52, and another former Biscayne Park officer, Guillermo Ravelo, 37, already pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the civil rights of innocent victims by falsely arresting them. Ravelo faces up to 10 years at his sentencing on Thursday, while Atesiano faces similar punishment in November.

UPDATE: This new Justice Department press release discusses the underlying crimes in detail while announcing that today "former Biscayne Park Police Officer Guillermo Ravelo was sentenced to 27 months incarceration for conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights and deprivation of civil rights under color of law."

October 18, 2018 at 10:57 AM | Permalink

Comments

This case shows the truth of the statement that plea bargaining _is_ the criminal justice system.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Oct 18, 2018 12:31:25 PM

"This case shows the truth of the statement that plea bargaining _is_ the criminal justice system."

It is up the time a judge decides to feel his oats and get all feisty. Remarkable, indeed.

Posted by: Daniel | Oct 18, 2018 12:49:33 PM

Surprising indeed and what the defendant's may not yet know is that because the sentence was one year or less, they will get no good time credit from the BOP. The sentence has to be more than a year for the 15% reduction to kick in. And even if it were an option (which it was not here because the stat max was 1 year), I doubt the Judge would have given them a year and a day anyway.

Posted by: atomicfrog | Oct 18, 2018 3:43:04 PM

reasonable sentence here would have been the amount of time they tried to hang on the kid they framed.

Posted by: hgd | Oct 18, 2018 4:07:04 PM

So basically, armed men kidnapped a person. Last I checked, deliberately arresting someone without cause is armed kidnapping. Why weren't they prosecuted for that?

Posted by: federalist | Oct 18, 2018 6:43:12 PM

The judge is a Bush 41 appointee.

Posted by: federalist | Oct 18, 2018 6:52:56 PM

Doug, curious your thoughts on the sentencing.

Posted by: federalist | Oct 18, 2018 7:23:46 PM

"The two former Biscayne Park police officers testified before a federal grand jury about how the departments ex-chief pressured them to arrest people of color and others for crimes they did not commit in the leafy bedroom community north of Miami." That the two would commit illegal acts of arresting and setting up innocent minority persons s becuase of "pressure"is the old Nurenberg defense. Human nature hasn't changed much.

When raising my children, I would alway repeat to them the precept from the Talmud:

"In a place where no one is a man, try to be a man." Thee men did not have the courage to tell their boss "no." they well deserved the punishment they received.

Posted by: anon2 | Oct 19, 2018 12:18:14 PM

anon2, they deserved more

Posted by: federalist | Oct 19, 2018 6:39:48 PM

federalist, I share your instincts (and the judge's) that sentences here --- which are waaaaaay below federal mandatory minimums for low-level drug dealing ---- seem too light by comparison. But these crimes strike me as so disrespectful to humanity and to civic responsibilities, I am not sure an extra 12 or even 48 months in prison would "feel" better. Indeed, this is the kind of case that makes me eager for a sentencing system with more creative shaming and/or community service punishments. Make these cops spend the next few years seeking to root our corruption in other police departments or make a public service video to be sent to every prosecutor and judge that says criminal defendants are sometimes correct when claiming they are framed. In addition, I would like to see them have some responsibility to help get the kids they framed into a college or vocation program (and pay their way). And the town of Biscayne Park should also be coming up with some big-time compensation here, too.

Posted by: Doug B | Oct 20, 2018 12:36:03 AM

I don't think such a video would have made any difference to this chief and so I really have to question whether it would accomplish anything. The sort of person who would be swayed by a "sometimes they really are innocent" video doesn't need to be told that.

Posted by: Soronel Haetir | Oct 21, 2018 1:59:36 AM

Post a commentJust when you thought you have seen all the reality shows that could be produced, Channel Nine is creating one with LEGO.

The network has revealed it will add LEGO Masters to its programming line-up next year.

TV funny man Hamish Blake, 36, will host the show.

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Is this the most ridiculous show ever? channel Nine has unveiled a new LEGO building reality show to air next year hosted by funny man Hamish Blake, 36, (above)

Based on the UK-format, the reality show will feature a number of high-pressure challenges with the children's building blocks.

'Australia's best LEGO builders compete against each other to create huge-scale LEGO models of just about anything and everything you can image,' Channel Nine tweeted on Wednesday.

High pressure challenges! Based on the UK-format, the reality show will feature a number of high-pressure challenges with the children's building blocks

While the show may not appeal to everyone, it has proved a hit with UK and international audiences.

The program is being produced by Endemol Shine Australia, the team behind Married At First Sight, MasterChef and Survivor.

This Hamish's second hosting gig on Channel Nine, as he will also return to presenting True Story alongside comedy partner, Andy Lee.

New hosting gig! This Hamish's second hosting gig on Channel Nine, as he will also return to presenting True Story alongside comedy partner, Andy Lee

Season two of True Story with Hamish and Andy is currently airing on the network.

It's unknown if sidekick Andy Lee will be making a guest appearance on the new show.

Speaking to the Herald Sun in August, Hamish spoke of the pair's long-running comedy partnership.

Will Andy make an appearance? It's unknown if Hamish's sidekick Andy Lee (above) will appear on the show as a guest when it airs next year

'We succeed together and fail together', Hamish said of Andy.

Hamish and Andy started performing together back in 2003, and have been in the spotlight together ever since.

Recently, Hamish has been in New York City with his wife Zoe along with his son Sonny, 4, and one-year-old daughter, Rudy.Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) famously grew up in Sydney's beachside suburb of Cronulla.

But the model now lives in Los Angeles with her actor husband Sam, and their sons, Rocket, three, and Racer, two.

And in an intimate new interview with InStyle Australia, published on Thursday, the 31-year-old dished details on her low-key lifestyle in the City Of Angels.

'My kids love it here!' Speaking with InStyle Australia, Lara Worthington dished details on her low-key life in Los Angeles and revealed why California reminds her of growing up in Cronulla

The Worthington brood initially lived in New York, before Sam's work took them to Los Angeles - where they have decided to stay.

'The weather is a big factor, and the space. Kids need to run around and have room to exhaust themselves. New York can be limiting in that sense with apartment living.'

The beauty added about The Big Apple: 'The cold months are long, and the snow used to wear me out'.

Loved up: Lara has been married to Australian actor Sam Worthington since 2014

Living in LA - on the coast of California - allows Lara to give her sons a childhood similar to the one she had in Cronulla.

'Being outdoors more in the sunshine, weekends by the water. The life of a kid is excellent. They love it here!' the star told InStyle.

In the candid interview, the fashionista also revealed she has discussed having a third child with Sam, whom she married in 2014.

'Being outdoors more in the sunshine, weekends by the water': Lara loves the LA lifestyle

Beach babe: The blonde beauty grew up by the water in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla

It comes after OK! Magazine reported earlier this month that Lara and Sam were having another child.

An insider claimed the couple were 'thrilled' by the news.

'Lara is pregnant with baby number three... [she's] desperately hoping for a girl,' the source said at the time.

The couple has not confirmed the report.

Baby on the way? OK! Magazine reported earlier this month that Lara and Sam were having another childEver since he secured the first kiss from Ali Oetjen on the premiere of The Bachelorette last week, he's become increasingly determined to win the blonde bombshell's heart.

And after Charlie Newling's explosive tirade towards rival Bill Goldsmith during Wednesday's episode, fans are convinced the tradie is this year's Jarrod Woodgate.

Twitter users were quick to brand him this season's 'stage five clinger' after his over-enthusiastic romantic displays, fierce competitive nature and emotional outbursts.

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'He's gone full Jarrod (R, Jarrod Woodgate) real quick': Charlie Newling (L) has been branded as The Bachelorette's new 'stage five clinger' after intense cocktail party showdown with rival

The new Jarrod? Twitter users, including former Bachelorette Georgia Love (ABOVE), were quick to brand him this season's 'stage five clinger'

While Charlie, 31, was originally considered a front runner to win the series, his behaviour on the show has deterred some fans from backing him.

The Sydney-based hunk scolded Bill during the cocktail party after becoming notably upset over the mechanical plumber's attempt to sneak in extra time with Ali by skipping the group's pre-approved 'queue'.

'I've been holding back, but I'm going to let you have it... I'm going to call bulls**t on that right now - you knew!' Charlie ranted.

When Bill denied the claims and said he was entitled to his opinion, Charlie hit back saying: 'My opinion is right, right now.'

The heated exchange continued when Charlie appeared bitter over losing a group challenge to his rival.

'After what you fu**ing did yesterday being selfish and doing this tonight, it looks clear as day you're here for yourself,' he said.

'I've been holding back, but I'm going to let you have it': Charlie unleashed in an expletive-ridden tirade against Bill on Wednesday night, claiming he was 'selfish' in the group date and knowingly skipped the 'queue' to speak to Ali at the cocktail party

Confused: Fans were baffled by Charlie becoming upset over Bill not being a 'team player' on a dating show

'I'm confused. Charlie is upset because he thinks Bill is just there for himself. But isn't the aim of the show to fall in love and not to be the best wingman so someone else can fall in love,' one confused viewer Tweeted.

Others claimed: 'Charlie's gone full Jarrod real quick' and 'I can't emphasis how sad I am Charlie has gone from Sasha (Bachelorette Sam Frost's winner) to Jarrod.'

Even host Osher Gunsberg weighed in: 'I don't really have the heart to tell Charlie that in this show - everyone really is in it for themselves, that's kinda the point.'

Even host Osher Gunsberg weighed in: 'I don't really have the heart to tell Charlie that in this show - everyone really is in it for themselves, that's kinda the point'

'Solid Jarrod vibes from ol' Charlie': Charlie was also branded a 'stage five clinger' in the debut episode after he pulled out all the stops to win over Ali on their first date together (Pictured: L, The Bachelorette's Jarrod Woodgate and R, Charlie Newling)

In the last season of The Bacehelorette, Jarrod was known as a 'stage five clinger' for becoming highly emotional over Sophie Monk.

'I have mixed feelings about Charlie, he seems sweet but he seems like this season's Jarrod,' one fan tweeted after Ali debut episode last week.

Another wrote: 'Solid Jarrod vibes from ol' Charlie,' seeming at ease with the comparison.

Brutal: Twitter erupted with comparisons of strapping builder Charlie with the vineyard manager Jarrod

'So Charlie is this year's stage 5 clinger, And just in case we needed a hint they gave him the same first date Jarrod got last year. Yawn,' another fan chimed-in with.

Last week Charlie scored a rose after going on a death-defying date with Ali, which saw the pair suspended on a platform 60 metres above street level.

Charlie reassured Ali, who was terrified throughout the ordeal, which caused him to secure a kiss from the blonde beauty.

Later on the date, things got heavy quickly as he discussed kids and marriage.

Charlie's feelings appeared to spill over once again back in the mansion when he said he could see his emotions going deeper for Ali.

'I can definitely see myself falling in love with Ali,' he gushed.

Elsewhere in the episode, Charlie seemingly struggled with other men paying attention to the fun-loving blonde.

It appeared to put the other male suitors off, including cheeky UK-lad Paddy, who took a swipe at him, saying he'll be 'proposing over breakfast.'America's Got Talent has nearly wrapped up for another year.

And Simon Cowell was spotted arriving at the final taping of the popular talent show on Wednesday, whilst munching on a snack.

The 59-year-old was joined by his socialite partner Lauren Silverman for the taping.

No rest: Simon Cowell was spotted arriving at the final taping of the popular talent show on Wednesday, whilst munching on a snack

The reality TV judge wore dark trousers with a white shirt that was barely buttoned up halfway.

The record executive carried a jacket and a laptop as he entered the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

He shielded his eyes with dark aviator shades.

The mother of his son Eric went with a blue theme for her outfit, pairing an electric blue blouse with skintight blue jeans.

Chest intentions: The reality TV judge wore dark trousers with a white shirt that was barely buttoned up halfway

The woman behind the man: The 59-year-old was joined by his socialite partner Lauren Silverman for the taping

Loaded up: The record executive carried a jacket and a laptop as he entered the Pasadena Civic Auditorium

Selfie-absorbed: Simon poses with a fan

Also arriving at the auditorium was fellow judge Mel B, accompanied by her BFF Gary Madatyan.

The ex Spice Girl was unmissable in bright red sweatpants and a white top.

Her hairdresser bestie tended to the pop star's brunette tresses as the pair walked along.

Friends: Also arriving at the auditorium was fellow judge Mel B, accompanied by her BFF Gary MadatyanHe's the reality TV star known for starring on Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

And Scott Disick is set to visit Australia to attend Sydney's biggest Halloween dance party on the 31st of October.

The 35-year-old will fly Down Under to host the highly-anticipated festivities.

Keeping Up With the Lord! Kourtney Kardashian's ex-boyfriend Scott Disick set to visit Australia to host annual Halloween party

The event, which is held annually, will be located at Marquee Nightclub in The Star.

Former artists that have made appearances at the party include Havana Brown, DJ Ferry Corsten and Dutch DJ Sander Van Doorn.

The Keeping Up With The Kardashian's star will kick off his Aussie tour in Sydney and will then fly to Victoria for the Melbourne Cup.

Travels: The Keeping Up With The Kardashian's star will kick off his Aussie tour in Sydney and will then fly to Victoria for the Melbourne Cup. Pictured with Sofia Richie (right)

He is also set to make an appearance in the birdcage at Flemington for the AAMI Victoria Derby Day on November 3, according to Who magazine.

Tickets for Scott's Halloween Marquee Special Event at The Star in Sydney can be purchased from Moshtix website.

And Scott is currently dating American model and youngest daughter of Lionel Richie, Sofia Richie, 20.

Appearing live! Tickets for Scott's Halloween Marquee Special Event at The Star in Sydney can be purchased from Moshtix at marqu.ee/HALLOWEEN-31OCT

Coming along? It has been rumoured that Sophia Richie may join the reality star Down Under

It has been rumoured that Sophia Richie may join the reality star Down Under.

The couple went public with their romance in September 2017 - after Scott split with Kourtney Kardashian, 39, in July 2015.

The former couple, who were together for nine years, share three children - Mason, eight, Penelope, six, and Reign, three.

A newly single Kourtney recently ended her romance with Younes Bendjima in August.Taylor Swift is set to kick off the Australian leg of her Reputation Stadium Tour on Friday night.

And ahead of her first show, the pop superstar's private jet touched down in Brisbane.

On Thursday, two young and excited fans greeted the aircraft's arrival, seen waiting patiently behind a chain link fence for a glimpse of the American songstress, 28.

They just can't Shake It Off! Two fans were spotting going WILD on Thursday as Taylor Swift's private jet touched down in Brisbane ahead of the pop star's Australian tour

Are you ready for it? The Australian leg of Taylor's tour kicks off in Perth on Friday. She is pictured performing in Los Angeles earlier this month

The two girls screamed excitedly, hoping in vain to catch Taylor's attention.

However, the Grammy winner was nowhere to be seen as staff loaded luggage into the aircraft.

The plane had only temporarily touched down to refuel and pick up various supplies, and it's possible Taylor was waiting inside.

Where is she? Taylor was nowhere to be seen as staff loaded and unloaded luggage from the aircraft

Two Is Better Than One! The two girls screamed excitedly, hoping in vain to catch Taylor's attention

Ice, ice baby! The plane was only stopping to pick up and drop off supplies

One man was seen bringing bags of ice aboard the jet, while another worker in a fluro best carried large white boxes.

Taylor's first show is in Perth - a five hour flight across the country from Brisbane.

Following her performance at the Optus Stadium on Friday, she will travel to Melbourne for a show on October 26.

On the move: Taylor's first show is in Perth - a five hour flight across the country from Brisbane.

The pop queen will also perform at Sydney's ANZ Stadium on November 2, before heading back to Brisbane for her final show.

Taylor is rumoured to have touched down in Cairns on Monday, to spend some time relaxing ahead of the tour.

She likely went undetected due to the frenzy surrounding The Duke and Duchess of Sussex flying into Sydney that day.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who are embarking on their first official royal tour since their wedding in May, have stolen the media spotlight over the past week.They married in 2007 and finalized their divorce 10 years later.

But Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer have managed to weather the end of their marriage and still remain good friends.

And on Wednesday evening, the Hollywood actor showed up to support his ex at a launch party for her new boutique jewelry store in Los Angeles.

Still friends: Tobey Maguire showed up to support his ex-wife Jennifer Meyer at a launch party for her new boutique jewelry store in Los Angeles on Wednesday night

The pair share two children - Ruby, 11, and Otis, nine - whom they co-parent.

Maguire, 43, has scaled back his acting in the past several years after starring in a string of hits including The Cider House Rules, Spider-Man, Seabiscuit and The Great Gatsby.

Meyer, 41, started working on her jewelry design business in 2004.

Supportive: They married in 2007 and finalized their divorce 10 years later and continue to co-parent their two children - Ruby, 11, and Otis, nine

The way they were: Meyer, pictured with Maguire in November 2015, started working on her jewelry designs in 2004

Thanks to her Hollywood contacts, Meyer has been able to call on a host of celebrity pals to help promote her jewelry.

It hasn't hurt either that her father Ron Meyer was the President and CEO of Universal Studios from 1995 to 2013 and is currently the vice chairman of NBCUniversal.

Among the famous faces who attended Wednesday's bash were Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore and Reese Witherspoon.

Hollywood honcho: Her father Ron Meyer, who was President and CEO of Universal Studios from 1995 to 2013 and is currently vice chairman of NBCUniversal, also came to show support

Unexpected: The power player paired a pair of black teva-like sandals with gold toed sweat socks for the occasionHe was axed from The Bachelorette on Thursday for 'spreading rumours' about Ali Oetjen allegedly cheating on her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp earlier this year.

But despite being portrayed as this season's 'bad boy', Nathan Favro's departure from the show took a surprising emotional toll on him.

A source told Daily Mail Australia that the 23-year-old carpenter became 'reclusive' after leaving the mansion and took extended time off work.

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EXCLUSIVE: 'He wouldn't go back to work and just left Sydney': The Bachelorette's Nathan Favro 'became reclusive' after Ali Oetjen dumped him for 'spreading rumours about her cheating scandal', Daily Mail Australia can reveal. Pictured on Thursday's episode

'He may come across as a bit of a troublemaker but he's a good guy and couldn't believe how everything panned out,' the insider said.

'Once he was home he didn't go back to work for a while, become quite reclusive and just went off to Byron Bay to get away from everything.'

Nathan was sent home on Thursday's episode after Ali discovered he had expressed concerns to the other contestants about her 'cheating' scandal.

Sent packing! Nathan was axed from The Bachelorette on Thursday for 'spreading rumours' about Ali allegedly cheating on her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp earlier this year

Bad times: A source told Daily Mail Australia that the 23-year-old carpenter became 'reclusive' after leaving the mansion, 'went off to Byron Bay' and took extended time off work. Pictured: Nathan (left) and Ali Oetjen (right)

But the drama in the Bachelorette mansion - which took place in August - has not deterred Nathan from returning to the franchise for a second attempt at finding love.

Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed earlier this week that Nathan has already signed up for the upcoming second season of Bachelor In Paradise.

A source said: 'He's been telling friends he's already signed up for Paradise and has been boasting about his newfound fame.'

He's coming back! The drama in the Bachelorette mansion - which took place in August - has not deterred Nathan from returning to the franchise for a second attempt at finding love, as Daily Mail Australia can reveal he is returning for season two of Bachelor In Paradise

Bachelor In Paradise will reportedly begin filming overseas next month, and will feature other contestants from recent seasons of The Bachelor and Bachelorette.

Last year, stars including Sam Cochrane, Tara Pavlovic, Megan Marx and Jake Ellis revived their reality TV careers by appearing in the Fiji-based show.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Network Ten for comment.She's hit rock bottom in recent weeks after being reported to social services.

And embattled Hayley Slater looks to be making a move on sympathetic Keanu Taylor, as she tries to kiss him after being found alone in a park.

Hayley has been struggling in recent weeks after being reported to social services just weeks before the birth of her baby, which is set to cause even more drama as the father is Alfie Moon.

Breaking point: EastEnders' Hayley Slater could be set to make a shock move on Keanu Taylor, as she hits rock bottom after being reported by social services

Hayley (played by Katie Jarvis) will be brought back from the brink later this week after Jean (Gillian Wright) and Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) find her on the edge of a tower block, desperate to end her life after Jean discovered the identity of her baby's father.

The embattled brunette has been keeping the news a secret as it would tear apart the family should Kat discover her husband Alfie has been unfaithful with her own cousin.

Despite Jean talking her round, things aren't set to get any better for Hayley after she receives a visit from a social worker.

Breaking point: Hayley makes a move on Keanu after he shares sympathy with her, but a ticking timebomb is brewing as the identity of her baby's father is finally revealed

Fearing that she could have her baby taken away as soon as its born, Hayley ends up convincing Keanu (Danny Walters) to join her in the park.

Of course the oldest Taylor son has been going through his own issues, after its hinted that someone has discovered his affair with Sharon Watts.

But it seems Hayley will misread the signals and moves in for a kiss, leading Keanu to gently suggest she should go home.

The fallout will also see the mum-to-be discover Jean was the one who reported her to social services, sparking a furious row that leads Hayley to make a massive decision about her future.

Losing it: Jean finally discovers that Hayley's baby's father is Alfie Moon, setting the stage for an explosive fallout

Fans will have to wait and see what Hayley decides, and how Kat will react when she discovers Alfie is the baby's father.

Shane Richie has recently resumed filming on the soap after several years away, though he did make a brief appearance earlier this year where it was revealed that Hayley's baby was his.

It is unclear how long the actor will be back on the soap, and whether he and Kat can overcome their differences and reunite.

EastEnders continues on Thursday 18th October at 7:30pm on BBC One.She's been showcasing her model prowess since the tender age of 14.

And Taylor Hill maintained her style savvy ways as she joined actress Victoria Justice at Daniel Wellington's Rockefeller Center store opening in New York on Wednesday evening.

The Victoria's Secret Angel, 22, turned up the heat as she slipped her enviable figure into a plunging satin cropped blouse, which featured trendy balloon sleeves.

Wow-factor! Taylor Hill (L) maintained her style savvy ways as she joined actress Victoria Justice (R) Daniel Wellington's Rockefeller Center store opening in New York on Wednesday

Flaunting her famously leggy pins, the model tied in her burnt orange look with a clingy ribbed mini skirt.

Illinois native Taylor injected her look with even more pazzazz as she added to her towering 5' 10 frame in a pair of feline print block heels.

Displaying her eye for accessories, the Hollywood Temptations actress sported a dainty gold necklace, teamed with a selection of bangles and rings.

All eyes on her: The Victoria's Secret Angel, 22, turned up the heat as she slipped her enviable figure into a plunging satin cropped blouse, which featured trendy balloon sleeves

Legs for days: Flaunting her famously leggy pins, the model tied in her burnt orange look with a clingy ribbed mini skirt

Taylor accentuated her striking appearance with brown-tinted make-up, which was framed with her naturally curly tresses.

Meanwhile, Zoey 101 star Victoria, 25, opted for biker chic in a studded A-line skirt and asymmetric jumper.

Upping the fashion ante, the actress strutted around the event in a pair of knee-high boots.

Radiant: Displaying her eye for accessories, the Hollywood Temptations actress sported a dainty gold necklace, teamed with a selection of bangles and rings

Commanding attention: Illinois native Taylor injected her look with even more pazzazz as she added to her towering 5' 10 frame in a pair of feline print block heels

Fashion maven: Meanwhile, Zoey 101 star Victoria, 25, opted for biker chic in a studded A-line skirt and asymmetric jumper

Victoria dazzled with her choice of accessories as she carried her possessions in a chain-strap handbag, and wore sparkly dangle earrings.

With her locks styled into natural waves, the Fun Size star swept a dark make-up palette on her striking visage, which featured wine red lipstick and winged eyeliner.

Since she was first discovered at the age of 14, Taylor has appeared in numerous campaigns for Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Fendi and Dolce & Gabbana among others, as well as Victoria's Secret.

All in the details: Victoria dazzled with her choice of accessories as she carried her possessions in a chain-strap handbag, and wore sparkly dangle earrings

Beaming: With her locks styled into natural waves, the Fun Size star swept a dark make-up palette on her striking visage, which featured wine red lipstick and winged eyeliner sipping on sipping on Mumm Napa

Industry pals: Victoria appeared in high spirits as she joined Madison Reed at the event

The brunette bombshell boasts an extremely successful career, but insists her loved ones always come first.

In a recent interview with LOOK, Taylor said: 'I like to feel that I am still who I was when I was first scouted at 14. Nothing else really matters to me besides my family and my friends and being a genuine person.

'There isnt really a pressure in modelling, Im just enjoying it and having fun. It was an accident, me getting here. It was thrown at me and I just went with it.'

Meanwhile, in the romance department, she's been dating model Michael Stephen Shank, 32, for over three years.

Sharing her ideal date night, the leggy star told the publication: 'Pizza and a movie. Something really exciting like a thriller movie. Im really annoying Im always like, "Whats going to happen and hes like I dont know!"'.

Energetic: DJ Maad was on the decks as she delivered a lively performance at the store opening Remarkable sentencing where district judge decided crooked cops needed more punishment than federal prosecutors sought | Main | "Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, Opioid Abuse, and Crime" 

October 18, 2018

Washington Supreme Court declares all juve LWOP cruel punishment and unconstitutional under state constitution

Last week, as noted here, the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty based on its arbitrary administration in Washington v. Gregory. Today the same court brings us another big state constitutional opinion in Washington v. Bassett, No. 94556-0 (Wash. Oct. 18, 2018) (available here). The death penalty abolition, interestingly, was unanimous, while this latest opinion divided 5-4. Here is how the majority opinion starts:

At issue here is the constitutionality of sentencing juvenile offenders to life in prison without the possibility of parole or early release. The State appeals a Court of Appeals, Division Two decision holding that the provision of our state's Miller-fix statute that allows 16- and 17-year-olds to be sentenced to life without parole violates the Washington Constitution's ban on cruel punishment. Brian Bassett, recently resentenced to life without parole under the Miller-fix statute, argued at the Court of Appeals that juvenile life without parole is categorically unconstitutional. The court adopted the categorical approach, rather than our traditional Fain proportionality test, and found that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole or early release constituted cruel punishment. State v. Bassett, 198 Wn. App. 714, 744, 394 P.3d 430 (2017) (puhlished in part); State v. Fain, 94 Wn.2d 387, 617 P.2d 720 (1980). We affirm the Court of Appeals' decision and hold that sentencing juvenile offenders to life without parole or early release constitutes cruel punishment and therefore is unconstitutional under article I, section 14 of the Washington Constitution.

Here is how the dissent gets started:

The majority's decision to invalidate a provision of our Miller-fix statute, RCW 10.95.030(3)(a)(ii), and to categorically bar the imposition of a juvenile life without parole (LWOP) sentence purports to rest on article I, section 14 of the Washington State Constitution. However, it offers no basis in state law but is simply a reinterpretation of Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 132 S. Ct. 2455, 183 L. Ed. 2d 407 (2012). More precisely, the majority takes Miller's federal constitutional requirement  that a sentencing court consider youth and its attendant characteristics as mitigating factors in exercising sentencing discretion to impose LWOP  and uses it to categorically bar the exercise of such discretion under the state constitution. Not only is this contrary to the holding in Miller itself, which does not categorically bar LWOP sentences for juvenile homicide offenders, it also departs from state precedent rejecting similar constitutional challenges and upholding judicial sentencing discretion.

October 18, 2018 at 04:23 PM | Permalink

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Post a commentHe's one of the music industry's most iconic stars.

And Quincy Jones looked dapper in a royal blue suit as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, ahead of his appearance at the JBL Fest in Las Vegas.

Heading to host at the event, the music legend, 85, was pushed through to the departures gate in a wheelchair.

Talented: Quincy Jones looked dapper in a royal blue suit as he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, ahead of his appearance at the JBL Fest in Las Vegas

Teaming up his bright attire with a light blue shirt, the Grammy-winning producer completed his look with a black, yellow and green scarf and comfortable trainers.

Quincy was looking sharp as he wore black reading glasses, while he accessorised with a beaded bracelet and stylish watch.

The private event hosted by the star kicked off the three-day JBL Fest, which is described as an exclusive music experience for guests.

Honoured: Heading to the event to receive a lifetime achievement award, the music legend, 85, was pushed through to the departures gate in a wheelchair

Quincy is considered one of the most iconic people in the music industry, having won 27 Grammys to date and producing albums for late musical icons such as Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin.

Last month, a self-titled documentary about his life was released that tells the tale of his illustrious career.

Quincy's daughter, actress Rashida Jones, 42, recently paid a touching tribute to him as she attended an event to promote the documentary's release.

Big event: Quincy was making his way to JBL Fest in Las Vegas, a private event hosted by the Grammy winner to kick off a three-day music experience

She told The Hollywood Reporter: 'My dad's story is also the story of black America. He was born in the 30s. He's seen every decade since.

'He's been relevant in every decade since so we're dealing with a lot of race stuff in this country and it's important to tell the stories of the past.

'It's the only way we can learn. It's the only way we can change and evolve and this is the great way to do it.'AFL WAG Jesinta Franklin is currently soaking up the sun in the Maldives with husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin.

And on Thursday, the 27-year-old took to Instagram with a picture of herself flaunting her slender figure in the lavish infinity pool of their villa.

Clad in a little black bikini, the peroxide-blonde beauty stood in the pool with her arms stretched towards the sun.

'Pure happiness': Jesinta Franklin, 27, flaunted her slender figure in a skimpy bikini as she enjoyed a dip in her resort's lavish infinity pool during her and husband Lance 'Buddy' Franklin's Maldives getaway on Thursday

She couldn't help but smile as she enjoyed the luxurious holiday.

'Pure happiness,' she captioned the snap.

Fans of the Miss Universe Australia winner couldn't help but gush over the social media update.

Wish you were here? Jesinta and Buddy have been living it up this week in the Maldives, and shared a number of envy-inducing snaps

'Girl! Explain how you [are] this perfect,' one social media user commented.

While another said they were keen to see more pictures from the lavish getaway.

Jesinta and Buddy have been living it up this week in the Maldives, and shared a number of envy-inducing snaps - including some from a stay at the exclusive Soneva Fushi Resort.

Who needs privacy when you have luxury? Jesinta recently shared this glamorous photo of herself relaxing inside her $800-a-night 'bubble tent' in the Maldives

Rooms at the resort can cost upwards of $1,000 a night.

Prior to landing in the Maldives, the couple had a short stop over in Singapore, staying at the famous Marina Bay Sands hotel.

Suites at the Marina Bay Sands can be booked for up to $779 a night.Stephanie Davis has revealed she tried to commit suicide during the height of her alcohol addiction.

The actress, 25, who has reprised her role as Sinead O'Connor in Hollyoaks, candidly discussed her battle with substance abuse on Good Morning Britain, saying she was a 'lost soul' before entering rehab.

Speaking to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Stephanie described her one-year-old son Caben-Albi as the 'light of her life' who saved her from the destructive path she was following.

Dark place: Stephanie Davis has revealed she tried to commit suicide during the height of her alcohol addiction

Stephanie sought treatment in rehab three months ago after drinking every day following the end of her turbulent relationship with Jeremy McConnell.

'I obviously went through a really bad time and alcohol was my coping mechanism to help with things,' she said. 'In the beginning it was a solution and it helped me, but then it starts to take and take, and in the end I thought I was going to die.

Stephanie revealed her turbulent on/off relationship with Jeremy, 28, over the past two years led to her taking an overdose. She said: 'It was really sad. I did try to kill myself, and then the way I was drinking, because it got quite bad, I was either going to hit my head or my body.'

Doting mum: Speaking to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, Stephanie described her one-year-old son Caben-Albi as the 'light of her life' who saved her from the destructive path

Lost soul: The actress, 25, discussed her battle with substance abuse on Good Morning Britain, saying her son Caben 'saved' her

'I couldnt take it anymore, so it just got to the point where I gave up the fight. I wanted to be me again, because I wasnt me. I was just a lost soul. Its sad.'

The soap star said the turning point was when she 'just gave up' and realised she needed to go to rehab to get help.

'My mum and auntie cried, and I was looking at them thinking "why are they crying?" They were tears of happiness,' she said.

Depths of despair: Stephanie sought treatment in rehab three months ago after drinking every day following the end of her turbulent relationship with Jeremy McConnell

Terrible: Stephanie revealed her turbulent on/off relationship with Jeremy, 27, over the past two years led to her taking an overdose

'I was like, what? They were made up because they were like Were going to get the old Steph back. And then I went on my journey.

'Dont get me wrong, it was hard. I was really, really hard. I had to do a lot of work on myself, but Im so thankful for it now.'

Speaking about how being a mum to her beautiful son Caben has changed her outlook on life, she said: 'He saved me. Hes the light of my life. Hes just the most beautiful little soul, I cant even tell you. Hes really advanced for his age, I cant really believe hes mine.'

However the actress still does admit she has her down days and is dealing with depression.

Turning point: The soap star said the turning point was when she 'just gave up' and realised she needed to go to rehab to get help

'Its one day at a time but I think for me its all about self-worth, because I didnt have any,

'I didnt love myself. I was so lonely and so suicidal. My mum was like Look at you!

'She wanted to shake me but I didnt see it because I was so depressed, and then since I went on that journey, it was the hardest thing Ive ever done dont get me wrong, but now how my lifes changed, and Im helping other people  thats the most important thing.

'I thought I could stay quiet about this or I could be vocal and help other people, and thats what Ive done, so it makes it all worth it.'

Sweet: Speaking about how being a mum to her beautiful son Caben has changed her outlook on life, she said: 'He saved me. Hes the light of my life. Hes just the most beautiful little soul'

Stephanie and Jeremy met and fell in love on Celebrity Big Brother two years ago, when the actress was already in a relationship.

Over the next year the couple's turbulent relationship played out in the press before Stephanie fell pregnant.

Jeremy, who hasn't seen his son in months, subsequently attacked Stephanie at a Merseyside property last March, leading to a jail term.

One day at a time: However the actress still does admit she has her down days and is dealing with depression

Back to her best: Stephanie cut a stylish figure for her daytime TV appearance donning black striped trousers and a simple black t-shirt

The former Irish model was originally sentenced to 200 hours community service and a 20 week suspended sentence last August over the attack.

But he was dragged back before Cardiff magistrates and sentenced to 18 weeks in prison for missing eight community service sessions while jetting off to Turkey for a hair and beard transplant.

Meanwhile Stephanie has turned her life around and is set to make an epic return to Hollyoaks, crashing ex Ste Hay and Harry Thompson's wedding after a three year hiatus.Peaky Blinders star Anya Taylor-Joy risked the bad weather on a night out in London when she flew solo to hit the celebrity hotspots.

The 22-year-old headed to Chiltern Firehouse for a spot of dinner on Wednesday night.

The star looked incredible wearing a black Bardot top, going braless underneath.

Risking it: Peaky Blinders star Anya Taylor-Joy braved the weather in London on Wednesday night as she left celebrity hot spot Chiltern Firehouse after a spot of dinner

Split star Anya teamed her off-the-shoulder black top, adding loose blue velvet trousers and silver shoes to her outfit.

Wearing her blonde hair loose, she finished the look with bright red lipstick, a long silver necklace and a black handbag with a gold chain.



Anya is the latest is a very long line of stars who have been spotted heading to Chiltern, including Lily Allen, Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom.

Glam girl: Actress Anya wore her blonde hair loose and added red lipstick to her evening look as she left the celebrity hot spot Chiltern Firehouse

Flying solo: Anya left the venue alone after dining there on Wednesday wearing a sheer black top and blue velvet trousers

Be prepared to see a lot more of Anya in the near future, as she has just landed a part in Peaky Blinders.

It's unknown which character she will be playing, however it's fair to say she's likely to be a scene stealer.

The chilly night in London was probably nothing compared to what the star had to put up with recently, filming scenes for the hit BBC drama in turbulent weather conditions in Liverpool last week as Storm Callum hit the UK.

Running in the rain: Anya was pictured filming scenes for Peaky Blinders in a downpour in Liverpool last week as Storm Callum hit the UK

Anya has been working closely with star Finn Cole, who plays Polly's son Michael on the show.

It had been rumoured that Peaky Blinders' fifth series could be its last, with Deadline reporting the new series will see the story of the Shelby clan 'come to a conclusion'.

However, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight confirmed in May, earlier this year, that the gangster drama will come to a close after the seventh season.The cast of American Horror Story joined forces to heap praise on Sarah Paulson as she made her directorial debut on the popular horror TV series.

The actress, 43, was the visionary behind the latest episode, Return To Murder House, on Wednesday night - the sixth episode of the eighth and final season on FX network.

Show creator Ryan Murphy delightedly took to Twitter ahead of the episode to reveal that the cast were going to live-tweet during the show in honour of Paulson's big moment - and the likes of Kathy Bates, Taissa Farmiga and Emma Watson followed suit as they hailed the actress for her efforts.

Supreme status: The cast of American Horror Story joined forces to heap praise on Sarah Paulson, 43, as she made her directorial debut on the popular horror TV series

Taking to Twitter ahead of the episode, Ryan revealed to AHS fans: 'The entire cast of AMERICAN HORROR STORY will be tweeting along LIVE with tonight's RETURN TO MURDER HOUSE episode to support the directorial debut of the one and only Ms Sarah Paulson. Join us and support our Supreme! #AHSApocalypse.'

Kathy Bates also took to the social media platform to tweet: 'So excited that my gals are going to shine tonight! @AHSApocalypse_ @MsSarahPaulson and #JessicaLange Here we go!!!!'

At the end of the episode, Kathy couldn't contain her pride for her pal Sarah as she tweeted: 'Great work from the entire cast tonight. So happy to be a part of the show.'

'The one, the only': Show creator Ryan Murphy took to Twitter ahead of the episode to reveal the cast were going to live-tweet during the show in honour of Paulson's big moment

Big moment: The actress was the visionary behind the latest episode, Return To Murder House, on Wednesday night - the sixth episode of the eighth and final season on FX network

'So happy': The likes of Kathy Bates, Evan Peters and Cody Fern followed suit as they hailed the actress for her efforts

Meanwhile, Gabourey Sidibe was also left impressed, stating: 'Sooooo SUPER actress @MsSarahPaulson is pulling double duty in tonights episode of#ahsapocalypse by also being a Super DIRECTOR, thus proving that shes actually just a SUPER ARTIST!!'

Taissa, who has been a part of the show since the first season in 2011, broke the rules ever so slightly by taking to Instagram with her message of praise.

Captioning a selfie, the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, noted: 'Hello friends this is my face requesting your presence for tonights episode of#AHSApocalypse. This special episode directed by an extra special frog-loving kind of person

'Mssarahcatharinepaulson is bound to stir up some seven-year-old nostalgia. I would follow this talented woman and her directors chair anywhere she would have me.

'#ReturnToMurderHouse airs tonight! Tune in and you may just get to hear Violets favorite word but no damn promises.'

'Applause': Sarah, who tweeted she was a 'lucky girl', continued to be commended for her hard work on the show

Show newbie Cody Fern proved he had already made himself a part of the family as he enthused: 'As if being the most bad***, crazy talented and insanely generous actress wasnt enough, 'MsSarahPaulson reinvents American Horror Story AGAIN tonight with her very special directorial debut. All Hail the Supreme

Show veteran Jessica Lange proved to be one of the few cast-members without Twitter, prompting Ryan to share a hilarious exchange with the 69-year-old.

'Just told Our Queen Jessica Lange that everyone was SO EXCITED about her AHS return tonight and she was sure to be trending in an hour or two. She replied "what's this trending thing?" THAT'S WHY I LOVE HER. #AHSApocalypse.'

Ryan offered his proud thoughts one more time: 'Ladies and gents a big final worldwide round of applause for a woman who now has a Directors Guild card... Ms @SarahPaulson!#AHSApocalypse.'

'Special episode': Taissa, who has been a part of the show since the first season in 2011, broke the rules ever so slightly by taking to Instagram with her message of praise

'It's exciting and terrifying': Sarah recently spoke of her exciting directorial debut on the much loved horror shot

Speaking of her directorial debut on the much loved horror shot, Sarah recently told The Hollywood Reporter: 'Its always exciting and also terrifying when theres a dynamic shift.

'Ive been an actor on that show for many years and then all of a sudden, and Im now in a position where these people who I work with are now going to have to, for lack of an articulate way of saying it, help execute my vision,' she continued.

It was an extra special episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Jessica made her eagerly anticipated return.

She's back! It was an extra special episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Jessica made her eagerly anticipated return

Fan favourite: Lange, the former leading lady of the series won two Emmys for the characters she played on AHS and left the series after season four

Plot: Return To Murder House is expected to finally deliver on the promise of a Murder House (season 1) and Coven (season 3) crossover

Lange, the former leading lady of the series won two Emmys for the characters she played on AHS and left the series after season four.

Return To Murder House is expected to finally deliver on the promise of a Murder House (season 1) and Coven (season 3) crossover.

Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott also return in the episode along with Taissa Farmiga who are coming back as Murder House family the Harmons. Evan Peters will be back playing Tate.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.She was pictured kissing handsome tech CEO Brendan Wallace during a romantic Mexican vacation on Saturday.

And Emma Watson was spotted going shopping for lingerie with a pal in Boston, days before she was whisked away by her beau for their getaway.

The actress, 28, proved to have expensive taste heading into La Perla where bras can cost anything from 350 upwards, while a pair of lacy briefs retail at around 250.

Shopping-spree: Emma Watson shopped for lingerie with a pal in Boston, days before she was whisked away to Mexico by her new boyfriend handsome tech CEO Brendan Wallace

Emma looked please with her purchases as she exited the shop with her pal carrying a bag from the lingerie designer.

The Harry Potter star cut a casual figure in a white patterned t-shirt, grey joggers and black and white striped trainers.

Tying her brunette locks back into a low ponytail, Emma accentuated her natural beauty and English rose complexion with deftly touches of make-up.

Smitten: The actress was pictured kissing handsome tech CEO Brendan during their romantic Mexican vacation on Saturday

Splashing the cash: The actress, 28, proved to have expensive taste heading into La Perla where bras can cost anything from 350 upwards, while a pair of lacy briefs retail around 250

The Brown's graduate was taking a break from her latest role, a remake of Little Women. She's taking on the role of eldest sister Meg March in Greta Gerwig's adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel.

The Paris-born English star was last seen with her ex Chord Overstreet back in late June, when the two were seen kissing passionately in Los Angeles.

Emma and Chord met at the end of last year shortly after Emma's two-year relationship with tech manager William Knight ended, and were pictured frequently during the first half of this year.

Harry Potter star Emma's new man is a Princeton University graduate with an MBA from Stanford University. After getting his start as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, he went on to work in real estate private equity, before starting his own business.

The businessman, in his late 30s, co-founded Cabify, the Latin American Uber. He is the co-founder and partner of Fifth Wall, an investment company.

Emma insisted in an interview last year that she would never talk publicly about her relationships, explaining: 'I've noticed, in Hollywood, who you're dating gets tied up into your film promotion and becomes part of the performance and the circus.

'I would hate anyone that I were with to feel like they were in any way part of a show or an act.'

Watson also explained to Vanity Fair in February 2017. 'I can't talk about my boyfriend in an interview and then expect people not to take paparazzi pictures of me walking around outside my home. You can't have it both ways.'Kyle Sandilands, 47, and his girlfriend Imogen Anthony, 27, opened the doors of their $5,000-a-week Mosman mansion for MTV Cribs on Wednesday night.

And on Thursday, speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Australia at the 'Beauty & The Beast' Charity Ball for Zambi Wildlife Retreat, the shock jock spilled on what really goes on in their 'opium den' downstairs at home.

'The only thing that's happened down there, we've only really had one party in the house really, a couple of the gay boys dressed in fairy wings were left down there and were still down there when the sun came up in the morning,' said Kyle.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Gay boys dressed in fairy wings were down there all night': Kyle Sandilands (left) spilled on what really goes on in the 'Opium Den' at the home he shares with Imogen Anthony (right) in Mosman on Sydney's North Shore on Thursday

The radio presenter went on to say that the downstairs area is really for guests to go and 'chill out' after too many drinks.

'It's a flake-out area. Once they've had enough, too many drinks, they can go down there and chill out,' said Kyle.

The candid interview comes after he and his girlfriend Imogen shared a behind-the-scenes tour of their mansion on popular television show MTV Cribs.

Oh really? 'We've only really had one party in the house really, a couple of the gay boys dressed in fairy wings were left down there [in the opium den] and were still down there when the sun came up in the morning,' said Kyle on Thursday

The ocean-front abode is set on almost 1000sq metres and boasts five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a large outdoor swimming pool.

After showcasing their five black luxury cars, Kyle and Imogen entered their 'music room' which featured a black grand piano, large mirrors with ornate frames and several white single chairs with black velvet covers and zebra cushions.

The most memorable feature of the home was what Imogen called the 'opium den,' a small room with a red beaded curtain, near the guest area.

Oh my gaudy: The most memorable feature of the home was what Imogen called the 'opium den' - a small room with a red beaded curtain, near the guest area

A bogan's paradise! Kyle Sandilands and Imogen Anthony unveil their $5000-a-week Mosman mansion on MTV Cribs... complete with gaudy designer upholstery, bizarre animal statues and a neon-lit 'opium den'

'We don't do opium, I guarantee you,' Imogen said, as she lead the Cribs camera crew inside.

Inside was a large round lounge in pink and purple tones thanks to a large pink neon sign which read 'live sexy'.

'It [the sign] was pulled out of club in Kings Cross, where we [Kyle] met,' Imogen explained.

Cushions, more trinkets, Japanese fans, donkey toys, tiger statues, fairies in lanterns, a large fish-tank and other bric-a-brac were scattered around the room.She shot to fame on hit show Mad Men in 2007 aged just eight-years-old, in an acclaimed role she would go on to play until 2015.

And Kiernan Shipka has spoken about her admiration for her on-screen father Jon Hamm in a new interview with ES Magazine.

The 18-year-old actress, who is starring in the new Netflix teen horror show, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, then discussed her thoughts on the #MeToo movement, saying it gave hope to the 'future of Hollywood.'

Rising star: Kiernan Shipka has spoken about her admiration for her Mad Men co-star Jon Hamm in a new interview with ES Magazine

Showbiz pals: Kiernan played Sally Draper, the eldest child of Don Draper (Hamm) and Betty Hofstadt (January Jones) on the show from 2007-2015

Kiernan, who played Sally Draper, the eldest child of Don Draper (Hamm) and Betty Hofstadt (January Jones) on the show, said of Jon: He set such a good tone on set [she recalls]. He was always so nice, so grounded, so fun.

'He managed to command the ship and make the energy light and funny, but also completely serious and respectful when the scene called for it. I really admire him for that.'

The teen star also discussed the #MeToo movement which has become a rallying cry for sexual harassment victims amid the Harvey Weinstein allegations that surfaced in October 2015.

She said: I feel so hopeful about the future of Hollywood right now.

She said of Hamm: He set such a good tone on set [she recalls]. He was always so nice, so grounded, so fun

Inspiration: She said: 'He managed to command the ship and make the energy light and funny, but also completely serious and respectful when the scene called for it. I really admire him for that'

Future: The teen star also discussed the #MeToo movement which has become a rallying cry for sexual harassment victims amid the Harvey Weinstein allegations that surfaced in October 2015

There are some incredible voices out there standing up for whats right and I am incredibly grateful to them and that it is happening now, because it makes me feel so much better about going forward in my career.

Feud star Kiernan, whose star is on the rise after taking on the lead role of Sabrina Spellman in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, discussed the importance of preserving her privacy in the spotlight:

She said: Privacy is a big deal to me. Its easy to feel like you have to share everything, but you dont.

'If youre not really careful it can become toxic.

'I am a big believer in protecting yourself from the comparison trap. I like to keep my private life private, and thats not to say I dont enjoy Instagram, I do.

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, has already had a second season ordered before the first even airs.

According to the show premise, 'Sabrina must reconcile her dual nature as a half-witch, half-mortal while fighting evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit'.

The series will be released on October 26.

The full interview appears in this weeks issue of ES Magazine, out on Thursday 18th October 2018.Dakota Johnson starred in the unnerving official UK trailer for Luca Guadagnino's remake of Italian horror film Suspiria, which was released on Thursday.

The actress, 29, looked unsettled as she jumped into her character Susie Bannion, who is faced with a sinister coven of witches when she joins Markos Dance Academy.

Set in Berlin in 1977, the film sees members of the troupe disappear or perish under mysterious circumstances, the key to their fate resting on Susie's intense dance routines.

Intense: Dakota Johnson looked unsettled as she joined an ominous dance academy run by witches in new Suspiria trailer, which was released on Thursday

As Susan enters the dance studio and shows off her raw potential to Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), as the latter can be heard narrating: 'When you dance the dance of another, you make yourself in the image of its creator.'

Susie is then seen with the rest of the troupe, where she bashfully introduces herself before adding: 'I feel like Im not even here yet.'

But things start to take a more ominous tone, as she begins to encounter the older women in the coven, and becomes the protege for Madame Blanc who tells her she has to decide what she wants to be for the company.

Mystery: Set in Berlin in 1977, the film sees its troupe disappear or perish under strange circumstances, the key to their fate resting on Susie's intense dance routines

Surprise: She is then seen with the rest of the troupe, where she bashfully introduces herself before adding: 'I feel like Im not even here yet'

Intense performance: As Susan's enters the dance studio, and shows off her raw potential to Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton)

Psychiatrist Dr. Jozef Klemperer (also played by Tilda Swinton, in prosthetic make-up) utters the words 'darkness, tears, and sighs', before the word Mother is whispered repeatedly over unsettling images.

A dramatic music score underlines the scenes, adding to the tension between the dark characters, before dancer Sara (Mia Goth) accusingly tells Susie: 'Youre making some kind of deal with them.'

But the dance protege quickly retorts, 'I dont know what you're talking about' as another character utters: 'Theres more in that building than what you can see.'

Favourite: She quickly becomes the protege for Madame Blanc who tells her she has to decide what she wants to be for the company

Preparation: The dance troupe could be seen practising for an intense dance routine

Suspicious: A dramatic music score underlines the scenes, as dancer Sara (Mia Goth, pictuted) accuses Susie: 'Youre making some kind of deal with them'

Chloe Grace Moretz, who plays missing student Patricia Hingle, also makes a brief appearance in the trailer as she is seen dishevelled and frightened out on the streets.

Dakota can be heard saying in character: 'Its all a mess. The one out there, the one in here, the one thats coming.'

As she does this, disturbing imagery, including Mia levitating over a door frame, a dance where Dakota scratches her hands across the ground while her hair covers her face, and she does an intimate duet with Tilda, are all shown.

Magic? Disturbing imagery including Mia levitating over a door frame

Vision in red: Tilda could also be seen in a floating gown as she performed a dance

Joining forces: The trailer also sees Dakota do an intimate duet with Tilda

The trailer then ends on a rather violent note, as a hand holding a large, sharp hook is raised into the air before crashing down to stab an unknown person.

The original film, directed by Dario Argento, follows an American ballet student played by Jessica Harper whose training at a dance academy in Freiburg is interrupted by hideous murders and malevolent witchcraft.

Dario gave an interview to Indiewire in 2016 expressing therein his view that 'honestly, I do think it would be better if it wasnt remade.'

Origins: The film appears to be a direct remake of Dario Argento's original Italian horror filmShe just signed off on divorce papers with ex Hank Baskett.

And Kendra Wilkinson hit the town solo on Wednesday night in Hollywood, where she was seen donning a sexy yet casual outfit.

The former Playboy model, 33, left little to the imagination in a see-through tank top which was skin tight.

Single gal: Kendra Wilkinson stepped out on Wednesday after word that she had signed off divorce documents days before

Kendra layered a black cardigan on top.

Her cuffed jeans were ripped and featured artsy scribbles.

The mother-of-two rounded out her look with suede booties.

Playing up her bombshell looks, Kendra's makeup consisted of bronze eyeshadow, thick lashes and a dust of bronzer.

Sheer wonder: The former Playboy model, 33, left little to the imagination in a see-through tank top which was skin tight

Pretty: Playing up her bombshell looks, Kendra's makeup consisted of bronze eyeshadow, thick lashes and a dust of bronzer

Denim darling: Her cuffed jeans were ripped and featured artsy scribbles

She pulled her auburn hair back into a low bun.

Kendra was out after news she had finalized her split from Hank Baskett, reportedly after 'fighting to the last second' to save the union.

Taking to Twitter , she explained: 'Signed my last divorce paper Friday. Brutal. I gave it all i got. Truly did. Im beyond proud of myself!! Fought to save til the last second. Oh well. Life goes on. Bye lol.'

Let's stay together: Kendra was out after news she had finalized her split from Hank Basketts, reportedly after 'fighting to the last second' to save the union

Moving on: Kendra shared her sad news on Twitter

Kendra and Hank have two children together, eight-year-old son Hank IV and four-year-old daughter Alijah.

The Girls Next Door persona filed papers to divorce Hank back in April, listing the date of their separation as January 1.

She requested joint legal and physical custody of their children and to restore her maiden name.

Family values: Kendra and Hank have two children together, eight-year-old son Hank IV and four-year-old daughter Alijah, pictured together in February

On Wednesday Kendra took to Instagram to thank her 'true friends' for their support, sharing a photo with a pal.

'When your true friends accept you exactly the way you are you feel free to express the things about yourself that nobody else seems to appreciate.

The things that people on the outside might see as "weird" or "not normal" or "crazy". True friends see those qualities and fall in love which makes you keep giving that gift of friendship back to them.'Attending the Vietnam-EU-Belgium Business Forum jointly held by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Belgian Vietnamese Alliance, embassies and trade offices of Vietnam and Belgium, PM Phuc said that the Government pledges favourable conditions to connect enterprises from both sides for the benefits of the firms and the people.



Two-way trade has increased tenfolds in nearly a decade, he noted, adding that it is likely to rise to 53 billion USD this year.

Laying stress on the Europe-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA) which is expected to open the door for the enterprises to capitalize on their cooperation potential when it takes effect, PM Phuc hoped that the European business association, especially Belgian firms, will raise their voice to push the signing of the deal.

Vietnam will serve as a bridge for European enterprises to break into ASEAN market toward a free and fair trade, he said, underlining Vietnams advantages for Belgian investments like stable socio-political and macro-economic conditions, and well-developed port systems.

Together with the imminent signing of the EVFTA, Vietnam has participated in 15 new-generation free trade agreements, which means that if Belgian firms enter Vietnam, they will get into a global market, he underlined.

At the forum, PM Phuc and officials of both nations witnessed the signing of several cooperation documents between the VCCI and Belgian Vietnamese Alliance, Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group and European mobile network business centre, and Vietnam Project company and Sarens Group.

Speaking at the event, Chairman of the Belgium  Vietnam Friendship Alliance Andries Gryffoy said Belgian firms are interested in seeking opportunities in health care, real estate, green energy, food, beverages, seaport infrastructure and other fields in Vietnam, adding that they are promising investors.

He said Belgium boasts a business-friendly government, dynamic research environment, and education system up to international standards and high labour productivity.

Lying in the heart of the EU with a population of 420 million and modern infrastructure, Belgium focuses on industries such as aerospace, chemicals, energy, waste and wastewater treatment, artificial intelligence and 4.0 technology, which are potential fields for partnership with Vietnamese firms, he said.

The same day, PM Phuc had working sessions with representatives from EU and Belgian leading firms operating in Vietnam, during which they informed the Vietnamese leader on outcomes and investment and business plans in the Southeast Asian nation in such fields as oil and gas, renewable energy, agriculture, fertiliser and insecticide production, seaport infrastructure, rubber, and tire production. They also made recommendations on how to accelerate cooperation between the business communities of Vietnam and the EU, as well as between those of Vietnam and Belgium in particular.

Earlier, on October 16, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received leaders of Solveigh and Nijhuis  the Dutch businesses with experience in anti-erosion, water exploitation and use and carrying out a climate change adaptation project in central Vietnam.

The PM hailed Solveigh and Nijhuis as well as other Dutch partners in conducting surveys, research and working solutions to minimise coastal erosion in Vietnam. He described their work as a specific action to implement cooperation programmes within the framework of the strategic partnership on adaptation to climate change and water management between Vietnam and the Netherlands.

Menno Holterman, Managing Director of Nijhuis, said the projects partners inspected erosion in Hoi An and agreed to carry out another project to address challenges in the area. It aims to improve safety and livelihood for locals, and protect and restore Hoi An coast, while forming new eco-system tourist sites there. Investment for this will be arranged by European and Dutch organisations and businesses and Vietnams T&T group.

Representatives of the two Dutch groups expressed their wish to continue receiving attention and facilitation from the Prime Minister and relevant agencies of Vietnam during the projects implementation.

Welcoming proposals of Dutch organisations and businesses, PM Phuc said the Vietnamese Government hopes for experience sharing and support on human resources and technology from the Dutch partners to solve urgent issues in Vietnam, especially coastal and riverbank erosion and subsidence, climate change response, and help local peoples sustainable socio-economic development.

The PM suggested Dutch and Vietnamese partners coordinate with the Peoples Committee of Quang Nam province to accelerate the study and survey to have an optimal plan.

The two Dutch groups, T&T group and other partners were asked to work with Vietnams Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Quang Nam authorities to reach an implementation plan.He is known as the Champagne Papi. But instead of breaking out the bubbly, Drake surprised his after party guests with McDonalds on Wednesday night.

The Canadian rapper had just finished performing at The Forum in Inglewood, California when a few hundred lucky fans and friends got to join him at Poppy nightclub in West Hollywood.

Spotted grabbing some Dollar Menu delights were EJ Johnson, Pia Mia, YouTuber Jeff Whittek, Jamie Foxx's daughter Corinne and Sean Combs' son Justin.

Yum: Drake surprised his afterparty guests with McDonald's on Wednesday night; here he is seen heading into Poppy nightclub in West Hollywood

Foxy: Jamie Foxx's daughter Corinne held a French fry up to her teeth

But instead of stumbling into a fast food restaurant at the end of the night, Drake brought the fast food to them.

A team of branded and noticeably attractive McDonald's workers marched through the venue, dishing out fries, chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers.

Ravenous guests flocked to the trays, each lit up with golden arches so there could be no mistake which eatery was providing the nosh.

At work: The Canadian rapper had just finished performing at The Forum in Inglewood

Entourage: A few hundred lucky fans and friends got to join him at Poppy nightclub

Handy: instead of stumbling into a fast food restaurant at the end of the night, Drake brought the fast food to them

Yay! A team of branded and noticeably attractive McDonald's workers marched through the venue, dishing out fries, chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers

Fabulous! EJ Johnson, who is Magic Johnson's child, helped himself to some McNuggets

Everyone seemed delighted the Hotline Bling hitmaker had splashed out literally tens of dollars feeding everyone.

Man of the moment Drake rocked up to the venue looking cool as ever in black jeans and a black leather bomber jacket, with a pair of crisp white Nikes.

Framer: Pia Mia and YouTuber Jeff Whittek made sure to get that branding in view

Champagne Papi: Everyone seemed delighted the Hotline Bling hitmaker had splashed out literally tens of dollars feeding everyone

Earlier this week Drake admitted he thought he would one day have the 'perfect' family with ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

The rapper, who has shared an on-again-off-again relationship with the Bajan beauty since 2005, made the revelation on Lebron James ' HBO show titled The Shop.

'As life takes shape and teaches you your own lessons, I end up in this situation where I don't have the fairy tale, like, "Oh, Drake started a family with Rihanna and this is like so perfect," the Canadian hitmaker explained.Heather Graham shared some sad news this week.

The 48-year-old Boogie Nights actress took to Instagram to reveal that her good friend Valesca Harp had died.

This post comes just before the blonde beauty - who stars in the new Netflix documentary Quincy - was seen heading to a yoga class.

Gone to soon: Heather Graham shared some sad news this week. The 48-year-old Boogie Nights actress took to Instagram to reveal that her good friend Valesca Harp had died

Harp, a 39 year old writer, appeared to live in West Hollywood.

No further details of her death have been revealed.

Graham's note read, 'I just heard my friend Valesca Harp died. I'm so sad. You will be missed Val. I love you.'

In the image, Heather and Valesca are side by side as they smile for the camara, both with the exact same color blonde hair.

Working hard: On Wednesday the Drugstore Cowboy actress was seen heading to the yoga studio in her yellow sandals and two purses on her shoulders

On Wednesday the Drugstore Cowboy actress was seen heading to the yoga studio in her yellow sandals and two purses on her shoulders.

She looked slender in a black tank top and leggings as she held on to her yoga mat.

The siren works out nearly daily and the results are often displayed on social media as she models bikinis.

Everyday chic: The 5ft 8in beauty put her hair in a high ponytail and added sunglasses and red lipstick

Trim: She looked slender in a black tank top and leggings as she held on to her yoga mat

The 5ft 8in beauty put her hair in a high ponytail and added sunglasses.

Graham was chatting away on her cell phone as she walked through a parking lot.

Her Quincy show has done well.

It has been described as 'an intimate look into the life of the iconic music producer, trumpeter, songwriter, conductor, composer and music arranger.

'A unique force in music and popular culture for 70 years, Jones has transcended racial and cultural boundaries; his story is inextricably woven into the fabric of America.'

Rashida, 42, and Hicks had the task of sifting through 800 hours of new video they shot and 2,000 hours of archival footage.

And in hindsight, after all the work, the Parks And Recreation alum revealed some surprises she learned about her famous father along the way.

'I think it was just the consistency of pattern that he pushed himself to the limit every decade  to sometimes a health crisis or a nervous breakdown or whatever it was,' she admitted to USA Today. 'And then every single time, he managed to survive, reset, recalibrate and make a decision to live his life in a different way.'

Quincy came to prominence in the 1950s as a jazz arranger and conductor, before moving on to popular music and film scores.

Along the way he won 27 Grammys and produced albums for late musical icons such as Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, and Aretha Franklin.

Quincy debuted on Netflix on September 21, with a limited theatrical run in New York and Los Angeles.Ali Oetjen's alleged cheating past rocked The Bachelorette mansion on Thursday's episode after Nathan Favro was sent packing for daring to address the rumours.

And as Ali delivered Nathan's marching orders, she sensationally blamed her ex-boyfriend Grant Kemp for their split by labelling the US firefighter a 'party animal'.

Her statement will come as a surprise to fans, as Grant previously accused Ali of cheating on him in LA earlier this year - and text messages later surfaced which appeared to show the blonde, 32, desperately apologising for her behaviour.

'There's no way anybody else will hurt me like that': The Bachelorette's Ali Oetjen (pictured) blamed Grant Kemp for their split on Thursday's episode

While dumping Nathan on Thursday, Ali said: 'I have to be selfish, especially after what happened with Grant and I. There's no way anybody else will hurt me like that.

'I need to analyse everybody because I've been so hurt in the past because I've had people just delivering lines to me.

'I've had people saying, "Yeah, I want two kids too," [but] when I go visit them in LA, they're a party animal!'

Hmm! Her statement will come as a surprise to fans, as Grant previously accused Ali of cheating on him in LA earlier this year - and text messages later surfaced which appeared to show the blonde desperately apologising for her behaviour. Pictured on Bachelor in Paradise

See ya later! As Ali delivered Nathan's marching orders on Thursday, she sensationally blamed her ex-boyfriend Grant for their split by labelling the US firefighter a 'party animal'

Speaking to The Kyle and Jackie O Show in May, Grant offered a very different version of what happened in LA, with him implying she was the 'party animal'.

'I had left to go and find my friends. I came back inside [my house] and a man was going down on her on my stairs. So I kicked her out that night,' he said.

Ali did not deny cheating on Grant during Thursday's episode, instead saying: 'I'm very aware that people want to know my side of the story. But I'm doing this [The Bachelorette] to focus on my future and not my past.'

Off you go! Nathan Favro (pictured) was sent home on Thursday's episode after Ali discovered he had expressed concerns to the other contestants about her 'cheating' scandal

Just hours before The Bachelorette premiered last week, text messages surfaced which appeared to confirm reports that Ali cheated on Grant in LA back in March.

In a series of SMS conversations obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Ali seemingly begged for forgiveness and claimed there was 'no excuse' for her alleged infidelity.

At the time of the scandal, she and Grant were in a long-distance relationship after meeting on the first season of Bachelor In Paradise.

'I wasn't even functioning babe!' Just hours before The Bachelorette premiered last week, text messages surfaced which appeared to confirm reports that Ali cheated on Grant in March

'There's no excuses': The text messages highlighted Ali's apparent desperation in the moments after Grant allegedly caught her engaging in a sex act with another man on his staircase

The text messages highlighted Ali's apparent desperation in the moments after Grant allegedly caught her engaging in a sex act with another man on his staircase.

'I can't even walk up those f**king stairs again without thinking of that. So f**k no, not seeing u (sic),' wrote Grant.

Ali then replied: 'I wasn't even functioning babe, there's no excuses! And I understand we're over but we should talk'.

In another screenshot, Ali expressed concern that Grant had made an attempt to contact one of her friends.

'How could you? I'm a good person and you want to ruin me,' she wrote, to which Grant responded, 'Oh f**k off, I walked in on you [receiving oral sex from] my homie in my own house,' before blocking her.

'I'm a good person and you want to ruin me': In another screenshot, Ali expressed concern that Grant had made an attempt to contact one of her friends

Begging for forgiveness: In a series of SMS conversations obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Ali seemingly begged for forgiveness and claimed there was 'no excuse' for her alleged infidelity

Elsewhere in the exchange, Ali wrote: 'Baby, you know this is not my character to do something like this'.

'Doesn't f**king matter you did it, on a Monday,' Grant swiftly replied. Ali then begged him: 'Pls baby, can I take it back pls'.

The text messages also alluded to problems in Grant and Ali's relationship in the weeks leading up to their break-up.

'I was not in my right mind that night, we should have never gone out partying when we were so emotional and disconnected,' she wrote.

'I was not in my right mind': The text messages also alluded to problems in Grant and Ali's relationship in the weeks leading up to their break-up

The screenshots also featured texts in which Ali begged to see Grant again before she left America.

'I'm staying here. Do u never want to see me again? Baby, you know last night was messed up! It's not me! It's not me! Pls baby, I can't go without seeing you', she pleaded.

'I can't believe this has happened. Me and you were meant to be it! Pls give me a second chance?'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Network Ten for comment.

'Can we pls talk': The screenshots also featured texts in which Ali begged to see Grant again before she left America

Not on good terms: In the lead up to The Bachelorette's season premiere, Ali claimed she 'felt sorry' for her former flame and accused him of using her name to stay in the headlines

In the lead up to The Bachelorette's season premiere, Ali claimed she 'felt sorry' for her former flame and accused him of using her name to stay in the headlines.

Speaking to Mamamia earlier this month, she said: 'What Grant is saying about me is just horrible. If you have an ex saying stuff about what you discussed in your relationship  someone that you trusted  and now it's out there, its not very nice.'

Ali added that she had 'definitely' moved on from Grant.

'Its really annoying,' she said. 'I feel like he's just someone who's trying to ride this wave and get his name in the headlines all the time and he's succeeding.'

The Bachelorette airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm on Network TenShe posted a slew of throwback photos in honor of her daughter Ariana Biermann's 17th birthday on Wednesday.

But Kim Zolciak was certain to turn some heads as well, as the reality star looked completely unrecognizable in one of the images she posted of herself as a new mom.

Kim, 40, held her then baby daughter Ariana in her arms, looking worlds apart from her current self with a head full of bold blonde curls.

Unrecognizable: Kim Zolciak looked completely unrecognizable as she posted a throwback photo of herself holding her daughter Ariana in her arms on Wednesday

The future reality star wore a lacy pink top and a face full of makeup as she doted on her daughter.

'Happy Birthday to my angel @arianabiermann 17 on the 17th!!' Kim gushed in the caption. 'I honestly wonder where the time went!? How has it been 17 yrs? I am so incredibly proud of you Ariana.'

'You have gone from sneaking out and sneaking sweets to being too damn honest lol and drinking celery juice! All jokes aside THANK YOU for choosing me to me your mom! I Never knew how we were going to get through our days 17 yrs ago and someone we managed.

'You will always be my strength! Love you far beyond words!!!!!!!!'

Proud mom: Zolciak raved about her teen daughter on Wednesday

Sister act! Brielle made a silly face as she posed with her sister

Aww: Kim posted a slew of sweet throwback photos marking her daughter's special day

Kim posted a slew of sweet throwback photos marking her daughter's special day.

A proud mom of six, Kim welcomed Ariana and her eldest daughter Brielle with then-husband Daniel Toce.

Kim's current husband, Kroy Biermann, ended up adopting her daughters in 2013.

The Don't Be Tardy star and Kroy have sons Kroy, seven, Kash, six, and four-year-old twins Kaia and Kane, together.

Life's a beach! A young Ariana soaked up the sun during a day at the beach

Happy holidays! Ariana wore a Santa hat as she celebrated Christmas

Picture day! Kim's young daughter appeared to be taking her school photoLove Island's Dr. Alex George took to Twitter to throw shade at Georgia Steel and Sam Bird after it was announced they had split.

The medic - who famously failed to find love on the ITV2 show - certainly proved smug as he uploaded a snap of him sipping wine with the caption: 'Watching all the Love Island couples break up on the outside when you left the villa single.'

Further appearing to reference the five couple from this series of Love Island who broke up, he uploaded a further meme which read: 'But that's none of my business.'

Love Island's Dr. Alex George took to Twitter to throw shade at Georgia Steel and Sam Bird after it was announced they had split

Alex was linked to several beauties during his time in the Love Island villa, but sadly they all fizzled out.

And just when it looked like the handsome doctor had found a 'keeper' in contestant Alexandra Cane, he abruptly called things off leaving fans and the make-up artist devastated.

But it seems as though Alex is having the last laugh, as he watched yet another relationship fail which initially formed on the show.

Loving it: The medic - who famously failed to find love on the ITV2 show - certainly proved smug over his single status exiting the villa after Sam and Georgia became the fifth couple to split

'None of my business': Further appearing to reference the five couple from this series of Love Island who broke up, he uploaded a further meme

The latest pair to call it quits are Georgia and Sam, amid claims the stunner was not 'loyal' to her beau.

A source told MailOnline exclusively: Sam found out she had gone to her ex-boyfriend's flat without telling him and he was pretty annoyed.

'He and Georgia had dated up until a few months before she went on Love Island and she still had belongings stored at his place from when they used to live together.

It's over: The latest pair to call it quits are Georgia and Sam, amid claims the stunner was not 'loyal' to her beau

Failing to find love: Alex was linked to several beauties during his time in the Love Island villa, but sadly they all fizzled out

'She hasn't cheated on Sam, there has been no sleeping around and she only went round as a one-off. But it doesn't sit well with him that she didn't tell him.'

Sam, 25, admitted how devastated he is about the split on social media but the source also told MailOnline the writing has been on the wall for a while.

They said: 'In reality, the relationship has been coming to an end for a while. They've been doing PA's at opposite ends of the country and hardly see one another.'

MailOnline has contacted a spokesperson for Sam Bird and Georgia Steel, 20, for comment.

Sam and Georgia are now the fifth couple from this year's series to part ways, attended the ITV Gala just hours before Sam, 25, revealed their break-up on Twitter.

In his initial statement, Sam penned: 'Im devastated to announce me and Georgia have split up for reasons I can't bring myself to comment on at the moment. As always I wish her all the best.'

Shocked fans rushed to offer their support to Sam, with one writing: 'So sorry to hear this I really thought you was going to last for a long time x' while another penned: 'Noooooo!!!! All the best to both of them.'

Love Island 2017 star Chris Hughes added: 'Chip up buddy. More happiness around the corner. Keep smiling and upbeat.'

Split: The fitness trainer, 25, revealed their break-up in a cryptic statement on Twitter on Wednesday evening, shocking fans in the process

Georgia has yet to comment publicly on their split. MailOnline has contacted Sam and Georgia's representatives for further comment.

Their split comes after the break-ups of their co-stars Laura Anderson and Paul Knops, Laura Crane and Jack Fowler, Charlie Brake and Ellie Brown and Samira Mighty and Frankie Foster.

The duo met on Love Island over the summer and had been inseparable since leaving the villa, often attending glitzy events together.

No more: He penned: 'Im devastated to announce me and Georgia have split up for reasons I cant bring myself to comment on at the moment. As always I wish her all the best'

Support: Love Island 2017 star Chris Hughes added: 'Chip up buddy. More happiness around the corner. Keep smiling and upbeat'

They embarked on a whirlwind romance and moved in together in Essex just weeks after returning home from Mallorca.

Last month Georgia gushed that the hunk was her 'best friend' as well as boyfriend, while sharing loved-up snaps of them.

'Thank you for being my partner in crime and always standing by my side. Not just my lover but my best friend too,' she penned.

Parted ways: They embarked on a whirlwind romance and moved in together in Essex just weeks after returning home from Mallorca

Former flames: The duo met on Love Island over the summer and had been inseparable since leaving the villa, often attending glitzy events together (pictured last week)

Their romance was previously rocked when fans accused Sam of being at a 'girl's house' while she was away.

Tweeting a photo of Sam on his phone while sitting on a sofa, a user wrote in August: 'Hey @georgia_steel where was @SamRobertBird on the weekend? Not so LOYAL.'

Georgia replied: 'By the looks of it babe hes ordering a Uber home sweetheart' accompanied by a laughing face emoji.

The fan hit back: 'No s**t Sherlock, thats what most guys do when they leave a girls house.'

Rejected: The pair struck up a romance in the villa after Georgia's love interest, Josh Denzel decided to couple up with newcomer Kaz Crossley (pictured) after they hit it off in Casa Amor

Oh dear: She then sparked public outcry with 'Kiss Gate' after insisting she didn't kiss newcomer Jack Fowler on the lips first - despite the footage showing otherwise

Sam then waded in to explain himself, writing: 'With my friends at a house I was in for 10 minutes so I could charge my phone and get an Uber home (as seen in your picture). Youre embarrassing yourself mate.'

The pair struck up a romance in the villa after Georgia's love interest, Josh Denzel decided to couple up with newcomer Kaz Crossley after they hit it off in Casa Amor.

Georgia caused friction in the villa when she picked then newcomer Jack Fowler, who was coupled up with Laura Anderson, to go on a date with her, and then caused chaos when she kissed him at the end of the date.

Scandal: Kissgate worsened when host Caroline Flack oversaw a VAR breakdown of the kiss on After Sun, only for viewers to point out continuity errors in the playback of the kiss from different angles

Tension: Things took more of a turn when Georgia and Sam decided to split up in order to remain on Love Island - leaving their fellow contestants baffled

The plot thickened when Georgia and new Jack ended up offering different accounts of what actually went down, with Georgia saying the kiss was mutual but Jack saying it was unintentional.

Kissgate worsened when host Caroline Flack oversaw a VAR breakdown of the kiss on After Sun, only for viewers to point out continuity errors in the playback of the kiss from different angles.

Trying to set the record straight, Georgia has now admitted the kiss was filmed more than once.

Oh dear: Their romance was preciously rocked when fans accused Sam of being at a 'girl's house' while she was awayMariah Carey made little dumplings with her little dumplings on Wednesday night.

The songstress took some time out of her busy Asian tour to prepare dessert with twins Moroccan and Monroe.

Sharing the cute videos with her 7.3million followers, the diva and her adorable duo showed off some deft culinary skills as they got private instruction in her hotel suite.

One sweet dessert: Mariah Carey made little dumplings with her little dumplings on Wednesday night

'Making dumplings in Taipei! See you at the show tomorrow! #MCLiveInAsia,' the diva wrote.

The 49-year-old stunner looked her usual flawless self, wearing a plunging tight black top and her hair pulled back in a pony.

Her seven-year-olds couldn't have looked any cuter, decked out in matching yellow aprons and chefs hats.

In the video, Mariah still seemed a bit confused at to what she was creating.

Cuties: Her seven-year-olds couldn't have looked any cuter, decked out in matching yellow aprons and chefs hats

Hot: The 49-year-old stunner looked her usual flawless self, wearing a plunging tight black top and her hair pulled back in a pony

'We are making.... I believe they're dumplings, what are they? Cabbage desserts. It's very intricate work here,' she puzzled, as the kids engaged in some playful bickering.

Despite her confusion, the the results were pretty impressive, as she unveiled the cooked results in a follow up clip.

'And this is the reveal of what we made tonight: the dessert dumplings baby! I did the best I could...' she said while the kids gasped in delight at their own handiwork.

My all: 'We are making.... I believe they're dumplings, what are they? Cabbage desserts. It's very intricate work here,' she puzzled, as the kids engaged in some playful bickering

Not bad: Despite her confusion, the the results were pretty impressive, as she unveiled the cooked results in a follow up clip

Yum: 'And this is the reveal of what we made tonight: the dessert dumplings baby! I did the best I could...' she said while the kids gasped in delight at their own handiwork

After performing in Taiwan, it was straight onto Malaysia, where the Heartbreaker was blown away by the dedication of her Lambs.

Reclining on her bad at the next hotel, Mariah showed off some very special merch.

'Sitting here looking at the beautiful book and shirt the Malaysian lambily gave me,' she wrote. 'Thank you for a great opening night, I enjoyed ya!'

The mom-of-two has also been using her social media to tease the release of her 16th studio album, Caution, which goes on sale November.

Love my shirt! After performing in Taiwan, it was straight onto Malaysia, where the Heartbreaker was blown away by the dedication of her LambsTeen Mom star Jenelle Evans was hospitalized last weekend.

The North Carolina native/reality persona, 26, was taken to medical facilities on Saturday, October 13 after police were called to her home.

Authorities visit was in response to a 911 call placed at the Columbus County, North Carolina residence she shares with husband Dave Eason.

Medical attention: Jenelle Evans (above August 27) was hospitalized after a 911 call brought authorities to her North Carolina home last week

The original call came from a female around 10 p.m. and was calling in 'an assault' according to the Colombus County Chief Of 911 Operations.

After that 'an ambulance was called an then cancelled' the unnamed 'female was transported to the hospital via private vehicle instead,' authorities disclosed.

A representative for the authorities said that no official incident report was taken.

Evan's camps told People how Jenelle was injured when she 'had friends over Saturday night and they had a bonfire on her property.'

'Jenelle ended up tripping and falling by the fire,' they explained.

911: The original call came from a female around 10am and was calling in 'an assault' according to local police chief. Jenelle is seen on Instagram above with son Kaiser

She was not filming according to insiders.

Jenelle is currently recovering from an operation on her nose, done to repair a deviated septum.

The MTV figure took to Instagram to update fans about her 'rough recovery' on Saturday, sharing a photo with hubby David at her side.

Jenelle and husband Eason have been married since 2017 and have a daughter together.

He also has two older children from previous relationships and is step-parent to Jenelle's two older sons.

Nose job: Jenelle Evans shared post op pics of her 'rough recovery' following nose surgery for deviated septum

Smell ya later: In the snaps, the 26-year-old is wrapped in a blanket, wearing sunglasses and sipping from a straw, while her nose is buried under think bandages

In August Evans was been 'cleared of criminal wrongdoing' in a child abuse investigation instigated by ex-fiance Nathan Griffith, with whom she shares four-year-old son Kaiser.

Back in July, Griffith called 911 to accuse the 26-year-old reality star's husband, David Easton, of abusing Kaiser and leaving him with painful bruises.

According to TMZ, the Department Of Social Services found no signs of abuse during their visit to Evans' home last month.

'I received my child and he has marks all over him,' Nathan told Columbus County Emergency Services at the time.

'We asked [Kaiser] about it and he said David hit him with a stick'

Blended family: Jenelle and husband Evans have been married since 2017 and have a daughter together. He also has two older children from previous relationships and is step-parent to Jenelle's two older sons

Jenelle denied the abuse accusations on Twitter. 'Just believe everything is okay,' she told a fan who questioned Kaiser's safety. 'Everyone close to Kaiser in his life knows the truth. Not his dad, he's in FL 24/7'

Jenelle denied the abuse accusations on Twitter.

'Just believe everything is okay,' she told a fan who questioned Kaiser's safety. 'Everyone close to Kaiser in his life knows the truth. Not his dad, he's in FL 24/7.'

Jenelle and Nathan are currently in the midst of a custody battle over Kaiser.

Griffith was also troubled by a July incident involving Evans pulling a gun during a fit of road rage, all as her other son Jace sat in the car's passenger seat.

Jace's father is Evan's ex Andrew Lewis.

Jenelle defended her actions during Teen Mom's end of season reunion episode in late August.

Quick temper: Jenelle found herself in the middle of controversy after she was captured on camera pulling out a gun during a fit of road rage in late July, pictured above

'Ever since then I've been having PTSD, I've been having nightmares. When the incident first happened, I didn't leave my house for two weeks,' the North Carolina native lamented to Dr. Drew Pinsky.

'All I thought about is he almost hurt my son, he almost knocked my son out and that's what pissed me off. We went to his therapist after and we've talked about it. It just makes me so mad.'

'I was really desperate at the time. I don't want to get arrested for something stupid,' Evans explained of the July 23 episode.

Evan's husband Dave was fired from MTV earlier this year, after posting homophobic and transphobic messages to his Facebook.

In the now deleted posts, he wrote about how he would not going to let his children associate with LGBTQ people or 'be that way.'

MTV responded to public outcry saying: 'David Eason's personal comments do not reflect the views of MTV. With six weeks left of production on Teen Mom 2, effective immediately, we are ending our relationship with him.'

Stars gathered to talk about female empowerment during the second day of Marie Claire's Power Trip event in San Francisco.

Among the talented women there were Jennifer Garner, Ellen Pompeo, and Sharon Stone.

During the event Garner, 46, talked about why she doesn't want to play the 'nice girl' anymore.

Easy-going gal: Jennifer Garner was simple and stylish during her appearance at Marie Claire's Power Trip event in San Francisco on Thursday

The Texas native was stylishly simple in a grey sweater and well-fitted denim at the magazine-hosted event.

She went with natural makeup and tucked her light brown locks behind her ears.

Meanwhile, Grey's Anatomy favorite Ellen Pompeo put on a stunning display in a powder blue suit.

She amped up the glamour with subtle waves in her hair and gold earrings framing her face.

She's got the blues! Grey's Anatomy favorite Ellen Pompeo put on a stunning display in a powder blue suit

Casual cute: Sharon Stone, 60, matched Jen's casual attire in a slouchy grey turtle neck and light-washed jeans

Talking back: Each woman got a chance to share their stories with the exclusive crowd of the Marie Claire conference

Sharon Stone, 60, matched Jen's casual attire in a slouchy grey turtle neck and light-washed jeans.

The Basic Instinct beauty swept her short tresses back, adding crystal drop earrings for a bit of glitz.

A touch of glossy berry lipstick tied everything together.

Each woman got a chance to share their stories with the exclusive crowd of the Marie Claire conference.

New roles: Garner took the stage to talk about running a business and how she's no longer playing 'the nice girl'

Good edits: Jennifer had a blast with Marie Claire's Editor-in-Chief Anne Fulenwider at Power Trip

Garner took the stage to talk about running a business and how she's no longer playing 'the nice girl' with Marie Claire's Editor-in-Chief Anne Fulenwider at Power Trip.

The ex of Ben Affleck questioned why people were so uncomfortable with her 'unlikable' character Katherine in the new HBO show Camping.

'Its a little bit sexist that you only want me to be the nice girl. I can be the b****, too,' she explained about her versatility.

'I was drawn to what a jerk Katherine is, everyones pain comes from somewhere and sometimes you have to look a little deeper to find where that pain comes from.'

All the cool kids: Jennifer posed for a picture with the VIP crowd in San Francisco

New buddies: Jennifer posed with Marie Claire's Anne Fulenwider after their talk

Storytelling: She also opened up about her inspiration for her business Once Upon A Farm

She also opened up about her inspiration for her business Once Upon A Farm.

'As I was going through the process [of starting the business], I kept feeling like, "Who is helping the kids like the kids I grew up with, like the ones in West Virginia, whos helping the kids like my mom who grew up poor in Oklahoma, whos helping rural America?"

'...And it crystallized for me over time and over having all of these meetings that I ultimately didnt sign onto, and it made me realize that Ive got to go with what I can speak about truly from the heart, which is poor rural America.'

Subject hopping: Ellen used her opportunity with an audience to talk about a number of things

Loud and clear: She appeared with moderator Kit Hoover of Access Hollywood, to Ellen's left

Raising boys: Speaking about raising sons to be in touch with their emotions, she said 'We need to teach our boys and raise our young sons to show emotions'

Ellen used her opportunity with an audience to talk about a number of things with moderator Kit Hoover of Access Hollywood.

Speaking about raising sons to be in touch with their emotions, she said: 'We raise our sons to be tough, to not cry, and not show emotion and what that does to men is creates fragile egos and then we have to spend the rest of our lives taking care of these fragile egos we created...

'We need to teach our boys and raise our young sons to show emotions.'

In conversation: Kit and Ellen posed together after their chat

Leading ladies: Ellen also shared a shot with Marie Claire EIC Anne Fulenwider, far right

Sharon Stone also spoke about raising sons in a post-#MeToo era.

She told audiences how she's ultra frank with her boys, saying: 'I talk to them about all of it. In fact, I told them Ive been molested, I tell them everything.

'They want to hear and want to know and want to understand, and I explain to them what boundaries are and that no means f**king no.'

Her two cents: Sharon Stone also spoke about raising sons in a post-#MeToo era

Between the pages: Sharon's chat was with Nancy Berger of the magazineJada Pinkett Smith and Leah Remini have ended their feud.

The Girls Trip actress has bonded with the 48-year-old star after realizing they were both 'broken little girls' and they have been able to put their 2017 clash - which saw Jada deny Leah's claim she is a member of the Church of Scientology - behind them.

'What was really emotional about it was realising that there was two broken little girls in us that were abandoned by their fathers and turned into fighters who clashed,' said the wife of Will Smith.

Made up: Jada Pinkett Smith (L) has revealed she settled feud with Leah Remini after their Scientology fallout last year

And Jada has learned a lot from Leah - who left the church after 35 years in 2013 and has been an outspoken critic of the religion ever since - after sitting down with her to learn her story.

She told People magazine: 'You have to treat people with kindness because you don't know what they're going through.

'When she told me her story, I had so much more compassion and it reiterated the necessity to just be gentle and kind because we're all f***ing devastated.'

The 47-year-old actress is grateful that the Old School actress was the bigger person and 'reached out' to resolve their differences.

Ironing out: Jada invited Leah onto her Facebook Watch series Red Table Talks after the former Scientologist reached out to her

She said: 'It was really beautiful and she reached out to me. She was much more bigger than me in that way. It was nice to reconnect and release ourselves from all that nonsense that doesn't matter.'

Jada rubbished claims she was a Scientologist on Twitter last September after Leah alleged she had seen her at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles on many occasions.

Jada - who has 20-year-old son Jaden and 17-year-old daughter Willow with husband Will Smith - insists that just because she has visited the Scientology Celebrity Centre doesn't make her a follower of the quasi religion, just as her trips to various mosques, temples and Christian churches around the world do not make her a follower of any of the religions associated with those places of worship.

In a series of tweets, she posted: 'I recently lit Shabbat candles with Rabbi Bentley at Temple Sinai... but I am not Jewish.

'I have prayed in mosques all over the world ... but I am not a Muslim.

Pals: Remini previously said she never saw Will Smith at the Hollywood Scientology Centre, but wife Pinkett-Smith was a regular. Both Smiths (seen here with Tom Cruise in 2007) denied being members

Firing back:After Leah said Jada was a Scientologist last year, Jada fired back via Twitter

Sampler: In a series of tweets, Jada claimed she had practiced aspects of many religions, with was not a member of any

'I have read the Bhagavad Gita ... but I am not a Hindu. I have chanted and meditated in some of the most magnificent temples on earth ... but I am not a Buddhist. I have studied Dianetics, and appreciate the merits of Study Tech ... but I am not a Scientologist. I practice human kindness, and I believe that we each have the right to determine what we are and what we are not ... NO ONE ELSE can hold that power. (sic)'

Scientology is a body of beliefs and practices created in 1954 by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

Bizarrely, Hubbard claimed that billions of extra-terrestrial beings were sent to Earth by Xenu - the dictator of the 'Galactic Confederacy', comprised of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth - who gathered them around volcanoes and then destroyed the aliens with hydrogen bombs.

The aliens' souls attached themselves to chosen humans, known as thetans, who will be one day be saved from their life of spiritual harm.Reese Witherspoon turned out on Wednesday night to show support for her friend Jennifer Meyer as she opened her jewelry boutique in Los Angeles.

The 42-year-old posed up a storm in a chic black cocktail dress.

And proving what's old is new again, the Wild star wore the same platform heels she used to parade around in during the late Nineties.

Side by side: Reese Witherspoon (right) posed up a storm in a chic black cocktail dress at a party for the opening of Jennifer Meyer's (left) jewelry boutique in Los Angeles Wednesday

Reese, an Academy Award-winning film star, let her signature blonde hair tumble freely around her turquoise earrings.

The Legally Blonde leading lady accentuated her winning features with makeup.

That same day Reese uploaded a snapshot of herself modeling a Draper James hoodie that read: 'SISTER HOOD.'

She looks fabulous: Reese, an Academy Award-winning film star, let her signature blonde hair tumble freely around her turquoise earrings

Height of fashion: The Legally Blonde leading lady accentuated her winning features with makeup and lent herself some extra stature with platform heels

'Listen up, Sisters !! Im not lucky enough to have a biological sister so my girlfriends & my female co-workers have become my sisters,' she wrote in the caption.

'I would not be where I am today without their text messages, endless phone calls, long walks, emergency girls trips and lots of drinking wine on Friday nights,' she added.

'So heres to #sisterhood and women supporting each other in this crazy world ! @draperjames.'

'Listen up, Sisters': That same day Reese uploaded a snapshot of herself modeling a Draper James hoodie that read: 'SISTER HOOD'

Also at the event wasGwyneth Paltrow, 46, who was stylish as always in a soft black sweater and calf-length black leather skirt while Demi Moore, 55, looked lovely in a long-sleeved black jersey dress with a v-neckline.

Paltrow, who just married TV producer Brad Falchuk, left her signature blonde hair loose and stepped out in a pair of black heels.

Moore paired her frock with black nylons and leopard print heels and carried a small purse.

The ageless actress wowed in a stylish black dress with a v-neckline and long sleeves along with a sapphire and diamond heart pendant.

Stylish stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, left, and Demi Moore, right, also attended the launch party for the opening of Meyer's jewelry boutique

Perfect: Paltrow, 46, who just married TV producer Brad Falchuk, was stylish as always in a soft black sweater and calf-length black leather skirt (pictured with Monique Lhuillier)

Radiant: She complemented her features with a pink-toned make-up palette and soft curls

Beaming: The blonde appeared in high spirits as she shared a hug with the woman-of-the-hour Jennifer Meyers

Flower power: Gywneth joined Molly Sims, 45, showed off her cleavage in a low-cut floral-themed orange frock that she paired with dark red sandal heels

In good company: The mother-of-two chatted up a storm with Monique, Ted Sarandos and Nicole Avant

She kept her makeup light and accessorized with a blue and silver heart pendant and hoop earrings.

Meyer, 41, is the ex-wife of actor Tobey Maguire and the daughter of NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer.

She has been able to call on her celebrity pals to help promote her jewelry designs, starting her line in 2004.

Meyer was in black, too, wearing a strapless mini dress and black sandal heels.

Ageless: Moore, 55, looked lovely in a long-sleeved black jersey dress with a v-neckline

Taking a walk on the wild side: The screen star paired her frock with black nylons and leopard print heels and carried a small purse

So much choice: Demi sported her reading glasses for a closer look at the jewellery

Support: Jennifer was joined by ex-husband Tobey Maguire, left, and dad Ron Meyer, vice chairman of NBCUniversal

Showbiz pals: Kris Jenner and James Corden looked like the best of pals as they caught up at the boutique opening party

Cosy: James, Ron and Gwyneth appeared happy to support Jennifer's boutique opening

Color was brought to the occasion by guests Leslie Mann, Rachel Bilson and Molly Sims.

Mann, 46, who was accompanied by husband Judd Apatow, stood out in a shiny red dress belted at the waist.

The outfit had long sleeves and a tiered hem and she paired it with black ankle boots.

In love: Katharine McPhee, 34, and fiance David Foster, 68, cosied up at the starry launch

Rachel Bilson, 37, opted for a rainbow-colored full-length dress that had a black belt and she added a black leather jacket.

Sims, 45, showed off her cleavage in a low-cut floral-themed orange frock that she paired with dark red sandal heels.

Sara Foster, 37, was all business in a gray jacket belted over a black turtleneck and faded blue skinny jeans and black heels.

Two of a kind: Rachel Bilson and Rachel Zoe were in great spirits at the glitzy event

Her father, music producer David Foster, 68, also attended the party accompanied by his fiancee Katharine McPhee, 34.

McPhee wore a silky black camisole top and a long red and black patterned skirt and dark red heeled boots.

Kris Jenner, 62, wore a black top coat over a black top and trousers and carried a black purse on a silver chain.

Date night: Leslie Mann, 46, who was accompanied by husband Judd Apatow, stood out in a shiny red dress

Meanwhile, Gwyneth has gushed over her wedding and marriage to new-husband Brad and the importance of sexual health in a new interview with Glamour.

The actress and health guru, who wed her second husband in a secret ceremony last month, is the publication's first ever digital cover star and in the accompanying interview gave a rare candid insight into marital bliss.

While chatting about her lifestyle brand Goop, Gwyneth, who shares children Apple, 14, and Moses, 12, with her ex-husband Chris Martin, admitted to paying emphasis to women's sexual health in her brand.Advertisement

She is no stranger when it comes to pulling out all the stops on the red carpet.

And Emma Stone dazzled as she stepped out for The Favourite premiere, at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival on Thursday night, where she joined a slew of stars including Rachel Weisz and Joe Alwyn.

The actress, 29, looked simply stunning as she slipped into a metallic silver frock while making sure to give her best take at Old Hollywood glamour for the star-studded American Express gala screening.

Stunning: Emma Stone dazzled as she stepped out for The Favourite premiere, at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival on Thursday night

Emma ensured all eyes were on her in the elegant yet chic design that sheathed her slender frame and nipped in at the waist.

Boasting long sleeves and a scooped neckline, Emma let her classic gown take centre stage and favoured a glamorous beauty look.

The starlet modeled an immaculate make-up look that came complete with a silver hue around her eyes, to match her frock, and a dramatic deep burgundy lip.

The actress's red locks were styled by celebrity hair guru Mara Roszak, who used Joico products in order to create a chic and sophisticated style that saw Emma's tresses swept over to one side in a soft wave, allowing her to show off her striking diamond earrings.

Beauty: She joined a slew of stars for the red carpet affair including Rachel Weisz (R) and Joe Alwyn

Classic: The actress, 29, looked simply stunning as she slipped into a metallic silver frock while making sure to give her best take at Old Hollywood glamour

Pretty: Emma ensured all eyes were on her in the elegant yet chic design that sheathed her slender frame and nipped in at the waist

Chic: Boasting long sleeves and a scooped neckline, Emma let her classic gown take centre stage and favoured a glamorous beauty look

Turning heads: She styled her red locks over to one side in a soft wave, tucking one side of her mane behind her ear to reveal her striking diamond earrings

All eyes on her: The starlet opted for an immaculate make-up look that came complete with a silver hue around her eyes, to match her frock, and a dramatic deep burgundy lip

Leggy: Emma's gown featured a split to flash a hint of leg as she walked past

Mara, who was responsible for Emma's latest chop, revealed that she worked to create an incredibly smooth and sleek look by starting out with the Joico Color Therapy Restorative Styling Oil on damp hair before styling the locks into the glamorous S waves.





In order to perfect the look and ensure it gleamed on the red carpet, Mara revealed that she added a spray of the Joico Rose Gold Temporary Shimmer Spray, which she brushed through Emma's locks to add a little something special to the final style.



'For rogue hair strands within the hair style  you take the point tip of a rat tail comb and dip this into JoiGel Firm and gently use as spotting for loose hairs from the hair line and within the style,' she added, before concluding: 'This will really hold how the hair and keep a great finished look.'





Emma's appearance at the premiere came after he recently gave a talk on mental health in New York.





The beauty has previously discussed her battle with anxiety and told Rolling Stone in a previous interview: 'When I was about seven, I was convinced the house was burning down. I could sense it.

'Not a hallucination, just a tightening in my chest, feeling I couldn't breathe, like the world was going to end.'

Emma explained: 'There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant. I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out.

Details: Emma sported a beautiful silver headband on her head

Centre stage: The starlet had all eyes on her as she spoke about her upcoming role in The Favourite

Sultry: Her dress featured a backless design to give it an extra touch of glamour

Candid: Emma's appearance at the premiere came after he recently gave a talk on mental health in New York

Honest: The beauty has previously discussed her battle with anxiety and told Rolling Stone in a previous interview: 'When I was about seven, I was convinced the house was burning down... feeling I couldn't breathe, like the world was going to end'

Opening up: Emma explained: 'There were some flare-ups like that, but my anxiety was constant. I would ask my mom a hundred times how the day was gonna lay out'

Stellar cast: She was seen rubbing shoulders with her co-stars Olivia Colman (L) and Rachel Weisz (centre)

'At a certain point, I couldn't go to friends' houses anymore. I could barely get out the door to school.'

The Oscar-winning star, who's career began on a pilot for a VH1 reality show, In Search of the New Partridge Family, credited therapy and performing to helping her get better.

'[Therapy] helped so much. I wrote this book called, I Am Bigger Than My Anxiety, that I still have.'

'I drew a little green monster on my shoulder that speaks to me in my ear and tells me all these things that aren't true. And every time I listen to it, it grows bigger.

'If I listen to it enough, it crushes me. But if I turn my head and keep doing what I'm doing; let it speak to me, but don't give it the credit it needs; then it shrinks down and fades away.'

Gorgeous: Emma was joined by her Rachel Weisz, 48, who looked sensational as she paraded her post-baby frame in a plunging sequinned dress

Splendid: Rachel looked simply stunning for the red carpet affair and, still on cloud nine from her baby joy no doubt, she couldn't have looked happier as she beamed for photographers on her arrival

Stylish: Her dress perfectly highlighted her svelte physique, as it nipped in at the waist and skimmed over her figure before billowing out in a fishtail-inspired skirt around her legs

Perfection: She completed her Hollywood look with rosy make-up that accentuated her natural features and finished with a nude pink lip

Emma revealed that performing has also helped with her healing process.

'I started acting at this youth theater, doing improv and sketch comedy. You have to be present in improv, and that's the antithesis of anxiety,' she said.

Meanwhile, Emma was joined by her The Favourite co-star Rachel Weisz, 48, who looked sensational as she paraded her post-baby frame in a plunging sequinned dress.

Rachel looked simply stunning for the red carpet affair and, still on cloud nine from her baby joy no doubt, she couldn't have looked happier as she beamed for photographers on her arrival.

Teasing: Complete with statement sleeves, the gown's plunging neckline made for a sultry display as it teased a look at Rachel's black lingerie underneath

Elegant: Adding a boost to her ensemble, Rachel sported an elegant pair of barley-there heels and chose to wear her brunette locks swept back into a chic up-do, leaving the front sections of her mane down to frame her face

Her dress perfectly highlighted her svelte physique, as it nipped in at the waist and skimmed over her figure before billowing out in a fishtail-inspired skirt around her legs.

Complete with statement sleeves, the gown's plunging neckline made for a sultry display as it teased a look at Rachel's black lingerie underneath.

Adding a boost to her ensemble, Rachel sported an elegant pair of barley-there heels and chose to wear her brunette locks swept back into a chic up-do, leaving the front sections of her mane down to frame her face.

Baby joy: Rachel's appearance at the premiere comes just one month after she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, whom she shares with husband Daniel

Motherhood: Rachel appeared to tear herself away from her newborn as she attended the BFI London Film Festival

Ecstatic: Rachel and husband Daniel Craig told friends they were 'very happy' to welcome their daughter into the world last month

Radiant: Olivia Colman showed off her pretty features with a radiant palette of make-up

Leading lights: The three lead actresses looked delighted to be reunited at the glittering premiere

Regal: Olivia looked sensational in a glittering silver gown at the premiere

Delighted! The actress first shared her baby news in an interview that month with the New York Times, telling the publication: 'Daniel and I are so happy'

Fan favourite: Rachel stopped to sign autographs for those waiting in the crowd

She completed her Hollywood look with rosy make-up that accentuated her natural features and finished with a nude pink lip.

Rachel's appearance at the premiere comes just one month after she gave birth to her first child, a daughter, whom she shares with husband Daniel.

The couple, who tied the knot in 2011, told friends they were 'very happy' to welcome their daughter into the world last month.

Thrilled! Olivia meanwhile, looked ecstatic to be at the premiere of The Favourite - scheduled for release in 2019

Ready for her close up: Broadchurch star Olivia cut a beautiful figure for the film's premiere in the capital

Flawless: Olivia wore her brunette pixie cut swept over to one side and finished her red carpet getup with a smokey-eye and red lip

The actress first shared her baby news in an interview that month with the New York Times, telling the publication: 'Daniel and I are so happy.'

She added: 'Were going to have a little human. We cant wait to meet him or her. Its all such a mystery.'

She later talked about raising her newborn in the UK, with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show. The private duo had been laying low in New York as they prepared for the birth of their child and last walked a red carpet together in April.

Stealing the spotlight: Her understated number looked just lovely on the actress and she teamed her dress with a pair of lace-up court heels

High praise: The movie talent was beaming from ear-to-ear as she posed alongside her co-stars at the star-studded event - no doubt still on a high after scooping the coveted Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival in September

Close bond: The trio held hands as they eagerly promoted the film

Chic: The leading ladies joined film writer Yorgos Lanthimos on the red carpet

Cloud nine: She won the prize for her portrayal of a frail and volatile Queen within The Favourite. She beat the likes of Lady Gaga who has also commanded attention for her role as Ally in A Star Is Born

One to watch: Suggesting that The Favourite is one to watch, the movie scooped the Grand Jury Prize - thought to be the second highest film category at Venice Film Festival

'Is the child going to be raised American or English,' Colbert asked the NYC resident, causing Rachel to quip: 'I suppose it will have to be bilingual!'

Daniel and Rachel kept details of the pregnancy a closely guarded secret, not publicly revealing the due date or the gender of the baby.

Rachel shares son Henry, 12, with former fiance, director Darren Aronofsky, while Daniel, 50, has a daughter Ella, 26, with ex-wife Fiona Loudon.

Back in time: The Favourite tells the story of a frail Queen (played by Colman) who enlists the help of her close friend Lady Sarah (Weisz) to govern in her stead

Bitter rivalry: Sarah then finds herself taken by a new servant (Stone), who is then forced to fill in for the Queen's companion, and subsequently befriends the monarch, as the politics of war take its toll on Lady Sarah and a bitter rivalry is formed

Highly anticipated: The drama is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and has been adapted from an original screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara

Stunning trio: Rachel, Olivia and Emma appeared to showcase their bond as they posed on the red carpet alongside each other

A-list cast: The trio of esteemed actresses seemed to be in great spirits as they came together

Smile! Rachel, Olivia and Emma had all eyes on them as they made their way into the screening

They began dating in 2010 and married in June 2011 in a private New York ceremony with just four guests - their children and two family friends.

Rachel stars in The Favourite alongside a stellar cast including Olivia Colman, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn and Emma Stone.

It tells the story of a frail Queen (played by Colman) who enlists the help of her close friend Lady Sarah (Weisz) to govern in her stead. Sarah then finds herself taken by a new servant (Stone), who is then forced to fill in for the Queen's companion, and subsequently befriends the monarch, as the politics of war take its toll on Lady Sarah and a bitter rivalry is formed.

Stand-out star: Olivia is set to play another queen, Queen Elizabeth, in the third series of Netflix hit The Crown

Getting into character: Olivia pictured above as frail Queen Anne in the favourite

All eyes on them: The actresses looked delighted to be rubbing shoulders with the film's director Yorgos Lanthimos

Leading ladies: Emma, Rachel and Olivia were a sight to behold in their statement gowns on the red carpet

The drama is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and has been adapted from an original screenplay by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara. It's scheduled for release in January 2019.

Broadchurch star Olivia cut a beautiful figure for the film's premiere in the capital, as she, like Emma, favoured a silver gown for the evening.

The understated number looked just lovely on the actress and she teamed her dress with a pair of lace-up court heels.

Also in attendance had been Joe Alwyn. The British actor, 27, plays Samuel Masham - a courtier in the court of Queen Anne.

The star looked nothing short of dapper as he arrived on the red carpet, sporting a cobalt blue, two-piece suit that he paired with a black turtle-neck underneath.

Posing on his arrival, Joe proved his modelling credentials as he smouldered for the cameras. He has previously teased at an onscreen romance for himself and Emma in new film The Favourite, revealing his character falls 'head over heel' for her character Abigail.

Dapper: Also in attendance had been Joe Alwyn - the British actor, 27, plays Samuel Masham - a courtier in the court of Queen Anne

Suave: The star looked nothing short of dapper as he arrived on the red carpet, sporting a cobalt blue, two-piece suit that he paired with a black turtle-neck underneath

Love affair: He has previously teased at an onscreen romance for himself and Emma in new film The Favourite, revealing his character falls 'head over heel' for her character Abigail

Romance: He told The Playlist: 'He spots Emmas character pretty early on and falls head over heels for her. And throughout the film we have this cat and mouse game between the two of them where he is wanting to catch her and she similarly wants to use him to climb rank'

Taken: Alwyn is currently dating pop sensation Taylor Swift, with the duo known for keeping their romance notoriously private

Olivia - who is set to take on the role of Queen Elizabeth in the third series of Netflix hit The Crown - wore her brunette pixie cut swept over to one side and finished her red carpet getup with a smokey-eye and red lip.

The movie talent was beaming from ear-to-ear as she posed alongside her co-stars at the star-studded event - no doubt still on a high after scooping the coveted Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival in September.

She won the prize for her portrayal of a frail and volatile Queen within The Favourite. She beat the likes of Lady Gaga who has also commanded attention for her role as Ally in A Star Is Born.

Suggesting that The Favourite is one to watch, the movie scooped the Grand Jury Prize - thought to be the second highest film category at Venice Film Festival.

Smart: Actor Mark Gatiss favoured a grey three-piece suit and red tie for the evening

Starring role: He plays John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in the movie

Coming together: The cast made for an elegant display as they posed alongside each other ahead of the screening getting underway

Care to share? Olivia and Rachel were seen putting on an animated display in front of photographers

Give us a wave! Olivia was seen saying hello to her fellow cast members as they reunited on the red carpet

Puckering up: Emma was seen kissing her co-star Gatiss on the cheek

Animated display: She seemed deep in conversation as the duo spoke

He told The Playlist: 'He spots Emmas character pretty early on and falls head over heels for her. And throughout the film we have this cat and mouse game between the two of them where he is wanting to catch her and she similarly wants to use him to climb rank.'

Alwyn is currently dating pop sensation Taylor Swift, with the duo known for keeping their romance notoriously private.

Speaking about their relationship, Alwyn told British Vogue in a new interview for the magazine's October issue: 'I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people... but I really prefer to talk about work.'

Having his say: Director Yorgos Lanthimos spoke about why he chose to make The Favourite while attending the premiere and claimed: 'Well we certainly werent trying to tick boxes'

A great story: Lanthimos added: 'It was just a story that existed, a real story, and when I got to learn [about it] I was very intrigued to see what I could make of it'

'It's natural': Speaking about what it was like to make the period drama that stars Stone (above), Lanthimos said: 'The reason that someone like me is making a period film is also to try out my way of making films and how it fits within a period film'

Others in attendance at the premiere included movie director Yorgos Lanthimos, costume designer Sandy Powell and radio presenter Edith Bowman.

Lanthimos spoke about why he chose to make The Favourite while attending the premiere and claimed: 'Well we certainly werent trying to tick boxes. It was just a story that existed, a real story, and when I got to learn [about it] I was very intrigued to see what I could make of it.

'Apart from anything else, to do a story about these three powerful women at that time to show their personality and how their relationships, and how their decisions affected so many people. It was an interesting theme to explore and it was very relatable to our times today.'

Gothic glamour: Emma sported a dark berry glossy lip for the glitzy occasion

Interesting: He added that the show's theme is 'relatable', saying: 'To do a story about these three powerful women at that time to show their personality and how their relationships, and how their decisions affected so many people - it was very relatable to our times today'

After party: Emma later changed into a cream-colored suit for the after party for The Favourite

Fan favorite: The Oscar-winning actress shined at the event held as part of the 62nd BFI London Film Festival

Discussing what it was like to make a period film, he added: 'I think its just natural to do that and the reason that someone like me is making a period film is also to try out my way of making films and how it fits within a period film.

'So, I think we just tried to add many elements which would give a modern texture to the film through various ways, from music, to language, to the physicality, or the story itself.'

However, he did admit that making a period drama can bring some challenges. Lanthimos said: 'I think making a period film is quite difficult especially when youre on a relatively limited budget so theres a lot of logistics that you have to take care of and you cant only focus on the performances and how you film the scenes, so that was quite difficult.'

Challenging: Lanthimos did add that making the period film (that also stars James Smith above) came with challenges: 'It's quite difficult especially when youre on a relatively limited budget so theres a lot of logistics that you have to take care of and you cant only focus on the performances and how you film the scenes'

Glamorous: Costume designer Sandy Powell was in attendance for the film premiere

Pretty as a picture: As was radio presenter Edith Bowman who favoured a stunning floral frock

Beaut: The star wore her blonde locks pinned back from her face and favoured a minimal make-up lookAfter three years online, Lena Dunham's website Lenny Letter is coming to an end.

The feminist website with past contributors including Jennifer Lawrence and Alicia Keys will be ceasing operations this Friday, according to The New York Post.

Lenny Letter staffers were notified last week of the closure, Digiday reported, citing an email it had reviewed.

Shutting down: After three years online, Lena Dunham's website Lenny Letter is coming to an end

Editors at the site reportedly told freelance writers this week they would be receiving 'kill fees' - compensation for articles that have not yet been published, according to The Post.

Described as 'Feminism, style, health, politics, friendship, and everything else  unfiltered', Lenny Letter was launched in 2015 by Lena and her longtime collaborator, Jenni Konner.

The pair had already been working together for years on Lena's hit series, Girls.

The very first issue of Lenny Letter featured an interview with Hillary Clinton, and later would draw articles from stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Alicia Keys.

Homepage: Described as 'Feminism, style, health, politics, friendship, and everything else  unfiltered', Lenny Letter was launched in 2015 by Lena and her longtime collaborator, Jenni Konner

Lena even spoke candidly about suffering from endometriosis in articles she had written for the site.

But the website struggled to find advertisers, according to The Post, and last summer it's readership reportedly plummeted when only half of it's 500,000 subscribers were clicking on newsletters.

Hearst was initially tasked with selling advertising, and a source told The Post at the time that they struggled to find meaningful revenue for the site.

Tough: But the website struggled to find advertisers, according to The Post, and last summer it's readership reportedly plummeted when only half of it's 500,000 subscribers were clicking on newsletters

Conde Nast later took over advertising sales in a deal that was set to begin this year.

A number of controversies attached to the site were reportedly not helpful in attracting advertisers either.

Last year Lena faced major backlash for calling actress Aurora Perrineau a liar when she claimed she was raped by a writer from Girls.

Lena and Jenni said that Murray Miller was innocent and that Aurora - who said that she was 17-years-old when she was raped in 2012 - was 'one of the three-percent of assault cases that are misreported every year'.

The HBO star apologized and then went into a self-imposed social media exile and made no public appearances for some time.

In July, Lena and Jenna announced they would be ending their producing partnership as they prepared for the debut of their new HBO show, Camping.She is still going strong with her beau Wes Nelson in the face of the Love Island couples breaking up, with Georgia Steel and Sam Bird being the fifth couple to split.

Yet Megan Barton Hanson cut a solitary figure when she made her arrival at the Big Up Uganda fundraising gala for Save The Children, in London on Thursday.

The Love Island star, 24, power dressed in her garish leopard print scarlet suit which paid tribute to the hottest catwalk trend this autumn.

Prowling around: Love Island's Megan Barton Hanson power dressed in a bright leopard print suit at glitzy charity gala, in London on Thursday

Bringing feminine touches to her outfit, Wes Nelson's girlfriend commanded attention in black sky-high heels.

The Love Island finalist gave a glimpse of her surgically-enhanced cleavage in her black tank top worn under her quirky suit.

Megan looked immaculate, polishing off her looks with a slick of bold red lipstick and she straightened her trademark golden locks.

VOGUE cover girl and model of the moment Adwoa Aboah joined forces with Felix Cooper to throw the bash at Wild By Tart at Ecclestone Yards.

Amazing: VOGUE cover girl and model of the moment Adwoa Aboah joined forces with Felix Cooper to throw the bash at Wild By Tart at Ecclestone Yards

Sensational in spots: Sadie Frost flashed her lean legs in her thigh-split polka dot dress as she joined Darren Strowger at the party

Hosted to raise money for Save The Children, the charity aims to promote kids' rights and provides help to youngsters in developing countries.

Megan has grafted herself as a body advocate after leaving the villa in the summer following her controversial Love Island appearance.



Writing for the iNews recently, she admitted she was 'shamed' by a boy in school which earned her the name 'The Group Sl*t' among her friends.

Beaming: Professor Green looked happy and content when he made his presence known in his quirky ensemble inside the venue

Stunning: Molly Goddard was impossible to miss in her fuchsia pink dress with pleats stitched into the skirt of her number

Megan said she recalled this moment when she was discouraged by the Love Island cast from having sex.

The former exotic dancer has previously admitted to having had 40k of surgical enhancements, including two boob jobs, a nose job, veneers and lip fillers.

She said: 'Some of the Love Island cast were trying to tell me not to have sex again because they knew how I would be perceived.

Hitting the right style notes: Liam Payne looked incredible in his tuxedo when he joined forces with Harriet Rose

Astonishing: Maria Sharapova looked phenomenal when she stepped out in her figure-hugging black ensemble, with her clutch purse kept close to her person

He's got the style: Valentino Garavani was every inch the famous fashion clothes designer he is in his pinstriped navy suit

Dapper chap: Liam looked handsome as ever in his smart black suit, cutting a nonchalant figure as he posed with one hand in his pocket

'That proves pretty tricky when you are falling in love and living with the person 24/7.'

Megan continued: 'Ive been labelled a slut from the age of 16, mainly by boys I had dated, or boys I had turned down, until my group of friends started to join in by calling me the sl*t of the group...

'At this point, I wasnt sexually active. I was given this label because I made a crucial mistake: a boy a few years above me in school had asked me to send him a video of me masturbating. I declined, he went on to ask me if I had even done it before...

'I hadnt, but of course wanted to impress him and so I told him I had. The next day the whole school was talking about it. Its amusing to me when I look back at it, but at the time it felt like my whole world was caving in.'

Calling it a night: The singer, who recently split from girlfriend Cheryl, was later seen heading home from the charity eventCamille Grammer is set to tie-the-knot again.

According to Page Six, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star will marry lawyer David C. Meyer on the Big Island in Hawaii sometime over the weekend.

The 50-year old star had previously been married to Frasier and Cheers actor Kelsey Grammar from 1997 to 2011.

Taking the plunge: Camille Grammer is set to marry fiance David C. Meyer in Hawaii this weekend

Its gonna be in Hawaii  and I want to feel authentic,' the 50-year old revealed to Us in April. 'Hes gonna wear a tux and Im going to wear a full-length wedding gown.'

Camille's 16-year old daughter Mason helped her pick out her dress and will also serve as her one of her maids of honors.

David proposed to Camille in October 2017 after nearly two years of dating.

Fun in the sun: Camille Grammer shared a picture of her in Hawaii ahead of her wedding

Drama: Camille's RHOBH castmate Lisa Vanderpump (far right) reportedly decided not to attend the wedding to avoid any unnecessary strees

The television personality has been looking forward to her new life with David.

'I miss being married. I dont miss my ex, but I really loved being married, so I really look forward to having a lifetime companion and somebody to spend my life with and share special moments with.

She added: 'Weve both been through divorce, we understand each other  Hes very bright and hes successful in his own right, so its not somebody that I have to support or train, you know?'

A show of support: Several of Lisa's RHOBV castmates are expected to attend her wedding

According to Hollywood Life, The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star has agreed to film her wedding.

Former castmates Kyle Richards, Teddi Mellencamp, and Lisa Rinna are expected to all be on hand for Camille's big day. But Lisa Vanderpump has reportedly refused to attend despite a big push to show up by representatives from the Bravo network.

'Lisa is both stressed and relieved as she finally made the decision yesterday (Tuesday) not to attend Camilles wedding,' a source close to RHOBH revealed.

'Lisa refuses to handle the stress of the event and doesnt see the point in putting herself in an uncomfortable situation.'

The relationship between Lisa and her castmates reportedly took a turn for the worse after Dori Kemsley adopted a dog from Lisa's rescue and then returned it.

Both Erika Girardi and Denise Richards couldn't make it to the wedding due to previous work or family commitments.

Camille started her run on RHOBH back in 2011. She has also worked as a dancer, model and actress over her career.They got married a week-and-a-half ago.

But Eva Marcille and new husband Michael Sterling already seem to be in sync.

The 33-year-old Real Housewives Of Atlanta star has been documenting her picturesque honeymoon in Santorini, Greece over the past few days.

Vibes: Eva Marcille has been documenting her picturesque honeymoon in Santorini, Greece over the past few days

Just us: She even shared a few snaps from an outdoor lunch shared with the 33-year-old former Atlanta mayoral candidate Michael Sterling as they were wearing matching outfits

She even shared a few snaps from an outdoor lunch shared with the 33-year-old former Atlanta mayoral candidate as they were wearing matching outfits.

Eva looked gorgeous in a black and white striped halter dress featuring a leaf pattern printed over it.

Michael looked handsome as he lounged in a black and white striped T-shirt with indigo-washed jeans.

Bonding: No doubt they have been enjoying their getaway together as Eva shared a cute snap of the couple cuddled up while enjoying another night on the town in Europe

Stunner: She has shared plenty of selfies on the trip

Gorgeous: She even shared a video Michael shot of the gorgeous Santorini coastline

No doubt they have been enjoying their getaway together as Eva shared a cute snap of the couple cuddled up while enjoying another night on the town in Europe.

She even shared a video Michael shot of the gorgeous Santorini coastline.

Eva has also done plenty of reminiscing about her wedding in Atlanta a week-and-a-half ago as she has shared various snaps from the event.

'He's ALL I need!' Eva was more than happy to be on the getaway with her man

'I'm Happy, and loved...' She definitely was in good spirits on the trip

Matchy matchy: She also shared a photo of her shiny new wedding ring along with Michael's band

'It's all about the journey': She shared this snap while in Munich, Germany

She even shared a cute picture of her Real Housewives co-stars Nene Leakes, Cynthia Bailey, Porsha Williams, Marlo Hampton, and Tanya Sam posed up together at the gala.

DailyMailTV was granted exclusive access to the ceremony and spoke with Marcille, 33, just moments after she said 'I do.'

Squad: Eva has also done plenty of reminiscing about her wedding in Atlanta as she has shared various snaps from the event including this snap of co-stars Nene Leakes, Porsha Williams, Cynthia Bailey, Marlo Hampton, and Tanya Sam (pictured from left to right)

She described herself as 'just so blessed,' and said, 'I've spent my life trying to find out who I am and trying to find him and now life's taken me on a journey to the man of my dreams.'

Federal prosecutor and former Atlanta Mayoral candidate, Sterling, 33, proposed to Marcille last Christmas.

The couple tied the knot at the weekend in Atlanta's Southern Exchange Ballrooms after three years of dating.

The main attraction: Eva had three dress changes for her big day but the showstopper which drew a tear from her groom and gasps from her guests, was her voluminous wedding gown from Daughters of Nonyelum, International Haute Couture and Hollywood Royal Showroom

I do: The beautiful bride had her hair pulled back into an updo and topped it with a glittering tiara - but opted for no front veil

Tears of joy: Eva Marcille, 33, tied the knot with beau Michael Sterling, also 33, in a lavish ceremony surrounded by their 235 closest friends and family in Atlanta on Sunday

Fairy tale wedding: Sterling, a federal prosecutor and former Atlanta Mayoral candidate, proposed to Marcille, with whom he has a baby son, last Christmas

Speaking to DailyMail TV before the evening ceremony, event planner Eliana Baucicault revealed that Marcille had told her that all she needed was 'her man and her fashion.'

In the end she got considerably more than just that with an extravagant wedding that saw the midtown venue, once a Macy's department store, transformed into a flower-filled grotto, lit by candles below and chandeliers above.

In keeping with the characteristic RHOA extravagance, the wedding cost north of $200,000. More than $20,000 of that budget was spent on the 12,000 white roses and armloads of white orchids and hydrangea blooms intended to fill the venue with 'romance.'

All of Marcille's fellow RHOA cast mates were there to witness as she and Sterling exchanged traditional as well as self-penned vows.

Kiss the bride: Eva gushed about her new husband to DailyMailTV, describing him as the 'man of her dreams' who she has spent her life looking for

Elegance: The couple tied the knot in Atlanta's Southern Exchange Ballrooms after three years of dating. The actress had a 'man' of honor, makeup artist Terrell Mullins, rather than the traditional maid of honor at her weddingShe's spent the past few weeks in Australia filming the live-action Dora The Explorer.

But new mom Eva Longoria ensured she still made time for some snuggles with son Santiago Baston, three-months.

The 43-year-old who was still on set and dressed in her character's ensemble was seen reading to her little man.

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Work life balance: New mom Eva Longoria ensured she still made time for some snuggles with son Santiago Baston, three-months, while on set in Australia on Thursday

'Story time with Santi #setlife #LaCatrina,' she captioned the shot.

Eva also tagged radio host Patty Rodriguez as the author of the children's bilingual book on emotions.

The actress was dressed in a plain grey top underneath a khaki colored shirt and teamed the look with some dark trousers.

Snuggles: Enjoying some time in Sydney over the weekend, Eva shared another tender shot with her sleeping baby

Eva, who is playing Dora's mother, Elena, was also seen with a pair of hiking like boots on her feet.

Santiago was all snug for the mommy-and-son bonding session on Thursday.

He was in a white onesie and ha a pair of adorable little socks on his feet.

First-born: The happy baby is the son of Eva Longoria and her husband Jose Antonio "Pepe" Baston Patino

Enjoying some time in Sydney over the weekend, Eva shared another tender shot with her sleeping baby.

'Morning bliss,' she captioned the image from her hotel room.

Santiago was wrapped up in a grey blanket while the Desperate housewives alum kept cosy in a white robe.

Working mom: The family have spent the past few weeks in Australia as Eva films the live-action Dora The Explorer

Eva welcomed her first child in June 2018 with her husband Jose Antonio "Pepe" Baston Patino.

The duo met on a blind date arranged by a mutual friend in Mexico City in 2013 and were engaged two years later.

Eva and Jose tied-the-knot back in their hometown of Mexico in May 2016 in front of approximately 80 guests including friends Maria Lopez, Melanie Griffith, Ricky Martin, and Victoria and David Beckham.Joe Alwyn has stated it's 'important' for Taylor Swift to encourage her fans to vote.

The 27-year-old actor has praised his girlfriend for her recent social media posts, in which she endorsed two Democratic candidates and encouraged her followers to vote early, despite her previously never airing any political views.

On Thursday night, when asked on the red carpet at the BFI London Film Festival screening of his new movie The Favorite about Taylor's newly public political stance, he told a reporter: 'I think it's great, I think it's important.'

Praise: Taylor Swift's boyfriend Joe Alwyn praised the singer's recent decision to speak out politically as he attended The Favourite premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Thursday

Taylor, who was credited with a colossal spike in voted registration earlier this month after she posted an impassioned endorsement of Democratic candidates, took to Instagram on Wednesday morning to urge early voter registration.

She wrote: 'Something I wish I knew about when I was 18 and voting for the first time: EARLY VOTING. It makes it so quick and easy to go and cast your vote before November 6.

'Early voting starts TODAY in Tennessee and goes to Nov 1. You can check out your states early voting dates at the link in my bio.'

Early voting: Taylor urged her fans to check out early voting deadlines ahead of the November 6 midterm elections in an Instagram post on Wednesday morning

Nailed it: The singer posted the early voting reminder in the caption of a photo showing her toenails painted red white and blue (left) and a soft-smiling selfie (right)

The message was posted alongside a photo of Swift's red white and blue-painted toenails and a soft-smiling selfie.

While the polls don't open until November 6, residents in 37 states can participate in early voting without having to provide a reason or justification.

Taylor's early voting message is expected to have a noticeable impact given how powerful her newfound political voice has proven to be.

Vote.org saw 65,000 voter registrations in the 24-hour period after Swift's October 7, more than double the number of voters registered in the entire month of August, with 56,669 having signed up that month and 190,178 in September.

Swift's Instagram post was just two days before the October 9 deadline to register to vote in her home state of Tennessee, which saw a big spike as well.

Speaking out: The 28-year-old who has typically stayed silent about politics revealed she will be endorsing Democratic candidates in an Instagram post with the photo above on October 9

Swift broke her long tradition of staying silent about politics to speak out against Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is running for re-election in Tennessee.

The Reputation hitmaker wrote that she would 'like to continue voting for women in office' but could not support Blackburn in the key Senate race.

'Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me,' she wrote.

Swift went on to encourage her 112 million followers to educate themselves on key issues ahead of the election this November.

'For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100 percent on every issue, but we have to vote anyway,' she wrote.

Passionate: The pop star's passionate plea for fans to get out to the polls is shown in full above

'So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count.'

'But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do.'

She doubled down on that message when accepting her award for Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards.

Just 24 hours later, President Donald Trump said he was no longer a fan because she declared allegiance with the Democrats, the singer used the stage to fire back and call on all Swifties to vote against his party on October 9.

Ahead of the midterm elections, Taylor recently took to Instagram to endorse Tennessee candidates Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives and urged her followers to vote for policies rather than people.

Star-studded: The actor, who stars in the movie alongside Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, looked every inch the leading actor as he walked the star-studded red carpet

Dapper: Joe cut a smart figure in a dark blue double breasted blazer and trouser combination for his night in the spotlight

She wrote: 'I'm writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I'll be voting in the state of Tennessee.

'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.

'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.

'I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.' [sic]

Meanwhile, at the premiere of his latest movie, her handsome boyfriend Joe revealed he was very 'happy' with the direction his career is taking, insisting he's not worried about his high-profile relationship overshadowing his professional life.

Talented couple: Taylor is currently travelling Australia on her Reputation tour

Asked if the expectation of his now-famous name bothers him, he told Metro.co.uk: 'I just feel happy to be part of films that hopefully people are excited to see.

'To be here tonight... I'm happy to be a part of it and to be going around with it - I feel very lucky to be doing so.'

He cut a smart figure as he attended the premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, as his girlfriend currently travels Australia with her Reputation tour.

The actor, who stars in the movie alongside Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, looked every inch the leading actor as he walked the star-studded red carpet.

Joe cut a smart figure in a dark blue double breasted blazer and trouser combination for his night in the spotlight.

Details: He teamed the stylish suit with a black polo neck jumper and black patent dress shoes

He teamed the stylish suit with a black polo neck jumper and black patent dress shoes.

The Boy Erased star styled his signature blonde locks into a sweptback hairdo, the usually clean shaven actor also continued to display his new beard.

Joe appeared in good spirits as he walked and posed up a storm on the star-studded red carpet.

The Favourite sets the stage in early 18th century when a frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) is on the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) watches over the country.

New servant Abigail (Emma Stone) wins over Sarah when she arrives on the scene.

Stylish: The Boy Erased star styled his signature blonde locks into a sweptback hairdo, the usually clean shaven actor also continued to display his new beard

Exciting times: Joe appeared in good spirits as he walked and posed up a storm on the star-studded red carpet

Olivia scooped the envy-inducing prize for best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role as Queen Anne, proving she could be a serious contender for the Oscars.

One person who wasn't on the red carpet was Joe's girlfriend Taylor, who is currently touring Australia for her Reputation tour, but she did make the New York premiere of The Favourite earlier this month.

The couple have managed to keep their relationship under the radar for two years and the actor recently revealed that he will never open up about his romance as he values his privacy.

'I think we have been successfully very private and that has now sunk in for people but I really prefer to talk about work,' Alwyn told British Vogue in a new interview for the magazine's October issue.

Low profile: Taylor and her actor beau have managed to keep their relationship under the radar for two years and the actor recently revealed that he will never open up about his romanceThe reviews are in: Sarah Paulson's directorial debut was the best ever episode of American Horror Story.

That was what social media seemed to think, as it lit up with praise for the latest installment of Apocalypse on Wednesday night.

The actress, who is the one of only two people to star in all eight seasons, directed a very special crossover episode entitled Return To Murder House, which brought back a number of characters from the very first season.

All hail: Sarah Paulson's directorial debut episode of American Horror Story deemed 'best ever' by fans

Special guest stars Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton and Taissa Farmiga all reprised their characters from Murder House, while fans rejoiced to see Jessica Lange return as Constance Langdon, her first appearance in the anthology in five seasons.

And it wasn't just the fans singing her praises: Show creator Ryan Murphy delightedly took to Twitter ahead of the episode to reveal that the cast were going to live-tweet during the show in honor of Paulson's big moment - and the likes of Kathy Bates, and Emma Watson followed suit as they hailed the actress for her efforts.

Taking to Twitter ahead of the episode, Ryan revealed to AHS fans: 'The entire cast of AMERICAN HORROR STORY will be tweeting along LIVE with tonight's RETURN TO MURDER HOUSE episode to support the directorial debut of the one and only Ms Sarah Paulson. Join us and support our Supreme! #AHSApocalypse.'

Kathy Bates also took to the social media platform to tweet: 'So excited that my gals are going to shine tonight! @AHSApocalypse_ @MsSarahPaulson and #JessicaLange Here we go!!!!'

Behind the lens: The actress, who is the one of only two people to star in all eight seasons, directed a very special crossover episode entitled Return To Murder House, which brought back a number of characters from the very first season

Grand praise: Fans on social media appeared to agree Return To Murder House was the best episode yet

At the end of the episode, Kathy couldn't contain her pride for her pal Sarah as she tweeted: 'Great work from the entire cast tonight. So happy to be a part of the show.'

Meanwhile, Gabourey Sidibe was also left impressed, stating: 'Sooooo SUPER actress @MsSarahPaulson is pulling double duty in tonights episode of#ahsapocalypse by also being a Super DIRECTOR, thus proving that shes actually just a SUPER ARTIST!!'

Taissa, who has been a part of the show since the first season in 2011, broke the rules ever so slightly by taking to Instagram with her message of praise.

'Ahhhhh': Sarah's 75-year-old girlfriend Holland Taylor was among the fans watching

'The one, the only': Show creator Ryan Murphy took to Twitter ahead of the episode to reveal the cast were going to live-tweet during the show in honour of Paulson's big moment

Big moment: The actress was the visionary behind the latest episode, Return To Murder House, on Wednesday night - the sixth episode of the eighth and final season on FX network

'So happy': The likes of Kathy Bates, Evan Peters and Cody Fern followed suit as they hailed the actress for her efforts

Captioning a selfie, the younger sister of Vera Farmiga, noted: 'Hello friends this is my face requesting your presence for tonights episode of#AHSApocalypse. This special episode directed by an extra special frog-loving kind of person

'Mssarahcatharinepaulson is bound to stir up some seven-year-old nostalgia. I would follow this talented woman and her directors chair anywhere she would have me.

'#ReturnToMurderHouse airs tonight! Tune in and you may just get to hear Violets favorite word but no damn promises.'

'Applause': Sarah, who tweeted she was a 'lucky girl', continued to be commended for her hard work on the show

Show newbie Cody Fern proved he had already made himself a part of the family as he enthused: 'As if being the most bad***, crazy talented and insanely generous actress wasnt enough, 'MsSarahPaulson reinvents American Horror Story AGAIN tonight with her very special directorial debut. All Hail the Supreme

Show veteran Lange proved to be one of the few cast-members without Twitter, prompting Ryan to share a hilarious exchange with the 69-year-old.

'Just told Our Queen Jessica Lange that everyone was SO EXCITED about her AHS return tonight and she was sure to be trending in an hour or two. She replied "what's this trending thing?" THAT'S WHY I LOVE HER. #AHSApocalypse.'

Ryan offered his proud thoughts one more time: 'Ladies and gents a big final worldwide round of applause for a woman who now has a Directors Guild card... Ms @SarahPaulson!#AHSApocalypse.'

'Special episode': Taissa, who has been a part of the show since the first season in 2011, broke the rules ever so slightly by taking to Instagram with her message of praise

'It's exciting and terrifying': Sarah recently spoke of her exciting directorial debut on the much loved horror shot

Speaking of her directorial debut on the much loved horror shot, Sarah recently told The Hollywood Reporter: 'Its always exciting and also terrifying when theres a dynamic shift.

'Ive been an actor on that show for many years and then all of a sudden, and Im now in a position where these people who I work with are now going to have to, for lack of an articulate way of saying it, help execute my vision,' she continued.

It was an extra special episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Jessica made her eagerly anticipated return.

She's back! It was an extra special episode of American Horror Story: Apocalypse as Jessica made her eagerly anticipated return

Fan favourite: Lange, the former leading lady of the series won two Emmys for the characters she played on AHS and left the series after season four

Plot: Return To Murder House is expected to finally deliver on the promise of a Murder House (season 1) and Coven (season 3) crossover

Lange, the former leading lady of the series won two Emmys for the characters she played on AHS and left the series after season four.

Return To Murder House is expected to finally deliver on the promise of a Murder House (season 1) and Coven (season 3) crossover.

Connie Britton and Dylan McDermott also return in the episode along with Taissa Farmiga who are coming back as Murder House family the Harmons. Evan Peters will be back playing Tate.

American Horror Story: Apocalypse airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on FX.It's been quite a week for Tara Reid, but she's still smiling.

Tara Reid posed with her three-month-old Yorkie dog Beso in New York Thursday on the set of her upcoming Netflix film, The Fifth Borough, days after she deboarded a cross-country Delta flight, with both sides offering varied accounts of the incident.

The 42-year-old actress wore a puffy black coat as she clutched the adorable dog, with her blonde locks parted and down.

Hanging in there: Tara Reid, 42, posed with her three-month-old Yorkie dog Beso in New York Thursday on the set of her upcoming Netlix film,The Fifth Borough

The Sharknado star was 'very unruly and disruptive' on a Los Angeles to New York City flight on Monday, causing Delta officials to escort her off the flight, airline reps told TMZ Wednesday. Reid said that she deboarded the aircraft on her 'own accord without any incident.'

The American Pie actress claimed that the conflict centered around Beso, who she says is an an emotional support animal.

'I had every right to bring my dog,' she said in a statement on Instagram. 'I had doctor and veterinarian legitimate paperwork showing he could travel with me at the time of the flight in question which I showed to the Delta flight crew persons.'

Reid claimed flight attendants asked her to put the dog in an overhead bin while in its carrier, calling it an 'absurd request considering animals cannot breathe in there ... therefore [she] refused to comply with this ridiculous request.'

Puppy love: Reid was seen days after she was booted off of a cross-country Delta flight, with both sides offering varied accounts of the incident

On set: Reid was snapped alongside her costar in The Fifth Borough, Steve Stanulis

Reid said the flight attendant suggested she place the dog in the plane's cargo area.

'I again refused another ridiculous suggestion, seemed to me there was no reasonable options offered to me at the time,' she said, 'what I knew for a fact is that I was not going to [abandon] my dog.'

Delta told the outlet that Reid was allowed to hold the dog or keep the puppy at her feet, but was asked to place the carrier itself in an overhead compartment.Her relationship with Josh Denzel is still going strong, in spite of the rest of the Love Island couples dropping like flies.

And Kaz Crossley was enjoying a night out without her other half on Thursday, partying in style at the the Notion magazine bash celebrating issue 81 in central London.

The reality star embraced a casual look, showing off her figure in a scoop neck orange vest top as she partied the night away.

Party girl: Kaz Crossley was enjoying a night out without her other half on Thursday, partying in style at the the Notion magazine bash celebrating issue 81 in central London

Kaz teamed her simple top with a pair of high-waisted jeans, making the most of her hourglass physique.

She pulled her look together with a pair of dazzling silver shoes and wore her brunette locks pulled back from her face for her night on the town at the bash, sponsored by BULLDOG Gin.

Fans have warmed to the Josh and Kaz love story after the LADBible presenter controversially left Georgia Steel alone to pursue a romance with his now-girlfriend.

Looking good: Kaz teamed her simple top with a pair of high-waisted jeans, making the most of her hourglass physique

Fashionista: She pulled her look together with a pair of dazzling silver shoes and wore her brunette locks pulled back from her face

Josh described himself as 'public enemy number one' in an interview with BBC Breakfast once departing from the villa.

Yet the duo won over Love Island fans with their genuine feelings for one another when Kaz returned with Josh from Casa Amor.

Meanwhile, Georgia's new romance with Sam Bird came crashing down this week as it was revealed the pair had called it quits.

Rock solid: Her relationship with Josh Denzel is still going strong, in spite of the rest of the Love Island couples dropping like flies

Sam shared a series of cryptic messages on social media, hinting Georgia had not been 'loyal' to him.

A source told MailOnline exclusively: 'Sam found out she had gone to her ex-boyfriend's flat without telling him and he was pretty annoyed.

'He and Georgia had dated up until a few months before she went on Love Island and she still had belongings stored at his place from when they used to live together.

Love story: The duo won over Love Island fans with their genuine feelings for one another when Kaz returned with Josh from Casa Amor

'She hasn't cheated on Sam, there has been no sleeping around and she only went round as a one-off. But it doesn't sit well with him that she didn't tell him.'

Sam, 25, admitted how devastated he is about the split on social media but the source also told MailOnline the writing has been on the wall for a while.

They said: 'In reality, the relationship has been coming to an end for a while. They've been doing PA's at opposite ends of the country and hardly see one another.'Last year SFGN became the first publication to write in-depth on the famous architects sexuality and make the case that he was gay. Now new information has come to light revealing even more evidence of his homosexuality.

Addison Mizner, Father of South Florida Architecture, Was Likely Gay, was the headline on SFGNs front page about a year ago. SFGN had embarked on a project to look into the background of South Florida architect Addison Mizners sexuality.

It was difficult research to do. We were inspired by the idea that it appeared to be common knowledge among Mizner historians that the famed Palm Beach County building boom architect was gay but there was virtually no information out in the open to support that idea.

Little survives of Mizners personal life and if he left any trace of his sexual orientation anywhere it would have been professional suicide while he was alive.

We were able to uncover a handful of details that further implicated his homosexuality such as Caroline Seebohms Mizner biography that described him as having eccentricities and a very flamboyant personality.

Furthermore she wrote, his mature sexual taste was for very young men," "pretty boys with pretensions," and that he had "a series of young boys in tow" during his later years. We were also able to make strong connections of Mizner to known gay New York Architect Stanford White. White was a known mentor to Mizner before he came to Palm Beach and nearly all of the men associated with White in the 1910s were also known gays according to Aline Saarinens unpublished biography of White.

Soon after we ran our story a section appeared on Mizners Wikipedia page about his homosexuality that had not been there before. Initially it cited our article as the main source but Wikipedians corralled in updating the section and soon uncovered many other resources proving Mizners sexuality such as the 1932 biography on his family where Addisons brother Wilson was described as loving women sexually, but Addison was said to simply cherish their friendship and companionship.

In early 2018 Stephen Perkins and James Caughman published a new coffee table biography on Mizner titled Addison Mizner: the architect whose genius defined Palm Beach. This is the first major publication on Mizner to directly shed light on his personal life that is well researched with many anecdotes and stories regarding Mizner.

According to Perkins and Caughmans book, early clues to Mizners sexuality come from the time he spent in San Francisco where he was known to associate with a young man named Jack Baird. The two were playful and involved somewhat emotionally, an act that did not go unnoticed by Mizners then female companion, Bertha Dolbeer.

Dolbeer was a wealthy socialite who appreciated Mizners good nature but was concerned about his stability and reputation. At the time Mizner was an apprentice draftsman. He proposed to Dolbeer since it would have plugged him into the social pipeline of society. Mizner was optimistic about her response that she wanted to marry him but wouldnt do so unless he found a better job and made more money. Awaiting her decision Mizner traveled to Europe only to receive a telegram in 1904 that Dolbeer had committed suicide. Mizner, destroyed emotionally, moved to New York City where he began associating with Stanford White.

Fifteen years after Mizner died in 1933, Alva Johnston began collecting information to write a series of biographical articles about Mizner for the New Yorker magazine. She solicited many people in Palm Beach and abroad that knew Mizner well and could give her material. Johnston had been close to Mizner when he was alive and saw him as a family of her own. Much of the material that came out of Palm Beach came from a series of letters from Alice DeLamar that still survive today in the basement of the old Palm Beach County Courthouse among the Historical Society Archives.

DeLamar discussed Mizners habit of hiring many young well-dressed men who could assimilate into Palm Beach society as companions easily, but lacked the necessary skills to help Mizner build his business. DeLamar described Mizners relationships with these men as psychologically painful.

For example, Mizner made a young man named Jack Roy manager of his furniture factory despite his lack of experience with the art of furniture making. Once Jack left, Mizner gave the management job to Jerry Girandolle, along with a new Cadillac. DeLamar went on to describe later how Mizner was rather attracted to a young painter he used on one of his houses who was described as a strikingly handsome fellow.

Johnston was very protective of Mizners reputation and place in history and used this correspondence with DeLamar as a vehicle to understand Mizners personality and habits, but refused to publish their content directly due to societys disdain of homosexuality that still very much existed in the early 1950s when she published her stories.

Alex Waugh was another young man associated with Mizner in Palm Beach. The Orlando Sentinel described Waugh as a carefully reared English boy, with ambitions of becoming an interior designer when they interviewed him for a story on Mizner in 1966. He noted in his own 1976 autobiographical typescript, which also lives at the Palm Beach County Historical Society, that he too corresponded with Johnston and sent her several of what she called amusing incidents and while we dont know what they were she felt they quite unprintable.

Waugh was 26 when he met Mizner in 1922 while Mizner was traveling through Paris. He was very knowledgeable in English decorative art and Mizner quickly hired him after learning he was looking for work. In early editions of The Palm Beach Daily News, in a time where society party guest lists were frequently published, Waugh was often l accompanying Mizner to such events. Waugh remarked in his typescript how he felt all doors were open to him. And, unlike some of Mizners other associated men, he and Waugh worked well together and would continue to do so until Mizners death in 1933.

Waugh eventually left Palm Beach to return to his native England. It is unknown whether Waugh himself ever married a woman or really what he did after he left Palm Beach. Nevertheless as a testimony to he and Mizners strong relationship, Waugh remained active in preserving the Mizner legacy throughout much of the rest of the 20th century often appearing at lectures, exhibits, and talks about the architect until his own death which appears to have been in 1982 according to British vital statistics records.

Mizner will always have a legacy in South Florida for jumpstarting the trend of Spanish revival architecture, of which Alex Waugh certainly assisted him with.

We can still say proudly today that Mizner may have a legacy of having been one of the first prominent gay figures in South Florida history.

If you want to read more about Mizners story and many of the men he was associated with, I recommend reading Stephen Perkins and James Caughmans new book Addison Mizner: the architect whose genius defined Palm Beach.

Check out our other LGBT History stories here: LGBT History Month 2020My Kitchen Rules stars Alex Clark, 36, and Emily O'Kane, 27, beat out fan favourites Kim and Suong to win the reality series in May this year.

And now the Gold Coast lovebirds have something else to celebrate, announcing their engagement on Thursday.

Alex dropped to one knee to pop the question to Emily on Venice Beach in California during the couple's romantic getaway.

'I'm the happiest man alive': My Kitchen Rules winners Alex Clark and Emily O'Kane announced their engagement on Friday after a surprise sunset proposal at Venice Beach

'What, you didn't think I'd take Emily on her first big O/S [overseas] trip and not drop the knee?' he captioned a snap of the pair.

Alex went on to say the proposal was a complete surprise for his ladylove and cooking partner, Emily.

'After 'Macgyvering' my way to get this organised and hidden from the most beautiful but nosiest woman I know, the day couldn't of been more perfect,' he wrote.

'There were tears!': In the heartfelt post, Alex and Emily showed fans the ring with Alex adding he needed to keep his proposal a secret from the 'nosiest' woman he knows

'She had no idea, there were tears, there were laughs and there was a YES!!!'

Finishing off the emotional post, Alex went on to say he felt the 'happiest man alive' after their moment together.

'I hope all of our friends and family are just as happy as we are right now. I feel I'm luckiest man alive, can't wipe the smile off my face!'

There was a YES! In a series of snaps, the couple looked happy and relaxed with Alex saying that he couldn't 'wipe the smile' off his face

It's a happy ending for the bartenders, who said they would get married if they won My Kitchen Rules.

'Alex and I said from the very beginning that if we were to win MKR, we would definitely get married,' Emily told New Idea in May.

Alex added children were also in their future.

'Once we open a venue and establish a business and our brand and something we are proud of, we will definitely have children. It's about setting up everything,' he said.

Winning pair! It comes after the couple won the reality series My Kitchen Rules earlier this year, pocketing the $250,000 prize money after the finale

The couple shot to fame on My Kitchen Rules earlier this year, winning the competition together in May.

During the finale, the pair served up an impressive five-course menu, before pocketing the $250,000 in prize money.

Alex and Emily scored a total of 55 points out of 60, whereas their Melbourne rivals Kim and Suong only scored a total of 52 points.

After hearing the news that they had won, the pair were shocked, with Emily jumping as she reacted to the win, gushing: 'I'm so happy... so surreal!'He's got his love to keep him warm.

And a black leather jacket, a blue roll-neck sweater, jeans and sneakers came in useful when Gerard Butler was spotted out with girlfriend Morgan Brown on a chilly Friday in NYC.

The 48-year-old 300 actor looked stylish in his outfit as he chatted to actress Morgan, 41, as they made their way along the sidewalk.

The look of love: Gerard Butler's girlfriend Morgan Brown gazed at him adoringly when they were spotted out on a stroll in chilly New York City on Friday

The beautiful redhead was also warmly dressed in a turquoise sweater, skin-tight brown suede pants and knee-high brown leather boots.

She completed her ensemble with a long camel-colored coat and a pair of celebrity must have shades as she looked adoringly at her beau.

The couple - who have been seeing each other on and off since 2014 - were believed to have split in August last year, after a 'make or break' holiday to Mexico.

But they are definitely an item again now.

Reaching out: The 48-year-old 300 actor put his arm around his 41-year-old girlfriend as they made their way along the sidewalk

Last October, the Geostorm star said he was ready to start a family and settle down within the next few years.

Gerard - who has previously been romantically linked to Jennifer Aniston and Jessica Biel - told People: 'I have no personal life.

'In five years I want to be in a relationship. I'd love to have one or two kids - it's about time. I want to be more run by my personal life than my career.'

He's got his love to keep him warm: And a black leather jacket, a blue roll-neck sweater, jeans and shoes came in useful too

Meanwhile, Gerard's career is on warp speed at the moment with seven projects in various phases of production.

He will next be seen on the big screen in action thriller Hunter Killer, due out next Friday, about an American submarine captain who teams with U.S. Navy Seals to rescue the Russian President, who has been kidnapped by a rogue general.

Meanwhile, Gerard has mystery thriller Keepers ready to go and All-Star Weekend, with Robert Downey Jr., Benicio Del Toro, Jamie Fox, Eva Logoria amd Jeremy Piven set for February 22.

Feeling the chill: The beautiful redhead was also warmly dressed in a turquoise sweater, skin-tight brown suede pants and knee-high brown leather boots plus a long camel-colored coat

Action thriller Angel Has Fallen is in post while he's set to reprise his role as Big Nick O'Brien in Den Of Thieves 2, which is in post-production.

He is voicing King Kula in Naya: Legend Of The Golden Dolphin, in an all-star cast including James Franco, Kate Winslet, Megan Fox, Ellen Page, Daryl Hannah, Owen Wilson, Whoopi Goldberg, Diego Lua, Isabella Rossellini, Quvenzhane Wallis, Cheech Marin and Julian Lennon.

Comedy sci-fi Afterburn is in pre-production.Medical support is available for detainees on Nauru but the federal government doesn't make "a big song and dance about it", the prime minister says.

Scott Morrison says the government arranges further medical support for detainees on the island nation when required, yet doctors who were recently asked to leave Nauru say the asylum seekers are suffering "absolutely devastating" mental conditions.

"We don't go around making a big song and dance about it, we just get on and help people and provide the care that is necessary," Mr Morrison told Sky News on Friday.A Melbourne journalism student will learn the result of a Supreme Court action he launched in a bid to strike out a fail grade for a university assignment about dogs.

Monash University student Chinmay Naik, 23, was failed in 2017 for a video assignment about the negative stereotypes surrounding certain dog breeds and then failed again when it was re-marked.

But he believes he was wronged and took court action, seeking a judge to strike out the assignment result and declare a pass for the subject and course.

Mr Naik, who has represented himself in court, believes the same examiner marked the assignment on both occasions and claims Monash did not follow proper protocols.

He also sought extra time because of a disability but Monash University rejected his request for special consideration, leaving him without enough time.

Mr Naik believes he can win the court battle but previously admitted it would be a "brave" decision for the judge to make.

He previously tried to get the assignment result overturned by the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman, but those bids were unsuccessful.

Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards will deliver her judgment on Friday.AGENDA FOR FEDERAL PARLIAMENT

* Senate and House of Representatives are meeting from Monday.

* In the second week of the sitting fortnight (from October 22), only the House will meet as the Senate will hold estimates hearings.

* Early voting is under way in Wentworth by-election, set for October 20. Looking like a tight finish between the Liberals' Dave Sharma and independent Kerryn Phelps.

* Expecting new laws to provide a fairer deal to the states on GST revenue.

* Government also seeking Labor support to bring forward new small business tax rate of 25 per cent.

* House to debate laws to put in place Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and new laws to allow defence forces to be called out to deal with terrorism incidents.

* Senate to debate laws on Trans-Pacific Partnership, My Health Records and financial sector regulation.

* NAB chief to face economics committee hearing on Friday, as banking royal commission continues.

* Greens to introduce a private bill to amend the Sex Discrimination Act to bar religious schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identification.

* Independent senator Derryn Hinch to move a notice of motion on Monday, calling for government funding to be stripped from private schools that discriminate against teachers or students on sexuality grounds.

* Senate inquiry reports due on Monday into the Centre Alliance's private bill on Australia's sovereign naval shipbuilding capability and laws to put in place the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

* Senate inquiry reports due on Tuesday into: Great Barrier Reef 2050 Partnership Program; safety of pet food; aviation security laws.

* Senate inquiry reports due on Wednesday into: water use regulations; industrial deaths; gaming micro-transactions; social services laws dealing with newly arrived migrants and income thresholds.

* Senate inquiry reports due on Thursday into: 'Commitment to the Senate' issued by the Business Council of Australia; rehabilitation of mining and resources projects.When Trish Mumford began experiencing migraine as a teenager in the late 1960s, one idea of treatment was cutting off people's hair.

So when she was about 15, her long, blonde locks got the chop.

"The information my parents was given was that the weight of the hair on my scalp was causing headaches," she said.

"That's how basic things were."

In the 50 years since, the Sydneysider has repeatedly found herself in a hospital emergency room due to migraine, which has brought on vomiting and dehydration.

But the neurological condition, for which debilitating symptoms include headache, has also held sway in every area of the 63-year old's life.

It has influenced her choices of whether to take holidays, commit to social events, and even about the now-retired midwife's career path.

"I've opted for less challenging career paths in nursing because I didn't know whether I would cope with them, and whether that would trigger more migraine," she said.

"Sometimes your choices aren't really what you want, but what you feel that you could cope with if you have a headache."

She said her finances have also taken a toll amid paying for medications and missing days at work to grapple with the condition.

The frequency with which Ms Mumford has experienced migraine has fluctuated throughout her life, along with the effectiveness of both medical and alternative treatments she has turned to for relief.

But what has remained constant has been the dismissiveness of some people, including doctors, to the condition.

"It's more than just a headache," she said.

A new report has added weight to the sentiment that migraine is far from inconsequential, showing it costs the Australian economy about $35.7 billion a year.

The Deloitte Access Economics Migraine in Australia paper says that includes $14.3 billion worth of health system costs, about $2.2 billion of which are paid by those experiencing the condition.

About $16.3 billion of the costs to the economy are in lost productivity.

There are up to 4.9 million Australians who experience migraine, including almost one in three women and about one in 10 men, the report has found.

It shows they could be losing up to $27,803 per year due to the condition.

Sydney-based neurologist Dr Karl Ng said the figures are "quite confronting" and he believes a lot of people who experience migraine aren't being treated enough.

More peoeple who are experiencing migraine regularly should be taking preventative medications, he said.

"There are definitely things that can be improved there," he said.

"Part of that is also education, of course, with health professionals and giving them the right approach to treating patients."

Ms Mumford, who currently experiences migraine up to nine times a month and uses a botox treatment, said she hopes the figures will help people think about the condition with more empathy.

"Just being believed is a big thing," she said.

She also hopes the findings will encourage more accessible and affordable treatments.The koala joeys named in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's honour are set for a royal treatment with the couple planning on cosying up to the marsupials while visiting Sydney's Taronga Zoo.

The newborn koalas were named ahead of their nuptials in May as an early wedding present from NSW.

After arriving in Sydney on Monday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were expecting a baby.

Kensington Palace tweeted the pregnancy news on Monday evening: "Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the spring of 2019."

The pair spent Monday resting before beginning their first official overseas tour as a royal couple.

On Tuesday, Taronga Zoo is one stop during a full day's worth of engagements, with the couple then heading to the Opera House.

They will be on hand to help open a new research and education facility for students, and to meet with conservation scientists.

The Institute of Science and Learning will be home to native bilbies and quokkas living in classrooms, and the largest collection of frozen coral cells from the Great Barrier Reef.

Taronga Zoo are excited to welcome the royals and confirmed they would finally come face-to-face with their furry namesakes.The mother of a Queensland teenager who took her own life a year after she left an adolescent mental health centre will give evidence at an investigation into her death.

Caitlin Wilkinson Whiticker was one of three teenagers who took their own lives within eight months of the then Liberal National state government closing the Barrett Adolescent Centre in 2014.

Justine Wilkinson will on Tuesday give evidence at the Brisbane Coroners Court inquest into the immediate circumstances surrounding her 18-year-old daughter's suicide.

Ms Wilkinson has lamented the lack of support services available when her daughter was in the process of switching to adult care services.

"If she'd just had the right supports and the right sort of treatment from Queensland Health, and the right attitudes amongst clinicians ... then she would have stood a much better chance," Ms Wilkinson told reporters on Monday.

"Without (the Barrett Centre), she had nothing."

It was the only facility to provide long-term, in-patient treatment for young people with complex mental illnesses and its closure quickly became a politically and emotionally charged issue.

The inquest will also probe the deaths of 17-year-old Talieha Nebauer and Will Fowell, 18 and whether the LNP closure of the centre had affected these teens.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636Doctors, psychiatrists and nurses will gather in Melbourne to find a way to tackle rising numbers of mental health patients appearing in emergency departments.

A summit on Tuesday hopes to try and address the issue and work out how to help those in a mental emergency.

"The experiences that people with mental health crises seeking help from emergency departments are having across Australia aren't good enough," Australasian College for Emergency Medicine President Dr Simon Judkins said earlier this month.

"These are problems that emergency doctors cannot solve alone; they reflect a sector under great stress and lack of a plan for system-wide development."

More than 250,000 Australians head to emergency departments to seek help for acute mental and behavioural conditions, according to research by ACEM.

Lifeline 13 11 14

beyondblue 1300 22 4636The Queensland parliament has set aside the entire sitting week this week to debate laws to decriminalise abortion in the state.

The measures would see abortion removed from the criminal code and made a health issue, allowing women to terminate pregnancies up to 22 weeks' gestation.

The Labor government and the LNP opposition have granted their MPs a conscience vote on the issue, meaning at least a few LNP members would need to vote for the laws to ensure they are passed.

The debate is expected to be longer than usual and will likely take the whole three-day sitting of parliament.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington have called for a respectful debate on the delicate issue.

Ms Palaszczuk on Monday said the issue was sensitive for many MPs but she hoped history could be made this week.

"I want to ensure that if any member of the House wants to speak, they are given the opportunity to speak," she said

"This is a very emotional issue for many people but this is also our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this out of the criminal code."

The premier has previously indicated her support for the change while Ms Frecklington has flagged she'll be voting against it.

Under the changes, abortion would be allowed after 22 weeks, with the approval of two separate doctors.

They would also enforce safe zones around clinics and medical facilities offering the procedure to stop staff and patients being harassed by anti-abortion activists.Labor and the Greens are pushing for a senate inquiry into the independence of the ABC, believing a review carried out by the communications department was not up to scratch.

The two parties each plan to move a motion in the Senate on Tuesday to have an inquiry established.

The push comes after the release of the findings of an inquiry carried out by the communications department on Monday.

It probed the events leading up to ex-ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie being fired and former chairman Justin Milne resigning.

The review found neither former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull or any other minister requested ABC journalists be sacked in the lead up to the national broadcaster's recent leadership woes.

But it said the ABC's former top brass were in no doubt that senior government members were "very concerned" about editorial standards at the broadcaster.

They also believed that may affect the ABC's standing and funding.

The inquiry, ordered by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield, involved interviews with Mr Milne, Ms Guthrie and acting managing director David Anderson.

Ms Guthrie was shown the door on September 24, with the ABC board saying her ongoing leadership was not in the broadcaster's best interests.

Mr Milne was forced to quit three days later, after it was revealed Ms Guthrie had told the ABC board he had requested she sack two journalists, because the coalition government didn't like their reporting.

In releasing the inquiry findings, Senator Fifield said he was unaware of the allegations against Mr Milne until they became public.

He stressed no government minister has interfered at the ABC, a sentiment backed up by the report.

But Labor senator Deborah O'Neill said the saga represented a historic moment in terms of the level of the government's assault on the public broadcaster.

"The sort of intimidation going on for journalists in this country is absolutely extraordinary," Senator O'Neill said.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said a departmental review of the ABC was an "absolute joke".Australians will be the first to congratulate Prince Harry and wife Meghan on their baby news when the pair start their royal tour in Sydney.

Less than a day after revealing news of the pregnancy, the couple will begin their first official royal tour by cosying up to koalas and taking in Sydney's Opera House.

When the pair landed in Sydney on Monday morning Meghan sparked baby bump speculation as she clasped folders over her torso while walking through the airport.

Hours later, Kensington Palace tweeted: "Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the spring of 2019."

The palace said the couple had "appreciated all of the support they have received from people around the world since their wedding in May and are delighted to be able to share this happy news with the public."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the announcement, saying it was "fantastic news".

"Australia is thrilled for you both. Looking forward to sharing in the joy during your stay Down Under," he tweeted on Monday evening.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also sent her well wishes to the royals via a tweet: "Congratulations. Looking forward to welcoming you to Sydney tomorrow."

Tuesday will be the first opportunity for the public to interact with the couple when they visit Taronga Zoo and the Opera House.

In a jam-packed schedule of 76 engagements across 16 days, the royal duo will tour around Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

The tour coincides with the Invictus Games in Sydney, which kick off on Saturday and run for a week.

While Ms Berejiklian hoped the weather would hold up for their visit, the Bureau of Meteorology says Sydney's forecast for Tuesday is drizzly and cool, with showers continuing for most of the week.

Starting on Tuesday morning at Admiralty House, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be officially welcomed by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove.

They will then head to Taronga Zoo to meet two joey koalas named in their honour, before heading to the Opera House to watch a rehearsal by the Bangarra Dance Theatre.A diverse group of crossbench senators will urge the government to boycott a high-profile Saudi investment conference over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Greens will co-sign a Senate motion with the Australian Conservatives' Cory Bernardi and Centre Alliance's Rex Patrick calling on Australia to pull out of Saudi Arabia's "Davos in the Desert" event next week.

"The Australian government can't sit in silence at this egregious attack on the free press and a rules-based international order with the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul," Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said.

He wants the coalition and Labor to unite on Tuesday by supporting freedom of the press and passing the motion.

"Journalism is not a crime and the extra-judicial murder by governments of journalists is surely something that every Australian senator will strongly speak out against," Senator Whish-Wilson said.

Khashoggi, a US resident and columnist critical of Riyadh's policies, disappeared on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Turkey believes he was murdered and his body removed, but Saudi Arabia has denied that.

The crossbench motion also seeks to invite the Saudi ambassador to Australia to give the Senate the Kingdom's official response to the allegations.Labor wants laws protecting gay teachers from discrimination at religious schools brought in immediately, but the coalition isn't backing down yet.

Instead, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the government will first protect gay students from any religious school discrimination before considering other law changes.

Labor frontbencher Penny Wong will on Tuesday lead debate on a motion in the Senate calling for the immediate introduction of laws banning the rights of religious schools to discriminate against gay staff.

"Many religious education institutions have made clear that they do not use, nor do they want, these exemptions," her motion says.

She is also calling on the government to release the full report of the religious freedoms review, which recommended laws be changed to allow schools to discriminate against gay staff and students.

"They are important issues, but the issues we need to address right here and now relate to the children and ensuring we protect them against discrimination," Mr Morrison told parliament on Monday.

"There are many other issues that will be addressed as a result of the religious freedoms review, and there will be a time and a place to address those issues."

Religious schools in most states have been able to exclude LGBTI students since 2013, but have not been using the powers.

The coalition and Labor party rooms will meet on Tuesday morning where the issue is expected to be discussed.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also thinks the laws need to change.

"I don't think there's any room for discrimination, be it a student or against a teacher," he told the ABC.

"I do think we need to ensure that there is no discrimination in either our workplaces or in our schools."

Former prime minister Tony Abbott said he was mystified by the debate, saying there was no evidence gay kids had been discriminated against.

"Let's be very careful that anti-discrimination laws designed as shields are not converted by activists into swords."

Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Dr Glenn Davies said in a speech on Monday he supported clarification on the student issue, but on the issue of staffing "church schools should not be forced to play by secular rules".Australia is on the verge of joining a massive trade deal as Trans-Pacific Partnership legislation edges closer to passing parliament.

Senators are set to continue debate on the bill, which is expected to pass on Tuesday with bipartisan support.

Labor is backing the draft laws, despite raising concerns the TPP needs stronger labour market testing and could allow foreign companies to sue the government.

Centre Alliance is trying to amend TPP legislation to remove investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions before the deal comes into effect.

It will also try to mandate labour market testing before foreign workers can be employed in Australia.

Those amendments are set to be defeated, meaning the minor party will try to insert a sunset clause repealing the legislation if bilateral side letters removing ISDS and labour market provisions are not exchanged by the start of 2020.

The Greens and One Nation oppose the 11-nation trade deal, which the government claims will be worth an estimated $15.6 billion in net annual benefits to the national economy by 2030.Prime Minister Scott Morrison he could follow US President Donald Trump's lead and move Australia's embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

Mr Morrison expected to make an announcement on Tuesday as part of a foreign policy statement on Israel in Canberra.

The prime minister has also credited the Liberal Party's Wentworth by-election candidate Dave Sharma, a former Australian ambassador to Israel, with raising the issue.

"He's arguing it can be done consistent with Australia's long-running position ... He's actually changing the way in which the issue is conceived," Mr Morrison told Fairfax Media.

Wentworth, the former Sydney blue-ribbon electorate of Malcolm Turnbull, has a large Jewish community and voters will go to the polls this weekend.

If Australia does proceed, it will be following the US which earlier this year moved its embassy, effectively recognising the holy city of Jerusalem as the 'true' capital of Israel.

It would also be a departure from the position taken by former prime minister Mr Turnbull and former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

So far only the US and its ally Guatemala have moved their embassies to Jerusalem.The shifting of Australia's Israel embassy to Jerusalem would not help peace talks in the region, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed he's considering following United States President Donald Trump's lead by relocating Australia's embassy from Tel Aviv.

His New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, on Tuesday told reporters that while she was waiting for official confirmation of the proposed move and couldn't comment directly, any such move was not helpful for talks in the region.

"We support a two-state solution and our view has been that any shift in representation, in the way we saw with the United States, does not move us closer to that peaceful resolution," she said.

Ms Ardern was earlier this year critical of the US move, describing it as a step backwards for peace.Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are forecast to bring some rainy UK weather with them to drought-stricken Dubbo on the next leg of their first royal tour overseas.

After seeing the sights and meeting the people of Sydney on Tuesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will go on to their next stop in NSW's central west.

They will spend their day in Dubbo visiting the local Royal Flying Doctor Service base, a drought-stricken farm and a local school.

They will also meet Dubbo residents for a community picnic at a park in the regional city.

Despite most of the area being in the middle of one of the worst droughts NSW has seen, rain is forecast for most of Wednesday.

The trip comes on the heels of the announcement that the royal couple are expecting their first baby.

The Dubbo stop is part of a jam-packed schedule of 76 engagements across 16 days with the royals visiting Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland's Fraser Island as well as Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.Innocent citizens could be caught up in proposed new laws giving police greater powers at airports, the Law Council says.

A parliamentary committee on Wednesday will take evidence from lawyers and government officials about the police powers laws.

The bill allows police at certain airports to direct a person to provide evidence of their identity, and empowers officers to direct a person to leave an airport, or not take a flight, for up to 24 hours.

The laws were sparked by a number of recent incidents including a July 2017 terrorist plot targeting international flights departing Sydney.

However, Law Council president-elect Arthur Moses said the laws needed to be clearer in stating what was meant by the "good order" of an airport and flights.

"This creates uncertainty and the potential for the powers to be exercised ... in an arbitrary and potentially ad hoc manner," he said in his written submission to the inquiry.

The laws should also allow for judicial review of decisions including compensation for inconvenience of passengers.More than a quarter of Australians living with HIV don't have their virus suppressed, as experts call for a clear strategy to deal with issue.

They will gather in Canberra on Wednesday to meet with politicians and discuss key challenges around testing, treatment, prevention and discrimination.

There are 26,400 people with HIV in Australia, and last year 26 per cent of them did not have a suppressed viral load.

Of those 41 per cent were undiagnosed, 17 per cent were diagnosed but not in care, while the rest were in treatment but had not managed to suppress the virus.

Deborah Waterhouse, global chief executive of HIV company ViiV Healthcare, said bringing together experts with politicians would hopefully mean advances in care and better strategies.

"We believe that any policy or action in response to the HIV epidemic must be informed by the perspective of people with HIV," she said.

Health Minister Greg Hunt, Indigenous Health Minister Ken Wyatt and Labor health spokeswoman Catherine Hunt will address the meeting on Wednesday.New York, Oct 18, 2018 (SPS)-The Western Sahara conflict is a decolonization issue between the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco, affirmed Tuesday in New York Algerias Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Sabri Boukadoum.

Western Sahara is a decolonization issue between the Frente POLISARIO and the Kingdom of Morocco on a territory on the list of non-autonomous territories, pending the implementation of the historic resolution 1514 of the General Assembly, which establishes the right of colonized peoples to self-determination and independence, stated Ambassador Boukadoum in his speech at the fourth United Nations Decolonization Committee.

In a vibrant plea for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people, Boukadoum recalled the legal basis of this conflict, stressing that the advisory opinion delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1975 had unequivocally confirmed that it was up to the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination via a free and fair referendum.

In this regard, Boukadoum recalled that the only visit mission to Western Sahara in 1975 by the UN Decolonization Committee had stressed the need for measures to allow the Sahrawi people decide their future.

All UN resolutions, whether those of the General Assembly or the Security Council, have regularly reaffirmed the legal nature of the conflict and the validity of the self-determination principle, stated Boukadoum before the committee.

The Security Council resolution 2414 extending the Minurso mandate for six months has once again confirmed the validity of this principle, he continued.

Besides, the African Union (AU) remains constantly committed to resolving this conflict, notably through its supreme mechanism, the Heads of State and Government under a self-determination referendum.

The Pan-African Organization also decided to strengthen the mandate of its Special Envoy for Western Sahara, former President Chissano, and set up a troika as a monitoring mechanism to back AUs efforts and the UN process, Boukadoum affirmed.

The Ambassador also referred to the clear and indisputable decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which affirmed that the association and liberalization agreements sealed between the EU and Morocco were not applicable to Western Sahara because the Sahrawi territories are not part of Morocco.

The Algerian diplomat reaffirmed his support to the efforts made by the Envoy Horst Kohler and stressed that Algeria, as a neighbouring country and observer of the peace process, has immediately and favourably responded to Kohlers invitation to partake in the first series of direct negotiations between the Frente POLISARIO and Morocco scheduled on 5-6 December in Geneva.

Ambassador Boukadoum also stressed that it was "easy to build walls" but that it was also difficult "to build trust.

"Hostility has never been Algeria's preferred choice and acting in an open and transparent manner, in accordance with the principles enshrined in the United Nations doctrine and accepted by all, should not be considered a defect as or as hostility, said Boukadoum.

We cannot turn our backs on the principle of self-determination because it would mean turning our backs on our own history, said Boukadoum, recalling the "difficult and costly struggle" of the Algerian people to achieve independence.

Underlining Algeria's willingness to engage in a trust that will bring justice, freedom and progress to all Maghreb countries, the Ambassador reiterated the countrys commitment to the common future of the region. SPS

125/090/700Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he believes Australia can take a stance on issues - such as moving its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem - because it has good relationships with neighbouring nations.

"You've got to just stand up for what you believe," he told Sky News on Tuesday night.

"You can do that when you have good relationships with your neighbours, which we do."

His comments come as Indonesia warned Australia that moving its embassy to Jerusalem could undermine the peace process with Palestine.

But the world's largest Muslim country, which is a strong supporter of Palestine, has refused to comment on reports it's considering suspending a soon-to-be-signed trade deal with Australia.

Mr Morrison floated the idea of moving the embassy on Tuesday, just days out from a by-election in one of Australia's most Jewish electorates.

Indonesia's foreign minister has warned against the idea.

"Indonesia encourages Australia and other nations to continue to support the peace process and not conduct any action that could undermine the peace process and global security," Retno Marsudi told reporters on Tuesday.

The ABC reports Indonesia is considering suspending an imminent free trade agreement in response to Australia's proposal, but Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir declined to comment.

Mr Morrison said he was in contact with President Joko Widodo on Tuesday and had explained Australia's reasoning.

"I think people respect that countries will take positions on things from time to time," he said.

"What both Indonesia and Australia are committed to is a two-state solution when it comes to the Middle East."

He said there was merit in Australia being "upfront" with others.

"When you're upfront with people, I find you have a better chance of convincing people of the merits of your argument."

Mr Morrison earlier told parliament he looked forward to going to the ASEAN, APEC and G20 summits in coming months and talking about his ideas of doing things differently in the Middle East.

The free trade deal with Indonesia is set to unlock education opportunities in the Asian country, which has a workforce of more than 130 million people but half of them only have a primary school education.Prime Minister Scott Morrison is reportedly open to accepting New Zealand's offer to resettle 150 refugees from Nauru if parliament signs off on a "lifetime ban" bill.

Under the bill, any refugee settled in a third country would be banned from entering Australia even under a tourist or business visa. The legislation has been stuck since November 2016.

"(It) is opposed by the Labor Party and the Greens and crossbench senators, which is preventing that protection being put in place and I would urge them to reconsider their position on that," Mr Morrison said.

The ban would prevent refugees who came by boat and settled in New Zealand from ending up in Australia. Fairfax Media says the government may put the bill to the vote this week.

The development comes as Labor drafted legislation in response to growing concerns by Australian doctors about the care provided to children and their families on Nauru. They want to speed up the medical transfers of these refugees to Australia.

Three Liberal MPs have also taken the extraordinary step of demanding the prime minister get children off the Pacific island, citing serious fears about their health.HEARTWARMING MOMENTS BETWEEN HARRY AND MEGHAN ON THEIR AUSSIE TOUR:

BABY NEWS

Touching down at Sydney International Airport on Monday, Harry protectively guided Meghan to an awaiting car. Just hours later, Kensington Palace tweeted that the couple were expecting a baby.

PROUD PARENTS TO BE

In their first appearance since the news of Meghan's pregnancy broke, the couple smiled proudly and held hands on their tour through Admiralty House on Tuesday morning. It was there that the Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove gifted the couple a toy kangaroo with joey and a pair of tiny ugg boots.

HARRY UPSTAGED

Prince Harry jokingly scolded a man for gifting his wife a $500 bunch of flowers at Taronga Zoo on Tuesday morning. "You can't give flowers that big to my wife, what is that all about?" Harry joked. Meghan thanked the man for the extravagant arrangement.

WATCH YOUR STEP

Later in the day, the couple held hands as they walked down the steps of the Sydney Opera House to the cheers of thousands of fans. Harry had his gaze on the steps as Meghan made her way down in a pair of sky-high stiletto heels.

PARENTS-IN-TRAINING

Harry and Meghan have enjoyed their time with children on the tour and in many instances have crouched down to get closer to them. In a particularly touching moment in Dubbo on Wednesday, the couple ignored protocol and embraced five-year-old Luke Vincent, who has Down syndrome. The youngster pulled on Harry's facial hair and handed Meghan flowers.

TEAMWORK

As Harry delivered a speech at Dubbo's Victoria Park on Wednesday afternoon, Meghan held an umbrella over his head in an effort to shield him from the pouring rain. The former-actress encouragingly nodded as Harry spoke of the resilience of Australian farmers.Oxycodone pain pills have contibuted to an opioid addiction crisis that was the driving force behind 1,500 drug overdose deaths in New York in 2017

Prosecutors unveiled charges on Thursday against five New York doctors, a pharmacist and associates for allegedly illegally distributing millions of oxycodone pills and fueling the nation's opioid addiction crisis.

The 10 defendants, arrested in raids across the US financial capital, were accused of conducting little or no examination of patients before prescribing the pills in exchange for hefty cash payments.

"They were drug dealers in white coats," said Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for Manhattan. "They hid behind their medical licenses to sell addictive, dangerous narcotics," he added.

One doctor with offices in the Bronx and Westchester was accused of issuing oxycodone prescriptions in exchange for thousands of dollars, expensive dinners, high-end whisky, cruises and all-expenses-paid trips.

Another, Dante Cubangbang, 50, and his associates at a clinic in Queens, allegedly prescribed more than six million oxycodone pills knowing that the recipients had no legitimate medical need for them.

Those at the clinic allegedly collected more than $5 million in cash fees. "Part of what is driving this opioid epidemic is a prescription epidemic," Berman told a news conference.

"They did it for a very simple reason: greed. They did it for cash, for meals and expensive gifts," he added.

Carl Anderson, 57, a Staten Island physician, often saw patients in the middle of the night, where noisy crowds of pill-seeking patients prompted 911 calls from neighbors, prosecutors said.

Anthony Pietropinto, an 80-year-old Manhattan psychiatrist, wrote prescriptions to drug addicts, including one patient who overdosed, they added.

The opioid epidemic has helped fuel the first drop in US life expectancy at birth over two consecutive years since the early 1960s, statisticians say.

In 2016, 63,600 people died nationwide from a drug overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That works out to an average of 174 Americans a day.

In the city of New York alone, around 1,500 individuals died of drug overdose in 2017, and the majority of deaths involved opioids.

The battery of charges includes conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.Police remove a man named Randy Gardner who is wearing his executed brother's prison jumpsuit during a protest against the death penalty outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, in January 2017

The Supreme Court in the northwestern US state of Washington on Thursday ended use of the "racially biased" death penalty and immediately converted all death sentences to life imprisonment.

Washington, where there have been no executions since 2010, becomes the 20th state in which executions are banned.

The death penalty is not unconstitutional "per se," but it is "invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner," the state's top court unanimously ruled.

The death penalty has been "unequally applied -- sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant."

As administered in Washington state, the death penalty "fails to serve any legitimate penological goal," the court said.

The state's highest court issued the ruling while handling the case of Allen Eugene Gregory, sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a woman in 1996.

In his appeal Gregory included a study that showed the death penalty was applied differently from one court to another in Washington State and that, all things being equal, the probability of being sentenced to death was 4.5 times higher for African-Americans than for whites.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center the ruling directly affects eight people on the state's death row.

In their ruling, the justices noted that the state Supreme Court had already declared the death penalty unconstitutional three times earlier -- in 1972, 1979 and 1981 -- but that each time a new law was adopted.

Washington State has only carried out five executions since 1976 and Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, declared a moratorium on executions in 2014.

"This is a hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice," said Inslee, commenting on the ruling.

The use of the death penalty is on retreat across the United States, where only 39 people were sent to death row in 2017, compared to 295 in 1998 or even 114 in 2010.

Of the 30 states in which capital punishment is still legal, there have been no executions in 16 of them since 1976.

Since the start of the year 18 inmates have been executed in the United States, 10 of whom were put to death in Texas.South Korean President Moon Jae-in Moon is in Paris as part of a seven-day European tour that will see him also stop in Rome, Brussels and Copenhagen

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that world powers needed to reassure North Korea's Kim Jong Un that he had taken the right decision to commit to denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula.

Moon, who has met Kim Jong Un three times this year, was set to convey the message to French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday as part of a seven-day European tour that will see him also stop in Rome, Brussels and Copenhagen.

Moon told Le Figaro newspaper, in comments published in French, that Kim had "expressed his frustration at the continued scepticism of the international community" during their talks.

"We have to reassure Kim Jong Un that he has made the right choice in denuclearising and we need to support his desire for durable and solid peace," Moon added.

Moon, who met the North Korean leader in April, May and September, was instrumental in brokering a historic summit in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and Kim in June.

But some analysts believe the dovish South Korean leader has gambled too much on securing an end to hostilities on the peninsula and has so far secured only minimal concessions from Pyongyang.

It has also put him at odds with Washington, which is wary of the rapid pace of rapprochement between the two Koreas and believes pressure needs to be maintained until Kim fully dismantles his weapons programmes.

But Moon defended his strategy, saying that "despite his young age, Kim Jong Un has demonstrated sincerity, simplicity, calm and politeness" during their talks, which explained the rapidly warming relations between the one-time foes.

The two countries announced Monday that they will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the reconnection of their railways and roads as early as next month in yet another sign of the burgeoning ties.

Moon, a Catholic, is set to meet the pope on Thursday and said he will personally convey Kim's desire for the pontiff to visit North Korea.

He visits Brussels on Friday and Copenhagen on Saturday.Young members of the Druze community wave Syrian flags during a rally in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on October 6, 2018

The only crossing point between Syria and Israeli-controlled territory reopened Monday, an AFP correspondent reported, four years after closing due to the civil war on the Syrian side.

Two United Nations white jeeps crossed into Israeli-controlled territory through the reopened crossing near Quneitra in the Golan Heights after a deal between Israel, Syria and the UN.

The reopening is a further sign that the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is regaining territory lost to rebels in his country's seven-year civil war.

The country's flag was raised on the Syrian side of the crossing during a brief ceremony, the AFP correspondent said.

The Quneitra crossing is used primarily by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has around 1,000 troops who monitor a ceasefire line separating Israeli-occupied parts of the Golan Heights from Syria.

It was also used by Druze living on the Israeli side travelling to Syria for trade, education or weddings.

The main crossing between Syria and Jordan also reopened Monday.

Israel seized much of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.The failed 'okay to be white' was tabled by right-wing senator Pauline Hanson

Australia's indigenous affairs minister and several of his colleagues faced calls to resign Monday, after they backed a failed parliamentary motion tabled by a controversial senator that declared: "It is okay to be white."

Several government ministers -- including those for trade, communications and indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion -- backed a resolution drafted by populist firebrand senator Pauline Hanson which railed against what it described as "the deplorable rise of anti-white racism".

Luke Pearson, the founder of influential anti-racism group, IndigenousX, echoed a string of calls for Scullion to resign after the vote.

"The minister for Indigenous Affairs, voting in support of what is widely known to be a white supremacist slogan, 'It's okay to be white', makes his position as minister entirely untenable. He needs to resign," Pearson wrote.

Scullion, a white senator for the Northern Territory, has held the Indigenous Affairs portfolio since 2013.

During parliamentary debate Hanson defended trying to codify what opponents see as race baiting.

"Such a simple sentence should go without saying," Hanson told the chamber, before her motion was defeated 31 votes to 28. "But I suspect many members in this place would struggle to say it."

Greens leader Richard Di Natale decried the move.

"It's not just okay to be white in Australia, it's actually a ticket to winning the lotto. Look around this chamber and see how many faces aren't white," he said.

"The reality is this 'it's okay to be white' slogan has a long history in the white supremacist movement where both these clowns get most of their material from," he said referring to Hanson and another senator who supported the motion.

Although one-in-two Australians has a parent born abroad, racial inequality and public discourse on the issue is fraught.

Australia's treatment of its indigenous population has long been a festering historical and political sore.

The Aborginal population, who have occupied Australia for 50,000 years, were dispossessed of their lands by the arrival of settlers two centuries ago.

They remain among the most disadvantaged Australians.

They were believed to have numbered around one million at the time of British settlement, but now make up only about three percent of the total population of 25 million.Syrian rebel-fighters from the National Liberation Front (NLF) in a tank on October 9, 2018 that had been withdrawn from a planned buffer zone around Idlib in northwestern Syria

Jihadists in Syria's Idlib failed to meet a Monday deadline to leave a planned buffer zone ringing the country's last rebel bastion, casting fresh doubt over a deal to avert bloodshed.

A Russian-Turkish truce agreement reached nearly a month ago for the northwestern region gave "radical fighters" until October 15 to leave a proposed demilitarised area between government and opposition forces.

The accord was a last-ditch effort to stave off a regime onslaught on Idlib, the largest rebel stronghold left in war-ravaged Syria and home to around three million people.

But the target date for the withdrawal came and went without any hardliners leaving.

"We did not document the withdrawal of any jihadist fighters from the entire demilitarised zone," Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, said on Monday morning.

Jihadists had until midnight Sunday to Monday to pull out, according to Abdel Rahman and two rebel commanders in Idlib.

Syria's government said it would take "time" to judge if the deal had failed.

"We have to wait for the Russian reaction. Russia is monitoring and following the situation," Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told reporters in Damascus.

Hours before the cut-off time, Idlib's jihadist heavyweight Hayat Tahrir al-Sham vowed to continue fighting.

"We have not abandoned our choice of jihad and fighting towards implementing our blessed revolution," said HTS, an alliance led by Al-Qaeda's onetime Syria branch.

HTS and other, more extreme jihadists hold over two-thirds of the planned buffer area, and over half of the rest of Idlib.

Their withdrawal was seen as the real test of the accord reached on September 17 between rebel backer Ankara and regime supporter Moscow in the Russian resort town of Sochi.

- Pullout still possible -

The deal provides for a 15-20 kilometre buffer zone semi-circling opposition-held areas in Idlib and the neighbouring provinces of Latakia, Hama, and Aleppo.

It set a first deadline of October 10 for all rebels and jihadists to pull heavy weapons from the zone, a task which Turkey, the Observatory, and rebels said was done on time.

But late Saturday, mortar rounds fired from the buffer hit regime positions and killed two soldiers, the Observatory said, indicating heavy arms may still be in the zone.

The apparent violation came just ahead of the deal's second and more consequential deadline: a full jihadist withdrawal of the zone by Monday, paving the way for Russia and Turkey to monitor the area.

HTS has yet to take a formal stance on the Sochi accord and its most recent statement made no mention of the deadline.

But it and other jihadists appeared to have quietly pulled out their heavy arms in line with the first deadline on October 10.

That, observers said, could indicate that hope was not yet lost for the buffer.

"Even if the agreement is not fully implemented today, it doesn't mean that it's not holding," said Haid Haid, research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College in London.

HTS would seek the "best possible scenario" for its own survival, but that may include "a partial withdrawal."

Sam Heller, an International Crisis Group analyst, said the ambiguity in HTS's statement "could be seen as a sort of internal acceptance of the Sochi deal and its implementation".

The onus was now on Ankara and Moscow -- the deal's two sponsors and the chief powerbrokers of the Syrian war -- to overcome the missed deadline.

"October 15 is a test of Turkey's ability to implement the deal, but at the same time it's a test of Russia's intentions and how serious it is about continuing the agreement," Heller told AFP.

It would show whether Moscow was committed to keeping the deal alive or "implementing it to the letter," he said.

- Better late than never? -

Last week, Russia hinted that it could accept a brief delay if it meant the spirit of the deal was still upheld.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the buffer should be fully operational by October 15, but that a delay of one or two days would "make no difference."

"In any case the quality of the work is more important... We actively support the efforts of our Turkish partners," he said.

And Syria's top diplomat Muallem said an interview earlier this month that the deal may take until December to execute.

Last week, aid groups warned of massive humanitarian consequences "if either the deal collapses or fighting escalates in areas not covered by it".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other top government officials have said the Idlib deal was only "temporary," and that the area would eventually fall back to government hands.An Israeli soldier walks opposite Syria's national flag (C) on the Israeli side of the newly-reopened Quneitra crossing

Closed for years due to the civil war, Syria on Monday reopened a vital border post with Jordan as well as a crossing into the Israeli-controlled Golan, as President Bashar al-Assad's regime bolsters its control after sweeping advances against rebels.

Two white jeeps crossed into Israeli-controlled territory during a low-key ceremony to mark the reopening of the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights, four years after it was closed when Syrian rebels seized nearby territory.

Dozens of kilometres (miles) to the south and three years after it too was closed, a black metal border gate opened at the Nassib crossing into Jordan as police and customs officials stood nearby.

The Jordan crossing was previously a major trading route, while the remote Quneitra post is used primarily by a United Nations force which monitors a ceasefire line separating Israeli-occupied parts of the Golan Heights from Syria.

Their reopening were indications of a clear trend in Syria's civil war, with Assad's government -- backed by Russian and Iranian military support -- taking back huge swathes of land in the past year.

Also on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said after talks in Damascus with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim Jaafari that the country's Albu Kamal border post with Iraq would also reopen "as soon as possible".

Even though Syria's government still controls only around half of the border crossings with its neighbours, Assad's forces have made major advances near Jordan and seized almost the entire province of Quneitra this summer.

'Safe country'

Syrian businessman Hisham Falyoun, who lives in Jordan with his wife and children, was the first person to cross the border in his black Mercedes jeep.

Border crossings in southwest Syria

"I wanted to be the first person to cross to show everyone that Syria is safe, Syria is back," said Falyoun, who was hoping to surprise his parents in Damascus.

The border crossing, known as Jaber on the Jordanian side and Nassib on the Syrian side, was a key trade route before Amman closed it after the post was overrun by rebels in April 2015.

In Quneitra, the reopening was the result of a deal between Israel, Syria and the United Nations.

It will allow forces from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has around 1,000 troops, to patrol the area of the crossing, after withdrawing in 2014 when Al-Qaeda-linked rebels overran the area.

Israel seized control of much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war and later annexed it, in moves never recognised by the international community.

Vehicles arrive at the Jaber border crossing between Jordan and Syria (Nassib crossing on the Syrian side) on the day of its reopening

Many of the 18,0000 Druze Muslim residents of the region retained Syrian citizenship and will be able to use the crossing.

Nazeeh Ibrahim, 65, one of a handful of Golan Druze who witnessed Monday's opening, described the crossing as a "lifeline".

"We are Syrians and will remain so," he said, explaining he had family inside the country.

At first the crossing will only be open to UNDOF peacekeepers, an Israeli officer said, but is expected to be expanded to Druze residents in the coming months.

'Clear address'

Israel had supported some rebel groups in the Golan during the seven-year Syrian civil war, seeking to create a buffer zone against Iranian influence.

Last month, it ended its 'Good Neighbour' support programme for rebels in the Golan that saw thousands brought to Israel for medical treatment, as well as aid shipped across the border.

United Nations peacekeepers observe the Quneitra border crossing with Syria in the Israeli annexed-Golan Heights

It has expressed concern that Iranian-backed groups allied to Assad, including Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, could move into the Golan, creating a threat to Israeli cities.

So far there is no Hezbollah presence near the crossing, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and the Israeli army has said it expects the UNDOF forces to keep "hostile groups" from the region.

The United States has welcomed the reopening, saying it would "allow UN peacekeepers to step up their efforts to prevent hostilities in the Golan Heights region".

For Eyal Zisser, director of the Middle East Studies Department at Tel Aviv University, the reopening forms part of a "return to normal".

"The border between Israel and Syria was very calm before the start of the Syrian civil war and the return to normal is very convenient for Israel," he said.

"There is no Daesh (the Islamic State organisation), no Iranians or Hezbollah, there is a clear address on the other side, that's all that Israel wants," he added.When trainer Bruce Saunders last sent a horse postward in the Breeders Crown, he took home a crystal trophy with three-year-old pacing colt Rock N Roll Heaven. That was back in 2010 when the Crown races were first held at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

This year he will return to Pocono and the Breeders Crown with two-year-old pacing colt Mangogh, a $63,000 yearling purchase (under the name Critical Artist) for M And L of Delaware and New York City-based M & M Harness Racing. He is from the family of three-time Breeders Crown winner My Little Dragon.

We went to Harrisburg looking to buy him, explained Doug Paul of M And L of Delaware. He comes from a good family and we have had several of them and he was a good looking colt. He has exceeded our expectations.

Mangogh, a son of Western Ideal from the Real Artist mare My Little Artist, has posted a 10-4-2-2 summary this year. He took his 1:50.3 lifetime mark in his most recent start at Lexingtons Red Mile in the International Stallion Stakes. He also posted wins in the Reynolds Stakes and Liberty Bell, as well as a solid second-place effort in the Bluegrass. His bankroll stands at $117,980.

He certainly had ability from the start, said Saunders, who has trained the winners of more than $30 million in purses. He always wanted to grab the bit and go on from the first time we trained him, but he has really matured. We have made some slight changes  we want them to go as free and easy as possible  and we have been able to lower his head, let him be more comfortable as he has learned his ways.

Mangogh missed the board in his first two starts before running off a string of eight straight finishes of third or better. Saunders credits his drivers.

As a trainer you want to have the same driver on a colt week in and week out, but that doesnt always happen, he said. They have other clients who may have more horses. I get that. But Timmy (Tetrick) has been a huge help with his input. I have to credit some of his other drivers, Andrew McCarthy and Eric Carlson, their input is helpful.

Mangogh wll start from the rail in Race 5, the first of three $25,000 Breeders Crown eliminations for two-year-old pacing colts and geldings Friday. McCarthy is scheduled to drive. Poconos first-race post time will be at 7 p.m. (EDT). Mangoghs elim has been scheduled for 8:12 p.m.

The top three finishers from each freshman colt pace elimination will advance to the $600,000 final, which will be contested on Saturday, October 27. The draw is scheduled to take place live after Race 12 on Friday. Elimination winners, in an order by lot, will draw for posts one through five.

Mangogh is 5-1 on the morning line. De Los Cielos Deo, the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes final runner-up, is the 2-1 favourite. Pennsylvania Sire Stakes champ Proof is the 5-2 choice in the second elimination and Workin Ona Mystery, unbeaten in five races, is the 5-2 pick in the third.

For the nights complete entries, click here.

(Breeders Crown)Ivorian riot police officers fanned out across many areas in anticipation of violence linked to Saturday's tense election

Riot police fired teargas overnight to break up crowds of demonstrators demanding the release of results from a tense weekend election in Ivory Coast, a candidate and witnesses said.

A number of people were injured during the incident which occurred overnight in Grand-Bassam, a beach resort town near Ivory Coast's main city Abidjan and followed a day of tension over Saturday's elections that were marred by clashes which left one man dead.

"People had gathered outside the police headquarters to demand that the results be declared," Georges Ezaley told AFP, a candidate with the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI).

"At around 1:00 am, the police broke up the crowd by firing tear gas, many people were wounded, mainly older people," he said, his words confirmed by a local resident.

"The people were surrounding the police headquarters to wait for the results, they were teargassed," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The results were validated on Sunday morning by the Independent Electoral Commission and signed off by the representatives of all the candidates but by Sunday evening, they still hadn't announced them," Ezaley said.

"There is something amiss here."

By Monday morning, the results had still not been published.

Supporters of the PDCI were blocked by police as they sought to rally on a street in Abidjan

Saturday's elections were overshadowed by tensions within the ruling RHDP coalition, which is divided over who should be its candidate in the upcoming presidential election in 2020.

The two-party coalition, which comprises the RDR of President Alassane Ouattara and the historically dominant PDCI, has ruled Ivory Coast since 2010.

But in the run-up to the Saturday's elections, their alliance broke down, with each fielding rival candidates in many areas.

During the vote, a man in his 30s was killed during clashes between rival political groups in Lakota, a town in the south, where supporters of the independent mayor clashed with those of his RHDP challenger.

Scuffles and clashes also occurred elsewhere in the area where campaigning took place in a very tense atmosphere.US Senator Elizabeth Warren is seen as a top contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, released DNA test results Monday confirming her Native American ancestry and challenged Donald Trump to donate the $1 million he promised if the results proved her claim.

The 69-year-old Warren, a leading progressive voice, has been derisively called "Pocahontas" by the president and accused of lying about her lineage in order to gain advantages in her career including a plum teaching job at Harvard.

But an analysis of her DNA performed by Stanford University professor Carlos Bustamante concluded that while the vast majority of Warren's ancestry is European, there is definitive evidence that she has Native American blood.

"The facts suggest that you absolutely have a Native American ancestor in your pedigree," Bustamante said in a video released by Warren on Twitter.

The Democrat said Bustamante's analysis concludes that her DNA "contains Native American ancestry."

According to the Boston Globe, Bustamante calculated that Warren's Native American ancestor appeared in her family tree "in the range of 6-10 generations ago."

The result appears to tie in with what Warren has said about her family lore of a great-great-great-grandmother who was at least partially Native American.

Warren, who was raised in Oklahoma but represents Massachusetts, made an elaborate rollout of the results Monday in order to dispel questions from Republican critics that have dogged her for years.

"I never expected my family's story to be used as a racist political joke, but I don't take any fight lying down," she tweeted.

- 'Who cares?' -

Trump seized on Warren's heritage claims during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he labeled her "Pocahontas," a racial slur.

At a campaign-style rally in July Trump revived the attack in a challenge to Warren: "I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you're an Indian."

Warren on Monday was quick to remind the president of his provocation, pointing out that her chosen charity is the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.

"Send them your $1M check, @realdonaldtrump," she said.

Asked by reporters about Warren's DNA test, Trump responded dismissively: "Who cares?"

But when pressed about her call for him to pay up, Trump turned defensive. "I didn't say that. You better read it again," he said.

Warren's four-minute video appears aimed at settling the longstanding dispute about her blood line, as well as charges from critics that she used her heritage to advance her career.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly mocked Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas" for her claims of Native American heritage, but she has released DNA test results that conclude she is partly Native American

"My background played no role in my hiring," she says in the video, which includes clips from several bosses and co-workers saying she was hired on her merits.

Warren's results revelation is reminiscent of Barack Obama's decision in 2011 to release his long-form birth certificate following years of haranguing by Trump, who pushed the conspiracy theory that the nation's first black president was born in Kenya.Indian Hindu devotees have protested against a recent Supreme Court verdict to allow women into the famous Ayyappa temple

Thousands of devotees joined street marches in southern India on Monday as tensions mounted over a recent Supreme Court verdict revoking a ban on women entering a famous Hindu temple.

The Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala -- considered one of the holiest for Hindus -- in Kerala state has traditionally barred all women of menstruating age, between 10 and 50.

But India's top court revoked the ban on women entering the temple in September, ruling that patriarchy cannot be allowed to trump faith.

Those protesting against the court's decision on Monday, including hundreds of women, warned they would step up their protests before the temple reopens on Wednesday, when it will have to allow all women entry as per the court order.

"These protests have taken place in several districts over the last few days. We don't yet have an exact number but the people ended their march in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram today," Pramod Kumar, Kerala police spokesman, told AFP.

Local media showed thousands participating in the march supported by the local unit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Smaller protests have also taken place elsewhere in India in recent days including in Ahmedabad in western India.

Modi's BJP -- which has historically been on the margins of state politics in Kerala -- and its allies have supported these marches in different parts of the state over the last few days.

Several other local religious and political organisations have also given their support to the protest marches.

"We will meet each villager in Kerala and chalk out a massive agitation plan to protect the temple, its centuries-old traditions and sentiments of Lord Ayyappa devotees," Kerala BJP president P.S Sreedharan Pillai told NDTV.

Pillai warned the local government of even bigger protests if the issue wasn't resolved within the next 24 hours.

- Violation of rights -

Millions of devotees visit the temple every year to seek the blessings of Lord Ayyappa, the presiding deity who is believed to be celibate.

According to the temple website, pilgrims have to observe celibacy for 41 days before entering the shrine. Some worshippers take an arduous forest route to reach the hilltop temple, located some 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) above sea level.

Dipak Misra, Chief Justice of India at the time the ban was revoked, said banning the entry of a large section of women was discriminatory and violated their rights.

"Prohibiting women (from entering the temple) violates the right of a woman to worship and practise religion," he said.

Activists batting for women's entry into the temple argued that the ban reflected an old but still prevalent belief that menstruating women were impure.

The devotees opposed to the court ruling have argued that it affects the core belief of the decentralised Hindu temple system, where the deities have certain rights.

Women in India have been intensifying campaigns in recent years to be allowed to enter temples and other religious sites.

In 2016, women campaigned in Maharashtra state to successfully end a ban on women entering the Shani Shingnapur temple.

Women were also prevented from entering Mumbai's Haji Ali Dargah mausoleum until the court scrapped the rule in 2016.A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace shows Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz attending September's inauguration of a new high-speed railway linking Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest cities

Saudi King Salman has begun weighing in to try to defuse the growing crisis over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as the kingdom goes on the offensive triggering a fierce online media campaign.

In a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday, the king denied "any knowledge of whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen'", the US leader said in a tweet.

Trump added he was "immediately" sending Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh "to meet with the king" for talks on the crisis.

The disappearance of Khashoggi, last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, has whipped up international concern, with new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman increasingly the focus of sharp criticism.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi -- a Washington Post contributor who was critical of Prince Mohammed's policies -- was killed inside the mission, and lurid claims have even been leaked that he was tortured and even dismembered.

After an initial silence, Riyadh said Khashoggi had left the consulate safely and then at the weekend denied as "baseless" claims that orders were given to have him killed.

As western companies began to distance themselves from the oil-rich Gulf nation which is seeking outside investment to diversify its economy, the king also Sunday discussed the scandal with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He reiterated Riyadh's "solid" relations with Ankara, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

It is not the first time that King Salman has sought to ease tensions surrounding the 33-year-old Prince Mohammed, who has been cultivated by the US but whose reformist credentials are being quickly shredded by the mystery surrounding Khashoggi's fate.

In an earlier phone call with Trump in April, King Salman reiterated Riyadh's position that Jerusalem must remain the capital of Palestine amid speculation that the kingdom had given up on the longstanding position.

- 'A message to the US' -

Aleksandar Mitreski, a security and defence analyst, said Saudi Arabia cannot control the international narrative but can try to alleviate the most damaging fallout.

Saudi Arabia warned Sunday it would retaliate against any sanctions imposed over the Khashoggi's disappearance after Trump threatened "severe punishment" if the writer was found to be a victim of a state-sponsored killing.

"The purpose of (Sunday's) message broadcasted by the Saudi national media is twofold: one goal is to satisfy the domestic public opinion that Saudi Arabia and its royal family will not be humiliated and the other goal is to send a message to the US," Mitreski, researcher at the University of Sydney, told AFP.

In this file photo taken in May 2017, US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud

The kingdom's warning was not only a response to Trump, but also targeted at US decision-makers amid rising calls for Congress to step in and put key arms sales on hold, he said.

"It will be the task of political advisors and strategists to prevent Trump from causing damage to the US-Saudi relationship," he added.

As the United States and Turkey have ratched up pressure on the kingdom, Saudi companies, officials and princes have also gone online in a wave of solidarity with the ruling family.

- 'Kingdom always prevails' -

Saudi flags, photos of the king and crown prince looking stern, and pro-Saudi hashtags were making the rounds on social media Monday with a common theme: Saudi Arabia and its ruling family are a "red line".

Saudi Minister of Information Awwad al-Awwad tweeted on Sunday that the kingdom "always prevails against its enemies... under the wise leadership of the king and crown prince" using the Arabic hashtag #Saudis_In_Line_With_TheLeadership.

Billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal -- who was among those temporarily detained as part of what Saudi authorities said was an anti-corruption crackdown -- tweeted an image of the Saudi flag Sunday in support of the ruling family, saying: "God, then the king, then the nation."

A Saudi Arabia flag flies in front of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 13, 2018

One Twitter user said the Saudis "will not bow down and will not kneel, but only to God... We are all Salman, and we are all Mohammed".

Some Saudis opted to remain silent for fear of consequences.

"What is the use of discussing an issue that might throw you in a place you don't want to be?" a Saudi citizen, residing in Dubai, told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Let us wait quietly."

James Dorsey, a fellow at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said Saudi Arabia was stepping up moves against criticism.

"There's been stark repression of anyone whose comments are not supportive of the government," he told AFP, as Saudi's public prosecutor warned earlier this week that those spreading fake news can be sentenced to five years in jail.

There has been "a concerted effort on social and state-controlled media to portray Khashoggi's disappearance as a conspiracy against the kingdom", he added.Israeli soldiers patrol near the Jewish neighborhood in the divided city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on October 14, 2018

A Palestinian was shot dead Monday after trying to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank, the army said.

An Israeli military statement said the man who tried to attack the soldier near the Jewish settlement of Ariel was shot and killed.

There were no immediate details on the alleged attacker's identity.

A series of deadly incidents have increased tensions in the West Bank this month.

On October 7 a Palestinian shot dead two Israelis and wounded another in a West Bank settlement.

Israeli forces continue to hunt for the suspect.

On Friday, a Palestinian woman died after Israeli settlers threw stones at her car near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Israeli police confirmed the incident but did not say who threw the stones.

A wave of mainly lone-wolf Palestinian attacks against Israelis broke out in 2015.

The wave of attacks has decreased since, but analysts remain concerned over the potential for another surge.US President Donald Trump says Saudi King Salman has strongly denied involvement in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

US President Donald Trump said Monday that "rogue killers" could be to blame for the disappearance of a dissident Saudi journalist and said that the oil-rich state's monarch emphatically denies involvement.

"The denial was very, very strong," Trump told reporters at the White House after talking to King Salman by telephone. "It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?"

"All I can do is report what he told me. He told me in a very firm way that they had no knowledge of it. He said it very strongly," Trump said.

Trump said that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way to Saudi Arabia within the hour to discuss the controversy over journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to The Washington Post and critic of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi vanished after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish sources say he was murdered there by a team of Saudi agents.

Trump has taken a cautious position, threatening "severe punishment" should proof emerge of Saudi guilt, but insisting that he will not risk billions of dollars in deals to sell US weapons to the kingdom, a strategic ally in the tinder box Middle East.

Following days of mounting tensions, Saudi officials were allowing Turkish investigators to enter the consulate on Monday.

A Turkish diplomatic source said it was expected that the search, to be conducted jointly with Saudi authorities, would "take place towards the evening."

Lurid claims have appeared in Turkish media, including that Khashoggi was tortured before being killed and cut up. However, the Turkish leadership has so far refrained from pointing the finger directly at Riyadh in public comments.

Donald Trump (R) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman al-Saud pictured on May 20, 2017 in Riyadh on the US president's first foreign trip

The controversy has also embarrassed Saudi Arabia's other traditional Western allies -- many of them arms suppliers to the kingdom -- and undermined efforts by the prince, Mohammed, to present himself as the modernizing future of the kingdom.

An investment conference seen as a platform for the crown prince, due to take place next week in Riyadh and dubbed "Davos in the Desert," has been hit by a string of prominent cancellations.

Business barons including British billionaire Richard Branson and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, as well as media powerhouses like Bloomberg and CNN, have pulled out of the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

In major new twin blows to the credibility of the event, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Ford chairman Bill Ford also cancelled plans to attend, CNBC reported.

In Washington, Trump's son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, is coming under pressure after having spearheaded the administration's strategy to forge close ties with Mohammed.

But US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday that he still plans to attend the Saudi conference.

"If more information comes out over the next week, I will obviously take that into account," he said.Ramaphosa's office denied he had been warned about the bank's imminent collapse

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday denied accusations that he ignored widespread looting and financial misconduct at a major retail bank that collapsed weeks after he came into office.

VBS Mutual gained notoriety in 2016 when it lent scandal-tainted former president Jacob Zuma $540,000 (466,000 euros) to repay taxpayers for upgrades he made to his private home.

Ramaphosa dismissed local media claims that he was forewarned about massive fraud at VBS months before it collapsed earlier this year while he was still deputy president and that he failed to act.

"The presidency categorically rejects reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa failed to take action on the VBS Bank saga despite being alerted to irregularities back in 2017," said a statement from his office.

"The allegation is baseless and unsubstantiated."

His office added that "the claim that President Ramaphosa was forewarned about the impending implosion of VBS Bank is unsubstantiated."

The bank collapsed in March, a month after Ramaphosa took over from Jacob Zuma, who was forced to resign in February.

A probe commissioned by the country's central bank showed that the bank failed after 1.9 billion rand ($130 million) was looted over three years.

The investigation's damning report, titled "The Great Bank Heist", described the bank as "corrupt and rotten to the core".

It implicated 53 individuals including senior members of the ruling African National Congress.

The probe also revealed malpractice including the supply of overdrafts to well-connected clients and payments made to individuals in exchange for deposits from state-owned companies.

The investigation was launched after VBS suffered a liquidity crisis and was put into administration earlier this year.

By 2017 the bank had 30,000 clients and deposits worth $55 million, according to local media.

Some analysts suggested that Ramaphosa turned a blind eye because he feared jeopardising his chances of winning the ANC's party leadership and his subsequent ascent to the presidency.Riot police were called to violence outside the Chinese-owned Fu Yuen Garment factory after armed thugs beat up and hospitalised some striking workers

Riot police rushed to the scene of clashes at a strike-hit Myanmar garment factory on Monday after protesting workers say dozens were injured when they were attacked by a mob of "hired thugs".

The predominantly female workers started picketing the Chinese-owned Fu Yuen Garment Co Ltd factory in Yangon nearly two months ago over alleged poor conditions and mistreatment, in a country that is becoming Asia's latest hub for low-cost clothing.

While most of the protesters' complaints had been resolved, the factory owners refused to re-hire the 30 workers who initially instigated the strike -- prompting more anger from workers who continued to camp outside the factory gates in protest.

But after eight weeks one of the protest leaders, Than Than Soe, told AFP that around "40 thugs" set upon them early on Monday morning.

"The thugs came and started to beat us with wooden sticks and metal bars," she said.

"Twenty-eight people were wounded, six seriously," she said, adding that all but one of the injured were women.

The violence then escalated further as local people hurled rocks and sticks at the factory, smashing several windows.

Some two dozen riot police were deployed to keep back the angry crowd gathering outside the factory gates in Dagon Seikkan township on the outskirts of Yangon.

In a statement released later on Facebook, the police offered a different version of events, accusing the protesters of starting the clashes against non-striking workers.

No arrests have yet been confirmed at the factory which employs some 1,200 women and 100 men, according to the police.

Factory representatives at Fu Yuen could not be reached for comment.

Workers say they set up a union two years ago to fight for their rights after enduring abuse from managers, limited toilet breaks and unbearably hot working conditions.

Myanmar's garment industry exports exceeded $2 billion last year with the European Union as the sector's fastest-growing and largest export market.

Four-fifths of the industry's more than 400,000 workers are women.

But many of those jobs could be threatened if the EU revokes the industry's tariff-free access over the Rakhine crisis that saw the military force more than 720,000 Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh last year.Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old who was researching the UAE's foreign and internal security policies after the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, was detained at Dubai airport

The United Arab Emirates is to try a British PhD student detained in May on charges of spying, local media reported Monday, after London raised concern over his case.

Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old who was researching the UAE's foreign and internal security policies after the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions, was detained at Dubai airport on May 5.

He is to stand trial in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi "on charges of spying for a foreign country, jeopardising the military, political and economic security of the state", attorney general Hamad al-Shamsi said, quoted by local media.

Shamsi, without giving a trial date, said the charges were "based on legal evidence and findings from investigations that were carried out by the public prosecution".

Hedges had been posing as a researcher to cover his activities, he said, adding that the accusations were backed by "information taken from his electronic devices".

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told AFP last week that he was "very worried" about Hedges' fate.

The detainee's wife Daniela Tejada, who has visited him once and spoken to him on the phone several times, said he was expected to appear in court on October 24.

Her husband, held in solitary confinement, was "a man of integrity and principle. He has a brilliant academic mind... He is kind and caring and greatly loved and respected. Please send him home."

Tejada said last week that his research involved only open resources.

"He's not disclosed anything... classified or confidential," she said, adding that Hedges had lived in the UAE for "several years" before he returned to Britain in 2015.South Korean President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference in Paris on Monday

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that world powers needed to reassure North Korea's Kim Jong Un that he had taken the right decision in committing to scrap his nuclear weapons programme.

Moon, who has met Kim three times this year, is on a seven-day tour of Europe where he is expected to update leaders in Paris, Rome and Brussels on the rapidly thawing relations between Seoul and Pyongyang.

Moon, who met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, said the UN Security Council needed to play an "active role" in helping convince the reclusive North Korean leader to fully abandoned his atomic programme.

"They need to feel confident that they have made the right choice in accepting to destroy their nuclear weapons," Moon said at a joint press conference in Paris, adding that France had "a major role to play."

Ahead of his meeting with Macron, Moon told France's Le Figaro newspaper that Kim had "expressed his frustration at the continued scepticism of the international community" during their talks.

Moon, who met with his North Korean counterpart in April, May and September, was instrumental in brokering a historic summit in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and Kim in June.

But some analysts say the dovish South Korean leader has gambled too much on securing an end to hostilities on the peninsula and has so far obtained only minimal concessions from Pyongyang.

It has also put him at odds with Washington, which is wary of the rapid pace of rapprochement between the two Koreas and believes pressure needs to be maintained until Kim fully dismantles his weapons programmes.

Macron too ruled out any sanctions relief or making further concessions to North Korea amid continued fears that Kim might not be prepared to commit to an "irreversible and verifiable" deal to abandon his nuclear ambitions.

"We need to have progress to do anything more diplomatically," Macron said, adding that France remained in favour of keeping UN sanctions in place and would argue for this at the UN Security Council, where it has a permanent seat.

- 'Good to keep leverage' -

South Korean President Moon Jae-in Moon is in Paris as part of a seven-day European tour that will see him also stop in Rome, Brussels and Copenhagen

Macron also ruled out the symbolic gesture of re-establishing a French embassy in North Korea.

"It's good to keep some leverage to help ensure that there are changes," Macron said in a veiled warning about the dangers of giving up too much, too soon to Pyongyang.

Moon defended his strategy in the Le Figaro interview, saying that "despite his young age, Kim Jong Un has demonstrated sincerity, simplicity, calm and politeness" during their talks.

The two Koreas announced a new confidence-building measure on Monday that will see them reconnect their railways and roads as early as next month.

Moon is set to hold talks with French business leaders on Tuesday during the final leg of his French trip, with the agenda set to be dominated by trade, which has tripled in the last 20 years to 8.0 billion euros (9.2 billion dollars).

The South Korea leader, who is Catholic, is set to meet the pope on Thursday and will personally convey Kim's desire for the pontiff to visit North Korea.

He visits Brussels on Friday and Copenhagen on Saturday.Donald Trump a Washington avant son depart en Floride le 15 octobre 2018

President Donald Trump visited Florida on Monday, nearly a week after Hurricane Michael slammed the southern US state, where thousands of people are struggling to survive without running water or electricity.

Michael smashed into Florida's western coast on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm, packing winds of 155 miles (250 kilometers) per hour as it began a northern march through several states on the United States' southeast coast, killing at least 17 people.

"Just arrived in Florida," Trump tweeted upon arrival, having left Washington with his wife Melania in the morning. "Also thinking about our GREAT Alabama farmers and our many friends in North and South Carolina today. We are with you!"

The president, who was also due to visit Georgia, spoke briefly with reporters alongside Florida's Governor Rick Scott, whom he praised for "doing an incredible job."

The governor thanked Trump for federal aid, saying that everything the state asked for had been delivered.

- 'Just survival' -

Florida's Panama City, along with the small seaside resort of Mexico Beach, were left particularly devastated, with thousands of homes and businesses destroyed.

Power lines and telephone networks remained out of service in many neighborhoods, with only major highways cleared.

"You wouldn't even know they had homes," Trump said of people whose houses were swept off their foundations as the monster storm hit.

Relief workers who arrived in the aftermath of the hurricane set up water and food distribution centers, as cars formed long queues in front of the few gas stations open for business.

More than half of Bay County, which includes Panama City, was still without electricity Monday morning, while several inland counties were more than 80 percent cut off, according to emergency service officials.

"Right now it's just survival," said Daniel Fraga, a resident of Panama City. "The good thing is we all came together, we all help each other. We are in this together."

The US Army, National Guard and police have been crisscrossing the area, which at dusk goes dark.

Tyndall Air Force Base, located between Panama City and Mexico Beach, suffered extensive damage and reports had speculated on the fate of a number of F-22 fighter jets that could not be flown out ahead of Michael's arrival.

The unit cost of the aircraft is around $150 million, which soars to over $330 million when research and development are priced in.

"Visually, they were all intact and looked much better than expected considering the surrounding damage to some structures," the Air Force said in a statement.

"Our maintenance professionals will do a detailed assessment of the F-22 Raptors and other aircraft before we can say with certainty that damaged aircraft can be repaired and sent back into the skies."The World Economic Forum said that the Saudi Public Investment Fund's meeting in Riyadh, dubbed "Davos in the Desert," has "generated a great deal of misunderstandings"

The host of an annual gathering of political and business elites at Davos slammed Monday the "misuse" of the Swiss ski resort's name in reports on an investment conference in Riyadh.

"The Saudi Public Investment Fund's meeting in Riyadh, which has been dubbed as 'Davos in the Desert', has generated a great deal of misunderstandings," the World Economic Forum said in a statement amid the Saudi event being hit by a string of prominent cancellations as part of an international outcry over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"While we understand that 'Davos' can be a synonym for summits, the misuse of the 'Davos' name is a great concern as it generates confusion around our mission and our work," it said.

"The Riyadh event is not connected, linked or in any way associated with the World Economic Forum," said WEF, which hosts its plush gathering of the world's rich, famous and influential at the luxury Swiss ski resort each January.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and US resident who became increasingly critical of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen since he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to sort out marriage paperwork on October 2.

Since his disappearance, a number of business barons, including British billionaire Richard Branson and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowhahi, and media power houses like Bloomberg and CNN, have said they no longer intend to participate.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has convened "an emergency committee" on the current outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo's violence-torn North Kivu region

The World Health Organization said Monday its experts will meet this week to determine whether an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes a global health emergency.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has convened "an emergency committee" on the current outbreak in DRC's violence-torn North Kivu region, which has killed 135 people since August, the UN health agency said in a statement.

"The committee will meet on October 17 in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern," the statement said.

In the WHO's parlance, "a public health emergency of international concern" is an "extraordinary event" in which a disease may spread across borders and requires a vigorous international response.

The agency first invoked the emergency mechanism in 2009 when a new strain of influenza, so-called H1N1 swine flu, emerged.

It was also declared twice in 2014, when polio re-emerged after the disease was nearly eradicated, and after an Ebola epidemic struck three West African countries.

Then in 2016, a global emergency was declared in response to an outbreak of the Zika virus.

Monday's announcement came after DRC Health Minister Oly Ilunga warned over the weekend that a second wave of the Ebola virus had been confirmed in the outbreak in North Kivu, which is home to a clutch of armed groups.

He said the second wave occurred as a result of community resistance to measures taken to tackle the disease, describing the outbreak as "high risk."

"The situation is worrying," he said.

Fears and misconceptions about the virus have led to widespread mistrust and resistance to Ebola response workers, including those who come into communities wearing hazmat suits to orchestrate burials.

A staff member of the UN peacekeeping mission MONUSCO was among the latest victims of the virus, the UN and DRC health ministry said.

The latest outbreak -- the 10th in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976 -- so far counts 211 confirmed and probable cases of the virus, including 135 deaths.Harvard University says the proportion of Asian students has increased substantially since 2010

Harvard University went on trial Monday over an opaque admissions selection process that critics say discriminates against Asian students.

A lawsuit has challenged the use of race as a factor in Harvard admissions -- a decades-old push to boost minority enrollments at America's oldest and perhaps most prestigious university.

Federal Judge Allison Dale Burroughs heard opening arguments in the non-jury civil trial in Boston expected to last three weeks.

Harvard denies discriminating against Asians but defends its use of broader selection criteria than academic excellence, such as personality, to form a diverse student body.

The university also notes that the proportion of students of Asian origin has increased substantially since 2010, and today account for 23 percent of the 2,000 students admitted to the freshman class out of 40,000 applicants.

There are around 15 percent blacks and 12 percent Hispanics.

Pitted against the revered academic institution is Students for Fair Admissions, a group led by conservative white activist Edward Blum, who previously attacked the affirmative action policies at the University of Texas.

The US Supreme Court ruled against him in 2016, upholding the university's admissions policy.

In opening arguments, the group's lawyer Adam Mortara claimed that Harvard had used personality criteria to suppress Asian admissions in favor of black, Hispanic and white applicants.

Harvard "let the wolf of racial bias in through the front door," The Boston Globe quoted him as saying.

University lawyer Bill Lee argued that "Harvard cannot achieve its educational goals without considering race," insisting that race is never a negative in admissions.

Aware of the negative publicity the case could bring to his institution, Harvard's recently appointed president Larry Becow issued a letter to staff and students before the trial opened recalling the college's duty to incorporate racial diversity into the campus.

"Harvard would be a dull place -- and not likely achieve the educational aspirations we have for our students -- if we shared the same backgrounds, interests, experiences and expectations for ourselves," he wrote.

President Donald Trump's administration has backed Blum's suit, asserting that Harvard engages in "racial balancing" in its admissions process at the expense of students of Asian origin.

In his letter, Becow noted that the Supreme Court had in the past held up Harvard's admissions process as "an examplar" in how to achieve a diverse student body by considering race as one of several factors.

Analysts expect the ultra-sensitive case to once again come before the Supreme Court, where a conservative majority has recently been solidified with the addition of Trump nominee Brett Kavanaugh.The Syrian national flag is seen in front of United Nations peacekeeper bunkers and Israeli annexed-Golan Heights part of the Quneitra border crossing during its reopening on October 15, 2018

For seven years, Sheikh Mahmud al-Taweel had been unable to see relatives living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

But with the reopening of the Quneitra crossing Monday, the Syrian Druze hopes to reunite with them soon.

As the Syrian national anthem blasted from loudspeakers at the sole crossing between Syria and the Golan, 58-year-old Taweel couldn't hide his excitement.

"I haven't seen my aunt's children in seven years and I really miss them. I only speak to them on the phone," he said, dressed in a long black robe and white circular cap topped with dark red.

Israel seized the strategic Golan plateau from Syria in 1967, and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

The move cut off relatives from each other, with a UN-patrolled buffer zone slicing down between both sides, and a single crossing point.

But that passage closed in 2014, three years into Syria's war, after jihadists of Syria's former A-Qaeda affiliate overran the area and the UN force withdrew.

"Our only concern was for this crossing to reopen because there were many families split up between here and there," Taweel said, standing beside a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad.

"There isn't a family in the Golan that doesn't have relatives in the motherland," he said, referring to Syria.

Around 18,000 Druze live on the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan, many no longer Syrian but still supporters of the Assad regime.

A UN vehicle prepares to cross from Syria into the Israeli annexed-Golan Heights through the Quneitra border crossing during its reopening on October 15, 2018

Before Syria's seven-year conflict, the Druze made up around three percent of the country's population.

Before it was closed, the Quneitra crossing was mostly used by the UN force patrolling the buffer zone.

- Weddings, apples -

But it also allowed Druze living in the occupied Golan region to cross over into Syria to study or attend weddings, or sell their agricultural produce such as apples.

On Monday, Taweel was among a handful of Druze men and dozens of others who attended a ceremony on the Syrian side of the crossing.

Dozens of Syrian and Russian security forces -- who retook control of the border crossing in July -- were also in attendance.

A Syrian man takes a picture at the Quneitra border crossing during its reopening on October 15, 2018

An official raised a large Syrian flag on a mast, just a couple of hundred of metres (yards) away from an Israeli flag and another one of the United Nations.

"I now officially announce the opening of the crossing on the Syrian side," a Syrian officer said.

He mentioned "requests put in with UNDOF (the UN Disengagement Observer Force)... for Golan families to visit their relatives in Syria".

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it helped students and pilgrims in the occupied Golan cross into Syria and back again for decades.

It was one of its main activities from 1967 to 2012, when security deteriorated one year into the war, ICRC's representative in Syria told AFP.

After Monday's reopening, "we hope to be able to resume our activity in order to help people from the occupied Golan to come into Syria proper and then to go back" again, Marianne Gasser said.

Beside the Quneitra crossing, a large marble plaque marked the event.

"This plaque commemorates the reopening of the Quneitra crossing on 15.10.2018," it said.

The Quneitra crossing was opened on the same day as the Nassib crossing with Jordan.

On the sidelines of the celebration, Rafaat Hussein, a parliamentarian from Quneitra, said the development signalled new beginnings.

"The opening of the two land crossings... come as a message that the geographical and political map is changing," he said.A boat carries migrants in the Strait of Gibraltar off the coast of Morocco on September 8, 2018

The Moroccan navy on Monday rescued 38 migrants and recovered one body from a boat that ran into trouble off the kingdom's coast, the official MAP news agency reported.

The Moroccan nationals were found in "poor health" and had been aboard the vessel since October 8, a military source told the agency.

They were picked up by the navy when their vessel ran into difficulty west of Tangier, a port city on the country's northern coast, according to the source.

More than 43,000 migrants have made it north to Spain since the start of the year, including around 38,000 by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration.

An increasing number of Moroccans are attempting to reach Europe, either by taking the perilous sea route or via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which border Morocco.

The North African country is also a transit country for thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants.

The Moroccan navy, which occasionally provides figures on its rescue operations in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, said in just two days last week it saved 450 migrants.

In two recent operations the navy opened fire on boats showing "suspicious behaviour", killing a 22-year-old student and wounding three other people on September 25.

In the second incident on October 10, a 16-year-old boy suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder.Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland is calling for a transparent investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Canada's foreign minister called Monday for a full and transparent probe on the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, during a telephone conversation with her Saudi counterpart.

Speaking to lawmakers, Chrystia Freeland said Canada was "very concerned" about Khashoggi's disappearance and conveyed this earlier to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

"I expressed Canada's deep concerns and asked for a thorough, transparent and credible investigation," she said. "I emphasized that those responsible must be held to account. I have been in very close touch with our G7 and NATO allies on this issue."

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and US resident who became increasingly critical of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen since he walked into the Istanbul consulate to sort out marriage paperwork on October 2.

Turkish officials have said they believe he was killed -- a claim Saudi Arabia has denied -- with the controversy dealing a huge blow to the kingdom's image and efforts by its youthful crown prince to showcase a reform drive.

Relations between Canada and Saudi Arabia have been tense in recent months.

After Canada criticized the Saudi arrest of human rights activists, the kingdom retaliated by expelling the Canadian ambassador, recalling its own envoy to Ottawa and freezing trade and investment between the two countries.Nigeria's information minister Lai Mohammed (C) described the killing of an aid worker by Boko Haram as "dastardly, inhuman and ungodly", and vowed to push for the release of two remaining female captives who have been held since earlier this year

Islamic State-allied Boko Haram jihadists have killed another kidnapped female aid worker in northeast Nigeria, the government said on Monday, a month after one of her colleagues was murdered.

Information minister Lai Mohammed did not identify the victim but described the killing as "dastardly, inhuman and ungodly", and vowed to push for the release of two remaining female captives -- an aid worker and a 15-year-old girl -- held since earlier this year.

Three female health workers were kidnapped during a Boko Haram raid on the remote town of Rann, in Borno state, on March 1 that killed three other aid workers and eight Nigerian soldiers.

Two of the kidnapped women, Hauwa Liman and Saifura Khorsa, worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), while the third, Alice Loksha, worked for the UN children's agency, UNICEF.

There had been no news of the trio until last month when the ICRC said it had received footage of Khorsa's killing from the IS-backed Boko Haram faction Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

ISWAP then threatened to kill Liman and Loksha, as well as the teenager Leah Sharibu, a Christian schoolgirl kidnapped from the town of Dapchi in February.

The ICRC last weekend appealed for the captives' release and for the jihadists to show mercy, as they were "doing nothing but helping communities" in the conflict-riven region.

Information minister Mohammed said the government was "shocked and saddened" at the unjustified killing, and extended his condolences to the woman's family.

"It is very unfortunate that it has come to this. Before and after the deadline issued by her abductors, the federal government did everything any responsible government should do to save the aid worker," he added.

"As we have been doing since these young women were abducted, we kept the line of negotiations open all through. In all the negotiations, we acted in the best interest of the women and the country as a whole.

"We are deeply pained by this killing, just like we were by the recent killing of the first aid worker.

"However, we will keep the negotiations open and continue to work to free the innocent women who remain in the custody of their abductors."

More than 27,000 people have been killed in northeast Nigeria since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, while nearly two million others remain homeless.

Nigeria's military and government maintain the Islamist rebels are weakened to the point of defeat but fighters from the IS-backed faction have conducted repeated raids on military bases in recent months.Amazon's Jeff Bezos says the technology giant is maintaining its bid for a major Pentagon cloud computing contract

Amazon chief Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the company's bid for a major Pentagon cloud computing contract, saying it was important to support US defense efforts even if unpopular.

"This is a great country and it does need to be defended," Bezos said onstage during a question-and-answer session at the Wired 25th Anniversary conference in San Francisco.

Bezos was asked about his position on defense contracts after Google dropped its bid for the Pentagon cloud computing contract worth up to $10 billion because it would be inconsistent with its principles.

"We are going to continue to support the DoD," he said, referring to the Defense Department.

"If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the US Department of Defense this country is going to be in trouble."

Bezos added that many in the tech industry feel "conflicted" by the current state of politics but maintained that the United States "is still the best place in the world" where he said "everybody is trying to come."

In an apparent retort at President Donald Trump's immigration policies, Bezos added, "I'd let them all in if it were up to me."

Bezos also leads the private space exploration firm Blue Origin, which has obtained US military contracts.

Google announced last week it was dropping its bid for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract aimed at modernizing the military's computing systems.

"First, we couldn't be assured that it would align with our AI Principles and second, we determined that there were portions of the contract that were out of scope with our current government certifications," Google said in a statement.

Google's move leaves a handful of tech giants in the running for the huge defense contract, including Amazon and Microsoft.

Separately, a group of Microsoft employees urged their employer to drop out of the bid.

"Many Microsoft employees don't believe that what we build should be used for waging war," read a blog post on Medium.

"The contract is massive in scope and shrouded in secrecy, which makes it nearly impossible to know what we as workers would be building."Former Senate Intelligence Committee Security Director James Wolfe pleaded guilty to one count of lying about contacts with journalists, in a leak case which saw the Trump administration seizing reporters' private records

A US Senate staffer arrested this year over alleged leaks of classified information to his reporter girlfriend, pleaded guilty Monday to lying to FBI agents.

The Justice Department said James Wolfe, former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement to agents.

Wolfe, 57, admitted to lying about having had contacts with reporters, including one, later identified as reporter Ali Watkins, who he was having an affair with.

In a plea statement, the Justice Department said Wolfe, without authorization, divulged sensitive "non-public" but not classified information to the reporters.

He faces up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $9,500.

Wolfe was arrested on June 7 as the Trump administration pressed a crackdown on leaks to the media.

According to reports, the Justice Department is pursuing at least 20 separate leak investigations.

"The attorney general has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice," said Assistant Attorney General John Demers.

As part of the probe, the Justice Department seized years of records related to two email accounts and a phone number belonging to Watkins, the first known case of a journalist's records being seized under the Trump administration.

The Committee to Protect Journalists and other media groups branded the seizure a threat to press freedom.

Watkins, 26, had an affair with the married Wolfe over three years, a period during which she scored repeated national security-related scoops that eventually earned her a job at the end of last year at The New York Times.

The indictment indicated the leaks investigators had focused on took place before she joined the Times.

After Wolfe was arrested, the Times reassigned Watkins to a different beat following an internal review.Lyric Opera Of Chicago, pictured hosting a wine auction in 2015, says the compromise will protect its "artistic brilliance"

The show will go on again this week for one of America's premier arts institutions after Lyric Opera of Chicago made a deal with its orchestra to end a week-long strike.

The action had threatened the company's performance season just as it had been getting under way, with the musicians complaining of cost-cutting efforts they said would reduce quality on stage.

Performances of Puccini's La Boheme and Mozart's Idomeneo were canceled last week -- but will resume after the company compromised over its belt-tightening.

An agreement ratified Sunday allows for the full-time orchestra to shed four players, instead of the reduction of five proposed by the company.

Management held on to a reduction of the operatic performance calendar from 24 weeks to 22 but agreed to increase pay for musicians who perform in musical theater shows.

Lyric has reduced opera performances over the last decade from 86 a year to 56, and added musical theater to its repertoire to generate new interest.

Musicals usually employ a much smaller orchestra than operas.

"In the end, both parties compromised," the musicians said in a statement.

They added that a longer strike would have been destructive to the 65-year-old company and its workers -- including the chorus and technical crew who have already reached separate union contracts with management.

"These agreements will protect the artistic brilliance on our stage while also helping to ensure Lyric's long-term financial security," the management said in an emailed announcement.US President Donald Trump, pictured at a briefing on damage from Hurricane Michael in Macon, Georgia, said hurricanes in the 1890s and 1960s were "brutal"

President Donald Trump, a longtime climate change skeptic, said Monday on a tour of hurricane damage in the southern United States that "something" is happening -- but that the change is not permanent.

"There is something there, man-made or not. There is something there. It is going to go back and forth," Trump said while visiting Georgia, which was damaged by Hurricane Michael last week.

Trump, who earlier inspected devastation left by the storm in Florida, said "we have been hit by the weather, there is no question about it."

However, he noted that there had been violent hurricanes, causing widespread destruction, in the past.

"Fifty years ago, it was brutal. (The) 1890s were brutal. You have different times," he said.

"The one that they say was worse, two or three (times) worse -- one was in the 1890s and one exactly 50 years ago. Winds were 200 miles (322 kilometers) an hour. Who knows? That's what the numbers are."

Trump in the past has dismissed claims -- backed by an overwhelming international consensus of scientists -- that greenhouse gases caused by human activity are responsible for a rapidly warming planet, triggering ever more extreme weather.

He has even dismissed international pushes to reduce greenhouse gases as a hoax invented by rival China to cripple US industrial might.

On Sunday, Trump said in an interview with CBS that he does not consider climate change made-up, but is not convinced that human activity, such as industry and agriculture, is to blame.

"I think something's happening. Something's changing and it'll change back again," he said on CBS.

"I don't think it's a hoax. I think there's probably a difference. But I don't know that it's man-made. I will say this: I don't want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don't want to lose millions and millions of jobs."

On Monday, Trump told journalists that he is "truly an environmentalist."

"A lot of people will smile when they hear that," he said, before claiming that he wants "the cleanest water on the planet" and the "cleanest air."

Last week, Trump said he had not yet started to read a major new UN report calling for urgent and radical measures if the Earth is to avoid a catastrophic further increase in temperature.

Again, Trump suggested he was skeptical about the findings, which were reported by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

"It was given to me and I want to look who drew it, you know -- which groups drew it, because I can give you reports that are fabulous and I can give you reports that aren't so good," he said.The Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul is cordoned off by Turkish police who searched the premises in the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Saudi Arabia is considering an admission that journalist Jamal Khashoggi died during an interrogation that went wrong, US media reported on Monday.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and US resident who became increasingly critical of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has not been seen since he walked into the kingdom's Istanbul consulate to sort out marriage paperwork on October 2.

Turkish officials have said they believe he was killed, a claim Saudi Arabia denies.

But CNN cited two sources as saying the Saudis are preparing a report that will acknowledge Khashoggi's death resulted from an interrogation that went wrong during an intended abduction.

One CNN source cautioned that the report was still being prepared and could change, while another said it will likely conclude the operation took place without clearance, and that those involved will be held responsible.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the kingdom is weighing whether to say that rogue operatives killed Khashoggi by mistake during an interrogation.

The Journal, like CNN, said the Saudi statement has not been finalized.

Khashoggi's fate has troubled Washington and Saudi Arabia's other traditional Western allies.

US President Donald Trump earlier Monday said he had spoken with Saudi Arabia's King Salman who strongly denied the kingdom's involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance.

"It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. Who knows?" the president said, describing the situation as "terrible."

Trump dispatched his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the kingdom on Monday to find out "first-hand what happened, what they know, what's going on.

"He may go to Turkey. He may not," Trump said during a visit to Alabama.

"He may meet with all of them together. But we want to find out what happened and he's got instructions to find out what happened."

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said Pompeo was expected in Turkey on Wednesday to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, after talks in Riyadh.

Prince Mohammed, 33, a son of King Salman, consolidated his control in June 2017 when he was named Crown Prince to replace his cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef, who was fired.

Bin Nayef had extensive counter-terrorism expertise which had made him a favorite of previous American administrations.Donald Wuerl, pictured in 2017, resigned as archbishop of Washington accused of not having done enough to deal with paedophile priests

The Catholic archdiocese of Washington divulged on Monday the names of 31 former clergy involved in the abuse of minors over the past 70 years, days after archbishop Donald Wuerl resigned over the scandal.

Many of the cases appear to have been known, with 16 of the priests and one deacon already exposed publicly, arrested and convicted in courts.

All 31 have been expelled from the church and 17 have died, according to the Archdiocese of Washington.

The list was assembled by Cardinal Wuerl, 77, ahead of his resignation on Friday accused of not having done enough to deal with paedophile priests.

"This list is a painful reminder of the grave sins committed by clergy, the pain inflicted on innocent young people, and the harm done to the Church's faithful, for which we continue to seek forgiveness," Wuerl said in a statement.

"Our strong commitment to accompany survivors of abuse on their path toward healing is unwavering," he said, adding that there currently is "no archdiocesan priest in active ministry who has ever been the subject of a credible allegation of abuse of a minor."

A grand jury report in August revealed credible child sex abuse allegations against more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania.

In the report, Wuerl, who was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006, is repeatedly cited as one of the church leaders who helped to cover up the scandal.

Wuerl's resignation came as Pope Francis continues to struggle with the scandal over covering up priestly abuse of minors which has battered the Catholic Church since the 1990s.

The Archdiocese of Washington's statement gave a small picture of how many of the cases were handled.

One priest ordained in 1964, Robert Petrella, was accused two years later of abuse. The statement Monday said he was temporarily removed, "evaluated and treated" and then "cleared for return" to the ministry.

About 23 years later he was permanently removed after additional abuse was reported. In 1996 he was arrested and sent to trial, where he was convicted.

Another, Arthur O'Brien, was ordained in 1983 and accused of abuse that year. He too was treated and cleared for return to the ministry, eventually being assigned to Hawaii, where he was arrested and convicted for abuse in 1992.

Wuerl had been archbishop in Washington since 2006.

His predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, resigned from the Vatican's College of Cardinals in July.

McCarrick, one of the most high-profile Catholic leaders to face abuse claims, was accused of sexually abusing a teenager nearly five decades earlier.Adult film actress Stormy Daniels and US President Donald Trump swapped barbs on Twitter

A budding diplomatic crisis with Saudi Arabia, Hurricane Michael's wreckage to clean up, stock market jitters, and... President Donald Trump's standout act Tuesday was to brand porn star Stormy Daniels "Horseface."

That wasn't all.

The US leader, who revels in making up nicknames for opponents and critics, also launched tweets about "Pocahontas" Elizabeth Warren, a liberal senator seen as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, whom Trump ridicules for trying to prove she is part Native American.

But the equine insult was the most startling moment of a day when the White House officially signaled that "THE PRESIDENT has no public events scheduled" -- apparently leaving him free to cut loose on Twitter.

Stormy Daniels, a blond 39-year-old whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, had a defamation suit against Trump thrown out by a federal judge on Monday. The judge also ruled that Daniels should pay Trump's legal fees.

Trump was gleeful.

"Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer," he tweeted.

Daniels is one of numerous women alleging they have had affairs or have been sexually harassed by Trump, who is currently married to a Slovenian-born former model, Melania.

In a recent salacious book, "Full Disclosure," Daniels claimed to reveal the then future president's tendency toward petulance, "tantrums," and the mushroom-like shape of his penis.

But in his jubilant tweet Tuesday, Trump pronounced: "She knows nothing about me, a total con!"

Daniels, reputed to be a hard-driving businesswoman who moved from stripping to adult films to parts in mainstream movies, gave as good as she got -- by Twitter, of course.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your president," she tweeted.

"In addition to his...umm...shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on Twitter AGAIN! And perhaps a penchant for bestiality. Game on, Tiny."

- 'Pocahontas' jibes -

Before tearing into Stormy Daniels, Trump let off three mid-morning tweets devoted to Warren, a Democrat who has been one of the president's most biting critics.

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is in a war of words with US President Donald Trump over a DNA test that she says shows she has Native American blood

Trump has long mocked her assertion to have Native American blood, latching on to a disproven theory that Warren used her tribal heritage claim to advance an academic career at Harvard University.

What was once just a bizarre political sideshow has morphed into a full-blown obsession in which Trump routinely jokes about "Pocahontas" Warren before thousands of laughing people at his rallies.

Pocahontas was actually a historical 17th century figure, made most famous by an animated Disney movie. But Trump has made the label stick to Warren, overshadowing her ambitious political agenda.

On Monday, Warren thought she'd put the matter to bed when she answered a wager originally proposed by Trump himself, producing DNA results to show that she does indeed have a sliver of Native American genes.

By Tuesday, though, the gambit had backfired with Trump mocking the extremely modest proportions of tribal blood and pointing out that even the Cherokee Nation -- which Warren has said an ancestor belonged to -- has rejected the DNA test's relevance.

"Even they don't want her," Trump gloated. "Phony!"General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says Islamic State continues to replenish its decimated ranks in Syria

Foreign fighters continue to flow into Syria to join the Islamic State group despite its forces being largely decimated, Pentagon Joint Chiefs chairman Joe Dunford said Tuesday.

Even though the jihadist group's territory has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was, new followers arrive, mostly over the Turkish border, at a rate of about 100 a month, Dunford said.

While that is down from a peak of about 1,500 a month three years ago, it shows that Islamic State's ability to attract followers remains potent, he said.

"It's the flow of foreign fighters, the ability to move resources, and the ideology that allows these groups to operate," Dunford said, opening a conference on countering violent extremism.

Dunford also said that the inflow adds to the mounting problem of how to handle hundreds of captured foreign fighters whose home countries will not take them back.

He said the Syrian Democratic Forces are holding more than 700 Islamic State fighters from around 40 countries.

"The progress of returning these fighters home for prosecution has been delayed by political considerations and inconsistent legal frameworks."

Britain, for example, has refused to repatriate the two remaining men of the IS unit dubbed the "Beatles," which kidnapped, tortured and beheaded a number of foreigners including journalists.

London stripped them of their citizenship and has said it does not want them back.

The United States has repatriated one of its IS foreign fighters to stand trial, but has not divulged the fate of any others thought to be held in Syria or Iraq.

Dunford said not dealing with the captured foreign fighters correctly will make it harder to eventually extinguish the attraction of the Islamic State ideology.

A critical factor, he said, "is how we identify, prosecute, deradicalize and reintegrate foreign fighters."

"We need to find a way to address this challenge and prevent the detainees from becoming the leaders of tomorrow's extremist organizations," Dunford said.Iranian members of the Basij militia march during a parade marking the country's Army Day

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on an Iranian paramilitary group along with a network of businesses that were providing it financing, as part of Washington's campaign of maximum economic pressure against Tehran.

In announcing the sanctions, Treasury said a network of more than 20 businesses known as the Bonyad Taavon Basij was financing the Basij Resistance Force, a component of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

It also accused the hardline militia of sending child soldiers to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"The international community must understand that business entanglements with the Bonyad Taavon Basij network and IRGC front companies have real world humanitarian consequences," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

"This helps fuel the Iranian regime's violent ambitions across the Middle East."

The Basij, a paramilitary force formed soon after the 1979 revolution, is one of the Iranian regime's primary enforcers of internal security with branches in every province and city of Iran, according to the US Treasury.

"In addition to its involvement in violent crackdowns and serious human rights abuses in Iran, the Basij recruits and trains fighters ... including Iranian children, who then deploy to Syria to support the brutal Assad regime," it said.

It added that in addition to Iranians, the militia recruited Afghan immigrants to Iran through coercion, some of whom had fled to Europe as a result, as well as Pakistani nationals.

"Children recruited by Basij have tragically fought and died on the battleground in Syria," a senior administration official told AFP.

The Bonyad Taavon Basij is said to provide the Basij militia social welfare services, including housing and financial support, and manages economic activities by funding small companies.

"Bonyad Taavon Basij has expanded its reach into Iran's economy by establishing several investment firms through its financial and investment offshoot Mehr Eqtesad Bank," the Treasury statement said.

- 'Multibillion dollar network ' -

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed tens of thousands of members of Iran's Basij militia at a stadium in Tehran in early October

Among the other companies singled out was Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company (ITMC), the largest tractor manufacturer in the Middle East and North Africa which predates the Iranian revolution, that generates millions of dollars in profit for the investment firms that represent the Basij.

Also targeted was Iran's Zinc Mines Development Company, described as the country's "preeminent, multibillion-dollar zinc and lead mining and processing holding company."

"What we've designated here today is a multibillion dollar network that has had significant (links) in Europe and the Middle East," said a second senior administration official.

Washington pulled out of a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers in May and is reimposing punishing sanctions on the Middle Eastern country, hoping to pressure Tehran into what President Donald Trump calls a "better deal."

Full US sanctions are set to hit Iran in November and the country's economy is already taking a beating.

But the European Union last month announced plans last month for a legal framework to preserve business with Tehran, infuriating Washington.US Senator Lindsey Graham, pictured with fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio in Washington in 2014, described Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a "wrecking ball."

An influential US Senate ally of President Donald Trump pledged Tuesday that Congress would take decisive action against Saudi Arabia over a missing writer, calling for the ouster of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"This guy is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told "Fox and Friends," one of the president's favorite news broadcasts.

Graham, discussing the feared killing of Saudi journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the monarchy, was backed by Marco Rubio, another of the top Republicans in the upper house, who described the crown prince as "young and aggressive."

On Monday after speaking by telephone with King Salman, Trump was far less direct, suggesting that the October 2 disappearance of Khashoggi, who had been working with The Washington Post, could have been at the hands of "rogue killers."

But Graham, who has recently ingratiated himself with Trump, launched a tirade against Riyadh.

"I was on the (Senate) floor every time defending Saudi Arabia because they're a good ally," Graham told Fox.

"There is a difference between a country and an individual," he added. "The MBS figure is to me toxic. He can never be a world leader on the world stage."

Graham added that he felt "personally offended" by the kingdom's leadership.

"They have nothing but contempt for us. Why would you put a guy like me and the president in this box after all the president has done?" Graham fumed. "This guy has got to go."

As for the steps Trump should take, Graham pledged that Congress would "sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia."

Rubio swatted away Trump's reservations about sanctions that might freeze tens of billions of dollars worth of Saudi arms sales.

"There are other countries we could sell that to," Rubio told CNN.

"I don't care how much money it is, there isn't enough money in the world to purchase back our credibility on human rights and the way nations should conduct themselves," he added.

"This is a fear we've had for a long time... that the crown prince is a young and aggressive guy that would overestimate how much room he had to do things."

Congress "will act" in a way that will likely alter the US-Saudi relationship for the foreseeable future, Rubio asserted.

"What those specific measures are obviously is going to be up for debate, but they will be strong and meaningful," he added.

"We will see what the administration does. it sounds to me in the end of the day they will also follow suit."French President Emmanuel Macron on a trip to New Caledonia in May said "it's not up to us to influence this choice"

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Tuesday reaffirmed that France will remain impartial in the independence referendum of its tiny overseas territory New Caledonia next month.

The culmination of decades of campaigning by separatists, the November 4 vote will see the Pacific archipelago's 174,000 voters choose whether to break from their old colonial master.

Philippe on Tuesday said "it was appropriate that the state be impartial" in helping organise the referendum, responding to calls by the centre-right Republicans party to speak out on the issue.

"This is the line that I set myself when I was appointed, this is the line that was restated by the president during his trip to New Caledonia, and I will not budge from this line because I think it's right," Philippe said.

Ahead of his visit to the capital Noumea in May, President Emmanuel Macron said "it's not up to us to influence this choice," adding that he was hoping to avoid any "unnecessary tensions".

"I respect this vote... It's an example, and the world is watching us," Macron said.

New Caledonia currently holds a unique position as an overseas possession that formulates its own tax, labour laws and trade policy but not defence or foreign policy.

Recent opinion polls have shown that between 60 to 69 percent of New Caledonians support remaining a part of France.

Better known for its stunning lagoons, pristine Pacific beaches and diverse wildlife, the territory is a strategic foothold for France in the Asia Pacific region, but economic inequality has persisted despite efforts to improve living standards for the indigenous Melanesian Kanak population.

It has seen years of bitter political feuding between independence advocates and those who are determined to remain part of France.

Unrest shook the islands in the mid-1980s with as many as 70 people thought to have been killed.

An agreement was signed between France and New Caledonia in 1998 that promised greater autonomy for the archipelago and its Kanak population.

Under the terms of that deal an independence referendum needed to be held by the end of 2018.

After the vote, France will take "a number of initiatives to ensure that the future of New Caledonia is built in good faith," Philippe said.Members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gather next to a building in the village of Susah in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, near the Syrian border with Iraq on September 13, 2018

The fight to wrest a desert area in eastern Syria from the Islamic State group will take "much longer than expected", US-backed forces battling the jihadists told AFP on Tuesday.

The reassessment came as the United Nations warned that the fight for Hajin in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor was having a "devastating" effect on thousands of civilians.

The Syrian Democratic Forces has been locked in clashes for just over a month with IS holdouts in Hajin and surrounding villages, but they have been slowed down by harsh weather conditions and a ferocious jihadist fightback

"The military operations in Hajin will take much longer than expected," said Redur Khalil, a top SDF commander.

"Daesh is benefiting a lot from weather factors, including sandstorms. They've helped it take cover from reconnaissance aircraft and other monitoring mechanisms," he told AFP, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Khalil said the landscape around Hajin was vast and arid, "larger than just a pocket".

The SDF estimates some 3,000 jihadists are defending the area.

They have laid a massive network of trenches, barriers, and explosives that were "hindering" the SDF's advance, Khalil said.

"Most of the fighters in the Hajin region are foreigners with fighting experience," he added.

Hajin, which lies in a small stretch east of the winding Euphrates River, is one of IS's final holdouts in Syria.

The jihadist group lost its de facto Syrian capital Raqa one year ago this week to the SDF, which has chased it out of swathes of the country's north and east.

The SDF has been advancing on Hajin since September 10 but IS launched a bloody fightback last week.

The ensuing clashes have killed more than 70 SDF fighters and dozens of IS jihadists, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The Britain-based Observatory said IS had even raided a nearby displacement camp and took "more than 100 families", including relatives of IS defectors and of jihadists killed in fighting.

The UN on Tuesday warned the recent fighting was endangering civilians.

"The ongoing violence in the Hajin area in the eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor is having a devastating impact on civilians," the UN's office in Syria said Tuesday.

It estimated that around 7,000 people had been displaced by fighting over the past month to SDF-controlled camps, and that another 10,000 people were at risk.

Accessing civilians in need of aid was extremely difficult.

"The UN calls on all parties involved to protect civilians and to support greater access to the area as required under International Humanitarian Law," it said.How an army of Torrance-area pet lovers came together to find Mr. Pickles, the wayward catA lawsuit from a writers group alleges President Donald Trump's threats against the news media represent unconstitutional efforts to stifle a free press

A writers group that promotes free expression sued US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, claiming he is abusing his authority to "stifle" the rights of the press.

PEN America filed the complaint in New York federal court asking for a ruling that the president is engaging in "unconstitutional actions aimed at suppressing speech" under the First Amendment of the constitution.

It also seeks an injunction barring Trump or any member of his administration from threatening the media for coverage he does not like.

The association -- formed in 1922 with an acronym for "Poets, Essayists, Novelists" -- acknowledged that Trump has the right to attack or denigrate the press for news stories he dislikes.

"However, when President Trump crosses the line and threatens to use his authority to punish the media, or actually does so, it is vital for the courts to step in and affirm that such threats and reprisals are unconstitutional," the group said in a statement.

"We have worked closely with leading First Amendment scholars and practitioners in private practice and academia in order to hone a request to the court to do just that."

The lawsuit was joined by the nonprofit group Protect Democracy and the Yale Law School Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic.

The move comes amid longstanding tensions between the media and Trump and his frequent complaints of "fake news" for negative coverage of his administration.

The groups claimed Trump crossed a line by threatening to retaliate against news organizations and journalists over their coverage.

This includes threatening to take away broadcast licenses or credentials for NBC or CNN, and allegedly seeking retaliation against Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos by calling for higher postal rates for Amazon, of which Bezos is the chief executive.

"Through his actions, Defendant Trump has intentionally conveyed to all writers and journalists that if he objects to their coverage, they may be subject to retaliation by the federal government," the lawsuit says. "That conduct violates the constitution."

The lawsuit said Trump's actions also appear to illegally threaten internet firms over the filtering of their news feeds.

It said the September leak of a draft executive order to instruct federal law enforcement and antitrust agencies to open investigations into social media companies "was to show these companies and other speakers the president dislikes that his White House has the power to significantly injure them with a simple leak if it dislikes their content."Syrians cross the Euphrates River from the city of Raqa to villages south of the city on ferries on October 15, 2018

All day, dinghies cross the Euphrates River to shuttle residents into the pulverised cityscape of Syria's Raqa, where bridges, homes, and schools remain gutted by the offensive against the Islamic State group.

Exactly a year has passed since a blistering US-backed assault ousted the jihadists from their one-time Syrian stronghold, but Raqa -- along with the roads and bridges leading to it -- remains in ruins.

To enter the city, 33-year-old Abu Yazan and his family have to pile into a small boat on the southern banks of the Euphrates, which flows along the bottom edges of Raqa.

They load their motorcycle onto the small vessel, which bobs precariously north for a few minutes before dropping off passengers and their vehicles at the city's outskirts.

"It's hard -- the kids are always afraid of the constant possibility of drowning," says bearded Abu Yazan.

"We want the bridge to be repaired because it's safer than water transport."

A woman walks past a devastated building in the Syrian city of Raqa on October 13, 2018

The remains of Raqa's well-known "Old Bridge" stand nearby: a pair of massive pillars, the top of the structure shorn off.

It was smashed in an air strike by the US-led coalition, which bombed every one of Raqa's bridges to cut off the jihadists' escape routes.

The fighting ended on October 17 last year, when the city finally fell to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which then handed it over to the Raqa Civil Council (RCC) to govern.

But 60 bridges are still destroyed in and around the city, says RCC member Ahmad al-Khodr.

"The coalition has offered us eight metal bridges," he says, to link vital areas in Raqa's countryside.

- Houses, belongings long gone -

Human rights group Amnesty International estimates around 80 percent of Raqa was devastated by fighting, including vital infrastructure like schools and hospitals.

A member of a first response team walks on October 13, 2018 inside the National Hospital, which was the final bastion of IS fighters in the northern Syria city of Raqa

The national hospital, the city's largest medical facility, was where IS made its final stand. It still lies ravaged.

Private homes were not spared either: 30,000 houses were fully destroyed and another 25,000 heavily damaged, says Amnesty.

Ismail al-Muidi lost his son, an SDF fighter, and his home.

"I buried him myself with these two hands," says Muidi, 48.

Now homeless, he lives with his sister in the central Al-Nahda neighbourhood.

"The coalition destroyed the whole building, and all our belongings went with them," he says.

Anxiety over eking out a living has put streaks of grey into Muidi's hair and beard.

A member of a first response team tours the courtyard of the National Hospital in the northern Syria city of Raqa on October 13, 2018

"How could I rebuild this house? We need help to remove the rubble, but no one has helped us at all," he says.

Since IS was ousted, more than 150,000 people have returned to Raqa, according to United Nations estimates last month.

But the city remains haunted by one of IS's most infamous legacies: a sea of mines and unexploded ordnance that still maims and kills residents to this day.

The RCC says it does not have enough money to clear out the rubble still clogging up Raqa's streets, much less rehabilitate its water and electricity networks.

Khodr unfurls a map of the city in front of him at his office in the RCC, pointing out the most ravaged neighbourhoods.

"The districts in the centre of the city were more damaged -- 90 percent destroyed -- compared to a range of 40 to 60 percent destroyed in the surrounding areas," he tells AFP.

"The destruction is massive and the support isn't cutting it."

- 'No hope at all' -

A woman walks past the rubble of a building in the northern Syrian city of Raqa on October 14, 2018

A plastic bucket in hand, Abd al-Ibrahim sits despondently on a curbside in the Al-Ferdaws neighbourhood.

Fighting destroyed his home, so he now squats in another house but there has been no water there for three days.

"I come sit here, hoping somebody will drive by to give me water. But no one comes," the 70-year-old says, tearing up.

He points to a mound of rubble nearby.

"My house is like this now. We were in paradise. Look at what happened to us -- we're literally begging for water."

The coalition has helped de-mine, remove rubble, and rehabilitate schools in Raqa, but efforts have been modest and piecemeal compared to the scale of the destruction.

"You can't call this reconstruction -- it's all empty talk," says Samer Farwati, who peddles cigarettes across from his destroyed house in the Masaken al-Tobb district.

He pays $120 to rent a home since his was hit in an air strike.

Farwati says he no longer trusts officials after too many empty promises.

"If they helped us even a little bit, we could complete the construction. But there's no hope at all," he says.Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after the first rocket fire from the Palestinian territory in weeks hit an Israeli city, in a blow to efforts to avert a new war.

Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas disavowed the rocket fire, saying they rejected "all irresponsible attempts" to undermine Egyptian efforts to broker a new long-term truce.

But Israel, which holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from the territory regardless of who launches it, struck 20 targets in Gaza, killing one Palestinian, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel also closed both its border crossings with Gaza in reprisal, further isolating the blockaded enclave where deteriorating living conditions have stoked violent protests along the border.

Gaza militants fired two rockets before dawn, one of which caused major damage to a family home in the southern city of Beersheba, 40 kilometres (25 miles) away, the Israeli army said.

The family of three children narrowly escaped injury after their mother moved them into the safe room, with much of the rest of the house destroyed, the army said.

An Israeli sapper inspects the damage to a family home in the central city of Beersheba caused by a rocket fired from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on October 17, 2018

"At 4 am (0100 GMT), Israelis in the city of Beersheba were running to bomb shelters after a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel," the army tweeted.

The other rocket came down in the sea off Tel Aviv, 70 kilometres (45 miles) from Gaza, the army said.

Speaking after meeting with senior security officials Wednesday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged a forceful response.

"Israel views with utmost gravity the attacks against it on the fence, on the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, on Beersheba -- everywhere," he said, referencing months of often violent protests in Gaza.

"If the attacks don't stop, we'll stop them. I want to tell you today -- Israel will take very strong action."

- 'Full responsibility' -

Hamas and allied militant group Islamic Jihad condemned the latest rocket fire as "irresponsible".

But Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus rejected the disavowal, saying Hamas bore "full responsibility" as Gaza's de facto ruler.

Retaliatory strikes had hit 20 targets, including a Hamas attack tunnel and an "advanced weapons manufacturing site", he said.

They killed one Palestinian in northern Gaza who the army said was set to launch a rocket.

The military released a video showing a man near the border preparing a rocket for launch before being hit by a missile strike.

Wounded Palestinians receive treatment in Najjar hospital in Rafah after Israel conducted some 20 air strikes on the Gaza Strip on October 17, 2018

At least three other Palestinians were wounded in the strikes, the Gaza health ministry said.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the closure of both of Israel's border crossings with Gaza in reprisal, making the heavily restricted Rafah crossing with Egypt the enclave's sole gateway to the outside world.

Lieberman also ordered the reduction of the permitted fishing zone off the Gaza coast to three nautical miles from six, his ministry said.

Lieberman already suspended deliveries of fuel that had been trucked daily into Gaza under a deal brokered by the United Nations.

It had seen thousands of litres (gallons) of fuel paid for by Qatar delivered to generate desperately needed power in the impoverished territory.

- 'Dangerous escalation' -

Hamas has fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and fears of a fourth have spurred efforts by Egypt and the United Nations for a wider deal that would see Israel ease its blockade in exchange for a long-term truce with the Islamists.

During a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday, UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov called the latest rocket launches a "dangerous escalation".

"Unfortunately, they fit a pattern of provocations that seek to bring Israel and Gaza into another deadly conflict and confrontation," he said, pledging to work with all sides to avert one.

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Wednesday she was closely following the situation and "will not hesitate to take any appropriate action".

Fatou Bensouda said in a statement from The Hague-based court that she was "alarmed by the continued violence, perpetrated by actors on both sides, at the Gaza border with Israel."

Rivlin said there could be no easing of the blockade while Israelis remained under threat of rocket attack.

"So long as the missiles and the provocation continue on, there is no chance of easing the suffering of the people of Gaza," he said.

Rivlin praised the fast reaction of Israelis in Beersheba, saying the mother had saved her family.

A Palestinian security man surveys the destruction from an Israeli air strike on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on October 17, 2018

The UN says Israel's 11-year blockade has resulted in a "catastrophic" humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Its two million residents endure routine power cuts and a chronic shortage of safe drinking water, and more than two-thirds are dependent on international aid.

The latest flare-up comes after months of Palestinian protests along the Gaza border that have drawn a deadly response from Israeli troops.

The protesters have been demanding an end to Israel's blockade and the right of return to land now inside Israel, from which their families were expelled or fled during the 1948 war that accompanied its creation.

At least 207 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests began on March 30.

One Israeli soldier has been killed by Palestinian sniper fire over the same period.Iranian members of the Basij militia march during a parade marking the country's Army Day, on April 18, 2017, in Tehran

Iran called new US sanctions against its paramilitary Basij group an act of "blind vindictiveness" on Wednesday.

"America's new sanctions are a clear insult to international and legal mechanisms and a result of the American government's blind vindictiveness against the Iranian nation," said foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi.

He called Washington's "lack of adherence to international legal mechanisms" a threat not only "to the Iranian people's interests but also the world's stability and security."

On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on a network of more than 20 businesses it said had financial links to the Basij paramilitary group, which enforces internal security in Iran.

The US pulled out of a landmark 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers in May and is reimposing punishing sanctions on the Middle Eastern country, hoping to pressure Tehran into what President Donald Trump calls a "better deal".

Iran's Bank Parsian, among the companies sanctioned on Tuesday, said in a statement that the measures would change little.

"This bank's international activities using dollars and America had ceased for years," it said.

Iran's biggest steel company, also on the sanctions list, similarly dismissing the measures as "nothing new".

In a statement to investors, Mobarakeh Steel Company said: "International sanctions are nothing new and Mobarakeh has faced them throughout the years just like other sectors of the Iranian economy.

"This will not disrupt the company's production, financial activities and exports," it added.

- 'Can't stop exports' -

Mobarakeh, the largest steelmaker in the Middle East and North Africa region according to the US Treasury, was accused of supporting the Mehr Eqtesad Iranian Investment Company, which is linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, according to the US Treasury.

A steel industry expert in Tehran said the sanctions would hurt Mobarakeh, but without entirely stopping its exports.

"The company will now have problems doing anything, be it attracting financing from abroad or having any overseas accounts," Mojtaba Fereydouni told AFP.

"But sanctions cannot just stop Iran's exports. You just ship it to a third country, unload the shipments there and leave it for a few days. Then you reship them from there with no mention of Iran and a new certificate of origin.

"All this will incur a cost of $20-$30 on each tonne, but it's not impossible," he added.

Iran's steel industry was targeted under the first wave of US sanctions reimposed in August.

But Mobarakeh said it had indigenised its production line.

Fereydouni added that it had set up a factory to produce the key raw material of electrode graphite, which is normally imported, primarily from India.

Iran is the 10th biggest crude steel producer, according to the World Steel Association.

The government said it exported $2.53 billion of steel products between March and September, up 53 percent on the previous year -- an increase which is thought to be driven by a rush by buyers to make purchases before sanctions hit.US First Lady Melania Trump, pictured in July 2018, was on her way from Washington to Philadelphia when there was "a minor mechanical issue" with the airplane

A plane carrying US First Lady Melania Trump was forced to turn back Wednesday after smoke appeared in the cabin, journalists on the flight said.

She was on her way from Washington to Philadelphia when there was "a minor mechanical issue," according to her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham.

"Everything is fine and everyone is safe," Grisham said in a statement.

The airplane returned to Joint Base Andrews, an air force facility used by the White House outside Washington, DC.

CNN and other US networks said that reporters aboard the plane noticed smoke in the cabin and were told to hold wet towels over their faces if it got worse.

The smoke dissipated and the aircraft returned without further incident.

Trump was on her way to visit a Philadelphia hospital specializing in treatment of mothers with opioid use disorders and babies born with addictions to drugs they were exposed to while still in the womb.

She took a replacement plane to the event, which is part of her "Be Best" campaign focused on the health and well-being of children.

"There are few things harder than seeing a newborn suffering," the first lady said, adding that she was "anxiously" working to "shine a light on this."US President Donald Trump said he was expecting a "full report" from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

President Donald Trump on Wednesday denied covering up for ally Saudi Arabia in the suspected murder of a critical journalist and said that he expects to learn the truth about Jamal Khashoggi's fate within days.

Trump's comments followed the publication in pro-government Turkish media of allegations purporting to confirm that Khashoggi was not only murdered by Saudi agents in their consulate in Istanbul, but tortured and dismembered.

"No, not at all, I just want to find out what's happening," Trump told reporters in the White House when asked if his consistently cautious approach to the scandal amounts to a cover-up. "I'm not giving cover at all."

The president said he would get a "full report" from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- whom he is to meet at 10:00 am (1400 GMT) on Thursday -- after the diplomat's return from meetings with Saudi and Turkish leaders, allowing him to assess what really happened.

"We will probably know that by the end of the week," Trump said.

The US president has been on the defensive ever since Khashoggi -- a US resident and Washington Post contributor who had been critical of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- vanished on October 2 after visiting the Istanbul consulate.

The Post published a column from Khashoggi on Wednesday in which he wrote of the important role a free press could play in the Arab world -- a piece the newspaper admitted appears to be his last.

Turkish police fly a drone over the residence of Saudi Arabia's consul in Istanbul

According to the latest reports, the Saudi journalist was assassinated by a squad that included agents tied to Prince Mohammed, a son of King Salman and a lynchpin in the trend toward ever-tightening relations with Trump's White House.

The controversy has blown a hole in Prince Mohammed's bid to promote himself as the modern face of Saudi Arabia and led to a spate of cancelations by titans of global finance and business at a major Riyadh investment conference scheduled next week.

But Trump has downplayed the possibility of action against Saudi Arabia, which he has repeatedly praised as a major customer for the US weapons industry.

At one point he suggested "rogue killers" could be to blame for Khashoggi's disappearance.

Earlier Wednesday, he told Fox Business that the US relies on the kingdom to fight terrorism.

Pompeo was also tight-lipped after meeting the Saudi leadership in Riyadh, telling journalists he did not want "to talk about any of the facts. They (Saudis) didn't want to either."

Adding to the picture of Saudi influence potentially weighing on American decision-making about Khashoggi, US media reported that $100 million for Washington's stabilization efforts in Syria was deposited by the kingdom as Pompeo arrived in Riyadh.

- Fresh paint in consulate? -

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara with all sides wary of giving public details about the fate of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Turkish police and forensic experts on Wednesday searched the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul and also searched the country's consulate for a second time.

The consul, Mohammed al-Otaibi, left Istanbul for Riyadh on a scheduled flight Tuesday afternoon, with Ankara insisting he had not been expelled but left of his own choice.

Turkish police had on Monday night carried out an eight-hour search at the consulate, taking away soil and DNA samples. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who also met with Pompeo, said there was evidence that some materials had been freshly painted.

Turkish forensic police officers arrive to search Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul for a second time

Several US media outlets said Monday that the Saudis are preparing a report that Khashoggi's death resulted from a botched interrogation, but there has yet to be any sign of this being published.

Pro-government Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported it had heard audio recordings of Khashoggi being tortured during an interrogation, having his fingers cut off and then being decapitated.

It said Otaibi can be heard on one tape saying during Khashoggi's torture: "Do this outside. You are going to get me in trouble."

The daily reported that in another tape, an unknown individual tells Otaibi: "If you want to live when you return to Saudi Arabia, be quiet!"

- Senators question Trump-Saudi ties -

The New York Times reported Tuesday that a suspect identified by Turkey was a frequent companion of the prince's. Three other suspects are linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, The Times said.

Adding to embarrassment for the petro-state's royals, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde became the latest to pull out of Prince Mohammed's much-trumpeted investment conference next week. An IMF spokesman said she had postponed her planned trip to the Middle East with a stop in Saudi Arabia.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will decide Thursday whether or not he will attend the conference.

There was also new political pressure on Trump with nine senators from the opposition Democrats writing to express "significant concerns about conflicts of interest" between Trump and Saudi Arabia concerning deals done through his real estate empire.

The letter cited decades of business deals and asked Trump to provide information regarding recent and future financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

Trump defended himself on Monday, tweeting that "I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!"A Syrian White Helmets rescue worker carries a girl from the site of a government airstrike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, on February 25, 2017

Jordan said Wednesday a group of 279 Syrian rescue workers has left the kingdom for resettlement in Western countries three months after they were evacuated from Israel.

The kingdom announced on July 22 it had received 422 White Helmet rescuers and their relatives after they were evacuated from Syria's south ahead of advancing government troops.

The group had been ferried to Israel from its war-torn neighbour and foe Syria and then taken on to Jordan.

They will now be resettled in Britain, Canada and Germany.

Founded in 2013, the Syria Civil Defence, or White Helmets, is a network of first responders who rescue wounded in the aftermath of air strikes, shelling or blasts in rebel-held territory.

The Jordanian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that "279 Syrian employees of the Civil Defence left the kingdom" for resettlement.

"The government allowed them to pass through its territory temporarily for resettlement in Western countries," the ministry said.

"Britain, Germany and Canada made a legally binding commitments to resettle them within a period of no longer than three months and without obligations to the kingdom.

Their passage was allowed "at the request of the United Nations for purely humanitarian reasons", it said.

The ministry added that the number of those expected to be resettled had jumped to 428 after the birth of six children and that the remainder of the group was expected to travel over the next two weeks.

Famous for dramatic pictures of rescue workers pulling bloodied children from the scenes of government bombings, the White Helmets have received aid and training from Western countries and say they are independent.

But Damascus and its ally Moscow have accused the group of being jihadists in disguise and a "tool" in the hands of foreign governments that support them.

The group receives funding from a number of governments, including Britain, Germany, Canada and the United States, and from individual donors.Concerns about press freedom in Hong Kong have intensified

China's propaganda chief has reportedly warned Hong Kong's senior media executives not to allow the city's newsrooms to "become a base for interfering with mainland politics" as Beijing ramps up pressure on challenges to its authority.

Concerns about press freedom in Hong Kong have intensified after the government denied a visa to a British journalist, who had chaired a talk by an independence activist at the city's press club in August.

The reported remarks by Huang Kunming, head of the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department, were quoted by Siu Sai-wo, CEO of Hong Kong's Sing Tao News Corporation, who spoke to the city's media after a meeting with the Chinese official.

Siu said Huang had told the group of visiting journalists and executives in Beijing that he hoped Hong Kong media "would not become a base for interfering with mainland politics", according to local news site Apple Daily.

Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) chairman Chris Yeung said Huang's remarks sounded like "an obvious case of telling media what they should do and what they should not do".

The comments were "plainly a clear effort, a clear attempt, to influence the media sector here", Yeung told AFP.

Apple Daily reported that some local news sites later removed references to the reported remarks after officials from Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong said that Huang's comments were off the record.

A Google search by AFP journalists for Huang's quote turned up a report by Commercial Radio Hong Kong, but the link led to a blank page, suggesting the original content might have been removed.

The HKJA said it was "deeply concerned" about the reported removals, adding that it would spark "fear (that) media were practising self-censorship".

The delegation was made up of 20 senior management figures from Hong Kong's media industry who were on a three-day visit to Beijing, according to the South China Morning Post.

Earlier this month China warned foreign countries not to "interfere" in Hong Kong's unprecedented decision to effectively blacklist Victor Mallet, a senior Financial Times journalist, after the UK and other governments expressed alarm over eroding freedoms in the former British colony.

Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club, where Mallet serves as vice president, regularly hosts talks by an array of speakers, including Chinese officials.

The club was pressured by authorities to scrap the talk by pro-independence activist Andy Chan but it had refused, saying it stands for freedom of speech and freedom of the press in the region, and "neither endorses nor opposes the views of its various speakers and panellists".Jamal al-Sheikh, Sudan's peace envoy to South Sudan, is seen at the foreign ministry headquarters in Khartoum on October 17, 2018

Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday appointed a peace envoy to South Sudan, mired in conflict since it won independence from its northern neighbour in 2011.

Former ambassador to Juba, Jamal al-Sheikh, was put in charge of "following the implementation" of the peace deal signed last month by warring South Sudanese parties, Bashir told a gathering of Sudanese diplomats.

"Peace in Sudan cannot be separated from peace in the region, and achieving peace in South Sudan is a big step towards a comprehensive peace," he said.

Civil war in the world's youngest country erupted in December 2013, killing tens of thousands, displacing millions and triggering a regional refugee crisis.

South Sudanese arch-foes President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Riek Machar signed their latest peace deal on September 12 in Ethiopia after talks hosted by Khartoum.

South Sudan gained independence under a peace deal ending a 22-year civil war pitting rebel groups against Khartoum.

But the Darfur region and the states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan, close to oil-rich South Sudan, have continued to see deadly conflict pitting rebel groups against the Sudanese government.

Khartoum accuses Juba of supporting insurgents against it.

A US-funded survey released recently estimated that nearly 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict in South Sudan.The Independent Election Commission is struggling to distribute voting materials to more than 5,000 polling centres before they open at 8:00 am on Saturday

At least 10 election candidates have been killed, thousands of polling centres closed, and many voters are likely to stay home due to the threat of militant attacks.

This is democracy, Afghanistan style.

Almost nine million people have registered to vote in the October 20 parliamentary election, which is more than three years late and only the third since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

But shambolic preparations, expectations of industrial-scale fraud, and escalating poll-related violence threaten to derail the election, which the international community is advising and largely funding.

"We're trying to make a terrible situation slightly less bad," a Western diplomat told AFP, reflecting a sharp drop in expectations for a credible result, even by Afghan standards.

Votes cast without biometric verification will not be counted even though polling centre workers have received little or no training in how to use the devices

Alarm is growing as the beleaguered Independent Election Commission (IEC), which has been skewered for its poor handling of the process, struggles to distribute voting materials to more than 5,000 polling centres before they open at 7:00 am on Saturday.

They are supposed to include biometric voter verification devices that Afghan political leaders and officials only agreed to use a few weeks ago and have been made mandatory, despite being untested and not required by law.

Votes cast without the controversial machines will not be counted, IEC spokesman Sayed Hafizullah Hashimi told AFP, even though polling centre workers have received little or no training in how to use them.

The elections are being held under the threat of militant attacks, and more than 2,000 polling stations have been closed for security reasons

Observers are concerned the results could be thrown into turmoil if the devices are broken, lost or destroyed.

There also are fears the data could be manipulated before preliminary results are released on November 10.

"Using technology can help transparency but it can also create confusion if not used properly," said Naeem Ayubzada, director of the Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

- 'Pseudo-democracy' -

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, the sons of former warlords, and at least one prisoner.

Doctors, mullahs, sons of warlords, feminists and even a prison inmate are among more than 2,500 candidates competing for a seat in parliament

Campaigning has been marred by bloody violence. At least 10 candidates have been killed so far, including Abdul Jabar Qahraman who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The Taliban has warned candidates to withdraw from the ballot, which it has vowed to attack, and told education workers to stop their schools from being used as polling centres.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".

Despite speculation the vote could be postponed again, Hashimi said it had to go ahead on time.

Voters in Kabul will wrestle with a newspaper-sized ballot paper with more than 800 candidates listed

"It is already snowing in some provinces and the weather is getting colder," Hashimi told AFP.

"If we delay the elections for a week, it means we won't have them."

Observers expect turnout on polling day to be far lower than the 8.9 million registered to vote in the first legislative election since 2010.

More than 2,000 voting centres have already been closed for security reasons, and the threat of more militant attacks are likely to persuade many voters to avoid the poll.

Some 54,000 members of Afghanistan's already overstretched security forces will be deployed to protect the ballot.

To help boost numbers, Hashimi on Wednesday urged the media to focus on the elections, not violence.

The long-delayed election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April

There are widespread suspicions that a significant number of voter registrations were based on fake identification documents, which fraudsters hope to use to stuff ballot boxes.

Registrations in the eastern province of Paktia, for example, were "an implausible" 141 percent of the estimated eligible population, Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) said in a recent report.

"The fraud is already baked in," a Western diplomat told AFP, adding Afghan officials may never know how many people actually voted.

That has further eroded confidence and deterred potential voters.

"Most of the people I have been talking to say they won't go to vote, some even didn't bother to register, and many said 'we would love to vote if we knew the system would work'," AAN co-director Thomas Ruttig told AFP.

"It's not that Afghans are tired of democracy. They're tired of this kind of pseudo-democracy."US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe during a meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) security summit in Singapore

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart sought Thursday to normalise military relations that have dramatically soured in recent weeks over trade and sanctions tensions.

The much-anticipated meeting between the Pentagon chief and General Wei Fenghe saw the men address long-standing frictions -- including Beijing's actions in the South China Sea -- but also centred on strengthening ties to withstand political crises like the one currently engulfing the two nuclear powers.

Mattis "repeated our desire for a durable relationship that is a stabilising force in the overall relationship," Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told reporters after the nearly 90-minute meeting on the sidelines of a security summit in Singapore.

"When we have times of differences and irritants, we should seek to deepen our contact, particularly at the high level, strategic level so that we can talk through differences."

A meeting between Mattis and Wei was supposed to take place in Beijing last weekend, but it fell through after China declined to make Wei available.

The snub came as China reacted angrily after Washington imposed sanctions following Beijing's purchase of Russian fighter jets and missiles.

Beijing's other actions included scrapping a planned port visit of a US warship to Hong Kong and cancelling a meeting between the head of the Chinese navy and his American counterpart.

And tensions reached a dangerous level when a Chinese warship sailed extremely close to a US destroyer as it conducted a "freedom of navigation" operation challenging China's extensive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

The contested waterway, where China has built a series of military facilities on islets and reefs, was a subject of "significant" discussion, Schriver said, but no progress was made in resolving the issue or the other perennial point of friction -- Taiwan.

"We're going to continue to have differences," Schriver said.

"They weren't resolved at this meeting and during this discussion and they probably won't be in a next discussion. There will be issues that are long-term challenges to manage."

- Tough rhetoric -

Mattis's attempts to carve a better relationship with the Chinese military stands in contrast to the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House.

President Donald Trump has frequently assailed China over its economic policies and earlier this month, US Vice President Mike Pence issued a litany of complaints, accusing Beijing of "predatory" trade practices and military "aggression", among other charges.

Mattis has made eight trips to the Asia region as Pentagon chief, and a primary mission has been to encourage countries to stand up to China in the South China Sea.

But Schriver indicated that countries remain too intimidated to do much on this front.

"In some instances, other countries may not have the confidence given China's strength to always speak up, but (Mattis) wanted to let Minister Wei know that he hears about it a great deal from other countries," Schriver said.

A key mission for Mattis has been to encourage countries to stand up to China's claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea

Mattis's visit to Singapore comes as questions swirl in Washington about his future.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Trump suggested Mattis may be headed out the Pentagon door.

"It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said.

Mattis later told reporters that Trump had assured him of his "100 percent" support.

Gregory Poling, an Asia expert and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, said most countries in the region see Mattis as "a steady hand on the tiller".

But they are wary of the uncertainty in Washington and Trump's mercurial approach to America maintaining a leadership role in the region.

Once Mattis leaves after a trip, "officials start wondering... is the full force of American power really in Asia to stay?" Poling told AFP.

"I don't think Asian leaders see lasting commitment from the US on things other than North Korea and trade deficits."

Schriver said the issue of North Korea came up with Wei "in very general terms" as a possible area to deepen cooperation.

"We do have a shared view that we would like to see denuclearisation occur," he said.The first tuna auction at the new Toyosu fish market took place on October 11 after the historic Tsukiji site was closed

A handful of traders and their supporters are defying demolition orders for Tokyo's historic Tsukiji fish market and continuing to trade there despite most vendors moving to a new site.

Tsukiji held the last of its world-famous pre-dawn tuna auctions earlier this month, with trading now moved to the market's new site in Tokyo's Toyosu.

But the move was controversial, with concerns raised about ground pollution at the new site and fears that Tsukiji's history would be lost with the demolition of the ageing market warehouses.

And a group of traders has continued selling inside Tsukiji, backed by more than 100 protesters and supporters who have barged past local officials and barricades in recent days to enter the shuttered market.

The hold-outs and their supporters say the local government has failed to fulfil the legal requirements necessary to carry out its planned demolition of the market, which is slated to become a transport hub for the 2020 Olympics.

"It's up to the Tokyo government to discuss the issue with these people and sort out the problem with them," Hiroyasu Ito, president of the Toyosu market association said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"There have been lots of twists and turns, but now the market is at Toyosu and we must make it a success," he added.Vietnam dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as 'Mother Mushroom' is surrounded by well-wishers as she arrives at Houston George Bush airport in Texas

A dissident Vietnamese blogger known by her pen name 'Mother Mushroom' has arrived in the United States after her surprise release from prison, telling a large crowd of supporters she will "never keep silent" in her fight for democracy in the one-party state.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 39, was quietly freed from a jail on Wednesday in Vietnam and put on a plane with her elderly mother and two young children who were seen smiling and hugging her in images shared on social media.

Her unexpected release after two years behind bars came as US defence chief Jim Mattis visited Vietnam as part of warming ties between the former foes, who are eager to counter China's rising influence in Asia.

Neither the Pentagon nor the Vietnamese government commented on the timing of Quynh's release, though the US embassy in Hanoi said they welcomed the move.

The outspoken blogger, whose name comes from her daughter's nickname "mushroom", smiled and spoke to a large crowd of friends and supporters, many livestreaming the chaotic scene on Facebook, at Houston's George Bush airport where she arrived just before midnight on Wednesday.

She said it was not an easy move leaving her country but vowed to "never keep silent" in her fight for rights issues back home.

"I will continue to raise my voice until there is human rights in Vietnam, real human rights," she told AFP by phone before getting into a car with her family.

Quynh has been behind bars since her arrest in 2016 when she was arrested while visiting a fellow activist in prison.

She was later convicted for "anti-state propaganda" for publishing damning Facebook posts about deaths in police custody, a toxic spill in central Vietnam and the criticisms of the ruling communist party.

She was sentenced to 10 years in jail last year, a heavy ruling that drew swift rebuke from the US, the EU and UN.

Earlier this year police moved her to a prison hundreds of kilometres from her hometown Nha Trang in central Vietnam, which she said had taken a toll on her family who were exhausted by the travel.

"It was time for me to think of my family, I made this final decision (to leave) for the future of my two kids," she said.

- One out, one in -

The US embassy in Hanoi said Quynh had requested to go to the US if released and urged Vietnam to free other activists.

"We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience," embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said.

'Mother Mushroom' has arrived in the US after being freed from prison in Vietnam

Her arrest grabbed headlines globally and she gained global fame after receiving the International Woman of Courage Award in 2017, presented to her in absentia by US First Lady Melania Trump.

Her husband Donald Trump's administration has come under fire for not doing enough to protect human rights, especially in Vietnam.

Though Vietnam has long jailed its critics, a hardline leadership in charge since 2016 has been accused of doubling down on efforts to silence activists.

More than 55 bloggers, protesters and Facebookers have been jailed this year alone, according to an AFP tally, with the length and frequency of sentences steadily ticking upward.

Soon after Quynh was released Wednesday, fellow dissident Nguyen Dinh Thanh, 27, was jailed for seven years for "spreading anti-state materials" in southern Binh Duong province.

The former medical student was accused of printing 3,000 leaflets apparently to distribute at nationwide protests in June, according to state media.

In another indication that Vietnam is not likely to let up its punishment of critics, activist Le Dinh Luong had his 20-year sentence upheld in an appeal trial Thursday in Nghe An province.

The sentence is one of the harshest doled out to an activist in years.Gayoom ruled the Maldives for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008

A Maldivian court overturned the 19-month jail term of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom on Thursday, a month after the former president's estranged half-brother and jailer suffered a shock election drubbing.

Gayoom, 80, ruled the largely Muslim island nation for 30 straight years until he was defeated at the country's first multi-party elections in 2008.

He was arrested in February and accused of participating in an alleged coup during a crackdown on rivals of strongman President Abdulla Yameen, in charges his family and observers said were politically-motivated.

Gayoom was granted bail at the end of September, a week after Yameen lost national elections that had been skewed heavily in his favour.

On Thursday a court in the capital Male quashed Gayoom's conviction for obstruction of justice -- a charge that arose when he refuse to hand over his mobile phone to police.

Gayoom is one of many political opponents and dissidents who were jailed or forced into exile during Yameen's strongman rule.

Mohamed Nasheed, the country's first democratically-elected president, was convicted on a terrorism charge and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 after a trial characterised by Amnesty International as a "travesty of justice".

He obtained prison leave in 2016 to travel to London for medical treatment and has remained abroad since.

Former foes Nasheed and Gayoom teamed up before the election to back Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a political neophyte who defeated Yameen in a landslide victory.

Yameen appeared on national television Wednesday to once again concede defeat in the last month's polls, despite mounting a court challenge to annul the results.

The Supreme Court is yet to deliver a verdict in the case, which hinges on Yameen's allegation that the election commission used invisible ink to understate his support on ballot papers.

He is due to step down on November 17.US President Donald Trump, pictured at the White House on October 1, 2018, has made cracking down on illegal immigration a keystone of his presidency

US President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the "onslaught" of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed Democrats ahead of the midterm elections.

The attack comes with Trump's Republicans fighting to retain control of Congress in the November 6 vote, and as thousands of migrants from impoverished Honduras were marching north through Guatemala toward the United States.

"I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS," Trump said.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

The tweets came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to embark on a tour of the region that will see him visit Mexico ahead of its December inauguration of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as Panama.

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration and building a wall that stretches the length of the 1,954-mile (3,145 km) border a keystone of his presidency, but his animus toward Mexico had cooled since Obrador's election in July.

Despite their sharp differences, the US and Mexico have made progress on several issues, including the signing of an updated transcontinental trade pact, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

But, possibly with an eye on November 6 polls that will determine whether Republicans retain control of Congress, Trump returned to the fiery rhetoric that has marked his past relations with Mexico.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said.

- Caravan presses on -

Exhausted by tramping for hours in the sun and rain, a vanguard group of the so-called "caravan" of Honduran migrants was taking refuge Wendesday in a church-sponsored shelter in the center of Guatemala City.

It was not immediately clear what form of military deployment Trump had in mind. The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed.

At least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a policy to separate migrant children from their parents, since discontinued.

Exhausted after tramping in the sun and rain, an advance group of the Honduran migrants on Wednesday took refuge in a church-sponsored shelter in the center of Guatemala City.

Their objective now is to regroup and press on towards the border with Mexico.

A caravan of vehicles carrying more than 2,000 migrants left last Saturday from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula after organizing themselves on social media.Smoke billows over the Gaza Strip town of Rafah on October 17, 2018, as the first rocket fire into Israel in weeks sparks retaliatory air strikes and fears of a new war

Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas on Thursday pledged to launch an investigation into rocket fire at Israel the previous day, in an apparent bid to calm fears of a new war.

Israeli children returned to schools near the border with the Palestinian territory that had been closed on Wednesday after the pre-dawn rocket fire from Gaza badly damaged a family home in the southern city of Beersheba.

But the risk of a new war, whether through miscalculation or design, remained.

Three children had a narrow escape after their mother moved them into the safe room, as much of the rest of the house was destroyed, the army said.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for a decade, issued a joint statement with its ally Islamic Jihad publicly disavowing the rocket fire.

But Israel rejected their denial, saying they were the only groups armed with rockets of a range sufficient to reach Beersheba -- 40 kilometres (25 miles) away -- and the sea off Tel Aviv -- 70 kilometres (45 miles).

Israel in any case holds Hamas responsible, as Gaza's de factor ruler, for all fire from the territory regardless of who launches it.

"There are security service investigations in Gaza to uncover who is behind the rocket fire and there will be harsh measures against those (found guilty)," senior Hamas official Bassem Naim told AFP.

He said the rocket fire "aimed to sabotage Egyptian efforts" to broker a long-term truce between Hamas and Israel, which have fought three wars since 2008.

A video published by Hamas's military wing on Thursday showed militants preparing rockets for launch, with the caption: "Read us correctly, a mistake would not benefit," written in Hebrew.

- Beersheba mum 'averted war' -

Palestinians burn tyres on the Gaza-Israel border on October 12, 2018 in one of the near-daily protests held since March 30 that have drawn a deadly response from the Israeli army and stoked fears of an escalation

Near daily protests along the border since March 30 against Israel's crippling 11-year blockade of the impoverished enclave have sparked repeated clashes with the army.

More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, while one Israeli soldier has been shot dead.

Wednesday's rocket fire triggered retaliatory Israeli air strikes that killed one suspected militant and raised fears of a new escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chaired a meeting of the security cabinet lasting several hours on Wednesday evening.

But no statement was released afterwards and Israeli media reported that ministers had failed to agree on how to respond to the rocket fire and the persistent protests.

The mass circulation Yediot Aharonot newspaper said the swift action of the mother in Beersheba to protect her family had probably prevented a new war.

"If the rocket attack had resulted in casualties, the political echelon's manoeuvring room would have been reduced to zero, and Israel would have launched, just like it did four years ago, a military operation that it neither wants nor which it believes will be effective."

Hamas seized control of Gaza from loyalists of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a near civil war in 2007 and the split has made peace negotiations with Israel harder.

Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot said the swift action of a mother in Beersheba who rushed her three children into a safe room as a rocket fired from Gaza largely destroyed their home probably averted a new war

Egypt and the UN have been seeking to broker an agreement that would see Israel relax its blockade of Gaza in exchange for a prolonged period of calm from Hamas.

Abbas's Fatah movement opposes any such deal, saying it amounts to a recognition of Islamist control in Gaza.

Egyptian Intelligence Minister Abbas Kamel had been expected in Gaza on Thursday for his first visit since taking up the post in January, fuelling talk of a deal.

Hamas official Naim said the minister was forced to postpone because of a timetabling problem.

But an Egyptian delegation led by senior intelligence official Ayman Badea did travel to Gaza and met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.

An Egyptian official told AFP they were still hopeful of achieving a long-term deal to restore calm.

Egypt is one of only two Arab states to have official relations with Israel and plays a key role in indirect negotiations between the Jewish state and Hamas.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a political analyst in Gaza, said those who fired the rockets wanted to prevent the Egyptian minister's visit and "stop reconciliation and a truce."

Fringe Islamist groups opposed to Hamas have previously fired rockets. Suspicion could also fall on factions within Hamas and Islamic Jihad opposed to a truce deal.General Abdul Raziq -- the police chief of Kandahar province who had a fierce reputation for brutality -- was one of the targets of the shooting

A Taliban-claimed attack on the top US commander in Afghanistan and senior Afghan security officials Thursday killed at least three people and sent the government scrambling to secure the country's restive south.

There are fears the attack in the southern province of Kandahar could derail US efforts to engage the group in peace talks and parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20.

US and NATO commander General Scott Miller was not hurt in the attack inside a heavily fortified government compound in Kandahar city that targeted a high-level security meeting.

But the shooting carried out by a member of the provincial governor's security team killed anti-Taliban strongman and police chief General Abdul Raziq, Afghan and NATO officials said.

"Today I lost a great friend LTG Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan, " said General Miller in a tweet posted by a NATO-linked account.

"The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone."

There are fears the attack could derail parliamentary elections scheduled for October 20

Provincial intelligence chief General Abdul Momin Hussainkhail and an Afghan journalist also died in the attack that wounded 13 people, including two Americans and the governor, officials added.

"The attack carried out by a bodyguard of the governor happened moments after the meeting finished, as they were leaving the compound," Afghan Army chief of staff General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali told reporters.

After a meeting chaired by President Ashraf Ghani, "a high-ranking delegation headed by the NDS chief has been deployed to Kandahar to control the situation", Yaftali added.

Afghan security forces swarmed Kandahar city after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for violence ahead of Saturday's ballot -- into their homes.

The Taliban said in a Twitter post that Miller and Raziq were the targets of the shooting.

Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said Raziq or the governor, not Miller, had been the targets.

"Eye witnesses reported that the attacker was focused on Raziq," a US embassy official in Kabul said.

But the unprecedented attack on a US and NATO commander in Afghanistan and the death of Raziq was "a huge blow to stability and to counterinsurgency more broadly", said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center.

"The bottom line here is that no one is safe, no matter how powerful they may be and no matter how much security they may expect to receive."

- 'Deep uncertainty' -

The security void left by Raziq's death, who was widely seen as a bulwark against the Taliban insurgency in Kandahar, would create "deep uncertainty" in the south, Johnny Walsh of the United States Insitute of Peace said.

Afghanistan is on high alert ahead of long-delayed legislative elections, scheduled for October 20, after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot

Raziq long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

"While General Raziq had long faced accusations of human rights abuses, he was also arguably the most capable military commander in Afghanistan, and widely perceived as the main reason the Taliban have struggled in Kandahar in recent years," Walsh told AFP.

Initial reports indicated Afghan officials were the targets of the attack, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said, describing it as an "Afghan-on-Afghan" assault.

"We are being told the area is secure."

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

A witness said the city was "full of military forces".

"They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house.

The election process has already been hit by violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".

strs-us-amj/ds/amuIndian police beat a Hindu activist in protests over women's acccess to a temple in Kerala

Hindu hardliners blocked intersections, threatened drivers, threw stones at buses and ordered a 12-hour strike on Thursday to successfully bar women from one of India's holiest temples for a second day.

The Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in the southern state of Kerala was meant to allow women of all ages -- and not just those under 10 and over 50 as before -- from Wednesday following an order by India's highest court last month.

But hundreds of traditionalists, throwing stones at baton-wielding police, defied the order -- blocking the path, surrounding and shouting at any woman attempting to make it to the hilltop site.

Angry young men also surrounded and smashed the car windows of female television reporters and threatened others, including an AFP reporter. Another female correspondent was kicked.

Despite the Supreme Court's order to allow them in, none of the few women present at the temple on Thursday were between 10 and 50 years old

Local Hindu groups had previously declared a 12-hour shutdown of local businesses, telling drivers that their vehicles would be attacked if they took anyone towards the temple.

"Some men came to the parking lot early Thursday and warned taxi drivers against defying the shutdown call," taxi driver Praveen, in the town of Pathanamthitta, told AFP.

"They warned drivers at several nearby parking lots and hotels. Anyone who defies it will be risking damage to his vehicle," he added in an account corroborated by other drivers.

"No one will get to the temple today because all the drivers are scared for the safety of their cars," one hotel receptionist told AFP. Shops, businesses and schools in the area were shut.

State authorities insisted that they would ensure access, imposing restrictions on public gatherings of more than five people, and laying on buses for devotees.

Kerala police have drafted in hundreds of extra officers, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms

Kerala police, who had 1,450 officers on duty, many with helmets and body armour over their khaki uniforms, provided escorts to some buses.

Police also patrolled through the night and reinforced their presence at Nilackal, the base camp below the temple.

But groups of between 50 and 100 young men gathered at intersections on Thursday, checking vehicles.

"Traditions that have existed since before courts cannot be tampered with," Krishna Kumar, a tall muscular man in his 20s at one crossroads in the town of Kozhencherry, told AFP.

In some areas, protesters threw stones at the buses.

- 'Impure' -

The situation at the actual temple was festive, meanwhile, with thousands of people queueing to enter as music played, after trekking for several hours up the steep hill through lush, monkey-filled forest.

But despite the Supreme Court's order to allow them in, none of the few women present on Thursday were between 10 and 50 years old -- of menstrual age, as the court put it.

Stone-throwing Hindu activists faced off against police near a Kerala temple that a court has ordered open to women

The restriction reflects an old but still prevalent belief that menstruating women are impure, and the fact that the deity Ayyappa was reputed to have been celibate.

"Everyone is angry and I don't have to hide it. What the Supreme Court has done isn't right. We don't want any change. Our Ayyappa's traditions don't need to be tampered with," shirtless devotee Sundaravadana told AFP, clutching a "Save Sabarimala" placard.

"We've come here since our childhood and understand the rich tradition behind it. Women are allowed everywhere, at all other temples. It doesn't happen here for a reason. We will do whatever to save our Sabrimala," he added.

Female devotees are still barred from some Hindu temples in India. The entry of women at Sabarimala was long taboo, with a ban formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991.

The Supreme Court ruling, which overturned that decision, enraged traditionalists, including supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pinarayi Vijayan, the Marxist chief minister of Kerala, said that the mobs were backed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group close to Modi's BJP.

"These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies... All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala," Vijayan tweeted.

The head of the BJP in Kerala, P.S Sreedharan Pillai, told AFP on Wednesday that his party advocated "peaceful protest against the court verdict."

"The overwhelming majority of women oppose the Supreme Court ruling," he added.

Trupti Desai, an activist, said she had decided to postpone her visit.

"If I go there will be more violence. The government had enough time to prepare the ground for implementing the court's verdict but they have failed to provide protection to the women devotees," she told AFP by phone.US President Donald Trump, pictured at the White House on October 1, 2018, has made cracking down on illegal immigration a keystone of his presidency

President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to send the military to close the US-Mexican border against an "onslaught" of migrants, stepping up his anti-immigrant rhetoric ahead of congressional elections.

As several thousand Hondurans made their way through Central America toward the US border, Trump blamed Democrats for an "assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador" with a caravan "INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS."

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!"

Trump has made his call for a wall on the southern border a signature issue of his two-year presidency, but Thursday's tweet storm was especially fierce.

Trump suggested he was even prepared to put at risk the recently renegotiated North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between Mexico, the United States and Canada, redubbed as USMCA.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA," he said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders meanwhile said that "we are passionate about solving the issue of illegal immigration," and that "our administration is doing a great job on the border."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo embarked on a tour of the region that took him to Panama on Thursday with a visit to Mexico set for Friday.

The Mexican stop is important for future relations because it comes just ahead of the inauguration in December of President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

The migrants say they organized for the long and difficult journey on social media, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation

Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's foreign minister designate, downplayed Trump's comments as aimed at his domestic political base.

"The position of President Trump is the one he has always raised," Ebrard told local radio station Radio Centro.

"It was predictable and also the election process is very close, so he is making a political calculation," he added.

- Controversial caravan -

The president's message was part of a broad strategy to crack down on unauthorized immigrants and tighten rules for legal migrants.

Barely a week goes by without Trump warning about the danger posed by ultra-violent Central American gangs like MS-13, while chants of "build the wall" are a staple of his pre-midterms campaign rallies.

A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican border

The latest focus is on some 2,000 Hondurans who departed Saturday from the city of San Pedro Sula in a caravan headed for the US border.

A first group of several hundred Honduran migrants arrived late Wednesday on the Guatemalan-Mexican border, where they overflowed a shelter in the town of Tecun Uman, leaving many to sleep in the town square or on the street, an AFP correspondent said.

Many were traveling with a single change of clothes and little money. Others were carrying young children in their arms.

Several migrants told AFP the group plans to wait for the rest of the caravan to arrive, then cross the border en masse in hopes of overwhelming the Mexican immigration authorities, who have vowed to detain anyone without papers.

The migrants say they organized on social media for the long and difficult journey, but Washington suspects the group has been organized as a deliberate provocation.

"This caravan did not appear organically," a senior Trump administration official told journalists.

"There's a political aspect and an organizational aspect which frankly seeks to sow chaos and dissent and that needs to be dealt with," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

- Border forces -

In Mexico, hundreds of riot police deployed at a bridge on the border with Guatemala. Guatemala also sent police reinforcements.

Responding to a tweet about Mexico deploying police equipped with anti-riot gear, Trump wrote: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

Mexico's ambassador to Guatemala, Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, met with migrants camped out in the border town of Tecun Uman to discourage them from crossing illegally.

"We are offering documented entry to those who have a passport and visa, and to those who do not, documented entry via an application for refugee status, on humanitarian grounds. We will address every case," he told a large crowd of Hondurans gathered on the town's central square.

Mexico's foreign minister Luis Videgaray meanwhile told reporters he had met with UN chief Antonio Guterres, who said the UNHCR would help the Mexican government to process asylum applications for those in the caravan.

As for the US border, it remained unclear whether Trump's threat would result in any military deployment.

The president announced plans in April to send thousands of National Guard troops to the border, where they could remain until his promised wall is constructed.

But at least five US states later refused to send the troops amid an outcry over a since-abandoned White House policy to separate migrant children from their parents at the border.Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena is taking the alleged assassination plot "very seriously", his office says

Sri Lanka's president has heightened his security following reports of an assassination plot involving an alleged Indian intelligence operative, his advisor said Thursday.

Maithripala Sirisena took the undisclosed security measures after a police informant claimed that a senior officer discussed with him plans to kill the president, advisor Shiral Lakthilaka said.

"The president has taken the threat very seriously," Lakthilaka told reporters in Colombo. "The president's security has been increased."

Police in Sri Lanka said they were still investigating the alleged plot and had detained an Indian national.

Sirisena had "told the cabinet of local media reports of an Indian intelligence agency being involved," Lakthilaka said. "He did not name the agency."

But Sirisena's office has denied laying blame for the plot on the Indian government, following earlier media reports to that effect in Sri Lanka and India which quoted unnamed ministers in Colombo.

Both Sirisena and Indian Premier Narendra Modi spoke on the phone on Wednesday, with the Sri Lankan leader "categorically" rejecting reports he had accused New Delhi of involvement, Modi's office said.

Sirisena's predecessor Mahinda Rajapakse had accused India's external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, of engineering his defeat at the January 2015 election, a charge New Delhi has repeatedly denied.Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has not been seen since he entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2

Four prominent human rights and press freedom groups on Thursday urged Turkey to request a United Nations investigation into the possible murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi to prevent a "whitewash" of the alleged crime.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders said such a probe established by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would shed light on the fate of the prominent journalist.

Khashoggi, a legal resident of the United States who wrote for The Washington Post, disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Media reports citing Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents within minutes of entering the consulate and that his body was dismembered.

"Turkey should enlist the UN to initiate a timely, credible, and transparent investigation," said Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

"UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh."

Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, while President Donald Trump has suggested that "rogue killers" may have carried out the alleged crime.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in Washington that Saudi Arabia had "a few more days" to wrap up its own investigation and that the United States would decide on a response afterwards.

The Khashoggi affair has triggered a backlash against Saudi Arabia amid reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing.

Asked about the appeal from the rights groups, a Turkish diplomat told AFP that there was "no need" for a UN investigation for the time being.

"There's no need for the moment to go to the UN," said the diplomat, who asked not to be named.

"The Turkish police and the Turkish prosecutor are doing everything and collecting the evidence to find out what happened and how it happened," he said.

"We don't see it as something that we need because they don't have the expertise. What can the UN do?"

- Not good enough -

Turkish police searched for clues into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the residence of the Saudi consul to Istanbul

At a news conference held at the United Nations, the rights groups said evidence collected by a UN investigation team could be preserved for use in prosecutions.

The team should have access to all potential witnesses or suspects and recommend avenues for bringing to justice anyone against whom credible evidence is found.

"Partial explanations and one-sided investigations by Saudi Arabia, which is suspected of involvement, aren't good enough, said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch.

"Only the UN has the credibility and independence required to expose the masterminds behind Khashoggi's enforced disappearance and to hold them to account."

Guterres at the weekend said in a BBC interview that the world should know "the truth" about Khashoggi's disappearance, and expressed fear that such incidents were becoming a "new normal."

Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia has the most to gain from an impartial UN investigation.

"Without a credible UN inquiry, there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over Saudi Arabia, no matter what its leadership says to explain away how Khashoggi vanished," said Sherine Tadros, head the New York office of Amnesty International.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) described the suspected murder of Khashoggi as "one of the most shocking and extreme cases in recent years."South Korean President Moon Jae-in briefed the pontiff about his recent visit to Pyongyang

Pope Francis is ready to visit North Korea if its leader Kim Jong Un extends a formal invitation, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday after meeting the pontiff.

Moon briefed the pontiff about his visit to Pyongyang in September when Kim had "expressed his wish to welcome the pope into his country" saying he would "ardently" welcome him, the South Korean leader's spokesman said.

"When President Moon asked the pope if it would be alright for Kim to send an invitation... the pope said: 'What you just told me is enough, but it would be good if a formal invitation is sent'," he said, speaking in Korean.

"If the invitation comes, I will definitely respond to that, and I can go," he quoted the pope as saying.

In a statement, the Vatican said: "Strong appreciation was expressed for the common commitment to fostering all useful initiatives to overcome the tensions that still exist in the Korean Peninsula, in order to usher in a new season of peace and development."

And Vatican spokesman Greg Burke told AFP: "I can confirm that a verbal invitation was made."

Moon's spokesman also quoted the pope as saying that he "strongly" backed the peace process, telling the South Korean leader to "march ahead without stopping," adding: "Do not be afraid."

In a separate statement, the Vatican said the pope was not planning a trip to Taiwan.

Taiwanese Vice President Chen Chien-jen made the invitation during a weekend audience with the pope, later telling reporters that Francis had "smiled" when he made the offer.

Last month, the Vatican forged a landmark deal with Beijing on the appointment of bishops, paving the way for a rapprochement. The Vatican has not had diplomatic relations with Beijing since 1951.

That has raised questions over the future of official ties between Taiwan and the Holy See -- the island's only official ally in Europe -- as China makes a concerted effort to poach its dwindling number of diplomatic allies.The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the national assembly's 47 seats

Bhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results.

The result means the country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India, will have chosen a different party to rule at each election since the absolute monarchy was ended in 2008.

The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the national assembly's 47 seats, according to the results which are to be officially confirmed on Friday.

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September, with the former ruling party ending up in third place.

DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for "nation building" in the country which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs.

Both parties had campaigned on promises to boost the economy with Tshering's party using the slogan "Narrowing The Gap".

The DPT, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in 2013, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India.

The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutan's debt to pay for more power plants.

Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects.Bhutan has now chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008

Bhutan's voters on Thursday gave an overwhelming victory to a new party headed by a surgeon in only the third democratic election held by the Himalayan kingdom, according to provisional results.

The country of 800,000 people, wedged between giant neighbours China and India and known for its Gross National Happiness index, has now chosen a different party to rule at each election since the end of absolute monarchy in 2008.

The centre-left Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT), which was only formed in 2013, won 30 of the 47 national assembly seats, according to the provisional results released by Bhutan's election commision. Official results are to be announced Friday.

Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) secured the other 17 seats in the runoff contest limited to the two parties who led a first round of voting in September. The last ruling party was excluded in the contest.

DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon, has vowed to work for "nation building"

DNT leader Lotay Tshering, a 50-year-old urology surgeon who trained in Bangladesh and Australia, vowed to work for "nation building" in the country which is battling high foreign debt, mainly owed to India, as well as youth employment, rural poverty and criminal gangs.

Both parties had vowed to boost the economy with Tshering's party using the slogan "Narrowing The Gap".

The election saw a 70 percent turnout and record 11 women win seats.

The DPT, which won Bhutan's first election in 2008 but did not get a seat in the 2013 vote, had wanted to accelerate the building of hydropower plants which dominate the economy, with electricity mainly exported to India.

The DNT has been more wary about increasing Bhutan's debt to pay for more power plants.

- New friends needed -

Hydropower financing -- which comes to more than $1.5 billion -- accounts for more than 80 percent of Bhutan's foreign debt. Most is owed to India, which has financed four out of five of the kingdom's new hydro-electric projects.

Bhutan has tried to shield itself from the downsides of globalisation, striving for "Gross National Happiness" over GDP growth, maintaining a carbon-negative economy and keeping tourist numbers down with a daily fee of $250 per visitor in high season.

While Bhutan is proud of its cultural and political independence and has diplomatic relations with barely 50 countries, it knows it will have to open up.

Foreign policy was kept out of the election campaign however. During the 2013 campaign, fearing that Bhutan was moving too close to China, India withdrew subsidies for kerosene and cooking gas imports, in what was seen as an attempt to coerce a change of government.

Relations with India remain sensitive. At least five candidates and activists were fined up to two month's wages for sending instant messenger statements to groups on relations with India, the Bhutan election commission said.

Last year India and China became embroiled in a military standoff over the Doklam plateau claimed by China and Bhutan, and which sits on a strategic corner where the three countries meet.

India, which has a military presence in Bhutan, stepped in to prevent Chinese border guards from building a road there.

Even though Bhutan does not have diplomatic ties with Beijing, its giant neighbour is the third biggest source of imported goods and wealthy Chinese tourists are a valuable new source of income.

A growing number of Bhutanese feel the country should rely less on India and give China and others a chance to boost the economy and create new jobs. "Bhutan should make friends with other countries," said taxi driver Kinzang Dorji.Ryan Lochte's attorney says the swimmer is undergoing counseling for alcohol use, but the 12-time Olympic medalist is not in a treatment facility and is training in his bid to make the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Jeff Ostrow tells The Associated Press on Thursday that Lochte's decision to pursue counseling has nothing to do with incidents in California and Florida last week.

Asked if Lochte plans to give up alcohol, Ostrow says, "Ryan will make that decision."

Ostrow says the 34-year-old swimmer wants his family and fans to be proud of him, and he doesn't want to repeat the "poor decisions" that have plagued him in recent years.

FILE - In this Aug. 9, 2016, file photo, United States' Ryan Lochte checks his time in a men's 4x200-meter freestyle heat at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Lochte's attorney says the swimmer is seeking help for poor decision making that occurs when alcohol is involved, but the 12-time Olympic medalist is not in a treatment facility and he continues to train for a shot at the 2020 Tokyo Games. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Thursday that he will travel to Israel later this month on an economic development trip that includes a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Democratic governor said the 24-person delegation will include business leaders and researchers in water management, logistics, higher education, and cybersecurity. The delegation leaves Louisiana on Oct. 26 and returns Nov. 2, visiting both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The governor will meet with Netanyahu and other government leaders in Jerusalem on Oct. 28. That same day, Edwards and his wife Donna will attend a memorial ceremony at the Holocaust Remembrance Center.

Edwards called the trip a great opportunity to meet one of the nation's key allies and speak with other officials and business leaders about possible trade prospects.

"I am looking forward to building a framework for Louisiana to connect with Israel in oil and gas exploration and cybersecurity, as well as other fields, and I want to make it possible for Louisiana companies and organizations to follow up on the inroads we make with this trade mission," the governor said in a statement.

The governor's office highlighted Edwards' position as co-chairman of the National Governors Association's Resource Center for State Cybersecurity, noting that Israel has a high profile in the global cybersecurity industry. The NGA's national cybersecurity conference will be held in the Shreveport/Bossier City area in May 2019.

Edwards' office said the group was invited by Gilad Katz, the consul general of Israel to the Southwest United States. In a statement, Katz said he hoped the visit will "be the springboard to new partnerships and collaborations that will have a lasting impact on both Louisiana and Israel."WASHINGTON (AP) - An American pastor may soon be released after two years of captivity in Turkey.

A person involved in efforts to free Andrew Brunson say the 50-year-old evangelical pastor from North Carolina could be freed at his next court appearance on Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because officials had not yet reached a final agreement on the release and it could still fall through.

Brunson was among thousands of people arrested in Turkey in police sweeps following a failed July 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters that the U.S. is hopeful he will soon be released.

Brunson is under house arrest but could get up to 35 years in prison if convicted on charges that his lawyers say are baseless.HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a Mississippi man has pleaded guilty to illegally having an unregistered machine gun, months after he was arrested and found with other firearms, a methamphetamine pipe and a Ku Klux Klan robe.

Court records show 39-year-old James Christopher Varner of Stringer pleaded guilty Thursday. Sentencing is Jan. 3, and he faces up to 10 years in prison.

A news release from the U.S. attorney's office for southern Mississippi says Jasper County sheriff's deputies responded to a domestic violence call in January and found an injured woman and several firearms.

The release says when deputies found Varner, they also found additional guns, illegal drugs and the Klan robe. Authorities seized 46 guns, multiple silencers and magazines of ammunition.

Varner's attorneys could not immediately be reached after court Thursday.SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A federal official who controls medical care in California prisons wants as much as a quarter-billion dollars a year to provide medication intended to ease a record increase of fatal drug overdoses among inmates.

The plan by Clark Kelso released to The Associated Press Thursday calls for the state to eventually provide drugs to 13,000 inmates to reduce craving and euphoria while weening them off opioids.

It's the latest in years of attempts to stem overdoses that killed a record 39 California inmates last year.

An attorney for inmates says Kelso's proposal would be the nation's most comprehensive program aimed at addiction among inmates.

Kelso could seek a federal court order requiring the state to spend the money but instead expects to request it from the governor and Legislature.

Kelso oversees medical care in California prisons as part of federal court takeover prompted by poor innate health care.

FILE -- In this May 20, 2015 file photo, Bentley, a 3-year-old Labrador retriever, checks an inmate for traces of narcotics at California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, Calif. The federal receiver who controls medical care in California state prisons is seeking up to a quarter-billion dollars annually to provide medication designed to stem a record increase in fatal drug overdoses among inmates. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file)

FILE - In this May 20, 2015 file photo, Correctional Officer M. Jones, puts a test sample on an airport-style ion spectrometer that tests for illegal narcotics at Vacaville State Prison in Vacaville, Calif. The federal receiver who controls medical care in California state prisons is seeking up to a quarter-billion dollars annually to provide medication designed to stem a record increase in fatal drug overdoses among inmates. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, file)WASHINGTON (AP) - Former FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe said Thursday that his book has been delayed because of an FBI review lasting longer than he thought it would, making him concerned he has been singled out for what he calls "irregular unfair treatment."

McCabe's book, "The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump," was scheduled for release Dec. 4. He now says it will come out in February.

"Having been singled out for irregular unfair treatment over the past year, I am concerned it could be happening again," McCabe said in a statement issued through a spokeswoman.

McCabe, who spent more than 20 years with the FBI, was fired in March for what the Justice Department called a lack of candor as an inspector general report accused him of misleading investigators about his role in a disclosure to the news media. He has denied any wrongdoing.

McCabe has been a repeated target of President Donald Trump's ire. Trump has accused him of having lied during an internal investigation and of being politically biased because of his wife's run for office in Virginia and her acceptance of campaign contributions from the political action committee of a close Hillary Clinton ally.

He has also been at odds with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who fired him, and with Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein.

The FBI declined to comment Thursday.

FBI policy states that current and former employees who wish to publish FBI information must submit their manuscripts for review to ensure that they are not revealing classified material or anything that could interfere with ongoing investigations or operations.

The FBI says it generally responds to requests for prepublication reviews within 30 days but that more time may be needed for publications that are especially long, sensitive or technical.

The book's publisher, St. Martin's Press, has called the book a candid account of McCabe's career and defense of the FBI's independence.

It has said McCabe will describe "a series of troubling, contradictory, and often bizarre conversations" with Trump and other high officials that led him to believe the "actions of this President and his administration undermine the FBI and the entire intelligence community" and threaten the general public.

The company declined to comment Thursday except to say that the new publication date is Feb. 12.

The book could pull back the curtain on McCabe's own tense relationships with Trump and Rosenstein.

McCabe is known to have kept memos documenting sensitive conversations with both men, including ones that reportedly describe Rosenstein as having floated the idea of secretly recording the president after the firing of FBI Director James Comey and of invoking constitutional procedures to get Trump removed from office. The Justice Department issued a statement from someone who recalled the recording remark being made and said it was meant sarcastically.

McCabe and Rosenstein also had a tense encounter after special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed in which the two each suggested that the other should withdraw, according to a person familiar with the exchange who was not authorized to discuss the private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

McCabe was concerned that Rosenstein, who wrote a memo that preceded Comey's firing, could become a witness in Mueller's investigation while Rosenstein was concerned that McCabe might be conflicted because of his earlier public support for his wife's unsuccessful Democratic campaign for the Virginia state Senate, according to the person. The Washington Post first reported the encounter.

___

Associated Press writer Hillel Italie in New York contributed to this report.UPPER MARLBORO, Md. (AP) - A judge has ruled that a man charged in a deadly shooting at a Maryland police station is not qualified to pursue an insanity defense.

The Washington Post reports the ruling by a Prince George's County Circuit Court judge did acknowledge that 25-year-old Michael Deandre Ford has serious mental-health issues. Ford's attorney, Antoini M. Jones, said at Thursday's hearing that doctors assessed Ford but determined his challenges stemming from childhood are not enough for a possible legal finding of "not criminally responsible."

Ford is accused of attacking a county police station in 2016. Undercover narcotics detective 28-year-old Jacai Colson had responded to the gunfire and was fatally shot by another officer.

Ford is charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and other offenses. Trial is scheduled to start Oct. 22.

___

Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.comST. LOUIS (AP) - A federal judge in St. Louis has ordered companies from Missouri and California to pay a combined $7 million for shipping ingredients containing poultry feathers and other misbranded items to pet food manufacturers.

Wilbur-Ellis Feed LLC of San Francisco pleaded guilty in April. Diversified Ingredients Inc. of Ballwin, Missouri, pleaded guilty in July. Charges against both companies were misdemeanors. Both were sentenced Thursday.

Federal authorities say Wilbur-Ellis substituted lower cost ingredients for chicken and turkey meal in shipments from a Texas plant to pet food manufacturers in 2013 and 2014. Some shipments included ground-up feathers.

Diversified - a commodities broker, merchandiser and distributor - had pet food companies among its customers. Its clients received the adulterated ingredients.

Federal prosecutors say the ingredients posed no health threat to animals that ate the pet food.CHICAGO (AP) - The handgun used to kill a Chicago police commander had once been bought and sold by an unlicensed gun dealer who federal authorities say described peddling guns "like an addiction."

The Chicago Tribune investigated the various sales of the gun that was used to kill Cmdr. Paul Bauer in February. The accused shooter, Shomari Legghette, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.

It's unclear how Legghette allegedly got the weapon. But federal investigators traced the gun to a 68-year-old Wisconsin man, Thomas Caldwell, who has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of selling firearms without a license. A man Caldwell said he sold the gun to last year has pleaded not guilty to a similar charge; investigators say federal agents found 40 guns at that man's home.

Experts say the case illustrates the ease with which people can illegally buy and sell guns either online or hand-to-hand. Chicago police say that's a big factor in the hundreds of shooting deaths each year in the city.

Citing court documents and statements made in court, the Chicago Tribune reports that Caldwell admitted he had been buying and selling guns for years, even after he was told by federal authorities to stop because he didn't have a license. Caldwell is awaiting sentencing in the case.

One of those weapons was the Glock 26 9 mm handgun that authorities say Legghette used to kill Bauer. Caldwell said he bought the gun because of its small size in March 2015 for about $350. He said he purchased the gun from a man who belonged to the same gun club he did.

Caldwell said the seller had purchased it from a gun shop outside Madison, Wisconsin. According to federal authorities, Caldwell sold the gun on a website he'd used to post hundreds of ads for gun sales. He sold the gun to a man federal authorities say he knew only as "Kevin Sweepie," who investigators say was a Milwaukee resident named Ron Jones.

"Mr. Caldwell described several recent firearm transactions, showed the officer a large inventory of firearms inside his residence, and explained that selling firearms was like an addiction," O'Shea, the assistant U.S. attorney, said at Caldwell's court hearing last month.

Caldwell was under investigation before Bauer was shot. In December of 2017 - about two years after the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives warned him to stop selling guns without a license - ATF agents working undercover met him at his home in Madison and bought a handgun for $500. Caldwell and Jones were arrested after Bauer's death; Jones and his attorney declined to comment to the Tribune.

Mark Jones, a former ATF agent who isn't involved in the investigation, said the evidence gathered in both cases highlights the need for regulation and scrutiny of private gun sales. He said illegal gun traffickers know the ATF can't follow up on every violation, and that the consequences aren't especially tough when charges are charges are filed.

He noted that Caldwell pleaded guilty to a single count despite all the guns he admitted to selling. He faces up to five years in prison when sentenced.

"The point is, is it creating enough of a deterrent?" he said. "I don't think so."

___

Information from: Chicago Tribune, http://www.chicagotribune.comNEW YORK (AP) - The urgency of hurricane coverage with its colorful satellite maps and reporters standing in the wind is a television staple. But devastation in Hurricane Michael's wake was so severe that it made images of some of the hardest-hit areas in Florida trickle out as slowly as if from a distant, third-world nation.

For news organizations, Thursday was a race to get to Mexico Beach, considered the hardest-hit community by the strikingly potent storm.

Reporters had to make their way through roads clogged by downed trees and power lines. CNN's Brooke Baldwin made it by helicopter and delivered heartbreaking images before many of her rivals made it. News organizations also made use of drones for striking aerial footage of storm damage.NEW YORK (AP) - A February 2020 trial date was set Thursday for a U.S. congressman indicted on federal insider trading charges.

U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick scheduled jury selection to begin Feb. 3, 2020, for U.S. Rep. Chris Collins after prosecutors relaxed their insistence that the trial must occur next year.

The 68-year-old Collins, a Republican, was not in court.

He remains on the ballot for re-election to the 27th District, a right-leaning area between Buffalo and Rochester. Collins has pleaded not guilty.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Hartman had first pushed to have the trial set for next year even as defense lawyers said they needed more time to adequately prepare their case.

"Mr. Collins has been on notice the government was investigating him for some time," Hartman said, noting that Collins has appeared on television insisting he is innocent of the charges.

The judge said the fact that someone declares their innocence should not be a factor in any decision-making.

"I understand this is someone who has more of a bully pulpit than your average defendant," Broderick said.

Hartman said it was in the public interest to have a speedy trial.

"It's not in the interest of anyone to have a question mark hanging over these allegations," he said.

Hartman said prosecutors were worried that Collins will try to delay the 2020 trial date, saying it's an election year.

Defense attorney Jonathan New said lawyers for Collins plan to challenge whether some evidence should be permitted to be seen by jurors.

He also said some evidence produced by prosecutors might have been obtained in violation of constitutional privilege protections.

President Donald Trump has said the arrest of Collins and another congressman has jeopardized the GOP's chances in the midterm election next month.

Collins, a staunch Trump supporter, was arrested in August to charges that he illegally leaked confidential information about a company to his son and the father of his son's fiancee.PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The record low rate of black unemployment is one of President Donald Trump's favorite talking points in touting his administration's success.

But while black employment may have improved, that hasn't translated into broader economic gains.

That's partly because African-Americans are still disproportionately toiling in lower-quality jobs. Black people make up roughly one-fifth of those working in temporary jobs, a figure that hasn't changed much in the past five years. Just 12 percent of all Americans are black.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the unemployment rate for black Americans was 6 percent in September. That's down from a high of 21.1 percent in 1983 but is still double the overall national unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Regulators fined the San Francisco Bay Area's transit agency $650,000 on Thursday for safety failures that led a commuter train to strike and kill two workers inspecting track five years ago during a union strike.

The California Public Utilities Commission also placed the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency on three years of probation. The commission said the fine would double if BART commits any safety violations during that period.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the agency was reviewing the decision, which nearly triples a $220,000 fine ordered by a judge last year. BART and staff members of the commission's Safety and Enforcement Division both appealed the judge's order to the five-member commission.

Commissioner Liane M. Randolph said regulators increased the fine because the safety failures were "egregious" and BART's response to the investigation was inadequate.

"BART's degree of wrongdoing, particularly the safety rule violations discussed above, are most troubling," Randolph wrote in the decision.

Randolph noted that BART was more than 16 months late in producing its accident report and its "corrective-action plan" was only two pages long and submitted four years after the accident.

Trost said BART has spent $2 million upgrading its safety barrier and plans an additional $4 million in improvements. She said the agency has overhauled its safety policies since the accident.

Laurence Daniels, 66, and Christopher Sheppard, 58, were killed in 2013 while inspecting a track east of San Francisco. At the time, the agency was scrambling to restore limited service during a workers strike.

The train that struck the workers was part of a training exercise to teach managers how to drive in case of a prolonged worker walkout. The strike ended after four days.

The judge found that a trainee with no direct supervision in the cab was driving the train. The driver slammed on the emergency brake and tried to hit the button to sound the train's horns but instead pressed a button that controls the doors.

The transit agency was using a safety procedure called "simple approval," in which track inspectors were responsible for their own safety and determined they could clear the track within 15 seconds of an approaching train.

BART has since eliminated that policy. BART trains are now required to stop if a worker is within 6 feet of the track. BART says it has improved communications between drivers, track inspectors and the control center.

The workers had their backs to the train when they were struck in violation of agency safety rules. One member of inspection crews is always supposed to be watching for trains.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined BART $210,000 in 2014.

In addition, BART has paid the family of Daniels $300,000 to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit. BART said Sheppard's family settled a worker's compensation claim, but Trost said she didn't know the amount paid.MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Hurricane Michael all but erased the tiny community of Mexico Beach on Florida's Gulf Coast, reducing some homes to mere concrete slabs and leaving others in shreds.

Rescuers and residents struggled Thursday to get into town to assess the damage and search for the missing after it was slammed by 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a 9-foot (2.7-meter) storm surge.

The town of about 1,200 residents had been a quiet weekend retreat for tourists and residents of the state capital, Tallahassee, offering a handful of independent hotels and restaurants. Many of those buildings are now destroyed.

Debris now litters the town's streets, jammed together helter-skelter with vehicles and boats.

The area is on the western stretch of what's called Florida's Forgotten Coast, so named because it doesn't have the heavy development of places like Panama City. Instead of students on spring break, it attracts visitors looking for quiet weekends and local oysters.

Just to the east and west, cities like Panama City, Springfield, Callaway and Port St. Joe also were badly damaged, with roofs torn off of buildings and stretches of U.S. 98 rendered impassable. In Panama City Beach, the roof of a large boat storage facility collapsed onto about 300-400 boats.

Firefighter Austin Schlarb performs a door to door search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio remarked on Twitter that Mexico Beach was a slice of "old" Florida. "Its charm is that it feels like a trip back in time to a place unspoiled by development. I was told this morning that it is 'gone.'"

The coastal township of Mexico Beach, Fla., lays devastated on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, after Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday in the Florida Panhandle. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Rescue personnel perform a search in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Kylie Strampe holds her four-month-old daughter, Lola, while surveying the damage from Hurricane Michael after riding out the storm in Callaway, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Emergency workers Dr. Patricia Cantrell, left, and Ana Kaufmann, with the South Florida Search and Rescue Task Force 2, survey damage at the western edge of town in Mexico Beach, Fla., after Hurricane Michael swept through the area Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Homes are left swept off their foundations from the effects of Hurricane Michael, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. Michael made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 meters). (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

A woman walks through a damaged store in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Danny, right, and Gina Holland collect water in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Parker, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. "We're running out of water," said Danny Holland of his neighborhood up the street that was damaged by the storm. "We're going to make do." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The coastal township of Mexico Beach, Fla., lays devastated on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, after Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday in the Florida Panhandle. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

A roof over a boat storage building is collapsed following Hurricane Michael Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Panama City Beach, Fla. Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 meters). (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

James Murphy emerges from what remains of his home on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, on a coastal stretch of Port St. Joe, Fla. The home was severely damaged by Hurricane Michael's violent storm surge and wind as it made landfall on Wednesday in the Florida Panhandle. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

Homes washed away by Hurricane Michael are shown in this aerial photo Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Mexico Beach, Fla. Michael made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a storm surge of 9 feet (2.7 meters). (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Michael Williams, 70, waves to passing motorists while looking for food and water as downed trees prevent him from driving out of his damaged home with his family in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. "I don't know what I'm going to," said Williams. (AP Photo/David Goldman)RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - Brazil's far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro is denying ties with Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist who had a central role in the successful 2016 campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro's responded to questions Thursday tied to comments by one of his sons about Bannon.

The poll front-runner said that if his son Eduardo Bolsonaro had met with Bannon he hadn't been told about it.

Bolsonaro called reports of a connection "typical fake news."

In August, Epoca magazine quoted Eduardo Bolsonaro as saying Bannon "had put himself at our disposal to help."

In August, Eduardo posted on Instagram a picture of himself with Bannon. The caption said the two had a great meeting and would "unite forces against cultural marxism."FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Authorities in Florida say they're investigating the second targeted shooting in as many days, just miles apart and both at shopping centers.

The News-Press reports that 41-year-old Torre Deontray Fulcher and 43-year-old William Allen Merrill III were fatally shot by a high-caliber rifle at the Sungold Plaza strip mall in Fort Myers on Wednesday night. Fort Myers police say Fulcher was declared dead when he arrived at a nearby hospital, and Merrill died Thursday morning.

The shooting occurred a day after two men were shot and killed at the Bell Tower Shops, an outdoor mall about 6 miles (9 kilometers) away. A woman remains hospitalized from that shooting.

Investigators don't believe the shootings are connected. No arrests have been reported in either shooting.

___

Information from: The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, http://www.news-press.comOLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington's Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's death penalty Thursday as arbitrary and racially biased, making it the 20th state to do away with capital punishment.

Execution was already extremely rare in Washington, with five prisoners put to death in recent decades and a governor-imposed moratorium blocking its use since 2014.

But the court's opinion eliminated it entirely, converted the sentences for the state's eight death row inmates to life in prison without release, and furthered a trend away from capital punishment in the U.S.

"The death penalty is becoming increasingly geographically isolated," said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center. "It's still on the books in 30 states, but it's not being used in 30 states. It's becoming a creature of the Deep South and the Southwest."

Texas continues to execute more prisoners than any other state - 108 since 2010. Florida has executed 28, Georgia 26 and Oklahoma 21 in that timeframe. But nationally, death sentences are down 85 percent since the 1990s, Dunham said.

In the past 15 years, seven states - Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York - have abandoned capital punishment through court order or legislative act, and three - Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania - have adopted moratoriums.

Gov. Jay Inslee, left, addresses a news conference with Attorney General Bob Ferguson following an earlier announcement that Washington's Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's death penalty, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, in Olympia, Wash. Washington has had a moratorium on executions since 2014, but the ruling makes it the 20th state to do away with capital punishment by legislative act or court decree. The court converted the sentences of the eight people on Washington's death row to life in prison. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)

In New Hampshire and Nebraska, lawmakers banned the death penalty but saw those decisions overturned by veto or referendum.

The concerns cited in those states have ranged from procedural matters, such as the information provided to sentencing jurors in New York, to worries about executing an innocent person or racial and other disparities in who is sentenced to death, as was the case in Washington.

"The death penalty is unequally applied - sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant," Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote in the lead opinion.

She added: "Our capital punishment law lacks 'fundamental fairness.'"

Defense lawyers had long challenged the death penalty on those grounds, noting the state's worst mass murderers and serial killers, Green River killer Gary Ridgway among them, had received life terms, not death. In a 5-4 ruling in 2006, the justices rejected an argument from a death row inmate that he shouldn't be executed because Ridgway hadn't been executed.

This time, death penalty critics were armed with more data about how capital punishment works, including a statistical analysis by University of Washington sociologists. Their report showed that although prosecutors were not more likely to seek the execution of black defendants, juries were about four times more likely to sentence black defendants to death.

"Now the information is plainly before us," Fairhurst wrote. "To the extent that race distinguishes the cases, it is clearly impermissible and unconstitutional."

Gov. Jay Inslee, a one-time supporter of capital punishment, imposed the 2014 moratorium.

"Washington state is now among a growing number of states that has eliminated this costly and capricious sentencing program of capital punishment," Inslee told a news conference. "The certainty of death in prison remains the same. Today's decision does not let anyone out of prison."

The ruling came in the case of Allen Eugene Gregory, a black man who was convicted of raping, robbing and killing Geneine Harshfield, a 43-year-old woman, in 1996.

"However one feels about the propriety of capital punishment in theory, in practice the death penalty is imposed in an unfair, arbitrary, and racially biased manner," one of his attorneys, Lila Silverstein, said in a written statement.

Dozens of former state judges took the unusual step of urging the court to use Gregory's case to strike down capital punishment. Among them was former Justice Faith Ireland, who sided with the narrow majority in upholding capital punishment in 2006.

The court did not rule out the possibility that the Legislature could come up with another manner of imposing death sentences that would be constitutional. The governor said he did not expect lawmakers to try, but if they did, he'd veto it.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has said that he plans to ask the Legislature to move next session to take the death penalty law off the books, something Inslee said he'd sign.

Dunham said it was important that the ruling was based on the facts of Washington's use of capital punishment.

"Those are issues that plague the death penalty everywhere it's administered," he said. "We're certain to see prisoners challenging the death penalty in other states using the reasoning of the Washington Supreme Court."

The court did not reconsider any of Gregory's arguments pertaining to guilt, noting that his conviction for aggravated first-degree murder "has already been appealed and affirmed by this court."

Earlier this year, the state Senate passed a measure abolishing the death penalty, but it failed to pass in the House.

"There is a profound shift in our state and country that the death penalty is below us as a civil, just and moral society," Democratic Sen. Reuven Carlyle, who had been a sponsor of those previous attempts, said in a text message.

Republican Sen. Mike Padden, who voted against the death penalty abolition, said he was troubled by the ruling's impact.

"The death penalty should be rarely used, but I do think it should be an option in the most heinous cases," he said.

___

AP writer Gene Johnson contributed from Seattle. Follow Rachel La Corte at https://twitter.com/RachelAPOly

FILE - In this Nov. 20, 2008, file photo, the execution chamber at the Washington State Penitentiary is shown with the witness gallery behind glass at right, in Walla Walla, Wash. Washington state's Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty violates its Constitution. The ruling Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. They ordered that people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - San Francisco has come to be known around the world as a place for aggressive panhandling, open-air drug use and sprawling tent camps, the dirt and despair all the more remarkable for the city's immense wealth.

Some streets are so filthy that officials launched a special "poop patrol." A young tech worker created "Snapcrap" - an app to report the filth. Morning commuters walk briskly past homeless people huddled against subway walls. In the city's squalid downtown area, the frail and sick shuffle along in wheelchairs or stumble around, sometimes half-clothed.

The situation has become so dire that a coalition of activists collected enough signatures to put a measure on the city's Nov. 6 ballot that would tax hundreds of San Francisco's wealthiest companies to help thousands of homeless and mentally ill residents, an effort that failed earlier this year in Seattle. Proposition C would raise $300 million a year, nearly doubling what the city already spends to combat homelessness.

"This is the worst it's ever been," says Marc Benioff, founder of cloud-computing giant Salesforce and a fourth-generation San Franciscan, who is supporting the measure even though his company would pay an additional $10 million a year if it passes. "Nobody should have to live like this. They don't need to live like this. We can get this under control."

"We have to do it. We have to try something," said Sunshine Powers, who owns a tie-dye boutique, Love on Haight, in the city's historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. "If my community is bad, nobody is going to want to come here."

The proposition is the latest battle between big business and social services advocates who demand that corporate America pay to solve inequities exacerbated by its success. In San Francisco, it's also become an intriguing fight between recently elected Mayor London Breed, who is siding with the city's Chamber of Commerce in urging a no vote, and philanthropist Benioff, whose company is San Francisco's largest private employer with 8,400 workers.

In this Oct. 1, 2018 photo, Stormy Nichole Day, left, sits on a sidewalk on Haight Street with Nord (last name not given) and his dog Hobo while interviewed about being homeless in San Francisco. A measure on San Francisco's Nov. 6 ballot would levy an extra tax on hundreds of the city's wealthiest companies to raise $300 million for homelessness and mental health services. It's the latest battle between big business and social services advocates who say that companies such as Amazon, Google and Salesforce can afford to help solve severe inequities caused by business success. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Breed came out hard against the measure, saying it lacked collaboration, could attract homeless people from neighboring counties to the city, and could cost middle-class jobs in retail and service. San Francisco has already dramatically increased spending on homelessness, she said, with no noticeable improvement.

San Francisco spent $380 million of its $10 billion budget last year on services related to homelessness.

"I have to make decisions with my head, not just my heart," Breed said. "I do not believe doubling what we spend on homelessness without new accountability, when we don't even spend what we have now efficiently, is good government."

Cities along the West Coast are grappling with rampant homelessness, driven in part by growing numbers of well-paying tech jobs that price lower-income residents out of tight housing markets. A family of four in San Francisco earning $117,000 is considered low-income.

Business prevailed in Seattle, when leaders in June repealed a per-employee tax that would have raised $50 million a year, after Amazon and Starbucks pushed back. In July, the city council of Cupertino in Silicon Valley scuttled a similar head tax after opposition from its largest employer, Apple Inc.

Mountain View residents, however, will vote this fall on a per-employee tax expected to raise $6 million a year, largely from Google, for transit projects.

The San Francisco measure is different in that it would levy the tax mostly by revenue rather than by number of employees - an average half-percent tax increase on companies' revenue above $50 million each year. It was also put on the ballot by citizens, not elected officials.

Online payment processing company Stripe has voiced opposition and contributed $420,000 to the campaign against Proposition C, but other companies have stayed quiet. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, whose board includes representatives of Microsoft, LinkedIn and Oracle, is leading the fight.

Up to 400 businesses would be affected, with internet and financial services sectors bearing nearly half the cost.

The city says confidentiality precludes revealing tax information, but some of the companies expected to pay the most are big names across major industries. Wells Fargo & Co., retailer Gap Inc. and ride-hailing platform Uber declined to comment.

Pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp. referred questions to a private-sector trade association, the Committee on Jobs, which called the measure flawed. Utility Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. said it has not taken a position. Twitter declined to comment, but chief executive Jack Dorsey said via tweet last week that he trusts Breed to fix the problem.

"Anyone can take a look at the status quo and understand it's not working, but more money alone is not the sole answer," says Jess Montejano, spokesman for the "No on C" campaign.

Benioff disagrees. A $37 million two-year initiative he helped start with the city and to which he contributed more than $11 million has housed nearly 400 families through rent subsidies, he said.

Benioff has pledged at least $2 million from company and personal resources for the November tax campaign. He said he was ultimately swayed by a report from the city's chief economist, which found the measure would likely reduce homelessness while resulting in a net loss of 900 jobs at most, or 0.1 percent of all jobs.

"I said, 'Well, I'm the largest employer in the city, and the city is in decline from homelessness and cleanliness. We have to take action now,' " he said.

At least half of the new revenue would go toward permanent housing, and at least a quarter to services for people with severe behavioral issues. A 2017 one-night count found an estimated 7,500 people without permanent shelter in San Francisco. More than half had lived in the city for at least a decade.

Tracey Mixon and her daughter, Maliya, 8, are among the hidden homeless.

Mixon, 47, a San Francisco native, lives and works in the notoriously dangerous and drug-infested Tenderloin neighborhood. They were forced out of their rental this summer, partly because the company that managed her property lost its federal accreditation, she said on a recent afternoon while working a crossing guard shift.

One of the hardest parts was finding a place to go for the day when mother and daughter were kicked out of an overnight-only emergency shelter.

"I have to shield her from people that are using drugs," she said. "I have to shield her from people who might be fighting."

Hanging out on Haight, the street that played a central role in the "Summer of Love," Stormy Nichole Day, 22, says she would love a place to live. Currently, Day is sleeping in a doorway. She could thrive if her basic needs were met, she said.

"And that includes a house, and a place to cook food and a place to take a shower."

In this photo taken Oct. 5, 2018, San Francisco native Tracey Mixon stands on a street in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Mixon, 47, and her daughter were recently evicted from their two-bedroom home. She hopes San Francisco voters will approve Proposition C on the Nov. 6 ballot, which would levy an extra tax on some businesses to raise $300 million a year for homelessness and mental health services. (AP Photo/Janie Har)

In this Oct. 1, 2018 photo, Sunshine Powers, owner of the store Love on Haight, right, hugs Christin Evans, owner of The Booksmith, outside of Powers' store in San Francisco. A measure on San Francisco's Nov. 6 ballot would levy an extra tax on hundreds of the city's wealthiest companies to raise $300 million for homelessness and mental health services. It's the latest battle between big business and social services advocates who say that companies such as Amazon, Google and Salesforce can afford to help solve severe inequities caused by business success. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Unlike in South Florida, homes in the state's Panhandle did not have tighter building codes until just 11 years ago; it was once argued that acres of forests would provide the region with a natural barrier against the savage winds of a hurricane.

When many of the homes on the Panhandle were built, the state had a patchwork of codes from which some buildings here were exempt. Contractors cut corners, using flimsy particle board under roofs instead of sturdier plywood, and staples instead of nails.

Many of those structures did not withstand the fury of Hurricane Michael, which slammed into the area last week with winds of up to 155 mph (250 kph), leaving acres of flattened houses and other buildings in its wake before roaring across the Georgia border inland.

"We're learning painfully that we shouldn't be doing those kinds of exemptions," said Don Brown, a former legislator from the Panhandle who now sits on the Florida Building Commission. "We are vulnerable as any other part of the state. There was this whole notion that the trees were going to help us, take the wind out of the storm. Those trees become projectiles and flying objects."

Hurricane Andrew a generation ago razed Florida's most-populated areas with winds up to 165 mph (265 kph), damaging or blowing apart more than 125,000 homes and obliterating almost all mobile homes in its path.

Since 2001, structures statewide must be built to withstand winds of 111 mph (178 kph) and up; the Miami area is considered a "high velocity hurricane zone" with much higher standards, requiring many structures to withstand hurricane winds in excess of 170 mph (273 kph).

This photo shows devastation from Hurricane Michael in this aerial photo over Mexico Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Blocks and blocks of homes were demolished, reduced to piles of splintered lumber or mere concrete slabs, by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Though Michael's winds were particularly fierce, any boost in the level of safety requirements for builders could help homes better withstand hurricanes.

Tom Lee, a homebuilder and legislator, says past hurricanes have shown time and time again that the stricter codes help. He said after such previous storms, he could see during flyovers which homes were built before the new code.

"The structural integrity of our housing stock is leaps and bounds beyond what it was," Lee said.

The codes call for shatterproof windows, fortified roofs and reinforced concrete pillars, among other specifications. But it wasn't until 2007 that homes built in the Panhandle more than 1 mile (1.5 kilometers) from shore were required to follow the higher standards. Hurricane Michael pummeled the region with devastating winds from the sea all the way into Georgia, destroying buildings more than 70 miles from the shoreline.

Gov. Rick Scott said it may be time for Florida to boost its standards - considered the toughest in the nation- even further.

"After every event, you always go back and look what you can do better," Scott said. "After Andrew, the codes changed dramatically in our state. Every time something like this happens, you have to say to yourself, 'Is there something we can do better?'"

Mexico Beach, the Gulf Coast town destroyed by Michael, lacked a lot of new or retrofitted construction, said Craig Fugate, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a former emergency management chief for the state of Florida. The small seaside community had a lot of older mobile homes and low-income year-round residents working in the commercial fishing and service industries.

"Quiet, idyllic, what I call 'Old Florida,'" Fugate said. "This is not a bunch of high rises or brand new developments."

Bill Herrle, who owned a house near the shoreline in Mexico Beach until it was destroyed by the storm, said he wasn't sure it made a difference when the homes there were built. He said the storm took out his house, built in the mid-'80s, as well as newer buildings put up recently.

"It wiped out both the older and newer homes. It looks like my entire street is razed," said Herrle, who was not in Mexico Beach during the storm.

David Prevatt, an associate professor of civil and coastal engineering at the University of Florida, said in an email Thursday that drone footage of the devastation in Mexico Beach showed structural damage to roofs and exterior walls, and damaged rafters and trusses, "indicating the strength of the wind that caused those failures."

Prevatt noted the damage could have occurred at wind speeds lower than the 155 mph that the National Hurricane Center reported at Michael's landfall. That is, the homes could have been peeling apart before the eye and the hurricane's strongest core winds came ashore.

Prevatt was preparing to lead a team to assess the damage. He said engineers will be asking how old the destroyed and damaged buildings were and under what version of the Florida building codes they were built. They also will be looking at the differences between the structures that survived and those that did not.

___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2018, file photo, Joy Hutchinson, left, is comforted by her daughter Jessica Hutchinson, as she returns to find her home swept away from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. It was once argued that the trees would help save Florida's Panhandle from the fury of a hurricane, as the acres of forests in the region would provide a natural barrier to savage winds that accompany the deadly storms. It's part of the reason that tighter building codes, mandatory in places such as South Florida, were not put in place for most of this region until just 11 years ago. And it may be a painful lesson for area residents now that Hurricane Michael has ravaged the region (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2018, file photo, damaged homes are seen along the water's edge in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. It was once argued that the trees would help save Florida's Panhandle from the fury of a hurricane, as the acres of forests in the region would provide a natural barrier to savage winds that accompany the deadly storms. It's part of the reason that tighter building codes, mandatory in places such as South Florida, were not put in place for most of this region until just 11 years ago. And it may be a painful lesson for area residents now that Hurricane Michael has ravaged the region (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump suggested Monday that "rogue killers" could be responsible for a Saudi journalist's disappearance after a personal phone call in which Trump said Saudi Arabia's King Salman strongly denied any knowledge of what happened to Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump also announced he'd dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Kingdom - and anywhere else necessary - to get to the bottom of the suspected murder of Khashoggi, who hasn't been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The U.S. president is under growing pressure to take action on the suspected murder of the Saudi writer, who has been living and working in the United States, including contributing to The Washington Post and writing columns critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Turkish officials say they believe Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi and Turkey has audio and video recordings of it.

Trump said Monday he had spent about 20 minutes on the phone with King Salman, who denied having any information about what had happened to Khashoggi.

"The king firmly denied any knowledge of it," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to survey hurricane damage in Florida and in Georgia. Trump said he didn't "want to get into (Salman's) mind," but told reporters: "it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."

In Istanbul, meanwhile, Turkish and Saudi investigators were to begin conducting a joint inspection of the consulate. A team arrived by unmarked police cars at the consulate but said nothing to journalists waiting outside as they entered the building.

President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Florida to tour areas the devastation left behind from Hurricane Michael last week. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The kingdom has called the allegations of foul play "baseless" but has offered no evidence the writer left the consulate.

Trump tweeted early Monday that Salman denied any knowledge of "whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen.'"

He made that point again and again as he left the White House, telling reporters, "All I can do is report what he told me."

"His denial to me could not have been stronger," Trump said, echoing language he has used to describe Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of meddling in the 2016 election that sent Trump to the White House. U.S. intelligence officials have reported they are certain the interference took place in an effort to hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Trump promised "severe punishment" for whoever was to blame in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday. But he has said repeatedly that he does not want to halt a proposed $110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia - as some in Congress have said he should - because it would harm the U.S. economically..

Saudi Arabia has pledged to retaliate economically for any U.S. punitive action.

Trump said he'd made clear the stakes.

"The world is watching, the world is talking. This is very important to get to the bottom of it," Trump said. "I think he understands that very well."

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin still plans to attend a previously scheduled Saudi conference this week to address terrorist financing, but those plans could change as the investigation progresses, said White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

Sens. Marco Rubio and Jeff Flake, members of the Foreign Relations Committee, have said Congress is prepared to move quickly and firmly if Trump fails to adequately respond to Khashoggi's disappearance. Rubio said Sunday that U.S.-Saudi relations may need to be "completely revised."

"There's not enough money in the world for us to buy back our credibility on human rights if we do not move forward and take swift action," Rubio said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

More than 20 Republican and Democratic senators instructed Trump last week to order an investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance under legislation that authorizes sanctions for perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, torture or other gross human rights violations.

Khashoggi had been living in self-exile in Virginia for the past year.

Trump visited the kingdom on his first overseas trip as president and his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has forged close ties with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Members of the inspection team enter Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Turkey and Saudi Arabia are conducting a joint "inspection" on Monday of the consulate, where Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi went missing nearly two weeks ago, Turkish authorities said. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

President Donald Trump boards Air Force One for a trip to visit areas affected by Hurricane Michael, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2018, file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at a news conference to discuss Paid Family Leave legislation, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Rubio and Jeff Flake threatened on Sunday, Oct. 14, tough punitive action by Congress against Saudi Arabia, including a possible halt of military sales, if it's proven that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the country's consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia is warning of possible economic retaliation of its own if the U.S. acts. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)NEW YORK (AP) - Sears got its start as a watch seller more than 130 years ago and grew to become one of the world's largest retailers. But the company has struggled in recent years and on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A look at the company through the years:

1886 - Richard Sears starts the R.W. Sears Watch Co. in Minneapolis.

1888 - The Sears catalog is born, featuring watches and jewelry. By 1894, sewing machines, baby carriages and other items are added.

1893 - The company becomes Sears, Roebuck and Co.

1906 - Sears becomes a public company.

FILE - In this Feb. 13, 2012 file photo, a worker repairs a sign outside the Sears Grand store in Solon, Ohio. Sears has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, buckling under its massive debt load and staggering losses. The company once dominated the American landscape, but whether a smaller Sears can be viable remains in question. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

1913 - Sears launches the Kenmore brand of sewing machines. Today, refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances are sold under the name.

1925 - The first Sears brick-and-mortar store opens in Chicago.

1927 - Sears buys the Craftsman trademark for $500 and begins to sell power tools under the brand about two years later. In 2017, it sold the brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. in a $900 million deal.

1931 - Allstate Insurance Co. is launched, offering auto insurance. Sears sold its stake and Allstate became an independent company in the 1990s.

1973 - The company finishes building its new headquarters, the Sears Tower in Chicago. At the time, it was the world's tallest building at 1,454 feet. Sears sold the landmark in 1994. Its current headquarters are in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

1985 - The Discover Card is introduced nationally. Sears spun off a financial company in the 1990s which included the card.

1993 - Sears stops sending its famous catalog.

2005 - Kmart buys Sears and the company becomes the Sears Holdings Corp.

2017 - The company announces plans to cut $1 billion in costs by selling more store locations, cutting more jobs and putting more of its famous brands on the block.

2018 - Filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

___

Sources: Sears, AP archivesKATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - It took rescuers two days to recover the battered bodies of nine climbers, including one of the world's best, who died in Nepal's worst mountaineering disaster in recent years, authorities said Monday.

Local police chief Bir Bahadur Budamagar said a group of villagers reached the climbers' camp site on Saturday on Gurja Himal, a less-popular but pristine mountain in the shadow of Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest peak and a day's walk from the nearest village.

The climbers included Kim Chang-ho, the first South Korean to summit all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters without using supplemental oxygen, who was leading the expedition with four other South Koreans and four Nepalese guides.

Technically difficult and remote, the mountain hasn't been scaled in eight years. The damage to the climbers' bodies, including broken limbs and smashed skulls, indicated a violent wind carrying chunks of ice swept them away from their camp site, Budamagar said. The bodies were found spread in a 1.5 kilometer (1 mile) radius.

"The battered pieces and tents and other equipment were scattered even further away," Budamagar said.

Only 30 climbers have ever reached the peak of the 7,193-meter (23,590-foot) Gurja Himal, government tourism director Surendra Thapa said, and Kim was not among them.

Family members of Nepalese guides cry as bodies of those killed in Gurja Himal mountain arrive at the Teaching hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. Rescuers retrieved the bodies of five South Korean climbers and their four Nepalese guides from Gurja Himal mountain, where they were killed when their base camp was swept by a strong storm. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Nepal offers hundreds of mountains to climb, and mountaineers generally choose those where the routes and conditions are well known.

Many climbers are discouraged from the mountain at least in part because of a legal requirement to have at least three trained Nepalese guides along to receive a permit, Thapa said.

More adventurous climbers would be drawn to a mountain like Gurja, said Jiban Ghimire, who organizes expeditions for the Kathmandu-based company Shangrila Nepal Trek.

"These people like to go to mountains which are not crowded and there are no commercially organized expeditions of big groups. On the bad side, they are also far from getting help when in trouble," Ghimire said.

The bodies of Kim and four other South Koreans who were killed will arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, according to an official from South Korea's Corean Alpine Club.

Rescuers retrieved the climbers' bodies on Sunday after the weather cleared. The body of one of the guides was taken to his village, while the eight others were flown to Kathmandu.

"It was the worst mountaineering disaster in Nepal in recent years and an unimaginable one," said Rameshwor Niraula of Nepal's Mountaineering Department, which issues climbing permits and monitors expeditions.

Niraula said officials were still gathering details of what exactly happened, but from what rescuers described, the climbers were blown over by the blast of the blizzard-like wind conditions.

Word of the destruction got out Saturday morning, and helicopters were sent. They were not able to land due to the continuing bad weather but spotted the bodies.

Spring and autumn are the optimal climbing seasons in Nepal between the harsh winter and summer monsoon.

One Korean member of the climbing team had become ill and was in a village far below the base camp during the storm.

The Corean Alpine Club official, who didn't want to be identified because she wasn't authorized to speak to reporters, identified the other South Korean victims as Yu Yeong-jik, Im Il-jin, Jeong Jun-mo and Lee Jae-hoon.

Yu was reportedly in charge of equipment for the team. Im was a filmmaker who specialized in documentaries of mountain climbers. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said senior CAC member Jeong wasn't part of Kim's team but was visiting them when the accident happened.

It was the deadliest climbing disaster in Nepal since 2015, when 19 people were killed at Mount Everest base camp by an avalanche triggered by an earthquake that devastated the country. The previous year, an avalanche above Everest's base camp killed 16 Nepalese Sherpa guides.

The Himalayan range includes all 14 of the world's peaks that rise above 8,000 meters, and only a few dozen climbers have made verified, successful ascents of them all. Kim achieved his feat in 2013.

___

Schmall reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

Officials unload the bodies after a helicopter carrying bodies of those killed in Gurja Himal mountain arrives at the Teaching hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. Rescuers retrieved the bodies of five South Korean climbers and their four Nepalese guides from Gurja Himal mountain, where they were killed when their base camp was swept by a strong storm. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)BERLIN (AP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed Monday to do more to restore Germans' confidence in her unhappy coalition after a battering for both of her governing partners in Bavaria's state election added to tensions in the alliance.

Sunday's vote stripped Merkel's conservative allies in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union, of their absolute majority in the state legislature for only the second time in 56 years. The center-left Social Democrats, Merkel's other federal partner, slumped to a humiliating fifth-place finish in the wealthy state.

Both parties pinned much of the blame on the national government's constant public infighting over migration and other issues since it took office in March.

"(The election) showed that even with the best economic data, with near-full employment in almost all parts of Bavaria, that isn't enough for people when something is missing that is so important - confidence," Merkel said.

Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party wasn't on the ballot Sunday, but an electoral challenge looms in two weeks as it defends its 19-year-hold on the governor's office in Hesse, a central state that includes Frankfurt, on Oct. 28.

"My lesson from yesterday is that I, as chancellor of this 'grand coalition,' must do more to ensure that this confidence is there and that the results of our work are visible," Merkel said. "And I will do that emphatically."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads a Christian Democratic Union party's leaders meeting at the party's headquarters a day after the Bavarian state elections, in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

The Social Democrats hope to win back Hesse but polls show them trailing and support for both parties is weak.

Sunday's outcome rekindled speculation about whether the Social Democrats will leave Merkel's federal government before its term ends in 2021. They only reluctantly joined Merkel's coalition in March after a national election debacle last year.

Social Democrat leader Andrea Nahles brushed aside questions Monday about her party's pain barrier.

"I don't think that defining red lines is appropriate at this point," she said. "Above all, we have an election in Hesse in two weeks in which we are now investing all our power. We are not going to waste our strength and time now on internal debates."

As for the national government, "it is obvious that the whole style of our work together must change, and that hopefully was a message from this Bavarian election," Nahles said.

Much of the blame for the squabbling has been pinned on the CSU leader, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who has continued a three-year feud over migration with Merkel. He nearly brought down the ruling coalition in June with a demand to turn back small numbers of asylum-seekers at the German-Austrian border.

Those tactics turned off Bavarian voters on both the right and left, and polls suggested that migration was some way down on voters' list of priorities.

Seehofer appeared to have no intention of stepping down after his party received 37.2 percent of the vote, down from 47.7 percent five years ago, for its worst showing in Bavaria since 1950.

"I won't hold a discussion about my position," the 69-year-old said, insisting that his party still has "a special role in Germany's political landscape."

The big winners in Bavaria on Sunday were smaller parties. The environmentalist Greens came second while the far-right Alternative for Germany for the first time entered its 15th of Germany's 16 state parliaments. A regional conservative party, the Free Voters, will likely become the CSU's coalition partner in Bavaria.

"What's happened in Bavaria is something that's been the case in the rest of the country for some time: the weakening of major parties due to changes in society," said Juergen Falter, a political science professor at the University of Mainz.

Bavaria has become more secular, weakening the CSU, while workers no longer automatically choose the Social Democrats, he said.

The CSU is likely to become "a bit tamer" in the national government because it has seen that constant infighting doesn't help, Falter said. However, he expects the Social Democrats to try and make more of a mark - and possibly use a planned midterm evaluation next year to leave the federal government.

If that happens, Merkel, 64, could try to revive efforts aborted last year to form a government with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, or Germany could head toward a new early election.

Merkel, Germany's chancellor since 2005 and the leader of the CDU since 2000, has seen her authority weakened over recent months, but has indicated that she plans to seek another two-year term as party leader at a gathering in December.

A bad performance in Hesse could complicate those plans, but there's no sign yet of a credible challenger.

"Merkel has no serious rivals," Falter said. "None of those who might pose a risk to her have come out of cover."

German Interior Minister and CSU chairman Horst Seehofer arrives for a party board meeting in the headquarters of the Christian Social Union, CSU, in Munich, Germany, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, the day after their party lost the absolute majority in Bavaria's state parliament by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

German Interior Minister and CSU chairman Horst Seehofer talks to parliamentary faction leader Alexander Dobrindt, right, at the beginning of a party board meeting in the headquarters of the Christian Social Union, CSU, in Munich, Germany, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, the day after their party lost the absolute majority in Bavaria's state parliament by a wide margin. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads a Christian Democratic Union party's leaders meeting at the party's headquarters a day after the Bavarian state elections, in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads a Christian Democratic Union party's leaders meeting at the party's headquarters a day after the Bavarian state elections, in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)NEW DELHI (AP) - India's junior external affairs minister filed a criminal case for defamation in court Monday against a woman who has accused him of sexual harassment, his attorney said.

Minister M.J. Akbar filed a case against journalist Priya Ramani, the first of more than a dozen women to allege harassment in recent weeks from his days as a newspaper editor, Akbar's lawyer Sandeep Kapur told The Associated Press.

The move came as dozens of members of the opposition India National Congress party's youth wing clashed with police outside Akbar's New Delhi home, demanding his resignation.

On Sunday, Akbar denied the allegations as "false, baseless and wild."

The string of allegations began with a tweet from Ramani on Oct. 8 in which she identified Akbar as the man who had harassed her as mentioned in an article for Vogue India a year ago.

Since then, more than a dozen other women, mostly journalists who worked with Akbar or interviewed with him for jobs when he was an editor in Kolkata and New Delhi, have accused him of sexual harassment in the #MeToo campaign sweeping India.

Indian policemen detain a Congress party worker during a protest against India's junior external affairs minister M.J.Akbar in New Delhi, India, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Akbar was accused by a dozen women of sexual misconduct when he was a newspaper editor, though he has denied any wrongdoing and has threatened to take legal action against the women, calling the allegations "false, baseless and wild" in a statement issued hours after he returned from an official trip to Africa. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

In a statement on Sunday, Akbar said that Ramani and another of his accusers had continued working with him after the alleged harassment, which, he said, "clearly establishes that they had no apprehension and discomfort."

Several Indian actresses and writers have taken to social media with allegations of sexual harassment and assault by their superiors and colleagues, mainly at work. Advocates say the digital outpouring reflects frustration with an anti-harassment law that has been lauded internationally but has done little to change the status quo for Indian women.

On Saturday, journalists demonstrated in New Delhi demanding Akbar's resignation.

An Indian policeman takes away a Congress party worker during a protest against India's junior external affairs minister M.J.Akbar in New Delhi, India, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Akbar was accused by a dozen women of sexual misconduct when he was a newspaper editor, though he has denied any wrongdoing and has threatened to take legal action against the women, calling the allegations "false, baseless and wild" in a statement issued hours after he returned from an official trip to Africa. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Congress party workers standing on police barricades shout slogans against India's junior external affairs minister M.J.Akbar during a protest in New Delhi, India, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Akbar was accused by a dozen women of sexual misconduct when he was a newspaper editor, though he has denied any wrongdoing and has threatened to take legal action against the women, calling the allegations "false, baseless and wild" in a statement issued hours after he returned from an official trip to Africa. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)MOSCOW (AP) - An Amnesty International researcher was abducted and beaten while reporting on protests in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, the rights group said Monday.

Researcher Oleg Kozlovsky was in Ingushetia's regional capital of Magas this month to monitor protests against a hotly-debated land swap between the southern Russian regions of Ingushetia and Chechnya when he was approached by men who told him they were protest organizers and promised him an interview.

But then, in a car out in the countryside, the men said they were from Ingushetia's anti-extremist unit and threatened to kill him unless he agreed to cooperate, Amnesty said in a statement. It said the men took him to a field, stripped him naked and performed a mock execution, putting a gun to his head.

"When they couldn't get anything out of me, they began to threaten me so that I wouldn't speak about anything about what happened to me and threated to kill my children," he said on Twitter.

Kozlovsky said he agreed to do that and was released after that.

The researcher said he went to the police about the violent abduction but has not heard of any progress in the investigation. He has decided to leave Russia for now.

Protests in Magas have been going on for days after the leaders of Ingushetia and Chechnya signed the land swap deal. Many in Ingushetia thought it was hurting the region's interests, and speakers at the protests have been calling for the ouster of the regional leader.

The tensions over the land swap reflect deep-running distrust between the two mostly Muslim Russian regions, which share the same language but have been divided by land and other disputes. Chechnya and Ingushetia formed one republic during Soviet times but split after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) - A family of six lost children lives quietly in a small apartment among strangers in this northern Iraqi city. The "man of the house," an 18-year-old, heads out each morning looking for day labor jobs to pay the rent. His 12-year-old sister acts as the mother, cooking meals, cleaning and caring for her young siblings.

Their home village is less than an hour's drive away, but they can't go back - Shiite militiamen burned down their house because their father belonged to the Islamic State group. And they fear retaliation by their former neighbors, so deep is the anger at the militants who once ruled this area.

So the Suleiman children are left to fend for themselves. Their father is in prison. Their mother died years ago. They are traumatized by deaths of loved ones in the war and by their own family turmoil. In their temporary home, they lie low, worried their new neighbors will learn of their family's IS connection.

"I am tired," said the 12-year-old, Dawlat, a slim girl whose face is almost unshakably solemn. "My mother visits me in my dreams. I get scared when the power is out at night. I would love my father and mother to be here next to me."

Thousands of children of Islamic State group members, many of them abandoned like Dawlat's family, are the innocent victims of the brutal rise and destructive fall of Daesh, the acronym by which IS is known. The stain they carry points to how thoroughly Iraq's social fabric was torn apart by the militants' nearly 3-year-rule over much of the country's north and west.

When the Sunni Muslim IS took over those territories in a 2014 blitz, it massacred Shiite Muslims, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and members of the police or military who fell into its hands. And it drove out others, often either destroying or giving away their homes.

In this Aug. 28, 2018, photo, Dawlat Suleiman poses for a portrait in her family's tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. At 12 years old, Dawlat has lost her childhood. With her parents gone, she must serve as a replacement mother caring for five of her siblings, a family of kids fending for themselves amid the destruction of post-war Iraq. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

It inflicted a radical version of Shariah law on fellow Sunnis, killing many who violated it. Some Iraqi Sunnis joined the group, either out of conviction or because of the economic benefits membership brought. Many more were its victims. Informants turned in neighbors, leading to punishments ranging from lashings to a bullet in the head in a public square.

Now that IS has been driven out of almost all its territory, many of its victims want vengeance.

A senior police officer in the northern province of Nineveh said he knew of at least 100 homes in and around the city of Mosul that have been demolished by tribesmen angry over IS members living there. Daesh-linked families have been shot at and had grenades thrown at their homes, he said. Members of the Yazidi religious minority - whom the militants singled out for some of their worst brutalities, massacres of the men and enslavement of the women - have retaliated by destroying homes in Arab villages in their heartland in the Singar area, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with his agency's regulations.

Thousands of Iraqis are in prison over suspected IS ties and an unknown number of Daesh members were killed in the war. That leaves potentially tens of thousands of children without male heads of households and often without female ones.

The stigma against the children is powerful.

Even extended families in some cases refuse to take in abandoned children of IS members, said a relief official with an international agency that has worked to find homes for such children. The relatives may worry about being tainted themselves or come under pressure from their tribes not to accept the kids, she said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk about the agency's work.

Most children of Iraqi IS members live mingled among the hundreds of thousands still languishing in camps for those displaced by the three years of fighting that brought down IS. More than 1,000 live with incarcerated mothers in overcrowded jails or juvenile detention facilities.

A few dozen are in orphanages. One, in Baghdad, houses the children of foreign jihadis who came from abroad to join the IS and are now dead or imprisoned.

Police have set up checkpoints on all streets leading to it. There has already been at least one foiled attempt to attack the orphanage.

The children at the center of this resentment are often profoundly traumatized, whether from their lives with the Islamic State group or from the war itself.

At another orphanage, in Mosul, a 9-year-old Iraqi girl named Amwaj said her father was killed fighting for IS. Then her home was hit by shelling, killing her mother and three of her siblings. She watched her mother's body being dug from the rubble.

"Her face was covered with blood," she said, her hands spread over her cheeks to demonstrate.

The girl, whose name means "waves" in Arabic, looked haunted, her eyes wandering and often near tears, her voice barely audible. In the orphanage, she takes care of her three surviving brothers, 10-year-old Mohammed and Hashem and Tahrir, both younger than her.

She said she remembers her father giving her money to buy chips and soda. She dreams of him coming to the orphanage to take her home. She dreams of her mother brushing her hair.

Dawlat, her 18-year-old brother Saleh and their siblings - Abdullah, 16; 8-year-old Adam; a 6-year-old sister, Umaimah; and 4-year-old Dawoud - carry on their shoulders the multiple tragedies they endured from the time IS took over their hometown, outside the city of Hawija, in 2014.

They suffered at the hands of Daesh, at the hands of Daesh's enemies and at the hands of their own father.

Their father joined the group and worked repairing generators for the militants. An older brother also joined and was killed fighting for IS. An older sister was killed by a roadside bomb as she tried to flee IS territory.

Family turmoil also tore them apart: It emerged that their father abused one of his daughters. Saleh confronted his father and they lived for months as enemies under one roof. They came to blows several times. Saleh said he even thought of killing his father at night - "but he was awake with his gun next to him."

In retaliation, Saleh said, the father turned him in to Daesh for selling cigarettes, which were banned under IS. The militants flogged Saleh.

The teen fled to Kurdish-held territory in March 2016, only to be held for six months by Kurdish fighters on suspicion he belonged to Daesh. Saleh said they hung him from the ceiling by his hands and beat the soles of his feet with a hose.

The abused sister was married off to an IS fighter, who was later killed; now 14, she is married again, the second wife of a policeman, and living in a displaced camp.

Meanwhile, Daesh found a new wife for their father, forcing a Shiite woman to marry him. The woman, whose own husband had been killed, brought her own four children with her.

Two months later, Iraqi forces overran Hawija. The father shaved his beard to shed signs of his IS allegiance and fled with his family, hiding among the tens of thousands of others escaping the city.

But his new wife turned him in, telling Kurdish fighters at a checkpoint that he was Daesh. The fighters beat him, then dragged him away - the last any of his family has seen him. The new wife left with her children. She was with them so briefly and wanted so little to do with the family she was forced into that Dawlat and her siblings don't even know her name.

The kids were shunted into a camp for the displaced, where they lived for nearly a year. Finally, the husband of another of their sisters arranged an apartment for them in an impoverished Kurdish neighborhood of Kirkuk.

Surrounded by neighbors belonging to a community persecuted by IS, Saleh fears being found out. At the same time, members of their extended family have warned them it's not safe to return to their home village, where other relatives might support them. The husband of another of their sisters was arrested a month ago after someone recognized him in the streets as a Daesh member.

"I'm often close to tears. I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm 30 after everything I've gone through," Saleh said.

Dawlat's childhood has been stripped away. At their apartment in Kirkuk, she cooks three meals a day; while the younger children are at school, she cleans the house, makes the bed, washes dishes and does laundry. She boasts she can now cook lentils and potatoes and chicken, though she admits she doesn't always get the rice right.

There are moments when a smile illuminates Dawlat's face, temporarily sweeping away her perpetual haunted look. She talks of how she once loved school and still hopes to become a doctor or teacher.

More immediately, she hopes to get married. In rural Iraq, marriage of young girls is common. Once married, she said, it would be religiously permitted for her to wear make-up. "I'd like to go to a hairdresser. I have never been to a hair salon," she said. "I like my hair long, but I would like to dye it a different color."

But then she reverts to the little girl she is - longing to play, regretting her burdens and, despite everything, missing her father.

"He is so dear to me. ... I want him back with us," she whispered, so Saleh could not hear.

___

Associated Press writer Salar Salim in Irbil, Iraq contributed to this report.

In this April 15, 2018 photo, Dawoud Suleiman plays with a doll as his sisters Dawlat, left, and Omaima, sit with him in their tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. Traumatized by a series of tragedies suffered during three years of fighting in Iraq, the children live under an additional burden: Their father and other family members belonged to the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this April 15, 2018 file photo, Saleh Suleiman Ismail, left, directs his youngest brother as they pose for a family portrait at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. The 18-year-old is now the man of the house, caring for five siblings. While he knows his father is alive, he does not know whether he has been sentenced by the country's counterterrorism court. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

FILE - In this April 15, 2018 file photo, Saleh Suleiman Ismail talks to The Associated Press about the detention of his father, at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. The teen is left with the responsibility of supporting his household in a strange place. He goes out each day looking for work. He speaks firmly, decisively, as if projecting that he's up to the task. But he admits: "I'm often close to tears. I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm 30 after everything I've gone through." (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

In this Aug. 28, 2018, photo, Dawlat Suleiman, poses for a portrait in her family's tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. At 12 years old, Dawlat has lost her childhood. With her parents gone, she must serve as a replacement mother caring for five of her siblings, a family of kids fending for themselves amid the destruction of post-war Iraq. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 28, 2018, photo, Dawoud Suleiman, 4, poses for a portrait in his family's tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. He and his siblings have not seen their father since Iraqi security forces arrested him last year for Islamic State membership. They had already lost their mother to cancer several years earlier. After the militants' defeat, Shiite militiamen burned down the family house because of the father's IS links, and they can't return to their home town, fearing neighbors will denounce them over the family ties to the militant group. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, Umaimah Suleiman, 6, poses for a portrait in her family tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. She and her siblings have not seen their father since Iraqi security forces arrested him last year for Islamic State membership. They had already lost their mother to cancer several years earlier. After the militants' defeat, Shiite militiamen burned down the family house because of the father's IS links, and they can't return to their home town, fearing neighbors will denounce them over the family ties to the militant group. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, Adam Suleiman, 8, poses for a portrait in his family's tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. He and his siblings have not seen their father since Iraqi security forces arrested him last year for Islamic State membership. They had already lost their mother to cancer several years earlier. After the militants' defeat, Shiite militiamen burned down the family house because of the father's IS links, and they can't return to their home town, fearing neighbors will denounce them over the family ties to the militant group .(AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, Abdullah Suleiman, 16, poses for a portrait in his family's tent in Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. He and his siblings have not seen their father since Iraqi security forces arrested him last year for Islamic State membership. They had already lost their mother to cancer several years earlier. After the militants' defeat, Shiite militiamen burned down the family house because of the father's IS links, and they can't return to their home town, fearing neighbors will denounce them over the family ties to the militant group. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, Saleh Suleiman, 18, poses for a portrait in his family's tent at Dakuk Camp, near Kirkuk, Iraq. "I'm often close to tears," he says of the responsibility of caring for his siblings while their father is in prison for Islamic State ties. "I'm exhausted. I feel like I'm 30 after everything I've gone through." (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 16, 2018 photo, a worker comforts a toddler at Salhiya Orphanage, which now hosts foreign and Iraqi children of Islamic State militants, in Baghdad, Iraq. The war to drive out Islamic State militants left tens of thousands of orphans, a generation that Iraq is struggling to care for. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 15, 2018 photo, baby girls stand up in their cribs at Salhiya Orphanage, which now hosts foreign and Iraqi children of Islamic State militants, in Baghdad, Iraq. The war to drive out Islamic State militants left tens of thousands of orphans, a generation that Iraq is struggling to care for. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 19, 2018 photo, children gather around Sukaina Mohammed Ali, a top official of the local Mosul government, at an orphanage in Mosul, Iraq. Nearly 60 children are kept in two orphanages in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city that was captured by the Islamic State group in 2014 and liberated by U.S.-backed security forces last year after a nearly year-long battle. The older of the two orphanages was founded in 2017 by Ali, who says she begged and prayed for donations to feed and clothe the children before government funds were made available. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

In this Aug. 16, 2018 photo, a child peeks out from her crib at Salhiya Orphanage, which now hosts foreign and Iraqi children of Islamic State militants, in Baghdad, Iraq. The war to drive out Islamic State militants left tens of thousands of orphans, a generation that Iraq is struggling to care for. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) - Macedonia's parliament is debating constitutional amendments that are part of an agreement with neighboring Greece to rename the country "North Macedonia," changes that would go a long way to ensuring the country can join NATO.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's left-led coalition is struggling to get two-thirds of parliament's 120 lawmakers to approve the amendment process.

Zaev has staked his political future on pushing through the deal, which would end a 27-year dispute with Greece. He has said he will call early elections if the amendments are rejected.

His government can't change the constitution without support from opposition parties.

The conservative VMRO-DPMNE party says Macedonians failed to endorse the name change in a referendum last month ruled invalid because of a low turnout. Those who did vote overwhelmingly backed the change.LONDON (AP) - Doctors in England will be able to write prescriptions for cooking classes and walking groups by 2023 as part of the government's effort to combat loneliness.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday described loneliness as "one of the greatest public health challenges of our time," saying it is linked with a range of illnesses, including heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer's disease.

The government says around 200,000 older people across the country haven't had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month.

The government's anti-loneliness strategy calls for "social prescribing," which will allow doctors to recommend group activities such as cooking classes, walking groups and art clubs, instead of medication. About 1.8 million pounds ($2.4 million) has been earmarked for the initiative.BOSTON (AP) - Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday released the results of a DNA analysis that she said indicated she has some Native American heritage, a rebuttal to President Donald Trump, who has long mocked her ancestral claims and repeatedly referred to her as "Pocahontas."

The Massachusetts Democrat and potential 2020 presidential contender challenged Trump to make good on his pledge to donate $1 million to charity if she provided proof of Native American heritage, a moment that was caught on video. Trump falsely denied ever making the offer.

The analysis was done by Stanford University professor Carlos D. Bustamante, a prominent expert in the field. He concluded that the great majority of Warren's ancestry is European but added that the results "strongly support" the existence of a Native American ancestor.

In his report , Bustamante said he analyzed Warren's sample without knowing the identity of the donor. He concluded that Warren has a pure Native American ancestor who probably lived six to 10 generations ago, and that it was impossible to determine the individual's tribal connection.

Warren, who has said her Native American roots were part of "family lore," also released a video produced by her Senate re-election campaign. In it, she said: "The president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?"

Bustamante replied: "The facts suggest that you absolutely have Native American ancestry in your pedigree."

FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018, file photo, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks during a town hall-style gathering in Woburn, Ma. A DNA analysis done on Sen. Warren provides strong evidence she has Native American heritage. She provided her test results to The Boston Globe for a story published Monday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

The analysis is not the first evidence of Warren's heritage. An 1894 document previously unearthed by the New England Genealogical Society suggested Warren's great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, was at least partially Native American, making the senator as much as 1/32nd Native American.

The genealogy group has said it has no conclusive evidence of her ancestry, and a spokesman said Monday it would not comment on the genetic findings.

If Warren's ancestor were six generations removed, she would be 1/64th Native American. But if her ancestor had been as much as 10 generations removed, that would make the individual a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent and render Warren only 1/1,024th Native American, according to Blaine Bettinger, a genealogist and author who specializes in DNA evidence.

Such a finding could potentially further excite Warren's critics instead of placating them.

Warren's effort to address questions about her ancestry and the release of the video are her latest moves telegraphing a likely presidential run in 2020. During the summer, she also released a decade's worth of tax returns, drawing a contrast with Trump's unwillingness to release his own tax documents.

The moves seem to anticipate the type of criticism she might face against opponents in a Democratic primary or in a possible general election matchup against Trump.

"She is most clearly doing the things you do if you're running for president," said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist and veteran of presidential campaigns.

Some Democrats were critical of the timing of Warren's announcement.

Jim Messina, who served as President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign manager and as a White House deputy chief of staff, said on Twitter: "Argue the substance all you want, but why 22 days before a crucial election where we MUST win House and Senate to save America, why did @SenWarren have to do her announcement now? Why can't Dems ever stay focused?"

During a recent town hall-style meeting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Warren said she planned to "take a hard look at running for president," after next month's election.

Earlier this year, the senator released personnel files seeking to dispute critics who have alleged that the former Harvard Law School professor advanced her law career with a narrative that she is a descendant of Cherokee and Delaware tribes. Warren has denied using her Native American heritage to gain any advantage.

In an email Monday to supporters, Warren said she "never expected the president of the United States to use my family's story as a racist political joke against Native American history, culture, and people - over, and over, and over."

In a tweet directed at Trump, Warren said: "Remember saying on (July 5) that you'd give $1M to a charity of my choice if my DNA showed Native American ancestry?" She went on to request that the president send a check to National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.

At a summer rally in Montana, the president declared that he would give a million dollars to charity, "paid for by Trump," if Warren takes the test "and it shows you're an Indian."

But when asked by reporters Monday, Trump said, "I didn't say that."

Warren, who grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, said her mother and father were forced to elope because of her mother's heritage.

She faces Republican Geoff Diehl, who co-chaired Trump's Massachusetts presidential campaign, in November. Diehl said it's up to voters to decide what they think of Warren's DNA analysis.

"We've never made it an issue with this campaign. I think the fact is it's an issue that's been attached to her since 2012," he said.

The DNA analysis was first reported by The Boston Globe.

___

This story has been updated to correct an earlier reference to the percentage of Native American ancestry had the ancestor lived 10 generations ago to 1/1,024th, instead of 1/512th.

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Putman and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.PARIS (AP) - The Latest on flash floods in southwest France (all times local):

6:15 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron has extended the "solidarity" of the French nation to residents of the southwestern region struck by flash flooding and to the families of people who died in the disaster.

Macron also said after meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Paris on Monday that he was grateful for the "exemplary" response by emergency personnel.

The French leader is expected to travel to the Aude region in coming days to see the damage and to meet with affected residents floods. A date for his trip hasn't been set.

___

Rescue workers retrieve a body from floodwaters in the town of Trebes, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

5:30 p.m.

The French Interior Ministry says the death toll from the flash floods that struck the southwest Aude region has been lowered to 10.

French authorities initially reported Monday that at least 13 people died after exceptionally heavy rain caused the overnight flooding. The ministry said it revised the figure later in the day after realizing some victims had been counted twice.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who visited the flooded areas on Monday, confirmed that 10 people were killed.

Overnight storms dumped the equivalent of several months of rain in a few hours, causing the worst floods in the area in more than a century.

___

3:30 p.m.

An official says French President Emmanuel Macron is traveling to southwestern France "as soon as possible" to meet with people affected by the flash floods in which 13 died.

A French presidency official said a date for the trip to the Aude region hasn't been set yet because Macron doesn't want to disturb the emergency response work. The official asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The official also said that an anticipated reshuffling of government ministers would not be announced on Monday since the government was focused on the flooding.

Overnight storms that swept in from the Mediterranean dumped the equivalent of several months of rain in just a few hours in the region. The worst-hit town was Trebes, east of the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, where nine people were killed.

Vigicrues, the French agency that monitors rivers for flood risks, says water levels are higher than at any time since 1891.

- By Sylvie Corbet in Paris.

___

1:25 p.m.

The French Interior Ministry says the death toll from flash floods in southwest France has nearly doubled to 13.

Ministry spokesman Frederic de Lanouvelle says Monday that one other person is missing and five others are seriously hurt after flash floods tore through towns, turning streams into raging torrents.

He said nine of the 13 dead were clustered in one town, Trebes, in the Aude region. The official said the death toll could still rise further.

Some people had to be helicoptered to safety from the roofs of their homes as overnight storms dumped several months of rain in just a few hours.

___

12:45 a.m.

Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed at least seven people and seriously injured five others. Some people had to be helicoptered to safety from the roofs of their homes as overnight storms dumped several months of rain in just a few hours.

Authorities said four deaths were clustered around the town of Villegailhenc in the Aude region, where a powerful, roiling surge of muddy water and debris ripped out a bridge.

Even as diluvial overnight rains that swept in from the Mediterranean began to ease Monday morning, France's Interior Ministry said the toll of seven deaths and five serious injuries could rise.

In Villegailhenc, Ines Siguet said the waters rose so quickly that people were stranded on the roofs of their homes and had to be helicoptered to safety. She posted video of the ripped-up road where the bridge used to be, with the town now cut in half.

Rescue workers wade through muddy waters searching for survivors in the town of Trebes, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

A car and debris are pictured after floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers, background, secure the area by a collapsed bridge in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Residents watch the waters after flash floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

A man rides past a damaged car in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers stand by a collpased bridge in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

A police officer inspects a damaged car in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers, background, secure the area by a collapsed bridge in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

An helicopter flies over the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, after flash floods Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers retrieve a body from floodwaters in the town of Trebes, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers retrieve a body from floodwaters in the town of Trebes, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Rescue workers wade through muddy waters searching for survivors in the town of Trebes, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Soldiers patrol past a vintage car after flash floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Cars pile up after flash floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Residents watch workers pulling a car out of a torrent after flash floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)

Residents clean their house after flash floods in the town of Villegailhenc, southern France, Monday, Oct.15, 2018. Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning streams into raging torrents that authorities said killed several people and seriously injured at least five others. (AP Photo/Fred Lancelot)MILWAUKEE (AP) - Authorities say three teenage boys are under arrest after smashing a stolen car into a security gate at a Wisconsin Air National Guard unit, prompting a security officer to fire a gun and leading to a lockdown.

The Guard says no one was injured in the security breach and shooting at the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee County about 3 p.m. Sunday. The base, adjacent to Mitchell International Airport, returned to normal operations Sunday evening.

Guard officials haven't released details, but the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office says the two 17-years-olds and a 14-year-old stole a car in Milwaukee and another in St. Francis.

They're in custody, awaiting charges.

The 128th Air Refueling Wing provides aerial refueling support to Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft and for allied nations.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian state TV says Turkish authorities are stepping up security around the Iranian Embassy in Ankara after unconfirmed reports of a suicide bomb threat to the diplomatic mission.

Several police vehicles, plain-clothed policemen and special forces officers were seen deployed on Ankara's Tehran Street, where the embassy is located, and in the vicinity of the mission. Officials stopped cars and subjected passengers to identity checks.

Earlier today, Turkish news outlets reported that the embassy had been evacuated following a tip about a bomb attack.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi says Tehran "completely rejected" the claims about the threat and added that embassy staff are "doing their daily duties."TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Several Iranian reformist newspapers have published a joint editorial criticizing U.S. sanctions against the country and asking "world journalists" to defend Iranian human rights.

The editorial was published in both Farsi and English on Monday. It says the United States has "lied" about the purpose of sanctions, which target the needs of ordinary people and curtail access to medical supplies and equipment.

The editorial says that "trade restrictions, blockades, embargoes, freezing of assets and other economic sanctions are incompatible with the Charter of the United Nations."

The editorial comes as Iran's government negotiates with European trading partners a way to circumvent U.S. sanctions and remain within the 2015 nuclear deal.

Hard-line newspapers, which oppose rapprochement with the West, did not publish the statement.WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. consumer spending edged up a slight 0.1 percent in September, a disappointing performance in which rebounding auto sales were offset by weakness in other areas.

But a category of retail sales that excludes volatile categories showed a much stronger 0.5 percent gain in September, a big improvement after no gain in August.

The Commerce Department said Monday that the scant overall gain in September followed an equally meager 0.1 percent increase in August.

It was the weakest two-month performance since the start of the year and was well below economist projections of a solid 0.6 percent rise in sales.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton, said the rise in the "control group" of retail sales, which excludes volatile areas such as autos and gasoline sales, is important because that figure feeds directly into the data for economic growth, as measured by the gross domestic product.

Bright spots in the report were online sales, furniture sales and sales at electronic stores, which were linked to the introduction of new iPhone models.

FILE- In this Oct. 3, 2018, file photo a customer shops at a Target department store in Pembroke Pines, Fla. On Monday, Oct. 15, the Commerce Department releases U.S. retail sales data for September. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

"Consumers continued to spend at a fairly rapid pace despite some pockets of weakness in September," Swonk said.

Retail sales are closely watched for signs they can provide for consumer spending, which drives two-thirds of economic activity. The economy expanded at a sizzling 4.2 percent rate in the second quarter.

Analysts have been forecasting that growth will come in at still-solid rate above 3 percent in the just completed third quarter but the weakness in retail sales may cause them to rethink their forecasts.

The modest September gain was led by a 0.8 percent rise in auto sales which represented a rebound from a 0.5 percent decline in July. Analysts had been expecting the increase believing that sales would get a boost last month from purchases of replacement cars damaged by Hurricane Florence.

But excluding autos, retail sales fell 0.1 percent after sales excluding autos rose 0.2 percent in August.

Gasoline sales fell 0.8 percent in September after a 1.1 percent jump in August. That swing was influenced by prices which have retreated a bit after a big jump in August. The average price for a gallon of regular gas is $2.83 up from $2.47 a year ago, according to a nationwide survey by AAA.

Sales at general merchandise stores, which include big box stores such as Walmart and Target, rose 0.3 percent while sales at department stores fell 0.8 percent.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the disappearance of a Saudi journalist in Turkey and the U.S. reaction (all times local):

9:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump is suggesting that "rogue killers" may be responsible for whatever happened to missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Trump told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Florida Monday that he spoke by phone with Saudi Arabia's King and that "The King firmly denied any knowledge" of the disappearance.

Trump says he doesn't "want to get" into King Salman's mind, but says, "it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers."

He adds: "We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."

President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Florida to tour areas the devastation left behind from Hurricane Michael last week. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Trump's language was strikingly similar to the language he has used to describe Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials of election meddling.

Turkish officials say they fear a Saudi hit team killed Khashoggi, who has been missing nearly two weeks.

___

8:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump says he has spoken to the king of Saudi Arabia, who denies any knowledge of what happened to a Saudi journalist who visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and then disappeared and is feared dead.

Trump tweets, "Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened 'to our Saudi Arabian citizen.'"

Trump says he's dispatching Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (pahm-PAY'-oh) to meet with the king of Saudi Arabia to try to find out what happened to missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Pompeo is expected to go to Riyadh and later visit Turkey.

Turkish officials say they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered the Washington Post contributor.

Trump said Monday the Saudis told him they're working closely with Turkey to find an answer.

___

12:45 a.m.

The White House is brushing aside threats by Saudi Arabia that it may economically retaliate for any U.S. punitive action imposed over the suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, pledging a "swift, open, transparent investigation" into his disappearance. Two leading Republican senators said Congress stands ready to act, including a possible halt of military sales, if President Donald Trump doesn't.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow declined to speculate on what Trump might do after the president promised "severe punishment" in a "60 Minutes" interview, if the U.S. determines that Khashoggi was indeed killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. On Sunday, the oil-rich kingdom suggested retaliation if the U.S. were to impose strict measures.

President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Florida to tour areas the devastation left behind from Hurricane Michael last week. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Florida to tour areas the devastation left behind from Hurricane Michael last week. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump stops to talk to members of the media before walking across the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to board Marine One helicopter for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to Florida to tour areas the devastation left behind from Hurricane Michael last week. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Kanye West has met with Uganda's president during a visit to the East African nation and given the 74-year-old leader a pair of white sneakers.

President Yoweri Museveni said he and the American rapper held "fruitful discussions" on Monday about promoting tourism and arts.

West and his wife, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, have been vacationing in a national park in Uganda. He is said to be recording music in a tent.

Uganda's presidency released photos of a hoodie-wearing West meeting Museveni at the State House and exchanging gifts.

While excited tourism officials see the visit as an endorsement of the country's tourism potential, some Ugandans wryly pointed out that Museveni cracked down on hoodies earlier this year when he announced that motorcycle riders could no longer wear them in a bid to fight rising crime.

The president, one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, has been at the center of unrest in recent weeks as Uganda's large youth population increasingly expresses frustration over unemployment and accuses Museveni of being out of touch.

Uganda's government has been criticized over its treatment of a local pop star-turned-opposition lawmaker, Bobi Wine, who alleges torture by security forces. The government denies it.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaROME (AP) - Italy has asked France for "clarifications" about reports that a French police truck crossed the border and dropped off two presumed migrants in the woods near Turin before returning to France.

The Italian Foreign Ministry said Monday it contacted the French ambassador in Rome for information "about the possible entry" of the truck at Claviere on Friday night.

Italian news agency ANSA reports that Italian police surveillance cameras captured the French vehicle on video. ANSA says the two people who got out of the truck were believed to be African migrants.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has taken a hard line on curbing migration, demanded an explanation.

He said: "I don't want to believe that Macron's France would use its own police to secretly dump immigrants in Italy."BERLIN (AP) - The Latest on hostage situation at Cologne train station (all times local):

3:30 p.m.

Cologne police say on Twitter that a hostage-taker has suffered life-threatening injuries when police stormed a pharmacy inside the city's train station.

The man had taken a woman hostage for two hours before he was injured during the police operation Monday afternoon. Emergency personnel were trying to revive him with CPR. It wasn't immediately clear how he sustained the injuries. Police said only that he was injured during the police operation to free the woman.

The hostage was also slightly injured and treated on the scene.

___

Police forces stand at the Cologne, western Germany, main station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, after they have closed parts of the station because of a hostage situation. Police said that incident appears to have started Monday at a pharmacy inside the train station. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

3:15 p.m.

German police say they've freed a woman who had been taken hostage in Cologne's main train station and have her captor in custody.

Police spokesman Christoph Schulte said that officers have stormed the pharmacy where the man was holding a woman and that he was suffering from unspecified injuries. It wasn't clear how the injuries were sustained.

Police tweeted that the hostage was slightly injured and was currently being treated.

___

1:40 p.m.

Cologne police say they have closed parts of the western German city's main train station because of a hostage situation.

Police officer Christoph Schulte told The Associated Press that incident appears to have started Monday at 12:45 p.m.at a pharmacy inside the train station. He said parts of the station, one of the biggest in the country, were closed off as well as Breslauer Platz square behind the station.

There were no immediate details on who was taken hostage or how many people were involved.

German railroad operator Deutsche Bahn tweeted that some of the station's tracks were shut down temporarily.

Police on Twitter told people to avoid the train station.

Special police operate outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Marius Becker/dpa via AP)

People wait outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

Special police operate outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

Special police operate outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

Special police operate outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2016 file photo police patrols in front of the main station during the start of the street carnival in Cologne, Germany. Cologne police say they have closed parts of the western German city's main train station because of a hostage situation. The incident appears to have started Monday at a pharmacy inside the train station. ( AP Photo/Martin Meissner, file)ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) - Authorities say a driver in Ohio hit an Amish buggy and injured all seven people in the horse-drawn vehicle.

The State Highway Patrol says Patrick Muscaro failed to maintain a distance and struck the rear of a buggy driven by 31-year-old Andy Swartzentruber around 7:30 p.m. Sunday in Sullivan Township near Ashland. The patrol says Swartzentruber, his wife and five children were thrown from the buggy.

Troopers say Swartzentruber and two of his children were flown to hospitals with serious injuries. His wife and their other children were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The patrol says 47-year-old Muscaro, of West Salem, was arrested on a charge of operating a vehicle under the influence. Court records don't show an attorney for him.LONDON (AP) - Protesters have gathered near a shale gas exploration site in northwestern England, as fracking began in the U.K. for the first time since 2011.

Hydraulic fracturing had been stalled in the country after two earthquakes in the same area led to legal challenges. Environmental campaigners failed last week in Britain's High Court to keep the work in Lancashire from proceeding.

Energy firm Cuadrilla said in a statement Monday that it was "pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site."

The company plans to drill at two horizontal exploration wells for about three months. Demonstrators say they'll monitor the site around the clock.

Protester Ginette Evans said Monday: "The fight's just really started.""Unsheltered" (Harper), by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver does something amazing in her new novel. She takes a historical figure - a naturalist who corresponded with Charles Darwin in the late 19th century - and imagines her life in Vineland, New Jersey, then creates fictional characters around her and concocts an entirely new family living in the same house in the modern day. The novel alternates eras from chapter to chapter and Kingsolver has a little writerly fun ending each chapter with the word(s) that name the next one.

That's not all the two stories have in common, of course. Uncovering and appreciating the connections is the best reason to read the book, but here's a teaser: Mary Treat is the naturalist whom Kingsolver brings to life. We first see her from afar, lying face down in her yard peering at something in the grass. Later, inside her home, she meets her neighbor and fellow Darwinist, Thatcher Greenwood, surrounded by tarantulas in glass jars as a Venus flytrap "eats" her finger. The 19th-century plot plays out with Thatcher, assisted behind the scenes by Mary, squaring off versus Vineland's pre-eminent Creationists, the town founder and the school principal where Thatcher teaches.

Meanwhile, the modern family is led by Willa, a laid-off journalist struggling to hold her family together after her son's partner kills herself, leaving Willa to take care of her grandson, her young adult daughter who just returned from a mysterious year in Cuba and her disabled father-in-law. As Kingsolver writes: "To please their beloveds, some women faked orgasm; Willa faked composure."

Both stories are compelling as Thatcher and Willa lead their families during dangerously uncertain times. Readers can decide for themselves if today's "America First" doctrine and the general erosion of civil discourse is on par with the theory of evolution challenging what it means to be human, but in a note to reviewers not included in the published novel, Kingsolver says the book is her attempt to show how families navigate through uncertainty, in all sorts of "brave, sweet and ridiculous ways."

Or in her peerless prose: "What I know for sure is that stories will get us through times of no leadership, better than leaders will get us through times with no stories."

This cover image released by Harper shows "Unsheltered," a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. (Harper via AP)

With "Unsheltered," Kingsolver has created art that does exactly that. It is a novel well worth your time.MOSCOW, Pa. (AP) - A California woman has been identified as the victim of a bus crash in Pennsylvania.

State police say 33-year-old Rebecca Blanco of Vacaville was killed when the private charter bus she was riding on veered off Interstate 380 near Scranton and crashed into trees about 9 p.m. Sunday. State police say multiple passengers were injured and taken to hospitals. One passenger was airlifted.

Blanco was pronounced dead at the scene. Cornell University said in a statement Monday that she received her MBA in 2017.

The name of the bus company wasn't immediately released. The crash remains under investigation.NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A federal court in New Jersey has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the widow of automaker John DeLorean over royalties stemming from the "Back to the Future" movies.

Sally DeLorean claimed a Texas company using the DeLorean name had illegally accepted royalties from Universal for the promotional use of images of the iconic car.

A judge ruled Friday that a 2015 settlement agreement in a separate lawsuit over trademarks prohibited her from suing for the royalties.

Attorneys for the two sides didn't respond to requests for comment Monday.

The sleek, angular car with gull-wing doors known simply as "the DeLorean" was featured in the movie franchise starring Michael J. Fox about a kid who travels back in time to engineer his parents' meeting.FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Prosecutors say law enforcement officials have conducted searches at German automaker Opel as part of an investigation into suspected manipulation of diesel emissions.

The dpa news agency reported that investors went to company facilities Monday in Russelsheim and Kaiserslautern. Nadja Niesen, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Frankfurt, was cited by dpa as saying investigators suspect Opel may have used software to turn off emissions controls at certain engine speeds and temperatures.

Opel, which is part of France's PSA Group, confirmed the searches but declined to offer details.

Diesel came under scrutiny in Europe after Volkswagen admitted illegally manipulating software to cheat on emissions test. Cars from other automakers were subsequently found to turn off controls at certain temperatures, ostensibly to protect the engine but also increasing emissions.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Concerned about downed power lines sparking wildfires, two major California utilities for the first time cut power to some customers amid high winds - and another power provider was considering similar action.

Pacific Gas & Electric began cutting power Sunday night to tens of thousands of customers in Northern California after the National Weather Service warned of extreme fire danger across the state due to high winds, low humidity and dry vegetation.

San Diego Gas & Electric followed suit Monday, turning off power to about 360 customers in foothill areas near Cleveland National Forest, where multiple blazes have scorched large swaths of land in recent years.

Pacific Gas & Electric previously announced its plan to shut off power preemptively after authorities blamed its power lines for sparking some of California's most destructive wildfires.

The utility expects to pay billions of dollars in wildfire damages and has sought ways to limit its liability through the courts and Legislature.

PG&E said about 87,000 customers had their power halted and more could be left in the dark depending on the weather. Some 60,000 customers remained without power. Schools in those affected areas canceled classes.

All Seasons restaurant chef Kevin Kathman, left, and owner Gayle Keller stand at the bar as they look at their empty business Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in Calistoga, Calif. The restaurant was forced to close, losing an estimated $20,000 per day, as their power was cut off. Northern California's biggest utility has taken the unprecedented step of cutting electricity for tens of thousands of customers in an attempt to prevent wildfires amid rising winds and official warnings on Monday of extreme fire danger. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

PG&E said it expected to restore power Monday night to most customers - though some residents won't get electricity back until Tuesday.

"We know how much our customers rely on electric service, and we have made the decision to turn off power as a last resort given the extreme fire danger conditions these communities are experiencing," PG&E spokesman Pat Hogan said.

PG&E said it began notifying affected customers on Saturday about possible outages. However, many said Monday they had received little or no notice.

Stewart Munnerlyn was scrambling to find generators to save $8,000 worth of ice cream at his creamery shop in Pine Grove, about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east of Sacramento. Munnerlyn said he is in Virginia visiting a sick relative and received three text messages Sunday night from PG&E saying it might cut power, but he didn't know it actually happened until a friend called him.

"They knew what they were going to do obviously," Munnerlyn said. "We weren't given enough notice to properly prepare."

PG&E spokeswoman Melissa Subottin said power was also cut to hospitals and other medical providers that are required to have backup power sources. PG&E officials visited 4,400 medical customers in the affected areas to personally warn them of the outages, she said.

The weather service predicted winds gusting to 55 mph (89 kph) in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento. High winds were also expected in the state's wine country north of San Francisco.

Southern California Edison said it was considering shutting off power to an undetermined number of customers. Strong wind gusts swept across the region with the arrival of the first fall Santa Ana winds - hot, sustained gusts that blow from the desert to the ocean.

A motorist in the Orange County city of Tustin was killed when a eucalyptus tree fell on her car in an apartment complex. The victim was 34. No further details were released.

Southern California Edison spokesman David Song said about 32,000 of its 5 million customers were experiencing power outages, but no shutdowns had been ordered by the utility. Song said Edison was investigating the cause of those outages.

___

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco and Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Authorities access the damage after a woman was killed after a large eucalyptus tree toppled and smashed onto a car she was inside of in the driveway of her home in Tustin, Calif. during the heavy Santa Ana winds on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Potentially powerful winds combined with dry weather are raising the threat of wildfires in California. (Mindy Schauer /The Orange County Register via AP)

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2017, file photo, PG&E crews work on restoring power lines in a fire ravaged neighborhood in an aerial view in the aftermath of a wildfire in Santa Rosa, Calif. Northern California's biggest utility has taken the unprecedented step of cutting electricity for tens of thousands of customers in an attempt to prevent wildfires amid rising winds and official warnings on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, of extreme fire danger. Pacific Gas & Electric began turning off the lights in California's wine country north of San Francisco and Sierra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento Sunday night. The utility said at least 87,000 customers had their power turned off and that more could be put in the dark depending on the weather. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)JOHANNESBURG (AP) - The U.S. military says it has conducted an airstrike that killed four al-Shabab extremists after "partner forces came under small arms fire."

The U.S. Africa Command says Sunday's airstrike was carried out near the community of Araara in Lower Juba region in the south.

The statement says no U.S. service members were on the ground during the Somali-led operation and that according to its assessment no civilians were injured or killed in the airstrike.

The U.S. military has carried out more than two dozen airstrikes, including drone strikes, this year against the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab, the deadliest Islamic extremist group in sub-Saharan Africa.

Somalia on Sunday marked the first anniversary of al-Shabab's deadliest attack, a truck bombing in the capital, Mogadishu, that killed well over 500 people.WASHINGTON (AP) - That "Pocahontas" taunt must have rankled.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's release Monday of a DNA analysis that she does indeed have Native American ancestry is a pointed pushback to Donald Trump's derisive nickname for her. It also looks like an attempt by the Massachusetts Democrat to defuse the issue ahead of a potential 2020 challenge to Trump.

A look at what's known about Warren and her Native American heritage.

___

WHY WARREN'S ANCESTRY MATTERS

The first-term Democratic senator's critics have accused Warren of advancing her career by claiming minority status as a descendant of Cherokee and Delaware tribes. Warren, 69, was born in Oklahoma and went on to become a professor at Harvard Law School.

FILE - In this June 1, 2018 file photo, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks at the 2018 Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention in Worcester, Mass. Warren has released results of a DNA test showing Native American ancestry in an effort to diffuse the issue ahead of any presidential run. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

It's not clear Warren's hiring there or anywhere else had anything to do with her heritage. She's denied using it to get ahead.

Warren acknowledged that she had identified herself as a minority in a legal directory for nearly a decade, and she was listed as a Native American in federal forms filed by the law schools at Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania where she worked, The Boston Globe reported in 2012.

Harvard University's decision to hire Warren as a law professor in the 1990s was not based on any assertion that she has Native American heritage, The Globe found. The newspaper reported that interviews and documents show the issue was not considered by Harvard Law faculty or those who admitted Warren to law school at Rutgers or to jobs at The University of Houston, The University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania.

___

THE DNA TEST

The DNA analysis Warren released Monday provides strong evidence she does have Native American heritage. It was done by Stanford University professor Carlos D. Bustamante, a prominent expert in the field.

In a five-minute, campaign-style video, Warren asks him: "The president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?"

Bustamante replies: "The facts suggest that you absolutely have Native American ancestry in your pedigree." He says the test carries an error rate of "less than one in 1,000."

Bustamante determined Warren's pure Native American ancestor appears "in the range of six to 10 generations ago."

That meshes with an 1894 document the New England Genealogical Society unearthed suggesting that her great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, was at least partly Native American. That would make Warren 1/32nd Native American.

But if her ancestor is 10 generations back, that could mean she's just 1/512th Native American, according to the report. That could further excite her critics instead of placating them.

___

$1 MILLION?

Trump told a rally crowd in Montana this summer that that he'd be willing to pay Warren to submit to a DNA test, just as he'd offered in 2012 to pay up if former President Barack Obama produced his birth certificate.

"I will give you a million dollars to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you're an Indian," he said. "I have a feeling she will say no."

On Monday Warren tweeted her charity of choice: The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center.

Moments later, Trump denied making such an offer: "I didn't say that," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump is fond of referring to Warren as "the fake Pocahontas," a reference to a Powhatan woman associated with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. At the White House last November, he interrupted his speech honoring Native American war heroes standing around him to invoke the nickname.

"You were here long before any of us were here," Trump said as he honored three Navajo code talkers from World War II. He added, without naming Warren: "We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas. But you know what, I like you."

Native American leaders have called Trump's mockery insensitive and an example of prejudice.

___

WHAT WARREN SAYS

Warren told the National Congress of American Indians last February that her family's story is lore, not recorded on any tribal rolls.

"I respect the distinction. I understand that tribal membership is determined by tribes - and only tribes," she said. "I never used my family tree to get a break or get ahead. I never used it to advance my career."

Warren says the Native American ancestry comes from her mother, born in Eastern Oklahoma in 1912. Pauline Reed's family was against her marriage to Donald Herring, so the two eloped in 1932.

"I get it: @realDonaldTrump is afraid of facts. But I'm not," Warren tweeted on Monday, along with the video and website containing the documents. "A deep, independent investigation shows my background played no role in any job I got."

___

IS SHE RUNNING?

Sure seems like it.

Warren, an economic populist and leading voice of the #MeToo movement, said last month in Holyoke, Mass., that she'll take a "hard look at running for president" after the November elections. In August, she's posted 10 years of tax returns online.

An attendee at a town hall asked Warren if she planned to run for president.

Warren replied that it's time "for women to go to Washington to fix our broken government, and that includes a woman at the top."

"I hope she's running for president," Trump told reporters on Monday, "'cause I think she'd be very easy."

___

Follow Kellman on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APLaurieKellmanMEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on recovery efforts after Hurricane Michael (all times local):

5 p.m.

Researchers at the University of Florida estimate that Florida's cotton crop has been nearly decimated by Hurricane Michael's rampage.

Researchers at the school's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences said Monday that about 90 percent of Florida's cotton crop remained in the fields when Michael struck. They also estimate that about 40 percent of Florida's peanut crop is lost.

The researchers say they haven't yet calculated the value of Florida's crop losses from the Category 4 hurricane, which crashed ashore last Wednesday. They say the hurricane potentially impacted 3.6 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of upland forest and 1 million acres (more than 400,000 hectares) of field crops in Florida.

Florida's most famous crops, oranges and grapefruit, weren't affected much by the storm since they are primarily grown in areas south of Orlando away from the storm's track.

Candace Phillips sifts through what was her third-floor bedroom while returning to her damaged home in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. "We spent 25 years of our marriage working to get here and we're going to stay," said Phillips of her and husband's plans to rebuild. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

___

3:15 p.m.

Five days after the hurricane slammed into the Florida Panhandle, people are struggling to locate friends and loved ones who haven't been heard from - though how many residents are missing seems to be anyone's guess.

Joanne Garone Behnke is among those seeking word of a loved one, her 79-year-old aunt Aggie Vicari. She says she's been on the phone constantly, seeking information.

As President Donald Trump visited the devastated zone on Monday, the death toll from Michael's march from Florida to Virginia stood at 17, and the search for victims continued.

As the hurricane closed in last week and more than 375,000 people were warned to evacuate, emergency authorities had expressed frustration that many residents weren't leaving.

___

12:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived in Florida to survey damage in the state as well in Georgia from Hurricane Michael.

Trump landed Monday at Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso. The White House has not identified the communities Trump will visit.

The president tweeted before leaving the White House that he will meet with law enforcement and government officials aiding the massive recovery effort. He said "maximum effort is taking place, everyone is working very hard."

The Florida Panhandle took a direct hit from Michael. More than 190,000 homes and businesses in Florida remain without electricity, along with about 120,000 homes and businesses in Georgia.

The death toll currently stands at 17.

___

11 a.m.

Florida officials are criticizing telecommunications carrier Verizon for taking too long to get cellphone service restored for parts of Florida's Panhandle.

Gov. Rick Scott late Sunday mentioned that residents in coastal Bay County were still "waiting" on Verizon while AT&T was working in the county hit hard by Hurricane Michael.

Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis expressed his frustration at Verizon on Twitter on Monday. He said that the company had no service in Bay County for six days and that "we need the same response" from Verizon as "we have seen from our electric companies."

Patronis is from Bay County and his family owns a restaurant in Panama City Beach.

Verizon responded back on Twitter telling Patronis it was working "urgently" and that the company "knows how important the ability to connect is, especially when storms happen."

___

11 a.m.

President Donald Trump is heading to Florida and Georgia to view the destruction left by Hurricane Michael.

Trump says in a tweet that he and first lady Melania Trump are going to review hurricane damage and visit with Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel and other officials.

The president's tweet adds that "maximum effort is taking place" and that "everyone is working very hard."

___

1 a.m.

Upon touring the damage in several towns along Florida's Panhandle, Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Brock Long called the destruction left by Hurricane Michael some of the worst he's ever seen.

On Monday, President Donald Trump plans to visit Florida and Georgia and see the recovery effort for himself. Trump declared a state of emergency for Georgia late Sunday.

In hurricane-flattened Mexico Beach, crews cleared debris Sunday as the mayor held out hope for the 250 or so residents who may have tried to ride out the storm.

The death toll from Michael's destructive march from Florida to Virginia stood at 17, with just one confirmed death in Mexico Beach. Mayor Al Cathey said it would be a "miracle" if the town's death toll stays at one after it took a direct hit from the hurricane.

Members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team look for survivors of hurricane Michael in a debris pile in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Marla Wood pulls a framed art piece out of the rubble of her damaged home from Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team sift through a debris pile for survivors of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Candace Phillips retrieves personal items from her damaged home in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael. "We spent 25 years of our marriage working to get here and we're going to stay," said Phillips of her and husband's plans to rebuild. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A Sunday service is held outside the damaged St. Andrew United Methodist Church, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The Wood family begins cleanup efforts among the debris of their damaged home from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A sign for a damaged church sits among the debris from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jerry Register, a congregation member of St. Andrew United Methodist Church, hugs a fellow church member during Sunday service, outside the damaged church in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Charles Olmstead wipes off the grand piano that was spared damage, inside the heavily damaged St. Andrew United Methodist Church, while a Sunday service is performed outside, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ron Hyatt spray paints a message to warn off looters outside his damaged home from Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A message reading "Help us Trump" is written on a damaged business from Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Rachel Hyatt holds her daughter, Eva, 2, in their damaged home as they prepare to spend a fifth night without power and running water in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. "It was hard at first but we're adjusting," said Hyatt. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Rachel Hyatt bathes her daughter, Eva, 2, using a lantern and bottled water in their damaged home as they spend a fifth night without power and running water in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. "It was hard at first, but we're adjusting," said Hyatt. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Rachel Hyatt bathes her daughter, Eva, 2, using a lantern and bottled water in their damaged home as they spend a fifth night without power and running water in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Callaway, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. "It was hard at first, but we're adjusting," said Hyatt. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team return from searching a remote area of Mexico Beach for survivors of hurricane Michael, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, in Parker, Fla. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A member of a South Florida urban search and rescue team sifts through a debris pile for survivors of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

William Johnson helps pack up a friend's belongings as he returns to his damaged home from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Sara Gray, of Springfield, Fla., holds her baby Gabriella Horne, 8 months, inside an evacuation shelter at Rutherford High School in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Terry Dominy, left, Sara Gray, and her baby Gabriella Horne, 8 months, all of of Springfield, Fla., sit inside an evacuation shelter at Rutherford High School in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Cars sit in traffic outside buildings that lost their facades during Hurricane Michael on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, in Marianna, Fla. (AP Photo/Brendan Farrington)BARRON, Wis. (AP) - Authorities searched Monday for a 13-year-old girl they believe is in danger after her parents were found dead in their western Wisconsin home.

Deputies went to the home in Barron after dispatchers received a 911 call from an unknown person at around 1 a.m. Monday, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said. He said they found the bodies of Jayme Closs' parents, though he didn't release their names. He also said there had been gunshots, but he stopped short of saying that's how the couple died.

Investigators don't have any leads or suspects, but they have enlisted the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the FBI, which has agents who specialize in missing children cases, the sheriff said. He said Jayme is not considered a suspect in her parents' deaths.

Deputies searched the area around the family's home with drones and infrared equipment, but they didn't find any clues as to her whereabouts. Fitzgerald said investigators are frustrated they haven't developed any leads and asked for the public's help with any information about what could have happened to the girl.

"At the end of the end of the day, I want a 13-year-old here safe and sound. That's our goal. That's our only goal right now," Fitzgerald said at a news briefing.

Officers also were at Jayme's middle school talking with her friends and acquaintances, hoping to develop some leads, officials said.

This undated photo provided by Barron County, Wis., Sheriff's Department, shows Jayme Closs. Authorities say that Closs, a missing teenage girl, could be in danger after two adults were found dead at a home in Barron, Wis., on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (Courtesy of Barron County Sheriff's Department via AP)

Fitzgerald told The Associated Press that an Amber Alert hadn't been issued because no suspect had been identified in her disappearance.

Jayme is described as 5-feet (1.5 meters) tall and 100 pounds (45 kilograms), with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes.

Barron is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Minneapolis.MOSCOW (AP) - Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has arrived in Russia on a visit expected to further boost ties between the two nations.

Egyptian officials say the visit will enhance economic and trade ties and include discussions to advance the construction of the nuclear plant Russia is building on Egypt's Mediterranean coast.

The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin will host el-Sissi for two days of talks at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi starting Tuesday.

The Russian government said Monday that a draft treaty on partnership and strategic cooperation has been readied for signing after the meeting.

Putin and el-Sissi have developed a close personal rapport and sought to expand bilateral ties, which have strengthened considerably over the past years."Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975" (Harper), by Max Hastings

British journalist Max Hastings, noted for his critically acclaimed books about World War II, has fast-forwarded his research and writing talent to a war that many Americans would like to forget.

His 900-page work chronicles Vietnam's tragic history from Ho Chi Minh's proclamation of an independent state after the 1945 Japanese surrender to the collapse of the South Vietnamese regime 30 years later after the United States cut off ground and air support. Despite ample accounts of heroism and sacrifice on all sides, it's a story in which each of the principal players - France, the United States, Saigon, Hanoi and the Viet Cong - comes away with well-deserved opprobrium.

Unsurprisingly, Hastings concludes that Vietnam was a catastrophe, one that took the lives of as many as 2 million to 3 million combatants and civilians. The war claimed 58,000 American lives, but the number of Vietnamese dead was 40 times greater.

This definitive narrative describes how the French debacle at Dien Bien Phu gave rise to the domino theory and the need to halt the spread of communist domination in Southeast Asia. There were more than 500,000 U.S. service personnel in Vietnam by the time of the 1968 Tet offensive, a stunning military defeat for the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong that was transformed into a propaganda victory.

After Tet, the war was never the same. CBS anchor Walter Cronkite declared the nation was mired in stalemate, President Lyndon B. Johnson said he would not seek re-election, and the U.S. abandoned any hope of victory and sought instead to extricate itself while avoiding explicit defeat.

This cover image released by Harper shows "Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy: 1945-1975," by Max Hastings. (Harper via AP)

The fighting would continue for another seven years, a period marked by the My Lai massacre, the invasion of Cambodia and the 1972 Christmas bombing, which Hastings says was designed for partisan political purposes and had no military justification.

The narrative includes detailed accounts of all the major battles, with riveting descriptions of what life was like for combatants on both sides. The reader relives the experiences of GIs plodding through booby-trapped jungle, North Vietnamese dodging B52 strikes while heading south on the Ho Chi Minh trail and helicopter pilots braving fire from hot landing zones while inserting troops or extricating the wounded.

Many of the campaigns covered in the book are familiar to those who served in Vietnam or followed the war in the media, but a rarely mentioned 1968 battle at Dai Do in which a Marine battalion suffered devastating losses gets special scrutiny. During three days of bloody combat, Marines displayed both courage and cowardice in a series of senseless assaults against a well-entrenched enemy. The author says the American commanders who "displayed folly of Crimean proportions" shoulder much of the blame.

Drug abuse, racial strife and the erosion of discipline and the will to fight took their toll on U.S. troops. By contrast, Hastings points to the stronger performance of the small contingents of Australians who were disciplined in their use of firepower and exercised better fieldcraft.

Neither side comes away with clean hands, but Hastings writes that news media were quick to record atrocities by U.S. troops and the brutality on the communist side went largely unreported, fueling antiwar propaganda that portrayed the North as the virtuous party.

Hastings' narrative, along with Ken Burns' masterful series on PBS, offers a well-balanced account of a war that ended more than four decades ago. The author weaves anecdotal and first-person accounts from both sides into the overall history to produce a compelling account that veterans of the war, those who felt its impact at home and readers born decades after the fighting ended will find hard to put down.

Today, with the rise of the internet and globalization, the outcome of the lengthy struggle may seem less cut and dried than it first appeared. Although Vietnam still endures harsh rural poverty and authoritarian rule, America's economic and cultural influences are leaving their mark on its former enemy.

"Whereas the US armed forced failed with B-52s, defoliants and Spooky gunships, YouTube and Johnny Depp have proved irresistible," Hastings writes.VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pressure is building on the Vatican to give women the right to vote during its big meetings of bishops, with petitions, protests and persuasion all giving religious sisters hope that they will have their votes heard along with their voices.

The issue of women's participation in the Catholic Church's decision-making has been one of the major themes of the Oct. 3-28 bishops synod, which is focusing on how the church can better minister to today's youth. Many young people have told the Vatican they want women to have greater roles in the church.

Sister Sally Hodgdon, the superior general of the Sisters of St. John of Chambery and the No. 2 at the main association of women religious orders worldwide, said Monday she expects women to eventually get the right to vote on the final documents that are approved at future synods.

Currently, only "synod fathers" can vote on the text, which is then sent to the pope to either approve as an official document of the church or take under consideration for a future teaching document of his own.

Hodgdon noted the precedent for expanding voting participation was already set a few years ago when the Vatican allowed a brother - not a priest - to vote in the synod on the family. This year, two lay brothers who are superiors of their orders will vote.

"I am a superior general. I am a sister. And so in theory, logically, you would think I would have the right to vote," Hodgdon told reporters. "But that point was not addressed prior to the synod beginning."

She said the issue was being discussed in the synod halls, and she was hopeful.

"I believe that in future synods - I will not say the very next synod - but in future synods we will probably see a change as to who votes," she said.

While acknowledging the Synod of Bishops is just that - a meeting of male bishops - lay Catholics and religious sisters have begun attending as non-voting experts. They are allowed to speak and influence, but not to vote.

"So we will raise the point in the future and we will hopefully move forward. And we may see women voting in synods," Hodgdon said.

The campaign over the vote has taken on a life of its own outside the synod halls. On its opening day, a handful of activists seeking the ordination of women as priests staged a singing protest at the Vatican gates hoping to capture the attention of bishops entering.

Since then, a petition sponsored by a half-dozen progressive lay groups demanding the vote neared 5,000 signatures by Monday.

A related social media campaign inspired a group of Benedictine nuns in Switzerland to post photos of themselves holding #votesforcatholicwomen signs.

At nearly every Vatican news conference since the synod began, journalists or activists have pressed the invited guests to explain why no nuns can vote.

The bishops have generally responded by saying current Vatican rules don't allow for it.

"We have to listen to women, but there are no women bishops. We don't have women cardinals. We have to live with that," said Dutch Bishop Everard de Jong.

Church doctrine requires an all-male priesthood, on the grounds that Jesus' apostles were male. Women frequently complain they have a second-class status in the church.

Pope Francis has called for women to have a greater say in church decision-making, but hasn't followed through with concrete gestures, though sisters note slow progress in filling mid-level positions in the Vatican with women.

On Monday, the Jesuit superior general, the Rev. Arturo Sosa acknowledged "discontent" is being heard and said he hopes it will lead to change.

"I hope that this discontent can be a help," said the Venezuelan superior of the pope's religious order. "It's a sign. Discontent is a sign that something doesn't work. So we must hear it and go forward in the ways that are possible."CAIRO (AP) - Egypt says its security forces have killed nine "terrorists" in a raid on a cave hideout along the Nile River.

The Interior Ministry says Monday's dawn raid in central Egypt targeted men who were planning attacks on vital installations, resulting in a shootout that led to their deaths.

The statement did not mention if there were any survivors or if any wounded were taken prisoner, or if security forces suffered any casualties. It said assault rifles, improvised explosive devices, ammunition and supplies were seized.

Egypt has been battling an insurgency based in the Sinai Peninsula that intensified after the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013. It launched a nationwide operation against the militants in February, but raids outside the Sinai have been rare.INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear arguments over a law that bars women from having abortions based on gender, race or disability.

Vice President Mike Pence signed the law in 2016 when he was Indiana's governor. But federal courts have blocked it, saying it violates a woman's right to end her pregnancy.

Attorney General Curtis Hill on Friday asked the Supreme Court to take the case. He acknowledged a right to abort but says it's "not a right to decide which child to bear."

Ken Falk of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana says Indiana's petition is an attempt to infringe on women's rights.

The law also requires abortion providers to dispose of aborted fetuses in the same way as human remains. That section also was blocked.ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Two Turkish journalists have been charged with insulting the Turkish nation and institutions for suggesting that a Turkish court may not have acted independently when ruling in the case against an American pastor.

Duygu Guvenc and Alican Uludag, from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, face maximum two years in prison for articles published in July after U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson, who was at the center of a Turkish-U.S. diplomatic dispute, was released to house arrest after almost two years in jail.

The two journalists reject the charge. Guvenc says Monday "we used our constitutional right to criticize decisions as journalists."

The pastor, who was accused of terror-related charges, was convicted Friday yet released from custody for time served. He has returned to the United States.

The journalists' trial is set for Dec. 20.LAMPASAS, Texas (AP) - An Oklahoma school bus that hydroplaned on a wet road and crashed in Central Texas last month, injuring nearly everyone onboard, was traveling at an unsafe speed for the conditions, according to a Texas Department of Transportation report.

The bus crossed into the wrong lane on Sept. 29 as it was making a left hand curve on U.S. 281 near Lampasas, 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Austin, the report said. Cleveland Elementary School principal Ty Bell, who was driving the bus, took "faulty evasive action" and overcorrected, which caused him to lose control of the vehicle, the report said.

Officials said the bus rolled over and struck a fence .

The unsafe speed made it difficult for Bell to maintain control of the bus. The citation doesn't necessarily mean Bell was speeding, officials said.

Bell was up to date on his training and had a valid license to drive the bus, records show.

The bus was carrying 27 people from Cleveland Elementary School and was heading to Sea World in San Antonio for a field trip.

Lampasas Police Department Assistant Chief Jody Cummings said students and staff were taken to local hospitals to treat bruises, scrapes and some broken bones. Bell was the only one not injured. There were no fatalities.PARIS (AP) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in has met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss inter-Korean talks and bilateral issues.

Moon, on a state visit to France, said he considers France, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, as a key partner in efforts toward peace with North Korea.

Both leaders pledged to enhance economic and cultural cooperation between their countries in a joint news conference Monday in Paris.

Moon is on a European trip which also includes Italy, Belgium and Denmark.

North and South Korea continued their push for peace Monday with high-level talks that resulted in a host of agreements, including a plan by the rivals for a groundbreaking ceremony this year on an ambitious project to connect their railways and roads.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron pose before a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Moon Jae-in is for a three-day state visit in France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Moon Jae-in is for a three-day state visit in France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Authorities say two 3-year-old children and two young men were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Fort Worth.

Police say the gunfire erupted Sunday near a store on the east side of the city. The children were taken to a Fort Worth hospital. One was shot in the arm and the other was hit in the leg. Both are expected to survive.

The adults, ages 19 and 20, were taken to a different hospital. Both were shot in the leg.

The gunman was not in custody Sunday night. Police say he left the scene in a gray Nissan Altima. Police described the suspect as an African-American man wearing a gray shirt.

Authorities have not released a motive in the shooting.CARRICKCARNAN, Ireland (AP) - The land around the small Irish town of Carrickcarnan is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union runs right into a wall - an invisible one that's proving inordinately difficult to overcome.

Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has fully left the bloc.

That means the largely unpoliced and invisible Irish land border will become the boundary between the EU and the U.K. - raising vexing questions about trade and customs checks.

Of all the thorny issues in Brexit negotiations, this has been the toughest, because the challenge of keeping trade running smoothly is deeply entangled with questions of identity: what it means to be from Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland's Catholic and Protestant communities remain divided decades after 30 years of conflict claimed around 3,700 lives. The peace agreement signed in 1998 provides people with the freedom to identify as Irish or British, or both. It helped dismantle Northern Ireland's once heavily-policed and militarized border with Ireland - and the last thing people want now is a new one.

"The peace process took identity and borders out of politics. Brexit has put them slap bang back into the middle again," lamented Northern Ireland business and strategy adviser Conor Houston.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, an Irish flag flies over the graves in a cemetery in Carrickcarnan, Ireland, just next to the the Jonesborough Parish located in Northern Ireland. The land around the small town of Carrickcarnan, Ireland is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union walks right into a wall - an invisible one that is proving insanely difficult to overcome. Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member country Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has left the bloc. (AP Photo/Lorne Cook)

Talks between EU leaders and British Prime Minister Theresa May ran aground this week over the Irish border issue, and are trying to find ways forward ahead of a summit starting Wednesday.

The Northern Ireland-Ireland border zig-zags all over the map. It cuts around properties, veers over roads and dodges villages. People cross it when they leave home to visit their doctor or go shopping. It's mostly only visible when the speed signs change from kilometers to miles.

The dividing line stretches for 500 kilometers (312 miles) and is dotted with over 250 official road crossings, more than on Europe's entire eastern flank.

A fine example of the Brexit conundrum is the Jonesborough Parish Church. A padlock secures the gate of this run-down Protestant place of worship in the U.K. An Irish flag flies in the cemetery next door, over the border. In the parking lot, a weather-beaten sign reads: "No EU Frontier in Ireland."

Not so long ago, 12 fortified watchtowers, 4 helicopter bases, a handful of army barracks and police stations dotted the countryside within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius.

Border posts stood for authority and made easy targets for paramilitaries. So police came to guard the customs officers. Then the army was called in to protect the police.

Some think that modern technology - drones and cameras - can defeat old enmities. Others suspect they would be used for target practice.

"For some, that will be seen as surveillance and a throwback to the troubles. Then you're going to have to decide how to protect those drones and cameras," said Peter Sheridan, a retired senior police officer with 32 years' experience in dealing with organized crime.

Still, Sheridan says politicians should not cave in to threats.

"We cannot be pressured into decisions by those who wield the biggest stick," he said.

About 65 kilometers (40 miles) to the north, in Northern Ireland's capital of Belfast, the barriers are far more visible. In many places, neighborhoods are still separated by high, graffiti-daubed "peace walls." Schools are mostly segregated.

The territory has the U.K.'s highest poverty, suicide and unemployment rates - and there are fears that Brexit might make things worse.

"The tensions just can't be underestimated and it's absolutely pervasive" in parts of Belfast, said Angila Chada from Springboard, a group working with unemployed Protestant and Catholic young people.

It's not all bad news. Trade - mostly in the agricultural and food sectors - has doubled in the last 20 years and Northern Ireland's economy has steadily improved. Still, even in the best Brexit scenario, Aodhan Connolly of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium notes there will be "a substantial new administrative burden."

More checks on goods crossing the border will mean more paperwork. That means delays, and delays create costs.

"There is very little wiggle room for business. These costs will get passed onto the consumer," Connolly told reporters during a visit to Northern Ireland organized by the Irish government. "It's literally death by a thousand cuts. The food prices will go up, the fuel will go up, the shirt on your back."

Creating a "hard border" - something all parties want to avoid - would make things worse.

On average, commercial vehicles cross the border 13,000 times each day. In the future, around 3,000 loads a day carrying beef, lamb, pork, poultry, eggs or dairy products might have to be stopped. Each check would take about 10 minutes, said Seamus Leheny from Freight Transport Association.

"We would have paralysis here on the border," he said.

Whether customs and other checks could be done away from the border - at airports, ports, factories or markets - remains to be seen.

In coming weeks, EU officials and the British and Irish governments must come up with a policy which guarantees that goods can be controlled without stifling the economy. Above all, the Brexit Irish border plan must respect the unique identities of Northern Ireland's people and not inflame tensions, as many fear it might.

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, a man walk past a section of one of the Northern Ireland "peace walls" in Cupar Way, Belfast. The land around the small town of Carrickcarnan, Ireland is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union walks right into a wall - an invisible one that is proving insanely difficult to overcome. Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member country Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has left the bloc. (AP Photo/Lorne Cook)

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, a man walk past a section of one of the Northern Ireland "peace walls" in Cupar Way, Belfast, Ireland. The land around the small town of Carrickcarnan, Ireland is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union walks right into a wall - an invisible one that is proving insanely difficult to overcome. Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member country Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has left the bloc. (AP Photo/Lorne Cook)

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, a long-abandoned unused customs shed seen next to the border between Ireland and Britain near Carrickcarnan, Ireland. The land around the small town of Carrickcarnan, Ireland is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union walks right into a wall - an invisible one that is proving insanely difficult to overcome. Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member country Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has left the bloc. (AP Photo/Lorne Cook)

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, the sun lights up the Jonesborough Parish located in Northern Ireland, just next to a cemetery located in the Irish side of the border near Carrickcarnan, Ireland. The land around the small town of Carrickcarnan, Ireland is the kind of place where Britain's plan to leave the European Union walks right into a wall - an invisible one that is proving insanely difficult to overcome. Somehow, a border of sorts will have to be drawn between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and EU member country Ireland to allow customs control over goods, produce and livestock once the U.K. has left the bloc. (AP Photo/Lorne Cook)LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas has nearly doubled the number of people removed from its expanded Medicaid program over a new work requirement that's the subject of a federal lawsuit.

The state Department of Human Services on Monday said more than 4,100 people lost their Medicaid coverage for not complying with the rule. It requires some beneficiaries to work 80 hours a month for three months in a calendar year. The department last month said more than 4,300 people had lost coverage because of the rule.

The department said another 4,800 people will lose coverage if they don't meet the work requirement by the end of this month.

Arkansas was the first state to enforce the requirement after the Trump administration said it would allow states to tie Medicaid coverage to work.NEW YORK (AP) - Google's new Pixel 3 phone merely plays catch-up with Apple and Samsung on hardware. But it showcases Google's advances in software, particularly in artificial intelligence.

Google seeks to help you manage daily life, from screening unwanted phone calls to predicting what you'll type. The software underscores how Google is tapping its strengths in personalization - and perhaps making money in the process.

As impressive as Google's ambitions are, though, artificial intelligence is still new at the job of saving us from meaningless tasks. Real progress might not come until an eventual Pixel 7 or Pixel 13. The Pixel 3, out Thursday starting at about $800, is for those who can't wait.

Personalization is front and center with the Pixel 3. It's for those already comfortable with trading privacy for convenience.

FILE- In this Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, file photo New Google Pixel 3 smartphones are displayed in New York. Google's new Pixel 3 phone plays catch-up with Apple and Samsung on hardware. It's really designed to showcase Google's advances in software, particularly in artificial intelligence. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

FILE- This Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, file photo shows the cameras on the back of the Google Pixel 3 XL, left, and Google Pixel 3 smartphones in New York. Google's new Pixel 3 phone plays catch-up with Apple and Samsung on hardware. It's really designed to showcase Google's advances in software, particularly in artificial intelligence. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

FILE- This Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, file photo shows the Google Pixel 3, left, and Google Pixel 3 XL, and wireless charging stand in New York. Google's new Pixel 3 phone plays catch-up with Apple and Samsung on hardware. It's really designed to showcase Google's advances in software, particularly in artificial intelligence. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)LONDON (AP) - Stephen Hawking has spoken from beyond the grave to warn the world that science and education are under threat around the world.

The words of the scientist, who died in March at 76, were broadcast Monday at a London launch event for his final book "Brief Answers To The Big Questions."

Hawking warned that education and science are "in danger now more than ever before." He cited the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain's vote to leave the European Union as part of "a global revolt against experts, and that includes scientists."

The physicist urged young people "to look up at the stars and not down at your feet ... and wonder about what makes the universe exist."

He said: "It matters that you don't give up."CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's main appeals court has upheld a three-year prison sentence for former president Mohammed Morsi, who is already jailed in other cases, over a conviction for insulting the judiciary.

The Court of Cassation upheld the same sentence for Morsi and 19 others on Monday, also fining the former Islamist president 1 million Egyptian pounds ($60,000) in the case. Morsi was accused of insulting a sitting judge during a speech he gave as president.

Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, had a tumultuous year in office that ended with the army overthrowing him in 2013. Multiple cases against him are pending.

The other men sentenced were mostly Islamists but also several secular activists. Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a secular activist, was only fined 30,000 Egyptian pounds, but remains in jail for other cases.DETROIT (AP) - Police in Detroit said they would file a criminal complaint against the owners after the remains of 10 fetuses and one infant were found hidden in a former funeral home that had lost its license when decomposing embalmed bodies were found there earlier this year.

A criminal complaint will be opened against the owners of Cantrell Funeral Home, Police Chief James Craig said Monday.

The Associated Press was unable Monday to find a telephone listing for Raymond Cantrell who owned the funeral home when its license was suspended in April.

An anonymous letter led state inspectors Friday to the decomposed remains hidden between the eastside building's first and second floors.

The fetuses were found together in a cardboard-like box while the full-term infant was in a coffin, Craig said.

"They were definitely hidden," Craig told The AP. "The way they were placed in ceiling, one would not have readily discovered them. In 41 years in policing, this is first time I've heard of anything like this."

A Detroit Police vehicle is parked outside the Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Police said an anonymously written letter led inspectors to find the decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of the shuttered funeral home. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via AP)

The remains were taken to the Wayne County medical examiner's office which is coordinating efforts with authorities "to hopefully get them identified and families identified," spokeswoman Lisa Croff said in a text message. "We have very little to go on (without) cooperation from the funeral home owners. Everything is under investigation."

No arrests have been made.

Cantrell Funeral Home was shut down and had its mortuary license suspended in April after decomposing embalmed bodies were found and other violations were discovered. The suspension has not been appealed and the investigation from earlier this year remains ongoing, said Jason Moon, a spokesman for Michigan's Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.

Those violations include two improperly stored bodies covered in what appeared to be mold and a third body with unknown fluids covering the facial area. Inspections also turned up an unsanitary embalming room.

The establishment also was operating with an expired prepaid funeral and cemetery sales registration. The state says money for prepaid funeral goods or services had not been deposited with an authorized escrow agent within 30 days of receipt.

Raymond Cantrell told reporters at the time that some bodies were stored in the garage "so that we wouldn't have an aroma filling up the funeral home."

"If I had them in the funeral home, then my funeral home would not smell fresh," he said.

The building has a new owner.

__

Associated Press reporter Mike Householder contributed to this story.

This photo shows the former Cantrell Funeral Home building in Detroit, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. An anonymously written letter led Michigan inspectors to find badly decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of the shuttered Detroit funeral home, police say. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via AP)HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) - A judge declined Monday to punish a black University of North Carolina graduate student who admitted to pouring red ink and her own blood on a Confederate statue in a headline-grabbing protest that preceded the statue's toppling months later.

After a day of impassioned testimony, Orange County Judge Samantha Cabe said she struggled with whether to convict Maya Little on a misdemeanor count of defacing the monument known as Silent Sam last April. Cabe noted the facts - including Little's admission on the stand - showed she was guilty, but the judge essentially withheld the verdict under a North Carolina judicial maneuver known as "continued judgment." Little will face no sentence, and Cabe also waived any court fees or restitution.

Defense attorney Scott Holmes, who argued Little acted out of necessity similar to 1960s sit-in participants, said the judge's decision was "kind of like a tie."

Little was the last witness to testify, saying she wanted to add context showing that the Confederate statue represented violence against blacks: "I put my blood on Silent Sam because despite every machination to preserve it and make it pristine, our blood was always visible."

She testified she had tried other means of protest for months such as regularly handing out pamphlets with historical context and trying to meet with the administration.

"Despite every effort I made ... I was not only met with silence but also harassment," she said, later adding: "I felt that there was no other option."

Maya Little uses a microphone to address several dozen supporters before her trial Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in Hillsborough, N.C., on a charge that she poured red ink on a Confederate statue at the University of North Carolina that was later torn down by protesters. Little has been charged with a count of misdemeanor defacing of a public monument for her action last April at the statue known as "Silent Sam," which was torn down by protesters in August. (AP Photo/Jonathan Drew)

Her testimony followed that of Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger and town Police Chief Chris Blue, who both said that the statue on a main campus quad made the community less safe, echoing previous statements. The defense had requested testimony from the campus police chief and Chancellor Carol Folt, but Cabe ruled they didn't have to testify.

Also in the morning, the judge watched body camera footage from UNC Police Lt. Jeff Mosher, who arrested Little. The April 30, 2018, footage showed him approaching as Little stood on the statue's pedestal and poured the ink out of a container. Mosher said she also pressed her hand, which was bleeding from being cut, on the statue, and he testified she later told him she had put ink and some of her own blood on the monument. He said the cut on her hand was treated by a fellow protester before Little was put in a police cruiser.

A campus maintenance supervisor testified it took several days to remove red stains at a cost of about $4,000 in supplies and labor.

The statue of an anonymous bronze Confederate soldier stood for a century in a main UNC quad before it was toppled in August by protesters. Little is not among the people charged with tearing the statue down; their cases on misdemeanor charges are pending. The statue has been in storage while campus leaders debate its fate.

__

Follow Drew at www.twitter.com/JonathanLDrewJERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli government has approved plans to expand a Jewish settlement in the volatile West Bank city of Hebron.

Sunday's decision approved $6.1 million to finance the construction of new housing, day care facilities and parks for the Hezekiya quarter in part of a former Israeli military base. It would be the first expansion of the area in 16 years.

Hebron, the West Bank's largest city, is a frequent flashpoint of violence. Several hundred hard-line Jewish settlers live in heavily fortified enclaves amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group, says the planned construction faces a number of legal challenges that could stall it for over a year.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Gaza's Health Ministry says 32 Palestinians have been wounded by Israeli fire during a mass protest along the beach near the Israeli frontier.

Protesters threw flaming tires over the fence Monday, while fishing boats hoisted Palestinian flags. Israeli forces responded with tear gas and live fire.

The ruling Hamas militant group has been staging border protests for the past six months in hopes of easing a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade.

It has intensified the protests in recent weeks as Egyptian-mediated cease-fire efforts have faltered. Over the weekend, Israel halted Qatari-donated fuel shipments to Gaza's power plant in response to the escalated protests.

Since March, 155 Palestinians participating or attending the protests were killed.

Israel says it is defending its border. An Israeli soldier was fatally shot in July.

Teargas canisters fired by Israeli troops fall over Palestinians during a protest on the beach at the border with Israel near Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Palestinian protesters climb over the border fence during a protest on the beach at the border with Israel near Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Palestinian protesters cover with sand teargas canisters fired by Israeli troops with sand during a protest on the beach at the border with Israel near Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)NEW YORK (AP) - Republicans have begun to concede defeat in the evolving fight to preserve the House majority.

The party's candidates may not go quietly, but from the Arizona mountains to suburban Denver to the cornfields of Iowa, the GOP's most powerful players this midterm season are actively shifting resources away from vulnerable Republican House candidates deemed too far gone and toward those thought to have a better chance of political survival.

And as they initiate a painful and strategic triage, the early Republican-on-Republican blame game has begun as well.

GOP operatives connected to several vulnerable candidates complain that the committee responsible for electing House Republicans has failed to deliver on its promise to invest $62 million in political advertising across 11 states this fall, a promise detailed in a September memo that declared, "The cavalry is coming."

The operatives spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution; vulnerable Republican candidates still hope to receive additional financial support over the three weeks before Election Day.

But if the cavalry is coming, it's not coming for everyone.

FILE - This Oct. 1, 2018, file photo, shows the Capitol at sunrise in Washington. Republicans have begun to concede defeat in the evolving fight to preserve the House majority. The party's candidates may not go quietly, but from Arizona to Colorado to Iowa, the GOP's most powerful players are shifting resources away from vulnerable Republican House candidates deemed too far gone and toward those thought to have a better chance of political survival. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Already, the Republican operatives and spending patterns by both sides indicate GOP defeat in as many as a dozen House races - halfway to the number Democrats need to seize the House majority this fall. Dozens more seats are in play.

"We're starting to hone in on what are the races we can actually win. Sometime that requires a hard conversation," said House Speaker Paul Ryan's fundraising chief, Spencer Zwick.

Even after a burst of enthusiasm that helped Republican Senate candidates in several states following the recent Supreme Court debate, some Republicans closely following the more complicated House battlefield fear the party may have already lost Congress' lower chamber. With 22 days to go, they're working furiously in an expanding political battlefield to limit their losses.

Fundraising challenges make it harder.

As of Friday, the National Republican Congressional Committee has spent or reserved $44.8 million of television advertising in competitive House races since the end of July, according to spending records obtained by The Associated Press. That's significantly less than the $62 million promised in last month's memo.

A committee spokesman explained it would meet the original spending projection by including polling and online advertising, which is more difficult to track. Meanwhile, the Republican committee is expected to take out a sizable loan to help meet its commitments.

A separate memo, circulated to donors in recent days by the super PAC associated with Ryan, noted that it's been forced to carry the bulk of this year's financial burden given weak fundraising by the Republican candidates themselves.

Of more than 30 races considered pure toss-ups, the memo states, Ryan's super PAC is the sole spender in 14.

"The GOP is now facing a green wave," wrote Corry Bliss, who leads the group, known as the Congressional Leadership Fund. "Democratic candidates are outspending Republican candidates in key races by $50 million."

Indeed, Democratic candidates have outspent their Republican counterparts $116 million to $66 million across almost 80 competitive House districts since July, according to Friday's spending records. The Congressional Leadership Fund has helped make up the difference, having invested $93 million over the same period, backed by massive donations from Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.

"This is going to be a devastating election for Republicans across the ballot," said Republican strategist Terry Sullivan, who called the party's fundraising issues a symptom of the GOP's broader challenge this fall.

"Republican donors are smart folks," he said. "They're not going to give money to a losing cause."

The Republican triage has been shaped by geography and demographics as much as by the candidates themselves.

The GOP has a decent chance of preserving any House district that features a cornfield, pollsters and strategists say, pointing to rural voters who make up a significant portion of the Republican base. But where education and incomes are higher in suburban areas, Republicans are growing increasingly pessimistic.

The NRCC in recent days has canceled plans to help at least three vulnerable Republican candidates: Rep. Kevin Yoder in suburban Kansas, Rep. Keith Rothfus in suburban Pittsburgh and businesswoman Lea Marquez Peterson in Tucson, Arizona. GOP strategists fear three open seats in the Pennsylvania suburbs and two more in suburban New Jersey are slipping away if they're not lost already.

And Republicans haven't invested at all in a handful of other would-be competitive races, including Southern California's open seat to replace retiring Republican Rep. Darrell Issa and the seat of Iowa Republican incumbent Rep. Rod Blum, whose district features the state's northern suburbs and more than a dozen college campuses.

Democrats canceled their advertising reserves in GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock's suburban Virginia district, a sign of confidence in light of public and private polling that gives the Republican incumbent little chance of winning. That's despite the NRCC spending nearly $5 million in the district since July.

At the same time, the Republican super PAC has shifted money away from at least two other vulnerable Republicans, including suburban Denver Rep. Mike Coffman and Michigan Rep. Mike Bishop.

Yet Coffman spokesman Tyler Sandberg notes that Democratic groups ramped up their spending by more than $1 million over the last week, evidence that the race is "trending back in Coffman's direction."

Bishop noted that the NRCC has invested more than $3 million in his race despite one super PAC's recent decision to abandon the district.

The Congressional Leadership Fund "has got lots of folks out there who really need help," Bishop said. "I'm confident that their decision to do what they've done is a decision based on the fact that I'm well-covered here."

Bishop conceded that he's been badly outspent by his opponents: "Michigan's never seen this influx of money."

It's not all bad news for Republicans.

Polls suggest Republican prospects have improved in several GOP-leaning states where Democrats face re-election, silencing recent concerns that Democrats could take the Senate majority this fall as well.

And several vulnerable House Republicans coming into the election year - a group that includes California Rep. David Valadao and Texas Rep. Will Hurd - appear to be in strong shape as Election Day approaches.

The debate over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh gave Republicans a big boost in enthusiasm, at least in the short term, according to Republican pollster Glen Bolger. Since then, the outlook for Republican candidates running in red states has improved - but that's not necessarily the case for those in blue states, he added.

Will it last?

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you Republicans have zoomed far ahead," Bolger said. "Things are better."

___

Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show the Michigan representative's name is Mike, not Steve.BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - The Latest on the Trump administration considering the use of military bases or other federal facilities to export fossil fuels (all times local):

1:45 p.m.

Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee says the Trump administration's idea to use military bases or other federal properties to export fossil fuels to Asia would undermine national security and state rights.

Inslee is a Democrat and called the idea a "harebrained proposal" in a statement Monday.

The potential use of naval or other federal properties as transshipment points was described to The Associated Press by Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke and two Republican lawmakers.

West Coast officials have rejected private-sector efforts to build new coal ports to ship the fuel to Asia.

FILE - In this April 4, 2013, file photo, a dragline excavator moves rocks above a coal seam at the Spring Creek Mine in Decker, Mont. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

Zinke says it's a matter of national security to ensure U.S. allies in the Pacific Rim have access to affordable fuels.

Inslee says President Donald Trump should consider the national security threats of climate change.

___

11:30 a.m.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says the Trump administration is "trampling" on the rights of West Coast communities as it considers using military bases or other federal facilities for fossil fuel exports.

The Democratic Wyden said in statement Monday that the federal government should invest in renewable fuels and not try to prop up dirty energy sources such as coal.

The administration proposal was described to The Associated Press by Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke and two Republican lawmakers.

It's tantamount to an end-run around West Coast officials who have rejected private-sector efforts to build new coal ports to ship the fuel to Asia.

Zinke says it's a matter of national security to ensure U.S. allies in the Pacific Rim have access to affordable fuels.

___

7:20 a.m.

The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia.

The proposal would advance the administration's agenda of establishing American "energy dominance" on the world stage.

It's tantamount to an end-run around West Coast officials who have rejected private-sector efforts to build new coal ports.

The proposal was described to The Associated Press by U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and two Republican lawmakers.

Zinke says it's a matter of national security to ensure U.S. allies have access to affordable fuels

National security also has been cited by the administration as justification for keeping domestic coal-burning power plants on line to prevent disruptions of electricity supplies.

FILE - In this April 4, 2013, file photo, a mining dumper truck hauls coal at Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek strip mine near Decker, Mont. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

FILE - In this May 22, 2014, file photo, sunlight reflects off of a chunk of coal at Dominion Terminal Associates' coal terminal in Newport News, Va. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this February 1997 file photo, hundreds of houses, which over 6,000 military personnel and dependents called home, along with schools, warehouses, hangars, and other structures sit empty on the Adak Naval Air Facility in Alaska. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)

In this Oct. 8, 2018 photo, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announces a ban on mining claims north of Yellowstone National Park as K.C. Walsh, left, president of Simms Fishing Products, listens near Emigrant, Mont. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia as officials seek to bolster the domestic energy industry and circumvent environmental opposition to fossil fuel exports, according to Zinke and two Republican lawmakers. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

FILE - In this March 29, 2017, file photo, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, accompanied by Republican members of Congress, signs an order lifting a moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands and a related order on coal royalties, at the Interior Department in Washington. From left are Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Zinke's wife Lolita, Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah and Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia as officials seek to bolster the domestic energy industry and circumvent environmental opposition to fossil fuel exports, according to Zinke and two Republican lawmakers. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)

In this April 2015 photo, the buildings of the former Adak Naval Air Facility sit vacant in Alaska. The Trump administration is considering using West Coast military bases or other federal properties as transit points for shipments of U.S. coal and natural gas to Asia. (Julia O'Malley/Alaska Daily News via AP)CHICAGO (AP) - Chance the Rapper is so serious about raising money for arts education programs in Chicago that he took a second job as a Lyft driver to spread the word.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Chicago-born Grammy-winning hip-hop artist who has given millions of dollars to Chicago Public Schools recently went undercover as a driver for the rideshare service to make a video that encourages riders to donate to the city's public schools arts programs.

The video shows Chance wearing shades and a maroon hat telling riders his name is John. Then he reveals his true identity and encourages riders to use the Lyft app's feature called Round Up and Donate that allows users to support his charity, The New Chance Fund, or others of their choice.NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday defended his administration's handling of a state worker's sexual assault allegation against a man who went on to work for him.

Murphy vowed to launch an investigation after Katie Brennan's allegations surfaced Sunday in the Wall Street Journal, he said at a press conference at his Newark office. The probe will be led by former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero.

Brennan accused Albert Alvarez, the former chief of staff of the state's Schools Development Authority and a Murphy campaign staffer, of sexually assaulting her in April 2017.

Alvarez has denied the allegations through his attorney.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people alleging sexual assault without their consent. Brennan came forward publicly in the Journal interview Sunday.

Brennan said she called the police and went to the hospital after the attack, in addition to alerting her husband and a friend. She said she tried for about a year to pursue charges against Alvarez, including alerting officials in Murphy's administration.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy arrives to a news conference to speaks with reporters in Newark, N.J., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A New Jersey state employee said Sunday she was sexually assaulted by a man who went on to work in Democratic Gov. Murphy's administration and tried for a year to get authorities to take action but with no result. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

"The failure of members of Gov. Murphy's staff to respond in an aggressive, proactive fashion is unacceptable," Brennan said in a statement.

Murphy, who succeeded Republican Chris Christie in January, said he was not made aware of the specific allegations until earlier this month, when Alvarez resigned. It's unclear who exactly in his office found out about the allegations and when.

"I wish we hadn't made the hire," Murphy said. "I'm sick to my stomach once I heard what happened obviously."

Murphy said he learned about the specific allegations on Oct. 2, the day Alvarez resigned.

He says he is planning to speak with Brennan, who currently works as the chief of staff at the state's housing finance agency, later Monday.

Murphy's comments came the same day the state attorney general's office announced it was asking the Middlesex County prosecutor to reopen an investigation into the allegation.

The case was initially investigated by the Hudson County prosecutor's office in 2017, which closed it without filing any charges.

The office says the investigation will now be taken over by the Middlesex County prosecutor's office because the Hudson County prosecutor, Esther Suarez, knows both Brennan and Alvarez.

Murphy also said he plans to ask the head of the state's Division of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action to review administration policies.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks to reporters in Newark, N.J., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A New Jersey state employee said Sunday she was sexually assaulted by a man who went on to work in Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy's administration and tried for a year to get authorities to take action but with no result. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks to reporters in Newark, N.J., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A New Jersey state employee said Sunday she was sexually assaulted by a man who went on to work in Democratic Gov. Murphy's administration and tried for a year to get authorities to take action but with no result. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A judge has ordered election officials in Kentucky not to certify the results of an upcoming referendum on whether to change the state's constitution to guarantee the rights of crime victims.

Kentucky is one of six states scheduled to vote on "Marsy's Law," a proposed constitutional amendment to guarantee crime victims similar rights as those accused of crimes in the judicial system. The effort's named after a California college student killed in the 1980s.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled Monday the ballot question isn't worded sufficiently to inform people of what they're voting on.

The ruling means Kentucky voters will still cast ballots on the question, and election officials can count them. But the judge has ordered officials not to certify the results until after appellate courts have ruled.The early 1990s New York of Marielle Heller's "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" isn't so long ago but it already feels staggeringly distant. It's a New York of publishing industry cocktail parties, of book stores, lots of them, and of scheming, foul-mouthed eccentrics.

Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy) and her partner-in-crime Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) are two such dyed-in-Zabar's characters. Life has been kind to neither of them. Israel's latest book, a biography of Estee Lauder, lies stacked on the 75 percent-off table. When she runs into her old friend at a bar (it's still daylight outside but both are well on their way), Lee asks Jack, a former actor, what he's been doing with his life. "This and that," Jack says brightly. And then with a chagrined grimace: "Mostly that."

Israel has penned well-received biographies on Tallulah Bankhead and Dorothy Kilgallen, but interest in her books has dried up and now her agent (Jane Curtin, brilliant) won't return her calls. A 51-year-old gay woman who lives with her cat in a small apartment on the Upper West Side, Israel is struck by writer's block or, possibly, is just drinking too much. Her sad predicament infuriates her, and caustic wit fires out of her indiscriminately. Nothing arouses her fury like Tom Clancy; she bitterly curses his millions while being behind her rent.

With nowhere left to turn, Israel begins forging celebrity letters from the likes of Franny Brice, Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and Louise Brooks. Sometimes adding to real letters, sometimes faking the stationary altogether, she's able to convincingly mimic their voices. They fetch her a decent paycheck from book stores and collectors. She's good at it, too. "I'm a better Dorothy Parker than Dorothy Parker," says Israel with genuine pride.

The story is a real one, first recounted in Israel's gleefully unrepentant 2008 memoir of the same title. Heller's film, adapted by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, has brought to the screen all the strange ironies of Israel's famous fraud. (Her forgeries eventually attracted the attention of the FBI and she was sentenced to six months house arrest. Israel died in 2014 at 75.)

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" has justly won praise as one of McCarthy's best and most dramatic performances. As Israel, she's a gloriously embittered, hard-drinking curmudgeon incapable of holding her tongue - a distinctly New York creature if ever there was one. And her fear of slipping away is painfully real.

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

That McCarthy is utterly at home in a more dramatic part comes as little surprise. She was the best thing in 2014's misjudged "St. Vincent" and even her broadest of comedic performances tremble with tenderness and soul. She's simply one of the best actors working today, and it didn't take a drama to see that.

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" most sings - or rather, grumbles spectacularly - when McCarthy and Grant are together. They are kindred misfits and malcontents happy for each other's the company. It's been more than three decades since "Withnail and I," and Grant remains the best drinking buddy in movies. As the even-more-down-on-his-luck Hock, Grant is a paragon of debauched decadence, tragic and magnificent at once. His regal bearing crackles with a sly wickedness. "Do not underestimate sparking blues eyes and a little bit of street smarts," he tells Israel in mid-hustle.

That Heller, whose debut was the coming-of-age drama "The Diary of a Teenage Girl," has affection for these two is obvious. And just as in her San Francisco 1976-set debut, she leaves the moralizing to the viewer. That film brilliantly captured and let soar the voice of 15-year-old aspiring cartoonist. "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" is about a more frustrated female artist who finds self- expression illegally but genuinely. "I still consider the letters," Israel wrote in her memoir, "to be my best work."

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" a Fox Searchlight release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for language including some sexual references and brief drug use. Running time: 107 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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MPAA definition of R: Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy, left, and Jane Curtin in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy, left, and Richard E. Grant in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Richard E. Grant, left, and Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)

This image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows Richard E. Grant, left, and Melissa McCarthy in a scene from "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (Mary Cybulski/Fox Searchlight Pictures via AP)DETROIT (AP) - The Latest on the remains of fetuses and an infant found in a former Detroit funeral home's ceiling (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

Police in Detroit are lodging a criminal complaint after the remains of 10 fetuses and one infant were found hidden in the ceiling of a former funeral home.

Chief James Craig says Monday that a criminal complaint will be opened against the owners of Cantrell Funeral Home.

An anonymous letter led state inspectors Friday to the decomposed remains hidden between the eastside building's first and second floors.

Craig said the fetuses were in a cardboard-like box while the infant's remains were in a coffin. The building has a new owner.

A Detroit Police vehicle is parked outside the Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Police said an anonymously written letter led inspectors to find the decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of the shuttered funeral home. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via AP)

Cantrell Funeral Home was shut down by the state and had its mortuary license suspended in April after decomposing embalmed bodies and other violations were found.

The Associated Press was unable Monday to find a telephone listing for Raymond Cantrell who owned the funeral home at that time.

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2 p.m.

Remains found in the ceiling of a former Detroit funeral home included 10 fetuses and one full-term infant.

Police Chief James Craig says Monday that the fetuses were in a cardboard-like box while the infant's remains were in a coffin in a building once owned by Cantrell Funeral Home.

An anonymous letter led inspectors Friday to the decomposed remains hidden between the building's first and second floors.

Craig tells The Associated Press that the remains "were definitely hidden" in the ceiling so that they would not be "readily discovered."

Authorities are working to identify the babies' families. A medical examiner's spokeswoman says the funeral home's owners are not cooperating. No arrests have been made.

The funeral home was shut down in April after inspectors found decomposing bodies and other violations.

__

12:50 p.m.

State and city police and other officials are investigating how the remains of 11 infants ended up in the ceiling of a former funeral home in Detroit.

Spokesman Jason Moon said Monday that Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is working with the state attorney general to gather information about Cantrell Funeral Home.

An anonymous letter led inspectors Friday to the decomposed remains hidden between the building's first and second floors.

Wayne County medical examiner spokeswoman Lisa Croff says authorities are trying to identify the babies' families. The funeral home's owners are not cooperating. No arrests have been made.

Decomposing bodies and other violations led to the business being closed in April and its license suspended. Moon says the suspension wasn't appealed.

The building has a new owner.

This photo shows the former Cantrell Funeral Home building in Detroit, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. An anonymously written letter led Michigan inspectors to find badly decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of the shuttered Detroit funeral home, police say. (Junfu Han/Detroit Free Press via AP)COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A judge has sentenced a man to 80 years in prison and called him a terrorist for driving his car into mourners at a South Carolina cemetery and injuring 11 people.

The State newspaper reports 66-year-old James Kester was convicted of attacking mourners with his car at the end of the July 2017 funeral in Columbia. Kester did not know the woman being buried. Prosecutors say Kester saw a newspaper obituary for Margaret "Peggy" Livingstone that mentioned she worked for the Department of Mental Health.

Authorities say Kester held a grudge against the agency for years for how it treated his late daughter.

Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman sentenced Kester to the maximum of 10 years on each charge of assault and battery and ordered him to serve each sentence.

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Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com

___

Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.comLITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A man who is suing the Little Rock Police Department for blasting his door down and raiding his apartment without probable cause has said he feared for his life.

Roderick Talley said Monday that police used explosives to enter his apartment last August in an ultimately unsuccessful search for cocaine. Talley's lawyers say police lied to obtain a "no-knock" arrest warrant by alleging they saw an informant engage in a drug deal with Talley days before.

Security footage from outside Talley's apartment shows the informant approached the door and left shortly after no one answered.

Talley and his lawyers say they believe the narcotics division raided dozens of other apartments using fraudulent affidavits.

A city spokesman says Little Rock police fully comply with state and federal civil rights law.ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party says it will suspend for one week a party official who wrote on Facebook that Republicans should be brought "to the guillotines" after Election Day.

Party spokesman William Davis wrote in reference to Republicans: "11.7 - bring them to the guillotines."

Party executive director Corey Day says Davis regrets the post and has deleted it. Day said the comment stemmed from an inside joke with former co-workers that still violated the party's standards for employees.

Spokeswoman Charlene Briner said Davis would be suspended for one week without pay starting Monday.

Republicans are calling the comments "disgusting and appalling." Kory Wood, a consultant for GOP attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow's campaign, said calling to decapitate Republicans has no place in politics.WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Senate intelligence committee employee has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

James Wolfe appeared in federal court in Washington on Monday and pleaded guilty to a single charge in the three-count indictment against him.

Prosecutors had said Wolfe told a reporter in October 2017 that he had served someone with a subpoena involving the potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign and later lied to FBI agents about the exchange. He admitted he didn't tell agents the truth.

Wolfe was the longtime director of security for the Senate committee.

He wasn't accused of leaking any classified information.

His lawyers said in a statement that their client "accepted responsibility for his actions."

Wolfe faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 20.HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A grizzly bear attacked an elk hunter who surprised the sow and her cub north of Yellowstone National Park, sinking her teeth into his arm and clawing his eye before another hunter drove her off, the victim recounted Monday.

The mauling of Bob Legasa, 57, in the Gallatin National Forest on Saturday was at least the seventh bear attack on a human since May in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

Legasa, awaiting his second surgery on Monday, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his hospital room in Bozeman, Montana, that he and his hunting partner were moving toward some elk when he heard a growl.

It was a 2-year-old cub and its mother about 12 yards (11 meters) away from the tree that he had just stepped away from. After the cub growled, it moved aside, and its mother charged, Legasa said.

"I was hoping it was going to be a bluff charge, and halfway through I realized it was going to be the real deal," he said.

The sow was on him in three seconds, Legasa, of Hayden, Idaho, estimated. The bow hunter didn't have time to reach for the bear spray on his belt; he barely had time to raise his arms in front of his face.

This photo provided by Bob Legasa shows him in a hospital in Bozeman, Mont., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, after a bear attack the day before. Legasa, who is having a second surgery for his injuries Monday, Oct. 15,2018, says he expects to be discharged Tuesday, three days after he was mauled by a grizzly sow protecting her cub near Livingston, Mont. (Bob Legasa via AP)

The grizzly bit his hand, leaving puncture wounds and breaking a bone in his forearm. The sow clawed at his eye, leaving a bloody gash across the bridge of his nose.

His partner and hunting guide, Greg Gibson, discharged bear spray and the grizzly let Legasa go. Legasa pulled out his own spray, but inadvertently sprayed himself with the Mace-like mist.

Gibson discharged his spray canister again, but the wind blew the mist back into his eyes as the bears ran off.

Less than three weeks earlier, the two men made a bear spray safety video for Gibson's Montana Guide Service, Legasa said. Now, both were on the ground, blinded by bear spray.

They stayed like that for at least five minutes, shouting because they didn't know where the bears were.

"I had blood in my eyes and bear spray in my eyes and I couldn't see a damn thing," Legasa said. "We were putting snow and water in our eyes, trying to get relief."

The men were eventually able to make their way back to their truck about 500 yards (457 meters) away.

They determined Legasa's wounds were serious, and drove to a hospital after cleaning his wounds and putting a splint on his arm.

Legasa was operated on Saturday to flush out his wounds to prevent infection. On Monday, he was scheduled for another surgery to put in a plate and screw to secure his broken bone.

Legasa's attack was the most recent in a spate of bear encounters in Wyoming and Montana, several of which have happened during hunting season when hunters look for deer and elk in bear habitat.

One attack in Wyoming last month killed hunting guide Mark Uptain of Jackson Hole. Separately, a bow hunter on Montana's Blackfeet Indian Reservation reported killing a grizzly that attacked him, and a hunting guide shot another grizzly that charged three people along Wyoming's upper Fork of the Shoshone River.

In May, a grizzly wounded a bear researcher working in the Cabinet Mountains of northwestern Montana. A 10-year-old boy was injured in an attack in Yellowstone park in August while hiking with his family, and a hiker in the Beartooth Mountains on the Montana-Wyoming border in September.

Legasa said he doesn't believe the experience has put him off hunting, a hobby since he was a teenager. But, he added, he will be more cautious in the future.

"I'm always going to have my hunting partner close, and reposition where I carry my bear spray so I can grab it with both hands," he said.

This photo provided by Bob Legasa shows him after a bear attack near Livingston, Mont., Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018. Legasa, who is having a second surgery for his injuries Monday, Oct. 15,2018, says he expects to be discharged Tuesday, three days after he was mauled by a grizzly sow protecting her cub. (Bob Legasa via AP)

This photo provided by Bob Legasa shows him in a hospital in Bozeman, Mont., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, after a bear attack the day before. Legasa, who is having a second surgery for his injuries Monday, Oct. 15,2018, says he expects to be discharged Tuesday, three days after he was mauled by a grizzly sow protecting her cub near Livingston, Mont. (Bob Legasa via AP)DOVER, Del. (AP) - A Delaware police chief accused of hitting another vehicle in the police department's parking lot and trying to cover it up is facing a January trial.

A judge held a final case review Monday for Newport Police Chief Michael Capriglione, who is accused of striking another vehicle with his police car in May. Capriglione appeared in court Monday but did not speak.

His attorney told the judge that he plans to hire an accident reconstruction expert. The lawyer declined comment after the hearing.

Capriglione was suspended with pay. He is charged with inattentive driving, failing to report the incident, official misconduct and tampering with physical evidence, a felony.

Court records indicate that evidence in the case includes a video from the Newport Police Department recovered by state police computer technicians.

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Information from: The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., http://www.delawareonline.comMEXICO CITY (AP) - Mexican authorities have arrested a man accused of participating in the killing of an activist last year.

The Tamaulipas state prosecutor's office says Erick Leonel Villatoro Hernandez, alias "El Diablo," was arrested Friday in the western state of Jalisco in connection with the slaying of Miriam Rodriguez. He was later moved to Tamaulipas.

Rodriguez was shot to death in her home in the Tamaulipas town of San Fernando on Mother's Day 2017. She had been helping other families look for missing loved ones after finding her daughter's remains following years of searching.

Villatoro is the last of four men accused in her killing. One died last year in a shootout during his attempted arrest. Another was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison and the other is in custody."The Darkness" (Minotaur), by Ragnar Jonasson

Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson takes a major chance - that works extremely well - in "The Darkness," the launch of a new series about Detective Inspector Hulda Hermannsdottir. Rather than meeting the Reykjavik, Iceland, detective at the beginning or even the middle of her career, Jonasson introduces Hulda at the end of the career that has been her lifeline.

Hulda's swan song as a detective, as well as other choices Jonasson makes, might not seem as if the author could sustain a series based on this character. But "The Darkness" melds an insightful character study with a solid plot for an outstanding novel and shows how he could sustain this as a series.

A widow whose only child died decades ago, the perpetually depressed Hulda has lived for her work ever since. She thrives on this job, despite being passed over for promotions that have gone to younger and less qualified men. The 64-year-old dreads that mandatory retirement is near, but that's next year. She's shattered when her boss, Magnus, tells her that she will be leaving in two weeks. She'll get her full salary but the department needs to make room for a less experienced man who's been hired.

As a consolation, Magnus tells Hulda she can work on a cold case of her choosing before she leaves. Hulda plunges into the case of Elena, an asylum-seeking Russian woman whose death was ruled a suicide. Hulda quickly realizes that her colleague's investigation was, at best, careless. Hulda's sense of justice energizes her, despite raising the ire of Magnus, who says he really didn't mean for her to start an investigation.

While "The Darkness" takes a grim path, Jonasson elevates the plot with a compelling look at a detective who has dealt with extreme personal losses and worries that she is facing a retirement, and old age, alone. Angry at having dealt with sexism and ageism, Hulda has never stopped being a good detective, a situation even Magnus is forced to acknowledge. Hulda is not the easiest person to like - prickly and strident - but Jonasson finds many layers to his new character.

This cover image released by Minotaur shows "The Darkness," by Ragnar Jonasson. (Minotaur via AP)

Hulda may be at the close of her career, but Jonasson is just getting started with this new series.BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A Jamaican man who authorities said masterminded a lottery scam that defrauded at least 95 mostly elderly Americans out of more than $5.8 million has been sentenced to six years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said 29-year-old Lavrick Willocks operated the scam out of a Jamaica mansion. They eventually charged 27 people and identified victims in several states.

It's believed to be the first large-scale Jamaican lottery scam tried in U.S. courts. It was prosecuted in North Dakota because the investigation began there six years ago.

All of the defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Willocks pleaded guilty in July 2017 to conspiracy, and prosecutors dropped 65 other counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Willocks apologized for his involvement during Monday's sentencing but denied being the kingpin.ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Nigeria's government says Islamic State-linked extremists have killed an abducted health worker despite an urgent plea from the International Committee of the Red Cross to spare her life.

The statement does not say which of the two abducted health workers, both women, was killed. The death comes a month after a third health worker was killed by the same group, the Islamic State West Africa Province.

All three workers were seized in March in Nigeria's northeastern community of Rann, where thousands have sought shelter from the extremist threat.

There is no immediate comment from the ICRC, which on Sunday said "we urge you for mercy" and noted that a 24-hour deadline was counting down.

Nigeria says it is "shocked and saddened" and will work for the release of other captives.OCOTOPEQUE, Honduras (AP) - A caravan of hundreds of Honduran migrants crossed the Guatemalan border under a broiling sun Monday hoping to make it to new lives in the United States, far from the poverty and violence of their home nation.

Singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, "Yes, we can," the group estimated at 1,600 or more insisted on traveling through Guatemala and Mexico in defiance of a Guatemalan order that the group not be allowed to pass.

"We have rights," the migrants shouted.

Keilin Umana, a 21-year-old who is two months pregnant, said she was moved to migrate to save herself and her unborn child after she was threatened with death.

"A letter arrived at my house saying I could not stay, that I had to leave, or else they were going to kill me," said Umana, who is a nurse.

"I was in hiding awhile," she added. "It's because I have this tattoo on my hand - it's not a gang thing. Look, it's the name of my father and mother."

Hundreds of Hondurans are blocked at the border crossing in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A caravan of Honduran migrant moved towards the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Umana said she had been walking for four days. "We are not criminals - we are migrants," she said.

Many in the caravan traveled light, with just backpacks and bottles of water. Some pushed toddlers in strollers or carried them on their shoulders.

Carlos Cortez, a 32-year-old farmer traveling on foot with his 7-year-old son, said the poverty back home has made it impossible to support a family.

"Every day I earn about $5," Cortez said. "That isn't enough to feed my family."

The caravan was met at the border by about 100 Guatemalan police officers. After a tense standoff of about two hours, the migrants began walking again. The outnumbered police did nothing to stop them, merely accompanying them several miles (kilometers) into Guatemalan territory.

Some police and Guatemalan civilians offered the migrants water, and some locals drove Hondurans part of the way. Red Cross workers gave medical attention to some migrants who fainted in the heat.

The caravan began as about 160 people who first gathered early Friday to depart from San Pedro Sula, one of Honduras' most dangerous places, figuring that traveling as a group would make them less vulnerable to robbery, assault and other dangers common on the migratory path through Central America and Mexico.

Local media coverage prompted hundreds more to join, and Dunia Montoya, a volunteer assisting the migrants, estimated Sunday that the group had grown to at least 1,600 people. Police gave their own estimate of around 2,000 on Monday.

The caravan formed a day after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence urged the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home and not put their families in danger by undertaking the risky journey to the United States.

In April, President Donald Trump threatened in April to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries that allowed transit for a similar caravan that set out from the Central American country. That caravan dwindled as the group approached the U.S. border, with some giving up along the way and others splitting off to try to cross on their own.

Historian Dana Frank, an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras, said the caravan could have political implications in the United States less than a month before the midterm elections.

"Whatever the caravan's origins, some in the United States will be quick to raise alarms about a supposed dangerous immigrant invasion, and use that to try to influence the upcoming U.S. elections," Frank said. "Others will view these migrants with compassion and as further evidence of the need for comprehensive immigration reform, a loving approach to those in such terrible straits and an end to U.S. support for the repressive Honduran government that is behind this humanitarian disaster."

Frank added that the caravan's rapid growth "underscores quite how desperate the Honduran people are - that they'd begin walking toward refuge in the United States with only a day back full of belongings."

Honduras is largely dominated by murderous gangs that prey on families and businesses, and routinely sees homicide rates that are among the highest in the world.

Mexico's Interior Ministry issued a reminder over the weekend that Mexico does not issue entry visas for those who don't meet "the requirements to transit toward a neighboring country." Also, Mexico said it issues visas at its consulates abroad, not at border entry points.

___

Associated Press writer Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, California, contributed to this report.

Guatemalan police agents block the border crossing where hundreds of Honduran migrants have arrived, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The caravan of Honduran migrants moved towards the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Hondurans march in a caravan of migrants moving toward the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States, in Ocotepeque, Honduras, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The group has grown to an estimated 1,600 people from an initial 160 who first gathered early Friday in a northern Honduras city. They plan to try to enter Guatemala on Monday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Hondurans march in a caravan of migrants moving toward the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States, in Ocotepeque, Honduras, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The group has grown to an estimated 1,600 people from an initial 160 who first gathered early Friday in a northern Honduras city. They plan to try to enter Guatemala on Monday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Hundreds of Hondurans are blocked at the border crossing in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A caravan of Honduran migrant moved towards the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Hondurans march in a caravan of migrants moving toward the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States, in Ocotepeque, Honduras, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The group has grown to an estimated 1,600 people from an initial 160 who first gathered early Friday in a northern Honduras city. They plan to try to enter Guatemala on Monday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Hondurans march in a caravan of migrants moving toward the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States, in Ocotepeque, Honduras, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The group has grown to an estimated 1,600 people from an initial 160 who first gathered early Friday in a northern Honduras city. They plan to try to enter Guatemala on Monday. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Guatemalan police agents block the border crossing where hundreds of Honduran migrants have arrived, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The caravan of Honduran migrants moved towards the country's border with Guatemala in a desperate attempt to flee poverty and seek new lives in the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Monday:

Harris Corp., up $18.38 to $173.25

The defense contractor said it will combine with competitor L3 Technologies in an all-stock deal.

Autodesk Inc., down $3.58 to $134.60

Technology companies continued to fall after last week's steep losses.

Dollar Tree Inc., down 17 cents to $80.97

Retailers and sellers of non-essentials fell after the Commerce Department reported weak growth in retail sales.

Bank of America Corp., down 54 cents to $27.92

The bank reported improved earnings and sales, but its loan growth fell short of expectations.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., down $4.72 to $72.24

The company said it will not seek a contract extension for an offshore oilfield near Qatar.

EQT Corp., up $1.55 to $46.95

Natural gas companies rose as the price of the fuel continued to climb.

Boston Properties Inc., up $1.28 to $115.98

Real estate investment trusts and other high-dividend stocks continued to hold up better than the rest of the market.

Newmont Mining Corp., up 62 cents to $32.66

Mining companies rose as gold, silver and copper prices jumped.FLINT, Mich. (AP) - A teenager has been arraigned in the fatal shooting of a 7-year-old Michigan girl.

Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton says 17-year-old Jamil Griggs is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, assault with intent to murder, discharging a gun at a building and using a firearm during a felony.

WJRT-TV reports Griggs was arraigned Monday. He did not have an attorney.

Police have said Zaniyah Burns was inside a Flint home last Tuesday with her mother and other family members when shots were fired at the house. She was shot in the head.

Flint police Chief Timothy Johnson says the girl's 16-year-old uncle was believed to be the intended target.

Griggs was arrested last week.

Flint is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.About 100 cats and kittens were airlifted out of Florida to Delaware on Monday, an effort to make room in shelters for animals displaced by Hurricane Michael.

The Brandywine Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals teamed up with the Jacksonville Humane Society to relocate the cats to shelters in Delaware and suburban Philadelphia, and possibly elsewhere in the Northeast.

"It's always hard to say goodbye to the animals that you raised and nurtured and took care of," Jacksonville Humane Society CEO Denise Deisler told WJXT-TV. "But they're going to a really good place at Brandywine Valley in Delaware, and we're so grateful to have them."

The cats, on a flight paid for by Jacksonville Jaguars' defensive tackle Malik Jackson's foundation "Malik's Gifts," landed Monday afternoon at a private terminal in New Castle.

The animals were taken to the Brandywine Valley SPCA's rescue and rehab center in Georgetown to be evaluated and will eventually transfer out to a variety of shelters.

The idea is to make room in the Florida shelters so animals displaced by the hurricane can stay near their homes and hopefully be reunited with their families, said Brandywine Valley SPCA spokeswoman Linda Torelli.

In this photo taken Oct. 14, 2018 and provided by the Jacksonville Humane Society, a cat destined for Delaware sits at the Jacksonville Humane Society in Jacksonville, Fla. About 100 cats and kittens from areas hit hard by Hurricane Michael are being airlifted Monday out of Florida to shelters in suburban Philadelphia and Delaware. (Jacksonville Humane Society via AP)

"We learned back in Katrina not to take family pets out of the area," she said, noting how hard it was to reunite animals with their owners once they were out of state.

Half of the cats on the flight were from the Jacksonville shelter, the other half were from the Alachua County Humane Society, which received cats evacuated from areas that were in Michael's path in advance of the storm, as well as cats from a shelter that lost power during the storm, according to a statement by the Jacksonville Humane Society.

Space was tight at the Jacksonville Humane Society before the storm hit. Last week, the shelter stopped taking in strays and surrenders to make room for animals from shelters in the Panhandle, according to WJXT-TV. They even held a free adoption event over the weekend to free up space.

It's the second time in a month that the Brandywine Valley SPCA has helped animals impacted by storms.

In September, they took 239 animals fleeing Hurricane Florence.ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Republican Minnesota Senate hopeful Karin Housley's campaign said Monday that a 2009 Facebook post in which she compares Michelle Obama's posture to that of a chimpanzee was being taken out of context.

Housley's comments about the former first lady were one of a handful of controversial social media posts first reported by The Huffington Post. She made the posts long before running for statewide office against Democratic Sen. Tina Smith or the state Senate seat she's held since 2013.

In a string of comments, Housley wrote that then-first lady Obama should "at least stand up straight." After referencing a Ronald Reagan movie that features a chimpanzee, Housley continued: "I think even that chimp stood up straighter than Michelle. Uh-oh, someone is going to make a comment."

Housley also targeted former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling her a "porker in a blue pantsuit" in response to a friend's comment that Clinton "seems to be eating well."

Housley's campaign spokesman Jake Schneider accused Smith's campaign of "using an out-of-context Facebook post from 10 years ago to manufacture outrage."

"This is what the radical left does when they are losing - they attack Republicans so they don't have to come up with solutions to the problems Minnesotans are facing," Schneider said.

FILE - This combination of June 1, 2018, file photos shows Minnesota U.S. Senate candidates from left, Democratic U.S. Sen Tina Smith and Republican Karin Housley. (Star Tribune via AP, File)

Public polling in Minnesota has shown Smith slightly ahead of Housley as they compete in the special election to finish former Sen. Al Franken's term. Smith was appointed to the seat in January after Franken resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations.

"Minnesotans deserve a Senator who treats everyone with respect - even if you disagree," Smith said in a statement.HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on the trial of a University of North Carolina student accused of vandalizing a Confederate monument (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

A judge has declined to punish a University of North Carolina graduate student who admitted to splashing red ink on a Confederate statue on campus last April.

Orange County Judge Samantha Cabe noted that Maya Little had admitted to the crime on the stand and that the facts showed she was guilty of the misdemeanor charge of defacing a public monument. But Cabe used a North Carolina judicial maneuver known as a "continued judgment" to essentially withhold the guilty verdict after hearing impassioned testimony about how Little and others struggled with the statue's Confederate symbolism.

Judges are allowed the option for certain minor crimes. Little's defense attorney Scott Holmes described the outcome as similar to a tie.

Cabe also waived court fees and restitution.

The statue was torn down by protesters in August. Little doesn't face charges in the toppling of the statue.

___

noon

A judge has ruled the University of North Carolina's chancellor doesn't have to testify at the trial of a woman accused of pouring red ink on a Confederate statue that was later torn down by protesters.

Maya Little's trial on a misdemeanor count of defacing a public monument began Monday with the judge watching video of her pouring red ink on the statue known as Silent Sam last April. The statue was torn down by protesters in August. Little isn't among those charged with toppling the statue.

Defense lawyers sought to force Chancellor Carol Folt and campus Police Chief Jeff McCracken to testify.

Orange County judge Samantha Cabe denied the request, saying other witnesses have more direct knowledge of the charge against Little.

Testimony was scheduled to resume Monday afternoon.BOSTON (AP) - Two former Massachusetts boarding school students who say they were sexually abused by employees in the 1960s and 1970s have filed a lawsuit.

John Sweeney says he was drugged and raped in his dorm room by then-assistant headmaster Arthur Clarridge when he was 11 years old at the Fessenden School.

Sweeney told reporters Monday that he wants Fessenden to "come out and tell the truth."

Clarridge denied Sweeney's accusation in a 2016 Boston Globe story . He died last month at the age of 90.

More than a dozen others who say they were abused by Fessenden employees between 1963 and 1997 have settled with the school.

The Fessenden School said in a statement that it has worked "to openly, honestly, and compassionately approach claims of abuse by former students."TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - The Latest on drugmakers disclosing list prices of advertised drugs (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

The federal government wants to force drugmakers to disclose prices for prescription medicines in their TV commercials.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said a proposal unveiled Monday would apply to brand-name drugs that are covered by the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Hours earlier, the drug industry's main trade group said drug companies were willing to disclose the prices on websites, but not in commercials. The drugmakers said they would provide a website in the ads that would include the list price and likely out-of-pocket costs.

But Azar said putting the prices on a website isn't the same thing and patients deserve to know the cost.

FILE- In this Sept. 12, 2018, file photo Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in New York. In a move announced Monday, Oct. 14, by the industry's largest trade group dozens of drugmakers will start disclosing the prices for U.S. prescription drugs advertised on TV. Azar responded that the industry's announcement is a "small step in the right direction" but the government's plan "will go further." (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

While most patients don't pay the full price, insurance plans base their copayments on the list price. Patients with high deductibles or no insurance sometimes pay the full price.

12:45 p.m.

Dozens of drugmakers will start disclosing the prices for U.S. prescription drugs advertised on TV.

The prices won't actually be shown in the TV commercials but the advertisement will include a website where the list price will be posted.

The move announced Monday by the industry's largest trade group comes hours before a speech by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on a new administration proposal to require prices in the ads. Azar responded that the industry's announcement is a "small step in the right direction" but the government's plan "will go further."

Most Americans don't pay the full price for prescriptions. In addition to the price, the drugmakers' websites will show the likely out-of-pocket costs for people with insurance coverage. The ads should start airing next spring.RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California man wrongly convicted of murdering his lover two decades ago has been exonerated and new arrests have been made in the case, authorities said Monday.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced the arrests of Googie Harris and Joaquin Leal in the 1998 strangling of Terry Cheek, whose body was found on a lake shore. Harris was Cheek's husband and Leal is Harris' nephew.

Cheek's lover, Horace Roberts, was declared factually innocent of the crime. Roberts, 60, was released from prison on Oct. 3 and reunited with family in South Carolina, according to the California Innocence Project. The nonprofit took up his case in 2003 and hailed the exoneration as justice served.

The Innocence Project posted a video showing Roberts tossing his prison clothes into a trash can after more than 20 years and savoring a Pepsi in the back seat of his attorney's car.

"This is what I missed more than anything - my freedom," Roberts said with a smile.

Harris and Leal were arrested Friday after new DNA tests connected them to the crime, Hestrin said. They're being held in lieu of $1 million bail and were expected to appear in court Tuesday. It wasn't immediately known if they have attorneys who could comment for them.

"Googie Harris set Roberts up," the Innocence Project's Justin Brooks said in a statement. "It's the oldest story there is in the murder business. Husband kills wife who is cheating on him. The twist in this case is that the husband then set up the lover to go to prison for the rest of his life."

In 2017, crime scene evidence was sent to the California Department of Justice laboratory in Riverside. DNA on a watch found with Cheek's body was matched to Leal in March, prosecutors said, and he and Harris became the focus of a new probe.

"What happened to Mr. Roberts is tragic," Hestrin said. "We as prosecutors always strive to be vigilant and follow the truth. Once I learned of the new DNA findings, I immediately directed that all charges be dismissed. Mr. Roberts has my commitment that we will aggressively apply new technologies to past, present and future prosecutions."CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Australia's prime minister says he is open to relocating the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that Australia remained committed to finding a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.

Morrison said the idea was suggested to him by a former ambassador to Israel, Dave Sharma, who is a candidate for Morrison's conservative Liberal Party at a crucial by-election on Saturday in a Sydney electorate with a large Jewish population.

Morrison told reporters that Australia should be open-minded to the idea of relocating the embassy.PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - President Donald Trump has tapped a Maine official who battled Medicaid expansion for a position that puts her in charge of the national program, the federal agency confirmed Monday.

Mary Mayhew's role of deputy administrator and director of the U.S. Center for Medicaid and the CHIP Services will place her in charge of the federal health care program for low-income people.

Seema Verma, the head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, confirmed the hire and cited Mayhew's work as commissioner of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services under Republican Gov. Paul LePage.

"I look forward to having Mary join the CMS leadership team and would like to thank Tim Hill for his leadership as Acting Center Director," Verma said in a statement.

Mayhew did not immediately return a phone call and an email seeking comment. Zach Lingley, a spokesman for Mayhew during the campaign, declined to comment on the hire.

She served as commissioner of Maine's Department of Health and Human Services for seven years, and during that time, pressed for welfare reform under LePage. Mayhew and LePage are both strong opponents of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

When she announced her run for governor last year, Mayhew said: "I adamantly reject that growing government is the answer to our challenges."

The state reinstated work requirements for food stamps recipients and drug testing of some welfare recipients during her time as commissioner.

Her resume also includes working as partner in the Augusta public affairs firm Hawkes & Mayhew and serving for more than a decade as the vice president at the Maine Hospital Association.

Mayhew was once a Democrat and lobbyist but ran for governor as a Republican. She came in third in the June primary, losing to nominee Shawn Moody, who is in a race against Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills and a pair of independents.

Mayhew espoused conservative talking points during the gubernatorial campaign, some of which echoed LePage, an outspoken conservative to whom she was a top lieutenant. She proposed eliminating the state income tax and came out against the state's ranked choice voting system, which is touted by progressives.SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has fired the prime minister, accusing him of "negligence" in running the country.

In a decree late Monday, Hadi's office said Ahmed bin Dagher was guilty of poor economic performance and failure to avert a collapse of the currency.

The statement named Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed as the new prime minister. He was previously minister of public works and roads.

Yemen has been locked in a ruinous war pitting a Saudi-led coalition backing the Hadi government against Shiite rebels known as Houthis since March 2015. The government operates largely from Saudi Arabia because the Yemeni capital of Sanaa remains in rebel hands.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has produced what the U.N. says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.DETROIT (AP) - A judge says federal authorities can cremate hundreds of remains that have been in cold storage since a raid at a Detroit lab in 2013.

The government in January won a conviction against a body parts broker, Arthur Rathburn. He was accused of providing some body parts for medical training without disclosing that they were infected with hepatitis or HIV.

The government's case focused on just a small portion of the remains that were seized. But all of them couldn't be moved until after the investigation and trial. Prosecutors now want to cremate the remains and return them to families.

Federal Judge Paul Borman gave approval Monday. Rathburn is serving a nine-year prison sentence.PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - Hurricane Michael killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the coastal county that took a direct hit from the storm, state emergency authorities said Tuesday. That's in addition to at least 10 deaths elsewhere across the South.

The scope of the storm's fury became clearer after nearly a week of missing-persons reports and desperate searches of the Florida Panhandle neighborhoods devastated by the most powerful hurricane to hit the continental U.S. in nearly 50 years.

The count of 16 dead was twice the number previously tallied by The Associated Press.

Emergency authorities said 12 of the deaths were in Bay County, where the storm slammed ashore with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and towering storm surge last Wednesday.

Bay County includes Mexico Beach, the ground-zero town of 1,000 people that was nearly obliterated, as well as Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City and Lynn Haven, all of which were heavily damaged.

Florida emergency authorities gave no details on how the victims died.

FILE- In this Oct. 11, 2018 file photo, Mishelle McPherson looks for her friend Agnes Vicari in the rubble of her home in Mexico Beach, Fla. Vicari stayed in her home during Hurricane Michael and has not been found. The storm that ravaged the Panhandle left incredible destruction, but so far getting a firm grasp on how many died is proving somewhat elusive. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The AP's tally also includes 10 deaths in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina.

Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey said two deaths were confirmed in his town, a man and a woman who did not evacuate and whose homes were destroyed.

Only one person remained missing in Mexico Beach, Cathey said, adding that authorities were almost certain that that person evacuated before Michael and simply hasn't been contacted.

"We're holding steady at two and don't expect that number to rise," the mayor said.

Meanwhile, a glimmer of hope emerged when cellphone service began to return to the stricken zone.

Cathey had a one-word exclamation when his Verizon phone started working for the first time in nearly a week: "Hallelujah!"

Verizon service also resumed in Panama City, where residents haven't been able to contact loved ones or call for help.

Gov. Rick Scott had been criticizing phone companies over what he called a slow restoration of service.

Sitting outside in the sweltering heat in the Panama City area as she fanned herself with a flyswatter, Christy Tanksley said the sudden improvement in cell service was a huge relief.

"A lot of people didn't even know we had evacuated and come back," said Tanksley, whose phone runs off the Verizon network.

"I turned my phone on this morning and it started going crazy," she said. "There were all kinds of messages, Facebook notifications, emails and emergency alerts."

____

Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Miami and Gary Fineout in Tallahassee contributed to this story.

___

For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes

This undated photo provided by the Garone Family shows Agnes "Aggie" Vicari. Vicari has been reported as missing after attempting to stay in her Mexico Beach, Fla., home during Hurricane Michael. (Courtesy of the Garone Family)

FILE- In this photo taken Oct. 12, 2018, a body being removed after being discovered during the search of a housing structure in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. The Associated Press has put the death toll so far for the storm at 17, including one death in Mexico Beach and deaths in several states. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Marla Wood pulls a framed art piece out of the rubble of her damaged home from Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Tampa Bay Times Emergency workers form a caravan at the western edge of town at Mexico Beach, population 1200, where they planned to join the South Florida Search and Rescue Task Force to clear home and to make contact with survivors in the township which lay devastated on Thursday, Oct 11, 2018, after Hurricane Michael made landfall on Wednesday in the Florida Panhandle. Brock said he stayed in the city to ride out the storm. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2018, file photo, Joy Hutchinson, left, is comforted by her daughter Jessica Hutchinson, as she returns to find her home swept away from hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. It was once argued that the trees would help save Florida's Panhandle from the fury of a hurricane, as the acres of forests in the region would provide a natural barrier to savage winds that accompany the deadly storms. It's part of the reason that tighter building codes, mandatory in places such as South Florida, were not put in place for most of this region until just 11 years ago. And it may be a painful lesson for area residents now that Hurricane Michael has ravaged the region (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2018, file photo, damaged homes are seen along the water's edge in the aftermath of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla. It was once argued that the trees would help save Florida's Panhandle from the fury of a hurricane, as the acres of forests in the region would provide a natural barrier to savage winds that accompany the deadly storms. It's part of the reason that tighter building codes, mandatory in places such as South Florida, were not put in place for most of this region until just 11 years ago. And it may be a painful lesson for area residents now that Hurricane Michael has ravaged the region (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

A member of a South Florida urban search and rescue team sifts through a debris pile for survivors of hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Members of a South Florida urban search and rescue team look for survivors of hurricane Michael in a debris pile in Mexico Beach, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)HOUSTON (AP) - Frank Randazzo, a retiree near Houston, volunteers for his local GOP office knocking on doors of undecided voters amid the most expensive U.S. Senate race in the country. He did a double take when a man with a Beto O'Rourke sign in his yard declared he was voting Republican.

"He told me to ignore the sign. It was his wife's," Randazzo said.

Tuesday night is the last televised debate in Texas between O'Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and from national polls to divided households in conservative suburbs, the indications are of a close race with just three weeks until Election Day. But what hasn't been seen so far are major missteps or race-altering moments.

Neither side is betting on one down the stretch. For O'Rourke, who last week announced a record-shattering fundraising haul of $38 million from supporters nationwide, the debate in San Antonio presents his last best chance to give Cruz supporters any misgivings. The El Paso congressman has run against politics as usual and campaign mudslinging, but O'Rourke is also sharpening his tone amid new polls that suggest his rise may be hitting a ceiling for a Democrat in Texas.

Cruz, meanwhile, is out to not squander the built-in advantages of running in a deeply Republican state that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in 24 years. He is set to get another boost on Monday when President Donald Trump comes to Texas for a rally at an 8,000-seat convention hall in Houston.

And even Democrats are doubtful that Cruz - as unflappable a campaigner as anyone in the Senate - will make any disastrous late stumbles that would cause voters to peel off.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke, center, ducks through the rain as he arrives for rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

"Ted Cruz isn't going to be a Mourdock or an Akin," said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster based in Alabama.

He was referring to Missouri Republican Todd Akin, whose 2012 Senate campaign imploded after he said women's bodies could stop unwanted pregnancy in cases of "legitimate rape," and Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who that same year said pregnancies resulting from rape were God's intent. Both went on to lose races that were within their reach.

Continued Anzalone: "Is there always an 'X' variable you hope for at the end? Absolutely. But I'm not ready to say that's what is needed for an O'Rourke victory."

Since launching his longshot bid last year, O'Rourke has insisted that what his campaign didn't need were attack ads or money from political action committees. Up until now he had rarely even mentioned Cruz's name during his packed and lively rallies.

But that has started changing with time running out and new polls showing O'Rourke within single digits but still trailing in Texas, which President Donald Trump won by 9 points in 2016. While campaigning along the Texas-Mexico border last weekend, O'Rourke called Cruz reckless for helping instigate a 2013 government shutdown and accused him of undermining public schools.

"He put your lives and your communities on hold for his presidential ambition," O'Rourke told an audience in McAllen, Texas.

Cruz, on the other hand, has hammered O'Rourke for months and made little appeal beyond his conservative base during their first debate in September. Hours after O'Rourke on Friday announced his blockbuster fundraising numbers that tripled what Cruz raised, Cruz chalked it up to anger on the left and continued casting O'Rourke as too liberal for Texas.

"Typically, in a general election, Democrats in Texas at least pretend to go to the middle. They pretend to be moderate. That's not what Congressman O'Rourke is doing. He's going hard, hard left," Cruz said.

He was at a honky-tonk in Houston, where pairs of cowboy boots dangle from the ceiling and mingling underneath were Cruz supporters, whose own families illustrated O'Rourke's surprising inroads in unexpected places. Angie White, 57, said her daughter has gone to O'Rourke events but that, like many young people, "I feel like she's not going to go vote." Next to her was Carolyn Knight, 65, who joked about wanting her grandkids to stay home on Election Day.

Houston is one of Texas' most liberal cities, but Democrats haven't carried surrounding Harris County in a midterm election in a quarter-century.

"We also live in a very red state," said Lillie Schechter, chairwoman of the Harris County Democratic Party. "Obama lost it by 1.2 million votes. Hillary lost it by 600,000. We've been cutting our margins, but it's a really heavy lift."

___

Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke, center in cap, is surrounded as he leaves a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz gets the crowd fired up during a rally, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas. (Brian Kanof/The El Paso Times via AP)

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke speaks at a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz addresses his supporters during a rally, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas. (Brian Kanof/The El Paso Times via AP)

Supporters listen to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke during a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Supporters listen to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke during a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A man holds a campaign sign over his head as he listen to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke during a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz talks to the media at a rally, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas. (Brian Kanof/The El Paso Times via AP)

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke speaks at a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke speaks at a rally, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in San Antonio. O'Rourke is taking a sharper tone in his campaign heading into the final scheduled debate with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - As the political battle to overturn California's gas tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public affairs firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local government groups, emails obtained by The Associated Press show.

The California State Transportation Agency and Sacramento-based Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks organized news conferences and other efforts to promote legislation to raise the tax to fund road and bridge repairs, which passed the Legislature in April 2017. After Gov. Jerry Brown signed it, the agency and firm continued planning events and coordinating social media posts as opponents gathered signatures for repeal.

Three ethics experts interviewed by the AP said the emails raise concerns that the agency's relationship with the firm was too close, but none saw a clear violation of campaign laws, which prohibit the use of public resources for political campaigns.

The repeal qualified for the November ballot in June. The firm, BCF, continues to work for the anti-repeal coalition, which includes the League of California Cities and the California Chamber of Commerce.

Some communications between BCF and the state agency involved politics, according to more than 200 emails from 2017 and the first half of this year obtained by the AP through the California Public Records Act.

Last fall, the agency and firm discussed opinion pieces "targeting" U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa and three other vulnerable Republicans in Congress. National Democratic leaders see those seats as key to winning control of the U.S. House.

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2017, file photo, Cristian Rodriguez fuels his vehicle in Sacramento, Calif. As the political battle to overturn the gas tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

In January, a BCF partner, Kathy Fairbanks, communicated with the agency about designing a campaign logo for Proposition 69, a June ballot measure involving how gas tax proceeds are spent. And an undated memo shows the agency and firm also planned to coordinate efforts for several months through the primary.

Loyola Law School Professor and government ethics expert Jessica Levinson said the relationship between the firm and agency appears too close, and the exchange about the congressmen crossed an ethical line.

"I mean way over the line," she said.

BCF and agency officials said the communications were appropriate to educate the public about the law and that they ramped down coordination when the firm took an official campaign role.

"Clearly the agency was trying to coordinate with the campaign, and they shouldn't have," said Bob Stern, a government ethics expert who helped write California's campaign laws. But he added the actual amount of time government workers spent coordinating with the firm was likely minimal.

Ann Ravel, who served on the Federal Election Commission and California's Fair Political Practices Commission, said the volume of emails raises questions about whether the agency aided one side.

"It seems like maybe it's a little too cozy, but I wouldn't say that it's clearly inappropriate," Ravel said.

The legislation approved last year raised gas taxes by 12 cents per gallon and added diesel and vehicle fees to generate $5 billion annually. Proposition 6 would repeal the increase and require voters approve gas and vehicle tax increases.

The ballot measure is a centerpiece of California Republicans' efforts to boost turnout. GOP Congress members - including House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Orange County's Mimi Walters - are among the repeal's biggest financial backers.

Leaders of the repeal campaign have asked the federal government to investigate their claims that public resources have been used against them, based on emails and other documents that show local government workers discussing the repeal effort. Those documents are different from the ones the AP obtained. Opponents also circulated a video of a Caltrans contractor passing out anti-Proposition 6 fliers to drivers.

The California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans, falls under the state transportation agency.

Melissa Figueroa, the agency's deputy secretary for communications and strategic planning, said it's the agency's job to inform the public about the impact of laws, and it has done so in the past, including for California's "motor voter" registration law.

"We're trying to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars," Figueroa said.

The agency communicated much less frequently with the firm and stopped coordinating social media posts once the official anti-Proposition 6 campaign started, Figueroa said.

"Prior to that point, it was more of a collaborative effort because they were not in campaign mode," Figueroa said.

BCF partner Brandon Castillo said the coalition registered as a fundraising committee in December and officially became a ballot measure campaign in March to support Proposition 69.

BCF and other gas tax supporters routinely asked the agency for information, but they did not coordinate on creating campaign materials, Figueroa said. The agency also fulfilled numerous public records requests filed by gas tax opponents, she said.

However, an undated memo outlining agency and coalition plans from March through the primary election shows the firm and the agency coordinated the timing of announcements and events. It details plans for the state to tout new construction projects while the coalition campaigned for Proposition 69.

The agency and coalition coordinated their schedules, but the agency wasn't involved in campaigning for Proposition 69, Figueroa said.

Castillo sent the email about op-eds focused on GOP candidates Sept. 20, 2017.

"Hey Melissa - We're penning opeds (sic) targeting the following congressional republicans," he wrote. He identified Reps. Jeff Denham, Steve Knight, Walters and Issa and asked Figueroa for information about projects funded by the gas tax increase in their districts.

At the time, the coalition was working to persuade California's influential Republican congressional delegates to reject the repeal.

Several days after Castillo's email, Figueroa suggested she or Brian Kelly, then the agency's leader, help find an author for the piece targeting Issa, considered the most vulnerable California incumbent before he decided against seeking re-election.

Castillo responded saying coalition members were working on it and asked: "Do you have anyone in mind that could influence Republicans/Issa?"

The documents obtained by the AP don't include further exchanges on the issue. In interviews, Castillo and Figueroa said the agency never suggested an author. Figueroa said she offered help because the op-ed would educate people in Issa's district.

The piece ultimately was written by the mayor of Encinitas, a suburb north of San Diego, and ran the following month in the San Diego Union-Tribune. It touted projects in the district funded by the gas tax increase but didn't mention Issa.

Levinson found the exchange surprising because it seemed to directly reference campaign activities.

"I don't want to say it's a smoking gun, but that is so much more explicit than I ever would have predicted they would be," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Don Thompson and Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.

FILE - In this June 18, 2018, file photo, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Cox, center, blasts a recent gas tax increase during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. Cox, chairman of a campaign to repeal the tax increase, is flanked by Carl DeMaio, left, chairman of Reform California, and Jon Coupal, right, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. As the political battle to overturn the tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, file photo, vehicles crowd Highway 50 in Sacramento, Calif. As the political battle to overturn California's gas tax increase intensified the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2016, file photo, morning rush hour traffic makes its way along US 101 near downtown Los Angeles. As the political battle to overturn California's gas tax increase intensified the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 2017, file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown urges lawmakers to approve SB1, a bill to raise gas and car taxes to generate $5 billion-a-year for road repairs, during a rally in Sacramento, Calif. As the political battle to overturn the gas tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 2017, file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown waits to speak a rally in Sacramento, Calif., to promote SB1, a bill to raise gas and car taxes to generate $5 billion per year for road repairs. As the political battle to overturn the tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

FILE - In this April 5, 2017, file photo, supporters of SB1, a bill to raise gas and car taxes to generate $5 billion-a-year for road repairs, rally at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. As the political battle to overturn the gas tax increase intensified, the state transportation agency coordinated frequently with the public relations firm working to block the repeal on behalf of unions, construction companies and local governments, emails obtained by The Associated Press show. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)SANNA, Yemen (AP) - A tropical storm has battered eastern Yemen, with three days of heavy rainfall and flooding injuring dozens of people, destroying property and killing livestock, Yemeni officials and the United Nations said Tuesday.

They said that around 70 percent of the al-Mahra province has been affected by the storm, which formed as cyclone Luban but has been downgraded to a tropical storm. Two aircraft, one Yemeni and the other from the United Arab Emirates, are ferrying to safety residents stranded in the provincial capital, Gheita.

Yemeni officials earlier called for help to evacuate some 50 families stuck amid flooding and heavy rain in the area, describing the situation as "disastrous."

Amin Hassan, a member of the provincial rescue committee, said hundreds of homes have either been destroyed or damaged and thousands of livestock have been swept away by flooding.

Thousands headed to the mountains to escape, and power outages hit some areas.

In the Hadramawt province, heavy rains and floods injured at least 10 people and caused heavy damage, Gov. Farag Salmeen said Tuesday.

The United Nations said 33 people have been injured in al-Mahra and that a total of 2,000 families have been affected by the storm. It said coastal areas of the province were the hardest hit.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, added that humanitarian partners are already helping on the ground, but gave no details.

The storm touched down far from the front lines of Yemen's civil war, in which a Saudi-led coalition has been battling Iran-aligned rebels since 2015.LUXEMBOURG (AP) - The European Union largely abandoned the hope of clinching a Brexit deal this month and a top EU official implored British Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday to come up with "a new method of thinking" on the Irish border issue that has stumped negotiators for over a year.

With the leaders of EU countries meeting Wednesday, EU Council President Donald Tusk told May to think like a free spirit and "present something creative enough to solve this impasse" at the summit that previously was touted as a defining moment in Britain's two-year departure from the bloc.

As prospects for a compromise stood ahead of the meeting, Tusk said there were "no grounds for optimism" about Britain and the EU reaching a deal.

However, members of May's own party and the Conservatives' parliamentary allies oppose the prime minister's current proposals for the future EU-U.K. border in Ireland, putting her in a political straitjacket that restricts the "creative" ideas Tusk seeks.

"We sometimes feel the British are negotiating with the British," Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said, illustrating the EU's frustration.

A breakthrough on how to keep the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland as porous as possible appeared close enough Sunday that EU officials thought Wednesday's summit would be a celebration of the elusive Brexit deal.

European Council President Donald Tusk touches his eyebrow after delivering a statement during a joint news conference following a Tripartite Social Summit roundtable at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

But continued disagreement on the border issue sent both sides in the negotiations in search of revised positions. The EU said the process was expected to take a few more weeks, pushing the timeline for a deal into November at the earliest.

Negotiators are working toward coming to an agreement "in the coming weeks" to ensure Britain leaves the EU as scheduled on March 29 in an orderly fashion, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said.

"We are not there yet," he said. "We will use that time - calmly, with serious intent - to find the overall deal."

Speaking on the eve of the summit in Luxembourg, Barnier said many terms of the divorce have been agreed upon already, such as how much money Britain owes the EU.

But aspects of the withdrawing member's future relationship with the EU are unresolved, Barnier said, most notably the border that will separate EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

To illustrate the perceived intractability of the Irish border problem, Tusk compared it to the mythical Gordian knot that cannot be untied because it is so complicated. The ancient Greek warrior king Alexander the Great used his sword to slash through the knot when all else failed, according to the legend.

"Unfortunately, I can't see a new version of Alexander the Great," Tusk said.

Asked whether he was referring to former British foreign secretary and Brexit champion Boris Johnson - whose given first name is Alexander - Tusk said: "To compare Boris Johnson to Alexander the Great is an exaggeration, I think."

Since the Brexit discussions began over 18 months ago, the October summit was earmarked as the most likely date for an agreement given the need for parliamentary approvals before Britain officially departs in March.

The EU said it was pressing forward with contingency plans to protect the 27 remaining member states if Britain crashes out of the bloc with neither a deal in place nor a transition period established. Tusk warned that chances of Britain leaving without a deal were higher than ever before.

In London, May urged her divided Cabinet to back her amid growing talk that several members were ready to resign in protest of her government's proposals to the EU.

During a three-hour Cabinet meeting Tuesday, May said the government must "stand together and stand firm."

The EU is waiting for new proposals from Britain. But May's room for compromise is restricted by divisions within her Conservative Party, and by her reliance on Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which opposes any compromise on the border.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said after several ministers met privately over pizza on Monday night that "no one is planning on resigning. We are all doing our jobs and we are trying to get the best deal for this country, and that's it."

Germany exhorted May to come to Wednesday's summit with a positive message that could kick-start the stalled talks.

"Take responsibility and be constructive," said Germany's Europe Minister Michael Roth when he arrived for talks with Barnier in Luxembourg.

___

Lawless reported from London. Lorne Cook contributed from Brussels

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, left, shakes hands for the media with European Council President Donald Tusk prior their talks at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Britain is set to leave the European Union in March, but a Brexit agreement must be sealed in coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, left, poses for the media with European Council President Donald Tusk prior their talks at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier arrives for a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Britain is set to leave the European Union in March, but a Brexit agreement must be sealed in coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it.(Olivier Hoslet, Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the House of Commons, London, with an update on the latest developments in the Brexit negotiations, Monday Oct. 15, 2018. (PA via AP)

A pro-EU demonstrator holds up an EU flag to oncoming traffic outside the Palace of Westminster as the British government holds a cabinet meeting on Brexit inside 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A pro-EU demonstrator wears an EU flag styled as a hat, with a British Union flag pinned to it, outside the Palace of Westminster as the British government holds a cabinet meeting on Brexit inside 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

A pro-EU demonstrator holds up an EU flag to oncoming traffic outside the Palace of Westminster as the British government holds a cabinet meeting on Brexit inside 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, and Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, right, talk as they leave Downing Street following a Cabinet meeting on Brexit, in London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Dominic Raab Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union of looks over to the media as he leaves 10 Downing Street, following a Cabinet meeting on Brexit, in London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Penny Mordaunt Secretary of State for International Development leaves following a Cabinet meeting on Brexit in 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)PARIS (AP) - President Emmanuel Macron made a rare televised address Tuesday to reassure the French public that all was under control after a limited government reshuffle that followed a difficult summer.

"The government is on the right track and has gotten down to the root of the problems," Macron said during the 12-minute speech from the Elysee Palace.

The long-awaited reshuffle - and the special television address - is seen as an attempt by Macron to take back control after three senior ministers resigned in recent weeks and his popularity plummeted.

Macron sought to give his government a fresh start earlier in the day by naming key ally Christophe Castaner as interior minister, replacing Gerald Collomb as head of policing and counterterrorism.

Collomb resigned Oct. 3 and Macron took a relatively long time to choose the successor, leaving the interior minister post vacant for a while before it was taken over temporarily by the prime minister.

"My fellow citizens, I know there's impatience," he added.

Newly appointed Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, center, and Secretary of State to the Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, left, arrive to the handover ceremony at the Interior ministry, in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. French president Emmanuel Macron has appointed a high-profile political ally to the key post of interior minister during a limited cabinet reshuffle. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Castaner, 52, was heading Macron's party, Republic on the Move, and was junior minister in charge of parliamentary relations.

In a brief handover ceremony at the Interior Ministry, Castaner said security issues remain the government's priority.

"I am thinking, of course, about the fight against terrorism. I am thinking, of course, about the day to day work being done night and day led by the teams from the Interior Ministry to dismantle (the terrorist cells) and to preserve and to guarantee, once again, the safety of everyone," he said.

Macron's office said the changes were meant to accompany a new wave of long-anticipated reforms.

The 40-year-old French leader, elected last year on a platform to reform the French economy, has pledged to make changes to unemployment benefits and streamline the pension system by next summer.

Four other government members were replaced Tuesday, including the culture and agriculture ministers. The key members of the government, including the finance and foreign affairs ministers, retained their positions.

Macron also appointed new junior ministers focusing mainly on economic matters and fighting poverty.

The new jobs mean the size of the government expands to 34 members, split equally between men and women, from 29 before - excluding Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Often perceived as a "president of the rich" for cutting the taxes of the wealthy and pushing pro-business policies that favor investors and entrepreneurs, Macron is increasingly described by opponents as arrogant and aloof.

Critics also point to the low pace of economic growth and a high unemployment rate that is hovering slightly under 9 percent.

Macron created a new job of junior minister at the Solidarity and Health ministry that will focus on the fight against poverty. The Finance Ministry is strengthened with junior ministers focusing on industry policy and the digital economy. The position of junior minister for gender equality, Marlene Schiappa, is enlarged to include all fights against discrimination.

The chief of France's domestic intelligence service, Laurent Nunez, was also named as a junior interior minister.

Macron's new government immediately found itself dealing with the fury of far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who angrily denounced Macron and his new interior minister after police raids on his movement's headquarter and his home on Tuesday as part of investigations into campaign financing and suspected misuse of European Union funds.

As his supporters yelled "Resistance!" Melenchon told reporters that Macron and Castaner should be investigated too.

Melenchon lost to Macron in the first round of the presidential election in 2017. In an impromptu news conference, he suggested the investigation of his campaign finances was politically motivated and designed to scare him and his movement.

Philippe, speaking at France's lower house of parliament, emphasized that the independence of the judiciary is guaranteed by the French Constitution.

"There's no individual instruction given to the prosecutor" in charge of the investigations related to Melenchon's party, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Thomas Adamson and John Leicester contributed to the story.

Newly appointed Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, center right, and France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, center left, arrive to deliver a speech during the handover ceremony at the Interior ministry, in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. French president Emmanuel Macron has appointed a high-profile political ally to the key post of interior minister during a limited cabinet reshuffle. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Newly appointed Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, background right, and France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, background left, arrive to deliver a speech during the handover ceremony at the Interior ministry, in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. French president Emmanuel Macron has appointed a high-profile political ally to the key post of interior minister during a limited cabinet reshuffle. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)ISTANBUL (AP) - Police searching the Saudi Consulate found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there, a high-level Turkish official said Tuesday, and authorities appeared ready to also search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country.

The comment by the Turkish official to The Associated Press further intensified the pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi, who vanished Oct. 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he need to get married.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia to talk to King Salman and his son, the 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about the fate of the journalist who wrote critically about the Saudis for the Washington Post.

While it was all smiles and handshakes in Riyadh, one prominent Republican senator said he believed that the crown prince, widely known as MBS, had Khashoggi "murdered."

"This guy has got to go," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, speaking on Fox television. "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

Saudi officials have called Turkish allegations that a team of 15 Saudi agents killed Khashoggi "baseless," but U.S. media reports suggested that the kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed at the consulate, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.

The Saudi Arabia consul's residence, in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. A high-level Turkish official says police who searched the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul found evidence that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed there. Authorities meanwhile prepared to search the consul's residence nearby after the diplomat left the country. State media say security forces began setting up barricades in front of the residence just hours after Consul Mohammed al-Otaibi flew out of the country on a 2 p.m. flight. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

The close U.S. ally is ruled entirely by the Al Saud monarchy, and all major decisions in the ultraconservative kingdom are made by the royal family.

The high-level Turkish official told the AP that police found "certain evidence" of Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate, without elaborating. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Police planned a second search at the Saudi consul general's home, as well as some of the country's diplomatic vehicles, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. Leaked surveillance video show diplomatic cars traveled to the consul general's home shortly after Khashoggi went into the consulate.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi left Turkey Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, just as police began putting up barricades around his official residence. Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge he had left or offer a reason for his departure.

Earlier in the day, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the "inviolability or immunity" of people or premises granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations "should be waived immediately." That convention covers diplomatic immunity, as well as the idea that embassies and consulates sit on foreign soil in their host countries.

"Given there seems to be clear evidence that Mr. Khashoggi entered the consulate and has never been seen since, the onus is on the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him," Bachelet said.

Turkey had wanted to search the consulate for days. Permission apparently came after a late Sunday night call between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.

Erdogan told journalists Tuesday that police sought traces of "toxic" materials and suggested parts of the consulate had been recently painted, without elaborating.

In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir greeted Pompeo at the airport. The former CIA chief didn't make any remarks to the media.

Soon after, Pompeo arrived at a royal palace, where he thanked King Salman "for accepting my visit on behalf of President (Donald) Trump" before the two went into a closed-door meeting. Pompeo then met a smiling Prince Mohammed, the heir apparent to the throne of the world's largest oil exporter.

"We are strong and old allies," the prince told Pompeo. "We face our challenges together - the past, the day of, tomorrow."

Pompeo was to have a dinner Tuesday night with Prince Mohammed and was expected to fly to Turkey on Wednesday.

Trump previously warned of "severe punishment" for the kingdom if it was found to be involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, which has spooked investors.

Trump's warning drew an angry response Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-linked media, including a suggestion that Riyadh could wield its oil production as a weapon. The U.S. president has been after King Salman and OPEC to boost production to drive down high oil prices, caused in part by the coming re-imposition of oil sanctions on Iran.

On Monday, however, Trump offered a different theory after speaking by telephone with King Salman.

"It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers," Trump said. "I mean, who knows? We're going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial."

The New York Times and the Washington Post have reported, citing anonymous sources, that Saudi officials may soon acknowledge Khashoggi's slaying at the consulate but blame it on a botched intelligence operation.

That could, like Trump's comments, seek to give the kingdom a way out of the global firestorm of criticism over Khashoggi's fate.

"The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to deescalate tensions," said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group's Mideast and North Africa division.

"Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist's disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist."

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey, and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Jill Colvin and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Reporters gather outside the Saudi Arabia consul's residence, in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official says Turkish authorities will search the residence over missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's unexplained disappearance. Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago on a visit to the nearby consulate and Turkish officials fear Saudi officials killed and dismembered the writer inside the mission. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meets with Saudi Arabia's King Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia has enjoyed the ultimate protected status from the United States throughout its short history. With Pompeo hastily dispatched on a damage-limitation mission to Riyadh, behind-the-scenes efforts are in full flow to preserve the Saudi-U.S. relationship in the wake of the disappearance and alleged killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018. Pompeo also met on Tuesday with Saudi King Salman over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's King Salman over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Tuesday with Saudi Arabia's King Salman over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, walks with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, after arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018. Pompeo arrived Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Salman over the unexplained disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.(Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

A man walks past the Saudi Arabia consul's residence, in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official says Turkish authorities will search the residence over missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's unexplained disappearance. Khashoggi disappeared two weeks ago on a visit to the nearby consulate and Turkish officials fear Saudi officials killed and dismembered the writer inside the mission. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

A security personnel is seen inside the entrance of the Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. A Turkish forensics teams finished a search for evidence inside the Saudi Arabia Consulate in Istanbul early Tuesday morning, over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.(AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)BARRON, Wis. (AP) - A Wisconsin teenager who has been missing since her parents were found dead in their home isn't a runaway and investigators believe she's in danger, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Authorities have been searching for 13-year-old Jayme Closs since deputies responding to a 911 call early Monday found her parents , James and Denise Closs, dead in their home in Barron, a rural western Wisconsin community about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Minneapolis.

The call came from a cellphone inside the home, but the caller didn't communicate with the dispatcher, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said during a Tuesday news conference. He said gunshots had been fired at the home, but he declined to say whether the couple had been shot and said his office won't disclose how they died until after the autopsies are completed.

Jayme was last seen at a family gathering Sunday afternoon, said Fitzgerald, who said Monday that investigators don't consider her a suspect in her parents' deaths. On Tuesday, he declined to elaborate as to why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation.

"I'm telling you, Jayme is missing and endangered," Fitzgerald said.

A girl resembling Jayme was spotted at a gas station in south Florida on Monday afternoon, according to a tip Miami police say they received. But Fitzgerald wouldn't comment about the validity of that report, saying only that authorities are "actively researching that tip."

This undated photo provided by Barron County, Wis., Sheriff's Department, shows Jayme Closs. Authorities say that Closs, a missing teenage girl, could be in danger after two adults were found dead at a home in Barron, Wis., on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (Courtesy of Barron County Sheriff's Department via AP)

"If we think it's key to the case where we need the public's help, we will disseminate that information," he said.

Miami is about 1,700 miles (2,735 kilometers) south of Barron.

Jayme is described as 5-feet (1.5 meters) tall and 100 pounds (45 kilograms), with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes.

The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are helping in the search. An Amber Alert was issued without a description of a suspect or vehicle. Meanwhile, deputies searched the area around the family's home with drones and infrared equipment and talked to Jayme's friends and middle school classmates, hoping to develop some leads.

Fitzgerald urged the public to come forward with tips.

"Often, someone in the community will have knowledge of a crime and may not realize it," he said. "Individuals who commit acts of violence may display changes in their behavior and individuals around that person may observe those changes."PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The city police commissioner has taken issue with part of a panel's review of the high-profile arrests of two black men at a Starbucks coffee shop, rejecting its broader conclusion that racism drives contact between citizens and police.

The review of the April arrests at the downtown coffee shop concluded that racial bias may have played a role, and that police need to train officers better to combat implicit, or unconscious, bias.

But the report, released Monday by a citizen advisory commission, also went a step further with a statement about systemic bias that said the department "should accept that racism has a profound effect on what drives citizen and police contact," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

In a written response, Commissioner Richard Ross, who is black, said the department recognizes racism exists and has policies in place to combat it. But he added that "we believe the profound effect on what drives citizen and police contact lies in criminal conduct and victimization."

"Citizens call and contact the police when they need help or a crime has occurred or is perceived to have occurred," Ross wrote. "We can agree that biases, whether implicit or explicit, may distort the fears and perception of some citizens who call the police to report crimes."

Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested within minutes after a manager called police to report that two men were refusing to either make a purchase or leave the premises. They were led off in handcuffs but later released without charges.

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2016, file photo, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross speaks during a ceremony at his alma mater, Central High School, in Philadelphia. Ross is taking issue with parts of a review by the police advisory commission after the high-profile arrest of two black men at a Starbucks coffee house. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the review released Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, says racial bias among police officers may have played a role in the arrests. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Video of the arrest prompted a national outcry and led the CEO of Starbucks to personally apologize to the men. The company also changed store policies, closed shops across the country one afternoon for racial-bias training and reached a settlement with the two men for an undisclosed sum.

For its part, the city agreed to set up a $200,000 program for young entrepreneurs, and the police department adopted a new policy on how to deal with people accused of trespassing on private property - warning businesses against misusing the authority of police officers.

Hans Menos, the police commission's executive director, said the goal of the review was "to help everyone understand that issues can be nuanced and tinged with race, or affected by race and racism, and the police department, often, is the person at the front lines of all of our issues, and so it's imperative, or incumbent upon them to understand that, and combat that."

Ross initially defended the police handling of the incident. But days later he apologized, acknowledging the pain the two men went through and saying policy changes were needed.

___

Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, http://www.inquirer.comATLANTA (AP) - The final stretch of the hotly contested Georgia governor's race is being consumed by a bitter political battle over access to the polls.

Republican gubernatorial candidate and Secretary of State Brian Kemp says Democrat Stacey Abrams is fighting for immigrants without legal status to cast ballots in the Nov. 6 election.

Abrams' campaign says that's untrue; that Kemp is trying to deflect from his own record of making it harder for legal citizens to vote.

The two have sparred over voting rights for years.

The tension escalated after an Associated Press report that more than 53,000 voter registrations were on hold before the election. Nearly 70 percent of those involved black applicants.

Kemp is responsible for overseeing elections in Georgia.

Public polling shows the race in a statistical dead heat.VATICAN CITY (AP) - The head of Iraq's Chaldean Catholic Church has complained that promised U.S. aid for religious minorities in Iraq hasn't materialized, issuing an unusual public rebuke of the United States from the Vatican.

Cardinal Louis Raphael I Sako praised Hungary by contrast, saying it had provided $5 million in direct assistance to repair Christian homes, schools and churches in Iraq and Syria rather than take refugees in.

Sako spoke Tuesday at a Vatican briefing as Mark Green, USAID administrator, was heading to the Vatican for talks about the assistance.

The U.S. State Department said a new infusion of $178 million had brought to nearly $300 million U.S. aid "implemented" in Iraq since 2017.

Sako said: "There are promises, but the reality is that there's been nothing up to now."CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's military says its forces have killed more than 450 suspected militants since the beginning of a nationwide operation against militants earlier this year.

Col. Tamer el-Rifai, a military spokesman, says in comments aired Tuesday that forces dismantled more than 1,200 explosive devices and destroyed some 1,900 vehicles and motorcycles since February.

He says the government has also paid out 1 billion 380 million Egyptian pounds (more than $77 million) to compensate residents who have been forced to leave their homes in northern Sinai.

It wasn't possible to independently confirm the claims as access to the region is restricted.

Egypt launched a nationwide operation against militants in February. It has struggled to combat a long-running insurgency in the Sinai that is now affiliated with the Islamic State group.ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala (AP) - A U.N. commission investigating corruption in Guatemala says President Jimmy Morales' government has denied or revoked visas for about a dozen of its personnel.

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala says it was notified Monday that three current visas were withdrawn, eight were denied for officials and two were denied for family members.

Among those affected is Colombian lawyer Luis Fernando Orozco, who is investigating Morales over purported illegal campaign financing.

Another is Cesar Rincon, also a Colombian lawyer. Rincon is the commission's representative on a case against Morales' son and brother over alleged falsification of documents to obtain government funds.

The commission known as CICIG said Tuesday that it was evaluating the notification from the Foreign Ministry.

There was no immediate public comment from the government.NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Candidate campaigns and outside interest groups have spent more than $51 million combined so far in Tennessee's contentious, open contest for U.S. Senate.

According to federal campaign finance disclosures through September, Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen's campaign has spent $11.7 million. Outside groups supporting him have spent about $13 million.

Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn's campaign has shelled out about $9 million. Pro-Blackburn outside groups have spent about $17.6 million.

From mid-July through September, Bredesen raised $4.3 million, spent $6 million and loaned his campaign another $2 million, bringing his total personal loans to about $5.5 million. He entered October with $3.2 million cash remaining.

In that timeframe, Blackburn raised almost $2.7 million, transferred $750,500 raised through related committees and spent $5.6 million. She ended September with $5 million cash left.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department is targeting a network of businesses that provides financial support to a paramilitary force in Iran, which allegedly trains and deploys child soldiers to fight with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The sanctions are part of the U.S. economic campaign against Iran to pressure it from engaging in aggression in the region and violating human rights.

The network of at least 20 corporations and financial institutions is known as Basij (bah-SEEJ') Cooperative Foundation. It uses shell companies to mask its control over multibillion-dollar business interests in Iran's automotive, mining, metals and banking industries.

Treasury also is sanctioning several banks and others affiliated with the network.

The sanctions prohibit Americans from doing business with the network or its affiliates and freeze assets they have under U.S. jurisdiction.SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - The FBI has raided a government office in Puerto Rico's capital to seize documents and other items as part of an investigation into alleged fraud.

Special agent in charge Douglas Leff told reporters on Tuesday that authorities are trying to determine whether someone is obstructing the ongoing investigation.

Leff said agents are acting on allegations that an unidentified person might have moved and forged documents.

The investigation began after Puerto Rico officials announced they found irregularities in the purchasing department of the municipality of San Juan.

Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz said in a statement that she has ordered employees to cooperate with federal authorities.WASHINGTON (AP) - A couple of liberal Harvard law professors are lending their name to a new campaign to build support for expanding the Supreme Court by four justices in 2021.

The campaign, calling itself the 1.20.21 Project and being launched Wednesday, also wants to increase the size of the lower federal courts to counteract what it terms "Republican obstruction, theft and procedural abuse" of the federal judiciary. This includes the recent near party-line confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh that cemented a conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

It is premised on Democratic victories in next month's elections and the 2020 presidential contest that could leave Democrats in charge of Congress and the White House in 2021, a possibility but by no means a sure thing. Additional justices nominated by a Democrat could change the court's ideological direction.

Harvard professors Mark Tushnet and Laurence Tribe are joining an effort being led by political scientist Aaron Belkin. He was a prominent advocate for repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibited LGBT people from serving openly in the military.

The Kavanaugh confirmation was the culmination of a process that started with Republicans blocking many of President Barack Obama's nominees to lower courts and then refusing to consider his Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland in 2016, Belkin said. President Donald Trump's victory in November 2016 allowed him to fill the high court vacancy with Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Tribe sought to distinguish the new campaign from President Franklin Roosevelt's failed plan to expand the Supreme Court to 15 justices and pack it with his nominees in 1937.

In this Oct. 5, 2018 photo the U. S. Supreme Court building stands quietly before dawn in Washington. A couple of liberal Harvard law professors are lending their name to a new campaign that wants to build support for expanding the Supreme Court by four justices. The campaign being launched Wednesday also wants to increase the size of the lower federal courts to counteract what it terms "Republican obstruction, theft and procedural abuse" of the federal judiciary. (AP Photo/J. David Ake)

Roosevelt was unhappy with high court decisions that were blocking New Deal legislation, but the new push for a larger court stems from Republican actions, not the court's decisions, Tribe said.

"The time is overdue for a seriously considered plan of action by those of us who believe that McConnell Republicans, abetted by and abetting the Trump Movement, have prioritized the expansion of their own power over the safeguarding of American democracy and the protection of the most vulnerable among us," Tribe said.

The size of the Supreme Court varied during its first 80 years from a low of six at the time the Constitution took effect in 1789 to a high of 10 during the Civil War. The current tally of nine justices was set in an 1869 law.TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The dead-heat Kansas governor's race has become a referendum on how a Republican experiment in slashing income taxes went awry.

Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Kris Kobach are arguing over what lessons came from the budget misery that followed tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 and whether the state needs a do-over.

Kelly is a veteran state senator who supported a successful effort last year to repeal most of the tax cuts championed by former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. She argues that Kobach wants to bring back Brownback's fiscal experiment and even top it.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, wants to return to cutting taxes but bristles at being described as another Brownback. He says he would avoid Brownback's mistakes by being more aggressive about controlling spending.PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on Hurricane Michael (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

Officials say 16 people died in Florida because of Hurricane Michael, doubling the numbers of deaths in the state The Associated Press had previously attributed to last week's storm.

Florida officials announced the state's updated death toll Tuesday. State officials did not provide details of how the victims' deaths were storm-related and the AP was not immediately able to confirm those details.

Officials say 12 of the deaths occurred in Bay County, a seaside county which took a direct hit from the storm.

The AP's tally also includes 10 deaths in Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina.

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, photo, a billboard lies atop a Waffle House restaurant after being knocked down by Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla. (Carlos R. Munoz/Sarasota Herald-Tribune via AP)

___

1:45 p.m.

Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey says two people are confirmed dead in the city that took a direct hit from ferocious Hurricane Michael.

Cathey said Tuesday that the dead were a man and a woman living in separate homes who did not evacuate.

He said the sheriff's office would release their names and the details of their deaths later.

The mayor says only one person in Mexico Beach is still missing. He says authorities are "almost certain" that person evacuated before Michael and just hasn't been contacted.

Cathey says officials are "holding steady at two (deaths) and don't expect that number to rise."

___

1:30 p.m.

Life in some of the hardest-hit areas of the Florida Panhandle improved drastically as widespread cellphone service returned for the first time since Hurricane Michael.

Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey had a one-word exclamation when his Verizon phone started working Tuesday for the first time in nearly a week: "Hallelujah!"

Verizon service also resumed in storm-damaged Panama City, where residents haven't been able to contact loved ones or call for help.

AT&T service was drastically better in the days after Michael, but even it was spotty.

Cathey says communication problems have been his biggest problem in Mexico Beach, where destruction is widespread. He says Verizon is the dominant cellphone company in the area.

_______

12:05 a.m.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, Florida Panhandle residents are struggling to locate friends and loved ones who haven't been heard from, and it's unclear how many people are missing.

As President Donald Trump visited the devastation Monday, the death toll from Michael's march from Florida to Virginia stood at 17, and the search for victims continued.

Since the storm, many people have been rescued. Emergency officials said that because of widespread cellphone outages, others could be safe and just haven't been able to tell friends or family.

Cities that were hit the hardest include Mexico Beach and Panama City, both in Florida. George Ruiz of Geaux Rescue, a nonprofit search-and-rescue operation, says authorities aren't allowing volunteer groups into either city.

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018, photo, Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Heather Wilson and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein walk to a briefing at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida to speak to reporters about the status of the base, which suffered significant damage from Hurricane Michael. (Carlos R. Munoz/Sarasota Herald-Tribune via AP)

Damage from Hurricane Michael is evident on the buildings at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (Carlos Munoz/Sarasota Herald-Tribune via AP)

President Donald Trump raises his fist to chants of "USA" during a visit Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to Lynn Haven, Fla., to see storm damage and recovery efforts following Hurricane Michael. Trump marveled at the roofless homes and uprooted trees he saw Monday while touring Florida Panhandle communities ravaged by the force of the hurricane. (Michael Snyder/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

Anthony Weldon, 11, left, pulls a cart with his family's belongings as he relocates with his brother Thomas, 10, mother Dawn Clarke, right, and father Richard Coker from their uninhabitable damaged home to stay at their landlord's place in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Thomas Weldon, 10, right, rests for a moment while helping his brother Anthony, 11, push a cart with their belongings as the family relocates from their uninhabitable damaged home to stay at their landlord's place in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Anthony Weldon, 11, pulls a cart with his family's belongings as they relocate from their uninhabitable damaged home to stay at their landlord's place in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Springfield, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Leslie Sargent, center, waits with her dog, Bubu, in line for food at an aid distribution point in Callaway, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, in the wake of Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Latest on a graphic photo of an Idaho wildlife official posing with a baboon family he killed in Africa (all times local):

11:45 a.m.

Idaho's governor says he's worried that the state's reputation as a hunting and fishing paradise could suffer because of a photo showing a former state wildlife official posing with the baboon family he killed on a vacation to Africa.

Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter says Tuesday the photo and others of dead animals that Blake Fischer sent in emails are not representative of Idaho's hunting culture.

Fischer resigned on Monday after Otter asked him to do so. Fischer was one of seven members of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, which manages wild animals in the state.

Fischer and his wife shot at least 14 animals in Namibia according to the photos and descriptions in an email he sent to more than 100 recipients.

One photo showed Fisher smiling with four dead baboons propped in front of him, blood visible on the abdomen of the smallest baboon.

He used a bow and arrows to kill them.

___

7:50 a.m.

A top Idaho wildlife official has resigned amid outrage over a photo of him posing with a baboon family he killed in Africa.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter says he asked for and accepted Blake Fischer's resignation on Monday.

Fischer was one of seven members on the Idaho Fish and Game Commission.

Fischer and his wife shot at least 14 animals in Namibia according to the photos and descriptions in an email he sent to more than 100 recipients.

One photo showed Fisher smiling with four dead baboons propped in front of him, blood visible on the abdomen of the smallest baboon. He used a bow and arrows to kill them

They also killed a giraffe, leopard, impala, sable antelope, waterbuck, kudu, warthog, gemsbok (oryx) and an eland.MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was told a union for police officers is advising that officers not give interviews to the agency regarding a man's shooting.

The Commercial Appeal reports the TBI was told Sunday the union for Memphis police officers is advising officers to not give it interviews regarding Martavious Banks' shooting and future officer-involved shootings.

Johnny Simmons with the TBI says this includes the officer who opened fire and witnessing officers. He says that's going to make investigations more difficult for them to complete.

Memphis Police Association President Michael Williams says officers are afforded rights like any other citizen.

Police say a car driven by Banks was stopped by officers, who said they saw a gun. Police say Banks ran away and was shot. He was hospitalized in critical condition.

___

Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.comBUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romania's government has published an ordinance requiring prosecutors in key agencies to have more years of experience, igniting fresh criticism that it could wreak havoc on current investigations.

The decree made public Tuesday could interfere with the prosecution of Liviu Dragnea, the governing Social Democratic Party's chairman, who's being investigated for embezzling European Union funds. The lead prosecutor in the case doesn't have the minimum 10 years of professional activity required under the new measure. Dragnea denies wrongdoing.

The general prosecutors' office said the development means 20 anti-corruption prosecutors, 20 military prosecutors and four prosecutors in the anti-organized crime agency are no longer qualified to work in their respective agencies.

General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar said Tuesday the ordinance had "created many problems for prosecutors' offices, especially the National Anti-Corruption Directorate."If you're thinking of listing your home as a vacation rental, have a listen to what travelers say makes a space inviting and welcoming, and what's a turnoff.

For starters, amenities and cleanliness matter.

"I would have loved better sheets and towels as well as decent soap and amenities," says Carol VanderKloot of New York, who was underwhelmed by a recent Michigan rental.

Nice linens are mentioned often in online reviews. In a poll conducted by Airbnb this summer, travelers rating their vacation experience cared most about the quality of their accommodations, followed by amenities that are functional and thoughtful. So along with nice shampoo, consider a bottle of wine, a bicycle, scooter, sled or fully loaded beach bag.

A host in Los Angeles whose home is popular with young families stocks kids' books. In Milan, Italy, a host with a pool set up Bluetooth speakers outside.

Focus on potential guests' comfort, both in your decor and your marketing, says Peter Lorimer, a Los Angeles-based real estate expert.

This undated photo provided by Netflix shows a home featured in the new Netflix series "Stay Here," hosted by real estate expert Peter Lorimer and and designer Genevieve Gorder. In the show the two help short-stay rental hosts update and improve their properties. A nice welcome gift upon arrival is a thoughtful gesture, says Lorimer. Tasty treats and refreshing beverages, a well-stocked pantry, and insider info on your area are some of the items you should provide to greet your renters. (Netflix via AP)

He has teamed up with interior designer Genevieve Gorder on a new Netflix series, "Stay Here," in which they help homeowners refurbish and redecorate their spaces to make them more attractive to visitors.

"Massively bad for repeat business is dirt," he warns. "After every guest there needs to be a cleaning plan. Look at this as an investment in your business; if a restaurant is dirty you'll never go back, and it's the same with short-term rental."

Gorder notes that everyone has different standards for tidiness, so it's best to go pro. "It has to look, feel and be CLEAN," she says. "That means having a professional service handle your rental before and after each guest checks out. Your reviews will skyrocket and that's worth its weight in gold."

Get rid of stained or worn carpeting, refinish wood flooring, and lay fresh tile or new rugs. Provide several good mirrors, as well as storage, and a folder or notes on how to operate things. As Lorimer points out, "the last thing any guest wants is to try and figure out how to use the TV remote or turn the ceiling fan on and off."

Consider including "insider" suggestions for what to do and where to go in the area. Displaying some local photography or artwork might pique curiosity and help you build a relationship with nearby shop owners too.

Lorimer suggests drawing up a calendar of fun local events and posting it with your listing. Consider an incentive gift for longer stays, like a gift certificate for a local restaurant, or lift tickets at the ski hill.

Gorder warns against the "junk drawer" effect, where owners try to save by kitting out their rentals with dated furniture and hand-me-downs.

And keep the decor relatively neutral.

"Owners tend to decorate for themselves and how they live instead of for their guests," she says.

"Home is in many ways a reflection of our most intimate selves. When you turn a property or a room in your home into a short-term rental, it's time to shift your thinking." The key is finding a balance: a space that's neither too personal nor impersonal.

Renters differ about how much personal style they like in a space. VanderKloot enjoyed an array of vintage radios displayed on a shelf in a Michigan home, but appreciated not having kitschy decor in a rental in New Orleans. "The Scandinavian interior in that rental was a perfect counter-palette to the excess of (the city)," she says.

In an apartment in Copenhagen, New Yorker Darby Drake says she would have appreciated some personal touches. "What turned me off most was how bland everything was. It didn't quite feel 'lived-in,'" she says.

Invest in a standout piece or two, if you can. Drake fondly recalls a big, comfy, cowhide lounge chair in a different Copenhagen rental, as well as another great piece: "There was this massive gray bean-bag lounger that was wonderful. After a long day exploring the city, it was great to be enveloped by it."

The lounger wasn't shown in the online photos, Drake says. And that could have been a missed opportunity.

"The No. 1 reason for guests not booking is bad marketing," Lorimer says. Cell phone photos won't do. "A professional photographer must be engaged, and the whole area needs to be designed or even staged so that the lifestyle is being sold every bit as much as the accommodation," he says.

"Think of short-term rentals like online dating. If you take bad pictures and/or don't dress up for the shots, you just get swiped and forgotten."

Take seasonal photos of your yard or nearby attractions, he suggests, and change them online accordingly.

Consider, too, a well-stocked snack cupboard, some unobtrusive but pleasant home fragrances, a first aid kit, and perhaps some chilled beverages in the fridge upon arrival; small, thoughtful details make even the most modest space welcoming.

"It may be your guests' first time in your city or town," Lorimer says. "You may not physically be there, so anything you put in your rental is acting as guide and host. Anticipate what they'll need before they know they need it. That's the key to a happy guest."

This undated photo provided by Netflix shows a home featured in the new Netflix series "Stay Here," hosted by real estate expert Peter Lorimer and and designer Genevieve Gorder. In the show the two help short-stay rental hosts update and improve their properties. A nice welcome gift upon arrival is a thoughtful gesture, says Lorimer. The majority of vacation renters say nice linens in the bed and bath make a big difference in their perception and enjoyment of the property, so it's worth investing in good ones. (Netflix via AP)

This undated photo provided by Airbnb Plus shows a home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. Stocking your vacation rental with games, books and other recreational amenities, and having professional photos taken of your home, will make it a draw for potential renters, says real estate expert and co-host of Netflix's "Stay Here" series Peter Lorimer. (Airbnb Plus via AP)TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The Latest on the Kansas governor's race (all times local):

1:35 p.m.

Democratic candidate Laura Kelly is promising to appoint a bipartisan Cabinet is she's elected Kansas governor.

Kelly made the pledge during a debate Tuesday in Wichita at a Kansas Association of Broadcasters convention.

She is a veteran state senator wooing moderate Republican voters in a dead-heat race against GOP nominee and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Kelly has portrayed herself as a lawmaker who can work across party lines.

Republican Kris Kobach, from left to right, Libertarian Jeff Caldwell, independent Greg Orman, Democrat Laura Kelly and independent Rick Kloos participate in a gubernatorial debate at KWCH-TV, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Wichita, Kan. (Dion Lefler/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

Kobach said he can work with Democrats on many issues even though he is a principled conservative. But he acknowledged that he will not bend on his opposition to abortion and support for gun rights.

Independent candidate and Kansas City-area businessman Greg Orman said his lack of ties to a party would be an advantage in working with legislators.

___

1:10 p.m.

Independent candidate Greg Orman is stepping up his attacks on Democratic nominee Laura Kelly in the Kansas governor's race.

Orman compared Kelly, a veteran state senator, to unpopular former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback during a debate Tuesday in Wichita at a Kansas Association of Broadcasters convention.

Orman is trailing well behind Kelly and Republican nominee Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state. Kelly and Kobach are in a dead heat, and many Democrats view Orman as a possible spoiler helping Kobach.

Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, touted his private-sector experience. He said Kelly is like Brownback in that he also was a longtime legislator before becoming governor.

Brownback was a U.S. senator before being elected governor in 2010. He resigned in January to take an ambassador's post.

___

12:39 p.m.

The dead-heat Kansas governor's race has become a referendum on how a Republican experiment in slashing income taxes went awry.

Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Kris Kobach are arguing over what lessons came from the budget misery that followed tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 and whether the state needs a do-over.

Kelly is a veteran state senator who supported a successful effort last year to repeal most of the tax cuts championed by former GOP Gov. Sam Brownback. She argues that Kobach wants to bring back Brownback's fiscal experiment and even top it.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, wants to return to cutting taxes but bristles at being described as another Brownback. He says he would avoid Brownback's mistakes by being more aggressive about controlling spending.CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago's Police Department has asked a city board to make a final decision on the chief's recommendation to fire two officers who shot at a stolen car two years ago, an incident that was captured on video.

The submission of written charges to the Chicago Police Board sets in motion a formal hearing process. Board spokesman Max Caproni said Tuesday that such written charges result in a hearing within about five months and a decision within nine months.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson determined earlier this year that the officers shouldn't have opened fire on the stolen Jaguar during a chase that ended with the 18-year-old unarmed driver being shot in the back by another officer after he jumped from the vehicle and ran.

The chase and the fatal shooting of black teenager Paul O'Neal was a significant event in the history of the city's police force. The dashcam and body camera video of the 2016 incident was the first footage of a fatal police shooting to be released under what was then a new policy that called for such material to be made public within 60 days.

That policy was part of a wider effort to restore public confidence in the wake of the city's ultimately unsuccessful legal fight to keep private the now-famous video of the 2014 shooting death of black teenager Laquan McDonald by white officer, Jason Van Dyke.

That video, which shows Van Dyke shoot the teen 16 times as he veered away from the officer, helped convince a jury to find Van Dyke guilty earlier this month of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm. He is awaiting sentencing.

The videos of the July 28, 2016 chase that the police department reviewed before Johnson recommended that Officers Michael Coughlin Jr. and Jose Torres be fired were also analyzed by the Independent Police Review Board (IPRA). It also recommended the two be fired because their shots, none of which struck O'Neal, put the lives of other officers and bystanders at risk.

None of the videos show Officer Jose Diaz shooting O'Neal in the back after he jumped from the stolen car and ran through the backyard of a home on the city's South Side. IPRA determined the shooting was justified because Diaz believed O'Neal had a gun and had fired at police. However, it recommended Diaz be suspended for six months because he kicked the teen as he lay mortally wounded on the ground and because Diaz did not activate his bodycam. Diaz is appealing that suspension.

Police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that Coughlin and Torres remain suspended without pay.POPLARVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Six foals sired by a cream-colored stallion called DeSoto scamper across a pasture in southwest Mississippi - the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands.

Choctaw horses were thought to be long gone from this region, disappearing when their Native American owners were expelled from the U.S. Southeast by the government. But the surprise discovery of DeSoto on a farm in Poplarville 13 years ago led to a plan to help the dwindling strain survive.

"That really gives us a shot in the arm," said Bryant Rickman, who has been working since 1980 near Antlers, Oklahoma, to restore the line. He estimates he has bred more than 300 of the horses from nine mares and three stallions. But having so few stallions led to a bottleneck, because the gene pool was so small.

Choctaws saw great power in horses. Ian Thompson, tribal historic preservation officer for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, said their word for horse, issoba, means "like a deer" - and the deer was the tribe's most important animal, both economically and spiritually.

"So naming the horse after the deer was really saying something," Thompson said.

Choctaw horses are descended from those brought to the United States in the 1500s and later by Spanish explorers and colonists, said Dr. D. Phillip Sponenberg of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech.

In this July 17, 2018, photo, a Pine Tacky Choctaw cross stud colt is seen on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

It's one strain in a breed called Colonial Spanish horses, often referred to by the misleading term "Spanish mustang." Colonial Spanish horses are among the world's few genetically unique horse breeds, and are of great historic importance to this country, Sponenberg said.

The Choctaw nation lived in much of what are now Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Choctaws owned tens of thousands of horses by 1830, when Congress gave President Andrew Jackson the power to force Indians out of lands east of the Mississippi, Thompson said.

The relocation of Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Seminole Indians to Oklahoma, which has come to be known as the "Trail of Tears," took decades. Thompson said more than 12,000 Choctaw people made the journey but an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 died along the way. In Oklahoma, the Choctaw and their horses were part of the cattle-ranching economy.

The horses are small but tough and durable.

"They're very people-oriented. They're just as docile as your favorite dog," said Rickman.

DeSoto was discovered in 2005 when Sponenberg visited Poplarville to check out small cattle descended from Spanish colonial stock. He was surprised to find Spanish colonial sheep, there, too. Then came the day's biggest surprise.

"Out of the woods came this horse, single-footing," he said, referring to a smooth gait between walking and galloping, rather than the bouncing trot common to most horses.

Bill Frank Brown was 14 when he inherited the Poplarville farm that Sponenberg visited in 2005. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws.

Two of the stallions have since died, leaving only DeSoto. Sponenberg picked the mares that would be the best genetic matches for DeSoto, and they were brought to Mississippi last year. The Browns say some of the offspring will remain in Mississippi while others will go back to Oklahoma, along with pregnant mares.

CORRECTS TO FILLY FROM A PHILLY COLT - In this July 17, 2018, photo, Choctaw mare, right, and her 3-month-old filly, center, run with other Choctaw horses on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. Choctaw horses are descended from those brought to the United States in the 1500s and later by Spanish explorers and colonists, said Dr. Phillip Sponenberg of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bay Choctaw Mare with Buckskin stud colt, are seen on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown feeds DeSoto, a 19-year-old Pine Tacky Stallion on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown feeds horses including Choctaw mares on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This around 1910 photo provided by Francine Locke Bray shows Victor M. Locke, Sr., center, with unknown cowboys on Choctaw horses in Pushmataha County, Okla. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (Francine Locke Bray via AP)

This around 1910 photo provided by Francine Locke Bray shows Victor Locke Sr., left, with an unknown cowboy on Choctaw horses in Pushmataha County, Okla. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (Francine Locke Bray via AP)

This around 1910 photo provided by Francine Locke Bray shows Jesse Nelson Locke (Babe), right, with an unknown cowboy, with Choctaw horses in Pushmataha County, Okla. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (Francine Locke Bray via AP)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, a Choctaw mare with a filly are seen on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. Choctaw horses are descended from those brought to the United States in the 1500s and later by Spanish explorers and colonists, said Dr. Phillip Sponenberg of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown walks to feed his horses on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown pets DeSoto, a 19-year-old Pine Tacky Stallion, on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. Brown was 14 when he inherited the Poplarville farm that Sponenberg visited in 2005. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown with Choctaw mares on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown closes a pen as he walks to feed his horses on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, heritage sheep, descendants of Spanish colonial sheep, leap from their pen on Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. Dr. Phillip Sponenberg of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine says the horses, cattle, and sheep owned by Brown are all descended from animals brought to the United States since the 1500s by Spanish explorers and colonists. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown points out an ancestral photo from a trade magazine on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, DeSoto, a 19-year-old Pine Tacky Stallion, grazes on on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, Bill Frank Brown corrals a Choctaw mare on his farm in Poplarville, Miss. The farm had been in Brown's family since 1881 and the livestock there, even longer. Brown had three stallions back then, including DeSoto. He called them pine tacky horses. The Texas A&M veterinary school tested samples of the stallions' DNA, and they matched those of Rickman's Choctaws. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

In this July 17, 2018, photo, a Choctaw mare runs on Bill Frank Brown's farm in Poplarville, Miss. An aging stallion found by accident on a Mississippi farm is bringing the first new blood in a century for a line of horses brought to America by Spanish conquistadors and bred by Choctaw Indians who were later forced out of their ancestral homelands. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)MEXICO CITY (AP) - The University of Notre Dame has presented its 2018 Notre Dame Award to a group of Mexican mothers who have led a tireless, years-long search for missing loved ones.

The volunteer group known as Colectivo Solecito has found clandestine burial pits with the remains of hundreds of crime victims in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins participated in a Mass Monday at one of those sites.

He presented the award to the group's members for doing everything from fundraising to tromping the countryside looking for burial pits.

Drug and kidnapping gangs in Mexico frequently use such pits to hide the bodies of their victims.

Due to a lack of modern police procedures, few of the bodies located have been identified so far.

Reverend John I. Jenkins, rector of Notre Dame University, celebrates Mass in honor of disappeared people and the families in search of them in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, where almost 300 human remains were found in clandestine graves. The Mass was held one day before the women's Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

The mother of Luis Arroyo Ruiz, who disappeared in Jan. 2018, wears a pendant with his photograph during a Mass at the site where almost 300 human remains were found in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The Mass was held one day before the Solecito Collective is honored by Notre Dame University for their work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A woman cries during a Mass held in honor of disappeared people and the families in search of them in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, the site where almost 300 human remains were found in clandestine graves. The Mass was held one day before the Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A member of the Solecito Collective, made up people searching for their missing loved ones, looks at the site where the remains of Vicente Octavio Colorado were found, during a Mass in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The Mass was held one day before the Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Ithan Yarel Torres poses for a portrait wearing a photograph of his missing grandfather, municipal police officer Aureliano Sanchez, at the site where almost 300 human remains were found in clandestine graves in Colinas de Santa Fe, Veracruz state, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A Mass was held here Monday, one day before the Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Martha Elba Jimenez, mother of Oscar Jimenez who is missing, places his photo on an altar after a Mass was celebrated at the site where almost 300 human remains were found in clandestine graves in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The Mass was held one day before the Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Basilia Bonastre, mother of Arturo Figueroa Bonastre, whose remains were found amid hundreds of others in clandestine graves, is consoled by friends during a Mass in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. The Mass was held one day before the women's Solecito Collective is honored by Notre Dame University for their work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A wooden sign indicates clandestine grave number 104 where almost 300 were found in Colinas de Santa Fe, Mexico, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A Mass was held at this site Monday, one day before the Solecito Collective is to be honored by Notre Dame for its work locating the remains of missing people in Veracruz state. The Solecito Collective is made up people searching for their missing loved ones. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)BALTIMORE (AP) - Democrat Ben Jealous says he would support broadening a new Maryland gun-control law to restrict firearms access to people found to be a risk to themselves or others, if elected governor. The former NAACP chief also says he would stand up to President Donald Trump, whom he believes should be impeached.

Jealous said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press that he supports expanding the state's new "red flag" law to enable more people to ask courts to temporarily restrict firearms for people found to pose a threat. The law now enables families, law enforcement and medical professionals to do so.

Jealous also says if Democrats take control of the U.S. House, they should impeach Trump. Jealous cited obstruction of justice allegations as grounds to move ahead with impeachment.

Ben Jealous, a former NAACP president who is running as the Democrat for governor of Maryland, poses for a photograph in Baltimore on Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, after talking to The Associated Press about his effort to unseat Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. Jealous said he would support broadening a new Maryland gun-control law to restrict firearms access to people found to be a risk to themselves or others, if elected governor. (AP Photo/David McFadden)GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - A black Michigan mother is demanding justice after Grand Rapids police handcuffed her and her 12-year-old daughter while investigating a reported shooting at the family's home, marking the fourth time in less than two years that officers from the western Michigan department handcuffed innocent black children.

Officers responding to a 911 caller's report of a shooting Oct. 9 asked Rennae Wooten and her children to exit their home while officers searched it for a shooter. Police later determined it was a false report.

Wooten said officers pointed guns at her children and briefly handcuffed her daughter on her knees while searching her for weapons. The 12-year-old was released once officers found out her age.

Wooten said her daughter was traumatized and is unable to sleep.

"I want justice," Wooten said. "My kids are messed up from this."

It was the fourth time since March 2017 that police in Michigan's second-largest city handcuffed unarmed black children before clearing them of wrongdoing. The most recent occurrence was in August, when Grand Rapids officers handcuffed 11-year-old twins and a 17-year-old at gunpoint while responding to a report about juveniles who had a handgun.

The department adopted a youth interaction policy in December 2017 to improve relations with children. It was named the Honestie Policy after 11-year-old Honestie Hodges, who was handcuffed by officers searching for a violent crime suspect.

Wooten said her daughter "probably wouldn't have been handcuffed" if she were white.

"If it was somebody white, it probably would have been a little different," Wooten said.

Police Chief David Rahinsky defended the officers' actions last week while investigating the shooting report, which was later determined to be false.

Rahinsky said "officers did as they were trained to do."

"Officers showed compassion, they showed good judgment, the individual, the 12-year-old who was handcuffed was handcuffed for a minute and change, the tone of the officer, I think was appropriate," he said.

Kent County Commissioner Robert Womack has criticized police for their response to the incident.

"How many kids ... have to be handcuffed before they understand enough is enough and it stops today?" Womack said. "It has to stop somewhere."MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison's ex-wife says their divorce records contain sensitive information about her mental health but no indication of physical abuse.

Keith Ellison and Kim Ellison divorced in 2012 and are trying to keep their divorce records sealed. A court referee ruled last week they should be unsealed after requests from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and conservative news site Alpha News.

The divorce file has drawn interest since Ellison's former girlfriend accused him in August of domestic abuse. Ellison has denied it. He is running for Minnesota attorney general.

The Ellisons on Tuesday appealed the referee's order. Kim Ellison told reporters the file contains personal information about her depression after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Kim Ellison says her former husband never abused her in 25 years of marriage.HEALDSBURG, Calif. (AP) - The artist who created an 800-pound (363 kilograms) sculpture of a hammer that was stolen from a Northern California community center is offering a $1,000 reward to nail the thieves.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported Tuesday that Healdsburg artist Doug Unkrey made the offer. He made the 800-pound ball-peen hammer out of mixed metals. It has a long redwood handle and measures 21 feet (6 meters) long and the head is 6 feet (2 meters) tall.

The piece, valued at $15,000, was loaned by the artist about a year ago to the Healdsburg Community Center. It vanished from the lawn sometime Oct. 5 or Oct. 6.

Unkrey says it would have required about eight people or a flatbed trailer with a winch to carry off his work.

___

Information from: The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, http://www.pressdemocrat.comMOSCOW (AP) - Ukraine's military says a Ukrainian fighter jet crashed during a joint exercise with U.S. and other NATO air forces, killing both pilots.

The General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said the two-seat Su-27UB went down on Tuesday in the Kmelnitskyi region. It said a rescue team found the jet's two pilots dead.

The U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa issued a statement saying it was aware of "reports claiming a U.S. casualty." The command said it "can confirm a U.S. service member was involved in this incident," but stopped short of confirming the American's death.

Personnel from nine nations are taking part in the Clear Sky 2018 exercises that started in Ukraine on Oct. 8. They include members of a California Air National Guard unit based in Fresno, Calif.UNITED NATIONS (AP) - About 20 Cuban diplomats and demonstrators have disrupted a U.N. meeting called by the United States to spotlight the country's political prisoners, banging on tables and shouting in Spanish "Cuba Yes, U.S. Blockade No!"

The raucous meeting between U.S. Deputy Ambassador Kelley Currie and senior Trump administration officials in the U.N. Economic and Social Council chamber on Tuesday lasted longer than 45 minutes.

Currie told reporters outside the chamber that the Cuban diplomats "should be ashamed of themselves" and the U.S. would raise their actions with the proper authorities in the United Nations.

Cuba's U.N. Ambassador Anayansi Rodriguez Camejo called the meeting a "farce," ''a political comedy" and "a new chapter in the long list of aggressions against Cuba."GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - A federal jury is deliberating in the trial of an investment adviser charged with orchestrating a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme to finance her lavish lifestyle, including spending more than $800,000 for prayers by Hindu priests in India.

Jurors heard closing arguments Tuesday by prosecutors and an attorney for 56-year-old Dawn Bennett, who was indicted last year on fraud charges.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Bernstein said Bennett defrauded many investors out of their life savings. Bennett's attorney portrayed her as a victim of a scheme perpetrated by another official from her company.

Jurors heard testimony that Bennett paid a website operator to arrange for Indian priests to perform religious ceremonies to ward off a federal investigation. The FBI said agents also found evidence that Bennett cast "hoodoo" spells to stymie investigators.CORTONA, Italy (AP) - After my breast cancer diagnosis and as I was going through what would be more than a year of treatments that included chemotherapy and radiation, I vowed I would return to Italy. Both sets of my grandparents emigrated from there, and I always turned to Italy as a source of comfort.

At first, I wasn't sure what part of Italy I would travel. The last time I was there was in 1998. But when my sister and brother-in-law invited me for a one-week stay at a villa in Cortona in Tuscany, I knew my plans were set.

My plan was to spend a week in Rome with a friend. Then, I would join my sister and brother-in-law and their friends on the second leg of the trip. I had never been to Cortona, the walled medieval hilltop town popularized by Frances Mayes' memoir "Under the Tuscan Sun," later made into a movie. We would use Cortona, nestled near the border of the Umbria region, as our base and then travel to different parts of Tuscany.

I hoped to be inspired by one of Italy's most romanticized regions, with its cultural and artistic legacy, its post-card views of rolling hills dotted with stone farms and medieval castles, and its food - simple but flavorful. And just maybe, I could reconnect with my relatives on my mom's side who lived in the Siena area. I hadn't seen them since 1984, and we had lost touch over the years after my grandfather and great uncle in the United States passed away.

But my experience was beyond what I expected. By staying at the villa, I was able to have a deeper understanding of the Tuscan culture and live like a Tuscan resident. We shopped for groceries at the local supermarket, cooked dinner at the house, and went on walks among the fields of sunflowers, olive trees and grapevines. We washed clothes and hung them out to dry (dryers are not the norm in Italy). I woke up to the crowing of roosters. And I met a wonderful group of residents including American-born chef Ryan Hanley and his Italian wife Debora Mazzierli; we visited their centuries-old Tuscan stone home for cooking classes.

We stayed at the villa Il Barattino, which had a swimming pool, washing machine, satellite TV and free Wi-Fi connections. It rented for little over $800 a night and sleeps 12 and is managed by Cortona-based Hill Towns Tours , which manages villas in Tuscany. The villa consisted of two buildings, which combined had six bedrooms. If you rent a villa with friends, you can cut the cost of the rental fees and the car rentals. And we saved money by eating in a few nights using the spacious kitchen and outdoor dining areas.

This Sept. 10, 2018 photo shows a view from the top of medieval hill town Cortona, in the province of Arezzo in the Tuscany region of Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

Location is key. Our villa, set apart from the main road, was about seven miles to the town center. Cortona is about an hour drive to key medieval hill towns like Assisi and Montepulciano, home of the Vino Nobile wines. And you could take a train from Cortona to Florence.

Every day, we looked forward to a new activity, some we planned on our own; others were planned by Mazzierli, who also acted as our tour guide. She gave us a tour of San Galgano, where we visited the gothic style 13th century abbey which no longer has a roof, as well as San Gimignano, known for its many medieval towers. Another day, we went wine tasting. We first visited a local small winery called Leuta. Then, we went to Montepulciano, where we visited the family-run Ercolani winery's wine shop and then toured its underground wine cellars and its medieval museum - and then sampled its wine with cheese and salami. On the days to ourselves, we wandered the medieval streets of Cortona's center, and spent some time at the Etruscan museum. In Assisi, we visited the Basilica of St. Francis, where we saw the famous Giotto frescos.

Every meal was an epicurean feast. Among the highlights; eating pici pasta at La Loggetta, overlooking the main square in Cortona, sampling the massive seafood platter at Morgan's, which overlooked Lake Tresimano, and tasting the sumptuous zucchini flower appetizer at Osteria del Teatro in Cortona. In Assisi, I had a delicious melon and prosciutto salad at Le Terrazze di Properzio, which offered breathtaking panoramic views of the town.

One of the most intimate food experiences? The cooking class at the home of Hanley and Mazzierli. We cooked such dishes as zucchini flan, Tuscan ragu sauce, and stuffed tomatoes with rice under their supervision. And we made our own pici pasta, made with flour, water and olive oil. Mazzierli encouraged us to "eat with our heart, not with our stomach."

And yes, my sister and I - armed with a GPS and a 30-year old address my mom gave us - did connect with our relatives, the most magical moment of my trip.

They showed us family photo albums. My cousin Antonio showed us a spool of thread that my grandfather had given him years ago from his clothing factory. To him, it was the symbol of the American dream. They called other relatives, and soon, the house was packed. The pasta came out, followed by sauteed chicken, pickled zucchini and vanilla gelato. Our hearts were full.

This trip was more than checking off a bucket list. This was a celebration of life. And so, in that spirit, I promised my relatives I would be back next year.

__________

Follow Anne D'Innocenzio: http://twitter.com/ADInnocenzio

This Sept. 11, 2018 photo shows a panoramic view from the top of Montepulciano, a walled hill town in the province of Siena in Tuscany, Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 14, 2018 photo shows Ann McAloon rolling pici pasta, a thick pasta in Cortona, Italy. Pici pasta, made with flour, water and olive oil, is popular in Tuscany region of Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 10, 2018 photo shows grape vines near the villa Il Barattino in Cortona, Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 9, 2018 photo shows sliced Chianina T-bone with arugula, parmesan shavings and peppercorns prepared by local Tuscan chef Ryan Hanley at Il Barattino, the villa in Cortona, Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 9, 2018 photo shows Anne D'Innocenzio and her sister, Donna Burke in San Gimignano, a small walled medieval hilltop town in the province of Siena during their trip to the Tuscany region of Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 10, 2018 photo shows a view of the Piazza della Republicca, the main square in the historic center of Cortona, Italy, a walled hilltop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 11, 2018 photo shows Denis Zeni, owner of Leuta Wines sharing his passion for wine during a tour and wine tasting session at his winery in Cortona, Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 10, 2018 photo shows sign for La Loggetta, a restaurant which overlooks Piazza della Republicca, the main square in the historic center of Cortona, a walled hilltop town in the province of Arezzo in Tuscany, Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This sept. 9, 2018 photo shows people walking down a typical narrow street in San Gimignano, a walled medieval hilltop town in the province of Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

This Sept. 13, 2018 photo shows Anne D'Innocenzio, standing right, right, and her sister, Donna Burke, posing with their Italian relatives in Torrita di Siena, Italy. D'Innocenzio and her sister reunited with some of the same relatives in Siena after more than 30 years. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)

In this 1984 photo, Anne D'Innocenzio, second from left, with her sister Donna Burke, third from right, and mother Marie D'Innocenzio, left, pose with their Italian relatives in Torrita di Siena, in the Tuscany region of Italy. D'Innocenzio and her sister reunited with some of the same relatives in Siena in September after more than 30 years. (Anne D'Innocenzio via AP)BROOKVILLE, Pa. (AP) - One of two Roman Catholic priests charged as a result of the damning Pennsylvania grand jury investigation admitted he sexually abused children, pleading guilty Wednesday to corruption of minors and child endangerment.

The Rev. David Lee Poulson , 65, of Oil City, was arrested earlier this year during a grand jury probe that concluded hundreds of clergy in the state had sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades.

Prosecutors say Poulson abused an altar boy in church rectories and had him confess afterward. They say he also abused the boy and attempted to assault another boy at a hunting camp.

"Today's guilty plea by a predator priest in Jefferson County is a clear statement that no matter who abuses a child, no one is above the law," said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a news conference after the hearing in the Brookville courthouse, which is about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Poulson took the victims to his primitive, secluded hunting camp in Jefferson County about a decade ago, where they watched horror movies on a laptop and he abused them, prosecutors said. The victims were 8 and 15 at the time the crimes occurred, according to authorities.

Shapiro said he expected Poulson to have to register as a sex offender for at least a decade. Sentencing has not been scheduled.

The Erie diocese turned over a "confidential memorandum" dated in 2010 that contained an admission by Poulson that he had been "aroused" by a boy, prosecutors said. Poulson resigned from the Erie diocese earlier this year, after a military chaplain in Texas reported a 23-year-old had alleged he was abused by Poulson starting at age 8, prosecutors said.

Poulson's lawyer did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Erie Bishop Lawrence T. Persico issued a statement saying he was "saddened by every aspect of this situation."

"Many hearts have been broken, particularly those of the victims and their loved ones," Persico said, promising to contact police with all reports of sexual misconduct and cooperate with any investigations.

The other priest charged in the investigation, the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney of the Greensburg diocese, pleaded guilty to indecent assault this summer and is awaiting his sentencing.

The grand jury's report, made public in August, has roiled the Catholic church and prompted calls for Pennsylvania state legislation to allow people to file civil lawsuits over child sexual abuse allegations that would otherwise be too old to pursue. Talks on such legislation in the General Assembly have so far failed to reach a deal, and state lawmakers' two-year session is nearing its end.

Shapiro said since the grand jury report was issued, a hotline operated by his office to field reports of child sexual abuse has received nearly 1,300 calls.SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Democrat Beto O'Rourke abandoned his usual message of unity and optimism and laid into Ted Cruz, hoping to reverse polls that show him fading against the Republican incumbent during the second debate of a Texas Senate race that has become one of the nation's most closely watched.

During the opening moments of the debate Tuesday night , Cruz criticized O'Rourke for past votes supporting a never-enacted oil production tax that might have hit oil-rich Texas hard. O'Rourke responded by evoking a moniker President Donald Trump bestowed on the senator when the pair were bitter rivals during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, saying, "Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He's going to make up positions and votes that I've never held."

"It's why the president called him Lyin' Ted," O'Rourke said, "and it's why the nickname stuck, because it's true."

A former Ivy League debate champion, Cruz shot back, "It's clear Congressman O'Rourke's pollsters have told him to come out on the attack."

Democrats have long dreamed about a growing Hispanic population helping to flip Texas from red to blue and shaking up the electoral map. But polls that once showed O'Rourke within striking distance of a monumental upset now suggest Cruz may be edging further ahead. No Democrat has won any of Texas' nearly 30 statewide offices since 1994, the country's longest political losing streak.

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted that he watched the debate and reaffirmed his support of his one-time GOP rival. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump re-tweeted an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife and suggested that his Cuban-born father had a hand in John F. Kennedy's assassination.

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, left, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, right, take part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)

"Ted is strong on Crime, Border & 2nd A, loves our Military, Vets, Low Taxes. Beto is a Flake!" Trump tweeted Wednesday.

With Election Day just three weeks away, Tuesday might have been one of O'Rourke's last shots to gain ground. It was the race's last scheduled debate after one in Houston was canceled amid Senate floor votes on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cruz wants to participate in a previously scheduled townhall featuring just O'Rourke in the U.S.-Mexico border city of McAllen on Thursday night, but it's unclear if that will come together in time.

The pair used this matchup to clash on abortion regulations, climate change, the nomination of Kavanaugh and a border wall backed by the Trump administration. Things never got nasty or overly personal - the borrowed "Lyin' Ted" was the only name-calling, but both candidates tried to impress voters by criticizing their opponent's records.

When O'Rourke said he wanted to expand federally funded health care to more Americans, Cruz said the congressman agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and supported socialized medicine that would cost trillions and require sky-high tax increases. O'Rourke accused Cruz of not doing enough to stand up to Trump when it came to Russia and that the state needs a "full-time senator" rather than someone who concentrates on running for president.

Even when Cruz tried to say that he and O'Rourke were somewhat in agreement on opposing the Trump administration's higher tariffs on foreign-made goods, O'Rourke drew laughs by replying, "Really interesting to hear you talk about the partisan circus after your six years in the Senate," a reference to Cruz's days as a tea party insurgent who battled President Barack Obama at every turn.

O'Rourke, who is giving up his El Paso congressional seat to challenge Cruz, shattered Senate fundraising records with any eye-popping $38-plus million in the three-month period through September. The Democrat has a campaign war chest worth $22.9 million, more than double Cruz's about $11.3 million in cash on-hand.

Cruz kept O'Rourke on the defensive when they debated last month in Dallas, and O'Rourke - who had stuck to a bipartisan, feel-good message for months - kept a promise to sharpen his tone during Tuesday night's debate in front of a live audience of 120 people hosted by KENS-5, the CBS affiliate.

He also noted that his monster fundraising has come without accepting donations from outside political groups, but Cruz said O'Rourke still "goes with the left-wing national activists and left-wing national donors."

In response to a question about the #MeToo movement, O'Rourke said Cruz "inexplicably" voted against the Violence Against Women Act, saying the senator was "all talk and no action." Cruz countered that the movement "had done an incredible amount of good for this country" and that people of both sexes need to be protected from harassment and abuse.

Even though Cruz looks to be in a better position than earlier in the race, Trump is taking the once unthinkable step of staging a rally in a state that's so reliably conservative, heading Monday to an 8,000-seat Houston arena. The president carried Texas by a relatively small nine points in 2016. Still, Cruz has been a full-throated supporter of Trump's since they battled during the presidential race - and hopes that the joint appearance will assuage some conservatives around the state who were angered by the past animosity.

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AP FACT CHECK: https://bit.ly/2QWvFkW

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)

U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, takes part in a debate for the Texas U.S. Senate with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in San Antonio. (Tom Reel/San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool)SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two rebels, a civilian and a counterinsurgency police official, residents and police said.

At least a dozen journalists covering the fighting were beaten by counterinsurgency policemen well after the fighting ended, media groups and reporters said.

The gunbattle began early Wednesday after troops cordoned off a neighborhood in Srinagar on a tip that some rebels were in a civilian home, police said. The exchange of gunfire lasted about half an hour, police said, leaving two local militants, including a commander, a son of the house owner and a police official dead.

Asif Nabi, another son of the house owner, said the shooting began shortly after Indian troops knocked on their door and took away his brother. Police said the man was killed in the fighting as he tried to escape along with militants. They said he had provided logistic support to the rebels.

The house owner suffered cardiac arrest during the raid and was hospitalized, residents and police said. The slain civilian's mother told reporters that her son was tortured and killed in "cold blood" by government forces.

At least three soldiers were also injured in the fighting. No further information was immediately available.

Kashmiri Muslims watch the funeral of Mehraj-Ud-Din Bangroo, a rebel commander in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city in disputed Kashmir on Wednesday after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels, a civilian and a counterinsurgency police official, residents and police said. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Residents said they heard loud explosions during the fighting and accused the troops of blasting at least two houses with explosives.

Later Wednesday, thousands in Srinagar participated in the joint funeral of the slain rebels and the civilian while chanting slogans such as "Go India, go back" and "Long live Pakistan." They marched with the bodies to Srinagar's main martyrs' graveyard, where hundreds of Kashmiri militants and civilians killed during nearly three decades of fighting are buried.

As news of the fighting spread, anti-India protests and clashes erupted in several places in downtown Srinagar. Demonstrators chanting slogans demanding an end to Indian rule tried to reach the site of the standoff and threw stones at police and paramilitary soldiers.

Government forces fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to stop the protesters. There were no reports of injuries.

Most shops and businesses closed to protest the killings and authorities deployed more paramilitary soldiers and police in riot gear to patrol streets in the already densely militarized region.

Authorities limited communications, including internet on cellphones, as is routine during such fighting to make organizing anti-India protests difficult. They also ordered schools shut in anticipation of student protests.

Some journalists were injured when police hit them with batons and gun butts, said Asif Qureshi, a senior TV journalist. "The irony is that they beat us in the presence of a senior police officer," Qureshi said. "They pointed guns at us and threatened to fire at us. Later they resorted to aerial firing so close that some of the empty cartridges hit me."

S.P. Pani, a senior police officer, said authorities would investigate the incident.

The Kashmir Press Club and several journalist groups condemned the incident.

"This is not the first time when media persons have been at receiving end of security agencies. Every time media persons are assaulted, the authorities at the helm churn out theories and assure action," the Kashmir Journalists Corps said in a statement. "But the promises of probe and action have always remained a mirage."

Clashes between government troops and residents occurred Tuesday during the last phase of local council elections that had a low turnout in Muslim-dominated areas of the region. Separatists and armed rebel groups had called for a boycott, viewing the polls as an illegitimate exercise under military occupation.

Meanwhile, separatists who challenge India's sovereignty over Kashmir called for a general strike on Thursday to protest the killings. They castigated the Indian government for state repression of the Kashmiri people which they said "is increasing with each passing day."

India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim it in its entirety.

Most Kashmiris support rebel demands that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. In recent years, more Kashmiris have displayed open solidarity with the rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations.

Rebels have been fighting Indian control since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies.

Nearly 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian military crackdown.

An Indian policeman kicks an exploded teargas shell thrown back at them by Kashmiri protesters near the site of a gunbattle in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city of disputed Kashmir on Wednesday shortly after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels and a counterinsurgency police official. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

An Indian policeman kicks an exploded teargas shell thrown back at them by Kashmiri protesters near the site of a gunbattle in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city of disputed Kashmir on Wednesday shortly after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels and a counterinsurgency police official. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Kashmiri protesters clash with government forces near the site of a gun battle in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city of disputed Kashmir on Wednesday shortly after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels and a counterinsurgency police official. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian policemen walk past a damaged car outside the house where suspected militants were hiding during a gunbattle with Indian government forces in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city of disputed Kashmir on Wednesday shortly after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels and a counterinsurgency police official. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Indian security officers stands guard as firefighters douse a fire in a house where suspected militants were hiding during a gunbattle with Indian government forces in Srinagar, India, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Anti-India protests and clashes erupted in the main city of disputed Kashmir on Wednesday shortly after a gunbattle between militants and government forces killed at least two suspected rebels and a counterinsurgency police official. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - With stunned faces and tears, residents of hard-hit Mexico Beach returned home for the first time Wednesday about a week after Hurricane Michael hit to find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.

Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where she'd lived with her husband. She was particularly distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.

Husband Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock that was given to him by a friend 40 years ago.

"That's my belongings," he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red pickup truck. Choking up, he said: "I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it."

Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Eden's face as she and husband Ron Eden sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house they've rented each October for years. They didn't find much - just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a son's camp chair.

The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time. In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.

Nancy Register weeps as she is comforted by Roxie Cline, right, after she lost her home and all the contents inside to Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Register said she doesn't know how she and her husband will make it through this, saying they only have money to last them four more days. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Basically, we lost 'old Florida.' It's all gone," said Lanie Eden.

Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit. But officials used the city's Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a strong storm surge.

State emergency management officials said some 124,500 customers across the Panhandle were still without power Wednesday morning and 1,157 remained in shelters.

In Bay County, home to Mexico Beach and Panama City, more than half of the households and businesses remained without electricity. Inland, in Calhoun County, 98 percent of the customers didn't have power Wednesday morning, according to the emergency management website. And in Jackson County, which borders Alabama and Georgia, about 83 percent were without power.

In the meantime, in many areas devastated by the hurricane, law enforcement officials are battling looting of homes and businesses.

Bay County Sheriff's Maj. Jimmy Stanford said deputies have arrested about 10 looters each night since the storm hit. In some parts of the county, residents have spray-painted signs warning that "looters will be shot."

Panama City resident Wes Allen said looters have been a constant problem at the badly damaged motel where he is staying with his wife and three children. Residents have formed a nighttime patrol to keep an eye out for thieves.

"We've got looters breaking in and stealing whatever they can," he said. Allen said he hasn't reported the thefts to police because authorities seem so busy with other things.

Often the looters have been armed, Stanford said.

"Most of our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower, and now they're encountering armed individuals," he said. "It's a stressful time for everyone in Bay County."

The storm killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the coastal county that took a direct hit from the storm, state emergency authorities announced Tuesday. That's in addition to at least 10 deaths in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

The state's tally did not provide details of how the victims' deaths were storm-related, and The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm those details for all of them. The AP's tally of deaths, in which authorities have confirmed details of how people died, stood at eight in Florida, and 18 overall including other states.

In Mexico Beach, what had been a town of about 1,200, residents don't expect power or anything else anytime soon.

Carlton Hundley, 25, returned to the house he rented with his girlfriend Connie Huff to find nothing but a long pile of shattered wood. What few possessions they found, including one of his shoes, were scattered across the ground.

"I knew it was bad, I'd already seen the pictures. But it's a lot more than I thought," he said.

Roxie Cline, 65, was overcome with emotion as she tried to describe the destruction in Mexico Beach, where she and her husband had lived for three years.

"I can't, I can't," she said, tearing up. "It's devastating. You lose everything. Everybody has."

___

Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

___

For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes .

Ronnie Poole walks through debris as he checks on a friend's home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lanie Eden cries as she looks for her family's possessions in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. They evacuated just before the storm. She said the family had so many cherished memories there, that it's like losing part of your family. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Nancy Register, right, weeps as she is comforted by Roxie Cline, after she lost her home and all the contents inside to Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Register said she doesn't know how she and her husband will make it through this, saying they only have money to last them four more days. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lanie Eden and her husband Ron stand in the destroyed vacation home they rented every year as they look for their possessions in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. They evacuated just before the storm. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Nancy Register cries in her vehicle after losing her home to Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. She said she doesn't know how they are going to make it through this and that they only have money to last them four more days. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Christina Amanda, right, and Connie Huff, wait for an insurance adjuster as they look for their possessions at the site of their destroyed home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lynn Ballard, and search dog Toby, of the Boone County, Mo. Urban Search and Rescue team, search rubble in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Neighbors Bob Coleman, left, and Ron Adkisson, search the sites of their former homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ron Eden shows a photo of his annual vacation rental, which his family was in before they fled Hurricane Michael just before it hit, in front of the remnants of the home, in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Toby, a search dog for the Boone County, Mo. Urban Search and Rescue team, sniffs through rubble in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Roxie Cline surveys the damage in the vicinity of her destroyed motor home that she lived in, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Christina Amanda, right, and Connie Huff, wait for an insurance adjuster as they look for their possessions at the site of their destroyed home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Toby, a search dog for the Boone County, Mo. Urban Search and Rescue team, sniffs through rubble in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Neighbors Bob Coleman, left, and Ron Adkisson, search the sites of their former homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lynn Ballard, and search dog Toby, of the Boone County, Mo. Urban Search and Rescue team, search rubble in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ron Eden shows a photo of his annual vacation rental, which his family was in before they fled Hurricane Michael just before it hit, in front of the remnants of the home, in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

A picturesque view is seen through the window of a destroyed vacation home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump put a big and risky bet on Saudi Arabia and its 33-year-old crown prince. It's now become much riskier.

From the early days of his presidency, Trump and his foreign policy team embraced the kingdom and Mohammed bin Salman as the anchors of their entire Middle East strategy. From Iran and Iraq to Syria, Yemen and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the administration gambled that Saudi Arabia, effectively run by the prince, could credibly lead, and willingly pay for, a "Pax Arabica" in a part of the world from which Trump is keen to disengage.

For nearly two years, through an ongoing crisis with Qatar and international outrage over civilian casualties in the Saudi-led campaign against Yemeni rebels, the prince has managed to keep Washington's confidence. But now, the tide is turning amid growing outrage over the disappearance and likely death of a U.S.-based journalist inside a Saudi Consulate in Turkey, and that confidence appears to be waning. The Trump administration's grand strategy may be upended with far-reaching ramifications that extend well outside the region.

Even if an investigation into what happened to Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul exonerates the prince and the top Saudi leadership, the administration's deep reliance on him will be severely tested not least because of broad bipartisan revulsion in Congress to as-yet unconfirmed accounts of Khashoggi's fate. Already, prominent lawmakers from both parties are questioning his fitness to lead the country and suggesting it might be time to re-think U.S.-Saudi relations and sharply curb arms sales.

Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and other influential politicians warned of dire consequences on Tuesday, saying the prince, often known as MBS for short, should be removed from his post.

"This guy is a wrecking ball, he had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it, I feel used and abused," Graham said on "Fox and Friends." ''Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you could choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

FILE - In this May 20, 2017 file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump holds a sword and dances with traditional dancers during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are keen buyers of American weapons, using them in the Yemen War. The Trump administration says a proposed $110 billion deal would bolster the U.S. economy by creating tens of thousands of jobs and they do not want to risk that contract. But with Khashoggi feared dead, some want that transaction revisited. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump foe Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said the Khashoggi case "should trigger a fundamental review of the nature of the United States' alliance with the Saudis."

"As the new crown prince engages in increasingly reckless behavior, more and more of us are wondering whether our ally's actions are in our own best interests," he wrote in The Washington Post.

And Trump ally Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called the situation a "catastrophe" for the Saudis that will "alter the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia for the foreseeable future."

"This is a fear we've had for a long time is that the crown prince is a young and aggressive guy that would overestimate how much room he had to do things, would get over aggressive and overestimate his own capabilities and create a problem such as this," he said. He added that the situation was one that "would really blow apart our Middle Eastern strategy."

The impact of a U.S.-Saudi rift, however remote the possibility, could send shockwaves around the world, destabilizing oil markets and the global investment climate, not to mention dealing a blow to the Trump administration's own plans in the Middle East.

Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has made Saudi Arabia a centerpiece of his yet to be revealed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which is expected to call for massive Saudi and Gulf Arab contributions to fund reconstruction and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Saudi support will also be key to the political elements of the plan that Israel insists put its security on par with Palestinian statehood. That means that Israel will likely seek assurances that any deal with the Palestinians be followed by a broader agreement that normalizes its relations with the rest of the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia.

In Syria, the administration relied almost entirely on Saudi Arabia, along with the closely allied United Arab Emirates, to make up for steep cuts in U.S. stabilization assistance to areas liberated from Islamic militants. Next door in Iraq, the current secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, have leaned heavily on the Saudis to make large financial pledges for reconstruction of war-shattered communities.

But it is the administration's policy of isolating Iran that may suffer the most from Saudi-U.S. estrangement.

Trump is counting on the Saudis to shore up and complement its Iran policy on several fronts.

In Yemen, where the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition is fighting Iran-backed Houthi Shiite rebel insurgency, the effort to blunt Tehran's increasing assertiveness would be hurt by any reduction in American help.

In Syria, where Saudi stabilization funds are being used in part to prevent Iranian proxies from encroaching on communities previously held by the Islamic State group, a reduction in Saudi cooperation would allow Iran a freer hand. The same holds true in Iraq, where Saudi investment is seen as critical to prevent Iran from gaining more of a foothold than it has in the Shia majority state.

More importantly, the administration has been counting on Saudi Arabia to step in to prevent oil prices from skyrocketing once it re-imposes energy-related sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew. Those sanctions require countries to halt Iranian oil imports unless they receive a waiver or face penalties. Frosty relations with Washington may tempt Riyadh to cut back on any increase in oil supply to make up for the loss of Iranian crude.

Of course, Trump's bet could still pay off in the event the Khashoggi investigation is found to be credible and those responsible for his fate are held accountable, as Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Pompeo have all demanded. But with anti-Saudi sentiment running high in the corridors of power, Trump may find that going all in on the prince was a loser.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE - AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee has been covering U.S. foreign policy and international affairs since 1999.

___

This story has been corrected to show the senator's surname is Murphy, not Porter, and that Rubio is a Republican, not a Democrat.SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California Sen. Kevin de Leon tied U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Washington dysfunction during a Wednesday event and pledged to "fight like hell" for immigrants and other Californians if elected to replace her, while Feinstein crafted herself as a problem solver and argued resistance is futile with Republicans dominating Washington.

"It's like hitting your head against a concrete wall - you can march, you can filibuster, you can talk all night, it doesn't change anything," she said. "What changes things are elections."

The exchange represented the stylistic differences between the two Democrats. De Leon says Feinstein is too passive in today's political climate, while Feinstein argues her experience and steady hand is a boon to California.

But de Leon failed to land a winning moment during the hourlong discussion full of mostly polite disagreements. The two took questions from moderator Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California and engaged little with each other. De Leon hugged Feinstein after, seemingly to her surprise.

He's struggled to gain a foothold against Feinstein, and California Democrats are far more focused on winning U.S. House seats than they are on a safe Senate seat. California's primary system sends the two highest primary vote-getters to the general election regardless of party. She's far ahead of him in name recognition, polling and campaign cash.

Feinstein later told reporters she sees herself "in the center of the political spectrum" and hoped Republicans who didn't plan to vote in the election would change their minds.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, reaches to shake the hand of California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, after a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon. The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. Public Policy Institute of California CEO and debate monitor Mark Baldassare is seen at center. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

But de Leon repeatedly painted California as the breeding ground for progressive policies, noting his own role in authoring a "sanctuary state" law that restricts cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities and a law to move California toward 100 percent clean energy for electricity.

"Because of the lack of action in Washington, I've had to lead in California," he said.

Feinstein largely ignored his criticisms and instead trumpeted her work passing an assault weapons ban, which has since expired, and presented herself as a realist about what's achievable for Democrats. Several times she told him she agreed with his positions, attempting to stifle any room for contrast.

Perhaps his harshest criticism came on immigration. De Leon, the son of a Guatemalan woman who came to the United States illegally, noted that Feinstein voted for homeland security legislation that reconstituted federal migration agencies and created Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal department that detains immigrants living in the country illegally.

Feinstein said comprehensive immigration reform is one of her top priorities. She's introduced legislation to release parents and children together if they are caught at the border.

On health care, De Leon supports a "Medicare for all" plan that would extend the government health plan to all Americans. Feinstein favors a public option but does not support an entirely government-run health care program.

At 85, Feinstein is the oldest U.S. senator, but her age did not come up during the debate. De Leon, 51, did say it's time for a "new way of thinking" in Washington.

Feinstein has not appeared onstage with an opponent since the 2000 election; deLeon sought a more robust debate but agreed to the more tepid moderated conversation.

He treaded carefully around Feinstein's role in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He criticized her in September for failing to share allegations by California professor Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school. Ford sent Feinstein a letter detailing the allegations but asked her to keep it confidential.

Feinstein defended her actions and reminded the crowd of her long role in the women's movement.

"I've had a number of women come to me with allegations of sexual impropriety and when they've asked me to keep it confidential I have," she said.

The two agreed that if Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate the allegations against Kavanaugh should be reopened.

Likewise, Feinstein didn't criticize de Leon's handling of sexual misconduct allegations in the California capital. He was a Senate leader when nearly 150 women signed an open letter last year calling out a pervasive culture of harassment. Another senator who had been his roommate resigned after an investigation found he likely behaved inappropriately toward multiple women. De Leon has defended the Legislature's response.

___

Associated Press writers Jonathan J. Cooper, Sophia Bollag and Don Thompson contributed to this story.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., reacts after receiving a kiss from California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, after a debate Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Public Policy Institute of California CEO and debate monitor Mark Baldassare, center, applauds at the end of the debate between California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, left, and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon. The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Public Policy Institute of California CEO and debate monitor Mark Baldassare, left, watches as California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, embraces California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., at the end of a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon. The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, gestures while speaking during a debate with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon. The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., gestures while speaking to California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, during a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., gestures while speaking to California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, during a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., gestures while speaking to California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, during a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, gestures while speaking during a debate with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, gestures while speaking during a debate with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, smiles during a debate with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., smiles while speaking to California Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, during a debate on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in San Francisco. Feinstein shared the stage with an opponent for the first time since 2000 when she debated state Sen. Kevin de Leon.The two Democrats are facing off in the Nov. 6 election. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Some supporters of Alaska Gov. Bill Walker struggled Wednesday to understand the abrupt resignation of Walker's lieutenant governor and what that means for his re-election hopes.

Byron Mallott resigned Tuesday after what Walker, an independent, described as an "inappropriate overture to a woman," Walker spokesman Austin Baird said.

Walker campaign manager John-Henry Heckendorn said "as of today, the campaign is moving forward," with new Lt. Gov. Valerie Davidson as Walker's running mate. But he acknowledged the campaign was communicating with Walker's Democratic rival, Mark Begich.

Heckendorn declined to characterize the talks but has said they were prompted by concerns about the dynamics of a three-way race. Some Democrats and independents have worried Walker and Begich would split the vote, giving the race to Republican Mike Dunleavy.

Begich's campaign manager did not return messages.

Mallott, in his resignation letter, apologized. He has not returned a phone message. A huge "Walker Mallott" campaign sign still stood outside his house in Juneau.

File - In this Aug. 20, 2018 file photo, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, left, and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott sign forms at the Division of Elections office in Anchorage, Alaska after the two men submitted signatures to get their ticket on the November general election ballot. The governor of Alaska says Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has resigned over unspecified "inappropriate comments." The move upends what was already a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Bill Walker. Mallott's decision was announced Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, shortly after Walker participated in a debate in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

State Rep. Jason Grenn, an Anchorage independent and Walker supporter, said with early voting starting Monday, Alaskans want to hear from Walker on his plans.

"Everything in politics is timing," he said. The next few days "will be extremely critical for a lot of people on both sides to kind of see where the path to victory lies, if there is one still, for Gov. Walker."

Mallott's sudden departure was a blow to a ticket that grew out of political necessity in 2014. Walker and Mallott, who were both running for governor in 2014, decided their best shot at defeating Republican Gov. Sean Parnell was to join forces.

As part of that arrangement, backed by state Democrats, Walker changed his party affiliation from Republican to undeclared, and Mallott, an Alaska Native leader and Democrat, ran for lieutenant governor.

This year, after the state Democratic Party changed its rules to let independents run in its primaries, Walker flirted with that option, but backed out when it appeared Begich would run. Walker instead gathered signatures to qualify for the Nov. 6 ballot, ensuring he could run with Mallott.

Dunleavy, in a statement, said his campaign "remains focused on restoring trust in state government."

Beth Kerttula, a Juneau Democrat and former legislator, supported Walker and Mallott. She called the situation shocking and sad but praised Davidson as a "tremendous leader." She said uncertainty remains about what may happen next.

Before Tuesday's resignation, Stephen Gasche, a Juneau independent, was leaning toward Walker. On Wednesday, he said he was still undecided but leaning toward Begich. "This is why I don't vote early," he said via Facebook messenger.

Begich told Ketchikan public radio station KRBD that combining his campaign with Walker's was unlikely. But he said the dynamics of the race have shifted. "The question now, really, is the viability of campaigns," he said. "We've always believed we have a strong campaign."

Walker said it's too late for Mallott's name to be removed from the ballot. Heckendorn said if Walker wins, Davidson would be his lieutenant governor.

The Division of Elections said if Walker wins, Mallott technically would be re-elected. But given Mallott's resignation, Walker could able name a replacement.

Alaska's new lieutenant governor, Valerie Davidson, right, looks on as Gov. Bill Walker addresses a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Anchorage, Alaska. Davidson was sworn in Tuesday after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott resigned after the governor's office said he made "inappropriate comments." (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2015 file photo, Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott addresses a news conference in Anchorage, Alaska. The governor of Alaska says Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has resigned over unspecified "inappropriate comments." The move upends what was already a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Bill Walker. Mallott's decision was announced Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, shortly after Walker participated in a debate in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker looks on while the state's new lieutenant governor, Valerie Davidson, addresses a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Anchorage, Alaska. Davidson was sworn in Tuesday after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott resigned after the governor's office said he made "inappropriate comments." (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)

FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2017, file photo, Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, right, speaks with reporters as Alaska Gov. Bill Walker listens in Juneau, Alaska. The governor of Alaska says Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott has resigned over unspecified "inappropriate comments." The move upends what was already a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Bill Walker. Mallott's decision was announced Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, shortly after Walker participated in a debate in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)

File - In this Jan. 17, 2017 file photo, Alaska Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott presides over the opening day of the Alaska Legislature in Juneau, Alaska. The governor of Alaska says Mallott has resigned over unspecified "inappropriate comments." The move upends what was already a difficult re-election fight for Gov. Bill Walker. Mallott's decision was announced Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, shortly after Walker participated in a debate in Anchorage. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)

Alaska's new lieutenant governor, Valerie Davidson, right, addresses a news conference Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Anchorage, Alaska, as Gov. Bill Walker looks on. Davidson was sworn in Tuesday after former Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott resigned after the governor's office said he made "inappropriate comments." (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)WASHINGTON (AP) - They're asking pastors to text their congregants about the importance of voting. They're connecting with thousands of Puerto Ricans displaced by Hurricane Maria. And they're relying on groups like the NAACP, which has tripled its spending from 2016 to energize black voters.

Less than three weeks before Election Day, Democrats are sparing nothing to make sure their voters head to the polls. It's all part of an effort to avoid the disappointment of previous elections when low turnout dashed high expectations.

"2016 was a low point for a lot of us," said Jamal Watkins, vice president of engagement at the NAACP. "People have awakened and said, 'Wait a minute, we can't lose, and we can't lose like this.' Folks are fired up to reinvest in turnout."

Younger voters and voters of color tend to stay home in non-presidential elections, making the midterm electorate older, whiter and more Republican-tilting. But that could change this year, Democrats and outside groups say, if unprecedented efforts to reach so-called infrequent voters galvanize people who previously sat on the sidelines.

Democrats have reason for optimism: The party saw strong turnout in nearly a dozen federal special elections ahead of the midterms, with Democratic candidates consistently outperforming Republicans.

But the organizing flurry comes amid concerns over ballot access and election security, which have become a flashpoint in the high-profile gubernatorial race in Georgia. There is also mounting anxiety about whether efforts to mobilize Latino voters will translate into votes, particularly in several key races in heavily Latino districts.

In this Aug. 24, 2018 photo, Betty L. Petty of Sunflower County Parents and Students United, addresses a meeting of the Black Voters Matter Fund and several Mississippi grassroots organizations at MACE, Mississippi Action for Community Education, headquarters in Greenville, Miss. Democrats and Democratic-affiliated groups are making strategic shifts to ensure that in November the party avoids a problem that has bedeviled it in years past: low turnout in off-year elections. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The party is spending big to ward against such threats.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party's arm focused on House races, is spending more than $25 million in 45 battleground districts to mobilize female voters, millennials, African-Americans and Hispanics, officials said. That's a far more significant investment than past cycles.

The committee is putting an emphasis on turning out African-American women, including running advertising focused on black women ages 18-39 in more than 40 districts. The DCCC has also run Spanish-language TV and radio ads across the country.

Between field efforts and paid media, voters of color in targeted swing districts will have heard from the DCCC more than 100 times in the closing 60 days of the election. And in a twist, some of the outreach this year will be facilitated by local community leaders instead of anonymous politicos.

"As an example of the local voter contact and text messaging program that we are doing, we are partnering with a series of pastors and local validators across the country," said DCCC Executive Director Dan Sena. "When you're getting a text message saying 'hey - early vote's starting,' you're not getting it from someone in Washington D.C. You're actually getting it from somebody in Georgia that has a big delegation, or you're getting it from someone on campus that you know."

The Democratic National Committee also beefed up its voter database, purchasing 94 million cellphone numbers, according to a DNC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal strategy. The official said the additional cell phone numbers have helped with voter contact in key races across the country, including encouraging sporadic voters to participate.

Republicans say they have their own well-organized, well-funded turnout machine that dwarfs Democrats' efforts.

A Republican National Committee aide said the organization has raised more than $270 million this cycle, invested in 28 states, more than 540 paid staffers and thousands of volunteers focused on turning out Republicans who don't vote often and swing voters who participate more frequently. The committee raised more than $163 million during roughly the same period ahead of the 2014 midterms. The aide said the RNC has made more than 50 million voter contacts, either over the phone or by going door-to-door

The Democratic organization effort goes beyond the traditional party structure.

NextGen America, the advocacy group backed by billionaire environmentalist and donor Tom Steyer, is injecting more money into a closing push to rally young voters. The group will spend more than $4 million on digital ads across 11 states, targeting more than 4.3 million young voters. NextGen is also running the first political ads on Twitch, a popular video streaming service, as well as places like Reddit, Spotify and Pandora.

"Young people in general feel like they've really been shut out of the system," said Aleigha Cavalier, a spokeswoman for NextGen America. "Our goal with digital is to find a message that works for them and actually put it where their eyeballs will see it."

The Human Rights Campaign's Equality Votes PAC launched a more than $2 million campaign across eight key races spanning digital, direct mail, text and phone voter contact.

The NAACP's campaign is targeting more than 5 million "infrequent" black voters, including in the key states of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, in a $6 million voter mobilization push, up from $2 million spent on mobilization in 2016. The push includes upward of 20 staffers focused on mobilizing black voters, the majority of those, according to Watkins, working in key states with thousands of on-the-ground volunteers.

In Georgia, the organization is targeting more than 700,000 "infrequent" voters. In Florida, the number swells to more than 900,000.

The NAACP is not the only group that's boosting its turnout effort. The AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, also shifted its strategy. Julie Greene, who is leading the union's mobilization efforts, said that in 2014 and 2016, the union experimented with an independent expenditure program that had more of a focus on the general public, rather than the union's member-to-member program. The union found that its members had not turned out in support of labor-endorsed candidates at the same levels as in the past.

The union now hopes to increase turnout among its members by 5 percent, up from 57 percent in 2014. But it is also investing significantly in mobilizing Hispanic and African-American voters. Last week, the union announced plans to air ads on African-American and Spanish-language radio in 26 media markets. The buy is in the high six figures, according to an AFL-CIO official, and will air in English and Spanish through the November election.

"With so many seats being up, what we knew was every vote was going to count," Greene said. "As a person of color, a young African-American woman, it was important for me to make sure with the resources we were putting out there, we were also reaching out to those communities who are our strongest allies: Those were brown and black communities."KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A Taliban bombing in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province killed a candidate running in the parliamentary elections this weekend, a provincial official said, as attacks elsewhere in the country killed six policemen and two soldiers.

The attacks came as the Taliban warned teachers and students not to participate in the vote and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers. The insurgents said in a statement that they will target Saturday's elections, which they view as illegitimate, but that they do not want to harm civilians.

The blast in Helmand went off inside the campaign office of Abdul Jabar Qahraman, killing him and wounding seven people, said Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The bomb appeared to have been hidden in a sofa, Zwak said. The Taliban promptly claimed responsibility for killing Qahraman.

Qahraman had served as a general during the Soviet-backed the communist regime in Afghanistan in 1980s and was also a former lawmaker. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had previously given him the task to secure Helmand but he later stepped down as regional security adviser.

Militant attacks have killed six other candidates, both before and after the 20-day campaign period started. Two candidates have been abducted, their fates unknown, and three others have been wounded in violence.

Afghan police stand guard at a checkpoint ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20, at the Independent Election Commission compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

The Taliban oppose democratic elections, viewing them as an imposition by foreign powers. The group has been fighting Afghan and NATO forces for more than 17 years in hopes of restoring its brand of harsh Islamic rule.

In recent years, the Taliban and also the Islamic State group have carried out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting the Afghan government and security forces. The insurgents have seized control of several districts across the country.

Early on Wednesday, the Taliban attacked checkpoints in the northern Baghlan province, killing six policemen and wounding two others in a four-hour battle, according to provincial police chief Gen. Ekramuddin Sarih. He said around 10 insurgents were killed. There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Also, in eastern Maidan Wardak province, a suicide car bomber targeted a military vehicle, killing two army troops, said Hekmat Durani, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Durani said that Abdul Razeq, the commander of an army battalion, was wounded in Wednesday's attack in Chek district. He said that the commander was inspecting an ongoing operation when his vehicle was targeted by a suicide car bomber.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban are also active in the province.

In other violence, a bomb accidently detonated inside a local Taliban commander's home in western Herat province, killing five people - four men and a woman. Gelani Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor, said two other women were wounded in the blast late Wednesday afternoon in Push Koh district.

The victims were all family members and relatives, he added. It was unclear if the Taliban commander was also killed.

___

Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to say that the election campaign in Afghanistan lasted 20 days, not 30 days.

Afghan National army soldiers search a car at a checkpoint ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20, at the Independent Election Commission compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

A campaign bus is covered with posters of parliamentary candidate, Dr. Abdul Baqi Ameen, ahead of Parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20, during a campaign rally in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The Latest on the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month (all times local):

3:45 a.m.

The Washington Post has published a new column by Jamal Khashoggi in which he warns that governments in the Middle East "have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate."

The Post published the column Wednesday, more than two weeks after Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say he was killed by Saudi agents. The Saudi government has denied it.

Post Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah says she received the column from Khashoggi's assistant a day after he was reported missing.

Khashoggi writes that actions like imprisoning journalists and seizing control of newspapers "no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community." He says, "Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation followed by silence."

A Turkish police officer walks inside the property of the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi as Turkish police conducted a search after the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just as America's top diplomat arrived in the country for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

President Donald Trump has suggested that the global community has jumped to conclusions that Saudi Arabia is behind Khashoggi's disappearance.

___

1:30 a.m.

The Washington Post plans to publish a new column by missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi in which he discusses the importance of a free press in the Middle East.

The WashPost PR Blog says Khashoggi filed the column just before he disappeared. It will be published online Wednesday night in the U.S.

Khashoggi was a Post Global Opinions contributor who had written opinion pieces critical of the Saudi crown prince. He was last seen Oct. 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

Turkish officials have claimed Saudi agents killed and dismembered him. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations, but provided no evidence he left the consulate.

The Post also plans to publish a page dedicated to Khashoggi in its opinions section Thursday.

___

11:25 p.m. Wednesday

America's top military officer has met with Saudi Arabia's defense chief amid deteriorating relations between the two nations after the disappearance and apparent death of a Saudi journalist who lived in the U.S.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Wednesday with Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwayli, Saudi Arabia's chief of the general staff.

The meeting comes amid accusations that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured and killed two weeks ago while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

Asked Tuesday if the Khashoggi matter would come up during the meeting, Dunford declined to say. He said it's premature to say if Khashoggi's disappearance will have an impact on U.S. military relations with Saudi Arabia.

___

5:30 p.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says America takes the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi "seriously."

Pompeo made the comments to journalists after leaving Turkey on Wednesday during a quick visit that included a talk with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Pompeo said Erdogan "made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in and they are going to share information."

Asked if he heard or asked to hear audio of Khashoggi's alleged slaying, he said: "I don't have anything to say about that." A State Department spokeswoman later said Pompeo had not heard any such audio.

Pompeo stressed that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have important links, including working on countering Iran.

However, he said: "If a country engages in activity that is unlawful, it's unacceptable. No one is going to defend activity of that nature. They need to simply say what happened."

___

4:45 p.m.

Turkish police have arrived at the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul to conduct a search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi.

The police arrived Wednesday at the home.

They had wanted to search Tuesday night but did not have permission from Saudi Arabia.

The search comes after investigators searched the consulate earlier this week.

___

3:50 p.m.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is putting a planned trip to Saudi Arabia on hold pending the outcome of an investigation into the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Maas told reporters Wednesday that, "regarding my travel plans ... we will wait for the time being."

He called the case "extremely worrying ... and disturbing" and demanded a complete and quick clarification of what has happened to Khashoggi.

Khashoggi vanished Oct. 2 during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and Turkish officials have claimed Saudi agents killed and dismembered the Washington Post columnist.

Maas says once the Saudi government makes an expected statement, "we'll use that as an opportunity to consider again if a trip to Saudi Arabia at this time makes sense or not."

___

Noon

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has met Turkey's president and foreign minister over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

No details were immediately released about the talks Wednesday between Pompeo and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The three posed for photos before their meetings, but said nothing in front of journalists. Pompeo held separate meetings with Erdogan and Cavusoglu, each lasting around 40 minutes.

Pompeo had just come from Riyadh, where he spoke Tuesday with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi went missing on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say they fear Saudi agents killed and dismembered him. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations, but provided no evidence he left the consulate.

___

11 a.m.

Turkey says it is awaiting final permission from Saudi Arabia to search the home of the Saudi consul in Istanbul as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told the state-run Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has "accepted" a request for a search of the official residence but had not yet given its final consent.

Soylu said: "As soon as (Saudi Arabia) gives the consent, steps will be taken toward investigating."

Turkish forensic teams earlier this week searched the consulate building where Khashoggi was last seen entering two weeks ago. A senior official told The Associated Press that investigators had found more evidence indicating that the journalist was killed there.

___

9:45 a.m.

A strongly pro-government Turkish newspaper has published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Yeni Safak on Wednesday cited what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi's slaying, which it said showed the Washington Post columnist was tortured.

The newspaper said Saudi Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those allegedly torturing Khashoggi: "Do this outside; you're going to get me in trouble."

The newspaper said one of the Saudis torturing Khashoggi replied: "Shut up if you want to live when you return to (Saudi) Arabia."

Saudi officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press in recent days. The kingdom has previously denied allegations that Khashoggi was killed.

Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Khashoggi's case, adding to the pressure on the kingdom.

___

9:40 a.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has landed in Turkey to discuss the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi with authorities there.

Pompeo arrived in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on Wednesday after visiting Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the day before.

Before leaving Riyadh, Pompeo said the kingdom promised a "transparent investigation."

Asked if that would include members of the royal family, he said: "They made no exceptions on who they would hold accountable."

Khashoggi vanished Oct. 2 during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say Saudi agents killed and dismembered the Washington Post columnist, who had written opinion pieces critical of the crown prince. Saudi Arabia initially called the allegation "baseless," but reportedly may acknowledge Khashoggi's slaying, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.

___

6:45 a.m.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Saudi Arabia told him their investigation into the disappearance and alleged killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi won't spare anyone, including royals.

Pompeo told journalists Wednesday morning before flying to Turkey that the kingdom promised a "transparent investigation."

Pompeo said: "They made a commitment to hold anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found accountable for that, whether they are a senior officer or official."

Asked if that would include members of the royal family, America's top diplomat said: "They made no exceptions on who they would hold accountable."

Khashoggi vanished Oct. 2 on a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say Saudi officials killed and dismembered The Washington Post columnist.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shake hands before a meeting at the Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. (Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry via AP)

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, right, and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shake hands before a talks at the Esenboga Airport in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.(Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo shakes hands with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu before their talks in Ankara, Turkey, October 17, 2018. On Wednesday a pro-government Turkish newspaper published a report made from what they described as an audio recording of Saudi writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi's alleged torture and slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu before their official talks in Ankara, Turkey, October 17, 2018. On Wednesday a pro-government Turkish newspaper published a report made from what they described as an audio recording of Saudi writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi's alleged torture and slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

Security officials secure an entrance as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. On Wednesday a pro-government Turkish newspaper published a report made from what they described as an audio recording of Saudi writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi's alleged torture and slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union leaders gave themselves several more weeks - perhaps until the end of the year - to clinch a friendly divorce with Britain before their separation, after a Brexit summit Wednesday avoided any friction but also produced no tangible results.

British Prime Minister Theresa May provided none of the substantial new proposals that EU Council chief Donald Tusk had urged her to bring to the table, giving the 27 other leaders little more than a plea for goodwill.

"The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides," May told her EU counterparts.

Officials said there were hints that Britain might consider extending a post-Brexit transition period beyond the proposed 21 months to make talks on a future trade relationship easier.

But the meeting that had been painted as a make-or-break moment for a Brexit deal ended with a whimper.

"Nothing new tonight," Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after an evening when not exacerbating divisions with Britain was seen as a victory in itself.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, hugs Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, as they meet in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier said that "we need much time, much more time, and we continue to work in the next weeks" with his British counterpart.

So uncertain was that prospect that a special EU summit on Brexit that had been penciled in for next month to finalize a deal was taken off the table. Rutte said EU leaders would assess the situation in the coming weeks and "stand ready to meet if necessary." The next official EU summit is scheduled for December.

Despite the lack of progress, the mood music at the summit was positive. May spoke of "working intensively over the next days and weeks" to achieve agreement that avoids a no-deal departure from the bloc for Britain on March 29 that could create chaos at the borders and in the economy. A deal must be sealed soon so parliaments have time to give their verdict on it.

Underscoring the newfound sense of non-urgency, Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz of Austria, which holds the rotating EU presidency, even spoke of the "coming weeks and months" to get a deal and sought to impose a soothing calm.

"There's no need to dramatize matters. It's always the case with negotiations, that in the end there are challenges," Kurz said.

May addressed other EU leaders before they gathered for a dinner of pan-fried mushrooms and turbot in wheat beer - without her - to assess the state of Brexit talks. The British leader urged her counterparts to redouble efforts to find the way to a deal, but European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said she did offer them concrete new proposals.

"Politically speaking, a will was expressed to move forward and reach agreement but there was nothing substantively new in terms of content," Tajani told reporters.

May spoke a day after Tusk implored her to present new ideas for resolving the tricky problem of how to keep the land border between the Republic of Ireland and the U.K.'s Northern Ireland friction-free once Britain no longer is an EU member.

Tusk advised May that "creative" thinking from Britain was required to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, the issue that has brought Brexit negotiations to a standstill.

Both sides agree there must be no hard border, but each has rejected the other side's solution.

At present the two sides are proposing that Britain remains inside the EU single market and is still bound by its rules from the time it leaves the bloc in March until December 2020, to give time for new trade relations to be set up.

Many suspect that will not be enough time, which has led the EU to demand a "backstop" to ensure there are no customs posts or other controls along the currently invisible border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

EU leaders have recently suggested that the transition period, currently due to end in December 2020, could be extended by a year to provide more time for a trade deal to be forged that would make the backstop unnecessary.

Britain says it has not asked for an extension - but didn't rule it out Wednesday.

The summit continues Thursday with an agenda limited to some issues both sides firmly agree on, including fighting cybercrime and dealing with an assertive Russia.

Reaching agreement with the bloc is only part of the British leader's problem. She will have to get any deal past her Conservative Party - split between "hard" and "soft" Brexit factions - and past her parliamentary allies in Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, who insist a solution can't include customs checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

It must also be approved by Britain's Parliament, where May lacks an overall majority.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite said that 2  years after Britain's Brexit referendum, the country had still not explained clearly how it wants to leave the EU.

"Today, we do not know what they want," she said. "They do not know themselves what they really want. That is the problem."

___

Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this story.

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, arrive for a photo opportunity as they meet in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, right, talks to EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier prior a weekly meeting at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

A woman touches an European Union flag during an anti Brexit protest outside the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

European Council President Donald Tusk touches his eyebrow after delivering a statement during a joint news conference following a Tripartite Social Summit roundtable at the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Ministers' Questions session in parliament, in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. May will head to Brussels later Wednesday for a meeting with European Union leaders for what is widely billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A pro-EU demonstrator holds up an EU flag to oncoming traffic outside the Palace of Westminster as the British government holds a cabinet meeting on Brexit inside 10 Downing Street, London, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. The Brexit agreement must be sealed in the coming weeks to leave enough time for relevant parliaments to ratify it, but talks continue, particularly over how to ensure no physical border dividing the UK from Northern Ireland and the EU member state of Ireland. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech on the Europe-Britain 'Brexit' negotiations and the upcoming meeting of European leaders in Brussels during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A demonstrator protests in front of parliament in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May will head to Brussels later Wednesday to meet with European Union leaders for what is widely billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A demonstrator protests in front of parliament in London, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May will head to Brussels later Wednesday to meet with European Union leaders for what is widely billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A woman holds a Britain flag as she shouts slogans during an anti Brexit protest outside the European Council headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani arrives for a meeting of the European People's Party EPP in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)BERLIN (AP) - Germany's federal prosecutor's office has taken over the investigation into a bloody hostage taking in the western city of Cologne amid concerns that it was connected to Islamic extremism.

The office, which handles terrorism and national security cases in Germany, said Wednesday in a statement that the 55-year-old Syrian citizen - abbreviated to Mohammad A.R. as German authorities never release the last names of suspects - is charged with attempted murder in two cases and serious bodily harm.

Though it said there was "sufficient evidence" to connect the incident to "a radical-Islamist background," it said it had not yet found enough evidence to classify the attack as a terror attack.

The suspect is accused of entering a fast food restaurant Monday inside Cologne's train station, pouring fire starter on the floor and setting it alight, injuring two people.

A 14-year-old girl was operated on Tuesday for severe burns while the other injured party was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene.

After the incident, the suspect is alleged to have moved to a nearby pharmacy where he took an employee hostage. After about two hours, police stormed the shop, shooting the suspect several times. The hostage was also injured, but it isn't clear how and she has been released from hospital.

Special police operate outside the Cologne, western Germany, train station Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Cologne police closed parts of the western German city's main train station after a man took a woman hostage in a pharmacy inside. (Oliver Berg/dpa via AP)

During the standoff, the suspect made several demands to authorities, prompting the terrorism investigation, prosecutors said.

In addition to demanding the release of a woman whose husband was active in terrorist activities, prosecutors wrote he "also claimed to be a member of the so-called Islamic State and wanted to travel to Syria."

Prosecutors are now trying to determine whether the suspect, who came to Germany in 2015 and was granted asylum, "committed the attack as a member of the IS or another terrorist group or whether he, immediately before or while the attack, was in contact to or under the influence of a terror group."

They are also investigating if the suspect had any accomplices.VATICAN CITY (AP) - South Korea's president said he was certain peace could be achieved on the Korean Peninsula as he prepared for an audience Thursday with Pope Francis where he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for Francis to visit.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivered remarks at a Wednesday evening "Mass for Peace" in St. Peter's Basilica. The pope's top diplomat, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, celebrated the Mass.

In his homily, Parolin prayed for the "gift of peace" on the Korean Peninsula so "after so many years of tensions and division, the word 'peace' can ring out fully."

Moon spoke at the end of the service, saying the prayers offered there "will also resound as echoes of hope in the hearts of the people of the two Koreas as well as the people of the whole world who desire peace."

"Our prayers today will turn into reality for sure," the South Korean leader said. "We will achieve peace and overcome division without fail."

Moon signed a broad agreement with Kim last month meant to reduce military tensions on the peninsula. Moon's office has reported that during their summit, Kim said the pope would be "enthusiastically" welcomed in North Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivers a speech at the end of a Mass for peace inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Moon also had an important role in setting up a June meeting between Kim and President Donald Trump that took place in Singapore, where they announced aspirational goals for a nuclear-free peninsula without describing how and when it would occur.

"Just as your holiness prayed before the U.S.-North Korea summit, we are paving a desirable way toward assuring a peaceful future for the Korean Peninsula and the world," Moon said.

"The history of mankind has been marked by the embarrassment that is war. The signing of an end of war declaration and a peace treaty in the Korean Peninsula would dismantle the earth's last-remaining Cold War regime."

In an article that appeared in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, Moon praised Francis for his promotion of dialogue and said he hoped the Korean peace initiative could help the Vatican forge relations with the North.

Moon, who is Catholic, wrote that when he traveled to Pyongyang in September for the summit, he was joined by a Korean Catholic bishop to try to improve relations between the church in North and South.

"In recent months, the pope's prayer and blessing have given the Korean people great encouragement and hope on the path to peace," Moon said.

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.

Francis, however, has taken a less-absolutist approach in the Holy See's diplomacy, as evidenced by a recent deal over bishop nominations signed with China, North Korea's closest ally. Previous popes refused to cut a deal with China's communist leaders, who allow religious practice only in state-sanctioned churches.

The Vatican's 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.

Following an unusually provocative run of weapons tests last year, Kim has been on a diplomatic offensive, which included three summits with Moon and the one with Trump.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook, second from left, sit inside St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass for Peace celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, right, listens to South Korean President Moon Jae-in delivering a speech at the end of a Mass for peace inside St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, left, walks past South Korean President Moon Jae-in, second from left, and his wife Kim Jung-sook, third from left, as he arrives to celebrate a Mass for Peace in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook, second from left, sit inside St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass for Peace celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to prepare to deliver a speech at the end of a Mass for peace in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

South Korean president Moon Jae-in arrives in St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass for Peace celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

South Korean President Moon Jae-in, right, sits inside St. Peter's Basilica for a Mass for Peace celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A South Korean presidential security guard walks in side St. Peter's Basilica prior to the start of a mass for Peace celebrated by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and attended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife Kim Jung-sook at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. South Korea's president is in Italy for a series of meetings that will culminate with an audience with Pope Francis at which he's expected to extend an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to visit. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)BEIJING (AP) - Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. said it signed an agreement Wednesday to secure land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead with development despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions.

Tesla, based on Palo Alto, California, announced plans for the Shanghai factory in July after the Chinese government said it would end restrictions on full foreign ownership of electric vehicle makers to speed up industry development.

Those plans have gone ahead despite tariff hikes by Washington and Beijing on billions of dollars of each other's goods in a dispute over Chinese technology policy. U.S. imports targeted by Beijing's penalties include electric cars.

China is the biggest global electric vehicle market and Tesla's second-largest after the United States.

Tesla joins global automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and Nissan Motor Corp. that are pouring billions of dollars into manufacturing electric vehicles in China.

Local production would eliminate risks from tariffs and other import controls. It would help Tesla develop parts suppliers to support after service and make its vehicles more appealing to mainstream Chinese buyers.

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2015, file photo, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., talks about the Model X car at the company's headquarters, in Fremont, Calif. Electric auto brand Tesla Inc. says it has secured land in Shanghai for its first factory outside the United States, pushing ahead despite mounting U.S.-Chinese trade tensions. The company said it signed an agreement on a 210-acre (84-hectare) site. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Tesla said it signed a "land transfer agreement" on a 210-acre (84-hectare) site in the Lingang district in southeastern Shanghai.

That is "an important milestone for what will be our next advanced, sustainably developed manufacturing site," Tesla's vice president of worldwide sales, Robin Ren, said in a statement.

Shanghai is a center of China's auto industry and home to state-owned Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp., the main local manufacturer for GM and VW.

Tesla said earlier that production in Shanghai would begin two to three years after construction of the factory begins and eventually increase to 500,000 vehicles annually.

Tesla has yet to give a price tag but the Shanghai government said it would be the biggest foreign investment there to date. The company said in its second-quarter investor letter that construction is expected to begin within the next few quarters, with significant investment coming next year. Much of the cost will be funded with "local debt" the letter said.

Tesla's $5 billion Nevada battery factory was financed with help from a $1.6 billion investment by battery maker Panasonic Corp.

Analysts expect Tesla to report a loss of about $200 million for the three months ending Sept. 30 following the previous quarter's $742.7 million loss. Its CEO Elon Musk said in a Sept. 30 letter to U.S. securities regulators that the company is "very close to achieving profitability."

Tesla's estimated sales in China of under 15,000 vehicles in 2017 gave it a market share of less than 3 percent.

The company faces competition from Chinese brands including BYD Auto and BAIC Group that already sell tens of thousands of hybrid and pure-electric sedans and SUVs annually.

Until now, foreign automakers that wanted to manufacture in China were required to work through state-owned partners. Foreign brands balked at bringing electric vehicle technology into China to avoid having to share it with potential future competitors.

The first of the new electric models being developed by global automakers to hit the market, Nissan's Sylphy Zero Emission, began rolling off a production line in southern China in August.

Lower-priced electric models from GM, Volkswagen and other global brands are due to hit the market starting this year, well before Tesla is up and running in Shanghai.

____

Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report from Mountain View, California.MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on the deadly explosion at a college in Crimea (all times local):

9:40 p.m.

Officials in Crimea say the casualty toll at a vocational school shooting in Kerch now stands at 19 dead and more than 50 wounded, many of them severely.

Sergei Astrankin, the director of emergency medicine for Crimea, was cited by Russian state television as saying the death toll from Wednesday's attack had risen to 19. The shooter, who committed suicide afterward, apparently was not included in that number.

Crimea's regional chief, Sergei Aksyonov, told the state news channel Rossiya-24 that 53 people were wounded in the Kerch attack, 12 of whom are now in serious condition.

___

Policemen stand near the vocational college, in Kerch, Crimea, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. An explosive device has killed several people and injured at least 50 others at a vocational college in Crimea Wednesday in what Russian officials have called a possible terrorist attack. (Kerch Info News via AP)

8 p.m.

Russian officials says an 18-year-old student attacked his vocational school in Crimea, going on a rampage that killed 17 students and left more than 40 people wounded before killing himself.

One student says the shooting Wednesday went on for at least 15 minutes.

Russia's Investigative Committee, the nation's top investigative agency, said the attacker was caught on security cameras entering Kerch Polytechnic College in the Black Sea city of Kerch and firing at students. It identified him as Vladislav Roslyakov. It said all the victims died of gunshot wounds.

Sergei Aksyonov, the regional leader in Crimea, said the fourth-year student at the school had acted alone and killed himself in the school's library after the attack.

___

3:45 p.m.

Russia's top investigative body says it has identified the man who opened fire in a college in a Crimean town, killing 18 people and wounding more than 40.

The Investigative Committee said an 18-year old student identified as Vladislav Roslyakov arrived at the vocational college in Kerch early Wednesday afternoon with a rifle and opened fire. The investigators said all the victims have died of gunshot wounds.

The investigators had earlier put out a statement saying an improvised explosive device went off in the college..

The investigators cited CCTTV footage showing that the man opened fire on people and later killed himself. The investigators said they will now treat the incident as a mass murder and not as a terrorist attack.

___

3:40 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the attack on a college in Crimea was a tragedy and offered condolences to the victims' families.

Putin, speaking Wednesday after talks with his visiting Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, said investigators are looking into the circumstances of the attack and its motives.

He promised that the government will do everything necessary to help those wounded.

The top official in Crimea said 18 people were killed and over 40 wounded in Wednesday's attack on the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea. He said a student of the college was the sole attacker and killed himself.

___

3:35 p.m.

The top official in Crimea says 18 people have died and more than 40 have been wounded in an attack on a college in the Black Sea peninsula launched by one of its students.

Sergei Aksyonov, the regional leader in Crimea, said that the student killed himself after the attack. He didn't name the man, saying only he was a local resident and was acting alone.

Aksyonov's statement follows Russian officials' report that an explosive device ripped through the college in Kerch in eastern Crimea in a suspected terrorist attack.

Russian media reported that an unidentified gunman or gunmen attacked the college. Russian officials wouldn't confirm those reports.

___

3:20 p.m.

The top Russian official for Crimea says the attacker at a Crimean vocational college was a student at the school who has killed himself.

The comments by Sergei Aksyonov were the latest in a series of shifting explanations by Russian officials as to what killed 13 people and wounded 50 others Wednesday at the college in the Black Sea city of Kerch.

Aksyonov said on state television that the attacker was a fourth-year student at the vocational school who killed himself after the attack. He didn't name the man, saying only that he was a local resident.

Russia's top investigative agency says an explosive device rigged with metal fragments caused the carnage at the school. Yet Russian news media reported that at least some of the victims died in an attack by an unidentified gunman or gunmen.

___

2:55 p.m.

Russia's top investigative agency says an explosive device rigged with metal fragments has killed 13 people at a college in Crimea.

The Russian Investigative Committee's spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, said the device went off Wednesday in the canteen of a vocational college in the Black Sea city of Kerch. She said most of the victims were students and more than 50 people were injured as a result of the explosion.

Yet Russian news media, however, reported that at least some of the victims died in an attack by an unidentified gunman or gunmen. Russian officials wouldn't confirm those reports.

Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that officials are looking into a possible terrorist attack. He did not elaborate.

___

1:50 p.m.

The Kremlin says the blast at a college in Crimea that killed at least 10 people could have been a terror attack.

Authorities say that at least ten people have been killed and more than 50 injured as a result of the explosion at a vocational college in the Black Sea city of Kerch.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that officials are looking into a possible terrorist attack. He did not elaborate.

Peskov said Putin has instructed investigators and intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough probe and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

___

1:45 p.m.

Russia's counter-terrorism agency says the blast that killed 10 people at a college in Crimea was triggered by an explosive device.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement that the blast at the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea was caused by an unidentified explosive device.

It said about 50 others were wounded, but gave no further details.

Earlier, emergency officials said the blast was caused by a gas canister explosion.

The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and Russia's health minister, have headed to the area.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that triggered Western sanctions.

___

1 p.m.

Russian news agencies say that up to 10 people may have been killed and at least 40 others wounded by a natural gas explosion at a college in Crimea.

The gas canister explosion is said to have occurred Wednesday at the vocational college in the city of Kerch in eastern Crimea, according to local emergency officials.

The Interfax news agency cited local officials as saying up to 10 people might have been killed and about 40 others might have been injured by the blast.

The cause of the explosion wasn't immediately clear.

Russia has annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that triggered Western sanctions.

In this image made from video, showing the scene as emergency services load an injured person onto a truck, in Kerch, Crimea, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. An explosive device has killed several people and injured at least 50 others at a vocational college in Crimea Wednesday in what Russian officials have called a possible terrorist attack. (Kerch FM News via AP) KERCH.FM LOGO CANNOT BE OBSCURED

In this image made from video, showing the scene as emergency services load an injured person onto a truck, in Kerch, Crimea, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. An explosive device has killed several people and injured at least 50 others at a vocational college in Crimea Wednesday in what Russian officials have called a possible terrorist attack. (Kerch FM News via AP) KERCH.FM LOGO CANNOT BE OBSCURED

In this image made from video, showing the scene as emergency services load an injured person onto a truck, in Kerch, Crimea, Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. An explosive device has killed several people and injured at least 50 others at a vocational college in Crimea Wednesday in what Russian officials have called a possible terrorist attack. (Kerch FM News via AP) KERCH.FM LOGO CANNOT BE OBSCUREDPARIS (AP) - French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has built a career on his firebrand oratory. But the 2017 presidential candidate's famously acid tongue has now landed him in trouble, with prosecutors going after the leader of the France Unbowed party for verbally savaging anti-corruption investigators.

Melenchon, 67, was captured on video Tuesday losing his cool when police officers and a prosecutor raided his Paris party headquarters, seeking evidence for judicial probes into election and party financing. He angrily shouted "I am the Republic" and "kick down the doors, comrades!" before pushing an investigator.

The Paris prosecutor's office announced Wednesday that legal proceedings have been opened against Melenchon for intimidation and violence.

Melenchon accused the government of deliberately targeting him, calling the raid "a politically motivated act. An act of political aggression."

The politician, born in Morocco, also blamed the explosive reaction on his roots in an interview with BFMTV: "I've the right to get annoyed. I'm Mediterranean."

Melenchon's outburst - notably saying "My person is sacred" and "No one can touch me" - became an instant viral hit on social media in France. Melenchon was making the argument that his status as an elected lawmaker meant he should not be manhandled.

FILE - In this April 14, 2018 file photo, French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon takes part to a protest against French President Emmanuel Macron's government reforms, in Marseille, southern France. The Paris prosecutor says that legal proceedings have been opened against France's firebrand far-left leader Jean Luc Melenchon for intimidation and violence against anti-corruption investigators .(AP Photo/Claude Paris, File)

The politician, who has been an innovator in French politics with his use of video and social media, filmed himself during the raid and posted it live online.

His France Unbowed party isn't the only one in France whose finances are being scrutinized. The far-right party of Marine Le Pen also is under investigation over its use of European parliamentary funds. Melenchon last year criticized Le Pen for not cooperating with investigators.

In the National Assembly Tuesday, Le Pen made the surprising move of throwing her support behind Melenchon, her political and ideological archrival.BRUSSELS (AP) - The Latest on Britain's upcoming exit from the European Union (all times local):

11:00 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has told her 27 European Union counterparts that the U.K. and the EU both need to show "courage, trust and leadership" to settle their remaining differences and strike a divorce deal.

May addressed fellow national leaders at a Brussels summit on Wednesday. She stressed the strong bonds between Britain and the bloc and the progress made by their negotiating teams before the other leaders left for dinner without her.

According to her office, May stressed that she remains committed to finding a "legally operative" guarantee that the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will remain open and frictionless after Brexit - the key stumbling point to a deal - and wants to find a "creative" way out of the dilemma.

May's somewhat vague words may have fallen short of the concrete proposals EU leaders have demanded. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said he had not heard "anything substantially new in content" in May's 15-minute speech.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

___

8:30 p.m.

The president of the European Parliament says Prime Minister Theresa May failed to bring new Brexit initiatives to the table while addressing fellow leader of European Union countries.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said after emerging from the meeting where May spoke Wednesday that the British prime minister offered "no change in content."

Tajani said: "I did not perceive anything substantially new in content" from May's earlier proposals for a Brexit agreement with the EU.

He says the atmosphere was more relaxed than at an ill-tempered summit in Salzburg last year.

___

7:45 p.m.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says "the ball is in Great Britain's court" to come up with a way to break the logjam in Brexit talks.

Leaders of the European Union say Britain needs to offer new proposals on how to prevent a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after the U.K. leaves the bloc in March. The issue has bedeviled negotiations and scuttled attempts to reach a divorce deal over the weekend.

Now both sides say a deal is still possible - in time.

Kurz, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said as he arrived for a summit in Brussels that "I hope that in the coming weeks and months we'll manage to conclude this Brexit."

He said British Prime Minister Theresa May needed to "make some adjustments" to her position and "if there's a small step in the right direction today I would judge that a success."

___

7:15 p.m.

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator says the EU and the British government need "much more time" to reach a divorce agreement.

Michel Barnier said as he arrived in Brussels for an EU summit on Wednesday that both sides had worked hard "but we are not there yet."

Weekend talks aimed at securing a Brexit deal before the summit failed to clear the main sticking point - how to keep goods and people flowing freely across the Ireland-Northern Ireland border after Britain leaves the EU.

That scuttled hopes that Wednesday's summit would see a breakthrough.

Barnier said: "We need much more time and we will continue to work in the next weeks, calmly and patiently."

___

6:10 p.m.

Lithuania's president says Britain hasn't really been able to explain how it wants to leave the European Union and she thinks domestic politics are to blame.

President Dalia Grybauskaite said Wednesday as she, Britain's prime minister and leaders of the EU's other met for a Brexit summit in Brussels: "Today, we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they really want. That is the problem."

Grybauskaite insisted the dwindling time before Britain's scheduled withdrawal date of March 29 is more of a problem for the departing party than for the EU.

The Lithuanian leader says the encroaching deadline won't make the EU more likely to compromise on the terms of Britain's departure.

Grybauskaite said: "We took steps. We need to know what the other side wants, finally. It is still a great secret."

___

5:55 p.m.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says she thinks a Brexit deal can be sealed "over the next days and weeks" with hard work from the U.K. and the European Union.

Speaking before she addresses her 27 EU counterparts at a Brussels summit dinner, May said "most of the issues" on a withdrawal agreement have been resolved, though a gap remains on the issue of the Irish border.

She said "everybody around the table" wants an agreement for an orderly withdrawal, and "by working intensively over the next days and weeks I believe we can achieve a deal."

Expectations of a breakthrough at this week's summit were dashed over the weekend when negotiators failed to agree on terms.

___

4:15 p.m.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has confirmed that the bank will publish an analysis of the economic impact of any Brexit deal the government reaches with the European Union.

In a letter to Nicky Morgan, who heads the parliamentary Treasury Select Committee, Carney said the bank will publish its analysis "in good time" before any parliamentary vote. He said it will also publish its economic analysis of what Britain faces if heading for a sudden exit next March with no deal on future relations and no transition.

May is in Brussels for an EU leaders' summit and trying to break the Brexit deadlock.

Since the Brexit vote in June 2016, the Bank of England has worked on the assumption that Britain's exit from the EU would be smooth, though with negative economic consequences.

Carney confirmed he warned the Cabinet last month of a worst-case scenario if Britain crashes out with no deal and no transition. Reports at the time said he warned that house prices could crash by a third.

___

1:50 p.m.

Ireland's foreign minister says the European Union is open to extending Britain's post-Brexit transition period so that a permanent solution can be found to the Irish border problem.

Under current proposals, Britain will remain inside EU rules from the time it leaves the bloc in March until December 2020, to give time for new trade relations to be set up.

Many suspect that will not be enough time, which has led the EU to demand a "backstop" to ensure there are no customs posts or other controls along the border between the U.K.'s Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland. Disagreement over the backstop has brought divorce negotiations to a standstill.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Wednesday that EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier had suggested "more time in the transition period to agree an alternative solution to a backstop."

___

1:50 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she still believes it's possible to conclude a "good" agreement with Britain before its withdrawal from the European Union in March, but is stressing that Germany also is preparing for the risk of a no-deal departure.

Merkel addressed the German parliament Wednesday ahead of an EU summit at which there appears to be little chance of a breakthrough on Brexit.

Merkel said: "The chance of achieving a good and sustainable withdrawal agreement in good time is still there, and it is really in the interest of our relations with Britain, in the interest of our economy ... and of course in the interest of people in our countries."

As for the future relationship with Britain, she said "it must always be clear that, although we want to avoid hardship, ultimately the difference between membership in the European Union and a partnership with the European Union as a third state must and will become clear."

___

1:00 p.m.

The European Union's top trade official is playing down the importance of a U.S. announcement that it will pursue a trade deal with Britain, noting London cannot negotiate such pacts until it leaves the bloc.

The U.S. administration has notified Congress that it will seek trade pacts with the EU, Japan and Britain. President Donald Trump has long said he wants a deal with Britain, even as it negotiates a messy EU exit.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom recalled Wednesday that "the U.K. cannot negotiate any trade agreement as long as they are a member of the European Union."

Speaking ahead of a Brexit summit in Brussels, Malmstrom said the Europeans "see this merely as preparations being made by the U.S. to negotiate with them and others."

___

10:05 a.m.

European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to urge her counterparts to give ground on Britain's departure from the bloc, while EU leaders hope she brings "concrete proposals" to break the deadlock.

EU Council President Donald Tusk says "creative" thinking is required to avoid a hard border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland in the U.K.

Britain leaves the EU on March 29 but a deal must be sealed soon so relevant parliaments have time to give their verdict.

Wednesday's summit comes as a new survey shows that 62 percent of Europeans consider EU membership to be a good thing.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, hugs Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, as they meet in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, left, arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, leaves a meeting of the European People's Party EPP in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrives for a meeting of the Party of the Europeans Socialists PES in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Francois Walschaerts)

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven arrives for a meeting of the Party of the Europeans Socialists PES in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 when European leaders meet to negotiate on terms of Britain's divorce from the European Union. (AP Photo/Francois Walschaerts)HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnam has freed a well-known blogger after two years in prison on the condition that she leave for the United States.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as "Mother Mushroom," was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming the Communist government. The conviction of the popular blogger, who wrote about human rights and industrial pollution, drew criticism from some Western governments and international human rights groups.

Friends of the 39-year-old blogger said she was on her way to the U.S. with her mother and two young children.

"After numerous efforts, the family of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was reunited in a free country," her friend Nguyen Tin wrote on his Facebook page. "Congratulations to her small family."

Quynh's lawyer, Ha Huy Son, said her release was good news but did not lift the obstacles faced by people who fight for democracy in Vietnam.

Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International's Regional Director for East and South East Asia, said in a statement, "While Mother Mushroom is no longer imprisoned, the condition for her release was exile and there are over one hundred people languishing in jail because they peacefully spoke their mind - in public, on blogs or on Facebook."

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, file photo, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, center, a prominent Vietnamese blogger, stands trial in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, Vietnam. Vietnam has freed a well-known blogger after two years in prison on the condition that she leave for the United States. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as "Mother Mushroom," was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming the Communist government. (Tien Minh/ Vietnam News Agency via AP, File)

In June, Vietnam's Communist authorities released prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai and exiled him and another dissident to Germany.

Quynh's release came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited Vietnam.

Meawhile, a court in southern Binh Duong province sentenced an activist to seven years in prison on Wednesday after finding him guilty of producing 3,300 leaflets calling on workers to protest against a proposed law on special economic zones.

Nguyen Dinh Thanh, 27, was convicted of conducting propaganda against the state in the one-day trial.

Protests took place across the country in June against the proposed law, which critics say would favor Chinese investors. The government has since delayed passage of the law by the National Assembly.

Vietnam has stepped up a crackdown on dissent over the past two years with dozens of activists and bloggers put on trial for national security law-related offenses.

Despite sweeping economic reforms since the mid-1980s that opened Vietnam to foreign investment and trade and made it one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia, Communist authorities tolerate no challenge to their one-party rule.

There are more than 100 "prisoners of conscience" in Vietnamese prisons, according to Amnesty International.Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the kingdom's policies and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, disappeared earlier this month on a trip to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where Turkish officials believe he was killed.

Here are some key moments in the disappearance of the Washington Post columnist:

BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE

-September 2017: The Post publishes the first column by Khashoggi in its newspaper, in which the former royal court insider and longtime journalist writes about going into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. over the rise of Prince Mohammed. His following columns criticize the prince and the kingdom's direction.

-Sept. 28, 2018: Over a year after the Post published his first column, Khashoggi visits the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents in order to get married. He's later told to return Oct. 2, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz says.

-Sept. 29: Khashoggi travels to London and speaks at a conference.

A Consulate staff is seen behind the entrance of the Saudi Arabia's Consulate in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. On Wednesday a pro-government Turkish newspaper published a report made from what they described as an audio recording of Saudi writer and journalist Jamal Khashoggi's alleged torture and slaying at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

-Oct. 1: Khashoggi returns to Istanbul.

___

THE DAY OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE

-3:28 a.m. Oct. 2: A private plane arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport carrying some members of what Turkish media will refer to as a 15-member Saudi "assassination squad," including a man that officials describe as a forensics and "autopsy expert." Others arrive via commercial flights, Turkish officials say.

-1:14 p.m.: Surveillance footage later leaked to Turkish media shows Khashoggi walking into the main entrance of the Saudi Consulate. No footage made public ever shows him leaving and his fiancee waits outside, pacing for hours.

-3:07 p.m.: Surveillance footage shows vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul general's home some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.

-7 p.m.: A private plane just arrived from Saudi Arabia carries six members of the alleged Saudi squad from Istanbul to Cairo, the next day returning to Riyadh.

-11 p.m.: Seven members of the alleged Saudi squad leave on the other private jet to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which the next day returns to Riyadh. Two others leave by commercial flights.

___

INITIAL REACTION

-Oct. 3: Khashoggi's fiancee and the Post go public with his disappearance. Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi visited the consulate and exited shortly thereafter. Turkish officials suggest Khashoggi might still be in the consulate. That night, Prince Mohammed tells Bloomberg: "We have nothing to hide."

-Oct. 4: Saudi Arabia says on its state-run news agency that the consulate is carrying out "follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building."

-Oct. 5: The Post prints a blank column in its newspaper in solidarity with Khashoggi, headlined: "A missing voice."

-Oct. 6: The Post, citing anonymous Turkish officials, reports Khashoggi may have been killed in the consulate in a "preplanned murder" by a Saudi team.

-Oct. 7: A friend of Khashoggi tells the AP that officials told him Khashoggi was killed at the consulate. The consulate rejects what it calls "baseless allegations."

-Oct. 8: Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey is summoned over Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged killing.

___

LEAKED FOOTAGE

-Oct. 9: Turkey says it will search the Saudi Consulate as a picture of Khashoggi walking into the diplomatic post surfaces.

-Oct. 10: Surveillance footage is leaked of Khashoggi and the alleged Saudi squad that killed him. Khashoggi's fiancee asks President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for help.

-Oct. 11: Turkish media describes Saudi squad as including royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert, details they later confirmed to the AP. Trump calls Khashoggi's disappearance a "bad situation" and promises to get to the bottom of it.

-Oct. 12: Trump again pledges to find out what happened to Khashoggi.

-Oct. 13: A pro-government newspaper reports that Turkish officials have an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing from his Apple Watch, but details in the report come into question.

___

INTERNATIONAL UPROAR

-Oct. 14: Trump tells CBS' "60 Minutes" that "we're going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment" if Saudi Arabia is involved. The kingdom responds with a blistering attack against those who threaten it, as the manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggests the country could retaliate through its oil exports. The Saudi stock exchange plunges as much as 7 percent at one point.

-Oct. 15: A Turkish forensics team enters and searches the Saudi Consulate, an extraordinary development as such diplomatic posts are considered sovereign soil. Trump suggests after a call with Saudi King Salman that "rogue killers" could be responsible for Khashoggi's alleged slaying. Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Mideast over the case. Meanwhile, business leaders say they won't attend an upcoming economic summit in the kingdom that's the brainchild of Prince Mohammed.

-Oct. 16: A high-level Turkish official tells the AP that "certain evidence" was found in the Saudi Consulate proving Khashoggi was killed there. Pompeo arrives for meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: "Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent."

-Oct. 17: Pompeo meets with Turkey's president and foreign minister in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkish police search the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul.LLANO, Texas (AP) - A continued threat of flooding is forecast in parts of Central Texas as more rain is expected in the area and dams along the swollen Colorado River release water downstream, officials said Wednesday.

National Weather Service forecaster Jason Runyen said the already-saturated area was expected to get an additional 1 to 2 inches (3 to 5 centimeters) of rain Thursday and Friday, with some isolated areas getting as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain.

"It's not going to take hardly anything to cause additional issues with flash flooding and river flooding," Runyen said.

The bodies of two people were found this week as the area was inundated with rains. As rivers overflowed, a bridge was destroyed, people were forced to evacuate their homes and others had to be rescued.

Llano County Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Anderson said Wednesday that while the Llano River had gone down after cresting on Tuesday, he cautioned that there was still a threat of more rain and other hazards were present after the floods.

"There are roadways that are impassable, some have been washed out. There is debris. Homes that have been evacuated are going to have to be evaluated before we can say that they are safe to re-enter," Anderson said.

Stuart Cooper paddles through the Graveyard Point neighborhood on Lake Travis on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Austin, Texas a day after evacuating his father from his home. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman via AP)

He said that with more rain in the forecast, "we really aren't sure if this disaster has unfolded."

In Kingsland, about 20 miles southeast of Llano, video captured a bridge crumbling as it was overrun by floodwaters from the Llano River.

Authorities said a woman's body was found Tuesday night at a low-water crossing in Llano, located about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Austin. Earlier Tuesday, a body was found in Lake Lyndon B. Johnson , situated where the Llano River flows into the Colorado River.

The Lower Colorado River Authority has been opening flood gates along the river since Monday. Four floodgates have been opened on Mansfield Dam at Lake Travis, located northwest of Austin. The river authority said they'll likely need to open four more by midday Thursday for a total of eight - a record number to be open at the dam with 24 gates.

"Lake Travis is more than 100 percent full," said LCRA general manager Phil Wilson said, adding, "In the last week, we captured more water in Lake Travis than the city of Austin typically uses in four years."

Wilson said the water being released from Lake Travis "will increase river levels on the entire river from Austin down to Matagorda Bay."

Last week, four people were washed away when the South Llano River, which becomes the Llano River downstream, overran an RV park in Junction, Texas. Three bodies have been recovered. The search for the fourth has been suspended due to the heavy rain.

Houses are flooded at Graveyard Point on Lake Travis Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Stuart Cooper retrieves his father's belongings from the floodwaters in the Graveyard Point neighborhood on Lake Travis on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Loyd Reagan removes furniture from his house at Graveyard Point on Lake Travis on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Austin, Texas. He used a boat to reach the second-floor deck of the house to save some of his belongings. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Julie Cooper, from left, her daughter Harley Cooper, and her sister-in-law Cindy Dixon look around the Graveyard Point neighborhood on Lake Travis on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in Austin, Texas, a day after evacuating Cindy's father from his home. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman via AP)

The Llano River flows between the washed out Ranch Road 2900 bridge, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Kingsland, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

The Llano River overflows its banks into neighboring property as the swollen river flows between the washed out Ranch Road 2900 bridge, background, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Kingsland, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

The Llano River flows past one sides of Ranch Road 2900 bridge after the bridge was washed out due to flooding Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, in Kingsland, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Joe Mercer and his friend Tonya Grace watch weather reports from their porch as the rising waters from the Colorado River floods their property on Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018, in Marble Falls, Texas. Mercer says they will evacuate their home if the nearby creek gets higher. (Amanda Voisard/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Water from the Colorado River pours over the Max Starcke Dam, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018, in Marble Falls, Texas. The Llano and Colorado rivers meet at Kingsland and the National Weather Service said both were experiencing "major flooding." A flash flood warning was in effect. (Amanda Voisard/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Water from the Colorado River pours over the Max Starcke Dam, Tuesday Oct. 16, 2018, in Marble Falls, Texas. The Llano and Colorado rivers meet at Kingsland and the National Weather Service said both were experiencing "major flooding." A flash flood warning was in effect. (Amanda Voisard/Austin American-Statesman via AP)PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the American Quality Lodge, a low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by Hurricane Michael.

Families huddle under makeshift tents and in breezeways strewn with broken glass and roofing fragments, seeking escape from Florida's midday sun. They line up in a parking lot for food and water whenever volunteers and church groups stop by. There's been no power in a week, and the water has been out for days.

Nighttime means relief from the heat, but also brings the threat of looters. Residents say people have stolen money, jewelry, food and even rain-soaked clothes from rooms ripped apart and left open to the elements by Michael.

"Basically, if you were living here before the storm you were homeless. This was our last resort," said Jeannie Holcombe, who has been at the motel a few months with her husband, Jason. "It's worse now."

Michael's winds of as much as 155 mph (250 kph) ripped much of the roof off the two-story red-brick motel, which is just miles from the white sands of Panama City Beach. Rain flooded the upper level and dripped down to the first floor. The place looks absolutely shattered, with tarps strung from the second-floor balcony providing some shade.

Rooms reek with the pungent smell of wet clothes and perspiration; windows are missing from many.

Gabrielle Morgan, center rear, braids the hair of her husband Santional as they sit by a lantern with their children from left, Decoya, 13, Isabella, 3 mos., Gabriella, 3, and Lakevia, 15, in their room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Long-term residents, who pay out about $180 a week per room, abandoned blown-out rooms for ones with fewer leaks or doors that will shut. Other people simply showed up from surrounding areas and settled in. Some asked permission, others didn't.

Joe Donahue, who works for a company that was taking over management of the motel as Michael struck, has been driving store-to-store in search of supplies, including water and feminine products for the women. He said he doesn't mind people staying there for now.

"I have no place to send them because everything is booked," he said. "It's a nightmare."

Vicki and her husband Wes Allen are stuck at the 135-room motel with their three children, including 17-year-old Allison Allen, who is seven months pregnant. Someone pilfered $21 that was set aside for her unborn daughter, they said.

"It's not like it's a huge amount of money, but that would have been a couple outfits for her," said Allison, whose twin sister Kristin is also at the motel along with their older brother, Wes Allen Jr.

Residents credit their father with risking his life to rescue 10 people during the worst of the storm, helping them leave rooms torn to shreds by the wind.

Four family members sometimes use wheelchairs because of back problems. The sidewalks and walkways littered with storm debris make it hard for them to get around. The grassy courtyard is filled with sticky tarpaper from the roof, shattered lumber, empty drink cans and bed linens blown outside by Michael.

After getting permission from the Holcombe couple, Bill Yourn resorted to salvaging pennies from the floors and drawers of their shattered rooms. He had to climb through a broken window and walk across a soggy floor littered with shards of glass and personal items like deodorant, hair care products and clothes.

"Life's not great," he said after eating lunch: a can of tuna scooped with a borrowed spoon.

The water came back on a couple of days ago, providing a morale boost, and utility crews are installing new power poles just across the street. But Donahue said the motel is so badly damaged, it wouldn't be safe to turn on the power even if electricity were available.

Residents say police and firefighters have been by to make sure the people are safe, but these survivors say they didn't bother to report any of the looting at the motel, because the first-responders seem so busy.

Someone from FEMA also visited, they said, but no one has offered them any better alternatives yet.

And so they sit, most without transportation and many without phones for communication, waiting for a fresh delivery of food and water. Some trade cigarettes for other items. One man filled an inflatable kiddie pool, shaped like a pirate ship, to provide a place for youngsters to play.

From her wheelchair, Vicki Allen considered their fate.

"Six days after Michael came through and tore up everything, we're still here," she said.

The hero of the American Quality Lodge, the man who plucked vulnerable residents to safety during Michael, chimed in.

"We can't stay here like this too much longer," said Wes Allen, 48.

Kevin Parker, center right, sits with his wife Lilith, while playing a song he wrote titled "My Life's Been Hell," on the keyboard while joined by neighbor Chris Thomas outside the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Tasha Hughes, bathes her daughter, Madison, 4, as Jeffrey Dumich holds a flashlight outside their room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Tasha Hughes, bathes her daughter, Madison, 4, in a storage bin outside their room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jeannie Holcombe retrieves crutches for someone in need from a damaged room at the American Quality Lodge in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Jeannie, center left, and husband Jason Holcombe wait in the hot sun for food being distributed outside the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. "Basically, if you were living here before the storm you were homeless. This was our last resort," said Jeannie Holcombe, who has been at the motel a few months with her husband. "It's worse now." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Wes Allen, Sr., smokes a cigarette outside his room at the damaged American Quality Lodge as the message "Survivors inside" is written on the window in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. During the worst of the storm, residents say, Allen risked his own life to rescue 10 people from rooms torn to shreds by the wind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Charcoal, tarps and baby supplies are distributed outside the damaged American Quality Lodge where residents continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Wes Allen, Jr., from left, sits with his father Wes Allen, Sr., sister Alison, mother Vicki and fellow resident Crystal Williams outside their rooms at a damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Families huddle under makeshift tents and in breezeways strewn with broken glass and roofing fragments, seeking escape from the midday sun as the temperature climbs to the mid-80s. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The moon shines above as Nola Davis, right, brushes the hair of granddaughter, Jayden Billingly, 10, before going to bed in their room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Residents use flashlights to navigate the dark walkways at night at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Nighttime means relief from the heat, yet it also brings the threat of looters, who residents say have taken money, jewelry, food and even rain-soaked clothes from rooms ripped apart and left open to the elements by Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Residents walk past roofing debris at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Michael's winds of as much as 155 mph (nearly 250 kph) ripped much of the roof off the two-story motel, and rain that flooded the upper level dripped down to the first floor. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Santional Morgan, has his hair braided by his wife Gabrielle as they sit by a lantern with their daughter Isabella, 3 months., in their room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where they continue to live without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The moon shines above as Nola Davis sits in her car charging her cell phone outside the damaged American Quality Lodge where she continues to live without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Simply getting through the day is a struggle at the low-rent motel where dozens of people are living in squalor amid destruction left by the hurricane. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Tasha Whitt sits by a window in her room at the damaged American Quality Lodge where she continues to live in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018. Whitt, who broke her foot during the storm, worries about looters at night who residents say have taken money, jewelry, food and even rain-soaked clothes from rooms ripped apart and left open to the elements by Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)WHITEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on a North Carolina trooper who was fatally shot during a traffic stop (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

Authorities have identified the suspect in the fatal shooting of a North Carolina state trooper.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol said in a news release Wednesday that 20-year-old Raheem Cole Dashanell Davis of Chadbourn has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of 11-year veteran Trooper Kevin Conner.

The patrol said Conner was shot and killed early Wednesday during a traffic stop in Columbus County. Sgt. Mike Baker said the trooper stopped a white pickup truck on suspicion of speeding on a highway in rural Columbus County southwest of Whiteville. Baker said the driver shot Conner as he approached.

___

This undated photo provided by the North Carolina Highway Patrol shows Trooper Kevin Conner. Authorities say Conner was shot and killed by a driver during a traffic stop early Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Columbus County, N.C. (North Carolina Department of Public Safety via AP)

9:25 a.m.

North Carolina authorities say a trooper shot and killed during a traffic stop was an 11-year veteran of the patrol.

The Highway Patrol issued a news release identifying the trooper as Kevin Conner, who was based in Columbus County. The patrol said Conner was shot and killed early Wednesday during a traffic stop in the county, and the suspect was later apprehended.

Patrol commander Col. Glenn McNeill Jr. said Conner was a hero and is being mourned.

WRAL-TV reports Conner was credited with helping save lives after a 2011 fiery head-on crash in Columbus County. WRAL says Conner used an extinguisher to put out flames and that he and another trooper provided first aid while waiting for paramedics.

___

6:25 a.m.

Authorities say a North Carolina state trooper has been shot and killed.

North Carolina State Highway Patrol Sgt. Michael Baker says the trooper was shot while conducting a traffic stop around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday in Columbus County. Authorities say the suspect was caught around 4 a.m. in the Fair Bluff area.

The identities of the trooper and suspect have not been released.

Authorities haven't released further details.

The shooting took place just south of Whiteville, in southern North Carolina. Fair Bluff is around 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Fair Bluff, close to the South Carolina border.Paris, TX (75460)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers this afternoon. High 78F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%. Higher wind gusts possible..

Tonight

A shower is possible early. Considerable cloudiness. Low 44F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph.WHITEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A driver opened fire on a North Carolina state trooper during a traffic stop early Wednesday, killing the 11-year Highway Patrol veteran, authorities said. The suspect was arrested after a chase.

Around 12:15 a.m., the trooper stopped the white pickup truck on suspicion of speeding on a highway in rural Columbus County southwest of Whiteville, said Highway Patrol First Sgt. Michael Baker. Baker said the driver shot Trooper Kevin Conner as he approached.

"The driver of that vehicle fired several shots, striking the trooper," Baker told reporters.

The suspect fled and Conner was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Baker said the driver then headed about 20 miles west (32 kilometers) to Fair Bluff near the South Carolina state line, where authorities pursued him in a chase. The truck became disabled on railroad tracks in the town, and the suspect fled on foot. Authorities said the suspect was arrested around 4 a.m. after an extensive search.

Baker said the man, whose name wasn't immediately released, was being held in the Columbus County jail pending charges.

This undated photo provided by the North Carolina Highway Patrol shows Trooper Kevin Conner. Authorities say Conner was shot and killed by a driver during a traffic stop early Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Columbus County, N.C. (North Carolina Department of Public Safety via AP)

The Highway Patrol said the Columbus County-based trooper was an 11-year veteran of the organization. Patrol commander Col. Glenn McNeill said the organization was "mourning the loss of a hero" as condolences poured in from law enforcement agencies on social media.

"Many will say he was the nicest guy you would ever meet and the ones that knew Kevin and family would agree," the nearby Bladen County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook.

WRAL-TV reported that Conner helped save lives after a 2011 fiery head-on crash in Columbus County. A WRAL article from that year said Conner used an extinguisher to put out flames, and he and another trooper provided first aid before paramedics arrived.VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The Latest on Canada's legalization of recreational marijuana (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

A long-time cannabis advocate says the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada is a remarkable step forward, but many flaws remain in the law.

Dana Larsen is the founding member of the Marijuana Party of Canada and the BC Marijuana Party. He says it's not the end of cannabis activists in Canada.

Larsen says both Quebec and Manitoba ban home cultivation of cannabis. In British Columbia, people can face a $5,000 fine and a possible three months in jail if the four pot plants they are allowed to grow can be seen from the street.

He also says some condominiums that previously allowed tobacco are now banning all smoking just to avoid cannabis use in the building.

Matthew Macdougall smokes a joint during a "Wake and Bake" legalized marijuana event in Toronto on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Canada became the largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace as sales began early Wednesday in Newfoundland. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)

___

12:45 p.m.

Big crowds lined up at 17 licensed marijuana stores in Alberta for the start of legal sales.

Josh Harnack was one the first customers at one of three shops that the retail chain Fire and Flower opened in Edmonton on Wednesday. The 24-year-old said that by midday the line was taking about two hours, and that a lot of customers were taking their time once they made it inside so they could savor the historic moment.

Fire and Flower Chief Executive Trevor Fencott brought his wife and three children for the opening. Even though the children - ages 16, 13 and 6 - were too young to go in the store, Fencott said he wanted them to witness the sea-change in policy.

___

1:40 p.m.

U.S. officials say the legalization of recreational marijuana in Canada has not prompted any changes in the flow of traffic at U.S.-Canada border crossings.

Christopher Perry with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency told reporters in Detroit Wednesday that U.S. officials don't anticipate asking Canadians crossing into the U.S. routine questions about their pot use.

Perry says U.S. border agents could make inquiries if they witness unusual behavior by travelers or are alerted by the police dogs used at the crossings.

He says Canadians caught bringing pot into the country risk having it confiscated and could face fines.

___

12:40 p.m.

Sales figures on the first morning under Canada's new legalized pot regime suggest there's considerable demand for cannabis products across the country.

Shopify is powering many of the provincial online stores and says it has recorded than 100 cannabis orders per minute.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province's government-run online store processed 38,000 orders by midmorning.

The New Brunswick provincial online sales outlet Cannabis NB reports an average of 700 live users each hour viewing its website and several hundred purchases in its first few hours of operation.

___

11:45 a.m.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has joined the board of directors of a U.S. cannabis company.

Acreage Holdings announced Wednesday that Mulroney has joined its board. He joins an increasingly long list of politicians getting the pot business. Others include former U.S. House speaker John Boehner and ex-Mexican President Vicente Fox.

Mulroney served as Canada's prime minister from 1984 to 1993. His government introduced new initiatives such as the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

___

11:20 a.m.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government's new pardon laws for simple pot possession will be of particular benefit to young minority people.

Trudeau says people in those demographics were disproportionately affected by marijuana possession convictions, and that the new rules should remove a barrier for them.

There will be no fees involved. His government will introduce legislation to let people apply for a pardon of small-scale marijuana possession convictions as long as they've finished their sentence.

Those convicted of possessing of 30 grams or less of marijuana would be eligible for a pardon. The governing Liberal Party holds a majority in Parliament, so passage is largely assured.

Trudeau also says he has no intention of using marijuana now that it became legal in Canada on Wednesday.

___

9:45 a.m.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says Canada's government will introduce legislation to let people apply for a pardon of small-scale marijuana possession convictions - as long as they've finished their sentence.

The announcement comes on the day that Canada has legalized so-called recreational marijuana.

Goodale says there will be no fees involved. He says the initiative is about basic fairness.

A senior government official earlier told The Associated Press that those convicted of possessing of 30 grams or less of marijuana would be eligible for a pardon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly ahead of Wednesday's announcement.

The governing Liberal Party holds a majority in Parliament, so passage is largely assured.

___

12:30 a.m.

Canada has become largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace as sales began early Wednesday in Newfoundland.

And there's more good news for pot aficionados: Hours before a few retail outlets opened in the country's easternmost province, a federal official told The Associated Press that Canada will pardon all those with convictions for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, the now-legal threshold.

A formal announcement was planned for later Wednesday. The official, who was not authorized to speak public ahead of the announcement, said those who want to take advantage of the pardons will have to apply.

A depiction of a cannabis bud hangs from the ceiling as a band plays at Leafly's countdown party in Toronto, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018, as they prepare to mark the legalization of Cannabis across Canada. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP)

Krissy Calkins smokes a marijuana joint at a "Wake and Bake" legalized marijuana event in Toronto on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Canada became the largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace as sales began early Wednesday in Newfoundland. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Somali intelligence officials say the largest U.S. military airstrike against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia in nearly a year largely destroyed a training camp where recruits were preparing to graduate and killed more fighters than the U.S. announced.

Two officials tell The Associated Press that several missiles were fired on Friday by two unmanned U.S. drones.

Some of the freshly trained al-Shabab recruits were "burnt beyond recognition" and the death toll exceeds 75, one official said. The U.S. Africa Command on Tuesday said about 60 extremists had been killed.

The U.S. said the strike was meant to deny the al-Qaida-linked extremist group, the deadliest in sub-Saharan Africa, the ability to reconsolidate. Al-Shabab has several thousands of fighters and has proven to be resilient over the years, carrying out suicide bombings on high-profile targets in the capital, Mogadishu, and other cities as well as more conventional attacks against Somali, U.S. and African Union forces.

Some of the al-Shabab fighters killed in the U.S. airstrike, who had gone through months of training, were being prepared to carry out suicide bombings on Somali and AU bases while others were foot soldiers meant for complex attacks across central and southern Somalia, one of the Somali intelligence officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 file photo, hundreds of newly trained al-Shabab fighters perform military exercises in the Lafofe area some 18 km south of Mogadishu, in Somalia. Somali intelligence officials say the largest U.S. military airstrike against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia in nearly a year largely destroyed a training camp on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018 and killed more fighters than the U.S. announced. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)

The U.S. airstrike outside the al-Shabab-controlled seaside community of Harardere in Mudug province in Somalia's central region was the deadliest since one on Nov. 21, 2017, against a camp killed about 100 al-Shabab fighters.

No civilian causalities have been reported in the latest airstrike which officials say hit only the intended target in a rural area. "Al-Shabab don't usually trust people nor would they allow them to come closer to their military sites," one of the Somali officials said.

The strike dealt a "painful blow" to al-Shabab, the officials said.

But the camp's location far north of the extremist group's usual strongholds indicates its reach, analysts said.

"A large concentration of Shabab fighters a significant distance from its typical support zone in Jubba River Valley demonstrates the al-Qaida branch's resilience across the country," wrote Bill Roggio and Alexandra Gutowski for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Long war Journal.

Somalia on Sunday marked the first anniversary of the worst extremist attack ever in Africa and one of the world's deadliest since 9/11, a truck bombing in Mogadishu that killed well over 500 people. A U.S. Africa Command spokesman said Friday's airstrike had no link to the anniversary.

The U.S. military has carried out more than two dozen airstrikes, including drone strikes, this year against al-Shabab. The United States has increased its military presence in the long-chaotic Horn of Africa nation since early 2017 to about 500 personnel after President Donald Trump approved expanded military operations.

Al-Shabab, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in Somalia, continues to hold parts of the country's south and central regions after being chased out of Mogadishu several years ago.

While some observers have questioned the effectiveness of airstrikes by the U.S. and Kenya and raised concerns about civilians being killed, the U.S. military maintains that they "reduce al-Shabab's ability to plot future attacks, disrupt its leadership networks and degrade its freedom of maneuver within the region."

Somali forces in the next few years are expected to take over responsibility for the country's security from an African Union peacekeeping force, which already has started withdrawing hundreds of personnel.

The U.S. says it supports that transfer even as some U.S. military officials have joined AU officials and others in expressing concern that Somalia's forces are not yet ready.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_AfricaNEW YORK (AP) - MTV's long-running reality show "The Real World" is going digital and international.

The network announced Wednesday that its production studio will work with Facebook Watch to create new editions of the series next year for audiences in the United States, Mexico and Thailand. The series, which depicts the adventures of young strangers placed in a house together, will stream on Facebook Watch.

The social media platform will also try to connect fans to participants in the show with Facebook Live, watch parties and other innovations. MTV president Chris McCarthy said it's an opportunity to create a new genre of television.

"The Real World" aired 32 separate seasons on MTV between 1992 and 2017. It's the first time it will have international editions with non-U.S. cast members.BROOKVILLE, Pa. (AP) - The Latest on a Catholic priest pleading guilty to child sexual abuse charges (all times local):

10:40 a.m.

A former priest in the Erie Diocese is admitting that he committed sexual abuse of children, pleading guilty to corruption of minors and child endangerment.

The Rev. David Lee Poulson pleaded guilty to the two felonies in a western Pennsylvania courthouse on Wednesday.

The 65-year-old from Oil City is one of two Roman Catholic priests to be charged as part of a grand jury investigation that concluded hundreds of clergy had sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades in the state.

The other priest also is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to indecent assault this summer.

Prosecutors say Poulson abused an altar boy dozens of times in church rectories, and had him confess afterward. They say he also abused the boy and attempted to assault another boy at a hunting camp.

___

10:15 p.m.

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing two boys and having one confess afterward is scheduled to appear in a western Pennsylvania courtroom for what is described as a plea hearing.

Court records don't specify the type of plea involving 65-year-old the Rev. David Lee Poulson, who was arrested in May.

Poulson's lawyer didn't return a phone message, and the attorney general's office declined to comment on the hearing.

Poulson is one of two priests charged as a result of a statewide grand jury investigation that concluded about 300 priests had abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades.

The other, Rev. John Thomas Sweeney, pleaded guilty to indecent assault this summer.

Prosecutors have alleged Poulson abused an altar boy in church rectories more than 20 times.

and survivors of sexual abuse and vote yes on these reforms. Or, it can stand with the Church and its lobbyists and fail to act."JERUSALEM (AP) - A U.S. graduate student on Wednesday asked Israel's Supreme Court to overturn an expulsion order over her alleged involvement in the boycott movement against Israel.

Lara Alqasem, 22, has been held in detention since arriving in the country on Oct. 2 with a valid student visa.

Alqasem, whose father is Palestinian, 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, named for its support of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

BDS supporters say they are using non-violent means to resist unjust policies toward Palestinians. Israel says the movement masks its motives to delegitimize or destroy the Jewish state.

Last year, Israel passed a law banning entry for any foreigner who "knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel."

Alqasem, a Florida native, says she is no longer active in the boycott movement. But Israel's Strategic Affairs Ministry, which spearheads the government's efforts against the boycott campaign, is unconvinced and believes she remains a threat.

File - In this Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018 file photo, American Lara Alqasem, center, sits in a courtroom prior to a hearing at the district court in Tel Aviv, Israel. Alqasem asked Israel's Supreme Court to overturn an expulsion order over her alleged involvement in the boycott movement against Israel. Lara Alqasem has been held in detention since arriving in the country on Oct. 2 with a valid student visa. (AP Photo/Sebastian. Scheiner, File)

She turned to the high court after a lower court last week rejected her appeal to stay in the country.

Alqasem's attorney, Leora Bechor, said Wednesday's hearing went well, with Supreme Court justices pressing state lawyers about whether Alqasem truly met the definition of being a boycott leader.

"We're surprised the court was so friendly to us, and very optimistic that we will receive a decision in our favor," Bechor said.

Alqasem had been registered to pursue a master's degree in human rights at Israel's Hebrew University. The university has thrown its support behind Alqasem, joining her appeal on Wednesday and calling her case a serious blow to academic freedom in Israel.

It was not immediately clear when the Supreme Court would issue its verdict.HELSINKI (AP) - Kremlin critic Bill Browder has asked Nordic authorities to investigate whether up to $175 million of potentially illicit funds have flowed through the region's largest bank, Nordea.

Browder, the CEO of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, said Wednesday that he filed a "money laundering complaint" against Nordea in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in connection with the case of his former accountant, Sergei Magnitsky.

Magnitsky died in a Russian prison in 2009 after uncovering an alleged $230 million tax fraud by Russian officials.

Browder told CNBC that new information had surfaced in French and Lithuanian money laundering investigations suggesting that "suspicious transactions" related to the Magnitsky case were funneled through Nordea.

Nordea told Swedish media it was aware of Browder's accusations and was working "in close co-operation with relevant authorities."WASHINGTON (AP) - Just when it seemed the partisan divide on the Senate Judiciary Committee couldn't get much worse, it did.

Every Democrat on the panel skipped a Wednesday hearing on judicial nominations. The Democrats said the hearing should have been canceled because the Senate is not in session ahead of next month's election and they described going ahead with the hearing as unprecedented.

Republican Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he had already delayed the hearing at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the panel's top Democrat. He said he wouldn't agree to a "last-minute withdrawal."

Republicans also said that objections to the hearing came just a week before the hearing date and after families of the judicial nominees had already made travel arrangements. They also released the attendance record of Democratic lawmakers on the committee for previous confirmation hearings held this year to highlight how lightly attended some were.

The dispute comes after the confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a bruising fight that played out on the Judiciary Committee. The panel advanced Kavanaugh's nomination after hearing testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, who accused him of sexual assault. Kavanaugh denied the allegation.

The Senate has so far confirmed 84 of President Donald Trump's judicial nominees, and Republicans are eager to confirm more before the year is up. By comparison, the Senate confirmed 60 of President Barack Obama's judicial nominees in his first two years.

Six prospective federal judges testified at Wednesday's hearing, most notably Allison Jones Rushing, 36, of North Carolina, who is nominated to serve on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Richmond, Virginia.

Grassley arranged for Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., to chair the hearing. Grassley did not attend. In all, four Republicans attended all or portions of the hearing. The committee has 21 members.

Trump and Republicans senators have cited judicial confirmations as one of their biggest success stories. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that "what we're doing in the area of the court, I think, is the most important thing we're doing."

Liberal advocacy groups called Wednesday's hearing a sham. They noted that other Senate committees had canceled the hearings scheduled to take place during the recess.

"Republicans are so eager to remake the federal courts in Trump's image that they continue to violate Senate traditions, rules and norms," said Kristine Lucius of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - Police officers in New Hampshire and Maine are putting down their razors to raise money for children's advocacy groups.

The Portsmouth Herald reports police officers will let their beards grow during October to support centers in York County in Maine and in Rockingham County in New Hampshire that provide services for abused children.

Women employees are participating by wearing blue nail polish.

The Rockingham County center raised nearly $18,000 through the "Beards for Bucks" fundraiser last year.

Kittery Police Lt. John Desjardins says his beard is "a little bit itchy," but the fundraiser is a great cause.

___

Information from: Portsmouth Herald, http://www.seacoastonline.comWASHINGTON (AP) - A group of federal regulators on Wednesday lifted the strict government oversight imposed on big insurer Prudential Financial Inc. It was the last financial company still carrying the label that subjected it to special restrictions stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.

The unanimous decision by the Financial Stability Oversight Council closed the books on its actions tagging selected big financial companies as potential threats. It was the latest example in the Trump administration's push to unwind Obama-era regulatory requirements aimed at averting another financial meltdown.

The council tagged Prudential in 2013 as a "systemically important" institution, one so big and interconnected that it would threaten the financial system's stability if it collapsed. The action put Prudential under special supervision by the Federal Reserve.

The council is led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and includes Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Jay Clayton, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those officials and six of the other seven members were appointed by President Donald Trump.

The council was created and empowered by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to cast eyes across the financial system to watch for potential threats. It also was empowered to collar some large financial companies with tighter scrutiny to avert a "too-big-to-fail" situation - when the government is forced to rescue them to head off a broader economic collapse.

Mnuchin said the decision on Prudential "follows extensive engagement with the company and a detailed analysis showing that there is not a significant risk that the company could pose a threat to financial stability."

FILE - In this file photo taken Aug. 2, 2005, a Prudential Financial sign on the marquis direct customers to the company inside an office building in Salt Lake City. A group of federal regulators has lifted the strict government oversight imposed on big insurer Prudential Financial Inc. It was the last financial company still carrying the label that subjected it to special restrictions stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)

"The council has continued to act decisively to remove any designation that is not warranted," he said in a statement.

But Better Markets, an investor advocate group, called the action "a tragic dereliction of duty for every American, because the next financial crash will happen sooner and be worse than it otherwise would have been."

Prudential, based in Newark, New Jersey, is the biggest life insurance company in the U.S., with operations around the world. It runs retirement and investment management businesses, with $1.4 trillion in assets under management, as well as individual life and group insurance coverage. For 2017, the company reported net income of $7.86 billion.

Prudential had argued that it doesn't pose a risk to financial stability and was unfairly targeted for burdensome and costly extra layers of oversight.

"This outcome reflects Prudential's sustainable business model, capital strength and comprehensive risk management," the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Insurance companies generally are supervised by state regulators. In addition to being put under Federal Reserve supervision, companies labeled "systemically important" could be required to boost their cash cushions against losses, limit their use of borrowed money and submit to inspections by government examiners.

After GE Capital and American International Group had shed billions of dollars in assets, the regulators removed the "systemically important" label from GE Capital, the finance arm of General Electric, in June 2016, and from giant insurer AIG in September 2017.

AIG received the biggest taxpayer bailout of the crisis - $182 billion - which it repaid in full by 2012.

Insurer MetLife took the government to court to fight the label, and won in March 2016. The government appealed. After the Trump administration came in, however, the government's appeal was dropped. The two sides agreed in January to abandon the court battle, leaving MetLife free of the designation.UNITED NATIONS (AP) - U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura said Wednesday that he will make a final effort before stepping down next month to advance toward a new constitution for Syria - a key step in ending the country's civil war.

De Mistura announced at the end of a Security Council briefing that he is leaving the job in late November for "purely, purely personal reasons" related to his family after four years and four months in one of the toughest U.N. jobs.

He told council members that objections by the Syrian government are still holding up the launch of the committee meant to draft a new constitution.

While there is agreement on the 50-member government and opposition delegations for the drafting committee, de Mistura said the government objects to a third 50-member delegation that the U.N. put together representing Syrian experts, civil society, independents, tribal leaders and women.

De Mistura said he has been invited to Damascus next week to discuss the committee's formation.

He said he also intends to invite senior officials from Russia, Turkey and Iran - the guarantor states in the so-called "Astana process" aimed at ending the violence in Syria - to meet him in Geneva, and to talk to a group of key countries comprising Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Britain and the United States.

United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura speaks at a Security Council meeting, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 at U.N. headquarters. He said he will be making an intensive effort to get agreement on a committee to draft a new constitution for Syria before he steps down at the end of November. De Mistura announced he is departing for "purely, purely personal reasons" after four years and four months in one of the toughest U.N. jobs after telling the Security Council that objections by the Syrian government are still holding up the launch of the committee. (Eskinder Debebe/UN via AP)

"I would hope then to be in a position to issue invitations to convene the constitutional committee, hopefully during November," de Mistura said. "I offer no predictions whether this is possible. What I do know is that after nine months of preparations it is important to launch a credible, constitutional committee."

The U.N. envoy indicated he still faces an uphill struggle.

During last month's high-level General Assembly meeting, he said, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem "strongly cast doubt" on the agreement to draft a new constitution that was reached in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi on Jan. 30. Al-Moallem called for a "fundamental reassessment" of the 50-member delegation the U.N. was authorized to put together as well as the rules of procedure and U.N.'s role as the facilitator, de Mistura said.

Russia and Iran, which back Syrian President Bashar Assad's government, have also called that list into question but are continuing talks, de Mistura said. He said senior Russian officials would be in Damascus in a few days.

The U.N. sought to balance its list "so that no political side could dominate the committee," de Mistura said, but the Syrian government reportedly wants its supporters to dominate the U.N. list so its views will prevail in constitutional changes or a new document.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Ja'afari, stressed the government's opposition to a new constitution, telling the Security Council on Wednesday that the mandate of the constitutional committee must be "to renew the current constitution - current constitution - because we do not want a constitutional vacuum, because Syria is not a failed state."

"We stress that the mandate of the committee is limited to reviewing the articles of the current constitution through a Syria-led and Syria-owned process," he said.

De Mistura has been trying since February to set up a constitutional committee as a key step toward elections and a political settlement to the more than seven-year Syrian conflict that has killed over 300,000 people. An agreement reached at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sochi on Sept. 17, aimed at averting an expected Syrian military offensive in the last rebel stronghold in Idlib, opened the possibility of progress.

De Mistura told the council "a catastrophe has so far been averted in Idlib" following the Russia-Turkey agreement, and "major strides have been taken in defeating terrorism."

He echoed Putin and Erdogan, who said the Idlib deal offered "a window for the constitutional committee to be established and the political process to go ahead."

Eight European Union countries called on Russia, Iran and Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition, to ensure that the Idlib cease-fire is upheld. In a joint statement, they said it "should be an opportunity for the urgent resumption of the U.N.-led political process in Geneva."

The EU nations - France, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Britain, Italy, Belgium and Germany - gave "full support" to de Mistura's efforts to establish an inclusive constitutional committee "without any further delays" that includes at least 30 percent women to lay the groundwork "for free and fair U.N.-supervised elections" called for by the Security Council.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia responded to de Mistura's call for a November meeting and to the EU saying Moscow wants a constitutional committee to be formed "as quickly as possible, but setting artificial deadlines in this case would be counterproductive."

"There has to be agreement of all the parties and that takes time," Nebenzia said.

Syria's Ja'afari not only reiterated the government's new conditions for establishing the committee but told the council that Idlib, "just like any region in Syria, will return very soon to the sovereignty of the Syrian state." He didn't elaborate, but several Security Council nations worried aloud that a government offensive could still take place.

Ja'afari also warned that in order to achieve durable peace, "all illegal foreign forces must leave Syria, including Turkish, American, British, French and Israeli forces."

De Mistura was asked about his repeated statements that there can be no military solution in Syria despite the government's success in recapturing most territory in the country.

"What matters is winning the peace," de Mistura replied. "And therefore it is so important to make sure that ... the political process takes place. The alternative will be territorial gains but no sustainable peace. That is what you have to look at."

He said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has asked him to report to the Security Council in November "whether the U.N. is in a position or not to convene a credible and balanced constitutional committee."

That briefing, de Mistura said, "will be the most important one, certainly, of my mission."NEW YORK (AP) - CBS News says a Secret Service agent blocked one of its correspondents from asking Jared Kushner a question when he was walking out of an airplane, saying there was a "time and a place" for such interactions.

A network spokeswoman said Wednesday that reporter Errol Barnett happened to be on the same Washington to New York flight as the presidential son-in-law. CBS said he showed a press credential and attempted to ask a question about Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

A short video posted online showed what appeared to be an agent saying, "I don't give a damn who you are."

The Secret Service said it was reviewing the incident and that appropriate action would be taken depending on what its investigation shows.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - In ads and speeches, Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is pounding Missouri voters with a single message: Her Republican challenger wants to end health insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

The Republican, Attorney General Josh Hawley, says it's not true and has been forced to defend himself.

Virtually the same campaign is playing out across the country in numerous races for Congress and governor, as Democrats flip the script on Republicans who ran and won in previous elections on promises to repeal former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

At issue is a federal lawsuit filed in Texas by Republican attorneys general representing 20 states. It seeks to repeal Obama's health care overhaul in its entirety.

If the Republicans succeed, it would mean an end to all aspects of the law. That includes parts of it that have grown widely popular over time, such as allowing adult children to stay on their parent's insurance until age 26 and preventing insurers from charging older Americans far more than younger ones.

But one provision in particular - requiring insurers to cover those with pre-existing conditions - has become a central focus in races across the country, including the neck-and-neck contest for the Missouri Senate seat.

FILE - This combination of file photos shows Missouri U.S. Senate candidates in the November election, Democratic incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, left, and her Republican challenger Josh Hawley. In ads and speeches, McCaskill is pounding Missouri voters with a single message: Her Republican challenger wants to end health insurance protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Hawley, says it's not true and has been forced to defend himself. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson, File)

Hawley is among the Republican attorneys general who joined that lawsuit, giving McCaskill an opening to slam him at every opportunity.

She has highlighted the stories of 30 Missourians who have pre-existing conditions. Last week, her campaign launched a quiz that shows how voters' health insurance would be affected if the Republican lawsuit succeeds.

"Hawley doesn't have to pursue this lawsuit. And he doesn't have to lie about it," McCaskill wrote in a recent Facebook post. "If he was serious about keeping protections for people with pre-existing conditions, then he would take his name off the lawsuit tomorrow."

When he joined the lawsuit in February, Hawley described the Obama health overhaul as unconstitutional and said his office will "fight to take health care choices out of the hands of DC bureaucrats and put them in the hands of families and physicians."

Hawley insists that he still supports pre-existing condition coverage, even though those protections would go away if the lawsuit he joined succeeds. The only way that and other protections remain is if Congress swiftly passed a replacement bill, but so far congressional Republicans have been unable to agree on what such a plan would look like.

When asked by a reporter during a recent campaign stop if he's concerned about a potential gap in protection, Hawley said no one would lose their coverage and that "Congress is going to have to act, no matter what."

"Repealing Obamacare is the right thing to do, and I think there are ways to do that where there is no gap in coverage for folks," he said. "Nothing is going to instantly disappear."

He did not explain how that would be the case without Congress passing replacement legislation.

In an ad he's running that features his two young sons, Hawley says his oldest has a pre-existing condition - a rare bone disease: "We know what that's like," says.

Hawley is not the only Republican who has had to defend their support for repealing Obama's health care law while simultaneously trying to explain how they would preserve its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Mike Braun, the Republican challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly in Indiana, supports the GOP lawsuit while also saying Republicans should support legislation that protects pre-existing coverage. That made for a pointed moment in a recent debate.

"Mike, I can hardly believe that you can stand here and tell everybody you are for coverage of pre-existing conditions," Donnelly said. "Stand here tonight and tell us you'll denounce that lawsuit."

Republicans running for governor in Connecticut, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island and Wisconsin have all said they now support coverage protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, Ohio's Republican nominee for governor, reached back a quarter century, to a U.S. Senate debate from 1994, for evidence that he supports such protections. That's despite DeWine joining another Republican lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act on his first day in office in 2011.

His Democratic rival, Richard Cordray, has barraged DeWine with attack ads highlighting the issue.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is seeking a third term, has been working for years to repeal Obama's health care law and signed off on the state attorney general joining the lawsuit against it.

But earlier this year, Walker called for a state law that would bar insurers from denying a person health coverage due to a pre-existing condition. In talking about his support for the protections, Walker said the step was necessary because "Washington failed to act" on passing a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

His Democratic rival, Tony Evers, launched an ad calling on Walker to drop his support for the lawsuit.

"Actions speak louder than words," Evers said.

Protecting the most popular parts of the health care act has emerged as one of the key election issues in Republican-dominated states, such as McCaskill's. She's among 10 Democratic Senate incumbents running in states won by Trump.

Insurance coverage for those with pre-existing conditions "affects a lot of people, whether they're liberal, conservative, middle-of-the-road (or) don't care about politics," said University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill political scientist Jason Roberts.

Hawley has proposed requiring private insurers to cover pre-existing conditions at no extra cost. Under his plan, the federal government would collect premiums from those patients and then cover insurance costs that exceed a certain amount.

McCaskill's message: Don't trust that from someone who is actively trying to repeal the law that already provides that exact protection.

"He wants the whole thing thrown out, and he knows there's nothing there to back it up," McCaskill said during a September debate. "Nothing."

___

Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta; David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Jim Salter in St. Charles, Missouri; Brian Slodysko in Indianapolis; Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio; and Will Weissert in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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Follow Summer Ballentine at https://twitter.com/esballentine

FILE - This combination of Oct. 8, 2018, file photos show Indiana U.S. Senate candidates, Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly, left, and former Republican state Rep. Mike Braun during a debate in Westville, Ind. Braun supports the GOP lawsuit to repeal former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul while also saying Republicans should support legislation that protects pre-existing coverage. That made for a pointed moment in a recent debate. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - An investment adviser was convicted Wednesday of charges she defrauded investors out of millions of dollars, some of which she used to pay more than $800,000 for prayers by Hindu priests in India to ward off federal investigators.

A federal jury deliberated for roughly four hours over two days before convicting 56-year-old Dawn Bennett of all 17 counts in her indictment, including charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud. The verdict came after a two-week trial in Maryland. Bennett was indicted last year.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis did not immediately set a sentencing date.

Prosecutors said Bennett used money that people had invested in her luxury sportswear company to finance her lavish lifestyle, including six-figure expenditures on astrological gems, cosmetic medical procedures and the religious rituals in India.

Jurors heard testimony that Bennett paid a man in Washington state to arrange for Hindu priests to pray for her while her business was collapsing and she faced a Ponzi scheme investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"I am in a very very tough fight going against my enemies and I need all the help I can get," Bennett wrote in an email to Puja.net website operator Benjamin Collins.

FBI agents also found evidence in Bennett's Chevy Chase home that she tried to silence SEC investigators by casting "hoodoo" spells, according to an FBI affidavit that accompanied her arrest last year in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Agents found instructions for placing people under a "Beef Tongue Shut Up Hoodoo Spell" and found the initials of SEC attorneys written on the lids of Mason jars stored in Bennett's freezers, the affidavit said.

However, jurors didn't hear any testimony about paranormal practices during Bennett's trial.

Prosecutors said Bennett didn't tell investors she was using their money on Hindu prayers and other personal expenses. One of her attorneys insisted Bennett was free to mix her personal and business expenses.

Defense attorney Dennis Boyle also said his client's religious practices are irrelevant.

"It should be free from government scrutiny," he said. "The fact that her prayers look or sound different (is) of no consequence."

Bennett used promissory notes to raise more than $20 million from at least 46 investors in her company, DJBennett.com, authorities said. Some of the investors were longtime friends. Others knew her from a radio show she hosted in the Washington, D.C., area.

Many of them lost their life savings or retirement funds when they gave their money to Bennett, who promised them a 15 percent return on their investment.

Bennett provided investors with falsified balance sheets and other fraudulent documents to her company appear profitable when it actually was in "abysmal" financial shape, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Bernstein told jurors at the close of the trial.

"The company was losing millions of dollars, year after year," Bernstein said. "She lied to them."

Boyle depicted his client as a fraud victim herself, saying she invested more than $8 million of her own money in her online business and relied on false financial numbers and records prepared by her company's chief financial officer, Bradley Mascho.

Mascho pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to commit securities fraud and awaits a sentencing hearing. Neither he nor Bennett testified at trial.

"Dawn Bennett is actually the first victim in this case," Boyle said.

Stuart Berman, Mascho's attorney, declined to comment on Boyle's claims about his client.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom said it was Bennett, not Mascho, who profited from the scheme.

"Ms. Bennett had no intention of helping her friends with these investments," he said. "She wanted to help herself."

The FBI's investigation of Bennett began in December 2015 after the SEC formally accused her of defrauding investors by inflating the amount of assets she managed and exaggerating the returns on her customers' investments. The SEC cited Bennett's statements on her paid weekly radio show, "Financial Myth Busting With Dawn Bennett."

Bennett used investors' money to pay off other investors and for her own personal benefit, including more than $141,000 on astrological gems, more than $100,000 on cosmetic medical procedures and a $500,000 annual lease for a luxury suite at the Dallas Cowboys' home stadium, prosecutors said.ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Divorce records for Keith Ellison, who is fending off an allegation of abuse from an ex-girlfriend, contain no allegations that the Minnesota congressman physically abused his ex-wife. But Ellison said in a 2015 filing that Kim Ellison repeatedly hit him during their 25-year marriage.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune and conservative news site Alpha News sued for access to the divorce file, arguing it's a matter of public interest after the claim by Ellison's former girlfriend. Ellison, who is running for state attorney general and is deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has denied it.

The Ellisons tried to block release of the file, with Kim Ellison arguing that it would expose personal and painful details about her depression and health, but the Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected that bid on Tuesday.

Although the divorce proceedings began in 2010, Keith Ellison didn't raise his allegation of abuse until 2015. That's when Kim Ellison was seeking additional spousal maintenance after losing her job, citing the multiple sclerosis diagnosis she received years before their divorce. She has recently said in court filings that her ex-husband had failed to provide her health insurance as agreed.

Keith Ellison argued his ex-wife wasn't credible, going on to say that Kim Ellison "hit me too many times to mention" during their marriage, once bit him on the arm and threatened to stab him.

"The Respondent constantly blamed her physical abuse of me on her depression and MS, but would always do it again," Keith Ellison said in the court filing. "Finally, I had to leave the marriage." Later, he added: "I never hit or assaulted the Respondent, although I am physically larger, quicker, and stronger than she is."

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2017, file photo, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a candidate for Minnesota attorney general, addresses campaign volunteers and supporters in Minneapolis. Ellison's ex-wife says their divorce records contain sensitive information about her mental health but no indication of physical abuse. Keith Ellison and Kim Ellison divorced in 2012 and are trying to keep their divorce records sealed. The divorce file has drawn interest since Ellison's former girlfriend accused him in August 2018 of domestic abuse. (Alex Kormann /Star Tribune via AP, File)

Hours after its initial release, Hennepin County court briefly removed that affidavit from public view before eventually restoring it. A spokesman said the court reviewed the file and determined it did not contain "a confidential report."

Neither Kim Ellison nor Keith Ellison disputed the abuse allegation in separate statements Wednesday, and both expressed outrage that the court ordered their entire divorce records released.

"My divorce file contains details of the most difficult time in my life, when I was struggling with my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis," Kim Ellison said. "It is a record of that time that I never thought a court would force me to share with the public.

Keith Ellison called Kim Ellison "a wonderful person" and said they have rebuilt a strong friendship since their divorce.

"I attribute the difficulties in our marriage to the disease and my failure to understand it," he said in his statement. "I was not nearly sensitive enough to the symptoms of her medical condition at the time, and for that I am deeply sorry."

Ellison's former girlfriend Karen Monahan accused him in August of dragging her from a bed at his home in 2016. The accusation came just days before the Minnesota primary election, but Ellison went on to win his party's primary for attorney general. He is now in a close race with Republican Doug Wardlow.

___

Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski contributed to this report from Minneapolis.About 1.9 million Venezuelans have fled their collapsing nation since 2015 in one of the largest migrations in the world in recent years. The most desperate cannot afford a bus or plane ticket, and so they risk their lives to escape on foot.

Every day, more than 650 migrants start on the walk out of Venezuela. They rush illegally across the border with Colombia, frequently encountering armed criminals. They walk for miles along roads, carrying their belongings. They wrap themselves in blankets, bracing against the cold of frigid mountains.

For nine days, a team of Associated Press journalists followed a Venezuelan mother and daughter as they crossed three borders and nearly 2,700 miles (3,460 kilometers) - about the distance from Los Angeles to New York City.

This is an account of the people, places and dangers migrants encounter along the way.

___

A PERILOUS CROSSING

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrant Orlando, 44, gets medical treatment for his feet as he rests from walking across the country outside the home of Marta Duque, who opens her doors to provide shelter for Venezuelan families with young children in Pamplona, Colombia. Duque welcomes upward of 300 migrants a day into her home in Pamplona, where she gives them food and warm clothes and warns against sleeping outside. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

VILLA DEL ROSARIO, Colombia - Most Venezuelans buy a bus ticket to the border with Colombia but cannot cross through an official checkpoint because they lack the proper documents, such as a passport.

Instead they traverse one of hundreds of illegal dirt road crossings that are ruled by armed criminals dressed in green fatigues. These illegal groups frequently rob and assault migrants who can't pay the equivalent of $10 in Colombian pesos or Venezuelan bolivars, or about half what a Venezuelan earning the minimum wage might make in a month.

Aurelix Lira, 20, and her boyfriend were robbed of their cellphone after being unable to hand over any cash.

"You'll have to pay!" said an armed man who rummaged through their belongings.

Authorities have struggled to wrestle control of the no-man's land between both nations. In the meantime, Venezuelans are being recruited into illegal activities such as drug trafficking.

"They are very much in the wind," said Jeremy McDermott, executive director of InSight Crime, a group that studies organized crime in Latin America, "which makes them extremely vulnerable to exploitation and recruitment by organized crime."

___

THE WAILING WALL

LOS PATIOS, Colombia - The small stand where Martha Elena Alarcon, 54, sells soda, chips and sugarcane juice is where many migrants fleeing by foot stop for a moment's rest. When Venezuelans began arriving at her doorstep about a year ago, she'd give them water and bread.

As the numbers skyrocketed, she asked them to write a message.

The walls of the tin roof building are now covered in hundreds of messages written on nearly worthless Venezuelan bolivars and bright colored sheets of paper.

Five travelers writing in black ink said they were "walking to a better life thanks to our president, who is either blind or a brute and making everyone in Venezuela flee." One pregnant woman traveling with her 3-year-old old daughter, Sofia, said the journey had been trying and wrote, "God please protect us."

The list of names in each note is one of the only written records documenting who is walking and where. Alarcon recalled how one woman came across the name of a cousin she had not heard from in one of the messages.

"She's OK!" the migrant told her in relief.

___

A FRIGID PARAMO

TONA, Colombia - The road leading to the city of Bucaramanga passes through a frigid paramo known as "the icebox" that has struck fear into the hearts of migrants unprepared for temperatures down to 10 degrees below freezing.

Marta Duque, 55, welcomes upward of 300 migrants a day into her home in Pamplona, where she gives them food and warm clothes and warns against sleeping outside.

"They are risking their lives and those of their children," she said.

Carlos Valdes, the head of Colombia's forensic medicine office, said he believes walkers have died from the cold but was unable to provide a number. One migrant told the AP he saw a family burying someone on the side of the road. Others have described seeing crosses and stones bearing names and death dates.

Jonathan Suarez, 23, sat with tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to get a ride. The previous day he had walked 25 hours and slept on the side of the roadway. The thought of his two girls back home - ages 3 and 8 months - kept him going.

"I must press on, for them," he said.

___

PARQUE DEL AGUA

BUCARAMANGA, Colombia - Public parks across Colombia have turned into makeshift shelters for migrants with nowhere else to go.

On any given day, about 400 Venezuelans convene in the Parque del Agua in Bucaramanga, many fresh from long walks and eager to rest. Pastors deliver sermons and hand out Bibles. Charity groups come with hot meals in Styrofoam containers. And Venezuelans who are complete strangers sleep side by side on top of flattened cardboard boxes.

In some parts of the country, authorities have forcibly removed migrants who convene in public spaces. But many Venezuelans say they are unable to afford even the simplest lodging.

Geraldine Aguilera, 22, a former architecture student, arrived at the park after walking and hitching rides from the border with her sister.

"It's hard sleeping next to people you don't know," she said. "You don't know if they're going to hurt you. But necessity forces you."

___

ISLANDS OF REFUGE

PEROLES, Colombia - Migrants traverse through extreme temperature changes as they travel through frigid mountaintops and scorching, flat valleys.

As they walk through remote country roads, freighter trucks barrel by, coming within a few feet of Venezuelans trekking along the narrow shoulder.

Much of the journey through Colombia takes them through isolated farmland where gas stations have turned into small islands of refuge for hot, exhausted migrants.

Gas station attendant Manuel Velasquez has seen the migration crisis up close from where he fills up trucks in rural Peroles. Many of the migrants he sees come with their feet blistered and knees swollen, on the verge of collapse from hunger and dehydration. The woman who stands out to him the most was being pushed in a wheelchair to Ecuador for cancer treatment.

"I'm terrified by what is happening," he said.

___

GETTING A RIDE

LA DORADA, Colombia - When they get lucky, migrants hitch rides or collect enough money to buy bus tickets to reach their next destination.

One of the first rides for migrant Sandra Cadiz and her daughter came on the back of a caravan-style truck, where they clung to the side wooden panels every time the vehicle braked and swerved.

On another long, hot day, a Venezuelan man took them on the back of his motorcycle to a gas station. And about halfway through Colombia, generous bikers, drivers and others who spotted Cadiz and her daughter on the side of the road had given them enough money to purchase bus tickets.

But the vast majority of trucks and cars don't stop for the Venezuelans they see walking. Many have heard stories about migrants committing crimes. Truckers say they'd be fired if bosses found out they were carrying migrants and that their every move is tracked by GPS devices. Others fear incurring heavy fines from police.

___

DESPERATE MESSAGES

CALI, Colombia - A cellphone is a luxury most poor migrant walkers don't have, so those interviewed by the AP often asked to use their phones to send messages to relatives.

One woman cried into a reporter's cellphone as she sent a message to her mother and toddler son back in Caracas after two days of walking.

"All of this is for you both, mami," she sobbed. "I love you so much."

Another young man arriving by bus in Cali sold his phone to get money for the journey. He used an AP phone to contact the only person he knew in the crime-ridden city - his friend's sister.

"It's Jesus," he wrote her.

"Jesus who?" she responded.

She eventually recognized his name and gave him her address. In a few subsequent messages with his friend, he said his stomach was in knots.

"I've gone about two days without eating," he said.

___

HOPING TO CROSS

RUMICHACA INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE. Colombia/Ecuador border - The bus ride from Cali to Ipiales was full of Venezuelan families with young children crossing into Ecuador.

When they reached the Rumichaca International Bridge, the migrants filed into long lines and stood at least four hours in the cold. Some wore socks for mittens and used bath towels as blankets.

Many women with kids were turned back because they did not have written authorization from their children's father.

Those who did make it across found refugee-style Red Cross tents on the other side. Women and children were quickly escorted onto buses paid for by the Ecuadorean government that would take them all the way to the border with Peru.

Many men would have to wait several days longer.

___

A LONG WAIT

AGUAS VERDES, Peru - At the crowded Peru-Ecuador border, many young migrants who had walked for weeks complained they'd been waiting days for authorities to process their entry request - and in the meantime weren't given any food or water.

As 21-year-old Jean Paul Flores spoke of his shared frustration to the AP, dozens cheered and applauded in agreement. Flores worked at an international call center in Venezuela and left behind his five-months-pregnant wife. He knew if he stayed, he wouldn't be able to buy diapers for his baby.

"Staying and accompanying her during nine months of pregnancy would mean sacrificing the childhood of my baby," he said. "It's not worth it."

He urged Peruvian officials to let them through swiftly.

"We just want to obtain our objective: To save our families from what is happening there," he said.

___

SEARCHING FOR A NEW HOME

LIMA, Peru - The capital city of Peru - some 2,700 miles from where migrants start out on foot - is the final destination for growing numbers of migrants.

Over 400,000 Venezuelans now live in the Andean nation, most arriving over the last year. Many are drawn by Peru's economy, which is expected to grow nearly 4 percent this year, faster than other countries in the region.

While some migrants hope they'll return to Venezuela, most interviewed by the AP believed their move would be permanent. Their only hope was to earn enough money so they could bring the rest of their family, too.

Migrant Sandra Cadiz and her daughter initially stayed with her older son and his family, but the landlord of the tiny room didn't want so many people living there. In the week since they've lived in two different shelters.

"I have a home in Venezuela," Cadiz says. "But I don't have one here."

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelans illegally cross from Venezuela into Colombia, to Villa del Rosario, along a path known as a "trocha." Some Venezuelans cannot cross through an official checkpoint because they lack the proper documents, such as a passport, so they instead traverse illegal dirt road crossings ruled by armed criminals dressed in green fatigues. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 13, 2018 photo, Martha Elena Alarcon speaks on her cell phone in front of messages written by Venezuelan migrants in gratitude to her, which cover her little store on the side of the road in Los Patios, Colombia. When Venezuelans began arriving at her doorstep about a year ago, she'd give them water and bread, and as the numbers skyrocketed, she asked them to leave a written message. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, bundled Venezuelan migrants ask a driver for a ride to the next city, Bucaramanga, at a gas station in Pamplona, Colombia. The road leading to Bucaramanga passes through a frigid paramo known as "the icebox," that has struck fear into the hearts of migrants unprepared for temperatures down to 10 degrees below freezing. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 1, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrants receive free food being handed out by a Colombian family at the Parque del Agua in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Public parks across Colombia have turned into makeshift shelters for migrants with nowhere else to go. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 3, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis thank gas station worker Manuel Velasquez after he helped them get a ride in the cabin of a truck in Peroles, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. Many of the migrants Velasquez sees come with their feet blistered and knees swollen, on the verge of collapse from hunger and dehydration. "I'm terrified by what is happening," he said. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept 1, 2018 photo, 10-year-old Angelis sits between two other Venezuelan migrants in the back of a truck as she travels with her mother to the Berlin paramo in Colombia during their journey to Peru. One of their first rides came on the back of this caravan-style truck. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this photo Sept. 7, 2018 photo, Venezuelan migrants charge their cell phones for free at the immigration office in Aguas Verdes, Peru. Cell phones are a luxury that many poor migrant walkers don't have. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 5, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis wait in line with other migrants to pass through immigration in Ipiales, Colombia, before crossing the Rumichaca International Bridge, behind them, into Ecuador. When they reached the bridge, Venezuelan migrants filed into long lines and stood at least four hours in the cold. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 7, 2018 photo, the belongings of Venezuelan mother Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, which they carried by foot on their journey from Venezuela to Peru, sit neatly displayed for a picture in Huaquillas, Ecuador. They carried old clothes, shoes, a brush with bristles bent in opposing directions and a smashed roll of toilet paper. There was also an old, heavy iron gas burner Cadiz's a sister had insisted she deliver to a niece in Lima. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - As some 3,000 Hondurans made their way through Guatemala, attention turned to Mexico, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to close the U.S.-Mexico border if authorities there fail to stop them - a nearly unthinkable move that would disrupt hundreds of thousands of legal freight, vehicle and pedestrian crossings each day.

With less than three weeks before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Trump seized on the migrant caravan to make border security a political issue and energize his Republican base.

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump tweeted, adding that he blamed Democrats for what he called "weak laws!"

The threat followed another one earlier this week to cut off aid to Central American countries if the migrants weren't stopped. Trump made a similar vow over another large migrant caravan in April, but didn't follow through and it largely petered out in Mexico.

On Thursday, Mexico's foreign ministry said the government was assisting members of the caravan who had already crossed into Mexican territory. It was explaining the options to migrants and helping those who chose to apply for refugee status to navigate the lengthy process.

Mexico had also dispatched additional police to its southern border after the Casa del Migrante shelter on the Guatemalan side of the border reported that hundreds of Hondurans had already arrived there.

Honduran migrants leave Guatemala City at sunrise Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 as they make continue their way north toward the U.S. Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Apparently pleased with that response, in the evening Trump retweeted a BuzzFeed journalist's tweet of a video clip showing the police deployment, adding his own comment: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

Mexican federal police and immigration officials also detained immigration activist Irineo Mujica, who led a caravan of migrants through Mexico last spring.

His organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People without Borders, said via Twitter that he was arrested Thursday in Ciudad Hidalgo on the Mexico-Guatemala border while participating in a peaceful march.

Mexican immigration officials said Mujica, who has dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship, was accused of property damage and resisting arrest. A statement from the officials said Mujica attacked immigration agents, as well as local and federal police, after he was asked for his identification as he gathered foreigners for a protest.

Mexican officials had said the Hondurans would not be allowed to enter as a group and would either have to show a passport and visa - something few have - or apply individually for refugee status, a process that can mean waiting for up to 90 days for approval. They also said migrants caught without papers would be deported.

Marcelo Ebrard, who is set to become foreign relations secretary when President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office Dec. 1, said Trump's tweets need to be understood in the context of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.

"The electoral process is very near, so he is making a political calculation," Ebrard said in an interview with Radio Centro.

Trump's stance, he said, was "what he has always presented," adding he saw "nothing surprising in it."

Current Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray was also sanguine and viewed things through the lens of U.S. politics.

"Nobody likes them (Trump's comments). There's no reason to give them greater transcendence or importance," Videgaray said from the United Nations where he sought the world body's help processing asylum requests from the migrants. "What is important to us is the migrants, respect for human rights, their due protection, particularly the most vulnerable."

Still, the idea that Mexico could close its porous southern border - or that the United States would choke off the lucrative trade and other traffic between the two nations - strained the imagination.

"There would be huge economic impacts for both the United States and Mexico ... but limited effect on illegal immigration," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.

"The president certainly can slow down crossing at legal border crossings where about a million people cross each day. That would really hurt legal transit between the two countries and manufacturing and trade, which would affect American workers," Selee said. "But it would have much less impact on illegal border crossings between ports of entry."

Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, said she interpreted the tweet to mean Trump could send troops not to ports of entry but elsewhere where the illegal crossings take place.

"If that's the case, I don't think Mexico should be too worried because in a sense ... it's the same kind of thing U.S. administrations have been doing for a long time," Leutert said.

Like Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico is a country of many migrants, raising the question of whether the political will exists for a confrontation.

Lopez Obrador wants to avoid repression against migrants and also to avoid angering the United States. He said this week that Mexico would offer jobs to Central Americans. "Anyone who wants to work in our country ... will have a work visa," he said.

Juan Escobar, 24, said he had heard about Trump's comments but said they would not dissuade the migrants from continuing their journey.

"Only God on high can stop us," Escobar said.

Carlos Lopez, 27, said he was concerned by Trump's threats, but "you have to keep fighting."

Trump also warned that he prioritizes border security over even the recently struck trade deal to replace NAFTA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border," Trump tweeted.

Analysts didn't see the pact as being in imminent danger, though trade attorney Daniel Ujczo of Dickinson Wright PLLC said there is "a significant concern" Trump could hold the agreement hostage over future issues.

"Leaders around the world are skeptical that any deal with this U.S. administration is actually final," Ujczo said.

U.S.-bound migrant caravans have been going on for years - with traveling in numbers seen as offering protection from assaults, robberies, even shakedowns by police. They're also a cheaper alternative to the $7,000 to $10,000 that smugglers, charge for passage to the border, Leutert noted.

Still, it wasn't until this year that the caravans received widespread attention.

"There have been these caravans through the years, but they become prominent because the president tweets about them," Selee said.

He predicted that, like the caravan in April, Mexico will respond with measures like granting asylum to some migrants who qualify while deporting others who don't, perhaps not eliminating the caravan entirely but significantly reducing its size before it reaches the U.S. border.

But the direct, public pressure from Trump puts Mexico, already an uneasy ally the last two years, in an uncomfortable spotlight.

"Ironically, the way President Trump responds to these caravans makes it harder for the Mexican government to cooperate with the U.S. on immigration enforcement," Selee said. "There is a lot of disposition in both the current and the incoming Mexican government to cooperate with the U.S. on some aspects of immigration control. But it becomes much harder when President Trump makes this a political issue in which he bashes Mexico."

___

Orsi and Stevenson reported from Mexico City. Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

the clothes of Honduran migrants are hung to dry at the "Casa del Migrants" shelter in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

A Honduran migrant with foot injuries is helped to enter a shelter as he arrives to Guatemala City, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants bound to the U.S border climb into the bed of a truck in Zacapa, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

A Honduran migrant uses a public phone outside the "Casa del Migrante" shelter, after arriving to Guatemala City, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

A Honduran migrant bound for the U.S. border pushes a baby carriage in Zacapa, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)MEXICO BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Missing relatives and worries that looters are just outside the door. Dirty clothes. Hours-long lines for gasoline, insurance adjusters, food and water. No power, no air conditioning, no schools, no information and little real improvement in sight.

Daily life is a series of fears and frustrations, both large and small, for thousands of people living on the edge, more than a week after Hurricane Michael flattened thousands of square miles in the hurricane zone of the Florida Panhandle.

Erin Maxwell waited in line for fuel for more than an hour Thursday at a gasoline station that never opened. "I'm tired and want to go to sleep. I don't want to wait in another line," said Maxwell, eyes closed and her head tilted back on the seat.

Meanwhile, husband Mickey Calhoun fretted over the fate of his mother, Anita Newsome, 74. The retired sheriff's deputy was last seen when officers took her to a hospital the day before Michael made landfall, her son said.

"We can't find her or get word anywhere," said an exasperated Calhoun, 54, wearing stained khaki pants and a dingy towel draped around his neck.

A few miles away, 70-year-old Ed Kirkpatrick and his 72-year-old wife, Sandra Sheffield, huddle together in a splintered mobile home surrounded by fallen pine trees. A noisy generator powers the old box fan blowing warm air across their den. They're both afraid to leave because of widespread reports of looting.

Sandra Sheffield, 72, uses a washcloth to wipe sweat from her face, in her home, which now has no electricity, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. She and her husband refuse to leave their home, and neighbors are trying to assist them with fans and a generator. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The man, a diabetic who has a big scar down the middle of his chest from heart surgery, needs medical attention and ice to refrigerate his insulin, said Sheffield, who has a pacemaker. But getting out in traffic takes hours and precious fuel, she said, and looters could show up at any time.

"I don't want to go anywhere because I know I'm safe here," said Sheffield, burying her head in a twisted towel to cry.

Michael slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155 mph winds on Oct. 10 and retained hurricane-force winds deep into southern Georgia, also affecting the Carolinas and Virginia. Florida authorities on Thursday say the storm killed 24 people in the state, bringing the overall death toll to at least 34.

With power still out in much of the Panhandle and thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged by Michael, almost nothing is normal. Even simple tasks are difficult or impossible.

Driving times are doubled or tripled because roads are clogged with police and fire vehicles, utility trucks, returning residents and people seeking help. Lines are long outside a discount store where more than two dozen insurance, financial services and cellphone companies have set up in a temporary village of open-sided tents erected on asphalt.

Unseasonably warm temperatures in the 80s are adding to the misery because so few people can cool down with air conditioning. Bottled water is plentiful at roadside aid stations; ice is another matter.

Spotty cellphone service leaves those most vulnerable with little information to help them get by. Residents in Panama City eagerly ask for information about what happened about 20 miles away in devastated Mexico Beach, and for tips on finding pharmacies, coin-operated laundries and stores that might sell batteries to power flashlights with fading beams.

Kelli Ladik is living with four daughters and her husband in a camper parked outside their bayside home, which has severe water damage from rain that poured in when the roof failed. Ladik is so, so tired of the grime.

"We need running water more than anything. To be able to shower after a full day of cleaning would be great," said Ladik.

Her kids, three of whom are school age, are all out of class and it's unclear when classes might resume. Some school buildings are heavily damaged and leaders are still trying to account for all the teachers, administrators and others who are needed to get the system running again.

Watching friends and loved ones suffer is the hardest part for Nancy Bartice, who used to live near Ed Kirkpatrick and his wife. Feeling helpless to assist the couple, Bartice was trying to get to nearby Panama City Beach to get them gasoline and, perhaps, a better place to stay. Who knows how long the 16-mile journey could take.

"They have been the most blessed couple," said Bartice, fighting away tears. "They helped me in a lot of bad situations, and I want to do the same in return."

___

Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

___

For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes .

Sandra Sheffield, 72, reacts to her predicament, as she uses a washcloth to wipe sweat from her face, in her home, which now has no electricity, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. She and her husband refuse to leave their home, and neighbors are trying to assist them with fans and a generator. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Joyce Walker sits on her porch in front fallen trees outside her home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Aleeah Racette receives medical treatment inside the Florida 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Team tent, outside the Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Mickey Calhoun stands in line hoping a gas station will open, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 file photo, Lorrainda Smith sits with her 2-day-old son, Luke, as she contemplates with her husband, Wilmer Capps, right, sleeping in their truck in a parking lot after their home was damaged from Hurricane Michael and they were told a nearby shelter was closed, in Panama City, Fla. Wilmer Capps says he and wife Lorrainda Smith had no choice but to camp out at the store the night their son Luke was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City, Florida, was badly damaged by the storm. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Kahlan Ladik, 14, sits next to the camper her family just bought as temporary housing, since their home was heavily damaged by Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. With her are her siblings Madison, 3, and Lilly, 6, top. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Survival supplies sit on the coffee table of Ed Kirkpatrick and his wife Sandra Sheffield, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The elderly couple, both of whom have health issues, refuse to leave their home, which has no electricity. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ed Kirkpatrick sits shirtless on his sofa because of the heat in his home, which now has no electricity, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The elderly couple, both of whom have health issues, refuse to leave their home. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Ed Kirkpatrick sits shirtless on his sofa because of the heat in his home, which now has no electricity, with his dog, Boo, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The elderly couple, both of whom have health issues, refuse to leave their home. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Jessyka Bartice and her mother, Nancy Bartice, left, bring fans to assist their neighbors Ed Kirkpatrick and his wife Sandra Sheffield, not pictured, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The elderly couple, both of whom have health issues, refuse to leave their home, which has no electricity, and are using a generator. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Lorrainda Smith, right, and husband Wilmer Capps prepare to spend the first night out of the hospital with their two-day-old son Luke in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Lorrainda Smith, feeds her two-day-old son Luke out of the back of her pickup truck while preparing to spend the first night out of the hospital with her newborn and husband Wilmer Capps in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, as their home was badly damaged from Hurricane Michael. "One day we had it all, the next we had nothing," added Smith. "This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 file photo,Lorrainda Smith, sits with her two-day-old son, Luke, as she contemplates with her husband Wilmer Capps, right, sleeping in their truck in a parking lot after their home was damaged from Hurricane Michael and they were told a nearby shelter was closed, in Panama City, Fla. Wilmer Capps says he and wife Lorrainda Smith had no choice but to camp out at the store the night their son Luke was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City, Florida, was badly damaged by the storm.. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

A Panama City resident, who did not want his name used, receives medical treatment, inside the Florida 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Team tent, outside the Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru's opposition leader Keiko Fujimori was freed by an appeals judge late Wednesday, a week after she was arrested in an ongoing money laundering investigation.

The daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori cried as the judge read aloud his ruling Wednesday night. Several critics heckled Fujimori as she left the courthouse.

She remains under investigation over some $1.2 million in undeclared financial contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign that were allegedly made by Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction firm at the heart of Latin America's largest-ever graft scandal.

Fujimori narrowly lost to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the 2016 presidential runoff. But her party emerged with a majority of seats in congress.

A different judge recently ordered the elder Fujimori be returned to jail to finish a long sentence for human rights abuses.

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, and leader of the opposition party, attends a hearing to appeal her detention in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, and leader of the opposition party, speaks to judges to request her detention be revoked during a hearing at court in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, photo, a supporter of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, wears a headband with her name as he waits for the start of a march in support of them, outside an Air Force headquarters in Lima, Peru. An appeals judge has freed Peru's opposition leader Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

An actor wearing a mask depicting former president Alberto Fujimori performs with fake money during a protest, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. TAn appeals judge has freed Peru's opposition leader Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, and leader of the opposition party, attends a hearing to appeal her detention in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, and leader of the opposition party, attends a hearing to appeal her detention in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation.(AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori, and leader of the opposition party, blows a kiss to her family at the end of her hearing to request that her detention be revoked, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's former President Alberto Fujimori who is the leader of the opposition party, right, talks with her lawyer Giuliana Loza, during a hearing to appeal her detention in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. An appeals judge has freed Keiko Fujimori a week after she was arrested during a money laundering investigation. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Sen. Heidi Heitkamp opened her debate Thursday against Republican challenger Kevin Cramer with a renewed apology for a newspaper ad attacking her opponent that improperly identified some survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, calling it a "grave and horrible error."

"I am praying for guidance and forgiveness," the Democrat told the nearly 200 people at Bismarck State College during her and Cramer's first debate before the Nov. 6 election.

The race has drawn national attention because Heitkamp is viewed as one of the most vulnerable candidates among red-state Democrats in the Senate, and Republicans are hoping to cling to a razor-thin majority.

Cramer, who is North Dakota's incumbent congressman, has been one of President Donald Trump's fiercest allies in Trump-loving North Dakota.

Heitkamp has been walking the conservative tightrope while trying to convince voters that she'll side with Trump when it's right for the state.

Here are the takeaways:

North Dakota Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, left, and Rep. Kevin Cramer shake hands at the conclusion of the U.S. Senate Candidate Debate sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Bismarck, N.D. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

KAVANAUGH - AND THE AD

Cramer did not pounce on Heitkamp for her ad, which he earlier said was "revictimization of victims." He did criticize Heitkamp's decision to vote against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court . In announcing her decision, Heitkamp cited Kavanaugh's temperament during testy Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that included confrontations with some senators and emotional testimony.

Her decision was seen as a politically risky gamble that went against the grain of her conservative-dominated state. Heitkamp sought to cast it as further evidence of her independence.

"Being an independent isn't an excuse for being wrong," Cramer told her.

Before her ad, Heitkamp had seized on remarks from Cramer, who referred to the #MeToo movement as "this movement toward victimization." The ad ran in several North Dakota newspapers and was an open letter to Cramer that took issue with his remarks. Several women named in the ad either hadn't authorized it or are not survivors of abuse, which led to backlash and Heitkamp's initial apology .

TRADE

Heitkamp put Cramer on the defensive regarding trade and tariffs in a state where agriculture is the No. 1 industry with about 25 percent of the workforce. Heitkamp has run several ads showing farmers in their soybean fields and complaining that Cramer has done nothing about the drop in crop prices.

Heitkamp said the trade war is having a "very dramatic and negative effect" on North Dakota's economy and its farmers.

"We spent 30 years building markets and we're going to lose it in a year," she said.

Cramer has argued that Trump's approach must be given time to work. He pointed to Trump's deal with Canada and Mexico and elsewhere as evidence that the president's approach is working.

HEALTH CARE

Heitkamp, like Democrats elsewhere, has hit Cramer hard with the assertion that repealing the Affordable Care Act would strip health care from thousands of people with pre-existing conditions. And she's criticized Cramer for backing North Dakota's involvement in a multistate lawsuit over whether or not the federal law is constitutional.

Heitkamp said during the debate that the health care law is not perfect but the pre-existing conditions component is "critical to the lives of so many North Dakotans."

Cramer has argued the current health care system is broken. On Thursday he said he "has not and would not" support any legislation that cuts guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions.

BEING BIPARTISAN

Heitkamp was a strong, vocal supporter of Hilary Clinton for president, in a state Trump won by 36 percentage points. But she is considered a moderate and one of the least reliably partisan Democratic votes in the Senate. She largely backed North Dakota's corporate interests on energy and voted to confirm most of Trump's Cabinet and judicial nominees, including Supreme Court pick Neil Gorsuch.

Heitkamp played up that support, while casting her opponent as a rubber stamp for the party that she says is ineffective in Washington.

"I've done everything I can to change the culture and work across the aisle," she said.

Cramer argued that Heitkamp's record belied her claims of having bipartisan instincts. He said Heitkamp has "created this delusion that she is somehow bipartisan."

She has been bipartisan "except when things really matter," he said.

He pointed to Heitkamp's vote against the tax cuts that Trump championed and her support of sanctuary cities.

The president looms large in the race. Cramer has aligned himself closely with Trump and played up the story that the president personally recruited him into the race.

Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, front, makes a point as North Dakota Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp listens during the U.S. Senate Candidate Debate on Thursday night, Oct. 18, 2018, in Bismarck, N.D. The debate was sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

North Dakota Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp makes a point in the U.S. Senate Candidate Debate with Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Bismarck, N.D. The debate was sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)

Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer makes a point in the U.S. Senate Candidate Debate with North Dakota Democratic U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp on Thursday night, Oct. 18, 2018, in Bismarck, N.D. The debate was sponsored by the North Dakota Newspaper Association. (Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their son Luke, born just three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle.

So Capps, his wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the longest of nights in the best spot they could find: The parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm.

On a starry night, mother sat in the bed of the family's pickup truck; her child sat in a car seat beside her. Dad sat in the dark and pondered how it could be that his son's first night out of a hospital could be spent outside a big-box retailer because of a lack of help.

"It really upset me, man, because I've always been the type of person who would help anyone," Capps said in an interview with The Associated Press, which found the family outside the store Monday night. An AP photographer accompanied them on a journey from the lot to a hospital and met them again at a hotel where donors later provided them a room.

Luke is healthy and so is Smith, his mom. But she said her newborn deserves better than the stormy life he's had so far.

"We had everything. Full-time job, a place to live. One day we had it all, the next we had nothing," said Smith. "This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to."

Lorrainda Smith, right, and husband Wilmer Capps prepare to spend the first night out of the hospital with their two-day-old son Luke in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The story of Luke's birth is just one amid the chaos that life has become in areas of the Florida Panhandle hit hardest by Michael.

With the hurricane bearing down on their native home of Panama City, Capps and Smith sent their three other children to stay with relatives. Doctors had planned to induce labor on Oct. 11, the day after Michael made landfall between here and Mexico Beach, wiping out a wide expanse of buildings and timber.

Smith went to the hospital as planned that day, courtesy of a ride in a police car along streets crisscrossed with downed trees and powerlines. Smith said workers at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center told her they couldn't deliver a baby that day, so she walked several miles (kilometers) home after being unable to find a ride back.

Anya Mayr, a Gulf Coast Regional spokeswoman, said the hospital has operated only as an emergency room and hasn't admitted patients since Michael. About 560 people have been treated for injuries ranging from storm wounds to heart attack and chainsaw cuts, she said, and more than 170 have been transferred to other hospitals by ambulances and helicopters.

Labor pains started the next day, so Capps drove Smith to a hospital about 80 miles (130 kilometers) to the north in Dothan, Alabama, which was flooded with coastal refugees from Michael. She gave birth at 1 a.m. last Saturday, three days after Michael's landfall.

Discharged from the hospital and unable to find a hotel room nearby, the couple drove back to Florida, where conditions had improved only slightly since Michael.

Still unable to stay at their storm-damaged home amid oppressive heat and bugs, Capps settled on the Walmart parking lot because they were low on gas and were fearful of driving at night with a curfew in place. The store has a reputation for letting travelers sleep in the parking lot overnight, and Capps knew it.

"I had no choice, (Luke) would have had a heatstroke. When he started acting like he was getting sick from the heat and wouldn't eat, that's when we went to Walmart," Capps said. "There was kind of a breeze there, there was no bugs biting us. I said 'We're all right now."

Police officers who showed up after the AP photographer escorted them back to Gulf Coast Regional, where workers checked out Luke but couldn't provide a bed for the night, frustrating Capps. Fearful of safety and sanitation problems at a shelter suggested by workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the family returned to the Walmart lot.

There, they met a security guard who helped secure them a hotel room in nearby Panama City Beach with air conditioning, water and power Tuesday night. Capps doesn't know how long the aid will last, but he intends to repay the donation.

Pulled back from the brink after doubting the kindness of humanity on that night in the parking lot, Capps still has little money and no permanent home. But things are looking up because of the kindness of strangers.

"These people have been a godsend, because otherwise we'd be back in the parking lot tonight," he said.

Wilmer Capps takes the temperature of his two-day-old son Luke while preparing with his wife Lorrainda Smith to spend the first night out of the hospital in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Capps says he and wife had no choice but to camp out the night their son was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City was badly damaged by Hurricane Michael. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Lorrainda Smith, feeds her two-day-old son Luke out of the back of her pickup truck while preparing to spend the first night out of the hospital with her newborn and husband Wilmer Capps in a parking lot in Panama City, Fla., Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, as their home was badly damaged from Hurricane Michael. "One day we had it all, the next we had nothing," added Smith. "This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 file photo,Lorrainda Smith, sits with her two-day-old son, Luke, as she contemplates with her husband Wilmer Capps, right, sleeping in their truck in a parking lot after their home was damaged from Hurricane Michael and they were told a nearby shelter was closed, in Panama City, Fla. Wilmer Capps says he and wife Lorrainda Smith had no choice but to camp out at the store the night their son Luke was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City, Florida, was badly damaged by the storm.. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 file photo, Lorrainda Smith sits with her 2-day-old son, Luke, as she contemplates with her husband, Wilmer Capps, right, sleeping in their truck in a parking lot after their home was damaged from Hurricane Michael and they were told a nearby shelter was closed, in Panama City, Fla. Wilmer Capps says he and wife Lorrainda Smith had no choice but to camp out at the store the night their son Luke was released from an Alabama hospital because their home in Panama City, Florida, was badly damaged by the storm. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)BEIJING (AP) - Chinese emergency services said Thursday that about 6,000 people were evacuated after a landslide in Tibet blocked the flow of one of the region's key rivers, creating a lake that could endanger downstream areas in India.

The collapse Wednesday morning of a cliff in the deep valley through which the river flows created a dam-like barrier on the Yarlung Tsangpo, the headwater of India's Brahmaputra River, the local emergency response bureau said in a report carried by state media.

The landslide struck near a village in Menling County and water in the lake had risen to a height of 40 meters (130 feet) by Thursday, the bureau said.

No deaths or injuries were reported and the bureau said China has been keeping India updated on the blockage.

Authorities in northeastern India issued an alert warning villagers in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh, the state bordering China's Tibet region, not to venture near the river.

District magistrate Tamiyo Tatak said water levels in the river had fallen drastically and once the blockage was cleared in China, water might suddenly rush downstream, causing a disaster in India.

This image taken from video footage run on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 by China's CCTV via AP Video, shows a landslide and barrier lake on Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet in western China. Thousands of people have been evacuated following a landslide in Tibet that blocked the flow of one of the region's key rivers, China's emergency services said Thursday. Headlines in Chinese reads: "Oct. 17 footage provided by firefighter" "natural disaster emergency protocol activated."(CCTV via AP Video)

In June 2000, a sudden high discharge of water from the Yarlung Tsangbo caused extensive damage in Arunachal Pradesh and other downstream areas in India.

With its towering peaks and glaciers, Tibet is the source of numerous Asian rivers, adding to China's strategic influence over its southern neighbors. Fast-rising temperatures have caused those glaciers to melt at an increasing pace, throwing a shadow over future water resources for China and other Asian nations.

___

Associated Press writer Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati, India, contributed to this report.

In this image taken from video footage run on Thursday, Oct 18, 2018, by China's CCTV via AP Video, a view of the landslide and barrier lake is seen on Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet in western China. Thousands of people have been evacuated following a landslide in Tibet that blocked the flow of one of the region's key rivers, China's emergency services said Thursday. Headlines in Chinese reads: "Oct. 17 footage provided by firefighter" "around 6,000 people evacuated." (CCTV via AP Video)

In this image from video footage run on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, by China's CCTV via AP Video, emergency response team prepare to deploy after a landslide formed a barrier lake on Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet in western China. Thousands of people have been evacuated following a landslide in Tibet that blocked the flow of one of the region's key rivers, China's emergency services said Thursday. Yellow headline in Chinese reads: "Formed 300 meters by 200 meters barrier." (CCTV via AP Video)MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan (AP) - Hameeda Danesh was locked away at age 13 and beaten daily for six months by uncles who abhorred the thought of her attending school. Now, she's running for a seat in Afghanistan's Parliament, hoping to guarantee education for the next generation of Afghan girls, despite threats from the Taliban and outraged government-aligned warlords.

Exposing the physical scars she still bears 16 years later, Danesh said that Saturday's elections are critical for women as Afghanistan's conservative religious traditions gain momentum and efforts accelerate to find a peace deal with Taliban insurgents, whose last turn at power denied girls the right to attend school and women to work.

"This is why I struggle, because no woman or girl should ever have to face these tortures," Danesh said, hiding her scars again beneath the long sleeves of her dress.

Seventeen years after the Taliban's ouster and the injection of hundreds of millions of dollars from an international community outraged by the radical religious regime's restrictions on women, activists say they still struggle to get laws passed in Parliament that would protect women from violence and guarantee them the right to education and work.

"A lot of members of parliament are against these laws because they don't like some of the articles that allow women to work outside the house, or guarantee their education or their right to divorce or protection from their husbands," said Abdul Wadood Pedram, who heads the Kabul-based Human Rights and the Eradication of Violence Organization. Nearly 10 years after it was first drafted, Parliament has yet to ratify an Elimination of Violence law, he said.

Danesh, now 29, is competing against six men to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in Afghanistan's central Wardak province, where the Taliban hold sway in vast tracts of the countryside.

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, hoping to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in central Wardak province, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Kabul, Afghanistan. In Saturday's election 417, or roughly 16 percent, of the 2,565 candidates competing for seats in the 249-member chamber are women. Yet in rural Afghanistan, especially in the country's ethnic Pashtun areas where the Taliban dominate, many women are not even registered to vote. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

"This election is so important because we need the new generation" to counter the hold on parliament by warlords, heavily armed commanders and religious conservatives, she said.

Still, women have made great strides since the Taliban were removed from power, said Pedram.

Today, girls are able to attend school and women are in Parliament and in the media, anchoring television news programs. They are on provincial councils, government ministries are headed by women and so is the Independent Human Rights Commission. Women even sit on the government's High Peace Council, which is tasked with talking reconciliation with insurgents.

But the changes are fragile, warned Pedram, saying opposition to women's rights is deeply embedded in the country's conservative culture and traditions.

"The Taliban ideas were not foreign, they are from our society," he said. "This is why these elections are so important. Our ability to retain these rights, this progress depends on the parliamentary elections and the people we elect.

Most women jailed in Afghanistan are accused of so-called "moral" crimes, charged with adultery by abusive husbands when they seek a divorce, or arrested and jailed for fleeing a violent marriage, often imprisoned by their own parents or in-laws.

Citing a Global Rights study, U.N. Women Afghanistan said 87 percent of Afghan women suffer physical, sexual or psychological violence during their lifetime. Traditional justice, like tribal jirgas, undermine legal reform and women fleeing violence often "face indifference or criminal sanctions for committing moral crimes," the U.N. group said on its website.

In Saturday's election 417, or roughly 16 percent, of the 2,565 candidates competing for seats in the 249-member chamber are women. Yet in rural Afghanistan, especially in the country's ethnic Pashtun areas where the Taliban dominate, many women are not even registered to vote.

A former member of the eastern Paktia provincial council, Khaki Jan Zadran, an elderly Pashtun whose beard is white and scraggly, said most women in his province are not allowed by the men in their family to have their pictures taken or even have their names written on a public document, which means many are unregistered.

Women voting "is against our traditions, our culture," he said. "For most of the people in my area they believe it is a sin if their women vote in this election."

Unlike some candidates in Afghanistan who campaign accompanied by a phalanx of bodyguards, Danesh travels in a simple white sedan accompanied by two women, one of whom is her campaign manager. Posters of herself, her head covered, wearing the traditional deeply embroidered dress, adorn her car and appropriately emblazoned in white across the back window is the word 'tigershark."

In a country where most people can neither read nor write, candidates choose symbols to readily identify themselves to would-be voters. Not surprisingly, Danesh's favorite symbol is a book.

Ajmal Khan, who guards a girl's school in Maidan Shahr in Wardak province, said he might vote for a woman. "It depends how active she is," he said. "The government now does nothing."

Khan said sending girls to school is dangerous in Wardak province.

"Because of the Taliban, it is dangerous for the children coming and going from school and still there isn't even a gate," he said, pointing to the gaping hole at the school's entrance.

Danesh, whose father was a provincial governor during Taliban rule and later arrested when President Hamid Karzai first took power in 2001, was the first girl in her village to go to university. Her uncles tried and failed to stop her from going to school. She said her father never knew she was in school because he was in jail.

"My mother was my only supporter," said Danesh. Even now her father condemns her decision to seek office.

Her husband Bilal said he admires his wife's fierce independence, but worries when she sets out from their home in the capital of Kabul to travel to Wardak, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) away.

Danesh said she is not cowed by the threats she has received in letters and repeated phone calls.

"I tell the Taliban I am not like other women, if you want to attack me, then come and attack me face to face," she said.

___

Associated Press writer Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, hoping to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in central Wardak province, visits a school, in Kabul, Afghanistan. In Saturday's election 417, or roughly 16 percent, of the 2,565 candidates competing for seats in the 249-member chamber are women. Yet in rural Afghanistan, especially in the country's ethnic Pashtun areas where the Taliban dominate, many women are not even registered to vote. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, hoping to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in central Wardak province, poses for photograph with an elections poster, at her office in Wardak, Afghanistan. Danesh says the elections Saturday are key to countering the conservatism that stifles education, other opportunities for women. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, confers with her supporters during a campaign rally in Wardak province, central Afghanistan. Danesh, is competing against six men to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in Wardak province, where Taliban hold sway in vast tracts of the countryside. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, campaign billboards for Parliamentary candidate Hameeda Danesh, are displayed along a roadside, in Wardak province, central Afghanistan. Danesh says Saturday's elections in Afghanistan are key to countering the conservatism that stifles education, other opportunities for women. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 photo, Khaki Jan Zadran, a former member of the eastern Paktia provincial council speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Zadran said most women in his province are not allowed by the men in their family to have their pictures taken or even have their names written on a public document, which means many are unregistered. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Bilal, the husband of Hameeda Danesh, who is running for a seat in Afghanistan's Parliament, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kabul, Afghanistan. Danesh is competing against six men to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in Afghanistan's central Wardak province. Bilal said he admires his wife's fierce independence, but worries when she sets out from their home in the capital Kabul to travel to Wardak province, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) away. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, hoping to represent the deeply conservative district of Jalrez in central Wardak province, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in Kabul, Afghanistan. In Saturday's election 417, or roughly 16 percent, of the 2,565 candidates competing for seats in the 249-member chamber are women. Yet in rural Afghanistan, especially in the country's ethnic Pashtun areas where the Taliban dominate, many women are not even registered to vote. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 photo, Hameeda Danesh, a candidate for Parliament, left, stand near her car that is decorated with her campaign posters, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Danesh says Saturday's election are key to countering the conservatism that stifles education, other opportunities for women. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A high-level meeting to lay out security plans for Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary elections had just concluded when an elite Afghan guard turned his gun Thursday on the departing delegation in an attack that killed the powerful Kandahar police chief but missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller.

The audacious assassination strike, which killed at least one other senior Afghan official and was claimed by the Taliban, underscored the harrowing lack of security in Afghanistan just two days before national elections and more than 17 years after the militant group was driven from power. A Taliban spokesman said Miller was the intended target.

However, Army Col. David Butler, who attended the Kandahar meeting with Miller, said the region's powerful police chief, Abdul Raziq, who was killed in the volley of gunfire, was clearly the target, not the U.S. general.

"It was pretty clear he was shooting at Raziq," Butler told The Associated Press, adding that Miller was nearby but not in the line of fire.

The delegates had just gathered for a group photo when gunfire broke out inside the provincial governor's compound in Kandahar City, according to an AP television cameraman who was present when the shooting began. Everyone scattered, and the U.S. participants scrambled toward their nearby helicopter. But a firefight broke out between the U.S. service members and Afghan police when they tried to stop the U.S. delegation from reaching their helicopter, said the cameraman.

Besides Raziq, Kandahar's intelligence chief, Abdul Mohmin was killed in the attack, according to deputy provincial governor Agha Lala Dastageri. He said Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa also died of his wounds after being taken to a local hospital, although security officials in the capital maintained Wesa was wounded but survived.

Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa, left, stands with the head of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, center, and a translator, during a meeting, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The three top officials in Afghanistan's Kandahar province were killed, including Wesa, when their own guards opened fire on them at the security conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said. A Taliban spokesman said the target was Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO. (AP Photo)

Three Americans - a U.S. service member, a coalition contractor and an American civilian - were injured and in stable condition, said NATO spokesman U.S. Col. Knut Peters.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said the militant group carried out the attack, and Gen. Miller was the target.

Butler disputed that, saying the assailant shot at Raziq and then appeared to spray the area with gunfire before he was killed.

He said Miller and the Afghan leaders had moved outside the palace after several hours of meetings and were standing in small groups in the compound. He said he heard several shots "and we all took cover. It was over in seconds."

"We stabilized and treated the wounded and secured the area," said Butler, adding that Miller made sure the scene was secure and the wounded were taken away by medivac before he left the area and returned to Kabul.

Razik was a particularly powerful figure in southern Kandahar and a close U.S. ally despite widespread allegations of corruption. He ruled in Kandahar, the former Taliban heartland, with an iron fist and had survived several attempts to kill him, including one last year that resulted in the death of five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates.

Raziq's killing "may have major implications on the security situation in southern Afghanistan. As the chief of police in Kandahar, he has kept a lid on the Taliban's insurgency, which has intensified over the past several years," analyst Bill Roggio wrote in the Long War Journal.

The Taliban have vowed to disrupt Saturday's parliamentary elections, warning teachers and students not to allow schools to be used for polling and warning Afghans to stay away from the polls.

Within hours of the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani addressed the nation to assure Kandahar residents it was safe to go to the polls. In an AP interview, his adviser, Ziaulhaq Amarkhil said the attack was meant to disrupt elections and urged voters to defy Taliban threats, saying casting their ballot "would be a big slap on the face of the enemy."

At a news conference in the Afghan capital, Afghanistan's Army Chief Gen. Mohammad Sharif Yaftali said additional troops had been moved from neighboring Helmand province to Kandahar.

Pakistan's new prime minister, Imran Khan, and its military chief condemned the assault.

"The people and the security forces of Afghanistan have been paying a heavy price due to continued instability and threats from the enemies of peace," Khan said in a statement. "Pakistan stands by the government and the people of Afghanistan in their quest for lasting peace and stability."

Security has been steadily deteriorating in Afghanistan with increasingly brazen attacks being carried out by insurgents and Afghanistan's security forces have been on high alert ahead of Saturday's elections.

Late Wednesday, a NATO convoy was attacked near the Afghan capital, killing two civilians and injuring five Czech troops, Afghan officials and the Czech military said Thursday.

The attack in the Bagram district of Parwan province, also wounded three Afghan civilians, said Wahida Shakar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Bagram, which is the home of a sprawling U.S. military base.

In recent months, Afghan troops have come under near-daily attacks. NATO troops, which handed over security to Afghan forces at the end of 2014, mostly train and assist with air power. So far this year, eight U.S. soldiers and three other NATO service members have died in Afghanistan.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor in Washington and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2016 file photo, Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Three top Kandahar officials, including Raziq, were killed by their own guards Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, although a Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that U.S Gen. Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan was the target. Miller was unhurt but two U.S. troops were injured and evacuated. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, File)

The head of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, center left, Kandahar Gov. Zalmay Wesa, center right, and their delegations attend a security conference, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The three top officials in Afghanistan's Kandahar province were killed, including Wesa, when their own guards opened fire on them at the conference Thursday, the deputy provincial governor said. A Taliban spokesman said the target was Miller, who escaped without injury, according to NATO. (AP Photo)

Afghan National army soldiers search a car at a checkpoint ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20, at the Independent Election Commission compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

In this Aug. 4, 2016 photo, Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Three top Kandahar officials, including Raziq, were killed by their own guards Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, although a Taliban spokesman who claimed responsibility told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that U.S Gen. Scott Miller, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan was the target. Miller was unhurt but two U.S. troops were injured and evacuated. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union leaders agreed Thursday to pursue the cooperation of countries in North Africa and to beef up the bloc's external borders to stop large numbers of migrants from entering Europe.

A statement from an EU summit in Brussels where the leaders of member countries discussed migration emphasized the need to work with the countries that Europe-bound migrants depart from or travel through.

Working with those countries on "investigating, apprehending and prosecuting" smugglers and traffickers that take refugees and economic migrants on dangerous journeys by land and sea should be intensified," the leaders said.

Well over 1 million migrants entered Europe in 2015, most of them Syrians and Iraqis fleeing conflicts in their homelands. The number of arrivals dropped significantly after the EU struck a deal with Turkey to stem the influx.

Turkey was offered at least 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees in exchange for efforts to prevent migrants from leaving for Europe. The EU wants to reproduce the model elsewhere.

The EU leaders also called for an improvement in external border surveillance, without going into details.

Migrants disembark at Motril port after they were rescued by Spanish NGO ProActiva Open Arms at Alboran Sea, about 40 miles (64 km) from Spanish coasts, on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The Open Arms is now based at Motril port in Spain, in order to start operating in the western Mediterranean area. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo)

One reason the EU has looked outside for solutions is the refusal by some member countries to accept refugee quotas or to share the job of hosting the newcomers, the majority of whom arrive via a handful of southern European nations.

Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Italy and more recently Spain have complained of being abandoned to manage the influx alone. Tensions over how best to handle migrant arrivals - which pale in comparison to the number of refugees fleeing to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan - have fueled support for far-right parties in Europe.

"We can't just say that a country with a border on the sea is suddenly the only one responsible" for migrants, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said. "The problem is European, and the solution should be a European one as well."

Amid the standoff over quotas, momentum is gathering for countries to pay more money - to destination countries like Greece and Italy, for example, or for development aid to countries of origin - instead of hosting refugees.

"We're recommending that instead of mandatory quotas that we go the way of solidarity. This means that each country will provide a contribution where it is possible and where it makes sense," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, said.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said such a strategy might work.

"It's possible, no refugees but more money," Tajani told reporters, adding that it must be substantial funds, "not nothing, not peanuts."

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel questioned the idea of "solidarity commitments."

"The title sounds good, but if everyone says, 'The commitment to solidarity I am choosing is the solidarity of giving more money for Africa,' then we won't have solved certain problems and the arrival countries will be left alone again," Merkel said.

Migration experts and nonprofit organizations have expressed doubt about the effectiveness of any scheme that doesn't involve relocating refugees to more countries.

As the EU looks abroad for a solution, Egypt has appeared as a prime candidate for a new partnership. Kurz and European Council President Donald Tusk held talks with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and both praised him for stopping people from leaving Egypt's coast for Europe.

The aim would be to get the Egyptian coast guard to patrol the waters off Libya - the main departure point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea in hopes of reaching Italy - and to return any people rescued to Africa.

In response to criticism that it's neglecting the rights and well-being of migrants, the EU has said that it works closely with the U.N.'s refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration. Both agencies have noted that more people are dying during the sea crossing - more than 1,700 so far this year - and a "dangerously toxic" debate about immigration in some parts of Europe.

"The current tenor of the political debate - painting a picture of Europe under siege - is not only unhelpful but completely out of touch with reality," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said. "Debate is welcome. Scapegoating refugees and migrants for political gain is not."

___

David Rising and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

French President Emmanuel Macron, center right, speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, center, and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, center left, during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (Piroschka van de Wouw, Pool Photo via AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, speaks with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, right, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, center, during a round table at an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (Piroschka van de Wouw, Pool Photo via AP)

Vafin, 16, centre, from Guinea Conarky, sits with other migrants on the deck of Open Arms vessel, after they were rescued by the Spanish NGO Pro Activa Open Arms, about 40 miles (64 kms) from the Spanish coasts, on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018. The Open Arms is now based at Motril port in order to start operating in the western Mediterranean area. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo)

European Union leaders attend a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (Piroschka van de Wouw, Pool Photo via AP)

Migrants celebrate on a rescue boat from the Spanish NGO Pro activa Open Arms after being spotted and rescued them at Alboran Sea, about 40 miles (64 kms) from the Spanish coasts, on Thursday, Oct. 11 2018. The Open Arms is now based at Motril port in order to start operating in the western Mediterranean area. (AP Photo/Javier Fergo)

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz speaks with the media as he arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani arrives for an EU summit in Brussels, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. European Union leaders are converging on Brussels for what had been billed as a "moment of truth" Brexit summit but which now holds little promise for a breakthrough. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)ISTANBUL (AP) - A member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage during several trips abroad walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, a surveillance photo leaked Thursday shows, drawing the kingdom's heir-apparent closer to the columnist's alleged slaying.

The man, identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, has been photographed in the background of Prince Mohammed's trips to the U.S., France and Spain this year.

Turkish officials say he flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an "autopsy expert" Oct. 2 and left that night. That was the same day Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who wrote critically of Prince Mohammed's rise to power, entered the consulate and was not seen again.

Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. The AP could not immediately reach Mutreb for comment.

But Mutreb's appearance at the consulate, as well as later at the consul general's residence, adds to the growing pressure on Saudi Arabia amid international outrage over the disappearance of the writer, whom Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered.

In a further sign of that pressure, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as did senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands. Several top business executives have also canceled plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

ADDS NAME OF SUSPECT - In a frame from surveillance camera footage taken Oct. 2, 2018, and published Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah, a man identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, walks toward the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi disappeared. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. (Sabah via AP)

President Donald Trump, who first came out hard on the Saudis over the disappearance but had since has backed off, said Thursday that it "certainly looks" as though Khashoggi is dead, and that the consequences for the Saudis "will have to be very severe" if they are found to have killed him.

Analysts say that as long as the Saudis refuse to acknowledge what happened to Khashoggi, the leaks about the case will probably continue.

"Turkey wants to show to the world that it cannot be ignoble, selling values and principles in political deals with U.S. or Saudi to try to bury the truth and come up with an acceptable scenario," said Yusuf Katipoglu, a Turkish analyst.

The pro-government Sabah newspaper on Thursday first published the images of Mutreb, showing him walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9:55 a.m. with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1:14 p.m., then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.

A report Wednesday by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi's slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general's official residence, some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah-published pictured showed an image of the Mutreb at 4:53 p.m. at the consul's home, then at 5:15 p.m. checking out of a hotel. He later cleared an airport security check at 5:58 p.m. before flying out of Istanbul.

Mutreb's name matches that of a first secretary who once served as a diplomat at the Saudi Embassy in London, according to a 2007 list compiled by the British Foreign Office. The same name also appears in an email published by WikiLeaks from the 2015 breach of surveillance company Hacking Team of Saudi officials being trained to use their software. That breach showed how governments were increasingly turning to mercenary hackers-for-hire to pry into the cellphones and computers of their domestic opponents.

Mutreb's identity was confirmed by Turkish officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing. Mutreb also was identified in state and pro-government media reports.

It's unclear what relationship Mutreb has with Prince Mohammed.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show Mutreb in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey. The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the U.S. and Saudi flags intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The three-week trip across the U.S. saw Prince Mohammed meet with business leaders and celebrities, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Post.

Mutreb also has appeared in images on Prince Mohammed's trips to Boston, as well as Spain and France.

The Sabah report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both the consul general's residence and a second search of the consulate itself. Authorities have not said specifically what they found, although technicians carried out bags and boxes from the consul general's home. He left Turkey on Tuesday.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured attention remains focused on what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. after the rise of Prince Mohammed. It also put further strains on the relationship between the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the U.S., as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

After briefing Trump on Thursday on his talks this week with leaders in Saudi Arabia and Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he told the Saudi rulers that the U.S. takes "very seriously" the disappearance of Khashoggi and will await the outcome of investigations by the kingdom and Turkey before deciding how to respond.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders jointly called for a U.N. investigation of the Khashoggi disappearance.

"If the government of Saudi Arabia is not involved in Jamal Khashoggi's fate, it has the most to gain in seeing an impartial U.N. investigation determine what happened," said Sherine Tadros of Amnesty International. "Without a credible U.N. inquiry, there will always be a cloud of suspicion hanging over Saudi Arabia, no matter what its leadership says to explain away how Khashoggi vanished."

The Post published Thursday what it described as Khashoggi's last column, in which he pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.

"As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate," Khashoggi wrote. He added: "The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power."

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

ADDS NAME OF SUSPECT - In a frame from surveillance camera footage taken Oct. 2, 2018, and published Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah, a man identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, walks outside the Saudi consul general's residence in Istanbul. Writer Jamal Khashoggi disappeared at the nearby Saudi consulate on the same day. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. (Sabah via AP)

ADDS NAME OF SUSPECT ON RIGHT- In a frame from surveillance camera footage taken Oct. 2, 2018, and published Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah, a man identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, right, walks at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. Writer Jamal Khashoggi disappeared at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the same day. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. (Sabah via AP)

ADDS NAME OF SUSPECT - In this April 7, 2018, file photo, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, front right, talks with Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Allison Hay, front left, surrounded by his entourage as he tours a flood-damaged area in Houston, Texas. A man, rear second from left, in this image identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, also appears in pro-government Turkish newspaper images also showing him on surveillance video walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. (Strever Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP)

Turkish forensic officers arrive at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Khashoggi inside the consulate on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkish forensic officers arrive at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Khashoggi inside the consulate on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks out to speak to reporters following his meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks away after speaking to reporters following his meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Behind barbed wire, Saudi Arabia's flag flies atop the country's consulate in Istanbul, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankara's fears that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Members of the media report outside the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankara's fears that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)HOUSTON (AP) - A prominent blogger freed from prison in Vietnam on condition that she live in exile in the United States says she is glad to be reunited with her family and that she knows she is not alone in advocating for freedom.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh was smiling when she emerged from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Wednesday night to be greeted by a crowd, many of them Vietnamese-Americans. Her two young children and her mother travelled with her.

Quynh blogged as "Mother Mushroom" about human rights and industrial pollution. She was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming Vietnam's Communist government - a conviction that drew criticism from some governments and human rights groups.

Speaking to reporters upon her arrival, Quynh said that even though she had prepared herself for seeing her family again, she was overwhelmed.

"I was shocked when my son and my daughter hugged me on the plane," Quynh said. "We had to wait (for this moment) for two years."

Quynh could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday.

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, file photo, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, center, a prominent Vietnamese blogger, stands trial in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, Vietnam. Vietnam has freed a well-known blogger after two years in prison on the condition that she leave for the United States. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as "Mother Mushroom," was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of defaming the Communist government. (Tien Minh/ Vietnam News Agency via AP, File)

Quynh said she knows she is not alone and that she and others will still speak up for freedom in her native country.

Vietnam has stepped up a crackdown on dissent over the past two years with scores of activists and bloggers jailed for national security-related offenses.

Amnesty International says there are more than 100 "prisoners of conscience" in Vietnam.

The U.S. Embassy welcomed Quynh's release and said it would continue to press for the release of other "prisoners of conscience."

"We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience and allow all Vietnamese citizens to express their political views without fear of retribution," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said in a statement Thursday.

Quynh was released as U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited Vietnam, aiming to boost military cooperation between the two former foes amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Julia Mason said Thursday that Quynh had previously told U.S. officials she wanted to come to the United States if released from prison.

Quynh's immigration status in the U.S. was not immediately known.

In an email, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said due to privacy reasons, it can't comment "on whether or not individuals have applied for immigration benefits or any decisions involved in the adjudication process."

In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Quynh plans to live in Houston. The Texas city has the third-largest Vietnamese population in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center.

"We are greatly pleased that Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is finally free, but strongly reiterate that she never should have been imprisoned in the first place," said Shawn Crispin, the committee's senior Southeast Asia representative. "Authorities should follow through on the move by releasing all the other journalists still wrongfully held behind bars in Vietnam."BRUSSELS (AP) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will head home from an inconclusive European Union summit on Brexit to a barrage of criticism that her 27 EU counterparts spared her during the two-day event that ended Thursday..

In Brussels, May said she would consider a longer transition period, one that could keep Britain aligned to EU rules and obligations for over two years after its March departure. Pro-Brexit politicians in the U.K. saw it as an attempt to bind the country to the bloc indefinitely.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, ex-Brexit Secretary David Davis and other from May's party warned the prime minister not to "engage in a show of resistance and a choreographed argument followed by surrender" to the EU.

Pro-EU politicians, meanwhile, said the transition period proposal was another sign of May's weak bargaining hand and an attempt to stall for time. Another former Conservative minister, Nick Boles, warned that May was "losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion".

May stood firm in the face of the stinging criticism at home, saying Thursday that the U.K. and the EU could overcome the "few but considerable" disagreements standing in the way of a divorce agreement..

Leaders of other member countries said the real fight was not with the EU. but within May's fractured Conservative Party.

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

It is "not up to the European Union to make concessions to deal with an internal British political matter," French President Emmanuel Macron said. "It's a matter concerning Britain's political ability to find a presentable agreement. That's all."

At the end of the EU summit, May said there would be "tough negotiations," but she remained confident Britain and the bloc could strike a divorce deal that worked for both sides.

EU Council President Donald Tusk said the summit also left him more optimistic than he'd been after a bad-tempered meeting last month and a negotiating crisis on Sunday.

"What I feel today is that we are closer to the final solutions and the deal," Tusk said. He acknowledged the feeling "may be a more emotional impression than a rational one. But emotions matter, also in politics."

But May was under attack from across Britain's political spectrum after saying she was considering the EU proposal for a longer post-Brexit transition period.

Seeking to unblock the stalled divorce talks May said the initial 21-month transition could be extended by "a matter of months."

At present, the two sides say Britain will remain inside the EU single market, and subject to the bloc's regulations, from the day it leaves on March 29 until December 2020, to give time for new trade relations to be set up.

The EU has said an extension would give more time to strike a trade deal that ensures the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland remains friction-free. The future U.K.-EU border in Ireland has been the main sticking point in the talks.

The Irish border will be the U.K's only land frontier with the EU after Brexit. Both sides agree there must be no hard border that could disrupt businesses and residents on both sides and undermine Northern Ireland's hard-won peace process. But each has rejected the other side's solution.

The EU says the solution is to keep Northern Ireland inside a customs union with the bloc, but Britain rejects that because it would mean customs checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

Britain has proposed instead that all the U.K. could stay in a customs union - but only temporarily. The EU insists there must be no time limit.

This week's summit, which had been billed as a make-or-break moment, turned simply into a chance for Britain and the EU to give themselves more time - perhaps until the end of the year - to break the logjam.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker welcomed the opening May offered, saying "this prolongation of the transition period probably will happen."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described finding a solution as "squaring the circle."

But, she added; "Where there's a will, there should be a way, and normally there is a way."

The lack of progress scrapped plans for a special EU summit on Brexit that had been penciled in for next month, though EU leaders said they would assess the situation later.

The next official EU summit is scheduled for December, just over 3  months before Britain ceases to be an EU member. Any deal that is struck needs time to be approved by the British and European Parliaments.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a media conference at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders met for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, center, arrives for a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, right, arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

British Prime Minister Theresa May, right, arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys)

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks with the media as she arrives for an EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)PARIS (AP) - Senior government officials from the United States, France, Britain and the Netherlands joined a growing list of people cancelling out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia amid questions over the kingdom's involvement in the disappearance of a dissident writer.

"I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire likewise said he would skip the conference known as "Davos in the Desert." Saudi Arabia had been hoping to use the event to help burnish its global image as a forward-looking country interested in new technologies and sustainable energy.

Le Maire said the disappearance of the dissident, Jamal Khashoggi, is "serious" and facts about it need to be explained by Saudi authorities. He added, however, that his decision doesn't call into question the strategic partnership between France and Saudi Arabia.

Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra canceled after discussing the issue with Le Maire, the Dutch foreign minister said. Foreign Minister Stef Blok wrote that a Dutch trade mission planned for December to Saudi Arabia also likely will not go ahead.

Britain's trade minister, Liam Fox, later pulled out as well. Britain says it is "very concerned" about the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. Turkish officials say he was killed and dismembered there.

A Turkish forensic officer arrives at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Saudi officials have denied the allegations as "baseless," but haven't provided evidence of the writer leaving the diplomatic mission alive.

Several top business executives have also cancelled their plans to attend , as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.SINGAPORE (AP) - U.S. officials say they sense that relations with the Chinese military, after a rocky few months, may be stabilizing, although face-to-face talks between their respective defense chiefs Thursday produced no new agreements.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met for nearly 90 minutes, 30 minutes longer than scheduled, on the sidelines of an Asian security conference with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Wei Fenghe. A participant, Randall Schriver, the Pentagon's top official for Asia-Pacific affairs, said Mattis described the talks as "straightforward and candid" and asserted that high-level talks are especially valuable during times of tension.

Schriver said the discussions covered numerous issues but focused especially on the disputed South China Sea, where Chinese military activity is viewed by Washington as irresponsible and Beijing complains of an inappropriate U.S. military presence. Mattis asserted that the U.S. view is widely shared in the region and beyond.

"That's an area where we will continue to have differences and talk through," Schriver told reporters after the meeting.

Mattis and Wei discussed an existing U.S. invitation for Wei to visit the U.S., but details remain to be worked out, Schriver said.

"There was a commitment on both sides to try to find a time" for such a meeting, he added.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left, meets Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe in Singapore Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. After a rocky few months, Pentagon officials say they sense that relations with the Chinese military may be stabilizing. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)

China did not immediately comment to U.S. media outlets at the conference after the meeting between Mattis and Wei.

Just weeks ago, Mattis had planned to travel to Beijing for talks with Wei, but that fell through when the Chinese made it known that Wei would be unavailable, one of several signs that tension in the overall U.S.-China relationship was spilling over into the military arena.

Wei and Mattis were in Singapore this week for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Schriver had told reporters on Wednesday that the Chinese had requested the Singapore meeting with Mattis. He said U.S. officials took this as a sign that the Chinese are interested in stabilizing the military relationship.

Speaking to reporters traveling with him earlier this week, Mattis acknowledged that the relationship has been difficult in recent times.

"We're two large powers, or two Pacific powers, two economic powers. There's going to be times we step on each other's toes, so we're going to have to find a way to productively manage our relationship," he said. "And the military relationship is to be a stabilizing force in the relations between the two countries."

As recently as June, when Mattis was in Beijing for his first visit to China as Pentagon chief, President Xi Jinping called the U.S.-China military relationship the "model component of our overall bilateral relations."

Since then, however, a series of irritants have shaken military-to-military ties. Schriver said the trigger for recent tensions was the Trump administration's decision in September to sanction the Chinese military for buying Russian fighter planes and missiles. That action was taken under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act passed by Congress in 2017. Beijing also strongly criticized a U.S. announcement of further arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing insists is part of China.

China responded to these events with strong criticism, followed by a decision to cancel a planned visit to the Pentagon by the head of the Chinese navy and a confrontation in the South China Sea between a Chinese warship and a U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Decatur. The Chinese also denied a request for a U.S. Navy ship to visit Hong Kong.

"That may turn out to be a relatively short bump in the road," Schriver said Wednesday, suggesting that the Singapore meeting between Wei and Mattis could nudge things back in the right direction, although the U.S. administration remains concerned that the Chinese have achieved a key goal by militarizing disputed land features in the South China Sea that Washington warned against.

China views Washington's criticism of its activities in the South China Sea as unnecessary meddling in internal Chinese affairs.

Earlier this year, Mattis cited China's military presence on some land features in the South China Sea as his reason for disinviting the Chinese military from an international naval exercise in the Pacific.

As part of a U.S. effort to enlist support for countering and limiting China's militarization of the South China Sea, Mattis earlier this week visited Vietnam, which has its own disputed territorial claims there. Schriver noted that smaller nations like Vietnam, with limited naval and economic power, have reasons to express their concerns about China privately rather than in public.

"They do face potential risk angering China," Schriver said.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.MOSCOW (AP) - The Latest on the Crimea school attack (all times local):

6:25 p.m.

An official in Crimea says all information had been deleted from the computer of the teenager who killed 19 people at his vocational school.

Russian state news agency Tass quoted Crimea's human rights ombudswoman as saying a computer was among the items investigators took from the residence where 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov lived with his parents.

The ombudsman, Lyudmila Lubina, said, according to Tass: "When they did a search and saw the computer, all information, messages and such had been deleted."

The missing data could frustrate investigators trying to determine why Roslyakov opened fire at the school in the city of Kerch on Wednesday before killing himself.

Candles, flowers, icons, and toys are seen during a ceremony commemorating the people killed during an attack in the vocational college in Kerch, Crimea, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. An official says that authorities on the Crimean Peninsula are searching for a possible accomplice of the student who carried out an attack on a vocational school, killing 20 people and wounding more than 50 others. (AP Photo/Str)

The computer's wiping could impede efforts to determine if he had an accomplice in planning the attack.

___

4 p.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the deadly shooting and bomb attack by a teenager in Crimea a "result of globalization" and says that adults are failing to offer young people an alternative to an outburst of violence.

An 18-year-old student went on a rampage at his vocational school in the city of Kerch on Wednesday, killing 20 people and injuring more than 50. The motives of the killer are unclear although top Crimean officials said that authorities suspect he had an accomplice who helped him plot the attack.

Speaking at an international conference of policy experts, Putin on Thursday linked the attack to "globalization," drawing parallels to shooting attacks in the U.S.

Putin said the fact that teenagers get shotguns and go on a shooting rampage means that adults are "reacting poorly to fast-changing realities."

___

12:25 p.m.

The local leader of the Crimean Peninsula says that authorities are looking for a possible accomplice in the shooting and bomb attack at a vocational school that killed 20 people and wounded dozens of others.

Authorities had previously said that it was a lone-wolf attack carried out by an 18-year-old student. Wednesday's attack in the city of Kerch was by far the worst by a student in Russia, raising questions about school security in the country.

Kremlin-appointed Crimean chief Sergei Aksyonov told Russian news agencies on Thursday that it is possible that the shooter had an accomplice. Aksyonov said that the shooter, identified as Vyacheslav Roslyakov, was alone in the school but added that authorities believe that there may have been someone who was helping him plot the attack.

___

10:15 a.m.

Russia's health minister says at least 10 of the wounded in a shooting by a student at a vocational school in Crimea will be airlifted to hospitals in Russia.

An 18-year-old student went on a shooting rampage at the school on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, killing 19 people and wounding more than 50 others before killing himself. Wednesday's attack in the city of Kerch was by far the worst school shooting by a student in Russia.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told Russian news agencies on Thursday that authorities are preparing to airlift at least 10 people with severe injuries to top Russian hospitals for surgery. Dozens more remain hospitalized in Kerch.

Policemen stand guard near a vocational college in Kerch, Crimea, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. An 18-year-old student strode into his vocational school in Crimea, a hoodie covering his blond hair, then pulled out a shotgun and opened fire on Wednesday, killing scores of students and wounding dozens of others before killing himself. (AP Photo)

Police vehicles are parked near a vocational college in Kerch, Crimea, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. An 18-year-old student strode into his vocational school in Crimea, a hoodie covering his blond hair, then pulled out a shotgun and opened fire on Wednesday, killing scores of students and wounding dozens of others before killing himself. (AP Photo/Sergei Demidov)

A policeman stands guard near a vocational college in Kerch, Crimea, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. An 18-year-old student strode into his vocational school in Crimea, a hoodie covering his blond hair, then pulled out a shotgun and opened fire on Wednesday, killing scores of students and wounding dozens of others before killing himself. (AP Photo/Sergei Demidov)MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) - In an otherwise innocuous part of Facebook's expansive Silicon Valley campus, a locked door bears a taped-on sign that reads "War Room." Behind the door lies a nerve center the social network has set up to combat fake accounts and bogus news stories ahead of upcoming elections.

Inside the room are dozens of employees staring intently at their monitors while data streams across giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the sort Facebook frequently uses to caution or exhort its employees. One reads, "Nothing at Facebook is somebody else's problem."

That motto might strike some as ironic, given that the war room was created to counter threats that almost no one at the company, least of all CEO Mark Zuckerberg, took seriously just two years ago - and which the company's critics now believe pose a threat to democracy.

Days after President Donald Trump's surprise victory, Zuckerberg brushed off assertions that the outcome had been influenced by fictional news stories on Facebook, calling the idea "pretty crazy ."

But Facebook's blase attitude shifted as criticism of the company mounted in Congress and elsewhere. Later that year, it acknowledged having run thousands of ads promoting false information placed by Russian agents. Zuckerberg eventually made fixing Facebook his personal challenge for 2018.

The war room is a major part of Facebook's ongoing repairs. Its technology draws upon the artificial intelligence system Facebook has been using to help identify "inauthentic" posts and user behavior. Facebook provided a tightly controlled glimpse at its war room to The Associated Press and other media ahead of the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on Oct. 28 and the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 6.

A man works at his desk in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

"There is no substitute for physical, real-world interaction," said Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's director of elections and civic engagement. "The primary thing we have learned is just how effective it is to have people in the same room all together."

More than 20 different teams now coordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people - mostly contractors - devoted to blocking fake accounts and fictional news and stopping other abuses on Facebook and its other services. As part of the crackdown, Facebook also has hired fact checkers, including The Associated Press, to vet news stories posted on its social network.

Facebook credits its war room and other stepped-up patrolling efforts for booting 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past year and jettisoning hundreds of pages set up by foreign governments and other agents looking to create mischief.

But it remains unclear whether Facebook is doing enough, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters For America, a liberal group that monitors misinformation. He noted that the sensational themes distributed in fictional news stories can be highly effective at keeping people "engaged" on Facebook - which in turn makes it possible to sell more of the ads that generate most of Facebook's revenue.

"What they are doing so far seems to be more about trying to prevent another public relations disaster and less so about putting in meaningful solutions to the problem," Carusone said. "On balance, I would say they that are still way off."

The election war room and its inner workings remain too opaque to determine whether it's helping Facebook do a better job of keeping garbage off its service or if it's just a "temporary conference room with a bunch of computer monitors in it," said Molly McKew, a self-described "information warfare" researcher for New Media Frontier, which studies the flow of content on social media.

McKew believes Facebook is conflicted about blocking some content it already knows is suspect "because they keep people on their platform by sparking an emotional response, so they like they like the controversial stuff. There will always be this toeing of the line about pulling down radical, crazy content because that's what people engage on, and that's what they want."

Facebook defends its war room as an effective weapon against misinformation, although its efforts are still a work in progress. Chakrabarti, for instance, acknowledged that some "bugs" prevented Facebook from taking some unspecified actions to prevent manipulation efforts in the first round of Brazil's presidential election earlier this month. He declined to elaborate.

The war room is currently focused on Brazil's next round of elections and upcoming U.S. midterms. Large U.S. and Brazilian flags hang on opposing walls and clocks show the time in both countries.

Facebook declined to let the media scrutinize the computer screens in front of the employees, and required reporters to refrain from mentioning some of the equipment inside the war room, calling it "proprietary information." While on duty, war-room workers are only allowed to leave the room for short bathroom breaks or to grab food to eat at their desks.

Although no final decisions have been made, the war room is likely to become a permanent fixture at Facebook, said Katie Harbath, Facebook's director of global politics and government outreach.

"It is a constant arms race," she said. "This is our new normal."

Lexi Sturdy, election war room lead, points to her monitor during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Lexi Sturdy, election war room lead, sits at her desk during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Lexi Sturdy, election war room lead, sits at her desk during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A man works at his desk in front of monitors during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Lexi Sturdy, election war room lead, left, talks with researcher Andre Souza during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A worker sits at his desk during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Photos of Brazilian election candidates and a clock counting down the election in Brazil are shown on a wall in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Workers gather and sit and their desks during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Workers gather and sit and their desks during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A flag of the United State is shown between monitors as workers sit at their desks during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Samidh Chakrabarti, Director of Elections and Civic Engagement, from left, listens with Katie Harbath, Global Politics and Government Outreach Director and Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy as Tom Reynolds, Policy Communications, speaks to them during a demonstration in the war room, where Facebook monitors election related content on the platform, in Menlo Park, Calif., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)BEIJING (AP) - An outspoken former detainee in China's internment camps for Muslims said Thursday his application for a visa to visit the United States was rejected despite an invitation to speak at Congress about his ordeal.

Kazakh national Omir Bekali was asked to travel to Washington in September by the chairs of the Congressional-Executive Committee on China. He said his application was rejected by the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 after he was questioned about his employment status.

Bekali was one of the first people to speak out publicly about his experience in a camp in China's Xinjiang region, where an estimated 1 million Muslims, mostly from the Uighur and Kazakh ethnicities, are being detained.

"They kept going back and forth. Why did they invite me and then reject my visa?" Bekali said by phone from Turkey. "I've received so many threats after speaking out, I feel like they should be able to do at least this simple request."

Commission spokesman Scott Flipse confirmed the invitation and said the co-chairs had written to Bekali offering to assist him in seeking a visa. Flipse referred further questions about Bekali's visa status to the State Department, which handles consular issues.

The department declined to comment on Bekali's case, saying U.S. immigration law prohibits it from discussing individual visa applications.

In this photo taken Sept. 29, 2018, and released on Oct. 18, 2018, by Omar Bekali, Bekali, center, poses with his family in an airport after being reunited with his wife and son on September 19, 2018, in Istanbul, Turkey. Bekali, an outspoken former detainee of China's internment camps for Muslims, says his application for a visa to visit the United States was rejected despite an invitation to speak at Congress about his ordeal. (Omir Bekali via AP)

"We continue to urge China to reverse its counterproductive policies that conflate terrorism with peaceful religious and political expression, and to release all those arbitrarily detained in these camps," the department said in a statement.

Bekali wants to take his family to Europe or the United States, where he feels they will be safe from China's reach. Last month, his wife and child were held up at a Turkish airport for more than three days and were nearly put on a flight back to Kazakhstan. He had fled Almaty earlier after he was interrogated by Kazakh police, who he said showed up at his home shortly after he spoke out about the camps. Kazakh authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

Bekali said that even though he's been reunited with his family in Turkey, he won't feel safe until his family moves to a country that can stand up to Beijing's influence, underscoring the deep anxiety that grips the diaspora of Muslims who once lived in Xinjiang under an intense security crackdown.

"I'm scared China will find some way to hurt me or threaten me," Bekali said. "Every day I have nightmares, I can't sleep at night."

China has come under increasing pressure from Western governments about its mass internment of Muslims. The commission, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers, has proposed legislation that would urge Trump to condemn "gross violations" of human rights in Xinjiang. Bekali is named in the proposed legislation as among those who have testified to the indoctrination, humiliation and indefinite detention of internees.

"In China, the government is engaged in the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities that is straight out of George Orwell," outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a speech on Monday. "It is the largest internment of civilians in the world today."

China on Tuesday characterized its mass internment of Muslims as a push to bring into the "modern, civilized" world a destitute people who are easily led astray.

China's resistance to Western pressure over the camps highlights its growing confidence under President Xi Jinping, who has offered Beijing's authoritarian system as a model for other countries.

The Muslim world has remained largely silent, a likely reflection of China's growing economic and political clout.

In Kazakhstan, Chinese-Kazakh activists say they have been repeatedly warned by government officials not to hold news conferences featuring relatives of people detained in Xinjiang. Beijing has invested heavily in the central Asian nation and made it a key part of its "Belt and Road" trade and infrastructure initiative.

Even Turkey, once a critic of China's Xinjiang policies, has fallen silent. Many of the thousands of Uighur exiles in Turkey worry about warming ties between Beijing and Ankara, with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling reporters in August that Turkey would not allow any "anti-China activity."

"China's economic power is so strong, and only getting stronger. Everyone's scared of the pressure China can exert on them," Bekali said. "I've lost faith in other countries."

___

Associated Press writer Varya Kudryavtseva in Moscow contributed to this report.NEW YORK (AP) - Gov. Andrew Cuomo hopes video images of the decaying, century-old rail tunnel under the Hudson River will help resolve a funding impasse with President Donald Trump's administration that has delayed construction of a new $13 billion tube considered crucial to the region's transportation system.

The Democrat toured the tunnel with a video crew late Wednesday night and said he plans to send the footage to Trump.

As water dripped down the leaky tunnel's walls, forming puddles, the cameras captured disintegrating and missing concrete panels, corroding rebar and broken electrical cables. When it gets cold enough, icicles grow from the ceiling. Chunks of concrete can break off and fall onto the tracks below or threaten the cable running along the top.

"I actually think if anything is going to convince the president, seeing is believing," Cuomo said. "He actually has a construction background and I think if he sees the level of damage and he sees what we're talking about, eroding steel, falling concrete, that he'll see it in a different context - that it will strip away the politics and the rhetoric and the jockeying."

The two-tube tunnel, which serves as the only rail connection between New York City and New Jersey, suffered saltwater damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 that is eating away at walls housing copper cables and electrical wires. Amtrak, which owns the tunnels, has estimated one or both of the tunnel tubes could fail in the next 10 to 15 years.

On Wednesday, Cuomo pointed to a hole in the sidewall where cables, piping and metal rebar are flaking from the salt. When the salt damages the copper cables, it takes workers 12 to 14 hours to splice them back together. Much of that work is done overnight or on weekends, when one tube can be shut down without causing significant disruption to service.

Damage to the Hudson River rail tunnel is visible during a tour that began Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to get an up-close look at the level of damage in the century-old tunnel which was damaged in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Democrat toured the tunnel late Wednesday night and plans to send video to Trump in a bid to get the administration to commit money to a $13 billion project to build a new tunnel. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Taking one of the tubes out of service for an extended time, however, would reduce peak period traffic by 75 percent, experts have said. That would have a ripple effect up and down the Washington-to-Boston corridor on which more than 700,000 people ride daily on Amtrak and several commuter lines, Amtrak has estimated.

A 2014 report by the Federal Railroad Administration estimated that the loss of rail service on the corridor for one day could cost nearly $100 million in impacts and productivity losses.

New York and New Jersey have committed to pay for half the cost of building a new tunnel using federal loans, with New Jersey proposing to pay back its share with fare increases and New York proposing to allocate money annually from its state budget over 35 years. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has committed roughly $2 billion.

But Trump administration officials have rejected the 50-50 agreement the states made with the Obama administration that would have the federal government pay for the other half, calling it "nonexistent."

Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told a House committee in March that Trump was seeking to kill the tunnel project unless the states committed more money. And the Federal Transit Administration has downgraded the project's rating from medium-high to medium-low, making it more difficult to compete with other projects around the country seeking federal dollars.

Last month, two commuter trains were disabled on a Friday night, stranding more than 1,000 travelers, when a piece of metal that connects the train to the overhead wires pierced the roof of one of the train cars. No injuries were reported.

"What's really going on inside the tunnels is a toxic stew of sandy saltwater, of normal water intrusion, of the metal corrosion that's going on, and of the aging process of the cement," said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton, who joined Wednesday's tour.

In this Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tours the Hudson River rail tunnel in New York. Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to get an up-close look at the level of damage in the century-old tunnel which was damaged in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Democrat toured the tunnel late Wednesday night and plans to send video to Trump in a bid to get the administration to commit money to a $13 billion project to build a new tunnel. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

This photo shows water pools on deteriorating concrete in the South Tube between New York and New Jersey as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Amtrack officials inspect the train tunnels during a tour that began Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to get an up-close look at the level of damage in the century-old tunnel which was damaged in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Democrat toured the tunnel late Wednesday night and plans to send video to Trump in a bid to get the administration to commit money to a $13 billion project to build a new tunnel. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

Cables in the Hudson River rail tunnel are corroded during a tour that began on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, in New York. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to get an up-close look at the level of damage in the century-old tunnel which was damaged in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Democrat toured the tunnel late Wednesday night and plans to send video to Trump in a bid to get the administration to commit money to a $13 billion project to build a new tunnel. Trump administration officials have clashed with New Jersey and New York over a funding plan. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo inspects the South Tube of train tunnels running between New York and New Jersey during a tour that began Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants President Donald Trump to get an up-close look at the level of damage in the century-old tunnel which was damaged in Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Democrat toured the tunnel late Wednesday night and plans to send video to Trump in a bid to get the administration to commit money to a $13 billion project to build a new tunnel. (Victor J. Blue/The New York Times via AP, Pool)BRUSSELS (AP) - Europe and Asia should use their combined economic clout "to tackle global challenges such as trade tensions that put millions of jobs at risk" and the threat of climate change, a top European official said Thursday.

European Council President Donald Tusk spoke in Brussels as he opened the Asia-Europe summit, which brought together 30 European leaders with their counterparts or top officials from 21 Asian nations. The gathering accounts for 55 percent of global trade and 60 percent of the world's population.

Amnesty International and some European lawmakers urged EU leaders at the meeting to call out their Asian counterparts on human rights abuses, including the persecution of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims and China's internment camps for an estimated 1 million Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.

In a speech Monday, outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the Chinese government "is engaged in the persecution of religious and ethnic minorities that is straight out of George Orwell."

China has characterized the mass internment of ethnic Uighurs as a push to bring into the "modern, civilized" world a destitute people who are easily led astray.

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said European leaders would raise rights issues with their Asian counterparts and singled out the Rohingya crisis as an area of particular concern.

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrives for the ASEM 12 in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The informal meeting, which is held every two years, will discuss peace moves on the Korean Peninsula, migration, cybersecurity, fighting extremism and combating climate change. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

"We'll have discussions ... on seeing how we can try to help the United Nations to have proper access and have the return of the Rohingya in a safe and dignified manner," Mogherini said.

The meeting is taking place amid a trade war between the United States and China and ongoing trade tensions between the EU and Washington, but Mogherini said it was not about presenting a united front to U.S. President Donald Trump.

"Together, Europe and Asia are upholding the multilateral trade system based on rules - free and fair trade," she told reporters.

The informal meeting, which is held every two years, will also discuss peace moves on the Korean Peninsula, migration, cybersecurity, fighting extremism and combating climate change.

On Friday afternoon, EU leaders will hold talks with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and sign a free trade deal with Singapore.

Thursday's meeting came a day after U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross criticized the EU for moving too slowly in trade talks and warned that Trump's patience with the Europeans might soon run out.

China knows how that feels. Trump has imposed punitive tariffs on about $250 billion of Chinese products amid U.S. accusations that China engages in cyber-theft and coerces foreign companies into handing over technology in return for access to the Chinese market. Trump is also angry over China's trade surplus with the U.S.

The EU has similar concerns about creating a level playing field for European companies doing business in China, said Frans-Paul van der Putten of the Clingendael think tank in The Hague.

On a visit to the Netherlands this week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reasserted pledges to open up his country to foreign investment.

"We will remove foreign equity restrictions to Dutch companies as well," Li said.

Van der Putten said Li will likely bring that message to Brussels, too.

"I imagine at the EU level the Chinese government will have a similar message," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, speaks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. EU leaders meet for a second day on Thursday to discuss migration, cybersecurity and to try and move ahead on stalled Brexit talks. (Stephanie Lecocq, Pool Photo via AP)

Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrives for the ASEM 12 in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The informal meeting, which is held every two years, will discuss peace moves on the Korean Peninsula, migration, cybersecurity, fighting extremism and combating climate change. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

India's Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu arrives for the ASEM 12 in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The informal meeting, which is held every two years, will discuss peace moves on the Korean Peninsula, migration, cybersecurity, fighting extremism and combating climate change. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

President of Mongolia Chaltmaagiin Battulga, right, meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of the ASEM 12 in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. The informal meeting, which is held every two years, will discuss peace moves on the Korean Peninsula, migration, cybersecurity, fighting extremism and combating climate change. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, Pool)BRUSSELS (AP) - The Latest on Italy's plans to ramp up public spending (all times local):

7:45 p.m.

The European Commission has chastised Italy for a spending plan that will raise its deficit to three times that which was previously agreed, calling the deviation "unprecedented in the history" of the EU's stability and growth compact.

EU budget chief Pierre Moscovici delivered the letter Thursday to Economic Minister Giovanni Tria in Rome. The letter said a spending increase and a resulting deficit of 2.4 percent of GDP will make it unlikely that Italy will be able to reduce its public debt, now at 130 percent of GDP, to levels agreed upon by European Union member states.

In a press conference in Brussels, Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte denied that the deviation was "unprecedented," but said Italy had until Monday to offer a formal response to the commission's concerns.

___

Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, left, and European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici meet the media during a press conference in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Italian leaders say the budget plan will boost economic growth through higher spending, but other EU countries are concerned it will add to Italy's already heavy public debt load. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

7:20 p.m.

The EU budget chief Pierre Moscovici says the EU Commission and many member states are worried by Italy's spending plans that will see the country's budget deficit rise to 2.4 percent of annual GDP.

Moscovici met Economy Minister Giovanni Tria in Rome to present a letter outlining concerns over Italy's draft budget.

The meeting came as Italy's premier wrapped up a day in Brussels explaining the Italian budget draft to Italy's partners, including the leaders of Germany, France and the Netherlands.

Moscovici told reporters that the European Commission will not interfere with Italy's choices, and that its role was one of "a referee, not an adversary of Italy."

Moscovici said Italy would be treated like any other member state, adding: "I cannot imagine a Europe without Italy or Italy without Europe."

___

5:50 p.m.

EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker says the EU has always been generous with Italy when it comes to assessing its budget, but that the latest draft presented this week would be rigorously vetted to see if it meets EU standards.

Juncker said after Thursday's summit that some EU leaders had already approached him to make sure not to be too flexible when combing through the details of Italy's spending plans. The EU has limits for member states' deficits and debt levels.

Italy's budget proposal is considered out of line with commitments made earlier, with a proposed deficit of 2.4 percent. While that is below the 3 percent EU ceiling, it is still three times the amount initially promised. And it means Italy's debt load - which at over 130 percent of GDP is well over the 60 percent limit - will probably not be lowered as promised.

Juncker said: "I had some colleagues on the phone say they don't want us to add flexibility to already existing flexibility." He said the EU has no intention of doing so.

___

5:10 p.m.

Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte says after a day of defending the country's budget plan to allies that there is no reason to fear the EU's criticisms.

Conte, in a post on Facebook Thursday, said that the measures are "well-considered, well-constructed and well-realized," and he said the draft was "the only instrument that we have to ensure economic growth and social development to our country."

Conte added that "we knew that these measures devised to satisfy the needs of Italian citizens, long unanswered, are not in line with the expectations of the European Commission," and that the Italian government was prepared to respond to comments.

Conte, who met with the leaders of Germany, France and the Netherlands on the summit sidelines, said that the measures were "indispensable if we want to change course."

___

1:25 p.m.

The head of one of Italy's two ruling populist parties says unauthorized changes were made to the draft budget, suggesting a possible rift in the coalition government.

Luigi Di Maio, the head of the 5-Star Movement, on Thursday threatened to lodge a formal criminal complaint. He told a late-night talk show that the draft budget presented to President Sergio Mattarella's office contained a proposal to extend a tax amnesty on money held abroad and brought back to Italy. The 5-Star Movement opposes such a move as it risks laundering "corrupt or mafia capital."

Matteo Salvini, the leader of the League party, called the accusation "surreal."

Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters in Brussels that he would review the draft law line by line when he returns Friday to Rome. He denied a rift in the governing coalition.

___

1:00 p.m.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is warning his Italian counterpart Giuseppe Conte not to break the budgetary rules set out by the European Union.

Rutte met with Conte at Thursday's EU summit, where Conte is on the defensive for filing a draft budget for 2019 that has a deficit level three times as large as Italy originally promised.

Rutte said in a statement that he expressed Dutch concerns regarding Italy's budget plans and said he was giving "full support" to the European Commission, which is vetting the draft after having expressed its skepticism.

Italian leaders say the budget plan will boost economic growth through higher spending, but other EU countries are concerned it will add to Italy's already heavy public debt load.

Italian Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, left, and European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici meet the media during a press conference in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Italian leaders say the budget plan will boost economic growth through higher spending, but other EU countries are concerned it will add to Italy's already heavy public debt load. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italy's Interior Minister and Deputy-Premier Matteo Salvini, right, and Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte attend a press conference on Italy's budget law, at Chigi Palace Premier office, in Rome, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP)Under global scrutiny, Turkey vows to get to the bottom of the alleged killing of a Saudi journalist at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. But some observers see a double standard in promises of transparency from a government accused of stifling freedom of expression.

Since an attempted coup in 2016, critics say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has turned Turkey into an increasingly authoritarian state, using emergency powers to arrest tens of thousands of suspects, purging many more from state institutions and jailing dozens of journalists. Officials have even admitted that they seized dozens of Turks in anti-terror operations in other countries.

Turkey says the government is dealing with multiple threats to its security and sovereignty in a volatile region, and denies allegations it used the crackdown to target legitimate opposition and silence critical media that had nothing to do with the failed coup.

While there might be parallels between some restrictions on freedoms in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the Turkish reports about Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, are horrifically unprecedented.

The reports say an official hit squad from Saudi Arabia killed the writer, who once wrote of the persecution of people who "dare to speak their minds" in his home country. Saudi Arabia denies it, though some U.S. media reports suggest Saudi Arabia might say Khashoggi was killed in a botched interrogation.

Turkey has followed the law and international agreements and taken "open and transparent actions" in the Khashoggi case, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Turkish police outside the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi to conduct a search after the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just as America's top diplomat arrived in the country for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Getting less international attention this week were Turkish media reports that an Istanbul court issued a "red notice" for journalists Can Dundar, who lives in Germany, and U.S.-based Ilhan Tanir on espionage charges.

A red notice serves as a request to member countries of Interpol to arrest a suspect, though Western concerns about freedom of expression in Turkey would likely slow the government's international pursuit of the pair. Dundar was the former chief editor of Cumhuriyet, an anti-government newspaper, and had previously been jailed in Turkey for reports that were deemed subversive.

Dundar has tweeted about Turkey's handling of the Khashoggi investigation, asking why the Saudi consul general was allowed to leave Turkey despite a Turkish media report that a purported audio recording of the alleged slaying indicates the diplomat was a witness. Saudi officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Ahval, an online news site that is banned in Turkey, this week posted an article with the headline: "The irony of Turkey's campaign for a missing Saudi journalist."

In 2017, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Turkey was the "the world's worst jailer" of journalists, with 73 behind bars. This month, the Turkish Journalists Syndicate estimated that number to be 144. Turkey claims many people identified as journalists are actually agents of outlawed organizations, including that of Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based Muslim cleric who denies Turkish allegations that he engineered the 2016 coup attempt.

But in an unusual admission, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a television interview in April that Turkey's intelligence agency, in operations in 18 countries, had "bundled up and brought back" at least 80 Turkish nationals wanted for alleged links to the coup attempt.

Bozdag's comments came after Turkey secretly arranged the deportation from Kosovo of six Turkish men, sparking the dismissal of Kosovo's interior minister and intelligence chief and criticism from human rights groups. In another case, three men accused of ties to Gulen were seized in Gabon and brought to Turkey for trial, state-run media reported.

American pastor Andrew Brunson was one of the most high-profile detainees in the government crackdown, spending nearly two years in detention until a Turkish court last week convicted him on terror-related charges - and then freed him. The release removed a major irritant in U.S.-Turkish ties and highlighted concerns that Turkey had been trying to use the U.S. citizen as diplomatic leverage, though Erdogan said it actually proved that Turkey's courts are impartial. Turkey also jailed Turkish-American citizen Serkan Golge, a NASA employee, and detained several Turkish employees of the U.S. diplomatic mission.

Separately, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that it welcomed Erdogan's decision to drop a complaint against four students who faced trial for the Turkish crime of insulting the president. But it said there are thousands of similar cases in the courts that "blatantly violate freedom of expression."

Meanwhile, Turkey's judicial system is moving slowly in the case of Osman Kavala, a Turkish businessman and activist who was arrested a year ago on allegations similar to those in the Brunson case. No indictment has been issued.

"I am waiting for the day when I will be able to defend myself in court and see the face of justice," Kavala wrote from prison in August.

___

Torchia wrote from Johannesburg. He was AP's bureau chief in Turkey from 2007 to 2013 and has periodically reported on events there since then.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a military ceremony honoring new commandos, in Isparta, Turkey, Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. Erdogan is suggesting that Turkey's military could soon launch a new operation across the border into northern Syria, in zones held by Syrian Kurdish fighters. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool)

FILE - April 29, 2015 file photo of Osman Kavala, taken in Istanbul. Kavala, a Turkish businessman and activist who was arrested a year ago and no an indictment has been issued yet. Under global scrutiny, Turkey vows to get to the bottom of the alleged killing of a Saudi journalist at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. But some observers see a double standard in promises of transparency from a government accused of stifling freedom of expression. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2018 file photo, Pastor Andrew Brunson, center left, and his wife Norine Brunson arrive at Adnan Menderes airport for a flight to Germany after his release following his trial in Izmir, Turkey. Under global scrutiny, Turkey vows to get to the bottom of the alleged killing of a Saudi journalist at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. But some observers see a double standard in promises of transparency from a government accused of stifling freedom of expression. (AP Photo/Emre Tazegul, File)

A Turkish police officer stands on the roof of the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi as Turkish police conducted a search after the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just as America's top diplomat arrived in the country for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)PAMPLONA, Colombia (AP) - As night approached, Sandra Cadiz wrapped her shivering 10-year-old daughter in a blanket and prayed for a ride up the frigid Colombian mountaintop known as "the icebox."

Two days before, the mother and daughter had fled Venezuela on foot for a 2,700-mile trek through four countries to Peru, joining more than 650 migrants who walk out each day because they cannot afford a plane or bus ticket. Cadiz knew not everyone survived the dangerous trek, but she feared staying in Venezuela would mean her already malnourished daughter going hungry.

Now, after five hours of waiting, Cadiz braced herself for a long, cold night sleeping on the ground outside a gas station.

"I am doing this for her," Cadiz, 51, said of her daughter Angelis.

In one of the biggest migrations in the world today, more than 1.9 million people have fled poverty, hunger and crime in Venezuela since 2015 - rivaling the flow of Middle Eastern and African refugees to Europe. Although the toll of this migration is largely invisible, data collected by AP from various agencies found that deaths and disappearances could reach a few thousand, depending on how they are counted.

At least 235 Venezuelans were reported missing in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador over the last two years. Some 334 in Colombia were killed in homicides and accidents, and an unknown number drowned aboard shoddy boats in the Caribbean. Another 2,841 died in Colombia from illnesses like malaria and malnutrition; though it's difficult to know exactly what role migration played, many arrive weakened by the exodus.

In this Sept. 2, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz holds the hand of her 10-year-old daughter Angelis as they walk on the shoulder of the road during their journey to Peru, near Dagota, Colombia. When Sandra Cadiz began struggling to feed her daughter, she knew it was time to leave Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

"They can't withstand a trip that hard, because the journey is very long," said Carlos Valdes, the head of Colombia's forensic services office. "They don't eat and they die."

The daughter of a housewife and a cemetery worker, Cadiz got pregnant at 15 and dropped out of school. One husband was killed in a robbery, another in a motorcycle accident. Her oldest child died at 25 in a hail of 20 bullets by an unknown killer.

As food became harder to find, Cadiz and her daughter frequently slept outside supermarkets to grab whatever was available when doors opened. Over the summer, her son, his wife and their baby fled on foot to Peru.

When the government announced a bonus to help Venezuelans transition to a new currency with five fewer zeroes, Cadiz saw her chance to buy two bus tickets to the border with Colombia. That night she told Angelis they could spend the money on new shoes, or they could reunite with her brother in Peru.

"Let's go, mama," Angelis told her. "I'll walk in my broken shoes."

The trek through Colombia often starts on illegal dirt trails across the border ruled by armed men. Three days before Cadiz and Angelis left, police found the corpse of a 44-year-old father shot five times.

In Cucuta alone, officials have 37 unidentified bodies believed to belong to Venezuelans.

"They die and we don't know who they are," Valdes said.

Cadiz boarded a bus to the Colombian border with her passport - Angelis didn't have one - and a handwritten death certificate for Angelis' father. At the border, they got separated amid a swarm of migrants. A frantic Cadiz finally spotted her daughter on the other side; she had slipped through without being asked to show a passport.

The next day they set off walking toward the Colombian mountain highland known as the Berlin paramo, where temperatures can dip to 10 degrees below freezing. Anny Uribe, who runs a refuge for migrant walkers, said she has heard direct witness accounts of at least 17 people dying in the paramo. Officials could not confirm any deaths but concede they may never have been reported.

Migrant Isaia Alberto Munoz, 34, said he saw a family digging a hole and crying along the side of the road, as they buried someone wrapped in a white blanket with red flowers. His group decided they could not stop to help.

"We couldn't withstand the cold," he said.

Cadiz was terrified she and her daughter would get stranded and die. But after spending the night at the gas station in the freezing cold, they decided to take their chances and walk.

Over five hours later, Alba Camacho and a friend spotted them. The 27-year-old teacher stopped, wrapped Angelis in her own thick blue coat and took the pair to her friend's home for the night, where Cadiz heard Angelis talking in her sleep.

"I don't want to walk anymore!" she cried out.

Early the next morning they set off on foot again, walking and hitching rides, but the progress was agonizingly slow. By the following evening, they were barely a quarter of the way from Venezuela to Peru. They found themselves stranded at a gas station in a remote area known only as "Kilometer 17."

"We're trapped," Cadiz told her son in a WhatsApp voice message. But she had no cell signal, so the cry for help didn't go through.

They spent that night on the floor beneath a mechanic's tin roof. Exhausted, mother and daughter wept.

The next day, Cadiz decided to switch her strategy: She had collected 250,000 pesos - about $82-- from generous Colombians and would use the money to bargain for seats on buses. That day they finally made their way to Cali and then bought two bus tickets to Ecuador.

At the border, a man told Cadiz he'd buy any Venezuelan bolivars she might have. Cadiz took out all that was left of her life savings.

The man offered her fifty cents.

After more than four hours in lines, Cadiz finally reached a migration agent. She stared at Angelis' national identification card and let them through. Cadiz's relief was visible as she smiled for a photo beneath a "Thanks for Visiting Ecuador" sign.

Once across the border, they got on a bus to Peru - provided for free by the Ecuadorean government. Twenty hours later, they emerged hungry and suffering from nausea and indigestion.

Eight days after fleeing Caracas, Angelis and her mother had reached their final border. The next day, Cadiz pulled her documents out of a crinkled Hello Kitty folder one last time. After reviewing them carefully, a migration agent asked Angelis to step in front of a camera. She grinned ear to ear.

"Calm down," the agent told her coldly. "Don't smile."

By the time they reached Lima, they didn't have a cent in their pockets. But they had made it.

"I arrived by a miracle," Cadiz said.

In this Sept. 3, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, thank gas station worker Manuel Velasquez after he helped them get a ride in the cabin of a truck in Peroles, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. Whenever the two got a ride in the cabin of a truck, Cadiz made a point of seating her daughter closest to the passenger door, putting herself as a protective layer between the driver and her daughter. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Aug. 31, 2018 photo, Venezuelans illegally cross into Colombia, to Villa del Rosario, along a path known as a "trocha." Uncontrolled by Venezuelan or Colombian authorities, the trochas are ruled by bands of armed men sporting rifles and dressed in fatigues. They charge migrants about $10 to be let through, frequently robbing or assaulting those who can't pay. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 3, 2018 photo, Venezuelan Sandra Cadiz and her 10-year-old daughter Angelis, lie on the floor of a gas station where they spent the night at a place known only as "Kilometer 17" in Santander state, Colombia, on their journey to Peru. All through the night it rained and thundered. Water blew onto their blankets, forcing them to repeatedly get up and move to whichever edge of the gas station had managed to stay dry. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept. 6, 2018 photo, Venezuelans wait in line to be attended by Peruvian immigration officials in hopes of entering the country, in Tumbes, Peru. Many Venezuelans' final destination is Lima, Peru, a city where most believe they will have more opportunities than in Colombia or Ecuador, the countries they must pass along the way. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

In this Sept 8, 2018 photo, Sandra Cadiz cries as she reunites with her son's family at the bus station in Lima, Peru, at the end of her long trip from Venezuela. When Cadiz' son Leonardo, his wife and their daughter walked up to the bus station they wrapped their newly arrived family members in an embrace, gathered their bags and began the final walk home. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)NEW DELHI (AP) - India's ruling party and the main opposition are both supporting a protest blocking women from entering one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, in what political observers said is a bid to court voters in the country's south ahead of a general election due next year.

Busloads of Hindu women and girls traveled through the dense jungle of the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala, India's southernmost state, to enter the hilltop Sabarimala temple that a Supreme Court ruling opened to them this week for the first time in centuries. But throngs of male devotees defied the ruling, which found the temple's prohibition of women of menstruating age unconstitutional, demanding that females show proof of age before allowing them to enter.

Men also attacked female reporters covering the confrontation, hitting and kicking them and smashing their vehicles.

Protesters vowed to file a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a review of the ruling. They say the celibacy of the temple's presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is protected by India's Constitution, and that women of all ages can worship at other Hindu temples. Some Hindu figures consider menstruating women to be impure.

Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a hard-line Hindu group that created the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as its political arm, has sided with the protesters, saying the Supreme Court had ignored local tradition and beliefs.

The "faith of millions of devotees was not taken into account," Bhagawat said during a Hindu festival in New Delhi on Thursday.

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2018 file photo, Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a hardline Hindu group that created the Bharatiya Janata Party as its political arm, addresses a public rally in Gauhati, India. India's ruling party and the main opposition are both supporting a protest to keep females of menstruating age from entering one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, in what some political observers say is a bid to shore up votes ahead of next year's general election. Bhagwat has sided with the protesters, saying the "faith of millions of devotees was not taken into account," during a Hindu festival in New Delhi on Thursday, Oct. 18, referring to a Supreme Court ruling that opened the temple up to women of all ages for the first time in centuries. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)

Members of the opposition India National Congress party, which maintains a stronghold in Kerala, also voiced support for the protesters after first praising the Supreme Court's ruling.

"There are sentiments that have been expressed by a multitude of groups in Kerala," Congress party spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described himself as a crusader for women's rights, citing his support for court verdicts banning triple talaq, a Muslim practice that allows men to instantly divorce, and imposing harsher penalties for rapists.

But he has remained silent on the violence in Kerala, suggesting to some political observers that the BJP sees an opportunity in the temple controversy to reap electoral dividends.

"The BJP wants to oust the Congress from the position that it holds in Kerala. It sees an opportunity," said political analyst Neerja Chaudhary.

Modi's BJP has been trying desperately for years to gain a foothold in southern Indian states such as Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, but the Congress party is determined not to lose ground there.

Though the BJP is the presumed front-runner for next year's general election, it is not expected to repeat its performance in 2014 and win an outright majority, falling back on regional groups representing the tens of millions of temple devotees - and voters - in India's southern states.

Kerala has been rocked by protests by the BJP, Congress and hard-line Hindu organizations objecting to the Community Party of India (Marxist) state government's decision not to file a petition for review with the Supreme Court.

The BJP in Kerala led a massive five-day rally to press its demands.

The Kerala government has responded by deploying more than 1,000 police officers in the temple's vicinity who used batons to try to break up the protesters blocking the hilly road leading to the temple complex. Protesters responded by throwing stones. Volunteers of Shiv Sena, a BJP ally, claimed to have readied a seven-member suicide squad it threatened to deploy to prevent females aged 10 to 50 from entering the temple.

The temple showdown comes as Kerala's government continues an immense cleanup effort after the worst floods in more than a century killed more than 200 people and drove more than 800,000 into relief shelters in August.

FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2015 file photo, Hindu worshippers stand in queues outside the Sabarimala temple, one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, in the southern Indian state of Kerala. India's ruling party and the main opposition are both supporting a protest to keep females of menstruating age from entering the temple, in what some political observers say is a bid to shore up votes ahead of next year's general election. The country's Supreme Court had on Sept. 28, 2018, lifted the temple's ban on women of menstruating age, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. (AP Photo/ Hareesh Kumar A S, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2018 file photo, Hindu women supporting the ban on women of menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple scan vehicles at Nilackal, a base camp on way to the mountain shrine in Kerala, India. India's ruling party and the main opposition are both supporting a protest to keep females of menstruating age from entering one of the world's largest Hindu pilgrimage sites, in what some political observers say is a bid to shore up votes ahead of next year's general election. The country's Supreme Court had on Sept. 28 lifted the temple's ban, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender. (AP Photo)The Latest on the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went missing after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month (all times Eastern Daylight Time):

9:15 p.m.

A U.N. expert says the world is witnessing "a new and very worrisome practice" of governments abducting people in foreign countries using undercover operations, citing the case of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Bernard Duhaime, chair of the U.N. Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that "these abductions occur with or without the acquiescence of the host state."

While in most cases "the victims reappear in detention after a short period," he said, "in other cases they remain disappeared - as in the recent shocking case of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

Duhaime reiterated a call for an independent international investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance and the identification and prosecution of the perpetrators.

Turkish police officers prepare to enter the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi to conduct a search after the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just as America's top diplomat arrived in the country for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

He expressed outrage at the actions of countries that resort to enforced disappearances.

"Whether it is used to repress political dissent, combat organized crime, or allegedly fight terrorism, when resorting to enforced disappearance, states are actually perpetrating a crime and an offense to human dignity," Duhaime said.

___

4:00 p.m.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account earlier in the day, saying that the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mnuchin says in his tweet, "I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Araba."

___

3:30 p.m.

Fox Business Network is pulling out of a business conference in Saudi Arabia following an international outcry over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Fox Business Network has canceled its sponsorship and participation in the Future Investment Initiative conference in Saudi Arabia," the network said in a written statement. "We continue to seek an interview with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman."

Several top executives have withdrawn from the conference dubbed "Davos in the Desert." Among them are JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink and MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga.

___

11:45 a.m.

Leading human rights and journalists' organizations are urging U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to launch a U.N. investigation into the disappearance and "possible extrajudicial execution" of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders said at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters on Thursday that Turkey should press the U.N. to initiate a transparent investigation.

They say the investigation should probe Saudi Arabia's role in Khashoggi's disappearance and aim to identify everyone responsible for ordering, planning and executing any operations related to Khashoggi's disappearance on Oct. 2.

Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: "U.N. involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh."

___

10:15 p.m.

President Vladimir Putin says Russia will wait for the outcome of a probe into the disappearance of dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi before deciding what impact it may have on relations with Saudi Arabia.

Turkish officials have said Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudis' Istanbul consulate, which Saudi officials have denied.

Speaking on Thursday at an international policy forum, Putin said "those who believe that there was a murder must present evidence." He noted that "the disappearance was a tragedy, but we need to understand what happened" before deciding what impact it may have on Russia's relations with Saudi Arabia.

Putin noted that "the U.S. bears a certain responsibility" for what happened to Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who went into self-imposed exile in the U.S.

___

9:00 a.m.

Britain's trade minister has pulled out of a Saudi investment conference over the kingdom's involvement in the disappearance and alleged slaying of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is the latest high-level Western official to drop out of attending next week's summit in Riyadh.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra have also canceled, along with several senior business executives.

Britain's Department for International Trade says Fox "has decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative."

Britain says it is "very concerned" about the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. Turkish officials say he was killed and dismembered there.

___

3:20 a.m.

A pro-government Turkish newspaper has published surveillance video images showing a man who previously traveled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage to the United States walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there.

The Sabah newspaper's reported on Thursday shows the man also later outside the Saudi consul general's home, checking out of a Turkish hotel and leaving Turkey on Oct. 2.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle later distributed by The Associated Press show the same man was in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

The AP couldn't immediately verify the man's identity. Saudi Arabia has not responded to repeated requests for comment from the AP over recent days, including Thursday.

Turkish forensic officers arrive at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Khashoggi inside the consulate on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Turkish forensic officers arrive at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Khashoggi inside the consulate on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

A Turkish police officer searches inside the residence of the Saudi consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi as Turkish police conducted a search after the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. A pro-government Turkish newspaper on Wednesday published a gruesome recounting of the alleged slaying of Saudi writer Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, just as America's top diplomat arrived in the country for talks over the Washington Post columnist's disappearance. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A judge in South Dakota has denied a motion to dismiss a drug charge against rapper Chief Keef.

The rapper, whose legal name is Keith Cozart, was arrested in June 2017 at the Sioux Falls airport when drugs were found in his carry-on bag after he performed at the University of Sioux Falls. He later pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges for possessing marijuana, edibles and drug paraphernalia.

The Argus Leader reports that a Second Circuit Court judge last week denied Cozart's motion to dismiss a charge of possession of a controlled substance, saying the THC-infused edibles he was carrying are not considered marijuana under South Dakota law because they contained no plant material.

Chief Keef, a Chicago native, lives in Los Angeles.GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - The latest on the caravan of Central American migrants trying to advance toward the United States. (all times local):

11:35 p.m.

Mexican immigration officials say activist Irineo Mujica, who has dual U.S. and Mexican citizenship, is accused of property damage and resisting arrest.

A statement from the officials says that Mujica attacked immigration agents, as well as local and federal police, after he was asked for his identification as he gathered foreigners for a protest.

Edgar Corzo, a representative of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission, who is in Ciudad Hidalgo, says police are accusing Mujica of slashing the tires on an immigration agency vehicle.

Mujica's organization, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People without Borders, said he was arrested during a peaceful protest Thursday in Ciudad Hidalgo at the Mexico-Guatemala border. Mujica led a migrant caravan through Mexico to the U.S. border last spring.

Honduran migrants are seen walking along a highway in Cocales, Gautemala, on their way to the U.S. border, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)'

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6:40 p.m.

Mexico's foreign ministry says government officials at its southern border with Guatemala have started assisting the early arrivals from a caravan of some 3,000 Honduran migrants that has drawn sharp criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Most of the migrants are hoping to continue north to the U.S. border.

In a statement Thursday evening, the agency says officials are explaining the migrants' options and helping those who have requested refugee status to navigate the process.

Mexican officials have said the Hondurans will not be allowed to enter as a group. They say individuals will either have to show a passport and visa - something few have - or apply for refugee status.

Trump has been pressuring Central American governments and more recently Mexico to stop the migrant caravan, and on Thursday he threatened to shut the U.S.-Mexico border if the migrants are not stopped.

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6:10 p.n.

Video circulating on social media appears to show Mexican federal police and immigration agents detaining migrant activist Irineo Mujica, who led a migrant caravan through Mexico last spring.

Mujica's group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People without Borders, tweets that he was detained Thursday during a peaceful march in Ciudad Hidalgo on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. That's where some 3,000 Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. are expected to try to enter Mexico.

In the short video clip, police and immigration agents are seen pushing Mujica into an immigration agency van while surrounded by a crowd of people. Mujica appears to be resisting.

Mexico's immigration agency has not yet responded to a request for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressuring Central American governments and more recently Mexico to stop the migrant caravan.

___

5:15 p.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump has thanked Mexico after noticing a video showing its federal police arriving at the border crossing where some 3,000 Honduran migrants are expected to try to cross in the coming days.

Trump tweeted Thursday: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!" He included the short video of Mexican federal police disembarking in the southern town of Tapachula on Wednesday.

Mexico's federal police commissioner has said the officers will support immigration agents. Mexico has said migrants will have to show a passport and visa or apply for refugee status. Otherwise they will face deportation.

Trump has been pressuring Central American governments and more recently Mexico to stop the migrant caravan that has been advancing from Honduras. The migrants fleeing poverty and violence are trying to get to the United States.

Earlier Thursday, Trump threatened to close the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico didn't stop the caravan.

___

1:40 p.m.

Mexico says it will ask the United Nations refugee office for help with the arrival of several thousand Honduran migrants at its southern border.

Mexico's interior ministry says in a Thursday statement that the government will ask the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to support Mexican agencies attending to the migrants.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray plans to make the formal request during a meeting Thursday with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York.

Videgaray says that "for the Mexican government it is essential first to respect and protect the human rights and fundamental dignity of all of the migrants and to do so under a logical and humanitarian and respectful treatment."

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to close the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico does not stop the migrants. The migrants have begun arriving at the Guatemalan side of the Mexican border.

___

8:30 a.m.

Several thousand Honduran migrants who set out in a caravan hoping to reach the United States have passed through Guatemala City and now have their sights set on the border with Mexico.

Mauro Verzzeletti is a priest who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in the Guatemalan capital. He says about 3,000 people slept there overnight and left around 4 a.m. to continue the journey.

Verzzeletti adds that "more are arriving."

The caravan has largely dispersed. In Guatemala City on Thursday morning, different bands of people could be seen walking together in a line, some boarding buses or trying to hitch rides.

___

7 a.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump is lashing out over a caravan of Central American migrants trying to reach the United States, saying that if Mexico does not stop the effort, he will use the military to "CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER."

Trump tweeted Thursday that he wanted "Mexico to stop this onslaught." He also appeared to threaten a revamped trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

Trump did not detail his military threat. Earlier this year, some National Guard members were deployed to the border on a limited mission that does not include contact with migrants.

Enormous quantities of U.S. exports and imports and hundreds of thousands of people legally move across the border daily

More than 2,000 Hondurans are in a migrant caravan trying to reach the United States.

Mexico's government says migrants with proper documents can enter and those who don't either have to apply for refugee status or face deportation.

___

12:05 a.m.

Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States are finding help from sympathetic Guatemalans even as local governments and U.S. President Donald Trump are trying to discourage them.

Many left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks.

In neighboring Guatemala, they have been helped at every turn by residents who offered them food, water and rides in pickups or on flatbed of semi-trailer trucks.

More than 2 million Guatemalans live in the United States, and locals here saw the Hondurans streaming in front of their homes and businesses with dreams of making it to the U.S. as their Central American brothers and sisters.

A couple of Hondruasn migrant mothers carry their children as they continue on their trek to the United States, in Teculutan, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants walk past the National Palace as they leave Guatemala City at sunrise Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 as they make continue their way north toward the U.S. Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Paramedics attend Honduran migrant Jose Alainez, 49, who suffered an epileptic seizure while walking north with other migrants, before taking him to the hospital in Guatemala City, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Alainez, traveling alone, had to leave the caravan of more than 2,000 Hondurans trying to wend its way to the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants bound to the U.S border climb into the bed of a truck in Zacapa, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - At least two people were killed and dozens injured during large protests across Haiti over alleged misuse of government funds, authorities said Thursday.

Police spokesman Michel-Ange Louis-Jeune said 11 civilians were injured by bullets and 11 officers by flying rocks. However, municipal officials reported higher numbers.

Saint-Marc Deputy Mayor Frantz Ulysse said 14 people were injured on Wednesday when police opened fire to clear a road for a presidential motorcade as the government commemorated the death of independence hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Ulysse said 10 people were hit by bullets and three are in critical condition.

Protesters were demanding more transparency in how the government uses funds from Petrocaribe, an oil assistance program sponsored by Venezuela. An investigation by Haiti's Senate found that at least 14 former government officials allegedly misused $3.8 billion under the administration of former President Michel Martelly.

Many protesters also demanded the resignation of President Jovenel Moise, accusing him of blocking investigations into what happened to the Petrocaribe funds.

Moise tweeted that his administration would determine who was responsible and called for an investigation into those involved with the misuse of funds.

A police officer fires his shotgun during a protest demanding to know how Petro Caribe funds have been used by the current and past administrations, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Much of the financial support to help Haiti rebuild after the 2010 earthquake comes from Venezuela's Petro Caribe fund, a 2005 pact that gives suppliers below-market financing for oil and is under the control of the central government. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

"No one will escape justice," he wrote. "It's a moral and judicial duty."

Demonstrators hold up a former Haitian flag with a picture of independence hero Jean Jacques Dessallines, during a protest demanding to know how Petro Caribe funds have been used by the current and past administrations, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Much of the financial support to help Haiti rebuild after the 2010 earthquake comes from Venezuela's Petro Caribe fund, a 2005 pact that gives suppliers below-market financing for oil and is under the control of the central government. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)

A demonstrator uses a painting to smother a tear gas grenade during a protest demanding to know how Petro Caribe funds have been used by the current and past administrations, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Much of the financial support to help Haiti rebuild after the 2010 earthquake comes from Venezuela's Petro Caribe fund, a 2005 pact that gives suppliers below-market financing for oil and is under the control of the central government. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery)GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - A team of Egyptian mediators on Thursday shuttled between Israel and the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers in a stepped-up effort to forge a cease-fire between the two enemies.

The series of meetings came a day after Gaza militants fired a rocket that struck a home in southern Israel, triggering a series of Israeli airstrikes. It was the heaviest day of fighting in several months.

The four Egyptian intelligence officials entered Gaza from Israel on Thursday afternoon, and then returned to Israel after meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' top leader.

Khalil al-Haya, a top Hamas official, said the Egyptians had discussed cease-fire efforts, as well as on-and-off attempts at reconciliation with the rival Palestinian Authority. The talks were ongoing.

The Islamic militant Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, leaving the Palestinians divided between rival governments in Gaza and the West Bank.

Gaza's economy has been ravaged by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that was imposed after the Hamas takeover. Hamas has been leading weekly protests near the Israeli border for over six months in an attempt to ease the blockade.

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Naji Zaanin, 25, who was killed in a morning Israeli airstrike, into the family home during his funeral in town of Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

Those protests have intensified in recent weeks as Egyptian and U.N. cease-fire efforts faltered.

Last week, some 14,000 Palestinians thronged to the perimeter fence, burning tires and throwing rocks, firebombs and grenades at soldiers on the other side.

Some 20 Palestinians breached the border last Friday, and seven Palestinians were killed, including four who the military said had entered Israel and approached a military position. Israel responded by cutting off Qatari-funded fuel shipments meant to ease a chronic electricity shortage.

Following Wednesday's rocket attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened his Security Cabinet for a lengthy, late-night meeting. But Israel refrained from further retaliation, suggesting it was giving the Egyptians a chance to restore calm.

U.N. Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov urged all friends of Israel and the Palestinians to join the U.N. in calling on all sides "to step back from the brink" of war, calling Gaza a "powder keg."

"We remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that nobody claims to want, but a conflict that needs much more than just words to prevent," he told the U.N. Security Council in a video briefing from Jerusalem.

"I am afraid that there is no more time for words," Mladenov said. "Now is the time for action. And we must see very clear actions on all sides that de-escalate the situation. Otherwise, the consequences will be terrible for everyone."

He said all parties must maintain their commitment under a cease-fire that ended a 2014 war - the third between the sides since the Hamas takeover.

Mladenov said Hamas and other militant groups must immediately stop "all provocations and attacks," attempts to breach the border fence, end the use of incendiary balloons and kites, and halt tunnel construction.

"Israel must restore the delivery of critical supplies to Gaza and improve the movement and access of goods and people," he said. "And Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint in the use of live ammunition."

A key test will be on Friday, when the next border protest is planned. Israel has demanded an end to the weekly confrontations, as well as the frequent launches of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory.

Daoud Shehab, a member of the organizing committee of the marches, said officials were encouraging protesters to stay away from the border fence. But he said he was not sure to what extent they would succeed in "restraining the public mood."

"There will be attempts to prevent them from approaching the fence. There might be a reduction of balloons," he said. "We hope there will be no human losses tomorrow. We are giving a chance to the Egyptian efforts."

___

Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer contributed reporting from the United Nations.SCHODACK, N.Y. (AP) - Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a tight congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits a freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office.

Democrat Antonio Delgado is running on universal access to Medicare, creating good jobs and eliminating tax loopholes for the rich. But his supporters say Republicans have instead obsessed over his brief rap career more than a decade ago, portraying Delgado, who is black, as a thuggish "big-city liberal" who denigrated police, women and American values.

Rep. John Faso, meanwhile, says his conservative voters have been both angered and energized by the contentious fight over President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed after facing an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman while he was in high school.

At stake is one of the nation's most closely watched midterm races. The sprawling 19th Congressional District, stretching from New York City's northernmost suburbs to rural counties near Albany, is a key battleground as Democrats seek to flip the House. With voters evenly split among Democrats, Republicans and independents, the district, which backed President Barack Obama for two terms and favored Trump in 2016, is a toss-up in 2018.

A Siena College poll in August found Faso with a narrow 5-point lead over Delgado among likely voters, 45-50 percent. A September Monmouth University poll found Delgado leading 45-43 percent.

"This is a very politically divided district," Faso said at a recent pancake breakfast in rural Speigletown. "Conservative voters are galvanized by the way the Democrats handled the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. The character assassinations and mob tactics deeply alienated people."

Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso, right, and his Democratic challenger, Antonio Delgado, talk after a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a too-close-to-call congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits the freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

But Delgado's supporters say Republicans were the ones who went too far, with attack ads with racial overtones in a district that is 90 percent white.

An ad released last month by the National Republican Campaign Committee showed clips of Delgado performing songs from his 2006 rap album under his stage name A.D. The Voice. Lyrics included the N-word and references to sex, drug use and "white supremacists."

Faso has repeatedly portrayed Delgado as an outsider who should explain whether the lyrics he voiced 12 years ago represent his political views today. "I don't think it's OK to call women trick-ass hos, to call white people crackers," he said.

Delgado, 41, who was born and raised in Schenectady, just outside the district, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a Harvard law degree before pursuing rap in Los Angeles. He later lived in New Jersey while working in New York City as a litigator for an international law firm representing Fortune 500 companies and investment funds.

Last year, he moved into the Hudson Valley village of Rhinebeck in the 19th District, where his wife is from, and launched his congressional campaign soon afterward.

Delgado has demurred from dissecting his rap lyrics but said his goal dovetailed with his current political aspirations.

"The objective was to use the most popular art form to empower young people to get more civically engaged," he said in an interview on the campaign trail. "To highlight issues like income inequality, the Iraq war, climate change, wealth disparity and criminal justice reform."

Faso, a 66-year-old lawyer and former state Assemblyman, has a record of bipartisanship in Congress on such issues as health care reform and the opioid epidemic. He has supported some White House policies, such as the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, but voted against Trump's tax plan because of concerns that eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes would hurt families in his district.

Delgado's rhetoric disparaging Faso is less personal but no less infuriating to the incumbent, depicting him as beholden to corporate political action committees and accusing him of breaking a promise to an ailing constituent who begged him to preserve coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

"He's not here to serve the people; he's bought," Delgado told a crowd in Hoosick Falls. "A lot of people in D.C. are bought, on both sides."

The race may come down to old-fashioned hand-shaking, said Speigletown volunteer Fire Chief Bill Maloney, who buttonholed Faso about equipment funding.

"If someone doesn't make it a point to get out there for people to get to know them, there's a good chance they won't get the votes - if people vote at all," Maloney said.

"I've never voted in a midterm election before," said Sarah Roberts, 30, who met Delgado at an apple festival with her husband and two young boys. "But I have a lot of enthusiasm for him, and I'm looking forward to getting out and voting in November."

The Democratic candidate for New York's 19th District, Antonio Delgado, speaks during a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a too-close-to-call congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits the freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso speaks during a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a too-close-to-call congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits the freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The Democratic candidate for New York's 19th District, Antonio Delgado, speaks to people after a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a too-close-to-call congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits the freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Republican U.S. Rep. John Faso speaks to people before the start of a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The race in the 19th Congressional District pits Faso against Democrat Antonio Delgado, a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The Democratic candidate for New York's 19th District, Antonio Delgado, speaks during a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hip-hop, health care and Brett Kavanaugh have emerged as issues in a too-close-to-call congressional race in New York's Hudson Valley that pits the freshman Republican congressman against a rapper-turned-corporate lawyer seeking his first political office. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)SEATTLE (AP) - Starbucks is restructuring its European operations after several years of slowing sales.

The Seattle-based coffee chain is selling 83 company-owned stores in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg to its longtime partner, Alsea. Alsea will also provide services to 177 other Starbucks locations in those countries which are owned by franchisees.

Mexico City-based Alsea already operates more than 900 Starbucks stores in Mexico and South America.

The deal is similar to one Starbucks made in 2016, when it sold off its stores in Germany.

Starbucks also plans to close offices in Amsterdam and consolidate its European headquarters in London. The closure will impact 186 employees, who will be encouraged to apply to open jobs in London.

Starbucks will retain a roasting plant in the Netherlands which employs 80 people.WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday it "certainly looks" as though missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he threatened "very severe" consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered him. His warning came as the administration toughened its response to a disappearance that has sparked global outrage.

Before Trump spoke, the administration announced that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had pulled out of a major upcoming Saudi investment conference and a U.S. official said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned the Saudi crown prince that his credibility as a future leader is at stake.

Pompeo said the Saudis should be given a few more days to finish and make public a credible investigation before the U.S. decides "how or if" to respond. Trump's comments, however, signaled an urgency in completing the probe into the disappearance of the journalist, last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The messaging underscored the administration's concern about the effect the case could have on relations with a close and valuable strategic partner. Increasingly upset U.S. lawmakers are condemning the Saudis and questioning the seriousness with which Trump and his top aides are taking the matter, while Trump has emphasized the billions of dollars in weapons the Saudis purchase from the United States.

Turkish reports say Khashoggi, who had written columns critical of the Saudi government for The Washington Post over the past year while he lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by members of an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis have dismissed those reports as baseless but have yet to explain what happened to the writer.

Trump, who has insisted that more facts must be known before making assumptions, did not say on what he based his latest statement about the writer's likely demise.

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as before boarding Air Force One, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route to campaign stops in Montana, Arizona and Nevada. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Asked if Khashoggi was dead, he said, "It certainly looks that way. ... Very sad."

Asked what consequence Saudi leaders would face if they are found to be responsible, he replied: "It will have to be very severe. It's bad, bad stuff. But we'll see what happens."

Vice President Mike Pence said earlier in Colorado that "the world deserves answers" about what happened to Khashoggi, "and those who are responsible need to be held to account."

In Istanbul, a leaked surveillance photo showed a man who has been a member of the crown prince's entourage during trips abroad walking into the Saudi Consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there - timing that drew the kingdom's heir-apparent closer to the columnist's apparent demise.

Turkish officials say Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an "autopsy expert" Oct. 2 and left that night.

In Washington, Pompeo, who was just back from talks with Saudi and Turkish leaders, said of the investigations in Istanbul:

"I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make decisions about how, or if, the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi."

Although Pompeo suggested the U.S. could wait longer for results, an official familiar with his meetings in Riyadh and Ankara said the secretary had been blunt about the need to wrap the probe up quickly.

The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pompeo told the crown prince that "time is short." The official added Pompeo had warned him that it would be "very difficult for you to be a credible king" without a credible investigation. The prince is next in line for the throne held by his aged father King Salman.

Shortly after Trump and Pompeo met at the White House, Mnuchin announced that after consulting the president and his top diplomat "I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia."

The Saudis had hoped to use the forum, billed as "Davos in the Desert," to boost their global image. But a number of European finance ministers and many top business executives have pulled out as international pressure on Riyadh has intensified over Khashoggi.

Pompeo said that whatever response the administration might decide on would take into account the importance of the long-standing U.S.-Saudi partnership. He said, "They're an important strategic ally of the United States, and we need to be mindful of that."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives to speak with reporters about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

ADDS NAME OF SUSPECT - In a frame from surveillance camera footage taken Oct. 2, 2018, and published Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, by the pro-government Turkish newspaper Sabah, a man identified by Turkish officials as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, walks toward the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi disappeared. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday over Mutreb's identification. (Sabah via AP)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo walks off after speaking with reporters about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, after meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

A Turkish forensic officer arrives at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. Pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday said it had obtained audio recordings of the alleged killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on Hurricane Michael (all times local):

10:45 a.m.

A falling tree has killed a firefighter while he was helping his family clear debris from Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle, increasing the overall storm-related death toll to 35.

Fire coordinator Brad Price, 49, of Wewahitchka was on his tractor when he was killed Thursday, the Gulf County Sheriff's Office said on its official Facebook page.

With Price's death, 25 of the fatalities have been confirmed in Florida. Many of the deaths in the heavily timbered Panhandle were from tree falls, while other bodies have been pulled from homes decimated by hurricane-force winds and storm surge.

The storm also killed 10 people in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, where most were caught in flash flooding.

Amy Cross, left, receives a bottle of water as her daughter Aleeah Racette receives medical treatment, inside the Florida 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Team tent, outside the Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

___

7:45 p.m.

Authorities in Florida say Hurricane Michael has killed at least 24 people, bringing the overall death toll to 34.

Florida Emergency Management Division spokesman Alberto Moscoso says the state toll stood at 24 on Thursday evening. A news release added three more deaths to Bay County, bringing the county's total to 15. It also reported one death each in Gulf and Calhoun counties, and two deaths in Jackson County.

Michael, which slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155 mph (250 kph) winds on Oct. 10, retained hurricane-force winds as far inland as southern Georgia, and also affected the Carolinas and Virginia. Six deaths were reported in Virginia, mostly from flash flooding. North Carolina had three deaths, and Georgia had one.

_______

6:20 p.m.

The aftermath of Hurricane Michael is keeping courthouses closed in six Florida counties.

Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit announced Thursday that most of its courts will remain closed through at least part of next week. Re-opening will happen as each county is able.

Courts in Bay, Holmes and Jackson counties will be closed through next Friday.

Courts in Calhoun and Washington counties will be closed through Wednesday.

Gulf County courts will be closed the rest of this week but are expected to reopen Monday.

Some of the Clerk of Courts offices will be open in a limited capacity.

Michael slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155 mph (250 kph) winds on Oct. 10.

_____

11 a.m.

Authorities in Florida say Hurricane Michael has killed at least 20 people, bringing the overall death toll to 30.

Michael, which slammed into Florida's Panhandle with 155 mph (250 kph) winds on Oct. 10, retained hurricane-force winds as far inland as southern Georgia, and also affected the Carolinas and Virginia. Six deaths were reported in Virginia, mostly from flash flooding. North Carolina had three deaths, and Georgia had one.

Florida Emergency Management Division spokesman Alberto Moscoso says the state toll stood at 17 on Thursday morning. It included an additional death confirmed in Liberty County. Those numbers come from fatalities confirmed as storm-related by district medical examiners, and include 12 deaths from the hardest-hit Bay County.

Additionally, three more deaths have been confirmed as storm-related to bring Bay County's total to 15 deaths, according to Whit Majors, chief investigator for the district medical examiner's office.

Majors says those deaths were reported to state emergency management officials. It wasn't immediately clear why they were not yet added to the statewide tally.

_______

12:20 a.m.

Residents of Mexico Beach, Florida, have returned for the first time since Hurricane Michael tore apart their lives, but some found there is no home to come home to.

The powerful storm raked away many houses in this Florida Panhandle community of about 1,200 people that was near ground-zero of the powerful hurricane.

Residents, some in tears, returned home for the first time Wednesday, about a week after the major hurricane slammed ashore not far from their coastal community.

The storm killed at least 16 people in Florida and at least 10 others elsewhere in the South. And many homes in Mexico Beach were reduced to concrete slabs in the sand.

Mickey Calhoun stands in line hoping a gas station will open, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

FILE - In this Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018 file photo, a distress sign is written on a door of a home in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Panama City, Fla. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Tiffany Harris carries her family's belongings to her car, as they are forced to leave the heavily damaged hotel in which they rode out Hurricane Michael, in Panama City, Fla., Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. The hotel was deemed uninhabitable by firefighters, nor could they return to their heavily damaged home, leaving them not knowing where to go. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Aleeah Racette receives medical treatment inside the Florida 5 Disaster Medical Assistance Team tent, outside the Bay Medical Sacred Heart hospital, in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)BRUSSELS (AP) - European Union leaders have commissioned work on a new system for slapping sanctions on the perpetrators of cyberattacks, in the wake of the attack on the world chemical weapons watchdog.

EU Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday that the leaders want EU "ministers to work on a sanctions regime that will be specific to cyberattacks."

Tusk said the system "should help to protect our citizens, companies and institutions from all kinds of cybersecurity threats."

Dutch officials alleged two weeks ago that four agents from Russia's GRU military intelligence agency tried and failed to hack into the Wi-Fi system at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The leaders' demand comes amid concerns over possible election interference during the European Parliament vote in May.WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will not attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia.

Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account , saying that the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mnuchin said in his tweet, "I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Araba."

His announcement comes after Pompeo told reporters at the White House that the administration would await the outcome of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi before deciding how the U.S. will respond.

The Future Investment Initiative conference takes place Oct. 23-25 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. It was set up last year as a kind of "Davos in the Desert" for the world's business elite to network.

Mnuchin joins a growing number of global leaders who have decided to pull out of the summit, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, as well as senior government officials from France, Britain and the Netherlands.The DUP has stepped up warnings to Theresa May not to bow to Brussels over the Northern Ireland border as the Prime Minister briefed senior ministers on the Brexit negotiations.

As key Cabinet members met in Downing Street, they were warned by DUP leader Arlene Foster that they could not in good conscience accept the proposals currently on the table from the EU.

Following the meeting, ahead of next weeks crunch summit in Brussels, Government Chief Whip Julian Smith insisted ministers were fully behind Mrs Mays negotiating strategy.

We are conducting an extremely tough negotiation. The Prime Minister is doing an exceptional job and everybody is behind her, he told reporters.

The last of meetings in Brussels for now. Meeting with Danuta Hubner, who is part of the EU Brexit steering group. We have been clear and continue to reiterate our message: There cannot be a barrier between GB and NI. pic.twitter.com/TO4SGnHxaD  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) October 11, 2018

It was reported, however, that a number of ministers, including Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, raised concerns during a meeting lasting around an hour and a half.

Earlier, amid speculation possible of ministerial resignations, Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey, who was not at the meeting, pointedly refused to endorse the Prime Ministers Chequers blueprint for Brexit.

Asked by the BBC to offer her backing to Mrs Mays plan, she sidestepped the questions saying: I am completely supportive of the Prime Minister.

With the negotiations coming to a head, the central focus of the discussions is thought to have been the issue of the Northern Ireland backstop intended to ensure there is not return of a hard border with the Republic.

The EU wants Northern Ireland effectively to remain in the single market and the customs union to avoid the need for customs checks until there is a final free trade deal between the UK and the EU.

Mrs May insists such an arrangement must apply to the whole of the UK to avoid the creation of a border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

However Tory Brexiteers fear that she is about to concede to EU demands that it must be open-ended, despite previous assurances from ministers it would have to be time-limited.

Without a time limit, critics say Britain could be tied to the EU indefinitely unable to negotiate free trade deals with other countries.

Boris Johnson has said it would reduce the UK to a permanent EU colony.

Following three days of talks with key figures in Brussels, Mrs Foster, whose party props up the Government at Westminster, said the DUP could not accept the EU proposals as they stood.

The Prime Minister is a unionist. Many of her cabinet colleagues have assured me of their unionism, she said.

Therefore, they could not in good conscience recommend a deal which places a trade barrier on United Kingdom businesses moving goods from one part of the Kingdom to another.

Sir John Major has accused Brexiteers of bullying Theresa May (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Her latest shot across the bows came after the party had earlier made clear that it would be prepared to vote against the Budget and other domestic legislation if Mrs May crossed their red lines.

Mr Hunt insisted ministers would not sign up up to any plan which compromised the territorial integrity of the UK by imposing a border in the Irish Sea.

The DUPs red lines are actually Theresa Mays red lines, he told BBC News.

She has made it very, very clear that she will not allow there to be border down the Irish Sea, that the integrity of the United Kingdom must remain intact.

I know that she will never sign up to a Brexit deal that compromises our territorial integrity.

In the increasing fraught atmosphere at Westminster, Sir John Major accused Tory Brexiteers of bullying Mrs May, saying their behaviour was even worse than that of the Eurosceptics he famously dubbed bastards when he was in No 10.

He told the BBCs Political Thinking podcast: Their behaviour was

pretty intolerable, but not nearly as intolerable as the way the present Prime Minister is being treated.Here are the timings for Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbanks Windsor wedding:

0700  Doors open to the invited public through the Visitor Admission Centre on Castle Hill.

0830  1015  Doors to St Georges Chapel open to the congregation. Wedding guests start arriving in Middle Ward. Organ music plays in the Chapel.

The West Steps of St Georges Chapel (Andrew Matthews/PA)

1015  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performs.

From 1025  Members of the royal family arrive at the Galilee Porch and are received by the Dean of Windsor, They take their seats in the Quire.

1030  Mr and Mrs George Brooksbank, the parents of the groom, arrive at the West Door.

1032  Mother of the bride Sarah, Duchess of York and Maid of Honour Princess Beatrice of York arrive by car at the West Door.

Sarah, Duchess of York, and her daughter Princess Beatrice (Matt Crossick/PA)

1035  Groom Jack Brooksbank and his best man and brother Thomas

Brooksbank, arrive by car at the West Door.

1052  The Queen arrives at the Galilee Porch and is received by the Dean and conducted to her seat in the Quire.

1057  Bride Princess Eugenie and her father, the Duke of York, arrive at the West Steps of St Georges Chapel

Princess Eugenie and her father the Duke of York who will walk her down the aisle (John Walton/PA)

1100  The service begins.

1200  The service ends and the bride and groom, the bridal party and the couples parents process to the West Door.

The Queen and members of the royal family move from the Quire to the Galilee Porch.

The bride and groom depart from the West Steps by carriage.

1215 approx  Eugenie and Jack arrive at Windsor Castle for their afternoon reception.Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson has ratcheted up pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a prominent journalist by freezing several business links to the Gulf kingdom.

The Virgin Group founder joined a mounting chorus of international concern about the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished last week.

The journalist has not been seen since visiting the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul, sparking claims he was killed in the building.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (Hasan Jamali,/AP)

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and US President Donald Trump are among the political figures who have demanded answers from Saudi Arabia over the case.

On Thursday evening, Sir Richard said he would be suspending his directorship of two tourism projects in the country, while Virgin would halt discussions with the Saudis over investment in its space projects.

He warned that, if fears are confirmed, the West would struggle to continue doing business with the Gulf kingdom.

His statement said: I had high hopes for the current government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and it is why I was delighted to accept two directorships in the tourism projects around the Red Sea.

I felt that I could give practical development advice and also help protect the precious environment around the coastline and islands.

What has reportedly happened in Turkey around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, if proved true, would clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi Government.

We have asked for more information from the authorities in Saudi and to clarify their position in relation to Mr Khashoggi.

While those investigations are ongoing and Mr Khashoggis presence is not known, I will suspend my directorships of the two tourism projects. Virgin will also suspend its discussions with the Public Investment Fund over the proposed investment in our space companies Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit.

My statement on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia https://t.co/N55w9kVlyq  Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 11, 2018

His interventions comes after a Turkish newspaper published the names and photographs of 15 Saudi nationals who allegedly arrived in Istanbul on two private jets the day Mr Khashoggi went missing.

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 the disappearance.

A critic of the kingdoms 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 he vanished.

He 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 removed.

On Tuesday, Jeremy Hunt met the Saudi ambassador and spoke by telephone to his counterpart in the state to voice the UKs concerns about the case.

Mr Hunt said that if reports of Mr Khashoggis death proved correct, the UK would regard the situation as serious, adding: Friendships depend on shared values.

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 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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not confirmed the alleged killing, saying he would await the result of an investigation.

Saudi officials have denied the allegations as baseless.The proportion of Caesarean sections carried out in the UK has increased from 19.7% of births in 2000 to 26.2% in 2015, researchers have said.

A study published in The Lancet found that C-section use has almost doubled globally since 2000, from 12% to 21% of all births, higher than the level thought required for medical purposes (10-15%).

Researchers found 60% of countries were overusing the procedure and 25% under-using it, suggesting wide disparities in adherence to clinical recommendations.

They said that, while the life-saving surgery is still unavailable for many women and children in low-income countries and regions, the procedure tends to be overused in many middle- and high-income settings.

Within countries themselves, there are large differences between rich and poor, public and private sectors, and between regions, they found.

The increase is mainly attributed to more births taking place in health institutions (about two thirds of the rise) and to greater frequency of intervention through C-section in health facilities (one third of the increase).

A mother holds the feet of a new baby as a study finds Caesarean section use has almost doubled globally since 2000.

The global study, which involved several UK universities, is being presented at the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) World Congress in Brazil, where the authors are calling on healthcare professionals, hospitals, women and their families to only intervene with a C-section when it is medically required.

They said it can be a life-saving intervention for women and newborns when complications occur, such as bleeding, foetal distress, hypertensive disease, and babies in abnormal position, but the surgery is not without risk for mother and child, and is associated with complications in future births.

It is estimated that 10-15% of births medically require a C-section due to complications, suggesting that average C-section use should lie between these levels.

But they found that in at least 15 countries C-section use exceeds 40%.

Dominican Republic had the highest proportion (58.1%), followed by Brazil

and Egypt (both 55.5%), and Turkey (53.1%).

The South Asia region has seen the most rapid increase in use (6.1% per year), with C-section being underused in 2000 but overused by 2015 (increasing from 7.2% of births to 18.1%).

C-section use has remained low in sub-Saharan Africa, however.

Researchers, who used World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef data from 169 countries, also found significant disparities within low and middle-income countries, where the wealthiest women were six times more likely to have a C-section compared with the poorest women.

They said it is important to note there are small but serious risks with C-sections, and that each of these risks increases the more times a woman has the procedure.

There is emerging evidence that babies born via C-section have different hormonal, physical, bacterial and medical exposures during birth, which can subtly alter their health.

While the long-term risks of this are not well-researched, the short-term effects include changes in immune development which can increase the risk of allergies and asthma and alter the bacteria in the gut.

Professor Jane Sandall, of Kings College London, said: Given the increasing use of C-section, particularly cases that are not medically required, there is a crucial need to understand the health effects on women and children.

Greater understanding of this is important to help inform decision making by families, physicians, and policy makers.

C-section is a type of major surgery, which carries risks that require careful consideration.

The growing use of C-sections for non-medical purposes could be introducing avoidable complications, and we advocate that C-section should only be used when it is medically required.

Common reasons why women request C-sections include past negative experiences of vaginal birth, fear of labour pain or of the effects of labour such as pelvic floor damage, urinary incontinence, reduced quality of sexual functioning.

To address this, the authors recommend further research to study relaxation training, childbirth training workshops, educational lectures and brochures, and meeting with health professionals to promote supportive relationships, collaboration and respect.

Emeritus Professor Gerard Visser, of University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands, and chairman of FIGOs Committee for Safe Motherhood and Newborn Health, said: Worldwide there is an alarming increase in caesarean section rates.

The medical profession on its own cannot reverse this trend.

Joint actions with governmental bodies, the health care insurance industry, and womens groups are urgently needed to stop unnecessary C-sections and enable women and families to be confident of receiving the most appropriate obstetric care for their individual circumstances.

Mandy Forrester, head of quality and standards at the Royal College of Midwives, said it was important that women in the UK have access to all the available information on C-sections.

There will always be women who for medical reasons need a caesarean, but there are many, as this research shows, which are not needed, she added.

What is crucial is that women are aware of the potential complications of having a caesarean section in the short and long term.

To ensure this happens we need to give midwives the time to sit and discuss a womans options for the birth of her baby.

It is very important that women make their decisions based on the best available evidence.Actor Alec Baldwin has urged voters to overthrow the US government led by Donald Trump at the ballot box.

He was speaking at a fundraising dinner for the New Hampshire Democratic Party ahead of the November 6 midterm elections and after returning to Saturday Night Live to portray the US president.

The way we implement change in America is through elections. We change governments here at home in an orderly and formal way, he said. In that orderly and formal way and lawful way, we need to overthrow the government of the United States under Donald Trump.

Baldwin said on issue after issue that Republicans are destroyers, not builders.

He said: There is a small cadre of people currently in power who are hell-bent on continuing a malicious immigration policy that has set this country up for human rights violations charges by the global community. This cadre has looted money from the federal treasury and deposited it directly into the bank accounts of their most ardent political supporters.

Baldwin said Republicans shrug when it comes to gun violence, spit in the face at the rest of the world at the notion of changing outdated energy policies and offer neither hope nor solutions to people of colour who seek a decent seat at the American economic table but instead are issued a prison term, or worse, a bullet.

Alec Baldwin reprised his role portraying Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

The recent confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh showed that Republicans view women as undeserving as the same constitutional protections as men, Baldwin said.

They themselves are sons, husbands, fathers, and yet when the time arrived in the thick of the #MeToo movement to set politics aside and establish that womens rights were more important than political expediency, they failed and it was ugly, he said.

Baldwins appearance in the state that holds the first presidential primary came hours before the premiere of his new talk show. The Alec Baldwin Show will feature one-on-one conversations with celebrities and cultural icons.

But Baldwin said it will not be overtly political. Asked if he would consider running for office himself, he did not rule it out but joked that his wife would be likely to divorce him.CYBG has formally completed its 1.7 billion takeover of Virgin Money, marking one of the first major banking deals since the financial crisis.

It comes after the two banks  which together hold around 84 billion in assets  received final approval in a court hearing on Friday.

Virgin Moneys London-listed shares have now been cancelled, with the all-stock deal resulting in another 540 million new CYBG shares entering the market.

CYBG announces completion of @VirginMoney acquisition creating the UKs sixth biggest bank. https://t.co/i3RZMNRz7e  Virgin Money UK PLC (@VirginMoneyNews) October 15, 2018

A raft of resignations also followed the deals completion.

It includes Virgin Money chairwoman Irene Dorner and chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia, though Ms Gadhia has agreed to work as a senior adviser to CYBG boss David Duffy over the next 18 months.

He will be supported by CYBG finance chief Ian Smith, while Virgin Moneys chief financial officer Peter Bole will become group integration director to help with the changes across both businesses.

Hugh Chater, managing director of the core bank of Virgin Money, meanwhile, will be responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Virgin Money business.

CYBG chief executive David Duffy said the deal will help it compete with larger rivals, which include the likes of Barclays, Lloyds and RBS.

He said: Today marks an historic milestone for CYBG and Virgin Money, creating the first true national competitor to the status quo in UK banking with a clear ambition to provide customers with the best service in the UK.

Bringing the two banks together creates the UKs sixth-largest bank combining strong product, service and technology capabilities alongside an iconic brand with well-known consumer champion credentials.

Virgin Money chief executive Jayne-Anne Gadhia will step down from her role, though she will stay as a senior adviser (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

We are focused on delivering an excellent customer experience as we bring the two businesses together. This will be achieved through a clear, low-complexity, phased integration and re-branding plan over the next three years.

This is a unique combination that will enable us to compete with the large incumbent banks.

But the deal has struck a bad chord with some consumers worried about CYBGs transition to the Virgin Money brand.

CYBG stressed there were no plans for an immediate changeover, but that the retail sides of its brands including Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks would transition to Virgin Money branding over the next three years.

It is exploring a similar move for users of its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) banking services.

The retail side of CYBGs Clydesdale Bank is set to fall under the Virgin Money brand (PA)

The Virgin Money brand has potential in the SME market, and testing with existing Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank customers is under way to evaluate the Virgin Money brand affinity with SME customers and the appropriate timescale for any SME rebranding exercise, CYBG said.

The combined group will use CYBGs existing platform, though only around 30% of the groups accounts are expected to have to migrate across.

There will be no big bang customer migration, CYBG pledged.

The reassurance comes as peer TSB continues to grapple with the aftermath of an IT meltdown sparked by its own move to a new banking platform built by Spanish owner Sabadell.

CYBG and Virgin Money have also courted controversy over plans to shed more than 1,500 jobs.

Today it's official! We're teaming up with @clydesdalebank and @yorkshirebank to bring #BetterBanking to all our customers. #PerfectBalance pic.twitter.com/eOAnnafCMt  Virgin Money (@VirginMoney) October 15, 2018

However, CYBG has pledged to maintain a substantial base at Virgin Moneys Gosforth headquarters for at least three years.

The combined group is expected to result in annual cost savings of around 120 million by the end of September 2021.

With more than six million customers, the bank will also hold 70 billion in customer loans and around 58 billion in mortgages.

Virgin Group chief executive Josh Bayliss said: The Virgin Group started Virgin Money 23 years ago to shake up the UKs banking sector.

By putting customers and employees first, and working to make a real difference to peoples lives, we quickly became one of the most admired financial services businesses in the UK.

Todays announcement marks the beginning of the next chapter in the Virgin Money story.

The combination of Virgin Money and CYBG will offer unrivalled service, an innovative digital platform and outstanding products, bringing huge benefits for customers, employees and communities alike.

Together we have the size, scale and financial firepower to change banking for good.It took rescuers two days to recover the battered bodies of nine climbers, including one of the worlds best, who died in Nepals worst mountaineering disaster in recent years, authorities have said.

Local police chief Bir Bahadur Budamagar said a group of villagers reached the climbers camp site on Saturday on Gurja Himal, a less-popular but pristine mountain in the shadow of Dhaulagiri, the worlds seventh-highest peak and a days walk from the nearest village.

The climbers included Kim Chang-ho, the first South Korean to scale all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 metres without using supplemental oxygen, who was leading the expedition with four other South Koreans and four Nepalese guides.

Technically difficult and remote, the mountain has not been scaled in eight years.

Officials unload the bodies of those killed on a Himalayan mountain (Niranjan Shrestha/AP)

The damage to the climbers bodies, including broken limbs and smashed skulls, indicated a violent wind carrying chunks of ice swept them away from their camp site, Mr Budamagar said.

The bodies were found spread in a one-mile radius.

The battered pieces and tents and other equipment were scattered even further away, Mr Budamagar said.

Only 30 climbers have ever reached the peak of the 7,193-metre (23,590-foot) Gurja Himal, government tourism director Surendra Thapa said, and Mr Kim was not among them.

Nepal offers hundreds of mountains to climb, and mountaineers generally choose those where the routes and conditions are well known.

Many climbers are discouraged from the mountain at least in part because of a legal requirement to have at least three trained Nepalese guides along to receive a permit, Mr Thapa said.

More adventurous climbers would be drawn to a mountain like Gurja, said Jiban Ghimire, who organises expeditions for the Kathmandu-based company Shangrila Nepal Trek.

File picture of the HImalayas including Mount Everest (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

These people like to go to mountains which are not crowded and there are no commercially organised expeditions of big groups. On the bad side, they are also far from getting help when in trouble, Mr Ghimire said.

The bodies of Mr Kim and four other South Koreans who were killed will arrive in South Korea on Wednesday, according to an official from South Koreas Corean Alpine Club.

Rescuers retrieved the climbers bodies on Sunday after the weather cleared.

The body of one of the guides was taken to his village, while the eight others were flown to Kathmandu.

It was the worst mountaineering disaster in Nepal in recent years and an unimaginable one, said Rameshwor Niraula of Nepals Mountaineering Department, which issues climbing permits and monitors expeditions.

Spring and autumn are the optimal climbing seasons in Nepal between the harsh winter and summer monsoon.

A helicopter lands close to a storm site after searching for missing mountaineers (Simrik Air/AP)

One Korean member of the climbing team had become ill and was in a village far below the base camp during the storm.

A Corean Alpine Club official identified the other South Korean victims as Yu Yeong-jik, Im Il-jin, Jeong Jun-mo and Lee Jae-hoon.

It was the deadliest climbing disaster in Nepal since 2015, when 19 people were killed at Mount Everest base camp by an avalanche triggered by an earthquake that devastated the country.

The previous year, an avalanche above Everests base camp killed 16 Nepalese Sherpa guides.

The Himalayan range includes all 14 of the worlds peaks that rise above 8,000 metres, and only a few dozen climbers have made verified, successful ascents of them all.

Mr Kim achieved his feat in 2013.The value of Atlantic salmon rose to over 1 billion last year, according to new figures.

The figure represents a 37% increase from the previous year.

The annual Scottish Fish Farm Production Survey also shows 2017 was a record year for Atlantic salmon production, with almost 190,000 tonnes produced, up 16.5% on 2016.

There was also an increase in the production of brown/sea trout last year, from 41 to 61 tonnes, although rainbow trout decreased by 6% in to 7,637 tonnes.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: The fish farm industry forms an integral part of Scotlands rural economy  creating jobs and providing capital in some of our most rural communities. So its very encouraging to see salmon production value on the increase yet again.

Demand for Scottish seafood has also increased domestically in recent years and, through measures such as the establishment Aquaculture Industry Leadership Group, we are putting in place the conditions for a sustainable industry that can meet future projected market demands.

Atlantic salmon (David Cheskin/PA)

This includes the publication of Scotlands 10 Year Farmed Fish Health Framework which will ensure that fish health remains at the heart of sustainable production.

However, this huge Scottish success story is directly threatened by the UK Governments Brexit plans, which would remove Scotland from the worlds biggest single market, which is around eight times the size of the UK market alone.A police officer has denied conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office after being accused of making inappropriate sexual remarks to a complainant.

Pc Colin Noble pleaded not guilty to the charge during a brief appearance at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday.

A single count brought against the 47-year-old officer alleges he used highly sexualised language between June 22 and August 24 last year.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) had previously said Noble was alleged to have neglected legitimate police work in an attempt to pursue a sexual relationship with a complainant.

The IOPC said it began its investigation following a referral from West Midlands Police in August 2017.

Noble, whose address cannot be published because of a court order, was granted unconditional bail until his trial at the same court on April 1.The Bank of England could force board-level bank bosses to manage climate change risks as part of new rules being floated by its regulatory arm.

The Banks supervisory Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has launched a consultation paper outlining how UK insurers, banks, building societies and investment firms must take a more hands-on approach to evaluating the costs of environmental change.

It includes requirements around scenario planning and financial risk disclosures as well as corporate governance, stressing that there should be clear board-level engagement on climate change risk planning.

The PRA would also expect that the board and its subcommittees have clear responsibilities for managing the financial risks from climate change, including individual responsibilities for the relevant existing senior management function, the regulator said.

The proposals are meant to force financial firms into crafting business strategies which would manage far-reaching and foreseeable risks of climate change.

The consultation paper comes just weeks after the Bank warned that only one in 10 banks is adequately prepared for climate change.

Waves hit Cawsand, Cornwall ,as Storm Callum arrives in the UK (PA)

Climate change and societys response to it presents financial risks that are relevant to the PRAs objectives of safety and soundness, the PRA said on Monday.

Whilst these risks may crystallise in full over longer-time horizons, they are becoming apparent now.

Firms are enhancing their approaches to managing these risks, but more need to take a forward-looking, strategic approach if financial risks are to be minimised.

A Bank of England survey released last month found that around 30% of banks have included climate change in their so-called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) models, but that those efforts were mainly aimed at safeguarding their reputations.

Around 60% were considered responsive to climate change, approaching it as a financial risk but in a relatively narrow, short-term perspective.

Most lenders have started considering the physical risks to their business models, ranging from the exposure of its mortgage books to flood risks, or the impact of extreme weather events on sovereign risk.

But the most advanced strategies, accounting for just 10% of those banks surveyed, enhance their governance and risk management accordingly to minimise financial risks and support an orderly transition.By Trend





Employees of Azerbaijans State Security Service have arrested a foreign spy, the public relations department of the service said in a message Oct. 18.

Bahram Hasanzada, the arrested foreign citizen, was engaged in espionage according to instructions from foreign services, to the detriment of Azerbaijans state security, the message said.

The information about his criminal actions and that he was engaged in stealing state secrets and the recruitment of Azerbaijani citizens was confirmed.

As a result of a joint operation conducted by Azerbaijans State Security Service and the State Border Service, Hasanzada was detained in Azerbaijan while illegally crossing the state border.

The Main Investigation Department of Azerbaijans State Security Service brought him to criminal responsibility under Article 276 (espionage) and 318.1 (illegal crossing of state border) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

A preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen by a court in his regard.

It was also established that on the instructions of foreign intelligence services, Hasanzada collected information about military personnel of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, military strategic facilities located in the country, military equipment and ammunition, relations with foreign countries in the military sphere, as well as other intelligence information in the sphere of state security and defense of Azerbaijan.











Edinburgh Airport has recorded its busiest-ever September.

A total of 1,366,026 passengers passed through its doors last month, up 5.8% on the same four-week period last year.

Of that total, more than 902,000 were international travellers and over 463,000 were passengers on domestic flights.

The figures come after the airport broke the 1.5 million mark for passenger numbers for the first time in July.

Edinburgh Airport welcomed 4.5 million people in the past three months (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Chief executive Gordon Dewar said it was another impressive month for the airport, which has welcomed around 4.5 million people over the past three months.

We have a fantastic range of destinations and airlines for passengers looking for that beach holiday or city break, and were always looking to add more, such as this months fantastic addition in Dubai with Emirates, he said.

But he added that Scotland is recording growth well below the European average.

Were also seeing airlines announcing reductions and cuts to services due to us having the highest aviation tax in the world, something which is holding back the industrys true potential, Mr Dewar added.

With the further challenge of an uncertain Brexit looming, the promised APD (air passenger duty) reduction needs to be delivered to avoid a stall in aviation and tourism growth.Celebrities, politicians and other public figures have reacted with joy to the announcement from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that they are expecting a baby.

Harry and Meghan told the world they would be welcoming a new member of the Royal Family in Spring 2019 with an announcement on the official Kensington Palace Twitter account on Monday morning.

Prime Minister Theresa May was quick to send her best wishes to the happy couple.

She wrote on Twitter: My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the happy news they are expecting a baby in the Spring. Wishing them all the best.

My warmest congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the happy news they are expecting a baby in the Spring. Wishing them all the best. https://t.co/nnneVi8rBO  Theresa May (@theresa_may) October 15, 2018

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, also congratulated the pair, tweeting: Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their happy news! Prayers for them in the months ahead.

The Kingdom Choir, which thrilled the country as they performed at Harry and Meghans wedding in May, were also among the well-wishers on social media.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced they are expecting a baby (Chris Jackson/PA)

Wed just like to send our congratulations to the beautiful couple, the Duke and Duchess Of Sussex on their recent announcement, read a message on the choirs official Instagram account.

Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, tweeted: Happy news to wake up to on a Monday morning  congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex!!

Members of Parliament from around the country including Labours Chuka Umunna, the Conservative Andrea Jenkyns and the DUPs Emma Little-Pengelly also sent their congratulations, as did businesswoman Lady Karren Brady and television personalities such as Geordie Shores Gaz Beadle and Vicky Pattinson, presenter June Sarpong and YouTuber Zoella.

Megan and Harry having a baby, what wonderful news and congratulations A baby is something you carry inside you for nine months, in your arms for three years, and in your heart until the day you die.  Lady Karren Brady (@karren_brady) October 15, 2018

Kensington Palace followed the announcement by thanking the public for all of the support the couple have received since their wedding, adding that they were delighted to be able to share this happy news.With the news that Harry and Meghan are expecting their first child, the Queen will soon be welcoming her eighth great-grandchild.

Royal pregnancies have attracted attention across the years as the mothers to be continued in their public duties until their maternity leave started.

The tiniest hint of a bump? Meghan wore a fitted leather skirt on an engagement in Brighton earlier this month (Steve Parsons/PA)

Despite suffering from bad morning sickness, the Duchess of Cambridge was back on royal duties in 2013 three months before Prince George arrived (David Parker/Daily Mail/PA)

Kate attended the Commonwealth Observance at Westminster Abbey two months before the birth of Princess Charlotte (John Stillwell/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge joked about being pregnant during a visit to an arts centre in Sunderland in 2018 ahead of the birth of son Louis (PA)

Mike and Zara Tindall became parents to daughter Lena a month after attending Harry and Meghans wedding earlier this year (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Zara Tindall in action during a charity polo match early in her pregnancy with daughter Mia in 2014 (Chris Ison/PA)

A maternity smock gave Diana, Princess of Wales, plenty of room when she was expecting Prince Harry in 1984 (PA)

It was the same fashion choice shed made when pregnant with Prince William two years earlier (PA)

A pregnant Countess of Wessex before the birth of the Queens eighth grandchild, Viscount Severn (Barry Batchelor/PA)

In 1988 a visibly pregnant Sarah, Duchess of York prepared to welcome the King of Norway - she gave birth to Princess Beatrice later that year (PA)

Princess Annes choice of coat camouflaged the baby bump in 1977 when she was expecting her son Peter 40 years ago (PA)

In 1981, the baby bump that was to become Zara Phillips was a little more obvious (PA)Irish presidential candidate Sean Gallagher said he could not even begin to countenance the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland post-Brexit.

The former Irelands Dragons Den star said he had first-hand experience of how very intimidating crossing a militarised border could be and he was very fearful for young people should a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland be reinstated.

I spent my teenage (years) and early twenties travelling across the border, only miles from where I lived, spending hours at checkpoints being stopped, Mr Gallagher said.

Mr Gallagher at the launch of his campaign (Aoife Moore/PA)

Born in Co Monaghan in the 1960s, the businessman grew up in the small village of Ballyhaise in Co Cavan, about 10 miles from the border.

Late at night it was precarious to cross the border, he said.

Youd be stopped, perhaps searched maybe several times, (its) very fearful for young people. It sets a tone, an international militarised checkpoint.

Mr Gallagher recalled that, when he was a child, his family would travel to visit his fathers relatives in Donegal and the car would be stopped at the border and guns would be pointed at them.

It becomes a normality, a normality that should not be allowed to happen, he said.

It should never be allowed to happen again.

Mr Gallagher will campaign for a united Ireland (Liam McBurney/PA)

Mr Gallagher added that the closest politician to him growing up would have been DUP leader Arlene Foster, who lived about 20 miles from him, yet he said their lives would never have become entangled because they came from different communities.

While geographically she was the closest, in everything else we were worlds apart, he said.

The independent candidate has promised to campaign for a united Ireland.

If elected as president, Mr Gallagher said, he would want to play an active role in achieving a united Ireland in his lifetime.

The 56-year-old candidate said the time was right to start discussions and build relationships before making a move towards unification.

It is the businessmans second bid for Aras an Uachtarain.

Mr Gallagher and his wife Trish (Niall Carson/PA)

In 2011, Mr Gallagher was one of seven candidates who lost out to President Michael D Higgins during the last presidential election.

The father-of-two said he had learned lessons since his last attempt to secure the office.

I had to do some soul-searching after the last campaign, he said.

He said he spent six years locked in a legal battle with national broadcaster RTE over a tweet read out during the last live TV debate.

The tweet was purported to be from an official account linked to the late Martin McGuinness, who also ran for president in 2011.

However it later emerged the account was not the official campaign account of the Sinn Fein candidate.

Mr Gallagher said he was running for a second time because he had never shied away from a challenge.

It was great to have some time to relax with my family today. pic.twitter.com/m5eFn0txOy  Sean Gallagher (@seangallagher1) October 14, 2018

The businessman, who lives in Delgany, Co Wicklow, with his wife Trish and two young children, Bobby and Lucy, has faced criticism for not taking part in the first presidential debate of the campaign on state broadcaster RTE last week.

President Higgins said he could not be present because of a scheduling conflict.

Mr Gallagher said he had opted out for reasons of inclusivity.

Out of respect to him (Mr Higgins) and of respect of the office, all candidates need to be accommodated, he said.

The entrepreneur reiterated his stance that he will only take part in debates where all candidates were present.

If elected, Mr Gallagher said he would champion the rights of people with disabilities, and introduce initiatives relating to the Irish language, wellness, and the role of women in public life.

The candidate believes an important element of the job will be the advancement of Irelands role within Europe post-Brexit, while also maintaining the countrys existing relationship with Britain.Tate boss Maria Balshaw has called for the arts to be at the core of education provision in UK schools.

She spoke out following the publication of a study which tracked students over three years.

Tate and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) have suggested five changes to ensure that the arts feature in all young peoples education.

They include offering a full range of arts subjects at GSCE level and ring fencing an amount of money for arts and culture in schools.

The report also makes recommendations at university level and calls for Ofsted to specify in the inspection framework the minimum proportion of curriculum time to be spent studying arts subjects.

Maria Balshaw is director of the Tate art museums, including Tate Modern (Andy Butterton/PA)

Balshaw said: We cannot overstate the case for an arts and cultural education for all.

Arts subjects must be at the core of education provision in the UK in our schools, be they state-funded or independent, and in our universities.

We must listen to the reverberating sound of the 6,000 voices that are part of this important piece of research and act now. Otherwise, we will be failing the children and students who are the creative future of the UK.

The study tracked 6,000 responses from young people aged 1418, monitoring students and teachers over three years.

It pointed to increasing difficulties that state schools face in giving access and priority to arts and cultural education.

RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman said: The strong, consistent and thoughtful message from the young people in this study is that arts and cultural subjects are uniquely important in equipping them for both academic and employment success.

If we want this generation to have the key skills required to thrive in the workplace of the future, we need to listen to them now.

The Prince of Wales is thought to be concerned about the decline of the arts in schools (Chris Radburn/PA)

The report said that more than a third of the students surveyed rely on their school for access to the arts but there is no level playing field for students and their families.

The report comes after the Prince of Wales was said to be very concerned about the decline of the arts in schools, the boss of one of his charities previously said.

The RSC, Tate and the University of Nottingham examined the benefits of arts and cultural education in a report funded by Arts Council England.

The study analysed 6,000 responses from young people aged 1418, tracking students and 63 teachers over three years.The white poppy, a symbol of pacifism, can be worn for the first time by St John Ambulance volunteers.

Rules stating that the traditional red British Legion poppy can be worn as part of the first aid charitys uniform have been amended and colour is no longer specified.

The Peace Pledge Union (PPU), the pacifist campaign group which makes white poppies, has praised the move.

PPU co-ordinator Symon Hill said: Were pleased that St John Ambulance has recognised that many people wish to remember victims of war without the military associations of the red poppy.

How we remember the past affects how we live in the present. It is vital that we value non-British lives, and civilian lives, as much as the lives of British military personnel.

Remembrance is an important and sensitive topic and we need to listen to each others perspectives.

White poppies can be worn by St John Ambulance volunteers for the first time (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

The change came after Simone Ramacci, a St John Ambulance volunteer and PPU member who lives in Colchester, Essex, asked to be allowed to wear a white poppy while on duty.

He said he could not in good conscience wear the red poppy.

I hope more organisations will follow St John Ambulances lead in becoming more inclusive, he added.

Ann Cable, chief volunteer at St John Ambulance, said valid concerns about the commemoration of war had been raised.

She added: Whilst many volunteers do choose to wear a red poppy, we realise this is not the case for everyone and there are a few types of poppy, not only red and white, that are increasingly widely recognised and worn in the UK during the remembrance period.

The PPU believes the white poppy represents remembrance for all victims of war of all nationalities, a commitment to peace and a rejection of attempts to glamorise war, according to a statement.

By contrast, red British Legion poppies commemorate only British and allied armed forces personnel, it adds.

Red poppies were first worn commemoratively in Britain in 1921, whereas the white poppy was first sold by the Womens Co-operative Guild in 1933.

St John Ambulance supports hundreds of remembrance events and also provides free first aid cover for the parade at the Cenotaph in Londons Whitehall.Downing Street has insisted that the Prime Minister remains confident of getting a Brexit deal, despite the failure to bridge differences over the future of the Irish border ahead of this weeks crunch summit.

Theresa May is set to address MPs in the House of Commons on the state of Brexit negotiations on Monday afternoon after talks over the weekend failed to produce the hoped-for breakthrough on the so-called backstop arrangements for Ireland.

The impasse means that meetings between sherpas in Brussels have been cancelled, and UK Government ministers will have no withdrawal plan to approve at Cabinet on Tuesday, before Mrs May travels to the European Council summit the following day.

(PA Graphics)

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said: Despite intensive negotiations several key issues remain unresolved. I can say that no further negotiations are planned ahead of the European Council.

The PMs official spokesman said that real progress had been made on a number of issues and the Government was determined to press on with talks.

But he said that the EU continued to insist on the possibility of a carve-out for Northern Ireland which could see a customs border down the Irish Sea  something Mrs May has already said would be unacceptable to any British Prime Minister.

Britain is offering a temporary backstop arrangement under which the whole UK would remain in the EU customs area unless an open border in Ireland was secured by a broader trade agreement.

Discussions were said to have broken down after EU negotiators demanded a backstop to the backstop, under which Northern Ireland would stay in the customs union after the time-limited UK-wide arrangement came to an end.

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said talks were entering the moment of crisis and urged Mrs May to reject the EUs offer and scrap the backstop.

The EU is treating us with naked contempt  (offering) a choice between the break-up of this country or the subjugation of this country, between separation or submission, Mr Johnson told the Daily Telegraph.

Mrs Mays spokesman said that reports that a deal had been reached at official level on Sunday, only to break down when Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab met EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The spokesman said: We have made real progress in a number of key areas. However, there remain a number of unresolved issues relating to the backstop.

The European Union and the UK are both clear that they want to secure a good deal and that is what both sides are working towards.

We remain confident of getting a deal because it is in the interests of both the UK and the European Union.

Weve said that we want to continue to make progress in the coming days and weeks. Thats what we are focused on.

He added: The EU continues to insist on the possibility of a customs border down the Irish Sea. This is something which Parliament has already unanimously rejected and is not acceptable to the Prime Minister.

Arriving in Luxembourg for an EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, Irish Tanaiste Simon Coveney said Dublin and Brussels simply wanted Mrs May to follow through with backstop agreements already made in December and March.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said the backstop cannot be time-limited (European Commission Audiovisual Services)

He told reporters a backstop cant be time-limited, adding: The backstop will be there unless and until something else is agreed, but unless you have something to replace it well then the backstop needs to be there as an insurance mechanism.

But the DUPs Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds, told the Telegraph: One part of the UK cannot be left behind, bound to rules set in Brussels. The constitutional and economic consequences of such an approach would be catastrophic in the long run.

The impasse threatens to throw into disarray carefully choreographed plans which would have seen EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Wednesday give the green light to a special summit in November to finalise the terms of the UKs withdrawal from the bloc.

We met today @DominicRaab and UK negotiating team. Despite intense efforts, some key issues are still open, including the backstop for IE/NI to avoid a hard border. I will debrief the EU27 and @Europarl_EN on the #Brexit negotiations.  Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) October 14, 2018

It remains unclear whether Mrs May will be given the opportunity to address leaders of the remaining 27 EU states on Wednesday before they go into a working dinner to discuss Brexit in her absence.

Reports from Brussels suggest that the EU27 are considering instead using the mooted November summit to discuss preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

With Mrs May under siege from Tory Eurosceptics and her DUP parliamentary allies, her room for manoeuvre is severely restricted.

Although the absence of a deal has damped down expectations of ministerial resignations, eurosceptic Cabinet members are reported to be planning to meet over pizza on Monday evening to co-ordinate their stance.

Asked whether Mrs May regarded the so-called pizza summit as helpful, the PMs spokesman said: Cabinet ministers are free to eat whatever they choose. Cabinet colleagues have discussions with each other all the time.

For Labour, Sir Keir Starmer said the Government must now publish details of its revised proposals for the Irish border.

Sir Keir Starmer has said the Government must publish its backstop plan (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

At the moment we dont even know what the proposal is that everybody has fallen out about over the weekend, the shadow Brexit secretary told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. That needs to be looked at and scrutinised in Parliament.

Talks were taking place on Monday between DUP leader Arlene Foster and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, while Mrs May was meeting Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald in Westminster.

The febrile atmosphere in the Tory ranks has seen former Brexit secretary David Davis emerge as a potential successor to Mrs May.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: Getting May out and him becoming an interim leader may be the only way to deliver Brexit and FTA (a free-trade agreement).

Allies of Mr Davis said he has been contacted by several Tory MPs urging him to run for the leadership and he is understood to be prepared to take part in a contest.A father who is due to be removed from the UK will fly with medics because of fears he may have a stroke on the plane.

Sangarapillai Balachandran, an Australian citizen, has had three strokes in the last six years.

The 60-year-old, who came to the UK in 2007, expects to be flown to Australia with his wife, son and two daughters on Monday.

Mr Balachandrans family have said that four medics will join him on the long-haul flight to monitor his condition.

The Home Office has said that medics will travel with Mr Balachandran on Monday but have not confirmed the number given by his family.

In February, Mr Balachandran and his family took voluntary departure from the UK but were taken off the flight due to him being unwell.

His son Pranavan, 23, told the Press Association: Once he got on the plane, we noticed that he wasnt responding to us like he normally would.

(He) started sweating and we started to see the same symptoms that we saw before when he had his previous strokes, so we asked the airline attendant what we should do, and they came down and they asked him some questions, and then they told all of us to get off the flight.

The aborted attempt in February was the second time in three months that the family had agreed to go back to Australia. In December 2017, the family did not make it as far as the airport after noticing their fathers symptoms.

The Home Office has said that Mr Balachandran has received an independent medical assessment and had been deemed fit to fly on Monday.

The spokesman said: The Balachandran family have exhausted their leave to remain status in the UK and have agreed to return to Australia voluntarily.

Sangarapillai Balachandran (centre) is due to fly from the UK with his family on Monday.

Mr Balachandran first came to work in the UK from Australia as an engineer for a company in 2007. After his work permit visa expired in November 2012, he was subsequently granted a Tier 1 (Highly Skilled) Migrant visa valid until March 2013.

After Mr Balachandrans work visa expired the family applied for indefinite leave to remain, which was initially denied by the Home Office in June 2013.

The family then lost an appeal in April 2015 on the grounds that there was no reason why they should not go back to Australia and the decision to remove them was upheld.

Pranavan, his mother Shanthy, 53, and his sisters Karthika, 30, and Sinthuja, 28, are also Australian citizens and are all due to fly on Monday.

The family, whose case was highlighted by The Guardian on Saturday, have been holed up in a hotel near Heathrow Airport since September 28, awaiting the flight.

Pranavan told the Press Association: Right now weve come to the end of the line. If something happens on the flight and he needs to get off, we go homeless again.

If we get on this flight, and say he does have a stroke, its a 27-hour flight, they just cant get medical attention to him.

And its not like, say, a broken leg, which can be fixed. A stroke, you need medical attention in a hospital.

Thats why I dont understand why the Home Office is sending four medics. I dont even know what one can do, let alone four.Unique passwords, timely software updates and secure storage of personal data are among Government guidelines set out in a new code of practice for smart home device-makers.

The measures aim to improve cyber security in Internet of Things (IoT) products, ranging from smart home speakers, to fridges and toys, as the number of internet-connected devices looks set to rise to 420 million across the UK within the next three years.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) want manufacturers to include security as a crucial part of any smart products by design, rather than bolting it on as an afterthought.

The code was devised by the UKs cyber security agency, the National Cyber Security Centre (Nick Ansell/PA)

Our National Cyber Security Strategy sets out our ambitious proposals to defend our people, deter our adversaries and develop our capabilities to ensure the UK remains the safest place to live and do business online, said David Lidington, Cabinet Office Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Action to better protect users from hackers comes amid an increasing number of cyber attacks, often made easier by poor security on board the device.

In recent years security researchers have uncovered vulnerabilities in a number of products connected to the internet, including baby monitors and smart teddy bears which hackers could use to snoop on people.

From smartwatches to childrens toys, internet-connected devices have positively impacted our lives but it is crucial they have the best possible security to keep us safe from invasions of privacy or cyber attacks, said Minister for Digital Margot James.

The UK is taking the lead globally on product safety and shifting the burden away from consumers having to secure their devices.

HP and Centrica Hive are the first companies to commit to the 13-step voluntary code, which is a part of the Governments five-year 1.9 billion National Cyber Security Strategy, to help make the UK the most secure online place in the world.

However, some cyber security experts are not convinced the initiative is strong enough to crack down on cyber threats.

While its certainly a step in the right direction that the UK Government has issued a new code of practice to help manufacturers improve the security of internet-connected devices, its unlikely that the industry will act upon it, given that it is voluntary, said John Sheehy, vice president of strategy at IOActive.

Unfortunately, many manufacturers of these devices are more concerned with getting a minimally viable product to market than whether or not it is secure. As a result, many IoT devices expose their owners to significant risks.MPs who help Theresa May get a cobbled-together Brexit deal through Parliament would be guilty of a dereliction of duty, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

The Scottish First Minister used a speech in London on Monday to urge Westminster politicians to vote down any compromise deal the Prime Minister can strike with Brussels.

She accused the UK Government of threatening us with fire, to make us choose the frying pan, and argued that any deal that is presented to the Commons was likely to be deliberately vague about the future relationship and damaging to the UKs interests.

Ms Sturgeon told an audience at the Royal Society of Arts that voting down the Prime Ministers proposal would allow a deal keeping the UK in the customs union and single market  which the SNP wants  to be presented instead.

Voting against a bad or blindfold Brexit was not a vote for no-deal, she argued, but the only chance the House of Commons will have to reset these negotiations and think again before it is too late.

She said: As the crucial vote looms closer, it is also time for individual members of the House of Commons to consider what compromises they see as justified  and which are not  if they are to serve their constituents, and the wider public interest.

If they do that, I believe that a commonsense outcome could yet be found.

Ms Sturgeon has said the SNPs strong preference is to remain in the EU (Jane Barlow/PA)

She added: For MPs to support a bad or blindfold Brexit  a cobbled-together withdrawal agreement and a vague statement about our future relationship  would, in my view, be a dereliction of duty.

In the June 2016 referendum, Scotland voted by 62% to 38% in favour of remaining in the EU.

As part of her speech, the First Minister presented a new paper from the Scottish Government  Scotlands Place in Europe: Our Way Forward.

It noted that the core of the proposal was the same as it set out in December 2016.

Writing in her foreword to the paper, Ms Sturgeon said: The Scottish Government, in line with the overwhelming vote for Remain in Scotland, supports continued EU Membership. Remaining in the EU continues to be our strong preference.

Nevertheless in December 2016 we set out a compromise plan to keep Scotland and the UK in the European Single Market and Customs Union to limit the damage of Brexit as much as possible.

It is therefore simply incorrect for the Prime Minister to say that there is no alternative to Chequers.

In fact, the UK Governments position is increasingly absurd  insisting on pursuing proposals they have been told will not work while rejecting a plan that will.

She adds: With crucial decisions coming up over the next few weeks and months at EU level  and in the House of Commons, where the UK Government must seek the approval of the UK Parliament  it is vital to break the deadlock.

For the Prime Minister and the UK Government it is time to face reality. For MPs at Westminster it is time to come together in a commonsense coalition to minimise the Brexit damage.

A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union (Dexeu) said: We will have an ambitious course outside of the EU that enhances our prosperity and security and that genuinely works for everyone across the UK.

We have put forward a precise and credible plan for our future relationship with the EU and look forward to continuing to engage with the EU Commission on our proposals.By Trend





The members of Parliament of Azerbaijan sent a protest to the chairman and committees of the Lower House of Russian Parliament in connection with the illegal visit of a group of Russian women to the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on October 7.

The protest was signed by the head of the working group on Azerbaijani-Russian inter-parliamentary relations Ali Huseynli, and the chairman of the Russian community of Azerbaijan Mikhail Zabelin.

On October 7, in the framework of the Women for Peace initiative put forward by the wife of former Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, a group of Russian women visited the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. Among other women, the group also included Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on International Affairs of the Lower House of Russian Parliament, Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya, and founder of the Vera International Charity Foundation Anna Federmesser.

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.



Fracking for shale gas has begun in Lancashire amid protests over the controversial process.

Energy firm Cuadrilla said it had started hydraulic fracturing at Preston New Road in Little Plumpton, on Monday, and it will continue for three months.

It is the first time fracking has taken place in the UK since 2011, when the nascent industry was halted after it caused two small earthquakes in Lancashire.

A spokesman for the company said: Cuadrilla is pleased to confirm that it has started hydraulic fracturing operations at our Preston New Road shale gas exploration site.

Hydraulic fracturing of both horizontal exploration wells is expected to last three months after which the flow rate of the gas will be tested.

Earlier police closed off the site as about 50 protesters gathered ahead of the start of the process and a team had to cut a man and woman out of a set of tyres which they had apparently cemented their arms into.

One activist sat on top of a van outside the site with a banner which read Stop the Start while another lay down in front of railings.

Protester Ginette Evans, 60, from Fleetwood, said: Well be monitoring the site 24 hours a day. It is definitely not over, it has just got serious.

The fights just really started.

She said the there was a mood of disappointment among protesters.

She added: Im gutted really. Its such a dangerous industry and it shouldnt be here.

Justin Vanparys, 47, from Blackburn, said: Fossil fuels should stay in the ground. We have already got global warming.

He said activists had not been listened to but added: That just makes you come back even stronger.

The work had been due to start on Saturday but was delayed by the effects of Storm Callum.

It followed an environmental campaigner failing in a bid to halt the work at the High Court on Friday.

Sheer madness fracking starts in Lancashire today. Government promotes fracking on one hand while saying cut emissions on the other. Actions speak louder than words. Fracking shows the Tories are paying lip service to climate change threat. @BBCNWT @frackfreelancs #Formby pic.twitter.com/ip7T2M6SsB  Bill Esterson (@Bill_Esterson) October 15, 2018

At the hearing in London, Mr Justice Supperstone dismissed Bob Dennetts application for an injunction preventing the company from fracking the UKs first horizontal shale gas well pending his proposed legal challenge.

Mr Dennett claimed Lancashire County Councils emergency response planning and procedures at the site were inadequate, but the judge ruled there was not a serious issue to be tried which would justify an interim order.

Fracking for shale gas is taking place for the first time in seven years as the UK Government kicks off the first Green GB Week initiative to highlight the green economy.

It comes after a UN report warned of the urgent need to cut emissions to avoid dangerous climate change, and that carbon from electricity, heating homes, transport, industry and land use must reach net zero by 2050.

Craig Bennett, Friends of the Earth chief executive, said: The worlds leading climate scientists have published findings that couldnt be starker: to have a hope of containing global warming we must take action now.

Yet, ironically, on the same day the government boldly asks how it can reduce carbon emissions to zero, fracking begins.

It is morally bankrupt to be heralding the start of a whole new fossil fuel industry when climate catastrophe awaits. You can deal with climate change or you can have fracking  you cant do both.A Grenfell Tower survivor has told an inquiry it is a slap in the face for firefighters to suggest they would change nothing about their actions that night.

Rosemary Oyewole, a secondary school teacher who lived in flat 113 on the 14th floor, took shelter in her home with seven other residents, including her family.

Four of her neighbours died in the flat on June 14 2017 after a rescue team accidentally left them behind.

Giving evidence at Holborn Bars on Monday, Ms Oyewole criticised the fire service for not accepting mistakes were made and suggested they bore responsibility for the deaths.

(PA Graphics)

Witnesses including firefighters and commanders have told the inquiry they did all they could, but the fire had spread beyond their control.

Ms Oyewole escaped down the smoke-filled stairwell with her partner Oluwaseun, known as Seun, and their four-year-old daughter when a rescue team reached their flat.

Various firefighters had told them to stay put on four different occasions before this, she claimed.

Peter Herrera, the firefighter who led the eventual escape, has said he was told no-one was left in the flat  an account disputed by at least two survivors.

Ms Oyewole said: I personally would like to thank the fireman that came to the door  whoever it was that said get out, go  I would like to thank him, I am grateful for him coming back and doing that.

However, my recollection of a lot of the other statements, thats not how I remember it happening.

I would also like to say that for anyone to say they do not regret what happened or would not change anything about what happened on that night  I know for a fact I wasnt to blame, but I would definitely change certain things about that night if I could.

I think its quite a slap in the face for anyone to say they wouldnt change anything about what happened that night or they have no regrets about what happened that night.

We lost beautiful, beautiful, beautiful people that night  innocent children, everyone that passed away that night was innocent and nobody deserved that  and if events had played out different then I might not be sitting here myself.

Also awaiting rescue in her flat had been neighbours Zainab Deen and her young son Jeremiah, Syrian brothers Mohammad and Omar Alhajali, and Denis Murphy.

Mohammad Alhajali, Mr Murphy and Ms Deen and her son all died.

Ms Oyewole said in a written statement that she had been plagued by guilt about their fate and troubled by the fact they were left behind.

She wrote: Why did they leave people to die in my flat? If I knew that they were going to stay there, we would have stopped and helped them to leave, to make them come with us when we left the flat.

I could have tried to get them help. We could have tried to carry Jeremiah out.

It is a thought that has been in my mind at all times, for nearly a year since the fire, and will remain with me forever.

The inquiry was previously told that an initial rescue team had moved everyone into one flat, but then had to leave as they ran low on oxygen.

Mr Herrera claimed he was under the impression that only three people needed saving when he subsequently went to flat 113.

On Monday, Ms Oyewole said: The firemen that came back that night  on many occasions people came back  had many chances to see how many people were brought into our flat.

People had the chance to see the state of the people that were brought into our flats and for there not to be any precautions taken into place and the right equipment to come and get people out of our flat, I think if they did have the correct equipment I personally think that the people that passed away in our flat possibly wouldnt have passed away.

Earlier, the hearing was told how the family of three were prepared to risk their lives climbing down knotted bedsheets, as hopes of a rescue faded.

Mr Herrera arrived minutes before the group began a last-ditch escape bid out of the bedroom window.Here are some of the questions being asked about the impasse in the Brexit talks:

 What is the biggest obstacle to a withdrawal agreement?

The main remaining issue is the Irish border, with the UK and EU sides divided on the best way of avoiding the need for checkpoints.

 Why do they want to prevent a hard border?

Regulatory and customs checks at hundreds of crossing points between Northern Ireland and the Republic would cause massive disruption to individuals and businesses. There are fears that checkpoints and cameras could become the target of sectarian violence.

 What is the UK Governments favoured solution?

London thinks the border can be kept open as part of a broader trade deal which does away with the need for checks.

 What is Brussels proposing?

The EU is insisting on a backstop arrangement as a fallback to be used until a broader deal is in place.

This would involve Northern Ireland effectively remaining part of the European customs area, with checks taking place at ports and ferries between the region and the British mainland instead of at the border.

 What does the UK think of that?

Theresa May says no prime minister could accept it, as it would create a customs border down the Irish Sea and undermine the integrity of the United Kingdom.

(PA Graphics)

 So what does London propose?

Mrs May has put forward an alternative backstop, featuring a temporary arrangement keeping the whole of the UK in a customs union, which she expects to be lifted by the end of 2021.

 Is that acceptable to Brussels?

Only if there is a backstop to the backstop, so that when the temporary UK-wide arrangement runs out, the Northern Irish carve-out would come into effect.

 Does Mrs May at least have support in the UK for her proposal?

A lot of Conservative MPs  reportedly including some Cabinet ministers  are concerned that a temporary backstop would become permanent. They want any agreement to include a firm date for it to lapse.

 When will this come to a head?

Leaders of the remaining 27 EU states meet on Wednesday to decide whether to call a special summit in November to provide one last chance for agreement or to use the mooted gathering as an opportunity to step up preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

If agreement is reached, MPs will vote on it in the House of Commons before Christmas, followed by a vote of MEPs in the European Parliament.

 If Mrs May can reach agreement with Brussels, can she get it through Parliament?

This is highly questionable.

Depending on the nature of any deal, she could lose support from as many as 80 hardline Brexiteers on one side of her party or an estimated 30 Europhile Tories on the other.

The DUPs 10 MPs have made clear they will not back anything which means Northern Ireland being treated differently from the rest of the UK.

And the PM will struggle to win much support from Labour MPs, with the partys leadership insisting it will vote down anything which fails its six tests.

 Are there any other remaining obstacles?

Both sides say progress has been made on other issues in recent days.

But there has so far been no public announcement of agreement on the issue of the European Court of Justices role in overseeing the withdrawal deal or the future status of geographical indications which protect local delicacies like Stilton cheese, Champagne or Parma ham.Irelands premier Leo Varadkar has said a Brexit deal could be delayed until December.

The Taoiseach said negotiations are continuing but admitted no one knows for sure when an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom can be reached.

Mr Varadkar said the Irish Government has been preparing for a no-deal scenario but added that officials dont believe it is the likely outcome.

We are hiring the necessary custom officials and making the necessary adaptations to the ports and airports that we need in a no-deal scenario, and also a deal scenario, because even a good deal will result in changes, he said.

The difference in a no-deal is that the changes will be greater and they wont be quicker.

The negotiations are still ongoing, we are at a sensitive phase and I know some people were optimistic about an agreement on the withdrawal agreement this week. I have to say I always thought that was unlikely, I figure November or December the best opportunity for a deal. This is a dynamic situation.

Leo Varadkar (Brian Lawless/PA)

We are always open to compromise, as the EU of course we are, but there are some fundamentals we cant compromise on.

He said the British Government needs to honour its commitment to a backstop agreement which is legally operable and legally binding to ensure no hard border emerges on the island of Ireland.

Mr Varadkar added: Any withdrawal agreement requires parliamentary ratification by the European Parliament and by Westminster, so weve always worked back from that timeline, and the view is that in order to meet that timeline we would have to have a deal before the end of the year.

The initial target was October and that could be back to November.

The possibility remains open to having an emergency summit in November if we can get to a deal.

For all of us, but particularly the UK, the consequences of a no-deal Brexit at the end of March is potentially catastrophic. Really bad for Ireland, relatively bad for the EU, but quite a disaster for the UK, and I am sure that the British Government is motivated to make sure we dont end up in a no-deal scenario.

I spoke to Theresa May yesterday and she assured me of her commitment to getting a deal done and her commitment to honouring the commitment that they made on several occasions to having a backstop as part of the agreement and making sure its legally operable.A serving soldier was part of a ring of smugglers trafficking illegal immigrants from the Calais Jungle into the UK, a court has heard.

David Plumstead, 24, who was based at Barker Barracks in Paderborn, Germany, allegedly tried to help a fellow soldier in the Princess of Wales Regiment transport two migrants through the Channel Tunnel for a fee of 5,000 each.

He is on trial at Maidstone Crown Court alongside car wash owner Zindan Ahmed, 36, of Brompton Street, Middlesbrough, who is accused of financing the transportation of several migrants including his brother.

They face a charge of conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration between November 1 2015 and July 1 2016.

Zindan Ahmed leaves Maidstone Crown Court (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Ahmed, who is in the dock with a Kurdish interpreter, and Plumstead allegedly conspired with Corporal Kyle Harris, 29, who brought three migrants into the UK between March and May 2016 on his trips home on leave.

The jury heard that Harris arranged with Ahmed to be paid 2,500 in advance and a further 2,500 once each of the migrants had been delivered to the UK.

He met them at a McDonalds restaurant in the town of Coquelles  just outside Calais and close to the entrance to the Channel Tunnel  where he loaded one or two migrants into the boot of his rental car, the court was told.

The court heard that on April 29 2016, Plumstead accompanied Harris in the car when they attempted to meet an unknown people smuggler at the McDonalds who was due to hand two migrants to Harris to take to the UK.

The meeting was unsuccessful and the two soldiers returned to the UK alone, and Plumstead denies knowing anything about the operation or helping Harris.

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby said: David Plumsteads involvement in this conspiracy is a very minor one and did not involve the bringing of an illegal migrant into the UK.

But in getting into the car and going to pick up a migrant he must have been an active participant with Kyle Harris on this particular trip.

If thats correct than he played a minor but nonetheless significant part of this conspiracy.

Plumsteads alleged involvement came to light following Harriss arrest in May 2016 when an Iraqi and a Syrian migrant were found in the back of his car by border officials.

The jury heard that Harris pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy in August and is awaiting sentence at the conclusion of the current trial.

Mr Hornsby said to the jury: What is the significance of that plea of guilty in relation to the same conspiracy that you are considering in relation to Mr Ahmed and Mr Plumstead?

It establishes that there was such a conspiracy and that will not be disputed in this case  but it does not help you as to who else was involved in that conspiracy.

The court heard text messages between Harris and a mobile phone associated with Ahmed arranging meetings to drop off cash and also arranging the next collection of migrants, and also a message allegedly from Ahmed asking Harris to pick up his brother.

Ahmed says that while he did use that phone on occasions, he was not the only person using it and he was not the person who sent the text messages related to the people-smuggling operation.

Plumstead said he did not believe Harriss claims about people smuggling.

Mr Hornsby said: Mr Plumstead accepts that Kyle Harris in the barracks in Paderborn had been boasting about bringing illegal migrants into the UK, but he said he didnt believe him  he was a fairly boastful guy.

He says the only reason he got into the car back to the UK was because it was a fairly common arrangement amongst soldiers and often they would give each other lifts back to the UK, and he didnt get into the car as part of any agreement to help or assist Mr Harris.

Plumstead and Ahmed are not believed to have know each other or ever communicated, the jury was told.

The trial, which is due to conclude early next week, continues.A 14-year-old boy missing from his home in Aberdeenshire has been found safe and well.

Police were contacted over the disappearance of Kacper Wisniewski in Peterhead on Sunday.

A statement said: Police Scotland can confirm that Kacper Wisniewski, who was reported missing from the Peterhead area, has been traced safe and well.

Members of the public and media are thanked for their assistance.Detectives probing the attempted murder of a man in a targeted shooting have said it is down to sheer luck that no innocent bystanders were injured during the incident.

Officers have also moved to reassure locals in the Shettleston area of Glasgow over the inquiry after finding a number of people were unwilling to co-operate with police, possibly over fears about retribution.

Two masked gunmen forced their way into a flat in Wellshot Road on Saturday evening, where they gunned down a 42-year-old man inside the property.

The pair fled in a small dark car following the attack at around 8.10pm, which police have described as a despicable act of violence.

Officers have issued a re-appeal for an attempted murder in Shettleston: https://t.co/xBzwCUbfdq  Greater Glasgow Police (@GreaterGlasgPol) October 15, 2018

The victim was taken by ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary for treatment to serious injuries.

The man was initially in a critical condition but staff now say he is in a serious but stable state.

Police have been checking CCTV and speaking to local residents to try to identify who was responsible for the shooting.

It has been reported that the latest incident was linked to a shooting in nearby Cuthelton Terrace last month, but detectives said they are not in a position to link the two events at this stage.

Detective Inspector John Morrison, the officer leading this investigation, said: Yet again, a small community of Glasgow has had to endure another violent incident involving a firearm and again it is only by sheer luck that no innocent bystander has been injured or worse.





Officers say potential witnesses have been unco-operative (Peter Byrne/PA)

Whilst the 42-year-old man was the intended target, this doesnt make it any less serious. This type of incident will not be tolerated and we are working tirelessly to identify the people responsible in addition to the motive behind it.

Urging people with information to speak to police, he continued: However, the officers have been experiencing real challenges in obtaining information as a number of people theyve attempted to speak to are not being co-operative with the police.



This could be due to fear of retribution or some other reason. However, if anyone has any concerns about providing information to police it can be done so confidentially via Crimestoppers, you do not have to give your name when calling them.

If you call the police with information, we do have mechanisms in place to protect you, so please do not hesitate to contact us.



We know that there are people out there who have information that would assist with our inquiry, and we would urge them to pass on that information.

Chief Inspector Patrick Murphy, the area commander for Glasgow East, said: I would like to reassure the residents of Shettleston that we have specialist officers deployed to this inquiry in order to identify those responsible for this attack.

Residents will see increased activity in the area and additional patrols have been deployed to reassure the public. I would ask anyone who has any concerns or information to contact any of those officers.

This level of criminality and violence will not be tolerated in our communities.



Anyone with information can contact police on the 101 number, while Crimestoppers can be reached anonymously on 0800 555 111.An Irish sailor hailed a hero for trying to rescue an injured fellow competitor in a round-the-world race has arrived home to a rapturous welcome.

Family and friends gathered at Dublin Airport to greet Gregor McGuckin, 32, after his Indian Ocean ordeal.

His own boat had been crippled by massive waves but he courageously limped for miles without his main mast across one of the most remote places in the world to aid another sailor.

Abhilash Tomy, 39, from India, had been badly injured and confined to his bunk after his boat capsized. Help was days away.

Irish sailor Gregor McGuckin (centre), with his father Randall and brother Rory (Michael McHugh/PA)

Mr McGuckin recalled: When this storm hit, we were not just in the worst place at the wrong time, we were in the worst possible place to be at the wrong time as well.

He added: We were in the most remote part of the Indian Ocean, I knew the chances of anybody being close by were slim to none.

The Dubliners yacht, the Hanley Energy Endurance, rolled over twice and lost its mast in a storm almost 2,000 miles south west of Perth in western Australia.

Despite the extensive damage to his boat, Mr McGuckin fashioned an ad hoc mast and battled rough seas for four further days in a bid to reach his fellow sailor, Indian naval commander Mr Tomy, who had suffered a serious back injury.

Mr McGuckin was about 90-100 miles away from Mr Tomy and travelling at around 5mph, at best.

A French fisheries patrol boat reached Mr Tomy first. It then rescued Mr McGuckin before taking both men to the isolated Amsterdam Island for treatment.

Both men had been competing in the Golden Globe Race when their masts were destroyed in the conditions.

Mr McGuckin recounted the event.

I stuck my head out and I just saw this huge wave just starting to break.

It was two waves colliding and it just created this huge mountain, basically, and I managed to get in and slam the hatch shut in time.

His boat weighed 10 tonnes but was being hurled around by the power of the waves.

Mr McGuckin said: The whole boat got thrown sideways and everything went dark and I was lying on the roof and stuff lying everywhere.

Despite his predicament, when he heard about his fellow competitors plight he attempted to help as quickly as possible.

It was pretty frustrating because the wind died quite quickly after the storm.

The sea state was still massive and I only had two tiny sails up.

It needed quite a lot of wind just to keep those sails filled, to keep the boat from getting knocked about by the sea state.

So that was really frustrating, and I had no auto-pilot because that had gotten crushed when the main mast got taken down so I had to hand-steer a lot.

I also tried to get the engine working and typically enough that would not work.

So it was a challenging bit of time.

Mr McGuckin, who was attempting to be the first Irishman to sail around the world solo non-stop, subsequently spent a number of weeks in Australia recovering.

Dennis Nordon, the managing director of Mr McGuckins main sponsor Hanley Energy, also attended the homecoming event.

We are absolutely thrilled to have Gregor home safely, he said.

All of us here are indescribably proud of his bravery in unimaginably tough circumstances, and we are looking forward to continuing to support his endeavours.President Donald Trump has suggested rogue killers may be responsible for whatever happened to missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mr Trump told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Florida that he spoke by phone with Saudi Arabias King and that The King firmly denied any knowledge of the disappearance.

Mr Trump said he did not want to get into King Salmans mind, but said: It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers.

He added: Were going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.

Mr Trumps language was strikingly similar to the language he has used to describe Russian President Vladimir Putins denials of election meddling.

Turkish officials say they fear a Saudi hit team killed Mr Khashoggi, who has been missing for nearly two weeks.

The Saudi consulate in Istanbul (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

Mr Trump had earlier tweeted to say that he had spoken with Salman and that he was sending US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to Riyadh.

Mr Khashoggi has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul amid speculation he may have been killed.

The US and Saudis are close allies.

Meanwhile, Turkeys foreign ministry has said the consulate at the centre of the mystery was due to be examined by Saudi and Turkish officials.MPs who vote a cobbled-together Brexit deal through Parliament would be guilty of a dereliction of duty, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.

The Scottish First Minister used a speech in London on Monday to urge Westminster politicians to vote down any compromise deal the Prime Minister can strike with Brussels.

She accused the UK Government of threatening us with fire, to make us choose the frying pan, and argued any deal is presented to the Commons was likely to be deliberately vague about the future relationship and damaging to the UKs interests.

Ms Sturgeon told an audience at the Royal Society of Arts voting down the Prime Ministers proposal would allow a deal keeping the UK in the customs union and single market  which the SNP wants  to be presented instead.

She said: Voting against a bad or a blindfold Brexit deal isnt a vote for no-deal. It would be a vote for a better deal.

Indeed, voting against a bad or blindfold Brexit when the opportunity arises later this year is the only chance the House of Commons will have to reset these negotiations and to think again before it is too late.

She said a commonsense outcome could be found and argued any special relationship between Northern Ireland and the EU strengthens the case for a similar differentiated deal for Scotland.

She added: For MPs to support a bad or blindfold Brexit  a cobbled-together withdrawal agreement and a vague statement about our future relationship  would, in my view, be a dereliction of duty.

In the June 2016 referendum, Scotland voted by 62% to 38% in favour of remaining in the EU.

As part of her speech, the First Minister presented a new paper from the Scottish Government  Scotlands Place in Europe: Our Way Forward.

It noted the core of the proposal was the same as it set out in December 2016, of a preferred option of continued EU membership and also outlining an compromise plan to keep Scotland in the European single market and customs union.

Writing in her foreword to the paper, Ms Sturgeon said: It is therefore simply incorrect for the Prime Minister to say that there is no alternative to Chequers.

In fact, the UK Governments position is increasingly absurd  insisting on pursuing proposals they have been told will not work while rejecting a plan that will.

For the Prime Minister and the UK Government it is time to face reality. For MPs at Westminster it is time to come together in a commonsense coalition to minimise the Brexit damage.

A spokesman for the Department for Exiting the European Union said: We will have an ambitious course outside of the EU that enhances our prosperity and security and that genuinely works for everyone across the UK.

We have put forward a precise and credible plan for our future relationship with the EU and look forward to continuing to engage with the EU Commission on our proposals.

Ms Sturgeon has said the SNPs strong preference is to remain in the EU (Jane Barlow/PA)

Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins said there was nothing new in the First Ministers speech and it is made in a bid to drum up support for Scottish independence.

As ever, she is not intervening for the sake of a good Brexit deal, or for the good of the Northern Ireland border issue, he said.

If the SNP doesnt back a deal, it is automatically supporting a no-deal scenario  something the nationalists have admitted would be bad for Scotland.

And, of course, they dont care if outcomes are bad for Scotland, so long as theyre good for the prospects of another independence referendum.

Ian Murray MP, co-chairman of Scottish Labour for the Single Market, backed the SNPs support for remaining in the single market and customs union as the least-worst Brexit option.

He added: Nicola Sturgeons suggestion of a differential deal for Scotland would move the Northern Irish problem to the border between Scotland and England.

You cant solve one problem by creating another  but we know this is part of the SNPs drive for independence.The head of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Gloria Guevara, praised Greece for the development of Greek tourism in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

She underlined that it is striking that, at a time when global tourism growth is at 4.6%, Greece will run at a rate of 6% growth in 2017.

Asked about the reasons of the current boom of Greek tourism, she pointed out that this is due to several factors. As far as the foreign climate is concerned, there is a rise in air travelers with the generation of Millenials investing in experience and travel and at the same time we have Asian travelers entering the travel map.

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A fraudster has been jailed after he took a 1 million loan meant for humanitarian work and spent it on motorbikes and a Jaguar car.

Keith Morgan, 61, convinced a New York City-based investment manager the money would be spent to set up a mobile field hospital for refugees.

He told would-be investors he was a successful investment specialist who had dealt with billion-pound transactions and owned prime real estate in Hollywood where he planned to build and sell homes worth 50 million dollars (38 million).

Cardiff Crown Court (Barry Batchelor/PA)

One investor in the US was taken in by Morgans lies, and handed over 998,900 thinking it would be used to help set up the mobile hospital.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Morgan immediately laundered the money and made a number of extravagant purchases, including a 68,000 Jaguar and two motorbikes costing a total of 17,000.

South Wales Police began investigating Morgan when his bank alerted them about the large sum of money deposited in his account.

He was arrested and on Monday was found guilty of fraud and two counts of money laundering.

Morgan, from Church Village, Rhondda Cynon Taff, was jailed for eight years and eight months.

Approximately 750,000 from his fraud has been recovered.

After the sentencing Detective Constable Neil Richards said: This was a long and complex case but which had at its core a relatively simple concept  a persuasive conman who managed to obtain, fraudulently, a huge sum of money which he then attempted to spend.

We are pleased that the majority of the money has been recovered, although work will continue to attempt to get the remainder back as well.

I want to pay tribute to colleagues in South Wales Police as well as the banks involved, and partners across the world, who have helped us pursue this investigation.Six Scottish beaches have been selected to take part in filmmaker Danny Boyles UK-wide event to mark the centenary of the end of World War One.

The Slumdog Millionaire director is asking people to gather on certain beaches across the UK and Ireland on Armistice Day, November 11, to remember those who died during the Great War.

On the beaches, a large-scale portrait of a casualty from the conflict will be drawn in the sand and washed away as the tide comes in.

The public can also join in at the informal event by creating silhouettes of people in the sand, remembering the millions of lives lost or changed forever by the conflict.

The six beaches north of the border chosen to be involved are St Ninians Isle beach in Shetland, West Sands in St Andrews, Scapa beach in Orkney, Ayr beach, Burghead Bay beach on the Moray Firth and Cula Bay beach on the isle of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides.

Beaches for #PagesOfTheSea in Scotland include St Andrews West Sands, Ayr, Scapa Beach, Orkney, St Ninians Beach, Burghead Bay and Cula Bay Benbecula.



Danny Boyle invites you to join him in marking 100 years since Armistice. @NTSOnline https://t.co/xRL47cEjzG pic.twitter.com/c6a6e3SKe9  14-18 NOW (@1418NOW) October 15, 2018

The work is commissioned by 14-18 NOW, and is the culmination of the five-year programme of arts commissions marking the First World War centenary, and National Theatre of Scotland is leading the beach events in Scotland.

The Slumdog Millionaire director is asking people to gather on certain beaches across the UK and Ireland on Armistice Day (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Jackie Wylie, NTS artistic director and chief executive, said: The First World War had a devastating impact on Scotland, with tens of thousands of young lives lost and many more forever altered.

Our nation has an enduring and emotive connection to the sea and our beautiful coastline has seen many come and go throughout history.

Pages of the Sea will create an artistic tribute, both personal and communal, through art, words, pictures and stories, acknowledging all those who left our shores during WW1.

As a theatre without walls, the National Theatre of Scotland welcomes this poignant opportunity to help bring communities together in this fitting act of remembrance.A jury panel has been selected for the trial of a Tory MP over his 2015 general election expenses.

South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay, 52, is standing trial with his election manager Nathan Gray, 28, and party activist Marion Little, 62, at Southwark Crown Court.

They are charged with offences relating to Conservative Party expenditure during the 2015 election campaign.

Mackinlay, from Ramsgate, Kent, faces two charges of making a false election expenses declaration under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

Nathan Gray (Victoria Jones/PA)

Gray, of Hawkhurst, Kent, faces one charge of making a false election expenses declaration and a further charge of using a false instrument under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981.

Little, of Ware, Hertfordshire, faces three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

Marion Little (Victoria Jones/PA)

The three defendants, who deny all the charges, appeared in the dock on Monday for the first day of their trial. They are on unconditional bail.

A panel was selected for the case which is expected to take until early December.

They were sent away until Tuesday morning, when 14 jurors will be selected and sworn in before prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC opens the case.

The jury will be trimmed to 12 following the opening.

In 2015, Mackinlay beat Nigel Farage, then Ukip leader, into second place with a majority of almost 3,000.

Last year, Mackinlay held on to the Kent seat of South Thanet with an increased majority of 6,387  a week after it was announced he would be prosecuted.President Bashar Assads government has received a major boost as Syrias commercial gateway with Jordan and a crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights manned by UN peacekeepers were reopened years after the war disrupted their operations.

The simultaneous reopening of the crossings was celebrated on state media with back-to-back coverage, reinforcing the governments narrative that it is slowly emerging victorious from the seven-year war.

We are now witnessing the early fruits of victory, Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said at a press conference in Damascus.

Sitting next to his Iraqi counterpart, who was visiting on Monday, Mr al-Moallem said the two countries are discussing reopening a border crossing.

The border opening is a victory for Syrias President Bashar Assad, right (Sana/AP)

No one should isolate Syria, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraqs foreign minister, said, adding that he was advocating for Syrias return to the Arab League.

Mr Assads government has been largely isolated by its Arab neighbours since the civil war broke out in 2011.

The 22-member Arab League froze Syrias membership shortly after the war began, imposing sanctions the cutting diplomatic ties.

Commercial delegations converged on the Naseeb crossing with Jordan on Monday, and members of the Syrian chamber of commerce went into Jordan to meet with their counterparts.

UN vehicles, soldiers and officials gather at the Quneitra border crossing (AP)

The first lorry carrying citrus fruits entered Jordan, and dozens of private cars drove into Syria.

We are brothers. Our economy is connected to the Syrian economy, said Abdel-Salam Theyabat, the head of a Jordanian chamber of commerce.

At the Quneitra border crossing, leaders of the Druze community, which straddles the frontier, were first on the scene to attend the flag-raising ceremony.

A plaque announcing the re-activation of the crossing was signed off with Mercy To The Martyrs and To Syria Victory And Peace.

Humanitarian and community leaders said they hoped the crossing would soon be open to trade and movement of students.

A national flag is seen on the Syrian side of Quneitra crossing (Ariel Schalit/AP)

The Druze community was divided when Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967.

UN observers had monitored the frontier since the 1974 ceasefire deal, but left their posts in 2014 as fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces approached.

Syrian forces recaptured the Quneitra area in July.

Russian military police deployed in the area, including on the edge of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, setting up checkpoints in the area.The wife of a British academic arrested five months ago in the United Arab Emirates has responded to reports that he will go on trial for spying by saying he is a man of principle with an impeccable track record.

Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old PhD student at Durham University who is from Exeter, was reportedly taken into custody at Dubai airport on May 5 after flying in to interview sources about the countrys foreign policy and security strategy.

His wife Daniela Tejada, 27, said she was concerned about his mental health as he has been held in solitary confinement since then.

She has seen reports that he will go on trial for spying and will appear in court next week, but has not received official confirmation.

Matthew Hedges with his wife Daniela Tejada (Daniela Tejada/PA)

In a statement she said: I have not been sent any official indication from the UAE nor the FCO (Foreign Office) that Matt was taken to court today.

As his wife I have been informed that his trial is going to resume on Wednesday October 24.

I have not received an official translation of the statement from the UAE Attorney General apparently published today.

What I can confirm is that my husband Matt has not received appropriate medical care and attention, especially in regard to his mental health.

Matt has been kept in solitary confinement for over five months.

Matt does not speak Arabic and is therefore unable to communicate fully with the court-appointed lawyer, who he has only met once, at his court hearing last week.

Matt was in the UAE to carry out academic research for his PhD.

Since he was detained on May 5 2018 he has only ever been granted two consular visits which is in direct violation of his rights.

Matt is a man of integrity and principle. He has a brilliant academic mind and an impeccable track record.

He is kind and caring and greatly loved and respected. Please send him home.

Jeremy Hunt (Jack Taylor/PA)

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is understood to have personally raised Mr Hedges case with his UAE counterpart.

British officials have visited Mr Hedges twice, although he is said to have been prevented from discussing his case with them.

According to a profile on the Durham University website, Mr Hedges research includes Middle Eastern politics, the changing nature of war, civil-military relations and tribalism.A joint Saudi-Turkish team has entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to search it, nearly two weeks after the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The team arrived on Monday afternoon to the consulate in Istanbuls fourth Levent neighbourhood as journalists filmed and took photographs of their arrival.

It was unclear what kind of search the officials will conduct and if it will involve forensics, especially since Mr Khashoggi disappeared on October 2.

This image taken from CCTV video obtained by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet purportedly shows journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate (Hurriyet/AP)

A cleaning crew walked into the consulate hours ahead of the investigative teams arrival.

Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team killed and dismembered Mr Khashoggi, who wrote columns in the Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The kingdom has called such allegations baseless but has not offered any evidence Mr Khashoggi ever left the consulate.Five teenagers have been locked up for stabbing a man to death in an unprovoked attack as he returned home from a hospital appointment with his pregnant partner.

Father-of-four Daniel Frederick, 34, was in the wrong place at the wrong time on the afternoon of January 8, Judge Philip Katz QC said.

His teenage killers were on a mission to do violence when they armed themselves with blades and travelled to the Shakespeare estate in Stoke Newington, north London.

Mr Frederick was stabbed seven times in the back, buttocks and thigh, yards from his front door.

Kacper Karasinski (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Judge Katz said: This was a very public and truly shocking death. The attack was so quick that there were no defensive injuries.

It is believed Mr Frederick was the innocent victim of violence involving youths from nearby estates and he was a stranger to his killers.

One of his attackers, aged 16, had sought revenge after his friend was attacked in prison by the local Shakespeare Boys, the Old Bailey heard.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to murder and was detained for life with a minimum term of 10 years.

Following a trial, Kacper Karasinski, 19, of Hackney, and a 17-year-old boy were found guilty of murder.

Karasinski was jailed for life with a minimum of 20 years while the youth was detained for at least 17 years.

Yigiter Gok (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Yigiter Gok, 18, of Stoke Newington, and another 17-year-old boy were found guilty of manslaughter by a majority of 11 to one.

Gok was sentenced to nine years behind bars and the younger boy to eight years.

All but one defendant  a 17-year-old boy  had previous convictions for carrying knives dating back to 2016.

Earlier in a victim impact statement, Mr Fredericks sister Louise Samuel said: Daily my heart skips a beat thinking about the different knives that were violently thrust into my brothers back and I imagine him falling to the ground, alone feeling helpless.

Mr Fredericks eight-year-old son had been robbed of his bestie, she said.

He never got to meet his youngest son, who was born after his death.

Ms Samuel added: There has to be justice, people cannot walk the streets and take an innocent soul for no reason and get away with it.

She said the murder of her brother was an evil attack.Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted that a Brexit deal is still achievable despite deadlock in negotiations just days ahead of a crunch European Council summit.

Mrs May called for cool, calm heads to prevail after talks last weekend failed to bridge differences between the UK and EU over the future status of the border in Ireland.

And she warned of the danger that failure to reach agreement over the border could result in the UK leaving the EU without a deal in March next year.

The Prime Minister was addressing the House of Commons just two days before she travels to Brussels for a summit at which it had initially been hoped to finalise the UKs withdrawal agreement as well as a political declaration on future trade and security relations.

Theresa May addresses the House of Commons (PA)

Following the failure to achieve a breakthrough when Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab met EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier on Sunday, the European Commission confirmed that no further negotiations will be held ahead of Wednesdays summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the prospect of agreement looks a bit more difficult again, adding: If it doesnt work out this week, we must continue negotiating, that is clear  but time is pressing.

Berlin wants the UKs withdrawal next March to be orderly but not at any price, Mrs Merkel told a conference of German exporters.

And Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested a deal may be delayed as late as December.

Mr Varadkar said Dublin was making preparations for a potentially catastrophic no-deal withdrawal, but did not believe that this was the most likely outcome.

But Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman for the DUP, which props up Mrs Mays minority administration in the Commons, said that a no-deal outcome was now probably inevitable due to the intransigence of EU negotiators.

Talks at the weekend foundered over the EUs demand for a backstop to the backstop designed to ensure that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic remains open under any circumstances.

(PA Graphics)

Mrs May has offered to keep the whole of the UK temporarily in a customs union with the EU until a broader trade deal is in place avoiding the need for customs and regulatory checks at the Irish border, with the expectation that this will not be later than the end of 2021.

But Mr Barnier insisted that a carve-out keeping Northern Ireland alone in the EUs customs area should remain available in case the UK-wide arrangement lapses before the trade deal is finalised.

Mrs May told MPs that this was not acceptable as it risked undermining the integrity of the UK.

The PM warned that the Irish issue must not be allowed to derail progress towards a deal which she said was in the interests of both the UK and EU.

She told MPs she would take steps to ensure that we cannot be kept in this backstop arrangement indefinitely.

And she warned: We are entering the final stages of these negotiations.

This is the time for cool, calm heads to prevail.

And it is the time for a clear-eyed focus on the few remaining but critical issues that are still to be agreed.

Mrs May voiced her frustration that the Irish border issue was holding up agreement on Brexit.

But she said: We cannot let this disagreement derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with the no-deal outcome that no-one wants.

I continue to believe that a negotiated deal is the best outcome for the UK and for the European Union.

I continue to believe that such a deal is achievable. And that is the spirit in which I will continue to work with our European partners.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed Mrs Mays comments as another nothing has changed moment from this shambles of a Government.

(PA Graphics)

Mrs Mays call for calm came after former foreign secretary Boris Johnson said talks were entering the moment of crisis and urged the PM to reject the EUs offer and scrap the backstop.

The EU is treating us with naked contempt  (offering) a choice between the break-up of this country or the subjugation of this country, between separation or submission, Mr Johnson told the Daily Telegraph.

The impasse threatens to throw into disarray carefully choreographed plans which would have seen leaders of the remaining 27 EU states give the green light on Wednesday to a special summit in November to finalise the terms of the UKs withdrawal from the bloc.

It remains unclear whether Mrs May will be given the opportunity to address fellow leaders before they go into a working dinner to discuss Brexit in her absence.

Reports from Brussels suggest that the EU27 are now considering using the mooted November summit to discuss preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

With Mrs May under siege from Tory Eurosceptics and her DUP parliamentary allies, her room for manoeuvre is severely restricted.

Although the absence of a deal has damped down expectations of ministerial resignations, Eurosceptic Cabinet members are reported to be planning to meet over pizza on Monday evening to co-ordinate their stance.

Asked whether Mrs May regarded the so-called pizza summit as helpful, the PMs spokesman said: Cabinet ministers are free to eat whatever they choose. Cabinet colleagues have discussions with each other all the time.

The febrile atmosphere in the Tory ranks has seen former Brexit secretary David Davis emerge as a potential successor to Mrs May, with allies saying he had been contacted by several MPs urging him to run for the leadership.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries said: Getting May out and him becoming an interim leader may be the only way to deliver Brexit.A Westminster culture of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence has allowed the bullying and harassment of staff in the House of Commons to thrive, an official report has found.

Dame Laura Cox QC, appointed by House authorities to investigate claims of abusive behaviour by MPs and staff, said there were urgent and serious problems in procedures for dealing with such issues.

In a damning report she said it was difficult to envisage how the reforms needed could be delivered under the current senior House administration.

Dame Laura called for the establishment of an entirely independent process for dealing with staff complaints against MPs in which MPs themselves play no part.

Her report painted a picture of a Commons where MPs enjoyed a God-like status, knowing they would never be subject to disciplinary action, and where abusive behaviour was actively covered up.

Complaints ranged from staff being shouted and sworn at and belittled on an almost daily basis to the predatory behaviour of some male MPs towards female staff.

The Houses of Parliament in London (Tim Ireland/PA)

They included frequent propositioning and inappropriate touching  including trying to kiss them, grabbing their arms or bottoms or stroking their breasts or bottoms  in an atmosphere fuelled by ready access to alcohol.

Dame Laura said while there was an expectation of loyalty among staff towards the institution they worked for, the standing of the House was being diminished by the failure of its senior leadership to deal with the issue.

That sense of loyalty has been tested to breaking point by a culture, cascading from the top down, of deference, subservience, acquiescence and silence, in which bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been able to thrive and have long been tolerated and concealed, she said.

This is not to demonise the entire institution, but unacceptable behaviour by some, whether elected Members or House staff, inflicts damage on everyone and undermines the legitimacy and authority of the House of Commons. Parliament is diminished.

Dame Laura, a former High Court judge, was appointed by the House of Commons Commission to conduct an inquiry after BBC2s Newsnight highlighted a series of allegations of bullying and harassment by MPs, including claims that Speaker John Bercow bullied his former private secretary, which he denied.

Her report said a broad cultural change was needed to restore the confidence of staff and the wider public, which would require a focus and a genuine commitment by the House leadership.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4s World At One, Dame Laura said she was referring to the collective ethos at the top of the organisation including the offices of the Speaker and the Clerk of the House and the House of Commons Commission.

Those involved needed to ask themselves whether they understood the need for radical reform, were capable of delivering it, and whether the staff would have confidence in their ability to do so.

If they cant answer Yes honestly to all those questions, then they should each of them be considering their positions, she said.

In line with her terms of reference, she did not name any individuals involved in alleged abuse or the staff members who gave evidence to her inquiry.

However she said: When reading this report some people may privately recognise their own behaviours in some of the alleged abusive conduct I have described.

I would hope that a process of reflection leads them to consider what, if anything, they should now do in the best interests of the House.

A spokesman for the Commons said bullying and harassment had no place in the organisation and the well-being of staff will always be our top priority.

Urgent work has already been undertaken to improve internal processes  including the introduction of new confidential support services and helplines run by external, independent specialist providers and a clear pathway for the investigation of allegations, the spokesman said.

The findings of this inquiry will be taken into careful account.Flash floods tore through towns in southwest France, turning waterways into raging torrents that killed at least 10 people, authorities have said.

People had to be helicoptered from the roofs of their homes as overnight storms dumped the equivalent of several months of rain in a few hours.

Initially, the French interior ministry announced 13 deaths from the floods in the Aude region.

But French prime minister Edouard Philippe said after visiting damaged areas that the number was corrected to 10.

Authorities said some victims had been counted twice.

In the town of Villegailhenc, resident Ines Siguet said floodwaters rose so quickly after the rains swept in from the Mediterranean that residents fled to rooftops.

Ms Siguet, 17, posted video of a ripped-up road where a bridge used to stand.

An overturned car is pictured in front of a church in the town of Villegailhenc (Fred Lancelot/AP)

Theres nothing left. Theres just a hole, the teenager, whose school was closed amid the destruction, said.

It was very violent.

Residents described violent walls of water that crashed through doors and quickly inundated homes.

Some of the dead appeared to have been swept away by floodwaters, Aude prefect Alain Thirion said.

People try to pull a car out of a torrent (Fred Lancelot/AP)

In the town of Conques-sur-Orbiel, the river rose by more than six metres (20 feet), and floodwaters were in some cases too powerful for emergency services to get through, even on boats, he said.

The River Aude, which flows through Carcassonne, Trebes and other towns, reached levels unseen since floods in 1891.

Television images showed water coursing through towns and villages, stranding cars and piling them on top of each other like childrens toys.

The French government rushed hundreds of rescue workers to the flood zone and helicopters buzzed overhead.Leading international construction consultancy Linesight has announced that it is currently working on projects worth more than $10 billion across the Middle East region covering a wide range of sectors.



The company, which is celebrating a decade of its UAE operations - since opening its regional Middle Eastern office at Dubai in 2008 - has registered an average annual revenue growth of 6.6 per cent.



A key player in the region, Linesight offers consultancy services, focusing on cost and project management, across a wide number of industry sectors including retail, commercial, hospitality and data centre.



Its most notable projects include the $430-million Bahrain Marina mixed-use development, the $4-billion Thakher City mixed-use development in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and the MAF City Centre Ishbiliyah retail development, in Riyadh.



In addition to the project and design management for Bahrain Marina, Linesight is currently involved in the Al Sahel Hotel Development in Bahrain.



On completion, the Bahrain Marina will boast a 250-berth marina, a five-star hotel, a host of F&B (food and beverage) and leisure amenities, luxury villas and a 600-unit residential tower overlooking the sea, said the comopany in its statement.



Elsewhere in the GCC, Linesight is involved in several projects in Saudi Arabia, including the $293-million Al Faisaliah District redevelopment project in Riyadh, which involves the upgrade of Al Khozamas retail, hospitality and commercial assets starting with the refurbishment of the Al Faisaliah Mall.



According to Linesight, the UAE continues to be a key market, with multiple public and private sector projects in the pipeline.



The company is providing cost and project management for several developments including hospitality and residential marquee developments on the Palm.



This is in addition to several real estate projects, including the Californian Residences in Dubailand where the companys experienced team is project managing the mixed-use $150-million project, it added.



Damien Gallogly, the regional director for the Middle East, said: "Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed significant regional business growth, underscored by our expansion into both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain."



"Our success in the region comes from the close relationships weve developed with our clients, our service offering, the quality of work that we deliver and our in-depth understanding of the Middle East market. We have a proven track record on prestigious projects, high referral rates and strong repeat business within our network. Clients have confidence in our ability to deliver their projects on time, and within budget," he added.



Linesight has a global reach, with staff located in 20 offices around the world including Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the US. The company is currently involved in projects in 150 countries.-TradeArabia News ServicePresident Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have arrived in Florida to survey damage in the state as well in Georgia from Hurricane Michael.

Mr Trump landed on Monday at Eglin Air Force Base near Valparaiso and was due to visit communities affected by the storm.

The president tweeted before leaving the White House that he will meet with law enforcement and government officials aiding the massive recovery effort.

He said maximum effort is taking place, everyone is working very hard.

A damaged home stands in the background in Floridas Panama City (David Goldman/AP)

The Florida Panhandle took a direct hit from Michael.

More than 190,000 homes and businesses in Florida remain without electricity, along with about 120,000 homes and businesses in Georgia.

The death toll currently stands at 17.A team of investigators has entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for what Turkish officials called a joint inspection of the building where Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared nearly two weeks ago.

The team arrived in unmarked police cars at the consulate and said nothing to journalists waiting outside as they entered the building.

Police then pushed back journalists from the front of the consulate, where they have been stationed for days, setting up a new cordon to keep them away.

Members of the media on the blocked road leading to Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul (Emrah Gurel/AP)

International concern continues to grow over the writers October 2 disappearance.

American politicians have threatened tough punitive action against the Saudis, and Germany, France and Britain have jointly called for a credible investigation into Mr Khashoggis disappearance.

A Foreign Ministry official had earlier said the team would visit the diplomatic post on Monday.

Turkish officials have said they fear a Saudi hit team that flew into and out of Turkey on October 2 killed and dismembered Mr Khashoggi, who had written Washington Post columns critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The kingdom has called such allegations baseless but has not offered any evidence Mr Khashoggi ever left the consulate.

Such a search would be an extraordinary development, as embassies and consulates under the Vienna Convention are technically foreign soil.

Security guards enter Saudi Arabias consulate (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

Saudi Arabia may have agreed to the search in order to appease its Western allies and the international community.

However, it remained unclear what evidence, if any, would remain nearly two weeks after Mr Khashoggis disappearance.

A cleaning crew with mops and rubbish bags walked in past journalists waiting outside the consulate.

US President Donald Trump has said Saudi Arabia could face severe punishment if it was proven it was involved in Mr Khashoggis disappearance.

Mr Trump tweeted on Monday that he had spoken with Saudi King Salman, who denies any knowledge of what happened to Mr Khashoggi.

He said that they are working closely with Turkey to find answer, Mr Trump wrote.

I am immediately sending our Secretary of State (Mike Pompeo) to meet with King!

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia warned that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action, and that the kingdoms economy has an influential and vital role in the global economy.

The kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures or repeating false accusations, said the statement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

The statement did not elaborate but a column published in English a short time later by the general manager of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite news network suggested Saudi Arabia could use its oil production as a weapon.

Benchmark Brent crude is trading at around 80 dollars a barrel and Mr Trump has criticised Opec and Saudi Arabia over rising prices.

Already, international business leaders are pulling out of the kingdoms upcoming investment forum, a high-profile event known as Davos in the Desert, though it has no association with the World Economic Forum.

They include the chief executive of Uber, a company in which Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars; billionaire Sir Richard Branson; JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive Jamie Dimon; and Ford Motor Co executive chairman Bill Ford.

News that the chief executive of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, would pull out of the conference drew angry responses across the region.

The foreign minister of the neighbouring island kingdom of Bahrain, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, tweeted that there should be a boycott of the ride-hailing app both there and in Saudi Arabia.

Late on Sunday, Saudi King Salman spoke by telephone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about Mr Khashoggi.

Turkish police officers arrive at the consulate (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Turkey said Mr Erdogan stressed the forming of a joint working group to probe the case.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, said King Salman thanked Mr Erdogan for welcoming the kingdoms proposal for forming the working group.

The king said Turkey and Saudi Arabia enjoy close relations and that no-one will get to undermine the strength of this relationship, according to a statement on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

While Turkey and the kingdom differ on political issues, Saudi investments are a crucial lifeline for Ankara amid trouble with its national currency, the Turkish lira.

Mr Khashoggi has written extensively for the Post about Saudi Arabia, 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.A US senator mocked by Donald Trump over her ancestral claims has released the results of a DNA analysis that she said indicated she has some Native American heritage.

The move by Elizabeth Warren was a direct rebuttal to the president, who has long mocked her claims and repeatedly referred to her as Pocahontas.

The Democrat and potential 2020 presidential contender challenged Mr Trump to make good on his pledge to donate one million dollars to charity if she provided proof of Native American heritage, a moment that was caught on video.

Mr Trump falsely denied ever making the offer.

I took this test and released the results for anyone who cares to see because Ive got nothing to hide. What are YOU hiding, @realDonaldTrump? Release your tax returns  or the Democratic-led House will do it for you soon enough. Tick-tock, Mr President.  Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 15, 2018

The analysis was done by Stanford University professor Carlos D Bustamante, a prominent expert in the field.

He concluded that the great majority of Ms Warrens ancestry is European but added that the results strongly support the existence of a Native American ancestor.

Elizabeth Warren (Charles Krupa/AP)

In his report, Prof Bustamante said he analysed Ms Warrens sample without knowing the identity of the donor.

He concluded that Ms Warren has a pure Native American ancestor who probably lived six to 10 generations ago, and that it was impossible to determine the individuals tribal connection.

Ms Warren, who has said her Native American roots were part of family lore, also released a video produced by her Senate re-election campaign in Massachusetts.

In it, she said: The president likes to call my mom a liar. What do the facts say?

Prof Bustamante replied: The facts suggest that you absolutely have Native American ancestry in your pedigree.

The analysis is not the first evidence of Ms Warrens heritage.

An 1894 document previously unearthed by the New England Genealogical Society suggested Ms Warrens great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith, was at least partially Native American, making the senator 1/32nd Native American.

The genealogy group has said it has no conclusive evidence of her ancestry, and a spokesman said it would not comment on the genetic findings.

However, if Ms Warrens ancestor had been as much as 10 generations removed, it would make that individual a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent, making her only 1/1,024th Native American, according to Blaine Bettinger, a genealogist and author who specialises in DNA evidence.

Such a finding could potentially further excite her critics instead of placating them.

Ms Warrens effort to address questions about her ancestry and the release of the video are her latest moves telegraphing a likely presidential run in 2020.

During the summer she also released a decade worth of tax returns, drawing a contrast with Mr Trumps unwillingness to release his own tax documents.

The moves seem to anticipate the type of criticism she might face against opponents in a Democratic primary or in a possible general election match-up against Mr Trump.

She is most clearly doing the things you do if youre running for president, said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic strategist and veteran of presidential campaigns.

During a recent town hall-style meeting in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Ms Warren said she planned to take a hard look at running for president, after next months election.

Earlier this year, the senator released personnel files seeking to dispute critics who have alleged that the former Harvard Law School professor advanced her law career with a narrative she is a descendant of Cherokee and Delaware tribes.

Ms Warren has denied using her Native American heritage to gain any advantage.

In an email on Monday to supporters, Ms Warren said she never expected the president of the United States to use my familys story as a racist political joke against Native American history, culture, and people  over, and over, and over.

In a tweet directed at Mr Trump, Ms Warren said: Remember saying on (July 5) that youd give $1M to a charity of my choice if my DNA showed Native American ancestry?

She went on to request that the president send a cheque to the National Indigenous Womens Resource Centre.

At a summer rally in Montana, the president declared that he would give a million dollars to charity, paid for by Trump, if Ms Warren takes the test and it shows youre an Indian.

But when asked by reporters on Monday, Mr Trump said: I didnt say that.

Ms Warren, who grew up in Norman, Oklahoma, said her mother and father were forced to elope because of her mothers heritage.

She faces Republican Geoff Diehl, who co-chaired Mr Trumps Massachusetts presidential campaign, in the November 6 election.

The DNA analysis was first reported by The Boston Globe.Anxious community members living in the shadow of Grenfell Tower asked if their children are safe to play in local parks and continue going to school following reports of potentially harmful toxins in the soil.

Soil and dust samples taken by Professor Anna Stec revealed huge concentrations of potential carcinogens around the west London tower block, the Guardian reported on Friday.

The local council and officials at public health England (PHE) first became aware of the researchers concerns in February, representatives told a tense Grenfell recovery scrutiny meeting held at Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC) Town Hall on Monday evening.

They are now urgently seeking a meeting with Prof Stec so they can see her full data and act if necessary.

Grenfell United, which represents survivors, the bereaved and the local community, has written to ministers requesting urgent detail and a separate public meeting.

This would allay any fears and offer reassurance to our already traumatised community.

PHE has consistently monitored air quality levels since the initial days following the blaze (Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA)

Dr Yvonne Doyle, regional director for PHE London told the meeting, which discussed the issue for more than an hour: We are not changing the advice now, but we are keeping an open mind on this because if something changes we would obviously need to examine that and change the advice appropriately.

The exasperation in the room was palpable, with several community members mentioning they had repeatedly raised their concerns about the physical health implications of the fire.

The fire, on June 14 last year, claimed 72 lives.

PHE has consistently monitored air quality levels since the initial days following the blaze, but has not taken soil or water samples.

Tower survivor Bellal El Guenuni told the meeting of his familys great anxiety following the recent news.

He said: My question is if the report is founded and correct, what are the implications for the people living around the area, our kids playing in parks.

Is there a problem with my kids playing in a park?

Ms Doyle said she was sorry the news had caused anxiety in the community, adding: I would not change my advice at the moment because I have no reason to believe there is an enhanced risk from this year to the last year.

A woman who said she lived on Bramley Road, near to the tower, said her previously healthy son had 27 absences from his local school last year.

The concerns were backed up by Notting Dale Labour councillor and local resident Judith Blakeman, who said she was anecdotally aware of an enormous amount of illness, particularly in schoolchildren.

She had pneumonia after the fire, and says she still suffers from what locals have dubbed the Grenfell cough.

Ms Doyle said there were 31 people with serious respiratory problems being followed up, and promised to follow up concerns about the cough.

I would not dismiss it, its real, she said.

The council said it would look at its records on historical land use and contamination to establish a baseline to which post-fire samples could be compared.

It said: This study has not yet been shared with relevant experts in the field, nor published.

The Director of Public Health for Kensington and Chelsea, together with Public Health England, are seeking an urgent meeting with Professor Stec to discuss her study, its methodology and its implications.

They will then undertake a rapid review of what, if any, further actions should be taken with regard to any soil contamination, in order to protect and reassure the public.Britain is more likely than ever before to crash out of the European Union without a deal, Brussels has warned.

Theresa May insisted a Brexit deal is still achievable despite deadlock in negotiations just days ahead of a crunch summit.

But hours later, European Council president Donald Tusk said that while there was good will on both sides, the negotiations have been more complicated than expected.

Mrs May will address the leaders of the remaining 27 EU nations on Wednesday before they discuss over dinner without her how to proceed in the talks.

On a #Brexit deal: It always seems impossible until it's done. Let us not give up. My #euco invitation letter https://t.co/YaVdCF5gyf  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) October 15, 2018

In a letter to EU leaders ahead of the summit, Mr Tusk said: As things stand today, it has proven to be more complicated than some may have expected.

We should nevertheless remain hopeful and determined, as there is good will to continue these talks on both sides.

But at the same time, responsible as we are, we must prepare the EU for a no-deal scenario, which is more likely than ever before.

Like the UK, the Commission has started such preparations, and will give us an update during the meeting.

He added: But let me be absolutely clear. The fact that we are preparing for a no-deal scenario must not, under any circumstances, lead us away from making every effort to reach the best agreement possible, for all sides.

This is what our state of mind should be at this stage.

As someone rightly said: It always seems impossible until its done. Let us not give up.

Mrs May called for cool, calm heads to prevail after talks last weekend failed to bridge differences between the UK and EU over the future status of the border in Ireland.

And she warned of the danger that failure to reach agreement over the border could result in the UK leaving the EU without a deal in March next year.

(PA Graphics)

The European Council meeting this week had initially been pencilled in as the summit where the UKs withdrawal agreement and political declaration on future trade and security relations would be finalised.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the prospect of agreement looks a bit more difficult again, adding: If it doesnt work out this week, we must continue negotiating, that is clear  but time is pressing.

Berlin wants the UKs withdrawal next March to be orderly but not at any price, Mrs Merkel told a conference of German exporters.

And Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested a deal may be delayed as late as December.

Mr Varadkar said Dublin was making preparations for a potentially catastrophic no-deal withdrawal, but did not believe this was the most likely outcome.

But Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman for the DUP, which props up Mrs Mays minority administration in the Commons, said a no-deal outcome was now probably inevitable due to the intransigence of EU negotiators.

Talks at the weekend foundered over the EUs demand for a backstop to the backstop designed to ensure the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic remains open under any circumstances.

Mrs May has offered to keep the whole of the UK temporarily in a customs union with the EU until a broader trade deal is in place avoiding the need for customs and regulatory checks at the Irish border, with the expectation this will not be later than the end of 2021.

(PA Graphics)

But Mr Barnier insisted a carve-out keeping Northern Ireland alone in the EUs customs area should remain available in case the UK-wide arrangement lapses before the trade deal is finalised.

Mrs May told MPs this was not acceptable as it risked undermining the integrity of the UK.

The PM warned the Irish issue must not be allowed to derail progress towards a deal which she said was in the interests of both the UK and EU.

She told MPs she would take steps to ensure that we cannot be kept in this backstop arrangement indefinitely.

And she warned: We are entering the final stages of these negotiations. This is the time for cool, calm heads to prevail.

And it is the time for a clear-eyed focus on the few remaining but critical issues that are still to be agreed.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed Mrs Mays comments as another nothing has changed moment from this shambles of a Government.Northern Ireland were once again shown the value of clinical finishing as Bosnia and Herzegovina captain Edin Dzeko condemned them to a third straight Nations League defeat in a match that saw them hit the post three times.

Dzeko scored in either half on the ground where he began his professional career, but Northern Ireland will rue a shocking miss from Gavin Whyte and an early George Saville effort that came back off the frame of the goal.

The 2-0 defeat leaves Northern Ireland on the brink of relegation to League C, with their fate now out of their hands.

It was a sadly familiar tale for Michael ONeills men, who dominated in the reverse fixture at Windsor Park last month but were undone by defensive mistakes.

Things might have been different here if just one of Northern Irelands three early chances had fallen to a striker, but instead Saville got all three.

There was just one minute on the clock when Steven Davis played him in on the left, but Savilles rising shot went narrowly over.

Edin Dzeko scored twice as Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Northern Ireland 2-0 (Amel Emric/AP).

The pair linked up again in the 14th minute with Davis crossing from the right, but Saville could not make proper contact as his effort spun wide.

The best chance came after 20 minutes when Jamal Lewis picked out Saville from the left and his first-time shot beat Ibrahim Sehic only to come back off the post.

In between times, Dzeko had hit a half-volley just over after controlling Miralem Pjanics raking ball with his shoulder, and it was the Roma striker who would open the scoring in the 27th minute.

Lewis slipped inside the area to gift possession to Edin Visca and he played in Dzeko to apply a calm finish which left Bailey Peacock-Farrell with no chance.

Northern Ireland looked rattled and Dzeko had the ball in the net moments later with a powerful volley, only to be denied by an offside flag. Replays suggested it was raised in error.

Pjanic was the next to go close, sending a free-kick on to the roof of the net after Ollie Norwood was booked for bringing down Elvis Saric outside the area, earning him a suspension for next months match against Austria.

After further chances for Dzeko and Ognjen Vranjes, Northern Ireland were grateful to go in at half-time only 1-0 down.

They were under threat again soon after the restart, but Dzeko could not get his feet sorted out after being played in by Muhamed Besic and shot tamely, while Sarics follow-up effort was held by the diving Peacock-Farrell.

Whyte replaced the subdued Norwood just before the hour, but what could have been the perfect instant impact was instead a shocking miss.

The Oxford man rose to meet Stuart Dallas cross at the far post and, although his effort was saved by Sehic, the ball fell for him to apply what looked to be an easy finish into an open net.

Instead he fired straight on to the post from point-blank range.

And Northern Ireland were made to pay moments later. The defence was all at sea as Dzeko found himself in acres of space to collect Pjanics cross and place his finish into the far corner of the net.

Northern Ireland pushed for a goal late on, with substitutes Josh Magennis and Kyle Vassell using their size to cause problems, but, when Whyte struck the post again in the last minute, it summed up their evening.Kanye West handed Ugandas president a pair of his autographed trainers during a visit to the East African nation in which the rapper is said to be recording music in a tent.

President Yoweri Museveni, 74, said he and West held fruitful discussions about promoting tourism and the arts.

He also gave West and his wife, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, Ugandan names, the State House said in a Facebook post.

The couple have been holidaying in a national park in Uganda, and excited tourism officials see the visit as an endorsement of the countrys tourism potential.

While Ugandas presidency released photos of a hoodie-wearing West meeting Mr Museveni at the State House, some Ugandans pointed out that the president cracked down on hoodies earlier this year, saying motorcycle riders could no longer wear them in a bid to fight rising crime.

Mr Museveni, one of Africas longest-serving leaders, has been at the centre of unrest in recent weeks after a local pop star-turned-opposition politician, Bobi Wine, alleged torture by security forces.

Kanye West (Jonathan Brady/PA)

The government denies it.

Ugandas large youth population has increasingly expressed frustration over unemployment and accused the president of being out of touch.

The government recently imposed a tax on social media and the constitution was changed to remove an age limit on the presidency, leading some to worry that Mr Museveni plans to rule for life.The first televised Irish presidential debate took place on Monday night, with only four of the six candidates taking part.

Joan Freeman, Gavin Duffy, Peter Casey and Liadh Ni Riada appeared on Claire Byrne Live on RTE One, with President Michael D Higgins and Sean Gallagher notably absent.

Presenter Claire Byrne asked the candidates what they thought of the absentee nominees as the first question.

Sinn Fein MEP Ms Ni Riada said: I think its a real sign of thinking theyre above Irish people and it disrespects the office, the idea youre above it is completely unacceptable.

Mr Duffy made a pointed dig at fellow businessman Mr Gallagher, saying: They got plenty of notice, we havent heard from Sean Gallagher for seven years, he should be here.

Mr Casey referred to Mr Gallaghers previous membership of Fianna Fail despite being an independent candidate, saying: Im disappointed the Fianna Fail candidate could not be here.

Michael D Higgins (Niall Carson/PA)

He added that he was not surprised Mr Higgins did not attend and claimed the president could not defend his expenses at a debate on Saturday.

Mr Casey then claimed Mr Higgins had extensive dog grooming bills, to which Byrne read out a statement sent in by the president that the claim was inaccurate.

After the statement was read out, Mr Duffy accused RTE of favouring the president and acting as his spokesperson.

During the debate, it was noted that inauguration day would fall on Armistice Day this year and Byrne asked the candidates if they would be willing to wear a poppy.

Ms Ni Riada said that although she would be conflicted, she would wear the poppy as a symbolic gesture.

It would be a sign of maturity, extending peace and friendship in a modern and progressive Ireland, she said.

It was pointed out that many in Ms Ni Riadas party would object to her wearing a poppy.

I agree, but we have come to a stage that we are mature enough to have those conversations, we have to extend the hand of friendship, you have to put personal feelings aside to create a platform and create a shared Ireland.

The studio audience gave Ms Ni Riada a round of applause for her answer.

Both Mr Casey and Ms Freeman said they would wear a poppy as a symbolic gesture.

Mr Duffy said he would not wear a poppy, but he would lay a wreath, as he did not believe the president should wear any political symbols.

All four candidates agreed they would meet any head of state who invited Ireland, despite personal feelings, referencing US President Donald Trump.

A key point discussed was transparency in the presidency, and the recent Public Accounts Committee which uncovered an unaudited allowance of around 317,000 euro to the president.

I do wonder what the agenda was behind the timing of the committee, but we should have been looking at this seven years ago, Ms Freeman said.

During a question about Mr Caseys wealth and businesses, where he admitted he could write off 200,000 that would be lost if he did not get enough votes, a performer known as Bunty McFuff stood up and began shouting at the former Dragons Den star and the show was forced to go to an unplanned ad break.A new treatment levy should be imposed on alcohol duties to help deal with the harm caused by heavy drinking, MPs and health groups have said.

Ministers have been urged to bring forward a wide-ranging alcohol strategy to improve support for those in need, minimise costs to the NHS, and help tackle alcohol-related crime and disorder.

The push for a comprehensive policy overhaul comes from the Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross Party Parliamentary Group, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Harm and 30 civil society groups.

Help for dependent drinkers should be part funded by the introduction of a 1% treatment levy on alcohol duty, the study recommended.

This would help alleviate pressure on the NHS as it is forecast drink-related issues will cost the health service 17 billion over the next five years.

Dr Richard Piper, of Alcohol Research UK, said imposing a levy of 1% above RPI would be equivalent to an extra 3p on an average pint of beer, and would raise 100 million a year to improve services and cut costs to the NHS by up to 300 million per year.

Government urged to raise alcohol duties to help deal with cost of heavy drinking to society (PA)

The report said the increased availability of cheap alcohol needs to be urgently tackled and argues minimum unit pricing should be brought in as part of a post-Brexit review of alcohol costs which takes into account the strength of drinks on sale, and corrects anomalies between different categories.

The drink driving blood alcohol content limit should also be reduced to 50mg/100ml in line with Scotland, the study adds.

The report insists concrete change, like health warnings on drink labels, is needed because at present more than one million hospital admissions a year in England are alcohol related, with liver disease deaths quadrupling since 1970.

Alcohol-related crime costs up to 11 billion a year, and there are estimated to be 595,000 alcohol dependent adults in England, with nearly 200,000 children living with at least one alcohol-dependent adult, the study says.

Drawn-up in consultation with the Alcohol Health Alliance, Alcohol Concern, Alcohol Research UK and the Institute for Alcohol Studies, the strategy document calls on the Government to publish an evidence-based initiative aimed at reducing the damage caused to society by alcohol.

Chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Alcohol Harm, Fiona Bruce, said: With alcohol harm the leading cause of death among 15 to 49-year-olds, Government must urgently take much stronger action to address this.

Drugs, Alcohol and Justice Cross-Party Parliamentary Group co-chairwoman Mary Glindon said: With dozens of alcohol-related deaths across the UK every day, we decided that rather than wait ages for the Governments alcohol strategy, we should promote a programme of actions which could reduce harm levels dramatically.

Chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, Sir Ian Gilmore, added: The Government needs to ensure that the upcoming alcohol strategy includes evidence-based policies which work to reduce alcohol harm and tackle the increased availability of super cheap alcohol.

The best ways to do that is by introducing minimum unit pricing in England  which we already have in Scotland and will soon have in Wales  and increasing alcohol duty.

A spokesman for industry group the Alcohol Information Partnership said: We are opposed to any form of blanket taxation which penalises the vast majority of people who do not drink to excess.

The drinks industry already supports a range of initiatives which are designed to target harmful drinkers.

UK taxpayers are already paying some of the highest levels of duty in Europe and this proposal will place an even greater burden on ordinary drinkers and the thousands of people in the hospitality industry who this tax rise would hit hardest.Theresa May is preparing to update her divided Cabinet on the Brexit deadlock as Brussels warned Britain is more likely than ever before to crash out of the European Union without a deal.

The Prime Minister has insisted an exit agreement is still achievable despite negotiations stalling just days ahead of a crunch summit.

European Council president Donald Tusk said that while there was goodwill on both sides, the negotiations have been more complicated than expected.

There is something of a grisly job to be done here, former Brexit minister Steve Baker says cabinet ministers need to change the prime ministers mind on where she is going.@SteveBakerHW | @MarkUrban01 | #newsnight pic.twitter.com/kWT8CKgDEi  BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) October 15, 2018

A group of Cabinet ministers met on Monday evening to discuss the developments, with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Environment Secretary Michael Gove among those who attended, the Press Association understands.

Lord Hague, meanwhile, told the PM there was no disgrace in doing some fresh thinking on how to resolve the stalemate.

Mrs May will address the leaders of the remaining 27 EU nations on Wednesday before they discuss over dinner without her how to proceed in the talks.

On a #Brexit deal: It always seems impossible until it's done. Let us not give up. My #euco invitation letter https://t.co/YaVdCF5gyf  Charles Michel (@eucopresident) October 15, 2018

In a letter to EU leaders ahead of the summit, Mr Tusk said: As things stand today, it has proven to be more complicated than some may have expected.

We should nevertheless remain hopeful and determined, as there is good will to continue these talks on both sides.

But at the same time, responsible as we are, we must prepare the EU for a no-deal scenario, which is more likely than ever before.

Like the UK, the Commission has started such preparations, and will give us an update during the meeting.

He added: But let me be absolutely clear. The fact that we are preparing for a no-deal scenario must not, under any circumstances, lead us away from making every effort to reach the best agreement possible, for all sides.

This is what our state of mind should be at this stage.

As someone rightly said: It always seems impossible until its done. Let us not give up.

Former Brexit minister Steve Baker told BBC Twos Newsnight the Cabinet needs to change the Prime Ministers mind on her plans or they will be rejected.

Mrs May called for cool, calm heads to prevail after talks last weekend failed to bridge differences between the UK and EU over the future status of the border in Ireland.

And she warned of the danger that failure to reach agreement over the border could result in the UK leaving the EU without a deal in March next year.

(PA Graphics)

The European Council meeting this week had initially been pencilled in as the summit where the UKs withdrawal agreement and political declaration on future trade and security relations would be finalised.

Lord Hague said Mrs May was entitled to make clear to EU leaders that she has moved heaven and earth to reach a deal but can only clinch it and have any hope of getting it through Parliament with concessions from them that are wholly reasonable.

There is no humiliation in trying again, he wrote in The Daily Telegraph.

Lord Hague went on to say there is no disgrace in doing some fresh thinking.

The peer said a proposal floated by Tory MP Nick Boles that the UK takes up temporary membership of the European Free Trade Association after withdrawal to allow time for a free trade agreement to be negotiated was worth thinking about.

He said: As an alternative to chaos it could command wide support.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin wants the UKs withdrawal next March to be orderly but not at any price.

(PA Graphics)

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suggested a deal may be delayed as late as December.

But Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman for the DUP, which props up Mrs Mays minority administration in the Commons, said a no-deal outcome was now probably inevitable due to the intransigence of EU negotiators.

Talks at the weekend foundered over the EUs demand for a backstop to the backstop designed to ensure the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic remains open under any circumstances.

The PM met with Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle ONeill and reaffirmed her commitment to there being no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea, Downing Street said.

The PM told MPs the Irish issue must not be allowed to derail progress towards a deal, which she said was in the interests of both the UK and EU.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn dismissed Mrs Mays comments as another nothing has changed moment from this shambles of a Government.Dubai South will highlight its key advantages as an ideal location for business, including the smart facilities and services at Gitex Technology Week 2018.

It has also partnered with Gitex Future Stars as this years Free Zone Partner.



The biggest and boldest technology show in Mena and South Asia is running in Dubai from October 14 to 18.



Themed Experience Future Urbanism this year, Gitex is the ideal platform for Dubai South to promote its range of smart solutions in line with its efforts to support Dubais leadership in global competitiveness and top ranking in the ease of doing business.



Shoaib Al Rahimi, vice president of the Business Park at Dubai South, will hold an interactive mentor clinic session with the next generation of business leaders at Gitex Future Stars to discuss the gaps and solutions to their business needs, as well as showing them the various business solutions available at the Business Park Free Zone at Dubai South.



Mohsen Ahmad, CEO of Logistics District, will be part of the panel for the 10x Talks: Getting Tomorrows Mega-Cities Working session, which is part of the Smart Cities Conference on October 14. The talk will explore how technologies, e-commerce and digitalization can help improve urban development and create sustainable cities that provides the right mix of jobs, opportunities and the entrepreneurial spirit of the people.



Al Rahimi said: Dubai South has made huge strides towards enabling Dubai to become the worlds smartest and happiest city, integrating advanced technologies in infrastructure and services that bring added value and happiness to our customers. This years Gitex Technology Week and Gitex Future Stars provides us the ideal platform to advance new concepts of business development and urban lifestyle which Dubai South has fittingly made available for todays generation of business leaders and professionals.



He added: As global borders continue to blur among business and social networks due to unprecedented development in technologies in recent years, Dubai South is confident that todays business players are looking for the ideal setup, which cater to their need for flexibility and an environment capable of supporting a healthy work-life balance. We look forward to meeting the most ambitious and driven entrepreneurs from around the world at Gitex Future Stars and discuss with them on the best ways to leverage on new opportunities.



Dubai South will showcase the features of The Business Park and The Logistics District, which offer ease of doing business and customer satisfaction. The Business Park is located right at the entrance of Dubai South, offering world-class office buildings and facilities. Securing a business license comes in an easy simplified setup and 10 per cent foreign ownership.



The Logistics District is a 21-sq-km development with seamless access to seaports, airports and major roads. It is designed to enable a smooth flow of goods and services for fast-cycle businesses from local, regional and international companies. These solutions provides minimum business processing time owing to onsite licensing and visa authority and an e-portal which facilitates all forms of online services.  TradeArabia News ServiceArmenias prime minister has stepped down, a political manoeuvre aimed at forcing an early election.

Nikol Pashinian, who took office in May after spearheading weeks of protests that forced the resignation of his predecessor, has pushed for an early parliamentary election this autumn in a bid to unseat foes who maintain a majority.

He announced his resignation live on national television.

French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Armenias prime minister Nikol Pashinian (Davit Hakobyan/AP)

Early elections are held if politicians fail to appoint a prime minister, and Mr Pashinian persuaded his opponents not to nominate any candidates.

He led thousands of supporters to besiege parliament earlier this month to force his foes to accept an early vote.

Mr Pashinian, a former journalist, tapped public anger over the widespread poverty, high unemployment and rampant corruption that flourished under the old government.A Tory MP spent more than double the legal limit on his 2015 general election campaign in a bid to end Nigel Farages Parliamentary ambitions forever, a court has heard.

Craig Mackinlay, 52, along with his election agent Nathan Gray, 29, and Marion Little, 63, who is said to have run the campaign, are accused of deliberately submitting woefully inaccurate expenditure returns.

Declared spending on the campaign came in under the strict 52,000 limit set for the MPs South Thanet constituency.

But prosecutors allege up to 66,600 spent on staffing, accommodation, advertising and other costs for Mackinlays campaign was not declared.

Their trial at Southwark Crown Court heard on Tuesday that the Conservative Party put extra resources into the campaign to win the seat in Kent on May 7.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC told jurors it became a two-horse race, which was won by Mackinlay with a majority of around 2,800 in an electorate of 70,000.

In those pre-referendum days, Ukip were on the rise and the threat perceived by the Conservative Party to their share of the vote only intensified in the lead-up to the 2015 election, he said.

When Nigel Farage announced that he would step down as leader of Ukip if he failed to win the South Thanet seat, it was clear that this was not going to be any ordinary election campaign.

Nigel Farage (Gareth Fuller/PA)

He said expenditure is tightly regulated over two stages  a short and a long campaign  and it is the job of a Parliamentary candidate and their election agent to ensure limits are scrupulously observed.

Spending limits apply equally to every prospective Parliamentary candidate of every political hue across the UK and those limits seek to ensure integrity and public confidence in the most obvious example of this countrys democratic process, namely a general election, the prosecutor continued.

In South Thanet the limit for the expenditure was just over 37,000, while for the short campaign it was just over 15,000, and declarations made by Mackinlay and Gray came in below the limit, at 32,661 and 14,833 respectively.

It is the prosecution case that neither of these declarations as to expenditure  were true, and by some considerable margin, though that does not matter, Mr Jafferjee said.

Each of these three defendants were complicit in advancing those false declarations.

In addition, the signature purporting to be Nathan Grays on the long return was not his. He had permitted someone to forge his signature.

Jurors were told up to 14,600 in costs were undeclared in the long return and up to 52,000 in the short return but prosecutors accept that the figures could go down.

Declarable expenses include the costs involved to get the candidate elected, such as printing of leaflets, putting up posters and staff costs, such as the employment of Gray as an election agent, Mr Jafferjee explained.

The court heard there was a constant awareness of how close the campaign was to reaching its budgets.

An email dated February 18 2015 from Tony Salter, chairman of the Conservative campaign team for South Thanet, to Gray said: Were getting perilously close to hitting our legal limits, both for the long and short campaign.

The court heard staff, including Little, were drafted in from Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) along with volunteers, such as Theresa Mays former adviser Nick Timothy, while high-profile figures such as Boris Johnson visited the constituency.

Little wrote an email in which she described herself as being marooned in South Thanet and her involvement in Mackinlays campaign is said to have been hour by hour, the jury heard.

Marion Little went on to effectively manage Craig Mackinlays election campaign so that he would be elected and Nigel Farage would be defeated, said Mr Jafferjee.

This was not just what is known as a marginal seat, but it was a contest which could see off Nigel Farages Parliamentary ambitions forever.

The court heard Little told police she was not working for Mackinlay but carrying out national campaign work.

She now claims she went to Kent to prevent the election of Ukip and the benefit to Mackinlay was collateral to that, jurors were told.

The prosecutor said Mackinlay will blame his lack of experience and unawareness of what Little and others were doing.

Grays defence will similarly highlight his inexperience, stating he was marginalised by the arrival of Little, and that he has no idea how his forged signature came about, the court heard.

But Mr Jafferjee said: It is the prosecution case each of these defendants involved themselves in a deliberate under-declaration and non-declaration of election expenses.

He added: Far from being complete and accurate, the returns were woefully incomplete and woefully inaccurate. And most importantly, deliberately so.

Mackinlay, from Ramsgate, Kent, denies two charges of making a false election expenses declaration under the Representation of the People Act 1983; Gray, of Hawkhurst, Kent, denies one charge of making a false election expenses declaration and a further charge of using a false instrument under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981; Little, of Ware, Hertfordshire, denies three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

They are all on unconditional bail and the trial, which is expected to last until December, continues on Wednesday.There were angry scenes as pro-Palestinian protesters confronted the UKs Israeli ambassador at Queens University in Belfast.

A protester was restrained as several attempted to follow Mark Regevs car as he left the historic institution following a visit to speak to students.

Around 70 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside Queens on Tuesday as Mr Regev gave a talk to Masters students who study subjects related to politics and conflict resolution as part of a workshop.

Queens defended the invitation to Mr Regev saying it permits freedom of thought and expression.

The spokeswoman added that Queens has also invited the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK to visit the university and engage with students in a similar format.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) maintained a presence as protesters waved Palestinian flags and took part in chants which included Free Palestine and Regev out outside the building.

Mr Regev (right) departs after giving a talk at Queens University (Liam McBurney/PA)

Earlier a number of protesters took part in a sit down demonstration blocking a corridor inside the building.

Ahead of the visit, the Queens Student Union President Connor Veighey and People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll called for the invitation to Mr Regev to be rescinded.

Sinn Fein MLA Caoimhe Archibald also expressed concern by the decision to invite Mr Regev.

Queens Student Union Student Activities officer Robert Murtagh and People Before Profit Belfast councillor Matt Collins were among those who addressed the demonstration.

Mr Murtagh said they were protesting against Mr Regev because he is a representative of Israel.

He said the Queens University Students Union backed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for an international boycott of Israel over the way it treats Palestinians.

We didnt just wake up and decide to protest this, he said.

A security officer holds back a protester waving the Palestinian flag (Liam McBurney/PA)

It is also policy for NUS-USI and the NUS UK, students across the UK and Ireland have said we want BDS, we are in favour of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

We oppose the continued occupation of Palestine, we oppose the human rights abuses against the people of the occupied territories and the people of Gaza.

Thanks to those who occupied the corridor earlier as well, these forms of non-violent direct action is how we will win, how we will defeat Israelis, because we will say solidarity to the people of Palestine.

A spokeswoman for Queens said: Queens University Belfast values its role in society as a place of debate and discussion. Academic freedom is enshrined as a guiding principle in the Universitys Charter and Statutes.

On Tuesday 16 October UK Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev met with students who study subjects related to politics and conflict resolution. The students had an opportunity to directly engage with the Ambassador.

The University recognises that students have the right to protest and in order to discuss the matter fully, representatives from Queens have met with the Students Union.

Pleased today to meet with Isaac Herzog, recently retired Opposition leader in the Knesset. Northern Irelands historic links to the Herzog family date to the birth of Chaim Herzog in Belfast 100 years ago last month. He went on to become the sixth President of Israel. pic.twitter.com/uVBEnp18kR  Jim Allister (@JimAllister) October 16, 2018

Meanwhile at Stormont on Tuesday morning, MLAs from a number of political parties, including the Democratic Unionists, Ulster Unionists, Traditional Unionist Voice and Alliance met with an Israeli

delegation including recent opposition leader Isaac Herzog.

Mr Herzog is the son of Chaim Herzog, a former president of Israel who was born in Belfast.

TUV leader Jim Allister said: It was good to meet with the Herzog brothers at Stormont and make clear to them that Israel has some very firm friends in Northern Ireland.

The protest by students at Queens while important in terms of freedom of speech is in the long tradition of pointless left-wing student protests which long predate this visit.

It is noteworthy in this case only because the protesters have exercised a right which they would have in Israel but, tellingly, would not have in any of her neighbours where freedom of speech isnt just disregarded but oppressed.

Mr Allister added he felt the protesters time would have been better employed restoring a blue plaque in Belfast to Chaim Herzog.

The plaque at a property on Clifton Park Avenue in the north of the city was removed following attacks on it in 2014.The Foreign Office has said it is deeply concerned about a British academic accused of spying in the United Arab Emirates after his wife called on the Government to say he was innocent.

Matthew Hedges, a 31-year-old PhD student at Durham University who is from Exeter, was held at Dubai airport on May 5 after flying in to interview sources about the countrys foreign policy and security strategy.

He has been held in solitary confinement for almost six months, his family said, and they were concerned he will not have a fair trial as he has had limited access to his lawyer.

His wife, Daniela Tejada, 27, called on the Government to deny he was spying for them.

In response, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said: We remain deeply concerned about Matthew Hedges and are in regular contact with the Emiratis regarding his health and wellbeing.

We continue to press for consular access. We also remain in close contact with Matthews wife, Daniela.

Earlier, Ms Tejada said: I no longer know what to do to get Matt out of prison in the UAE.

Matthew Hedges with his wife Daniela Tejada (Daniela Tejada/PA)

I am calling on the UK Government to clarify publicly that Matt is innocent of the charges and that there have been many falsehoods said about him.

It is the duty of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to protect their citizens abroad.

This horrifying situation has been going on for far too long.

Ms Tejada said her husband only met his legal representative for the first time at court last week.

She said: The entire hearing was in Arabic, with only the questions directed at Matt being translated into English.

It has now been confirmed to us that Matt was told he was being charged with gathering information and sharing it with a foreign agency  the UK Government.

He will be back before the court on October 24 after the case was adjourned to allow him to prepare his defence.

She said: The prosecution has therefore had over five months to come up with a case for trial and Matts court-appointed lawyer has been given two weeks with no further access to Matt.

To call this a fair judicial process is, to say the least, highly inaccurate.

Matt has never been allowed to speak about his case with anyone.

He was never given the opportunity to look for a lawyer to represent him, especially as it was not known what he needed to be represented for.

The charges against Matt are false and unsubstantiated, as is the purported evidence to support them.

Matt continues to be denied appropriate medical care for his mental health and remains in solitary confinement.

According to a profile on the Durham University website, Mr Hedgess research includes Middle Eastern politics, the changing nature of war, civil-military relations and tribalism.

Amnesty International UK also called on the Government to speak out on Mr Hedgess behalf.

The groups foreign affairs spokeswoman Polly Truscott said: Matthew wouldnt be the first person to be arrested in the UAE on baseless grounds and to be detained for a long period without access to a lawyer.

If hes been charged with espionage simply for having conducted academic research into the countrys security services, he should be released immediately.Brexiteers responsible for persuading the British to leave the European Union will never be forgiven for their false promises, Sir John Major has warned.

The former prime minister described the 2016 referendum vote as a colossal misjudgement that would leave the country poorer and weaker.

In a lecture in London, he said that once people understood they had been deceived, those responsible would have much to answer for.

We know the post-Brexit world will be very different from now. It cannot be otherwise, because no form of Brexit will remotely match up to the promises made by the Leave campaign in the referendum: they were vote-gathering fantasies, not serious politics, he said.

It will damage our national and personal wealth, and may seriously hamper our future security. It may even, over time, break up our United Kingdom. It will most definitely limit the prospects of our young.

And  once this becomes clear  I believe those who promised what will never be delivered will have much to answer for. They persuaded a deceived population to vote to be weaker and poorer.

Sir John Major described the 2016 referendum vote as a `colossal misjudgement (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

That will never be forgotten  nor forgiven.

In comments likely to be seen as a thinly veiled sideswipe at Boris Johnson, Sir John  a long-standing opponent of Brexit  hit out at the political princelings vying for the Tory crown.

He warned their belligerent noises off were making Theresa Mays task of negotiating a deal with Brussels even more difficult, while those whose focus was on self-advancement were rarely the most suitable to be entrusted with power.

What government is not about is cheap grandstanding. Its not about deceiving the electorate with slogans, or soundbites, or untruths or half-truths. Its not about windy oratory that says nothing, he said.

And  most emphatically  its not about princelings fighting for the political crown of premiership. Coded messages that shriek Im the one are about as subtle as a punch on the nose.

Sir John also voiced concern that as the extremes of right and left gained strength, the moderate centre vote would lose its traditional influence over policy.

Our nation should not tolerate the unreasoning antipathy of the extremes  to the EU, to foreigners or to minority groups, he said.

Such antipathy is repellent, and diminishes us as a nation. Softer, more reasonable voices should not be drowned out by the raucous din of the loudest.

I freely confess to a taste for compromise. I have always preferred good old British pragmatism to rigorous ideology. Politics is real life.

It isnt warfare. It isnt a popularity contest. Its about people. Its about four nations who deserve more than an ideological tug-of-war.Chancellor Philip Hammond should take a leaf out of George Osbornes book and waive the VAT for a charity selling First World War Tommy statues, a former head of the Army has said.

A commemoration campaign called There But Not There, set up by the charity Remembered, is raising cash by selling silhouettes of Tommies ahead of the centenary of Armistice Day.

But, of the 4 million that has already been raised, to date more than 800,000 has to be paid to the Government in VAT  with that figure set to increase as sales ramp up.

To make sure that every penny we raise goes to our beneficiary charities and not HMRC, please sign our petition: https://t.co/9YwpOtX57T



Spread the word and use the hashtag #TommyVAT to raise awareness.  There But Not There (@TBNT2019) October 8, 2018

Former chief of the general staff General Lord Richard Dannatt, a patron of the charity, said Mr Hammond has a choice between a good news story and a bad one.

It looks like the institutional organisation that is going to benefit most from this campaign is Her Majestys Treasury if they choose to retain the VAT, he told the Press Association.

George Osborne set a good precedent back in 2014 by waiving the VAT for the poppies in the moat in the Tower of London.

I think Philip Hammond will actually realise a similar gesture would be good.

That will then make it a good news story, and, lets face it, I think there was enough bad news around the First World War and the 888,246 British and colonial soldiers who lost their lives.

So, I think it is time we had a bit of good news and I think Philip Hammond could perhaps take a leaf out of George Osbornes book and waive the VAT.

A petition has also been set up by Remembered director Rowley Gregg, calling for the return of the VAT from the sales, which has so far garnered more than 107,000 signatures in a matter of days.

The campaign is raising funds for six charities, including the Royal Foundation, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Walking With The Wounded, Combat Stress, Help For Heroes and a veterans housing project in Plymouth called Equinox.

Mr Gregg said that, as it stands, the biggest beneficiary of the fundraising initiative will be HM Revenue and Customs.

Gen Dannatt was speaking as he gathered on Tuesday alongside 33 Chelsea Pensioners, 24 serving personnel from across all three services, and nine veterans, who poignantly stood among 33 6ft Tommy figures, in the grounds of Londons Royal Chelsea Hospital (Georgina Stubbs/PA)

Gen Dannatt was speaking as he gathered on Tuesday alongside 33 Chelsea Pensioners, 24 serving personnel from across all three services, and nine veterans, who poignantly stood among 33 6ft Tommy figures, in the grounds of Londons Royal Chelsea Hospital.

He said the question about returning the VAT from the sale of the figures was put in five or six weeks ago with the Treasury, and could have had a quicker response.

Gen Dannatt said Veterans Minister Tobias Ellwood has been told by the Chancellor that the issue is being looked at.

He added that obviously deciding these things take a little while and that maybe Mr Hammond will announce the VAT waiver in the Budget next week.

Mr Gregg, an Army veteran who was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in Afghanistan in 2009, said there is no argument against the refund in his mind, and that charity merchandise for a non-profit organisation should not be charged at the same rate as a profit-making one.

With it emerging earlier this year that the Libor fund  which had been earmarked for armed forces and emergency services charities  being misappropriated, and how it is the centenary year of Armistice Day, Mr Gregg said now is the perfect opportunity for Mr Hammond to show his support for military charities.

It is just such an easy thing for the Government to say that they are going to support this campaign and will give the VAT back, he said.

Why wouldnt the Chancellor want to back this campaign and show the Governments support in something that has really touched the publics hearts?

The charity Remembered is raising cash by selling silhouettes of Tommies ahead of the centenary of Armistice Day (Georgina Stubbs/PA)

He revealed that more than 2,500 of the 6ft Tommy figures and more than 77,000 of the smaller, 10in versions have been sold so far, and stressed that the VAT bill will significantly increase as we head towards the Armistice and that support continues to grow for the campaign.

A HM Treasury spokesman said: This Government has been hugely supportive of military charities and has committed almost 800 million to Armed Forces and Emergency Service charities since 2012.

We consider all charity requests carefully before responding.A report has recommended that a tribunal should be established to hear and determine claims arising out of a cervical cancer screening scandal in Ireland.

According to the report, a tribunal would deal with claims efficiently and effectively.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan was instructed by Irelands Health Minister Simon Harris to look at pathways of dealing with claims outside the court process.

In the report published on Tuesday, he said the tribunal would be heard in private, be less formal and less costly for those involved.

It further stated claims where liability is not being contested could be fast-tracked through a tribunal.

Judge Meenan also said as the tribunal would adopt pre-hearing protocols and case management procedures, claims will be dealt with more expeditiously.

It emerged earlier this year more than 220 women were not told about misreported smear tests.

Many of the women are taking cases against the labs and the Health Service Executive (HSE).

A number of women died after Judge Meenan started his report which he acknowledged and said the tragic events underline the need to avoid delay.

He further said the pain and suffering of these women cannot be overstated, adding some of the effects of surgery are harrowing.

He said damages arising from a negligent misreading of a cervical smear are potentially very significant.

Judge Meenan added a tribunal would be chaired by a serving or retired judge of the Superior Courts who would be assisted by experts from the relevant fields involved.

The chair of the tribunal would have the power to determine issues of liability, award damages and make orders of legal costs.

Judge Meenan met with women affected by the scandal and their families who described their experiences in dealing with the devastating consequences of cervical cancer and the impact of non-disclosure.

A patient support group for the women involved said they welcome the report with some caution which they said brings some clarity to the legal pathways open to them and their families.

Campaigner Vicky Phelan speaking at the launch of 221+ Cervical Check Patient Support Group (Niall Carson/PA)

The group, 221+, expressed disappointment that an earlier commitment by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to a totally non-adversarial process has not been realised.

In a statement, the group said: We compliment Judge Charles Meenan on his work which included consultation with the women, their families and representatives.

Judge Meenan, having considered other possible options, is now advising that a tribunal be established, so that claims arising out of the CervicalCheck can be dealt with anonymously and privately.

We feel it important that a time limit is set on the establishment and work of this tribunal so that women, many of whom are ill, can be heard and have their issues resolved expediently.

Our concern in all of this is that the stress and uncertainty associated with the legal process is minimised for our members  as they also deal with the medical consequences and trust issues which have regrettably emerged.

Prominent campaigner Vicky Phelan, who settled a court action over the misreading of a smear test earlier this year, urged Mr Harris not to delay in implementing these recommendations.

She added: We also urge the Minister to provide us with assurances on how the adversarial nature of such a process can be minimised.

We at 221+ will be supporting and advocating for the women and families involved in this tribunal, or whatever legal process they decide on, to find both answers and a satisfactory settlement as speedily as is possible.Sinn Fein has criticised the silence from the Democratic Unionists over a retweet on Ian Paisleys Twitter account which appeared to link Jimmy Savile with Remain voters.

North Antrim MP Ian Paisley has been criticised on social media after his official account retweeted the post from an anti-EU page on the social media site.

The post linked to an article headlined Ouija Board confirms Savile would have voted Remain, complete with a picture of the disgraced BBC TV presenter who died in 2011.

As part of the retweet, a message added: Explains BBC coverage.

It sparked criticism with Alliance leader Naomi Long describing as truly shocking.

Mr Paisleys account has been deactivated since the incident at the weekend. He is understood to have deactivated it himself.

Sinn Fein MLA Philip McGuigan has questioned why the DUP has remained silent on the matter.

This was a grossly insensitive and offensive attack from Ian Paisley but it doesnt surprise me that his party leadership are staying silent on the matter, he said.

We saw a similar approach from the DUP hierarchy over the various scandals he has been involved in and we can only imagine what its going to take before his party takes definitive action against an MP who is a constant embarrassment and an occasional disgrace.

Sinn Fein MLA Philip McGuigan has queried why the DUP is remaining silent on a social media row around Ian Paisley (Niall Carson/PA)

The DUP was still declining to comment on the matter on Tuesday afternoon, despite multiple media request over a number of days.

Mr Paisley is currently banned from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days for failing to declare two 2013 family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

The House of Commons Committee on Standards found a year after the luxury holidays, Mr Paisley lobbied then prime minister David Cameron not to support a UN probe into alleged Sri Lankan human rights abuses.

Mr Paisley apologised to the House of Commons saying he had made a genuine mistake.

The DUP suspended Mr Paisley following the report.

The party announced it had readmitted Mr Paisley just hours after a recall petition to oust him as MP for North Antrim failed.

The petition needed 7,543 signatures  or 10% of Mr Paisleys constituents  to force a by-election.

It was signed by 7,099 people.

Mr Paisley said then he was delighted with the result and thanked his constituents for their support.

Earlier this year, Sinn Feins West Tyrone MP Barry McElduff resigned as a result of a controversy over a Twitter video in which he appeared to mock the victims of the Kingmill massacre.

At the time, DUP leader Arlene Foster described Mr McElduff as unfit for public office.

Meanwhile, South Down MLA Jim Wells has been suspended by the DUP since May after criticising the party in an interview with a newspaper.Donald Trump has said Saudi Arabias crown prince denies knowledge of what happened to a journalist who went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, saying answers will be coming shortly.

The US president tweeted after a phone call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the fate of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished on October 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

Mr Khashoggi had written columns for the Washington Post that were critical of the crown prince.

Mr Trump said the Saudi heir to the throne totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate.

He added that the crown prince told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo travelled to Saudi Arabia to talk to King Salman and the 33-year-old crown prince about the fate of the journalist.

Mike Pompeo with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh (Leah Millis/Pool via AP)

It comes as a high-level Turkish official said police searching the Saudi consulate found evidence that Mr Khashoggi was killed there.

Authorities also appeared ready to search the nearby residence of the consul general after the diplomat left the country.

Saudi officials have called Turkish allegations that a team of 15 Saudi agents killed Mr Khashoggi baseless, but US media reports suggested that the kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed at the consulate, perhaps as part of a botched interrogation.

The close US ally is ruled entirely by the Al Saud monarchy, and all major decisions in the ultra-conservative kingdom are made by the royal family.

Washington Post publisher and chief executive Fred Ryan said the Saudi government owes the Khashoggi family and the world a full and honest explanation of everything that happened to him, noting that Tuesday marked two weeks since the disappearance of the 59-year-old journalist.

The Saudi government can no longer remain silent, and it is essential that our own government and others push harder for the truth, Mr Ryan added.

The high-level Turkish official said police found certain evidence of Mr Khashoggis killing at the consulate.

Police planned a second search at the Saudi consul generals home, as well as some of the countrys diplomatic vehicles, Turkeys foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

The Saudi Arabia consuls residence in Istanbul (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Leaked surveillance video shows diplomatic cars travelled to the consul generals home shortly after Mr Khashoggi went into the consulate.

Consul General Mohammed al-Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, state media reported, just as police began putting up barricades around his official residence.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge he had left or offer a reason for his departure.

Earlier in the day, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said the inviolability or immunity of people or premises granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations should be waived immediately.

That convention covers diplomatic immunity, as well as the idea that embassies and consulates sit on foreign soil in their host countries.

Given there seems to be clear evidence that Mr Khashoggi entered the consulate and has never been seen since, the onus is on the Saudi authorities to reveal what happened to him, Ms Bachelet said.

Turkey had wanted to search the consulate for days.

Permission apparently came after a late Sunday night call between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.

Mr Erdogan told journalists on Tuesday that police sought traces of toxic materials and suggested parts of the consulate had been recently painted, without elaborating.Canada is now the largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace as sales began early on Wednesday in Newfoundland.

Hours before a handful of retail outlets opened in the countrys easternmost province, a federal official told AP that Canada will pardon all those with convictions for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, the now-legal threshold.

(PA Graphics)

A formal announcement was planned for later on Wednesday. The official said those who want to take advantage of the pardons will have to apply.

Sales figures on the first morning suggested considerable demand for cannabis products across the country.

Shopify is powering many of the provincial online stores and said it had recorded than 100 cannabis orders per minute.

Ontario premier Doug Ford said the provinces government-run online store processed 38,000 orders by mid-morning.

The New Brunswick provincial online sales outlet Cannabis NB reported an average of 700 live users each hour viewing its website and several hundred purchases in its first few hours of operation.

Canada has had legal medical marijuana since 2001 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has spent two years working toward expanding that to include so-called recreational marijuana.

The goal is to better reflect societys changing opinion about marijuana and bring black market operators into a regulated system.

Uruguay was first was the first country to legalise marijuana.

Canopy Growth boss Bruce Linton, left to right, poses with the receipt for the first legal cannabis for recreation use sold in Canada (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP)

Tom Clarke, an illegal cannabis dealer for three decades, was among the first to make a legal sale in Canada when his store opened at midnight local time in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland.

His is among at least 111 legal marijuana shops expected to open across the nation of 37 million people on Wednesday, with many more to come, according to an AP survey of the provinces.

Canadians also can order marijuana products through websites run by provinces or private retailers and have it delivered to their homes by mail.

Alberta and Quebec have set the minimum age for purchase at 18, while others have made it 19.

No stores will open in Ontario, which includes Toronto. The most populous province is working on its regulations and does not expect stores until next spring.

Ryan Bose, 48, a Lyft driver in Toronto, said it is about time.

Alcohol took my grandfather and it took his youngest son, and weed has taken no one from me ever, he said.

Tweed in St Johns Newfoundland (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP)

A patchwork of regulations has spread in Canada as each province takes its own approach within the framework set out by the federal government. Some are operating government-run stores, some are allowing private retailers, some both.

Canadas national approach has allowed for unfettered industry banking, inter-province shipments of cannabis and billions of dollars in investment  a sharp contrast with national prohibition in the United States.

Nine US states have legalised recreational use of cannabis, and more than 30 have approved medical marijuana.

California, the largest legal market in the US, earlier this month became the first state with a law mandating expungement of criminal convictions for marijuana-related offences that no longer are illegal.

Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said it is time for the US government to follow Canadas lead.

Now that our neighbour to the north is opening its legal cannabis market, the longer we delay, the longer we miss out on potentially significant economic opportunities for Oregon and other states across the country, he said in a statement.

US Customs and Border Protection invited Canadian media to a conference call on Tuesday so officials could reiterate that marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and that those who are caught at the border with marijuana are subject to arrest and prosecution.

As Canada welcomes legalisation, supply shortages could develop, as happened in some US states when legalisation arrived.

Trevor Fencott, chief executive of Fire and Flower, said his company has 15 Alberta stores staffed and ready to sell marijuana, but the province has supplied only enough product to open three of them on Wednesday.

Were aware of some of the kinks or growing pains that come with creating an industry out of whole cloth in 24 months, Mr Fencott said.

Brenda Tobin and her son Trevor plan to open their shop in Labrador City in Newfoundland and Labrador at 4.20pm on Wednesday  420 is slang for the consumption of cannabis.

Ms Tobin, a longtime convenience store owner, said they will be cutting a ribbon and cake.

We are just ecstatic, she said.Global real estate aggregator, Square Yards, said it has emerged as one of the largest proptech players in the UAE with its gross transactional value (GTV) crossing over the Dh2-billion ($544 million) mark in the emirates.



The company registered phenomenal growth in all three segments, namely off-plan property (under-construction developer sales), secondary sales/leasing and cross-border real estate targeting non resident Indians (NRIs) based in the UAE.



Square Yards off-plan business segment that focuses on under-construction projects in the UAE clocked more than Dh300 million worth of property sales in the January to September period registering an impressive 52 per cent year-on-year growth.



It has catapulted Square Yards position among one of the largest distributors and channel partners for most of the grade-A Dubai based property developers, said a top official.



"The combination of powerful technology tools and our partnership with top real estate agents have helped us to emerge as one of the finest and fastest growing real estate agencies in the UAE. We are well on our way to become the largest agency in the UAE and hope to lead the market in all of the GCC soon, remarked Tanuj Shori, the founder and CEO.



According to him, the companys secondary and leasing business, powered by a growing network of agents, has also been registering explosive growth since its inception.



It recently crossed 100 agents in its secondary business and is targeting to become the largest agency in Dubai market in the next few quarters, he added.



"Agents associated with Square Yards are given significant marketing (lead) support, multi-listing support with leading classifieds portals and easy-to-use CRM to manage their productivity. They also get industrys best commission apart from comprehensive digital marketing & branding support," said Shori.



"The NRI-focused business of the company, already the largest in its category, also achieved a milestone of concluding 5,000 transactions in the UAE since inception, giving it virtual monopoly in this segment," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe Duke of Sussex praised Dubbos resistance in dealing with recent hard droughts in a speech as the rains poured in the city.

Harry joked Ive got my wife as he was offered an umbrella before taking to the lectern at Dubbos Victoria Park, as Meghan provided shelter from his side.

He also quipped that the rain was a gift as hundreds of people from the region turned out to see the royal visitors.

The much-needed rain began to fall about 10 minutes before their arrival and only got worse as they viewed stalls at the picnic in Victoria Park.

He said: Sixty-four years ago my grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, were right here visiting the war memorial.

The Duchess of Sussex holds an umbrella as the Duke of Sussex makes a speech at a community picnic in Victoria Park (Ian Vogler/PA)

So its a great pleasure to be able to visit this area now and be able to report back how much life has changed in the Great Western Plains region since then.

Addressing the crowd, he said: You people are the salt of the earth, hard working and as tough as they come.

I know that life has not been easy. You have just lived through two years of drought.

To laughter from the crowd, he said: Despite recent welcome rain, it is going to take a lot more and a long time to recover.

You are all the toughest people out there, the most persistent, the ones who can weather the storm or the drought.

Harry and Meghan began their visit by watching a display of jumping dogs  with the duke trying his hand at beckoning a canine over a wall  before meeting members of Team Rubicon, an organisation for veterans which uses disaster response to help former service people back into civilian life.

The couple received an array of gifts during their visit, from traditional clapping sticks offered by dignitaries through to a can of Dubbo Royale lager.

We gave him a can of special brew, said Peter West, 62, from the city.

Its a mixture from her town in America and his in England.

Its beautiful. We bought a slab to take home but we had a few waiting here this morning.

Dubbo Royale is a beer which has been made to commemorate the royal visit and is a blend of British lager and American hops.

Matilda Marchant, eight, was complimented by the duchess for her curtseying skills when she met the royal party.

She said: I shook their hand and they said I did a very good curtsey.

I gave him some Girl Guide biscuits and a rose.

I had practised for the whole morning.

The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex visit a local farming family, the Woodleys, in Dubbo (Chris Jackson/PA)

Emelia Hosking, 10, from Dubbo, attended the picnic with a sign reading Gingers Rule.

She said: I like that he is caring and does lots of charity work.

Mark Dobson, of Team Rubicon, gave Harry a shirt from the organisation, of which he is a member.

Mr Dobson said: He said it was the fourth shirt he had been given, and I said he probably needs to deploy a bit more to get them dirty.

He said: I dont really have enough time, but well keep asking.A Tory MPs election to Parliament could have been declared void after he overspent on his campaign to beat Nigel Farage, a court has heard.

Craig Mackinlay, 52, along with his election agent Nathan Gray, 29, and party activist Marion Little, 63, are accused of deliberately submitting woefully inaccurate expenditure returns.

Their trial at Southwark Crown Court has heard that during the 2015 general election campaign, the Conservative Party put in extra resources to win the seat in South Thanet on May 7 in a two-horse race with then-Ukip leader Mr Farage.

Nathan Gray (Victoria Jones/PA)

Declared spending on the campaign came in under the strict 52,000 limit set for the Kent constituency, but prosecutors allege up to 66,600 was not declared.

Prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC told jurors on Wednesday: This was a very important seat for the Conservative Party to win and Mr Mackinlay had to be elected.

In seeking to ensure the success of the Conservative Partys candidate and the defeat of Nigel Farage, we submit that proper regard to the limits of expenditure imposed by law was simply abandoned.

Each of these three defendants were complicit in the means deployed to achieve that end.

Had the true position been declared, Craig Mackinlays election would have been at the risk of being declared void.

Marion Little (Victoria Jones/PA)

Mackinlay, an accountant by profession, was elected to Parliament for the first time after he won the seat with a majority of around 2,800 in an electorate of 70,000.

In a police interview, the MP, who had been in politics for more than 20 years, attempted to distance himself from Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) staff and volunteers drafted in to help with his campaign, the court heard.

But the prosecutor said he was fully aware of their assistance to him.

The court heard Mackinlay, Gray and Little were warned about the risk of overspending as early as February 2015.

Experienced Tory activist Anthony Salter told jurors he was the voluntary chairman of the local Conservative campaign team until the end of March 2015, when he bowed out after Little had taken over.

In an email ahead of a meeting with her on February 17 he told her: We have raised 50K for Craigs campaign  Almost all of this money is committed already  For once money is the least of our worries, although Farage will undoubtedly outspend us and Labour will have more boots on the ground.

After the meeting, in an email sent on February 18, addressed to Little, Mackinlay, Gray and others, Mr Salter raised his concerns over breaching strict spending limits during the long and short periods of the campaign.

Were getting perilously close to hitting our legal limits, both for the long and short campaign, he wrote.

I take on board your concerns that we face the real prospect of a legal challenge from Farage if you make the smallest slip up.

He told jurors he was keen to ensure the campaign kept within the legal expenditure limits.

The spending limits are pretty tight and I was conscious, almost to the point of obsession, that we didnt go above these legal limits  of not breaking the law, he said.

Mr Salter said he also had reservations over Grays employment by Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) as the election agent.

I didnt consider he had the appropriate training, skills and expertise, he said.

I wanted somebody with the proper training and expertise to oversee (the expenditure returns) and make sure we didnt make stupid mistakes.

Trevor Burke QC, defending Gray, suggested his client was regarded as an idiot in the campaign office by colleagues who talked about him behind his back.

For some in the office there was a general perception he couldnt put his trousers on in the morning without the help of someone else, he said to the witness.

Mr Salter replied: It was never expressed to me while I was down there, it was expressed to me subsequently.

He admitted he was not sure how Gray had come to take on the responsibility of acting as Mackinlays election agent, having been initially employed as campaign manager, and agreed that the role was totally beyond him.

I do think it is unfair hes been pilloried for not being up to the job hes got no qualifications for, he added.

Mackinlay, from Ramsgate, Kent, denies two charges of making a false election expenses declaration under the Representation of the People Act 1983; Gray, of Hawkhurst, Kent, denies one charge of making a false election expenses declaration and a further charge of using a false instrument under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981; Little, of Ware, Hertfordshire denies three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

They are all on unconditional bail and the trial continues.Theresa May has vowed to protect the precious Union of the United Kingdom as she battles to keep her faltering hopes of a Brexit deal alive.

As the Prime Minister prepared to address leaders of the remaining 27 member states in Brussels, she insisted that she remained committed to securing an agreement with the EU.

However, during exchanges at Prime Ministers Questions, Jeremy Corbyn said the Tories were too weak and divided to negotiate effectively with Brussels.

Mrs May travels to Brussels for what had been billed as the moment of truth in the negotiations amid growing concerns the two sides will be unable to bridge the gap over the key issue of the Northern Ireland border.

In the Commons however she made clear she would not accept any backstop arrangement to ensure the border with the Republic remains open which effectively drew a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

We continue to work for a good deal with the European Union  a deal that delivers on the Brexit vote but also a deal that protects jobs and livelihoods and crucially that protects the precious Union of the United Kingdom, she said.

She added: We will not accept any proposals which would effectively break up the United Kingdom.

Earlier Irelands deputy prime minister Simon Coveney confirmed the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier was prepared to extend the 21-month transition period after Britain leaves the bloc to allow time to negotiate an alternative arrangement.

What Michel Barnier has indicated very clearly is that the EU side, certainly, is willing to allow more time in the transition period to agree an alternative solution to a backstop, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Simon Coveney has said the EU could extend the transition period after Brexit (Niall Carson/PA)

However, there was little enthusiasm for the idea in London, with Government sources insisting Downing Street was not looking for an extension to transition arrangements.

The meeting in Brussels was supposed to be the occasion when the leaders of the EU 27 member states gave the green light for a special summit in November to finalise the terms of Britains withdrawal.

However European Council president Donald Tusk has warned that without new concrete proposals from the British to break the logjam over the Irish border backstop, further progress on a deal may be impossible.

But with her party split, and some Tory MPs openly calling for her to go, Mrs May has little room to manoeuvre if she is to secure a deal which stands any chance of getting through Parliament.

(PA Graphics)

The Prime Minister will briefly address the leaders of the EU 27 on Wednesday evening before they discuss the state of play in the Brexit negotiations over a working dinner while she leaves.

Mrs May will also have bilateral meetings with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council president Donald Tusk, and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Ahead of her visit to Brussels, Mrs May was able to secure the backing of her Cabinet, at least for now, amid reports that some Brexiteer ministers had been prepared to quit if she gave too much ground to Brussels.

However, there was anger among Tory Brexiteers after The Daily Telegraph reported that Chancellor Philip Hammond warned the UK could still have to pay the EU up to 36 billion of the 39 billion divorce bill to settle its outstanding liabilities, in the event of a no-deal break.A Turkish newspaper has published an account of the alleged murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as Americas top diplomat arrived for talks over the Washington Post columnists disappearance.

The report by Yeni Safak adds to increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who vanished on October 2 while visiting the consulate to pick up paperwork he needed to get married.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo held separate meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for around 40 minutes each on Wednesday in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Mevlut Cavusoglu with Mike Pompeo (Cem Ozdel/Turkish Foreign Ministry/AP)

Mr Pompeo met Saudi King Salman and his son, the 33-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday. Before leaving Riyadh, he told reporters the Saudi leaders made no exceptions on who they would hold accountable.

They made a commitment to hold anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found accountable for that, whether they are a senior officer or official, Mr Pompeo said.

Today, I was in #SaudiArabia where I met with King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Foreign Minister al-Jubeir. We had direct and candid conversations. Wednesday, I fly to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials. Read my full statement here: https://t.co/99fU8gxPEw  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 16, 2018

No major decisions are made outside the ultra-conservative kingdoms ruling Al Saud family.

Mr Khashoggi had fled the country last year amid the rise of Prince Mohammed, whom he wrote critically about in the Post.

The Yeni Safak report cited what it described as an audio recording of Mr Khashoggis death, which it said showed the writer was tortured.

The newspaper said Saudi consul general Mohammed al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those allegedly torturing Mr Khashoggi: Do this outside, youre going to get me in trouble.

The newspaper said one of the Saudis torturing Mr Khashoggi replied: Shut up if you want to live when you return to (Saudi) Arabia.

CCTV video of a man believed to be Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul (CCTV/Hurriyet/AP)

Saudi officials have not responded to repeated requests for comment from the Associated Press. Mr al-Otaibi left Turkey on Tuesday afternoon, Turkish state media reported.

Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Mr Khashoggis case, adding to pressure on the kingdom.

US President Donald Trump, who earlier warned of severe punishment if the kingdom was found culpable, criticised the allegations against Saudi Arabia and compared them to the accusations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh during his Supremne Court confirmation hearing.

Here we go again with youre guilty until proven innocent, Mr Trump told the AP in an interview.

That attitude does not appear to be shared with Congress, as one prominent Republican senator said he believed that the crown prince, widely known as MBS, had Mr Khashoggi murdered.

This guy has got to go, said senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina. Saudi Arabia, if youre listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself.

On Tuesday, a high-level Turkish official told the AP that police found certain evidence of Mr Khashoggis murder at the consulate.

Police arrive at the Saudi consuls residence in Istanbul (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

Later on Wednesday, police arrived at the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul to conduct a search. They had wanted to search on Tuesday night but did not have permission from Saudi Arabia.

Leaked surveillance video shows that diplomatic cars travelled to the consul generals home shortly after Mr Khashoggi went into the consulate.Actor Alun Armstrong branded a disability benefit only given to people unable to walk more than 20 metres a cost-cutting exercise, as he joined a protest against the rule.

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) and activists chained themselves to model brick houses opposite Parliament to protest against the Governments arbitrary 20-metre ruling.

The rule, introduced in 2013, is the main criterion used by the Government to assess if someone should get the highest level of mobility support under the personal independence payment (PIP) which replaced Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

The MS society says the rule is stripping people of their independence and that about one in 11 people have lost out on Government support because of the changes.

People with Multiple Sclerosis and activists chained themselves to model brick houses outside Parliament (Jemma Crew/PA)

Armstrong, whose older sister Elaine has MS but has not been affected by the change, said he felt very strongly about the issue.

He said: If you are someone with MS and you take the test and you can walk for 21 metres, that doesnt mean to say that you are going to be able to do that the following day.

So you can walk 21 metres? Thats not even going to get most people to the bus stop.

For a lot of these people they are losing their independence, they are not able to live independently without a (specially adapted) car.

The 72-year-old added: As far as Im concerned its just the Government using a cost-cutting exercise.

Several people with MS congregated on mobility scooters and wheelchairs chained to three model houses with a sign reading Welcome to PIPville.

Braving the rain, they held placards reading Govt rule means I cant leave my home and Down with pipdom!.

The MS Society said receiving the higher rate is usually required to access a motability car, essential for those unable to use public transport.

It estimates at least 9,400 people with MS have either lost this higher rate or, as a new PIP claimant, not qualified for it.

Deedee Morgan, who was diagnosed with MS 10 years ago, said she was told her specially-adapted car would be removed after she was assessed in January 2017.

She was in hospital suffering from a relapse when she was assessed by a nurse, temporarily coming out so it could take place.

The experience was extremely upsetting and stressful and she found out she was no longer eligible to keep her motability car two weeks later, deciding to appeal the decision.

The 53-year-old from Harlesden, north-west London, said: This was quite a shock because my MS hadnt disappeared, if anything it had got worse, so I couldnt understand how I could be reassessed and found ineligible.

Ms Morgan was still in hospital months later in April when she heard her appeal was successful.

She was told the news the day before her car was due to be taken away.

Her family were going to have had to pay 6,500 on a credit card for her to keep it.

She added: I dont think people realise the distress and the stress that people with MS have to go through just to be able to take for granted getting from A to B.

If it was as straightforward as getting on a bus it would be different, but for many of us, we wouldnt be able to live a normal life without the support this benefit gives us.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokeswoman said: People who can walk more than 20 metres can still receive the enhanced rate of the mobility component, if they cannot do so safely, to an acceptable standard, repeatedly or in a reasonable time period.

PIP is targeting support to those with the greatest needs and 52% of people who have Multiple Sclerosis recorded as their primary disabling condition are in receipt of the highest rate of support, compared to 39% under DLA.

We remain committed to ensuring that the assessment process works effectively and we regularly engage with stakeholders such as the MS Society. We also regularly review our support, and earlier this year we announced that people with the most severe, life-long conditions will no longer have to attend regular reviews for PIP.The Queen has been painted by artists throughout her reign, but the latest portrait features one unusual item  the monarchs handbag.

Award-winning artist Ben Sullivan included the accessory in a new portrait of the Queen to help show the person behind the head of state.

The Queen is rarely seen without her handbag  usually a black patent design by Launer  and in the painting, commissioned by the RAF Club to mark its centenary, she is shown sat in an ornate chair in Windsor Castles white drawing room with the item by her feet.

The Queen walks through the RAF Club (Heathcliff OMalley/Daily Telegraph/PA)

It will hang in the RAF Club and the Queen watched her portrait being unveiled when she visited the institution in Londons Piccadilly to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Mr Sullivan, who won the BP Portrait Award in 2017, chatted to the Queen whose visit was her first official engagement of the autumn outside Buckingham Palace.

He said about his sitting with the Queen at Windsor Castle: I was saying it was quite cold when we did it because it was the end of February and she said, it doesnt look like Im cold so I think by then we had some extra heaters brought up.

I think the idea was to capture something of the role of the monarch, but one tries to get behind that to the person.

And I really like the idea her handbag was placed in front of the gilt chair. It was almost happenstance that it was placed there but it gives some idea theres actually a person as well as a figurehead  its personal.

Its where she put it, and I thought I could take it out, but then I thought  actually its quite a nice thing, a personal thing.

During the visit, the Queen opened a new wing at the club, home to a fitness suite and business centre, and a newly commissioned stained glass window designed to commemorate women in the Royal Air Force.

The Queen is shown the new stained glass window (Heathcliff OMalley/Daily Telegraph/PA)

The artwork was created by stained glass artist and designer Helen Whittaker, and highlights the development of female roles in the RAF by featuring parts of planes, vehicles and other equipment they have used over the decades.

Jo Salter, Britains first female RAF fast-jet pilot, and Christine Ryan, 76, who was a member of the Womens Royal Air Force in the 1960s, talked the Queen through the windows main elements.

The artwork featured large glass rivets, which when looked through showed a picture of women performing roles in the RAF, and the Queen was directed towards one that told the story of Noor Khan.

A campaign is building to have an image of Khan, who joined the WAAF (Womens Auxiliary Air Force) during the Second World War and later became an agent with the Special Operations Executive, featured on the 50 note.

The agent, who was of Indian and American descent, was the first female radio operator to be sent into France, but was later executed by the Gestapo and posthumously awarded the George Cross.

When a Crossley tender steering wheel was pointed out to the Queen  symbolising the women who drove the military vehicle during the First World War  Mrs Ryan mentioned the monarchs wartime role with the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as a driver.

The Queen spent a period in uniform, joining the ATS in February 1945 at the age of 18.

The Queen joined the ATS in 1945 aged 18 (Heathcliff OMalley/Daily Telegraph/PA)

By the end of the Second World War she had reached the rank of junior commander, having completed her course at No 1 Mechanical Training Centre of the ATS and passed out as a fully qualified driver.

Later Whittaker, who helped create David Hockneys Westminster Abbey stained glass window for the monarch, said she had asked the Queen about her time with the ATS when they met, adding: It felt like she was thinking back, she did a wry smile  a little grin.

The RAF Club is where the Duke of Edinburgh was caught on camera apparently swearing at a photographer during a photocall with Battle of Britain veterans in 2015.

The incident happened on the day the Queen and other members of the royal family joined the former military fliers  famously dubbed the few by wartime leader Winston Churchill  to mark the 75th anniversary of the aerial conflict.

Before leaving, the Queen met 101-year-old Jack Lyon, a former RAF flight lieutenant from Bexhill-on-Sea who flew in Whitley bombers as a navigator.A student has attacked a vocational college in Crimea in a shooting rampage that killed 17 other students and left more than 40 people wounded, before killing himself, according to Russian officials.

Comments by Sergei Aksyonov, the regional leader in Crimea, were the latest in a series of shifting explanations by Russian officials on what happened at Kerch Polytechnic College in the Black Sea city of Kerch.

Russian officials at first reported a gas explosion, then said an explosive device ripped through the college canteen at lunchtime in a suspected terrorist attack.

But witnesses reported at least some of the victims were killed in an attack by a gunman or gunmen.

Mr Aksyonov said on television that the student, a local man acting alone, killed himself after the attack.

The Investigative Committee identified the attacker as Vladislav Roslyakov, 18. It said he was caught on security cameras entering the college with a rifle and firing at students.

The committee said all the victims died of gunshot wounds, contrasting with previous statements by other officials saying they had wounds resulting from an explosion.

After the attack, local officials declared a state of emergency on the Black Sea peninsula that they annexed from Ukraine in 2014. They also beefed up security at a new 12-mile bridge that links the peninsula with Russia, which opened earlier this year.

Military units were deployed around the college.

Emergency services at the scene (Kerch FM News/AP)

Earlier, the Investigative Committee, the nations top investigative agency, said an explosive device that went off at the colleges canteen was rigged with shrapnel.

Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that officials were looking into a possible terrorist attack.

He said Mr Putin had instructed investigators and intelligence agencies to conduct a thorough probe and offered condolences to the families of the victims.

Witnesses did not speak of an explosion but said one or more armed men attacked the school.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper quoted student Semyon Gavrilov, who said he fell asleep during a lecture and woke up to the sound of shooting. He said he looked out and saw a young man with a rifle shooting at people.

I locked the door, hoping he wouldnt hear me, the paper quoted him as saying.

He said police arrived about 10 minutes later to evacuate the college and he saw dead bodies on the floor and charred walls.

Another student, Yuri Kerpek, told the RIA Novosti state news agency that the shooting went on for about 15 minutes.

Olga Grebennikova, director of the vocational college, told KerchNet TV that men armed with automatic rifles burst into the college and killed everyone they saw. She said students and staff were among the victims.

Russias annexation of Crimea from Ukraine triggered Western sanctions. Moscow has also supported separatists fighting the Ukrainian government in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has left at least 10,000 people dead since 2014.

Over the past few years, Russian security agencies have arrested several Ukrainians accused of plotting terror attacks in Crimea, but no attacks have occurred.The UK Government must break up its toxic marriage with the DUP if livelihoods in Northern Ireland are to be saved post-Brexit, Sinn Fein has warned.

Accusing their erstwhile partners in powersharing of pursuing a reckless, narrow agenda over the contentious border backstop issue, senior party members called on Theresa May to keep her word.

Picture

Sinn Fein activists held a small demonstration in the grounds of Stormont on Wednesday before handing in a letter outlining their concerns at the offices of Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley. Three campaigners donned Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg face masks.

Sinn Fein Assembly member Mairtin O Muilleoir said DUP efforts to thwart Mrs May striking a deal that would ensure a freeflowing trade and regulatory border should be resisted.

The DUP is opposed to any backstop agreement that would result in increased checks on goods and produce moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

A few unexpected participants attending todays anti-Brexit rally at Stormont... pic.twitter.com/6buyNQlAi7  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) October 17, 2018

Referring to the Conservatives confidence and supply pact with the DUP, Mr O Muilleoir said: We are asking Mrs May the British Prime Minister to look above and beyond that relationship and alliance she has with the DUP and instead make a decision which is in line with what she promised previously and also in the interests of all the people here.

That is that we remain in the customs union and we remain in the single market to all extents for the all-Ireland economy, but also that it protects the Good Friday Agreement and the advances we have made for peace and reconciliation.

Sinn Fein MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir urged the UK government to break its links with the DUP (David Young/PA)

He later added: Maybe it is unusual for an Irish republican to be saying that to the British Prime Minister but  keep your word.

You committed last December to the backstop, you agreed to avoid a hard border in Ireland and the alternative is really calamitous.

Asked on suggestions that the EU might offer an extension to the transition period afforded the UK after Brexit as a negotiation concession, the Sinn Fein MLA said it was evidence of the flexibility Europe was willing to show to secure a deal.A temple in India has opened its doors to females of menstruating age to comply with a Supreme Court ruling, but they were blocked from entering as hundreds of protesters fought street battles with police to keep them out.

As the gates of the Sabarimala temple in Kerala were flung open, a crowd of male devotees surged towards the temple.

About 1,000 police used batons to try to control the protesters, who attacked and damaged police and TV vehicles and forced female devotees to turn back.

Police arrested 11 protesters when they tried to block the path of some women and girls at the temple, which is one of the worlds largest Hindu pilgrimage centres.

Protesters at the temple (AP)

Pooja Prasaanna of Republic TV said the protesters hurled stones at a police van where she and her crew members had taken shelter after their car was targeted, and snatched away batons carried by police who tried to shield them.

New Delhi Television reported that about 20 protesters surrounded a bus in which a reporter with the Newsminute channel was travelling and tried to pull her out. The reporter was kicked by protesters who hurled abuse at her, NDTV reported.

The entry of females between the ages of 10 and 50 to the centuries-old temple was banned informally for many years, and then by law in 1972. In 1991, the Kerala High Court confirmed the ban.

Indias Supreme Court lifted the ban last month, holding that equality is supreme irrespective of age and gender.

Police clash with protesters (AP)

Temple management and protesters argue that the celibate nature of the temples presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is protected by Indias constitution. Some religious figures consider menstruating women to be impure.

Meghna Pant, a female activist, said the celibacy of the deity was not more important than the equality of women. Who are men to decide where women can go or not? she said.

Supporters of the ban have been angered by the state governments decision not to seek a review of the Supreme Courts ruling.

Rahul Easwar, a lawyer for the temple, appealed to the female devotees not to enter the temple and give authorities until next week to file a petition for review with the Supreme Court.

Sabarimala is surrounded by mountains and dense forests in the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Up to 50 million devotees visit the temple each year.

A number of temples in India have banned women, saying the policy is intended to preserve the purity of their shrines. The operators of a temple in the north-western state of Rajasthan believe the Hindu god Kartikeya curses women who enter the temple, instead of blessing them.

Indias secular courts have intervened recently in cases in which a religions gender beliefs were seen as discriminatory.High-rise residents called on the Government to immediately remove unsafe cladding from blocks across the country while ensuring they are kept safe from fire and the cold this winter.

Dozens of campaigners and social housing tenants gathered outside the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on Wednesday.

Fuel Poverty Action said the Governments commitment to fully fund the replacement of flammable cladding on more than 150 social housing tower blocks was not nearly enough, urging it to remedy its so-far disgraceful record.

Join us 17th October at 1pm outside MHCLG to hand in our Open Letter (signed by 60+ MPs NGOs & campaigns. Demand the government makes homes safe. Potent Whisper will perform -> https://t.co/nq6DkIw0FQ & residents living in affected blocks will speak out -> https://t.co/Jl2BrablMB pic.twitter.com/jn5QL7XkEi  Fuel Poverty Action (@FuelPovAction) September 13, 2018

The group is asking for measures to ensure residents are not illegally left in danger from cold during the months or years before cladding is replaced, and guarantees that residents will not have to pay extra to keep their homes warm.

A letter, signed by more than 100 groups and individuals, was delivered to Communities Secretary James Brokenshire as demonstrators chanted outside his department.

Campaigners want improvements to tower blocks (Jemma Crew/PA)

Signatories include Sian Berry, co leader of the Green party; Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), and tenants from housing estates containing blocks with flammable cladding across the country.

It reads: Cold, like fire, kills. Even in a normal year, thousands die each year when they cannot heat their homes.

Residents in many blocks already going through re-cladding know that when cladding is off in the winter, uninsulated flats are places of constant cold, condensation, damp and mould, and astronomical bills.

Works can go on for months, with families constantly ill. Some are scheduled for nearly two years.

The Grenfell Tower blaze has highlighted the issue of cladding (Rick Findler/PA)

Ruth London, from Fuel Poverty Action said: We now have a good basis from which to challenge not only the Governments refusal to introduce a comprehensive retrospective ban on combustible cladding, but the slow, and often indifferent or even hostile response of housing providers when residents make complaints about the factors that are putting them in danger.

These factors range from cladding to fire doors, from damp and mould to leaky windows, from repairs left undone to lack of space for tenants and residents to meet.

She said it was utterly unacceptable that people were still living in buildings with flammable cladding, 16 months after Grenfell.

Just 32 out of 468 high-rise buildings with Grenfell-style cladding have had the material completely removed, according to Government figures.

The campaigners also highlighted the issue of cold (Jemma Crew/PA)

The latest building safety data from MHCLG shows that 22 out of 159 social housing residential blocks, and 10 out of 295 private sector buildings have had works completed.

Some 62% of social housing blocks (99) are currently having their cladding removed and replaced.

In an announcement made while demonstrators gathered outside, the Government said it had started distributing an estimated 400 million to remove and replace unsafe material on social high-rise blocks.

Twelve local authorities and 31 housing associations have been allocated the money, which the Government says will help them to get on with the job of making their buildings safe without having an impact on other vital services.

The Grenfell Tower blaze broke out on June 14 2017 and claimed 72 lives.

Miriam Binder, from the group Disabled People Against Cuts, said she had fought for years to have an adapted, ground floor flat in Brighton.

She said she battled with the local authority, which offered her flats on the fifth, sixth and eighth floor of blocks.

Speaking from her wheelchair, the 62-year-old told demonstrators: If you cannot keep your house warm, if you cannot keep your house safe, what is there?

Im sorry, I cannot understand why there is such a big issue about safeguarding our people in our homes here in England in 2018, its absolutely and totally barbaric.

Demonstrators later headed to Parliament for a meeting attended by Grenfell MP Emma Dent Coad.

Mark Norris, who lives in one of the tower blocks in Salford with unsafe cladding, said one of his neighbours had spent 39 on electricity and heating over five days.

He told the meeting: They are sitting there with blankets on and its not cold, because the cladding has been removed, therefore they have holes, they can actually look underneath the window sills.obviously they are concerned about the heating.

They are afraid to put the heating on now, so God knows what we will do if we get a cold winter, because we dont know when there will be the (new) cladding back on.

Beverley Logue, who owns a top floor flat in private blocks in Manchester, said safety concerns were disrupting family life.

She said of one couple: They no longer feel able to have their grandchildren over to stay at weekends they are so worried that if anything happens on their watch to their grandchildren they would never be able to forgive themselves.

Mr Brokenshire said: There is nothing more important than ensuring people are safe in their homes and that is why I am pleased the 400 million funding has started to be released.

We are doing the right thing by residents and fully funding the replacement of unsafe ACM cladding in social housing buildings 18 metres or above.

In the private sector, I want to see landlords protect leaseholders from these costs. I am pleased that a number have stepped forward to do so, including Barratt Developments, Legal & General, Taylor Wimpey, Mace and Peabody. However, there are some who are not engaging in this process. If they dont, I have ruled nothing out.The Fast Consortium, led by Spanish builder FCC, said it has been tasked with building a 1.5-km-long extension and adding two more new stations to Line 4 of the Riyadh Metro Project.



The consortium includes global majors Samsung (South Korea), Strukton (Netherlands), Alstom (France) and Freysinnet (Saudi Arabia).



The scope of work includes the construction of a 1.5-km-long viaduct and two elevated stations with direct access, via elevated footbridges, to terminals 1/2 and 3/4 of the international airport of the capital of Saudi Arabia, said a statement from FCC.



In this way, Line 4 of the Riyadh Metro will connect directly the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) with the King Khalid International Airport ( KKIA), which makes it a key corridor for the development of Riyadh urban transport, it stated.



The execution of the associated stations and infrastructures by the Fast Consortium will enable passengers to benefit from a direct transport link to the airport, it added.



"The Fast Consortium is building Lines 5 and 6 of the Riyadh Metro, in addition to the Line 4, which is a milestone for Spanish engineering as it is the most important infrastructure contract in history for a company in our country," said a company spokesman.



"Currentlythe project is on-going, reaching milestones as significant as the electrification of the depot for Lines 4 and 6, which recently allowed for the first test of the trains in automatic mode," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceA teenage driver used his car as a weapon in an attack which left two young women seriously injured, a court has heard.

McCauley Cox, 19, is accused of deliberately driving into a crowd of young people in his car after a fight broke out outside a nightclub in Newport city centre on April 29.

CCTV used in the trial was released on Wednesday showing Coxs car approaching the crowd of pedestrians outside the Courtyard nightclub on Cambrian Road as some begin fighting.

The car clips one of the pedestrians, leading some to kick the Ford C-Max people carrier and confront Cox at either side of his vehicle.

Moments later the car darts forward and turns on to the pavement towards a group of people, including victims Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls who are sitting on a kerb.

Cox runs over the two girls before reversing back over them, then darting forward once more over their bodies and reversing further down the street.

Witnesses begin to attack his car and smash its windscreen, prompting Cox to accelerate out of the road at speed, missing other pedestrians by inches.

Police found the car later that day engulfed in flames. Cox said he decided to park it up after its engine began to smoke, and denied intentionally torching it.

On Wednesday, Cox told his trial he accidentally ran over victims Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls after becoming frightened by revellers threatening to batter him in his vehicle, which he claims he had driven near the crowd of people to break up the fight.

But prosecutor James Wilson accused Cox of using his vehicle to deliberately run over a man who was trading blows with his friend, only to miss and repeatedly run over the two young women, aged in their early twenties, who were sitting on a kerb.

Mr Wilson said: Today you say you wanted to try and break up the fight.

But you know full well you werent breaking a fight up. You were using the car as a weapon.

You know full well the reason you went for that man is because he was confronting a friend of yours.

You deliberately drove that car at that man with intent to cause him very serious harm.

And you are responsible for those girls injuries because of your anger and annoyance at that man who was confronting your friend.

McCauley Cox is accused of deliberately trying to injure a man in his Ford C-Max (CPS)

Cox denied trying to hit the man, who has not been identified, and also denied knowing he had run over Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls, despite driving over and reversing over their bodies twice and subsequently having his car attacked by witnesses.

Cox said: It felt like I hit something and I went into the air and came down and I was stuck.

It was like it was stuck on top of something and I couldnt move forward.

I werent paying attention properly. I wasnt thinking. I thought I hit a bin or a bollard.

I only realised Id hit someone when I was arrested.

He said he had been scared by people threatening him through his side window and had tried to flee by driving around the crowd of people and mounting the pavement.

But Mr Wilson pointed out the pavement had been occupied by several pedestrians at the time, including victims Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls.

Newport Crown Court had previously heard the university friends suffered really serious injuries after being repeatedly run over, with Miss Poole needing specialist skin grafts and Miss Nicholls suffering a lacerated spleen.

Mr Wilson said Cox had admitted unlawfully injuring the two young women, but denies his intention had been to drive his car into the unidentified male.

Cox, from John Ireland Close, Newport, denies two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial continues.The impact of terrorist attacks on mental well-being may be less significant than we are led to believe, researchers say.

A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry reviewed more than 400 research articles studying the association between acts of terrorism and mental health.

It concluded terrorism does not cause increases in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) more than would be expected from any other distressing events.

Commentary on the topic usually suggests an increase in terrorist attacks will have a negative impact on peoples psychological well-being.

Researchers from the University of Bath say this association is overstated due to a modern-day tendency to imagine the worst, particularly on mental health issues.

Professor Bill Durodie from the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath said: After 9/11, there was an enormous push to uncover evidence of PTSD in people who said that they had been affected by those events either directly or indirectly through the media.

Despite this, the reassuring conclusion of our work is that terrorism does not terrorise  at least not any more than being traumatised by any other challenging event.

In that regard, our findings fly in the face of various announcements from politicians, officials, the media and even other academics that terrorist incidents impact our mental health and well-being adversely.

He added: This is not to say that people who experience traumatic events do not need psychological support but we believe that it is unhelpful to categorise more people than is true with PTSD.

We are also saying that there were many other effects of 9/11 that were overlooked  primarily respiratory disorders, as well as economic and social ones, such as people losing their jobs.

There is clear evidence of peoples resilience in the face of such events and so, for us, it is important for politicians, the media and commentators to take these findings on board and refocus attention more on this in the face of such terrible events.

A view of the World Trade Center on 9/11 (PA)

The team conducted an extensive review of research published both before and after the 9/11 attacks.

There was almost no focus on links between terrorism and mental health until shortly before 9/11, after which there was a spike in articles focused on the connection.

Researchers say this was encouraged by the recognition of PTSD and its redefinition by the American Psychological Association in 1994 in a cultural climate more attuned to emotional health.

Despite increasing attention on the subject, the team found no clear association between terror events and cases of PTSD.

Their findings suggest many studies expanded what was meant by the term, allowing for categories such as pre-PTSD or PTSD-symptom to be audited instead.

They say this confuses what is meant by PTSD and has the negative effect of ignoring other significant impacts tied to terror events, including social, economic and physical ones.

Expanding what constitutes PTSD may also lead to those who genuinely suffer from it being less able to access the support they need, the team argue.

Dr David Wainwright, senior lecturer at the University of Baths Department for Health, said: Notably, our work also drew into question the presumption that people, particularly the young, can be traumatised merely through watching such events unfold on TV.

Some researchers did rush to such conclusions but usually retracted them a few years later.

Unfortunately, though, it is their earlier, impressionistic assumptions that continue to be cited in many instances, despite most noting that there is no conclusive evidence on this.

He added: Of course, young people should be protected from events and have these explained to them. They may need to have their television viewing limited, too.

But this has more to do with the challenges of asserting parental authority today  a social factor  than media or medical effects that are deemed to be inevitable.

The inordinate focus on children in the work we reviewed may also express an unstated desire to control adult responses through the auspices of protection.

The team say policymakers should note how people usually cope by making use of their own networks and initiative.

Responses to terrorist incidents that highlight social bonds and resilience  rather than physical vulnerability  should also be encouraged, they added.A new potential witness for the Ballymurphy shootings inquest has recently emerged, a lawyer told a coroners court.

A Catholic priest and a mother-of-eight were among 10 people killed during three days of gunfire involving members of the Parachute Regiment in August 1971.

Another man died of a heart attack following the trouble in the west Belfast estate. Disturbances at that time were linked to the introduction of internment without trial in Northern Ireland.

Sean Doran QC, counsel for the Coroners Service, said the further witness was discovered following a search relating to Army regiments.

Mr Doran added: He only emerged as a witness from whom a statement should be taken recently as a result of what we have referred to as the grid exercises.

He told the coroner: The professional judgment of your representatives has been brought to bear on the papers, we have arrived at the conclusion that those currently listed in the witness list are the only witnesses who ought to be called.

More than 100 former soldiers are being asked to provide statements to the inquest, which is due to get under way later this year.

Karen Quinlivan QC, who represents the Ballymurphy families, queried whether the full hearing could go ahead without more progress on legal matters.

She said: We are not opposed to the inquests proceeding on the date suggested.

Our concern is that despite our submissions from September, it was not until yesterday that we understood that there was opposition to those steps being taken and the steps we thought were necessary have not been prioritised.

A new inquest into the deaths of 10 people shot dead in west Belfast in 1971 is due to start later this year. PA.

Soldiers have long been held responsible for killing 10 people in Ballymurphy, but earlier this year former Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members came forward to claim their organisation was also involved.

Evidence from the soldiers had been expected to be heard early next year.

Ms Quinlivan added: If there are soldier witnesses to be interviewed their statements need to be available before the start of contentious civilian witnesses.

Tracing issues need to have clear priority.

The Coroners Office has been examining a database of names of former soldiers it received from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in August.

Coroner Siobhan Keegan said there had been a collaborative approach between legal teams representing her office, the bereaved families and the MoD and urged that should continue.Melania Trumps plane was forced to return to a Washington area military base because of smoke in the cabin.

A spokeswoman for the first lady said everyone is fine and everyone is safe after the plane returned to Joint Base Andrews.

Mrs Trump later boarded a different plane to make the visit to a Philadelphia hospital and meet families of children affected by exposure to opioids while in the womb.

According to TV reporters travelling with Mrs Trump, the flight was in the air for about 10 minutes when smoke filled the cabin, and then Secret Service agents rushed to the front of the plane.

It is not clear what caused the problem.

Melania Trump to focus on opioids, newborns in hospital tour https://t.co/v30YJz5gAT via @phillydotcom  Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) October 16, 2018

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has provided care to mothers with opioid use disorder and their newborn children for more than 45 years.

First lady Melania Trump (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Mrs Trump toured a neonatal intensive care nursery and spoke at a conference on a new system that tracks infants suffering opiate withdrawal.

The visit was part of her Be Best campaign, which focuses on issues affecting children, including the importance of healthy pregnancies.A candidate to become the next Irish president faces calls to withdraw after he said Travellers are simply people camping on someone elses land.

Businessman Peter Casey claimed Irelands recognition of them as members of an ethnic minority was a load of nonsense.

He is one of six candidates vying for the largely ceremonial office in this months election but was accused of behaving recklessly and irresponsibly.

Presidential candidate Peter Casey (Niall Carson/PA)

Martin Collins, co-director of the Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre, said: Our president needs to be inclusive of all citizens and I would not have any confidence that he would be inclusive.

These comments put Mr Caseys presidential campaign on the same level as a local election where people play the Nimby (not in my back yard) card to gain votes, as we have seen so often in the past.

Mr Collins urged him to withdraw and added: In the unlikely event that Mr Casey was elected as President it is obvious Travellers would not be welcome at Aras an Uachtarain, which is sad in the light of the new era of recognition and inclusion in Ireland.

Mr Casey said he sympathised with residents living near Traveller camps.

He told an Irish Independent media group political podcast: Do you think they are sitting here going, this is great for my property value now that Ive got three dozen caravans down the road? It is just wrong.

Somebody needs to sit up and say this is nonsense. Here we are are giving them luxurious houses and theyre turning them down because theyve no stables.

"It was a very important step to recognise Traveller ethnicity, Travellers experience so many inequalities. I have spoken to young male Travellers whose suicide rate is six times of the average population" Michael D Higgins on @morningireland #aras18  Michael D Higgins (@MichaelDHiggins) October 17, 2018

Incumbent Michael D Higgins is favourite to win the race for the presidency when the country goes to the polls in just over a weeks time.

He told Irish broadcaster RTE that Travellers comprised an ethnic minority which experienced discrimination, adding: I find these views appalling.

He said they lived an average of 10 years less than the general population, and young Traveller men were six times more likely to take their own lives.

This is not the first time controversy has ignited over their place in Irish society.

A fire at a halting site in south Dublin in 2015 killed 10 members of the community.

There was an outpouring of sympathy but some attempts to move survivors to another site failed because of opposition from residents.

Just in the door after a great day on the #Aras18 trail. Started off in @RTERadio1 before visiting @ICHHDublin. Then onto canvass Grafton/Moore Street before heading out to do the Six O'Clock show. Looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow! #LiadhForPresident #ANewIreland pic.twitter.com/02BlI7d1M2  Liadh Ni Riada (@LiadhNiRiada) October 16, 2018

Sinn Fein candidate Liadh Ni Riada said stereotyping of any ethnic group was unacceptable.A government consultation has indicated the majority of people support the reintroduction of beavers in Scotland.

Scottish ministers want the species to be allowed to expand naturally following an official trial in Argyll and a study of the beaver population in Tayside.

Beavers were absent from the wild in Scotland for more than 400 years.

The Scottish Government plans to give the species legal protection, and has set out proposals for how the animals will be managed to minimise any adverse impact on farmers and other land owners.

Its consultation received over 500 responses, with 83% agreeing with the policy of reintroduction and the measures to mitigate against potential issues such as flooding through damage to field drainage systems, and damage to infrastructure and crops.

Some concerns were raised about long-term funding to support effective mitigation.

A consultation has found support for the reintroduction of beavers in Scotland (Kent Wildlife Trust/PA)

Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: The reintroduction of the beaver to Scotland, after the species was hunted to extinction centuries ago, is testament to the Scottish Governments commitment to Scotlands biodiversity, and its very encouraging to see the vast majority of respondents to the consultation agree with that decision.

However, we are very aware that the reintroduction has potential impacts, in particular in areas of prime agricultural land, which some groups are understandably concerned about.

This is why we have been at pains to work collaboratively with stakeholders wherever possible to discuss those concerns, evaluate potential impacts, and come up with practical and proportionate solutions or mitigation measures where possible.

We asked stakeholders whether they agreed that the Strategic Environment Assessment achieved those aims, and its heartening that they appear to agree that it does.

We continue to move forward with our intentions to introduce legislation to give beavers protected species status.Sinn Fein presidential candidate Liadh Ni Riada has said her vow to wear a poppy if elected president was inspired by Martin McGuinness.

During a televised debate on Monday candidates were asked if they would wear the poppy on Armistice Day.

Ms Ni Riada, who said she would, said she immediately thought of the former Deputy First Minister of Northern Irelands gesture when he met the Queen in 2012.

Certainly, it wasnt a question I was expecting, and in the moment I had to genuinely think about it, because personally it would be a struggle for me, she told the Press Association on Wednesday.

An image of Martin McGuinness came into my head and I remembered all the times he went to the Flanders fields or shook the Queens hand and making bold moves in showing how inclusive we are.

I always take inspiration from Martin McGuinness, what a kind, incredible man he was.

I often think how he would approach things and I think that was indicative the other night when the question came up and he just popped into my head, but the difference is, I didnt come from the same background as Martin, I didnt have to put up with the same struggles he had to.

Ms Ni Riadas answer during the debate has drawn criticism from members of her party, and the candidate admits the topic is divisive, especially within Sinn Fein.

Ms Ni Riada said she accepted her position on the poppy was controversial (Niall Carson/PA)

I obviously realise as a republican what that means and the hurt that is there, she said.

To wear such an emblem like that, its not about diminishing that sense of republicanism, I think its about being comfortable in your own republicanism to be okay with that.

I do however think that its about being bigger than me, being bigger than all of us in one sense of trying to be inclusive.

Its not a Sinn Fein position and I understand that very clearly, however Ive had a lot of positive feedback.

People who are canvassing for me would never wear a poppy and I would never expect them to or want them to wear a poppy, but they respect the position Id be coming from as president, Id have to be president for people of all persuasions.

Ms Ni Riada, who is from the Gaeltacht in Co Cork, learned English as a second language at age four, before losing both her parents at a young age.

She says the adversity she faced in her own life has inspired a sense of empathy.

We've got momentum!



6,000+ Kilometres travelled

300,000+ doors knocked

650,000+ video views

750,000+ leaflets delivered



Only nine days to go until polling day, let's keep it going! #LiadhForPresident #ANewIreland #Aras18 https://t.co/Eq7ivt6sJS pic.twitter.com/z4b9yd3LaT  Liadh Ni Riada (@LiadhNiRiada) October 17, 2018

I have a great sense of social injustice and empathy because of my own childhood and overcoming adversity, she said.

Im a very positive-natured person. I think sometimes Im a bit of a Pollyanna, I believe things are there to test you and help develop you as a person.

You cant let your adversity rule who you are, but that sense of social injustice is part of my DNA.

Ms Ni Riada said she was not interested in negative campaigning against the other candidates in the race, but was not shocked at businessman Peter Caseys comments about the travelling community on Wednesday morning.

Mr Casey said Travellers were simply people camping on someone elses land and said Irelands recognition of them as members of an ethnic minority was a load of nonsense.

I am not shocked or surprised at all, I think hes in it for the craic  it beggars belief, and I think hes doing a disservice to the office, said Ms Ni Riada.

The travelling community are an ethnic minority that have been failed by the state, and treated appallingly.

If elected I would like to see a member of the travelling community on the Council of State.

The Sinn Fein MEP has been labelled in the media as socially conservative in the past, a label she says does not apply to her. She added that she does not know where the idea came from.

I have campaigned on progressive issues, during the abortion rights campaign, which was a long campaign, I was doing work in Strasbourg, I was certainly very active on it, she said.

I dont know where people get this idea Im socially conservative  Im the least conservative person I know.

One of my brothers came out when he was in his fifties, which I found very sad that he left it until that time. Growing up, my best friend was gay, and I remember thinking; You cant be the only gay person in the parish.

Im so happy were a stage in society where that is acceptable, as it always should have been, she said.

Ms Ni Riada is currently polling third after firm favourite, current President Michael D Higgins, and businessman Sean Gallagher.The Scottish Greens have urged the government to copy their homework on education policies to close the attainment gap.

The partys education spokesman Ross Greer issued Ministers with a report card outlining the results of the governments education policy, including a 20% drop in teacher pay and 3,500 fewer teachers in 10 years.

It also highlights the 16% gap in educational attainment between the most deprived pupils and their more affluent peers, and marks the government performance as needs improvement.

It states: The Scottish Government is performing poorly in education and would benefit from a change in attitude.

They are having trouble working well with others and need to focus more on co-operation and teamwork.

The party also published a policy paper outlining their proposals for education entitled Level the Playing Field: High Quality Education for All.

Scottish Green Party education spokesman Ross Greer launches a `report card for the Scottish Government (Sean Lafferty/Scottish Green Party/PA)

Among the pledges made are to restore teachers pay to help address recruitment and retention, to train all teachers on Additional Support Needs and to mandate consent-based sex and relationship education in all schools.

The paper also contains a series of pledges aimed at addressing poverty in order to tackle the attainment gap, such as giving all pupils access to breakfast and lunch, including in the school holidays.

Further proposals include topping up child benefit by 5 a week and free bus travel for young people.

Mr Greer said: The SNPs education report card could be defined by one line, needs improvement.

The core issue facing Scottish education today is not governance structures or lack of tests but a decade of budget cuts which have left school short-staffed, under-resourced and with unsustainable workloads for those who are left.

Given the poverty-related attainment gap doesnt start in classrooms though, measures to tackle poverty at source will do just as much, if not more, to help pupils from deprived backgrounds as any measures taken in schools.

If the Scottish Government really wants to close the attainment gap they should copy our homework.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: Through our actions we are making progress to deliver a world-class education system.

Attainment overall is up and the gap between young people from the most and least deprived backgrounds is narrowing.

We have seen an additional 543 teachers in classrooms this year and created a national school clothing grant payment of 100.

Despite the UK Governments cuts to Scotlands resource budget, we continue to prioritise education spending and will invest an additional 750 million in the course of this parliament to tackle the poverty related attainment gap.

Responding to the views of the teaching profession, we have reduced teacher workload, simplified the curriculum framework and removed unnecessary bureaucracy.Three anti-fracking activists freed from prison have vowed to continue their protests as their lawyers said they may challenge their convictions.

Simon Blevins, Richard Roberts and Rich Loizou were jailed at Preston Crown Court in September after being found guilty of public nuisance over a protest last July at Cuadrillas fracking site in Lancashire.

But they were freed on Wednesday by Court of Appeal judges, who said their original sentences were manifestly excessive.

Their lawyers said they may challenge their convictions on the basis of apparent bias by the crown court judge.

Simon Blevins (Lancashire Constabulary/PA)

In a statement read on their behalf by Roberts partner Michelle Easton, the trio said: Todays decision affirms that when people peacefully break the law out of a moral obligation to prevent things such as the fossil fuel industry they should not be sent to prison.

The fracking industry threatens to industrialise our beautiful countryside. It will cause famine, flooding and many other disasters on the worlds most vulnerable communities by exacerbating climate change.

Fracking is beginning right now, so there has never been a more crucial moment to take action. Your planet needs you.

Relatives including Blevins mother, Rosalind Blevins, and Loizous father, Platon Loizou, said they were delighted with the courts decision.

Richard Roberts (Lancashire Constabulary/PA)

The three climbed onto lorries outside the energy firms site in Preston New Road, Little Plumpton, in a standoff which lasted almost 100 hours.

Soil scientist Blevins, 26, from Sheffield, and teacher Roberts, 36, of London, were both jailed for 16 months, while piano restorer Loizou, 32, from Devon, was given 15 months after being convicted of public nuisance.

The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said the sentences were manifestly excessive and replaced them with conditional discharges.

Supporters in the packed courtroom, who had gathered outside for a demonstration before the hearing, erupted into applause as the decision was announced.

The men were the first environmental protesters to be imprisoned since the Kinder Scout mass trespass of 1932  during which, the court heard, violence was used.

Rich Loizou (Lancashire Police/PA)

In her submissions to the court Kirsty Brimelow QC, for the protesters, said they were involved in a peaceful protest and that all three have acted and lived in a way that is entirely selfless.

She said: These men now have a criminal convictions which will very much affect their future lives.

In our submission, that is enough, that is proportionate to what they did.

Ms Brimelow told the court the sentences had a chilling effect on protest.

At the sentencing hearing on September 26, Judge Robert Altham said he could not suspend the jail terms despite accepting the impact of incarceration and the good they did in the community.

Ms Brimelow told the court that she wished to make submissions on the basis of the apparent bias of Judge Altham, although the court did not hear this ground of appeal.

However, she said Judge Althams sister wrote a letter in support of fracking in 2015, which was co-ordinated by an organisation supported by Cuadrilla.

Lord Burnett said during the hearing there was no evidence that the judge had any financial interest in fracking.

A worker at the Cuadrilla fracking site in Preston New Road

Speaking outside court after the ruling, Ms Brimelow said the trios legal teams will now consider whether to challenge their convictions.

She added: We will be reviewing whether to seek to appeal the conviction on the basis of apparent bias by the judge, namely whether somebody sitting in court with that information would be confident that he was independent and impartial, as is needed in our justice system.

A spokesman for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office confirmed it has received a complaint about Judge Altham, which it will consider.

The protesters appeal was supported by human rights organisation Liberty and environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe said: We are very pleased that the Court of Appeal has today found that the custodial sentences were manifestly excessive and quashed them.

Libertys head of legal casework Emma Norton said: This is a victory for human rights and civil liberties.

A fourth activist, Julian Brock, 47, from Torquay, was sentenced to 12 months in custody, suspended for 18 months, after he admitted public nuisance.

Mr Brock did not challenge his sentence.

Last week Cuadrilla was given the go-ahead to start work at the site following a failed High Court bid by campaigners to block fracking due to safety concerns.

Lord Burnett said the court will give full reasons for its decision at a later date.A former teacher will not face a retrial over allegations she had sex with a student in the toilet of a plane as they returned from a school trip.

Eleanor Wilson, 29, denied four charges of sexual activity with a child by a person in a position of trust during a trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Judge Peter Blair QC, the Recorder of Bristol, told the jury of four men and six women they could leave after 10-and-a-half hours of deliberations last week.

The jury foreman informed the judge there was not a realistic prospect of reaching majority verdicts in any of the charges against Ms Wilson.

Following the jurys dismissal, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) asked for seven days to consider if it wished to seek a retrial.

On Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the CPS said: The CPS has decided not to seek a retrial in this case.

This decision follows careful consideration including speaking with the complainant.

Ms Wilson was accused of having drink-fuelled sexual intercourse with the teenager on a British Airways flight home from a camping trip in August 2015.

Ms Wilson was accused of having sex with the teenager on a British Airways flight (Steve Parsons/PA)

It was alleged the teacher, then aged 26, kissed and cuddled the boy before beckoning him into the toilet, where they allegedly had sex.

She was also said to have seen the boy outside of school and allegedly kissed and cuddled him on three separate occasions.

Within weeks of the pair returning from the trip, rumours spread around the school that Ms Wilson was in a relationship with a student.

She denied this when confronted by the schools head teacher, saying she was horrified by 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.

Jurors were told the clandestine relationship was exposed months later when another pupil at the school tried to blackmail Ms 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.

She insisted the boy had imagined what he claimed happened in the plane toilet and said there was no truth whatsoever in the allegations.

Giving evidence, the teenager said a bond developed between them. He said his account was not fantasy and he was telling the truth.

Ms Wilson, of The Rope Walk, Dursley, Gloucestershire, was released on unconditional bail following last weeks hearing.

She was banned indefinitely from teaching in July last year following a report by the National College for Teaching and Leadership.Damen Shipyards Group has signed a contract with Abu Dhabi Ports and its subsidiary Abu Dhabi Marine Services (Safeen) for the supply of two new Damen ASD Tugs 2411, at the ongoing Abu Dhabi International Boat Show (ADIBS).



The four-day show will conclude on October 20.



The contract was signed by Captain Adil Ahmed Banihammad, the acting chief marine services officer at Safeen, and Pascal Slingerland, regional sales director for Damen Shipyards Group, said a statement.



Delivery of both vessels is due within three months, it said.



Abu Dhabi Ports is a vital part of the Abu Dhabi economy, owning and operating 11 ports and managing over 55,000 vessel calls each year. The ASD Tugs 2411 will bring valuable additional vessel handling capabilities to the group.



Examples of the class can be found operating all over the world and they are highly regarded for their excellent pulling power (70 tonnes), reliability and manoeuvrability, all contained within a compact, 24-m hull.



The two tugs will join the 12 harbour tugs already in service with Safeen, the fleet operating subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Ports responsible for pilotage, mooring, vessel handing and towage at Abu Dhabi Ports, and will bring a new level of capability. In particular, they will be supporting vessel movements at Khalifa Ports two container terminals managed by ADT/MSC and COSCO Shipping Port Limited (CSPL) as well as EGAs berth for Bauxite shipped to its smelter in Al Taweelah.



The three-month delivery timetable is possible due to Damens policy of building its most popular vessels for stock. The ASD Tugs 2411 are currently at being finished to the requirements of Abu Dhabi Ports / Safeen at Albwardy Damen, in the UAE, before sailing for Khalifa Port.



The ASD Tugs 2411 will join three other Damen vessels already in the Safeen fleet; a Stan Tug 1907 delivered earlier this year and the Shoalbuster 2609 Al Maqtaa, delivered in 2016. The Al Shahama, a Damen Buoy Maintenance Vessel built in 1994 in Abu Dhabi under Damen Technical Cooperation programme, is also an active member of the Safeen fleet.



Local warranty and after-sales support will continue to be supplied by Albwardy Damen from its facilities in the United Arab Emirates.



Damens Pascal Slingersland said: We are very pleased that Abu Dhabi Ports has opted for our proven ASD Tug 2411 to support the Abu Dhabi Ports container terminals.



We are confident that they will be able to handle port operations for all kinds and sizes of vessels safely and effectively, including the worlds largest 400-meter container vessels with 20,000 TEUs capacity, he said.



Furthermore, our Damen Services Hub is around the corner to provide Abu Dhabi Ports with support during the lifetime of the tugs, he added.



Captain Adil Ahmed Banihammad, acting chief marine services officer at Abu Dhabi Marine Services  Safeen, said: The extension of our fleet at Khalifa Port with two high-service tug boats is a remarkable milestone for Safeen to address customers needs professionally as well as for Khalifa Port, which will be the first port in the GCC able to receive the largest container and shipping vessels in the world.



The average size of a vessel has grown by 65 percent due to economies of scale and we recognise the importance of equipping our ports with the right equipment and logistics to adapt to these changing demands, he added.



Captain Banihammad continued: Khalifa Port is a strategic gateway for trade and freight into Abu Dhabi and throughout the wider region.



Our ongoing efforts to develop supportive infrastructure and further enhance overall customer experience here are aligned with international standards and aimed at setting a new benchmark in the regions maritime industry, he concluded.  TradeArabia News ServiceLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the Government for its disgraceful treatment of college staff.

He was speaking at a protest at Parliament which was staged to call for increases in college funding.

Mr Corbyn paid tribute to all college staff and told protesters, including students and lecturers who had gathered in the rain in Parliament Square: I have to say that the way that the staff have been treated by this government is disgraceful.

The way that college lecturers have seen their conditions deteriorate over many years and their treatment over this summer is why I, and on behalf of the Labour Party, am proud to support the UCU (University and College Union) and the action it has taken.

Mr Corbyn addresses students and teachers during the protest (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

It was part of Colleges Week which saw a national lobby of Parliament on Wednesday where thousands of principals, staff and students protested about the impact of the funding issues they face. The week forms part of the Love Our Colleges campaign.

Mr Corbyn said: We stand today for properly funded colleges and properly paid staff.

We stand today for the principles of education for all as a right.

He called for an end to austerity and described it as an incredible waste of resources to deny some people the education they need.

Great honour along with @jeremycorbyn today to speak at the rally near parliament in support of our colleges and the F.E. sector. We must reverse the government cuts and invest in our colleges, they have had resources slashed and this cannot continue anymore! #LoveOurColleges  pic.twitter.com/pJOUD53WYO  Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) October 17, 2018

The Love Our Colleges campaign is a partnership between the Association of Colleges, NUS students union, Association of College and School Leaders, University and College Union (UCU), GMB, TUC, National Education Union and Unison. Its aim is to raise awareness of the funding challenges faced by colleges.

A short march to Whitehall, which was organised by education and students unions, was held before the further education (FE) funding rally.

Protesters held banners which read FE funding an investment not a cost, make my future fair  and we love our college.

There were chants of When they say cut back, with the crowd replying We say fight back.

Some colleges shut down for the day to allow staff and students to attend.

New City College (NCC) in Redbridge, east London, said it was closing to allow staff and students time to raise awareness of the demands being made of Government.

These include providing immediate exceptional funding ring-fenced for pay, to cover the costs of a fair pay deal for college staff from 2018/19 onwards, increasing the funding rate for 16 to 19-year-olds in education by 5% a year for the next five years, and extending the pupil premium for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to benefit post-16 students too.

An NCC tweet read: Well be at the#LoveOurColleges national day of action today. Classes back to usual tomorrow. Happy #CollegesWeek!

More than 31,600 people had signed an online petition calling for increased funding to sustainable levels and declaring that all students deserve equality by the time Wednesdays march got under way.

The petition states: We call on the Government to urgently increase college funding to sustainable levels, including immediate parity with recently announced increases to schools funding.

This will give all students a fair chance, give college staff fair pay and provide the high-quality skills the country needs.

The central London protest came as small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) warned the UK risked being left behind if the Government did not address the skills gap through education.

Research released by the Association of Colleges (AOC) said that 51% of SMEs were finding it more difficult to employ people with the right skills, compared to five years ago.

Some 58% of them said finding skilled candidates was the biggest concern about the future of their business.

Of the 534 SME leaders and decision leaders surveyed, 48% said colleges were best placed to skill the future workforce, compared to universities (30%) and schools (21%).

A separate survey of 70 college principals in England revealed that four in five feared cuts to college funding may limit their ability to fill skills gaps.

Almost all of them (95%) were concerned about the effects cuts were having on their college.

The data shows that in the past five years the average college in England has had to cut 15 courses due to lack of funding, and teaching hours have been cut by around nine hours per week.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton later thanked schools and colleges for the vital role she said they played in ensuring people of all ages had the skills they needed to get on in life.

She said: I am very aware of the funding pressures in further education which is why we are conducting an assessment of education, funding and the sustainability of the sector.

This government plans to invest nearly 7 billion this academic year to make sure there is a place in education or training, including apprenticeships, for every 16 to 19-year-old and we have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19-year-olds until 2020.

We are also investing in the sector as we introduce our new gold standard T Levels from 2020, which will be backed by an additional 500 million every year once they are fully rolled out.

Officials are to continue to look carefully at funding for the sector in preparation for the next Spending Review, according to the Education Department.A dog which attacked a man and left him with serious injuries to his genitals has been put down.

Emergency services were called to a flat on Haddingtons High Street, in East Lothian, at around 2.30pm on Sunday October 7.

The 22-year-old victim was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with serious injuries to his groin area and induced into a coma.

Police confirmed the owner of the Olde English Bulldogge  believed to be behind the attack  allowed for the animal to be put down.

A spokesman said: Inquiries are continuing to establish the full circumstances of how a 22-year-old man sustained significant injury to his groin area, while within an address in Haddington on Sunday October 7.

However, as part of this investigation the owner of the dog, which is believed to have been involved, has voluntarily signed documentation consenting to the destruction of the animal.

The owner voluntarily signed documents to allow for the dogs destruction (David Cheskin/PA)

This has now taken place after protracted dialogue between the Crown Office, Scottish SPCA and the East Lothian Council Dog Warden.Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has told how he longs for a united Ireland, but insisted he recognises the democratic will of the people.

The long-standing Republican dismissed suggestions his dream would be realised as a result of the Irish backstop row that has stalled Brexit talks.

Mr McDonnell went on to joke that he would put his application in for the Protestant Orange Order however, if the next election led to a hung parliament.

The Democratic Unionist Partys ten MPs currently prop up Theresa Mays minority administration.

At a lunch with journalists in Westminster, he said: Im a Republican. I long for a united Ireland, but I recognise democracy.

Ireland will not be united on the basis of some contortions around the issue of the relationship with the EU.

John McDonnell said he longed for a united Ireland (Steve Parsons/PA)

It will only be reunited on the basis of the popular support of the Irish people, and thats what I respect.

Nothing in these discussions should in any way cause any damage to the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation.

He added: There will be some curious relationships that come out of a general election.

I can get my application for the Orange Order and order my bowler hat and sash for the marching season. You never know.

Mr McDonnell apologised in 2015 for previously saying the IRA should be honoured for its role in bringing the British Government to the negotiating table.

The shadow chancellor said Labour could be in government within months and claimed a general election was increasingly likely because Conservative MPs hate each other more than they hate us.

We are ready for that and we are prepared for that, staffed up, budgeted up, prepared, planned up all ready for it whenever it happens, he said.

He added that if there was balanced broadcast coverage, I think we will pick up the necessary points to take us into government.

Mr McDonnell compared Mrs Mays Brexit approach to Neville Chamberlains appeasement of Hitler.

Mr McDonnell said he expected the EUs chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier to make an offer to the UK for fear of Boris and others.

It will be a fudge and it will be a delay and no matter how much Theresa May dresses herself up as Churchill when she comes back it will be Neville Chamberlain, he said.

It will be a Neville Chamberlain moment  peace in our time.

He said Labour would support a deal that protected jobs and the economy.

If it doesnt, we will vote against it and call for a general election, he added.

If there isnt a general election we will have the fallback position, well look to see whether theres another option there and it might well be a peoples vote of some sort.

Mr McDonnell urged the Government to plough money into childrens services in the upcoming budget saying there was a 2 billion funding gap otherwise that must be filled or the most vulnerable youngsters would be at risk.A jury has heard of striking and obvious similarities between the deaths of two nine-year-old girls and a horrific sex attack on another young child three years later.

Russell Bishop was convicted of the kidnap, indecent assault and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl in 1990.

The attack came after he walked free from Lewes Crown Court on being cleared of murdering Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway.

The two girls were strangled and sexually assaulted in Wild Park, on the South Downs near Brighton, East Sussex, in October 1986.

Bishop is on trial for a second time over their deaths on the orders of the Court of Appeal in light of fresh DNA evidence.

Russell Bishop (Sussex Police/PA)

Detailing the 1990 attack, prosecutor Brian Altman QC told jurors: We say the similarities between these offences and the 1986 murders are so striking and obvious that they, in combination with other evidence  point to him and only him as their killer.

On February 4 1990, Bishop bundled the seven-year-old girl into the boot of a red Ford Cortina while she was out roller skating in Brighton.

He drove her 14 miles to Devils Dyke on the South Downs in West Sussex where he strangled and then stripped and molested her while she was unconscious.

Afterwards, he dumped the girl in dense gorse bushes where he left her for dead and chucked her roller skates into woods, the court heard.

Despite her injuries, the little girl survived and struggled out of the bushes to find help.

Mr Altman told the Old Bailey that all three victims were prepubescent girls, targeted in Brighton shortly before dusk.

All the offences involved strangulation followed by sexual assault, with the victims hidden in wooded or overgrown areas.

The prosecutor alleged that in both cases Bishop attempted to clean himself, his clothes or his car.

In 1986, he washed his clothes and had a bath when he got home while in 1990, he cleaned his car showing forensic awareness, it was alleged.

Bishop, now aged 52, formerly from Brighton, East Sussex, denies two counts of murder.A murder-accused man has denied attacking a father-of-two who died just hours into a holiday in Turkey.

Simon Marx, 42, was physically sick shortly after he arrived in the coastal resort of Fethiye in the early hours of October 8 and later died in his sleep from a slow bleed to the brain.

Prosecutors say Mr Marx had been involved in an altercation at the Newton Arms in Blackpool, Lancashire, just after midnight on October 6 when he was allegedly subjected to a joint attack by Steven Lane, 29, and David Easter, 54.

The Crown said Lane stamped on him at least three times while he was unconscious on the floor after he was punched several times to the head and face by Easter.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Lane said Mr Marx initially slapped him in the face while noticeably drunk after he was earlier confronted aggressively in the pub by a friend of the victim.

He said an exchange of punches followed between Mr Marx and Easter, who was with Lane, before another man, Rick Alston, joined in in what he thought was an assault on his co-defendant.

A general view of signage near Preston Crown Court, Preston.

Lane also denied glassing Mr Alston but said he did punch him in self-defence as he attempted to grab him in the melee, Preston Crown Court heard.

That punch caused him excruciating pain that led to a broken hand, Lane told the jury.

His barrister, Nicholas Johnson QC, asked: There is a suggestion made that you punched or chinned Simon Marx and that he falls to the floor unconscious?

Lane replied: No.

Mr Johnson: Did you punch Simon Marx at any stage?

No, repeated the witness.

Mr Johnson continued: Were you in a position to punch Simon Marx?

Lane said: He was further away from me. I couldnt use my hand again.

The defendant said he jumped in between Mr Marx, Mr Alston and Easter in a bid to break up the fight but did not stamp on anyone.

After a lot of pushing and shoving with Mr Alston, he swiped a glass off a nearby table in a bid to cause a distraction, he told the jury.

He explained he did not see what direction the glass went in and then left the scene in fear he was going to be attacked and could not defend himself.

Asked by Mr Johnson about his reflections on the night, Lane said: Its tragic.

At the time I acted out of instincts towards a threat we both faced.

Cross-examining, Gordon Cole QC asked Lane why he had not mentioned when interviewed by police about his claim he swiped the glass off the table.

Lane replied he could not recall the detail at the time.

Mr Cole accused him of adapting his account to fit in with the CCTV footage shown to the jury and asked him why he had also not told the police that an object was thrown at him earlier outside the pub.

Lane said he had not remembered that either at the time.

He added: I had been involved in a high stress situation and had a nasty injury to my hand.

Mr Cole said: The high stress was caused by you stamping or kicking a man and causing him really serious harm, which you did.

Lane said: No.

Mr Cole added: The stress was caused by you deliberately ramming a glass into someones head.

No, repeated the defendant.

Easter claims he was acting in self-defence by punching Mr Marx, who he said had squared up to him .

He said he did not see any stamping in the pub.

Lane, of Shalgrove Road, Fulwood, Preston, and Easter, of Heron Way, Blackpool, deny murder.

Lane also has pleaded not guilty to wounding Mr Alston with intent.The UK will try to give Riyadh the benefit of the doubt over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist as it tries to balance calls for an investigation against protecting its interests in the region, according to a Middle East specialist.

Jamal Khashoggi vanished on October 2 during a trip to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, in what many believe to be a state-sponsored hit for his vocal criticism of Saudi Arabias crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman.

On Wednesday Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his counterparts in the G7 said they were very troubled by the incident.

But Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at foreign policy thinktank the European Council on Foreign Relations, said any future action by the British government is likely to be cautious.

He told the Press Association: The UK has traditionally been one of Riyadhs strongest allies, they have a very close relationship that brings a lot of perceived benefits to the UK Government and that I think will go a long way in terms of muting what the UK is willing to do and say about this incident.

But he added that even by calling for an independent investigation, the Foreign Secretary had gone beyond the UKs comfort zone and further than what many observers had been expecting.

Jamal Khashoggi went missing on October 2 (Hasan Jamali/AP)

I think the big question now is the extent to which they are going to follow that through, or the extent to which they are going to go along with an attempt to create a managed solution to the crisis that takes any responsibility and blame away from central authorities in Riyadh, he said.

Mr Barnes-Dacey said the UK and other EU nations could accept a stage-managed handling of the incident, whereby Saudi Arabia accepts some responsibility but blames Mr Khashoggis disappearance on junior or rogue agents of the state.

There isnt going to be any rush to action thats for sure  I think theres going to be a desire to give Riyadh the benefit of the doubt until thats impossible to do any longer, he said.

So long as there is a proclaimed investigation happening with Saudi and Turkish co-operation and being pushed by the US, the UK is likely to sit quiet and see that as part of the investigation they have been demanding.

He said by offering Riyadh a compromise, western governments could push for Saudi Arabia to assume a more responsible position across a number of issues in the region, including its involvement in the civil war in Yemen.

I think thats probably going to be the bigger focus and probably the more attainable goal  rather than a process which sees the Saudis saying Yes, the crown prince was directly involved in this and there will be a degree of accountability and justice on that basis  which clearly will not happen, said Mr Barnes-Dacey.

He said the looming Brexit deadline could also stay the UKs hand as trade with Saudi Arabia  which currently ranks 25th in the list of the UKs most lucrative trading partners  becomes more important.

In the past when individual countries have made individual stands against Riyadh its pushed back very strongly so I think its important that the EU countries do stand together in this to ensure they cant be picked off by Riyadh with retribution  particularly in the economic sphere, he said.

He added: Following Brexit, the UK might be less willing to take risks that could sacrifice trading relations.Britains most decorated Winter Olympian has paid tribute to her support team as she was honoured days after she announced her retirement.

Lizzy Yarnold collected an OBE for services to Winter Olympic Sport at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

The 29-year-old skeleton racer won gold at both the Sochi and Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

Describing her feelings about the award, Yarnold said: Being in such a beautiful place, being honoured by the royal family, its a very emotional moment.

Its a real celebration of everything my support team have done to help get me here.

Yarnold, who announced her retirement from sport this week, paid tribute to her team after she collected the medal from the Princess Royal.

Lizzy Yarnold after receiving her OBE medal at Buckingham Palace (Yui Mok/PA)

She said: Many people say theyre receiving the award on behalf of other people, its true. Im not an individual, Im part of a team, and Im hugely grateful to everyone.

Yarnold received an MBE in 2014 but said the Princess Royals affiliation with Olympic sport made this recognition feel even more special.

She added: This time does feel very different because it was from the Princess Royal, who is our president of the British Olympic Association (BOA).

She came out to Sochi and Pyeongchang, so to receive the award from her specifically was really wonderful.

The royal family are those that lead our country, when I compete I want to stand on the podium with the national anthem playing and the Union Jack behind me.

So to have her support specifically really does give it that special little sign of approval.

Yarnold also took time to praise the ongoing support the Winter Games receive from the BOA.

She said: The BOA looks after the summer and the winter Games, so even though the Winter Olympics is still the little brother of the summer, we as athletes feel just as special.

We have had fantastic funding. Were just thankful for the support that weve got.Theresa May was facing a backlash from Brexiteers after indicating she is ready to consider extending Britains transition out of the EU for a further year, to the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister told a crunch European Council summit in Brussels that she was ready to consider the extension floated by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to give time to resolve the intractable problem of the Irish border.

If agreed, the change would mean the UK remaining within the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules and regulations for almost three years after the official date of Brexit in March 2019, and more than five years after the referendum vote to Leave.

Furious Brexiteers said that the move would delay yet further the moment when the UK could sign new trade deals around the world, and would cost taxpayers billions of pounds in additional contributions to the EU.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said that it would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 and may mean we never leave at all.

Theresa May arrives in Brussels for the European Council summit (European Commission Audiovisual Services)

Tory MP Nadine Dorries repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace Mrs May as leader.

We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit, said Ms Dorries.

And Mr Daviss former chief of staff Stewart Jackson asked: If you cant  or in the EUs case wont  resolve the backstop issue now because its an issue of principle than why will it take another three years to resolve it? Will it not be an issue of principle once we have coughed up billions more in UK taxpayers cash?

If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. Its time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader. Ive done my bit. Its time for my colleagues to do theirs. #Brexit  Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 17, 2018

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU states ditched proposals for a special Brexit summit in November, after chief negotiator Michel Barnier told them he needed much more time to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

With just 160 days to go to the official date of Brexit, Mrs May urged the EU27 to find a creative way out of the current dilemma.

We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively, the PM said. I remain confident of a good outcome.

And she told them: The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides.

After her Chequers plan for Brexit was humiliatingly rejected in Salzburg last month and efforts to seal a last-minute deal foundered last weekend over the EUs demand for a backstop arrangement for Ireland, Mrs May was fighting to keep the door open for an agreement to deliver an orderly withdrawal.

EU leaders gave her 20 minutes to make her pitch before discussing Brexit in her absence over a dinner of turbot cooked in wheat beer.

The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said: Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table and would have to be looked into.

A senior EU official later said Mrs May had indicated she was ready to consider a longer transition period.

Mrs Mays acceptance of an extension to the transition period will take us to the next general election which may mean we never leave at all.  Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 17, 2018

Mrs May initially suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit, to give the UKs authorities and companies time to prepare for the new arrangements.

But she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

It emerged on Wednesday that Mr Barnier was ready to discuss a further years extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials stressed that the Prime Minister was not proposing any extension to the period already agreed.

This weeks summit had been billed as the moment of truth when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification in the Westminster and European parliaments.

Mrs May was greeted to Brussels with a kiss from European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker (European Commisison Audiovisual Services)

But Mrs May did not come forward with the new concrete proposals on the border issue which European Council president Donald Tusk said were needed to break the deadlock.

While expressing their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal, a number of EU leaders said their countries were beginning preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

In a speech to the German parliament before travelling to Brussels, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the possibility of a Brexit deal was still there, but added that Berlin was making plans for a no-deal withdrawal.

And in Paris, Emmanuel Macrons government published details of legislation to authorise preparations for a no-deal Brexit, which could see the restoration of customs checks and health inspections for animals at French ports, and even a requirement for Britons to seek visas for stays of three months or more.

Mr Macron, who held separate talks with Mrs May ahead of the three-hour dinner, said it was time to accelerate talks.

But Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said there would be no breakthrough this week because Mrs May lacked a strong mandate from her party and parliament.

Britain needed to decide finally what they want and to rally behind the Prime Minister all together, not split, she said, adding: Today we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they want. It is a problem.Former USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny has been arrested on suspicion of tampering with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of jailed gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

The Walker County district attorneys office in Huntsville, Texas, said Penny was arrested by a fugitive task force in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and awaits extradition to Texas.

Larry Nassar admitted molesting some of Americas top gymnasts (AP)

The US grand jury indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch near Huntsville, relating to Nassars activities there.

It is alleged that the removal was aimed at impairing the ongoing investigation into Nassar.

Penny resigned under pressure in March 2017.

The offence is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.Voters will not forgive Theresa May if she surrenders to Brussels in the Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnson and David Davis have warned.

In an open letter to the Prime Minister, they claim her plans for future relations with the European Union are less popular than the poll tax and call on her to deliver the Brexit which people voted for.

It was signed by former Cabinet ministers Mr Davis, Mr Johnson, Iain Duncan Smith, Owen Paterson and Priti Patel, as well as Jacob Rees-Mogg, chairman of the Conservative European Research Group of Brexiteer Tories.

The letter, published by The Telegraph, states: We urge you to make clear that you will not bind the UK into the purgatory of perpetual membership of the EUs customs union, whether by a backstop or any other route.

It adds: Talk of either a UK or a Northern Irish backstop is inimical to our status as a sovereign nation state. Both are unnecessary: indeed they are a trap being set by the EU which it is vital we do not fall into.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is among the Tories to have signed the letter (Aaron Chown/PA)

The group called on Mrs May to reset the negotiations and ditch her Chequers Brexit blueprint.

We urge you not to engage in a show of resistance and a choreographed argument followed by surrender and collapse into some version of the backstop and Chequers, they wrote.

Instead we urge you to say to the EU at the summit: Let us agree that we need to reset our negotiations. Our objective is a free trade agreement that benefits the UK and EU and millions of our citizens.

This would command a majority in Parliament, unlike the unpopular Chequers plan. Let us seize the opportunity and create a better future for the UK.

We are close to the moment of truth. Brexit offers the prize of a better future, global free trade deals and political independence.

But if these potential gains are sacrificed because of EU bullying and the Governments desperation to secure a deal, the British people will not forgive us.Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of the emirate's commercial and community ports as well as Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad), has received two prestigious awards at the recent Maritime Standards Awards.



Maritime Standards Awards is a premiere shipping and maritime awards event which recognises the achievements of the industrys most outstanding performers across the Middle East and India.



The ceremony was held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, and chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group, and hosted by former BBC TV journalist Tim Willcox.



Recipients in 19 categories were chosen by an expert panel of judges drawn from different industry sectors, all with a track record of excellence in their chosen fields. Abu Dhabi Ports awards included:



 The Port of the Year Award: Abu Dhabi Ports was recognised for making the biggest contribution to the development of port infrastructure according to the highest international standards to serve the Middle East and Indian subcontinent. The port operator was also recognised for its innovative digital solutions for trade and port communities such as Silsal, a blockchain-based solution aimed at streamlining trade flows and supply chains that will soon be piloted internationally.



 The Maritime Education & Training Award: The regions leading maritime education and maritime training provider, Abu Dhabi Maritime Centre, was shortlisted for its contribution to maritime education in the region.



Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, chief executive officer, Abu Dhabi Ports, said: We are proud to have been honoured at the Maritime Standards Awards for our contribution to the growth of the regions maritime industry.



In recent years we have helped Abu Dhabi adapt to the transformation of the global maritime sector, resulting in reduced costs, better management of capacity and improved efficiencies, he said.



Looking ahead, our focus is to position ourselves at the forefront of disruption by harnessing innovative emerging technologies, he added.



These awards are a reflection of the hard work and dedication of the team at Abu Dhabi Ports and our subsidiaries as we strive to transform the maritime industry in Abu Dhabi. Our goal is to build resilience in adversity, helping to realise the vision of our Emirates Leaders of a strong, diversified, knowledge-driven economy, Al Shamisi concluded.



The awards were presented in front of some 800 high-level executives from the worlds of shipping, ports, shipbuilding and repair and other maritime sectors, along with leading figures from governmental agencies and international industry bodies, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceTheresa May has confirmed she is ready to consider a delay of a matter of months in Britains final departure from the EU in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

But the Prime Minister said she does not expect any extension of the so-called transition to Brexit to be needed, because she still hopes to conclude a deal on the UKs future trade and security relationship with the EU by its scheduled end-date of December 2020.

Mrs May faced a backlash from Brexiteers after she indicated at a Brussels summit on Wednesday that she was not ruling out the UK remaining in the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules as late as the end of 2021.

Such a move would delay the final departure almost three years after the official date of Brexit on March 29 2019, and more than five years after the 2016 referendum vote to Leave, potentially costing the UK as much as 10 billion in additional contributions to the EU budgets.

Arriving for the second day of the European Council summit, Mrs May made clear she would accept an extension only as a means to ensure there was no hard border in Ireland if it proved impossible to implement the future partnership by the end of 2020.

A further idea that has emerged  and it is an idea at this stage  is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months, and it would only be for a matter of months, she said.

But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

Im clear that it is possible to do that and that is what we are working for. In those circumstances, there would be no need for any proposal of this sort and Im clear that I expect the implementation period to end at the end of December 2020.

Theresa May arrives to continue talks at the crunch European Council summit in Brussels (Alastair Grant/AP)

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said any extension to the transition period could delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022, and may mean we never leave at all.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace Mrs May as leader.

We cannot find the money to fund our front-line police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit, said Ms Dorries.

If Theresa May is asking for a longer transition period, she is stalling. Its time to stand aside and let someone who can negotiate get on with it and deliver. I fully support DD as an interim leader. Ive done my bit. Its time for my colleagues to do theirs. #Brexit  Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 17, 2018

Conservative former minister Nick Boles  who is pushing for a soft Brexit move to temporary membership of the European Free Trade Association (Efta)  warned Mrs May is losing the confidence of the Tory party.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme the EU is demanding humiliating concessions because the PMs Brexit plans fail to fix the problem of the Irish border.

Im afraid she is losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion, he said.

They are close to despair at the state of this negotiation because there is a fear that both the Government and the European Union are trying to run out the clock, that they are trying to leave this so late that they can credibly say there is no alternative but a no-deal Brexit, and most people agree that would be chaos.

That is not an acceptable way for a leader of a government to behave.

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said: Extending the transition? More like kicking the can further down the road and delaying, by a bit, driving off the cliff.

No deal the PM can secure will be as good as staying in the EU.

Extending the transition? More like kicking the can further down the road and delaying, by a bit, driving off the cliff.



No deal the PM can secure will be as good as staying in the EU#PeoplesVote #StopBrexit  Tom Brake (@thomasbrake) October 18, 2018

Meanwhile, leading Brexiteers Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg joined Mr Davis and three other former ministers in signing an open letter warning the Prime Minister not to bind the UK into the purgatory of perpetual membership of the EUs customs union.

The group called on Mrs May to reset the negotiations and ditch her Chequers Brexit blueprint in favour of a Canada-style free trade agreement.

We are close to the moment of truth. Brexit offers the prize of a better future, global free trade deals and political independence, said the letter.

But if these potential gains are sacrificed because of EU bullying and the Governments desperation to secure a deal, the British people will not forgive us.

(PA Graphics)

Mrs May initially suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit, to give the UKs authorities and companies time to prepare for new arrangements, but later accepted a 21-month transition ending on the last day of 2020.

It emerged on Wednesday that EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is ready to discuss a further years extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

A senior UK official stressed that the Prime Minister is not herself proposing any extension to the period already agreed, and declined to say how many months she regarded as the maximum she would consider.

We are talking in a matter of months, we are not talking in a matter of years, he said.

The official added that Mrs May continues to regard as unacceptable the EU backstop proposal for Northern Ireland alone to remain in the European customs area until the implementation of a new trade deal.

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU states ditched proposals for a special Brexit summit in November, after Mr Barnier told them he needed much more time to find a way to avoid a hard border.

This weeks summit had been billed as the moment of truth when agreement is needed to allow time for ratification in the Westminster and European parliaments.

But Mrs May has not come forward with the new concrete proposals demanded by European Council president Donald Tusk, instead telling fellow leaders that courage, trust and leadership are needed on both sides to find a solution.A Turkish newspaper has published surveillance video images showing a man who previously travelled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans entourage walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there.

The pro-government Sabah newspapers report showed the man outside the Saudi consul generals home later, then checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side before leaving Turkey on October 2.

The report came as Turkish crime scene investigators finished a search of both the Saudi consul generals residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankaras fears that Saudi authorities had Mr Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul.

Media reports have detailed what they claim was Mr Khashoggis brutal murder (AP)

Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations baseless, has not responded to repeated requests for comment over recent days.

The Sabah report showed the man walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9.55am local with several men trailing behind him. Mr Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1.14pm, then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him. He had arrived at the consulate to pick up some paperwork he needed in order to get married.

An earlier report by the Yeni Safak newspaper, citing what it described as an audio recording of Mr Khashoggis killing, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul generals official residence, just over a mile away.

Inquiries are continuing amid widespread concerns over Mr Khashoggis fate (AP)

Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Mr Khashoggis case, adding to the pressure on the kingdom.

The man in the images identity cannot immediately be verified, although he is one of the individuals previously identified by Turkish authorities as being involved in the 15-man Saudi team that targeted Mr Khashoggi.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle show the same man was in Prince Mohammeds entourage when he visited Houston, Texas, in April to inspect rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the Saudi-American flag which other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured the worlds attention remains focused on what happened to Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the US over the rise of Prince Mohammed.

It also places further strain on the relationship between the kingdom, the worlds largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the US, as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

Turkish newspaper reports have published gruesome descriptions of what they say was Mr Khashoggis dismemberment (AP)

Flying back home after a visit to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo remained positive about an ongoing Saudi probe into Mr Khashoggis disappearance, but he stressed that answers are needed.

Sooners better than later for everyone, Mr Pompeo said.

US president Donald Trump, who initially took a tough stance on the Saudis over the disappearance but since has backed off, said the US wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Mr Khashoggis alleged killing if it exists.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has published what it described as Mr Khashoggis last column in honour of the missing journalist.

In it, Mr Khashoggi pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.

As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate, Mr Khashoggi wrote.

He added: The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.The structure of the United Nations is out of date and its core members should be shaken up to include India and South Africa, Sir John Major has said.

The former prime minister called for the removal of the veto power available to the five permanent members  the UK, China, France, US and Russia  and claimed they no longer represent the five most powerful nations in the world.

Sir John Major speaking at the One Young World summit in The Hague (One Young World/PA)

Describing the UNs sustainable development goals, which include ending poverty and hunger, as absolutely crucial to peace and security in the world, he accused permanent members Russia and China of stifling some of the aims of the organisation.

Speaking at the One Young World summit in The Hague, he said: Those sustainable goals can only be met if the world gets its act together and one of the problems, it has always seemed to me, is that the UN was formed immediately after the last war 70 years ago and its structure is out of date.

The five permanent members no longer represent the five most powerful nations in the world. And the permanent structure, the permanent members of the United Nations, need to change. It needs not to be the permanent five weve got now.

Name-checking India and South Africa as would-be permanent members, he added: Once you do that, and once you remove the single nation veto that Russia for example and sometimes China uses so rigorously, you will be in a position to unshackle the good that the United Nations was intended to be able to do but often cannot do.

Sir John spoke on the first of this years three-day gathering of more than 1,900 young leaders from 196 countries, at a summit which will consider issues ranging from climate change to conflict resolution and human rights.Bob Geldof has branded world leaders including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin gang bosses, as he slated the rise of nationalism and populism.

The rocker and long-standing political activist claimed the presidents of the US and Russia, along with Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban, gained their authority through force and fear.

He said people are now living in very dangerous times, a situation he said had been brewing for the past decade.

Addressing the One Young World summit in The Hague, he said: In country after country, populists and nationalists are either in or close to power.

The characteristics of these people are a myopia, a tunnel vision, a blindness and entrenched ignorance, which is in fact the exact opposite of what society requires now, particularly of its leaders, which is wisdom, intuition and foresight.

He added: Leaders today believe in few or no facts, which is the central core of the postmodernism that defines our age. There is no truth, uncertainty is spread everywhere and people and society become fearful. This is where we are.

Bob Geldof addressed the One Young World event in The Hague (PA)

Putin and Erdogan, Trump and Xi Jinping, Orban. All these people are not leaders. Theyre gang bosses. Their authority comes through force and fear.

"The very world itself is at stake. You are the first generation that cannot and will not fail." Wise words from longstanding #OYW Counsellor Bob Geldof as he takes to the #OYW2018 stage. 



 Watch live: https://t.co/wUqycHqG3P pic.twitter.com/0X2l2PKIde  One Young World (@OneYoungWorld) October 18, 2018

Geldof called on the young people in the audience to be the leaders of tomorrow, saying they could not afford to fail in a challenge requiring the world to be reinvented, made afresh, made anew for this century.

He said: You will succeed us old men and women who have already failed. But remember this, all generations fail. All. And some more spectacularly than others. But you, you are the first generation that cannot and must not fail. So much is at stake.

Geldof has addressed the young peoples summit each year since it was first held in 2009.

Since then speakers have included Meghan Markle, before she became the Duchess of Sussex, actor and activist Emma Watson, and former US president Bill Clinton.Proposals to delay the UKs final departure from the EU until 2021 have been dismissed as a rather poor attempt at kicking the can down the road by arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Leave-backing Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Penny Mordaunt also signalled concern that Britains withdrawal from the EU should proceed swiftly.

Prime Minister Theresa May told leaders of the remaining EU member states in Brussels that she was ready to consider an extension by a matter of months of the transition period, which is currently due to stretch until December 2020.

The transition  during which the UK would remain in the single market and customs union and subject to EU rules  is intended to provide time for authorities and officials to prepare for new arrangements following the official date of Brexit in March 2019.

Allowing it to be extended would provide flexibility to cover any gap until a future trade and security partnership is implemented, avoiding the need for a hard border in Ireland during this period, Mrs May suggested.

But she insisted that any delay would only be for a matter of months, adding: This is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

The proposal sparked a fierce backlash from Brexiteers, with former Ukip leader Nigel Farage warning it may mean we never leave at all.

And Mr Rees-Mogg said it risked very substantial costs for the UK, which would have to make additional contributions running into billions of pounds into EU budgets and would almost certainly lose its current rebate.

An extended transition period means we are in the EU for longer when the EU can make rules for the UK over which we would have no say and we would be paying for the privilege, the North East Somerset MP told Sky News.

The Government doesnt have endless money. It has to make choices. The question the Government has to answer is if this costs billions of pounds, is it better to give the money to the EU or better to sort out the issues with Universal Credit?

Mr Rees-Mogg said an extension would not break the deadlock in withdrawal negotiations, because the EU would still demand a backstop arrangement to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials said that Mrs May continues to regard the EU backstop  under which Northern Ireland would remain within the European customs union until a broader trade agreement was finalised  as unacceptable.

(PA Graphics)

Mr Rees-Mogg questioned whether Cabinet had given its support for an extended transition when it met for a mammoth three-hour discussion of Brexit on Tuesday.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Environment Secretary Mr Gove said it was vital that Britain leaves the EU at the earliest possible point.

And International Development Secretary Ms Mordaunt said: The Prime Minister was very clear this morning in the statements she has given that she recognises the need to do things swiftly, not least because that is what the public expects.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries accused Mrs May of stalling, and repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace her as leader.

And Conservative former minister Nick Boles  who is pushing for a soft Brexit move to temporary membership of the European Free Trade Association (Efta)  warned Mrs May is losing the confidence of her party.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme the EU was demanding humiliating concessions because the PMs Brexit plans fail to fix the problem of the Irish border.

Im afraid she is losing the confidence now of colleagues of all shades of opinion, said Mr Boles.

They are close to despair at the state of this negotiation because there is a fear that both the Government and the European Union are trying to run out the clock, that they are trying to leave this so late that they can credibly say there is no alternative but a no-deal Brexit, and most people agree that would be chaos.

That is not an acceptable way for a leader of a government to behave.

Theresa May arrives for the EU summit at the Europa building in Brussels (Olivier Matthys/AP)

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said: Extending the transition? More like kicking the can further down the road and delaying, by a bit, driving off the cliff.

No deal the PM can secure will be as good as staying in the EU.

Mrs May had initially suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit, but later accepted a 21-month transition ending on the last day of 2020.

It emerged on Wednesday that EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is ready to discuss a further years extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

UK officials stressed the Prime Minister is not herself proposing any extension to the period already agreed but was ready to consider the idea that had emerged.

This weeks summit had been billed as the moment of truth when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification in the Westminster and European parliaments.

But there was no breakthrough, and a mooted special Brexit summit in November was ditched after Mr Barnier told the EU27 he needed much more time.

There was no mention of Brexit in the five pages of conclusions released at the end of the two-day gathering.Frances finance minister is the latest high-level official or executive to pull out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia amid questions over the kingdoms involvement in the disappearance of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Bruno Le Maire said on French TV channel Public Senat that I will not go to Riyadh next week for the conference known as Davos in the desert.

Several top business executives have also cancelled their plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde will not attend the meeting (John Stillwell/PA)

Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra also cancelled, after discussing the issue with Mr Le Maire, the Dutch foreign minister said.

Stef Blok wrote that a Dutch trade mission planned for December to Saudi Arabia also likely will not go ahead.

Mr Le Maire said the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi is serious and facts about it need to be explained by Saudi authorities.

Investigators at work in Istanbul (Emrah Gurel/AP)

Turkish officials say Mr Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi officials have denied the allegations as baseless, but have not provided evidence of the writer leaving the diplomatic mission alive.

Mr Le Maire added his decision on the investment conference does not call into question the strategic partnership between France and Saudi Arabia.International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is pulling out of an international investment conference in Saudi Arabia amid concerns over the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A Government spokesman said Dr Fox had decided the time is not right for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh later this month.

The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggis disappearance, the spokesman said.

Dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago (Johnny Green/PA)

Turkish government sources have claimed that Mr Khashoggi  a critic of the government in Riyadh  was murdered during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The UK Government spokesman said: We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent and prompt investigation, as announced.

Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account.

Dr Foxs withdrawal came as French finance minister Bruno Le Maire and his Dutch counterpart Wopke Hoekstra announced they were pulling out of the event dubbed Davos in the desert.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin later joined them in withdrawing, following a meeting with President Donald Trump.

Mr Le Maire said the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi was a serious matter and the facts about it need to be explained by Saudi authorities.

Dutch foreign minister Stef Blok said that a Dutch trade mission to Saudi Arabia planned for December was also now unlikely to go ahead.

A number of senior top business executives have already cancelled their plans to attend the conference, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

Allan Hogarth of Amnesty International UK said the British Government should now re-appraise its overly-cosy relationship with the Saudis in the light of their appalling human rights record.

He said: Liam Foxs cancellation appears to be a recognition of the fact that cheer-leading for business in Saudi Arabia when the country is accused of murdering a journalist is simply beyond the pale.

The latest moves come amid growing international pressure on the Saudi government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who has has not been seen since entering the consulate on October 2.

Saudi officials have dismissed allegations that he was tortured, murdered and then dismembered by a hit squad flown in from Riyadh as baseless but have provided no evidence of him leaving the mission alive.An East Lothian farm has been left considerably out of pocket after around 1,000 hay bales were set alight in a reckless act.

The incident at Adniston Farm, in Macmerry, happened around 7.30pm on Wednesday.

It is estimated the destroyed bales of hay were worth 30,000.

Police are now appealing for witnesses with inquiries ongoing to trace those responsible.

Do you have any info re our inquiries into a suspicious fire at Adniston Farm, Macmerry, last night?



Approx. 1000 hay bales were destroyed worth 30,000.



If you can assist us please come forward & quote incident number 3673 of the 17th October.  East Lothian Police (@EastLothPolice) October 18, 2018

Detective Sergeant Jamie Gilmore said: Whoever was responsible for this reckless act has left the farmer considerably out of pocket by completely destroying a large quantity of hay that was used either to feed livestock, or to be sold on.

Anyone who remembers seeing any suspicious activity around Adniston Farm on Wednesday evening should contact police immediately.

Approximately 1,000 bales of hay were destroyed at the farm (Anthony Devlin/PA)

We would also ask that anyone who can help us identify the culprits, or who has any other information relevant to this investigation, gets in touch as a matter of urgency.The Supreme Court of Pakistan has reserved its judgment on the much hyped and sensational case of Asia Bibi, the 47-year-old Christian Pakistani on whom charges of blasphemy were slapped more than nine years ago on June 14, 2009. It was alleged that she had made blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad.

In Pakistan, punishment for blasphemy is death and if at all the court awards a lenient verdict  reducing the death sentence to life imprisonment  the one on death row is unlikely to escape the mob frenzy.

Asia has been on the death row since November, 2010.

Asia Bibi, with a Bible in her hand and her physically challenged child on her mind, is awaiting a verdict. (Photo: Indiatoday.in)

The Lahore High Court had earlier confirmed the death sentence, dashing the hopes of the verdict being commuted to a life sentence. Asias husband, Ashiq Mia, is running from pillar to post, trying to garner support for a reprieve and to create favourable public opinion. He even approached the Vatican and other international Catholic institutions for support. However, hope is slim, especially now that human rights activist Asma Jahangir is no more to plead Asias case.

Pakistan is bereft of bold voices that would air concern on such grim issues. One has to wonders if Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist of international recognition, could mobilise substantial public opinion that would urge the international human rights activists, organisations and journalists to speak up for Asia Bibi. Appeals to Amnesty International have not worked.

Pakistans indifference towards liberal laws is well known. Former governor Salman Taseer was gunned down by his own bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri on January 4, 2011 for being progressive, expressing anti-blasphemy laws stances and for defending Asia Bibi in court. His voice was stifled by a 22-year-old radicalised youth. Qadri turned into a hero overnight and was commended for silencing an anti-blasphemy law man. Incidents like these highlight how deep religious fundamentalism runs in the country.

Qadri turned into a hero overnight and was commended for silencing an anti-blasphemy law man. (Photo: Reuters)

Qadris trial proceedings too were a nightmare for the authorities. Of course, after he was executed, floral tributes were paid to him the general public ascended him to a martyr-like status. A major chunk of the Pakistani society is venomously regressive and has no tolerance for anything that challenges their religious beliefs and unless their mindset changes, relaxation of stringent laws will remain a tough challenge. That being said, there exist saner and forward-thinking people in the country, but incidents like these discourage them from openly asserting their views, for the fear of either being ostracised or being harassed  legally as well  is very real. The judiciary too is helpless.

One has to wonder  Bangladesh that was once part of Pakistan has progressed rather well since its inception 47 years ago. Secularists, liberals and progressives enjoy a fair amount of say in the society; they have helped in shaping public opinion through the dynamism of theatre, films, literature, media and use of intelligentsia. Yet, Pakistan  independence more than 70 years has not made much visible strides.

What happened to grand visions of a naya Pakistan? (Photo: Reuters)

Meanwhile, as Asia Bibis mercy petition is under submission, her fate hangs in balance and the judgment is reserved by the Supreme Court. Interestingly, during the trial, Justice Iqbal Hameed Ur Rehman, one of three members of the Supreme Court bench recused himself from the hearing, stating that he was the judge who had heard the case of Salman Taseers assassination. According to Justice Mian Saqib Nisar of the Supreme Court, Justice Rahman believed that his presence in the bench may prejudice Asia Bibis case as it was closely linked to Salman Taseer. It is, therefore, clearly evident that judges are applying themselves on the merits of the case.

Its time Pakistan undergoes some radical judicial reforms, especially on the laws of blasphemy focusing on 295C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which is in violation of Pakistans obligations to respect the rights to life, to a fair trial and to prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman degrading treatment or punishment.

Now that Imran Khan is at the helm with visions of a naya Pakistan, isnt it imperative he undertake judicial reforms to address humanitarian issues?

In the meantime, Asia Bibi, with a Bible in her hand and thoughts of her physically challenged child in her mind, is awaiting a verdict; one that is cloaked in suspense.

Also read: Why Pakistanis must speak up against blasphemy lawsBoth the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh are battling on the development plank offering a slew of populist measures for the November 28 state Assembly polls. But the two principal political parties are silent on the issue of providing relief to Bhopal gas tragedy victims, Narmada dam oustees and other marginalised sections of the society.

The BJp and Congress are silent on the plight of the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy. (Source: India Today)

The BJP is working on its manifesto offering free electricity for farmers, houses for the urban poor, bonus for farmers growing wheat, rice, maize, improvement in infrastructure, etc. The opposition Congress manifesto plans to offer loan waiver for farmers and various sops for the students, unemployed youths, and constitution of Vidhan Parishad (second chamber in the state assembly) in its manifesto.

However, both political parties are silent on the plight of the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy. The survivors have suffered in silence for about 34 years now ever since the worlds worst industrial disaster struck the city. Activist Abdul Jabbar, who has been fighting for justice, insists that babies are still born ill-formed in three Assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal. The three constituencies were the worst affected by the disaster. Jabbar, who is convener of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, says some of those born around 1984-85 have grown up to be unhealthy adults.

There are large piles of toxic waste in and around of what used to be the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India. The groundwater is reported to be highly contaminated, yet elected representatives and those vying for electoral seats have no words or concern for the survivors. Nearly 5,70,000 survivors are still suffering due to an indifferent government, a callous health service and meagre compensation.

According to official records, over 3,000 people were killed on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, when over 40 tonnes of poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) leaked from the storage tanks of the Bhopal-based Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL). But campaigners like Jabbar insist that the killer gas killed more than 25,000 people leaving 5,50,000 others injured and disabled. The horrific effects of the gas continue to effect life to this day, says Jabbar, who is himself a survivor.

Thirty-four years on, victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy await justice. (Source: PTI)

Local Congress MLA and Congress candidate for Bhopal (North) seat Arif Aqueel was minister for gas rehabilitation in Digvijaya Singhs government between 1998 and 2003 when he did the unthinkable by getting himself photographed drinking the contaminated water. The photograph was produced in US courts by lawyers to show that reports about water contamination were exaggerated. Several NGOs had filed law suits against Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals seeking damages for the environmental and health destruction caused by the December 2-3, 1984 gas leak.

The plight of thousands displaced by the Sardar Sarovar project from the bank of the Narmada is no different. Except for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nobody is talking about Narmada oustees. AAP has a little presence in Madhya Pradesh due to its urban profile and leadership pattern. For most political observers, prospects of AAPs success are negligible in the largely tribal-rural state where the political narrative is dominated by caste.

In 2017, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) convener and rights activist Medha Patkar had spent Independence Day in a Madhya Pradesh jail. Patkar, 63, who is a moving force behind NBA, was on a fast in support of the oustees of the Sardar Sarovar Project in Chikilda village of Dhar district when she was held. She was booked under various charges, including kidnapping state revenue department officials and under Section 151 of the CrPC and breach of peace.

Medha Patkar is a moving force behind the Narmada Bachao Andolan. (Source: PTI)

NBA activists say resettlement and rehabilitation work to over 40,000 families spread over the 214 km submergence zone has remained incomplete. Even basic amenities like water, electricity and sewage lines are not available for oustees. Considered by many as a holy river, Narmada passes through 1,300 kilometres of the state.

Issues related to Bhopal gas survivors and Narmada oustees had not found a place in either Congress or BJP manifesto of 2008 and 2013 state Assembly polls.

Some NGOs want voters sympathetic to the Bhopal survivors and Narmada oustees to use None of The Above (NOTA) option when they set out to vote rejecting all candidates put forward by parties.

But Jabbar is convinced that exercising the NOTA option does not help the survivors. This kind of pressure tactic can work in villages but not in a city where lot of people have different ideologies divided in different camps. If NOTA is used as an option then groups which we dont like at all will stand to gain, he said.

Also read: Why Shivraj Singh Chouhan's many failures may still not be enough for Congress to win MPDubai Internet City (DIC) has signed an agreement with the Russian Export Centre (REC) to launch the first Russian Centre for Digital Innovations and Information and Communication Technologies outside Russia, in Dubai.



The centre which will encompass of a space of over 20,000 sq ft within Dubai Internet City, is the first of four global centres, and the first-ever commitment to investment promotion of this scale by Russia abroad, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Ammar Al Malik, managing director at Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource City; and Marat Korovaev, head of IT Export Support Department at Russian Export Centre; during Gitex Technology Week 2018.



Al Malik said: "The UAE and Russia have shared close business ties for decades, and for DIC to be chosen as the first overseas destination by Russian Export Centre is a true testament to Dubais key position as a global business destination. As the largest hub and leading community of technology innovators in the region, DIC is supporting the emirate in attracting more international enterprises of all sizes."



Korovaev added: "Long-standing bilateral ties, favourable and simplified business processes, and a nurturing environment that promotes ideation and exchange of knowledge and best practices, are key factors that impelled us to choose Dubai and DIC as the first destination for our four planned centres outside Russia. Eighty-three percent of our customers are SMEs and DICs holistic approach to supporting its business partners, from startups to well-established enterprises, was another factor that influenced our decision."



Apart from the centre, the Russian Export Centre and DIC will jointly work to support Russia and UAE based technology companies of all sizes, including startups and entrepreneurs and further support DICs commitment to providing a thriving ecosystem for companies.



The opening of the centre comes at a time when the UAE and Russia enjoy heightened trade relationships and a reported growth in trade between both countries to $1.2 billion in 2017.At an intimate dinner event last week, an elderly gentleman who had lived through the freedom movement asked me: What do you think of Mahatma Gandhi?

There was a sudden silence around the room.

We had been discussing American politics and the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court. This sudden off-topic question took us by surprise. There was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes as the nonagenarian repeated the question.

History lessons

Well, I pointed out, Gandhi had been a strong advocate of the Khilafat Movement even while most the Muslim world was in two minds about it. At the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire had been dismembered.

By 1924, the Caliphate, the Islamic worlds central authority  as the Vatican is for Christendoms Catholics  would itself be abolished. Gandhi was the most enthusiastic proponent of reviving the Caliphate. For the Mahatma, the Khilafat Movement served a political purpose as well. Muslims comprised nearly a third of undivided Indias population. An independent India would be unviable without peace between Muslims and Hindus.

His Khilafat Movement was an attempt to co-opt Muslims in his grand strategy of uniting Hindus and Muslims in the early 1920s to fight the British and create an undivided Independent India.

The strategy unravelled, partly because of the intransigence of a fellow Gujarati, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

Gandhi had great virtues but great flaws as well.

Gandhis attempt to co-opt Indias Muslims failed because he failed to read the Muslim mind.

His attitude towards Muslims and Dalits was often inconsistent. He was an insensitive father and a negligent husband. His experiments with celibacy were self-serving.

Cut to the present.

Gandhis attempt to co-opt Indias Muslims failed because he failed to read the Muslim mind.

Khaled Ahmed, an astute observer of India-Pakistan relations, wrote recently: Gandhi was the leader of the greatest Muslim movement in history, the Khilafat Movement, whose leaders were not too enamoured of Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Arun Shourie, in his book The World of Fatwas, says Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali used to kiss the feet of Mahatma Gandhi for leading the Khilafat Movement. Hamza Alavi, in Ironies of History: Contradictions of The Khilafat Movement, writes that Jinnah was physically beaten by Shaukat Ali for opposing the movement. After 1947, Khilafat was not in Pakistani textbooks although most of the anti-Pakistan Khilafat leaders were accepted into the pantheon of Pakistans Islamic nationalism. Why not Gandhi?

Why not indeed?

The answer: Islam in the mid-20th century was rootless. The Caliphate was gone. Saudi Arabia had yet to assert its influence over the Islamic world. Pakistan was becoming radicalised. Most Middle Eastern countries after the Second World War were virtual colonies of Western powers led by the United States, Britain and France.

Triple talaq was banned in Turkey in 1926.

Regressive acts

In the 1960s, Iraq and Iran, both Shia-majority, were relatively secular.

Women walked to work in skirts. The hijab was rarely seen. Even Saudi Arabia was a more tolerant, laid-back country.

Islamism had yet to gain a headlock over the Middle East. In India though, Islam remained immersed in formaldehyde  preserved in antiquity. The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), formed in 1972, had neither the sanction of the community nor reform on its agenda. Over the past several decades, it has been at the forefront of every major regressive act designed to keep Muslims in their backward, impoverished ghettos. It has opposed reform in Muslim personal law, opposed the ban on instant triple talaq, and opposed gender equality in Islam. Political parties have played a toxic role in exploiting the backwardness of the Muslim community to inveigle its votes en masse. With religious leaders failing them and politicians exploiting them, reform in Islam in India can only come from the bottom up.

Education is the key. Ordinary Muslims must rise above religion and embrace a national identity. Religion belongs to your home, not the public space. The same rule applies to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Jews and Christians.

Urgent amends

The RSS has long been reviled as an anti-Muslim organisation. Some of that criticism is justified.

The RSS is hidebound but change seems to be in the air.

Its sarsangchalak Mohan Bhagwat conceded recently: Hindu Rashtra doesnt mean theres no place for Muslims. If we dont accept Muslims, its not Hindutva. Hindutva is Indianness and inclusiveness.

He went on to say that if Muslims were not happy with the term Hindu Rashtra, then they could call it Bharat Rashtra and similarly if Hindutva grated on them, they should use the term Bharatiyeta.

Beyond semantics, Muslims in India must realise that reforming Islam is in their best interests.

Lack of education consigns ordinary Muslims to low-paid jobs or no jobs all.

Many fall into a life of crime. The answer lies in reform. Polygamy and nikah halala should be banned.

Nikah halala is a medieval practice where a Muslim divorcee is compelled to marry another man, consummate the marriage, then divorce him and remarry her former husband.

The regressive nature of Indian Muslim personal law can be gauged by the fact that triple talaq was banned in Turkey in 1926, in Egypt in 1929, in Tunisia in 1955 and in Pakistan in 1961. In India, a toxic mix of politicians and clerics has denied Muslim women the freedoms their sisters across even the Middle East have enjoyed for decades. It is time to reform Islam in India  from top to bottom.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

Also Read: What the Ayodhya verdict before 2019 could mean for BJP, CongressHospitality firm OYO Thursday said it has forayed into Indonesia and also confirmed an investment of over USD 100 million in the country as part of its expansion in Southeast Asia.

Starting operations with over 30 exclusive hotels and more than 1,000 rooms in three cities - Jakarta, Surabaya and Palembang, the company is ready to offer benefits of its hospitality experience to asset owners, property investors and travellers to Indonesia, OYO said in a statement.

The company will be working towards transforming the Indonesia's hospitality industry by leasing and franchising assets and renovating them into beautiful living spaces, it added.

Commenting on the development, OYO Founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal said: "We intend to invest over USD 100 million in this high growth market and plan to expand to the top 35 cities in Indonesia, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Bali, over the next 15 months".

Indonesia is one of the top choices for both global and Indian travellers and with OYO's market learning and expertise the company is ready to tap this opportunity, he added.

"This expansion is in line with our quest to support the country's hospitality ecosystem and creating infrastructure for asset owners to grow and run successful businesses, all of this while ensuring high standards of quality," Agarwal said.

The company looks forward to creating over 60,000 (direct and indirect) livelihood opportunities in Indonesia, he added.In an important political development, former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghelas son Mahendrasinh resigned from ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.

Vaghela had joined the saffron brigade just three months back, but was feeling neglected in the new set and ultimately decided to quit the party ahead of Lok Sabha polls. Junior Vaghela however cited the reason in his resignation to Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani that he decided to quit the party due to personal reasons.

Following the footstep of his father, Mahendrasinh had left the Opposition Congress party in July 2017 before the State Assembly polls. His father Shankersinh initiated his political career with Jan Sangh and went on to become senior most BJP leader. He however left BJP in 1996 following differences with then Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and formed his own political party and straight away became Chief Minister with the support of Congress party.

Ahead of the 1998 Gujarat assembly polls Vaghela merged his political outfit with Congress. In UPA Government he was made Union Minister and held couple of portfolios also. Later on he was given the position of Leader of Opposition in Gujarat assembly post 2012 state elections.

He however left Congress as he was denied to project Chief Ministerial candidate in the 2017 assembly polls.

The Congress party had also gave ticket to Mahendrasinh from Bayad assembly constituency from where he got elected in 2012.

Interestingly both Vaghelas along with their 12 more supporters defied the Congress whip in the Rajya Sabha election held in Gujarat in August last year and had voted for the BJP against the senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel.The court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) on Thursday said it will examine the statements by former Union Minister MJ Akbar and other witnesses on October 31, in the defamation case filed by the journalist-turned-politician against journalist Priya Ramani.

The #MeToo controversy had jolted the political quarters and led to the ouster of Akbar, who was Minister of State for External Affairs and had to demit office on Wednesday evening.

Akbar has filed a defamation suit against Ramani, who made allegations of sexual harassment against Akbar.

Ramani has accused Akbar of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago. Ramanis claims were seconded by several other women, who took to the social media and revealed their harrowing accounts of alleged sexual misconduct by Akbar.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications.

Scores of scribes, lawyers and onlookers thronged the small courtroom at courts complex on Thursday around 2 pm to witness the first hearing of the high-profile defamation case. However, the curiosity, subsided drastically the moment they came to know that neither Akbar nor Ramani would visit the court for their first judicial face-off.

During the 20-minute-long hearing in the Patiala house court complex, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal heard the submissions of senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing Akbar, who said the controversial tweets and similar social media posts of Ramani have cause irreparable loss to Akbars reputation built over 40 years.

Let the matter be fixed for examination of the complainant (Akbar) and his witnesses for October 31, said the magistrate.

Akbar has listed names of two senior woman journalists -- The Sunday Guardians Editor Joyeeta Basu and journalist Veenu Sandal -- and four others as his witnesses to prove his defamation charges against Ramani.

The senior lawyer referred to the sequence of events and said Akbar has resigned from the post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to these allegations and this showed the extent of damage caused to his reputation. She also referred to the reputation of Akbar as a journalist and sought judicial intervention in the matter by taking cognisance of the complaint.

Akbars name had cropped up in the social media campaign #MeToo against alleged sexual harassment when he was in Nigeria. Hours after returning home, Akbar had termed the allegations as false, fabricated and deeply distressing and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

As per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied that there are prima-facie substance in the complaint.

Ramani has tweeted defamatory tweets against the complainant. Her 2nd tweet was clearly defamatory and liked by 1,200 people, Akbars lawyer Luthra reportedly told the court.

Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs. I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country, Akbar had said in his plea.

The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment, included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.BJP netas hail push; Opp, Muslim leaders say call is politically motivated

Ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday put the contentious Ram Mandir issue back on the front burner, by exhorting the Narendra Modi Government to clear the path for construction of a grand temple through appropriate and requisite law.

Addressing the RSS cadre at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on Vijayadashami, Bhagwat charged that there was an obvious game-plan of a few elements to stall the judgment on Ram Mandir by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process. He, however, stressed that the construction of Ram temple was necessary from the self-esteem point of view.

It (Ram temple) will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country. This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Despite such machinations, the decision regarding ownership of the land should be expedited, and the Government should clear the path for construction of the grand temple through appropriate and requisite law, Bhagwat said.

Several BJP leaders supported the RSS chiefs push for a law to enable the construction of Ram temple, saying legislation is a constitutionally valid option. Opposition and Muslim leaders, however, linked his call for the legislation to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, saying his demand is politically motivated.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Bhagwats remarks indicated that the RSS and the BJP believed in totalitarianism and not in the rule of law.

BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said Bhagwat made a constitutionally valid demand and the Government should bring an Ordinance for construction of the temple.

Shrikant Sharma, a Minister in the Uttar Pradesh Government and its spokesperson, echoed the view, saying the legislation to build the temple at Ayodhya will be in accordance with the Constitution.

Terming Bhagwats speech historic, former BJP MP Vinay Katiyar rejected the contention that he made the demand for a law for the temple with an eye on the 2019 elections.

In Lucknow, Opposition parties and Muslim leaders said Bhagwats call was meant to serve political interests. The statement on Ram temple given by the RSS chief is a political statement before the upcoming elections, Samajwadi Party spokesman in Uttar Pradesh Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI.

Darul Uloom Farangi Mahal rector Maulana Khalid Rashid Farangi Mahali said even a child knows that the Ram temple issue is raised by the RSS-BJP every time before the elections.

Babri Masjid Action Committee convener Zafaryab Jilani said Bhagwat is trying to influence the court, referring to the title suit for the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Firebrand Hindu leader Pravin Togadia questioned why such a law was not enacted in the last four and a half years of the BJP rule. The RSS is raising the issue now because elections are round the corner and the BJP Governments performance is dismal, he said.

Underlining the role of Sangh Parivar in the proposal to construct Ram Mandir (in Ayodhya), Bhagwat said, In this very same context of honouring the Sewa of the nation, Sangh has been associated with the sentiments of countrymen, in the efforts of constructing a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Shri Ram who is the personification of the life energy of the nation and an icon of upholding dharma.

The place of Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place. There is an obvious game-plan of a few elements to stall the judgment by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, the RSS chief said, as he called for expediting the decision on the ownership of the land and the BJP-led Government at the Centre bringing an appropriate and requisite law to facilitate construction of the Ram temple.

Through his remarks on Ram Mandir, Bhagwat has indirectly given a poll plank to the ruling BJP but also asked the Government to become pro-active in taking Mandir issue to a logical conclusion in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

It remains to be seen if the Modi Government would bring in a legislation in matters relating to the Ram Mandir construction, pending a Supreme Court verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute, the hearing for which will commence from October 29 before a three-judge Bench.

In his Dussehra rally address, Bhagwat spoke on a host of issues, including national security, internal security, disturbing trends in the country, the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple and the RSS role and views on the 2019 general elections.

Among other things, Bhagwat charged that the urban Naxals were carving out a psychological warfare  called Mantrayuddh in traditional Rajneeti Shastras - by manufacturing vicious and hostile atmosphere that weakens and destroys the social cohesion - essentially the bedrock of internal security of a nation.

Alluding to the recent activities of urban Naxals, Bhagwat said: To establish a new, unfamiliar, uncontrolled, out-rightly biased Naxal leadership with blind followers solely committed to them is the Neo - Left doctrine of these urban Naxals. Their cohorts already established in social and other media, intellectual circles and other institutions are associated with such activities from start to finish. They execute this by defending such activities through intellectual and other methods, through delusory public campaigns related to agitations, while keeping a safe distance and maintaining their so-called eminent positions.

So the emerging conclusion is, this is a bigger canny conspiracy in collusion with forces from within and outside the country. It no more remains just a power politics by the Opposition, but in this process, politically ambitious individuals and groups - either knowingly or unknowingly - and weaker sections, crushed under deprivation and neglect get drawn as ammunition unknowingly or unwillingly, he said.

To eliminate such tendencies, the Government and administration have to alertly ensure that such incidents, of which trouble mongers can take advantage of, do not take place, he said.The air quality of the national Capital remained very poor for the second consecutive day for this season with several areas in the national Capital nearing severe levels of pollution, according to the authorities.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 315, same as Wednesday, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research (SAFAR). The Particulate Matter 2.5 (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers) touched a new high at 158, even as the authorities said it could increase further. The PM 2.5, also called fine particulates, is a more serious health concern than PM10.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor and 401 and 500 severe.

A senior Central pollution Control Board (CPCB) official said the situation is being monitored and depending upon the quality more stringent measures like increase of parking fees and complete ban on construction activities would be imposed.

We are hoping that with a slight improvement in meteorological conditions, the air quality would improve. But if it doesnt, we would impose stringent measures, he said.

On Thursday, Anand Vihar recorded an AQI of 315, Dwarka Sector 8 369, ITO 256, Jahangirpuri 337 and Rohini 368, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The PM10 level (presence in the air of particles with a diameter of less than 10 micrometres) in Delhi stood at 297 and the PM 2.5 level was recorded at 140, according to the CPCB data.When it comes to celebrating Durga Puja in traditional Bengali way in Delhi, Chittaranjan Park (CR Park)s Kali Mandir Society, always comes with its unique style to celebrate it. While pandals across Delhi are busy experimenting with different themes, CR Park, with artists from Kolkata and delicacies from across India is flaunting its old style with panache.

Our kind of celebrations are always traditional. We dont experiment and this time also Kali Mandirs way of celebrating it is traditional only. In fact, we celebrate it in a clean way. Despite humongous footfall, the main temple and pandals are always clean, said Astitava Bhowmik, President of CR Park Kali Mandir Society.

The pandal offers an array of cultural performances by artists from Delhi and Bengal. Amongst other performances, one of the highlights was street play by Zindagi Theatre Group, Faridabad which focused on the theme of women empowerment.

We through characters like lord Vishnu and his creation stree (woman), tried to portray the pressure that society builds on a woman for being a woman. We have come to the CR Park for the first time and the reception has been great, said Gunjan Tiwari, one of the actors.

From Bengal, the society invited Kolkata based renowned tabla player, Ustaad Tanmay Bose among others. We have a series of cultural activities this year. The cultural programmes are getting sponsorships from Kumar Sanu Musical School and Le Rhythm. So, Tuesdays cultural fest was sponsored by Le Rhythm, Bhowmik said.

Talking about the budget he said, Since last year, we have started floating tenders. This year, the lowest bidding was Rs 15 lakh for Kali Mandir Pandals.

Apart from the artists, the pandal also has devotees coming all the way from Kolkata. Aparna Basu, a 70 year old lady from Kolkata said that she initially came here to meet her family but now she is feeling at home.

Amidst this, some vendors said that the footfall was a notch below on Tuesday however the Pandal expects it to be huge on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Monday, the people were more in numbers, I hope that there will be more people on Wednesday but today the footfall has been less, said Akshay, a stall vendor from Odisha.

Bhowmik said, On Ashtami and Navmi, the footfall is huge because non-Bengalis also come. Last night, the footfall was even larger than the last year and we are expecting more people coming tomorrow and a day after. Last year, the footfall was around 50,000 in an hour, he said.Following the demise of Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the Bharatiya Janata Party held a condolence meet at its State office here on Thursday. The party also suspended its election committee meeting which was to be held in the evening to finalise names of candidates for local body elections. Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, BJP State chief Ajay Bhatt and State-in-charge Shyam Jaju along with other senior party leaders left for Delhi to pay their last respects to Tiwari.

During the meet here in the evening, Bhatt said that Tiwaris demise had resulted in the loss of a leader who had made important contributions to the development of the nation and State while occupying various positions. He was storehouse of knowledge and rising above party politics, always accorded priority to development.

Despite being in our opposition, he never stopped our development proposals, said the BJP State chief.

The partys State-in-charge and national vice-president Shyam Jaju said that Tiwari was a leader connected to the ground and politeness was among his special attributes. MP and former CM, Bhagat Singh Koshyari said that Tiwari was very broad minded and never limited himself to conceited politics. Though politically we were on opposite sides, politics never came between personal relations and development works, he added. MP and former CM Ramesh Pokhriyal, former CM Vijay Bahuguna and other party leaders also paid tributes to the departed leader.To ensure employment opportunities especially for women in the state, Haryana Government has decided to provide employability training to the girl students of the government colleges.

Announcing this, Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma on Thursday said that in the first phase, as many as 12000 girl students of 11 districts would be given training for 16 hours free of cost and out of these, around 4000 girl students would be given employment.

Sharma said that providing job opportunities for the youth of the state is always the priority for the State Government.

He said that United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has implemented a unique project Disha for creating employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for underprivileged women so as to make them economically independent.

Under this programme, approximately 6.5 lakh girls and women have been imparted training in the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, Delhi and NCR in the areas of career guidance, career counseling, employment marketplace, entrepreneurship and value chains, the Minister said.

Under this project, in the first phase, 12000 girl students of 11 districts of Haryana would be given training for 16 hours free of cost on which a sum of Rs 1.16 cr would be spent, he added.Former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Narayan Dutt Tiwari died after a prolonged illness in New Delhi on Thursday. Incidentally, Tiwaris demise came at a time when his family members and supporters were celebrating his 93rd birthday. Tiwari was admitted to Max Super Speciality Hospital where he died around 2.50 pm.

The veteran politician was admitted to the hospital in September 2017 after suffering a brain stroke and his condition was being monitored by a team of doctors.

Besides senior Congress leaders, including Pramod Tewari, state chief Raj Babbar, leaders of other parties including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, mourned Tiwaris demise. In a message, Yogi said: I mourn the death of Tiwariji. He was an able administrator. I convey my condolences to the bereaved family. I have spoken to them.

Deputy CMs Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, ministers Shrikant Sharma, Surya Pratap Shahi and others also condoled Tiwaris demise.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, former SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati and several leaders termed it as a big loss to Indian politics.

Popularly known as `Vikas Putra, especially in his home state Uttarakhand, Tiwaris long political career included his three terms as UP Chief Minister, becoming the only Uttarakhand CM to complete a full term and holding key portfolios at the Centre.

But these achievements were somewhat shadowed by a couple of controversies that dogged him in the later years of his life. The Andhra Pradesh Raj Bhawan sex scandal and the paternity suit of a love child filed against him when he was in his 80s were to name a few.

Tiwari won his first election on a ticket of Socialist Party from Nainital Assembly seat in 1952. A decade later in 1965, he joined the Congress and stuck with it for most part of his life. There was a brief period in the 90s when he floated his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) with Arjun Singh.

Last year, long after he had outlived his usefulness for the Congress, Tiwari announced his support for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the Uttarakhand Assembly elections.

Tiwaris political career began before Independence. As a teenager, he was jailed for 15 months in Nainital prison, where his freedom-fighter father was lodged too. On his release, he joined Allahabad University and became the president of its students union in 1947.

In 1976, Tiwari became the CM of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. Two more stints followed in the 1980s.

At the Centre, Tiwari served as deputy chairperson of Planning Commission. Over the years, he also held portfolios of Planning, Finance, Petroleum and External Affairs in the Union Cabinet. Tiwari is said to have nurtured Prime Ministerial aspirations at one time, and there was speculations that he was in the running in 1991 when the party eventually picked PV Narasimha Rao. That was also the year when he lost the Nainital Lok Sabha seat by just 800 votes. He was the third CM of the newly formed Uttarakhand state but the first one to complete a full term, from 2002 to 2007.

Tiwari is credited with helping the new state, formed two years before he took charge, gain a firm footing. His rapport with his Opposition colleagues is said to have got Uttarakhand an industrial package from the Vajpayee government at the Centre, which was crucial for the states early development.

Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj once said: The plant we set up in Pantnagar was only at Tiwarijis request. We could not say no to him.

In 2007, Tiwari was made Governor of Andhra Pradesh but two years later, a video clip showing three women in bed with an elderly man in Raj Bhawan brought the veteran politicians career to a virtual end. Citing health grounds, Tiwari put in his papers and shifted to Dehradun. In 2008, Rohit Shekhar filed a paternity suit claiming that Tiwari was his biological father. The result in 2012 of a court-ordered DNA test proved the claim to be right. Tiwari pleaded with the media to let him be himself. I have every right to live my life my way. No one has the right to look into my private life. Please respect my privacy, he was quoted as saying. In 2014, Tiwari married Shekhars mother Ujjwala Sharma in Lucknow, finding a new family in the mother and son at the age of 88. He recently vacated his official residence as former CM of UP in Lucknow following a Supreme Court direction.Dubais Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and du, from Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company (EITC), are set to embark on a joint project to fit all taxis in Dubai (about 10,800 cabs) with free wi-fi service.



The step aims to bring happiness to riders and make clients mobility on board Dubai taxis an enjoyable experience. The two parties pronounced their commitment to support the efforts of ranking Dubai as the smartest and happiest city in the world.



In this regard, RTA and du have signed a cooperation agreement on the sidelines of their participation in Gitex 2018. Mattar Al Tayer, RTAs director general and chairman of the Board signed on behalf of RTA. Mohammed Al Hussaini, chairman, EITC, signed on behalf of du.



In line with our efforts to rank Dubai as the smartest and happiest city in the world, we are pleased to sign this agreement with RTA to provide smart services and wi-fi technology onboard taxis in Dubai, said Osman Sultan, CEO, EITC.



This initiative is an important step in our efforts to support the UAE Governments Vision 2021 for providing accessible modern telecommunication services, he added.



According to the agreement, du will start fitting the required devices to taxis. All fleet vehicles of the six franchise companies operating in Dubai will be covered by the service within one year from the date of signing this agreement, said Ahmed Hashim Bahrozyan, CEO of RTAs Public Transport Agency.



The wi-fi service enables taxi riders to browse the internet using their smart mobile phones, tabs or handheld devices. It saves them the time and enables them to do several tasks while on transit. RTA is always keen on using the state-of-the-art technology in collaboration with the service providers in the UAE, added Bahrozyan.



This service shall be subject to a continuous and accurate assessment and will be upgraded in conjunction with Du to enable riders to enjoy seamless internet connectivity. Du offers great services all over the UAE and has a high reputation across the community.



RTA is keen to bring happiness to all community members including the clients commuting daily on taxis. Clients can avail fine services onboard modern and convenient vehicles driven by skilled and highly professional drivers who have the etiquette of dealing with residents, tourists and visitors, continued Bahrozyan.



The wi-fi service is available at more than 400 hotspots in the UAE including the Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, shopping centres, Emaar Boulevard Downtown, and the Global Village among others. This service provides customers smooth access to all government sites and apps as well as chatting apps, e-mail and social media channels.



The service aims to raise the happiness of the UAE residents through enabling them access to the internet through: the free wi-fi UAE Free, and wi-fi UAE Premium, which is a paid service providing users features such as unlimited downloading and uploading against very affordable rates.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe Speaker of Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, Prem Chand Agarwal has expressed his deep sorrow on the death of Narayan Dutt Tiwari. In his message, he called the late leader a pioneer in politics who worked for all sections of the society till his death. The Speaker said that demise of Tiwari is not just an irreparable loss to the people of Uttarakhand but to the whole nation.

He conveyed his condolences to the family members of the departed leader.Former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and ex-Union Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari expired at a private hospital in Delhi on Thursday. The veteran politican died on his 94th birthday while in hospital since last year after suffering a stroke. His demise has elicited condolences from top political executives and leaders from across party lines even as the State Government declared a three-day State mourning.

Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya expressed deep grief at the passing away of Tiwari. In her condolence message, the Governor said that the departed veteran was a popular public leader and an able administrator. In addition to holding the posts of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarkhand Chief Minister, he had also successfully discharged his responsibility while holding important posts at the Centre. His demise is an irrepairable loss to the nation and society, she added.India Thursday said it was engaged with the US, Iran and other stakeholders on the issue of American sanctions on import of Iranian oil which will come into effect from November 4.

Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said India has already conveyed to the US about its position on the matter.

Asked about how India will make the payments to Russia for the S-400 missile deal, Kumar said India is also engaged with the US on the issue.

"We are engaged with the US on the matter. We have shared our position with the US sides at different levels. These discussions have contributed to a better understanding by the US about our objectives and concerns as well as our sensitivities and expectations," he said.

On October 5, India and Russia signed the USD 5 billion S-400 air defence system deal, notwithstanding US sanctions on military transactions with Moscow.

On US sanctions on import of Iranian oil from November 4, Kumar said, "Our discussions are on with Iran and other stakeholders. It will not be proper to go into the details how we will deal with the situation."

He said US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook held talks with officials of various relevant ministries here on the issue.

"We have conveyed to him that the price of crude oil is a matter of concern for our domestic economy and directly affects the common people," he said at a press briefing.

Kumar said India's "expectations" have been made known to the US side, adding India appreciated the statement made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that intention of imposing sanctions on Iran is not to hurt India.

"We do intend to continue our engagement with the US and other statekeholders to ensure our energy security and to protect our national interests," Kumar said.

He said India was trying to see how it can find a solution to the issue.

There has been indication that India may not totally stop import of crude oil from Iran.

Kumar said India will do everything possible to ensure the country's energy security.

In May, the US brought back sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal which was struck in 2015.

The US has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.

Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil between April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of fiscal 2017-18).

Sources said India is also looking at the possibility of falling back on the rupee-rial arrangement for importing oil from Iran in the wake of US sanctions.

The rupee-rial arrangement was used to buy oil from Iran before sanctions were lifted against it three years ago.

Under the mechanism, India used to pay in euros to clear 55 per cent of its dues through Ankara-based Halk bank. The remaining 45 per cent payment was remitted in rupees in accounts Iranian oil companies had with the Uco Bank.China is trying to use the Tibetan Buddhism as a soft power tool to further its ambitious multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the region as it developed Tibet to become Beijings gateway for trade to South Asia through Nepal, according to experts.

China is vigorously pursuing the BRI, a pet initiative of President Xi Jinping, which offered billions of dollars of loans for infrastructure projects to different countries as it looks to expand global influence.

The BRI, however, evoked negative reactions in India as the controversial multi-billion dollars China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) remained its flagship project. India has protested to China over the CPEC as it is being laid through the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

In a new initiative, China held a two-day symposium in northwest Chinas Qinghai Province on Tuesday to discuss how Buddhism could better serve BRI and resist separatism, state-run Global Times reported.

Tibetan monks and scholars took part in the event, the report said.

Tibetan Buddhism in which the Dalai Lama plays a pivotal role has following in different countries besides India. It has strong following in countries like Nepal and Mongolia.

Elaborating on the symposium, Qin Yongzhang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times that Tibetan Buddhism can serve as a bridge between the BRI countries to better communicate with each other, since the religious and cultural beliefs are similar in Central and South Asia.

One immediate challenge of promoting the BRI through Tibetan Buddhism comes from India, which has been holding back for geopolitical reasons, Qin said.America has asked Turkey for an audio recording in the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi, US President Donald Trump has said as he sought a full report from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dissident Saudi journalists mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for The Washington Post.

Khashoggi vanished on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are baseless.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he had asked Turkey for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi.

Weve asked for it, if it exists, he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

Im not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. Ill have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back, Trump said, referring to his meeting with Mike Pompeo on Thursday on his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Thats going to be the first question I ask him, he said.

On his way back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder? he was asked.

I dont have anything to say about that, Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

Theyre going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. Im going to be very consistent: Were going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, well form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that, Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened.

He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and hes going to have a full report. Im not giving cover at all, he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the West Asia. We are stopping Iran. Were not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about? he asked.

They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the West Asia. But if you look at Saudi Arabia, theyre an ally and theyre a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things, he said.7 hours ago

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Read ArticleUAEs Ministry of Finance (MoF) held an interactive session on its artificial intelligence initiatives alongside its participation in Gitex Technology Week 2018 concluding today (October 18) in Dubai, UAE.



Shamma Youssef, chairperson of the Emirates Youth Council at MoF, led the session with the participation of Ahmed Bin Fahad, who is responsible for the follow-ups and supervision of digital transformation projects in the Ministry and is also a member of the Youth Council. The session hosted representatives of the Emirates Youth Council, Youth Council members in other government entities, strategic partners of the Ministry as well as GITEX visitors.



Mariam Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary for the Management of Financial Resources, stressed the ministrys commitment to innovate in its various operations in order to increase the use of modern technologies in government financial services.



Al Amiri said: "The ministry is keen to reflect our wise leaderships directives by adopting an innovative approach across all its operations, turning it into a centre of excellence and an international reference for innovative best practices in government financial work."



During the session, a discussion on the government's efforts to improve Artificial Intelligence was held, where a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence was appointed and the Emirates Artificial Intelligence Strategy was launched.



That, in addition to incorporating the benefits of this technology to services and data analysis that would accelerate the completion of tasks, create an innovative work environment, and increase productivity, all of which fall in line with achieving the UAE Centennial 2071 objectives.



The interactive session also included a discussion of the challenges facing the ministry in the data management and analysis process and the proposed solutions to overcome including the Ministry's own efforts to implement a unified database in order to provide accurate data to support the decision-making process. The session then dealt with a list of the most important jobs that will come in light of such technological advancements including those relating to artificial intelligence.



MoFs participation in Gitex Technology Week is aimed at introducing the public to the latest and best technical services of the Ministry, reviewing the Ministry of Finance's innovative technical initiatives, identifying customer requirements and observations directly and building new partnerships in the technical field.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe following companies are subsidiares of Danaher: AB SCIEX, AB Sciex Germany GmbH, AB Sciex LLC, AB Sciex LP, AB Sciex Pte Ltd., Accu-Sort Systems, Acme Cleveland Corporation, Advanced Vision Technology, American Precision Industries, Applied Biosystems, Applitek NV, Aquatic Infomatics ULC, Aquatic Informatics, Armstrong Tools, BC Distribution BV, Beckman Coulter, Beckman Coulter Australia Pty Ltd, Beckman Coulter Biotechnology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Biyomedikal Urunler Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited [irketi], Beckman Coulter Canada LP, Beckman Coulter Commercial Enterprise (China) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter France S.A.S., Beckman Coulter G.m.b.H., Beckman Coulter Genomics Inc., Beckman Coulter Hong Kong Limited, Beckman Coulter Inc., Beckman Coulter India Private Limited, Beckman Coulter International SA, Beckman Coulter International Shanghai Trading Co., Beckman Coulter Ireland Inc., Beckman Coulter K.K., Beckman Coulter Korea Ltd., Beckman Coulter Laboratory Systems (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Beckman Coulter Limited Liability Company, Beckman Coulter Mishima KK, Beckman Coulter Nederland B.V., Beckman Coulter Nippon GK, Beckman Coulter S.L.U., Beckman Coulter Saudi Arabia Co.Ltd., Beckman Coulter Srl, Beckman Coulter Taiwan Inc., Beckman Coulter United Kingdom Limited, Beckman Coulter de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Beckman Coulter do Brasil Ltda., Beckman Finance ApS, Beckman Holdings Ltd., BioTector Analytical Systems Ltd, Biosafe S.A., Blue Software LLC, Cepheid, Cepheid AB, Cepheid Europe SAS, Cepheid GmbH, Cepheid HBDC SAS, Cepheid UK Ltd., ChemTreat, ChemTreat Inc., ChemTreat International Inc., Cispus Hong Kong Holding Limited, Cytiva, Cytiva BioProcess R&D AB, Cytiva Biotechnology (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Biotechnology (Hang Zhou) Co. Ltd., Cytiva Europe GmbH, Cytiva Sweden AB, Cytiva Sweden Holding AB, DH Europe Finance II Sarl, DH Europe Finance Sarl, DH Holding Italia SRL, DH Japan Finance Sarl, DH Life Sciences LLC, DH Netherlands BV, DH Technologies Development Pte Ltd., DHKAB Company AB, DTIL Ireland Holdings Ltd., Danaher (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Danaher Hong Kong Limited, Danaher Medical ApS, Delta Consolidated Industries, Devicore Medical Products Inc., Easco Hand Tools, Esko, Esko BV, Esko Finance BV, Esko Graphics BV, Esko Software BV, FHAB Company AB, Fluke, G. Lufft Mess- und Regeltechnik GmbH, GE Biopharma, Gelman Sciences Inc., Gendex, Genetix Group, Gilbarco Veeder Root, Gilzoni Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Austria GmbH & Co. KG, Global Life Sciences Solutions Germany GmbH, Global Life Sciences Solutions Korea Ltd., Global Life Sciences Solutions Manufacturing UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions New Zealand, Global Life Sciences Solutions Operations UK Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions Singapore Pte Ltd, Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC, Global Life Sciences Technologies (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Global Life Sciences Technologies Japan KK, Hach Company, Hach Lange Finance GmbH, Hach Lange GmbH, Hach Lange Sarl, Hach Sales & Services Canada LP, Hach Ultra Japan KK, Hach Water Quality Analytical Instru. (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., HemoCue AB, HyClone Laboratories LLC, Hybritech Incorporated, Hyclone Life Sciences Solutions India Private Limited, IDBS Group, IRIS International, Imaging Sciences International, Immunotech SAS, Immunotech Sro, Intabio LLC, Integrated DNA Technologies, Integrated DNA Technologies BVBA, Integrated DNA Technologies Inc., Integrated DNA Technologies Pte. Ltd., Iris International Inc., Joslyn Holding Company LLC, KVHG GmbH, KaVo, KaVo Kerr, Kaltenbach & Voigt, Keithley Instruments, Kipp & Zonen BV, Kollmorgen, Labcyte Inc., Laetus, Leica Biosystems Imaging Inc., Leica Biosystems Melbourne Pty Ltd, Leica Biosystems Newcastle Limited, Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH, Leica Biosystems Richmond Inc., Leica Instruments (Singapore) Pte Limited, Leica Microsystems, Leica Microsystems (UK) Limited, Leica Microsystems CMS GmbH, Leica Microsystems Cambridge Limited, Leica Microsystems IR GmbH, Leica Microsystems Inc., Leica Microsystems Limited, Leica Microsystems Ltd. Shanghai, Leica Mikrosysteme Vertrieb GmbH, Life Sciences Holdings France SAS*, Lifschultz Industries, Linx Printing Technologies, Linx Printing Technologies Limited, MDS Analytical Technologies, Marconi Data Systems, McCrometer Inc., Microtest, Molecular Devices, Molecular Devices (Austria) GmbH, Molecular Devices LLC, Navman Wireless, Navman Wireless OEM Solutions, Nihon Pall Ltd., Nihon Pall Manufacturing Limited, Nobel Biocare, OTT Hydromet Corp, Pall, Pall (Canada) ULC, Pall (China) Co. Ltd., Pall (Schweiz) GmbH, Pall Aeropower Corporation, Pall Artelis BVBA, Pall Asia Holdings Inc., Pall Australia Pty. Ltd., Pall Austria Filter Ges.m.b.h, Pall Corporation, Pall Europe Limited, Pall Filtersystems GmbH, Pall Filtration Pte. Ltd., Pall Filtration and Separations Group Inc., Pall France SAS, Pall GmbH, Pall India Pvt. Ltd., Pall International Sarl, Pall Italia Srl, Pall Korea Ltd., Pall Life Sciences Belgium BV, Pall Life Sciences Puerto Rico LLC, Pall Manufacturing UK Limited, Pall Medistad BV, Pall Netherlands BV Irish Branch, Pall Technology UK Limited, PaloDEX, Pantone LLC, Pelton & Crane, Phenomenex, Phenomenex Inc., Precision NanoSystems, QHC Ireland Finance Limited, Radiometer, Radiometer Basel AG, Radiometer K.K., Radiometer Medical ApS, Radiometer Medical Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Radiometer Turku Oy, Raytek, Reytek Corporation, SH Switzerland Finance Sarl, Sea-Bird Electronics Inc., SenDx Medical Inc., Shanghai AB Sciex Analytical Instrument Trading Co. Ltd., Sutron, Sybron Dental Specialties, TCIL Ireland Finance Ltd., Tektronix, Thomson Industries, Tianjin Bonna-Agela Technologies Co. Ltd., Trojan Technologies, Trojan Technologies Group ULC, VSS Monitoring, Videojet Do Brasil Comercio de Equipamentos Para Codificacao Industrial Ltda., Videojet Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Videojet Technologies Europe B.V., Videojet Technologies Inc., Viridor Waste Management Limited, Vision Systems Limited, Willett International, X-Ray Optical Systems Inc., X-Rite, X-Rite Europe GmbH, X-Rite Incorporated, X-Rite Switzerland GmbH, XOS, Yukon Hong Kong Holding Limited, and Zhuhai S.E.Z. Videojet Electronics Ltd..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Invesco BulletShares 2020 Corporate Bond ETF's stock was trading at $21.13 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, BSCK shares have increased by 0.3% and is now trading at $21.19.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF's stock was trading at $36.70 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, EWT shares have increased by 80.0% and is now trading at $66.07.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.The world's biggest book sale featuring three million brand-new English and Arabic language books of all genres will be offered at 50 per cent - 80 per cent discount at the first-ever Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Dubai starting October 18.



Held in partnership with The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF), the National Media Council (NMC) and Dubai Production City, the sale is open 24 hours a day, non-stop, for 11 consecutive days at Dubai Studio City, Sound Stage Venue. Doors open at 9m on October 18 and will close at 11.59pm on October 28.



Our vision of bringing The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale to Dubai is now a reality, said Mohamed Al Aidaroos, managing partner of Ink Readable Books, the organiser of The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Dubai.



The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale aims to promote a culture of reading through affordable brand-new books and there is a clear demand for such books in the region. By making millions of high-quality, English books accessible, we aim to ignite imaginations, foster creative thinking and help empower the future generation.



MBRF has contributed a number of Arabic books and publications through its publishing arm, Qindeel Printing, Publishing and Distribution, as part of its commitment to promote the widespread use of the Arabic language.



With MBRFs latest Arab Reading Index revealing that the average Arab citizen reads around 17 books per year, Al Aidaroos said that the event is ready to host hundreds of thousands of English and Arabic bookworms, occasional readers, students, families and avid shoppers over the next week-and-a-half.



Thousands of book lovers attended the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Dubais special VIP Day today, with Big Bad Wolf members and competition winners given exclusive pre-sale access. The VIP Day was inaugurated by Jamal bin Huwaireb, CEO of MBRF.



The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale arrives in Dubai with over three million brand new books at amazing discounts. We are delighted to partner The Big Bad Wolf Sale and would like to encourage everyone to visit the sale at Dubai Studio City, Sound Stage Venue, said Jamal bin Huwaireb.



Founded in 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Big Bad Wolf Books has been to multiple Asian cities in the last decade, including Jakarta, Manila, Cebu, Colombo, Bangkok and Taipei. Dubais very own Big Bad Wolf Book Sale will reflect its commitment to Changing the World One Book at a Time. Readers of all interests, financial status or age groups can expect to find bestsellers, novels, business books, art and design titles, cookbooks and a wide range of childrens books from augmented reality to activity books.



If you take the average thickness of one book and you imagine all the books at Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Dubai piled up into a single stack, it will be a cloud-piercing tower of books that is 48 times taller than the Burj Khalifa. We have a lot of books and we invite everyone to come and experience it, said Al Aidaroos.



Majed Al Suwaidi, managing director of Dubai Production City and Dubai Studio City, said: As part of our support to the reading initiatives launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Big Bad Wolf initiative meets our values of enabling education and sharing knowledge.



This one-of-its-kind book fair allows book enthusiasts of this region to meet like-minded people and exchange ideas as well as giving a larger opportunity and access to books. We hope this initiative will strongly contribute towards Dubais vision of developing a knowledge-based competitive economy, and we are pleased to be part of it.



Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Dubai has also partnered with Careem, the leading ride-hailing app, which is offering existing and new customers 25 per cent discount on four rides per person to and from the Sound Stage Venue at Dubai Studio City during the 11-day sale.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe following companies are subsidiares of Global Payments: ACTIVE Network - Communities and Sports, Active Network (HK) Limited, Active Network IPICO (CA) Inc., Active Network IPICO (US) Inc., Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Holdings (US) LLC, Active Network IPICO Innovation Inc., Active Networks LLC, AdvancedMD, Athlaction Intermediate LLC, Athlaction Topco LLC, AuctionPay, Comercia Global Payments Entidad de Pago S.L., DEBITEK INC, Digital Dining LLC, Dinerware LLC, DolEx Europe S.L., Educational Computer Systems Inc., Ematters Australia Pty Ltd., Equifax Credit Services LLC, Ezi Holdings Pty. Ltd., Ezi Management Pty Ltd., Ezidebit, Ezidebit (NZ) Limited, Ezidebit HK Ltd., Ezidebit Pty Ltd., GP Finance LLC, GPC Financial Corporation, GPS Holding Limited Partnership, GPUK LLP, Global Payment Holding Company, Global Payment Systems Asia-Pacific (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd., Global Payment Systems LLC, Global Payment Systems of Canada Ltd., Global Payments - Caixa Acquisition Corporation S.a.r.l., Global Payments - Realex Payments Holding Limited, Global Payments - Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 1 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 2 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corp. 3 B.V., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 2 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 3 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 4 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 6 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 LLC, Global Payments Acquisition Corporation 7 S.a.r.l., Global Payments Acquisition Corporation HK Holding Limited, Global Payments Acquisition PS 1 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 2 C.V., Global Payments Acquisition PS 3 C. V., Global Payments Acquisition PS1-Global Payments Direct S.e.n.c., Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong Holding) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Hong Kong) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (India) Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Shanghai) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific (Singapore Holding) Ltd., Global Payments Asia-Pacific Lanka (Private) Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Macau Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Maldives Private Limited, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Philippines Incorporated, Global Payments Asia-Pacific Processing Company Limited, Global Payments Australia Pty 1 Ltd., Global Payments Australia Pty 2 Ltd., Global Payments Canada GP, Global Payments Canada Inc., Global Payments Card Processing Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Global Payments Check Recovery Services Inc., Global Payments Check Services Inc., Global Payments Direct Inc., Global Payments Europe d.o.o. Sarajevo, Global Payments Europe s.r.o., Global Payments Gaming Canada Inc., Global Payments Gaming International Inc., Global Payments Gaming Services Inc., Global Payments Integrated, Global Payments Limited, Global Payments Process Centre Inc., Global Payments South America Brasil-Servicos de Pagamentos S.A., Global Payments UK 2 Ltd., Global Payments UK Ltd., Global Payments s.r.o., Greater Giving Inc., Heartland Acquisition LLC, Heartland Payment Solutions Inc., Heartland Payment Systems, Heartland Payment Systems LLC, Heartland Payroll Solutions Inc., IPICO South Africa (Pty) Ltd., JumpForward LLC, Maximum Solutions LLC, Merchant Services U.S.A. Inc., Modular Data Inc., NDC Holdings (UK) Ltd., NDPS Holdings Inc., PCAmerica LLC, Pay and Shop Limited, PayPros LLC, Payment Processing, Payroll 1 Inc., Realex Payments, SICOM Systems, Sabrir Invest S.L., Sentral Education, Spolecnost pro informacni database a.s., Storman Holdings Pty Ltd., Storman Software Inc., Storman Software Limited, Storman Software Ltd., Storman Software Pty Ltd., TeamPages Inc., The Active Network (Asia) Pte. Ltd, The Active Network (Aus-NZ) Pty. Ltd., The Active Network (EU) Ltd., The Active Network Ltd., The Active Network Ltd. (Chengdu), The Active Network Ltd. (Xian), Total System Services, TouchNet Information Systems Inc., UCS Terminal Joint Stock Company, United Card Service Joint Stock Company, VEPF III AIV VI-C Corp., VEPF IV AIV VII-C Corp., VFF I AIV IV-C Corp., Web Active Corporation Pty Ltd., Xenial, Xpient LLC, eWAY, eWay Europe Limited, eWay Payments Asia Pte Ltd., eWay Payments Inc., eWay Payments New Zealand Limited, eWay Payments North America Inc., and eWay Payments Pty Ltd..The following companies are subsidiares of Rite Aid: 1515 West State Street Boise Idaho LLC, 1740 Associates LLC, 4042 Warrensville Center RoadWarrensville Ohio Inc., 5277 Associates Inc., 5600 Superior Properties Inc., Advance Benefits LLC, Apex Drug Stores Inc., Ascend Health Technology LLC, Bartell Drugs, Broadview and WallingsBroadview Heights Ohio Inc., Design Rx Holdings LLC, Design Rx LLC, Design Rxclusives LLC, Drug Palace Inc., EDC Drug Stores Inc., Eckerd Corporation, Edgehill Drugs, Elixir Insurance Company, Elixir Pharmacy LLC, Elixir Rx Options LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions LLC, Elixir Rx Solutions of Nevada LLC, Elixir Savings LLC, Envision Pharmaceutical, Envision Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, EnvisionRx Puerto Rico Inc., First Florida Insurers of Tampa LLC, GDF Inc., Genovese Drug Stores Inc., Gettysburg and Hoover-Dayton Ohio LLC, Grand River & Fenkell LLC, Harco, Harco Inc., Health Dialog, Health Dialog Services Corporation, Hunter Lane LLC, ILG  90 B Avenue Lake Oswego LLC, JCG (PJC) USA LLC, JCG Holdings (USA) Inc., K&B Alabama Corporation, K&B Incorporated, K&B Industries, K&B Louisiana Corporation, K&B Mississippi Corporation, K&B Services Incorporated, K&B Tennessee Corporation, K&B Texas Corporation, LMW  90B Avenue Lake Oswego Inc., Lakehurst and Broadway Corporation, Laker Software LLC, Maxi Drug Inc., Maxi Drug North Inc., Maxi Drug South L.P., Maxi Green Inc., Munson & Andrews LLC, Name Rite LLC, P.J.C. Distribution Inc., P.J.C. Realty Co. Inc., PCS Health Systems, PDS-1 Michigan Inc., PJC Lease Holdings Inc., PJC Manchester Realty LLC, PJC Peterborough Realty LLC, PJC Realty MA Inc., PJC Revere Realty LLC, PJC Special Realty Holdings Inc., PJC of Massachusetts Inc., PJC of Rhode Island Inc., PJC of Vermont Inc., Perry Distributors Inc., Perry Drug Stores Inc., RCMH LLC, RDS Detroit Inc., READs Inc., RediClinic, RediClinic Associates Inc., RediClinic LLC, RediClinic US LLC, RediClinic of DC LLC, RediClinic of DE LLC, RediClinic of Dallas Forth-Worth LLC, RediClinic of MD LLC, RediClinic of PA LLC, RediClinic of VA LLC, Richfield Road  Flint Michigan LLC, Rite Aid Drug Palace Inc., Rite Aid Hdqtrs. Corp., Rite Aid Hdqtrs. Funding Inc., Rite Aid Lease Management Company, Rite Aid Online Store Inc., Rite Aid Payroll Management Inc., Rite Aid Realty Corp., Rite Aid Rome Distribution Center Inc., Rite Aid Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Rite Aid Transport Inc., Rite Aid of Connecticut Inc., Rite Aid of Delaware Inc., Rite Aid of Georgia Inc., Rite Aid of Indiana Inc., Rite Aid of Kentucky Inc., Rite Aid of Maine Inc., Rite Aid of Maryland Inc., Rite Aid of Michigan Inc., Rite Aid of New Hampshire Inc., Rite Aid of New Jersey Inc., Rite Aid of New York Inc., Rite Aid of North Carolina Inc., Rite Aid of Ohio Inc., Rite Aid of Pennsylvania LLC, Rite Aid of South Carolina Inc., Rite Aid of Tennessee Inc., Rite Aid of Vermont Inc., Rite Aid of Virginia Inc., Rite Aid of Washington D.C. Inc., Rite Aid of West Virginia Inc., Rite Investments Corp., Rite Investments Corp. LLC, Rx Choice Inc., Rx Initiatives LLC, Rx USA Inc., The Bartell Drug Company, The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) USA Inc., The Lane Drug Company, Thrift Drug Inc., Thrifty Corporation, and Thrifty PayLess Inc..Sanchez Energy Corporation, an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of U.S. onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources. It engages in the horizontal development of resources from the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas. It also holds an undeveloped acreage position in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) in Mississippi and Louisiana. As of December 31, 2017, the company had assembled approximately 285,000 net acres in the Eagle Ford Shale; and owned approximately 37,000 net acres in the TMS. Sanchez Energy Corporation was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreTI Fluid Systems plc manufactures and sells fluid storage, carrying, and delivery systems primarily for the light duty automotive market worldwide. It operates through two segments, Fluid Carrying Systems (FCS) and Fuel Tank and Delivery Systems (FTDS). The FCS segment offers brake and fuel lines and bundles, such as double-wall and single-wall steel fluid carrying lines, and bundles for brake and fuel systems; multi-layer plastic lines for vapor, thermal management, and exhaust treatment; sensor-integrated connectors for installation and system assembly; and heated plastic lines for selective catalyst reduction urea fluids. This segment also provides thermal products, including thermal management technology for hybrid-electric vehicle battery packs; climate control tube and hose assemblies; coaxial or tube-in-tube assemblies; accumulators and receiver dryers; and heater and radiator hoses, as well as powertrain products comprising gasoline direct injection lines and rails, high-pressure diesel lines, and turbocharger cooling lines. The FTDS segment offers fuel tank products, such as plastic fuel tanks for gasoline, diesel, and flex fuel vehicles; partial zero emissions vehicle fuel tanks; pressurized fuel tank systems for hybrid vehicles; low emission vehicle fuel tanks; delivery and return components; and plastic fuel filler tubes. This segment also provides pump and module products, such as brushed and brushless pumps, modules, electronics controls, additive dosing systems, and sensors; and aftermarket products. The company serves automotive original equipment manufacturers. TI Fluid Systems plc was founded in 1922 and is headquartered in Oxford, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreRayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.

Read MoreAir India Express flights arriving in Abu Dhabi and leaving from the UAE capital will now use Terminal 1 at Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH), an announcement said.

Originally the airline departed from Terminal 1, and arrived at Terminal 2.

The transition from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 for the arrivals occurred on September 30 and is in line with Abu Dhabi Airports commitment to ensuring quality service and a seamless passenger experience, said an Abu Dhabi Airports statement.

The Indian Subcontinent remains one of the most popular destinations for travellers departing from AUH, reflecting the close cultural and economic ties between the UAE and India. The Indian flag carrier operates seven daily flights between Abu Dhabi and six destinations in India, including New Delhi, Cochin, Kannur, Mangalore, Trivandrum and Calicut.

Ahmed Al Shamsi, acting chief operations officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: At Abu Dhabi Airports we are committed to enriching passenger experiences and providing world class services. As one of our closest partners, we are pleased to announce Air India Express relocation to Terminal 1 and look forward to ensuring its guests enjoy a convenient and entertaining travel experience through Abu Dhabi International Airport.

P A Umadevi, airport manager for Air India & Air India Express operations, said: Air India Express is pleased to announce the transition of its arriving flights to Terminal 1 at Abu Dhabi International Airport, which reflects our commitment to providing exceptional services to our passengers. The level of services offered to us by Abu Dhabi Airports helps us ensure our customers satisfaction and meet the rising demand in the Abu Dhabi market. - TradeArabia News Service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.Baker Hughes, a GE company provides integrated oilfield products, services, and digital solutions worldwide. Its Oilfield Services segment offers drilling, wireline, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention services; and drilling and completions fluids, completions tools and systems, wellbore intervention tools and services, artificial lift systems, pressure pumping systems, and oilfield and industrial chemicals for integrated oil and natural gas, and oilfield service companies. The company's Oilfield Equipment segment designs and manufactures products and services, including pressure control equipment and services, subsea production systems and services, drilling equipment, and flexible pipeline systems; and onshore and offshore drilling and production systems, and equipment for floating production platforms, as well as provides a range of services related to onshore and offshore drilling activities. Its Turbomachinery & Process Solutions segment provides equipment and related services for mechanical-drive, compression, and power-generation applications across the oil and gas industry, as well as products and services to serve the downstream segments of industry. Its product portfolio includes drivers, compressors, and turnkey solutions; and pumps, valves, and compressed natural gas and small-scale liquefied natural gas solutions. This segment serves upstream, midstream, onshore and offshore, industrial, engineering, procurement, and construction companies. The company's Digital Solutions segment provides sensor-based measurement, non-destructive testing and inspection, turbine, generator and plant controls, and condition monitoring, as well as pipeline integrity solutions for a range of industries, including oil and gas, power generation, aerospace, metals, and transportation. It serves through direct and indirect channels. The company is based in Houston, Texas. Baker Hughes, a GE company is a subsidiary of General Electric Company.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc..Bank of Montreal provides diversified financial services primarily in North America. The company's personal banking products and services include checking and savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and financial and investment advice services; and commercial banking products and services comprise business deposit accounts, commercial credit cards, business loans and commercial mortgages, cash management solutions, foreign exchange, specialized banking programs, treasury and payment solutions, and risk management products for small business and commercial banking customers. It also offers investment and wealth advisory services; digital investing services; financial services and solutions; and investment management, and trust and custody services to institutional, retail, and high net worth investors. In addition, the company provides life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, and annuity products; creditor and travel insurance to bank customers; and reinsurance solutions. Further, it offers client's debt and equity capital-raising services, as well as loan origination and syndication, balance sheet management, and treasury management; strategic advice on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, and recapitalizations, as well as valuation and fairness opinions; and trade finance, risk mitigation, and other operating services. Additionally, the company provides research and access to markets for institutional, corporate, and retail clients; trading solutions that include debt, foreign exchange, interest rate, credit, equity, securitization and commodities; new product development and origination services, as well as risk management advice and services to hedge against fluctuations; and funding and liquidity management services to its clients. It operates through approximately 1,400 bank branches and 4,800 automated banking machines in Canada and the United States. The company was founded in 1817 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Carnival Co. &: 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., A.J. Juneau Dock LLC, AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, Adventure Island Ltd., Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, Alaska Hotel Properties LLC, Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU, Bay Island Cruise Port S.A., Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, CC U.S. Ventures Inc., CCL Gifts LLC, CSSC Carnival Italy Cruise Investment S.r.L, Carnival (UK) Limited, Carnival Bahamas FC Limited, Carnival Bahamas Holdings Limited, Carnival Corporation & plc Asia Pte. Ltd., Carnival Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Carnival Corporation Korea Ltd., Carnival Corporation Ports Group Japan KK, Carnival Finance LLC, Carnival Grand Bahama Investment Limited, Carnival Investments Limited, Carnival Japan Inc., Carnival License Holdings Limited, Carnival Maritime GmbH, Carnival North America LLC, Carnival Port Holdings Limited, Carnival Ports Inc., Carnival Support Services India Private Limited, Carnival Technical Services (UK) Limited, Carnival Technical Services Finland Limited, Carnival Technical Services GmbH, Carnival Technical Services Inc., Carnival Vanuatu Limited, Costa Crociere PTE Ltd., Costa Crociere S.p.A., Costa Cruceros S.A., Costa Cruise Lines Inc., Costa Cruise Lines UK Limited, Costa Cruises Shipping Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Costa Cruises Travel Agency (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Costa Cruzeiros Agencia Maritima e Turismo Ltda., Costa Group Digital & Strategic Services GmbH, Costa International B.V., Costa Kreuzfahrten GmbH, Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Creative Travel Lab Ltd., Cruise Ships Catering & Services International N.V., Cruise Terminal Services S.A. de C.V., Cruiseport Curacao C.V., D.R. Cruise Port Ltd., Ecospray Technologies S.r.L., F.P.M. SAS, F.P.P. SAS, Fleet Maritime Services (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services Holdings (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services International Limited, GXI LLC, Gibs Inc., Global Experience Innovators Inc., Global Fine Arts Inc., Global Shipping Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Grand Cruise Shipping Unipessoal LdA, Grand Turk Cruise Center Ltd., HAL Antillen N.V., HAL Beheer B.V., HAL Cruises Limited, HAL Maritime Ltd., HAL Nederland N.V., HAL Properties Limited, HAL Services B.V., HSE Hamburg School of Entertainment GmbH, Holding Division Iberocruceros SLU, Holland America Line Inc., Holland America Line N.V., Holland America Line Paymaster of Washington LLC, Holland America Line U.S.A. Inc., Ibero Cruzeiros Ltda., Iberocruceros SLU, Information Assistance Corporation, International Cruise Services S.A. de C.V., International Leisure Travel Inc., International Maritime Recruitment Agency S.A. de C.V., Milestone N.V., Navitrans S.R.L., Ocean Bahamas Innovation Ltd., Ocean Medallion Fulfillment Ltd., Operadora Catalina S.r.L., P&O Princess American Holdings, P&O Princess Cruises International Limited, P&O Princess Cruises Pension Trustee Limited, P&O Properties (California) Inc., P&O Travel Limited, Prestige Cruises Management S.A.M., Prestige Cruises N.V., Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd., Princess Cays Ltd., Princess Cruise Corporation Inc., Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruises and Tours Inc., Princess U.S. Holdings Inc., RCT Maintenance & Related Services S.A., RCT Pilots & Related Services S.A., RCT Security & Related Services S.A., Roatan Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Royal Hyway Tours Inc., Santa Cruz Terminal S.L., SeaVacations Limited, SeaVacations UK Limited, Seabourn Cruise Line Limited, Shanghai Coast Cruise Consulting Co. Lda, Ship Care (Bahamas) Limited, Sitmar Cruises Inc., Spanish Cruise Services N.V., Sunshine Shipping Corporation Ltd., T&T International Inc., Tour Alaska LLC, Transnational Services Corporation, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., Westmark Hotels Inc., Westmark Hotels of Canada Ltd., Westours Motor Coaches LLC, Wind Surf Limited, and World Leading Cruise Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd..The following companies are subsidiares of Emerson Electric: A.P.M. Automation Solutions Ltd., AE Valves, AGI Mexicana S.A. de C.V., ALCO CONTROLS spol. s.r.o., APM Automation Solutions, ASC Investments Inc., ASCO (Japan) Company Limited, ASCO L.P., ASCO Numatics (India) Private Limited, ASCO Numatics Holding Inc., ASCO SAS, ASCO Valve (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ASCO/JOUCOMATIC s.r.o., ATX SAS, Advanced Protection Technologies, Aegir Norge Holding AS, Alliance Compressors LLC, American Governor, Aperture, Apple JV Holding Corp., Appleton Electric LLC, Appleton Electric S.A. de C.V., Appleton Group, Appleton Group Canada Ltd., Appleton Grp LLC, Appleton Holding Corp., Appleton Holding Sarl, Artesyn Embedded Technologies, Artesyn Hungary Elektronikai Kft., Artesyn Technologies, Asco AB, Asco Controls AG, Asco Controls B.V., Asco Joucomatic Ltd., Asco Joucomatic ZA B.V., Asco Magnesszelep Kft., Asco Numatics GmbH, Asco Numatics S.A., Asco Numatics Sirai S.R.L., Asco Numatics Sp. z o.o., Ascomatica S.A. de C.V., Ascomation (NZ) Ltd., Ascomation Pty. Ltd., Ascotech S.A. de C.V., Ascoval Industria e Commercio Ltda, Automatic Switch Company, Aventics, Aventics, Aventics AB, Aventics AG, Aventics AS, Aventics ApS, Aventics B.V., Aventics Corporation, Aventics Holding S.A.S., Aventics Holding S.a.r.l., Aventics Hungary Kft, Aventics Inc., Aventics India Private Limited, Aventics Limited, Aventics Ltd., Aventics Oy, Aventics Pneumatics Equipment (Changzhou) Co. Ltd., Aventics Pneumatics Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Aventics S.A.S., Aventics S.R.L., Aventics Services Germany GmbH, Aventics Singapore Pte. Ltd., Aventics Sp. z.o.o., Aventics Spain S.L., Aventics spol. s.r.o., Avtron LoadBank, Bannerscientific Limited, Beckman Industrial B.V., Beijing Rosemount Far East Instrument Co. Ltd., Bettis Canada Ltd., Bettis Holdings Limited, Bettis UK Limited, Biffi Italia S.r.l., Bioproduction Group, Branson Korea Co. Ltd., Branson Ultrasonic S.A., Branson Ultrasonics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Branson Ultrasonics B.V., Branson Ultrasonics Corporation, Branson Ultrasonics a.s., Branson Ultrasonidos S.A.E., Branson Ultrasons SAS, Branson Ultrasuoni S.R.L., Branson de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Bray Lectroheat Limited, Bristol Babcock Limited, Bristol Inc., Buehler Europe Limited, Buehler UK Limited, CR Compressors LLC, CSA Consulting Engineers Ltd., California Emerson LLC, Cascade Technologies, Cascade Technologies Holdings Limited, Cascade Technologies Limited, Chemat GmbH Armaturen fur Industrie - und Nuklearanlage, Chloride Koexa S.A., Componentes Avanzados de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Computational Systems, Computational Systems Incorporated, Conception et Representation de Technologies de Controle C.R.T. Controle SAS, Control Products Inc., Controles de Temperatura S.A. de C.V., Cooligy Inc., Cooper-Atkins, Cooper-Atkins Corporation, Cooper-Atkins Pte. Ltd., Copeland Access + Inc., Copeland Compresores Hermeticos S.A. de C.V., Copeland Corporation, Copeland Corporation LLC, Copeland Limited, Copeland Redevelopment Corporation, Copeland Scroll Compresores de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Copeland de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Copesub Inc., Crosby Valve LLC, Damcos A/S, Damcos Holding A/S, Daniel Automation Company, Daniel Europe Limited, Daniel Industrial Inc., Daniel Industries, Daniel Industries Canada Inc., Daniel Industries Inc., Daniel Industries Limited, Daniel International Limited, Daniel Measurement Solutions Private Limited, Daniel Measurement and Control Inc., Daniel Measurement and Control S. de R.L. de C.V., Danmasa S.A. de C.V., Dar Ibtikar Al Iraq for General Services and General Trade LLC, Decision Management International, Dieterich Standard Inc., Digital Appliance Controls (UK) Limited, Dixell North America Inc., Dixell S.R.L., Do+Able Products, E. Business Development E.B.D.Com Ltd., E.G.P. Corporation, EECO Inc., EGS Comercializadora Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., EGS Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., EGS Private Ltd., EMERSON CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES s.r.o., EMR (Asia) Limited, EMR (Mauritius) Ltd., EMR Emerson Holdings (Switzerland) GmbH, EMR Europe Holdings Inc., EMR Foundation Inc., EMR Holdings (France) SAS, EMR Holdings Inc., EMR Worldwide B.V., EMR Worldwide Inc., EMRSN HLDG B.V., EMRSN Process Management Morocco Sarl, ENPDOR2012A Limited, ENPESNA Inc., EPM Tulsa Holdings Corp., EPMCO Holdings Inc., ETC International Holdings Ltd., Easy Heat Europe SAS, Easy Heat Inc., El-O-Matic B.V., El-O-Matic Valve Actuators (F.E.) Pte. Ltd., Electrische Apparatenfabriek Capax B.V., Emerald Advanced Technology Limited, Emerson (Philippines) Corporation, Emerson (Taiwan) Limited, Emerson (Thailand) Limited, Emerson Arabia Inc., Emerson Argentina S.A., Emerson Asia Pacific Private Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Actuation Technologies Holdings Inc., Emerson Automation Solutions Actuation Technologies Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control (Sichuan) Co. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control (Taiwan) Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control (Thailand) Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Africa (Pty) Ltd, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Australia Pty Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Czech Republic s.r.o., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Denmark A/S, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control France SARL, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Germany GmbH, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Hong Kong Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Hungary Kft, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Italia S.r.l., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control LLC, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Middle East FZE, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Netherlands B.V., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Polska Sp. Z.o.o., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Sales Australia Pty Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Sales Holding LLC, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control Singapore Pte. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control UK II Ltd, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control UK Ltd, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control US LP, Emerson Automation Solutions Final Control de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Emerson Automation Solutions GmbH, Emerson Automation Solutions Intelligent Platforms (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Intelligent Platforms Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Emerson Automation Solutions Intelligent Platforms Private Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Intelligent Platforms do Brasil Ltda, Emerson Automation Solutions Ireland Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions Isolation Valves Inc., Emerson Automation Solutions SSC UK Limited, Emerson Automation Solutions UK Limited, Emerson Beijing Instrument Co. Ltd., Emerson Climate Services LLC, Emerson Climate Technologies (India) Private Limited, Emerson Climate Technologies (Shenyang) Refrigeration Co. Ltd., Emerson Climate Technologies (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Emerson Climate Technologies (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Emerson Climate Technologies (Suzhou) Trading Co. Ltd., Emerson Climate Technologies - Solutions (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Emerson Climate Technologies - Transportation Solutions ApS, Emerson Climate Technologies Arabia Limited Co., Emerson Climate Technologies Australia Pty. Ltd., Emerson Climate Technologies FZE, Emerson Climate Technologies GmbH, Emerson Climate Technologies Inc., Emerson Climate Technologies Limited, Emerson Climate Technologies Mexico S.A. de C.V., Emerson Climate Technologies Refrigeration S.A., Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions Europe S.R.L., Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions Inc., Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions UK Limited, Emerson Climate Technologies S.A., Emerson Climate Technologies S.R.L., Emerson Climate Technologies Sarl, Emerson Commercial & Residential Tools LLC, Emerson Commerical & Residential Asia Limited, Emerson Comres de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Emerson DHC B.V., Emerson Dietzenbach GmbH, Emerson Dominicana Srl, Emerson Egypt LLC, Emerson Electric (Asia) Limited, Emerson Electric (China) Holdings Co. Ltd., Emerson Electric (M) Sdn Bhd, Emerson Electric (Mauritius) Ltd., Emerson Electric (South Asia) Pte. Ltd., Emerson Electric (Thailand) Limited, Emerson Electric (Tongling) Co. Ltd., Emerson Electric (U.S.) Holding Corporation, Emerson Electric (U.S.) Holding Corporation (Chile) Limitada, Emerson Electric (Zhuhai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Electric CR Limitada, Emerson Electric Canada Limited, Emerson Electric Company (India) Private Limited, Emerson Electric Company Lanka (Private) Limited, Emerson Electric Holdings (Switzerland) GmbH, Emerson Electric II C.A., Emerson Electric International Inc., Emerson Electric Ireland Limited, Emerson Electric Korea Ltd., Emerson Electric Nederland B.V., Emerson Electric Overseas Finance Corp., Emerson Electric Poland Sp. z o.o., Emerson Electric U.K. Limited, Emerson Electric de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Emerson Electric do Brasil Ltda, Emerson Energy Systems (UK) Limited, Emerson FZE, Emerson Final Control US Holding LLC, Emerson Finance LLC, Emerson Fusite Electric (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Emerson Gabon SARL, Emerson Hazardous Electrical Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Holding Company Limited, Emerson Holding Sweden AB, Emerson InSinkErator Appliance (Nanjing) Co. Ltd., Emerson Industrial Automation USA Inc., Emerson International Holding Company Limited, Emerson Japan Ltd., Emerson Junkang Enterprise (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Korea Limited, Emerson LLC, Emerson LLP, Emerson Machinery Equipment (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., Emerson Mexico Finance S.A. de C.V. SOFOM ENR, Emerson Middle East Inc., Emerson Network Power DHC B.V., Emerson Paradigm Holding LLC, Emerson Process Management (India) Private Limited, Emerson Process Management (South Africa) (Proprietary) Ltd., Emerson Process Management (Tianjin) Valves Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management A/S (Denmark), Emerson Process Management AB, Emerson Process Management AG, Emerson Process Management AS, Emerson Process Management Angola Lda, Emerson Process Management Arabia Limited, Emerson Process Management Australia Pty Limited, Emerson Process Management B.V., Emerson Process Management Chennai Private Limited, Emerson Process Management Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management Distribution Limited, Emerson Process Management Europe GmbH, Emerson Process Management Flow B.V., Emerson Process Management Flow Technologies Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management GmbH & Co. OHG, Emerson Process Management Holding AG, Emerson Process Management Holding LLC, Emerson Process Management Kft., Emerson Process Management LLLP, Emerson Process Management Lda, Emerson Process Management Limited, Emerson Process Management Ltda, Emerson Process Management Magyarorszag Kft., Emerson Process Management Manufacturing (M) Sdn Bhd, Emerson Process Management Marine Solutions Korea Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management Marine Solutions Singapore Pte. Ltd., Emerson Process Management Marine Systems (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management NV, Emerson Process Management New Zealand Limited, Emerson Process Management Nigeria Limited, Emerson Process Management Oy, Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions Inc., Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions India Private Limited, Emerson Process Management Qatar W.L.L., Emerson Process Management Regulator Technologies Inc., Emerson Process Management Regulator Technologies Tulsa LLC, Emerson Process Management Romania S.R.L., Emerson Process Management S.A., Emerson Process Management S.A. de C.V., Emerson Process Management S.L., Emerson Process Management S.R.L., Emerson Process Management SAS, Emerson Process Management Shared Services Limited, Emerson Process Management Sp. z o.o., Emerson Process Management Ticaret Limited Sirket, Emerson Process Management UAB, Emerson Process Management Valve Automation (M) Sdn Bhd, Emerson Process Management Valve Automation (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Emerson Process Management Valve Automation Inc., Emerson Process Management Verwaltung GmbH, Emerson Process Management d.o.o., Emerson Process Management de Colombia SAS, Emerson Process Management del Peru S.A.C., Emerson Process Management s.r.o., Emerson Professional Tools (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson Puerto Rico Inc., Emerson Retail Services Europe GmbH, Emerson S.R.L., Emerson Sales UK Limited, Emerson Saudi Arabia LLC, Emerson Scroll Machining (Thailand) Limited, Emerson Sice S.R.L., Emerson Sweden AB, Emerson TOV, Emerson Technologies GmbH & Co. OHG, Emerson Technologies Verwaltungs GmbH, Emerson Tool Company de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Emerson Tool and Appliance Company S. de R.L. de C.V., Emerson Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Emerson UK Trustees Limited, Emerson USD Finance Company Limited, Emerson Valves & Controls Japan Co. Ltd., Emerson Ventures Inc., Emerson Vulcan Holding LLC, Emerson Xi'an Engineering Center, Emersub 1 LLC, Emersub 10 LLC, Emersub 11 LLC, Emersub 12 LLC, Emersub 14 LLC, Emersub 15 LLC, Emersub 16 LLC, Emersub 3 LLC, Emersub 4 LLC, Emersub 5 LLC, Emersub 7 LLC, Emersub 8 LLC, Emersub 9 LLC, Emersub CII Inc., Emersub CV Inc., Emersub Italia S.R.L., Emersub LXXXIV Inc., Emersub LXXXVI Inc., Emersub Mexico Inc., Emersub Treasury Ireland Unlimited Company, Emersub XLVI Inc., Emersub XXXVI Inc., Emirates Techno Casting FZE, Emirates Techno Casting Holding Limited, Emirates Techno Casting LLC, Enardo, Endura-Greenlee Tools, Energy Solutions International (India) Private Limited, Energy Solutions International GP LLC, Energy Solutions International Ltd., Energy Solutions International SAS, Energy Solutions International Sub LLC, F-R Tecnologias de Flujo S.A. de C.V., FC QSF LLC, FMC Technologies, Fiberconn Assemblies Morocco Sarl, Fincor Holding LLC, Fire & Safety Group.Com Ltd., Fisher Controles de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Fisher Controls International LLC, Fisher Jeon Gas Equipment (Chengdu) Co. Ltd., Fisher Regulators (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Sanmar Limited, Fisher-Rosemount Systems Inc., Flow Control Holding GmbH & Co. KG, Flow Control Holding Verwaltungs GmbH, Flow Control US Holding Corporation, Francel SAS, Fromex S.A. de C.V., Fusite B.V., Fusite Corporation, Fusite Land Company, GSEG LLC, General Equipment and Manufacturing Company Inc., Generale de Robinetterie Industrielle et de Sytemes de Surete, GeoFields, GeoFields Inc., Greenex Ltd., Greenfield (UK) Limited, Greenlee, Greenlee Communications, Greenlee Tools Inc., Gulf Valve FZE, Gustav Klauke GmbH, H.T.E. Engineering Limited, HD Electric Company, HTE Engineering Services Limited, Hindle Cockburns Limited, Hiross India Private Limited, Hiter Industria e Comercia de Controles Termo-Hidraulicos Ltda., Humboldt Hermetic Motor Corp., Hytork International Ltd., I Solutions Inc., ICC Intelligent Platforms GmbH, ISE-MagTech, Industrial Controls Canada ULC, Industrial Group Metran JSC, Instrument & Valve Services Company, Intelligent Platforms LLC, Intellution, International Gas Distribution SA, Intrinsic Safety Equipment of Texas Inc., JCF Fluid Flow India Private Limited, JSC Metran-Export, Joucomatic S.A., K Controls Limited, Keystone Germany Holdings Corp., Keystone Valve (Korea) LLC, Keystone Valve (U.K.) Limited, Klauke, Klauke (Jiangsu) Electrical Connection Technology Co Ltd., Klauke France SARL, Klauke Handelsgesellschaft mbH, Klauke Iberia S.L., Klauke Polska Sp. z.o.o., Klauke Slovakia s.r.o., Klauke UK Ltd., Knurr, Liebert, Liebert Swindon Limited, Locus Solutions LLC, Locus Traxx Worldwide, Locus Traxx Worldwide Europe BVBA, MDC Technology Limited, MDC Technology Trustees Limited, METCO Services Limited, MYNAH Technologies, Management Resources Group Inc., Mecafrance (Deutschland) GmbH, Metallurgical Services Laboratories Limited, Metaserv Limited, Metco Services Venezuela C.A., Micro Motion Inc., Mobrey Group Limited, Motores Hermeticos del Sur S.A. de C.V., NetworkPower Ecuador S.A., Nippon Fisher Co. Ltd., Novel Environmental Technologies Ltd., Novel Extinguishing Agent Technology Ltd., Numatics Incorporated, Nutsteel DHC B.V., Nutsteel Industria Metalurgica Ltda, O.M.T. Officina Meccanica Tartarini S.r.l., Open Systems International, P I Components Corp., PT Emerson Solutions Indonesia, PT. Emerson Indonesia, PT. Paradigm Geophysical Indonesia, Pactrol Controls Limited, PakSense, PakSense Inc., Paradigm, Paradigm (UK) Holding Limited, Paradigm B.V., Paradigm France S.A., Paradigm Geophysical (India) Private Limited, Paradigm Geophysical (KL) Sdn. Bhd., Paradigm Geophysical (Nigeria) Limited, Paradigm Geophysical (U.K.) Limited, Paradigm Geophysical B.V., Paradigm Geophysical Corp., Paradigm Geophysical Italy SRL, Paradigm Geophysical LLC, Paradigm Geophysical Limited, Paradigm Geophysical Pty Ltd, Paradigm Geophysical S.A., Paradigm Geophysical Sdn. Bhd., Paradigm Geophysical Spain S.L., Paradigm Geophysical de Venezuela C.A., Paradigm Geophysical do Brasil Ltda., Paradigm Geoservices Canada Ltd., Paradigm Geotechnology (Egypt) S.A.E., Paradigm Kazakhstan LLP, Paradigm Middle East FZ-LLC, Paradigm Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Parex Industries Limited, Pentair Valves & Controls, Pentair Valves and Controls India Private Limited, Permasense, Permasense Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, Permasense Limited, ProSys, ProTeam Inc., Progea, RAC Technologies (Israel) Ltd., RIDGID Inc., RPP Europe GmbH, RPP LLC, Rey-Lam S. de R.L. de C.V., Ridge Tool (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Ridge Tool Company, Ridge Tool Europe NV, Ridge Tool GmbH, Ridge Tool GmbH & Co. OHG, Ridge Tool Manufacturing Company, Ridge Tool Pattern Company, Ridgid France SAS, Ridgid Italia S.R.L., Ridgid Online Inc., Ridgid Scandinavia A/S, Ridgid Werkzeuge AG, Rosemount China Inc., Rosemount Inc., Rosemount Measurement Limited, Rosemount Nuclear Instruments Inc., Rosemount Specialty Products LLC, Rosemount Tank Gauging India Pvt. Ltd., Rosemount Tank Gauging Middle East SPC, Rosemount Tank Gauging North America Inc., Rosemount Tank Radar AB, Rosemount Tank Radar Properties AB, Roxar, Roxar AS, Roxar Flow Measurement AS, Roxar Flow Measurement Sdn Bhd, Roxar Limited, Roxar Maximum Reservoir Performance W.L.L., Roxar Saudi Co., Roxar Services AS, Roxar Services OOO, Roxar Software Solutions AS, Roxar Technologies AS, Roxar Vietnam Company Ltd., Roxar de Venezuela C.A., Rutherfurd Acquisitions Limited, S.F.T. Group Ltd., SABO-Armaturen Service GmbH, Safety Systems UK Pte. Ltd., Sakhi-Raimondi Valve (India) Limited, Scroll Compressors LLC, Scroll Mexico LLC, Sempell GmbH, Shanghai Virgo Valves Technology Consulting Co. Ltd., Sherman + Reilly, Soluciones 0925 C.A., Spectra-Tek Holdings Limited, Spectra-Tek International Limited, Spectra-Tek UK Limited, Spectrex, Spectrex Inc., Spectronix Ltd., Spensall Engineering Limited, Steel Support Systems Limited, Stratos Lightwave, System Plast International B.V., System Plast Ltda, System Plast USA de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., TDM-avtomatizatsiya, TV&C GP Holding LLC, Taiwan Valve Co. Ltd., TechnipFMC, Termocontroles de Juarez S.A. de C.V., Tescom Corporation, Tescom Europe GmbH & Co. KG, Tescom Europe Management GmbH, The Automation Group Inc., The J.R. Clarkson Company LLC, Therm-O-Disc Europe B.V., Therm-O-Disc Incorporated, Thunderline Z Inc., TopWorx UK Limited, Tranmet Holdings B.V., Tranmet Holdings Limited, Verdant Environmental Technologies, Vilter Manufacturing LLC, Virgo Valves & Controls (ME) FZE, Virgo Valves and Controls Sdn Bhd, Von Arx AG, Vulsub 1 Limited, Vulsub Brasil Holding, Vulsub Brasil Ltda., Vulsub Chile SpA, Vulsub Gulf Holding Limited, Vulsub Holding III (Denmark) ApS, Vulsub Holding Ltd, Vulsub Holdings A LLC, Vulsub Holdings B LLC, Vulsub Holdings C LLC, Vulsub Holdings D LLC, Vulsub Italia S.r.l., Vulsub Middle East Holdings LLC, Vulsub Peru S.A.C., Vulsub Property Holding LLC, Vulsub Property Limited, Vulsub S.A., Vulsub South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Vulsub VZ C.A., Westinghouse Electric Pvt. Limited, Westlock Controls Limited, Westlock Equipamentos de Controle Ltda., Woodstock Land Company LLC, epro GmbH, iSolera Inc., iSolutions Private Limited, and intelliSAW.Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, and investment management services in the United States, Canada, Asia, and internationally. The company operates through Insurance and Reinsurance, Run-off, and Non-Insurance Companies segments. It insures against losses to property from fire, explosion, earthquake, windstorm, flood, boiler explosion, machinery breakdown, and construction defects, as well as underwrites automobile, commercial and personal property, and crop insurance. The company also offers workers' compensation, employer's liability, accident and health, medical malpractice, professional liability, and umbrella coverage insurance products; marine, aerospace, surety risk, and other risks and liabilities insurance products; and reinsurance products. In addition, it retails home improvement goods, toys and baby products, golf equipment, sports apparel and accessories, housewares and home dAcors, and tableware and gifts; invests in retail business; and owns and operates holiday resorts. Further, the company provides integrated travel and travel-related financial services; originates, processes, and distributes pulses and staple foods; creates, produces, and distributes entertainment content; and provision of pet medical insurance and database services, as well as media and marketing solutions. The company was formerly known as Markel Financial Holdings Limited and changed its name to Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited in 1987. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited was incorporated in 1951 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreWorldpay, Inc., through its subsidiary, Worldpay Holding, LLC, provides electronic payment processing services in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. It operates in two segments, Technology Solutions, Merchant Solutions, and Issuer Solutions. The company offers merchant acquiring and payment processing services, such as authorization and settlement, customer service, chargeback and retrieval processing, and interchange management. It also provides value-added services, such data analytics and information management solutions, foreign currency management, and various funding options; and security solutions, including point-to-point encryption and tokenization at the point of sale and for e-commerce transactions. In addition, the company offers card issuer processing, payment network processing, fraud protection, card production, prepaid program management, automated teller machine driving, portfolio optimization, data analytics, and card program marketing, as well as network gateway and switching services. Further, it provides card and statement production, and collections and inbound/outbound call centers. The company serves merchants and financial institutions comprising regional banks, community banks, credit unions, and regional personal identification number networks through direct sales forces and referral partners. The company was formerly known as Vantiv, Inc. and changed its name to Worldpay, Inc. in January 2018. Worldpay, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Read MoreiShares North American Tech-Software ETF's stock was trading at $211.67 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 (Coronavirus) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IGV stock has increased by 110.6% and is now trading at $445.78.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Wells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Read MoreThe Howard Hughes Corp. engages in the development and management of commercial, residential, and mixed-use real estate. It operates through the following segments: Operating Assets, Master Planned Communities; Seaport District; and Strategic Developments. The Operating Assets segment consists retail, office, hospitality, and multi-family properties along with other real estate investments. The Master Planned Communities segment focuses in the development and sale of land in large-scale, long-term community development projects in and around Las Vegas, Nevada; Houston, Texas; and Columbia, Maryland. The Seaport District operates an approximately 453,000 square feet of restaurant, retail, and entertainment properties situated in three primary locations in New York, New York: Pier 17, Historic Area/Uplands, and Tin Building. The Strategic Developments segment involves in the other real estate assets in the form of entitled and unentitled land and residential condominium developments. The company was founded on November 9, 2010 and is headquartered in Woodlands, TX.

Read MoreKoninklijke Philips N.V. is the Netherlands-based health technology company. The Company's segments include Personal Health businesses, Diagnosis & Treatment businesses, Connected Care & Health Informatics businesses, HealthTech Other and Legacy Items. The Personal Health businesses segment is engaged in the health continuum, delivering integrated, connected solutions that support healthier lifestyles and those living with chronic disease. The Diagnosis & Treatment businesses segment delivers precision medicine and treatment, and therapy. The Connected Care & Health Informatics businesses segment provides consumers, care givers and clinicians with digital solutions that facilitate care by enabling precision medicine and population health management. The HealthTech Other segment comprises such items, as innovation, emerging businesses, royalties, among others. The Legacy Items segment consists mainly of separation costs, legacy legal items, legacy pension costs, among others.

Read MoreUprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.Zayo Group Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides bandwidth infrastructure solutions for the communications industry in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company operates in six segments: Fiber Solutions, Transport, Enterprise Networks, Zayo Colocation (zColo), Allstream, and Other. The Fiber Solutions segment provides dark fiber, and fiber-to-the-tower and small cell mobile infrastructure services for carriers and other communication service providers, Internet service providers, wireless service providers, media and content companies, large enterprises, and other companies. The Transport segment offers lit bandwidth infrastructure solutions comprising wavelength, Ethernet, wholesale IP services, and SONET services through its metro, regional, and long-haul fiber networks for carriers, content providers, financial services companies, healthcare, government entities, education institutions, and other medium and large enterprises. The Enterprise Networks segment provides connectivity and telecommunications solutions comprising Internet, wide area networking products, managed products, and cloud based computing and storage offerings to medium and large enterprises. The Zayo Colocation (zColo) segment offers data center infrastructure solutions consisting of colocation space, and power and interconnection services to a range of enterprise, carrier, cloud, and content customers. The Allstream segment provides cloud VoIP and data solutions, such as voice offerings; and unified communications, as well as telecommunications services, including Ethernet, and IP/MPLS VPN solutions. The Other segment provides network and technical resources to customers in designing, acquiring, and maintaining their networks. Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

Read MoreOasis Petroleum Inc., an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through Exploration and Production(E&P), and Midstream segments. The E&P segment engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. The Midstream segment offers midstream services, such as natural gas gathering, compression, processing and, gas lift supply; crude oil gathering, terminaling, and transportation; produced and flowback water gathering, and disposal; and water distribution. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 401,766 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin; and 24,396 net leasehold acres in the Permian Basin, as well as approximately 152.2 million barrels of oil equivalent of estimated net proved reserves. The company sells its crude oil and natural gas to refiners, marketers, and other purchasers that have access to pipeline and rail facilities. Oasis Petroleum Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MorePower Financial Corporation provides financial services in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. It offers life, disability, critical illness, and health insurance products, as well as wealth savings and income products, and specialty products. The company also provides financial products, including employer-sponsored defined contribution plans, individual retirement accounts, enrollment services, communication materials, investment options and education services, fund management services, and investment and advisory services. In addition, it offers protection and wealth management products, such as payout annuity products; reinsurance products; and sub-advisory services. Further, the company provides mutual funds, pooled funds, segregated funds, separate accounts, and other investment vehicles; securities, mortgages, and other financial services; and investment management services. It offers its products primarily through distribution network of third-party financial advisors, consultants, and independent financial advisors. The company was founded in 1984 and is based in Montreal, Canada. Power Financial Corporation is a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada.

Read MoreGenesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut.

Read MoreInvesco BulletShares 2021 High Yield Corporate Bond ETF's stock was trading at $23.11 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, BSJL shares have decreased by 0.6% and is now trading at $22.98.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.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.

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Next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iShares Russell 1000 Growth ETF's stock was trading at $158.09 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, IWF shares have increased by 93.5% and is now trading at $305.96.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Five Point Holdings LLC engages in the development and design of mixed-use, master-planned communities that combine residential, commercial, retail, educational, and recreational elements with public amenities. It operates through the following segments: Valencia, San Francisco, Great Park, and Commercial. The Valencia segment includes community of Valencia being developed in northern Los Angeles County, California, as well as other land historically owned by FPL, including 16,000 acres in Ventura County, California and approximately 500 acres of remnant commercial, residential and open space land in Los Angeles County. The San Francisco segment involves the Candlestick Point and The San Francisco Shipyard communities located on bay front property in the City of San Francisco, California. The Great Park segment refers to the Great Park neighborhoods being developed adjacent to and around the Orange County Great Park, a metropolitan park under construction in Orange County, California. The Commercial segment consists of the Five Point Gateway Campus, an office and research and development campus within the Great Park Neighborhoods, consisting of four newly constructed buildings. The

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Dover: Accelerated Production Systems, Acme Elevator, Advansor A/S, Advansor Dover International (Poland) sp. z o.o, Advansor Germany GmbH, Alfred Fueling Systems Holdco Ltd., Alfred Fueling Systems Inc., Alfred Fueling Systems Intermediate Holdco Ltd., All-Flo Pump Company, Anman LLC, Anthony Equity Holdings Inc., Anthony Holdings Inc., Anthony Inc., Anthony International, Anthony International Foreign Sales Corp., Anthony International Holding Company, Anthony Mexico Holdings LLC, Anthony North Holdco Inc., Anthony Specialty Glass LLC, Anthony TemperBent GP LLC, Auto Glanz Solutions LLC, Automatik Grundstucksverwaltungs GmbH & Co. KG, Automatik Plastics Machinery (Taiwan) Ltd., BSC Filters Limited, Background2 Limited, Belanger, Belanger Inc., Belvac Middle East FZE, Belvac Production Machinery Inc., Blackmer, BlitzRotary GmbH, Butler Engineering and Marketing S.P.A., CDS Visual, CEP Liquidation LLC, CP Formation LLC, CPC Europe Inc., CPI Products Inc., Caldera, Canada Organization & Development LLC, Chief Automotive Technologies (Shanghai) Trading Company Ltd., Chippewa Square Captive Insurance Company, Colder Products Company, Colder Products Company GmbH, Colder Products Company LTD, Cook Compression BV, Cook Compression LLC, Cook Compression Limited, Cook-MFS Inc., DD1 Inc., DDI Properties Inc., DE-STA-CO Benelux B.V., DE-STA-CO FRANCE, DE-STA-CO Shanghai Co. Ltd., DESTACO UK Limited, DFH Corporation, DFS Netherlands B.V., DSR BZ Holdings LLC, Datamax International Corp, De Sta Co (Asia) Company Limited, De-Sta-Co Cylinders Inc., DeStaCo Europe GmbH, Delaware Capital Formation Inc., Delaware Capital Holdings Inc., Dover (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Dover (Schweiz) Holding GmbH, Dover (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd., Dover (Shenzhen) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover (Suzhou) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover Asia Trading Private Ltd., Dover Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Dover Business Services EMEA Limited, Dover Business Services LLC, Dover Business Services Philippines Corporation, Dover CLP Formation Limited Partnership, Dover CR spol s r.o., Dover Canada Holdings ULC, Dover Canada Operations ULC, Dover Corporation Regional Headquarters, Dover DEI Services Inc., Dover Denmark Holdings ApS, Dover EMEA FZCO, Dover Energy UK Ltd, Dover Engineered Products Segment Inc., Dover Europe Inc., Dover Europe Sarl, Dover Fluids UK Ltd, Dover France Holdings, Dover France Participations, Dover France Technologies, Dover Fueling Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Fueling Solutions UK Limited, Dover Germany GmbH, Dover Global Holdings LLC, Dover Holdings de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dover Imaging & Identification Segment Inc., Dover India Pvt. Ltd., Dover Intercompany Services UK Limited, Dover International B.V., Dover International Operations Inc., Dover International Ventures Inc., Dover International Ventures Tunisia S.a.r.l., Dover International ithalat ihracat ve Pazarlama Limited Sirketi, Dover Italy Holdings S.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Finance Sarl, Dover Luxembourg Participations Sarl, Dover Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Services Sarl, Dover Operations South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Dover Overseas Ventures Inc., Dover Pumps & Process Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment UK Ltd, Dover Resources International de Mexico S. de R.L. C.V., Dover Solutions Colombia SAS, Dover Southeast Asia (Thailand) Ltd., Dover Spain Holdings S.L., Dover UK Pensions Limited, Dover WSCR Holding LLC, Dover WSCR LLC, Dover do Brasil Ltda., Dow-Key Microwave Corporation, Dresser Wayne Data Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Dresser Wayne Fuel Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., EOA Systems Inc., Ebs-Ray Holdings Pty Ltd, Ebs-Ray Industries Pty. Ltd., Ebs-Ray Pumps Pty. Ltd., Em-tec, Espy, Ettlinger, Ettlinger Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH, Fairbanks Environmental Limited, Fibrelite Composites Limited, Fibresec Holdings Limited, Fibresec Limited, Finder, GAL LLC, GIIER LLC, Gala Industries, Gala Kunststoff-und Kautschukmaschinen GmbH, Guangdong Tokheim LIYUAN Oil Industry Technology Limited Company, Highland Park Insurance Company, Hill PHOENIX Inc., Hill PHOENIX WIC LLC, Hill Phoenix Costa Rica Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, Hill Phoenix El Salvador Limitada de Capital Variable, Hill Phoenix Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Honduras Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hiltap Fittings Ltd., Hydro Systems Company, Hydro Systems Europe Ltd., Hydronova Australia-NZ Pty Ltd, Industrial Motion Control LLC, Innovative Control Systems, Innovative Control Systems Inc., Inpro/Seal LLC, JK Group, JK Group S.P.A., JK Group USA Inc., K S Boca Inc., K&L Microwave DR Inc., K&L Microwave Inc., KPS (Beijing) Petroleum Equipment Trading Co Ltd., KPS Fueling Solutions Sdn. Bhd., KPS Hong Kong Holding Limited, KPS UK Limited, KS Formation Inc., KS Liquidation Inc., KSLP Liquidation L.P., Kiian Digital (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Knappco LLC, Knowles Electronics, LIQAL, Liquip, Liquip International Pty Limited, MAAG, MARKEM FZ SA, MARKEM-IMAJE Corporation, MIP Holdings Inc., MS Printing Solutions, MS Printing Solutions S.R.L., Maag Automatik GmbH, Maag Automatik Plastics Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Maag Gala Inc., Maag Italy S.R.L., Maag Pump Systems, Maag Pump Systems (US) Inc., Maag Pump Systems AG, Maag Reduction Inc., Maag Service (Malaysia) Sdn. Bdn., Maag Systems (Thailand) Limited, Marathon Equipment Company (Delaware), Markem Imaje Center of Competencies Spain S.L.U., Markem-Imaje, Markem-Imaje (China) Co. Limited, Markem-Imaje - Unipessoal Lda, Markem-Imaje A/S, Markem-Imaje AB, Markem-Imaje AG, Markem-Imaje AS, Markem-Imaje B.V., Markem-Imaje CSAT GmbH, Markem-Imaje Co. Ltd., Markem-Imaje GmbH, Markem-Imaje Holding, Markem-Imaje Identificacao de Produtos Ltda., Markem-Imaje Inc., Markem-Imaje India Private Limited, Markem-Imaje Industries, Markem-Imaje Industries Limited, Markem-Imaje KK, Markem-Imaje LLC, Markem-Imaje Limited, Markem-Imaje Limited, Markem-Imaje Ltd., Markem-Imaje N.V., Markem-Imaje Oy, Markem-Imaje Philippines Corporation, Markem-Imaje Pty Ltd, Markem-Imaje S.A., Markem-Imaje S.A. de C.V., Markem-Imaje S.r.l., Markem-Imaje SAS, Markem-Imaje Sdn Bhd, Markem-Imaje Singapore Pte. Ltd., Markem-Imaje Spain S.A.U, Markpoint Holding AB, Midland Manufacturing LLC, Mouvex, Northern Lights (Nevada) Inc., Northern Lights Funding LP, Northern Lights Investments LLC, Nova Controls Inc., OK International, OK International (UK) Ltd., OK International Holdings Inc., OK International Inc., OPW Engineered Systems Inc., OPW Fluid Transfer Group Europe B.V., OPW Fluid Transfer Solutions (Jiang Su) Co. Ltd., OPW Fluids Group Inc., OPW France, OPW Fuel Management Systems Inc., OPW Fueling Components (SuZhou) Co. Ltd., OPW Fueling Components LLC, OPW Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OPW Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., OPW Slovakia s.r.o., OPW Sweden AB, Officine Meccaniche Sirio S.R.L., PDQ Manufacturing, PDQ Manufacturing Inc., PISCES by OPW Inc., PSD Codax Holdings Limited, PSD Codax Limited, PSG (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, PSG (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., PSG California LLC, PSG Germany GmbH, Petro Vend Sp. z o.o., Pike Machine Products Inc., Pole/Zero Acquisition Inc., Precision Brasil Equipamentos E Servicos Para Postos De Combustiveis Ltda., Precision Service - Servicos De Manutencao E Instalacao De Postos De Abastecimento De Combustivel Ltda., Production Control Services, Pump Management Services Co. LLC, RAV Equipos Espana S.L., RAV France, Ravaglioli Deutschland GmbH, Ravaglioli S.P.A., Reduction Engineering GmbH, Revod Corporation, Revod Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Revod SAS, Revod Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd, Revod Sweden AB, Robohand Inc., Rosario, Rosario Handel B.V., Rotary Lift Consolidated (Haimen) Co. Ltd, SE Liquidation LLC, SWEP Germany GmbH, SWEP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SWEP North America Inc., SWEP Slovakia s.r.o., SWEP Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Seabiscuit Motorsports Inc., Simmons Sirvey Corporation, So. Cal. Soft-Pak, So. Cal. Soft-Pak Incorporated, Solaris Laser, Solaris Laser S.A., Somero Enterprises, Sound Solutions, Space S.R.L., Spirit, Start Italiana Petrol Cihazlari Sanayi Ticaret Anonim Sirketi, Start Italiana S.R.L., Swep Energy Oy, Swep International A.B., Swep Japan K.K., Sys-Tech Solutions, Sys-Tech Solutions Inc., Systech GB Limited, Systech Shanghai Consulting Company Limited, TQC Quantium Quality S.A. de C.V., TTSI III Inc., TWG Canada Consolidated Inc., TXHI LLC, Tartan Textile Services Inc., The Heil Co., Tokheim Belgium, Tokheim China Company Limited, Tokheim GmbH, Tokheim Group, Tokheim Hengshan Technologies (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Tokheim Holding B.V., Tokheim India Private Limited, Tokheim Sofitam Applications, Trans - Logistic Group S.R.L., Triton Systems, Tulsa Winch Inc., UPCO Inc., US Synthetic, Unattended Payment Solutions LLC, Unified Brands, Unified Brands Inc., Val TemperBent Glass L.P., Vectron Frequency Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vehicle Service Group LLC, Vehicle Service Group UK Limited, Vos Food Store Equipment Ltd., WSCR Corp., Warn Automotive LLC, Warn Industries, Waukesha Bearings, Waukesha Bearings Corporation, Waukesha Bearings Limited, Waukesha Bearings Russia LLC, Wayne Fuel Management UK Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems, Wayne Fueling Systems (Rus) Limited Liability Company, Wayne Fueling Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Wayne Fueling Systems Canada ULC, Wayne Fueling Systems Deutschland GmbH, Wayne Fueling Systems Italia S.R.L., Wayne Fueling Systems LLC, Wayne Fueling Systems Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems Sweden AB, Wayne Fueling Systems UK Holdco Ltd., Wayne Industria e Comercio Ltda., WellMark, XanTec Steuerungs- und EDV-Technik GmbH, and em-tec GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos.iShares MSCI Austria ETF's stock was trading at $15.26 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus (COVID-19) reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, EWO shares have increased by 69.3% and is now trading at $25.84.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF's stock was trading at $93.15 on March 11th, 2020 when Coronavirus reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Since then, RSP stock has increased by 73.2% and is now trading at $161.31.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Varian Medical Systems, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and services medical devices and software products for treating cancer and other medical conditions worldwide. It operates through Oncology Systems and Proton Solutions segments. The Oncology Systems segment offers hardware and software products for treating cancer with radiotherapy, fixed field intensity-modulated radiation therapy, image-guided radiation therapy, volumetric modulated arc therapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, stereotactic body radiotherapy, artificial intelligence based adaptive radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, as well as quality assurance equipment. Its products include linear accelerators, brachytherapy afterloaders, treatment accessories, and quality assurance software; and information management, treatment planning, image processing, clinical knowledge exchange, patient care management, decision-making support, and practice management software. This segment serves university research and community hospitals, private and governmental institutions, healthcare agencies, physicians' offices, medical oncology practices, radiotherapy centers, and cancer care clinics. The Proton Solutions segment designs, develops, manufactures, sells, and services products and systems for delivering proton therapy for the treatment of cancer. The company has a strategic agreement with McKesson Corp. to supply treatment delivery systems and planning, services, and radiotherapy information system solutions to its U.S. Oncology Network and Vantage Oncology affiliated sites of care; and a strategic partnership with Siemens AG to represent Siemens diagnostic imaging products to radiation oncology clinics in the United States and other select markets. Varian Medical Systems, Inc. was formerly known as Varian Associates, Inc. and changed its name to Varian Medical Systems, Inc. in April 1999. The company was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

Read MorePreferred Apartment Communities, Inc. engages in the acquisition and operation of multifamily properties in select targeted markets throughout the United States. It operates through the following segments: Multifamily Communities, Financing, New Market Properties, Preferred Office Properties, and Others. The Multifamily Communities segment consists of company's portfolio of owned residential multifamily communities. The Financing segment refers to the portfolio of real estate loans, bridge loans, and other instruments deployed by the company to partially finance the development, construction, and prestabilization carrying costs of new multifamily communities and other real estate and real estate related assets. The New Market Properties segment covers portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers, as well as the financial results from the retail real estate loans. The Preferred Office Properties segment relates to the portfolio of office buildings. The Others segment includes deferred offering costs. The company was founded by Leonard A. Silverstein and John A. Williams on September 18, 2009 and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

Read MoreThe Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) told its members in August that they when they talk about oil, they should concentrate on market stability, and not prices reports Reuters. That reportedly came after the law firm White & Case advised OPEC officials in July to avoid discussing oil prices in public.

As Fortune writes in the article Trump Is Angry Over Oil and OPEC Has a Discreet New Plan to Calm Him Down, the advice is meant to deflect U.S. criticism that bubbles up periodically in the form of a bill called the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act or NOPEC. As first introduced U.S. Senator Herb Kohl in 2000, the bill would open foreign governments to lawsuits over market-fixing under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. Sovereign entities are immune to such lawsuits under U.S. federal law, though companies are subject to it. U.S. Senator Charles Grassley introduced a version of NOPEC this July, following a version in the House in May.

U.S President Donald Trump has been an open critic of OPEC for decades. Last month Trump lobbied OPEC to raise production and lower prices. The bill arrives at a time when the U.S. depends less on OPEC for its oil than at just about any time in its history. Domestic production has smashed recordsand production in other non-OPEC countries has also undermined OPECs price-setting power.

The language of NOPEC situates it as political posture more than a substantive effort to improve prices for consumers at the gasoline pump. The bill only empowers the U.S. Attorney Generalnot private lawyers for affected consumersto bring cases against cartel-promoting foreign governments. In other words, the legislation would put the U.S. executive branch, which is already responsible for diplomacy and regularly negotiates with OPEC, in the drivers seat.

Both presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama threatened to veto NOPEC, but Trump has promoted it. Political scientist David Deese of Boston College argued earlier this year in Fortune that Trump has introduced volatility and therefore upward pressure, into the international oil market.

Lawyer Michael D. Ehrenstein, of Ehrenstein | Sager in Miami, writes in Africa Oil & Power that, while NOPEC is unlikely to become law, it would probably be found unconstitutional because it fails to respect the separation of powers of the branches of government.Tycoon brothers Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh and eight firms related to them should jointly pay the sum with due interest to Fortis within three months.

Mumbai: Indias capital markets regulator has asked Fortis Healthcare to recover 4.03 billion rupees ($55 million) from its founder brothers and firms related to them, pending an investigation into loans made by the company.

Tycoon brothers Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh and eight firms related to them should jointly pay the sum with due interest to Fortis within three months, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in its order on Wednesday.

A detailed investigation of the entire scheme employed in this case is necessary to find out the role of each entity in the alleged routing of funds, SEBI said.

SEBI will carry out a detailed investigation, but said it was issuing an interim order to protect the interests of Fortis Healthcare shareholders and prevent any further deterioration of company funds or assets.

It also barred the Singh brothers and the firms from selling any assets or from diverting any funds except for meeting daily expenses till such a probe was completed.

Reuters could not reach the Singh brothers for comment, while Fortis did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

The eight firms and the Singh brothers, who have also been ordered not to associate themselves with any Fortis-related business, have 21 days to file a reply from the day they receive the order, SEBI said.

Cash-strapped Fortis, which operates about 30 private hospitals in India, accepted an investment offer from Malaysias IHH Healthcare Bhd in July after an extended bidding war for control of the company.

It is unclear whether the SEBI order will affect the timing of the closing of that deal.New Delhi: Stock market operators taking trade reversal route in equity derivatives to evade tax have come under the scanner of tax authorities.

The Income Tax (I-T) Department suspects massive tax evasion as it has found reversal of trade in around 14,000 entities in the illiquid derivative segment of BSE. In case of reversal of trade in the equity derivative segments, profit and loss shift. Many a time what happens is that someone making profit shifts the gains to someone else making loss. The tax liability also shifts. This way, traders launder black money even as they pay Securities Transaction Tax (STT) and short-term capital gains tax (STCG) on the profit.

For this, operators trade, particularly in penny stocks. In the process, they launder black money into white, while settling the manipulative transactions in cash. This is illegal as somebody is making profit while trading has actually not happened, said a senior income tax official. These types of transactions are done with the sole motive of evading tax, he added.

The I-T Department is learnt to have sought trade data from market regulator Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) to ascertain the manipulative tactics. It has also discussed the issue with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). While capital market helps companies access the much-needed funds for business expansion, many crooked investors use it to launder black money and evade tax using shell companies. The I-T department had last year detected bogus capital gain of about Rs 80,000 crore.

A few years back, the Director General of Income Tax, Kolkata, had prepared a report detailing how penny stocks were used for evasion of long-term capital gains. The market regulator, however, gave clean chit to entities listed in the I-T report. Sebi had then maintained that they were concerned only with price manipulation and not tax evasion as the latter comes under the I-T departments preview.

The I-T department had earlier issued notices to over 80 stock brokers after it found tax evasion by them through client code modifications on National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 2010.

There are a lot of fluctuations in the derivatives. So, what happens is that suppose X made a profit and somebody else, say Y, wants that profit, brokers can change the code during certain hours, the I-T official quoted above said.Vinta Nanda has credited Tanushree Dutta for courage in opening up against Alok Nath.

Mumbai: Writer-producer Vinta Nanda on Wednesday lodged a complaint with police against actor Alok Nath, who allegedly raped and sexually harassed her in the 90s.

This comes just days after Nath filed a civil defamation suit against Nanda.

Speaking to ANI outside the Oshiwara police station, Vinta said, "I have lodged a complaint, which has been accepted by the police. The officials have been really helpful and the process went easy and smooth."

However, she said that it wasn't easy to recount the whole event which took place almost two decades ago.

In the ongoing #MeToo movement, Vinta had accused Alok Nath of rape and narrated her horrifying ordeal in a Facebook post. She was the writer and producer of tele serial 'Tara' in the 90s, in which Nath played a lead role.

In the wake of these allegations, the Indian Film and Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) also issued a notice to the veteran actor, seeking his stand on the rape allegations made against him.Veteran actor Michael Caine has said casting couch was an open secret in Hollywood.

The 85-year-old actor said though he knew about producers like Harvey Weinstein asking for sexual favours from aspiring starlets in return for a role, he did not know the extent of the problem.

"In Hollywood, we were all aware of the casting couch. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed. But my view of the casting couch was that a young lady went to do an audition, the producer said, 'Well you've got the part if you did this', she said 'I'm not doing that' and he said 'well you haven't got the part' and she left.

"I thought it was terribly unfair that a talented actress might not get a part because she wouldn't do something sexual with the producer. But it happened and there was nothing I could do about it. I was a nobody in Hollywood. I didn't have the power of the big producers. But I never thought there were any actual physical attacks," Caine told Radio Times magazine.

The "King of Thieves" actor said he believes Weinstein's scandal will serve as an example for others in the wake of the #MeToo juggernaut.

"I did three pictures with him. Harvey was a single character in himself. But there is one great thing if it can be described like that, about Harvey and his behaviour. It's that actresses are safe now.

"No producer would dare to do anything sexually, because he knows he's going to wind up in court, which is exactly where Harvey is," he said.Indian artists dressed as Hindu Lord Rama (L) Sita (C) and Laxman (R) perform the Ramleela ahead of the Hindu festival of Dussehra in Amritsar, on October 15, 2018.(Photo: AFP)

Hindu devotees mark the end of Navratri by celebrating the festival of Dussehra, which is the triumph of good over evil honouring Lord Ram's victory over Ravana.

The festival falls on October 19 this year. Devotees burn effigies of Ravana which signifies the end of the evil and worship Lord Rama to receive blessings

Here are some Dussehra messages and wishes you can send to family and friends.

* May this Dussehra bring you loads of joy, success and prosperity, and may your worries burn away with the effigy of Ravana. Wishing you a year full of smiles and happiness.

* May your troubles

burst away like the fireworks

and your happiness

multiply by ten times

Happy Dussehra!

* Dusshera signifies the victory of good over evil. May all the evils in and around you vanish by the virtue of the goodness in and around you.

* May God bless you with success on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra, and may you be capable of defeating all evils in your life. Happy Dussehra to you and your family!

* Dussehra signifies the victory of good over evil.

May all the evil around you vanish by the

virtue of the goodness in and around you.

Happy Dussehra!

* A time for celebration,

A time for victory of good over bad,

A time when the world sees the example of the power of good.

Let us continue the same True spirit.

Blessing of Dussehra!Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly made the comments at an event of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Lucknow on Wednesday. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday accused the Congress of "demeaning and demoralising" Hindus and termed as an "abuse" a reported remark by the opposition party's leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically.

Azad reportedly made the comments at an event of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Lucknow on Wednesday, apparently to criticise the political climate under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the simple reason behind fewer people calling Azad for campaigning is the falling stock of the Congress. For this Azad has invented the Hindu-Muslim angle, he added.

"These are not ordinary words. It is an abuse for the country's secular fabric and Hindus. It is yet another attempt by the Congress to demean and demoralise Hindus," Patra told reporters.

Also Read: Hindus dont call me for campaigning now as they fear losing votes: Ghulam Nabi Azad

He also rejected Azad's allegation that the BJP is defaming the AMU and targeting Kashmiri students, saying if prayer meetings are held for terrorists then it will be condemned.

Three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended and booked for sedition last week for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani, who was killed in an encounter in north Kashmir.

The varsity revoked the suspension of two students on Tuesday.

Patra said Azad had earlier claimed that the Army kills more civilians in Kashmir than terrorists. It seems he wants to campaign in Pakistan, the BJP spokesperson said.

He accused the opposition party of conspiring against Hindus and said its leaders have used terms like "Hindu Taliban", "Hindu Pakistan" and "Hindu terrorists" in the past. Patra also demanded a response from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress will never use such remarks to refer to any other community, he said.'There is no history of police case against me,' Ashish Pandey said. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

New Delhi: Ashish Pandey, son of politician and former BSP lawmaker, who was wanted for by the police for brandishing a gun at a five-star hotel in Delhi, has surrendered at Patiala House Court on Thursday.

"I took the gun with me for safety. I didn't brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. I didn't even address that girl, she pushed me and made obscene hand gestures. I have faith in judiciary and so I decided to surrender. There is no history of police case against me," Ashish Pandey said.

"I'm being projected like a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me. Look Out Circular has been issued against me. If you check CCTV footage, you'll find who went to the ladies toilet that night and who threatened whom," claimed Pandey after surrendering.

According to reports, Ashish Pandey through his messages on his friends' group sent before surrendering made a desperate appeal of "standing by him at this hour" and helping him "sort this mess."

"Dear friends, there is a viral video of me going around...it as a mistake...I made a mistake and apologise for it. At this time need you stand by me and help me stop this video going viral. I am really sorry, I disappointed you and myself. Help me sort this mess up please," read the message.

Son of politician Rakesh Pandey, Ashish was missing since he was seen in a video clip captured on mobile phone, waving a gun, abusing and threatening a woman at Delhi's Hyatt Regency Hotel Sunday night.

A court on Wednesday had issued a non-bailable warrant against Ashish Pandey.

The police have recorded the statements of Ashish Pandey's friends and relatives from Delhi and Lucknow.

On Wednesday, the police filed a case charging Ashish Pandey under the Arms Act, after examining the mobile footage that was widely shared online.In his defamation suit, MJ Akbar also said that he has to resign from his post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to these allegations. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: MJ Akbar on Thursday told a Delhi court that his reputation built over 40 years suffered an irreparable damage because of journalist Priya Ramanis tweets, which were widely read and even reported in the international media. In his defamation suit, Akbar also said that he has to resign from his post of Minister of State for External Affairs due to these allegations.

Akbar's plea listed alleged defamatory imputations made by Ramani on social media and also referred to his "long and illustrious" career as a journalist while terming the allegations of Ramani as a "figment of her imagination".

"Whilst it is apparent that the accused has resorted to a series of maliciously serious allegations which she is diabolically and viciously spreading in media, it is also apparent that false narrative against the complainant (Akbar) is being circulated in a motivated manner for the fulfilment of an agenda," the petition filed by Akbars lawyer alleged.

It had termed as "scandalous" the allegations made by Ramani and said the "very tone and tenor" are "ex-facie defamatory" and they have not only damaged his goodwill and reputation in his social circle but also affected Akbar's reputation in "the community, friends, family and colleagues" and caused "irreparable loss" and "tremendous distress".

During the 20-minute-long hearing, Delhis Patiala house court took cognisance of the petition filed by the former union minister and has asked him to record his statement on October 31.

Also Read: #MeToo: Court to record MJ Akbars statement in defamation case on Oct 31

As per the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the court would now record the pre-summoning evidence and statement of Akbar and other witnesses, referred to in the complaint and would issue notice to Ramani to face trial if it is satisfied there is prima-facie substance in the complaint.

On Wednesday, MJ Akbar resigned from his post saying that since he has decided to seek justice in a court of law in his personal capacity, he deemed it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusation levied against him.

Akbar, former editor of newspapers like The Telegraph and The Asian Age was named by Ramani in a tweet on October 8 where she said he was the man she had written about in a magazine article a year ago, when the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the US set off an avalanche of #MeToo allegations.

After Ramani named him, more women posted stories against Akbar.New Delhi: A Delhi court today took cognisance of former union minister MJ Akbar's criminal defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani and fixed it for recording his statement on October 31.

The court was hearing the criminal defamation case filed by Akbar against Ramani who accused him of sexual harassment amid #MeToo movement in India.

During the hearing, senior advocate Geeta Luthra, who represented Akbar in the court, referred to tweets of Priya Ramani and said the journalist's tweets caused irreparable loss to MJ Akbar's reputation built over 40 years.

"Articles in international and national media quoted these defamatory tweets. Tweets are defamatory unless Ramani proves anything," Luthra told the court adding "Priya Ramani has tweeted defamatory tweets against complainant. Her second tweet was clearly defamatory and liked by 1200 people. "

She further said that Akbar has resigned due to these allegations and this shows the damage caused to his reputation.

Referring to editor-turned-politicians reputation as a journalist, Akbars lawyer asked the court to take cognisance of his complaint.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal considered the submissions of Luthra and fixed the matter for recording Akbar's statement on October 31. The former union minister was not present in the court today.

The court also said that after being satisfied it may issue a notice to Ramani for appearing and facing the trial in the defamation complaint.

Ahead of the court hearing, the Editors Guild of India came out in support and lauded the 20 women journalists who have named Akbar in the growing #MeToo movement, accusing him of sexual harassment.

The top body of editors representing the media industry also expressed its concern over Akbar's defamation case against one of the journalists, Priya Ramani, and said he should withdraw the case.

Read: Editors Guild asks MJ Akbar to withdraw case against journalist

MJ Akbar, who resigned from his post of Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday, has accused Ramani of "intentionally making fabricated allegations" to harm his reputation.

Also Read: #MeToo: Union Minister MJ Akbar resigns over sex harassment charges

Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from my office and challenge false accusation levied against me, also in a personal capacity, Akbar said in his statement while resigning.

Also Read: Appropriate to step down, challenge false charges: Akbars full statement

Akbar, former editor of newspapers like The Telegraph and The Asian Age was named by Ramani in a tweet on October 8 where she said MJ Akbar was the man she had written about in a magazine article a year ago, when the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the US set off an avalanche of #MeToo allegations.

After Ramani named him, more women posted stories against Akbar.

Following Akbars resignation Ramani said, "As women we feel vindicated by MJ Akbar's resignation. I look forward to the day when I will also get justice in court."

Also Read: Vindicated: Journalists who accused MJ Akbar welcome his resignation

Twenty journalists had come out in her support on Tuesday evening, saying she was not alone and that they would testify in court against Akbar.

The #MeToo movement, which attempts to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, gained momentum in India last month after former actor Tanushree Dutta accused her co-star Nana Patekar of sexual harassment on the sets of a film in 2008.'This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir,' RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat said. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Nagpur: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said the government should clear the path for construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya through an appropriate and requisite law.

In his annual Vijayadashmi address, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said the temple construction was necessary from the "self-esteem point of view" and it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness. The sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma, Bhagwat said.

"The place of janmabhoomi (birth place) is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place," he said at Nagpur.

There is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgement by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, he said, adding that it is nobody's interest to test the patience of society without any reason.

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir," he said.

Despite such machinations, the decision on ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the "grand temple through an appropriate and requisite law".Even as debilitating U.S. sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry remain slated to snap back in November, Tehran may seek to maintain a status-quo arrangement with the West until the fate of the Trump presidency becomes clearer, according to top Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour at the Carnegie Endowment, the author of the book Reading Khamenei: The World View of Iran's Most Powerful Leader.

CBC news in the article Top Iran expert says Tehran may seek to wait out Trump administration cites Sadjadpour, "It seems that the Iranian strategy is essentially to wait out the Trump administration," Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said. "To wait what happens with the midterm elections, wait until 2020, to see if President Trump is reelected." In an interview with Intelligence Matters host and CBS senior national security contributor Michael Morell, Sadjadpour outlined a range of possible outcomes from the U.S.-Iran standoff as the Trump administration ups economic and diplomatic pressure on the regime. "Outcome number one is essentially status quo," Sadjadpour said. "The U.S. has pulled out of the deal, but Iran remains part of the nuclear deal as do other parties to the deal: Europe, Russia and China." In a status-quo scenario, Sadjadpour said, Iran is likely to maintain that the United States, under Trump, and in reneging on its international commitments, is behaving like a rogue regime  all while Iran makes good on its agreements. "Which, if you're the United States," he told Morell, "isn't a bad outcome because Iran is continuing to keep its foot on the nuclear brakes."

Last month, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, Federica Mogherini, announced the establishment of a new payment system to allow EU member states, Russia and China to maintain economic ties with Iran while avoiding the effects of U.S. sanctions. A number of European businesses, however, have nonetheless suspended its relationships with Iran  whose currency, the rial, has lost 70 percent of its value in the past year. "Iran is a country which has enormous potential. It's got enormous human capital. And obviously it has enormous resources in oil and gas," Sadjadpour said. "But it's tremendously-- it's consistently punched below its weight as an economy."

In a second scenario  which might appeal to President Trump, Sadjadpour continued  the Iranians would, by virtue of deteriorating economic conditions and heightened risk of social unrest, be effectively forced to engage diplomatically and renegotiate the nuclear deal "along the lines of what happened with Kim Jong Un." "Iran's supreme leader is much more stubborn," Sadjadpour observed, but "has a much shorter timeframe than Kim Jong Un."

While Kim, still in his 30s, has a decades-long outlook on ruling North Korea, Iran's 79-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "doesn't have an outlook which is that long," Sadjadpour said. Especially if foreign investment levels remain anemic and growth is stagnant, Sadjadpour told Morell, "at some point [Khamenei] may have to swallow his pride, just as he did when Iran signed the nuclear deal."

President Trump has signaled a willingness to meet and negotiate with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, who has largely rebuffed offers of dialogue with the U.S. "Trump's offer of direct talks with Iran is not honest or genuine," Rouhani wrote in an op-ed last month. "I think President Rouhani would like to see a different relationship between America and Iran," Sadjadpour told Morell, "but as long as Khamenei is supreme leader, that acrimony is going to remain."

Khamenei, Sadjadpour said, has for years sought to downplay the impact of sanctions while assigning blame to domestic mismanagement. "The modus operandi of Iran's supreme leader is he wields power without accountability," Sadjadpour explained, "and in order to do that, he needs a president who has accountability without power."

The supreme leader also maintains a carefully calibrated symbiotic relationship with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, Sadjadpour told Morell, in part by routinely exchanging economic benefits for steadfast political and military support. "[The IRGC have] made a lot of money over the years," Sadjadpour said. "They're not only Iran's increasingly the most powerful political institution, but also Iran's most powerful economic institution."

But an effort by the IRGC to take power more overtly, Sadjadpour said, could present a third scenario involving "something major happening in Iran." "Either a regime implosion," he suggested, "or some type of a coup" might be possible  if near-impossible to predict. "If you had asked any expert on Egypt or Libya or Tunisia what are the prospects for popular revolution in December 2010," Sadjadpour said, referring to now-known focal points of uprisings that made up the Arab Spring, "Most people would've said, 'very, very low.'" "But it is within the realm of possibilities. You do have that same type of discontent in Iran," he continued, noting that three-quarters of the current Iranian population was born after the 1979 revolution.

"The experience of 1979 and the culture of 1979  'Death to America,' 'Death to Israel,'  that doesn't resonate with young people who really want to be like South Korea, not North Korea," he said.

Still, Sadjadpour noted, Iran has the unique and dubious distinction of being among few countries in the world simultaneously involved in three proxy wars  with Saudi Arabia, with Israel, and with the United States.

"Outcome number four is conflict," he said. "All three of these cold wars could potentially turn hot." "The U.S. and Iran, there's a whole host of ways that you could see a conflict emerging, whether it's Iran trying to harass U.S. ships in the Person Gulf," he said, or "if Iran restarts its nuclear program  that could warrant a potential strike." "[T]here are so many conflicts happening in the world and we kind of feel like the world doesn't have bandwidth for yet another one," Sadjadpour said. "But I do think it's within the realm of possibilities that, in the next two years, you see some type of an escalation [or] conflict with Iran."DK Shivakumar even admitted that the Congress' poor show in the assembly election was proof that people did not like the move. (Photo: File)

Bengaluru: In an embarrassment for the Congress, senior leader and Karnataka water resource minister D K Shivakumar has conceded that his party committed a "major blunder" by recommending religious minority status for the Lingayat community in the run-up to the May 12 assembly polls.

Seeking pardon from people, he said politics in the name of religion was unacceptable. The previous Siddaramaiah government's gamble to play the Lingayat card with a religious minority tag turned out to be a costly misadventure electorally, leaving Congress poorer in terms of assembly seats.

The open admission gives a potential weapon to the opposition BJP to attack the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The saffron party had accused the previous Siddaramiah-led government of dividing society to draw political mileage.

Shivakumar made the admission during the 'Dasara Sammelan', organised by the Rambhapuri Seer Veerasomeshwara Shivacharya Swamiat Gadag Wednesday.

"Our government in Karnataka committed a major blunder. I wont say we did not commit it. We the people in politics and in government should never ever lay hands on the matter pertaining to religion and caste. It was a crime committed by our government," he said.

He even admitted that the Congress' poor show in the assembly election was proof that people did not like the move.

"I would like to say that the peoples verdict (assembly elections) is proof that no government should never ever lay hands in religious matter," Shivakumar said.

"We beg your pardon for the blunder committed by our government. Please pardon us wholeheartedly....," he said.

Rambhapuri seer had opposed the move to accord religion status to Lingayat as it did not incorporate Veerashaivas in it.

Later, speaking in Bengaluru on Thursday, Shivakumar said as a minister he felt he should express his views.

"I am not bothered about how people read it, react to it and what they call me. I felt I must speak my mind on this issue," Shivakumar said.

He claimed that many senior Congress leaders had advised him that government should not interfere in the matter.

Shivakumars statement has created a rift within Congress as another Congress heavyweight and former minister M B Patil, who was at the forefront of recommending religious status for the Lingayats, said he would raise the matter in the party forum.

"I dont know in which context he spoke. We will discuss the matter within the party forum," he said.

An MLA from Babaleshwara constituency, Patil said, "There wasnt any loss in the election.

Let him (Shivakumar) introspect. We have to analyse how much votes we garnered in Hassan, Mandya and Vokkaliga belt. There isnt any connection between Lingayat religion tag and Congress party," Patil said.

The May 12 Karnataka assembly polls threw up a hung verdict with BJP emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats. Congress was next with 78 and JD(S) followed with 37. The BSP has one MLA and two seats went to Independents.

Shivakumar belongs to the Vokkaliga community.

Many seers have welcomed Shivakumar's statement.

Hailing Shivakumar, Srishaila seer Channasiddarama Panditaradya Swamiji said the statement was an endorsement that politicians should not interfere in religious affairs. Ahead of the assembly polls, the previous government notified the Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as religious minority, but said it would come into effect after the central government's approval to the state government's recommendation on the issue.

The move backfired, exemplified by the defeat of three prominent ministers, Vinay Kulkarni, Dr Sharanprakash Patil and Basavaraj Rayareddi.

All the three ministers were the prominent faces of the Siddaramaiah government, who had aggressively pushed for the religious minority tag to the Lingayat community.Police tried to clear protesters who are against allowing women into the site. (Photo: AFP)

Kochi: Protests and violence gripped parts of Kerala when the doors of the Sabarimala temple were opened for women of all ages on Wednesday following the Supreme Courts historic verdict on September 28.

Following intense protests, the state government has imposed Section 144, banning assembly of four or more people has been imposed in parts of Kerala today.

On day 2, several outfits called for a 12-hour shutdown. Most of the shops are shut and vehicles are off the roads.

Journalist Suhasini Raj working with New York Times, and her colleague, a foreign national, attempted the trek early on Thursday morning and made it halfway with police protection. The two, who claimed to not be devotees, had to return from mid-way after being stopped by protesters.

Meanwhile police said, "When she (Suhasini Raj) reached Marakoottam,she decided to come back after seeing the crowd. Police was ready to take her."

On Wednesday, two women devotees who attempted the trek up to the shrine were forced to return following intimidation from angry protesters.

Protesters heckled woman journalists, combed buses, stopped women from going near the temple and threw stones at police personnel.

The state BJP has decided to support to the bandh, while Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has said that the key issue in Sabarimala was "not one of gender equality."

Barring the Left government, the Congress, BJP and Hindu groups are ranged against the Supreme Court order last month lifting ban on entry of menstruating age to enter Sabarimala.

"The CPI-M-led government has not even cared to file a review petition while the BJP and RSS are out to create problems. Here the issue is of faith and traditions," said Chenithala.

According to devotees, the deity in the temple, Lord Ayyappa is eternally celibate, women between age of 10 to 50 years were barred from entering the temple.

Protesters vandalised media vehicles and threw stones at the police. Women health workers and police constables on duty were also not spared.Hubballi: Former CM Siddaramaiah has announced his retirement from electoral politics. Addressing Congress workers at Guledgudd town in Bagalkot district on Wednesday after felicitating newly elected members of the town municipal council, the veteran leader said he will not contest any polls after his tenure as MLA of Badami ends. Stating that he has already faced 13 elections, he said he is getting older with each passing day.

Earlier, Mr Siddaramaiah had made a similar announcement with regard to his retirement from electoral politics after the 2013 Assembly elections but later said he had been persuaded to contest one more election by the party leadership.

I am 71 years old now and will not contest polls after my five year tenure as legislator ends. It is not always necessary to contest elections to carry out development work, the former CM reasoned.

He tried to instill confidence among the newly elected members of the local body and gave them tips on good governance. Reacting sharply to the charges made against him by BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje who had called him a snake without fangs, Mr Siddaraiamah quipped that he is a human being and she lacks common sense. Ms Karandlaje might belong to the clan of snakes, remarked the Congress leader adding that she should stop speaking against him in this manner.In the face of the many odds that Arab cinema has been facing material, economic and psychological and the closure of festivals (Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Damascus) that once gave it fulsome support by way of generous development grants, the recently launched El Gouna film festival in Egypt has stepped in to fill the gaps. The CineGouna Bridge is a forum for dialogue between different cinematic voices, set up to establish a link between filmmakers from the Arab world and their international counterparts. And the CineGouna Springboard is a project development and co-production lab that helps in getting financial support for Arab filmmakers.

But above all, El Gouna is where some alluring Arab films can be viewed. They throw open the crucial concerns of filmmakers from much of the Arab world. And this is where my primary interest lies. What haunts Arab filmmakers whose countries have been plagued by extremism? How do they handle the daily struggles of people, the warped mentalities of terrorists, the fallout of war and violence? How do they envisage their own future and the future of their children? Quite simply, how do they get by?

For example, the Algerian-French-Lebanese film Divine Wind by Algerian director Merzak Allouache was a story of a tough young woman (its hard to tell how young she actually is) and a weak, pliable young man. She is back in Algeria from Syria. Tough, unsmiling, unlikeable, fearless, ruthless and determined, and as dry as the sands around her, she acts like she is on the warpath. Nour is out to find recruits for the extremists.

In Algeria, she is after the young Amine. In fact, the film starts with him. He drives his car in the desert, stops it, runs out and cries. In his equally arid home, there is nothing and no one except a portly old African maid who cooks. Amine prays, reads holy books, does martial arts exercises and little else. He meets no one. Maybe he is just the kind of recruit Noor is looking for.

We see the old maid in the market (she will prove to be an informant) where a man hands her a mobile and tells her to inform him of anything suspicious. Things are brewing but few are aware. Nour bosses over the man and the maid; she even has sexual proclivities, and there are a couple of emotionless encounters between her and Amine.

But that is no big deal. She is here to blow up the well-guarded oil refinery in the Sahara with help of an unwilling Amine. He resists, he will not wear the detonator suit she gives him, he does not want martyrdom. Divine Wind is studded with the mention of Allah, ISIS and paradise.

Who will win this real and psychological war in the desert? The film, writes festival director Intishal Al Timimi is a condemnation of the distortion and disfigurement that has afflicted Algeria. And actor Mohamed Oughlis says, I worked hard to study the character of a passive extremist, manipulated and confused.

The title Divine Wind stands for the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who were selected for suicide missions where saying no was not an option.

And then the flip side of the coin: Dear Son, an Algeria-France-Lebanon co-production directed by Tunisian filmmaker Mohamed Ben Attia, it won for Mohamed Dhrif the Best Actor Award in the Narrative Feature Competition section. A young man, who is about to take his school-leaving exams, suffers from migraine. A visit to a psychiatrist seems to help and then comes the inexplicable jolt to his parents. The young fellow who seems unable to decide between his parents expectations of him study, marriage, family, work and a life of his own choosing, simply disappears. A brief note he leaves behind states tersely that he has gone to join the jihadists in Syria. The parents world is ripped apart. They had imagined a normal life for him. Now they must contend with questions that seem to belong to another world: Is this really their son? Did they ever know him? What pushed him to join the jihadists? The father (Mohamed Dhrif) does the unthinkable: he goes looking for his dear son, and the search becomes a journey of self-discovery for him. It was a splendid performance full of warmth and humanity, of anxiety and love.

Then there was The Cord, a Syrian short film by Al-Laith Hajjo, shot partly in a flat and largely in a small street just beneath in the middle of a thoroughly shattered town. The street has symbolically become a life-and-death frontier for the neighbourhood residents. Step out or cross it and you wont live snipers are everywhere. On one side live ordinary middle-aged people, on the other, a young couple. The woman who is pregnant, gets her labour pains well before her due date. But how can her husband take her to the clinic? It would mean getting into his ramshackle car and moving. And in any case the fatigued car wont move. Nor can help come from the midwife or the neighbours who hear the womans cries but can only watch, not run across the street to help. Amidst unbearable tension, as the woman lies in the back of the car, the midwife and other women yell instructions to the husband about how to deliver a baby. And he does what he is told, much to his own fright. That the director seems to say are the daily travails of a war that are unseen, unknown, but lived every day.

Soudade Kaadan, the director of a Syrian-Lebanese-French co-production The Day I Lost My Shadow, places her story at the start of the Syrian war in 2012. The first words on the screen: On the other side of the city, shadows are abandoning their owners.

Winner of the Luigi de Laurentis Venice Award for a Debut Film, the simple yet psychologically complex story is about a young woman, Sana, and her eight-year-old son Khalil. Sana works in a pharmacy while her husband (as we learn later) has left for Saudi Arabia some years ago in search of work.

The film begins, develops and ends with a feeling of fear, haste and restlessness. Yes, its war again. People live with power cuts, gas and water shortage, helplessness, and, of course, bombardments.

A trip to a nearby town to refill her empty gas cylinder takes her inadvertently into the conflict zone. Accompanied by a weary and angry brother and sister, the three are left to fend for themselves when the man who gave them a ride, abandons them and scoots. Over three days, even as she worries about her son, she discovers that people in these affected areas have lost their shadows. What could this mean? Have they lost their souls traumatised as they have been by the cruelty of war? Does having no shadow mean that the light somewhere around you has died? Like some exquisite shots of branches with no leaves, or of women digging graves for people who are likely to die? Soudade Kaadan ventures into a world of magic realism as ideas merge with reality.

But she offers no solutions. Her attention is on how people try to live normally in times of terror, especially for the sake of their children, but losing inevitably something of themselves in the process.

In The Gunshot by Karim El Shenawy (Egypt), which is set against the backdrop of the countrys January 25, 2011 revolution and its aftermath, we have a forensic doctor Yassine who turns to alcohol for succour. There is an unusual line about the films theme penned by Amir Ramses, El Gounas artistic director. When lies are nobler and more poetic than the truth, and when the masses want to believe whats false, which path should you take: following collective consciousness or clashing with it?

Which is what the film is about. The doctor writes a report about a body that has been found near the site of clashes with the police. His report creates a storm. Yassine says that the man died due to a gunshot wound from close quarters, not by a snipers bullet. But death by a snipers bullet would make the man a martyr and that is what people want to believe. Their defence of the revolution means, among other things, the creation of martyrs, and anyone opposing this would be a traitor. Its a question of blind adherence to what you want to believe in (even if it is for the larger good) rather than to the truth. A detective film with connotations that are both ideological and idealistic.

But there are films of another kind too. In The Gift (director Latifa Doghri from Tunisia), a young couples first wedding anniversary is round the corner. Myriam, the young conservative wife and a scarf-wearing kindergarten teacher, looks forward lovingly to a celebration. But her taxi-driver husband is cold. What he yearns for is a long life and obedience.

And so she decides to give him a truly novel gift the reconstruction of her hymen and her virginity! It is a desperate gesture, but she hopes it will put some life into him. Her female friend in whom she confides is outspoken: Will you get your hymen re-sewn every time he loses interests? she asks scornfully.

In the event, the husbands response is both catty and explosive: was her intact hymen a gift even on their wedding night?

That for Myriam is the last straw, and paradoxically, a renewal. She charges into the street, a new look on her face, a new spring in her step, a new liberation in her veins and no scarf on the head. She has understood herself, her husband and her life. She gives away the new scarf that her husband had just gifted her to the first woman she meets. She wont be needing it anymore. And from then on, theres no looking back.

To be sure, there were other Arab films with themes far removed from the agonies of war and terrorism. But for me, it was gratifying to see the strength of what each filmmaker conveyed: an open mind, and a heart of gold often in the midst of debris within and without.

The writer is an eminent film critic and has been on the jury of several national and international festivalsThe company said it would create a standalone business out of its long-haul trucking business. (Photo: WSJ)

Uber Technologies Inc said on Wednesday it is entering the trailer leasing business.

The business, called Powerloop, will be a part of Uber Freight, which connects truckers with shippers, the company said.

Powerloop, which would rent trailers to carriers, is currently available in Texas, Uber said, adding that it expects to expand the new business to other US regions.

Powerloops first customers include brewer Anheuser-Busch.

Money-losing Uber has been seeking new avenues of growth, including food delivery services, even as it battles intense competition in its core business of ride-hailing.

In August, the company said it would create a standalone business out of its long-haul trucking business, with plans to double its investment in the unit to drive growth.

San Francisco-based Uber plans to go public next year and could be valued at USD 120 billion, according to a media report.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.The Rwandan government is seeking to harness its mineral wealth to boost its economy. (Photo: Pixabay)

Rwandas mining boss announced on Tuesday the worlds first blockchain project to track tantalum from the pit-face to the refinery, part of a push to woo investors seeking a conflict-free source of minerals.

The project is the work of Circulor, a British start-up specialised in blockchain, and Power Resources Group (PRG), which has mining and refining operations in Rwanda and Macedonia.

Francis Gatare, chief executive of Rwandas Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board, said it was vital for Rwanda to prove it was a conflict-free source of tantalum, used amongst other things in mobile phones, and other minerals.

Blockchain is one of the technologies that has demonstrated capabilities of providing a more efficient and effective way of delivering traceability for commodities, Gatare told Reuters.

The Rwandan government is seeking to harness its mineral wealth to boost its economy, still recovering from the genocide of 1994, when an estimated 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in just 100 days.

It is also seeking to fight off allegations its resources are being blended with smuggled minerals that can be used to fuel conflict in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

Ray Power, chief executive of Power Resources Group (PRG), said since he first came to Rwanda in 2015, he had heard constant criticisms on traceability for minerals.

Mining companies, which increasingly struggle to win investor confidence as the pursuit of opportunities drives them into high-risk territory, are exploring the potential of blockchain to mitigate any dangers.

The technology behind cryptocurrency bitcoin, blockchain enables the creation of a shared database of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet, making it harder for anyone to tamper with than separately held records.

In the mining sector so far, blockchain has been used by Anglo American unit De Beers to monitor diamonds to help to guarantee they are free from conflict or child labour.

Projects are also underway to track cobalt, used in batteries.

Critics of blockchain say, like any other monitoring system, it is only as good as the data entered into it.

Tracking diamonds is relatively simple compared with creating a blockchain for an ore that has to be refined, such as coltan, which produces tantalum, or cobalt, because the refining process opens the risk of clean batches of material being mixed with other batches.

Power said PRG was determined to be an agent of change, with Circulor using GPS tracking and facial recognition to help prevent any corruption of the system. It also compares the amount of each batch of material put into a refinery from sealed bags with the end product.

Power Resources Groups clients include Kemet, which produces tantalum capacitors for mobile phones. Kemet is listed by Apple as one of its suppliers.

Neither Apple nor Kemet had any immediate comment.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Relatives of Imran Ali convicted of killing eight children avoid media in a van while arrivIng to receive his body at a prison in Lahore on Wednesday (Photo:AP)

Islamabad: Imran Ali sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Zainab Ansar and 12 other minor girls was hanged on Wednesday at Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan.

The black warrant for Imran Alis execution was carried out at 5.30 am in accordance with the prevailing law on capital punishment.

Imran Alis body was later handed over to his family. Ali was convicted in February after being identified through DNA tests and was sentenced to death on one count, 25 years of imprisonment on two counts. In other cases, Imran Ali was awarded death sentence on four counts and life imprisonment on one count.

Zainab Ansari was abducted on January 4 from near her aunts house in Kasur. Her body was recovered from a garbage heap near her house five days later, sparking widespread protests in which two people died from police firing.

The police later collected DNA samples of 1,187 people from January 12 to January 23 to trace the accused. On January 23, the police arrested Imran Ali, a neighbour of Zainab Ansari, as his DNA matched not only with the DNA samples collected from the body of Zainab Ansari, but also at least seven other victims.

On February 10, the court handed over copies of the challan (charge-sheet) to the accused counsel in a hearing which was held in Kot Lakhpat jail and February 12 was fixed for framing of charges.

On February 12, the judge asked the accused whether he accepted the charges levelled against him in the challan (charge-sheet).

The accused refused to accept the charges after which the court indicted him in the case and started regular trial proceedings.

However, on the next day, Imran Ali confessed to raping and killing Ayesha Asif, Eman Fatima, Noor Fatima, Laiba Saleem, Zainab Ansari and others.

All the victims were less than 8 years old.India and China plan to sign an internal security co-operation agreement on October 22, during the visit of Zhao Kezhi, Chinas Minister of Public Security, to India. The proposed agreement covers a wide range of areas from intelligence sharing and cooperation in disaster management to sharing best practices. The so-called Wuhan spirit appears to be propelling this pact. In April, just months after the Doklam crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for an informal summit at Wuhan, where they vowed, among other things, to co-operate on issues of concern to the two countries. It is to give concrete shape to the Wuhan spirit that the two sides seem to have decided on the proposed internal security pact. Some will argue that any co-operation between the two countries, in whatever field, is good if it calms tensions with China, which has taken on an aggressive avatar, believing its now a superpower.

However, the proposed internal security agreement is ill-conceived, especially with regard to its implications for India. Has the Modi government thought it through or is it one of those moves that is simply aimed at impressing voters ahead of general elections? There is little that is common between India and China to merit internal security co-operation. China is an authoritarian state that brooks no criticism of its leaders and policies. There is no freedom of speech or assembly there. In contrast, the Indian Constitution entitles every citizen to

an array of rights, including those of freedom of speech and expression, to assemble peacefully and move freely throughout the country. Worryingly, the Modi government has already sought to undermine some of these fundamental rights. It has already shown an inclination to turn India into a surveillance state. What does it want to learn from China? The proposed pact envisages intelligence sharing. How can such sharing happen when India and China do not even agree on the definition of a terrorist? China has stubbornly refused to join the rest of the international community in including Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in a United Nations blacklist of terrorists. What kind of intelligence on Azhars movements, for instance, will China be willing to share with India? Or, will Beijing be willing to provide India with Lashkar-e-Taiba plans for attacks on India?

India does not have internal security agreements even with friendly countries that are fellow democracies. Such an agreement with a rival country, one with whom we have fought a bloody war and were on the brink of another last year, one that has sought to box India in South Asia by arming Pakistan with nuclear arms and missiles, is dangerous and a threat to our national security. Modi must desist from signing this pact.Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to Uzbekistan on October 18-19 at the invitation of his Uzbek colleague. Tashkent has already defined the Russian leader's visit as a milestone. Russia enters Uzbekistan with long-term projects - nuclear (building a nuclear power plant) and educational (opening branches of Russian universities) - worth about $20 billion.

This is something new for Uzbek-Russian relations. That is how experts estimate the scale of future cooperation between the two countries. On October 18, the first Uzbek-Russian education forum will take place, which will be attended by the rectors of 82 Russian universities. Following the meeting, 130 cooperation agreements between higher education institutions of the two countries will be signed. Director of the Tashkent Center for Research Initiatives 'Ma'no' Bakhtiyor Ergashev believes that the inter-university forum will mark the beginning of a new stage of humanitarian cooperation between Moscow and Tashkent. The key issues are opening branches of Russian universities in Uzbekistan, launching double degree programs, training Uzbek students in Russia, expanding the Russian language space. According to Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Chief Researcher of the Institute of Market Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences Nabi Ziyadullayev, "science and the educational process must be linked to Russia."

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev set a task for Uzbek scientists to revive the Institute of Nuclear Physics in the republic, which was one of the leading ones in Soviet times. It became especially relevant for the republic after the signing of the agreement with Russia on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Navoi region.

Vladimir Putin and Shavkat Mirziyoyev will attend the ceremony of launching the construction of nuclear power plant. Expenses of the project are financed by Moscow. Russia is becoming a monopolist in the emerging nuclear industry of Uzbekistan. Rosatom will pursue the construction. According to the project, which was developed in Soviet times, and then was forgotten, Rosatom proposes to build a nuclear power plant consisting of two modern blocks of the 'three plus' generation VVER-1200. A similar project is implemented by Rosatom in Bangladesh. The project costs roughly $13 billion, $11.3 billion of which is provided by Russia as a state export credit. The Belarus NPP cost $10 billion. The cost of an Uzbek nuclear power station is not reported yet. It is possible that it will be cheaper, since Uzbekistan is one of the largest suppliers of uranium to the world market. This reduces the cost of raw materials for nuclear power plants.

In total, Russia and Uzbekistan will sign contracts worth about $20 billion. The contracts will be signed following the results of the Forum of interregional cooperation of the two countries, which will be held on October 19.

Nuclear energy is not the only sphere of Uzbekistan, the development of which is facilitated by Russian investments. Since April, the Kandym Gas Processing Complex in the Bukhara region (LUKOIL) has been working in the republic since April, the construction of the Jizzakh oil refinery has been started as well. There are projects for the construction of two large metallurgical plants in Tashkent and Karakalpakstan.

Another interesting long-term project is the reanimation of the Suffa International Radio Astronomy Observatory - the "world's largest" telescope for scientific research in space communications. The construction of the radio telescope began in 1985. It was supposed to be a unique research tool, receiving short wave radio signals from space. In 1991, construction was frozen, although part of the installation was ready. The object has been put on hold. Construction will resume in the near future.

The Suffa radio telescope is a dish with 70m antenna diameter. At the moment, its base has been created. By decision of the presidents of Uzbekistan and Russia, the facility will be completed as part of the international observatory. The Pulkovo Observatory, the Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, design institutes and other scientific organizations of Russia will be involved in the work. "This will be the first Russian scientific center project in a foreign territory," President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeyev said.

It is expected that the political part of the visit will be also busy. Vladimir Putin will discuss with the Uzbek counterpart the situation in Afghanistan and building up cooperation in the framework of the SCO, the Assistant to the Russian President Yuri Ushakov said. Moscow has recently seen Tashkent as the leader of the Central Asian region. By location and population - 33 million people - it is the largest state in a strategic position. For Russia, it is important to maintain good relations with Uzbekistan. For Uzbekistan, the alliance with Moscow is one of the most important components of the foreign policy balance, maintained by Tashkent.

Doctor of Political Sciences, Deputy Director General of the Center for Strategic Estimations and Forecasts Igor Pankratenko told Vestnik Kavkaza that Russia's problem is not that niches for trade and economic partnership with Uzbekistan have been limited: "In fact, in terms of serious projects it makes sense now to talk only about cooperation in the energy sector. First of all, the construction of a nuclear power plant and the launch the Kandym Gas Processing Complex in the Bukhara region (LUKOIL) this April, as well as the construction of the Jizzakh oil refinery. The problem is not even that Tashkent is seriously concerned about the potential impact of U.S. sanctions on Russian-Uzbek projects, since the recent idea that the SCO could become a shield against them is puzzling. The main problem is that Moscow has to compete for the status of Tashkents strategic partner both in the economy and in the military-technical sphere, although things are good enough with in. But competition isn't one of its strong suits, to put it mildly," the expert believes.DREXEL HILL  The Delaware County Community College Educational Foundation Dinner held Tuesday at The Drexelbrook included a special memorial event in honor of fallen firefighter Matthew LeTourneau, a graduate who impacted countless others.

Delaware County Community College (DCCC) student Bethany DeLoach, a Philadelphia Fire Department EMT who is in the colleges paramedic program, shared her story as a single mother of two small daughters and a self-described recovering addict. She is one of the first recipients of the Captain Matthew LeTourneau Memorial Scholarship, created in honor of the fallen Philadelphia firefighter.

When DeLoach became sober through a 12-step program in 2014, she applied for an EMT position with the Philadelphia Fire Department. When she saw the application asks about drug abuse, her friend encouraged her to be honest, open-minded and willing. She said she received a chance to start over when offered the job.

College is challenging, but I enjoy learning, DeLoach said. She added that she learned to have faith in herself and to work hard through the difficulties.

She applied for the scholarship, which marked the first Philadelphia line of duty death during her career. She saw thousands of first-responders pay their respects at the funeral. A Philadelphia firefighter since 2007, LeTourneau was promoted to lieutenant in 2015 and promoted to captain posthumously.

There was so much love and support for a fallen hero, DeLoach said.

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said it is suiting that a sister in the Philadelphia Fire Department received a scholarship. Additionally, Michael Boyle, who serves with Collingdale Fire Company No. 1 received a memorial scholarship named after LeTourneau.

Thiel first met LeTourneau at the Delaware County Emergency Services Training Center when LeTourneau participated in life-saving research conducted by Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

He was there to help and he was there to learn, said Thiel, adding that the research is being shared nationwide.

Thiel said firefighters display courage by entering burning buildings to rescue people and extinguish fires because its what we do. He noticed another type of courage displayed by the LeTourneau family when he met them that tragic day at Temple Hospital, and his family expressed concern for Matts brother and sister firefighters.

From that minute, we saw their fortitude, Thiel said. We are humbled by the fact that they were worried about us.

Luke LeTourneau, Captain LeTourneaus brother, accepted the colleges Wong Moss Outstanding Alumni award given to Matthew on behalf of the LeTourneau family. Luke thanked the college for recognizing Matthews contributions to the college, the community and his impact on countless others. Matthew graduated in 1995 from DCCC.

My brother had a passion for firefighting that was unrivaled, Luke LeTourneau said. He was always on a journey to learn and teach, take opportunities to gain knowledge or even talk shop with whoever would listen.

He said that Matthew always trained, and encouraged other firefighters to keep training. Matthew also served as a state instructor and as a volunteer firefighter with the Springfield Fire Company.

He was certain that muscle memory and learning new and safer techniques made you the best firefighter, Luke LeTourneau said. Matt went into every shift, every call and every fire with the same passion, love and enthusiasm, as if it was his first day. He knew that he would not fail his fellow firefighters due to lack of training, and no matter what, firefighting, his family and his friends were central to his core.

LeTourneau, of Springfield, served as a lieutenant with the Philadelphia Fire Department Engine 45/Platoon A. He died on Jan. 6 after being trapped in a structural collapse while battling a rowhome fire in North Philadelphia. Two other firefighters were injured during the collapse and a neighbor suffered an injury during the blaze. The homeowner perished in the fire.

He lost his life trying to save another, Luke LeTourneau said, truly living on as a hero forever.

The LeTourneau family created the Captain Matthew LeTourneau Memorial Foundation, carrying on Matthews legacy of continuing the education and advancement of firefighters, and those wishing to become instructors, passing on their knowledge, like he did.For journalists taking on those in positions of authority, some pushback is always anticipated. It is practically part of the job description.

But lately, journalists abroad have often become a target for violence, and two recent incidents indicate that the violence has taken on a new, particularly vicious nature.

In Bulgaria, investigative journalist Viktoria Marinova was raped and beaten to death in the town of Ruse. According to authorities, Ms. Marinova was beaten with such force that she was unrecognizable.

The 30-year-old had just launched her own news talk show, Detector. In the first episode, she interviewed two journalists investigating the misuse of European Union funds.

Ms. Marinova is the fourth journalist to be killed in Europe since the start of 2017.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi has been missing since Oct. 2.

Mr. Khashoggi, a vocal critic of the Saudi governments oppressive policies, reportedly entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain marriage paperwork and never returned.

While Mr. Khashoggis disappearance has not been officially solved, Turkish police officials have claimed that a 15-person Saudi death squad captured Mr. Khashoggi inside the consulate, tortured and killed him, and then removed his dismembered body in a series of boxes.

The Saudi government has denied the allegation, but there is a growing consensus that the story is likely true.

Through their respective efforts, Ms. Marinova and Mr. Khashoggi were integral in uncovering and analyzing critical pieces of information about corrupt government entities and officials.

They were among the best the profession had to offer. Their loss will be felt far and wide.

Sadly, their deaths are not isolated incidents.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 43 journalists worldwide already have been killed in 2018. That is only three less than in all of 2017.

And more than 300 accredited and citizen-journalists have been imprisoned simply for doing their jobs.

These threats to press freedom should be of concern to everyone who cherishes free inquiry, free expression and free thought. Serious work must be done to preserve these fundamental liberties.

This is the mission Viktoria Marinova and Jamal Khashoggi paid dearly for. We all must work to take up their mantle.

 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Associated PressNorth Koreas government news agency published a piece Tuesday condemning the United States yet again for refusing to lift sanctions on the rogue state, calling American officials stubborn and arguing that sanctions are misused as tools for meeting party interests in America.

As Breitbart writes in the article North Korea: U.S. Must Stop Being Stubborn with Sanctions, Help Our Economy, the Trump administration has insisted that it will not lift sanctions on North Korea, currently at unprecedented levels, until Pyongyang agrees to completely dismantle its illegal nuclear weapons program and proves that it has irreversibly done so. The government of communist dictator Kim Jong-un, aided by allies in China and Russia, has instead demanded that the United States lift some sanctions as North Korea issues concessions at their leisure.

If the U.S. intends to be stubborn in its sanctions, which means to continue to pursue hostile policy, is the Singapore Joint Statement which promised to end the extreme hostile relations between the DPRK and the U.S. and to open up new future of any worth? the newspaper asked.

The Singapore Declaration is a joint statement President Donald Trump and Kim signed during their first-ever meeting in that country. The statement deliberately featured few specifics on what the two states promised each other, but both committed to establish[ing] new U.S.  DPRK relations in accordance with the desire of the population of the peoples of the two countries for peace and prosperity.

The KCNA commentary insisted that it had been quite a long period since the last North Korean nuclear weapon test  a little more than a year  and that the United States lifting sanctions would be a natural step in light of this reality.

It is an undeniable reality that denuclearization and sanctions are misused as tools for meeting party interests and strategies of the political forces within the U.S., not to solve bottleneck problems between the DPRK and the U.S. to even a certain extent, the column concluded.

Elsewhere in North Korean state media, KCNA published a story Tuesday attacking South Korean conservatives, and in particular the right-wing Liberty Korea Party, for warning against concessions to the communist regime without beneficial incentives for South Korea. The complaints echoed those that Pyongyang appears to have against the Trump administration.

As a leopard cannot hide its spots, the Liberal Korea Party of south Korea is stilling going mischievous against the current of the times, KCNA warned. For the conservative party to warn against obedience to the north on the part of leftist President Moon Jae-in was utterly ridiculous, KCNA alleged. The ill-intended behavior of the Liberal Korea Party is just a grumble and last-ditch effort of those who were left alone after being nudged out of the historical trend toward national reconciliation, unity, peace and reunification.

Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North Korean government, dedicated its coverage Tuesday to condemning capitalism as a reactionary society with degenerate people. Capitalist society, plagued by all sorts of social evils based on the jungle law, is a rotten and ailing society on the deathbed without future, the newspaper alleged in a piece titled Socialism Is Far Superior to Capitalism.

The adamant rejections of demands on the part of the United States in exchange for sanctions relief follow the publication of a report Monday suggesting that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo managed to achieve little in his latest visit to Pyongyang this month. The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun claimed this week that Kim Jong-un refused Pompeos demand for at least a partial inventory of North Koreas illegal nuclear assets, demanding instead a formal end to the Korean War. The war began in 1950 and hostilities ceased as a result of an armistice treaty in 1953, but the absence of a peace treaty means North and South Korea, China, and the United States are still technically at war.

Formally ending the war would call into question the presence of American troops on the Korean peninsula. An unnamed source further told the newspaper that Kim presented Pompeo with the option of lump verification after completing denuclearization if the U.S. takes corresponding steps in stages. But Pompeo refused.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday, President Donald Trump insisted that the United States would not lift sanctions or support the lifting of international sanctions without full dismantlement of the nuclear program. This isnt the Obama administration. I havent eased the sanctions, Trump said.Election Day is here, or not.

It may be tomorrow, or the day after that. It might have been last week. Its up to you, really.

Actually, the word day is obsolete in this context. Voting season might be a better way to put it, and its changing democracy. Exactly how remains a mystery, however.

Yes, Election Day officially is Nov. 6, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. But thats now more a deadline than an event.

If you live in Utahs most populous counties, you got your mail-in ballots already. The question is, when do you pull the trigger?

If you voted in the 4th Congressional District last week, then watched the televised debate between Mia Love and Ben McAdams, would you have regretted your choice?

Did news stories this week about Canada legalizing recreational marijuana  furthering the argument that a loose medical marijuana law naturally leads to recreational weed  change your position on Proposition 2? How about promises that key politicians plan to fix that proposition, even if it passes?

Would a private conversation with a neighbor about the non-binding Question 1, to raise the price of gas by 10 cents a gallon to help schools, change your mind? Maybe the neighbor has a low-income relative who cant afford to pay any more at the pump, and that put the whole thing in a different light for you, if you hadnt already voted.

Or maybe you let the ballot sit on the kitchen counter for a while because you werent expecting it to contain three proposed amendments to the state constitution. Youve promised yourself to spend some time studying these online, but that time never seems to come.

When can you be sure youre sure?

We used to all go to the polls with much the same information in our heads. Now we pick and choose when to turn off the spigot. (Salt Lake County still lets you vote on Election Day in various "vote centers," if you're feeling nostalgic.)

And if youre a candidate or a campaign manager, how do you time op-eds in the local paper, or strategic social media posts? The old-fashioned October surprise attack on your opponent had better be launched in September or youll miss a lot of votes. Can you do much more at this point than just urge your base to drop their ballots in the mail?

You may be wondering, how did we get here? How did we go from hanging chads and extra federal money for states to buy newfangled electronic voting machines to this  a pen and a piece of paper? Isnt this the opposite of what experts were predicting 18 years ago when internet voting was just over the horizon? Was there a vote on this somewhere we missed? When was the debate held?

The answer is, just like a lot of things  from the move toward a cashless society to watching movies on demand at home and the death of shopping malls  it just happened. No one held a debate on whether we should keep shooting pictures with film or using floppy disks, did they?

But this isnt merely a business decision. It affects how we govern ourselves, and it will be worth watching and studying as it unfolds.

A couple of years ago, California State University associate political science professor Elizabeth Bergman published a study that showed voting by mail may actually reduce voter turnout  the opposite of what its champions have claimed.

She found evidence suggesting that when mailing ballots is the only option, turnout decreased by about 13 percent.

However, this changed when local election officials sent out official reminders  voter guides, letters, etc. As she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, Each additional communication improved the odds of voting by 4 percent.

She said scholars are learning that a lack of official stimulation to vote tends to outweigh the benefits of the convenience a mail-in ballot provides.

Some other research, however, suggests mail-in voting does increase turnout. We probably wont know definitively until its been done for several more elections.

This year, Utahs voter guides are online, complete with arguments for and against ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments. The hope is that mail-in ballots will lead to more thoughtful voter decisions. But only voters can determine whether this is true.

Utah really doesnt have much to lose. The state ranked 39th nationally in voter turnout in 2016, with only 57.7 percent of eligible voters casting ballots. My guess is it probably will take more than paper and pen to make that change.Saudi Arabia deposited $100 million into American accounts on Tuesday, the same day U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touched down in Riyadh to discuss the disappearance of missing journalist Jamal Khashogi with the Saudi king, crown prince and foreign minister.

As Yeni Safak writes in the article Saudi Arabia pays Washington $100M as Pompeo lands in Riyadh, the funds were allegedly part of financing pledged in August by Riyadh to the Trump administration for efforts to stabilize Syrian territories liberated from Daesh. It was unclear when it would show up, if at all, until it suddenly landed in American accounts on Tuesday, The New York Times reported.

The alignment of the transfer and Pompeos arrival in Riyadh has raised questions. The top diplomat was in Saudi Arabia to discuss Khashoggis disappearance, a matter that has heightened tensions between Riyadh and many of its allies.

Claims have emerged that Riyadh is preparing a report acknowledging Khashoggi was killed as the result of an interrogation that went wrong. In an earlier article, the New York Times, citing a person familiar with Saudi plans, reported that the Saudi government would blame an intelligence official for a bungled operation.

Blaming Khashoggi's case on mistakes by lower-level personnel would allow the Saudi government to say it never sanctioned his disappearance, and could help to reduce international outrage over the affair, a banker in the Gulf said. U.S. backing of such a conclusion would help shield Saudi Arabia from the fallout of such an acknowledgement.

The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, Brett McGurk, the United States envoy to the coalition fighting Daesh said, dismissing claims that the visit is connected to the money transfer.

Combined with another $50 million from the UAE, the Saudi funding will enable U.S. presence in Syria to continue without dipping into Washingtons own pocket.

The funds will be used by USAID and the State Department for a variety of programs, including infrastructure repairs and provision of health, education and sanitation services, The New York Times reported.SALT LAKE CITY  Lawmakers showed new interest Wednesday in tackling what for many Utahns may be a significant increase in their state income taxes as a result of the $1.5 trillion federal tax cut package.

Members of the Legislature's Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee were told Utahns with large families will still owe as much as an additional $1,231 on their 2018 income after a $30 million tax break and a rate cut from 5 percent to 4.95 percent.

It's going to take another $153 million to fully restore the deduction for dependents that was eliminated in the tax changes made by Congress in December 2017, legislative economist Thomas Young said.

That's because the tax break passed by lawmakers in a special session last July only amounted to adding back $565 of what would need to be a $3,113 deduction to totally offset the impact of the federal changes, Young said.

Those numbers, as well as calculations presented by a tax preparer who showed an example of a family with four children seeing their state tax bill jump $549 from the previous year to nearly $4,500, seemed to surprise some on the committee.

"Even with the softening of this blow that we did during the special session, there's a signficant difference," said the committee's co-chairman, Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper. "We thought we had mitigated a lot of that."

Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, a certified public accountant, said he understands why the special session legislation "didn't hit the mark. I understand why it didn't go far enough. Because we were trying to put a Band-Aid on it."

Bramble said lawmakers need to look closer at the issue and "make certain we get it right."

The child tax credit passed in July, expected to cut state income taxes by about $34 for each dependent, or about $170 for a family with five children, wasn't finalized until just before the start of the afternoon special session.

The legislation was put together so quickly it came as a surprise then to Rep. Tim Quinn, R-Heber City, the sponsor of a similar bill offering a bigger deduction that failed to get a hearing during the 2018 Legislature.

Quinn, a member of the interim committee, said he was appreciative of the tax break passed in July, but it was clear then it fell short. He said it would be "disingenuous if we act like this is a revelation."

He said lawmakers "hellbent" on reducing the state income tax rate during the general session argued that Utahns could pay more to the state because they'd see their federal taxes cut, something that's turning out not to be true for everyone.

"Yogi Berra once famously said, 'This sounds like deja vu all over again.' I'm wondering where all these voices were in our session," Quinn said. "We shouldn't be shocked. None of this is new."

No action was taken by the committee Wednesday, but Quinn told a reporter later that he's now hopeful the Legislature will be willing to take up the issue when the new session begins in late January.

"It sounds like there's an appetite for that," he said. But Quinn said restoring all of the deduction amount "is a big nut to chew right now," so lawmakers may target Utahns earning no more than around $100,000.

"I think we can fix that problem with another, about $60 million. I think that's much more palatable," he said. "Hopefully, this conversation will fuel an attempt in this session to provide all the relief we need to provide for those working families."DRAPER  While electric cars and the activities of CEO Elon Musk rule most headlines about Tesla, the company is also in the solar energy business and last week announced it would eliminate 100 positions from a Draper office that is part of its "energy support" division.

A company spokesman said Tesla Energy would work to place the impacted workers in other positions with the company.

"As we continue to grow our energy business, we are consolidating the Energy Support team in one centralized location, which will save money and enable our colleagues to work together more effectively and efficiently," the spokesman said in a statement. "This decision will impact approximately 150 employees, with 100 of the affected employees located in our Draper, Utah, location. All affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for a transfer to other roles within Tesla.

"We understand these changes can be difficult for those who are impacted, and we will be providing employees with transition benefits and assistance during this process.

The Draper facility was acquired in 2016 when Tesla acquired SolarCity in a transaction worth about $2 billion in stock. Musk was close to the company, which launched in 2006, as both the financer of the effort and the cousin of its two founder brothers, Lyndon and Peter Rive. Tesla Energy offers both solar collection systems and a Tesla-designed energy storage system called the Powerwall.

A recent Forbes article on Tesla Energy noted the company had reduced its workforce by about 9 percent earlier this year and was experiencing a decline in solar installation volumes and delays in new product launches. Tesla Energy accounted for about 10 percent of Tesla's overall revenues in the second quarter of 2018, or about $375 million.

At the close of regular trading Wednesday, Tesla stock was trading at $271.78 for a market capitalization of $43.38 billion.SALT LAKE CITY  Gabe Allred was 3 years old when he found himself face-to-face with a mummy.

Unable to find a babysitter, his mom had opted to bring Allred along for a meeting at the Rocky Point Haunted House in Salt Lake City, where she worked as a graphic designer. Things got out of hand when her toddler wandered a bit too far and wound up in the Mummys Tomb.

They had left the compressor on for the animatronics. I walked past these mummies lined up against the wall, and then they all just fell forward out of their little alcove and I started screaming and yelling and my mom came running in. It was excellent, Allred said with a laugh. I think that trauma was actually what started my fascination with haunted houses. I was never able to go through them. I was always kind of fascinated with them and just really loved  getting behind the scenes.

Sixteen years after his first encounter with a mummy, Allred can be found behind the scenes at Salt Lake City's Fear Factory, the towering haunted house attraction that looms off of I-15. But around those parts, hes known as Uncle Dizzno the clown. The 19-year-old has played this role at Fear Factory since he was 15, and while he has given people some good scares over the years, for him, the job is more about entertaining.

Whenever I see somebody jump or scream and then, as they round the corner going out of the little area Im in, they start laughing, thats always the best, he said. My goal isnt to traumatize anybody  my goal is to entertain them.

But there's plenty of haunted house workers who do take pride in their scares. The Deseret News spoke with some scarers to hear their best stories in all their glory  and not to worry, they're not gory.

Poppy the Clown

By day, Taylor Morgan does software for a tech company. At night, shes Poppy the Clown.

When the day jobs done, Morgan steps into a black-and-white striped jumpsuit with splashes of bright orange, pink and green. She teases her hair to get that Beetlejuice look and sprays it orange. And then comes the best part of her costume  the unsuspecting key to all of her successful scares at the Fear Factory.

Hot pink roller skates. Two neon yellow wheels in the front, two in the back. Theyre flashy, but quiet.

Its insanely easy to sneak up on people, Morgan said. I have a really good advantage; I can scare the same person multiple times because I can cover so much ground in a short amount of time.

But a few weeks ago, it only took one scare to do the trick. As a group of teenage boys entered the Fear Factory gates, Poppy the Clown had her eye on one boy in particular.

This boy was just talking so much, he was like, Ive been here before, Im not scared at all, Im great at haunted houses'  just talking this big game, Morgan said. And I snuck up behind him and scared him, and he jumped so high that he landed and I guess forgot to use his feet because he fell flat on his back and just laid there and screamed.

The boys friends formed a circle around him  but not for protection.

They all had their phones out and they were Snapchatting. They thought it was hilarious, Morgan said. He was just screaming in the fetal position and he actually turned around and (left). I think the count now is up to eight people that Ive scared them and then they turned around and left. They realized, I cant do this. Im not even in it yet and Im already scared.

The maniacal doctor

Genesis Paez refuses to let her height keep her from giving a good scare.

This Halloween season, Paez, who stands 5 foot 2 inches, has traded in her Converse shoes and patched-up clown jumpsuit for a pair of oxford shoes and slacks  topped with a bloody doctors coat and a grotesque-looking face.

To reach Paez, one must walk through the Fear Factorys catacombs, enter a torture chamber and climb up a tower. Then youre in the Infirmary Zone  but youll likely hear Paez before you see her.

I have this crazy maniacal laugh, and it gets (people) every single time, said Paez, an accountant who is in her second season with the Fear Factory.

The maniacal laugh more than compensates for Paezs height. In fact, her laugh recently shocked some men who towered above her at more than 6 feet tall.

They had these serious faces and they were just trying to play it off like theyre being tough, Paez recalled. "I kind of crouched down  and I (told) them, Im not scared of big guys like you, and pushed them up against the wall so they had that touch of fear. Watching them scream was the most rewarding thing ever.

A spooky selfie

It doesnt always take a creepy laugh to give a good scare. For Taylor Lewis, silence was his friend.

At about 11 p.m., Lewis was ready to close up shop after a long night of scares at Insanity Point, Cornbellys haunted attraction. The last wave of people had come through his circus tent known as the Big Top Terror  or so he thought.

He spotted a couple he thought had left earlier  a couple who had seemed more interested in each other than they were their spooky surroundings.

They were gettin a little handsy, so I left them alone, he said. I didnt want to be a part of that.

But as he walked through the large tent once again, pushing through the plastic, opaque curtains, Lewis, a clown whose pale makeup was by far his eeriest feature, saw the lingering couple getting ready to do something he knew would make for a great scare  take a selfie.

I was going through and I heard them talking.  I parted the plastic a little bit and I peeked through and saw them standing next to each other, (the guy) holding up the phone in landscape mode, he said. I was right behind them, so as he clicked the button, his phone screen went white at the flash, and I poked my head out in between their two heads.

What they saw was them together with nothing between their heads, a white screen and then my face between theirs, he continued. And they just lost it, like pure panic and flipped around. I had already gone behind the plastic and disappeared.  I was gone, nowhere to be seen. They ran as fast as they could, they were bouncing off the walls, just couldn't even handle it.

That happened seven years ago, when Lewis was a freshman at Brigham Young University studying film. To this day, he regrets not getting a copy of that photo.

It was just the best scare because if I had been writing a movie, that's exactly how it wouldve happened, he said.

The eye in the sky

Picking the best scare at Nightmare on 13th isnt exactly a simple task for Jake Mabey. On a weekday, he watches hundreds of scares. On Fridays and Saturdays, that number rises into the thousands.

From his perch behind a group of monitors, Mabey sees stone-cold faces transform into wide-eyed expressions. He sees jaws drop. Some people drop to the floor and then curl up in the fetal position. With about 70 cameras under his control, he doesnt miss much.

Not to sound like a creep or anything, but I can pretty much see people from the moment they approach our property, he said. (I watch them go) all the way through the haunted house and get into their car and leave. Ive pretty much got eyes on them the whole way through.

The cameras arent just for security purposes. As the eye in the sky, Mabey helps move the line along and assists the haunted house actors in getting their scare timings just right.

But when asked to pick the haunted houses best scare, Mabey points instead to his favorite feature: A mirror illusion thats found in the upstairs den.

The actor is behind a mirror  (that is) invisible to the eye  weve done the lighting in the room just right, he said. When the customer walks into the room, it appears to be empty.  (And then) our den ghost just pops out of nowhere swinging his fake ax.  Its always a hoot to watch that room.

Mabeys held this position at Nightmare on 13th for a few years now, but watching peoples reactions never gets old.

I just love this job, he said. Its been the best job Ive ever had, and Im going to keep doing it as long as I can.SALT LAKE CITY  House and Senate Republicans appear to be on board with a proposed compromise bill for dispensing medical marijuana in Utah regardless of whether the ballot initiative passes next month.

But those who support Proposition 2 say lawmakers are putting on a show and patients would never get medical cannabis under the proposal.

Both GOP caucuses met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss the bill that could be considered in a special legislative session in November after the Nov. 6 election.

"I think it's important even by transparency for voters to know there is an agreement on policy here, and now were just talking how. I dont think prior to this agreement that could have been said," House Speaker Greg Hughes, who helped broker the deal among initiative proponents and opponents, said.

The Draper Republican, who isn't seek re-election to the House, said lawmakers will move forward with "this good public policy" whether Proposition 2 passes or fails. He said the legislation is not an attempt to dismiss the ballot initiative.

"Our body is very, very supportive," Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said after a closed caucus meeting of Senate Republicans. "I'm not concerned about getting the votes here in the Senate."

There were no negative comments about the compromise made in the caucus meeting, he said, although a few senators mentioned that they wished they'd been kept better informed during the negotiations.

Several key players in the sometimes bitter battle over medical marijuana reached a compromise in private meetings earlier this month that they hope to get passed into law. The proposal changes provisions in Proposition 2 over how medical marijuana can be ingested, where and how it would be sold, and what conditions qualify for a medical cannabis card.

Hughes and Libertas Institute President Connor Boyack, a staunch proponent of medical marijuana, presented the 4,000-line draft legislation to the Health and Human Services Interim Committee, which heard public comment but took no action Wednesday.

Former Republican state Sen. Steve Urquhart asked lawmakers if they wanted a real legislative process or an "orchestrated show intended to mess with an upcoming election." He said if lawmakers' goal is to get medical marijuana to patients, they're on their way to making a "big mistake."

Utah will never get medical marijuana because there are two "poison pills" in the bill, he said, citing the pharmacy requirement and the "active role" of the state in breaking federal law.

"Do we want process or do we want a circus?" Urquhart said, adding lawmakers are doing it right if this is the start of a legislative process. "But this was announced to the public like this was a done deal, like this was completely baked."

Christine Stenquist, the founder of the patient group Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education, said she was left out of the negotiations. She said lawmakers have created a bill in "fear" and that it is designed to fail.

"My concern is that this is political theater," she told the committee. "You guys have introduced a compromise bill that is not finished and is not ready for the public, and you have told the entire state that you've got this and I'm concerned that you don't have this."

After the meeting, House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, said House and Senate Democrats favor Proposition 2, and worry that if it fails the Republican-controlled Legislature would be less likely to advance a medical marijuana bill.

King said he "kind of" trusts Hughes' promise to consider the legislation regardless of the outcome of the ballot initiative.

"It's not black and white," he said. "I think if you see Prop. 2 voted down, there'll be a lot more hesitation, there'll be a lot more reservation, so I think we need to see Prop. 2 voted up."

Hughes said the bill isn't a "porcelain doll" and could change before it reaches the House and Senate floors for a vote.

"I don't want the impression to be that this is already decided," he said.

Besides Wednesday's committee meeting on the compromise legislation, Hughes and Niederhauser said there could be another hearing before the November special session.

"We're working on that. We don't know what the logistics are, but we want to have people to be able to weigh in on it," the Senate president said.

Niederhauser, who is not seeking re-election to the Senate, said seeing the legislation come together has been a highlight of his time in leadership, especially since he didn't give it a lot of hope initially.

"I think it's a miracle that we got to where we are," he said. "I'm excited that we're going to have a policy here that's going to get medical cannabis (backers) the thing that they need and yet we're going to keep the guardrails as strong as possible."

Those involved in the talks included Hughes, Niederhauser, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Libertas Institute, the Utah Medical Association, the Utah Patients Coalition and the governor's office.

After the compromised was announced, the Utah Patients Coalition said it would no longer buy media ads promoting Proposition 2, though it still favors the measure passing. On the other side of the issue, the church and the medical association said they would do the same and not actively fight for its defeat, despite remaining opposed to it.

The legislative proposal limits the forms in which a person can use medical marijuana to a tablet, capsule, concentrated oil, liquid suspension, topical substance, skin patch, sublingual pill, chewable or dissolvable cube, or unprocessed marijuana flower broken up into a blister pack in which each blister, or pocket, does not exceed 1 gram.

Unlike Proposition 2, the bill would not allow someone to grow their own plants for personal use. Baked goods such as brownies or cookies would not be permitted.

Also, marijuana sellers would be known as pharmacies rather than dispensaries, and a licensed pharmacist would be required to work at the facility. A single state-owned central pharmacy would be established and medical marijuana could be picked up at local health departments. The bill allows five pharmacies statewide, unless unforeseen demand arises.

Contributing: Lisa Riley RocheOREM  A man shot and killed in an Orem garage lived down the street from the homeowner, according to court records.

On Wednesday, Orem police identified the man fatally shot by a homeowner as Marcos Vasquez Rosales, 49.

Just after 7 a.m. Monday, a man at 364 N. 800 West heard a noise coming from his unattached garage. The homeowner went back inside his house and retrieved a small-caliber handgun, then went back outside to the garage, said Orem Police Lt. Craig Martinez.

At that point, there was a "confrontation," Martinez said. Details about what transpired between the two men were not released.

The homeowner fired "several" shots, striking the intruder, he said. The homeowner then called 911.

Rosales lived at 319 N. 800 West, according to court documents. He was convicted of misdemeanor shoplifting in June and intoxication in 2013, according to court records, but otherwise had no criminal history in Utah.

The homeowner was not arrested. Police said on Monday that there was no information to suggest the homeowner was not within his right to defend himself with deadly force. The incident, however, remained under investigation and it will be sent to the Utah County Attorney's Office to decide whether charges should be filed.LOGAN  A 16-year incumbent of Congress and former high school teacher wants two more years in office to shepherd through some important lands bills aimed at the nation's forests and the national park maintenance backlog.

On Wednesday evening, challengers to Republican Rob Bishop  Lee Castillo and Eric Eliason  told a crowd why they believe that is a bad idea.

"I think it is time we have someone in Congress who actually represents the people," Castillo said, adding the nation's capitol needs someone with the "backbone" to stand up to the Trump administration.

Castillo, a Democrat, thanked Bishop for his years of service, but then stressed it was time for him to retire.

"You have the opportunity to have someone who has your back," he said afterward.

The Utah Debate Commission hosted the hourlong debate at Utah State University, where the trio of candidates engaged in a verbal sparring match moderated by Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem Gardner Policy Institute.

Bishop is chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources and a senior member of the Armed Services Committee.

While Eliason  a member of the United Utah party  pointed to the polarization in Washington, Bishop said there is good work being done by committees.

"We have passed 220 bills and a third of them are Democrat bills," Bishop said, " and 53 were signed into law. In my committee we have worked together and reached across the aisle. It is not as bad as what you see."

Bishop's critics say he is too beholden to the oil and gas industry and favors extraction of natural resources.

Bishop, a strident opponent of too much D.C.-control of Western land issues, says he favors the practice of "multiple use," which means recreation and conservation can coexist with economic development, which is vital to rural Utah economies.

He said the accusation of his entanglement with special interests was both unfair and untrue. "No one really knows or sees what's in my heart."

The candidates were asked questions on a wide range of issues including gun control, immigration, programs like Social Security and public lands.

On the area of immigration, Castillo said people need to be treated with compassion.

"We have to act humanely," Castillo said, saying "absolutely" immigrants known as Dreamers, who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children, should be allowed to stay in the country.

Bishop said before any immigration reform can play out, the country needs to secure the borders. "When we tell people we have absolute control of the border, then those other things can happen."

Eliason said there are practical ways to address Dreamers' situation by giving them a path forward, while still securing the borders. "We need to look for common ground."

Castillo said he's against cutting Medicare or raising the eligible age for taking Social Security benefits, while Eliason said the system was implemented when the average life span was 65.

He said he'd entertain raising the age eligibility, but not for people close to retirement.

Bishop said Social Security could be reformed to run like the Utah State Retirement System, which is based on actuarially sound rates of investments that meet its benefit obligations. If that happened, "we could easily fund that program."

Bishop took hits from Castillo and Eliason for tax cuts and spending under President Donald Trump's administration.

Castillo said he'd take those tax cuts given to the 1 percent and return it to the poor, noting Jesus was a great "economist" who practiced charity.

Eliason said the administration is on a spending spree that must be stopped. But Bishop rejected the connection between tax breaks and the deficit.

"The tax breaks what went to every American is not the cause of the deficit going up," he said. "What is causing it to go up is the overarching spending. It is a not a tax cut problem, it is spending problem."

Bishop has said this will be his last term in Congress and has been coy about rumors he may run for Utah governor.

"The people in this district have been very kind to me," he said, noting he's taking nothing for granted in this election despite a significant lead over his opponents.

Eliason said that like so many people, he is frustrated with the status quo two-party system that offers too little choice to voters.

The politicians, on important issues, are "kicking the can down the road and pointing fingers at each other.  The measure of our country will be how we overcome this politically divided nation," Eliason said. "We need to explore areas of agreement as opposed to areas of disagreement."

But Bishop said there are success stories where politicians are working together to address signficant issues, such as the $12.6 billion maintenance backlog in the national park system.

He and the ranking member on his committee, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona, are sponsoring a bill that would take surplus revenue from energy development on public lands and direct that to addressing a portion of the backlog.

"It's a good bill," he said afterward, noting that the bill came together at the right time with a supportive administration and wide support across the aisle.

Although UtahPolicy.com polling shows Bishop with 58 percent of the vote, both Castillo and Eliason say they believe they will attract unaffiliated voters or newly registered voters in the November general election.

@RepRobBishop on Social Security: Needs to be run like Utah State Retirement System and it could easily pay for itself. It is an actuarily sound system that runs off interest earnings #utdebates.  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

"We can look for good legal immigration policies," to address workforce shortages @EliasonCongress #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

Pathway for dreamers: @EliasonCongress yes. We need to look for common ground. #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

"We have to act humanely," @Lee4USCongress says he does not support open borders. We have to have a congressman not afraid to stand up to this administration #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop says there are 17 different laws that prevent the border patrol from doing their jobs. They don't need more money #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop on immigration: The first thing is to lower the anxiety and anger people have and say yes, we have control of the border. #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@EliasonCongress says there needs to be a path for the DREAMERs. "These our my neighbors and my friends." #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

Here we go: Immigration: @EliasonCongress. "Great example of can getting kicked down the road." Same questions asked in debates in 1980s #utdebates #utpol  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop says there is steel company in this district that has been fighting unfair trade practices for a long time. #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@EliasonCongress says tariffs result in higher costs for everyone, citing construction costs at Logan wastewater treatment plant #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@Lee4USCongress: Absolutely opposed to steel tariffs. "We are alienating our allies." #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

"The rural problem is both a Utah problem and a national problem," @EliasonCongress #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

"I do not want these places to become ghost towns," @Lee4USCongress. Companies need to be incentivized to create green energy jobs #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

How to help rural economies: @RepRobBishop: "You can have economic development and recreation and conservation."#utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

" No one really knows and sees into my heart," @RepRopBishop, saying he finds the accusation of him being beholden to special interests is unfair and untrue #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

Onto public lands and monuments: @EliasonCongress says @RepRobBishop is beholden to oil and gas interests. "We need to be careful some of these vistas are protected."#utpol #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@Lee4USCongress attacks @RepRobBishop over air pollution-says he has done nothing to fix Utah's problem #Utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@EliasonCongress: On climate change "We must take the lead on global climate."#utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

Things are heating up a bit between @Lee4USCongress and @RepRobBishop on environmental issues #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop: The tax breaks that went to every American is not the cause of the deficit going up.

What is causing it to go up is the overarching spending.

It is not a tax cut problem it is a spending problem."#utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

"We cannot continue to bear the burden for our children and our children's children because these people want to give the top 1 percent a tax break.." @Lee4USCongress - Jesus was a great economist and believed in giving to the poor #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop: The federal government cannot be looked to to fund everything - states need more flexibility to run better programs #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@EliasonCongress: "We are in a very hot economy and when the economy is doing this well, we should be seeing surpluses..."

On out of control spending #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop says states need to be empowered in the arena of gun control #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

We can collaborate with responsible gun owners. Eliason says need trained individuals in schools #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

Lee says he is pro 2nd amendment. "We need a congressman who also cherishes life." #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

@RepRobBishop said this election is about constituents and his experience makes him effective in DC #utdebates  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 18, 2018

The #CD1Debate will be moderated by Natalie Gochnour @Gochnour of the Kem Gardner Policy Institute #utpol  DNews Politics (@DNewsPolitics) October 17, 2018Matt Lowell talks with Sawyer Little as he works on Sawyer's Alice in Wonderland" teacup wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Drew Cheever, dressed as Woody from "Toy Story," gives his wheelchair costume patterned after Bullseye a kiss as he and his mom, Julie Cheever, leave Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Rachael Beekins, dressed as Princess Jasmine from"Aladdin," is pictured in her magic carpet wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Drew Cheeverr, dressed as Woody from "Toy Story," is pictured in his wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Mark Lange adjusts Britton Dayley's school bus wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Alvin Guevara, Bryon Cheney and Ken Kozole work on Drew Cheever's "Toy Story" wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Jane Porter and her cousin, Raylan Dent, play in cardboard scraps at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, during its annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic, where hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions such as door-to-door trick-or-treating pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Britton Dayley is pictured in his school bus wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Drew Cheever, dressed as Woody from "Toy Story," sits in his wheelchair as volunteers and staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City work on his costume on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Staff and volunteers at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City transform the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desire at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Julie Cheever and her son, Drew Cheever, say goodbye to Sawyer Little and his mom, Jamie Little, at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, after the annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic where hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions such as door-to-door trick-or-treating pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Drew Cheeverr, dressed as Woody from "Toy Story," is pictured in his wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Rachael Beekins, dressed as Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin," smiles as she looks at staff and volunteers during Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City's annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, where hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Rachael Beekins, dressed as Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin," gives Matt Lowell a high-five from her magic carpet wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Rachael Beekins, dressed as Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin," is pictured in her magic carpet wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Rachael Beekins, dressed as Princess Jasmine from"Aladdin," is pictured in her magic carpet wheelchair costume at Shriners Hospitals for Children - Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. Hospital staff and volunteers transformed the wheelchairs of 28 patients into anything their hearts desired for Halloween at the hospitals annual Wheelchair Costume Clinic. Hospital staff created the clinic in response to feedback from parents that Halloween traditions, such as door-to-door trick-or-treating, pose challenges for children with physical disabilities. Hospital staff and volunteers are doing everything in their power to make it a level playing field for children in wheelchairs with conditions such as spina bifida, cerebral palsy and neuromuscular disease. Scott G Winterton, Deseret NewsSALT LAKE CITY  Can a price tag be placed on children's safety?

This year, with growing anxiety over school shootings and the rising rate of teen suicides, state education officials and lawmakers are trying to come up with ways to protect Utah's children.

During a legislative meeting Wednesday, the Utah School Safety Advisory Committee told lawmakers gathered at the Utah State Capitol that schools in the state need increased safety measures, mental health support and preventative programs  to the tune of about $200 million.

"We really believe  that the work of school safety really rests at the local level, and we feel that's where it happens best," Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson told the Interim Education Committee.

But she said a "statewide comprehensive framework" can help strengthen schools.

The committee said $30 million would be needed in ongoing funds to hire and contract with professional counselors.

"We've talked about the criticality of a positive and supportive school culture," Dickson said.

The committee recommended that teachers and school staff members receive mental health training to help them aid students who are struggling.

Christy Walker, school and student safety specialist for the Utah State Board of Education, said the suicide rate among children ages 10 to 17 in Utah has risen in the past few years at a higher rate than the rest of the country.

According to state data, in 2015, 44 children died by suicide compared to 11 in 2005. Utah needs to address that issue "aggressively," Walker said.

According to a survey conducted last year by the Utah Department of Human Services, Walker said, 25 percent of youth surveyed expressed a "high need for mental health services."

When lawmakers asked committee members why they think the suicide rate among children is rising, Dickson replied, "We really don't know the answer.  We have to come at it from multiple solutions."

In addition to focusing on mental health, the committee recommended strengthening law enforcement at schools and implementing physical safety measures for school buildings.

Specifically, the committee recommended schools employ someone as a law enforcement liaison.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, agreed.

"I think that's really crucial  because it helps communicate to the (law enforcement agencies) and to the schools the best practices most effectively, rather than them having to discover them on their own," he said.

Schools statewide should also standardize their approach to emergency situations, as well as create threat assessment and student support teams locally, the committee said.

Amid that discussion, Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, responded with frustration, "I'm worried about kids getting shot." He said he believes one person should not and could not be responsible for both assessing threats and supporting students.

"I think the skill set to help us protect a school from an outside shooter with an AR-15 is a different skill set than is going to help us identify a child with trauma who may self hurt," Hutchings said.

He said focus should be placed both on students' mental health as well as keeping schools safe from threats, explaining that he sees the two goals as "separate issues."

But the committee emphasized that a "team of individuals" would help schools with support and threat assessment, rather than just one person fulfilling both roles.

The committee also recommended spending $164 million over four years to strengthen safety at schools statewide through "construction, updates and design," including securing school buildings by implementing single entrances.

Stephenson requested more information about how those figures were calculated, which the committee said it would provide.

"I'd like to see a breakdown of what that buys and how that's distributed so we can see what makes that up," he said.

Missing from the conversation Wednesday was the idea of a gun violence restraining order, which was discussed in June at a Utah Safe Schools Commission meeting.

A "red flag" restraining order would authorize judges to issue extreme risk protective orders permitting police to remove firearms from a person who has a propensity for violent or emotionally unstable conduct and refer them to help.

The bill filed by Rep. Steve Handy, R-Layton, late in the legislative session earlier this year sought to allow a family member who has lived with an individual at least six months to seek the protective order. The bill was discussed but did not advance out of committee.

Handy told the Deseret News on Wednesday that after the bill stalled this year, he refiled it so that it could be studied in the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee in June. It will be heard during the 2019 legislative session.

Handy sees the issue as part of the school safety debate.

"When I started the bill, I was really thinking in terms of these horrible mass shootings, of preventing those if we can."

He said he is now focused on the "suicide aspect" of the issue. "If we can create space and distance between the time that someone wants to take their own life in the most lethal way that they would do it  then that's what this law would do," Handy said.

He said the law already allows for protective orders and firearms can be taken under a court order in domestic violence situations. But the new bill would allow someone close to a person, such as a roommate or relative, to petition the court. Handy called the law a potential "tool in the toolbox."

Utah Education Association President Heidi Matthews late Wednesday afternoon told the Deseret News she supports the advisory committee's emphasis on the "health and well-being of students."

"So investing in mental health services, wrap-around services  are all going to really help to lay that foundation for our students to be successful in school," Matthews said.

But she said that while "some physical changes to buildings" are helpful, she wants to make sure that "they don't supersede the real efforts that need to be made  that the safety measures, when they are overdone, have a tendency to create the opposite environment that they're trying to achieve for their students."

She said "overt" security measures can give students a greater sense that the school is an unsafe environment.

Correction: In an earlier version, Sen. Howard Stephenson's last name was misspelled as Stevenson.The college student who carried out a mass shooting and explosion attack at a vocational institute in the Crimean city of Kerch could not have plotted the entire incident single-handedly, Crimeas head Sergei Aksyonov said.

"The fact that he acted alone at the scene is understandable. My colleagues and I believe, however, that he could not have plotted all the preliminary details all by himself," TASS cited him as saying.

Yesterday, a local student, armed with a rifle, went on a shooting rampage and detonated a bomb on the campus of the Kerch Polytechnic College. The shooter later turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. Subsequently, a criminal case was initially opened on terrorism charges, but was later reclassified as murder. Twenty-one people died because of the shooting and explosion at the Kerch technical college, including the gun-wielding teenage attacker who ended up taking his own life. Around 50 people were taken to local hospitals, with ten of them in intensive care units in grave condition.SALT LAKE CITY  Heres a look at the news for Oct. 18.

SPECIAL REPORT: We sent Deseret News reporter Erica Evans and photojournalist Spenser Heaps to Norway to find out if Oslo held the key to Utahs pollution problem. Heres what they found.

The Utah Jazz defeated the Sacramento Kings on opening night Wednesday after a back-and-forth battle between the teams. Read more.

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop squared off with two challengers in Utahs 1st Congressional District debate. Read more.

Salt Lake Citys New Yorker Restaurant ended its 40-year run over the weekend. Read more.

Deseret News opinion editor Boyd Matheson spoke with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse in his latest podcast. Listen here.

Putting gold stars on Utah licenses will cost millions of dollars, according to Utah lawmakers. Read more.

Our most popular stories:

Around the web:

National headlines:SALT LAKE CITY  Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, said a Federal Election Commission email released Thursday clears up issues about her fundraising and called for her Democratic opponent, Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams, to get out of the race.

"This is exactly what we needed," Love told the Deseret News. She said the email "clearly states that we have absolutely done nothing that would be illegal and this is absolutely a devastating day for the McAdams campaign."

Love said McAdams shouldn't stay in the race, citing what she called "a coordinated effort" between his campaign and the Alliance for a Better Utah, the progressive group that filed an FEC complaint against her about the $1 million she raised for a primary race she didn't have.

McAdams said that while he knows people in the alliance, he insists there was no coordination. He said Love is simply attempting to deflect from the issues he believes she still faces with the FEC, including the complaint that is still pending.

"This is what a Washington politician does, try to distract from her own misconduct and try to shift it on to somebody else," McAdams said. "This is a question about not whether she broke the law, but by how much."

He said the FEC email, which states Love's campaign "is not required to take any corrective action regarding the primary election contributions at issue," does not exonerate her and is "deceptive" because it refers to only part of her fundraising.

The latest tussle between the candidates for the 4th Congressional District seat continues to escalate the bitterness in the state's most competitive election, viewed by key national observers as a toss-up.

Love's campaign released copies of emails from the FEC responding to questions from her attorney, including an email saying contributions received for a primary election before the GOP's April convention could be kept.

That email comes after the FEC declined to comment Tuesday on the issue after Love directed reporters to contact the agency to confirm details of a call with an analyst and members of her campaign.

Love had said in a statement distributed just before Monday's debate with McAdams that her campaign had been informed by an unnamed analyst they were "legally allowed" to raise the money.

The email concluded the campaign "could retain the primary election contributions it received prior to April 21, 2018, the date Ms. Love became the nominee at the party convention."

Written by Danita Aberico, a compliance advice attorney in the FEC's general counsel's policy division, the email said the analyst, Mike Dobi, "properly advised" the campaign no further action was required on those contributions.

The decision reflects the contention of the Love campaign that she should be able to keep money raised for a June primary election through the convention, even though no Republicans ran against her.

The issue surfaced when a letter from the FEC questioning her fundraising for the primary became public last month. Love's campaign said then that $370,000 collected after the convention would be redesignated for the general election and just over $10,000 would be refunded to donors.

The email released Thursday does not refer to the redesignations or refunds. A spokeswoman for Love's campaign, Sasha Clark, said earlier this week that previous FEC filings were amended to reflect the changes, but she did not provide details.

The Washington, D.C.-based lawyer hired by Love's campaign to deal with the FEC issue, Matt Sanderson, said in a news release it would be "unprecedented" for the agency to pursue the alliance's complaint.

He called the complaint "a zombie filing. It technically exists, but it's dead."

Sanderson told the Deseret News the email response came at "light speed by FEC standards. If this were truly a thorny issue, then they would take until 2020 to handle it, even at the staff level."

Love said she does not intend to file a complaint against McAdams over what she told KSL Newsradio is "a coordinated effort to try to destroy my reputation," between his campaign and the alliance.

She said the group is "supposed to be a watch dog but it turns out they're really a pit bull for the liberal Democrats," after KSL Newsradio reported ties between McAdams and the Alliance for a Better Utah, including contributions from board president Josh Kanter.

"We categorically deny there was any coordination with the McAdams campaign," said Chase Thompson, the alliance's executive director, despite what he called "wild accusations and conspiracy theories being thrown around" about the group.

"Every single one of our board members have political involvement. That's why they're board members on a board that deals with policy and politics," Thompson said, adding they don't get involved in day-to-day operations.

"We actually informed them (board members) after we had already submitted the complaint," he said. "It was my call. I'm the one who put this together. Josh had no decision whatsoever in what we did with that complaint."SALT LAKE CITY  Federal prosecutors charged a Logan man who allegedly mailed ricin to the White House with making threats using a biological weapon against the president and other government leaders Thursday.

A federal grand jury returned a seven-count indictment against William Clyde Allen III charging him with threatening to use a biological toxin as a weapon, mailing a threat against the president and mailing threatening communications to an officer or employee of the United States.

Allen, 39, pleaded not guilty in a brief appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead scheduled a trial to start Dec. 26.

Allen allegedly sent letters to President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, CIA Director Gina Haspel, FBI Director Christopher Wray, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and U.S. Navy Adm. John M. Richardson containing "castor bean material" and a note with the message, 'Jack and the Missile Bean Stock Powder,'" according to the indictment.

Prosecutor Dave Backman said tests of the ground castor beans in the letters came back positive for ricin, a deadly poison.

The letters were mailed on the same day but arrived on different days, Backman said. He declined to comment on Allen's motivation for allegedly sending the letters.

The investigation started earlier this month after letters addressed to some of Washington's top leaders and containing possible ricin were discovered at a shipping office. The letters did not actually enter the White House or the Pentagon.

FBI investigators were led to Allen's home in Logan because he put his return address on all the letters, court documents state.

Allen, who served in the Navy, told investigators that he had bought about 100 castor beans from eBay and that he had done research on ricin and castor beans, according to court documents.

When asked why he purchased the beans, Allen said "he wanted to have them in case World War III broke out" and further elaborated that "he could make them useful, to bear arms and to defend our nation."

The judge earlier this week found Allen to be a danger to the community and ordered him to remain behind bars. He is being held in the Davis County Jail.

Allen faces life in prison if convicted of threatening to use a biological toxin as a weapon. Mailing a threat against the president carries a five-year prison term and mailing a threatening communication to a government official a 10-year term.SANDY  For 3  years, former Escalante Police Chief Kevin Worlton was a criminal defendant.

He is now breathing a sigh of relief that the felony charges against him were dismissed last month. He is anxious to put the matter behind him, though prosecutors say they hope that his police officer certification is revoked.

Worlton was not only the former police chief in Escalante, a small town of about 800 people in Garfield County, he was the city's only officer.

"The drug issue, really, I was hired to clean up the drugs in Escalante. That was one of the main things, he said during an interview Wednesday in Sandy. There was a drug problem and there were drug dealers down there, and I arrested them and did what I was supposed to do.

Worlton has experience working drug cases as a law enforcement officer. During his 20 years or so in law enforcement, he spent time on the Metro Narcotics Task Force along the Wasatch Front.

I wanted to help people, and throughout my career, Ive been able to help a lot of people and make a difference, he said. Thats a big reason why he said he was hired in Escalante, to help make a difference.

However, what he did while investigating a drug case in 2014 ended up costing him his job. And since he was the only police officer in Escalante, the department was disbanded.

"It was very tough. When I first found out I was being charged, it was hard, he said as his eyes started to water. I had to be booked into jail, and that's something no cop wants to go through."

Worlton was ordered to stand trial in 6th District Court on two second-degree felony counts of making false or inconsistent material statements in May 2016.

An investigation by the Utah Attorney General's Office alleged Worlton made false statements about whether he notified a woman he was questioning in a Dec. 17, 2014, drug investigation of her Miranda rights before using the confession to obtain a search warrant to investigate five others and to later arrest her.

In the probable cause statement Worlton filed to make the arrest, he said the woman he spoke with was "not in custody and free to leave the residence," indicating she had been read her Miranda rights, according to court documents. A video recording confirmed she had not, charges state.

While serving the search warrant, Worlton questioned a woman and later reported she implicated herself and two others in the exchange of marijuana, charges state. But investigators say a recording of that exchange shows she told Worlton she had "no clue" about possible drug activity.

Six people were arrested in the investigation, four of whom pleaded guilty on Dec. 23, 2014, to charges ranging from first-degree felonies to class B misdemeanors. However, a report about the arrests wasn't written until four days after they entered their pleas.

That case was later dismissed.

According to court documents at the time, Worlton also failed to keep his arrest and warrant reports organized and usable, which led to questions about how he obtained search warrants for his investigations.

"Something like a paperwork issue, it should've been handled administratively  not a criminal something that's going to impact your life, he said.

For 3  years, the case against Worlton made its way through the court system until last month when the attorney general's office dismissed its case against him.

"In my opinion, they just rushed to charge, said Bret Rawson, Worltons attorney as well as the attorney for members of the Fraternal Order of Police. There was scrutiny over paperwork. And certainly the paperwork issues needed to be resolved, but not with criminal charges.

Worlton's attorney feels the attorney general's office should never have filed criminal charges for an incident that he considers minor.

He needs support. He doesnt need charges. If there is concern about a clerical error, lets send him the training or the support he needs, Rawson said.

Worlton has claimed his innocence all along.

They filed this hoping I was going to accept a plea deal, Worlton said. They know you dont have the money to fight this. I was fortunate because I had the FOP and the attorney package that I didnt have to put hundreds of thousands of dollars out, which I would have never recouped.

I would have had to accept a plea deal and have this mark on my record for life and they know that. They know you cant, unless youre a millionaire, you cant fight these charges. Its just terrible.

Rawson said hes happy Worlton decided to keep fighting the charges against him. A lot of people who are innocent give up because theyre just facing a daunting task of having to defend themselves, he said.

Even though the case has been dismissed and Worlton is no longer facing charges, he feels the damage has already been done. Not only because the police department was disbanded but because his reputation has been ruined.

"Any law enforcement job that I try to apply for, especially as a chief of police, this will always pull up on the internet, he said. People will always be able to run my name and be able to find out that I was charged."

As for why the prosecutors decided to dismiss the case, Utah attorney general's chief criminal deputy Spencer Austin said in a statement, in part:

The attorney generals office was prepared to try the matter, however, the city of Escalante requested we not go forward unless we were sure of a conviction. The city was concerned that if there was an acquittal in the matter and they were required to pay the defendant's legal costs, pursuant to statute, it would conceivably bankrupt the city.

"Based in part on the citys concern, the attorney generals office dismissed the criminal matter and referred the case to Peace Officers Standards and Training for further action. The former chief of Escalante was in no way 'cleared' of all charges. It is the desire of the A.G.'s office that the former chief lose his certification as a peace officer permanently.

Worlton isnt sure what hes going to do from here. Hes just looking forward to putting this all behind him.

Im happy, he said. Im really happy right now that we came out the other side. Its a huge relief.SALT LAKE CITY  Former Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetzs recent social media post has gone viral.

What happened: Chaffetz shared a photo on Facebook and Twitter Thursday that showed the Fox News commentator posing next to a Native American statue in an attempt to mock Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

"At Disneyland today with Senator Elizabeth Warren," Chaffetz wrote.

At Disneyland today with Senator Elizabeth Warren pic.twitter.com/37rvaSOVGl  Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 18, 2018

Bigger picture: Chaffetzs post echoed President Donald Trumps mocking comments against Warren, who has renewed attention to her claims of her Native American heritage, according to CNN.

Warren released test results of a DNA analysis earlier this week that showed she had a distant Native American ancestry. The Boston Globe reported it would be between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American, tying her heritage to a possible single ancestor.

Trump dismissed the results, once again using his Pocahontas nickname he previously gave to her.

Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. released a statement about the results, CNN reported.

"Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong."

Responses: Social media responded to Chaffetzs tweet.

constantly amazed at the ability of pols to take a slam dunk issue and faceplant with it. https://t.co/VHUeNTrEbP  Esoteric Jeff (@EsotericCD) October 18, 2018

Remember when racism was embarrassing? https://t.co/vfPpeKABKQ  Seth Masket (@smotus) October 18, 2018

He's at Disneyland. With children. Making racist jokes. Please do better. https://t.co/J9PD1jrkSN  Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) October 18, 2018

Regardless of whether Elizabeth Warren is 100% or 1/1024th Native American. This tweet from former member of the House and current Fox News commentator @jasoninthehouse is 100% racist, offensive and inexcusable. https://t.co/VuFrCnn6O5  Erin Schrode (@ErinSchrode) October 18, 2018

Not alone: Earlier this week, Utah Sen. Orrin Hatchs office tweeted a photo that mocked Warren, too.

The tweet featured a photo of Hatch looking at his phone next to a photo of fictional results, which said Hatch was 1/1032nd T-Rex and the rest: other dinosaurs.#MeToo: Salman Khans Ex Girlfriend Somy Ali, Shares Her Heartbreaking Story Of Rape And Abuse

Somy Ali, actor Salman Khans former partner, has reiterated her personal story about having faced sexual abuse, amid the ongoing #MeToo movement in India. She has written an emotional Instagram post saluting all those that have spoken up.

As a survivor of sexual abuse at the age of 5 and rape at 14, I would like to salute all those that have spoken up and plan on doing so. I know it is very difficult to do it because I have been there and it took me many years to be able to talk about it. It takes immense amount of courage to share this with the world. Its even harder when you tell those that are close to you and they are supposed to protect you, yet they do nothing. I have been there too and it hurts like hell. But I want these survivors to know it is truly liberating and completely worth it. Do not let the nonbelievers stop you. This is your truth. Do not ever be afraid to speak your truth. Do not let this opportunity pass you. This is a moment that has been long overdue for all of us. This is your chance to be heard and finally obtain justice. I believe you, she wrote.

Hitlist in an earlier interview had quoted Somy as saying, I was sexually assaulted by a house-help when I was just five. When I am invited for a talk at high schools and universities in the US, I share this with the students. I believe sharing my personal experiences would encourage others to speak out and not be ashamed about being a victim.

She further said that the social climate was such at the time that abuse in all forms was brushed under the rug. I grew up amidst an atmosphere of domestic violence in Pakistan and many of my moms friends were victims of physical abuse as well. When I would ask my mom about the bruises on their bodies, I was always told that X aunty or Y aunty fell down the stairs. This was the standard, universal euphemism for physical abuse,

Somy, who hails from Pakistan, had first opened up about her past in 2015. She entered the film industry in the early 90s, but left a few years later for Florida, where she founded her NGO, No More Tears.

Several prominent Bollywood personalities such as directors Subhash Ghai, Rajat Kapoor, Sajid Khan and actors such as Nana Patekar and Alok Nath have been named in Indias #MeToo movement. Action has already been initiated against some of the alleged. While investigations have been launched into some cases, Sajid Khan has quit his duties as director on Housefull 4, with star Akshay Kumar announcing that the production has been halted until the matter has been looked into.Digicel has appointed Deep Blue Cable as a specialist supporting the Caribbean Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (CARCIP), a multi-million dollar, 15-year ICT contract with the Governments of the Caribbean nations of Saint Lucia, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

CARCIP has the ultimate goal of encouraging key stakeholders, including citizens, government agencies, regulators and policy makers to embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT), further improving and driving regional economic development with significantly reduced costs and bolstered productivity.

Deep Blue Cable will lend their expertise to Digicel in support of the project, which consists of three main components: a Government Wide Area Network (GWAN),) a Schools Network, and a submarine cable between Saint Vincent and Grenada with landings on five Grenadine islands. Deep Blue Cable has assisted Digicel in the procurement process through vendor selection and contract negotiations and will continue to be a key player in the management and delivery of this fibre optic network infrastructure.

Deep Blue Cables deeply experienced team and first-hand understanding of the need for advanced telecom services in this region are huge assets to this project, commented Niall Savage, Program Director at Digicel. We are excited to have them on board helping us deliver this world-class digital highway to the Governments of Saint Lucia, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Steve Scott, CEO at Deep Blue Cable, said: The unprecedented scope and scale of this project will ensure a transformative result for the people of these countries and establish the Caribbean as a leader in the global economy.Donegal-based presidential election candidate Peter Casey has come under fire over his comments on Travellers during the first televised debate featuring all six candidates.

The businessman stood over his claim that Travellers arent an ethnic group during last night's debate.

We have so many wonderful nationalities here, its wrong to single out one particular ethnic group differently, he said.

He has faced calls to withdraw from the race after he said Travellers are people camping on someone elses land.

The candidates, current President Michael D Higgins, Senator Joan Freeman, Sinn Fein MEP Liadh Ni Riada, and businessmen Sean Gallagher, Peter Casey and Gavin Duffy, took questions from broadcaster Pat Kenny on the Virgin Media One show.

Candidate Sean Gallagher accused Mr Casey of making a racist comment during the show.

The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan says he fundamentally disagrees with Peter Casey's comments about Travellers.

Councillor slams comments

Meanwhile Donegal independent councillor Michael Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig has attacked the comments.

It is difficult to find words to describe the despicable nature of presidential candidate Peter Caseys scandalous and slanderous reference to the Traveller community, he said.

That such an offensive and inaccurate view of our fellow citizens and country men and women is held by anyone in Irish society is in itself appalling. That such vile nonsense is propagated by a person contesting the highest office in the state is truly shocking.

Questions must surely now be asked about those who endorsed his candidacy. How did they deem him suitable for president? What checks did they carry out if any into his outlook and what are they now doing to repair the damage they have facilitated by endorsing Peter Casey?

The Casey soundbite is worryingly similar to that of right-wing populism spreading cross Europe and the United States at present. For all our sakes, we must ensure that he does not profit by his outrageous statements.Azerbaijans State Security Service has arrested a foreign spy, the public relations department of the service said.

"The arrested foreign citizen, Bahram Hasanzada, was engaged in espionage according to instructions from foreign services, to the detriment of Azerbaijans state security," the message said.

The information about his criminal actions and that he was engaged in stealing state secrets and the recruitment of Azerbaijani citizens was confirmed.

As a result of a joint operation conducted by Azerbaijans State Security Service and the State Border Service, Hasanzada was detained in Azerbaijan while illegally crossing the state border.

The Main Investigation Department of Azerbaijans State Security Service brought him to criminal responsibility under Article 276 (espionage) and 318.1 (illegal crossing of state border) of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

A preventive measure in the form of arrest was chosen by a court in his regard. The investigation is underway.A 19-year-old Donegal woman had a miraculous escape after suffering heart failure, has called on more people to learn CPR.

Caragh McGowan from Arranmore was speaking after a retired nurse performed CPR on her when her heart stopped as was she was driving off from her home recently.

Caragh, who has a potentially fatal heart condition, suffered a cardiac arrest. She was saved by the intervention of Cathy ONeill, a retired nurse from Glasgow who was visiting the island, and Dr Kevin Quinn who used a defibrillator which helped save her life.

Caragh has subsequently been diagnosed with a rare heart condition which can cause sudden adult death.

The student at Gairmscoil Mhic Diarmada on the island was airlifted to Letterkenny University Hospital after the coast guard helicopter landed in a field opposite her home.

Neighbours and other islanders had formed a human circle in the field to help guide the helicopter to land.

Caragh was at Letterkenny University Hospital within 50 minutes of the alarm being raised.

She remained in an induced coma for two days.

A test carried out on Caragh revealed Brugada syndrome which is hereditary.

It is believed to be the first case of the rare syndrome to be treated at the hospital.

Caragh was at home when she suffered the heart attack on September 14. She was driving away from her home when she passed out.

The car reversed into a wall and the noise alerted her brother Killian.

Neighbours were alerted and Killian carried Caragh from the car.

Her face had turned blue, her mother Alice, who was on holiday in London at the time, said.

Cathy ONeill, who was visiting Arramore with her husband Jim Ward, was able to perform CPR until Dr Quinn arrived.

The helicopter was directed to the house by tracking the mobile phone that had called the emergency services.

Brugada Syndrome

In the following days, Dr Santhosh David detected the presence of Brugada Syndrome and Caragh has had an internal defibrillator fitted.

Her six siblings now also have to be tested for the syndrome.

She attended her brothers wedding just days after getting out of hospital and had to attend the hospital on the day of the wedding to have stitches removed.

I was so lucky, Caragh said.

If you have this within a hospital there is only an 8 per cent chance of survival and 6 per cent chance of it outside.

I feel good now, Im living my life. I relieved that I am alive really.

She said she wants to encourage people to do CPR and highlight the need for it.

Im living proof that it works. I would not have actually thought about CPR until it actually saved my life.

It is just so hard to understand that I nearly died and so hard to believe that I am still here.

Alice describes Caragh as her walking miracle.

She said there was a chain of events that helped save Caraghs life.

Its just unbelievable. If there was any part of that chain broken the reality is she wouldnt be here.

There were just so many factors - things just fell into place. When she was in ICU it was terrifying.

Alice and Caragh thanked Dr David, Dr Chris Steele, and all the staff in ICU and CCU for all their help.

To have such a positive outcome is just unbelievable. We are still in shock at it all - the enormity of what has happened, Alice said.

As a result of Caraghs experience a meeting is being held on the island to set up a first responders group.

A teacher from the island has already attended a three-day first responders course since Caraghs ordeal.

A lot of parents have been talking about it since what happened to Caragh. The whole island got an awful fright, Alice said.



The death of Fr Seamus Gallagher, PP, Frosses, has been learned of with great sadness across the county and further afield.

A big man, he was larger than life. Those who knew him best said he was one of the most wonderful people you could meet, and a fantastic priest. He always seemed to be in good humour and had an easy way with him that endeared him to so many.

From Dungloe, his second level studies took him to St Eunan's College, Letterkenny and third level to Maynooth. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1985. He served as a CC in Stranorlar, Gweedore, Tory Island, Leitirmacaward, Glencolmcille, Ardaghey and Doochary and, we understand, also served on the Missions for a number of years. He first served as a Parish Priest in Newtowncunningham and most recently, was PP in Frosses.

A post on the Kincasslagh Parish Facebook page, stated: "Pray for the repose of the soul of Fr. Seamus Gallagher, PP, Frosses who passed away in his sleep on the 18.10.18. May he rest in peace."

There were, at the time of writing, more than 250 comments attached to that faceboook post, all of them expressing sadness at the news of Fr Gallagher's death, many of them underlining the esteem and fondness in which he was held.

Seamus playing music in London in 2016. Picture Brendan 'Tiny' Vaughan





Well known London-based photographer Brendan 'Tiny' Vaughan, also posting on facebook a short time ago, summed Fr Seamus up perfectly, when he described him as "the people's priest". Brendan posted a series of photographs of Fr Seamus and the Killian Band on their visit to London in 2016.

Fr Cathal OFearrai, PP Kilbarron, Ballyshannon, told us that Seamus was a native of Dungloe, their home was on Main Street. His mother was Susie (nee Meehan) from Frosses originally and his father was John Huaidi Dan Gallagher. The family were reared on Main Street, where the family had a shop and when they sold the business, they moved to Tuberkeen.

He said Fr Seamus was a "tremendous priest and a great character" who will be sadly missed by his parishoners, his brother priests and so many across Donegal and further afield.

He pointed out that Seamus was a brilliant musician, a talented tin whistle and flute player and a man who loved Irish traditional music.

David Alcorn of Burtonport said he was "hugely popular with everyone" adding "he was a fantastic priest, a fantastic human being, so many people are so upset at the news of his passing, he was a very special person".

Details of funeral arrangements are not finalised; we anticipate those arrangements will appear in due course on the Raphoe Diocesan Website and we will carry those details here on donegaldemocrat.ie

May he rest in peace.The parents of Michael McNeela, the Dundalk soldier killed on duty with the UN in Lebanon back in February 1989, returned to the country in September to lay a wreath in honour of their son at the monument for all Irish soldiers who died in the service of Peace in South Lebanon.

John and Kathleen McNeela were accompanied to Lebanon on the visit by Jim McEneaney and Mick Reid from O.N.E. (Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel Veterans of Ireland).

The trip was instigated by Lt.Col John Kilmartin Commanding Officer of the 27th Infantry Battalion and sanctioned by Minister Paul Keogh after much lobbying by the Michael McNeela branch of O.N.E.

Jim spoke to the Democrat about the poignant visit.

We were picked up from Beirut airport by Capt. Sean Maguire and Sgt. Shane Mc Eneaney, UNIFIL. The next day we were taken by UN convoy to UNP 2-45 HQ of the 118 IrishFinbatt operations where we were met by O/C Lt.Col. John Kilmartin.

After lunch we were taken to UNP 6-52 on the Blue Line faceing Israel we received a full briefing from the post commander Lt. John Mc Crystal. We then travelled to Haddatha where Michael Mc Neela was killed on post 6-38 Alpha in 1989 where Chaplin PJ Summers prayed with John and Kathleen and all present. Afterwards we were all invited to the Muckthars (Village Chief) home for refreshments and chat.

He continued: Back at UNP 6-45 we attended a BBQ with 27 Inf.Bn. personnel, after the BBQ the Chaplin said mass for Michael in the camp church. Because there is no facilities for visitors to stay in UNP 6-45, we stayed at a nearby hotel.

We were picked up next morning and taken to Tibnine for a ceremony at the Monument for all Irish Soldiers who died in the service of Peace in South Lebanon.

Jim said: John and Kathleen laid a wreath in honour of their son Michael at the Monument. Members of the 27 Inf Bn serving with 112 Inf Bn formed a Guard of Honour accompanied by a piper, a violinist played a lament, and the names of all who died were read out.

The Ceremony was attended by the Muckthar of Tibnine and local dignitaries, afterwards we had refreshments in the local community hall. A remembrance ceremony takes place every month at this monument by Irish troops. After lunch with Lt.Col John Kilmartin and 27Bn members we returned to Beirut for our flight home next morning. he added.

John and Kathleen expressed their sincere thanks to all members of the 27 Inf.Bn. and to the 112 Inf.Bn UNIFIL for their kindness and assistance during this trip.

Jim and Mick wished to thank Lt.Col Kieran Carey, Sgt Major John Doyle and the 27 Inf Bn. for fundraising for the ONE members to accompany John and Kathleen to Lebanon. They also thanked PDFORA for their financial assistance.Today, on October 18, Azerbaijan celebrates the 27th anniversary of the restoration of its state independence.

The Constitutional Act about the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan was adopted at the session of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan on October 18, 1991.

The document reads that based on the Declaration of Independence adopted by the Azerbaijans National Council on 28 May 1918 and on the democratic principles and traditions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and following the Declaration adopted by the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan on 30 August 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Azerbaijan adopts this Constitutional Act and institutes the basic principles of the state, political and economic structure of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan.

A referendum was held in Azerbaijan on December 29. The referendum bulletins asked the voters: Do you support the Constitutional Act about the State Independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan, adopted by the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan? The people of Azerbaijan unanimously voted for the state independence.

In May 1992, Azerbaijans Milli Majlis (Parliament) adopted the national anthem of the Republic of Azerbaijan (music by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, lyrics by poet Ahmad Javad) and later on, the three-color national flag and the national emblem depicting eight-point star with the flames.

Azerbaijan has been celebrating October 18 as a holiday since 1992.

The deputy of the State Duma, deputy head of the Russian-Azerbaijani parliamentary group, Dmitry Savelyev, sent a congratulatory letter to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.New exhibition explores Jamaica through the lens

Published On Thu 18 Oct 2018 by Dominic Younger

Eye-catching photographs of Jamaica since the 1800s, including postcard-like scenes captured by Dundee company Valentine & Sons, will go on display at the University of Dundee this weekend.

The Moving Jamaica: Scottish-Caribbean Connections and Local-Global Journeys exhibition contrasts photographs taken in the 19th Century with those taken by contemporary photographers, Varun Baker and Stephen McLaren.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 20 October, as part of the Universitys Festival of the Future.

Valentine & Sons was one of the worlds largest photographic companies and sent photographers around the world to create images for postcards. Its fascinating to contrast their views of Jamaica with those of today, said Dr Susan Mains, a lecturer in Geography at the University and curator of the exhibition.

While Valentine & Sons images have played an important role in promoting tourist destinations  they contrast sharply with the photos of Scottish photographer Stephen McLaren, whose series Jamaica - A Sweet Forgetting unearths the often hidden, but interwoven legacies of slavery in Jamaica and Scotland.

Accompanying the historic images are those of Jamaican photographer Varun Baker, who explores the relationship between multiculturalism and mobility in modern-day Jamaica in his series Journey, providing a personal tour through the current urban island landscapes of the country.

Alongside the photos, research materials from the international Caribbean In/Securities: Creativity and Negotiation in the Caribbean (CARISCC) project will also be on display. CARISCC is an interdisciplinary research network of seven leading universities in Caribbean Studies, including the Universities of Dundee, Leeds, Glasgow in the UK, The University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Brock University in Canada, Rutgers University in the USA, and the University of the West Indies (Mona) in Jamaica.

Moving Jamaica: Scottish-Caribbean Connections and Local-Global Journeys will run until Saturday 19 January 2019.

The exhibition has been created in partnership with the University of Dundee Museum Services, the Photographic Collections at the University of St Andrews Library Special Collections and the CARISCC Network. Additional support has been generously provided by the Geography programme, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee and the Leverhulme Trust.

For media enquiries contact:

Dominic Glasgow

Media Relations Officer

University of Dundee

Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN

Tel: +44 (0)1382 385131

Email: d.w.glasgow@dundee.ac.ukRunning a small business is like climbing Mount Everest: its challenging, sometimes conviction is the only thing creating upward momentum and the reward of reaching your goal is the ultimate payoff. Oh, and the right partner guiding your journey makes all the difference to success.

This last point is one of the dilemmas that keep those that own or run a small business awake at night. With limited staff and budgets, its tempting to shoulder as many burdens as possible. But at a certain point, trying to be your own expert in everything from marketing to HR to technology becomes false economy. Theoretically you could also save money by cutting your own hair, but it often takes twice as long and, unless its something very straightforward, the results are never as a good as youd like.

Many small businesses in Australia still take a cut-their-own-hair approach for IT investment. This is a hangover from the days when it supported business functions, serving a glorified calculator to balance the books. But whether you are a sole-trader making custom surfboards or a small team of accountants, IT now plays a central role in how you reach, communicate with and service your customers.

So its alarming that according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, as recently as 2015, just over half (51 per cent) of all businesses did not have a web presence and two-thirds (66 per cent) did not have a social media presence. The smaller the business, the less likely they were to have what surely must be considered the bare minimum of IT use these days.

Small business matters

A lot rides on small businesses. They account for nine out of 10 businesses in Australia. These 2.17 million businesses employ 40 per cent of the workforce and account for a third of our GDP. The idea that we are a nation of small businesses is not just a cute slogan, its a fact.

But these businesses are often held back by their technology. Modelling from PwC suggests that making better use of mobile and internet technologies alone could unlock $49.2 billion worth of untapped economic potential over a decade, with around half of that in rural and regional Australia. Given the challenges that these parts of the country face as industries change and evolve, this is an opportunity we dont want to miss.

Its not that small businesses and midmarket companies dont know that they need digital technologies. Broadly, they are aware that it is changing their industry and that there are plenty of compelling reasons to adopt, such as competitive advantage, scalability, agility, cost-saving and attracting and retaining the right employees.

The problem is that many small to medium sized businesses dont know where to start. The fact is, the passion driving their business is wanting to share delicious cakes or design and build a familys dream home, not implementing a digital transformation in order to create a mobile and agile customer-focused experience.

Despite this lack of knowledge many smaller businesses are unwilling or unable to invest in getting the help they need. Research in the US suggests that around two-thirds of small businesses take a DIY approach to IT, even though a third of businesses have no IT support at all. The picture is not much different in Australia.

Finding the right path

This leaves many businesses postponing making any decisions because its all too hard, which means theyre missing opportunities and risking being left behind. Or without the knowledge to make the right choice, invest in costly bells and whistles, or leave themselves vulnerable to problems such as security risks.

With digital technology now deeply entwined in every aspect of the business, its not just buying the tech, but implementing and supporting it to keep the business running. The good news is that technology has become more vital, its also more accessible. For proof of this, look at the cloud. There are many benefits of the cloud for businesses of all sizes, but for the smaller ones, it provides access to the sort of functionality that was once only available at an enterprise level business, as needed and affordably.

Similarly, there are now a host of ways for small businesses to develop more of a partnership with their technology providers to get the service they need when they dont necessarily have the requirements to hire full-time IT staff. Companies that offer technically-focused support not only keep the systems running, but also optimise a small business tech investment and helps map out a digital path.

Given the different channels from video, to social media and email, that can augment communication, small businesses can access advice, education and support in between their bigger conversations about technology without requiring an investment they cant afford.

The cost of doing anything else can be too high. According to the ABS, only 13 per cent of businesses with less than four employees see an improved performance after an IT investment. This jumps to 23 per cent for businesses under 20 employees, but its still a long way behind the 43 per cent of businesses with more than 200 employees.

Clearly, we need to build partnerships that make technology a worthwhile investment for small businesses so they can continue to build Australia.

About the author

Sarah Calder, Small Business Lead, Dell Australia and New Zealand.A decade since the global financial crisis shook the world economy in a manner unprecedented in living memory, the after effects still reverberate strongly across political systems, economies, and societies. While much reform has taken place in the wake of the crisis, some of the most important lessons remain unlearned.

So, as we mark the ten-year anniversary of the crisis, we ask: how have things changed? What problems remain unaddressed and what new challenges face us in the aftermath of the GFC?

Are things really so different?

One of the key differences between 2008 and 2018 is the regulations that enshroud banks are far tougher than they used to be. Banks are no longer as debt-burdened as they were back then, and they must now also present clearer contingency plans, risk analysis, and hold larger portions of solid equity in their business.

But even in the banking sector there is still much work to be done. The wave of consolidations that followed the 2008 crisis resulted in risks that are now concentrated in fewer entities. Persistent risk exposure from derivative instruments continues even today. For example, Deutsche Bank, a single German outfit, has a derivative exposure with a nominal value equivalent to the entire GDP of Europe.

Wider problems must also be addressed. Much of the regulation put in place since 2008 risks being watered-down, notably the Dodd-Frank act which is meant to enhance stability and accountability in the American financial system. Meanwhile, the revolving door between American politics and business is spinning faster than ever, and the conflicts of interest this creates for stronger financial regulation and oversight simply cannot be ignored.

Future Risks

Global debt remains very high at $215 trillion, more than three times the size of the global economy.

Perhaps of greatest concern is household debt an important factor in 2008. Whilst the crumbling financial institutions of 2008 were deemed too big to fail, struggling households were left to face the prospect of losing their homes, jobs and savings alone. This has led to social disenfranchisement, economic stagnation, and populism. Since 2008, household debt has grown substantially in several countries, including Australia.

In the United States, crippling student loan debt, which now exceeds $1.5 trillion(up from $0.6 trillion in 2008) compounds the issue. As American students borrow more and more for their education but fail to find avenues of employment to pay back their student borrowings, the risk of widespread defaults continues to grow.

After seeing their parents laid-off or their family homes repossessed, a debt laden generation is now entering the workforce with a psyche shaped by mistrust in the institutions that govern society.

Unsurprisingly, these worrying trends have fed the current wave of anti-establishment, political populism we have witnessed around the world and pose a unique threat to the pillars of Western society. To make matters worse, a direct result of this political backlash is the election of leaders ill-equipped to grasp the complexities of fiscal policy and unwilling to act with the global minded cooperation that will be required to mitigate the next crash.

But the next crisis may not erupt in the West. In China, debt has grown five-fold since 2008. On one hand, the non-traditional lending market has exploded through loosely regulated peer-to-peer platforms. On the other, sheets of State-Owned Enterprises show ever ballooning amounts of leverage.

Emerging market growth may indeed have helped counter the decline in developed markets in 2008, but today they are themselves hefty borrowers and account for two-thirds of corporate growth over the past decade.

Perhaps the next crisis could be right here in Australia, triggered by a housing bubble similar to the US in 2008. When US markets collapsed in 2008, US household debt was 98% of GDP. Today, Australias household debt to GDP ratio is even higher at 123%, second only to Switzerlands 128%.

The worry about this Australian problem is reflected in domestic political rhetoric, but has yet to be translated into tougher policy, in part because politicians are too beholden to constituents who yearn for housing markets to rise indefinitely. This was precisely the thinking in the United States circa 2007.

Reflecting on the Decade

There are two philosophical lessons that have not received appropriate attention in the decade since the crisis. The first is that bad results can come from the best of intentions. The 2008 crisis resulted in part from the relentless pursuit of home ownership at all costspart of a fervent belief in the American Dream. Over many decades, policymakers at the head of American government created extremely distortionary legal and policy conditions that improperly incentivised the financial sector  all in the hope of realising an illusory ideal. 2008 is perhaps one of the best examples of how governments have continued to fail the people when they translate social ideals into practical policy.

The second deeper lesson is about capitalisms essential process of creative destruction. The political economist Schumpeter argued that it was creative destruction that channeled capitalisms energy. When poor business models collapse, better ones rise in their wake. What we have seen since 2008 is a too big to fail attitude that bails out poor business models. By forcibly letting zombie businesses linger, we fail to allow capitalisms greatest energy to materialise. By that measure, we are failing to foster healthier capitalism.

Have we let a good crisis go to waste?

A crisis should produce reflection and, as Churchill knew, an opportunity for change. What could have been a watershed moment that sparked true reform and promoted trust in capitalism and the institutions who regulate it, has instead fostered disillusionment and reactionary politics.

For all the structural changes that policymakers claim to have made in the past ten years, it seems this crisis may have been wasted.

Aron DSouza, Founder and MD of Sargon.Fast-tracked company tax cuts for small and medium-sized businesses have passed the lower house, bringing the plan closer to reality.

Draft laws enacting the Morrison governments proposed tax relief measures are set for the Senate after clearing the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Companies with turnover under $50 million will receive a tax rate of 25 per cent five years earlier than initially planned under the proposal.

We believe in the more than three million small and medium businesses in Australia, employing seven million workers, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said as he introduced the draft law.

Reducing their taxes will allow them to invest, grow and hire more Australians.

Such businesses will have their tax rate dropped to 26 per cent rate in 2020/21, then to 25 per cent the following year.

The legislation sailed through the lower house with Labors support, while independent MP Andrew Wilkie and Greens MP Adam Bandt attempted to delay the inevitable on Tuesday evening.

Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said the opposition were happy to facilitate the change in tax policy.

They (businesses) deserve the certainty to know these tax cuts are locked in, he said.

However, Bowen says the Morrison government had only shifted to tax cuts for small and medium businesses after its plan for relief for large companies suffered defeat in the Senate in August.

Greens MP Adam Bandt says the looming federal election has resulted in the tax cuts being rushed through parliament to avoid scrutiny.

Bandt said other matters, such as the mental health of refugee children on Nauru, were more important than clearing the parliamentary schedule for business tax cuts.

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell welcomes Coalition and Opposition support for fast tracked tax cuts for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), saying it will mean more jobs and a boost in investment.

This was shown in the AlphaBeta-Xero research that examined the impacts of the 2015 tax cuts for SMEs with a turnover of less than $2 million, Carnell said today.

When I talk to SMEs owners about the possibility of tax cuts, they have said they will put the money back into their business; equipment, more staff and expansion.

Fast tracking legislated tax cuts for SMEs will be significant for job creation and economic growth, particularly in rural and regional areas where the sustainability of so many communities is underpinned by small businesses.

Carnell said that SMEs are the biggest employer in Australia and we are increasingly relying on the sector to keep people in jobs and drive growth.

With AAP.With literally hundreds of digital agencies to choose from, its important you choose to work with an agency who really knows what theyre doing. But if, like most of us, you dont understand the ins and outs of the digital world, how will you know whether the agency is right for you?

Brad Amos, Course Coordinator and lecturer at the University of Sydney Masters of Marketing Program, has provided his insight to help navigate the whole onboarding of a digital agency process.

Your first conversation

If youre talking about the nuts and bolts of technology in your first conversation with a digital agency, it means youre having the wrong conversation. Any prospective agency should be spending their time getting an idea of who you are, what your business objectives are and working out exactly who your target audience is.

When meeting with a client, no matter what the agency size, their first task should be understanding the reasoning behind your brief. Then, after the goals, or objectives are understood, the agency should then research the target audience as theyre the people who will be using whatever the agency creates!

The ins and outs of the specific technology should only be discussed once a very clear image of the problem has been achieved!

Their portfolio

Most agencies will have their portfolios available online but if not, its fair to ask for a summary of work they have performed recently. These are often in the format of case studies, and youd want to look at about five of their recent jobs to get an idea of what they do.

A portfolio of projects that are all very similar in execution can mean that the agency is just churning out cookie cutter websites or solutions based on a template or structure that they are most comfortable with. This means that the solution they create for you will suit them, but it might not be the one that suits you the best.

Look for an agency with a range of experience, but with solid results across each project. You want one that shows creativity in their solutions and can tie their solutions back in with their original customer objectives.

Client retention

Its important to know how long an agency has been working with their current clients, or how many projects theyve undertaken for them. This information may not be readily available, but an agency with nothing to hide will have no trouble providing answers to these questions for you.

If the company tends to burn through clients, you might end up with a website you cannot build upon or maintain, or an experience with poor customer service which would stop you using them again.

Say what now?

One of the biggest gripes that people have with digital agencies is the overuse of jargon. Like with any industry, some familiar terms and phrases will creep into any conversation you have, but if your find your agency constantly speaking to you in terms that youre not familiar with, you need to work out why.

People who rely on jargon often cannot properly explain what they are trying to say without it, so its always been important to Brad that his students, and his clients understand everything he says. The same should be said of any Agency.

From working out their objectives, speaking to their target audience, providing overviews, strategies, solutions and updates  your agency should make sure you understand what they are saying and offer to explain things further if you dont.

Brad Amos, Co-Founder, Helium Creative.

The new tourism brand of Azerbaijan was presented at the first National Tourism Summit in Baku today. The summit was held by the State Tourism Agency and the Tourism Bureau of Azerbaijan.

The main motto of Azerbaijan's new tourism brand is "Take Another Look," the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reported.

Brand and Marketing Manager of the Tourism Bureau Fidan Aliyeva said that the main symbols of the new brand are a new logo and a motto.

Along with the fact that the letter "A" is the new tourism logo, it is also the first letter in the name of the country, and conveys the essence of the brand, and the logo will constantly change according to the platform it represents, Aliyeva added.

Fidan Aliyeva added that the brand was prepared by the well-known company Landor, which has many years of successful experience in this field.

The presentation of the new brand to the world community will be held in November at the WTM London.The Week of the Italian Language has started in Baku on October 16 and will last till October 21, the Italian Embassy in Azerbaijan said.

A series of events will be held in Baku as part of the Italian Language Week. The topic of the Week this year is 'Italian and the web, social networks for the Italian Language'. This issue is relevant and covers the relationship between the Italian language and the Internet, new information technologies and social communications.

A round table on the theme 'Traveling on the net ... To Italy!' was held yesterday at the Azerbaijan University of Tourism and Management.

On October 19, a conference and discussion of changes in the Italian language in the modern globalized world will be held at the Azerbaijan University of Languages with the participation of Azerbaijani and Italian professors and students.

The Italian Language Week is an international project aimed at promoting the language of modern culture and art. Every year, on the third week of October, events are organized around the world, including conferences, exhibitions, concerts, meetings, etc.Complainers. Freeloaders. Procrastinators. Backstabbers. Know-it-alls. Bullies.

Former principals Stephanie D.B. Johnson and Diane Watkins have seen them all in schoolsand not just roaming the halls or slouching in the back of class.

Like any workplace, schools can be plagued by adult slackers or agitators who, whether intentionally or not, can sabotage morale and campus culture.

And principals, especially those new to the job, often need help dealing with those adults hiding in plain sight, working against principals proposals and best-laid plans, the veteran educators say.

On the surface, perhaps some of these troublemakers dont seem like the most horrible things in the world, said Watkins, director of assessment and accountability for the Chesapeake, Va., public schools. But because they slowly erode the morale of your building, they can be.

Takeaways for Principals Here are some methods principals can utilize to foster a positive school culture: Build rapport with all staff in your building, including those have a negative influence

in your building, including those have a negative influence Dont ignore the troubling behavior in hopes it, or the problem employee, will go away

in hopes it, or the problem employee, will go away Directly address the behaviors with the employee by clearly stating the problem and listening closely

What happens in the teachers lounge, during staff meetings, and even during group projects can filter down to classrooms, disrupting a schoolwide focus on teaching and learning, Johnson said.

These people are pulling your time away, Johnson said. Youve got to dig in and find out exactly what it is thats going on, whats causing your team not to gel like they should.

Watkins, along with Johnson, a retired Chesapeake schools principal and an adjunct professor at Hampton University, have hosted seminars on how to manage difficult staff, working with the National Association for Elementary School Principals, National Blue Ribbon Schools program, and others.

Building Relationships

Education Week talked with Johnson, Watkins, and three other ex-principals about how to banish toxic behavior and clean up the culture in schools.

The former school leaders agree the primary goal is to get the difficult staff members on board with their plans, not just boot them out of the school.

That process begins the day a principal takes the job and it requires them to embrace three Rs: relationships, respect, and the realization that you wont always see eye-to-eye with your staff.

Every teacher wants to be successful, said Jayne Ellspermann, the 2015 National Association of Secondary School Principals principal of the year .

How they define success may differ from your definition, Ellspermann said. If we focus on students being successful and that teachers role in making sure that occurs, you can find a common thread there.

Building rapport with staff is key, because the first conversation with a teacher, or any other school employee, should not be focused on trying to correct something theyve done wrong, Watkins said.

As busy as a principal is, you cannot neglect ... getting to know people, Watkins said.

You establish that relationship on the front end so that you have a springboard for having conversations, whether theyre good conversations or constructive [criticism].

Those connections, especially with teachers, arent established when principals spend days holed up in their offices, said Todd Whitaker , an adjunct professor of leadership at the University of Missouri College of Education.

Im in classes on a daily basis, Whitaker said. And guess what Im doing. Im complimenting people all the time.

Since leaving the principals office herself, Johnson, the former coordinator of educational leadership at Hamptons School of Education and Human Development, trained dozens of incoming and aspiring leaders, schooling them on how to nurture morale.

We talk about creating that sense of family with the whole school, Johnson said.

Sometimes families disagree.

I usually pull those people in really close because I do want to help them understand how they are impacting others, Ellspermann said.

If you understand what might be causing their resistance, then youre better able to fill that void between your vision for the school and the direction theyre currently headed.

Dont Ignore Problems

The biggest mistake a principal can make when dealing with problem employees?

Trying to ignore the troubling behavior in hopes that it, or the perpetrator, will just go away.

Tactics Toxic Teachers May Use Stall Theyve outlasted previous principals who tried to institute change or deal with their performance issuesand they may try to wait you out too. Solution: Let employees know you are interested in working with them in the long run for the good of the school. Follow-up frequently to ensure you are working toward your common goals.

Make Excuses Puts more energy into justifying and rationalizing their unproductive behavior than it would take to change the habits. Solution: Acknowledge the situation without causing the employee to double down on their thinking or assume you agree with them. Discuss how their short-term approach may not fit with your long-term goals.

Recruit Encourages other teachers, staff members, and in some cases, community members and parents, to ignore or rally against plans. Solution: Work with the staff members involved to help them understand what you want to change. While emphasizing that community input is valued, remind your staff that non-employees will not direct day-to-day school operations.

Undermine Tries to derail new initiatives by not completing assignments or giving their best effort. Solution: Ensure employees assigned to a task have appropriate training and a clear understanding of your goals. If necessary, have one-on-one meetings to clear the air with people actively working against the effort.



Avoidance can foster an environment where toxic conduct thrives and spreads. But ducking difficult conversations is often the default move, Whitaker said.

Dealing with negative people is never easy. Its never fun, Whitaker said. But if you dont do it, nothing about your job is fun.

Instead of looking the other way or addressing the entire staff, principals should go directly to the employee or employees and address the issue early, and, if need be, often.

If theres a situation and youve noticed it once and then you are able to bring it to that persons attention lightly, sometimes theyll go ahead and make the change, said John Eller , a professor of educational leadership and administration at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

If you wait and let the problem fester, it becomes a really major kind of conversation. The problem with that is sometimes people will say to you, Well, if this was a problem, how come you didnt alert me sooner? 

During those sessions, school leaders should clearly state the problem, and focus on behavior instead of making the conversation solely about the employee and their shortcomings, the former principals said.

But school leaders may also need to do more listening than talking during the sit-down.

Take the opportunity to listen to their perspective. Somewhere in there, theres a grain of truth that needs to be heard, Ellspermann said.

When I can recognize and reinforce that, then sometimes I can get them to see another perspective.

And when principals invite criticism or staff input, they must be ready to listen, and not dig their heels in, Eller said.

It takes a lot of skill on the part of the principal, because when somebody comes to you and says, I dont agree with where were going, its easy to take it personal, Eller said.

But if you take that as a helpful comment, then it doesnt become a big issue, it becomes information.

Problem Principals?

As principals investigate the source of tension in their schools, it makes sense to conduct a self-assessment.

Sometimes that examination leads to the discovery that they are part of the problem, Watkins said.

Unfortunately, sometimes the most difficult person in the building is the principal, she said. When you walk into a school, and you hear people say to the office staff, Is today a good day to talk to him? Do I need to take his temperature before I come in? 

School leaders must be aware not only of their staffs shortcomings, but also their own, because the stakes are so high in education: underperforming teachers affect classrooms; poor principals corrupt entire schools, Whitaker said.

If youre not effective, you dont even know the difference between the effective people and the ineffective people because everybodys questioning you, he said.

Eller, a former Iowa principal of the year who has taught prospective principals for more than 20 years, encourages school leaders to determine their frame of reference.

Weve had situations where there was a problem, but it was because a principal had a negative interaction with a person and theyve never gotten over it, Eller said. Or maybe they have a predisposition against a certain type of teacher, but they havent been able to see it.

When we work with principals, we really try to help them see, What is it that you bring to the table that could also have some impact? It takes two to fight, so in some cases the leadership has also contributed to the issue.

Four Characteristics of Difficult Employees

John Eller, chairman of the Educational Leadership and Higher Education Department at St. Cloud State University and author of Working With and Evaluating Difficult School Employees, outlined some common behaviors of such employees in an interview with Education Week.The Trump administration followed up on its brutal separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents at the U. S. border by proposing a new regulation that could lead to the separation of even lawfully present immigrants from their citizen children. As researchers focused on creating opportunities for children to succeed, and as passionate Americans, we are appalled. And like so many across the country, we are ready to speak out and fight back.

The administrations new attack takes the form of a proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Security regulation that targets millions of families. It would label legal immigrants accessing essential health care and nutrition programs as public charges, which can lead to visa or green card denials. The proposal is incredibly broad. Until now, public charge determinations have hinged on cash assistance programs and long-term nursing care facilities under Medicaid. The proposed regulation expands the designation of public charge to include beneficiaries of most Medicaid-covered care, prescription medicines for the elderly under Medicare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also called SNAP or food stamps), and housing assistance. These fundamental supports are core elements of our social contract to meet the basic health care, food, and nutrition of our fellow Americans.

More than 26 million people, including 9 million U.S.-born children, live in a household that receives public benefits and includes at least one noncitizen immigrant. Most of these families work hard every day for wages too low to fully meet their familys needs without public benefits. These government services are essential supports for childrens development and economic security. Under the new regulation, however, noncitizen parents would be putting their immigration status and familys unity at risk by relying on these necessary services that would leave them labelled a public charge.

The implications are far-reaching for the next generation of Americans."

While U.S.-born childrens continued use of benefits are not subject to these public charge considerations, we know from research that there are severe chilling effects on program participation borne of fear and confusion. The Clinton-era Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, a 1996 welfare-reform law that included less far-sweeping restrictions, reduced the program participation of children in immigrant families who were not directly affected by the legislative changes.

The current immigration-enforcement policy climate, heated anti-immigrant rhetoric, and the long-anticipated threat of rules changes around public charge may have already scared eligible immigrant families from program supports and services for which there is tremendous need and benefit for children. The total number of families using SNAP has dropped by 9 percent since the start of 2017. With the panic that surrounds the public charge rule, we can expect steeper drops even before such a rule takes effect.

What benefits to children would be lost and harm generated by the proposed rule? The implications are far-reaching for the next generation of Americans.

Basic child health outcomes would be placed at risk. Significant expansions beginning in the 1990s in public health-care coverage for children from Medicaid eligibility increases have resulted in reduced child mortality. With the inclusion of Medicaid benefits in the proposed rule, enrollment would decline and child mortality increase. Parents and childrens health are inextricably linked. When conditions like maternal depression go undiagnosed and untreated, young children experience negative effects on their own health and development.

Second, parents and children eat from the same table, and the research on food insecurity and food assistance is clear. One 2011 study published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics found that the SNAP program reduces childrens food insecurity by 20 to 30 percent . SNAP alone keeps nearly 5 million children out of poverty each year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Research further demonstrates that children in food-insecure households face higher risks of health and development problems . And research by Hilary Hoynes and colleagues shows that SNAP benefits in early childhood led to positive adult health outcomes , higher earnings, and even lower likelihood of relying on SNAP as an adult. So denying millions of children this important resource would result in short-term increases in hunger and health problems, as well as long-term economic damage.

In short, by denying millions the services they need to support their families, this proposal would result in a hungrier, sicker, and poorer future for Americans. In 2016, children of immigrants comprised 18 million of the 70 million children in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Like all children, they need protection from poverty and illness, and to know their families do not face restrictions in food, health care, and the other supports that all children need to become productive and proud Americans.

We, as researchers and as compassionate people, know better. There is no good reason to take away food, shelter, or access to health care, and put millions of families at risk. Not only does this regulation contradict the evidence, it also contradicts our values and tarnishes us as a nation. The United States has benefited from the contributions of immigrants and their progeny, who have been nurtured by this countrys openness and abundance, as well as its ability to make use of the talents newcomers contribute.

As children of immigrants ourselves, we cite not only rigorous evidence but our own lives. Our parents arrived here in the 1950s and 1960s, leaving behind home countries, families, and everything they knew to provide a better future for their children. We, as well as all of our siblings, have made the most of what the United States has to offer. And we have grown up to be professionals focused on improving the opportunities and life chances of children. Isnt that what America stands for? We believe deeply it is and always will be.

Just as we cannot break the bonds of migrant family ties coming to our border, we cannot treat the resources and needs of hardworking immigrant parents and their children as anything other than one and the same. We must unite to reject this attack on immigrants as an incursion on our defining values and our shared future.Port-au-Prince, Oct 17 (efe-epa).- Tens of thousands of Haitians took to the streets in Port-au-Prince and other cities around the country on Wednesday to demand that those linked with alleged corruption in PetroCaribe, a Venezuelan program supplying crude oil to Caribbean and Central American nations on generous terms, be brought to justice.

The demonstration in the capital was the city's largest since the start of the anti-corruption movement several months ago, EFE determined.

Protesters burned tires at various spots around Port-au-Prince, all the while monitored carefully by a huge contingent of police.

"Today, we want the judiciary to do its job. If not, we're going to get justice for ourselves. We don't want violence, but we're losing patience. If (President) Jovenel Moise cannot guarantee that there's trial, he should give up power," activist Mirlande Paul told EFE.

Local media reported that the most of the protests around Haiti were peaceful, but in the capital the demonstration was broken up when police fired tear gas, creating panic for several hours.

"They stole $3.8 billion; the country doesn't have hospitals, schools, the people are leaving for other countries out of misery. Today, we're saying enough and we need a quick answer to prevent the situation from deteriorating," Paul added.

The activist was referring to the amount of funds - according to several local sectors - that were allegedly embezzled from the PetroCaribe program administration.

Moise also mentioned the issue after heading a patriotic event in the capital, saying that he was in favor of an investigation and urging people to show "love for the nation."

Similar marches were held in other cities, including Petit-Goave, Cap Haitien, Gonaives, Saint-Marc, Les Cayes, Jeremie, Ouanaminthe and Jacmel.

The investigation into alleged irregularities in the management of the PetroCaribe funds is in the hands of the Superior Anticorruption Court, but the results will only be made public in January.

Meanwhile, several people were hurt here Wednesday when Haitian police opened fire on rock-throwing protesters during a ceremony to commemorate the 212th anniversary of the killing of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the nation's founder.

The incident occurred as Moise and first lady Martine Moise were laying a wreath at the Dessalines monument in Port-au-Prince.

Members of the president's security detail responded with live ammunition when some protesters began hurling rocks.

Authorities did not say how many people were hurt and provided no information on the severity of their injuries.

The Haitian parliament published a report last year blaming former senior officials for irregularities in the use of the PetroCaribe funds, but no one has been indicted.Have Your Say On Manx Budget



Alfred Cannan MHK

The first in the series of a number of budget meetings takes place on the Island tonight.

It's the first time such meetings have been held ahead of the Budget.

Treasury Minister Alfred Cannan says they will provide an opportunity for members of the public to express any concerns they have.

Tonights meeting takes place in Ramsey Town Hall between 7 and 9pm.

Other meetings will be held in Castletown Town Hall on the 22nd, the Manx Legion Club in Douglas on 24th and Peel Town Hall on 25th.Baku will host the 2nd International Tea Festival on International Chefs Day - October 20. The event is organized by the Azerbaijani Association of National Cookery and the Center for National Cookery.

The event will be held at Sheraton Baku Airport Hotel at 11 a.m.

The tea traditions of Azerbaijan, Japan, Turkey, China, India, Russia, Uzbekistan and other countries will be presented at the festival, Trend reported.

The first International Tea Festival was held in Baku on October 20, 2015. Annually, cooks from all over the world celebrate International Chefs Day on October 20. The date was established in 2004 at the initiative of the World Association of Culinary Communities.Frailty is a health condition that increases risks of poor health, falls, disability, and death in older adults. Signs of frailty include weakness, weight loss, slow walking speed, exhaustion, and low levels of activity. As our population ages, scientists expect that more and more of us will need to address frailty and its associated health concerns.

Geriatrics is the branch of healthcare dedicated to working with older people. Geriatrics experts have suggested that physical activity may one of the best ways to prevent frailty.

Physical activity includes walking and other gentle forms of exercise. It is proven to improve health. Physical activity can lower the risk of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, several cancers, and depression. Exercise also can improve your ability to perform your daily activities and can lower your risk of death from heart disease. In frail older adults, physical activity has been shown to improve strength, balance, agility (the ability to move quickly and easily), walking speed, and muscle mass (the amount of muscle you have in your body). These are all key functions tied to frailty.

Researchers recently reviewed a number of studies about exercise in frail older adults. The review found a number of studies that showed exercise helped reduce falls, improved walking ability, improved balance or increased muscle strength. However, we still don't know whether physical activity can reduce death among frail older adults.

Researchers recently designed a study to fill that knowledge gap by exploring whether physical activity could lower the high rate of death associated with frailty in older people. Their study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The researchers used information from the UAM (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) study, which included people 60-years-old and older who lived at home in Spain.

The 3,896 study participants were selected according to sex and age. Information was collected at the participants' homes through personal interviews, and physical examinations were performed by trained personnel.

Researchers assessed how much physical activity the participants did by asking whether they were generally inactive during their leisure time, or engaged in physical activity occasionally, several times a month, or several times a week.

Frailty was determined with the FRAIL scale, which measures five components of frailty: Fatigue, low Resistance (ability to maintain an effort, such as climbing stairs), limitation in the Ability to walk several hundred yards, Illness, and weight Loss.

Researchers reported that, of the participants:

12 percent reported having fatigue

7 percent had low resistance

4 percent had difficulties walking

2 percent had experienced weight loss

2 percent were sick

That means:

52 percent of the study participants were in robust health

4 percent were pre-frail (the medical term for a weakened state of health before someone is considered frail)

6 percent were frail

The study's follow-up period was 14 years. During that time, 1,801 participants died (46% of total participants), including 672 due to cardiovascular disease.

Compared with robust participants, pre-frail and frail people had a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Having any one of the five components of the FRAIL scale was linked to a higher risk of mortality from any cause.

The researchers said that being pre-frail or frail could be linked to a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However, being physically active was linked to a lower risk for death among pre-frail and frail individuals. What's more, deaths from cardiovascular disease in people who were physically active but also frail were similar to levels for pre-frail and inactive people.

The researchers said their findings suggest that physical activity might partly reduce the increased risk of death associated with frailty in older adults.

###

Know this: It's never too late to become active. Before starting on a new exercise program, check with your healthcare provider to make sure it's safe for you to do so. For the vast majority of people, the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks.

Tips: Choose an exercise you enjoy. If you learn something new or exercise with a partner or in a group, so much the better!

This summary is from "Physical activity and the association of frailty with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in older adults: a population-based prospective cohort study." It appears online ahead of print in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study authors are Sara Higueras-Fresnillo, MSc; Veronica Cabanas-Sanchez, PhD; Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD; Irene Esteban-Cornejo, PhD; Jose R. Banegas, MD, PhD; Kabir P. Sadarangani, MSc; Fernando Rodriguez-Artalejo, MD, PhD; and David Martinez-Gomez, PhD.

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.The European Parliament (EP) might vote against the draft agreement on Brexit, if no positive solution to the Irish border issue is found during the negotiations, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani said Wednesday, Sputnik reported.

"The EP absolutely wants to reach an agreement. But this deal should not be concluded at any cost. If we do not see a positive solution found for the [Irish border issue]  there were some positive signals for the [issues of EU citizens in the United Kingdom and UK financial commitments]  then we will vote against the draft agreement," Tajani told reporters.

He also stressed that 3 million EU citizens in the United Kingdom should be protected, London must fulfill all its financial commitments, and the Irish border matter should be resolved.

Regarding UK Prime Minister Theresa May's address to EU leaders that took place earlier on Wednesday, the EU Parliament president noted the absence of new proposals on Brexit.

"I want to be optimistic. The political message of Mrs May is a positive one, [saying that they] want to achieve an agreement. On the content  no news. But the body language was more positive than in the past," Tajani said.

Tajani also noted that he did not consider it possible to postpone the date of Brexit, which is scheduled for March 29, 2019.SAN DIEGO, Calif. - A new approach to genetic analysis finds associations between environmental factors and pharmacogenes - genes associated with a person's response to drugs - sparking ideas for new research at the interface of population genetics and medicine. Findings were presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

"Humans have developed and used pharmaceutical drugs for a few centuries, but their genes have been functioning on their own and interacting with other environmental factors for long before that," explained presenting author Chris Gignoux, PhD, of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Like changes in the physical environment, drugs affect the micro- environment within the body, which alters the way its cells and genes function. This suggests that genes with pharmacogenomic relevance may also be useful in studying broader correlations between genetics and environment.

To explore a variety of environmental factors, Dr. Gignoux collaborated with Elena Sorokin, PhD, of Stanford University, who created a geocoded resource of over 20 climate, geographic, and ecological variables, using data from NASA, the World Wildlife Fund, and other sources. With collaborators from across the United States, they examined samples from the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Study, a large initiative to highlight the utility of studying clinically and epidemiologically relevant variation in 51,698 individuals from 99 global populations. In a new type of analysis they termed an Enviro-WAS (environmental-wide association study), the researchers examined 19,690 pharmacogenomically-relevant variants to identify associations between genotypes and the 20 environmental variables.

Dr. Sorokin described the reasons behind building the geocoded resource and applying it to PAGE. "This work was inspired by previous research on human adaptation, coupled with our interest in performing large-scale association studies across diverse populations," she said. "We can use our rich environmental database to identify correlations with genetic variants from globally representative populations in the PAGE Study."

The Enviro-WAS identified novel associations between certain genetic variants and ecological zones and replicated previously known associations between certain variants and environmental variables such as latitude and altitude. The geocoded resource of environmental factor data will be made available for other researchers to use and collaborate on, in hopes of promoting and refining the Enviro-WAS approach and triggering further investigation into environmental factors and genomics.

"We believe these associations may be of interest to both evolutionary and medical geneticists, since this method can show how genes have reacted to environments throughout history," said Dr. Gignoux.

In addition, studying a diverse, global population allows for further examination of a variety of environmental factors and adds to information missing in pharmacogenomics. Such research can help to address unequal representation in clinical genomics.

"Pharmacogenomics data currently have a heavy bias towards people of European descent, and there's a lack of knowledge about diverse populations," said Dr. Gignoux. "This sampling gives us more diversity and could lead to better targeted treatments for subgroups worldwide."

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Presentation: Dr. Gignoux will present this research on Thursday, October 18, 2018, from 9:30-9:45 a.m., in Ballroom 20BC, Upper Level, San Diego Convention Center.

Press Availability: Dr. Gignoux and Dr. Sorokin will be available to discuss this research with interested media on Thursday, October 18, 2018, from 12-12:45 p.m. in the ASHG 2018 Press Office (Room 22).

Reference: Gignoux C et al. (2018 Oct 18). Abstract: The global landscape of pharmacogenomic variation. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Annual Meeting. San Diego, California.SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Comprehensive genetic testing of tumors and non-cancerous tissue from pediatric cancer patients is a feasible and clinically useful approach that can guide patient care, according to findings presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

Presenting author Scott Newman, PhD; Jinghui Zhang, PhD; and Kim Nichols, MD, along with an interdisciplinary team at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, studied 253 pediatric oncology patients with a variety of cancers. In 79 percent of cases, there was at least one finding that could help guide care by providing a diagnosis, revealing patient-specific risks, or identifying drug targets.

The researchers conducted whole genome sequencing (WGS), whole exome sequencing (WES), and RNA sequencing of the patients' tumors, as well as WGS and WES of non-cancerous tissue from the same patient. WGS involves sequencing of the patient's complete genome, while WES involves sequencing those portions that are transcribed into mRNA, most of which codes for proteins.

This work was part of the Genomes for Kids study (G4K), a large effort to understand how best to use genetic data for pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment. Differing from other studies that require a specific diagnosis to participate, this study had no prerequisite beyond the presence of adequate tumor tissue for testing.

"To my knowledge, this is the first study to offer comprehensive sequencing prospectively for all new patients with adequate samples," said Dr. Nichols. She also noted that the diversity of cancers tested helped to verify the relationships between genetic variants and disease.

Dr. Zhang and her colleagues developed software pipelines and analysis methods to identify the most clinically relevant variants. Most of their findings were structural rearrangements of DNA within or between chromosomes, and thus would have been challenging to detect (or not detected at all) using other, less comprehensive methods.

With an eye to implementation, the researchers also showed that this comprehensive testing would not overburden the analysis process, and that information could be provided within about 40 days, a time frame short enough to be of clinical value. Dr. Newman expressed that their work started out as a feasibility study, but it became clear that in many patients, the results were applicable to treatment decisions. Looking forward, the researchers hope their findings will lead to the adoption of WGS for all pediatric cancer patients.

"With results available in a clinically relevant time frame, and pricing becoming increasingly comparable to the radiology and pathology tests, WGS is becoming more accessible to pediatric oncology patients," said Dr. Newman.

St. Jude has compiled the information from G4K into a publicly accessible online database, encouraging global collaboration and further analysis of their data. They have continued to perform sequencing on current patients, and since the original study ended, have successfully used this method on roughly 300 additional patients. The team plans to continue studying sequencing methods, in hopes of producing clinically applicable data in an even more timely manner.

###

Presentation: Dr. Newman will present this research on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, from 5:30-5:45 p.m., in Ballroom 20BC, Upper Level, San Diego Convention Center.

Press Availability: Dr. Newman will be available to discuss this research with interested media on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, from 3-3:45 p.m. in the ASHG 2018 Press Office (Room 22).

Reference: Newman S et al. (2018 Oct 17). Abstract: Sequencing of whole genome, exome and transcriptome for pediatric precision oncology: Somatic variants and actionable findings from 253 patients enrolled in the Genomes for Kids study. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Annual Meeting. San Diego, California.SAN DIEGO, Calif. - By sequencing genetic material at a cell-by-cell level, researchers have described how type 2-high asthma affects the airways and results in mucus production with more detail than ever before. These findings, which help move forward scientific understanding of the biology behind asthma and could inform the development of targeted treatments for asthma and other airway diseases, were presented at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

Type 2-high asthma, a subtype of asthma caused by elevated levels of proteins known as type 2 cytokines, affects about half of asthma patients and often results in more severe disease than other subtypes. Type 2 cytokines affect the function of airway epithelial cells - cells at the surface of the airways - causing them to produce a viscous mucus that leads to symptoms of asthma.

In a two-part study, led by Nathan Jackson, PhD in the laboratory of Max A. Seibold at National Jewish Health and with collaborating institutions, they first studied these epithelial cells in a laboratory culture model designed to mimic the surface of human airways, and then confirmed their findings in asthma patients.

They used a relatively new approach called single-cell transcriptomics, in which they sequenced the RNA in each cell individually after stimulating airway epithelium cultures with the type 2 cytokine IL-13 and allowing the IL-13 to affect which genes were transcribed into RNA and to what extent.

"In the past, this type of research was based on bulk sequencing from thousands of cells, which provided some gene expression data but did not represent any cell in the epithelium," explained Dr. Jackson, who presented the work. "To understand the biology behind type 2-high asthma, we need to understand the mechanisms that operate in individual cells and learn how different types of cells function. Then, once we understand the biology, we can intervene."

The researchers learned which genes and proteins drove the production of mucus, identified the cell types affected, and compared these patterns in time frames mimicking acute (48 hours) and chronic (11 days) disease. They combined these results to define 11 distinct airway epithelial cell states and to describe the patterns of protein function that triggered cells to transition from one state to another, causing symptoms of asthma. To measure the real-world applicability of their findings, they followed up by examining transcriptome changes in nasal swabs from 698 children with type 2-high asthma.

"The results lined up between the laboratory and patients - stunningly so," said Dr. Seibold. "In patients, we were able to obtain a snapshot of the changes that occur in the disease, and the cell culture allowed us to understand the details."

By describing how airway cells change in the disease state, researchers can develop drugs to inhibit that process and reverse mucus obstruction, potentially returning the airway to an unobstructed state, Dr. Seibold added. Beyond asthma, this approach may have relevance to other airway diseases such as cystic fibrosis and the common cold.

Building on their findings, the researchers are continuing to analyze patient samples, as well as launching more detailed studies of the genes identified and their contributions to protein activity. They are also exploring the use of CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing to knock out or modify the genes involved in mucus production.

###

Presentation: Dr. Jackson will present this research on Thursday, October 18, 2018, from 11:00-11:15 a.m., in Ballroom 20BC, Upper Level, San Diego Convention Center.

Press Availability: Dr. Jackson and Dr. Seibold will be available to discuss this research with interested media on Thursday, October 18, 2018, from 2-2:45 p.m. in the ASHG 2018 Press Office (Room 22).

Reference: Jackson ND et al. (2018 Oct 18). Abstract: Single cell transcriptomics of the human airway epithelium reveals cellular and functional changes underlying type 2-high asthma. Presented at the American Society of Human Genetics 2018 Annual Meeting. San Diego, California.(Boston)--Gout is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis, caused by crystallization of uric acid in the joint. Rheumatologists have long recommended that patients with gout be treated with drugs to lower uric acid in their blood to prevent crystallization. Specifically, rheumatology societies around the world recommend that uric acid should be lowered to below 6mg/dL because that's below the concentration at which uric acid can crystalize. This strategy is known as "treat-to-target."

Recently, controversy about this recommendation was raised because the American College of Physicians' guidelines stated that there were insufficient data to support a treat-to-target strategy, and that a strategy of treating to avoid symptoms may be reasonable.

In a randomized controlled trial published in the Lancet, nurse-led care that included education and engagement of patients as well as a treat-to-target strategy to lower uric acid was compared with usual care by general practitioners (GP). In this trial, the nurse-led care group had more than a three-fold higher achievement of lowering uric acid to below 6mg/dL, had 67 percent lower risk of gout flares and 79 percent lower risk of having any tophi at the end of follow-up at two years compared with usual care. Further, the nurse-led care strategy was projected to be cost saving by five years.

An accompanying Lancet comment led by Tuhina Neogi, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health, noted that this trial adds to a growing body of evidence that the treat-to-target strategy in gout management is effective and there is now ample data from randomized trials to support this treatment approach.

"The high adherence, combined with use of higher doses of allopurinol in the nurse-led group contributed to the marked beneficial effects experienced in the nurse-led group. The findings highlight that patients can adhere to treatment when they receive the appropriate information about their disease, adequate support by their healthcare provider with regular follow-up and feedback," said Neogi.

According to the authors, this trial provides definitive evidence that a treat-to-target strategy in gout results in better patient outcomes than the usual care provided by GPs. "While GPs may not have the capacity to see their patients with gout more frequently, other health care professionals can be trained to implement this approach as has been done in other diseases," she explained. "Highly efficacious and cost-effective gout management can be readily achieved by educating and spending time with patients. Patients with gout can get their disease under control using a treat-to-target approach. This should now be the standard of care for gout management."

###

Nicola Dalbeth, MBChB, MD, FRACP, from the Department of Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, also contributed to this editorial.

Disclaimer:

TN is involved in a clinical trial of febuxostat compared with allopurinol in gout as a steering committee member funded by a grant from the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA CSP-594) and the National Institutes of Health.

ND has received grants from Amgen, grants and personal fees from AstraZeneca, and personal fees from AbbVie, Horizon, Takeda, Kowa, Janssen, and Pfizer. ND is supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (15/576). In the past 5 years, she has been principal investigator on a clinical trial of febuxostat in early gout (funded by Takeda) and a clinical trial of lesinurad and febuxostat (funded by AstraZeneca) and co-investigator on a clinical trial of allopurinol dose escalation (funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand).The risk was even greater in children who have more severe symptoms of ASD; findings reveal important new target for prevention efforts

Philadelphia, October 17, 2018--A new study by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the University of Pennsylvania and six other centers reveals that children with developmental delays, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are up to 50 percent more likely to be overweight or obese compared with the general population.

The findings were published online by The Journal of Pediatrics.

This is the first large study to demonstrate that young children with ASD or developmental delays are at an equally high risk of developing obesity. Among children with ASD, those with a higher degree of impairment and more severe symptoms were found to be at even greater risk of developing obesity by age five.

The study included nearly 2,500 children between the ages of two and five years old. This age group is especially relevant, since it is an important window for early obesity prevention.

The research was conducted as part of the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED). The multisite study analyzed 668 children with ASD, 914 children with developmental delays or disorders and 884 children from the general population who served as controls. Children's heights and weights were measured during clinical visits, and ASD severity was measured using the Ohio State University Global Severity Scale for Autism.

The study showed that children with ASD were 1.57 times more likely to be overweight or obese than the general population. Children with developmental delays were 1.38 times more likely to be overweight or obese. The risk for obesity was even more pronounced in children with severe ASD symptoms, as they were 1.7 times more likely to be classified as overweight or obese than children with mild ASD symptoms.

"These findings make it clear that monitoring these children for excess weight gain at an early age is critical, and that prevention efforts should be expanded to include not just children with ASD, but those with other developmental diagnoses, as well," said Susan E. Levy, MD, MPH, the study's lead author and medical director of the Center for Autism Research at CHOP.

Although increased obesity in children with ASD has been reported in other studies, this study is the first to examine if children with other developmental disabilities are also at increased risk for developing obesity. Also, the researchers examined connections between excess weight gain and the presence of other medical, behavioral, developmental, or psychiatric conditions.

"We need more research to understand why these children are more likely to develop obesity, and which children are at the highest risk," said Levy. Other medical conditions are especially common among children with ASD, and the authors note that these may play a role in excess weight gain. Possible factors include endocrine disorders, genetic disorders, gastrointestinal symptoms, medication-associated side effects, sleep disturbances, or rigid food choices, among others.

The research findings may shed light into possible mechanisms underlying the increased obesity risk in children with ASD, which may offer targets for early intervention. The authors suggest that clinicians monitor children who receive a diagnosis of ASD or developmental delays/disorders for signs of excess weight gain, and that they provide specific guidance for their parents in an effort to prevent obesity. Parents should discuss with their medical caregiver any concerns they have about their child who may be showing signs of obesity.

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This study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Cooperative Agreement grants U10DD000180 (Colorado Department of Public Health); U10DD000181 (Kaiser Foundation Research Institute [CA]); U10DD000182 (University of Pennsylvania); U10DD000183 (Johns Hopkins University); U10DD000184 (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); and U10DD000498 (Michigan State University).

Levy et al, "Relationship of Weight Outcomes, Co-Occurring Conditions, and Severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Study to Explore Early Development," J Pediatrics, online October 9, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.09.003

This study included co-authors from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Colorado, Thomas Jefferson University, the Waisman Center, the University of Wisconsin-Madision, and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disability of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 546-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.eduDUARTE, Calif. -- Researchers from City of Hope, a world-renowned comprehensive cancer center and independent biomedical research institution, have developed a synthetic DNA molecule that is programmed to jump-start the immune system to eradicate genetically distinct types of prostate cancer.

Their novel two-step strategy eliminates STAT3, a master key that enables tumors to become resistant to existing therapies, and toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9), a danger sensor present but not effectively active in immune system cells such as dendritic cells. The short DNA programmed by City of Hope researchers temporarily lifted the defense shield of tumors and awakened the immune system in human cell and mouse models to eradicate difficult-to-treat prostate cancers.

"We desperately need new strategies for late-stage prostate cancers, which thus far have resisted emerging immunotherapies," said Marcin Kortylewski, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Immuno-Oncology at City of Hope and co-senior author of the study. "It is clear that in this case, we need smart immunotherapies that can outmaneuver wily cancers. Our strategy relies on two opposite actions of the same 'hot and cold' molecule. We fire up the immune system to attack and freeze tumor defenses. The combined effect of such a dual-function drug can remove obstacles to treating the most challenging solid tumors."

The preclinical study, published on Oct. 18 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, created a blueprint of a new type of DNA or "oligonucleotide" drug - CpG-STAT3ASO. It is programmed with two functions to more effectively and safely treat metastatic cancers that are resistant to pharmacological therapies. Notably, using a synthetic molecule with just STAT3 or TLR9 was not as effective in killing prostate cancer as using the two in unison, the study found.

"While existing immunotherapy options can improve outcomes for selected prostate cancer patients, it is clear that these patients are in the minority," said Sumanta Kumar Pal, M.D., associate clinical professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research at City of Hope and co-senior author of the study. "It is our hope that the agents developed in the Kortylewski lab will yield benefit in a greater proportion of patients with advanced disease."

It is too early to know, Kortylewski said, but it's possible that this DNA molecule could be used in the future for therapeutic vaccination against metastatic prostate cancer. Such an agnostic and off-the-shelf approach could work regardless of the genetics of an individual's prostate cancer. But more preclinical research on the pharmacologic properties of these new drugs is needed to get there, he said.

###

Dayson Moreira, Ph.D., a staff scientist in the Department of Immuno-Oncology at City of Hope, is the first author of the study. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center also contributed to the study.

Some of the authors have ownership interests, including patents, or have a role as a consultant or advisory board member at pharmaceutical companies. Kortylewski has a patent on STAT3 inhibitors and their uses.

The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Defense (Prostate Cancer Research Program), Prostate Cancer Foundation, Israel Cancer Research Fund, Jacki and Bruce Barron Cancer Research Scholars Program, National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health.

About City of Hope

City of Hope is an independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as one of only 49 comprehensive cancer centers, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the world. City of Hope's main campus is in Duarte, California, just northeast of Los Angeles, with additional locations throughout Southern California. It is ranked as one of "America's Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bone marrow transplantation, diabetes and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs based on technology developed at the institution. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University research team has found a way to help sporting officials detect whether an athlete's blood has been doped by an infusion of their own stored blood.

While tests have been developed to detect two of the three most common methods of dramatically boosting the oxygen-carrying capacity of a competitor's blood, so-called "autologous" or self-transfusions have been impossible to detect.

An autologous transfusion takes some of the athlete's blood out well before the competition, sorts out just the red blood cells, and then transfuses those cells back into the athlete right before competition to enhance the blood's ability to carry oxygen, the essential fuel of muscle performance.

The best detection method the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has used to date is the "Athlete Passport," which compares a pre-competition blood sample to one taken at competition to see if there are 'significant' changes in biochemistry.

"The difficulty has been that the tests they have couldn't tell the difference between a young blood cell and an old one," said Jen-Tsan "Ashley" Chi, M.D., Ph.D., who led this WADA-funded research in his lab at Duke's Center for Genomic and Computational Biology.

Blood banks in the U.S. consider 42 days the outer limit of how long a unit of red blood cells should be stored because of biochemical changes that could harm recipients. The amount of energy-providing ATP drops and oxygen-binding hemoglobin declines as well. But those changes have not been precise enough to detect an autologous transfusion.

What Chi and his colleagues looked at in the red blood cells is nucleic acids, specifically RNA. Red blood cells were long thought to lack nucleic acids because they don't carry a nucleus, where one would normally find DNA. But it turns out they contain an abundant and diverse population of RNAs. Among these are some short RNA pieces called microRNAs (miRNA) which generally act to control the production of proteins in a cell.

The researchers drew three units of blood from volunteers and processed them to remove virtually all of the white blood cells and about 80 percent of the plasma, leaving behind a relatively purified sample of red blood cells, just as an autologous transfusion would require.

Then Jennifer Doss, a former Duke graduate student, and other lab members extracted and analyzed RNA samples taken from the cells at eight time intervals, from 1 day to 42 days. Changes in the RNA associated with storage became apparent as they compared the later samples to the Day 1 sample.

Two types of miRNA increased in number during storage and two declined, said graduate student Wen-Hsuan Yang, who performed the biochemistry experiments. One of the forms that declined, called miR-70, had the most dramatic and consistent changes.

With further testing, the researchers isolated the likely source of this 18-nucleotide fragment of RNA. It seems to result as a byproduct from a larger RNA that is cut by enzymes during storage, and it happens in a very precise, predictable way.

"This increase in miR-720 is significant enough and consistent enough that it could be used as a biomarker for detecting stored red blood cells," Chi said.

He said further research is focused on understanding why the enzyme that produces miR-720 is active in stored cells and what it might be doing as it breaks a larger RNA apart.

###

In addition to Chi, Yang and Doss, the research team included Katelyn Walzer, Shannon McNulty, Jianli Wu and John Roback.

This research, which appears Oct. 18 in the British Journal of Haematology, was supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the Partnership for Clean Competition, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the government of Taiwan and Duke University.

CITATION: "Angiogenin-mediated tRNA Cleavage as a Novel Feature of Stored Red Blood Cells," Wen-Hsuan Yang, Jennifer Doss, Katelyn Walzer, Shannon McNulty, Jianli Wu, John Roback and Jen-Tsan Chi. British Journal of Haemotology, Oct. 18, 2018. DOI: 10.1111/bjh.15605Research from King's College London has shown for the first time that genetics plays a significant role in whether young adults choose to go to university, which university they choose to attend and how well they do.

Previous studies from King's College London have shown that genetics plays a major role in academic achievement at school, with 58% of individual differences between students in GCSE scores due to genetic factors. However, there are few studies looking at genetic influences on academic achievement beyond school education.

Using data from the Twins Early Development Study, funded by the Medical Research Council, the researchers found that genetic factors explained 57% of the differences in A-level exam results and 46% of the difference in achievement at university. They also found genetics accounted for 51% of the difference in whether young people chose to go to university and 57% of the difference in the quality of the chosen university.

Dr Emily Smith-Woolley, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), who co-led the research said: 'We have shown for the first time that genetic influence on educational achievement continues into higher education. Our results also demonstrate that the appetite young adults have for choosing to continue with higher education is, in part, influenced by their DNA.'

The researchers also found that shared environmental factors - such as families and schools - influenced the choice of whether to go to university, accounting for 36% of the differences between students. In a previous study, the researchers also found shared environment accounts for almost 40% of the differences in whether students chose to take A-levels.

However, shared environmental influences appear to become less important over time for educational achievement. While shared environment accounts for up to 20% of differences in achievement in secondary school, the researchers found the influence of shared environment dropped off for achievement at A-levels and was negligible for achievement at university.

Dr Ziada Ayorech, from the IoPPN, who co-led the research said: 'Unlike secondary school, where students tend to share educational experiences, university provides young people with greater opportunity to be independent and to carve out their interests based on their natural abilities and aptitudes. Students' unique environments - such as new friends, and new experiences - appear to be explaining differences in university achievement and the role of shared environment becomes less significant.'

Interestingly, differences in the quality of university young people chose was strongly influenced by genetics (47%) even after accounting for A-level achievement, suggesting factors other than ability play an important role in university choice. University quality was assessed using the 'Complete University Guide' rankings for the year in which the students entered university.

The results were based on studying 3,000 pairs of twins from the UK as well as 3,000 genotyped individuals. Comparing identical and non-identical twin pairs allows researchers to determine the overall impact of genetics on how much people differ on measures like exam scores. If identical twins' exam scores are more alike than those of non-identical twins this implies the difference between twin pairs is due to genetic factors.

Twin studies are not able to identify specific genetic variations which are linked to educational achievement. Nonetheless, the researchers were able to demonstrate a small genetic effect on university success just using DNA from individuals. They used 'genome-wide polygenic scores', which add-up the effects of thousands of DNA variants which have previously been linked to educational success in large genetic studies.

Genome-wide polygenic scores only explained a small fraction of the differences in A-level exam results, university achievement and young people's choices in higher education, and not the higher percentages identified from comparing twins. The researchers say this discrepancy is because much larger genetic studies are needed to identify more DNA variants linked to educational success.

The results were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

###Children who develop inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease) have an increased risk of death, both in childhood and later in life, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal Gastroenterology reports. It is therefore important that patients who are diagnosed as children are carefully monitored, argue the researchers behind the study.

The researchers identified patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease between the years 1964 and 2014 via the Swedish patient register. Using these data, they compared mortality rates in about 9,400 children who developed IBD with those of other children.

Their results show that children who developed IBD before the age of 18 have a three to five-fold higher mortality rate than people without IBD, both during childhood and into adulthood. This translates to a 2.2-year reduction in life expectancy in individuals monitored up to the age of 65.

"It should be remembered that we're talking small differences in number of deaths," explains lead author Ola Olen, consultant and researcher at Karolinska Institutet's Department of Medicine in Solna. "Most young people with IBD do not die earlier than their peers, but a few individuals with a severe case of IBD and serious complications such as cancer greatly elevate the relative risk."

The most common cause of death was cancer, while fatalities due to IBD itself accounted for the largest relative increase in mortality.

"Individuals who are diagnosed in childhood need to be monitored carefully," says Dr Olen. "Those who might especially benefit from being closely monitored to avoid fatal intestinal cancer are children with ulcerative colitis, who also have the chronic liver disease primary sclerosing cholangitis."

IBD in adults has previously been linked to shortened life expectancy. IBD is often thought to have a more aggressive disease course in children than in adults and has been associated with several types of cancer. However, it has been unclear how life expectancy is affected by childhood-onset IBD and if the mortality rate has changed since the introduction of modern drugs.

"IBD therapy has improved greatly since the 1960s," says Dr Olen. "For one thing, we often now use new types of immunomodulating drugs. However, we couldn't see that mortality rates have gone down since their introduction."

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The study was financed by the Swedish Society of Medicine, the Swedish Stomach and Bowel Association's Fund, the Jane and Dan Olsson Foundation, the Milk Drop Association, the Bengt Ihre scholarship for gastroenterological research, Karolinska Institutet's Foundations and Funds, ALF funding, the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research.

Publication: "Increased Mortality of Patients with Childhood-onset Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Compared With the General Population". Ola Olen, Johan Askling, Michael Sachs, Paolo Frumento, Martin Neovius, Karin Ekstrom Smedby, Anders Ekbom, Petter Malmborg and Jonas F Ludvigsson. Gastroenterology, online 17 October 2018, doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2018.10.028.In 2017, 1.6 million people died of tuberculosis. This disease is curable but has also developed drug resistance. Yet even multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) can often still be cured with alternative antibiotics, provided that the disease is diagnosed quickly.

Inadequate diagnostic tests

An international team of researchers has now shown that MDR-TB strains have developed ways to fool even the latest diagnostic tests, endorsed by the World Health Organization. And, due to the wide use of these tests, a recent outbreak in South Africa has remained undetected for five years.

"We found two different strains circulating in the North-East of South Africa," explains senior author Emmanuel Andre (KU Leuven / University Hospitals Leuven), who led the study together with Dr Ndivhuho Makhado (Dr George Mukhari Tertiary Laboratory, South Africa). "These strains both have a specific DNA mutation that is associated with resistance against the antibiotic Rifampicin. The problem is that this particular mutation, which was previously known but thought to be very infrequent, is not detected by commercial tests claiming to detect Rifampicin resistance."

Detrimental effects

As a result, a substantial number of patients infected with MDR-TB strains were misdiagnosed and inadequately treated in South Africa. "These misdiagnoses have contributed to the dissemination of the outbreak and the development of additional drug resistance," Dr Andre continues.

"We need to act now and rethink how we diagnose multidrug-resistant tuberculosis to prevent further damage. Most patients were diagnosed in Rustenburg, a city located at 100 km from the capital Pretoria, which hosts major international mining companies and drives very large numbers of international workers. Many people living in these communities are migrant workers exposed to poverty and poor sanitary conditions. The risks are legion."

Alternative diagnostic test

For the purposes of this study, the researchers developed alternative diagnostic tests.

In order to screen the rpoB Ile491Phe mutation from a collection of as much as 37,644 cases of tuberculosis diagnosed at the Dr George Mukhari Tertiary Laboratory in Pretoria between 2013 and 2016, the researchers randomly selected a subset of isoniazid mono-resistant strains. A subset of 249 strains was screened using a rapid MAS-PCR test newly developed by Dr Emmanuel Andre and colleagues in Belgium.

The rpoB Ile491Phe positive cases were then further evaluated for extensive drug-resistance testing and refined phylogenetic analysis using whole genome sequencing and the Deeplex MycTB assay, a commercial assay co-developed by Dr Philip Supply (CNRS and Institut Pasteur de Lille, France) and Genoscreen (France).

###Georgian democratic reforms will lead to the NATO membership, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Jonathan Katz, said in Washington D.C.

The democratic reforms which are being carried out in Georgia will lead to very significant outcomes, he said during the discussion 'Keeping Georgias Euroatlantic Future on Track.'

"Georgia will definitely become the member of NATO," Agenda.ge cited Katz as saying.

Katz spoke about Georgias importance for the United Stated and said that high level bilateral visits between Georgia and the US prove the US firm support for Georgia.The CRISPR Journal, a new peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers, announces the publication of its third issue. The Journal is dedicated to validating and publishing outstanding research and commentary on all aspects of CRISPR and gene editing, including CRISPR biology, technology and genome editing, and commentary and debate of key policy, regulatory, and ethical issues affecting the field. The Journal, led by Editor-in-Chief Rodolphe Barrangou, PhD (North Carolina State University) and Executive Editor Dr. Kevin Davies, is published bimonthly online and in print. See http://www.crisprjournal.com for more information.

This press release is copyright Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Its use is granted only for journalists and news media receiving it directly from The CRISPR Journal. For full-text copies of articles or to arrange interviews with Dr. Barrangou, Dr. Davies, authors, or members of the editorial board, contact Kathryn Ryan at the Publisher.

1. TREE: A novel transcriptional activator based on CRISPR-Cas9

The sequence recognition machinery of CRISPR-Cas is frequently harnessed to drive site-specific activity of powerful next-generation molecular tools. Of these, transcriptional activation systems hold tremendous potential for disease and cancer therapies. In a new study published in the October issue of The CRISPR Journal, researchers at Hiroshima University have developed a hybrid transcriptional activation system, TREE, which combines previously characterized activators, enabling sequential recruitment of both tag arrays and effector molecules while demonstrating powerful transcriptional activation efficacy.

Contact: Tetsushi Sakuma, or Takashi Yamamoto (Hiroshima University, Japan)

2. CRISPR-Cas Classification: where from here?

In a rapidly evolving field such as CRISPR biology, keeping up with the nomenclature is a daunting task. The extraordinarily complex and varied systems have necessitated a multifaceted approach which Eugene Koonin, of the NIH, elegantly presents in his new review published in this installment of The CRISPR Journal. His piece summarizes not only the current CRISPR classification system, but also uncertainties, limitations and conceivable developments that may arise in the foreseeable future.

Contact: Eugene Koonin (NIH)

3. Broad impacts of the CRISPR-Cas9 patent appeal

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit announced its decision that there was "no interference-in-fact" between the patent application submitted by the University of California and the dozen Broad Institute patents for eukaryotic applications of CRISPR-Cas9. New York Law professor, Jacob Sherkow, returns to The CRISPR Journal to discuss this decision and its broader impacts on the future of CRISPR-based research.

Contact: Jacob Sherkow; (NY Law School)

4. A Unified Resource for Tracking Anti-CRISPRs

The ever-expanding repertoire of CRISPR-Cas systems has illuminated a biological arms race occurring between CRISPR-encoding bacteria their targeting viruses. There are now 36 known families of anti-CRISPR proteins that block seven subtypes of CRISPR-Cas immunity. It is predicted that the rate of anti-CRISPR discovery will only accelerate within the coming years, therefore Joseph Bondy-Denomy, Alan Davidson and colleagues, have created a modifiable database for tracking these proteins in an attempt to unify the anti-CRISPR research community. This valuable tool is presented in the October issue of The CRISPR Journal.

Contact: Joseph Bondy-Denomy; (UCSF) or (University of Toronto)

5. CRISPR editing in art

The CRISPR-Cas system, renowned for its numerus applications in biomedicine, plant biology, biotechnology, and now...art? As a novel form of Bio-Art, an artistic movement which melds art and biological sciences, CRISPR technology is poised to have a rapid rise within this discipline. Miguel Angel Medina of the University of Malaga, offers an interesting and timely discussion of CRISPR-based art and more specifically, the Anna Dumitriu "Bio-Art and Bacteria" exhibit, which recently traveled from Oxford University to the Philadelphia Science Center.

Contact: Miguel Angel Medina (University of Malaga, Spain)

###New Rochelle, NY, October 18, 2018--Researchers developed a novel DNA influenza vaccine based on four micro-consensus antigenic regions selected to represent the diversity of seasonal H3N2 viruses across decades. The DNA vaccine protected mice against a lethal challenge with more than one influenza-A H3N2 virus and protected them from severe H3N2-related illness despite the lack of an exact sequence match between the vaccine immunogen and H3 immunogen. The findings are reported in a new Special Issue on DNA Vaccines in Human Gene Therapy," a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. Click here to read the full-text article free on the Human Gene Therapy website through November 18, 2018.

David Weiner, The Wistar Institute of Anatomy & Biology, Philadelphia, PA, and coauthors from Wistar and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Plymouth Meeting, PA conducted the study entitled " A Synthetic Micro-Consensus DNA Vaccine Generates Comprehensive Influenza-A H3N2 Immunity and Protects Mice Against Lethal Challenge by Multiple H3N2 Viruses." This new DNA vaccine strategy was intended to elicit a comprehensive immune response and to represent a step forward in eliminating the need to reformulate a seasonal vaccine each year to protect against influenza-A H3N2.

The researchers designed a vaccine designed to elicit broad immune responses against di-verse influenza-A H3N2 viruses by engineering four synthetic hemagglutinin H3 immu-nogens. The H3 sequences used were chosen by aligning sequences from 233 influenza-A H3N2 strains representing viruses from across multiple decades. The researchers identi-fied four micro-consensus sequences with sufficient sequence similarity to predict cross-reactive immune responses against diverse H3N2 strains.

"Influenza continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, as the virus continuously changes to evade the human immune system," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. "The approach developed by the Wistar Institute team holds great promise as a means to elicit an immune response that the virus will not evade."

###

About the Journal

Human Gene Therapy, the Official Journal of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, British Society for Gene and Cell Therapy, French Society of Cell and Gene Therapy, German Society of Gene Therapy, and five other gene therapy societies, is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published monthly in print and online. Led by Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Human Gene Therapy presents reports on the transfer and expression of genes in mammals, including humans. Related topics include improvements in vector development, delivery systems, and animal models, particularly in the areas of cancer, heart disease, viral disease, genetic disease, and neurological disease, as well as ethical, legal, and regulatory issues related to the gene transfer in humans. Its companion journals, Human Gene Therapy Methods, published bimonthly and focused on the application of gene therapy to product testing and development, and Human Gene Therapy Clinical Development, published quarterly, features data relevant to the regulatory review and commercial development of cell and gene therapy products. Tables of contents for all three publications and a free sample issue may be viewed on the Human Gene Therapy website.

About the Publisher

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells and Development, and Cellular Reprogramming. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 80 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.WHAT:

A surge in Lassa fever cases in Nigeria in 2018 does not appear to be linked to a single virus strain or increased human-to-human transmission, according to a genomic analysis published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Multiple institutions collaborated on the report, including the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases at Redeemer's University in Ede, Nigeria; the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California; and Tulane University in New Orleans, among others. The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), and the NIH Common Fund's Human Heredity and Health in Africa Program, all components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) reported an unusually large increase in Lassa fever cases in 2018, with 523 laboratory-confirmed cases and 135 deaths from January 1 through October 7. Lassa fever is endemic to West Africa, where Mastomys natalensis rodents, a primary animal reservoir of Lassa virus, are common. The rodent is often found in or around human habitats, and people become infected with Lassa virus through direct contact with rodent urine and stool. People with Lassa fever also can transmit the virus to other people through close contact, although experts believe this is rare. About 15 to 20 percent of people hospitalized with Lassa fever die from the disease, but only 1 percent of all Lassa virus infections result in death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Public health officials were concerned that the Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria in 2018 might be driven by a previously unknown factor, such as a new or more virulent Lassa virus strain, according to the authors. This prompted the research team to analyze Lassa virus genomes from patient samples to determine if genomic data signatures could explain the surge in cases.

The authors analyzed Lassa virus genomes of 129 patients from the 2017-2018 outbreak and from 91 patients from the 2015-2017 seasons. They discovered that Lassa genomes from 2018 were drawn from a diverse range of viruses previously observed in Nigeria rather than from a single dominant strain. This indicates that a single virus strain was not driving the surge in cases in 2018. Additionally, dating of the most recent ancestors of samples from 2018 showed limited support for human-to-human transmission. Rather, the dataset had features consistent with many, independent zoonotic transmissions (humans becoming infected through contact with rodent feces or urine).

The research team reported their findings in real time to the NCDC and local health authorities to support the public health response to the outbreak. The research serves as a model for investigating infectious disease emergencies by combining genomic information with traditional epidemiological data to inform response strategies, the authors note.

###

ARTICLE:

KJ Siddle et al. Genomic Analysis of Lassa Virus during an Increase in Cases in Nigeria in 2018. The New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1804498 (2018).

WHO:

Eun Mi Lee, M.S., M.P.H., a health specialist in the Office of Genomics and Advanced Technologies (OGAT), part of NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, is available for comment. Liliana Losada Brown, Ph.D., a program officer in OGAT, is also available for comment.

CONTACT:

To schedule interviews, please contact Jennifer Routh, (301) 402-1663, NIAIDNews@niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports research--at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide--to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

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 The word "HAZMAT" describes substances that pose a risk to the environment, or even to life itself. Imagine the term being applied to entire planets, where violent flares from the host star may make worlds uninhabitable by affecting their atmospheres.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is observing such stars through a large program called HAZMAT -- Habitable Zones and M dwarf Activity across Time.

"M dwarf" is the astronomical term for a red dwarf star -- the smallest, most abundant and longest-lived type of star in our galaxy. The HAZMAT program is an ultraviolet survey of red dwarfs at three different ages: young, intermediate, and old.

Stellar flares from red dwarfs are particularly bright in ultraviolet wavelengths, compared with Sun-like stars. Hubble's ultraviolet sensitivity makes the telescope very valuable for observing these flares. The flares are believed to be powered by intense magnetic fields that get tangled by the roiling motions of the stellar atmosphere. When the tangling gets too intense, the fields break and reconnect, unleashing tremendous amounts of energy.

The team has found that the flares from the youngest red dwarfs they surveyed -- just about 40 million years old -- are 100 to 1,000 times more energetic than when the stars are older. This younger age is when terrestrial planets are forming around their stars.

Approximately three-quarters of the stars in our galaxy are red dwarfs. Most of the galaxy's "habitable-zone" planets -- planets orbiting their stars at a distance where temperatures are moderate enough for liquid water to exist on their surface -- likely orbit red dwarfs. In fact, the nearest star to our Sun, a red dwarf named Proxima Centauri, has an Earth-size planet in its habitable zone.

However, young red dwarfs are active stars, producing ultraviolet flares that blast out so much energy that they could influence atmospheric chemistry and possibly strip off the atmospheres of these fledgling planets.

"The goal of the HAZMAT program is to help understand the habitability of planets around low-mass stars," explained Arizona State University's Evgenya Shkolnik, the program's principal investigator. "These low-mass stars are critically important in understanding planetary atmospheres."

The results of the first part of this Hubble program are being published in The Astrophysical Journal. This study examines the flare frequency of 12 young red dwarfs. "Getting these data on the young stars has been especially important, because the difference in their flare activity is quite large as compared to older stars," said Arizona State University's Parke Loyd, the first author on this paper.

The observing program detected one of the most intense stellar flares ever observed in ultraviolet light. Dubbed the "Hazflare," this event was more energetic than the most powerful flare from our Sun ever recorded.

"With the Sun, we have a hundred years of good observations," Loyd said. "And in that time, we've seen one, maybe two, flares that have an energy approaching that of the Hazflare. In a little less than a day's worth of Hubble observations of these young stars, we caught the Hazflare, which means that we're looking at superflares happening every day or even a few times a day."

Could super-flares of such frequency and intensity bathe young planets in so much ultraviolet radiation that they forever doom chances of habitability? According to Loyd, "Flares like we observed have the capacity to strip away the atmosphere from a planet. But that doesn't necessarily mean doom and gloom for life on the planet. It just might be different life than we imagine. Or there might be other processes that could replenish the atmosphere of the planet. It's certainly a harsh environment, but I would hesitate to say that it is a sterile environment."

The next part of the HAZMAT study will be to study intermediate-aged red dwarfs that are 650 million years old. Then the oldest red dwarfs will be analyzed and compared with the young and intermediate stars to understand the evolution of the ultraviolet radiation environment of low-mass planets around these low-mass stars.

###

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

Ann Jenkins / Ray Villard

Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland

410-338-4488 / 410-338-4514

jenkins@stsci.edu / villard@stsci.edu

Evgenya Shkolnik

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

808-292-9088

shkolnik@asu.edu

Parke Loyd

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

parke@asu.eduCHICAGO --- Much of the published medical research goes unread by the general public and medical community, despite being largely funded by the federal government and private foundations. To reach more people, medical journals have begun using social media to promote new research.

A new Northwestern Medicine study has found social media editors lack established best practices and support from their journals and home institutions, making it difficult for them to successfully promote new research.

In general, the median citation rate for journal articles -- when one paper refers to another paper -- is zero, meaning a lot of new research isn't being read even in the medical community. If utilized correctly, social media could help journals increase awareness of new research, according to the study. But first, social media editors need more resources and support.

"American tax dollars are paying for research the public never hears about," said senior author Dr. Seth Trueger, assistant professor of emergency medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a practicing physician at Northwestern Medicine. "I'm optimistic we can get the word out through social media, but we first need to explore and develop tried-and-true methods to distribute this information to the public."

Study authors urge medical journals to define social media editor roles and responsibilities more clearly and provide more resources to social media editors.

The study was published this week in the journal Academic Medicine. It is the first study to examine this specific role of social media editor at medical journals.

Journals may be able to help social media editors to more effectively get the word out and determine which strategies are most effective, study authors said. Doing so will help journals and social media editors better focus their limited resources.

"Many journals have been building social media editor positions, which is great, but as a relatively new niche, our study found journals didn't really know what these people should be doing," Trueger said. "They would tell new editors to 'take this job and do what you can with it.' It's the wild west."

The study also found: (1) monetary support for these roles is lacking; (2) journals use different metrics to measure engagement and success; and (3) there is no consistency in editor responsibilities among journals.

In addition to his role at Northwestern, Trueger previously was the social media editor for the Annals of Emergency Medicine. He is now the digital media editor at JAMA Network Open and said his goal is to "get eyeballs on the science."

Something Trueger has learned in these positions is how impactful social media can be for medical research, if done properly.

"If you have a paper on a Medicare program, you don't just have physicians looking at that research; there are health economists, patient groups and the general public who have an interest in it," Trueger said. "If we can determine which strategies work for online dissemination, a social media editor's success rate for sharing new information to a wide audience can skyrocket."

Medical schools and universities should better incorporate social media engagement with more tangible support, such as academic credit toward promotion and tenure, according to the study.

Given the overall lack of tangible support reported by social media editors in the study, medical journals should consider providing non-physician staff to help manage social media accounts to support editors in their positions, the study suggested.

###

Twenty-four social media editors from 19 medical journals participated in the study. The study was funded by the Summer Research Program at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago, which is in part funded by the National Institutes of Health.Those pesky bees that come buzzing around on a muggy summer day are helping researchers reveal the genes responsible for social behaviors. A new study published this week found that the social lives of sweat bees -- named for their attraction to perspiration -- are linked to patterns of activity in specific genes, including ones linked to autism.

"Bees have complex social behaviors, and with this species of bee, we can directly compare individuals that live in social groups to those that don't live in social groups," said Sarah Kocher, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University, who led the research. "We can ask: 'What are the fundamental differences between a social and nonsocial animal?'"

The researchers found that one of these differences involves the gene syntaxin 1a, which governs the release of chemical messengers in the brain. In all, the study found nearly 200 gene variations that were linked to social behavior, with 21 clustered in or nearby six genes implicated in human autism. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

Sweat bees are ideal for studying the genes underlying social behavior, Kocher said, because some are naturally social while others are solitary, even though both types belong to the Halictidae family. Both types nest in the ground, but the social bees live in a hierarchal society consisting of a queen and workers, like their honey bee relatives, while nonsocial sweat bees live alone.

Until Kocher began studying sweat bees, not many scientists had looked at the mechanisms underlying their behavior. One of the few scientists to have studied the bees was Cecile Plateaux-Quenu, an entomologist who in the 1960s documented sweat bee populations -- and their social habits -- in sites around France.

In 2010, Kocher located the retired scientist and eventually traveled to France to meet her. Plateaux-Quenu helped the younger scientist learn to identify the bees, find their nests, and net the insects as they traveled among the dandelions, asters and daisies.

Kocher, who was then a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, brought the bees back to the laboratory to analyze their genes. She sequenced the genomes of hundreds of bees of the species Lasioglossum albipes, known from locations that Plateaux-Quenu had classified decades earlier as home to either social or solitary bees. Next, the researchers looked through the genetic data to detect correlations between patterns of gene activity and social behavior.

The findings suggest that variations in several genes play a role in causing or contributing to the social behavior of these bees. Many of the variations detected were found in sections of the genetic code that are not genes themselves but rather regulate other genes by enhancing their activity.

Social behavior is complex and is determined by multiple genes rather than a single gene. Genes are important for brain development -- they orchestrate connections between neurons and pruning of those connections during development and childhood.

Another study conducted last year on honey bees also found a link between bee genes and autism genes. One of the differences between that study and this new one, Kocher said, is that honey bees are by nature social, whereas sweat bees can be either social or nonsocial.

"It came as a surprise that we came across the same results independently," Kocher said. "It suggests the existence of a core set of genes that play an important role in shaping social behavior across different species," she said.

###

The study included, in addition to Kocher, contributions by Benjamin Rubin, a postdoctoral research associate in Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute; Ricardo Mallarino, formerly a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard who is now a Princeton assistant professor of molecular biology; Hopi Hoekstra and Naomi Pierce of Harvard University; and Douglas Yu of the University of East Anglia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF-IOS 1257543), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Harvard and Princeton universities, and by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The study, "The genetic basis of a social polymorphism in halictid bees," was published in the journal Nature Communications on October 18, 2018.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Solar power accounts for less than 2 percent of U.S. electricity but could make up more than that if the cost of electricity generation and energy storage for use on cloudy days and at nighttime were cheaper.

A Purdue University-led team developed a new material and manufacturing process that would make one way to use solar power - as heat energy - more efficient in generating electricity.

The innovation is an important step for putting solar heat-to-electricity generation in direct cost competition with fossil fuels, which generate more than 60 percent of electricity in the U.S.

"Storing solar energy as heat can already be cheaper than storing energy via batteries, so the next step is reducing the cost of generating electricity from the sun's heat with the added benefit of zero greenhouse gas emissions," said Kenneth Sandhage, Purdue's Reilly Professor of Materials Engineering.

The research, which was done at Purdue in collaboration with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, published in the journal Nature. A YouTube video is available at https://youtu.be/PMC3EE19ouw.

This work aligns with Purdue's Giant Leaps celebration, acknowledging the university's global advancements made for a sustainable economy and planet 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.

Solar power doesn't only generate electricity via panels in farms or on rooftops. Another option is concentrated power plants that run on heat energy.

Concentrated solar power plants convert solar energy into electricity by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a lot of light onto a small area, which generates heat that is transferred to a molten salt. Heat from the molten salt is then transferred to a "working" fluid, supercritical carbon dioxide, that expands and works to spin a turbine for generating electricity.

To make solar-powered electricity cheaper, the turbine engine would need to generate even more electricity for the same amount of heat, which means the engine needs to run hotter.

The problem is that heat exchangers, which transfer heat from the hot molten salt to the working fluid, are currently made of stainless steel or nickel-based alloys that get too soft at the desired higher temperatures and at the elevated pressure of supercritical carbon dioxide.

Inspired by the materials his group had previously combined to make "composite" materials that can handle high heat and pressure for applications like solid-fuel rocket nozzles, Sandhage worked with Asegun Henry, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to conceive of a similar composite for more robust heat exchangers.

Two materials showed promise together as a composite: The ceramic zirconium carbide, and the metal tungsten.

Purdue researchers created plates of the ceramic-metal composite. The plates host customizable channels for tailoring the exchange of heat, based on simulations of the channels conducted at Georgia Tech by Devesh Ranjan's team.

Mechanical tests by Edgar Lara-Curzio's team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and corrosion tests by Mark Anderson's team at Wisconsin-Madison helped show that this new composite material could be tailored to successfully withstand the higher temperature, high-pressure supercritical carbon dioxide needed for generating electricity more efficiently than today's heat exchangers.

An economic analysis by Georgia Tech and Purdue researchers also showed that the scaled-up manufacturing of these heat exchangers could be conducted at comparable or lower cost than for stainless steel or nickel alloy-based ones.

"Ultimately, with continued development, this technology would allow for large-scale penetration of renewable solar energy into the electricity grid," Sandhage said. "This would mean dramatic reductions in man-made carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production."

###

A patent application has been filed for this advancement. The work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, which has also recently awarded additional funding for further development and scaling up the technology.

ABSTRACT

Ceramic-metal composites for heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants

M. Caccia1#, M. Tabandeh-Khorshid1#, G. Itskos1#, A. R. Strayer1#, A. S. Caldwell1, S. Pidaparti2, S. Singnisai1, A. D. Rohskopf2, A. M. Schroeder3, D. Jarrahbashi2, T. Kang2, S. Sahoo1, N. R. Kadasala1, A. Marquez-Rossy4, M. H. Anderson3, E. Lara-Curzio4, D. Ranjan2, A. Henry2, K. H. Sandhage1*

1Purdue University

2Georgia Institute of Technology

3University of Wisconsin-Madison

4Oak Ridge National Laboratory

#These authors contributed equally to this work.

*Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to K.H.S. (e-mail: sandhage@purdue.edu)

http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0593-1

The efficiency of generating electricity from heat using concentrated solar power plants (which use mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight in order to drive heat engines, usually involving turbines) may be appreciably increased by operating with higher turbine inlet temperatures, but this would require improved heat-exchanger materials. By operating turbines with inlet temperatures above 1,023 kelvin using closed-cycle high-pressure supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) recompression cycles instead of using conventional (such as subcritical steam Rankine) cycles with inlet temperatures below 823 kelvin1-3, the relative heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency may be increased by more than 20 per cent. The resulting reduction in the cost of dispatchable electricity from concentrated solar power plants (coupled with thermal energy storage4-6) would be an important step towards direct competition with fossil-fuel-based plants and a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions7. However, the inlet temperatures of closed-cycle high-pressure sCO2 turbine systems are limited8 by the thermomechanical performance of the compact, metal-alloy-based, printed-circuit-type heat exchangers used to transfer heat to sCO2. Here we present a robust composite of ceramic (zirconium carbide, ZrC) and the refractory metal tungsten (W) for use in printed-circuit-type heat exchangers at temperatures above 1,023 kelvin9. This composite has attractive high-temperature thermal, mechanical and chemical properties and can be processed in a cost-effective manner. We fabricated ZrC/W-based heat-exchanger plates with tunable channel patterns by the shape-and-size-preserving chemical conversion of porous tungsten carbide plates. The dense ZrC/W-based composites exhibited failure strengths of over 350 megapascals at 1,073 kelvin, and thermal conductivity values two to three times greater than for iron- or nickel-based alloys at this temperature. Corrosion resistance to sCO2 at 1,023 kelvin and 20 megapascals was achieved10 by bonding a copper layer to the composite surface and adding 50 parts per million carbon monoxide to sCO2. Techno-economic analyses indicate that ZrC/W-based heat exchangers can strongly outperform nickel-superalloy-based printed-circuit heat exchangers at lower cost.Study shows that children with asthma react differently to changes in air pollution depending on the environment they grow up in

Children with asthma who grow up in a New York City neighborhood where air pollution is prevalent need emergency medical treatment more often than asthmatics in less polluted areas. This is according to researchers from Columbia University in the US in a new study published in the Springer Nature-branded journal Pediatric Research. Lead author, Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, warns however that neighborhoods where asthma cases in children are less common should not be excluded from efforts to improve air quality. This is because children that live in neighborhoods where asthma is less common may be more vulnerable to the effects of air pollution.

For this study, 190 participants aged seven and eight were recruited between 2008 and 2011. All participants were part of the New York City Neighborhood Asthma and Allergy Study and had previously been diagnosed as having asthma. They all grew up in middle-income families in neighborhoods in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan.

The participants were grouped as belonging to neighborhoods with high numbers of asthma cases or neighborhoods with low instances of asthma. There was no significant difference between the household incomes and access to health care (private insurance) enjoyed by the families of the participants. However, those growing up in areas where asthma was more common tended to live in apartment buildings or on higher floors. They were also more likely to live in crowded environments and be raised by single mothers.

Lovinsky-Desir and her colleagues found that children living in neighborhoods where asthma was more common needed emergency care more often and tended to suffer more from exercise-induced wheezing. Also, the concentrations of ambient pollutants in these neighborhoods were higher. Over the course of a year, concentrations of known air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, small airborne particles and elemental carbon were much higher in these neighbourhoods than in those with fewer asthma cases.

An interesting finding was that children living in neighborhoods where asthma was less common were effected most by pollution, even though pollution levels were higher in the more common asthma neighborhoods.

"In neighborhoods with less poverty, children exposed to air pollution were more likely to be taken for emergency asthma treatment. However, in neighborhoods with more poverty, it's likely that other things in the environment, such as stress and violence, have a stronger effect on urgent asthma treatment than air pollution," explains Lovinsky-Desir.

###

Reference: Lovinsky-Desir, S. et al (2018). Air Pollution, Urgent Asthma Medical Visits and the Modifying Effect of Neighborhood Asthma Prevalence, Pediatric Research DOI: 10.1038/s41390-018-0189-3LA JOLLA--(Month 18, 2018) Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, a professor in Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory, has been named one of TIME magazine's 50 most influential people in healthcare for his scientific innovations in addressing the shortage of human organs for transplant. The list, which is curated by TIME's health reporters and editors, recognizes people who changed the state of healthcare in America this year, and bear watching for what they do next.

"Juan Carlos' work is at the absolute forefront of an astounding number of biomedical areas with game-changing potential for people's health," says Salk President Rusty Gage. "He is very much a scientist and a humanitarian in the mold of all Salk faculty, and we are overjoyed to have his pioneering research acknowledged by a magazine as prominent as TIME."

Izpisua Belmonte, who holds the Roger Guillemin Chair at Salk, is globally recognized for his expertise in stem cell biology. Notably, in 2017, Izpisua Belmonte published a proof-of-concept study showing that functional organs from one species can be grown in another, an important early step toward addressing the critical shortage of human donor organs available for transplant.

Combining gene-editing and stem-cell technologies, his lab was able to grow a rat pancreas, heart and eyes in a developing mouse. They were also able to generate human cells and tissues in early-stage pig and cattle embryos, marking the first step toward the generation of transplantable human organs using large animals whose organ size, physiology and anatomy are similar to humans'.

Izpisua Belmonte has also spearheaded the development of new techniques to induce endogenous tissue and organ regeneration, reverting cells to a younger state as well as switch cells from one type--such as skin cells--to another type, including blood, brain and kidney. Just this year, his lab developed a new proof-of-concept technique to heal large lesions in mice by reprogramming wound cells into skin cells, an advance that shows immense promise for healing diabetic ulcers and other wounds in humans. He has developed stem cell models of human aging and aging-associated diseases, and discovered new drivers of aging, which have potential to extend lifespan and promote healthy aging.

Over the past few years, Izpisua Belmonte has pioneered new techniques for both gene editing and epigenetic editing, which alters the chemical tags on DNA that affect how genes are expressed. Through these methods, his team has partially restored vision in blind animals, corrected a disease-causing cardiac defect in human embryos, and treated diabetes, kidney disease and muscular dystrophy in mouse models.

Izpisua Belmonte, whose work spans stem cell biology, genome engineering and regenerative medicine, has been a member of the faculty of the Salk Institute since 1993.

###

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk's mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer's, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu.For more than three decades, Lisa Hanson did her best to hide the unsightly fluid retention in her left leg that caused uncomfortable swelling and made her skin taut and thickened. At 17, when she was first diagnosed with lymphedema, she threw out her shorts and dresses and began a lifelong journey of wearing compression hose up to her thigh and using an electric sleevelike pump every night to control the swelling.

Now, with a new treatment in hand, she's actually excited to tell people about this chronic condition, which before, she said, left her feeling like "a freak."

"For a long time I couldn't talk to people about my lymphedema without crying because it's something weird and obscure," Hanson said. "Now there is hope for people like me with this disease."

Hanson took part in one of two small clinical trials led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine which showed that ketoprofen, an inflammation-reducing drug available by prescription and currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, can effectively treat symptoms of lymphedema and help ease the daily burden of care.

"Ketoprofen restores the health and elasticity of the skin," said Stanley Rockson, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford. "I believe it will reduce recurrent infection. It can also reduce swelling."

A paper describing the findings of the two clinical trials will be published Oct. 18 in JCI Insight. Rockson is the lead author. Mark Nicolls, MD, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Stanford, is his principal collaborator. They both served as corresponding authors for the manuscript.

"So many patients have gone through decades being told there is no medical treatment," said Rockson, who holds the Allan and Tina Neill Professorship of Lymphatic Research and Medicine. "Now, they can go to a drugstore and get a pill with a doctor's prescription. This new treatment doesn't cure lymphedema, but our studies show it has the capacity to make the illness more livable, more workable."

Painful swelling

Lymphedema is a common but often ignored condition that stems from a damaged lymphatic system and results in swelling in one or more parts of the body, usually the legs. It can be hereditary or it can occur after a surgical procedure, infection, radiation or other physical trauma. The swelling, caused by a buildup of lymph fluid within the various layers of the skin, increases the risk of infections and can cause debilitating pain and a thickening of the skin that can restrict movement. There is no cure, and there has been no drug therapy available.

Ever since Hanson was diagnosed in her teens, the only available treatment has been to wear compression garments; use the electric pump, which moves the excess fluid from her leg back into the bloodstream; or get massage therapy to suppress the swelling, which can occur throughout the body. She has done all of this religiously for decades.

"It's been a lot of work and a lot of burden putting the compression socks on daily," Hanson said. "It's hard to get them on and off. They're tight and they're heavy. I've used the pump every night sometimes for up to four hours."

As many as 10 million Americans and hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffer from the condition, many from the aftereffects of cancer treatments. Thirty percent of women treated for breast cancer get lymphedema, usually as a result of radiation treatment and lymph node removal, according to the American Cancer Society.

Years ago, Rockson, a physician-scientist who has treated thousands of patients with lymphedema, began to suspect that inflammation was a root cause of the disease. To test his theory, he created a mouse model for lymphedema -- the disease would manifest in the animals' tails -- and treated it with ketoprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID.

"It reversed the lymphedema," Rockson said. "We saw tremendous improvement in the structural abnormalities in the skin."

To test ketoprofen in humans, Rockson conducted two pilot trials, which are both discussed in the paper. The first trial had 21 participants who knew they were getting the drug and took it orally for four months. Researchers performed skin biopsies at the beginning of the trial and then four months later at the end of the trial as a measurement of disease severity.

"That was an extremely positive trial," Rockson said. "We saw a tremendous reversal in the disease process in the skin and dramatic reductions in skin thickness." This led to the second double-blind, placebo-controlled study with 34 participants. Hanson, who participated in the second trial, didn't know at first whether she was taking ketoprofen or a placebo. But she felt fairly certain after two months that she was getting ketoprofen.

"After a couple of months, I remember going home one day and taking my compression stockings off and looking at my leg thinking, 'Wow my skin is wrinkly, that's so weird.' The skin wasn't so taut or thick. It was more like normal," Hanson said.

Thinner skin

The second trial further validated that the drug can reduce thickening of the skin. Researchers also examined the anatomy of the skin cells and confirmed that ketoprofen worked by unblocking the molecular pathway that was causing the inflammation and restricting the body's ability to repair its own lymphatic system.

"When you look at skin from lymphedema patients under the microscope, you see a dramatic increase in cell density and increase in connective tissues and fluid around the cells," he said. "What we saw in skin biopsies after the four months of ketoprofen was a reduction in that thickness. All that cell density went away."

Results showed that ketoprofen made the skin healthier and more elastic, Rockson said.

"Anecdotally, we also got the impression that the patients who were treated saw a dramatic decrease in infections, although this analysis wasn't part of the study," Rockson said.

After the four months, the patients in the second trial were "unblinded" and given the option to continue using the drug by prescription, Rockson said. All chose to continue taking the drug, including Hanson, who has now taken the ketoprofen for several years.

"Over time, the swelling has gone down," she said. "It's not a cure. It doesn't make it go away, but it has been easier to take care of my leg." She still wears the compression stockings, but they're much easier to tug on, and the nightly pumping now takes just a fraction of the time it used to.

Hanson, like other participants in the trial, was warned by researchers that past studies have shown gastrointestinal and cardiovascular side effects from long-term use of ketoprofen in some patients, but she still decided to keep taking the drug.

"For me, the choice of being comfortable and not having so much burden in terms of care is a much greater benefit and outweighs the risk," she said.

An inflammatory response

Just how ketoprofen was working at a molecular level, though, remained unclear early on. To further examine this while continuing his ketoprofen trials in humans, Rockson joined forces with Nicolls, whose lab had been studying the molecular pathways of inflammation in pulmonary hypertension.

"We were excited to finally figure out that the drug worked by blocking an inflammatory molecule called leukotriene B4," said Nicolls referring to a study published in May 2017.

The researchers found that the buildup of lymph fluid is actually an inflammatory response within the tissue of the skin, not merely a "plumbing" problem within the lymphatic system, as previously thought. They discovered that the naturally occurring inflammatory molecule LTB4 is elevated in both animal models of lymphedema and in humans with the disease, and that at elevated levels it causes tissue inflammation and impaired lymphatic function.

Further research in mice showed that using ketoprofen to target LTB4 induced lymphatic repair and reversed the disease processes. This indicated that perhaps other therapies could reverse the negative impact of inflammation on lymphatic repair by targeting LTB4.

###

Other Stanford authors are postdoctoral scholars Wen "Amy" Tian, PhD, and Xinguo Jiang, PhD, who are also affiliated with the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System; Francois Haddad, MD, clinical associate professor of cardiovascular medicine; Leslie Roche, RN, clinical research coordinator at the Stanford Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders; and Jinah Kim, MD, PhD, a dermatological pathologist.

Researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City also contributed to the study.

The study was funded by the Stanford endowment and startup funds.

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: Tracie White at (650) 723-7628 (traciew@stanford.edu)

Broadcast media contact: Margarita Gallardo at (650) 723-7897 (mjgallardo@stanford.edu)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.Ex-president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan has announced that he plans to establish a new political party and go into opposition.

He said the name of the party is not a principle issue. "The approaches are principle. I can see a significant vacuum in the opposition field and I believe it has to be filled for the benefit of the country," Kocharyan said in the interview to RIA Novosti, noting that he has no wish to get a high post.

Speaking of his unwillingness to take part in the upcoming early parliamentary elections, the former president explained he simply had no time to prepare for it.

"I have to form a party from scratch, not restore what existed once. Additionally, I would like to participate in the elections with a new, refreshed team. What do you usually do first when you want to gather a team? You look at the people you know and worked with," Kocharyan explained.

He believes that in the current situation he needs to involve new people, young, talented and energetic. "Of course I have to invite some members of my old team, whom I know well. But I also have to rely on the new generation,and it requires times," Kocharyan added.

Ex-mayor of Yerevan Vahagn Khachatryan, speaking with Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Robert Kocharyan is thus trying to protect himself from the prosecution of March 1, 2008 events. "All his latest statements that he is returning to politics and plans to create a new party are made only for protection from investigators, because Kocharyan understands well that he is responsible for the March 1, 2008 events in the first place. He wants to make himself look persecuted for political beliefs. Meanwhile, this criminal case has no political motive. Kocharyan knew what was happening in Yerevan in those days, and if not himself, then he gave orders to shoot people," he stressed.

Kocharyan does not care that his party will not have support from the population. "Apparently, he counts on his money, although Kocharyans personality is not perceived positively either in the political environment or among the population. I dont know how he will build a policy when he has to participate in events, meet people - he never engaged in open politics, always being in the shadows. Now, when there is an open political struggle and public political life in Armenia, Kocharyan will achieve no profit with his image and habits," Vahagn Khachatryan concluded.Montreal, Canada (October 17, 2018) - Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology The Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology (SVIN) would like to announce the results of the Pilot U.S. Mechanical Thrombectomy Access Score survey as part of the Mission Thrombectomy 2020 (MT2020) campaign. Following the establishment of mechanical thrombectomy as the highly effective standard of care for large vessel occlusion stroke, MT2020 was initiated to increase global access to mechanical thrombectomy. The campaign aims to increase the rate of stroke thrombectomy for eligible patients from less than 100,000 procedures in late 2016 to at least 202,000 annually by 2020 and thereby reducing global stroke disability. MT2020 also aims to double the annual rate of mechanical thrombectomy every two years thereafter.

The MT2020 survey was created by SVIN and Professor Arun Sharma, University of Miami. The purpose of the questionnaire was to quantitatively measure access to thrombectomies in the U.S. and to use the data to establish a pilot Mechanical Thrombectomy Access Score along the three pillars of Information Access Score, Physical Access Score, and Financial Access Score.

The MT2020 U.S. Pilot results were released at the 11th World Stroke Congress, which is taking place October 17-20, 2018 in Montreal, Canada.

Dr. Dileep Yavagal, MD, Past President of SVIN, who is leading this effort said, "The MT2020 U.S. Pilot Survey data show that the mechanical thrombectomy access scores are significantly lower for stroke patients in the rural U.S. as compared to those living in urban areas. This score is lower on each of the three pillars of thrombectomy access. This suggests the need for a critical focus on access to mechanical thrombectomy for rural patients. The survey also showed that interventional neurologists overestimate the overall access their patients have to mechanical thrombectomy and hence need to be informed of the real treatment access rate with field data of large strokes that get detected and get to the stroke center that can do a thrombectomy."

The MT2020 campaign is partnering with several non-profit societies, government, and industry collaborators worldwide. Today MT2020 is endorsed by the World Stroke Organization, the American Heart Association / American Stroke Association, the Neurocritical Care Society, the Kazakhstan National Association of Neurologists Neuroscience, the Italian Society for the Study of Stroke, the Calgary Stroke Program (5T Stroke), the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists, and the Neurovascular Exchange, all of whom joined in this mission to improve stroke care.

Globally each year, strokes affect roughly 16 million people and kill an estimated 5.7 million. The annual U.S. healthcare overall cost due to stroke is $104 billion. Stroke is a very time sensitive disease and requires intervention as rapidly as possible up to 24 hours from the start of stroke symptoms. Without appropriate diagnosis and treatment, a majority of surviving stroke patients suffer permanent disability. Despite the recent advances of mechanical thrombectomy, which reduces disability and saves lives, less than 10 percent of eligible stroke patients are treated surgically due to the lack of a portable diagnostic device for early detection. [1,2,3,4]

###

For more information about SVIN's MT2020 Pilot results in conjunction with Professor Arun Sharma, please contact info@svin.org.

About SVIN

The Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology was created to achieve the highest level of care for patients through increased collaboration in scientific research and by educating young professionals and training young investigators. The Society also aims to provide opportunities to connect leaders in the field and provide a common ground for dialogue and creation of practice and safety standards. Our mission is to represent the advancement of interventional neurology as a field with the ultimate goal of improving clinical care and outcomes of patients with stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.

The SVIN Annual Meeting is a premier academic venue with scientific presentations covering the full spectrum of cerebrovascular diseases and stroke. Participants have the opportunity to discuss embolectomy, aneurysms and AVMs, subarachnoid and intracranial hemorrhage, endovascular saves and innovative approaches, new device review, international perspectives, and other-related topics. The SVIN 2018 Annual Meeting will be held November 14-17 in San Diego, California. New for 2018, SVIN is pleased to announce a vascular neurology track, an advance practice provider track, a live Basic Stroke Emergency Support course, and a hands on fellows training course. Registration for the SVIN 2018 Annual Meeting is now open.

For further information about SVIN, please visit http://www.svin.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

Sources:

Ganesalingam, J. Cost Utility Analysis of Mechanical Thrombectomy Using Stent Retrievers in Acute Ischemic Stroke. Stroke. 2015 Sep;46(9):2591-8. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.115.009396. Epub 2015 Aug 6. Saver, J. et. Al. Stent Retriever Thrombectomy after Intraveneous t-PA vs. t_PA alone in stroke. N Engl J Med 2015; 372:2285-2295 Ovbiagele, B. et. Al Forecasting the Future of Stroke in the United States. Stroke. 2013. http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/44/8/2361.abstract, Age Ageing (2009) 38 (1): 4-5.doi: 10.1093/ageing/afn282 Link to the MT2020 Survey summary of data analysis / results as no publication yet View source version of the Survey questionnaire on Qualitrics.com https://umiami.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_agTvmP3hdBHj6mh References used for the questionnaire

SOURCE:Scientists from Samara University and several universities in the USA have proposed and experimentally confirmed new fundamental chemical mechanisms for the synthesis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Until now, in the scientific community there has been the prevailing view that thermal processes associated exclusively with the combustion and high-temperature processing of organic raw materials such as oil, coal, wood, garbage, food, tobacco underpin the formation of PAHs. However, the scientists from Samara University, together with their colleagues from the University of Hawaii, Florida International University, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory proved that the chemical synthesis of PAHs can occur at very low temperatures, namely -183 C.

Their attention to this topic was attracted, among other things, by the results of the NASA and the European Space Agency mission "Cassini-Huygens" to Saturn's largest moon, Titan. During the space mission of an automatic interplanetary station the benzene molecule was discovered in the atmosphere of Titan. This, in turn, led scientists to believe that the emergence and growth of the orange-brownish haze layers that surround this moon is exactly the responsibility of PAHs. However, the fundamental chemical mechanisms leading to the chemical synthesis of PAHs in the atmosphere of Titan at very low temperatures were not disclosed.

Within the framework of the megagrant "Development of Physically Grounded Combustion Models" under the guidance of Professor of Florida International University Alexander Mebel, the scientists from Samara University searched for the mechanisms of PAH formation using modern high-precision quantum chemical calculation methods. Based on these data, their colleagues from the University of Hawaii and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted laboratory experiments that confirmed that prototypes of PAH molecules (anthracene and phenanthrene) are synthesized in barrier-free reactions that take place at low temperatures typical of Titan atmosphere. Anthracene and phenanthrene, in turn, are the original "bricks" for larger PAH molecules, as well as precursors of more complex chemical compounds that were found in the orange-brownish organic haze layers surrounding the moon of Saturn.

"Experimental detection and theoretical description of these elementary chemical reactions change the well-established notion that PAHs can be formed and are able to grow only at very high temperatures, for example, in flames of organic fuels under terrestrial conditions, - concluded Alexander Mebel. - And this means that our discovery leads to the changing of existing scientific views on how PAHs can be formed and grow."

"Traditionally, models of PAH synthesis in hydrocarbon-rich atmospheres of the planets and their moons, such as Titan, assumed the presence of high temperatures, - emphasizes Professor at the University of Hawaii Ralf Kaiser. We provide evidence for a low-temperature reaction pathway".

Understanding the mechanism of PAH growth at low temperatures will allow scientists to understand how complex organic molecules that are related to the origin of life can be formed in the Universe. "Molecules similar to small PAHs, but containing nitrogen atoms, are key components of ribonucleic acids (RNA, DNA) and some amino acids, that is, components of proteins, - notes Alexander Mebel. - Therefore, the growth mechanism of PAHs can be associated with chemical evolution in the Universe, leading to the origin of life".

Moreover, the study of the atmosphere of Titan helps to understand the complex chemical processes occurring not only on the Earth, but also on other moons and planets. "Using new data, scientists can better understand the origin of life on the Earth at the time when nitrogen was more common in its atmosphere, as it is now on Titan", - said Musahid Ahmed, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

As for the application of the presented work it should be mentioned that the understanding the mechanism of PAH growth in flames will allow the scientists of Samara University to offer engineers the mechanisms to reduce the release of these carcinogenic substances in the exhaust of various types of engines. And this is one of the main goals of the megagrant implemented by the University.

###

For reference:

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are organic compounds which chemical structure contains two or more condensed benzene rings. In nature, PAHs are formed in the process of cellulose pyrolysis and are found in coal, brown coal and anthracite formations, and also as a product of incomplete combustion during forest fires. Many PAHs are potent carcinogens. The main sources of the emission of technogenic PAHs into the environment are enterprises of the energy complex, automobile transport, chemical and petroleum refining industry.

Megagrant "Development of Physically Grounded Combustion Models" has been implemented within the Russian Federation governmental support for scientific research since 2016. International scientific laboratory "Physics and Chemistry of Combustion" under the guidance of Professor of Florida International University Alexander Mebel was established to implement the megagrant in the University. The project is aimed at solving the burning problem -- prevention of environmental pollution. The results of research conducted by the scientists of Samara University in close cooperation with both international and Russian research centres will contribute to the creation of more environmentally friendly and efficient combustion chambers for gas turbine engines."Primary health care is in crisis... Leadership after the Astana meeting is essential to rejuvenate and revitalise all aspects of primary health care." - The Lancet special issue on primary health care marks 40 years since landmark Alma-Ata Declaration.

Forty years since the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 [1], global leaders will convene in Astana (Kazakhstan) on 25-26 October to renew their commitment to primary health care. In the lead up to the conference, The Lancet publishes a special issue on primary health care, warning that:

"Primary health care is in crisis. It is underdeveloped in many countries, underfunded in others, and facing a severe workforce recruitment and retention challenge. Half the world's population has no access to the most essential health services. Yet 80-90% of people's health needs across their lifetime can be provided within a primary health-care framework--from maternity care and disease prevention through vaccination, to management of chronic conditions and palliative care. As populations age, and multimorbidity becomes the norm, the role of primary health-care workers becomes ever more important.

"In 1978, the Declaration of Alma-Ata was ground-breaking in uniting health leaders behind the importance of primary health care as key to delivering better health for all, and to the value of social justice, health equity, and the social determinants of health. But 40 years later, this vision has not been realised. Instead, the focus has been on individual diseases with variable results. Now the Sustainable Development Goals provide new impetus to reach universal health coverage via strengthened primary health care... The Astana Declaration marks the beginning of a better future for primary health care. Leadership after the Astana meeting is essential to rejuvenate and revitalise all aspects of primary health care."

###

The special issue will be launched at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care [2], co-hosted by the Government of Kazakhstan, WHO, and UNICEF, which will bring together 1200 leaders (including heads of state; ministers of health, finance, education, and social welfare; non-governmental organisations; researchers; health practitioners; and youth leaders) to endorse the Astana Declaration.BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Like fingerprints, no 3D printer is exactly the same.

That's the takeaway from a new University at Buffalo-led study that describes what's believed to be the first accurate method for tracing a 3D-printed object to the machine it came from.

The advancement, which the research team calls "PrinTracker," could ultimately help law enforcement and intelligence agencies track the origin of 3D-printed guns, counterfeit products and other goods.

"3D printing has many wonderful uses, but it's also a counterfeiter's dream. Even more concerning, it has the potential to make firearms more readily available to people who are not allowed to possess them," says the study's lead author Wenyao Xu, PhD, associate professor of computer science and engineering in UB's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

The study will be presented in Toronto at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Computer and Communications Security, which runs from Oct. 15-19. It includes coauthors from Rutgers University and Northeastern University.

To understand the method, it's helpful to know how 3D printers work. Like a common inkjet printer, 3D printers move back-and-forth while "printing" an object. Instead of ink, a nozzle discharges a filament, such as plastic, in layers until a three-dimensional object forms.

Each layer of a 3D-printed object contains tiny wrinkles -- usually measured in submillimeters -- called in-fill patterns. These patterns are supposed to be uniform. However, the printer's model type, filament, nozzle size and other factors cause slight imperfections in the patterns. The result is an object that does not match its design plan.

For example, the printer is ordered to create an object with half-millimeter in-fill patterns. But the actual object has patterns that vary 5 to 10 percent from the design plan. Like a fingerprint to a person, these patterns are unique and repeatable. As a result, they can be traced back to the 3D printer.

"3D printers are built to be the same. But there are slight variations in their hardware created during the manufacturing process that lead to unique, inevitable and unchangeable patterns in every object they print," Xu says.

To test PrinTracker, the research team created five door keys each from 14 common 3D printers -- 10 fused deposition modeling (FDM) printers and four stereolithography (SLA) printers.

With a common scanner, the researchers created digital images of each key. From there, they enhanced and filtered each image, identifying elements of the in-fill pattern. They then developed an algorithm to align and calculate the variations of each key to verify the authenticity of the fingerprint.

Having created a fingerprint database of the 14 3D printers, the researchers were able to match the key to its printer 99.8 percent of the time. They ran a separate series of tests 10 months later to determine if additional use of the printers would affect PrinTracker's ability to match objects to their machine of origin. The results were the same.

The team also ran experiments involving keys damaged in various ways to obscure their identity. PrinTracker was 92 percent accurate in these tests.

Xu likens the technology to the ability to identify the source of paper documents, a practice used by law enforcement agencies, printer companies and other organizations for decades. While the experiments did not involve counterfeit goods or firearms, Xu says PrinTracker can be used to trace any 3D-printed object to its printer.

"We've demonstrated that PrinTracker is an effective, robust and reliable way that law enforcement agencies, as well as businesses concerned about intellectual property, can trace the origin of 3D-printed goods," Xu says.

###BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Governments across the U.S. and Canada have made strides in their food systems planning efforts, with many recognizing within the past decade that the issue of food insecurity is just as important as maintaining other public infrastructure like roads and water systems.

Still, questions remain: How are local governments engaging in the food system? Who are they engaging with, and who are they leaving out? How is government involvement advancing or impeding the creation of equitable and just food systems? How are their efforts being measured, and how should they change what they're doing?

These are among the key questions addressed in a special issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, published Wednesday. It is the world's only peer-reviewed journal focused specifically on food and farming-related community development.

The special issue was co-edited by Samina Raja, professor of urban and regional planning in the University at Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning, along with Jill Clark, associate professor in The Ohio State University John Glenn College of Public Affairs; Kimberly Hodgson, founder and principal consultant of Cultivating Healthy Places; and Julia Freedgood, assistant vice president of programs for the American Farmland Trust.

Food systems are the soil-to-soil systems that enable food to travel from farm to plate, explains Raja, who is also principal investigator of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab housed within UB's School of Architecture and Planning.

"Engagement in food systems planning is no longer a new concern for local governments," the co-editors write in their accompanying editorial in the special issue. "Local governments across North America have developed, enacted and, indeed, implemented policies that are ostensibly designed to strengthen food systems."

This has all taken place largely over the past 10 years. The key, they add, for the next decade, will be for governments to measure their progress or failure, identify successes and jettison failed policies.

While there have been some successes, Raja and her co-editors also note that local government engagement in food systems planning still varies widely: some are convening conversations, while others are passing laws and ordinances. And some have decided not to act, which, the co-editors argue, is a policy decision.

"It is important that local governments exercise reflection about how policy and planning processes amplify, or dampen, marginalized voices in planning for community food systems," says Raja. "In planning for good food systems, the conversation should not only be about the equitable and inclusive plans, but about the equitable and inclusive planning processes."

The special issue was sponsored by Growing Food Connections, a national initiative aimed at enhancing community food security while ensuring sustainable and economically viable agriculture and food production. The 11 manuscripts in the issue were selected for publication following an open call for submissions developed by the guest editors, in partnership with the journal.

Collectively, the articles in this special issue illustrate new frontiers in, and challenges to, the governance of food systems by:

analyzing how local government policies and plans are being developed to strengthen food systems;

probing the progress and obstacles in implementing policies;

analyzing how local governments are monitoring and evaluating their policies.

The experiences of several local governments are represented, including those from multiple communities in California; Buffalo and New York City, New York; Cass County, North Dakota; Clay County and Minneapolis, Minnesota; Baltimore, Maryland; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington. Also included are multiple municipalities in British Columbia, as well as Toronto, Ontario.

The journal is open access, which will allow governments and policymakers from around the world to learn from other communities' successes and failures. That's key, says Ohio State's Clark.

"We are excited to work with JAFSCD on this special issue. Many of our authors, and all of the editors, are community-based researchers. Therefore, it is critical that the local governments and partners presented here, in addition to communities across the globe, have free access to these research articles," she said.

One article details the collaboration among governments, food systems professionals and community members in neighboring Cass County, North Dakota, and Clay County, Minnesota. The article's authors note some successes, but also caution that the formal institutionalization of collaborative arrangements within local government can stymie the productive capacity of non-governmental partners and slow or shut down policy advancements.

In addition, case studies from a number of American states, plus Ontario in Canada, offer both inspiration and caution about municipalities' involvement in food systems. Another article uses Baltimore as an example of how other local governments can plan for better food system resiliency before, during and after a disaster.

###Researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and colleagues have found that corals living in more productive waters take advantage of the increased food availability. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology on October 18, reevaluate scientific understanding of how corals survive and could aid predictions on coral recovery in the face of climate change.

Coral reefs grow in what are considered oceanic deserts where warm, clear waters are generally less nutrient-rich than colder waters. Previously researchers have tied coral survival to symbiotic algae that live within corals. The algae are provided with shelter and nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates. It is estimated that these algae can supply some corals with up to 95 percent of their daily energy needs.

Scripps scientists found, however, that corals living in waters with higher chlorophyll concentrations get more of their energy from feeding on plankton and other microorganisms, suggesting some corals are less reliant on their algae-which could have implications for coral resilience. Chlorophyll concentration is an important proxy for marine nutrients, acting as an indicator for the amount of phytoplankton in the surface waters of the ocean. Phytoplankton are the base of most marine food webs and the prey for zooplankton, a favorite food of corals.

"This paper is the first to provide robust evidence for such a simple premise - that corals eat more where there is more food," said Michael Fox, a recent PhD graduate of Scripps and lead author of the study. "It's quite shocking that it's something research hasn't focused on, as we tend to think of corals more as plants instead of animals."

As intuitive as it sounds, the scale of coral feeding is something that coral reef ecologists have been unable to examine over the past 30-40 years due to a lack of sufficient data and technology. Fox was able to come to his findings by analyzing differences in isotopic signatures of carbon between corals and their symbiotic algae from coral specimens collected in the central Pacific Ocean. Stable isotopes-variants of chemical elements containing different numbers of neutrons-are commonly used in biological research to track metabolic processes.

Fox started by separating coral and algal cells in a laboratory. This allowed him to analyze the isotopic composition of each and compare them. If the coral in question was deriving more of its food from the algae, its isotopic signature would resemble that of its plant tenant. On the other hand, corals that were eating mostly plankton had isotopic values more similar to that of its planktonic prey.

Using satellite measurements of chlorophyll concentrations across the world's oceans, Fox and his team found that most coral collected from chlorophyll-rich waters were consuming greater proportions of plankton. Across the central Pacific, there is huge variability in nearshore phytoplankton, with concentrations of chlorophyll greatest along the equator and declining to the north and south. Fox then pulled together published satellite measurements and isotopic data from 11 other locations from around the world, finding a strikingly strong relationship between chlorophyll in the ocean and the feeding strategy of reef corals.

"This is not just something that's happening in the central Pacific, it's a pattern that holds on coral reefs across numerous ocean basins, from the Red Sea to the Caribbean," Fox said. "What we now have is a map of potentially more resilient coral reefs. If these corals are relying more on planktonic food, perhaps they can recover from coral bleaching events faster."

How much-and what-corals eat is a critical knowledge gap in coral biology and it is essential for understanding how corals are likely to persist in a warming ocean. Numerous laboratory studies have shown that if corals are fed they are more capable of surviving the stress associated with warming ocean temperatures and decreasing ocean pH. Feeding can also increase the reproductive capacity of corals, which is key to repopulating reefs that have suffered high levels of coral mortality.

But determining these feeding strategies on a global scale has been both logistically and economically challenging; to build such a model would require traveling to many reefs, collecting and processing many coral samples, and then solving the challenge of measuring primary production at each of the study sites. Now, satellite technology is helping coral scientists.

"We wanted to develop a method that would allow people to predict coral feeding strategies for their reef system without having to do all this themselves, so we turned to satellite technology to help us," said Gareth Williams, associate professor at Bangor University in the UK and co-author of the study. "We worked out that you can predict coral feeding strategies in the field from satellite-derived estimates of primary production. We can effectively predict coral feeding from space."

Massive coral bleaching events have swept through large swaths of reefs around the world, most notably the 2016 event on the Great Barrier Reef, which lost 30 percent of its shallow water corals. When waters warm too much, the relationship between the algae and their coral host breaks down. Corals then expel the algae, losing both their color and potentially their main food source. If the corals can survive long enough without the algae and the water temperature returns to normal, corals can regain them. Those corals that are able to eat more or have access to more food have a better chance at surviving and recovering from bleaching than those relying mostly on their algae.

"Our study is the first to take our understanding of coral feeding outside of the lab and show that global patterns of food availability likely influence the health and resilience of coral populations around the world," said Jen Smith, a coral scientist at Scripps and co-author of the study. "It is exciting to know that corals have a lot more food flexibility than we previously thought and this flexibility could help them ride out the climate change storm that is seemingly inevitable."

Recovery patterns from bleaching events can vary by region, suggesting that some areas are more resilient than others. This study and the work described above lays the foundation to begin more detailed investigations into the possibility that reefs in more productive areas have a greater capacity for recovery from disturbance than reefs in other regions.

###

This research was supported by the NOAA Nancy Foster Scholarship, the Moore Family Foundation, the Scripps Family and several anonymous donors.Scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and the Stein Eye Institute have been awarded a $5.1 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to advance the development of a novel therapy for blinding retinal conditions.

The award by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, will support the development of a treatment that will use patients' own skin cells to generate autologous induced pluripotent stem cells to derive retinal pigment epithelium cells, which are lost in many blinding eye conditions. The team, led by Dr. Steven Schwartz, will use the grant to drive the promising therapy to the next critical step toward a clinical trial in humans, submitting an investigational new drug application to the Food and Drug Administration.

"We're grateful to CIRM and the people of California for this grant, which will allow our team to translate our research into a treatment for major causes of untreatable blindness such as macular degeneration," said Schwartz, Ahmanson professor of ophthalmology and chief of the retina division at the UCLA Stein Eye Institute. "This pivotal investment brings hope to countless patients and families suffering with blinding eye disease."

Retinal diseases affecting the center of vision, also called maculopathies, are the leading cause of blindness in the developed world and affect more than 10 percent of the U.S. population over 65. The number of people affected by this untreatable group of disorders, such as age related and myopic macular degeneration, and Stargardt's macular dystrophy, is expected to increase to nearly 20 million in the nation by 2020.

Although disorders in this group can have varied underlying causes, they are all linked to the deterioration of the layer of retinal pigment epithelium cells beneath the retina, which lines the inner surface of the back of the eye. These cells are critical to vision; they maintain function of light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors, or rods and cones. Without the retinal pigment epithelium cells, the rods and cones cannot survive. Ultimately, the deterioration of these cells leads to the loss of photoreceptors and eventually to blindness.

The induced pluripotent stem cells maintain the genetic code of the individual from whom they originated. The cells also bear none of the hallmarks of age and instead appear much like very young cells. In the research, these induced pluripotent stem cells will be differentiated into a large volume of the patient's own retinal pigment epithelium cells -- between 50,000 and 500,000 -- which will then be surgically transplanted into their own retinas. Pre-clinical research suggests these new cells will integrate with the patients' remaining retinal pigment epithelium cells, rescue related eye tissue and spur regeneration of the surrounding tissue. Thus, these transplants may preserve or restore vision.

Replacing retinal pigment epithelium cells lost to disease with the stem cell-based cells has already been tested in a first-of-its-kind clinical trial led by Schwartz. That trial showed that retinal pigment epithelium cell replacement strategies are safe and possibly effective in addressing retinal blindness. However, these earlier trials used cells created from human embryonic stem cells, which require that patients take drugs that suppress the immune system longer term so that their bodies do not reject the foreign cells. These immunosuppressive drugs carry substantial health risks, particularly for the elderly.

By creating retinal pigment epithelium cells from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells, the new method developed by Schwartz and his team should not pose a risk that the cell therapy will be rejected by the patient's immune system, thus likely eliminating the need for immune suppression. Because many maculopathies are age-related, this key improvement may make Schwartz's novel treatment more accessible to the individuals who need it most.

Another difference between Schwartz's method and previously studied treatments is that the new retinal pigment epithelium cells will be delivered to patients suspended in liquid rather than on a scaffold. This makes it possible for the treatment to be administered in a minimally invasive transplant surgery, which reduces risks and provides faster recovery time.

These two advantages open up the possibility of administering the cell therapy earlier in the course of macular diseases, when some functional tissue remains. Early intervention could be critical to the success of treatments for maculopathies because when diseased retinal pigment epithelium cells are lost, neighboring and essential tissues such as photoreceptors are compromised or disappear completely.

"We hope this research will improve upon the methods studied in previous trials, which showed promise but came with drawbacks and risks," Schwartz said. "The project holds the possibility of developing a treatment that will preserve vision in patients with an early diagnosis, restore vision in patients with end-stage loss of vision, and carry fewer risks."

Schwartz is developing this treatment in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team comprised of stem cell biologists, ophthalmologists, retinal biologists, immunologists, transplant surgeons, bioengineers and regulatory experts. This group includes co-investigators Dr. Donald Kohn, professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, pediatrics and molecular and medical pharmacology; William Lowry, professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology; Jerome Zack, professor and chair of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics; David Williams, professor of ophthalmology and neurobiology; Saravanan Karumbayaram, adjunct professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics; and Zoran Galic, an associate professor of medicine, all members of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center; as well as Xiaoyang Wang, assistant professor of medicine and health services research.

This research is supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine-funded UCLA-UCI Alpha Stem Cell Clinic and the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. This includes previous support from the Esther B. O'Keeffe Foundation, the Jean Perkins Foundation and the UCLA department of ophthalmology, which has support from Research to Prevent Blindness Inc., Louis & Harold Price Foundation, Lavery Foundation, and the Smidt Family Foundation.

The potential cell-based treatment for blinding retinal conditions is used in pre-clinical tests only and has not been tested in humans or approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for use in humans.

###The age old adage of virtue being its own reward may not hold true in the corporate world - in fact, honourable acts could lead workers to behave more selfishly later on, new research has shown.

A new study has revealed the true extent to which a phenomenon called "moral licensing" can transform how employees self-govern their actions over a course of time.

The research shows they leverage feelings of virtuousness from having resisted a large temptation to act selfishly on a different occasion. The findings have important implications for how companies deal with corporate misconduct and unethical actions.

The study, co-authored by experts from the University of Exeter and the London School of Economics, suggest that traditional methods employed by organisations to deter unethical behaviour may not be sufficient.

Instead, researchers speculate, in light of their findings, that it may be more effective to remove any substantial temptations for staff to cheat, and pay closer attention to how decision-making processes are structured when it comes to high-stakes decisions.

Zoe Rahwan, who led the research while at the London School of Economics, said: "We found that when people do behave honourably amid an opportunity to significantly enrich themselves through unethical means, they then become more self-serving and less cooperative immediately after."

Dr Oliver Hauser, from the University of Exeter Business School, who was part of the research team, said: "Senior staff in organisations are by definition most commonly exposed to high-stakes decisions with associated personal gains and therefore are perhaps the most vulnerable to "moral licensing".

"To avoid the feelings of moral virtuousness that may stem from resisting a personal gain from a high-stakes decision turning into less cooperative behaviour subsequently, organisations may wish to consider assigning responsibility for multiple high-stakes decisions to different decision-makers or reviewing the timing between such decisions."

For the research, the experts asked 2,015 participants to play 10 rounds of a coin-flipping task, where they could earn money by reporting that the outcome of a coin toss matched their prediction. This provided an opportunity to lie in a manner which nobody else could verify. The responses were then measured against the statistically most likely set of results for correct guesses.

The researchers later told the participants that they could also donate any of their winnings from the coin-flipping task to one of five charities.

People's self-perception of their morality was measured immediately after the coin-flipping task, and a day later.

The researchers first examined how the size of temptation affected cheating behaviour. They varied the rewards by 500 times with rewards ranging from a maximum 10 US cents (~8 pence) to 50 US dollars (~40 pounds) - a much higher reward, and ultimately temptation, than is commonly used in such experiments.

Consistent with past research, they found that the reward size had a negligible effect on unethical decision-making - in the first instance. However those who cheated the least when tempted with high stakes were more likely to license themselves not to behave so charitably in another task.

Many of the most 'dishonest' participants felt more guilty than other groups about their behaviour immediately after the task and were the only group to feel even worse a day later. This suggests people under-estimate the psychological costs of unethical behaviour.

Dr Barbara Fasolo, Associate Professor at the London School of Economics and a member of the research team, said of the findings: "Our research complements a growing experimental literature that shows that the size of the payoff is not a key driver of immediate unethical behaviour and many people engage in low-level cheating.

"However, we also demonstrate that there are costs to resisting great personal temptations in the form of subsequent non-cooperative behaviour, and that the few people who engage in maximal cheating underestimate the toll it takes on how they perceive their own morality their moral self-perception.".

###

High stakes: A little more cheating, a lot less charity, is published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

This study was made available online in June 2018 ahead of final publication in print in August 2018.Single-molecule magnets are molecules capable of remembering the direction of a magnetic field that has been applied to them over relatively long periods of time once the magnetic field is switched off. Thus, one can "write" information into molecules. Single-molecule magnets have potential applications, for example, as high-density digital storage media and as parts of microprocessors in quantum computers. Practical applications have, however, been greatly hindered by the fact that single-molecule magnets are operational only at extremely low temperatures. Their intrinsic memory properties often vanish if they are heated more than a few degrees above absolute zero (-273C); therefore, single-molecule magnets can be only studied under laboratory conditions by cooling them with liquid helium.

More favorable conditions for technological applications

Researchers have now, for the first time, managed to synthesize and characterize a single-molecule magnet which retains its memory properties above the temperature of liquid helium (-196C). The magnet can be called the first high-temperature single-molecule magnet.

- When considering our everyday life, liquid nitrogen is extremely cold. However, compared to liquid helium, which has so far been required to study single-molecule magnets, the liquid nitrogen temperature is a huge leap upwards. Liquid nitrogen is more than 300 times cheaper than liquid helium and much more readily available, enabling technological applications. Therefore, the research constitutes an important scientific milestone, describes postdoctoral researcher Akseli Mansikkamaki from the Department of Chemistry of the University of Jyvaskyla.

New insights from computations

The new dysprosium metallocene compound is the culmination of several years of research. The project has required the development of new approaches in organometallic lanthanide chemistry and deep insights of the relationship between the microscopic electronic structure and magnetic properties of the studied systems.

Computational methods based on quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity play an important role in the characterization and design of new single-molecule magnets. The large computational resources available today have enabled, for example, to clarify the interaction between crystal vibrations and the electronic structure of molecules studied in the present work, Mansikkamaki explains.

The research also provides new insights and guidelines how to further improve the magnetic properties of single-molecule magnets and how to bring technological applications closer to reality.

###

The research project has been led by professor Richard Layfield at the University of Sussex, UK. The synthetic work and characterization of the prepared compounds was carried out at Layfield's research group and magnetic measurements were performed at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou , PRC under the leadership of professor Ming-Liang Tong. Postdoctoral researcher Akseli Mansikkamaki carried out theoretical calculations and analyses at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Jyvaskyla. In Finland, the research has been financed by the Academy of Finland. Computational resources were provided by the CSC-IT Center for Science and the University of Jyvaskyla.

The work has been published in the highly respected journal Science on 18.10.2018.

Further information:

Article: Fu-Sheng Guo, Benjamin M. Day, Yan-Cong Chen, Ming-Liang Tong, Akseli Mansikkamaki, and Richard A. Layfield. Magnetic hysteresis up to 80 K in a dysprosium metallocene single-molecule magnet. Science, 2018.

Link to the article: http://science.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/

Postdoctoral researcher Akseli Mansikkamaki (University of Jyvaskyla), akseli.mansikkamaki@jyu.fi, +358 50 3593 804

Professor Richard Layfield (University of Sussex), r.layfield@sussex.ac.ukResearch carried out by the University of Kent sheds light on the infanticidal behaviour of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and demonstrates that females are highly sensitive to the relative risks posed to their babies by different males

Research carried out by the University of Kent sheds light on the infanticidal behaviour of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and demonstrates that females are highly sensitive to the relative risks posed to their babies by different males.

Researchers from the Living Primates Research Group in its School of Anthropology and Conservation (SAC), and the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews, examined the behaviour of female chimpanzees in the Budongo Forest, Uganda, where chimpanzees (at least in the study community) are particularly prone to committing and suffering infanticide.

The study by Adriana Lowe and Dr Newton-Fisher (SAC) and Dr Catherine Hobaiter (St Andrews) was carried out during a period in which a mid-ranking male rose rapidly in rank.

Males can benefit from infanticide when they can kill an unrelated infant and replace it with one they have fathered. Because rank is linked to mating access in chimpanzees, a male who rises quickly in rank is surrounded by babies he is unlikely to have fathered, compared to any babies conceived after his rise.

This means a male who rises in rank is suddenly a threat to mothers and their babies.

Mothers, specifically those with younger, more vulnerable infants, reduced their association with the rank?rising male during the period of instability. The research team also found evidence that females preferred to associate with a male of stable high rank on the basis that such males could offer protection against infanticide.

PhD student, Adriana Lowe said: 'Watching chimps killing infants is really shocking and although it's pretty well reported, it's not been entirely clear why they do it. The mothers' behaviour in our study supports the hypothesis that it's a strategy by the males to get more mating opportunities. Male chimps are often described as great politicians as they use complex alliances to compete for high rank but this shows that the females are just as tuned in to the social environment, watching the males from the side-lines, sensitive to any changes which might put their babies in danger.'

The research builds on pioneering observations of infanticide in this community by Dr Nicholas Newton-Fisher more than 20 years ago (Infant killers of Budongo, 1999)The paper, titled, Countering infanticide: Chimpanzee mothers are sensitive to the relative risks posed by males on differing rank trajectories has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

###

Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.

It was ranked 22nd in the Guardian University Guide 2018 and in June 2017 was awarded a gold rating, the highest, in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

In 2018 it was also ranked in the top 500 of Shanghai Ranking's Academic Ranking of World Universities and 47th in the Times Higher Education's (THE) new European Teaching Rankings.

Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality.

Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium.

The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals.

Kent has received two Queen's Anniversary prizes for Higher and Further Education.An L-39 military trainer aircraft crashed in south Russia's Krasnodar Territory during a scheduled training flight, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday, Sputnik reports.

"Today, at about 5 p.m. Moscow time, when performing a scheduled training flight near the village of Dolzhanskaya of the Krasnodar Territory, an L-39 jet trainer crashed and fell into the water," the ministry said.

It said a search and rescue team was looking for pilots in the area of the crash.

"The plane was flying without ammunition. According to preliminary information, a technical malfunction could have caused the crash," the ministry said.Developed countries imposing their own Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes onto nations recovering from war often rely on entrenched colonial attitudes with no guarantee of success

Developed countries imposing their own Security Sector Reform (SSR) processes onto nations recovering from war often rely on entrenched colonial attitudes with no guarantee of success.

Research led by the University of Kent specifically looked at the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) and Nepal contrasting their outcomes and examining the reasons for success or failure of SSR policies based on European templates. They question whether the systems even work in their countries of origin where statistics show ongoing institutional racism.

SSR is a key feature of peacebuilding interventions and is usually undertaken by a state alongside national and international partners. Many programmes still aim to create a security sector following a European template, without sufficiently acknowledging that this might not work in countries outside of Europe.

Dr Nadine Ansorg of Kent's School of Politics and International Relations (POLIR) at Kent, together with Dr Julia Strasheim, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt Foundation, Hamburg, found that social and political dynamics, historical and cultural details, and the involvement of other nearby countries all have to be factored into when creating meaningful SSR policies for a nation.

In DRC, the high number of rebel groups from within and outside the country posed a major obstacle to a successful demobilisation of forces. Nepal, in a contained geographical area and without involvement of neighbouring countries and other vested interests, experienced a completely different outcome to DRC.

The research highlights the need to genuinely acknowledge that SSR programmes must respond to their specific contexts. A programme that works in one country will not necessarily work in another which may explain the mixed results in peacebuilding and the co-operation and tensions within reform programmes.

Dr Ansorg said: 'There is a strong streak of post-colonial, persistent Eurocentric concepts in international SSR programmes, by the United Nations, World Bank, and other donors. After all, the government also persistently embodies a neo-colonial attitude towards countries from the Global South, as the recent visit of British Prime Minister Theresa May to Africa showed, and not forgetting the words of former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the subject.'

###

The findings Veto Players in Post-Conflict DDR Programs: Evidence From Nepal and the DRC by Dr Nadine Ansorg and Dr Julia Strasheim are published in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.

It will also be included in a special publication: Co-operation, Contestation and Complexity in Post-Conflict Security Sector Reform edited by Dr Nadine Ansorg of the School of Politics and International Relations (POLIR), and GIGA (German Institute of Global and Area Studies), and Dr Eleanor Gordon, Monash University later this year.

Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.

It was ranked 22nd in the Guardian University Guide 2018 and in June 2017 was awarded a gold rating, the highest, in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

In 2018 it was also ranked in the top 500 of Shanghai Ranking's Academic Ranking of World Universities and 47th in the Times Higher Education's (THE) new European Teaching Rankings.

Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality.

Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium.

The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals.

Kent has received two Queen's Anniversary prizes for Higher and Further Education.The National Science Foundation has awarded the University of Missouri a $5.2 million grant over five years to establish the Advancing Research and its Impact on Society (ARIS) Center at Mizzou. It will advance the practice of translating scientific research to the public through educational outreach and community engagement. The center also gets the university one step closer to the goal of attracting three to five externally funded national research centers in the next five years which MU Chancellor Alexander N. Cartwright proposed in February.

"We are honored to be the home of this national initiative," said Susan Renoe, assistant vice chancellor for research, extension and engagement, and the project's lead. "Federally funded research improves education for our children, increases crop yields, leads to advancements in medicine and creates jobs for Missourians. This center will enhance our efforts in outreach and engagement with the citizens of the state, the U.S. and the world, making Mizzou a national leader in how science is communicated."

The center will work with scientists to demonstrate the impact of their research in their communities and society. It will emphasize support for serving traditionally underserved populations while providing inclusive public engagement to ensure a diverse science workforce.

"It's important for the public to know how research is affecting and changing lives," Cartwright said. "Mizzou's research culture has allowed scientists, like our own Nobel laureate George P. Smith, to realize their potential and reach out to the world to communicate their science. Traditionally, researchers have struggled with how to effectively communicate their work to the public. As a scientist and engineer myself, I've learned one of the best ways you can communicate the impact of science is through stories. I'm thrilled that the University of Missouri will lead the way in teaching researchers these important skills."

Foundational partners for the center include Brown University, Duke University, Iowa State University, Madison Area Technical College, Michigan State University, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, Oregon State University, Rutgers University and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The board of advisors for the new ARIS Center include members from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Universities, California State University-Monterey Bay, the Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the Kavli Foundation, NASA, Northern Illinois University, the Rathenau Institute in the Netherlands, Spelman College, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Western Washington University and York University in Canada, among others.

###The research, led by academics at the University of Nottingham and published in The Lancet, has shown that keeping patients fully informed and involving them in decisions about their care can be more successful in managing gout.

And the study, which was funded by the charity Versus Arthritis, highlights the importance of individualised patient education and engagement to treat the condition.

Professor Michael Doherty, in the University's Division of Rheumatology, said: "The nurses delivered recommended best practice that includes full patient information and engagement and a treat-to-target strategy for urate-lowering treatment. Once fully informed almost all patients want urate-lowering treatment and continue to take it regularly. This results in gradual elimination of the urate crystals that cause gout and subsequent clinical improvements.

"Although nurses delivered this care, the principles of patient education, treat-to-target urate-lowering strategy, and regular follow-up and monitoring are applicable to any health professional who treats people with gout. Although this takes more time with the patient to start with, long-term this becomes very cost effective."

Gout is the most common type of inflammatory arthritis, which affects around 2.5 per cent of adults in the UK and which causes episodes ("attacks") of severe joint inflammation and pain. It is sparked by a persistent high level of uric acid (urate) in the body, causing sodium urate crystals to slowly but continuously form in and around the joints.

Attacks are usually treated with anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen but doctors may prescribe drugs such as allopurinol or febuxostat over the long term for patients who are prone to frequent flare ups.

Gout is the only form of arthritis that can be 'cured' in effect through the use of urate-lowering therapies (ULT). The ULT dose needs to be adjusted against the blood urate level until a target low level is achieved, this then prevents new crystals from forming and slowly dissolves away the crystals that are there. Patients can also make lifestyle changes if appropriate, such as losing weight if overweight, which can help to bring down urate levels and have other general health benefits.

However, currently only 40 per cent of gout patients ever receive ULT, usually at a fixed dose rather than gradually increasing the dose until a target level of urate is reached in the blood. And getting patients to stick to their medication is tricky.

A previous 'proof of concept' study suggested that when people with gout are fully-informed and involved in the decisions around managing their illness, more than nine out of ten wished to have ULT treatment and subsequent adherence to their medication over one year was excellent.

This led to the latest two-year randomised controlled clinical trial in the community to directly compare nurse-led care to the usual GP-led care.

More than 500 gout patients were recruited and randomly split between the two methods of management through more than 50 general practices in the East Midlands. They were followed up at one and two years and assessed for a series of outcomes including the level of urate in their blood, the frequency of gout flare ups and the presence of tophi - firm, white lumps below the surface of the skin caused by a mass of urate crystals.

The research nurses had received training about gout and its management, which reflected current recommendations, and delivered an individualised package of care. This included a holistic assessment, a discussion of perceptions about the illness, full information about gout e.g its causes, consequences and treatment options, and patient involvement in shared decision-making.

The study found that nurse-led care was associated with a much higher take up of ULT, with patients subsequently being more likely to stick to their treatment. At two years, 96 per cent of the nurse-led group were on ULT, compared to 56 per cent in the usual care group.

And 95 per cent of patients had urate levels in the blood below the required target level, compared to just 30 per cent in the GP-led group.

In addition, it revealed that around 400-500mg of allopurinol per day was the dose needed to achieve the right level of urate in the blood, which is more than the top dose of 300mg per day prescribed by most UK doctors.

The nurse-led care significantly reduced flare-up frequency, reduced tophi and improved quality of life and was more cost effective too, saving the NHS money after five years.

Stephen Simpson, Director of Research at Versus Arthritis, said: "Despite national guidelines on how to manage gout effectively, we know that many patients fail to receive any clear explanation of the condition or lifestyle advice to prevent recurring attacks, with few even receiving the appropriate drug treatment. As the most common inflammatory form of arthritis, affecting one in every 100 people, this is not good enough.

"Currently, constraints on GP's time mean patients are not fully aware of the benefits that come with taking their treatments. The patient-centred approach led by nurses in this study offers a convincing alternative that will not only help to alleviate problems in the long term but will also improve that person's quality of life.

We are optimistic that if the methods of treatment used in this study are incorporated into national guidelines for GPs we will see a much more effective long-term management of gout, an improvement in the quality of life a person has after an attack, as well reducing healthcare costs over time."

The Nottingham team worked in collaboration with academics in Health Economics and Decision Science at the University of Sheffield and received invaluable advice from the Nottingham Rheumatology Patient and Public Involvement group during the development of the study. The Nottingham team now plan to examine the feasibility of training existing Practice nurses to see if this results in equally good results. NICE is currently planning to develop UK Guidelines for Management of Gout and it is hoped that the principles used in this study will be incorporated into their guideline to GPs and other health practitioners who manage people with gout.

###Scientists at the University of York have found a way of distinguishing between fatal prostate cancer and manageable cancer, which could reduce unnecessary surgeries and radiotherapy.

A recent study showed that more than 25 men were being unnecessarily treated with surgery or radiotherapy, for every single life saved. It is believed that success rates could be hindered as a result of treating all prostate cancers in the same way.

A team at the University of York and the University of British Columbia, Canada, however, have designed a test that can pick out life-threatening prostate cancers, with up to 92% accuracy.

Professor Norman Maitland, from the University of York's Department of Biology, said: "Unnecessary prostate treatment has both physical consequences for patients and their families, but is also a substantial financial burden on the NHS, where each operation will cost around 10,000.

"Cancers that are contained in the prostate, however, have the potential to be 'actively monitored' which is not only cheaper, but has far fewer negative side-effects in patients with non-life threatening cancer."

It is now understood that to find the different levels of cancer, scientists have to identify genes that have been altered in different cancer types. The team analysed more than 500 cancer tissue samples and compared them with non-cancer tissue to search for patterns of a chemical group that is added to part of the DNA molecule, altering gene expression.

A person's age, what they eat and how they sleep, for example, impacts on chemical alterations to genes and which ones are turned on and off. This is part of the normal functioning of the human body and can tell individuals apart, but the process can sometimes go wrong, resulting in various diseases.

Professor Maitland said: "In some diseases, such as cancer, genes can be switched to an opposite state, causing major health issues and threat to life.

"The challenge in prostate cancer is how to look at all of these patterns within a cell, but hone in on the gene activity that suggests cancer, and not only this, what type of cancer - dangerous or manageable?

"To put it another way: how to do we distinguish the tiger cancer cells from the pussycat cancer cells, when there are millions of patterns of chemical alterations going on, many of which will be perfectly healthy?"

The team needed to eliminate the 'noise' of the genetic patterns that make individuals unique, to leave them with the patterns that indicate cancer. They were able to do this using a computer algorithm, which left the team with 17 possible genetic markers for prostate cancer.

Dr Davide Pellacani, who began these studies in York, before moving to the University of British Columbia, said: "Using this computer analysis, not only could we see which tissue samples had cancer and which didn't, but also which cancers were dangerous and which ones less so.

"Out of almost a million markers studied, we were able to use our new tools to single out differences in cancer potency."

To take this method out of the laboratory, the team are now investigating a further trial with new cancer samples, and hope to involve a commercial partner to allow this to be used for patients being treated in the NHS.

###

The research, published in the British Journal of Cancer, was funded by The Freemasons of the Province of Yorkshire (North and East Ridings) and The Masonic Samaritan Fund. Yorkshire Cancer Research; Prostate Cancer UK; The British Columbia Cancer Agency Strategic Priorities Fund.Ecosystems have a variety of benefits: They provide us with food, water and other resources, as well as recreational space. It is therefore even more important that these systems remain functional and stable - especially in view of climate change or environmental pollution. Ecologists at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) have now examined the factors that influence this stability in a unique and comprehensive experiment.

Mini-ecosystems with ciliates

The scientists specifically researched how biodiversity affects the stability of ecosystems. As model organisms, they used six species of ciliates - tiny protozoans that live in water. The researchers put varying numbers and combinations of these ciliates in sample vials, thereby creating miniature ecosystems that they then let thrive at temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius. The increased temperatures simulated a climatic change, as the ciliates used in the experiment previously lived at a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.

The researchers then used novel video evaluation techniques to analyze how stable the biomass production in these small ecosystems was. An algorithm developed by the team made it possible to identify the ciliate species in about 20,000 video sequences of the numerous samples recorded under a microscope.

Contrary results

At first glance, the results of the experiment seem contradictory: High biodiversity simultaneously furthers and hinders the stability of an ecosystem. "Ecological stability is complex and consists of various components," says Frank Pennekamp, first author of the study. "The experiment shows how biodiversity affects the individual stability components in different ways." In other words, the more diverse the species community in the miniature ecosystems was, the less the biomass production fluctuated - regardless of temperature. At higher temperatures, however, the researchers found that protozoans produced less biomass the more species were bustling about the system.

"The fact that various components react differently should be taken into consideration in the management of ecosystems, as non-linear connections may occur between diversity and the overall stability of the ecosystem depending on the weighting of the components," says Pennekamp.

Similar effects observed in other ecosystems

Literature research showed that other scientists also observe the contrary connection between biodiversity and stability in other ecosystems, such as grassland or algae communities. "The results make it clear that more species alone is not enough to ensure the overall stability of an ecosystem," says Florian Altermatt, professor of aquatic ecology at Eawag. "In addition to a diversity of species, the species themselves must be able to react to environmental changes in a variety of ways."

###

Literature:

Frank Pennekamp, Mikael Pontarp, Andrea Tabi, Florian Altermatt, Roman Alther, Yves Choffat, Emanuel A. Fronhofer, Pravin Ganesanandamoorthy, Aurelie Garnier, Jason I. Griffiths, Suzanne Greene, Katherine Horgan, Thomas M. Massie, Elvira Machler, Gian-Marco Palamara, Mathew Seymour, and Owen L. Petchey. Biodiversity increases and decreases ecosystem stability. Nature. October 17, 2018. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0627-8DALLAS - Oct. 15, 2018 - UT Southwestern Professor Dr. Sean Morrison, Director of the Children's Medical Center Research Institute (CRI) at UT Southwestern, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Dr. Morrison, a Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern known for his significant discoveries in stem cell biology and cancer, is among 75 new members and 10 international members of NAM announced today. With his election, 17 current UT Southwestern faculty members have now been inducted into the organization.

The NAM - formerly known as the Institute of Medicine - recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and a commitment to service. Along with the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, the NAM advises the nation and the international community on critical issues in health, medicine, and related policy.

"We are honored that the National Academy of Medicine has recognized the significance of Dr. Morrison's research in stem cell and cancer biology," said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern Medical Center. "Dr. Morrison pioneered new methods to purify stem cells from multiple tissues and discovered molecular mechanisms that allow stem cells to persist throughout life and regenerate tissues after injury."

Dr. Podolsky, a NAM member as well, holds the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science.

"I am grateful for this recognition for my laboratory's work, and particularly thankful for the support of my colleagues at UT Southwestern and Children's Health," said Dr. Morrison, also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. "This is a remarkable environment in which to do science, with many inspiring colleagues."

Dr. Morrison, who holds the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research at Children's Research Institute at UT Southwestern and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics, identified a series of genes required for stem cell self-renewal. Self-renewal is necessary for stem cells to persist throughout life and regenerate tissues after injury. Stem cell self-renewal mechanisms change over time to match the changing growth and regeneration demands of tissues during development and aging, his research showed. Dr. Morrison also discovered that tumor-suppressor genes are induced in aging stem cells, inhibiting the development of cancer but also reducing the ability of aging tissues to heal after injury.

The identity of the supporting cells that sustain stem cells was unknown prior to the Morrison laboratory identifying the specialized microenvironments, or niches, in blood-forming tissues that maintain stem cells. His team discovered that blood-forming stem cells reside adjacent to blood vessels where they depend on growth factors produced by endothelial cells and Leptin Receptor+ (LepR+) cells. The (LepR+) cells are a major source of the growth factors that regulate stem cell maintenance, blood cell production, and the regeneration of the blood-forming system after chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The (LepR+) cells also include skeletal stem cells that are a major source of bone and growth factors that maintain the adult skeleton.

"Sean Morrison's successes at the forefront of discovering new knowledge about cancer, including the very ways that research is conducted, aptly merit the exceptional distinction of being elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine," said Christopher J. Durovich, President and Chief Executive Officer at Children's Health. "Moreover, the leadership of Dr. Morrison while pursuing his vision for exploiting the intersection of cancer, stem cell biology and metabolism, has enabled Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern to move rapidly from a novel idea to a portfolio of leading laboratories making profound contributions to the health and well-being of everyone."

Dr. Morrison, who joined UT Southwestern in 2011 as Director of CRI, earned a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry from Dalhousie University in Canada and a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech and directed the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology.

Dr. Morrison served as President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in 2015-2016. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Morrison is also a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar in Cancer Research and member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in North Texas.

Current NAM members at UT Southwestern and the year of their induction are: Dr. Joseph Takahashi (2014), Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky (2009), Dr. Bruce Beutler (2008), Dr. Thomas Sudhof and Dr. Luis Parada (2007), Dr. Ellen Vitetta (2006), Dr. Steven McKnight (2005), Dr. Helen Hobbs (2004), Dr. Eric Olson (2001), Dr. Norman Gant (2001), Dr. Kern Wildenthal (1999), Dr. Carol Tamminga (1998), Dr. Scott Grundy (1995), Dr. Jean Wilson (1994), Dr. Michael Brown (1987), and Dr. Joseph Goldstein (1987).

###

About CRI

Children's Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) is a joint venture of UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children's Medical Center Dallas, the flagship hospital of Children's Health. CRI's mission is to perform transformative biomedical research to better understand the biological basis of disease. Located in Dallas, Texas, CRI is home to interdisciplinary groups of scientists and physicians pursuing research at the interface of regenerative medicine, cancer biology, and metabolism. For more information, visit: cri.utsw.edu. To support CRI, visit: cri.utsw.edu/support/

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 2.4 million outpatient visits a year.DALLAS - Oct. 17, 2018 - UT Southwestern biochemist Dr. Zhijian "James" Chen today was named winner of the prestigious 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for his discovery of the cGAS enzyme that launches the body's immune defense against infections and cancers. That enzyme patrols the cell's interior and triggers the immune system in response to DNA.

The four 2019 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences, plus prizes in physics and mathematics, will be presented during a live, globally televised awards ceremony in Silicon Valley on Nov. 4. The international award program, founded in 2013, is sponsored by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Winners receive $3 million each.

Dr. Chen's 2012 discovery of the enzyme cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) solved a century-old medical mystery. DNA was known to activate the immune system long before its role as a genetic material was understood. In 1908, a Nobel Laureate noted in his acceptance speech that surgeons in Europe treated patients with DNA to boost their patients' defense against infections. Dr. Chen's biochemical investigations revealed the pathway underlying that response.

Watch video: A journey to discovery

The innate immunity sensor cGAS discovered in the Chen laboratory sounds the alarm when it encounters DNA - either from pathogens or from the body's own cells in the case of autoimmune disease - in areas of the cell where that genetic material should not be. Dr. Chen also identified the small molecule cGAMP, which is produced by the enzyme cGAS and acts as a secondary messenger in the innate immune system.

The body has two immune systems: an inborn, or innate, immune system that is activated when cells in the body initially encounter an invading pathogen and an adaptive immune system that deploys specialized cells that execute a long-term response.

"This award recognizes Dr. Chen's outstanding research that elucidates the fundamental mechanisms of innate immunity, the body's first, generalized response to infection," said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern, who holds the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science. "His work has advanced our understanding of the relationship between the body's immune defense system and autoimmune disease as well as how this immunity pathway is linked to the development of cancer, cellular aging, and Parkinson's disease."

Dr. Chen's other important contributions include the discovery of MAVS (mitochondrial antiviral signaling) protein, which plays a pivotal role in immune defense against RNA viruses such as those that cause influenza, hepatitis C, and Zika. He also discovered the key functions of a small protein called ubiquitin in regulating immune and inflammatory responses.

Dr. Chen, Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, said he was "totally shocked and thrilled" when informed he would receive the prize.

"This is a wonderful recognition and endorsement of the discoveries made by the talented and dedicated students and research scientists in my lab here at UT Southwestern," he said. "The highly supportive and nurturing environment at UT Southwestern has made it possible for us to focus on making original discoveries that are impactful. I am very grateful to the strong leadership at UT Southwestern that truly values science and scientists. It's my privilege to work in this exceptional institution and to be constantly inspired by my scientific mentors and heroes on our campus."

Dr. Chen, who holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science, is the second UT Southwestern faculty member to win the Breakthrough Prize.

Raised in Anxi County, China, Dr. Chen received his B.S. degree in biology at Fujian Normal University and then earned a scholarship to study in the United States, which led to a Ph.D. in biochemistry from State University of New York at Buffalo.

Dr. Chen is also a member of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense led by Dr. Bruce Beutler, who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on innate immunity. Dr. Beutler holds the Raymond and Ellen Willie Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, in Honor of Laverne and Raymond Willie, Sr.

Dr. Chen's honors have multiplied since his arrival at UT Southwestern in 1997 and include the Searle Scholar Award (1998), The Welch Foundation Norman Hackerman Award in Chemical Research (2005), the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in Science by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2007), the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology (2012), the Merck Award from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2015), and the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences (2018). Dr. Chen was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2014. Dr. Chen's work includes more than $5 million in support from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

UT Southwestern's first Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences recipient was geneticist Dr. Helen Hobbs (2016). She received the award in recognition of transformative genetics research techniques she developed and used to identify key genes involved in lipid metabolism and fatty liver disease.

Dr. Hobbs is Director of the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics at UT Southwestern, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She holds the Eugene McDermott Distinguished Chair for the Study of Human Growth and Development; the Philip O'Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Chair in Developmental Biology; and the 1995 Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Cardiology Research.

###

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution's faculty has received six Nobel Prizes, and includes 22 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 17 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 15 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The faculty of more than 2,700 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians provide care in about 80 specialties to more than 105,000 hospitalized patients, nearly 370,000 emergency room cases, and oversee approximately 2.4 million outpatient visits a year.October 18, 2018 - For premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), skin-to-skin contact with parents influences levels of hormones related to mother-infant attachment (oxytocin) and stress (cortisol) - and may increase parents' level of engagement with their infants, reports a study in Advances in Neonatal Care, official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Promoting early contact and parental engagement might help to lessen the risk of neurodevelopmental delay associated with preterm birth and NICU care, according to the exploratory study by Dorothy J. Vittner, PhD, RN, CHPE, of University of Connecticut School of Nursing and colleagues. They write, "Parental touch, especially during skin-to-skin contact (SSC) has potential to reduce adverse consequences."

Study Attempts to Measure Benefits of Skin-to-Skin Contact for Preterm Infants

The pilot study included 28 preterm infants, average gestational age 33 weeks. All infants were in stable condition while receiving NICU care. Infants underwent periods of SSC on two consecutive days: once with the mother and once with the father. Saliva samples were collected from infants and parents to measure levels of oxytocin, a hormone that has been linked to maternal-infant attachment; and the stress-related hormone cortisol.

"Oxytocin facilitates social sensitivity and attunement necessary for developing relationships and nurturance for emotional and physical health," the researchers write. Cortisol plays an important role in the "fight or flight" reaction to fear or stress.

Levels of both hormones changed in response to SSC. "Oxytocin significantly increased and cortisol levels decreased for mothers, fathers, and infants during SSC as compared to baseline," Dr. Vittner and coauthors write. The changes indicate the "calming and beneficial impact of SSC for both parents and infants."

Parents also completed a questionnaire called the "PREEMI" (Parent Risk Evaluation and Engagement Model and Instrument) scale, designed to measure attachment between parents and their preterm infants. Overall PREEMI scores indicated a "moderate to high" level of parental engagement for all participants.

Increased oxytocin and decreased cortisol levels during SSC were associated with higher PREEMI scores by the time the infant was discharged from the hospital. "We believe these findings suggest that parents with a lower salivary cortisol as seen with SSC (decreased stress) may facilitate increased parental engagement," Dr. Vittner and colleagues write.

Mothers and fathers had similar increases in oxytocin during SSC. In mothers, the rise in oxytocin was related to increased parental engagement. Unexpectedly, however, increased oxytocin during SSC in fathers was negatively related to parental engagement. Dr. Vittner and colleagues note that for many fathers, the study SSC intervention was the first time they had held their infants.

The study provides new evidence of how SSC might work to promote attachment between parents and premature infants. "The changes in oxytocin and cortisol levels provide robust support to advocate for increased SSC during infancy, especially for the vulnerable infant in the NICU," the researchers write. They note that further studies will be needed to understand these relationships, and how they affect parent-infant relationships - especially in overcoming the obstacles posed by having a premature infant who need NICU care.

The results also suggest that the PREEMI questionnaire can provide a "window into parent engagement," potentially useful in identifying parents who may need interventions to increase engagement with their premature infant. Dr. Vittner and coauthors conclude: "Uncovering the bio-behavioral basis of early parent-infant interactions is an important step in developing therapeutic modalities to improve infant health outcomes."

###

Click here to read "Parent Engagement Correlates With Parent and Preterm InfantOxytocin Release During Skin-to-Skin Contact"

DOI: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000558

About Advances in Neonatal Care

Advances in Neonatal Care takes a unique and dynamic approach to the original research and clinical practice articles it publishes. Addressing the practice challenges faced every day--caring for the 40,000-plus low-birth-weight infants in Level II and Level III NICUs each year--the journal promotes evidence-based care and improved outcomes for the tiniest patients and their families. Peer-reviewed editorial includes unique and detailed visual and teaching aids, such as Family Teaching Toolbox, Research to Practice, Cultivating Clinical Expertise, and Online Features.

About the National Association of Neonatal Nurses

The National Association of Neonatal Nurses is the longest established professional voice that supports the professional needs of neonatal nurses throughout their careers through excellence in practice, education, research and professional development. NANN is your neonatal connection to the strongest and most vibrant community of neonatal nurses.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the health, tax & accounting, finance, risk & compliance, and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer, headquartered in the Netherlands, reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students with advanced clinical decision support, learning and research and clinical intelligence. For more information about our solutions, visit http://healthclarity.wolterskluwer.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.Scientists may need to rethink the role of some cancer genes in the light of sequencing normal tissues

By the time we reach middle age, more than half of the oesophagus in healthy people has been taken over by cells carrying mutations in cancer genes, scientists have uncovered. By studying normal oesophagus tissue, scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge and their collaborators uncovered a hidden world of mutations and evolution in our tissues as we age.

The results, published today (18 October) in Science show how mutant cells mutate and compete with each other throughout life, and only the fittest mutations survive.

Every person accumulates genetic changes, or mutations, throughout their lifetime. These mutations in normal tissue, called somatic mutations, are key to understanding the first steps to cancer and likely contribute towards ageing, but are unchartered territory due to technical limitations.

For the first time, scientists have uncovered that on average, healthy cells in the oesophagus carry at least several hundred mutations per cell in people in their twenties, rising to over 2,000 mutations per cell later in life. Only mutations in a dozen or so genes seem to matter however, as these give the cells a competitive advantage allowing them to take over the tissue and form a dense patchwork of mutations.

Professor Phil Jones, joint lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and MRC Cancer Unit, University of Cambridge, said: "Under the microscope, the oesophageal tissue looked completely normal - it came from healthy individuals who had no signs of cancer. After studying the genetics we were shocked to see that the healthy oesophagus was riddled with mutations. We discovered that by the time an individual reaches middle age, they probably have more mutant than normal cells."

The team used targeted and whole-genome sequencing to map groups of mutant cells in normal oesophageal tissue from nine individuals aged 20 to 75 years*. The individuals' oesophageal tissues were considered healthy as none of the donors had a known history of oesophageal cancer, nor were taking medication for problems relating to the oesophagus.

The study also casts new light on the mutations that are found in the squamous kind of oesophageal cancers. One mutated gene, TP53, which is found in almost all oesophageal cancers is already mutated in 5-10 per cent of normal cells, suggesting that cancer develops from this minority of cells.

In contrast, mutations in the NOTCH1 gene, known to control cell division, were found in nearly half of all cells of normal oesophagus by middle age, being several times more common in normal tissue than cancer. This observation suggests that researchers need to reconsider the role of some genes recurrently mutated in cancer in the light of mutations in normal tissue, and raises the possibility that the NOTCH1 mutation may even protect cells against cancer development.

Dr Jo Fowler, joint first author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "For years we have sequenced cancer genomes and looked for genes that are commonly mutated across patients. We assumed that the common mutations are the ones driving the cancer. However, now we have looked at normal tissues we were surprised to find that a gene commonly associated with oesophageal cancer, NOTCH1, was more mutated in normal cells than cancer cells. These results suggest that scientists may need to rethink the role of some cancer genes in the light of sequencing normal tissues."

The discovery that normal aged oesophagus is a dense patchwork of mutant cells carrying mutations previously linked with oesophageal cancer has important implications. It provides insights into key genes that control cell behaviour in normal tissues. It also gives a window into the first steps in the development of some oesophageal cancers, which are believed to arise from these mutant cells, and will be informative for current research efforts on early detection of cancer.

Dr Inigo Martincorena, joint lead author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said: "We have found that genetic mutations associated with cancer are widespread in normal tissues, revealing how our own cells mutate, compete and evolve to colonise our tissues as we age. Given the importance of these mutations to cancer, it is remarkable that we have been unaware of the extent of this phenomenon until now. While the work sheds light on early cancer development, it also raises many questions about how these mutations may contribute to ageing and other diseases, opening interesting avenues for future research."

Professor Karen Vousden, chief scientist at Cancer Research UK, which part-funded the study, said: "As cancer researchers, we can't underestimate the importance of studying healthy tissue. Our risk of developing cancer increases as we age, and this research brings us closer to uncovering clues within our normal tissues to help us identify individuals at higher risk of the disease.

"This study shows that some genetic changes linked to cancer are present in surprisingly large numbers of normal cells. We still have a long way to go to fully understand the implications of these new findings, but we hope that studies like this will one day help us to develop targeted diagnostic tests. In particular, oesophageal cancer is very hard to treat so detecting signs of the disease at the earliest possible stage could make a huge difference for patients."

###

Notes to Editors:

*The researchers are very grateful to the families of deceased donors for their consent, and thank the Cambridge Biorepository for Translational Medicine for access to human tissue. The researchers would also like to acknowledge the work of Dr Kourosh Saeb-Parsy who swiftly transported the donors' organs, enabling access to healthy tissue for this research.

Publication:

Inigo Martincorena, Jo Fowler et al. (2018) Somatic mutant clones colonize the human esophagus with age. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aau3879

Funding:

This research was supported by Cancer Research UK (C609/A17257), the Medical Research Council and Wellcome.

Selected websites:

About Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research.

Cancer Research UK's pioneering work into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer has helped save millions of lives.

Cancer Research UK receives no funding from the UK government for its life-saving research. Every step it makes towards beating cancer relies on vital donations from the public.

Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of the progress that has already seen survival in the UK double in the last 40 years.

Today, 2 in 4 people survive their cancer for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that by 2034, 3 in 4 people will survive their cancer for at least 10 years.

Cancer Research UK supports research into all aspects of cancer through the work of over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses.

Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured.

For further information about Cancer Research UK's work or to find out how to support the charity, please call 0300 123 1022 or visit http://www.cancerresearchuk.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About the Medical Research Council Cancer Unit:

The Medical Research Council (MRC) Cancer Unit undertakes world-leading research into the earliest steps in cancer development that can be translated into clinical practice to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. Its research programmes encompass a range of areas including the BRCA2-related forms of inherited cancers and the role of genomic instability in cancer progression, linkages between cancer and metabolism, cancer stem cells, the role of the tumour microenvironment in cancer development and cancer of the oesophagus. The Unit is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, and is part of the University of Cambridge. http://www.mrc-cu.cam.ac.uk

About the Medical Research Council:

The Medical Research Council has been 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. Twenty-two 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. http://www.mrc.ac.uk

About the 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 the 'Cambridge cluster', which employs 60,000 people and has in excess of 12 billion in turnover generated annually by the 4,700 knowledge-intensive firms in and around the city. The city publishes 341 patents per 100,000 residents. 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The US Canadian dollar (USD/CAD) exchange rate has extended gains on Thursday, quoted +0.17% higher at 1.30472, up from 1.3013 at the time FED Minutes on Wednesday.

Analysts at Scotiabank suggest the Canadian dollar will weaken further vs the US dollar in their latest daily FX analysis:

Key Quotes:

"CAD is soft, extending Tuesdays bearish turn and underperforming all of the G10 currencies as we enter Thursdays NA session.

"Oil prices are weak as we note broad declines across global, North American and Canadian benchmarks.

"The outlook for relative central bank policy is delivering added pressure as market participants firm their expectations for Fed tightening in the aftermath of Wednesdays FOMC minutes.

"Longer-term yield spreads are also widening and the 10Y U.S.-Canada spread is nearing 70bpts at levels last seen in late July. Near-term domestic risk is limited ahead of Fridays highly anticipated CPI and retail sales data.

"Measures of implied CAD volatility are fading their recent declines and lifting the cost of protection against CAD weakness

Above: USD/CAD exchange rate chart showing gradual rise since FED MinutesRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that the lack of dialogue between the Russian military and NATO is aggravating the tensions.

"We will be ready for larger-scale provocations too. But our answer is very simple  if they talk to us through the media, we will respond through the media too, but specifically and in a correct manner," the Russian top diplomat said, answering questions from RT France, Paris Match and Le Figaro.

Lavrov said a third world war is an unimaginable scenario, noting that "everybody would be sane enough not to let it happen."However, an aggravating factor is the absence of any dialogue between the Russian military and NATO.

The minister said that tensions are still high between the two sides. "Thank God, there were no casualties, but what if it would have landed on Russian soil? Everything is so close there," RT cited Lavrov as saying.

The minister stressed that it all comes as the US is updating its nuclear doctrine. "Theyre creating low-power nuclear weapons with a clear intent to potentially use them in combat," he noted.

"The toxic political climate in European capitals and Washington makes mending ties extremely hard," the diplomat said. While the European Commission remains "trapped" by countries opposing reconciliation with Russia, the American elites are also fueling tensions. I think its silly to remain hostages to the whim of American lawmakers," Lavrov said.Privacy Settings

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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva has met with a delegation led by President of the Senate of the Italian Republic Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, Trend reports.

According to Azertac, the meeting was held at Azerbaijan`s national pavilion at Milan Expo-2015 World Exhibition, which was reconstructed in the territory of the Seaside National Park.Proposals now under consideration in Congress to expand U.S. sanctions on Russias big state banks could cause major turmoil for global energy supplies, an American business group warns.

It will be a huge disruption to the global energy trading system -- like Rusal, but multiple times worse, if new limits hit all the major Russian state lenders at once, Alexis Rodzianko, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, said in an interview in Moscow. The April decision to sanction aluminum giant United Co. Rusal continues to roil global markets for the metal.

Hitting state banks, which dominate the Russian financial sector and work closely with energy giants in the worlds largest oil-and-gas exporter, would be a scorched-earth approach to diplomacy, according to Rodzianko.

RELATED: Trade war expected to curtail U.S plastics exports to China

Congress could take up bills envisioning new sanctions in the coming weeks. Passage isnt expected until after the Nov. 6 midterm elections, but support for increasing pressure on Russia is strong in both parties. The main bills under consideration include broad limits on transactions with some or all of Russias big state-owned banks, including giants like Sberbank and VTB Bank.

Its highly unlikely to be all state banks, given the potentially broad impact of such a move, Rodzianko said. It may be a less significant bank that is chosen as an example. The bills include Gazprombank, Rosselkhozbank, Vnesheconombank and Promsvyazbank as potential targets, as well.

Rodzianko said the U.S. seems to have realized the Rusal sanctions were too sweeping and thus has granted delays to allow the company and its customers to adapt.

SUPPLY: Texas oil production to grow by 68,000 next month

Russian state banks, which control 60% of the countrys financial industry, service the majority of transactions for energy exporters. Thats a trend thats accelerated since Rosneft and Gazprom were first subjected to more limited sanctions in 2014.

If there are sanctions that threaten foreign trade, either through outright bans or limits on payments, naturally that would be a huge risk to the energy market, said Deputy Finance Minister Vladimir Kolychev. The initial reaction would be massive and its hard to say how long it would take for things to calm down.

Exporters could try to switch their business to non-sanctioned Russian banks or foreign financial institutions. But this would create huge difficulties -- it would be a massive undertaking, said Alexander Danilov, an analyst at Fitch Ratings Ltd.

CRISIS: Saudi Arabia breaks 45-year taboo with veiled oil weapon threat

In addition to targeting state banks, the two main bills in the Senate -- S.336, dubbed by one if its authors as the bill from Hell, and S.2313 -- also envision restrictions on purchases of new government debt.

Going after Russian sovereign debt is in the category of moves that are tough enough to hurt but not so tough they blow up in your face, according to Dan Fried, a former State Department official in charge of sanctions policy.

As currently drafted, the bill from Hell would take effect immediately on passage, while the latter would require a finding by U.S. intelligence of Russia meddling in elections to trigger the new restrictions. Either plan is likely to face significant amendments if it advances in Congress.

Even if the legislature doesnt act immediately, the administration also could tighten sanctions under existing law. A decision could come as soon as next month on further penalties for Russias alleged role in nerve-agent poisoning in the U.K. this spring. German officials have said they expect the U.S. to impose restrictions on the Nord Stream 2 gas-pipeline project from Russia potentially before the end of the year, as well.

--With assistance from Jake Rudnitsky, Dina Khrennikova and Natasha Doff.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.The holiday season is coming up on us faster than a speeder on I-35, and that means one thing: healthy helpings of turkey, pie and overheated politics at dinner tables all across America.

While this has long been the case, this years gatherings  mirroring the tribal times in which we live  threaten to be more divisive than ever. While thats bad news for those who want to crawl into the new year with their spirits and Facebook friends list intact, its good news for actor Ike Barinholtz, whose darkly acidic sociopolitical comedy The Oath, in which he stars with Tiffany Haddish and John Cho, gleefully taps into the frustrations and fireworks of a family holiday overwhelmed by whatever is coming out of Washington.

Set in an America thats only slightly more dystopic than our own, The Oath, opening Friday, envisions a country in which the government decides that every citizen should sign a loyalty oath, with the day after Thanksgiving as the deadline. Now, no one has to sign, but if you dont, you might just get a friendly visit from a newly formed security force.

Barinholtz is Chris, an overbearing and self-righteously liberal cable-TV news junkie whos outraged that so many of his friends and family, liberal and conservative alike, have chosen the path of least resistance and signed the oath. Barinholtzs real-life brother, Jon, plays Chris conservative brother, Pat, who, along with his girlfriend, gladly signed the oath and dont see what all the fuss is about. Haddish is Kai, Chris more even-keeled wife, who just wants to get through Thanksgiving without the carving knife being used for more than turkey slices.

The Oath, Barinholtzs directorial debut, may be speculative, comedic fiction, but its rooted in a serious reality everyone can recognize. In fact, it was inspired by a Thanksgiving dinner at the Barinholtz household in 2016, after the election of President Donald Trump.

I think a lot of people were kind of, on both sides, shocked, Barinholtz said during an interview at a downtown Houston hotel. My mother, my brother and I got in this pretty heated argument.  We were going back and forth, and it just kind of struck me that night as I was in bed, I was like, How did that happen? We all voted for the same person. Then, as I woke up the next day, I just thought about that kind of claustrophobic feeling of everyone being in the house with this kind of looming political crisis thats stressing everyone out.

But Barinholtz, 41, whose best known as an actor in such films as Blockers and Neighbors as well as the TV series The Mindy Project, thinks its a mistake to see The Oath strictly in political terms. I really dont look at this as a political movie per se, he said. I really look at it as a family movie, and an American movie. Its really about politics and the news cycle, how people react to it. And how a lot of otherwise smart, rational peoples brains break.

He also said he didnt want to simply lionize liberals and demonize conservatives. My character in the movie is the most liberal character, (and) hes the most insufferable jerk. He just exhibits nothing but bad behavior and poor judgment.

The worst version of this movie is like a liberal fantasy, where my character is so altruistic and noble, and his heart is in the right place, and hes going to fight the idiots. Thats the movie that very few people want to see. I dont want to see that movie. I want to see a movie with deeply flawed people on both sides.

As a kid growing up in Chicago, Barinholtz briefly thought about getting involved in politics himself.

My dad was kind of friendly with some local Chicago politicians, most of whom Im sure are in prison right now, he said with a laugh. I remember being very taken not just by the fun aspect of it  theres free doughnuts and stuff  but, at least from my young, naive point of view, there was this really amazing thing happening where someone who really cares is talking to someone who needs help. There was something about that that seemed very noble to me. I liked watching Ronald Reagan and really liked watching Bill Clinton.

But, once in college and after, he drifted into acting and comedy, taking classes at the famed Second City. In Amsterdam, he became part of the Boom Chicago troupe that also included comedians Jordan Peele and Joshua Meyers, all of whom would go on to be part of the Mad TV cast.

The Oath turns out not to just be timely because of Thanksgiving but because of the midterm elections on Nov. 6. That meant a quick turnaround.

We shot it last November, December and then you have the five, six-month post (editing) process, Barinholtz said. Now, weve got arguably the biggest election of our lifetimes coming up, and I know people are going to be inundated with politics. But this is a chance to come and laugh at it.

You get to watch that family break down  and its not your family  so its fun.

cary.darling@chron.com6 cloves garlic

 large white onion, quartered

3 serrano chiles, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped

 cup lard or vegetable oil (see note)

1 pound pork shoulder, cut into -inch dice

2 pounds beef chuck, cut into -inch dice

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon sugar

5  cups water

3 cups dried chile paste (recipe follows)

1/3 cup masa harina

Instructions: Using a food processor, pulse the garlic, onion and serrano chiles to a fine dice, scraping down the sides as necessary. Set aside.

In a large Dutch oven, heat the lard or oil over medium heat; add the onion mixture and fry, stirring constantly until wilted (do not brown), about 2 minutes.

Increase heat to medium high and add the pork and beef and stir until the meat loses its color but is not seared, about 4 minutes. Sprinkle salt, cumin, pepper and sugar over the meat and stir to combine. Pour in water and bring to a boil. Skim foam off the surface. Reduce heat and simmer on medium-low for about an hour.

Add chile paste, stir well and cook for at least another hour or until the meat is tender.

Skim off excess fat (testers note: I took a full cup of fat from the pot).

Mix masa flour with enough hot water to make a loose slurry. Slowly add that to the chili and stir until thickened. Chili can stay on a low simmer for hours until its ready to serve.

Note: Walshs original recipe calls for  cup beef tallow. We substituted lard instead; vegetable oil can be used.

Makes about 8 cups or about 6 servings

Dried Chile Paste

6 cloves garlic, unpeeled

4 dried ancho chile

4 dried guajillo chile

4 dried New Mexico chile (or dried Anaheim)

4 dried chile de arbol

11 cups water, divided

1  teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons lard or vegetable oil

Instructions: In a skillet or comal, toast unpeeled garlic cloves over high heat, turning several times to char the peel, about 3-4 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool.

Stem and seed the chile pods. In a large pot bring 8 cups of water to a boil and turn off heat. Place the chiles in the boiling water (they may have to be weighed down by a plate), put lid on pod and let steep off the heat for half an hour.

In a blender place reconstituted chiles, the peeled garlic, salt and 3 cups water (not the chile water) and process for 5 minutes to a smooth paste. Pass the puree through a strainer into a bowl using a spatula scraping the puree down through the strainer. Discard the solids.

In a skillet or pot over medium-high heat, melt the lard. Add the strained chile puree. Reduce to low and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Makes about 3 cups2 1 of 2 UT Southwestern Medical Center Show More Show Less 2 of 2 UT Southwestern Medical Center Show More Show Less



A Dallas biochemist has been tapped as one of the 2019 recipients of the richest and glitziest award in science, the fourth such Texan to be honored since the prize was established by a group of tech billionaires seven years ago.

James Chen, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, will receive a Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences at a red-carpet ceremony at the NASA Ames Research Center in the Silicon Valley Nov. 4. Chen is being honored for illuminating how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell.As hard as it is to resist writing about the fact that today the president of the United States called the porn star to whom he paid hush money "Horseface," I want to focus on a different aspect of this presidency that we're seeing play out right now.

As the apparent murder of Saudi journalist and Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi complicates our relations with Saudi Arabia, we have to ask what the implications are of having a fully transactional presidency, one not just built on "deals" but where policy is determined by what is financially beneficial to the president.

We should begin by reminding ourselves that as awful as Khashoggi's apparent murder is, it's only the latest in a long list of Saudi abuses that administrations both Democratic and Republican have chosen to overlook for decades. The country is a cruel dictatorship that embodies none of the values we as a nation hold dear, like democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, or freedom of religion. But we decided long ago that since the Saudis have a great deal of oil and they provide us with a strategic ally in the Middle East, we'll overlook all that.

There is something unsettling about the fact that Saudi intervention in Yemen's civil war, in which they have reportedly killed thousands of civilians, has received steady American support, while the murder of a single journalist threatens to upend the relationship between the two countries.

Or so you might think. But here's the reality: This will blow over, not only because of the complex relationship between the two countries, but because everything in foreign policy is personal with Trump, and he likes the Saudis.

And why does he like them so much? Because they pay him.

This is not something Trump has been shy about saying. "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million," he said at a rally in Alabama in 2015. "Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."

Trump says so many shocking things that it's sometimes easy to slide right past the most appalling ones, but read that again. Here you have a candidate for president of the United States saying that he is favorably disposed toward a foreign country because they have given him millions of dollars, and all but promising to shape American foreign policy in their favor for that very reason.

"Am I supposed to dislike them?" he asks. How could I possibly dislike them when they pay me?

We should note that it's more than just apartments. Trump has sold many properties to Saudis, and Saudis have invested in Trump projects. And as David Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell report:

"Business from Saudi-connected customers continued to be important after Trump won the presidency. Saudi lobbyists spent $270,000 last year to reserve rooms at Trump's hotel in Washington. Just this year, Trump's hotels in New York and Chicago reported significant upticks in bookings from Saudi visitors."

This is precisely the reason the Framers put in the Constitution a provision saying that neither the president nor other officials could "accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." If a foreign country is putting money in the president's pocket on an ongoing basis, how in the world can we trust that the decisions he makes will be based on the best interests of the United States and not on his bank account?

This is of more concern with Trump than with any other president in American history. His entire life has been devoted to the accumulation of wealth, as though there were no other goal anyone should consider seeking ("My whole life I've been greedy, greedy, greedy. I've grabbed all the money I could get. I'm so greedy," he has said). He made sure that upon assuming office his businesses would continue to operate and continue to provide avenues for those wishing to further enrich him to do so. And he refuses to release his tax returns, so we have no idea exactly how much money he's getting and from whom.

But today, Trump tweeted this:

"For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!"

This is the same claim Trump has made with regard to Russia, and it's the same dodge. The point isn't whether Trump has interests in Saudi Arabia, it's whether Saudi Arabia has interests in him. And just as is the case with Russia, they do.

If you're the Saudis, the nice thing about Trump is that he lacks any subtlety whatsoever, so you don't have to wonder how to approach him. He has said explicitly that the way to win his favor is to give him money. He has established means for you to do so - buying Trump properties and staying in Trump hotels. And with his combination of narcissism and insecurity, if you invite him to your country and give him a gold medal, he'll forever be your friend.

Every president has to balance the desire to honor American values with more crass interests like whether a country will buy weapons from us, which Trump also cited as a reason we shouldn't punish Saudi Arabia for Jamal Khashoggi's murder (even though they aren't actually buying what Trump claims). But only Trump gets direct and significant payoffs from other countries, and only Trump is so clear that if you pay him he'll do what you want. That may not have changed the American stance toward Saudi Arabia too much yet, but we have no idea what's to come.Armenias acting Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan urged journalists on Thursday not to look for anti-Armenian sentiments in the decision of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to change the venue of a meeting of its Parliamentary Assembly (PA) that was slated for October 29-30 in Yerevan. The gathering will be held instead in Russias capital Moscow, Arka News Agency reported.



The decision was prompted by the widely anticipated dissolution of the Armenian parliament, although the deputies will continue to perform their duties until a new parliament is elected. The next plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of CSTO will be held in Yerevan.



We need to treat this issue pragmatically, whether the meeting takes place in Armenia or elsewhere. I dont see any problem. We are ready to participate in the meeting and theres no need to look for anything contradictory in this decision. This is a very pragmatic approach, Mnatsakanyan said.City Council unanimously approved selling more than 3 acres to the University of Texas at San Antonio to be used for its new National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science.

The land  bounded by South Santa Rosa, Dolorosa, South Flores and West Nueva streets  will be sold to UTSA for $7.3 million.

The expansion is expected to attract Fortune 500 companies to San Antonio and establish the city as a hub for technology and national security, officials said.

On ExpressNews.com: UTSA plans downtown growth on city and county land

Council members heaped praise on University President Taylor Eighmy for making expansion of the downtown campus a priority and securing millions of dollars to fund the capital project.

You have come in and really taken the reins and just been so focused and visionary, Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran told Eighmy, who has been the UTSA president just over a year. This is going to be a game changer for the entire city of San Antonio and the region.

UTSA has already secured $70 million from the states Permanent University Fund as well as a $15 million gift from businessman Graham Weston for the project.

Three council members  Greg Brockhouse, John Courage and Clayton Perry  expressed frustration they were not included in city-university talks earlier in the process, but conceded the plan is good for San Antonio.

Its a wonderful vision, Dr. Eighmy, I am not disputing that, Brockhouse said before addressing city staffers. But I also have a vision where every member of this body is included in discussion at the earliest possible time ... I call on the mayor to please include everybody in every decision regardles of their beliefs or opposition or political means.

The university also is planning to build a College of Business downtown. County Judge Nelson Wolff has publicly pledged his commitment to get the county to transfer 2.6 acres to the university for that project. The county land is in the same area as the land UTSA is buying from the city, a few blocks east of the universitys core downtown campus.

The next hurdle to clear for that project will be securing $126 million in tuition revenue bonds during the upcoming legislative session.

Krista Torralva covers several school districts and public universities in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | Krista.Torralva@express-news.net | Twitter: @KMTorralvaThe City Council, with its approval Thursday of an ambitious makeover plan for Alamo Plaza, opened a new chapter in the nearly 300-year history of San Antonios most famous public square.

After listening to 44 speakers on both sides, the council voted 9-2 in favor of a long list of changes including controversial elements, such as moving the Cenotaph 500 feet south to a location outside the footprint of the historic fort and mission.

Council members John Courage and Clayton Perry cast the two no votes.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg called the decision a turning point that finally gives the Alamo the reverent treatment that it deserves.

Among major changes in store for the plaza:

Mike Fisher

Closing parts of Alamo and Houston streets to vehicle traffic; restricting access to nearby streets;

Enlarging the space available for exhibits and storytelling by removing streets and the Cenotaph;

Constructing a museum and visitors center on the west side of the plaza, using the existing historic commercial buildings or tearing those down;

Marking the original footprint of the mission-fort with some sort of 42-inch-tall railing, fencing or landscaping with access controlled by gates;

Removing existing businesses from the footprint;

Re-routing the Battle of Flowers and Fiesta Flambeau parades.

The vote Thursday comes after decades of concerns and complaints that the plaza, now bustling with noise from cars, trucks, buses and amusement attractions that lease storefront space in the plaza buildings, lacks the respectful character befitting a mission and battle site. In 1994, an Alamo Plaza Study Committee recommended what is essentially the plan today though it was never fully enacted.

Changes to the plaza are estimated to cost $450 million, with $38 million committed by the city and $106 million by the Texas General Land Office, including $75 million appropriated last year by the Legislature. It will be up to the nonprofit Alamo Endowment to raise the rest of the money for the museum and other site improvements. The goal for completion is January 2024.

The council vote included the approval of a 50-year lease that gives management and control of the plaza, though still owned by the city, to the Land Office, which operates the state-owned Alamo buildings.

The public comments and council discussion, which together lasted nearly five hours, repeated many of the points made since the debate started this spring. Proponents, many wearing amber-colored T-shirts with the words One Alamo, said the revamped plaza, with the new museum, will ensure visitors and residents alike will remember the Alamo with more depth, passion and authenticity.

Sherry Driscoll, director of education at the Alamo, urged the council to vote in favor. She said many of the regular visitors to the plaza, from streakers to street preachers, detract from her efforts to tell the sites multilayered history to children and families.

They want to understand what happened here that makes it so important to Texas, she said. This is the Alamo. It deserves more. Please make this a reality for Texas schoolchildren.

Land Commissioner George P. Bush characterized the plan and the lease as a unique partnership between the city, state and philanthropists. He said the plan has changed in response to concerns and criticisms.

We cant allow the Alamo of tomorrow to be a decaying relic, Bush said.

Opponents lamented the loss of an important open space, the possible demolition of historic buildings and the forfeiture of the Cenotaphs choice location.

Among the opponents, Susan Beavin, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society, presented petitions with 7,600 signatures of people against the plan.

The proposed limitations on access convey the opposite message of the Alamo as a symbol of freedom, she said.

Perry and Courage tried to alter several aspects of the plan.

Courage made a motion to scratch relocation of the Cenotaph from the lease. That motion failed.

Perry said the railings that would surround the plaza would violate the spirit of a deed agreement with the Catholic Church from an 1871 purchase by the city of part of the plaza that stipulated the area would be dedicated to the public use as an open space.

I dont agree with closing the plaza. I dont agree with moving the Cenotaph, said Perry, who proposed an amendment to the lease to require that all six plaza entrances remain open at all hours. It also failed.

Alamo officials, in trying to address fears about the publics access, have said that on most days, there would be a single entry point between the museum and the plaza, although two more entries could be opened on busy days. While the museum is closed, from about 6 p.m. to 9 a.m., the plaza could be accessed from six entry points.

Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales said she also was worried about plaza access, preservation of buildings and interpretation of history before the battle. She questioned whether the Land Office would be a good partner for the city since it acted unwilling to modify the lease.

Thats not the kind of partnership I like to get into, when they tell you there are things that are not negotiable, she said.

But she also was hopeful that the project would provide for a broader, more diverse telling of San Antonio and Texas history.

We dont want the John Wayne version of the Alamo to continue, Gonzales said, referring to the 1960 movie, The Alamo.

Council members Ana Sandoval and Greg Brockhouse said the publics input made the plan better. Brockhouse noted that last years Alamo plan proposed moving the Cenotaph farther south, to a pocket park on Market Street, where one of the post-battle funeral pyres is believed to have burned.

The public engagement is what kept it in the plaza, Brockhouse said.

If the public hadnt been as engaged as they were, I think this would be a different plan, Sandoval later added.

Sue Ann Pemberton, a former conservation society president and architect now serving as co-chair of the 30-member Alamo Citizen Advisory Committee, said approval of the plan allows the design to begin in earnest.

The design is not perfect, but it is not finished, she said. Im confident that many of my concerns will be addressed as the design moves forward.

The next steps include a fund-raising campaign; a study of the potential reuse of the historic commercial buildings on the plaza; hiring of an architect by the Land Office to design the museum; development of a Cenotaph repair plan by the Office of Historic Preservation; and review of the updated plan by the Texas Historical Commission, which has oversight of the Cenotaph, buildings and future excavations in the plaza.

Officials have said actual construction could begin in 2020 with street closures and repair of the Cenotaph, to be disassembled and rebuilt with a new stainless steel frame. Studies have shown the monument is structurally unsound, having been affected by rainwater infiltration and could pose a future public safety hazard if not repaired.

Councilman Roberto Trevino, who serves with City Manager Sheryl Sculley on a six-member management committee guiding the project, said the traditions of the Fiesta parades and other important customs celebrated at the site can remain intact as the plan evolves.

Were not trying to get rid of any traditions whatsoever. Were simply trying to reveal more history, he said.

One promise made during the meeting: The plaza and Alamo grounds will remain free to visitors though the museum would charge admission.

Scott Huddleston is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSAThe city of Dilley has signed a deal with the federal government that will provide the city more than $600,000 a year to keep open the largest family immigrant detention center in the country.

In September, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed contracts with the small town south of San Antonio and Nashville, Tennessee-based CoreCivic to keep operating the 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center, which holds women and children.

ICE will pay Dilley, which has a population of about 4,000, roughly $13 million a month for the cost of detaining immigrants at the facility, according to the contracts which were first obtained by the Associated Press. Dilley will then send almost all of that money to CoreCivic, minus administrative fees that add up to an estimated $438,000 a year.

Dilley already collects annual revenue-sharing payments from CoreCivic, with $200,000 due in December. CoreCivic will continue operating a facility that generated $171 million in revenue last year, according to the Associated Press reports.

The Dilley City Council met in closed session in mid-September to discuss the two contracts. Interim city manager David Jordan said Wednesday that the potential arrangement was included in the agenda posted publicly before the meeting, and it was announced during the open portion of the meeting as it was approved by the council. Jordan signed the contracts the day after the meeting.

There was nothing secret about the contract, Jordan said.

ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said Tuesday that the agency created the agreement with Dilley in response to the inspector generals concerns about ICEs previous arrangement with the city of Eloy, Arizona. The new agreement with Dilley took effect Sept. 26.

A government report in February by the internal watchdog of ICEs parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, knocked ICEs previous contract, signed in 2014, because it created an unnecessary middleman by having the contract pass through the coffers of Eloy.

The departments Office of Inspector General found that ICE could offer no assurance that the contract was in the best interest of the federal government, taxpayers or detainees. The report criticized ICEs contracting method for detention centers that are operated  on paper at least  by local governments.

Under the Obama administration, ICE rushed to open the South Texas Family Residential Center to hold a flood of immigrants coming here from Central America, and in that haste, the agency modified its existing contract with Eloy.

The Corrections Corporation of America, then known as CCA, received the contract to operate the Dilley facility in 2014. The company changed its name to CoreCivic in 2016.

In its response included in the OIG report, ICE officials defended their pass-through deal that included Eloy. But since then, ICE decided to cut Eloy out, and the $438,000 the small Arizona town received now will go to Dilley.

The change in (the intergovernmental) agreements does not affect operations at STFRC, ICEs Pruneda said.

There are 1,975 people currently detained at the Dilley facility. Some of the families at Dilley were reunited in detention after being separated under the Trump administrations controversial zero-tolerance policy that was halted in June.

The facilitys administrator since 2015 is Wesley J. Lee, who retired from ICE.

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Texas Republican Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto ORourke clashed in a series of sharp exchanges Tuesday night in the second and possibly final debate of their closely watched Senate race.

The two, locked in an unexpectedly tight race in deep red Texas, sought to seize the momentum in heated skirmishes about guns, taxes, immigration and  most significantly  core Texas values they both claim to represent.

Both staked out familiar positions that made their differences plain on issues like the Republican tax cuts, which ORourke called a deficit-funded giveaway to the rich, and Democratic proposals for universal health care, which Cruz called socialized medicine.

One of the leading questions going into Tuesdays debate was whether ORourke would be more aggressive toward Cruz, who has seen a bump in some recent polls since their first debate last month in Dallas, when the Republican often was on the attack.

For subscribers: Beto ORourkes ties to his wealthy family draw scrutiny, and attack ads

ORourke was quick with an answer.

Hes dishonest, ORourke said in response to Cruzs charge that he favors a $10 a barrel tax on oil. Thats why the president called him Lyin Ted. And thats why the nickname stuck. Because its true.

ORourke took the first shot in the debate when he attacked Cruz for paying more than $5 million for political services from Cambridge Analytica, the data firm that accessed private information from 50 million Facebook users to influence voters in the 2016 presidential election.

The very company that helped to undermine our democracy, said ORourke, who also blasted Cruz for failing to stand up to President Donald Trump: He wont stand up to him, and he wont stand up for us.

Cruz faulted ORourke for votes against special tax benefits for victims of Hurricane Harvey and for votes he said effectively would result in a $10-a-barrel tax on oil.

That would have been absolutely devastating to the state of Texas, Cruz said.

He called ORourkes record on energy and in favor of abortion rights extreme. He also repeatedly criticized ORourke for saying he would be open to impeaching Trump, a move Cruz said would lead to a political circus.

ORourke reminded viewers of Cruzs role in a 2013 government shutdown over funding for the Affordable Care Act, which ORourke supports.

Its really interesting for you to talk about a partisan circus, after your last six years in the U.S. Senate, ORourke said to laughter in the small studio audience.

Tuesdays debate took place less than a week before early voting in the midterm election begins Oct. 22.

The Cruz campaign took note of ORourkes more aggressive posture.

When youre down 10, you better do something, right? Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said.

One more debate?

It was to be the third debate in the nationally watched race. But the second, scheduled Sept. 30 in Houston, was canceled when it appeared that Cruz would be tied up in the Senates confirmation process for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Behind the scenes, the two campaigns have continued to negotiate another potential debate Thursday as part of a previously scheduled CNN town hall in McAllen.

After a joint town hall fell through, ORourke accepted an invitation to appear separately, along with a rally headlined by Los Tigres del Norte, a popular norteno group.

For ORourke, Tuesdays encounter was a chance to build on the momentum of his monstrous fundraising, which has seen him raise more than three times as much as Cruz over the past three months.

The El Paso congressmans $38.1 million was the largest fundraising quarter ever for a U.S. Senate race  all raised without the help of political action committees.

RELATED: Beto ORourke tops $60M, obliterating Texas campaign finance record

Cruz, who raised a still-hefty $12 million over the same period, has been buoyed by a series of polls showing him with a consistent lead over ORourke, reflecting Texas historically conservative orientation.

Most recent polling in the race has given Cruz a high-single-digit lead, with the average margin going into Tuesdays debate favoring the Republican incumbent by 7 points, according to Real Clear Politics.

Nevertheless, the Cook Political Report recently moved the Senate races rating from Lean Republican to Toss Up.

Like Republicans across the nation, Cruz has sought to rally the GOP base in the aftermath of the Kavanaugh confirmation battle, arguing it underscored the stakes in the election. He accused Senate Democrats of smearing Kavanaugh.

ORourke, who opposed Kavanaughs nomination, questioned Cruzs record on other judicial nominations, noting he had promoted the nomination of Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Mateer, who has called transgender children part of Satans plan.

Cruz has sought to portray himself as the target of a national effort to reorient Texas politics.

Every left-wing radical in the country wants to turn Texas blue, he told supporters at a recent rally leading up to the debate in San Antonio. And they are sending their money to Comrade Beto.

Much like in their first debate  when Cruz labeled ORourkes agenda as socialism  Cruz used Tuesdays debate to paint his Democratic opponent as a leftist in the mold of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Look, all youve heard from Sen. Cruz is what we should be afraid of, ORourke said. Its a campaign based on fear  I want to bring people of Texas together.

Despite his past rivalry with Trump, Cruz is banking on a boost from the White House next Monday when the president holds a long-promised rally for Cruz and other Texas Republicans at the NRG arena in Houston.

Some Texas Democrats see Trumps arrival as a sign of GOP concern about Texas, where a Democrat hasnt been elected to statewide office since 1994.

Cruz closed out the hourlong debate defending Trump and the Republicans control of Congress.

Elections are about choices. Do we continue the path that were on, or do we turn back? Cruz said. I want to keep the economic boom were experiencing right now moving forward.A continued threat of flooding is forecast in parts of Central Texas as more rain is expected in the area and dams along the swollen Colorado River release water downstream, officials said Wednesday.

National Weather Service forecaster Jason Runyen said the already-saturated area was expected to get an additional 1 to 2 inches of rain Thursday and Friday, with some isolated areas getting as much as 4 inches of rain.

Its not going to take hardly anything to cause additional issues with flash flooding and river flooding, Runyen said.

In Llano, one woman was found dead near West Sandstone and Flag streets, county officials said. Though the woman's family has been notified, officials declined to release the woman's identity Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, another body was removed from the floodwaters of Lake Lyndon B. Johnson near Kingsland.

More than 10 inches of rain have fallen in the area since Monday, where the ground was already saturated from previous stormy weeks. The Llano River crested at near-record levels Tuesday and flooding reached the towns of Llano and Kingsland, affecting phones, internet and water treatment facilities.

Boil water notices were issued in the area, and the county is setting up distribution centers to hand out water and ice.

The Texas Game Warden Search and Rescue team answered 40 calls for service resulting in 24 rescues and 5 evacuations as of Tuesday night.

One high-water rescue captured on camera in Kingsland showed a woman climbing into a game warden boat from the second story of a home.

Llano County Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Anderson said Wednesday that while the Llano River had gone down after cresting on Tuesday, he cautioned that there was still a threat of more rain and other hazards were present after the floods.

There are roadways that are impassable, some have been washed out. There is debris. Homes that have been evacuated are going to have to be evaluated before we can say that they are safe to re-enter, Anderson said.

He said that with more rain in the forecast, we really arent sure if this disaster has unfolded.

Ron Anderson, the county's emergency management coordinator, said the Llano River did not crest again Wednesday morning as was expected. Instead, the river levels receded to about 12.5 feet, which is still in the moderate flood stage.

"That doesn't mean it's not hazardous out there still," Anderson said.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to four additional inches of rain in isolated areas throughout the region today and Friday.

County officials are monitoring the forecast and plan to notify residents if flash flooding occurs again.

Several other waterways and lakes were affected as a result of all the rain. Flooding was reported in the Nueces, Colorado and Guadalupe river basins.

The runoff inundated Central Texas lakes. Lake Travis, for example, was above the major flood stage Wednesday morning, reaching 696 feet.

Officials are opening up dams and releasing water to alleviate the issue, which will likely result in minor floods in surrounding river basins.

Closer to San Antonio, officials said Canyon Lake also reached maximum capacity. Water will be released from there beginning at 1 p.m. Wednesday until about Friday.

Property owners in that area are urged to keep an eye on river flows and take caution as the water gets released.

In Leander, school bus driver Nathan Deyoung was arrested and fired Tuesday after he allegedly drove around a barrier through a low-water crossing with a student on board.

Deyoung is facing charges of failing to obey warning signs/barricades over road and endangering a child. A Leander Independent School District employee since August, Deyoung drove around a barricade blocking a low-water crossing on Country Road 177 at about 8:30 a.m. and became stranded in floodwaters at Brushy Creek, according to district officials.

Leander police and fire officials rescued Deyoung and the student, who was treated at the scene and released to family.

Deyoung was then arrested and later fired by Leander ISD for the incident.

Staff writers Caleb Downs and Fares Sabawi contributed to this story.Marcela Para, a caseworker, had just started her day at a community health and social service ministry, when a Salvadoran-born woman slid nervously into the chair before her, clutching tightly the card proving her legal residency, issued only a month earlier.

Para smiled brightly, explaining that the woman and her two children, both U.S. citizens, were eligible for a variety of assistance programs, including Medicaid and subsidized medical care through Harris Health System. First, though, she would need to make a copy of the womans green card to begin the application for health benefits. The woman froze.

She told Para she had heard rumors that if she applied for public assistance the government would use it against her, maybe even take her card away. Will this affect my status? she asked, her words tumbling out in Spanish.

Its a question asked more often as the Trump administration moves forward in tightening a century-old policy designed to discourage poor immigrants from becoming a burden by using too many services, including those for income, health, housing and food.

The new, so-called public charge rules, unveiled in draft form last month by the Department of Homeland Security, have unleashed panic and confusion among immigrant communities across the nation even among those the change will not touch. The rules are aimed at immigrants applying for green cards that grant permanent residency or seeking temporary visas for work or school, but they have generated so much fear that even immigrants unaffected by the change have stopped enrolling in assistance programs for which they are eligible or dropped off the rolls.

Explaining Trumps proposed public charge policy What is a public charge: It is an designation that has been used since the 1880s to limit immigration of those considered undesirable. The term means a person is or will become too dependent on the government. The government can deny them changes to their legal permanent resident status or entrance to the U.S. What is changing: The Department of Homeland Security has proposed sweeping new rules to scrutinize an immigrant's use in the past three years and the likely future use of one or more federal programs for certain income, health, food and housing assistance. In addition, other factors will be part of the calculation, including income, age, insurance status, health, employment and education. Who it will affect: Primarily non-citizens seeking a green card from within or outside the U.S., typically through a family-based petition. It will also affect those seeking adjustments or extensions of temporary visas. It could potentially impact current green card holders who leave the U.S. for six months or longer and then want to return. Who it won't affect: Legal citizens, most who already hold a green card, refugees and those who are seeking or have been granted asylum. Also, the use of public programs by other family members, such as children, will not count against someone in a public charge determination. What assistance programs will be included as factors: Supplemental Security Income (SSI); Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps; Section 8 Housing voucher program and rental assistance; non-emergency Medicaid with the exception of certain disability services and benefits to foreign-born children of U.S. citizen parents; Medicare Part D- low-income subsidy program, subsidized public housing; institutionalized long-term care at government expense; federal, state, or local cash assistance programs. Which are new: SNAP, Section 8 housing assistance, non-emergency Medicaid, need-based Medicare Part D, subsidized housing. What about Affordable Care Act subsidies or Children's Health Insurance Program: At this time neither is considered in determining public charge status. However, the government has asked for public comment on whether to include CHIP. Why is this happening: DHS has said the new rules will promote greater self-sufficiency among immigrants. What is next: The changes are still under review. On Wednesday a 447-page draft of the new policy was entered into the federal record which started a 60-day period of public comment. DHS will then issue final regulations and an effective date. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, Department of Homeland Security See More Collapse

Undocumented immigrants arent eligible to receive food stamps - or SNAP, which stands for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program  but their native-born children may be, said Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank.

His staff has seen a 15 percent decline in the number of people applying for SNAP at the food bank, even those who might be eligible. Applications dropped from 22,297 last year to 18,804 this year.

The process of applying for SNAP is already so complex, this just adds another level of stress, Cooper said. The proposed changes seem to have really clouded the water. People are afraid of making a mistake. They just decide against getting the benefit, if it means their citizenship status could be in jeopardy.

While a stronger economy may be behind the reduction in food stamp applications, Cooper thinks immigrants fear of being scrutinized under the proposed changes is a significant factor.

He said undocumented immigrants can access the food banks emergency food supplies, as well as the many food pantries, most of them housed in churches, in San Antonio and beyond, without having to divulge their citizenship status. But thats hardly a long-term solution to nutrition issues, he said.

At ECHOS in Houston where Para works, applications for government-funded health care programs for children are down 23 percent from year ago. Renewals for Childrens Medicaid, the federal health insurance for the poor, are down 28 percent. Renewals for food stamps have plunged by one-third, although that doesnt necessarily mean people are no longer in need. The number of families using the agencys food bank have nearly tripled.

It is a result of families being too fearful to apply despite they are eligible for the services, said Cathy Moore, executive director of ECHOS. They think it will put a target on their back.

RELATED: Mexican tourist denied entry at Bush after questions on Medicaid use, extensive visits

The stated goal of new policy is to encourage self-sufficiency so immigrants will not depend on public resources to meet their needs, but rather rely on their own capabilities, as well as the resources of family members, sponsors, and private organizations. But discouraging immigrants in general from using government benefits  including those unaffected by the rule change  appears to be part the Trump administrations plan.

Buried in the 447-page document detailing the policy was this assertion: Research shows that when eligibility rules change for public benefits programs, there is evidence of a chilling effect that discourages immigrants from using public benefits programs for which they are still eligible.

In a statement last month, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson said the measure would protect the finite resources by ensuring that (immigrants) are not likely to become burdens on American taxpayers.

The policy remains under review during 60-day comment period that began last week. Once the comment period is complete, the policy will be finalized. It is unclear when it will go into effect.

The notion of immigrant-as-burden dates back to the federal Immigration Act of 1882, which used the public charge designation to deny entrance to those predicted to be unable to support themselves. Always vague, it was often applied unevenly to weed out those considered too poor, sick or otherwise undesirable.

In 1999, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, now known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, issued guidelines that clarified the rule by defining a public charge as someone who was or likely to become dependent on cash-based government assistance such as welfare, or needed long-term institutionalized care at government expense. The guidelines excluded nearly all types of Medicaid, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, known as CHIP, and federal non-cash support programs such as food and housing vouchers.

The Trump administration would now replace those guidelines with stricter ones. Under its proposal, enrollment in one or more public benefits in the previous three years would be considered a heavily weighted negative factor in an immigrants quest for legal residency.

Included are non-emergency Medicaid programs, need-based Medicare prescription drug coverage, SNAP (food stamps), or Section 8 housing vouchers and rental assistance. CHIP is not yet considered a factor in the determination, but the administration has asked for public comment on whether it should be included in the final policy.

The policy also would weigh whether an immigrant seeking legal residency is likely to use benefits in the future based on income, health, insurance status, education and employment.

They are dramatically changing the definition of what a public charge is, said Doug Rand, a former Obama administration official who now leads a technology company helping families navigate the immigration process. They want to reshape who gets to come to the U.S., stay in the U.S. and become a citizen.

Thats not a bad thing, said Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration, a Washington advocacy group that seeks to reduce both legal and illegal immigration. He said providing benefits to immigrants is burdening taxpayers and the outcry over discouraging the immigration of people likely to need help is over-wrought.

It is perfectly logical to say if you are coming here and are likely to become a public charge, we should probably say, No, he said.

The Trump administration has long promised a merit-based immigration policy favoring those with means, higher education and marketable skills, and suggested that it wanted to discourage immigrants who might need public assistance. Shortly after taking office in January 2017, an unsigned executive order tightening immigrant access to public benefits was leaked to the media.

A proposal of changes to the public charge rule was also leaked earlier this year and ever since enrollment among immigrants in assistance programs is dropping. The improving economy could play a role, but immigrant advocates say the timing suggests the declines come from immigrants fear of being targeted for deportation if they provide the government with too much identifying information.

In San Antonio, immigrants who had been using the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children, or WIC, are too frightened to come in now, an official said.

The program provides supplemental nutrition to low-income pregnant or breastfeeding women and infants and children up to age 5.

People are coming and requesting to be taken off the rolls, said Norma Sifuentes, program manager for the 10 WIC clinics run by the Metropolitan Health Department. They dont want services anymore because theyve been advised by their immigration attorneys to cease any type of (public) benefits, including WIC.

Sifuentes said clinic staff are removing them from services which is unfortunate, because if the trend continues, if people are giving up their WIC and Medicaid and CHIP, were going to be seeing a lot of children who are malnourished or not as healthy as they should be.

She said the worried WIC clients include immigrants who are undocumented as well as those holding valid green cards or other legal status.

Unlike programs like SNAP, subsidized housing and Medicaid, WIC is open to undocumented immigrants. Those seeking WIC benefits need only show proof of identification and residency, not proof of U.S. citizenship or even a U.S.-issued license.

We dont even ask that question, about whether people are in the country legally, Sifuentes said.

What we see now is that, because the information is out there, mothers who are undocumented but who have U.S.-born children arent even getting food stamps, even if theyre legally eligible, because theyre worried it will count against them if they try to get citizenship.

State data shows a slight, but steady monthly decline in enrollment in both CHIP and Childrens Medicaid in Texas since the beginning of the year.

At HOPE Clinic in southwest Houston, one father, a green card holder from Mexico, declined to apply for Medicaid for his teenage son, a citizen, even though the rule change would not affect either of them, said Cindy Ahmad, a patient care coordinator. The teenager has behavioral problems and needs treatment, but the father was too skittish to apply for Medicaid while he works toward his own citizenship. He even refused to sign up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Ahmad said.

The father told Ahmad he would pay for treatment as he could.

RELATED: Fearing deportation, undocumented immigrants in Houston are avoiding hospitals and clinics

People who have never been scared before are suddenly looking at their paperwork. They are worried, said Anne Dunkelberg, associate director at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a left-leaning advocacy and research group based in Austin. The biggest story here is the campaign of fear.

Some advocates caution that as immigrants forgo medical treatment, preventable disease could increase and spread. Emergency room visits could rise as overall health and nutrition declines, adding to the upward pressure on health care costs. If patients are unable to pay for more expensive emergency room care, taxpayers typically pay those costs.

Back at ECHOS, Para, the caseworker, enrolled the Salvadoran womans children in Medicaid. But the woman was too wary to renew her own subsidized health care through the Harris Health system. She worried she could lose her green card.

Since she already has legal residency, the woman would be unaffected by the change, but given the climate surrounding immigration these days, Para is reluctant to make too many promises.

I really cant say yes or no, because I dont know, says Para. We dont know where this is going.

The woman gathered her purse, shrugged sheepishly, and walked out the door.

Staff writer Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje contributed to this story.The memory of a beloved teacher who died in an accident while traveling in Uganda over the summer will live on at Rhodes Middle School, thanks to the work of the many people whose lives he touched during his 23-year teaching career.

San Antonio Independent School District board members voted unanimously this week to rename the technology building in honor of the late William E. Davis.

The boards decision will help keep the spirit of Davis alive, said Principal Moises Ortiz, as a bench marker of what may be accomplished when teachers pledge their lives to their school, students and district.

On ExpressNews.com: Rhodes Middle School holds vigil for late teacher

In the weeks after Davis death, students, parents and faculty rallied around a petition to name the facility the William E. Technology Building, gathering more than 2,000 signatures that Ortiz said he was proud to present to the board.

A contingent of family, friends, colleagues and San Antonio Alliance members were at the meeting to witness the board vote Monday evening.

Were grateful for all of the support from students and faculty, said Katy Bravenec, lead organizer with the alliance, the districts non-administrative union. It means a lot.

A determination will be made later whether signage with the new name will be placed inside or outside of the building or in both locations.

At the board meeting, Bravenec said Davis was a voice for his students. She recalled her friend as someone who believed in strong, public neighborhood schools and that local elections mattered. She then asked that those gathered observe a moment of silence for Davis for the remainder of her three minutes of speaking time.

After the vote, board member Patti Radle greeted Davis family and friends at three tables reserved for them. She told the family that the board was pleased to be able to honor their loved one.

We understand your grieving, Radle said before the vote, and we grieve with you.

On ExpressNews.com: Davis remembered for his commitment to students

Davis, 47, died July 17 while in Uganda to deliver letters his students wrote to pen-pals in the African country. The ever-smiling Davis sparked a love of learning in his students that wont soon be forgotten, several said.

In addition to Bravenec, relatives and other faculty from Rhodes rose to speak on Davis behalf before the board voted.

Daviss ex-wife, Viviana, stood with one of their two daughters, Andrea, and thanked everyone for their support.

Viviana Davis, a teacher in SAISD for 18 years, said losing Davis was a sad moment for the family, but it was comforting to know he was so loved by his peers, students and union members that they got a building named after him.

He probably never knew how much he impacted his students, she said. He was so humble that he would never imagine this could happen to him.

Viviana Davis fiance, James Rodriguez, called Davis a close friend who had an engaging personality.

He was still a kid in an adult body, Rodriguez said, his voice breaking, and the world was his backyard. I miss him.

Vincent T. Davis is a reporter in the Greater San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | vtdavis@express-news.net | Twitter: @vincentdavisIts the ninth week of training for Class 1808-P and Nicole Osterman has learned just as much about her partner, a Labrador named Derby, as she has about the security work theyre doing together.

These dogs are amazing, she said, standing outside of a mock aircraft cabin. Were pairing their instinct with providing security to the United States. To be able to do that is a great thing.

Osterman, 25, and Derby are one of 10 teams going through the Transportation Security Administrations national explosives detection canine program, located at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Each year, more than 200 canine teams from across the country train at Lackland to learn how to detect potentially explosive materials that could be a threat to transportation systems.

READ ALSO: Beloved or reviled, Alamo Plaza's urban habitat may not survive looming makeover

Lackland has conducted the canine program since 1972; in 2016, TSA opened a $12 million center at the air base, including new classrooms, an administrative office and a 100-seat auditorium.

There are also 13 mock but realistic settings on the campus that include an airport terminal, a checkpoint and cargo facilities.

Most teams that come through here work for TSA, but the agency also trains teams from police departments and other law enforcement. Canines and handlers are trained for 10-12 weeks. The average cost to train a traditional detection canine and handler is $26,000; the cost for a passenger-screening canine and handler is $42,000.

Several canine breeds are in the program, including Belgian malinois, German shepherds, German short-haired pointers, golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, wirehaired pointers and vizslas. All of them are chosen by TSA.

Johnny Loftin, assistant supervisory air marshal in charge, said a lot of consideration goes into deciding which handler pairs best with which dog. Personality and behaviors are integral factors in the decision.

The chances of success are more viable, he said.

Loftin said the pass rate for TSA teams going through the training is more than 90 percent.

Evaluators reassess teams annually at duty stations across the nation to see if theyre still proficient in four key areas: a dogs ability to detect explosive odors; a handlers ability to interpret a canines change of behavior; a handlers ability to conduct systematic and logical searches; and the teams ability to find an explosive odor source.

READ ALSO: Firefighters union accuses Sculley of violating San Antonio city policy

Loftin said if a team should fail an evaluation, dog and handler would be given remedial training and then a reevaluation.

A former TSA screener at the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Osterman is one of two female handlers in the current class, proud to make strides in a male-dominated field. Osterman and classmate Raquel Granados say years of playing softball  Osterman played on the Puerto Rican national team  fostered a focus on teamwork and achieving a goal that has helped them in their careers.

We work just as hard as the males do, Osterman said, and were pretty proud of that.

Osterman said shes looking forward to using her skills to help improve security at her airport after Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricane Maria in September 2017.

Were going to make sure we get back to where were supposed to be, she said. In our culture were really prideful and I cant even explain what it means to be here and represent the island.

Granados, 24, was a TSA screener at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport before applying to become a handler. She received word that she was accepted on Fathers Day  the first person she called was her father. Now, shes halfway to her goal with her partner, Szultan, a German short-haired pointer.

Coray Bell, 38, said seeing his dog, Yunque, a chocolate Labrador, at work for the first time was an eye-opener. He recalled watching the dog sniff around for 10 to 15 feet, then signal he had found something. He was impressed as the dog led an instructor to the hidden scent.

Learning to trust a dog and his nose and bonding with him has been a great experience, he said. They love what they do and we love working with them.Pope Francis will pay a visit to the North Korea, if an official invitation arrives, he said at the meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Vatican.

The South Korean President relayed an invitation from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the pope to visit, Yonhap news agency reported, citing Moon's office.

Moon's top press secretary, Yoon Young-chan, cited the pope as saying he would "unconditionally give an answer if an (official) invitation arrives and I can go."

The president asked the pope if he may tell the North Korean leader to send an official delegate to invite the pope. The pope said the verbal invitation relayed by President Moon should be sufficient but that an official invitation would also be good, according to Yoon.The San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association is accusing City Manager Sheryl Sculley of violating city policy that prohibits campaigning on city property or on city time because she talked about the unions three proposed charter amendments at a city employee appreciation breakfast last week.

City officials deny there was any violation.

Union executive board members are being threatened with discipline for even speaking of these propositions at fire stations, a union media advisory dated Tuesday states. Firefighters are being told they will be disciplined if they discuss these propositions at the station with union board members.

The union statement alleges that Sculley held a Go Vote No meeting with the citys airport employees during the appreciation breakfast Friday and asks when the incident will be addressed by the Ethics Commission. The statement also suggests that Aviation Director Russ Handy was complicit, as he sent an email to workers with information about the charter amendments.

City Attorney Andy Segovia said Wednesday that Sculley and Handy shared factual information and didnt violate any policies. The breakfast, city officials said, wasnt a campaign event.

Segovia said that during a question-and-answer session at the breakfast, Sculley was asked about the proposed amendments and she responded with facts.

There is no prohibition against sharing factual information, Segovia said. The city manager stated that she could not and did not ask employees to vote a particular way.

The controversial proposals, on the Nov. 6 ballot, 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 firefighters union unilateral power to decide when contract negotiations would be taken to binding arbitration. Early voting begins Monday.

In a September email to all city employees, Segovia noted the citys rules surrounding political campaigns, including prohibitions against campaigning or politicking on city property. It also said: Employees in the course of their duties for the City may provide factual information to members of the public regarding City elections.

The accusations against the city manager come in the wake of two high-profile letters from Fire Chief Charles Hood. He first reprimanded union President Chris Steele for wearing a fake Fire Department uniform at a political event and then issued a warning against attempting to intimidate firefighters into disclosing the source of a recording that captured Steele talking about the unions strategy, which includes ousting Mayor Ron Nirenberg and replacing him with our guy Councilman Greg Brockhouse in May.

Steele called Segovias response Wednesday a blatant lie.

The stance of the city government has proven without a doubt that the city opposes these propositions and thus anyone from the city using city property to discuss them is in violation of Texas ethics laws, Steele said in a text message provided by a spokesman.

He claimed the information sheet approved for distribution is biased to influence city employees to vote against these measures which is illegal according to state ethics law.

The document was prepared by the city attorneys office and leans heavily on information provided to the city by local economist Steve Nivin. Union allies have dismissed that report as biased.

Josh Baugh is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jbaugh@express-news.net | Twitter: @jbaughIts not your imagination: Rep. Beto ORourke has taken a sharp turn toward attacking Sen. Ted Cruz in his run for the U.S. Senate.

It started here on Tuesday at ORourke and Cruzs second debate, in which the Democratic congressman acidly resurrected Lyin Ted, President Donald Trumps mocking handle for Cruz during the 2016 Republican primary. And it continued Wednesday with ORourkes launching of TV ads in which he criticizes the senator directly on education, health care and immigration.

Meeting with the San Antonio Express-News Editorial Board on Wednesday, ORourke acknowledged a deliberate shift in his strategy and tone  and insisted it was necessary to combat Cruzs dishonesty in the race.

I wanted to make sure these ads that hes running that are dishonest  Beto has called police the Jim Crow. Never said that, he told me. Beto ORourke wants to impose a $10 a barrel tax, he wants to raise your price at the pump by 24 cents a gallon. Beto ORourkes a socialist. Beto ORourke wants to do this or that. Beto wants to take your guns. Beto wants to open borders. Beto wants to legalize heroin. He has said all of those things.

READ ALSO: Quick takes on the Cruz-O'Rourke debate

ORourke continued, I became convinced after that first debate that I had to draw a very clear and clean and precise distinction. Im running on my record. I have the courage of my convictions.  But for having the courage of our convictions is precisely why people dont talk about criminal justice issues, why they dont talk about gun violence, because theyre going to be hit with these kinds of lies and this kind of dishonesty.

Cruz also met with the Express-News editorial board on Wednesday. He clearly was stung by his opponents newly confrontational edge.

You saw him last night unleashing nasty, personal attacks, Cruz said of the debate. I mean, going after me directly. By the way, I didnt respond in kind.  I didnt impugn his character. I didnt go after him personally.

Yet, its fair to ask: Has Cruz lied about ORourkes record?

Take the $10 a barrel tax on oil.

This dates back to when former President Barack Obama was in office and Republicans loved to frustrate his agenda. In 2016, Obama proposed a $10 tax on every barrel of oil, paid by energy companies, to fund infrastructure projects.

House Republicans introduced a resolution opposing the proposal, and ORourke voted against it.

So when I said he voted for that, he turned and called me a liar and repeated the Lyin Ted  see, hes just dishonest, hell lie, Cruz said. Ill point out that the media coverage all went with thats the headline in most of the stories. I do think, look, what I was saying is objectively, in black and white, true, that he voted for that.

But did ORourke actually vote for a $10 a barrel tax on oil?

When pressed, Cruz conceded the technicality: He voted against a resolution disapproving of a $10 tax.

READ ALSO: Mission to defend Ted Cruz becomes Trump family priority

That doesnt deliver the same punch as Beto ORourke wants you to pay 24 more cents per gallon of gas, as the Cruz campaign has plastered on billboards from here to Dallas.

Cruz has done this again and again in his campaign: amplified a truth to such a degree that it approaches a lie.

Amplifyin Ted, though, lacks zing. Hence, Trumps Lyin Ted, was weaponized anew this week by ORourke.

Cruz believes he knows why: ORourke is scared.

I think he and his team are concerned about where the race is, Cruz said, and they decided, they got $38 million they just raised and so theyre going to carpet bomb us for the next three weeks and see what happens.

ORourke disputed that.

Ive never paid for a poll, he said. I dont have a pollster. I dont believe in them.

ORourke believes in crowds. For months, he has attracted huge ones at town halls across Texas, including here. At one, he managed to defuse a tense situation.

We were on the West Side, we had a big outdoor town hall and there were protestors there who were protesting my stance on gun safety, he recalled. And what we did as they were protesting, we invited them into the conversation  handed them the microphone, You ask the questions, Ill answer. One of them afterwards was so impressed, he gave me his card and his cell phone number, and I called him after the rally and said I want to continue the conversation.

Running as an unabashed liberal in deep-red Texas, ORourke is hoping to fuel his campaign in an unconventional way: with naked truths.Whatever the eventual consequences of the Saudi Arabian regimes suspected murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, President Trumps initial response indicated much about the priorities of America First foreign policy.

His instincts were commercial and transactional  a concern that America might lose defense contracts in a confrontation with the Saudi government. I dont like stopping massive amounts of money thats being poured into our country, he explained.

Trumps reaction was nativist, pointing out that Khashoggi is not a United States citizen.

And after consulting with the Saudi King, the president seemed determined to provide an alibi, raising the prospect of rogue killers that brought back memories of the O.J. Simpson trial.

Trump  drafting behind growing global outrage  now pledges severe punishment if the Saudis were actually involved in Khashoggis disappearance. But can there be any doubt that Trump would ignore the situation if ignoring it were costless? Trump began his diplomatic confrontation with Saudi Arabia by pointing out (and exaggerating) the kingdoms economic leverage against us.

It is difficult to trace causality in foreign affairs, but there is little doubt that Trump has reduced the cost of oppression and political murder in the world by essentially declaring it none of Americas business. And when you reduce the cost of something, you get more of it. American indifference on human rights abuses is taken by other governments as a form of permission.

The story of a journalist killed while picking up documents for his wedding is particularly powerful. But the aggregation of such horrors  the sum of killing and human misery at this historical moment  is stunning. The Trump era is also  perhaps not coincidentally  the age of mass atrocities. And Americas president is not concerned enough to be ashamed of it.

There is the Saudi war in Yemen, which has caused massive displacement, hunger and disease. The Trump administration has certified that the Saudis are taking sufficient measures to prevent civilian casualties. The U.S. military provides aerial refueling support for bombing raids. The United Nations, meanwhile, has accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of war crimes, including arbitrary detention, torture and rape.

Syria remains a bleeding wound. Hundreds of thousands have died. More than 5 million people have left the country as refugees. More than 6 million are internally displaced. During the largest refugee crisis since World War II, the U.S. has slashed the number of refugees it will admit to the lowest level in four decades. And Trump has turned these suffering people into political scapegoats, feeding unfounded fears they may be Trojan horse terrorist threats.

In China, perhaps a million ethnic Uighurs are being held in re-education camps. Human-rights groups report forced displacement, family separations and psychological and physical torture. Yet the whole of Trumps relationship with China seems determined by the level of our trade deficit.

Then there is the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar  involving the burning of villages, rape and attacks on civilians  which has caused more than 700,000 people to flee their homes. According to a State Department report, Multiple witnesses report soldiers throwing infants and small children into open fires or burning huts. Yet the Trump administration has refused to designate this as crimes against humanity or genocide.

Then there is South Sudans five-year civil war, in which perhaps 380,000 people have died and around 2.5 million people have fled the country. Decades of American effort to help give birth to that nation are being washed away on Trumps watch.

And then there is North Korea, which is guilty of mass enslavement, torture, rape, forced abortions and the extermination of suspected regime opponents. Yet Trump recounts how he and North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un fell in love.

I conduct this tour of global horrors, not to argue that America could easily resolve each one, but to point out that they dont even register in the presidents priorities. This does violence to American ideals. But it also illustrates a foreign-policy law. A vacuum of American leadership is not occupied by good and pleasant things. It is filled by ruthless power politics, aimless allies, aggressive authoritarians, gathering threats and cruelty without consequence.

And the trail of evidence leads from the villages of Myanmar to a consulate in Istanbul.

michaelgerson@washpost.comLufthansa will launch an extra seven weekly flights to Belgrade next summer season, which begins on March 31, 2019. The German carrier will introduce an additional daily service between Munich and the Serbian capital for a total of three daily flights. The new rotation will operate in the evening, departing Munich at 21.05 and arriving at 22.35, while the return service is scheduled to leave Belgrade at 06.30 and touch down in the Bavarian capital at 08.00. Lufthansa faces no competition on the route. The Munich service complements the airline's double daily flights from Frankfurt to Belgrade. Recently, Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines announced it would add an additional seven weekly flights from Zurich to Belgrade next summer.The Macedonian Ministry for Transport and Communications has, for a second time this year, annulled a tender for the granting of financial support to an airline in order for it to launch new routes between 2019 and 2021. Wizz Air, which has benefited from similar financial incentives between 2012 and 2018, was the only carrier to apply. However, the Macedonian Minister for Transport and Communications, Goran Sugareski, said the budget airline did not comply with the terms and conditions outlined in the tender brief. According to the rules, the selected carrier had to establish and/or maintain a base with at least one aircraft in Skopje or Ohrid by January 10, 2019 at the latest for the duration of the financial support program. Furthermore, the carrier in question had to launch at least two new routes from Skopje by January 10 and four new routes from Ohrid, the first two in January 2019 and the rest within a year of being granted state support.





However, Mr Sugareski noted, "The tender rules clearly state that an airline is obligated to introduce two routes from Ohrid by January 10, 2019 and two more within a year of signing the contract. Wizz Air offered to introduce all four destinations in August 2019. As a result, the tender commission concluded that the conditions of the public call were not met and recommended that this public call be annulled". The government will launch a new tender under the same rules as soon as possible. A similar public call held earlier this year was annulled after the single bidder allegedly failed to clearly write its address on the submitted envelop. Mr Sugareski denied media reports that the tender was being fixed for Albania's newly launched national carrier Air Albania, which is yet to introduce scheduled flights after taking delivery of a single Airbus A319 aircraft from its part-owner Turkish Airlines. Air Albania does not meet the tender requirements.





During the first three quarters of the year, Wizz Air handled 1.098.511 passengers on flights to and from Macedonia, resulting in a passenger share of 60.3%. Among low cost carriers operating to the country, Wizz Air holds a 92% share. The Macedonian market has emerged as having the largest share of passengers handled by low cost carriers in Europe. Some 65.6% of those travelling to and from the country are carried by no frills airlines. Despite having the largest share of passengers handled by low cost carriers, neither of the three busiest LCCs in Europe - Ryanair, easyJet and Norwegian Air Shuttle - maintain services to the country.STAMFORD  Its best described with a two-word rhyme: Tight site.

Thats what state transportation officials had to say about construction of a 960-space train station parking garage on South State Street.

The eight-story structure must be squeezed into a spot circled by the station, railroad tracks, catenary wires, Washington Boulevard, Interstate 95 and Mill River, Department of Transportation officials told members of the Connecticut Commuter Rail Council Wednesday night.

The meeting at the train station was the first of several DOT officials hope will garner public input as they proceed with the garage design. The next meeting is slated for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Stamford Government Center.

The long-planned replacement for the crumbling original garage on Station Place will be built on a state-owned surface lot at South State Street and Washington Boulevard. It will have a glass-enclosed pedestrian walkway stretching 350 feet across Washington Boulevard to the train station.

The three lowest levels of the garage, as now planned, will be only 30 feet from I-95. They will have a more closed facade than the upper levels to protect from debris that could fly over from the highway, said Jeff Parker, of CHA Consulting, the DOTs Rocky Hill design firm.

So far, CHA has completed only 10 percent of the design, Parker told commuters.

What we are presenting now is an illustration of the potential for this garage, Parker said.

The DOT wants to hear from riders, residents and the owners of property and businesses near the rail station before proceeding with the design, Commissioner Jim Redeker said. The agency has already had half a dozen meetings with city officials, he said.

We are only at the concept level, Redeker said. This is the very beginning of the process. We are working to get feedback before we complete the design.

Members of the commuter council said they were happy to weigh in early, given the DOTs last attempt to replace the decrepit garage. In 2013, the DOT partnered with private developers to build a $500 million office, housing, retail and hotel complex on the original garage site and move parking farther away.

Redeker said at the time he could not share much about the plan, which was proprietary because of the involvement of private companies. Angry commuters said the state cared more about earning a profit than providing parking at the station  one of the busiest stops on Metro-North Commuter Railroad, and by far the states busiest.

But the DOTs deal didnt happen. It died in 2016. The project was then postponed for two years because of a state budget crisis.

Now the agency is moving ahead with $35 million originally set aside for the garage, plus $5 million that was added later and $60 million recently approved by the state Bond Commission.

It will take all $100 million to build it, Redeker said.

The project as envisioned will require re-aligning a portion of South State Street so it runs beneath the garage, with a separate lane for pedestrians and cyclists.

The pedestrian walkway to the station will extend from the fourth floor of the garage, and an elevator will open to Washington Boulevard.

There will be a ground-level covered space for parking 150 bicycles, and a path to the Mill River greenway nearby.

The facade will be screened in aluminum railing to make it look more like a building than a garage, said Parker, who presented two versions.

To move cars more quickly through the garage, only electronic payments will be accepted  no cash.

The agency conducted an extensive traffic study before beginning the preliminary design, Redeker said. It included intersection traffic counts measured by the city, he said.

To improve flow around the station, traffic signals will have to be re-timed and a way must be found to corral the countless shuttle buses that take rail riders to and from the station, many of them run by corporations for their employees.

The shuttle system is a disaster. Its just a free-for-all, Redeker said. Everybodys got their own, so there are just too many. They are the cause of much of the traffic congestion.

The traffic study found that there are nearly 2,500 cars parked near the train station  1,275 in public spaces and 1,200 in private spaces.

The existing state garage is comprised of the original 1987 structure with 727 spaces that now serves only 200 cars because of its poor condition, Redeker said.

The addition completed in 2004 has 1,200 spaces, but a number of them are blocked off because the structure needs repairs, which are about to get underway, Redeker said.

Members of the commuter council peppered him with questions about the DOTs plans for the Station Place site after the original garage is demolished. They said they are concerned DOT officials will return to their idea of seeking to build some type of complex that will bring more traffic into the congested area.

Redeker said the DOT has no plans for the site, but all rail station maintenance is funded by parking fees, and that spot is the agencys most valuable piece of real estate with the potential to generate more lucrative fees.

The highest and best use of that space is not a parking lot, Redeker said. I have to be able to deliver rail service and keep fares stable and operating costs within budget without any money except parking revenue. I cant do all that if I dont have the income.

The next public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Stamford Government Center in the second-floor Senior Center auditorium.

acarella@stamfordadvocate.com; 203-964-2296.BRIDGEPORT  The former director of the mayors second chance initiative is facing 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to larceny charges.

Louis Reed initially claimed he was being framed by a family member. But on Thursday he decided to throw himself on the mercy of the court, pleading guilty to two counts of third-degree larceny.

Reed faces a maximum term of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on Dec. 3 by Superior Court Judge Frank Iannotti. But that term could be tempered if Reed agrees to make $15,000 in restitution.

Reeds lawyer, Gary Mastronardi, declined comment.

Reed, who claimed he met Mayor Joe Ganim on a prison bus when both were incarcerated, served a 13-year federal prison sentence on a number of charges, including shooting a 5-year-old boy.

In his current case, Reed was accused of presenting two checks to the state Department of Support Services last year to prove that he had paid $10,000 in back child support to his girlfriend, according to police. Police said Reed had put a stop-payment on one of the checks and on the other he filed a complaint with Wells Fargo Bank claiming the check had been stolen and forged.

He received a $3,000 reimbursement on that check from the bank, police said.

Police said Reed later used a phony check to get more than $1,000 from the Wells Fargo Bank branch in Trumbull.

He was fired from his $57,000 city job following his arrests. The program, which reintegrates ex-convicts back into society, is now operating with a new director.

Following his second arrest, Reed put out a public statement on Facebook, claiming he is innocent of the charges and that a relative, who he wouldnt name, took and cashed an unauthorized check to support his addiction.

However, Trumbull police had video of Reed sitting in his car outside the bank while the relative cashed the check, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

The affidavit said that when a teller called Reed to ask him about the check the relative was in the process of cashing, Reed apologized because he was in a meeting. But the teller could see Reed on the telephone in his car outside the bank, the affidavit states.Several U.S. and European citizens were taken hostage by the Islamic State in Syriaearlier this week, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Globalnews.ca reported.

Speaking at a conference in Sochi on Thursday, Putin said ISIS seized nearly 700 hostages in parts of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces. The terrorists issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day, according to Reuters.

According to our data, several citizens of both the United States and European countries were taken hostage. Everyone is silent, some kind of silence, as if nothing is happening, he said. Representatives of the Islamic State were left in several localities, and recently they began to expand their area of presence  130 families were taken there, almost 700 people, hostages.

He added that ISIS was expanding its control in territory controlled by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in Syria.

He did not specify what the terrorists demands were.The following companies are subsidiares of Quest Diagnostics: AmeriPath, AmeriPath Cincinnati Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Cleveland Inc. (OH), AmeriPath Consolidated Labs Inc. (FL), AmeriPath Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Hospital Services Florida LLC (DE), AmeriPath Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Indianapolis PC (IN), AmeriPath Kentucky Inc. (KY), AmeriPath Lubbock 5.01(A) Corporation (TX), AmeriPath New York LLC (DE), AmeriPath Texas Inc. (DE), AmeriPath Tucson Inc. (AZ), American Medical Laboratories, American Medical Laboratories Incorporated (DE), Associated Clinical Laboratories L.P. (PA), Associated Clinical Laboratories of Pennsylvania L.L.C. (PA), Athena Diagnostics, Athena Diagnostics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics, Blueprint Genetics FZ-LLC (UAE), Blueprint Genetics Inc. (DE), Blueprint Genetics Oy (Finland), California Laboratory Associates, Cape Cod Healthcare - Business, Celera, ClearPoint Diagnostic, Clearpoint Diagnostic Laboratories LLC (TX), Cleveland HeartLab, Cleveland HeartLab Inc. (DE), Clinical Laboratory Partners, Colorado Pathology Consultants P.C. (CO), ConVerge Diagnostic Services, Consolidated DermPath Inc. (DE), DFW 5.01(a) Corporation (TX), DGXWMT JV LLC (DE), Dermatopathology of Wisconsin S.C. (WI), Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma LLC (OK), Diagnostic Pathology Services Inc. (OK), Diagnostic Reference Services Inc. (MD), ExamOne Canada Inc. (New Brunswick), ExamOne LLC (DE), ExamOne World Wide Inc. (PA), ExamOne World Wide of NJ Inc. (NJ), Focus Diagnostics, HemoCue, Hoffman M.D. Associated Pathologists Chartered (NV), Institute for Dermatopathology Inc. (PA), Isabella Street Urban Renewal LLC (NJ), Kailash B. Sharma M.D. Inc. (GA), Kilpatrick Pathology P.A. (NC), LabOne, LabOne LLC (MO), LabOne of Ohio Inc. (DE), Laboratorio de Analisis Biomedicos S.A. (Mexico), Lancet Labs, MACL, Med Fusion LLC (TX), Med fusion, MedPlus, Mid America Clinical Laboratories LLC (IN), Nomad Massachusetts Inc. (MA), Nuclear Medicine and Pathology Associates (GA), Ocmulgee Medical Pathology Association Inc. (GA), Pathology Building Partnership (MD) (gen. ptnrshp.), PeaceHealth Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories, PhenoPath Laboratories PLLC (WA), Q Squared Solutions Holdings LLC (DE), Q Squared Solutions Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (China), Quest Diagnostics Brasil Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories, Quest Diagnostics Clinical Laboratories Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Domestic Holder LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics HTAS India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Health & Wellness LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Incorporated (DE), Quest Diagnostics Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (MD), Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NV), Quest Diagnostics India Private Limited (India), Quest Diagnostics Infectious Disease Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics International Holdings Limited (UK), Quest Diagnostics International LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Investments LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Ireland Limited (Ireland), Quest Diagnostics LLC (CT), Quest Diagnostics LLC (IL), Quest Diagnostics LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Massachusetts LLC (MA), Quest Diagnostics Mexico Holding Company Trust (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Mexico S de RL de CV (Mexico), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute (CA), Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute Inc. (VA), Quest Diagnostics Receivables Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics Subsidiary Holdings Ltd. (UK), Quest Diagnostics TB LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Terracotta LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics Venture LLC (PA), Quest Diagnostics Ventures LLC (DE), Quest Diagnostics do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil), Quest Diagnostics of Pennsylvania Inc. (DE), Quest Diagnostics of Puerto Rico Inc. (PR), Quest HealthConnect LLC (CA), ReproSource, Reprosource Fertility Diagnostics Inc. (MA), Solstas Lab Partners, Sonora Quest Laboratories LLC (AZ), Specialty Laboratories Inc. (CA), Summit Health, UMass Memorial Medical Center - Anatomic Pathology Outreach Laboratory Business, Unilab Corporation, and Unilab Corporation (DE).Continental Building Products Inc (NYSE:CBPX) released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November, 12th. The construction company reported $0.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.01. The construction company had revenue of $127.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 firm's quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.51 EPS.

View Continental Building Products' earnings history.Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed statements by certain people who say U.S. President Donald Trump did not want to listen to his interlocutors.

"This is not true. Maybe this is the way he behaves with some people, but then they are themselves to blame," the Russian president told a session of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Putin said he and Trump enjoyed "normal and businesslike" relations. "He not only hears, he reacts to interlocutors argument. He may disagree with something the way I sometimes disagree with him," the Russian leader said. "We dont see eye-to-eye on certain things, having different approaches, but this is a normal discussion of two partners," TASS cited Putin as saying.iShares MSCI Thailand ETF's stock was trading at $63.83 on March 11th, 2020 when COVID-19 reached pandemic status according to the World Health Organization. Since then, THD stock has increased by 23.8% and is now trading at $79.04.

View which stocks have been most impacted by COVID-19.Some of the worst catastrophic events bring out the best in human nature, though we would rather not be in the position of finding that out.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia continue to assess damages in hopes of helping people and communities determine the next step. People from all over are pitching in with donations after learning of the widespread destruction.

As of Oct. 14, more than 435,000 customers remained without electricity from Florida to Virginia. More than 26,000 students have no school to attend. It is impossible to say how many have been left homeless.

Pictures show the enormity and weight of the loss. Where would one begin to start the clean-up and rebuilding process?

Ag hit hard

Agriculture is a sector deeply impacted. Farmers who produce commodities in the region, from dairy, cotton, timber, peanut, tomatoes, and fish, describe grim circumstances created by the monster hurricane. Everything from poultry barns to pecan orchards took a serious hit.

This is the second year that pecan farmers have lost a significant crop, with about 40 to 50 percent lost, just a few days away from harvest in many orchards. The wallop of 155 mph winds stripped fields and orchards, making it impossible to tell where harvest had already been started.

Cotton lost

Cotton, Georgias top row crop, was described as ripped from fields and thrown to the wind, or battered to the ground in heavy rains, disappearing at a time when farmers were set to harvest an impressive crop. Ginning stations, also, were destroyed or damaged significantly.

Georgia agriculture commissioner Gary Black described in a press briefing, circulated through various ag outlets, the story of one farmer who was about to continue his cotton harvest when told to take shelter, knowing he probably had the best crop hed ever raised. Just the day before, he had harvested an impressive three-bale-per-acre yield. The hurricane took all of his remaining cotton crop.

Michaels impact has been the most widespread and devastating hurricane in recollection to impact Georgias agriculture industry. Crops, animals and infrastructure have all taken a substantial loss, Black is quoted in an Associated Press piece.

Poultry too

Loss of electricity wreaks havoc for any farmer, and poultry barns, which contribute $23.3 billion revenue in Georgia, has been hit hard in this way. An estimated 84 chicken houses were destroyed by the storm while others lost chickens due to power loss. At least 2 million chickens were lost in Georgia alone.

Most importantly, rescuers continue searching through rubble in hopes of answering hundreds of calls for the missing.ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa.  During Agriculture and Food Careers Week in Pennsylvania, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding recognized Messicks Farm Equipment in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, as one of the nations largest sources of agriculture equipment parts, and a critical element of the regions growing agriculture production infrastructure.

Redding joined the Northeast Equipment Dealers Association to announce a new program that will help sustain industry growth by allowing the states equipment dealers to provide a career pathway from high school agriculture mechanics programs to apprenticeships with dealers.

Redding recognized Messicks role with other equipment dealers in Lancaster County, including Deere Country, Binkley and Hurst, and Hoobers, in supporting the development of the original apprenticeship program approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry in 2017.

Educational program

Apprenticeships offer non-traditional training, with technicians hired by a company to participate in a structured educational program including on-the-job training, classroom and online training. In the program announced today, students will get credit toward apprenticeship requirements for work they do in high school agriculture mechanics classes.

Up to one-third of the training can be completed before they are hired as apprentices. Dozens of young people can participate in pre-apprenticeships and then compete for eight-12 annual apprentice slots with Lancaster County dealers.

The expectation is that the program will grow quickly throughout the commonwealth and help meet the needs of the states agriculture producers.

As we look toward the future and envision what agriculture will look like ten, 20, or even 100 years from now, we must marry our current needs with the needs we anticipate, said Sec. Redding. These apprenticeship programs fill a critical void by not only preparing todays students and workers, but inspire future generations to pursue careers in the agriculture industry.

Preparing for jobs

PAsmart is a first-of-its-kind $30 million investment that creates new opportunities for workers to help them prepare for the in-demand middle class jobs of today and the future.

To learn more about the Planting the Seed initiative, visit agriculture.pa.gov.The Scottish SPCA has received a formal complaint following the release of undercover footage showing sheep kicked in the face and beaten by wool workers.

The eyewitness documented workers in Scotland striking sheep in the face with electric clippers, slamming their heads into the floor, beating them and throwing them off shearing trailers.

The video footage observed 24 sheep farms toured by shearers from a shearing contractor earlier this year.

On the footage, one of the sheep was suffering from mastitis and couldnt stand up, and a worker explained that she was going to be shot.

Sheepshearers mostly work on commission, which usually means long hours. The average shearer, witnessed by the undercover farmhand, strips some 200 sheep of their wool each day.

WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE

Animal rights group @PETAAsia has released footage showing abuse alleged to have happened across 24 Scottish sheep farms. The charity says it has contacted the @ScottishSPCA to lodge a formal complaint pic.twitter.com/98U6H4R4ER  Radio Tay News (@RadioTayNews) October 17, 2018

Following the release of similar footage filmed undercover at farms in England earlier this year, a statement issued by British Wool said it was shocked and saddened.

The organisation said: We would like to point out that the vast majority of the thousands of shearers in the UK operate to the highest standards of animal welfare, which is an integral part of all our shearing courses.

PETA Asia, who obtained the footage from the farmhand, has asked the animal welfare charity Scottish SPCA to launch an investigation.Prominent cross-party MPs have given their support to a campaign aiming to stamp out hare coursing, which can devastate rural businesses.

Crime Minister Victoria Atkins and cross-party MPs showed their support for the CLAs campaign to stamp out hare coursing at an event in Westminster on 16 October.

The Home Office Minister heard first-hand from farmers and rural businesses about the impact hare coursing has.

Hare coursing is where dogs are used to chase, catch and kill hares with betting on the outcome. It was was outlawed by the 2004 Hunting Act but takes place illegally without the permission of the landowner or farmer.

The CLA, whose members own or manage more than 10 million acres of rural land across England and Wales, highlighted the seriousness of this rural crime to MPs, calling for sentencing guidelines specifically related to the crime.

CLA President Tim Breitmeyer said: Hare coursing is illegal and an abhorrent crime that causes damage to land and property and those who seek to intervene are often threatened, intimidated or attacked.

Hare coursers are hardened criminals who make large sums of money as a result of black market gambling and tough action is needed to stop them.

He said: Introducing specific sentences for hare coursing and helping police reclaim kennelling costs for dogs seized from offenders would help to deter the crime and make rural communities feel safer.

'Extremely important'

Among those MPs lending their support to stamp out hare coursing were Shadow Farming and Rural Affairs Minister David Drew and Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, who hosted the event.

He said: Raising awareness of and supporting this campaign is extremely important as it affects so many people and communities across the UK and is not exclusive to any particular region or area, we must all work towards ultimately eradicating this criminal act from our society.

For too long have our rural communities and farmers been terrorised by groups of people doing this vulgar so-called sport. It is right that we make more policy makers aware of the crime and advise them on what they can do to help support the campaign."

'Bred to kill'

Jonathan Davis, a gamekeeper in Nottinghamshire, said gamekeepers are on the "frontline".

He said organised gangs of criminals are using high powered 4x4 vehicles, dogs specifically bred to kill and often carry firearms.

"Tens of thousands of pounds can change hands in a single night. We need more support and better legislation to deter hare coursing and associated wildlife crimes such as poaching," Mr Davis explained.

The event follows Cambridgeshire police catching four hare coursers using a new database designed to track and convict them.

The police said the convictions are an "excellent result" for the rural community and one of the first convictions of its kind.

And a prominent hare courser was recently sentenced to 13 years in prison after an investigation into a 100m drug dealing ring.A farm in Aberdeenshire has been put in a state of lock down as a case of BSE, or 'mad cow disease', has been confirmed on the property, the Scottish government has announced.

Investigators said they are trying to identify the origin of the disease which has not appeared in Scotland for over 10 years.

Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said a ban on movement has been put in place.

"Following confirmation of a case of classical BSE in Aberdeenshire, I have activated the Scottish Governments response plan to protect our valuable farming industry, including establishing a precautionary movement ban being placed on the farm," Mr Ewing said.

"While it is important to stress that this is standard procedure until we have a clear understanding of the diseases origin, this is further proof that our surveillance system for detecting this type of disease is working.

"Be assured that the Scottish Government and its partners stand ready to respond to any further confirmed cases of the disease in Scotland," he said.

Chief Veterinary Officer Sheila Voas urged farmers who may have concerns to seek veterinary advice.

"While it is too early to tell where the disease came from in this case, its detection is proof that our surveillance system is doing its job.

"We are working closely with the Animal and Plant Health Agency to answer this question."

The disease was discovered in a dead cow following routine tests. The Animal Health Agency (APHA) is investigating the source of the outbreak.

The cattle did not enter the human food chain and Food Standards Scotland have confirmed there is no risk to human health.

In 2015, BSE was confirmed in cattle in Carmarthenshire, Wales following routine tests.

The news follows the lifting of the UK's BSE ban on beef exports to China, announced earlier this year.The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike.

We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve.The event organized on the occasion of awarding the winners of CanSat Azerbaijan 2018 satellite model competition among students was held in Baku. It was attended by rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov and the BHOS students.

The  Envi Sat team was named the best. It was followed by Interstellar. The third place was shared by MS_U_FO and Rodimus.

At the ceremony, Minister of Education of the Azerbaijan Republic Jeykhun Bayramov awarded Rector Elmar Gasimov a special Certificate of Appreciation for the support provided by the BHOS management to Interstellar student team representing the Higher School at the competition. The President of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences Akif Alizadeh presented valuable gifts and certificates to the members of the Interstellar team comprising six BHOS students who took the second place in CanSat Azerbaijan 2018, Trend reported.

Speaking at the ceremony, Elmar Gasimov said that taking the second place in the competition, which brought together 31 teams from 11 national higher educational institutions, was a great success for the BHOS undergraduates. He expressed his gratitude to the Ministry of Education and Azercosmos OJSC for organizing CanSat Azerbaijan 2018. In the Rectors words, such initiatives help to enable young people to master their skills of creating satellite platforms and to encourage them to participate in space research projects in the future.2020 was a year marked by hardships and challenges, but the Fauquier community has proven resilient. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you for your continued support, wed like to offer all our subscribers -- new or returning --

4 WEEKS FREE DIGITAL AND PRINT ACCESS.

We understand the importance of working to keep our community strong and connected. As we move forward together into 2021, it will take commitment, communication, creativity, and a strong connection with those who are most affected by the stories we cover.

We are dedicated to providing the reliable, local journalism you have come to expect. We are committed to serving you with renewed energy and growing resources. Let the Fauquier Times be your community companion throughout 2021, and for many years to come.Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryThe Villain, starring Shivarajkumar and Sudeep in the lead roles, has been one of the much awaited Kannada movie. The film had garnered the attention of one and all, right with its big announcement. Well, the hype surrounding the film is indeed nothing short than phenomenal and the audiences do expect something really special from this power-packed movie.

Well, The Villain has indeed promised a lot of specialties and the teasers of the film were an indication of the same. Reportedly, the film will be high on VFX elements as well. Director Prem himself had revealed about the same in a recent interview given to Indianexpress.com.

"It is the first Kannada film to have 1 hour 20 minutes of VFX. And all the special effects were done by five Indian studios", the director was quoted as saying to Indian Express. "The VFX allows me to visualize the awe-inspiring world for my films. A few songs in The Villain will surprise the audience.", the film-maker added.

Meanwhile, the film-maker also added that The Villain will be the first ever Kannada movie to release in above 1000 screens across the globe.

The Villain also marks the big debut of popular actress Amy Jackson in Sandalwood. The big budget venture also features actor Mithun Chakraborty in an important role.Recently, the writer-producer Vinita Nanda has accused television actor Alok Nath of raping her 19 years ago. Alok Nath's lawyer had said that all claims were false. Also, recently, Alok's wife had slapped defamation case against her along with a compensation of 1 Rupee. Vinita had also written an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in the matter! In her long Facebook post, Vinita had requested PM to help women get justice.

On Wednesday (October 17), Vinita filed a police complaint against Alok. The complaint was lodged at the Oshiwara police station. Vinita was quoted by PTI as saying, "The police was very co-operative and they took my statement. It was not easy for me to give my statement as it is like reliving your pain. We have given a written complaint against Alok Nath and they registered the same."



According to the latest report, the court has ordered the actor to be present in the court on October 25.

Apparently, Alok's lawyer had asked for the actor's exemption to be present in the court, but the court objected his absence, as he is the main person and should be present in the court! The court also reprimanded Alok's request to restrict Vinita's social media posts.

Also, while hearing the defamation suit filed by Alok, the court asked the actor's lawyers to make necessary amendments in the suit as it had technical errors.

After Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta registered a molestation case against actor Nana Patekar, this (Vinita-Alok's case) is the second high-profile case at Oshiwara police station in the #MeToo movement.

Bigg Boss 12: Neha Pendse Praises Dipika; Trolls Sree & Dedicates 'Kya Hua Tera Wada' Song To Him!Multiple U.S. burn centers incorporating RECELL System into their practices in advance of national U.S. market launch

AVITA Medical (ASX: AVH, OTCQX: AVMXY), a global regenerative medicine company, today announced that it has received the first commercial sales orders from U.S. burn centers for the RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (RECELL System) and has commenced commercial shipment of the product. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on 20 September 2018 the RECELL System to treat acute thermal burns in patients 18 years and older.

"We are pleased to have fulfilled multiple orders for the RECELL System in such a short period of time following FDA approval and in advance of our national U.S. market launch," said Erin Liberto, Chief Commercial Officer. "Our immediate commercial focus is completing the recruitment and training of our U.S. field force. However, we are in a unique position as many large burn centers already have substantial experience using our product through our clinical trials and Compassionate Use and Continued Access Programs. Moreover, some burn centers have indicated their desire to adopt the RECELL System in advance of our national market launch. In general, we expect most burn centers will adhere to the standard process for novel devices of initially evaluating the product and thereafter advancing it through their Hospital's Value Analysis Committee prior to purchasing for regular use. This process can sometimes be a lengthy one and may take 6 months or more to complete. That said, we are excited to see some of the larger burn centers accelerate this process and commence incorporating the RECELL System into their practice."

Of the 134 burns centers in the U.S., 24 already have experience using the RECELL System through participation in clinical trials and the Compassionate Use and Continued Access programs. Notably, these 24 burn centers are estimated to treat over 30 percent of the U.S. burn patients annually.

The RECELL System is approved by the FDA to be used at the point of care by licensed healthcare professionals to treat adult patients with acute thermal burn wounds. The RECELL System uses a small amount of a patient's own skin to prepare Spray-On Skin Cells at the point of care in as little as 30 minutes, providing a new way to treat thermal burns. The RECELL System can be used alone in the treatment of partial-thickness burns, or in combination with autografting for the treatment of full-thickness burns. A small skin sample is enzymatically and mechanically processed in the RECELL System at the point of care to isolate the skin cells to produce a suspension of Spray-On Skin Cells. The regenerative cell suspension includes keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and melanocytes, which play a critical role in wound healing. The suspension can be sprayed directly on a second degree burn or with an expanded skin graft on a third-degree burn, allowing for broad and even distribution of live cells across the entire wound bed. The RECELL System can be used to prepare enough suspension to treat a wound up to 80 times the size of the donor skin sample, so a skin sample approximately the size of a credit card can be used to treat a wound that covers a patient's entire back.

The two randomized, controlled clinical trials used to support the FDA approval demonstrated that treatment of acute burn wounds with the RECELL System required substantially less donor skin than required with conventional split-thickness autografts to achieve closure of burn wounds. Reduction in donor skin requirements provides key clinical benefits to patients and significant reductions in the cost of treatment.

Healthcare professionals should read the INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device for a full description of important safety information including contraindications, warnings and precautions.

ABOUT AVITA MEDICAL LIMITED

AVITA Medical is a regenerative medicine company with a technology platform positioned to address unmet medical needs in burns, chronic wounds, and aesthetics indications. AVITA Medical's patented and proprietary collection and application technology provides innovative treatment solutions derived from the regenerative properties of a patient's own skin. The medical devices work by preparing a REGENERATIVE EPIDERMAL SUSPENSION(RES), an autologous suspension comprised of the patient's skin cells necessary to regenerate natural healthy epidermis. This autologous suspension is then sprayed onto the areas of the patient requiring treatment.

AVITA Medical's first FDA approved product, the RECELL System, produces Spray-On Skin Cells using a small amount of a patient's own skin, providing a new way to treat severe burns, while significantly reducing the amount of donor skin required. The RECELL System is designed to be used at the point of care alone or in combination with autografts depending on the depth of the burn injury. Compelling data from randomized, controlled clinical trials conducted at major U.S. burn centers and real-world use in more than 7,000 patients globally, reinforce that the RECELL System is a significant advancement over the current standard of care for burn patients and offers benefits in clinical outcomes and cost savings.

In international markets outside of Europe, our portfolio is marketed under the RECELL System brand to promote skin healing in a wide range of applications including burns, chronic wounds and aesthetics. The RECELL System is TGA-registered in Australia, and CFDA-cleared in China.

In Europe, our portfolio of medical device products received CE-mark approval as three tailored product presentations, with three individual brand names. The RECELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device is designed for the treatment of burns and plastic reconstructive procedures; REGENERCELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device has been formulated for chronic wounds including leg and foot ulcers; and RENOVACELL Autologous Cell Harvesting Device is tailored for aesthetic applications including the restoration of pigmentation.

To learn more, visit www.avitamedical.com.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This letter includes forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "could," "may," "will," "believe," "estimate," "look forward," "forecast," "goal," "target," "project," "continue," "outlook," "guidance," "future," other words of similar meaning and the use of future dates. Forward-looking statements in this letter include, but are not limited to, statements concerning, among other things, our ongoing clinical trials and product development activities, regulatory approval of our products, the potential for future growth in our business, and our ability to achieve our key strategic, operational and financial goal. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Each forward-looking statement contained in this letter is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statement. Applicable risks and uncertainties include, among others, the timing of regulatory approvals of our products; physician acceptance, endorsement, and use of our products; failure to achieve the anticipated benefits from approval of our products; the effect of regulatory actions; product liability claims; risks associated with international operations and expansion; and other business effects, including the effects of industry, economic or political conditions outside of the company's control. Investors should not place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this letter. Investors are encouraged to read our publicly available filings for a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements in this letter speak only as of the date of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any of these statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181017005965/en/

Contacts:

US Media

Syneos Health Public Relations

Christian Pflaumer, +1-212-229-8412

Nicole Beckstrand, +1-858-431-9611

AVITAMedicalTeam@syneoshealth.com

or

OUS Media

Monsoon Communications

Sarah Kemter

Phone +61 (0)3 9620 3333

Mobile +61 (0)407 162 530

sarahk@monsoon.com.au

or

Investors:

Westwicke Partners

Caroline Corner, +1-415-202-5678

caroline.corner@westwicke.com

or

AVITA Medical Ltd

Dale A. Sander, +1-661-367-9178

Chief Financial Officer

dsander@avitamedical.com- Alquity, convened by Philanthropy University, launches the Transforming Lives Awards to identify & support outstanding nonprofits & social enterprises delivering sustainable livelihood initiatives across Asia, Africa & Latin America

- Awards process supported by business leaders such as Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson and Unilever's Paul Polman

- Interested organizations should apply by October 31st, for their chance at up to $100,000 in funding

The Transforming Lives Awards identifies and supports excellent nonprofits and social enterprises driving sustainable livelihood programs across Asia, Africa and Latin America

OAKLAND, California, Oct 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofits and social enterprises have two weeks left to begin their pre-application process for the Transforming Lives Awards - a new initiative founded by Alquity and convened by Philanthropy University to find and fund organizations supporting growth in sustainable livelihoods and the achievement of UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

The Awards offer new paths to capital, profile and expert advice so that winners can invest in their futures and the futures of those they serve.

The pre-application period started on October 1, and ends October 31, during which time interested entrants are invited to submit short and long-form questionnaires about their organizations. The process also involves a first-of-its-kind peer assessment that sees local organizations' participation in the vetting process.

Award winners will receive between $25,000 to $100,000 in funding. Critically, the winning organizations will demonstrate a pathway to a sustainable funding model, even if their current model requires donor funding.

"We at Philanthropy University are reimagining capacity building for the digital age," said Connor Diemand-Yauman, CEO and Co-Founder of Philanthropy University, "and that includes connecting local organizations to funding opportunities through our learning platform. This awards program also pioneers a tech-enabled participatory approach, more deeply involving, and recognizing, local organizations as the experts and leaders."

"Alquity's vision is to be a thought-leading 'shared values' business by generating economic value in a way that also produces value for society by addressing its challenges," said Paul Robinson, Founder of Alquity. "The Transforming Lives Awards will be the catalyst for increasing our impact through uncovering organizations delivering sustainable solutions and supporting more equitable economic development across all of our key emerging markets."

"Alquity and Philanthropy University have launched an exciting initiative to identify the most innovative and scalable models to promote economic growth in developing countries," said supporter Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group. "I look forward to seeing the organizations which emerge from the program as they strive to help make greater progress towards ending poverty around the world."

A total of 120 organizations will be selected to move on to a formal application process, when they will be assessed by an esteemed judging panel that includes Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Hilde Schwab, co-founder of the World Economic Forum and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

"I am delighted to join the judging panel for the Transforming Lives Awards," said Schwab. "Social entrepreneurship has the potential to deliver meaningful change for underserved communities by applying the ambitions, determination and strategic approach of business to solve serious social issues. Building sustainable livelihoods is the backbone of creating inclusive societies that provide opportunity for all."

The winners will be announced at a global awards event in Summer 2019, following an extensive assessment and due diligence process.

Currently totalling $600,000, the awards will fall into three categories:

Nonprofit High Impact: for organizations that can demonstrate strong management practices and measurably strong results through programs designed to support the economic empowerment of their communities.

Nonprofit High Potential: for organizations that can demonstrate potential to scale livelihoods focused programs.

Small and Medium Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurs: for enterprises employing sustainable business models to address social or environmental challenges, or indeed visionary start-ups with a viable and scalable business plan.

To learn more and start your pre-application for an award, visit the Philanthropy University website .

About the Awards

Award winners will come from target countries in three regions:

Africa : Egypt , Ghana , Kenya , Morocco , Nigeria , South Africa

: , , , , , Asia : China , India , Vietnam

: , , Latin America : Brazil , Chile , Peru , Mexico

There will be at least one award given in each region.

Award winners will be focused on achieving UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

Alquity is donating the initial $600,000 of awards money and funding the costs of the awards. The business is looking for opportunities to increase this funding by bringing additional partners into this community of excellence.

About Philanthropy University

Philanthropy University is a free online learning platform that provides locally-led organizations in the Global South with access to practical courses, knowledge-share discussions and funding opportunities so they become more effective in their work. Our easy-to-use University blends expert instruction with engaging content to unlock potential and impact, on the ground.

Start learning at https://philanthropyu.org/

About Alquity

Alquity is an asset management business investing in high-growth markets across the world. Its goal is to connect investors to their investments and social progress in order to deliver better financial outcomes for all. Its investments target attractive returns across Africa, Asia, and Latin America through portfolios that include transparent companies, with effective management that is aligned with shareholders. Alquity funds are therefore responsible by design, targeting consistent out-performance whilst contributing to long-term growth.

Alquity donates a minimum of 10% of its management fees to development projects in the regions in which it invests. In this way, the business aligns the values of investors, employees, holdings and communities - uniting them with the fundamental belief that these shared values are key to achieving enduring financial and societal success.

To find out more about Alquity the business http://alquity.com/

To find out more about Alquity's Foundation http://alquityfoundation.org/

Contacts:

Paige Dearing

Director, Marketing & Communications

paige@philanthropyu.org

+1 301 717 1415

Suresh Mistry

Director

suresh.mistry@alquity.com

+44 207 5577 867

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/653133/Philanthropy_University_Logo.jpgStrong sales dynamic confirmed in third quarter, with an 8.8% increase in organic sales

Growth of 9.8% at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation over the nine months ended September 30: 1,749 million in sales Up 4.5% as reported

Ramp-up in business on the back of three key growth drivers: molecular biology with the BIOFIRE product line, activity in the Asia Pacific region, and industrial applications.

Regulatory News:

Alexandre Merieux, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "bioMerieux delivered another robust sales performance in the third quarter of 2018, with organic growth nearing 9%. These positive dynamics placethe Group on track to achieving its financial objectives for the year."

bioMerieux (Paris:BIM), a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, today released its business review for the nine months ended September 30, 2018.

SALES

bioMerieux's consolidated sales amounted to 1,749 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, versus 1,674 million for the same period one year earlier. Sales grew by 9.8% year-on-year at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation. As expected, currency effects remained negative in third-quarter 2018 but weighed less on reported growth, with sales for the first nine months of the year up 4.5% compared to the same period in 2017.

Analysis of sales In millions SALES NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2017 1,674 Currency effect -91 -5.4% Changes in scope of consolidation(1) +1 0.0% Organic growth

(at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation) +164 +9.8% SALES NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 1,749 +4.5%

NB: A definition of the currency effect and of changes in the scope of consolidation is provided at the end of this press release.

(1) Acquisition of Astute Medical Inc. on April 4, 2018.

ANALYSIS OF SALES BY REGION

Sales by Region In millions Q3

2018 Q3

2017 % change

as reported % change

at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation 9 months

ended

Sep. 30, 2018 9 months ended

Sep. 30, 2017 % change

as reported % change

at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation Europe(1) 219.0 207.9 +5.3% +7.5% 668.3 643.0 +3.9% +5.7% Americas 252.5 230.1 +9.7% +10.0% 770.0 744.6 +3.4% +12.0% North America 217.8 191.9 +13.5% +11.1% 669.5 631.1 +6.1% +13.6% Latin America 34.7 38.2 -9.2% +4.8% 100.5 113.5 -11.5% +2.7% Asia Pacific 108.2 102.0 +6.1% +8.3% 310.5 286.8 +8.3% +13.6% TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES 579.7 540.0 +7.3% +8.8% 1,748.9 1,674.4 +4.5% +9.8%

(1) Including the Middle East and Africa.

Sales in the Americas (44% of the consolidated total) reached 252 million in third-quarter 2018, an increase of 10% on third-quarter 2017, bringing the year-to-date total to 770 million, up 12% year-on-year. In North America (38% of the consolidated total), growth in the quarter was primarily driven by the development of the BIOFIRE FILMARRAY molecular biology product line and the dedicated industrial application lines. In immunoassays, continued price pressure on procalcitonin assays counteracted growth in test volumes. Latin America turned in a mixed performance, with a sharp decline in Brazil but an excellent sales dynamic in all other countries in the region.

(44% of the consolidated total) reached 252 million in third-quarter 2018, an increase of 10% on third-quarter 2017, bringing the year-to-date total to 770 million, up 12% year-on-year. Sales in the Europe Middle East Africa region (38% of the consolidated total) came to 219 million for the quarter, up 7.5% on third-quarter 2017. As a result, sales for the full nine months came to 668 million, up 5.7% year-on-year. Sales in Europe continued to grow (31% of the consolidated total) on the back of strong performances in molecular biology and from the microbiology product lines in Southern Europe, Scandinavia and the Benelux countries. In the Russia Middle East Africa region, bioMerieux reported exceptionally strong growth of more than 30% in the third quarter, spurred by improved sales activity across all product lines, as well as price increases.

region (38% of the consolidated total) came to 219 million for the quarter, up 7.5% on third-quarter 2017. As a result, sales for the full nine months came to 668 million, up 5.7% year-on-year. Sales in the Asia Pacific region (18% of the consolidated total) amounted to 108 million for the third quarter of 2018, up around 8% year-on-year thanks to solid performances in India and Southeast Asia. At September 30, 2018, sales in the Asia Pacific region totaled 310 million, representing strong year-on-year growth of nearly 14%.

ANALYSIS OF SALES BY APPLICATION

Sales by Application In millions Q3

2018 Q3

2017 % change

as reported % change

at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation 9 months ended

Sep. 30, 2018 9 months ended

Sep. 30, 2017 % change

as reported % change

at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation Clinical applications 473.5 439.8 +7.7% +8.9% 1,434.1 1,371.4 +4.6% +10.0% Microbiology 243.1 236.2 +2.9% +5.1% 702.3 700.3 +0.3% +5.2% Immunoassays 103.3 105.9 -2.4% -0.8% 325.1 338.5 -3.9% +0.3% Molecular biology 120.4 90.5 +33.1% +30.8% 383.6 308.5 +24.4% +32.3% Other lines(1) 6.8 7.2 -5.8% -5.3% 23.1 24.2 -4.6% +0.3% Industrial Applications(2) 106.1 100.3 +5.8% +8.0% 314.7 303.0 +3.9% +8.9% TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES 579.7 540.0 +7.3% +8.8% 1,748.9 1,674.4 +4.5% +10.4%

(1) Including Applied Maths, BioFire Defense, and R&D-related revenue arising on clinical applications.

(2) Including R&D-related revenue arising on industrial applications.

Clinical application sales, which accounted for approximately 82% of bioMerieux's consolidated total, rose by 9% year-on-year to 474 million for the third quarter of 2018, and increased 10% year-on-year over the nine months ended September 30 to stand at 1,434 million. In microbiology , growth in the third quarter was chiefly fueled by an increasingly robust performance from the BACT/ALERT blood culture line and, to a lesser extent, by the installation of laboratory automation systems. Growth in immunoassays was once again held back by price pressure on procalcitonin assays in the United States and by declining sales of manual rapid tests. The VIDAS range turned in strong sales growth in the Russia Middle East Africa and Asia Pacific regions, however. In molecular biology , the BIOFIRE FILMARRAY product line continued to be a key growth driver for the Group, with sales up 38% for the quarter. The international roll-out of the line accelerated over the third quarter, with sales outside the United States now representing around 17% of total BIOFIRE FILMARRAY sales. The installed base also grew to a total of 7,600 units, and sales of all panels continued to rise steadily. Palmetto GBA, a Medicare Administrative Contractor, issued a finalized local coverage determination during the quarter to reduce coverage of multiplex molecular tests for the diagnosis of viral respiratory infections in outpatients. This latest decision may affect the use of bioMerieux's FILMARRAY respiratory panels for outpatient diagnosis in the U.S.

sales, which accounted for approximately 82% of bioMerieux's consolidated total, rose by 9% year-on-year to 474 million for the third quarter of 2018, and increased 10% year-on-year over the nine months ended September 30 to stand at 1,434 million. Sales of industrial applications , which represent around 18% of the consolidated total, amounted to 106 million in third-quarter 2018, a year-on-year increase of 8.0%, fed by the balanced contribution of product lines aimed at customers in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This brought sales for the full nine months to 315 million, up 8.9% year-on-year.

, which represent around 18% of the consolidated total, amounted to 106 million in third-quarter 2018, a year-on-year increase of 8.0%, fed by the balanced contribution of product lines aimed at customers in the food and pharmaceutical industries. This brought sales for the full nine months to 315 million, up 8.9% year-on-year. Sales of reagents and services accounted for approximately 90% of the consolidated total in the third quarter of 2018, representing a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. This percentage of consolidated sales takes into account the reclassification of approximately 3 million in sales of reagents within instruments to reflect the implicit rentals recognized on instrument placement contracts following the first-time application of IFRS 15 on revenue recognition.

OTHER INFORMATION

Human resources



At September 30, 2018, the Group had around 11,000 full-time-equivalent employees and temporary staff, including the workforce of Astute Medical Inc. acquired in April 2018, versus 10,400 at December 31, 2017.

THIRD-QUARTER OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

Acquisition of an interest in Hybiome, China



As previously announced, bioMerieux acquired in July 2018 a minority interest in Suzhou Hybiome Biomedical Engineering Co. Ltd. (HYBIOME), and may subsequently increase this stake. The company is based in Suzhou, China, and specializes in automated immunoassay analyzers. Founded in 2009, it develops, produces and markets a comprehensive range of diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software, etc.) that have been cleared by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

INVESTOR CALENDAR

Fourth-quarter 2018 sales and 2018 financial results February 27, 2019 First-quarter 2019 sales April 24, 2019 Second-quarter 2019 sales and first-half 2019 results September 4, 2019 Third-quarter 2019 sales October 22, 2019

Notes and definitions

The above forward-looking statements are based, entirely or partially, on assessments or judgments that may change or be modified, due to uncertainties and risks related to the Company's economic, financial, regulatory and competitive environment, notably those described in the 2017 Registration Document. Accordingly, the Company cannot give any assurance nor make any representation as to whether the objectives will be met. The Company does not undertake to update or otherwise revise any forecasts or objectives presented herein, except in compliance with the disclosure obligations applicable to companies whose shares are listed on a stock exchange.

Currency effect: this is established by converting actual numbers at the average rates of year y-1. In practice, those rates are either average rates communicated by the ECB, or hedged rates if hedging instruments have been set up.

Changes in scope of consolidation: these are determined:

for acquisitions in the period, by deducting from sales for the period the amount of sales generated during the period by acquired entities as from the date they entered the consolidated reporting scope;

- for acquisitions in the previous period, by deducting from sales for the period the amount of sales generated in the months in the previous period during which the acquired entities were not consolidated;

- for disposals in the period, by adding to sales for the period the amount of sales generated by entities sold during the previous period in the months of the current period during which these entities were no longer consolidated;

- for disposals in the previous period, by adding to sales for the period the amount of sales generated during the previous period by the entities sold.

ABOUT BIOMERIEUX

Pioneering Diagnostics

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 50 years, bioMerieux is present in more than 150 countries through 43 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2017, revenues reached 2.3 billion, with over 90% of international sales.

bioMerieux provides diagnostic solutions (systems, reagents, software) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

bioMerieux is listed on the Euronext Paris stock market. Symbol: BIM ISIN Code: FR0013280286 Reuters: BIOX.PA/Bloomberg: BIM.FP

Corporate website: www.biomerieux.com. Investor website: www.biomerieux-finance.com

APPENDIX: QUARTERLY SALES DATA

Sales by Region in millions and Change in Sales by Region

First quarter Second quarter Third quarter YTD 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018 2017 Europe(1) 222.1 218.7 227.2 216.3 219.0 207.9 668.3 643.0 Americas 270.6 267.7 246.9 246.3 252.5 230.1 770.0 744.6 North America 240.5 231.1 211.2 208.0 217.8 191.9 669.5 631.1 Latin America 30.1 36.6 35.7 38.8 34.7 38.2 100.5 113.5 Asia Pacific 94.2 81.6 108.1 103.2 108.2 102.0 310.5 286.8 TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES 587.0 568.0 582.2 566.4 579.7 540.0 1,748.9 1,674.4

(1) Including the Middle East and Africa.

First quarter Second quarter Third quarter YTD As reported Like-for-like(2) As reported Like-for-like As reported Like-for-like As reported Like-for-like Europe(1) +1.6% +2.8% +5.0% +6.8% +5.3% +7.5% +3.9% +5.7% Americas +1.1% +16.5% +0.0% +9.1% +9.7% +10.0% +3.4% +12.0% North America +4.1% +19.9% +1.5% +9.4% +13.5% +11.1% +6.1% +13.6% Latin America -17.7% -4.8% -7.8% +7.1% -9.2% +4.8% -11.5% +2.7% Asia Pacific +15.6% +25.3% +4.7% +9.9% +6.1% +8.3% +8.3% +13.6% TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES +3.4% +12.5% +2.8% +8.4% +7.3% +8.8% +4.5% +9.8%

(1) Including the Middle East and Africa.

(2) At constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation.

Sales by Application in millions and Change in Sales by Application

First quarter Second quarter Third quarter YTD 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018 2017 2018 2017 Clinical applications 486.3 467.7 474.4 464.0 473.5 439.8 1,434.1 1,371.4 Microbiology 222.7 229.2 236.6 234.9 243.1 236.2 702.3 700.3 Immunoassays 107.9 111.7 113.9 120.8 103.3 105.9 325.1 338.5 Molecular biology 148.2 118.6 115.1 99.4 120.4 90.5 383.6 308.5 Other lines(1) 7.5 8.1 8.8 8.9 6.8 7.2 23.1 24.2 Industrial Applications(2) 100.8 100.3 107.9 102.4 106.1 100.3 314.7 303.0 TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES 587.0 568.0 582.2 566.4 579.7 540.0 1,748.9 1,674.4

(1) Including Applied Maths, BioFire Defense, and R&D-related revenue arising on clinical applications.

(2) Including R&D-related revenue arising on industrial applications.

First quarter Second quarter Third quarter YTD As reported Like-for-like(3) As reported Like-for-like As reported Like-for-like As reported Like-for-like Clinical applications +4.0% +13.5% +2.2% +7.8% +7.7% +8.9% +4.6% +10.0% Microbiology -2.8% +4.6% +0.7% +6.0% +2.9% +5.1% +0.3% +5.2% Immunoassays -3.4% +3.3% -5.7% -1.4% -2.4% -0.8% -3.9% +0.3% Molecular biology +24.9% +41.3% +15.8% +23.5% +33.1% +30.8% +24.4% +32.3% Other lines(1) -7.8% -1.1% -0.5% +6.9% -5.8% -5.3% -4.6% +0.3% Industrial Applications(2) +0.5% +7.9% +5.3% +10.7% +5.8% +8.0% +3.9% +8.9% TOTAL CONSOLIDATED SALES +3.4% +12.5% +2.8% +8.4% +7.3% +8.8% +4.5% +10.4%

(1) Including Applied Maths, BioFire Defense, and R&D-related revenue arising on clinical applications.

(2) Including R&D-related revenue arising on industrial applications.

(3) At constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, growth is expressed year-on-year at constant exchange rates and scope of consolidation (like-for-like).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181017005932/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations

bioMerieux

Sylvain Morgeau

Tel.: +33 (0)4 78 87 22 37

investor.relations@biomerieux.com

or

Media Relations

bioMerieux

Aurore Sergeant

Tel.: +33 (0)4 78 87 20 53

media@biomerieux.com

or

Image Sept

Laurence Heilbronn

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 70 74 64

lheilbronn@image7.fr

or

Claire Doligez

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 70 74 48

cdoligez@image7.frBRUSSELS, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Positive outcomes in proof-of-concept study with subcutaneous rozanolixizumab in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG): clinically meaningful improvement in multiple disease-related endpoints

in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG): clinically meaningful improvement in multiple disease-related endpoints Strong 68% mean reduction of Serum IgG and IgG Autoantibodies observed

Safety profile in-line with subcutaneous dosing in phase 1 and the safety profile observed in the proof-of-concept immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) study

Proof-of-concept has been achieved in myasthenia gravis

Confirmatory development study with rozanolixizumab in patients with myasthenia gravis to start in H2 2019

UCB today announced positive results from a phase 2 study (MG0002; NCT03052751) with a novel, subcutaneous FcRn (neonatal Fc receptor) monoclonal antibody, rozanolixizumab, in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG), achieving proof-of-concept. Based on these results UCB intends to accelerate the development of rozanolixizumab with a confirmatory study in MG starting in the second half of 2019.

Professor Vera Bril, MD, University of Toronto, coordinating investigator for the MG0002 study said: "I am very excited about these positive results with subcutaneous rozanolixizumab. Today, there is a clear need for safe, effective, non-invasive, non-burdensome therapies for patients with generalized MG, who continue to face serious, potentially life-threatening symptoms associated with their disease."

Dr Dhaval Patel, Executive Vice President and Head of NewMedicines at UCB said: "First I would like to express my sincere thanks to the patients, investigators, care partners and all those who contributed to this important study. The results strengthen our conviction that reducing pathogenic autoantibodies with the most advanced subcutaneous anti-FcRn therapy in clinical development may offer an innovative approach to improve outcomes and treatment experience for patients with myasthenia gravis. In addition, the results give rise to the expectation of potential therapeutic benefit in other IgG autoantibody-mediated conditions."

Full data from MG0002 show that subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab were safe and well tolerated and resulted in clinical improvement over the entire duration of the study. Clinical benefits were observed across several pre-specified disease-related endpoints, including Quantitative Myasthenia Gravis (QMG) score, Myasthenia Gravis Composite (MGC) responder rate and Myasthenia Gravis-Activities of Daily living (MG-ADL) score.

Building on the potential clinical utility of rozanolixizumab in other neurological conditions driven by pathogenic immunoglobulin G (IgG) autoantibodies, UCB will initiate a phase 2 study in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) in the first quarter 2019. UCB is also advancing development in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), with results from an on-going dose ranging study expected at the end of 2018.

Study Design: MG0002 (NCT03052751) was a Phase 2 randomized, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial that enrolled 43 MG patients from North America and Europe with generalized muscle weakness and a total QMG of at least 11. MG0002 compared three once/week subcutaneous infusions of placebo (N=22) and 7 mg/Kg rozanolixizumab (N=21) on days 1, 8, 15 and were compared during a four-week period (dosing period 1).

After dosing period 1, participants were re-randomized to receive either 7 mg/Kg or 4 mg/Kg rozanolixizumab on days 29, 36, and 43 (dosing period 2) with continued observation until day 99. Conventional therapies were allowed and included corticosteroids and/or immunomodulatory agents and/or Cholinesterase inhibitors. The protocol included no specific headache prophylaxis and mandated withdrawal of patients with severe headache. Pre-specified analyses of safety and efficacy across both dosing periods looked at the data following six subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab.

Study Results: At the end of dosing period 1: The baseline-corrected delta in QMG between rozanolixizumab and placebo was -0.7 (p = 0.221), the baseline-corrected delta in MGC score was -1.8 (p = 0.089) and the baseline-corrected delta in MG-ADL score was -1.4 (p = 0.036). In a post-hoc analysis, the absolute change from baseline in the MG-ADL score, an established registration endpoint, was -2.0 for rozanolixizumab compared to -0.18 for placebo (p = 0.008).

The QMG responder rate was 38.1% compared to 22.7% for placebo (p=0.223), the MGC responder rate was 47.6% compared to 27.3% for placebo (p=0.144), and the MG-ADL responder rate was 47.6% compared to 13.6% for placebo (p=0.017). Response was defined as a reduction of 3 or more points from baseline for all scores.

During dosing period 2, additional clinically meaningful reductions of all scores were observed. Pre-specified analyses across the two dosing periods (i.e. following six subcutaneous infusions of rozanolixizumab) showed clinically meaningful patient benefit consistently across several disease-specific endpoints, including QMG, MGC and MG-ADL. Participants on active treatment showed a marked reduction of total IgG levels and IgG autoantibody levels. Serum IgG concentrations reduced by 56% after two weeks of rozanolixizumab treatment. Total IgG and anti-acetylcholine receptor (anti-AChR) antibodies decreased by 68% from baseline during dosing period 2 in participants receiving rozanolixizumab 7 mg/Kg in both dosing periods.

Safety profile: Safety and tolerability of rozanolixizumab were confirmed and in-line with subcutaneous dosing in the phase 1 program and the safety profile observed in the proof of concept ITP study. There was an expected greater frequency of headache (57.1%) compared to placebo (13.6%) during dosing period 1. Per protocol, three rozanolixizumab-treated participants with headache were withdrawn from the study. All headaches were manageable and resolved with standard therapies. The incidence of infections between rozanolixizumab and placebo was similar.

The full data will be presented at a medical congress in the near future and submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Rozanolixizumab is a novel, subcutaneous anti-FcRn monoclonal antibody in clinical development at UCB and not approved in any region of the world.



About UCB

UCB, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.ucb.com ) is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of innovative medicines and solutions to transform the lives of people living with severe diseases of the immune system or of the central nervous system. With more than 7 500 people in approximately 40 countries, the company generated revenue of  4.5 billion in 2017. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Follow us on Twitter: @UCB_news

Forward looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial information, expected legal, political, regulatory or clinical results and other such estimates and results. By their nature, such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those that may be implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, the inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals or to obtain them on acceptable terms, costs associated with research and development, changes in the prospects for products in the pipeline or under development by UCB, effects of future judicial decisions or governmental investigations, product liability claims, challenges to patent protection for products or product candidates, changes in laws or regulations, exchange rate fluctuations, changes or uncertainties in tax laws or the administration of such laws and hiring and retention of its employees.

Additionally, information contained in this document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. UCB is providing this information as of the date of this document and expressly disclaims any duty to update any information contained in this press release, either to confirm the actual results or to report a change in its expectations.

There is no guarantee that new product candidates in the pipeline will progress to product approval or that new indications for existing products will be developed and approved. Products or potential products which are the subject of partnerships, joint ventures or licensing collaborations may be subject to differences between the partners. Also, UCB or others could discover safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with its products after they are marketed.

Moreover, sales may be impacted by international and domestic trends toward managed care and health care cost containment and the reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers as well as legislation affecting biopharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement.Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad hopes that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be able to visit Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the near future, TASS reported.

"We have three invitations - from South Ossetia, from Abkhazia and from Crimea," Haddad told reporters on Thursday. "I hope that these visits will take place in the nearest future."

"The exchange of visits between both presidents [of Russia and Syria] is permanent, and it has not stopped. The more visits between the two leaders, the stronger the relations between the two countries," the ambassador added.Regulatory News:

Pernod Ricard (Paris:RI):

Press release Paris, 18 October 2018

VERY STRONG Q1 SALES, FAVOURED BY TECHNICAL IMPACTS

GROWTH TO MODERATE IN FULL-YEAR FY19

ORGANIC SALES GROWTH: +10.4%

(REPORTED GROWTH: +7.2%)

FY19 GUIDANCE1 CONFIRMED:

ORGANIC GROWTH IN PRO2 BETWEEN +5% AND +7%

Sales for the first quarter of FY18 totalled 2,387 million, with organic growth of +10.4%

modest growth in the Americas: +2% slower Q1 in USA, due to shipment phasing, although underlying trend remains broadly in line with market strong performance of Travel Retail

very dynamic Asia-RoW: +23%, boosted by technical impacts strong growth across all categories in China, further enhanced by advance shipments particularly good Q1 in India thanks to better market conditions and value strategy, reinforced by favourable basis of comparison strong performance in Travel Retail Asia and Africa Middle East, but ongoing difficulties in Korea

mixed performance in Europe: +1% strong Sales in Eastern Europe France and Spain in decline, with challenging markets.



Reported growth was +7.2% due to an unfavourable FX impact, mainly from Indian Rupee and Turkish Lira. For full-year FY19, a slightly negative FX impact is expected3

Growth was driven by:

Strategic International Brands broad-based acceleration to +12%, with improved growth from Martell and Scotch, continued strong performance from Jameson but Absolut in decline due to phasing in USA

with improved growth from Martell and Scotch, continued strong performance from Jameson but Absolut in decline due to phasing in USA Strategic Local Brands: +15%, driven by the acceleration of Seagram's Indian Whiskies, Ararat and Passport and continued strong growth of Olmeca Altos

driven by the acceleration of Seagram's Indian Whiskies, Ararat and Passport and continued strong growth of Olmeca Altos Innovation delivering an incremental +2% to overall Group Sales

to overall Group Sales positive impact of price/mix: +2.9%.

H1 will benefit from the earlier Chinese New Year4. Growth will then moderate in full-year FY19, in particular due to Martell coming back in line with its medium-term high-single-digit volume growth target.

The Group will continue to implement its strategic roadmap, in particular focusing on digital, innovation and operational excellence. As part of its active portfolio management, the Group may in the short or medium-term, make value-enhancing bolt-on acquisitions, as well as dispose of non-strategic brands.

1 Guidance communicated 29 August 2018

2 PRO = Profit from Recurring Operations

3 Based on average FX rates projected at 12 October 2018, particularly a EUR/USD rate of 1.16

4 5 February 2019 vs. 16 February 2018

As part of this communication, Alexandre Ricard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated,

"We have had a particularly good start to the year, as expected. In an uncertain geopolitical and monetary environment, we confirm our FY19 guidance of organic growth in Profit from Recurring Operations of between +5% and +7%."

All growth data specified in this press release refers to organic growth (at constant FX and Group structure), unless otherwise stated. Data may be subject to rounding.

A detailed presentation of Sales for the first quarter of FY19 can be downloaded from our website: www.pernod-ricard.com

Definitions and reconciliation of non-IFRS measures to IFRS measures

Pernod Ricard's management process is based on the following non-IFRS measures which are chosen for planning and reporting. The Group's management believes these measures provide valuable additional information for users of the financial statements in understanding the Group's performance. These non-IFRS measures should be considered as complementary to the comparable IFRS measures and reported movements therein.

Organic growth

Organic growth is calculated after excluding the impacts of exchange rate movements and acquisitions and disposals.

Exchange rates impact is calculated by translating the current year results at the prior year's exchange rates.

For acquisitions in the current year, the post-acquisition results are excluded from the organic movement calculations. For acquisitions in the prior year, post-acquisition results are included in the prior year but are included in the organic movement calculation from the anniversary of the acquisition date in the current year.

Where a business, brand, brand distribution right or agency agreement was disposed of, or terminated, in the prior year, the Group, in the organic movement calculations, excludes the results for that business from the prior year. For disposals or terminations in the current year, the Group excludes the results for that business from the prior year from the date of the disposal or termination.

This measure enables to focus on the performance of the business which is common to both years and which represents those measures that local managers are most directly able to influence.

Profit from recurring operations

Profit from recurring operations corresponds to the operating profit excluding other non-current operating income and expenses.

About Pernod Ricard

Pernod Ricard is the world's n2 in wines and spirits with consolidated Sales of 8,987m in FY18. Created in 1975 by the merger of Ricard and Pernod, the Group has undergone sustained development, based on both organic growth and acquisitions: Seagram (2001), Allied Domecq (2005) and Vin&Sprit (2008). Pernod Ricard holds one of the most prestigious brand portfolios in the sector: Absolut Vodka, Ricard pastis, Ballantine's, Chivas Regal, Royal Salute and The Glenlivet Scotch whiskies, Jameson Irish whiskey, Martell cognac, Havana Club rum, Beefeater gin, Malibu liqueur, Mumm and Perrier-Jouet champagnes, as well Jacob's Creek, Brancott Estate, Campo Viejo and Kenwood wines. Pernod Ricard employs a workforce of approximately 18,900 people and operates through a decentralised organisation, with 6 "Brand Companies" and 86 "Market Companies" established in each key market. Pernod Ricard is strongly committed to a sustainable development policy and encourages responsible consumption. Pernod Ricard's strategy and ambition are based on 3 key values that guide its expansion: entrepreneurial spirit, mutual trust and a strong sense of ethics.

Pernod Ricard is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI; ISIN code: FR0000120693) and is part of the CAC 40 index.

APPENDICES

Q1 FY19 Sales by Region

Net Sales ( millions) Q1 FY18 Q1 FY19 Change Organic Growth Group Structure Forex impact Americas 639 28.7% 636 26.6% (3) 0% 15 2% (3) 0% (15) -2% Asia Rest of World 916 41.1% 1,084 45.4% 169 18% 208 23% (0) 0% (39) -4% Europe 671 30.2% 667 27.9% (4) -1% 7 1% (4) -1% (8) -1% World 2,226 100.0% 2,387 100.0% 161 7% 230 10% (7) 0% (62) -3%

Notes:

FY18 has been adjusted to reflect the IFRS15 update as per press release 25th September 2018 "Application of IFRS 15 norm"

Bulk Spirits are allocated by Region according to the Regions' weight in the Group

Foreign exchange impact on Q1 FY19 Sales

Forex impact Q1 FY19 ( millions) Average rates evolution On Net Sales Q1 FY18 Q1 FY19 US dollar USD 1.17 1.16 -1.0% 6 Pound sterling GBP 0.90 0.89 -0.6% 1 Chinese yuan CNY 7.83 7.92 1.1% (3) Indian rupee INR 75.51 81.65 8.1% (22) Turkish Lira TRL 4.13 6.60 60.0% (10) Other (33) Total (62)

Upcoming communications

DATE1 EVENT Wednesday 21 November 2018 Annual General Meeting Thursday 13 December 2018 North America conference call Thursday 7 February 2019 H1 FY19 Sales Results Tuesday 19 March 2019 EMEA LATAM conference call Thursday 18 April 2019 Q3 FY19 Sales

1 The above dates are indicative and are liable to change

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181017005820/en/

Contacts:

Pernod Ricard

Julia Massies, +33 (0)1 41 00 41 07

VP, Investor Relations Internal Audit

or

Adam Ramjean, +33 (0)1 41 00 41 59

Investor Relations Manager

or

Fabien Darrigues, +33 (0)1 41 00 44 86

External Communications Director

or

Alison Donohoe, +33 (0)1 41 00 44 63

Press Relations Manager

or

Emmanuel Vouin, +33 (0)1 41 00 44 04

Press Relations ManagerFLOW TRADERS 3Q18 TRADING UPDATE



Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Flow Traders N.V. (Euronext: FLOW) releases its unaudited 3Q18 trading update. The highlights for the period are:





Market ETP Value Traded down 12% quarter-on-quarter, Market ETP AuM up 6% quarter-on-quarter (in )

Flow Traders 3Q18 NTI 42.4m, resulting in a record NTI of 309.3m year-to-date

Flow Traders gained market share in all regions in 3Q18

3Q18 Fixed operating expenses grew 5%; fixed operating expenses growing 6% year-to-date

FTEs grew to 425 at the end of 3Q18; FTE growth of 8% year-to-date

Own Funds Requirement (OFR) was 174m on 30 September 2018, resulting in excess capital of 113m



Overview 3Q18 Value Traded

billion 3Q18 2Q18 Change YTD 18 YTD 17 Change Flow Traders ETP Value Traded 184.0 205.0 (10%) 632.8 521.8 21% EMEA (Europe) 96.4 112.8 (15%) 352.1 314.7 12% Americas 79.2 83.9 (6%) 254.9 190.0 34% APAC (ex China) 8.4 8.3 1% 25.7 17.1 51% Flow Traders' non-ETP Value Traded 589 621 (5%) 1,902 1,685 13% Market ETP Value Traded 4,874 5,544 (12%) 16,958 14,207 19% EMEA (Europe) 281 338 (17%) 1,001 967 4% Americas, 4,091 4,621 (11%) 14,329 11,919 20% APAC ex China 198 206 (4%) 707 540 31%



Financial Overview Flow Traders 3Q18

million 3Q18 2Q18 Change YTD 18 YTD 17 Change Net Trading Income 42.4 53.8 (21%) 309.3 126.7 144% EMEA (Europe) 27.5 32.4 (15%) 109.4 87.1 26% Americas 8.1 14.7 (45%) 175.5 28.3 521% APAC (ex China) 6.8 6.7 1% 24.5 11.3 116% Net Trading Income 42.4 53.8 (21%) 309.3 126.7 144% Employee expenses (fixed) 8.9 8.9 - 26.5 23.4 13% Technology expenses 9.1 8.6 5% 26.6 28.0 (5%) Other expenses 5.0 4.4 15% 13.4 11.3 19% Fixed Operating Expenses 22.9 21.9 5% 66.5 62.7 6% Employee expenses (var) 6.8* 12.5 (46%) 76.8 21.2 263% Total operational expenses 29.7 34.4 (14%) 143.3 83.8 71% EBITDA 12.7 19.4 (34%) 166.0 42.8 288% Depreciation/Amortisation 2.4 2.1 6.5 5.2 Write offs, tangible assets - 0.1 0.1 - Results subsidiaries - (3.1) (3.1) - Profit Before Tax 10.4 20.3 (49%) 162.5 37.6 332% Tax 2.2 3.1 27.5 6.0 Net Profit 8.2 17.2 (52%) 135.0 31.7 327% EPS (in ) 0.18 0.37 2.91 0.68 EBITDA margins (%) 30% 36% 54% 34%

* including one-off 1.1m impact related to employees leaving the firm with shares under lock up

3Q18 regional highlights:

AMERICAS:

Flow Traders US ETP market share grew further in 3Q18

Flow Traders US ETP Value Traded reached 79.2bn, lower quarter-on-quarter, but ahead of the market

Number of counterparties continues to grow, momentum in OTC trading is increasing

EMEA:

Flow Traders EMEA ETP market share grew in 3Q18, confirming our leading position in the ETP ecosystem

Flow Traders EMEA ETP Value Traded reached 96.4bn, lower quarter-on-quarter, but ahead of the market

Number of counterparties continues to grow, supported by the impact of MiFID II

FX liquidity providing is live on FastMatch and Currenex with a rapidly growing number of counterparties

APAC:

Flow Traders APAC ETP market share grew further in 3Q18

Flow Traders APAC ex-China ETP Value Traded reached 8.4bn, flat versus previous quarter, but ahead of the market

Flow Traders APAC ETP OTC trading in terms of Value Traded continued to grow in 3Q18



Co-CEO Dennis Dijkstra stated:

"Markets were seasonally slow in the third quarter, as certain geopolitical events only had a short impact on the market. The temporary fall in realized volatility in especially the US, affected profit potential in 3Q18. Flow Traders continued to focus on executing its organic growth strategy, with momentum increasing in its global OTC trading. FX liquidity providing with external counterparties is now live in EMEA and expansion to other platforms is expected to follow soon. All in all, Flow Traders' market share continued to grow in 3Q18, leading to an NTI in the quarter that is above last year's NTI level, adding to what is already our best year since inception. With FX trading live, Flow Traders is accelerating plans to diversify into other asset classes, in addition to its leading ETP business."

CFO Marcel Jongmans added:

"In 3Q18 our focus on cost control continued. The fixed cost increase in the quarter was mainly the result of expected investments, such as the start of new graduate classes in trading and technology and the ongoing expansion of our infrastructure. Our regulatory capital base remained healthy with conservative levels of excess capital in 3Q18. Flow Traders continues to have a strong and unleveraged balance sheet, while generating strong free cash flows. Looking ahead, Flow Traders remains focused on enhancing the performance of its trading infrastructure to maximize NTI, while keeping a tight grip on cost."



Preliminary Financial Calendar

11 January 2019 Start Silent Period ahead of release FY18 results

08 February 2019 Release FY18 results (incl. analyst conference call)

28 February 2019 Release Annual Report 2018

26 March 2019 Start Silent Period ahead of release 1Q19 trading update

16 April 2019 Release 1Q19 trading update (no analyst conference call)

08 May 2019 AGM Flow Traders



Contact Details



Flow Traders N.V.

Serge Enneman / Investor Relations Officer

Phone: +31 20 7996799

Email: investor.relations@flowtraders.com (mailto:investor.relations@flowtraders.com)

Important legal information

This press release is prepared by Flow Traders N.V. and is for information purposes only. It is not a recommendation to engage in investment activities and you must not rely on the content of this document when making any investment decisions. The information in this document does not constitute legal, tax, or investment advice and is not to be regarded as investor marketing or marketing of any security or financial instrument, or as an offer to buy or sell, or as a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell, securities or financial instruments.



The information and materials contained in this press release are provided 'as is' and Flow Traders N.V. or any of its affiliates ("Flow Traders") do not warrant the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the information and materials and expressly disclaim liability for any errors or omissions. This press release is not intended to be, and shall not constitute in any way a binding or legal agreement, or impose any legal obligation on Flow Traders. All intellectual property rights, including trademarks, are those of their respective owners. All rights reserved. All proprietary rights and interest in or connected with this publication shall vest in Flow Traders. No part of it may be redistributed or reproduced without the prior written permission of Flow Traders.



This press release may include forward-looking statements, which are based on Flow Traders' current expectations and projections about future events, and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs and expectations. Words such as "may", "will", "would", "should", "expect", "intend", "estimate", "anticipate", "project", "believe", "could", "hope", "seek", "plan", "foresee", "aim", "objective", "potential", "goal" "strategy", "target", "continue" and similar expressions or their negatives are used to identify these forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future whether or not outside the control of Flow Traders. Such factors may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no undue reliance should be placed on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as at the date at which they are made. Flow Traders expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update, review or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which such statements are based unless required to do so by applicable law.



Financial objectives are internal objectives of Flow Traders to measure its operational performance and should not be read as indicating that Flow Traders is targeting such metrics for any particular fiscal year. Flow Traders' ability to achieve these financial objectives is inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond Flow Traders' control, and upon assumptions with respect to future business decisions that are subject to change. As a result, Flow Traders' actual results may vary from these financial objectives, and those variations may be material.



Efficiencies are net, before tax and on a run-rate basis, i.e. taking into account the full-year impact of any measure to be undertaken before the end of the period mentioned. The expected operating efficiencies and cost savings were prepared on the basis of a number of assumptions, projections and estimates, many of which depend on factors that are beyond Flow Traders' control. These assumptions, projections and estimates are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and actual results may differ, perhaps materially, from those projected. Flow Traders cannot provide any assurance that these assumptions are correct and that these projections and estimates will reflect Flow Traders' actual results of operations.

By accepting this document you agree to the terms set out above. If you do not agree with the terms set out above please notify legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com (mailto:legal.amsterdam@nl.flowtraders.com) immediately and delete or destroy this document.

Market Abuse Regulation

This press release contains information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation.

Flow Traders 3Q18 trading update (http://hugin.info/171622/R/2221025/869261.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: Flow Traders NV via Globenewswire

Wereldhave sells Itis and exits Finland

Wereldhave has reached agreement to sell the Itis shopping centre in Helsinki to a fund advised by Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI). With this transaction, Wereldhave has made a large step in realising its strategic agenda to focus on convenience centres, whilst improving its risk profile and strengthening the balance sheet.

The net price for the shopping centre including the deferred tax liability amounts to  450m. This reflects a gross price of  516 million which is 8.5% below the book value at 30 June 2018.

The transaction is scheduled for December 2018, subject to completion of the Finnkino development project and antitrust approval. After completion, Wereldhave's portfolio will be strongly focused on one asset class, with 29 convenience shopping centres in Belgium (7), France (6) and the Netherlands (16). As Itis accounted for 15% of the portfolio, the single asset exposure will decrease to 7%, which improves the risk profile of the Company.

Once the disposal of Finland is completed, the LTV is expected to drop by 6%, thus significantly improving the capital structure of Wereldhave.

As a result of the completion of the transaction and the associated loss of rental income in December, Wereldhave expects the direct result for 2018 to be between  3.30 and  3.35 per share (previously  3.33 and  3.38). The dividend can and will be maintained at the current level of  2.52 in respect of 2018 and 2019.

AttachmentHotel opening marks conversion from The Westin Sydney

SINGAPORE, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts has today announced that as of 18 October 2019, The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts will be responsible for the management of the hotel located at 1 Martin Place, currently The Westin Sydney. The hotel will be re-branded The Fullerton Hotel Sydney. 1 Martin Place forms the southern face of Martin Place, a bustling pedestrian boulevard and public gathering place located in the civic heart of Sydney's CBD.

The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts presently owns and operates two award-winning hotels in Singapore: The Fullerton Hotel Singapore (opened in 2001) and The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore (opened in 2010). Both hotels anchor the historic and cultural Fullerton Heritage precinct located in Marina Bay, the heart of Singapore's city centre. The Fullerton Hotel Sydney, when open in October 2019, will mark the company's first international expansion.

Built in 1928, The Fullerton Hotel Singapore's building was previously home to the country's General Post Office (GPO) and several other important government departments. In recognition of the building's significance, and subsequent heritage conversion efforts, it was gazetted as Singapore's 71st National Monument in December 2015. This is the highest form of national recognition in Singapore and the equivalent of a listing on the National Heritage List in Australia.

The Fullerton Hotel Sydney will be located within the historic Sydney GPO Building, which was completed in 1891.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to present The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts' award-winning style of hospitality and hotel to Australia," said Cavaliere Giovanni Viterale, General Manager of The Fullerton Hotel Singapore.

"The Fullerton Hotel Sydney will become a sister hotel to The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, both of which share a similar rich history as former GPOs. We strive to deliver a luxury hotel that can further contribute to Sydney's growth as an international tourist destination and showcase the beauty and heritage of the original building to a wider audience, both nationally and globally."

New hotel website set to launch

While hotel operations will remain very much 'business as usual', The Fullerton Hotel Sydney's website https://www.the-fullerton-hotel-sydney.com will go live on 18 October 2018.

Facade cleaning and remediation project earmarked for early 2019

Another key project, scheduled to commence early in the new year, is the remediation and repair of the hotel's facade.

"As dedicated custodians of the building, and as part of our commitment to the community, this project has been designed to restore the beauty of the facade and will be carried out in line with the Heritage Management Plan and safety regulations," explained Cavaliere Giovanni.

Sean Hunt, Area Vice President, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, Marriott International said, "Marriott International has managed The Westin Sydney at 1 Martin Place for over 20 years and we would like to thank all of our colleagues at the hotel for their continued support, hard work and dedication to its success."

To learn more about The Fullerton Hotel Sydney, visit https://www.the-fullerton-hotel-sydney.com or email fhs.enquiries@fullertonhotels.com.

About The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts: The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts presently owns and operates two award-winning hotels in Singapore: The Fullerton Hotel Singapore (opened in 2001) and The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore (opened in 2010). Both hotels anchor the historic and cultural Fullerton Heritage precinct, located in Marina Bay - the heart of Singapore's city centre. The Fullerton Hotel Sydney, when open in October 2019, marks the company's first international expansion. The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts is affiliated with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, which represents a global portfolio of independent hotels and independent hotel experiences.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/769763/Fullerton_Hotels_Resorts_Logo.jpg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.MILAN, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

In Brussels, the European Society of Endocrinology has met 10 European Parliament members and proposed a shared agenda to limit the socioeconomic impact of Osteoporosis in Europe.

Tackling hypovitaminosis D, early diagnosis of vertebral fractures, access and adherence to therapies are the key points to work on.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/770911/The_European_Society_of_Endocrinology_Logo.jpg )



Affecting more than half of population aged over 80, osteoporosis represents an emergency in terms of social relevance and economic - healthcare costs.The European Society of Endocrinology seizes the opportunity of the World Osteoporosis Day to meet European Authorities andset forth a proposal of shared healthcare policies that may produce large-scale benefits and improve people's health and State budgets.

"Fragility fractures have an important economic impact. The direct costs (hospitalizations) only in Italy account for around 9 billion euros. 1 more billion of indirect costs, such as rehabilitation costs and losses due to absence from work, has to be added. We find the same situation in the rest of EU Statesas well - says Prof. Andrea Giustina, Professor of Endocrinologyat San Raffaele Hospital in Milanand President-Electof the European Society of Endocrinology - The three-point document we will set forth to the EP members proposes some cost-effective measures of clinical practice aimed at limiting costs and drastically reducingthe incidence of this disease."

The document prepared by the ESE is set out in 3 points:

Tackling hypovitaminosis D : most European people (mainly in Southern Europe ) show vitamin D deficiency, the hormone synthetized by human skin through sunlight exposure which is essential to bone mineralization. When a vitamin D deficiency is shown, a cholecalciferol supplementation is required.

: most European people (mainly in ) show vitamin D deficiency, the hormone synthetized by human skin through sunlight exposure which is essential to bone mineralization. When a vitamin D deficiency is shown, a cholecalciferol supplementation is required. Early diagnosis of vertebral fractures : often underrated, and characterized by non-specific or absent painful symptoms, and therefore late-diagnosed, vertebral fractures represent an important risk factor for further vertebral column and femur fractures. Beside primary and secondary prevention it's essential to promote an education to tertiary prevention and timely diagnostics in which the morphometric identification in carriers of vertebral fractures becomes the key point for a policy aimed at the reduction of poly-fracture events as well as the increase of direct and indirect costs.

: often underrated, and characterized by non-specific or absent painful symptoms, and therefore late-diagnosed, vertebral fractures represent an important risk factor for further vertebral column and femur fractures. Beside primary and secondary prevention it's essential to promote an in which the morphometric identification in carriers of vertebral fractures becomes the key point for a policy aimed at the reduction of poly-fracture events as well as the increase of direct and indirect costs. Access and adherence to therapies: recent studies have shown that more than 50% of women with osteoporosis do not start the anti-osteoporotic pharmacologic treatment, and that only a small percentage of those who undergo such treatment continue the treatment for more than 1 year. According to the ESE, it is essential to start information policies for doctors and population in general in order to help the proper access to treatments and the adherence to therapies.

"European endocrinologists wish that this agenda of intervention might gain the widest consent among Institutions and are ready to help in order to find in practice the most effective instruments to implement intervention on the mentioned criticalities. They also commit themselves to verify the execution and effectiveness of said instruments 12 months hence," concludes Giustina.ADVA Optical Networking SE / ADVA scoops ECOC award with pioneering Ethernet technology for 5G fronthaul . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Showcase of SDN-enabled 100G Ethernet aggregator for low-latency, time-accurate mobile services voted best demo

Rome, Italy. October 18, 2018. ADVA (FSE: ADV) announced today that it has won the Best Demo Award at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) alongside its partner TransPacket. The joint showcase responds to some of the key challenges networks operators face as they look to support emerging 5G use cases such as augmented reality and mission-critical communication. The proof of concept (PoC) featured pioneering Ethernet technology capable of delivering ultra-low and deterministic latency for time-sensitive services. The demo was funded by the 5G-PICTURE project, part of the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

"What we've demonstrated here is a way to use Ethernet to deliver time-sensitive fronthaul and less sensitive backhaul traffic over the same infrastructure to unleash the full potential of 5G. For mobile operators, the main obstacle to this is achieving very precise time synchronization and controlled latency. With this award-winning showcase, we've presented a way to overcome that barrier and deliver the service quality necessary for advanced radio access technologies such as carrier aggregation, transmitter diversity, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems," said Jorg-Peter Elbers, SVP, advanced technology, ADVA. "By prioritizing Precision Time Protocol (PTP) information and fronthaul traffic while using best-effort gap-filling for backhaul traffic, we've been able to attain both low latency and high timing accuracy at 100Gbit/s aggregate capacity."

The live demo featured an ultra-low latency Ethernet network for converging 10Gbit/s fronthaul and backhaul traffic over a single 100GbE trunk link. This was enabled by ultra-low latency aggregation of fronthaul services together with a best-effort aggregation and transport of backhaul services. Precise synchronization delivery was also an essential feature. Key to this was the OSA 5410 (https://www.oscilloquartz.com/en/products-and-services/ptp-grandmaster-clocks/mid-sized-ptp-grandmasters/osa-5410-series?utm_source=website&utm_medium=press-release&utm_campaign=181018-ecoc), a compact and cost-effective timing distribution and assurance device from ADVA's specialist synchronization company, Oscilloquartz. With TransPacket's FUSION IP used for bounded delay aggregation and fixed-delay transmission, the 100Gbit/s Ethernet aggregator was able to meet the stringent latency requirements necessary for 5G fronthaul.

"One of the reasons our joint PoC stood out from the crowd was its originality and simplicity. By augmenting Ethernet with our gap-filling scheme, we were able to deliver converged time-sensitive mobile front- and backhaul services along with ultra-precise timing information. Key to this was the use of deterministic latency to guarantee the lowest packet delay variation through multiple network transport nodes," commented Steinar Bjrnstad, CTO, TransPacket. "What's exciting about the technology showcased here is that it's ready to be implemented in a Carrier Ethernet switch or router. This live demo is the result of close collaboration with our 5G-PICTURE ecosystem partners. Working together with the ADVA team, we've taken a major step towards tomorrow's Ethernet and the next generation of mobile connectivity."

Further information on this demo is available in these slides: http://adva.li/ecoc18 (http://adva.li/ecoc18).

About ADVA Optical Networking

ADVA Optical Networking is a company founded on innovation and driven to help our customers succeed. For over two decades, our technology has empowered networks across the globe. We're continually developing breakthrough hardware and software that leads the networking industry and creates new business opportunities. It's these open connectivity solutions that enable our customers to deliver the cloud and mobile services that are vital to today's society and for imagining new tomorrows. Together, we're building a truly connected and sustainable future. For more information on how we can help you, please visit us at: www.advaoptical.com (http://www.advaoptical.com).

Published by:

ADVA Optical Networking SE, Munich, Germany

www.advaoptical.com (http://www.advaoptical.com)

For press:

Gareth Spence

t +44 1904 699 358

public-relations(at)advaoptical.com (mailto:public-relations@advaoptical.com)

For investors:

Stephan Rettenberger

t +49 89 890 665 854

investor-relations(at)advaoptical.com (mailto:investor-relations@advaoptical.com)



Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - M2 Cobalt Corp. (TSXV: MC) (the "Company") is pleased to announce it has launched an initial drill program focused on key targets discovered during its successful Phase 1 work program. The Company has entered into a drilling contract with an East-African drilling company and currently plans up to 3,000 metres of diamond core drilling with the ability to extend the program as required.

Simon Clarke, CEO stated, "The commencement of drilling is a very exciting time for the Company. The success of our phase 1 program, during which we discovered multiple large-scale targets with surface sampling up to 1.75% Co, 0.91% Cu and 0.26% Ni, has positioned us strongly for this initial phase of drilling. It moves us closer to achieving our corporate objective of discovering and developing world-class deposits of cobalt and associated minerals.

We will keep shareholders apprised of developments and anticipate regular news-flow as this initial drilling program unfolds."

During its phase 1 program, the Company discovered multiple targets and 3 distinct styles of mineralization; volcanogenic massive sulphide ("VMS") copper-cobalt at its Kilembe-area properties, Katanga-style sediment hosted, copper-cobalt mineralization at Bujagali as well as ultramafic nickel, copper and cobalt at Bombo. The initial drill program will test key targets at depth in each style of mineralization and will position the Company to embark on a larger drill program.

About M2 Cobalt

M2 Cobalt Corp. is focused on discovering and developing world-class cobalt assets (and related minerals) to help address the growing deficit in the supply of cobalt. The Company has a large, highly prospective land package in the Republic of Uganda, East Africa bordering historic production and on the same mineral trends as some of the major mines in the neighbouring DRC where over 60% of world cobalt supply originates. Uganda is a stable country with a growing economy looking to re-energize its historic mining industry. The Company has a highly experienced management team and board of directors, which has been involved in funding and advancing resource projects globally. Further information on the Company and its projects can be found at www.m2cobalt.com.

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, P.Geol., the Technical Advisor of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

For further information, contact Simon Clarke at sclarke@m2cobalt.com or Andy Edelmeier at andy@m2cobalt.com.

On behalf of the Board,

M2 COBALT CORP.

Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to exploration work to be undertaken in Uganda, the reliability of third party information, and certain other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR"). With the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Karelian Diamond Resources plc

("Karelian Diamonds" or "the Company")

18 October 2018

ORANGEITE (GROUP II KIMBERLITE) DISCOVERED UP-ICE FROM GREEN DIAMOND

Karelian Diamond Resources plc ("Karelian Diamonds") (AIM: KDR), the diamond exploration and development company focused on Finland, is pleased to announce that drilling, up-ice from its discovery in a till sample of a green diamond, has intersected orangeite (Group II Kimberlite), a potentially diamondiferous host rock.

Highlights

Results from first drilling up-ice from green diamond discovery.

Drill core material intersected confirmed as orangeite by scanning electron microscopy ("SEM") of thin sections at the GTK laboratories.

Orangeite (Group II Kimberlite) is a potentially diamondiferous host rock.

Further Information

The drill core sample was classified as orangeite (Group II Kimberlite) through petrographic analysis and SEM at the Geological Survey of Finland ("GTK") laboratories.

Orangeite (Group II Kimberlite) is a potentially diamondiferous host rock of which the best known example is the major Finsch diamond mine in South Africa .

The location of the drilling site followed a review of airborne geophysics and a till sampling programme up-ice from the diamond discovery which yielded high kimberlite indicator minerals ("KIMs") (announced on 23 January 2018 ).

The green diamond was discovered in a till sample (announced on 31 January 2017 ) taken in a KIMs anomaly (Anomaly 5) identified as part of a regional exploration programme by Karelian Diamonds in the Kuhmo region of eastern Finland .

Five drillholes totalling 274.9m and varying in depth from 16.1m to 74.5m were drilled.

Two drill core samples from KDR-18-02 from 31.75m within a 1.4m intersection ( 31.1m to 32.5m ) and KDR-18-04 from 63.35m after visual inspection were submitted for thin section analysis (the KDR-18-04 sample was not classified as orangeite.)

Follow up exploration work will focus on defining the orangeite (Group II Kimberlite) and on the identification of any other potentially diamondiferous material in the area.

The Kuhmo region of Finland , in which the Company has also discovered, at Riihivaara, a new kimberlite body (announced on 20 March 2015 ) lies on the central part of the Archean Karelian Craton and the Archean mantle of the Kuhmo region through which the kimberlites and orangeite (Group II Kimberlite) have ascended, has all the hallmarks for good diamond potential.

This release has been approved by Kevin McNulty PGeo, who is a member of the Company's technical staff and holds a BSc/MSc in Geology and Remote Sensing, in accordance with the guidance note for Mining, Oil & Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in respect of AIM Companies, which outlines standards of disclosure for mineral projects.

Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman, Karelian Diamond Resources plc commented:

"It is very exciting to see the first orangeite (Group II Kimberlite)core up-ice of our diamond discovery in anomaly 5. I am delighted that our exploration philosophy and accumulation of in-depth geological knowledge gained from Seitapera and our discovery of the Riihivaara Kimberlite is continuing to yield results in the highly prospective Karelian Craton."

For further information please contact :

Karelian Diamond Resources plc Tel: +353-1-479-6180 Professor Richard Conroy, Chairman Allenby Capital Limited(Nomad) Tel: +44-20-3328-5656 Virginia Bull/Nick Harriss Brandon Hill Capital Limited (Broker) Tel: +44-20-3463-5000 Jonathan Evans Lothbury Financial Services Tel: +44-20-3290-0707 Michael Padley Hall Communications Tel: +353-1-660-9377 Don HallHEIDELBERG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / Apogenix, a biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation immuno-oncology therapeutics, announced today that company representatives will attend several upcoming international conferences. In a total of five presentations, Apogenix will give updates on its hexavalent TNF superfamily receptor agonists (HERA-ligands) as well as its phase III-ready lead drug candidate asunercept.

Joint BioRN & Ci3 Annual Conference 2018: Immunotherapy and beyond - The next generation of cancer treatment (October 25, 2018)

Venue: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

Presentation on October 25, 2:55 pm: "Apogenix' TNFR-Mediated Signaling Modulators - Innovative Immuno-Oncology Therapeutics"

Presenter: Thomas Hoeger, Ph.D., CEO

World Immunotherapy Congress 2018 (October 29 - 31, 2018)

Venue: Basel Congress Center, Basel, Switzerland

Presentation on October 30, 3:35 pm: "Hexavalent TNFR-SF Agonists for Cancer Immunotherapy: HERA-CD40L, HERA-CD27L and Beyond"

Presenter: Oliver Hill, Ph.D., VP Molecular Biology/Protein Engineering

BIO-Europe (November 5 - 7, 2018)

Venue: Bella Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Attendees: Thomas Hoeger, Ph.D., CEO; Juergen Gamer, Ph.D., VP Business Development

SITC 33rd Annual Meeting (November 7 - 11, 2018)

Venue: Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C., USA

Presentation on November 11, 8:05 - 10:30 am: "Immuno-oncology tHERApy with HERA-GITRL: the novel hexavalent human GITR agonist activates T cells and promotes anti-tumor efficacy independent of Fc-functionality" (Session: Next Generation Bispecifics and Antibody-Like Molecules)

Presenter: David Richards, Ph.D., Head of Immunology

10th Annual PEGS Europe (November 12 - 16, 2018)

Venue: Lisbon Congress Center, Lisbon, Portugal

Presentation on November 15, 4:00 pm: "HERA: Engineering Next-Generation TNFR-SF Agonists for Cancer Immunotherapy"

Presenter: Oliver Hill, Ph.D., VP Molecular Biology/Protein Engineering

SNO 23rd Annual Meeting and Education Day (November 15 - 18, 2018)

Venue: Marriott Hotel, New Orleans, LA, USA

Poster Presentation on November 16, 7:30 - 9:30 pm: "Asunercept plus radiotherapy in relapsed glioblastoma. Update on five years overall survival of study NCT01071837 and development of a Population-PK - Tumor Growth Inhibition - Survival Model" (Poster ATIM-13)

Presenter: Harald Fricke, M.D., CMO

About Apogenix

Apogenix is a private company developing innovative immuno-oncology therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other malignant diseases. The Heidelberg, Germany-based company has built a promising pipeline of immuno-oncology drug candidates that target different tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily-dependent signaling pathways, thereby restoring the immune response against tumors. Checkpoint inhibitor asunercept, the company's lead immuno-oncology candidate, is in late-stage clinical development. In 2017, asunercept received PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of glioblastoma. Based on its proprietary technology platform for the construction of novel he xavalent TNF superfamily r eceptor a gonists (HERA-ligands), Apogenix develops CD40, CD27, GITR, HVEM, 4-1BB, and OX40 receptor agonists for cancer immunotherapy.

In 2015, asunercept was exclusively licensed to CANbridge Life Sciences for the development and commercialization for the treatment of glioblastoma in China, Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. CANbridge has received approval by the China Food and Drug Administration for a pivotal phase II/III trial with asunercept (CAN008) in glioblastoma in China. The HERA-TRAIL receptor agonist program was partnered with AbbVie in 2014. In 2017, AbbVie initiated a phase I trial with this HERA-TRAIL receptor agonist (ABBV-621) in patients suffering from solid tumors, non-Hodgkins's lymphoma, or acute myeloid leukemia.

Contacts

Thomas Hoeger, Ph.D., CEO

Juergen Gamer, Ph.D., VP Business Development

Apogenix AG

Phone: +49 6221 58608-0

E-Mail: contact@apogenix.com

Web: www.apogenix.com



Media Contacts

Katja Arnold

Andreas Jungfer

MC Services AG

Phone: +49 89 210228-0

E-Mail: apogenix@mc-services.eu

ApogenixView source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/525720/Apogenix-to-Present-at-Five-Upcoming-International-ConferencesSaudi Arabia is a very important ally of the United States in the fight against Iran and terrorism, U.S. President Donald Trump said.

"Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran," the American leader told reporters.

According to him, the Saudi government is a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things.

Trump said that Saudi Arabia committed to purchasing "$450 billion worth of things and $110 billion worth of military "from the U.S. "Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been any order for $450 billion. And you remember that day in Saudi Arabia where that commitment was made," CNS cite the U.S. president as saying.Accenture (NYSE: ACN) today announced deeper investments with ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) to provide clients in Europe with Accenture's full spectrum of digital transformation expertise and ServiceNow's capabilities to improve business performance.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005254/en/

L to R: ServiceNow EMEA Senior Vice President and General Manager Philip van der Wilt and Accenture Europe Intelligent Cloud Infrastructure Services Lead Philippe Chauffaud kick off a deeper collaboration to help clients in Europe achieve superior business outcomes. (Photo: Business Wire)

With the increasing demand for cloud migration services, Accenture is expanding on its work with ServiceNow by bolstering its unmatched implementation services to clients in multiple industries at a time when driving digital transformation is critical to today's C-Suite. Both companies are now focusing on helping clients adapt their existing processes and infrastructure to respond to end-user experience needs. For clients in Europe, Accenture and ServiceNow will offer digital transformation expertise to provide a consumer-like approach, integrated service delivery and artificial intelligence capabilities.

"Our deeper collaboration with ServiceNow means that clients will have access to the Accenture Cloud Innovation Center recently announced in Rome to test products and build in proper security controls for their cloud investments," said Jason Wojahn, global ServiceNow lead at Accenture. "The new center will allow clients to sit side-by-side with cloud native experts to explore common use cases, refine cloud security processes and receive strategic direction before products go live."

"Together, we'll help clients implement strategic cloud migration plans with a long-term view, as opposed to tactical, near-term, project-based views," said Philip van der Wilt, senior vice president and general manager, ServiceNow EMEA. "Our mission is to provide solutions for digital experiences that help people do their best work; ServiceNow makes work, work better for people. Our partnership with Accenture now means we have some of the world's top cloud experts working side by side to help our clients realize their business potential."

In Europe, the two companies are working together to recruit the brightest talent and up-skill the existing workforce. Accenture and ServiceNow have developed a three-week program to attract talent from local universities. Accenture's ServiceNow certifications in Europe saw 173 percent growth in 2018 from 2017, the most number of ServiceNow certifications globally. Accenture holds the world's largest global pool of 2,400 ServiceNow certified professionals.

Clients can also tap Accenture and ServiceNow to navigate the compliance requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Accenture now offers GDPR services such as a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as well as Automated Data Discovery. The new Accenture offerings help clients manage the volume of DPIAs with a dynamic in-built risk assessment, fully automated review workflow and robust audit trail and ongoing risk management. Accenture's GDPR expertise is now more relevant than ever because of the serious financial implications involved in non-compliance.

Organizations mitigating risk properly can use the regulation as an opportunity to establish a competitive edge by re-building digital trust with customers.

Accenture's long history with ServiceNow includes work on key clients such as Vattenfall, one of Europe's largest electricity and heat retailers and producers, to deliver a human resources transformation project, with ServiceNow acting as one of the core platforms. Accenture is designing, building and implementing a full spectrum of HR services for all Vattenfall employees.

Accenture was named the Overall Leader, ahead of all 12 competitors, on both execution and innovation in HfS Blueprint for ServiceNow Services, a bi-annual report that evaluates the services ecosystem of Software as a Service platforms.

Beyond operating as implementation partners, Accenture also uses ServiceNow as its primary platform for enabling cross enterprise functions, such as HR services, for its 459,000 employees worldwide.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions underpinned by the world's largest delivery network Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 459,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005254/en/

Contacts:

Accenture

Mylissa Tsai

+1 917 452 9729

mylissa.tsai@accenture.comLONDON, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Analysing the "Superfoods" Trend and Forecasts for Functional Dairy, Bakery & Cereal, Baby Food, Fats & Oils, Meat, Fish & Eggs and Others Plus Profiles on the Leading Companies and Regional and Leading National Markets Analysis

The new report from business intelligence provider Visiongain offers an updated outlook for the global functional foods market and growing "superfood" trend. Visiongain assesses that the functional foods market will generate revenues of $69.73bn in 2018.

Now: "Functional Food Industry Boom: Chia, Flax and Quinoa Seeds Markets Witnessing Double Digit Growth." This is an example of the business-critical headline that you need to know about - and more importantly, you need to read Visiongain's objective analysis of how this will impact your company and the industry more broadly. How are you and your company reacting to this news? Are you sufficiently informed?

How this report will benefit you

Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in the functional foods sector. Visiongain's new study tells you and tells you NOW.

In this brand-new report, you will receive 217 in-depth tables, charts and graphs- all unavailable elsewhere.

The 184-page report provides clear detailed insight into the global functional foods market. It reveals the key drivers and challenges affecting the market.

By ordering and reading our brand-new report today you will be better informed and ready to act.

Report Scope

 Global functional foods market forecasts from 2018-2028

 Regional functional foods market forecasts from 2018-2028 covering

- North America

- South America

- Western Europe

- Eastern Europe

- Asia-Pacific

- Middle East and Africa

 Country level functional foods forecasts from 2018-2028 covering

- US

- Canada

- Mexico

- UK

- Germany

- Japan

- Brazil

- UAE

- RoW.

 Functional foods submarket forecasts from 2018-2028 covering

- Functional Dairy

- Functional Bakery & Cereal

- Functional Baby Food

- Functional Fats & Oils

- Functional Meat, Fish & Eggs

- Other Functional Foods

 Analysis of the key factors driving growth in the global, regional and country level functional foods markets from 2018-2028

 Profiles and competitive positioning map of the leading 15 functional foods companies

- Abbott Laboratories

- ADM

- Arla

- BASF

- Danone

- Dean Foods

- General Mills

- Glanbia plc

- GlaxoSmithKline plc

- Kellogg

- Nestle

- Orkla Group

- PepsiCo

- Raisio Group

- Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.

How will you benefit from this report?

 This report will keep your functional foods knowledge base up to speed. Don't get left behind

 This report will reinforce strategic decision decision-making based upon definitive and reliable market data

 You will learn how to exploit new functional foods technological trends

 You will be able to realise your company's full potential within the market

 You will better understand the competitive landscape and identify potential new business opportunities & partnerships

Who should read this report?

 Anyone within the food industry & value chain

 Food manufacturers

 Ingredients suppliers

 Manufacturers of functional food

 Manufacturers of functional ingredients

 Manufacturers of free-from food

 Manufacturers of organic food

 Manufacturers of superfoods

 Health & wellness food distribution companies

 Healthy food distributors and manufacturers

 Food marketing and business analysis departments

 Investment analysts

 Investment consultancies

 Food industry investors

 Food market consultancy

 Governmental departments & agencies

 New product development (NPD) managers & Specialists

 Food buyers

 Clean-label food manufacturers

 CEO's

 COO's

 CIO's

 Business development managers

 Marketing managers

 Food industry associations

Visiongain's study is intended for anyone requiring commercial analyses for the functional foods market and leading companies. You will find data, trends and predictions.

Buy our report today Functional Foods Market Report 2018-2028: Analysing the "Superfoods" Trend and Forecasts for Functional Dairy, Bakery & Cereal, Baby Food, Fats & Oils, Meat, Fish & Eggs and Others Plus Profiles on the Leading Companies and Regional and Leading National Markets Analysis. Avoid missing out by staying informed - order our report now.

To request a report overview of this report please contact Sara Peerun atsara.peerun@visiongain.com or refer to our website:https://www.visiongain.com/report/functional-foods-market-report-2018-2028/

Abbot Laboratories

Aduna Ltd

Aesthetic

Aggelakis S.A.

Alara Wholefoods Ltd

Alere Inc.

Alimentos Sanygran S.L.

AlpiPan S.r.l.

Alpro

Alterial Les Recettes de Celiane

Alternis Sarl

Amazing Grass

Amazon

Andros Group

Annie's, Inc

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)

Arla Foods

Aston Foods and Food Ingredients

Atrium Innovations

Balsajo Black Garlic (UK) Ltd

Balviten Sp.z.o.o

BASF SE

Benecol Business

BetterBody Foods

Big Bear Group

Bioalimenta SRL

Bioferme oy

Biogran

Biotrap

Biovegan GmbH

Bisco Misr

Blue Bottle Coffee

Bonvita B.V.

Bo-Shin Flavors & Food Ingredients Ins

Botaniex, Inc.

Bravo Europe

C. Hahne Muhlenwerke GmbH

Centrale Danone

CFR Pharmaceuticals

Chameleon Cold-Brew

Chamtor SA

Changsha Gree Biotechnology Co. Ltd.

Chicago Bar Company LLC

Chr. Hansen

Cilag GmbH International

Creative Nature

Damhert Nutrition nv

Danone

De Halm

Dean Foods

Devondale Murray Goulburn

Domretor

Eaststarch C.V

Facundo Blanco S.A.

Fitplein.nl B.V.

Galderma

Geneferm Biotechnology

General Mills

Gilro LTD

Glanbia plc.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK)

Grass Advantage LLC (Amazing Grass)

Green Island International TCM Group Ltd

Groupe Danone

Groupe Lactalis

Halayeb

Hanmi Natural Nutrition Co., Ltd

Harke Group

Healthy Foods Supplies LTD

Hi-Food Spa

Hion Ltd

IDEV Technologies

Insect Biotech

IREKS GmbH

Jentschura International GmbH

Kellogg Co

Kiantama Oy

Kirin Holdings Company Ltd

Koninklijke DSM N.V.

Kreglinger Europe

Lanxess Aktiengesellschaft

LB Bulgaricum

Leader Foods Oy

Lifefood Czech Republic s.r.o.

Lifeplan Ltd

Linwoods Health Foods

Loaf Of Nature

Lucy Bee

Lyckeby Starch AB

Mass Foods

Mattisson Healthcare

Medical

Megmilk snow brand Co

Merric Pet Care

Natureal

Natures Aid Ltd

Natures Happiness

Naturya

Navitas Naturals

Nestle

Novotech Nutraceuticals, Inc.

Nurture Inc.

Nutrisens SAS

Nutrition Dynamics

Of The Earth Superfoods

OptiMedica Corporation

Orgain, Inc

Organic Burst World S.A.

Origin Earth Ltd.

Originall

Orkla Group

Orkla Health AS

Oskri Corp

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd

PepsiCo

Pfizer Nutrition

Pharmacare Europe Ltd

Primal Food Ltd

Puratos NV

Quegen Biotech

Raisio Group

Rcl Foods

Ritmo Investimentos

Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.

Sinorey Foods Co., Ltd.

Specialty Commodities Inc

St. Jude

Standard Functional Foods Group, Inc.

Stonegate

Suntory

Super Foodies

Superfoods and more Wholesale

Superfruit Scandinavia AB

SuperLife Ltd

Tendyne Holdings, Inc

The Green Labs LLC

The Isopure Company, LLC

thinkThin, LLC

Toda Kogyo Corp.

Unilever

Valio

Veropharm

Vivatinell

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

WhiteWave

WILD Flavours

Xi'an Aquar Technoplogy & Business Co.,Ltd.

Zingology Ltd.



List of Organisations Mentioned in this Report

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

Japanese Food Safety Commission

Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture

Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW)

Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs and Food Sanitation Council

National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA)

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

State Council Legislative Office (SCLO) China

The Brazilian Association of Foods for Special Purposes and Congeners (ABIAD)

The Committee for Scientific and Technical Assessment of Functional and New Foods (CTCAF)

The Mexican Government

Tufts University

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

UK NHS

World Health Organization (WHO)

To see a report overview please e-mail Sara Peerun onsara.peerun@visiongain.comLondon Finance & Investment Group Plc - Notice of AGM

18thOctober 2018





London Finance & Investment Group P.L.C.

(Incorporated in England with registered number 201151)

LSE code: LFI

JSE code: LNF

ISIN: GB0002994001

("Lonfin" or "the Company")

Notification regarding the posting of the Company's Annual Report and Accounts and Notice of Annual General Meeting

Lonfin shareholders ("Shareholders") are advised that, further to the preliminary announcement of unaudited results and the dividend declaration for the year ended 30thJune 2018, published on 28thSeptember 2018, ("Unaudited Preliminary Results"), the Company's 2018 Annual Report and Accounts has been published and posted to Shareholders. The Financial Statements contained in the 2018 Annual Report and Accounts contain no changes to the Unaudited Preliminary Results.

The Company will hold its Annual General Meeting ("AGM") on Tuesday, 4thDecember 2018 at 11h00 (UK Time) 12h00 (SA Time) at 1 Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY and the Notice of the AGM is included in the 2018 Annual Report and Accounts.

Pursuant to Listing Rule 9.6.1, a copy of the 2018 Annual Report and Accounts has been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for viewing at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm

The Unaudited Preliminary Results is also available as follows:

- on the website of City Group PLC, the Company Secretary, at www.city-group.com; and

- by writing to City Group PLC at 6 Middle Street, London EC1A 7JA

United Kingdom

18thOctober 2018



JSE Sponsor:

Sasfin Capital (A member of the Sasfin group)Bio-derived Solutions Enhance Efficiency of Cement Grinding and Reduce CO 2 Emissions



CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 18, 2018(NYSE:GCP), a leading global provider of construction products technologies, is proud to announce the issuance of a patent for increasing the efficiency of cement grinding by using sustainable raw materials. The novel grinding aids and quality improvers allow the use of bio-derived glycerol and reduce the use and the impact of oil-derived chemicals.

This development continues GCP Applied Technologies' commitment to offer cement producers a complete portfolio of products and services, enabling them to lead in cement quality, cost efficiency and sustainability. The new OPTEVA and TAVERO cement additives enable cement producers to reduce the energy consumption and the CO 2 emissions associated with cement production, with a reduced use, or no use at all, of oil-derived chemicals.

"GCP Applied Technologies is focused on meeting the demands of modern cement plants," said Dave Myers, vice president R&D and technical support. "We are committed to continuing research and development to improve cement additive products with innovative materials and services. GCP offers cement producers a complete portfolio of solutions that yield more sustainable cement production with enhanced quality and improved cost efficiency."

European Patent No. EP 1 728 771 B1 has been granted and registered into seventeen European countries. The patent addresses methods for increasing the efficiency of cement and mineral grinding by using sustainable raw materials.

The patent relates to methods for improving the efficiency of grinding materials such as clinker and limestone, using glycerol derived from biofuel production, in combination with various grinding additives. GCP products can help shrink the carbon footprint of cement and concrete. Grinding aids and quality improvers make cement manufacturing more efficient, while concrete admixtures can reduce the amount of cement needed to achieve a given strength specification.

The company continues to expand its comprehensive portfolio of additives for cement production with high-performing quality improvers under the OPTEVA brand and innovative grinding aids under the TAVERO brand.

Media Relations

Paul Keeffe

T +1 617.498.4461

mediainfo@gcpat.com Investor Relations

Joseph DeCristofaro

T +1 617.498.2616

investors@gcpat.com



About GCP Applied Technologies

GCP is a leading global provider of construction products technologies that include additives for cement and concrete, the VERIFI in-transit concrete management system, high-performance waterproofing products, and specialty systems. GCP products have been used to build some of the world's most renowned structures. More information is available at www.gcpat.com.

This announcement contains "forward-looking statements," that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such statements generally include the words "believes," "plans," "intends," "targets," "will," "expects," "suggests," "anticipates," "outlook," "continues," or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements about expected financial positions; results of operations; cash flows; financing plans; business strategy; operating plans; capital and other expenditures; competitive positions; growth opportunities for existing products; benefits from new technology and cost reduction initiatives, plans and objectives; and markets for securities. Like other businesses, GCP is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from its projections or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, or that could cause other forward-looking statements to prove incorrect, include, without limitation, risks related to: the cyclical and seasonal nature of the industries that GCP serves; foreign operations, especially in emerging regions; changes in currency exchange rates; the cost and availability of raw materials and energy; the effectiveness of GCP's research and development, new product introductions and growth investments; acquisitions and divestitures of assets and gains and losses from dispositions; developments affecting GCP's outstanding liquidity and indebtedness, including debt covenants and interest rate exposure; developments affecting GCP's funded and unfunded pension obligations; warranty and product liability claims; legal proceedings; the inability to establish or maintain certain business relationships and relationships with customers and suppliers or the inability to retain key personnel; and the handling of hazardous materials and the costs of compliance with environmental regulation. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in GCP's Annual Report on Form 10-K, which has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is available online at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on GCP's projections and forward-looking statements, which speak only as the date thereof. GCP undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revision to the projections and forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.- All associated reagents under these brands included in the deal

- Strategic agreement allows Luminex to increase footprint in multi-billion-dollar flow cytometry market

- Deal expected to close at end of 2018

DARMSTADT, Germany, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Merck, the vibrant science and technology company, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to sell its Flow Cytometry unit to Luminex Corporation for 62.5 million.1 The closing of the transaction, expected by the end of 2018, is subject to customary closing conditions.

Upon completion of the transaction, Luminex will own the flow cytometry platforms Amnis and Guava and the associated reagents under those brands. This includes a portfolio of leading technologies serving the research space. Merck continues to actively manage its comprehensive portfolio by tapping into innovation and placing it in the best hands to continuously drive value for customers.

"This is an exciting opportunity for both of our organizations and I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to our committed colleagues," said Udit Batra, member of the Merck Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "Luminex is a long and trusted partner who has provided a wide range of solutions for clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery and biomedical research. Luminex shares our conviction to solve the toughest problems in life science. This will be a great new home for the team to build on their expertise and introduce more solutions to a broader base. At the same time, our existing customers will get access to Luminex's respected product portfolio."

The acquisition expands Luminex's existing offering of flow-based detection systems, which is focused on its xMAP multiplexing technology, with more than 15,000 xMAP systems sold worldwide. Merck's ImageStreamX Mark II Imaging Flow Cytometer, for example, has extremely high sensitivity and is used to detect and characterize small particles.

"As innovators in flow-based technologies, we are excited to acquire the flow cytometry assets of our existing long-term partner Merck, thereby expanding our portfolio of detection systems to address researchers interested in cellular analysis," said Homi Shamir, president and CEO of Luminex. "We look forward to welcoming the talented Merck team to the Luminex family."

About Luminex Corporation

At Luminex, our mission is to empower labs to obtain reliable, timely, and actionable answers, ultimately advancing health. We offer a wide range of solutions applicable in diverse markets including clinical diagnostics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, biomedical research, genomic and proteomic research, biodefense research, and food safety. We accelerate reliable answers while simplifying complexity and deliver certainty with a seamless experience. To learn more about Luminex, please visit us at www.luminexcorp.com.

Follow Merck on Twitter @Merckgroup, on Facebook @merckgroup and on LinkedIn.

All Merck news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the Merck website. Please go to www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck

Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 53,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2017, Merck generated sales of 15.3 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck holds the global rights to the "Merck" name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

1 Consisting of approximately 58.3 million to be paid under a Stock and Asset Purchase Agreement and approximately 4.2 million in committed inventory purchases. USD amount converted EUR 1 = $ 1.20.Artprice: the 45th edition of the fiac! opens in a general climate of optimism, but...

The 45th edition of the FIAC opens on Wednesday 17 October in a general climate of optimism. Artprice's 2018 Contemporary Art Market Report reveals growth on a planetary scale, which the International Contemporary Art Fair in Paris and its numerous off shows are hoping will translate into buoyant sales:

Y-o-Y stability for Contemporary Art Market (2017/18 vs. 2016/17)

Global auction turnover rose +19% to a total of $1.9 billion

The number of lots sold increased by +17% with 66,850 adjudications

The global unsold rate remained stable at 39%

The Contemporary Art Price Index gained +18.5%

Artprice's 2018 Contemporary Art Market Report is available free of charge at

https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2018

The Global Contemporary Art Market has posted exponential growth over the past 18 years (2017/18 vs. 2000/01)

Global turnover has risen +1,700% from $103 million to $1.9 billion

The number of auction transactions has multiplied 5.5x from 12,300 to 66,850 lots sold.

The top auction price has risen from $5.6 million to $110.5 million (respectively for Jeff Koons and Jean-Michel Basquiat)

Paris to put France back on the world stage

On the new global Art Market, driven essentially by Contemporary Art and dominated by New York, London, Beijing and Hong Kong (which account for 82% of the segment's global auction turnover), Paris is striving to defend its historical position and influence. But France's annual performance ($783 million in 2017) today represents only a little more than the turnover generated by a single prestige sale in New York at Sotheby's or Christie's.

According to Thierry Ehrmann, founder and CEO of Artprice, Paris is looking for a new lease of life. The City of Light wants to take full of advantage of its prestige and bring back buyers from around the world it wants to recapture the high-end market. This ambition requires profound change and deep market restructuring, a process that has already begun. The future of Paris is today far more dependent on the FIAC and on the performances of the major Anglo-Saxon auction houses than on its traditional structures like Drouot and the Salon des Antiquaires.

All of the market's key "makers' at the Grand Palais

With 60 galleries French galleries among a total of 195, the FIAC ensures that French creation is not forgotten at the fair. Nevertheless, the FIAC's real strength is its superbly international roster of galleries. The FIAC would not be the FIAC without Blum & Poe, Pace, Lisson, Paula Cooper, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, Gladstone and of course David Zwirner, Gagosian, Marian Goodman, White Cube, etc.

The FIAC is an opportunity for all Contemporary Art lovers to see the world's most prestigious galleries gathered in Paris. For the big galleries, it's an opportunity to take part in a particularly selective meeting in one of the world's most majestic venues: the nave of the Grand Palais, where the Salon des Refuses was historically held, and which nowadays also hosts Paris fashion week.

The major galleries who deserted the FIAC usually come back sooner or later; this year sees the return of the giant Hauser & Wirth, New York's Canada and Paul Kasmin, the Belgian gallery Rodolphe Janssen (among others). But booths are expensive in the Grand Palais and the quality of the galleries is extremely high. Between those returning and those making their first appearance, the actual gallery turnover rate is only 16%, i.e. less than one booth in six.

If the FIAC's international offer has legitimised the fair on the international circuit, it now resembles other major fairs like Art Basel, the Armory Show and especially the Frieze, organized just two weeks earlier on the other side of the Channel (only 2h on the Eurostar). Moreover, a third of the French galleries present at the FIAC were also present at the Frieze... so in the end, the FIAC's French specificity is relatively small.

In fact, one of the Parisian fair's principal attractions is probably the exceptional, majestic setting offered by the Grand Palais. However, this superb venue will again be closed for works between 2021 and 2023, so it does rather look as though the FIAC will have to adapt its strategy in order to maintain its influence and ensure that collectors visit the temporary structure that will be installed in the Champ-de-Mars under the Eiffel Tower during the Grand Palais' closure.

Lots of auction records during Frieze

The auction houses have long understood the importance of organising prestige sales in parallel with the major fairs in order to take full advantage of the concomitant gathering of art professionals and collectors. Last year, 49 auctions were held in Paris (in 39 auction houses) during the FIAC week, generating $134 million in seven days (17% of French auction turnover on Fine Art sales in 2017). The year's two best results were also hammered during the week on 19 and 20 October 2017: Alberto Giacometti's Grande femme II (1960) fetched $29.4 million and Jean- Michel Basquiat's Jim Crow (1986) sold for $17.7 million.

This year again Christie's, Sotheby's and Artcurial (the top three French auction houses) are organizing their most important sales of the year in Paris during the FIAC. Others, including Leclere and Cornette de Saint Cyr, are waiting till the end of the event, but will be active as of Monday 22 October.

The major houses hope the spillover from the Paris FIAC will be as beneficial as that from the Frieze on London sales earlier in the month. Banksy's self-destructing Girl with Balloon (2006) attracted a lot of attention but there were lots of other memorable results during the week, with three of the autumn's top ten global auction records, so far. Among these, Jenny Saville's Propped (1992) - a historical piece from the Young British Artists movement that was part of the Sensation exhibition in 1997 - fetched $12.4 million, a record for a living female artist, overtaking Cady Noland who held that record for three years after her Bluewald (1989) sold for $9.8 million at Christie's New York on 11 May 2015.

Top 10 auction records a (September - October 2018)

 Artprice.com

Artist - Work - Price - Sale

1 Zao Wou-Ki (1921-2013) - June-October 1985 - $65.204.489 - 30-09-2018 Sotheby's Hong Kong

2 Jenny Saville (1970) - Propped (1992) - $12.490.583 - 05-10-2018 Sotheby's London

3 Tsuguharu Foujita (1886-1968) - The party (1949) - $9,366,687 - 11-10-2018 Bonhams London

4 Albert Oehlen (1954) - Stier mit loch (1986) - $4,695,131 - 04-10-2018 Christie's London

5 Leon Bonnat (1833-1922) - Samson's Youth (1891) - $2,045,047 - 12-09-2018 Christie's London

6 Kyung-Ja Chon (1924-2015) - Prairie II (1978) - $1,928,504 - 19-09-2018 K-Auction Seoul

7 Hao Liang (1983) - Shell (2010-2011) - $1,855,061 - 30-09-2018 Sotheby's Hong Kong

8 Kaws ( 1974) - Again And Again (2008) - $1,348,952 - 05-10-2018 Sotheby's London

9 Wang Xingwei (1969) - Still no A-mark (1998) - $1,272,479 - 30-09-2018 Sotheby's Hong Kong

10 Lin Richard (1933-2011) - Painting Relief 12.12.63 - $1,165,161 - 30-09-2018 Sotheby's Hong Kong

The Art Market nevertheless showed some signs of caution in London, particularly at Christie's 4 October sale where two star lots, Jeff Koons' Cracked Egg (Blue) (1994-2006) and Gerhard Richter's Schadel (1983) failed to sell against estimates exceeding $10 million. However, overall, the initial results of the autumn season are extremely positive, often adding value, occasionally showing restraint... proving that the high-end market is capable of selecting the best pieces and of curbing price growth even for the most fashionable Contemporary artists.

The Paris major auction sales will therefore be held in a particularly favourable context. In addition to the annual sessions of 20th Century Art, the sale of the collections of Oscar Mairlot and Nathalie Seroussi at Sotheby's and of Benedicte Pesle at Christie's could well share the spotlight with the FIAC.

thierry Ehrmann: Artprice et Artron donnent naissance au Media Mogul de l'Art

https://www.actusnews.com/fr/ARTPRICE/cp/2018/10/17/artprice-et-artron-donnent-naissance-au-media-mogul-de-l_art

Video: https://vimeo.com/295406694

About Artprice:

Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.

Dicover Artprice in video: https://www.artprice.com/video

Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images(R) gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians.

Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world's principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label)Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2017 published last March 2018: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2017

Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2017 - free access at: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2017

Artprice's press releases:

http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseen.htm

https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom

Artmarket News:

https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom & https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom

https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom & https://plus.google.com/+artpricedotcom/posts

http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/

Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video , which headquarters are the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos:

http://goo.gl/zJssd

https://vimeo.com/124643720

The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999

Contact: ir@artprice.com

------------------------



 Copyright Actusnews Wire

Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free

Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-55579-artprice-45eme-edition-de-la-fiac-en.pdfTenneco Inc. (NYSE: TEN), a global supplier of Ride Performance and Clean Air products and systems, announced today that the all-new 2018 Volvo XC40 compact crossover SUV features Tenneco's CVSAe adaptive suspension technology from its Monroe Intelligent Suspension portfolio.

A proven technology that has been launched on more than 40 vehicle models, Tenneco's CVSAe semi-active suspension technology continuously senses road and driving conditions and independently adjusts damping levels in real-time to provide superior comfort and handling. Each electronically controlled shock absorber connects to a central ECU, which can realign damping settings every 10 milliseconds based on sensor inputs monitoring wheel assembly acceleration, body displacement and steering angle. An externally mounted electronic valve connects to the vehicle's driving mode control, giving drivers the ability to select damping settings that fit their needs.

"Drivers today expect higher levels of comfort and performance from their vehicles, as well as a differentiated driving experience," said Neville Rudd, senior vice president, Tenneco Global Ride Control. "CVSAe, like other technologies from the Monroe Intelligent Suspension portfolio, offers a highly tunable suspension solution that delivers optimal control, comfort and road-holding capabilities under a variety of driving conditions."

The XC40 complements Volvo's XC60 mid-size and XC90 full-size SUV models, both of which also feature Tenneco's CVSAe suspension system. Tenneco will supply the CVSAe suspension technology for Volvo from its plant in Ermua, Spain.

About Tenneco

Headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, Tenneco is one of the world's leading designers, manufacturers and marketers of Ride Performance and Clean Air products and technology solutions for diversified markets, including light vehicle, commercial truck, off-highway equipment and the aftermarket, with 2017 revenues of $9.3 billion and approximately 32,000 employees worldwide.

On October 1, 2018, Tenneco completed the acquisition of Federal-Mogul, a leading global supplier to original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket with nearly 55,000 employees globally and 2017 revenues of $7.8 billion. Additionally, the company expects to separate its businesses to form two new, independent companies, an Aftermarket and Ride Performance company as well as a new Powertrain Technology company, in late 2019.

About the Future Aftermarket and Ride Performance Company

Following the separation, the aftermarket and ride performance company will be one of the largest global multi-line, multi-brand aftermarket companies, and one of the largest global OE ride performance and braking companies. The aftermarket and ride performance company's principal product brands will feature Monroe, Walker, CleviteElastomers, MOOG, Fel-Pro, Wagner, Champion and others. The Aftermarket and Ride Performance company would have 2017 pro-forma revenues of $6.4 billion, with 57% of those revenues from aftermarket and 43% from original equipment customers.

About the Future Powertrain Technology Company

Following the separation, the powertrain technology company will be one of the world's largest pure-play powertrain companies serving OE markets worldwide with engineered solutions addressing fuel economy, power output, and criteria pollution requirements for gasoline, diesel and electrified powertrains. The powertrain technology company would have 2017 pro-forma revenues of $10.7 billion, serving light vehicle, commercial truck, off-highway and industrial markets.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipate," "expects," "will", "continue" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of the company (including its subsidiaries). Because these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, the company's plans, actions and actual results could differ materially. Among the factors that could cause these plans, actions and results to differ materially from current expectations are: (i) changes in automotive or commercial vehicle manufacturers' production rates and their actual and forecasted requirements for the company's products, including the company's resultant inability to realize the sales represented by its awarded book of business; (ii) any change in customer demand due to delays in the adoption or enforcement of worldwide emissions regulations or any other changes in consumer demand and prices, including decreases in demand for automobiles or commercial vehicles which include the company's products, and the potential negative impact on the company's revenues and margins from such products; (iii) the general political, economic and competitive conditions in markets where the company and its subsidiaries operate; (iv) workforce factors such as strikes or labor interruptions; (v) material substitutions and increases in the costs of raw materials; and (vi) the company's ability to develop and profitably commercialize new products and technologies, and the acceptance of such new products and technologies by the company's customers. The company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release. Additional information regarding risk factors and uncertainties is detailed from time to time in the company's SEC filings, including but not limited to its report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005218/en/

Contacts:

Tenneco Inc.

Bill Dawson

Media Relations North America

847 482-5807

bdawson@tenneco.com

or

Simonetta Esposito

Media Relations Europe

32 (0) 2 706 9232

sesposito@tenneco.comTORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / New analyst reports out of National Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, TD Securities Inc. and Canaccord Genuity suggest that Cobalt 27 Capital Corp. (TSX-V: KBLT / OTCQX: CBLLF / FSE: 27O) continues to trade at a steep discount relative to other streaming and royalty sector peers. The new research reports point to negative sentiment in the commodity markets as well lower cobalt prices as underlying factors. However, numerous global developments suggest that both cobalt prices and shares of Cobalt 27 may not remain depressed for very much longer.

In fact, Cobalt 27 is one of the few publicly traded companies providing investors with pure-play access to electric metals. The Company's business strategy is to acquire physical cobalt material as well as streams, royalties and interests in mineral properties containing cobalt. The Company currently holds 2,905 metric tonnes of physical cobalt in storage (valued at C$283 million) and has acquired 12 streams and royalties, including a US$300 million cobalt stream on the world-class Voisey's Bay mine extension in Canada and a nickel-cobalt stream on the producing Ramu mine in Papua New Guinea. The Ramu nickel-cobalt transaction is expected to close before year end and will provide the Company with immediate cash flow while the Voisey's Bay cobalt stream is expected to commence in early 2021.

A recent research report out of TD Securities Inc. noted that "the most significant near-term catalyst for Cobalt 27 will be closing of its Ramu streaming transaction, which would allow the company to begin paying a dividend and potentially buying back stock." TD Securities has a buy recommendation on Cobalt 27 and a 12-month price target of C$13.00.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Eric Zaunscherb says that "the ongoing share price pullback for Cobalt 27 is naturally related to the pullback in cobalt pricing and related sentiment." Zaunscherb also states that a "bull-case scenario [for Cobalt 27] suggests significant upside with a return to our price deck as well as technical tweaks to the key streams." Canaccord has a speculative buy rating on the stock and price target of C$15.50.

National Bank of Canada research analyst Rupert Merer is quick to point out that Cobalt 27 is trading at a heavily discounted implied cobalt price of just $15 per pound, based on its Voisey's Bay and Ramu battery metals streams, when spot prices for cobalt are currently trading above $33 per pound. National Bank maintains a C$15.00 price target on the stock and outperform rating.

In addition to its shares being weighed on heavily as of late due to negative sentiment and lower cobalt prices, Cobalt 27 is currently trading at steep discounts when compared to industry peers who also implement similar royalty and streaming models. For example, while Sandstrom Gold (NYSE: SAND) trades at an estimated 2019 enterprise value of 11.8x per share, Cobalt 27 is trading at just 6.9x per share. And on a price to net asset value ratio, Cobalt 27 is currently valued at just 0.4x per share while industry peer Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM) is trading at a 1.2x valuation.

Figure 1. Cobalt 27 Valuations vs. Industry Peers w/ Similar Business Models





On a valuation basis alone, these factors could make the current share price of Cobalt 27 an attractive entry point for investors looking to gain exposure to electric metals such as cobalt and nickel.

Cobalt Outlook Remains Robust

The outlook for cobalt also remains positive despite recent price action. Industry experts agree that cobalt's long-term fundamentals, combined with potentially significant changes taking shape within the global supply chain, could lead to a sharp reversal in spot prices for the metal.

As TD Securities analyst Craig Hutchison points out, "demand for cobalt remains very much intact, in our view, with an estimated 5.4% y/y growth this year. Electric vehicles (EVs) represent much of the growth over the next decade as adoption rates increase in western economies and China aims to become the dominant producer of high-capacity battery cells, which require greater amounts of cobalt."

Meanwhile, the National Bank of Canada notes that the world's largest producer of cobalt globally, the Democratic Republic of Congo, is set to declare cobalt a strategic metal in the coming weeks and in doing so will raise the country's royalty tax on cobalt production to 10% from the current rate of 3.5%. If signed into law, the new royalty will likely have an immediate impact on cobalt prices worldwide.

Scotiabank analyst Michael Doumet states that "while Cobalt prices have fallen since May, with some weakness attributable to weak summer demand (as well as unwinding of speculative positions). But, in our view, underlying fundamentals are unchanged. And, while fresh off declines, cobalt volumes/pricing appear to be firming up (according to Metal Bulletin), which could translate into positive valuation implications for KBLT."

Cautionary Statement: Junior Mining Network LLC ("JMN") is not a financial advisory or advisor, investment advisor or broker-dealer and does not undertake any activities that would require such registration. The information contained herein is not intended to be used as the basis for investment decisions and should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation, nor is the information an offer or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any security. JMN does not represent or warrant that the information posted is accurate, unbiased or complete. JMN receives fees for producing and presenting content on financial news. Investors should consult with an investment advisor, tax and legal consultant before making any investment decisions. JMN make no representations as to the completeness, accuracy or timeless of the material provided. All materials are subject to change without notice.

CONTACT:

Junior Mining Network



info@juniorminingnetwork.com

SOURCE: Junior Mining Network

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/525612/Cobalt-27-Trading-at-a-Significant-Discount-to-Peers-Analysts-Say-Cobalt-Fundamentals-Remain-UnchangedFORT WORTH, Texas, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Oracle Oil and Gas LLC (Oracle Oil and Gas) a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Energy Corp. ("Oracle") (TSX.V: OEC) (Frankfurt: O2E) announces that it has engaged Blade Energy Partners of Dallas and Houston to provide design work for their planned Eagle Ford wells.

Blade Energy Partners is an independent technical petroleum consultancy firm with deep experience in geophysics, petrophysics, geology, reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation, drilling, completions and production. Blade has significant experience in the Eagle Ford having worked on projects in the play for public and private operators. The scope of work Blade is performing for Oracle Oil and Gas includes reservoir modeling, spacing evaluation, frac design and well design.

Blade has been working on the Oracle Eagle Ford project since early July 2018 and a final report is expected this month. This work will maximize the opportunity for early success and maximum recovery.

Chairman and CEO, Darrell McKenna commented, "I have known the people of Blade for much of my career and I am very comfortable that we are getting the best Eagle Ford engineering work available. We will have the design work necessary to drill, complete and produce successful wells and we look forward to spudding Oracle's first Eagle Ford well in the first quarter of 2019."

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

Darrell McKenna; Chairman and CEO

About Oracle Energy Corp.

Oracle Energy Corp. (TSX.V: OEC) (Frankfurt: O2E) is an oil and gas development company focused on acquiring development assets in North America and with a current focus in the Texas Eagle Ford.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the 'safe harbour' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.

For further information, please contact:

Darrell L McKenna

Chairman & CEO

Mobile: +1-832-212-1930

Email:dmckenna@oracleenergy.com



Nasim Tyab

Founder & Capital Markets Strategist

Mobile: +778-373-6911

Email: nasim@oracleenergy.com

Turkish police will extend the search for missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to a forest in Istanbul and a farm house in the neighboring province of Yalova.

The police will not limit its investigation to the Saudi consulate building and the consuls residence in Istanbul," Yeni Safak reported, citing unidentified security sources.

Khashoggi, a dissident living in self-imposed exile in the United States where he contributed to the Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

According to the newspaper, Turkish forensics experts found "evidence of murder" at the consulate.

"Police teams focused on the ground floor of the residence of al-Otaibi," the report said, stressing that the investigation will be extended to other venues.

"The teams are expected to make excavations in [Istanbuls] Belgrad Forest and a farm house in Yalova, if needed," Yeni Safak added.DORDRECHT, Netherlands, Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Valvoline Holdings B.V. announced today that one of its subsidiaries has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the business assets of Fabrika Maziva a.d. Krusevac (FAM). The acquisition includes a manufacturing facility in Krusevac, Serbia, and the FAM brand, among other assets. Financial terms of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, were not disclosed.

Located approximately 200 kilometres south of Belgrade, the plant provides a strategic location to further enhance Valvoline's access to the Eastern Europe market. The company plans to continue producing FAM, a well-known regional brand of lubricant products, and select Valvoline-branded products onsite in the near future.

"A key strategy for Valvoline is to continue increasing brand awareness and expanding market share in Europe," said Diego Brodoni, vice president and general manager of Valvoline Europe. "This investment demonstrates our commitment to the growing Eastern Europe market and to the success of our customers and partners through a more efficient and effective local supply chain."

About Valvoline

Valvoline Holdings B.V. is a subsidiary of Valvoline Inc., a leading worldwide marketer and supplier of premium branded lubricants and automotive services with sales in more than 140 countries. Established in 1866, the company's heritage spans more than 150 years, during which it has developed powerful brand recognition across multiple product and service channels. Valvoline ranks as the No. 3 passenger car motor oil brand in the United States do-it-yourself market by volume. It also markets Valvoline lubricants and automotive chemicals, including the new Valvoline Modern Engine Full Synthetic Motor Oil, which is specifically engineered to protect against carbon build-up in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI), turbo and other engines manufactured since 2012; Valvoline High Mileage with MaxLife technology motor oil for engines over 75,000 miles; Valvoline Synthetic motor oil; and Zerex antifreeze. To learn more, visit www.valvoline.com .

Trademark, Valvoline or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Media and Investor Relations

Sean T. Cornett

+1 (859) 357-2798

scornett@valvoline.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/481359/Valvoline_Logo.jpgThe National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelbergand Protagen AG today announced a collaboration to utilize Protagen's Cancer Immunotherapy Array to identify biomarkers that predict therapeutic response and the incidence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in urothelial carcinoma patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors.

In recent years, checkpoint inhibitors have changed treatment paradigms in cancer. They offer an enormous potential in many indications, including melanoma, lung, and urothelial carcinoma. Yet, two challenges remain: only a subset of patients respond to treatment, and checkpoint inhibitors trigger (often severe) immune-related Adverse Events (irAEs). Through this collaboration, Protagen and the NCT Heidelberg will utilize Protagen's Cancer Immunotherapy Array to address these challenges.

Prof. Carsten Grullich from the NCT Heidelberg, stated: "Checkpoint inhibitors offer the chance to significantly improve overall survival for cancer patients, and can potentially even cure cancer in some cases. In urothelial carcinoma especially, they can be very successful in a subset of patients, however certain subsets suffer from drug-related toxicities. This makes it vital that we understand better which patients are likely to respond and/or suffer from irAEs. Utilizing Protagen's Cancer Immunotherapy Array will enable us to establish an immune-profile for each patient, meaning we can assess their immuno-competence to help fight their cancer."

Dr. Peter Schulz-Knappe, Protagen's Chief Scientific Officer, commented: "Our unique Cancer Immunotherapy Array has already demonstrated its potential in malignant melanoma and prostate cancer patients. The extension into urothelial carcinoma is our next step into an indication where cancer immunotherapies have been successful, but also face significant response and toxicity challenges. We believe that applying our technology will result in improved patient selection for novel immunotherapies and better management of risks associated with therapy. We feel privileged that Prof. Grullich and the NCT Heidelberg share this vision, and are excited about the collaboration."

About the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT)

The National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg is a joint institution of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and German Cancer Aid. The NCT's goal is to link promising approaches from cancer research with patient care from diagnosis to treatment, aftercare and prevention. The interdisciplinary tumor outpatient clinic is the central element of the NCT. Here the patients benefit from an individual treatment plan prepared in a timely manner in interdisciplinary expert tumor boards. Participation in clinical studies provides access to innovative biomarker strategies and therapies. The NCT thereby acts as a pioneering platform that translates novel research results from the laboratory into clinical practice. The NCT also cooperates with self-help groups and supports them in their work. Since 2015, a second site for the NCT beside Heidelberg has been under development in Dresden.

For more information please visit. www.nct-heidelberg.de/en

About Protagen

Protagen is dedicated to the development of powerful precision diagnostic tools that aid successful therapeutic development and facilitate improved treatment strategies in the areas of Immuno-Oncology and Autoimmune Disease.

Using its proprietary biomarker discovery platform, SeroTag, and its portfolio of NavigAID patient stratification products, Protagen is able to identify valuable biomarkers that support the development of personalized therapies.

For more information, please visit www.protagen.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005351/en/

Contacts:

Protagen

Dr. Georg Lautscham, CEO

T: +49-231-9742-6300

georg.lautscham@protagen.com

or

NCT Heidelberg

Dr. Friederike Fellenberg, Press and Public Relations

T: +49-6221-56-5930

friederike.fellenberg@nct-heidelberg.de

96 NEW CLIENTS GAINED AND 24% SURGE IN REVENUES

FURTHER STAFF HIRED AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING STEPPED UP

37.7 MILLION NET CASH FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL SHARE ISSUE

NEW SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS LAUNCHED AND OFFICES OPENED IN GERMANY AND NORTH AMERICA

WALLIX GROUP, a software company providing cyber security and governance solutions for information systems access, has released its first half 2018[1] results.

Consolidated results (000) H1 2017 H1 2018 Revenues 4,380 5,425 Other operating income (capitalized production, subsidies, etc.) 1,633 2,027 Total operating expenses (7,333) (9,288) o/w other operating costs (2,047) (2,543) o/w payroll (4,154) (5,275) o/w depreciation and provisions (899) (1,050) Operating income/(loss) (1,319) (1,836) Net income/(loss) (1,335) (1,828)



ONGOING BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

First half 2018 continued to feature buoyant new business with a total of 96 new clients won, up from 62 in H1 2017, which bodes well for future growth.

Revenues leapt 24% year-on-year (to 5,425,000) despite a revenue spike in H1 2017 after the signing of a major contract worth over 1 million. Growth was largely fueled by a 64% surge in international business which accounted for one third of H1 2018 revenues.

Under the Software business (97% of revenues), Maintenance sales for the first half of 2018 came in up 54%, pointing to strong repeat business and a recurring future revenue stream. Group management decided to ramp up its "Customer Success' 24/7 support package, which by the year-end will involve 17 staff and a new Montreal office will be opened in addition to the Paris office.



WELL CONTROLLED FIRST HALF EARNINGS

In line with the operational plan presented last March, the Group strengthened its workforce, both in respect of the Management Committee (Strategy Director, Human Resources Director, and DACH[2] Sales director) and the sales teams (11 staff hired). As a result, the average headcount came to 79 people for first half 2018 (94 as at June 30, 2018), up from an average headcount of 70 for first half 2017.

Meanwhile, WALLIX stepped up its marketing activities, notably by increased attendance at trade shows. This upward trend will continue in second half 2018 when the Group plans to attend 17 trade shows during the last four months of the year, of which nearly half will be outside France.

In view of the above increase in payroll and other external expenses, first half 2018 operating earnings came in as a 1,836,000 loss (H1 2017: 1,319,000 operating loss). The net loss amounted to 1,828,000 compared to a H1 2017 net loss of 1,335,000.



SHARP INCREASE IN CASH

In the space of just 6 months, Group gross cash soared 5.6-fold to 39.5 million boosted by the 34.3 million net proceeds of the May 2018 share issue and tight control exercised over cash burned in operations (free cash flow[3] amounted to a 1.7 million outflow).

As of June 30, cash net of borrowings stood at 37.7 million and equity at 40.5 million.



AMBITION 2021 PLAN STEPPED UP

In second half 2018, the Group seeks to focus on rolling out the strategic plan and reaffirms its 2021 goal to be a mid-size cyber-security firm backed by 250 staff and revenues above 50 million.

Indeed, the Group has sharply expanded its software offering over the last few months with the launch of DataPeps, an end-to-end encryption platform that secures data transmission in the high-potential Cloud-based security services market, and the brand new version of its flagship product Bastion that was unveiled recently. Modular and backed by further interoperability with the capacity to integrate additional features seamlessly, Bastion will be the WALLIX Group's driving force in its quest to build alliances - one of the crucial sources of its growth over the next few years.

Meanwhile, the Group stepped up expansion of its international sales force by opening sales offices in Munich (10 staff by the year-end) and Boston (5 staff) so that it has offices covering its two top priority regions, namely DACH and the US.

Lastly, the WALLIX Group reaffirms its goal to play a pivotal role in the industry with a view to developing a European cyber-defense offering. Having reviewed several M&A opportunities over the last few months, the Group expects to be in a position to carry out an initial transaction in 2019.

Jean-Noel de Galzain, WALLIX Group CEO, said: "2018 was a chance for us to lay the groundwork for our Ambition 2021 plan and, one by one, leverage all growth drivers to enhance our offering, forge alliances and expand on an international scale. In so doing, we will meet our financial targets, and looking beyond that, we will succeed in establishing ourselves as European cyber-security market leader."





Next publication: 2018 revenues on February 14, 2019





ABOUT WALLIX

A software company providing cyber security solutions, WALLIX Group is a European specialist in privileged account governance.

In response to recent regulatory change (NIS/GDPR in Europe and OVIs in France) and the cyber security threats affecting all companies today, Bastion helps users protect their critical IT assets: data, servers, terminals and connected objects. It is the first market solution to have been awarded first-level security certification (CSPN) by France's National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) and thus meet all of the criteria for regulatory compliance

WALLIX accompanies more than 570 companies and organizations on a day-to-day basis, securing the access to more than 200,000 hardware and software resources. Its solutions are marketed through a network of more than 130 resellers and trained and accredited integrators. Listed on Euronext under the code ALLIX, WALLIX Group is a leader on the PAM market with a strong presence throughout Europe and EMEA. Alain Afflelou, Dassault Aviation, Gulf Air, Maroc Telecom, McDonald's, Michelin, and PSA Peugeot-Citroen trust WALLIX to secure their information systems.

WALLIX Bastion was a winner at the 2016 Computing Security Awards and has been rated Best Buy by SC Magazine, as well as being named among the PAM leaders in the Product and Innovation categories of the KuppingerCole 2017 Leadership Compass report. The company is a member of Bpifrance Excellence, a champion of the Pole Systematic Paris Region cluster and a founding member of the Hexatrust grouping of cyber security companies. In 2017, WALLIX Group was included in Forbes France's Futur40 ranking of fastest-growing listed companies.

For more information, visit the WALLIX website at: www.wallix.com



ACTUS finance & communication

Investor Relations

Natacha Morandi

Tel. +33 (0)1 53 67 36 94 / wallix@actus.fr



Financial Press Relations

Nicolas Bouchez

Tel. +33 (0)1 53 67 36 74 / nbouchez@actus.fr

WALLIX

Press Relations

Joelle MONETTE

Tel. +33 (0)1 81 69 93 65 / jmonette@walllix.com

[1] The first half consolidated financial statements were approved by the Management Board and reviewed by the Supervisory Board on October 17, 2018. The statutory auditors performed a limited review on the first half consolidated financial statements and the financial report will be published by October 31, 2018.

[2] Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland

[3] Operating cash flows + investing cash flows + repayments of borrowings

------------------------



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Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free

Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-55584-wallix_cp_rs_2018_vuk-def.pdfThunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX) ("Benton" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has substantially increased the size of it 100%-owned Panama Lake gold project in the Red Lake mining district to 365 claim cells which now covers approximately 7446 hectares. The Panama Lake project is located 55km northeast of the town of Ear Falls and is accessible by road. The new staking encompasses highly favourable magnetic trends, folding and structural lineation identified from recent prospecting and historical data compilation efforts on the project. The Company's first results from its initial prospecting program graded between 0.17g/t Au and 6.17g/t Au (see Benton PR dated September 18, 2018) in five samples collected from an altered and silicified sedimentary iron formation containing quartz veining, pyrite, pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite.

Further prospecting has now identified additional quartz veins ranging from 15cm to 30cm wide containing arsenopyrite and carbonate alteration within a 4-5m wide felsic shear. In addition, multiple boulders of various size, rich in arsenopyrite and quartz, have been followed over a 800+ metre trend. Prospecting has also located a sulfide-rich, sedimentary iron formation in the direct vicinity of the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) till sample 92-SBB-142 that contained 107 gold grains. This is one of the highest gold grain counts in the regional-scale survey and the source of the glacially transported gold has yet to be identified.

Map(s) can be viewed below and on the Company's website at www.bentonresources.ca, which illustrates the Panama project in relation to Great Bear Resources Ltd.'s ("Great Bear") discovery at their Dixie project in the Red Lake mining district (see Great Bear's press release dated August 22, 2018). Historical work is minimal on the Panama project and the last diamond drill campaign on the property was completed by Noranda Exploration Co. Ltd. in 1988 where eight widely-spaced diamond drill holes over a 1.4km strike-length yielded results of up to 2.8g/t Au over 4.5m within a 20-30m wide mineralized shear zone.

In addition, the Company has renegotiated its binding letter of intent ("LOI") with Matador Capital Pty Ltd. ("Matador") (See Benton PR dated March 3, 2018). To date, Matador has paid Benton a total of AUD $100,000 within the original LOI and will now pay Benton a one-time final cash payment of AUD $30,000 for a 100% interest in the Providence Ni-Cu-Co-PGM project located in the Northwest Territories.

The final agreement and payment will be completed by AGR Resources Pty Ltd. (ACN 624 998 107) ("AGR") which is an affiliate of Matador. AGR will assume responsibility for the underlying NSR's on the project (0.75% in favour of Platinum Group Metals and 0.50% in favour of Arctic Star Exploration) and will grant an additional 1% NSR in favour of Benton (2.25% NSR in aggregate) of which 0.5% of Benton's NSR can be purchased for AUD $1,000,000.

Nathan Sims (P.Geo.), Senior Exploration Manager for Benton Resources Inc., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has prepared or supervised the preparation of or reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

About Benton Resources Inc. (TSXV: BEX)

Benton Resources Inc. is a well-funded Canadian-based project generator with a diversified property portfolio in Gold-Silver, Nickel, Copper, and Platinum group elements. Benton holds multiple high-grade projects available for option, which can be viewed on the company's web site. Most projects have an up-to-date NI 43-101 report available. Interested parties can contact Stephen Stares using the contact information below.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Resources Inc.,

"Stephen Stares"

Stephen Stares, President

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections.

For further information contact Stephen Stares @:

684 Squier Street,

Thunder Bay, ON

P7B 4A8

Phone (807)475-7474

Cell (807)474-9020

Fax (807)475-7200

www.bentonresources.ca

sstares@bentonresources.ca

Map 1





To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3657/40424_benton1enhanced.jpgCurrent capacity of 19.2 MW is largest HPC colocation data center in the Nordics and is powered by renewable energy

Boden, Sweden--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) -Hydro66 Holdings Corp (CSE: SIX) ("Hydro66" or "the Company"), is pleased to announce the completion of all 8 MW of the H2 2018 expansion project announced on July 31, 2018 on time, on budget and with new customers already occupying the space. Power available to customers in the High Performance Computing ("HPC") enterprise and blockchain colocation data center in Sweden has now expanded from 11.2 MW to 19.2 MW.

"The demand for more efficient ways to process and store data shows no sign of slowing and companies are looking for better ways to save money and scale up in an environmentally sustainable way", says Hydro66 CEO Anne Graf. "Businesses planning for large data projects rely on dependable suppliers and Hydro66 are proud of our track record in bringing the largest colocation data center in the Nordics to market, on time and on budget. Our current site has plenty of room for expansion and when fully built out will provide up to 40 MW of colocation", added Graf.

Hydro66 has been pioneering the message of clean green power at hyperscale. The expansion announced today encompasses 1000 square meters - 8 MW and 400 standard racks - of IT space for HPC apps such as artificial intelligence ("AI"), rendering and blockchain transaction verification services.

Figure 1. Data Center



Cannot view Figure 1? Please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5085/40449_a1539816469177_46.jpg



Situated on a 40 MW site beside a 120 MW substation in Boden, Sweden, Hydro66 currently has 19.2 MW deployed. The Phase 1 build out of the site is now completed, with groundworks for Phase 2 (up to an additional 21 MW) already at an advanced stage.

The main drivers for companies to move their data into 3rd party data centers are cost and scalability. HPC application users like the automotive industry, driverless cars, machine-learning, AI, mapping, and weather simulation are attracted to companies like Hydro66 because of grid resilience, green power and an approximate 50% cost reduction compared to legacy data centers.

The client pipeline consists of power intensive enterprise users in a variety of industries. Increasingly this includes hashrate verification companies and HPC solution providers who see great economic and operational potential from tailoring their own solutions via Hydro66 - all while being ready to expand rapidly with short time to market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Paul Morrison

Chief Commercial Officer of Hydro66 UK Limited

Paul.morrison@hydro66.com

or

Jason Atkinson

Director, Corporate Development

Jason.atkinson@hydro66.com

About Hydro66

Hydro66 owns and operates a colocation data center in Sweden specializing in HPC hosting. The Company hosts third party IT infrastructure, utilizing 100% green power, at some of the EU's lowest power prices and within an ISO27001 accredited facility. The Company is continuing to expand its footprint, with plenty room for ongoing expansion at the existing location.

Hydro66 is uniquely positioned to capitalize on opportunities in blockchain infrastructure as well as the traditional enterprise colocation data center market. The Company provides truly green power at a leading price, purpose-built space and cooling, telecoms, IT support services and 24/7 physical security in their facility in Boden, Sweden.

Revenues are generated from colocation data center services to hashrate service companies and traditional enterprise companies as well as digital currency self-mining (GPU and/or ASIC). Combining the above provides steady, diversified revenue with strong margins. A flexible and rapid build-out schedule will allow Hydro66 to rebalance between business lines as market conditions evolve.

Hydro66 is run by a team with decades of technical expertise in data center facility design, construction, operation and more recently blockchain infrastructure and hashrate services.

Please find us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram

Forward-Looking Information

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. 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", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.

Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.Expanded presence in the Nordics provides local support and expertise to meet the demand for next-generation communication and collaboration solutions.

StarLeaf, a leading provider of premium meeting room solutions and video conferencing services, has expanded its global reach with a new office in Oslo, Norway, enabling it to meet increased demand and serve local customers and partners. This announcement is further testament to the company's fast-paced growth in key markets, which sees StarLeaf systematically increase its global footprint into key regions and countries.

"Norway has a prominent history of originating and using video conferencing and collaboration technologies. However, today businesses are looking for next-generation solutions that deliver greater flexibility and scalability, to match their plans for growth and investment," said Peter Sanevall, StarLeaf Country Manager for the Nordics Countries. "With the opening of our Oslo office, we are well-positioned to address this demand."

StarLeaf provides an end-to-end business collaboration and meeting room solution delivered by the StarLeaf Cloud and its premium hardware systems. Importantly, Norwegian customers benefit from an established local data centre based in Stockholm, Sweden. This is one of StarLeaf's 14 global Points of Presence, all of which guarantee customers unparalleled, secure and reliable connectivity.

For enterprises that have adopted Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams, StarLeaf offer a dedicated range of native premium meeting room solutions, Teamline by StarLeaf.

"We have seen incredibly strong growth around the world and particularly in the Nordics. Therefore, it is a natural next step for us to expand our presence in the region," said Don Girskis, Chief Revenue Officer at StarLeaf. "There is a huge opportunity for us in Norway to work with exciting, growing businesses in a wide variety of industries, supporting our continued growth and plans for further expansion."

About StarLeaf

StarLeaf offers intuitive collaboration tools to help businesses increase productivity, accelerate decision-making and achieve better results, so that teams spend less time in meetings and more time focused on the business. StarLeaf's Cloud provides an ultra-secure messaging, meeting and calling solution through a user-friendly app and premium meeting room systems. Teamline by StarLeaf offers Skype for Business/Microsoft Teams users a reliable and easy to manage collaboration environment, with a familiar interface and dedicated Teamline management platform Maestro. Whether organizations are looking for an end-to-end business communications platform, or to augment their Microsoft ecosystem, StarLeaf helps enterprises around the world to improve team collaboration.

For more information, please visit www.starleaf.com or follow us: @StarLeafCo

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005207/en/

Contacts:

EMEA

Spreckley

Nick Bird Fergus Lynch, 0044 (0)207 388 9988

starleaf@spreckley.co.uk

or

North America

Smart Connections PR

Joanne Hogue, +1 410-658-8246

joanne@smartconnectionspr.comQuantzig, a pure-play analytics solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest article on the odds of telemedicine being the next trendsetter in the healthcare sector

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005350/en/

Odds of telemedicine being the next trendsetter in the healthcare sector. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Telemedicine has created a lot of hype in the healthcare industry. With advancements in technologies, the demand for convenience has grown. As a result, companies in the healthcare industry have started working hard to keep pace with the latest innovations and upgrade their current service levels. Telemedicine is one such step that is expected to gain rapid popularity in the years to come. Telemedicine is the amalgamation of telecommunication and information technology to provide better healthcare services to the patients.

Book a Solution Demo to know how Quantzig's healthcare analytics solutions can help you identify the latest trends affecting the marketspace.

"Telemedicine will increase the level of competition among healthcare providers, forcing them to leverage technologies that appeal to the masses in the long run," says a healthcare industry expert from Quantzig.

Continue reading to identify factors that could make telemedicine the next big thing in the market or request a free proposal to know more about the ongoing trends in the healthcare industry

Reasons why telemedicine could be the next trendsetter in the healthcare sector:

Creating new business models to meet consumer demand

Digitalization is no more limited to the retail industry. Online marketing has paved its way into the healthcare sector as well. This is forcing firms in the healthcare industry to strategize new business models to keep pace with the changing preferences. Telemedicine is one such cost-effective and convenient choice for the institutions in the healthcare industry. Telemedicine would help businesses eradicate unnecessary distress caused to consumers at hospitals. This new business model is more convenient and will provide companies with a greater reach. To gain more insights on the latest strategies opted by healthcare institutions, Get in touch

Provides strategic pricing options

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, the number of patients having insurance is likely to increase. This would subsequently result in the need to manage patients' healthcare needs and expenses effectively. The use of telemedicine will help companies in the healthcare sector to offer strategic pricing options to unique patient populations. Since the costs associated with telemedicine is lower compared to other forms of medications, medical companies can utilize this opportunity to provide interactive follow-up sessions and post-surgical care. To know more about our portfolio of solutions for the healthcare industry, request for more information

Healthcare providers can be in line with MACRA requirements

According to the legislation passed in 2016, MACRA on emphasized cost-effective protocols and quality metrics in the healthcare sector. Healthcare companies are expected to incorporate technological innovations and transparency in complex health records and medical payment systems. Telemedicine will help provide accurate records of consultations and ensure that technologically advanced practices are being followed. The use of telemedicine will give an edge to healthcare companies over their competitors, especially when it comes to providing better healthcare services to the consumers. To know more about the ongoing trends in the healthcare industry, read the complete article here

About Quantzig

Quantzig is a global analytics and advisory firm with offices in the US, UK, Canada, China, and India. For more than 15 years, we have assisted our clients across the globe with end-to-end data modeling capabilities to leverage analytics for prudent decision making. Today, our firm consists of 120+ clients, including 45 Fortune 500 companies. For more information on our engagement policies and pricing plans, visit: https://www.quantzig.com/request-for-proposal

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005350/en/

Contacts:

Quantzig

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

US: +1 630 538 7144

UK: +44 208 629 1455

https://www.quantzig.com/contact-usPiraeus Bank signed a financing agreement of 40 million with Thomas Cook Hotel Investments (TCHI), a joint venture between Thomas Cook plc and LMEY Investments AG.

Piraeus Bank is the sole financial partner of TCHI in Greece and the financing will be used to invest in local hotel properties.

Thomas Cook Hotel Investments was established in March 2018 to support the growth of Thomas Cook's own-brand hotels in Spain and Greece. The portfolio of TCHI includes owned hotel properties in Rhodes and Crete under the brand of Sunwing.

Thomas Cook Group is one of the world's leading leisure travel groups, with sales of 9 billion in the year ended 30 September 2017, serving over 20 million customers annually. Thomas Cook was the biggest international tour operator in Greece this year, while it served 3 million customers.

Funding of tourism, a vital sector for the Greek economy, is a key priority for Piraeus Bank. With a tourism portfolio in excess of 2 billion, the Bank supports tourism businesses and honors its commitment to enhance healthy entrepreneurship and lead the restoration and growth of the Greek economy.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005507/en/

Contacts:

Piraeus Bank

George Papaioannou

Head of Press Office

+30694 4626825

or

Powerscourt

Sofie Brewis

+44 (0) 20 3328 9387Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Daniel Bain, CEO & Chief Investment Officer of Thornmark Asset Management ("Thornmark"), is pleased to announce that the Thornmark Alpha Fund (the "Alpha Fund") received an Alternative IQ's 2018 Canadian Hedge Fund Award ("CHFA). This year is the first time the Alpha Fund entered the Alternative IQ award program. The Alpha Fund placed 3rd in the Equity Focused 5 Year Sharpe Ratio award.

Mr. Bain commented, "The Sharpe ratio measures risk-adjusted performance. We are pleased Thornmark has been recognized for performance leadership. This award further validates Thornmark's tactical investing."

The Canadian Hedge Fund Awards, the highest honour in Canada's hedge fund industry, were presented yesterday evening at a Gala Dinner hosted by KPMG LLP at One King West Hotel in Toronto with 145 guests in attendance.

About Canadian Hedge Fund Awards

The Canadian Hedge Fund Awards help investors identify the most exceptional hedge funds. A total of 207 Canadian hedge funds participated in the 2018 CHFA program. The awards are based solely on quantitative performance data to June 30th, with Fundata Canada managing the collection and tabulation of the data to determine the winners. There is no nomination process or subjective assessment in identifying the winning hedge funds.

About Thornmark

With over 25-years of experience, Thornmark is a North American tactical investment manager for individuals and institutions.Tactical investing at Thornmark is designed to both grow and protect wealth. For more information, please visit us at www.thornmark.com.

Daniel L. Bain

CEO & Chief Investment Officer

(416) 204-6211

dbain@thornmark.com

Figure 1. The Alpha Fund placed 3rd in the Equity Focused 5 Year Sharpe Ratio award.

If you can't view Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6131/40443_a1539809040944_98.jpgThe "Europe SUV Market By Length (SUV-C, SUV-D, SUV-E and SUV-F), By Engine Capacity, By Fuel Type (Diesel, Petrol and Hybrid Others), By Country (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Poland and Others), Competition Forecast Opportunities, 2013-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Europe SUV market is forecast to grow 302.7 billion by 2023

Growth in the market is anticipated to be driven by launch of new models, growing preference for compact SUVs, coupled with driving position, robustness and big wheels of SUVs that appeal to a large customer base across the region.

Few of the other factors that would have a positive impact on the Europe SUV market are huge investments by flagship auto manufacturers such as Jeep, Toyota and Honda in their SUV product lines, increasing adoption of hybrid and electric SUVs and rising demand for SUVs with high-end technologies.

Europe SUV Market 2013-2023 discusses the following aspects of SUV market in Europe:

SUV Market Size, Share Forecast

Segmental Analysis By Length (SUV-C, SUV-D, SUV-E and SUV-F), By Engine Capacity, By Fuel Type (Diesel, Petrol and Hybrid Others), By Country

Competitive Analysis

Changing Market Trends Emerging Opportunities



Some of the major players operating in the Europe SUV market are

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N. V.

Honda Motor Co. Ltd.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Nissan Motor Corporation

Ford Motor Company

General Motors Company

Hyundai Motor Company

Daimler AG

Renault SA

Volkswagen AG

Key Topics Covered:

1. Product Overview

2. Research Methodology

3. Analyst View

4. Europe SUV Market Outlook

5. Pricing Analysis

6. Market Dynamics

7. Market Trends Developments

8. SWOT Analysis

9. Competitive Landscape

10. Strategic Recommendations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mzsdqw/europe_suv?w=4

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005591/en/

Contacts:

ResearchAndMarkets.com

Laura Wood, Senior Press 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

Related Topics: CarsThe U.S. government has given Georgia two Island-class patrol boats on the 20th anniversary of the Georgian Coast Guard.

Georgian top officials and acting US ambassador to Georgia Elisabeth Rood arrived in the countrys western coastal town of Poti to attend the ceremony for the event. Georgia named the boats Ochamchire and Dioskuria.

Georgia's Prime Minister Mamuka Bakhtadze and Interior Minister Giorgi Gakharia thanked the U.S. government for its continued support for Georgia and stated that the boats will play important roles in Black Sea coast security.

"We are very glad that our strategic partner, the US, is well aware of the role of the Black Sea and Georgia [play] in international security. U.S.-Georgia relations have never been at such a high, Agenda.ge cited Bakhtadze as saying.

"We will continue to support Georgia strengthen its self-defense capabilities and coastal security," the US ambassador to Georgia said, adding that her country would find no better country to gift the boats to than Georgia.

Rood said that the boats have served the US people excellently and stated that she expected the same from the vessels for the Georgian people.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Mark Jarvis, CEO of Shoal Point Energy (CSE: SHP) announced today that Alf Stewart has joined the company as Vice President, Minerals Division. Alfred (Alf) Stewart, B.SC. Geology, MBA, has a career spanning over 40 years in the resource and investment industries.

Mr. Stewart's career includes time spent as a geologist, stock exchange regulator, investment banker, analyst and investment advisor. Mr. Stewart has worked for such firms as Bank of Montreal, Esso Minerals, Erickson Gold Mining, Canaccord Capital, Haywood Securities, Golden Capital, and Raymond James. He has been involved in financing mining companies for over two decades, including discoveries in the base and precious metals sectors.

"We are very excited to welcome Alf to the Shoal Point team," said Mr. Jarvis. "He is a generative mineral geologist who also has experience on the finance side of the oil and gas business. His focus will be to help us diversify our asset base into mineral prospects both in Canada and internationally."

"I look forward to working with Shoal Point to generate shareholder value," said Mr. Stewart. "I want to help create a multi asset exploration and development company. Mr. Jarvis and I share a vision of where we want this company to go."

Mr Jarvis also announced the appointment of Erick Bertsch as Director of Communications for Shoal Point Energy. Mr. Bertsch is an industry professional who has spent more than 15 years providing corporate development and communication services for companies operating in Canada, the United States, Mexico, China, Ghana, French Guiana, and Ecuador.

Shoal Point has granted 600,000 options to consultants and employees with a strike price of $0.06 per share and a term of five years from today's date, in accordance with the company's stock option plan and subject to regulatory approval.

About Shoal Point Energy Ltd.

Shoal Point Energy Ltd. is a public company listed on the CSE exchange under the symbol "SHP". The core assets of the Company are its oil and gas interests in the Port au Port peninsula area in western Newfoundland. The company intends to diversify its holdings both in terms of jurisdiction and commodities.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Mark Jarvis

Chief Executive Officer

416-637-2181 extension 310

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has neither approved nor disapproved

the contents of this news release.

Suite 203, 700 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. Canada V6C 1G8

Tel: 416 637 2181ATLANTA, GA / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / Findit, Inc. a Nevada Corporation that trades under the stock symbol (OTC PINK: FDIT) owner of Findit.com, a Social Networking Content Management Platform welcomes social networking influencers to utilize Findit.com to reach more people.

Regan Patterson is a certified fitness nutritionist and certified personal trainer that has begun using the Findit Platform to reach a wider and larger audience, teaching her followers about proper fitness exercises and techniques, sharing her grocery hauls and meals, as well as inspiring others by promoting a healthy lifestyle. Having lost over 81 pounds so far, Regan is sharing her fitness journey with the world, showing her followers both the fun things along the way but also the challenges associated with her chasing her goals.

Regan, who can be found on Findit under the URL Findit.com/reganpatterson, began using Findit on May 1, 2018 and to date has 81 posts on Findit. A Right Now post is a post that displays on the Right Now feed within Findit that can include the following content: text, photos, a video, a link, audio and a news release. Members have the ability to post the Right Now status update instantly, back-date them to fill in their feed, or post-date the post to become live in the future.

Regan Patterson amazing transformation.

Peter Tosto of Findit stated, "We love seeing such inspirational posts on Findit from people like Regan. She has over 20,000 followers on Instagram, by having her sharing her story on Findit it gives Findit credibility with other influencers to join Findit. We want to see more members who are accomplishing their goals and sharing their journey with others. People love sharing positive stories, especially ones like Regan's that highlight all her accomplishments. Social media can be used for good, and what Regan is putting on Findit, Instagram, and Facebook is helping do just that. Her posts are fun, engaging, and the pictures of her food look great. She makes her fitness journey look possible for others to do the same thing she's doing and we really love to see this type of content on Findit. As more influencers take to Findit our growth along with theirs will continue to hopefully inspire others to make good choices"

Healthy food choices has helped Regan.

All content posted to Findit can be shared to other social sites by the creator of the content and visitors to the site as well as existing members on Findit. Posting to Findit gives you the benefit of reaching visitors and members on Findit, who may choose to share your content to their social sites as well as the benefit of your content getting indexed in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Clark St. Amant of Findit stated, "What makes Findit the perfect platform for content like Regan's is that more and more people can begin to see her inspirational posts. When someone posts content to Findit, it be crawled by outside search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and create organic links within these search engines. Moreover, other members and visitors to the site can share the content to their social sites as well. Regan is sharing her fitness story with the world, and by posting to Findit and Instagram, she wants her content to be seen. Because she is using Findit as a platform to post her content regularly, she can start reaching people who previously did not know who she was. The unique sharing aspect that Findit has, that it allows anyone to share any of the content to their respective social sites, is allowing Regan to tap into other people's social networks when her content gets shared by her followers or people on Findit to their social feeds on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google + and LinkedIn."

Regan prior to and post weight loss.

Anyone looking to share their passion and reach more people can start posting to Findit for free. For those looking to really brand themselves on Findit, we do offer Findit Keyword URLs. A Findit Keyword URL is an extension of Findit.com that takes visitors directly to your page and can be any word or phrase that you want, but usually it has to do with the content you are posting about. Regan for example has the Keyword URL 'ReganPatterson' on Findit and can be visited by going to www.findit.com/reganpatterson/RightNow. URLs on Findit exist only once and can not be duplicated, so once you own www.findit.com/personaltrainer or www.findit.com/exercise, no one else can get that URL.

How Regan stays fit and influences others.

Findit is not just for certified personal trainers or health nutritionists. If you have a story that you wish to tell, tell it on Findit. Social media is all about interacting with others and having the content that you post, be seen and shared by others. Findit's unique sharing ability helps you accomplish what you are trying to accomplish when you create content on social media - reach more followers and receive more engagement on posts.

It doesn't matter if you are an individual, artist, corporation, school, church, or other entity - if you want to gain more exposure on the web for the goods or services that you provide or the story that you wish to tell, you can use Findit to accomplish that goal. People love to share inspiring posts that have a great message and great pictures. Posts like Regan's can gain a lot of traction and momentum when posted to the right place and seen by the right people.

About Regan Patterson

Start reaching more people by utilizing Findit as the starting point for all your content or in addition to the content you publish on Instagram. Marketing professionals that handle celebrity accounts or the brand presence of companies should also be using Findit to further the reach the content they create on behalf of the celebrity or business.

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 OTC Pinksheets.

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/525735/Certified-Fitness-Nutritionist-and-Personal-Trainer-Influencer-Regan-Patterson-Uses-Findit-to-Reach-and-Educate-More-PeopleOrder backlog high at 11 million



Significant points for the first half-year period:

Printing activity remains strong despite an adverse foreign currency effect

Home decor sales stabilize at 1.4 million per quarter

Hardware activity is hit by a negative base effect and delayed LED display deliveries

On 30 September 2018, order backlog is high at 10.95 million Consolidated figures - first six months (April 1, 2018 - September 30, 2018)

YTD April 1, 2018 - September 30, 2018 Q2: July 1 - September 30, 2018 Non audited 6 Months 6 Months 3 Months 3 Months In M 2018/2019 2017/2018 Var. M Var. % Q2 18/19 Q2 17/18 Var. M Var. % Printing activity 14.90 15.18 -0.28 -1.8% 7.01 7.33 -0.32 -4.3% Hardware activity 8.70 9.11 -0.41 -4.5% 2.92 4.29 -1.38 -32.1% Total S1 23.60 24.29 -0.69 -2.8% 9.92 11.62 -1.69 -14.6% Total constant currencies 23.86 24.29 -0.43 -1.8% 9.98 11.62 -1.63 -14.1%

The foreign currency impact for the period is mainly due to the South African Rand and USD and CAD

For the six-month period, Printing activity, excluding Home Decor, is satisfactory at 12,10 Million (12,42 Million in n-1) despite the negative currency effect (notably Canada & South Africa).

Home Decor activity is good at 2.80 million compared with 2.75 for the same period of the previous year.

Hardware activity is hit by a negative base effect (high in Q2 2017/18) and delays in deliveries caused by client activity. Hardware activity should return to more normal levels in S2 thanks to a high order backlog. S1 sales stand at 8.70 million compared with 9.58 for the same period the previous year and include 1.9 million following the integration of Anthem Displays.

Acquisition of FPI

In order to strengthen its position as a specialist in digital printing and to provide a comprehensive range of services to its clients, Prismaflex International has signed a preliminary agreement for the acquisition of 51% of the capital of the company FPI.

Located near Lyon (close to the Prismaflex head offices), FPI specialises in the preparation of small and medium-sized faces for scrolling and static signs. In 2017, FPI had a turnover of 2.6 million for an operating profit of 0.5 million. The agreement should be finalized by November 15, 2018. This operation will be financed by bank loan.

Pierre-Henri Bassouls, CEO Prismaflex International: "This agreement reflects a working relationship that began many years ago and the acquisition will enable us to integrate value but also open new business opportunities."

Outlook

The outlook for all the Group's activities is positive with a healthy trend set for S2. On September 30, 2018, order backlog, principally for hardware, is high at 10.95 million.



Next press release : 2018/2019 six-month results, December 6, 2018 after closure. Conference call December 7, 2018.



PRISMAFLEX INTERNATIONAL

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING SOLUTIONS MANUFACTURER AND WIDE FORMAT DIGITAL PRINTING

ISIN: FR0004044600-ALPRI - Reuters: ALPRI.PA - Bloomberg: ALPRI.FP

EURONEXT GROWTHTM

www.prismaflex.com

Contacts :

Luc Cormoreche - CFO - phone: +33 (0)4 74 70 68 00 - finance@prismaflex.com

Amalia Naveira - Analysts/Investors contact - phone: +33 (0)4 72 18 04 92 - anaveira@actus.fr

Marie-Claude Triquet - Press contact - phone: +33 (0)4 72 18 04 93 - mctriquet@actus.fr

------------------------



 Copyright Actusnews Wire

Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free

Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-55594-pri-181018-ca-t2-1819-gb.pdfBurlington, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Portland Investment Counsel Inc. ("Portland") is pleased to announce that it was the recipient of three awards at the 2018 Canadian Hedge Fund Awards, the highest honour in Canada's hedge fund industry. The Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards celebrate the talent and accomplishments of Canada's hedge fund industry and help investors identify the most exceptional hedge funds, recognizing winners in five categories.

207 Canadian hedge funds participated in the 2018 Canadian Hedge Fund Awards program and Portland is happy to announce that the following Portland funds were winners in three of the five categories:

Private Debt: Best 5 Year Return - 1st place Portland Private Income Fund

Private Debt: Best 5 Year Sharpe Ratio - 1st place Portland Private Income Fund

Equity Focused: Best 5 Year Return - 3rd place Portland Focused Plus Fund LP

"We are very humbled and honoured to have received the 2018 Canadian Hedge Fund Awards in the Equity Focused and Private Debt categories. The awards are a positive reinforcement that we are on the right track as a firm and represent Portland's commitment to the creation and democratization of wealth for all wealth-seeking investors," stated Portland Chief Investment Officer, Chris Wain-Lowe.

Follow us:

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Twitter



About Portland

The Wealthy Invest Differently. Portland understands this and has made it their mission to provide all wealth-seeking investors with access to investment opportunities both within the public and private realm typically reserved for the world's most wealthy and successful institutional investors. Portland invests in private equity, private debt, publicly traded equities and fixed income securities globally on behalf of retail and institutional clients. www.portlandic.ca.

About the Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards:

The Annual Canadian Hedge Fund Awards were first held in 2008 and have a two-fold objective: First, to celebrate the talent and accomplishments of Canada's hedge fund industry, and second, to draw attention to Canada's hedge funds by raising the awareness of that expertise in the media and among the wider investment community.

For further information contact:

Portland Investment Counsel Inc.

Diana Oddi, Director, Communications and Marketing

905-331-4250

doddi@portlandic.com

The awards are based solely on quantitative performance data to June 30th, 2018 with Fundata Canada managing the collection and tabulation of the data to determine the winners. There is no nomination process or subjective assessment in identifying the winning hedge funds. The Alternative Funds (the "Funds") are not publicly offered. They are only available under Offering Memorandum and other exemptions to investors who meet certain eligibility or minimum purchase requirements such as "accredited investors". Information herein pertaining to the Funds is solely for the purpose of providing information and is not to be construed as a public offering in any jurisdiction of Canada. The offering of Units of the Funds are made pursuant to an Offering Memorandum and the information contained herein is a summary only and is qualified by the more detailed information in the Offering Memorandum.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns including changes in unit value and reinvestment of all distributions and does not take into account sales, redemptions, distributions or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder in respect of a participating fund that would have reduced returns. Funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

The Manager believes that the following risks may impact performance of the LP: concentration, leverage, currency and exchange rate risk and equity risk. Please read the "Risk Factors" section in the Offering Memorandum for a more detailed discussion of the relevant risks.Regulatory News:

Rallye (Paris:RAL) strongly refutes the allegations made by Sophie Vermeille, advisor to hedge funds, relayed by Challenges Magazine questioning the validity of its accounts.

Rallye reminds that its statutory accounts have been prepared in accordance with French GAAP and have been audited and certified by its statutory auditors without any reserve.

These allegations, published during trading hours, are yet another example of the dissemination of misleading information and the attempt to destabilize the company systematically orchestrated over the past few months by short-sellers and hedge funds.

Rallye therefore referred the matter to the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF) and instructed its lawyers to initiate appropriate proceedings.

For more information, please consult the company's website:

www.rallye.fr

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005699/en/

Contacts:

Rallye:

Franck HATTAB, 33 (0)1 44 71 13 73Re-design of SENS-111 Study

Three active Phase 2 programs now for inner ear diseases extend the scope of the clinical pipeline

Strategic research partnerships with world-leading research institutes and industry leaders (Cochlear) strengthen domain leadership

Filing for re-design of SENS-111 study which addresses slower than expected patient recruitment

Successful completion of 8.65 million in capital raise supports the strategy

Cash position of 8.8 million as of June 30, 2018

Regulatory News:

Sensorion (Paris:ALSEN) (FR0012596468 ALSEN PEA-PME eligible), a biotech company pioneering novel treatments of inner ear diseases, today announces its results for the first half of the year ending June 30, 2018, as well as its recent developments.

Sensorion obtained regulatory approval from international authorities (Europe and Canada)1 to advance SENS-401 in Phase 2 for hearing disorders. SENS-401 has demonstrated otoprotective (hearing loss prevention) properties in various preclinical models. This has a significant commercial potential in an area of high unmet medical needs. The otoprotective effects may also benefit patients in the context of cochlear implants which is currently being investigated in collaboration with Cochlear, the global leader of implantable hearing solutions.

SENS-111 is still in Phase 2 clinical development for Acute Unilateral Vestibulopathy (AUV). AUV as the lead indication for SENS-111 was mainly driven by the need for a robust clinical pathway to demonstrate general proof of concept. Commercially the value of SENS-111 goes far beyond this AUV indication and resides in the opportunity to get the full label for vertigo.

Recruitment of suitable patients for the ongoing clinical trial in AUV has been more challenging than expected. Completion under the current protocol would potentially lead to a significant delay. Therefore, Sensorion decided to request a redesign of the current clinical protocol in order to reduce the sample size from 207 to around 100 while still generating efficacy signal. The expected data read out will now be in 2H 2019. This in addition to the ongoing Phase 2a safety trial comparing SENS-111 with Meclizine2 for which data are expected by year-end will provide a robust data package showing the medical and commercial value of SENS-111.

'It is an exciting time for Sensorion and its patients as we advance our clinical stage pipeline into Phase 2 for inner ear disorders," said Nawal Ouzren, CEO of Sensorion. "Despite the necessary adjustments of SENS-111 phase 2 AUV trial intro a Proof-of-Concept study, I am pleased by the progress achieved over the last 12 months. Three active phase 2 programs, an additional investment of 8,65 Mio by investors, the close partnerships with Professor Christine Petit as well as Cochlear, are testimony of our position and progress. With the adjustments we made today, we will be able to continue to focus our resources on areas of previously unmet medical needs while creating value for our investors."

In May, the Company successfully completed a capital raise3 in a reflection of growing investor confidence in Sensorion's expertise in inner ear diseases. As a result, the cash position at end June was 8.8 million, which allows Sensorion to conduct these Phase 2 trials and prepare for another Phase 2 study, for the prevention of ototoxicity induced by cisplatin in a pediatric population, to be potentially launched in 2019.

Financial results for the first half of 2018

The Company's accounts for the first six months, until June 30, 2018, prepared under IFRS, have been the subject of a limited review by statutory auditors and were approved by the Board of Directors on October 17, 2018.

They are characterized by an increase in Research Development expenses in line with the objective to initiate a phase 2 clinical trial with SENS-401 in the second half of 2018.

The simplified income statement at June 30, 2018 is as follows:

In Euros IFRS 30.06.2018 30.06.2017 Operating income 1 299 199 1 092 946 Research Development expenses 5 849 636 3 941 363 General and Administrative expenses 1 542 860 1 571 117 Total operating expenses 7 392 496 5 512 480 Operating profit loss -6 093 297 -4 419 534 Financial profit loss -45 186 -130 495 Net profit loss -6 138 483 -4 550 029

At June 30, 2018, Sensorion's operating income, essentially comprising Research Tax Credit, totaled 1.3 million, (+18,9%) compared with June 30, 2017.

Operating expenses increased from 5.5 million at June 30, 2017 to approximately 7.4 million at June 30, 2018, principally as a result of preparing the initiation of a phase 2 clinical trial with SENS-401

General and Administrative expenses are stable, having reached approximately 1.5 million at June 30, 2018 compared to approximately 1.6 million at June 30, 2017.

The operating loss at June 30, 2018 was -6.1 million, compared with -4.4 million at June 30, 2017.

Net loss amounts to -6,1 million at June 30, 2018, compared with a net loss of -4.6 million at June 30, 2017.

The Company had a staff of 20, as of June 30, 2018.

Balance Sheet Highlights

At June 30, 2018, Sensorion had cash and cash equivalents of 8.8 million, versus 7.6 million at December 31, 2017. Cash used by operating and investment activities was 6.5 million.

Cash generated by financing activities was 7.7 million principally thanks to a capital increase with institutional investors effective on May 18, 2018.

Key developments during the first half 2018

Capital Raise

Sensorion successfully completed a capital increase without preferential subscription rights for an amount of 8.65 million via an accelerated book-build offering. The success of the capital raise will allow implementation of the current Sensorion strategy.

SENS-111 drug candidate

The study protocol of the ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial in acute unilateral vestibulopathy (AUV) will be amended to shorten it while also reducing the scope. Subject to the regulatory approval (which we believe we could obtain by the end of 2018), patient enrollment will be reduced from 207 to around 100 patients, which is still sufficient to achieve clinical proof of concept. The data from the study, now expected in H2 2019, will allow the Company to prepare a strong data package covering the scientific, clinical and commercial strengths of SENS-111 and support potential out-licensing. The clinical and commercial potential of SENS-111 go far beyond AUV, and may extend to many other neurological disorders, such as migrainous vertigo or Meniere's syndroma, which represent substantial commercial opportunities.

SENS-401 drug candidate

Sensorion initiated a Phase 2 clinical trial for SENS-401 in the treatment of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) in adults. The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 study will be conducted across 50 sites in Europe, Canada, Israel, and Turkey and enroll approximately 260 patients. Interim topline data is expected in Q4 2019.

Technological platform

The Company is continuing development and use of its specialized screening platform in all inner ear pathologies. The results obtained so far with the technology platform have been highly translatable in humans.

Scientific communication

During the first half of this year, Sensorion presented significant preclinical results in various scientific congresses, which further support the development of its drug candidates.

SENS-401 data presented at the ARO MidWinter Meeting provided critical information on treatment regimen and dose translation to the clinical setting for this promising drug candidate.

Data presented in an oral presentation, at the 53rd American Neurotology Society (ANS) Annual Spring Meeting, suggested that SENS-401 can be effective for SSNHL and even if used several days after acoustic trauma. In a separate presentation at the same event, new preclinical study findings revealed the first potential biomarker for noise-induced hearing loss.

SENS-401 demonstrated protective effects in two preclinical models of hearing loss, in studies that were presented at the 15th International Conference on Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Auditory Technologies (Ci2018).

Innovative Company certification

The Company renewed its Innovative Company certification from Bpifrance. This certification recognizes the innovative characteristics of products, processes and techniques developed by Sensorion and authorizes French Mutual Funds for Innovation (Fonds Communs de Placement pour l'Innovation) to invest into Sensorion

Scientific Advisory Board

Professor Christine Petit, M.D., Ph.D. was appointed as the Chair of Sensorion's Scientific Advisory Board. Professor Christine Petit presently serves concurrently as Professor at College de France, Chair of Genetics and Cellular Physiology, Professor at Pasteur Institute (Paris) and as Head of the Laboratory of Genetics and Physiology of Hearing of the Pasteur Institute, affiliated to INSERM (UMRS 1120) and Sorbonne University (Paris). Professor Christine Petit will lead the future French Hearing Institute which will open in 2019.

Strategy and outlook

Sensorion will actively pursue development of its clinical stage drug candidates, as well as research work using its screening technology platform.

Upcoming events

Assay Development for Drug Discovery and Characterization (EMBL course), October 23-25 (Heidelberg)

Neuroscience (SFN), November 3-7, 2018 (San Diego)

Actionaria, November 22-23, 2018 (Paris)

About Sensorion

Sensorion is a biotech company pioneering novel treatments of inner ear diseases such as severe vertigo, tinnitus or hearing loss. Two products are currently in the clinical development stage: Seliforant (SENS-111), in phase 2 in acute unilateral vestibulopathy, and arazasetron (SENS-401), which has completed a phase 1 trial. The company was founded by Inserm (the French Institute of Health and Medical Research) and is utilizing its pharmaceutical R&D experience and comprehensive technology platform to develop first-in-class easy-to-administer, notably orally active, drugs for treating and preventing hearing loss and the symptoms of bouts of vertigo and tinnitus.

Based in Montpellier, Southern France, Sensorion has received financial support from Bpifrance, through the InnoBio fund, and Inserm Transfert Initiative.

Sensorion has been listed on the Euronext Growth Paris exchange since April 2015.

www.sensorion-pharma.com

Label: SENSORION

ISIN: FR0012596468

Mnemonic: ALSEN

Disclaimer

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements concerning Sensorion and its business. Such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions that Sensorion considers to be reasonable. However, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will be verified, which statements are subject to numerous risks, including the risks set forth in the Document de reference registration document filed with the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF- French Financial Market Authority) on September 7, 2017 under nR.17-062 and to the development of economic conditions, financial markets and the markets in which Sensorion operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks not yet known to Sensorion or not currently considered material by Sensorion. The occurrence of all or part of such risks could cause actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Sensorion to be materially different from such forward-looking statements.

This press release and the information that it contains do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe for, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for, Sensorion shares in any country. The communication of this press release in certain countries may constitute a violation of local laws and regulations. Any recipient of this press release must inform oneself of any such local restrictions and comply therewith.

1 Press release dated August 20, 2018

2 Press release dated July 24, 2018

3 Press release dated May 18, 2018

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005745/en/

Contacts:

Sensorion

Nawal Ouzren

CEO

contact@sensorion-pharma.com

Tel 04 67 20 77 30

or

Investor Relation International

LifeSci Advisors LLC

Hans Herklot Directeur general, Europe

hherklots@lifesciadvisors.com

Tel. +41 79 598 7149

or

Relations Presse Alize RP

Tatiana Vieira

sensorion@alizerp.comSTOCKHOLM, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Eltel's Polish company Eltel Networks Energetyka S.A. has in a consortium signed an agreement with the Polish power grid company PSE S.A. to deliver a 400 kV overhead line. Eltel's part of the contract is worth approximately EUR 18.5 million.

The new overhead power line will run between Ostroleka and Stanislawow, with a total length of 105 km. The agreement also includes an upgrade of two substations, design works, right of way and documentation of the delivery.

The project has started and will be completed by the end of 2023.

The two other partners in the consortium are SPIE ELBUD Gdansk S.A. and ELFEKO S.A., with the latter being the consortium leader. Eltel's share of the consortium will be equal to the other partners, which means a third of the contract value.

About Eltel

Eltel is a leading Northern European provider of technical services for critical infrastructure networks - Infranets - in the segments of Power, Communication and Other, with operations throughout the Nordics, Poland and Germany. Eltel provides a broad and integrated range of services, spanning from maintenance and upgrade services to project deliveries. Eltel has a diverse contract portfolio and a growing customer base of large network owners. In 2017, Eltel's net sales amounted to EUR 1.3 billion. The current number of employees is approximately 7,680. Since 2015, Eltel AB is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

PDF: http://mb.cision.com/Main/11435/2647691/928464.pdf



Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Benchmark Botanics Inc. (CSE: BBT) (FSE: BBW) ("Benchmark Botanics or the "Company") applauds the Canadian government's legalization of recreational marijuana. Today will mark the first legal recreational marijuana sales in what is expected to be a massive market. The total cannabis market in Canada, including medical as well as recreational products is expected to generate up to $7.17 billion in total sales in 2019, according to a recent Deloitte report.

Commenting on the landmark development, Benchmark Botanical's CEO, William Ying stated, "We are thrilled with the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada. Benchmark Botanical is well positioned to take full advantage of the legislation. This significant milestone puts Benchmark at the forefront of the Cannabis Industry. The advantages of legalization are that it opens a retail market in addition to a medical market, loosens regulatory restrictions for access, expands distribution, and expands the industry to billions of dollars. The cannabis industry will now evolve at a very quick pace. Today's legalization is another step forward for our Company as we continue to take Benchmark to new and greater levels."

The legalization of recreational marijuana will have tremendous positive impact on many of Benchmark businesses. The recent license agreement with the Bulldog (see news release on September 27), for example, is an evidence of our determined execution of strategies. With the use of The Bulldog trademarks, we will seek to build one of the most engaging and successful brands and develop leading products in Canada for the adult-use market. With the addition of The Bulldog trademark, which has a long-established history as one of the most well-known coffee shop brands in Amsterdam and beyond, the partnership will assist the Company to position itself in the Canadian adult-use cannabis market. The Company is continuing to make prudent investments and efforts into marketing and branding of our products for the Canadian adult-use cannabis market."

About THE BULLDOG

THE BULLDOG is an Amsterdam-based company that owns and operates a chain of cannabis coffee shops, a five-star hostel hotel in Amsterdam, locations in Canada and a merchandising line. The Bulldog No. 90 was the first coffee shop in Amsterdam and laid the benchmark for the contemporary coffee shop. What once began in a cellar, has grown into well recognized trade- name in several countries. THE BULLDOG Amsterdam has one of the longest histories of legalized recreational cannabis business with millions of customer visits to its stores every year.

About Benchmark

Benchmark is a publicly traded company based in Vancouver, British Columbia that is positioned to provide financing, partnership and acquisition opportunities to licensed producers and ancillary businesses within the global cannabis industry.

In November 2017, the Company acquired its first subsidiary, Potanicals Green Growers Inc. Potanicals possesses a Health Canada license to cultivate and sell cannabis as an Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes (ACMPR) Licensed Producer. In its first phase of operations, Potanicals is currently cultivating in its 12,700 square foot PHASE I indoor production facility. Benchmark is pursuing additional sites to retrofit for large scale cultivation expansion.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF

BENCHMARK BOTANICS INC.

/s/ "William Ying"

William Ying

Chief Executive Officer



For Further Information

Investor Relations

Benchmark Botanics, Inc.

Email: office@bbtinc.ca

Tel: 604-238-0005

For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.benchmarkbotanics.com or the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.

If you would like to be added to Benchmark Botanics' news distribution list, please send your email address to office@bbtinc.ca.

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements relate to future events or future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking statements or information. More particularly and without limitation, the news release contains forward-looking statements and information relating to Company's corporate strategy. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by management of the Company, including, without limitation, the Company's ability to carry out its business plan. Although management of the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements and information since no assurance can be given that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements and information are provided for the purpose of providing information about the current expectations and plans of management of the Company relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such statements and information may not be appropriate for other purposes, such as making investment decisions. Since forward-looking statements and information address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to several factors and risks. These include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to identify and complete additional suitable acquisitions to further the Company's growth as well as risks associated with the medical marijuana industry in general, such as operational risks in development and production delays or changes in plans with respect to development projects or capital expenditures; the uncertainty of the capital markets; the uncertainty of receiving the required licenses, production, costs and expenses; health, safety and environmental risks; marketing and transportation; loss of markets; environmental risks; competition; incorrect assessment of the value of the potential market; ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources; failure to obtain required regulatory and other approvals and changes in legislation, including but not limited to tax laws and regulated regulations. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, timelines and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive.

The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and no undertaking is given to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws or the Canadian Securities Exchange. The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.VentiQuattro Food Consulting is a food industry consultancy that enables restaurants, food producers and chef brands to enter or expand in the U.S. market. The company has announced that Giovanni Montanelli, President and Founder of VentiQuattro will present at two events in Italy this month.

"The Export of Italian Food Products to North America with a Focus on Cured Meats and Cheeses Sector"

Studio Legale Santosuosso Avvocati Lexcom and Nomisma Societa di Studi Economici are hosting a seminar on October 23rd 2018 from 16.00-18.30. The event's theme is "The Export of Italian Food Products to North America, with a Focus on Cured Meats and Cheeses Sector". The event will be held in Verona, Italy. Please check the VentiQuattro website for updates on the venue location.

Giovanni Montanelli will discuss the U.S. market for Italian cured meats and cheeses and its distribution challenges. His presentation will discuss why this is the opportune time to enter the U.S. market and the importance of having upfront research and a market entry strategy. He concludes with case study discussions.

"Creating a Successful U.S. Franchise Network Strategic Considerations and Best Practices"

Confimprese is sponsoring an event on retail franchising October 25th-27th in Milan, Italy. Salone Franchising Milano will be in Fiera Milano City, Milan, Viale Lodovico Scarampo 2.

On October 26th from 10:00 11:30,Giovanni Montanelli will offer market data, discuss challenges and share insights about food franchising in the U.S. market. He will share various approaches to franchising, effective business models and examples of successful VentiQuattro client experiences.

About VentiQuattro

VentiQuattro is a California-based food industry consultancy that enables restaurants, food producers, and chef brands to enter or expand in the U.S. market.

The company helps businesses overcome the hurdles and avoid the pitfalls of internationalization and U.S. localization, assisting clients at any stage, including concept/planning; connection to venture/equity partners; setup/launch; staffing, operations and supply chain; marketing/promotion.

VentiQuattro is a flexible consulting practice that becomes the in-source team for its clients. Learn more at: https://www.ventiquattro-fc.com. Follow VentiQuattro on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Subscribe for periodic news, updates and information.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005866/en/

Contacts:

Media

VentiQuattro Food Consulting

Vega Ekstrand

vega.ekstrand@ventiquattro-fc.com

+1.415.480.9345Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) will host its quarterly investor conference call on 14 November 2018 at 16:00 GMT (11:00 EST). During the call, Bill Ackman and the other members of the Pershing Square investment team will provide an update on the portfolio and address questions e-mailed in advance by investors to ir@persq.com.

An audio webcast of the conference call will be available on PSH's website at www.pershingsquareholdings.com. The conference call will also be available by phone. The dial-in details will be available at www.pershingsquareholdings.com on 12 November 2018.

Following the call, a replay of the event will be available by audio webcast until 29 November 2018 at 4:59 GMT (28 November 2018 23:59 EST). To access the audio webcast, please visit PSH's website at www.pershingsquareholdings.com.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-end fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005885/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

Maitland

Seda Ambartsumian/Sam Turvey, +44 20 7379 5151

Media-pershingsquareholdings@maitland.co.ukThe U.S.-led Coalition accidentally bombed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Syria on Wednesday.

Two U.S.-Coalition F-15 jets allegedly bombed the Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Deir Ezzor, killing at least half dozen fighters in the process, Al-Masdar News reported citing the RIA News Agency.

Citing a diplomatic source, the RIA report said that the accidentally bombing disrupted the Syrian Democratic Forces offensive against the Islamic State (ISIS).

The incident, which took place near the town of Hajin in the Syrian eastern Deir ez-Zor province, did not just disrupt the operation but also reportedly led to numerous defections in the ranks of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Even worse, the terrorists managed to seize some territories in the area, the source added.

A diplomatic source told RIA that the US lack of coordination and professionalism endangered the life of their own allies.

The U.S. Coalition and SDF have yet to comment on this allegation from the RIA News Agency.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Blackrock Gold Corp. (TSXV: BRC) ("Blackrock" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it has hired a new CFO. Mr. Kevin Strong will be taking over the role of Mr. Paul Kania and will be joining the company as the new CFO.

The Company thanks Mr. Kania for his services and wish him the best in his future endeavours.

CEO Greg Schifrin commented" We are pleased to have Kevin join BRC with background in finance and corporate governance and look forward to him helping the BRC management team."

Mr. Kevin Strong is experienced in the areas of finance, accounting, human resources, business planning, business development, compliance and governance. Mr. Strong has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and has a CPA, CGA designation as well as a Canadian Investment Manager designation.

From 2008 to 2015, Kevin was the Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Administration and Corporate Secretary of Belgravia Capital International Inc. (formerly IC Potash Corp.) and rejoined Belgravia in 2016 as its CFO. From 2015 to 2017, Kevin was a Controller in the insurance industry. Prior to that, Kevin was the CFO of several other public and private companies in the resource and agricultural technology sectors. For 8 years prior to that, Kevin was the regional manager for the TSX Venture Exchange responsible for Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Kevin has served as a Director on the boards of public, private and non-profit companies and has served as the Audit Committee chairman and Governance Committee chairman of a public company. Kevin was previously a member of the Manitoba Premier's Economic Advisory Council.

In addition to that, Kevin has taught various courses for The University of Manitoba, Red River College, Assiniboine Community College, The Certified General Accountants Association of Manitoba, and The Canadian Securities Institute.

For further information, please contact:

Greg Schifrin, Chief Executive Officer

Blackrock Gold Corp.

Email: gschifrin@blackrockgoldcorp.com

Website: www.blackrockgold.ca

Phone: 1 - 208-290-1180

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Tech entrepreneur Andreas Baumhof joins Australian leader in quantum cybersecurity

QuintessenceLabs (QLabs), a leader in quantum cybersecurity known for its quantum random number generators and integrated data protection capabilities, welcomes Andreas Baumhof as its Vice President of Technology. Baumhof joins the executive leadership team as the company enters a new phase of growth to help further develop the QuintessenceLabs portfolio and grow awareness of the company's technologies and applications. Baumhof officially joined QuintessenceLabs at its global headquarters, effective October 15, 2018.

Andreas Baumhof is an internationally renowned cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur, with considerable experience building and growing successful innovations in cybersecurity technology. Andreas was cofounder and CTO of Microdasys Inc., where he developed the first ever SSL proxy, and later cofounder and CEO of TrustDefender until its 2011 acquisition by ThreatMetrix. He then served as CTO at ThreatMetrix, leading it through its acquisition by LexisNexis earlier this year.

"Andreas is a wonderful addition to our management team," said Vikram Sharma, Founder and CEO at QuintessenceLabs. "His experience and insight will be tremendously valuable as our business and customer base continues to scale globally."

"Ever since I picked up a book on quantum computing as a student, I have been fascinated by everything to do with quantum technology," said Baumhof. "QLabs is a recognized leader, combining advanced quantum and classical cybersecurity to make our world a safer place. This is further underscored by it being named one of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers for 2018. My hunger for innovation in this company will easily be satisfied, and I look forward to another roller coaster ride!"

For more information on QuintessenceLabs, visit www.quintessencelabs.com or follow the company on Twitter or LinkedIn.

About QuintessenceLabs

QuintessenceLabs (QLabs) is a global leader in quantum cybersecurity at the forefront of the commercial development of quantum cybersecurity solutions. It delivers unique products integrating high-value cybersecurity with advances in quantum technology, including the world's fastest true random number generator, an advanced key and policy manager, and integrated encryption solutions for on-premise or in-cloud implementations. QuintessenceLabs is also a global leader in the development of quantum key distribution solutions.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005906/en/

Contacts:

QuintessenceLabs

Jane Melia, +1-408-597-7152

jm@quintessencelabs.comMontreal, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - October 18, 2018) - Manganese X Energy Corp. (TSXV: MN) (FSE: 9SC2) (TRADEGATE: 9SC2) (OTC Pink: SNCGF) (the "Company" or "Manganese X") is pleased to announce that Manganese X has agreed in principal to purchase an additional 500,000 shares by way of a private placement at $1 a share .This will represent an additional ownership of 10% of Mountain Spring Oil and Gas Limited ("MSOG") by Manganese X amounting to a grand total of 1,250,000 shares or 25% ownership of MSOG.

Peter Lake Cu-Ni-Co Project Update

Line cutting and soil geochemical sampling of the newly established grid covering the prospective Peter Lake property has been completed. Lines cutting totalling approximately 30 kilometers and 861 B-horizon soil samples have been submitted for laboratory analysis. The results of the soil geochemical survey are expected by the end of October and will be released in a timely manner. The North and South Copper-Nickel Occurrences have been traced intermittently on surface for approximately 2 kilometers. Results from nine blast pit samples collected from the Peter Lake North and South Occurrences during September 2018, returned assays of 5.38% Copper, 0.96% Nickel and 922 ppm Cobalt; as well as other anomalous samples (Manganese X news release dated September 27, 2018)The fall exploration program at Peter Lake continues with planned ground geophysical surveys (induced polarization and magnetics), a regional airborne magnetic survey and geology/prospecting to identify and prioritize potential targets for a follow-up diamond drill program.

Update on metallurgical project - To upgrade ore and purification techniques study to produce battery grade material

Manganese X Energy is pleased to announce that several more stages in its research project on the Battery Hill deposit in West - Central New Brunswick have been completed. The project is supported through an agreement with the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). Further upgrading technologies and product purification methodologies will be evaluated in the coming weeks and months including application of new flotation reagent schemes. Manganese X Energy anticipates that there should be a substantial increase in demand for high purity manganese sulphate within the various industries including the Li-ion battery business, thus possibly resulting in higher prices in the future due to supply and demand. Manganese X Energy mission is to become the first North American supplier of value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries as well as the steel industry.

TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") has conditionally accepted the proposed private placement, pursuant to the specific terms for a non-brokered non-commissioned private placement financing to raise up to $400,000 (the "Offering"). The Offering consists of 2 million flow-through" shares ("FT Shares") at a price of $0.20 per share to raise aggregate proceeds of up to $400,000. Deadline for filing final materials: Nov 26, 2018.

The preparation of the technical information in this news release of Peter Lake Cu-Ni-Co Project Update and the National Research Council (NRC/CNRC) metallurgical project update has been reviewed and approved by Roger Dahn, P. Geo. Roger Dahn is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Manganese X Energy

Manganese X Energy's mission is to acquire and advance high potential manganese as well as additional mineral prospects located in North America with the intent of supplying value added materials to the lithium ion battery and other alternative energy industries as well as the steel industry. In addition, our company is striving to achieve new methodologies emanating with environmentally friendly green/zero emissions processes and producing manganese at a lower competitive cost.

For more information, visit the website at www.manganesexenergycorp.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Martin Kepman

CEO and Director

martin@kepman.com

1-514-802-1814

Cautionary Note Regarding 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.

This news release contains "forward-looking information" including statements with respect to the future exploration performance of the Company. This 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 future results, performance or achievements of the Company, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, as well as others, are disclosed within the Company's filing on SEDAR, which investors are encouraged to review prior to any transaction involving the securities of the Company. Forward-looking information contained herein is provided as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation, other than as required by law, to update any forward-looking information for any reason. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information.The Mercedes-AMG is such a sturdy vehicle that 63 armies across the world have used it.

The launch of the Mercedes-AMG always attracts a lot of media attention. Off-roaders love it, 63 armies across the world swear by its efficiency, regular people are confused by it and theres always a bunch of naysayers who dont appreciate it. BUT, and this is a big but, theres no denying this: This vehicle has a bunch of hardcore fans stretching back to 1979 who swear by it.

Some people call it by its original name: Gelandewagen, thats German for cross-country vehicle. Others call it the G-Wagen. The Mercedes-AMG has always held attracted a certain set of people. These are owners who want comfort inside a vehicle as it dismantles every terrain they unleash it on.

The Mercedes-AMG had a rather rocky start. The first order for 1,000 Mercedes-AMGs was placed by the Shah of Iran in 1972 for his military. However, by the time the vehicles came out, the Shah was no longer in power. These unexpected turn of events inspired Mercedes-Benz to make the Mercedes-AMG publicly available.

The Mercedes-AMG became so well known for its tactical prowess that the Vatican ordered one for Pope John Paul II in 1980. The mystical white Mercedes-AMG was outfitted with a transparent top that enabled the Pope to see and interact with his followers. The vehicle quickly became famous as the Popemobile and now has a place of honour at the Mercedes-Benz Museum at Stuttgart, Germany.

Remember, until now the Mercedes-AMG didnt have any air-conditioning or any creature comfort whatsoever (Do you really think a military vehicle comes with such frills?) 1981 saw automatic transmission, air conditioning, and protective headlamp grilles come into the picture. The 230 GE that debuted in Turin in 1982 got a fuel injection along with better front seats and wider tyres.

The 10th anniversary of the Mercedes-AMG (in 1989) saw the 4-wheel drive become a permanent feature. The 463 Mercedes-AMG in 1990 saw an updated chassis. In 1998, the G 500 with a 296 hp V 8 went into production. The 20th anniversary saw a limited run of V8 G 500 Classics come out. 1999 was also the year the G55 AMG came out, the most powerful Mercedes-AMG with 354 hp. In 2001, the Mercedes-AMG was officially launched in the United States.

In June 2012, the Mercedes-AMG got LED running lights and new side mirrors with integrated turn signals with a new interior, and modern features. The AMG G 63 took 13 more years before it debuted in India in 2013. That edition was powered by a 5.5-litre AMG bi-turbo V8 engine.

The 2015 Crazy Colour G 63 version packed in the luxuries as Mercedes loaded up on interiors. The Alien Green shade, in particular, was a show-stopper as it made heads turn in India. Every new launch of the G 63 has seen the vehicle evolve. Its gotten bigger and stronger but has all the luxuries (and more) that one would expect from one of the worlds premier car-makers. This is a vehicle that keeps breaking new barriers with every launch.

And now in 2018, Mercedes-Benz has launched the longer and wider Mercedes-AMG G 63.

The Mercedes-AMG G 63 is fitted with LED lights all around with a new Panamericana grille and theres oodles chrome that go with a number of AMG badges. The G 63 goes from 0 to 100 in 4.4 seconds. Its not really surprising considering it is powered by a 4-litre bi-turbo engine with 577 bhp. The G 63 is an all-wheel drive, and weighs 174 kg less than the previous model.

No wonder that the Mercedes-AMG has heavyweight fans like actor Sylvester Stallone and boxer Floyd Mayweather.

Mercedes defied convention when they made Mercedes-AMG publicly available. They defied convention when they made a vehicle that couldnt be stopped by any force, not even time. The Mercedes-AMG is a living legend. Get ready to be part of its legacy.

This is a partnered post.The CBI had registered cases against Mittal in 2014 and 2016 on the request of Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB), which is reeling under Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, they said.

New Delhi: Absconding industrialist Vinay Mittal, wanted in seven bank fraud cases worth Rs 40 crore, has been extradited to India from Indonesia, CBI officials said on Tuesday.

His name had figured in the list of prominent fugitive economic offenders of the Government which contained names of Vijay Mallya, Nitin Sandesara, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Jatin Mehta among others.

The CBI had registered cases against Mittal in 2014 and 2016 on the request of Corporation Bank and Punjab National Bank (PNB), which is reeling under Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud allegedly perpetrated by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, they said.

The agency had filed seven charge sheets in courts of Delhi and Ghaziabad against him after which he purportedly escaped from the country, they said.

The court has declared him as an absconder and the agency issued a Red Corner Notice against him, they said

After a hectic search, he was traced along with his family in Bali, Indonesia, they said.

He was arrested by Indonesian authorities in January 2017 on the basis of Red Corner Notice, they said

Recently, Indonesian President had cleared his extradition to India following which he was sent to India this month, they said.

He has been arrested upon arrival and sent to judicial custody, they said.

After his extradition earlier this month, the agency achieved another success in the form of Mohammad Yahya who was deported from Bahrain. He was wanted in a Rs 46 lakh bank fraud case.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 6 in the Justice Department's fight against AT&T Inc's $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, the court said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 6 in the Justice Department's fight against AT&T Inc's $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, the court said on Wednesday.

The merger, which was announced in October 2016, closed on June 14 after a U.S. district court ruled the deal was legal under antitrust law. The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to reverse that approval.

The core of the Justice Departments concern is that AT&T, which owns DirecTV, would use its ownership of Time Warners content to make pay TV rivals pay more, thus raising their costs and forcing them to charge consumers more. The merged company includes CNN, a cable news station that is a frequent target of President Donald Trump's ire.

AT&T has said it would manage Time Warners Turner cable television networks as part of a separate business unit until February 2019 or the conclusion of the government's appeal.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Sugarcane has become a bitter crop for Maharashtra. Ethanol is just one more way by which it seeks to gain legitimacy.

Sugar prices have begun to firm up. One story doing the rounds is that the government is finally considering the blending of ethanol with petrol favourably. That would bring more money to the sugar industry. The second is that with the onset of the festive season, prices of sugar invariably begin to soar. Third, is the possibility of sugar exports being allowed.

If the third option is considered, it might be the best way out for the surplus sugar stocks lying with the industry. At least the stock disappears without the government having to pay a subsidy to the sugar industry.

The second possibility is something that most Indians have learnt to live with. They know by now that despite protestations by bureaucrats and politicians that price increases will be checked, sugar prices always climb up during the festive season. This is true even when there are surplus stocks. Clearly, the ability to rig prices during festivities is strong. The government knows this. But it is either helpless or, more likely, it is collusive with the trade. That is one reason why the first possibility, that ethanol should be permitted to be blended with petrol is a worrisome thought.

First, forget ethanol blending being good for the industry. The industry, especially in Maharashtra, has learnt the brilliant art of hiding profitable businesses under different entities. Thus profits from liquo0r, pharma, methane, etc are seldom shown as income belonging to the cooperative. The cooperatives are always shown to be loss-making.

Second, it is doubtful if most legislators are aware that a 10 percent blending of ethanol with fuel will cause a 3 percent reduction in fuel efficiency. Go to the EIA website and you will find it there.

Third, the talk about ethanol reducing the cost of fuel is hogwash. Ethanol is duty-free; petrol isnt. Ethanol comes from sugar cooperatives which get water free. Petrochemical plants have to pay a price for the water they use. Sugarcane is an agricultural crop and incomes from sugarcane are tax exempt. But no produce from petrochemical plants is tax exempt. If you normalise all these things, the myth about ethanol being cheaper will get busted.

Fourth, is the issue of water. Sugarcane (along with cotton) is a water guzzler. Yet it is a product that politicians in Maharashtra love. They have built an ecosystem around it ranging from sugar to alcohol. That is why Maharashtra has allowed the production of sugar to almost double (91% growth) since 1991. This means that instead of extending water to other farmers, the sugarcane industry has deprived this to millions of farmers.

True, Uttar Pradesh (UP) accounts for the largest production of sugar in India (40 percent market share, see table). But Maharashtra is the second largest sugar producing state  accounting for a 21 percent share. UP can afford to grow sugarcane because it has plenty of water. Maharashtra cannot. It has little water.

In fact, there are many reasons why Maharashtra should be discouraging the growth of sugarcane.

Most importantly, this has prevented the state from improving its crop intensity. Growing more crops on land each year allows farmers to diversify their risk. So, if one crop fails another can generate money.

Part of the distress in Maharashtra is caused by sugarcane growers. It promotes a lazy crop, which grows without demanding too much of attention and care from farmers. It occupies the land for almost the entire year thus preventing agricultural diversification. It also guzzles water.

In order to ensure that water is available to sugarcane (and cotton) Maharashtra has constantly found excuses for not bringing more land under irrigation. Thus, while almost 50 percent of the gross cultivated land all over India is under irrigation, in Maharashtra, it is just 20 percent. So if farmers commit suicide, do remember one of the principal causes is the focus on and the love for sugarcane.

Watch how the government has allowed the land under sugarcane cultivation to double. It should have been halved. This points to collusion of the state with the sugar barons of Maharashtra.

Fifth, and finally, there is one more factor abetting the politicians addiction to the sugar industry. Sugarcane, in India, is closely linked to the production of alcohol through molasses. Even the slighted amount of diversion of alcohol from industrial to potable alcohol can result in bumper profits worth hundreds of crores of rupees. That is why the sugar industry is a major source for political funding.

There is money to be made at every stage. Take industrial alcohol first. The latest government auction price for industrial alcohol last month was Rs 43.70 to Rs 59.10 per litre of ethanol. The open market price is around Rs750 a litre in the open markets (Amazon prices). But when industrial alcohol is converted into potable alcohol, the price difference could be an additional 10-100 times.

The introduction of ethanol blending would give Maharashtras sugarcane lobby one more excuse to produce more alcohol (as separate entities, not as part of the sugar cooperatives), which in turn could mean that much more money for politicians. It would allow the industry to make more profits off the sugar books. Even the Governments Tax &Duty Manual of September 2018 on Alcohol Products Tax and Reliefs Manual mentions the need to ensure that diversion of ethanol to alcohol does not take place.

Another reason is legalising ethanol blending would make it a lot more difficult for any government to force the sugarcane industry to shrink its activities.

But if farmer distress has to be reduced in Maharashtra, the sugar industry has to shrink. It is taking water away from other farmers. It has influenced the government to go slow on irrigation in non-sugar (and non-cotton) areas. It has hobbled agriculture, by preventing it to improve crop intensity.

Sugarcane has become a bitter crop for Maharashtra. Ethanol is just one more way by which it seeks to gain legitimacy. Allowing such moves, would worsen the plight of farmers in this state.By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Rania El Gamal LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the oil producing group seeks to avoid the risk of U.S. legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said

By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Rania El Gamal

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the oil producing group seeks to avoid the risk of U.S. legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said.

Proposed U.S. legislation known as "NOPEC", which could open the group up to anti-trust lawsuits, has long lain dormant, with previous American presidents signalling that they would veto any move to make it law.

But U.S. President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, blaming it for high oil prices and urging it to increase output to relieve pressure on a market hovering around four-year highs.

That has made OPEC and its unofficial leader, Saudi Arabia, nervous about what it might mean for NOPEC, or No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act.

The decision to refrain from discussing a preferred oil price level -- one way the group can guide market expectations -- underlines how Trump's aggressive stance on the oil market is unsettling OPEC and testing ties between allies Riyadh and Washington.

In July, senior OPEC officials attended a workshop in Vienna with international law firm White & Case to discuss the NOPEC bill, and the lawyers advised avoiding public discussion of oil prices and rather talk about the stability of the oil market, two sources familiar with the matter said.

OPEC officials were also advised to explore diplomatic lobbying channels to try and prevent the NOPEC bill from becoming law, one of the sources said.

On Aug. 1, the OPEC secretariat sent a letter to the ministers making a similar recommendation.

"We solemnly believe that market stability, and not prices, is the common objective of our actions," UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui, who holds the rotating OPEC presidency this year, wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters.

"I would like to call upon OPEC Member Countries, as well as our participating Non-OPEC colleagues, to refrain from any reference to prices in their commentary about our collective efforts or oil market condition," he added.

White & Case did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Specifying oil prices is not the only way OPEC tries to guide the market. By cutting production it can support prices and by raising supplies it can do the opposite, for example.

But the private coordination of how to communicate OPEC's message to the market represents a departure from past practice, when Saudi Arabia would often signal a preferred price level when speaking about OPEC policy and seek to push through actions to achieve that.

TIES STRAINED

While chances of the law passing this year appear slim, concerns among OPEC members and other oil producers are growing that it may ultimately get the support of Trump, given his open criticism of OPEC and high oil prices.

The OPEC letter came two months before U.S.-Saudi relations were further strained when a Saudi journalist disappeared during a visit to the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials say they believe Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi policies, was murdered and his body removed. Saudi Arabia has strongly denied killing Khashoggi.

Some members of the U.S. Congress, which has long had a testy relationship with Saudi Arabia, have criticised the kingdom over the case.

A Senate source familiar with the bill said renewed interest in NOPEC was likely, as lawmakers weigh any actions in response to Khashoggi's disappearance.

The source, who declined to be named, said that with lawmakers out of town for the next several weeks, it was difficult to measure current sentiment.

LITIGATION RISKS MAY BE BEHIND IPO DELAY

Over much of the last year, Saudi Arabia irked Washington by pushing OPEC to adopt measures to boost oil prices in a shift from its previous, more moderate stance.

Industry sources have linked that shift to a desire to maximise revenues and raise the valuation of state energy giant Saudi Aramco ahead of a planned IPO, a key part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's reforms aimed at diversifying the economy.

The share float, expected by some to be worth up to $100 billion, has been put on hold, sources have told Reuters.

Prince Mohammed said this month the float was postponed to 2021, and several industry sources say the delay was partly because of litigation risks if Aramco was listed in New York, a preferred venue by the Saudi crown prince.

"There is a major fear NOPEC could turn into another JASTA," one of the sources familiar with Aramco IPO preparations said, referring to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act which allows victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia, which denies involvement in the attacks, had long had broad immunity from the lawsuits. That changed in 2016, when the U.S. Congress overrode then-President Barack Obama's veto of JASTA.

With close to $1 trillion in investments in the United States, including assets owned by Aramco, Riyadh has a lot to lose if the NOPEC bill was passed into law.

It would revoke the sovereign immunity which oil producers, including OPEC members, currently enjoy from U.S. legal action.

Washington-based legal firm Gibson Dunn and the Saudi embassy there signed a contract in late August, according to a copy of the contract filed to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The contract outlines that among its other responsibilities, Gibson Dunn would be "opposing NOPEC".

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has also raised concerns over NOPEC with senior U.S. officials including U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry during private meetings, two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.

(Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in New York and Yara Bayoumy in Washington; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - German mechanical engineering conglomerate Voith [VOITH.UL] has signed an agreement to supply turbines for a $4 billion dam Ethiopia is building along the River Nile, state-affiliated media said on Wednesday.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - German mechanical engineering conglomerate Voith [VOITH.UL] has signed an agreement to supply turbines for a $4 billion dam Ethiopia is building along the River Nile, state-affiliated media said on Wednesday.

The 6,000 megawatt Grand Renaissance Dam is the centrepiece of the Horn of Africa country's bid to become the continent's biggest power exporter.

The agreement with Voith, which has already supplied 13 out of the dam's 16 turbines alongside France's Alstom, was made after the government, due to delays, cancelled a contract with its military-run Metals and Engineering Corporation (METEC)to provide the remaining three turbines, sustaining losses.

"The contract was awarded to Voith in a tender floated two weeks ago at a $5.9 million discount from each (of the three) turbine," Fana Broadcasting Corporation quoted METEC's commercial operations head Abdulaziz Mohammed as saying.

Italian firm Salini Impregilo remains the main contractor building the dam, while METEC was the contractor for the electromechanical and hydraulic steel structure divisions of the project.

In August, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed acknowledged that the dam would face a delay of several years having initially been expected to be completed by 2020.

The government plans to restructure METEC, which is set to be renamed as the National Metal Engineering Corporation.

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.UN Young Changemakers Conclave aims to become a platform for students, aspiring social entrepreneurs and inventors to learn from leaders across fields of business, politics, the arts, technology.

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.

Firstpost spoke with Samyak Chakrabarty, President - Organising Committee, UN Young Changemakers Conclave and Managing Director, X Billion Labs. Listed by Forbes as one of Asia's most influential under 30-year olds, Chakrabarty leads X Billion Labs, an eco-system of impact enterprises (Skills Lab, Action Lab and Tech Lab) that collectively aims to transform 100 million lives over the next decade. The Young Changemakers Conclave is an initiative by X Billion Action Lab and the UNIC for India and Bhutan to enable a dialogue about creating systemic change and re-imagining impact in the digital age.

Excerpts from the conversation:

What is the inspiration behind the forum?



I am a firm believer that conversations lead to change. Young Indians, from across socio-economic and regional backgrounds must be exposed to cutting-edge ideas and innovations that can act as a trigger to inspire them to create something. I started UNYCC to make it a platform for students, aspiring social entrepreneurs and inventors to learn from leaders across fields of business, politics, the arts, technology and impact. The themes over the years have been: Make in India: Sustainable Development; Be Restless: Do more, and Role of Youth: Transforming dialogue to action

What is the rationale behind the 'Reimagine' theme this year?



We reach out to our community of past audiences, speakers and partner networks to co-create relevant themes/topics so that it is an inclusive process. At X Billion Labs (XBL) we believe that systemic change can be achieved by a continued collaboration between key stakeholders such as enterprise, policy, media, and citizens. Our behaviour, choices and perspectives must evolve in the context of prevailing realities of the time such as technological disruptions, climate change, widening economic inequality and over-population. This year's UNYCC aims at creating a dialogue to explore the next frontiers of impact in areas such as healthcare, agriculture, behaviour, innovation, politics, war and God  in the digital age.

What has been the response to the forum in the past?

It has been a humbling experience for me. We began by hosting Shashi Tharoor in 2011 and earlier this year, we had Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as our keynote speaker. In the last few editions, we have had at least 18-20,000 applicants for just 500 seats. This is phenomenal for us! It shows that the conclave has become a highly anticipated gathering.

What is the end purpose of these talks?

To trigger an idea, enable a social movement and support social entrepreneurs.

What are your future plans with UNYCC?

We strongly believe that a great amount of talent lies in Tier I, Tier II cities as well as small towns. Mumbai and Delhi are saturated now. It is time that youth in smaller cities and towns get the exposure to creative ideas. This year, we are live streaming our event to over 200 colleges in 80 cities across India. In the future, we plan to have the conclave in cities like Visakhapatnam and Aurangabad. We hope to have this conclave in 5 Tier I cities next year.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be removed from his role as chairman of the company's board.

State treasurers in Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania as well as New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer co-filed the proposal yesterday, alongside the hedge fund Trillium Asset Management, which first floated the idea, the Hill reported.

The proposal, which requests that the positions of CEO and chairman of the board be separated, is set to be voted on at the companys annual shareholder meeting in May.

"Facebook plays an outsized role in our society and our economy. They have a social and financial responsibility to be transparent  thats why were demanding independence and accountability in the companys boardroom," Stringer said in a statement.By Francesco Guarascio BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister defended its free-spending budget on Thursday, brushing off criticism from Brussels as the European Commission stepped up pressure over a draft it labelled an unprecedented breach of EU fiscal rules. Giuseppe Conte also faced discontent over the 2019 fiscal plan at home, calling a meeting of the government for Saturday to stave off an emerging internal rift over conditions of a partial tax amnesty.

By Francesco Guarascio

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister defended its free-spending budget on Thursday, brushing off criticism from Brussels as the European Commission stepped up pressure over a draft it labelled an unprecedented breach of EU fiscal rules.

Giuseppe Conte also faced discontent over the 2019 fiscal plan at home, calling a meeting of the government for Saturday to stave off an emerging internal rift over conditions of a partial tax amnesty.

The draft, signed off by Italy's cabinet on Monday, will hike the deficit at a time when EU regulations say it should be falling, boost welfare spending and cut the retirement age.

In the first formal step of a procedure that could lead to Brussels rejecting the budget and to fines against Italy, the Commission sent Rome a warning letter on Thursday.

The document said the budget appeared to be in "particularly serious non-compliance" with EU rules as its deviation from targets was "unprecedented", and gave Rome until Oct. 22 to respond.

EU officials stressed they were seeking Italy's reply and changes to the draft budget before taking any further measures. "We have time," economic commissioner Pierre Moscovici told a news conference in Rome after he handed the letter to Italy's Finance Minister Giovanni Tria.

Conte said Italy was ready to reply to the commission's concerns but he was not worried by the letter. He did not think Italy's deviation from targets was large, and expected the Commission to send similar letters to Spain, France and Portugal.

"Italy's is a case apart," an EU official told Reuters, adding that letters to other governments will only warn against possible budget risks.

Conte called the budget "beautiful", having said on Wednesday on arriving for a two-day EU summit that he saw no room for changing tack on it.

If it is not amended, the Commission could reject the draft by Oct. 29 in what would be an unprecedented move that could further rattle financial markets..

The gap between Italian and German 10-year bond yield spreads hit its widest level in 5-1/2 years after news of the Commission letter broke.

COALITION SPAT

Other EU leaders also warned Italy about the budget, some in public and others behind closed doors, as Conte laid out the plans - an unusual move at an EU summit..

Before the meeting, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said fiscal rules should be respected by all.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter he had expressed his concerns to Conte on Thursday, and that the Commission had the Netherlands' full support in making sure EU fiscal rules were respected.

In what could be a further source of concern at home, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star party, said on Wednesday a legislative text on a partial tax amnesty had been "manipulated" before its final approval, raising doubts about the stability of Italy's coalition government and about the budget's revenues.

The anti-establishment 5-Star has always opposed amnesties - a frequently used policy in Italy where people or companies can avoid being pursued for tax dodging by paying a fee. Its coalition partner, the far-right League, favours amnesties, which bring money into the treasury and are popular with voters.

Di Maio said on Thursday the dispute needed to be sorted out because it was upsetting financial markets.

Asked by reporters about the coalition rift, Conte - who is not from any political party - replied: "There is no division".

But later in the day, he told a news conference he had called a government meeting for Saturday to overcome political differences over the text.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Gavin Jones in Rome and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by John Stonestreet)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's exports fell in September for the first time since 2016 as shipments to the United States and China declined, adding to concerns about the broadening impact of an escalating Sino-U.S. trade war

By Tetsushi Kajimoto

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's exports fell in September for the first time since 2016 as shipments to the United States and China declined, adding to concerns about the broadening impact of an escalating Sino-U.S. trade war.

The data comes days after a Reuters poll showed a third of Japanese companies have been affected by the trade conflict between the world's two biggest economies with firms fretting about slower Chinese demand.

Japanese policymakers also worry about the overall economic impact of the international trade tensions. A powerful typhoon that hit Japan last month has added to the strain on factories, disrupting output and physical distribution.

Ministry of Finance (MOF) data out on Thursday showed Japanese exports fell 1.2 percent in September from a year earlier, against a 1.9 percent increase expected by economists in a Reuters poll, following a 6.6 percent gain in August.

It was the first decline since November 2016.

"The continued weakness in exports in September suggests that economic activity may have stagnated in Q3," Marcel Thieliant, senior Japan economist at Capital Economics, said in a note to clients.

Japan's exports to the United States declined 0.2 percent in the year to September, dragged down by falling shipments of construction and mining machinery, auto parts and medicines.

U.S.-bound auto exports amounted to some 143,000 cars, down 7.0 percent in a snapback from the previous year's brisk shipments.

Imports from the United States rose 3.1 percent in September, led by crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, helping reduce Japan's trade surplus with the United States by 4.0 percent year-on-year to 590 billion yen ($5.24 billion).

The U.S. Trade Representative's office told Congress on Tuesday it would open trade talks with Japan, describing the country as an important yet underperforming market for U.S. exports.

Tokyo and Washington last month agreed to start trade talks in an arrangement that, for now, avoids the worst-case scenario of an imminent 25 percent tariff on cars.

Trump has made clear he is unhappy with Japan's $69 billion trade surplus with the United States - nearly two-thirds of it from auto exports - and wants a two-way agreement to address it.

Tokyo pushed back on a straight bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Washington had sought, fearing it could put Japan under pressure to open politically sensitive sectors such as agriculture.

Thursday's trade data showed exports to China, Japan's biggest trading partner, fell 1.7 percent in the year to September, the first decline in seven months, dragged down by semiconductor production equipment.

Shipments to Asia, which account for more than half of Japan's overall exports, rose 0.9 percent.

Overall imports rose 7.0 percent in the year to September, versus the median estimate for a 13.7 percent annual increase.

The trade balance was surplus of 139.6 billion yen, compared with the median estimate for a shortfall of 50.0 billion yen.

($1 = 112.5700 yen)

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.In a 21-page interim order, Sebi said that prima facie the role of FHL and Fortis Hospitals Ltd (FHsL) in the alleged diversion of funds through conduit entities has been established.

New Delhi: Finding alleged diversion of funds, markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday directed former promoters of Fortis Healthcare Shivinder Mohan Singh, Malvinder Mohan Singh and eight other entities to repay Rs 403 crore along with interest to the company.

All the entities have prima facie acted in a fraudulent manner in diverting funds around Rs 403 crore from Fortis Healthcare Ltd (FHL), a listed company, for the ultimate benefit of parent company RHC Holding Pvt Ltd and group company Religare Finvest Ltd, violating the securities laws, Sebi said.

In a 21-page interim order, the watchdog said that prima facie the role of FHL and Fortis Hospitals Ltd (FHsL) in the alleged diversion of funds through conduit entities has been established.

Apart from the Singh brothers, FHsL, RHC and Religare Finvest, the other entities that have been asked to repay the money are Shivi Holdings Pvt Ltd, Malav Holdings Pvt Ltd, Best Healthcare Pvt Ltd, Fern Healthcare Pvt Ltd and Modland Wears Pvt Ltd. The money along with due interest has to be paid within three months to FHL.

Pending completion of investigation and till further order, the Singh brothers and the eight entities have also been directed not to dispose of any of their assets or divert any funds without prior permission of Sebi. However, they can utilise funds for certain purposes, including for meeting expenses of day-to-day business operations, the order said.

Further, the regulator said that Singh brothers "shall not associate themselves with the affairs of FHL in any manner whatsoever till further directions".

"The prime facie role of FHL and FHsL in the alleged diversion of funds through the conduit entities (viz. Best, Fern and Modland) to RHC Holding and Religare Finvest Limited for the ultimate benefit of Shivi Holdings Private Limited, Malav Holdings Pvt Ltd, Shivinder Mohan Singh and Malvinder Mohan Singh has already been established," the regulator said, citing a forensic audit report.

In February 2018, Sebi held a meeting with the company's auditors Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP after the reports that FHL, through its subsidiary, had given Inter Corporate Deposits (ICDs) to three companies worth over Rs 400 crore. The three companies are Best, Fern and Modland.

According to the auditors, the FHL management informed them that three borrower companies to whom ICDs were given had become related parties to the promoters due to some internal restructuring of ownership from December 2017 onwards.

Sebi said a detailed investigation of the entire scheme employed is necessary to find out the role of each entity in the alleged routing of funds.

If necessary, investigation would extend to other entities, including banks and auditors, who may have played a direct and indirect role in the entire fraud, the order said.The Uttar Pradesh Police department has lauded Kumar's actions and has hailed the incident as an exemplary 'act of bravery'.

The Uttar Pradesh Police has decided to award the 'valour' of a Sambhal sub-inspector who mimicked the sound of a gunshot after his pistol jammed during an encounter with criminals.

The video of the incident, that happened on 12 October, recently surfaced on social media. In the video, Sub-Inspector Manoj Kumar can be heard shouting 'maaro, maaro, ghero, thain, thain' with the intention of scaring the criminals.

#WATCH: Police personnel shouts 'thain thain' to scare criminals during an encounter in Sambhal after his revolver got jammed. ASP says, 'words like 'maaro & ghero' are said to create mental pressure on criminals. Cartridges being stuck in revolver is a technical fault'. (12.10) pic.twitter.com/NKyEnPZukh  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 13, 2018

The police department has lauded Kumar's actions and has hailed the incident as an exemplary "act of bravery". Kumar's name has been sent for a commendation disc and certificate from the director general of Uttar Pradesh police, reported The Times of India.

Speaking about the incident, a senior cop had told ANI, "This was due to a technical glitch of the weapon that the officer was carrying, such things are not new and may happen at times. With regard to the cop shouting, it is a tact to deal with criminals mentally and create pressure on them to surrender." During the course of the encounter, one police personnel sustained injuries, while a criminal was also nabbed after being shot.

The said criminal was wanted in a number of robbery cases and was carrying an award of Rs 25,000 on his head.

With inputs from agenciesHere's what the renaming of the city by the Yogi Adityanath government means for the residents of the erstwhile city of Allahabad, now rechristened Prayagraj.

Prayag, Ilahabad, Allahabad and finally Prayagraj. The next time that the Prayagraj Express chugs past the vast swathes of the banks of the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna, it will enter a city whose name has been changed yet again.

What does the rectification of the mistake made by Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbaras stated by the Yogi Adityanath government mean for the residents of the erstwhile city of Allahabad, now rechristened Prayagraj?

The renaming of Allahabad to Prayagraj is a good first step towards restoring our cultural heritage and history, says advocate Awadesh K Saxena, who has been practising at the Allahabad High Court for the last 30 years. Saxena supports the chief minister, who had said in Gorakhpur on Tuesday that Prayag was the original name of the city 500 years ago. Those opposing the change of name are ignorant about their history, culture and tradition, Adityanath had said.

Though Saxena admits that the administration will face certain short-term difficulties, he hopes that the government will overcome them within a year. He says, "For example, changing the name of the Allahabad High Court to Prayagraj High Court will be problematic for both advocates and clients. Initially, it will be a little awkward for us (advocates) to refer to it as the Prayagraj High Courtbut again, its a short term adjustment issue."

Saxena has a word of caution for Adityanath, who has a penchant for renaming cities with Islamic names. The government should not go on a renaming spree, but rather observe the consequences of renaming Allahabad. Will he support the renaming of cities like Aurangabad and Fatehpur, which are named after Mughal emperors? He says, "Let us first see the impact, benefits and the cost incurred in renaming Allahabad. If the results are positive, other cities can be renamed.

Manu Saxena, another member of the Saxena family, differs, stressing that the government should have focussed on the lack of civic amenities instead of renaming Allahabad. Renaming Allahabad was not necessary. The city is plagued by the lack of proper health centres, piling heaps of garbage, cases of dengue and malaria, dilapidated roads, and poor sanitation and sewage systems.

Manu also doesnt buy the governments argument of the cultural significance in renaming Allahabad. Almost everyone knows about the Sangam and its religious significance. Had the government introduced a scheme aimed at making Allahabad the cleanest city in the country or an education hub, I would have welcomed it. But the decision to rename the city will not have any effect, except making it difficult to pronounce."

Two of the city's iconic institutionsthe University of Allahabad and the high courtmay be rechristened as well. Health minister Siddharth Nath Singh said on Tuesday that an official request would be sent to concerned departments for renaming the high court and some other institutions.

Amit Srivastava, who spent several years in Allahabad before moving to New Delhi a few years ago, prefers to call the city Prayag like his grandparents. I grew up in in the city of Prayag. I only remember the city of Sangam, Saraswati Ghat and Akshayavat (the indestructible banyan tree)there's nothing that can connect the city with its erstwhile name of Allahabad. My alma mater was named as the University of Allahabad. Restoring the citys original name is a great decision, an elated Srivastava says.

Pankaj Singh, who now teaches in Gaya, Bihar, seconds Srivastava. My family always preferred the name Prayag. We are glad that it has been renamed. Besides, if Bombay can be renamed as Mumbai and Calcutta as Kolkata, what is the problem in changing the name of Allahabad, he asks. Is there a problem in renaming cities with Mughal names, but not British?, he adds.Singh claimed that the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader had threatened him and his twin 17-year-old daughters during an interview to a television channel. The Rajya Sabha MP had gone to Rampur on 30 August and asked Khan to 'sacrifice' him and spare his daughters.

Lucknow: Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh on Wednesday filed a police complaint against SP leader Azam Khan for allegedly threatening his daughters with an acid attack, following which an FIR was registered against Khan.

The FIR was registered at the Gomti Nagar police station, police said. "I gave an application at Gomti Nagar police station to lodge an FIR against Azam Khan for threatening my daughters with acid attack," Singh told reporters.

Singh claimed that the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader had threatened him and his twin 17-year-old daughters during an interview to a television channel. The Rajya Sabha MP had gone to Rampur on 30 August and asked Khan to "sacrifice" him and spare his daughters. The police confirmed the registration of FIR against the former Uttar Pradesh minister.

On Singh' application, an FIR was registered against Azam under various sections of IPC, including 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religions) and 506 (criminal intimidation), police said.

Singh also attacked UP DGP OP Singh over the recent killing of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari and sought the police official's resignation. "The UP DGP should resign if he cannot handle the state's law and order situation," he said. Singh, who was expelled from the Samajwadi Party last year, however, praised Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, terming him an "honest" person.Amit Shah, who has kick-started campaigning in poll-bound Mizoram, said that the state will soon witness a corruption free and a pro-development government in the state.

Aizwal: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah, who has kick-started campaigning in poll-bound Mizoram, said that the state will soon witness a corruption free and a pro-development government in the state.

Addressing statewide booth level workers at Aizawl's R Dengthuama indoor stadium on Wednesday, the BJP chief said, "In Nagaland, Meghalaya, wherever BJP contested, it won. I am quite confident that the BJP will win the forthcoming state election and Mizoram will soon see a corruption free, the pro-development government in the state."

Shah, who also inaugurated the Mizoram BJP headquarters, announced that the party will contest all the 40 seats on its own. "We will not go with the Congress or the Mizo National Front (MNF). We will fight all seats on the basis of the strength of our workers," he said. Shah also inducted senior Congress leader BD Chakma into the party.

Hitting out at the Congress, Shah said that poll-bound Mizoram has lots of possibilities in hydro-power and tourism but the Congress government failed on all fronts.

"Mizoram has lots of possibilities in hydro-power and tourism, but the Congress government failed on all fronts. The inefficiency of state government can be seen in the fact that let alone promoting new businesses, their corruption led to the closure of three existing PSUs," he said.

The BJP president further said that the next Christmas in Mizoram will be celebrated under the BJP's rule. "After seeing so many of you here, I am reassured that the next Christmas Mizoram celebrates will be a Christmas under the BJP government," said Shah.

Mizoram is the only state in the entire North East where the Congress is in power presently. The BJP has been reiterating that they would make all efforts to remove the Congress from power. Single-phase Assembly polls in Mizoram will be held on 28 November. Counting of votes will be done on 11 December.Ashish Pandey, who is the son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, had approached Delhi's Patiala House Court to surrender.

Delhi's Patiala House Court on Thursday sent Ashish Pandey, who was seen brandishing a gun outside Hyatt Regency on 14 October, to a one-day police remand. He had surrendered before the court earlier in the day.

#AshishPandey being brought out of Delhi's Patiala House Court. He has been sent to one-day police remand. He was seen brandishing a gun outside Hyatt Regency on October 14 & surrendered before the police today. (File pic) pic.twitter.com/dcn8RPuoP5  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Ashish Pandey, son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MP Rakesh Pandey, was arrested by the Delhi Police following his surrender. Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma considered submission of the Delhi Police which sought a four-day custodial interrogation of Ashish on various grounds. The court, however, granted one-day quizzing of the accused.

Ashish Pandey's counsel opposed the remand application, saying,"We're ready to cooperate. We can deposit our pistol also. My client is suffering due to the hype created by media because his father was an MP. This matter is politically motivated".

In the Patiala House Court, the public prosecutor had said, "We need the custodial remand as the accused needs to be taken to Lucknow as well. We have to recover the weapon also".

In a video statement, which was tweeted out by journalists, Ashish claimed that he was branded as a wanted criminal by the media and is a victim of a media trial.

The court had on Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Ashish.

With inputs from agenciesCivil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in connection with the Koregaon-Bhima case and his alleged links with Maoists, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the case lodged against him by Pune Police.

Mumbai: Civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha, arrested in connection with the Bhima-Koregaon case and his alleged links with Maoists, has moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the case lodged against him by Pune Police. In his petition filed earlier this month, Navlakha urged the high court to quash the First Information Report (FIR) lodged against him, claiming there was no evidence against him and that he was being falsely implicated. His petition will be heard Friday by the high court's division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharti Dangre.

Navlakha, prominent Telugu poet Varavara Rao, activists Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves and trade union activist Sudha Bharadwaj were arrested in August this year by the Pune police. However, the Supreme Court had later ordered for the activists to be kept in house arrest. The apex court had last month refused to interfere in the case and said the Pune Police could go ahead with its probe.

Earlier, this month, the Delhi High Court had allowed Navlakha to be freed from the house arrest. It granted him the relief, saying the Supreme Court had earlier given him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum within four weeks to seek further recourse.

The Pune Police had claimed earlier that they seized documents and communication exchanged between the accused persons which allegedly revealed their links with Maoist leaders and their role in facilitating weapons and funding. The five activists were arrested on 28 August in connection with an FIR lodged following a conclave  'Elgaar Parishad'  held on 31 December last year that had allegedly triggered violence later at the Koregaon-Bhima village in Pune.

They were put under house arrest on August 29 following an apex court order on the plea by historian Romila Thapar, economists Prabhat Patnaik and Devaki Jain, sociology professor Satish Deshpande and human rights lawyer Maja Daruwala against the police action. Rao was arrested from Hyderabad, while Gonsalves and Ferreira were nabbed from Mumbai, Bharadwaj from Faridabad in Haryana and Navlakha from Delhi.The Congress on Wednesday termed as 'victory of truth' the resignation of Union minister MJ Akbar following charges of sexual harassment against him, and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dare to speak up on the Me Too movement now.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday termed as "victory of truth" the resignation of Union minister MJ Akbar following charges of sexual harassment against him, and asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dare to speak up on the Me Too movement now.

Congress leader Ragini Naik accused the Modi government of being "misogynist" which "deceived" women voters who placed their faith, reposed their trust in the BJP in 2014. "Times is up Modiji. The silence of Modi on Me Too movement is deafening," she told reporters.

"Now that MJ Akbar, who has been accused by no less than 36 women of misconduct and harassment, has finally resigned, will prime minister Narendra Modi dare to speak up," Naik asked.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said she saluted the women who stood against Akbar bravely in spite of the "brazen" stance taken by the government. "This resignation is a vindication of the power of truth. More strength to India's women," she said.

Akbar stepped down as junior external affairs minister on Wednesday, the first high-profile resignation due to the Me Too movement that has brought together women from against a spectrum of sexual misconduct they have faced.

The 67-year-old journalist-politician's resignation as minister of state for external affairs comes a day ahead of the hearing of his criminal defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, one of the women who accused him of sexual misconduct, at Delhi's Patiala House court complex.

Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev termed Akbar's stepping down as a "moral victory" for everyone and sought support for the Me Too movement cutting across party lines.

"MJ Akbar's resignation is a moral victory for everyone. The defamation case can't change that. The Me Too movement needs support across party lines," she tweeted.

"I admire the courage of Priya Ramani and all the victims who spoke out against sexual harassment and abuse. MJ Akbar's resignation is a moral victory for everyone. The defamation case can't change that. The Me Too movement needs support across party lines."

Naik said the Congress believes that Akbar's resignation was a result of the persistent pressure put by women who shared their horrific and uncomfortable stories. It was also a vindication of the Congress party's unequivocal stand on the Me Too movement, she added.

"We also think that it is a time for a fair trial so that justice prevails. This country has a rule of law and the Congress party believes that any allegation levelled against anybody must pass this test of justice. We hope and wish that all the women fighting this tough battle would be heard and finally justice would be imparted," she said. Chaturvedi, too, hit out at Prime Minister Modi for what she said was his "silence" on the matter.

"I salute these women who stood their ground despite the brazen stance of the government, the silence of the PM who speaks about women empowerment, the arrogant misuse of power by deploying a battery of lawyers against one woman and allowing the accused to continue in his role," Chaturvedi said in a tweet.

Alleging that using threat and intimidation as a tool to silence voices has become the norm of the Modi government, she said but this brazenness is returning to haunt them.

"The women of the country are saying the time for this is up and threat to silence voices can no longer be the norm or acceptable," she said.In his statement, Ashish Pandey admitted that the 'incident' did take place at the Delhi hotel and that he was informed about the same when the video went viral.

Delhi's Patiala House Court accepted the surrender plea submitted by Ashish Pandey, who was seen brandishing a gun and threatening a man outside a five-start hotel in Delhi, ANI reported. Pandey, who is the son of former BSP MLA Rakesh Pandey, was missing since 14 October when the incident occurred outside the Hyatt Regency.

Ashish Pandey has approached Delhi's Patiala House Court for surrender. Aashish Pandey, son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, was seen brandishing a gun outside Hyatt Regency on October 14. pic.twitter.com/y6NJYhf4Yf  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

In a video statement, which was tweeted out by journalists, Pandey claimed that he was branded as a wanted criminal by the media and is a victim of a media trial.

I am being projected like Im a wanted terrorist and that the police across the nation is looking for me. I am not denying that the incident never took place that night. A lookout circular has been issued against me. I learnt about this two to three days later when the video went viral. However, this entire incident is being shown through one perspective. If you check the CCTV footage, youll find who went to the ladies toilet that night and who threatened whom, he said.

In the video Pandey also claimed that CCTV footage of the events that took place inside the hotel should be examined. He claimed that he was threatened but does not mention any name. He proceeds to say that statements from the security personnel as well as the staff of the hotel should be taken to find out what actually happened.

Further in the video, Pandey said,"I admit that I did take the gun while getting down from the car for my safety. I didnt brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. There have been allegations that I had threatened that girl. I didnt even address that girl, she pushed me and made obscene hand gestures. I will share the details with the cops in my statement. I have faith in the judiciary and so I have decided to surrender. There is no history of any police case against me.

BSP netas son #AshishPandey, who invoked national outrage following his gun wielding scenes at Hyatt hotel during a duel with a couple, releases a video ahead of surrender Hello friends, main Ashish Pandey, aap mujhe pechaan rahe honge..pichle chaar dino se..#PistolPandey pic.twitter.com/ENpG0E4YcK  Rohan Dua (@rohanduaTOI) October 18, 2018

Earlier, Ritesh Pandey who is a sitting MLA from BSP and Ashish Pandey's relative had issued a statement stating that their family was willing to co-operate in the investigation and had indicated that Ashish may surrender soon.Many of these #MeToo stories also seem to have occurred within the confines of the workplace. The onus then, is on Indian organisations to make their workspaces better and safer for all employees.

Since 5 October 2018, a slew of #MeToo allegations have emerged on social media timelines in India, triggering the second wave of the movement.

The allegations are astounding in the range of behaviour they encompass  from inappropriate comments and unwelcome advances to sustained harassment, and in some cases, assault.

Many of these #MeToo stories also seem to have occurred within the confines of the workplace.

The onus then, is on Indian organisations to make their workspaces better and safer for all employees.

This was the focus of the fifth session of the day at #MeToo Conversations, moderated by award-winning writer Meghna Pant. A day-log series of panel discussions organised by Firstpost, the event aimed to shape the discourse on some of the very pertinent questions the #MeTooIndia movement has raised.

The session roped in panelists like advocate Sonal Mattoo, film editor Deepa Bhatia, Indira Rangarajan, the National Programming Head for Radio Mirchi, and Ramkumar Krishnaswamy, the founder of Leadership Centre, to discuss how companies deal with sexual harassment at the workplace.

Bhatia said that when researching sexual harassment at the workplace, she found that many of the women who had faced it, would speak of it to their friends, or they would approach HR (instead of the Internal Committee constituted to deal with such cases). "Sexual harassment is a huge challenge for HR departments," Bhatia maintained.

Creating support structures in companies that women could rely on/approach is important. "The support structures should be well-prepared, and it should be publicised that these resources exist," Krishnaswamy pointed out.

Mattoo said that even simple measures  like displaying the contact numbers of resources in women's washrooms  encouraged more women to report cases of harassment.

"Many women feel powerless because their perpetrators are emboldened and have a clear modus operandi," she said.

Mattoo reminded the audience present that the law to tackle sexual harassment at the workplace "is not a high IQ law, it is a high EQ law". "Women hesitate (to report harassment) due to lack of evidence, but in these cases they don't need evidence," she added. "The committee will put the evidence together."

The panelists also spoke about how sexual harassment is a major cause for women to drop out of jobs, rather than wage gap and other factors. They say that companies fail to protect women in places outside the workspace, such as out-of-office meetings, for instance.

The process of lodging a complaint should be made easier, and roadblocks such as multiple levels of hierarchy and paperwork must be done away with, they concurred.

The role played by senior management too was crucial. "Senior management must ensure that the workplace is a safe environment," said Krishnaswamy. "Senior management's creation of a toxic culture is what breeds sexual harassment, not just policy loopholes." "You cannot perpetuate boys' clubs," he said, adding that these are the benchmarks companies must set in order to make workplaces safe.

Krishnaswamy emphasised the need to engage men, as without their participation, the movement won't go anywhere. "The shift (for organisations) needs to be from compliance to culture. Women don't feel safe to come out and talk. The formal structure is not sufficient. We should create support structures where women can come out and talk. Culture is being able to tell people that when you travel don't call a woman to dinner in your room," he asserted.

"#MeToo has brought the conversation from (official) documents to the water cooler," Rangarajan said in summation. "It is empowering for women to witness others telling their stories. In the media industry, the culture in many companies is casual but people must learn what boundaries to maintain."

"This movement has done more for awareness than any training programme," she concluded.

Follow live updates and video stream from the summit here.The alleged offence took place between January and June 2015 at the Military Hospital  Kirkee in Pune's Khadki suburb. The woman has been working at the facility since 2014.

Pune: Four Army personnel have been booked for allegedly raping and molesting a 34-year-old speech and hearing-impaired woman employee of a military hospital at Khadki near Pune in 2015, police said Wednesday.

The case came to light when the woman contacted an Indore-based sign language expert through video call in June and narrated the incident. Besides the police, the Army too is conducting a 'court of inquiry' against the four personnel, who worked in the same hospital at the time.

The alleged offence took place between January and June 2015 at the Military Hospital  Kirkee in Pune's Khadki suburb. The woman has been working at the facility since 2014.

"According to the woman's complaint, she was on night duty when she was allegedly raped by one of the accused, who at the time was posted at the hospital," a senior police official said.

"When the survivor told another officer about the incident, he initially told her that he would reprimand the 'accused'. But, he too sought sexual favours from her by threatening her to make the message viral, and allegedly raped her. After some days, two more personnel approached the woman and allegedly took advantage of her," the police official said.

The woman, a class IV employee at the hospital, approached an NGO in Indore, Madhya Pradesh in June this year. The NGO subsequently approached the Indore police.

On Tuesday night, the Indore police informed about the matter to their Pune counterparts, who have registered a case against the four personnel under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 354 (molestation), he said.

Meanwhile, an official of the Army's Southern Command said they were conducting an enquiry into the matter. "The court of inquiry was initiated well before the police complaint was registered," the official said.

Gyanendra Purohit, chief coordinator of the Police Help Centre for deaf and mute persons at Indore's Tukoganj police station, told PTI that the victim had contacted him in June through video call. Purohit, who is a sign language expert, said he informed the authorities at the Military Hospital about the woman's complaint on 5 July.

His wife Monica, who is also a sign language expert, sent an e-mail to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior Army officers on August 6 about the alleged incident, he said. She had also sent, through the e-mail, a video in which the victim narrated her ordeal through sign language, Purohit said.

"The victim cannot speak and hear since birth. Her husband died last year...We want justice for her," he added.The rape of a 14-month-old girl, allegedly by a Bihari factory worker in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district last month, had led to attacks on migrants in several neighbouring districts

Editor's Note: The rape of a 14-month-old girl by a migrant labourer from Bihar in Idar town of Sabarkantha district on 28 September gave way to the persecution of migrant labourers in seven of the 33 districts of Gujarat. This incident ignited anger against migrant workers whom the locals believe are the real reason for unemployment in the state. This multi-part series will examine issues concerning migrant workers and the animosity they face from locals.

Surat: The rape of a 14-month-old girl, allegedly by a Bihari factory worker in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district last month, had led to attacks on migrants in several neighbouring districts. News reports suggest that close to 60,000 workers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar fled from the northern parts of the state over the next few days, prompting the police and administration action to clamp down on attacks and reassure these guest workers. The impact of this on Gujarat's industry and economy is yet to be realised, but the consensus in Surat is that this incident pales in comparison to the exodus Surat witnessed 26 years ago, which halted production across the power loom sector for almost half a year.

Following the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December, 1992, Surat had witnessed one of the worst communal riots in its history during which 150 people were killed and over 20,000 had to be given shelter in relief camps. As the riots unfolded and rumours fuelled more violence, frightened Odia migrant labourers fled to their home state in large numbers. Single men labourers were especially vulnerable as the curfew imposed across most of the city stranded them without food or money. This had forced at least seven lakh workers to leave Surat, according to community leaders, crippling the power loom industry where most of them were employed. For almost three to four months, textile factories in and around the city, that were cumulatively operating some three-and-a-half to four lakh power looms, were compelled to pull down their shutters. The state government constituted a committee led by Surat MP, the late Kashiram Rana, secretary SK Nanda and other officers who visited Odisha to convince workers to return to a now-peaceful Surat.

Bhagirath Behera, who heads the Surat Odisha Welfare Association, says he was among the members of the committee that was sent to Odisha on this mission. "As far as I remember, most of the bachelor workers had fled the city fearing food and money scarcity, and the rumour mill was churning overtime that the riots would continue for longer and soon there would be no food at all. The news of allegedly systematic killings and lootings of certain communities also forced the labourers to flee for their safety," he says.

In April 1993, the team visited Odisha for 15 days, covering many villages in the Ganjam, Puri and Cuttack districts. "We conducted meetings with returning labourers and appealed for them to return to Surat, as by then the situation had returned to normal. We convinced them that there was no curfew and that factories were operational. They need not stay behind and continue to lose their incomes," says Behera, adding that they had to make the workers realise that if they didnt return, factory owners would start hiring others. "Even, after that, it took at least two months for normalcy to be restored and the power loom factories to once again start functioning at 90 percent of the installed capacity," he says.

On the contrary, most of those who had families and had been living in Surat for a while prefered to stay back during the chaos towards the end of 1992, and even during the suspected plague in 1994 and in 1997 when there was panic and exodus after an astrologer predicted damage to the Ukai Dam on the Tapi River, some 97 kilometres upstream of the city, according to Bideshibhai Sahoo, an elder in the community. "I was around 27 in 1992 and working as a salesman with a leading processing unit in Surat. Daily, thousands of labourers were boarding trains bound towards Odisha and all appeals for them to stay back were going in vain, particularly because bachelors were finding it hard to even get food because of the curfew," adds Sahoo.

In 1992, Srikant Raut was just a 12-year-old school-going boy, living with his family in Surats Bamroli area. Yet, Raut vaguely remembers that due to communal riots, his family and neighbours had given shelter to a few Muslim families on the rooftop of their shanties. They were provided food for at least three to four days, after which they had returned to their homes. Sahoo's family, that was settled in Surat, did not think of fleeing the city when many others from the Odia community were rushing back home.

However, this time around, since the attacks were concentrated in north and central Gujarat and focused primarily on people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Odia migrants in Surat did not feel affected, says Behera. "The community has gelled well with Gujaratis since its first foray back in the late 1980s. There were one or two isolated cases of harassment in Kapodra area but other than that, Odia labourers did not face any trouble in the city and surrounding areas," he says. In Surat at least, Odia migrants have rarely been involved in confrontations with locals over more than two decades, according to him.The armies of India and China will resume their annual bilateral military exercise 'Hand in Hand' in December, Army sources said on Wednesday.

New Delhi: The armies of India and China will resume their annual bilateral military exercise 'Hand in Hand' in December, Army sources said on Wednesday.

The drill will be held in China, the sources added.

The last 'Hand-in-Hand' exercise took place in Pune in 2016. However, the drill did not take place in 2017 due to tensions between the two armies over Dokala, where the forces of India and China were locked in a 73-day stand-off.

Dokala, in the Sikkim sector, is a strategically important area which is claimed by Bhutan. India has been acting as security guarantor to the tiny country in the sensitive region.

Post Dokala, India and China have been working to increase cooperation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April.

In August, Chinese defence minister Wei Fenghe visited Delhi during which the two sides decided to work towards firming up a new bilateral pact on defence cooperation and agreed to increase interactions between their militaries at multiple levels to avoid Dokala-like standoffs along the disputed border.

In March, Army Chief Bipin Rawat had said the annual India-China military exercise will resume, noting that the relationship between the two countries which had turned "sour" after the Dokala stand-off was now improving.

The "bonhomie" between the two forces was back, Rawat had said.Authorities on Thursday imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar as a precautionary measure in view of a strike called by separatists. Restrictions under Section 144 CrPc have been imposed in five police station areas of the city here, a police official said.

Srinagar: Authorities on Thursday imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar as a precautionary measure in view of a strike called by separatists. Restrictions under Section 144 CrPc have been imposed in five police station areas of the city here, a police official said.

He said the curbs have been imposed in the police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal and MR Gunj. The official said the restrictions were imposed as a precautionary measure to maintain law and order.

Separatists under the banner of Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on Wednesday called for a strike across Kashmir valley on Thursday. The strike call came after three militants were killed in an encounter with security forces in Fateh Kadal area of the old city here on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, most of the shops, fuel stations and other business establishments were shut in the city due to the strike, the official said. He said public transport was off the roads while private cars, cabs and auto-rickshaws were seen plying in some areas.

Similar reports of shutdown were received from other district headquarters of the valley, the official said. Mobile Internet continued to remain suspended in Srinagar, while network speeds have been reduced in some other districts of the valley.The rivalry and conflict between Rajputs and Mughals, between Maharana Pratap and Emperor Akbar was not as tempestuous and bitter as it is made out to be today.

The battle between Maharana Pratap and Emperor Akbar, between Rajput and Mughal, seems to continue to this day. Just recently, Yogi Adityanath, chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, declared in a speech at a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) gathering that Akbar was not great, only Maharana Pratap was; that the Maharana refused to bow to Akbar because he a was Turk who could not be trusted. Loud applause and chants of Bharat Mata Ki Jai greeted his pronouncement. A few months earlier, the road signs of Akbar Road in the capital were blacked out, and painted over with a new name: Maharana Pratap Marg.

But in reality, the rivalry and conflict between Rajputs and Mughals, between Maharana Pratap and Emperor Akbar was not as tempestuous and bitter as it is made out to be today. The Mughal emperor needed the Rajputs on his side and under his control, in order to consolidate and stabilise his empire. The battle-hardened armies of the Rajput kingdoms, famed for their bravery and fighting skills, could then be harnessed in service of the Mughal empire. To win over the Rajputs, Akbar and later Mughal rulers made marriage alliances with Rajput kingdoms and gave their rulers titles and high positions at the Mughal court.

The enmity between Maharana Pratap and Akbar is legendary. They fought each other relentlessly for years, with Maharana Pratap refusing to submit to Akbar. And yet over the years, Akbar developed respect and admiration for Pratap. Indeed, he even felt a strong emotional connection with him...

It was a cold winter morning in early 1597. Mughal Emperor Akbar was in the Hall of Audience at his court in Lahore, when news reached him that the man he had battled for over twenty years and failed to subdue was dead. Among those in attendance at the emperors durbar was a famous poet, Dursa Adha of Marwar, renowned for his verses eulogising great Rajput warriors and rulers. Dursa now stood up to recite a poem on Maharana Pratap of Mewar, composed spontaneously at that moment, and famous to this day in the literature and folklore of Mewar.

Silence fell in the Mughal durbar as Dursa began his recitation, eulogising Pratap for his refusal to bend before Akbar. As the news of Prataps death sank in, the assembled crowd in the durbar hall noticed the effect this had on Akbar, which Dursa described as he continued his recitation:

And now as the Badshah learns of your passing

He does not rejoice

Behold all, see how he has fallen into deep silence

And he has bowed his head in sorrow

Even as tears well up in his eyes.

According to Rajasthani sources, Akbar generously rewarded the poet at the end of his recitation.

***

Maharana Pratap was perhaps the worthiest adversary Akbar ever had. He made many attempts to win over the ruler of Mewar, the oldest and most respected of the Rajput kingdoms, for he knew that if Mewar accepted an alliance with him, other Rajput rulers would follow his lead and accept Mughal sovereignty. In 1573, one year after Pratap became ruler of Mewar, Akbar sent Man Singh of Amber, one of the luminaries of his court and commander of his armies, in an attempt to win over Pratap. According to Mewar folklore, when Man Singh arrived in Mewar to meet Pratap, he found a lavish banquet laid out in his honour at the banks of Lake Udaisagar and Prataps eldest son Amar Singh appointed to wait on him. But Pratap himself did not appear. Man Singh declared he would not eat a morsel unless Pratap sat with him and ate from the same plate. At which Pratap said he could not eat with a Rajput who had given his relative in marriage to a Turk (Man Singhs fathers sister was married to Akbar). Man Singh, deeply insulted, then got up and left, with the angry riposte: It was for the preservation of your honour that we gave our sisters and our daughters to the Turk, but abide in peril if such be your resolve.

A few months later, Akbar tried again, sending Raja Bhagwant Das of Amber (Man Singhs father) as his emissary. Pratap agreed to send his son to the Mughal court with the raja, but refused to go himself to pay homage to the Mughal emperor. And he also demanded the return of his ancestral capital Chittor fort, which Akbar had captured after a long siege during Prataps fathers reign in 1568. Since these conditions were unacceptable to Akbar, nothing came of this effort either.

By 1576, with Pratap refusing to submit to the Mughals and spurning all the Imperial titles and honours offered to him, Akbar decided to force Mewars submission. The stage was now set for the Battle of Haldighati. On the morning of 18 June, the two armies met at the base of Haldighati, a narrow defile flanked by turmeric-yellow cliffs that gave the area its name. The Mughal army commanded by another Rajput warrior prince, Man Singh of Amber, far outnumbered the Mewar forces, but Prataps men fought fiercely and bravely, several times routing the Mughals, until at one point in the battle, finding himself surrounded on all sides by the Mughals, Maharana Pratap decided on a tactical retreat. He managed to fight his way through and galloped off the battlefield on his wounded horse Chetak who took him to safety before he dropped dead. Pratap then rode towards Gogunda fort to command non-combatants go towards safety, while he himself rode off towards hideouts deep in the rugged Aravali hills. From there he would continue to wage a guerrilla war against the Mughals, harrying and ambushing their troops for the next nine years, repeatedly retaking tracts of Mewar that the Mughals had captured. All Akbars attempts to track down and capture Pratap failed.

***

Why was Akbar so set on subduing Mewar? Bringing the Rajput kingdoms under Mughal control was an essential part of Akbars policy to consolidate his empire, and strengthen his army. His alliances with the Rajputs were cemented through marriage, and eventually many of the Rajput kingdoms accepted his sovereignty. But Maharana Pratap of Mewar, pre-eminent among the Rajput states as head of a thousand-year-old kingdom with a great tradition of valour in battle, held out. Prataps intransigence was, of course, a blow to Akbars pride, and an inspiration to the Rajput chiefs who had not yet succumbed to Akbar. But there was another reason for Akbars determination to control Mewar: it was strategically crucial to Akbar as the trade, commerce and military campaign routes from Delhi and Agra to the ports in Gujarat, and to the Deccan via Malwa, passed through the Maharanas kingdom.

And why did Pratap continue to fight Akbar, suffering enormous hardship for years as he and his family moved from one hideout to another in the forested hills of Mewar, living in caves and disused mines, keeping starvation at bay by living off the wild fruits and plants of the jungle? Pratap had grown up steeped in the code of honour and chivalry instilled in him by the bards and charans who were an important part of court life in Mewar. Every evening, they would recite verses and ballads about the sacrifice and courage of ancient Mewar warriors to uphold the kingdoms honour, and about the rulers duty to uphold Mewars independence and its traditions of valour, justice and chivalry. This code was perhaps too deeply embedded in him to shake off.

***

Akbar had himself witnessed the legendary valour of Mewar warriors during his siege and capture of Chittor in 1567-68, and he had been so impressed by the heroic fight put up by two Mewar chieftains, Jaimal and Patta, that he had statues of them made and installed at his fort in Agra (sometime in the early 20th century these were removed by the Archaeological Survey of India). And over the years, as he fought Pratap, he must have grown to admire Prataps military strategy and indomitable spirit, as he managed to evade and outmaneuver the Mughal army despite his much smaller force and firepower.

Perhaps Pratap, too, had grown to respect and admire Akbars military prowess, as well as the wise statesmanship and magnanimous spirit that enabled him to weld together a vast, prosperous and stable empire which, when he inherited it at as a mere 14-year-old, was in steep decline, beset by rebellions and internal intrigue.

Indeed, despite being lifelong adversaries, the two men had much in common  both spent their youth in exile, both were strong-willed men of principle, courageous and generous-hearted, great warriors and tacticians, and great leaders with an extraordinary capacity to evoke fierce loyalty from their people. Akbars lifelong enemy was also his beloved adversary, the warrior-king he most admired. No wonder Akbar wept when he learnt of Prataps death.

Dr Rima Hooja, a leading historian of Rajasthan, is author of the new biography, Maharana Pratap: The Invincible Warrior, published by Juggernaut Books.The tigress T1 or 'Avni' in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra was on Wednesday caught on camera trap and sighted by a team of five including three trackers.

The tigress T1 or 'Avni' in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra was on Wednesday caught on camera trap and sighted by a team of five, including three trackers. The tigress killed a cow belonging to a resident of Sarati village in Pandharkawda range and the forest department team was called. Reportedly, T1 displayed signs of aggression towards the team, which is why she could not be tranquilised.

The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench had on Tuesday sought a reply from the state forest department to disclose how there have not been any deaths in the last two months by the tigress if she was actually a man-eater as tagged by the department.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and SM Modak asked the department to explain the lack of attacks in the area in more than a month if the tigress was a habitual man-eater. It also clarified that it would not look into aspects of the case that had already been upheld by the Supreme Court.

In the fresh petition before the Bombay High Court, petitioner Jeryl Banait contended that instead of killing her, which will orphan her two 10-month-old cubs, the forest department should capture her alive, as per a Supreme Court order from 12 September.

"The department claimed that this tigress has killed over a dozen humans and in January this year, issued orders to shoot her at sight. However, in that month, she gave birth to two cubs, who are solely dependent on her for survival in the wild," he said. He also claimed that since the birth of the cubs, there was not a single human death reported in the area, where seven other tigers roam the wild.

"How have the officials concluded that she is the man-eater and are now hunting for her? They have not even conducted proper scat (droppings) tests or analysed her predatory habits. If they kill her without following the Supreme Court and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) guidelines, they will actually be responsible for three deaths, since her cubs cannot survive without her," Banait said.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the tigress is on, with the help of trap cameras, drones, a pack of trained sniffer dogs and a hang-glider along with a team of Forest Department officials in the vicinity of the Tippeshwar Tiger Sanctuary.

Earlier in October, the Supreme Court order, in which the apex court refused to interfere with the 'shoot-at-sight' notice for T1, had garnered strong reactions from wildlife activists and NGOs. In response to the order to kill 'Avni', several activists and NGOs came together to create the 'Let Avni Live' petition on Twitter.

The tigress T1 lives in the Pandharkawada forest in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra which, the petition on Change.org claims, is an area rampant with illegal cattle grazing and encroachment. Several factories, and incidents of pesticide poisoning are factors that lead to "constant man-animal conflicts".

According to reports, the Maharashtra forest department had claimed that the six-year-old tigress, along with two of her cubs, had consumed 60 percent of a human corpse in September which led to the decision of declaring her as a 'man-eater'. Reportedly, Avni had claimed at least 9 lives till September.

On 11 September, the apex court heard the petitions filed by a couple of activists in Delhi. The petitions challenged the Bombay High Courts decision which gave the forest department a go-ahead to implement its order to tranquillise or shoot the tigress.

With inputs from agenciesManeka Gandhi further said that women must be ensured a safe working environment.

Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi on Thursday asked all national and regional political parties to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) as mandated under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.

This is in view of the fact that political parties employ a large number of personnel, including women, in their offices. It is our prerogative to ensure that women enjoy a safe working environment.  Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) October 18, 2018

The minister further clarified in another tweet that the request to presidents or in-charge of all recognised national and state political parties to constitute an ICC was "in view of the fact that several political parties employ a large number of personnel, including women, in their offices."

The Union minister's tweet comes on the day when a Delhi court took cognisance of the criminal defamation plea filed by former junior external affairs minister MJ Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani.

On Wednesday, Akbar had resigned as the Minister of State for External Affairs and had said that he would continue his battle in his "personal capacity". He has vehemently denied all allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him.Activists belonging to the Sakal Maratha Kranti Mahamorcha have decided to launch a hunger strike in Mumbai from 2 November against the Maharashtra government.

Activists belonging to the Sakal Maratha Kranti Mahamorcha have decided to launch a hunger strike in Mumbai from 2 November against the Maharashtra government over their demand for reservation in government jobs and education, reported The Times of India.

The activists have planned to go on a strike at the Azad Maidan. The group is also demanding the withdrawal of cases registered against Maratha youth for their participation in the recent agitation in the state.

The politically influential Marathas, who constitute around 30 percent of the state's population, have been demanding 16 percent reservation in government jobs and education.

The agitation, which has been going on for two years now, took a violent turn this year following the death of a youth on 23 July. By the end of the month, at least six people had committed suicide allegedly over the reservation demand.

On 31 July, arson and stone-pelting was reported from parts of Pune. The police had said that it booked "4,000 to 5,000 people" for the violence and claimed the protests had caused loss of property to the tune Rs 10 crore.

On 1 August, over 100 Maratha activists staged a 'jail-bharo' agitation at Azad Maidan. They later courted arrest and were whisked away in police vans.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured that all constitutional obligations in connection with granting reservations to the Maratha community would be completed by the end of November. He further asserted that "sincere and genuine" efforts were being made to address the community's grievances which had prevailed for years.

However, various Maratha groups went ahead with their plan to hold a state-wide shutdown on 9 August  celebrated as August Kranti Day  to intensify the stir. Though Maratha Kranti Morcha and Sakal Maratha Samaj had issued a "code of conduct" to the supporters to ensure a violence-free shutdown, it turned violent in places like Pune and Aurangabad with incidents of arson, road blocks and clashes with the police.

Protesters rallied on the streets of Mumbai, seriously disrupting road and rail traffic.

According to Reuters, the Maratha community had staged about 57 marches over the past year till 9 August over their demand for reservation.

The Maharashtra government had set up Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission to recommend whether or not the members of the Maratha community should be given any reservation. The commission is likely to submit its report by 15 November.

With inputs from agenciesIf you and I have knowingly supported, promoted, defended, collaborated with any art that is tainted, lets own up | #MeToo | #MeTooIndia

Abuse  and its redressal  plays out like theatre of the absurd. As women, we learn that pretty early.

My lesson began at 15, when I was repeatedly abused by a teacher for close to a year.

Each Sunday, my mother would drive an overly curious younger version of myself to Sirs house. Wed have lunch with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. Sometimes, my mother would stay back for lunch; at others, shed drop me off and leave. Sir would ferry me back home later. He was then in his mid-30s: erudite and well-spoken, full of stories about his life as a journalist. He was also the first teacher Id taken to  much to my parents giddy relief: Id been an inquisitive child, and teachers constantly complained that I asked one too many questions.

Sir, however, welcomed my questions; he answered them as you would an adults, and urged us to think beyond our textbooks. I had a knack for language, and soon became his favourite. Hed often teasingly complain that we  the girl students  rarely kept in touch beyond tuition hours, insinuating that boys inevitably make more loyal pupils. Soon, some of us started staying back after class, heading to his house on weekends; wed chat, take book recommendations, tell him what we thought of the last book wed borrowed from his library. We were teenagers and he encouraged us to think.

Perhaps that is why when he eventually started touching me, more and more pervasively each Sunday, it remained  even at 15  very difficult to tell right from wrong.

For many years after that, I coped by separating my teacher: the mentor, from my teacher: the abuser. The same separation that weve proffered to so many of our favourite artists  individuals who have shaped and moulded cultures, prodded the boundaries of morality, thought, social acceptance. From Picasso adding perspective through Cubism, to Polanksis morbid exploration of the fringes, to Vikas Bahl bringing feminism to mainstream India  we owe much of our conjectures in contemporary culture to art. Genius, albeit monstrous artists have 'graciously volunteered' their thoughts and musings around which weve shaped our discourse.

***

As audiences and as individuals, weve found refuge in the philosophy of the death of the author (as articulated by Roland Barthes 1967 essay, in which he drew a distinction between the creator and his/her creation); weve evaluated a work of art on its own merit, independent of the flaws of its creator. This separation has allowed us the continue finding inspiration in the works of many geniuses, despite having known them as sometimes emotionally, sometimes physically violent perpetrators.

Over the last year however, each narrated account of heartbreaking abuse has chipped away at that assumption. Its impossible now to look away from the fact that the books, films, music, art, literature  almost everything that has shaped our perception of ourselves, of each other, and has influenced our relationship with our bodies, sexual and cultural selves  is possibly tainted.

Tainted by their creators urge to callously violate. Because, as men in positions of power, they could.

Seen in this light, their works thereafter only feel like attempts at justification - some more feeble than others - or at best, a tool of public manipulation. For instance, I can no longer watch American Beauty without noting the predatory obsession that Kevin Spaceys character, Lester, develops for his teenage daughters friend, and wondering about the many the actor might have preyed upon in real life. As much as I loved Woody Allens movies, I can no longer un-see the self-serving, patronising undertones to the neurotic-hence-desirable women characters he created. The distaste lingers.

For me, this comfortable separation of art and the artist began to come undone in 2013 when Tarun Tejpal was accused of rape. Tejpal had a way with words, his reputation as an uncompromising journalist preceded him. At 19, his Alchemy of Desire, had been my introduction to erotica (though now it seems fairly odd that as a woman, my first brush with erotica was written by a man, an aggressor moreover, but here we are). I would have actually believed Tejpals side of the story, as is standard practice in such cases  except that his responses to the accusation had an all-too-familiar ring.

Back in 2006, when I became reluctant to attend Sirs classes, my mother had prodded the truth out of me. Naturally, my furious parents confronted my aggressor  who then launched into months of vengeful slut-shaming. The narrative remained pretty much the same - that I was doing it for attention and that I, in my tailored tops and flamboyant skirts was a sl*t and effectively not to be believed.

Except Tejpal added that the accusations were politically motivated. I must have been a bit too young for that.

***

Over the last fortnight, a wave of #MeToo allegations have had Indian social media timelines in their grip. Horrific accounts from friends and colleagues in the media have called out men Id previously regarded as cultural revolutionaries. Editors whose bylines inspired awe, whose righteous writing shaped my opinions, whose words and thoughts I vociferously recommended. I cannot help but feel guilty.

Guilty of being an enabler, of being complicit.

The revulsion that I have felt for these aggressors has not always translated into rejection of their work. Cosy in my pretend-sanctimony, Ive consumed art from painters, filmmakers, authors whose works are littered with dark stories of abuse. We all have.

Great artists have their moral failings, weve rationalised. Their darkness often inspires light, not to mention, questions of morality in art are often met with the stark raise of an eyebrow  a judgement of your own progressiveness. A murky quandary for a murky bunch  weve reconciled with our conscience.

Sexual assault is made possible by this very sexual hypocrisy. In the imploding of #MeToo, numerous voices of women have called out this blatant hypocrisy, with accounts that have found strength in their gory details.

Most of us have nuanced recollections of incidents of abuse/harassment, both on our timelines and in our collective conscience, even though sometimes they may have happened decades ago. Thats the kind of lasting impact sexual abuse/assault has. It robs us of the basic agency that humanity offers - it robs us our personhood, reducing us to mere vehicles that lascivious men have lived their greed and power through.

Knowing this, can we ignore the damage wreaked by an artist and continue supporting their art? Is it not our support that allows the creator the legacy and often the monetary entitlement to continue being in positions of power? A power they exploit time and again to reinforce their sexual upper hand?

How can I argue that my desire for art is greater than a persons right to not be violated, when each account of violation feels like a personal betrayal?

Over this past week, its a question Ive posed to many artist friends  men and women. For the men, its mostly been an open and shut case: unless the art itself is tainted, theyre happy to make the separation. We will have no benchmarks left then, one of them suggests. Women mostly feel that we already dont. The normalisation of abuse that has become synonymous with the arts is yet another theme inseminated by the same men, no? a writer friend points out.

True, the stalwarts in the arts have mostly been male, and the few female voices are often steeped in patriarchy. Naturally, they have constructed a narrative that has normalised this abuse. As this metaphorical envelope of culture has inched painfully forward, these men, have repeatedly reinforced that the abuse is inevitable - a cost of progress.

Its difficult to unsee the double-standards, thereafter. This willful divorce of art from the artist has only reiterated a deep-seated misogyny that allows  welcomes even  the abuse of power to re-establish sexual hierarchies, at work or otherwise.

The same megalomania that we have fuelled is now reflecting in these mens dismissiveness towards the trauma theyve caused. Indeed, most of them seem not even to have noticed the trauma.

***

In turning a blind eye, we seem to have been blindsided. Our tacit compliance has signaled that their behaviour is okay, condoned it even. Add to that the fact that the works of these men have often shaped the way we think about ourselves and other women. Like my aggressor, who has authored a book dedicated to his daughter, which under the guise of a self-help book, tells young women how to live in the 21st century!

The layers of manipulation and abuse have only just begun to unfold. Naturally, as women, we dont feel so sure of either artists or the arts anymore.

Good art has the ability to stand in for its creator. An artist friend, who came up with a beautifully subverted idea of #MeToo rakhis earlier this year, insists that its time we revisit all our arts. If you and I have knowingly supported, promoted, defended, collaborated with any art that is tainted, lets own up. What if a performance artist wants to perform rape? she asks. Would you be okay watching?

A judicious course of action then would be to boycott any content dirtied by this inane abuse. My decision to never pay to watch a Woody Allen film may not be a commercial penalty big enough to pinch his pockets, but surely it is a step in the right direction? But then does a pirated torrent count? What about the Renaissance artists  their stories are rife with the exploitation of underage girls, some as young as 13  should galleries just take them off? What about the artists whose misdemeanours we know nothing of? Should we take comfort in our ignorance?

Also read on Firstpost  Boycotts and bans are not enough, we must problematise the work of artists who disturb us

***

Watching a movie might not be an unbridled endorsement of its maker, but boycott does seem like a justifiable punitive measure. Media giants like Netflix removing the likes of Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen from their sites, for instance, is about taking responsibility and removing perpetrators from positions of power.

In India too, retribution is at work: Over the course of the last fortnight, Phantom Films has been dissolved, editors at several media houses have been forced to step down, MAMI has dropped productions by Rajat Kapoor and AIB from its 2018 festival line-up, Sajid Khan and Nana Patekar have been forced to disassociate from their next film. Men across industries are being held accountable.

In a country where seeking legal redress is yet another form of harassment, monetary penalties do seem like our best bet.

Particularly in the Indian mediascape, boycott is not a very difficult choice. Art that exists beyond the express purpose of making money is rare. Disillusioned fans have often called out Bollywoods pseudo isms. My consultant friend says she is A-okay boycotting the likes of AIB  shed rather get bored, than consume content that is making these edgelords money. In the digital age, every view/like/share is endorsement, she insists. Its easy to understand her rage - when you realise that your social icons are but, excuse my french, hypocritical a**h***s, it does leave a very bitter taste in the mouth.

But perhaps, that is also why its easier to boycott a Salman Khan, than a Kim Ki-duk or a Polanski. Surely, the fringes, where art rides not merely on commerce but thrives in its own obscurity, deserves a little more consideration?

I do not have a one-size-fits-all answer. It is an individual battle hereafter, and there will be scars, whichever you choose. For me personally, the artists crimes have outshone their brilliance.

As an individual audience, and a collaborator I, therefore, promise to support more women in the arts  to find and buy their work, to watch their films, to listen to their music and read their books, to follow them on Instagram, to always give them an eager hearing. As women, our vision has been shaped and directed by men for too long. Its going to be an uphill climb, finding our own narrative.

As women, we are just beginning to envisage our own. Elena Ferrante resonates the thought while talking about a woman director adapting her book for the screen: In the great warehouse of the arts, set up mainly by men, women have for a relatively short time been seeking the means and opportunities to give a form of their own to what they have learned from life. Weve been inside the male cage for too long  and now that that cage is collapsing, a woman artist has to be absolutely autonomous."

Ive looked for and found exceptionally skilled and gutsy female artists. Incidentally, many of them have also been subtly sending us a message for a long time now: remember Mira Nairs casting of Rajat Kapoor as the child abuser in Monsoon Wedding? Or Cindy Shermans Untitled Film Stills  a series of 69 photographs that innocuously subvert the stereotypes of women in 1950s and 60s Hollywood and European art-house films. Or Amrita Pritams empowering celebration of the feminine  a theme that Rosalyn D'mello echoes in her Handbook For My Lover, while also beautifully reclaiming the word c*nt. A few years ago, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni dared to retell the Mahabharata from Draupadis perspective; more recent have been Amruta Patils resplendent interpretations of mythology  the sutradhar is finally a woman! Anusheh Anadil sings of love, of co-existence  her feminine, the restorative rain comes through when the masculine clouds, loud and boastful, become too full of themselves.

In a world that incessantly champions men despite their failings, what do we women see, when we tell our stories?

It is these voices that we need to actively promote, advocate, provide more room, platform and support for, if we are to salvage any semblance of balance from here on.

My friends in the media agree. A journalist friend tells me that we have to keep talking about this, we cannot treat it like another news cycle. It is our responsibility as individuals, as a collective, to support each other and reject the idea pimped by patriarchy under the garb of popular culture, that we are each others worst enemies. Lets build hereon, from ground up. We are at ground zero and there is a lot of work to do, she says

Women have finally found their voices and the strength to band together  from WhatsApp groups to courtrooms to dinner-table conversations with the in-laws, we are starting to fight back.

Like the culture of silence, the culture of courage too has become contagious.

Our battle-cry in #MeToo is our first step towards redressal. The house of cards that these men have meticulously built is beginning to crumble; the literal one (the Netflix show), I hear, is coming back - this time with a female protagonist. Maybe it is time we also give up on Hemingway and Manto, and pick up an Ismat Chugtai!

Time for this 'troubled male artist' narrative is also perhaps really up.Junior minister of external affairs, MJ Akbar, was on a trip to Africa when the allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him as part of the #MeToo movement in India.

New Delhi: MJ Akbar attended official meetings on Monday and Tuesday as the junior external affairs minister after returning from a trip abroad, the ministry said on Thursday, in first comments on the issue.

At a press conference, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, replying to a question, said he was not aware of any specific meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Akbar on the allegations levelled against him.

Akbar, a former journalist, stepped down Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him by several women journalists.

He was on a trip to Africa when the allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him as part of the #MeToo movement in India.

Hours after returning home on Sunday, he issued a statement trashing the allegations. However, he quit following increasing pressure on him as more women came out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by him.

Asked whether it was his own decision to quit or whether Swaraj or Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent any communication to him to resign, Kumar only said, "The minister has resigned. He has also issued a statement and I think beyond that I have nothing to add."

"As far as meeting is concerned, I can only share with you that since he has returned to India, there were certain officials meetings in the MEA on Monday and Tuesday. He was part of those meetings. But I am not aware of any specific meeting between the external affairs minister and the MoS on this matter," Kumar said.

He did not reply when asked whether Akbar was asked to resign.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications.

Following these allegations, opposition parties as well as many media organisations have been demanding his resignation.

Akbar on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who accused him of sexual misconduct.

In his complaint, Akbar accused Ramani of "wilfully" and "maliciously" making imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing.

A Delhi court Thursday took judicial note of Akbar's complaint and decided to record his statement on October 31 in the case.At least two senior ministersperceived to be very important in the governmentfelt allegations on social media should not mean Akbars removal from the council of ministers.

After the Union Cabinet meeting ended last Wednesdayafter clearing at least seven items on the agendaPrime Minister Narendra Modi left the room. However, some ministers did not follow him. Instead, they began to discuss, albeit informally, an issue concerning the government: The #MeToo movement and the allegations of sexual harassment against MJ Akbar by 35 women (during his days as editor of various publications).

At the time, Akbar was on a tour of Africa in his capacity as a junior minister. Then, around 20 women, as part of a #MeToo campaign, came forward on social media to accuse Akbar of making unwanted advances and sexually harassing them in hotel rooms or at the office. The narrative on social media, digital media, print and television was that these accusations were causing embarrassment to the Modi government.

Firstpost learnt from reliable sources that the ministers' opinions differed. Unsure of the prime minister's thoughts, some favoured no substantial intervention, but at least two senior ministersperceived to be very important in the governmentfelt allegations on social media should not mean Akbars removal from the council of ministers. Another minister argued that Akbar's tenure at the ministry of external affairs was, thus far, dignified. However, a fourth minister, differed vehemently, cited certain facts and argued why Akbar must go.

Sources said at one point, it was considered at senior levels in the government, that Akbar should be asked to cut short his trip and return to New Delhi but that idea was quickly abandoned and it was decided that he should stick to his original schedule.

At the same time, Maneka Gandhi and Smriti Iranitwo Union ministersgave statements supporting the #MeToo movement. However, they did not say anything against Akbar directly. Since Maneka is the minister for women and child development, she's directly dealing with issues of this nature. She'd also articulated how the government should deal with it: putting a She Box to file complaints of sexual harassment, clarifying with law ministry whether or not there was a legal bar in terms of time frame in filing complaints, and sought similar clarification on cases of child abuse. She also then stated publicly that her ministry would constitute a committee of four retired judges to look into such cases: Maneka's opinion mattered significantly.

But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swarajwhose opinion mattered mostpreferred to stay mum, at least publicly. MEA officials and staff also had no issues with Akbar. When Akbar returned on Sunday, public chatter about his fate reached a peak. However, the government did not ask him to resign. A minister said the idea was to give the impression that leadership does not take decisions under pressure.

Sources said Maneka's ministry even began working on identifying retired judges who could be part of the committee. However, that idea didn't take off. That day, Akbar filed a criminal defamation suit against Priya Ramani, the first woman who accused him of sexual harassment. There were then reports that 97 lawyers had been roped in to defend Akbar, which drew sharp reactions on social media. And even more women came forward (35 at last count) to accuse Akbar of sexual harassment and 'predatory acts'.

Also, 20 women scribes, who were part of the first few teams set up by Akbar when he launched The Asian Age in 1994, wrote a petition describing his behaviour and condemning his sexual advances and asked the court hearing the defamation case to consider their testimony about the "culture of casual misogyny, entitlement and sexual predation that he engendered and presided over" at the organisation.

Sources said a top PMO official Tuesday held detailed consultations with one or two concerned ministers. During that meeting, one woman minister, armed with some papers, forcefully outlined the reasons why Akbar must quit. Even as those meetings were occurring, more and more women came forward. Akbar's presence in the government was becoming untenable. The prime minister was apprised of the developments and all aspects related to it, sources said. On Tuesday evening, leadership took the final call that Akbar needed to quit. Akbar announced his resignation Wednesday.

The PMO is also considering constituting a group of ministers chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singhwith Maneka Gandhi, Nitin Gadkari or Nirmala Sitharaman as membersto look into policies on sexual harassment. The terms of reference for the group are being prepared and is likely to be announced sometime next week.Silence from politicians around the MJ Akbar accusations shows the problem is not only serious, but widespread.

It seems like good sense prevailed in the end. MJ Akbar's resignation will quell the rising criticism of an apparent silence of the Narendra Modi government at the Cente. That was not quite true. The concerned Union Minister didn't issue a statement well before the clamour started. Maneka Gandhi, Union Minister for Women and Child Development called for an investigation on the issue on 8 October. She did not "break ranks with the Modi government" as one newspaper put it. She was merely doing her job. To his credit, Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy also spoke up, as did Smriti Irani. Opposition leaders kept mum, barring a palliative statement by Rahul Gandhi which did not measure up every marginally to the heat on the Rafael deal. That silence is evidence in itself. Clearly the problem is not only serious, it's widespread.

Even before Akbar's resignation, certain mainline newspapers known for toadying to the top, had relegated the issue to the back pages, while a tide of hate poured out on Twitter against the 20 journalists who were ranged against the minister. Alongside were a series of humourless jokes on social media on the dangers of hiring, dating or even talking to women. Clearly, the conservatives on all sides, and of both sexes were fighting back. Their arguments showcase just why harassment happens, and why the majority of women choose to remain silent against harassment at the work place.

Argument one, which is the dominant one, is usually found among those men who probably never actually harassed anyone themselves, but are instinctively suspicious of attractive and bright women at the work place. This argument goes thus. Women are smart enough to use their sexuality as an asset at the work place,  that translates into perceived flirting with bosses  to get ahead in life, but cry foul when it suits them. Consider the women who have pressed charges against Mr Akbar. They're smart, articulate and attractive. That's enough to damn them in men's eyes. The fundamentals that power this argument is almost timeless in their basis. Recall that in most cultures, 'witches' of the West, the 'yakshis' in Kerala lore or the dayaanis of Jharkhand are always beautiful women. Folk lore and tradition underline that attractive women are dangerous and must be kept well under control. At the workplace, men are naturally attracted to good looking women, but don't act on it for a variety of reasons ranging from sheer decency to fear of rejection. Some do, and rage if they're rejected. The problem is when that rejected man is your boss. This is not really about sex. Since the time conquering armies ravaged women of a defeated State, sex has always been about power and control. And a boss man wants both, sometimes from both sexes, in different ways. Yes, men also have a problem sometimes though it's easier for them to suck up, no pun intended. Many a man is now beginning to understand this.

Argument two goes like this. If there was a problem, why didn't these women report it then? This argues that women only out powerful men to power up publicity for themselves. The answer to this should be as obvious as that grope in the dark. Coming out even at this juncture, when a #MeToo storm is raging in the US and freeing up invisible shackles, still takes immense courage. Ghazala Wahab for instance outed an incident of 1997. If she had spoken out then, she would certainly never ever have got another job in her field or anywhere else. "Trouble maker" is the sibilant whisper in the corridors. Remember that Rupen Bajaj, a respected IAS officer had to wait 17 years to punish the behaviour of a very drunk KPS Gill, despite there being witnesses to her abuse. Her account of the ordeals that she went through are reason enough to undercut this argument. Where does a young intern or a less than economically stable employee stand? Apart from being berated by society, her own family is likely to distance themselves and view it as her shame to carry. And that brings us to the third and most vile argument of all.

Argument three is mostly from women, and powerful or "liberated" ones at that. This segment view cases of harassment as the woman's fault. A powerful government servant who chooses to look the other way when a junior is being harassed, and worse, punishes the woman concerned; An institutional head who tries to portray Akbar as a hapless attractive man beset by designing women; And the pathetic statement by former First Lady and Secretary of State in a an interview to CBS news where she said that her husband should "absolutely should not have resigned" over the Monica Lewinsky affair. This segment are the worst among the nay sayers. In justifying an oppressor's actions or worsening an already persecuted woman's lot, they only serve to underline that power and ambition corrupts everyone, regardless of sex. The World Bank's India Development Report 2017 makes an interesting observation. Unlike other countries, Indian women entrepreneurs do not employ women. We need to dig deep into our own consciousness to find that answer.

That same report provides more depressing statistics. India ranks 120 in a country index of 131 countries in terms of women in the workforce. We're even below Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. And worse, that number has been declining since 2005. One major issue for women is safety. And the other is men. Another statistic from IndiaSpend also indicates a 54 percent rise in cases of harassment since 2014 -2017. In an earlier report, it found that 70 percent of women did not report harassment at the work place due to fear of repercussions. That's not surprising. India has some of the most stringent laws on sexual harassment. It's the implementation that stinks, particularly when the culprit is a high official. The 'solution' within government is usually to sling out the woman concerned into another department or better still to another state.

But here's the bright spot for the future. A boss will now think twice before summoning a young intern to his hotel room. Many men are coming to stand witness against harassment of their women colleagues and many more are outraged by the whole issue. As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable, work places may well turn into places of equal opportunity. Yes, there will be frauds who will use the #MeToo movement for their own gains. But revolutions have always had those more interested in the loot than in the cause. There's hope for the Modi government too. The World Bank report also points out that India's potential GDP growth can go up by a full percentage point if it even closes just half the gap in the number of working women with Bangladesh or Indonesia. It's humiliating but true. Make the workplace safer for women. There's money in it.

Stand fast, ladies. That part of the world which counts, stands with you shoulder to shoulder.Akbars exit is as much of a jolt to the political species as it is to the exalted profession of journalism, which had engendered and tolerated sexual harassment of female subordinates by their male bosses. And the ministers resignation is not just a huge victory for the #MeToo crusade: it will also go down in history as a humongous landmark in the Indian womens fight for their rights.

We, initially, had one set of critics who were surprised why MJ Akbar wasnt resigning  or why Prime Minister Narendra Modi wasnt sacking him. Then, we had a second set of analysts who were surprised at the fact that anybody should be surprised about it. Oh no, they said, wilting under pressure wasnt Modis style.

On Wednesday, the entire lot of them were in for a big surprise. When he was least expected to, Akbar resigned as the Minister of State for External Affairs. After accusations raged against the former editor for nearly two weeks, women who accused Akbar of sexual misconduct welcomed the decision. At last, he paid for the sexual misdemeanour that he had perpetrated on women journalists in his employ when he had been an editor.

The resignation wasnt expected, at least not so soon, because it was only on Monday that he slapped a criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani, one of the more than dozen journalists who exposed him. Not only did Akbar not hint of any intention to quit; he even appeared to be firm in fighting it out, calling the allegations false and fabricated.

But the #MeToo tales of Akbar were getting to be too many, too disturbing and too appalling and too shameful, and the chorus for his resignation was growing too strong for Modi to ignore the implications of this disgrace for his party and government.

Akbars exit is as much of a jolt to the political species as it is to the exalted profession of journalism, which had engendered and tolerated sexual harassment of female subordinates by their male bosses. And the ministers resignation is not just a huge victory for the #MeToo crusade: it will also go down in history as a humongous landmark in the Indian womens fight for their rights.

The #MeToo campaigners can claim another victory as well. Akbars resignation means a recognition by Modi and BJPs top honchos that the campaign is not confined to just the elitist cream of the feminist society, as some have claimed. Modi is acknowledging that the feminine outpourings have percolated to the middle class, a major support base for the ruling party. Modis electoral victories, beginning his 2014 Lok Sabha poll triumph, are attributed to the significant backing he received from the middle class, especially women. He could ignore the #MeToo tsunami sweeping this section only at his peril.

As for Akbar, his troubles are far from over

In fact, his tribulations will turn from the political to legal, once the Delhi court begins to hear his defamation case against Priya Ramani on Thursday. He filed the suit with what looked like cocksure confidence that he could take on his tormentors, and though its inadvisable and unwarranted to predict the outcome of the case, its fairly clear that the proceedings in the courtroom will make him as uncomfortable as his female victims in the newsroom.

If Akbar himself, in the end, becomes a victim of the shock and awe that he had intended to deliver to his alleged defamers by filing this case, he can only blame himself. It may not turn out to be the kind of an open-and-shut case he had hoped it would be. It most certainly wont be as simple as opening and closing the pages of the newspapers that he so brilliantly produced. In fact, the case may present a tricky legal mess of a kind Indian judiciary has rarely had to contend with, and there is no reason to believe, at least not as yet, that he can come out of it unscathed.

The case, filed in the court of Delhis Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, poses a maze of questions that spring from laws governing defamation as well as sexual harassment, both of which have grey areas that do not automatically guarantee a legal success for him.

Twist in the tail?

Akbars emphasis on the whole thing being his personal affair is, of course, not without significance. He mentions personal capacity twice in the first sentence of his one-paragraph resignation announcement. He said: Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity

#MJAkbar resigns from his post of Minister of State External Affairs MEA. pic.twitter.com/dxf4EtFl5P  ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2018

While this helps BJP distance itself from the incidents of sexual harassment which happened a long time ago when he had nothing to do with the party, this also could legally help the former editor.

It might look on the face of it that a public person or a minister may be on a stronger ground to claim defamation with superior resources and potential for influencing witnesses.

But Akbars lawyers can cite the so-called "Sullivan doctrine" of the American legal system that has been incorporated into the Indian jurisprudence to claim that the onus of proving malice in the allegations is less on a private citizen than on a public personality. The court may, however, take a dim view of such an interpretation.

And yet, Akbar will have quite a task on his hands. One question, among many others, that should trouble him is: Though his witnesses will certify his good conduct as a journalist, can they refute the specific instances of sexual harassment made by Priya Ramani and other women journalists?

Above all, Akbar may soon be asking himself: Is he biting more than he can chew by filing the suit against Priya Ramani?

Author tweets @sprasadindiaEditors Guild of India hopes that Akbar will display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed.

A day after MJ Akbar stepped down as the Minister of State for External Affairs in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him, the Editors Guild of India issued a statement and said it hopes the former minister "will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case".

Akbar had on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint against Priya Ramani, a journalist who has accused him of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago. The matter is listed for hearing at 2 pm on Thursday before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal.

The Editors Guild of India said that while Akbar is "entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation".

The guild further said that if Akbar doesn't withdraw the case, or in case he files any such case against other women too, it will offer its support to them. "If any of them were to need legal advice or assistance, the Guild will do the best it can to help and also appeal to eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono," the statement read.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications

Full text of the statement:

The Editors Guild of India salutes the courage shown by several women journalists in bringing to light instances of how they were sexually harassed. The resignation of Mr M. J Akbar from union council of ministers is a result of these women journalists courage to fight for a high principle: gender equality in the newsroom.

We hope that Mr Akbar will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed against one of these complainants. While Mr Akbar is entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation. More so for Mr Akbar who happens to be a former president of the Guild.

But if he doesnt, or in case he files such cases against other women too, the Guild offers its support to them. If any of them were to need legal advice or assistance, the Guild will do the best it can to help and also appeal to eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono.

The entire text has been reproduced from the Editors Guild of India website and has not been edited by Firstpost for clarity or style.

Follow LIVE updates on MJ Akbar's resignation here#MeToo; MJ Akbar defamation case hearing LIVE updates: The court has taken cognisance of Akbar's complaint and fixed 31 October as the date to hear the matter further and for submission of due evidence. MJ Akbar will have to appear in person to record pre-summoning evidence

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The 67-year-old journalist-turned-politician's sudden announcement to quit came a day ahead of hearing of a criminal defamation complaint filed by him against Priya Ramani, a journalist who has accused him of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago.

Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar stepped down Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him by several women journalists, who welcomed his resignation as a "vindication".

Earlier, there were indications that the panel could be headed by a senior women Cabinet minister but now, the sources said, it could be headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. PTI

As the #MeToo movement rages on in India, the government is set to form a group of ministers to look into the lacunae in the existing law on sexual harassment, official sources said Wednesday. They added that the group of ministers will be notified "soon".

"We are happy that Mr Akbar finally did the correct thing, and in the light of all that has emerged in the last couple of days, expect that he will also drop the bogus criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani," the women said in a joint statement.

After MJ Akbar announced his decision to quit as the junior external affairs minister on Wednesday, 20 of his former women colleagueswho previously wrote a petition describing his behaviour and condemning his alleged sexual advances issued a joint statement welcoming the move.

Reacting to MJ Akbar's resignation, journalist Priya Ramani, one of the 16 women who called out Akbar on Twitter for sexual harassment, welcomed the news of his resignation and said she feels vindicated.

Vindicated by MJ Akbar's resignation, says Priya Ramani, the journo who was first to call out former minister

Journalist Saba Naqvi, one of the women to have accused Akbar of sexual misconduct, congratulated other victims of the former journalist's predatory behaviour. Naqvi took to Twitter to welcome the move.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale called it a "right decision" taken by Akbar and said that the allegations against him should be properly investigated. "Opposition was asking him to resign on moral grounds. This is a right decision taken by him. The allegations on him should be properly investigated," Athawale told reporters on Wednesday night.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale says MJ Akbar did the right thing in stepping down

The news portal also reported that Akbar's resignation may only be a one off case, and is unlikely to set any sort of a precedent.

The decision to step down as Union Minister of State, External Affairs Ministry, was Akbar's own and he may still remain a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, NDTV quoted anonymous sources in the government as saying.

Resignation from post was MJ Akbar's idea, will continue to be part of BJP, say govt sources

Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao also expressed happiness at the development and said his "continuation was untenable and indefensible".

Resident editor of The Asian Age newspaper Suparna Sharma, who also came out against Akbar, said she welcomes the resignation. "It is a big moment for us. In a sense I feel vindicated. Though the step should have been taken as soon as he landed in Delhi but now at least there would not be a power imbalance and it wouldn't be a fight between the government and Ramani."

"I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of MoS for external affairs. I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country, Akbar said

The 67-year-old journalist-turned-politician issued a brief statement, saying he will seek justice in a court of law in his personal capacity. He said that it was appropriate for him to resign as minister and then fight the lies spread against him.

According to Mumbai Mirror Akbar was asked resign on the eve of the Vijayadashami address by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. The party sources said there was a worry that Bhagwat may make unpleasant observations about Akbars continuation in the government. The Sangh was not keen on Akbar continuing in office even for a day after his return, the sources said. Significantly, Dattatreya Hosabale, the joint general secretary, had endorsed an article by an ABVP activist calling for Akbars ouster last week.

There are many a theories floating around as to what led to the resignation of Akbar, who until recently, had ruled out the possibility. While NDTV reported the decision was Akbar's own, some other reports said he was eased out of his ministerial post under instructions from the PMO.

Another report in Livemint claimed that though work-related matters compelled Akbar to sit with foreign minister Sushma Swaraj for official meetings in the ministry, there was no specific meeting on the allegations against Akbar.

Some reports, quoting highly placed sources in the government confirmed that the final decision on Akbar's ouster came from the PMO. However, the decision was informally communicated to Akbar via other channels, and neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nor External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Akbar since his return to India, Mumbai Mirror reported.

I dont know whether it was an unwarranted delay on part of the BJP. But yes, this could have happened on Sunday; it would have been nicer, more satisfying. Better late than never," she told The Quint.

Ghazala Wahab, executive editor of the magazine Force and one of the journalists who had accused Union Minister MJ Akbar of sexual harassment said that she felt vindicated by Akbar's resignation, but the move should have come three days back. She also said that Akbar should now withdraw his defamation case.

Govt's early intervention would have been satisfying, but better late than never, says Ghazala Wahab

Following this meeting, Doval returned to the prime minister, and laid out the potential outcomes for the government: that ever-larger numbers of women would testify against a minister the government was seen as defending, adding to the embarrassment.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, the sources said, had been dispatched to gain a clear understanding from the minister of how many women were likely to offer testimony in the case, and what the content of their allegations would be. Akbar, according to the sources, gave no clear account of either the numbers of women involved, or their possible testimony.

As number of women who levelled sexual harassment allegations against Akbar kept on increasing, the startled prime minister moved on Tuesday to review his position. It appeared," said an official familiar with the discussions, that they were totally unprepared for how many women would come out with credible allegations against the minister.

Akbar on Monday filed the complaint against Ramani alleging she "wilfully" and "maliciously" made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing. However, the detail that stood out was that the vakalatnama had the names of 97 advocates, a move that the law firm claim was routine.

Priya Ramani says truth her only defence in law suit, but Draconian law only allows exception for truth uttered for 'public good'

In their own imagination, these men clearly believed themselves to be sexually irresistible. The thing is, it is not just these men. Such behaviour  along with the lewd comment, the demand for sex, the penis rubbed against the body  are part of the everyday experience of women on Indias streets, public transport and homes. The alleged behaviour of an Akbar or a Das isn't deviance; it is the norm.

As Indians contemplate the accounts of sexual assault survivors emerging from the #MeToo movement, it is hard not be struck by one central feature: a bizarre, even pathological, sense of entitlement.

Sexual assault and harassment have become the norm due to a culture built on toxic masculinity

The Editors' Guild of India has asked MJ Akbar to drop the criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani, the first woman journalists who named him in the #MeToo movement. The guild urged Akbar not to use the draconian law, especially as a veteran journalist. However, if Akbar choses not to withdraw the case, the editors' body offered support to Ramani and any other woman who faces a legal battle against Akbar in future.

MJ Akbar has dragged Priya Ramani, the first among some 20 odd woman journalists to call him out under the #MeToo cammpaign. He has accused Ramani of "intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious" allegations to harm his reputation. The criminal defamation suit is listed for hearing a around 2 pm in a Delhi Court.

Judge Vishal is also hearing the controversial case relating to Sunanda Pushkar's alleged suicide, in which Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor is an accused.

According to News18 , Judge Vishal, known for his calm and composed demeanour, has has handled a defamation case Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well. The judge at the Patiala House Courts complex had also disallowed a request for a polygraph test on students of JNU during the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of JNU student Najeed Ahmad.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, the judge who will hear the criminal defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar against journaist Priya Ramani, is no stranger to handling high profile cases that elicit unusual media scrutiny.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra will represent MJ Akbar in the defamation case filed by him against journalist Priya Ramani, ET Now reported.

The hearing has started in the MJ Akbar defamation case. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who is hearing the matter, is reading out the defamation complaint filed by MJ Akbar.

Senior Delhi High Court lawyer Geeta Luthra, who was also the counsel of journalist Tarun Tejpal in a sexual assault case against him, is representing MJ Akbar. Defendant Priya Ramani is represented by noted lawyer Rebecca John.

MJ Akbar's counsel Geeta Luthra cited Firstpost, Livemint, and The Washington Post reports to claim that Priya ramani's tweet has caused damage to her client's reputation. According to the criminal defamation law, the first condition for a plea to be admissible is to prove that the defamatory statement must be published. The matter should be published in either written or oral form so as to establish that someone knows or have heard about it.

She said, "The Washington Post picked up these tweets and other publications including Firstpost. So there are not just tweets but now there are news stories by major publications."

MJ Akbar's lawyer has argued that the allegations have been made years after the alleged incidents took place. She talks about the number of retweets and likes, Ramani's tweet naming Akbar recieved to prove there was widespread dissemination of the defamatory material.

In order to prove that there has been a loss of goodwill and reputation of her client, lawyer Geeta Luthra cites MJ Akbar's credentials as a noted journalist and author. She read out the editorial positions held by him thus far and says, "This shows that this person has a good reputation, which has been tarnished."

The Delhi court has fixed 31 October as the next date to hear the case. The court will examine the complainant and summon evidence in the case.

The court has taken cognisance of Akbar's complaint and fixed 31 October as the date to hear the matter further and for submission of due evidence. MJ Akbar will have to appear in person to record pre-summoning evidence.

Judge Vishal is also hearing the controversial case relating to Sunanda Pushkar's alleged suicide, in which Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor is an accused.

According to News18 , Judge Vishal, known for his calm and composed demeanour, has has handled a defamation case Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as well. The judge at the Patiala House Courts complex had also disallowed a request for a polygraph test on students of JNU during the investigation into the mysterious disappearance of JNU student Najeed Ahmad.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, the judge who will hear the criminal defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar against journaist Priya Ramani, is no stranger to handling high profile cases that elicit unusual media scrutiny.

Senior advocate Geeta Luthra will represent MJ Akbar in the defamation case filed by him against journalist Priya Ramani, ET Now reported.

The hearing has started in the MJ Akbar defamation case. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal, who is hearing the matter, is reading out the defamation complaint filed by MJ Akbar.

Senior Delhi High Court lawyer Geeta Luthra, who was also the counsel of journalist Tarun Tejpal in a sexual assault case against him, is representing MJ Akbar. Defendant Priya Ramani is represented by noted lawyer Rebecca John.

MJ Akbar's counsel Geeta Luthra cited Firstpost, Livemint, and The Washington Post reports to claim that Priya ramani's tweet has caused damage to her client's reputation. According to the criminal defamation law, the first condition for a plea to be admissible is to prove that the defamatory statement must be published. The matter should be published in either written or oral form so as to establish that someone knows or have heard about it.

She said, "The Washington Post picked up these tweets and other publications including Firstpost. So there are not just tweets but now there are news stories by major publications."

MJ Akbar's lawyer has argued that the allegations have been made years after the alleged incidents took place. She talks about the number of retweets and likes, Ramani's tweet naming Akbar recieved to prove there was widespread dissemination of the defamatory material.

In order to prove that there has been a loss of goodwill and reputation of her client, lawyer Geeta Luthra cites MJ Akbar's credentials as a noted journalist and author. She read out the editorial positions held by him thus far and says, "This shows that this person has a good reputation, which has been tarnished."

The Delhi court has fixed 31 October as the next date to hear the case. The court will examine the complainant and summon evidence in the case.

The court has taken cognisance of Akbar's complaint and fixed 31 October as the date to hear the matter further and for submission of due evidence. MJ Akbar will have to appear in person to record pre-summoning evidence.

#MeToo; MJ Akbar defamation case hearing LATEST updates: The court has taken cognisance of Akbar's complaint and fixed 31 October as the date to hear the matter further and for submission of due evidence. MJ Akbar will have to appear in person to record pre-summoning evidence

MJ Akbar's counsel Geeta Luthra cited Firstpost, Livemint, and The Washington Post reports to claim that Priya ramani's tweet has caused damage to her client's reputation. According to the criminal defamation law, the first condition for a plea to be admissible is to prove that the defamatory statement must be published. The matter should be published in either written or oral form so as to establish that someone knows or have heard about it.

Former union minister MJ Akbar will not be present in the Delhi court today. He will be represented by senior lawyer Geeta Luthra.

Former union minister MJ Akbars criminal defamation complaint filed against journalist Priya Ramani  the first woman journalist to speak out against him on sexual harassment charges  will come up for hearing in a Delhi court Thursday at around 2 pm.

The Editors' Guild of India has asked MJ Akbar to drop the criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani, the first woman journalists who named him in the #MeToo movement.

Akbar on Monday filed the complaint against Priya Ramani , the first woman to call him out, alleging she "wilfully" and "maliciously" made imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing. However, the detail that stood out was that the vakalatnama had the names of 97 advocates, a move that the law firm claim was routine.

As number of women who levelled sexual harassment allegations against Akbar kept on increasing, the startled prime minister moved on Tuesday to review his position. It appeared," said an official familiar with the discussions, that they were totally unprepared for how many women would come out with credible allegations against the minister.

MJ Akbar, who is facing multiple sex harassment charges, said: "I deem it is appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity."

MJ Akbar was asked resign on the eve of the Vijayadashami address by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as the BJP was worried that Bhagwat may make some unsavoury comments about Akbar continuing as minister which may embarrass the government.

The decision to step down as Union Minister of State, External Affairs Ministry, was Akbar's own and he may still remain a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Rajya Sabha, say reports.

After MJ Akbar announced his decision to quit as the junior external affairs minister on Wednesday, 20 of his former women colleagueswho previously wrote a petition describing his behaviour and condemning his alleged sexual advances issued a joint statement welcoming the move. They said now that he has quit from his government post, they also expect him to drop the case.

President Ram Nath Kovind Wednesday accepted the resignation of MJ Akbar from the Union council of ministers on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Akbar stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment during his days as editor of several publications.

"The President of India, as advised by the Prime Minister, has accepted the resignation of MJ Akbar from the Union Council of Ministers, with immediate effect, under clause (2) of Article 75 of the Constitution," the Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said.

Earlier, Modi had accepted Akbar's resignation. According to the established procedure, the resignation was then sent to the President.

In a brief statement, Akbar said he has decided to quit so that he can seek justice in a court of law in his personal capacity.RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered his annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur's Reshimbagh Ground and warned against the 'Urban Maoists' in the country.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday delivered his annual Vijayadashami speech, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, at Nagpur's Reshimbagh Ground. In his address, he warned against the 'Urban Naxals' in the country and also urged the Narendra Modi government to clear the path for construction of Ram temple through appropriate and requisite law. Nobel Peace Prize winner and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest at the event.

Bhagwat also urged people to vote for the BJP in next year's Lok Sabha election as the party will bring India together. The RSS chief's annual speech at Nagpur on the occasion of Vijayadashami or Dussehra sets the agenda for the organisation.

On Urban Naxals and the Neo-Left

Maoism has always been "urban" and the Neo-Left doctrine of urban Naxals is to establish an "anti-national" leadership with blind followers solely committed to them, Bhagwat said. He also claimed that the 'Urban Naxals' work from urban areas under the garb of intellectuals.

"One writes a book, another publishes, third praises it, fourth researches further and so on a network of thousands of such people is created," he said. "Their modus operandi is to make small organisations, go to universities and hostels and incite them based on lies to revolt. From within these revolts, they use leaders to discredit political leaders borne out of conventional politics and stake claim through this new alternative politics," Bhagwat said.

He charged that "urban Maoism" was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in the society. Maoism has always been urban which used neglected sections of society to further its agenda, he said.

The RSS chief wondered if the social media campaigns against India are being fuelled from Pakistan or US. He also alleges that some forces are trying to get political mileage out of such campaigns. "So the emerging conclusion is, this is a bigger canny conspiracy in collusion with forces from within and outside the country," he said.

He claimed that through manufacturing of a vicious atmosphere that 'weakens the social cohesion' a world of psychological warfare is being carved out. "This is called as 'Mantrayuddh' in our traditional Rajneeti shastras," he said.

Five well-known activists in the country were arrested in the recent past for their alleged links with naxals.

Ram Mandir issue

The RSS chief stated that the temple at the disputed site of the demolished Babri Masjid in Ayodhya should have been built by now, but the politicians are doing politics over it. "Ram is our lord and his path still guides us," he said. He added that Ram is the Gauravpurush and that Babur was the enemy who made everyone suffer. "Babur demolished Ram temple to trounce our self-respect," he says. "Foundations of the temple have been unearthed, but the case is getting delayed," Bhagwat said.

He said that an ordinance should be brought in by the government for building the temple. "The government should clear the path for construction of the grand temple through appropriate and requisite law," he said "People are questioning why the temple is not being built despite having their chosen government in power."

"The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view; it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country," he said.

Lok Sabha elections

Bhagwat urged the citizens to vote for 'the country's good' in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "The voters will have to ponder over dispassionately upon the sincerity and capability of the candidate, commitment of the party on the issues of national interest and for the integrity of the nation and experiences of past and present actions of both candidates and parties.

He urged the people to vote, and not choose the NOTA (None of the Above) option. "The characteristic of democratic politics is such that no one can be considered as completely right or wrong. In such a situation, non-voting or using the provision of NOTA goes in favour of the one who is most ineffective. So, 100 percent voting is essential keeping in mind national interest as supreme without getting swayed by the campaigns of all the sides," he said.

Sabarimala temple issue

Bhagwat also spoke about the Sabarimala temple issue and said that men and women were treated as equals there. "We should have built consensus. The devotees should have been consulted," he said. "The premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together was not taken into consideration. The version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account," he added. The shrine opened on Wednesday for the first time after the recent Supreme Court which allowed women of all ages to enter the temple.

On anti-India forces

Bhagwat claimed that India will be a world leader soon, and stated that the whole nation must stand united. He said that any anti-India force will face major resistance, stating that the country is strong enough to fight these forces. "If someone musters the courage to fight then there is destruction on both sides. So, in order to maintain peace, we have to be so strong that anyone doesn't even think of harming us," he said.

Without naming Pakistan, Bhagwat said attacks on borders haven't stopped despite a new government taking over.

Speaking on cross-border infiltration, he stated that the Line of Control (LOC) needs to be stronger and that development in terms of schools, hospitals, need to be taken care of in these areas. "People living in border areas suffer during Pakistan bombings and they lose their cattle and farms. Yet the people are not ready to move away. Instead they want stronger forces for their safety," Bhagwat said.

"The Union, as well as the state governments and administrations should sternly deal with the violent activities of elements, motivated or moved from inside as well as outside the borders, who challenge the law, Constitution and sovereignty of the country, is one of its remedial aspects." "The country cannot be assured about its security without the total self-reliance in the field of defence production even while continuing with the multilateral exchanges wherever necessary. The pace of national efforts in this direction has to be accelerated," he said.

Bhagwat also pitched for making the army self-sufficient and for implementing police reforms. "Efforts are being initiated and accelerated to enhance the morale of our armed and security forces, making them well-equipped and to provide them with latest technologies. This is one of the reasons that the prestige of Bharat is rising in the world," he said.

Remembering the sacrifices

Bhagwat spoke about the freedom fighters and their role in heightening the idea of India. "Subhash Chandra Bose went out of the country and awakened self-respect among Indian soldiers working abroad and founded independent India's first government working in exile," he said.

He said that one must respect the sacrifices made by the Indian Army, stating that efforts must be made to boost the morale of the armed forces. He said that they are not alone, and their security is of concern. "Those who are brave enough to respond a bullet with a bullet, who will think about them?" he wondered.

In his speech, Bhagwat also remembered the victims of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. "The remembrance of martyrdom, sacrifice and dedication of hundreds of our unarmed countrymen, who became victims of Dyers bullets, hundred years ago while opposing the unjust Rowlatt Act and demanding freedom in the Jallianwala Bagh, invokes the same moral force in us," he said.

SC/ST sub-plan

Bhagwat alleged that Centre has not been spending funds allocated for Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan. "The plans for the scheduled caste and tribe classes, Upayojanae (Subplans) and provision of various forms of time and well-being require more transparency in the introduction of more readiness and condolences to the central and state governance."

If help doesn't reach in time, it doesn't really count as help. Schemes for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes aren't implemented. Why is money for these schemes not spent? And then is diverted at the end of financial year in March? Bhagwat asked.

Rafale fighter jet row

Bhagwat also referred to the Rafale fighter jet row and said that India should look at becoming self-reliant for its security needs, while transactions with foreign countries should continue. "We should be producing whatever is needed to protect us, ourselves," he added.

Last year, Bhagwat had spoken on issues like the Rohingya crisis, cow vigilantism, Jammu and Kashmir and surgical strikes.

With inputs from agencies

Follow LIVE updates on Sabarimala temple row hereVeteran Congress leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Narayan Datt Tiwari passed away on Thursday, at the age of 93.

Veteran Congress leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Narayan Datt Tiwari passed away on Thursday at the age of 93.

Tiwari, who was undergoing treatment at Max Super Speciality Hospital in Saket, breathed his last at 2.50 pm after he suffered a heart attack on the day of his birthday. The three-time Uttar Pradesh chief minister had been hospitalised since September, 2017 after suffering a brain stroke and a paralytic attack.

In July, his son Rohit had described his condition as "extremely serious". He had further mentioned that his father was put on dialysis "due to kidney failure" and was suffering from acute bacterial infection in the stomach. Home minister Rajnath Singh visited Tiwari at the hospital the same month.

Tiwari is the only politician to have served as the chief minister of two states  Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Tiwari, who was considered close to Indira Gandhi, had served as a Union minister in several Congress-led governments.

After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, Tiwari lost the bid to become the prime minister to PV Narasimha Rao when he was defeated in Nainital seat in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections.

He formed Congress (T), the breakaway faction of the Congress, along with veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh in 1995 during the tenure of Rao. However, he later merged his party with the Congress when Sonia Gandhi took charge of the party.

During his political career, Tiwari was linked to a few controversies. In 2009, at the age of 86, he resigned as the governor of Andhra Pradesh after his name surfaced in a sex scandal.

When he was 88, he married 65-year-old Ujjwala Sharma, the mother of his biological son Rohit. The wedding took place months after the Delhi High Court ruled that DNA tests revealed that he was Rohit's father.

Following the news of Tiwari's demise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of various parties expressed grief over his demise.

Saddened by the passing away of Shri ND Tiwari Ji. A towering leader, he was known for his administrative skills. He will be remembered for his efforts towards industrial growth & working for the progress of UP & Uttarakhand, a state he steered in its initial days. My condolences  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 18, 2018

Im sorry to hear about the passing of Shri N D Tiwari ji an important and illustrious member of the Congress family, who was respected and admired across party lines. My condolences to his family in their time of grief. Om Shanti.  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 18, 2018

I am saddened by the untimely demise of former UP and Uttarakhand Chief Minister ND Tiwari. I offer my deepest condolences to his family and pray that his soul rests in peace. He will always be remembered as an able administrator: Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/YjLhpnlSDK  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 18, 2018

Saddened to know about the demise of senior Congress leader Shri #NDTiwari. He was one of the footsoldiers of the party who served it for the maximum no of years. May his soul rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/wYwZ4Q76ku  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) October 18, 2018

A three-day state mourning till 20 October has been declared in Uttarakhand in the honour of the departed leader.

With inputs from PTIIndia has had many of the Poshan Abhiyaan building blocks in place for some time.

Why have I dedicated 30 years of my life to public health nutrition? The quick answer is that 45 percent of child deaths are attributable to malnutrition, and many children who do survive malnutrition are deprived of optimal physical and cognitive growth.

It has been a great year with the world waking up to the urgent need to address malnutrition. When I look back over the last 12 months and consider the most important moments in nutrition, I think of the Global Nutrition Summit held in Milan  which brought together actors across the globe, including the Tata Trusts, to commit $3.6 billion into nutrition  and the launch of Indias Poshan Abhiyaan, the National Nutrition Mission. Both are major steps with the potential to change the trajectory not just for India, but for the world.

India represents at least one third of the worlds burden of malnutrition; therefore, as a global community, we will not be able to keep our Sustainable Development Goal promise of eliminating all forms of malnutrition by 2030 unless we accelerate progress in India. A program of the stature and scope of Poshan Abhiyaan is a huge step towards this.

India has had many of the Poshan Abhiyaan building blocks in place for some time, from robust policies in line with global best practices to a committed battalion of 2.5 million front line workers, including Anganwadi workers (AWWs), Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs). There are strong self-help groups working towards empowering women, and new energy to ensure programmes in sectors like agriculture and food processing to ensure programs are helping to improve nutrition.

So, what has been missing, and why am I so excited about the potential of Poshan Abhiyaan?

First is the level of political attention and support for the National Nutrition Mission. This alone represents a huge opportunity to make real change in nutrition outcomes for women and children.

Second is convergence. The framework facilitates ministries, departments, donors, non-profits and ground workers to come together. This streamlining will reduce the amount of time and resources spent.

The focus on convergence will also mean utilising existing opportunities. Starting when a woman goes to a clinic to confirm her pregnancy up until her childs second birthday, her family will have multiple touch points with the health system. Antenatal care, institutional delivery, immunisation sessions, home visits, Annaprashan diwas and Godbharai are all opportunities to counsel families on good nutrition and provide services.

Yet in the past, these programmes have not been well-coordinated and nutrition has been neglected. In Bihar, for instance, 90 percent of women get a tetanus shot through the antenatal clinic platform but less than 10 percent of mothers consume the recommended dose of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) that is critical for the health of the mother and the child she is carrying. Prioritising nutrition would mean mothers receive IFA tablets and counselling on good nutrition when they visit a clinic to get their tetanus vaccination.

Breastfeeding, which is one of the most vital ways to save childrens lives and ensure their future development, is another example. 65 percent of women give birth in clinical facilities in Bihar, but only about 35 percent of women initiate breastfeeding within the first hour. If all women who delivered in a health facility were supported to initiate breastfeeding immediately, this opportunity gap would be closed.

Third is better use of data for decision-making. The strength of the programmes success will lay in its ability to develop a strong evidence base through data gathering and sharing, and reacting to that data by designing targeted messages and campaigns and communicating effectively across multiple platforms and partners to reach the audience targets with the right messages and create the desired behavioural changes on a large scale.

Lastly, is its people-centered approach. The missions focus is to transform into a peoples movement, a Jan Andolan, to bring about change in the people themselves, in their behaviour. The mission is bringing the power of Janbhagidari, peoples participation, into making Indias children well-nourished and healthy. Behaviour change, especially when it comes with practices that are part of the social norm, require an all-of-society response  and the scale in this context is enormous.

The success of the National Nutrition Mission, like any policy, will lie in implementation. Ultimately, the deciding factor on how effectively Jan Andolan can be implemented across the country is up to the people the programme is looking to reach  adolescent girls, their mothers, pregnant and lactating women. But this change will not happen in a vacuum. Families, frontline health workers, community members, panchayat members, religious leaders, and teachers are all critical. Only with their support can the fight against malnutrition be won.

The author is Director of Nutrition, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.The request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi is being 'examined' by Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

New Delhi: The request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi is being "examined" by Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Answering a question on Choksi, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar at a briefing said, "According to the information that I have, the extradition request by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate), is being examined by them (Antigua and Barbuda authorities) and after they have examined it, they have said they will convey their response to India."

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda EP Chet Greene last month on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly and raised the issue of extradition of Choksi, who is currently in the Caribbean island.

Greene had conveyed to Swaraj the assurances of his Prime Minister for fullest cooperation of their government in the matter of extradition of Choksi to India, Kumar had said after the meeting.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the USD 2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and ED probing the fraud.

On a question on absconding businessman Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, Kumar said that in the case of Nirav Modi, extradition requests from the CBI and ED are pending with the UK authorities.

"The requests are under consideration," he said.

"We are committed to take this matter forward and to bring back the economic offenders," he said.

On Mallya, he said the Westminster Magistrates' Court has fixed 10 December as the date for verdict in the case.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's mysterious disappearance, Kumar said, "I think I have seen media reports that this matter is still under investigation and so at this stage I have no comments."Reshma has faced several threats since she announced that she is looking forward to pray at the Sabarimala temple and is already observing her austerity period.

Kannur: Reshma Nishanth, an unassuming 32-year-old teacher from Keralas Kannur, declared through a Facebook post, on 14 October, her decision to visit the states Sabarimala shrine during Mandalakalam. This was after the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment, struck down a ban on the entry of girls and women in the 10-50 age group inside the temple.

Saying that she is looking forward to pray at the temple and is already observing her austerity period (41-day vratham), Reshma added in her post (translated roughly) that there is no binary of men and women in faith, and that menstruation does not mean impurity.

Ever since, Reshma has faced a deluge of threats. Within hours, her social media page got flooded with abuses. A mob, with fire torches, even gathered around her house threatening her and sloganeering in the name of Lord Ayyappa, media reports said. So much so, that Reshma had to quit her job over safety concerns on 16 October. Yet, she sticks to her decision, unperturbed, expecting full protection from the government on her pilgrimage.

Going by the official site of the temple, eligible female worshippers are to be called Malikappurams. With the Supreme Court verdict, all women have gained this eligibility.

Malikappuram Reshma, who is now observing her vows and austerities, opens up to a few questions on her decision and the implications thereafter:

Recorded history indicates that women had been entering the shrine till the 1940s, even for "choroonu" (the first rice-feeding ceremony) of their children, and this was observed by the Kerala High Court in 1991. So, women of menstruating age being banned from entering the temple is clearly not a tradition or custom that was followed from "time immemorial", as is being projected now.

What could be the reason behind the sudden change in practices, finally leading to a high court ban on the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 years, in 1991?

I have not found any convincing reason for the restriction of women. People try to come up with varying reasons, which do not seem to have any logic. The majority talk about the theory of 'naishtika brahmacharya' (celibacy). How can this concept restrict a woman believer from praying inside the temple? I consider this as gender inequality.

Do you think there was an agenda rooted in Brahminical, misogynistic hegemony, behind the shift in custom?

Yes, definitely. If a custom gets distorted with respect to a gender, it should be restructured. The prohibition of women was not an inbuilt (existing) custom at all in the case of Sabarimala. Its not only Brahminical hegemony, but also patriarchy. The menstrual cycle is termed as impure only because of such patriarchal dominance.

Can your trip to Sabarimala be considered a social movement against the prevalent misogynistic attitude in Kerala society, even among women?

I don't consider it a revolution or movement as such. I am not here to challenge any system. I am a believer. Now I have the right and legal support to pray before my lord inside the Sabarimala temple. That is it.

How does your family and your extended family cope with the attacks and the widespread protests against you? Did they tell you not to risk so much and go?

My family members support me and stand by me. At the same time, some of them are very anxious about my safety, in the given scenario. I fully trust the government to give me all support and protection.

Those who are attempting to go to Sabarimala are facing setbacks. I had to quit my job and have lost my freedom of movement, not because of fear, but owing to the concerns of my family members and the elderly at home about my safety. Another girl who started her vows yesterday is also facing similar problems. She has lost her job and her accommodation. She is not able to use her phone because of the threat calls. So, we are getting only setbacks in our personal lives for taking a brave stand. The government has to consider all this and solve problems for whosoever decides to visit the shrine.

Amid the 41-day fast, at least one menstrual cycle is expected. It is just another biological process, you have said on your Facebook post. Do you plan to break your vow during the period or continue with your vratham, regardless of your menstrual cycle, to make it count to 41 days?

The menstrual cycle is just a biological (physiological) process, like anything else in the human body. I do not consider menstruation as impurity. I don't care about it in the 41 days of my vratham. Periods do not matter in belief.

Women, including journalists, were roughed up at the base camps, in public buses on the way to Sabarimala on 17 October. Are you planning to seek police protection when you go for the visit?

Yes, of course. Since the declaration of my decision to go to Sabarimala, I have been facing a lot of problems. My social media pages have been flooded with abuses, dirty comments and threats. It is not just on the virtual platform. Protesters who are against the Supreme Court verdict even surrounded my house shouting slogans and threatening me. I am living in fear, without being able to step outside. Over safety concerns, I even resigned from my job (on 16 October). I will ask the state to provide me all protection as I now have all the rights to visit and pray at Sabarimala.

The Mala Araya tribal community has started a protest in Thiruvananthapuram to re-establish its rights at the Sabarimala temple. It claims that the rights at the temple have been "hijacked" by the forward castes and members of the community are not allowed to perform their traditional customs at the Ayyappa shrine now. So, once women used to enter and tribals had roles in the customs. However, both were stopped in the last 60-odd years, for some unexplained reason. What could have triggered this sudden change in the system?

Customs are subject to change in certain time periods. I don't think it is a violation of the system. India is a democratic country. But casteism and 'chathurvarna' are still followed here. In the matter of worship, "forward" castes resort to suppressing the "backwards". All such social evils will change gradually. Gender discrimination is the first of all. Gender equality has to be the norm. Casteism should also be destroyed.

Now, since women have been again allowed to enter, those in opposition say, these are customs which have been in practice since time immemorial. But it's clearly a lie, as 1940 is not time immemorial. Recorded history has clear references. Isn't it also inappropriate to restrict tribals from carrying out their customs?

God cannot be hijacked. Everyone should get the right to worship as per their belief. As I said earlier, casteism will be abolished. Gender equality is the priority now.

Women in Kerala in lakhs have been out protesting (against the Supreme Court ruling). Did you expect that from fellow women in your state?

It's quite expected. When Roop Kanwar was forced to get immolated as part of 'sati' in 1987, almost 70,000 people, mostly women, had taken to the streets in protest, insisting on continuation of the practice of sati, not against it. It is sheer ignorance.

Many dismissed your decision as a mere attempt to gain publicity. Is there a message you have for the public, those who are against your decision and those who support you?

I had started my vratham much before the post. I was waiting for clarity from the government over how it would facilitate my protection. We had mailed the DGP and the government officials, to clearly know how to go about it. But we got no response. I did not know how I would take up the trip, and that is when I thought about the public post.

If I had decided to venture on the pilgrimage, without informing anyone or the government, or posting on Facebook, I would have been at high risk through my journey. In such a scenario, I would have been held responsible for not informing the police and the government in advance. This is why I posted on Facebook and sought help from the government.

(Sannidha Hari is a Kozhikode-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com)Police and even Section 144 could not help a woman from the 'banned' age group from entering the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala on Thursday

The police and even Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) could not help a woman from the 'banned' age group from entering the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala on Thursday.

The woman, who made a bold attempt to go to the temple in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict lifting the centuries old ban on menstruating women from entering the temple, was Suhashini Raj, a member of the New Delhi bureau of The New York Times.

The journalist, who has been covering the protests at Pampa, began her trek to the hilltop at 7 am unnoticed by the devotees at Pampa and the temple employees, who were posted at Pampa to check the age of women going to the temple. Nobody had an inkling that she would go to the temple. As she proceeded further, the police joined her. Some 50 members of police personnel, including commandos, escorted her as she made a steady journey to the hilltop. However, the devotees returning from the temple noticed her and alerted the protestors when she reached Marakoottam, which is a kilometre from the temple.

Activists of Hindu organisations and political parties, who were hiding in the forests, sprung up and blocked her. Most of them had covered their face with black cloths, protesting the Supreme Court verdict. The protesters mobbed her, hurling abuse and shouting slogans telling her to 'go back'. The police, who escorted her remained helpless as the protesters created a huge human wall. Some even tried to manhandle her and the media persons accompanying her.

As the protests mounted, Suhasini and her colleague decided to return saying she did not want to create trouble. She told a television channel that she did not want to hurt the sentiments of the devotees and was, therefore, abandoning her plan.

The police escorted her to the base camp at Pampa and later took her to police station and recorded her statement. Central Range Inspector-General Manoj Abraham met her at the station.

The protesters also turned on the police and the media persons following her. They did not allow the photographers to take their pictures. Shivaram, a photographer of Reuters, said the protesters tried to grab his camera when he tried to take pictures. Abraham said that the police will post policemen en route the temple to prevent such incidents. Currently, forces are posted only at the entry points and not on the route. The police officer said that the police will create an atmosphere for women to go to the temple and will provide protection if any woman comes forward to enter the temple.

Apart from Suhasini, two other women had come forward to go to the temple. However, one of them  a 45-year-old woman from Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh  was forced to return from the base camp, while the other  a young woman from Cherthala in Alappuzha district  was stopped at Pathanamthitta bus stop.

Although the police offered them support, they decided to return in view of the massive resistance they faced. The district administration had promulgated Section 144 prohibiting the grouping of people in a 30-kilometre radius of the temple to ensure the smooth conduct of the monthly puja, which began on Wednesday. Pathanamthitta district superintendent of police T Narayanan said that the police will introduce patrolling in all sensitive areas to prevent grouping of people. He said that they had divided the areas around the temple into five sectors and put them under the control of superintendents of police.

Police believe that the protesters, who were dispersed from Nilakkal, may be hiding in the forests to prevent young women from going to the temple. Narayanan said they will be flushing out such people from their hideouts. Leaders of the Ayyappa devotee organisations, protesting the Supreme Court verdict, feel that the people who have created trouble are not genuine devotees. Mohanan Nair, secretary of the Ayyappa Seva Sangham, said that the people who caused trouble at Nilakkal on Wednesday were outsiders.

He alleged that most of them had come from different parts of the state. Many of them were from Kannur, where the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the RSS are engaged in a bloody battle for political supremacy. Nair feels that the protesters from Kannur could be both RSS and CPM workers who came to Sabarimala with their political agendas. He said the protests by the Ayyappa organisations were going on peaceful until these people entered the scene.

Meanwhile, the 24-hour hartal  called by right wing outfit, Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad led by Pravin Togadia and the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi, an outfit of devotees, and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party  has affected the pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The devotees, who went to the temple on Wednesday, are stranded at Pampa as transport buses and taxis have kept off the roads. The devotees, who came from the neighbouring states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are also stranded in different places.

The state-run Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has suspended services as several buses were damaged by protesters on Wednesday. Although KSRTC has agreed to operate services from Pathanamthitta to Pampa, the police is finding it difficult to escort the buses as a large number of personnel have been deployed in and around Sabarimala.

The police is also not allowing private vehicles, including media persons, to go to Nilakkal and Pampa, even though both places are calm now. The protesters, who were dispersed from Nilakkal, have returned home. The sheds erected for the protests appeared deserted.

However, the police has adopted a cautious approach as it feels that the protesters may be hiding in the forests. The situation is not likely to be normal until they are flushed out.

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES ON SABARIMALA TEMPLE PROTESTSSabarimala temple updates: Right-wing groups as well as BJP workers posing as Sabarimala pilgrims threw stones at passers-by, police pickets, and private cars at Pathanamthitta, Mancheri in Malappuram district, Palakkad, and Sasthamkottai in Kerala's Kollam district. Government vehicles, public transport buses were also thrashed, including 32 KSRTC buses.

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Suhasini, who is a resident of Lucknow and is working with The New York Times since 2014, is likely to reach the temple by 8 pm. She is proceeding steadily with police protection. However, unconfirmed reports suggest her age to be around 46 years. A group of media persons is also following her in her journey to the and so far no protestors have reached her.

Suhasini Raj, New Delhi bureau chief of The New York Times, is likely to be the first women to enter the Lord Ayyppaa Temple since the Supreme Court verdict. Suhasini, who is below 50 years, is currently trekking the hilltop with police protection. Though some devotees tried to stop her, police provided protection.

Tension prevailed on Wednesday in Kerala's Nilackal, the main gateway to Sabarimala, after the police used force to disperse devotees opposing the entry of girls and women of menstrual age into the hill shrine. Acting tough, the police, deployed in large numbers in Nilackal, some 20 kilometres away from the Sabarimala hilltop, also removed a makeshift shelter erected by a protesting group Sabarimala Achara Samrakshana Samiti.

The police took strong action against the protesters after some of them checked the vehicles heading to Pamba and prevented the women in the age group of 10 and 50 from entering the hill shrine. Around 500 police personnel, including women, were deployed in Nilackal to ensure a safe passage to the pilgrims to the Lord Ayyappa temple, PTI reported.

Journalist Suhasini Raj has abandoned her journey and is returning from Marakkoottam to Pampa. Asianet quoted Suhasini as saying that "she did not want to create trouble" and is thus abandoning her trek to the shrine.

About 1,000 protestors created a huge ruckus as Suhasini Raj made her way to the shrine, They created a human wall and tried to manhandle her and thus the journalist has now abandoned her journey.

Raj was stopped at Marakoottam, 1 kilometre from the Ayyappa shrine. She is now returning to the base camp at Pampa. Marakoottam is almost 3/4th the way up but as the protestors created a human wall making it difficult for her to proceed, she had to return.

Though Section 144 was in force, police did not take any steps to prevent grouping of protestors and now they are about a thousand in number. Those protesting now are the devotees themselves carrying the 'irumudi' which are the traditional offerings for Lord Ayyappa.

According to sources, there is now no way to differentiate between the devotees and protestors. So devotees can't be restricted even if there is Section 144 in play and the protestors are using that opportunity.

A huge force of police, including commandos, is escorting Suhasini Raj as she heads back to the Pampa base camp. However, she has refused to react to the situation. She has arrived at Pampa now.

According to reports, police offered to take Suhasini all the way up to the shrine but seeing the protests her friend who was accompanying her suggested that they return. She also took the decision not to proceed further and returned to the base camp.

Suhasini is at the Pampa police station currently. Inspector General Manoj Abraham is talking to her to see what her immediate future plans are. The police is ready to give her full protection if she wants to climb again.

Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan on Wednesday said the Kerala government can consider bringing an ordinance to reinforce the ban on women of menstrual age from entering Sabarimala temple. She also accused the LDF government of acting against Hindu sentiments, Times Now reported.

"We don't want anyone to get hurt here. So we are returning back to Pampa", Suhasini Raj told Asianet News .

NYT scribe says she didn't want anyone to get hurt as protests grew and thus returned back

Despite a Supreme Court order lifting the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years into the Sabarimala temple, protesters on Wednesday forcibly turned back women on their way to visit the shrine. Many have said that religious norms must be obeyed.

Ramaswamy had approached the Perinad police on Wednesday after the incident, and the FIR was filed later that evening.

CNN-News18 on Thursday accessed the FIR that was filed after Radhika Ramaswamy, a journalist working for the news channel, as well as crew members were assaulted amid the protests held outside the temple on Wednesday. The names of the assailants have not been revealed.

Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) imposed at Erumeli, one of the base camps of the Sabarimala temple. There is no movement of buses, autos and small shops are open during hartal, The Indian Express reported.

"We should have built consensus. The devotees should have been consulted," he said.

The perspectives of the leaders of religious denominations, as well as the faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account in the Sabarimala case, Bhagwat said.

He said that the devotees who are protesting against the Supreme Court verdict might feel hurt if anybody tries to break the custom. Therefore, I appeal to menstruating women not to come to the temple until the issue are resolved.

We have full respect to women. The restriction is only for the women belonging to a particular age group. They must realize the custom being followed by the temple and desist from their attempt to come to the temple, he added.

Sabarimala thantri (chief priest) Kantararu Mohanaru has made an appeal to women between the ages of 10 and 50 not to make any attempt to visit the temple during the ongoing monthly pooja. Talking to a Malayalam news channel, he said that the ritual will be marred if the women from the banned group entered the temple.

Sabarimala head priest Kandararu Rajeevaru told ANI that the situation around the temple is "dangerous." He said that the violence was instigated by others, and not real devotees of Lord Ayyappa.

The BJP youth wing workers made no attempt to resist the arrests. They courted arrest and boarded the police vehicle chanting Ayyappa slogans. They were later taken to the Pampa police station.

Forty-one Bharaitya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) volunteers, who staged a sit-in at Nilakkal, have been arrested and removed for violating prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 imposed by the Pathanamthitta district administration.

"Sabarimala itself is the opposite of obstacles to a believer's journey, the RSS is spreading terror and trying to discourage them. These movements motivated by upper caste are intended to break the basic character of Sabarimala," he said in the post.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, by way of a Facebook post, blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the outbreak of violence at the temple.

Public transport in Kerala kept off the roads in most districts of the state. People who came to Kerala without knowing about the hartal are now stranded in bus stands and railway stations in several places across the state.

Speaking to media, Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said that the 300 police personnel responsible for attacks on women journalists had not yet completed their training.

The Kerala DGP has ordered cyber cell to register cases against people who are spreading hatred posts about violence ensuing in Nilakkal and Pamba on social media, ANI reported.

The BJP youth wing workers made no attempt to resist the arrests. They courted arrest and boarded the police vehicle chanting Ayyappa slogans. They were later taken to the Pampa police station.

Forty-one Bharaitya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) volunteers, who staged a sit-in at Nilakkal, have been arrested and removed for violating prohibitory orders under CrPC Section 144 imposed by the Pathanamthitta district administration.

"Sabarimala itself is the opposite of obstacles to a believer's journey, the RSS is spreading terror and trying to discourage them. These movements motivated by upper caste are intended to break the basic character of Sabarimala," he said in the post.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, by way of a Facebook post, blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the outbreak of violence at the temple.

Public transport in Kerala kept off the roads in most districts of the state. People who came to Kerala without knowing about the hartal are now stranded in bus stands and railway stations in several places across the state.

That is unfortunate,it was part of the plan designed by the CPI(M) people.They did this.300 police personnel,who had not completed their training were taken there & this scene was created: BJP Kerala president PS Sreedharan Pillai on attacks on women journalists #SabarimalaTemple pic.twitter.com/PaeQsZ7C5W

Speaking to media, Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said that the 300 police personnel responsible for attacks on women journalists had not yet completed their training.

Eyewitness accounts also say neither were the protestors obstructing anyone from going to temple nor they were creating any trouble.

Some of the protestors can be seen pleading the cops not to thrash them, but the cops continued on. One aged woman protestor was seen lying on the floor after the lathi charge.

Where protestors were sitting on the side of the pathway leading to the Sabarimala temple and chanting Ayyappa prayers, police forces can be seen intervening in the protest and shutting it down. The protest, which was meant to be peaceful in nature, turned to chaos after police began to lathi-charge protestors and ushering them towards police vehicles.

The leader also gave a mobile number for further instructions. The minister claimed that this was a call to create trouble at the hill shrine.

At a press conference at Sabarimala, Kerala temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran presented an audio message of a senior RSS leader asking the cadres to go to the temple's monthly pooja disguised as pilgrims. The audio clip urged RSS cadres not to go in groups in light of Section 144, and carry irumudi that the devotees take during the pilgrimage.

The Kerala DGP has ordered cyber cell to register cases against people who are spreading hatred posts about violence ensuing in Nilakkal and Pamba on social media, ANI reported.

Situation is peaceful. There's no problem here. We've deployed sufficient police force in Pampa&Sannidhanam. There's no issue. Currently this (Section 144) has been imposed for 2 days, further decision will be taken as per situation: PB Nooh, Pathanamthitta Dist Collector #Kerala pic.twitter.com/8LucVmBaYl

Section 144 (prohibits assembly of more than 4 people in an area) has been imposed in Pampa, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam and Elavungal.

Additionally, two policemen were injured at Tanur after being pelted with stoned. A police force has been deployed in the area following the incident.

Two other KSRTC buses were destroyed by the hartal supporters at Chamravattom and Mini Pampa. A KSRTC bus driver suffered injuries in the attack.

A senior official told The Hindu that right-wing groups as well as BJP workers posing as Sabarimala pilgrims threw stones at passers-by, police pickets, and private cars at Pathanamthitta, Mancheri in Malappuram district, Palakkad, and Sasthamkottai in Kerala's Kollam district. Government vehicles, public transport buses were also thrashed, including 32 KSRTC buses.

Translation: Twenty of us have been arrested and are now being taken to Kottarakara sub-jail on judicial remand. The government is purposely doing this. We have been framed and the plan is to put us behind bars to ensure the protest ends. It is around 3 am in the morning and till now we have not been given any food to eat. This could well be my last message for a long time to come. I only want to say that we should continue our peaceful protest. There should NOT be any violence at any cost. We should only follow the Gandhian methods. No one should resort to abuse or physical violence at any cost. That will only diminish the importance of Lord Ayyappa and bring a blot on our fight for justice. Let us hope that after the Supreme Court reopens this case 22nd, we will get justice.

Activist Rahul Easwar, who was detained by Kerala Police on Wednesday, released a statement after he was arrested. Claiming that the 20 people arrested with him were framed, and called for peaceful protests to continue.

Sabarimala temple updates: A senior official told The Hindu that right-wing groups as well as BJP workers posing as Sabarimala pilgrims threw stones at passers-by, police pickets, and private cars at Pathanamthitta, Mancheri in Malappuram district, Palakkad, and Sasthamkottai in Kerala's Kollam district. Government vehicles, public transport buses were also thrashed, including 32 KSRTC buses.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, by way of a Facebook post, blamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the outbreak of violence at the temple.

"Sabarimala itself is the opposite of obstacles to a believer's journey, the RSS is spreading terror and trying to discourage them. These movements motivated by upper caste are intended to break the basic character of Sabarimala," he said in the post.

The 41 selected Bharathiya Janata Yuyva Morcha (BJYM) volunteers, who staged a sit-in at Nilakkal, in violation of CrPC Section 144 (unlawful assembly) imposed in many parts of the state, were arrested.

The BJP youth wing workers made no attempt to resist the arrests. They courted arrest and boarded the police vehicle chanting Ayyappa slogans. They were later taken to the Pampa police station.

Kerala BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said 41-selected Bharathiya Janata Yuyva Morcha (BJYM) volunteers will stage a sit-in at Nilackal, in violation of CrPC Section 144 (unlawful assembly) imposed in many parts of the state earlier on Thursday. He said that the party had selected 41 people to ensure that outsiders did not infiltrate into the protest and create trouble.

He said that the party will also conduct prayer meetings at Nilakkal in protest against of the Supreme Court order by the government until the temple is closed after the monthly pooja on 22 October.

Journalist Suhasini Raj from the New York Times, on her way to the Sabarimala temple, returned midway after being stopped by protesters. Police sources were quoted as saying, "when she reached Marakoottam, she decided to come back after seeing the crowd. Police was ready to take her."

Sabarimala thantri (chief priest) Kantararu Mohanaru has made an appeal to women between the ages of 10 and 50 not to make any attempt to visit the temple during the ongoing monthly pooja. Talking to a Malayalam news channel, he said that the ritual will be marred if the women from the banned group entered the temple.

Journalist Suhasini Raj has abandoned her journey and is returning from Marakkoottam to Pampa. Asianet quoted Suhasini as saying that "she did not want to create trouble" and is thus abandoning her trek to the shrine. Raj was stopped at Marakoottam, 1 kilometre from the Ayyappa shrine. She is now returning to the base camp at Pampa. Marakoottam is almost 3/4th the way up but as the protestors created a human wall making it difficult for her to proceed, she had to return. A huge force of police, including commandos, is escorting Raj as she heads back to the Pampa base camp.

"We don't want anyone to get hurt here. So we are returning back to Pampa", Suhasini Raj told Asianet News .

Amid violent protests, the doors of Sabarimala temple in Kerala opened on Wednesday for the first time since the Supreme Court lifted the centuries-old ban on entry of women of menstrual age but by available indications, none from this age group made it to the famed hilltop shrine.

Women journalists were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of activists of Hindu fringe groups besieged the road leading to the temple, abode to Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity, officials said. Chaos and mayhem on the road leading from Nilakkal, the gateway to the shrine, 20 km away, to Pamba in the foothills from where the devotees start the arduous 6-km trek to Sabarimala reigned supreme, as activists of fought pitched battles with police, leaving many injured and bleeding.

The Pathanamthitta district authorities promulgated prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC banning assembly of four or more people in strife-torn Pamba and Nilakkal following the violence and a strike called by right-wing outfits on Thursday.

Activist Rahul Easwar, a front-ranking leader of the protesters and votary of the continuance of the tradition barring girls and women between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple, a custom which the Supreme Court overturned on September 28, was arrested at Pamba. Incensed over Kerala's Left Front government's decision not to file a review plea against the Supreme Court verdict, protesters pelted police with stones and the latter hit right back with vengeance wielding batons with telling effect, leaving many fallen and writhing in pain on the road. Several protesters were seen being bundled into police vehicles, while siren blaring ambulances carried some to hospitals.

Simmering tension prevailing in Nilakkal since morning erupted into raucous rowdyism as scores of activists of fringe groups heckled women journalists of at least four national TV channels and vandalised their vehicles. Protesters wearing black and saffron turbans chased their cars, violently pounding and kicking the vehicles in a bid to stop them from proceeding to Pamba from Nilakkal on way to Sabarimala. At least 10 people from the media, including reporters and photojournalists, were injured and equipment of several of them damaged, senior minister EP Jayarajan said. Denouncing the attacks on media, he said cases were being registered against the suspects under sections relating to non-bailable offenses.

Unfazed by the unfolding violence, Madhavi, a gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh in her 40s, tried to trek the Sabarimala hills to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple but was forced to return to Pamba, menaced by agitated male devotees. Liby, a woman from Kerala's Alappuzha, also in the 10-50 year age group, was prevented from proceeding to Sabarimala at Pathanamthitta bus terminal. She was escorted to safety by police.

Both the Congress, the main opposition party in Kerala, and the BJP, which is desperately seeking to expand its footprint in the state, have lent support to the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict. State Congress working president K Sudhakaran led his party workers in a protest at Nilakkal to express solidarity with Ayyappa devotees. An embattled Left Front government reacted sharply to the protests, with the state's religious trusts minister Kadakampally Surendran calling them "politically motivated". Surendran, who reviewed the situation and preparations for the three-month-long Mandalam-Makaravilakku-festival beginning November 17 at Sannidhanam (Sabarimala temple complex), said the government would tackle the agitation politically. "The BJP-RSS are trying to create tension and destroy the peaceful atmosphere in Kerala for political gain. We know the agenda of the RSS and BJP very well," he said and insisted the government did not want any confrontation with believers. The BJP rejected the allegation, saying the government was responsible for the "collapse" of law and order.

Even as streets in Nilakkal and Pamba erupted in tumult, thousands of bare-chested Ayyappa devotees waited patiently in the vast concourse outside Sabarimala for its gates to open at the appointed hour  5 pm. Carrying "Irumudikettu" (the sacred bundle containing ghee-filled coconuts they offer to the deity), they calmly walked past security personnel to take their place in the long queue where they would wait for hours on end for a glimpse of Lord Ayyappa. Though older women and very young girls could be seen in the crowd, none of the menstrual age was spotted. "No girl or woman in the age group of 10 and 50 has so far visited Sannidhanam (the temple complex) so far," a senior official of the Travancore Devaswom Board, the body which manages the shrine, told PTI wishing not to be named.

The shrine will remain open for the 5-day monthly pooja during the Malayalam month of Thulam before being closed on 22 October. 'Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad' led by Pravin Togadia and the 'Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi', an outfit of devotees, have called a 24-hour-long hartal starting midnight.Amid the row over the entry of women into Sabarimala temple, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Thursday offered reconciliation to the protesters and said that it is willing to compromise on the issue.

Amid the row over the entry of women into the Sabarimala temple, the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) on Thursday offered reconciliation to the protesters and said that it is willing to compromise on the issue.

TDB is a temple body which manages the Ayyappa shrine in Sabarimala. Reaching out to the protesters, TDB president A Padmakumar said, "We are ready for any type of compromise to sort this issue," as he asked, "If the board agrees to file a review petition at the Supreme Court, will the protesters end the present protest?"

The TDB will meet on Friday to finalise its stand on filing a review petition.

The development comes after a meeting of the CPM state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. The secretariat had reportedly been critical of the way in which the Pinarayi Vijayan government handled the issue. The TDB includes members appointed by the CPM.

On Wednesday, the iron gates of Sabarimala temple were opened for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age to enter the shrine. However, no woman from the previously "banned" age group could make it to its precincts amid protests and violent clashes.

Tensions prevailed on Thursday and Section 144 of the CrPC was in force in several parts of Kerala. A 24-hour shutdown backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was called in the state against Wednesday's police attack on protesters who were opposing the apex court ruling.

With inputs from Naveen NairAddressing the party's annual Dussehra rally in central Mumbai, a few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Uddhav said a '2014-like wave' is not prevailing in the country.

Mumbai: Making a strong pitch for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Thursday said he would visit the Uttar Pradesh town on 25 November and "question" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

Addressing the party's annual Dussehra rally in central Mumbai, a few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Uddhav said a "2014-like wave" is not prevailing in the country. The BJP had attributed its 2014 electoral success to the "Modi wave". Uddhav also asked Sena workers to be prepared for polls.

In the party convention held earlier this year, the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra and the oldest member of the NDA, had declared to go solo in future polls. "I will go to Ayodhya on 25 November. I will ask questions to the prime minister (over alleged delay in constructing the temple)...We are not enemies of the prime minister, but we don't want to play with the emotions of the people," Uddhav told a huge gathering of the party workers.

He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four and half years, after becoming the prime minister. Uddhav asked the ruling BJP to declare its promise to construct the Ram temple as a "jumla" (gimmick) if it is not going to implement the same. The Sena chief also sought to dispel perception that his party is sticking to power in Maharashtra even as it has been unrelenting in criticising the BJP and the prime minister.

Uddhav said his party has been targeting the government over non-performance of the BJP government. "Now the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is also speaking the same language as ours... Recently, RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said it is the duty of Raja (king) to keep people happy. We all know who is the king in democracy,"Uddhav said, without naming anyone.

"You ask us to walk out of the government (when the Sena criticises the government)... Why don't you ask the RSS to tell the BJP to walk out of the government now (for its criticism by the Sangh)?" Uddhav asked. He also hit out at the BJP-led government over several issues, including price rise, alleged delay in implementing the promise of abrogating Article 370 and for not acting tough against Pakistan.

Uddhav also criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government for "delay" in declaring drought in the state despite several parts reeling under water shortage. Referring to a Maharashtra BJP leader's comment that PM Modi is the "eleventh incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, Uddhav asked, "If that is the case then why the Modi government cannot control skyrocketing prices?"Various Hindu outfits called for a hartal in Kerala in protest against the Supreme Court's decision to allow women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.

Kerala experienced a statewide shutdown on Thursday after various Hindu outfits called for a hartal in protest against the Supreme Court's decision to allow women of all age groups to enter the Sabarimala temple.

Buses and auto-rickshaws stayed off the road. However, stray incidents of stone-pelting on Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses were reported from some parts of the state, police said. However, private vehicles were plying in some areas.

Police had also imposed Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) Section 144 in four places including Pamba, Sannidhanam to check any kind of protest and violence.

Devotees force woman journalist to turn back

Suhasini Raj, a journalist who was covering the situation for The New York Times, on Thursday faced a situation similar to female journalists trying to enter the temple on Wednesday. Many were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of activists of Hindu fringe groups besieged the road leading to the temple.

She was stopped midway by Lord Ayyappa devotees opposing entry of women of menstrual age into the hill shrine. The journalist accompanied by her male colleague, a foreigner, descended the hills from Marakkoottam area in the face of mounting protest by Ayyappa devotees.

Malayalam news channels who followed the journalist to the hill shrine said the devotees shouted slogans such as ladies go back. Some even allegedly hurled abuses at her opposing her entry into the ancient shrine, the reports said.

The woman told protesters that she was a journalist and she was on her way to the shrine for carrying out her professional duty.

Police had thrown a security ring around the woman and her colleague. However, despite police assurances, she decided not to climb the hills further, ANI reported.

#Visuals from #Kerala: Journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times, on her way to #SabarimalaTemple, returned midway after being stopped by protesters today. pic.twitter.com/D5bh5a1kNv  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Asianet quoted Suhasini as saying that "she did not want to create trouble," before she abandoned her trek to the shrine.

BJP violates Section 144, six arrested after party stages sit-in



At least six BJP youth wing activists were arrested at Nilakkal for staging a protest in violation of section 144 of the CrPC. Police removed the slogan-shouting Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members who launched a sit-in protest at Nilakkal, the gateway to Sabarimala, soon after the BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai announced in Thiruvananthapuram 41 BJYM activists would violate Section 144 in areas including Nilakkal.

The BJP youth wing workers made no attempt to resist the arrests. They courted arrest and boarded the police vehicle chanting Ayyappa slogans. They were later taken to the Pampa police station.

While being bundled into a police vehicle, state BJYM president Prakash Babu said not a single woman in the age group of 10 to 50 would be allowed to climb the hills which house the temple.

Police said strong action would be taken against those disrupting the law and order.

Religious leaders fight for 'tradition'



The Sabarimala head priest, Kandaru Rajeevaru, dismissed reports that the tantri family had planned to close down the Lord Ayyappa temple if young women entered it to offer prayers. He was reacting at Sannidhanam, a part of the temple complex, after some reports were widely shared on social media.

"We have never said that the temple will be closed if women of the traditionally barred age group enter there. It is our duty and responsibility to carry out the monthly poojas and other rituals. We will not break the custom," Rajeevaru said.

The priest, however, did appeal to the women belonging to the age group of 10-50, who were restricted as per the centuries-old traditions of the shrine, not to come to Sannidhanam and create a problem. Talking to a Malayalam news channel, he said that the monthly poojas will be marred if the women from the banned group entered the temple.

He said that the devotees who are protesting against the Supreme Court verdict might feel hurt if anybody tries to break the custom.

ANI reported that he also condemned the Supreme Court's verdict, and quoted him as saying: "The Supreme Court thinks only about the law of the land, not about the customs and traditions. So many devotees still want that old customs be maintained. I have only one opinion, which is based on the old custom and tradition."

SC did not take tradition into consideration: Mohan Bhagwat on Sabarimala row

Amid the protests, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered his annual Vijayadashami address in Nagpur Thursday morning. Speaking about the Sabarimala issue, he said the Supreme Court verdict has not taken into consideration the nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and has given rise to "divisiveness" in society.

Decisions taken without considering all aspects and patiently creating a mindset of society will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order, in tune with changing times and positions, he said.

"The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows a similar predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into consideration," Bhagwat said.

"The version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account. The plea by a large section of women, who follow this tradition, was not heard too," he noted.

Kerala CM blames RSS for Sabarimala violence

The Kerala government claimed that the RSS was trying to "destroy" the Lord Ayyappa shrine by "unleashing terror". The BJP, however, countered the allegation, saying the CPM-led LDF government was trying to tarnish the Ayyappa Temple and was responsible for creating tension at the holy shrine.

Blocking devotees from proceeding to the Ayyappa Temple and forcing them to return by creating terror was part of the RSS-Sangh Parivar's move to "destroy" Sabarimala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan charged in a Facebook post.

"RSS is trying to destroy the Lord Ayyappa shrine by unleashing terror," the chief minister alleged.

"The final objective of the Sangh Parivar forces is to establish the upper caste dominance by destroying the acceptance enjoyed by all sections of the society at the shrine," he said.

Making it clear that the government would not allow the temple to be turned into a "riot zone", he said any attempt to check people from trekking the holy hills would be dealt with.

Kerala police ups security, says 'situation under control'

To prepare for any potential violent outbreaks, Kerala police increased security measures in regions around the temple. From making assurances about increased manpower to shutting down any violations of the hartal, police personnel has special security arrangements at various locations in the state, including Pamba, Nilackal, Erumeli en route to the temple, located in Pathanamthitta district, officials said.

The Kerala DGP also ordered the state police's cyber cell to register cases against people who are spreading hatred posts about violence ensuing in Nilakkal and Pamba on social media, ANI reported.

Another report from ANI quoted PB Nooh, Pathanamthitta Dist Collector, as saying: "Situation is peaceful. There's no problem here. We've deployed sufficient police force in Pampa andSannidhanam. There's no issue. Currently this (Section 144) has been imposed for 2 days, further decision will be taken as per situation."The Uttarakhand government on Thursday declared a three-day state mourning following the death of Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand government on Thursday declared a three-day state mourning following the death of Congress veteran Narayan Dutt Tiwari with Governor Baby Rani Maurya, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and PCC president Pritam describing his demise as an "irreparable loss" to the country.

The state government declared a three-day mourning during which the national flag will fly half mast at government buildings in the state till 20 October.

Tiwari died at a private hospital in Delhi Thursday after prolonged illness. He was 93.

In a condolence message, Governor Maurya prayed for the departed soul and commiserated with the bereaved family.

"Tiwariji was a popular leader and an efficient administrator. Apart from helming the affairs of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand as a chief minister, he had successful stints at the Centre as a Union minister."

"His death is an irreparable loss to the country and the society," she said.

Chief Minister Rawat also remembered him as a man who made significant contribution to the industrialisation of both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand during his chief ministership.

"ND Tiwari dedicated his entire life to the service of the nation both during the country's freedom struggle and after it attained independence," he said.

"He was a Union minister and held charge of key portfolios like finance and external affairs," Rawat said.

"He contributed significantly to the industrialisation of Uttar Pradesh as its chief minister and also that of Uttarakhand when it was still in its infancy after attaining statehood," he said.

He also described him as a large-hearted man who could rise above petty political considerations when it came to matters of public interest.

Led by PCC president Pritam Singh, hundreds of Congress workers observed a two-minute silence at the state Congress headquarters here to pay tribute to the party veteran.

Speaking on the occasion, Singh said,"The eminence that Tiwari ji attained in his political career despite his modest roots is an example for others to follow."

"He made great contribution to building an infant state by giving it a sense of direction," he said.

A three-day state mourning till October 20 has been declared in Uttarakhand in the honour of the departed leader, Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi said.Despite an overall feminisation of agriculture, due to the increasing migration of men from villages, only 13% of rural women own land in their own name.

Until just about a decade ago, 48-year-old Gayatris life and identity were limited to the realm of the household, within the prescribed gender roles of a caregiver and a housewife.

However, today, she is a stellar example of a prosperous woman farmer  an empowered woman to be celebrated and looked up to  a rarity in her region.

A resident of Chitrakoots Darai village, Gayatri lost her husband in an accident 11 years ago. This left her with the sole responsibility of bringing up her four children, while still dealing with the unexpected death of her husband. Being unacquainted with the daily workings of agriculture, Gayatri initially leased out the familys farmlands after her husbands death. Two years later, however, she decided to take up farming herself, since the earlier arrangement was earning her practically nothing.

Today, as Indian farmers are reeling from droughts, famines, and extreme penury, being a woman farmer is an even grimmer ordeal. Women farmers continue to live at the periphery of Indias socio-economic landscape, in spite of comprising half of the agricultural labour force, and 80% of all economically active women in the country. Despite an overall feminisation of agriculture, due to the increasing migration of men from villages, only 13% of rural women own land in their own name. So much so, that the word farmer or kisaan is used solely for men, with women mostly being referred to by the inferior farm workers.

Regardless of the odds, Gayatri successfully cultivated the familys 18 bighas (approximately 11 acres) all on her own, and managed to, not only run her household, but also bring up and educate her three daughters and a son. There was a time when I would manually plough the fields myself with the plough slung around my neck. But I learnt the ropes eventually and now, I grow and sell various crops like paddy, wheat, mustard, masoor, and chana, she relates nostalgically.

Besides the struggles of a woman in agriculture, Gayatri has to deal with problems peculiar to rural Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh as well. With the practice of anna pratha on the rise, abandoned cattle are a major cause for farmers woes in the Bundelkhand region. Since cow slaughter has become taboo under the incumbent Yogi Adityanath government, farmers are abandoning their old cows once they are past their milk-giving years, which in turn are wreaking havoc and destroying crops everywhere. This means farmers having to be on sentry duty in their fields practically 24x7. We have to watch the fields all day and all night, else these abandoned stray animals completely ruin them. They are anyway on the rise these days in the Modi era, laughs Gayatri.

This is in addition to the rampant crimes which the region is infamous for, though, fortunately, Gayatri has not had to deal with any so far. I dont know how I have been so lucky, but I have never had an encounter with dacoits in all these years. In any case, this is something I have never felt scared of, whatever time of the day or night it may be. When I go to the fields, all I carry is a stick, while my son carries an axe sometimes.

In our country, while men do more of the technical work in agriculture, women do all the manual labour like sowing, ploughing, harvesting, and almost all of the heavy weight-lifting. Moreover, longstanding patriarchal traditions of agriculture have prevented women from being recognised as beneficiaries of government policies directed towards farmers welfare, thereby denying them institutional support from banks, insurance companies and cooperative societies. Gayatri, too, is no stranger to the struggles of an Indian woman farmer. I see it daily with my own eyes. Women do all the hard work  be it cutting and collecting hay, milking the cattle, sowing seeds, or harvesting. On top of that, they run their respective households and take care of their children as well. Naturally, most of them are perpetually tired, suffering from weakness, body ache, and what not! But there is no one to listen to them or take care of them. Even when they fall sick, they just keep self-medicating. No one takes them to a doctor till they are almost about to fall.

For the agricultural sector to flourish, and the socio-economic upliftment of women in general, women farmers like Gayatri need to be recognised, and their voices heard at the grassroots as well as the policy level. Until then, strong women like Gayatri will continue to be the flag-bearers of empowered women farmers in the country.

Khabar Lahariya is a women-only network of rural reporters from Bundelkhand.Several city-based hospitals, and the Department of Medical, Health, and Family Welfare are on high alert as the Zika virus spreads through Rajasthan.

Editor's note: The Zika virus outbreak in Rajasthan has affected around 80 people in the state so far. This article is the second one in a multi-part series which focuses on the causes of the outbreak and the measures taken against it.

Jaipur: Several city-based hospitals, and the Department of Medical, Health, and Family Welfare (DMHFW) are on high alert as the Zika virus spreads through Rajasthan. As per latest reports, the number of people who have tested positive stands at 80.

A variety of measures are being carried out by concerned authorities, including the municipal corporation, to deal with the epidemic. These measures, however, are seen as a delayed response to an epidemic that broke about two weeks ago in Shastri Nagar, Jaipur. The source of the virus, whether from a person travelling to Jaipur or locally developed, still remains a mystery.

The disease is spread if an already infected person is bitten by Aedes mosquito. The same has happened in this case. We have not found the source of the disease, but we are sure it is from a person who visited Jaipur after visiting an affected area. We are trying to ensure the disease does not spread further, said Dr Narottam Sharma, chief medical and health officer, at the Jaipur DMHFW.

Measures taken, but two weeks down

Several measures are being taken to spread awareness regarding the virus symptoms and prevention methods.

As many as 150 private and government doctors have been sensitised during a workshop by the government. Under the programme, the doctors were given training on identification and treatment of the virus, said Dr Leeneshwar Harshwardhan, professor of medicine, and medical superintendent at Kanwatia Hospital. These training sessions were conducted on 8 October, while the first case of Zika was identified on 22 September.

The state government on Tuesday increased the number of teams to 330, where each team comprises two members. These teams have been performing anti-larvae activities on a door-to-door basis, only across Zika-affected areas of the city. If a positive case is found in one part of the city, a door-to-door survey of the larvae is conducted within a three-kilometre diameter. Nothing is being checked in the remaining city, Sharma said.

Pamphlets are being distributed across the city that list out several precautions to be taken. These include usage of condoms for six months if one partner has suffered from Zika, usage of mosquito re-plants and nets during the day and at night, conducting Zika tests before blood donations, wearing attire with full sleeves, avoiding collection of water in and around residential areas, among others.

Rallies are also being conducted, where information is given on open mic across schools and colleges. This aims to spread awareness about causes and symptoms of Zika and other weather-related diseases, and ways to avoid them.

Nothing learnt from other states

In 2016, the Union Health Ministry had issued guidelines regarding the Zika virus, and had asked Kerala and Tamil Nadu to be extra careful. This had come as a response to increase in number of dengue cases in the state. Rajasthan is one of the top six states in India with the highest number of dengue cases, amounting to about 3,000 cases in 2018 so far. Proper surveys are being conducted in schools on a regular basis for dengue but larvae can grow anywhere, especially in houses. Jaipur Municipal Corporation has not taken proper precautionary measures earlier to ensure removal of the mosquitoes, informed an official from the health department.

Since Rajasthan is the third state to experience a sudden breakout of Zika, a team from the Central Department of Health is visiting Jaipur to ensure proper execution of safety measures being taken to eradicate the disease, informed Sharma.

The team has members from Gujarat and Delhi. They are monitoring the manner in which presence of larvae is being checked in the houses. They also give us several other suggestions based on which the process is executed, said Sharma. The suggestions include checking locations like water tanks, refrigerators, water inside air coolers and others, where mosquito larvae could easily breathe, during the door-to-door survey.

Despite warnings from neighbouring states, effective measures against Zika were not taken in Rajasthan in 2017. Also, there is no initiative taken to identify areas at high risk, as the door-to-door surveys are conducted only in areas that have been found with positive cases.

Along with Rajasthan, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were hit with the virus as well. According to reports, the three cases of Zika virus detected in Gujarat in early 2017, were actually reported to World Health Organisation in mid-2017, suggesting a cover-up.

Gujarat carried out mass communication campaigns to raise awareness among citizens, which was followed by action that included four rounds of door-to-door surveys. The state, with the help of panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations, conducted vector indoor residual spraying across 41 lakh households. Families living in high-risk areas were identified and 3.3 lakh mosquito nets were distributed, said an official of the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme, Gujarat.

Tamil Nadu reported a singular case in 2017  Once the case was confirmed, all districts were pressed into preventing its spread. All district collectors and district health secretaries were alerted and asked to continually monitor government hospitals for any new cases. Anyone who came in with high fever had to be compulsorily tested for Zika. Patients deemed particularly vulnerable were given mosquitoes nets, said J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Tamil Nadu.

Moreover, corporation officials instantly initiated cleanliness drives, regular inspections were carried out, and individuals and organisations found flouting the rules were fined. A 104 helpline was established for the public to report cases or address concerns. Medical and awareness kiosks were set up at all airports in the state and passengers showing any symptoms were examined, added Radhakrishnan.

About 40 supervisors were also trained in Tamil Nadu to conduct intensive surveillance and 75 engineers were trained as part of an ongoing process. As the symptoms of Zika are similar to that of dengue and chikungunya, the governments focus was to ensure and minimise mosquito breeding, control mosquito population and increase anti-larvae activities.

According to a report by The Hindu, the WHO has warned that new cases may occur in the future, based on the local circulation of the virus, particularly because the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that transmits the virus thrives in India.

With inputs from Mydeen Abdul Kadar, Tamil Nadu

(Authors are freelance writers and members of 101reporters.com.)

Also read  Zika outbreak in Rajasthan: Jaipur Municipal Corporation under scanner as doctors point out delay in foggingViolent, mentally unstable and morally ambiguous, Moon Knight doesnt really fit the classic image of a hero | From our #HeroesAndVillains series

Editor's note: The characters  and story-lines  that inhabit popular comic books can be expansive, multidimensional, and often, just plain bewildering. Firstpost's #HeroesAndVillains is a one-stop definitive guide to understanding (and keeping track of) comic book characters. From the iconic to the little-known, the old and the new, superheroes and their villainous nemeses  this is the deep dive you need, and deserve.

***

A martial arts expert with a (usually) vast fortune, an arsenal of themed gadgets, a lot of emotional baggage and a thirst for justice or at the very least, vengeance sound like someone you know? But unlike a certain crime-fighting billionaire orphan, this knight makes no attempt to make an ally of the darkness. As a matter of fact, Marc Spector, as his alter ego Moon Knight, does the exact opposite.

I don't wear white to hide myself. I wear it so they'll see me coming. So they'll know who it is.  Moon Knight

Violent, mentally unstable and morally ambiguous, Moon Knight doesnt really fit the classic image of a hero. An opinion that many of the Marvel heroes hes interacted with over the years seem to share. An Anti-hero then? Well yes, but that term is over-used. Han Solo is considered an anti-hero because of his lovable-rogue shtick. Moon Knight is a revenant, an avatar of divine retribution, an aspect of vengeance Moon Knight was the kind of anti-hero who carved the face off of his nemesis before killing him. A disposition that could explain why he and Frank Castle aka The Punisher would get along rather well.

I should emphasise that this is how Moon Knight used to be. Recent publications have portrayed Spector working hard to deliver the same amount of justice with a greatly reduced body count. While things dont always go to plan, Moon Knight has managed to shift public perception to the point that most now see him as a real superhero; and not a mentally ill mass-murderer whose actions reduce crime by coincidence.

Origin and Powers

Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin in 1975 in a publication titled Werewolf By Night, Moon Knight was originally cast as a repentant villain in service to a shadowy organisation calling themselves The Committee, who hunted down and captured series protagonist Jacob Rusell only to betray his employers and free Rusell and his captured friends.

Once it was decided that Moon Knight was going to be a joining Marvels publication roster as a hero, his origin was reconceptualised and this event was retconned to indicate that Moon Knight and his allies had infiltrated the Committee in order to destroy it from within.

Marc Spector, now a United States Marine, spent three years on active duty before being dishonourably discharged for insubordination. The CIA was happy to overlook his erratic behaviour given his skills and offered him a place within the Special Activities Division. After leaving the CIA Marc knew that a man of his skills, training and psyche profile have few options when it comes to civilian work.

Along with a former contact, veteran pilot Jean-Paul Frenchie Du Champ, Marc decided to explore opportunities as Soldiers-Of-Fortune. However, his career as a mercenary came to an end in Egypt, when his unit leader, the famously vicious, Raoul Bushman (aka Raul Bushman), decided to betray their employers and steal the treasure and artefacts they were hired to guard. Confronting Raoul in single combat, Marc was brutally defeated and left for dead.

On the verge of death, Marc was visited by the spirit of Khonshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon and of vengeance. Khonshu offers to restore him to life but in exchange demands that Marc serves as his avatar on Earth. Naturally, Marc accepts and adopts the title of Moon Knight. Spector then confronts Bushman again, killing him and then returning to the United States with Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, the daughter of Peter Alraune, whom Bushman had betrayed.

Spector is a talented hand to hand combatant and is highly proficient with a variety of firearms, although as Moon Knight he doesnt often engage in ranged combat beyond the use of crescent-shaped throwing discs. Hes an expert detective and interrogator and also a talented pilot.

In terms of superpowers, Moon Knight is quite limited, comparable to Marvels street level heroes such as The Defenders (Daredevil, Iron Fist etc). Moon Knights superhuman powers include super-strength, durability and resilience. Additionally, as a positive by-product of his compromised mental health, he is resistant to psionic attacks and telepathic probing.

The extent of Moon Knights powers wax and wane with the phases of the Moon, with him being at his most powerful during a full moon. That said, at his strongest, Spector can supposedly lift around two tons, about the weight of a premium sedan, which is not particularly impressive within the superhero community.

However, these superhuman abilities are dependent on Khonshus favour and several publications have seen Spector running afoul of the enigmatic Egyptian deity. As a result, it can be difficult to determine the limits of his abilities from one story to another.

Also read: Mandrake the Magician: The first comic book superhero also dealt with serious family issues

Allies and adversaries

Moon Knight, through his various alter-egos, maintains a reasonably effective network of contacts and informants. Beyond that, he has also occasionally found it necessary, or at least convenient, to team up with a variety of heroes over the years.

Initially, the Team consisted only of his former comrade in arms Frenchie as his pilot and Marlene, who served as an informant with whom Marc has had an on-again, off-again relationship with since he rescued her from Egypt. Jeff Wilde (Midnight) the son of one of Moon Knights early villains also unexpectedly joined the team as Spectors sidekick until he was later killed in action.

Moon Knight was also a member of the West Coast Avengers for some time and while not always seeing eye to eye with Steve Rogers, was recruited by him to his Secret Avengers team following H.A.M.M.E.R. being disbanded and the abolition of the Superhuman Registration Act.

Finally, we have Moon Knights divine patron, Khonshu, the mysterious God of the Moon who resurrected him (twice) and from whom Moon Knight derives his superhuman abilities. You wouldnt guess it from looking at him, but Khonshu, who usually chooses the form of a dust and cob-web covered man in a suit with a bird skull for a head, is generally considered a (mostly) benevolent God.

The question of whether Khonshu is real or a figment of Spectors imagination has been raised several times, but current interpretations tend to agree that while Spector may be crazy, Khonshu is real and Marc is the executor of his will.

As one of the few heroes whose powers confine them mostly to low-level conflicts but whose origins bridge over to the mystic and cosmic realms of the Marvel Universe, Moon Knight has an extremely eclectic rogues gallery. Over the years Moon Knight has fought common thugs, mercenaries, werewolves, aliens, ghosts and Gods such as Seth and Ra (or their mortal incarnations at any rate).

Like in any good superhero story, the most dangerous villains are those who are in essence a dark reflection of themselves. A resurrected Raoul Bushman, a deranged veteran calling himself Black Spectre and Shadow Knight, a former member of The Committee who claims to be Marcs brother Randall Spector, are among the most prominent villains across Moon Knights publication history. These characters serve as an antithesis to Spector and their return in various storylines force him to constantly confront a past that he would rather forget.

Character and Philosophy

Since his introduction, Moon Knights story arc has been quite a roller coaster. This is likely reflective of the fragile nature of Marc Spectors psyche as various aspects of his consciousness vie for control. Alter egos such as millionaire entrepreneur Steven Grant and hard-boiled cab driver Jake Lockley were created as a means for Spector to gather information and develop contacts across various strata of society. However, these aliases quickly took on lives of their own.

The Steven Grant persona grew in strength until at one point it became the dominant personality for a period of time. As Jake Lockley, he was even able to reconcile his relationship with Marlene and father a child with her while keeping it a secret from Spector and his other identities.

As of issue #194, Marc Spectors alter egos are said to exist as the result of childhood trauma (being hunted by an anti-Semite serial killer and former Nazi no less). But they dont meaningfully impact Marcs life until his mercenary days are over and so Ive chosen to stick with the original timeline for their introduction.

The will of Khonshu also plays a major role in how Moon Knight behaves. Early adventures show a character driven by vengeance, often killing, without hesitation, anyone he deems worthy of retribution. However, over time Spector rebels against Khonshu; and while he continues to fight crime, resolves only to kill as a last resort.

Taken as a whole, Moon Knights character has transitioned from Chaotic Neutral/Good to Lawful Good over the years. This transition is further enforced by the development of a new alter-ego named Mr Knight, who, rather than being a vigilante, actually works with the police department, providing pro-bono consultation, intelligence and analysis services though he has no trouble getting his white gloves dirty from time to time.

As you might expect in a comic starring a character with dissociative identity disorder, the key theme of Moon Knight is the exploration of identity and the self. Often Moon Knights stories focus just as much on Marcs tormented psyche and the enemy within as it does on his battles with more corporeal threats in the real world. In more recent publications such as 2016s Lunatic, it is left up to the reader to interpret what events from the entire series of Moon Knight, if any, are real. While the events following Lunatic supposedly bring Spectors mental illness to an end, its too early to determine whether this resolution will last for long.

The Fist Of Khonshu

I have always been a fan of unreliable narrators as a storytelling device and theres no narrator more unreliable than a man whose grasp on reality is tenuous at best. As a result, we are often left unable to objectively trust what we see, which can make re-reading issues to try to find hidden details and catch minor inconsistencies a very rewarding experience.

What Moon Knight lacks in amazing superpowers and interesting villains, it makes up for with interesting storytelling. His interactions with Khonshu, often cryptic and unsettling, stick with you long after you stop reading. Spectors lack of powers compared to some of his foes ratchets up the danger and makes every fight one that he could lose. I like my invincible heroes as much as the next man, but for me, the heroes who need to struggle for every victory are the ones I am probably more interested to read about.

Essential reading

Moon Knights issue numbering online is a bit confusing, but all of the titles recommended below are available on the Marvel Digital Store. These are some of Moon Knights best story arcs and will tell you everything you need to know about the character and supporting cast if youve never read any of the characters comics until now.

Moon Knight (2006-2009)

Vol 1: The Bottom

Vol 2: Midnight Sun

Vol 3: God & Country

Vol 4: The Death of Marc Spector

Vol 5: Down South

Vengeance of the Moon Knight (2009-2010)

Vol 1: Shock and Awe

Vol 2: Killed, Not Dead

Moon Knight (2014-2015)

Vol 1: From The Dead

Vol 2: Dead Will Rise

Vol 3: In The Night

Moon Knight (2016-2017)

Vol 1: Lunatic

Vol 2: Reincarnations

Vol 3: Birth and Death

See more from the series here.Hindu mythology is full of examples of people being terrible to snakes, for all that they are worshipped in several parts of the country.

The Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, tweeted JK Rowling a few weeks ago, causing a flurry of exclamation points all over India. We're perfectly happy to share, but to be told  brazenly! by Jo, who I love in most other things!  that the snake-y gods that originated here and then travelled to some parts of Asia were of another country? We didn't even have time to get into the whole making a Korean woman turn into a snake in the next movie thing, because we were so busy being cross about having to correct Rowling, mother of Harry Potter and of Cormoran Strike.

On the other hand, it's not something to be super proud of in our own mythology either. Hindu mythology is full of examples of people being terrible to snakes, for all that they are worshipped in several parts of the country. Snakes were forever being hunted and killed en masse, and whether they were the actual serpents or half-human half-snake divinities, it was still murder. Take the case of King Janamajeya, descendent of the Pandavas. Because his father was killed by a snake bite, he decided to do a massive ethnic cleansing as it were, of all snakes, in what he called a Sarpa satra, and was only dissuaded by the interference of a half-Naga, half-Brahmin sage called Astika. Here's where it gets a little murky though. The Nagas could have also been a metaphor and a catch-all name for a few tribes known to exist then. An article by Bipin Shah on the history of the Naga people, when the divine serpents are mentioned in the epics, they're given physical characteristics, which coincide with the Naga tribes who once lived in Swat Valley, Punjab and the North West. Which means, that Janamajeya wasn't actually killing snakes, which is quite a terrible thing to do anyway, he was killing humans.

His ancestor Arjuna did it as well. In order to clear up a nice bit of forest for his new kingdom, he destroyed an entire forest which had Nagas living in it. One of those Nagas was a king called Takshaka whose wife was killed by Arjuna (and which is why Takshaka swore revenge on the Kurus and killed Janamajeya's father, the circle of death goes on and on in this ancient grudge). Another thing to come out of the fire? An ungrateful house guest. The asura Maya was staying with his snake-y friend in the forest but when the fire started, he went over to Arjuna's side and offered to design his kingdom for him. Okay, this could have also been a survival tactic as Arjuna would have almost certainly have killed him if he hadn't been of use.

Or take a lesson from the Real Housewives of Ancient India, and try and not fight with your sister as Kadru did with her sister Vinata. To be fair, Vinata sounds like she was pretty unbearable as well. Take this for example, their shared husband, the sage Kashyapa, asked them both to pick a boon. Kadru asked for a thousand Naga sons, and Vinata, not to be outdone, said, Oh, I'll only have two sons, but I want them to be more powerful than all those thousand my sister just asked for. Then the women lay eggs, which is horrific, and Kadru's sons hatched first, and Vinata, in her desperation, broke open one of her eggs, and her half-formed foetus flew into the sky cursing her for her impatience and telling her she'd have to be her sister's slave for a hundred years. Eventually, the other egg hatched as well, turning out to be the half-bird, half-man god Garuda.

But Kadru was cursed before her serpent children as well. Once, some sages took offence to the way she looked at them from the corner of her eye, and she became one-eyed as a result. It's also obvious she's a villain  she cheats in a bet and Garuda and Vinata have to become her slaves. Later, though, Garudas became a word for birds who eat snakes, so there's that.

Then there's Manasa, daughter of Kadru and Kashyapa, but oddly, not mentioned in a lot of texts. Her main deal is that she can't be a full god, because of her mixed parentage  doesn't seem to apply to cousin Garuda though, what's that about  so legends have her murdering humans until they submit to pray before her. Which is not a great way to get fans, unless you're a member of the Manson family.

You've got to feel a little bad for the snakes  human metaphors or otherwise. This much-maligned reptile just wants to be left alone to do its thing, and will not hurt humans unless provoked. Sadly, the opposite can be said about our heroes of Hindu mythology who seemed bent on wiping their world of any kind of diversity so that their kind, and their kind alone, would rule.

Read more from the 'Mythology for the Millennial' series here.

Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan is the author of several books, including The One Who Swam with the Fishes: Girls of the Mahabharata. She tweets @reddymadhavanVijay Sardesai, whose Goa Forward Party (GFP) is a key constituent of the BJP-led coalition government, met BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday afternoon to discuss the current political situation

Panaji: The BJP's central brass is "seriously looking at" the leadership issue in Goa to provide a stable government to people, state minister Vijai Sardesai claimed Thursday after meeting party chief Amit Shah in Delhi.

Sardesai, whose Goa Forward Party (GFP) is a key constituent of the BJP-led coalition government, met BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday afternoon to discuss the current political situation in the coastal state against the backdrop of the ill-health of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.

"I explained to him (Shah) the aspirations of Goans in the current political scenario. The BJP's central leadership is seriously looking at the leadership issue and to give Goa a stable government. We discussed the political scenario including the aspirations of the Goan people," the town and country planning minister told PTI over the phone from Delhi.

Shah had invited leaders of the key constituents of the Manohar Parrikar-led government to Delhi to meet him on Wednesday, but the meeting was rescheduled to Thursday.

Shah will meet Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader and state minister Sudin Dhavalikar later in the day.

The chief minister is away from office for long due to ill health, triggering speculation over the stability of his coalition government.

The opposition Congress had claimed the government was in disarray and has become rudderless. The party had also demanded a floor test in the state Legislative Assembly. Shah has already ruled out change of guard in Goa.

Parrikar, 62, had gone to the US for treatment of pancreatic ailment earlier this year.

He was admitted to Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on 15 September. He was shifted to Goa on 14 October and is currently recuperating at his private residence.

In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Parrikar government enjoys the support of 23 MLAs, including 14 of the Bhartiya Janata Party, three each from the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP), and three Independent legislators.

In a setback to the Congress in Goa on Tuesday, two of its 16 MLAs  Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar  resigned as members of the House Tuesday and joined the BJP.In Rajasthans politics, several sets of castes are like Rudyard Kiplings East and West opposite ends that are destined to never meet. This year's Assembly election is likely to yet again showcase the deep fault lines between these communities.

In Rajasthans politics, several sets of castes are like Rudyard Kiplings East and West opposite ends that are destined to never meet. This year's Assembly election is likely to yet again showcase the deep fault lines between these communities.

In the context of the elections scheduled for December, four castes have acquired importance: Jats, Rajputs, Gurjars, and Meenas. Their interplay and rivalry are coming to the fore as the polling day approaches  best underlined by Manvendra Singhs decision to join the Congress, and Meena heavyweight Kirori Lals attack on Congress chief Sachin Pilot.

Jats and Rajputs have been traditional political rivals in major parts of Rajasthan. Since the two never had a common meeting ground, they generally supported rival political parties in Rajasthan.

Traditionally, Jats were considered loyal to the Congress, while Rajputs supported the Opposition  first the Swatantra Party and later the BJP. However, this year, the Jats are weighing several options, one of them being Hanuman Beniwal, a firebrand youth leader from the community who can influence community voters in western Rajasthan.

Beniwal is a bit of a maverick with a sharp tongue. In the past, he has fought bitter battles against both the BJP and the Congress. On 29 October, he is slated to hold a show of strength in Jaipur, where he is expected to announce details about his new party and its coalition partners. Both the BJP and the Congress are watching Beniwal with anxiety since his proposed party could be the third force in several parts of the state.

To counter his influence, the Congress has made its first move  that of inducting Rajput leader Manvendra Singh.

Singhs family can influence several constituencies in western Rajasthan, where Beniwal is also a force to reckon with, and, thus, make up for the loss of Jat votes in the region. And since the Rajputs are already said to be unhappy with the BJP for their marginalisation, Singhs entry may further help the Congress hardsell itself to the community.

The challenge, of course, would be to ensure the gains from wooing Rajputs are politically much more than the potential loss of Jat votes. In western Rajasthan, where Jats are in sizable numbers and vote en bloc, this may be one of the decisive moves on the poll chessboard.

The Congress might be getting ready for a scenario, where mobilisation by a powerful community leads to a counter movement by other communities threatened by the aggressive rise of the former.

In this case, the Congress is hoping the rise of Beniwal  and with him, the Jats  would help it bring together Muslims, Rajputs, and Brahmins votes.

The other rivalry that seems to be blossoming is that of Gurjars and Meenas, two castes that fight for the same political space in eastern Rajasthan and areas around Jaipur. On Wednesday, Meena strongman Kirori Lal, who recently returned to the BJP, tried to stoke the old rivalry by targetting Pilot, a Gurjar.

Kirori asked the Rajasthan Congress chief to clear his stand on the Gurjar demand for inclusion among Scheduled Tribes (STs). Since Meenas are the biggest beneficiaries of the quota benefits extended to STs and Gurjars have been demanding similar benefits, the two communities see each other as rivals.

Kiroris ploy is simple: Raise the fear of a Gurjar chief minister, and mobilise the Meenas against the Congress.

As he lost most of his political equity with his frequent flip flops during the past two elections, it is not certain if the Meenas still listen to him. But, Kirori's effort to play the 'Gurjar versus Meena' game will force the Congress to tread with caution.

Meenas are not only politically significant in eastern Rajasthan, they are also seen as a martial community that controls voting behavior in villages. Again, like in western Rajasthan, threat of a Meena resurgence can lead to counter polarisation among other castes. How the equations shape up will determine the outcome of the election in the region.

Historically, castes have played an important role in Rajasthans politics, except in wave elections. Jats and Rajputs voted for the same party for the first time perhaps only in 1989, when Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Chaudhary Devi Lal spearheaded the campaign against the Congress, following an alliance between the BJP and VP Singhs Janata Dal. In 2013-14, the Narendra Modi wave also demolished the caste barriers and helped the BJP sweep the state.

This year, an undercurrent of anti-incumbency is palpable in Rajasthan. If it gathers momentum during the campaign, caste arithmetic may become largely insignificant. If not, it could play a major role.

One thing, however, is certain: Hindutva is no longer an issue in the state. Caste is the kingmaker again.Failure to name CM candidates could leave the Congress defeated even before the whistle blows on the race for power in three states going to the polls.

Failure to name chief ministerial candidates could leave the Congress defeated even before the whistle blows on the race for power in three states going to the polls over the next two months.

An internal party survey in Chhattisgarh, which votes for a new House in two phases on 12 and 20 November, has made clear the Congress chances of a victory hinge on its ability to pick a face to lead the campaign and also end factionalism  findings with significance for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan too.

Put simply, the partys problem is that there is more than one leader but no one tall enough to bring the factions together and take on the chief ministers, who are again leading the BJPs charge in all the three states.

Ashok Gehlot is considered mature and Sachin Pilot an emerging leader by the cadre, the survey found in Rajasthan. But, party workers also acknowledge there is intense groupism among Gehlot and Pilot loyalists. The cadre insists the two must bury their rivalry to take on the BJP.

In fact, this is the Congress best chance. Rajasthan, which will vote on 7 December, is notorious for not returning a ruling party while Raman Singh is facing 15-year incumbency in Chhattisgarh. In Madhya Pradesh, where voting will be held on 28 November, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, aiming for a fourth successive term, is battling farmers' anger, corruption charges and widening caste differences over quota benefits.

But the Congress is in a fix.

A number of regional leaders hold the key to the party winning a state election but at the same time, it has been losing tall regional leaders. Only a strong central leadership will be able to divide the spoils among its satraps in these circumstances.

The other big factor is that the Congress is not on a winning streak. If it denies leadership to regional bigwigs, they switch over to rival formations or go on their own.

These problems are best illustrated in Chhattisgarh as the survey, commissioned by the Congress to an external agency that also interviewed BJP cadre, found.

Out of power for 15 years in the mineral-rich state, the Congress has weakened considerably and Ajit Jogis decision to walk out has dealt it a body blow, the survey and interviews with party cadre show.

While 24 percent of the cadre backs TS Deo as the chief ministerial face in Chhattisgarh, 20 percent want Bhupesh Bhagel, says the survey findings seen by Firstpost. This means the party cant go into campaign projecting one leader as its risks upsetting the other and his supporters.

Suppose a particular leader is selected as CM face by the partys decision-makers at the centre and then you find he has lost election... So there is a practical approach here and we need to play a united game, says a Congress leader.

Almost half of the party cadres say the leaders need to set aside their differences and work together to take on the BJP, echoing what the leaders in Delhi say.

Over 50 percent of the cadre are neutral on who the chief minister should be if the party wins. The decision, they say, should be left to the party president Rahul Gandhi and others in the central leadership.

There is a larger pattern here and the Congress has failed to address it.

Jogi is not alone. In 2013, Congress split in Andhra Pradesh after a faction loyal to its strongman YS Reddy, who died in a helicopter crash four years earlier, walked out. Reddys son Jaganmohan is now the leader of the YSR Congress. In Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma quit the party to join the BJP, which within months formed its first government in the Northeastern state.

A Congress leader admits that the Jogi effect will harm the Congress in Chhattisgarh but says the problem  inability to pick leaders  is also its strength.

Equations in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are such that naming a chief ministerial candidate would lead to intense infighting. So, even if the Congress stands to gain from having a chief ministerial candidate, it will be unable to impose one leader on a state unit.

This also reflects the divergent organisational styles of the Congress and the BJP. We cannot be like the BJP which is cadre-based, and as for surveys, they fall behind the times in the rapidly-evolving situation in each state, says a Congress leader, who didnt wish to be identified.

What he means is that even in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Congress will pick a winner depending on results.

Two other Congress leaders in Delhi point out that not projecting a chief ministerial candidate is part of the high commands strategy, which it changes whenever necessary.Karnataka water resources minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday admitted that the Congress had made a mistake by getting involved in the Lingayat issue that had cropped up a few months before the state's Assembly elections in March.

In what could become a potent weapon for BJP in Karnataka, state water resources minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday admitted that the Congress had made a mistake by advocating for a separate religion tag for the Lingayat community. He said that getting involved in the Lingayat issue that had cropped up a few months before the state's Assembly elections in March was a clear mistake by his government. Some sections of the community had demanded that they be recognised as a religion separate from Hinduism.

Shivakumar was speaking at the Dussehra Sammelan of the Rambhapuri seer, Veer Someshwara Shivarcharya Swami in the Gadag district of the state. According to reports, Shivakumar said, "Our party has made a big mistake in this state. I don't deny it. I always believed, no government should interfere in matters of religion and caste. It was a crime made by our government. Many ministers, leaders spoke about the issue but the verdict of the people in the election is proof that governments should not interfere in these matters. If our government has made a mistake, we ask you for forgiveness."

Our govt committed big mistake.Political parties shouldn't interfere in religious matters. Many ministers,leaders spoke about it but election verdict is proof, it was a mistake. No political party should do politics with religion:K'taka Min DK Shivakumar on Lingayat issue (17.10) pic.twitter.com/hiu357YOaM  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

On 19 March, the then-Congress government had accepted the suggestions of an expert committee under Section 2(D) of the state Minorities Commission Act, , according to a report by The Economic Times. The proposal was then sent to the Centre for consideration and a decision is yet to be taken.

Lingayats, essentially are the followers of 12th century reformer Basavanna who preached against the prevalent caste system in Hinduism. There are also Veerashaivas who follow the teachings of Sri Renukacharya, who believed in Vedas, puranas and the caste system. Veerashaivas and Lingayats, who both worship Shiva, have always been considered one and the same. But there are some who contend they are different. They argue that Veerashaivas are a Shiva-sect of Hinduism, while the Lingayats must be deemed to belong to a different religion.

The Lingayats have for long been estimated to constitute up to 17 percent of Karnatakas population and largely support the BJP, which is cocksure of forming the next government.

In light of this fact, the Congress' move to grant the community a separate religion tag was seen as an election gimmick, aimed at wooing a politically important community. The issue was used by the BJP to attack then Siddaramaiah-led government. While the party maintained a cautious stance, keeping away from the move to give Veerashaiva/Lingayat a separate religion status, it accused the Siddaramaiah government of dividing the society to draw political mileage ahead of the last Assembly elections.Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said switching over of two Goa Congress MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a 'setback' for the saffron party as the latter speaks of 'principle politics', but practises something opposite to it.

Kolkata: Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid on Wednesday said switching over of two Goa Congress MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a "setback" for the saffron party as the latter speaks of "principle politics", but practises something opposite to it.

"You can call it a setback (for us) but I believe it is a setback for the BJP as they speak of principled politics. They complain that everything was wrong before they came to power and now, every day, we see them function in a manner that is extremely questionable.

"MLAs that go today can come back tomorrow, who were there (on opposition benches) can come here (ruling side)...is that the kind of politics that we want?" he asked.

"It is sad that those we cherished and worked with leave Congress and go to the BJP at this time when everybody is thinking of leaving BJP and coming to Congress. Let us see how things turn out," Khurshid told reporters after visiting the College Square Puja Marquee.

Two Congress MLAs from Goa, including a former state party chief, joined the BJP on Tuesday, dealing a blow to the Opposition party in a state where the saffron party-led alliance government enjoys a thin majority.

Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte, both of whom have resigned from the assembly, met BJP president Amit Shah at his residence Tuesday in the national capital. The MLA duo was later inducted into the saffron party at a press conference addressed by Union minister Piyush Goyal.

Talking on the Sabarimala issue, Khurshid said there are different points of view in society, and that the Supreme Court has tried its best to find a correct answer for this issue. "We have to accept what the Supreme Court finally decides and if we have any problem, then we can go back to the Supreme Court and explain.

"I think just as much as it is important to respect religion, it is important to respect institutions of our constitution, and for all sensible and responsible citizens, it is important to maintain a balance," he said.

The process of dialogue must not come to an end in our society. Whoever has any concern must express it and we should always be ready with an open heart and an open mind to listen to our people, the Congress leader said.

Women journalists were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of Hindu right activists besieged the road leading to the Sabarimala temple, whose gates were opened for women of menstrual age Wednesday evening for the first time after the Supreme Court's verdict.

Both the Congress, the main opposition party in Kerala, and the BJP, which is desperately seeking to expand its footprint in the state, have lent support to the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict.

The Supreme Court had last month lifted the centuries-old ban on women in the 10-50 age group to enter the shrine.There are at least 25 Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu who have been elected on BJP tickets from Kashmir in the urban local body polls.

Srinagar: He was the BJP candidate for the seat of Pahalgam in south Kashmir in the 1996 Assembly elections. Now, years later, Rakesh Koul, a Kashmiri Pandit who lives in the Janipur area of Jammu, has been elected unopposed in one of the wards of the Mattan Municipal Committee. He is hoping to be its chairman after the results for the elections to the urban local bodies (ULB) are announced on 20 October. Two other Kashmiri Pandits have also been elected uncontested to the municipal committee, and Koul is also expecting the support of others in the municipal body.

Kouls win is remarkable, as he migrated to Jammu along with other Hindus after armed militancy erupted in Kashmir in 1989. Though he lives in Jammu, which is at a distance of at least ten hours from Mattan, he said he will try to carry out development in the area from which he has won.  We first migrated to Jammu and later to Delhi. I live in Jammu, but I would work for the development of Mattan area. In Mattan, while three persons were elected unopposed, five others contested on BJP tickets, he said.

Like Koul, there are at least 24 other Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu who have been elected on BJP tickets from Kashmir. On counting day, the migrant voters could seal the fate of many contestants, as in many wards, only 2-3 percent votes were cast. The authorities had allowed Pandits to vote through postal ballots.

Rattan Lal Bhan, the chairman of All India Kashmiri Hindu Forum, said that nearly 3 lakh Kashmiri Pandits were eligible for voting in elections to municipal bodies in Kashmir. A large number of migrants registered to cast their ballot. For instance, in the Muthi migrant camp in Jammu, nodal election officer Virender Sathoo said that at least 600 postal ballots were issued.

Bhan said that the contesting of Kashmiri Pandits was a step towards the return of the migrants to Kashmir.  We are Kashmiris and so have a right to vote and contest on the wards in Kashmir, he said.

The voting rights to the Kashmiri Pandits who migrated out of the Valley, however, drew criticism from Kashmir-based political parties, who see this as another ploy by the BJP to control the municipal bodies in the region. In contrast to Jammu, from where the BJP won 25 Assembly seats in the 2014 elections, from Kashmir, it didnt even win a single seat.

But due to the boycott by the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 80 BJP candidates have been elected unopposed in the urban local body polls, 33 percent of whom are migrant Hindus.

BJPs state general secretary Ashok Koul said that the party fielded at least 35 Kashmiri Pandit candidates on different wards in Kashmir, of whom around 25 have been elected unopposed. In Srinagar, there is a contest on three seats on which Kashmiri Pandits have filed nominations. Likewise, in other parts, Kashmiri Pandits are in contest with others.

Former minister and senior National Conference leader Ali Mohammad Sagar, however, said,  These elections are a big sham in the name of democracy. In 2005, when former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed got the elections conducted, the votes of Kashmiri migrants were in Jammu, which was done through a decision of the state cabinet. But this time, without a cabinet decision or any consultations, the Kashmiri Pandit migrants were made voters for urban local bodies in Kashmir.

He said that it was for the first time that the polling percentage was a mere 3 percent, and remarked, "How can they carry out development in Kashmir when they have migrated to Jammu?"

Hakeem Yaseen, MLA from Khan Sahib and Peoples Democratic Front (PDF) leader, said that Kashmiri Pandit migrants contesting on seats in Kashmir have "turned the election into a joke."

He said, Even though previous governments had promised jobs to the migrants in Kashmir, they were not ready to return. How can a candidate who got elected unopposed or on a thin margin work in Kashmir, when the government has been claiming that the security situation is not conducive for the return of migrants?

However, Koul said that the BJP fielded Kashmiri Pandit migrants in Kashmir as their names were registered in urban local bodies in the Valley, and not in Jammu. Although state subjects can contest from anywhere, a proposer for a candidate has to be a voter from the concerned ward, he said.On the occasion of Vijayadashami on 18 October, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered his annual speech in Nagpur.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday delivered his annual Vijayadashami speech, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, at Nagpur's Reshimbagh Ground. In his address, he warned against the 'Urban Maoists' in the country and also urged the Narendra Modi government to clear the path for construction of Ram temple through appropriate and requisite law. Below is the full text of Bhagwat's speech:

Introduction

We have assembled here to celebrate the auspicious occasion of this years Vijayadashami. This year is the 550th Prakash Parv of Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji. When our entire society, by forgetting the truth inherited from the ancient tradition and the natural self of Bharat, got itself neck deep in a cesspool of hypocrisy, falsehood, selfishness and divide; became weak, defeated and disintegrated; and was getting fragmented by repeated thrashing of the brutal atrocities perpetrated by the cruel, intolerant, savage foreign invaders from across the border, Shri Guru Nanak Deo ji showed a new path of self-enlightenment based on the spiritual practice commensurate with the times through his life, gave the society a new life of oneness by ameliorating the strayed tradition.

It is his legacy that gave the country a magnificent and majestic tradition of 10 gurus who removed our state of penury and inferiority.

Mahatma Gandhi, whose 150th birth anniversary is being celebrated, provided the political foundation of truth and non violence to the independence movement of the country. This unique struggle for freedom was an outcome of the continuous enlightenment provided by the very same inclusive culture, based on love and truth, as propounded by several great personalities of this country from time to time.

All such efforts inspired the common man of the country to come out of his home and stand firmly with a moral force against the British oppression. The remembrance of martyrdom, sacrifice and dedication of hundreds of our unarmed countrymen, who were encircled from all sides and became victims of General Dyers bullets, hundred years ago while opposing the repressive and unjust Rowlett act and demanding freedom in the Jaliawala Bagh at Amritsar, invokes the same moral force in us.

It is imperative to mention these relevant reminiscences this year because although our country has achieved a significant level of progress in many sectors during the 71 years of Independence, we have yet to move forward in many other dimensions of progress in our all encompassing national life.

Several forces whose selfish designs are being defeated or hindered because of our progress as a well organized, strong and prosperous country have not retracted from plotting skullduggeries to block the path of our nation. We have yet to cross many a hurdles. We can achieve this feat by treading the path of those great ancestors who have established such hoary ideals and propagated them in the society by their exemplary life based on truthfulness, piousness, penance, affection and sacrifice.

The same message is evident when we see the present play of hope and despair in the country when we take a glance at the national scenario.

National Security

Border Security and internal security of the country are the issues of foremost consideration as they ensure space and opportunity to the nation for making efforts towards prosperity and development. Fruitful efforts have been undertaken to entwine the web of international relations by appraising the nations with our security concerns and getting their backing and cooperation.

The military, government and administration have displayed its clear intent to maintain peaceful and cordial relations with all the countries including the neighbouring ones in words and deeds, at the same time standing and acting firm and making prudent use of our capabilities while initiating bold actions wherever necessary in the context of national security.

In this regard efforts are being initiated and accelerated to enhance the morale of our armed and security forces, making them well-equipped and to provide them with latest technologies. This is one of the reasons that the prestige of Bharat is rising in the world.

Along with this, it is essential to be more attentive in enhancing the basic amenities of armed and security forces and their families. There have been some laudable efforts in this regard by the government. A thought must be given as to how its implementation can be expedited? From administrative point of view, it is imperative that the planning and implementation of these schemes 2 have to pass through the military officers and civilian administrative authorities and Departments like Home, Defense and Finance.

All these actors need to be more sensitive and respectful to the endeavours of these forces and their readiness to make a supreme sacrifice even by putting their lives at stake is a natural expectation that comes up in many discussions. Every countryman needs to keep this in mind that such an expectation is sought from the society as well, as it is from the government and administration.

It is utmost essential that our brethren fighting for the security of the society across the border and within the country wherever required do their tasks without any worries for the social security and wellbeing of their families. After the change of guard in the country across our Western borders, any decline in its overt and covert provocative activities especially in the states like Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab, neither has happened nor was expected.

In view of the dynamic international developments, safeguarding of our maritime borders has also assumed greater significance. There are hundreds of islands at various distances in the coastal area of Bharat adjacent to the mainland. All these islands including Andaman Nicobar are situated at strategically important locations.

From the security point of view, their maintenance and strengthening of the facilities there has to be attended and implemented as a matter of urgency. Expeditious attention needs to be given to have coordination, cooperation and resources among Navy and other forces guarding the maritime borders and islands.

Our brethren habituating along the land and sea borders are firmly holding the ground with determination despite facing several challenges peculiar to the border areas. If their wellbeing is taken care of, these locals in the bordering areas can also be of great assistance in tackling problems like infiltration, smuggling etc.

Both the government and society need to take more efforts so that relief, education, healthcare facilities and employment opportunities reach them in time and they are imbued with patriotism, valour and virtues.

The country cannot be assured about its security without the total self reliance in the field of defense production even while continuing with the multilateral exchanges wherever necessary. The pace of national efforts in this direction has to be accelerated.

Internal Security

The issue of internal security is equally important along with the border security of the country. The Union, as well as the State governments and administrations should sternly deal with the violent activities of elements, motivated or moved from inside as well as outside the borders, who challenge the law, Constitution and sovereignty of the country, is one of its remedial aspects.

The Union and State governments and police and paramilitary forces are successfully undertaking operations in this regard. They will have to continue it with the incessant vigil. But, it is a matter of fact that such elements who take part in violent and evidently illegal activities come from our own society.

At the root of this is ignorance, dearth of development and amenities, unemployment, injustice, exploitation, discrimination and absence of sensitivity and sanity of our society essential in an independent nation. The Government and administration do have a role to play in alleviating this. But a greater responsibility lies with the society.

An atmosphere of warmth and goodwill needs to be propagated by eliminating all such discrepancies within the society and embracing these brethren of our society with dignity and affection. The societal manifestation of this will have to start with the refinement of ones own conscience and conduct.

An intimate and regular contact will have to be maintained with all sections of the society by becoming part of their thick and thin. It is felt that Central and State governments have to be more transparent and should exhibit greater efficiency and sensitivity in effective and timely implementation of several plans, sub plans and various provisions made for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes.

Police forces are the first to take the call with respect to internal security. The National Police Commission has also made recommendations for reforms in their systems. It is necessary to ponder over these recommendations pending for several years and make efforts towards such reforms.

Disturbing Trends

The establishment running the country and the society at large need to show alacrity in assuring progress, empathetic response, transparent and respectful behavior in the efforts for upliftment of the weaker sections of the society. The lack of all this makes it easy to sow and grow the seeds of doubt, detachment, imprudence, rebellion, hatred and violence in these sections that are 3 severely affected due to the deprivation, injustice and negligence.

Taking advantage of this, the forces with selfish motives desirous of using them as cannon fodder in the anti-national and criminal activities play deceitful games among them. This trend can be understood by everyone from the continuous efforts during the last 4 years to give a specific tone to the agitations originated in some undesirable incident in the society, old and new issues bothering different sections of the society and long-standing or emerging demands.

The selfish power hungry politics with sheer disrespect for the social harmony, legal and Constitutional discipline and with an eye on votes in the upcoming elections have been apparently clear behind these machinations. But this time an atmosphere of divergence, separatism, violence, acerbic hatred and going to the extent of fueling anti-national sentiments is being created by exploiting these grievances.

The leading faces of the groups from whom the slogans like   were emanated, have been at the forefront with their provocative speeches in such incidents at some places. When the violent activities in remote forest areas were dealt with firmly, those leading and abetting violence were seen at the forefront of these agitations as votaries of Urban Naxalism.

To start with, an ideological follower group is created through a network of small groups and regular contact in the student hostels. Then, by infusing rabid violent acts in small and big agitations, giving anarchical experience, the fear of law and administration and the civic discipline is being systematically eroded among those followers.

On the other side, scorn and hatred is generated within the society and against the prevalent establishment and leadership. Through such incidents getting instantaneously violent, thought leadership in all sections of the society - which by and large stays within the social order and civic discipline - is sought to be suddenly discredited. To establish a new, unfamiliar, uncontrolled, outrightly biased Naxal leadership with blind followers solely committed to them is the Neo  Left doctrine of these urban Naxals.

Their cohorts already established in social and other media, intellectual circles and other institutions are associated with such activities from start to finish. They execute this by defending such activities through intellectual and other methods, through delusory public campaigns related to agitations, while keeping a safe distance and maintaining their so-called eminent positions.

They are experts in freely using deceit and poisonous provocative language to make their vicious campaign even more potent. Treasonous activity by taking help from enemies of the nation is considered as an additional skill. It can be unmistakably seen if we investigate the source of the content and narration in their social media campaigns. The actual presence of Jihadi and terrorist elements in one way or other in such incidents is a common factor among all these.

So the emerging conclusion is, this is a bigger canny conspiracy in collusion with forces from within and outside the country. It no more remains just a power politics by the opposition, but in this process, politically ambitious individuals and groups  either knowingly or unknowingly  and weaker sections, crushed under deprivation and neglect get drawn as ammunition unknowingly or unwillingly.

Through the manufacturing of vicious and hostile atmosphere that weakens and destroys the social cohesion - essentially the bedrock of internal security of a nation  a world of psychological warfare is being carved out. This is called as Mantrayuddh in our traditional Rajneeti Shastras.

To eliminate such tendencies, the Government and administration have to alertly ensure that such incidents, of which trouble mongers can take advantage of do not take place. At the same time, they will have to keep a constant vigil on such incendiary elements and forces so that they are not able to perpetrate such nuisance. Slowly, in the absence of any support from society, these incendiary elements will be completely defused. The administration has to make its intelligence gathering mechanism more comprehensive and alert. The schemes for the public good will have to reach the last man of the society through their prompt implementation. It will have to work with skill and diligence to ascertain law and order.

But an accurate and complete mitigation of these circumstances is possible only when all sections of the society interact with the disposition of kinship and goodwill in thought and heart. We need to see the diversity of sects and religions, castes and sub-castes, languages and provinces as expressions of unity. The entire society should own problems and conditions specific to any section of society to find a just and amicable solution through a cordial dialogue. An atmosphere where there can be uninterrupted friendly dialogue should be nurtured through greater contact and camaraderie. Citizens should follow the ambit of law and order and public discipline in their daily life.

In this connection, every citizen and politician may remember the famous speech by Hon. Dr. Babasaheb 4 Ambedkar delivered on 25th November 1949 wherein he advocates that without all pervasive fraternity in the society, it is not conceivable for the country to move in the direction of justice, freedom and equality and to attain social democracy along with political and economic democracy. The safety of these democratic values and our independence can be endangered without these. The means we adopted to raise our concerns when we were British subjects may be done away after attaining independence. We need to adopt only Constitutional methods, within the ambit of the democratic discipline.

Bhagini Nivedita has also considered civic consciousness as the manifestation of patriotism in the daily life of a citizen.

Necessity of Sanskar in the family

A firm and absolute consensus on these issues among the polity, judiciary, executive, local administration, organizations, dignitaries and common public and a feeling of intimate oneness in the society can be the only guarantee of stability, development and security of the country. These virtues should be instilled in the new generation of society from childhood itself at home, in schools and through social activities. Today, it has become pertinent that the younger generation gets the foundational virtues of humanity and good character in family life. Nowadays, the education curricula and the general atmosphere of the society almost lack these values. Time is running out in the wait for the implementation of the new education policy.

Even though there are many individuals and organizations making efforts for these changes both at societal and government levels, our home and family are always in our hands for making such efforts. It is necessary to see whether we are fulfilling our responsibility towards the new generation to shape their minds with virtues of natural affection, self discretion, family and social responsibility and by setting our own example of prudence in an informal and pious environment or not. A need is being felt world over to be extra attentive due to the changing times.

With the increasing reach and influence of media, gadgets with newer technologies that make individuals self-centred and expose them to right and wrong information and knowledge of the world without taking into cognizance their discretionary abilities, it is all the more necessary to acquire the values of family traditions. A discretionary capacity needs to be generated in the young generation with affection and our own example, for accepting the worth emanating from the new world with an open mind; and to guard themselves and others against the evil on the basis of our value system.

The news reports about incidents of suffering in families, indebtedness, immoral behavior and rape from the near and dear ones, suicides, caste conflicts and discrimination in the country are definitely a matter of concern and pain. Ultimately, the solutions to these problems lie in creating an affectionate and family atmosphere and social harmony. In this perspective, the entire society, including luminaries and leading intellectuals, need to take up the duty in this direction.

Integrated thinking

All those who are leading the society in various fields should keep in mind that every action, speech and thought of ours should nourish all including the individual, family, society, humanity and the environment. Nowhere in the world, healthy and peaceful social life has ever thrived and can thrive, merely based on the laws and fear of punishment.

Society abiding by laws is not the reason but the result of its ethical standards derived from the comprehension of the traditional social values. To adopt the customs and conventions with changing times, one may change the ethical practices and rules but by remaining firm on the edifice of values.

The real and complete Justice is done by interweaving of the four elements in consonance, namely, the natural instincts of desire and wealth that form the societal functioning; ethics that restraints such instincts, making them useful and giving through them satisfaction and happiness with pleasure; the legal system that ensures that society and families follow this discipline enshrined in these ethics; and the comprehension of values being the decisive factor in all these.

The decisions taken without considering all aspects and patiently creating the mindset of the society, will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order in tune with changing times and positions. The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows the similar predicament.

The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and continuously followed for years together were not taken into 5 consideration. The version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account. The plea by a large section of women, who follows this tradition, was not heard to.

The legal verdict has given rise to unrest, turmoil and divisiveness in the society in place of peace, stability and equality. The questions such as why only the Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith, obviously rise in the public mind and lead to unrest. This situation is not at all conducive for the peace and healthiness of the society.

Swa based systems for an independent nation

Bharats progress will have to be achieved by rejuvenating all precincts of national life, being rooted in its eternal ethos. Whatever is available within the country will have to be rectified, reformed or if necessary, completely discarded as per times and situation; and accepting whatever is noble and useful around the world and adapt them as per the requirements of the country; Both these decisions would be based on the same ethos.

This is the characteristic trait of our nation. This is Hindutva. Any country can progress by being resolute and steadfast on its original character, and not by blind copying.

The administrative sensitivity, alacrity, transparency and totality in the implementation of good policies of the Government are still not up to the expectations. Resultantly, the outcome of those policies is not percolating down to the last man standing in the society. The foreign British rule and administration were merely overlords of the land and territories.

In the Independent Bharat, our rulers are expected to make the administration people-centric. Political freedom is not complete in itself. All the dimensions of national life have to be reorganized on the basis of swa (self) and self-esteem that inspired us and breathed our life with the sense of we the people during the freedom struggle.

Aspirations of people of Independent Bharat have been articulated in the four different parts of our Constitution, namely, the preamble, fundamental rights, the directive principles, and fundamental duties.

We will have to establish our own model of development in the light of these provisions. Our goals, directions and accordingly all aspects of national life, including the economic one, have to be steered with this spirit. Then all our efforts and policies will be seen as fully implemented and fruitful.

Even after adopting the noble principles from the world, it is absolutely essential for the progress of the nation that we devise our own distinct model of development and corresponding framework based on our philosophical foundation.

Shri Rama Janmabhoomi

In this very same context of honouring the Swa of the nation, Sangh has been associated with the sentiments of crores of countrymen, in the efforts of constructing a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Shree Ram who is the personification of the life energy of the nation and an icon of upholding Dharma.

The place of Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place. There is an obvious game-plan of a few elements to stall the judgment by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process. It is in nobodys interest to test the patience of the society without any reason.

The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view; it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country. This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains.

Despite such machinations, the decision regarding ownership of the land should be expedited, and the Government should clear the path for construction of the grand temple through appropriate and requisite law.

Elections

Who would lead the nation? Are prevalent policies right or wrong? All these things have to be decided by the ordinary voters every five years, as a part of his ordained duty, in the democratic system of our country. Such five-yearly elections are approaching ahead. In a way, through this right, we the people of Bharat, common citizens become the adjudicators and controllers of our national scenario.

But, we also know that the decision we make on that single day of the election makes us bear the brunt of good and bad effects in the short term as well as the long-lasting gains and losses for 6 many years, sometimes throughout the lifetime. We are left with nothing else in our hands after that single day. If we have to get the verdict which will not lead to repentance then the voters will have to rise above self, parochial feelings, petty egos of caste, language and provincial affiliations, keeping in mind that the national interest is supreme.

The voters will have to ponder over dispassionately upon the sincerity and capability of the candidate, commitment of the party on the issues of national interest and for the integrity of the nation and experiences of past and present actions of both candidates and parties. The characteristic of democratic politics is such that no one can be considered as completely right or wrong.

In such a situation, non-voting or using the provision of None of the Above (NOTA) goes in favour of the one who is most ineffective. So, 100 per cent voting is essential keeping in mind national interest as supreme without getting swayed by the campaigns of all the sides.

The Election Commission of Bharat also appeals for the hundred per cent voting and conscience voting. The RSS swayamsevaks have always been abided by this as a duty as citizens and will do so this time as well. Since its inception, RSS has kept itself aloof from the party politics and the politics influenced by castes and creeds and will continue to do so.

But the number of Swayamsevaks spread all over the country, should fulfill their duty as citizens and stand in favour of putting their strength behind the overall national good. This is an essential task in the national interest.

Appeal

The existence of a powerful, virtuous and organised society based on the distinct axiom of Swa of the nation is the fundamental and essential prerequisite of national well-being. That identity is Hindu identity that teaches us to respect all, accept all, unite all and do good to all. That is why Sangh wishes to establish a strong, invincible organised Hindu society and will comprehensively achieve this goal.

Those sections of the society who consider themselves separate because of their religion, tradition and lifestyle or apprehensive of the word Hindu need to understand that Hindutva is the eternal ethos of this country. While keeping its core eternal values unchanged, there had been changes in its content and conduct commensurate with times and situations and will happen so in the future as per the needs.

Hindutva has intrinsic identification with the undivided land of Bharat from the Himalayas up to the seas. All the Bharatiyas should immerse themselves in the hue of Bharats culture ingrained in its ethos is a sincere wish of the Sangh. The practices of all the sects and traditions of Bharat derive themselves from this cultural ethos. The luminaries, who have toiled hard and devoted their lives to protect and nourish the society, are our ancestors and the symbols of prestige to all of us. Hindutva is behind Bharats capacity to embrace the entire universe with acceptance and appreciation of all its distinct diversities. That is why Bharat is the Hindu Rashtra.

An organised Hindu society is the bedrock of unity, integrity and sustainable progress of the nation. The acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the panacea for fundamentalism, petty selfishness, unrestrained consumerism arising out of hardcore materialism and insensitivity. Therefore, organizing Hindus is a mission leading to universal good, Bharats welfare, and wellbeing of humanity. It is an appeal to all of you to be part of this sacred divine task, in cooperation with the Sangh Swayamsevaks, to carry forward Bharats chariot of destiny in order to put Bharatmata at the pedestal of Vishwaguru.

Mohan Bhagwat's speech has been reproduced as it is and has not been edited by Firstpost staff.Reuters

German luxury carmakers Daimler and BMW have offered concessions to address EU antitrust concerns about their plan to combine their car-sharing businesses, the European Commission said on 16 October.

The companies made the offer on 15 October, a filing on the EU competition enforcers website showed, without providing details.

The Commission is expected to seek feedback from customers and rivals before deciding by 7 November whether to accept the concessions, demand more or open a full-scale investigation.

Daimler and BMW want to combine their car-sharing units Car2Go and DriveNow to better compete with US rival Uber and Chinas Didi Chuxing.Reuters

The European Union should agree a sanctions law to target computer hackers by early next year, the blocs leaders are set to say on 18 October and will also seek a pledge from Russia and China to help stop cyber attacks, internal EU documents show.

Despite some reluctance from Italys anti-establishment government, EU leaders will make the call for a new regime to impose economic sanctions more quickly on specific hackers anywhere in the world at their summit on 18 October.

Work on the capacity to respond to and deter cyber attacks through EU restrictive measures should be taken forward, EU leaders will say, according to a draft of their final summit statement, using EU parlance for economic sanctions.

Negotiations on all cybersecurity proposals should be concluded before the end of the (EU) legislature, the draft statement said, referring to the 18 April, 2019, closure of the European Parliaments term.

Addressing the German parliament on 17 October, German chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of possible manipulation of next Mays European Parliament election, in the latest warning by an EU government that Russia may use cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns to undermine the vote.

Russia has made cyber and electronic warfare part of its military operations, Western officials say, and Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have accused Moscow of conducting a global campaign of computer hacks against the West.

Russia denies meddling in elections or hacking institutions. Russian officials portray such allegations as part of a campaign intended to entrench Moscows reputation as an enemy.

Diplomats at the Western military alliance NATO, which is set to have its own fully operational cyber command in 2023, say criminal groups in China and North Korea, as well as Islamist militants, are also behind attacks on Western computer networks.

The 28 EU leaders will meet Asian leaders and including Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Chinas Premier Li Keqiang for a summit in Brussels from 18 October evening, where cyber security is expected to be discussed, with a focus on combating hackers in the final statement.

China also denies responsibility for cyber attacks.

Italy's Pro-Russia Stance

Britain is pushing for the special EU sanctions regime of travel bans and asset freezes before it leaves the bloc next year. That could allow London to align its sanctions policy with the bloc in the future.

But Italys anti-establishment government is resisting the measures as it seeks better ties with Russia, although Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte is not expected to challenge the wording of the final statement because it is still vague, three diplomats said.

Britains Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sought to reassure his Italian counterpart Enzo Moavero Milanesi on 15 October at a meeting of the EUs foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the diplomats added.

Britain and the Netherlands also made a plea to their fellow ministers at the closed-door Luxembourg meeting after other countries joined them in making a formal request for economic sanctions on individual cyber attackers.

Most other EU countries now back the proposals, including France and Germany, diplomats said.

Sophisticated computer hacking weapons and cyber-surveillance software allows hostile governments to spy on and undermine the West, often using criminal groups for cover, experts say.

At the special EU-Asia leaders summit on 17 October evening and 18 October, the European Union will seek a political commitment from all 51 leaders gathered in Brussels to stop such criminals.

Leaders will stress the importance of combating cybersecurity threats, preventing potential use of information and communication technologies for criminal or terrorist purposes and disinformation, according to a draft statement.Reuters

Four major US public funds that hold shares in Facebook Inc on 17 October proposed removing chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg as chairman following several high-profile scandals and said they hoped to gain backing from larger asset managers.

State treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, co-filed the proposal. They oversee money including pension funds and joined activist and original filer Trillium Asset Management.

A similar shareholder proposal seeking an independent chair was defeated in 2017 at Facebook, where Zuckerbergs majority control makes outsider resolutions effectively symbolic.

Rhode Island State Treasurer Seth Magaziner said that the latest proposal was still worth filing as a way of drawing attention to Facebooks problems and how to solve them.

This will allow us to force a conversation at the annual meeting, and from now until then in the court of public opinion, Magaziner said in a telephone interview.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.

At least three of the four public funds supported the 2017 resolution as well. The current proposal, meant for Facebooks annual shareholder meeting in May 2019, asks the board to create an independent board chair to improve oversight, a common practice at other companies.

It cites controversies that have hurt the reputation of the worlds largest social media network, including the unauthorized sharing of user information, the proliferation of fake news, and foreign meddling in US elections.

Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs said in an interview that, while an independent chair might not have prevented all the issues, there might have been fewer of these problems and less of a drop in share price at the company.

Shares of Facebook have had a rocky year, under pressure from revelations about the privacy and operational issues as well as concerns over slowing revenue growth. They closed 17 October at $159.42, 10 percent lower than at the start of the year and well off a closing high of $217.50 reached on July 25.

The 2017 resolution received the support of a slim majority of outside investors, according to the public fund leaders calculations. Magaziner and Frerichs said they planned to talk with larger Facebook investors in coming months to seek their support.

Among funds that are Facebooks largest investors, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and Fidelity Contrafund voted against the 2017 proposal, securities filings show, while the American Funds Growth Fund of America supported it.

American Funds representatives did not reply to requests for comment on 17 October. Spokespeople for Fidelity and Vanguard declined to comment. Contrafund manager Will Danoff was supportive of Facebooks response to problems in an investor note in August.

In opposing the 2017 proposal, Facebook said an independent chair could cause uncertainty, confusion, and inefficiency in board and management function and relations.

Zuckerberg has about 60 percent voting rights, according to a company filing in April.

The New York City Pension Funds owned about 4.5 million Facebook shares as of July 31, while Trillium held 53,000 shares.

The Pennsylvania Treasury held 38,737 shares and the Illinois Treasury owned 190,712 shares as of August. Rhode Island funds hold 168,230 Facebook shares, a spokesman said.Reuters

Shares of Netflix Inc soared 11 percent before the bell on 17 October, after the company put fears of a slowdown in growth to bed by racking up seven million new subscribers between July and September.

The video streaming pioneer shocked Wall Street last quarter by falling short of new subscriber estimates, but 16 October's figures put its total customer base at 137 million worldwide, two million more than consensus forecasts.

At least 15 brokerages raised price targets on the stock, with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Raymond James, raising them just two days after trimming.

We dont believe in open-ended growth stories. But, darn, (Netflix) is about as close to one as you can find in todays market, RBC analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note.

Goldman Sachs raised its price target by $50 to $480. The brokerage had earlier cut the price target to $430 from $470.

Netflix shares have gained about 81 percent this year and are worth six times what they were at the start of 2015, a reflection of the overwhelming faith investors have in the companys lead in video streaming.

Some have begun to question, however, whether Netflixs business model is as durable as the share price action suggests, given the huge investments the company has begun to make in its own content, and burgeoning competition.

Analysts from US financial group Keybanc downgraded their rating on Netflix to sector weight from overweight, questioning whether the company was capable of improving investment returns and margins in years to come.

Shares of the company were up 10 percent at $381.21 before the bell.

Bigger profile in India

The company exceeded forecasts in both US and international markets but the bulk of the new subscribers came from outside the United States, where the company has been investing aggressively.

Analysts pointed to solid trends in India, where the success of homegrown shows like Sacred Games and Ghoul have helped raise its profile and hopes for future growth in the developing worlds most populous markets.

(Netflix) shies away from talking about anyone international market too specifically, but it called out growth in Asia, and we believe India is becoming a bigger factor, said JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth.

Traction in India for Sacred Games has been strong, along with additional local content Lust Stories, & Ghoul, he added.

Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter was another skeptic, saying he was mystified by the investor love affair with Netflixs India opportunity, pointing to price differences in Netflixs monthly plans versus cable TV in the country.

We find it fascinating that investors expect Indian households to spend more on Netflix than they spend on cable TV or cell phones, and to spend nearly as much as they spend on broadband, Pachter said.Indo-Asian News Service

Samsung on 18 October launched in India its flagship tablet, Galaxy Tab S4, a new two-in-one Android tablet that comes equipped with Samsung Dex and S Pen for Rs 57,900.

Galaxy Tab S4 sports narrower bezels to fit a 10.5-inch display with Super AMOLED technology, as well as a 16:10 screen ratio.

Powered by a 7,300mAh battery, Galaxy Tab S4 also comes with four speakers tuned by AKG and Dolby Atmos immersive sound technology.

"Paired with Samsung Dex and S Pen, Galaxy Tab S4 is designed for those who need something portable like a tablet yet capable like a PC," Aditya Babbar, General Manager, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told reporters here.

Samsung DeX optimises the user experience for work situations and gives what they want from a PC experience, a big screen, a full-size keyboard and a mouse.

In Standalone mode, one can enjoy a PC-like interface even without a monitor or the "Book Cover" Keyboard, Samsung India said.

In Dual mode, users can connect the tablet to a bigger monitor with an HDMI adapter.

The redesigned S Pen offers an authentic handwriting experience, suitable for drawing, taking notes, and messaging.

Galaxy Tab S4 will be available from Thursday onwards in black and grey colours on Samsung Online Shop and leading offline retail stores, the South Korean tech giant said, adding that it will also be available on Amazon from October 20 onwards.

Samsung also announced several offers for those who want to buy the flagship tablet.

Those with HDFC Bank credit cards will be able to avail an introductory offer that lets consumers get Rs 5,000 cashback on purchase of Galaxy Tab S4.

Moreover, Galaxy Tab S4 customers on Jio 4G, would be entitled to get instant cashback of Rs 2,750 on recharging with Rs 198 or Rs 299 plan.

They would also get double data benefits on every recharge for the next four recharges, Samsung India said.tech2 News Staff

The Samsung Galaxy S10 has been in the rumour mill for quite some time now. It has been revealed through leaks that the phone might be equipped with a triple camera setup, an in-display fingerprint sensor, that it will come in amazing colours and that it may support 5G networks.

What else could a customer ask for? Price? Well, it is said to come in a budget-friendly version as well.

Sounds ideal, right? But why not? All of this is speculation, after all. The one thing we are confident about, however, is the fact that the Galaxy S10 will not come with a massive notch.

How are we so sure? The company as good as admitted as much on Twitter. As reported by T3 UK, Samsung responded to Google's Pixel 3 'ask us anything' thread with a snarky comment about the phone's admittedly oversized notch.

The #pixel3 is here. What do you want to know? No seriously, were answering Qs in the comments right here. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/ZawhVDSUBZ

 Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 9, 2018

You could land a plane on it.  Samsung Mobile US (@SamsungMobileUS) October 9, 2018

Just because Samsung made fun of the Pixel's notch doesn't necessarily mean that the S10 won't have a notch, but Samsung's reaction at least makes that possibility highly unlikely.Janaki Lenin

Heat does to coral reefs what peroxide does to human hair  it bleaches them. For these underwater colonies, though, whitening is more than a mere draining of colour. They could become diseased and die. But it's not a death sentence for all corals. While some tolerate high temperatures better than others, the reefs' recovery suffers. This is the paradox gripping the shallow coral reefs of Lakshadweep Islands.

In 1998, Rohan Arthur, who heads the Nature Conservation Foundation's Oceans and Coast Programme, Mysuru, was a young intern in Kenya. When an unusually warm sea, caused by El Nino, blanched the corals, he rushed back to India. Some reefs were already dying by that time, but he managed to document the species, assess which ones suffered the most and gauge the extent of the damage.

About 16 percent of the corals died globally from that disaster while close to 90 percent of the Lakshadweep reefs were destroyed.

Since then, many volunteers, field assistants and biologists, working with Arthur, chronicled changes on six reefs around three islands  Kavaratti, Agatti, and Kadmat. Synthesising all the collected data, Shreya Yadav, Teresa Alcoverro and Rohan Arthur recently published a progress report.

Over the following years, the very shape of the reefs changed. Acropora, a group of fast-growing branched coral struggled to recover. But Porites, a group of slow-growing coral that grows in mounds, withstood the heat of El Nino. Even though entire colonies bleached, it increased in number. This turnover in species, from fragile to resilient ones, built up the resistance of the reef against future El Nino events. But it was not without consequence.

In essence, an El Nino is like a wildfire sweeping through a forest, killing the trees and leaving only fire-resistant bushes in its wake. Instead of intricate branches that could shelter many species at different rungs, the coral reef became two-dimensional, like low shrubland. Reef fish and invertebrates seeking refuge and food in the nooks and crannies of Acropora thickets were stranded. The growth of Porites made little difference to them because the creatures couldn't hide in its boulder-like structure. The researchers calculated that the annual rate of reef recovery was no more than four percent.

By 2010, 12 years after the catastrophe, about 50 percent of the reefs had revived when the next El Nino hit, killing 44 percent of the live corals.

The rising dominance of Porites ensured the mortality figure wasn't as high as the devastation of 1998. The star real estate developer, the Acropora group, which would have helped the reefs bounce back with speed, lost even more ground. However, there was a little glimmer of hope  the surviving coral species didn't react as dramatically as they had in 1998.

For instance, El Nino almost exterminated Acropora in the reefs, but a few isolated patches survive in the lagoons. Although the shallow water becomes hot every summer, the delicate coral thrives, says Arthur. But in the reef that had last experienced unusual temperatures 12 years ago, the same species bleached and died. The periodic exposure to warmth primed the lagoon corals to anticipate and cope with it.

Not only are some species like Porites adapted to handle the heat, some strains of algae, which live within corals and sustain them (see here), also evolved high-temperature thresholds. Corals that have experienced heat-stress may adopt these hardy algal strains to cope with warm seas.

Perhaps inoculating these corals with such heat-toughened algae could help them brave bleaching events. Acquiring resistance in this way is not without its disadvantages. It delays the growth of juvenile corals and shrinks the size of eggs.

In the years following 2010, the reef's recovery was a sluggish 0.40 percent per annum, a four-fold drop in vigour compared to the aftermath of 1998. The slow-growing corals powered much of the comeback. Too few Acropora remained to saturate the water with its spawn and create future stands.

By 2015, only about five percent of the undersea colonies had returned. Of this, Porites, which had been in the minority in 1998, made up 40 percent.

Another fast-growing coloniser, Pocillopora, also called cauliflower coral for its looks, took up 20 percent of the reef. It doesn't grow as fast nor does it branch out as much as Acropora, so it is by no means a replacement. Many species that eat Acropora dont like to munch on much else, says Yadav. These creatures lose out in a Pocillopora-dominant reef. Other species that bank on the cauliflower-like coral may receive a boost as they gain more habitat.

Overall, it means that the entire assemblage is being reset, and with it, the functioning of the reef is shifting in ways we still have to discover, says Arthur.

Developing resistance while recovering at a snail's pace may seem like a paradox at first, but these two processes work in lockstep. The researchers estimate that these coral reefs would need 30 years to recoup from the havoc of 2010. Instead, the ecosystem had only six years before the most intense El Nino to rock the region wiped out 31 pecent of the recuperating colonies. It's still too early to say how they are reacting to this setback.

The reefs of the Andaman Islands have fared better, says marine biologist Naveen Namboothri, Director of the Dakshin Foundation. They have had a long history of dealing with human activity on land  agriculture, tree-felling, and industry. Fertilisers, pollutants and sediments carried by freshwater streams poured into the reefs. Tough species capable of withstanding stress became dominant. Lakshadweep's corals, however, didn't face environmental pressures until recently, and they haven't had enough time to adapt.

Despite developing resistance, the Bay of Bengal reefs followed a similar pattern after the 2010 bleaching event, according to Namboothiri. Acropora declined sharply as Porites and other hardier species grew to dominate. However, Pocillopora hasn't enjoyed similar success, surviving in scattered patches of low numbers.

In 2017, only an average of 11 percent of the reef cover in Lakshadweep was left. It had shrunk by 40 percent in 18 years.

As if the sledgehammer effect of El Ninos wasn't enough, human-made problems also gnaw at the reefs.

With declining tuna catch, commercial fishing started in the reefs around 2013. Herbivores like parrotfish graze on algae and keep the coral clean and healthy. Predators like groupers control the numbers of coral-eaters, like the psychedelically coloured nudibranchs and starfish. When fishermen remove these fish in higher volumes, the coral reefs get smothered by algae and eaten to shreds, handicapping their recovery from El Nino events.

Instead of recognising the problems confronting the islands and planning for the future, the government and its agencies have big plans that place the struggling reefs under ever more pressure. NITI Aayog wants to boost the archipelago's tourism infrastructure with luxurious villas on lagoons, an airport in Minicoy and more jetties. The Department of Fisheries intends to increase fishing volumes.

Even as El Nino events strike more often and with greater ferocity, coral reefs react by becoming hardier and rebounding ever slower.

If this pattern were to continue, says Namboothiri, it can even lead to significant declines in coral cover, not just in Lakshadweep but the entire Indian Ocean.

The engine driving the increasing frequency and intensity of El Nino is climate change. The 2015 Paris Agreement aspires to limit average temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-Industrial era, high enough to kill up to 90 percent of coral reefs, says the IPCC's Global Warming of 1.5 Degrees report released on 8 October 2018. Even if we maintain course at today's average of 0.87C above the temperature of the early 18th century, it's still too hot as we've already lost nearly 70 percent of corals worldwide.

As Charles Birkeland, one of my professors [at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa] likes to say, we might keep the corals but lose the reefs, says Yadav. Geologically, reefs have seen much worse in their 200-million-year history, and it is naive to think that they will disappear altogether anytime soon. It's just that they will likely not serve our needs anymore and millions of people depend on them today.

It's not just the livelihoods of the 70,000 inhabitants of the Lakshadweep islands that is at stake, but life on these atolls may become unsustainable as well. Reefs prevent island erosion, maintain freshwater and absorb about 90 percent of the wave energy battering coastlines. What the government doesn't seem to realise is that its plans to build infrastructure on the atolls will be in peril if the reefs are destroyed.

The team from Nature Conservation Foundation continues the monitoring effort, returning to the archipelago every year to see how the reefs in these three islands are doing.

The difficulty is processing this amount of data, and that is our primary bottleneck  apart from the constant battle of convincing funders that this is something worth doing! says Arthur.

The government should support and use the findings of such long-term monitoring to inform its island management and policy, says Yadav.

Failing this, the corals may indeed still survive. But the same cannot be said for the islands.tech2 News Staff

NASA has a wild new plan to explore Venus  a project called the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC). It involves a range of missions to the planets atmosphere, including crewed missions in its later phases.

The HAVOC project, led by the space agency's Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate (SACD) looks to begin exploration of Venus as a possible place for human settlement and ending with achieving just that  building a human settlement on our neighbouring planet.

The outlines so far describe a fleet of manned and piloted helium-filled airships that cruise along Venuss atmosphere  like a flying city  50 kilometers from the surface.

Setting up cloud cities on Venus "would definitely be a very big technological challenge, but it is something that we envision could be possible down the road," Chris Jones, from the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia told Space.com.

As exciting and important as Venus is as a prospect for space exploration and human settlement  it comes with a lot of strings attached.

Venuss surface is mighty hot, inhospitable

Venus and Earth are very similar in geology  so much so that some refer to it as Earths twin by some. The two planets are roughly identical in size, mass and rocky in composition.

However, life on the surface of Venus would be unbearably hot  enough to melt lead, NASA said.

The combination of trapped heat from the sun by the atmosphere and the heat Venus generates internally are the biggest culprits for these extreme temperatures.

Between the lower atmosphere and the surface of Venus are some of the hottest known places in the solar system.

If that wasnt challenge enough, the atmosphere of Venus is loaded with carbon dioxide and dense with sulfuric acid clouds  both of which create too harsh an environment for living beings to sustain themselves.

It is also covered with craters, volcanoes, mountains and lava plains, NASA says.

HAVOC in phases

So far, HAVOC remains a concept, and one backed by many studies about the considerations and challenges the project is up against.

But NASAs Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate SACD wing has a rough sketch of the missions agenda  which unfolds in 5 phases.

Phase 1 would largely be a robotic study of the planets atmosphere with unmanned airships.

Phase 2 would have a crew of two spending 30 days in Venuss orbit

Phase 3 would entail the astronauts cruising through the inhospitable, acidic cloudy skies of Venus for 30 straight days.

Once successful, Phase 3 would continue for a year, into the Phase 4 mission

Phase 5 is the ultimate mission to Venus  settlement.

Evidently, a plan for well into the future (till reliable life-support and deep-space vehicles come to exist, at least), itll be a few years before we see the HAVOC mission get the green light.

An important milestone before then could be the activation of the proposed Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, the construction of which tentatively begins in September 2022.Indo-Asian News Service

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced nine recipients of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in recognition of their important achievements in the fields of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics.

The Foundation will award a total of $21 million to the nine winners. It is considered the most generous science prize in the world, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Five scientists won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their contributions to finding significant solutions to curing human diseases.

Frank Bennett from Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Adrian Krainer from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory were recognised for developing an effective antisense oligonucleotide therapy for children with the neurodegenerative disease of spinal muscular atrophy.

Angelika Amon from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute won the award for determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number resulting from chromosome mis-segregation.

Xiaowei Zhuang with Harvard University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute won the prize for discovering hidden structures in cells by developing super-resolution imaging, a method that transcends the fundamental spatial resolution limit of light microscopy.

Zhijian "James" Chen from University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was honoured for elucidating how DNA triggers immune and autoimmune responses from the interior of a cell through the discovery of the DNA-sensing enzyme cGAS.

"The winners of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Science show us all how it's done," said Cori Bargmann, chair of the selection committee.

"Through creativity, innovation, persistence, and skill, each of them brought about an advance that was previously unimaginable," Bargmann added.

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics went to Charles Kane and Eugene Mele from University of Pennsylvania for their new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.

Vincent Lafforgue from the French National Center for Scientific Research and the Institut Fourie of Universite Grenoble Alpes was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics for groundbreaking contributions to several areas of mathematics, in particular to the Langlands program in the function field case.

"Vincent Lafforgue, in the so called 'function field case,' found a beautifully simple direct argument," said Richard Taylor, chair of the selection committee.

"After seeing it, you ask yourself how the rest of us could have missed it for so long. You finally see why Langlands correspondence has to exist  it no longer seems an unmotivated miraculous consequence of complicated computations," Taylor said.

British astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell from University of Dundee and University of Oxford claimed the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her role in the surprise discovery of pulsars  an exotic new type of star  first announced in February 1968, and for her inspiring scientific leadership over the last five decades.

In addition to the seven main-stage prizes, a total of six New Horizons Prizes, worth 100,000 dollars each, were awarded to seven physicists and five mathematicians for early-career achievements in their respective fields.

The awarding ceremony of the Breakthrough Prize, which was hailed as the "Oscars of Science," will take place on November 4 at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, with a gala event hosted by acclaimed actor, producer and philanthropist Pierce Brosnan, said the Foundation.

Sponsors of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation include Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Ma Huateng, founder of China's internet giant Tencent, Israeli-Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner and his wife Julia Milner, as well as Anne Wojcicki, an American entrepreneur and the co-founder of the personal genomics company 23andMe.By Lisandra Paraguassu and Eduardo Simoes BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Leftist Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Haddad accused right-wing front-runner Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday of soliciting mass messaging over social media via WhatsApp, financed by business leaders, in an alleged violation of campaign finance law. Haddad denounced the practice after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that well-heeled supporters paid for messaging by third-party agencies, each paying up to 12 million reais ($3.26 million) to spread tens of thousands of attack ads.

By Lisandra Paraguassu and Eduardo Simoes

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Leftist Brazilian presidential candidate Fernando Haddad accused right-wing front-runner Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday of soliciting mass messaging over social media via WhatsApp, financed by business leaders, in an alleged violation of campaign finance law.

Haddad denounced the practice after newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that well-heeled supporters paid for messaging by third-party agencies, each paying up to 12 million reais ($3.26 million) to spread tens of thousands of attack ads.

Bolsonaro's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The candidate's son, Carlos Bolsonaro, accused Folha and Haddad's Workers Party, or PT, of "telling half-truths or decontextualized lies" in a post on Twitter.

Haddad said the PT has witnesses saying Bolsonaro asked business leaders at a dinner in Sao Paulo for funds to pay for the bulk messaging, which he described as undeclared campaign contributions.

In a radio interview, Haddad said the Bolsonaro campaign had "created a veritable criminal organization with businessmen who are using undeclared money to pay for false messages on WhatsApp."

PT lawyers asked prosecutors and Brazil federal police to investigate. Illegal under-the-table funding by companies could, if proven, lead to the disqualification of the Bolsonaro ticket, said attorney Guilherme Salles Goncalves, an electoral law expert.

PT allies said they would file a complaint with electoral courts. Haddad called on international observers and WhatsApp itself to look into the case.

A representative for WhatsApp, a division of Facebook Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Campaign propaganda has flooded social media in Brazil ahead of an Oct. 28 run-off vote in the presidential election, which Bolsonaro is expected to win.

Haddad replaced jailed party founder Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on the PT ticket after the former president was banned from running due to a corruption conviction.

Riding high on an anti-graft and law-and-order platform, Bolsonaro won 46 percent of valid votes in the first-round election on Oct. 7, barely missing an outright victory.

With a growing lead in opinion polls, Bolsonaro has said the presidency is "within reach," although he has been unable to campaign due to a near-fatal stabbing during a rally last month.

His doctors had instructed him not to take part in debates against Haddad but said after a check-up on Thursday that the decision was up to him and his campaign. They said he is recovering well but still needs "nutritional support and physiotherapy."

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter in Rio de Janeiro, Ricardo Brito and Anthony Boadle in Brasilia; Editing by Brad Haynes and Dan Grebler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The test conducted on Monday at a discreet location in North China verified the launch, power and flight control systems, state-run Global Times reported while indicating that Beijing's all-weather ally, Pakistan could be one of its buyers. All parameters for the supersonic flight of the HD-1 missile achieved their estimated values, it quoted a statement released by Guangdong Hongda Blasting Company located in southern China.

Beijing: A Chinese mining company has claimed to have successfully test-fired a supersonic missile, touted as a potential competitor to the Indo-Russian joint venture BrahMos missile, according to the official media here.

The test conducted on Monday at a discreet location in North China verified the launch, power and flight control systems, state-run Global Times reported while indicating that Beijing's all-weather ally, Pakistan could be one of its buyers. All parameters for the supersonic flight of the HD-1 missile achieved their estimated values, it quoted a statement released by Guangdong Hongda Blasting Company located in southern China.

"The test flight shows that the HD-1's core components are now mature, with its aerodynamic design, materials and overall structure already proven viable," Wei Dongxu, a Beijing-based military analyst, told the daily. Hongda independently invested in and developed the HD-1 missile, the statement said. Wei said the mining company's move to build and test a supersonic missile is an excellent example of military-civilian integration.

Established in 1988, Hongda is a mining company based in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province that also manufactures blasting and military equipment. The HD-1's advanced solid fuel ramjet needs less fuel than its competitors, rendering the lighter missile able to fly faster and farther, Wei said. After governmental approval, Hongda intends to sign deals and mass-produce the HD-1 for export, the report said.

There are not many such supersonic missiles available on the international defence market, Wei said. Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries are likely to show interest given the weapon's potential to break anti-missile systems at supersonic speeds, he said, claiming that the new missile could be cheaper than the BrahMos.

"The BrahMos missile is a more expensive, less useful supersonic cruise missile developed by India and Russia," Wei claimed. Hongda will participate in Airshow China 2018 in Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province next month, a company spokesperson said. The HD-1 is a comprehensive weapon system consisting of missile, launch, command and control, target indication and comprehensive support systems, Hongda had said in a separate statement released earlier.

The HD-1 can be adapted to aircraft and ships as well as the basic ground-based vehicle version, the company said. The total investment in HD-1 is expected to top 1.3 billion yuan (about $188 million).Amidst mounting pressure in the US, Donald Trump had earlier appeared to be resisting any move to take strong action against Saudi Arabia, arguing that it was a key ally of America.

Washington: President Donald Trump has denied "giving cover" to US' "important ally" Saudi Arabia in the suspected murder of Jamal Khashoggi and sought a full report from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the dissident Saudi journalist's mysterious disappearance.

Khashoggi, 60, is feared to have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The incident has resulted in a global outrage, more so in the US where he lived as a legal permanent resident and worked for 'The Washington Post'.

Khashoggi vanished on 2 October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities suspect he was abducted and murdered by the Saudis.

But Riyadh insists that the journalist, a known critic of Saudi King Salman, had left the building and that murder claims are "baseless".

Amidst mounting pressure in the US, Trump on Wednesday appeared to be resisting any move to take strong action against Saudi Arabia, arguing that it was a key ally of America.

Trump told reporters at the White House that he had asked for the audio that gives a clue of the alleged brutal killing of Khashoggi. "We've asked for it, if it exists," he said.

The New York Times, citing the content of the audio made available through its Turkish sources, said the audio gave a detailed account of the alleged brutal murder of Khashoggi.

"I'm not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does. I'll have a full report on that from Mike when he comes back," Trump said, referring to his meeting with Mike Pompeo on Thursday on his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

"That's going to be the first question I ask him," he said.

On his way back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo refused to comment on the existence of the audio tape.

"Have you heard or asked to hear the alleged audio on the actual murder?" he was asked. "I don't have anything to say about that," Pompeo said, insisting Khashoggi was missing and the Saudi government has launched a probe.

"They're going to do their investigation. I know you all are going to ask questions. I'm going to be very consistent: We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," Pompeo said.

Trump told reporters that he wanted to find out from Pompeo what had happened. "He went to Turkey; he went all over. But he spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince, and he's going to have a full report. I'm not giving cover at all," he said, refuting allegations that he is being soft on the Saudi establishment.

"Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran. We're not trying to stop Iran. We went a big step when we took away that ridiculous deal that was made by the previous administration - the Iran deal - which was USD 150 billion and USD 1.8 billion in cash. What was that all about?" he asked.

"They (Saudis) are an ally. We have other very good allies in the Middle East. But if you look at Saudi Arabia, they're an ally and they're a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment, but other things," he said.

"When I went there, they committed to purchase USD 450 billion worth of things, and USD 110 billion worth of military (equipment). Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country - probably the history of the world. I don't think there's ever been any order for USD 450 billion," Trump said.

However, lawmakers continued to call for action against the Saudi establishment.

Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said as additional questions and reports accumulate around the disappearance and reported torture and assassination of Khashoggi, so too does the list of misstatements, falsehoods, and denials from the Saudi Arabian government.

"These responses intended to answer international criticism of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman's regime have included everything from categorical denials to claims that operatives of the Saudi government may have inadvertently murdered Khashoggi while attempting to detain, interrogate, and torture him in violation of international law," he said.

"Yet despite so much evidence to the contrary, President Trump appears ready to believe the Saudi Arabian government's denials. While President Trump may accept Saudi Arabia's denials about the disappearance and death of Khashoggi at face value, the American people won't," Krishnamoorthi said.

Senator Patrick Leahy said the credible, detailed reports from the Turkish government and the international press that Khashoggi was tortured and murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October had shocked the world. "While we do not yet have definitive proof, neither is there any other plausible explanation," he said.

Meanwhile, 11 Democratic Senators wrote to Trump seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This comes days after a bipartisan group of 22 senators recently triggered a probe and a Global Magnitsky Act determination relating to the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi's disappearance and possible murder.

"It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and US policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your family's deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia," the Democratic senators wrote.During an interaction in New Delhi, Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said Afghanistan never tried to increase the 'cost of war' for Pakistan and always took a 'high moral ground' in the hope that its neighbour would reciprocate, but it did not happen.

New Delhi: Afghanistan's policy on Pakistan is "flawed" and it has never taken a strong political stand against Islamabad, former Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said Wednesday, asserting that "an enemy is an enemy".

Saleh, during an interaction in New Delhi, said Afghanistan never tried to increase the "cost of war" for Pakistan and always took a "high moral ground" in the hope that its neighbour would reciprocate, but it did not happen.

Asked to elaborate what he meant by the cost of war, the former chief of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security said, "There is no Afghan dossier on Pakistan in the UN Security Council. We have not presented to the United Nations with a state stamped dossier declaring Pakistan our enemy. We have always tried to leave a few bridges intact and that policy of half-heartedness has not helped us.

"An enemy is an enemy. You can only reach a peace deal with your enemy only if you call him an enemy. But just to break the ice in a meeting and make it cordial, you are calling your enemy your brother; this is no way you can make peace."

Conceding that Afghanistan's policy towards Pakistan had lots of flaws and still does, Saleh said Afghan president Ashraf Ghani had stated that Pakistan has "launched an undeclared war against us", but had not talked about how to fight the undeclared war.

"On that, we are silent. At times, in order to appease Pakistan certain circles within the state structure in Afghanistan have been shy to state India is our military ally. They go at length to explain India is our economic ally, cultural ally, Bollywood ally, but why not our military ally," said Saleh, who served as the head of the National Directorate of Security from 2004-2010.

He said Afghanistan's policy on Pakistan has never been persistent.

"When bombs go off, we come out and express our anger that it is Pakistan. The next day we cannot stand against the temptation of an invitation from Islamabad. We never stood against Islamabad politically. We only complained about them which is different. Having a solid political stand is different than complaining," he said at the interaction at the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi.

Saleh accused Pakistan of sheltering terrorists and cited the examples of Mullah Mansoor, Osama bin Laden, Haqqanis, Mullah Omar, Taliban's Quetta shura, as having had taken shelter in Pakistan.

"If this is known, why are we putting our entire force to kill the expendable Taliban, not their strategic centre? So those who say we fought and it didn't work, we have to have a definition for the fight, where did we fight them. Wherever we fought them, they got defeated. We did not fight them in Pakistan that is where they are alive," he said.

Saleh lauded India on the stand taken against terrorism, saying the wisdom in Delhi is much greater.

"We cannot produce iPhone, but I have knowledge of who is the enemy in this neighbourhood. In that area, we should be the Steve Jobs," he said.

Talking about a peace conference on Afghanistan that was scheduled to take place in Moscow recently, Saleh said had it gone forward, it would have given recognition to two states in Afghanistan  an Islamic state ruled by President Ghani and an Islamic Emirate led by Taliban.

He also hailed India over its stand on the conference, saying the country took a very principled position to say that it will attend only if Kabul agrees.

"India is becoming a moral compass as far as these issues are concerned," he said.The man is allegedly one of the individuals previously identified by Turkish authorities as being involved in the 15-man Saudi team that targeted Jamal Khashoggi

Istanbul: A man who previously traveled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage to the United States entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, according to images published Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper.

The Sabah newspaper's report showed the man also later outside the Saudi consul general's home, checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side, and leaving Turkey on 2 October.

The report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both the consul general's residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankara's fears that Saudi authorities had Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday.

The Sabah report showed the man walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9:55 am. with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1:14 pm, then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.

A report Wednesday by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi's slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul general's official residence, some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah newspaper showed an image of the man at 4:53 pm. at the consul's home, then at 5:15 pm. checking out of a hotel. He later cleared airport security at 5:58 pm.

Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Khashoggi's case, adding to the pressure on the kingdom.

The AP could not immediately verify the man's identity, though he's one of the individuals previously identified by Turkish authorities as being involved in the 15-man Saudi team that targeted Khashoggi.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show the same man was in Prince Mohammed's entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey. The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the flags of Saudi Arabia and America intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The three-week trip across the US saw Prince Mohammed meet with business leaders and celebrities, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Post.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured the world's attention remains focused on what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the United States over the rise of Prince Mohammed. It also put further strains on the relationship between the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the US, as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

Flying back home after a visit to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained positive Wednesday about an ongoing Saudi probe into Khashoggi's disappearance, but he stressed that answers are needed.

"Sooner's better than later for everyone," Pompeo said.

President Donald Trump, who initially came out hard on the Saudis over the disappearance but since has backed off, said Wednesday that the U.S. wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Khashoggi's alleged killing "if it exists."

On Thursday, the Post published what it described as Khashoggi's last column in honor of the missing journalist.

In it, Khashoggi pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in West Asia.

"As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate," Khashoggi wrote. He added: "The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power."French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday he was pulling out of a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Paris: French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday he was pulling out of a major investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "I won't go to Riyadh next week," Le Maire told France's Public Senat TV channel, adding that "the current circumstances do not allow me to go to Riyadh". The minister echoed President Emmanuel Macron's remarks last week on Khashoggi's disappearance, calling it a "very serious" matter.

"The important thing now is that the full truth of this affair be known," said Le Maire, who said he informed his Saudi counterpart on Wednesday of his decision. Khashoggi, who was living in self-imposed exile in the United States where he contributed to the Washington Post, vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. He was critical of some of Saudi Arabia's policies. Turkish officials claim he was killed and dismembered in the consulate by a hit squad which arrived from Riyadh  claims denied by the Saudi government.

Le Maire's decision to pull out of the 23-25 October Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh  dubbed the "Davos in the Desert"  follows that of International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde. The IMF said Wednesday that Lagarde had "deferred" her trip to the Middle East, without giving an explanation. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he will decide on Thursday whether to attend.

Several Western business titans and media groups have already pulled out of the conference organised by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. Like other Western allies of the world's biggest oil exporter, France had embraced Saudi Arabia's powerful new de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as a reformer. Macron hosted the 33-year-old prince for a private dinner at the Louvre museum when he visited Paris in April. Saudi Arabia was the second-biggest purchaser of French weapons between 2008 and 2017, after India, signing deals for some 12 billion euros ($13.8 billion) in French weaponry.Steven Mnuchin joined a long list of top US and global leaders, corporate executives and International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials in opting out of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

Washington: US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he has decided against attending a Saudi investment summit later this month following global outrage over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

With this he has joined a long list of top US and global leaders, corporate executives and International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials in opting out of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

In a tweet, Mnuchin said he met President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House. "We have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," he said.

The decision by Mnuchin comes in the wake of mounting pressure on the Trump administration in the aftermath of the missing Saudi dissident journalist who is feared killed inside Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey early this month.

Saudi Arabia has denied allegations that its officials planned Khashoggi's murder. It has assured the US of a thorough investigation into the matter. Pompeo on his return from Riyadh and Ankara said the US takes the matter very seriously, but would wait for the investigations to be over and look at the probe report before taking a call on it.

Britain's trade minister Liam Fox also pulled out of the conference and French finance minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra have also cancelled, along with several top business executives, following rising global indignation over the matter.Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who lived in the United States, vanished on 2 October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The family of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has rejected all attempts to use its name to target Saudi Arabia, according to reports. Sultan Khashoggi, speaking on behalf of the Khashoggi family, also rejected a statement being attributed to them earlier, which calls for an "independent and impartial international commission to inquire" Khashoggi's case.

"The men and women of the Khashoggi family are all loyal to the country and utterly refuse to use or exploit the name of the family in an agenda seeking to harm Saudi Arabia," Khashoggi's son Sultan tweeted, according to Gulf News.

The tweet, according to the report, was posted in denial to a statement that is being attributed to the Khashoggi family. According to The Washington Post, the family's statement had read, "We are sadly and anxiously following the conflicting news regarding the fate of our father after losing contact with him two weeks ago, when he disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul....Our family is traumatised, and yearns to be together during this painful time. The strong moral and legal responsibility which our father instilled in us obliges us to call for the establishment of an independent and impartial international commission to inquire into the circumstances of his death. We are grateful to all those who have respected our privacy during these difficult times."

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who lived in the United States, vanished on 2 October after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document needed to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for him outside.

Turkish Police say he was murdered inside the consulate by a 15-member Saudi team that flew into the country just ahead of Khashoggi's scheduled appointment, and left the same day, according to Turkish government sources.

Saudi Arabia insists Khashoggi exited the consulate after a brief visit.

Salah Khashoggi, the eldest son of Khashoggi, told Al-Arabiya English that the disappearance of his father should not be politicised by "foreign parties". He also confirmed that all members of his family support the official Saudi investigations, which only "will lead us to positive results and uncover the truth."

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has promised that no one will be exempt from inquiry into Khashoggi's disappearance and has ensured a thorough probe. After his visit to Saudi Arabia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, "My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials."

The crown prince "pledged that the work of the Saudi public prosecutor will produce a full and complete conclusion with full transparency for the world to see," Pompeo added.

International pressure has also been mounting on Riyadh with United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet calling for the lifting of the immunity of officials who might be involved in Khashoggi's disappearance. The foreign ministers from the G7 have also called for a "transparent" probe.

Britain, France and Germany had also called on the Saudi and Turkish authorities to mount a "credible investigation" into the disappearance of Khashoggi, saying they were treating the incident with "utmost seriousness".

Turkey searches Saudi consulate again

Turkey searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for a second time overnight as part of a probe into the disappearance of Khashoggi, while the French and Dutch finance ministers pulled out of a Riyadh investment summit amid global criticism of the kingdom.

Turkeys pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper published on Wednesday what it said were details from audio recordings that purported to document Khashoggis torture and interrogation.

The newspaper said Khashoggis torturers severed his fingers during the interrogation and later beheaded and dismembered him. A New York Times report cited a senior Turkish official confirming those details.

With inputs from agenciesSecurity forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians  already on high alert for attacks  into their homes.

Kandahar: A powerful Afghan police chief was among at least three people killed in a shooting on Thursday that the Taliban said had targeted top US commander General Scott Miller.

Miller was not hurt in the assault claimed by the militant group that also wounded at least 12 people, including three Americans and a provincial governor, NATO and Afghan officials said.

Security forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians  already on high alert for attacks  into their homes.

In a Twitter post, the Taliban said Miller and Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq, who was killed, were the targets of the shooting.

"General Raziq and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition," a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.

Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governor's security personnel, the official said.

The shooter had been killed, he added.

An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting. Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," Peters said. "We are being told the area is secure."

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was "full of military forces". "They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the 20 October legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Parliament in Kosovo, which relies on NATO troops for its protection, voted on Thursday to set up a 5,000-strong national army though its Serb minority said the move was illegal. Serb deputies, backed by Belgrade which does not recognise Kosovo's independence, have blocked any such move in the past saying creation of a national army required a change to the constitution.

By Fatos Bytyci

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Parliament in Kosovo, which relies on NATO troops for its protection, voted on Thursday to set up a 5,000-strong national army though its Serb minority said the move was illegal.

Serb deputies, backed by Belgrade which does not recognise Kosovo's independence, have blocked any such move in the past saying creation of a national army required a change to the constitution.

The U.S.-led NATO alliance, which has 4,000 troops in the Balkan country, has also in the past urged Kosovo not to create a national army unless the constitution was amended with the support of the Serb minority.

But three laws, promoted by the Kosovo government and passed on a first reading by a parliamentary vote on Thursday, upgraded the mandate of the lightly-armed domestic Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to transform into an army - something which the government said bypassed the need to make changes to the constitution.

The nationalist-dominated government tried to create a national army last year but were stymied by the refusal of Serb politicians to agree to a change in the constitution.

The draft laws were supported on Thursday by 98 deputies in the 120-seat parliament, though the vote was boycotted by the legislature's 11 Serb deputies. Approval in a second reading in a few days time is required for the laws to be passed.

"The three laws have one task, to protect the territorial integrity of Kosovo, to protect the citizens of all communities in Kosovo," Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj said before the vote.

The landlocked Balkan territory of 1.8 million, which declared independence in 2008, is still guarded by stationed NATO troops nearly two decades after the end of the war.

NATO moved into the fledgling state in June 1999 following weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency after the break-up of Yugoslavia.

The United States and most of the European Union member states recognise Kosovo. But objections by permanent Security Council members Russia and China which back Serbia in not accepting Kosovo's statehood prevent it from being a member of the United Nations.

The draft laws envisage an army of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. The present KSF security force is a lightly armed, 2,500-strong force trained by NATO and tasked with crisis response, civil protection and ordinance disposal.

NATO says it has no plans to leave the territory just now, but it suggested that any change to the status of the KSF might lead to a reduction in its forces there.

"Any change in the structure, mandate and mission of the Kosovo Security Forces is for the Kosovo authorities to decide," a NATO official told Reuters in an e-mailed answer.

"NATO supports the Kosovo Security Force under its current mandate. Should this mandate evolve, the North Atlantic Council will have to re-examine the level of NATOs engagement in Kosovo. We cannot predict decisions by the North Atlantic Council."

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Maithripala Sirisena apprised Narendra Modi of the urgent steps taken by him personally and the Sri Lanka government to 'publicly reject' these reports.

New Delhi: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "categorically rejected" reports in a section of the media about him alluding to the involvement of India in an alleged plot to assassinate him and a former defence secretary, the Prime Minister's Office said.

A statement quoted him as saying that "mischievous and mala fide reports were utterly baseless and false, and seemed intended to create misunderstanding between the two leaders as well as damage the cordial relations between the two friendly neighbours."

The President apprised Modi of the urgent steps taken by him personally and the government to "publicly reject" these reports. He also recalled his meeting with the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Wednesday morning.

"The President also stated that he regards the Prime Minister as a true friend of Sri Lanka, as also a close personal friend. He stressed that he greatly valued the mutually beneficial ties between India and Sri Lanka, and remained steadfast to work with the Prime Minister for further strengthening them," the statement said.

Modi appreciated the prompt steps taken by the President and his government to firmly refute the malicious reports by publicly clarifying the matters. He also reiterated India's emphasis on 'neighbourhood first' policy and the priority the government of India and he personally attach to developing even stronger all-around cooperation between the two countries.

Earlier Wednesday, the Sri Lankan government had rejected as "completely untrue" media reports that President Sirisena accused India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of plotting his assassination and he opposed awarding a key port project to India.

The media reports came ahead of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Modi to speed up India-backed projects, including the East Terminal project, in the island nation.By Gabriela Baczynska and Daphne Psaledakis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May offered no new ideas to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations but assured fellow EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Wednesday that she was working hard on a deal.

By Gabriela Baczynska and Daphne Psaledakis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May offered no new ideas to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations but assured fellow EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Wednesday that she was working hard on a deal.

EU diplomats spoke of a much more positive mood, with May appearing to show greater understanding for some of the EU's concerns, including Ireland's need for an insurance clause to ensure its British land border could never be closed.

May was given a half-hour slot to speak to the bloc's other leaders before they sat down to dinner without her and discussed preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit under which Britain leaves the European Union without a treaty to cushion the disruption to businesses across the continent.

But three days after talks stalled over the Irish border "backstop", thwarting hopes of a deal at the summit, May arrived determined to stress that a deal was still on the cards.

"What we've seen is that we've solved most of the issues in the withdrawal agreement. There is still the question of the Northern Irish backstop," she told reporters on arrival.

"By working intensively and closely, we can achieve that deal," May added. "Now is the time to make it happen."

A month after May's last meeting in Austria, when her rejection of EU proposals designed to avoid a revival of border tensions in Northern Ireland provoked angry reactions, her tone was much calmer, said EU officials who were present.

"The tone was more relaxed than in Salzburg, undoubtedly. There is a message of goodwill," said Antonio Tajani, president of the European Parliament.

"But I did not perceive anything substantially new in terms of content," he said. "The tone was of someone who wants to reach an agreement."

An aide to French President Emmanuel Macron said May had shown she was open and interested in clinching a deal. Earlier, Macron said he wanted May to explain what kind of deal she could get through her government and parliament.

TRANSITION PROPOSAL

Tajani said he raised with May the possibility that the post-Brexit transition period, during which Britain would retain EU rules and avoid border problems with Ireland, could be extended by a year to 2021 -- something EU negotiators proposed to soften a demand for special rules for Northern Ireland.

Such an extension, keeping Britain under EU governance with no say in it, would be highly unpopular with hardline supporters of Brexit. Tajani said May told him she would consider it but gave no indication of whether she favoured such an extension.

May has repeatedly ruled out extending what she calls an implementation period, but at least one of her ministers has indicated he may support such a step.

One EU diplomat closely involved in the negotiations said May's intervention had revived spirits after the disappointments of the weekend: The atmosphere has improved. There is more trust and willingness to move forward together."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the difficult final phase of the talks did not necessarily mean they would be unsuccessful.

"It is always the case in negotiations that they are tense and difficult and challenging at the end. That doesn't mean they will fail. No one wants these negotiations to fail, neither the EU nor Theresa May want a hard Brexit," Kurz said.

Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had cautioned that Europe must prepare for all outcomes: "That includes the possibility that Britain leaves the European Union without a deal."

May will rejoin her EU counterparts on Thursday as the focus shifts to a summit with Asian leaders, including China's Premier Li Keqiang and the prime ministers of Japan and Russia.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Robin Emmott, Philip Blenkinsop, Jan Strupczewski, Peter Maushagen, Andreas Rinke, Francesco Guarascio, Daphne Psaledakis, Foo Yun Chee, Alissa de Carbonnel, Michel Rose, Jean-Baptiste Vey and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Noah Barkin)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Sending mixed signals, the U.S. pulled out of a major Saudi investment conference Thursday amid global pressure over the apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the kingdom should be given more time to investigate before the U.S. lays any blame or considers action.

Washington: Sending mixed signals, the U.S. pulled out of a major Saudi investment conference Thursday amid global pressure over the apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the kingdom should be given more time to investigate before the U.S. lays any blame or considers action. US President Donald Trump says it "certainly looks" as though missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead. Trump did not say Thursday what he based his conclusion on. But he says the consequences for the Saudis "will have to be very severe" if they are found to have killed him.

While Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of the murder in Istanbul of Khashoggi, a U.S.-based writer who has been critical of Saudi leaders, Trump has cautioned against a rush to judgment against an important Mideast ally. And Pompeo, just back from talks with Saudi and Turkish leaders, said the U.S. needs more facts before deciding "how, or if" to respond.

Meanwhile, after days of speculation, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced, "We have decided I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia." The Saudis had hoped to use the forum, billed as "Davos in the Desert" to boost their global image, but a number of European finance ministers and many top business executives have pulled out as international pressure on Riyadh has intensified over Khashoggi.

Turkish reports say Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate two weeks ago by members of an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis have dismissed those reports as baseless but have yet to explain what happened to Khashoggi, who was seen on video entering the consulate but has not been seen since.

Trump has rejected talk that his reluctance to act is providing cover for the Saudis. And a senior U.S. official said Pompeo had warned the Saudi crown prince that his credibility as a future leader was at stake, reflecting the administration's concern about how the case could affect relations.

Pompeo, who returned late Wednesday from an emergency visit to Riyadh and Ankara to impress on senior officials in both nations the need for a credible investigation, said:

"I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make decisions about how, or if, the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi."

Pompeo declined to comment on what the U.S. believes might have happened to Khashoggi but made clear Washington takes the situation "very seriously." He said that Saudi leaders, including the crown prince, "assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion, and that this report itself will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about, and to inquire with respect to its thoroughness."

He cautioned, however, that whatever response the administration might decide on would take into account the importance of the long-standing U.S.-Saudi partnership. "They're an important strategic ally of the United States, and we need to be mindful of that," he said.

Although Pompeo suggested the U.S. could wait another several days for results of the Saudi investigation an official familiar with his meetings in Riyadh and Ankara said he had been blunt about the need to wrap the probe up quickly. U.S. lawmakers from both parties have expressed outrage over Khashoggi's disappearance and reports of his murder and have been calling for consequences, including possible sanctions against Saudi Arabia.

The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pompeo had told the crown prince that "time is short."

The official also said the Pompeo had warned Prince Mohammed that given the allegations it would be "very difficult for you to be a credible king" without a credible investigation into the case. The crown prince is next in line for the throne, which is held by his ailing, aged father King Salman.By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Ricardo Brito RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that electoral victory was 'within reach' and his campaign team said it had now switched to 'cruise control' as it seeks to avoid hiccups and glide to the finish line. Bolsonaro has a sizeable lead in opinion polls over his leftist rival, Workers Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad, ahead of the Oct. 28 run-off vote

By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Ricardo Brito

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro said on Wednesday that electoral victory was "within reach" and his campaign team said it had now switched to "cruise control" as it seeks to avoid hiccups and glide to the finish line.

Bolsonaro has a sizeable lead in opinion polls over his leftist rival, Workers Party (PT) candidate Fernando Haddad, ahead of the Oct. 28 run-off vote. He is now seeking to ride to the presidency on a wave of anger over graft, rising violence and a weak economy.

"We're within reach (of the presidency), it's true," he told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday after a campaign visit to the federal police. Haddad was "not going to gain 18 million votes between now and two Sunday's time," he said.

Bolsonaro will skip presidential debates and large campaign events, his would-be chief of staff, Congressman Onyx Lorenzoni, told Reuters on Tuesday.

The candidate is still recovering from a near-fatal stab wound received on the campaign trail, which has forced him to keep a lower profile. His poll numbers have increased since the Sept. 6 assassination attempt.

However, Bolsonaro, who openly defends Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship and has pledged a crackdown on crime if he is elected, has made several high-profile visits to law enforcement gatherings in Rio.

Lorenzoni said debates were pointless and made no difference to his candidate's commanding lead in the race.

When asked on Wednesday whether he would appear at debates, Bolsonaro did not answer.

The former army captain has previously suffered in the polls after debate appearances, where he has revealed a relative lack of expertise on economic matters under tough questioning.

In recent days, with victory ever-closer, Bolsonaro has ordered his team to step back from the limelight to avoid making public declarations that could hurt him in the final few days of the race, campaign sources told Reuters.

Luciano Bivar, a federal congressman and founder of Bolsonaro's Social Liberal Party (PSL), said it was the right strategy.

"It's a very important moment for Brazilian society, and we all need to be very careful," he said. "Today, the PSL is a protagonist on the political scene and we all have to be responsible."

Earlier in the campaign, Bolsonaro was forced onto the defensive as his vice-presidential pick, retired General Hamilton Mourao, and economic advisor Paulo Guedes made blunders over potential policies.

Bolsonaro's hands-off strategy poses a major problem for Haddad, who faces an uphill battle to unify opposition to the poll-leader. He is also struggling to add luster to the damaged brand of the PT, which ran Brazil for 13 of the last 15 years and is blamed by many for the country's woes.

The party's founder, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is in jail after a corruption conviction, and as Lula's hand-picked candidate, Haddad is struggling to escape the shadow of a figure who is either loved or loathed by many in Brazil.

Haddad's campaign on Wednesday asked Brazil's election tribunal to declare Bolsonaro and Mourao ineligible from running over alleged irregularities with their billboard publicity.

Bolsonaro hit back by saying the attempt was emblematic of the "hopelessness" of his opponents.

A 63-year-old, seven-term congressman, Bolsonaro has successfully pitched himself as the anti-establishment candidate, appealing to voters fed up with political graft and violent crime.

He has run an unorthodox campaign, relying on social media and grass roots rallies that have won him legions of fans who delight at his sharp words and Twitter putdowns.

Nonetheless, polls show he is also widely disliked by many in the electorate who have been alienated by years of his misogynist, racist and homophobic comments.

(Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle; writing by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Clive McKeef and Rosalba O'Brien)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and had executed some of them and promised to kill more. Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals, adding that Islamic State was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by U.S.

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Islamic State militants had seized nearly 700 hostages in part of Syria controlled by U.S.-backed forces and had executed some of them and promised to kill more.

Speaking in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Putin said the hostages included several U.S. and European nationals, adding that Islamic State was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by U.S. and U.S.-backed forces.

Putin did not specify what the militants' demands were.

"They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day. The day before yesterday they executed 10 people," Putin told the Valdai discussion forum in Sochi.

The TASS news agency reported on Wednesday that Islamic State militants had taken around 700 hostages in Syria's Deir-al Zor province after attacking a refugee camp in an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces on Oct. 13.

TASS said the militants had kidnapped around 130 families and taken them to the city of Hajin.

In Washington, the U.S. military cast doubt on Putin's claims.

"While we have confirmed that there was an attack on an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near (Deir-al Zor) last week, we have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin and we are sceptical of its accuracy," Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

"We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp," Robertson added.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Sochi; Additional reporting by Polina Devitt in Moscow and Idrees Ali in Washington.; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Osborn and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Sri Lanka has reversed a decision to award a $300-million housing deal to China in favour of a joint venture with an Indian company.

Colombo: Sri Lanka has reversed a decision to award a $300 million housing deal to China in favour of a joint venture with an Indian company, the government said, ahead of a visit by the prime minister to its South Asian neighbour.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will meet his counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday in New Delhi, the Indian capital, for talks. The two countries have long-standing ties, partly because of cultural and ethnic links with Tamils, many of whom live in the islands north and east.

In April, state-run China Railway Beijing Engineering Group Co Ltd won a tender worth more than $300 million to build 40,000 houses in Jaffna in Sri Lankas north, with Chinas Exim bank to provide funding.

But the project was halted after residents demanded brick houses, saying they preferred their traditional type of dwelling instead of the concrete structures the Chinese firm had planned.

On Wednesday, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said the cabinet had approved a new proposal for 28,000 houses worth 35.8 billion rupees ($210 million) to be built by Indian firm ND Enterprises and two Sri Lankan firms in the north and east.

The planned homes are part of a total requirement of 65,000, he added.

The rest of the houses will be given to firms which are ready to build them at lower prices, Senaratne told reporters in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, adding that China could also be considered in future for the remaining housing projects.

In Beijing on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing Chinas cooperation with Sri Lanka was derived from consultations on an equal footing and he hoped that cooperation would be viewed objectively.

Critics have said a big Chinese port project and related infrastructure in Sri Lankas south have been dragging the country of 21 million people deep into debt.

India has built 44,000 houses in the countrys north in the first phase of reconstruction after a 26-year-war with Tamil Tiger rebels, and plans to rebuild Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai harbour, both heavily damaged in the conflict.

But in recent years, China has swept in, building ports, power plants and highways as part of Beijings String of Pearls strategy to build a network of friendly ports across Asia.

India has long considered Sri Lanka, just off its southern coast, as within its sphere of influence and sought to push back against Chinas expanding maritime presence.Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who will arrive on Thursday evening, will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

New Delhi: Sri Lanka prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday on a three-day visit which comes in the backdrop of controversial media reports that Sri Lanka president has accused Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of plotting his assassination, a claim firmly rejected as "false" by Colombo.

Wickremesinghe, who will arrive on Thursday evening on a scheduled visit, will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

Sirisena also called up Modi on Wednesday and "categorically rejected" the media reports about him alluding to the involvement of RAW in an alleged plot to assassinate him and a former defence secretary, an Indian government statement said.

"The President apprised the Prime Minister of the urgent steps taken by him personally and the government of Sri Lanka to publicly reject these reports. In this context, he also recalled his meeting with the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka today morning," the statement said.

The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) appreciated the prompt steps taken by the Sri Lankan president and his government to firmly refute the malicious reports by publicly clarifying the matter, it said. Sri Lankan government also rejected the media reports as "baseless and false".

The two prime ministers are likely to review the status of the India-assisted housing projects in Jaffna during Wickremesinghe's visit. They are also likely to deliberate on the Tamil issue - the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated areas.

During the visit, Home minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on Wickremesinghe.The New York Times is reporting Wednesday afternoon that leaked audio from a Turish official suggests that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. 'They severed his fingers and later beheaded and dismembered him, according to details emerging from audio recordings reported by a Turkish newspaper.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday afternoon that the leaked audio from a Turkish official suggests that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. "They severed his fingers and later beheaded and dismembered him," according to details emerging from audio recordings reported by a Turkish newspaper.

The Yeni Safak newspaper cited what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggi's slaying. It described the recording as evidence that a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate.

"The screaming stopped when Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on 2 October, was injected with an as yet unknown substance," said a blog in Herald Sun.

According to Yeni Safak, Al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those allegedly torturing Khashoggi, "Do this outside; you're going to get me in trouble."

Khashoggi reportedly began to be beaten and tortured soon after he was shown into the office of the Saudi consul in Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi.

One of the Saudis reportedly replied: "Shut up if you want to live when you return to (Saudi) Arabia."

The United States has asked Turkey for a recording that could reveal gruesome details of what happened to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump said Wednesday. But he's not confirming there is any such recording, as reported by Turkish media, and he's continuing to urge patience while Saudi Arabia says it's investigating.

"Mr. Khashoggi was dead within minutes, and within two hours the killers were gone, the recordings suggested", reports the New York Times. The Washington Post has reported that according to US intelligence, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman  better known as MBS  ordered an operation to kidnap Khashoggi and bring him back to Saudi Arabia.

Asked about the recording described by the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, Trump said, "We've asked for it, if it exists." At another point, he said, "I'm not sure yet that it exists."

Trump, who threatened punishment for Saudi Arabia when Khashoggi's disappearance first came to light two weeks ago, has repeatedly noted Saudi leaders' denials since then and insisted the U.S. must know the facts before taking action.

But when asked if he was "giving cover" to the Saudi leaders, he said Wednesday that he was not.

"No, not at all," he declared.

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the Mideast, is under pressure to explain what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor living in the U.S. who had been critical of the crown prince.

Turkish officials have said he was murdered, and the Turkish newspaper's report said an audio recording revealed gory details about Khashoggi's demise inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Trump has repeated denials by the Saudi king and crown prince that they knew anything about Khashoggi's fate, and he has warned of a rush to judgment.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, dispatched by Trump to the region, said the U.S. takes Khashoggi's disappearance seriously.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Trump compared the case of Khashoggi to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Kavanaugh denied the allegations and was confirmed to the court.

"I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."

Trump's remarks were his most robust defense yet of the Saudis. They put the president at odds with other key allies and with some leaders in his Republican Party who have condemned the Saudi leadership for what they say is an obvious role in the case. Trump appeared willing to resist the pressure to follow suit, accepting Saudi denials and their pledge to investigate.

The AP's Oval Office interview came not long after Trump spoke Tuesday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He spoke by phone a day earlier with King Salman, and he said both deny any knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.

After speaking with the king, Trump floated the idea that "rogue killers" may have been responsible for the disappearance. The president told the AP on Tuesday that that description was informed by his "feeling" from his conversation with Salman and that the king did not use the term.

In Turkey on Tuesday, a high-level Turkish official told the AP that police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there.

Pompeo met with the king and crown prince in Riyadh and said the Saudis had already started a "serious and credible investigation" and seemed to suggest it could lead to people within the kingdom. The secretary of state noted that the Saudi leaders, while denying knowledge of anything that occurred inside the consulate, had committed to accountability "including for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials."

Trump said he hoped the Saudis' own investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance would be concluded in "less than a week."

In the meantime, there were signs at home that Trump's party was growing uncomfortable with his willingness to defend the Saudis.

In an interview with Fox News, a prominent Trump ally in the Senate called on Saudi Arabia to reject the crown prince, known as MBS, who rose to power last year and has aggressively sought to soften the kingdom's image abroad and attract foreign investment.

"This guy has got to go," said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, turning to speak to the camera. "Saudi Arabia, if you're listening, there are a lot of good people you can choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself."

International leaders and business executives are severing or rethinking ties to the Saudi government after Khashoggi's high-profile disappearance. Trump has resisted any action, pointing to huge U.S. weapons deals pending with Saudi Arabia and saying that sanctions could end up hurting the American economy.

He said it was too early to say whether he endorsed other countries' actions. "I have to find out what happened," he said. But his complaint about "guilty until proven innocent" and comparison to the Kavanaugh situation suggested he was giving the Saudis more leeway than other allies.

Khashoggi went to the consulate on 2 October to get documents for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman while his fiancee waited outside. She and Turkish authorities say he never emerged and he has not been heard from since.

With Associated PressGeneral Abdul Razeq, one of Afghanistan's most powerful security commanders, was killed on Thursday in a shooting attack by a bodyguard that dealt a severe blow to the Afghan government ahead of parliamentary elections on Saturday, officials said.

Kandahar: General Abdul Razeq, one of Afghanistan's most powerful security commanders, was killed on Thursday in a shooting attack by a bodyguard that dealt a severe blow to the Afghan government ahead of parliamentary elections on Saturday, officials said.

General Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan who had been at a meeting with Razeq and the governor of the southern province of Kandahar only moments earlier, was not injured in the attack.

But Razeq, the Kandahar police commander, and the local head of the NDS intelligence service were both fatally wounded before the attacker was himself killed. Kandahar Governor Zalmay Wesa was severely wounded and contradictory reports about whether he had survived could not immediately be resolved.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the assault, which decapitated the security command in one of the country's most strategically important and contested provinces.

The Taliban said they said they had targeted both Miller and Razeq, who had a fearsome reputation as a ruthless foe of the Islamist insurgents in their southern Afghan heartland.

Security officials had warned of likely attacks ahead of the election but the death of Razeq caused deep shock that officials fear may keep away voters, after Taliban warnings not to take part in what they consider a foreign-imposed ballot.

"General Razeq's death will have a huge impact on security and the election in the south because a lot of voters may not feel safe to go to vote," said a senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Taliban released a picture of a young man in military-style uniform who they said was the attacker and Afghan officials identified him by the name of Gulbuddin.

It remained unclear how the insurgents managed to infiltrate a gunman so close to such senior commanders. Officials said Razeq, Miller and the other officials were walking towards a landing zone as the helicopter taking the US general's party back to Kabul approached to land when the gunman, who was waiting outside, opened fire on the group.

"Provincial officials including the governor, the police chief and other officials were accompanying the foreign guests to the aircraft when the gunshots happened," said Said Jan Khakrezwal, the head of the provincial council.

The attack underlined how precarious the situation remains in Afghanistan even after Taliban and US officials have opened preliminary contacts aimed at establishing the basis for future peace talks.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Washington remained committed to its strategy of maintaining heavy military pressure on the Taliban to force the insurgents to the negotiating table.

"This attack will not change US resolve in our South Asia strategy. If anything, it makes us more resolute," US Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner told Reuters.

Body Armour

President Ashraf Ghani said a team led by the head of the NDS, Masoom Stanekzai, would be sent to Kandahar to bring the situation under control and investigate the incident, which sharply heightens security concerns around Saturday's election.

At least two hand grenade explosions and sporadic gunfire from around the compound were also reported by officials, in a sign the attack was carefully coordinated.

The three Afghan officials were all hit in the fusillade from the gunman and two Americans and a coalition contractor were hit in the crossfire. But Miller, who took command of US forces in Afghanistan and the NATO-led Resolute Support mission last month, was not harmed.

"The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along several other officials," a Taliban statement said.

A flamboyant commander, whose men wore badges bearing his name, Razeq had survived several attempts on his life over the years and narrowly escaped an attack last year in which five diplomats from the United Arab Emirates were killed in Kandahar.

A US Embassy official said eyewitness reports indicated that claims Miller was a target in the attack were false, but he gave no detail. Local officials said Miller appeared to have been saved by his body armour but there was no immediate confirmation from NATO headquarters.

Razeq was criticised by human rights groups but highly respected by US officers who saw him as one of Afghanistan's most effective commanders, largely responsible for keeping Kandahar under control.

Although technically only a police commander, he was a powerful political figure in his own right and had clashed repeatedly with Ghani in the past, using his unchallenged position in Kandahar to resist attempts to sack him.

A cameramen working for Afghanistan's RTA state television was also killed on Thursday, according to the director of the Afghanistan journalists centre, Ahmad Quraishi.By Leah Millis, Tulay Karadeniz and Steve Holland ANKARA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not want to abandon close ally Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist and government critic, and he needed to see evidence to prove Turkish claims he was killed by Saudi agents. Trump said he was waiting for a full report on what had happened to Jamal Khashoggi from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom he sent to Saudi Arabia and Turkey to meet with officials over the disappearance

By Leah Millis, Tulay Karadeniz and Steve Holland

ANKARA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he did not want to abandon close ally Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist and government critic, and he needed to see evidence to prove Turkish claims he was killed by Saudi agents.

Trump said he was waiting for a full report on what had happened to Jamal Khashoggi from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom he sent to Saudi Arabia and Turkey to meet with officials over the disappearance.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who was critical of the authoritarian kingdom's Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 and his body removed. The Saudis have denied the allegations.

Turkish sources have told Reuters the authorities have an audio recording indicating Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. He has not been seen since entering the building.

Turkey's pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper on Wednesday published what it said were details from audio recordings that purported to document Khashoggi's torture and interrogation.

Khashoggi was killed within minutes and his torturers severed his fingers during the interrogation, the newspaper said. His killers later beheaded and dismembered him, it said.

Turkey has not shared with the U.S. government or European allies graphic audio or video evidence, seven U.S. and European security officials told Reuters. The United States and allies have collected some intelligence through their own sources and methods, which partly confirms news reports based on leaks of audio recordings, four of the sources said.

A New York Times report cited a senior Turkish official confirming the details published by Yeni Safak. Two Turkish government officials contacted by Reuters declined to confirm the report.

Trump, who has forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia and the 33-year-old crown prince, said the United States has asked Turkey for any audio or video evidence.

Asked in a Fox Business Network interview if Washington could abandon Riyadh, Trump said: "I do not want to do that."

Trump reiterated his hopes that Saudi leaders were not involved in his disappearance of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident.

"We have asked for it, if it exists ... I'm not sure yet that it exists, probably does, possibly does," he later told reporters when asked about audio or video evidence.

U.S. media outlets have reported that Riyadh, despite its earlier denials of involvement, will acknowledge he was killed in a botched interrogation. Trump has speculated without providing evidence that "rogue killers" could be responsible.

How the crown prince emerges from the crisis is a test of how the West will deal with Saudi Arabia in the future.

Trump has appeared unwilling to distance himself too much from the Saudis, citing Riyadh's role in countering Iranian influence in the region - and tens of billions of dollars in potential arms deals.

Other Western nations, although expressing concern about the incident, face a similar delicate situation in their dealings with the world's top oil exporter.

IMPORTANT TIES

Pompeo meanwhile said Riyadh should be given a few more days to complete its own probe into Khashoggi's disappearance. He met Turkey's president and foreign minister, a day after Trump gave Saudi Arabia the benefit of the doubt.

"They're going to do an investigation, and when the investigation comes out we'll evaluate it," Pompeo told reporters travelling with him.

A State Department spokeswoman said Pompeo had not heard any audio recording purporting to indicate Khashoggi was killed.

Pompeo also said the United States must be mindful of important business and government ties with Saudi Arabia as it considers any steps once the facts have been determined.

Turkish investigators entered the Saudi consul's residence on Wednesday after delays. Their search included the roof and garage, and the deployment of a drone over the premises. The consul-general had left Turkey for Riyadh on Tuesday.

A pro-government Turkish daily published preliminary evidence last week from investigators who it said had identified a 15-member Saudi intelligence team that arrived in Istanbul on diplomatic passports hours before Khashoggi disappeared.

A New York Times report, citing witnesses and other records, linked four suspects to Prince Mohammed's security detail.

One name matches a LinkedIn profile for a forensic expert who has worked at the interior ministry for 20 years. Another is identified in a diplomatic directory from 2007 as a first secretary at the Saudi Embassy in London. Others resemble officers in the Saudi Army and Air Force.

After his meetings with the king and crown prince on Tuesday, Pompeo said Saudi Arabia has committed to conducting a full investigation.

Asked whether they said Khashoggi was alive or dead, Pompeo said: "They didn't talk about any of the facts."

DESERTED CONFERENCE

Prince Mohammed has painted himself as the face of a new, vibrant Saudi Arabia, diversifying its economy away from reliance on oil and making some social changes.

But there has been criticism of some of his moves, including Riyadh's involvement in the Yemen war, the arrest of women activists, and a diplomatic row with Canada.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his plans to attend an investment conference in Riyadh next week would be revisited on Thursday after U.S. officials have a chance to consult Pompeo. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and top executives from Societe Generale and Glencore joined a growing list of executives who have pulled out.

Saudi Arabia has said it would retaliate against any pressure or economic sanctions.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, met his Saudi counterpart on Wednesday for previously scheduled talks, according to a U.S. military readout that made no mention of Khashoggi.

(Reporting by Leah Millis, Tulay Karadeniz and Steve Holland; additional reporting by Makini Brice, Lesley Wroughton and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Ali Kucukgocmen and Daren Butler in Istanbul and Gulsen Solaker and Orhan Coskun in Ankara; Writing by Stephen Kalin and David Dolan; Editing by William Maclean, Angus MacSwan and Grant McCool)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police are searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for remains of a Saudi dissident journalist who disappeared two weeks ago after entering the Saudi consulate, two Turkish officials said.

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish police are searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for remains of a Saudi dissident journalist who disappeared two weeks ago after entering the Saudi consulate, two Turkish officials said.

Investigators have also recovered "many samples" from their searches of the consulate and the consul's residence, the senior officials told Reuters, and will now attempt to analyse those for traces of the DNA of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Arabia has denied allegations by Turkish officials who have said Khashoggi was killed inside the building and his body removed.

(Reporting by Orhan Coskun and David Dolan; editing by Grant McCool)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Dave Graham and Delphine Schrank MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - More Honduran migrants tried to join a caravan of several thousand moving through Guatemala on Wednesday, defying calls by authorities not to make the journey after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut off regional aid in reprisal

By Dave Graham and Delphine Schrank

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - More Honduran migrants tried to join a caravan of several thousand moving through Guatemala on Wednesday, defying calls by authorities not to make the journey after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to cut off regional aid in reprisal.

The caravan has grown steadily since it left the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday. The migrants hope to reach Mexico and then cross its northern border with the United States, to seek refuge from lawlessness and poverty.

HOW MUCH U.S. ASSISTANCE GOES TO THE THREE COUNTRIES?

Under Trump, the United States has already sought to sharply decrease aid to Central America.

In 2016, the United States provided some $131.2 million in aid to Guatemala, $98.3 million to Honduras, and $67.9 million to El Salvador, according to U.S. official data.

By 2019, those sums were projected to fall to $69.4 million for Guatemala, $65.8 million for Honduras, and $45.7 million in the case of El Salvador. Combined, the cuts amount to a reduction of almost 40 percent for the three nations.

Funding is allocated to a range of areas including promotion of democracy, human rights and governance, economic development, education and security.

As well as the cuts, the Trump administration asked Congress to shift the balance of aid in 2019 toward security and rule-of-law efforts and away from governance and economic growth programs, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The U.S. contributions were worth more than 1 percent of the respective budgets of the three countries in 2016.

However, the Central American nations are far more dependent on remittances from migrants in the United States.

Honduras received $4.3 billion in remittances in 2017, according to World Bank data, a sum equivalent to nearly 19 percent of the country's gross domestic product. In El Salvador remittances were worth over 20 percent of GDP last year and more than 11 percent of total economic output in Guatemala.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF TRUMP CUTS OFF AID?

Critics of Trump's ongoing cuts to Central American assistance fear that less U.S. engagement in the region risks aggravating the problems that encouraged migration in the first place.

Last month, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez told Reuters that cuts in U.S. aid would make it harder to stem illegal immigration.

Escalating crime and violence, and a surge in unaccompanied children in 2014 at the U.S. border, prompted the two previous U.S. administrations to increase funding, including equipment, training and other assistance to the region.

That aid was conditioned on El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala showing progress on issues such as human smuggling, drug trafficking and dissuading citizens from migrating illegally to the United States.

Today, U.S. retreat from the region has opened the door to Trump's trade adversary China to establish a firmer foothold. In August, El Salvador broke off diplomatic ties with Taiwan in favour of China, citing economic reasons. Panama did so in 2017.

In the interview with Reuters, Hernandez said he welcomed China's growing role in the region as an opportunity."

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO JOIN THE CARAVAN?

The migrant exodus follows a similar caravan of Central Americans that started out from southern Mexico last March and that ultimately led to hundreds of migrants either seeking asylum in the United States or remaining in Mexico.

Many of the migrants on that trek were Hondurans. Central Americans followed it closely in the media, in part due to Trump's repeated criticism of it. That publicity raised the profile of caravans as a potentially safer way to reach Mexico or the United States.

Although the current caravan was organised independently of the March version, at least some of its members were connected on social media to people who travelled with the first group.

The three countries have long been among the poorest in the Americas and the most violent in the world.

Economic desperation and fear of brutal street gangs known as Maras are consistently cited by migrants as incentives to leave in spite of the costs of paying people traffickers, the risks of deportation, being robbed or even killed en route.

Murder rates in El Salvador and Honduras have fallen in recent years, but they still had the world's highest and second-highest rates in 2016, according to the latest available World Bank data - 83 and 57 homicides per 100,000 head of population respectively.

Guatemala ranked 10th at 27 per 100,000, the figures showed. By comparison, the U.S. homicide rate was 5.3 that year.

Last year Honduras and El Salvador were among the five countries in the Americas with the lowest GDP per capita, with Guatemala close behind. At $2,480, the figure for Honduras was 24 times lower than the United States, World Bank data show.

(Reporting by Dave Graham and Delphine Schrank; Editing by Chris Reese)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The European Vegetarian Union (EVU) is calling on the European Commission to harmonize vegetarian and vegan food labeling rules. The renewed urgency comes as it has been... Read MoreThe UKs trade agreement with Australia is the first it has negotiated from scratch, setting the template for a line of new deals currently underway. Analysts are... Read MoreKerry has completed the acquisition of Niacet, which was previously announced in June, as Kerry seeks to strengthen its food protection and preservation... Read MoreThe U.S. government is backing three candidates in the development and testing of prototypes of a new space launch system, awarding more than $2.2 billion in funding to build the next generation of rockets designed to carry military payloads into space.

The Air Force on Oct. 10 awarded $967 million to United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing (NYSE:BA) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT); $792 million to Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC); and $500 million to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. The government said it intends to eventually select two national security space launch service providers for future procurements, with a decision not expected before 2020 at the earliest.

The competition will help determine who will eventually get the awards in one of the Air Force's most important space-based ventures, a program that has launched 72 missions dating back to 2003.

Tale of the tape

United Launch Alliance is a longtime military space vendor, launching payloads into orbit in recent years via its Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets. But the venture's use of Russian-built RD-180 engines has made it a target of criticism in recent years. A congressional mandate that military launches move away from using Russian-built equipment helped spark this new bake-off and forced ULA to find other sources for its lift power.

The new ULA offering, the Vulcan Centaur rocket, would be powered by Blue Origin engines for its first stage and rockets made by Aerojet Rocketdyne (NYSE:AJRD) for stage two.

Northrop Grumman, meanwhile, is offering the Omega launch system it acquired as part of its recent $9.2 billion deal for Orbital ATK. The Omega would use a mix of in-house propulsion systems and Aerojet engines, and Northrop in its bid has emphasized the reliability and cost savings that would come from basing its launcher on its family of smaller rockets, including the Antares, Minotaur, and Pegasus, already in use to launch government payloads.

The Omega would share a common propulsion, structure, and avionics system with rockets already in use, and draw from the experience gained from Northrop Grumman building, on average, 20 rockets per year.

The Blue Origin New Glenn offering offers two stages of rockets built entirely in-house, with a third stage available for heavier payloads.

Notably absent from the awards was SpaceX, the start-up funded by Elon Musk, which has worked with the government in the past. The award only means that SpaceX will not receive government development funding and does not preclude it from bidding on further contracts. In June, SpaceX was awarded a $130 million contract to deliver an Air Force satellite into orbit using its Falcon Heavy rockets.

High stakes for some

ULA arguably has the most to lose, given that the previous 72 missions launched under this program have all used its vehicles. United Launch Alliance has already borne the brunt of an increasingly competitive space landscape, announcing layoffs in 2016 designed to bring down costs and make it more competitive against SpaceX and others.

Lockheed Martin was rumored to be pushing to exit ULA back in 2015, but Boeing balked at the time. Boeing's space and defense business has recently won a string of new contracts that should make the unit less reliant on ULA revenue and cross-selling opportunities. A loss here, or even a win, could cause the parties to reconsider ending the joint venture, with a ULA merger with Aerojet one possibility.

Northrop, meanwhile, bought Orbital ATK with opportunities like this one in mind, and success here could go a long way toward justifying the big-budget purchase.

Blue Origin would seem to have the least to lose and the most to win. The company's selection onto the Vulcan Centaur platform was a big shot in the arm for the company that gives it two chances to secure a new stream of revenue that would supplement Bezos' funding and help it to continue development on a range of technologies needed for its space transportation and tourism business.

Will there be winners?

It's hard to handicap a competition, but the Air Force in announcing its selections stressed the need to sustain a competitive market for military launches. The most reliable way for the government to accomplish that goal is to make sure two longtime partners -- in this case ULA and Northrop -- are cleared to win additional launches.

As stated above, Blue Origin stands to win even if it loses, and the experience (not to mention funding) it receives as being part of these initial awards should help the company to develop and to better familiarize itself with the government contracting process.

For individual investors there might not be much of a reason to cheer a win. With SpaceX and now Blue Origin building relationships with the Pentagon, and ULA and Northrop both plugging along, the government could eventually have at least four viable contractors for some launches, a dream scenario for the customer but a potential nightmare for launch margins. The newcomers today enjoy a substantial cost advantage compared with the incumbents, though ULA and Northrop are working to close that gap with these new designs.

Fortunately, this isn't make or break for any large contractor. Boeing and Lockheed Martin have enough other things going right to weather issues with ULA. For Northrop there is more at stake because the company paid up for Orbital, but even without this contract the Orbital business is performing well and has a steady backlog.

The government's initial challenge -- eliminating its reliance on the Russians -- is looking more achievable by the day. The separate challenge of finding enough work to keep this robust supplier base vibrant could be even more daunting.Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) took another big leap forward in the third quarter. Not only did the company post strong financial results, but it also made tremendous strategic progress. The pipeline giant is therefore on pace to exceed its full-year outlook as well as end the year with an even stronger balance sheet than expected.

Kinder Morgan Inc. results: The raw numbers

What happened with Kinder Morgan this quarter?

Natural gas pipelines led the way.

"This quarter reinforced the importance of our interconnected natural gas transportation network as that segment accounted for a substantial portion of the growth in segment earnings versus the third quarter of 2017," according to company President Kim Dang. Overall, earnings in the natural gas pipeline segment jumped 9% from the year-ago period. The company's midstream gathering and processing business helped drive that growth as it benefited from an increase in drilling activities thanks in part to higher oil prices. The company also benefited from higher volumes flowing across several of its key transmission pipelines, as well as from recently completed expansion projects.

Earnings in its carbon dioxide segment rose 7% from the year-ago period, thanks to higher volumes as well as strong natural gas liquids (NGLs) and carbon dioxide prices, which were up 48% and 12%, respectively, over last year's third quarter. The company also delivered strong oil production across most of its fields, led by Tall Cotton, where output jumped 28%.

Product pipeline earnings rose 2% because of contributions from its Cochin and Double H Pipelines, which offset some weakness on the SFPP system that transports refined products to markets along the West Coast.

Earnings in the terminals segment were up 1%, driven mainly by its liquids business, thanks to storage capacity increases at key hubs in Houston and Edmonton.

Kinder Morgan Canada 's TSX:KML) sold to the Canadian government.

's sold to the Canadian government. Overall, Kinder Morgan generated $1.9 billion of adjusted EBITDA during the quarter, which was 6% higher year over year and well above its $1.8 billion forecast. Meanwhile, distributable cash flow came in at $1.1 billion, or $0.49 per share, which was 4% higher than the year-ago period and also beat its guidance of $1 billion, or $0.45 per share.

What management had to say

CEO Steve Kean commented on the quarter:

The third quarter was a momentous one for our company. We closed the Trans Mountain transaction on Aug. 31 and then made a final investment decision on the Permian Highway Pipeline Project less than a week later. Our three-year campaign to strengthen KMI's balance sheet reached an important milestone, as we ended the quarter with an adjusted net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of approximately 4.6 times.

Kinder Morgan significantly increased both the clarity of its growth prospects and the strength of its balance sheet during the quarter. The company sold the Trans Mountain Pipeline and its controversial expansion project to the Canadian government during the quarter, which proved to be a wise decision in hindsight, after a court overturned its approval last month. In exchange, the company received a big injection of cash, which pushed its leverage ratio well below its goal of 5.0, enabling the company to set a new long-term leverage target of 4.5.

Meanwhile, the company bolstered its growth prospects after giving the Permian Highway Pipeline project the green light. It's the second large-scale pipeline the company is building to move natural gas from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast. With that addition, the company now has $6.5 billion of growth projects under way -- a $250 million increase from last quarter even after completing $550 million of expansions -- with the bulk poised to earn lucrative returns on investment backed by long-term contracts.

Looking forward

Thanks to another better-than-expected quarter, Kinder Morgan is on pace to exceed its full-year guidance of $4.57 billion, or $2.05 per share, in distributable cash flow this year, even with the impact from the sale of Trans Mountain. The company is therefore maintaining its plan to increase its dividend by 25% in both 2019 and 2020.Strike up the marching band, light a sparkler, and raise your commemorative mug, because this is Stock Advisor's 200th consecutive month of stock recommendations! That's right -- we've been bringing you our best investing ideas without interruption each month since March 2002. It's been a wild ride, and some of you have been on it from the start. If you're one of them, and if you've acted on every single recommendation, then you've enjoyed a market-obliterating return of 1,955% over the past 16 years. We hope the journey has been as fun and rewarding for you as it has been for us.

It's fitting that we should reach this milestone in the same year Stock Advisor celebrated its Sweet 16 -- and a sweet year it's been, with the service cruising to a 45% gain as of mid-October while the broader market has yet to leave the driveway.

Of course, we Fools don't spend much time reveling in short-term gains (or dwelling on short-term losses). And today's missive, much like Stock Advisor's approach to investing, is all about the long term and the big picture. We're sharing the story of the service Tom and David started 16 years ago, never guessing it might someday help hundreds of thousands of investors become savvier, wealthier, and (most importantly) happier.

In 2002, the market and The Motley Fool were reeling from the dot-com crash. As Tom and David fought to pull the company back from the brink, they realized we had yet to discover our true purpose -- a business that could not only thrive, but also change the world for the better. A band of Fools put their heads together, and eventually they turned to a project the Gardner brothers had been working on for nine years: a monthly newsletter featuring one stock pick from Tom and one from David.

It was a friendly competition: Both of them aimed to beat the market by investing in one stock every month. They tracked the performance of their real-money portfolios and published the results, as well as the lessons they learned. During this nine-year experiment, they achieved annualized returns of more than 20% versus the market's 12%. By 2002, they felt ready to turn their newsletter into a service that would create value for investors around the world.

Thus Stock Advisor was born. It was designed to be a simple product with a simple investing strategy. Tom and David -- who had spent years studying the likes of Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Benjamin Graham -- knew that the clearest path to long-term wealth was to buy great companies and hold them for years, if not forever.

"One of the things that I love about Stock Advisor is that we've created a service that is so easy to use," says David. "There's a lot of other advice out there that's so short-term, and if you try to follow that, it can exhaust you. It's not easy at all."

The Motley Fool partnered with a local publisher to produce Stock Advisor and mail it to our subscribers. Though it originally came in print form, the newsletter looked much like it does now. Each issue included a pair of stock recommendations, a detailed explanation of each pick, some updates on previous recs, and some clear, levelheaded commentary on investing.

Take, for instance, this passage from the August 2002 issue:

If you find yourself turning away from the market these days, you're not alone. Too many people have been burned (or know someone who has) by the Enrons, WorldComs and Lucents (and their auditors) of the business world, to the point of fearing individual stock ownership. ... But think about it: Recessions create some of the greatest buying opportunities for patient investors. ... When the market is down, it's not just a difficult time we have to get through. It's also a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the beaten-down prices of some good companies. So if you've been waiting for signs of a turnaround before getting back in the market, we strongly urge you to shift gears.

The market began to rebound in early 2003 and then enjoyed a nearly five-year bull market. While neither David nor Tom will claim to be clairvoyant, they both understand a simple concept that Tom summed up in the very first issue of Stock Advisor:

In our view, American capitalism is resilient and mostly free, and has created the most powerful economy the world has ever known. So long as we protect and nurture it, its stocks will continue to rise more than they fall.

The Gardner brothers' straightforward, anyone-can-do-it style of advice resonated with readers, and within a year, Stock Advisor had tens of thousands of subscribers. That early success allowed us to buy the full rights to Stock Advisor back from our publisher, take the service in house, and turn it into something much bigger.

We built the website and created discussion boards where investors can ask questions and share ideas. Over time, we've added online performance scorecards, watchlists that help you follow our coverage on your favorite stocks, the popular "Best Buys Now" list, guides for new investors, and more. With every change, our goal has been to make it easier for our members to find the best advice for them.

The Gardner brothers have also learned some valuable lessons on investing while leading the company they co-founded 25 years ago. As they've worked to make the Fool a famously great place to work, they've come to appreciate the value of corporate culture and a healthy, happy workforce. They've also become firm believers in Conscious Capitalism -- the philosophy that businesses should strive to serve the best interests of all their stakeholders, including customers, employees, vendors, and the surrounding community. Making money and making the world a better place are not mutually exclusive -- in fact, many of the companies that do the most good do the best.

Or, as David likes to say: "Make your portfolio reflect your best vision for our future."

That said, Stock Advisor's strategy hasn't changed for the most part. Tom and David, each supported by a crack team of analysts, continue to recommend one stock apiece every month. They still like companies with visionary leaders, sustainable competitive advantages, and unrecognized potential. And why mess with an approach that has beaten the market by more than 1,800% over the last 16 years?

If you're not yet sold on buy-and-hold, consider that Stock Advisor's most absurdly successful picks are among its earliest. Take Netflix, which we recommended shortly after Tom and David interviewed CEO Reed Hastings in 2003. That position is up more than 14,000%.

Amazon, pitched by David in 2002, is now up more than 11,000%.

Amazon.com has emerged as the biggest pure-play in e-commerce. The company is generating billions of dollars in annual sales and -- the key for us going forward -- these are finally profitable sales. What's behind the success? A company fanatically focused on customer satisfaction, and a brilliant, entrepreneurial CEO.

Of course, Stock Advisor's recommendations haven't all been grand slams.

"My first two stocks were dogs," says David. "I picked Schwab, which just didn't move for the following six years. I also picked Electronic Arts. They're both great companies, but I held Electronic Arts for a while before it dropped 60% and I disconsolately sold it."

The list of stinkers goes on. However, as every Fool knows, one big winner can make up for a lot of losers -- and then some. Care to guess what David's next pick was? Here's what he had to say in his July 2002 write-up:

Spider-Man the movie has just proven that comic book characters represent valuable assets across many media platforms besides just the original comic book. ... You're now looking at about 4,700 superheroes as individual licensable assets in a "portfolio of media properties."

Yep, that would be Marvel. Those who bought in July 2002 and held on -- through Disney's $4.2 billion acquisition of the company and the conversion of Marvel shares to Disney shares -- are now sitting on gains of over 5,000%.

We're certainly proud of the returns Stock Advisor has achieved. However, the true success story is in how those gains have changed our subscribers' lives.

"Over the years the Stock Advisor recommendations have increased my net worth at least tenfold," says member Jerold Polt. "I am now retired and living comfortably. I travel fairly often and intend to continue exploring our beautiful planet."

Meanwhile, Kathleen Dewhirst, who has subscribed to Stock Advisor since it launched, is using part of her gains to give her grandchildren a brighter future.

"We opened and funded college accounts for our grandchildren and then established an IRA for each when they turned 18."

As we mentioned above, however, we want to make our members not only wealthier, but wiser, too. And we're happy to know we've helped some investors make smarter decisions with their money.

"Stock Advisor has helped me stay the course so I did not sell after market downturns and then buy back in after big run-ups, which obviously is a losing strategy," says John Wilson. "So I have appreciated emotional support and cool heads during difficult times."

Whatever your financial dreams, we hope to help you achieve them. Our work means more to us than percentages on paper. To close, let's return to that first issue of Stock Advisor for a moment:

Welcome! What you hold in your hand is precious to us. Why? Because it represents, month in and month out, our best investment ideas.

You may not be able to hold our newsletters anymore, but the sentiment remains true: Our work is precious to us, as is the success of our members. So, whether you've been a member for 16 years or 16 minutes, here's to many more years of learning, beating the market, and enjoying the ride!

Sincerely,

Your friends at The Motley FoolAbrakadoodle Opens Down Under Welcoming Newest International Master Franchise: Australia

Denise Wang and Chris Li acquire master franchise and plan to initiate the launch of art programs in Sydney.

October 18, 2018 // Franchising.com // Sterling, VA - Abrakadoodle enthusiastically welcomes Denise Wang and Chris Li, who are launching their Abrakadoodle art education master franchise in Sydney, Australia. Experienced with franchising, Denise and Chris successfully brought the My Gym franchise to Sydney last year. The husband and wife duo said that they view Abrakadoodle as the top global brand in visual arts education. I feel that we belong in this Abrakadoodle family, Denise said. Creativity is necessary, commented Chris, it cannot be replaced with automation, and Abrakadoodles creative art program will benefit kids. Abrakadoodle is the most complete art education company of its kind, offering extensive arts education for children ages 20 months to 14 years old. Abrakadoodle Australia will deliver a wide range of art programs to include after school art classes, camps, workshops, special events and parties, as well as via partnerships with schools and other community sites. They will initially provide Abrakadoodle programs in a studio within their My Gym location but plan to launch a separate Abrakadoodle Art Studio in the coming months. In addition to its creative childrens programming, Abrakadoodle offers social art parties and events through its Art Splash program, designed specifically for adults. Once programs are successfully launched in Sydney, Chris and Denise plan to expand in Australia by offering sub franchise opportunities.

We are very pleased to welcome Denise and Chris to our award-winning, global Abrakadoodle family, said Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE, President and Co-Founder of Abrakadoodle, Inc. With their business acumen and franchise experience, as well as Denises passion for the visual arts, they are well-positioned to develop a vibrant program to bring high quality art programs to benefit Australians.

Chris Li graduated from the University of Sydney in 1998, where he studied finance and econometrics and met his now wife Denise Wang. Most recently, he and Denise acquired the My Gym master franchise and successfully opened that business in Sydney. He brings varied career financial experiences including banking, money management and real estate investment. Mr. Li looks forward to this business development opportunity and remarked that Abrakadoodle programs are high level but accessible and a good value for customers. He believes his tenacity and attention to detail will serve him well as he expands local partnerships and brings his master franchises together into a unified educational platform.

Denise Wang graduated from the University of Sydney and went on to earn her CPA. While Denise has gained business experience in her career that entailed international assignments in Tokyo and Hong Kong, she realized that her heart remains with art. She has been involved in creating art since she was five years old and has shown interest and aptitude in learning many art styles and forms - from watercolor and oils to 3D and paper art. In fact, Denise found the comprehensive nature of Abrakadoodle programs to be very attractive. Abrakadoodle provides a great variety of art - not just 2D, and kids learn about a wide array of artists, world cultures and use their imaginations to solve problems. With a facility for communications, Denise reaches thousands of families with her online mothers group in which she shares advice, support and resources. After deciding to pursue childrens services franchising, Denise obtained a Childhood Education diploma to complement her credentials. I look forward to setting up our Abrakadoodle Art Studio and bringing the brand to a high level in Australia, she commented. Denise and her husband Chris have a four-year old son.

About Abrakadoodle

Sterling, VA-based Abrakadoodle (www.abrakadoodle.com) was co-founded in 2002 by award-winning educators/franchise developers Mary Rogers, CFE, MA. Ed (Retired), and Rosemarie Hartnett, CFE. Abrakadoodle is the most comprehensive creativity and art education company of its kind, offering extensive visual arts classes, camps and parties for children ages 20 months to 14 years old at locations across the U.S. and in several international locations. Abrakadoodles programs inspire childrens imaginations by immersing them in such art forms as painting, sculpting, drawing, mosaics, collage, stamping, anime, paper & fabric art and much more at schools and other community locations. Abrakadoodles Art Splash program features creative art parties and events designed for adult artventurers.

Media Contact:

Karin Machusic

Director of Public Relations

(Mobile) 925-708-2179

Karin@abrakadoodle.com

SOURCE Abrakadoodle

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DisqusFASTSIGNS CEO Catherine Monson To Keynote European Master And Multi-Unit Franchising Conference In London On Oct. 23

No. 1-ranked Sign, Graphics and Visual Communications Franchisor Seeking Master Franchisee Candidates to Drive Expansion throughout Europe

October 18, 2018 // Franchising.com // CARROLLTON, Texas - FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today that CEO Catherine Monson will be the keynote speaker at the European Master and Multi-Unit Franchising Conference on Oct. 23 at the Park Plaza Victoria in London. With over 30 years of experience in franchising, Catherine will share her insights on the strength of the industry worldwide.

Additionally, Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development for FASTSIGNS International, Inc., and Hamdi Osman, FASTSIGNS Master Franchisee for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and North Africa, will speak on Oct. 24 about the franchisee-franchisor relationship in master franchising, building infrastructure, and franchise sales. Osman opened the first FASTSIGNS location in the UAE in 2015 in Dubai and has since celebrated his success as a top international center with the highest country sales volume. As part of his Master Franchise agreement, Osman will open a total of 12 locations in the UAE and 25 centers in North Africa  specifically targeting, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.

Since launching our international expansion efforts, FASTSIGNS has built a proven business model that has the flexibility to be replicated in any international market, allowing us to grow to nine countries, said Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. With the increasing need for signage and visual communications worldwide, we continue to emphasize the importance of providing the tools and resources that set our Master Franchisees up for success while simultaneously catering to the specific needs of their country and business. Were looking forward to networking with potential Master Franchisees to explore how FASTSIGNS can continue to grow throughout Europe.

FASTSIGNS has experienced explosive international growth in 2018, including opening 24 locations in the U.S. and Canada, one in Chile, and two in Australia. In Europe, the brand recently signed a Master Franchise Agreement to open at least 10 locations in Spain, the Balearic Islands, and Gibraltar. FASTSIGNS is continuing to seek qualified candidates to grow its international footprint in markets throughout the world, including Europe, Brazil, Quebec, North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America.

The European Master and Multi-Unit Franchising Conference brings together a highly experienced group of international franchise business leaders, said Therese Thilgen, Co-founder and President, Franchise Update Media Group. Were thrilled to have FASTSIGNS be a part of it as we address the growing trend of master franchising as the primary method of international expansion for franchise brands.

For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson (mark.jameson@fastsigns.com or 214-346-5679).

About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of almost 700 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in nine countries including the U.S., Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Chile, and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE).

FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns.

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DisqusXpresso Delight Brews Up a Multi-Unit Franchise Deal in Washington, D.C.

October 18, 2018 // Franchising.com // New York, NY - Xpresso Delight, the worlds largest and fastest growing coffee-as-a-service franchise, with over 200 franchisees, announced today that it has sold a Multi-Unit Franchise deal in the District of Columbia. The awarding of the D.C. territory reflects the popularity of the Australian based brands products and services among commercial customers.

The companys new D.C. franchisees are husband and wife team Ram and Shirisha Dasari. The awarding of the multi-unit territory will unveil two (2) units to start, with plans to open eight (8) additional units before the end of the year, as operations ramp up.

Mr. Dasari was primarily drawn to the brands attractive economics, coupled with the low start-up costs. However, it was the attention to detail of the Xpresso Delight business model and the premium quality of the services that drew the new franchisees to want to invest.

After months of considering various business opportunities, I decided to become an Xpresso Delight franchisee because of the high quality of the franchise products and the organizational strength and support offered by the franchisor. In my view, Xpresso Delight is an innovative and cutting-edge business to be part of, Ram expressed. As an owner of an IT company based in Richmond VA, I see coffee services such as Xpresso Delight becoming a highly sought-after amenity for employees across America. We are thrilled to join this franchise system. The opportunity to bring such a strong business like Xpresso Delight to Washington D.C. is a very exciting for all.

Xpresso Delight has partnered with Oakscale, a full-service franchise development company that partners with select emerging franchise concepts to drive exceptional system growth.

Nigell Lee, COO & President of Operations for Xpresso Delight Group exclaims The expansion to D.C. is an absolutely huge accomplishment for Xpresso Delight, Were delighted to welcome the Dasaris to the Xpresso Delight family. We feel they will represent the brands passion for the coffee-as-a-service industry perfectly in the Nations Capital. Further, Xpresso Delight intends to expand even faster throughout North America in late 2018 and beyond.

Xpresso Delight franchisees offer high-end cafe level coffee to corporate offices through its innovative coffee-as-a-service program. Along with its proprietary 100% Arabica coffee blend that is roasted in New Jersey, Xpresso Delight provides fully automated coffee and espresso machines to offices that provide cafe quality coffee comprised of whole fresh beans ground to order and fresh milk steamed  all at the push of a button to offices around America.

The brand draws demand from large commercial partners, who would want an exciting high-quality coffee program as an amenity.

About Xpresso Delight

Founded in 2003 and with over 200 franchisees worldwide Xpresso Delight is one of the fastest growing coffee-as-a-service franchises in operation. U.S operations are led by Franchise President Nigell Lee. Xpresso Delight is currently evaluating franchise candidates interested in becoming franchisees or Area Developers in major markets across the United States and internationally. The concept has partnered with New York City-based Oakscale as its exclusive franchise development team. The new DC franchisees worked with Oakscales CEO Joshua Kovacs.

About Oakscale

Founded in 2017, Oakscale is a franchise development company with a primary focus on emerging brands. Oakscale vets select emerging brands that already have strong leadership teams in place, then invest through a long-term exclusive development agreement to bring them to market and scale them through franchising. Oakscale is one of the largest partnerships of franchise marketing and development companies in the industry.

Media Contact:

Joshua Kovacs

Joshua@Oakscale.com

SOURCE Xpresso Delight

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Per ops, timeframe 2001-present; RICO probe  read: crime syndicate  apparently in offing. Whispers has been working this story for the last week... per house ops, FBI served subpoenas to PA dioceses  as one put it, ALL of us  last week; bishops called to court next week.Per ops, timeframe 2001-present; RICO probe  read: crime syndicate  apparently in offing. https://t.co/MAEAda6nVD October 18, 2018

BOSTON  As it happens, the scribes on the road this week for a mix of talks and taking soundings... all the while, however, the storyhas been reporting as time allows has now broke into the open.Needless to say, the dateline fits:As ever  but here, even more than usual  stay tuned.In a rare privilege for a non-member of its crew  even more a blessing given the road schedule  this scribe's first full report on the nascent investigation was given live over the airwaves of Philadelphia's venerableTheir reports normally kept to taped 30-second spots, at least for a church story, 1060 hasn't had a moment of this kind since 20 minutes after the resignation of Benedict XVI.With that in mind, here's the story of this day  and Lord only knows how long ahead....archives 14 Nov - 21 Nov (1) 7 Nov - 14 Nov (1) 10 Oct - 17 Oct (1) 22 Aug - 29 Aug (3) 15 Aug - 22 Aug (1) 8 Aug - 15 Aug (3) 1 Aug - 8 Aug (1) 25 Jul - 1 Aug (3) 18 Jul - 25 Jul (1) 11 Jul - 18 Jul (1) 27 Jun - 4 Jul (4) 20 Jun - 27 Jun (3) 13 Jun - 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After shooting, race for Santa Fe school board crowded

JODY DAVIS JAMES GRASSMUCK JESSICA HAGEWOOD TINA LONCOY JOHN ROTHERMEL

CLAY HERTENBERGER

SANTA FE

A crowded field of Santa Fe school board candidates is competing for two open seats this November, and school security and the districts 2017-2018 accountability ratings have emerged as top issues.

The race, which features three people in the running for Position 4, four people vying for Position 5 and current Board President J.R. Rusty Norman running unopposed for Position 6, has the candidates facing off over a couple of big issues.

These include questions about the boards handling of security in light of a school shooting that happened on May 18 at the high school where 10 people were killed, as well as whats being done about a recent state accountability report that showed the district nearly failing in several areas.

School board transparency and how well incumbent trustees communicate with the public also are matters of concern, according to interviews The Daily News conducted with the candidates.

POSITION 4

Position 4 candidates are Jessica Hagewood, Clay Hertenberger and incumbent John Rothermel. A fourth candidate who will be listed on the ballot, Donna Hayes, decided not to run after she filed.

Hagewood, a CPA who has three children in the district, is running on a platform of fresh ideas and change centered around the districts 2018 accountability ratings, she said. She has run for a district trustee position three times, but this time around she said shes motivated more than ever because of how poorly the district fared on the state report.

We werent only the worst in Galveston County, but out of every Harvey-related district, she said, noting that safety is her number two issue. I want my child to walk through the school doors educated, but more than anything, I want them to walk through the door.

Hagewood, the only candidate to demand a third party investigation into the May shooting, said the current board members havent been successful meeting educational goals and need to be held accountable for the state of the district.

Clay Hertenberger, a business owner with two children who attend Santa Fe High School, is focused on improving board transparency and holding people accountable for their actions, he said. He has never run for a board position before, but he said his ability to make hard decisions based on facts makes him a good choice for the job.

I have the experience and the history of running a successful business, and the school district is truly a business, he said. Im not a yes man; I dont tell you what you want to hear.

Hertenberger said he was concerned that current board members, instead of focusing on long-term solutions to the education problems that hound the district, are too busy trying to appease upset parents. He wants to release more information to the community about school security so no one has to dig for answers and then begin to hold district employees accountable when they dont meet rules and standards that have been set, he said.

John Rothermel, the Position 4 incumbent, was first elected to the school board in 2004. He ultimately declined to be interviewed after multiple attempts to reach him last week.

POSITION 5

The Position 5 candidates include Jody Davis, James Grassmuck, Tina Longcoy and incumbent Sheryl Skufca.

Jody Davis, who manages an international sales team, is squarely focused on improving education in the district. He has run for a trustee position once before, but this time his campaign is more visible and hes listening to the community more, he said.

Davis said it was time for the current roster of board members to be replaced because of the trustees inability to improve the districts education scores.

The numbers say theyre not doing their job, he said, noting he thinks the trustees are too reactive, as opposed to directing the district proactively. If I was holding someone accountable to do their job and they couldnt perform, then they would no longer be here.

James Grassmuck, who works in information technology , is running for the trustee position so he can help keep the district fiscally responsible, as well as to improve communication between the school board and the community, he said. He doesnt feel that school board members have done anything improper, but he believes there should be more focus on mental health and on the big picture, he said.

Im engaged, involved and open-minded, he said, adding that he has a son with Down syndrome and would be a solid advocate for special education programs.

I have one agenda, and thats to improve the district as a whole. Single agenda items are not going to accomplish anything other than disruptions and distractions, you have to think long-term.

Tina Longcoy, a former Galveston County employee with a background in accounting, lists security as her number one reason for running. Longcoys grandson was in the classroom where a shooter killed eight students in May, and she wants to be a trustee so she can make sure no other students go through what he experienced, she said.

I definitely want to make sure policy and procedures are followed and perhaps see new policy and procedures implemented, she said, noting that bullying needs to be addressed. Reporting bullying and using methods that tracks each and every incident.

Incumbent Sheryl Skufca, who was first elected to the school board in 2010, pointed to her experience as why voters should give her another term. She said she wants to see the board shift its efforts to focusing on improving mental health resources in the district, and to make that happen, trustees need to know how to navigate board rules and education law, she said.

There really is a learning curve when you first get on the board, she said, noting she wouldnt change anything about how board members handled security decisions after the shooting in May. We need experience, empathy and strong leadership, and my background on the board gives me an edge.Costa Rica sportsbook 5Dimes issued a statement to at least one media outlet in regard to the alleged kidnapping of its colorful owner, Sean "Tony" Creighton, 43 of Morgantown, West Virginia.

"Tony" was said to have been traveling through San Isidro, Heredia and driving a Porsche Cayenne Turbo vehicle late night September 25 when upwards of five men intercepted the vehicle. "Tony" was then apprehended.

"Tony's" wife claims to have paid a ransom of $750K ransom via Bitcoin and has yet to hear back from the captors.

The following statement was issued to SportsBookReview:

"Despite recent news, 5Dimes Group board of directors and its over 300 employees would like to reassure its clientele the fundamentals of 5Dimes Group operating model remain unchanged.



We continue striving to deliver the best gambling experience to our customers, always aiming to innovate in the industry with more and better betting options to choose from.



Our thoughts and prayers join the rest of the online gambling industry for Tonys safe return to his family."



-5Dimes Management

While "Tony" is said to have been the sole owner, Gambling911.com sources say that 5Dimes is a "well oiled machine" that should be able to operate long beyond "Tony's" absense.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.comThe 5Dimes office in the Edificio Equus, or simply Equus Building, of San Pedro, Costa Rica was under heavy guard Thursday. Sources close to Gambling911.com say it is like "something out of Black Ops".

Prime Suspects

Police in Costa Rica continue to investigate the disappearance of 5Dimes owner Sean "Tony" Creighton. He was allegedly ambushed on September 25 by up to five armed men.

His current wife told authorities she paid $750K ransom via Bitcoin and have yet to hear back. Experts familiar with the 5Dimes operation were quick to suggest this to be a fraction of what 5Dimes would have on hand.

"Tony" was last seen September 25 in the area of San Isidro, Heredia and driving a Porsche Cayenne Turbo vehicle. That vehicle appears to have been located though authorities are yet to confirm if it belonged to Mr. Creighton.

Police do appear to be honing in on a primary suspect who is a key employee of 5Dimes, Gambling911 has learned. The company itself was the subject of a massive money laundering investigation two years ago, though it had not skipped a beat since that time.

Friends and Family in Shock

Meanwhile, back in Sean's home town of Bridgeport, West Virginia, High School friends have been reaching out to one another for comfort upon hearing the horrible news.

An only child, both of Sean's parents have since passed away but his dad remarried and that extended family loved Sean like their own.

"His family was a big name back home in Bridgeport," our source says. "After his parents divorced, Sean's dad married another woman and that side of the family is now sick."

The source added: "The whole town is wondering what is going on."

Sean's extended family is aware that two security experts from the US are working to try to locate the 5Dimes owner in Costa Rica but could not elaborate any further.

Sean Lived for 5Dimes

Creighton moved down to Costa Rica in 1998 along with two of his High School friends, including a woman he dated for many years who would later go on to become a Gambling911.com reporter.

Though she has not communicated with Sean since 2001, his former girlfriend tells G911 these past two days have been difficult.

"This truly makes me sad. That book was a shining example of what the industry should be. He ran a tight ship and was professional."

Sean was known for his abruptness with customers that many treated to those hostilities wore like a badge of honor.

And, for others, it was a necessity.

"There is a reason Sean came off like that," another source tells Gambling911.com. "That book was plagued by customers who were scammers and this is what got them in trouble a few years back."

One such scam involved an individual advertising the sale of concert tickets that he never possessed.

"He would have the buyer of the tickets send funds via Moneygram or Western Union to a receiver name that 5Dimes gave him for his deposit. Once he received the money, he would put in his 5Dimes account. Then the buyers would realize they've been scammed and contact 5Dimes. Authorities eventually traced this back to the sportsbook."

The source added: "I can't tell you how many times shit like that would happen, made worse because 5Dimes would let these same guys continue to play there."

The Future Looks Bleak

Those close to Sean tell Gambling911.com they fear the worse.

"His wife pays a ransom and no 'proof of life' call afterwards?" one person questioned.

5Dimes continues to operate and pay out customers but there are people who expressed disgust over a statement released to SportsBookReview.com late Wednesday night.

That statement read:

"Despite recent news, 5Dimes Group board of directors and its over 300 employees would like to reassure its clientele the fundamentals of 5Dimes Group operating model remain unchanged.



We continue striving to deliver the best gambling experience to our customers, always aiming to innovate in the industry with more and better betting options to choose from.



Our thoughts and prayers join the rest of the online gambling industry for Tonys safe return to his family."



-5Dimes Management

An individual with close knowledge of the 5Dimes operation offered Gambling911.com this ominous prediction:

"It (5Dimes) will fail if he (Sean) doesn't come back. They hated him. They'll rob the place blind eventually, right down to the surge protectors. It's going to go down in a flaming pile of shit."

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.comFact-based market research, penetrating industry insights and validated forecasts to help you make better decisions for a stronger future

Research Report on Antifouling Agent Market Analysis, Market Size, Application Analysis, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts, 2016 To 2024

18 October 2018, The size of the worldwide Antifouling Agent Market in 2015 was nearly 84 kilo tons. Ongoing trends suggest that it will grow at a CAGR of about 4.5% during the forecast period (2016 to 2024). Demand for antifouling agents (paints & coatings) in the shipping industry will drive this market.

Antifouling agents are specialized paints & coatings used on the hulls of ships. These agents provide vessels with the required smoothness and polished effect. Submerged surfaces of boats and rigs attract algae, bacteria, barnacles, diatoms, and shellfish, which increase hydrodynamic drag. These organisms not only damage the vessel body, but also increase fuel consumption and decrease maneuverability. Such conditions lead to safety hazards. Paints & coatings enhance the strength and performance of vessels by controlling the growth of these sub-aquatic organisms.

Browse Details of Report @ https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/antifouling-agent-market

Antifouling agents are made of biocides, organotin compounds, and copper. These materials protect the vessel from external fouling, contaminations, and corrosion. Rapid growth in the oil & gas industry is set to bolster the growth prospects of the antifouling agent industry.

Stringent environmental regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Commission are nudging market players to adopt eco-friendly alternatives. Such a development could inhibit industrial growth. Moreover, the volatile prices of raw materials can negatively impact the global product price, thereby hampering industrial growth.

The industry is segmented into applications, types, and regions. Applications comprise shipping vessels and drilling rigs & production platforms. Shipping vessels contributed to around 80% of the global volume in 2015. However, drilling rigs & production platforms will exhibit considerable growth owing to high investments by oil & gas industries. These investments are mainly directed towards the development of Floating Production Storage & Offloading (FPSO) vessels.

Types encompass copper-based, hybrid, self-polishing, and other. Copper-based antifouling agents is expected to continue its dominance during the forecast period. Its demand can be attributed to its eco-friendly properties.

Regions are divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). Asia Pacific held a share of more than 80% in 2015. Growth of the shipbuilding industry in countries, such as Taiwan, China, South Korea, Philippines, and Japan, can boost demand in the region. Moreover, the supply of cheap raw materials & labor contributes to the industry in these countries.

Australia and India are the upcoming ship manufacturing centers in the global market. This owes to the increased governmental support being extended to these markets. Favorable policies and a constructive outlook towards the shipping sector are anticipated to create opportunities for further growth. Rise in the production of unconventional energy sources, such as shale gas and tight oil in Northern America will also support the industry.

Europe held a demand capacity exceeding 5 kilo tons in 2015. Italy and the United Kingdom are witnessing robust growth on account of an increase in yacht manufacturers. MEA was valued at USD 20 million in 2015. The market can register high growth because of offshore vessels development in countries like Saudi Arabia, Angola, and Nigeria.

The prominent competitors of the antifouling agent market are Advanced Marine Coating, AkzoNobel, Hempel, Jotun, and PPG Industries. Companies engage in acquisitions, expansions, partnerships, launch of new technology & product, and research & development to expand their respective businesses.

Browse Related Category Reports @ https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-category/paints-coatings-and-printing-inks-industry

About Us:

Hexa Research is a market research and consulting organization, offering industry reports, custom research and consulting services to a host of key industries across the globe. We offer comprehensive business intelligence in the form of industry reports which help our clients obtain clarity about their business environment and enable them to undertake strategic growth initiatives.

More Information Visit @ www.hexaresearch.com

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Website: www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/antifouling-agent-marketWe talk to All Blacks pitch invader 'Jarvo 69'

He's invaded a few pitches over the years, but this weekend's effort was his best yet as he tells Lee & Tammy all about it.AAA Movers is a residential, commercial, and long-distance moving company that is set to launch the first moving application for real-time tracking to their partners, Realtors, Senior Communities, Property Management, and Residential customers in December 2018.

Minneapolis, MN  Nobody enjoys moving, and like it or not, it is inevitable sometimes. This task can be tiring and overwhelming, especially for those who are not prepared. But with the proper guidance of a moving company, the job can be done stress-free and on time. AAA Movers is a residential, commercial, and long-distance moving company that is set to launch the first moving application for real-time tracking to their partners, Realtors, Senior Communities, Property Management, and Residential customers in December 2018. The Real-Time Mover app aims to help the professional movers to run the company efficiently with all the features that are set to provide real-time notifications on move status.

AAA Movers introduces a real-time tracking program to the companys residential moving service that will make the professional movers completely transparent from the time they schedule the move through the final review on how their skilled moving team performed. As the company website notes, the RTM will be a game changer for AAA.

The expert movers in Minnesota are set to bring the RTM application, which they have been using for three years, to all their residential customers. This innovation in the moving industry will help their sales representatives provide accurate quotes through the inventory of items, which is within 3% of the moving costs. With the use of RTM, AAA Movers can grow profitably in Minneapolis, particularly in the St. Paul area. Now, the customers of their residential moving service will no longer have to wait for an appointment to know the costs of move in minutes. Regardless of the distance or the cargo, these expert movers are here to make things faster and more comfortable.

AAA Movers offer high-quality moving and outstanding customer service at affordable pricing. During the entire move process, AAA provides all the right tools, recommendations, and resources that are necessary for a stress-free and safe move. In a residential move, a Team with working supervisors as the leaders and the main point of contact coordinates with the owners to ensure a stress-free move. The use of specialized trucks and equipment with an e-tracking system allows the moving teams to secure the items while in transit safely.

So put all reservations aside and call AAA Movers at 612-588-6683 for a free estimate or visit their website at https://www.aaamoversinc.com/

With an office located at 8201 Brooklyn Blvd, Minneapolis MN 55445, these professional movers can also be reached through email at info@aaamoversinc.com

Media Contact

Company Name: AAA Movers Inc.

Contact Person: Joe Schwartz

Email: Send Email

Phone: 612-588-6683

Address:8201 Brooklyn Blvd

City: Minneapolis

State: MN 55445

Country: United States

Website: https://www.aaamoversinc.com/

JCB Tier 1, Visa & Mastercard Tier 2 - EU/EEA Operations

Nicosia, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ("the Company") is pleased to announce that its JCB card acquiring service is now operationally live, with our first two (2) merchants accepting JCB cards commencing transactions imminently.Highlights- JCB: 2 EU Merchants now live on ISXPay's Tier 1 connection- Visa & Mastercard: EU acquiring service resumed via Tier 2 partners connections- Fund settlement processes resolved since supply chain disruptionThe Company anticipates several more previously contracted merchants to be connected to the service within coming weeks.The resolution of our banking settlement supply chain issue last week now also enables the Company's ISXPay(R) service to settle and clear funds to European Economic Area (EEA) based merchants across not only the Tier 1 JCB connection, but also for our Tier 2 partner networks for Visa and Mastercard.JCB is a multicurrency service, with acceptance and settlement in the following currencies: JPY Yen, USD$, HKD$, EUREUR, GBPGBP, AUD$, CAD$, DKK, and CHF. JCB represents an opportunity for EEA based merchants to access customers located outside the EEA, in particular cardholders in Russia, Brazil and Asia Pacific, including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Vietnam.The Company's merchants may accept almost all other global currencies and are able to request ISXPay(R) to settle in either USD$ or EUREUR, providing flexibility and foreign exchange currency advantages for our merchants.Settlements are funded by the card schemes to our settlement banking partner, usually next business day (T+1), whereupon ISXPay(R) then settles its merchants.The Company is remains on target for completing certification for its EEA Tier 1 connections to Visa and Mastercard within the next few weeks, as previously announced on the 30th August 2018. The Company will provide processing, clearing and settlement services to its merchants via its Tier 2 partners in the meantime.Merchant Gross Processed Turnover Volume (GPTV) will be updated once the Company has at least 4-6 weeks of transactional history across a number of merchants at Tier 1 connectivity.Tier 1 connectivity will allow the Company to independently manage its merchants on its ISXPay(R) network, without the present capacity and throughput limitations imposed by third party Tier 2 networking partners.JCB - a leader in the payments industryJCB Co., Ltd. was established in 1961 as a pioneering credit card payment system to the people of Japan. From the very start it was focused on providing new opportunities built on the emerging needs and aspirations of its customers. JCB International Co., Ltd. was established by JCB Co., Ltd. in 1981 as a wholly owned subsidiary to carry out JCB international operations. Currently JCB International has subsidiaries and offices in approximately 30 locations in 20 countries and territories and is planning to further expand and strengthen the network.JCB Card Issuing & Key Statistics (see link below)To view figures, please visit:About iSignthis Ltd

iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 launched in India for Rs. 57,900 News oi-Abhinaya Prabhu Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 is now official in India.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 was unveiled in August. Now, this tablet has been launched in India for Rs. 57,900. It is the successor to the Galaxy Tab S3 launched last year. It comes with quad-stereo speakers powered by AKG by Harman and an enhanced S Pen. This time, the company has removed the home button at the front and the fingerprint sensor embedded on it for an iris scanner.

For the first time, this Samsung tablet gets the DeX support. The Samsung DeX can be turned on either by connecting the Book Cover Keyboard or by launching it from the Quick Panel. And, it will let users get a desktop-like experience with this feature. It is also possible to extend DeX to an external monitor using a compatible HDMI to USB Type-C mini port adapter. With DeX, the tablet will serve as a trackpad or sketch pad and will continue to be functional, thereby giving users dual screens.

With the new S Pen, users can take notes using the screen-off memo feature, translate, navigate and organize notes via Samsung Notes and send personalized texts via Samsung Live Message.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 specifications

The new Samsung smartphone flaunts a 10.5-inch WQXGA Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:10. It gets the power from an octa-core Snapdragon 835 SoC paired with Adreno 540 GPU, 4GB RAM and 64GB/256GB storage space. There is support for up to 400GB of expandable storage using a microSD card.

Running Android 8.1 Oreo, this tablet features a 13MP camera at its rear with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing camera. The connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 5, GPS, USB 3.1 Type-C port, POGO pin and GPS. The device is fueled by a 7300mAh battery with support for fast charging.

Price and launch offers

Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 has been launched in Black and Gray colors. It is priced at Rs. 57,900 and is available starting today via the Samsung Online Shop and other offline retail stores. It will also be up for sale on Amazon India from October 20.

When it comes to the launch offers, there is Rs. 5,000 cashback on using an HDFC Bank credit or debit card with EMI payment options and consumer durable loans. Also, there will be Rs. 2,750 cashback from Reliance Jio in the form of vouchers on recharging for Rs. 198 or Rs. 299. And, Jio users will get double data benefits on four recharges.

Best Mobiles in India

Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow NotificationsNokia join hands with BSNL to implement industrial automation at Chennai factory News oi-Priyanka Dua Industry 4.0 relies on low-latency, high-reliability networks as well as capabilities in robotics and artificial intelligence to drive new levels of automation.

Nokia announced its partnership with BSNL to implement the next level of industrial automation, leveraging 4G LTE technology to enable greater operational efficiency at Nokia's Chennai plant.

Anupam Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director at BSNL, said: "Nokia is already one of our key partners in developing the 5G eco-system, and now we are exploring use cases such as Industry 4.0 that can benefit tremendously with 5G. This network deployment for Industry 4.0 at Nokia's Chennai factory that can be scaled to 5G demonstrates our preparedness to take advantage of new opportunities that will emerge with 5G and IoT in India."

The state-of-the-art factory will now leverage Industry 4.0 solutions such as Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), connected Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, and the Internet of Things to enhance operations and increase productivity, the statement said.

Sanjay Malik, Vice President and head of the India Market at Nokia, said: "Our Chennai facility is the best-in-class manufacturer in our industry and recently crossed the 4-million-unit production milestone in its 10th year of operation. Our collaboration with BSNL will enable us to leverage the latest technology advancements and continue in our efforts to build the increasingly digitized and connected factory of the future. It will pave the path to smart manufacturing in the 5G era."

Industry 4.0 relies on low-latency, high-reliability networks as well as capabilities in robotics and artificial intelligence to drive new levels of automation and data exchange in manufacturing industries, resulting in improved operational efficiency and reduced costs. The advancements in communications technology with 4G LTE provides lower latency and better network reliability to connect manufacturing equipment and time-critical applications to transform factory operations.

Nokia said it has deployed the network using its Micro Core Network and Multi-access Edge Computing platform, delivering edge cloud capabilities to process data closer to end-users, lowering latency and ensuring personnel is alerted to any anomalies in production so they can be quickly resolved.

The network will also help increase flexibility and agility enabling production lines to be changed more quickly for the introduction of new products. Increased levels of automation will help in shop-floor processes such as remote monitoring of robots and control of automated guided vehicles.

Moreover, working together on this project, Nokia and BSNL are demonstrating the ability to leverage automation across industries, showing how it can be replicated in sectors such as oil and gas, mining, public safety, and disaster management.

Best Mobiles in India

Progenza Patent to Grant in Europe

Sydney, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Regeneus Ltd ( ASX:RGS ) (Regeneus or the Company), a clinical-stage regenerative medicine company, is pleased to announce it has received a Notice of Intention to Grant a European patent covering the use of Progenza by the European Patent Office.- Patent to issue provides coverage for the use of Progenza in up to 38 European member states, including the UK, Germany, France and Italy- The grant of a patent for EP 2 744 892 will provide commercial rights to Progenza in Europe until 15 March 2032- The European patent will join corresponding patents in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the USA, providing significant commercial protection in some of the world's largest regenerative medicine markets- Significant step in bringing Progenza to Europe as a regenerative therapy for the treatment of osteoarthritis and other inflammatory indicationsThe patent to be granted for EP 2 744 892 entitled "Therapeutics using adipose cells and cell secretions" will provide Regeneus with the commercial rights to Progenza in up to 38 European member states of the European Patent Office, including the UK, Germany, France and Italy, until 15 March 2032.The patent will join corresponding patents already secured in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States of America(see Note below), providing significant protection of the Company's commercial rights to the Progenza technology platform in some of the world's largest regenerative therapy markets. The Company continues to progress additional patent applications for Progenza in other key territories.Regeneus has over 70 patents or patent applications across multiple patent families, providing the Company's product pipeline with a significant competitive advantage. John Martin, CEO of Regeneus comments: "This is a significant milestone for Progenza, enabling further protection of our commercial rights over the Progenza technology platform. The addition of patent protection for the European market delivers another key milestone as we look to bring Progenza to Europe and other key markets."About ProgenzaProgenza is an allogeneic off-the-shelf stem cell technology platform developed for the treatment of osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases. It has the potential to be used for other inflammatory diseases that have limited treatment options.Made from expanded mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from human adipose tissue, it contains the bioactive secretions of cells. Progenza cells work by secreting cytokines, growth factors and exosomes that act in concert to reduce inflammation and pain and encourage accelerated healing and repair of damaged or diseased tissue. It is a scalable technology that has demonstrated capability to produce millions of doses of cells from a single donor.In December 2016, Regeneus signed a strategic collaboration and licensing agreement with leading Japanese biopharmaceutical manufacturer AGC for the exclusive rights to manufacture Progenza for all clinical applications in Japan. The Company is currently in the advanced stages of discussion with several parties and anticipates entering into an agreement with a Japanese partner for the clinical development and commercialisation in Japan in Q2 FY19.In February 2018, Progenza was granted an Advanced Therapy Medicinal Product (ATMP) classification by the Committee for European Commission, recognising it as a novel regenerative therapy within the legal and regulatory framework for ATMPs in the European Union.Note: On 10 October 2018, the US Patent Office released an Issue Notification for Patent Application No. 14/342479 ('Therapeutics using adipose cells and cell secretions') with projected US Patent No. 10,111,909 and issuance date of 30 October 2018, covering the commercial rights in the United States through to 2032.About Regeneus Ltd

Regeneus Ltd (ASX:RGS) is a Sydney-based clinical-stage regenerative medicine company using stem cell technologies to develop a portfolio of novel cell-based therapies. The regenerative therapies seek to address unmet medical needs in human health markets, focusing on neuropathic pain, including osteoarthritis and various skin conditions, with its platform technologies Progenza(TM) and Sygenus. Visit www.regeneus.com.au for more information.Army Reserve preparing to fight on a new battlefield

By Sgt. Audrey Hayes October 17, 2018

WASHINGTON -- "We've been fighting a certain type of way for the last 17 years and the next fight may look very different," said Chief of the Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Charles D. Luckey during a panel, Oct. 9.

The panel, hosted by Luckey, took place at the annual Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition held in Washington, D.C. The overarching theme included how the U.S. Army Reserve, alongside the Active and National Guard components, is preparing to fight and win America's future wars as one, well-oiled machine.

"This is about going to high-end, contingency operations in the most contested environment in the history of civilization and having to surge -- in our case, that's [mobilizing] 42,000 to 45,000 Soldiers very quickly," said Luckey. "The Army's never had to fight that way before."

What does it take for the Total Army to operate in a constantly-changing, complex battle space?

Contributing panel members who addressed this question included Lt. Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commanding general of U.S. Army Europe, Lt. Gen. Michael D. Lundy, the commanding general of U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Lt. Gen. Aundre Piggee, the deputy chief of staff for U.S. Army logistics.

The U.S. Army Combined Arms Center is planning major training events for the Total Army that will involve multiple units, starting at the brigade level and higher, simultaneously mobilizing and operating under the same Army doctrine -- but under very different scenarios, said Lundy.

This will help identify shortfalls in capabilities, particularly with respect to setting up a theater in a combat environment, perhaps on multiple fronts.

"An often, overlooked aspect of a well-set theater is what the Army Reserve puts into [it]," said Cavoli. "My demands are more dynamic than the Active Component has the elasticity to fill. Gen. Luckey is so generously working with us to ensure what they [U.S. Army Reserve] do now, since the situation has changed, is helping us to set the theater."

Generating the decisive combat power required to win the nation's wars is Luckey's top priority. Two years into his tenure, he is shifting the culture of America's Army in order to be the most capable, combat-ready and lethal reserve force in the Nation's history.

"Frankly, I take it very personally," said Luckey. "We're making sure we're able to get after it and making sure this component of the Army is ready to roll when we've got to move."

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-291-18 October 17, 2018

Readout of Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis' Meeting with Vietnam Minister of National Defense Ngo Xuan Lich

Pentagon Chief Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout:

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis met with Vietnam Minister of National Defense Ngo Xuan Lich for the fifth time today to reaffirm the long-standing defense relationship between the United States and Vietnam.



The leaders discussed a broad range of defense issues, to include increasing cooperation in the areas of maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and peacekeeping.

They also confirmed close cooperation on addressing legacy of war issues and accounting for U.S. personnel missing from the Vietnam War. Secretary Mattis noted his visit to Bien Hoa Air Base earlier in the day, where he reaffirmed the United States' commitment to clean up dioxin contamination.

The two leaders agreed that a strong and comprehensive partnership promotes regional and global security, including in the South China Sea. This partnership is based on mutual respect and common interests and principles, particularly freedom of navigation, respect for international law, and recognition of national sovereignty.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1664799/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Colonel Sean J. Ryan, spokesman, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve; Commander Sean Robertson, Pentagon spokesman October 17, 2018

Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve Press Briefing by Col. Ryan via Video conference from Baghdad, Iraq

COMMANDER SEAN ROBERTSON: Good morning. I'm Commander Sean Robertson. I will be facilitating today's briefing. We will begin with a brief communications check.

Sir, can you hear me?

COLONEL SEAN J. RYAN: I can.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Today we have Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesperson for the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, from Baghdad, Iraq, for an update on operations.

Sir, the floor is yours.

COL. RYAN: Thank you.

Good morning. I'd like to discuss ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria.

Let's start in Iraq, where last week a joint operation was conducted by Iraqi special forces and the Kurdish counterterrorism forces, with some assistance of coalition forces.

This operation resulted in the arrest of 10 members of the al-Rawi financial network, a key ISIS financial facilitation group based in Iraq.

This operation was planned and executed through the interagency cooperation of the Iraqi treasury, security forces and judicial support. This kind of cooperation is a hallmark of how we will ultimately defeat ISIS.

Additionally, Operation Last Warning is a large-scale effort targeting the remaining pockets of ISIS in the Anbar Desert.

In the past week, multiple ISF activities resulted in the discovery and destruction of over a hundred explosives and IEDs, and the facilities where they're stored and processed.

The ISF conducted a clearance operation in Ramadi, capturing 28 suspected ISIS fighters and discovering over a thousand IEDs. They also escorted 31 displaced families back to their homes in and around Jazeera.

The ISF are working to contain and eliminate ISIS, who still pose a threat.

In Kirkuk, small pockets of ISIS are targeting water supplies, power lines and cell towers to undermine the legitimacy of the government of Iraq. However, the Ministry of the Interior and the ISF have demonstrated their capacity by responding quickly in returning these essential services and relentlessly pursuing these terrorist cells through intelligence-driven operations across the nation. And that commitment sometimes results in sacrifice.

Lieutenant Yasser al-Aboudi was a member of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service when he died during the Battle of Mosul. He was renowned through the service for his bravery and dedication, from recovering his injured comrades in the middle of a firefight to delivering food to starving children. He died sacrificing himself to provide medical aid to wounded members of his team after ISIS ambushed their position.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defense will feature him and his family's story in an upcoming documentary memorializing their honored warriors. And as an important partner, we also remember him and all of the ISF members who put everything on the line to defeat ISIS.

Moving to Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces continue to clear the last strongholds of ISIS resistance in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.

One month into phase three of Operation Roundup, the SDF has successfully advanced and enveloped ISIS in the town of Marashia, while reinforcing battle positions along the front.

The SDF is making gains despite booby-trapped buildings, IEDs and repeated attacks, as they continue to degrade ISIS capabilities in the MERV.

ISIS, however, remains a deadly adversary. The remaining fighters in the MERV are hardened combatants and have shown every indication of being willing to fight until the end.

This week, ISIS employed synchronized small arms attacks and indirect fire in multiple locations in the MERV, all in a failed attack to push back the SDF advance.

The SDF has proven over and over to be a steadfast partner in this fight and they will continue to reclaim their homeland from the brutal rule of ISIS.

As the SDF presses forward the final liberation of enemy-controlled terrain in the MERV, civilians continue to attempt to escape from ISIS oppression. ISIS is resorting to the same desperate tactics we've seen time and time again to prevent their escape, and continues their stranglehold on the people as they use civilians as a cover to house IED factories, move weapons and stage attacks throughout the area.

Make no mistake: ISIS is using these people as human shields, just as we witnessed in the battles of Raqqa, Mosul and Tabqa. The coalition and SDF are acting decisively to ease the suffering and bring an enduring end to ISIS.

Moving to Raqqa, the civil council will soon observe the one-year commemoration of the city's liberation from ISIS rule. The SDF liberated the city, and empowered local leaders serving in the Raqqa Internal Security Force, and are keeping it secure.

Stabilization efforts continue. Farmers this month are preparing for the upcoming winter wheat season. The Syria Recovery Trust Fund, on October 11th, distributed 140 metric tonnes of high-quality wheat seeds to the farmers of the greater Raqqa area. Local farmers possess enough seeds to plant more than 5,600 hectares of land, a fresh beginning to a more peaceful Syria.

Workshops and small businesses throughout Raqqa are boosting their local economy. The RCC processes and approves new licenses every day. In fact, a major tile and marble factory recently returned and is doing its part to stimulate the local economy.

Other infrastructure is also improving in nearby Tabqa. The municipality has installed 10 new water lines just north of the city. Efforts to provide a critical basic service will better regulate water use and, more importantly, will increase clean water availability.

Overall, ISIS is territorially defeated, and until we achieve an enduring defeat, we will continue the fight.

With that update, and although I'm no Gerard Butler, I'll be happy to take your questions.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: For all questions, please provide your full name and agency prior to asking your question. All called on will have an opportunity to ask one follow-up.

Tom.

Q: Hey, Colonel. Tom Bowman with NPR.

I wonder if you could address civilian casualties. I guess the Pentagon and you guys estimate roughly 1,000 civilian casualties from air strikes, artillery strikes in both Iraq and Syria. Amnesty International put that number at 3,000 in Syria alone.

Talk about how -- the difference in numbers, if you can.

And also, Amnesty says that your investigations are flawed because you don't interview witnesses or survivors.

COL. RYAN: Okay.

Well, first of all, our thoughts and prayers to any innocent victims under the ISIS rule and, of course, from any coalition airstrikes.

We realize there are discrepancies in those numbers. However, we go off facts. We -- and that is how we go through the process of doing this. We're not sure exactly the matrix of how these other groups are -- are coming up with these numbers.

So we're not saying that there could be more that were innocently killed, what we're saying is we have to go on the -- the facts that we have when we look into these cases.

One thing I'd also like to add, Tom, is we're currently still fighting ISIS. It's not really -- you know, we don't have the -- the manpower to go in there and conduct the investigations that we'd like to do. We do have people on the ground doing that, but that's not their sole focus.

So a lot still needs to be done. It's -- it's terrible what's happened in those areas because of ISIS. But, you know, we continue to take the responsibility and we realize that some of these areas came at a very high cost of liberation.

Q: But what about interviewing witnesses and survivors in Raqqa, which has been, you know, pacified? Are you interviewing witnesses and survivors in Raqqa itself?

COL. RYAN: We have groups right now on the ground there investigating. I don't think they're going as -- as detailed into maybe what Amnesty's doing right now. I don't know exactly how their investigation works.

But we also use other things like, you know, videos and intelligence, and things of that nature to look into these and -- and to use that for our investigation.

Q: Why aren't they going as deeply as Amnesty?

COL. RYAN: I'm sorry, repeat that?

Q: Why aren't they going as deeply as Amnesty, as you said?

COL. RYAN: Tom, right now we're still fighting ISIS.

Q: No, I'm talking in Raqqa.

COL. RYAN: Right. We're still fighting ISIS in -- in the MERV and some other areas in this region. So we don't have the manpower right now to just exclusively send teams in there; we have teams going in, but that's not their only job.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Kasim?

Q: Colonel, Kasim Ileri, Anadolu Agency.

As you mentioned in your opening statement, it has been one year that Raqqa has been liberated. And just that small pocket in MERV has taken nearly a year for the coalition to clean and it still goes on. It seems that it will go beyond one year.

How could you call this -- or do you call this a success or is there a stall? What happened? Why can't the coalition clean that small holdout while big cities like Mosul and Raqqa are freed in several months?

COL. RYAN: Well, first of all, we're -- we're talking about, if I -- if I heard you right, we're talking about two different areas. I mean, Raqqa and Mosul, those were -- that's house-to-house fighting, to where this whole area is deserty area, it is -- it's thousands of miles long. So it takes a long time.

ISIS has also been using underground tunnels, as -- as we've mentioned before. And they are a very elusive enemy, there's no doubt about. But when they're underground, it's very difficult.

I think the SDF is making very good ground right now. It just takes a long time.

And also you have to remember, ISIS has booby-trapped and IEDed almost every area in there, to where you just can't go rushing into these areas and clear them. You have to have the equipment and the manpower to do that. And often when you start the clearing, your equipment gets damaged when IEDs goes off. So there's not an, you know, an un-supply of -- of vehicles that they can use. They have to, you know, get resupplied.

So things do take time.

Q: Okay. A follow-up: Have you recently supplied SDF with armored vehicle, and arms and ammunition?

COL. RYAN: Well, I won't go into details on -- on what we supply them.

But yes, they -- they have the ammo -- ammunition right now, and you know, when they ask for something, we are usually able to deliver it.

Again, the whole presence of us being here is the enduring defeat of ISIS, and that's what we're trying to do.

Q: If I may, just a quick follow-up on my famous question on Manbij, the training has started just last week, and then it was supposed to take just one week for the trainers, of course. Can you update us what's going on with the training about Manbij?

COL. RYAN: Yeah, I'm not sure who told you one week because it -- it was never one week.

But also Manbij -- you have to understand, you know, you're putting two different military groups together and it just simply takes time. There -- there's language barriers, there's equipment that they both have to become familiar with, there's different rules of engagement, there's -- there's medical, there's communication.

What you don't want to do is rush to failure. You send teams out there that aren't synced together, then bad things can happen. So we'd rather train them properly and then send them out when they're ready.

Right now, Manbij is secure. There's -- there's patrols going on every day there, and -- and nothing has changed there. So this training is meant to enhance that, and -- and that's what we're working towards.

Q: Thank you.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Laurie?

Q: Laurie Mylroie, Kurdistan 24.

Quick question: In your opening remarks, you said there were small pockets of ISIS targeting water supplies. What are they trying to do to the water supplies, poison them?

COL. RYAN: So, Laurie, they're trying to destroy the water lines to get discontent from the civilians in that area. I mean, it's -- it's a death of a thousand cuts to the population. I mean, any way they can get in there and legitimize (sic), you know, the government of Iraq, they will try to do that.

Q: Thank you.

Deputy Secretary of State Sullivan met Monday with the KRG prime minister, and the coalition seems to have had a representative in the meeting. The State Department said that security cooperation between Erbil and Baghdad was discussed. Can you tell us anything more about that, any new developments?

COL. RYAN: Well, I know that they talked about the road from (inaudible) to Bhatgania, and I know that they were there to congratulate Ambassador -- or, I'm sorry, Prime Minister Barzani. And, of course, they did talk about the security between the regions. But besides -- besides that, Laura, I don't know because I wasn't in that meeting.

Q: Okay.

And are you concerned that as tensions rise between the U.S. and Iran with the second round of sanctions approaching that pro-Iranian elements in Iraq might attack you or try to attack you or -- or other U.S. facilities?

COL. RYAN: Well, again, our fight is with ISIS. And we hope that doesn't happen because, you know, we will defend ourselves if that comes to fruition.

But our fight's not with Iran right now, it's to defeat ISIS.

Q: Is there any indication of Iranian preparations to attack you?

COL. RYAN: I'm sorry, say that again, Laurie?

Q: Any indication that Iran -- that you're seeing that Iran might use its proxies to attack you? Are you seeing anything disturbing?

COL. RYAN: We're not, not at this time.

I mean, that -- that's always something that could happen. And it may not be Iran at all. Like you said, it could be just proxies out trying to do damage. There's a lot of people trying to, you know, make the government of Iraq look bad, make it look like -- that it's not secure here. So that -- that could definitely happen.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Jeff from Task and Purpose.

Q: Hi, Colonel. Jeff Schogol with Task & Purpose.

For about 10 months, U.S. officials have said that ISIS only has about 2 percent of its original caliphate and it's just holed up in the Middle Euphrates River Valley. We're almost in 2019. Can you say why this force of ISIS has not been eliminated yet?

COL. RYAN: Well, Jeff, we've still got about three months to go and a lot can happen in 2018.

But it's more about the capabilities. It's not about the land mass, it's about taking away ISIS capabilities.

And in the top, I mentioned the -- the financial part. And that's a big part, but it's also from the military side, we're degrading them every day. It's not just killing ISIS fighters, it's taking away their weapons systems, taking away their logistical support and things of that nature. So that's happening every day.

Q: If I could follow up, how is it that this force in the Middle Euphrates River Valley has been able to fight on for 10 months?

COL. RYAN: Well, they -- I don't think they've been there quite that long. It started not just, you know, in that area, but they're -- they're a resilient enemy. There's -- there's no doubt about that.

But I'd mentioned, I think, in -- in the last one I was here, that, you know, they had planned on this four years ago. They knew that they were probably going to end up in this area.

And, you know, again, with -- with the tunnels they have underneath and the tunnels that the oil companies left with food and supplies, they're able to sustain.

So, you know, we're methodically going through that area, making sure that we -- we capture or kill all the ISIS fighters. And, you know, our -- our job there is to also help protect its citizens in that area, and I think the SDF's doing a pretty good job.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Ryan?

Q: Hey, Colonel Ryan. Thank you for doing this. A couple quick ones.

First, have you seen any change or plans, changes from -- for -- with regards to Saudi Arabia's commitment or participation in the coalition? Has there been any discussion on that?

COL. RYAN: Ryan, there hasn't. I think with all the things as -- as you're well aware, going on, that hasn't even come up at all.

Q: And then just if we could change gears a little bit and talk about, you know, the Rukban refugee camp that sits in the At Tanf deconfliction zone, there's been a lot of reports from NGOs about it, kind of -- the really heinous environment that's there. Starvation -- reports of starvation.

Is there any -- you're talking about all the stabilization efforts that are going in other areas that have been liberated from ISIS. Why is the coalition not doing more to relieve the humanitarian situation there?

COL. RYAN: Well, Ryan, we've gone on record saying that we're standing by to help enable the delivery of those U.N. support systems. And so far, that has not happened. Those trucks have to get to where we're at first, for us to do that.

And it definitely is a humanitarian tragedy. And it's, you know, not an area of military operation, but it's a huge area of concern for us from the human side.

Q: Are you worried that the coalition's going to be blamed? Since it sits in the deconfliction zone, is there a concern that the coalition's going to be blamed for this -- the humanitarian situation there?

COL. RYAN: Absolutely, Ryan. That's already happening out there. There's, you know, malign actors that will blame us for just about everything.

But again, if you look at the region, we're in a specific area. If they can get the trucks to -- to where we're at, where we can help, then we will get those trucks through.

Q: Thank you.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Jeff, Voice of America?

Q: Colonel, thank you for doing this. Jeff Seldin with VOA.

Earlier this morning, General Dunford was talking to a conference on combating violent extremism. And he noted that still, despite all the efforts, there are some foreign fighters coming into Syria. He said it's now down to about a hundred a month. But over time, a hundred a month adds up.

How are those foreign fighters contributing to ISIS in -- in the fight that ISIS is putting up? Where are they going?

COL. RYAN: Well, the foreign terrorist fighters are the intense fighters that I spoke about earlier. I mean, basically, they have nowhere to go.

I mean, there's been some people disappearing, using the rat lines and -- and things of that nature. But it hasn't been the foreign terrorist fighters.

They're either here to fight to the death, or they're just going to get killed because they have nowhere to go. They can't blend in with the rest of the population in Iraq or Syria. So they're the -- the die-hard fighters that we're seeing that are trying to live off the land and see this to the end.

Q: So are these foreign fighters that are still coming in, are they going to the MERV to join the -- the fight there, put up the resistance? Are they joining networks elsewhere? Where are these fighters specifically fighting to the death?

COL. RYAN: They're fighting to the death in the MERV, and the SDF is picking up a lot of foreign terrorist fighters. I -- I think that we put out recently that the numbers are -- are well over 700 now. And that's a pretty big increase from probably a month and a half ago. So they're either capturing or killing a lot of them.

But yeah, the fight in the MERV is -- is intense. And like I said, we're not going in there, you know, quickly. The SDF has to be methodical in their approach because they are fighting against a very intense enemy.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Lita?

Q: Hi, Sean. It's Lita Baldor from AP.

Could I just get a couple of clarifications?

On the training in Manbij, the secretary told us that the train-the-trainer had begun and would last a short period of time before the actual training would begin. Has the train-the-trainer finished yet?

COL. RYAN: I only got part of that, but the train-the-trainer portion in Manbij is not complete yet. Again, there's a lot of things that factor into this and you have to make sure both sides are understanding the weapons, the -- the rules of engagement. And, hey, listen, if they go out on patrol and someone fires on them, what are they going to do? The Turks may have one way to do it, and U.S. forces may have another. So we have to make sure that they're totally in sync together.

And they're going to do that training until they get it right. Like I said, there's no rush to failure on this. And we're -- better be safe than sorry.

And, again, nothing's changed in Manbij. There's still daily patrols going on.

So it's not the quicker they can do this, the -- the safer it's going to be at all. That's -- that's not the case in this matter.

Q: Well, how long do you expect the train-the-trainer to go on before the actual training of the forces begins?

And then I -- I have a follow-up.

COL. RYAN: It can be anywhere from a two- to three-week process, depending on (inaudible) everyone gets it.

But again, we're not (inaudible) anyone. Because, again, you're talking different weapons systems and some are very complicated.

And communication's key. You have to have an interpreter. Not everyone speaks English like we expect. So, you know, you have to be able to (abide ?) to what the Turkey soldiers are doing as well.

Q: And just one real quick thing. The 700 detainees that are being held by this -- the SDF, about how many have actually been sent back to their home countries?

COL. RYAN: Not a lot. I mean, the SDF is -- the SDF are a double sword on that one. It's great that they're detaining so many fighters, but it's a global problem that needs a global -- basically, a way for them to repatriate their folks so they can prosecute them, is the best way to go about it.

But, you know, for it to become an admin issue is not a bad deal to have either. However, we need to solve this problem.

And -- but we are getting good intelligence from some of the fighters that they've captured. So there's -- there's good and bad on this case for both.

Q: Thank you.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Gentleman here in the fourth row.

Q: Hi. Jack Detsch from Al-Monitor.

Colonel, Syria's foreign minister said this week that they expect full victory in the Syrian Civil War to be achieved once they've reunified the country, and including the area in the east of the Euphrates River. They were also discussing the reopening of that Abu Kamal border crossing with the Iraqis this week.

Is the coalition supportive of those joint Iraqi-Syrian talks on that matter? And do you see any threat to the SDF regarding the foreign minister's comments?

COL. RYAN: Well, Iraq's a sovereign nation and they're still forming their government, but they can make the best decisions that they feel is -- is the best for them. So we're -- we're open to that. That's a political process, so we're not a big part of that.

The SDF is -- is somewhat in the same boat. They're going to have to probably come up with a political situation and -- and that's why we're staying there until the Geneva process can work.

But they want to be part of Syria. I've talked to a lot of guys out there; they're true Syrians, they want to be part of it. But I think they want to have some -- some things that go to their favor as well. So it's going to be, you know, diplomatic in political matters that are well above the coalition's handle.

Q: Got it.

And then, just to follow-up on Jeff's earlier question, we've seen reports that there had been as many as a hundred families abducted in the Deir ez-Zor area last week.

I was wondering: Is the coalition or the SDF trying to get those folks back from ISIS? And is, sort of, the fighting there indicative of any resurgence of ISIS's capability or is it just challenging terrain in the area that you're dealing with?

COL. RYAN: Right now, we haven't been able to confirm nor deny that. It sounds amazingly high number, but at this point I don't want to say it hasn't happened. But we haven't been able to confirm that yet.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Idrees.

Q: (OFF-MIKE).

Just to confirm, because I think the stream was a bit gargled, you said there had been no conversations about Saudi reducing their roles in the anti-ISIS fight in Iraq and Syria, correct?

COL. RYAN: I'm -- I'm sorry, could you repeat that again? I didn't get that.

Q: I just wanted to confirm that you had said that there had been no conversations about Saudi Arabia reducing their role in OIR, correct?

COL. RYAN: You're still coming in broken, but if it's Saudi -- Saudi Arabia related, I -- I didn't hear all that.

Q: Maybe I'll come a bit closer.

I'm just saying could you -- I -- I just wanted to confirm that -- because the stream was not great, that you had said that there had been no conversations with Saudi Arabia about reducing their role in OIR.

COL. RYAN: Correct, there have been no -- there's been no conversations regarding that.

Q: Very quickly, just say what exactly Saudi Arabia does as a part of the coalition.

COL. RYAN: Well, I'm not going to get into the details of -- of each individual country. Some, obviously, provide soldiers on the ground; some provide financial support, diplomatic support. So I'll just leave it at that.

Q: Not every country, just specifically this country, though, because it is in the news and it's unclear whether they provide large amounts of support or is it limited. Could you at least characterize it in those terms?

COL. RYAN: I can tell you at this time, I can't tell you the specific support for -- for that one particular country.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Gentleman here in the second row.

Q: Sir, if I could follow on my colleague's question on the reports of the abductions of families from the Deir ez-Zor area last week, did I hear you correctly that you have no information on that? Because if it's so, it doesn't seem to be that this -- this is a force, ISIS, that's on the edge of defeat.

COL. RYAN: Well, I would disagree with that.

I mean, I think some of this happened during a sandstorm. And I was -- the -- the rumors are out there, that's why I didn't want to confirm it. Because what we've heard is some of these could be ISIS widows and things of that nature, so I'm not exactly sure who they captured on that, and that's why we still need to get confirmation.

They -- we did see a photo. There are six to eight individuals. But definitely not 120 family-type people in that photo.

So there's a lot of misinformation going on in this area. We deal with that on a daily basis.

So until we can confirm that, I definitely wouldn't go on record saying that that actually happened.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Ashley?

Q: Hi, Ashley Roque with Jane's.

It's been a couple of weeks since Iran sent some ballistic missiles into Syria. Could you give us an update on your assessment of that? How many missiles came in? How many hit their targets?

COL. RYAN: The assessment that we have seen so far is, there were six missiles that landed.

And again, we didn't see any BDA, any damage from those missiles at all. I know what they claim. But from what we've seen, there hasn't been any damage.

Q: Okay.

And as a follow-up, do you have a number of how many S-300s have gone into Syria at this point in time? And are they being manned by Russians or Syrians at this point? And are the S-200s still being used in the country?

COL. RYAN: Who did you say came into the country?

Q: Sorry. How many S-300 weapons systems have been deployed within Syria at this point? And are they being operated by Russia forces or Syrian forces?

COL. RYAN: That's probably a better question for the Syrian or Russian army.

I don't know how many. We're tracking that they came in and they're trying to get that working capability, but I don't have the specifics on that one.

Q: Thank you.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Got time for one last question here.

Laurie?

Q: Could you clarify the situation in Manbij, that the train-the-trainer program has begun but that it's far from complete? What's the situation there?

COL. RYAN: The -- the train-the-trainer program has begun in Manbij. And right now, they're just going through all the different classes and all the different instruction that both parties need to fully complement each other before they go out on an actual patrol.

Q: Training is being done in Turkey?

COL. RYAN: It is.

Q: And you expect it to last a few weeks?

COL. RYAN: Yes. There's no timetable, but that's the projected time.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Okay. Sir, thank you very much for -- for your time. Do you have any final words for those here?

COL. RYAN: I don't.

I know everyone's busy out there. So, again, if you have any follow-on questions, feel free to -- to send us an e-mail and we'll try to get right back to you.

CMDR. ROBERTSON: Okay, sir. Thank you very much and have a great day.

COL. RYAN: You as well.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1665186/

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Imminent demolition of Palestinian village could be 'war crime': ICC

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New York, Oct 17, IRNA -- The Prosecutor mandated to oversee Occupied Palestinian Territory for the International Criminal Court stated Wednesday that her office is keeping "a close eye" on the planned demolition of a Palestinian village in West Bank by Israeli authorities.

The ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda warned that, according to international law, it could constitute a "war crime".

"I have been following with concern the planned eviction of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank," said the Prosecutor, noting that "evacuation by force now appears imminent" and could result in "further escalation and violence".

Approximately 190 herders, half of whom are children, live in Khan al-Ahmar, a village located in the outskirts of East Jerusalem. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the village is one of dozens affected by an Israeli settlement reorganization plan that would create a continuous built-up area from East Jerusalem to Jericho.

"The problem if it happens in all of these [villages], is that then the contiguity and the possibility of a two-State solution will be challenged because the West Bank will be cut in half," Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator explained to UN News in an interview on Tuesday.

"It bears recalling, as a general matter," said the ICC Prosecutor, "that extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute."

According to OCHA's latest Protection of Civilians report, over 300 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished in 2018 alone.

Ms. Bensouda reminded all parties that the situation remains under preliminary examination by her Office, mandated with conducting independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

"I continue to keep a close eye on the developments on the ground and will not hesitate to take any appropriate action, within the confines of the independent and impartial exercise of my mandate under the Rome Statute, with full respect for the principle of complementarity," she stated.

The complementarity principle on which the ICC is based entails that the ICC can only investigate and prosecute core international crimes when national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to do so genuinely.

8072**1396

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US Marines land in Iceland in initial phase of exercise Trident Juncture

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

17 Oct. 2018

Around 90 US Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit landed at Keflavik on Wednesday (17 October 2018), marking the initial phase of NATO's Exercise Trident Juncture 2018 in Iceland. The main phase of Trident Juncture will start in Norway on October 25. Arriving by MV-22 Osprey and CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters from the USS Iwo Jima, the Marines practised securing the airfield and key infrastructure, in cooperation with the Icelandic Police.

The US Navy has also deployed two cutting-edge P-8A Poseidon aircraft to Keflavik from their current home in Sigonella, Italy. In remarks at the Vardberg Association on Tuesday, Admiral James G. Foggo, Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Naples, as well as US Naval Forces in Europe and Africa, highlighted the P-8A's key role in anti-submarine operations. He stressed the aircraft's world-class surveillance and intelligence capabilities, which are important for NATO in the North Atlantic.

Foreign Minister Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson and Admiral Foggo showcased Iceland's vital role in the NATO Alliance. Speaking at a ceremony commemorating the Battle of the Atlantic aboard the Icelandic Coast Guard Vessel THOR, Minister Thordarson highlighted the "crucial" importance of "unimpeded shipping routes over the Atlantic". Admiral Foggo also noted Iceland's strategic location, and thanked the country for an "unwavering commitment" to its Allies.

Trident Juncture 2018 is NATO's largest exercise in many years, bringing together around 50,000 personnel from all 29 Allies, plus partners Finland and Sweden. Around 65 vessels, 150 aircraft and 10,000 vehicles will participate.



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ICC prosecutor 'alarmed' by Gaza violence

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 05:01PM

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda says she is "alarmed" by violence at the border between the besieged Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied territories, threatening to take an action.

The warning comes on the heels of Israeli aerial assaults on Gaza that killed a Palestinian youth.

The Israeli military claimed that its fresh air raids came "in response to the rockets fired from Gaza" onto occupied territories overnight. The claim was, however, rejected in a joint statement by Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups.

The Hague-based court has been conducting a preliminary probe into crimes in the Palestinian territories since 2015.

The probe covers Tel Aviv's actions during the regime's full-scale war of 2014 against the Gaza Strip.

Bensouda said in a statement on Wednesday that she was "alarmed by the continued violence, perpetrated by actors on both sides, at the Gaza border with Israel."

"As prosecutor seized of the situation in Palestine, I therefore feel compelled to remind all parties that the situation remains under preliminary examination by my office," she added.

"I continue to keep a close eye on the developments on the ground and will not hesitate to take any appropriate action."

Tensions have been running high along the border between the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied territories since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests dubbed "The Great March of Return." Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.

More than 190 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

Gaza has been under Israeli siege since June 2007, causing a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel has also launched several wars on the Palestinian sliver, the last of which began in early July 2014 and ended in late August the same year. The Israeli military aggression killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians and injured over 11,100 others.

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NATO convoy attacked near US base outside Afghan capital

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 04:58PM

A bomber has killed two Afghan civilians and wounded at least three foreign troops in an attack near the largest US military base near the Afghan capital, Kabul, local officials say.

Mohammad Mahfouz Walizada, police chief of Parwan province, where the military base is located, said a bomber on foot targeted foreign forces while they were on patrol.

The soldiers' nationality was not immediately known.

Waheda Shahkar, a spokeswoman for Parwan's governor, confirmed the attack in the Sey Dukan area of Bagram district.

"Two civilians were killed and two others injured," Shahkar said. The injured, both women, were taken to the airbase for medical treatment.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying that NATO forces were their main target.

Bagram Airfield, close to Kabul, has frequently come under attack by Taliban over the past years.

Early on Wednesday, Taliban attacked checkpoints in Baghlan province, killing six policemen and wounding two others in a four-hour battle. According to provincial police chief General Ekramuddin Sarih, about 10 insurgents were also killed in the fierce fighting.

In the eastern province of Maidan Wardak, a car bomber targeted a military vehicle, killing two army troops, said Hekmat Durani, spokesman for the provincial police chief. Durani said Abdul Razeq, the commander of an army battalion, was wounded in Wednesday's attack in Chek district.

In other violence, a bomb accidentally detonated inside a local Taliban commander's home in the western province of Herat, killing five people, four men and a woman. Gelani Farhad, spokesman for the provincial governor, said two other women were wounded in the blast late Wednesday afternoon in Push Koh district. The victims were all family members and relatives.

Separately, a Taliban bombing in the southern province of Helmand killed a candidate running in the parliamentary elections this weekend. The blast in Helmand occurred inside the campaign office of Abdul Jabar Qahraman, killing him and wounding seven people.

Taliban militants on Tuesday killed and wounded dozens of Afghan police forces, including a provincial police chief, in heavy fighting in the northern and central parts of the country.

Taliban have vowed to target Afghan security forces in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Militants have killed six other candidates, both before and after the 20-day campaign period started. Two candidates have been abducted and three others have been wounded in the ongoing violence.

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 Taliban were removed from power as a result of the invasion, many areas are still threatened by insecurity.

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Clinical Data Demonstrates Significantly Improved OSA Treat

Brisbane, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Oventus Medical Ltd ( ASX:OVN ) is pleased to announce that new clinical data from four separate studies on its Sleep Treatment Platform will be presented at Sleep DownUnder, the 30th annual meeting of sleep specialists, taking place in Brisbane between 17th -20th October.Key points:- Oventus to present new clinical data from four separate studies at the Sleep Down Under 2018 conference this week- 170 patients have now been studied in Oventus clinical trials, with outcomes consistently showing that the Sleep Treatment Platform can treat more than 75% of obstructive sleep apnoea patients across the full spectrum of disease severityClinical work across multiple trials, through which 170 patients have been treated, shows Oventus' devices successfully treat more than 75% of patients without the need for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), the standard of care treatment for sleep apnoea.In keeping with earlier studies, key highlights included:- Patients with nasal obstruction who would normally struggle with treatment were found to benefit owing to the Oventus O2Vent's airway technology, which acts as a second nose, enabling the patient to breathe freely overnight- Patients that had failed prior lines of therapy were shown to have benefit from Oventus airway technology- Addition of the Oventus PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure) valve technology (which will be called ExVent(TM) once on market) to the O2Vent airway duck bill delivered a 30% (p<0.01) increase in efficacy- Addition of the Oventus oro-nasal PEEP Valve (which will be called ONEPAP(TM) once on market) increased O2Vent efficacy by 50% (p<0.01)- Oventus airway technology improved treatment outcomes for CPAP users by reducing pressure requirements by 40-50% (p<0.001) and eliminating the need for full face masksA new finding from a physiologic study predicting response to Oventus Airway Technology showed improved treatment outcomes for female patients (p<0.02.)"We have seen a dramatic improvement in our patients in clinical trials," said Dr Chris Hart, CEO of Oventus."The technology in these devices eliminates the need for full face masks and greatly improves treatments for the majority. We have been consistently delighted with the results."Sleep Down Under is the scientific meeting of the Australasian Sleep Association (ASA) and Australasian Sleep Technologists Association (ASTA). The event brings together expert sleep clinicians and scientists to share the latest advancements and innovations in the world of sleep research and clinical practice.Copies of the posters are attached with this announcement(see link below). Further information on Oventus O2Vent appliances can be found on our website: http://oventus.com.au/how-it-works To view the posters, please visit:About Oventus Medical Ltd

Oventus Medical Ltd (ASX:OVN) is a Brisbane based medical device company that is commercialising a unique treatment platform for the treatment of sleep apnoea and snoring. Unlike other oral appliances or CPAP interfaces, the Oventus devices have a unique and patented airway within the treatment platform that allows air to flow to the back of the mouth unobstructed while maintaining an oral seal and stable jaw position, bypassing multiple obstructions from the nose, soft palate and tongue, reducing airway collapsibility and managing mouth breathing while maintain a stable airway with or without nasal CPAP. They are particularly designed for the many people that have nasal obstructions and consequently tend to mainly breathe through their mouth. While it may seem counterintuitive, this technology actually manages mouth breathing by converting it to device breathing and normalising ventilation. The O2Vent(TM) is designed to allow nasal breathing when the nose is unobstructed, but when obstruction is present, breathing is supplemented via the airways in the appliance.

For more information on Oventus' Sleep Treatment Platform, please visit http://www.oventus.comIndia police say four killed in Kashmir shootout

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:01AM

A gun battle has reportedly erupted between Indian troops and suspected militants in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, killing at least four people.

The gunfight broke out in streets near a 14th-century Muslim shrine, named Khanqah-e-Moula, in Srinagar's Old City on Wednesday, a police statement said, adding that three militants and a police officer were killed.

Police said Indian government forces cordoned off the area close to the shrine after they received information about alleged armed militants hiding in a house.

According to witnesses, the gunfire broke out after Indian soldiers knocked at the door of a house and took away a young man.

"We don't know where he is and now we hear (police) say he was a militant," said the young man's brother.

Troops also burned down the house.

The news of the deaths sparked anti-Indian protests in the city, where police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

Since last year, gun battles between government forces and pro-independence fighters seeking an end to the Indian rule in the disputed valley have become more frequent.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their partition and independence from Britain in 1947. The disputed region is claimed in full by both sides, which have fought three wars over it.

Despite a ceasefire agreement that was reached between India and Pakistan in November 2003, sporadic skirmishes continue in Kashmir.

Armed battles between Indian forces and militants over the years have killed nearly 70,000 people, mostly civilians.

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Afghan election candidate killed in bombing at his office

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 09:25AM

A bombing in southern Afghanistan has killed an Afghan candidate for the upcoming parliamentary elections in the war-torn country, with Taliban terrorists claiming responsibility for the deadly attack.

Legislative candidate Abdul Jabar Qahraman was killed in his campaign office in Helmand's provincial capital, Lashargah, on Wednesday when a bomb planted under his chair detonated.

The bombing came just days before election day, on Saturday, killing him and wounding seven other people, said a senior provincial official.

Helmand governor's spokesman Omar Zwak said an investigation had been launched.

Qahraman became the 10th electoral candidate assassinated so far in the past two months. Two other candidates have been kidnapped and four more have suffered injuries in attacks by militants in the country.

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the bombing later in the day.

Twenty two people were also killed last week in a bombing that targeted an election rally in Afghanistan's northeastern Takhar Province.

Taliban terrorists have called on the Afghans to boycott the long-delayed parliamentary elections across the country, vowing to disrupt the voting.

The militants, however, have also declared recently that they are about to resume talks with US officials in the Qatari capital of Doha.

US-based newspaper The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Washington's special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had reportedly met with Taliban representatives in Qatar, despite their persisting terror campaign across the country.

Local security officials regard the increased attacks by the militants as part of a strategy to establish a strong position to impose their demands if formal peace talks begin.

The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001, toppling a Taliban regime in control of most of the country at the time. The administration of US President Donald Trump is struggling to find a way out of the costly conflict as the Taliban have managed to partially reassert themselves in several provinces by taking control of certain areas.

Kabul blames the Taliban for the bulk of more than 8,000 deaths in Afghanistan since the start of 2018.

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US strike 'kills 60' in Somalia amid its increasing Africa presence

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 08:31AM

The United States claims that at least 60 militants were killed in Somalia in a "precision airstrike" that purportedly targeted their positions in the East African country last week.

The Pentagon's Africa Command said in a statement on Tuesday that it had carried out the airstrikes in Somalia on Friday.

It said the strike took place in the Harardhere area, where American forces are said to be training Somali troops and have also partnered with the United Nations-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

The command said the attack targeted al-Shabaab  the al-Qaeda-linked militant outfit that has long been fighting Somalia's Western-backed federal government.

"We currently assess this airstrike killed approximately 60 terrorists," it claimed.

The command also claimed that the strike "was the largest airstrike against al-Shabaab since November 21, 2017, when US forces conducted an airstrike against an al-Shabaab camp killing approximately 100 terrorists."

Citing US military officials, CNN said the strike was carried out by a drone.

None of that information could be independently verified.

The US has carried out at least 27 airstrikes in Somalia this year. The militant group, however, is more powerful now in central Somalia, carrying out attacks against government, military, and civilian targets in the capital, Mogadishu, as well as regional towns.

The US, which has a significant military presence in Africa, has the largest number of forces in Somalia. It expanded the number of its troops there to 500 last year.

'An expansion of 1,900 percent'

Trump authorized the military in March 2017 to conduct "precision strikes" targeting al-Shabaab in support of the Federal Government of Somalia. Formerly the military was only authorized to carry out airstrikes in self-defense of American military "advisers" on the ground.

The US currently has 7,500 US military personnel in several counties across Africa, who are conducting 3,500 exercises and military engagements throughout the continent per year  an average of 10 per day, according to the Canadian-American print magazine Vice.

The military engagement has now increased 1,900 percent since Africa Command was established 10 years ago on the continent, the magazine wrote.

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Afghan Candidate Killed In Blast Claimed By Taliban

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 17, 2018

An Afghan candidate has been killed in an explosion in his office in the southern province of Helmand, officials said, as violence escalates ahead of the October 20 parliamentary elections.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman was killed in the explosion of a bomb apparently placed under a sofa in his office, a senior government official said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Helmand is a Taliban stronghold.

Seven more people were wounded in the explosion, provincial governor spokesman Omar Zhwak said.

Qahraman "was meeting his supporters in his election campaign office" when a bomb under his sofa detonated, Zhwak said.

The attack takes the number of candidates killed to at least 10.

In a separate incident, a German military transport helicopter was shot at though no injuries were reported during a flight in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz Province, the German military said in a statement late on October 16.

Poll-related violence has increased ahead of the long-delayed vote.

On October 16, dozens of Afghan police officers were killed in two attacks claimed by the Taliban in the northern province of Samangan and in the central province of Daikundi.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-candidate-killed-in- blast-claimed-by-taliban/29548186.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Threat From Violent Extremism Not Gone, Could Reemerge, Top U.S. General Says

RFE/RL October 17, 2018

The security threat from violent extremist groups has not been eliminated despite a recent shift in Washington's focus to what it sees as growing threats from China, Russia, and Iran, the top U.S. military officer has warned.

General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a conference of more than 80 international defense chiefs in Washington on October 16 that any easing of military pressure on Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group will only give them time to reconstitute.

The number and severity of terrorist attacks in the West by those groups has declined in recent years as has the territory they control in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and other host countries.

But Dunford said the underlying social and political conditions that have spawned allegiance to such groups has not changed, and the groups are adapting to their defeats on the battleground by using the Internet and other technologies to inspire attacks from remote hiding locations.

"Little progress has been made in addressing the underlying conditions that lead to violent extremism," he said, without elaborating.

"Perhaps the greatest challenge facing us today is the danger of complacency," he said. "A misreading of our progress to date and a misunderstanding of the character of the threat may cause political leaders to lose focus on violent extremism while they turn to other pressing challenges."

He said governments must continue to work together to improve military, intelligence, and law enforcement cooperation to counter extremism, while also finding ways to curb extremists' use of cyberspace to recruit followers and inspire them to attack.

Dunford also issued a call for assistance in dealing with a large number of foreign fighters for IS that have been detained by U.S.-allied forces in Syria -- a group he said could become a source of future threats.

There are now about 700 detainees from more than 40 countries, but only a few dozen have been returned to their home countries, he said.

"The progress in returning these fighters home for prosecution has been delayed by political considerations and inconsistent legal frameworks," he said. "We need to find a way to address this challenge and prevent these detainees from becoming the leaders of tomorrow's extremist organizations."

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has also urged reluctant allies to take responsibility for captured citizens. So far, however, there has been little progress.

Dunford said that none of the defense chiefs he met with on October 16 committed to doing something about the problem.

Brett McGurk, the special U.S. presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat IS, said the coalition, for now, is making sure the foreign fighters are housed in a way that does not allow them to commingle and fuel future threats.

Dunford's call to keep counterterrorism at the forefront comes as Washington and other Western governments this year have turned their attention to what they see as Russia's increasing aggression, China's expanding military, the nuclear threat from North Korea, and Iran's involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts, among other priorities.

A new U.S. national defense strategy unveiled in January elevated great power competition -- mainly countering China and Russia -- to the top of the U.S. military's priorities, in the process downgrading the threat from terrorism.

With reporting by AP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/threat-violent- extremism-islamic-state-al-qaeda-not-gone-could-reemerge- general-dunford-says/29547858.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Pentagon Confirms Death Of U.S. Airman In Ukrainian Fighter Jet Crash

RFE/RL October 17, 2018

The U.S. military has confirmed that a California-based airman was killed in the crash of a two-seat Ukrainian fighter jet during a joint exercise with NATO air forces in Ukraine.

A Ukrainian aviator was also killed in the October 17 crash of the Sukhoi Su-27 plane in the Khmelnytskyy region, some 180 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, the Ukrainian and U.S. militaries said.

"This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine," said Major General Clay Garrison, director of the Exercise Clear Sky 2018 maneuvers.

Military authorities said the bodies of the two airmen had been recovered.

The identity of the American was being withheld for 24 hours to allow for the notification of family.

Kyiv identified the Ukrainian pilot killed as Colonel Ivan Petrenko.

The U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa said the American airman was taking part in a single-aircraft familiarization flight with a Ukrainian counterpart when the accident occurred.

No other aircraft were involved, and an investigation is being conducted by both militaries to determine the cause of the accident, it said in a statement.

Earlier, the U.S. Air Force said it was aware of "reports claiming a U.S. casualty," but it did not confirm the death.

The Ukrainian military said participants in the Clear Sky maneuvers held a ceremony at a nearby airfield to commemorate the airmen killed in the incident.

Some 950 personnel from Ukraine, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Britain, and the United States are participating in the exercise.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/pentagon-confirms-death-of-u-s- airman-in-ukrainian-fighter-jet-crash/29549300.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Trump Dismisses Impact Of Russian Hackers On 2016 Election

RFE/RL October 17, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed the impact of Russian hackers' actions on the result of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, claiming that their number was very small and that some of them backed his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

In an interview with the Associated Press on October 16, Trump was asked about the role of the hackers who U.S. intelligence agencies and prosecutors say interfered in the election he won.

He said: "Do you know these Russian hackers you're talking about from Moscow? They have nothing to do with me. How many people are they? Only 28 people?"

Trump added, "Some of them supported Hillary Clinton," without giving an explanation, then repeated, "They had nothing to do with me."

Trump also defended the actions of his son Donald Trump Jr., who met at Trump Tower in New York in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer who alleged to have had damaging information on Clinton.

Trump called his son a "good young guy" who did what any political aide would have done.

In the wide-ranging interview three weeks before midterm congressional elections, Trump said he will not accept the blame if his Republican Party loses control of the House of Representatives -- the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress -- arguing that his campaigning and endorsements have helped Republican candidates.

His comments came after Nancy Pelosi, the senior Democrat in the House, said on October 16 that she was confident the Democrats will regain a majority of seats in the October 6 elections.

Amid calls for his administration to pressure Saudi Arabia to account for the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Trump offered a defense for the U.S. ally, warning against a rush to judgment.

U.S. resident Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom's leadership, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Unnamed Turkish officials have been quoted as saying a search on October 16 produced further evidence that he was killed there.

"Well, I think we have to find out what happened first," Trump said. "Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent."

Trump also said that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, who was a constant target of Khashoggi's criticism, had denied knowing what happened to the journalist.

With reporting by AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-dismisses-impact-of -russian-hackers-on-2016-election/29548461.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Greek PM Vows To 'Safeguard' Deal With Macedonia Amid Government Turmoil

RFE/RL October 17, 2018

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has vowed to "safeguard" a name-change agreement with Macedonia after his foreign minister, who negotiated the deal, stepped down amid internal government strife.

"I am determined to do whatever I can [to] safeguard the successful conclusion of the historicagreement," Tsipras told reporters on October 17, referring to the June deal that would see the former Yugoslav republic change its name to the Republic of North Macedonia.

The prime ministers' comments came after he accepted the resignation of Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who was the chief negotiator with Skopje in the landmark talks.

Greek media reported that Kotzias quit a day after a cabinet meeting in which he had a heated argument with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos over the name deal and felt he did not receive enough backing from the prime minister and other leaders.

Kammenos and his right-wing Independent Greeks party are part of the left-wing Tsipras's ruling coalition but vehemently oppose the deal with Skopje and have vowed to vote against it in parliament.

The name-change proposal has come following decades of political wrangling between Skopje and Athens that had prevented Macedonia from joining both NATO and the European Union.

Greece has maintained that Macedonia's name implied the Balkan nation had territorial claims to its northern province of the same name.

NATO has made clear that the agreement must be ratified by both Athens and Skopje in order for Macedonia to become the alliance's 30th member under its new name.

Nationalists in Greece and Macedonia have opposed the deal, and leaders in both countries are struggling to get the votes in parliament to push through the name change.

In Macedonia, many opponents say it would constitute a sacrifice of sovereignty, while in Greece many say it would allow its neighbor to continue to use the historic Macedonia name.

Following the tentative agreement between the two sides, NATO on October 18 is due to officially start accession talks with Macedonia after inviting the Western Balkans country to join the alliance at a summit in July.

Accession talks usually last around three months before an accession protocol is signed.

The protocol then needs to be ratified by all other NATO members, a process that takes around one year.

The move comes despite a September 30 Macedonian referendum on changing the country's name failed to reach the required minimum 50 percent participation to be validated.

However, more than 90 percent of those who attended the vote were in favor of changing the country's name.

Despite the failed referendum, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has vowed to keep pushing for a change to the nation's name and amend the constitution as required by the deal with Greece.

Zaev's governing alliance needs at least 80 votes in the 120-member parliament to pass the amendment, and it appears to be about 10 votes short.

If the vote fails, Zaev has said he would call snap elections.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nato-to-start-accession-talks-with- macedonia-despite-failure-of-referendum/29548845.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Serbian Leader: We Will 'Protect Our People' Should UN Pull Out Of Kosovo

RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 17, 2018

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has warned of the dangers should the United Nations follow through on a reported U.S. call for an "exit strategy" for the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

Vucic on October 17 said the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from Kosovo would leave his country no choice but to "protect" the ethnic Serbian population living in its former province, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

He did not specify what action Serbia could take in Kosovo should the peacekeeping mission, known as UNMIK, be terminated.

But he said that "the departure of UNMIK, as well as the formation of the Kosovo Army, would lead Serbia into a terribly difficult position in which we no longer have the choice, nor the right to choose or do anything else but to protect our country and our people."

Reports earlier said the U.S. ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, had called on the world body to "exercise its authority and initiate a strategic review of UNMIK to develop an exit strategy."

"For a number of years, the UN mission in Kosovo has stood out as an example of how the UN has successfully managed a complex conflict," Haley was quoted as writing in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week.

"Kosovo's success, marked by 10 years of independence this year, should be a cause for celebration and a symbol of the great contribution of the UN to peace and stability in Europe," added Haley, who has announced she will step down from her post by the end of the year.

The United States' UN mission did not immediately respond to a request by RFE/RL to authenticate the letter and did not comment on Vucic's remarks.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a NATO bombing campaign to stop the killing and expulsion of Albanians by Serb forces during a two-year counterinsurgency war.

UNMIK's peacekeeping mission was launched the same year "to help ensure conditions for a peaceful and normal life for all inhabitants of Kosovo and advance regional stability in the Western Balkans."

Kosovo's independence has been recognized by more than 100 countries, but not by Serbia.

The two sides in 2013 committed to EU-mediated talks to resolve their differences, but little progress has been made.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/serbian-leader-we-will-protect- our-people-should-un-pull-out-of-kosovo/29549286.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Georgian Prosecutors: Saakashvili 'Authorized' 2008 Killing Of Opposition Tycoon

RFE/RL's Georgian Service October 17, 2018

TBILISI -- Georgian prosecutors have accused former President Mikheil Saakashvili of authorizing a plot to kill an opposition politician who died in Britain in early 2008 -- a charge he immediately rejected.

The Prosecutor-General's Office announced on October 17 that it had concluded its investigation into Badri Patarkatsishvili's case, alleging that Saakashvili had "authorized" the Interior Ministry's Constitutional Security Department to organize the plot, which a statement said involved the then-head of the agency, Data Akhalaya, and three of its senior executives.

One of them, Giorgi Merabishvili, was detained a day earlier.

Patarkatsishvili, a businessman who became extensively involved in Georgian politics, unsuccessfully ran against Saakashvili in the January 2008 presidential election.

He died in his home in Britain the following month as a result of what British authorities described as a heart failure.

However, some politicians in Georgia have alleged Patarkatsishvili was assassinated.

Saakashvili, who was president of Georgia from 2004-13, rejected the prosecutors' accusations on Facebook, describing them as an attempt by the ruling Georgian Dream party to discredit his United National Movement ahead of Georgia's October 28 presidential election

Saakashvili, who currently resides in the Netherlands, was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison in June after a court in Tbilisi found him guilty of abuse of power over the 2005 beating of Georgian lawmaker Valery Gelashvili.

And in January, he was sentenced in absentia to three years in prison after being convicted of trying to cover up evidence about the 2006 killing of Georgian banker Sandro Girgvliani.

He has rejected all the charges, calling them politically motivated.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/georgian-prosecutors-saakashvili- authorized-2008-killing-of-opposition-tycoon/29549178.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Signs Fourth Cannabis Confirmed Client

Sydney, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Anti-counterfeit and customer engagement solutions provider YPB Group Ltd ( ASX:YPB ) is pleased to announce a three year exclusive supply agreement with Shatterizer Inc., the fourth client under the "Cannabis Confirmed" initiative with leading Canadian cannabis e-commerce hub, Namaste Technologies Inc.( CVE:N )( OTCMKTS:NXTTF )( FRA:M5BQ ).- Shatterizer Inc. a rapidly growing Canadian vaporizer company- Strong volume growth expected- YPB-Namaste Cannabis Confirmed initiative progressing rapidlyShatterizer Inc. is an established Canadian vaporizer brand leading in hardware for cannabis concentrates. The Shatterizer brand and the whole Canadian cannabis industry is gearing up for growth following the legalisation of recreational cannabis in Canada on 17 October 2018. Capital is pouring into the sector with the top 12 Canadian cannabis companies having a combined market capitalisation of CND55 billion.YPB and Shatterizer have signed a three year exclusive agreement whereby YPB's ProtectCode will be applied to all of Shatterizer's cannabis concentrates vaporizers and accessories. Almost all major vaporizer brands have counterfeit versions in the market and more recently this has extended to fake cannabis oils and the proliferation of synthetic cannabinoids."We are thrilled to apply YPB's advanced technology and align with such a specialized and talented team. Through this partnership we look forward to creating an elevated and even more perfect seamless global customer service experience, with the positive potential to protect our diverse and growing products, accessories and brand. To date we are not aware of any counterfeit Shatterizers in market, but given the industry wide threatening trend, we want to be ahead of the curve to protect our customers" said Matt Zysman, inventor and company co-founder.Namaste Technologies is a global leader in cannabis e-commerce and has partnered with YBP to provide an industry-wide authentication and consumer engagement solution called "Cannabis Confirmed" to global cannabis industry companies. The Cannabis Confirmed initiative seeks to stamp out fakes by enabling cannabis brand customers to confirm the authenticity of their product after purchasing online by scanning a unique serialised QR code - a ProtectCode - on the product packaging. Authenticity triggers engagement and this interaction connects the physical product to the digital world, enabling direct brand to customer engagement via smartphone.YPB's Executive Chairman John Houston said: "Our early and swift success in the cannabis sector bodes well for our plans. Together, our ideal solutions and Namaste's market power create the prospect of Cannabis Confirmed becoming the authentication standard for the legal cannabis industry globally."About Namaste TechnologiesListed on the TSX Venture Exchange and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Namaste is a global leader in the sale of all elements of medical cannabis consumption and aspires to become the world's "one stop shop" of the industry. Namaste has nine offices with multiple distribution centres around the globe and operates 32 websites under various brands in 20 countries.About ShatterizerShatterizer is focused on satisfying the cannabis concentrates and extracts specific community and growing with it. Customer dedication and continual innovation is the top priority. The company has developed an interchangeable portable vaporizer model, a borosilicate glass Shatterizer version and an aluminum version, increasing the overall product lifestylish-ness. The Shatterizer has come about as a result of personal experiences and the belief in a global revolution in what we consume and how we consume it.About YPB Group Ltd

DEACTIVATEDUS Envoy to UN: 'Palestinians are not UN Member State or Any State at All'

Sputnik News

14:17 17.10.2018

The State of Palestine remains unrecognized by numerous UN members and holds non-member observer status at the organization since November 2012. The US is one of roughly 50 states that refuse to recognize Palestine, demanding it engage in negotiations with Israel to achieve a lasting peace.

In a statement on October 16, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed a recent decision by the UN General Assembly to allow Palestine to chair the coalition Group of 77. The partially-recognized state will lead the UN-based coalition of developing nations starting in January 2019.

In her statement Haley noted that the US had voted against the decision because it considers such a move harmful to achieving peace between the Palestinians and Israelis. She also recalled that the State of Palestine is not a full member to the UN and is not recognized by all of its member states, including the US.

"The Palestinians are not a UN Member State or any state at all. [] Today's UN mistake undermines the prospects for peace by encouraging the illusion held by some Palestinian leaders that they can advance their goals without direct peace negotiations," Haley said.

The US envoy added that Palestine is not "eligible to be admitted as a UN Member State."

Washington has been a consistent critic of the Palestinians over their methods of reaching a lasting peace with Israel. The US opposed the designation of the partially-recognized state as a UN non-member observer in 2012.

The Group of 77, a coalition of developing countries at the UN that was founded in 1964 and now includes134 states has announced that it has chosen the State of Palestine as its chair starting in 2019. The coalition is currently led by Egypt.

 Sputnik

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West Bank: 'imminent' demolition of Palestinian village could be 'war crime'  ICC Prosecutor

17 October 2018 - The Prosecutor mandated to oversee the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated on Wednesday that her office is keeping "a close eye" on the planned demolition of a Palestinian village in the West Bank by Israeli authorities, warning that, according to international law, it could constitute a "war crime".

"I have been following with concern the planned eviction of the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, in the West Bank," said Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, noting that "evacuation by force now appears imminent" and could result in "further escalation and violence".

Approximately 190 herders, half of whom are children, live in Khan al-Ahmar, a village located in the outskirts of East Jerusalem. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the village is one of dozens affected by an Israeli settlement reorganization plan that would create a continuous built-up area from East Jerusalem to Jericho.

"The problem if it happens in all of these [villages], is that then the contiguity and the possibility of a two-State solution will be challenged because the West Bank will be cut in half," Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator explained to UN News in an interview on Tuesday.

"It bears recalling, as a general matter," said the ICC Proscutor, "that extensive destruction of property without military necessity and population transfers in an occupied territory constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute."

According to OCHA's latest Protection of Civilians report, over 300 Palestinian-owned structures have been demolished in 2018 alone.

Ms. Bensouda reminded all parties that the situation remains under preliminary examination by her Office, mandated with conducting independent and impartial preliminary examinations, investigations and prosecutions of the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

"I continue to keep a close eye on the developments on the ground and will not hesitate to take any appropriate action, within the confines of the independent and impartial exercise of my mandate under the Rome Statute, with full respect for the principle of complementarity," she stated.

The complementarity principle on which the ICC is based entails that the ICC can only investigate and prosecute core international crimes when national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to do so genuinely.

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Suspected Bombing Kills Afghan Parliament Candidate

By Ayesha Tanzeem October 17, 2018

A candidate in Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary election was killed Wednesday in a bombing attack on his campaign office, officials in Afghanistan's Helmand province say.

Omar Zwak, the spokesman of the governor of Helmand, said Jabbar Qahraman was killed in his campaign office in Lashkargah city in an explosion that also wounded several others. A doctor in the Emergency Hospital of Helmand said two people had died and six wounded.

Local media said explosives were placed inside a sofa. However, some witnesses told VOA a suicide bomber posing as a Qahraman supporter entered the office and exploded his vest.

Abdul Salam Afghan, a Helmand police spokesman, said a team had arrived on the scene to investigate the incident.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the explosion. Earlier this month, the insurgent group announced it would try to derail the elections and had ordered its followers to attack those participating in the process.

This is the second such attack on a candidate in Helmand. The last attack, on the campaign offices of candidate Saleh Mohammad Achakzai, claimed eight lives, including that of the candidate. Ten candidates have been killed since the start of the campaign season.

More than 2500 people are running for 249 seats in the parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on October 20.

The Afghan government has promised 50,000 security personnel to try to safeguard the 5100 polling stations. Some 19 districts are considered highly insecure. No voting will be held in at least 10 districts due to the precarious security situation.

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US Says Committed to Syria, Iraq Beyond Anti-IS Efforts

By Sirwan Kajjo October 17, 2018

U.S. officials said Tuesday they will keep working to stabilize areas they helped liberate from Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

With IS's so-called caliphate crumbled, the U.S. and its allies now seek long-term solutions for the region, emphasizing that the next phase will focus on providing local partners the means to ensure sustained stability in areas previously held by the terror group.

"The theme of the day is the conventional fight. While not over, we can see the endpoint," Brett McGurk, U.S. special envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, told reporters at an annual meeting in Washington on countering violent extremism.

"But that is not the end of the campaign," he added. "We talked about transitioning to a new phase really focusing on the stabilization and sustainment effort."

The International Chiefs of Defense for Counter-Violent Extremist Organizations Conference was hosted by Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with representatives from 83 nations, including commanders of counterterrorism operations from the U.S. and around the world.

"I think we all recognize that violent extremism is a generational challenge that demands we develop solutions that are politically, fiscally and militarily sustainable," Dunford said in his opening remarks.

The U.S. is a major donor to peace building and stabilization programs in Syria. But in mid-August, the Trump administration announced cuts of about $230 million in stabilization funding to northeast Syria, saying it would instead rely on financial contributions from countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE and other members of the anti-ISIS global coalition.

McGurk noted that these nations have so far announced $300 million in contributions, which have helped stabilization programs in Syria.

Raqqa

With the help of the U.S.-led coalition, Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces freed the Syrian city of Raqqa  IS's former de facto capital  in October 2017 after a four-month-long battle.

One year later, locals say U.S. assistance has been instrumental in rebuilding their city.

"The United States was a major force behind the liberation of Raqqa from ISIS, and ever since, it has been helping us rebuild our city through funding various local organizations that work in different projects," said Abdulsalam Hamasork of the Raqqa Civil Council, the governing body in charge of running Raqqa.

According to U.S. officials, stabilization efforts have helped 150,000 Raqqa residents return to their homes.

"The U.S. funding is effective because it is targeting communities and areas that were hit hard by IS and its extremist ideology. What we have in Raqqa has already been happening in other areas that were previously under IS rule," Hamasork told VOA in a phone interview.

Civic initiatives

In the northern Syrian town of Manbij, local activists see how the U.S. focus has gradually shifted from military assistance to supporting civic initiatives. Manbij was cleared of IS militants in August 2016.

"With the cooperation between local forces, the majority of U.S. funding here goes to education and health programs," said Sadam al-Haman, a journalist with the Manbij Media Center.

"This has encouraged more displaced people to return to their houses in the past few years. It has also been effective in eradicating IS's radical ideas, particularly among young people who were forced to be indoctrinated when the terrorist group ruled our city from 2014 to 2016," he added.

But some analysts say it may take a long time for stabilization efforts to help local communities in areas formerly held by IS fully recover.

"Raqqa has not seen much rebuilding, although some schools have been cleared, electricity restored and areas successfully de-bombed," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

"The U.S. has always drawn a distinction between stabilization and rebuilding, although it may be a difference with little real distinction, because so long as lives are not rebuilt in Raqqa, the likelihood of further violence remains," Landis said.

Iraq

In Iraq too, U.S. officials say their efforts continue to help the recovery process. Such efforts include training over 170,000 members of the Iraqi security forces.

"We had a good presentation today from the commander of the new NATO Training Mission to Iraq that will continue to professionalize the force," McGurk said in his Tuesday meeting.

The U.S. announced Tuesday that $178 million would go to Iraq to help local communities that were impacted by the IS fight.

"The governance component of stabilization programs is essential," said Bilal Wahab, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"In order for aid to be effective, it should be corruption-free and promote economic opportunities to interrupt the cycles of war economy," he said

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Treasury Targets Iraq-based Money Services Business Supporting ISIS

October 17, 2018

Washington  The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions today on Afaq Dubai, an Iraq-based money services business (MSB) that has been moving money for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Today's designation follows action taken by the Department of Defenseannounced on October 11against a key ISIS financial facilitation group. This MSB is a part of ISIS's financial network that includes an array of other MSBs, hawalas, and financial facilitators in the Middle East. OFAC named Afaq Dubai as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of, ISIS. Contrary to what the name may imply, this MSB is located in Iraq and does not have any branches in the United Arab Emirates.

"This Iraq-based MSB is a part of ISIS's complex network of money services businesses, hawalas, and financial facilitators funding terrorism across the Middle East. We are targeting this network in concert with the Department of Defense as part of this Administration's ongoing campaign to cut off ISIS's ability to launder money and move illicit funds," said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. "Even as ISIS's hold on territory is eliminated, we will continue to search for and shut down the illicit financial networks ISIS utilizes to fund terror attacks and sustain operations."

Today's action is a continuation of Treasury's ongoing efforts to shut down financial facilitators and MSBs worldwide that move money on behalf of ISIS. It follows the designation of two ISIS financial facilitators in September with ties to the Caribbean and the Middle East. In December 2016, OFAC designated Selselat al Thahab Money Exchange in Iraq, ISIS financier Fawaz Muhammad Jubayr al-Rawi, and his company, the Hanifa Currency Exchange in Albu Kamal, Syria. Prior to his death, al-Rawi used the Hanifa Currency Exchange in Albu Kamal, Syria and a global network of financiers to move millions of dollars on behalf of the terrorist group.

OFAC closely coordinated today's designation with the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), which released details on October 11 regarding its joint action against members of a key ISIS financial facilitation group, who leveraged this MSB as part of its operation. Coordinated actions such as those conducted by DoD and Treasury this week disrupt and curtail ISIS's logistical infrastructure, recruiting, and revenue generation.

As a result of today's action, all property and interests in property of Afaq Dubai subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

DESIGNATED TARGET

Afaq Dubai

Afaq Dubai was designated for assisting in, sponsoring, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or financial or other services to or in support of ISIS.

Afaq Dubai  which is located in Iraq  is part of a network of ISIS-associated money services businesses and financial facilitators in the Middle East. It is run by two ISIS financiers, and, as of early 2018, laundered money for ISIS and provided money to ISIS families.

In May 2018, a Jordan-based ISIS financial facilitator deposited $3 million from Iraqi dinar into three exchanges, including Afaq Dubai.

Identifying information on the entity designated today.

####

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Text of a Notice on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Narcotics Traffickers Centered in Colombia

October 17, 2018

On October 21, 1995, by Executive Order 12978, the President declared a national emergency with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia and the extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm such actions cause in the United States and abroad.

The actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and cause an extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm in the United States and abroad. For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995, and the measures adopted pursuant thereto to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond October 21, 2018. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia declared in Executive Order 12978.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 17, 2018.

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Jam-Resistant US Military Satellite Blasts Off From Cape Canaveral

Sputnik News

23:56 17.10.2018

A $1.8 billion US Air Force communications satellite hitched a ride aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in the early morning hours of Wednesday as it blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral.

The satellite, known as Advanced Extremely High Frequency 4 (AEHF-4), departed from Space Launch Complex 41 at 12:15 a.m. local time, lighting up the night as the 21-story rocket made its way over the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a Tuesday statement released by the US Air Force Space Command, AEHF-4 "will provide survivable, global, secure, protected and jam-resistant communications for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets."

The Lockheed Martin-built satellite was deployed some three hours after liftoff into an orbit about 22,300 miles above Earth. Designed to replace the US military's Milstar system, a constellation of military satellites operated by the US Air Force, AEHF-4 is preceded by three satellites and will be joined an additional two to complete the project.

"The mission of AEHF is to provide survivable protected communications for the military's high-priority assets on the ground, at sea and in the air," said Maj. Matthew Getts, of the Air Force's Space and Missile Center in Los Angeles, California, after the launch, according to Space.com.

"It also enables the president of the United States and combatant commanders to control their tactical and strategic forces through all levels of war and all phases of conflict."

The fifth satellite, AEHF-5, is scheduled for launch on July 2019. The previous three AEHF spacecrafts were launched atop Atlas 5 rockets in 2010, 2012 and 2013, according to website Space Flight Now.

It's unclear when the sixth satellite will be sent into orbit.

Ahead of the Wednesday launch, Mike Cacheiro, Lockheed Martin's vice president of protected communications and AEHF program manager, told reporters in a conference call that "on a really bad day, you really want to have this system in place."

"This is the nation's only strategic and tactical protected communications satellite network," local outlet Florida Today reported Cacheiro saying.

"It's also the only system that survives through a near nuclear burst and can provide communications through scintillated environments that other communications systems could not."

The next United Launch Alliance mission will see the US National Reconnaissance Office's NROL-71 spy satellite launched from the California's Vandenberg Air Force Base later this year.

 Sputnik

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China Inches Closer to Launching Gravitational Wave-Detecting Satellite

Sputnik News

03:32 17.10.2018

China is preparing to launch the first of three satellites that will help researchers in their mission to detect gravitational waves.

The new spacecraft, which is expected to be blasted into space by the end of 2019, is part of China's Tianqin program that focuses its efforts on detecting gravitational waves, otherwise known as ripples in the structure of space-time, the Asia Times reported.

The satellite, constructed by researchers at China's Sun Yat-sen University, will work alongside two others to form an equilateral triangle around the Earth. "It's like a harp in space," Luo Jun, president of the university, told Xinhua News. "If the gravitational waves come, the 'harp's strings' will be plucked."

According to Luo, high-precision laser interferometry technology will be used in an effort to calculate any changes in the distances between and locations of all three satellites.

Though the existence of gravitational waves were first postulated by Albert Einstein in 1916, it wasn't until September 2015 that they were first detected by the American Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Researchers made a second discovery later that year in December, before unveiling their findings in February 2016.

The first detection was the result of a collision between two black holes that were "29 and 36 times larger than the Sun," according to Space.com. The LIGO team was eventually awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for their find.

Unlike LIGO, China's satellites will be focused on tracking waves at much lower frequencies that are generated by the integration of massive or supermassive black holes, Luo told Xinhua.

The project, which saw its beginnings in July 2015 at the university, has an estimated cost of roughly $2.3 billion. It was previously reported in 2016 that the project would be carried out in four stages over a period of 15 to 20 years.

 Sputnik

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China's Secret H-20 Stealth Bomber to Be Revealed in 2019 - Reports

Sputnik News

22:12 17.10.2018(updated 22:15 17.10.2018)

China's Hong-20 long-range stealth bomber is reportedly going to be unveiled publicly for the first time during the 70th anniversary of the People's' Liberation Army-Air Force in 2019.

According to The Diplomat and The Defence Blog, the mostly secret aircraft will be unveiled during the anniversary festivities celebrating the founding of the nation's air force. The outlets cited various Chinese media reports from October 15, though the Chinese military has yet to corroborate these reports.

According to The Diplomat, the H-20 is specified to include a flying-wing configuration, an intercontinental range of more than 5,000 kilometers, a substantially greater payload than the H-6K and the capability of carrying nuclear weapons. The aircraft can carry at least 10 tons of air-to-surface explosives.

Chinese Central Television confirmed the H-20's designation as the "new long-range strategic bomber" poised to complement the Chinese air force's H-6K bomber force during an August documentary. The video report is said to have marked the first time Chinese officials acknowledged the program's designation publicly.

Andreas Rupprecht, a Chinese military aviation scholar with the US-based Jamestown Foundation, has said that the bomber's been in development since the late 1990s or early 2000s.

Chinese television reports declared last month that the top-secret aircraft would make its maiden flight "soon," though it's not clear how soon that will be.

 Sputnik

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Mastermind behind Ahvaz terrorist attack killed in Iraq's Diyala, IRGC says

Iran Press TV

Tue Oct 16, 2018 08:25PM

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says a high-ranking commander of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, who apparently masterminded the recent deadly terror attack in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, has been killed in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala.

The IRGC public relations department announced in a statement released on Tuesday evening that the high-profile militant, better known by the nom de guerre Abu Dhoha, was killed along with four assistants in an ambush carried out by the Iraqi pro-government Popular Mobilization Units  commonly known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha'abi.

On October 1, the IRGC rained surface-to surface ballistic missiles on the positions of Daesh in eastern Syria, which along with the al-Ahwazia separatist group took responsibility for the September 22 terrorist attack in Ahvaz.

The IRGC announced in a statement that the missiles were launched at 2 am local time (2230 GMT September 31) from the western Iranian city of Kermanshah.

The statement added that drones bombarded Daesh positions after the missile strikes.

On September 22, four gunmen attacked a military parade in Ahvaz, killing at least 25 people and wounding 69 others. A four-year-old boy was among the fallen victims.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the following day that the attack had been carried out by the same cowards funded by regimes in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

A number of countries denounced or offered condolences over the terrorist attack in Ahvaz.

"France deeply condemns Saturday terrorist attack in Ahvaz," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement also sympathized with victims of the attack, saying France is following up developments through its diplomatic mission in Tehran.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry offered condolences over the deadly attack in a message of condolences.

"Indonesia expresses its deepest condolences and sympathy to the victims and their families.

"Indonesia condemns the terror attack in Ahvaz that resulted in deaths and injuries including children the Indonesian Embassy in Tehran continues to closely follow the development," the message read.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement also denounced the attack in a statement.

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in a message to his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani condemned the terrorist act, and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.

"Belarus is ready to stand by Iran to counter extremism and terrorism," he said as he wished swift recovery for the injured and peace and calm for Iran.

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United Greeneries Operational Update

Perth, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MMJ Group Holdings Limited ( ASX:MMJ ) ( OTCMKTS:MMJJF ) (MMJ) notes the attached media release overnight by Harvest One Cannabis Inc ( CVE:HVT ) ("Harvest One") that includes an operational update interview given to Proactive Investors by the President of United Greeneries, Harvest One's cannabis cultivation subsidiary.To view the media release, please visit:About MMJ Group Holdings Ltd

MMJ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:MMJ) is a global cannabis investment company. MMJ owns a portfolio of minority investments and aims to invest across the full range of emerging cannabis-related sectors including healthcare, technology, infrastructure, logistics, processing, cultivation, equipment and retail. For MMJ's latest investor presentation and news, please visit: http://www.mmjphytotech.com.au/investors/Russian opposes new US anti-Iran sanctions

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Moscow, Oct 17, IRNA -- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov voiced his country's opposition to US sanctions against Iran, saying that US seems to be taking every opportunity to exert pressure on countries that do not follow its policies.

On the US new strategy to impose sanctions on Iran and Russia for reconstructing Syria, he said that Moscow considers US new sanctions against Iran as well as countries involved in Syrian reconstruction a negative move.

Ryabkov further noted that Moscow will continue cooperation with Iran on a wide range of issues including political dialogues and mutual collaboration in the international scene.

US intends to use its high position in the financial markets and dollar situation as global reserve currency to undermine Iran, he said, noting that Iran can counter Washington's destructive moves through creating a defense mechanism and cooperation with countries with wise policies.

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced on Tuesday inclusion of several other Iranian institutes on the list of sanctions.

This is not the first time the US is imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran, as the analysts consider it in the wake of anti-Iran plans defeat over the past year, which has led to Washington's global isolation.

Currently, the EU is mulling direct banking cooperation with Iran which will ensure continued banking and trade activities between them.

White House has faced big obstacles in the implementation of oil and energy sanctions, as it has faced closed doors in persuading other countries to refrain from selling Iran's oil.

China and India as the two big buyers of Iran's oil are at the top of the opposing countries which defied US sanctions against Iran.

8072**1396

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Russia firmly slams US sanctions against Iran

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed / 17 October 2018 / 16:42

Tehran (ISNA) - Moscow firmly opposes expansion of the US sanctions against Tehran as it appears that Washington takes every opportunity to exert pressure on countries it dislikes, Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik.

The US Treasury on Tuesday announced fresh sanctions on Bank Mellat and Mehr Eqtesad Bank and other companies linked to investment, commodities and engineering.

"Regardless of for what reasons, under what pretexts and against which countries the United States imposes its unilateral sanctions, we firmly oppose it. The unacceptability of unilateral extraterritorial sanctions as a foreign policy tool has been and remains the core of our position. We see that Washington respects no limits in the pursuit of exerting pressure on countries it dislikes, including Iran," Ryabkov said.

End Item

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Iran calls US new sanctions clear insult to legal, international mechanisms

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed / 17 October 2018 / 16:01

Tehran (ISNA)  Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed on Wednesday that US new invalid sanctions against Iran are clear insult to legal and international mechanisms and show the spitefulness of the government of America toward the Iranian people.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi in a statement reacted to the new sanctions, saying, "The new US sanctions are part of Washington's psychological warfare against the people of Iran".

"We regard this step as open outrage of the United States against international legal mechanisms, which is associated with the blind hatred of the US towards the people of Iran," he added.

The US Treasury on Tuesday announced fresh sanctions on Iranian banks, including Bank Mellat and Mehr Eqtesad Bank.

According to an announcement on Treasury's website, the US is also imposing sanctions on Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company, Esfehan's Mobarakeh Steel Company, and other companies linked to investment, commodities and engineering.

The Treasury imposed sanctions on a multibillion-dollar financial network that supports the Basij Resistance Force affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

End Item

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Iran slams US 'addiction to sanctions' after new bans target key banks

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 07:00PM

The United States is becoming increasingly addicted to sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned, after Washington imposed fresh sanctions on a number of Iranian entities.

"US addiction to sanctions is out of control," Zarif wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. "Iranian private bank key to food/medicine import is designated because of alleged EIGHT degrees of separation w/ another arbitrary target. In comparison, all humans on planet are connected by SIX degrees of separation. You do the math."

In another tweet, the Iranian foreign minister said the new sanctions violate a recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling and amount to "utter disregard" for the rule of law and human rights of "an entire people."

On Tuesday, the US Treasury announced fresh sanctions on Iranian banks, including Bank Mellat and Mehr Eqtesad Bank.

Also included on the list were Iran Tractor Manufacturing Company, Esfahan's Mobarakeh Steel Company, and other companies linked to investment, commodities and engineering.

The US Treasury's sanctions further targeted what it called a multibillion-dollar financial network that supported the Basij Resistance Force affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

US President Donald Trump announced in May that he was pulling out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The deal, signed between Iran and six world powers -- the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany -- lifted nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its peaceful nuclear program.

Following Trump's decision to stop implementing the deal, Washington reinstated sanctions removed under the agreement while imposing new ones against the Islamic Republic.

A first round of American sanctions took effect in August, targeting Iran's access to the US dollar, metals trading, coal, industrial software, and auto sector. A second round, forthcoming on November 4, will be targeting Iran's energy sector and financial transactions.

The Trump administration has also introduced punitive measures  known as secondary sanctions  against third countries doing business with Iran.

Unaffected by the US pressure, however, other signatories of the deal say they would not stop doing business with Iran.

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Russia denounces new US sanctions on Iran businesses

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:10AM

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has repudiated new US sanctions on Iran's businesses, saying Washington appears to be taking every opportunity to exert pressure on countries it dislikes.

The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on Bank Mellat and Mehr Eqtesad Bank and other companies linked to investment, commodities and engineering.

"Regardless of what reasons, under what pretexts and against which countries the United States imposes its unilateral sanctions, we firmly oppose it," Ryabkov told Russian state news agency Sputnik.

"The unacceptability of unilateral extraterritorial sanctions as a foreign policy tool has been and remains the core of our position. We see that Washington respects no limits in the pursuit of exerting pressure on countries it dislikes, including Iran," he added.

The sanctions also target Iran Tractor Manufacturing Co, the Middle East's largest tractor manufacturer, and Esfahan's Mobarakeh Steel Co, the largest steelmaker in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The Treasury's announcement came two weeks before the Trump administration imposes a second round of sanctions, targeting Iran's oil sector and banking, on November 4.

The first round of the sanctions, targeting Iran's access to the US dollar, metals trading, coal, industrial software, and auto sector, took effect in August.

Years of Western sanctions have hurt the Russian economy. US Congress is considering expanding sanctions on Russia's big state banks, with an American business group warning on Tuesday that it could cause major turmoil for global energy supplies.

State banks dominate the Russian financial sector and work closely with energy giants in the world's largest oil and gas exporter.

Alexis Rodzianko, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia, told Bloomberg that hitting the banks would be "a scorched-earth approach to diplomacy".

The Wall Street Journal, however, said US sanctions have driven the price of oil and the ruble apart, leaving Russia with expensive crude and a cheaper currency, a combination that is helping its economy.

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Iran must not look to West on path of progress: Leader

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:08AM

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the Iranian nation should look to countries in the East on its path of scientific progress, because relying on Western states will not contribute to the country's growth.

"Those countries are mostly in Asia. Therefore, we should look to the East, rather than the West," the Leader said in a meeting with scientific elites in Tehran on Wednesday.

"Looking to the West and Europe has no benefit other than having to stand idle, begging favors and undergoing humiliation," he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei also referred to enemy attempts to portray a false image of Iran, saying that despite the economic problems in the country, including currency fluctuations and livelihood concerns, the country's image is quite the opposite of what "domineering foreigners" are trying to show.

"Portraying a false, negative and disappointing image of the situation in Iran is the most important agenda of the enemy today," said the Leader. "Butthe real image of the country is in general the opposite of the one that the hegemonic system" is attempting to portray.

The Leader compared the ongoing media war against Iran to the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, saying, "While Iran's counter-propaganda prowess is lacking just as it did during the war, we will undoubtedly triumph in this fight with God's help, just as we did" back then.

Ayatollah Khamenei named "misrepresentation" of the facts as the enemy's main mind manipulation tactic both inside and outside of Iran, and said the country's young elites needed to do their utmost to win the "heavy battle."

Ayatollah Khamenei further warned against enemy plots to plunder national wealth, including the assassination of scientific elites, and urged vigilance in the face of such attempts.

The Leader further reminded the scientific elites of wars being imposed against Iran on "economic, political and security" fronts, and called on them not to remain indifferent to such campaigns.

"If we make progress on the scientific path, the threats posed by the enemies of our civilization, politics and economy will not last," the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei also advised that the viewpoints of young elites be incorporated into different sectors, and called for diversification of the economy and changing it from a system that is entirely dependent on oil, to one that is independent, knowledge-based and resistant.

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards Claims Killed 'Mastermind' Behind Ahvaz Attack

RFE/RL October 17, 2018

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) claims it has killed the "mastermind" behind an attack on a military parade in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz last month that left 24 people dead.

The IRGC said in a statement published on state media on October 16 that allied forces in Iraq killed a man identified as Abu Zaha, "the mastermind of the recent terrorist crime in Ahvaz," along with four other militants.

Iranian state television's website said Abu Zaha was a member of the Islamic State (IS), an extremist Sunni Muslim group that considers Iran's Shi'ite Muslim majority to be heretics.

The five were killed "during a reconnaissance and surprise operation by forces of the resistance this morning in Iraq's Diyalah Province," northeast of Baghdad, the statement said.

The "resistance" is a term used for Shi'ite militias operating in Iraq and Syria with training and support from the IRGC.

Both IS and an Iranian ethnic Arab opposition movement called the Ahwaz National Resistance, which seeks a separate state in Iran's oil-rich Khuzestan Province, claimed responsibility for the September 22 attack in Ahvaz. Neither group provided conclusive evidence to back up its claim.

Gunmen dressed in military uniforms opened fire during a parade marking the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War in an attack that officials said killed 24 Iranians, about half of them IRGC members, and left all the attackers dead.

On October 1, Iran claimed it had killed several IS leaders in eastern Syria in a missile strike and destroyed the militants' supplies and infrastructure.

IS once held nearly a third of the territory of Iraq and Syria, but military campaigns in the last year by government forces, Iran-backed Shi'ite militias, and U.S.-backed Sunni forces in both countries have forced the militant group's retreat from its former strongholds.

Since losing much of its territory, IS announced a strategy of focusing on suicide bombings and other attacks on foreign soil to fight its enemies.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that those responsible for the parade attack were paid by Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and said that Iran will "severely punish" those behind the violence.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have denied involvement in the attack.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-revolutionary- guards-claims-killed-mastermind-behind-ahvaz-military- parade-attack-abu-zaha/29547822.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russian Foreign Ministry Refutes Allegations of Moscow's Meddling in Libya

Sputnik News

17:37 17.10.2018(updated 17:41 17.10.2018)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia acts in strict accordance with the UN Security Council's decisions on Libya and does not interfere in the situation in this country, Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Wednesday.

"[These reports are] the insinuations about alleged Russian interference in Libya Russia acts in strict compliance with the decisions of the UN Security Council regarding this country," Zakharova said at a weekly briefing.

Earlier in October, the UK media reported that Russia was, allegedly, sending troops and weapons into Libya.

The Sun tabloid newspaper claimed that Russia wanted to take control of migration routes leading to Europe and, by doing this, to increase influence on the West.

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.

Russia Concerned Over US Attempts to Create Quasi-State in Northeastern Syria

Russia is concerned about the situation in northeastern Syria, where the US and allied Kurdish armed groups are trying to establish a quasi-state, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday.

"The situation in northeastern Syria continues to cause concern, where the Americans, relying on their allies from among the Kurds, are trying to create quasi-governmental structures in place of the legitimate authority of the Syrian state," Zakharova stated.

She added that the activities of these structures are not very effective, causing protests by the local population.

On October 12, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the United States, through its Syrian allies, is trying to use the territory east of the Euphrates River to create a quasi-state there.

Since 2011, Syria has been gripped by a violent armed conflict that pushed millions of Syrians to flee their homes or the country altogether.

 Sputnik

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Trump: Saudi Arabia criticism makes the nation 'guilty until proven innocent'

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily) 08:47, October 17, 2018

According to CNN, President Donald Trump defended Saudi Arabia in an interview Tuesday, suggesting the wave of criticism the Middle Eastern kingdom has received over a missing Saudi journalist is premature.

"Here we go again with you know you're guilty until proven innocent," Trump told The Associated Press in an interview at the White House.

The AP's report said Trump compared the accusations against Saudi Arabia, which stands accusing of killing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, to sexual assault allegations against recently confirmed Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

"I don't like that," Trump said. "We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh, and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned."

Trump also said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was going ahead with a scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia for a conference, but that it could be canceled depending on the results of an investigation.

"I think we'll also be guided by what other countries are doing," Trump said.

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Saudi Arabia $100 million to US as missing journalist mystery deepens

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 06:46PM

Saudi Arabia has delivered a previously promised $100 million to the United States as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh to discuss the fate of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after visiting the kingdom's consulate in Turkey's largest city of Istanbul more than two week ago.

According to a New York Times report, the money landed in American accounts on Tuesday and was for purported American efforts to stabilize areas in Syria liberated from the clutches of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

'No coincidence'

The timing of such payment, which the Riyadh regime had pledged to the Trump administration in summer, has raised cynical eyebrows among pundits.

"The timing of this is no coincidence," an American official involved in Syria policy said on condition of anonymity.

This is while Brett H. McGurk, the US special envoy to the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh, asserted that Pompeo's visit to Saudi Arabia and the $100 million payment were not connected.

"The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretary's visit," McGurk said.

Pompeo visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. He met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the following day.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump co-signed Saudi Arabia's Khashoggi cover-up, saying "rogue killers" could be responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the 59-year-old writer.

"I just spoke with the king of Saudi Arabia, who denies any knowledge of what took place. The king firmly denied any knowledge of it," Trump said.

"I don't want to get into his mind, but it sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers," he added.

Turkish officials maintain that they have evidence that Saudi officials killed and dismembered Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, inside their consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi leaders have denied any role in the journalist's disappearance but have not provided an obvious explanation of what happened to him.

Analysts say Saudi officials plan to blame Khashoggi's killing on rogue elements, who allegedly acted on their own not on official orders in a desperate attempt to save the battered image of the kingdom and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Khashoggi's fiancee Hatice Cengiz said he entered the consulate at around 1 p.m. local time (1000 GMT) on October 2, as she accompanied him but waited outside.

The woman, who is a Turkish citizen, called police when Khashoggi did not emerge at 5 p.m., after the consulate had officially closed.

The rights group Prisoners of Conscience, which is an independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, announced in a post on its official Twitter page that it did not dismiss the possibility that Khashoggi's sudden disappearance was an attempt to silence the writer.

The Arab21 news website reported that the author paid a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul late last month but was told by officials at the time to return at a later date to complete an application related to a family matter.

Khashoggi, a prominent commentator on Saudi affairs who writes for The Washington Post's Global Opinions section, has lived in self-imposed exile in the US since September 2017, when he left Saudi Arabia over fears of the Riyadh regime's crackdown on critical voices.

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Open Briefing Interview with MD Andrew McLellan

Melbourne, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Bluechiip Ltd ( ASX:BCT ) provides Open Briefing interview with MD Andrew McLellan.In this Open Briefing(R), Andrew discusses:- Recent $7.5 million capital raise and the updated $15.9 million over 3 yr Labcon agreement- End customer activity and finalisation of product portfolio- Recent 4C and cashflow forecast- Partner and opportunity pipeline statusRecord of interview:openbriefing.comAndrew, you've just completed a successful capital raise which came shortly after you announced a large multiyear contract with Labcon. What's Bluechiips current cash balance and your focus over the coming 12 months?MDWe now have over $7m in the bank and a significant multi-year order book.The 4C for the September quarter, released today, shows that we closed the September quarter with $7.2m cash in the bank including the proceeds received from the shareholder placement plan subsequent to the end of the quarter and the $5.5m placement. We have used some of this capital to pay down the $600k advance on the R&D Refund which we expect to receive over $1m from Aus Industry. So from a cash point of view we are in a position Bluechiip has not been in the past and this allows us to focus on delivering on our partners orders and other opportunities.With the updated agreement with Labcon, one of our OEM partners, the 2 year orders ($5.8m) and 3rd year minimums ($10.1m) equate to over $15.9m. With this our focus over the coming 12 months is very much on meeting our existing OEM partners needs, scaling our operations to meet the increasing demand and servicing our pipeline of potential OEM partners.openbriefing.comCan you give us feedback from Labcon's end customer sales of Bluechiip enabled products and traction they are getting in the market?MDWe are seeing increased end user activity. Over the last month we have installed several systems into early adopter sites with key opinion leader both in the US and Europe, with positive initial feedback from these users. We are progressing to expand this base.Labcon is also in the process of finalising their products, including registering their Coldpoint Bluechiip enabled range and cryogenic boxes to enable full launch of product. Labcon sales training and engagement has been very positive.I should also highlight that we are seeing an increase in OEM interest both including in partnership with Labcon and in adjacent applications in the life science market.openbriefing.comYou have mentioned end customer trials. Can you tell us how these can drive additional sales to those captured via your OEM strategy and the status of any significant end customer trials currently under way?MDEnd customer trials are very important and yes as mentioned we have commenced a number in multiple regions. They are the basis for preparing marketing and sales collateral and we are targeting key opinion leaders which the broader market will follow. From these trials we anticipate the preparation of posters and papers clearly demonstrating Bluechiips core technology differentiation and that this will also support a broader rollout with Labcon.As end use increases over time we anticipate the end customers will start demanding their existing suppliers (our target OEM's) to adopt Bluechiip technology which will allow us to more rapidly enter adjacent markets.We are already seeing the impacts of this in the form of additional enquiries and as we continue to roll out our technology we are working with our existing and target OEM's to deliver these solutions.openbriefing.comSales receipts for the September quarter suggest that the rate of deliveries for Labcon slowed in the Sept quarter. Was this planned and what rate should we expect in the coming quarters?MDThis certainly was planned. Towards the end of the calendar year and especially into calendar 2019 there will be a substantial ramp in volumes to meet the FY19 $US1.1m commitment from Labcon.Labcon is putting in place the processes for scaled manufacture and progressing registration of the Bluechiip enabled range. We at Bluechiip are also in the process of registering and scaling the reader and software range, with both the Multi Vial Reader and Handheld readers moving into production at Planet Innovation.openbriefing.comIn the 4C you are forecasting a cash outflow of $2.1m for the December quarter, which is almost double your level of costs from the September quarter. What are the key items driving this and what should we expect on the revenue front?MD/Managing DirectorThe $2.1m cash outflow includes a repayment of the $600k loan from R&D capital partners. More than offsetting this we expect to receive an R&D Tax refund of over $1m.On the operating cost side, we are planning an increase in the R&D spend to move to registration of our product range and round of prototypes to help in product registrations with our partners.openbriefing.comWill the current cash balance of just over $7m, combined with your current order book take Bluechiip through to profitability?MDThe significant orders in hand and the cash at bank provide a platform to move to profitability and good runway into the future.openbriefing.comWhat is the status of the pipeline in terms of developer kits sold and other potential OEMs currently engaged?MDAs it stands we have 30 developer kits, readers and evaluation agreements ongoing. These include our existing partners, Labcon, Planet Innovation and Genea Biomedx and a range of suppliers target OEM in the initial life science target market, including automation companies, Pharmaceuticals groups, cell therapy manufactures and clinical trial companies to name a few.With orders in hand, rising chip deliveries, a growing pipeline and a good cash position to support significant runway, Bluechiip is now in a great position.It is an exciting time.openbriefing.comThank you.About Bluechiip Limited

Bluechiip Ltd (ASX:BCT) understands that every sample - stem cells, blood, eggs, sperm and other biospecimens - is critical, so our objective is to manage each one with optimal quality in the most efficient way. Bluechiip's advanced management solution is the only one that provides sample temperature with ID in cryogenic environments to. Most importantly, this delivers confidence in every sample.

Bluechiip's unique patented technology is a MEMS-based wireless tracking solution that contains no electronics. It represents a generational change from current tracking methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D), and Radio Frequency Identification. Bluechiip tags are either embedded or manufactured into storage products such as vials or bags. Each product can be easily identified, and critical information such as sample temperature, is detected by readers and stored in the Bluechiip software. In addition to functioning in extreme temperatures, the Bluechiip(R) Advanced Sample management solution can survive autoclaving, gamma irradiation sterilization, humidification, centrifuging, cryogenic storage and frosting.

Bluechiip's technology has applications in healthcare, including in cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories), pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Other key markets include cold-chain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation.

Bluechiip: Delivering confidence in every sample.Turkish, Saudi investigators enter consul's residence in Istanbul as Khashoggi remains missing

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 06:10PM

Saudi Arabia and Turkey have reportedly sent investigative teams to inspect the Saudi consul general's residence in the Turkish city of Istanbul, as the kingdom struggles to convince the world that it had nothing to do with the mysterious disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Over a dozen police officers and prosecutors, including forensic experts, entered the compound of Mohammed al-Otaibi on Wednesday, a day after he returned to Saudi Arabia.

Turkish and Saudi investigators are working together to find out what exactly happened to Khashoggi, who is believed to have been murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Ankara has criticized Riyadh's lack of enthusiasm to get to the bottom of the incident. It took Saudis two full weeks before allowing Turkish investigators into the consulate on Monday.

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization says it is in possession of secret audio recordings that incriminate Otaibi and other Saudi officials in the case.

Leaked details of the 11-minute recording published by Turkish media on Tuesday and Wednesday pointed to the gruesome "torture and murder" of Khashoggi inside the consulate. According to some reports, the journalist was slowly dismembered by an assassination squad as Saudi diplomats calmly listened to music.

Citing Turkish law enforcement sources, Al Jazeera, reported that Saudi intelligence elements had "verbally abused and used profanity to address Khashoggi, in addition to torturing him during the first four minutes after he entered the Saudi consulate."

Turkish officials have reportedly informed their American counterparts that they had audio and video recordings pointing to Khashoggi's death inside the consulate, according to The Washington Post, to which Kahshoggi was a contributor.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had asked Turkish officials to hand in their evidence.

Khashoggi entered the Saudi mission to obtain the required paperwork for marrying his fiancee, who claims she waited outside the consulate for 11 hours but did not see him come out.

Saudi authorities, on the other hand, insist that Khashoggi left the building on the same day.

German FM, IMF chief cancel trips to Saudi Arabia

Khashoggi's suspected murder and Saudi Arabia's lackluster efforts to solve the case has negatively affected Riyadh's economic reform drive, chasing away investors and foreign officials alike.

On Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Mass called off his scheduled visit to Riyadh and asked Saudi officials to "fully cooperate" in the investigation.

"Regarding my travel plans [] we were actually considering a visit as part of our dialogue with Saudi Arabia. Now we would wait and see," he told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), also announced that she would skip a high-profile Saudi economic event next week.

So far, major businesses such as Uber Technologies, Viacom, JP Morgan and Ford have boycotted the three-day event, dubbed "Davos in the Desert."

CNN, the Financial Times, The New York Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and other major media outlets have also pulled out.

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Missing journalist case: Turkey waiting for permission to search Saudi consul's house

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 09:46AM

Turkey says it is waiting for an agreement to enter and search the Saudi consul's residence in Istanbul as it continues to investigate the case of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared after walking into the kingdom's mission there.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu made the remarks to Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency on Wednesday, a day after Turkish and Saudi investigators searched the consulate for nine hours.

A search of the consul's residence was canceled on Tuesday "because Saudi officials were not able to participate," Reuters reported, citing Turkish police as saying.

Turkish sources unveiled that Saudi Consul General Mohammad al-Otaibi had left Istanbul for Riyadh earlier that day.

Khashoggi, a US resident, The Washington Post columnist, and a leading critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, did not exit the consulate after entering the facility on October 2 to obtain documentation for an upcoming marriage.

Turkey says it is in possession of evidence which shows he was murdered inside the Saudi diplomatic mission.

Police do not know yet whether the attempt to dispose of the body took place inside the consulate or in the consul's residence, London-headquartered website Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported.

Details of audio recording revealed

Meanwhile, Turkey's National Intelligence Organization is in possession of an 11-minute audio recording of "the torture and murder" of Khashoggi inside the consulate, MEMO said, quoting a Tuesday report by Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak.

Citing Turkish law enforcement sources, Al Jazeera, also reported that Saudi intelligence elements had "verbally abused and used profanity to address Khashoggi, in addition to torturing him during the first four minutes after he entered the Saudi consulate."

"Afterwards, the journalist was heard screaming and mentioning being attacked with needles. Then, his voice faded away," according to the Doha-based network.

Turkish officials have reportedly informed their American counterparts that they had audio and video recordings pointing to Khashoggi's death inside the consulate, according to The Washington Post.

'Killing took 7 minutes, no interrogation'

Middle East Eye news portal has also published the "first details" of an audio recording obtained by Turkish investigators. It quoted a Turkish source, who had listened to the entire recording, as saying that it took seven minutes for Khashoggi to die.

Khashoggi was dragged from the Consul General's office onto the table of the consul's study room, the source said.

Horrendous screams were then heard by a witness downstairs, it said, adding, "The consul himself was taken out of the room. There was no attempt to interrogate him. They had come to kill him."

'Listening to music during dismemberment'

The report said Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy, who has been identified as the head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, was one of a 15-member squad, which had arrived in Turkey earlier that day on a private jet.

Tubaigy began to cut Khashoggi's body up on a table, while he was still alive, the Turkish source said.

Tubaigy put on earphones and listened to music as he dismembered Khashoggi's body. He advised other members of the squad to do the same.

"When I do this job, I listen to music. You should do [that] too," Tubaigy was recorded as saying, the source told MEE.

Pompeo in Ankara after Riyadh

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was earlier sent to Riyadh to address the hugely controversial affair with Saudi royals, arrived in Ankara on Wednesday.

He met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for related discussions.

US President Donald Trump and Pompeo have so far maintained that King Salman and Saudi officials have denied knowledge of what happened to Khashoggi.

Awestruck, world continues to react

An ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Europe might need to revisit its relations with Saudi Arabia, depending on the outcome of an investigation into the journalist's disappearance.

"We have a very ambivalent picture of Saudi Arabia, especially with what has happened in the Khashoggi case in recent days, and what emerges in the coming days will complete that picture. Europe may need to correct its policies toward Saudi Arabia," Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's conservatives told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

Another senior German official, meanwhile, warned that Trump's attitude towards the matter carried much importance now.

"The decisive factor now is the behavior of the US president, who basically told the crown prince, we are giving you free rein as long as you buy enough weapons and other things from us," Norbert Roettgen, chairman of the German parliamentary foreign affairs committee and an ally of Merkel, told broadcaster ARD.

Separately, the International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde postponed a planned trip to the Middle East with a stop in Saudi Arabia for an investment conference.

The case has prompted an exodus from the conference slated to be held in Riyadh on October 23, as pressure mounts on the kingdom to account for the journalist's fate.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations also called on Tuesday for a "transparent" probe into the disappearance, saying they were "very troubled" by the case.

'Khashoggi case could end bin Salman's rule'

Speaking to PressTV, former US diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Michael Springmann said, Khashoggi "is not the first person that the Saudis have taken care of."

"You are talking about a country that doesn't like dissidents, that punishes dissidents. There are no public demonstrations there; there is controlled press, trade unions are illegal and if you criticize the royal family, if you are lucky, you go to jail," he added. "I think that the American government has to put its foot down on the Saudi neck and say 'no more weapons, get out of Yemen, end that aggression.'"

"What will come in the future of this, I don't know," said the analyst, adding that suggestions have been made that "they will bring back Mohammed bin Nayef, the former crown prince and former interior minister to replace Mohammed bin Salman or maybe bring back the American Ambassador to Washington Khalid bin Salman," bin Salman's younger brother.

Secretary-General of London-based Next Century Foundation think tank, William Morris, however, said, "Bin Salman... is staying. He is not going anywhere. Mohammed bin Salman has a strong position. He will retain that strong position. He is a friend of Donald Trump. They will retain their friendship. There will be a little of posturing in the aftermath of this grave era. But he is not going away."

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Britain secretly training Saudi air force: Report

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 04:49AM

Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) has been training Saudi Arabian air force crew over the past four years as part of a secret deal, a report says.

The Daily Mail can disclose that 111 RAF personnel have been seconded to BAE Systems to train Royal Saudi Air Force aircrew and provide engineering support, including 21 sent during the first five months of this year.

In 2015, 34 RAF personnel were sent there, with 30 the following year and 26 in 2017, the report added.

"These personnel were all seconded to BAE Systems to provide training support to Royal Saudi Air Force aircrew and routine aircraft engineering support," British defense minister Guto Bebb said in a written statement.

In addition, high-ranking British military advisers are in their control rooms to assist the Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing Yemen since 2015, killing thousands of civilians.

BAE sources, however, have denied any involvement in military operations.

Some UK officers have also been sharing targeting techniques for several years and, according to Riyadh, they have access to the "target list."

According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, "All UK military personnel in Saudi Arabia are under UK command and control.

"We have an ongoing and wide- ranging defense engagement relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has included the provision of training courses and advice and guidance."

In March this year Britain and Saudi Arabia signed a controversial aid agreement worth 100 million.

London is already the target of strong criticism from rights groups for its multibillion-pound arms sales to Saudi Arabia, during the kingdom's deadly war on Yemen.

The new revelation comes amid international condemnation over the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey earlier this month.

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and a US resident, disappeared on October 2 after visiting the consulate. Turkish authorities believe he was tortured and killed inside the building by a team of Saudi operatives who removed his dismembered body.

On Tuesday, Tory MP Crispin Blunt said the UK Government should reconsider its relations with the Saudis following the disappearance of Khashoggi.

"Nothing should be off the table given how serious this is," the former chairman of the foreign affairs select committee said.

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Guilty until proven innocent: Trump defends Saudi Arabia

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 02:25AM

US President Donald Trump has once again risen to the defense of the Saudi government over the mysterious disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that pinning the blame on Riyadh before knowing all the facts is yet another case of "guilty until proven innocent."

Trump Tuesday criticized people blaming Saudi Arabia for the disappearance of the US-based journalist and accused them of prejudging the case.

"Here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. I don't like that," Trump said during an interview with The Associated Press.

The US president likened the global outcry against the Saudi government to the controversy surrounding Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was implicated sexual assault during his confirmation process.

"We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned," Trump said. "So we have to find out what happened."

Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and a US resident, disappeared on October 2 after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkish authorities believe he was tortured and killed inside the building by a team of Saudi operatives who removed his dismembered body.

'Answers will be forthcoming shortly'

Earlier in the day, Trump wrote in tweets that he had spoken to the Saudi crown prince on the phone and that bin Salman had "denied any knowledge" of the fate of the missing Washington Post columnist.

The American head of state said bin Salman had agreed to "expand" an investigation into Khashoggi's disappearance and that "answers will be forthcoming shortly."

Trump told AP that he hopes the Saudi investigation concludes in "less than a week."

The tweets came as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was meeting with Saudi Arabia's King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and senior Saudi officials in Riyadh. The US State Department said Pompeo had called for a "thorough, transparent and timely" investigation during the discussions.

The comments mark the second time in two days Trump has vouched for Saudi Arabia's denials of knowledge about the fate of Khashoggi.

Speaking to reporters following a phone call with King Salman on Monday, Trump suggested that "rogue killers" may be responsible for whatever happened to the missing Washington Post columnist.

But in an interview aired late on Tuesday on Fox Business channel, Trump said it would not bode well Saudi leadership if it is found they were involved in Khashoggi's case.

"It depends on if the king or the crown prince knew about it in my opinion," he said. "If they knew about it, that would be bad."

Since Khashoggi's disappearance, many members of the US Congress have issued strong criticism of the kingdom and pressured Trump to punish Riyadh, which is one of the United States' closest allies in the Middle East.

Senator Lindsey Graham vowed to "sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia" while blaming the crown prince for Khashoggi's disappearance.

"Nothing happens in Saudi Arabia without MbS knowing it," he said in an interview with Fox News, abbreviating the crown prince's name.

"I've been their biggest defender on the floor of the United States Senate," said Graham. "This guy is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey and to expect me to ignore it. I feel used and abused. The MbS figure is to me toxic. He can never be a world leader on the world stage."

Intelligence intercepts show that Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi mission in Istanbul two weeks ago, was murdered on bin Salman's direct order.

Turkish officials have also obtained recordings that prove he was indeed murdered at the hands of Saudi killing squads. There are also reports that bin Salman's personal guard carried out the murder and took Khashoggi's dismembered body back to Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh, however, has firmly denied any knowledge of the journalist's fate.

Those responsible will be 'held to account'

US Vice President Mike Pence said the Trump administration has also demanded answers in the disappearance of the Virginia-based journalist, pledging that those responsible for what happened to the Saudi dissident would be "held to account."

"We're going to get to the bottom of it. It's important that the world know the truth," Pence said.

"If in fact Mr. Khashoggi was murdered, we need to know who was responsible ... and it's even more important that he was a member of a free and independent press," Pence added. "Any loss of life is grievous. Any act of violence that claims a life is to be condemned, but this was also an assault on a free and independent press. So, we're going to demand answers. The world deserves answers."

Besides the United Nations, major European countries such as Germany, France and the UK have also called for clarity from Riyadh on the dissident journalist's case.

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Trump Wants Audio, Video Evidence From Turkey About Missing Saudi Journalist, 'If It Exists'

By VOA News October 17, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday he wants audio and video intelligence from Turkey "if it exists" regarding the disappearance of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist whom Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul.

Trump's demand at the White House came as he expressed support for Saudi Arabia, a longtime U.S. ally, and said he expects its investigation into the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, would be completed by the end of the week. Saudi Arabia has denied Khashoggi was killed.

When questioned on what he would do if the Saudi investigation showed that Saudi leaders King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were responsible, Trump told Fox Business in an earlier interview, "Well, I hope we're going to be on the better side of the equation."

"You know we need Saudi Arabia in terms of our fight against all of the terrorism, everything that's happening in Iran and other places," Trump said.

When asked if the U.S. would distance itself from Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi case, Trump said, "I do not want to do that and frankly they have a tremendous order, $110 billion," referring to a promised Saudi purchase of U.S.-made weaponry in the coming years.

"It is 500,000 jobs, it will be ultimately $110 billion. It's the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military, and I said we are going to turn that down?" he added.

"So hopefully it is working out. We'll find out, we'll get down to the bottom of it," Trump said of the Saudi investigation. "I hope that the king and the crown prince didn't know about it. That is a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't."

Pompeo meetings

Trump's assessment came as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo completed visits to Saudi Arabia and Turkey for talks with the Saudi leaders and with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu about the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was last seen October 2 walking into the Saudi consulate.

Pompeo, heading back to Washington, told reporters that the U.S. needs "to know the facts before we can begin to formulate what the appropriate response" would be if Saudi Arabia is responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance.

"I do think it's important that everyone ... keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships  financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationship, things we work on together all across the world," Pompeo said. "The efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world's largest state sponsor of terror, Iran  the Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues.

"I ... could go on about places where the Saudis and the Americans are working together," the top U.S. diplomat said. "Those are important elements of U.S. national policy that are for, are in Americans' best interests. And we just need to make sure that we are mindful of that as we approach decisions that the United States government will take when we learn all of the facts associated with whatever may have taken place."

Earlier, Pompeo said that when he met with Saudi leaders, they did not want to talk about any of the facts involving Khashoggi's disappearance.

As he headed to Ankara to talk to the Turkish leaders about their investigation regarding the missing journalist, Pompeo said that the Saudi monarch and his son assured him they "would show the entire world" the results of their investigation.

Pompeo said the Saudis committed to holding accountable "anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found," making no exceptions for anyone, including members of the royal family.

When asked whether the Saudi officials told him whether Khashoggi is alive or dead, Pompeo said, "I don't want to talk about any of the facts. They didn't want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way."

Media reports

The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Saudi operatives beat and drugged Khashoggi, then killed and dismembered him, with pro-government media in Turkey publishing similar accounts. The U.S. newspaper said Turkish officials have shared evidence, including details of an audio recording, with Saudi and U.S. officials.

When asked what gave him the benefit of the doubt in believing Saudi Arabia's account that it was not involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, Pompeo said, "I'm waiting for the investigation to be completed. They promised that they would achieve that, and I'm counting on it, and they gave me their word. And we'll all get to see if they deliver against that commitment."

A critic of the Saudi monarchy who wrote for The Washington Post, Khashoggi was last seen October 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials have said 15 Saudi agents, who arrived in Istanbul the same day, killed Khashoggi, while Saudi officials say he walked out of the consulate on his own. Neither country has publicly offered evidence of its version of events.

The New York Times and the Post both reported late Tuesday that several people from the list of Saudi agents are linked to Saudi security services and the crown prince.

Turkish investigators on Wednesday scoured the residence of Saudi consul general Mohammed al-Otaibi for evidence in the case, after doing the same at the consulate Tuesday. The Saudi envoy left Istanbul for Riyadh on Tuesday.

While Trump has voiced support for Saudi Arabia as the investigation continues, some U.S. lawmakers have all but accepted Turkey's version of the events  that a team of Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul and killed Khashoggi when he went to the consulate to pick up documents he needed to marry his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish national who waited in vain for Khashoggi to emerge from the consulate.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday the United States should "sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia" over the incident and that he would never again work with the crown prince, assailing him as "toxic" and calling him a "wrecking ball."

Ken Bredemeier, Chris Hannas and State Department correspondent Nike Ching contributed to this report.

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European Governments Wrestle with Khashoggi Quandary

By Jamie Dettmer October 17, 2018

European governments  in addition to the U.S.  appear perplexed about what action to take in response to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago after entering his country's consulate in Istanbul.

While most media attention has focused on the U.S. reaction to Khashoggi's disappearance, European governments are also wrestling with a quandary about how to punish Saudi Arabia, if it is found beyond doubt to be behind the journalist's disappearance, without destroying what they say are valuable relations with the Gulf kingdom.

The questions policy makers are asking include: Should they confront Riyadh more as they demand answers about what befell the journalist and prominent critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, even if that wrecks security cooperation with Riyadh and endangers trade and lucrative weapons sales with the Gulf kingdom?

Or should they give the benefit of the doubt to the Saudi government, which claims Khashoggi left the consulate safely by the back door and that nothing happened to him inside the building, but risk by doing so undermining their own much-lauded insistence on the observance of global norms and rule-based values?

Another factor at play as they weigh how to respond is who will benefit from a confrontation between the West and Saudi Arabia. Some policy makers and analysts say Iran, Saudi's arch-rival in the region, would be a beneficiary. "As it has done in the past, Tehran will leverage this latest crisis to shore up its regional position," cautions Sanam Vakil of Britain's Chatham House research organization.

"In the face of forthcoming U.S. oil sanctions and coordinated pressure from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Israel strategy  and as the EU attempts to preserve the nuclear accord after Washington's withdrawal  the opportunity could not come at a better time for Tehran. Iran has repeatedly seized on Saudi miscalculations to gain leverage and protect itself from regional isolation," she says.

Khashoggi disappeared after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to complete paperwork to finalize his divorce from his Saudi wife. Turkish officials say they believe Khashoggi was killed inside by Saudi assassins with links to the crown prince and that his body was dismembered and removed while his unwitting Turkish fiancee waited for him outside the consulate.

The Saudis strongly deny the claim  and Saudi leaders reiterated their innocence Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was dispatched to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by President Donald Trump to discuss Khashoggi's disappearance with the leaders of the Gulf kingdom, a close U.S. ally for 73 years.

On Wednesday, a senior ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued the strongest warning yet from a European government about possible punishment, saying that Europe may have to adjust its relations with Saudi Arabia in the wake Khashoggi's disappearance.

"We have a very ambivalent picture of Saudi Arabia, especially with what has happened in the Khashoggi case in recent days, and what emerges in the coming days will complete that picture. Europe may need to correct its policies toward Saudi Arabia," Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Merkel's ruling Christian Democrats, told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

But rights campaigners and European opposition politicians who want a tougher approach to be adopted towards Saudi Arabia over Khashoggi's disappearance say the German comments fall short of what is needed and fit a pattern of hedged remarks from European governments and officials. They note Hardt cautioned that as yet there are no plans for imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia.

A joint statement on Khashoggi's disappearance Sunday by Britain, France and Germany also made no reference to possible sanctions. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt later cautiously announced Britain would consider an "appropriate way to react," if it transpired the Saudis royals were found to be behind Khashoggi's disappearance and likely death.

In Britain, Labour foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry says the British government has a "blind spot" when it comes to Saudi Arabia." She criticizes Foreign Minister Hunt for taking a week after the journalist's disappearance before issuing a tweet saying he was urgently seeking answers from Saudi Arabia.

"Imagine how this government would have reacted if either Russia or Iran had abducted  and in all likelihood murdered  one of their dissident journalists within the sovereign territory of another country," she says.

British officials privately say they are trying to find a way to project outrage while at the same time keeping intact what they see as an important alliance. They argue Saudi Arabia is a key partner in the fight against extremist violence and that intelligence supplied by the kingdom's security agencies has been crucial in thwarting terrorist plots on British soil.

And they say the bigger strategic picture in the Middle East needs to be taken into account. Saudi Arabia remains the one Arab state that is still reliably aligned with the West in the region, a point German officials echo.

They also acknowledge that the trade relationship after Britain leaves the European Union is earmarked to become more important. Twenty-three percent of the arms and weapon systems the Saudis' purchase come from British defense firms. In the first six months of 2017, Britain sold Riyadh military equipment worth more than $1.4 billion, with thousands of British jobs dependent on the sales.

Riyadh remains by far the biggest overseas market for Britain's arms industry, accounting for almost half of all British arms sales between 2007 and 2016.

But some analysts warn that placing so much emphasis on economics is a mistake. Relations need "to be based on a more nuanced understanding of the potential costs and benefits, so not just driven by economic interests," Armida van Rij, an analyst at The Policy Institute at King's College London, told a conference in London just days before Khashoggi disappeared.

Possible reputational damage from having close ties with Saudi Arabia at a time the kingdom is pursuing a highly aggressive foreign policy and cracking down on dissidents should also be taken into account, she says. By being tied to Saudi Arabia "does it affect your credibility on the international stage? Does it affect your credibility as an international actor? These are bigger questions that, at the moment, are not really being discussed," she added.

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On Capitol Hill, More Scorn on Saudi Arabia Over Khashoggi

By Michael Bowman October 17, 2018

U.S. lawmakers heaped more criticism on Saudi Arabia Wednesday amid fresh news reports suggesting that missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi met a grisly death at the Saudi consulate in Turkey earlier this month.

"I think Mr. Khashoggi is dead," Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I don't think the aliens abducted him. I don't think he fell through a hole in the space-time continuum. I think he's dead. And I think the Saudis killed him."

Kennedy continued, "I think whether King Salman or Prince Mohammed knew about it or not is really irrelevant. They're captains of the ship."

Saudi officials have denied they killed Khashoggi.

"We have to get all the facts on the table," the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, told a gathering of defense and national security correspondents, adding that Khashoggi appears to have been the victim of "a grotesque and obscene act by elements within Saudi Arabia."

Reed scoffed at Saudi assurances of a thorough investigation of Khashoggi's disappearance, saying an independent international probe is needed. He also suggested putting a pending U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia on hold.

"At this point, they (the Trump administration) would be wise not to bring up an arms deal to Congress because I think the mood of Congress on both sides of the aisle is this outrageous act can't be followed by a business-as-usual arms deal," the senator said.

On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said the United States should "sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia" over the incident and pledged he would never again work with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, describing him as "toxic" and a "wrecking ball."

Kennedy said Saudi Arabia must be held to account and face consequences. But he argued against a rupture of relations with Riyadh.

"Some of my colleagues say, That's it. We're going to cut Saudi Arabia off like a dead stump.' That's magical thinking masquerading as policy," the Louisiana senator said. "With the exception of Israel, I trust every country in the Middle East as much as I trust gas station sushi."

Kennedy added, "Here's the problem: We can't afford to have the world blow up as a result of the Middle East. We can't deal with Iran. We tried. They're a cancer in the Middle East. That means we have to maintain a relationship with Saudi Arabia, and we need to have a better relationship with Turkey. It doesn't mean we trust them. It doesn't mean we shouldn't condemn the kind of conduct we've seen. We should, and we ought to do it very forcefully."

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

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Pompeo: Saudis Declined to Discuss Facts Surrounding Missing Journalist

By VOA News October 17, 2018

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that when he met with Saudi leaders they did not want to talk about any of the facts involving the disappearance of a U.S.-based Saudi journalist Turkish officials say was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents inside Riyadh's consulate in Istanbul, a charge denied by the Saudis.

As he headed to Ankara to talk to Turkish leaders about their investigation about the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, the top U.S. diplomat told reporters that Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman assured him they "would show the entire world" the results of their investigation.

Pompeo said the Saudis committed to holding accountable "anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found," making no exceptions for anyone, including members of the royal family.

But asked whether the Saudi officials told him whether Khashoggi is alive or dead, Pompeo said, "I don't want to talk about any of the facts. They didn't want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way."

The alleged murder

The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday that Saudi operatives beat and drugged Khashoggi, then killed and dismembered him, with pro-government media in Turkey publishing similar accounts. The U.S. newspaper said Turkish officials have shared evidence, including details of an audio recording, with Saudi and U.S. officials.

Asked what gave him the benefit of the doubt of believing Saudi Arabia that it was not involved in Khashoggi's disappearance, Pompeo said, "I'm waiting for the investigation to be completed. They promised that they would achieve that, and I'm counting on it, and they gave me their word. And we'll all get to see if they deliver against that commitment."

In Ankara, Pompeo met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, but did not make further comments about the investigation before heading back to Washington.

The State Department issued a statement saying Pompeo "expressed the United States' concern over Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and reiterated the United States' willingness to assist Turkey in its investigation."

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi monarchy who wrote for The Washington Post, was last seen October 2 entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

15 suspects

Turkish officials have said 15 Saudi agents who arrived in Istanbul the same day killed Khashoggi, while Saudi officials say he walked out of the consulate on his own. Neither country has publicly offered evidence of its version of events.

The New York Times and the Post both reported late Tuesday that several people from the list of Saudi agents are linked to Saudi security services and the crown prince.

The Associated Press also quoted an unnamed high-level Turkish official as saying during a search of the consulate Turkish crime scene investigators found evidence of Khashoggi's killing, but did not give further details. Reuters said investigators found "strong evidence," but no conclusive proof of Khashoggi's death.

Turkish investigators are hoping Wednesday to scour the residence of Saudi counsul general Mohammed al-Otaibi for evidence in the case. He left Istanbul for Riyadh on Tuesday.

Trump's take

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized the growing condemnation of Saudi Arabia in an interview Tuesday with the Associated Press.

"Here you go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent," Trump said.

He compared the situation with that of his recent Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who faced sexual abuse allegations during his confirmation process.

"We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh and he was innocent all the way as far as I'm concerned," Trump told the AP. "I think we have to find out what happened first."

While Pompeo was in his meetings in Saudi Arabia, Trump, in Washington, said on Twitter, "For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!"



But during a 2015 campaign stop, Trump boasted about his business dealings with the Saudis. "Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them," Trump said. "They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much."

As he dispatched Pompeo to Riyadh on Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that King Salman's denials to him about Khashoggi's fate in a phone call "could not have been stronger."

Congressional reaction

But some U.S. lawmakers have all but accepted Turkey's version of the events, that a team of Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul and killed Khashoggi when he went to the consulate to pick up documents he needed to marry his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish national who waited in vain for Khashoggi to emerge from the consulate.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday the United States should "sanction the hell out of Saudi Arabia" over the incident and said he would never again work with the crown prince, assailing him as "toxic" and calling him a "wrecking ball."

Chris Hannas, Ken Bredemeier and State Department correspondent Nike Ching, contributed to this report.

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US drones spy on S-300 Missile System at Syrian coasts

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Oct 17, IRNA -- The US reconnaissance drones were observed spying on the Russia-made sophisticated S-300 missile defense system used by the Syrian army near the country's coastal areas.

The Arabic-language website of RT reported on Wednesday that the US RC-135V reconnaissance drones took off from Souda airbase in Greece's Crete island, flied hundreds of kilometers along the coasts of Syria and over the Mediterranean Sea to spy on the S-300 missile defense shield operation.

In early October, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that they had successfully delivered the S-300 air defense system to Syria.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the move to supply Syria with the S-300 system was purely defensive and should not threaten any neighboring country.

Since the Russian delivery of the S-300 system, Israel has not bombed or entered Syrian airspace.

Meanwhile, Massdar news quoted Israel's Hadashot TV as reporting on Wednesday that the US and Israel had allegedly sent a secret military group to Ukraine to train against the Russia-made S-300 air defense system.

Washington and Tel Aviv have dispatched a secret military team to Ukraine to train against the S-300 air defense system, it said.

8072**1396

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UNSC urged to investigate int'l coalition's crimes in Syria

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Oct 17, IRNA -- Syria's Permanent Representative to the UN said the illegal Int'l Coalition committed a new crime against the Syrians by bombing Hajin city in Deir Ezzor province with internationally-banned white phosphorous, causing the martyrdom and injury of scores.

Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari's remarks came during a United Nations Security Council session dedicated to discuss the situation in the Middle East, SANA reported.

"The International Coalition is fighting everything in Syria except for terrorism. Its practices prove that its goals and those of terrorist organizations are one and the same: spreading chaos, death and destruction, not to mention its continued support for ISIS terrorist organization," he said.

The UN Security Council, he added, is called on to conduct a prompt investigation into the Coalition's crimes, to act to prevent their recurrence and to end the hostile illegal presence of the US and other foreign troops on the Syrian territory, indicating that the countries backing terrorism are used to taking advantage of UN platforms every time the Syrian army makes an advance against terrorist organizations in an attempt to exercise political pressure and blackmail against Syria to hinder it.

"The countries backing terrorism in Syria have created an illegitimate grouping called 'The Mini-Group on Syria' to impede the outcomes of Astana and Sochi and obstruct the political process," al-Jaafari added.

Al-Jaafari said Syria does not acknowledge any roadmap in which it is not involved, adding that the "UN should not be part of any hostile political groupings."

"How can the 'Mini Group' entity-which have onboard member countries that financed, trained and sponsored terrorism in Syria and others which engaged in a direct aggression against it-be feigning care for the lives of the Syrian people?", al-Jaafari said.

1396**1396

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Perth, Oct 18, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - MMJ Group Holdings Limited ( ASX:MMJ ) ( OTCMKTS:MMJJF ) (MMJ) notes the attached notice by Harvest One Cannabis Inc ( CVE:HVT ) ("Harvest One") that its CEO, Grant Froese, will present live on Thursday, 18 October 2018 at 2.30pm Eastern Time (being 5.30am, Friday, 19 October 2018 AEST). By registering as instructed, investors will have the opportunity to either attend the webcast at that time or view it afterwards.To view the notice, please visit:About MMJ Group Holdings Ltd

MMJ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:MMJ) is a global cannabis investment company. MMJ owns a portfolio of minority investments and aims to invest across the full range of emerging cannabis-related sectors including healthcare, technology, infrastructure, logistics, processing, cultivation, equipment and retail. For MMJ's latest investor presentation and news, please visit: http://www.mmjphytotech.com.au/investors/UN Syria envoy de Mistura to step down at end of November

Iran Press TV

Wed Oct 17, 2018 11:43PM

The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has announced that he would resign at the end of November for "family" reasons.

"I've been always indicating to the secretary general my plans for personal reasons, which is not health, it's family, basically... I'm fine and I'm not even tired, because this has been giving me a lot of adrenaline, this type of mission," de Mistura said at a press conference on Wednesday after a UN Security Council's meeting on Syria.

Being appointed to the position in July 2014, the Italian-Swedish diplomat would be the third envoy after late UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi to leave his job.

The UN-backed peace process in Syria, dubbed as Geneva talks, are the longest-running attempt at peacemaking in the Arab country by the mediators that have been convened eight times with no significant progress.

Asked whether he is leaving the job over frustration, de Mistura insisted that he is quitting for "purely personal reasons," adding, "I have always been an optimist."

According to the UN diplomats, UN Envoy for Iraq Jan Kubic, former Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra, UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov and Norway's Ambassador to China Geir Pedersen are possible replacements for de Mistura.

Last-ditch effort

De Mistura further noted that he would do all his efforts to form a credible committee to draft a new constitution for the war-torn country.

He said there is an agreement on a 50-member government and opposition delegation, but the Syrian government has some objections, adding that he would visit Damascus next week to win the government's approval.

Meanwhile, Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia announced during the Security Council's session that Moscow wanted the constitutional committee to be formed as soon as possible but that "setting artificial deadlines in this case would be counterproductive."

"In order for the process to be trustworthy, then there has to be the agreement of all parties and that takes time. So we need to be patient," Nebenzia said.

Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari also said that his government is committed to forming a constitutional panel.

Formation of the committee was agreed at a Syrian peace conference in the Russian ski resort of Sochi in January. Participants stipulated that the constitutional committee should be made up of 150 people, with a third chosen by the government, a third by opposition groups and a third by the United Nations.

The UN Security Council mandated de Mistura to get a deal on the new constitution.

This comes as parallel efforts are underway by Iran, Russia and Turkey to find a political solution to the ongoing militancy in Syria. The three states serve as guarantors of the Astana process, a track of negotiations which have resulted in the return of a succession of militant bastions to the government fold and movement of civilians to safe zones.

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Russia Wants White Helmets Removed From Syria 'as Soon as Possible' - Envoy

Sputnik News

18:23 17.10.2018(updated 20:05 17.10.2018)

Damascus and Moscow have accused militants and the White Helmets of staging several provocations involving chemical weapons to influence public opinion and justify foreign intervention in Syria.

Russia wants the White Helmets to be taken away from Syria as quickly as possible, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said during a session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

"The White Helmets are a threat to security of regional states. Therefore, we would ask you, please, take them home as soon as possible. All of them," Nebenzia said.

The White Helmets is a Syrian humanitarian organization that claims to have saved tens of thousands of lives. Both Moscow and Damascus said that the White Helmets had ties with terrorists and extremists. The group's head, Raed Saleh, said in August that the White Helmets, however, were not linked to any terror organization.

At the same time, Syria's Envoy to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari has called on the security council to launch an investigation into crimes of the US-led coalition and to end its illegal presence in Syria.

"In order to preserve the credibility of the Security Council, the Council has to launch immediately an investigation into these crimes to ensure and avoid their recurrence and to end the presence of US and other foreign forces in Syria, this illegal presence," Jaafari said during a Security Council meeting.

Speaking further, Jaafari said that the religious leaders of * are preventing the terrorist organization from implementing the Russia-Turkey agreement because they want the bloodshed to continue.

"Do you know that al-Nusra front refused to implement the Russian-Turkish agreement which ended three days ago in Idlib?" Jaafari said. "The religious leaders of Al-Nusra Front are now in disagreement with the political leaders of al-Nusra Front. The religious leaders of al-Nusra Front do not want to implement the Russian-Turkish agreement, because they want the bloodshed to continue."

The religious leaders of the Nusra Front, he added, who are mostly from Egypt and Turkey, want to carry out their jihad in Syria.

Last month, Russia and Turkey agreed to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib by October 15. The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that more than 1,000 militants had left the area and around 100 heavy weapons had been pulled out.

*Jabhat al-Nusra [Nusra Front, al-Nusra Front, The Nusra Front]  a terrorist organization, banned in Russia.

 Sputnik

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U.S. reiterates support for Taiwan's participation in Interpol

ROC Central News Agency

2018/10/17 22:42:35

Washington, Oct. 17 (CNA) Washington on Wednesday reiterated its support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in world bodies, including Interpol, this time with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) giving a clear statement on the issue.

"The United States supports Taiwan's meaningful participation in the 192-member state International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), the world's largest law enforcement organization," the DOJ told CNA in an email.

"Enabling Taiwan to engage with INTERPOL and share pertinent information about criminals and suspicious activities contributes to regional international security," Nicole Navas Oxman, spokesperson and a public affairs specialist at the DOJ, said in the email.

On Tuesday, a U.S. State Department spokesperson expressed support for Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations, Interpol included.

The spokesperson made the statement after Taiwan confirmed earlier in that day that it was asking friendly countries to speak an upcoming Interpol executive committee meeting in support of its participation in Interpol's General Assembly, which is scheduled for Nov. 16-21 in Dubai.

"In organizations that require statehood for membership, the United States supports Taiwan's meaningful participation," the spokesperson said. "This includes ICAO, Interpol, WHO, and the more than 60 international organizations in which Taiwan participates."

On Monday, Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) issued a statement saying that its Commissioner Tsai Tsan-po () had sent a letter to Interpol in September, requesting that the CIB be allowed to participate as an observer in next month's General Assembly.

Bob Chen (), director-general of the foreign ministry's Department of International Organizations, confirmed Tuesday that Interpol had received the letter but said it had not yet responded.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh, Joseph Yeh and Flor Wang)

Enditem/pc

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U.S. supports Taiwan's meaningful participation in Interpol

ROC Central News Agency

2018/10/17 12:08:32

Washington, Oct. 16 (CNA) The United States supports Taiwan's meaningful participation in international organizations, Interpol included, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said Tuesday.

The spokesperson made the statement after Taiwan confirmed Tuesday it is asking friendly countries to speak up at an upcoming Interpol executive committee meeting to support Taiwan's participation at Interpol's General Assembly next month in Dubai.

The spokesperson said Washington supports Taiwan's participation in international organizations whether or not they require statehood.

"In organizations that require statehood for membership, the United States supports Taiwan's meaningful participation. This includes ICAO, Interpol, WHO, and the more than 60 international organizations in which Taiwan participates," the spokesperson said.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said in a statement Monday that it has sent a letter to ask that it participate as an observer in Interpol's General Assembly to be held from Nov. 16 to 21 at Dubai.

Bob Chen (), director-general of MOFA's Department of International Organizations, confirmed Tuesday that Interpol has received the letter sent by CIB Commissioner Tsai Tsan-po () in September but has yet to respond.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Joseph Yeh)

Enditem/ls

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China should not block Taiwan's Interpol bid: interior minister

ROC Central News Agency

2018/10/17 16:06:33

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung () reiterated on Wednesday the government's desire to participate in a meaningful way in Interpol by stressing the need for international cooperation in fighting drug smuggling.

Speaking at a legislative committee hearing, Hsu said China has been trying to block Taiwan from joining the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), but he hoped China would reconsider because Taiwan's presence in Interpol can also benefit Beijing.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau sent a letter to Interpol in September asking to participate as an observer in the organization's General Assembly, being held in Dubai from Nov. 16 to 21, but it has yet to receive a response.

Hsu said Taiwan has been working hard to achieve its goal, which has the backing of the United States.

"Now China is the only country standing in the way," he said, and "this greatly affects the world's fight against drugs" because of the importance of international cooperation in cracking down on drug smuggling.

Beijing is unlikely to listen to Hsu's appeal as it has ramped up its suppression of Taiwan in the international community in the past 18 months, including forcing commercial airlines, hotels and other businesses to identify Taiwan on their websites as a part of China.

Also asked about the Interpol application, National Police Agency Director-General Chen Ja-chin () said at the hearing that "we are very determined" to join the international organization.

At home, Hsu said 70 percent of the illegal drugs in Taiwan come from China, and he pledged reinforced efforts by all law-enforcement units and departments as well as Coast Guard and Customs officers to crack down on drug crimes.

There will be "zero tolerance" toward drugs, he said,

Chen, in response to questions on whether a Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement Taiwan and China signed in 2009 was still in force, told lawmakers there is still interaction on individual cases under that platform but fewer than before.

The two sides have worked together primarily on cracking fraud rings that infringe on people's property in Taiwan and China and investigating drug crimes, Chen said.

Under the 2009 accord, the two sides agreed to exchange information on criminal activity and help the other side in making arrests and deporting criminal suspects.

Dialogue between the two sides stopped, however, because of Beijing's discontent with Tsai Ing-wen's () cross-strait policy after Tsai, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party, was elected president in 2016.

(By Claudia Liu and Elizabeth Hsu)

Enditem/ls

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Taiwan wants to invite China's top cross-strait negotiator to visit

ROC Central News Agency

2018/10/17 23:02:35

Taipei, Oct. 17 (CNA) The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) is willing to invite the head of its counterpart in China to visit Taiwan this year, as 2018 is a milestone for the two organizations, a spokeswoman for the SEF said Wednesday.

Although dialogue between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has been halted since May 2016, the SEF remains open to exchanges with China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), said SEF Deputy Secretary-General Kuan An-lu () at a press briefing.

Therefore, the SEF is hoping that ARATS president Zhang Zhijun will visit Taiwan this year, which is the 20th anniversary of a historic meeting in Shanghai between the first heads of the two semi-official organizations, Kuan said.

She also said that SEF Chairwoman Chang Hsiao-yueh () would like to visit China, if there is an opportunity.

SEF and ARATS are intermediary organizations founded in 1990 to handle cross-strait affairs in the absence of formal relations.

In October 1998 then SEF Chairman Koo Chen-fu () and ARATS president Wang Daohan met in Shanghai and decided to resume dialogue between the two sides on economic and political issues.

Koo and Wang first met in Singapore in 1993 for the first direct cross-strait talks since 1949 when the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan during a civil war.

Cross-strait talks were suspended by Beijing in 1995 to protest a visit by then Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui () to the United States.

In May 2016, when President Tsai Ing-wen () of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party took office, dialogue between the two sides was again halted because of China's discontent with Tsai's cross-strait policy.

Kuan said the SEF, however, has maintained its institutional operations, and the communication mechanism between the two sides still exists, although Beijing's unilateral suspension of the cross-strait dialogue has caused problems in the area of exchanges between the people of the two sides.

She urged Beijing not to let political factors stand in the way of cross-strait exchanges.

(By Miao Zong-han and Elizabeth Hsu)

Enditem/pc

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Beijing Voices 'Solemn Concerns' After US Navy Research Vessel Docks in Taiwan

Sputnik News

21:59 17.10.2018

This week, Beijing expressed its "solemn concerns" to Washington after a US Navy research vessel docked in Taiwan's port city of Kaohsiung at a time when tensions between China and the US continue to grow over trade issues and China's expansion in the Indo-Pacific.

The Thomas G. Thompson research vessel, which is owned by the US Navy, has been docked at the Kaohsiung port for refueling and crew changes since Monday, the South China Morning Post reported. The vessel has visited the port in Taiwan four times this year for refueling, according to a Tuesday report by the Focus Taiwan News Channel. The ship's latest visit has angered Beijing, which has frequently warned Washington against establishing diplomatic and military ties with Taiwan. According to Taiwanese Defense Minister Yen De-fa, the vessel's visit is "unrelated to military activity," Taiwan's official Central News Agency reported this week.

China considers self-governing Taiwan part of its territory and claims sovereignty over it. Taiwan, by comparison, still bears the name of the pre-communist-era government, the Republic of China, whose territorial control was confined to the island at the conclusion of the civil war in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was established in Beijing on the mainland.

Despite Beijing's warnings, the US Senate Armed Services Committee passed an annual defense policy bill for 2019 that includes provisions to strengthen military cooperation with Taiwan through joint drills and arms sales and by increasing the US military presence in the East China Sea.

Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has approved the sale of at least $1.4 billion worth of arms to Taipei. In March, he also signed new rules allowing senior US officials to travel to Taiwan to meet their Taiwanese counterparts and vice versa.

"The Chinese side is expressing our solemn concerns to the US side," Lu Kang, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said in a statement Wednesday, the South China Morning Post reported. "China objects to all governmental and military contact between the US and Taiwan," he added.

Earlier this month, Taiwan bought 18 advanced targeting pods for its F-16 aircraft as part of its deal with the US to purchase around $330 million worth of defense equipment. Beijing has called on the US to cancel the deal with Taiwan.

The arms sale was announced during the ongoing trade war between the US and China, which escalated in June when Trump slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, with Beijing responding in kind. Trump has accused China of "unfair trade," including alleged state-led efforts to steal US technology and intellectual property as well as "discriminatory technology licensing practices." In September, Trump issued new tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, prompting a tariff hike on $60 billion of American products from Beijing.

US-Chinese relations deteriorated even further last month when the US says a Chinese destroyer came close to colliding with the USS Decatur, which was conducting a "freedom of navigation operation" within 12 nautical miles of the remote Spratly Islands, claimed by China, Sputnik previously reported.

The South China Sea is one of the world's most contested areas. Beijing's extensive territorial claims in the waters, which include islands, banks, reefs and maritime ways, are challenged by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.

Freedom of navigation is codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the the Sea among articles that define the rights and responsibilities of nations regarding the use of the world's oceans and marine natural resources. The convention has been in effect since 1994 and currently has more than 165 participating parties.

According to the US State Department, "US policy since 1983 provides that the US will exercise and assert its navigation and overflight rights and freedoms on a worldwide basis in a manner that is consistent with the balance of interests reflected in the Law of the Sea convention."

 Sputnik

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The estimates are based on tests undertaken by the insurer which monitor, in real-time, the total number of attempted attacks on three honeypot computer systems which are typical of those used by small firms across the country. The total number of attempted attacks ranged from 900 to 359,000 in each 24 period, averaging 65,000 over the three weeks the servers have been monitored. In order to raise awareness of this issue, Hiscox is live streaming the number of attempted attacks to its website at and also broadcasting the figures live on over 100 billboards across the UK. Successful attacks

According to the insurer, almost one in three (30%2) UK small businesses suffered a cyber breach last year  equivalent to over 4,500 successful attacks per day or one every 19 seconds. Cyber security incidents cost the average small business 25,700 last year in direct costs (e.g. ransoms paid and hardware replaced) but this is just the beginning. Indirect cost such as damage to reputation, the impact of losing customers and difficulty attracting future customers, remains unmeasured but is expected to significantly exceed this. James Brady, Head of Cyber, Hiscox UK & Ireland commented: We know small businesses in the UK are hot targets for cyber criminals and these figures highlight the alarming extent of this. Most small businesses recognise the threat that cyber criminals pose on a global scale, but are less convinced of the risks facing their own operations, considering themselves too small to be worthy targets, but this just isnt the case. Hackers are prolific and sophisticated which makes staying on top of cyber security a challenge for all organisations. With many small businesses lacking credible cyber security strategies to help manage and prevent such attacks however, the impact when they do occur can be disproportionality severe. Outsourcing cyber security management is one option as this can be a more cost effective way to access instant, scalable resources in the event of an attack. The best cyber insurance policies will provide exactly that  practical support including legal advice, forensics and reputation management to help get a business back up and running as quickly as possible. Prevention

When questioned, only 52% of UK small businesses stated that they have a clear cyber security strategy in place to manage the impact of an attack, which Hiscox says can significantly hamper their ability to detect, manage and prevent security breaches, as well as make the overall impact much more severe. Experts agree that communication during and after a cyber attack is critical to managing it, yet only 56% can say with confidence that they fully disclose details of a cyber attack to the relevant internal and external stakeholders. This is particularly concerning given the introduction of GDPR this year, which requires all organisations to report a data breach to the ICO within 72 hours and notify affected customers without undue delay. Most alarming of all, is that the majority (66%) of those that suffered an attack, admit to making no changes to their policies or systems to help prevent further breaches in the future. This is perhaps one of the key reasons why over half (56%) of those whove suffered a breach, are the victim of multiple attacks. Hiscox study highlights the number of attempted cyber attacks on UK small businesses every day

While most attempts fail, a small business in the UK is successfully hacked every 19 seconds

Cyber breaches cost the average small business 25,700 in basic clear up costs every year Cyber Security Best Practices: Prevent, Detect and Mitigate

There are a number of basic steps that small businesses can take to help protect against the evolving threat that cyber criminals pose:

Prevent

 Involve and educate all levels of the organisation about cyber threats.

 Have a formal budgeting process and ensure cyber is a part of all decision making.

 Institute cyber training during the on boarding process and in an on-going manner.

Detect

 Include intrusion detection and on-going monitoring on all critical networks.

 Track violations (both successful and thwarted) and generate alerts using both automated monitoring and a manual log.

 Record all incident response efforts and all relevant events. Mitigate  Create a plan for all incidents, from detection and containment to notification and assessment, with specific roles and responsibilities defined.

 Review response plans regularly for emerging threats and new best practices.

 Insure against financial risks with a stand alone cyber policy or endorsement.By Robert Walker, Senior Associate, ARC Pensions Law

Under EU law, the UK is required to implement necessary measures to protect members accrued rights to pension benefits under occupational pension schemes in the event of employer insolvency. Protection is provided by the PPF which pays "compensation" subject to certain conditions and restrictions. Broadly, members who have reached their scheme's normal retirement age at the assessment date receive compensation equivalent to 100% of their scheme pension; members under normal retirement age receive 90%, subject to a cap (which broadly equates to a maximum pension of 35,000 per year at age 65). The cap can result in some members receiving less than 50% of their full pension entitlement. Once in payment, compensation generally increases at a lower rate (if increases are payable at all), which can lead to a further erosion of benefits over time, compared to the benefits the member would otherwise have received under the scheme. Facts

Mr Hampshire was a member of the Turner & Newall plc pension scheme between 1971 and 1998. He retired early and was under normal retirement age when the scheme entered a PPF assessment period in 2006. Had the scheme entered the PPF Mr Hampshire would have been caught by the cap on compensation, resulting in a reduction of approximately 67%. Mr Hampshire brought a legal challenge on the basis that the amount of the reduction was inconsistent with EU law. The Court of Appeal subsequently referred the matter to the CJEU for directions Judgment

The CJEU agreed with Mr Hampshire. Under EU law, individual members are entitled to compensation equivalent to at least 50% of the value of their accrued entitlement in the event of employer insolvency (which therefore operates as an underpin to the PPF compensation cap). Furthermore, the value must be determined taking into account the envisaged growth in the pension over time. Whilst the case will be remitted back to the Court of Appeal, the Court is expected to follow the CJEU's lead.

Initial response The PPF is working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to consider the judgment but has said the "vast majority" of members already receive 50% of their accrued benefits, so the number of affected members is likely to be very small (in July 2017 the PPF estimated that around 0.5% of members were caught by the cap). However, we expect the PPF rules (set out in legislation) will have to change and it seems compensation will have to be backdated where applicable. In advance of new legislation, the PPF is putting in place an interim process to uplift payments now and will be writing to affected members in tranches in the coming weeks. In theory, PPF levies may rise, but given the PPF's robust funding position, it would seem a material rise is unlikely for most schemes, unless PPF compensation is changed in a significant way. Levies may increase for schemes whose members are currently unlikely to receive more that 50% of their accrued entitlement. It is unclear how the DWP will respond to the judgment and whether this will prompt a larger review of PPF compensation. The current compensation cap is the obvious problem, but the CJEU's comments about taking into account future increases, also creates uncertainty as to whether this requires an ongoing review or whether it is appropriate to make assumptions at the outset, which then raises questions as to how that translates into an equivalent amount of compensation (the PPF seems to anticipate a one-off change to the headline level of compensation at the PPF assessment date with existing PPF indexation and revaluation rules used thereafter). What do schemes need to do?

The ruling is unlikely to have any immediate impact on the majority of schemes, although trustees may wish to ascertain whether any of their members would be affected should the scheme enter the PPF. For schemes not in winding up or in assessment period, the judgment could still be relevant. Where a scheme is reducing transfer values and the reduction is linked to the statutory winding up priority order, where PPF compensation limits are an important factor, the trustees may need to reassess the reduction. Also, if part of the scheme's covenant is provided by a guarantee linked to the scheme's PPF funding level, the trustees may need to reconsider whether the change impacts on the guarantor's ability to pay. The case will also be of interest to those schemes currently in a PPF assessment period or winding up who may be reducing benefits in line with PPF compensation rules, where there may be a clear conflict between existing legislation and the CJEU's judgment. Affected schemes will want to take legal advice to consider what action can/should be taken prior to legislative change. There are also potential complications for schemes that have already wound up outside of the PPF, where benefits may have been secured at less than 50% (but on the understanding that the benefits were in line with (or better than) the equivalent PPF compensation). Uncertainty remains as to how such members might be compensated.

Schemes may wish to wait for further clarity before taking any definitive action.TRS Ready To Take Andhra Leader's Help!

Strange as it might sound, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has been making a scathing attack on the Congress party for joining hands with an Andhra party like the Telugu Desam Party to contest the ensuing assembly elections in the state, is ready to accept the support from an Andhra leader.

This was evident from the thanksgiving message sent by TRS president K Chandrasekhar Raos son and state IT minister K T Rama Rao to Jana Sena Party president and actor Pawan Kalyan.

On Tuesday, KTR called up Pawan Kalyan and congratulated him for successfully conducting Jana Sena Kavaathu on Dowleshwaram bridge across Godavari river on Monday evening.

While this is the official leak from the TRS, sources said KTR had actually thanked Pawan for deciding to extend support to the TRS in the coming assembly elections in Telangana.

Pawan told the party leaders that Jana Sena would support the TRS, as he was impressed with KCRs welfare and developmental schemes.

Naturally, it has led to the criticism as to why the TRS is accepting the support of Jana Sena.

After all, the Jana Sena, too, like the TDP, has been aiming for power in Andhra. So, whatever allegations the TRS has been hurling at the TDP will also apply to the Jana Sena.

What would the TRS leaders say if Pawan opposes the Telangana projects after it comes to power in Andhra Pradesh on the pretext that they would affect the interest of Andhra farmers?

Will the TRS ask for an undertaking from Pawan Kalyan stating that he would not oppose any Telangana project and remain silent when the Telangana government fights a legal battle to stop Polavaram project?

On many occasions in the past, Pawan Kalyan expressed anguish over the bifurcation of the combined state.

He even went on record saying he had not taken food for 11 days when the state was divided to form Telangana. There were several instances of Pawan Kalyan making a scathing attack on the TRS in the past for raising anti-Andhra slogans.

So, Jana Sena has nothing to lose by supporting the TRS, but it has certainly given a strong weapon to the Maha Kootami to attack the TRS in the upcoming elections!

Click Here for Latest Direct-to-OTT Releases (List Updates Daily)A cooperative program between Green River High School and Western Wyoming Community College aims to help students complete their first year of college by the time they graduate.

The middle college program at GRHS allows sophomores to take college-level courses throughout the remainder of their time at GRHS, allowing them to complete the first year. According to Coty Nikont, a career counselor at GRHS, the program is offered to the top 20 academically-performing sophomore students at the high school.

The program started during the 2016-2017 academic year, with the first set of students completing the program graduating this May.

Nikont said students in the program enroll in dual and concurrent courses that count for college credit. The dual enrollment courses are taught by college instructors, many of which are done through online courses offered at WWCC, according to Nikont, and can be applied to both college and high school credit requirements. The concurrent enrollment courses are taught by college-approved high school teachers and students receive both high school and college credits for the course.

The coursework is also focused on how well credits will transfer to other institutions.

Were really trying to ensure they take courses that are easily transferable, Nikont said.

So far, of the 252 courses offered through the program, 249 have been completed with students earning a total of 771 credits. Of those courses, 90 percent of students finish with a C grade or higher, with Nikont saying an overwhelming majority finish courses with an A.

According to John Freeman, high school transitions coordinator at WWCC, schools throughout the region WWCC serves have similar programs allowing students to receive college credit. He said Star Valley High School has a program similar to GRHSs middle college program and said other schools do a great job in providing means for students to enroll in college coursework, however GRHS does things differently from other schools.

One area Freeman said GRHS is different from other schools is it has two Higher Education Commission-accredited teachers at the school, teaching English and math. He said those two subjects are the main barriers that statistically prevent students from completing a college degree.

Students in the middle college program graduate high school with credits in both math and English, helping the students get a leg up in transferring to college. Including the middle college program, Freeman said 120 of GRHSs 800 students are taking dual or concurrent classes and will have some college credits completed when they graduate.

Nikont said the high school doesnt put a lot of restrictions on students, saying if they qualify for a course, GRHS will do its best to accommodate for the course.

Thats just phenomenal, Freeman said of the high schools commitment.

Another added benefit for having the first year of college done is that it helps students seek further education through the Hathaway Scholarship offered to Wyoming students. The scholarship pays for four years of college and with students in the middle college program graduating with their first year completed, could complete a bachelors program in three years. Freeman said the additional year of Hathaway Scholarship funding would allow students to either complete a second major or get a start on a post-graduate program. Freeman also said the district will send three people to learn about concurrent and dual enrollment programs through conferences hosted by the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships.

School District No. 2 overall, from (Superintendent) Donna Little-Kaumo on down, has been very supportive, Freeman said.With a dry hole dug and a contract for the elevator in place, work continues on the historic Tomahawk building in downtown Green River.

Marty Carollo, a representative of Green River Opportunities Wyoming (GRoWYO), the buildings owner, said the group continues making progress with improvements. He said the group is proceeding at a slow pace to ensure the building is renovated appropriately. Carollo said improvements to the buildings electrical system and a complete rebuilding of the Tomahawks infrastructure are also taking place.

He believes once the elevator is installed and the other infrastructure necessities are in place, GRoWYO could start soliciting for tenants as early as next spring.

Carollo said GRoWYO is interested in using the Tomahawk as a place to help other businesses grow and thrive. As such, he said the group doesnt have a specific idea for the buildings use, believing the residents and business owners in Green River will guide how the building is utilized.

We dont have any specific plans for the future of the building, Carollo said.

Carollo said the group has had discussions with organizations regarding businesses already established in the area, but said another potential idea GRoWYO has is using a portion of the space as a business co-op. Entrepreneurs and home business owners could use the co-op space and conference room attached to it to develop and grow their businesses. The space would be utilized by multiple businesses at once, giving them a professional space to work and build the businesses. The concept has proven popular in larger cities, especially with software development start-ups. Carollo said the idea is an intriguing concept, but reiterated that GRoWYO is more interested in developing space for businesses, not operating them.

GRoWYO is a group residents and former residents who purchased the Tomahawk building in April 2017. The building, built in 1921, was originally a hotel and got its name from its two owners, Dr. J. W. Hawk and Thomas Welch.The Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport commercial terminal issue wasnt even discussed at the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting.

The Commissioners voted to un-table the motion, but the motion died when Commissioners John Kolb, Don Van Matre and Wally Johnson voted not to take it off the table. Commissioners Randy Wendling and Reid West voted in favor of taking it off the table. The issue wasnt discussed because it wasnt taken off the table.

I dont know when and if we will ever deal with this matter, West said.

He said it cant be discussed because it wasnt taken off the table.

If were not going to deal with it today, then when, West asked.

Johnson said the matter died at a previous meeting when the Commission failed to make a motion.

The matter was then tabled. The question then came as to whether Roberts Rules of Order were followed correctly.

Johnson asked how an issue can be tabled that died for a lack of a motion.

Deputy County attorney James Schermetzler said a motion to table always takes precedence.

The matter was then dropped, while Schermetzler and chief deputy attorney Theresa Thybo reviewed Roberts Rules of Order.

While the attorneys were reviewing the rules, the recording for that meeting was listened to as well. After reviewing the recordings, it was determined that West said since neither a motion for or against was made is there a motion to table.

Later in this weeks meeting, the Commissioners addressed the issue with the attorneys. Schermetzler said the motion to table was appropriate, however since the airport is going to change its funding-amount request its a moot point. They asked how to remove it from the table, if a new request was going to come forward.

I guess it just never gets removed, Schermetzler said.

He said because the airport has a different funding request, it will need to go through a public hearing again and the Commission will then act on that request.

In a letter to the Commissioners the airport is now requesting $133,333 instead of $711,111.Larry Owen West, 89, passed away Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018.

He was born March 2, 1929, in Price, Utah, to Owen William West and Blanch Lavon Salmon West. They moved to Rock Springs when he was one year old. He graduated from Rock Springs High School and attended BYU. He served stateside in the Army National Guard during the Korean Conflict, stationed at Fort Campbell, Ken.

He married Verna Nebeker West in 1949. They later divorced. They bore seven children; Larry Galen (Wendie), Kimball Spencer, Brady Raymond (Jana), Reid Owen (Jeanne), Drew McKay, Abby Louise (John) Zenger, and Jason West. He was preceded in death by sons Drew and Brady, his mother and father, brother C. Keith West and sister Barbara West Sandstrom.

In 1993, he married Carole Simper and became step-father to Pauline (Royden) Mendenhall, Kirk (Arlene) Willardson, Brent (Cindy) Willardson, and Kathryn Brongo. He is also survived by his loving wife Carole, and three generations of grandchildren between both families.

He was part owner of Desert Oil for many years, managing retail sales of their Chevron service stations. When he sold out of the business, he moved to Prescott, Ariz., for a few years, selling real estate.

He then returned to Rock Springs and worked in sales for Rock Springs Ford, J.C. Jacobs Carpet One, and in his latter years, loved working for the Staley's at Taco Time as their "PR" specialist.

He was a true "people person" and had a gift for making meaningful connections with anyone he met. He had a strong faith and was bishop in the LDS second ward for several years. He loved laughter, a good joke, and friendships. As age took its toll, he most missed being able to dance again with Carole, their favorite being "Waltz Across Texas."

Funeral services will take place at 11 a.m., Oct. 18, at the Rock Springs LDS Stake Center, 2055 Edgar St., Rock Springs.

Interment with military honors will take place in the Rock Springs Municipal Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to Primary Children's Hospital, or Sweetwater Hospice. Condolences for family can be left at http://www.foxfh.com.Dear Editor,

My name is Pat Drinkle and I am the former Sweetwater County Assessor. I worked in the Assessors Office for 27 years, the last six as your assessor. I am writing this letter to ask the voters of Sweetwater County to keep Dave Divis as your Assessor.

Mr. Divis came to work with me in 2012 from the Sweetwater County Treasurers Office where he had worked for 21 years. Daves experience in the treasurers office has been extremely valuable in his work now as your county assessor. Dave has seen the billing, collection and distribution side of the tax cycle and now does assessment and valuation. Experience in the assessors position is required to complete the assessment and valuation process correctly and in a timely manner. The process includes setting values, applying neighborhood adjustments, meeting requirements of the Wyoming Department of Revenue and the Wyoming State Board of Equalization, mailing assessments, managing the appeal process, evaluating budgets, setting mill levies and rolling values to the treasurers office. These processes are done yearly and must be done correctly to avoid and problems or delays in billing property taxes. This is a very important job that requires experience in the valuation cycle. This is not merely a political position.

I am asking you to choose experience over politics and vote to keep Dave Divis as your Sweetwater County Assessor Nov. 6.

Thank you for your consideration.

Pat Drinkle

Lake Havasu City, Ariz.Is the Hathaway Scholarship a poor investment by the State of Wyoming?

Thats an idea briefly mentioned during a political debate at Western Wyoming Community College last week.

The argument goes like this: the Hathaway Scholarship was meant to be a means of providing an incentive for students to both work hard and stay in Wyoming to earn their college degree and hopefully stay and apply their education in the state. However, Wyoming continues to lose its educated youth, who have taken to using the scholarship as a way of getting a low-cost degree then shuffling off to Utah, Colorado and other states for better opportunities.

Under that framework, the Hathaway Scholarship offers a terrible return on investment for the state. However, we think theres more to think about than simply who uses it to get a degree to ultimately leave.

Regardless of the people who leave after obtaining a college degree, the scholarship provides a means for students to get a quality education that can be applied in Wyoming. Teachers, engineers and others in high-demand professions in Wyoming have used the scholarship to move into roles available in Wyoming. However, the larger question of why Wyomings youth often leave the state is answered by a word weve already used in this piece: opportunity. Sure, there are plenty of opportunities within specific areas of Wyomings economy, but jobs in areas such as technology, software development the like are not widely available. Anyone with that kind of education would have to chose to fill a role that likely doesnt utilize that education in Wyoming, hoping for something to come along later, or simply leave and apply their education elsewhere. For a graduate who grew up in Wyomings open spaces, the desire to see what else is out there can be equally tempting.

Expanding the states economy outside of the energy industry is a must and thankfully, the states leaders have started looking into that idea through ENDOW and other programs.

Simply attracting the next big industry is not enough however, and the state should consider incentives for Wyoming-grown endeavors in high-demand fields.

Hathaway should only be considered part of larger system designed to keep the states youth in Wyoming and help it grow beyond its energy economy.

Otherwise, it will continue to be an attractive means for the states best and brightest to earn an affordable education and go to wherever the next big thing is.The High Desert Chapter of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution will host an open house in honor of their 15th anniversary Saturday, Oct. 20 at the Green River library from 1-3 p.m.

All charter members, current and past members and prospective members as well as the general public are invited to come. The DAR was founded in 1890 by order of Congress and is open to women who can prove a lineal descent from someone who served during the Revolutionary War. There are 10 Chapters in Wyoming with 540 members. The purpose of the DAR is historical preservation, patriotism and education. Contact 389-8480 for more information.This is the 12th year for the Community Fine Arts Centers Community Art Show and eight local artists submitted 23 original pieces of artwork.

This years theme is Trains and will be on display through Oct. 31 at the Community Fine Arts Center.

This years theme marks the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Union Pacific railroad coming through Sweetwater County and the Race to Promontory, CFAC director Debora Soule, said. Building the transcontinental railroad was a boom for the state of Wyomings growth. Earlier this month Green River celebrated its 150th year of becoming a town.

As a community art show, it is open to any art medium and the goal is to provide local artists an opportunity to share their creative efforts with the public. And as an open exhibit, the submitted work is not judged or juried to be included.

Both traditional paintings in oils and watercolors are on display but the majority of the images are photographs by several local artists including, Rod Anderson, Robert Doak, Eric Nielson, R.J. Pieper, Gwendolyn Quitberg and David von Metz.

Glenn Taucher has two oil paintings that focus on the railroad of the past and Patti Bird has a watercolor and an acrylic painting both of which highlight the water tanks that were necessary to keep the steam engines running. Along with his photographic artwork, von Metz has an acrylic painting in the abstract expressionism style. The one three-dimensional piece in the show is a collage assemblage by Cindy Patrick.

Four pieces of artwork from the permanent art collection are included in the exhibit. A photograph by former resident Larry Friedman, a watercolor by Glenn Pearce, a watercolor by an unknown artist and an oil by Travis Ivy. Each has an image of trains or tracks as part of the compositions.

The public is invited to enjoy this exhibit as well as the permanent collection owned by the Sweetwater County School District No. 1 displayed at the CFAC, 400 C Street in Rock Springs.She may have lost her eye, but the accident didn't claim her life and that's something she's grateful for.

Green River resident Kayla Vigil's life completely changed on July 27. Vigil, 23, and her fiance, David Clinton, 25, decided to go for a 4-wheeler ride near the shooting range at FMC Park.

Clinton said it was a Friday and they had decided to go for a quick ride before meeting up with some friends later. At first, Clinton was driving the 4-wheeler and Vigil was in back, but then Vigil wanted a turn to drive.

While Vigil was driving along, Clinton saw a steep hill and thought it would be fun for to have the 4-wheeler to climb it.

"I said 'go up that big hill,' and we did," Clinton said.

As they proceeded up the hill, Vigil realized they weren't going to make it. She tried to let off of the gas, but then the 4-wheeler started going backwards. Somehow it got turned on its side and then started rolling down the hill side over side.

After the crash, Clinton looked around to find Vigil.

"There was blood everywhere and her eyeball popped out," Clinton recalled.

Clinton called 911 and then kept Vigil sitting upright because if he didn't, she would start choking on her own blood.

Clinton said he knew the firefighters and ambulance personnel responded quickly to the scene, but it seemed like forever.

"I kept going to sleep," Vigil said.

Clinton said a helicopter was supposed to come, but he was told it wasn't fueled. So an ambulance was sent instead. He said because Vigil kept choking on her blood, the emergency responders had no choice but to carry her down the hill while keeping her upright. Clinton said if they would have used the gurney she would have choked to death.

Vigil was transported to the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, where she was then taken by helicopter to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

"By the time I got to the hospital, she was gone," Clinton said.

As Vigil was clinging to life, Clinton was being treated for a broken collar bone and severe bruising on his left side. He said the hospital was good at releasing him as soon as they could so he could go to Salt Lake City.

Vigil's injuries were much worse.

"I broke every bone in my face," Vigil said.

She also suffered lacerations to her spleen and liver, a small brain bleed, hearing loss in her left ear and her right eye was barely hanging on.

"I have 76 screws and 10 plates in my face now," she said, pointing to her face.

Vigil remained in the hospital until Sept. 4. While in the hospital, Vigil's mouth was wired shut and she was fed through a feeding tube.

Vigil said she is having problems eating because she can't open her mouth very far, but they are going to get her a device that would help her open her mouth and strengthen her muscles as she uses it.

While at the hospital, all of Vigil's hair was shaved off because they thought they would need to access the area by the left ear for surgery, but it turned out the bone wasn't broken that far.

Even though Vigil has a beautiful blonde wig to wear, she hasn't wore it much.

"I really don't wear it that often," she said.

"She feels like herself when she's not wearing it," Clinton said.

A turning point

"She's doing really well now," Clinton said.

Vigil took the same 4-wheeler out that she rode the day of her accident to go hunting. She had to shoot using her left eye and her left hand, which isn't what she used to do, but she took down a buck deer. Vigil said it felt good to do something she had always done.

"Don't ever let a 'life changing' event change your life. You are in control and can choose how to take what happens. Today I got to harvest a mule deer. Left handed shot with my non dominant eye at 100 yards. I had my doubts, but I did it," Vigil posted on her Kayla's Journey Facebook page about the hunting trip.

Clinton saw a change in Vigil after she went hunting. A good change.

"Going hunting really helped her," Clinton said.

Clinton also noticed Vigil was starting to hang out with friends and starting to do more activities.

One thing both Vigil and Clinton regret, was the fact that neither of them were hearing helmets on the day of the accident.

"I probably wouldn't have lost my eye," Vigil said. "It was supposed to be a quick ride."

They both said they will never ride without a helmet again. Even if it's just a quick trip.

The meeting

One thing Vigil thought about constantly was whether or not she should meet those who saved her. This was still an emotional topic for Vigil.

Eventually, she decided to meet those who she credits with saving her life. For Vigil, there is no doubt in her mind that the quick actions of those who arrived at the scene of her accident saved her life. She met with Green River Fire Department firefighters to thank them.

"It was emotional for me to meet them, but very thankful for them," Vigil posted on her Kayla's Journey Facebook page.

"They did a really good job of getting there and getting her off of the mountain," Clinton said.

"I thought about it a long time," Vigil said. "I wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't be here."

Vigil and Clinton were surprised to hear that many of those who responded to her accident were following her on her Facebook page or had made donations on her GoFundMe page https://www.gofundme.com/kayla-vigil

Another surgery

On Monday, Vigil underwent another surgery to remove her eye.

"It's causing her pain, so they've got to remove it," Clinton said.

Vigil said they removed her eye and placed a mold into the socket see how big the prosthetic eye will need to be. She said she will probably get the prosthetic eye in December.

Vigil knew she'd lose her eye.

"They knew right after the accident," she said.

Once the area around the socket has healed, she will undergo another surgery in January or February for facial reconstruction.Share Article



Lt. Col. Seth Jethro Nehring, a California Air National Guardsman assigned to the 194th Fighter Squadron, 144th Fighter Wing, was killed in an Oct. 16 plane crash in Ukraine, USAF announced. Air National Guard photo courtesy of the 144th Fighter Wing.

The California Air National Guardsman who died Tuesday when a Ukrainian air force Su-27 crashed during the Clear Sky 2018 exercise in Ukraine has been identified.

Lt. Col. Seth Jethro Nehring, 44, of Fresno, Calif., was assigned to the 194th Fighter Squadron, 144th Fighter Wing. He was deployed to Ukraine in support of the Clear Sky 2018 exercise, and was riding in a single-aircraft familiarization flight with a Ukrainian pilot when the aircraft crashed at about 5 p.m. local time in the Khmelnytski region of Ukraine, according to statements from US Air Forces in Europe and the California governors office.

This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine, said Maj. Gen. Clay Garrison, California National Guard commander and Clear Sky 2018 exercise director, in a release. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and fellow airmen of both the US airman and Ukrainian aviator who were killed in the incident.

The exercise is a large multinational exercise involving about 950 personnel from nine countries, according to USAFE. It also marks the 25th anniversary of the partnership between the California National Guard and Ukraine.

Both US and Ukrainian governments are investigating the crash.Now that Sears and Kmart have closed more than half of their stores over the last five years and the formerly dominant retail giant has officially filed for bankruptcy, customers are left wondering what will happen to gift cards and warranties from the stores.

Gift cards are still being honored, but experts advise consumers to use them as soon as possible. An attorney for Consumer Reports warned that the bankruptcy court will rule whether the stores must honor gift cards, and onsumers who have them may have to fight in bankruptcy court to get their money, which could take years, the attorney said.

Earlier this year, Toys R Us announced it would be closing all its stores. Following the announcement, the store accepted gift cards for several weeks into the liquidation process before giving a deadline for customers to use them.

While Toys R Us closed all of its stores, Sears and Kmart still have hundreds of locations open for consumers to use gift cards. Danbury Fair mall has the only Sears that is still open and not slated to be shuttered in western Connecticut. The company announced this week that the Sears store in the Connecticut Post mall in Milford would close. The Kmart in Milford is also slated to close this year.

Sears is one of the original tenants at Danbury Fair, which opened in 1986. In 2016, Sears gave up 70,000 square feet of its lease in the mall to European fashion store Primark. Sears still operates out of 106,000 square feet and has Now Hiring signs at its entrances.

There were more than 2,000 Sears and Kmart stores in the U.S. five years ago. There are fewer than 687 now with more closing before the end of the year. The company warned that all stores may close if it can not reach a viable restructuring agreement in bankruptcy. Sears announced its restructuring plan, which included the closure of 142 more stores, on Monday.

The warranties for Kenmore appliances, which are no longer made by Sears but still sold at its stores, are likely to be honored, experts said. The warranties for other brand appliances sold at Sears would also be honored as the warranties are through the manufacturer.

According to Business Insider, a Sears spokesman said the company is required to meet regulatory requirements designed to provide adequate resources to fulfill service contracts into the future. We will fulfill our commitment to our customers and members."

The writer may be reached at cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday that he would not attend the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia next week, delivering the Trump administration's first formal rebuke of Saudi's royal family following the suspected killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside a Saudi compound in Turkey.

Mnuchin made his announcement on Twitter, saying he had met with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but he did not explain the reasoning for the decision.

"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," he wrote.

Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and a columnist for The Washington Post, disappeared after entering a Saudi consulate in Turkey earlier this month. Turkish officials have said that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate by Saudi Arabian agents.

Mounting evidence suggests the Saudi government has knowledge of Khashoggi's fate that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - one of Trump's closest allies in the region - is connected to Khashoggi's disappearance.

Last week, even after reports surfaced about a possible link between the alleged killing and the Saudi royal family, Mnuchin signaled that he would still attend the conference. Multiple financial executives and media outlets, however, have announced in recent days that they would not participate.

The event, one of the biggest international financial summits in the world, is seen as a major opportunity for Saudi officials to showcase their economy.

Trump has been less critical of Saudi Arabia's response to Khashoggi's disappearance than have other U.S. officials. He has defended the regime as an ally and said the public should wait for more information before forming a judgment. With the administration facing an outcry about Khashoggi's disappearance, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Saudi Arabia several days ago, but he said he came back with no answers about what had happened to the Saudi journalist.

That turned the focus to Mnuchin, who is seen as very close to Trump and unwilling to buck the White House. The decision for Mnuchin to withdraw is "a sign that pressures from [Capitol] Hill and the media are making an impact," said Bruce Riedel, director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, who spent 30 years at the CIA. "After Pompeo's failure to get any action from the Saudis, another Cabinet-level meeting with the Crown Prince would be foolish and embarrassing."

Trump has said that any possible response to Khashoggi's disappearance must take into account the United States' security and defense ties with Saudi Arabia. In defending his reluctance to criticize the Saudi regime, Trump has cited Saudi Arabia's huge investment in U.S. weapons and technology, suggesting the Arab nation could decide to instead purchase the material from China or Russia. Trump has cited the Saudi investment as being in excess of $100 billion, though experts believe that figure is highly inflated.

Trump has tried to forge a close relationship with bin Salman, and the president was feted with an elaborate celebration during a visit last year. Some Republicans have warned that the White House was at risk of becoming too close with a Saudi ruling family that is known for brutal tactics against its own people.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote on Twitter Thursday that he "very much" agreed with Mnuchin's decision to skip the conference. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., had also called on Mnuchin not to attend.

The conference is scheduled for next week in Riyadh, and Mnuchin was under pressure from congressional Republicans to withdraw. His top advisers had said that he was waiting for more information before deciding whether to attend.

A string of high-profile business leaders have withdrawn from the conference over the past week, including the chief executives of Uber, JPMorgan Chase and Viacom, and the heads of asset managers BlackRock and Blackstone Group. Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, also dropped out, as did top officials from Ford Motor Co. and Google.

Entrepreneurs Steve Case and Richard Branson were among the first business executives to distance themselves from the Saudis over Khashoggi's alleged killing. Branson said that Saudi involvement in the journalist's disappearance would "clearly change the ability of any of us in the West to do business with the Saudi government."GREENWICH  For decades, Laura Kostin has been on the other side of politics. As a journalist and producer at CNN, CNBC and MSNBC, she has worked to arrange interviews, get shows on the air and push hosts to ask politicians the tough questions.

Now Kostin is the one on the ballot, running as a Democrat in the 151st state House District. The first-time candidate, who is challenging Republican state Rep. Fred Camillo, compares the experience to being at the pointy end of a spear.

Ive been putting words in peoples mouths for the better part of 20 years, and Ive found my voice, said Kostin, a Cos Cob resident. Here I am. This is tremendously empowering. Im absolutely 100 percent glad Ive done this.

Running for state office requires serious commitment, and not just of time.

You have to think deeply about our needs, Kostin said. I gave this a whole lot of thought before wading in the water, and I believe we can have a thriving economy again. I believe we can turn this ship around. Im in this because I care.

Kostin has spent the last months introducing herself to residents of the 151st District, which encompasses much of Cos Cob and the surrounding area, explaining why she deserves their vote over the five-term incumbent. It is not surprising that one issue has been paramount on the minds of voters.

Fixing our economy is vital, she said. They want someone with fresh ideas to get in there and do it. They can see whatever were doing is not working.

Kostin said she has learned a lot by knocking on doors and talking to voters since launching her campaign in May. What stands out in her view is that women are fired up by what is happening in national politics and they want to make their voices heard on the local level.

When I talk to a woman and I discuss my big three issues  which are Connecticuts economy, protecting choice and strengthening our gun laws  those really are the three issues that they care most about, she said. I get that from men and women.

Republican incumbents in the Greenwich delegation to Hartford insist that national issues arent relevant in state legislative races, but Kostin disagrees.

This is tremendously important, she said. We are not divorced from our federal government. Connecticut is a part of the United States of America. ... Economic policy. Social policy. Lack of will at the federal level to enact any kind of progress on gun laws. I feel like the Trump administration is obviously a disaster, and there are parts of our national policy that affect Connecticut.

Many voters are angry and frustrated with Republicans and President Donald Trump, and politicians must take a stand on the divisive politics coming from his administration, Kostin said. She cited the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as well as issues surrounding womens health and reproductive choices.

Women may be fearful of talking about many social issues, she said. And Republicans dont want to acknowledge those concerns because its inconvenient for them with (Trump) at the top of their ticket, Kostin said.

Weve had an unpopular president hanging over us as well as an unpopular governor, she said, referring to outgoing Gov. Dannel Malloy. But I am not part of the establishment thats been in Hartford for so long. I cant take any credit or blame for where we are with our economy. The only people who have that distinction are our incumbents.

Republicans, including Camillo, have pointed to successes, including a two-year bipartisan budget that includes spending and bonding caps and the establishment of a rainy day fund. Kostin supports these initiatives but said more has to be done.

The elephant in the room is our lagging economy and our pension crisis, Kostin said. If we lower corporate taxes and become more attractive to businesses again, companies will see Connecticut is a competitive and attractive place to do business. Theyll hire. Well become a state people want to come back to and work in. And when that happens we will grow our tax base. Connecticut needs more taxpayers, not more taxes.

Another long-term problem that the Legislature has failed to address is the overwhelmed transportation infrastructure, said Kostin, who is a proponent of reintroducing tolls to state highways.

Leaders of the nonpartisan Connecticut Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth also favor adding tolls. Kostin suggests starting with tolls on trucks, and expanding from there if the practice works.

Theyre inevitable, Kostin said. They do generate a lot of money. They can generate a lot of money from commercial traffic and from out-of-state traffic. Do I want to see Connecticut families suffer because we have tolls? Absolutely not. We can do progressive tolling, just like we have a progressive income tax so it doesnt unduly burden families on lower incomes.

From a historical perspective, Kostin faces an uphill challenge in the race: A Democrat from Greenwich has not won a seat in the state House in more than a century. But she said she is in the race to win.

Its all about the turnout, she said. If we want change, we have to be that change and weve got to bring it. Theres no one who can do it for us.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comU.S. Senate candidate Neal Simon, who is running as an independent, endorsed Maryland's Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for re-election Thursday, citing the popular governor's record of cutting taxes and fees and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

Simon is challenging Sen. Benjamin Cardin, a Democrat who has represented Maryland in Congress for more than 30 years. In a statement, Simon said Hogan has worked "across the aisle to find common ground" and "stayed true to his promise to govern from the center."

Hogan, who is leading Democratic challenger Ben Jealous by double-digits, has not endorsed anyone in the Senate race. He signed a nominating petition for Simon at the 42nd annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield, Maryland, this summer.

Cardin held a nearly 40-point lead in a Goucher College poll released last month and a 28-point lead in a poll released last week by Gonzales Research & Media Services. He has brought in significantly more money in recent months than his challengers, including Republican Tony Campbell,

Also on the ballot is Libertarian Arvin Vohra, who earned 1 percent in the Goucher Poll and is not accepting donations.

Simon, a financial services executive from Potomac, has said he was inspired to run by a group called Unite America, previously known as the Centrist Project, which believes a few independent senators acting as a bloc could force both parties to the middle instead of their partisan extremes.

At an Oct. 7 debate, Simon dismissed Cardin as a "part of the problem" in Washington, criticizing the veteran politician for voting with his party "97 percent of the time."

Hogan has drawn strong support from independents and many Democrats as he seeks to become the first Republican governor re-elected in Maryland since 1954.

On Thursday, the Democratic state's attorney in Dorchester County, William Jones, endorsed him, joining a list of Democratic officials that includes outgoing state Sen. Jim Brochin (Baltimore County) and the mayors of Bowie, Gaithersburg, and Salisbury.The latest crime statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigations show a strange trend has continued. The more states that legalize cannabis, the more people across the country get arrested for marijuana-related crimes.

According to the FBIs annual Crime in the United States report, released in September, there were 659,700 marijuana arrests in 2017. In 2016, that number was 653,249. Overall, marijuana arrests made up more than 40% of the 1.6 million drug-related arrests in 2017 across the country.

So, why is that happening?

Based on the FBI numbers, arrests for sales and manufacturing are actually down slightly from 2016. However, whats gone up are arrests for possession. About 91% of all the arrests were on possession charges.

Related: 'Microdosing Moms' and 'Divorced Dads' Emerge Among Cannabis Consumers

Counter to Public Opinion

To put the number of marijuana arrests in perspective, there were 518,617 arrests in 2017 for violent crime, far less than those arrested on marijuana-related charges.

Actions by law enforcement run counter to both public support and basic morality, Justin Strekal, the political director for NORML, said in a statement. He pointed out that these arrests are going up in a day and age where 20 percent of the population lives in states which have legalized and nearly every state has some legal protections for medical cannabis or its extract.

Race and economics also play a role in the reaction to drug arrests. Reports have shown that minorities and those in disadvantaged communities are far more likely to get arrested than those who are white and living in middle to upper class neighborhoods.

For example, a recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that black people are three times more likely to get arrested for pot possession in Louisiana.

Related: 7 Interesting Things to Know About Canada's Legalization of Marijuana

Strange Trend

Arrests for marijuana possession and marijuana sales had actually fallen for a decade until 2016. In both 2016 and 2017, arrests went up.

This change comes at a time when nine states have legalized marijuana for recreational use and 30 have legalized medical marijuana. Two more states are considering legalizing adult-use marijuana on the November 2018 ballot (Michigan and North Dakota).

Voters in Utah and Missouri are considering legalizing medical marijuana.

However, the federal government still lists marijuana as a Schedule I illegal drug that has no medical benefit. Many states still completely prohibit the possession or use of marijuana.

The region with the biggest percentage of drug arrests involving marijuana is the Midwest where more than 53 percent of all drug arrests in 2017 involved marijuana. In the Northeast, the number was 49.6 percent, while in the South it was 48.7 percent.

The only region with significantly low marijuana arrests was the West, where many states have legalized both adult-use and medical marijuana. Only 15 percent of all drug-related arrests involved marijuana.

Follow dispensaries.com on Instagram to stay up to date on the latest cannabis news.

Related:

More States Have Made Marijuana Legal, So Why Are More People Getting Arrested?

'Microdosing Moms' and 'Divorced Dads' Emerge Among Cannabis Consumers

Here's Why the DEA Re-Scheduling Just One Cannabis-Based Drug Is a Very Big Deal



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedMajor global trends tend to originate from a handful of influential regions and cities worldwide. In the case of cannabis, Los Angeles has always been ground zero for the emergence of the first-ever legal, branded products.

I have had the fortunate experience over the past three years of watching the industry grow from a small group of products to an elaborate mix of excellent brands that consumers now get to enjoy. Prior to that, I did extensive work in the influencer marketing field when it was still a nascent industry -- much like cannabis is now.

The path to influence is no secret, and I plan on sharing with you some of my insights on building a powerful, far-reaching brand.

Influencing the influencers.

The marketing world has accepted that the voices of influencers can play a powerful role in building the reputation of any new product. So, how are cannabis companies getting more consumers and influencers to come out of the cannabis closet, let alone share their excitement online?

We are lucky that our home base of Los Angeles is the epicenter of both cannabis culture and influence. Over the past decade, consumers living on the West Coast have had the luxury of being able to purchase well-branded cannabis products in various forms. Cannabis vape oil cartridges, for example, were first available legally in California and are now popular in other states.

For the rest of the world, its still new. Thats why a simple pleasure of a pack of perfectly rolled joints, in their very own beautiful box, is eliciting excitement. The possibility of one day purchasing and consuming cannabis is no longer a novelty -- its coming closer and closer.

Brands in any industry have a chance to gain exposure by aligning with well-liked influencers. Thats long been the bottom line. However, by dipping beneath the surface, truly educating that individual on the product and making them an evangelist of the brand, a more meaningful and influential relationship is forged. This is how top cannabis brands are gaining a foothold in a rapidly changing environment.

Related: 'Microdosing Moms' and 'Divorced Dads' Emerge Among Cannabis Consumers

Changing the stigma against cannabis.

California was the first state to embrace medical marijuana in 1996. This year it became the largest of the nine states to legalize adult-use. However, even in legalized states, brands face obstacles to connecting with new customers, and thats where influencers come in.

A major challenge is the restrictive attitude toward cannabis companies when it comes to promoting ads and content on traditional and digital channels. Both Facebook and Instagram ban cannabis advertising. As a result, innovative brands choose to redirect ad budgets to leverage relationships with cannabis-friendly individuals and influencers with devoted followings.

Changing some of the assumptions about cannabis use is also a must for brands. The modern cannabis consumer doesnt give in to the negative stigma associated with the plant; they desire a classy aesthetic, and to satisfy that, we use marketing tactics that are artistic, professional and informative.

High-end retailers like MedMen have led the way in this arena, with their destigmatizing ad campaigns, mainstream community activations and allowing for staff be brand evangelists. Eaze, a technology company, enables delivery of cannabis products by providing on-demand convenience and a sleek mobile UI similar to Uber or Postmates. They also have a lucrative referral program that keeps happy customers sharing their positive experiences and love for the brand.

People are comfortable with these brands, and to the latent population of outsiders, they make cannabis look fun, fast and trendy.

Related: Building a Solid Foundation for Your Cannabis Brand Is Step One to Success

Export cannabis? Looking to the future.

In order to expand, it is first essential to be able to export. Although still federally illegal in the United States, Canada has made cannabis legal at the federal level, and allows exportation of medical cannabis to select countries around the world. Adults all over Canada can legally purchase from licensed producers starting this week.

Today, creating partnerships with Canadian firms is one of the few options available for cannabis brands in the states looking to expand abroad. We believe there will soon be more huge opportunities for international growth for cannabis brands today that position themselves early.

It is clear that one day, there will be a Bacardi of cannabis that will have global reach, and we are excited to be a part of this growth and look forward to the end of prohibition.

Related:

What Brand Evangelism Really Means -- and Why It's So Important

Marketers Are Overcoming Unique Challenges to Build Campaigns for the Nascent Cannabis Industry

Using the Power of Influence to Build Your Global Cannabis Brand



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedTyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media

Republican for comptroller Kurt Miller will debut his first television commercial this week, after finally qualifying for a public financing grant Wednesday, less than three weeks from election day.

The more than $600,000 influx came at a desperate moment for Miller, first selectman of Seymour. Last week, he only had $6,000 in campaign cash  a pittance by election standards  to left to spend, according to latest financial filings with the state.Lenovo unveiled two new phones today, the S5 Pro and K5 Pro, mid-rangers at slightly different price point but with similar features. Both have a clear focus on photography and pack side-firing stereo speakers along with decently-sized batteries with fast charging. Oh, and we got a couple of watches alongside them too.

Lenovo S5 Pro

The Lenovo S5 Pro offers the good things in life delivered at a moderate price. The phone has an upscale build with a metal unibody that has been sand-blasted for a satin finish.



Lenovo S5 Pro in Ice Blue, Pure Gold and Crystal Black

The phone is built around a 6.2 IPS LCD of 1080p resolution. And yes, theres a notch, but it houses both a 20MP camera with a Sony sensor and an infrared 3D face scanner. The scanner is used for security, but also to enhance selfies.

The 3D model is used for more advanced beautification effects as well as simulating studio lighting. Its an IMX 476 sensor with 1.0m pixels, which can be binned 4 in 1 for better low-light performance (the f/2.2 lens isnt much help there).

The back is home to a dual camera. The main shooter has a 12MP sensor with 1.25m pixels and a bright f/1.8 aperture. The secondary module has a 2x telephoto lens (f/2.6) and a 20MP sensor. The rear camera can shoot 4K at 30fps videos, the front one is capped at 1080p.

Theres a fingerprint reader on the back, if you prefer it to face scanning.

The Lenovo S5 Pro is powered by a Snapdragon 636 chipset paired to 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB storage. Theres a hybrid dual SIM slot, so you have the opportunity to expand the storage.

The S5 Pro runs Lenovos ZUI software with its own brand of AI. Split screen multitasking is supported and you can have up to 4 accounts for each app (even if the app itself supports only 1).

And to keep the fun going for longer, theres a 3,500mAh battery, which can be charged at 15W (the charger included in the box is rated at 18W, though). If one of your accessories is running low on power, you can use a USB-C cable to charge it from the phone.

The Lenovo S5 Pro can be reserved on Lenovos Chinese site and will ship out on October 23. It costs CNY 1,300 for the 6/64GB model (thats $190/160). The 6/128GB model isnt available yet.

Lenovo K5 Pro

The Lenovo K5 Pro is a more affordable alternative to the S5 Pro. It has a 6 1080p+ screen, no notch this time, so the usable area is pretty similar. And its powered by the same Snapdragon 636 chipset with 4GB or 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage.



Lenovo K5 Pro in Black and Gold

Above the screen is a dual selfie camera (no IR here) with a 16MP main module and a 5MP depth sensor. The rear dual camera is a similar 16+5MP setup. The main camera has an f/2.0 aperture and uses multi-frame noise reduction for better low-light shots.



16+5MP dual cameras on the front and back

Like its S-series sibling, the K5 Pro has side-firing stereo speakers. These are backed by SmartPA amps by NXP with Dirac support. Once again USB-C handles the charging while the 3.5mm headphone jack does audio.

Speaking of, the battery on this phone is larger  4,050mAh  and supports 18W QuickCharge 3.0. It doesnt look like charging is capped at 15W, but you cant use the phone to charge other devices either.

The Lenovo K5 Pro is up on Lenovos site in China and sales start a bit later  October 25. The base 4/64GB model will set you back CNY 1,000 ($145/125), then theres the 6/64GB one for CNY 1,100 and, finally, the top 6/128GB model for CNY 1,300 ($190/160).

Watches

Alongside the phones, Lenovo unveiled two watches. The Lenovo Watch S is a hybrid timepiece that will launch on October 30 at CNY 240 ($35/30). Its swimproof (5 ATM), can track your exercise and sleep and has a dial so you can track your daily progress.



Lenovo Watch S

The Lenovo Watch C is aimed at kids. It has a fairly large 1.3 AMOLED display and is made durable with IPX7 water resistance. It features a GPS so you always know where the little one is and theres an SOS button is something is wrong. This watch is coming October 22 for CNY 400 ($58/50).Samsung's premium 10.5-inch tablet, Galaxy Tab S4, just arrived on Indian soil three months after its initial release. The company is making the device available for purchase starting today at its online shop and offline retailers.

However, if you are willing to wait, the tablet will be offered on Amazon.in starting October 20 with a price tag of INR 57,900 ($787) and various launch offers. That's some steep pricing right there as Apple's iPad Pro 10.5-inch model goes for around INR 50,000 ($679) but without accounting for the Apple Pen and the flip cover keyboard.

Unfortunately, there's still no word on how much the keyboard cover will cost or if the DeX dock is included in the package.

In case you are still wondering whether the Galaxy Tab S4 deserves your hard-earned money, you should check out our hands-on review.

SourceSony's Xperia XZ3 is available in the US in unlocked form starting today. That's quite a delay compared to the initially outed release date of September 24, but hey, better late(r) than never. The phone has been up for pre-order in the States for almost a month now.

You can pick one up from Amazon or Best Buy. You'll have to pay $899.99 for the privilege of owning Sony's latest flagship smartphone. Obviously you'll be receiving an unlocked unit, but note that it will only work on GSM-based carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and their sub-brands and MVNOs using their networks. No Sprint or Verizon, sorry.

As for colors, you can choose from black, Forest Green, and White Silver. The Xperia XZ3 is Sony's first top of the line device with an OLED touchscreen. It comes with Gorilla Glass 5 both on the front and the back, and a 7000 series aluminum alloy frame. The handset runs Android 9 Pie and is powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It has a 3,300 mAh battery which supports Qi wireless charging.

ViaBenachrichtigung aktivieren Durfen wir Sie in Ihrem Browser uber die wichtigsten Nachrichten des Handelsblatts informieren? Sie erhalten 2-5 Meldungen pro Tag.

Fast geschafft Erlauben Sie handelsblatt.com Ihnen Benachrichtigungen zu schicken. Dies konnen Sie in der Meldung Ihres Browsers bestatigen.The light microscope launched modern biology in the seventeenth century, letting scientists view the components of life that exist far beyond the range of unaided human vision. But light travels in waves, and its wavelength prevents researchers from focusing on details below a certain size limit without creating interference. As a result, light microscopes cannot show details that are less than about 200 to 300 nanometers apart. This is fine for viewing a single cell, but look inside it and things blur. Even a cluster of proteins, each a mere three to 10 nanometers in size, appears as an indistinct blob. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter; a human hair is 80,000 nanometers in width.)

Creative new techniques developed in the past few years, however, have extended the boundaries of what these microscopes can reveal. The latest approach, from the lab of Xiaowei Zhuang, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, uses fluorescent molecules that can be switched on and off to create images with more than 10 times the resolution of traditional light microscopes.

Zhuang says that light, despite its limitations, has important advantages for viewing cells. Electron microscopy, though more powerful in resolution, requires that cells be killed and chemically fixed. With electron microscopy, she says, Youre looking at a still image, rather than capturing activity in a cell. Light, on the other hand, is noninvasive, so it can be used to image live cells; scientists can use a variety of stains and fluorescent tags that let them view specific proteins or structures of a cell in different colors. Ideally, Zhuang says, one would want to have a method that combines the merits of both: the high resolution of electron microscopes paired with the flexibility of optical microscopes.

The new technique, which Zhuang developed with graduate students Michael Rust and Mark Bates, makes use of fluorophoresmolecules that absorb light and then fluoresce, emitting light at a different wavelength. Fluorophores have been used in microscopy for many years because they can be attached to specific molecules in cells, allowing scientists to track their location.

Normally, when a sample of fluorophores is exposed to light, they fluoresce in unison. Under an optical microscope, this sea of individual spots cannot be resolved if they are densely packed. Even so, Zhuang says, scientists have known how to determine mathematically the position of a single, isolated fluorophore by calculating the center of the fuzzy spot of light detected by the microscope. The trick was to find a way to turn the lights out on a group of fluorophores, allowing only a few at a time to light up so that the microscope could pick out individual spots.

Several years ago, Zhuangs group discovered a fluorophore that has an on-off switchwhen exposed to red light, it is inactive, but when exposed to green, it has the ability to fluoresce. This was the additional step that allowed us to control how many molecules are active, she says. Using this molecule, they can first turn off all the fluorophores with a red light, and then expose the sample to a small amount of green lightso small that only a few of the fluorophores will activate at a time. An image of those scattered fluorophores can then be made and their positions determined to within nanometer accuracy. By repeating this process many times to locate the position of all fluorophores, the scientists can create a whole image.

Zhuangs team calls the method stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy, or STORM, and published a demonstration in a recent edition of Nature Methods. With this technique, Youre going to get many of the advantages of optical imaging, but sharper and crisper by more than an order of magnitude [10 times], she says. As an example, her team attached 20 to 40 fluorophores to a circular string of DNA and proteins and was able to resolve its ring-like structure, where conventional microscopy would have shown only a blob. Zhuangs team is now hunting for other fluorophores that have the same ability to switch on and off, but in different colors.

The main drawback of the technique is the time it takes to gather multiple views and stitch them together. Creating an image can take a few minutes, making it best for viewing fixed structures. But Zhuangs team hopes to improve it further, to be able to capture the movements of molecules in cells, which happen on the order of seconds to milliseconds. She says STORM is one of a few promising approaches that have the potential to turn high-resolution still images of the cell into live action. Wed like to look at events in live cells with nanometer resolution, in real time, she says. Thats the hope.

~Courtney Humphries

Xiaowei Zhuang e-mail address: [email protected]

Website: http://zhuang.harvard.eduThe Hill County justice of the peace said she is running for a third term because if someone can help other people, they should.

"The reason I want to do it is because I feel that I make a difference," she said.

Barger faces Bruce Grant in the nonpartisan race for the seat.

Barger, who said she was born in Malta in 1961 and then moved with her family to Polson, didn't think her life would take her this direction while she was growing up.

"I never dreamed I would be a judge," she said.

She came to school at Northern Montana College, now Montana State University-Northern, where she earned a bachelor's degree in business technology with a minor in communications, and that was where she connected with the legal profession.

Barger said she received an internship with a Havre law office, Morrison, Ettien, Barron and Young.

"That's where I fell in love with the law," she said.

When she graduated the office invited her to come work for them full time. Van Barron left that office and she went to work for him as a paralegal and legal assistant, Barger said.

She then left that field for a time, working in real estate, but came back to law when she went to work for the Hill County Attorney's Office, she said.

She then became a Hill County deputy clerk of court, where she did work for the office including taking minutes in state District Court. Barger held that position until she ran for justice of the peace.

She said she decided to run for that office in 2010 when she heard the incumbent, Terry Stoppa, had decided not to run for re-election.

She won the election, and took over early when Stoppa retired in November 2010.

Barger said she wanted to run because she thought the background and training she had fit.

"That position needed somebody in it that was competent and that was concerned about following the law and could help them get through the processes they needed to get through. I knew there were a lot of things I could do in the court to make things better for people who came before me, faster quicker. I had a lot of ideas, a lot of things I wanted to accomplish. And I've done a lot of them."

Since she took office she has presided over more than 21,000 cases, she said.

Barger said one of the things she is most proud of as justice of the peace is Hill County Justice Court becoming a court of record in 2012.

Before it became a court of record, anyone who appealed results of trials from justice court received a new trial in District Court.

"The case starts all over again, and it was frustrating to me because I didn't know what I did wrong or if I did anything wrong," Barger said, adding that the only way to get better is to know what was wrong.

"Becoming a court of record is huge. It's a huge savings for the taxpayers, and ... when jurors sit in a case in my courtroom, it validates what they're doing for a whole day" she said.

She said before it was a court of record, attorneys might be filing for an appeal almost before the verdict came back.

"It's a huge cost," she said. "And it raises the bar" because attorneys won't have a second chance.

Barger said the other change she is most proud of is her working to establish, and preside over, the local drug and DUI treatment courts.

She said she saw cases while working in attorney's offices and in the clerk of court's office where people would come in for offenses and they had young children. Then those young children would end up in juvenile court, then in District Court, and she might see their children go through the same process.

"There was just no way for them to get out," she said.

She said she doesn't like to talk about the treatment courts themselves much.

"I always like the focus to be on the participants, and they are amazing," she said. "We have graduated 64 participants."

She said she doesn't get any pay for the extry 10 to 15 hours what she does working with the team that comprises the treatment court, but it is worth it.

"If I can save one person, and I think I have probably saved at least one, it impacts not just them but their families and their children. It gives their children structure, a safe, secure place to be.

It gets them off of public assistance, they become able support themselves, support their children, provide housing for their children keep their children warm, read them a story at night, ... I'm very passionate about it."

The savings to the state are also immense, she said, with the court taking the place of about $60-a-day in the county jail or $100-a-day in the state prison.

And people in the program know the difference, she added.

"I had one person who graduated the other day, and she said to me, 'Thank you your honor, for not sending me to prison,'" Barger said.Bullhook Community Health Center in Havre is making strong efforts to combat opioid drug addiction in the community, offering many different treatments and resources to help people live clean productive lives, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Suzanne Lockwood said.

Havre is not facing anything that isnt being faced across the country, Lockwood said, with Havre, compared to the national figures, having a lower rate of drug-related deaths.

She added Bullhook offers counseling, medically assisted treatment and a variety of other tools that are used to help patients better their lives.

Lockwood said she has been a psychiatric provider for the area for more than 25 years and has more than 600 active patients. She added those 600 patients have severely debilitating mental illnesses and more than 60 percent of those patients struggle with a chemical dependency as well.

Treatment options

Patient care varies on the needs of each individual, Lockwood said, if its helpful to them to be abstinent (from drugs and alcohol), I present that to them.

She added patients sometimes just need counseling, sometimes they need medically assisted treatment and sometimes they need all the above; but the care they receive is not different in that it is to help them get better.

Patients care depends on what patients require, she said. The protocol for the medically assisted treatment, Lockwood said, is patients need to fit specific requirements such as having lab work done to determine if the patients livers and kidneys are strong enough to receive that specific treatment method.

Some of the patients dont fit that criteria, she said, so that method of treatment is not appropriate for them. Providers then start looking at other ways to approach the patients needs, Lockwood added, usually with a large range of services available.

Lockwood said medically assisted treatment providers can use different medications to address different levels and kinds of addiction.

Bullhook Health Center CEO Brian Hadlock said those medications are not a substitute drug, but a drug that curbs the craving and allows some normal functionality so people can work and go about their lives and not suffer the effects of opioids.

That is why they are some of the most-effective drugs that have come out so far, he said, adding Bullhook Health Center has seen great success with patients who are receiving this form of care.

The medications are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Lockwood said, and are used to decrease patients urges to use opioids and alcohol. The medication that providers use at Bullhook are primarily suboxone and naltrexone/Vivitrol.

Suboxone is a partial opioid antagonist, that is specifically for opioid addiction, which covers the opioid receptor sites so people dont feel the need to use, Lockwood said. Naltrexone/Vivitrol is a stronger opioid antagonist, that is used through injections, which latches on the receptor sites for the same purpose.

She added there has been recent research coming from the Netherlands and Denmark which shows naltrexone/Vivitrol is effective for methamphetamine addiction, and she has seen similar success in treating that.

Hadlock said most private insurance covers this treatment, although Medicaids coverage depends on a great many variables. Adult Medicaid coverage has seen large cuts last year, he said, and some of the programs Bullhook is seeing success with now are becoming a challenge to be paid for. But with the success in these programs, Hadlock said, hopefully there will be coverage from Medicaid in the future.

Cause this is a population, quite honestly, more often than not, dont have a lot of private insurance associated with them, Hadlock said.

The nice thing, though, he added, is Bullhook has a sliding fee scale and anybody who comes for behavioral health visits can pay on the sliding scale.

Lockwood said Bullhooks programs are strictly outpatient care, but case managers can work with patients to get inpatient care.

Hadlock said there are inpatient programs in Great Falls, Butte and Billings with which Bullhook already has relationships. The number one concern, he said, is to find what program would be the best fit for patients.

He added that there are a lot of resources for people to pay for the treatments although a problem they often run into when looking for inpatient treatment is availability.

The problem of not having enough treatment centers to provide for the needs of the patients poses a risk to the patients, Hadlock said. He added some people, because of not being able to receive immediate care, will go out and use, never returning, or they might get depressed about their usage because now they feel they have no other options and dont know if they can wait for treatment.

This is all a reality for these folks, Hadlock said, and we do the best we can to get them in as quick as we can, so having a relationship with these different facilities definitely helped.

He said Bullhook is outpatient because the program can work with a larger body of patients. Inpatient treatment is challenging for most people, he added. The lack of incare facilities and the individuals financial ability can make inpatient programs an impossibility. With outpatient care, patients can come in, based on their providers recommendation, and receive the care they need, making steps toward recovery.

He added Bullhook also has group counseling that is facilitated by a medical professional. These group-counseling sessions are more about clinical aspects and offers peer support, Hadlock said. These meetings are not structured like an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting, he said, although Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous are good programs and Bullhook does not discourage patients from attending those meetings.

The idea is to work yourself out of business, Hadlock said, its to make sure you never have to see that person again.

Hadlock added that patients who leave the program clean and healthy still need to maintain self-care. In cases when former patients dont, more often than not, they relapse and return to treatment.

To avoid that, he said, Bullhook does everything that it can do to identify organizations within the community that can be referred to patients for personal self care after and during treatment.

I think the number one thing to remember is people who are struggling with addiction, whether it be opiates or meth or any other kind of stimulant or prescription medication, is that it is a struggle, it is real to them, Hadlock said. This is their reality and they go through these cycles of depression, guilt, anxiety and find that their addition relieves all of those. It is a cycle, it could be a daily cycle as much as it is a weekly cycle, and we have to have compassion and understanding to be able to help them.

Impacting the community

Since Bullhook was established there has been a noticeable impact on the community with general health getting better, Lockwood said.

Hadlock said he thinks community health care centers are positioned very well with the amount of knowledge and support that they receive from local, state and federal entities that help train staff and providers.

He added there are case managers who work directly with patients after and before visits so patients receive constant contact to keep them motivated.

I think those are some of the major reasons why community health centers have so much success with the outcomes, Hadlock said.

Whether patients come in for behavioral health, addiction, dental or medical the rate of success is much higher in community health center environments, he said, and costs about 24 percent less than other options.

Lockwood said people come in through a variety of ways. She said she has worked with some patients in the community for more than 20 years but while some people she sees repeatedly, some she never sees again.

She said 90 percent of the people in the Hill County Drug Court for the past five years have an underline major mental illness in addition to an drug dependency.

Drug courts have been around for the past 10 to 12 years, Lockwood said, and in some areas the courts are just figuring out how to work well; but what is being seen is a large amount of success related to the courts compared to alternative private treatment.

She added the statistics show the rise in opioid use is related to a large availability of the drugs, through prescription medications or other means.

All a person needs to do to receive help is to come in and ask, Lockwood said.

Hadlock said Bullhook has some phenomenally trained staff with incredible experience.

Working alongside Lockwood, he said, are two nurse practitioners, one licensed addiction counselor, two cognitive behavioral therapists, two behavioral health specialists, a couple of nurses and case managers, and a peer support person.

Lockwood said the two behavioral health specialists are school-based. One is working in Havre Middle School and the other is in Havre High School. They are specifically there for additional prevention and mental health, she said, adding that the program is relatively new, in its second year, but it has already begun to show signs of success. The success is the specialists ability to connect with the students and work with them toward living a healthy lifestyle, she added.

Lockwood said Bullhook now has a peer support person, the first year for the position. The person is someone who has a chemical dependency or struggles with serious mental illness but has been in recovery for a long period of time, she added. As a peer they can assist with people who are also working toward recovery, she said.

Hadlock said the peer support person is someone who has first-hand experience with the problems facing the patients, the process it takes to overcome addiction and the struggles with mental health.

Its just somebody who understands the process, Hadlock said, that understands, develops trust with the patients because they cant say, you dont know what im talking about, you dont know what Im going through. Actually yay they do, they know exactly. I think it develops that level of trust that cant be developed anywhere else.Amari Ahenakew is 2 years old and she has a fatal rare disease that requires her family to travel across Montana to get the medical help she needs.

Amari was diagnosed with pyruvate carboxylase deficiency type A on June 19, 2017, her father, Lyle, said.

The National Organization for Rare Disorders describes PC deficiency as a genetic disorder that inhibits the body's ability to produce the necessary fuel for energy and neurotransmitters important for brain function.

There are three different types of PC deficiency: type A, B and C. Type A, that Amari has, is the infantile form. Symptoms could include abdominal pain, vomiting, tiredness and muscle weakness.

The NORD page says "children with this type of PC deficiency usually die in infancy or early childhood".

Lyle said the doctors told he and his wife, Mercedes, that Amari would not live to see her childhood.

The Ahenakew family has started a GoFundMe campaign and is asking for donations to help them pay for the cost of travelling to different cities for doctor's visits for Amari. They also have set up a Pizza Hut fundraiser Thursday, Nov. 8. When customers making a purchase at the Havre Pizza Hut say they are donating to Amari, 20 percent of the purchase price will go to the fundraiser.

The doctors, Lyle said, told him and Mercedes there is no cure for PC deficiency because of how rare it is.

NORD confirms this and says the only treatment for PC deficiency is aimed at providing the body with the nutrients and energy it needs.

Amari is currently on a feeding tube, Lyle said, and she only gets a break from it four hours of the day.

"If she goes any longer than four hours," he said, "she'll get sick. She gets sick really easy."

Lyle said with winter coming, Amari is starting to get sick more often and is spending more and more time in hospitals. He added in the past two years he and his family have spent about a week total at home, but the rest of time has been in hospitals.

Lyle said he and Mercedes are both from Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation and they still have family that live on the reservation. Lyle currently resides in Great Falls and he usually takes Amari there whenever she starts to get sick.

"If she gets too sick they usually send her to Missoula," Lyle said.

He added that he and his wife are good about getting Amari to the local hospital before she gets too sick.

Amari has also spent time at a hospital in Denver and occasionally sees a specialist in Helena as well.

Mercedes said the doctors have been amazing.

Lyle said it has been hard on his family with all the traveling and hospital stays. Lyle and Mercedes have four children and he said it has been hardest on his oldest daughter. Mercedes' mother does help out by watching his oldest daughter so she can still go to school, but Lyle and Mercedes usually take the other two younger children with them when they travel.

Lyle and Mercedes haven't told their oldest that her little sister might not live to early childhood because they don't want her to feel bad. She is aware that her little sister does have a rare disease, though.

Lyle said he is holding up all right so far despite the cost of traveling being hard for them. They've had to stay in the Ronald McDonald house in Missoula before and have even spent nights in their car, Mercedes added.

"We hope she stays with us for a while," Lyle said.Culture plays an integral part in HubSpots offices globally. The company even boasts a culture code deck which had gone viral about four years ago, garnering about 4million views from netizens.

But as the company plans a massive expansion, how will it sustain its strong culture?

A big part of how weve sustained our culture with 2,000 employees in Asia Pacific (and counting) is because we recruit people with HEART  a shorthand for people who are humble, empathetic, adaptable, remarkable and transparent, Christian Ballard, recruiting lead APAC at HubSpot told HRD.

Attracting the best talent is not enough; candidates also have to embody these characteristics.

From Google to HubSpot

Newly appointed APAC managing director Shahid Nizami also had a few choice things to say about HubSpots culture. The role was created to help support the business expansion.As we prepare for growth, we are creating a simpler more efficient structure which will affect some managerial roles and responsibilities, said Sally Beatty, a spokeswoman for Pfizer. We are offering enhancements to certain benefits to lessen this effect.

The companys severance packages include a base pay of 12 weeks and an additional three weeks worth of pay for every year of work, up to 104 weeks.

Workers who will voluntarily leave the company will also be able to keep their benefits, such as vested equity and health insurance, at their current rates for up to three years.

Pfizer, however, pointed out that the early retirement option is only available to employees who are 55 years old or over and have worked for the company for at least 10 years. They have until Nov. 2 to accept the offer.

Those who opt into the program will have to leave by Dec. 12, unless asked by the company to stay longer. Once the opt-in period is over, company managers will decide on involuntary separations depending on their staff needs."It is the responsibility of employers to ensure that they are aware of their obligations under workplace laws, and that they treat workers fairly," said Parker.

"Under the Fair Work Act, it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees on the grounds of pregnancy, race, colour, sex, sexual preference, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, carer responsibilities, religion, political opinion, nationality or social origin."

The FWO alleges that Jewel Bay in South Perth and Tajeddine breached the discrimination provision of the Fair Work Act by reducing and cancelling some of the employee's shifts between July and September 2017 because she was pregnant.

Moreover, is alleged that in July 2017 when the waitress was visibly pregnant, Tajeddine directed a supervisor to send the waitress home because she "looks disgusting".

It is also alleged Tajeddine directed the supervisor to cancel the shift the waitress was rostered to work that evening, making references to the impact of her pregnancy on her appearance and ability to perform her duties.I descended into hypochondria at age 39, when I found a tiny lump in my breast. Normally, I wouldn't have worried. My breasts are naturally very dense and lumpy, and my doctor had never seemed concerned. But this particular lump appeared during the most difficult time of my lifein the midst of watching my father die of cancer. Right after I found it, I went with my family to Dad's oncologist's office, where we would find out whether a hellish bout of radiation and chemo had killed the cancer growing in Dad's esophagus. While we waited, I looked at one of those plastic cards that explain how to do a breast self-exam. I was still holding the card when the doctor came in and clipped some x-rays to a light board. He pointed to a small dark spot on my fathers liver. The cancer was spreading.

When I could stop crying, I realized I was still clutching the breast-exam card. It seemed like a sign. I went home and Googled breast lump, and what I read made my hands shake and my heart race. Suddenly, I couldn't think of anything else. In the shower, at the dinner table, driving the kids to school, all I could think about was dying.

After that, I really was sickjust not with cancer. Hypochondria might seem like a joke, a label you pin on a friend whose health dramas never amount to anything. But like depression or anxiety, hypochondria is a recognized psychiatric disorder (it affects an estimated 1 to 5 percent of Americans). And, like those disorders, it exists on a continuum, from people who simply worry excessively about their health to those who are completely debilitated by fear. True hypochondriacs don't just make up fake symptoms and imaginary pains in a bid for attention. Instead, every time a genuine symptom appears, they believe that something is terribly wrong. When a test turns up nothing, a hypochondriac worries anyway, sure the next test or doctor will uncover a serious or even fatal illness. I didn't imagine the lump in my breast. What made me a hypochondriac is that no reassuring mammogram, ultrasound, or MRI could ever convince me I wasn't dying.

After that first, panicky Google search, I went straight to my OB-GYN's office to get the lump checked out. As a nurse gently prodded and kneaded, I chatted with her, trying to calm myself down. I was probably overreacting, I said, and explained that my fatherthe one person who could make me feel both completely protected and completely sure of my own strengthwas dying. As close as Dad and I were, it was hard to separate what was happening to him from what was happening to me. The nurse nodded kindly. Then she said, Oops, there's a mass.

A word like mass has a way of stripping all logic from the conversation. The nurse said it was probably nothing, but I needed a mammogram and an ultrasound to be sure. She told me repeatedly that this mass did not feel like cancer to her, that 80 percent of lumps, even the really suspicious ones, don't turn out to be cancer, that it was not time to start planning my funeral. But to a woman with a mass in her breast and a dying father, the word funeral works like a dirty bomb, exploding into fragments that lodge deep in the brain.

The tests only confirmed that I have extremely dense breast tissuethe kind that makes it nearly impossible for a radiologist to see anything in a mammogram or an ultrasound. The next step? A biopsy. That turned out fine, and the cheerful surgeon reported that he wasn't worried about me at all. But then he said I needed to return for another ultrasound in three months. Was he hiding something? If there was nothing amiss, why did I need to come back?

As it turns out, dense breast tissue is a risk factor for cancer, which is why neither that surgeon nor one I consulted for a second opinion would give me an all-clear. Three times that first year, I returned for scheduled exams. On two other occasions, I showed up with new lumps I was worried about. Every time, my test results showed nothing wrong. But instead of feeling relieved, I would brood about the cancer in hiding, the one the doctor didn't catch.

I got so worried I could hardly work. I canceled dinner parties, refused to plan for the future. When decorations went on sale after the holidays, I'd think, I might not live to see next Christmas, and buy nothing. Meanwhile, my parents came to stay with me and my family, so I could help Mom care for Dad. One of my sons, trying to understand his grandfather's illness, said, You aren't going to get sick, too, are you, Mommy? He looked up at me trustingly, and the fear rose up in my throat so thick I could hardly breathe.

Before long the stress led to more symptoms that seemed to warrant follow-up: insomnia, heart palpitations, irregular periods, a constant stomach-ache. Over the next few years, I had pelvic ultrasounds, a colonoscopy, an endoscopy, a colposcopy, an EKG, and countless blood testsand nothing was wrong. Most of the tests, I suspect, were ordered by my amazingly patient doctors to quell my fears. But the more testing I had, the more worried I became. Good test results were no solace during the three years it took my father to die, and the grieving year afterward.

For people debilitated by hypochondria, antidepressants and therapy may help. But I never considered these options, because, like so many hypochondriacs, I didn't realize I was one. What cured me is the fact that I didn't die. Time passed after my father's death, and I began to recognize the connection between my fears and my grief over his loss. I realized that even if I couldn't banish that fear entirely, I could take steps to keep it from spiraling out of control. Eventually, I stopped thinking of my body as a time bomb and began, finally, to think of it as the very thing that lets me live a happy life.

These days, I sleep better, and I laugh more. Checkups still make me nervous, but I talk myself out of the tree by remembering all the tests and biopsies that turned out fine. I no longer Google every little ache and pain because of the inevitable caveat: Rarely, these are also symptoms of a more serious condition. Instead, I take a wait-and-see approach. I'm more likely to worry if I'm exhausted or stressed, so I get eight hours of sleep, and I never skip my workout. I have a happy marriage, healthy children, deep friendships, interesting work. That's always been trueby themselves, such blessings are no protection from hypochondria. But I now understand that a constant fear of death is the surest way to ruin my own blessed life. And in its own way, my bout with hypochondria has turned out to be a gift. The daily irritations that used to drive me to distractiontraffic delays, flaky coworkers, cancelled appointmentshardly touch me now. Im too busy feeling grateful to be alive.New York State Department of Health Warns More Potential New Measles Exposures in Rockland County

New Cases Linked to International Travelers

State Working with County and Community to Identify Potential Exposures, Provide Vaccine, Prevent Further Spread

ALBANY, N.Y. (October 16, 2018) - The New York State Department of Health today announced that additional measles cases linked to international travelers returning from Israel have been confirmed in Rockland County.

Like many European countries and parts of the world, Israel is currently experiencing a high number of measles cases. In the most recent data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), 339 cases have been reported in Israel from March through August of 2018.

To help prevent secondary cases of measles, the state Department of Health is working with the Rockland County Department of Health and Refuah Health Center to identify those potentially exposed and provide information on the importance of vaccination.

A measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine clinic for those who are not immune to measles will be held on Thursday, October 18, from 4:30 p.m. 6:30 at the Community Outreach Center located 21 Remsen Avenue in Monsey.

In addition to supporting the county by providing MMR vaccine, the state Department of Health is testing samples at its Wadsworth Laboratory in Albany, and assisting with community outreach and contact investigations. This includes working with the Rockland County Department of Health to identify unvaccinated students at any impacted schools, and taking the appropriate actions to minimize the risk to other students.

For those who believe they may have been exposed and have further questions, a toll-free hotline has been established: 1-888-364-4837. The hotline is available Monday  Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Individuals are considered protected or immune to measles if they were born before 1957, have received two doses of MMR vaccine, have had measles, or have a laboratory test result confirming immunity. Individuals who are not immune to measles and were exposed are at risk for developing measles. Preventive treatment for measles is recommended for those without evidence of immunity as follows: MMR vaccine can be given to eligible exposed individuals within 72 hours of exposure OR immune globulin can be administered within 6 days of exposure.

All individuals who think they may have been exposed to measles, particularly those without immunity or who are not sure if they have been vaccinated, should contact their health care provider if they develop measles symptoms. Symptoms include a fever, rash, cough, conjunctivitis or runny nose. Symptoms usually appear 10-12 days after exposure but may appear as early as 7 days and as late as 21 days after exposure.

To prevent the spread of illness, the Department is advising individuals who may have been exposed and who have symptoms consistent with measles to contact their health care provider, a local clinic, or a local emergency department before going for care. This will help to prevent others at these facilities from being exposed to the illness.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus that is spread by direct contact with nasal or throat secretions of infected people. People first develop a fever, then may have a cough, runny nose and watery eyes, followed by appearance of a rash. People are considered infectious from four days before to four days after the appearance of the rash.

The single best way to prevent measles is to be vaccinated. Individuals should receive two doses of MMR vaccine to be fully protected. If a person is unsure if they are immune they should contact their healthcare provider. Typically, the first dose of MMR vaccine should be given at 12-15 months of age and the second dose should be given at four to six years of age (age of school entry), although individuals may also be vaccinated later in life. In New York State, measles immunization is required of children enrolled in schools, daycare, and pre-kindergarten. Since August 1990, college students have also been required to demonstrate immunity against measles.

More information about measles can be found at https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/2170.pdf.Anne Trafton | MIT News Office

In the fight against drug-resistant bacteria, MIT researchers have enlisted the help of beneficial bacteria known as probiotics.

In a new study, the researchers showed that by delivering a combination of antibiotic drugs and probiotics, they could eradicate two strains of drug-resistant bacteria that often infect wounds. To achieve this, they encapsulated the probiotic bacteria in a protective shell of alginate, a biocompatible material that prevents the probiotics from being killed by the antibiotic.

There are so many bacteria now that are resistant to antibiotics, which is a serious problem for human health. We think one way to treat them is by encapsulating a live probiotic and letting it do its job, says Ana Jaklenec, a research scientist at MITs Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and one of the senior authors of the study.

If shown to be successful in future tests in animals and humans, the probiotic/antibiotic combination could be incorporated into dressings for wounds, where it could help heal infected chronic wounds, the researchers say.

Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor and a member of the Koch Institute, is also a senior author of the paper, which appears in the journal Advanced Materials on Oct. 17. Zhihao Li, a former MIT visiting scientist, is the studys lead author.

Bacteria wars

The human body contains trillions of bacterial cells, many of which are beneficial. In some cases, these bacteria help fend off infection by secreting antimicrobial peptides and other compounds that kill pathogenic strains of bacteria. Others outcompete harmful strains by taking up nutrients and other critical resources.

Scientists have previously tested the idea of applying probiotics to chronic wounds, and theyve had some success in studies of patients with burns, Li says. However, the probiotic strains usually cant combat all of the bacteria that would be found in an infected wound. Combining these strains with traditional antibiotics would help to kill more of the pathogenic bacteria, but the antibiotic would likely also kill off the probiotic bacteria.

The MIT team devised a way to get around this problem by encapsulating the probiotic bacteria so that they would not be affected by the antibiotic. They chose alginate in part because it is already used in dressings for chronic wounds, where it helps to absorb secretions and keep the wound dry. Additionally, the researchers also found that alginate is a component of the biofilms that clusters of bacteria form to protect themselves from antibiotics.

We looked into the molecular components of biofilms and we found that for Pseudomonasinfection, alginate is very important for its resistance against antibiotics, Li says. However, so far no one has used this ability to protect good bacteria from antibiotics.

For this study, the researchers chose to encapsulate a type of commercially available probiotic known as Bio-K+, which consists of three strains of Lactobacillus bacteria. These strains are known to kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The exact mechanism by which they do this is not known, but one possibility is that the pathogens are susceptible to lactic acid produced by the probiotics. Another possibility is that the probiotics secrete antimicrobial peptides or other proteins that kill the pathogens or disrupt their ability to form biofilms.

The researchers delivered the encapsulated probiotics along with an antibiotic called tobramycin, which they chose among other tested antibiotics because it effectively kills Pseudomonas aeruginosa, another strain commonly found in wound infections. When MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa growing in a lab dish were exposed to the combination of encapsulated Bio-K+ and tobramycin, all of the pathogenic bacteria were wiped out.

It was quite a drastic effect, Jaklenec says. It completely eradicated the bacteria.

When they tried the same experiment with nonencapsulated probiotics, the probiotics were killed by the antibiotics, allowing the MRSA bacteria to survive.

When we just used one component, either antibiotics or probiotics, they couldnt eradicate all the pathogens. Thats something which can be very important in clinical settings where you have wounds with different bacteria, and antibiotics are not enough to kill all the bacteria, Li says.

Better wound healing

The researchers envision that this approach could be used to develop new types of bandages or other wound dressings embedded with antibiotics and alginate-encapsulated probiotics. Before that can happen, they plan to further test the approach in animals and possibly in humans.

The good thing about alginate is its FDA-approved, and the probiotic we use is approved as well, Li says. I think probiotics can be something that may revolutionize wound treatment in the future. With our work, we have expanded the application possibilities of probiotics.

In a study published in 2016, the researchers demonstrated that coating probiotics with layers of alginate and another polysaccharide called chitosan could protect them from being broken down in the gastrointestinal tract. This could help researchers develop ways to treat disease or improve digestion with orally delivered probiotics. Another potential application is using these probiotics to replenish the gut microbiome after treatment with antibiotics, which can wipe out beneficial bacteria at the same time that they clear up an infection.

Lis work on this project was funded by the Swiss Janggen-Poehn Foundation and by Beatrice Beck-Schimmer and Hans-Ruedi Gonzenbach.

Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyA global-first, UNSW-led trial of an HIV prevention medication has resulted in an almost one-third decline in infections in the large-scale target group.

Recent HIV infections in gay and bisexual men in New South Wales have declined by almost one-third following the trial of an HIV prevention medication called PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis), according to Kirby Institute research published in The Lancet HIV on October 18.

These globally unprecedented reductions provide strong evidence to support the large-scale, targeted provision of PrEP to prevent HIV transmission.

The new research, funded by NSW Health, reports the findings from the NSW PrEP trial (called EPICNSW), which was launched in March 2016.

When taken daily, PrEP prevents HIV negative people from acquiring the virus.

The EPIC-NSW trial is the first study globally to measure the impact of PrEP on reducing HIV in a large population.

Professor Andrew Grulich from the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney led the trial.

The speed of the decline weve seen in new HIV infections in gay and bisexual men is a world first, said Professor Grulich.

In the year following the trial, state-wide new HIV infections in this population decreased by one third, from 149 infections in the 12 months prior, to 102 in the 12 months after.

These numbers are the lowest on record since HIV surveillance began in 1985.

Our research tells us these reductions are a result of PrEP, implemented on a background of high and increasing HIV testing and treatment rates.

The declines were highest among Australian-born gay and bisexual men (48.7%) and gay and bisexual men living in the gay suburbs of Sydney (51.8%).

These communities had the highest uptake of PrEP, and, in these populations, new HIV infections have halved since the trial began, said Professor Grulich.

However, we did not see the same reductions across the board.

Reductions were lower in non-English speaking immigrants with a smaller 21% decline among those born in Asia.

We need to improve education and promote access to PrEP, particularly amongst culturally and linguistically diverse men who have sex with men, and those outside the gay neighbourhoods of Sydney.

NSW was the first state in Australia to trial PrEP at a large scale.

The EPIC-NSW trial enrolled 9,714 HIV negative people at high risk of HIV and provided them with PrEP.

The study ceased enrolling on the 30 April 2018, following PrEP being made available through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Now that PrEP has been listed on the PBS, and is available across Australia, we need to focus our attention on ensuring equitable access for all people at risk of HIV, said Professor Grulich.

Professor Grulich credits the success of EPIC-NSW to a collaborative approach and the commitment of multiple partners across clinics, community and researchers, as well as leadership from the NSW government.

Dr Kerry Chant, the NSW Chief Health Officer also highlighted the importance of collaboration.

NSW has a long history of successful partnerships in HIV prevention, said Dr Chant.

Its these partnerships that have led to the success of EPIC-NSW and serve as a blueprint for other states and countries aiming to eliminate HIV transmission.

The results from EPIC-NSW provide an important evidence-base to inform our response to HIV globally, added Professor Grulich.

We now know that PrEP implemented quickly, at a large scale, and targeted to high-risk populations can help turn the HIV epidemic around.

Professor Andrew Grulich is available for interviews.

About the Kirby Institute

The Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney is one of Australias leading infectious diseases research institutes. Based in Sydney, the Kirby Institute is funded by the Australian Government to conduct research into HIV, viral hepatitis, bloodborne viruses, and sexually transmissible infections in Australia. The primary work of the Institute relates to the coordination of national surveillance programs, population health and epidemiological research, clinical and behavioural research and clinical trials. The Kirby Institute is affiliated with UNSW Medicine.

UNSW SydneyBefore the Spanish brought Catholicism to South America, the Andean people celebrated a brief return of the dead from the underworld each spring. Departed friends and relatives brought good tidings and good luck for plentiful rainfall and an abundant harvest. Once Catholicism took hold, this Day of the Dead celebration mingled with All Saints Day. Today this dual holiday is celebrated with a decidedly Bolivian flair.

Bolivian families anticipate that their returning dead relatives will be hungry, so they set a place at the table for the deceased and prepare favorite foods and drink for a big meal on November 1. On November 2, Bolivians escort the spirits of their dead back to cemeteries with a lively processional that includes artists, musicians and food stalls. Grave sites are spruced up with fresh flowers and a good cleaning. Families leave behind masitas, which are special sweet breads made in special shapes. Some are shaped like ladders to represent the Catholic tradition of ascending to heaven.



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ZONING BOARD DENIES PERMIT FOR DRUG TREATMENT FACILITY

Mark Salak, of 219 Erkwood Drive, points to a photo of flooding around his property, which he said could worsen with more development.

The Henderson County Zoning Board of Adjustment voted unanimously on Wednesday to deny a non-profit organizations application for a drug treatment center on Erkwood Drive, ruling that the commercial use was incompatible with the surrounding residential use.

The boards action came after six hours of testimony over three days from witnesses who debated whether the residential treatment center would be appropriate for the 1.3-acre property across from Mud Creek Baptist Church. In the final hour of the special-use permit hearing, which had stretched over three days, neighboring homeowners begged the board to deny the zoning permit while advocates for the center urged a yes vote.

The applicant, First Contact Ministries, argued that the facility would be secure, would serve people who were seeking treatment voluntarily and would address an urgent need in the community. Neighboring property owners said they feared the treatment centers clients could leave voluntarily and threaten their safety, that the commercial use would harm property values and that traffic and noise would increase.

"Obviously, we're very disappointed," said Craig Halford, First Contact's founder and president. "We'll take some time and think about it and discuss whether we want to appeal or not. It's hard to find any words beyond extremely disappointed. The community has said, Nope, we don't want it."

After the public hearing part of the three-day meeting ended at 6:20 p.m., the Zoning Board of Adjustment asked questions of First Contacts officials and began deliberating. Board of Adjustment members asked questions about water runoff, based on concerns raised by a homeowner who lives next to a small creek downstream from the facility, about the security of the facility and about whether the facility would admit people with a diagnosed mental illness such as bipolar.

Board Chair Ron Kauffman challenged one of First Contacts expert witnesses, an appraiser who compared a smaller facility in Mills River to the Mud Creek area facility for purposes of property valuation. The two projects seemed too dissimilar to be a meaningful real estate comparable.

The opponents, who took up about half the meeting room, applauded when the board voted to deny the special-use permit.

An appeal of the zoning boards decision would go to Henderson County Superior Court.

Residents of Dunroy, Chanteloup, Estate Drive and other neighborhoods had contributed to the cost of an attorney who led the opposition, Brian Gulden of Asheville.

Board members asked Craig Halford, First Contacts president and founder, why the nonprofit had not looked at other sites.

We do not have the ability to go out and buy land at the current market value, he said. This is available now. We can dramatically cut the amount of time that would be required to raise funds for the property if it can use the property donated by Mud Creek Baptist Church.

In a closing statement, Gulden said that an assisted living residential center would be required to offer mental health services, even though First Contact officials said they would only treat drug and alcohol addiction. He also challenged the use of the Silver Ridge retreatment facility in Mills River as a comparable use.

First Contact attorney Derek Jones emphasized that the applicant was seeking a special-use permit, not a rezoning. Were looking at meeting the criterion in the application here, he said. We provided competent evidence for each point.

Board members repeated that many residents had said. In a climate of serious opioid addiction, a treatment center is desperately needed. But an area with 540 homes in a half-mile radius is not the place for it.

Like you, I would like to see more treatment program in our county to address the serious drug and alcohol addiction, Kauffman said. However, Im not necessarily sure that the good Lord requires it to be built right there.

He also expressed doubt about the staffing ratio, saying it would not be strong enough to keep up with the 42 residents if some decided to voluntarily leave the facility in the middle of the night. First Contact has said that they expect no trouble.

Do we assume the risk that it will never happen? he said.

Fear of unknown operating procedures, Fishburne said, accounted for a lot of the opposition.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. RETURN TO THE LIGHTNING FOR MORE.Senator questions county native's experience in Senate Judiciary Committee hearing

Allison Jones Rushing

Alison Jones Rushing, the 36-year-old East Flat Rock native nominated for a seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, faced questions about her relative lack of experience when she sat for a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

President Trump nominated Rushing, a graduate of East Henderson High School who is a partner at Williams & Connolly, for a seat on the Richmond-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Multiple media reports described a sparsely attended Judiciary Committee meeting Wednesday in which Republican senators questioned six federal court nominees. Rushing faced friendly fire from Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, according to reports in Roll Call and the New York Times.

Youre a rock star, but I think to be a really good federal judge youve got to have some life experience, Kennedy said. Williams & Connolly is a great law firm, a lot of great lawyers there. Tell me why youre more qualified to be on the Fourth Circuit than some of the Williams & Connolly (lawyers) that have been there for 20 years, 25, 30 years in the trenches.



Again senator, my experience in the federal courts of appeals and the Supreme Court are why Im qualified. Not only the depth of that experience but the variety, Rushing responded, according to Roll Call. The judges on the courts of appeals get a wide variety of cases, and I have that experience in criminal law, prisoner petitions, products liability, intellectual property, commercial disputes, constitutional issues.

Rushing, an honors graduate of Wake Forest University and Duke University's School of Law, clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas and Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, before he became a Supreme Court justice, but has never been a judge. If confirmed, she would become the youngest nominee to take the federal bench in more than 15 years, the Times reported.

While liberal advocacy groups have raised questions about her relative lack of experience, conservatives, including U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr of North Carolina, have enthusiastically endorsed her nomination and praised her record in appellate work. A member of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group that has been advising the Trump administration on judicial nominees, Rushing has also worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit whose clients include the Colorado baker whose refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple led to a Supreme Court case, the Times said.STAFF and students from The Henley College marched on Westminster to raise awareness of the shortfall in education funding.

Principal Satwant Deol and student representatives joined their counterparts from across the UK for the protest on Wednesday.

They marched from Pall Mall to the Houses of Parliament before taking part in a rally in Parliament Square in support of the national campaign Love Our Colleges.

At the House of Commons, the students met Henley MP John Howell, and raised their concerns.

The visit was part of a week of action to shine a spotlight on the damaging impact of recent budget cuts and to make the case for additional resources.

Organisers want the Government to increase funding for 16- to 18-year-olds by five per cent a year over the next five years and provide extra ring-fenced money for staff pay. They claim that college funding has dropped by 30 per cent over the past decade.

The Henley College is currently trying to meet a budget deficit of 1.5million with a combination of cutbacks and the reorganisation of staff.

Nine staff left voluntarily and apprenticeships in hairdressing and hospitality have been axed.

However, eight new full-time roles have been created and plans for a new science, technology, engineering and mathematics facility are still going ahead.

Mrs Deol said: Over the past 10 years colleges have done everything they can to absorb continued cuts in funding and our staff have coped admirably in continuing to provide a fantastic service to our students.

Without recognition from Government that appropriate funding is needed it will be impossible to sustain the continued and important work that we do.

The skills of our future workforce are essential and 16- to 18-year-olds need the backing to provide them with the essential resources in order to flourish and progress with confidence.

Mrs Deol urged the Association of Colleges to campaign on the issue.

The Henley College is joining the Sixth Form Colleges Associations Raise The Rate campaign, which calls for the funding base rate for all 16- to 18-year-old learners to be increased for the first time since 2014.

The students are urging supporters to sign a petition on the issue. If this gathers 100,000 signatures there will have to be a debate in Parliament.

To sign, visit https://

petition.parliament.uk/

petitions/229744A NEW chairman of trustees at the Kenton Theatre in Henley has been elected.

Chris Tapp takes over from acting chairman Cliff Colborne following a unanimous vote at the annual meeting.

Mr Tapp, 57, who lives in Bix and runs an architecture practice, joined the Kenton board in the early 2000s.

He said: Ive had a longstanding involvement with the theatre and know the building as well as anyone.

Im therefore delighted to put that knowledge to use once again and hope to be able to help steer the Kenton through a few more years of its ongoing success.

Mr Tapp acted on behalf of the New Street venue when he designed and managed the wings extension and was also responsible for the design and build of the Henley Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Societys studio next door.

Since he first joined the board, he has provided detailed reports on the upkeep and maintenance of the building as well as involving himself in specific projects, such as fire safety.

Mr Tapp said: I feel we have a great team both on the board of trustees and in the theatre, including all our wonderful volunteers, and I feel very optimistic about the year ahead and the future of the Kenton.

Our audience numbers are increasing and so is the reputation of the theatre.

We look forward to working with all the local groups who are so important to us as well as the regular bookings, new performers and, hopefully, old and new audience members.

At the meeting, Mr Colbourne thanked the membership for their support and the board for its hard work over the past year.

He also paid tribute to Bryan Villars who retired as treasurer after almost 50 years.

Mr Colbourne also gave a detailed assessment of the previous years events and issues, including ongoing maintenance of the theatre and building projects.

Paula Price-Davies, the Kentons general manager, reported on new partnerships and audience numbers.

The new articles of association were approved by the membership and Judith Terry, Heather Simpkin and Darrel Poulos were elected to the board.

Meanwhile, at the new boards first meeting Linda Wallace was unanimously elected secretary.

She has served as a volunteer since her retirement as director of policy and professional services at the British Dental Association and was acting secretary.James Manning was stopped for using mobile while driving

A motorist was caught with 3.5m worth of drugs in his van when gardai stopped him for driving while using his mobile phone, a court heard.

At Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, James Manning, of Belclare Avenue, Ballymun, pleaded guilty to possession of 177kg of cannabis last Dec- ember 1.

Judge Francis Comerford sentenced him to nine years in jail with the final three suspended for three years.

Gda Thomas Barrett told prosecutor John Byrne that an officer in Offaly became suspicious of a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van parked outside a house and began following as it drove towards Dublin.

He contacted Lucan gardai, who dispatched Gda Barrett to wait on its arrival on the N4.

Firearm

When his car pulled up beside the van, he saw Manning (49) was using his mobile phone and signalled him to pull up.

In a search, 15 cardboard boxes were found containing 177kg of cannabis in bags with an approximate street value of 3.5m.

Manning has 29 previous convictions, including one for false imprisonment, one for possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life and one for dangerous driving causing death.

Gda Barrett agreed with Giollaiosa O Lideadha, defending, that his previous offending was linked to "alcohol abuse".

Mr O Lideadha said Manning had struggled with alcohol and had been homeless.

He stopped drinking in 2013 and had a job with Ikea at the time of his arrest.

Mr O Lideadha said Manning had agreed to transport the cannabis to pay off a drug debt.

Judge Comerford said this was "a crime of utmost gravity" and that without mitigation the appropriate sentence would have been 12 years in prison.Laura Kenna said she wanted to see life drain out of people. Photo: Collins Courts

A woman on trial for slicing a civil servant's throat told gardai that she was standing on Drumcondra Road "picking a victim" and that, shortly before the attack, had let another woman go.

Laura Kenna (35), of no fixed abode, is charged with the attempted murder of Fionnuala Bourke on Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9, on January 3, 2017. She is also charged with assault intending to cause serious harm.

Ms Kenna has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts.

Scarring

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecuting counsel Anthony Sammon SC said the central issue was the state of mind of Ms Kenna at the time.

He said the jury would hear evidence from two consultant psychiatrists from the Central Mental Hospital and there would be a conflict in the opinions of the doctors.

Mr Sammon told the jury that Ms Bourke, a civil servant, was walking home from work around 5pm on the day in question when she was attacked by Ms Kenna with a knife.

Mr Sammon said Ms Bourke's "throat was slit" and she suffered "severe facial scarring".

Upon her arrest the following day, Ms Kenna told gardai: "I'm guilty. Yeah, I f**king did it. Is she still alive?

"Yeah, I did it, I sliced her like you would a goat. You couldn't have stitched that up. I cut through her like butter."

On the second day of the trial yesterday, Fiona Crawford BL, prosecuting, told the jury that Ms Kenna was interviewed three times by gardai on January 5, 2017, two days after the attack.

Ms Crawford proceeded to read to the jury two memos of those interviews.

Ms Kenna told gardai that she had followed another woman along Drumcondra Road shortly before the attack on Ms Bourke but "let her [the first woman] go", the jury heard.

When shown CCTV footage from Drumcondra Road on the day in question, Ms Kenna located the point at which she followed the first woman.

When asked what she was doing at another location on Drumcondra Road, Ms Kenna said she was "picking a victim", the jury heard.

When asked if she understood Ms Bourke was severely injured, Ms Kenna said she did not care. When asked if she had any sympathy for Ms Bourke, Ms Kenna said she only had sympathy for herself.

She told gardai that if they were to let her out of custody then she would "finish her off".

The jury heard she told gardai that she did not know Ms Bourke beforehand.

"She just happened to work for that lot", referring to the Department of Social Protection.

In the second memo of interview heard by the jury, Ms Kenna told gardai that she had left her "meeting house" on the day in question and had to get some money.

"There she [Ms Bourke] was, so I just attacked her." She said Ms Bourke's money would have "done me for days".

"I'm just an opportunist," she told gardai, and Ms Bourke just happened to be walking by at the "wrong place, wrong time".

She said she cut Ms Bourke's face "deep enough" with the knife she always carried. It was a sharp knife, Ms Kenna told gardai, "a great f**king knife".

When asked why she assaulted Ms Bourke, Ms Kenna told gardai she "snapped".

Fascination

She said she decided to kill Ms Bourke and did not know how she survived.

She told gardai that she "wanted to see her die" and she had a fascination with seeing "the life drain out of people".

She agreed that she intended to kill somebody.

Ms Kenna said she wanted to do bigger things and referred to purchasing firearms for 500 to "clear out" a whole apartment block of people.

When asked by gardai if she had more interest in money or murder, she said "both".

Under cross-examination from Barry White SC, for the defence, Detective Sergeant Ken Hoare said Ms Kenna presented at interview in a number of different ways.

It was "fair to say" there were mood swings, he accepted.

The trial continues.A man has been charged with having cannabis for sale or supply following the seizure of nearly 1m of drugs in the west of the city.

Robert McGreevy (37) app-eared before Dublin District Court yesterday after he was arrested and charged by gardai investigating the haul in Clondalkin.

Judge Michael Walsh granted him bail and adjourned the case for the DPP to give directions.

Mr McGreevy, of St Peter's Road, Greenhills, is charged with possessing cannabis herb with intent to sell or supply. He also faces a related count of simple possession of the same drug.

The offences are alleged to have happened at Kilwarden Court, Clondalkin, on Tuesday.

Gda Shane McHugh told the court the accused made no reply to either charge after caution at Ballyfermot Garda Station yesterday. He was handed copies of the charge sheets.

The DPP had not yet issued directions in the case and there was no garda objection to bail, subject to conditions.

Judge Walsh granted bail in the accused's own bond of 2,000, with 1,000 cash lodged.

Conditions are that Mr McGreevy signs on daily at Crumlin Garda Station, surrenders his passport, continues to live at his home address and notifies gardai of any change of address.

Applying for free legal aid, defence solicitor Michael French said the defendant was working in the transport industry and handed in a statement of his financial means.

Plead

Mr McGreevy was remanded on bail to appear in court again in January. He has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to the charges.

Mr McGreevy is not charged with possession of any drugs other than cannabis.

According to gardai, cannabis herb, cocaine and heroin with a total estimated street value of 920,000 were seized.

Another man arrested in connection with the seizure has been released without charge, while a third suspect remained in custody yesterday.Lai Muntean claimed he could not afford an insurance policy

A car valet was caught driving without insurance by the same garda twice in two weeks, a court has heard.

Lai Muntean (25) got behind the wheel even though he did not have enough money to buy an insurance policy.

His solicitor claimed that the defendant had been "very foolish" and "naive".

Judge David McHugh fined Muntean 300 and disqual- ified him from driving for four years.

The defendant, of The Cottage, Belgard Road, Tallaght, admitted two counts of driving without insurance when he appeared before Blanchardstown District Court.

Gda Michael McNulty gave evidence that he stopped Muntean driving a 2006-registered vehicle on Belgard Road, Tallaght, last March 31.

Gda McNulty said he stopped Muntean for a second time on Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot, on April 11.

The officer told the court he had made the demand for Muntean to produce his documents at his local garda station but he had failed to do so.

Trouble

The court heard that the defendant had never been in trouble before.

Defence solicitor Kelly Breen said that Muntean, a father of two young children, operated a car valeting business.

Ms Breen said the defendant's behaviour had been "very foolish" and "naive".

She said he was now well aware of the consequences of driving without insurance.

She said that Muntean had not had insurance because he had not been able to afford a policy.

Judge McHugh noted that Muntean had been stopped by gardai twice within 14 days.

Ms Breen reiterated that her client had no excuses for his behaviour, but he had been "extremely foolish".

The court heard that Muntean was originally from Romania but had lived in Ireland for 17 years.

He previously had a difficulty with cannabis, but this was in the past and was no longer an issue, Ms Breen said.

She added that Muntean was still running his car valeting business and asked the judge to be as lenient as possible.Presidential hopeful Peter Casey has doubled down on his criticism of members of the Travelling community, saying they should "think and act as Irish people".

Mr Casey has refused to withdraw his remarks which have engulfed his campaign in controversy.

The businessman will face protests when he visits Tipperary today to view six unoccupied houses at the centre of a dispute between the county council and Traveller families.

However, amid mounting calls for him to withdraw from the election race, he is prepared to take on Government ministers, Traveller groups, his election rivals and even the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

An unapologetic Mr Casey continued to fuel the racism debate by insisting Travellers should not be considered an ethnic minority. Last night, he said they should "think and act as Irish people". He has also stood by remarks he made on Independent.ie's Floating Voter podcast that Travellers were "basically people camping in someone else's land".

Pavee Point co-director Martin Collins said the millionaire's latest contribution had "compounded the situation".

Expand Close Pavee Points Martin Collins / Facebook

Twitter

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"He has added insult to injury," Mr Collins said.

Stables

A number of councillors who helped Mr Casey get on the ballot paper said they didn't regret giving him their vote, although most disagreed with his comments.

Despite the controversy, Mr Casey plans to travel to Cabra Bridge in Thurles today to see a 1.7m development that has been built for Travellers living on an unauthorised site nearby.

It has been reported that the families want access to two stables and at least half an acre of land each for their horses.

Mr Casey has been critical of the role played by Pavee Point in the dispute, saying it should tell the Travellers about people "sleeping on the streets of Dublin". Speaking on RTE's Six One News, he defended his position, saying: "There's far too much political correctness in society... I say what I think and I think what I say." He has received a considerable level of support on social media.

However, Mr Collins told the Herald that Pavee Point had represented the Travelling community well and Mr Casey's view of the situation in Tipperary was "misinformed".

He said Mr Casey's decision to arrange a media event at the site was "strange" given the "hurt and pain he has caused".

"I don't know what the purpose of his visit is or what he hopes to achieve and it will be interesting to see how the Traveller families react," he added.

Mr Collins said there should be "protests highlighting their grievances" and then "some sort of dialogue".

Kieran Bourke, a Fianna Fail councillor on Tipperary County Council who voted to nominate Mr Casey, said the candidate's comments about the situation in Thurles were unhelpful to a "very sensitive" issue.

He described his decision to visit the housing at the centre of the dispute as a "political stunt".

"He's an opportunist. That's grasping at straws. It's a pity he's picking on an ethnic minority in this country for political gain," he said.

Mr Casey has claimed that Travellers receive healthcare, education and housing despite "not paying their fair share of taxes".

The five other candidates have lambasted his comments, with President Michael D Higgins describing them as "appalling" and fellow Dragons' Den entrepreneur Gavin Duffy labelling them "reckless".

Head of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Emily Logan said people running for public office had "higher obligation" to show "leadership and respect for the human dignity of everyone".For Subscribers Who are the top 25 county girls high school athletes since 2000?

Roughly 1,000 girls have earned at least one Herald-Mail All-Washington County first-team honor since 2000. Coming up with the top 25 was daunting.The housing and urban affairs (MoHUA) ministrys proposed construction of massive commercial complexes and government housing in seven colonies of south Delhi has been tied up in a legal challenge due to a case filed by a Delhi-based orthopedic surgeon. The badly designed project will add to the citys environmental problems. In this case, the Delhi High Court passed an order on October 3, 2018. The court order that was made public four days later reveals that the ministry has made several claims to the court even though these stand demolished in the ongoing public debates. This is a worrying moment for the people of Delhi who read scary news reports every day about the climate and environmental crises both at global and local levels, but the government uses the same old delegitimised rhetoric to justify its projects.

A case of alternative facts ? By asking the ministry to seek fresh approvals in accordance with law, the High Court order has, in effect, quashed permissions for all but one of the seven colonies that are part of the redevelopment project. This was absolutely necessary to uphold the law as these approvals were obtained through inadequate assessment procedures, absurdly misleading data and faulty EIAs. For the seventh, i.e the Nauroji Nagar World Trade Centre, the court will hear the matter next month.

However, even though the court and the ministrys counsel have agreed that the project has been redesigned, there is no evidence of this in the court papers or elsewhere. Given that MoHUA has convinced the court about having reapplied their mind and reviewed the proposal, it is disconcerting the ministry will not make this plan public. For a government that has waxed eloquent about transparency in several high profile matters from Aadhaar to data protection, why cant citizens be shown the layout and design plans of a government housing project?

The HC order extensively quotes from the MoHUAs affidavit to say that there have been changes in the architectural design, conceptual plan, realignment of towers and creation of an additional underground parking for cars. It repeats that trees, which cannot be protected on site, will either be transplanted or compensated for. But these are failed experiments, not solutions, as has been shown over and over again. According to a June 2018 news report in a national daily, an official of the Delhi Forest Department argued against transplantation to say that it is very expensive and more important an impossible option for a tree beyond a girth of 80 cm, as it has huge roots. He adds that If the roots are trimmed, the tree doesnt survive. Back in July 2018, the Delhi High Court had itself asked for an explanation from the ministry on how equivalence is drawn between a fully grown tree and a sapling.

On the issue of increased traffic that these projects will cause, the ministry stated that road restructuring, seamless connectivity, integration of public transport are being taken into consideration. Their response shows the vague thinking given to everyday aspects of urban life like mobility that can be completely disrupted by these projects.

The ministry has maintained a silence on whether they have obtained a certified report by the NDMC and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on sources of fresh water required for the six colonies. This permission was a prerequisite for starting construction activity for all seven colonies. The new DDA vice chairman recently said that the authority will proceed with new housing schemes only when the water crisis is averted. Yet the ministry has assumed that fresh water is readily available for the redevelopment schemes, and the shortages would have no bearing on their plans.

Discarding trusteeship: Citizens from different parts of NCR and other cities have been protesting against this and several other proposed construction projects on the grounds that the Urban Development Ministry has abused its trusteeship role of public lands and social and environmental obligations to the health and well-being of all citizens. There are nearly a dozen such projects proposed for Delhi alone.

It is very telling that the redesign done by the ministry under pressure from this case has not reduced the huge commercial component of the construction at all. The redesigned plan still means that these public lands will transform into nearly 25 million square feet of prime value real estate and underground parking for over 1 lakh cars. The redesign has only reduced the number of government housing, which was already insubstantial when compared to its commercial component. The ministry continues to make citizens and the court believe that the building of 24,928 government houses is the primary reason for all this construction.

Will this fig leaf blind the court and regulatory authorities from seeing the immense impacts that lie behind Delhis redevelopment project?

Manju Menon and Kanchi Kohli are researchers at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

The views expressed are personalThis year Dussehra falls on October 19. While some associate it with the epic battle of Ramayana, others do so to commemorate Goddess Durgas victory over the demon Mahishasura. Dussehra, also known as Vijaydashami or Dasain in certain parts of our country makes way for Diwali celebrations. One of the most important and widely celebrated festivals, the festival of lights or Diwali marks Lord Ramas homecoming after his victory against Ravana and is celebrated twenty days after Dussehra.

Significance of Dussehra

In North and certain parts of South India, Dussehra is celebrated to commemorate the battle between Lord Rama and Ravana. Ravana had kidnapped Ramas wife Sita and taken her to his kingdom in Sri Lanka. Lord Rama and Lakshman along with Lord Hanuman and their army of monkeys travelled to Ravanas kingdom, where they defeated the demon king.

How Dussehra is celebrated

In Northern India, huge dummies of Ravana are burnt on the occasion of Dussehra as part of the celebrations. The Ram Lila, which are plays and musicals that revolve around the tales of the Ramayana are attended by hordes of people in the days preceding Dusshera. It is celebrated twenty days prior to Diwali, and also known as Vijayadashami, Dasara or Dasain in certain parts of our country.

In Kolkata, it is Durga Puja (or Pujo, as Bengalis call it). In Southern India, the nine days of Navratri are celebrated with a display of gods and dolls called Golu. Sweets are prepared on each day of the celebration. Dussehra celebrations in Mysore are one of the most spectacular in the country. The Mysore Palace is illuminated and performances are organised.

In Maharashtra, families visit friends and offer the dried apta leaf, a symbol of prosperity. People also invest in gold and other expensive metals; it is believed that this will lead to prosperity all year round.

The main ethos of this festival is that of good triumphing over evil. It is on this day that people pray for prosperity and good health.

Dussehra/Vijaydashami Pooja Timings:

Dashami Tithi begins at 15:28 on October 18, 2018 (Thursday) and ends at 17:57 on October 19, 2018 (Friday)



Vijay Muhurat is from 2.18 PM to 3.04 PM on October 19.



Follow more stories on Facebook and TwitterFilmmaker Vikas Bahl has moved the Bombay High Court with a Rs 10-crore defamation suit against his former Phantom Films partners Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane amid the #MeToo furore. Bahl, in a suit filed on Tuesday, sought direction from the court to restrain the two from making any statement about him to the media or via social media. Bahl had recently stepped down as director of the film Super 30 starring Hrithik Roshan, who had refused to work with people accused of sexual harassment.

The court on Wednesday posted the matter to Friday so that the alleged victims side of the story can also be heard in the courts chambers, Bahls advocate Hitesh Jain told IANS. The Queen fame director Bahl was last year accused of sexual harassment by a former employee of the film collective Phantom Films, for an incident that took place in 2015 in Goa during the promotion of the banners movie Bombay Velvet.

The allegation resurfaced as the #MeToo movement garnered steam in India, leading some others, including Queen actress Kangana Ranaut, to point fingers at Bahls behaviour towards women.

Kashyap came out in support of the allegations in a HuffPost India report and also tweeted about it, while Motwane called Bahl a sexual offender. Bahl has said the defendants are taking advantage of the ongoing #MeToo movement in the country.

Kashyap, Motwane, Bahl and Madhu Mantena made a creative film quartet in Bollywood when they established Phantom Films in 2011. They came up with movies like Lootera, Hasee Toh Phasee, Queen and Udta Punjab, as well as the web series Sacred Games. The companys dissolution was announced earlier this month.

(With HT inputs)

Follow @htshowbiz for moreStock market regulator Sebi has determined the former owners of the Indias second-largest hospital chain defrauded the company of Rs 4 billion ($54.3 million) and ordered that they return it.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said on Wednesday it will continue to investigate the alleged fraud at Fortis Healthcare Ltd. to determine the role other parties may have played. In the meantime, it has given the founders and former majority owners Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, and their related corporate entities, three months to pay the money back. Sebi began investigating the matter in February after a Bloomberg report on the issue, according to the order.

A spokesperson for the Singh brothers main holding company declined to comment on the regulatory order.

The regulatory action adds to an already long list of liabilities facing the Singh brothers, who once controlled a business empire in India worth billions of dollars that is now largely lost. Lenders seized their Fortis shares earlier this year and Malaysias IHH Healthcare Bhd. has since agreed to acquire the company. An Indian court has also ordered they pay about $500 million to Japanese drug firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. to settle another fraud case. And the results of a separate probe into financial irregularities at the Singhs companies by Indias fraud office have yet to be released.

Sebis order details the results of its months-long investigation and alleges that the brothers used a complex web of shell companies and financial transactions to hide that they were the ultimate beneficiaries of loans made by Fortis. The regulator claims the Rs 4 billion was used to return money their holding company had borrowed from India Bulls Mutual Fund and HDFC Ltd, or routed to their financial-services company, where Indias central bank has found they diverted funds previously.

In total, the regulator found that Fortiss cash balances were inflated by about Rs 4.7 billion, according to the order.Retirements are rehearsals for death. You relinquish, surrender, withdraw, accept termination as inescapable, ordained.

Resignations, however, are more extreme. They are not rehearsals, but the genuine article itself. Especially, when they are not willed, when they are demanded, forced upon the person resigning by incontrovertible truths or by irresistible opinion, with the two combining. In fact, resignations are like death sentences being carried out.

In 1963, John Profumo, secretary of state for war in Harold Macmillans cabinet, was charged with improper conduct, moral turpitude. There was a security concern as well, since Christine Keeler , the 19-year-old model he was romancing with, had links in the Soviet embassy in London. His resignation was demanded with fervour, resisted with ferocity. He denied wrongdoing and threatened to sue his attackers  until it was impossible for him to deny the truth and resist the demand any more. He was in the wrong, both in the original act and then in the denial of it. He resigned with the following sentence written in his letter of resignation to his prime minister:

To my very deep regret I have to admit that this was not true, and that I misled you and my colleagues and the House.

Macmillan, in accepting the resignation said: This is a great tragedy for you, your family and your friends.

There was civility to the resignation and its acceptance. Profumos wife, the actress Valerie Hobson, stood by him for the rest of his life which was devoted to quiet philanthropic activity. Politically, he had been given  or he gave himself  the death sentence. He was to die 42 years later, at age 91, neither unmourned by beneficiaries of his charity work, nor ostracised by his party, the Conservative Party. He had rehabilitated himself.

But that was wholly because he owned up, confessed his action and took the punishment for it.

Macmillans role in the entire episode also comes through as most admirably decorous. He did not go by the allegations at once or in a hurry. But when it was clear that Profumo had to go, he let him do that with grace. And he called the whole thing exactly what it was for Profumo, his family and his friends: a tragedy.

Allegations such as surrounded Profumo must lead to the resignation of the minister in question, but if the resignation is delayed, resisted, the need for it rebutted, it forfeits the chance of a later redemption. On the other hand, if it comes betimes, a hovering tinge of honour redeems it.

Scandals of a sexual nature are rare in cabinets. Other types of controversies, involving financial probity, are more frequent. RK Shanmukham Chetty, Indias first finance minister, was asked, it is believed, to resign by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru after allegations, never conclusively established, of favours done by him to mill-owners. Chetty, to his credit, left without making a scene. And when he died not long thereafter of a heart attack, there was sadness for him, his family and, one must add, for the great woman who had become his partner  the Bharatanatyam diva, Balasaraswati.

Another finance minister, TT Krishnamachari, had to go after a much debated charge of complicit involvement in the 1958 Mundhra scam after Justice Vivian Bose, in his enquiry report, indicted TTK for lying. Nehru at first did not call for TTKs resignation. But when Feroze Gandhi, MP for Rae Bareli, and incidentally, the PMs son-in-law, would not yield, TTK did go. The resignation was a kind of political death but one from which he resurrected himself. Indeed, the resignation was seen as punishment enough. He was to be back in government.

Defence minister VK Krishna Menons resignation was demanded by the entire Opposition after Indias losses in the 1962 war with China. Menon was defended by Nehru, to start with. But the demand was intense. He was first reduced to being minister for defence production. Not enough by half said The Hindustan Times in a front page editorial. The demand for his ouster only intensified. And then, it is said, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the seniormost minister in Nehrus cabinet, told the PM that he must let Menon go, else the demand will escalate into one for the PMs own resignation. Menons resignation followed. Menon Goes! said The Hindustan Times in another front page editorial.

From being a minister who would not go, Menon became a man who gave up office, power, pelf. He was suddenly free, free not just of office, but of guilt.

Giving up office gracefully can mean finding a new role for oneself from within oneself.

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is distinguished professor of history and politics, Ashoka University

The views expressed are personalA private school in Dehradun allegedly denied admission to a 16-year-old girl because she was gang-raped in a boarding school recently, the rape survivors lawyer has said, demanding cancellation of the schools CBSE affiliation.

Advocate Aruna Negi Chauhan wrote a letter on behalf of the minors parents to the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and state education minister Arvind Pandey, urging them to take strict legal action against the school.

Her parents tried to get her admission into many private schools of the city, but they all refused. While the other schools did not give the parents any explanation, one private school categorically told them that they cannot give admission to her as she is a rape victim, Chauhan said.

The girl had been allegedly gang raped by four students of her former boarding school on August 14. Although she had informed school authorities, they tried to hush it up. The matter came to light in September, when the girl thought she was pregnant and informed her elder sister, following which Dehraduns senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nivedita Kukreti was tipped off.

The four boys were taken into custody and the boarding schools director, principal, administration officer, his wife and hostel caretaker were also arrested for alleged destruction of evidence and trying to hush up the matter. Police later confirmed that the girl was not pregnant.

The CBSE had discontinued the schools affiliation as its response to a show cause notice was evasive and insensitive, according to reports.

Advocate Chauhan has written to senior superintendent of Uttarakhand police as well, demanding an investigation into how the girls identity was revealed.

The biggest question is that how did the school get to know the child was a rape victim? By law, her identity has to be protected. We want the police to investigate who is behind this, she said.

The school authorities were not immediately available for the comment.

Chauhan also demanded the cancellation of the schools affiliation by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

However, regional officer of CBSE Ranveer Singh said he has not received any such letter.

It is the schools prerogative to give admission or not. There are many factors which influence a schools decision. It is not right on the parts of parents and the lawyer to make such allegations, Singh said.

Chauhan said the defeated parents of the girl wanted to shift her out of Dehradun from the next academic session, but were left with no choice and got her admitted to a school in a different state.

Despite efforts, the parents of the rape survivor could not be contacted immediately.The air quality in the city nosedived to very poor on Wednesday even before the onset of the winter and just days after stringent measures under the graded response action plan (Grap) came into force in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

The air quality index read 313, primarily due to wind speed dropping to zero. Other factors, including local emissions and stubble burning in neighbouring states, also played a part, say officials from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), who predicted that pollution levels would rise over the next few days.

CPCB is set to hold a task force meeting on Thursday to take stock of measures that need to be implemented to arrest the slide.

Air Quality of #Delhi's Lodhi Road area: PM 2.5 and PM 10 remain in 'poor' category at 224 and 272 respectively. pic.twitter.com/6AW8pWSivx  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

The PM10 particulate matter level on Wednesday was recorded at 326.8 micrograms per cubic metre, three times higher than the CPCB-prescribed safe limit of 100.

The smaller PM2.5 level on Wednesday was 138.7 mpcm, more than twice the safe limit of 60 micrograms per cubic metre. PM10 is mainly generated by road dust, while PM2.5 levels usually spike mostly when there is low wind speed and soot and vehicular emissions are high.

As wind speed dropped to zero, the pollutants could not disperse. Besides that, wind direction has changed to northwest, thereby carrying into Delhi pollutants from stubble burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana. Also, the festive rush on roads is adding to the vehicular emissions, a senior CPCB official said.

Members of the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (Epca) said that measures such as a ban on diesel generator (DG) sets, ban on firewood in restaurants/hotels, augmenting public transport, and disseminating information on public platforms are already being implemented.

Grap measures are implemented to combat poor, very poor (AQI above 301) and severe (AQI above 401) levels of air pollution. This is the second year that Grap is in force as an emergency plan to counter alarming levels of air pollution post Diwali.

A hike in parking fee by three to four times  a Grap measure listed to tackle very poor levels of air  is unlikely to be implemented this year, as the Delhi Parking Policy 2017 is yet to be notified.

Epca chairman Bhure Lal said all agencies have been asked to step up enforcement of Grap and take action against violators. The chief secretaries of Delhi and NCR cities have been told to closely monitor enforcement and take additional measures if necessary at pollution hotspots, he said.On Sunday, when Ashish Pandey, a former Parliamentarians son was brandishing a pistol at a five-star south Delhi hotel, very few onlookers knew that the man he was threatening was the son of a prominent Delhi politician.

Days later, Ashish continues to evade multiple police teams hot on his trail, while the victim, Gaurav Singh, continues to remain in fear and has gone into hiding.

He is staying at one of our relatives home in Delhi-NCR. He gave a written complaint on the polices persuasion, but he doesnt feel safe, said Gauravs father Kanwar Karan Singh, a former three-time MLA from Delhis Model Town constituency.

Sources said Ashishs family owns a number of businesses  real estate, construction, sugar mills, resorts, rice mills, a steel unit, a cooking oil unit, agriculture and a brick kiln.

Far away from the national capital, Ashishs father, former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, has built his business empire that spreads across his home district Ambedkar Nagar in eastern UP, parts of Maharashtra and Delhi. In political circles, Rakesh is infamous for his clout and muscle power.

According to Rakeshs affidavit submitted to the Election Commission before the 2014 Lok Sabha election, his movable assets were worth Rs 17.26 crore and his wife Manju owned assets worth Rs 8.19 crore. His immovable property was worth Rs 1.49 crore and that of his wife was Rs 2.37 crore. In the affidavit, Rakesh, however, does not mention the assets owned by his sons Ritesh Pandey, who is the BSP MLA from Jalalpur, and Ashish.

Rakesh also owns commercial buildings in Faizabad and Ambedkar Nagar, residential flats in Andheri West of Mumbai and Allahabad.

A family member, who did not wish to be named, said, Rakesh has mentioned in his affidavit the properties and companies that he owns. Ashish is managing his fathers business and a majority of the properties are owned by him, including residential and commercial buildings in Lucknow, Delhi and Uttarakhand. The construction company run by him has built apartments in Mumbai, Delhi and various cities of UP.

According to the affidavit, Rakesh and his wife own several pistols, guns and rifles. Ashishs uncles, former MLA Pawan Pandey and Krishna Kant Pandey, also own weapons. Ashish owns a pistol and a rifle, brandishing which he has posted his pictures on Facebook.

While Ashish has studied in Marshall School in Dehradun, Ritesh completed his graduation in international business from European Business School, London, before joining politics.

Gauravs parents, meanwhile, had declared more than RS 6.7 crore worth of assets when his father Kanwar Karan Singh was contesting elections in 2015. These included Rs 3.2 crore in moveable assets, of which nearly Rs 2.1 crore was bank debts. Their immovable assets are worth more than Rs 3.5 crore. Among their many business interests, the family own a fuel station in Delhi.

The Singh family  Gaurav, his parents, his wife and their daughter  lives in Rajpura village in Model Town. My son has never been involved in any untoward incident earlier. He has a clean record with no criminal cases. He is traumatised with all that is happening to him right now, said Karan.

Karan, however, had a few criminal cases lodged against him in the past, of which he claims one continues to stand. A case, pertaining to land encroachment and tax evasion, was lodged against him in 2014 on court orders. The court has ordered a stay in that case, Karan said.

I am still an active member of the Congress party, said Gauravs father, Karan, who won from the Model Town seat in the 1998, 2003 and 2008 assembly elections.

In his complaint to the police on Tuesday, Gaurav said he feared for the life of his little daughter and sought police protection. ...I am scared for my life and I dont want my family threatened. I have a small child. I am scared for my life. Please provide me protection..., his complaint read.The son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker, Ashish Pandey, said on Thursday he was being framed and subjected to a media trial after he was seen threatening a man and a woman and brandishing a gun at them outside a five-star hotel in the Capital on October 14.

It is being projected as if I am a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me. A lookout circular has been issued against me, Pandey said in a video message before he reached a local court in New Delhi to surrender.

Pandey, clad in pink trousers and a black t-shirt, was seen in the video that went viral pulling out a gun and threatening a man and a woman at the foyer of the hotel after an argument in the early hours of Sunday. He had been on the run since Monday when the video made headlines.

I will not deny that the incident happened that night. I got to know about it after the video became viral after two or three days. But the incident is being reported from only one side and in support of just that side, he said.

If one were to find out what happened that night and the CCTV footage is seen, it will be clear who was inside the ladies toilet and who threatened whom after coming out of the washroom, he added.

A joint team of Uttar Pradesh and Delhi police had raided Pandeys flats at the Santusthi Apartments, near the Gulistan Colony in Lucknow where politicians and bureaucrats live, and several other places in Uttar Pradesh in search of him.

He accepted that he did take his licence weapon out of his car but said he did not brandish it at Gaurav Singh, the son of former Congress leader Kanwar Karan Singh, and his woman friend and that he kept the pistol by his side. Kanwar is a former three-time MLA from Delhis Model Town constituency.

I did not misbehave with the girl and neither did I ever address her. She pushed me and made obscene gestures with her hand. And her friend abused me, Pandey said.

He said he has faith in the judicial process and will surrender accordingly. He said he holds a licence for his weapon for the last two decades and that there has never been any complaint against him.

I am a businessman and its no crime that I am a son and a brother of politicians. I have been paying my taxes for the last 20 years. I have never been accused of slapping someone and there is no civil case against me.

The Lucknow-based realtor is the son of Rakesh Pandey, a former member of Parliament from the Ambedkar Nagar constituency in Uttar Pradesh from 2009 to 2014. His brother, Ritesh Pandey, is a serving BSP MLA from Uttar Pradeshs Jalalpur.

I will surrender and will keep my point. I just request you see the CCTV footage to find out what happened inside and who issued the threats. I was threatened by him when I asked him to get out of the bathroom. I called the security who asked him to get out. You can talk to the security department of the Hyatt hotel and come to know everything about the incident.

The Patiala House Courts in New Delhi had issued a non-bailable warrant against Pandey on Wednesday after Delhi Police sought the document.Almost 13,000 nursery seats reserved for children from economically disadvantaged households in private schools in the 2018-19 academic session remain unfilled in the city with less than two months remaining for the start of the admission process for the next session (2019-20).

According to records of the Directorate of Education (DoE) , of the 48,122 seats reserved under the so-called economically weaker section or EWS category in private schools at the entry level, only 35,500 seats have been filled. And according to a recent report submitted by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) to the DoE, as many as 74 private schools did not admit even a single student under the EWS category in the last two academic sessions.

The schools have given a variety of reasons for refusing admission: no vacancies; the school being too far from the home of the child seeking admission; or that even general category seats are yet to be filled. The sixth round of admissions is still underway.

In some cases, parents this correspondent interviewed alleged that private schools denied admission to their wards even after their names appeared in the selected lists. DoEs response to this is that many such families do not report for admission even after the names have come up in the draw of lots and the selected names are displayed on the DoE website. DoE, which comes under the state governments education department, releases the list of selected candidates.

Sanjay Goel, director of the DoE, said, All these seats are vacant in less popular schools. Parents are not interested in getting their kids enrolled there. We have issued multiple notices to the schools after receiving complaints from parents. We have also sent our officials in many schools for inspection and found that parents did not report there.

One parent says he and his ward reported and were turned away. I have been making rounds to Panchsheel Public School in Badarpur since March for the admission of my six-year-old son. His name appeared for admission in Class I in the first list. However, we were told that there was no vacancy and we would be called by the school when all the general seats are filled. How can he be allotted a school where there are no vacancies? said Tasneem Ahmed, who works in a grocery shop. He has been applying to enrol his son in a private school under the EWS category for the last three years.

He will exceed the age limit if he does not get admission this year, said Ahmed. Children over the age of six are not eligible for entry-level admission in the EWS category.

Officials at Panchsheel Public School said there are no seats on offer. We had only one vacancy for class I this year and we had informed the DoE about it. We do not have any vacant seat, said Bharti Mehta, principal of the school.

Similarly, Shiv Kumar, a vegetable vendor in Mehrauli, said his four-year-old son was denied admission in Deep Public School in Vasant Kunj. I was not even given a proper reason for the denial. An official said that there was no vacancy, he claimed Officials at the school, however, denied the charges saying that all students whose names appeared in the list were given admission.

Still, there are some instances where the children have not reported for admission. This reporter met some families which did not report for admission to the schools. Many said the school was far from home. I stay in north Delhis Samaipur Badli and my four-year-old was assigned three schools in Dwarka, which is at the distance of 20 km from our house. How can we enrol our little one there? asked Jyoti Kumari, a homemaker.

As per norms, children must be assigned schools within 3km range of their residence for entry level classes.

Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, 25% of seats are to be reserved for the EWS category in entry-level classes  nursery, KG and I  in all private schools. Despite receiving over 100,000 applications every year, thousands of seats go vacant. As per the affidavits submitted by DoE in the Delhi high court, copies of which are with Hindustan Times, of 48,122 available EWS seats in private schools in Delhi, only 20,000 and 19,000 were filled in the last two academic sessions, 2017-18 and 2016-17, respectively.

DoE said it has set the target of filling at least 40,000 seats this year. We are yet to complete the final round of admission and hoping to fill over 40,000 seats this year, Goel said.

Khagesh Jha, an advocate in the Delhi high court said he has filed as many as 50 individual cases on behalf of the parents denied admission this academic session. This is a failure of DoE. Every year seats are going vacant and thousands of children are deprived of education in decent private schools. Strict actions need to taken against these schools rather than issuing circulars and notices.

Experts working for the cause said that they have also approached to the Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia seeking his intervention. We have received innumerable complaints from parents who were denied admission by private schools to the education minister but to no avail. Hundreds of parents are still struggling to get their kids enrolled, said Ekramul Haque of NGO Mission Taleem.

Manish Sisodia did not respond to calls and messages despite repeated attempts.Petrol and diesel dealers in the national capital are in the grip of a crisis following the recent excise duty cuts made by the Centre and many states leading to losses here ranging 20-30 per cent, the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association (DPDA) said on Wednesday.

The DPDA has called for a shut-down of 400-odd petrol pumps in Delhi on October 22-23 to press for reduction in Value Added Tax (VAT) by Delhi government on diesel and petrol.

At a press briefing in New Delhi, the DPDA said with the excise cuts making transport fuels cheaper in neighbouring states such as Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, besides the revenue loss, Delhis high pollution levels will certainly worsen because of consumers opting to refuel with the lower grade fuels sold in these states.

Last month, the Centre slashed the rate of petrol and diesel by Rs 2.50 per litre each which was followed by the reduction in VAT made by various states.

In comparison with Delhi, petrol in UP and Haryana is cheaper by Rs 2.59 and Rs 1.95 per litre, respectively, while diesel in these two states is cheaper by Rs 2.02 and Rs 1.72 per litre, respectively, DPDA President Nischal Singhania, told reporters.

Because of high price in Delhi and low prices in states like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, customers are deserting the petrol pumps in Delhi leading to huge drop in sales, he said.

According to Singhania, the price difference has caused a sharp drop of 50-60 per cent in sale of diesel and 25 per cent in petrol in Delhi during the current quarter.

Almost 200 pumps out of 400 pumps would be on a verge of closing down leading to retrenchment of thousands of workers affecting lakhs of people in the city, he said.

The dealers body also pointed to the bigger concern about the environment friendly Euro VI grade fuel being currently available only in the National Capital Territory (NCT) and the risks of consumers choosing the cheaper lower grade fuels.

Environment friendly Euro VI fuel is available only in NCT of Delhi and produces 80 per cent less emissions than Euro IV fuels. There is also an apprehension of interstate smuggling of inferior Euro IV fuel in the city, Singhania said, adding that Delhis pollution worsens during the colder months.

There are about 400 petrol pumps in Delhi which also have linked CNG pumps. Both will remain closed in protest from 6 am onwards on October 22 and remain closed till 5 am on October 23, a DPDA statement said.The moment the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple was announced, it was clear that it would be bitterly opposed. But instead of acting firmly and decisively, the Kerala government allowed things to spiral out of control. It left the process of holding meetings with all stakeholders for too late. Even when the protests began and it was evident that things were taking an ugly turn, the state did not deploy enough police in general, and policewomen in particular, to deal with the women who were protesting the verdict. These protestors attacked and assaulted women who were trying to trek towards the temple. Indeed, the state government also seems not to have anticipated the extent of anger with which the idea of opening the temple to everyone would be greeted.

This is not about the verdict itself. The issue of equality before the law was settled by the courts. There is an argument that the law should supersede religious beliefs for all religions but that is not the issue here. The Kerala government should have initiated discussions on how best the order could be executed without violence and in a manner in which all sentiments are respected. To reap electoral dividends, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh decided to support the protests. The protests also have the support of the Opposition Congress in the state. The states Left Democratic Front government is caught in a bind between implementing the Supreme Court order (as any government should), and not antagonising the protesters more by clamping down on them.

The state government could have ensured the change was carried out in a more socially inclusive manner. It could have even asked the court for more time to implement the order, even while sticking to its original position of not seeking an outright review. It could have ensured better and stronger policing. Instead it presided over what can only be termed a car crash in slow motion.Bullied and ridiculed by his friends and strangers over social media for dressing up in women attires, a 24-year-old man Wednesday jumped before a train and committed suicide, police in Chennai said.

V Kalaiyarasan, a resident of Kannikapuram in Vyasarpadi, a northern suburb in Chennai, used to release videos of himself on a mobile-based application, TikTok, to much ridicule.

We retrieved his body but did not find his phone on him. Enquiry with family members revealed that Kalaiyarasan was under distress for being teased by his followers on the app over his videos in womens costumes. Many of his followers ridiculed him, calling him a transgender and a eunuch, a senior officer investigating the case told HT.

...I cannot be cowed down by those who tease. Despite the fact that I have uploaded many male role videos, why the haters are hurting me ruthlessly when I am posing as a woman, Kalaiyarasan has asked in his last video.

One of Kalaiyarasans neighbours, K Vimala, said he very disturbed at the backlash and the harsh criticism.

The police said Kalaiyarasan was also scolded by his family members for uploading such videos.

After seeing his videos, several people known to his family reported about him to his parents... We are examining his TikTok account. Some of his friends are being questioned as well, the officer said.The request for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi is being examined by Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday.

Answering a question on Choksi, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar at a briefing said, According to the information that I have, the extradition request by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate), is being examined by them (Antigua and Barbuda authorities) and after they have examined it, they have said they will convey their response to India.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda E P Chet Greene last month on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly and raised the issue of extradition of Choksi, who is currently in the Caribbean island.

Greene had conveyed to Swaraj the assurances of his Prime Minister for fullest cooperation of their government in the matter of extradition of Choksi to India, Kumar had said after the meeting.

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the $2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and ED probing the fraud.

On a question on absconding businessman Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, Kumar said that in the case of Nirav Modi, extradition requests from the CBI and ED are pending with the UK authorities.

The requests are under consideration, he said.

We are committed to take this matter forward and to bring back the economic offenders, he said.

On Mallya, he said the Westminster Magistrates Court has fixed December 10 as the date for verdict in the case. Meanwhile, responding to a question on dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggis mysterious disappearance, Kumar said, I think I have seen media reports that this matter is still under investigation and so at this stage I have no comments.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)Ashish Pandey, former BSP lawmakers son who is wanted for waving a gun at a five-star hotel in south Delhi over the weekend, surrendered before a Patiala House courts judge in Delhi on Thursday morning. The court has remanded him in police custody for one day.

Pandey has been on the run since Monday when a video, which shows him brandishing a gun at the entrance of the hotel, made headlines.

It is being projected as if I am a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me... A look out circular has been issued against me, Pandey said in a video message put out minutes before he reached the court.

He insisted that though he pulled out his gun, he never aimed the firearm at anyone.

Watch: Ashish Pandey, who brandished gun, defends action in video message

The Lucknow realtor blamed the media for showing only one side of the story and insisted that people should see the hotels closed circuit television camera, or CCTV, footage also.

It will show that he (complainant) had threatened me, he said, suggesting that he had been targeted because his father and brother were in politics. It is not a crime to be son, or brother of a politician, Pandey said.

But Ashish Pandey isnt the only one involved in the case from a political background.

Gaurav Singh, who was seen to be on the receiving end in the video, is the son of Kanwar Karan Singh, a three-time former Congress legislator from Delhis Model Town.

Gaurav Singh had earlier told HT that he felt so threatened that he decided not to report the matter to the police. I have never had a gun pointed at me. I did not even know how to react to such a situation, said Gaurav, a Delhi-based businessman.

Pandeys father Rakesh Pandey was elected as MP on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket from Ambedkarnagar constituency in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Before joining BSP in 2007, he was a Samajwadi Party MLA.

The accuseds younger brother, Rakesh Tripathi, is a sitting BSP MLA from Jalalpur constituency of Ambedkarnagar.

Pandey and his family members are involved in real estate and liquor business for the past many years.The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sang (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government to consider introducing legislation for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, cautioning that it was in nobodys interest to test the patience of the society without any reason.

Bhagwats comments drew flak from critics of the RSS who linked the timing to key state elections at the year-end leading up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The demand for the legislation, earlier made by RSS affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), is in contrast to the Sanghs earlier stance of waiting for a Supreme Court decision on the issue. The top court is expected to start hearing the main Ayodhya title suit from October 29, after it declined to refer to a larger bench the questionable observation in its 1994 verdict that a mosque is not an essential part of the practice of Islam.

This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Despite such machinations, the decision regarding ownership of the land should be expedited, and the government should clear the path for construction of the grand temple through appropriate and requisite law, Bhagwat said, delivering the annual Vijaydashami speech in Nagpur. RSS is the ideological fount of the ruling BJP.

Bhagwat minced no words in blaming political parties for politicising the Ram Temples construction on the disputed site in Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid once stood, and which Hindu organisations say marks the birthplace of Lord Ram. If it werent for political machinations, the temple would have been constructed a long time ago, he said.

The place of Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place. There is an obvious game plan of a few elements to stall the judgment by presenting various newer interventions in the judicial process, he said.

BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao supported Bhagwat, saying a grand Ram temple must be built at the site, the Opposition said RSS should refrain from making political statements.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said RSS, which claims to be a social-cultural organisation, should refrain from talking about politics.

There is an institutional arrangement to deal with issues that are sub judice and if the RSS has demands from the government they should make them in private and not provoke people on controversial issues, he said.

Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said: The statement on Ram temple given by the RSS chief is a political statement before the upcoming elections.The RSS has not desisted from using the names of gods for political means and this statement proves their intentions in this regard once again.

The convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, Zafaryab Jilani, said Bhagwat made similar statemeMoD/HALnts in the past wherein he exhorted the people to ensure that a temple is constructed on the Ayodhya site before 2019. Bhagwat is trying to influence the court but I am sure he will not succeed, Jilani, who is also a senior lawyer, said.

Commenting on the Sanghs demand for finding a resolution of the Ram temple issue through legislation, a political commentator Shirish Kashikar said: The message is loud and clear: RSS will push the government to take a decision on their demand. It may not have been at the focus during the 2014 general elections, but it will certainly carry weight in the next round of Lok Sabha polls.

The RSS chief had recently hit out at opposition parties and said they too cannot openly oppose the construction of a temple.

For the past several months, affiliates of the RSS, including the BJP, have been bringing up the issue of the Ram Temples construction; a few months ago, BJP president Amit Shah told party workers in Telangana that the construction of the temple would start before the 2019 polls.

While the renewed focus on the Ram Temple issue is being seen as an attempt by the Sangh and the party to coalesce the Hindu vote bank, Bhagwat opted to present the demand as a matter of self-esteem.

It is in nobodys interest to test the patience of the society without any reason. The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view; it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country, he said.

(With agency inputs)Veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singhs son Manvendra Singh ended his familys four-decade-old relationship with the party and joined the Congress on Wednesday, an event that will impact politics in the Marwar region.

Manvendras entry will give the Congress a hold among the Rajput community that has generally stayed away from it. Rajputs have been considered the traditional vote bank of BJP while Jats that of Congress. However, the Rajput community is upset with the BJP over a host of issues.

Manvendras departure from BJP has created new poll equations in Marwar politics, giving Congress an upper hand, say analysts. Manvendra is keen on contesting the Lok sabha election from the Barmer-Jaisalmer seat.

According to figures estimated by political analyst Vijay Sharma, the Lok Sabha seat has about 2.5 lakh Rajput voters, 3.5 lakh Jats and 2.5 lakh Muslims. BJP has traditionally given four tickets to Rajputs on the 9 assembly seats in Barmer while Congress has given one.

He said Rajputs and Jats are political rivals and Manvendras move will help the Congress in getting votes of Rajputs and other communities such as Rajpurohit, Charan, Prajapat and other OBCs who are associated with Rajputs.

Sharma said Congress would also get back its traditional vote bank of Muslims that was dented by Jaswant Singh. He said that in 2004, Manvendra could win this seat with minority communities support.

Analyst Manoj Gujar said Manvendras entry into Congress is a huge loss for the BJP and it will not be able to compensate his exit as he commands influence over Rajputs as well as Muslims and other communities associated with Rajputs.

Gujar, however, said the Congress will have to rethink its poll strategy as Manvendras entry could alienate the Jats. Congress has traditionally given the ticket to a Jat candidate. Its MP Harish Choudhary was unhappy about Manvendra contesting from Barmer as he was hoping to contest from this seat.A Delhi court on Thursday agreed to hear the defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani, who had accused him of sexual harassment.

The Patiala House Court will examine statements of MJ Akbar and other witnesses on October 31.

Akbars lawyer Geeta Luthra told court that the tweets by Ramani were on the face defamatory. She urged the court to take cognisance of the case and summon the accused.

Articles in international and national media quoted these defamatory tweets. Tweets are defamatory unless Ramani proves anything, Luthra said.

Irreparable damage has been caused to Akbars reputation which he has built over 40 years, ANI quoted Luthra as saying .

The former minister in his petition had said Ramani intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated and salacious allegations to harm the editor-turned-politicians reputation.

Ramani has said she is ready to fight allegations of defamation laid against me, as truth and the absolute truth is my only defence.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Editors Guild of India urged Akbar to withdraw the case. We hope that Mr Akbar will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed against one of these complainants. While Mr Akbar is entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation, the Guild said.

Akbar had stepped down as the minister of state for external affairs after Ramani and a number of other women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour at various stages of his journalistic career.

The BJP MP dismissed the allegations as false and fabricated and malicious and said he will be taking appropriate legal action and said these have caused irreparable damage to my reputation and goodwill.

A group of current and former journalists employed by The Asian Age, a newspaper that was once edited by Akbar issued a statement on Tuesday, urging the Patiala House court to accept their testimonies in the case.The Centre has asked the Kerala government to ensure peace across the state following protests against the Supreme Court order allowing women of all age groups to enter Sabarimala temple, officials said.

In an advisory, the Home Ministry said the maintenance of law and order, including providing security to women wishing to visit the temple, was the responsibility of the state government.

The Kerala government must ensure law and order and full compliance of the Supreme Court order allowing women of the menstrual age group to visit Sabarimala Temple of Lord Ayyappa, a Home Ministry official said.

The state government has been impressed upon the fact that it would be in direct contempt of the Supreme Court order if female devotees of any age are stopped from entering the temple, he said, quoting the advisory sent on October 15.

Another official said the Kerala government, in its communication, has assured the Centre that the apex court order would be implemented and the law and order situation at the pilgrimage site was under control.

Yesterday, the iron gates of Sabarimala temple were opened for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age to enter the shrine but none from the banned age group could make it to its hallowed precincts amid a welter of protests and violent clashes.

Women journalists were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of Hindu right activists besieged the road leading to the hill-top temple, abode to Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity.The defection of two Congress legislators to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa has left the grand old party in disarray in the state as it fears more desertions in the coming days, according to functionaries familiar with the matter.

A section in the Goa Congress claims that former chief minister and veteran leader Pratapsingh Rane is likely to switch sides if the BJP appoints his son Vishwajit Rane as the next chief minister in place of the ailing Manohar Parrikar. Vishwajit Rane, who quit the Congress last March and later joined the BJP, holds the portfolios of health and women and child development in the Parrikar cabinet. He has emerged the front-runner to be the Parrikars successor despite opposition from the BJPs old guard in the state.

Parrikar was released from New Delhis All India Institute of Medical Sciences this week after a month in the hospital. He is now being treated by doctors at his Dona Paula home.

The senior Rane, who has been Goa CM six times, is unhappy with the state leadership over its alleged indecisiveness. He joined the Congress in the mid-70s after resigning from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). The Congress suffered a setback on Tuesday when sitting legislators  former Goa Congress president Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte  joined the BJP.

With their exit, the Congress tally has been reduced to 14 legislators in the 40-member assembly. The BJP, too, has 14 legislators and is supported by the MGP and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) with three legislators each.

Over the last few weeks, the Congress has been demanding that Goa governor Mridula Sinha invite it to form the government because it is the single largest and Tuesdays desertion are a big blow to it.

A Congress functionary said on the condition of anonymity that three other legislators may also quit the party in the coming days and are in touch with the BJP leadership.

However, Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said the party is planning to counter the desertions by showing that it is a losing strategy in the by-elections for the seats they vacate. Our target is to defeat all those who leave the Congress whenever by-elections are held. We will go to the peoples court and tell the voters how they have betrayed the mandate, he said.

Chodankar accused the BJP of using muscle and money power to poach the Congress legislators. It has become the BJPs national policy now. Wherever they (BJP) cant win the elections directly, they poach the legislators, he alleged. But some Congress leaders have blamed the partys state and central leadership for their failure to keep the flock together.

Goa BJP president Vinay Tendulkar said on Thursday that legislators from the Congress were willing to join the ruling party or regional parties because of its ideology. There are more leaders from Congress who want to join us. They can join the BJP if they find our ideology acceptable or they can go to GFP or MGP, he said.The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) governments plan to set up a so-called multi-modal terminal which provides rail, road and waterways connectivity in Varanasi , Uttar Pradesh has run into trouble because of places of worship that have been illegally constructed on the land meant for the project.

Land has been an issue in this project. There are certain sensitivities; there are three mosques and four temples on the railway land on which we want to build the terminal, a senior official at the ministry of road transport said requesting anonymity. This person added that the ministry doesnt want to push things on this front because demolishing places of worship could become a contentious issue ahead of the next years parliamentary polls.

The proposed terminal at Prime Minister Narendra Modis constituency is part of the Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP, a Rs 5,369 crore World Bank aided project on the Ganga, aimed at augmenting the navigational capacity of the Varanasi to Haldia stretch of the river, to enable commercial navigation of at least 1500-2000 ton vessels).

The land in question belongs to the Railways which leased it out to National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for construction of a bus and a railway terminal.

This is railways land and has been given to the NHAI on an as is where is basis and they were to further develop that land. The issue is that on some of the land there are mosques and temples. They are unable to find a way to remove them. So i dont think that project will be able to go forward, a senior official at ministry of railway said on condition for anonymity.

The government had awarded the contract to AFCONS Infrastructure for the construction of phase I of the Multi-Modal Terminal at Varanasi for Rs 170 crore.

 Railways land is usually very old, this one must be around 150 years old hence we dont know when or how these structures were built they assume that they have been built in the last 20 years. The land is around 100 acres big. We had handed over the rights of the land to NHAI about two months ago, the railways official said.

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the construction of the project was prepared by NHAI. It involved building a multi-modal terminal including a railway station and a bus terminal. The land is situated at Kashi station in Varanasi. There is no easy solution to such sensitive issues. The basic issue is that before construction has to happen it is important to remove these places of worship. NHAI has asked the civil administration to look into it but they also have their own compulsion since this happens to be a sensitive religious issue, the railway ministry official added.

The project has been caught up in land related issues since its inception. Another piece of land near the proposed water terminal couldnt be acquired initially.

We had some issues which were finally sorted out. There was a group of Hindu Mahants who had ownership of the land and they argued that they would not vacate this till the government gave them another plot in the same area, which also was disputed. Officials and state had to get involved to resolve it, a senior official at the ministry of shipping said.

Union minister for road transport, highways and shipping Nitin Gadkari laid the foundation stone for the terminal at Varanasi in August, 2016. The ministry is now considering changing its plans. There are many land related issues in this project. There was also a small patch of land which was allotted and leased to some trust and now the trust claims to own the land. There are issues with some religious structures. So we are looking at whether it is feasible to overcome this or adjust the entire layout of the multi-modal hub,  the road ministry official said.

Under JMVP, three multi-modal terminals are being constructed at Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia. The total financial progress for the project at the end of 2017-18 was ~678.85 crore or 13.05%. JMVP is scheduled to be completed by December, 2022.

According to officials at the ministry of shipping and the IWAI, the government is keen to get the water terminal inaugurated by PM in November. According to IWAI, nearly 85% of the work has been completed for the water terminal. The agency added that all issues related to land have been addressed. The project construction is going on schedule without any hindrances, IWAI said.

Queries mailed to the ministries of railways, shipping and road transport and highways remained unanswered.With the Sabarimala protests reaching a peak, the focus has now shifted to the political impact of the movement as Lok Sabha elections are not far away.

The RSS-BJP combine sense an opportunity to ride on this tide and turn Sabarimala into an Ayodhya of the South to reap electoral dividends; meanwhile, the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Opposition Congress are trying their best to deny the saffron brigade any political space.

As rallies and protests by groups opposing the entry of women of all ages into the temple gained ground, the BJP changed its position. This, despite the apparent difference of the local unit (which had first welcomed the Supreme Court verdict as one that paved the way for gender equality) with the stance of the partys national leadership.

The saffron partys job was, in part, made easier by the LDF government, which has no other option but to implement the court verdict. And though the BJP maintains it was not spearheading the agitations, its leaders were at the forefront, lending credence to the CPI(M)s charge that the Sangh Parivaar instigated the protests to gain political mileage through communal polarisation.

The BJP is only supporting the protests. The party is not involved in either organising or leading them, says senior BJP leader Muraleedharan, while denying the charge that its intent is to reap electoral dividends in the Lok Sabha polls.

Squarely blaming the RSS and the BJP for the current situation, CPI(M) MP MB Rajesh says: It is an ideological and political fight and were are carrying it forward. While the RSS-BJP brigade is instigating the protests, the Congress has betrayed its historical legacy by supporting them. He is not convinced the BJP can convert this angst into votes.

The state government itself is partly to blame, according to activist and analyst Civic Chandran, a former Naxal leader. The Pinarayi Vijayan government failed to resolve the issue through dialogue, he adds. While, admitting that the government should implement the court verdict, he points out where similar verdicts like the one on Adivasi land have not been acted upon with same urgency.

In his view, the Sabarimala protests will certainly find an echo in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, with the BJP gaining more ground and possibly snatching one or two parliamentary seats. Interestingly, people from the other backward classes or OBCs have stayed away from the protests. And the Ezhava community leadership has come out openly against the protests as has tribal leader CK Janu. The OBCs account for about 32% of the states population, the Ezhavas 22.6% and tribals 1.45%. As such, hopes of communal polarisation yielding any tangible gains remains to be seen.

Vijayaraghavan Cheliya, who has written on Sabarimala, says, In the absence of continuity and genuine conversation, there is a lack of credibility which allows the ground to the saffron brigade to exploit the present situation.

As for the Congress ambivalence, his rationale is that it is a tactic preventing the RSS-BJP from occupying the entire political space offered by the Sabarimala impasse. Further, he is dismissive of the BJP making a rich harvest out of this in the general elections, given the social dynamics of Kerala.

Meanwhile, the situation in Pampa and Nilakal has been brought under control. But the organisations spearheading the protests havent given up and have called for a shutdown to press for their demand. Since, it is supported by the Sangh, the Congress has distanced from it.India is stepping up its military relationship with its biggest arms supplier, Russia, by creating a new framework for bilateral cooperation that will focus on heightened military-to-military engagement, two officials familiar with the plan said, asking not to be identified.

The countries are creating a new division under the framework of the Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation, the sole purpose of which will be to promote strong proactive military level engagement, said one of the officials cited above. The engagement will cover several critical areas, including joint training, high-level exchanges, staff talks and military exercises.

The Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation is being renamed as part of the initiative. It will now be called Indian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission on Military and Military Technical Cooperation (IGC-MMTC).

The addition of the word Military in the cooperation nomenclature seeks to emphasise that military-to-military ties are as important as military technical cooperation related to weapons and systems.

The template for cooperation we are seeking to create is part of our overall vision for the India-Russia relationship. We intend to pursue the military-to-military relationship more vigorously. Some exchange programmes will be renewed after decades, the second official said.

The three-star officer, who will head the new vertical, will be drawn from the defence ministrys Integrated Defence Staff (IDS). The IDS is a single-point organisation for jointmanship in the ministry that integrates policy, doctrine, war fighting and military purchases.

New Delhi has been steadily upping the scale of military cooperation with Russia. Russia is the only country with which India holds a joint tri-service exercise  the first of these was held at Vladivostok last October, when more than 900 soldiers, sailors and air warriors from the Indian military took part in the exercise with over 1,000 personnel from the Russian defence forces.

In a joint statement issued after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian president Vladimir Putin met in Delhi for their annual summit on October 5, the two sides stressed that military and military-technical cooperation between the two countries is an important pillar of their strategic partnership.

Its important for India to further strengthen its military strategic partnership with Russia that has been a reliable friend for decades. Remember they sent their submarines to the Bay of Bengal during the 1971 war to counter the US Seventh Fleet.

The geopolitical scenario has changed but we need to strike a balance in our relationship with Russia vis-a-vis the US, said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General BS Jaswal (retd).

The IGC-MMTC will meet in December, a few months after India inked a Rs 39,000-crore deal with Russia for S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems despite the threat of US sanctions. India is seeking a waiver from the US and simultaneously figuring out an alternative payment route to sustain bilateral defence trade with Russia because the sanctions have created banking hurdles. The first payment for the S-400 purchase will be due soon.Karnataka minister DK Shivakumars apology for the previous Congress governments decision to accord minority status to the Lingayat sect and calling it a big mistake sparked a controversy Thursday with people associated with the demand lashing out at him and questioning the timing of his statement.

At a public meeting in Lakshmeshwara in Gadag district in northern Karnataka on Wednesday, the senior Congress leader sought peoples forgiveness for the previous governments decision. In this state, our government committed a big mistake. Government and politicians should not interfere in matters of religion and caste. It was a big mistake, he said.

If we have erred I want to ask you to forgive us. We should not politicise religion or try to spoil it because without religion we will not be able to respect humanity. The biggest virtue is belief We must save our math and religion and help it grow, Shivakumar added.

The issue pertains to the Congress-led state governments decision to grant minority status to the sect in the lead-up to the assembly polls, following the year-long agitation on the demand. The issue had brought out differences between the Lingayats and Veerashaivas, who were till recently considered a part of the same sect.

The Congress however went to perform poorly in the elections, getting relegated to second spot behind the Bharatiya Janata Party and many within the party had blamed the minority tag as being the reason for the partys lacklustre performance, after it ended up with 78 seats out of 224.

Incidentally, Shivakumar made the comments at a public meeting held by the seer of the Balehonnur Rambhapuri Math that belongs to the Veerashaiva tradition, and had opposed the Lingayat movement.

Criticising Shivakumar, supporters of the movement said he was unnecessarily raking up non-issues for political gains in the upcoming bypolls for five seats, of which two  the Ballari Lok Sabha and the Jamakhandi assembly seats  are located in the states northern region.

Former minister and Congress leader MB Patil, who spearheaded the Lingayat movement, said it was not right for Shivakumar to make such public statements. There is no question of the government interfering in religious matters and so there is no question of apologising. I dont know in what context Shivakumar spoke. Secondly, no party was affected by the Lingayat separate religion status, he said.

Patil also questioned Shivakumars assertion that the Lingayat move had backfired on the Congress. He must also talk about how many seats he was able to help the party win in the Vokkaliga belt of Hassan, Mandya, Mysuru, Chamarajanagara and Kolar. It is not right to make such statements, he said. The Congress fared poorly in the southern regions, especially in Mandya district, where the Janata Dal (Secular) won all seven seats.

I dont know why he has made such a statement. But these are issues that need to be discussed within the party. It not right to make public statements and to apologise for something that hasnt happened is not right, he added.

Lingayat seer Mate Mahadevi also criticised Shivakumar saying he should have expressed his opposition to the decision when it came before the previous Siddaramaiah government, as he too was a minister then. It seems to be a statement made targeting leaders within his own party. If he did have such a strong feeling against it, he should have expressed it to the Cabinet when it was considering the move, she said.

Other leaders of the movement also attacked Shivakumar, questioning his understanding of the law. We asked for minority status because no government has the power to accord religion status. And the minister does not understand the law because only a government can accord minority status to a community, said SM Jamdar, general secretary of the Jagatika Lingayat Mahasabha which was at the forefront of the movement.

Meanwhile, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy sought to distance himself from the controversy, pointing to the fact that the Congress-JD(S) government had so far not considered the issue in the past four months.

This issue is not related to me. I have not held any discussions on this topic since the new government came into being nor did we review any of this, he told reporters in Mysuru. During the previous government, there were two opposing groups on this issue. I have stated it earlier as well, whenever there is an issue concerning religion, only religious heads should come together and resolve this. I maintain this statement, he added.

Even state Congress working president Eshwar Khandre, who was a Cabinet minister in the previous government, said it was a personal opinion of Shivakumar, on which he had nothing to say. I have made my views clear and there is no need to go into them once again. The minister expressed his personal opinion and I have no comment to make on this, he said.A man allegedly attacked his wife and three others with a sickle and injured them outside a police station in Hyderabad on Thursday when she had gone there to register a complaint against him for harassment.

Syed Rehman was immediately taken into custody while his wife Kousal Begum and the other injured were rushed to a hospital. The incident happened at Begampet police station in the city.

North zone deputy commissioner of police Kalmeshwar Shingenvar said the couple, who had been married since 2009, was living separately for over eight months as Rehman, a habitual drinker, had been harassing his wife for money for liquor.

Kousal, living with her parents, was working in a private company in Rasulpura area. But Rehman continued to harass her. On Thursday morning, he went to Kousals workplace and started an argument with her demanding money.

Frustrated by this, Kousal and her relatives went to the Begampet police station to complain against Rehman.

Even as they were drafting a complaint on the station premises, Rehman came with a sickle and allegedly attacked them.

The station house officer N Buchchaiah clarified that the attack took place outside the station and Rehman was overpowered and taken into custody.

Police have booked him for attempt to murder, and under sections of Indian Arms Act.

Kousal and the others are out of danger, according to hospital sources.Police in Jammu and Kashmir said on Thursday they have killed a militant, who had escaped from Pattan town of Baramulla district on Wednesday after lobbing a grenade at policemen searching vehicles injuring three of them, including an officer.

A police spokesperson said Showkat Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Awantipore who managed to flee after attacking the policemen, was killed during Wednesday night in Pulwama and that arms and ammunition were recovered from him.

He was an active militant of Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen militant group and was wanted in Pattan grenade incident, the spokesperson said.

One militant was arrested soon after the attack and identified as Faizan Majeed Bhat of Naibough Tral.

Police said both had joined militancy in the first week of this month and posted their pictures on the social media along with weapons. Faizan was a student of Class 11 and Showkat was pursuing a bachelors degree in pharmacy.

They said both were affiliated with Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen and after joining the group they were active in Sopore town and its adjoining areas.

A senior police officer said both were in Sopore and had plans to reach south Kashmir when they were intercepted by the policemen on the national highway near Pattan. They had hurled a grenade on a police check post injuring deputy superintendent of police Zaffar Ahmad, special police officer Shabir Ahmad and Ashiq Hussain.

We had received information that militants were crossing the Baramulla-Srinagar national highway. Based on the information, a police party was deployed at a naka on the highway, Baramullas senior superintendent of police (SSP) Imtiaz Hussain said.

Hussain said the two men were in a car and left it to board a passenger vehicle after noticing the police checking. They lobbed a grenade on the policemen when the vehicle, which they had boarded, was stopped.

One militant fled towards Pattan and another towards Palhalan village. We managed to capture one militant alive, while the other militant and the person who was driving the Alto car escaped from the spot, he said.

Police claim militants are trying to revive Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen and both the militants had plans to set up a base in south Kashmir for the group.

A senior officer said that a module of Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen militants is active in Sopore town and it is touch in some people in south Kashmir.

The pictures in which both these militants were seen portraying with guns were actually released in Sopore. Even the car to pick them was arranged from south Kashmir, the officer said.A Delhi court will on Thursday hear a defamation case filed by former Union minister MJ Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani, who had accused him of sexual harassment.

The lawsuit said Ramani intentionally put forward malicious, fabricated and salacious allegations to harm the editor-turned-politicians reputation.

Ramani has said she is ready to fight allegations of defamation laid against me, as truth and the absolute truth is my only defence.

Akbar had stepped down as the minister of state for external affairs after Ramani and a number of other women accused him of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour at various stages of his journalistic career.

The BJP MP dismissed the allegations as false and fabricated and malicious and said he will be taking appropriate legal action and said these have caused irreparable damage to my reputation and goodwill.

A group of current and former journalists employed by The Asian Age, a newspaper that was once edited by Akbar issued a statement on Tuesday, urging the Patiala House court to accept their testimonies in the case.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has sought sanction from Haryana government to prosecute former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in a case pertaining to the restoration of an institutional plot at Panchkula to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) at old rates.

Under the amended Prevention of Corruption Act, the investigation agency now has to take prior sanction from the state government to prosecute a former public servant who served in the state government. Hooda was the chief minister and chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) when the plot was restored to AJL at old rates in 2005.

AJL, a company having many Congress leaders as its directors, publishes the National Herald newspaper. The CBI will file a charge-sheet in the CBI court once it gets the sanction to prosecute the former chief minister.

Officers opposed the restoration

The government officials had in writing opposed the restoration of the plot to the AJL but were overruled by Hooda, the then chief minister and chairman of Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), who passed a speaking order to restore it. The 3,500 square metre plot was first allotted to AJL in 1982 but resumed by HUDA in 1992.

The state vigilance bureau had in May 2016 booked Hooda and three officials  the then chief administrator, HUDA, SS Dhillon; the then principal secretary, town and country planning, Shakuntla Jakhu and then administrator, HUDA (HQ), Vineet Garg, for allegedly restoring the resumed plot. The case was in 2017 referred to the CBI by the state government for investigations.

The CBI had registered a regular case (RC) against Hooda and the officials under sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 420 ( cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act ( misuse of official position by public servant) against Hooda, the officials and Associated Journals Ltd.

Clean chit to officials

During the investigation, the CBI found that the government officials had no role in the allotment of plot to AJL as they had opposed it on the file. HT had in 2016 reported that BJP government had wrongly named the officials in the FIR registered by vigilance bureau.

The three officials named had written on the file that fresh allotment at current allotment rates can be made, that there was no merit in the AJLs request for restoration and the case needs to be filed. Even the law secretary in his opinion said there can be no question of re-allotment or restoration of the plot to the same allottee.

Timeline

1982: AJL allotted 3,500 sq m institutional plot in Panchkula

1992: AJL failed to construct, plot resumed by estate officer, HUDA

1995: AJLs appeal against resumption dismissed by HUDA administrator

1996: AJLs revision plea before TCP secretary dismissed

May 2005: AJL requests restoration of plot, move opposed by officers

August 2005: Law secretary concurs with officers, Hooda as HUDA chairman re-allots the plot at original ratesThe only Indian to be chief minister of two states, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, who died on his 93rd birthday Thursday, grew from the youngest jailed freedom fighter to a seasoned administrator and a consummate but affable politician with a knack of befriending his political foes.

Chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for three times in the 1970s and 1980s, he was the last Congress leader to head the crucial state. He also became the first elected chief minister of Uttarakhand after its first assembly polls in 2002, and is acknowledged to have contributed much to development of the hill state carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000. He is also so far the only to have completed a full term as chief minister in the state.

In the Congress for virtually his entire political career, he got along with politicians across the spectrum. No wonder, he had a number of friends among politicians in rival political parties, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee being one of them, recalls Congress Uttarakhand unit vice president Ramesh Pande. It was a rare trait which, he feels, had its roots in Tiwaris humble origins and a life full of struggles. He was also staunch Gandhi family loyalist.

He (Tiwari), the longtime associate of the veteran politician recalled, overcame all odds owing to his extraordinary intelligence and political acumen to carry both his supporters and detractors along. Or else, says Deepak Balutia, Tiwaris nephew and a Congress leader, it wouldnt be possible for him to stand out in the fiercely competitive world of politics despite his humble origins.

Born in a poor family on October 18, 1925 at Baluti, his mothers ancestral village in Nainital, his father Poornanand Tiwari was a government clerk who, inspired by Mahatma Gandhis call for non-cooperation, left his job to join the freedom struggle. Tiwarji was the youngest freedom fighter as he was sentenced to jail for participating in the freedom movement when he was hardly 15 years old, said Pande. In fact, he and his father remained incarcerated in Nainital jail for quite some time, he added.

However, after he finished his schooling, his father expressed his inability to continue his sons education citing his limited means. Undaunted, young Tiwari left home and enrolled himself at Allahabad University. During those days I didnt have enough money to buy vegetables, so, I used to bake paranthas using oil, instead of ghee, and eat them recalled Tiwari at a public meeting at Ramnagar some years back.

A good orator, Tiwari stood out as a student leader following his election as the general secretary of the Allahabad University Students Union. A student of political science, he passed his post-graduation exam with distinction and was awarded a gold medal. By then he had already caught the eye of a leader like Jawaharlal Nehru and his political career started taking wings, Pande said.

Tiwari, who initially made his political foray with the Praja Socialist Party in 1952, joined the Congress in 1963, won the Kashipur assembly seat two years later and went on to become Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 1976, a post he held thrice. He won the Lok Sabha election from Nainital in 1980 and became a minister in the Indira Gandhi government besides holding several positions including the Planning commission deputy chairman. He also held several key portfolios including those of external affairs, finance and commerce in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet.

It was believed that Tiwari would become the Prime Minister after the 1991 general elections, owing to his proximity to the Gandhi family, had he not lost from the Nainital Lok Sabha seat in 1991. In fact, so fiercely loyal was he to the Gandhi family that he formed Congress (Tiwari), along with senior party leaders Arjun Singh and Sharad Pawar following Sonia Gandhis differences with then Congress president Sitaram Kesri.

She chose him for the post of chief minister of Uttarakhand in 2002. Tiwari didnt disappoint her. Even leaders of rival parties appreciate his five-year stint. He (Tiwari) gave a sound footing to this small fledgling stateHardly any development happened after he went out of scene, said BJP veteran and former chief minister BC Khanduri in an interview to HT ahead of the 2017 assembly polls.

But his twilight years were not controversy-free. A sex scandal allegedly involving him when he was Andhra Pradesh governor led to him quitting, while a long-drawn paternity suit filed by his biological son Rohit Shekhar in 2008 kept dogging him. Eventually, he accepted Rohit as his son.

Tiwari, who was in virtual political retirement, had announced his support for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2017 assembly elections in Uttarakhand. However, in September that year, he was hospitalised after suffering a brain stroke and remained there till his death.The National Investigation Agencys (NIA) examination of interfaith marriages in Kerala has not unearthed any evidence of coercion that can result in prosecution in these cases, officials familiar with the matter said. One of them added that while there may have been efforts to facilitate the conversion of either the man or the woman involved, there was no evidence of a larger criminal design.

The NIA is not supposed to file any further report in this regard in the Supreme Court. As far as the NIA is concerned, the matter stands closed as the agency has not found any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or the woman was coerced to convert, said a senior agency official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The agency picked 11 cases of interfaith marriages in Kerala for examination as part of its probe into so-called cases of love jihad at the instance of the Supreme Court.

These 11 cases were picked up from a list of 89 interfaith marriages that were already before law enforcement authorities (usually because of complaints by parents) and which were referred to the federal anti-terrorism agency by the Kerala police.

The investigation happened in the context of the celebrated Hadiya case.

Hadiya converted to Islam and married Shafin Jahan, but her marriage was annulled by the Kerala high court on the basis of a petition filed by her father; the Supreme Court set aside the high court order.

At least one among the 11 marriages under examination was purely a matter of relationship gone sour. In most of the other cases we found that a similar set of people and organisations associated with Popular Front of India (PFI) were involved in helping either the man or the woman involved in a relationship to convert to Islam, but we didnt find any prosecutable evidence to bring formal charges against these persons under any of the scheduled offences of the NIA, like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, added the official.

The official said the Constitution of India had provided freedom to practice and promote religion in a peaceful manner to all citizens as a fundamental right. Conversion is not a crime in Kerala and also helping these men and women convert is also within the ambit of the Constitution of the country.

PFIs legal advisor KP Muhammer Shareef labelled the concept of love jihad a sinister design cooked up by right wing forces to target the Muslim community at large and claimed the effort was aimed at portraying the Front and (its political arm), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), as conduit pipes for love jihad.

Umpteen investigations and enquiries conducted by various agencies have now found the allegation of love jihad is obnoxious, fictitious and without any scintilla of evidence, said Shareef.

Still, the results of this investigation should not be construed as a clean chit for PFI, the NIA official said.

There are separate criminal cases of serious charges of murder going on against the alleged cadres of PFI. Those matters are being dealt (with) separately.

Among the 11 cases examined by the NIA, there were at least four cases of interfaith marriages where Hindu men embraced Islam or where efforts were made to convert them to Islam. In the rest of the cases examined by NIA, Hindu women married Muslim men.

The NIA probe found that in at least three cases, efforts at conversion failed, said a second NIA official who asked not to be named.M J Akbar attended official meetings on Monday and Tuesday as the junior external affairs minister after returning from a trip abroad, the ministry said Thursday, in first comments on the issue.

At a press conference, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, replying to a question, said he was not aware of any specific meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Akbar on the allegations levelled against him. Akbar, a former journalist, stepped down Wednesday in the face of mounting pressure following a spate of allegations of sexual harassment against him by several women journalists.

He was on a trip to Africa when the allegations of sexual harassment surfaced against him as part of the #MeToo movement in India. Hours after returning home on Sunday, he issued a statement trashing the allegations. However, he quit following increasing pressure on him as more women came out with accounts of alleged sexual harassment by him.

Asked whether it was his own decision to quit or whether Swaraj or Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent any communication to him to resign, Kumar only said, The minister has resigned. He has also issued a statement and I think beyond that I have nothing to add.

As far as meeting is concerned, I can only share with you that since he has returned to India, there were certain officials meetings in the MEA on Monday and Tuesday. He was part of those meetings. But I am not aware of any specific meeting between the external affairs minister and the MoS on this matter, Kumar said.

He did not reply when asked whether Akbar was asked to resign.

Over the past 10 days, at least 20 women have have come forward to narrate their experiences of alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Akbar during his days as editor of several mainstream publications. Following these allegations, opposition parties as well as many media organisations have been demanding his resignation.

Akbar on Monday filed a criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who accuse him of sexual misconduct. In his complaint, Akbar accused Ramani of wilfully and maliciously making imputations against him with the ulterior motive of maligning his reputation and political standing. A Delhi court Thursday took judicial note of Akbars complaint and decided to record his statement on October 31 in the case.India Thursday said the onus was on Pakistan to create conducive conditions for talks by taking steps such as action against terrorists and dismantling terror infrastructure operating from its soil.

During a media briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar reiterated Indias stand that talks and terror cannot go together and said this was one of the reasons why the scheduled meeting in New York between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan was cancelled.

Barely 24 hours after agreeing to the engagement, the government had called off the meeting last month, citing the brutal killings of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad releasing postage stamps glorifying Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.

Asked if there was any message or signal from the Pakistani side for talks, Kumar said, I am not aware of any proposal for a track 1 or track 1.5 dialogue or a meeting between India and Pakistan. The onus is on Pakistan to take credible steps, to create conducive conditions, for such talks which of course means taking action against terrorists, taking action against terrorist infrastructure which operates from its soil, he said.

Asked about Pakistan Armys statement warning of 10 surgical strikes against India in response to a single such attack, Kumar said, You should ask this question to the Indian Army, they will give a befitting reply to them. India-Pakistan ties have nose-dived in view of a number of terror strikes by Pakistan-based groups. India retaliated by carrying out surgical strikes in September 2016 across the Line of Control (LoC). India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together.

Accepting the proposal for the meeting in New York, India had, however, made it clear that it was not resumption of dialogue and the decision doesnt change the countrys position on cross-border terrorism.It was the afternoon of October 18, 2007. Suddenly, my mobile phone rang. As soon as I picked up the call, I heard a voice say: Namaskar, this is Narayan Dutt from Hyderabad speaking. After a pause of a couple of seconds, I heard him say. This is Narayan Dutt from Hyderabad. It is my birthday today. I thought it may be a good time to seek your blessings.

Embarrassed, I immediately wished him. Until late in the night I couldnt understand the significance of this one-and-a-half-minute conversation. What made Narayan Dutt Tiwari call me? Was he trying to send out a message? Or was it just one of the quirks of a senior citizen. I had never wished him on his birthday before. Todays politicians fume at people on certain occasions and indulge them on others in order to control them. His polite nature was Narayan Dutt Tiwaris biggest political weapon.

At the time, who could have imagined that Tiwari would pass away the same day as his birthday?. I first met him in turbulent circumstances. In 2002, I had left television and moved to a newspaper. Before I took over, it had been decided that the board of directors would give me a free hand. Tiwari was the chief minister of Uttarkhand in those days. The two most prominent newspapers published from the state used to carry his picture on the front page every day. On my first trip to Dehradun, I gently told my colleagues that printing the CMs photograph on the front page every day without sufficient news value was doing injustice to the readers.

My colleagues accepted my suggestion, but informed Tiwari about it. This is an everyday occurrence in an editors life.

A few ministers, offended by my decision, also tattled to Tiwari. The chief minister called up the newspapers director to complain and the message was conveyed to me. I brushed it aside. A few days later, the chief minister himself called up the chairman of the board. The chairman told me on the phone that he had family ties with Tiwari. That Tiwari was a veteran politician and news about him wasnt getting the treatment it deserved. When I told him the reason for my decision, he was silent. The status quo didnt change. A few days later, Tiwari again called up the chairman and said: I havent called up to complain. I know you, too, have grown old and helpless. The way no one listens to me in the Congress, nobody listens to what you say in the newspaper. Both of us should respect this as passage of time and make peace with it.

Flying into a rage, the chairman immediately called me and said: Are you sending out the message that I have no standing in my own newspaper? I asked him for two days time within which I would have a word with Tiwari. The chairman was committed to the promise of giving me a free hand. So I was given this opportunity. Our meeting at the chief ministers residence was interesting. I asked Tiwari, Ive heard that you were associated with the National Herald newspaper. In a way, you are my super-senior in journalism. Do you think that the media these days is keeping pace with the changing times? Tiwaris erudition was evident in his reply. Referring to a number of Indian and international newspapers, he said: I agree that newspapers should not be monotonous or dreary. The front page should have at least one story or photograph that refreshes the peoples mood early in the morning.

Shashi Shekhar is editor-in-chief Hindustan. The views are personalDevotees enter Sannidhanam to offer prayers

Kerala: Devotees enter Sannidhanam to offer prayers at #SabarimalaTemple. pic.twitter.com/byeg9h7eIl  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

BJP, Cong playing dirty politics over Sabarimala: CPI

CPI accused the BJP-RSS combine and Congress of indulging in double-talk and playing dirty games over the Sabarimala issue to target the Left government in Kerala by exploiting peoples sentiments.

CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy termed as very unfortunate the protests in Kerala against the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages to the hill shrine.

They (agitators) should respect the SC judgement in spite of the sentiment which they may be having (against it), Reddy said.

Gender equality has to be accepted in the 21st century. The old things cannot continue like this, he told PTI.

Sabarimala pilgrims stranded

Shops, business establishments and educational institutes remain closed due to the bandh. Pilgrims are stranded at many locations since government vehicles have also kept off roads.

Police make arrests

BJP workers violate Section 144 at Nilakkal base camp. State Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morch president Pradesh Babu and 41 workers are arrested. Activist Rahul Eswar and 20 others also remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

Kerala CM takes on RSS over Sabarimala

In a Facebook post, Kerala chief minister hits out at RSS, saying the right-wing outfit is trying to destroy the secular fabric of the state. It wants to make Sabarimala a flashpoint, he wrote.

BJP calls for judicial probe into violence

Keralas BJP chief PS Sreedharan Pillai says attempts to destroy Sabarimala temple were being made. Pillai also said the state temple affairs minister Kadakampally Surendran provoked violence, and called for a judicial probe into yesterdays events.

NYT journalist speaks to media

Suhasini Raj, who had to turn away halfway through the trek upto Sabarimala, says she was heckled while climbing the hill. I thought things will be smooth after the verdict. I was besieged by a violent mob. They heckled me badly and tried to manhandle me. I wanted to avoid bloodshed, she said. Raj later left for Kochi.

Sabarimalas Tantri appeals for peace

Sabarimalas Tantri Rajeevaru Kandarau appeals to all to maintain peace. It is not proper to indulge in violence in the name of Lord Ayyappa, he says.

SC took decision without accounting for devotees: RSS

Commenting on the Sabarimala row, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat says the Supreme Court took a decision without taking into account believers. Sentiments have been hurt, Bhagwat says in his Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur.

Bandh affects life in Kerala

Normal life affected in Kerala due to state-wide bandh. Police keep vigil as reports of stone-pelting come in.

Woman journalist stops Sabarimala trek

As tension grows, Suhasini Raj says she wont go further. Says she doesnt want bloodshed. Raj is verbally abused by pilgrims around her.

Woman journalists path blocked by devotees

Suhasini Raj, Delhi-based New York Times journalist, makes it to the halfway point. However, devotees begin blocking her path by lying down on the ground. They tell police to shoot them.

Woman begins climbing Sabarimala hill

A woman journalist of the New York Times begins trekking to Sabarimala hill amid protests by devotees. Police have thrown a security ring around her and her colleague, a foreigner, reports PTI. Devotees try to block her.

No women entering the Sabarimala temple

Sabarimala is peaceful and pilgrims are thronging the shrine. However, there are no women yet. Many groups said they will block women from entering the temple, irrespective of what the law says.

Tension simmers on day 2 of temple being open

Signs of violence from yesterday an indication of what could transpire today. Buses, stoned by protesters, found at many places.

Protesters say they will hold a sit-in dharna

Protesters warn they will hold a sit-in dharna and defy Section 144. Heavy deployment of police remains and government-run Govt buses have suspended service.

24-hour shutdown begins

The Sabarimala Samrakshna Samiti called for a 24-hour shutdown, which began in the morning. Sabarimala remains peaceful, but towns leading to hilltop temple are tense. Section 144, which prohibits assembly of more than five people in a public space, has been imposed.A Delhi-based female journalist. who managed to climb up the pathway to reach the famed Sabarimala temple, was on Thursday forced to abandon her trek following a massive protest.

Suhasini Raj, who works as the India reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who formed a human wall before her. (Read live updates here)

According to witnesses, the protesters forced the two journalists to return.

Read more: All you need to know about the historic Sabarimala temple

As she was ascending, Raj kept saying that she did not come to pray but to do her work.

It was a massive protest by the devotees. The protesters were sitting on the pathway shouting slogans against her. She had no other way but to return and she did that, said a witness here.

On Wednesday, the protesters, who opposed the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Sabarimala temple, clashed with the police and heckled female journalists as the pilgrimage season opened.

The temple opened for the first time on Wednesday after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

The district authorities have clamped a 24 hour Section 144 in a 30 square km radius of the temple town and the state is observing a statewide shutdown on Thursday called by a Hindu organisation backed by the BJP-led NDA.Women have not entered the Sabarimala temple as the situation continued to be tense amid a showdown between protesters and police a day after the hill shrine opened to devotees for the first time after Supreme Court allowed women of all ages to enter the hill shrine.

However, a woman journalist of a foreign media outlet began trekking to the hill amid protests along with a foreign colleague, with police forming a security ring around them. (Follow live updates here)

Suhasini Raj, a Delhi-based New York Times journalist, faced angry devotees who lay on her path at the halfway point at Marakootum and asked her to go over their bodies. As police appeared helpless, she retreated.

I thought things will be smooth after the verdict. I was besieged by a violent mob. They heckled me badly and tried to manhandle me. I wanted to avoid bloodshed, Suhasini told reporters before leaving for Kochi.

She was among thousands of male devotees making the trek uphill to the temple as protesters, led by the Sabarimala Samrakshna Samiti, called for a 24-hour state-wide shutdown.

Believers of the centuries-old tradition said they would stage a sit-in defying section 144 of Code of Criminal Procedure  which prohibits assembly of more than four people  and block entry of women of reproductive age from visiting the 800-year-old shrine in south Keralas Pathanamthitta district since its presiding deity, Lord Ayyappa, is considered to be celibate.

Thousands of policemen and policewomen were deployed along the route to ensure safe passage of women.

However, protesters stoned buses at several places on the way to the hilltop temple. The state run transport buses have suspended service on the route.

Pilgrims and protesters have complained of police excesses, complaining that the cops had damaged their vehicles.

Read | Woman devotee from Andhra, family forced to turn back midway by Sabarimala protesters

BJP is supporting the bandh but the Congress is yet to take a decision on it. Congress leaders are set to approach the high command in Delhi to seek approval as it fears that the right wing outfits, including BJP and RSS, may hijack the emotional issue, denting its vote bank, especially the upper caste Hindus.

A body of the powerful Nair community, Nair Service Society is at the forefront of the agitation against the SC verdict that allowed women of all ages in the hilltop temple.

On Wednesday, the police had to jostle with protesters to take a 45-year-old devotee from Andhra Pradesh, identified as Madhavi, to safety after she was intercepted by a group of men. She was forced to return to Pamba. A young woman from Keralas Alappuzha,identified as Liby, was stopped at the Pathanamthitta bus terminal.

Crucial talks held in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram between the tantri (supreme priest of Sabarimala), the erstwhile royal family of Pandalam (considered the custodians of the temple) and Travancore Devaswom Board, or TDB, (responsible for the administration of the temple), could not reach a solution.Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said that the recent Supreme Court verdict, allowing women of all ages to enter Keralas Sabarimala Temple, did not account for traditions accepted and followed by the people for years.

The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows the predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and followed for years was not taken into consideration, Bhagwat said in his annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur,

The legal verdict has given rise to unrest, turmoil and divisiveness in the society in place of peace, stability and equality, he said asking why only Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith.

Bhagwat said that the version of heads of religious denominations and faith of crores of devotees were not taken into account.

The petitioners were not devotees and a large section of women that follows this tradition, was not heard too, he added.Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in New Delhi Thursday for an official visit shortly after the Sri Lankan government said it reversed a decision to award a $300-million housing deal to China in favour of joint venture with an Indian firm.

The visit, during which Wickremesinghe will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Saturday, comes against the backdrop of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena rejecting media reports about an Indian security agencys purported involvement in an alleged plot to assassinate him.

Besides holding talks with Modi, Wickremesinghe will also meet home minister Rajnath Singh and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday. He will attend a programme in New Delhi on Friday.

You are aware of the close friendship between India and Sri Lanka. Development cooperation will be on the agenda, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told a news briefing on Thursday.

All shades of political opinion in Sri Lanka are for a close relationship with IndiaThe prime minister is visiting to strengthen cooperation, he added.

The two sides are expected to review the status of India-assisted housing projects in Jaffna and discuss the reconciliation process and devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated areas in Sri Lankas north and east, officials said. India has built 44,000 houses in the north and plans to rebuild Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai harbor.

On Wednesday, Lankan government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said cabinet approved a proposal for 28,000 houses worth $210 million in the north and east by Indias ND Enterprises and two Sri Lankan companies.

In April, state-run China Railway Beijing Engineering Group had bagged a tender worth more than $300 million to build 40,000 houses in Jaffna. However, the project was halted after residents demanded traditional brick houses instead of concrete structures planned by the Chinese firm. Senaratne said there was a total requirement of 65,000 houses and more contracts will be given to firms willing to build them at lower prices.

India is among the top four investors in Lanka with cumulative investments of more than $1 billion dollars since 2003.Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar is the Bharatiya Janata Partys election in-charge for Rajasthan. In an interview to Urvashi Dev Rawal, Javadekar spoke on a host of issues ranging from lynchings to anger against chief minister Vasundhara Raje to campaign and ticket distribution. Excerpts:

Given the resentment against chief minister Vasundhara Raje and sitting elected representatives, how does BJP hope to fulfil the mission 180?

This is possible because the mood of the nation has changed. People are allying with the BJP with the hope of development and progress and have drifted away from the Congress. In 2014, BJP had only 6 states and Congress had 14. Now BJP has 19 and Congress is down to 4. So this time there will be no change in regime and this time it will be BJP phir se (once again). This time too everybody wants Modiji to be repeated and Raje has performed. People want double engine growth --- Modiji from Delhi and Vasundhara ji from Jaipur. We are sure we will win hands down this time.

There is anger against many sitting MLAs. How will you deal with it?

We have taken feedback from the field. I am very sure people will see a very rational mix of age, experience, youth, entrepreneurship and popularity.

Can we expect surprises in ticket distribution?

I will not speculate on number but whatever is required will be done. We have done surveys and have complete data with us. Based on the data, the surveys and actual experience we are going to decide on tickets. There will be many surprises. Yes, I agree that cutting tickets (to sitting legislators) will help the party.

Various sections Rajputs, Jats, farmers, SCs, are unhappy with the BJP. How will you tackle this?

They have not gone away from BJP. BJP is the only party which has really honoured Rajputs. What Manvendra Singh did today is that he betrayed the party which gave all honours to Jaswant Singh ji and his family. He was finance, defence and external affairs minister, 5 times Rajya Sabha member and twice Lok Sabha MP. We gave him eminence. Manvendra joined his father when he rebelled against the BJP in 2014. He was BJP MLA but opposed the party candidate and we suspended him. He was suspended MLA for the last four years he was not with BJP. This will have no impact.

How do you see the leadership struggle in the Congress party?

Congress is a party that has lost steam, it has lost the plot. Rahul Gandhi is proving to be a liability because wherever he goes, they lose. In Rajasthan they are a divided house. Infighting between Gehlot and Pilot is visible to everyone. Gehlot has said that some leaders have paid money for hiking their rating. When Gehlot tries to address people, Pilot supporters hoot him. So this is the state of affairs in the Congress.

The lynchings by cow vigilantes set a bad precedent against the government. The Muslims community feels they are being targeted. What is your comment?

Lynching anywhere is bad. It is condemnable and must be punished heavily. But this did not start in 2014. Unfortunately, it was a Congress legacy. In Gujarat, when 52 kar sevaks were burnt alive that was the worst kind of lynching. In 1984, when 3,000 Sikhs were burnt alive that was also lynching and in Bhagalpur when Muslims were burnt alive that was also lynching. Law and order is a state subject and the state has acted and taken effective steps.

In the election it appears chief minister Raje is campaigning on her own and BJP president Amit Shah is doing it separately?

No, No. We are fighting together because we know that unless we win the state, we cannot win the Centre. Raje was on her campaign trail through Gaurav Yatra and Amit Shah ji was addressing the organisational cadres to motivate the booth level workers.

Do you agree that the organization and workers were ignored in the last four years and the loss in the bypolls was a wake-up call for the party?

When we won the Dholpur bypoll we became complacent. When we lost the bypolls that came as a shock for us. This was a good experience that one year before we got a little shock.Indian and Chinese militaries should expand engagement between front-line units including training for border guards at each others universities and open a defence hotline between adjacent military regions to resolutely ensure that Doklam-like standoffs dont recur, the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has suggested.

Further, the two countries should establish a regular border meeting mechanism for the generals of the respective theatre commands.

Important decisions at the border should be left to the front-line forces, the PLA has suggested in a rare article on Sino-India military ties published this week in the influential PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military.

It further called for cooperation between navies, increase exchanges of young military officers, promote university, academic, and public affairs exchanges, expand new areas of cooperation, and strengthen cooperation in multilateral frameworks such as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation).

It was jointly written by Zhao Xiaozhuo and Wang Yu from the War Studies College of the Chinese PLA Academy of Military Sciences, and the Joint Service Academy of the Chinese PLA National Defence University.

The article was published under the headline China-India Military Relations Improve Markedly in the context of the armed forces standoff last year near the Sikkim border.

Border troops were locked in a standoff for 73 days in the Doklam area, known as Donglang in China, near the Sikkim border, which is under Chinas control but claimed by Bhutan.

Protracted negotiations between the two countries resolved the problem end of August last year.

Border disputes such as tent confrontation and Donglang event have all plagued the development of bilateral relations. Since this year, the relationship between the two militaries has improved markedly with the rapid recovery of China-India relations, it said.

A slew of suggestions followed to maintain the momentum of peace.

Looking forward to the future, the two sides should promote the establishment of a regular border meeting mechanism for the generals, open the border defence hotline of the adjacent military regions, carry out personnel exchanges between the adjacent theater commands and the corresponding services at all levels, strengthen exchanges between the front-line units, carry out exchange and training for border guards in the others colleges and universities, and resolutely put an end to similar incidents as Donglang event, the article said.

It added that as long as the consensus reached by the two countries could be extended to an action level and pass the upper-level decision to the front-line forces as well as properly control their differences, the two militaries can promote the win-win cooperation, making their military relations serving as a positive factor for their stable bilateral ties.

The authors said the biggest problem is the pending border issue but a number of agreements between the two governments and their militaries, New Delhi and Beijing have managed to control differences.

In what is rarely recollected by the Chinese government, the authors mentioned:

India was one of the first countries to recognise the new China and to propose restoring Chinas legitimate seat in the United Nations (UN). China, India and Myanmar jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and achieved a pioneering work in the history of international relations.Two men have been arrested in Uttar Pradeshs Meerut town for allegedly raping their 16-year-old sister for four years, police said on Thursday, after the girl made a video clip of the crime as evidence.

Police registered a complaint against the men, aged 23 and 21 years old respectively, after the Class 12 student showed the clip to the superintendent of police (city) Ranvijay Singh and pleaded for the harshest of punishment for them.

Both the brothers were arrested and sent to jail on charges of committing rape with their sister, Singh said.

The girl met Singh in his office on Wednesday along with a social activist and submitted a written complaint against her brothers. Singh, initially, thought the accusations were due to a family dispute but the girl showed the video clip in support of her charges.

I am fed up of their misdeeds and cannot tolerate it anymore, the girl wrote in her complaint.

Singh directed the Civil Lines Police to register a case of sexual harassment against the duo and arrest them.

The girls father died a few years ago and she did not approach the police because the duo had threatened to kill her and their mother if they spoke out against the crime.

The mother advised the girl to make a video clip to expose her sons, saying nobody would otherwise believe her.

She contacted a social activist who took her to Singh to demand action against her brothers.

Government figures show that a child is sexually abused every 15 minutes in India. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that there has been a sharp increase of 11% in crimes against children across the country between 2015 and 2016.

Its an increase of 12,786 reported crimes against children across the country. The total number of crimes against children reported in 2016 was 1,06,958, while 94,172 crimes were recorded in 2015.

NCRB data also shows that most victims are raped by their immediate family members, close relatives, distant relatives or neighbours.Union minister of women and child development (WCD) Maneka Gandhi said on Thursday that her ministry has requested all political parties to constitute an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) as mandated under the sexual harassment at work act, 2013 in a move that seems prompted by the ongoing #MeToo movement in India.

While there havent been any recent instances of workers of political parties alleging sexual harassment while at work in the context of #MeToo, there have been past instances across several parties.

I have requested the Presidents/In-charge of all recognised National and State political parties to constitute the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC)...this is in view of the fact that political parties employ a large number of personnel, including women, in their offices. It is our prerogative to ensure that women enjoy a safe working environment, Gandhi tweeted.

This comes a day after the Centre for Accountability and Systematic Change (CASC) sent a legal notice to the union minister for women and child development, Maneka Gandhi, requesting for penalty against political parties for failing to protect women as per law.

The #MeToo movement as of now is gravitating towards the media and fashion industry. Allegations against (journalist-turned politician) MJ Akbar have been made and they relate to an earlier time period. However, there are instances of sexual harassment happening in the present time as well, the notice said.

With regard to #MeToo, the national commission for women (NCW) on Thursday said it has received multiple formal written complaints from women.

NCW is in receipt of formal written complaints from women who have bravely come forward about instances of sexual harassment at their workplace, NCW said in an official statement.

Congress spokesperson Pranav Jha said that Maneka Gandhis words are symptomatic of a culture of lip service by the BJP and its leaders.

She should remember that the most far reaching reform came by way of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2013 which completely altered the law on the subject of sexual harassment and assault in favour of women, he said.

Jha added that the demand today is not for new laws, but a demand to implement existing ones.

Amba Salelkar, advocate and fellow at the Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy in Chennai, said, The sexual harassment at workplace act applies to a large range of organisations and hence will definitely apply to political parties as well.

But the way political parties are structured is quite different and has to acknowledge the fact that there is a power imbalance when it comes to political leaders and people coming into contact with them in a workplace context.

So merely asking to form ICCs is not enough. There is a need to work on promoting a zero tolerance for sexual harassment within political parties, added Salelkar.Fugitive Daley Smith lets Madeleine McCann do his PR

Daley Smith is getting to be quite famous. On the run from police, Daley Smith has now upped his game by comparing his escape to the police search for Madeleine McCann. On Facebook, Smith says hes going to throw a party when he reaches the milestone of 100 days at large. Its been 88 and counting. But this is about the medias favourite missing child, and the Sun says, Smith has sparked fury with his sick posts about Madeleine McCann. Do we need to hear the mans sickness? Apparently, yes. He is claiming: Its my personal opinion that her mum and dad covered the whole thing up. If the police dont get him, doorstepping journalists, internet trolls or the McCanns lawyers might. (Just to state: the McCanns are not suspects.)

And now hes added to the sickness with a poem:

Cheshire police have got more chance of finding Madeleine Mcann [sic], I may as well be in Japan, theyve even been harassing my nan, but everything hasnt gone to plan. Theyve fucked with the wrong man, I feel like Peter Pan. So far I dont know how far Ive ran, but its been mad since this Journey began.

Daley, who has been charged with possession with intent to supply class B cannabis and concerned with the supply of cocaine, according to police, seems fully aware of how using Madeleine McCann can further his own career, such as it is. Last night his account featured this sick joke:

That message was posted after Smith found a message from someone claiming to represent Kennedy News. All the photos in the Suns story carry the Kennedy News and Media watermark, which seems odd given that you can see the same images for free on Facebook.

Madeleine McCann is missing. Daley James Smith is in the papers, on tour and on Facebook.

Anorak

Posted: 18th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann, News, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | PermalinkA day after minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar resigned over sexual harassment allegations against him, the Editors Guild of India has put out a statement asking Akbar to withdraw his defamation case against the woman journalist who has accused him of sexual misconduct.

At least a dozen women journalists have accused 67-year-old Akbar, a former editor of The Telegraph, Deccan Chronicle and The Asian Age newspapers, of inappropriate behaviour, joining the global #MeToo campaign. Denying all the allegations, Akbar responded by suing journalist Priya Ramani, who was the first one to accuse him of sexual misconduct.

We hope that Mr Akbar will also display the grace to withdraw the criminal defamation case he has filed against one of these complainants. While Mr Akbar is entitled to all legal instruments available to a citizen to seek vindication, it would be paradoxical for a veteran editor to employ the instrument of criminal defamation. More so for Mr Akbar who happens to be a former president of the Guild, the editors body said in a statement.

The criminal defamation case against Priya Ramani comes up for hearing in Delhi court later today.

Extending support to the women journalists, the statement said, if he doesnt, or in case he files such cases against other women too, the Guild offers its support to them. If any of them were to need legal advice or assistance, the Guild will do the best it can to help and also appeal to eminent lawyers to represent them pro bono.

The allegations of sexual misconduct against Akbar date back to the years he was a journalist and newspaper editor in the 1980s and the 1990s.As scores of people in Australia line-up to get a glimpse of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle currently touring the country, its a five-year-old who has managed to steal all the attention. Videos and pictures circulating all over the internet show the boy casually stroking Prince Harrys beard like its no big deal before giving hugs to the royal couple.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were greeted by the young fan, Luke Vincent, reportedly from Buninyong Public School, at Dubbo airport. Videos melting hearts all over social media show Luke waiting in line with other children to meet the royal couple. On his turn, Luke is seen taking a step forward and embracing the Duke of Sussex. He then goes on to stroke Prince Harrys beard. Luke even hugs Meghan after presenting her with a bunch of flowers. His focus, however, stays on Prince Harry and after another quick hug, this time Luke goes on to stroke Prince Harrys hair.

Lukes thing is Santa Claus, Anne van Dartel, principal of Buninyong Public School, Dubbo, told People. And so as soon as he saw it [Harrys beard], we went into the panic mode because hes touching a member of the royal family! And he continued to do it. And he hugged him. So what you and I cant get away with, my beautiful friend can.

A wonderful welcome from local schoolchildren as The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive in Dubbo  #RoyalVisitAustralia pic.twitter.com/C25zQ9Q1Ru  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 17, 2018

The heartwarming scene has a touched a chord with thousands of people.

Most adorable moment of the week, says one Twitter user. Luke stole the show today! says another.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are currently on an official visit to Australia, Fiji, the Kingdom of Tonga and New Zealand. They are expecting a baby in the spring.Is there a correct way to use an umbrella? Well, allow Twitter to tell you there most certainly is. Tweeple are using two strikingly different pictures - one featuring Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and another showing US President Donald Trump and wife Melania - to explain just that. While photos show Meghan holding up an umbrella for Harry, pictures and clips show POTUS not sharing his with Melania. The photos have prompted a game of spot the difference on Twitter and tweeple cant help share their thoughts on the two couples.

On October 15, Trump and Melania were photographed moments before they headed to Hurricane Michael stricken Florida. What Twitter noticed in the photos and videos circulating online was how Trump kept his umbrella firmly above his head while Melania got wet in the rain.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump at the White House. (AFP)

In a stark contrast, pictures that came out only days later, show the Duke and Duchess of Sussex not only sharing an umbrella but also show Meghan holding up an umbrella for Harry while he gave a speech in Dubbo, Australia.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Dubbo, Australia (AFP)

The pictures have prompted a comparison on Twitter. Heres what people are saying:

How to use an umbrella. pic.twitter.com/fI9gD5uQaF  Debora Robertson (@lickedspoon) October 17, 2018

Somebody tell #45 that THIS is how you share an umbrella with your wife! #PrinceHarry and the #DutchessOfSussex pic.twitter.com/CIsyY7Ls6l  LoVetta Jenkins (@ChattyPassenger) October 17, 2018

Megan & Harry share a brolly, while Melania is left in the rain. Trump holds not just an umbrella but that ugly MAGA hat too... doesn't offer her either... pic.twitter.com/pvWosEVLkz  Helen Ahern (@TweetypieHelen) October 17, 2018

Meghan Markle holding an umbrella over Prince Harry & lovingly watching him as he speaks. Trump, umbrella in hand, darting off to talk to reporters while Melania stands back in the rain.  > . Yet again.  Puja (@TweetTheIP) October 17, 2018

Trump uses umbrella to cover himself from the rain while Melania got drenched. If his cares this little for the ones closest to him... pic.twitter.com/VmRQ8SYpxh  R. Saddler - Vote! November 6th (@Politics_PR) October 16, 2018

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sharing an umbrella and looking at each other like this is too much for my hormones to handle  pic.twitter.com/rai3MuywqU  The Beauty Kingdom (@BeautyKingdomUK) October 17, 2018

Do you agree with Twitter?Muzzammil Syed, the 19-year-old student arrested in connection with the murder of 20-year-old model, Mansi Dixit, on Wednesday said he killed her after she turned down his demand for sex, according to the Bangur Nagar police.

The body of Dixit was found dumped in the mangroves at Malad on Monday.

Dixit had returned from her native town in Rajasthan on Sunday.

Syed too had arrived in the city only a few days ago from his native place in Hyderabad.

The next day, Syed and Dixit had met for the first time when Dixit went to his residence in Milat Nagar at Andheri West.

The accused confessed to have demanded to have sex with her. When she said no, he got enraged and hit her on the head with a stool, said a police source, on the condition of anonymity.

But he keeps changing his statements. So sustained interrogation is going on to ascertain the motive behind the crime. We have enough scientific and other evidence to nail him for the crime. We are still collecting evidence. Also, we have several witnesses who can link him to the crime, added the police source.

Syed in his confession to the police said he got scared after she lost conscious. He tried to wake her up by sprinkling water on her.

She then gained partial consciousness. However, Syed was worried that his mother would come home.

So, he strangled her with a rope. He then booked a taxi from his phone to dispose of her body.Angriya, Indias first luxury cruise ship, is all set for its inauguration on October 20 at Mumbai. Union minister for shipping Nitin Gadkari and Mahrashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will flag-off the cruise which will operate between Mumbai and Goa. The commercial operations will, however, begin from October 24.

Captain Nitin Dhond outside Angriya, Indias first luxury cruise ship. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

The cruise will make four trips a week between the two ports, starting at 4.30pm on alternate days from Mumbai and reach Goa around 8am the next day. There will be no halts in between.

A view of the control room at Angriya (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Named after the first Maratha Navy Admiral Kanhoji Angre and the Angria bank coral reef near Vijaydurg, the luxury ship has 104 rooms, divided into eight different categories. It has a dormitory, deluxe rooms and luxury suites . The dormitory has bunk beds, while rooms have single and double beds. The cruise has luxury rooms on the underwater level as well.

A view of the luxury suite in Angriya (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

In addition, Angriya has two restaurants, six bars, a swimming pool and an underwater-level spa.

The Infinity pool on Angriya. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Preparations under way on board Angriya, Wednesday, October 17, 2018. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

It can accommodate 399 passengers and will have 67 crew members including hospitality and marine crew.

The kitchen at Angriya , India's first domestic cruise. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

The ticket price ranges from Rs 6,000 to Rs 10,000 depending on the room category with breakfast, dinner and snacks thrown in.A man accused of groping a media professional and a 14-year-old girl in Andheris western suburbs was recently traced and arrested after he boasted about the incidents to his colleagues.

The accused, identified as Abdul Waris Kadir Khan, 22, a resident of Assam has been living in Mumbai for two-and- a-half years and works as a waiter. He is unmarried and stays alone.

On October 9, at around 8.20pm, the 22-year-old media professional was travelling back home from work in an rickshaw when she was groped by Khan. The incident took place in front of Behrambaug police chowky on the New Link Road in Jogeshwari (West).

The stranger put his hand inside the rickshaw and pressed my chest. I did not know what to do and felt very scared and confused, the complainant, who works with a media company in Andheri, had told the police.

The rickshaw began moving ahead but she insisted the driver to take her back to the spot so that she could nab the man. When the accused realised the complainant had spotted him, he fled away. The complainant tried chasing him but he entered a crowded slum pocket, following which it became difficult for the media professional to find him.

The second incident took place on October 5 in the afternoon when Khan groped a 14-year-old girl in a rickshaw at Qureshi compound near Lokhandwala in Andheri (West) before escaping into the crowd.

Senior police inspector Shailesh Pasalvar of Oshiwara police station confirmed the arrest took place on October 12, adding that Khan was handed over to the Amboli police for the second case and subsequently sent to judicial custody.

Police sources said Khan used to laugh and tell his waiter friends about who he had groped that day. Irked by his behaviour, one of them tipped off the police.

The Oshiwara police detained Khan for questioning and it was ascertained that he was behind the two crimes. Authorities indicated that the accused might be behind more such molestation incidents but the women chose not to come forward and complain.Calling actor Nana Patekar arrogant, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray came out in support of the actor facing sexual harassment charges.

Speaking in Amravati, Thackeray said, Though Nana Patekar is arrogant, I dont think he will indulge in such activities ... If someone is doing anything wrong to a woman, she should report it immediately and not after ten years.

The Me Too movement gained momentum in India after Bollywood actor Tanushree Dutta accused Patekar of allegedly misbehaving with her during a film shoot in 2008.

Since then, scores of women have come out to speak about their ordeals on social media, including actors, musicians, journalists, and politicos.

Thackeray on Wednesday started his 10-day Vidarbha tour as a part of his pre-election campaign.

Thackeray is scheduled to meet his party workers and devise strategies for both assembly and general elections.

.Week after Punjab Police and special operations group of Jammu and Kashmir Police busted a terror module in Jalandhar with the arrest of four Kashmiri students linked to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), another student in this connection was arrested from Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Danish Rehman Sofi of Awantipura in Jammu and Kashmir, was sent on four days police remand on Thursday, said police.

Danish is a third-year Btech student of Universal Group of Institutions, Lalru, Mohali, and was staying in Dera Bassi. Danish is believed to be a close aide of Sohail, who was arrested last Friday, for assisting the three arrested Kashmiri students in picking weapons consignment from Amritsar on October 7.

A terror module was busted on October 10 with the arrest of three Kashmiri students  Zahid Gulzar, Mohammed Idris Shah alias Nadeem and Yusuf Rafiq Bhatt  linked to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH). The students were nabbed from the hostel of CT Institute of Engineering Management and Technology at Shahpur on the outskirts of Jalandhar. Two weapons, including an assault rifle, and explosives were recovered from them.

A police personnel, seeking anonymity, said, Danish shares good relations with the AGH head Zakir Rashid Bhat (also known as Zakir Musa) and had knowledge about the activities of the arrested students.

All the accused are schoolmates and had done their schooling from Senior High School, Noorpura, Pulwama, in Jammu and Kashmir, a police official said.

Jalandhar commissioner of police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, they, with help of J&K police have arrested Danish from his hometown and have procured his police remand for four days.

We will interrogate him for further revelations, he added.

Meanwhile, a case was registered under Sections 121 (waging, or attempting to wage war against the country), and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Relevant sections of the Arms Act and the Explosives Act have also been slapped, said the police.The problem of stubble burning that chokes north Indian states including the national capital could aggravate this year, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh told Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his meeting on Thursday, pitching for compensating farmers who do not burn the crop residue.

Stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab has contributed to the sharp decline in air quality level in Delhi and neighbouring states.

Delhis air quality continues to be very poor for the second consecutive day, with several areas in the national capital nearing severe levels of pollution. The national capitals overall air quality index was recorded at 315 on Thursday morning, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research.

While the Punjab government has been acting against farmers for burning crop residue, Capt Amarinder Singh has argued on several occasions that if the Centre does not give Rs. 100 per quintal compensation to farmers, it will be difficult to control stubble-burning.

Capt Amarinder later said PM Modi was sympathetic to the problem of farmers.

The chief minister has underlined that the problem could aggravate with the close of the harvest season, and needed to be addressed urgently.

The chief minister also took the opportunity to thank the PM for the central governments decision to not disturb the 60:40 ratio with respect to appointment of Chandigarh cadre officers.

An official spokesperson of the state government said the chief minister has urged Modi to advise the finance ministry to urgently settle the Rs 31,000 crore cash credit limit gap on the principle of shared responsibilities, amongst the stakeholders in procurement of grains for the country.

The chief minister also urged Modi for assistance to the Punjab government to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji next year. He urged the Prime Minister to issue suitable directions to the ministry of culture and the National Implementation Committee to provide necessary support to the state to make suitable arrangements for the event.

Earlier, in a letter to the PM, Capt Amarinder also sought Rs 800 crore in compensation for the losses incurred by the state due to the recent flooding resulting from exceptionally heavy rainfall, the spokesperson said.Eighty Chandigarh women out of 20,000 screened at Asha Jyoti, a mobile van with a mammography unit, since May 2012 were found suffering from breast cancer.

Calling it an alarming number, Dr Tulika from the department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, PGIMER, said, Usually, the prevalence of breast cancer in asymptomatic women is around 30 per one lakh. Here, we found 80 women with breast cancer after screening a mere 20,000 women, most of them asymptomatic.

Dr Sonia Puri from GMCH-32 agreed that the figures are alarming.

In 2017, the Population-based Cancer Registry (PBCR) of Chandigarh concluded that at 35 per one lakh women, the prevalence of breast cancer in the city is the highest in the country. This annual registry is maintained by PGIMER and Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. At 10.1 %, cervix uteri cancer is the second leading cancer among city women, followed by ovarian cancer at 7%.

Breast cancer is the commonest form of cancer among women, the only silver lining being that the patients can lead a healthy life if it is detected in time.

Young patients on the rise

Dr Gurpreet Singh, professor and head of Department of General Surgery at PGIMER, says the number of young patients is increasing every year due to better awareness and health facilities.

Around 20% of my patients are less than 40 years of age, which is a big number. Currently, 32% women in India fall in the age group of 20-39 years. Only 7% of my patients are between 70 and 79 .

The department of general surgery at PGIMER performs over 600 breast cancer surgeries a year, and an equal number is referred to radiotherapy department from other hospitals for radiation.

Dr Gurpreet said increasingly, patients are reaching him at an earlier stage of the disease.

Ten years ago, 40%-50% of my patients used to reach us with locally advanced tumors. But now, their share has fallen by over 10% because of increased awareness.The doctor says now women are aware that a lump can be cancerous. One in 10 lumps is cancerous, hence if you feel a lump, consult a doctor.

The risk factors

Doctors say the strongest risk factor is the genetic defect  the two genes (BrCa-1 and BrCa-1) associated with this cancer. Those born with these genes have a 70% risk of getting this cancer in their lifetime, says Singh.

But he is quick to add that only 5% of patients with breast cancer suffer from this genetic defect. This means there are other risk factors in 95% of the cases. Obesity, early menarche, late menopause, child-birth after 30 heighten the risk of breast cancer. Women above 50 are also more vulnerable to it, said Dr Gurpreet Singh.

Doctors advice women above 40 to get the mammography test done once a year.

All women should lead a healthy lifestyle, eat more fruits and vegetables, consume less fat and exercise regularly. They should also avoid alcohol and smoking, advised Dr Sonia Puri from General Medical College an d Hospital, Sector 32.

PGIMER van providing free diagnosis needs your help

Asha Jyoti, a mobile van with a mammography unit that scans women for breast cancer besides conducting video colposcopy for cervical cancer and Dexa scan to check osteoporosis, is helping thousands of city women by detecting cancer at an early stage.

Dr Tulika , who has been associated with the van since its inauguration in April 2012, says the Rs 5-crore van was donated to PGIMER by a US-based non-profit organisation in 2012. The mammography unit alone cost 2 crore, says Tulika.

The van functions four days a week from 9am to 2pm. It is stationed at the Sector 45 Civil Hospital on Monday and Wednesday, and parked outside Sector 38 Gurudwara on Thursday and Friday.

Every day, around 60 women reach the van for tests but we can only conduct 30-35 cases as each case takes around 30 minutes, says Tulika. The tests that cost over Rs 5,000 in the market are done free of cost in the van. The van that has saved the lives of thousands is now in a state of disrepair and needs an urgent infusion of funds.

When the van was donated to us, it was under guarantee for five years. The staff, petrol expenses are borne by us. But this monsoon, its roof started leaking because of which we could not perform tests. We need around Rs 6 lakh for repairing the van and 10-15 lakh for revamping the machines.

Dr Manavjit Singh Sandhu, head of radio-diagnosis and imaging, urged philanthropists in the city to donate for the upkeep of the van. That is the only way it will continue to remain functional for years to come.(ANSA) - Brussels, October 18 - Countries have urged the European Commission not to "add flexibility to flexibility" for Italy, EC chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday, saying Italy "has spent 30 billion euros in the last three years".

He said "we have been very generous, kind and positive with Italy.

"Because Italy is Italy". Juncker said "we did not discuss the Italian budget because it wasn't the time or the place," referring to an EU summit.

"But I know that in the past the Commission has been accused of being generous with the Italian budget.

"Countries on the telephone urged us not to add flexibility to flexibility".

Sandakozhi 2

Director: Lingusamy

Cast: Vishal, Keerthy Suresh, Rajkiran, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar

Rating: 1.5/5

Vishal starrer Sandakozhi 2, the sequel to 2005 blockbuster Sandakozhi takes us back to a village in Madurai where staying true to promises comes before ones life. While Sandakozhi was a charming rural drama with memorable characters played by Vishal and Meera Jasmine among others, the sequel is an insipid tale. It is a mere retelling of the tale with no effort made to make it engaging.

Two important characters from the earlier film  Balu and Durai  return in the sequel. Vishal is back as Balu, whose father Durai is a respected man in the village. His word is unspoken rule, obeyed by everyone in the village and this includes men from the rival camp as well. No one has the ability to take him on (so they do not even try).

Balu, meanwhile, returns to the village after spending seven years abroad. A question to ask: what happened to Hema, the girl Balu was in love with seven years ago? Well, the makers dont deem it important to let us know. Durai starts to speak of Hema to Chembaruthi (Keerthy Suresh) who has managed to capture his son Balus mourning heart, but director Lingusamy chooses to go with the cliched no voiceover flashback. Poor audience is left to assume.

Meanwhile, the conflict in the film is about Pechchi (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar) seeking revenge for her dead husband. Durai accepts responsibility to protect the man Pechchi wants killed -- Anbu (Johny Hari) -- and there lies the seed of the clash between Pechchi and Balu.

Whats interesting is that Pechchi is shown as a strong and important character. However, what makes her a prop more than a person who influences others is the fact that the filmmaker chooses to have the men in her family make the important moves. All she does throughout the film is yell at them for not being man enough to make one of them kill. One may even ask -- does the film need Pechchi at all?

Moving to the other female character, Chembaruthi, it is hard to not compare her to Hema and draw similarities. That is the sort of a girl Balu likes and the filmmaker affirms this throughout with her stunts and her attitude --she does a wheelie, gets out of a jeep by hanging on to tree branches and loves abundantly. However, what she feels is just not evident.

Another point that needs to be mentioned here is the ease with which the director makes convenient choices, like lifting scenes from a popular Hindi film. While such an act may have its fair share of fans in Chennai, it is not going to help anyone. For example, when Balu and Chembaruthi start playing with colours, they do it exactly the way that Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukones characters in Ram Leela did. Is it really that difficult to come up with a romantic scene?

Moving on, a character is introduced mid-way just to assuage the male leads ego. Just a waste! Watching such scenes one is forced to think that if one was to pluck out the unimportant and convenient parts, we would be left with nothing but Sandakozhi.

The climax is the biggest let down as the execution lacks conviction. One is left wondering -- is this what Pechchis seven years of anger ends up being? And then it dawns on us that we were never shown the depth of her feelings as the character is hardly fleshed out. How much Pechchi loved her husband to carry this rage in her heart is something we never get to see.

Finally, the most disappointing part is how director Lingusamy begins with two factions fighting and never addressed the root cause of the conflict -- caste. The fact that a man from a higher caste protects a boy from the lower caste from getting killed is a regressive idea, one which could have been avoided had the director not added the element of caste in the first place.

Give me Sandakozhi any day!

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopA year prior to federal elections in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enjoys strong support from potential voters for his Liberal Party, with 80% buoyant about the performance of its leader.

In contrast, that percentage shrinks to below 50% for one of his principal rivals, the New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh. Andrew Scheer, leader of the Conservative Party, has support of nearly two-thirds of those leaning towards his party.

These are the findings of a national survey by the not-for-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation Angus Reid Institute. According to the results, 79% of Liberal supporters describe Trudeau as good or very good as a leader, while for Scheer and Singh, the figures are 65% and 47%.

In outlining the challenges Indian-origin Singh faces, the ARI report said these include task of igniting excitement and confidence, even among locked-in NDP voters who profess an allegiance to the party, but are ambivalent about their leader or his chances at the ballot box next year.

The poll used a randomised sample of 1,500 Canadians, and split that into 500 potential supporters each of the major political parties. Nearly the same number of supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties believe their leader is setting the party up to win more seats in 2019, while just about 34%, are confident about Singhs ability to grow his partys seat count next year.

The news isnt all rosy for Trudeau as the poll found more Canadians are open to voting for Conservatives and Andrew Scheer than the alternatives.The US has said that a year after the launch of President Donald Trumps new South Asia policy, it has not seen decisive action by Pakistan against terrorists operating from its soil and that the future of bilateral ties is in the hands of Pakistani leaders.

We have seen some action but we have not seen the decisive steps from Pakistan that could demonstrate commitment, ensuring their territory cannot be used by the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and other groups that were so violent and bring instability in the region, said Henry Ensher, deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia.

Speaking at a symposium on US-Pakistan ties at Wilson Center on Wednesday, he added the future course of our relationship, and indeed the trajectory of Pakistans development rest in the hands of Pakistani leaders.

Pakistans policy on terror, Ensher said, is key to its ties with India. The US encourages the two countries to talk, he said, but the presence of terrorists and militants on Pakistani soil limits the potential for and the likely outcomes of any dialogue and we encourage Pakistan to address these issues.

Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November and regularly addresses rallies and public meetings with impunity, Ensher noted to illustrate his point. Saeed was seen at one of these public events with a minister of the new government, he added.

In January, he said, Pakistan pledged to act against LeT fronts Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), but 10 months later there is no evidence the government has taken over JuD and FIF operations or taken other measures to prevent those groups from operating.

It is clear the new Imran Khan government may have earned itself a reset of bilateral ties that had been in a downward spiral, but US expectations from Pakistan remain unchanged and the Trump administration will continue to press Islamabad to align itself with the South Asia strategy.

The US and Pakistan have agreed to take another shot at putting their ties back on the rails during recent meetings between secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa in Islamabad and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Washington.

Enshers 30-minute speech was encouraging in tone, urging Pakistan to live up to its potential. He said that if Pakistan makes smart choices, the US is prepared to be its partner.

But the speech was unwavering in its message: Pakistans contribution to the Afghan peace process and its counter-terror actions will be central to ties with the US.

Ensher reminded Pakistan of its commitments made to the Financial Action Task Force, a global watchdog that curbs terror financing and money laundering, in June following its inclusion in a watch list. We expect Pakistan will uphold its commitment, to FATF, he said. The US had taken the lead on adding Pakistan to the grey list.Sutirtho Patranobis

Beijing

India is the biggest challenge for Beijing to use Buddhism in support of President Xi Jinpings Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to tackle terrorism and separatism and for strategic purposes, leading Chinese scholars have said.

For one, the Chinese Buddhist scholars argued at a recent symposium, the Dharamshala-based Dalai Lama has established a separatist base in India and promotes traditional religion and culture  as opposed to the Communist Partys socialist values  to maintain his base.

India itself is a stumbling block as it has not joined BRI, a connectivity project worth billions of dollars, because of geopolitical reasons.

The scholars gathered this week in northwestern Qinghai province to discuss how to leverage Buddhism in constructing and expanding the BRI. The symposium was seemingly focussed on sinicising  and also politicising  Buddhism for the purpose of statecraft.

Soft power like religion, if used properly, will convert to hard power, one scholar said.

Guided by the core socialist values, the symposium aims to encourage Tibetan Buddhism to adapt to the socialist society and teach the religion to serve the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, the sitetibet.cn news website reported.

Tibetan Buddhism can act as a bridge between BRI countries so that they can better communicate with each other, since religious and cultural beliefs are similar in Central and South Asia, Qin Yongzhang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Global Times tabloid.

The BRI, for example, has injected new energy into China-Nepal ties and China has built a relationship with Mongolia through Tibetan Buddhism.

Not so the case with India.

One immediate challenge of promoting BRI through Tibetan Buddhism comes from India, which has been holding back for geopolitical reasons, Qin said.

The Dalai Lama has established a separatist base in India, and has been advocating the traditional culture as leverage to expand his influence.

Buddhism has a significant role in curbing separatism, religious extremism and terrorism while implementing BRI because it pursues harmony and opposes violence, said Xiong Kunxin, an ethnic studies professor at Tibet University in Lhasa.

The position against India and the Dalai Lama is in line with a recent decision by a Chinese county not to allow India-trained Buddhist monks to teach in China.

In May, the county in southwestern Sichuan province banned Tibetan monks wrongly educated in India from teaching Buddhism to prevent the spread of separatist ideas.

Officials of Litang county issued the ban, the first such move outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

As some monks received education overseas from the 14th Dalai Lama clique  whom China regards as separatists  it is necessary to tighten supervision so as to prevent the clique from using local Buddhists to conduct separatist activities, Zhu Weiqun, former head of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the national committee of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, had said.A man who previously travelled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans entourage to the United States entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, according to images published Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper.

The Sabah newspapers report showed the man also later outside the Saudi consul generals home, checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side, and leaving Turkey on Oct. 2.

The report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished an overnight search of both the consul generals residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankaras fears that Saudi authorities had Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations baseless, has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days, including on Thursday.

The Sabah report showed the man walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9:55 a.m. with several men trailing behind him. Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1:14 p.m., then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him.

Turkish forensic police officers leave after searching evidence at the Saudi Arabiain Consulate on October 18, 2018 in Istanbul. (AFP)

A report Wednesday by the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio recording of Khashoggis slaying, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul generals official residence, some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away, a little under two hours after Khashoggi walked inside. The Sabah newspaper showed an image of the man at 4:53 p.m. at the consuls home, then at 5:15 p.m. checking out of a hotel. He later cleared airport security at 5:58 p.m.

Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Khashoggis case, adding to the pressure on the kingdom.

The AP could not immediately verify the mans identity, though hes one of the individuals previously identified by Turkish authorities as being involved in the 15-man Saudi team that targeted Khashoggi.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle and later distributed by the AP show the same man was in Prince Mohammeds entourage when he visited a Houston subdivision in April to see rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey. The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the flags of Saudi Arabia and America intertwined, that other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The three-week trip across the U.S. saw Prince Mohammed meet with business leaders and celebrities, including Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, who now owns the Post.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured the worlds attention remains focused on what happened to Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the United States over the rise of Prince Mohammed. It also put further strains on the relationship between the kingdom, the worlds largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the U.S., as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

Flying back home after a visit to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo remained positive Wednesday about an ongoing Saudi probe into Khashoggis disappearance, but he stressed that answers are needed.

Sooners better than later for everyone, Pompeo said.

President Donald Trump, who initially came out hard on the Saudis over the disappearance but since has backed off, said Wednesday that the U.S. wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Khashoggis alleged killing if it exists.

On Thursday, the Post published what it described as Khashoggis last column in honor of the missing journalist.

In it, Khashoggi pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.

As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate, Khashoggi wrote. He added: The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.A Taliban suicide bomber slammed into a NATO convoy near the Afghan capital, killing two civilians and injuring five Czech troops, Afghan officials and the Czech military said Thursday.

The attack, which took place late Wednesday in the district of Bagram in Parwan province, also wounded three Afghan civilians, said Wahida Shakar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor.

Bagram is about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Kabul and is also the home of a sprawling US military base. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Of the five Czech soldiers, one was seriously injured when their vehicle overturned following the explosion. The soldier underwent surgery and the Czech military said he was not in life-threatening condition.

Earlier, NATO spokeswoman Sgt 1st Class Debra Richardson had said three alliance service members were hurt in the bombing but didnt provide more details.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said an insurgent suicide bomber rammed his car into the NATO convoy.

The attack on the NATO convoy came at the end of a particularly violent day across Afghanistan as tensions are rising ahead of the countrys parliamentary elections on Saturday.

A Taliban bombing in southern Helmand province killed a candidate running in the elections. The Taliban also attacked checkpoints in the northern Baghlan province, killing six policemen and wounding two others in a four-hour battle. Also, in eastern Maidan Wardak province, a suicide car bomber targeted a military vehicle, killing two Afghan army troops.

The Taliban have threatened the polls and warned teachers and students not to participate in the vote and not to allow schools to be used as polling centers. The insurgents said in a statement Wednesday that they will target Saturdays elections, which they view as illegitimate, but that they do not want to harm civilians.

In recent months, Afghan troops have come under near-daily attacks. NATO troops, which handed over security to Afghan forces at the end of 2014, mostly train and assist with air power. So far this year, eight US soldiers and three other NATO service members have died in Afghanistan. (AP) RUPThe Trump administration has reiterated once again its plans to redefine speciality occupation for skilled foreign workers who US companies seek to hire under the non-immigrant H-1B visa programme that has been immensely popular with Indian IT companies and professionals.

The department of homeland security (DHS), which oversee the agency that runs the programme, has also expressed the intention to implement other measures that the Trump administration has been considering to ensure, as the US president Donald Trump has said, Americans have the first right to American jobs.

Indian companies and IT professionals have been major beneficiaries of the programme cornering more than 70% of the 65,000 visas that the US grants to foreigners hired abroad every year and an additional 20,000 to foreign students passing out of US colleges and universities with advanced degrees.

The DHS proposes to revise the definition of specialty occupation to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme, the agency said in the Fall 2018 Unified Agenda, a twice-yearly summary and plans of the federal government, published Wednesday.

It also proposes to revise the definition of employment and employer-employee relationship to better protect US workers and wages. In addition, DHS will propose additional requirements designed to ensure employers pay appropriate wages to H-1B visa holders.

The purpose of these changes, it added, was to ensure that H-1B visas are awarded only to individuals who will be working in a job which meets the statutory definition of specialty occupation. In addition, these changes are intended to ensure that the H-1B program supplements the US workforce and strengthens US worker protections.

Among other proposals, and reiterated, in the Unified Agenda, was the elimination of work authorization for spouses of H-1B holders who are waiting for their Green Card (permanent residency, which is a step away from citizenship), a programme that also mainly benefits Indian workers.

Another change proposed in the agenda, and slated for early implementation, is to require employers planning to hire cap-mandated H-1B workers  85,000  to register with authorities before hand. And only those picked will then go on to submit completed H-1B applications.

Critics of the H-1B programme have long argued that it has used to displace American workers with cheaper foreign workers. Agreeing with them, president Trump, who had himself used it in his businesses before, has ordered its review and measures to stop its abuse and fraud.

Redefining speciality occupation to raise the bar for those eligible for H-1Bs, raising salaries for foreign workers and some other measures, it has been argued, would force American companies, including local affiliates of Indians IT giants such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro, to go with American workers

The Trump administration first proposed the redefinition in the Unified Agenda for Fall 2017, which was released around the same time last year, using the same language. The target date for implementing it was October 2018, which the administration missed, without ascribing any reasons for it.

The proposal as reiterated in the Spring Unified Agenda, the document is published twice every year, with a new target date of January 2019. And now the proposal in into its third iteration with the stated implementation goal of August 2019. It could even be announced before, if its ready.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the DHS agency that directly administers the H-1B programme, refused to discuss timelines or proposals. USCIS cant comment on alleged proposals until they are made public, an official said on background. We continue to review all employment-based visa programs, including H-1B. Any proposed regulatory changes will not be final until the rulemaking process is complete and the published rule takes effect.

USCISs Michael Bars, a spokesperson, said, The administration has been relentlessly pursuing merit-based policy and regulatory immigration reforms, including a thorough review of H-1Bs and employment based visa programs so they benefit the American people to the greatest extent possible in fulfillment of the Presidents Buy American, Hire American Executive Order.

Changing the definition has great potential to reform the program, said Sarah Pierce, an expert with the Migration Policy Institute, a leading US think tank.

However, she added, there are a lot of factors in these definitions that are set by statute (the Immigration and Nationality Act, the overarching law), which the administration cannot change without the approval of Congress. And that will make the proposed change a long and complex process.(ANSA) - Rome, October 18 - President Sergio Mattarella on Friday called on Italy's political class to show a sense of responsibility. The head of State told the Assolombarda business association that Italy needs "constructive dialogue and a high sense of responsibility by the political world, the institutions, businesses, associations and civil society for conscious decisions with a long-term vision of the collective interest." He added that is was his duty to act as the "guardian of the Constitution".

(ANSA) - Brussels, October 18 - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday the EC would examine Italy's 2019 budget bill "without any negative prejudice".

He said "it will be examined with the same flexibility and rigour as all the others".

Juncker said "there are five or six countries we will ask for further clarification".

He said Premier Giuseppe Conte presented the budget to the EU summit "with passion".

M odern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde opened at the Barbican on October 10, spotlighting 40 pairs of artists from the first half of the last century, displaying their work alongside photographs, love letters and gifts.

Fast forward to London today, to meet the modern couples in our cutting-edge design community

DOSHI LEVIEN: THE DREAMER AND THE MAKER

Avant-garde? Definitely, laughs Nipa Doshi, sitting in a light-filled studio in Columbia Road, E2, with her husband of 19 years, Jonathan Levien. The proof is all around them: prototypes of the couples new lighting, with swooping abstract shapes cradling glowing orbs in layered metal shaped by a car workshop.

Trading as Doshi Levien, here is an archetypal London design couple. She is Indian, he was born in Scotland and their string of international clients includes Italian contemporary furniture firm Moroso and Danish textile company Kvadrat.

They met at the Royal College in 1995. It was love at first sight for Levien but Doshi, a graduate of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, was more cautious. By 2000, however, they were married.

Jonathan sold cutlery designs to Habitat, receiving a healthy advance against royalties, so we chucked our jobs in, printed the stationery and spent days working on proposals.

A breakthrough first commission was for French cookware manufacturer Tefal. Jonathan recalls their extensive research into how different London cultures cook. That kind of investigation is still crucial for us, endlessly exploring, experimenting, testing.

They recently painted dozens of fabric samples by hand, for example, and cast the texture of a cloth in 3D. They live in Barbican with their son, aged 10. Recent furniture for John Lewis includes chairs and a sofa with elegant moulded shells that are definitely different.

Jonathan is the maker, trained in furniture/industrial design, with an instinctive feel for materials and process. Nipa you sense is the dreamer, enriched by her Indian heritage, brilliant at drawing, an accomplished colourist and pattern maker, bringing a story and often a mischievous wit to every project.

Definitely avant-garde: E2-based husband-and-wife design duo Jonathan Levien and Nipa Doshi, aka Doshi Levien (Rei Moon) / Ray Moon/ Inside LIving

RAW EDGES: CHEEKY WORK THATS OFF THE WALL

In a studio loft in north London, innovative design duo Raw Edges is the go-to agency for work thats a bit cheeky and off the wall, with clients as diverse as Chatsworth House, London Design Festival, Stella McCartney and furniture brands Cappellini and Vitra.

Room dividers made of hanging wooden dowels for Matter of Stuff gallery in Kings Cross and coloured spinning Horah glass lights in five sizes at the new WonderGlass gallery in Berners Street, W1, are just two projects currently on view.

Ideas simply explode from these modern mavericks, Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, who have worked together since 2007. They met as students partying in Jerusalem, their homeland, became a couple in 2000, then studied in tandem at the Royal College of Art in London.

The pair have a playful, experimental approach to every project. Boiling timber up in dyes and pouring foam into paper moulds is par for the course. Inspiration is individual and personal  it has to be a very inner sensation  but then they start talking and thats the core of our partnership, both professional and personal.

After that comes drawing and then mock-ups. We both love materials and humble shapes and of course the modernism of the Bauhaus, so rooted in our Israeli heritage.

Modern mavericks: Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay are north London-based Raw Edges / Marek Iwicki

STOFF STUDIOS: ABSTRACT TEXTILES AND FURNITURE

Trading as Stoff Studios, Andrew Mason, 32, and Carys Briggs, 30, have the assured and easy intimacy of an established couple. It extends from conversation through to the works they jointly create in an old Victorian factory in South Bermondsey.

Shes a textile designer, graduating from the Royal College in 2015, he designs and makes furniture, leaving Camberwell College of Art in 2009 with a degree in sculpture. They met on the student party circuit. Andrew was keen on gallery-going, while Carys introduced him to real ale. They started working together in 2015.

Their work is sharply contemporary. For example, a recent day bed in reclaimed chestnut has screen printed fabrics in the loose, abstract style that Carys has made her own. She has great vision, Andrew observes, whereas I am more reflective and critical.

They talk constantly about work and their house in Lewisham disintegrates into mess when theyre busy, with no one to get any meals.

We live together, work together and then hang out at the pub together. Thats our life and we love it.

Partnership: Andrew Mason and Carys Briggs of Stoff Studios in South Bermondsey

DAVID GATES AND HELEN CARNAC: FURNITURE MEETS ART

On the cusp of furniture and art at the big PAD design show last week in Berkeley Square were curiously animated cabinets standing high on improbably spindly legs, in scorched and pigmented fine timbers such as elm, ash and birds-eye maple, with cedar drawers and vessels of enamelled steel.

These are the work of David Gates and Helen Carnac who have shared a Victorian house in Peckham since 1999. They also have a studio in Woolwich, where David concentrates on furniture, and Helen on the vitreous enamelling of steel.

Home and work life are completely overlapped  its hard to untie. We know each others interests, points of view, artistic direction and limitations. Its a luxury, a privilege and sometimes a frustration.(ANSA) - Vatican City, October 18 Pope Francis in his morning homily during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta dwelled on the three ways of living poverty in the life of the Christian and said that even today there are many Christians persecuted for the Gospel.

The pope spoke of the three forms of poverty to which the disciple is called: the first is to renounce riches, with a heart detached from money; the second is to accept persecution, large or small, even slander, because of the Gospel; and the third is the poverty of loneliness, to feel alone at the end of life.

TEL AVIV - The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday removed restrictions placed Wednesday on Gaza border communities, following a night of calm.

The restrictions were placed after a rocket from Gaza destroyed a house in Beersheba whose residents just barely managed to escape serious injury.

Schools reopened on Thursday and daily life went back to normal.

The decision to remove restrictions followed a five-hour Defence Council meeting convened by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday evening.

Results of the meeting have not been released, and the press has concluded that Netanyahu banned those present from speaking about it.

However, Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman's position on the need for "a campaign" against Hamas in Gaza is well-known.

Attempts at mediation by the UN and Egypt still seem to be underway.

Media analysts said it remains to be seen what will happen during this week's March of Return at the Israeli border, a demonstration that Gaza has called for every Friday.

Now Open

18 October 2018

Generator, whose design-driven affordable luxury has disrupted hospitality across Europe, has opened its first US property, Generator Miami, this fall.

An adrenalizing blend of high design, low price points, and magnetic social environments, Generator Miami has created a destination unlike anything in hotel-saturated South Florida - a grown up playground where locals blend with guests from around the world for a buzzing mix of ages, backgrounds, languages, and orientations.

Along with 300 beds in 105 rooms, Generator Miami showcases three carefully curated food & beverage venues with strong local roots; an array of spontaneous, anything-can-happen public spaces; and surprise-filled 24/7 programming from yoga classes to rap battles to mixology demos.

Launched in 2011, Generator has already grown to 13 properties in European capitals like London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Paris, and Rome. Generator properties routinely win accolades as the most stylish and best-designed lodgings wherever they open. Each Generator mixes ultra comfortable private rooms with brilliantly designed shared accommodations, all at very accessible price points. Every Generator features free wi-fi, 24-hour reception, female-only accommodations, a travel shop, bar, and cafe.

A signature of any Generator property is an enviable location in the coolest district of a sought-after city. Generator Miami ups that game with an unbeatable South Beach spot on legendary Collins Avenue, one of America's most iconic streets. Just 100 feet from the beach and 15 minutes from Miami International Airport, Generator Miami lets guests hit the sand running in one of the world's great seaside playgrounds.

A slick adaptation of a classic 1940s-era condo called the Atlantic Princess, Generator Miami feels like a pop fantasy of a Miami Beach resort  lush with palm trees and greenery, bathed in Miami neon, with a pool as its social focus. Argent Design, the renowned London-based creative group, whose projects range from jets, yachts and helicopters to hotels and private residences across the world, brought their creative dynamism to the project, taking the creative realisation of Generator Miami to another level. Argent Design, led by Nicola Fontanella and Jack Bridges, oversaw the building's conversion and design through their Miami office, creating bespoke furniture and features specially for the property that re-imagines luxdeco for global travellers. Renowned for creating extraordinary interiors in some of the world's most prestigious locations, with offices in London and Miami, Argent Design strives to provide exquisite design which is lovable, elegant and unique.

Generator's in-house team has art-directed the property's 105 rooms and multiple public spaces. As it does in every city where it opens, Generator fine-tuned its offerings to the Miami market. Generator Miami offers Generator's signature mix of shared accommodations and private rooms, with a higher proportion of private rooms than at any of its European Generators. Miami is also the first Generator in the world with a pool, and the first with a "leisure resort" feel, said Thomann. "The whole building has a completely different feel from the rest of our portfolio, but still feels very much like a Generator. It's our interpretation of Generator's city look and feel for a Miami Beach resort."

The property boasts three completely idiosyncratic food and beverage venues; each feels completely fresh while winking at Miami Beach's glittery past and beach heritage. Chef Daniel Roy, a Florida native whose long Miami resume includes stints at 3030 Ocean and the Matador Room will run Generator Miami's kitchen.

Art surrounds guests and visitors at Generator Miami. The main mural on the facade facing the swimming pool has been designed and painted by renowned South African artist Chris Auret, famed for his Mandela paintings and murals, street art, and styling of Afrika Burn, the Burning Man regional event in Africa. For rotating art throughout the year, Generator Miami will enlist a range of art partners, including the famed Amsterdam collective Kamp Horst, whose artwork in Generator Amsterdam has won worldwide acclaim.Now Open

18 October 2018

Thailand's leading hospitality group, Centara Hotels & Resorts, not only showcases the best of the "Land of Smiles" with in well established destinations, but also in Thailand's most exciting emerging locations, such as Rayong.

Nestled on the country's Eastern Seaboard, just 2.5 hours' drive from Bangkok, Rayong is a traditional coastal community that feels blissfully removed from the tourist crowds associated with places like Pattaya and Phuket. At Centara Q Resort Rayong, guests can unwind and explore exquisite tropical surroundings, including unspoiled countryside, pristine beaches and offshore islands, lapped by the crystal waters of the Gulf of Thailand.

Centara Q Resort Rayong is an intimate seafront retreat with just 41 rooms, all of which are bright, spacious and offer stunning sea views from a private balcony or terrace.

Within the hotel, guests can chill out at the beachfront swimming pool, work out in the fitness centre, or pamper themselves at Cense by SPA Cenvaree. There is also an E-Zone for teenagers, mountain bike hire, and a choice of day trips to a sea turtle farm, local markets and more.The inviting pool at Centara Q Resort RanongCentara Q Resort Rayong features a range of dining options, including Queen restaurant, which offers an enticing menu of Asian and international dishes, Quicksand the laid-back beachside bar, and Qube, which serves daytime refreshments and cool poolside ice creams. In-room dining is also available.

Finally, for meeting planners, the Quorum event space can host up to 90 delegates, making it ideal for corporate retreats and team-building sessions.

Rayong province is a popular destination for Thai travellers, especially Bangkok residents seeking a convenient destination for weekend break. Many visitors to the province however, head straight to the island of Koh Samet rather than staying to experience the charms of mainland Rayong. Those who do stay are treated to a captivating coastal community that is idyllic and authentic, with long stretches of quiet coastline, exotic fruit orchards, fresh seafood, verdant forests and traditional towns and villages.

Located approximately 180km from Bangkok and Suvarnabhumi Airport, Rayong is easily accessible, making it ideal for standalone beach breaks or two-centre vacations combined with a stay in the Thai capital. It is also less than 40km from U-Tapao Airport, the fast-emerging international gateway to Thailand's Eastern Seaboard.Appointment

18 October 2018

AIC Hotel Group, the experiential brand redefining vacation experiences, is thrilled to announce the restructuring of its Inside Sales department with the recent appointment of Paula Aguila as Senior Inside Sales Department Manager.

Eleven years ago, Paula joined the company as a Customer Service Coordinator and spent eight years under Ash Tembe's leadership helping build the Field Sales Department as an Inside Sales Manager. Paula has been instrumental in contributing towards the growth and success of the company, bringing a wealth of experience and knowledge to the department, and establishing strong business relationships within AIC Hotel Group.

In her new role, she will continue to support overall company objectives, and oversee the Inside Sales Coordinators, Amplified Rewards, RnR, and Vacation Experts Departments. Paula will continue to report directly to Ash Tembe, Vice President of Field Sales.Appointment

18 October 2018

Daniel Ebo has been appointed as Area Director of Sales & Marketing for InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) Oman and Director of Sales and Marketing at InterContinental Muscat. In his new role, Daniel will be responsible in leading the Sales & Marketing teams to drive performance and deliver exceptional results across the seven hotels of IHG in the country.

A seasoned professional, Daniel brings with him over 20 years of experience in commercial roles within the hospitality industry and in leading diverse teams within Sales & Marketing along multi-cultural environments. He joined IHG from Redizor Hotel Group as Area Director of Sales for Africa and Indian Ocean. Prior to this, he was the Area Director of Sales & Marketing for Southern Africa for various hotel brands including Hilton Worldwide, Kempinski, and at IHG's flagship InterContinental in Nairobi. Daniel is already familiar with the Middle East market as he had spent 10 years in the region within the same capacity.

Daniel has a Bachelor's Degree in Hospitality Management and Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from Thames Valley University London.Press Release

18 October 2018

Winding Tree, an open-source blockchain-based travel distribution platform, announces a partnership with Sciant in order to make Hospitality Technology Next Generation (HTNG) standards compatible with the Winding Tree platform. Winding Tree is working together with Sciant, an information technology and software outsourcing provider with a focus on travel technology, who will make an open source adaptor code to seamlessly convert HTNG standard message formats to the Winding Tree format.

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Many hotel property management systems (PMS), central reservation systems (CRS), and channel managers (supply systems) currently use the data exchange standard created by HTNG to send hotel rates and availability to online travel agencies, in order to distribute their hotel rooms and inventory. However, in order to work with a blockchain distribution platform, such as Winding Tree, these providers need to modify their existing product by implementing a new interface, a task many do not have the technology or resources to do.

Sciant is creating an open-source adaptor for the providers whose hotel customers are distributing their rooms using the HTNG data exchange standard, so they will now be able to quickly connect to the Winding Tree platform without significant change to their product. Inventory and rates will flow up from the supply systems, which Winding Tree will then be able to share via its platform. Winding Tree will also be able to send reservations directly back to the providers.

PMS companies and channel managers will be able to download the open-source adaptor code and easily integrate it into their products, without cost. Winding Tree will host the adaptor code in the GitHub code repository for general public download and will be accessible through HTNG's API Registry.

The benefits of the adaptor code between Winding Tree and HTNG include:

PMS, CRS and Channel management companies will be able to use their existing legacy code to communicate with Winding Tree with very minimal investment

PMS, CRS and Channel management companies will deploy the adaptor between the existing HTNG property distribution interface endpoint and the Winding Tree endpoint, leaving the adaptor to handle all of the communication

Each system would speak in its own messaging and the adaptor will handle the translations

"The collaboration with HTNG and the deployment of Sciant's open source adaptor code is a huge step forward for hospitality providers looking for new ways to list and share their inventory," said Pedro Anderson, COO and Co-Founder of Winding Tree. "Being able to communicate directly with various PMS, CRS, and channel managers is huge, and it means that more inventory will flow into the Winding Tree platform, with even more reservations flowing out.

"Being strong proponents of blockchain, open-source technologies, HTNG and hotel distribution in general, Sciant is extremely excited to participate in this project," said Stephen Burke, SVP of Travel and Hospitality for Sciant. "By enabling the many existing hotel technology providers that currently use HTNG messaging to rapidly convert their existing investment to be compatible with the Winding Tree API, Sciant believes that a major barrier is removed that will accelerate blockchain adoption across the hospitality industry."

View the entire media kit at: https://pr.blonde20.com/winding-tree-htng-sciant/

About Winding Tree

Founded in 2017, Winding Tree is a blockchain-based, decentralized, open-source travel distribution platform striving to make travel cheaper for the end user, while making it more profitable for suppliers. An open market with open competition means no exorbitant transaction fees and no barriers for entry. Moreover, Winding Tree allows small companies to compete with big players, finally bringing innovation back into the travel industry.

About Sciant

Sciant provides information technology and software development outsourcing services, headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria. Focusing on specific verticals - automotive, fintech, transportation & logistics and travel & hospitality, Sciant combines deep domain product knowledge with domain-trained technical resources to deliver superior service to our customers. Founded in 2016, Sciant has experienced triple digit growth every year since its founding.External Article

18 October 2018

A quick drink at Enso Ango involves a little more effort than most hotels - the bar is in a different building from most of the bedrooms, a good 10-minute walk away. Breakfast in the hotel restaurant? That's a five-minute stroll to another building. With five separate locations around the centre of Kyoto, Enso Ango is Japan's first "dispersed" hotel, though scattering the rooms and amenities a few roads apart is not for lack of space: the aim is to immerse guests in the local culture.

The Guardian

Between the main roads of Gojo and Shijo but away from the major tourist attractions, the hotel's properties are described as being "out of the static loop of large hotels and staged photo opportunities".

It is the first hotel from new brand Ango Hotels, and guest activities include zen meditation sessions with Buddhist priests of Ryosokuin temple, Kenninji, obanzai (home-style) cooking classes, guided night runs passing the Kamogawa River and Shinto shrines, yoga, tatami mat workshops and talks from local artists.by Fady Noun

A prelate from the Holy Land calls for unburdening bishops of their administrative tasks so that they can be shepherds again. Young people in the Middle East deserve a future of peace and security, jobs and a family without the danger of fanaticism present in other faiths. Staying in ones land is a vocation.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Mgr Georges Bacouni, Greek-Catholic archbishop of Akka, Holy Land, called for unburdening bishops of their administrative tasks so that they can be once more shepherds among the faithful. The prelate made the appeal during his address to the general congregation of the Synod on Young People currently underway (3-27 October) in the Vatican.

The archbishop, who has called for stronger Christian unity and a better and safer future for Christians in their home countries, is one of the Synod participants from the Middle East, a region where Christians are often victims of violence and persecution. Two days ago, we published the first part of a reflection on Lebanon as a "mix of cultures and religions that makes it a leader par excellence".

Bishop Georges Bacouni is one of the Middle East voices at the Synod on Young People. As the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Akka, Holy Land, he heads a congregation of 70,000 faithful.

In his address last Thursday to the general congregation, the prelate, who is one of the youngest leaders of his Church, pleaded for a lighter administrative burden on bishops in order to let him "become shepherds again".

"When I was ordained bishop 13 years ago," said Archbishop Bacouni to the French Catholic channel KTO, "the last part of the ceremony was about the lost sheep. I was told, You are a shepherd, you must go in search of the lost sheep. I ended up realising, taking on my episcopal tasks, that I no longer have time to look for the lost sheep. nor even those who are not lost. We are too involved in office work, the administrative side of things. Id like us to be free from this. The bishops must be released so that they can become shepherds again."

"For a long time, long before this Synod, I started listening to young people. They have many expectations, but most of all, they want pastors who are close to them to be true witnesses. I attended the previous synod, devoted to the family, and some of the things that are said today were said at that time, Mgr Bacouni explained.

"Families also expect pastors to be close to them. So do the young, the old, migrants. Families are correct in their expectations. But where can we find the time within the existing system where we are overwhelmed? he wondered.

Staying in the East: a vocation

With respect to the challenges facing young people in the Middle East, Bishop Bacouni goes on to say: "The first challenge, which is common to all young Christians in the Middle East, is their desire to have a better and safer future. They want to find work and have a family in a safe environment. At the same time, they fear fanatical currents in other religions.

This is why some young people want to leave and not stay in the East. This is one of the essential issues of vocational discernment at home. Those who still wish to remain in the Middle East  except for the poor who cannot leave  are young people who are convinced that God is calling them to stay in the East."

The bishop also touched on the theme of unity. "Young people say: you speak of one Church, you speak of brotherly love, love one another, but one of the signs of such love is being united, at least in our festivals, with other apostolic Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox. Note that I am talking about the expectations of young people, of what we hear them say. Young people here do not bother with ecumenical considerations."

"Sometimes," he added, "I feel that certain leaders are insufficiently aware of the need to work more on Christian unity."ROME - The number of international arrivals to Abu Dhabi in August increased 10.5% on the same month in 2017, with a double-digit increase from the majority of markets of origin, according to the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT).

It said it is on target to reach its objective of improving on last year's figure of 5 million arrivals.

The Italian market in August included 3,782 arrivals, a 0.47% drop on August 2017.

In the first eight months of 2018, there were 37,782 arrivals from Italy, staying an average of 3.6 nights.

The August increase in visitors is due in part to the "Abu Dhabi Summer Season", a calendar of events that has increased the popularity of the United Arab Emirates as a destination.

In all, 477,606 visitors stayed in 162 hotels and apartment-hotels in the city during the month of August, representing an increase of 45,000 visitors on August 2017.

In the first eight months of 2018, the city hosted 3.31 million guests, a 5.8% increase on last year.

All three regions of the UAE saw in increase in arrivals in August 2018 compared to last year.

Abu Dhabi City gained 11.2%, arrivals in the Al Ain region grew by 2.8%, and the Al Dhafra region saw a 22.5% increase in visitors, with occupancy rates up 5.6% and 8.4%, respectively.Press Release

18 October 2018

Boost, a leading mobile learning solutions provider for the Hospitality industry, announces a partnership with Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL) that will see the Swiss hospitality management university make a strategic investment into the mobile technology learning firm. This will allow Boost to continue to build its presence across the world of hospitality, expanding its suit of mobile learning solutions as well as tap EHL's expertise built over more than one hundred years. Boost's platform leverages mobile technology to provide a holistic team management system that brings together mobile learning, messaging, communication, recruitment (including assessment), measurement and organisational capabilities under a simple-to-use mobile umbrella.

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"Since our founding in 1893, EHL have set the international standard for tertiary education in hospitality, with over 25,000 alumni going on to take leadership positions throughout the industry" says Remi Walbaum, Chief Innovation Officer, adding "Innovation is one of our core values, and today in 2018 we see technology as a key means of learning both in schools and universities, and in the workplace, that is why we have decided to invest in Boost.

Mobile Learning Technology Firm, Boost, Receives Significant Investment From ECole Hoteliere De Lausanne  Photo: EHL

The needs of the industry are changing at an ever-greater pace, as are the language skills required by hotel employees, many of whom are more used to reading and learning from a screen than from a book. By developing our mobile learning capabilities we remain the forefront of hospitality, driving education, upskilling and learning, and helping talented students around the world build a successful and fulfilling hospitality career"

EHL is the world's first hospitality management school and was founded in 1893 to meet demand for more professionalised hospitality employees who could cater to the growing sophistication of hotel guests at that time. The school pioneered hospitality education, mixing classroom-based teaching with hands-on learning in real hotels, all the while ensuring their curriculum met the demands of the industry at the time. The resulting graduates were thus able to leave the school equipped with the knowledge and skills to take leadership positions in the industry and drive innovation.

EHL's presence in the mobile learning space will allow them to address many of the challenges faced by hotels today and in the future, namely the change in the way hospitality employees, many of whom are young, consume information and learn, and the need to meet the demands of guests whose expectations have risen in the age of social media and instant reviews.

Mobile Learning Technology Firm, Boost, Receives Significant Investment From ECole Hoteliere De Lausanne  Photo: EHL

"Boost's suite of mobile learning solutions are tailor made for the hospitality industry, not only allowing individual hotel employees to learn new languages and other skills, but enabling management to organise their teams, recruit new team members and communicate better" says Allan Taylor, Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Boost, adding "20,000 hotel employees are already using our mobile learning solutions, we have seen them learn Mandarin allowing them to communicate with their Chinese guests, we have seen them learn how to upsell improving hotel revenues, and we have seen them learn many more skills vital to improving service and thus their hotel's bottom line. Unlike traditional classroom-based teaching, mobile learning allows hotel employees to learn at a time and place of their choosing. Importantly, it is measurable and scalable, and available at an enterprise level allowing for group and team organisation, HR and recruitment functions and inter-team communication"

The investment from EHL will allow Boost to continue developing its existing mobile learning solutions and develop new solutions to address the needs of the hospitality industry. Lastly, Boost will be able to tap the knowledge and expertise of some of the world's leading thinkers, thought leaders and academics in the hospitality field, ensuring their mobile solutions are tailored to the unique and ever-changing needs of the industry.Supplier News

18 October 2018

Dortmund, 18 October 2018  In January, the new protel support team in Leipzig is scheduled to start supporting hotels around the globe. The office located in the Fugger Business Park near the grounds of the Leipzig Trade Fair is ready for its new occupants. The training of the first group of employees to start working at the new Leipzig offices has already begun at the company's headquarters in Dortmund, and the recruitment of further employees is in full swing. With the opening of the new location in Leipzig, the Dortmund based property management software provider is further expanding its global support team and shortening the distances to its customers in the eastern parts of Germany.

Manfred Osthues, Managing Partner, emphasizes: "We are very pleased about our international success. The opening of our US subsidiary in Atlanta last year, for example, was an important milestone in the company's history. But we are just as proud of the many regular customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland who have been loyal to us throughout the years. We are doing everything we can to support all our customers as effectively as possible. The expansion of our support department with a further location sets an important new accent here".

"Leipzig is an ideal location for the new team," says protel's Ken Greeley, Vice President of Global Support. "In addition to our international customers, we also serve many customers in the eastern parts of Germany and around the greater Berlin area. We have found that personal proximity is very helpful, especially for installations and the training of hotel staff. That's why we've decided to position our new team in Leipzig. We are confident that this strategy we will enable us to attract many talented applicants with hotel experience to join our extended team."

The first group of employees for Leipzig have already started their training as protel hotel software supporters. They are getting to know the hotel management software from the ground up at the company's own academy located at the protel headquarters in Dortmund. The training is made up of introductory training units and practical exercises in which the new supporter looks over the shoulder of an experienced colleague on the job as a so-called "shadow". Equipped with the necessary expertise and practiced work processes, the first group of supporters in Leipzig will move into their offices in January and will start making their contribution to serving protel's customers.

As of January, the training of further new employees will take place at the Leipzig offices. Even after the opening, the team will continue to grow. Therefore, anyone interested in working in the Leipzig protel support team is welcome to apply.

protel is a fast-growing company that is continually hiring. In addition to job vacancies in support, there are also many openings in other departments. The company provides information about current job offers in the careers section of their website.

More about the mentioned positions in the support team and further information about current job vacancies at protel can be found in the careers at protel section in our websiteJavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.



You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browserRevenue per available room up 3.9 Percent to CAD109.99

The Canadian hotel industry recorded positive year-over-year results in the three key performance metrics during the week of 7-13 October 2018, according to data from STR.

In comparison with the week of 8-14 October 2017, the industry reported the following:

 Occupancy: +1.3% to 69.6%

 Average daily rate (ADR): +2.5% to CAD158.15

 Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +3.9% to CAD109.99



Among the provinces and territories, Prince Edward Island reported the only double-digit increase in occupancy (+14.8% to 70.5%), which drove the highest jump in RevPAR (+23.6% to CAD97.60).

Nova Scotia posted the only double-digit lift in ADR (+10.9% to CAD161.42) and the second-largest increases in occupancy (+8.4% to 74.8%) and RevPAR (+20.2% to CAD120.75).

New Brunswick saw the third-largest increase in RevPAR (+9.9% to CAD83.68).

Overall, 10 of the 11 reporting provinces and territories reported growth in RevPAR.

Newfoundland and Labrador registered the only decrease in RevPAR (-13.6% to CAD64.54) because of the steepest declines in occupancy (-8.1% to 49.3%) and ADR (-5.9% to CAD131.01).

British Columbia experienced the second-largest drop in occupancy (-0.7% to 70.7%).

STR provides clients from multiple market sectors with premium, global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 10 countries around the world with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, and an international headquarters in London, England. For more information, please visit str.com.

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceMeetings industry has achieved consistent growth in spend and attendees for the fourth consecutive year, solidifying its value as a business enabler

A decade after the 2008 global economic recession, the meetings industry has bounced back and settled into a new normal of steady and stable growth according to the 2019 Global Meetings and Events Forecast by American Express Meetings & Events (M&E), a division of American Express Global Business Travel (GBT).

In 2019, global meetings activity is expected to grow along with small increases in budget allocation for meetings and events. Consolidation across the industry and the rise of disruptive suppliers creates an environment where meeting planners feel more pressure but also have more choice. This dynamic allows the industry to collectively tackle long-term challenges, such as live inventory for small and simple meetings, and increased opportunities for attendee engagement. Regional forecasts are also optimistic, reflecting overall industry sentiment.

Surveyed planners agreed that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is impacting the industry far beyond Europe where the regulation was developed. As emerging technologies such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and facial recognition transform meetings and events and create more data, compliance and privacy concerns will only grow in importance. These technologies offer attendees what theyre becoming accustomed to in their daily lives, making meetings more immersive and engaging.

2019 will be a growth year for the meetings industry, with activity expected to increase across all meeting types and regions, said Issa Jouaneh, Senior Vice President & General Manager at American Express Meetings & Events. The challenge before planners is mastering this volume, while working with the reality of expenses increasing at a higher rate than meetings budgets. Strategic meetings built around defined goals that prioritise the attendee experience and embrace technology will continue to elevate meetings as a business tool despite these challenges.

Europe

Meeting planners in Europe are learning to navigate the new normal with high expectations and an expanding scope. Activity across meeting types is increasing, especially in Germany and Spain, which lead the way in Europe. Both countries will see increases in number of meetings and number of attendees for product launches and customer advisory board meetings. Similar to North America, modest growth in budgets (0.7%) is not expected to keep up with rising hotel rates (1.6%).

North America

In North America, planners are managing competing demands: they need to improve the attendee experience while working within budgetary constraints. The region will see small, but material, increases in number of meetings, attendees, meeting length, and cost per attendee  a hallmark of the industrys new normal. Meeting budgets are expected to increase by 0.8% despite increasing hotel rates (2.4%) and lower commissions, which two thirds of planners cite as the main consequence of hotel consolidation. Doing more with less is the persistent goal of the meeting planner in this region, with 33% of those surveyed reporting they would elevate content first if corporate meetings budgets increased.

Asia Pacific

Planners in APAC are striving to do more with less in the region. Growth is predicted, and while costs are balanced for now, they are rising faster than corporate meetings budgets. This creates pressure for ROI. As a result, one quarter of planners across the region are choosing second-tier destinations to defray costs, up from only 3% the previous year. Interestingly, priorities for per-attendee spend vary greatly across the region: Companies in Japan spend most on incentives, in China the priority is senior leadership meetings, while in Australia, product launches receive the most attention.

Central & South America

Rising local and international activity signals a growing region, and planners in Central & South America are employing technology to keep pace with demand. Although face-to-face interactions maintain cultural significance, virtual meetings are a valuable option for budget-conscious companies, with 76% of planners anticipating the use of virtual meeting technology. Still, Latin American destinations like Rio de Janeiro, Cancun/Riviera Maya, and Mexico City continue to climb as top meeting spots internationally. Conferences and tradeshows are showing interest in Brazil especially and are likely to take advantage of facilities built for recent global sporting events to attract attendees to new destinations.

The eighth annual Global Meetings Industry Forecast takes a new format for 2019, while continuing to deliver comprehensive data relevant to all those within the industry. New infographics in each section summarise key data points and trends from our global survey of meetings professionals and suppliers, industry data, and in-depth interviews with planners and buyers, meeting, air, and ground suppliers worldwide. The forecast, conducted by American Express Meetings & Events, examines budgets, spend, the number of meetings, and other industry-specific metrics by geographic region.

Below is a high-level snapshot of the key 2019 predictions based on a survey of meetings professionals:

Survey Highlights: Overall Meeting Activity Levels

2019 vs. 2018

North America Europe Central/ S. America Asia Pacific Internal Team Meeting/Training 1.23% 0.64% -0.09% -0.79% Product Launch (Internal/External) 1.19% 1.15% -0.05% 0.52% Conference/Tradeshow 0.50% 0.65% 1.39% 0.56% Senior Leadership Meeting/ Board Meeting 1.11% 0.92% 0.69% -0.14% Client/Customer Advisory Board 1.33% 1.55% 1.93% 0.18% Incentive/Special Event 0.86% 0.77% 1.77% 0.69%

Survey Highlights: Overall Meeting Spend Within Organisations

2019 vs. 2018

North America Europe Central/ S. America Asia Pacific 0.80% -0.65% 0.26% 0.86%

Survey Highlights: Overall Group Hotel Rates

2019 vs. 2018

North America Europe Central/ S. America Asia Pacific Global Hoteliers 2.41% 1.61% 0.96% 1.11% 2.29%

Survey Highlights: Percent of Planners who see lower commissions as the main consequence of recent hotel mergers and acquisitions

North America Europe Central/ S. America Asia Pacific 68% 50% 50% 57%

The 2019 Global Meetings and Events Forecast by American Express Meetings & Events also contains three special sections: The Future of Personalisation by the Banks Sadler team, a meetings management and consulting services company acquired by GBT in 2017; Meetings Legal Trends; and a Latin America Destination Report, which expands on how and why to plan meetings in the regions top destinations.

Click here to download the full report and access more content around the 2019 Global Meetings & Events Forecast.

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceAuberge Resorts Collection Will Expand Into Northeastern U.S., Europe, North Africa And South America

Auberge Resorts LLC announced today that the company has entered into a strategic partnership with the Libra Group, owners of Grace Hotels. Auberge will welcome five award-winning Grace properties in Europe and the northeastern United States into the Auberge Resorts Collection portfolio. Expansion from additional properties currently under development will further enhance the portfolio over the next two years. The existing Grace properties and those in the pipeline will be branded under the Auberge Resorts Collection name and managed by the Auberge team.



The expanded Auberge portfolio will provide luxury travelers with exceptional resorts that capture the local character and environment of some of the world's most sought-after destinations. Among them, the iconic Grace Santorini, overlooking the Aegean and perennially voted among the best hotels in Europe; the historic Mayflower Inn & Spa, a luxurious retreat in the Connecticut countryside; and in 2020, an exquisite lakeside hotel in the heart of the world's most glamorous ski destination  St. Moritz. With the addition of the Grace properties, Auberge Resorts Collection further establishes itself as one of the top international portfolios of ultra-luxury hotels in the world.

In the next 90 days, the Grace properties in Mykonos and Santorini, Greece, along with the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, Conn.; White Barn Inn & Spa in Kennebunk, Maine; and the Vanderbilt Hotel in Newport, R.I. will join Auberge Resorts Collection. Over the next few years, the collection will scale even further with the addition of other properties that are under development in Athens, Kalamata, Kea and a second resort in Santorini, Greece; Marrakech, Morocco; Buenos Aires, Argentina; as well as St. Moritz, Switzerland.

As part of the agreement, the Libra Group will have a strategic interest in Auberge Resorts Collection, establishing a relationship between two family-owned companies that share a passion for the highest quality experiences and advancing Auberge's vision for creating a collection of the best-loved luxury properties in the world.

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"Our strategic partnership with the Libra Group will expand our portfolio of acclaimed properties and build on Auberge Resorts Collection's reputation as a premier hospitality brand," said Dan Friedkin, Chairman, Auberge Resorts Collection. "With the Logothetis family, we have found likeminded partners who share our desire to deliver exceptional quality and unparalleled guest experiences."

"Auberge Resorts Collection's reputation for operational excellence, and our shared passion for creating intimate and elegant hotels made this a compelling opportunity for us," added George Logothetis, Chairman and CEO of the Libra Group. "The hotels are in extremely good hands with Auberge, whose existing and pipeline properties are highly complementary with our hotels. This is a testament to the shared thinking between our organizations. With our new strategic interest, we look forward to participating in the next chapter of Auberge Resorts Collection story."

"Auberge is a brand that focuses on unique experiences of the highest quality," said Craig Reid, Chief Executive Officer, Auberge Resorts Collection. "Our dedication to crafted luxury strikes a chord with travelers who seek custom amenities and authentic experiences that are unique to each setting. We are thrilled to give guests the opportunity to experience the expanded Auberge Resorts Collection brand in more exceptional destinations around the globe."

Plans are underway to integrate the properties into the Auberge Resorts Collection and welcome the Grace employees into the Auberge family over the next three months. Following the transaction with Libra, Auberge Resorts Collection will include:

*Added to Auberge Resorts Collection as part of strategic partnership with Libra Group

United States

Operating Hotels

Auberge du Soleil, Napa Valley

Calistoga Ranch, Napa Valley

Element 52, Telluride, Colorado

Hotel Jerome, Aspen

Madeline Hotel, Telluride, Colorado

Mayflower Inn & Spa, Connecticut*

Solage, Napa Valley

Vanderbilt Hotel, Newport, Rhode Island*

White Barn Inn & Spa, Maine*

Properties Currently Under Development

Auberge Beach Residences, Fort Lauderdale (opening 2018)

Bishop's Lodge, Santa Fe (opening 2019)

Commodore Perry Estate, Austin (opening 2020)

Mauna Lani, Hawaii (opening 2019)

The Lodge at Blue Sky, Park City (opening 2019)

Mexico, Caribbean, Central & South America

Operating Hotels

Chileno Bay, Los Cabos, Mexico

Esperanza, Los Cabos, Mexico

Hacienda AltaGracia, Costa Rica

Malliouhana, Anguilla

Mukul, Nicaragua

Properties Currently Under Development

Buenos Aires, Argentina*

Susurros del Corazon, Punta de Mita, Mexico (opening 2020)

Europe & Africa

Operating Hotels

Mykonos, Greece*

Santorini, Greece*

Properties Currently Under Development

Athens, Greece*

Kalamata, Greece*

Kea, Greece*

Marrakech, Morocco*

2nd Hotel in Santorini, Greece*

St. Moritz, Switzerland*

Asia Pacific

Operating Hotels

Nanuku, Fiji

Properties Currently Under Development

Koh Samui, Thailand*

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceIn 1996, Busta Rhymes dropped off the legendary posse cut "Flipmode Squad Meets Def Squad," which essentially united two like-minded crews for a golden-era banger; the track featured contributions from Jamal, Rampage, Redman, Keith Murray, Busta Rhymes, Lord Have Mercy, and more. Now, Busta Rhymes has revisited the formula nearly twenty-years later, this time combining the talents of his squadrons past-and-present: the former Flipmode Squad and the current Conglomerate. While some might take this one for granted, older fans will no doubt enjoy seeing Busta Rhymes once again trading bars with the likes of Spliff Starr and Rah Digga.

On the near-seven-minute banger, Busta Rhymes, O.T. Genasis, J-Doe, Trillian, Aaron Cooks, Rampage, Rah Digga, Spliff Star, Baby Sham and Prayah hold with down with a verse apiece. The production is immediately evocative of the Flipmode sound, with an ominous, near-medieval sounding riff paired with some old-school, boom-bap percussion. Rest assured that Busta held it down on his Dungeon Dragon sh*t for this one, a welcome sight to be sure. Peep this one now, especially if you're seeking a gateway to days gone by.

Quotable Lyrics

Trying to defeat the God's unimaginable,

Cause I'ma fuck n***s up unfathomable

Taurus two horned rhymes, God damn I'm a bull

Damn my n****s ran when I'm blammin' the musket

- BustaRecreational marijuana shops in Canada were allowed to legally open their doors for business this week. Thanks to The Cannabis Act that was orchestrated in part by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Canada has just become the second country in the world to legalize marijuana through legislation. Although pot smokers across the country are celebrating the historic achievement, others are skeptical. There are thousands of Canadians who currently have minor pot possession charges on their record, which has affected them in many ways. Now, according to Vice News, the Canadian government has announced plans to pardon those charges.

We will be proposing another new law to make things fairer for Canadians who have been previously convicted of simple possession of cannabis, federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale stated to reporters during a press conference. Removing the stigma of a criminal record for people who have served their sentence, and then shown themselves to be law-abiding citizens enhancing public safety for all Canadians. A pardon is simply that, a pardon, and does not fully expunge the record. According to the Canadian non-profit Campaign for Cannabis Advocacy, roughly 500,000 Canadians currently have criminal records for simple pot possession. The proposed law will allow Canadians to be exempt from the governments $631 pardon fee, and will also expedite the process.According to the Argus Leader, a branch of the USA Today network in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Chief Keef has been denied an attempt to get his drug charges in the state dismissed. The Chicago rapper was arrested in June 2017 at Sioux Falls airport with two ounces of marijuana on his person. Chief Keef was in the midst of leaving the state after wrapping up a Sioux Falls concert when the substances were seized by airport security.

We've learned that a second circuit judge has denied the motion to get the case denied, which fought for its dismissal on the grounds that "THC-infused edibles, which contain THC but no plant material, are not marijuanabut a controlled substance."

Chief Keef's defense attorney argued that South Dakota's definition of a "controlled substance" differs greatly from the state legislature in their section of the country.

"It is difficult to imagine how a person of ordinary intelligence could review the referenced statutes and determine whether marijuana edibles are a 'controlled substance' instead of marijuana," the defense pleaded.

The state of South Dakota has since doubled down in support of the court's decision to uphold the law. The state issued a statement in which pointed out the defense's "inability" to comprehend the purposes of drugs and substances control laws.ISTANBUL - Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared after entering the Saudi consolate in Istanbul on October 2, wrote an editorial for the Washington Post just prior to his disappearance, which was published on Wednesday under the title "What the Arab world needs most is free expression".

The Post received the editorial from Khashoggi's translator and assistant the day after Khashoggi was reported missing.

In the editorial, Khashoggi analyses the obstacles to the free press, starting with the 2018 "Freedom in the World" report, in which the only country in the Arab world classified as "free" is Tunisia.

He writes of the hopes during the Arab Spring of 2011, and of shattered expectations when "these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions than before".

He denounces the arrests and censorship that condition the press in the Arab world, from his own Saudi Arabia to Egypt.

"Even Lebanon, the Arab world's crown jewel when it comes to press freedom, has fallen victim to the polarization and influence of pro-Iran Hezbollah," he wrote.

In the editorial, Khashoggi thanks the Washington Post for having translated many of his articles and published them in Arabic. "The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events," he wrote.

"More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face".

Deadpool 2 did something that no other big-budget superhero film has ever done before. The Marvel film placed a lesbian relationship in the movie, with Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio enjoying a fun on-screen romance. The relationship earned Deadpool 2 the undying support of the gay community, along with several gay rights movements including GLAAD. Unlike many aspects of Deadpool 2, the lesbian relationship keeps things PG, and prefers to highlight the dynamics of Negasonic Teenage Warhead and Yukio instead of playing up their sexuality. Negasonic is played by Brianna Hildebrand, a real lift LGBT activist. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hildebrand admitted that Ryan Reynolds was the one who suggested the lesbian relationship be placed in the movie.

"I've had so many positive responses," Hildebrand stated. "It was Ryan's idea. I had already done a lot of work with It Gets Better, so I think maybe he had seen some of that. The response has been overwhelmingly positive." As for the future, Hildebrand was recently cast in Netflix's Trinkets, which based on the young adult novel from Kirsten Smith about three teenage girls. "I used to read a lot of books, but now I read scripts," Hildebrand continued. "For the most part, recently I've been really into strong female characters. This particular project has a lot of strong female leads."Drake was in a giving mood last night, serving up an entire venue of club-goers with McDonald's menu items after his concert in Los Angeles. The scene of the big giveaway was Poppy in West Hollywood, where crowd control was apparently an issue all night. TMZ rounded up pictures from the action inside, with boxes of fries and burgers dispensed across a counter, in a very liberal manner.

Drake even offered the club-goers a bonus run of songs, leading off from his show at the Forum with Migos on the double bill. The Aubrey & the Three Migos tour has two more dates in the Los Angeles-area before it continues its trajectory into the Bay Area. From there the four rappers and their productions teams will do a stopover in Tacoma, and two nights in Western Canada before returning to the United States for six more shows.

Barring a few cancellations in the middle states, The Aubrey & the Three Migostour has been a roaring success for both the Drake and Migos camp. Of the two acts on the bill, Drake has done the most to keep his audience suspended in disbelief. Besides offering his fans Mickey Ds, Drake also delighted fans with a series of in-house concert guests including Meek Mill, Sheck Wes, Travis Scott, BlocBoy JB, and Big Freedia.Kodak Black and Gucci Mane had two entirely different body transformations after leaving prison. Guwop went into his sentence overweight and left absolutely ripped, prompting many to speculate that he had been cloned. It's sort of become a running joke in the hip-hop community that Gucci's clone is actually the one that's been releasing all this new music. In similar fashion, Kodak Black left prison looking pretty different too. However, he just appears to have been eating good for a couple of months. The two are no strangers to the concept of flexing and they're teaming up to promote their collaborative single with Bruno Mars, "Wake Up In The Sky," and show off their beach bodies at the same time.

The duo is composed of a few of the most authentic guys in the rap game as Gucci and Kodak always seem to keep things real, both in their music and elsewhere. They decided it was the right opportunity to give the ladies a reason to swoon over them and considering the Florida rapper keeps talking about finding his wife on social media, this may have been a good decision. Guwop, of course, is playing wingman this time around as his wife Keyshia Ka'oir comments on his photos out of lust on a regular basis.

Kodak Black has been on a tear as of late, releasing a few singles on his way to a full-length drop. The most recent, "ZEZE," has gotten him a lot of attention so far. Have a listen here.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpE3_eNHM7c

Magellan Midstream Partners

A new 1 million barrel a day crude oil pipeline from West Texas to Brownsville has received the funding it needs to be built.

The Jupiter Pipeline under development by Houston-based JupiterMLP received a funding commitment from Charon System Advisors. It will allow JupiterMLP to build the pipeline from the prolific West Texas Permian Basin oil field to Brownsville.Dick Hite was just a 20-something salesman at the menswear retailer Norton Ditto when, looking to make a sale, he approached an elderly gentleman in the store shopping for a suit.

I said, Im Dick Hite, Hite recalled. He said, Im George Brown.

That was the beginning of a long-friendship and business association with the president of the storied construction company, Brown & Root, and namesake of the George R. Brown Convention Center. For Hite, now 75 and the owner of Norton Ditto, it was also a lesson that has never been forgotten: Relationships matter.

For more than a century  110 years to be exact  Norton Ditto has followed that lesson while catering to the citys power brokers, leading business executives and the many more who have aspired to those roles. The company has shrunk from three stores to two and moved into smaller, less prestigious locations as fashion trends have made even business attire far more casual. But for men still seeking a top-of-the line suit that will make an impression in board rooms and conference rooms, Norton Ditto remains a go-to store.

Reese OConnor, a 30-year-old corporate lawyer, regularly shopped suit discounters when he was a financially strapped law student. After joining Vinson & Elkins a few years ago, some of the law firms partners told him he needed to upgrade. They recommended Norton Ditto, where the high quality and name recognition of brands there, such as Hickey Freeman, continue to bring OConnor through the clothiers doors.

More Information nortonditto.com See More Collapse

Norton Dittos employees know the clothing and know your style and your type and can figure out exactly what you should be wearing, OConnor said. If you want suits and clothing that will last a long time, Norton Ditto is the place to go.

Over the years, Norton Dittos customers have included former President George H.W. Bush and the late U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen. The retailers original shop opened in 1908 at 506 Main in a still-standing Swiss-chalet-style building. The store made several other moves to locations within downtown and the Galleria area over the years, and as the company sought smaller spaces it altogether left those parts of town.

Today, Norton Ditto has a shop at 2425 W. Alabama and one at the Hughes Landing shopping center in The Woodlands.

Hite, who became owner two decades ago, said the downsizing has not been easy. But Norton Ditto has survived the moves and changing fashion trends because of those lessons Hite learned as a young salesman decades ago.

Were in the sales business, said Hite. We happen to sell nicer menswear. But the business were really in is relationship building.

Norton Ditto is among the specialty retailers that compete with bigger rivals and online discounters by offering customers service and attention, said Barbara Stewart, a retail and consumer science professor at the University of Houston. Such shops learn about customers lifestyles and tastes, keep them abreast of fashion trends, help them develop wardrobes and make alterations for provide custom fits.

Norton Ditto, for example, has a full-time employee who goes to customers homes and offices carrying fabric swatches and apparel and taking customer measurements.

Literally a tailor-made kind of service, Stewart said.

John Adger, 75, who started shopping at Norton Ditto as a teenager, agreed. The employees personalities and the service is why you gravitate to Norton Ditto, said Adger, a retired thoroughbred horse stable manager.

Its fun talking with not only Dick, but with the other people who work there, he said. It feels like a big family.

Though Hite concedes online vendors are strong competitors, Norton Dittos website only has about five suits available for purchase. Online sales are a tiny part of the business, in large part because Norton Dittos suits start at $995 and most carry price tags of more than $1,600.

Customers paying that much want to try it on and have a tailor look at it, Hite said. He compared the shopping experience to fine dining.

The food is important, no doubt, but its the presentation, the way youre served, Hite said. The customer wants to be romanced.

jose.gonzalez@chron.com

twitter.com/jrgzztxA growing segment of physician practices in Houston and across the nation are seeking to upend the traditional medical business model as patients pay a membership fee for better access and more attentive care from their doctor.

Known as concierge medicine, this type of practice is spreading. On Wednesday, for example, First Primary Care announced its membership-based primary care practice recently opened a second office in The Woodlands after opening its first in west Houston last year. Company officials said they hope for more.

We want to expand into every corner of Houston, Art Goetze, chief operating officer at First Primary Care, said in an interview Wednesday.

RELATED: Member-based health care aims to upend tradition in Woodlands

This trend of direct-access medicine is further evidence of the changing status quo in health care. Here's how it works: A patient pays a monthly or annual fee to a medical practice in exchange for quick and unrestricted access to their primary care physician.

The idea has been around for about two decades and has been growing steadily, presumably to address patient and physician frustration with an increasingly complex health care system in which the doctor-patient relationship sometimes seems to get short shrift. While hard numbers are elusive, a website for the American College of Private Physicians, an advocacy group for doctors offering the service, says it serves 10,000 providers nationwide.

But some public health watchers warn buyers to beware. Pauline Rosenau, professor emerita of policy and community health at UTHealth School of Public Health, is highly skeptical of the trend and urges both patients and doctors to read the fine print before committing to the model.

PROPOSED: Drug makers may have to post prices in TV ads

This introduces yet another player in an already too-complicated system, she said.

But mostly, Rosenau worried that the nation already suffers from a shortage of primary care physicians, especially for lower-income patients, and this model siphons from the pool of available doctors and shifts care to those who can afford the membership fees, she said.

Vivian Ho, a health economist at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy, agreed and added that the trend only further widens the nation's income-based health care inequality.

HOUSE CALL: Roll up your sleeve: Flu shots go to local patients' homes

But doctors who offer the service counter that a concierge model can save people money because the providers typically do not take insurance for routine visits. This is especially beneficial for small business clients, said Goetze, the practice COO, since often they cannot afford the premiums to cover their employees. Were a dream come true for them, he said.

First Primary Care practice touts same-day appointments for illness and injuries, wellness and preventive medicine, and chronic disease management a membership fee of $100 a month for individuals and $125 for seniors. The arrangement is mostly in lieu of traditional health insurance coverage, he said.

"None of us are good consumers of health care. We've become good consumers of expensive insurance," said Goetze.

A cap of 500 patients per doctor is set, Goetze said, to guarantee more time with each patient. Typically doctors at the practice only see a handful of patients per day rather than the 20 to 30 at most busy medical offices, he said.

"Every one of my patients has my cellphone number," Dr. Thi Vo, a physician at First Primary Care, said in a statement. "Its like having a doctor in the family."

If a patient needs more extensive care, Goetze said his company will help refer to a specialist. It also offers catastrophic health plans through a cost-sharing company which is not traditional insurance.

Dr. Rishi Bhardwaj, an internal medicine physician in Bellaire who has a concierge practice, added that if patients can see their doctors more quickly, their ailments will be treated sooner, reducing the risk and ultimate expense of complications.Nowhere on the agenda of the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics, being held in San Diego this week, is a topic plaguing many of its members: the recurring appropriation of the fields research in the name of white supremacy.

Sticking your neck out on political issues is difficult, said Jennifer Wagner, a bioethicist and president of the groups social issues committee, who had sought to convene a panel on the racist misuse of genetics and found little traction.

But the specter of the fields ignominious past, which includes support for the American eugenics movement, looms large for many geneticists in light of todays white identity politics. They also worry about how new tools that are allowing them to home in on the genetic basis of hot-button traits like intelligence will be misconstrued to fit racist ideologies.

In recent months, some scientists have spotted distortions of their own academic papers in far-right internet forums. Others have fielded confused queries about claims of white superiority wrapped in the jargon of human genetics. Misconceptions about how genes factor into Americas stark racial disparities have surfaced in the nations increasingly heated arguments over school achievement gaps, immigration and policing.

Instead of long-discounted proxies like skull circumference and family pedigrees, according to experts who track the far-right, todays proponents of racial hierarchy are making their case by misinterpreting research on the human genome itself. And in debates that have largely been limited to ivory-tower forums, the scientists whose job is to mine humanitys genetic variations for the collective good are grappling with how to respond.

Studying human genetic diversity is easier in a society where diversity is clearly valued and celebrated  right now, that is very much on my mind, said John Novembre, a University of Chicago evolutionary biologist who has taken to closing his visiting seminars to illustrate how one of the fields textbook examples of natural selection has been adopted for illiberal ends.

One slide Novembre has folded into his recent talks depicts a group of white nationalists chugging milk at a 2017 gathering to draw attention to a genetic trait known to be more common in white people than others  the ability to digest lactose as adults. It also shows a social media post from an account called Enter The Milk Zone with a map lifted from a scientific journal article on the traits evolutionary history.

In most of the world, the article explains, the gene that allows for the digestion of lactose switches off after childhood. But with the arrival of the first cattle herders in Europe some 5,000 years ago, a chance mutation that left it turned on provided enough of a nutritional leg up that nearly all of those who survived eventually carried it. In the post, the link is accompanied by a snippet of hate speech urging individuals of African ancestry to leave America. If you cant drink milk, it says in part, you have to go back.

In an inconvenient truth for white supremacists, a similar bit of evolution turns out to have occurred among cattle breeders in East Africa. Scientists need to be more aware of the racial lens through which some of their basic findings are being filtered, Novembre says, and do a better job at pointing out how they can be twisted.

But the white nationalist infatuation with dairy also heightened Novembres concerns about how to handle new evolutionary studies that deal with behavioral traits, such as how long people stay in school.

Anticipating misinterpretations of a recent study on how genes associated with high education attainment, identified in Europeans, varied in different populations around the world, the lead author, Fernando Racimo, created his own frequently asked questions document for nonscientists, which he posted on Twitter.

And in a commentary that accompanied the paper in the journal Genetics, Novembre warned that such research is wrapped in numerous caveats that are likely to get lost in translation.

Great care, his commentary concludes, should be taken in communicating results of these studies to general audiences.

Already, some of those audiences are flaunting DNA ancestry test results indicating exclusively European heritage as if they were racial ID cards. They are celebrating traces of Neanderthal DNA not found in people with only African ancestry. And they are trading messages with the coded term race realism, which takes oxygen from the claim that the liberal scientific establishment has obscured the truth about biological racial differences.

Some scientists suggest that engaging with racists would simply lend credibility to obviously specious claims. Many say that they do not study race, in any case: The racial categories used by the U.S. census correlate only imperfectly with the geographic ancestry groupings of interest to evolutionary geneticists. Black, for instance, is a socially defined term that includes many Americans who have a majority of European ancestry.

But as the pace of human population genetics research has accelerated, it has yielded results that, to many nonscientists, appear to challenge the idea of race as a wholly social construction. Genetic ancestry tests advertise ethnicity estimates (Sen. Elizabeth Warren appealed to the perceived authority of DNA this week to demonstrate her Native American heritage, in response to mocking by President Donald Trump), and some disease-risk genes have turned out to be more common among certain genetic ancestry groups. Doctors use patients self-identified race as a proxy for geographic ancestry because individual readouts of DNA are costly, and though the correlation is imperfect, it exists.

As DNA databases tied to medical records and personal questionnaires have reached a critical mass for individuals of European descent, moreover, so-called polygenic scores that synthesize the hundreds or thousands of genes that contribute to many human traits into a single number are being developed to predict health risks, and in some cases, behavior.

Last summer, researchers developed a score that can roughly predict the level of formal education completed by white Americans by looking at their DNA. And while those scores cannot yet be compared among racial or population groups, the new techniques have prompted some scientists to feel it is the fields responsibility to head off predictable misrepresentations.

You have to make a judgment when you have powerful information that can be misused, said David Reich, a Harvard geneticist who has publicly called on colleagues in a recent book and in a New York Times op-ed to more directly address the prospect of identifying genetic differences between populations in socially sensitive traits.

There is no evidence, scientists stress, that environmental and cultural differences will not turn out to be the primary driver of behavioral differences between population groups.

At the same time, the advances in genetic technology have put white supremacists into a kind of anticipatory lather.

Science is on our side, crowed Jared Taylor, the founder of the white nationalist group American Renaissance, in a recent video that cites Reichs book.

Reich was among those to decline an invitation to lead a discussion on the topic at the San Diego meeting. I really wanted to return to research, he said.

The widespread uncertainty among Americans over what scientists know about genetic differences between racial groups, experts say, has left many flummoxed in the face of white supremacist claims that invoke genetics.

I was surfing my favorite dumb picture site and I came across a post trying to prove racism with science, a community college student in Florida wrote to Jun Z. Li, a University of Michigan geneticist whose work has been invoked to buttress racist claims of white intellectual superiority. I read through the paper myself but I do not have the education or experience to understand and make sure I have a coherent counter argument.

For white Americans half-inclined to blame nonwhite immigrants or African-Americans for perceived social problems, the veneer of a scientific rationale for white superiority, researchers say, can tip them toward racial resentment. It can be more effective than base appeals to tribalism, especially for the educated demographic the far-right has been targeting.

And while much of current white nationalist rhetoric is framed in terms of preserving a white cultural identity, experts say it relies on a familiar narrative of immutable biological differences. On a YouTube talk show earlier this year, for instance, Gavin McInnes, founder of the Proud Boys, whose appearance set off a brawl outside a Republican club in New York last week, echoed the pet white supremacist theory that the environmental challenges of cold winters explain the supposed higher intelligence of northern Europeans.

Some geneticists have penned blog posts explaining why new genetic tools will not support white nationalist claims that average behavioral differences between groups are immutable. Others  including Li  have replied directly to individual queries.

And when a blogger at the far-right Unz Review noted that the DNA variations associated with high IQ in a 2017 study of Europeans were at the lowest frequency among Africans, the studys lead author, Danielle Posthuma, wrote in a published reply that such cross-population comparisons were spurious.

This, she wrote, is a very deep-rooted misunderstanding.

Many geneticists at the top of their field say they do not have the ability to communicate to a general audience on such a complicated and fraught topic. Some suggest journalists might take up the task. Several declined to speak on the record for this story.

And with much still unknown, some scientists worry that rebutting basic misconceptions without being able to provide definitive answers could do more harm than good.

There are often many layers of uncertainties in our findings, said Anna Di Rienzo, a human genetics professor at the University of Chicago. Being able to communicate that level of uncertainty to a public that often just sees things in black and white is very, very difficult.

As a step toward changing that, Di Rienzo has helped organize a meeting of social scientists, geneticists and journalists at Harvard next week to discuss the social implications of the fields newest tools.

Participants have been promised that the meeting will be restricted to some three-dozen invitees and that any remarks made there will be confidential.

And David L. Nelson, a Baylor College of Medicine geneticist who is president of the human genetics society, says it will not stay completely quiet on the issue, promising a statement later this week.

There is no genetic evidence to support any racist ideology, he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.Another 72 employees have been laid off from the Crosby Independent School District, according to a press release sent by the northeast Houston-area district Wednesday evening, bringing the total number of those who lost their jobs as a result of the district's financial crisis to 105.

Those whose jobs were eliminated on Wednesday were at-will employees, including bus drivers, custodians and paraprofessionals.

On Monday, the 6,000-student district's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to layoff 33 contracted employees, including teachers, librarians, assistant principals, directors, testing coordinators and special education specialists. One employee slated to be laid off resigned minutes before the meeting.

In a statement, Superintendent Scott Davis said no one else will lose their jobs due to the budget crisis that brought the district to the brink of financial insolvency.

"We knew these days were coming, and yet, no amount of emotional preparation could have fully prepared us for the most difficult and necessary step of informing our beloved employees that they would no longer be working for Crosby ISD," Davis said.

The most recent round of job cuts were the latest drastic action taken by the district since officials announced the scope of its financial situation in late August.

Current Chief Financial Officer Lesa Jones discovered three major issues that created "cash flow" problems for the district: over-spending on construction projects, shoddy budgeting and bloated payroll costs.

Crosby ISD's Board voted unanimously to hire an auditing company to delve into potential issues with its construction projects, and Davis said he had a stack of papers inches thick that showed potential problems. He said there were at least three construction change orders that the previous administration never showed to trustees.

Annual audits of the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years also show officials over-estimated revenues by millions and spent millions more than originally budgeted. Those accounting mistakes led the district to spend a total of $15 million more than they collected in revenues during those two years.

Then there are the payroll expenses.

Jones said Crosby ISD spent about 88 percent of its general fund budget on salaries and benefits in 2017-2018, much more than the 80 percent most districts spend. Even with a hiring freeze instituted over summer, the district was on track to spend 89 percent of its general fund to compensate employees this school year.

To staunch the financial bleeding, Davis ordered every department to cut spending by 60 percent.

It still wasn't enough.

Trustees voted unanimously to declare an official financial emergency on Oct. 8, a move that allowed the district to layoff employees mid-year. In that declaration, Davis said he would need to cut $5.5 million in salaries and benefits from the district's budget.

In addition to the 105 employees who were laid off this week, another 24 employees resigned or retired after the public learned the extent of the district's financial woes. Coupled with 31 positions cut through attrition and a hiring freeze over the summer, the district now has 160 fewer positions.

On Wednesday, Davis said the district will continue forward and rebuild its budgets one day at a time.

"I can tell you with resounding conviction that the sacrifices made by so many will not be in vain. It is up to all of us to be certain that this district survives and thrives again," Davis said.

Tomorrow we will return to work and together we will keep pressing forward."Ada County Sheriff's Office

A Houston man accused of molesting two children, including a 6-year-old boy, has been arrested in Boise, Idaho, according to the Houston Police Department.

Lee Smith III, 29, was charged with sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child in attacks on Aug. 1, 2017 at an apartment complex in the 13100 block of Northborough Drive. The other victim, authorities said, was 15.One of Khashoggi's killers dies in accident, Yeni Safak 'Could have been silenced' says Turkish daily close to Erdogan

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 18 - Saudi Royal Air Forces lieutenant Mashal Saad al-Bostani, one of the 15 members of a team that arrived in Istanbul the day that Jamal Khashoggi disappeared has been killed in a ''suspicious traffic accident'' in Saudi Arabia.



Reports were from the Turkish daily Yeni Safak, very close to the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that the suspect ''could have been silenced''. The newspaper reported that local authorities had not provided any details on the circumstances leading to the death of the 31-year-old officer from Riyadh, fostering suspicions. Bostani arrived in Turkey with the first group of Saudis, including several officials, at 1:45 AM. He checked in to the Wyndham Grand Hotel near the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and left Turkey on a private jet run by the Sky Prime Aviation company that evening at 9:46 PM. (ANSAmed).



The husband of a fired Harris County deputy is expected Thursday to begin trial on murder charges again, four months after his first trial ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury.

The first trial of Terry Thompson, a 42-year-old railroad worker, ended in June when a jury deadlocked on whether he committed murder or acted in self-defense when he choked a fellow patron to death during a late-night confrontation outside a Crosby-area Dennys restaurant last year, according to his attorney.

RECORDS: Terry Thompson, charged in diner choking case, was kicked out of Navy for drug use

My client was attacked and simply responded by trying to hold him down until the cops came, said defense attorney Scot Courtney. Clearly it was too forceful because it resulted in Mr. Hernandezs death, but he had every right to restrain him until the police got there.

Thompson was charged with murder in the chokehold death of John Hernandez at a Dennys in May 2017. His wife, Chauna Thompson, who was then a Harris County Sheriffs deputy, is also charged with murder, accused of helping to hold Hernandez down.

It is the second time Harris County prosecutors have tried to secure a conviction in the high-profile case that made national headlines after video of the incident ignited a series of protests in downtown Houston.

In his first trial, which lasted for two weeks in June, Thompson came within a few votes of being acquitted.

Thompson is accused of killing Hernandez in May 2017 after placing him in a chokehold during a 15-minute struggle outside the northeast Harris County diner. The fatal encounter began when Thompson confronted Hernandez for urinating in the parking lot, and Hernandez responded by apparently striking the rail worker in the face.

More than 100 prospective jurors are expected to report to the courtroom of state District Judge Kelli Johnson Thursday where they will fill out questionnaires and be screened by the judge. They will return Friday for jury selection. Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday and the trial is expected to last three weeks.

If convicted of murder, Thompson faces the possibility of life in prison.

Thompson and his wife were recorded on a camera phone holding down the 24-year-old Hernandez.in a 53-second video. He lost consciousness on the pavement outside the restaurant, and died days later in a hospital.

The first trial ended in a mistrial when 11 jurors voted not guilty on the murder charge. Ten voted not guilty for the lesser charge of manslaughter, and eight agreed Thompson was not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.

The prosecutors who first took it to trial, Patrick Stayton and Jules Johnson, have been replaced by veteran prosecutors John Jordan and Sarah Mickelson Seeley.

Jordan declined to comment for this story. Harris County prosecutors typically do not comment on the eve of trial.

Earlier this year community activist and FIEL director Cesar Espinosa, who has often acted as a spokesman for the Hernandez family offered a statement of support.

We would hope that [the family] did not have to endure this painful procedure once more but we understand that to get justice we must go through the court process, he said.

The family feels glad that their sons murderer will go on trial again and they would like for this new trial to be done in a diligent manner.

brian.rogers@chron.comCourtesy photo

Just in time for the holidays, Galleria-area residents will get a new place to linger over breakfast fare and morning cocktails.

Thursday, representatives said via press release that the Galleria-area outpost of Snooze: an A.M. Eatery, located at 5000 Westheimer Road at the Centre at Post Oak, will open mid-December, a few months earlier than previously announced.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick confirmed they will be among the speakers when President Donald Trump comes to Houston next week to rally Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.

"When I invited President Trump to visit Texas in July, I said that keeping Texas red - from the top of the ballot to the bottom - is critical," Patrick said in a statement to the media late Wednesday in confirming he would be one of the speakers at the event.

Trump is set to speak at 6:30 p.m. at NRG Arena in Houston in part to help U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in his re-election battle against Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

Patrick's role is little surprise given he was Trump's Texas chairman in 2016 and was reported to have flown to Washington, D.C. earlier this summer to personally ask the White House to help campaign for Cruz and other Republicans in Texas.

Earlier on Wednesday Abbott too confirmed he would be a speaker at the rally.

Over the last four weeks, Vice President Mike Pence, the president's son Donald Trump Jr., and his daughter Ivanka Trump have all been in Texas for events with Cruz.

Cruz has said he welcomes Trump coming to Texas to help him even though the two had an often rough primary battle in 2016 for the Republican nomination for president. Cruz said after that election he met with Trump and vowed to help him get his agenda through the U.S. Senate.

Trump is campaigning for a number of Senate candidates over the next week. He has other rallies planned for Montana, Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin, in addition to the Houston stop.

Members of the public wanting to attend the rally must register on the Trump campaign website.WASHINGTON  National Democrats are now aiming their efforts solely at Latinos in a San Antonio-area congressional race in hopes of boosting Gina Ortiz Jones in her quest to unseat Republican Rep. Will Hurd.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is running a Spanish television ad in San Antonio after making a tactical decision to run Spanish-only ads entering the last weeks of the campaign.

The ad accuses Hurd of betraying his majority Hispanic district by joining other Republicans in legislation that gives billions in tax breaks to big drug companies.

Democrats are seeking to capitalize on polls that show an energized Latino electorate, with health care near the top of Latino concerns about the future.

The thing that is going to be the turning point in this race is that the Congressman Hurd people see in Texas is not the same Congressman Hurd who is voting in lockstep with Republicans in Washington, said DCCC spokesman Cole Leiter.

Hurd, a former CIA officer seeking a third term, and Jones, a former Air Force intelligence officer who later worked in the Obama administration, are competing in the district that stretches from San Antonio to the outskirts of El Paso and includes more than 800 miles of territory along the border.

For subscribers: Hes ex-CIA. She was an Air Force intelligence officer. Both want your vote for Congress

Democrats have found it challenging to link Hurd to some of the Trump administration policies unpopular in the district. Hurd, a moderate, has rejected the administrations hardline immigration policies and was among GOP defectors last year when Republicans narrowly approved a repeal of major portions of the Affordable Care Act. In July, after President Donald Trumps much-criticized appearance in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hurd said Trump had gotten played by old KGB hands.

It remains uncertain if voters will see the candidates on the same stage debating before the Nov. 6 election.

Jones on Wednesday persisted in her contention that Hurd is hiding and refusing to debate, asserting that its nothing short of shameful.

Justin Hollis, Hurds campaign manager, responded: Due to prior commitments, we're evaluating potential dates."

Jones and Democratic allies are battling perceptions that the race is slipping away from her in a district that has swung between Republican and Democrat hands in recent elections and is closely divided along party lines. Ongoing live polling by the New York Times and Sienna College has showed Hurd with a double-digit lead.

Nonetheless, Jones reported a huge fundraising haul this week  $2.46 million - $1 million more than Hurds third quarter receipts. Both candidates had more than $1 million in their campaign accounts as of Oct. 1 for the stretch run, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

For subscribers: This is a knife fight. Rep. Hurds race with Democrat Ortiz Jones may be costliest in Texas

Joness fundraising success could enable her to narrow the advertising gap after being outgunned recently in television commercials.

The DCCCs break from advertising early this month prior to the new Spanish ads suggested that national Democrats no longer viewed Joness race as a prime opportunity to pick up a seat. Leiter, the DCCC spokesman, said Democrats continue to view the race as winnable.

The National Republican Congressional Committee responded last week by canceling advertising plans, relying instead on a GOP-aligned super PAC to carry the weight with an onslaught of negative spots contending that Joness liberal credentials are out of step for Texas.

In its second hard-hitting ad since late September, the Congressional Leadership Fund, which supports GOP congressional candidates, last week began airing a commercial noting that Jones resided in Washington before moving back to San Antonio to run for Congress.

With Jones and Democrats around the country campaigning on health care issues, the ad also offered the common Republican response - that Jones and other Democrats favor a single-payer health insurance system that would saddle taxpayers with trillions in costs.

Congressional Leadership Fund spokeswoman Courtney Alexander says the ads branding Gina Jones as a liberal are working. Like Democrats, her GOP-aligned PAC is running ads in Spanish, she said.

Beyond the new DCCC Spanish ad, two Democratic-aligned super PACS began running ads this week intended to give Jones a boost.

An ad jointly sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers and Women Vote took aim at Hurd on health care and prescription drug pricing.

In addition, a new ad from the House Majority PAC, a super PAC aimed at electing Democrats, skewers Hurd for voting for the GOP tax bill last year. In Washington, Wills Herd comes first, leaving Texas behind, an announcer says, with lowing cows in the background.

House Majority PAC Press Secretary Hannah Blatt contended that the district remains competitive, referring to Jones as a terrific candidate.

Democrats are focused on kitchen-table economic issues, and Jones has been focused on the issues Texans care about - affordable health care, education and supporting veterans, Blatt wrote in an email.

New polling of Hispanics suggests that Jones could benefit by Democrats focus on Latino voters.

Texas-only results released Wednesday by Latino Decisions, which has polled Latinos around the country for seven weeks, found that 70 percent of likely Hispanic voters say that they are certain they will vote for a Democrat in November. The tracking poll is sponsored by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

The poll also found the health care is among top concerns of Latinos, behind only protecting of immigrant rights and improving wages.AUSTIN  Gov. Greg Abbotts campaign is pumping more than $275,000 into vulnerable state House Republican races, trying to bat down any Democratic gains in the November 6 election.

With a $26 million campaign war chest, Abbotts spending is also a public pronouncement of his patron role in the party in Texas.

One thing that Abbott is using this cycle to do is to establish himself as the unquestioned leader of the Republican party, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones.

Since August, Abbotts campaign has funded political advertising and grassroots support for nine Republican candidates in the Dallas and Austin-metro areas, according to campaign finance reports. All are especially competitive districts that Hillary Clinton won, or just barely lost, in the 2016 election.

Its the first time Abbott has waded into state House races since the GOP primaries, when he drew some criticism from within the party by working to defeat three sitting Republican representatives, including Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, and Rep. Sarah Davis, R-West University Place.

Democrats tout Abbotts final-stretch spending as confirmation the seats are in their grasp.

It confirms to me that they are trying to build some kind of firewall or prevent the inevitable, said Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democratic candidate for state representative in San Antonio who previously served in the House. Democrats are going to increase seats. How many is really up to the voters.

Abbotts campaign is planning to invest in more state legislative races during the final weeks, but spokesman John Wittman wouldnt name which ones. Early voting begins Monday. Abbott is in his own race against Democratic challenger Lupe Valdez, though she trails in fundraising and in recent polls.

The governor wants to help Republicans who might be in tighter races than others, Wittman said. Our campaign goal is to help Republicans up and down the ballot.

Republicans already hold a commanding 95 to 55 majority in the Texas House, a majority that is not threatened in this election cycle. Still, Abbott stands to benefit from fostering good will among GOP members before the 2019 legislative session when he wants to tackle property tax reform. The House proved a foil to controversial social policies Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick advocated for in the 2017 special session when the chamber was led by Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

With Straus departing this year after nearly a decade in power, the gavel is up for grabs and at least five representatives are in the running.

Abbotts campaign has shelled out the most money  roughly $50,000 on political advertising  for Rep. Paul Workman, R-Austin, campaign finance records show. Workman has been in office since 2011 and has fended off primary challenges from the tea party. Travis County is one of several thats seen a surge in voter registrations ahead of the mid-term, with election officials still processing thousands of applications.

Abbott can take some credit if the House seats remain in Republican hands, Jones said.

These members of the House will owe part of their victory to Greg Abbott for financial support, he said. Others will look more favorably upon him.

One vulnerable Republican Abbott isnt financially backing is Davis, a moderate he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to oust in the primary. Abbott also backed the GOP primary winner who defeated Rep. Wayne Faircloth, R-Galveston, in the March primary election.

Texas Republican Party chairman James Dickey said those divisions are in the past.

Those were very much exceptions and since then we have all moved on, he said. We are all focused on making sure every Republican nominee wins election in November.

Martinez Fischer said any Democratic pick-ups in the House will be key to influence the chambers tone and the race for House Speaker.

Straus won the leadership role with Democrats support and installed members of both parties as committee chairs.

Every single Democrat is going to do their very best to make sure the House continues to maintain its independence, regardless of what the politics look like in the Senate and the governors mansion, Martinez Fischer said.

Some Republicans, however, are planning for a new selection process this year that calls for picking a preferred candidate before the full House vote.

amorris@express-news.netThe Washington Supreme Court recently abolished the death penalty in that state, saying the practice was racially biased. That conclusion and the fact that the death penalty is extraordinarily expensive and does not do much to deter violent crime may help propel other states to abolish it.

The ruling makes Washington the 20th state to halt the death penalty in recent years. Currently there are 2,800 convicted inmates on the death rows of the remaining 30 states with the death penalty. Three states, California, Florida and Texas, have nearly 50 percent of the death row population. However, the tide is clearly shifting. Not only have more states abolished the death penalty in recent years, but also death sentences in the states that still have it have been declining. There were 300 death sentences imposed in 1995. In 2012, that number had dropped to 82. Last year, there were 39 death sentences. One reason for the decline is that states have been giving judges and juries options in the form of life-without-parole sentences.

So far this year, 18 people have been executed, including 10 in Texas, the most of any state, due primarily to the states large death row population and the fact that Texas does not yet seem to share the concerns about state-sanctioned executions that many other states do. For example, California, with the largest death row population in the nation, has not executed anyone since 2006. Nevertheless, the overall decline in executions is most likely due to litigation and concerns about procedure and error.

There arent many ways to be tougher on crime than the ultimate punishment of death. The United States is not alone in the use of the death penalty, but we do belong to an ever-shrinking group of nations that have it. Two-thirds of the worlds countries have abolished the death penalty, including all of the nations of the European Union, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and every other major U.S. trading partner with the exception of China and Japan. The top five countries in terms of executions are China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Public support for the death penalty is related to political party. Nearly 75 percent of Republicans, just over 50 percent of independents and 45 percent of Democrats support it. The support seems related to a belief that the death penalty is morally acceptable, a view expressed by 61 percent of those polled in a 2014 Gallup poll.

At the same time, there is concern about getting it right. Just under 40 percent of those who favor the death penalty expressed confidence that the criminal justice system sentences to death those who are truly guilty. Three-quarters of Americans believe that because mistakes are made, there should be a higher standard of proof in death penalty cases, according to a 2015 Pew survey.

The Innocence Project is the primary driver of exonerations in the United States. It has been able to use DNA evidence to obtain exonerations of 18 death row inmates and 16 inmates convicted of capital felonies but not sentenced to death. These exonerees served an average of 13.5 years in prison. There have been an additional 140 death row inmates who have been exonerated based on evidence other than DNA.

The death penalty is also expensive. For example, capital cases in Texas cost about $2.5 million each. In other states such as Maryland, its closer to $3 million. The death penalty costs about 10 times the cost of a comparable non-death penalty case. The excess cost to try, convict, sentence and execute an offender compared with the cost of life in prison without parole is about $8.5 billion for the inmates currently on death row in the United States.

Is it worth it? Prosecutors charge capital offenses, prosecute them and argue for the death penalty under a presumption that the death penalty deters. It is not uncommon to hear a prosecutor state that we are sending a message to the community by imposing the death penalty. Ironically, one-third of individuals surveyed in a 2011 Gallup poll indicated that they believe the death penalty does deter; two-thirds did not believe that was the case.

The bottom line is that there is no scientific evidence that supports the assertion that the death penalty deters, a conclusion voiced by the National Research Council of the National Academies as recently as 2012.

One can certainly appreciate that a victims family and friends may desire retribution for a murder. An eye for an eye is well ingrained in Western philosophy and religion. But we must ask: At what cost?

Kelly is a professor of sociology at The University of Texas at Austin and the author of four books on criminal justice reform.The Interior Department last month unveiled final revisions to an Obama-era rule aimed at curbing methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations on federal lands. The Environmental Protection Agency also recently announced proposed improvements for the 2016 New Source Performance Standards designed to ease regulatory burdens on domestic energy producers. The improvements will modify the frequency for monitoring leaks at well sites and compressor stations and adopting other important technical corrections to the original NSPS rule.

Both efforts seek to address overreaching regulatory issues advanced under the previous administration to support reasonable standards that protect the environment, encourage increased domestic energy production, as well as recognize the significant progress that has been made in reducing energy emissions without excessive regulations designed to hamper oil and gas production.

The rollback of burdensome regulations under President Donald Trumps American Energy Dominance agenda has contributed to record U.S. oil production and countless related benefits afforded to our society. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. became the largest global crude oil producer this year, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia. EIA estimated that the U.S. produced an average of 10.9 million barrels a dayin August, compared with about 10.8 million barrels a day by Russia and around 10.4 million barrels a day by Saudi Arabia. The U.S. passed Saudi Arabia in February for the first time in more than two decades and topped Russia for the first time since 1999 this summer.

Texas continues to lead the U.S. in oil and natural gas production and growth. Crude oil production in the state totaled an estimated 980 million barrels through August of 2018, representing an increase of 170 million barrels of oil produced compared to the same time frame last year, and a total of 1.5 billion barrels forecast for the full year, according to the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association. Natural gas production increased slightly for a total of 5.45 billion cubic feet of gas produced through August. As anticipated, much of the increased output is coming from West Texas.

Pipeline capacity constraints in West Texas have lowered wellhead prices for producers in the Permian, however, which could slow projected growth of crude output next year. As midstream companies rush to add additional capacity to ease bottlenecks, several have accelerated their pipeline infrastructure projects. Plains All American Pipeline, for instance, recently announced that two West Texas crude oil projects would begin partial operations ahead of their original schedules.

The longer term outlook for domestic production could also be impacted from an escalation in the China-U.S. trade war and rising costs for oil and gas operators and critical infrastructure projects due to steel and aluminum tariffs. Tariffs on imported steel and aluminum have been described by many as a tax against U.S.-based producers, large and small, adding significant cost on a per-well basis and a punitive tax of tens of millions of dollars to some critical infrastructure projects.

Nonetheless, with expanding exploration and production activity in 2018, Texas oil and natural gas employment has also continued to rise as employers compete for a limited pool of talent. More than 9,000 net new jobs were added to the state economy through August of this year compared to 2017, for a total of 335,000 workers directly employed by the industry, subject to revisions. Upstream sector jobs continued to account for the majority of the growth, including a total of 78,000 oil and gas extraction jobs and 141,000 oil and gas support activities jobs in the state. Texas oil and gas positions command an average salary of $128,000 per year, 132 percent more than average private sector wages in Texas, for a total payroll exceeding $42 billion.

Continuing regulatory improvements, expanding pipeline capacity and an expedited resolution to trade disputes will support increased U.S. energy production, strengthen national security and drive economic growth for the state of Texas.

Longanecker is president of the Texas Independent Producers & Royalty Owners Association, a trade association representing the interests of nearly 3,000 independent oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners in Texas.Wine: First edition of 'Valpolitech' at Sant'Ambrogio Trade fair and workshops for sustainable production

(ANSAmed) - VERONA, OCTOBER 18 - The convention centre in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella in the province of Verona will host the first edition of the "Valpolitech" trade show on October 20 and 21.



The trade show, organised by the Consorzio Tutela Vini Valpolicella, is dedicated to technological innovation in terms of environmental, economic, and social sustainability for wineries.



Valpolitech is open to all wineries in Valpolicella and the surrounding regions and provinces, as well as the general public and sector professionals.



Participating exhibitors include agricultural machinery companies for sustainable vineyard management, products and technologies for enology based on biocontrols, services to optimise company management, and everything that represents sustainable innovation in the winery sector.



The trade fair will unfold across two days of intense activities, in an event that is scheduled to take place annually in collaboration with the City of Sant'Ambrogio.



It will kick off on Saturday, October 20, at the Brenzoni-Bassani Villa, the Consorzio's headquarters, with a conference titled "Innovation and Sustainability: New Challenges in the Italian Vineyard. The Case History of the RRR Certification in Valpolicella".



Throughout the fair, producers and consultants will be able to participate in theme-based workshops at the external tensile structure at pavilion 23.



The first three workshops are in collaboration with Agronotizie from the Image Line network, Edagricole, and the editorial team of the magazine Vigne, Vini & Qualita (VVQ).



On Sunday, October 21, there will be three workshops in collaboration with the magazine L'Informatore Agrario.(ANSAmed).



Americans have long lived as part of different tribes. Now we live on entirely different planets.

Half the country cant stand the other half. With liberals cornering the market on compassion and conservatives having a monopoly on patriotism, everyone thinks theyre superior to everyone else.

We all have to do our part to heal the breach. One way to do that is to examine issues from the opposing perspective, and to look for the positive even in those cases when all you see initially is negative. Its also not a bad idea to get out of attack mode now and then, and acknowledge when the other side does something that is good and helpful.

Im a Never Trumper who thinks the president has hurt America more than he has helped it. Im also someone who would welcome impeachment if Democrats take the House of Representatives. Even so, I get tired of seeing those in my camp look down their noses at President Trump and insult his voters as dumb, dangerous or  to borrow a word  deplorable. Many critics are so blinded by their outright hatred and contempt for Trump that they cant even imagine praising him when hes on the right track, pursues the right policy or displays the right instinct.

In that spirit, heres my humble contribution to fixing Americas broken dialogue.

Each week, I resolve to find one positive trait that Trump exhibits. Ill start with something that can be rare in Washington these days: loyalty.

Hold the snickers. I realize this has not been one of Trumps strong suits. Witness his shabby treatment of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, and former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon.

Still, if youre not an employee but simply a nominee, perhaps youll enjoy more loyalty.

Trump should be commended for standing by Brett Kavanaugh, through slings and arrows, until the embattled Supreme Court nominee took his seat.

During the White House swearing-in ceremony on Oct. 8, Trump patted himself on the back.

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. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process. In our country, a man or woman must always be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Kavanaugh responded by showing his gratitude to Trump for not cutting him loose as a political liability.

Mr. President, thank you for the great honor of appointing me to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court. Ive seen firsthand your deep appreciation for the vital role of the American judiciary. I am grateful for your steadfast, unwavering support throughout this process. And Im grateful to you and Mrs. Trump for the exceptional, overwhelming courtesy you have extended to my family and me. Mr. President, thank you for everything.

Trump gets praise from many Americans for keeping promises and talking straight because most politicians arent known to do either of those things. Likewise, it serves him well that he displays loyalty now and then  because many presidents arent known for leveraging capital and sticking their necks out for someone else. Sadly, thats true even if it was the politician who tossed that person into the lions den to begin with.

Bill Clinton wasnt loyal to Lani Guinier, his old law school friend who he nominated to head up the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. When Republicans attacked her as a quota queen over her support for affirmative action, Clinton bailed.

George W. Bush wasnt loyal to Alberto Gonzales. When Democrats accused the attorney general of politicizing the firing of U.S. Attorneys  a trend that emanated from the White House  Gonzales was the scapegoat. He resigned, and Bush didnt stop him.

Barack Obama wasnt loyal to Thomas Saenz, the Yale-educated civil rights lawyer who made a name for himself litigating cases of the Los Angeles office of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. When Obama offered Saenz the chance to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, anti-immigrant groups began a smear campaign. Obama rescinded the offer.

So here comes Trump. When the Left threw everything at Kavanaugh  the kitchen sink and every other appliance  the president didnt flinch. He stood by his guy.

That counts for a lot. And Trump deserves credit for it  no matter what planet you live on.

Navarrettes email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, Navarrette Nation, is available through every podcast app. (c) 2018, The Washington Post Writers GroupBRUSSELS - The proposal by the EU presidency currently held by Austria to solve a stalemate on the migration issue by introducing the concept of ''obligatory solidarity'' has failed to meet with enough support among EU leaders at a Brussels summit. Reports were from EU sources.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, entering the Euro Summit meeting, said solidarity was preferable to "mandatory quotas" in terms of migrants, and that would mean "everyone contributes where they can".

The proposal did not meet with enough support, the source said, adding that it is unlikely that the Austrian presidency will try to continue in the same direction.Khashoggi's last op-ed calls for free press in Arab world WP received from translator on day after disappearance

(ANSA) - ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 18 - Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who disappeared after entering the Saudi consolate in Istanbul on October 2, wrote an editorial for the Washington Post just prior to his disappearance, which was published on Wednesday under the title "What the Arab world needs most is free expression".



The Post received the editorial from Khashoggi's translator and assistant the day after Khashoggi was reported missing.



In the editorial, Khashoggi analyses the obstacles to the free press, starting with the 2018 "Freedom in the World" report, in which the only country in the Arab world classified as "free" is Tunisia.



He writes of the hopes during the Arab Spring of 2011, and of shattered expectations when "these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions than before".



He denounces the arrests and censorship that condition the press in the Arab world, from his own Saudi Arabia to Egypt.



"Even Lebanon, the Arab world's crown jewel when it comes to press freedom, has fallen victim to the polarization and influence of pro-Iran Hezbollah," he wrote.



In the editorial, Khashoggi thanks the Washington Post for having translated many of his articles and published them in Arabic. "The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events," he wrote.



"More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face".(ANSAmed).



BRUSSELS - Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, entering the Euro Summit meeting in Brussels on Thursday, said solidarity was preferable to "mandatory quotas" in terms of migrants, and that would mean "everyone contributes where they can".

He said the solidarity approach is accepted by a wide majority of the 27 EU member states, and there is satisfaction for progress that has been made on external borders.

"The EU has been blocked for years in the migration debate due to the dispute on quotas," Kurz said.

He said things were heading in the right direction, but "we're still not there, although we've certainly made a big step forward".

Local elections in Israel at end of October, 6 mn voters Mayors in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa. First vote for Druze

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, OCTOBER 18 - Local and district elections that take place in Israel every five years are scheduled for October 30, with over six million people eligible to vote.



Voter turnout was 51.3% in the last such elections, in 2013.



Candidates must obtain at least 40% of the vote in the first round to avoid a November 13 run-off.



Analysts' attention is focused on the large cities, such as Jerusalem (638,000 eligible voters), Tel Aviv (438,000 eligible voters), and Haifa (257,000 eligible voters).



The elections will highlight some questions of national importance, such as the role of women (in three cities the candidates are all women); the demands of the Arab minority and the fight against xenophobia; relations between secular and orthodox Jews; environmental protection; and the question of African migrants.



Eyes will also be on the Golan Heights, where the Druze people will vote for the first time in 41 years.



The main government party, Likud, has divided its support between two rival mayoral candidates in Jerusalem - Moshe Leon and Ze'ev Elkin - who will face secular candidate Ofer Berkovic and orthodox candidate Yossi Deutsch.



Palestinian voters in East Jerusalem will likely abstain from the vote as they have in the past.



Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, a Labour candidate, and Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, an independent, both of whom have been in office for many years, are once again seeking re-election.(ANSAmed).



Imperial Valley News Center

EU-U.S. Cyber Dialogue Joint Elements Statement

Brussels, Belgium - On the occasion of the fifth meeting of the EU-U.S. Cyber Dialogue in Brussels on 10 September 2018, the European Union (EU) and United States reaffirmed their strong partnership in favour of a global, open, stable and secure cyberspace where the rule of law fully applies, where the same rights that individuals have offline are protected online, and where the security, economic growth, prosperity, and integrity of free and democratic societies is promoted and preserved.

During the dialogue, the EU and United States shared information on developments in their respective cyber strategies, policies, and legislation, including the EU Joint Communication on Resilience, Deterrence and Defence: Building Strong Cybersecurity for the EU and the U.S. recommendations on deterrence and international engagement pursuant to the U.S. Executive Order 13800 on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure. Both sides welcomed progress made to increase global capabilities to protect against, detect, deter, and respond to malicious cyber activities and underlined the need for coordination and cooperation in order to safeguard a global, open, stable, and secure cyberspace.

The EU and United States reaffirmed their strong commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms online and condemned undue restrictions on freedom of expression and censorship in violation of international human rights law. The EU and United States also reaffirmed their strong support for the multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance and encourage all stakeholders to strengthen existing Internet governance mechanisms, including the Internet Governance Forum as the premier multi-stakeholder venue for dialogue on Internet-related public policy issues. The EU and United States also underlined the need to address the digital divide to enable economic growth, social development, and increasing cyber resilience towards cyber threats and stressed their commitment to continued capacity building assistance to this end, including through the Global Forum for Cyber Expertise.

The EU and United States endorsed the work to date by the UN Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security (UNGGE), including its landmark 2013 and 2015 reports, and look forward to a new UNGGE to take that work forward, including on the issue of how existing international law applies to State behaviour in cyberspace. The EU and United States reaffirmed their adherence to certain voluntary, non-binding norms of responsible State behaviour in cyberspace during peacetime. In addition, both sides welcomed important, ongoing work and progress on the development and implementation of cyber confidence building measures to reduce misperceptions and the risk of escalation stemming from the use of information and communications technologies. The EU and United States reaffirmed the importance of the Budapest Convention as a basis for national legislation and international cooperation in fighting cybercrime.

In order to keep cyberspace stable and secure, the EU and United States are committed to hold States accountable for actions that are contrary to the growing consensus on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. The EU and United States affirmed the need to strengthen their cooperation in this regard, through both continued dialogue and practical collaborative efforts.Imperial Valley News Center

President Trump is Following Through on His Promise to Cut Burdensome Red Tape

Washington, DC - "An ever-growing maze of regulations, rules, restrictions has cost our country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, countless American factories, and devastated many industries." ~ President Donald J. Trump

ENDING OVERREGULATION: President Donald J. Trump is delivering on his promise to get rid of unnecessary, outdated, and duplicative regulations.

The Trump Administration is releasing findings that show the Presidents regulatory reform efforts saved American families and business owners $23 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2018. This progress builds on the Administrations significant regulatory reforms in FY 2017.

President Trumps historic regulatory reform is a complete change in direction, with Americans actually seeing an overall decrease in regulatory burdens.

The Administration issued 176 deregulatory actions last year, eliminating 12 regulations for every new one according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The President has again exceeded his pledge to cut two regulations across the year for every new one.

Since taking office, President Trumps efforts have achieved $33 billion in regulatory savings. In a stark contrast, President Obama imposed $245 billion in burdensome regulatory costs on the American people in his first 21 months in office.

Businesses are finally being freed of Washingtons overreach and the American economy is flourishing as a result.

REAL RESULTS: President Trumps efforts to cut burdensome and unnecessary red tape are bringing real change and delivering real results for Americans.

The Department of Labor made it easier for small businesses to provide better health insurance to their employees through association health plans.

The Department of Veterans Affairs greatly expanded veterans ability to use telehealth services, giving them access to state-of-the-art healthcare everywhere.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has taken action to free our fishermen from burdensome red tape while also promoting responsible fishing practices. For instance, areas off the coast of New England have been opened to commercial sea scallop harvesting for the first time in years, netting an economic benefit of $654 million.

The Department of Health and Human Services reduced paperwork for nursing facilities, inpatient hospitals, and home health providers, saving $8.2 billion in regulatory costs.

DEREGULATION WILL CONTINUE: The Trump Administration will continue its bold reforms to roll back burdensome red tape in FY 2019.Imperial Valley News Center

USMCA a Trade Deal for the 21st Century

Washington, DC - One of the core promises that swept President Donald Trump into office was that he would renegotiate better deals for the United States with our traditional trading partners. With the announcement of a new trade pact among the United States, Mexico and Canada, we welcomed the tremendous news that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will be, if approved by Congress, replaced by a much stronger agreement. Known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the package will be important for American workers and our economy as a whole, including the agricultural sector, which counts Mexico and Canada in our top three trading partners.

I have long said that I believe our country is located in the best neighborhood on Earth  North America  with valuable allies to our north and south. Though the old NAFTA agreement was considered a generally positive compact for agriculture, there was certainly room for much-needed improvement. Under USMCA, we have created new rules to help our farmers, ranchers and workers better face the challenges of the 21st century economy, which will secure greater access to the Mexican and Canadian markets and maintain and improve the highly productive integrated agricultural relationships we have as nations.

The agreement with Mexico came first, near the end of August, and includes a number of provisions sought by the United States. Importantly, 21st century innovations in agricultural biotechnology are addressed for the first time, including cutting-edge processes like gene editing. These innovations serve as a template for agreements in the future. And we mutually pledge to work together to reduce trade-distorting policies, increase transparency and ensure nondiscriminatory treatment in grading of agricultural products. In addition, the United States and Mexico agreed not to use so-called geographic indicators to restrict the marketing of certain cheeses under common names, such as provolone, Swiss, or ricotta, which the European Union had wanted to restrict.

The second piece of the USMCA puzzle was the negotiation with Canada, where key sticking points centered on dairy issues and were among the last to be cleared. Notably, as one of the presidents top goals, the new agreement will eliminate Canadas unfair Class 6 and Class 7 milk pricing schemes, in which Canada has used low-priced products to undercut United States dairy sales in Canada and other international markets. The deal will also crack open additional access to United States dairy into Canada, including products like fluid milk, cream, butter, skim milk and cheese, and will also preserve and expand critical access for United States poultry and egg producers. Americas wheat farmers also get a big win. A reform of Canadas discriminatory wheat grading process will help United States wheat growers along the border become more competitive. These are all significant victories for American agriculture.

As we celebrate this breakthrough, it is worth noting that there were many detractors who said it could not be done. But the emergence of an agreement is further proof that President Trumps trade negotiation strategy is working. To strike the best deals possible for the United States, the president has shown that he is willing to walk away from the bargaining table if he feels our country is being unfairly treated. In the case of USMCA, the presidents approach resulted in earnest negotiations among the three nations and a final package which is beneficial for all three countries.

This is not the first major step forward in international trade under the Trump administration, nor do we feel it will be the last. Before President Trump successfully concluded USCMA, he made good on his promise to revise and improve KORUS, the trade pact with the Republic of Korea. Add to these achievements the presidents recent announcement of his intention to negotiate a trade deal with Japan  a significant market for United States agriculture exports that, until recently, had rejected talks of a bilateral agreement with the United States  and growing optimism for a successful trade deal with the European Union, and it is easy to see the dominoes falling. The president is committed to achieving good trade deals for America  including our current issues with China, which I believe we will surmount as well.

The bottom line is this: Free, fair and expanded trade among nations is good for the American economy and our highly productive farmers, ranchers, foresters and producers. The newly minted USMCA goes in the win column for President Trump and his negotiating team, led by our United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer. Our economy, and American agriculture, will be better off for it.

This article appeared in The Spokesman-Review on October 17, 2018.Governor and First Lady Honor Lt. Col. Seth Nehring

Sacramento, California - On behalf of all Californians, Governor Brown and First Lady Anne Gust Brown honor California Air National Guard Lt. Col. Seth "Jethro" Nehring, who bravely gave his life in service to our state and nation. The Governor and First Lady extend their deepest condolences to his family and friends at this difficult time.

Lt. Col. Nehring, 44, of Fresno, CA, died October 16, 2018 in a training flight crash in the Khmelnytskyi region of Ukraine. Lt. Col. Nehring was deployed to Ukraine to support a joint and multinational exercise known as Clear Sky 2018. He was a member of the 194th Fighter Squadron, 144th Fighter Wing, California Air National Guard, based in Fresno, CA.

In memorial, Governor Brown ordered that flags be flown at half-staff over the State Capitol. Lt. Col. Nehring's family will receive a letter of condolence from the Governor.Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Significant Narcotics Traffickers Centered in Colombia

Washington, DC - On October 21, 1995, by Executive Order 12978, the President declared a national emergency with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706) to deal with the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States constituted by the actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia and the extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm such actions cause in the United States and abroad.

The actions of significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia continue to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and cause an extreme level of violence, corruption, and harm in the United States and abroad. For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12978 of October 21, 1995, and the measures adopted pursuant thereto to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond October 21, 2018. Therefore, in accordance with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622(d)), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency with respect to significant narcotics traffickers centered in Colombia declared in Executive Order 12978.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

DONALD J. TRUMP

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 17, 2018.American Immigration Center Settles with FTC on Government Imposter Allegations

Washington, DC - The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint today against defendants Forms Direct, Inc., also known as American Immigration Center, and owner Cesare Alessandrini, alleging that they falsely implied that their websites were affiliated with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

The defendants allegedly used such deception since 2010 to sell immigration form preparation services to consumers, many of whom were attempting to reach the government site to renew their green cards or apply for naturalization. The FTCs settlement bars the defendants from continuing their misleading business practices and requires them to pay $2.2 million to compensate consumers.

What the FTC Complaint Alleges

The FTCs complaint states that consumers encountered the defendants deceptive scheme when they used search platforms such as Google, Yahoo!, or Bing to look for immigration-related government websites. They searched online using terms like USCIS, INS, or US Immigration and clicked on the defendants search advertisements when they saw tag lines like USCIS Forms  Easy Online Forms for Green Card & Citizenship. Instead of going to the government website as expected, consumers landed on one of the defendants many websites.

According to the FTC, consumers believed they were on the government website because the defendants designed their websites to foster that false impression. They used government-related images such as the U.S. passport or a picture of then-President Obama; patriotic color schemes of red, white, and blue; and web addresses or URLs such as usimmigration.us, us-immigration.com, uscitizenship.info, and usimmigrationcitizenship.com.

The defendants also referred to their form preparation services simply by the applicable USCIS form number or an abbreviated version of the form name such as the Green card Renewal Form I-90. The FTC alleges that the defendants did not explain who they were, that they were really selling a software wizard to fill out government immigration forms, or that the fees they charged did not include any government filing fees. The complaint also states that many consumers did not realize that they were not on a government website until they had already paid the defendants fees of $120 to $300 and provided their personal information to them.

What the Settlement Means

The settlement announced today bars the defendants from continuing to imply an affiliation with the government. They must clearly and conspicuously disclose to consumers that their websites are not affiliated with the government, that consumers must separately submit their completed immigration applications to the government, and that consumers must separately pay the applicable government filing fees to the government.

The settlement also imposes a $2.2 million judgment, which can be used to send refunds to defrauded consumers.

The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint and stipulated final order was 5-0. The FTC filed the complaint and proposed order in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The order settles the FTCs allegations against: 1) Forms Direct, Inc., also d/b/a Immigration Direct and successor in interest to American Immigration Center Inc., File Right, LLC, United Immigration Inc., and US Immigration Technology LLC; and 2) Cesare Alessandrini, individually and as an officer of Forms Direct, Inc.U.S. Assistance to Ethnic and Religious Minorities in Iraq

Washington, DC - As part of the continued commitment by Vice President Pence, Secretary Pompeo, and USAID Administrator Green to support ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq as highlighted earlier this year at the first-ever Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, the United States is proud to announce over $178 million in U.S. foreign assistance to support these vulnerable communities in Iraq. This brings total U.S. assistance for this population to nearly $300 million since Fiscal Year 2017, implemented by both the State Department and USAID.

The preservation of Iraqs rich historical pluralism is critical to reintegrating persecuted ethnic and religious minority communities into a peaceful Iraq. U.S. efforts to meet this objective span government agencies and are being implemented urgently, in close partnership with local faith and community leaders. Our efforts focus on the following areas:

Genocide Recovery and Persecution Response (GRPR)

Over $133 million in recently launched activities supporting the four pillars of USAIDs GRPR Program, bringing total funding for GRPR to $239 million.

Meeting Immediate Needs: Over $51 million in life-saving humanitarian assistance to populations from the Ninewa Plain and western Ninewa, includes safe drinking water, food, shelter materials and household items, medical care, and psychosocial support.



Helping Restore Communities: $9 million in funding to support early recovery needs and restore access to services like health and education.



Promoting Economic Recovery: $68 million in funding to improve access to jobs and markets, support local businesses, and revive the local economy.



Preventing Future Atrocities: $5 million to address systemic issues affecting minority populations and prevent future atrocities.

Clearing the Explosive Remnants of War

Approximately $37 million in funding to support explosive remnants of war (ERW) survey, clearance, and risk education in and around minority communities. This support has enabled the Department to significantly expand the number of U.S.-funded ERW survey, clearance, and risk education teams across Ninewa and fulfills the Secretarys pledge to expand ERW clearance efforts in Iraqi minority communities made at the July 2018 Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom.

Social, Economic, and Political Empowerment

$8.5 million in additional assistance to projects that provide psychosocial services, legal support, and initiatives to help collect evidence of human rights abuses; increase minority representation in local and provincial government; increase access to justice for children; strengthen rule of law; and provide livelihoods support and access to economic opportunities for vulnerable groups bringing the FY 2017 total to $18.5 million.

Preservation of Historic and Cultural Heritage Sites

$2 million in ongoing programming to support the preservation of cultural heritage sites in Northern Iraq that were targeted for destruction by ISIS and other terrorist groups, safeguarding, preserving, and restoring access to significant cultural heritage sites of minority communities.A breathtaking investigative story about a hack published two weeks ago revealed some very old news: Worldwide, China actively spies on industry and government--and it targets the United States in particular.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, which broke the story, the number of companies affected was "almost thirty," including Apple and Amazon, which both claim nothing happened. The purportedly non-existent chips discovered, however, possess certain features including memory, processing capacity and connectivity--all things one doesn't usually associate with non-existent hardware.

This latest revelation provided more concrete, alarming news from the never-ending Sino America version of "Spy versus Spy." It was such big news that even after the traditional "Keep it moving; nothing to see here" statements made by Apple and Amazon, there were those who still believed there was something to see.

What happened, if it happened (and it certainly does seem to have happened) is the stuff of crime movies. You know the story line: A truck or a container or a package is diverted on the way to its destination, and spyware (or a bomb or a very small contortionist) is secreted inside the item in transit. In this case, hardware was implanted--a microchip the size of a pencil tip--but rather than diverting product in transit, the prevailing story is that these marvels of spy craft were actually built into motherboards used for often highly specialized, custom enterprise systems worldwide that were manufactured in China.

According to reports, the chip in question is like a physical Trojan horse. It can change the code entering a computer's central processing unit thereby opening the door to outside attack.

"With more than 900 customers in 100 countries by 2015," Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley wrote in Bloomberg Businessweek, "Supermicro offered inroads to a bountiful collection of sensitive targets. 'Think of Supermicro as the Microsoft of the hardware world', says a former U.S. intelligence official who's studied Supermicro and its business model. 'Attacking Supermicro motherboards is like attacking Windows. It's like attacking the whole world'."

In a pithier statement from the same article: "Having a well-done, nation-state-level hardware implant surface would be like witnessing a unicorn jumping over a rainbow."

If the Supermicro story turns out to be true, China pulled off a supply chain attack of epic proportions, but while your spine finishes with that shudder running down it, I would like suggest that there are worse things in the realm of cyber-insecurity. A GAO report issued around the same time as the Bloomberg Businessweek article found that "nearly all" new Pentagon weapons are vulnerable to cyberattack.

Based on tests conducted between 2012 and 2017, the GAO discovered that with "relatively simple tools and techniques, testers were able to take control of systems and largely operate undetected" because of basic security vulnerabilities.

While the micro-chip supply chain angle has plenty of intrigue, given the general and pervasive state of cyber vulnerability out there, it is the equivalent of tunneling into a bank when the doors are wide open, there's no alarm and it's 10pm.

New Approach, Old Tactic

When Anthem disclosed that it had been hacked in early 2015, it was the second largest healthcare insurer in the United States. Hackers had broken into their system in 2014, and accessed unencrypted databases containing the sensitive personal information of around 80 million then-current and former policyholders and employees. The popular theory of that attack is that the Chinese government was behind it, and they weren't looking for personally identifiable information, but rather trade secrets to help set up a similar health insurance program for its citizens.

In the Fall of 2015, not too long after the Anthem breach was disclosed, President Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping announced a deal that would put a diplomatic end to what many believed was widespread China-backed hacking against the U.S. government and big companies with knowledge valuable to China. The supposition at the time was that China only conceded to Obama's demands that the hacking come to a halt because it had a better option.

Around this time, according to the Bloomberg Businessweek article citing Pentagon sources, the Obama administration asked players in the cybersecurity space to figure out a way to detect hardware hacks. To date, this ability has not been developed. The request for this particular cyber solution coincides with the discovery of the chip.

One could point to the two Chinese telecommunications giants, Huawei and ZTE Corp, both reportedly used by the Chinese government for the purposes of spying. Huawei has been declared a national security threat by the U.S. government and is under investigation for potentially breaking American trade controls with Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. The Pentagon has banned the use of Huawei-manufactured devices by members of the military.

It was during Amazon's due diligence on a company called Elemental Technologies, which it hoped to use for its Amazon Prime Video service, that the spy chip was discovered. Elemental worked with American spy agencies, including In-Q-Tel Inc., the CIA's investment entity. This put Elemental equipment (including those little chips imbedded in the Supermicro circuitry) in servers inside Department of Defense data centers that receive drone and surveillance-camera footage, Navy warships feeds of airborne missions, secure videoconferencing for government agencies, NASA, Congress, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The alarm that so much could have been infiltrated by dint of equipment upgrade and old-fashioned planned obsolescence is indeed terrifying, but this chip--real or imagined--is only the tip of an unimaginably large iceberg.CEOs and small business owners know better than anyone that technology advances at lightning speed. Let it take off without you, and you risk putting your company at a tremendous competitive disadvantage. Invest in every new trend, and your capital will disappear before you know it.

Cryptocurrency is a perfect example of this. It has been hovering at the margins of everyday use, but still isn't widely accepted as a form of payment. The recent Senate hearings struck an optimistic tone regarding cryptocurrency, lending legitimacy to its spot in the global marketplace.

Further, some European banks are considering getting in on the deal by creating their own brand of digital currency. Right now, accepting cryptocurrency is an option that needs to be weighed individually by each small business owner, but in the future, CEOs may have no choice but to entertain its use to stay competitive.

Since acceptance of digital currency is discretionary at this point, don't dive into the trend before reflecting on the potential ramifications. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrency acceptance will help you avoid any potential missteps for your business. Below are three questions small business owners need to ask before making an informed decision about whether or not cryptocurrency is right for their company.

1. How cash-strapped are you?

If your business is still in the beginning phase, or for other reasons you need to keep your assets liquid, cryptocurrency may not be the right choice for you. Cryptocurrency is more like an investment than cash and isn't great for those whose need for cash is immediate. It's exceptionally volatile -- which means that it can be hard to predict the value from one day to the next.

2. How are the majority of your clients currently paying?

Depending on the industry in which you operate, accepting virtual forms of currency can save you some serious money. For instance, if your clients pay solely by credit card, accepting cryptocurrency allows you to keep more of your profit in your pocket. Digital currencies do not charge the merchant service rate, which can save you one to three percent! Adding that much to your bottom line can make a substantial difference in your profit margins.

However, if your business is mostly cash, you may not see a significant benefit aside from potentially widening your customer base.

3. Do your suppliers accept cryptocurrency?

If your suppliers accept cryptocurrency, it's a good sign that you probably should, too. For example, suppliers can be good indicators that the industry is heading toward digital currency acceptance. If they do not, it can be riskier for your business to accept them. You would have to consider the conversion costs to move from cash to crypto -- and back again - in order to pay your suppliers, and weigh if this is a viable option for your company or if it would prove too expensive.

The questions above will give small business owners a great starting point to decide whether or not accepting cryptocurrency is the right move for them. But keep in mind, as with all new developments, some of the infrastructure surround cryptocurrency is still in a state of flux. Case in point: cryptocurrencies aren't well-regulated yet. Some entities, like the Treasury Department, categorize it as a security, while others view it as legal tender. Depending on what regulations come down the line, your business may have even more questions to ask before adopting this practice.Forget the selfie. Google just announced the new Pixel 3 smartphone, and it has a feature that will make iPhone users jealous. That is, until Apple copies the feature.

The Pixel 3 uses two front-facing cameras, both 8 megapixels. (The rear camera is 12.2 megapixels.) With a quick tap, you can enable the second camera, which has a 97-degree field of view. That's wide enough to capture a group all at once, even with people on the fringes of what would normally work on a smartphone with the usual 73-degree field of view (ahem, like the iPhone). It's essentially a wide-angle lens on a smartphone.

The idea of taking "groupies" is not new. Several years ago, backstage photos from the Academy Awards and other major events showed all of the members of a cast or a group of celebrities taking a selfie. When you use a selfie stick, you can easily capture everyone in the shot. However, with a wide-angle lens like the one on the Pixel 3, you can take more spontaneous shots of a group without first extending the selfie stick.

My first thought was: Why did this take so long?

Adding a second camera on the front makes it easy to capture more of a scene with you and a group of friends in it, such as a shot in front of the Grand Canyon. I have a large family, and I'm excited to try the phone to see if I can fit everyone in the frame.

Google released a funny video that explains why many selfies don't quite work. At one point, some monkeys complain about the problem as well. It does a good job of sizing up the problem (quite literally), and the last frame shows an example of a nice groupie.



You could argue it is not the right term. A groupie is usually someone who follows a band around, and the connotations are not entirely pleasant. Yet, I also can't think of a better term. Once we accepted "selfie," we basically had to live with what would come next.

The camera has a few other cool tricks as well. A new feature can detect when someone is smiling and automatically snap the photo. Google uses new A.I. routines with the camera to help with things like low light and determining the focus.

The Pixel 3 is a powerful and feature-rich phone, otherwise. I'm excited to try it out, because Google keeps improving this phone. It's well made, for one thing. The glass back and solid construction mean you won't have to worry as much about cracks and dents. (I still recommend a case.) There's a new chip for the Pixel 3 that provides extra security. Called the Titan M, it encrypts data and makes it harder for hackers to break your login code.

Google is also addressing phone addiction. A new Wellbeing feature means you can set the phone face-down at any time to activate a Do Not Disturb mode. Wind Down sets the phone to grayscale gradually so it is not as engaging. And you can find out how much time you've spent using apps. This at least gives us a bit more info to make better phone use choices. And it could be a little depressing for some of us.One of Banksys latest stunt has again excited interest in unmasking the art worlds most mysterious figure.

When a Sothebys auctioneer closed the bidding on a stencil of a girl holding a heart-shaped balloon with a bang of his gavel in October 2018, the canvas began to slip from its gilded frame and tumbled to the floor, shredded into strips.

The self-destructing work prompted gasps of astonishment throughout the room and quickly went viral on social media.

So who is the man beneath the hood? Is it a man at all? Is his output even the work of one person?

Heres an overview of the candidates.

Robert Del Naja

The prime suspect has long been Robert Del Naja, also known as 3D, a founding member of trip hop band Massive Attack.

Best of Banksy Show all 68 1 /68 Best of Banksy Best of Banksy Westwood, California A Banksy piece in California depicting a child wielding a machine gun, in black and white surrounded by colored flowers AFP/Getty Best of Banksy Manhattan, New York A rat on the clock of an old bank building Getty Best of Banksy Camden Town, north London Near the Oval Bridge PA Best of Banksy 'Sweeping It Under The Carpet' The piece, commissioned by this newspaper, is intended to represent a metaphor for the west's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Di Faced Tenners' In 2004, Banksy printed one million pounds worth of his 'Tenners' PA Best of Banksy 'Love is in the Bin' During Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale on 5th October the Banksy artwork 'Girl with Balloon' shredded through the bottom of the frame as it was sold. Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Urban decay' Seen on the side of building on Wilder Street in Bristol PA Best of Banksy 'Glory' Previously on view at Sotheby's New Bond Street, London PA Best of Banksy 'Balloon Debate' Banksy headed to Palestinian territories and created images on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier Getty Best of Banksy 'Kissing Coppers' Pictured on display in Lazinc Gallery in London in 2018 AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Spy Booth' On the side of a house in Cheltenham. PA Best of Banksy 'Escape' A Banksy artwork piece on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier in Abu Dis Getty Images Best of Banksy 'The Son of a Migrant from Syria' Artwork representing Steve Jobs, founder and late CEO of Apple, at the migrant camp known as the "Jungle" in Calais, northern France AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy Artwork in 'Walled Off Hotel' Banksy launched a hotel in Bethlehem. The rooms of the hotel were filled with the artist's work, much of which being about the conflict Getty Images Best of Banksy 'One Nation Under CCTV' In the yard of a Royal Mail depot in Newman Street, central London PA Archive/PA Images Best of Banksy 'Brexit' A painted mural depicting a workman chipping away at one of the stars on a European Union flag in Dover Getty Best of Banksy 'Art Attack' Seen on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier Getty Best of Banksy Artwork in 'Walled Off Hotel' A piece of artwork in Banksy's 'Walled Off Hote'l in the Israeli occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem Getty Best of Banksy 'Let Them Eat Crack' A large mural of a rat wearing a tie and carrying a briefcase on a wall on Howard St and Broadway in New York PA Best of Banksy Artwork in 'Walled Off Hotel' An installation hanging inside one of the rooms Banksy's 'Walled Off hotel' AFP/Getty Best of Banksy Paris Napoleon Bonaparte wearing a headscarf inspired by the original painting by Jacques-Louis David AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Burning Tyre' A Banksy mural which was painted on the side of one of the classrooms at Bridge Farm Primary in Bristol during a half-term PA Best of Banksy 'Les Miserables' Artwork depicting the girl from Les Miserables affected by tear gas, opposite the French embassy in Knightsbridge, London PA Best of Banksy Zehra Dogan Banksy's 70-foot-long mural in New York, made to draw attention to the imprisonment of Zehra Dogan, a Kurdish painter from Turkey AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy Paris A girl painting over a swastika cross AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Girl with Balloon' Originally on the stairs to Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank, London AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Cardinal Sin' On display at the Walker Art Gallery in 2012 Getty Best of Banksy Rage, Flower Thrower Painted on a wall of a gas station in the West Bank city of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy "Madonna with a pistol" In Naples AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'No Ball Games' In Tottenham, North London PA Archive/PA Images Best of Banksy 'Cash Machine Girl' In Finsbury, North London PA Best of Banksy 'Peckham Rock' Installation of Banksy's at the British Museum in London. The artist secretly placed the mock historical piece in a gallery at the museum in 2005 and it went unnoticed for three days PA Best of Banksy Stained Window' A collaboration between Banksy and the City of Angels public school in Los Angeles AFP/Getty Best of Banksy Barbican Centre, London One of two murals near the Barbican Centre in London PA Best of Banksy Clerkenwell Green, London Described by its creator as "a monument to liars, thieves and bullies" Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Civilian Drone Strike' Capstan House in East London PA Best of Banksy 'Armoured Dove' In West Bank town of Bethlehem AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'The Painter' Portobello Road, West London PA Best of Banksy 'Yellow Lines Flower Painter' Pollard Street, London Getty Best of Banksy "Kids on Guns" AFP/Getty Best of Banksy Barbican Centre, London The second of the two murals painted by on the Barbican Centre, London PA Best of Banksy "Cans" London AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Sorry' East London AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Napalm, (Can't Beat That Feeling)' Displayed in an unauthorised 2006 retrospective in London Getty Images Best of Banksy Calais, France A child with a suitcase looking through a telescope with a vulture perched on it, in tribute to migrants and refugees on a beach in Calais AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Banksus Militus Vandalus' Displayed in an unauthorised 2006 retrospective in London Getty Images Best of Banksy London Artwork depicting former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill AFP/Getty Best of Banksy 'Donkey Documents' Moved from Jerusalem PA Best of Banksy 'A Girl with a Pierced Eardrum' A defaced piece of art on a wall in the city of Bristol, at Hanover Place PA Best of Banksy 'Sperm Alarm' Banksy's name is reflected in the glass covering his piece. One of seven initially stolen works by the artist. Getty Best of Banksy 'Art Buff' In Folkestone, Kent PA Best of Banksy 'The Mild, Mild West' Stokes Croft, Bristol PA Best of Banksy Paris A man holding a handsaw behind his back and offering a bone to a dog which leg has been cut off AFP/Getty Best of Banksy Peeing Dog Los Angeles PA Best of Banksy Bethlehem Painting on a wall in Bethlehem in the West Bank Getty Best of Banksy 'Slave Labout' A poor child making Union Jack flags on a sewing machine, located on the wall of a Poundland discount shop in the Wood Green area of north London Getty Best of Banksy Lower East Side, New York Painted during Banksy's month in New York Getty Images Best of Banksy 'Jay Zeavis' Glastonbury, Somerset PA Best of Banksy Paris Banksy said that he "blitzed" Paris with up to a dozen murals as a tribute to the May 1968 uprising and even took aim at the French government's hard line on migrants AFP/Getty Best of Banksy "I Love New York" A large mural of a rat wearing on Wooster and Grand Street in New York PA Best of Banksy Camden Town, north London A piece under Camden Street Bridge, almost directly behind the British Transport Police building in Camden Town PA Best of Banksy 'Very Little Helps' A child raising a Tesco's plastic bag as a flag in London Getty Best of Banksy 'I Don't Believe in Global Warming' Camden Town, north London PA Best of Banksy Camden Town, north London PA Best of Banksy Bataclan concert hall, Paris Artwork on a side street to the Bataclan concert hall where a terrorist attack killed 90 people in 2015 AFP/Getty Best of Banksy New Orleans, Louisiana Getty Best of Banksy 'Christ with Shopping Bags' Lazinc Gallery in London AFP/Getty Images Best of Banksy "Stop and Search" Shown at Artcurial French auction house sale in Paris AFP/Getty Images

Banksys street art first appeared in Bristol, where Del Naja hails from, his career beginning as a freehand graffiti artist with the DryBreadZ Crew before he joined The Wild Bunch in the early 1990s.

Del Naja has sometimes designed album sleeves for Massive Attack, including the cover of Heligoland (2010), featuring stencil art akin to Banksys signature style.

Both Banksy and Del Naja have addressed the similarities and claimed to be friends and thus two separate people.

The musician appeared in Banksys 2010 mockumentary Exit Through the Gift Shop and claims to have spotted the artist at his gigs.

In turn, Banksy is named as the author of the forward to Del Najas book 3D and the Art of Massive Attack (2015), a gesture that could be intended to throw fans off the scent.

Leapt on by some as definitive proof was a slip of the tongue by DJ Goldie, who referred to the artist as Robert on an appearance on Scroobius Pips podcast Distraction Pieces in June 2017.

No disrespect to Robert, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over, Goldie said, sparking a frenzy of excitement that could equally have been a planted remark.

Robin Gunningham

Another likely candidate is Bristol artist and former public school boy Robin Gunningham.

Criminologists at Queen Mary University of London used a process known as geographic profiling to tag Banksy in 2016, matching the locations of 140 works with several addresses known to have a close association with Mr Gunningham.

(AFP/Getty Images (AFP/Getty Images)

Id be surprised if its not him, even without our analysis, but its interesting that the analysis offers additional support for it, said Steve Le Comber, co-author of the report on the project, when interviewed by the BBC at the time.

It rapidly became apparent that there is only one serious suspect, and everyone knows who it is. If you Google Banksy and Gunningham, you get something like 43,500 hits.

The Gunningham theory was briefly reignited when a car park attendant at Banksys Dismaland theme park in Weston-Super-Mare was mistaken for him in 2015.

He was, however, merely a lookalike working for the council.

Thierry Guetta

The hapless French graffiti artist seen in Exit Through the Gift Shop, attempting to win fame as Mr Brainwash, has also been suggested.

The theory posits that Mr Guetta was only feigning mediocrity in the film and is actually the artist himself hiding in plain sight.

Unlikely, but undeniably precisely the sort of stunt that would appeal to Banksys sense of humour.

Other suspects and theories

There have been various other outings over the last 15 years.

An Anti-Graffiti Task Force in Liverpool accused local street artist Paul Horner in October 2014 and New York spraypainter Richard Pfeiffer was spotted in front of a mural actually executed by Banksy in March 2015 and accused of being the masked man by the cops.

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Both of those cases were abandoned by the authorities and the only other evidence to go on are vague sightings reported in Brooklyn and Melbourne, Australia.

These could merely have been imitators and, in truth, the evidence is little better than your average photo of Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster.

Journalist Craig Williams has meanwhile suggested that Banksy is really a collective of artists associated with Massive Attack rather than one person, cross-referencing the sudden appearance of Banksy murals with the bands tour dates in a viral blog post of August 2016, finding a number of matches.The 96-year-old French painter and author Francoise Gilot  famously known as the former lover and muse to Pablo Picasso, and the mother of two of his children, Claude and Paloma  published a book of sketches last month that she completed during her travels to India, Senegal and Venice between 1974 and 1981.

While most artists use sketchbooks to harness their impressions into material for their work  to help them remember  Gilot has used hers to forget.

Things I have seen, I want to take them out of my mind, she tells me as we sat in her brightly lit living room on Manhattans Upper West Side. (Gilots home doubles as a studio in which she paints nearly every day. Canvases are hung on the two-storey-high walls, stacked on the floor and displayed on easels.) Art doesnt come from what is around you, but from what is inside of you.

This philosophical approach is unmistakable in the new monograph (published by Taschen) Francoise Gilot: Three Travel Sketchbooks, which includes drawings and watercolours that bear little stylistic resemblance to her public work. Instead, they offer an intimate glimpse into Gilots inner life.

Her distinctly whimsical sensibility permeated our conversation. When asked about her years with Picasso and the comparisons that have been made between their work, she replies with a sly grin: Sometimes you need an umbrella when it rains.

But Gilot has hardly lived her life under the shelter of that umbrella. Dorothea Elkon, her New York gallery owner and long-time friend, stresses Gilots fierce independence. While the legacy of her relationship with Picasso has endured as an undeniable presence in her life (Paloma Picasso calls it a nuisance to her mother), Gilot has worked hard to maintain her autonomous presence in the art world. Its a dedication thats essential in her life, says Paloma Picasso, who vividly recalls being a child, sitting on the balcony outside her mothers studio and watching her paint for hours.

Gilot was born in a suburb of Paris in 1921. Her mother was an artist, and her father, an agronomist, insisted that his daughter pursue a law degree after she graduated from the Sorbonne in 1938 with a bachelors degree in philosophy. But while enrolled in law school, Gilot studied art in her free time  entering into the tutelage of Hungarian painter Endre Rozsda, who would become a lifelong mentor and friend  and she eventually abandoned the legal track.

Gilot with Picasso in November 1948 (AFP/Getty)

She met Picasso at Le Catalan restaurant in Paris, in 1943. She was 21; he was 61. During their roughly 10 years together (a period described at length in her best-selling 1964 memoir Life with Picasso), Gilot mingled in a group that included Henri Matisse and Georges Braque, though today she claims her art is not influenced by anyone. I dont believe in influences, she says. (Picassos biographer John Richardson agreed: Picasso took from her rather more than she took from him.)

By the autumn of 1953, Gilot had ended the relationship. Picasso was displeased; after all, she was allegedly the only woman ever to have left him. He ran her out of town and turned the Paris art world against her, Elkon said. In 1955, she married French artist Luc Simon. Their marriage lasted only a few years and produced one daughter, Aurelia. In 1970, Gilot married virologist Jonas Salk; they were together until his death in 1995.

The sketches in this latest book are a stylistic departure from her body of work, and she considers them deliberately unfinished, completed as they were in notebooks she kept while travelling with Salk when he was collecting research for the polio vaccine he would go on to develop (except for the sketches from Venice, a city that has captivated her since childhood). They contain watercolour drawings but also words, written in careful, beautiful script. For Gilot, colours, text and shapes are used interchangeably  synesthetically.

Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Show all 14 1 /14 Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Gustav Klimt Death and Life, reworked in 1915/16 oil on canvas Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Moriz Gustav Klimt with Cat, 1911 Klimt-Foundation, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Gustav Klimt Schonbrunn landscape oil on canvas, 1916 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Gustav Klimt Klara Klimt, c. 1880 Oil on Canvas Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Gustav Klimt The Bride, 1917/18 (unfinished) oil, black chalk on canvas Klimt-Foundation, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Gustav Klimt Sketch for the left figure group in the Painting The Bride, 1917 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Egon Schiele Blind Mother, 1914 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Anton Josef Trcka Egon Schiele with pursed lips, 1914 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Egon Schiele Seated Male Nude, 1910 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Egon Schiele Chrysanthemen, 1910 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Koloman Moser Spring, 1913 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Koloman Moser Armchair for the sanatorium Purkersdorf, 1903 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Koloman Moser Ringelblumen, 1909 Leopold Museum, Vienna Austrian art: Vienna around 1900 Koloman Moser Lovers, 1914

If you can think of something in words, then you can see it in images too, she says.

Narrative has always been paramount to Gilot. The floor-to-ceiling bookshelves that line the walls of her apartment, which is just down the block from the Hotel des Artistes, are a testament to her literary mind. Visual monographs on Claude Monet, Francis Bacon and, yes, Picasso are shelved alongside volumes of TS Eliot, Shakespeare and Evelyn Waugh. She has published collections of her own verse, and even these sketchbooks contain full pages devoted solely to her handwritten text. I was always good with poetry and letters, she says.

Gilots friend, actor and playwright Therese Cremieux, who interviewed her for the pamphlet that is included in Three Travel Sketchbooks, is the one who convinced her to publish this book. Gilot was hesitant. Francoise said, No, its not going to interest anyone, says Cremieux, who argues that readers would like to see what Gilot calls the process.

Interest in Gilots work has surged recently (AFP/Getty)

Completed mostly on tiny, bumpy plane rides between remote corners of the world after she had taken time to reflect on the moments she had encountered, the sketches favour figures over scenes: A landscape is always there and the people are not, Gilot says.

You can call it a diary, she adds. What I draw has meaning. In my mind, I notice what I feel, and not what is there.

Aurelia Simon  who, in addition to being Gilots daughter, is also her archivist  notes that if you look through her body of work, you can see all of the people in her life coming through, all of the friends, the men in her life, the children growing up, the places she went. You can really feel the emotion she is going through and how she reacts, and what catches her eye or memory.

Intimacy aside, the sketches in this book also betray a remarkable raw talent. Her draftsmanship is exquisite, says Jill McGaughey, owner of the Mac-Gryder Gallery in New Orleans, who has represented her for the last 10 years. She has such great control and economy of her lines. Everything has a purpose. Shes got a great sense of movement in her lines and in her figures. Theyre lyrical.

The publication coincides with a period of particular commercial success for Gilot. In the last 10 years, theres been a tremendous snowball of interest in her work, McGaughey says. Pieces that sold for $10,000 (7620) 10-15 years ago are twice that or more now. The market cant get enough of her.

A few weeks after I met with Gilot, I visited the Elkon Gallery on the Upper East Side where several of her works are held. Two of those works had been viewed by a potential buyer that week: a painting of herself with Paloma, Protection, from 1954, and a drawing, Self-Portrait by the Sea, from 1946, which she completed when she was 25  the year she began living with Picasso.

In the 1946 drawing, she is looking upward and there is a man in the background walking towards her. It reminded me of something she said about her art when we met: In the work of all the generations of painters who were like Picasso, the figure is so huge, its all over the painting, she explained. Whereas me, I have turned it the other way around. The figure is lost in a universe that is very much bigger. One could say the same about her personal outlook on life, too.

 New York TimesWas Leonardo Da Vincis genius helped by a vision disorder? Thats certainly what new research suggests.

Analysis of the Renaissance painters face from paintings, drawings and sculptures have revealed he may have suffered from a squint  known medically as a strabismus.

Da Vinci is believed to have suffered from a type called intermittent exotropia, a condition which causes one or both eyes to turn outward and affects around one in 200 people.

Researchers have suggested that the disorder may have helped him because it would have given him the ability to switch to monocular vision, in which both eyes are used separately, and allowed him to focus on close-up flat surfaces.

It is hard to tell which eye was affected from the paintings, visual neuroscientist Professor Christopher Tyler says. But it would have been particularly useful for getting the whole scene geometrically correct.

Leonardo da Vinci, self-portrait, circa 1500 (Rex Features)

His study, published in JAMA Opthalmology, saw him scruitinise surviving images of Da Vinci  of which there are very few. They included he Vitruvian Man sketch and the bronze sculpture David, reputedly a depiction of the young Da Vinci.

In all cases, the eye misalignment was measurable, though not severe and averaged a -10.3 degree deviation from the focused eye across the six pieces. The negative number means that the eye would typically look outwards (exotropia) and Professor Tyler argues that Da Vincis strabismus may have been non-existent when focusing intently on an object, but would come in when he relaxed into painting  giving him the best of both worlds.

The weight of converging evidence suggests that Da Vinci had intermittent exotropia, with a resulting ability to switch to monocular vision, he said. This would perhaps explain his great facility for depicting the three-dimensional solidity of faces and objects in the world and the distant depth recession of mountainous scenes.

Multiple studies published over the past four or five decades have assessed how eye conditions have changed the work of great painters in their later lives, most notably those of Dr Michael Marmor, author of several books on the subject.

Here are some of the most prominent artists whose work was affected by their eye conditions.

Degas

A Study of A Girls Head by Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas, late 1870s  1890s (Scottish National Gallery)

Degas suffered failing vision from 1860 to 1910, with his style becoming increasingly rough as his eye disease progressed.

In 2006, Dr Marmor concluded that his central vision, where acuity is sharpest, had weakened in his later years. As it grew blurry, his painting style became more coarse, losing the refinement of his earlier work.

Mamor suspected that his later work looked smoother and more natural to Degas than it does to viewers with healthy eyes, because it was filtered through his own visual pathology.

Rembrandt

Self-portrait by Rembrandt, 1660 (New York Metropolitan Museum of Art)

In 2004, neuroscientists Margaret S Livingstone and Bevil R Conway, both then-students at Harvard Medical School, observed that the 17th-century Dutch painters eyes were often misaligned in his self-portraits, so one appeared to look directly at the viewer, while the other looked off to the side.

Livingstone and Conway believed that, assuming Rembrandt had painted himself with unforgiving accuracy, he had poor stereovision  which could have been advantageous as he would have struggled to see depth with stereoscopic cues.

Stereo blindness, or the inability to use the horizontal shift between our eyes to allow us to see in 3D, can aid artists painting in two dimensions.

Monet

Claude Monet: the French impressionist suffered with cataracts

Claude Monet wrote about his growing frustration with his declining vision in 1914, noting that colours no longer had the same intensity.

Reds had begun to look muddy, he wrote. My painting was getting more and more darkened.

After undergoing cataract surgery in 1923, Monet was able to return to his original painting style, and even threw out much of the artwork he had completed during the 10-year period when he suffered from eye disease

Georgia OKeeffe

Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1 by Georgia OKeeffe, 1936 (AP)

The celebrated 20th-century American painter was best known for her canvases depicting flowers, animal skulls and south-eastern landscapes.

Suffering from macular degeneration  a medical condition which can result in blurred or no vision from the centre of the visual field  OKeeffe completed her last unassisted oil painting in 1972.

However, her diminishing eyesight did not extinguish her will to create art. When she was almost blind, OKeeffe returned to art with the help of several assistants and created favourite visual motifs from memory, and from her vivid imagination.

In 1977, the then 90-year-old observed: I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.The painter, inventor and polymath Leonardo da Vinci may have had a squint that helped him capture the Mona Lisas smile and create his masterpieces, according to researchers.

Doctors from the Optometry and Vision Sciences School at City University of London have diagnosed the Renaissance master with strabismus after analysing the eye alignment of works believed to have been modelled, in part, on himself.

Strabismus is a common vision disorder where one of the eyes looks inward, outward, up or down when the other eyes is focused on an object.

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The condition is thought to be beneficial to painters as it lets them better focus on close-up flat surfaces and has been identified in a number of famous artists, including Rembrandt.

There are notoriously few validated images of da Vinci and historians can only speculate on the extent he put himself into his work. However, Leonardo's own text the Codex Atlanticus says that artists can't help but be self inspired, stating: [The soul] guides the painters arm and makes him reproduce himself, since it appears to the soul that this is the best way to represent a human being."

"A number of famous artists have been identified as having strabismus on the basis of the eye alignment evident from their self-portraits, including Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, Albrecht Durer, Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (who was also known as Il Guercino, Italian for the squinter), Edgar Degas, and Pablo Picasso," the studys author, neuroscientist Professor Christopher Tyler, said.

Analysis of the oil portrait Young John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci (1513-16, Louvre, Paris) (Christopher Tyler/Creative Commons)

Some forms of strabismus are thought to facilitate artistic work by suppressing the deviating eye, which creates two-dimensional monocular vision advantageous to painting and drawing

While having two eyes focused on an object (stereoscopic vision) is integral to our depth perception, it can make translating three-dimensional scenes to canvas more tricky, as each eye will be seeing objects slightly to the right or left.

This can be illustrated by holding a finger in front of your nose and shutting your eyes alternately causing the digit to jump side to side.

If one eye deviates, the brain will deprioritise signals from the unfocused eye, preventing this effect and giving a more static image to work from.

For the study published in JAMA Ophthalmology, Professor Tyler measured the alignment in six art works believed to be partly self-inspired by fitting circles to the irises of each eye and measuring the average deviation from alignment.

A bronze sculpture of David (1473/75) by Andrea del Verrocchio believed to be modeled on a young Leonardo da Vinci (Christopher Tyler / Creative Commons / JAMA)

Works included two drawings, two oil paintings and two sculptures. Among them his world famous Vitruvian Man sketch, the bronze sculpture David  reputedly a depiction of the young Leonardo and Salvator Mundi, his painting of Jesus Christ which recently became the most expensive in history.

In all cases, the eye misalignment was measurable, though not severe and averaged a 10.3 deviation from the focussed eye across the six pieces.

The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen Show all 5 1 /5 The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen 418672.bin PA The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen 418673.bin PA The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen 418674.bin PA The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen 418677.bin PA The greatest Da Vinci show ever seen 418678.bin PA

This negative number means the eye would tend to look outwards (exotropia) and Professor Tyler argues that da Vancis strabismus may have been non-existent when focusing intently on an object, but would come in when he relaxed into painting. This would give him the best of both worlds.

The professor said: The weight of converging evidence suggests that Leonardo had intermittent exotropia, with a resulting ability to switch to monocular vision.

This would perhaps explain his great facility for depicting the three-dimensional solidity of faces and objects in the world and the distant depth recession of mountainous scenes.Sir Michael Caine has reiterated his belief that Brexit was a good decision.

The actor, 84, revealed he thinks its important for the UK to be in charge of their own future even if it means being poorer.

Caine was famously supportive of leaving Europe during the referendum in 2017 and has now maintained his belief its a good idea despite Theresa May's negotiation breakdown.

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Speaking on the Today show, he said: People say Oh, youll be poor, youll be this, youll be that. I say Id rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I dont know making me rich by running it.

The actor, who most recently starred in King of Thieves, has been a staunch supporter of Britains efforts to leave the European Union over the years and claimed that fears of a no-deal Brexit are a result of scare tactics.

The best films of 2018 (so far) Show all 17 1 /17 The best films of 2018 (so far) The best films of 2018 (so far) The Guardians From its slow-burning beginning, The Guardians develops into an epic melodrama. Its a wartime story in which, for a change, the men are relegated to supporting roles. It follows in a tradition of French rural family sagas like Jean De Florette or Manon Des Sources. The landscapes and the changing seasons play as much of a part in the story as the main characters. The best films of 2018 (so far) Dark River Dark River offers little such consolation. It has some lyrical and delicate moments but the mood is generally overwhelmingly bleak and lugubrious. Incest and abuse dont leave much space for any comic interludes. This is a powerful film with a grinding intensity about it. Light relief it isnt but Dark River still has quite an impact. Alamy The best films of 2018 (so far) Zama Late on in Argentinean director Lucrecia Martels startling, highly original new feature, Zama, a character who has just had both his arms cut off, is advised to shove your stumps in the sand  if you dont bleed out, youll survive. Its a grisly, darkly humorous moment in a film that continually surprises us with both its brutality and its lyricism. The Match Factory The best films of 2018 (so far) The Breadwinner The most dispiriting aspect of this otherwise enrapturing Oscar-nominated animated feature is that its storyline still seems so current. The film depicts an Afghan society in which women dont have a face. It is set during the Taliban rule, which lasted from the mid-1990s until late 2001, but this doesnt feel like a period piece. Seventeen years after the Taliban were ousted from power in Afghanistan following the US invasion, the plight of women in the country appears hardly to have improved. GKIDS The best films of 2018 (so far) BlacKkKlansman Spike Lees work sometimes risks sensory overload. He fires off so many different ideas and storytelling styles that audiences can become bamboozled by his scattergun approach. BlacKkKlansman is one of his very best films because the digressions are as entertaining as ever but dont get in the way of the main story. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Early Man Much of the pleasure in Aardman films has always lain in their gently ironic, Alan Bennett-like humour. They take very exotic characters and subject matter but then deal with them in a matter-of-fact fashion. They make a virtue out of their own relative modesty. Early Man isnt the flashiest animated feature that youll see this year but it is certainly the most likeable. The best films of 2018 (so far) Isle of Dogs Like all of Wes Andersons work, Isle Of Dogs is very stylised, very offbeat and characterised by its extremely dry and often ironic humour. This Japanese-set stop-motion fable is also gorgeous to look at  packed full of intricate visual detail. It deals with some weighty themes (ethnic cleansing, fascism and corruption) but does so in an idiosyncratic fashion. The best films of 2018 (so far) Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a host of award-winning plays behind him but his movies havent always lived up to his stage work. This one certainly does. It shares some of the dark and nihilistic humour found in McDonaghs previous film, Seven Psychopaths. The best films of 2018 (so far) A Quiet Place In an era of wearisome poltergeist movies, haunted house stories and torture porn, A Quiet Place is a refreshingly pared-down and very original affair. Director John Krasinski relies on editing, sound effects and off-screen action to crank up the tension. We do see the creatures from time to time, sometimes even in extreme closeup. They are very grotesque, bigger versions of the polyp-like succubus which exploded out of John Hurts stomach in Alien. However, the most terrifying moments here come when the humans are waiting for them to appear, desperately hoping that they wont. Paramount Pictures The best films of 2018 (so far) Lady Bird Lady Bird is one of the best American coming-of-age films since Barry Levinsons Diner. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, it offers an utterly winning mix of humour, poignancy and sharp-eyed social observation. Gerwig approaches her subject matter with the same tenderness and affectionate irony with which the adolescent Lady Bird regards Sacramento. Gerwig also shows Lady Birds heroism as the young heroine strives against the odds to become the very best version of herself she can be. A24 The best films of 2018 (so far) Phantom Thread If Phantom Thread is indeed Daniel Day-Lewiss final film as an actor, he is going out on a wondrously bizarre note. This must be the oddest film in his career, one in which he gives a typically commanding but very idiosyncratic performance. Almost everything here is jarring  but generally in a very positive way. The best films of 2018 (so far) First Reformed It is not so long ago that Paul Schrader seemed to be giving up on cinema. The American writer-director (whose credits include Taxi Driver, American Gigolo and Affliction) had taken to making movies like the sour Hollywood satire The Canyons with Lindsay Lohan and the cartoonishly violent Dog Eat Dog, shot cheaply, aimed at a VOD audience. The former had a montage of closed-down movie theatres. In interviews, Schrader struck a gloomy note about the future of the industry. This is why First Reformed is so refreshing. This is not just Schraders best film in a very long while. It is also a re-affirmation of the directors belief in the medium. Rex The best films of 2018 (so far) The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde goes to ruin in Rupert Everetts debut feature as director. Everett also wrote and stars in the film, giving a grandstanding performance as the Irish writer at the end of his life, after his release from prison, where he has been doing hard labour for gross indecency. This is a moving and surprising biopic that squeezes out every last drop of pathos from its subject matter. BBC Films The best films of 2018 (so far) Black Panther Black Panther is not only one of the most entertaining recent superhero films but has an intelligence and a political dimension that such inchoate offerings as Suicide Squad and Justice League completely lacked. It is an action movie which touches on Pan-Africanism and which owes as much to Malcolm X as it does to Batman or Captain America. Marvel Studios/Disney The best films of 2018 (so far) Sicilian Ghost Story Sicilian Ghost Story is a genre-bending affair that combines elements of teen romance, gothic psycho-drama and political thriller. It is loosely based on a true story of a boy called Giuseppe Di Matteo whose father, an ex-member of the Sicilian Mafia, turned grass against his erstwhile associates. The Mafia responded by kidnapping Giuseppe and keeping him in captivity for nearly 800 days. Altitude The best films of 2018 (so far) First Man First Man is all about understated heroism. Its affecting precisely because Armstrong (played with quiet intensity by Ryan Gosling) doesnt feel the continual need to boast about his mission. The film is a tearjerker but a very subtle one. AP The best films of 2018 (so far) Dogman Dogman is one of the best Italian films of recent times, a modern day neo realist fable that bears comparison with the great work of Fellini, Rossellini, De Sica et al. Its main character, the dog groomer Marcello (Marcello Fonte), is a wonderful creation: loveable, vulnerable, seedy and comic all at the same time. Curzon Artificial Eye

What I see is Im being ruled by people I dont know, who no one elected, and I think of that as fascist, he said, adding: In the long run, though, itll come around.

The UK is scheduled to leave the EU on the 29 March 2019  exactly two years after Article 50 was activated. If negotiations with the EU result in a no-deal Brexit, the UK risks having no official trade, diplomatic or immigration plans in place for the countrys departure.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

The Independent launched a campaign demanding a Final Say referendum on the governments Brexit deal. The campaign states that the general public deserve the right to vote on the final deal.Little Mix have announced a new UK and Ireland tour in support of their upcoming album LM5.

The pop group  Jade Thirwall, Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jesy Nelson  will begin their string of shows in Dublin on 10 October 2019 and take in dates in Belfast, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham and London.

Tickets for the show go on sale at 9am on 26 October and will be available to purchase from AXS and Ticketmaster.

Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Show all 12 1 /12 Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Adele Estimated wealth: 140m. Annual change: Up 15m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Ed Sheeran Estimated wealth: 80m. Annual change: Up 28m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Harry Styles Estimated wealth: 50m. Annual change: Up 10m Helene Marie Pambrun Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Niall Horan Estimated wealth: 46m. Annual change: Up 6m Rex Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Liam Payne Estimated wealth: 42m. Annual change: Up 2m Rex Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Louis Tomlinson Estimated wealth: 42m. Annual change: Up 2m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Little Mix Estimated wealth: 40m. Annual change: Up 16m Rex Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Zayn Malik Estimated wealth: 35m. Annual change: No change Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Sam Smith Estimated wealth: 24m. Annual change: Up 4m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Jessie J Estimated wealth: 18m. Annual change: Up 1m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Winston Marshall Estimated wealth: 16m. Annual change: Up 1m Getty Richest musicians under 30 in UK and Ireland Rita Ora Estimated wealth: 16m. Annual change: New Entry Getty

See the full dates below:

10 October  3Arena, Dublin

13 October  SSE Arena, Belfast

18, 19 October  The SSE Hydro, Glasgow

21, 22 October  Echo Arena, Liverpool

25, 26 October  Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

28, 29 October  FlyDSA Arena, Sheffield

31 October and 1, 2 November  The O2, London

8, 9 November  Resorts World Arena, Birmingham

11, 12 November  Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham

15, 16 November  Manchester Arena

18, 19 November  First Direct Arena, Leeds

Got sweaty palms already? Check out our handy tips for dealing with the demand:

1) Make sure you are ready and waiting with the web page up at least five minutes before 9am.

2) Do not let your computer, phone or whatever device holds the key to your happiness run out of battery.

3) Register your details with the website you are booking from in advance, if you can, but dont panic if you havent left enough time as your tickets will be held while you fill out your information.

4) Check how many tickets you are allowed to buy in one purchase. If you try to buy more than the limited number, your booking may be cancelled without notice, meaning no-one gets to go.

5) Get your friends to try too, but stay in contact in case you all succeed and end up with a bunch of tickets you didnt want. If you do need to sell any on, do so at face value. No-one likes a tout.

6) Be patient and avoid refreshing or switching between browsers. Stick with one tab and have some faith! Be prepared to wait for an hour to get ticketsThe sixth and final season of House of Cards arrives on Netflix on 2 November, bringing to an end an extraordinary political drama.

Derived from a 1989 novel by Conservative Party aide Michael Dobbs  a special advisor to Margaret Thatcher, who spun his experiences inside Westminsters corridors of power into a trilogy of thrillers  House of Cards has become its own beast since its restaging in Washington, DC, by Beau Willimon, finding Shakespearean intrigue in the machinations of Democratic whip Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey).

As the show has progressed, with Underwood conniving his way to a Nixonian presidency, focus has increasingly turned towards the character of his wife Claire (Robin Wright), the First Lady Macbeth of the piece.

Following allegations of sexual harassment against Spacey in 2017, House of Cards looked in jeopardy but Netflix has pressed ahead without him, casting the spotlight on the Claire Underwood presidency for its eight-part concluding instalment.

After 65 hours of television, youd be forgiven for having lost the thread, so heres a reminder of the story so far.

Season 1

South Carolina Democratic congressman and House majority whip Frank Underwood has masterminded the election victory of Garret Walker (Michael Gill) on the understanding he will be appointed secretary of state as his reward.

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When Walker reneges on the deal, saying he wants Underwood to enforce his agenda in Congress, Underwood graciously accepts but seethes in private, plotting revenge. He begins an affair with junior reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), leaking stories to her to embarrass and undermine the Walker administration.

Underwood also inveigles alcoholic Pennsylvania congressman Peter Russo (Corey Stoll) into his web of intrigue, compromising him with the aid of escort Rachel Posner (Rachel Brosnahan). When Russo threatens to come clean, Frank kills him, arranging the murder scene to look like a suicide.

He subsequently befriends tycoon Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney), an influential adviser to the president, and uses the partnership to oust and replace the vice-president.

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Season 2

When Zoe becomes too close to the truth about the Russo murder, Frank meets her on a darkened subway platform and shoves her into the path of an oncoming train.

Her death does not deter fellow journalist Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus) from continuing the hunt for Rachel, whom he believes holds the key to the mystery, seeking help from hacker Gavin Orsay (Jimmi Simpson).

Rachel has been concealed in a safe house by Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Franks trusted right-hand man, who has developed an unhealthy obsession with her. Gavin uses this fact to extort Doug, prompting tensions to escalate and Rachel to flee, leaving him for dead.

Frank and Claire scheming in the White House (Netflix)

Frank and Claire  head of NGO the Clean Water Initiative  drive a wedge between President Walker and Tusk as a trade war with China erupts, using Chinese businessman Xander Feng (Terry Chen) for leverage and exploiting Claires discovery of the Walkers marital problems to engineer his impeachment.

Tusk ultimately delivers the fatal blow to his old friend after being secured a presidential pardon over his alliance with Feng and Frank takes the Oval Office.

Season 3

As president, Frank faces a tanking economy and a challenge from solicitor-general Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) in the Democratic primaries.

Doug, kept at arms length by Underwood over the Rachel affair, continues to search for her with Gavins help, tracking her to New Mexico and finally killing her in the desert.

Viktor Petrov visits the White House (Netflix)

Claire becomes US Ambassador to the UN and crosses paths with Putin-esque Russian president Viktor Petrov (Lars Mikkelsen), facing diplomatic crises over military action in the Jordan Valley and the arrest of an American gay rights activist in Moscow.

When Petrov requests Claires resignation, she agrees but feels betrayed by Frank and, having fallen for biographer Tom Yates (Paul Sparks), announces her intention to leave him.

Season 4

Claire, thwarted in her hopes of running for Congress in her native Texas, leaks information to the Dunbar campaign but agrees to stop if Frank makes her his running mate.

Lucas, released from prison after being framed by Frank, attempts his assassination in revenge for Zoes murder, only injuring the president but killing bodyguard Edward Meecham (Nathan Darrow), Franks sometime lover, who in turn fatally wounds the assailant. Doug subsequently leaks evidence of a secret meeting between Lucas and Dunbar, ending her challenge for the Democratic nomination.

With Frank in recovery, editor Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver) picks up the investigation begun by the late Zoe and Lucas and appeals to embittered ex-president Walker for help in exposing Underwoods crimes ahead of the election.

Frank meets Republican presidential adversary Will Conway (Netflix)

Meanwhile, a strong Republican nominee emerges, Governor Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman), as the radical Islamic Caliphate Organisation (ICO) kidnaps a family of American tourists, executing a hostage on live TV as Frank and Claire send in the military, declaring total war.

Season 5

President Underwood orchestrates a campaign of fear as the election nears, having Doug instigate a cyberattack to be blamed on ICO. The Underwood camp then stages a terror attack in the crucial swing state of Tennessee.

Frank then orders Ohio and Tennessee to close the polls early as a precaution against further terror, leaving the election undecided and the country in disarray after a nine-week stalemate, unsure of who is rightfully president.

To ease the situation, Claire steps up as acting president and calls a special election to decide the two states outstanding. As Conway cracks under the pressure, the Underwoods win out and Frank returns to the White House.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

When Hammerschmidts article finally appears, the resulting scandal sees an impeachment motion drawn up. The Underwoods move to tie up loose ends  allowing Doug to take the fall for Zoes murder, pushing secretary of state Catherine Durrant (Jayne Atkinson) down the stairs before she can testify against them and having Yates poisoned.

Frank resigns in disgrace, fully expecting a pardon from Claire as she succeeds him to become the 47th president.

My turn, she says, turning to the camera.Unsustainable and potentially illegal logging in remote Pacific islands could leave their natural resources decimated within 20 years, according to activists.

The Solomon Islands are described by travel guides and the nations tourist board as unspoiled, but a new report by international NGO Global Witness has revealed this is far from the truth.

One of the poorest nations in the Pacific region, the Solomon Islands have an economy that is highly reliant on its forestry sector.

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Despite this reliance, a report recently commissioned by the Solomon Islands ministry of finance suggested that if logging continues at its current pace, natural forests will be exhausted by 2036.

The islands exported more than 3 million cubic metres of logs in 2017, nearly 20 times what experts think is a sustainable annual harvest.

For years concerns have been raised by both national and international authorities that the government of this tiny nation is not able to enforce laws preventing unsustainable logging  particularly in the most remote regions.

While the Solomon Islands are marketed as a pristine tropical idyll, our investigation shows that the reality is very different, said Beibei Yin, campaign leader at Global Witness.

Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Show all 12 1 /12 Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park The Stadium, one of the most impressive geological formations of the Serrania de Chiribiquete. Colombian Amazon Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Forest burns due to the colonisation front near the northern border of Chiribiquete National Park, Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Grandpa Marcelieno and his son, of the indigenous Araracuara people, with sacred plants from the region: mambe and ambil. Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Cattle ranching at the agricultural frontier near the northern border of the Chiribiquete National Park Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Oil palm monoculture, Puerto Concordia on the Ariari River, Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Preparation of traditional sugarcane-based beverage by the indigenous Barasano people of Pacoa, on the Apaporis River, near the southeastern border of Chiribiquete National Park Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Tapir in the community of Buenos Aires, Apaporis River. Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park (Left) Pictograms over 20.000 years old found on stone in the Chiribiquete National Natural Park FCDS Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park The main maloca of the Mutanacua indigenous community of Pacoa, on the Apaporis River, near the southeastern border of Chiribiquete National Park. Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Vigilant Grandfather, one of the Chiribiquete National Parks representative tepuyes. Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Aerial view of one of the park's waterfalls FCDS Colombian reserve becomes worlds largest rainforest national park Ajaju River, Chiribiquete National Park. Colombian Amazon Cesar David Martinez

The hugely unsustainable rate of logging, the high risks of illegality and the fact that the industry does little to benefit local people all create a bleak picture of islands far from unspoiled or unexploited.

Global Witness used satellite imagery and drone photography to determine the rate at which logging is taking place in the Solomon Islands.

These images revealed vast swathes of deforested land, as well as over 12,000 km (7456 miles) of logging roads criss-crossing the tiny nation.

One in every 20km of logging road in the Solomon Islands is above 400m in altitude, despite specific efforts by the government to limit deforestation in these zones.

In their report, Global Witness highlight China as a particularly worrying player in this situation. The Solomon Islands the second biggest source of tropical logs to China, after Papua New Guinea, the large Asian nation requires no checks to ensure these imports are legal or sustainable.

As their investigation found these was a high risk that logging companies were not seeking permission from many local landowners or avoiding prohibited places, Global Witness concluded that some of the timber leaving these islands is likely illegally sourced.

Many nations including the UK require companies to check that timber has been harvested legally.

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While China is taking serious and positive steps to address environmental degradation and to reduce pollution and carbon emissions at home, it is overlooking an important aspect of its ecological footprint: the raw materials that it sources from abroad, said Ms Yin.

If China continues to buy its wood with no questions asked from the Solomon Islands it jeopardises its own business interests as well as efforts by its trading partners to improve governance, prevent environmental degradation, and mitigate climate change. It has the power and chance to make this change.

The group called on China to implement checks to ensure that timber is legal in its country of harvest, or risk causing major damage to the environment of the Solomon Island and losing a vital carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change.

The Independent has contacted the Chinese embassy for comment.Scientists have warned that an ancient forest widely considered the largest single living thing in the world is dying, despite efforts to preserve it.

The Pando aspen is an enormous expanse of 40,000 trees, all of which are clones with identical genetic compositions, meaning they are classified together as one individual.

Thought to be up to 80,000 years old, the colony known as the trembling giant is a contender for the oldest organism as well as the heaviest and largest.

In total the trees, which originate from a single underground parent clone, cover 43 hectares of Utahs Fishlake National Forest.

But in recent years a tragedy has been quietly unfurling. Despite their best efforts, scientists think this natural wonder that has lasted millennia may not survive a few decades of human interference.

While Pando has likely existed for thousands of years  we have no method of firmly fixing its age  it is now collapsing on our watch, said Professor Paul Rogers, an ecologist at Utah State University.

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

After analysing Pandos condition comprehensively, Professor Rogers and his colleague Professor Darren McAvoy examined a 72-year aerial photo sequence that revealed its steady decline.

The forest has gradually thinned as humans expanded into it, cutting down areas that have never properly recovered.

Additional pressure over the years has come from drought, and the intrusion of hungry deer into the forest that have hampered efforts to restore it.

After significant investment in protecting the iconic Pando clone, we were disappointed in this result, said Professor Rogers.

Early efforts to protect the forest from deer using fencing and allowing young shoots to grow showed some promise.

However, when these methods were expanded across a larger area they failed to prevent animals from getting in. Professor Rogers said deer appeared to be finding ways to either enter through weak points or somehow hopping the eight-foot barrier.

The results of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

In his role as director of the of the Western Aspen Alliance, Professor Rogers has seen the trends recorded in Pando playing out across the aspen forests of the western states.

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In addition to ecological values, Pando serves as a symbol of nature-human connectedness and a harbinger of broader species losses. Here, regionally, and indeed internationally, aspen forests support great biodiversity, he said.

This work further argues for mega-conservation as a departure from traditional individual species-habitat approaches.

It would be a shame to witness the significant reduction of this iconic forest when reversing this decline is realisable, should we demonstrate the will to do so.

As it has often proved difficult to measure the true extent of such enormous organisms, Pando has some contenders for the largest living thing  including massive fungi growing in Oregon and clonal colonies of underwater Neptune grass.Fashion fans are bracing themselves for one of the most comprehensive exhibitions for a single designer to date.

The Victoria and Albert Museum will host the largest Christian Dior retrospective to hit the UK in an exhibition which opens in February 2019.

In what is set to be an extensive celebration of the iconic designers life and work, the exhibit will feature a number of historic garments, such as a gown created for Princess Margarets 21st birthday celebrations in 1951.

Titled Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, the V&As exhibition will be a re-imagining of one held at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris last year.

A new section will be included, focusing on the couturiers love of British culture and his affinity with the royal family titled Dior in Britain.

Perou short evening dress from the autumn/winter 1954 Haute Couture collection, gifted to the V&A by Cecil Beaton. (Laziz Hamani/Victoria & Albert Museum) (Laziz Hamani/Victoria & Albert Museum)

In addition to more than 200 rare couture garments, roughly 500 objects said to have inspired the designer will be on display, including personal belongings, sketches, accessories and photographs.

It will delve into the archive of Dior items already held in possession at the V&A in addition to showcasing several more sought out by the exhibitions curator, Oriole Cullen.

In 1947, Christian Dior changed the face of fashion with his New Look, which redefined the female silhouette and reinvigorated the post-War Parisian fashion industry, says Cullen.

The influence of Diors design was all-pervasive and helped to define an era.

Princess Margaret (left), with the Duchess of Marlborough behind, presents Christian Dior with a scroll entitling him to Honorary Life Membership of the British Red Cross after the presentation of his Winter Collection at Blenheim Palace on 3 November 1954. (Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Bespoke gowns made for a number of high-profile clients, such as Nancy Mitford, will be on display, offering a unique insight into the period in which Dior himself was working.

A particular highlight will be the Bar Suit from Diors debut collection, which came out in 1947 and was a key part of his New Look aesthetic, and was hailed for being one of the first womenswear garments to put an emphasis on the natural curves of a womans silhouette.

Several well known fashion names have held the role of creative director at Dior prior to going on to found their own labels, such as John Galliano, Raf Simons and Yves Saint Laurent, who was Dior's immediate successor.

Garments from each of their respective eras will be included in the exhibition in a bid to reflect the ever-evolving Dior aesthetic.

The current creative director of the French label is Italian fashion designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, who was appointed in 2016, marking the first time a woman had been hired to lead the prestigious fashion house.

Model Camille Rowe wears Chiuri's popular 'We Should All Be Feminists' T-shirt (Rex Features)

Chiuri received widespread praise for bringing Dior into the contemporary sartorial sphere with her debut collection, which featured a T-shirt with the words We Should All Be Feminists splashed across in reference to a famous essay by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Several of her designs will feature in the V&A exhibition.

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams will run from 2 February to 14 July 2019.Jollibee, Asias biggest fast food chain, is opening its first ever UK branch in London this weekend.

The restaurant, which will open on 20 October, will be located in a former Wagamama outlet in Earls Court and is set to be only the second Jollibee branch in Europe after one launched in Milan earlier this year.

The chain first started as an ice cream parlour in Manila in 1975. Today, it serves up a fusion of US and Asian-inspired dishes including fried chicken with spaghetti covered in a red sauce and loaded with slices of hotdog and ground beef.

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Other things you can expect to see on the menu include Jollibees trademark Chicken Joy fried chicken, which comes with mushroom gravy and rice, as well as sides of mashed potato and fries.

Prices of meals have not yet been revealed but it is expected that they will be in line with those in US branches where chicken with rice costs $5.89 (4.43) and chicken with spaghetti is $6.29 (4.73).

While the menu might sound a little eclectic, foodies should find comfort in the fact that late TV chef Anthony Bourdain gave it a thumbs up.

During a trip to Manila to film scenes for his CNN series Parts Unknown, Bourdain described Jollibee as the jolliest place on earth.

The outspoken chef tucked in to the chains spaghetti with hotdogs and said that the dish was deranged yet strangely alluring.

A brand which has a devoted following in the Philippines, Jollibee boasts 1,200 stores worldwide and it is expected to launch a further 25 in Britain and 50 across Europe over the next five years.Mark Zuckerberg's strong control over Facebook has come under question after several high-profile investors called for him to step down as chairman of the company.

The shareholder proposal follows a series of controversies and scandals at the technology firm, including large-scale data breaches and accusations that the social network has become a platform for misinformation campaigns and political propaganda.

State and city treasurers from Illinois, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania joined the New York City Pension Funds and Trillium Asset Management in requesting the Facebook board of directors to make the role of chairman an independent position.

"Doing so is best governance practice that will be in the interest of shareholders, employees, users, and our democracy," the filing states.

How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Show all 9 1 /9 How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Lock your profile down If you havent done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Limit old posts Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on whos able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Make yourself harder to find You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. Its also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address. At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Control access to your Timeline You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Block people When you block someone, they wont be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately. You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means theyll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Review tags One of Facebooks handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts youre tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. Theyll still be visible on the News Feed while theyre fresh, but wont be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Clean up your apps You can view a list of all of the apps youve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. Its worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information. If you dont want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Change your ad preferences You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks youre into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so wed recommend doing this on a computer. How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you Download your data Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts youve shared, your messages and photos, ads youve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. Its a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.

The proposal cites Facebook's "mishandling" of "severe controversies," including how the social network was used to manipulate the 2016 US presidential elections through Russian troll farms, and the sharing of data with Chinese device manufacturers like Huawei.

According to the shareholders, Facebook's governance structure puts investors at risk and should fall in line with other major tech firms like Google, Microsoft and Apple in having separate CEO and chairperson roles.

"Facebook plays an outsized role in our society and our economy. They have a social and financial responsibility to be transparent  that's why we're demanding independence and accountability in the company's boardroom," said New York City Comnptroller Scott Stringer.

"An independent board chair is essential to moving Facebook forward from this mess, and to reestablish trust with Americans and investors alike."

The proposal will be put to a vote at the company's annual shareholder meeting in May 2019, however it will be largely symbolic due to the control that Mr Zuckerberg has over the company's board.

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Mr Zuckerberg's reign at Facebook has previously been compared to a dictatorship because he owns a majority of voting rights to the firm.

In an op-ed earlier this year, a member of the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), which holds shares in Facebook, called for the company to make changes to reflect its size.

"Facebook has grown at an unbelievable pace. The capital structure has changed and it is time for its governance to catch up," CalSTRS investment officer Aeisha Mastagni wrote in The Financial Times.

"Why does Mr Zuckerberg need [voting control]? Is it because he does not want governance to evolve with the rest of his company? If so, this American dream is now akin to a dictatorship."People who are selfish tend to have fewer children and lower salaries than those who are not, a new study reveals.

Researchers from the University of Stockholm are suggesting the concept that selfish people accrue more money thanks to their thrifty ways is nonsense after it found that people who engage in selfless behaviour are in fact more likely to receive a higher income and have larger families.

Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the study Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money focuses on selfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective.

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The results were based on analyses of four major studies of 60,000 Americans and Europeans, which measured selfishness through attitudes and reported behaviour.

In collaboration with the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, researchers at Stockholm University looked at how selfishness relates specifically to income and fertility.

It found that unselfish people tended to have higher fertility rates and higher incomes than selfish people, although the largest incomes were found among those classed as moderately unselfish.

The result is clear in both the American and the European data. The most unselfish people have the most children and the moderately unselfish receive the highest salaries, explains Kimmo Eriksson, study author and researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University.

The ten most generous celebrities Show all 11 1 /11 The ten most generous celebrities The ten most generous celebrities 1. Sir Elton John Getty Images The ten most generous celebrities 2. JK Rowling The ten most generous celebrities 3. David Beckham The ten most generous celebrities 4. Martin Lewis The ten most generous celebrities 5. Coldplay The ten most generous celebrities 6. Ringo Starr The ten most generous celebrities 7. Jamie Oliver The ten most generous celebrities 8. Rory Mcllroy The ten most generous celebrities 9. Colin Montgomerie The ten most generous celebrities 10. One Direction The ten most generous celebrities Joint 10. Brian May / Roger Taylor

And we also find this result over time  the people who are most generous at one point in time have the largest salary increases when researchers revisit them later in time."

The researchers also examined the expectations of people to see if they aligned with the data. The results showed that people generally have the correct expectation that selfish people have fewer children, but many incorrectly believed that selfish people will make more money.

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The authors believe that improved social relationships may be the key to generous peoples' success from an economic perspective, but note that their research does not definitely answer this question.

Future research will have to delve deeper into the reasons why generous people earn more, and look at whether the link between unselfishness, higher salaries and more children also exists in other parts of the world, says co-author Brent Simpson of University of South Carolina.

And it is of course debatable how unselfish it really is to have more children.

This isnt the first time the connection between wealth and selfishness has been investigated.

Last year, a study by the University of California found that people with lower incomes tend to find happiness in other people, through feelings of love and compassion, while rich people find theirs in more self-involved traits, such as pride.Banks will begin checking that names on transfers match the account and warn customers if their is a discrepancy, in a move designed to stop fraud.

Currently, lenders only check the account number and sort code for bank transfers, making it easier for fraudsters to convince customers to transfer money by saying the account belongs to a trustworthy company.

Banks have been accused of dragging their feet on the change, which consumer groups say is relatively simple to implement.

The "confirmation of payee" system should be rolled out in 2019 and is designed to help combat a rise in so-called advanced push payment (APP) fraud.

In this type of scam, consumers are convinced to transfer money, unaware that the destination account belongs to a fraudster.

APP fraud cost UK consumers 145m in the first half of 2018 - money which they may not be compensated for because they authorised the payment.

Under the new system, when someone is setting up a new payment, their bank will notify them whether or not the name matches that of the account owner.

If the name doesn't match, it is up to the sender to decide whether or not to proceed with the payment. The risks will be made clear to them beforehand.

Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert welcomed the change but questioned why banks have "dragged their heels and not implemented this system years ago".

He added: With losses to bank transfer fraud increasing drastically it's clear this measure can't come in soon enough.

While we await its introduction, it's crucial that an agreement is reached on the funding mechanism to reimburse all victims of bank transfer fraud who have been left out of pocket through no fault of their own.

Alongside these changes, a new industry code is being developed which could help victims of APP fraud get their money back.

Customers were scammed out of 503.4m between January and June, according to the finance industrys own research, published last month.

Favoured methods include duping victims into paying in advance for a product or service that doesnt exist or impersonating a trusted organisation such as the police, UK Finance found.

Sums involved can be significant, with an average loss in a police and bank impersonation scam of 11,402. This is known as authorised fraud because the victim has mistakenly given permission for the transfer.

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Paul Horlock, chief executive of payments regulator Pay.UK, said: Sending a payment with an incorrect sort code or account number is like addressing a letter with the wrong postcode.

Even if you have used the correct name it won't reach the intended destination - and fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated in using this to trick people into sending money to the wrong account."

Someone who makes a payment despite being told the name does not match may risk not being judged not to have taken due care - potentially making it more likely they will never see their money again.Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a 39-year-old mother with two children, was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the state". Friends express joy online for her release: "After numerous efforts, the family has gathered in a free country". Since 2016, activists and bloggers have been the targets of a government campaign against dissent. At present there are 129 political prisoners arrested for criticizing or protesting against the communist regime.

Hanoi (AsiaNews) - After two years in prison, the Vietnamese authorities have ordered the release of the well-known Catholic dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, on condition that the activist moves to the United States of America.

Known as "Me Nam" (Mother Mushroom), the 39-year-old mother of two had been arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of "propaganda against the state". The detention of the popular blogger, engaged on fronts such as human rights and industrial pollution, has attracted the criticism and appeals of some Western governments and international groups of activists.

The blogger's friends expressed joy online for her release. Nguyen Tin announces that "after numerous efforts, the family of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh has gathered in a free country". The pro-democracy groups, however, remember the many dissidents are still prisoners in the prisons of the communist regime.

Last July, well-known human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai and colleague Le Thu Ha were freed and forced into exile in Germany, about two months after a harsh sentence for "activities aimed at overthrowing the state ". On 5 April, Dai had been sentenced to 15 years in prison and five years of house arrest, while he was nine years in prison.

According to a report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) last February there are currently 129 political prisoners , in the country of Southeast Asia arrested for criticizing or protesting against the communist regime; accusations rejected by Hanoi, according to which there are no prisoners for crimes of opinion, but only criminals punished for violating the law. Vietnam occupies one of the lowest steps in the world for freedom of the press: according to the index published in 2017 by the NGO Reporters Without Borders, it is ranked 175 out of 180 countries.

Since 2016, activists and bloggers have been the targets of a government campaign against dissent. Opponents of the regime suffer daily harassment, intimidation, police surveillance and interrogation and are subjected to long periods of prior detention without access to lawyers or family members. Even the Catholic community has paid the price for its commitment. The harsh sentences sent to Catholic activists are frequent, as evidenced by the recent cases Nguyen Van Oai (five years in prison), Tran Thi Nga (nine) and Nguyen Van Hoa (seven).The global trading system could be plunged into crisis and millions of jobs lost unless politicians take steps to ease tensions simmering between many major economies, the World Trade Organisation has warned.

Roberto Azevedo, director-general of the WTO, said in a speech in London: Without action to ease tensions and recommit to cooperation in trade, we could see serious harm done to the multilateral trading system.

He added: The long-term economic consequences of this could be severe. These effects would cause significant disruptions for workers, firms and communities as they adjust to this new reality.

Potentially, millions of workers would need to find new jobs; firms would be looking for new products and markets; and communities for new sources of growth.

Mr Azevedo did not refer directly to the trade dispute between China and the US, but the WTO has in the past warned escalating tension between the two nations is a threat to the global economy.

Donald Trump recently imposed sanctions on $200bn (153bn) worth of Chinese goods, having previously slapped 25 per cent tariffs on $50bn worth of imports from China. Beijing has retaliated in kind, imposing levies on US goods including soybeans.

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Mr Trump has said tariffs are necessary to compel China to change what he describes as unfair practices concerning US intellectual property and technology.

In July, Mr Azevedo said the continued escalation of theUS-China trade war poses a serious threat to growth and recovery in all countries, and we are beginning to see this reflected in some forward-looking indicators.

Meanwhile, a report by the WTO stated: At a juncture where the global economy is finally beginning to generate sustained economic momentum following the global financial crisis, the uncertainty created by a proliferation of trade-restrictive actions could place economic recovery in jeopardy.Scores of drugs just months away from approval for use by British patients  including breakthrough treatments for depression and cancer  could be delayed indefinitely by Brexit, The Independent can reveal.

Manufacturers who have pending European licences have been told they will have to reapply to the UKs medicines watchdog if their products have not been approved at the time of Brexit unless a deal is struck on drugs regulation.

As of 28 September there were more than 70 drugs awaiting approval, including a cutting-edge skin cancer immunotherapy, a cannabis-based treatment for childhood epilepsy, and new antibiotics.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labours shadow health and social care secretary, said: NHS bosses admitted this week they are having sleepless nights over what Brexit will mean for access to medicines. Now we find out that unless ministers get a grip, patients could wait longer and longer for life-saving treatments because of Brexit chaos. No one put that on the side of a bus.

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The UKs Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said in the event of a no deal it hoped to be able to use the work already completed by the European agency.

However, it was unable to give guarantees that there would not be some delays or additional costs for companies which reapply, though it would try to streamline the process.

The Belgian pharmaceutical company Janssen  part of Johnson and Johnson  produces two of the drugs in the list that have the most excitement surrounding them.

One, a game-changing ketamine-derived nasal spray, has the potential to relieve severe depression and suicidal thoughts within hours, in patients who are resistant to first and second-choice treatments.

There were 2,944 patients admitted with recurrent depressive disorders in the UK in 2016, and this accounted for nearly 162,000 NHS bed days.

Clinical trials have shown the effects of the esketamine  part of the recreational drugs molecule  spray,last much longer than conventional treatments, and act in hours rather than days.

Oxford University professor Rupert McShane, who has pioneered ketamine-assisted treatment and sits on Janssens advisory board, told The Independent: We badly need better therapies for treatment resistant depression.

We badly need better therapies Professor Rupert McShane

The number of people who could benefit is large. Exactly how large will depend on where it is positioned in the care pathway, if it is routine third-line therapy then the number could potentially be very large.

Janssen is also seeking a European license for the prostate cancer drug apalutamide.

Trial results earlier this year showed apalutamide was able to stop the disease from spreading for three years in men whose tumours had stopped responding to treatment, double the current standard treatment.

Prostate cancer kills more than 11,000 men in the UK every year, and around 10,000 are thought to be living with advanced forms of the disease.

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

At the time of apalutamides final trial results, Professor Malcolm Mason from Cancer Research UK said the findings very welcome as there are limited options for these men and delaying the disease spreading may also increase survival.

Janssen told The Independent the MHRA has suggested it will be able to use some of the work done by the EMA if the company reapplies. For ongoing licence applications, where the decision phase has not been reached by the EMA, we would need to resubmit our application to the MHRA, a spokesperson said.

The MHRAs intention is to complete any assessment that they take over mid-process, aligning with the EMAs assessment to date.

However, there are no guarantees that data will automatically be handed over.

Speaking to the House of Commons on Exiting the European Union Committee earlier in October, Mike Thompson, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said:

He told MPs: In a no deal we do not have the agreements that we have in the withdrawal agreement with the regulator, and therefore the transfer of information between the two regulators is at some risk.

Orphaned drugs The problems are particularly stark for small manufacturers or those making so-called orphan drugs for rare conditions where there isnt a large market to offset the costs of licensing and developing drugs. British based GW Pharmaceuticals has been doing extensive planning with the MHRA and other government bodies to minimise disruption for its cannabis-derived childhood epilepsy treatment, epidiolex. The drug is currently pending a European license but the cut off for its decision falls close to the 29 March date set for Britain to quit the EU, though its hopeful of getting it confirmed before April. The assessment of the companys new pharmaceutical, plant-derived and highly purified formulation of cannabidiol oral solution (CBD) by the EMA is ongoing and recently passed day 120 in the EMAs review, Chris Tovey, chief operating office at the company said. Engagement with these bodies has been productive and we are carefully exploring with them what would happen in the event of a no-deal scenario and GWs CBD not already having received its European approval decision. We are also awaiting a discussion with the EMA on this scenario.

Even if there is a smooth handover, it is likely there could easily be delays to the process as the MHRA tries to get to grips with its new responsibilities.

Some manufacturers may also not immediately reapply to have their medicines approved by the UK  a significantly smaller market than the EU.

The application process costs hundreds of thousands of pounds and can nearly a year from the process once the evidence review begins  with up to 18 months in the pre-submission process.

 Matt Hancock talks about stockpiling of blood products in the event of a no deal Brexit

Evidence reviews can take up to 210 days for the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use to review the scientific evidence and give a recommendation, after which the European Commission has 67 days to approve it.

Currently licensing a single medication costs a minimum of 286,900 (251,855) and spending a similar amount for the UKs population is likely to put off some manufacturers.

This is compounded by the fact that there is no guarantee a drug will be offered by the NHS, which assesses medicines based on cost-effectiveness instead of just safety and performance grounds.

An MHRA spokesperson said the government remains confident it will strike a deal with the EU to help ensure patients continue to have timely access to safe medicines.

The agency told The Independent that where medicines have passed the evidence review stage, it will be able to give an opinion in lieu of the European Commission; where the evidence review is not finished, it will try to use the work already done.

We do not want or expect a no deal. However, it is the duty of a responsible government to continue to prepare for a range of potential outcomes including the unlikely event of no deal, it added.

Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, we will continue to ensure that UK patients are able to access the best and most innovative medicines and be assured that their safety is protected.Boris Johnson seems to have forged a career out of saying the unsayable. Recently, the former foreign secretary upset people by suggesting that Muslim women who wear a face veil resemble bank robbers and letter boxes, prompting demands even from fellow Conservatives for him to apologise. Yet Johnsons supporters rapidly presented him as some kind of free speech martyr.

Boris is offering himself in sacrifice on the altar of freedom of speech, proclaimed the MP Andrea Jenkyns, without irony.

The comedian Rowan Atkinson, now sadly fully transformed from Blackadder to Johnny English, came to the battlements to defend the freedom to make jokes about religion.A persons genes have a significant impact on everything from which university they attend to how well they do when they get there, according to a new study.

Researchers at Kings College London analysed thousands of study participants to unpick the contribution DNA and other factors, such as home life, make to higher education success.

After previous work by the group revealed a genetic influence on GCSE results, they say this is the first study to show a similar effect later in life.

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The researchers found 57 per cent of the differences between peoples A-level results were determined by genes, with 46 per cent of achievements at university also dependent on their DNA.

The rest of the variation in results can be put down to students environments  everything from parents wealth to the quality of an individuals schooling.

Besides exam results, genetics also appear to steer students desire to pursue a university education in the first place  with roughly half of the decision to go to university guided by DNA.

Dr Emily Smith-Woolley, who led the study, said the findings should have implications for students and teachers.

World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 Show all 11 1 /11 World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 1 The University of Oxford holds the top spot globally for the second year in a row Getty World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 2 The University of Cambridge jumps to second from fourth place in 2017 thanks to a perceived improvement in teaching quality Andrew Dunn World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 =3 Beaten by Cambridge this year, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) falls to third Canon.vs.nikon World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 =3 Stanford University ties in third place with Caltech King of Hearts World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 5 Massachusetts Institute of Technology - the private research institute in Cambridge, US, retains its position in 5th place Madcoverboy World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 6 Harvard University remains in 6th place for another year Wikipedia World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 7 Princeton University retains 7th place for 2018 Quantockgoblin World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 8 Imperial College London retains its position as 8th best in the world, according to the rankings Vinceesq World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 9 The University of Chicago rises one place this year to ninth Ibrahim Old World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 =10 ETH Zurich  Swiss Federal Institute of Technology falls to joint 10th place Roland zh World University Rankings 2018: The top 10 =10 The University of Pennsylvania makes a surprise entry into the top 10 this year, jumping forward three places WestCoastivieS

Knowing that the difference between us in our university achievement is partly due to genetics is interesting and important, anyway, she told The Independent.

But from a teaching perspective, you dont expect your students to all get it straight away  some will struggle, some will find things difficult, and its important to know that is not all to do with environment. People start off in different places.

The scientists came to their conclusions by studying 3,000 pairs of British twins  identical and non-identical.

Identical twins are 100 per cent genetically identical, they are clones of one another, so they share all their DNA and they share a home environment  so any differences between identical twins cant be due to their home environment, cant be due to their genes, said Dr Smith-Woolley.

Comparing identical and non-identical pairs of twins enabled researchers to measure the overall impact of genetics on how much people differ when it comes to measures such as exam scores.

If identical twins exam scores are more alike than non-identical twins, it is an indication genetic factors are driving that success.

Using Complete University Guide rankings to determine institution quality, the scientists also found the quality of university that students opted for was influenced by genes, even after accounting for A-level achievement.

Besides their twin study  which is not able to identify specific genes linked to achievement  researchers also calculated polygenic scores, adding up the effects of thousands of DNA variants previous studies have linked to success in education.

The resulting scores accounted for a small fraction of the differences between people, compared to the results of the twin study  an effect the scientists think results from the small number of genes so far linked with educational achievement.

We found that, at the moment, polygenic [scores] showed up to 5 per cent of the individual differences in university success measures, said Dr Smith-Woolley.

Thats fairly small at the moment  but I think it shows that science is getting to the point where it can start predicting outcomes from DNA alone.

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The results were published in the Scientific Reports journal.

Dr David Hill, a statistical geneticist at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study, said the research was sound, but perhaps not surprising.

Scientists think most behaviours are probably the results of a complex interaction between genes and peoples environments.

Considering previous research that has demonstrated the way in which educational success appears to be inherited within families, he said it was already clear there is a genetic component.

I dont really think anyone would expect there to not be a genetic influence acting on university success, he said, given that all traits are expected to be somewhat heritable, and we already know that educational success, intelligence, personality, and whether or not one chooses to take university entrance exams and how well they do at them, have all been shown to be heritable.A British-built spacecraft is about to blast off to Mercury.

The BepiColombo ship will fly five billion miles to the planet that is closest to our sun.

The scientists behind it hope that it can help solve some of the mysteries that hang over the distant world. It might, for instance, contain water ice, hidden in shadows on its otherwise blazing hot surface, scientists speculate  a discovery that could help shed light on the possibility of alien life in our own solar system.

It will also look to explain why the planet has such as huge iron core at its centre, and unlock the history of the vast volcanic vents that shook its surface for billions of years.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427  more commonly known as WR 124  and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead  sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later  having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

BepiColombo is due to blast off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 2.45am UK time on Saturday October 20.

The four-tonne craft will be carried into space by a heavy lift Ariane 5, the European Space Agency's most powerful rocket.

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It will then immediately begin a complex journey that will take seven years.

At its destination, BepiColumbo will deploy two orbiters, one European and the other Japanese, to circle the planet for up to two years.

The spacecraft is fitted with futurist ion plasma engines, designed and built in the UK, which emit beams of electrically charged xenon gas.

The spacecraft BepiColombo is seen at the European Space Agency's (ESA) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, Netherlands (REUTERS/Michael Kooren)

It is the first time the technology has been used on a major interplanetary mission. Smaller craft have previously employed ion thrusters to reach asteroids and the moon.

The ion drive will be used not to accelerate the spacecraft but to act as a brake as it falls into the grip of the sun's powerful gravity.

A complex series of fly-bys past the Earth, Venus and Mercury will further reduce its velocity.

Even so, BepiColumbo will reach a top speed of 60 kilometres (37 miles) per second.

The European Space Agency's Mercury Planet Orbiter (MPO), which will survey the planet's surface and probe its chemistry, was built by satellite company Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage.

Airbus also constructed the power unit carrying the orbiters, the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), in the UK. The ion thrusters were supplied by British defence technology company QinetiQ.

One of the European orbiter's 11 instruments, the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (Mixs) was designed and built at the University of Leicester.

The Japanese space agency Jaxa's Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO) will study the planet's internal structure and enveloping magnetic field.

A major challenge for mission planners was ensuring the spacecraft could withstand searing temperatures of more than 350C so close to the sun.

Protective measures include a heat shield, novel ceramic and titanium insulation, ammonia-filled "heat pipes", and in the case of the Japanese orbiter, spinning.

Dr Graham Turnock, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: "UK scientists, engineers and technicians have played a vital role in developing BepiColombo and the incredibly sophisticated set of scientific instruments on board.

"The international collaboration involved in this mission shows how our leading role in the European Space Agency is ensuring the UK thrives in the new space age, bringing real benefits to UK companies and scientists."

Only two spacecraft have previously visited Mercury. Nasa's Mariner 10 flew past the planet three times in 1974-75 and the American space agency's Messenger probe orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, taking photos of the surface.

Dr Jerry Bolter, project manager at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, said: "The scientists describe Messenger as the hors d'oeuvre and Bepi as

the main course."

The spacecraft was named after the late Guiseppe "Bepi" Colombo, an Italian scientist and engineer who played a leading role in the 1974 Mariner 10 mission to Mercury.

Paolo Ferri, head of missions at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, said: "Mercury is a planet of extremes, and getting there requires some equally extreme techniques, navigation solutions and operations expertise."

Additional reporting by Press AssociationPolice are bracing for a fresh spike in hate crime when Britain leaves the EU in March.

Officers fear a repeat of the wave of xenophobic attacks around the 2016 Brexit referendum, which saw numerous physical and verbal assaults on European citizens, including a student who was stabbed in the neck for speaking Polish.

Superintendent Waheed Khan, the Metropolitan Polices deputy lead for hate crime, said officers would be carrying out proactive work with community groups and awareness campaigns in an attempt to deter potential offenders.

After what happened with the EU referendum we would expect some kind of response in March, whatever the outcome of Brexit, he told journalists.

We will do what we can to provide support to community groups, and make sure people know that hate crime will be reported and it will be acted on.

The EU referendum was the biggest spike in hate crime on record in England and Wales, and was surpassed only in the wake of last years terror attacks.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there was an increase in these types of offences around the time of the EU referendum, the Home Office said. Around this time there was a clear spike in hate crime.

Maike Bohn, a founding member of EU citizens group the3million, said it had received reports of hate crime and wider discrimination.

Number of racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police by month, April 2013 to March 2018 (Home Office)

Some of it is very subtle and some of it is people being yelled at on a bus, she told The Independent last year.

I would never compare whats happening to fellow EU citizens to whats happening to other minorities  they are the main victims.

But what is clear to me that during the referendum and afterwards everything has been lumped together  refugees, Muslims, people who are not us coming here.

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Thats been the rhetoric of Vote Leave and the current government has allowed this to happen.

A damning report released last year accused the government of fuelling toxic anti-immigrant sentiment just as it emerged that ministers have for years vastly overestimated the number of foreign students staying in Britain.

The inquiry from a cross-party group of politicians said Theresa Mays discredited target of cutting net migration to under 100,000 was particularly to blame for stoking anxiety that has accompanied unprecedented hate crime following the Brexit vote.

Calling on fellow politicians to tone down their language, the group warned that rhetoric used during the EU referendum led some people to feel they could act on racist attitudes which had previously gone unexpressed.

The phenomenon has increased yet further in 2017-18, with religiously-motivated offences rocketing by 40 per cent, transgender by 32 per cent, disability by 30 per cent, sexual orientation by 27 per cent, and race 14 per cent.

Police and monitoring groups believe that social media is also fuelling the crimes, while the statistical increase is also being driven by improved reporting and recording practices.

Brexit racism and the fightback Show all 9 1 /9 Brexit racism and the fightback Brexit racism and the fightback Demonstrators protest against an increase in post-ref racism at London's March for Europe in July 2016 PA Brexit racism and the fightback These cards were found near a school in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, the day after the EU referendum Twitter/@howgilb Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback Romford, Essex, June 25 @diamondgeezer Brexit racism and the fightback A worker at this Romanian food shop was asleep upstairs at the time of this arson attack in Norwich on July 8, but escaped unharmed. Hundreds later participated in a love bombing rally outside the shop to express their opposition to racism and their support of the shop owners. JustGiving/Helen Linehan Brexit racism and the fightback This neo-Nazi sticker was spotted in Glasgow on June 26 Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback But after news emerged of neo-Nazi stickers appearing in Glasgow, some in the city struck back with slogans of their own. Courtesy of Eoin Palmer Brexit racism and the fightback Getty Brexit racism and the fightback More signs began to appear in some parts of the UK, created by people who wanted to show their opposition to post-referendum racism Courtesy of Bernadette Russell

Phil Adlem, of LGBT+ anti-violence charity Galop, said the algorithms used by web giants can trap people in extremist echo chambers.

If it knows you like something it sends more stuff your way and that has a snowball effect on hate, he said.

Dr Dave Rich, head of policy for Jewish charity the Community Security Trust, said: Social media gives people the confidence to be incredibly rude and aggressive on the street, in a way I think people become desensitised to it because they see it happening so much online.

Louise Holder, of disability equality group Inclusion London, added: The concern we have is the links between ordinary people and groups stirring them up.

There has always been hate crime, there have always been people who dont like people who look different. But social media creating an atmosphere where people might have thought something but wouldnt do anything about it, and now they will.

Hate crime is not an offence in itself, but is used to describe other crimes motivated by hostility or prejudice towards someone based on a personal characteristic, such as attacks and vandalism.

Violence against the person, public order offences, criminal damage and arson made up 96 per cent of hate crime-flagged offences. There were 1,065 online hate crimes in the year.

Nationality or xenophobia is not a specific category for data collection but guidance released by the College of Policing said crimes driven by a victims perceived national or ethnic origin should be recorded as race hate, as should attacks targeting asylum seekers and refugees.

The overall conviction rate for hate crimes has increased to 84.7 per cent, but only a small proportion of reported incidents  12 per cent  end with someone being charged or summonsed to court.

The government has announced a wide-ranging review of hate crime laws, which will consider whether to add new protected characteristics including age and gender.A hero father died after trying to save his neighbours from the Grenfell Tower fire, his son has told the public inquiry into the blaze.

Saber Neda, 57, stayed behind on the night of the fire to help four women secure wet towels over their faces to protect them from the smoke, Farhad Neda said.

Sabers body was later found on the ground outside the tower, after the 57-year-old jumped to escape the inferno.

Farhad, now 26, survived the fire along with his disabled mother, who he carried from their 23rd floor flat to safety through dense smoke.

As flames raced up the 24-storey building in the early hours of 14 June last year, residents on lower floors climbed up to the 23rd floor, which was the highest level that included flats.

The Neda family took in four women, who said they had been told there was no way out down the stairs, Farhad said.

They hoped to be rescued by helicopter from the top of the building, but the door to the 24th floor  needed to access the roof  was locked, according to his statement.

The group initially followed firefighters advice to stay inside the Nedas flat, but realised no one was coming to rescue us after the fire broke into the apartment, Farhad said.

I grabbed my mum and I shouted to my dad: We need to leave now, he said.

Farhad and his mother, Flora Neda, 55, used wet towels to cover their mouths, while his father helped their four neighbours.

The last vision I have of him was my father getting the ladies and himself ready to face that thick, black smoke, he said.

Dad was a hero, to my mind. He could have come with us, at that moment. However, he did not leave those women who were distressed and needed help in our flat.

He died trying to save their lives, he gave them hope and encouragement. He was calm and he did not panic.

Farhad said that when he and his mother left the flat, it was pitch black and thick with smoke.

They felt their way over to the staircase, where he decided he needed to carry his mother, who has mobility problems due to a muscular disease.

I got my mum to put her hands and arms around my shoulders, so that I took her body weight across my back and shoulders, he said in his statement.

I then started to carry and drag her down the stairwell in order to save our lives. I told her not to let go of me.

I was sure that if she did let go and came off my back then we would lose each other, as it was completely black and dark with smoke, and there would be no way of finding one another again.

Flora wanted to turn back to find her partner, but I knew if we went back we would all die as it was so hard to breathe, Farhad said.

My mum was calling out for my dad to make sure he was behind us but we could not hear his voice.

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Farhad and his mother were stepping and tripping over dead bodies as they made their way down the buildings single staircase, he said.

All the people on the stairs were dead or laying down, about to die.

We were unable to help anyone as we were seriously struggling to keep ourselves alive.

The sounds from the people who were dying will never leave me. I could not do anything to help them as I had to carry mum and try and stay alive.

I can still hear the sounds of people desperately struggling to breathe. It sounded like they were snoring, as they choked for their last remaining gasps of air in that incredibly hot and toxic environment. It was a nightmare.

Having his mother with him helped him keep going, Farhad said, adding: I knew if I stopped she and I would die.

The pair eventually made it out of the tower and were taken to hospital, where doctors placed Farhad in an induced coma for a day and a half.

Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Show all 18 1 /18 Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Kitchen in flat 16 where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 ReutersGrenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Hallway in flat 16, leading to the kitchen where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Toilet in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom 2 of flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Bedroom 2 of flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/Reuters Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began The kitchen from flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Kitchen in flat 16 where the fire started Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Door to flat 16 from the lobby on floor 4 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Living room in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA Grenfell Tower Inquiry: photos of inside the flat where fire began Hallway in flat 16 Grenfell Tower Inquiry/PA

Several days after the blaze, Farhad learned his father and the four women who sought refuge in his familys flat were among the 71 people killed by the fire.

During commemorative hearings in May, the inquiry was played a voicemail message left by Saber in which he said: Goodbye. We are now leaving this world, goodbye. I hope I havent disappointed you.

Farhad received the message some weeks after his fathers death, he said.

Asked by first counsel to the inquiry Richard Millett QC if he had anything to add to his evidence, Farhad said: I feel that the residents were fatally let down.

I was on several occasions told that they were on their way to get us. I feel that this was false hope.

I feel that its this false hope which prevented quite a number of people from escaping that night.

 Grenfell Tower Inquiry survivor blames 'stay put' policy for deaths of residents: 'I want justice'

The inquiry also received a written statement from Ahmed Elgwahry, who was on the phone to his mother, Eslah Elgwahry, and sister, Mariem Elgwahry, when they succumbed to the smoke.

The bodies of the mother and daughter, aged 64 and 27, were later found side by side inside the Nedas apartment  number 205.

Mr Elgwahry recalled waking up in the early hours to several missed calls from his sister.

He raced from his house in Hendon, north London, to the foot of the Kensington tower where he telephoned his sister and urged her to leave her flat, but she said the smoke was too thick.

She started coughing, Mr Elgwahry said in his written statement.

Mariem Elgwahry was 27 years old when she died in the Grenfell Tower fire

I could hear more people coughing, and I said, Dont talk Mariem, just stay with me. Then she didnt say anything, she just started coughing, and coughing for less than a minute, it was so quick.

Then she started mumbling and I started panicking, I said Mariem are you still there? She just started like humming, like deep humming because she could no longer speak.

He asked her to bang something to show him she was still conscious, which she did a number of times.

But, then the mumbling, humming stopped, and then she stopped responding, Mr Elgwahry said.

Then I heard my mum for the first time, I heard her voice ... she just said in Arabic I cant breathe, I cant breathe. She sounded so desperate.

I didnt hear her again. She was gone.

Between five and 10 minutes later, Mr Elgwahry said he heard a crackling noise, followed by the sound of the windows breaking and pots and pans falling.

The public probe into the Grenfell disaster has been hearing evidence from survivors, the bereaved and various members of the north Kensington community at Holborn Bars in central London.

The hearings will resume on Monday 29 October.Takeaway outlets with a zero rating for hygiene are routinely listed on Just Eat, the popular food ordering app, a new investigation has revealed.

Half of food businesses with zero ratings from the Food Standards Agency in Manchester, Bristol and London are included on the platform.

In total, 20 out of 31 takeaway shops listed on the app in Birmingham were found by a BBC investigation to have zero ratings. Nine out of 13 outlets with the rating were included in Liverpool.

The company said in a statement that it took the issue of food hygiene "very seriously".

Just Eat includes a link to the Food Standards Agency website for each listed outlet at the bottom of its menu and also on its information page. But it does not display the hygiene rating for each individual restaurant.

A spokesperson said in a statement that the company will "soon be launching a trial to display food hygiene ratings on our platform across Northern Ireland".

"We actively work to raise standards, for example we now offer free accredited food hygiene training and certification to any restaurant that signs up to our platform," it added.

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Local authorities bear the responsibility for inspecting food outlets and each is given a food hygiene rating ranging from zero to five in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Outlets with the top rating are considered to have "very good" food hygiene, but those rated zero are "in need of urgent improvement".

Restaurants in Wales and Northern Ireland are required to display their ratings prominently but in England such a display is not compulsory.

However, many outlets still choose to share their score.

"Whenever any potential food safety issues are brought to our attention our restaurant compliance team will review, investigate and liaise with the relevant local authority and Environmental Health Officers," a spokesperson from Just Eat said.

The company has had a strong 2018 and beat market expectations in the first quarter of the year, in which it reported revenue of 177m.

Just Eat received 29.7 million food orders in that period, including 1.4 million through Hungry House, which the company bought last year.The European Unions two most senior officials have said any UK request for an extension to the Brexit transition period would be considered positively and likely be accepted.

Commission president Jean Claude Juncker said that a longer transition was probable while council president Donald Tusk pointed out that a two-year period had already been accepted in principle by the 27 EU countries.

It comes after Theresa May signalled on Thursday that she would consider extending the transition to allow more time for UK and EU negotiators to solve problems around post-Brexit relations, in particular on the Irish border.

Recommended Brexit uncertainty hampering British import and export businesses

Speaking at the end of a summit in Brussels, Mr Juncker said: This prolongation of the transition period probably will happen, its a good idea.

Its not the best idea, the two of us, that weve had, but I think that this is giving us some room to prepare the future relationship in the best way possible.

Mr Tusk pointed out that a longer transition had not been discussed by the leaders of the EU 27 countries at the summit in Brussels.

But he went on: Let me recall that in her Florence speech in September 2017 Prime Minister May proposed a transition period of around two years, and the EU accepted this proposal unanimously.

Therefore if the UK decided that an extension of the transition would be helpful to reach a deal, Im sure the leaders would be ready to consider this positively.

Speaking directly after the two leaders, however, Theresa May appeared to simultaneously suggest she was open and not open to extending the transition period as a solution to the Northern Ireland border issue.

We negotiated that the implementation period would end at the end of December 2020, she told reporters at her own press conference.

What has now emerged is the idea that an option to extend the implementation period could be a further solution to this issue of the backstop in Northern Ireland. What we are not doing  we are not standing here proposing an extension to the implementation period.

What we are doing is working to ensure we have a solution the backstop in Northern Ireland, which is currently a blockage to completing the deal, that enables us to get on with completing the deal that delivers on the vote of the British people and is good for the future of the UK.

Ms Mays cryptic answer could be a response to disquiet in her party about the plans. The period  during which the UK would stay completely tied to EU rules without any say on them  is hugely unpopular with Brexiteers, who believe it would make Britain a vassal state of the bloc.

On Wednesday evening Antonio Tajani, the European Parliament president, told reporters the prime minister had mentioned the idea of an extension of a transition period as one possibility that is on the table and would be looked into in a meeting with him and the 27 EU leaders.

Other Brussels sources confirmed to The Independent that the PM had also raised the policy in bilateral meetings with top EU officials, and that British negotiators had been sounding out the possibility of extending it in negotiations for months.

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

At the close of the meeting, chief negotiator Michel Barnier said any Brexit must include a solid, all-weather backstop  a signal a longer transition could not be a replacement for agreeing a backstop.

The transition period as currently negotiated would begin when Britain leaves the EU on 29 March 2019 and continue until the first day of 2021. During it practically nothing would change for the UK  Britain would continue to implement all EU law, stay in the single market and customs union and under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

The UK would however not be represented in EU institutions like the parliament, council, and commission and would therefore have no say in drawing up the rules.

A further idea that has emerged  and it is an idea at this stage  is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months  and it would only be for a matter of months, the prime minister told reporters on the summits doorstep as she arrived on Thursday morning. Close Theresa May 'losing confidence of colleagues' after Brexit U-turn, says Conservative MP Nick Boles

Theresa May has faced fury from Tory MPs after she opened the door to extending the Brexit transition period by a year, keeping Britain tied to the EU up to the end of 2021.

Former minister Nick Boles, who voted Remain, said the plan was a "desperate last move" and the prime minister was losing the confidence of colleagues from all sides.

The backlash came as Ms May and European leaders gave press conferences, after a key EU summit broke up without a Brexit deal.

If you want to follow the events as they happened, see our live coverage belowAngry senior Tories have accused Theresa May of going back on her pledge to allow a proper meaningful vote on any Brexit deal and vowed to fight the move.

Ken Clarke and Dominic Grieve spoke out after the government said MPs should only be allowed to accept or reject the agreement  with no amendments allowed.

The stance appears a clear U-turn on a pledge  revealed by The Independent  that the vote would not be a take-it-or-leave-it choice, because parliament can always seek to amend motions.

Recommended Theresa May admits longer Brexit transition period being considered

In April, then-Brexit minister Steve Baker suggested MPs would be able to bring forward an amendment requiring a fresh referendum on the outcome of the talks.

Dominic Grieve, the former Conservative attorney general, said he was astonished by the switch, revealed by Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, in a letter to the Commons procedure committee.

Its about honesty, because one way of reading this is to suggest that the government is trying to renege on clear assurances that were given at the time, he said.

Ken Clarke, the former chancellor, said the government got defeated the last time they tried to restrict the meaningful vote, adding: They wont get away with it. Parliament is going to insist on using its proper authority.

And Keir Starmer, Labours shadow Brexit secretary, said: Labour doesnt accept that the choice facing parliament will be between whatever deal Theresa May cobbles together or no deal.

People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS

That is not a meaningful vote and Ministers cant be allowed to silence parliament. MPs must be given the opportunity to scrutinise, consider and, where appropriate, amend any resolution the government puts forward.

The controversy comes as hundreds of thousands of people prepare to march in central London this Saturday to demand a Peoples Vote referendum.

The Independent has been running its own Final Say campaign to demand the referendum, with more than 860,000 people having signed its petition so far.

In April, asked whether the motion on the Brexit deal would be amendable, Mr Baker replied: I believe the position is that parliament can always seek to amend motions.

And he suggested MPs would be able to impose a referendum, or seek to change the nature of the deal, which might send the prime minister back to the negotiating table.

Clearly, the range of amendments that is possible is within the bounds of the imagination of all members of parliament, Mr Baker told the committee.

But, in his letter, Mr Raab Once the deal is presented to parliament, the procedure through which it is voted upon must allow for an unequivocal decision, and one which is clear to the British public.

A six-page memorandum suggested amendments would only be accepted if the main motion passed first. If the motion fell, the amendments might only be considered points of view.

The letter also warned: Amendments  even those which may not intend to affect approval  may actually result in the government being unable to ratify the withdrawal agreement.

It is important, however, to recognise the need ultimately for the House to consider the question that is in reality before the UK  whether or not to accept the deal that the government has negotiated with the EU.Energy minister Claire Perry has been accused of making a muddled case for fracking in the UK,

Ms Perry spoke out in support of the controversial fossil fuel technology, claiming shale gas extraction was needed to ensure the country is not dependent on gas from Russia.

However, this appears to contradict previous statements she made, which saw her claim that Britain was in no way reliant on Russian gas.

Recommended Activists jailed for climbing onto lorries at fracking site freed

Official figures from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) show that less than 1 per cent of the UKs gas supply comes from Russia.

But in an interview with The Times over the weekend, Ms Perry said environmentalists who want to block fracking are unrealistic in their ambition to switch to 100 per cent renewables now.

What are they going to cook their kids tea on? Its likely to be gas and do we actually want to be reliant on Mr Putin for our gas supply? she said.

To avoid reliance on Russian supplies she wanted to exploit the shale gas thats right beneath our feet, she added.

How fracking works and where it could happen Show all 2 1 /2 How fracking works and where it could happen How fracking works and where it could happen 02-FrackingHowItWorks.jpg How fracking works and where it could happen 02-FrackingMapWeb.jpg

She echoed this sentiment in a recent Westminster debate when she responded to a question about public support for fracking by saying many people understand that in light of the Salisbury poisoning actually being reliant on foreign energy sources is not the right place to be.

In an article published in The Sun in May, Ms Perry also claimed that as North Sea reserves decline the UK must import more of its gas.

Although we are in no way reliant on Russian gas despite what the Russians would have you believe, she wrote.

Responding to the energy ministers comments, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said they did not chime with her previous position on British gas supplies.

Daniel Carey-Dawes, senior infrastructure campaigner at CPRE said: Using the threat from Russia to justify the UKs investment in fracking, against the wishes of local communities and advice of leading climate scientists, is an unhelpful diversion from the real issues at stake."

Most gas imported to the UK comes from Norway, and a report from BEIS on gas security states that Britain benefits from a system built on supply diversity.

As the ministers conflicting statements demonstrate, the case for fracking is muddled, said Mr Carey-Dawes. Fracking risks industrialising the countryside against the wishes of local communities, and the Governments plans to fast-track fracking will deny those communities the right to have their say. These proposals must be dropped.

The Independent has contacted Ms Perry for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication.

Opponents of fracking say if it rolled out across England it will cause damage to local environments, while locking the UK in to a future of fossil fuel production at a time when cutting carbon emissions is key to avoiding the worst effects of climate change.

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BEIS has not made any estimates on the proportion of gas demand that could be met using UK fracking wells. However, independent analysis commissioned by Friends of the Earth found that more than 6,000 wells would be needed to replace half of all gas imports.

This week has seen fracking operations begin in England for the first time in seven years, amid protests by local groups in Lancashire.

Earlier this week three anti-fracking campaigners were freed from prison on appeal after their sentences were ruled manifestly excessive.

Support for fracking stands at 18 per cent, but Ms Perry has urged the public to trust the science-led exploration of the UKs shale gas reserves.A Conservative MP's election to Parliament could have been declared void after he overspent during his campaign to beat Nigel Farage, a court has heard.

Craig Mackinlay, who represents the constituency of South Thanet in Kent, is accused of deliberately submitting "woefully inaccurate" expenditure returns, along with his election agent Nathan Gray and party activist Marion Little.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court heard that during the 2015 general election campaign, the Conservative Party put in extra resources to win the seat.

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The campaign's declared spending came in under the strict 52,000 limit set for the constituency but prosecutors allege that up to 66,600 was not declared.

"This was a very important seat for the Conservative Party to win and Mr Mackinlay had to be elected," prosecutor Aftab Jafferjee QC told jurors. "In seeking to ensure the success of the Conservative Party's candidate and the defeat of Nigel Farage, we submit that proper regard to the limits of expenditure imposed by law was simply abandoned.

"Each of these three defendants were complicit in the means deployed to achieve that end. Had the true position been declared, Craig Mackinlay's election would have been at the risk of being declared void."

Jurors also heard that the MP, Mr Gray and Ms Little were warned about the risk of overspending as early as February 2015, well before the May election.

Experienced Tory activist Anthony Salter told the court that he was the voluntary chairman of the local Conservative campaign team until the end of March 2015, when he bowed out after Ms Little had "taken over".

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In an email to Ms Little, ahead of a meeting with her on 17 February 2015 he wrote: "We have raised 50K for Craig's campaign ... Almost all of this money is committed already ... For once money is the least of our worries, although Farage will undoubtedly outspend us and Labour will have more boots on the ground."

After the meeting, in an email addressed to Mr Mackinlay and others, Mr Salter raised his concerns over breaching strict spending limits during the campaign.

"We're getting perilously close to hitting our legal limits, both for the long and short campaign," he wrote. "I take on board your concerns that we face the real prospect of a legal challenge from Farage if you make the smallest slip up."

Mr Salter said he also had reservations over Mr Gray's employment by Conservative Campaign Headquarters as the election agent.

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"I didn't consider he had the appropriate training, skills and expertise," he said. "I wanted somebody with the proper training and expertise to oversee (the expenditure returns) and make sure we didn't make stupid mistakes."

Mr Mackinlay denies two charges of a false election expenses declaration under the Representation of the People Act 1983.

He won 18,838 votes in the 2015 election, beating Mr Farage, the former head of Britain's UK Independence Party (UKIP), who came in a close second, polling 16, 026 votes.

Despite the ongoing case Mr Mackinlay won the seat for the second time in 2017, with an increased majority of over 6,000 votes which followed a collapse in UKIP's vote, with Mr Farage no longer the party's candidate.

29-year-old Mr Gray denies one charge of making a false election expenses declaration and a further charge of using a false instrument under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 and Ms Little denies three counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.

All three defendants are on unconditional bail.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by agenciesPolls for the US 2018 midterm elections open in less than 24 hours and both Republicans and Democrats are vying for control of Congress.

While midterm elections generally garner lower numbers of voter turnout and participation than general elections do - the rate in the last one in 2014 was just 36.4 per cent of eligible voters - a study has revealed that voter turnout has increased in primary elections across the country this year. In Texas, early voting alone has surpassed total numbers of ballots cast in 2014.

According to the Pew Research Centre, half of the registered voters have reported being more enthusiastic about voting in 2018 than in previous years  and turnout at the polls had surged in primary elections held across 31 states earlier in the year. Namely, the total number of votes cast in Democratic primaries for the US House were 84 per cent higher in July than at the same point in the 2014 midterm primaries.

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The surge in voter participation is likely a reflection of the high stakes for this election, which many on the left consider a referendum on Donald Trump as he participates in a flurry of campaign rallies. Democrats are vying to win a House majority by gaining 24 seats out of the 435 up for grabs but have an increasingly narrow path to take back control of the Senate.

Furthermore, states like Georgia and Florida will hold key races for governor and state legislature seats in midterm elections across the US, a change which could impact Mr Trump's 2020 re-election bid.

The outcome of the elections will be significant for the future of Mr Trumps presidency, and for Republican and Democratic legislative agendas on healthcare, tax plans, and immigration reform.

How do midterm elections work?

Midterm elections occur halfway between presidential elections, which occur every four years.

All 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for election every two years, with one-third of the Senate up for election. Members of the Senate serve staggered six-year terms.

Fifty-one seats are needed for control of Senate and 218 are needed for the House.

 Almost 100 days from the midterm elections, Steve Bannon says Republicans need to 'wake up'

What do midterm elections mean for the overall US political landscape?

Midterm elections can have a significant impact on the general political landscape of the US.

US tests depth of anti-incumbency feeling ahead of midterm election Show all 2 1 /2 US tests depth of anti-incumbency feeling ahead of midterm election US tests depth of anti-incumbency feeling ahead of midterm election 453081.bin AP US tests depth of anti-incumbency feeling ahead of midterm election 453073.bin REUTERS; GETTY; AP

With control of Congress swaying either way, each party could have the advantage to pass their legislative agendas  or to block opposing agendas and the presidents Supreme Court nominees from being confirmed.

Additionally, gubernatorial elections could have momentous implications on the rights to vote for millions of citizens. Florida, for example, is one of the few states that permanently strips voting rights from people convicted of a felony. Nearly 1.5 million Floridians have been disenfranchised as a result.

Since Florida Governor Rick Scott took office in 2011, he reversed efforts by his predecessor to restore the right to vote to former felons with nonviolent convictions, making it markedly more difficult for ex-felons to have their voting rights restored.

What effects will the 2018 midterm elections have on the future of Trumps presidency?

Some of Mr Trumps key agendas and campaign promises could be revived if Republicans hold control of Congress. The US president has vehemently promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, for example, which Republican senators failed to do last year.

Republicans could put forth another repeal effort should the party hold the majority in both chambers.

Conversely, with a Democrat majority, party members could block a number of measures put forth by Republicans by preventing them from being enacted.

Perhaps most importantly, if the Democrats were to take control of the House it would allow them to launch impeachment proceedings against Mr Trump - something the president is very keen to avoid.

When are the 2018 midterm elections?

The congressional elections will be held on Tuesday, 6, November. Dozens of elections for governorships, as well as local mayoral and state legislative chamber elections, will also be held on the same date.United States Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has announced he will not attend Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative conference next week.

Mr Mnuchin announced his decision on Twitter after a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday.

"Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," Mr Mnuchin tweeted on Thursday.

The Treasury secretary's decision comes as questions persist over the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing after visiting the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials have said they have audio and video proving that Mr Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen who resides in the United States, was brutally murdered.

The Trump administration had tried to resist calls for Mr Mnuchin to cancel his attendance at the investors conference, even as evidence mounted that Mr Khashoggi is likely dead, and as American business leaders and foreign officials began pulling out of the summit. The Saudi conference is known as "Davos in the Desert" in reference to a similar investor conference held in Switzerland.

Mr Khashoggi is a Saudi dissident who gained US residency last year, citing fears for his safety as reason for needing to live in the United States. He vanished 2 October after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

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Turkish officials have since claimed that they have evidence proving Mr Khashoggi was beheaded and dismembered within minutes of entering the consulate's compound.

The Saudi government has dismissed claims that Mr Khashoggi was killed in its Istanbul consulate as "baseless", but have provided no proof that the dissident left the consulate unharmed.

Mr Trump and his administration have appeared to accept the Saudi government's line, with Mr Pompeo visiting Saudi leadership this week and reporting back that they "strongly denied" knowing anything about what happened to Mr Khashoggi.

"We had direct and candid conversations. I emphasised the importance of conducting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation, and the Saudi leadership pledged to deliver precisely that," Mr Pompeo said after meeting with King Salman and others.

"My assessment from these meetings is that there is serious commitment to determine all the facts and ensure accountability, including accountability for Saudi Arabia's senior leaders or senior officials," he continued.

But, while the Trump administration has appeared to accept Saudi Arabia's line on the potential killing, politicians on both sides of the aisle in Washington have condemned the actions and have asked for the president to present a stronger front to Saudi Arabia on the issue.

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Meanwhile, Turkey has been conducting its own investigation, and officials have said Mr Khashoggi was cut up after being killed inside of the consulate in Istanbul. But, by the time Turkish investigators were able to access the building where the purported killing occurred, a fresh paint had been applied "everywhere" inside the building, according to officials.Donald Trump has threatened to send the US military to close the Mexican border, in an angry early morning tweet attacking Democrats and a number of central American countries.

Returning to one of his common themes, the presidents string of posts falsely claimed the Democratic Party want Open Borders [sic].

Without providing any evidence, he went on to allege an assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador led by his political opponents and repeated a threat made earlier this week to cut off humanitarian aid.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S, he said.

In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

Mr Trumps rhetoric on immigration has been among the strongest  and most controversial  he has deployed so far in his presidency.

These arent people, these are animals, he said earlier this year of alleged gang members he said were entering the US illegally.

Todays tweets were not the first time Mr Trump had suggested sending troops to the border with Mexico. In April he said he was going to be doing things militarily by sending the National Guard to help secure the area.

It echoed similar initiatives by both his immediate predecessors as president. George W Bush instituted Operation Jump Start from 2006 to 2008 in which 6,000 Guard troops were posted at the border, while Barack Obamas administration sent some 1,200 from 2010 to 2011.

In July Mr Bush spoke out about what he called Mr Trumps disturbing rhetoric. It obscures the fact ... that the system is broken and needs to be fixed, he said.

The latest outburst appeared to relate to a group reportedly numbering some 2,000 people making their way north from Honduras to the US border where they hope to seek refuge from endemic violence.

The so-called march of the migrants left the city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday despite pleas from authorities not to make the journey.

Honduran migrants sleep in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on 17 October (AFP/Getty Images)

My husband was an electrician. They killed him nine months ago, said Carolina Aguilar, 40, from the gang-controlled town of Choloma, sitting on a patch of ground with her two daughters aged 17 and 11.

We dont have a house and I have no job. We only manage to live from gifts, she added in an interview at a migrant shelter in Guatemala City, Guatemalas capital.

Weve lived in neighbourhoods where our children have seen disaster after disaster, said Daisy Turcios, at an earlier stop on the road. We have seen dead bodies thrown in front of us. So thats my goal, in truth, to reach a country where life can change for my children.

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Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales said on Wednesday that his government rejected constraints placed on foreign aid.

No help can be conditioned and no help can be demanded, he told reporters in the Guatemalan capital.

He said he had spoken with his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernandez, about ensuring that those migrants who want to return home can do so safely, and cited reports indicating that many people from the caravan were returning to Honduras.

Luis Arreaga, the US ambassador to Guatemala, posted a video message on Twitter to migrants considering entering the US illegally.

If you try to enter the United States, you will be detained and deported, he said in Spanish. Addressing those already on their way, he added: Return to your country. Your attempt to migrate will fail.

Additional reporting by agenciesPolice are investigating reports of reports of an "active shooter" at a defence company General Dynamics in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The call was received earlier in the day fro a security guard on site and Portsmouth police have called for people to stay clear of the area.

Police are currently searching the facility although there has been no confirmation of a weapon being found.

Officials said it is an active investigation and there was no further information at this time.

Workers at the facility were either being held outside the building, or inside rooms within the compound.

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More than 80 per cent of the business has been searched so far.

A spokesperson for General Dynamics said that no shots had been fired.A polar bear has died at a South Korean zoo just days before it was due to be relocated to a British wildlife park.

The bear, named Tongki, died on Wednesday evening at Everland theme park in Seoul, likely from old age, zoo officials said.

Tongki, the last polar bear living in South Korea, was set to be re-homed at Yorkshire Wildlife Park near Doncaster next month, to enjoy improved conditions for the remainder of its life.

Unfortunately, Korea's only polar bear, Tongki, which has been loved by the Korean people, has died, Everland said in a statement, announcing the zoo would stage a five-day period of remembrance.

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Everland commissioned an autopsy from a veterinary pathologist at the University of Seoul and the bear was presumed to have died from ageing with no specific cause of death.

We will also perform additional histopathology tests to confirm more accurate signs.

Tongki was born in the city of Masan, in South Koreas Kyungnam Province, in 1995 and had lived at Everland since 1997.

The 24-year-old animal was the equivalent of 70 to 80 in human years, given the expected lifespan of a polar bear is between 25 and 30 years.

Tongki was being moved to Yorkshire following controversy over the small, concrete enclosure, where it had lived alone since 2015 when the last of the zoos other bears had died.

It would have joined the wildlife parks colony of four polar bears, which are free to roam a 10-acre reserve featuring several large lakes across a habitat built to mimic conditions on the Arctic tundra.

Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Show all 19 1 /19 Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Bed of Seals By Cristobal Serrano of Spain Winner of the Animals in their Environment category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Kuhirwa Mourns Her Baby By Ricardo Montero of Spain Winner of the Behaviour: Mammals category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Mother Defender By Javier Aznar of Spain Winner of the Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Blood Thirsty By Thomas P Peschak of Germany and South Africa Winner of the Behaviour: Birds category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Night Flight By Michael Patrick O'Neill of the USA Winner of the Underwater category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Signature Tree By Alejandro Prieto of Mexico Winner of the Story category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Mud-Rolling Mud Dauber By Georgina Steytler of Australia Winner of the Behaviour: Invertebrates category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Desert Relic By Jen Guyton of Germany and the USA Winner of the Plants and Fungi category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Pipe Owl By Arshdeep Singh of India Winner of the 10 Years and Under category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Lounging Leopard By Skye Meaker of South Africa Winner of the 15-17 Years Old category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Crossing Paths By Marco Colombo of Italy Winner of the Urban Wildlife category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 The Sad Clown By Joan de la Malla of Spain Winner of the Wildlife Photojournalism category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 The Vision By Jan van der Greef of the Netherlands Winner of the Black & White category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 The Ice Pool By Cristobal Serrano of Spain Winner of the Creative Visions category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Dream By Michel do Oultremont of Belgium Winner of the Rising Star Portfolio award PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Windsweep By Orlando Fernandez Miranda of Spain Winner of the Earth & Environments category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Duck of Dreams By Carlos Perez Naval Winner for the 11-14 Years Old category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 Hellbent By David Herasimtschuk of the USA Winner of the Behaviour: Amphibians category PA Wildlife photographer of the year 2018 The Golden Couple By Marsel van Oosten of the Nehterlands Winner of the Animal Portraits category PA

It is with deep sadness we heard the news regarding Tongki, especially so close to when we were all ready to welcome him to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, a spokesman for the park said.

Our thoughts are with his keepers at Everland.

Classed as a threatened species, around 26,000 polar bears live in the wild across Canada, Russia, Greenland, Alaska and the Norwegian island of Svalbard.

Bear numbers are expected to decline by almost a third by 2050, as climate change causes less sea ice to form, restricting the animals hunting range.US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said he did not want to discuss facts after meeting Saudi Arabias King Salman and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks over the disappearance and alleged murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Donald Trump sent Mr Pompeo to both the kingdom and Turkey this week to compile a report on the situation surrounding the missing Saudi government critic, who has not been seen since 2 October.

Turkish officials believe Mr Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul before his body was later removed  a version of events Saudi authorities have denied.

Sitting down for a meeting with the crown prince, Mr Pompeo smiled as the pair exchanged pleasantries and joked about jet lag, before he thanked the leader for hosting him at short notice.

Saudi Arabia, we are really strong and old allies, so we face our challenges together, the past, the day of, tomorrow, the prince told the secretary of state.

Absolutely, Mr Pompeo replied.

Mr Trump initially appeared to be taking a hard line against Saudi Arabia over the situation, but has since speculated without evidence Mr Khashoggi may have fallen victim to rogue killers and that the Saudis should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Mr Pompeo said Riyadh should be given a few more days to complete its own probe into the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi, a US resident who had written numerous articles for the Washington Post criticising the Saudi regime.

They're going to do an investigation, and when the investigation comes out we'll evaluate it, Mr Pompeo told reporters travelling with him.

When asked if Saudi authorities had disclosed whether Mr Khashoggi was alive or dead, the secretary of state claimed the matter had not come up during discussions.

I dont want to talk about any of the facts, they didnt want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way, he said.

 Jamal Khashoggi: Everything we know

Reports stemming from high-level Turkish officials suggest authorities had found certain evidence, possibly an audio recording, of Mr Khashoggis death at the consulate.

We have asked for it, if it exists, I'm not sure yet that it exists, probably does, possibly does, Mr Trump said when asked about potential video or audio evidence of the killing.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has published the final column written by the missing journalist, in which he warns governments in the Middle East have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.

Additional reporting by agenciesA group of four major US and European human rights and press freedom organisations, alarmed by signs of backroom dealmaking by world powers, called for a United Nations probe into the disappearance and possible murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a 60-year-old Washington Post columnist who vanished after entering his nations consulate in Istanbul 16 days ago.

The groups, which include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists, called on Turkey to ask UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to launch an investigation to determine who ordered, planned, and carried out what unnamed Turkish and U.S. officials have described to journalists as the extrajudicial killing of Mr Khashoggi.

"Turkey should enlist the UN to initiate a timely, credible, and transparent investigation Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a joint statement released. UN involvement is the best guarantee against a Saudi whitewash or attempts by other governments to sweep the issue under the carpet to preserve lucrative business ties with Riyadh."

The statement came amid alarm among the rights groups over a recent swirl of backroom diplomatic meetings between top-ranking US, Saudi, and Turkish officials and worries by some that justice for Mr Khashoggi could be undermined by geopolitical machinations. The US needs Saudi oil, Saudi Arabia needs US military supplies and protection, Turkey needs the help and cooperation of both to fix up its ailing economy and protect its southern border from the chaos in neighbouring Syria.

The only chance we have to have an investigation that could possibly not be politicised, is to do it through the UN Sherine Tadros, Amnesty International

"This is exactly why this call is a no-brainer," Sherine Tadros, head of Amnesty International's New York office, told The Independent. "You have the Secretary General of the UN saying we need to know the truth. You have President Trump saying Saudi is being treated as guilty until proven innocent. The only chance we have to have an investigation that could possibly not be politicised, is to do it through the UN."

The UN has been approached about the idea and begun to warm to it, said a source.

Turkish justice minister Abdulhamit Gul told the official Anatolia News Agency Mr Khashoggis disappearance was being investigated thoroughly by the Istanbul prosecutors office and insisted that "results are expected to come out soon."

A photo made available by the Turkish Presidential Press Office shows US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (3-L) during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (C) and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (3-R) in Ankara on Wednesday (EPA)

Turkish forensic officers arrive at the Saudi consulate to conduct a new search over the disappearance and alleged slaying of writer Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, early Thursday. (AP)

"Whatever the international law requires will be done," he insisted, calling on press to ignore a torrent of leaks in the media most suspect are being directed by the Turkish leadership to keep pressure on Washington and Riyadh.

Hours earlier, a team of groggy crime scene investigators in hazmat suits could be seen leaving the compound of the Saudi consul general after a nine-hour search of the premises. A team of 15 alleged Saudi operatives apparently jetted into Istanbul from Riyadh hours before Mr Khashoggis scheduled October 2 arrival at the consulate and subsequent disappearance, stopping off at the consul generals residence for two hours before heading back to the airport.

Photos show alleged Saudi operative Maher Mutreb's movements during his visit to Istanbul on day of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance (SABAH)

The Turkish daily Sabah newspaper published new surveillance camera stills of one of those men, Maher Abdulaziz M. Mutreb, who had been exposed by The New York Times this week as frequent presence in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans entourage.

The fresh images showed Mr Mutreb arriving at the consulate shortly before 10am on 2 October, leaving the consul-generals residence shortly before 5pm, and checking out of his hotel a few minutes later, in the presence of a large suitcase, before being spotted at Istanbuls Ataturk Airport heading out of the country just before 6pm.

State-directed Saudi press and pro-Saudi social media accounts have described the 15 as tourists and has doubled down on its denials, despite reports it might pin the killing on low-ranking officials. The kingdom is more powerful than enemies conspiracies, read a headline in pro-government Okaz newspaper. "No to threats, no to blackmailing, no to pressure

Turkish media have also begun to report that some of the vehicles linked to the consulate or the consul-generals residence have been spotted by surveillance cameras near Istanbuls massive Belgrade Forest, a large park on the European side of the city, and in a farm in a neighbouring province. A request to Turkish officials to confirm the report yielded no response.

A man holds Yeni Safak newspaper with a headline that reads "(To the Saudi consul) Shut up." (AP)

The steady flow of leaks has kept the Khashoggi affair high on the global news agenda but also added to confusion and possible misinformation about the case. The four rights organisations urged Saudi to waive diplomatic protections and grant access to officials and Turkey to hand over audio and visual evidence to a UN investigative team to interview witnesses and collect and preserve any evidence for future prosecutions, and recommend venues for pursuing justice. They urged using as a model the probe into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which was undertaken by the UN at the request of Islamabad.

If the UN is truly mobilised to fight impunity for crimes against journalists, then at the very least they must be fully engaged in one of the most shocking and extreme cases in recent years by undertaking this investigation," Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, said in the statement

People hold signs during a protest at the Embassy of Saudi Arabia about the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in Washington on 10 October (AP)

The apparent killing of Mr Khashoggi has rattled dissident journalists and activists worldwide, and sparked fears of a wave of impunity. The Soufan Centre, an intelligence consultancy, warned of a wave of state-sponsored killings of political enemies that could increase if there are no consequences for Saudi Arabia.

The clear evidence and resulting outrage so far havent produced much in terms of changing behaviours of governments like Russia, North Korea, and now Saudi Arabia, it said. A tepid international response will likely encourage future similar behaviours and even inspire other rogue actors to follow suit.Syria will reopen its borders with Iraq soon, the countrys representative to the United Nations has said.

Earlier this week, the government of Syrias president, Bashar al-Assad, received a major boost as the countrys commercial gateway with Jordan plus a crossing to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights were reopened.

The simultaneous reopenings were celebrated on state media with back-to-back coverage, reinforcing the regimes narrative it is slowly emerging as the victor of the seven-year civil war.

We have sought to reopen [the] Nassib border crossing with Jordan, and we will open other border crossings with Iraq soon, said Bashar Jaafari, Syrias UN envoy, according to Al-Manar TV.

His comments to the UN Security Council on Wednesday came after Iraqs foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said no one should isolate Syria.

Speaking during a press conference with his counterpart in Damascus on Monday, Mr al-Jaafari added, he was advocating for Syrias return to the Arab League.

 Donald Trump claims credit for halting Assad regime's attack on Syria's Idlib, after learning about province from a rally

President Assads regime has been largely isolated by its Arab neighbours since the civil war broke out in 2011.

The 22-member Arab League froze Syrias membership shortly after the war began, imposing sanctions and cutting diplomatic ties.

Syrias civil war has killed an estimated 450,000 people and drawn in regional and international powers, leaving entire towns and neighbourhoods in ruins.

Aided by Russia and Iran, the Syrian military has clawed its way back and recaptured key territory from the Syrian opposition in the past two years.

"War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Show all 20 1 /20 "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria A child injured by an IED explosion in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Children riding a bicycle among destroyed buildings in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Entire neighbourhoods in Raqqa are damaged beyond repair Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Members of the Badran family killed in three separate Coalition air strike on 18 July and 20 August 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria The city of Raqqa in northern Syria has become hardly recognizable to those who try to return after months battle between US-backed forces and the Islamic State terrorist group for control of it. The city has no running water or electricity and homes, business and public squares are mere rubble and debris Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Fayad Mohammed and his daughters Wafa, Fadda and Tamam; Ammar al-Faris; Reem al-Maddad, Yusra Abd-al-Aziz, and baby Razqiya Habib; Jasim Hamal and Salem Hamad. They were among the 16 civilians killed in Coalition air strikes on 12 October 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Men wait by the side of the road for casual labour in Raqqa. Many end up clearing partially destroyed or damaged buildings, a very risky endeavour as many building were mined by IS and civilians are frequently killed and injured by mines Amnesty "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite images showing the Aswad familys building before it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the Aswad familys building after it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Amal Othman, 13, and her brothers Ammar, 8 and Mahmoud, 17; and Jamal Aswad, 41  four of the eight victims killed in a Coalition air strike on 28 June 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Low-income district west of the Jezra intersection on the western outskirts of Raqqa city destroyed by the Coalition shelling started in June 2017 Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Ali Hassan Nafa; Mahdia Hashish and her husband Hussein Ali; Hussein Hashish, Mohammed Hashish and Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, and Mohammed Ali Hashish Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Harat al Badu, a built up area in central Raqqa, next to the stadium. It was the scene of the final battle in the city between SDF/Coalition forces and IS Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Map showing where the Badran, Hashish, Aswad and Fayab families were living before the coalition air strikes Unosat /Amnesty International

The reopening of Syrias crossing with Jordan three years after it closed promises to restore millions of pounds worth of trade.

It will allow Syrian vegetables and fruit to find their way to Gulf, Turkish and Arab markets more easily, and construction and raw materials will find a faster route into Syrian cities and towns devastated by the war.

Separately, Israel reopened the Quneitra crossing on its occupied Golan Heights front with Syria on Monday.

The Israeli military said only UN peacekeepers would be allowed across for now.

Additional reporting by agenciesBritains second busiest airport has revealed plans to expand to handle 70 million passengers a year  almost matching the number currently going through Heathrow  by introducing a second runway for routine use.

Gatwicks chief executive, Stewart Wingate, unveiled a draft master plan for the airport at a meeting of local stakeholders.

At the heart of the proposals are plans to boost capacity on what is already the worlds busiest runway, and reconfigure the airports standby runway for routine use by departing aircraft.

Mr Wingate said: Gatwicks growing global connections are needed more than ever but this must be achieved in the most sustainable way.

From using new technologies on our main runway, to the innovative proposal to bring our existing standby runway into routine use, our draft master plan offers agile, productive and low-impact ways of unlocking much needed new capacity and increased resilience from within our existing infrastructure.

Gatwicks intention is to extract more capacity from the main runway to boost passenger numbers by one-third, from the current 45.6 million per annum to around 60 million.

But by moving the existing standby runway 12 metres north  and further away from the main runway  it will be possible to use both at the same time. Only departures would use the new runway, in order to avoid possible issues with the instrument landing system.

By 2032, the airport could be handling 70 million passengers.

Last year Heathrow  which is the location chosen by the government for a new full-length runway  handled 78 million passengers.

An agreement signed with West Sussex County Council in 1979 prohibits the simultaneous use of both Gatwick runways until August 2019.

With the planning process involved, the target date for using the new second runway is the start of the summer season 2025.

The cost is likely to be no more than 500m.

The plans are supported by the local MP, Henry Smith, who said: Crawleys prosperity depends on the success of Gatwick Airport and the publication of this new draft master plan goes a long way to securing future growth in the town. I have always supported the airport growing within its existing boundaries.

Carolyn Fairbairn, director general of the CBI, said: Londons airports are set to be full in the next decade, so the CBI welcomes Gatwicks highly productive proposals to deliver increased capacity that complements expansion schemes at other airports.

This will drive trade and investment, create new jobs and help British businesses thrive.

But the move has already triggered widespread opposition.

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Peter Barclay, chairman of the Gatwick Area Conservation campaign, said: We strongly oppose any second runway at Gatwick and will fight this proposal tooth and nail.

The proposal, which may bring in excess of 80,000 additional flights a year, will simply increase the problems already being experienced by local communities  noise, air pollution and excessive road traffic.

It would also put even greater pressure on the tottering road and rail infrastructure both locally and further afield.

Sally Pavey, chair of Communities Against Gatwick Noise Emission (CAGNE), said: This is totally underhand, a stab in the heart for residents that thought they could get on with their lives after the runway debate was won by Heathrow airport.

This is despicable behaviour by Gatwick management and clearly shows their contempt for the communities of Sussex, Surrey and Kent.

The airport has launched a 12-week consultation on the plan.Ryanair flights to and from the UK could be grounded for up to three weeks in the event of a hard Brexit, CEO Michael OLeary warned ahead of a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on Wednesday 17 October.

The airline boss said it would be very painful.

We can ground airplanes for a week, two weeks, three weeks, OLeary told Reuters. But we are a big company, we can survive.

Europes largest airline operates around 120 international outbound flights a day from its main base, London Stansted airport, with a similar number of inbound flights.

If all UK-international routes were affected for three weeks, more than 5,000 flights could be grounded, not including international flights to and from Ryanairs other UK bases of Aberdeen, London Gatwick, Belfast, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and London Luton.

We remain concerned at the increasing risk of a hard (no-deal) Brexit in March 2019, a Ryanair spokesperson told The Independent.

While we hope that a 21-month transition agreement from March 2019 will be agreed, recent events in the UK have added uncertainty, and we believe that the risk of a hard Brexit (which could lead to flights being grounded for a period of days or weeks) is being underestimated.

OLeary has been vocal in his criticism of the governments slow progress on Brexit.

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He said in August last year: The onus is on the British government to deliver a deal. If theres no deal by March 19, Britain gets thrown out of the European Union, youre out of open skies and there will be no flights.

He added that Theresa May needed to pull her finger out and get a deal done.

Ryanair has had a rocky few months despite flying record numbers of passengers. Industrial action from dissatisfied cabin crew and pilots in a handful of countries is ongoing, while a cut in the airlines profits forecast of 150m knocked 10 per cent off share prices at the beginning of October 2018.Governments at war make dangerous promises. And the First World War was a time of promises and lies. The promises came first: in 1916, the British told the Arabs they could have independence; in 1917, they told the Jews they could have a homeland; and the French told the survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide that they could return to liberate their homelands in eastern Turkey.

Then came the betrayals.

Superpowers like legions, the Roman variety, preferably when they are composed of foreigners. So the British created an Arab Legion to fight against the Ottoman Turks for independence and a Jewish Legion to fight against the Ottoman Turks for Palestine. And the French created an Armenian Legion  an offshoot of the French Foreign Legion, needless to say  to fight against the Ottoman Turks for Cilicia.

The Arabs lost Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, the Jews did not get all of Palestine, and the soldiers of the Armenian Legion  having helped to liberate Palestine  were abandoned amid the ashes of their own burnt cities.

Among the indigenous peoples of the Middle East, they were the most traduced of all, since they recovered not a square inch of their land. To be a loser doesnt get you much purchase in the history books. To be a loser twice over turns you into a curio. Thus the story of the Armenian Legion has until now been largely untold and unremembered.

And Armenian Legionnaires: Sacrifice and Betrayal in World War I, Susan Paul Patties first and original account of the fury, heartbreak and suffering of its soldiers  women as well as men in that most misogynistic of 20th century wars  is not for the faint-hearted. There are Armenian troops, armed and in uniform, desperately searching the Constantinople-bound Turkish refugee trains for Armenian girls who had been raped and kidnapped by the Ottomans who had butchered their families. Too late, young women told their would-be rescuers. They preferred to stay with their new Turkish husbands, or at least refused to be separated from their half-Armenian and half-Turkish children.

One Armenian woman, travelling by rail with a Turkish family, was discovered by soldiers of the Armenian Legion, her chest adorned with gold, and refused to be separated from her companions. She was taken from the carriage at the next station and married to the legionnaire who had rescued her. Sarkis Najarian saw a rich Turkish family travelling [on the train between Adana and Mersin] with a pretty girl whom he thought must be Armenian. He managed to separate her from the family and sent her to an orphanage. There had been many forced conversions of Armenian women although we rarely hear the womens account of these rescues.

Najarians own sister Yeghsabet, when he discovered her, was already engaged and refused to leave her fiance, fearing for her life and offering Najarian money to go away. When he found her later, she was married to a rich [Arab] Bedouin, tattooed  and happy. There is a photograph of a young and beautiful Yeghsabet in a veil. I have Armenian blood, she would later tell her brother, but I was raised a Muslim. When I hear the call to prayer, I have to do my prayers until the end of my life.

Many of the men in the original legion had been signed up by the French in Egypt where they had settled with their families after a French warship rescued them in 1915 from the famous 40-day siege by the Turks at Musa Dagh. Others came from Europe, even from America, men who spoke French and American English as well as Armenian, anxious to fight for their still nonexistent nation after the horror and humiliation of the Turkish genocide of a million-and-a-half of their own Armenian people. By July 1918, the French had registered 58 Armenian officers, 4,360 soldiers  including 288 French Armenians  and two artillery gun crews with 37mm artillery. But while Susan Pattie, a scholar of Armenian history at University College, clearly sympathises with her heroes, there is an ugly undertow of revenge in their desire to fight for the Allies.

Fighting in Palestine at the 1918 Battle of Megiddo  the original Armageddon, which the Armenians call Arara  they received an official commendation for gallantry from General Edmund Allenby. But Hovannes Garabedian was to recall how he and his Armenian comrades found the Turkish trenches filled with their dead and dying enemies. The ones who were not totally dead proved to be the most unfortunate, he said. The memory of yesterdays genocide ... was so fresh in our minds, the thirst for revenge was so profound in the hearts of the Armenian legionnaires, the wounded Turks found no mercy. They were finished in their trenches.

Again and again, in Patties story, there are references to this most pitiful, comprehensible and terrible of emotions among a persecuted people: the need for vengeance and reprisals.

As the Armenian soldiers advanced with French and British troops back into the Cilician/Armenian fields and mountains from which they and their families had been driven by the Turkish genociders three years earlier, there was violence and murder. And with the rise of Mustafa Kemal Ataturks nationalist uprising against the Allies, the French found their Armenian Legion an embarrassment rather than a trusted auxiliary. Surviving Armenian families who had trekked back in hope to their cremated homes in Marash found themselves dispossessed of their lands again, massacred once more in their thousands, joining retreating Armenian soldiers in the French withdrawal, many dying, frozen and starving, in their second exodus from Turkish Armenia in five years.

Hovannes Garabedian wrote of how, in hospital, he heard with joy the news of the Allied powers recognition of an Independent Republic of Armenia and then, three days later, learned that the Turks were again slaughtering and deporting the Armenians of Marash. Suddenly, the days of excitement and happiness were replaced by long days and years of sorrow and mourning. The victorious western powers wanted no more of their colonising war in Cilicia  not far away, the British were at the same time facing an Arab uprising in Iraq  and, in some cases, French officers virtually abandoned their Armenian legionnaires who were officially still part of the French army. They were to do the same to their faithful Harkis in Algeria just over four decades later.

The Armenians, in their pride and revenge, could not, perhaps, be expected to understand how soon their road to Golgotha would have to be retrodden. Did they not recognise their grim future when the Armenians were refused participation at the Versailles peace conference in 1919? Should they not have been included as joint Allied victors over the German-Austro-Hungarian-Ottoman alliance in the First World War? Attacked by bandits, demobilised Turkish soldiers, hunger and thirst, the retreating soldiers of liberation found themselves asking another question of all those who suffer refugeedom. How come some Armenian families had remained in their villages during the genocide? What deals had they struck with their Turkish oppressors? Why were Armenian girl refugees found with Bedouin tattoos on their faces, marks which were surgically removed by their rescuers.

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Shame, like defeat, was a feeling rarely uttered but much felt. There are, remarkably, documentary photographs of the Adana battle, of men digging trenches and Armenian soldiers slogging across the hillsides of Marash. With the subtlety of all great powers, the Allies spoke not of betrayal. They called it the Marash Affair.

The rump nation Armenia which emerged to the east  quickly engorged by the Soviets and today a brave but often corrupt state  was of little interest to the men of the disbanded Armenian legion. The survivors returned to refugee families in Lebanon  at least one became a Beirut policeman  or to homes in France or in America where they often flourished and sometimes met for picnics, holding old flags and remembering false promises from powerful nations and creating little Armenias in their countries of exile. Lieutenant John Shishmanian even received a personal post-war letter from General Allenby.

I am sorry, if the gallant conduct of the Armenians was not sufficiently recognised, the great man  now high commissioner in Egypt  wrote from Cairo just after Christmas in 1919. I know they fought nobly, and I am proud to have had them under my command. The Battle of Arara  Megiddo or Armageddon to us  left its 23 Armenian dead in the desert, their bones later gathered and transshipped to the Armenian St James church in Jerusalem. The ashes of Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe were buried in Westminster Abbey.When it comes to Brexit, there can surely be no dispute that we know more about the process now than we did at the time of the referendum in 2016. For a start, we know for certain  and have done for a while  that cutting a deal isnt as easy as some Brexiteers suggested it would be. Lets remember Liam Foxs optimistic comment last summer that a trade deal with the EU should be one of the easiest in human history.

We also know that if we do get a deal, there will be a transition period of at least 20 months during which the UK will continue to follow EU rules. It might be longer of course.

We know too that under the existing agreement in principle, the UK will be liable to pay an exit settlement fee of around 35bn-39bn.

Recommended The will of the people means a Final Say

And we know that if a no-deal scenario comes to pass  as some more ardent Brexiteers would prefer  the consequences are likely to be significant. For instance, some drugs will, for a period, probably be in short supply for people living in Britain; and the introduction of some new medicines will be delayed. Residency rights for Britons living abroad will not be assured: it was suggested yesterday that British workers would have to apply for new permits, while any UK visitor to France would require a visa, in addition to their passport. This is to say nothing of the broader economy.

These are among the reasons why The Independent is campaigning for the people to be given a Final Say on Brexit.

Of course there remain unknowns about Brexits realities  whether or not a deal is ultimately done. Yet it is, on the face of it, a peculiarity that both sides in the debate use speculation about the unknowns as much if not more than established facts to bolster their arguments. That is perhaps especially true of those who support EU withdrawal, who assert with a remarkable degree of assurance that things will turn out fine (in the long term anyway).

 Donald Trump says he thinks climate change will 'change back'

But then this is partly a product of the age we live in, when uncertainty can be overcome by a quick Google search; any hunch or opinion can be bolstered by information found online  you just have to look hard enough.

Brexit may be a particularly apposite case study but it is hardly the only one. Donald Trumps successful White House run was predicated to a significant degree on the construction of various electorally appealing myths or half-truths: that global warming was a Chinese hoax; that the US was being overrun by murderous immigrants from Mexico who could be kept at bay by the construction of a giant wall; that thousands of American Muslims cheered when the twin towers were destroyed on 9/11; that the US was the most highly-taxed country on earth.

What Trump proved  as if we didnt already know  is that lies can be easily believed and can be politically productive. The paradox is that in the digital era, this appears to be even truer than it was in less enlightened times. Is that because we are less prepared to accept the limits of our knowledge now? Access to the internet has certainly given us a wealth of information at our fingertips  when that is allied to a lack of understanding about how to sort the wheat from the chaff, nonsense can cut through more easily than ever. Those who wish to control the narrative can  in theory  do so even without the kind of control over the mass media which would have been necessary in the past.

Of course, the consequences of the global financial crash a decade ago has encouraged the rise of populist politicians with an eye for a conspiracy. When life is hard, imaginary futures and fictional enemies become much more attractive.

Nevertheless, the rise of  and easy reliance on  deliberate fake news and less ardently malevolent conspiracy theories, will continue to pose difficulties for as long as the internet offers them up unfiltered. Does that mean the world wide web should be regulated? Even if the answer to that is yes  and plainly there are pros and cons  quite how a satisfactory system of oversight could be constructed is anyones guess.

On Friday 19 October, The Independent will be represented at an event during the Cambridge University Festival of Ideas at which some of these themes will be debated. Independent columnist Mary Dejevsky, and technology editor Andrew Griffin, will appear on a panel to discuss Independent thinking in an age of information overload. Joining them from Cambridge University will be philosopher Rae Langton, psychologist Olivia Remes and and social psychologist Sander van der Linden; the panel will be chaired by regular Independent contributor Andy Martin.

Update: President Macron has said that claims about French residency rights being in doubt in the event of a no deal Brexit are "fake news". Still, a draft law remains before the French parliament. 19/10/18Botswanas new president Mokgweetsi Masisi became the fourth African Head of State to join the Giants Club when he signed the forums declaration at a ceremony attended by fellow African leaders.

The Giants Club is an initiative of the international conservation organisation Space for Giants that unites the leaders of African elephant-range states with international financiers, conservationists and celebrities.

Together, these individuals combine their exceptional political muscle, extensive financial resources, pioneering scientific expertise, and global reach and influence to fulfil the Clubs goal of effectively protecting half of Africas elephants by 2020.

President Masisi joins President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, to head the Giants Club. Botswanas Former President Ian Khama acts as President Emeritus.

Together their nations are home to more than half of Africas 415,000 remaining elephants. Botswana alone hosts between 130,000 and 150,000 elephants, mostly centred on the Okavango Delta in its north. His Excellency President Masisi said: Botswana has always cherished its position as a refuge for elephants, but we are very well aware that the threats they face cross borders and require consistent, constant, connected pressure to defeat.

The Giants Club is a unique forum to support those efforts, bringing as it does the support and influence of a diverse society of people dedicated to accelerating Africas efforts to protect its natural heritage, for Africa, and for the planet.

I am honoured to join the Giants Club alongside my fellow Presidents Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Ali Bongo Ondimba, and Uhuru Kenyatta. Together we can achieve great things.

President Masisi formally joined the Club during a private dinner it held at Spencer House in London attended by President Museveni, President Bongo, Kenya's First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, and several of the Clubs members.

The Giants Club Declaration sets in writing the support that the Club will offer its Presidents as they commit their governments to significant international elephant protection mechanisms. As well as agreeing to support and endorse the Giants Club, President Masisi also noted his agreement to work to reduce the problem of human-elephant conflict in Botswana, promote domestic and international investment in responsible conservation and tourism enterprises to create new revenue from wildlife for the benefit of Botswanas citizens, and combat the illegal wildlife trade in Botswana and in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area by supporting initiatives and programmes that build capacity along the criminal trial process.

The Giants Club membership is dedicated to supporting its Presidents to achieve their domestic conservation agendas, funding Space for Giants to give technical guidance or to deliver active conservation programmes.

Examples of Giants Club projects already underway include strengthening judicial systems in Botswana, Uganda, and Kenya to enhance wildlife crime investigations, prosecutions, and convictions; constructing electrified fences to keep elephants away from farmers fields and reduce human-elephant conflict in Gabon, Kenya, and Uganda; and launching international conservation investment mechanisms to bring new finance to protected area networks, in Uganda and Gabon.

The Giants Club will now dispatch Space for Giants specialists to consult with President Masisi and his Government to understand how best they may assist.

Max Graham, CEO of Space for Giants, said: Together the countries whose Presidents sit on the Giants Club are home to well over half of Africas remaining elephants. Their commitment to conservation is a prerequisite to joining the Club, and each has his own approach that we are dedicated to helping them to achieve.

The Giants Club looks forward to standing with President Masisi and supporting him as he brings his vision to bear on Botswanas already stellar global conservation reputation.Africas progress protecting its wildlife could falter if global efforts ebb, or growing populations fail to see rewards from conservation, the continents leaders warned the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT). Several African Head of State - all of whom are members of the Giants Club, an initiative of the international conservation organisation Space for Giants - warned that the battle to save endangered species would be lost without greater attention and cooperative action.

More than 1,000 delegates attended the IWT Conference, one of the largest of its kind, convened by the British Government and addressed by both Prince William and the British Prime Minister, Theresa May.

In a powerful speech, President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon said The illegal wildlife trade is a pervasive issue that cripples economies, poisons and degrades ecosystems, corrupts our judiciaries and weakens the rule of law. Wildlife criminals empty our oceans and forests and steal our timber, mine our natural resources for economic gain, and even sometimes use their ill-gotten gains to fund rebels and terrorist groups.

I and my fellow African Heads of State are here because this is a critical issue for Africa. But its an issue that we, the international community, have thus far failed to take seriously enough.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana told the conference elephant populations had increased in his country. But the cost and effort to look after those herds, which were too large in some places, must be shared.

We would ask that as a contributor to the biodiversity of the world that the rest...who benefit from it also play their part by putting in what it takes to protect this resource, President Masisi said. Theres an urgent need to strengthen collaboration and engagement across source, transit and destination countries.

Cooperation between countries in Africa was growing, he said, highlighting work already underway in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as Kaza. It crosses the borders of Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and holds well over half of the worlds remaining 415,000 elephants.

Part of putting that [collaboration] in place would be supporting our neighbours in their ability to offload some of the excess [elephants] we have, and weve committed to engaging them very sincerely and seriously in enabling that, President Masisi said.

Greater international support must also accelerate Africas own efforts to increase the rewards its populations receive from conservation, the conference was told. These communities must benefit in a tangible manner if they are to coexist with wildlife, President Masisi said.

Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of Kenya and a passionate advocate for conservation, described new conservation education programmes in her country to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and enhance human-wildlife coexistence.

The Kenyan government intends to step up its efforts...by collaborating with local communities to increase their investment towards protection of our iconic species, Mrs Kenyatta said.

Increasing the value conservation represented to people would resonate with Kenyas pursuit for sustainable development which requires diverse interventions to protect our natural habitat, she added.

Ugandas president, Yoweri Museveni, warned that there must be a greater focus on supporting what he called social metamorphosis in Africas growing but still largely agrarian populations.

If developing economies industrialised and moved from being based on small-holder farming to services, ICT and manufacturing, then work to protect natural resources would be far simpler, he said.

In that case it would be easy to manage conservation but if you maintain under-development and the population is growing, then you may talk of conservation but I think you may not be serious, President Museveni said.

We still have a huge number of people in agriculture, and thats where the danger is: the conflict between these people who are engaged in primitive agriculture against the conservation, the forests, the wetlands, the wildlife.

So in the case of Uganda for sure you cannot talk of sustainable conservation if you dont talk of social metamorphosis of society. We must industrialise Uganda. Were doing it anyway. What we want is support from you.

The joint Declaration signed at the end of the two-day conference acknowledged Africas leaders calls for greater global collaboration to beat wildlife crime, calling international cooperation essential.

The Declaration also recognised how important it was that the people who live alongside wildlife acknowledge the value of protected species and habitats, and the benefit this value can bring.

Its signatories concluded: We confirm our intention to build upon the successes already achieved and to this end we commit ourselves to enhance our individual and collective efforts to meet our existing commitments.

What was key was directing efforts to support the priorities Africas leaders laid out at the conference, said Dr Max Graham, CEO of Space for Giants, an international conservation charity.

Theyve said it loud and clear: help us to protect our wildlife, especially when their habitat crosses borders and we need smart, coordinated, stitched-up interventions to keep them safe, he said.

And theyve said, help us to show the value of conserving wildlife and wild landscapes to our people. They know better than anyone that these are the fastest paths to protecting wildlife forever. We would all do well to listen, follow their lead, and focus where they tell us to.Its becoming harder and harder to protest in this country.

Sentenced to 15-16 months in prison for climbing on lorries delivering drilling equipment to a Cuadrilla-operated fracking site in Lancashire, Simon Blevins, Richard Loizou and Richard Roberts became the first peaceful environmental protesters to receive immediate jail terms in this country since 1932.

Shockingly, the judge who sentenced them in September said he was sending them to prison straight away because of their unswerving beliefs that they were right. As a result, he said, he had decided they were not suitable for rehabilitation.

Recommended Activists jailed for climbing onto lorries at fracking site freed

This is the same as saying that the more committed a protester is to their cause, the more likely it is they will get a custodial sentence if they break the law.

It was a shocking state of affairs that had dreadful implications for protesters up and down the country. It completely ignored the activists right to freedom of thought and conscience (which includes conscientious objection to the use of fossil fuels and a belief in the need for urgent action to combat climate change) and trampled over their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly  all protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Thankfully, on Wednesday the Court of Appeal found the sentences of imprisonment to be manifestly excessive. The court said that the men ought to have been given community sentences. Because of the time already served, it was quashing the sentences and replacing them with conditional discharges. The men should now be home with their friends and families.

The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental human right. Protest has been the catalyst for so many movements of positive change. It doesnt mean that if you break the law, there are no consequences. Protesters know the risks and are prepared to take them. But our common law and the convention both recognise the value of protest  a form of political expression  as absolutely vital to a healthy democracy.

Peaceful protest includes direct action. It includes protests that inconvenience or annoy others. And if a protester breaks the law, the punishment must fit the crime. The UK has never seen a sentence like this for peaceful protest. The potential impact of it cannot be overstated. It would have had the immediate chilling effect of  at best  discouraging others from taking direct action and  at worst  would have stopped many people from protesting in any form at all.

The sentences were handed down amid concern expressed by many campaigners across many different issues that protest in the UK is increasingly under attack.

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Whether its police refusing to close the roads so that protests can take place at all, requiring protesters to take out expensive public liability insurance, private companies being granted overboard and imprecise injunctions that risk criminalising lawful activities or sentences like these, these developments are all part of the same piece.

The Court of Appeal has yet to give full reasons for its decision yesterday but we hope that when it does it will take the opportunity to remind us all of the importance of peaceful protests and the need to ensure proportionality in the way the law deals with them.

After the judges left court, the mens families, friends and supporters burst into applause and song in the packed court. We share their obvious relief. These sentences represented a complete betrayal of our societys values and nothing like this should ever happen again.

Emma Norton is head of legal casework at LibertyAs the last centenaries of the First World War approach, the troubled region where it all began is under scrutiny once again. The western Balkans is where those who favour the further enlargement of the European Union and Nato have set their sights. Tiny Montenegro (population 600,000) became the latest addition to Nato last year, and land-locked Macedonia (population 2,100,000) could be next. Both also aspire to join the EU, though the EU is split about whether this is advisable, and even if it is, how soon.

But geopolitics is not what took me to Macedonia this week. It was rather the happy coincidence of cheap end-of-season flights and a long-standing desire to visit Ohrid. Why Ohrid? Because, as anyone whose Russian studies included an element of Old Church Slavonic will know, this is where the Byzantine missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, came to preach to the Slavs in the ninth century, and where they devised the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets for the purpose of setting down the gospels in their language.

Now, I should make clear that this is a scandalous journalistic simplification and there are all sorts of scholarly caveats that should be brought to bear, not to mention academic disputes that remain unresolved. But the fact is that Ohrid claims Cyril and Methodius as its own, and still more, their local disciples, Clement and Naum. They feature in the glorious frescoes and icons to be found in various states of preservation in the towns wealth of Byzantine churches, and their much more recent statues look out on to the lake from the waterfront. The lakeshore south and west to the Albanian border is studded with churches and monasteries.All smiles: Leo Varadkar and Theresa May during a meeting in Brussels yesterday. Picture: PA

Brexit talks are headed for the 'last-chance saloon' as the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator says "much more time" is needed to reach a divorce agreement.

Now little more than three months remain before a final deadline on a "crash-out" no-deal Brexit.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier sought to calm the mood, saying the only remedy was to use the remaining period between now and Christmas.

But hopes of a November deal were fading as he added: "We need much time, much more time and we continue to work in the next weeks."

As EU leaders gathered yet again in Brussels yesterday, they conceded that hopes of a deal are again being pushed back, this time perhaps until December.

There were doubts about the value of calling any special summit in November to finalise the EU-UK divorce terms as many leaders sought to calm things and maximise use of the final weeks.

Brussels diplomats pointed out that this meeting had been billed as a decisive meeting where a draft deal might be tabled and tentatively approved.

The Taoiseach met with British Prime Minister Theresa May for half an hour last night before the main Brexit discussion with all 28 countries, including the UK. It is understood that the meeting was "cordial and positive".

Mrs May, who had been called upon to table new proposals on the Irish Border backstop, was thought to have been "developing her thinking".

While Mr Varadkar was positive in his response, he still stressed that Ireland expected UK commitments on the Border to be honoured. He earlier told reporters that the March deal on the so-called backstop was "a question of trust".

The ongoing Brexit talks will explore extending the transition period, during which nothing will change after Brexit in March 2019.

The end of transition had originally been fixed for December 2020 but it is now suggested that it could be pushed out by another year to the end of 2021.

The Taoiseach said Ireland could look favourably on such a plan which would be helpful to everyone concerned as the implications of Brexit could require more time.

"From Ireland's point of view we're willing to consider all proposals which might help us lead to a solution," Mr Varadkar said. "But the extended transition period could not be a substitute for a backstop."

The so-called "backstop" will apply if there is no proper EU-UK trade deal post Brexit. It would give the North special status with no customs tariffs and also keep product standards there in line with those of the EU single market.

But it has hit a wall of objection from radical Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party, propping up Mrs May's minority government. Efforts to allay these objections, centred on fears of splitting the North from the rest of the UK, have run into trouble with the EU side who want to protect the single market and customs union.

Irish officials signalled that a decision may follow today on whether a special November summit will be called. Mr Varadkar told reporters that a regular summit had been fixed for December and clear progress would be required to show the value of a special one next month.

"My view is that we should really only have one if there is a purpose to having one. We should not call a summit just to talk," the Taoiseach said.

Other delegations expressed a certain mannerly frustration with the UK's failure to advance the action.

"Today there will be no breakthrough," said Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite. She added that 28 months after the Brexit referendum, in June 2016, London had still not explained clearly how it wants to leave the EU.

"Today, we do not know what they want. They do not know themselves what they really want. That is the problem," the Lithuanian president told reporters.

Juri Ratas, the Estonian Prime Minister, struck a more sympathetic tone. "I regret that we don't have an agreement yet between the UK and the EU," he said.

"But I still believe that this agreement is possible and our goal is to find the solution and to find the way. I think it's possible."Agent Willie Coonan of Coonan Property is guiding a price of 7m for 17 acres of zoned land at Simmonstown, in Celbridge, Co Kildare.

Some 10.5 acres of the portfolio is zoned 'new residential', while the remaining 6.5 acres is zoned 'community and educational'.

Located on the Ardclough Road and adjacent to the existing developments of Simmonstown Manor, Callenders Mill and Hazelhatch Park, the subject site is 600 metres from Main Street in Celbridge.

The zoned land is also within walking distance of St Wolstan's Shopping Centre, local schools and numerous sporting and leisure facilities.

The site has two zoning objectives and they are as follows:

Section 1 : 10.5 acres is identified in the Celbridge Local Area Plan 2017-2023 (LAP) and is zoned 'New Residential' - the purpose of this zoning is to provide new residential developments that provide a sustainable mix of house types, sizes and tenures and that complement the existing residential mix.

Section 2: 6.5 acres is identified in the LAP and is zoned 'Community & Educational' - the purpose of this zoning is to provide for education, recreation, community and health.

Celbridge itself is 22km from Dublin with access by road on the M4 motorway, by train from Hazelhatch Station, and via the Dublin Bus No 67 route to Merrion Square, and the 67X route, which runs from Celbridge through Dublin city centre to UCD's Belfield campus.

The subject lands are being offered for sale by tender on November 15 next.

Viewing of the site is available by prior appointment with Willie Coonan.Hot property: The portion of Northpoint, which sold at auction for five times its guide price, comprises seven retail warehouse units, three warehouses and six office units

A major portion of a Galway commercial property sold for 2,225,000 or more than five times its guide price at a BidX1 auction last week.

The same auction saw 38 individual tenanted dwellings sold at a time when expectations have been rising that the Government's Finance Bill to be published later today (Thursday) may accede to Fianna Fail's request for incentives for landlords who retain their tenants when selling properties. This may be designed to discourage evictions which push up numbers of homeless families.

It will be interesting to see how the Finance Bill might treat investors who bought such properties at last week's auction but who may not close the sale for another few weeks.

Most of the tenanted dwellings in the auction had guide prices pitched well below prices which can be achieved for vacant homes. As the latter have greater appeal to home buyers with mortgages, they can sell for more in private treaty sales. See below for some examples.

The top price achieved at the auction was for the Galway commercial property at Northpoint Retail Park, Tuam Road, which had been guided at 400,000 and sold for as much as 2,225,000. It was developed by Tom Considine and Paddy Sweeney, two Galway developers who also became involved in one of the biggest property deals of the boom, the purchase of the 331-acre Millennium Park in Naas, Co Kildare for 312m.

The portion of Northpoint which sold at auction comprises seven retail warehouse units, three warehouses and six office units extending to 11,032 sq m (118,750 sq ft) over lower ground, ground, first and second floors. A retail warehouse, Unit 1, was the only one of these units which was tenanted. It is let at 30,000 per annum.

The property also includes 240 basement parking spaces and 190 surface spaces. A further two retail units and six office units at Northpoint had previously been sold separately.

A commercial investment in Glasnevin Business Park, Dublin 11, sold for 1,005,000, or 44pc over its 700,000 guide price. It is located in an area which is within walking distance of Broombridge Luas and rail stations and has attracted a lot of comment about its potential for redeveloping industrial properties for housing. The 1,536 sq m (16,533 sq ft) block contains four ground floor warehouse units and four first floor office units. Four of the units, which are occupied by two tenants, generate 40,200 in annual rent. The other four are vacant.

The auction was third time lucky for a lot with 15 dwellings which effectively sold for only 30,000 per property. Known as 1-15 Ullard Holiday Homes, Ullard, Graiguenamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, it had failed to sell last May when its guide price was 750,000, and in July it was cut to 650,000 but again didn't sell. Last week it was reduced further and this time sold for its 450,000 guide after only one bid.

The lot comprises 10 one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom apartments and a four-bedroom detached house. Four apartments are tenanted and generate gross rent of 20,280 a year.

A Dublin city centre mixed-use investment, 70 Gardiner Street Lower, Dublin 1, on the corner with Talbot Street, sold for 812,000, or more than 80pc over its 450,000 guide price. With a total floor area extending to 254 sq m (2,734 sq ft), it comprises two retail units, three offices and storage accommodation. It generates 60,000 per annum from two tenants and its second and third floors are vacant.

A terraced investment property at Site 3A, Unit 11, Canal Bank, Parkwest Industrial Estate, Park West, Dublin 12, sold for its 430,000 guide price after one bid. It comprises warehouse and office accommodation extending to 638 sq m (6,870 sq ft) and is let to Arena Hospitality Ltd t/a Egan Hospitality Group for a rent of 40,000 per annum, suggesting a gross initial yield of 9.3pc.

A city centre creche at Alexandra Walk Apartment Complex, Whitefriar Street, Dublin 8, sold for its 395,000 guide price. Extending to 296 sq m (3,186 sq ft), its rent is 42,000 per annum, including VAT, suggesting a gross yield of around 8.1pc.

Among the tenanted dwellings at the auction, suburban houses which might appeal to families fetched the strongest prices. For instance a semi-detached three bedroom house in Clonsilla sold for 266,000, and with annual rent of 12,000 this equates to a gross yield of only 4.5pc. Extending to 101 sq m (1,087 sq ft), 6 Elmwood Close, Dublin 15, sold for 27pc over its 210,000 guide and also 41,000 more than what the neighbouring 24 Elmwood Close sold for in 2016.

A similar yield of only 4.98pc was seen with the sale of a two-bedroom apartment near Dublin Airport. Located on the third floor, the 59 sq m (639 sq ft) Apartment 23, Temple Lawns, Northwood, Santry, Dublin 9, sold for 217,000, 37,000 over its guide.

The yield is low because the rent is only 900 per month which could explain why the price was cheap relative to its neighbour, 22 Temple Lawns, which sold for 250,000 in June 2017.

In Tallaght, an even larger three-bedroom semi, 19 Kingswood View, sold for its 245,000 guide and with an annual rent of 15,000 this equates to a gross yield of 6.1pc. It extends to 105 sq m (1,130 sq ft) and also has room to extend to the side. The Property Price Register shows that most sales in Kingswood have achieved more than 300,000.

One of the highest Dublin yields was for Apartment 27, Aengus Hall, Belgard Square, Tallaght, Dublin 24, which sold for its 175,000 guide. With rent of 16,296 per annum this equates to an initial gross yield of as much as 9.3pc.

The day before, Sherry FitzGerald held a public auction which sold 14 of its 16 lots.

The most valuable was a mixed-use investment near Fanore beach at Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare, which sold prior to auction for around its 275,000 guide price. Known as Craggagh, it generates 12,000 from a 111.5 sq m (1,200 sq ft) convenience store. Upstairs are three vacant apartments. A restaurant in the building is not included in the sale.

Dublin lots included Apartment 1, Verdemont, Snugborough Road, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, a three-bedroom, 109 sq m (1,173 sq ft) duplex, which sold for its 180,000 AMV.The site has the benefit of extensive road frontage to Link Road, and sites to its western side at its junction with Ballincollig's main street.

Edward Hanafin and Mark Kennedy of Lisney are quoting a guide price of 950,000 for a prime development site in Ballincollig, Co Cork.

The former ESB Depot and showroom sits on an L-shaped parcel of land extending to 0.67 hectares (1.65 acres).

The site has the benefit of extensive road frontage to Link Road, and sites to its western side at its junction with Ballincollig's main street.

The property is very well located close to Eastside Retail Centre where occupiers include Iceland and Costa Coffee. This is an established mixed-commercial location in Ballincollig, while Westpoint Business Park is situated to the south.

The site is occupied currently by a single storey building of 472 sq m (5,085 sq ft). The property has been vacant for many years however and is in poor repair. The site is mainly laid out with parking and hard standing areas.

The selling agents say that the site's main appeal would be as a development site for higher value uses, owing to its strategic location and road frontage. The land is zoned 'existing built-up area' under the relevant Local Area Plan. This provides for a range of commercial and residential uses, subject to the necessary planning permission being obtained.

Edward Hanafin and Mark Kennedy expect the property to attract strong interest from both developers and investors.Cheaper houses: UK landlords are exiting the pricier London market in increasing numbers in search of higher returns in cities in the north of England

UK landlords are heading downmarket. Battered by tax hikes, real estate investors are seeking out cheaper homes in the north of England that incur lower stamp duty and offer higher returns than properties in other parts of the country. If they're buying at all.

The latest investment figures show that landlords spent 30pc less in the first half than in the same period in 2015, before the stamp-duty increases were announced, according to data compiled by Hamptons International.

Declines in pricier areas, such as London and southeast England, were even more pronounced.

The shift toward cheaper areas could create a "risk for the future" because they're more vulnerable in a downturn, according to Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at the firm.

Demand for rental properties has traditionally been higher in London because of a lack of affordable homes for sale and the city's younger and more mobile population, she said in an interview.

A sales-tax surcharge on second home owners and landlords introduced in 2016 compounded plans to phase out tax relief on mortgage payments unveiled by former chancellor George Osborne in 2015. That, together with a gloomier outlook for the UK's housing market after years of rapid growth in London and the south east, has driven the total value of homes bought by landlords to a five-year low.

The tax hike on landlords with mortgages has also encouraged more investors to focus on achieving the highest rental yields possible, rather than betting on cities like London that have seen the largest and most consistent price rises in recent decades, Beveridge said. Rents across Britain rose 1.6pc in the year through September to Stg980 a month, the Hamptons data show.

The average price of a home bought by a landlord in the first half of 2018 was Stg174,580, down 4pc from a year earlier. Compared with the peak of the buy-to-let market in 2016, values are down 7pc. In total, Stg12.1bn of homes were bought by landlords in the six months through June, down from a record Stg21.2bn two years earlier.

BloombergIn all, there is accommodation for 200 cattle

It isn't often you find a farm of over 300ac that comes without a Georgian pile or an inch of waste. I found one at Rowlestown in Co Dublin.

Extending to 336ac, this farmer's farm is in perfect heart with a magnificent yard and suitable for any enterprise.

Indeed, strong and active interest has already manifest in the sale, with Goffs Country handling the private treaty transaction. The holding was put on the market as an entire or in lots with a guide of 20,000/ac.

Located 10km from Dublin Airport, 8km from Swords and adjacent to the village of Rowlestown, the property is one of a number owned and farmed by the current owner, who is in the process of downsizing.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close The farm at Rowlestown, Co Dublin is home to a herd of 500 commercial land pedigree sucklers and also 128ac under tillage In all, there is accommodation for 200 cattle / Facebook

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Whatsapp The farm at Rowlestown, Co Dublin is home to a herd of 500 commercial land pedigree sucklers and also 128ac under tillage

On my journey to Rowlestown I took the familiar road to Dublin Airport and continued on the M1 until I reached Exit 4 for Swords.

Thanks to satellite navigation and Goffs' directions, a warren of country roads brought me to the property.

Andrew Nolan of Goffs was hot on my heels and we drove into the spacious yard decked out in a range of modern sheds in perfect nick.

The yard includes a massive A-roofed eight-column shed serviced by a wide feeding passage and at either side slatted pens with lie-back areas to the rear. In all there is accommodation for 200 cattle while behind the shed is a concrete yard with a series of holding pens and a range of comprehensive handling facilities.

Opposite the main cattle shed is another A-roofed shed enclosed on three sides and this can be used for machinery storage or fodder storage. Adjacent to that is a four-column fully enclosed feed shed. The yard also contains a double silage slab.

The land is made up of bone dry, fertile, North Dublin ground serviced by a fine internal road system.

Andrew took me on a tour of the ground in his jeep driving at will along the internal roads and across the land without a bother.

Laid out in 29 divisions, it is divided by top-class fencing that includes post and rail, electric fencing and traditional hedgerow while internal custom-made gates secure each paddock and field. There is piped water to all divisions.

The 336ac has extensive road frontage on three sides with double road frontage in one portion where the public road separates two fields from the rest. There are numerous gated entrances from the roads giving plenty of access.

At present the farm is divided between tillage and permanent pasture with 128ac in tillage and 208 in grass. The farm is home to a herd of 500 sucklers made up of 320 commercial cattle and 180 pedigree Charolais.

This is a seriously impressive land holding.

"It is a model farm," Andrew Nolan says, "a proper commercial holding that could be used for tillage livestock or dairy."

It has to be a strong contender for farm of the year in farmland sales.Companies led by a woman are more likely to seek growth through collaboration with external partners. Stock image

More than half of companies led by women have no external funding at all, compared with 30pc of male-led businesses - and three times as many female business leaders regard access to capital as their biggest challenge.

The results are from EY's Global Growth Barometer, based on a survey of 2,766 senior business leaders.

In the report, advisory firm EY said the lack of access to funding matters in particular to high potential, early stage businesses. When such companies fail to secure funding they have a harder time scaling up, it noted.

The statistics for venture funding of early-stage companies are especially stark - in 2017 97pc of venture funding globally was invested in companies headed by men. The research also found that one in five women CEOs have no plans for raising capital, compared with just 3pc of male CEOs.

Perhaps to compensate, companies led by a woman are more likely to seek growth through collaboration with external partners.

The findings are announced in Ireland to mark National Women's Enterprise Day, which aims to highlight the contribution of female entrepreneurs and to encourage more women to start their own businesses.

Almost three times as many women as men say funding is the most significant factor in building their company's agility (17pc versus 6pc), while 17pc believe the cost and availability of equity finance is the greatest barrier to growth, compared with 11pc of male peers.Employers group Ibec has cancelled a joint event with the Irish Saudi Arabia Business Council (ISABC).

The cancellation comes amid an international outcry over the disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

Billed as a "joint speaking event", it was due to take place in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin today.

Ibec did not specify a reason for the event's cancellation, but the Irish branch of the National Union of Journalists had called for it.

'The New York Times' reported that Turkish officials have said there are recordings of Mr Khashoggi's murder and dismemberment within the consulate.

US President Donald Trump said his administration had asked the Turkish government for the recordings

Saudi Arabia initially said the 'Washington Post' contributor exited the building alive, without backing up that claim.

Ryanair chairman David Bonderman is one of a number of high-profile business individuals to have pulled out of an investment conference due to take place in Saudi Arabia next week. Executives from major European banks including BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Societe Generale have dropped out.

IMF head Christine Lagarde deferred a trip to the country which would have included the conference.In the running: Sharon Donnery can count on the support of ECB policymakers from northern nations. Photo: Collins

Sharon Donnery is getting closer to becoming the eurozone's top bank supervisor as she and her two competitors prepare for scrutiny by lawmakers and the European Central Bank.

The deputy governor of Ireland's Central Bank can count on the support of a bloc of ECB policymakers from northern nations when the Governing Council holds a secret ballot next month, according to officials familiar with the matter.

While the European Parliament could be a bigger hurdle because of her tough stance on bad loans, Donnery has momentum over her opponents with her experience and the desire to redress the ECB's gender imbalance, the officials said. They asked not to be named because the process is confidential. An ECB spokesman declined to comment.

The other candidates to succeed Daniele Nouy at the helm of the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) on January 1, overseeing 119 of the currency union's biggest lenders, are two men: Italy's Andrea Enria and France's Robert Ophele.

The SSM chair is the first of four key appointments in the next year that will reshape the leadership of the ECB, including the presidency after Mario Draghi. It's the only one that the Governing Council has a significant role in filling, but the decision is likely to influence how euro-area governments divide up the other spoils.

"Donnery would be seen positively by those who want faster progress on non-performing loans," said Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, a professor at the School of Banking, Finance and Insurance at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. "But we need someone who can embody the European interest and avoid further division by not being too aggressive."

The three candidates are likely to face informal hearings at the European Parliament next Tuesday in Strasbourg. The ECB's Governing Council will then need to choose a single nominee, which could happen at its next non-monetary policy meeting on November 7. The selected person must be approved by the parliament before the appointment is signed off by governments.

If Ms Donnery has a weakness, it's probably her views on how fast eurozone banks should reduce their bad debt. She was behind SSM proposals last year which legislators criticised and successfully fought to get watered down. The European Parliament's legal service even accused the ECB of overstepping its supervisory powers.

Another potential hurdle is that if Donnery gets the role, it willl raise question marks over Central Bank Governor Philip Lane's chances of being appointed to the ECB's Executive Board next year. He's considered well-qualified to replace chief economist Peter Praet, but eurozone finance ministers make board appointments and they may balk at allowing a small country like Ireland to hold two senior positions.

BloombergBuoyant: Chief executive Eamonn OReilly says volumes at Dublin Port are 23pc higher than they were in 2007

An expected 3.3pc annual growth rate at Dublin Port established just six months ago by the facility to determine its infrastructure requirements for the next two decades is already being exceeded.

The chief executive of Dublin Port Company, Eamonn O'Reilly, said the current pace of growth means the semi-state firm now needs to speed up investment.

New figures show that cargo volumes at Dublin Port have continued to rise as the economy improves, with total volumes up 4.7pc to 28.4m gross tonnes during the first nine months of the year. Imports rose 6pc and exports were 3pc higher.

Mr O'Reilly said that the facility has witnessed an "extraordinary" rate of growth, with volumes of cargo through the trade gateway having risen 36pc in the past six years.

"This rate is outstripping our long-term master plan growth rate of 3.3pc per annum and underpins the need for us to accelerate our capital investment programme to ensure that Dublin Port has sufficient capacity for future growth," he said.

The CEO also confirmed that Dublin Port has begun construction of "primary border control infrastructure" to ensure that the facility is prepared "for whatever Brexit might throw at us". Earlier this year, Dublin Port published a revised master plan where it based future expansion requirements based on a new 3.3pc expected rate of annual growth. It had previously forecast annual growth of 2.5pc, a figure that had been set in 2012.

Mr O'Reilly pointed out that this year, 132m is being invested in Dublin Port under its 2040 master plan.

"After decades of underinvestment in port infrastructure, we need to invest 1bn in the next 10 years," he said.

Mr O'Reilly added that the company is continuing work on its Alexandra Basin redevelopment and will soon bring its second major strategic infrastructure project plans to An Bord Pleanala.

The latest figures for the port show that imports rose 6pc to 16.9m gross tonnes in the third quarter of 2018, while exports were 3pc higher at 11.5m tonnes.

"Having come through the worst of recessions from 2008, our volumes are already 23pc higher than they were in 2007," said Mr O'Reilly. "In the timescale of port infrastructure projects, we need to press ahead with our infrastructure projects notwithstanding the uncertainties of Brexit."Opulent: Killashee House is one of a number of hotels owned by Tetrarch Capital

OPERATING profits at the four-star Killashee House hotel in Co Kildare last year increased marginally to 1.99m.

This followed revenues at hotel firm, Craigfort Taverns Ltd, going up from 12.03m to 12.12m last year.

The directors state that they expect to continue to invest in the business in the coming year with a view to achieving managed growth and profitability in the company's operations.

The firm recorded a pre-tax profit of 1.49m after paying bank interest charges of 499,178. The pre-tax profit of 1.49m is less than half the pre-tax profits of 3.74m recorded in 2016. However, the 2016 profits were boosted by an exceptional non-cash 2.5m gain in the increase of the company's property.

The hotel is one of a number of hotels owned by Tetrarch Capital. Other hotels in the Tetrarch group include the Marker hotel in Dublin, Mount Juliet in Co Kilkenny and the five-star Powerscourt hotel in Co Wicklow. The 141-bedroom hotel located near Naas was previously owned by businessman Jack Tierney. The hotel's conference and events business contributed to last year's strong performance.

The company paid a dividend of 1.3m to its parent firm, Chalus Holdings Ltd, on March 31 2017 and the firm paid a dividend of 630,000 to Chalus in March of this year. Numbers employed by the hotel in 2017 increased from 143 to 158, with staff costs increasing from 4.51m to 4.59m.Ulster Bank has made a mistake - but this time customers are to benefit.

People who opted to fix their mortgage rate at 2.3pc for two years have been written to erroneously telling them they have the rate for three years.

The bank has apologised for the error, and said customers can keep the juicy rate for three years.

It has also offered 250 in compensation to those affected, even though customers are due to gain from the blunder.

Some 300 letters were sent out before the bank realised its error and pulled them.

Four people took up the offer to fix for the three years, but it is understood the bank will honour the terms of the error-strewn letter to anyone who received it.

The 2.3pc rate, fixed for two years, is the lowest on the market. And it is available to those who have a loan to the value of at least 90pc.

Most low rates are restricted to those with very low loan values.

New and existing Ulster Bank customers were told they would be wise to sign up to the two-year rate.

The error saw the bank write to those taking up the new low rate, which was launched in the summer.

They were told they had the rate until a date listed which is three years from now.

The issue came to light on the Askaboutmoney.com website.

The founder of the site, Brendan Burgess said: "It is nice for a change to see that a bank makes a mistake in favour of the customer rather than penalising them."

One poster on Askaboutmoney.com wrote: "Fixed with Ulster Bank earlier this year at 2.3pc and got a call today to say they messed up on the letter they sent, and said it was valid for three years instead of two.

"They made the same mistake for a number of people and will be honouring three years if I want it, and in addition they gave me 250 as a goodwill gesture. Score."

Staying on the 2.3pc rate for an extra year could save a family with a 300,000 mortgage 4,000.

Mr Burgess said those who got the letters that contained the error are now quids in.

"On a 200,000 mortgage that extra year would work out at a saving of 3,000 as the rate you go to after that fixed period is 4.3pc."

He said European wholesale rates were due to rise at the end of next year, which meant the rate for those coming out of a fixed rate could be even higher in two or three years.

He advised all existing Ulster Bank customers who are not on a tracker to sign up for the 2.3pc even if it is only for the advertised two years.Ryanair has secured a major legal win in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in a ruling that will have implications for takeover activity across the European Union.

The ECJ has ruled that the airline is entitled to recover Vat on professional services costs it incurred during its failed takeover attempt of Aer Lingus in 2006.

Specifics related to the case were referred to the European Court of Justice by Ireland's Supreme Court, which was hearing an appeal by Ryanair of a High Court ruling that the carrier could not claim 770,000 in Vat it incurred on legal and stockbroking fees connected to the Aer Lingus takeover effort.

Aer Lingus is now owned by IAG, with Ryanair having sold its nearly 30pc stake in its rival to the airline group in 2015.

The European Court of Justice's own advocate general had earlier this year given an opinion that the Vat was recoverable by Ryanair in the case. The ECJ confirmed the finding yesterday.

Ryanair had requested that the Vat on specific expenditure related to the attempted takeover should be deducted, arguing that its intention, after it gained control of Aer Lingus, had been to provide management services to its rival that would have been subject to Vat.

The Revenue Commissioners refused the request, and Ryanair then appealed to the Tax Appeals Commission. That appeal was dismissed.

A second appeal was brought by Ryanair before the Circuit Court, which confirmed the Revenue Commissioners' decision. But the Circuit Court did refer the case to the High Court for an opinion. When the High Court upheld the Circuit Court's decision in 2013, Ryanair appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court stayed proceedings as it referred two questions to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling.

One related to the treatment of Vat where a potential acquirer spends money with a view to eventually providing management services to the target company, and where the pursuit of the target is defined as economic activity under relevant EU law even if the acquisition could not be completed.

The second question posed to the ECJ was if Vat on expenditure made in pursuing the takeover target could then be deducted. The ECJ said that the "mere acquisition and holding of shares in a company" does not in itself amount to relevant economic activity.

But it added: "A company which carries out preparatory acts which are part of a proposed acquisition of shares in another company with the intention of pursuing an economic activity consisting in involvement in the management of that other company by providing management services subject to Vat, must be considered a taxable person, within the meaning of the Sixth Directive."

The ECJ said: "It appears that, first, Ryanair acted as a taxable person at the time it incurred the expenditure linked to the services at issue.

"By doing so, Ryanair thus benefits, in principle, from the right to deduct Vat paid on the services at issue immediately, even if, ultimately, that economic activity, which was to give rise to taxable transactions, was not carried out."Q I am 25 and started a design and printing company last year. While the business is still small-scale, it is successful. I am in negotiations on a mid-sized contract that would be game-changing for my business. I want to understand how to increase my chances of securing this.

A Put yourself into the shoes of the person offering this contract. Think about what they will be looking for and what their concerns might be. This will allow you to position your business accordingly and offer the reassurance required that might not otherwise exist with a new company and a new owner.

With your business comes energy, a fresh approach and enthusiasm. That can also bring with it perceptions of inexperience, inability to cope with volumes and, most importantly, the fear that you will let down the customer through that inexperience.

When you identify possible concerns the client might have, then put steps into place that will neutralise these. An example might be that the client may be concerned that you won't have the experience of a more established company. You could, as part of your pitch, get someone who is retired from the industry and put them on a voluntary advisory board, which is commonplace in many young companies now.

It is also good to legislate for things that might go wrong. If you have an equipment breakdown, what is the contingency plan for this? This might include subcontracting the work in the rare event of that happening.

The other concern might be the financial stability of such a young business. You could take your financial adviser to any meetings you have, so the client gets a clear sense that you are surrounded by an experienced team and the business is well-financed.

As a word of caution, just make sure the business is capable of taking such a large order on board. The last thing you want to do is overstretch things so much out of enthusiasm, and then find that the business can't actually deliver.

I really hope you get this new business. Do let me know how it all ends up.

Q What are your views on the level of support the supermarkets now appear to be giving to Irish producers, which looks like it is at an all-time high?

A There was never a better time to be a food producer in Ireland. All of the retailers are fighting to be the first to support new emerging produces. There are lots of different programmes which involve upskilling and helping the producers to trade more successfully with that retailer.

There is nothing new about this, and Superquinn were the pioneers when most other retailers didn't have a good interest. We genuinely tried to help early-stage producers in the market and worked with them as their journey evolved.

The positive about what has happened in the market place now, with all of the retailers vying to be the champion of new emerging producers, is that there are far more opportunities than there would have been two decades ago. The majority of the food retailers now have systems and supports in place to help emerging food producers.

Can I perhaps throw out a challenge? All of the programmes and supports that are in place are good, but seem to focus on getting the producer onto the shelf. I don't see any programmes offering bursaries or grants. I don't read about any retailers having a 10-day payment system for new emerging producers for the first year. I am not aware of any retailer who has solved the challenging area of distribution for small producers.

In the words of a famous political slogan many years ago: "A lot done - more to do."Know your audience: Sales pitches do not work at all for investors  its a very different audience. Stock image

The voxgig pitch deck is done. You reach a point of diminishing marginal returns with anything, and you have to accept that some investors will never write a cheque no matter how gorgeous your slides, or convincing your numbers. At a certain point no further tweaks are going to convince somebody to invest. It's easy to forget you have a business to run when you're deep into fundraising, and keep trying to perfect your materials, but that is not an optimal use of a founder's time.

Speaking of time, it's currently very limited for the Voxgig management team as we have just started running three concurrent high intensity trials of our system.

That takes a lot of focus to get right, and the context switching can be very draining. It's much easier to sell your value proposition to people in your own industry - you have many shared concepts and speak the same language.

It's a mistake to assume that that understanding carries over to fundraising. What you'll find is that sales pitches do not work at all for investors - it's a very different audience.

Our investing collateral is now mostly complete. What do we have? A business model, which is a spreadsheet with a detailed breakdown of your expected revenues and costs, as accurately as you can manage; a one-pager business outline that lets potential investors quickly scan your proposal - this helps everyone save time as those who are not investing in your 'space' and quickly pass; and finally the pitch deck itself.

I have never found it possible to build these materials in isolation, and I've found it's more useful to draft them all up first and then iterate towards final versions.

You'll be road-testing these documents, first with close advisers, then with other startup founders, and finally with friendly investors.

It's also important to present to investors who may not be interested (they might be late-stage rather than seed, say), but who are willing to offer advice and feedback.

You need to assimilate of all this data and work it back into the deck.

Even when finally hit the road, you'll still be adjusting as you go. That said, the fundamental narrative and numbers need to be in place - it's a good sign if your business idea changes day by day based on the last meeting you had.

Either you can argue your competitive positioning works, your model is reasonable, and your team is strong, or you need to stop and build a better case for funding.

If you are a first-time entrepreneur you really do need to participate in an accelerator to develop and practice the skills needed to handle this investing process.

Getting into an accelerator is a lot easier than getting funding. The painful corollary to that fact is that if you can't get into an accelerator, your idea is probably very underdeveloped - and that's great to learn early before you burn too much personal time and capital.

What structure does the final voxgig pitch deck have? Let's walk through it.

1 Introduction: one slide with our logo and elevator pitch.

2 Problem definition: we need one slide to set the scene - we have to explain how events are used as a sales channel.

Then we talk about that classic problem "half of my advertising budget is wasted ... I just don't know which half" as it applies to events.

We end with some evidence of the problem - quotes from our customer discovery and industry sources.

3 Our solution: we're building a software-as-a-service platform to measure events, so that's the first slide here. The next slide explains how we capture valuable measurements by providing collaboration tools that are useful to all stakeholders. Finally we talk about how this data will make it easier to recommend the most suitable events and conferences to attend, etc.

4 Traction: you need to show you've done more than write business plans on the back of napkins. Our traction is the success of the speaker's newsletter, and the enthusiastic engagement that we've seen from trial clients.

5 Advantage: anybody can sell lemonade - what makes yours special? We focus on collaboration first, and help all stakeholders in the events industry work with each other. This creates a network effect that provides a defensible position to grow the user base.

6 Business Model: how do you make money? We have a slide on the pricing model, and then cover the expected customer lifecycle. We also show why we will have high retention - customers will keep using us because the keep running events.

7 The Market: is it big enough? We talk about the events market overall, and particularly the tech space, where we operate. We talk about the Total Addressable Market (remember all that work from a few columns back). We talk about how the market will evolve ...

8 Competition: ... which is a good segue into some slides covering our competitors and how we differentiate.

9 Team: you need slides for the management team, and for the advisers. We may move this much nearer the start of the deck if we know that the investor considers the team more important that the idea (and many do).

10 Financials: this is where you summarise all the work that went into Excel. If you can, get an actual accountant to look over it, and try not to be too hurt when they keep rolling their eyes.

11 Raise: and finally, the details of your fundraising. How much, and on what basic terms, and for what.

12 Appendix: and here you put all the detailed information slides that back up your main arguments.

This structure is relatively standard, and if you look online you'll see many examples and minor variants. Many successful startups also publish their original decks, and we will certainly be following in that tradition once the dust settles.

One final practical tip: use Google Slides to build the deck. This makes it much easier to collaborate with your advisers and keep everything consistent. If you're emailing files all over the place it's very easy to end up editing the wrong version, which is just a waste of time. Google Slides also exports very nicely to PDF format, which you'll need for sharing the deck.

(Newsletter update: 4,293 subscribers, and an open rate of 16pc. We are killing it on the open rate - the industry average is 10pc or less.)

Richard Rodger is the founder of voxgig. He is a former co-founder of Nearform, a technology consultancy firm based in WaterfordMaking his mark: Oisin Hanrahan is now one of Irelands most successful young enterpreneurs after selling Handy.com to American rival Angi Homeservices Photo: Adrian Weckler

IIT'S BEEN a busy month for Oisin Hanrahan, the thirty-something Rathcoole man who built one of America's most-used home cleaning services. Last week, he and co-founder Umang Dua sold Handy.com. Having raised almost 100m in recent years for its expansion across US, Canadian and UK cities, Hanrahan and Dua decided to accept an acquisition offer from an American rival, Nasdaq-listed Angi Homeservices.

Hanrahan, who started out as a property developer in Hungary aged just 19 before going on to co-found a political content service with the Web Summit's Paddy Cosgrave, is tight-lipped about how much Handy.com was sold for.

But he says that they made the decision to sell to try to accelerate their ability to add new services and reach more people.

"It just felt like the time was right," he says. "We really want to integrate with as many large retailers as possible. Doing that with the strength of the Angi Homeservices brand behind us felt like a really natural fit."

Since 2012, the company has had seven different funding rounds.

It was born in 2012 when Hanrahan dropped out of Harvard Business School, where he met Dua, to focus on the household services firm in an era when online services were starting to boom.

Handy started out primarily as a cleaner-for-hire service, but has expanded into other services in almost 30 major US cities, as well as Canada and Britain.

It has had some challenges in recent years, partly wrapped up in the complicated transition of some parts of the labour force to a 'gig economy'.

Hanrahan says that becoming part of a bigger outfit seemed like the most sensible way to keep its expansion on track.

"You reach these decision points in what seems like a gradual manner but then it happens suddenly," he says. "You're going along and then things change. So you're trying to figure out the best way to scale the business even faster, whether it's across more customers or more professionals or across more services.

"Chris [Terrill, CEO of Angi Homeservices] and Brandon [Ridenour, CEO-designate of Angi] really understand home services. Over the last 20 years they've built a platform that truly has scale. It just feels like a great opportunity to go and join another team and continue to scale out the business."

Part of the deal with Angi Homeservices is that Hanrahan and Dua will stay with Handy and remain based in New York. The aim is to keep growing, with 30 roles in the company up for grabs.

The acquisition transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is set to be completed at the end of the month.

Regardless of how much Angi Homeservices is paying for Handy, Hanrahan is now one of Ireland's most successful young entrepreneurs.

He joins the founders of 1bn-valued Intercom and the Web Summit's Paddy Cosgrave, who just signed a 110m deal with Portuguese authorities, as part of a wave of tech-oriented millennials making their mark on the business world.

But for those who think that anyone can simply ramp up an enterprise if they know a thing or two about software as a service or online services, Hanrahan has a stark message.

"One of the lessons I take from the last six years is that building companies is really hard," he says. "It's hard to go out there and recruit a team, get customers and build great products. We've definitely had highs and lows so far. What I take from it is just appreciation for anyone who goes out there and does it."

Hanrahan still keeps tabs on some of the other Irish companies trying to scale.

"It was good to see Paddy's deal get done with Lisbon," he says. "I don't fully understand how that 3bn buyout figure works, but it's a great number. They've built an incredible conference with tens of thousands of people going every year and it's great that it continues to be based out of Dublin."

Like others who have made it to a certain point on the tech entrepreneurial ladder in Ireland, Hanrahan is now investing in younger Irish startups. "There's a great crop of people coming up," he says. "I'm fortunate to have invested recently in Advisable.com, which is another ex-Web Summit person [Peter O'Malley]."

But while capital is easier to come by these days, the availability of people to work at a startup has become more of a challenge.

"I think it's much more challenging to build a business now, even though it's a much easier environment to raise capital in," he says.

"We had a period in Ireland in 2009 when unemployment was pretty high, but finance was more difficult. I think the businesses that were built then are probably going to be a little different to the ones built now where unemployment is much lower but the cost of labour is much higher. So they'll be quite different."

Angi Homeservices operates in eight countries. It's best known for its HomeAdvisor and Angie's List brands.

"Handy gives us a strong foothold in the gig economy space with an innovative product and infrastructure to power retailers' in-home services offerings," Terrill said last week. "This is a significant driver of the growth of the home-services category and our acceleration within it."

So given that he's now investing in other startups, is Hanrahan thinking of moving on anything else, or possibly away from Handy? No, he says.

"Our primary goal remains the same, to create the best service experience possible for our customers and pros. We've done a lot of work recently around building a great technology platform to help retailers. The idea is that when you buy a product that needs installation or assembly, right at point of sale in a store, you can use Handy's technology platform to buy services right there and then. By joining Angi Homeservices we can now bring that experience to more people."Buckle up: Airlines could see yields come under pressure due to continuing trade wars and slowing global economic growth. Stock image

Airlines across the world are making less money compared to a year ago as fuel costs rise, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

It said that the earnings before interest and tax margin for a sample of 99 airlines fell to 7.8pc in the second quarter of 2018 from 10.3pc during the second quarter of 2017.

IATA noted that global passenger yields - the average price per ticket - have moved slightly higher in recent months, with yields for premium cabins continuing to show "more resilience" than economy seats. It said those higher premium yields have helped to offset some of the impact of rising input costs.

Premium passengers accounted for 5.2pc of total international air traffic in the first seven months of 2018, according to IATA, but generated 30.4pc of total passenger revenue in the period.

Oil prices have risen about 40pc in the past year, heaping pressure on airlines, while trade tensions and weaker global economic outlook could see yields come under more pressure.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has predicted that the high fuel price will push some carriers out of business. He also said yesterday that a no-deal Brexit could ground UK flights for up to three weeks.

IATA said that passenger demand across the globe has continued to outpace capacity, which rose 5.5pc year-on-year in August. Passenger demand was 6.4pc higher that month.Firebrand in chief: Under US President Donald Trump the US has adopted an aggressive trade stance. AP photo

The US Trade Representative's office told Congress on Tuesday it intends to open trade talks with the European Union, the United Kingdom and Japan.

Under fast-track rules, the United States cannot start talks with the EU, Japan and the UK until 90 days after notifying Congress.

"We will continue to expand US trade and investment by negotiating trade agreements with Japan, the EU and the United Kingdom," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

"We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses."

The letters from Mr Lighthizer to Congress come weeks after the US won agreement on reworking the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and as the administration faces trade friction with China.

The administration aims to "address both tariff and non-tariff barriers and to achieve fairer, more balanced trade" with the EU and Japan, the letters said.

Japan "is an important but still too often underperforming market for US exporters of goods," the letter said. It said the United States had a $69bn (59.8bn) trade deficit in goods with Japan, much of that in the auto sector.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would protect its interests, based on a joint statement issued at a Japan-US summit in September. "It will not be an easy negotiation," Mr Suga told a regular news conference.

"But we would like to proceed with talks in line with our stance that we will push where necessary and defend our position where necessary, in a way that protects our national interests."

The letter on the EU said the European Union and the United States have $1.1 trillion in annual two-way trade, "the largest and most complex" economic relationship in the world, and added that the United States has a $151.4bn (131.2bn) trade deficit in goods. The letter to Congress on Britain said it planned to start talks "as soon as it is ready" after Britain exits the EU on March 29. The US wants to develop "cutting edge obligations for emerging sectors where US and UK innovators and entrepreneurs are most competitive".

Representative Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said: "These three economies are some of our largest and most important trading partners, but they are also markets in which US farmers, manufacturers and service providers face significant barriers."

Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee that oversees trade issues, said: "The administration must take the time to tackle trade barriers comprehensively."

He urged that the opportunity be used to set a high bar in areas such as labour rights, environmental protection and digital trade to benefit workers and firms.

Last week, senators said Mr Lighthizer informed them the administration planned to soon launch trade talks with the Philippines but the US Trade Representative on Tuesday did not notify Congress of formal plans to open talks.

ReutersTHE cat is out of the bag about Bono's latest, and rather unusual, music project.

It has emerged that the U2 frontman is one of the stars who have contributed to an album in memory of an artist's dead cat.

This may not be that surprising to his fans because, after all, Bono is the man who brought us 'The Fly' as part of the 'Achtung Baby' album.

But not since 'Smelly Cat' by Phoebe Buffay in the television hit show 'Friends' has a musical project about a cat generated so much excitement.

The idea behind the new album came from French conceptual artist Sophie Calle who enlisted 38 musicians, also including Pharrell Williams and Jarvis Cocker, to contribute original music for her latest show which opened in Paris.

Musicians were tasked with writing a song dedicated to the memory of her late cat Souris, which translates as "mouse" in English.

It was following the cat's death that her friend, the American artist Laurie Anderson, composed a song for the pet, and this gift prompted Ms Calle to consider recruiting others to record a memorial album.

Ms Calle said some of the musicians who contributed to the memorial album knew her cat personally. She sent those who had never met Souris photos and descriptions, as well as a short video of their everyday life together. The artist had the pet, who died in 2014, for 17 years.

'Souris Calle' opens with an message from Bono who speaks over music. Calle announced the project in June and the project opened at the Perrotin gallery in Paris this month.

The exhibit includes a series of photos and texts that she wrote not just about the death of her cat, but also her close family and friends.

Video of the Day

Visitors to the solo show can listen to the tracks at stations around the famous gallery.

The exhibition will run in the French capital until December 22 .

Sophie Calle previously explained to Artnet: "When you say you're sad about the cat, it's a bit obscene for people. You can't say that.

"I mean, if I say my mother or my father is dead, everyone tells me: 'Oh, poor thing, she lost her mother, oh, poor thing, she lost her father'.

"But if we say that about our cat, we seem ridiculous. It makes me laugh when, for me in my daily life, it was almost more violent, because I lived with my cat. I didn't live with my parents."

Some of the artists composed pieces about Souris, while others wrote about cats and others focused on the wider theme of grief.Ollie Murphy is best known as the drummer for Indie band HamsandwicH, but now hes harnessing his experience in the industry to manage and mentor and up-and-coming musicians.

HamsandwicH have been on the scene for 15 years and have three studio albums under their belt, all released independently, and Ollie reckons their approach has helped them to avoid some of the pitfalls of the music business.

He credits former manager Derek Nally (who had also been legendary music venue Whelans booking agent) with equipping the band with the knowledge and wherewithal to navigate their careers themselves, on their own terms.

We had a great manager in Derek, Ollie tells Independent.ie. He taught me all about the business, and always instilled in us the way its important to give advice, to give something back as well.

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He spoke about music as a community. I think with bands coming up theres often a bit of rivalry and its a little bit unnecessary. He always said to me that its like a community and to just help each other out as much as you can.

Derek was always really good like that. He had so much time for people looking for advice. Its something thats very simple to do.

Derek died suddenly in 2010, much to the shock and sadness of everyone who knew him, not least Ollie and his fellow HamsandwicH band members.

It was awful crushing at the time and myself and Brian Darcy, [HamsandwicH guitar and piano] along with [manager and promoter] Stevo Berube, we took the reins to do the back office stuff and the mentoring stemmed from that. Stevo is a really good guy.

Ollie started out mentoring indie rock band Third Smoke, and has also taken David Anthony McGeowns band Bodies, Pursued by Dogs, and multi-instrumentalist Amy Quirke aka Skywriter, under his wing.

[Its about] putting them in touch with the right people and making sure their careers go down the way they want them to, he says, adding, There are a lot of sharks out there so its about keeping them away from that.

Video of the Day

While HamsandwicH's own experiences in the industry have been more positive than not, thanks in the main to Derek, Ollie is acutely aware that other artists are often not so lucky.

Weve heard from other peoples experiences with signing up to record companies, being dropped, and not being able to release their songs, he says.

Its really important to get proper legal advice. People hear record deal and publishing deal and they jump at it. Its really important to see what you can do yourself. Why would you be doing that with certain people? Having said that, there are some really good people out there, really good companies, but there are pitfalls too.

Being creative is not necessarily synonymous with good business sense and many artists are very young starting out. Ollies advice is practical  treat music like a business. Many up and coming musicians are expected to play for free in exchange for exposure, but its something that does not sit well with him.

The whole playing for free thing - you have to buy tickets and do this, that and the other. Its kind of soul destroying for a lot of bands, he says. "You have to think in a certain way and see it as a business. If youre travelling around to different counties and not getting paid it makes no sense whatsoever.

Musician Hilary Woods last week tweeted that she would not play the IMRO Other Room at Other Voices Live in Dingle this year as it was just not financially or emotionally feasible or sound to do any kind of gig 'free'/'in exchange for exposure'/no fee to cover costs, for tv corps r otherwise.

Other Voices issued a statement saying that artists performing at the Music Trail are offered accommodation, catering and a small fee. The IMRO Other Room and the Music Trail slot is offered together as a bundle, to an artist. They claimed that neither Woods nor her agent, label or team had reached out to organisers for clarification.

HamsandwicH played Other Voices in 2015. Ollie says its a huge platform for people - television, the Music Trail, and everything. Ive nothing but respect for them.

He adds, Its about how you choose what type of gig you can do. Its always important to put money back into the band. Dont just share it out. Pay your expenses, but weve always taken the model that most of the money goes back in the band. Use that money to do a video for your next release.

In the very early days he remembers HamsandwicH struggling to make ends meet while touring.

Its a tough one if people arent paying. As HamsandwicH we would never not pay a support band because in the early days weve been in the same instance where youre doing three shows and taking money out of your own pocket to go around to these shows and paying your own accommodation. If you were to put that money back in to the band thats a day recording.

The band has no such worries now, with three critically-acclaimed albums under their belt. Their latest single release, Bodies, landed in December 2017 but there is no release date for a fourth album, just yet. They prefer to take their time with the creative process.

Were taking it at our pace. Theres a lot of personal stuff as well, just families and life, basically, getting in the way slightly sometimes! laughs Ollie.

Niamh [Farrell] and Podge [McNamee] were doing vocals the other day with our long term producer Karl Odlum. Its really important to get it right. Were under no pressure. People put a lot of pressure on themselves  we have to do this, we have to do that. Take it in your own time, set your own deadlines, and break them sometimes, and set more deadlines, and put stuff out that youre proud of.

In the meantime theres a tour with two December shows in Whelans, the venue where Derek first spotted their potential. I love that venue, I always have, says Ollie.

The Wexford Street venue is also the location for a showcase hes hosting on Saturday October 20 for Bodies, Skywriter, and Third Smoke (check out their bios below). Munky will also feature in the showcase and IMRO and Golden Plec are on board for the event, which he is hoping to roll out to other cities and towns across the country.

Tickets for the Olly Murphy Presents showcase are priced at 10 and are available from www.wavtickets.ie and on the door, subject to availability.

MUNKY

MUNKY are an alternative rock band mixing disco grooves with grungy psych guitars. Their music is funky and furious, drawing influences from 70s disco and funk, 90s alt-rock and modern day psychedelia to produce their distinct sound. Their live shows have created a word of mouth buzz for their energy and quality.

In less than a year they have played Whelans Ones To Watch twice, opened for Le Galaxie, The Hot Sprockets and Raglans, been picked by Hot Press as one of the must see BIMM acts, played in Aviva Stadium and at festivals including Longitude festival, YS festival & Electric Picnic. Their first headline show sold out the main room of Whelan's and garnered high praise in reviews.

THIRD SMOKE

Third Smoke are an Irish indie rock band that build performances around a mixture of raucous gang vocals, dynamic harmonies and the chaotic swapping of instruments by five seamlessly synchronised multi-instrumentalists.

Musical influences range from the likes of the Dandy Warhols, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, Glass Animals and Fleet Foxes and through years of dedicated writing, exploration, format changing and continuous touring they have established a live show that channels a blend of anthemic melody driven indie rock together with powerful vocal interplay above a wall of crafted sound.

BODIES

Originally the solo project of multi-instrumentalist David Anthony McGeown, BODIES now play as a four-piece live band with the addition of Nathan Maher (guitar), Danilo Ward (bass) and Scott Johnson (drums). BODIES were one of the highlights of the Whelans Ones to Watch summer showcase festival. At this gig, having broken his wrist two days previously, David managed the first two songs with his hospital wrist brace, but was feeling restricted as the audience swelled. Never one to compromise, David ripped off the brace halfway through the gig so that he could play unrestrained - albeit with a broken wrist. Their sound draws influence from the likes of Radiohead, Muse, Manchester Orchestra & Sigur Ros.

Having released an EP, Soak, in November 2017 to critical acclaim, BODIES upcoming debut album Drench features collaborations with members of some of Irelands most prominent bands such as Squarehead, Kid Karate, Blooms, Kodaline and Overhead the Albatross.

SKYWRITER

Hailing from Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Amy Quirke started out as a drummer in a local band. Gigging at every opportunity across the length and breadth of Ireland, not only cemented her reputation as a multi-instrumentalist but also sowed the seeds for her own solo material.

Amy moved to London and then Melbourne, Australia to focus on writing. Combining the energy of both cities with her own real life experiences, she has developed her own brand of honest song writing, and after a stint in Los Angeles, California, Skywriter was born.

Taking a from working with Shane McGowan amongst others, Cronin brothers Mick and Johnny welcomed Skywriter to Live Transmission Studios to record her self titled debut EP. Amy collaborated with some of the midlands finest musicians including Dec Murphy of The Blizzards on drums.THE CONNERS - "Keep on Truckin'" - A sudden turn of events forces the Conners to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before, on the series premiere of "The Conners" (ABC/Eric McCandless) MAYA LYNNE ROBINSON, JAYDEN REY, LECY GORANSON, SARA GILBERT, LAURIE METCALF, ESTELLE PARSONS, AMES MCNAMARA

THE CONNERS - "Keep on TruckinO" - In the premiere episode, "Keep on TruckinO," a sudden turn of events forces the Conners to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. "The Conners" premieres TUESDAY, OCT. 16 (8:00-8:31 p.m. EDT), on ABC. (ABC/Eric McCandless) LECY GORANSON, SARA GILBERT

The world of TV and films arent exactly short on stories of stars whose careers were wrecked by egomania, excess, personal scandal or just simple lousy judgement.

In many cases, though, they recover  usually, once the notoriously hypocritical Hollywood establishment has decided theyve served a long enough banishment and deserve to be let back inside the tent.

Mel Gibson sits at the very top of the infamy dung heap. Gibsons drunken, anti-Semitic rant, later compounded by disgusting phone threats to his girlfriend that went public, sent his career crashing down in flames... or at least, so goes the popular myth.

The reality is that Gibson has never stopped working, even if the films are smaller than they used to be and the roles often supporting ones.

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Charlie Sheen was supposed to be a pariah in Hollywood after his extraordinary implosion, yet he went on to appear in 100 episodes of a cable channel sitcom called Anger Management and still picks up minor roles in minor films  although in truth, hes more famous these days for spouting anti-vaccine rubbish and spreading 9/11 truther conspiracy theories on trash like The Alex Jones Show.

Being finished often has a different meaning in Hollywood than it does elsewhere. Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, was supposed to be dead in the water after a video of him unleashing a torrent of racial abuse at black audience members during a stand-up gig went viral in 2006.

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And yet, hes since appeared in Curb Your Enthusiasm (which milked laughs from the incident), joined old pal Jerry Seinfeld in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and had a co-starring role in Kirstie Alleys short-lived sitcom Kirstie. Its amazing what a grovelling appearance on a late-night chat show will do for a disgraced actor.

At a time when Hollywood is more deeply mired in sexual assault scandals than ever before, the only star whose career and reputation have been permanently destroyed is Bill Cosby, otherwise known as inmate NN7687 of the Phoenix state prison. For everyone else, it seems, the door to redemption is always kept a little ajar.

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Which brings us to Roseanne Barr, who had to sit at home watching as The Conners  which is basically Roseanne Without Roseanne  made its debut on ABC, five months after the network pulled the plug on the Roseanne revival in the wake of Barrs racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett.

US critics were overwhelmingly impressed by the first episode. The Esquire critic wrote: For the first time since 1997, Roseanne felt like Roseanne  and it was because Roseanne wasnt a part of it.

Several other critics echoed that opinion. I havent seen any of the new Roseanne episodes; no channel in this part of the world showed them, and its highly unlikely theyll ever be shown anywhere again. In fact, all nine seasons from the original run have already been pulled from Hulu.

I did, however, watch The Conners (its not exactly hard to find on the internet) and the first episode, in which the family learns Roseanne died from an accidental opioid overdose and not the suspected heart attack, does a great job of pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.

In particular, John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) and Sara Gilbert (Darlene) do excellent work with a script that treads a fine line between humour and gravity. If you can forget for a half-hour that the character everyone is mourning was played by a woman whos been a frothing right-wing basket case for years now, youll enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Barrs campaign for rehabilitation has already begun. Yesterday, she issued a self-pitying statement, co-written with her rabbi, bleating about ABCs inability to see past a regrettable mistake, thereby denying the twin American values of both repentance and forgiveness.

Hollywood has a short memory. Give it another five months and shell be back with a new series.An average audience of 434,000 tuned in to Pat Kenny's Presidential Election Special on Virgin Media One on Wednesday night.

The 90 minute programme drew 44 per cent of the available TV audience as all six candidates including President Michael D Higgins, Peter Casey, Gavin Duffy, Senator Joan Freeman, Sean Gallagher and MEP Liadh Ni Riada went head to head on TV for the first time.

The programme had a reach - the number of viewers who tuned in at some point over the course of the 90 minute programme - of 738,000 viewers.

A further 10,500 viewers tuned in to watch the debate live on the Virgin Media Player.

On Monday night, an average audience of 387,000 tuned in to the Claire Byrne Live Presidential Debate on RTE One despite the fact that President Higgins and Sean Gallagher did not participate.

One in three people who were watching TV in Ireland at the time watched the programme and it had a reach of 740,000. The debate was also the most popular programme the following day on the RTE Player.Vision: An artists impression of the final design for the College Green plaza in the heart of Dublin. Photo: PA

Dublin's plan for a landmark civic space in the heart of the capital has been rejected.

Permission to develop a 10m College Green plaza has been refused by An Bord Pleanala amid concern about "significant negative impacts" on traffic movements across the city.

While the planning appeals board acknowledged there was merit in the proposal, it said there was not enough information about the impact the project would have on traffic.

It found that plans to reroute buses along the quays were not appropriate, and that there were "unresolved capacity issues".

It also raised concerns about the capacity of existing footpaths on the quays to accommodate increased numbers of pedestrians when bus services were rerouted.

As a result, it said, "the proposed development would give rise to significant adverse impacts on pedestrians and on bus transport within the city centre" and would therefore be "contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area".

The 10m project was unveiled by Dublin City Council in 2016 and included a pedestrianised space on Dame Street in front of Trinity College of more than 7,000 square metres, which would be paved and include high-quality street furniture. The plan was to allow trams, buses, taxis and cyclists to travel north-south in front of Trinity, with the rest of College Green pedestrianised.

More than 90 objections, many focused on access to the city centre and wider traffic concerns, were made. Dublin Bus also flagged concerns, saying it would have to alter 30 routes but said diversions would be acceptable if it had access to Parliament Street for north-south movements.

Dublin City Council said it noted the decision, and would not be in a position to comment until it had reviewed the report in detail. The National Transport Authority said the decision was "disappointing", while in a tweet, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he hoped the council could develop a revised proposal.

But business group Dublin Chamber said that while it was not surprised by the decision, planners should go back to the drawing board.

Head of public affairs Graeme McQueen said the chamber was supportive of the concept, but not convinced by the plans given the lack of detailed traffic analysis.

"We remain supportive of more pedestrianised areas in Dublin. We absolutely need them. But increased public transport investment and proper planning is required to allow for that to be possible," he said.

The Green Party said it was "dismayed" at the decision, with cyclists and pedestrians "ignored" as the city was "slowly but surely strangled by traffic".

The board found the impacts of the scheme were "positive" for the Luas but "negative" for general traffic, buses, taxis and access. There were also "unacceptable" safety concerns for cyclists and pedestrians.Armed Garda pictured at the scene where a man barricaded him self into a house Photo: Frank McGrath

A convicted rapist caused a major security alert in west Dublin after arming himself with a firearm yesterday.

The sex offender- who served a lengthy jail term for a horrific rape over a decade ago- had managed to get hold of a gun and an imitation firearm.

The stand-off began at around 9am yesterday morning in the St Marks estate, Clondalkin when two relatives of the man reported him being armed in the house.

Gardai were informed that the sex offender- aged in his 40s- was in possession of both a genuine firearm and a replica gun.

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Elite members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and the Armed Support Unit (ASU) were dispatched to the scene.

The road was closed off as armed detectives and senior gardai lined the streets as the situation unfolded.

Trained negotiators were also on site and efforts were made throughout the day to defuse the stand-off and bring it to a peaceful conclusion.

A media blackout was requested by An Garda Siochana during the incident, but was lifted after the stand-off ended at around midnight.

Locals also took videos as the lengthy situation went on and videos were later circulated on social media.

At around 6.30pm ladders were brought by gardai towards the property, indicating that officers were preparing to enter the house.

The man in question- a convicted criminal originally from the Clondalkin area- has previously served a lengthy jail term for rape.

During the shocking crime, carried out at the beginning of 2000, he falsely imprisoned and raped a prostitute who feared she would die.

He has since been placed on the sex-offenders register and was released from prison several years ago.

Locals alleged that the incident was sparked by slogans relating to his sick crime being painted close to a property he was been staying at.

One eye witness said: There was around 100 locals out, kids and women with their babies all watching this going on.

A firework went off just before 8pm and everyone thought it was a gunshot, which shows how tense the situation was, they added.

One local woman said: We all know about his past, and what hes done. But nobody is afraid of him.

A tent was also set up near the scene as part of the ongoing Garda operation, while family members also remained near the scene.

A garda spokesman confirmed the incident was resolved peacefully in a statement this morning.

"A Taser device was used and the matter has been referred to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC). One individual (male) was involved in this incident and was arrested and is currently in Garda custody."All-Star hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

Barrett (25), of Beakstown, Holycross, Co Tipperary, will be sentenced next month after Judge Elizabeth MacGrath found the facts proven in the section two assault case against him. The Tipperary player had denied the charge.

His brother, Brian Barrett (31), pleaded guilty to assaulting a barman at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, causing him harm, and will also be sentenced next month.

Thurles District Court heard Brian Barrett headbutted Dylan Kerr, who was sitting on a stool at the bar looking at his phone while waiting for a lift home after work, and Cathal Barrett then grabbed him around the neck with his arm.

Cathal Barrett said he was trying to "restrain" Mr Kerr as he thought he was moving towards his brother after the headbutt. The All-Ireland winner told gardai he had been drinking on the night of May 27, 2017, after a club game.

Judge MacGrath said at the end of the case: "I have no doubt that the level of alcohol consumed on the night had quite a bearing on the situation."A woman on trial for the attempted murder of a civil servant, stabbed a woman in the face at a Luas stop two weeks earlier, the Central Criminal Court has heard.

Laura Kenna (35), of no fixed abode, is charged with the attempted murder of Fionnuala Bourke on Lower Drumcondra Road, Dublin 9 on January 3, 2017. She is also charged with assault intending to cause serious harm.

Ms Kenna has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts.

Opening the case on Tuesday, prosecuting counsel, Anthony Sammon SC, said the central issue was the state of mind of Ms Kenna at the time. He said the jury would hear evidence from two consultant psychiatrists from the Central Mental Hospital and there would be a conflict in the opinions of the doctors.

Mr Sammon told the jury that Ms Bourke, a civil servant, was walking home from work around 5pm on the day in question when she was attacked by Ms Kenna with a knife. Mr Sammon said Ms Bourkes throat was slit and she suffered severe facial scarring.

Upon her arrest the following day, Ms Kenna told gardai: Im guilty. Yeah, I fucking did it. Is she still alive? Yeah I did it, I sliced her like you would a goat. You couldnt have stitched that up, I cut through her like butter, the jury heard.

On the third day of the trial today, the defence called Dr Stephen Monks, consultant forensic psychiatrist based at the Central Mental Hospital, to give evidence on Ms Kennas state of mind.

Dr Monks told Barry White SC, for Ms Kenna, that he interviewed the accused on two occasions in 2018 and, in his opinion, Ms Kenna did not know what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke and couldnt stop. As such, Dr Monks said Ms Kenna fulfilled the criteria for a special verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had schizophrenic affective disorder and, at the same time, exhibited psychotic delusions and hallucinations.

He said Ms Kenna believed she was receiving messages from the television and could communicate with celebrities. He said she believed other people could hear her private thoughts which was a classical symptom of schizophrenia.

He told the jury that two weeks before the alleged attempted murder of Ms Bourke, Ms Kenna stabbed a woman at a Luas stop in the face with a pen. Ms Kenna believed the woman had been saying things about her under her breath but it was most likely the woman hadnt said anything at all. She had intended to stab her in the eye, the jury heard.

Shortly after being released from garda custody for the Luas incident, Ms Kenna stated that she thought she was going to be eaten and that if she didnt kill somebody she wouldnt survive. She stated that she was being talked into killing somebody by the voices in her head.

Under cross examination from Mr Sammon, for the prosecution, Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had been labouring under delusions about killing people for a long time before the attack on Ms Bourke and was allegedly killing someone for a purpose that wasnt related to stealing a handbag.

For the prosecution, Professor Harry Kennedy, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, told the jury that he and Dr Monks were in agreement on many matters including Ms Kennas diagnosis.

However, Prof Kennedy said Ms Kenna did know what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke and was not entitled to the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

By Ms Kennas own account, Prof Kennedy said she had gotten a sharp knife to rob somebody and selected an appropriate victim. He referred to Ms Kennas comments that she had let another woman go and selected Ms Bourke because she was only little.

Referring to Ms Bourkes statement in which she recalled Ms Kenna telling her if you give me your bag, Ill let you go in a normal tone, Prof Kennedy said that had nothing to do with delusion. It was straightforward and part of the negotiated robbery.

Prof Kennedy said Ms Kenna knew what she was doing was wrong - she took the bag and ran away - and there was no evidence that she was unable to refrain from committing the attack on account of her condition. She had an ability to cease and desist which she exercised once she had achieved her primary goal which, Prof Kennedy said, was to rob Ms Bourkes handbag because she had no money.

He said he was unable to connect delusions about supernatural forces with a robbery at knifepoint and a demand to Ms Bourke to give up her bag.

In contrast, Prof Kennedy said he believed Ms Kenna was entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity for the Luas stop attack - which was recorded by a jury in a previous trial. Prof Kennedy said the victim of the Luas stop incident gave an account of what Ms Kenna was saying at the time of that assault. It was independent evidence that Ms Kenna was responding to hallucinations at the time. Furthermore, she waited very near to the scene of the assault until the gardai arrived.

In summary, Prof Kennedy said it appeared Ms Kenna knew the nature and quality of what she was doing when she attacked Ms Bourke, which meant she was not entitled to a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.

The jury of seven men and five women will hear closing speeches from the defence and prosecution tomorrow before Mr Justice Robert Eagar advises the jury on the evidence they have heard.

Additional Evidence

Dr Monks said Ms Kenna had left school after the Junior Cert and was heroin dependent from the age of 17 to 22. She lived a transient existence characterised by homelessness, substance abuse and repeated contact with the criminal justice system without any mental health intervention.

He said the onset of mental illness occurred around 2007 and the onset of serious aggression commenced from 2015 onwards. In the year before the alleged attempted murder, she spent time with the Welcome Organisation in Belfast where she perpetrated three violent incidents, two of which were attempted eye gouges.

He said she had been admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in January 2017 and, following treatment, her aggressive behaviour reduced. She had stated that she no longer experienced delusional beliefs and was beginning to develop some insight into her previous mental health problems.A bus driver arrested while allegedly nine times over the legal limit has appeared in court charged with drink driving and dangerous driving.

Michael Connelly (65), of Fidan, Rossport, Ballina, Co Mayo, appeared before Judge Des Zaidan at Naas District Court.

The court heard that on October 2 a witness rang gardai and reported seeing a bus that was "swerving all over the road".

The witness flashed his lights at the bus and it pulled in on the hard shoulder.

When tested, Mr Connelly was found to have 84 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath - nine times more than the legal limit for a bus driver.

Judge Zaidan noted that when charged, Mr Connelly told gardai: "I'm stupid."

Mr Connelly was remanded on continuing station bail to appear at Naas court again on November 28 for DPP directions.

He did not address the court directly and left a short time after his hearing concluded.

There were no passengers on board the bus when Mr Connelly was stopped on the M7 near Newbridge, Co Kildare.

Drink driving limits are lower for professional drivers than for standard motorists.

New drink driving legislation came into effect this summer.

Under the new law, a driver who is found to be over the limit will now face an automatic driving ban for three months.

The limit stays the same at blood alcohol level of 50mg for experienced drivers.

However, it is lower for learner drivers and professional drivers, at a blood alcohol level of 20mg.

Road safety experts advocate that nobody planning to drive would consume alcohol.Jason Keating, of Rush, Co Dublin, had pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Kirwan

A man who was on trial accused of murdering Noel Duck Egg Kirwan in the driveway of his Dublin home has pleaded guilty to facilitating a criminal organisation in carrying out the offence.

Jason Keating (27), of Lower Main Street, Rush, Co Dublin admitted today to participating in or contributing to activity intending to facilitate the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence, namely the murder of Mr Kirwan (62) at St Ronans Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 between November 8 and December 22 2016, both dates inclusive.

Keating had originally pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to the murder of Mr Kirwan on October 2 and the trial has been underway since that date.

State Solicitor Michael ODonovan this morning told the three-judge court that the DPP had directed that Keating be brought before the court and charged with the offence of facilitating the commission by a criminal organisation or any of its members of a serious offence contrary to Section 72 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006.

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Detective Sergeant Damien Gannon, from Lucan Garda Station, gave evidence that he met Keating this morning and handed him a copy of the charge sheet, explaining the charge to him.

When the registrar put the new count to Keating and asked him how he was pleading, he replied: Guilty.

This is believed to be the second time a person has been convicted for this offence under the organised crime legislation brought in in 2006.

Paul Greene SC, prosecuting, asked the court that a nolle prosequi be entered on the charge of murder at the sentence hearing next month. This means the State will not be proceeding with the prosecution in relation to the count of murder.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the first instance of this offence was dealt with by the court last Monday. He told counsel for both sides that the court would need to know at the sentence hearing what was offered in terms of assistance by Keating and what was the defendants state of mind in relation to the offence that actually took place. If you look at the sentence from Monday you will see what was required to assist us in the exercise, he added.

Martin Aylmer (31), of Casino Park, Marino, Dublin 3 was sentenced last Monday to three years and nine months for helping a criminal organisation murder Dublin bar manager, Michael Barr (35) at the Sunset House, Summerhill Parade, Dublin 1 on April 25th 2016.

The judge said today that the law of homicide in this country as it is currently structured is inflexible, adding that it was long overdue for reform in its substance and in its mandatory sentencing. This new charge is most useful in cases where people play parts which fall short of actually pulling the trigger. It provides for some flexibility but also for serious penalties. This has advantages for both sides of the case, he remarked.

Mr Kirwan was sitting in his new car, a Ford Mondeo, when a gunman shot him six times with a Makarov handgun which was later recovered at the scene.

The 62-year-old, a long-time friend of Gerry the Monk Hutch, suffered eight gunshot wounds in total to his head, right arm, chest and abdomen. The court has heard that the murder of Mr Kirwan arose from a "notorious feud" between two criminal factions but the deceased had no connection with either side.

The deceaseds partner, Bernadette Roe, was in the passenger seat of his car at the time of the attack. They had just returned from a Christmas lunch in a restaurant in Crumlin with Ms Roes daughter.

It was the prosecution's case that a 'Gotek7 tracking device was put under Mr Kirwan's car in the weeks leading up to his killing and this could be linked to Keating.

The getaway vehicle, a white Peugeot van, was later found on fire at the rear of Neilstown Shopping Centre in Clondalkin, just a minutes drive from St Ronans Drive.

Mr Justice Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Sinead Ni Chualachain and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded Keating in custody until November 22, when he will be sentenced.

Evidence heard in trial

During the trial Bernadette Roe, the partner of Mr Kirwan, gave evidence that she had lived at St Ronans Drive in Clondalkin for the past 38 years. She knew Noel all her life and she began a relationship with him six years before he died.

She said her niece invited them to a restaurant on Sundrive Road in Crumlin on the afternoon of December 22 and Mr Kirwan drove them there in his new car, a Ford Mondeo. He was driving a BMW X5 jeep before but it was costing us too much to tax, she said.

She testified that she heard a bang when they pulled up at their house at 5.05pm that evening but she thought someone had broken a window. Noel told her he had been shot and his head then hit hers, she said.

Ms Roe testified that she ran from the car and saw the gunman jump into the side of a white van as it drove away. I screamed for help, I couldnt go back to him (Noel), she said. Mr Kirwan was pronounced dead at 6.38pm that evening by a doctor who arrived at the scene.

The court heard Mr Kirwan had previously been photographed at a funeral with his friend Gerry Hutch. Everyone from the community went to the funeral, if he (Noel) had taken two steps forward he would not have been photographed, said Ms Roe.

Carolyn Murray, Ms Roe's adult daughter, gave evidence that she lived around the corner from her mother in St Ronans park.

The witness said Mr Kirwan dropped her and her daughter home after lunch on December 22. Ms Murray said she was only in the door when she got a phone call from her mother who was hysterical on the line. I flew into the car and around to my mothers road, she said.

The witness testified that as she made her way to her mother's house she saw a small white van at the corner of the estate and it looked like it was contemplating where to go. It was at a stand-still, it wasnt moving, she added. Ms Murray said it was not until someone told her that a white van had driven away from the scene did she twig what she had just seen.

Ms Murray said she saw Noel slumped over the gear stick of his car outside her mothers house. She testified that she got into the passenger side of his car and held his hand. I talked to him to make sure he was ok and I stayed with him until the ambulance arrived, she added.

The court saw CCTV footage of the white Peugeot van enter St Ronans Drive at 4.28pm on December 22. The white van did a U-turn and parked facing the exit of the estate before two people got out of the vehicle.

The court saw further CCTV footage from Neilstown Shopping Centre in Clondalkin where two people got out of the white Peugeot van at 5.09pm on December 22. A flash of light and smoking flames could be seen coming from the van.

Detective Sergeant Damien Gannon gave evidence that he found a 'Gotek7' electronic tracking device underneath Mr Kirwans Ford Mondeo on December 23. It was covered in black rubber, he said, and was attached to the undercarriage of the vehicle with two very strong magnets. Det Sgt Gannon said he recovered the internals of this device as he thought it may contain electronic data before he passed it on to be examined.

James Kennedy, attached to the telecommunications section of An Garda Siochana, gave evidence that the tracking device used a GPS positioning system to work out one's location and it uploaded information to a web server.

Deputy State Pathologist, Dr Linda Mulligan, told the trial that Mr Kirwan died from multiple gunshots wounds. The witness said the deceased was shot six times, once in the right of the face below his eye, once in the right shoulder and anterior chest, once in the anterior abdomen, two shots in the right arm and once in the right side of his body.

The fatal gunshot wound, which entered his chest via his shoulder, caused extensive damage to the main blood vessel in his body. The amount of blood loss would have led to death, she said.

John Dunne, owner of a car dealership in Clondalkin, gave evidence that he met Mr Kirwan on December 10 and a deal was made to trade in his BMW X5 jeep and purchase the Ford Mondeo. Mr Kirwan returned to collect the Ford Mondeo at his premises on December 13 and the BMW was sent off to Merlin Car Auctions in Naas.

Kenneth Fitzsimons, an auction manager for Merlin Car Auctions, testified that three car auctions take place on a weekly basis at his business where the public can view the vehicles. He confirmed that a CCTV system was in place on the premises and said that Mr Kirwans BMW arrived at Merlin Car Auctions on December 16.

CCTV footage of a green Renault Megane arriving at Merlin Car Auctions on December 20 was shown to the court. Describing the footage, Garda Hugh OCarroll said two people got out of this car and walked towards the reception desk of the premises. He identified the male as Jason Keating and the female as his girlfriend.

Two individuals could be seen walking around the stock yard where many cars were displayed. Gda OCarroll testified that the pair went off camera for three minutes before they walked back through the yard and left in the Renault Megane.

Niall Ducken, a mechanic, gave evidence that he bought a green Renault Megane "to sell on" in August 2016. He said he advertised the car online before he sold it to Jason Keating.

Professor David Last, a consultant engineer, testified that a tracking device recorded its position "much more frequently" on the day Mr Kirwan was shot dead outside his home. He said the device was set up at the 'GoTEK' premises in Calais, France and arrived at "The Spy Shop" in Leeds on October 18. It was then taken from Leeds to Holyhead in Wales before it arrived at Dublin Port on October 20.John OMahony was found to have catastrophic injuries after the alleged incident

A farmer who was allegedly murdered by his neighbour with a teleporter had previously appeared in court on shotgun charges.

The jury in the trial of Michael Ferris (63), of Rattoo, Ballyduff, Co Kerry, who denies murdering John Anthony O'Mahony (73) at Rattoo, was told he had no previous convictions.

However, it was told Mr O'Mahony had appeared in connection with discharging a shotgun.

In 1993, he had shot at pheasant hunters, members of Ballyduff gun club, who strayed on to his lands without permission.

John McNamara, of Killarda, Lisselton, who was called by the defence, said there had been no warning and pellets came through the hedge and struck the head of his fellow hunter and gun club member John O'Connor. He was convicted of assaulting Mr O'Connor with a pellet and fined IR50 at Causeway Court.

The court also heard of an incident in 1993 where two social welfare officers who called to the Rattoo lands were threatened by the deceased.

He apologised in court for this and no conviction was recorded.

Detective Garda Paul Walsh said a shotgun recovered from the boot of Mr O'Mahony's car on the morning he was killed was not licensed.

A licence would have been objected to, the garda said.

Evidence in the trial of Mr Ferris has now concluded and closing speeches are expected today.

The trial, in its second week, heard of "catastrophic injuries", including evulsion of the heart and liver inflicted by the prongs of a teleporter on the body of tillage farmer Mr O'Mahony.

A crow banger, a device used to scare away birds, was at the centre of issues between Mr O'Mahony and neighbours.

It was brought into the court and displayed while a garda witness explained its operation to the jury.

Mr O'Mahony was in the driver's seat of his car with his safety belt on at around 8am on April 4, 2017. His car had been lifted "clear of the ground" by a New Holland Teleporter, a heavy industrial machine, the trial was told.

The forks of the boom of the teleporter had slid along and pierced the roof of the Peugeot car "like you'd open a can of beans", Garda expert witness James O'Brien said.

In interviews with gardai on the morning of the incident, the jury was told Mr Ferris said he had blocked the road with his teleporter. He allegedly agreed he had driven the forks onto the car and also said "it was about the crow banger".

This had been an issue for 30 years, he told gardai in Listowel, in memos read to the court.

Mr Ferris had said in Garda interviews that the crow banger, used by Mr O'Mahony on his 100 acres of wheat and other crops in Rattoo, would "wake the dead".At primary school age, transgender or gender variant children do not undergo medical intervention.

Instead, they may or may not go through what is known as a 'social transition'.

Having identified with a different gender to that they are born with, they may use a different name, switch from she to he, or he to she. And they may dress differently.

"Many people are transgender and don't do anything about it," says Catherine Cross, Education Officer of Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI).

"At primary level, you are only talking about a social transition, and that might not happen. There is no hormonal or psychological intervention, and no surgery at that age."

While some children prefer to identify as a boy or girl, others are described as 'gender fluid'.

Ailbhe, parent of a six-year-old at an Educate Together School, was quoted in the recent Exploring Gender Identity study: "He started school with long hair, skirts and dresses. So it was funny there's never been a transition because Darren still uses male pronouns and identifies very much as a boy but presents very much as a girl and mainly has female friends, is into unicorns and fairies and Power Rangers and fighting... I suppose our story is just lots and lots of fluidity."

Inevitably, the issue of transgender pupils at primary level attracts controversy.

The Exploring Gender Identity study reports how one parent described a "harrowing situation" where they had been receiving solicitors' letters after an email went around to parents flagging that their child would be "transitioning" at school.Minister for Health Simon Harris at a press conference on the budget for Health at Government Buildings. Picture: Arthur Carron.

Women at the centre of the CervicalCheck scandal will not face any challenge from the State if they seek compensation for the delay in passing on audits of their test results.

Health Minister Simon Harris confirmed the State will admit liability for the non-disclosure of audits, which involved a re-examination of the tests on women who developed cervical cancer and found they had been given the wrong result.

The liability relates to a delay of years in giving the audit results to a majority of women, who only found out about the audits' existence after a High Court case brought by Vicky Phelan in April.

Legal sources said the level of compensation women can expect for the delay in disclosure would be relatively "modest".

Mr Harris said they will be determined on a case by case basis.

The biggest fight for compensation faced by the women will be cases brought against the laboratories where their tests were read.

The women will have to prove the test was negligently read, giving them the wrong result.

Some 221 women, including 20 who have since died, developed cancer after getting a wrong result.

Their test results were later audited by CervicalCheck but not all were negligently interpreted.

Some 72 cases are now "active" and five more are due.

A spokesman for the State Claims Agency, which will represent CervicalCheck in cases brought by women for the disclosure delay, would not comment on the stand it will take and referred to the minister's statement.

The amount of compensation for non-disclosure given to a small number of women to date has not yet been published.

A private tribunal, which will hear compensation cases, will not be in place until next spring.

The tribunal, which will operate like a court, was proposed by Judge Charles Meenan, who was asked to come up with an alternative to open court.

Legislation is needed to set up it and a judge must be appointed to preside. It will also need a panel of experts and staff. Some of the women are very ill and will need to proceed with court cases.Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has issued a State apology to Garda whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe.

The apology came after the Disclosures Tribunal found that Sgt McCabe had been smeared by former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan, and the former Garda press officer, Superintendent David Taylor.

Meanwhile, Mr Flanagan defended another former Garda commissioner, Noirin O'Sullivan, in the wake of the tribunal, saying she was subjected to "personalised attacks" from Oireachtas members during her tenure.

He said Ms O'Sullivan regularly appeared at Oireachtas committees where questions "crossed the line".

Mr Flanagan reinforced his apology to Sgt McCabe in the Dail yesterday and said he intends to meet the sergeant in the coming weeks to make the apology again in person.

"Sgt Maurice McCabe deserves the gratitude of all of us for bringing serious shortcomings to public attention," Mr Flanagan told the Dail yesterday.

"He also deserves an apology for what he and his family has had to endure over a decade.

"I have apologised on behalf of the State to him and his family for the manner in which he was treated over a number of years and I am arranging to meet the sergeant in the near future.

"I want to reiterate this apology to him in person."

In his report released last week, the tribunal's chairman, Mr Justice Peter Charleton, was heavily critical of An Garda Siochana and the treatment of Sgt McCabe, who had highlighted abuses of the penalty points system and poor policing practices in the Cavan-Monaghan Garda district.

Mr Justice Charleton said Sgt McCabe had been "repulsively denigrated for being no more than a good citizen and police officer".

Yesterday, Mr Flanagan described the chairman's findings as "stark". "The central conclusion that it reached is that a man who rightly saw loyalty to the people who he served as superior to any loyalty to the organisation of which he was part, a man who at all times had the interests of the public uppermost in his mind," he said.

"My sincere hope is that he, his wife Lorraine and their family, can now put this horrendous and prolonged ordeal behind them and get on with their lives."

Of Ms O'Sullivan, the Mr Flanagan said she "was the subject of a concerted campaign to undermine her position over a period of time".

He also criticised how she had been questioned during Oireachtas committee meetings.

"During her tenure as commissioner, Noirin O'Sullivan was frequently before Oireachtas committees and subjected to questions that sometimes crossed the line that divides robust inquiry from personalised attack," he said.

"While I accept that the Oireachtas has a vital role in ensuring accountability, it is incumbent on all of us as elected representatives not to abuse the responsible positions we hold."

Mr Flanagan also referred to the tribunal's findings that Frances Fitzgerald acted appropriately before she was forced to resign as Tanaiste and justice minister last year because of controversy surrounding her role.

"On a personal basis, I would like to say that Frances Fitzgerald is a loss to the Cabinet and I do not believe that her resignation served any public interest - though it may have served the political interests of some parties...I hope to see Frances returned to high office in the near future."Pat Breen: "At no stage here did I discuss the broadband plan with Denis Naughten or David McCourt." Picture: Steve Humphreys

Junior Minister Pat Breen has broken his silence about the controversial dinners between National Broadband Plan bidder David McCourt and former Communications Minister Denis Naughten.

The Fine Gael politician admitted he passed on an invitation for dinner meeting between then-minister Mr Naughten and the Irish-American investor, who has a home in Co Clare near Mr Breen's home.

Mr Naughten resigned last Thursday as the row escalated, and Mr Breen has experienced criticism for his role in the evening.

Speaking publicly for the first time today, Mr Breen said he believes he has done "nothing wrong".

"The question of resigning was never on my mind, I did nothing wrong. I cant add to a story thats not there," he told ClareFM's Morning Focus show.

"At no stage here did I discuss the broadband plan with Denis Naughten or David McCourt."

When asked if he accepted Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's comments about his actions being appropriate or not, Mr Breen said he accepts that it was "a distraction".

"Theres no point saying two and two makes five all I can give you are the facts here, I cannot make up any other story because I know myself what was discussed," he said.

Expand Close Seal of office: Denis Naughten and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during an Appointment of Ministers Ceremony in 2017 / Facebook

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Whatsapp Seal of office: Denis Naughten and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during an Appointment of Ministers Ceremony in 2017

Mr Breen said that it was up to Mr Naughten whether he should accept the invitation to the dinner and that the National Broadband Plan, one of the Governments flagship policies aimed at providing highspeed broadband to 540,000 households in rural areas, wasn't discussed between the trio.

"It was up to Denis, the invitee to accept the invitation or not. If he rejected the invitation, that was fine by me, Id pass that information back to David McCourt. At no stage, that Im aware of, was the National Broadband Plan discussed."

He described Mr McCourt as an "acquaintance" rather than a friend and that Brexit was a common topic of discussion between the two.

"My relationship with David McCourt is a business relationship. Id call him an acquaintance, my relationship with him was to do with investments in Co Clare. As a junior minister I meet business people every week," he said.

"David McCourt is a business man and keeps his business to himself. My role with David McCourt in relation to investment in Co Clare, particularly at the challenging time we have now for Brexit."

While Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said yesterday that he didn't think it was a "resigning matter", Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin told the Dail: "I think it's a lot more serious than that - and it should be taken more seriously than that."

The Taoiseach added that the Government remained very committed to connecting 540,000 homes with high-speed broadband as soon as possible. He said the Government planning had already encouraged commercial providers to improve their rural services.Concern: Denis Naughten told bidder that it was being too conservative

A TRAWL Department of Communications records has revealed two more formal meetings between former minister Denis Naughten and the businessman leading the last remaining National Broadband Plan (NBP) bid.

Controversy over Mr Naughtens meetings with Irish-American businessman David McCourt led to the ministers resignation last week.

Mr Naughten stepped down after it emerged that he attended a July 2018 dinner in New York with Mr McCourt as well as another dinner in the businessman's Irish home last year among other meetings.

Opposition politicians have claimed the NBP process is contaminated and fatally compromised.

Mr Naughten has insisted the broadband procurement process has not been compromised by the meetings.

Now the Department of Communications has released details of two more meetings involving Mr Naughten and Mr McCourt whose company Granahan McCourt leads the only remaining bid for the NBP.

The first one dates back to October 20, 2016 when consortium member Enet and Mr McCourt met Mr Naughten and some of his advisers. There are no notes from the meeting available.

The second was another previously unknown meeting on June 26 that was held ahead of engagement later that day between the NBP bidders, Mr Naughten and Department officials.

A note from this meeting shows that Ciaran O hObain  the senior Department official responsible for the NBP procurement process - accompanied Mr Naughten to meet Mr McCourt in advance of the later meeting.

Written by Mr O hObain it says: Mr McCourt communicated that he remained committed to investing in building high-speed broadband infrastructure in rural Ireland and he asked as to the likely approach of the Department to the Sponsors' meeting later that day.

I outlined to Mr McCourt that my expectation was that the Minister and Department would speak very directly to what were considered to be the key issues which the consortium needed to address in order for the procurement to proceed to a conclusion.

Previously released minutes of the later meeting on June 26, show that Mr Naughten warned the bidders that its estimates for costs and revenue were conservative.

He said this would likely result in the bidder seeking a level of subsidy that he as minister could not recommend to government and that it wouldnt represent value for money.

A Department of Communications statement this evening said that it carried out a review of all diary meetings between the former minister, senior officials, Enet, Mr McCourt or Granahan McCourt over the past two years.

A schedule of the meetings also shows that Mr Naughten met Mr McCourt at a book launch in May this year.

The Department pointed out that it engages with Enet on a variety of issues, not just the NBP.

The company also manages State-owned Metropolitan Area Networks (MANS) - communications infrastructure that comes within the remit of the Department - so contact at various levels would be expected.

It said that the tender process for the NBP is taking the form of a competitive dialogue which requires extensive engagement between bidders and the Department to see how the Departments needs in terms of delivering the National Broadband Plan can best be met.

It said that the procurement has consisted of around 800 hours of dialogue with all potential bidders. Two other bidders have previously dropped out.

The statement said: All details will now be forwarded to Mr Peter Smyth, the independent process auditor to the NBP procurement, to consider as part of his review.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar last week sought the report from Mr Smyth in order to assess if the process had been compromised.

The report is due to be delivered within three weeks.

The Departments statement adds: Mr Smyth is free, at his own discretion, to review all relevant documentation held by the Department and\or to seek written or oral inputs from any relevant parties.Gavin Duffy pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy Photography

Sean Gallagher and his wife Trish pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy Photography

President Michael D Higgins pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy Photography

THE first televised presidential debate including all six candidates saw some fiery exchanges on the issue of Traveller rights, the record of the incumbent Michael D Higgins and presidential expenses. We look at some of the standout moments of the debate on Virgin Media One:

Michael D Higgins accuses Peter Casey of 'fantasy'

Michael D Higgins took issue with what he called a fantasy list of charges put to him by candidate Peter Casey throughout the campaign to date.

Peter makes many charges, he said, drawing attention to a claim made during the debate - which he has fully refuted - that Mr Higgins once objected to a temporary halting site near his home in 1968.

Peter makes many charges, he said, referring to the list as a fantasy list.

Mr Casey alleged during the debate that Mr Casey flew from Geneva to Zurich on a private jet to visit a James Joyce memorial, which Mr Higgins rejected roundly, before concluding just add it to the list.

Mr Casey also questioned the sitting president flying to Belfast using the Government jet for an official engagement and having a driver meet him there, which Mr Higgins said was due to security concerns.

The issue of presidential expenses was raised by many with Mr Higgins saying he would be happy to rectify any discrepancies from his own pocket but insisted that the accounts will be fully balanced and independently audited.

Tense exchanges on the ethnic minority status of Travellers

In his opening pitch Mr Casey said he is incredibly proud that Ireland has opened its doors to people coming from different countries.

He said that today in Ireland 17pc of the people who live In Ireland today were not born here and are passionately embracing Irish culture.

Theyre not demanding special recognition of their ethnicity because they have embraced ours, he said.

His comments come after he claimed Travellers should not have a special recognition, sparking calls from him to withdraw from the race.

Last year the State officially recognised the ethnic minority status of Travellers.

Mr Casey rejected a call from Gavin Duffy to withdraw his marks, saying he stands by them.

The incumbent, Michael D Higgins, said the granting of ethnic status was of enormous significance for Travellers, who he said face issues such as a lower life expectancy and higher suicide rates.

He fully rejected a claim put to him by Peter Casey that he objected to a temporary halting site near his home in 1968.

He said he has never objected to a halting site and said in his work as an elected representative has pursued Traveller rights.

Mr Casey also accused the other candidates of being disingenuous when they said they would not have a problem with Travellers moving near their home.

Joan Freeman tells Gavin Duffy she 'does not need rescuing'

Joan Freeman took aim at the support the incumbent president has from Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Fianna Fail.

She said that by supporting Mr Higgins the Government are indicating it is OK to break promises, OK not to be transparent and accountable.

The Senator faced questions from host Pat Kenny about her No vote in the Referendum on the Eighth Amendment and whether she could represent the people of Ireland, almost 70pc of whom voted Yes.

Ms Freeman said she did not believe the people of Ireland would be judgemental and said she voted in a personal capacity and her position was not related to her public service.

Rival candidate Mr Duffy said he believed the Virgin Media host was wrong to suggest her vote precluded her from the role.

We have to be very careful about how we are disqualifying people from public life, he said

Joan Freeman interjected to say: Thank you, I dont need rescuing.

Heated exchange between Pat Kenny and Liadh Ni Riada on the IRA

Sinn Fein presidential candidate Liadh Ni Riada has refused to call the IRA terrorists during the debate.

She was pressed by host Pat Kenny on a Hot Press interview during which she said she was "uncomfortable" with using the word terrorism to describe IRA atrocities such as Bloody Friday, the Warrington bomb and Birmingham pub bombings.

The MEP was asked if she believed that the Enniskillen bombing was a terror attack she said: I think any atrocities like that should be condemned but look the IRA are gone for the last 20 years. We now have a peace process in place and we should be cementing that and working on building that rather than constantly revisiting what labeling and semantics and all of that, she said.

She went on to say: I would say that we are now at a new time in our history and we need to be grown up enough to own that and say lets cement the peace process">

Challenged by the host Pat Kenny on whether former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was a member of the IRA she said: The IRA are gone, you keep bringing it back.Stables stand-off: It is lazy to apply attributes to an entire community as if it is a single entity: Travellers from throughout Ireland who came to Leinster House to demand action on Traveller accomodation in 2015. Photo: Tom Burke

Peter Casey made the mistake of saying in public what a lot of Irish people say in private.

The presidential candidate suggested in general terms that Travellers don't pay taxes, their presence in an area adversely affects property prices and they are not an ethnic minority.

Whether it is in public or private, it is lazy thinking to apply attributes to an entire community as if it's a single homogeneous entity.

He had brought up the situation in Thurles, where a Traveller family reportedly refused to move into six houses, specially built for them at a cost of 1.7m, until stables were added. Mr Casey may have missed a follow-up story in which the McCarthys said they didn't expect stables but that a promise had been made that grazing land would be made available.

The problem about discussions surrounding the Traveller community is that it is usually rendered in black and white terms. There is no room for nuance between the polar-opposite narratives of a marginalised and oppressed people versus the crime- ridden social group who treat the wider community as a free resource to exploit.

The problem is that, depending on the circumstances, both can be true, along with several other versions that lie in the space between.

It is true that Travellers die younger, drop out of education earlier, and are more likely to be unemployed and without a home.

It is also true that some Travellers are involved at the highest levels of organised crime, and in some cases control the supply of drugs across large parts of Ireland.

There are also barristers, barmen, models, teachers, athletes, entertainers, gardai and soldiers, as well as those successfully running legitimate, tax-compliant business.

There are Travellers who get their children out to school every day and those who believe education undermines their culture.

Many Travellers undoubtedly love horses and care for their animals, while others have been shown on various media platforms carrying out shocking acts of cruelty.

Feud violence - and feud is the right word in that it describes animosity passed through generations - quite rightly garners headlines.

Killers and drug-dealers make the news regardless of their background.

But all these types of stories, when it comes to Travellers, inform the negative stereotype such as the view expressed by Mr Casey this week.

His remarks centred around housing and property - where many poor Travellers can fare badly and can find it difficult to access services.

There are also well-to-do members of the Traveller community who build their own houses, developing sites for their own use and for their extended families, without help from the authorities.

On the other hand, Traveller-specific housing stock has on occasion been deliberately destroyed by Travellers.

There have also been a small number of cases where properties were apparently destroyed by people intent on denying their use by Traveller families.

Problems arise when no-one listens to each other. That is a two-way street. Fear and prejudice runs in all directions.

Derry-born Mr Casey, from a family of nine children, may have a different view if the term 'northern Catholics' was inserted for 'Travellers' in his remarks.The site in Thurles, Co Tipperary, which has been rejected by Traveller families

Presidential hopeful Peter Casey has been accused of adding insult to injury and going further with his criticism of Travellers.

The businessman will face protests when he visits Tipperary today to view six unoccupied houses at the centre of a dispute between the county council and Traveller families.

He faces mounting calls to withdraw from the election race from Government ministers, Traveller groups, his election rivals and even the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission.

But an unapologetic Mr Casey continues to fuel racism debate by insisting Travellers should not be considered an ethnic minority. Last night, he said they should think and act as Irish people.

He has also stood over remarks made on Independent.ies Floating Voter podcast that Travellers are basically people camping in someone elses land.

Reacting to Mr Caseys latest comments, the co-director of Pavee Point, Martin Collins, said the millionaires latest contribution has compounded the situation.

He has added insult to injury, Mr Collins said.

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A number of councillors who helped Mr Casey get on the ballot paper have said they do not regret giving him their vote, although most said they disagree with his comments.

Despite the controversy, Mr Casey plans to travel to Cabra Bridge in Thurles to see a 1.7m development that has been built for Travellers who are currently living on an unauthorised site nearby.

It has been reported the families want access to two stables and at least half an acre of land each for their horses.

Mr Casey has been critical of the role played by Pavee Point in the dispute, saying it should tell the Travellers about people "sleeping on the streets of Dublin".

Speaking on RTE's 'Six One News' he defended his position, saying: "There's far too much political correctness in society... I say what I think and I think what I say."

He has received a considerable level of support on social media.

However, Mr Collins told the Irish Independent that Pavee Point has represented the Travelling community well and the candidate's view of the situation in Tipperary is "misinformed".

He said the decision by Mr Casey to arrange a media event at the site was "strange" given the "hurt and pain he has caused".

"I don't know what the purpose of his visit is or what he hopes to achieve and it will be interesting to see how the Traveller families react."

Mr Collins said there should be "protests highlighting their grievances" and then "some sort of dialogue to clarify a number of issues".

Kieran Bourke, a Fianna Fail councillor on Tipperary County Council who voted to nominate Mr Casey, said his comments about the situation in Thurles were unhelpful to a "very sensitive" issue.

He described Mr Casey's decision to visit the housing at the centre of the dispute as a "political stunt".

"He's an opportunist. That's grasping at straws...It's a pity he's picking on an ethnic minority in this country for political gain," he said.

Mr Casey has claimed Travellers get healthcare, education and housing despite "not paying their fair share of taxes".

The five other candidates in the race have lambasted his comments, with President Michael D Higgins describing them as "appalling" and fellow 'Dragons' Den' entrepreneur Gavin Duffy saying they were "reckless".

Head of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, Emily Logan, said people running for public office have "higher obligation" to show "leadership and respect for the human dignity of everyone".

Writing in today's Irish Independent, Ms Logan notes research showing that Travellers are almost 10 times more likely to deal with instances of discrimination than the general population, and 22 times more likely to face discrimination when availing of some private services.

Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Liam Herrick, said the recognition of Traveller ethnicity "was a hugely important step this country took towards equality and we cannot allow it to be sabotaged by grossly insulting and deeply irresponsible words such as Peter Casey's".

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty called on Mr Casey to either "withdraw his remarks or withdraw from the presidential race".

Meanwhile, in last night's televised debate Sinn Fein candidate Liadh Ni Riada refused to call the IRA 'terrorists'.

She was pressed by host Pat Kenny on a 'Hot Press' interview during which she said she was "uncomfortable" with using the word terrorism to describe IRA atrocities.

She went on to say: "I would say that we are now at a new time in our history and we need to be grown up enough to own that and say 'let's cement the peace process'."

It is understood Traveller families living in Thurles have planned a peaceful protest for 4pm today.Health Minister Simon Harris said he hopes "common sense will prevail" in the case of the ordered deportation of Eric Zhi Ying Xue (9).

On Tuesday, a petition was started by St Cronan's Boys National School in Bray, Co Wicklow, asking Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan to revoke the deportation order for the fourth-class pupil.

School principal Maeve Tierney said Eric is as "Irish as any of her other pupils" and was born in Ireland.

However, he is not an Irish citizen and Ms Tierney said Eric and his mum, Leena Mei Mei Xue, were told on Tuesday that arrangements were being made for their deportation.

Commenting on the case today, Minister Harris said he has appealed for Eric, who lives in his constituency, to remain in Ireland on humanitarian grounds.

"I have made representations to the Department of Justice and Equality in relation to Eric's situation," he said in a statement to Independent.ie.

I stand with Eric Zhi Ying Xue in Bray. He is 9. He is Irish. He was born in Holles Street. He is part of our community. On humanitarian grounds alone, this should be resolved. Common sense must prevail. Have made representations to that effect.  Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) October 18, 2018

"I have appealed for Eric to remain in Ireland on humanitarian grounds. Quite frankly, Eric is Irish.

"He was born here, goes to school here and has never lived anywhere else. This is his home. This is his country. I really hope common sense can prevail."

Expand Close Shepard Machaya is due to be deported on Sunday. Pic: DCU SU/Facebook / Facebook

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Whatsapp Shepard Machaya is due to be deported on Sunday. Pic: DCU SU/Facebook

Following a 2004 referendum, babies born in Ireland to foreign parents don't have an automatic right to Irish citizenship. The Department of Justice said it did not comment on individual cases.

Meanwhile, students at Dublin City University have started an online petition and written an open letter to Minister for Justice and Equality Charlie Flanagan in an attempt to halt the deportation of a second year student.

According to DCU Students Union, Shepard Machaya, who is in his thirties, has been served with a deportation order for requiring him to leave the country this Sunday, October 21.

As such the student's union have started an online petition, which has so far been signed by over 7,500 people, urging the minister to revoke the deportation order.

The students are also planning to protest outside the Department of Justice and Equality tomorrow at 12:30pm.

DCUSU are calling on Minister @CharlieFlanagan to revoke Shepherd Machayas deportation order for Sunday October 21st 2018. Shepherd deserves to complete his studies in DCU and stay in Ireland where he has made his home. Please sign our petition to #SaveOurShepherd #SOS pic.twitter.com/cyUXoosA7Z  DCU Students' Union (@DCUSU) October 17, 2018

According to DCU SU should Machaya be deported back to his native Zimbabwe he will be faced with the threat of torture from local political groups, the very people who drove him out of the country nine years ago.

Ahead of his imminent deportation Machaya, who is a second year Management of Information Technology and Information Systems student, released a video saying that: Ireland to me has become my second home. This is the only place I know other than Zimbabwe. My life is still in danger if I were to go back.

DCUSU are calling on Minister @CharlieFlanagan to revoke Shepherd deportation order for Sunday October 21st 2018. Shepherd deserves to complete his studies in DCU and stay in Ireland where he has made his home. Please watch our video and share.https://t.co/wNivyKEkiv  DCU Students' Union (@DCUSU) October 18, 2018

In the letter to Minister Flanagan, DCU SU said that Machaya was tortured by political groups before he came to Ireland and if he were to return home he would be in imminent danger, with the potential of facing more torture from political groups that he came here to escape.

The Union of Students of Ireland have echoed DCU SUs call for the minister to immediately revoke the deportation order.

The national student movement stands behind Shepherd and will be actively campaigning on his behalf alongside DCU Students Union to keep him in Ireland. Shepherd Machaya has been a positive influence in Irish society since his arrival, entering Higher Education through the University of Sanctuary scheme for refugees in order to better his quality of life. He must be allowed to stay on this island. Save our Shepherd now. Join us outside the Department of Justice, tomorrow at 12.30pm, USI President Siona Cahill said in a statement.

Machayas case is the second of its kind to make headlines in recent days.The incident happened at the White Sands hotel on Monday evening Photo: Google Maps

Gardai are investigating after chocolates "laced with cannabis" were sent to a popular Dublin hotel.

Two staff members were hospitalised after the chocolates were sent to the White Sands hotel in Portmarnock on Monday evening at 6pm.

It is understood they were sent as part of a delivery and two staff members ate a number of chocolates, not knowing they contained cannabis.

They were then brought to hospital to receive medical treatment.

A garda spokeswoman said: "Gardai in Malahide are investigating an incident that occurred on the 14th of October 2018 at a hotel in Portmarnock, Co. Dublin.

"Employees claim to have eaten chocolate and felt ill after consumption. Matter has been reported to Gardai in Malahide and is under investigation."

Independent.ie contacted the White Sands hotel for comment but a staff member said they would not be commenting at this time.

The hotel is home to popular Dublin nightclub Tamangos.The bifurcated staircase, crystal chandeliers, high ceilings and window shutters at Harmony Hall in Co Westmeath are everything youd expect in an 18th century manor house

About 20 years ago, a stranger walked up the drive of Harmony Hall, a once splendid Georgian mansion in the district of Glasson, Co Westmeath. Her intentions were innocent - to have a look around her ancestral home. A few generations back she might have risked being shot on sight.

The lady was a descendant of Dr Patrick Halion Fox, a former army doctor, a general practitioner and rather unlucky landowner who had lived at Harmony Hall several generations before.

In 1903, Fox was put on trial for maliciously wounding a villager, having blown his arm almost clean off with a revolver. The British Medical Journal had the court report and, although the information is scant, it suggests there was a fair bit of provocation in the case.

Fox, a Catholic, had run into trouble with local insurgents. His sheep were being poisoned and his cattle maimed. One night, surprised by what he took to be the culprit, Fox shot him in the arm, and the arm had to be amputated.

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All was well that ended well, for Fox, in that he met with a sympathetic judge and jury at the Westmeath assizes, and got off with a four-month sentence.

And all was well that ended well for the latter-day Fox as well, who was warmly welcomed inside Harmony Hall by its owners. They gladly showed their visitor around, although at the time they were up to their necks in what would prove to be a positively daunting restoration.

Stuart Taylor and his wife Muriel bought Harmony Hall in 1990. At the time, having stood for 200 years, it was all but derelict, with holes in the roof and windows blown in. As Stuart describes, "it was a cold, miserable house".

They spent years restoring it, and did most of the work themselves even though, as doctors - Stuart a surgeon and Muriel a pathologist - they were probably better placed to patch up a human being than a decrepit old Georgian mansion.

Nevertheless they pressed on, and despite working on it only part-time, they eventually re-established its former glory. Stuart describes it, however, as "still a work in progress", adding that "no house of this age is ever finished".

According to The Houses and Landed Families of Westmeath by local historian Donal O'Brien, the place was built in 1788 for the Caulfield family - a branch of the same family that gave us the Casino at Marino and Charlemont House, now the Hugh Lane gallery.

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Whatsapp Harmony Hall sprawls over 13,595 sq ft on its four floors

It's two storeys over a basement, with a flight of cut-stone steps leading up to a classic Georgian Doric front doorcase with a fanlight and sidelights. Above the door on the first floor is a Wyatt window, and elsewhere the windows are six-over-six-pane sashes.

Once through the front door, you'll find yourself transfixed by its authentic Georgian grandeur. Here is everything you could expect in an 18th century manor house - impossibly high ceilings with decorative plasterwork, huge fireplaces, carved doorcases, window shutters, crystal chandeliers, and an almost intimidating bifurcated staircase.

The house sprawls over an eye-watering 13,595 sq ft on its four floors - the two main floors along with the basement and attic. If you were to lay all the floors out flat, they would cover almost a third of an acre.

In keeping with its provenance, the kitchen is in the basement, where by rights there should be a battalion of servants to grind your forcemeat and polish your fish knives. All you're expected to do is to know what forcemeat is, and how to conduct yourself gracefully with that fish knife.

You'll be proving yourself in this manner upstairs in the dual-aspect dining room, which is to the right of the dazzlingly tiled entrance hall. To the left is the drawing room, also dual-aspect. Each of these rooms measures just under 500 sq ft.

They are just two of the seven reception rooms on the ground floor. The others are a library, a music room, a ballroom, a billiard room, and a small (relatively - it's about 14ft by 10ft) sitting room.

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Along with the kitchen, the basement also has a wine cellar (but of course), together with a laundry room and utility and a couple of workrooms and stores.

The first floor, then, has the six bedrooms - the two main ones being dual-aspect. There's only one bathroom on this floor, with a sash window and a freestanding claw-foot bath.

The attic accounts for 1,830 of the overall square footage, and there are seven rooms up there used for storage.

The estate once comprised some 300 acres, but when the Taylors bought it only five remained. Afterwards they acquired another three acres so as to regain ownership of the courtyard of outbuildings to the north-west.

Harmony Hall is about a kilometre from Glasson village and from Lough Ree - well loved by fishing and boating types. It's about an hour and a half from Dublin and 10 minutes from Athlone.

It's for sale for 975,000 with Sherry FitzGerald O'Meara.Cobalt Air, the Cypriot carrier, has grounded all of its operations indefinitely - including scheduled flights between Dublin and Larnaca.

"Cobalt regrets to announce that it will be cancelling all flights as of 23:50pm on October 17, 2018 due to indefinite suspension of Cobalts operations," the airline said in an abrupt message on its website last night.

"As a result, future flights or services provided by Cobalt will be cancelled and will no longer operate."

"Passengers who have un-flown tickets are instructed not to go to Larnaca Airport or any departure airport tomorrow, 18 October 2018 as no Cobalt flights will operate and no Cobalt staff will be present," it added.

The Cypriot airline had been operating for just two years, with routes including direct flights between Dublin and Larnaca.

A flight from Dublin departed at 15.37 yesterday afternoon, landing in Larnaca at 22.17. Dublin Airport is not believed to have had any prior knowledge of the suspension of services.

Cobalt is now advising passengers booked with the airline to contact their travel agent or credit card provider. The country's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works says it is "aiming for the smooth and best possible operation for the repatriation of stranded passengers."

In the event of flight cancellations, passengers are entitled to a re-routing or a full refund, as well as compensation in some cases, under EU regulations.

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In the event of cancellations, airlines are obliged to inform passengers of their options. However, Cobalt's website is currently showing only the suspension announcement, and it says no staff are at Larnaca.

It has not yet responded to Independent.ie Travel's request for comment, though the Ministry has advised stranded passengers to "secure an alternative single ticket in Economy Class for their repatriation, and keep all the evidence and receipts to be eligible for reimbursement."

Passengers will be informed with "subsequent announcements for arrangements for their repatriation", it added.

"We sincerely apologise once again and would like to thank our very loyal customers for their support over the last two years of Cobalt operations,"the airline said.

The news follows the collapse of budget airline Primera Air earlier this month.

NB: Irish passengers can also contact the Commission for Aviation Regulation at 01 661-1700 or flightrights.ie.

Read more:THE water regulator is to examine plans to abstract more than 300 million litres of water a day from the River Shannon before the project is signed-off by the Government.

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has asked the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) to carry out a review of the Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project, which would see water pumped from the Shannon to Dublin to meet future needs.

The 1.3bn project, which is subject to opposition, must be approved by the Housing Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, given the sum of public money involved.

However, the Regulator is tasked with examining if Irish Waters capital plans are appropriate and represent good value for money.

"Given the scale and importance of the Eastern and Midlands Water Supply Project, the minister has requested the CRU to undertake the review to support the decision in relation to the capital consent that will be required in the event that planning approval is obtained for the project," the Department of Housing said in a statement.

A source said the referral was routine, and did not suggest the project was in doubt.

Irish Water is expected to seek planning permission for the project next summer. It has been in development since the mid-1990s, and would provide an additional 330 million litres of treated water a day for Greater Dublin and the Eastern and Midlands Region.

The project was subject to a public consultation process, but is expected to meet with opposition during the planning process.

"Irish Water welcome the independent review," Head of Asset Management at Irish Water Sean Laffey said.

"The water supply project has undergone rigorous assessment and public consultation to date. This review will provide an independent verification of that process and, we trust, will ensure public confidence in the project."Terms and Conditions of Independent.ie Website and AppThe towering wave was about 300 metres from the shore when Adi first saw it hurtling at several hundreds of kilometres an hour towards his family's beach-side home near the Indonesian city of Palu.

Adi (27), who only uses one name, was starting his pick-up truck while his wife Waheda (23) was coming towards him carrying their first child, 10-month-old Kanza.

The family had been trying to escape to safety after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked their home. They did not expect disaster would cruelly strike twice.

"When I saw the wave I was paralysed with fear. It was as high as the coconut trees and I did not know what to do or where to go. I resigned myself to my fate," Adi said.

His petrified wife began to run with the baby and Adi braced himself for the impact as he sat inside his car.

"The wave was really powerful. When it hit it caused my car to roll several times. I held onto the steering wheel and the handle above the door," he said.

Miraculously, Adi survived with only a few scratches and was able to pull himself out of the car window to climb to safety on top of the roof. The water had subsided to roughly waist deep and in the chaos he spotted Waheda, managing to pull herself up beside him.

Tragically, Kanza was not there. "My son was ripped from my wife's arms by the force of the wave," he said.

As he recalled the horrific moment, his wife buried her face in his shoulder. "We feel traumatised," he said.

Kanza was among the more than 1,400 people who have died in the tragedy.

Authorities have set a tentative deadline of tomorrow to find people still trapped under rubble, at which point - a week after this devastating double disaster - the chances of finding anyone will dwindle to almost zero.

Like many hundreds of survivors of the twin disaster that struck the northern coast of Sulawesi island, Adi and Waheda do not have the luxury of mourning in private.

Their home and second-hand electronics shop destroyed, they now live hand to mouth with about 50 others from their home village of Towale in a makeshift camp of tarpaulin tents on a hillside at the entrance of the town of Donggala.

The survivors, whose homes were flattened by the quake, must walk more than a mile to a river to get water for washing and cooking but they do not want to leave the high ground in case of another tsunami.

To eat, they must flag down aid convoys and beg for some supplies. Motorbike spotters further down the road give them advance warning of the trucks so they can block their path.

Gde Wiga, a security guard now living in the camp, said they never forced the drivers to give them anything or looted the vehicles. "We just ask for what we need, nothing more," he said.

The small community offers a glimpse into the daily fight for survival as aid struggles to reach victims who have lost homes, livelihoods and loved ones.

Government rescue workers are focusing on half-a-dozen key sites around Palu's ravaged environment - the Hotel Roa-Roa where up to 60 people are still believed buried, a shopping mall, a restaurant and the Balaroa area where the force of the quake turned the earth temporarily to mush.

Almost 200,000 people need urgent help, the UN's humanitarian office said, among them tens of thousands of children, with an estimated 66,000 homes destroyed or damaged.

In Geneva, the United Nations expressed frustration at the slow pace of the response.

"There are still large areas of what might be the worst-affected areas that haven't been properly reached," said Jens Laerke, from the UN's humanitarian office.

"The teams are pushing, they are doing what they can."

Between Donggala and Pula, the road is a scene of apocalyptic destruction, with homes, shops, hotels and businesses reduced to ruined shells. Upturned vehicles lie embedded in the rubble, offering a startling reminder of the brutal, indiscriminate force of nature.

Along the roadside, children stand solemnly with boxes, appealing to cars to stop and donate to their families.

Arif, a motorbike taxi driver, stood by the rubble of the home where he lived with his wife and five children. Ruined clothes, kitchen utensils and other signs of his former life visible in the wreckage.

"I don't know what to do," he said. "We just need help. If we get help then we will start to rebuild." ( Daily Telegraph, London)President Donald Trump has said it certainly looks as though Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he threatened very severe consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered him.

As the US toughened its response to Mr Khashoggis disappearance, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled out of a major Saudi investment conference amid global pressure.

However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the kingdom should be given more time to investigate before the US lays any blame or considers action.

President Trump, who has insisted that more facts must be known before making assumptions about Mr Khashoggi, did not say on what he based his statement on the writers demise two weeks ago.

He commented as he left Joint Base Andrews for a political trip to Montana.

Asked if Mr Khashoggi was dead, he said, It certainly looks that way.  Very sad.

While Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of the murder in Istanbul of Mr Khashoggi, a US-based writer who has been critical of Saudi leaders, President Trump has cautioned against a rush to judgment against an important Midle East ally.

And Mr Pompeo, just back from talks with Saudi and Turkish leaders, said earlier on Thursday that the US needed more facts before deciding how, or if to respond.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Mr Mnuchin announced, We have decided I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis had hoped to use the forum, billed as Davos in the Desert to boost their global image, but a number of European finance ministers and many top business executives have pulled out as international pressure on Riyadh has intensified over Mr Khashoggi.

Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.  Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) October 18, 2018

Turkish reports say Mr Khashoggi was brutally murdered and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate by members of an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Saudis have dismissed those reports as baseless but have yet to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi, who was seen on video entering the consulate but has not been seen since.

President Trump has rejected talk that his reluctance to act is providing cover for the Saudis. And a senior US official said Mr Pompeo had warned the Saudi crown prince that his credibility as a future leader was at stake, reflecting the administrations concern about how the case could affect relations.

Mr Pompeo, who returned late on Wednesday from an emergency visit to Riyadh and Ankara to impress on senior officials in both nations the need for a credible investigation, said: I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make decisions about how, or if, the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr Khashoggi.

Mr Pompeo declined to comment on what the US believes might have happened to Mr Khashoggi, but made clear Washington takes the situation very seriously.

He said that Saudi leaders, including the crown prince, assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr Khashoggi, and that they will do so in a timely fashion, and that this report itself will be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about, and to inquire with respect to its thoroughness.

Today, I was in #SaudiArabia where I met with King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Foreign Minister al-Jubeir. We had direct and candid conversations. Wednesday, I fly to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials. Read my full statement here: https://t.co/99fU8gxPEw  Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 16, 2018

He cautioned, however, that whatever response the administration might decide on would take into account the importance of the long-standing US-Saudi partnership.

Theyre an important strategic ally of the United States, and we need to be mindful of that, he said.Mojo and his handler Pc Phil Healy, who is now his owner, were the first dog team to arrive on May 22 last year. (Julian Brown/PDSA)

Police dog Mojo was first on the scene at the Manchester Arena bombing (Julian Brown/PDSA)

The first police dog on the scene at the Manchester Arena bombing will be awarded an animal OBE for his devotion to duty.

British Transport Police (BTP) dog Mojo will receive the PDSA Order of Merit at a ceremony later this month organised by the veterinary charity.

Mojo and his handler Pc Phil Healy, who is now his owner, were the first dog team to arrive on May 22 last year.

The pair began searching the concourse of Manchesters Victoria train station before moving into the arena.

Pc Healy said: Mojo was working well but he was somehow different. It was as though he didnt want to be there among the carnage that surrounded him.

But despite this he worked on, clearing the area so that the firearms unit could move out of the area safely.

The pair searched for secondary devices among the abandoned items in the arena, to secure the area and ensure the safety of emergency services working at the scene.

Pc Healy and Mojo were later joined by other dog teams and together they searched the whole arena until 7am the following morning.

Mojo will be the 20th recipient of the PDSA Order of Merit, which has been awarded to seven dogs and 10 horses.

The ceremony will also recognise the work of two Greater Manchester Fire Service dogs, Cracker and Echo, whose awards were announced in August.

BTP Inspector Paul Miles nominated Mojo, who retired from British Transport Police duties in August, for the award.

He said: I am so proud to see Mojo recognised by PDSA in this way. He acted in the finest traditions of policing, under circumstances that you can never fully train for.

Pc Healy and Mojo have made a stellar team in their time together and, as Mojo adapts to a life of retirement, its a wonderful moment to pause and reflect on his service and actions.

Nigel Spencer, PDSA director of fundraising, said: Mojos actions on that fateful night enabled the emergency services to carry out their vital work by helping to search and clear the area of potential secondary devices.

Mojo worked tirelessly under conditions hed never experienced before.

For that devotion to duty and service to society, PDSA is honoured to recognise him.Eighteen people were killed and dozens injured at a college in the Black Sea region of Crimea yesterday when at least one attacker set off a bomb in the cafeteria and went through the building shooting at random, officials said.

Law enforcement officials said they were treating the incident, in which many of the victims were teenage pupils, as a terrorist attack.

Sergei Aksyonov, the head of the Russian-backed administration in Crimea, a region Moscow annexed from Ukraine four years ago, said the main suspect was a male student a the college and that he had killed himself.

Video footage from the scene showed armoured personnel carriers and military trucks lined up on the approach to the college, in the Crimean city of Kerch. Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military was sending forces and supplies to help the victims.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions.

Olga Grebennikova, the college's director, described a scene of bloodshed at the college, which provides vocational training. Its pupils are mostly teenagers.

"There are bodies everywhere, children's bodies everywhere. It was a real act of terrorism. They burst in five or 10 minutes after I'd left. They blew up everything in the hall, glass was flying," Ms Grebennikova told Crimean media outlets.

"They then ran about throwing some kind of explosives around, and then ran around the second floor with guns, opened the office doors, and killed anyone they could find."Jollibee estimates that it will create 1,500 jobs in the UK (PA)

Filipino fast food chain Jollibee will create 1,500 jobs in the UK by 2023 as part of a multimillion-dollar expansion plan, it revealed ahead of the opening of its first London store.

The restaurant, known for its fried chicken and sweet spaghetti, is planning to open 25 stores in the UK over the next five years.

Initially focusing on London, the brand will later expand to other cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham.

Jollibee, which already has 4,300 sites across the world, has set aside 218 million US dollars (166 million) for global expansion this year.

Dennis Flores, head of international business for Europe at Jollibee, told the Press Association that the investment in UK expansion was substantial.

Its a sign of our trust and confidence in the UK, he said.

Admiring this beautiful palace with my favorite baon, the Chickenjoy Bucket! #JollibeeLondon #1stJollibeeinUK pic.twitter.com/xF0d2WITca  Bestfriend Jollibee (@Jollibee) October 15, 2018

He added that the company should be able to manage any challenges arising from Brexit next year.

Jollibees first London site is due to begin trading on Saturday. It is the second European location for the brand, following the launch of a Milan store in March, which saw customers queuing for six hours to visit.

Mr Flores said there would be more expansion in Europe over the next five years and that the company is currently assessing opportunities in Spain.

Jollibee hit the headlines in the UK last year when it was reported to be considering an offer to buy British coffee and sandwich chain Pret a Manger.

Mr Flores confirmed that an investment was considered, but Jollibee never made an offer.

Pret was later sold to JAB Holdings for around 1.5 billion.Perus opposition leader Keiko Fujimori has been freed by an appeals judge, a week after she was arrested in an ongoing money laundering investigation.

The daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori cried as the judge read aloud his ruling on Wednesday night.

Several critics heckled Ms Fujimori as she left the courthouse.

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She remains under investigation over some 1.2 million dollars (913,000) in undeclared financial contributions to her 2011 presidential campaign that were allegedly made by Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction firm at the heart of Latin Americas largest-ever corruption scandal.

Ms Fujimori narrowly lost to Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in the 2016 presidential run-off, but her party emerged with a majority of seats in congress.

A different judge recently ordered that the elder Fujimori should be returned to jail to finish a long sentence for human rights abuses.A Turkish newspaper has published surveillance video images showing a man who previously travelled with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmans entourage walking into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there.

The pro-government Sabah newspapers report showed the man outside the Saudi consul generals home later, then checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side before leaving Turkey on October 2.

The report came as Turkish crime scene investigators finished a search of both the Saudi consul generals residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankaras fears that Saudi authorities had Mr Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul.

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Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations baseless, has not responded to repeated requests for comment over recent days.

The Sabah report showed the man walking past police barricades at the consulate at 9.55am local with several men trailing behind him. Mr Khashoggi arrived at the consulate several hours later at 1.14pm, then disappeared while his fiancee waited outside for him. He had arrived at the consulate to pick up some paperwork he needed in order to get married.

An earlier report by the Yeni Safak newspaper, citing what it described as an audio recording of Mr Khashoggis killing, said a Saudi team immediately accosted the 60-year-old journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him.

Previously leaked surveillance footage showed consular vehicles moving from the consulate to the consul generals official residence, just over a mile away.

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Security services in Turkey have used pro-government media to leak details of Mr Khashoggis case, adding to the pressure on the kingdom.

The man in the images identity cannot immediately be verified, although he is one of the individuals previously identified by Turkish authorities as being involved in the 15-man Saudi team that targeted Mr Khashoggi.

Images shot by the Houston Chronicle show the same man was in Prince Mohammeds entourage when he visited Houston, Texas, in April to inspect rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Harvey.

The same man wore lapel pins, including one of the Saudi-American flag which other bodyguards accompanying Prince Mohammed wore on the trip.

The searches and the leaks in Turkish media have ensured the worlds attention remains focused on what happened to Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who went into a self-imposed exile in the US over the rise of Prince Mohammed.

It also places further strain on the relationship between the kingdom, the worlds largest oil exporter, and its main security guarantor, the US, as tensions with Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East remain high.

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Flying back home after a visit to both Saudi Arabia and Turkey, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo remained positive about an ongoing Saudi probe into Mr Khashoggis disappearance, but he stressed that answers are needed.

Sooners better than later for everyone, Mr Pompeo said.

US president Donald Trump, who initially took a tough stance on the Saudis over the disappearance but since has backed off, said the US wanted Turkey to turn over any audio or video recording it had of Mr Khashoggis alleged killing if it exists.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post has published what it described as Mr Khashoggis last column in honour of the missing journalist.

In it, Mr Khashoggi pointed to the muted international response to ongoing abuses against journalists by governments in the Middle East.

As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate, Mr Khashoggi wrote.

He added: The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.Former Communist general turned prominent politician has been killed by a Taliban bomb hidden in his sofa as he campaigned for this weekends parliamentary election in Afghanistan

A former Communist general turned prominent politician has been killed by a Taliban bomb hidden in his sofa as he campaigned for this weekend's parliamentary election in Afghanistan.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman became the 10th election candidate to die ahead of Saturday's polls when the blast tore through his campaign office.

The Taliban took responsibility for the attack, which also killed three of Mr Qahraman's companions in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

The dead candidate had been a key figure in the dying days of Afghanistan's Soviet-backed government, holding military power in the south of the country until he fled into exile in 1993.

After the fall of the Taliban, he return to Afghanistan and was elected as a member of parliament.Ready to go: Turkish police officers gather as they prepare to enter Saudi Arabia consuls residence, in Istanbul. Photo: AP

The United States would get answers on the missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi "by the end of the week", Donald Trump said yesterday, as pressure mounted on the Gulf kingdom over gruesome new details of the suspected murder.

Mr Trump said he "did not like" that Riyadh was "guilty until proven innocent" and would wait for a full report on what might have happened to Mr Khashoggi in the consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

"I just want to find out what's happening," the US president said, responding to accusations that his administration was soft-pedalling its response. "I'm not giving cover at all," he insisted.

Mr Trump indicated that Washington would not lightly abandon its alliance with Riyadh - a historic customer for the US weapons industry and "partner in the fight against terrorism".

Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, was dispatched by the president to Turkey yesterday after visiting Saudi Arabia, where he was pictured laughing during what appeared to be jovial meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

His meeting with Turkish officials came hours after 'Yenisafak', a Turkish newspaper, claimed to have an audio recording of Mr Khashoggi's murder. It described the 60-year-old 'Washington Post' columnist as having his fingers cut off and being decapitated minutes after entering the consulate.

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The newspaper said that Saudi Consul-General Mohammed al-Otaibi could be heard on the tape, telling those who were allegedly torturing Mr Khashoggi: "Do this outside; you're going to get me in trouble."

The newspaper said a man identified as Salah Muhammed al-Tubaigy, a forensic pathologist who specialises in gathering DNA from crime scenes and dissecting bodies, replied: "Shut up if you want to live when you return to (Saudi) Arabia."

Mr Trump said the US was asking Turkey for the audio, "if it exists", though sources in Ankara have previously indicated they have already shared it with Washington.

The president has posited that "rogue killers" could be responsible, a claim that would allow the ruling family to distance themselves from the alleged murder, but one widely viewed as implausible in light of the growing evidence.

Mr Trump said yesterday: "I hope that the [Saudi] king and the crown prince didn't know about it. That's the big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't."

The name Major-General Ahmed al-Assiri, the deputy head of Saudi general intelligence, was circulated yesterday as that of the possible lead assassin.

The Daily Beast, a US news site, reported that "the Saudis will place blame for Khashoggi's murder on a two-star general new to intelligence work".

Mr Assiri, who appears to have no familial ties with the royal family, was previously the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in the war in neighbouring Yemen.

At the same time, investigators were last night searching the residence of Mr Otaibi.

Turkish reports suggested vehicles with diplomatic plates were driven from the consulate to Mr Otaibi's home a mile away, where it is said parts of Mr Khashoggi's body had been either dumped or buried.

Mr Otaibi could not be questioned as he flew out of Turkey to Riyadh on Tuesday, hours before the search was due to begin.

There was speculation yesterday that he had been fired and been ordered to return home.

International pressure on the kingdom was growing last night.

John McDonnell, the UK shadow chancellor, said Britain should consider sanctions on Saudi Arabia if its response to questions over the Khashoggi affair were inadequate.

He told reporters: "If we are not getting the legitimate answers that you would expect, we have got to be one of those countries, because of our special relationship with Saudi... that leads in the reaction to it and that does mean, yes, diplomatic isolation but it also means economic sanctions."

Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign minister, has delayed a scheduled trip to Saudi over its growing concern over the columnist's fate.

And the G7 foreign ministers said in a statement that they remained "very troubled" by the dissident's disappearance.A security guard walks out of the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul (Lefteris Pitarakis/AP)

There have been further withdrawals from Saudi Arabias Davos in the desert investment conference following concerns over the disappearance in Turkey of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will not attend the event, following similar moves from the UKs International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Frances finance minister, Bruno Le Maire.

Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.  Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) October 18, 2018

Mr Mnuchin made the announcement on his Twitter account, saying the decision was made after a White House meeting with President Donald Trump and US secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

Mr Mnuchin said in his tweet: I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia.

His announcement comes after Mr Pompeo told reporters at the White House that the administration would await the outcome of investigations by Saudi Arabia and Turkey before deciding how the US will respond.

Expand Close File photo of Jamal Khashoggi in Davos (Virginia Mayo/AP) / Facebook

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Earlier, a UK government spokesman said Dr Fox had decided the time is not right to participate.

Mr Le Maire said on French TV channel Public Senat that I will not go to Riyadh next week for the conference known as Davos in the desert, a nod to the annual gathering of the rich and famous in the Swiss Alps.

Several top business executives have also cancelled their plans to attend, as has the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

Expand Close International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde will not attend the meeting (John Stillwell/PA) / Facebook

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Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra also cancelled, after discussing the issue with Mr Le Maire, the Dutch foreign minister said.

Stef Blok wrote that a Dutch trade mission planned for December to Saudi Arabia also likely will not go ahead.

Mr Le Maire said the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi is serious and facts about it need to be explained by Saudi authorities.

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Turkish officials say Mr Khashoggi was killed and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi officials have denied the allegations as baseless, but have not provided evidence of the writer leaving the diplomatic mission alive.

Mr Le Maire added his decision on the investment conference does not call into question the strategic partnership between France and Saudi Arabia.Whether you prefer going for a run or a stroll or doing both, the benefits that both running and walking offer are plentiful; from a healthier heart to stronger bones to a lower bodyweight to a lesser risk of developing diseases like diabetes.

A new research conducted by the Stroke Research and Recovery Institute at Harvard Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital suggests the pace of about 100 steps per minute qualifies as brisk walking for many but not for all.

nitfm.pt

For example, walking 100 steps can be good for a middle-aged healthy person who doesnt exercise regularly but might be a bit slow for someone who exercises regularly.

On the other hand, 100 steps per minute would be too much for people who are not in shape, dont exercise physically, or have some injury or illness.

How hard you breathe is a clear indicator of how hard your heart and body is working. Brisk walking should lead to exertion, which is between sitting idle and exercising as hard as you can possibly can.

Measuring your heart rate is another important indicator of how hard you are exercising. linkedin.com But again, measuring the heart rate is not as easy as fitness bands and smartwatches are not accurate and counting your pulse with your finger while you brisk walk is not possible. Also, if you take medicine for lowering your blood pressure, it also lowers your heart rate. Considering all challenges at hand, the study recommends that people should use rate of perceived exertion scale also called Borg scale to estimate how hard they are walking or exercising.

A team of researchers reviewed findings from previous recent studies to estimate the number of steps per minute that correlate with moderate or brisk walking.

diarioparanaense.com

All the participants involved in the study were 18 years or older but not more than 40. People obviously had different fitness levels, body weights and height. What constituted for moderate and brisk walking was consistent among all 38 studies, 100 steps per minute (2.7 miles per hour).They had escaped from a detention center in Thailand after opening a gap in the wall and using blankets to lower themselves to the ground. Malaysia was only a temporary transit point, before clarifying their status as refugees with the UN High Commissioner (UNHRC) and reaching the Uyghur community in Turkey.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) - Defying China, the Malaysian government has freed 11 Uyghurs, who escaped from a Thai prison last year. Against the will of Beijing, which called for their return to custody, Kuala Lumpur dropped accusations of illegal immigration and allowed former prisoners to reach Turkey to seek asylum.

According to observers, the move will further test relations with China, tense since Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad came to power last May. Following what was promised during the election campaign, Mahathir has canceled more than 20 billion US dollars of projects assigned to Chinese companies.

Welcoming their lawyer's appeal, the judges of the Court of Kuala Lumpur have acquitted the 11 Uyghurs for "humanitarian reasons": they were fleeing the oppression of the Beijing government against the Islamic minority from Xinjiang. For them, Malaysia was only a temporary transit point, before clarifying the status of refugees with the UN High Commissioner (UNHRC) and reaching the Uyghur community of Turkey.

They had been fleeing since November 2017, when they escaped from a Thai detention center along with nine other inmates, after opening a gap in the wall and using blankets to lower themselves to the ground.

When they arrived in Malaysia, they were arrested in February. Responding to the extradition requests made by Beijing, the then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had declared his intention to seek a diplomatic solution with Thailand. Some Western delegations tried to dissuade Kuala Lumpur from extraditing the 11 to China.

Mahathir's designated successor as prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has recently called for formal talks with China regarding the repression against the Muslim minority. Anwar said the government raised the issue with Beijing, which sees the Uyghurs as an internal issue. He also criticized the governments of Muslim countries that are silent on the treatment that China reserves for Uyghurs. "They are afraid. Nobody wants to say anything, "he said.British Indian World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan may be the next face of British currency. A campaign for the same is gaining momentum wherein people are demanding the spy to be featured on a redesigned 50-pound currency note.

The Bank of England had recently announced plans for a new polymer version of the large denomination note to go into print from 2020 and indicated that it would invite public nominations for potential characters to appear on the new note.

An online petition in favour of the campaign has already garnered over 1,200 signatures by Wednesday, calling for Khan, a descendant of Tipu Sultan and daughter of Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat Khan, to be considered as the first ethnic minority British woman to be honoured on the currency.

"I am absolutely delighted that the story of Noor Inayat Khan has inspired so many people and that she has become an icon. Noor was an extraordinary war heroine," said Shrabani Basu, the author of Khan's biography 'Spy Princess' and founder-chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust.

The trust was set up in 2010 to campaign for a memorial in honour of the war-time spy, who had been recruited by Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) and infiltrated beyond enemy lines before being captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944, aged only 30.

Khan's memorial bust now has a permanent home at Gordon Square in central London, with the trust also lobbying for a commemorative blue plaque to mark the house nearby where she spent time with her family.

"I am very happy to support the campaign for Noor Inayat Khan on the 50-pound note. It is a way of keeping her memory alive and taking this story to the next generation. It will certainly make a big statement internationally because Noor was someone who believed in breaking down barriers," Basu said.

The campaign has found the backing of prominent political leaders, historians and academics in the UK, with many taking to social media to voice their support.

"The new 50-pound note could have anyone on it. I'm backing Noor Inayat Khan. She volunteered for SOE, served bravely as an agent in occupied Europe, was eventually captured and murdered. A Muslim, a woman, a hero of WWII. This would celebrate her courage and all SOE," said Conservative Party MP Tom Tugendhat, who is currently leading the UK Parliament's Global Britain and India Inquiry.

"Just returned from both East Africa and the Western Front and am more than ever aware of the shared service and sacrifice of men and women of many backgrounds. I would love to see Noor Inayat Khan on the new 50-pound note," said Melvyn Roffe, Principal at George Watson's College in Edinburgh.

Noor Inayat Khan, born in Moscow to an Indian father and American mother, was raised in Paris and Britain. As a Sufi, she believed in non-violence and also supported the Indian independence struggle.

But she felt compelled to join the British war effort against fascism and went on to become the first female radio operator to be infiltrated into Nazi-occupied France before she was captured, tortured and killed at the Dachau concentration camp in Nazi Germany.

"In this age, when we see a rise in anti-semitism, anti-Muslim hatred and intolerance, it is important that we continue to build bridges and show positive contributions from Britain's ethnic and religious minorities, not least one of World War II's almost forgotten heroes, a British Muslim woman," said social activist Zehra Zaidi in the online petition she started to campaign for Khan as the face of the new banknote.

The 50-pound currency will be the final redesigned note to go into circulation after notes in the denomination of 5 and 10 have already been reissued in polymer. The new 20-pound polymer note will go into circulation from 2020 when the 50-pound is set to go into print to be circulated later.

"The bank will announce a character selection process for the new 50-pound note in due course, which will seek nominations from the public for potential characters to appear on the new note," the Bank of England said.The under-construction Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line along the India-China border will be the worlds highest railway track. Indian Railways wants it to be declared a national project.

It has also suggested that the construction on 51 kilometre stretch between Upshi in Himachal Pradesh and Phe in Leh begin immediately.

The first phase of the survey for the project has been completed and initial estimates put the cost of the 465 km line at Rs 83,360 crore. This is the most difficult project undertaken by the railways and is one of five most significant projects in terms of strategic importance.

We have suggested that the project should be declared a national project as once completed it will help our armed forces, as well as boost tourism and lead to the development of the region, said General Manager, Northern Railway, Vishesh Chaube. The advantage of a project being declared a national project is that a major chunk of the funding for the project is borne by the central government.

The proposed railway line passes through the Shivaliks, Himalayas and Zanskar range and four mountain passes -- Rohtang La, Barlacha La, Lachung La and Tangla La.

The project, which will have the highest road point of 5360 metres above mean sea level, is comparable only to the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Line in China, which is at a height of around 2000 metres above sea level. It was in September that Thupstan Chhewang, the BJP MP from Leh, had written a letter to the Minister of Railways to seek national project status for the project.

It would be of national interest to sanction this Bilaspur-Manali-Leh as a national project and undertake execution of its first part from Upshi to Leh may be started immediately on priority by the government after sanctioning its part estimate, he had written in the letter, a copy of which is with PTI.

The 51-kilometre stretch is a gentle gradient compared to the rest of the project and is likely to be completed in two years time with an approximate cost of Rs 5,000 crore, said Alok Kumar, Chief Administrative officer, Construction, Northern Railway. The line once completed will connect important locations between Bilaspur and Leh like Sundernagar, Mandi, Manali, Keylong, Koksar, Darcha, Upshi and Karu and other important towns of Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir enroute.

The project will include 74 tunnels, 124 major bridges and 396 minor bridges, according to the first phase of the survey. Once finished the line will reduce the distance between Delhi to Leh from the present 40 hours to 20 hours, Chaube said. The final location survey is expected to be completed in 30 months time after which a detailed project report will be finalised, he said.As outrageous as it might sound, this has happened, Franco Mulakkal, the former Bishop of Jalandhar who was granted bail by the Kerala High Court came back to a heros welcome in his former diocese.

He reached Jalandhar on Wednesday, two days after the court granted him conditional bail in the rape case filed by a nun of the Missionaries of Jesus Congregation in Jalandhar.

He reached the Bishop House in Jalandhar on Wednesday evening where a large number of his supporters, including nuns and the current administrative Bishop, Agnelo Gracias welcomed him.

As he reached the Bishop House, he was welcomed with loud cheers and slogans by his supporters who also showered him with rose petals.

Later speaking to media the 54-year-old senior Catholic priest thanked people who supported him. "The prayers of the people of Punjab supported me. I believe that they will pray for me even in the days to come. I thank everyone. The investigation is underway and I am co-operating. I'm a law abiding citizen and I trust the legal system of the country".

He was granted bail by the court on conditions including non-entry in Kerala and surrendering his passport to the Kerala Police.

BCCL

This welcome of an alleged rape accused has once again raised some serious questions on the role of the church in such cases.

So far barring a few, the bishops and church bodies have rallied behind him and has discredited the complainant's account.

Even the Missionaries of Jesus, the convent which the complainant belonged to had openly come out in support of Mulakkal and went on to paint the victim of having questionable character.The Centre has sent an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) team to Rajasthan to tackle mosquito spread Zika virus cases and to pace vector control measures. The number of people infected by Zika virus has gone up to 100 in Rajasthan on Wednesday. The authorities are worried as at least 23 infected from the deadly virus are pregnant women.

A health ministry official in Delhi claims that the 20 new cases of Zika virus infections were reported on Wednesday from Jaipur and two neighbouring districts.

A team of experts from ICMR has reached Jaipur to change the insecticides which are being used in the city to kill mosquitoes that spread Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses as a part of the integrated mosquito management programme, the official said. Zika virus has been found in some mosquitoes taken as samples from Sindhi Camp and densely populated Shastri Nagar.

Rajasthan additional chief secretary, medical and health, Veenu Gupta chaired a review meeting in Jaipur on Wednesday and released updated figures of the infected cases. Almost all Zika Virus-infected patients are healthy after treatment. Three-fourth patients do not have symptoms of the disease and have recovered, a state health department official said.

Most of the Zika cases reported were from Shastri Nagar area, where fogging and other anti-larvae activities are being carried out. The official said more than 1 lakh households have been surveyed in Shastri Nagar and neighbouring areas and 330 teams have been engaged to destroy mosquito larvae found during the survey.

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 babys head is significantly smaller than expected, in newborn children. The state health department has advised pregnant women not to visit the affected areas.REUTERS

The Supreme Court might have cleared the hurdle for women of all ages to enter Sabarimala Temple in Kerala, but since the shrine opened on Wednesday, but no woman has so far managed to reach the hill shrine. Read more

Here's more top news of the day:





1) Rajasthan On Alert As Number Of Mosquito-Spread Zika Virus Cases Rise To 100

The number of people infected by Zika virus has gone up to 100 in Rajasthan on Wednesday. The authorities are worried as at least 23 infected from the deadly virus are pregnant women. Read more

2) British Currency May Soon Have Picture Of Noor Inayat Khan, A British-Indian Spy During WWII

British Indian World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan may be the next face of British currency. A campaign for the same is gaining momentum wherein people are demanding the spy to be featured on a redesigned 50-pound currency note. Read more

3) Out On Bail, Rape Accused Former Bishop Franco Gets Welcomed With Shower Of Petals In Jalandhar

As outrageous as it might sound, this has happened, Franco Mulakkal, the former Bishop of Jalandhar who was granted bail by the Kerala High Court came back to a heros welcome in his former diocese. Read more

4) At Mysuru Dasara Festival, Several Women Stalked, Molested And Sexually Harassed

Representational Image





Festivities turned nightmare during Dasara celebrations after numerous women complained of being stalked, sexually harassed and molested. Women took to social media to share their experiences during an event at the 'Open Street Festival' held at the Krishnaraja Boulevard in Mysuru. Read more

5) India To Build Worlds Highest Railway Line Along Indo-China Border Between Manali And Leh

The under-construction Bilaspur-Manali-Leh line along the India-China border will be the worlds highest railway track. Indian Railways wants it to be declared a national project. It has also suggested that the construction on 51 kilometre stretch between Upshi in Himachal Pradesh and Phe in Leh begin immediately. Read moreWith more than 100,000 varieties of rice produced across its length and breadth, India was once considered to be a rice country. There was a time when the cereal provided over 60 per cent of the population.

Ishan (left) and Darshan talking to farmers.

Now, the hybrids that are produced give more yields but have taken over the indigenous varieties. Most farmers now cultivate only hybrid varieties.

But two young engineers - Ishan Pasrija (27) and Darshan Doreswamy (30) are trying to bring back the indigenous varieties to paddy to regular cultivation, and therefore, both of them have been working in rural hinterlands of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to convince farmers to adopt the varieties that have long been forgotten.

Basically, we are trying to revive the cultivation of the indigenous varieties of paddy, which the farmers had stopped cultivating roughly two decades ago. But its easier said than done, because hybrid paddy is all that farmers cultivate and its quite difficult to convince to grow something which is harder to grow and also yields less, said Ishan, an IIT Delhi alumnus.

Why indigenous paddy varieties?

With better nutrition quality and taste, the indigenous variety of paddy brings much more to the table of the end customer who consumes farmers crop. Hybrid varieties are indeed easy to grow and of course yield more in terms production. But indigenous varieties provide a better quality which eventually leads to better quality of life to both - the farmer who grows and the end consumer who eats it. Our objective is to make the difference to the lives of both as it will help the farmers get a sustainable livelihood while people will have healthy food on their plate which eventually leads to a healthy life, said Ishan.

Both Ishan and Darshan are the Buddha Fellows - a fellowship programme run by NGO Srijan.

Hard to convince farmers

Both Ishan and Darshan had comfortable and cushy corporate jobs, but they left their jobs to make some difference in their life of farmers. Agriculture is anyways not lucrative anymore. People barely make ends meet and on the top of that people have the smaller land holding. But we have been making field visits for the last two months and have spoken to a number of farmers about cultivating the indigenous crops. All of them listen to us, but its quite hard to convince, said Darshan who is an alumnus of IIM Kashipur.

But first, they are trying to make it economically viable

Unless cultivating crops become economically viable, the farmers arent going to cultivate it and since indigenous paddy varieties are costly to cultivate, its hard to convince farmers to adopt indigenous varieties of rice.

In order to make the cultivation of indigenous varieties economically viable for farmers, we have put our efforts. Unless we do it, its very hard to convince farmers since growing hybrid paddy is making them ends meet, added Ishan, who was the manager for Emami in east Bihar before leaving his job and taking up this fellowship.

Sought help from doctors AIIMS and Medanta

Most of the indigenous varieties of paddy have medicinal qualities and there are varieties which can be consumed by patients of diabetes who otherwise are advised not to eat rice.

Though its very hard to approach the market and make a place for indigenous rice, we have approached doctors at AIIMS and Medanta in Delhi and have asked to prescribe indigenous rice varieties as the food alternative to patients especially the diabetes patients. Its all in very initial stage and will take time, added Ishan.

Roughly met over 200 farmers now

Both Ishan and Darshan have been visiting hinterlands of both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with their main base in a village near Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.

We have been meeting farmers on both the states for the last two months and have had some interesting sessions. We have spoken to over 200 farmers and most of them have shown interest in whatever we have told them.

"Since most of them are growing hybrid paddy which gives them two-time meal, its very hard to bring it in practice. An alternative demand in the market for indigenous rice is required to make the practice popular among the farmers because all a farmer always wants is sustainable livelihood which sees his family fed, said Ishan.Fortnite was the unexpected smash hit last year, combining PUBG's battle royale with the rudimentary building mechanics of Minecraft to make a very addictive game.

So with so many eyes on it, why not use the platform to do some universal good?

ClimateFortnite on Twitch

That's the idea behind ClimateFortnite, a Twitch gaming channel run by an MIT graduate student named Henri Drake. In it, he draws in users with Fortnite gameplay (which is incredibly popular on the streaming platform) but, instead of commentary of his matches, Drake hosts interactions with scientists to talk about climate and other environmental issues.

The idea came about thanks to climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who posted on Twitter about how her webinar on Youtube had only a fraction of the views her eleven-year-old's Fortnite stream gained. Being a casual Fortnite player, Drake realised he was uniquely suited to bring the worlds of Twitch and scientists together to impart crucial knowledge.

Alright, which other three climate scientists will do a climate science themed fornite stream with me? Noobs welcome. https://t.co/DK0ahagoz2  Henri Drake (@henrifdrake) July 18, 2018

"It builds a community where people can ask the hard questions directly to an expert," Drake told Emily Waite at Wired. "For a topic like climate change that is steeped in misinformation, direct access to experts is crucial."

Before ClimateFortnite, Drake says he'd never streamed before, though he had followed others' streams on Twitch and had always doing an educational vlog of his own. Just a few months into his channel and Drake already has 577 followers and counting. Together with his guests, Drake discusses topics like methane emissions, renewable energy, melting Arctic ice, and more. Even better is that, using Twitch chat, viewers can pose questions to the scientists on the show and be answered in real time.

Views for the channel are still low in the grand entirety of Twitch, but the scientists behind the channel hope to draw a larger following over time, to better spread awareness of climate change they believe not enough people have.

And maybe, they'll be able to get enough people to sit up and take notice.Google and Uber had a lengthy legal battle that ended in February this year. To be more specific, the lawsuit involved Googles self-driving project-turned-company Waymo, which had blamed Uber at the time for stealing its driverless car technology. All this, for one employee who worked with both the firms successively, named Anthony Levandowski.

Months on, a new report has emerged that suggests there is more to the high-profile drama ensuing the once-hailed genius engineer. As per The New York Times report, thanks to Levandowski, Googles project was responsible for a dozen accidents in its early years, including three serious ones.

One totalled test car, a spinal injury requiring multiple surgeries and several not-so-serious accidents took place during the Google projects initiation, which had not come to light until recently, as the company did not report these to the authorities. It was only after 2014, that California regulations started asking companies to report any instance in which a self-driving vehicle is in any manner involved in a collision originating from the operation of the autonomous vehicle on a public road that resulted in the damage of property or in bodily injury or death. The mentioned accidents took place prior to that, at the time when the research was titled Project Chauffeur.

Reuters

The spine-injury accident dates back to 2011, when Levandowski modified the test cars software in order to take them on otherwise forbidden routes. Post an argument on this between Levandowski and another Google executive named Isaac Taylor, the men headed off in a self-driving Prius and ultimately landed up in an accident. It was Taylor on the receiving end though.

Maybe that is why Levandowski, to date, seems to be cool with such experimentation. "If it is your job to advance technology, safety cannot be your No. 1 concern," he told The New Yorker. "If it is, you'll never do anything. It's always safer to leave the car in the driveway. You'll never learn from a real mistake."

A spokesperson at Waymo has a completely different take on this though. "The Google self-driving project was founded with a mission to improve road safety and that's the standard we hold ourselves to," he said in a written statement to CNBC.

"Safety is our highest priority as we test and develop this technology."After six long years of service, NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars may finally be ready to take the long sleep. Sad as that is, NASA isn't likely to leave the Red Planet untapped for data.

That's why it's already figuring out where it's going to send the next rover in 2020.

Images courtesy: NASA

This week, hundreds of scientists, astronomers, and Mars enthusiasts have gathered in California for a NASA conference. There, the space agency will debate the best landing point on the planet for the rover, in order to "set the stage" for the next ten years of exploration on the red planet.

The new rover will seriously have its work cut out for it. Not only will the wheeled explorer have to look for signs of life on Mars, but it NASA believes it could also be the first step towards bringing soil and rock samples from the planet back to Earth. That makes choosing the drop point all the more important.

Also Read: Remember NASAs Longest-Lived Robot On Mars? It Is Possible It Might Be Dying

This three-day conference is actually the fourth of its kind, since having started back in 2014. It will also be the last. For one thing, the spot obviously can't be the same as where Curiosity landed. Mars is huge after all and the rovers don't move very fast, even without stopping to analyse samples. But there are other things to consider too.

Where Curiosity had an internal lab to test samples, the 2020 rover will instead have a sample collection system. It will collect soil and rock samples, seal them up in test tubes and scatter them across Mars for later NASA missions to pick up and send back to Earth.

Topographical map of the landing sites

In 2014, there were 30 potential landing spots in the running. After imaging them from space, those were narrowed down to eight, and then the current top four - Columbia Hills, Jezero Crater and Northeast Syrtis, and "Midway" (which sits between Jezero Crater and Northeast Syrtis. The first two of those spots have some of the oldest rocks on Mars, while the third is where they believe a body of water used to exist.

Wherever the 2020 rover does go however, it might still be a long wait before we see the results. NASA officials say it might take three or four missions after the 2020 rover's launch before we're able to get the samples it's collected back to Earth.

NASA will launch the finalised landing site by the end of the year. The mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in July 2020 and the rover will touch down on Mars by February 2021.To look at that painting, it seems to the work of someone like Salvador Dali, or Frida Kahlo, with strong surrealist vibes.

Yet, it's actually a mix of various painting styles over the past 600 or so years. And not only is its painter not alive now, it never was to begin with.

Images courtesy: Obvious

The Portrait of Edmonde de Belamy isn't the representation of a visually impaired artist, or the fever dream of a tortured painter, it's actually the work of a neural network. The algorithm it runs on was designed by Paris-based art collective Obvious, which is is trying to fuse art and artificial intelligence.

This piece is just one of a series of 11 paintings of the fictitious Belamy family. And it's worth between $7,000 to $10,000 when it goes to auction next week.

Obvious designed an image-recognition neural network and fed it a dataset of 15,000 portraits made between the 14th and 20th centuries. They then had another part of the AI generate a new portrait, based on the styles of what it's learned.

The Belamy family tree

The system works using what's called a generative adversarial network (GAN) composed of two neural networks. The 'generator' attempts to create a portrait based on real ones it's seen, while the 'discriminator' compares it to its dataset to see if it can find similarities. If it does, the generator takes that knowledge and tries again, and so on and so forth. Eventually, you get to a point where the discriminator can't tell the difference between its counterpart's paintings, and that of humans'.

"The aim is to fool the discriminator into thinking that the new images are real-life portraits," Obvious co-founder Hugo Caselles-Dupre told auction house Christie's, where Edmond de Belamy will be sold. "Then we have a result."

The Compte (L) and Comptesse (R) de Belamy

The reason then that the painting looks so disjointed and odd is because it's trying to fool its own AI. "It is an attribute of the model that there is distortion," Caselles-Dupre said. "The discriminator is looking for the features of the image-a face, shoulders-and for now it is more easily fooled than a human eye."

Eventually though, who knows how AI may affect the world of art. Maybe It'll always be the AI's creator that gets the credit for a piece, or perhaps we'll get to a point where the algorithm itself will be considered the painter.

In either case, it's certainly going to very interesting when the Van Goghs and Picassos of our lifetime turn out to be machines.An adorable little fan gave Prince Harry and Meghan Markle a welcome that they'll remember for a lifetime.

Reuters

Five-year-old Luke Vincent was among a crowd of school kids gathered to greet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. However, this little boy instantly stood out.

Just as Prince Harry knelt down to greet the curious little chap, Luke came forward, gave him the warmest little hug and started tugging and inspecting his beard!

Luke, who has Down syndrome, caught everyone's attention by throwing himself into Meghan and Harry's arms.

A wonderful welcome from local schoolchildren as The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive in Dubbo  #RoyalVisitAustralia pic.twitter.com/C25zQ9Q1Ru  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) October 17, 2018

According to Australian News, the little boy with Down syndrome somehow dodged past the security guards and went right up to Prince Harry.

Ms Van Dartel, Lukes school principal, told the host of the Today Show, Lukes favourite person is Santa Claus  and now its Prince Harry, she said.

Luke waited beautifully today and waited for Prince Harry and Princess Meghan to come to us. And he even brought her flowers.

The couple flew to a rural area in Australia called Dubbo, to find out how locals are coping with two years of drought. It's in Dubbo's Victoria park where they met school kids.

Meghan Markel who is expecting her first baby in the spring plans to go ahead with all 76 engagements of the 16-day visit to Australia.Badhaai Ho teaches us that an older couple has the right to be physically close and that they also have the right to decide whether, emotionally, health-wise and financially, they want to go ahead and taste parenthood again. (Junglee Pictures/Twitter photo)The Illinois Supreme Court will hear a motion that states Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Mark Clarke acted improperly when he threw out a jurys verdict which found Gaege Bethune guilty of the 2014 murder of Indian American Pravin Varughese. The motion asks that Clarkes decision be vacated and for sentencing of Bethune to begin immediately. Varugheses mother and father, Lovely and Ponnu Varughese (seen above), have fought a four-year battle to get justice for their soon. (Facebook photo)Women devotees attempt to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala's Pathanamthitta District Oct. 17. Traditionalists opposed to the Supreme Court ruling that allows the entry of women ages 10-50 to Sabarimala, protested Oct. 17, forcibly blocking women from entering the temple, despite police assurances that no one would be prevented from taking part in the pilgrimage. (IANS photo)IFF opens new China facilities

IFF is opening two new facilities in China -- a flavours manufacturing facility in the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone and a Natural Product Research lab, located in the Nanjing Life Science Park.

IFF is opening two new facilities in China -- a flavours manufacturing facility in the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone and a Natural Product Research lab, located in the Nanjing Life Science Park. The flavours plant is the companys second in China and is designed to supplement IFFs existing flavours and manufacturing operations in Guangzhou. The Naturals Lab is the companys first outside of the US.

China is a critical component of our long-term strategy, said Andreas Fibig, IFF Chairman and CEO. The opening of these new sites will support our efforts to be a partner of choice and to grow in this exciting region. Our presence in Zhangjiagang allows us to better serve our Chinese customers and focus on driving differentiated products within the broader Greater Asian market and beyond. Mr. Fibig continued, Ever-mindful of the value of naturals for consumers around the world, the output of the new Naturals Lab is not limited by region. It is an opportunity to combine our discoveries with our innovative technologies to create winning solutions for our global customers.

The Zhangjiagang site spans 66,800 square meters, encompassing the main manufacturing building that is fitted with a strong odour control system, quality control labs and an ambient warehouse for goods. Aligned with IFFs commitment to sustainability, this facility is designed to have zero liquid discharge by reusing all water on-site, and is built to LEED Silver qualifications. The site will initially focus on powder flavour production with additional flavour technologies coming on line in a phased approach.

IFF is focused on creating winning tastes that resonate both locally and globally, said Matthias Haeni, Divisional CEO,Taste. With this new world-class facility, we are well-positioned to meet the current and future needs of our customers  and do so in a responsible and sustainable manner. We are proud to build on this legacy with our growing presence in China and look forward to being a strong corporate neighbor in our new homes within the Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone and the Nanjing Life Science Park.

The Natural Product Research lab is approximately 520 m2 and is equipped with systems for the research and development of flavours from natural sources. The lab is strategically located to leverage the botanical supply chain, biodiversity, and accumulated botanical and phytochemical knowledge prevalent throughout Chinas expansive history. The facility will expand the companys capabilities in natural product research and address the accelerating consumer demand for naturals and clean label. An extension of the current Natural Product Research team based in Union Beach, New Jersey, US, it is expected to accelerate IFFs natural product pipeline.

Speaking for the team, we cannot wait to see what innovations we will discover to help support the growing demand for naturals, said Dr Gregory Yep, EVP Chief Global Scientific & Sustainability Officer. IFF is committed to sustainability in all we do. We are excited to partner with our regional and global customers and help bring their products to consumers in an environmentally responsible manner. These two sites are positioned to push the boundaries of whats possible for IFF in Greater China and around the world.

FInd out more about IFFSugar Breaks Out! Blue Line Futures - 27 minutes ago March 22 sugar futures breakout-out from the multi-month consolidation range it has been trapped in.

AgMaster Report 11/17/2021 The PRICE Futures Group - 52 minutes ago JAN BEANS Surprise! Surprise! Not so fast you bears! A November WASDE widely considered to be quite bearish  jacking up yield, production & carry-over -turned out ANYTHING BUT! Most notably, bean yield...

Hog Futures Mixed for Midday Barchart - 1 hour ago Front month lean hog prices are mostly higher through midday, gaining 15 to 62 cents past April 22. The nearby December contract is down by triple digits so far, with a 27 cent loss in the Feb contract.... HEZ21 : 76.175s (-1.99%) HEJ22 : 87.525s (+0.17%) KMZ21 : 93.225 (-1.84%)

Triple Digit Rally in Cotton Market Barchart - 1 hour ago The midweek cotton market has futures up by triple digits at midday. December is up the most with a 249 point gain to 120.27 cents. The other front months are up 180+ points with a 3 point dip in new crop... CTK21 : 89.48s (+3.77%) CTH22 : 116.93 (+1.56%) CTZ21 : 119.72 (+1.47%)

Midweek Corn Futures Rally Back Barchart - 1 hour ago After weakness to start the week, Wednesday prices are back up by 6 to 6 3/4 cents at midday. For December, the midday $5.78  quote is 8 cents off the early session $5.84 high. Barcharts updated... ZCYAUS-BIW.CM : 182.83 (+0.01%) ZCZ21 : 574-6 (+0.66%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.5938 (+0.75%) ZCH22 : 580-6 (+0.56%) ZCZ21 : 574-6 (+0.66%) ZCPZ21US.CM : 5.6353 (+0.72%)

Weekly U.S. Ethanol Production Scales Up 2% but Stocks Decline 1% Renewable Fuels Association - Wed Nov 17, 10:55AM CST Report on U.S. ethanol production, usage, and stocks for the week ending November 12, 2021.

Coffee Prices Soar as Supply Concerns Spark Fund Buying Barchart - Wed Nov 17, 10:51AM CST Dec arabica coffee (KCZ21 ) this morning is up +9.65 (+4.35%), and Jan ICE Robusta coffee (RMF22 ) is up +19 (+0.85%). Coffee prices this morning are sharply higher, with arabica posting a 9-3/4 year nearest-futures... KCH22 : 234.75s (+4.57%) RMF22 : 2,256s (+0.85%)Now with more than 25 years of industry experience, Gonsalves joined Chubb Bermuda (then known as ACE Bermuda) in 1992 as an assistant underwriter in the excess liability department. In 2004, she was appointed senior vice president, overseeing product line management for ACE Bermuda and ACE Bermuda Internationals catastrophe excess liability portfolio. She was later promoted to executive vice president in April 2010.

Gonsalves succeeds Joseph Clabby, who will be named chairman of Chubb Bermuda. As chairman, Clabby will serve in an advisory role to Gonsalves and the Chubb Bermuda team. He will also join Chubbs North America Field Management leadership team, with a focus on product expansion, distribution and cross sell initiatives in Chubb regions and branches, a company release noted. Clabby will be based in Whitehouse Station, NJ and will report to Chubb North American field operations division president Christopher Maleno.

At present, Gonsalves serves as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer of Chubb Bermuda. In this role, she worked with Clabby in leading the operation. She will remain in Bermuda and will report to Chubb Group vice chairman and North America major accounts and specialty insurance president John Lupica.

As our companys 42nd employee, Judy has made significant contributions throughout her tenure, Lupica said in a statement. Her extensive experience, proven track record and understanding of the Bermuda marketplace will provide real value to our efforts in highlighting the unique benefits and advantages of doing business with Chubb Bermuda.Hub International has announced an agreement with Altas Partners, a Toronto-based investment firm. Under the agreement, funds managed by Altas Partners will make a substantial minority investment in Hub. Funds managed by Hellman & Friedman will remain the majority investor in Hub, and the companys management team will continue to hold a significant equity position.

The transaction implies a total enterprise value for Hub of more than $10 billion, the company said. For the 12-month period ending September 30, the company expects to report more than $2 billion in total revenue, up from $1.1 billion for the 12-month period that ended prior to H&Fs acquisition of Hub in October 2013.According to the justice department, between June 2015 and April 2018, the conspirators and others conspired to deceive tens of thousands of patients and more than 100 doctors across the country for the purpose of scamming private healthcare benefit programs. The indictment alleges that the conspirators submitted at least $931 million in fraudulent insurance claims.

Authorities say the defendants set up an elaborate scam in which HealthRight fraudulently solicited insurance coverage information and prescriptions from consumers for prescription pain creams and similar products. Doctors approved the prescriptions without knowing that the defendants were massively marking up the prices of the invalidly prescribed drugs, according to the Justice Department. The defendants then billed the fraudulent prescriptions to insurance carriers.

If convicted, Assad, Bolos, Palso and Smith each face up to 20 years in prison for each mail fraud charge, up to 10 years for conspiracy, and up to three years for introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce. They also face fines of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release for each count. The companies named in the indictment face fines of up to twice the gross loss sustained as a result of the scam. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of about $154 million.The company operating Mos Seafood restaurants will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit with 34 former employees who said they were underpaid.

In the collective-action lawsuit filed against Mos Fisherman Exchange Inc. and owner Mohammed Manocheh in 2015, waiters and kitchen staff asserted minimum wage and overtime violations, as well as unlawful tip deductions.

News outlets report plaintiffs attorneys say parties neared a trial before agreeing to settle. Mos attorney Andrew Dansicker says going to trial would have been a lot more expensive.

Under the terms of the settlement, the seafood company does not admit to liability.

Attorney Jessie Weber says each plaintiff will get an average of $12,800, but actual payouts will vary based on the number of hours worked and length of employment.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits MarylandEmployees at one of New Hampshires community mental health centers are getting trained to administer overdose reversal drugs.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care on Friday held a training session for employees at Riverbend Community Mental Health in Concord as part of its efforts to fight the opioid epidemic. Participants learned how to use the nasal spray form of naloxone.

Dr. Bill Brewster, the insurance companys vice president for New Hampshire, says naloxone should be as readily available as fire extinguishers or defibrillators in the workplace.

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who visited New Hampshire last week, has said the widespread use of overdose reversal drugs is key to ending the drug crisis. Earlier this year, he issued a rare public health advisory calling on more Americans to carry naloxone.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Carriers DrugsRenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. announced it currently estimates that the cost of claims from third quarter 2018 catastrophe events will have an estimated net negative impact of approximately $155 million on its third quarter 2018 results.

The estimated losses for these events are primarily driven by Typhoon Jebi and Hurricane Florence, which will have an estimated net negative impact of approximately $70 million and $55 million, respectively, said RenaissanceRe in a statement. Losses from the other third quarter 2018 catastrophe events, including Typhoons Mangkhut and Trami, and the California wildfires, will have an estimated net negative impact of approximately $30 million.

The company said it expects to report modest net income available to common shareholders for the third quarter of 2018.

It was an active quarter for catastrophic events around the world, most notably in Japan and the United States, and we extend our sympathies to all those affected, commented Kevin J. ODonnell, CEO of RenaissanceRe.

Net negative impact includes the sum of estimates of net claims and claim expenses incurred, earned reinstatement premiums assumed and ceded, lost profit commissions and redeemable noncontrolling interest. RenaissanceRe said its estimates of net negative impact are based on a review of its potential exposures, preliminary discussions with certain counterparties and catastrophe modeling techniques. However, meaningful uncertainty regarding the estimates remains, said the company.

Source: RenaissanceRe

Topics Catastrophe ClaimsGlobal insurance broker, risk management services and consulting firm Gallagher announces the acquisition of Portmore Insurance Brokers Ltd. and Portmore Insurance Brokers (Wiltshire) Ltd. in the UK.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Based in Southampton, England, Portmore was established in 2006 as a mid-market focused commercial insurance broker offering tailored insurance programs for a wide range of industry sectors, which encompass both private and public sector businesses.

Since then, its founders and joint managing directors, Graham Jacobs and Paul Chapman, have expanded the business significantly through consistently strong annual organic growth, said Gallagher in a statement.

Portmore and its team of nearly 40 insurance professionals will become part of Gallaghers retail branch network, which serves its customers from more than 50 locations around the UK.

Its fantastic to welcome the team from Portmore into the Gallagher family today. Their business is an excellent fit for our strategy in the UK, commented Michael Rea, CEO of UK Retail for Gallagher. Gallagher is the brand name of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based broker.

They are exactly the right type of well-run, commercially led, growing regional broker were looking for to further strengthen and complement our existing UK branch network, he added. Together with our existing operations in Southampton and Chichester, Portmore will help Gallagher become the pre-eminent commercial broker on the South Coast.

Becoming part of a locally focused but globally backed insurance broker and risk management services firm enables us to take our business to the next level of expansion, as we look to develop and deliver ever more specialized and bespoke solutions for our clients, said Jacobs.

As a partner, Gallagher offers a great blend of complementary expertise, scale and geographic spread, while at the same time sharing our client-focused values of service excellence, professional integrity and teamwork, he continued.

In the UK, Gallagher has more than 4,500 employees specializing in risk management and insurance solutions for corporate, commercial and personal customers.

Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Topics Mergers Agencies Commercial Lines A.J. GallagherA northern Illinois county has agreed to a $3 million settlement with the family of a pregnant woman who was killed in a crash at a rural intersection where a stop sign was missing.

The May 2013 crash near the Stephenson County village of German Valley happened when 32-year-old Sarah Kamp drove into the intersection while on her way to a prenatal checkup. The Rockford Register Star reports police said the stop sign had fallen down because of weather damage.

Kamp family attorney Tim Mahoney says negligence caused her death because a motorist had called 911 an hour earlier about the missing stop sign, but the operator took another call and forgot about it.

Stephenson County States Attorney Carl Larson says he hopes the settlement provides closure for Kamps family.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics IllinoisWhen insurance experts are asked what they see as the most important emerging risk for the property/casualty insurance industry, their consensus is cyber in some form.

While cyber obviously poses tremendous risks, some experts are also eyeing a variety of other emerging risks. These include risks inherent in government and insurance policies, not to mention blockchain, urban transportation, coastal property, retail deliveries and recreation.

1. D&O Privacy

The new Facebook lawsuit suggests that privacy-related concerns may already represent a potential new source of corporate liability exposure. The advent of the EUs General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR) will magnify these possibilities. While predictions of this kind are always tricky, it may be that privacy related issues may represent an emerging and growing area of potential directors and officers (D&O) liability exposure. It is important to note that these kinds of privacy concerns involve not just new age behemoths like Facebook that are Hoovering huge volumes of personal information. Many companies are capturing vast amounts of client and customer information, many of them in traditional industries  think how much your airline, your pharmacy, your credit card company, even your electric utility know about you. Of course these companies are mining this information for their marketing efforts and pricing analyses. These companies may well be sharing this information with collaborators, joint venture partners, third-party vendors, and so on. The recent developments at Facebook not only show the problems that can arise with the use of this kind of information, but also underscore how claims that this kind of information was mishandled can lead to bad publicity, a corporate crisis, and even significant D&O litigation. I could be wrong, of course, but I think we will see more D&O litigation in the future involving privacy issues. Indeed, the advent of the GDPR could significantly increase the likelihood of these possibilities.  Kevin M. LaCroix, The D&O Diary and executive vice president, RT ProExec, a division of R-T Specialty

2. Government Actions

The greatest industry vulnerability is constantly evolving governmental actions. Government imposition of retroactive liability or limits on the ability of the marketplace to price risk can threaten marketplace stability. Industry security is also impacted by the effectiveness of government security policies preventing terrorist attacks  particularly cyber warfare. PCI is ever vigilant, working with policymakers to prevent or at least help our members mitigate and manage the next asbestos, superfund, or 9/11 solvency threat. Our members are also very focused on the current technology race that is driving massive insurer investment in IT and changing business strategies and platforms to meet escalating consumer expectations. Emerging government and technology risks intersect in the cyber world, with PCI members chief risk officers most worried about aggregate losses and direct company exposure to a large-scale cyberattack.  Robert Gordon, senior vice president, Policy, Research and International, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America

3. Sandbox Trap

Regulation of insurance. Some traditional carriers are pushing for laxation of rules and momentum exists for creating regulatory sandboxes for new companies and distributors. For the legacy companies pushing for laxation, Id suggest one should be careful of what one is wishing for. Reasonable but strong regulation protects companies often against themselves, and it protects consumers from companies that might find ways around quality capitalization, disclosure, and quality coverages.  Chris Burand, founder and owner, Burand & Associates, agency consulting.

4. Tax Accounting

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act took effect on Jan. 1, 2018, and has had an immediate impact on accounting professionals because of the large overhaul on the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. I think it has produced two primary risks for an increase in claims: advisory-related risks associated with fully educating clients and managing client expectations and increased risk of error in the preparation of the tax return itself. Both of these risks stem from the accountant needing to fully understand the new tax code changes and apply them accurately.  Catherine Putman, underwriting director for Portfolio Management, Bond & Specialty Insurance at Travelers.

5. Regulation Fragmentation

Regulatory fragmentation from state to state in the area of data and cyber security. There are many differences between EUs General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and emerging U.S. state regulations. GDPR provides provisions around processing personally identifiable data (PII) of people residing in the EU, regardless of country citizenship and location. These data controllers can be EU firms or firms operating in the EU from other jurisdictions and must demonstrate technology, process and organizational compliance. The PII definition is broader than definitions of the same concept used in the U.S. and covers almost anything that can be attributable to a person. The cost and confusion for international reinsurers will only increase as more state regulations emerge.  Mitchell Wein, vice president of Research and Consulting, Novarica.

6. Policy Deficiencies

I believe the most important emerging risk is increasing deficiencies in insurance policies themselves, especially in personal lines. Because of dominant industry advertising, consumers are being led into thinking the only real difference between insurance companies is the price of their policies. Compounding that is the emergence of insurtechs that tout they can place your insurance in seconds by asking only a few (or even one) questions. Clearly, they are competing only on price and so-called convenience. At some point, insurance providers will be operating about as efficiently as they can when it comes to sales and underwriting. At that point, the only way to compete on the basis of price will be to address the loss cost component of premiums. I believe were seeing that right now and the easiest way to do that is to reduce the coverage in the insurance product and/or engage in more restrictive claims practices. Buying policies that dont cover much is itself a risky proposition.  Bill Wilson, founder and CEO, InsuranceCommentary.com.

7. Irrelevant Policies

One of the biggest emerging risks is whether insurers will be able to adapt quickly and effectively to dramatic societal changes threatening to breach traditional policy boundaries and lines of business. To remain relevant for buyers operating in the sharing, virtual and gig economies, carriers will need to adapt policy language to account for the blurring of lines between commercial and personal use of property and time as well as among individual product lines. They also need to create new coverages or adjust existing policies to address new exposures in cyber risk, 3D printing, robotics and the use of drones, as well as increasingly alarming climate-related risks.  Sam Friedman, Insurance Research Leader, Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

8. Fundamental Auto

The fundamental changes to autos and the auto business in the next decade will provide opportunities and threats to the auto insurance business. Private and commercial auto insurance accounts for more than 40 percent of overall property/casualty direct written premium. Private and commercial auto insurance margins are constantly under pressure. Technology will confluence with planned auto industry movements toward mobility-as-a-service versus vehicles as products. Driver assistance technology with lidar, radar and other sensors provides greater safety in select situations, but concurrently increases the danger of drivers failing to pay attention. Even where safety is enhanced, the proposed lighter vehicles and increased miles driven create challenges to established pricing models. Ride sharing, ride-on-demand and fully automated vehicle business models are largely based on the premise of doing away with individual ownership of vehicles, which would impact personal auto insurance. Fundamental premises of who the driver is, state licensing and registration, and legal liability will be transformed by these developments, which will also impact insurance products and services.  Tom Karol, general counsel-federal, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.

9. Unprotected Assets

Digital assets already have more value than physical ones. Since the Andreessens famous article Why Software Is Eating the World 10 years ago, this change has become evident. However, insurance solutions that answer the need for protection of digital assets are not here yet. Obviously, cyber liability insurance is answering one part of these needs and will continue to grow, but I dont think it is addressing all of the enormous needs of protecting digital assets. The higher the digital asset relevancy, the bigger and more articulated the need to protect it. I consider this the single most important emerging risk for P/C insurance professionals, so I would not be surprised to see an insurer create a business line dedicated to digital assets both in personal and commercial lines.  Matteo Carbone, founder and director, IoT Insurance Observatory.

10. Risky Playgrounds

Architectural Digest magazine reports there is a new movement to bring risk back into parks and playgrounds. Childrens playgrounds, with features including spiked nails and steep drops, have been gaining popularity in the UK and are coming to the U.S. Educators are claiming that purposeful risky play promotes resilience and builds more self-reliant young people, the article says. Public playgrounds are being designed to actively present that risk. What that looks like  playgrounds with access to saws, knives, loose bricks and two-by-fours, and fire  is something that might sound alarms for some parents here in the litigious U.S., the author writes. The designed risk movement is getting support in the U.S. from architects and designers, according to Cheri Ruane of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Her firm designed a park in a Boston neighborhood that includes elevated concrete piers that children traverse to experience moving across uneven surfaces, plus a high tree house and a high, long slide. Parks in New York, Houston, Minneapolis and Santa Clarita have also followed the trend.  Elizabeth Wallace, Architectural Design, Inside the Rise of Risky Playground Design.

11. Dockless Scooters

Electric scooters are popping up in urban areas across the country. In some locations, the firms  Bird, Lime, Spin and others  have flooded sidewalks with their scooters, following the ask for forgiveness, not permission tactic of early Uber. Users pay through an app with a credit card and do not have to return the scooters to a particular location. There have been complaints of scooters abandoned on sidewalks and in doorways. Some cities have moved to ban them, if only temporarily, until rules are in place. Cities are balking, but the trend is taking hold. Injuries are growing. Dr. Natasha Trentacosta of Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles said she is seeing injured patients on a daily basis, including some who need surgery at least once or twice a week. Personal injury lawyers have taken note. Bloomberg reported people hurt riding or hit by scooters in San Francisco and Los Angeles have been calling legal firms to file claims. Personal injury law firm Omega Law Group in Beverly Hills reports getting five calls a week for scooter accidents since April. Most of the calls come from riders hit by reckless motorists who are not used to sharing the road with the small scooters, the firms website says. Another firm told Blomberg that while riders hit by cars may have a strong cases, pedestrians injured by scooters on a sidewalk are often out of luck because there is no insurance company to sue.

12. Driving Deliveries

Europes agency for workplace health and safety (EU-OSHA) thinks the rising demand for fast and free home and work delivery of retail goods needs monitoring. Purchasers are expecting faster deliveries and more accurate delivery times but are not willing to pay the price, which is bound to impact delivery driving. First, the increase in e-retail means there are more driving jobs, including gig economy drivers who tend to use private cars to fulfil deliveries. There is a link between business driving and increased musculoskeletal disorders rates (especially lower back pain). Possibly compounding this are health risk factors for drivers, including: compromised employer terms and conditions related to gig economy drivers; long working hours, possibly resulting in driver fatigue; and increased performance demands linked to fast delivery and specific delivery times. While improvements in delivery vehicle and equipment design and the introduction of driverless vehicles may help alleviate health risks, these could take years to be mainstream.

13. Compliance Witnesses

New research from corporate consultants at Gartner indicate that employees who witness misconduct are twice as likely to leave an organization. Twenty-nine percent of employees observed at least one compliance violation at work in 2016 or 2017, according to a Gartner survey of more than 5,000 employees. Fifty-nine percent of those who observed a compliance violation were actively looking for a new job, compared with 29 percent who did not witness bad behavior. While attrition is not an obvious area of concern for compliance executives, it should be, says Brian Lee, compliance practice leader at Gartner. Employee misconduct and the failure of compliance to address it plays a considerable role in motivating employees to leave their current organization. Lee also says that the departure of key employees should be deemed a warning of possible underlying compliance-related issues. Employee attrition costs large organizations millions of dollars each year and the loss of a particularly conscientious employee can be debilitating, not just to culture and morale, but to employee productivity, according to Gartner.

14. Coastal Communities and Property Values

Recent studies suggest that the threat of rising seas is undermining property values in coastal communities. Researchers at the University of Colorado and Pennsylvania State found that homes with exposure to the sea sold for 6.6 percent less than unexposed homes. Harvard University researchers found that properties at higher elevations were appreciating faster than properties at lower elevations. Insurance Journal has reported that, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, accelerating sea level could put more than $1 trillion in property at risk by the end of the century. The report shows Florida has roughly one million homes and $351 billion in decreased property values at risk of chronic flooding by centurys end, followed by New Jersey (250,000 homes), and New York (143,000 homes). Nearly 175 U.S. coastal communities may see 10 percent or more homes at risk of chronic flooding by 2045. Places that could be hit hardest include Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina.

15. Smart Contracts

While smart contracting based on digital ledger or blockchain technology holds great promise for the insurance industry, it isnt without risks. Locke Lord attorneys Christopher Barth and Theodore Augustinos, writing in Insurance Journal, point out that some of the benefits of blockchain  immutability, transparency and decentralization  also present concomitant risks. For example, if an insurer inadvertently discloses nonpublic personal information subject to privacy protections over the blockchain, there is no control-alt-delete button enabling a do-over. Further, remedial efforts will be hampered by the permanency of the disclosure and its widespread distribution. Ross Nodurft, risk management leader at One World Identity, reminded a PLUS audience this year: One reason you have to be careful is because garbage in, and garbage out. You are going to build up an identity thats either private or its wrong, he said. So, you have to be careful about whats going in during the initial creation and verification when using blockchain for identity.

This article was originally published in Insurance Journal Magazine.

Topics Carriers Cyber Trends Legislation USA Auto Tech Europe Property Property CasualtyFast-moving floodwaters destroyed a bridge, forced the evacuation of riverside homes and led to numerous water rescues in Central Texas on Tuesday after more than a foot of rain fell in recent days.

The bridge crumbled as it was overrun by the bloated, roiling Llano River in Kingsland, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Austin. The Llano and Colorado rivers meet at Kingsland, and the National Weather Service said both were experiencing major flooding. A flash flood warning was in effect.

Residents were evacuated from homes in Kingsland and in nearby Marble Falls, which was being overwhelmed by the Colorado River. Several school districts closed for the day, and emergency personnel blocked access to more than 150 low-water crossings.

Gov. Greg Abbott released a statement urging all Texans to take their safety into their own hands by closely monitoring changing weather conditions and heeding warnings from local officials.

The governors warning came little more than a week after four people were washed away when the South Llano River, which becomes the Llano River downstream, overran an RV park in Junction, Texas. Three bodies have been recovered. The search for the fourth has been suspended due to the heavy rain.

The most dramatic scenes Tuesday played out in Marble Falls, where an extraordinary amount of water poured over the Starcke Dam, carrying with it riverside docks and other large debris.

Homes also were being evacuated in nearby Granite Shoals, and people were sheltering at a middle school.

Bill and Laura Villella awoke early Tuesday to about 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) of water in their Llano home. The rising water forced them to stand on their kitchen counter before emergency personnel in a boat pulled them to safety.

We honestly did not believe it would go up that high, Bill Villella told the Austin American-Statesman. His wife added: Ive been through a lot in my life, but thats the scaredest Ive ever been.

Water levels along the Llano River at Llano have subsided but are still well above major flood stage. Levels rose to just under 40 feet (12 meters) on Tuesday but fell as the morning progressed, settling at little more than 35 feet (11 meters), according to the National Weather Service. Major flood stage is 23 feet (7 meters), and the river isnt expected to drop below that stage until Wednesday.

Heavy rains were also impacting other parts of the state.

Flood warnings were issued for areas north of Houston, and the Fort Worth Fire Department said it responded to some 80 traffic accidents blamed on slick roads and poor visibility Tuesday morning. Officials in Dallas said the rain was causing sewer overflows in several parts of the city but added that its water supply wasnt affected.

In Austin, fire officials temporarily banned all watercraft. Flooding was also occurring in Kerr County, northwest of San Antonio, and other parts of Texas Hill Country, according to the Texas Department of Transportation. The Guadalupe River at Comfort, northwest of San Antonio, was forecast to rise from about 5 feet (1.5 meters) up to more than 28 feet (8.5 meters).

Patricia Sanchez, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, said the transition from fall to winter usually brings elevated levels of rainfall  but nothing compared to the amount of precipitation over the last month.

The ongoing multiple days of rain and the extraordinary amount is of course not normal, she said. Not for this time of year.

Recent tropical systems and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico are contributing to the amount of rain Texas has seen, she said. Light to moderate rain will continue for the next couple of days but taper off as the weekend approaches, she said.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Texas FloodOklahoma Insurance Commissioner Election 2018

The office of the insurance commissioner in Oklahoma is an elected position. The current commissioner, John D. Doak, is term limited and cannot run again; his successor will be determined in the general election that takes place on Nov. 6, 2018. The two major party candidates vying for the post are Kimberly Fobbs, Democrat, and Glenn Mulready, Republican. Interviews with both candidates were excerpted and edited for length and clarity from recorded conversations with Insurance Journal that took place in September. A podcast created from the interview with Mulready may be accessed online at https://www.insurancejournal.tv/videos/16990/.

Glen Mulready

Glen Mulready has 35 years of experience in the insurance industry and is a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He previously served as the House insurance committee chair and is now the floor leader emeritus.

Insurance Journal: What are the primary functions of the Oklahoma Insurance Department?

Glen Mulready: I think the absolutely number one priority of the department is consumer protection.  I think in other areas, sort of from a priority standpoint, I would list out ensuring the financial solvency of the insurance companies. Basically making sure that they are financially healthy and able to abide by the  contracts that they have committed to.

I think that consumer education is a big part. Unfortunately  not just our state but the general public is not well versed on insurance issues. Insurance can be complicated, and so I think the department has a role in trying to educate consumers so they can be smart insurance consumers and make wise decisions when it comes to spending their precious dollars on insurance premiums.

And third, I think combating insurance fraud is a big part. I have jokingly referred to it as the high blood pressure of the insurance industry. Its the silent killer  so I think [being] vigilant and upfront and proactive on preventing insurance fraud is another priority of the Oklahoma Insurance Department.

IJ: What aspects of your professional background do you feel qualify you for service as Oklahomas insurance commissioner?

GM: I have been in the insurance business for 35 years now  at all different aspects of the industry and at some of the highest levels.  I have experience in the property and casualty side of the business as an independent insurance agent, on healthcare, health insurance, life insurance. Ive worked as an independent agent, as a broker, and Ive been an executive at two of Oklahomas largest health insurance companies.

But addition to that, last decade here in Oklahoma, Ive worked as a small business owner.  My insurance business is a small business and we provide Oklahoma employers with their employees with benefits and health insurance, and make sure theyre maximizing their employee benefit dollars. But in addition to that, for the last eight years, Ive served as a state legislator and a former chairman of insurance committee in the House of Representatives, so Ive seen some other variations of things that I may not have dealt with professionally, specifically, but through that role Ive also had a chance to interact with that.

I received my CIC designation a number of years ago, back in the late 80s. Ive served as the president of both Tulsa and the Oklahoma state Health Underwriters Association and have previously been named as the state health underwriter of the year. So, all of that to say, Ive got a wide variety of experience really from all aspects of the insurance industry. I believe that that extensive and diverse experience, and as my role dealing with insurance policy, uniquely qualifies me to be the next state insurance commissioner.

IJ: Why do you want to serve as Oklahomas insurance commissioner?

GM: Thats a great question, the why.  I think the key thing is that Oklahomans have a lot to worry about. Theyre busy taking care of their families. Theyre putting food on the table. Theyre paying their bills and paying for their prescriptions and things like that. And so, I want to hopefully give them more insurance choices, give them greater access that will help decrease what they have to worry about. I want to be confident that, when the time comes, when they need it  whether its an insurance claim or when they need that insurance  they can be confident that the companies are solvent, theyre gonna do what they say theyre gonna do, and their claims will be properly evaluated and acted upon.

IJ: How would you describe the current state of the insurance market in Oklahoma?

GM: I think, overall, its good. We have certain positive and negative aspects  but number one, from a negative standpoint, I would say is just a lack of choices for health insurance.  The Affordable Care Act had some damaging effects to our state, in our marketplace. We went from having six choices to four, to two, and last couple years, we only had one health insurance option for individuals in the marketplace. The good news is that we are, for 2019, were adding a second option. We have Medica coming into our individual market.

On the positive side, our workers comp  has seen substantial decreases in rates, mainly due to legislative changes and reforms that have been done over the last few years, so thats a positive thing. 

Weve got well over 100 companies in Oklahoma that are writing auto insurance premiums. We have 800 that are licensed to write auto insurance in our state.  I believe that more choices and more competition drives down costs, increases efficiency, increases innovation, and that sort of thing. I think we need more of that.

We can, at times, be a tough state to do some business in, just as you know, we have our share of catastrophic claims with hail and tornado, but overall, I think the current state of the Oklahoma insurance market is good with some pockets of real positives and some pockets of negatives.

IJ: What message would you like to convey to the insurance agents and brokers in Oklahoma?

GM: To agents and brokers, my message to them, I guess first of all I would say that Im one of you.  I have served as an agent or broker  over 20 years  working for families, for Oklahoma families and businesses.  This can be a tough state in which to work. But Oklahomans, the Oklahoma consumer needs you guys and girls more and more to advise them and help protect them. And so, that is the role of the agent broker. I think the agent broker is a critical role. They are pillars in their community, the agents and brokers, throughout Oklahoma.

Topics Agencies Oklahoma MarketIn an effort to keep the Florida assignment of benefits (AOB) crisis from further worsening in the state, Floridas insurance industry, regulators and consumer advocates are on high alert for AOB activity in the wake of Hurricane Michael and working to educate consumers on the pitfalls of signing over their policy rights.

Consumers need all the information they can get to help navigate making repairs to their homes and vehicles, and were working hard to provide resources to help prevent Floridians from becoming victims of AOB scams, said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which spearheads the Consumer Protection Coalition, formed in 2017 to tackle the states AOB epidemic.

Recovery efforts are underway in the Florida Panhandle from the Category 4 storm that hit the region on Oct. 10, and with that comes plenty of opportunity for fraudulent activities, officials say.

Ive already heard of crooked contractors who are asking for cash up front and pressuring some to sign an assignment of benefits contract. Check with your insurance agent, insurance company, or call my office before you sign anything, Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis warned in an Oct. 15 press release from the Department of Financial Services. Storms bring out the best in people, but unfortunately, they bring out the worst in some. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Floridas AOB problem has stemmed from unlicensed water remediation and roofing contractors who have homeowners sign over their insurance policy rights in exchange for needed repairs to their homes, and then file inflated or fake claims with the insurer. When those claims are disputed or denied, these contractors file a lawsuit that insurers are often left footing the bill for.

Carriers across the state have seen an increase in litigation because of inflated claims, which is leading to increased costs for policyholders. According to the Florida Department of Financial Services, there were 405 AOB lawsuits across all 67 Florida counties in 2006, and by 2016 that number had risen to 28,200.

State officials have warned that the AOB issue could become even worse in the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, such as Hurricane Michael, due to a large number of claims triggering a contractor shortage, and people who are anxious to get repairs started on their homes assigning their insurance policy benefits to contractors.

Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier said before Michael hit that scenario was one of his biggest concerns, and noted the quick handling of claims would help ensure people are not taken advantage of.

At the end of the day, what we are primarily focused on with this region  and any region  is making sure consumers reach out to insurance companies as soon as possible and making sure insurers respond as expeditiously as possible, he said.

Consumer awareness is now a key strategy of Florida regulators and consumer advocates, as AOB reform efforts have failed in the Florida Legislature for the last several years. The insurance industry will play a key role in stemming any abuse by educating policyholders on why they dont need to and shouldnt sign an AOB, as well as by responding to claims in a timely manner, officials say.

I put Floridas insurance industry on notice that I expect that they will be ready to serve Florida families after Hurricane Michael. Well do everything possible to protect residents throughout the entire post-storm process, Patronis said in a statement before Michael made landfall.

But officials are doing more than just urging consumers and insurers to work together on their hurricane claims. During the 2017 hurricane season, the Department of Financial Services formed the Disaster Fraud Action Strike Team (DFAST) that consisted of three teams of insurance fraud investigators deployed to areas heavily impacted by Hurricane Irma.

Patronis said earlier this year that DFAST investigations stemming from the 2017 season resulted in the arrest of 22 alleged insurance fraud criminals and nearly 100 investigations were open and ongoing at the time.

Now, the fraud teams are deployed in areas impacted by Michael.

 Anyone who tries to scam this community in the wake of Hurricane Michael will be found by my Disaster Fraud Action Strike Teams, who are already have boots on the ground, Patronis said.

The Consumer Protection Coalition, which is made up of business leaders, insurance companies, consumer advocates and associations, also deployed resources to the Panhandle this week to warn home and auto owners of the dangers associated with signing an AOB contract to start repairs on damage caused by Hurricane Michael, the group said in a statement.

The Consumer Protection Coalition is committed to helping residents get through the difficulty of putting their lives back together, said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which spearheads the coalition.

It has launched a multi-platform public service announcement campaign in Panama City and Tallahassee urging residents to contact their insurance agent or insurer first before signing any documents. The CPC also is educating home and auto owners at insurance claims villages in Panama City and Tallahassee and answering consumer questions about AOB abuse.

For its part, the insurance industry says its is ready to assist consumers with their recovery and is already in the area doing just that.

More than 44 insurers are currently on site at the Hurricane Michael Insurance Village in Panama City, Fla., and companies have fanned out across the Panhandle region to respond to their customers.

Many Floridians suffered significant damage from Hurricane Michael, and insurers are in the field now helping policyholders begin filing claims, said Logan McFaddin, regional manager for industry trade association PCI. Insurers want to prevent policyholders from being taken advantage of by bad actors that prey on Florida storm victims. Unfortunately, events like Hurricane Michael often bring out greater numbers of those bad actors.

Consumer Tips to Spot and Stop Post-Storm Fraud (Courtesy of the Florida Department of Financial Services)

Dont Sign Anything. Call your insurance agent, insurance company, or CFO Patronis Insurance Consumer Helpline (1-877-MY-FL-CFO) before you sign anything, including assignment of benefits agreements. Too Good, to Be True? It Probably is. If an offer sounds too good, it most likely is. Dont deal with anyone who demands cash up front. Beware of Crooked Contractors. Beware of a contractor or restoration professional who: offered to waive or discount your insurance deductible; has received payment and has failed to provide any repairs; offered to provide repairs at a cash-only discounted rate and has failed to provide repairs; or pressured you to sign an assignment of benefit (AOB) and has failed to provide any repairs to your home or stopped responding to your contact attempts. Verify. Verify the identity of individuals claiming to represent government and relief agencies or insurance companies. Official personnel should display ID badges, should provide identification without hesitation. If you suspect that someone is impersonating official personnel, contact the local police department or sheriffs office immediately. Beware of Door-to-Door. Imposters often go door-to-door claiming to be FEMA representatives, asking for money to assist with the filing of federal flood claims. FEMA does not charge for this service and does not go door-to-door in this capacity. Beware of Robocalls. Imposters claiming to represent FEMA typically call consumers and ask them to hang up and dial a 1-800 number to make an insurance payment ASAP to prevent policy cancellations. Check a License. If you have damage to your home or vehicle, contact your insurance company immediately. Beware of fly-by-night repair businesses and hire only licensed professionals. If you have access to internet, verify a contractors license at the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations website  www.MyFloridaLicense.com. Check Liability Insurance. Ensure contractors carry proper liability and workers compensation insurance by checking the Departments Division of Workers Compensation database.

Topics Carriers Catastrophe Florida Claims Fraud Hurricane Market ContractorsHaylie Byler and her husband were just beginning life in their new home when Hurricane Michaels monstrous winds mowed down a dozen trees on their property, more than an hours drive inland from where the storm made landfall.

They had made only one house payment and no payments yet on his new truck when Michael toppled a tree onto the dwelling, another onto the truck and a third on their other car. For four days, Byler had to climb over huge pine tree trunks to get in and out of her home.

I have cried two or three times a day, the 26-year-old elementary school teacher said as chain saws buzzed behind her, wielded by church volunteers from more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. They arrived out of the blue to help.

While much of the worlds attention has been focused on badly battered coastal communities such as Mexico Beach and Panama City, Michael also devastated mostly rural areas all the way into Alabama and Georgia.

Marianna, in Jackson County, was hit with stronger winds than it has ever seen despite being about 70 miles (about 115 kilometers) north of Mexico Beach, where Michael came ashore last week.

Days after the storm, 268 people there were still in shelters, power was out throughout the county and cellphone service had only been restored within Marianna. Outlying areas have had no way to communicate. Emergency workers were still conducting search and rescue operations because many people remained stuck in their homes.

Similar destruction visited community after community in Florida, all the way from coastal Gulf County to the Alabama border, where seaside escapes give way to cotton fields, cattle and timber lots.

Parks Camp, the science and operations officer at the National Weather Service Tallahassee office, said winds reached 102 mph (164 kph) before its measuring devices failed in the middle of the storm. Wind speeds could have gone higher, he said.

Jackson County emergency management director Rodney Andreasen had his own home was destroyed. He said in his 21 years in the military and 18 years in his current position, hes never seen anything like this destruction.

Andreasen said the countys power grid was destroyed and it could be a month until its restored, and the number of damaged and destroyed homes is too high to even estimate. One person died when a tree crushed him in the storm and the death toll could still rise, Andreasen said.

Our house was destroyed. Were homeless right now, Andreasen said as his wife Donna sat nearby. Were victims.

Many in Floridas inland communities usually dont make the same preparations as people closer to the coast. Few evacuate, and the frantic run for food, water and supplies also isnt as great.

Shauna Benefield, 20, and her boyfriend, Alex Edwards, 21, live just north of Mariannas historic downtown in his familys home. They didnt stock up. After the storm cleared, Edwards had to drive 50 miles (80 kilometers) to DeFuniak Springs for water, food and gas. There was nowhere nearby to get any in the immediate aftermath.

Trees around their home snapped in half, some landing on the roof and sending his family to the basement for shelter. Theyve cleared limbs from the roof, and put up blue tarps. But they still have no water or electricity.

Still, they say, theres been a strong neighbor-helping-neighbor response. Theyve given out water and bananas.

Its not just about us, its about everyone, said Edwards, shirtless with a tattoo on his chest that reads Walk with God. Die when my times up as he helped clear the mess around the house.

That same spirit of generosity is evident across the ravaged region.

Weve got a lot of people whove lost their farms, their barns, their crops, said Jill Braxton, 46, of Vernon in Washington County, which is north of Panama City and west of Marianna.

She had a pickup truck full of hay to distribute to other horse owners.

Weve got no power and we had some downed trees but our house wasnt touched. Were good, she said. Were just trying to help other people.

Haylie Byler said shes thankful for help from strangers who just showed up at our doorstep and just started clearing things. I dont know what I would have done. Its a God thing. I dont know what you believe, but God has definitely shown up and showed out for us.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.A judge has ordered a coal company owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justices family to start making payments on a settlement.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports Justice Low Seam Mining, Inc. was ordered Oct. 10 to pay roughly $478,000 to Virginia Drilling Co. in 10 days. An August 2017 complaint says the Justice company owned Virginia Drilling about $1.3 million for goods and services.

The companies reached a settlement agreement in September 2017 and again in May 2018, but Virginia Drilling says the Justice company never made the agreed upon payments.

Justice Low Seam Mining, Inc. is one of many coal companies owned by the Justice family. The state Secretary of States Offices website says Justices son, James C. Justice III, is the director and president of this firm.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics VirginiaEPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants has named Kevin Harnetiaux senior vice president and chief operating officer of EPICs Sacramento, Cailf. Region, including Gold River, Calif., and Reno, Nev.

Harnetiaux joins from the State Fund of California, where he was executive vice president of field operations.

Harnetiaux spent most of his earlier career at The Hartford.

EPIC is a retail property/casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant.

Topics California AgenciesSan Diego, Calif.-based Cavignac & Associates has named Jessica White a human resources risk advisor.

White will provide advice to Cavignac & Associates clients to help them reduce the frequency and severity of their employee claims. She primarily interacts with corporate executives and their companies respective human resource professionals.

White has more than 15 years of experience in human resources. After becoming a licensed attorney, she founded her own firm, JW Employment Law Center, which provided human resources consulting and employment litigation services primarily to the small business community.

Cavignac & Associates is a risk management and commercial insurance brokerage firm.

Topics California Human ResourcesCalifornia regulators have fined two utilities more than $13 million for violations of safety rules for incidents that caused injuries.

The Public Utilities Commission hit Southern California Edison with an $8 million citation for a downed power line that was run over by an off-road vehicle in 2015. The driver was injured along with two people who tried to help the motorist.

The commission says Edison failed to ensure the cross arms on its power poles were properly designed, installed and maintained.

Officials also fined Pacific Gas & Electric more than $5 million for two incidents, including one in which workers caused natural gas to leak while repairing a valve in 2016. Two people were injured in a resulting explosion.

The utilities have 30 days to appeal the citations.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics CaliforniaA federal judge has sided with an Anchorage, Alaska pilot who claimed a Homer-based air carrier fired him for reporting safety problems.

Brian Bell had reported that Bald Mountain Air Service falsified safety records and had gaps in drug and alcohol testing, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration inspection in 2012, the Anchorage Daily News reported Tuesday.

Bell filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after losing his job two days following that inspection.

The judges order signed last week states Bell is entitled to more than $500,000 in back pay and $10,000 in damages and attorney fees. Bald Mountain also must offer Bell a pilot job once he renews his medical certificate.

Bell claimed that the company had forged training records, deactivated a malfunctioning fire detection system on a plane, and ordered employees to hide maintenance issues from FAA investigators.

Bald Mountain is reviewing the judges order, and plans to file an appeal to clarify certain legal inconsistencies within the decision, attorney Aaron Sperbeck said. The company was very pleased that the judge had agreed with Bald Mountain on several issues, overturning findings in a preliminary report from 2016, he said.

The company had appealed a 2016 preliminary report by OSHA that found Bell had reason to believe he was fired over his complaints to the FAA. The judge determined there was no proof that the company had blacklisted Bell within the aviation industry, which Bell had claimed.

The company was also ordered to expunge Bells personnel records and refrain from retaliating or discriminating against him for bringing the claim.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Aviation AlaskaPerhaps no investment opportunity has captured the minds of investors in recent years more than China has. According to the World Bank, China's GDP has averaged almost 10% per year since 1978. And in 2018, the country represented nearly 19% of the world's population.

Inevitably, China will have hiccups as it proceeds to lead the global growth of the economy. The ongoing trade wars between the U.S. and China have caused some uncertainty for the future of both countries, and the World Bank notes that in order for China's growth to be sustainable in the long term, the country will have to make some big policy changes.

Before making investments related to China, investors should consider the pitfalls, understand the risks and rewards, focus on shareholder-friendly companies, and stick to investments they understand.

Key Takeaways China's urbanization, which is expected to continue past 2030, has led to its impressive economic growth.

Some of the risks associated with investing in China include its communist structure, regulatory differences, and insider trading.

Investment opportunities in China include U.S. corporations that have a presence in the country, mutual funds, and ETFs.

China and Urbanization

Urbanization has single-handedly led to China's impressive economic growth, and the country will continue to urbanize. It's taken three decades of economic reform for China's population to move from being highly rural to more urban, and it's expected that China has another 20 years or more of urbanization ahead of it.

As people shift from living an agrarian lifestyle to an urbanized one, a lot has to happen. Cities need to be developed and built, which requires growth in infrastructure, commerce, and other services. Economies shift as individuals stop working simply to sustain themselves and, instead, begin to specialize. That specialization requires more education, and an educated society is typically a wealthier society. As per capita wealth improves, the quality of life improves. During this process, businesses begin to sprout up, many of which create tremendous wealth for shareholders.

$13.8 billion China's GDP in 2018 as per the International Monetary Fund.

The China of just a few years ago is often compared to America right before the industrial revolution. It's a fairly accurate comparison if you set aside some fundamental differences between the two. Growth in the 21st century will likely belong to China, just as growth in the 20th century belonged to the United States. That growth will likely create trillions of dollars in economic output in the near future, which is why many people continue to consider investment opportunities in China.

Understanding the Risk and Reward

To make the most of any investment and related reward in China, any intelligent investor should have a clear understanding of the risks involved. A detailed analysis of all the potential risks of investing in China is well beyond the scope of this article, but understanding the basic layout provides a solid foundation. It's important to understand risks should not deter investment, but as an investor, you should strive to understand them properly to account for them.

First and foremost, China is still a communist country. So despite the free-market principles, China has adopted, the rules that govern a public company in China are different than those in the U.S.

Chinese stocks trade on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Both exchanges have similar listing requirements to those of U.S. exchanges. Companies have to report financial statements regularly, have audits performed, and meet other requirements of size and capitalization. Beyond that, however, rules and norms differ, which is where things get murky.

Not only do Chinese accounting standards differ from the U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but regulatory differences abound. One common difference is the trading of company stock by insiders. In the U.S., insider trading is regulated intensivelythe integrity of a market-based system rests on the premise that securities trading is not being manipulated by corporate insiders. In 2008, China banned trading by large shareholders in the month before companies release financial reports. However, academic studies suggest insider trading is still an issue in the country. A 2013 study in the International Journal of Accounting and Financial Reporting found Chinas insider trading laws are still, Catching up with the rest of the world.

Chinese companies use Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) also known as Chinese Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

A Mosaic of Options

Investors interested in owning a piece of the China investment story have an abundance of investment products available. As expected, some options are much better than others, and some options should be avoided altogether or left to the most sophisticated investors.

Many investors may be interested in sticking with what they knowU.S. companies growing business in China. They can offer the best of both worlds: the advantage of U.S.-regulated, GAAP-adhering public companies along with the profit growth potential coming from China.

A great example is Yum! Brands (YUM), owner of Pizza Hut, KFC, and Taco Bell. These chains have seen a surge of growth in China and the country has increasingly been a source of profit for the company. Other large-cap companies that derive a significant portion of their profits from China include Nike (NKE), Starbucks (SBUX) and Apple (AAPL).

Investors interested in owning a share of companies that list on Chinese exchanges should look to professionally managed funds that focus on China. Many asset managers that offer China-focused funds have analysts in China who visit and vet companies before investing in them. Many of these funds also hedge their yuan (or renminbi) exposure back to the U.S. dollar, reducing another source of risk for a U.S. investor. Some of these funds come with higher expense ratios than domestic equity fundsanother thing to consider before jumping in.

Another consideration is an exchange-traded fund (ETF). There are plenty of options available that focus on Chinese equities, giving you the chance to invest in China-based corporations. Keep in mind, though, that the growth of the majority of these ETFs has been hampered by trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

There are more than 50 China ETFs that trade in the United States.

Anyone looking to invest directly in companies should consider focusing on blue-chip companies in China. These companies are readily established, have deep financial operations, and a bigger shareholder base, thus offering investors greater safety in a region still characterized by uncertainty.

Many Chinese companies are also listed directly on U.S. stock exchanges. Many years ago, these companies were market darlings. In recent years, however, virtually all of them have come under intense scrutiny due to the inability of investors to trust their financial statements. Unable to regain investor confidence, many U.S.-listed Chinese companies' share prices decreased significantly. Still, this category provides disciplined investors with an opportunity to find some attractive opportunities that are easier to research and trade.Edward Jones is a full-service brokerage that offers both traditional and Roth individual retirement account (IRAs). If you are considering opening an IRA with the firm, this is what you need to know, including the investments and services it offers, and the fees involved.

Edward Jones Overview

Edward Jones was founded in 1922 and is based out of St. Louis, Mo. One of the largest broker-dealers in the United States, it serves over seven million investors and has more than 17,500 financial advisors.

Key Takeaways Edward Jones is a full-service firm suited for investors who need a financial advisor to impart investing advice.

It offers traditional and Roth IRAs via commission or fee-based accounts.

Make sure you understand how fees and commissions work before opening an account.

Investing options include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Whether or not Edward Jones is the right choice depends on the quality of the advisor and their relationship with you.

Full-service brokers such as Edward Jones employ financial advisors who offer advice to investors, for which they pay. This differs from discount brokers where investment decisions are made by investors who do the research and sell and buy securities through an online account on their own. As a result, fees are much lower at discount brokers, such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab Corporation.

Opening an IRA at Edward Jones

Investors who want to open a traditional or Roth IRA at Edward Jones must find a local financial advisor. This should not be difficult considering the company has branches in 50 states typically staffed by one advisor and an administrator.

To prepare for the first appointment, investors should be prepared to explain why they are investing. They should also collect statements to show the advisor and prepare questions. The Edward Jones financial advisor will assess the investor's needs and create a tailored investment plan.

Choosing a Traditional vs. Roth IRA

A traditional IRA provides a tax deduction and tax deferral on any gains. When you retire, withdrawals are taxed based on your income tax bracket. A Roth IRA does not provide an immediate tax deduction, but all gains and withdrawals are tax-free. The Edward Jones financial advisor will help you determine whether a traditional or Roth IRA is better.

Edward Jones does not offer online trading, so to buy or sell securities you will have to call your advisor.

In 2021, investors can contribute up to $6,000 to a traditional or Roth IRA. An extra $1,000 catch-up contribution is allowed for investors ages 50 or older. These numbers are unchanged from 2020.

Depending on the tax filing status, traditional IRA contributions can be deductible even if you contribute to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. For example, single tax filers that are covered by a workplace retirement plan can deduct full contributions if their modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is $66,000 or less in 2021, up from $65,000 in 2020.

Not every investor is able to contribute to a Roth IRA. As of 2021, single tax filers can contribute the full amount if their MAGI is less than $125,000, and contributions are phased out once it reaches $140,000, up from a range of $124,000 and 139,000 in 2020.

Investment Lineup

IRAs can be established on a commission or fee-based basis. Since Edward Jones is a full-service brokerage firm, its financial advisors offer many different investment options. Stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds are among the choices available to clients. Financial advisors can help determine which investments are suitable for retirement accounts based on the clients investment objective and risk tolerance.

The Advisory Solutions investment program is the Edward Jones managed account available to clients. These accounts charge an annual advisory fee instead of commissions. The Advisory Solutions have several asset allocation models that contain a broad range of vetted mutual funds and ETFs.

The Bridge Builder proprietary mutual fund lineup is exclusive to the Edward Jones Advisory Solutions program. Eight different sub-advised funds are available in a range of asset classes, including domestic stock, international stock, and fixed-income investments.

The Bridge Builder Core Bond Fund (BBTBX), for example, has an expense ratio of 0.14% and as of Dec. 31, 2019, had an annual one-year average return of 9.14%. This is slightly higher than the benchmark Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index return of 8.72% in the same period.

Fees and Commissions

Traditional and Roth IRAs at Edward Jones have a $40 annual account fee. However, clients with total assets above $250,000 are exempt.

Commissions in the IRAs can vary, depending on the securities purchased. Stocks and ETF trades result in a commission of about 2%. Mutual fund commissions are dependent upon the share class. A-share mutual funds have a large up-front fee and C-share funds have a level fee structure.

The Advisory Solutions program requires a $25,000 account minimum and charges an annual fee ranging from 0.50% to 1.35% based on the amount of assets under management. The more you have, the lower the fee. You'll pay fund fees in addition to the annual program fee.

Edward Jones Versus the Competition

Edward Jones is comparable to other full-service brokerage firms such as Morgan Stanley or Merrill (formerly Merrill Lynch). The real comparison would be the relationship developed by the financial advisor and the client.

Commissions and the advisory investment programs are also similar to other full-service brokerages. However, the annual IRA account fee at Edward Jones is lower. For example, Morgan Stanley charges $75 per account for clients who enroll in e-delivery of documents and statements for their account(s), but it is waived for clients with at least $1 million in total assets with the firm.

The Bottom Line

Overall, Edward Jones is a viable option for investors who are looking to open a traditional or Roth IRA at a full-service broker-dealer and willing to pay fees and commissions for receiving investment advice from an advisor. The most important factor is the quality of the financial advisor and the relationship with the client.The main competitors of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) are the other three "big four" U.S. banks: JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and Citigroup (NYSE: C).

The largest of the "big four" U.S. banks is JPMorgan Chase (JPM), with reported assets of $3.20 trillion and total deposits of $2.37 trillion as of 2021. Bank of America (BAC) is second, with $2.31 trillion in assets and $1.95 trillion in deposits. Wells Fargo is third, with $1.77 trillion in assets and $1.49 trillion in deposits, and Citigroup is fourth, with $1.68 trillion in assets and $1.30 trillion in deposits as of 2021.

Bank of America: An Overview

Bank of America Corporation is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bank of America Corporation was founded when Nations Bank acquired BankAmerica (as it was known at the time) in the largest bank acquisition in history at the time. Bank of America built upon its wealth management and investment banking businesses by acquiring Merrill Lynch in 2008. Including its Merrill Lynch and U.S. Trust wealth management units, Bank of America is the largest provider of wealth management services worldwide.

In 2021, Forbes ranked Bank of America as the sixth-largest corporation in the world. In 2021, Bank of America was recognized as the fifth most valuable bank brand name in a Brand Finance study of more than 500 banks.

Bank of America operates nationwide in the U.S. and its territories, and in more than 35 countries, serving 66 million consumer and business clients worldwide.

Bank of America's 2020 annual earnings per share (EPS) was $1.87a 32% decline from 2019. Bank of America's market capitalization was $335.34 billion as of Aug. 5, 2021. Bank of America's return on assets (ROA) was 0.91% and its return-on-equity (ROE) was 9.58% as of June 30, 2021. Its net profit margin was 29.20% as of June 30, 2021. Its price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio) was 1.17 as of Aug. 4, 2021.

JPMorgan Chase & Company

JPMorgan Chase & Company, headquartered in New York City, was established through a merger between J.P. Morgan Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank in 2000. JPMorgan Chase is the result of a series of mergers and acquisitions, including acquisitions of Bear Stearns, Bank One and Washington Mutual. It is the largest American bank by total assets.

In 2021, Forbes ranked JPMorgan Chase as the third-largest corporation in the world.

JPMorgan Chase provides a vast array of commercial and investment banking services in more than 100 countries, operating dozens of business lines through four primary divisions:

Consumer and community banking (CCB) Commercial banking (CB) Corporate and investment banking (CIB) Asset management (AM)

JPMorgan Chase's 2020 annual earnings per share (EPS) was $8.88a 17.16% decline from 2019. JP Morgan Chase's market capitalization was $466.50 billion as of July 26, 2021. Its return on assets ratio (ROA) was 1.32%, and its return on equity ratio (ROE) was 16.49% as of June 30, 2021. Its net profit margin is 36.37% as of June 30, 2021. Its price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio) is 1.63 as of Aug. 4, 2021.

Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 1852 by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo. The most important Wells Fargo acquisitions include First Interstate Bancorp, Norwest Financial, and Wachovia Bank. As of March 31, 2021, Wells Fargo ranks as the third-largest bank in America by assets.

In 2021, Wells Fargo was recognized as the world's seventh most valuable bank brand name (first in the U.S.) in a Brand Finance study of more than 500 banks. In 2021, Forbes ranked Wells Fargo as the nineteenth-largest corporation in the world.

Wells Fargo offers a wide range of banking and financial services through its more than 7,400 locations and its operations in 31 countries and territories.

Wells Fargo's 2020 annual earnings per share (EPS) was $0.41a decline of 89.88% from 2019. Its market capitalization was $189.48 billion as of July 26, 2021. Its return-on-assets ratio (ROA) was 0.82%, and its return-on-equity ratio (ROE) was 8.51% as of June 30, 2021. Its net profit margin was 20.06% as of June 30, 2021. Its price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio) was 0.98 as of July 4, 2021.

Citigroup Inc.

Citigroup Inc., headquartered in New York, was formed in 1998 through the merger of Citicorp Bank and Travelers Group, creating what was the world's largest financial services corporation at the time.

In 2021, Forbes ranked Citigroup as the sixteenth-largest corporation in the world. Its operations span more than 100 countries with the largest international presence of any of the "Big Four" banks.

Citigroup's 2020annual earnings per share (EPS) was $4.72, a decline of 41.29% from 2019. Its market capitalization was $140.78 billion as of July 26, 2021. Its return-on-assets ratio (ROA) was 0.89%, and its return-on-equity ratio (ROE) was 10.21% as of June 30, 2021. Its net profit margin was 25.35% as of June 30, 2021. Its price-to-book ratio (P/B ratio) was 0.70 as of Aug. 4, 2021.What will Social Security look like when you retire? Many Americans have lost hope that there will be anything to see. According to a 2021 Gallup poll, 43% of individuals surveyed said they worry a great deal about the Social Security system. The same survey also revealed that 38% of individuals said they believe Social Security is going to be a major source of their income in retirement.

So what will Social Security realistically look like in the future? Should workers be concerned?

Key Takeaways Social Security does not nowand is unlikely in the future toprovide enough income for a comfortable retirement.

If Social Security is reworked by Congress to extend its life, younger workers and high-income earners will likely be the ones to pay for it.

You should start saving for your retirement as early as possible by contributing to retirement accounts such as an IRA or 401(k).

The Future of Social Security

Social Security may look drastically different in the next few decades, especially since the Social Security Administration's 2021 Trustees Report estimates its combined trust funds will be depleted in 2034 based on the current way it operates. That means that it will have no cash reserves and will only be able to pay out (as benefits) what it takes in (via taxes) on an annual basis. The 2034 date is one year earlier than previous estimatesand some pessimistic analysts think the system could run out of funds even sooner.



Social Security is a pay-as-you-go program. Earlier generations relied on decades of contributions from the huge baby boomer generation, which provided year after year of surpluses to the Social Security trust funds. Now, as the boomers retire, younger generations make up a smaller percentage of the workforce than in the past, creating a shortfall in funding.

Social Security depleting its cash reserves by 2034 means that, if you're in your forties or fifties today, you could conceivably not receive full benefits during retirementeven though you're paying into the system now.

Changes must be made. Many have speculated on what those changes will be. The most likely course of action is that benefits will be reduced and/or the full retirement age (at which a taxpayer's entitled to full benefits) will be raised. The latter is already happening. Depending on when you were born, 66 and 67 have replaced 65 as the proverbial retirement age.

Who Will Be Affected the Most?

Younger workers and individuals who earn more may be hit the hardest. These two groups contribute the most to the fund and could end up reaping the fewest benefits. However, even if the funds were to be depleted, the Social Security Trustees' report noted, income would be sufficient to pay 78% of scheduled benefits.

That said, if you are planning to retire in the upcoming decade, it is important to use the time you have left wisely. Boost your retirement savings as much as possible while also paying down debt and keeping expenditures low. Social Security payments alone will not cover an average mortgage or living expenses when you are saddled with debt.

Social Security Is Not Enough for Retirement

Even if Social Security gets a huge makeover from Congress, workers should not consider the program as a sufficient retirement plan. Even now, Social Security barely covers living expenses for retired individuals.

According to the Social Security Administration, its programs were paying 65 million Americans $1,096 billion in combined benefits at the end of 2020. This might seem like a lot, but break down those numbers: Retired individuals receive $1,555 per month, on average, and disabled individuals are earning $1,280 per month. Individuals who exist on Social Security benefits alone don't live far above the poverty line, which is roughly $1,073 a month for a single person in 2021.

The Anti-Social Security Retirement Plan

So what can an individual do when retirement is 20, 30, or even 40 years away? The best plan is to start saving now. Take advantage of the time you have and save as much as you can in your 401(k) and/or individual retirement accounts (IRAs), traditional or Roth.

With the typical 401(k) plan, your pre-tax contribution is automatically deducted from your gross earnings in each paycheck, thus reducing your taxable income for the year.

Be sure to contribute enough to get your employers full match, even if it is a small percentage. Otherwise, youre throwing away free money. If your company does not offer to match contributions, you should still think hard about using the 401(k) plan, anyway. You get a tax break on the contribution, your funds will grow tax-free, and you'll be able to deposit much more annually than you can in an IRA.

IRA Contribution Limits

The maximum amount that you can contribute each year to a traditional IRA and Roth IRA is $6,000 in 2021 and 2022. Those who are aged 50 and over can contribute an additional $1,000 in the form of a catch-up contribution. Conversely, the maximum amount that you can contribute to a 401(k) is $19,500 per year for 2021 ($20,500 for 2022). If you are 50 or older, you can contribute an additional $6,500.

Roth IRA Income Limits

Contributions to Roth IRAs are limited and can be phased out, depending on how much income you earn and your tax filing status.

For 2021 tax year contributions, the income phase-out range for single people is $125,000 to $140,000 ($129,000 to $144,000 for 2022). For married couples who file jointly, the income phase-out range for 2021 is $198,000 to $208,000 ($204,000 to $214,000 for 2022). So, if a married couple earns more than $208,000 in 2021, they can't contribute to a Roth.

Start Early

As early as your 20s, you should make every effort to start saving for retirementeven if you feel you cannot afford it or youre not in your dream job. If possible, have retirement savings taken out automatically before you receive your paycheck. This way, you wont miss the money.

Another option is to learn to live off of 98% of your paycheck and invest the other 2%, then gradually increase the percentage each month while cutting back on spending.

The Bottom Line

Many people worry about whether Social Security will be available when they retire. Although it's unlikely that Congress will let the system go bankrupt, it's likely that belt-tightening changes will occur, including a longer waiting time until you qualify for full benefits and smaller benefits when you do. It is best for individuals to secure other retirement savings and not plan to rely on Social Security benefits as the chief source of their nest egg. That's not a good idea now and won't get any better in the future.Investopedia 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 Investopedia.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)PLAYA VISTA, California - October 18, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) American Premium Water Corporation (OTC: HIPH) reports it has created a prototype tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-infused beverage utilizing the Company's hydro-nano technology, and that it is engaged in discussions with Canadian distributors and U.S. dispensaries. Upon official launch, American Premium expects to offer the first hydro-nano-infused THC beverage on the market.

"I am thrilled to announce that after many months of R&D collaboration with our partners, we have , a beta version of our LALPINA Hydro Nano-infused THC beverage. Because this is an extension of our existing hydro-nano technology, we anticipate a quicker development process with potential of hitting the market by the first quarter of 2019 or sooner," stated American Premium CEORyan Fishoff.

Similar to American Premium's LALPINA Hydro CBD beverage, the hydro-nano THC beverage will boast an absorption rate of up to 90% higher than conventional THC beverages, which allows the THC to immediately penetrate into the cells, bypassing the bloodstream and creating a more immediate effect.

American Premium previously announced in June that it was looking into the development of a THC-Cannabis version of the beverage. American Premium launched its LALPINA Hydro CBD beverage in August and by October secured its first third-party distribution deal with SinglePoint, Inc (OTCQB:SING). The Company has been in discussions with other distributors for this product, and the addition of a THC-infused beverage as part of its offerings will aide in discussions.

With the legalization of cannabis in Canada, the Company is actively pursuing distribution agreements for both of its beverages in the Canadian market. The Company is also pursuing product distribution in U.S. states where Cannabis is legal, and is in discussions with dispensaries in California, Colorado, and Nevada.

"Legalization in Canada and the development of our second beverage provides the opportunity for a distribution channel that not many of our competitors have. Additionally, we have a great geographic advantage in the U.S. I am based in New York City, our Chairman chairman is located in Miami, and our headquarters are in Los Angeles - meaning we have 'boots on the ground' footholds in the country's largest and most visible markets. With the addition of the THC prototype, we are going to exploit this advantage and ramp up our marketing activities in these regions. An example of something that I have in mind is doing a pop up with MedMen's New York location. Doing a pop up with them (MedMen) would be an example of the type of marketing events that we intend to rollout in the coming months to take advantage of our geographic advantage. Over the ensuing weeks, I will share in more detail our wholesale distribution strategy for both the CBD and THC beverages," stated Fishoff.

About American Premium Water Corp.

American Premium Water (OTC: HIPH) is a diversified luxury consumer products company focused on businesses in the health and beauty and biotech sectors. The company is focused on harnessing the powers of hydrogen and Nano technologies paired with cannabidiol (CBD) to treat health disorders and enhance quality of life. This business model aims to market emerging fashion brands by leveraging classic retail partners and incorporating disruptive block chain technologies to expand the retail footprint. The company's portfolio includes the LALPINA Hydro and LALPINA Hydro CBD brands (www.LalpinaInc.com), Gents, Worthy, and blockchain platform FashionCoinX (www.FashionCoinX.com).

Safe Harbor Notice

Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking statements" (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). American Premium Water Corporation cautions that statements made in this news release constitute forward-looking statements and makes no guarantee of future performance. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and opinions of management at the time statements are made. These statements may address issues that involve significant risks, uncertainties, estimates and assumptions made by management. Actual results could differ materially from current projections or implied results. American Premium Water Corporation undertakes no obligation to revise these statements following the date of this news release. Additional details of the Company's business can be found in its public disclosures as a reporting issuer under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") EDGAR database.

This press release is issued on behalf of the Board of Directors of American Premium Water Corporation

Corporate Communications Contact:

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Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: http://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspVANCOUVER - October 18, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Ascent Industries Corp. (CSE: ASNT) ("Ascent" or the "Company") would like to provide an update regarding the press release issued by the Company on September 27th relating to the partial suspension of the Health Canada licenses issued to its wholly owned subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals Corp. ("Agrima").

The Company has made formal submissions to Health Canada for the reinstatement of the Agrima licences and has been informed by Health Canada that the Company's submissions are under review. However, Health Canada has not indicated when the review will be completed.

In the meantime, the Company has been working diligently to enhance its record keeping controls and procedures and other compliance activities at the Agrima facility. In particular, the Company has added the following three highly experienced managers to its Quality Assurance & Regulatory Compliance team:

John Sweeney: Vice President of Operations - Ascent

Before joining Ascent, John had spent five years working in the cannabis production space, initially as a consultant, then as the VP of Operations for Privateer Holdings, parent company of Tilray - the first licensed medical cannabis producer in North America with cGMP certification. Prior to this, John spent over 15 years in senior roles within large-scale commercial manufacturing operations at some leading biopharmaceutical companies including: Pfizer, Wyeth, and Sanofi-Aventis. John's prior experience with large-scale bio-pharmaceutical production makes him well suited to help Ascent meet the requisite operational, regulatory and technical challenges of applying cGMP manufacturing principles to large-scale cannabis production.

John Catliff: Operations Manager - Agrima Botanicals

Prior to joining Ascent, John spent over thirty-five years in a wide range of industries, including Director of E-Ventures for NRI Distribution, which is a leading 3rd party logistics service provider. He brings great leadership and experience as a Senior Level Manager from previous organizations including: Artiza, Helly Hansen, Sims Snowboarding, and Umbro Canada.

Kamaljit Singh: Quality Assurance Manager - Agrima Botanicals

Kamaljit brings more than 26 years of combined experience in the Cannabis Industry, Pharmaceutical manufacturing, Natural Health Products, Biotech, Non-Clinical and Clinical Research sectors, with the expertise in FDA-USA and Health Canada GMP audits. In his most recent role at HollyWeed North Cannabis Inc., he played an integral role as Director of Quality Assurance and the Individual in Charge of the Premises (ICP), where he was instrumental in ensuring the organization's compliance with Health Canada regulations under the ACMPR. Kamaljit has vast knowledge and experience pertaining to pharmaceutical compliance, Regulatory Affairs, GMP practices, and overall Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC). He held a variety of QA/QC positions with global companies like Ranbaxy Laboratories, MDS Pharma Services, Pharma Medica Research, Variation Biotechnologies and Purdue Pharma. Kamaljit's demonstrated success in Quality Assurance and regulatory compliance in cannabis, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries will position Ascent strategically and operationally to meet organizational and regulatory objectives.

About Ascent Industries Corp.

In Canada, Ascent (through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Agrima Botanicals) is a Licenced Producer under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations of Health Canada, with licences to cultivate cannabis and produce cannabis extracts. In addition, the Company is a Licenced Dealer under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada), with the ability to produce, package, sell, send, transport and distribute medically focused cannabis products in Canada to other licenced entities and internationally in jurisdictions where medical cannabis is legal. In the United States, the Company holds licences in Oregon (for processing and for distribution of cannabis to any licenced entity in the state) and in Nevada (for cultivation and for production, processing and wholesale distribution of cannabis). In Europe, Agrima ApS, a Danish company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascent, has submitted licence applications for a Wholesaler Dealers Licence and Controlled Drug Licence in Denmark, and applications for the approval of eight products to the Danish Medical Cannabis Pilot Program.

The Company's operations currently include licenced facilities in British Columbia, Canada, and in Oregon and Nevada in the United States. The Company is increasing its cultivation and production capacity from 50,000 square feet to 710,000 square feet in 2018, from which it expects to produce significantly higher amounts of cannabis and cannabis oil to support its expanding operations.

The Company offers a product suite of more than 40 unique products under several consumer-focused brands, including gel capsules, tinctures, medicinal oils, concentrates, vaporizer pens, pre-rolled joints, various edibles and raw flower. Through careful development of its sophisticated cannabis brands, Ascent is positioned to be a leader in branded, commercialized products in both medical and adult-use markets across North America and internationally.

In addition, the Company conducts cannabis-based research with Simon Fraser University, including in the area of unique cannabinoid formulations that produce targeted physiological outcomes.

The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

NEITHER THE CSE OR ITS MARKET REGULATOR (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE CSE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:

This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often but not always using phrases such as "expects", or "does not expect", "is expected", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", "plans", "budget", "scheduled", "forecasts", "estimates", "believes" or "intends" or variations of such words and phrases or stating that certain actions, events or results "may" or "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken to occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to Ascent's expectations on the reinstatement of the Agrima licenses and obtaining a sales license. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Except as required by law, Ascent assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements of beliefs, opinions, projections, or other factors, should they change, except as required by law.

SOURCE: Ascent Industries

For further information:

Philip Campbell, Chair, Chief Executive Officer, Telephone: 1.604.908.1305, Email: ir@ascentindustries.com

Disclaimer/Disclosure: Investorideas.com is a digital publisher of third party sourced news, articles and equity research as well as creates original content, including video, interviews and articles. Original content created by investorideas is protected by copyright laws other than syndication rights. Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspOctober 18, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Peter Epstein of Epstein Research discusses whether the lithium market is oversold and profiles one lithium company that he follows.

Despite overwhelmingly positive lithium market news-growing demand from Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage markets-Wealth Minerals Ltd.'s (WML:TSX.V; WMLLF:OTCQX) share price has had a rough year, down 72% from its 52-week high. Surprisingly, that's only moderately worse than the rest of the lithium sector! In the chart below, sorted by market cap, one can compare Wealth's share price performance to 30 peers that are down an average of 58%.

Is Wealth Minerals oversold? I think so, but first I will address another question-is the lithium sector oversold?

Natural resource stocks, precious and base metals, plus investable battery metal juniors in cobalt, graphite, manganese: everything's down a lot. Lead, zinc, silver and copper are down (on average) 16%year-to-date. Yet for lithium, contract prices are up and underlying demand is as strong as ever. I've not seen a single forecast by any consulting group or industry pundit suggesting that lithium demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) or Energy Storage Systems (ESS) will be weaker than previously expected.

In fact it's the exact opposite. All year, industry pundits that have been making compelling arguments about lithium demand that some industry experts and sell-side analysts are probably failing to appreciate. For instance, although municipal bus fleets are starting to get included in demand forecasts, what about electric bicycles, scooters and motorcycles? Delivery and mail trucks? School buses and garbage trucks? What about long haul trucking fleets? Combined, demand from these electrified vehicle categories could require hundreds of thousands of tonnes of incremental Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE)/year for the next decade.

Lithium-ion battery endusers are starting to figure this out. Chinese lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium recently signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement with BMW. This comes weeks after deals signed with Tesla and LG Chem. Simon Moores' group at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence tracks lithium supply and demand in a number of interesting ways. One of the most compelling is its tracking of the number of global battery mega-factories in the pipeline. That figure just hit 50, likely requiring roughly 800k-900k tonnes of LCE/yr at full capacity by the mid-to-late 2020s. That's about 4x current LCE consumption.

There's a huge disconnect between lithium demand fundamentals and underlying company share prices that I can't explain. Perhaps the problem lies on the supply side? That's certainly an actively debated theory, promulgated by Morgan Stanley's infamous industry report in February that said lithium contract prices would fall below US$8,000/tonne by 2021. NOTE: {the latest contract price reported by SQM was ~US$16,500/tonne}

Since Morgan Stanley's (MS) report, quarterly contract prices reported by companies including Albemarle Corp. (ALB:NYSE), SQM (SQM:NYSE), FMC Lithium Corp. (FMC:NYSE) and Orocobre Ltd. (ORL:TSX; ORE:ASX) have been up year over year. SQM's second quarter lithium price was ~US$16,500/tonne. Lithium producers expect contract prices to be flat or possibly down modestly in the second half of 2018, a far cry from the collapse MS is calling for. When MS released its industry report, contact prices were around US$13-14,000/tonne.

100% of the analysts and industry consultants that I trust most believe the MS report should not be relied upon. Without diving into it, I think it's wrong because it included in the analysis massive lithium supply additions from Chile's Atacama salar that look increasingly uncertain in size, and especially uncertain in timing.

The Drama in the Atacama (Chile) Continues

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that Albemarle and SQM do not have great relationships with the main interested parties in Chile. One needs to be on sides with 1) local communities, 2) mining and governmental agencies, 3) in some cases, CORFO (a state-controlled entity), 4) CCHEN (another state-controlled entity) plus 5) local and national-level politicians.... all the way up to the president. Just this month Albemarle announced that regulator CCHEN denied an application it had submitted in March to increase its production quota. Albemarle and SQM have had, and continue to have, challenges with one or more of these key constituencies!

Even if Albemarle and SQM can improve critical relationships in Chile, there's still a huge challenge few seem to be talking about. Albemarle and SQM are attempting to greatly increase production (for instance SQM from 50,000 tonnes/yr to 180,000 tonnes/yr) without increasing the volumes of lithium enriched brine being pumped. They are working with black-box technologies to increase evaporation pond recoveries (yields). And, they claim to have other tricks up their sleeves to more than triple production. Yet, if the recovery of lithium from ponds in the Atacama salar is currently around 40%-50%, how could production possibly triple without increased pumping? That would mean recovering >100% of the in-situ lithium?!?

So, if the world is not going to be flooded with a tsunami of new Chilean lithium supply in 2019, or in 2020 for that matter-AND all evidence suggests that EV and ESS demand is trending higher, not flat or down-what does that mean for contract pricing? I believe that prices will hold above US$12,000/tonne for at least the next five years. Once this realization sinks in, beaten down lithium shares could stage a meaningful rebound. If Wealth Minerals were to gain back half of what it has lost (from C$2.34/share), the stock would increase ~130% to ~C$1.50/share.

A long-winded answer to my opening question, is the lithium sector oversold? Yes, I think it is, due to irrational fears about global lithium prices collapsing. While it's true that a select few lithium spot prices in China have fallen quite a bit this year, those prices are not indicative of the overall contracted market. The concern about industry pricing is in the process of being debunked. Where does this leave Wealth Minerals? {please see new, October corporate presentation}

Wealth is not immune to uncertainties regarding the circumstances under which lithium from Chile will be allowed to be produced, and a large portion of it exported. Like Albemarle and SQM, Wealth needs to get along with a number of interested parties. Management has made considerable progress on that front, most notably by agreeing to partner with State-controlled ENAMI(National Mining Company of Chile) to develop their two primary projects. By partnering with ENAMI, Wealth has significantly de-risked its property holdings. But, the market is not focused on the de-risking provided by ENAMI, all eyes are on drilling Wealth's giant, (46,200 hectares) 100%-owned, royalty-free Atacama project.

Readers may recall that management had a setback last month when locals did not allow drilling in the Atacama to start as planned. Management now believes that it will gain access to two sites and begin drilling three shallow and three deep holes within the next 30 days. Turnaround time for the drill results from the shallow holes is expected to be fairly quick, so we could see results in November.

Wealth Hires Chilean Lithium Brine Expert

It's widely known, and is causing increasing anxiety among lithium juniors, that experienced, well-respected lithium brine technical professionals are very hard to find. Wealth Minerals just landed one of the top available technical people in the world. Executives with Cesar Jil's credentials are very highly sought after. Mr. Jil was most recently the manager of lithium extraction technologies at Albemarle.

He's an expert in the latest technologies and methodologies regarding lithium beneficiation from natural brines and worked for Albemarle in multiple areas: the Atacama, Argentina's Antofalla salar and at Nevada's Silver Peak. Prior, Cesar was a process engineer for Sociedad Chilena de Litio, a world leader in processing lithium to lithium carbonate and lithium chloride for the global chemicals industry.

There simply are not that many operating brine fields in Argentina and Chile where technical people have learned enough to become true experts. FMC and Orocobre have active brine facilities in Argentina, and there's Albemarle and SQM in Chile. But, there are only a few other smaller and/or private operations, probably under 10 active operations in the entire Lithium Triangle. Therefore, the number of expert, (non-retired), lithium brine technicians globally could be as few as just 20 or 30. Of that select group, only a small handful are looking for new positions at any given time.

In my opinion, this is a tremendous vote of confidence in Wealth's Atacama project. There are dozens of lithium brine projects around the globe, many in great need of someone with Cesar's excellent credentials. I'm confident that Cesar could have found a senior role at a number of more advanced lithium brine projects in Chile or northern Argentina. Choosing Wealth's Atacama project suggests to me that Cesar is fairly confident in the prospective geology, in the ability to work collaboratively with locals and the ability of Wealth's team, working with ENAMI, to advance its flagship project.

While it's somewhat speculative (pre-drilling) to rely on the salar comparison chart on the right, the size of the prize is enticing. As management points out, if drill results were to show lithium values that are half as robust at that of Albemarle's and SQM's in the southern part of the salar, (1,840 ppm Li) that would still be higher grade than any other project or producing mine (outside of Chile) on the planet.

Although the start of drilling has been delayed, management has not been sitting idle. The company followed up on positive geophysical surveys at the Atacama project by completing a comprehensive re-interpretation of the results and identifying a sizable 100 sq. km area of anomalous data. Wealth's expert technical team, now led by Mr. Jil, believes that this area represents high-salinity brines at depth. Given this enhanced view, management started another geophysical survey, including surrounding ground that Wealth is now in discussions about acquiring.

Additionally, management continues to work on a third-party PEA for its 100% controlled (by option), royalty-free Laguna Verde project.

Management is busy on other fronts as well, for the past year they have been evaluating cutting-edge lithium extraction/processing technologies. These third-party technologies are unproven at commercial scale (for lithium). However, there's a growing feeling that the use of evaporation ponds could be a thing of the past, not imminently, but the construction of new ponds could be forbidden sometime next decade. New technologies that eliminate the need for costly, complex, unpredictable, time-consuming evaporation ponds promise far less water consumption, faster cycle times and much higher lithium recoveries.

Conclusion

I believe the lithium sector is oversold and I think Wealth Minerals (TSX-V: WML)/(OTCQX: WMLLF) has substantially more upside from C$0.64/share than it does downside. It might take a rebound in the sector to really get Wealth shares moving higher, but with the start of drilling as soon as this month, and drill results possibly in November, news flow could be impactful.

Peter Epstein is the founder of Epstein Research. His background is in company and financial analysis, and he is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). He holds an MBA degree in financial analysis from New York University's Stern School of Business.

Disclosures: The content of this article is for information only. Readers fully understand and agree that nothing contained herein, written by Peter Epstein of Epstein Research [ER], (together, [ER]) about Wealth Minerals, including but not limited to, commentary, opinions, views, assumptions, reported facts, calculations, etc. is to be considered implicit or explicit investment advice. Nothing contained herein is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. [ER] is not responsible under any circumstances for investment actions taken by the reader. [ER] has never been, and is not currently, a registered or licensed financial advisor or broker/dealer, investment advisor, stockbroker, trader, money manager, compliance or legal officer, and does not perform market making activities. [ER] is not directly employed by any company, group, organization, party or person. The shares of Wealth Minerals are highly speculative, not suitable for all investors. Readers understand and agree that investments in small cap stocks can result in a 100% loss of invested funds. It is assumed and agreed upon by readers that they will consult with their own licensed or registered financial advisors before making any investment decisions.

At the time this interview was posted, Peter Epstein owned shares and/or stock options in Wealth Minerals and the Company was an advertiser on [ER]. Readers understand and agree that they must conduct their own due diligence above and beyond reading this article. While the author believes he's diligent in screening out companies that, for any reasons whatsoever, are unattractive investment opportunities, he cannot guarantee that his efforts will (or have been) successful. [ER] is not responsible for any perceived, or actual, errors including, but not limited to, commentary, opinions, views, assumptions, reported facts & financial calculations, or for the completeness of this article or future content. [ER] is not expected or required to subsequently follow or cover events & news, or write about any particular company or topic. [ER] is not an expert in any company, industry sector or investment topic.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspOctober 18, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Technical analyst Clive Maund charts a relatively unknown gold stock that he believes is positioned to break out.

Casa Minerals Inc. (CASA:TSX.V) is a relatively unknown gold stock that is likely to get more known and more appreciated as the sector comes back into favor again after years in the wilderness.

Yesterday, the company's stock gapped higher on very strong record volume on news of a gold discovery at one of its properties. We can see this move on the latest 1-year chart for the stock which shows how it has been stuck in a rectangular consolidation pattern from the start of this year. We can also see how yesterday's sharp gain failed to break the price out of the top of the pattern, since it closed at the resistance at the top of it.

However, what is most important to observe is the large gap combined with very heavy record volume accompanying the move  this is very bullish and indicates a high probability that the stock will soon proceed to break above the resistance at the top of the Rectangle to enter a new bull market, and in this it should be assisted by the sector as a whole advancing, which it is now in position to do. Note that we could see a minor reaction back from the resistance first before it breaks out, which would not be a problem.

Casa Minerals is therefore rated an immediate speculative buy, and especially on any minor reaction. The company has a reasonable 36.4 million shares in issue. Note that this stock is only traded on the Toronto Venture exchange.

Casa Minerals website.

Casa Minerals Inc, CASA.V, closed at C$0.215 on 16th October 2018.

Clive Maund has been president of www.clivemaund.com, a successful resource sector website, since its inception in 2003. He has 30 years' experience in technical analysis and has worked for banks, commodity brokers and stockbrokers in the City of London. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis from the UK Society of Technical Analysts.

Disclosure:

1) Clive Maund: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. CliveMaund.com disclosures below. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. 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 Casa Minerals. Please click here for more information.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

4) This 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 Casa Minerals, a company mentioned in this article.

Charts provided by the author.

CliveMaund.com Disclosure:

The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks can only be construed as a solicitation to buy and sell securities when they are subject to the prior approval and endorsement of a Registered Securities Advisor operating in accordance with the appropriate regulations in your area of jurisdiction.

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.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspHere's your lunchtime bulletin.

GET INFORMED ...

IRELAND: A 15-hour stand-off between a convicted rapist and An Garda Siochana, which brought a Dublin suburb to a standstill, has come to a peaceful end.

IRELAND: Presidential hopeful Peter Casey will visit a housing development which has been built for Travellers in Tipperary today.

For all our presidential election coverage, click here.

IRELAND: Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe should be paid massive damages following the State apology given to him yesterday, it has been claimed.

IRELAND: Rita ODriscoll, who is charged with the murder of her partner, has asked that she not be moved while in custody, claiming she feels safe in Limerick Prison.

IRELAND: All-Star hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

WORLD: Irish backstop is "a trap being set by the EU": British voters will not forgive Theresa May if she surrenders to Brussels in the Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnson and David Davis have warned.

Mrs May has confirmed she is ready to consider a delay of a matter of months in Britains final departure from the EU in order to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

BUSINESS: Eir has announced the creation of 750 new jobs based in Sligo, Cork and Limerick.

SPECIAL REPORT: Last year, at age 31, Mohammed bin Salman became Saudi Arabias crown prince. Next in line to the throne, attention has intensified following the disappearance, and suspected murder, of a journalist. It follows a brutal crackdown in the kingdom, despite PR coups, writes Jon Gambrell.

The impact of a US-Saudi rift, however remote the possibility, could send shockwaves around the world. Matthew Lee reports from Washington.

ANALYSIS: Not all women in their late 30s will be as lucky as Meghan Markle and get pregnant, writes Victoria White.

SPORT: David Clifford is expected to miss most if not all of Kerrys Allianz League campaign with a scheduled shoulder operation.

SPORT: Over the course of eight years and more than a century of appearances for his home province, Simon Zebo quickly realised European rugby was everything at Munster. Sadly for the 28-year-old, he was always the bridesmaid when it came to the Champions Cup, losing four semi-finals with the men from Thomond Park.

Could Racing be the ones to help break his European curse? Zebo thinks so.

SPORT: Hes not exactly tormented by his decision, yet Kerry great Tomas O Se has admitted he retired too early from the inter-county game in 2013.

... SOME DISTRACTION

EXAMVIRAL: Watch as an Irishman teaches African guides how to sing The Rattlin Bog on Kilimanjaro.

CULTURE: Ten films to see at Cork Film Festival.

FEATURES: Four female entrepreneurs share the secret of their success to mark National Womens Enterprise Day, which aims to help women in business to take their ideas global, writes Helen OCallaghan.

EXAMVIRAL: Worlds most attractive cities announced: These are the most stunning spots in the top seven.

CULTURE: The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London is always a highlight for nature-lovers and photographers alike. Here are a selection of prize-winners from the dozens of images on display.

FEATURES: The devastating consequences of alienation for children: Children are far less likely to have psychological issues if the separating parents promote a healthy relationship, writes Richard Hogan.By Eamon Quinn

A slowdown in consumer spending growth and caution in the jobs market may be early signs that Brexit concerns are weighing on households and employers, separate surveys suggest.

Visa says its latest monitor of consumer spending for September, covering all types of spending including cards and cash at bricks and mortar stores and online, showed the slowest growth in six months. The survey by researcher IHS Markit showed consumer spending last month rose 1.5% from September 2017, marking a slowdown from the 2.2% expansion posted in August.

It said household goods, restaurants and bars showed the strongest expansion, while there were good gains by recreation and culture, and food, beverages and tobacco, and transport and communications posted solid growth rates.

Nonetheless, consumer spending on clothing and footwear, health and education and other goods and services fell.

The weak growth in spending recorded in September marks potential concern from Irish consumers, which aligns with the recent drop in consumer confidence reported elsewhere  amid factors such as the recent budget announcement and ongoing Brexit negotiations, said Philip Konopik, Visa Ireland country manager. Andrew Harker at IHS Markit said slower growth rates were posted in both face-to-face transactions and in e-commerce.

Conditions in the Irish economy are generally supportive of further increases in expenditure in coming months, but confidence among consumers weakened in August, potentially leading to a reluctance among households to spend, he said.

Recruiter Morgan McKinley said there was caution ahead of Brexit in the Irish jobs market. Hiring activity in September was characterised by a degree of caution. This is the second month in a row that we have seen a decline in the number of new roles coming to the market.

It is too early to tell, but it would indicate a certain level of caution creeping into the marketplace, said director Trayc Keevans.

With Brexit on the horizon and the as yet unknown implications, we anticipated that the ensuing complexities and uncertainty would impact company forecasting and resource planning activity in the short to medium term and we believe this has been in evidence this month, the recruiter said.

Meanwhile, car parts makers in Europe stepped up their warnings over a hard Brexit. Europes carmakers lobby ACEA and suppliers association CLEPA, along with BMW and brakes maker Brembo, jointly warned that a no-deal exit would be catastrophic for the industry. The just-in-time industry model relied on frictionless trade between the UK and mainland Europe, they said.

If we are continuing to be taken hostage by this situation, the flourishing UK auto industry could come back to the situation it was at 20-25 years ago, said Roberto Vavassori, a management board member at Brembo and president of CLEPA.

The recovery of Britains auto sector in the 20 years since the decline of British Leyland and its successor Rover Group was based on investment from around the world, he said. Vavassori said he felt betrayed that Brembos manufacturing in Coventry would be a different prospect post-Brexit.

Additional reporting ReutersBy Geoff Percival

The Dublin Port Company has said it will be fully prepared for a hard, or no deal, Brexit by next March to guard the countrys main port from the effects of the UK crashing out of the EU without any agreed trade deal in place.

New figures show continued strong growth at Dublin Port this year, with total throughput  in terms of cargo volumes  up 4.7% on a year-on-year basis in the first nine months to 28.4 million gross tonnes.

However, while total passenger numbers rose 3.3%, there was a 0.6% drop in ferry passengers and a 1.5% decline in tourist vehicles  attributed to harsh weather conditions and lower numbers of UK visitors on the back of a Brexit-triggered volatility in sterling rates.

Cargo volumes have now grown 36% in six years and the Dublin Port Company said it needs to accelerate its capital investment plan to boost port capacity as growth is already outstripping its long-term masterplan growth rate.

We have begun construction of primary border control infrastructure to ensure that Dublin Port is prepared for whatever Brexit might throw at us, said Dublin Port Company chief executive Eamonn OReilly.

Our preparations are closely co-ordinated with the various State agencies who will have to carry out inspections on UK freight once Brexit happens. Having come through the worst of recessions from 2008, our volumes are already 23% higher than they were in 2007. In the timescale of port infrastructure projects, we need to press ahead with our infrastructure projects notwithstanding the uncertainties of Brexit, Mr OReilly said.By Conor Kane

All-Star hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

Mr Barrett, aged 25, of Beakstown, Holycross, Co Tipperary, will be sentenced next month after Judge Elizabeth MacGrath found the facts proven in the section two assault case against him. The Tipperary defender had denied the charge.

His brother, Brian Barrett, aged 31, pleaded guilty to assaulting a barman at Hayes Hotel in Thurles, causing him harm, and will also be sentenced next month.

Thurles district court heard that Brian Barrett headbutted Dylan Kerr, who was sitting on a stool at the bar looking at his phone while waiting for a lift home after work, and Cathal Barrett then grabbed him around the neck with his arm.

Cathal Barrett said that he was trying to restrain Dylan Kerr as he thought he was moving towards his brother after the headbutt.

The former young hurler of the year and All-Ireland winner in 2016 told gardai following the incident that he had four pints of Guinness on the night of May 27, 2017, in Holycross with his team-mates after a club game. They then went to Thurles and he had five vodkas with Seven-Up in a local bar, and three more vodkas with Red Bull in Hayess Hotel.

Judge MacGrath said at the end of the case: I have no doubt that the level of alcohol consumed on the night had quite a bearing on the situation.

Brian Barrett told gardai that he had no memory of what happened in the bar at Hayes Hotel with Dylan Kerr, and tried to contact the injured party the following day when he realised what went on.

Mr Kerr told the court that the incident happened at about 3.30am on the morning of May 28 last year, when he was waiting for a lift home after work.

Brian Barrett was sitting on my left and Cathal Barrett was standing on my right hand side. He was waiting for a lift.

Brian Barrett came over to him and started talking to him and was extremely aggressive and quite rude, Mr Kerr said, so he tried to ignore him and gave him yes and no answers. Brian Barrett then headbutted him, causing him to drop his phone on the floor. He went to pick up his phone and Cathal Barrett grabbed me by the throat.

Cathal Barrett was quite aggressive as well and said come on you c..t, come on you p...k and also watch my f..king leg. Mr Barretts leg was in a brace at the time.

Mr Kerr said he didnt think Mr Barrett was trying to hurt him, but was doing his best to restrain him and was also being abusive and aggressive.

In a garda interview, Brian Barrett said he was shown CCTV of the incident and could see himself headbutting that lad and was ashamed and disappointed and didnt know what frame of mind he was in at the time.

Cathal Barrett took the witness box and said that, just before the incident, he was sitting at the end of the bar, making phone calls to try and arrange a lift home. In the meantime, an incident occurred. I didnt actually see the incident, I was kind of dreaming and thinking how I was going to get home more than anything.

An incident occurred and my first reaction was, I grabbed Dylan to try and restrain him and defuse any situation that might occur.

He had no intention of hurting Dylan, he said, and didnt know him. He got off his chair and he was going around towards Brians direction, not necessarily to do anything. My instinct was just to hold on to him.

Under cross-examination, he said it wasnt his intention to grab Dylan by the throat and didnt think it was recklessness. I tried to do the best in the situation.

He denied roaring into his ear or calling Dylan a c..t but probably did say mind my f..king leg as it was in a brace, the defendant said.

Judge MacGrath said there was no evidence that Dylan Kerr acted in any way aggressively and said she was satisfied that Cathal Barretts actions were reckless and didnt accept a defence that he was acting to try and protect his brother.

She adjourned the case until November 6.A farmer has been fined for failing to properly secure a load of silage bales in an incident described by a judge as a shocker.

James Cullinane, a 58-year-old farmer from Derry House near Rosscarbery in Co Cork, had defended the way the 14 bales were packed last year, claiming they were like a baby in a mothers chest.

Clonakilty District Court heard Garda Brendan ODonovan outline how on October 7 last year he saw a trailer carrying nine round bales, drawn by a tractor, with no licence plates on either vehicle and no restraints on the load. He also said when he observed this at 4.50pm that day on the N71 outside Rosscarbery ropes were trailing from the back of the trailer.

He said he kept some distance back as he followed the trailer but added: I was afraid they were going to come off on top of the patrol car. He added that carrying a load like this on the N71 would not be normal.

Judge James McNulty, shown a picture of the load on the day, highlighted that it actually held 14 bales, with two parallel rows of five bales on the floor of the trailer, and four bales placed on top.

Solicitor for Mr Cullinane, Conrad Murphy, said there was a rise of a foot at the back of the trailer and a similar rise at the front, against which the bales were packed. He suggested the bales on top were sitting neatly on those below, helping them to stay packed together.

Giving evidence, Mr Cullinane said when he was stopped by the garda it was alongside his own property and just 200 yards from the entrance. I have that trailer 28 years, he said. I am drawing bales with it 28 years. They are heavy bales, wet silage.

He added that he believed they could have weighed more than 500kg and that the four bales on top secured those underneath  it just sinks and you could not shift them.

If it was hay or straw I would always tie them down, said Mr Cullinane, adding that the silage bales were like a baby in a mothers chest.

He added that there was a lip of a couple of inches all around the trailer and said some plastic packaging was trailing behind the trailer, not ropes.

Judge McNulty said: While Mr Cullinane minimises risks to the public and that everything was as snug as a bug in a rug, that is not the view that this court takes.

He said the picture provided indicated that the trailer seems to strain under the weight.

The judge said while there were double tyres either side, it seemed to be a single axle trailer and that he was concerned that in the event of a blowout, a puncture, or meeting a pothole, these bales were going wherever they want on a national primary route.

He found Mr Cullinane, who had eight previous convictions, guilty of the charge and fined him 1,500 on failing to secure the load and another 500 for the failure to have identification on the vehicle.

He said, looking at the back of the trailer, its a shocker.

Recognisance was fixed for any appeal at Mr Cullinanes own bond of 3,000, one-third in cash.Here's your morning bulletin.

GET INFORMED ...

IRELAND: The first televised presidential debate featuring all six candidates was held last night.

Peter Casey faced calls to withdraw from the race yesterday morning after he said Travellers are people camping on someone elses land, but he stood by his comments last night, referencing an ongoing dispute over housing between Travellers and local authority in Tipperary.

Read our full updates from the debate here.

For all our presidential election coverage, click here.

IRELAND: The Tanaiste has warned that contingency plans being developed for a hard Brexit are not a pretty picture and would pose significant problems for Ireland.

Meanwhile, Theresa May has told EU leaders that courage, trust and leadership will be needed on both sides to achieve a Brexit deal.

IRELAND: Garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe should be paid massive damages following the State apology given to him yesterday, it has been claimed.

IRELAND: Rita ODriscoll, who is charged with the murder of her partner, has asked that she not be moved while in custody, claiming she feels safe in Limerick Prison.

IRELAND: All-Star hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

BUSINESS: Eir has announced the creation of 750 new jobs based in Sligo, Cork and Limerick.

WORLD: The Washington Post has published a new column by missing Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in which he warns that governments in the Middle East have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate.

SPECIAL REPORT: Last year, at age 31, Mohammed bin Salman became Saudi Arabias crown prince. Next in line to the throne, attention has intensified following the disappearance, and suspected murder, of a journalist. It follows a brutal crackdown in the kingdom, despite PR coups, writes Jon Gambrell.

ANALYSIS: Not all women in their late 30s will be as lucky as Meghan Markle and get pregnant, writes Victoria White.

SPORT: Over the course of eight years and more than a century of appearances for his home province, Simon Zebo quickly realised European rugby was everything at Munster. Sadly for the 28-year-old, he was always the bridesmaid when it came to the Champions Cup, losing four semi-finals with the men from Thomond Park.

Could Racing be the ones to help break his European curse? Zebo thinks so.

SPORT: Hes not exactly tormented by his decision, yet Kerry great Tomas O Se has admitted he retired too early from the inter-county game in 2013.

... SOME DISTRACTION

FEATURES: Four female entrepreneurs share the secret of their success to mark National Womens Enterprise Day, which aims to help women in business to take their ideas global, writes Helen OCallaghan.

CULTURE: Ten films to see at Cork Film Festival.

FEATURES: The devastating consequences of alienation for children: Children are far less likely to have psychological issues if the separating parents promote a healthy relationship, writes Richard Hogan.The Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan has said the offence of blasphemy in our constitution is damaging our reputation.

Publishing or saying something against religion or the church is currently an offence in Irish law, yet the last criminal prosecution for blasphemy was in 1855.The Tanaiste has warned that contingency plans being developed for a hard Brexit are not a pretty picture and would pose significant problems for Ireland.

While Simon Coveney said he does not believe physical barriers would be erected along the border, he said a no-deal Brexit would create pressures in a lot of areas including around the Northern Ireland issue.

As EU leaders prepared to meet in Brussels yesterday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he would be willing to hear any proposals that might help to bring about a solution.

However, Mr Varadkar cautioned time is now running out on achieving a deal.

It has now been suggested the two-year transition period following Britains exit from the EU next March could be extended by up to a year in a bid to break the impasse in Brexit talks.

Speaking in Brussels, the Taoiseach said: Any extension to the transition period couldnt be a substitute for the backstop, we would still need to have that.

He added that an extra EU Council summit should only take place in November if there is a purpose for having it.

I dont think we should call a summit just to talk, he said.

We should be having a summit in November either to sign off on a deal or to build up preparations for a no-deal scenario if that is necessary, said Mr Varadkar.

Earlier in the day, Mr Coveney said there were small but significant issues left on the table.

I think both sides are trying to introduce new thinking and imagination to close those gaps and, of course, thats what we all support at this stage because the prospect of no deal on a managed, controlled Brexit really is very, very concerning and would be very negative for the UK and for Ireland, so everybody wants this deal to be done, Mr Coveney told the BBC.

Asked if walls could be built along the Irish border if Britain does crash out of the EU, he said: I dont believe that is going to happen but if there is no deal there are a lot of pressures in a lot of areas.

Northern Ireland will be one of them but there are other areas also.

I think, next week, you will probably see papers being produced from the EU side on contingency planning for a no-deal scenario; its not a pretty picture and I think people need to be mature enough to recognise that.

He hit out at the macho talk and generalities being put forward that countries would be able to survive a no-deal by pushing through.

The truth is a no-deal Brexit creates significant problems across multiple areas  economics, political, and security  so we have an obligation, Britain and Ireland in particular but also the EU and the UK, to find a way here that we can settle on a deal that manages a sensible Brexit, said Mr Coveney.Campaigners behind the successful legal challenge to the 6m Morrisons Island flood defence scheme in Cork are targeting next years local elections.

Save Cork City (SCC) say they have been approached by at least two people who are considering running for election next May in opposition to the Office of Public Works (OPW) 140m flood defence scheme.

SCC spokesman John Hegarty said it is too soon to predict the outcome of these discussions and whether SCC will support these potential candidates or run their own.

But he said: The design proposals for Corks flood defences will be a key local election issue next year.

He again urged city management to engage with SCC on the range of issues linked to the citys flood defences as a result of the judicial review.

Initial statements saying they will plough ahead without change arent promising, but we can hope, he said.

SCC led the successful legal challenge against the Part 8 planning process for the Morrisons Island public realm and flood defence project.

The scheme, which integrates flood defences into a quayside revamp, would have delivered the first flood defences proposed as part of the OPWs controversial Lower Lee flood relief plan the largest flood defence scheme in the history of the State.

SCC launched a judicial review of the Morrisons Island Part 8 and, on Tuesday, the council and SCC agreed to a High Court order quashing the planning.

The agreement was reached on the basis that the council failed to comply with its obligations under the EU Habitats Directive 1992 in relation to its Part 8. The council was also ordered to pay SCCs legal costs.

The council must now prepare a new environmental screening report for a Part 10 planning application through An Bord Pleanala. It will delay the scheme by at least six months.

Officials have insisted, however, that there are no plans to change the design.

Now in an open letter to the citys 31 councillors, SCC said while they deeply regret having to file for a judicial review, they did so in the interests of the city.

Our group which was initially composed of architects and urban designers, engineers and environmentalists, academics and historians has now expanded to include concerned citizens from all aspects of the city including local residents, property owners, business owners, and significantly property developers, they said.

We have over 13,000 supporters online and our numbers are growing. People dont want Cork destroyed when there are alternatives.

The group urged councillors to call a halt to the Morrisons Island scheme claiming that they havent been given full information about it, and said the winning design from their international design competition for the area should be reconsidered.

The most economical solution to flood protection with the least environmental impact and that protects the most amount of the city is the best solution for Cork, they said.

Save Cork City propose to protect the city with a tidal barrier at Little Island based on our extensive research and advice from international bodies.

Our primary goal is to protect historic Cork and promote the best future we can for Cork in terms of urban development and the economy.

We see this as fully compatible with the needs of a growing city and welcome new and exciting projects for Cork combined with the opportunity to protect the social and physical character of the historic city centre.The flu vaccine should be mandatory for frontline health staff, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland has urged.

The college is calling for mandatory vaccination because it is the only intervention to date that has been proven to achieve vaccine rates of more than 95%.

The vaccine uptake for the 2017/18 was reported to be 45% and a new target of 60% has been set for the current flu season.

Uptake has generally been higher in larger hospitals and highest in children's hospitals, at about 58%.

Studies have shown that flu infection occurs in about one in five healthcare workers, a rate that is higher than in other workers.

A report  Influenza Vaccination of Healthcare Workers, published by the college states that the needs of the patient population must take priority over the personal choice of the individual healthcare worker.

The dean of the college's faculty of occupational medicine, Dr Blanaid Hayes, said that despite initiatives introduced in recent years to try to encourage voluntary vaccination rates in healthcare workers remained far too low.

We are proposing that all healthcare workers working in high risk-areas  intensive care, cancer wards, emergency departments and other areas attended by immunocompromised patients, be immunised well in advance of the winter season when influenza infection is rampant, she said.

Other recommendations include segregation of patients who contact the flu infection, compliance by healthcare staff with good infection prevention and control practice as well as education of staff regarding the need to stay off duty when suffering from flu-like illness.

General secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, said all of the health unions were involved in discussions with the HSE on a risk-based assessment.

Asked why shouldn't the flu vaccination be mandatory during an interview on RTE radio yesterday, Ms Ni Sheaghdha believed the health authority was not seeking to make it compulsory.Four people have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 62-year-old woman in Wicklow last year.

The remains of mother-of-two and grandmother Patricia O'Connor from Rathfarnham were found scattered in the Wicklow Mountains in June 2017.By Liam Heylin

Three arrests have been made as part of Operation Joyrider, a Garda strategy directed at the joyriding problem in Cork, where 450 cars and motorbikes have been stolen in two years.

Detective Garda Pat Barry said in his evidence against bail being granted to one of the three men, Nicholas Crowley, that there was a gang on the northside of Cork City who call themselves Farranree Joyriders.

Det Garda Barry said Mr Crowley, aged 20, of 132 Bakers Rd, Gurranabraher, was arrested on Tuesday and that gardai were opposed to bail being granted to him as it was believed he would commit more joyriding offences.

He is part of a gang calling themselves Farranree Joyriders. He is one of the gang, if not the main one in the gang, said Det Garda Barry.

Diarmuid Kelleher, defending, objected to this reference to Farranree Joyriders and Mr Crowleys alleged role in it. Using that term is lowering the tone of a bail application, he said.

Mr Crowley was hit with a total of 27 charges yesterday, 22 from Det Garda Barry and five from Garda Liam Lingane. Both officers objected to bail being granted to Mr Crowley for fear he would commit further driving offences.

He was charged with 24 counts of driving stolen vehicles and three of handling stolen phones.

Mr Crowley applied for bail and said he had found the three phones in a park near his home and had advertised in a lost and found section of Facebook that he had found them. By doing so, he was performing a good deed, he claimed. When particulars of driving one car were put to him, he denied it.

Mr Kelleher said that charges of using stolen vehicles related to unspecified dates and locations and he did not understand how there could be jurisdiction to have the cases brought before Cork District Court, adding that the alleged offences could relate to Donegal or anywhere else.

Det Garda Barry said of Mr Crowleys bail application: If granted bail he will be a danger to members of the public by being out driving at night.

Judge Olann Kelleher remanded him in custody for one week on the charges.

A 17-year-old defendant, who cannot be identified as he is a juvenile, was charged with five counts of driving a stolen car between May 11 and October 16. He faces similar counts of driving a stolen vehicle in May, driving another on October 17, 2017, and driving two others on various dates in November last year.

Jake OSullivan, aged 18, of 22 Fairfield Rd, Farranree, was arrested by Detective Garda David Hickey and charged with driving 11 stolen vehicles between March and November 2017.

Both the juvenile and OSullivan were released on bail on their charges but were required to keep an 11pm-6am curfew, not contact co-defendants, not drive, abstain from alcohol, and sign three days a week at their local Garda stations.The Government has called on the British cabinet to honour in full the commitments given on the Irish border backstop in Brexit negotiations.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, taking Leaders Questions in place of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, said he agreed with comments by Irelands ambassador to the UK, which accused the British of backsliding away from promises already made.

Under questions from Fianna Fail deputy leader Dara Calleary, Mr Flanagan said: I agree with the Irish ambassador [Adrian} ONeill that every effort must be made at this stage to ensure obligations on the parts of governments that were entered into last December or otherwise and that were clear and concise in terms are honoured in full.

He added: I too am disappointed that we do not appear to be on the cusp of a deal but I believe it is important to acknowledge that the solidarity of the EU 26 towards Ireland is enduring. I believe that priority is of the utmost importance.

The minister said the EU remains clear that the outcome of the negotiations, whenever that might be, must be a workable solution towards the avoidance of a hard border.

That means no physical infrastructure and no associated checks and controls anywhere on the island of Ireland. That was agreed last December and there can be no compromise on it, he said.

There is no such thing as a good Brexit, he said.

Mr Calleary said in recent days the discussions and negotiations around Brexit have been frantic, to say the least. However, outside the Taoiseachs assurances, there is huge uncertainty in the air. Depending on what report one reads or what radio interview one listens to, the degree of uncertainty varies, he said.

He also pointed to comments by European Council president Donald Tusk that there are no grounds for optimism and he called again on prime minister May to break the impasse and to bring forward new proposals.

Sinn Feins Pearse Doherty said the Tories toxic deal with the DUP has undermined the progress Ireland should have made to now.Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically in last 4 yrs.

Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly made the comments at an event of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Lucknow on Wednesday. (Photo: File | ANI)

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday accused the Congress of "demeaning and demoralising" Hindus and termed as an "abuse" a reported remark by the opposition party's leader Ghulam Nabi Azad that the number of Hindu candidates inviting him for campaigning has reduced drastically.

Azad reportedly made the comments at an event of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Lucknow on Wednesday, apparently to criticise the political climate under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the simple reason behind fewer people calling Azad for campaigning is the falling stock of the Congress. For this Azad has invented the Hindu-Muslim angle, he added.

"These are not ordinary words. It is an abuse for the country's secular fabric and Hindus. It is yet another attempt by the Congress to demean and demoralise Hindus," Patra told reporters.

Also Read:

He also rejected Azad's allegation that the BJP is defaming the AMU and targeting Kashmiri students, saying if prayer meetings are held for terrorists then it will be condemned.

Three Kashmiri students of the AMU were suspended and booked for sedition last week for allegedly raising "anti-India" slogans and trying to hold a prayer meeting for Hizbul Mujahideen commander Manan Bashir Wani, who was killed in an encounter in north Kashmir.

The varsity revoked the suspension of two students on Tuesday.

Patra said Azad had earlier claimed that the Army kills more civilians in Kashmir than terrorists. It seems he wants to campaign in Pakistan, the BJP spokesperson said.

He accused the opposition party of conspiring against Hindus and said its leaders have used terms like "Hindu Taliban", "Hindu Pakistan" and "Hindu terrorists" in the past. Patra also demanded a response from Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress will never use such remarks to refer to any other community, he said.The Office of Public Works (OPW) has been threatened with legal action unless it halts in-river work on a controversial 16m flood defence project.

Environmentalists have also flagged their concerns about the Bandon flood relief works in Cork with the European Commission after an intensification of works in the channel of the Bandon river in recent days.

The works, which has involved the driving of large earth-moving diggers and trucks along the river bed, are taking place despite the schemes own planning documents stating such in-stream works should be restricted to between May and September to minimise the impact on salmon.

The documents say such work is generally not permitted in salmonid spawning areas between October and March because its a sensitive time for spawning and migrating salmon and trout.

Solicitors for Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) wrote to the OPW yesterday threatening legal action unless this work stops.

FIE director Tony Lowes said they have received regular complaints about the environmental damage caused by the scheme.

But this blatant disregard for their own environmental commitments is unprecedented and inexcusable, he said.

The works highlight the dangers to the environment of the OPWs highly interventionist approach to urban flood alleviation which emphasises hard landscape measures over catchment management and soft measures.

The overbearing and unnecessary scale of their engineering interventions is highlighted by the OPWs creation of what is said to be the largest fish pass in Europe, dubbed locally the whale pass because of its absurd scale, when simply removing the weir in question would have provided for fish migration.

Environmentalists like Dr William OConnor, a chartered biologist and a chartered environmentalist with Ecofact Environmental Consultants Ltd, have been monitoring the massive dredging, rock armouring, and river wall scheme since work started on a 3km stretch of the river in May 2017.

Dr OConnor said instead of in-stream works winding down before October 1, they have actually intensified.

The movement on the river bed of this kind of heavy machinery will kill lamprey and compact the sediments in which salmon and lamprey spawn. It is also stirring up huge amounts of sediment which will affect water quality, he said.

He described the entire project as over-designed and over-engineered and said it will turn a once pristine river into a heavily modified waterbody.

The rock armour approach is not appropriate in terms of managing riverways. It has permanently altered and in some places destroyed the natural hydromorphology of the area, he said.

He has flagged his concerns with the European Commissions environment directorate.

In a statement, Inland Fisheries Ireland said it is gravely concerned about the continued works.

The OPW did not respond yesterday to queries.By Joyce Fegan

A 15-hour stand-off between a convicted rapist and An Garda Siochana, which brought a Dublin suburb to a standstill, has come to a peaceful end.

A man in his mid-40s barricaded himself into a property in Lucan yesterday morning, armed with a firearm and a replica gun, and gardai spend until midnight last night negotiating with him.

The man has been arrested and is currently in custody.

"A Taser device was used and the matter has been referred to the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC)," a garda spokesman said.

While the incident started at around 7am yesterday morning and was resolved at midnight, a media blackout was in place, so no reporting of the event was possible. The blackout has since been lifted.

The sex-offender, who caused the major security alert in the busy Lucan housing estate, received a lengthy sentence in 2004 for a serious crime in which his victim feared she would die.

Locals alleged that yesterday's incident was triggered by graffiti written close to the property where the man was living.

Several roads around the area were closed off yesterday as members of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and the Armed Support Unit (ASU) were dispatched to the scene. Trained negotiators were also dispatched and gardai lined the streets as the situation unfolded.

Armed police at the scene. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Up to 100 residents, including young children, were gathered on the cordoned off roads, watching events unfold all day long yesterday. Many of them knew the man in question.

"He was hanging out the window from 7.30am in the morning shouting," alleged one nearby resident, who saw the initial event take place.

Several young women watched throughout the day with their babies and toddlers as armed units from An Garda Siochana surrounded the man's house. Some of the young women knew the man to see and said they were aware of his conviction for rape.

"I'm not afraid of him, but we don't talk to him and I don't let her (the woman's young daughter) out that gate. Everyone knows him around here, and what he did, but no one talks to him," a local woman said.

Another woman, who also has children but who are older in age, said she had reared her family in the area and was aware of his criminal conviction, and subsequent release from prison.

"...You can do what you like to yourself, but you can't do anything to anyone else's body. I don't care, you just can't. It's awful what he did," she said.

Other mothers were concerned with how their children would react when they arrived home from school to see the live situation with armed gardai.

"My child already has anxiety and he's only six years of age, I don't know what he's going to do when he sees this," said a young mother at the scene.

Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Locals closer to the man's home hung from their windows watching the situation unfold while also filming it on their phones.

A birthday party was going on at a nearby home in the midst of the stand-off with a dozen helium balloons and a cake being passed up along the road by the cordoned off area.

By about 6pm last night, An Garda Siochana seemed to escalate their efforts to negotiate with the man and ladders were seen being brought from one of their vans towards the property.

At 8pm a firework went off in the area, which locals thought was a gunshot at first.

It is understood the situation was resolved by midnight.

Digital DeskBy Liam Heylin

A woman was prosecuted for wilful neglect of her two children by hoarding so much rubbish in her council house that it resulted in a massive infestation of mice.

Garda Grainne McCarthy who investigated the case said the gardai were asked by local authority officials to go to the house in Cork city because of complaints from neighbours about the build-up of rubbish. There was no response when she knocked at the door. A council worker got in through an open window.

Cork District Court heard further distressing evidence from a number of witnesses. Judge Con OLeary made an order preventing identification of the family.

Garda McCarthy said: When we entered, the overwhelming smell hit me. There were swarms of flies inside the door. I could not see the ground with the amount of rubbish. (The defendant) was present with her two children (both in their early teens).

As I continued walking into the house the mice were jumping out of the floor. There was a scattering of mice everywhere.

"In the toilet there were buckets with urine in there. Everything was completely covered with rubbish and mice.

Garda McCarthy invoked the Child Care Act to remove the children from the house for their own health and safety. As well as a distressing physical description of one of the children, Garda McCarthy said they were very distressed.

I returned to the house to take photos. I could not stay for too long. I could not go upstairs for my own safety, the infestation with mice was so bad. I actually stood on a mouse, she said.

Sergeant John Dwyer who was also present said it was the worst conditions of human habitation he had witnessed in 20 years with An Garda Siochana.

After the evidence and examining the photographs Judge Con OLeary said he had presided over cases where social workers removed children in similar circumstances before but that yesterdays case which dated from an inspection on July 12, 2016 was the worst of its kind he had ever encountered in his time on the bench.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to charges of wilful neglect of each child. She told her barrister, Nikki OSullivan, the rubbish had built up over the previous few weeks and that they were not living there at that time but just returned to collect something that day before the guards arrived. Judge OLeary said what he had seen had clearly built up over at least six to 12 months.

Inspector Ronan Kennelly described the scene in the house as one of carnage and said the woman should have taken steps to ensure the health and safety of the children. The defendant said she had spent 300 to 400 on traps, vermin poison and air fresheners.

The principal of the school could not believe that the two children had such home circumstances when the matter was raised in an extensive investigation by the TUSLA which required a number of social workers.

The defendant said the social workers had closed their file and that her children were living with her in another house which was clean and tidy and they were doing very well in school and in a wide range of extra-curricular activities.

Judge OLeary convicted her on two counts of wilful neglect. She had no previous convictions of any kind. The charge carries a 1500 maximum fine and/or a maximum of 12 months in prison.

One expert now working with the defendant in a supportive capacity testified, She was overwhelmed, socially isolated and had very little support. She suffered from something called hoarding. She was storing stuff in the house that had no monetary value. She accepts she has a problem with hoarding. It is a cause of extreme anxiety when she has to part with anything, even something of no value. It is associated with depression and an obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Judge OLeary said he did not want to finalise it immediately in case the defendant would resort to old patterns of behaviour in the new council accommodation. The judge required reports from her doctor, a psychologist, a psychiatrist and the probation service before sentencing on November 22.

The woman asked during the case if her children could be heard by the judge or even if he could get a glimpse of them to show how well they were doing. Judge OLeary said he did not need to see them as the issue was how they were on the date in July 2016.

This story was amended on October 18, 2018The National Milk Agency has issued a fresh warning over Brexit, claiming it was advisable to prepare for a worst-case scenario.

In the foreword to the 2017 NMA annual report, chairman, Denis Murphy, said that while the domestic market is the destination for 10% of milk supplies, the UK was the market for 24% of dairy export sales, amounting to 965m, which increased by 15%.

Half of Irelands cheese exports and a quarter of Irelands butter exports, equivalent to almost one-third of domestic annual milk supplies, were exported to the UK, he said.

This is one measure of the potential, disruptive impact of a hard Brexit for the Irish dairy sector and for the Irish State.

Irish dairy exports hit a record high last year, increasing to 4bn, with dairy and ingredients exports representing 32% of all Irish food and drink exports.

According to the report: There still remains a high, political downside risk that the UK may exit the EU without a trade agreement being put in place and the possibility of Irish food exports to the UK encountering import tariffs, as well as lower market prices, while Irish food imports from the UK will be subject to EU tariffs.

No member state of the EU is as exposed to the adverse consequences of the UKs Brexit decision as the Irish State and no sector within the State will be as impacted as much as agriculture  Irelands largest indigenous sector.

For Irish processors and producers, the approach must be to hope for the best, but prepare for a worst-case outcome, by diversifying products and markets and focusing on cost-reduction and efficiencies.

Domestic milk supplies to creameries and pasteurisers increased by 9% last year. National consumption here of fresh liquid milk fell by nine million litres, or 2%, on 2016, but the Irish still have the highest per-capita consumption of fresh drinking milk in the world, with an annual 121 litres per person, per annum.By Joe Leogue

No cost-benefit analysis was carried out before Corks two local authorities committed over 250,000 to a marketing campaign for the county.

On Saturday the Irish Examiner revealed the We are Cork branding exercise and an economic marketing strategy for the region has cost 290,305.10.

Cork City Council will provide 139,407.34 of this, while the countys local authority will pay 115,897.78, with the rest paid by other stakeholders.

The level of expense and the We are Cork logos similarity to existing brands has drawn criticism.

Pat Ledwidge, the deputy chief executive of Cork City Council, yesterday revealed that no cost-benefit analysis on the campaign was conducted prior to its approval.

We havent done a formal cost-benefit analysis, we will do a formal analysis post the project, when we see how it has worked out, Mr Ledwidge told PJ Coogan on 96FMs Opinion Line programme.

The genesis of this project was identified as necessary as far back as 2000 in the original Cork Area Strategic Plan and we started to work on it about six years ago when the city council, county council, and Cork Chamber decided it was time to move on this, he said.

We chose to do it as a group project rather than an individual project because we felt it was important to have all the stakeholders in the city and county working together.

Mr Ledwidge said while it would have been simpler and cheaper for the councils to take on the campaign themselves, they lack the in-house expertise required for such an undertaking.

He said the options available were to produce the campaign in-house, establish a special purpose vehicle via a separate company that would oversee the initiative, or engage with consultants.

Meanwhile, Cork Chamber moved to defend the initiative.

Our latest Quarterly Economic Survey to business members resoundingly supports the need to grow international awareness of Cork, highlighting this as one of our top priorities, chamber chief executive Conor Healy said in a statement yesterday.

In an increasingly competitive international environment, the do nothing approach is not an option for any ambitious city region.

We need to tell our story of energy, ambition, determination, and enterprise and We Are Cork is an integral part of that storytelling, said Mr Healy.By Elaine Loughlin and Daniel McConnell

Presidential candidate and businessman Peter Casey has refused to back down from controversial remarks made about the Travelling Community. The matter dominated the agenda yesterday and was a key point of dispute as all six candidates squared off on Virgin Media Televisions debate last night, hosted by Pat Kenny.

Controversy arose after Mr Casey had claimed that Travellers are basically people camping in other peoples land, that house prices drop in areas where they settle and that they are not paying their fair share of taxes in society.

Asked about his comments Mr Casey said: I am the only candidate who says what he believes, there is far too much political correctness in this society today.

However, he admitted that he sometimes regrets his comments. He blamed Pavee Point, the group representing the Travelling Community for poorly representing a group of Travellers who refused to move into a development in Tipperary until they received commitments around having land to hold horses on.

They let down the Travelling community. They should have gone down there and said you are not looking good here and they should have represented the Travelling community.

He claimed he had spoken to some councillors in Tipperary who said they were essentially being blackmailed into giving them stables and they wanted an acre of land per house.

This claim had been vehemently denied by Pavee Point earlier in the day who said the families were looking for land to rent to keep their horses on.

Mr Casey told RTE news it is wrong to encourage ethnic groups to feel they are different. They are encouraged to think that they are different, they are not. They should think and act as Irish people, not necessarily as different to everyone else, then their children end up thinking that they are different and its harder for their children to fit into society.

Martin Collins, co-director of the Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre, said: Our president needs to be inclusive of all citizens and I would not have any confidence that he would be inclusive.

These comments put Mr Caseys presidential campaign on the same level as a local election where people play the Nimby (not-in-my- backyard) card to gain votes, as we have seen so often in the past.

Mr Collins urged him to withdraw and added: In the unlikely event that Mr Casey was elected as President it is obvious Travellers would not be welcome at Aras an Uachtarain, which is sad in the light of the new era of recognition and inclusion in Ireland.

Incumbent Michael D Higgins is favourite to win the race for the presidency when the country goes to the polls in just over a week. He told RTE that Travellers comprised an ethnic minority which experienced discrimination, adding: I find these views appalling.That's it from the Virgin Media One presidential debate.

The polls open on Friday, October 26 when you will get to have your say on who you think should be the next president of Ireland.

Update: A question was posed by an audience member about the cost of the election.

Gavin Duffy said: "I would say to people watching, it's bizarre that three of us have come from one TV programme, I apologise.

"I believe there are really big issues facing Ireland, I felt I had something to contribute, and I've put myself forward, that's democracy."

Liadh Ni Riada acknowledged that without Sinn Fein there may not have been an election.

"It is about upholding democracy, this is about the future, I'm an MEP already and I had to give this a huge amount of thought," she said.

"There was no question about it, Sinn Fein would always field a candidate."

Michael D Higgins said: "Democracy is important.

"I believe I have the experience and the authenticity of values I have represented all my life."

Freeman claims she is only 'independent' candidate in race

Update: Liadh Ni Riada has said she would separate her party beliefs from her presidential duties.

"I'm proud to be nominated by Sinn Fein but this is about being a president for everybody and that inclusivity.

"There's no denying it, I'm a Sinn Fein candidate, but I would be a president for everyone."

Joan Freeman has said she is the only independent candidate in the race.

"We're not looking at the real thing, to run for this campaign you have to be a millionaire or aligned to a party."

Casey would donate salary to charity chosen by county councils

Update: Peter Casey has announced he would donate his presidential salary by month to a different charity chosen by county councils.

Liadh Ni Riada said: "I think the salary should be halved. The president should lead by example."

Sean Gallagher said: "The issue for me is about the expenses, that these expenses have not been audited for four years, if that was any other government department, heads would roll."

Joan Freeman said she would accept the entire salary to funnel it to volunteers as awards from her own pocket.

Michael D Higgins said: "I've never accepted the full salary, I took a reduction of 23.6%.

"I don't draw my ministerial pension, I'm perfectly happy to accept any salary that the Government suggest.

"About the 317,000 you ask about, I have no problem appointing an independent audit.

"It would be entirely wrong to personalise or politicise this."

Mr Higgins has called the charges levelled at him by Peter Casey "a fantasy list".

Questions turn to housing crisis as candidates reveal they are all landlords

Heated debate so far on a range of issues, including housing, presidential expenses and water charges. Much more to come after the break on Virgin Media One. #PKDebate Who do you feel is winning so far? #Aras18  Virgin Media Television (@VirginMedia_TV) October 17, 2018

Update: Asked about the housing crisis, President Higgins, Sean Gallagher and Gavin Duffy admitted they are all landlords.

Peter Casey said: "The president is the influencer in chief. You can only influence as president."

Joan Freeman said: "Homelessness has many different levels. We have children, 280% increase in child homelessness, and students trying to get accommodation. That is up to the government. It is the president's duty and role to inspire new initiatives to help that."

Mr Gallagher said: "The president can remind the government that they must work together to address the greatest crisis of our time."

Mr Higgins said: "I have raised the issue of homelessness many times.

"It's an important debate we need to have about the role of the state and the role of the private sector.

"The issue isn't about getting on the property ladder, it's about shelter and security in housing."

The three businessmen admitted they supported water charges.

Gavin Duffy chastises Pat Kenny over hunting questions

Update: Gavin Duffy admitted he used to hunt as he grew up in the countryside, before chastising presenter Pat Kenny.

He said: "I want to say we have to be careful how we're disqualifying people about going into public life.

"To say Joan can't be a president for all people because she voted no in Repeal the 8th, considering the work she has done, is wrong."

Ni Riada questioned about 'ambivalence to violence' about comments on IRA atrocities

Update: Liadh Ni Riada was asked about her "ambivalence to violence" in regard to past comments about IRA atrocities.

She said: "I think any atrocity like that (Enniskillen bombing) should be condemned, but look, the IRA have been gone the last 20 years, we have a peace process in place, we should be cementing that.

"Would you call Nelson Mandela a terrorist?"

Managing Director of Virgin Media Television Pat Kiely, MEP Liadh Ni Riada and Director of Programming at Virgin Media Television Bill Malone pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy

Freeman accused of being out of step with public over No vote in abortion referendum

Update: Joan Freeman, who voted No in the Repeal the 8th referendum, has been accused of being out of step with the majority of the public who voted to repeal Ireland's abortion laws.

She said: "I don't think the Irish people are as judgmental as you have just been, Pat (Kenny).

"I reflect what Ireland is, this is what makes us democratic, we're able to discuss and debate.

"It was my personal conviction, that has nothing to do with my public duty."

Freeman brands Higgins and Gallagher 'arrogant' for debate no show

Update: Joan Freeman said the decision of Sean Gallagher and Michael D Higgins to not show up to the last TV debate was arrogant and offensive.

Mr Higgins said he undertook to do as much as he could in terms of media, including TV, radio and print but is constrained by his role as president.

"To talk about not turning up, I've been turning up since 1969."

Mr Higgins said he changed his mind after he said he would only run for one term.

"It's very important to know the role, and the extent of the role," he said.

Peter Casey refuses to back down over traveller comments

Update: The first televised Irish presidential debate with all six candidates has begun with a question asking each candidate whether they would be a one or two-term candidate.

Joan Freeman, Liadh Ni Riada, Gavin Duffy and Sean Gallagher all said they would only be one-term presidents.

Peter Casey said he would serve his term, and would again go for nominations from county councils for a second term.

Mr Casey was asked by presenter Pat Kenny about his controversial comments on Wednesday, when he said Irish Travellers were "camping" on other people's land.

Peter Casey pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy

"We have so many wonderful nationalities here, it's wrong to single out one particular ethnic group differently," he said.

"One of the county councils who endorsed me was Tipperary, and as you know we have a housing crisis at the moment.

"When I was down there, there was 1.7m spent building six houses that the travelling community wouldn't move into because they wanted sheds and two stables and one acre of land.

"Why should they be given the right to turn down a house? I think that is wrong."

President Michael D Higgins has highlighted that Traveller men have 11 years' less life expectancy than other males, and are six times more likely to commit suicide.

Kenny asked candidates if they would like Traveller people to live next door to them.

President Michael D Higgins pictured tonight as Presidential candidates arrived at Virgin Media Television Studios in Dublin for Virgin Media Television's Presidential Debate with Pat Kenny. Picture: Brian McEvoy

Mr Higgins said: "Yes, I have a halting site a couple of hundred yards from my house and they are wonderful people."

Mr Casey interrupted and suggested that Mr Higgins objected to a halting site near his home in 1968.

Mr Higgins said that was inaccurate.

"I have never objected to a halting site. I was an elected representative on Galway city and county council and I often took a stand, unpopularly, on the rights of Travelling people to be offered housing," he said.

Mr Casey accused his fellow nominees of lying about their feelings towards Travellers, and said: "It's like giving chocolate to a diabetic, you're not helping them."

Mr Gallagher replied: "That's a racist comment Peter."

Presidential candidates go head to head in live debate

Earlier: The six candidates seeking election to the presidency are taking part in a live TV debate.

The debate will be hosted by Pat Kenny and went live at 10pm on Virgin Media One.

This is the second debate this week after President Higgins and Sean Gallagher sat out of Monday's debate on Claire Byrne Live on RTE.

According to Virgin Media, the candidates will field questions from Kenny as well as members of the live studio audience.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Pat Kenny said: "It's very exciting to be hosting the first TV debate with all candidates in front of our audience.

"Its a great opportunity for viewers to see them all in action and for them to put forward their vision for their presidency and convince us why they are the best candidate.

"Polls are just polls and nothing is a given until the votes are cast."

Mr Kenny hosted the infamous Frontline debate ahead of the 2011 debate where a tweet that came from a 'fake' account was blamed for derailing Gallagher's hopes of winning the election.

With just over a week to go until the country heads to the polls, join Pat Kenny and our live studio audience for the first televised debate with all six candidates.

Pat Kenny's Big Debate: Presidential Election Special, tonight at 10pm on Virgin Media One. #PKDebate pic.twitter.com/WIvV7VxbmD  Virgin Media Television (@VirginMedia_TV) October 17, 2018

Meanwhile, President Higgins looks on course to be re-elected as President for the next seven years according to the latest opinion polls.

Today's Irish Times/MRBI figures show the current president has a commanding 66% lead, with Sean Gallagher his nearest rival on 12%.

Liadh Ni Riada is just behind Sean Gallagher on 11%, while Joan Freeman has 5% support, Gavin Duffy is on 4% and Peter Casey has 2%.The police identified the slain militants as Merajuddin Bungroo and Faid Mushtaq Waza, residents of Fatah Kadal and neighbouring Khanyar.

The police claimed one of the militants who hurled grenade at the police naka party at Pattan was arrested after a long chase.

Srinagar: Several parts of J&Ks summer capital Srinagar erupted Wednesday after the killing of two Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants and a civilian in a gunbattle in the citys Fatah Kadal area earlier at dawn. A policeman was also killed in the clash.

The police said the role of the civilian killed with the militants is being investigated. A police spokesman said: The complicity of Rayees Ahmad, who was part of the group in providing shelter and logistics to the militants, is being investigated.

Earlier J&K director-general of police Dilbagh Singh and Srinagar SSP Imtiyaz Ismael had claimed three LeT militants were killed in the firefight which started overnight after the J&K polices counter-insurgency Special Operations Group and CRPF personnel began a cordon-and-search operation at Syed Ali Akbar in Fatah Kadal on specific inputs about the presence of militants in a private house.

The DGP said that during the operation civilians were evacuated but while the operation was on the militants opened indiscriminate fire from inside the house, killing SOG jawan Kamal Kishore and injuring two others belonging to the J&K police and the CRPF.

The police identified the slain militants as Merajuddin Bungroo and Faid Mushtaq Waza, residents of Fatah Kadal and neighbouring Khanyar. The police chief said Bungroo, a top Lashkar militant, was involved in a number of terror attacks, including killings and weapon-snatching. He was a big threat to peace, particularly in Srinagar, Mr Singh said. Waza, 18, had joined the militants ranks in March this year and was involved in several incidents, he added.

A police spokesman said the militants were offered a chance to come out of the house and surrender, but instead they opened fire at the security forces, setting off the gunbattle. A report said the owner of the house suffered cardiac arrest during the fighting.

A police statement said the complicity of the third youth, Ahmad, is being probed. It said incriminating materials, including arms and ammunition, had been recovered from the encounter site.

Soon after the encounter, irate crowds clashed with the security forces in various parts of Srinagar. The riot police and Central forces fired teargas shells and used pellet shotguns to quell stone-throwing mobs in several places, witnesses said.

Amid the heightening tension, the authorities closed schools and colleges across Srinagar and suspended Internet services as a precautionary measure.

Earlier, around 20 reporters and photographers were beaten by policemen as they were covering the Fatah Kadal encounterevoking widespread protests and condemnation by journalists bodies. The Kashmir Editors Guild said the gunfight was already over and the attack on reporters and videographers took place as the house the militants were killed in was on fire. At the time of the illegal police attack on media, there was no gunbattle, no protest and the only activity was firefighters extinguishing the fire. The guild alleged the police action suggested that the counter-insurgency establishment wishes to frighten the media and stop this institution from covering anything which the grid dislikes.

A deputy superintendent of police, Zaffar Ahmed, and two other policemen were injured as militants hurled a grenade at a naka party in Pattan area of Baramulla on Wednesday afternoon. In another incident, suspected militants attacked an Army camp in Rafiabad. But the grenade tossed at a camp of the Armys 32 Rashtriya Rifles in Rafiabads Trakpora village exploded outside the premises without causing any casualties, the police said.

The police claimed one of the militants who hurled grenade at the police naka party at Pattan was arrested after a long chase. A police statement said a naka party was deployed at Baba Teng Pattan after credible inputs about the movement of militants on the Baramulla-Srinagar highway. During checking, while a passenger vehicle was signalled to stop, militants boarding the vehicle lobbed a hand grenade at the police party. In this incident one police officer, Dy SP Zaffar Mehdi, and two other policemen, Shabir Ahmad and Ashiq Hussain, sustained injuries and were evacuated to hospital. They are stable now, the statement said.By Niall Murray

TDs and senators past and present will mark the centenary of the first meeting of Dail Eireann next January in the same room where it took place.

An international broadcast is planned of the centrepiece of the Dails centenary. All members of the parliament are likely to attend, unlike the first meeting held on January 21, 1919.

The first Dail was formed by Sinn Fein representatives elected in the December 1918 general election. But only 27 of the 69 Sinn Fein members were able to attend its first meeting at Dublins Mansion House

on January 21, 1919.

Most of the others were declared to be imprisoned by the foreigner when the proceedings entirely in Irish commenced with a roll call, as they remained in English jails as a result of the British governments manufactured German plot of 1918.

On Monday, January 21, 2019, the scene will be replicated at the Round Room of the Mansion House in front of a global TV audience. The Oireachtas plans to convene all members of the current Dail and Seanad, as well as former members, and the judiciary for what is described as a celebration of 100 years of Irish democracy.

The Dails first meeting, chaired by Cathal Brugha, was attended by the international press as the parliament issued a message to the free nations of the world whose ranks the assembly wanted Ireland to join. A Declaration of Independence, reiterating many aspects of the Easter 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, was read in Irish, English and French to the assembled international reporters and cameras.

The centenary event will feature international representatives and will be aired live on RTE with a world feed available to international broadcasters. It will also be shown live on the Oireachtas TV feed, according to details for parties interested in tendering for the outside broadcast facilities.

These special proceedings will feature speeches from noted dignitaries, music from noted musicians, archive montages from the past century of Irish politics and a recommitment from all political parties to the ideals of our Republic, said the tender document from the Houses of the Oireachtas service.

The Round Room will host a series of TedX talks by second-level students about aspects of our democracy the next day, for later broadcast on Oireachtas TV.

Most members of the first Dail had been participants in the Easter Rising, or were long-serving nationalists. Among them were Irish Volunteers founder Eoin MacNeill, JJ Walsh and Sean Hayes (the first two TDs for Cork city and West Cork, respectively), Richard Mulcahy (future IRA Chief of Staff and Defence Minister) and future president of Ireland Sean T OKelly. The imprisoned members included Eamon de Valera, Arthur Griffith, Terence MacSwiney and WT Cosgrave, but the majority were in attendance for the third meeting which took place on April 1, 1919.By Niall Murray

Teacher shortages are creating an unfair divide as students whose families can afford to are paying for grinds, a principals leader has claimed.

National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) president Mary Keane said the situation around lack of suitably qualified staff to teach some subjects remains a concern, despite promises in last weeks budget for increased teacher posts.

Ahead of new Education Minister Joe McHughs attendance at NAPDs annual conference tomorrow, Ms Keane said teaching supply is the biggest crisis facing second-level schools.

It is hugely important that we have fully trained high-calibre teachers in our classrooms. As we embark on yet another school year, the lack of suitably qualified teachers is still a troubling concern with many schools opening without a full complement of staff this year, she said.

NAPD says there are particular problems getting teachers for languages, home economics, and subjects in the science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) disciplines, and Irish-language schools have severe difficulties.

Ms Keane said the crisis is also creating a socio-economic divide in many schools.

With substitute teachers or fully qualified teachers in a number of key subjects impossible to find, parents who are in a fortunate position to be able to do so are supplementing their childrens education with grind schools, she said.

This is creating an unfair divide between haves and have-nots which undermines the value of our public education system.

She said it is disappointing that there is no representation from the primary or second-level sectors on a Department of Education working group set up last year in response to the Teaching Councils December 2015 report on teacher supply.

Ms Keane said there are also concerns in schools about the timetabling of classroom-based assessments under the revised junior cycle arrangements. She said many students are abandoning extra-curricular activities to complete them and the system is putting a significant burden on teachers, students, and parents.An ambulance service that is heavily reliant on overtime faces significant disruption next month if up to 600 personnel go ahead with a threat not to work outside rostered hours.

The threat has arisen on foot of refusal by the HSE to process the union subscriptions of staff who used to be members of Siptu, but who now belong to the National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA), an affiliate of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA).

The PNA/NASRA has written to the HSE advising that members will not make themselves available for overtime from 7am on November 7.

A union spokesman said it could affect the delivery of services.

The ambulance service is heavily reliant on overtime and, without that goodwill and co-operation, it will raise pressure on the service, he said.

The spokesman said it did not make sense for the HSE to get involved in what effectively seems to be an inter-union dispute and that it appears to be trying to dictate what organisation paramedics can belong to.

He said the HSE had been processing union subscriptions for NASRA members for seven years up to last November and NASRA had represented members at various industrial relations forums in which the HSE had taken part.

The HSE stopped processing NASRA subscriptions on the grounds that Siptu is the only union with negotiating rights to the ambulance grade. It does collect subscriptions through automated deductions for other unions, including Siptu.

The HSE failed to respond yesterday when asked if it had any plans to address the issue of union subscriptions or to recognise the PNA/NASRA as having negotiating rights.

Last week, PNA/NASRA members commenced a campaign of industrial action involving a refusal to work with vehicles that did not comply fully with regulations.

In July, plans by some ambulance personnel to stage industrial action were withdrawn after the HSE threatened to take legal action.Rita ODriscoll, who is charged with the murder of her partner, has asked that she not be moved while in custody, claiming she feels safe in Limerick Prison.

Ms ODriscoll was charged last week with the murder of Timothy Foley at 12 Dan Corkery Place, Macroom, Co Cork.

The 46-year-old, with an address at 16 Bridge St in Bandon, had been remanded in custody until yesterday, when she appeared again at Macroom District Court.

At last weeks court appearance, Ms ODriscoll, a mother-of-two, said via her solicitor Pat Horan that she would be pleading not guilty at the appropriate time. The court heard on that occasion that when she was first charged, she replied: I did not kill my husband. I stabbed him twice, not 28 times.

Yesterday, Mr Horan again addressed the court on behalf of his client, telling Judge James McNulty that he had met her last Monday in Limerick Prison.

Mr Horan told the court Ms ODriscoll was very complimentary of the entire prison service in Limerick and that she knew everyone from the governor on down had helped her enormously since she moved there last week.

Mr Horan said Ms ODriscoll was asking not to be moved from Limerick, as she was finally getting the support and stability she needs.

The solicitor also said that, during his meeting with Ms ODriscoll last Monday, she wished to instruct the court that she has no plans to seek bail as, for the first time in 20 years, she feels safe and secure, albeit in prison.

Mr Horan said Ms ODriscolls faith was very important to her and that she had been seeing the prison chaplain and a Sr Bernard every day.

Continuing to convey his clients words to the court, Mr Horan said Ms ODriscoll was suffering gravely at present and, in a phone contact on Tuesday, indicated that she was reliving past instances of what could only be described as brutal physical and sexual violence.

He said she had attempted to deal with these issues over the last few years and had been diagnosed with battered-woman syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Mr Horan said he had spoken to the counselling service that his client had worked with previously and they had recommended that a report from a clinical psychologist specialising in PTSD would be appropriate.

He asked that legal aid be extended in the circumstances to bring about that clinical psychologist report, given the exceptional nature of the case.

Judge McNulty granted that request and adjourned the matter. Ms ODriscoll was remanded in custody until November 7, when she will appear again before the court in Macroom.By Des ODriscoll

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY

A rare privilege for the festival to open with a Cork film. Carmel Winters tale of a young Traveller girl who wants to be a boxer was largely filmed near her home in West Cork. It has already picked up a prestigious prize in Toronto, and the director herself will be present.

THE FAVOURITE

After their success on The Lobster and The Killing Of The Sacred Deer, Irish producer Ed Guiney and Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos have again teamed up for a tale of Queen Anne in 18th-century England. A star-studded cast includes Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Mark Gatiss.

THE OLD MAN & THE GUN

Robert Redford, 82, has announced that this will be his final film role. He plays the real-life criminal Forrest Tucker, famous for escaping from American prisons. Here we see his run from San Quentin and the string of heists that followed. Other familiar faces in the cast include Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, and Tom Waits.

SHOPLIFTERS (MANBIKI KAZOKU)

The Japanese title translates as shoplifting family, and its story of a group of people who break the law to survive their impoverished existence charmed all round en route to winning the Palme dOr at Cannes.

CAPERNAUM

Another biggie at Cannes, this Jury Prize-winner will close the Cork festival. Directed by Lebanese actress/filmmaker Nadine Labaki, its moving tale revolves around a young boy in Beirut who rails against his miserable life.

THE DIG

Moe Dunford must be the busiest actor in Ireland at the moment, and in this film from Ryan and Andrew Tohill he plays a man who returns to his abandoned family farm having served 15 years for murder.

NOSFERATU

St Fin Barres Cathedral is the perfect setting for a screening of the classic silent horror from 1922. The eerie atmosphere will be turned up to 11 courtesy of a score from Cork composers Irene and Linda Buckley, played live on the night.

THE CURIOUS WORKS OF ROGER DOYLE

A homage to the Godfather of Irish Electronica, and the 70-year-old composer will also be in attendance for the screening in Triskel. A strong strand for the musically-inclined also includes Blue Note, about the ultimate jazz label; Rudeboy, the story of the Trojan label that brought great Jamaican music to this side of the Atlantic.

THE TOWER

Powerful animated film about an 11-year-old Palestinian refugee living with her family in Lebanon. She learns her history from her great-grandfather who recalls their family being expelled from their homeland during the creation of Israel in 1948. For children 10+. Other screenings for children include 1971 Disney film Bedkobs and Broomsticks; and Irish animation The Overcoat, which will have the filmmakers in attendance for a behind-the-scenes look at how it was made.

VERTIGO

The Hitchcock classic from 1958 which starred Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak is well worth a look on the big screen. Weve also been hearing great things about The Green Fog, a modern remake of Vertigo created from archive footage of film and TV. Other golden oldies at the festival include 9 to 5, starring Dolly Parton, and Being There, from 1979.

Cork Film Festival, November 9-18

In the Kitchen with

Video Series



Join Derval O'Rourke in her kitchen as she whips up the curry she makes every single week. She'll show us why she reaches for her cheap-as-chips handblender above all other gadgets and how important it is to have her fridge stocked with real butter and lots of yoghurt.



Join Derval O'Rourke in her kitchen as she whips up the curry she makes every single week.

Four female entrepreneurs share the secret of their success to mark National Womens Enterprise Day, which aims to help women in business to take their ideas global, writes Helen OCallaghan

National Womens Enterprise Day 2018 takes place today  just one day, but with 16 major female entrepreneurial events planned. This programme of events  themed from local to global  has been organised by Local Enterprise Offices (LEO). The aim: to inspire and educate the next generation of female business leaders to take their local ideas and make them a global success. Its expected over 1,000 female entrepreneurs and women in business will attend countrywide. (See www.localenterprise.ie).

To mark the day, we talk to four successful women entrepreneurs:

Joan Walsh Partnership International

Joan Walsh

On a year-long Erasmus programme in France in 2002, Cork woman Joan Walsh met husband Paul Crean and got the idea for award-winning business Partnership International.

An international business degree student at the time, Joan grappled firsthand with the challenges of living abroad: finding accommodation, negotiating a lease with a landlord, finding part-time work, learning the language and having a social life.

Shed always learned from an action-oriented mother to crack on, be a solution-finder.

Four months in, Id sorted myself out and was helping others negotiate similar challenges.

She graduated, worked some years in language schools and then struck out on her own. I took Ryanair flights all over Europe. I stayed in hostels. I visited schools with Erasmus programmes. Would they like to send their students to Ireland? I could take care of them. Joan was selling a company that didnt yet fully exist but she knew the needs. One Irish teacher in an Italian university gave me 15 students to take care of while doing their programme in Cork  that was the beginning of Partnership International.

Today, the companys a one-stop shop for groups/individuals (mostly 18 to 24-year-olds) moving to a new country for work, study or travel. We look after them from arrival to departure. They could be here anything from four weeks to three months. We book their accommodation and language course. We work with host companies where they do traineeships. We assist them with tours, social activities and welfare. We offer 24-hour support. Theres always the student who loses their passport or needs a doctor. We do full orientation programmes pre-arrival  language kits, guidelines for safety in a new city, budget management, how to live with other international students, whats expected of them.

Partnership International started in Cork in 2009 and now operates in Kerry, Dublin and London. An office in Spain opened this year. We deal with 3,000 students minimum a year across the locations. I love the helping-people element. Meeting different nationalities of young people, all starting out in their career, living in a new country, encountering new challenges  its exciting to see.

Sharon McDermott, Ky Ky Kids

Sharon McDermott

It started by accident. A single mum living in Turkey eight years ago, Sharon couldnt find cotton sheets for newborn son Kayas cot. I sourced material and had sheets tailor-made. I started making duvets just for Kayas cot. Friends liked them so I started making them as gifts.

With a career background in travel, Sharon returned to Ireland four years ago, knowing she needed to work. Id found 100% cotton bedding for cots in Turkey. I started manufacturing cotton sheets there, with a plan to import to Ireland.

A visit to LEO in Mallow led her to a 12-week Woman in Business course. By now, I was selling at markets and Christmas fairs, doing pop-up shops wherever possible. That was my market research. Customers started asking for cotton baby gifts  the business took a road of its own, from bedding to baby gifts to realising mums wanted something different in a pretty dress for their daughters.

There was a gap for reasonably-priced occasion wear. They wanted something unique, very pretty and of good quality material.

Ky Ky Kids collection of smart casual and occasion wear mainly for girls, aged six months to six years, is manufactured in Turkey and

imported to Ireland. Social media has made the world very visual. Mums dress up a lot and they want their little girls dressed too. It could be for Granddads birthday, Sunday lunch  all the way up to a wedding.

Sharons biggest challenge has been cash-flow as clothing collections are seasonal. I have waves in the year when its very busy and I have plenty of cash coming in. Then there are quiet times: in summer when mums have gone on holidays, Holy Communion is over and Im waiting for the new collection to come in. Theres a lot of expense preparing for the autumn/winter season.

Her biggest achievement was starting the business. Getting it off the ground was a huge challenge but the best thing I ever did. She urges women starting/growing a business to believe in it. You have to feel it at a gut level, to love it. More practically, you must get the foundations right  the figures must add up. Then face your fear and do it.

Michelle Keane, Mibeau Interiors

As an independent 16-year-old with a relentless passion for design, Michelle got the opportunity to design a family friends kitchen. The modest commission kick-started a journey that culminated in setting up Mibeau Interiors. The Kerry-based company provides consultancy services for clients for both the domestic and contract market. It designs, sources and fits out anything from tired old sitting rooms to complete hotel refurbishment.

Between that teenage commission and setting up her own business in 2000  when the Celtic tiger was just beginning to roar and I was ready to go  mother-of-two Michelle was awarded a post-graduate scholarship from Scottish College of Textiles, Galashields. She was a finalist in the Smirnoff Young Designer of the year Award 1994.

In December 2016, she received a 5,000 Trading Online Voucher from her local LEO office, allowing her set up her online presence at www.mibeauinteriors.com. Four months later, I signed a licence agreement for Ralph Lauren Home as their only online presence in Ireland.

In September 2017, Enterprise Ireland awarded her the New Frontier Scholarship Programme. The really valuable thing about this is the mentoring support from Enterprise Ireland. From a list of 10 highly successful mentors, you choose one and get five mentoring sessions.

A big challenge has been working in whats often a male-dominated arena. Working on commercial projects, Im dealing with architects, builders, project owners. Its a particularly male-dominated industry. You have to be strong, stick to your guns and at meetings, reinforce your ideas a few times to get them over the line.

She advises would-be entrepreneurs to know the target market, perfect the business model, seek help from LEO and Enterprise Ireland  and to listen, digest and communicate with mentors/salespeople/suppliers. She admits to working crazy hours. Her day begins at 5am in her back-of-home studio. At 7.30am, I help get the kids up for school. Im married to a fantastic rock of support, Keith Darcy  I couldnt do it without him.

Eleanor McEvoy, Budget Energy

Eleanor McEvoy

Dragons Den star and serial entrepreneur Eleanor McEvoy has successfully set up three businesses  most recently, Budget Energy. No light-bulb moment sparked any of the businesses, she says. They were all based on the same principle: this is something I think has legs, that I think can develop and grow.

The thing about a business is you start off implementing the plan and  like life  circumstances change and how you thought you were going to implement things changes too. If youre a rigid thinker, business will be difficult.

If Im looking for creative people who can adjust to new situations  Im not talking about lawyers or accountants who have to be methodical  but creative people, I ask do you like shopping in TK Maxx? If someone answers: I cant bear the mess, they may not be very good at the chaos of change.

Whereas I like if they say: Oh, I love going in for an hour and a half and rooting around and finding a bargain.

Its important to remember no individual ever successfully built a medium-to-large business on their own  the people around you matter. Recruit slowly. If you have the wrong people, change them quickly. If you have the right people, give them the respect and responsibility to deliver. Ive had situations where Ive put the right person in the wrong role  put them in a different role and they flourish.

I think were finally embracing emotional intelligence as a skill  the ability to relate and get on with others, the likeability factor. These skills you need when relating to customers or to your own team, when youre selling them the dream of what youre trying to achieve.

To be credible [as a business owner/manager], the responsibility is always yours  you have to wear that. When things go right in your organisation, you praise the others; when things go wrong, you step up to the plate. Its the only way to be credible.

Eleanors delighted to be involved in National Womens Enterprise Day. I love addressing women. I succeed if people in the room take away something.A total of 18 assembly seats will go to polls in the first phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on November 12.

Congress on Thursday released its first list of 12 candidates for the first phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on November 12. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday released its first list of 12 candidates for the first phase of assembly elections in Chhattisgarh on November 12.

AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, in a statement, announced the candidates for seats in southern Chhattisgarh, which is infested by Naxals.

Among the candidates fielded by the party are Devati Karma from Dantewada-ST seat, Lakheshwar Baghel from Bastar-ST seat and Shishu Pal Sori from Kanker-ST. The party also decided that its leader Rekhchand Jain will contest from Jagdalpur assembly seat. These seats are highly sensitive and affected by Naxal violence.

A total of 18 assembly seats will go to polls in the first phase of polling on November 12. The second phase of polling for the remaining seats 72 will be held on November 20 and results will be out on December 11.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)By Diarmaid Condon

CBRE has just announced the sale by private treaty, of Building 2600 at Cork Airport Business Park.

This is described as a prime office investment, currently let to Clearstream Global Services Limited under a 25-year FRI lease finishing in March 2024 (circa 5.5 years remaining).

Subject to upward only rent reviews, it has a yearly rent of 637,500. There is a parent guarantee from Clearstream International S.A. It is described by Brian Edwards, of CBRE Cork, as a great opportunity to acquire a modern, recently completely renovated, two storey office building in one of Corks most successful office parks.

The guide price of 7.5m would equate to a net initial yield of 7.84%, after deducting standard purchasers costs. Cork Airport Business Park is one of the citys most high-profile suburban office locations. It has excellent access to Cork city centre.

Edwards says that units in this park are highly sought-after. He describes it as a superb office location attracting a high calibre of national and international corporations such as Amazon, IBM, BNY Mellon, Logitech, Aon Hewitt, OpenText and Redhat.

Building 2600 is located on a high-profile site at the entrance to the office park. It extends to a gross internal area of approximately 3,805 sq m (40,953 sq ft) and is a modern two storey office building. The property was completely renovated and upgraded in 2015.

It has an access-controlled reception area, open plan offices, private offices, meeting rooms, training rooms, board room, staff restaurant, kitchenettes, communications rooms, shower and changing facilities. There are 162 car parking spaces.

It has consistently been the best performing of the commercial real estate sectors in Cork over the last number of years, says Edwards. Robust office demand, coupled with the lack of development for several years has resulted in rising rents and low vacancy rates. Prime city centre office rents are currently at 350 psm (32.50 per sq ft).

Edwards notes an increasing focus from largescale investors on assets in the Cork market. He sees this as a very welcome broadening of the investor capital base, illustrating the confidence that these buyers have in the citys investment market and its future. He says that these clients are attracted by the excellent investment returns relative to Dublin, with positive prospects for future rental growth and yield compression. Prime office yields currently stand at 5.5%.

Edwards feels that Building 2600 will carry a wide appeal, with interest likely from international and Irish institutional investors along with well-funded private investors.

Further information from 021 491-7254 or www.cbre.ie.Rob Gillies reports from Montreal on the reverberations Canadas decision to legalise could have internationally.

CAM Battley is a top executive at one of Canadas biggest marijuana companies, but he isnt staying put to savour the countrys historic legalisation of pot.

CAM Battley is a top executive at one of Canadas biggest marijuana companies, but he isnt staying put to savour the countrys historic legalisation of pot.

Hes off to Germany today, and Australia next week, which is a sign that Canada has become a leader in the global pot industry, and that its decision to legalise it could have international reverberations.

Its a special moment, not just for Canada, but for the world, because my strong conviction is that the rest of the world will follow suit, said Battley, chief corporate officer at Aurora Cannabis. Were not known as wild and crazy. Were known for good public policy and I think they will follow our lead.

Battley will attend an investor conference in Germany and then head to Australia, which legalised medical marijuana in 2016. Hell meet with a corporate business partner and talk with policymakers in Sydney and Melbourne.

Battleys itinerary is indicative of the internationalisation of the marijuana industry. And with national legalisation taking effect last Wednesday, Canada has emerged as the world leader. Its the second nation  and by far the largest  with countrywide legalisation of so-called recreational pot.

Its deliberate approach, which took more than two years of planning, allows provinces to shape their own laws, within a federal framework, including setting the minimum age and deciding whether to distribute through state-run or private retail outlets. That offers other countries a model somewhere between the more strictly regulated system in Uruguay, the only other country with legal sales, and the more commercial version in some of the nine US states that have approved recreational marijuana.

Canadas federal approval has given its industry a huge advantage over its American counterpart, including unfettered access to banking and to billions of dollars in investment.

Canadians can even order marijuana online and have weed delivered by mail to their door.

Thats made American cannabis entrepreneurs envious, including Derek Peterson, the chief executive of California-based marijuana producer Terra Tech. Peterson took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal this week, urging US president Donald Trump to help ease prohibition and eliminate hurdles for the US pot industry before Canada leaves it even farther behind.

Some in the US Congress have also taken notice, pressing for the federal government to get out of the way of states that want to legalise, but it remains unclear what weight Canadas legalisation might carry south of the border.

It might have a more immediate effect in New Zealand, where the government has promised a legalisation referendum by 2020, said John Walsh of the advocacy group The Washington Office on Latin America. Mexico, the Netherlands, and Italy are among other nations that have been mulling legalisation. To the surprise of many familiar with Amsterdams marijuana cafes, Holland has only very limited legalisation.

This is the genie out of the bottle, Walsh said.

Because of Canadas reputation for being fairly careful, for being a good global citizen, and because of the scale of their market, its a more likely example for other countries

Battley said he expects the global recreational market to develop much as the medical market has done. Canada legalised medical marijuana nationally in 2001.

Once you see grandma and uncle Ted using medical cannabis to manage their arthritis pain, suddenly, the substance is not so scary and not so stigmatised, he said. That opens up the space for countries to move forward with consumer legalisation, as well. I think Canada is at the forefront of a global mega-trend.

Many customers celebrating on Wednesday certainly thought so. Festivities erupted throughout the nation of 37m people.The impact of a US-Saudi rift, however remote the possibility, could send shockwaves around the world. Matthew Lee reports from Washington

US president, Donald Trump, put a big and risky bet on Saudi Arabia and its 33-year-old crown prince. Its now become much riskier.

From the early days of his presidency, Trump and his foreign policy team embraced the kingdom and Mohammed bin Salman as the anchors of their Middle East strategy.

From Iran and Iraq to Syria, Yemen, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the administration gambled that Saudi Arabia, effectively run by the prince, could credibly lead, and willingly pay for, a Pax Arabica in a part of the world from which Trump is keen to disengage.

For nearly two years, through an ongoing crisis with Qatar and international outrage over civilian casualties in the Saudi-led campaign against Yemeni rebels, the prince has kept Washingtons confidence. But the tide is turning, amid growing outrage over the disappearance and likely murder of a US-based journalist inside a Saudi consulate in Turkey, and that confidence appears to be waning.

The Trump administrations grand strategy may be upended, with far-reaching ramifications that extend well outside the region.

Even if an investigation into what happened to Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul, exonerates the prince and the top Saudi leadership, the US administrations deep reliance on him will be severely tested, not least because of broad bipartisan revulsion in Congress to as-yet unconfirmed accounts of Khashoggis fate.

Already, prominent lawmakers from both parties are questioning the princes fitness to lead the country and suggesting it might be time to rethink US-Saudi relations and sharply curb arms sales.

Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and other influential politicians, warned of dire consequences this week, saying the prince, known as MBS for short, should be removed from his post.

This guy is a wrecking ball. He had this guy murdered in a consulate in Turkey, and to expect me to ignore it, I feel used and abused, Graham said on Fox and Friends. Saudi Arabia, if youre listening, there are a lot of good people you could choose, but MBS has tainted your country and tainted himself.

Trump foe Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, said the Khashoggi case should trigger a fundamental review of the nature of the United States alliance with the Saudis.

As the new crown prince engages in increasingly reckless behaviour, more and more of us are wondering whether our allys actions are in our own best interests, he wrote in The Washington Post.

And Trump ally Senator Marco Rubio called the situation a catastrophe for the Saudis that will alter the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia for the foreseeable future.

This is a fear weve had for a long time, is that the crown prince is a young and aggressive guy that would overestimate how much room he had to do things, would get over-aggressive and overestimate his own capabilities and create a problem such as this, he said.

He added that the situation was one that would really blow apart our Middle Eastern strategy.

The impact of a US-Saudi rift, however remote the possibility, could send shockwaves around the world, destabilising oil markets and the global investment climate, not to mention dealing a blow to the Trump administrations own plans in the Middle East.

Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has made Saudi Arabia a centrepiece of his yet-to-be-revealed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, which is expected to call for massive Saudi and Gulf Arab contributions to fund reconstruction and development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

Saudi support will also be key to the political elements of the plan. Israel insists that its security be on a par with Palestinian statehood. That means that Israel will likely seek assurances that any deal with the Palestinians be followed by a broader agreement that normalises its relations with the rest of the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia.

In Syria, the administration relied on Saudi Arabia, along with the closely allied United Arab Emirates, to make up for steep cuts in US stabilisation assistance to areas liberated from Islamic militants. Next door in Iraq, the current US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, and his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, have leaned heavily on the Saudis to make large financial pledges for reconstruction of war-shattered communities. But it is the US policy of isolating Iran that may suffer the most from Saudi-US estrangement.

Trump is counting on the Saudis to shore up and complement its Iran policy on several fronts. In Yemen, where the US-backed, Saudi-led coalition is fighting Iran-backed, Houthi Shiite rebel insurgency, the effort to blunt Tehrans increasing assertiveness would be hurt by any reduction in American help.

In Syria, where Saudi stabilisation funds are being used to prevent Iranian proxies from encroaching on communities previously held by the Islamic State group, a reduction in Saudi cooperation would allow Iran a freer hand. The same holds true in Iraq, where Saudi investment is critical to prevent Iran from gaining more of a foothold than it has in the Shia majority state.

The administration has been counting on Saudi Arabia to step in to prevent oil prices from skyrocketing, once it re-imposes energy-related sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew. Those sanctions require countries to halt Iranian oil imports, unless they receive a waiver or else face penalties. Frosty relations with Washington may tempt Riyadh to cut back on any increase in oil supply to make up for the loss of Iranian crude.

Of course, Trumps bet could still pay off, in the event the Khashoggi investigation is found to be credible and those responsible for his fate are held accountable. But with anti-Saudi sentiment running high in the corridors of power, Trump may find that going all in on the prince was a loser.Presidential candidate Peter Casey has enlivened an otherwise comatose, and if the polls are right, pointless, waste-of-time-and-money race for the tenancy of Aras an Uachtarain, by pressing the Defcon 1 button on political correctness.

Though he languishes at the tail of the field, on 2%, while the incumbent, Michael D Higgins, enjoys what seems an unassailable lead, on 64%, Casey has indeed done the idea of free, meaningful debate some service, even if unintentionally  especially as todays mores so often preclude it. Unfortunately, so much of todays political debate, among the adults anyway, is like the bizarre practice indulged at one of those universities where sensitive, snowflake students must be forewarned that the truths they are about to be exposed to might rattle their emotional equilibrium.

It is all-important to recognise that celebration of free speech, even if you disagree strongly with Caseys remarks about Travellers or those who need social housing. Dismissing his remarks as hate speech, counterintuitively, helps advance the cause of those who advance them. The great principle of free speech allows anyone who cares to do so to try to refute his arguments. Real debate is a two-way street.

Of course, the usual voices reacted in the usual way  some may even have choked on their pinot grigio  but Caseys contribution was, in the three-card-trickery of political debate, a refreshingly honest expression of a heartfelt, if uncomfortable, opinion. And those who dismiss his views as unrepresentative, as socially regressive, might consider what has happened in elections where similar, unfiltered, and disdained views were expressed.

The world has to endure US president, Donald Trump, because he tore up the PC rule book on how opponents might be attacked; we have, or may have, Brexit because post-truth, post-shame campaigning won.

Established only five years ago, the hard-right Alternative for Germany is now a power broker, a position it hardly reached by pulling its punches. Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Poland are other countries where regime change  hardly an adequate description of the veer rightwards  came after candidates said the, in PC terms at least, unsayable. Marine Le Pen got one vote  33%  for every two votes French president, Emmanuel Macron  66%  got. She did not achieve that by sparing anyones blushes. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, so does politics. If there is a no-mans land between what is regarded as acceptable, civilised debate and hate posing as argument, someone, some voice, will try to fill that space and maybe not with the best outcomes. Populism depends on exploiting that lacuna.

Casey will not be president, but it would not be surprising if, despite the barrage, he won considerably more than 2%. This may or may not be a reflection of his views, but it would underline how very disenchanted so many people are with the utterly contrived choreography of todays politics  of which the presidential election is a perfect example. Caseys close-to-the-bone remarks may, in a small way, help encourage realism in political debate, but that can only happen if the line between discourse and diatribe is recognised and held.In Person No Development Without Rule of Law, Mon State MP Says

Mon State Lawmaker Daw Khaing Khaing Leh speaks during an interview in Mawlamyine, Mon State, on Oct 3. / San Yamin Aung / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  As chair of Mon State Parliaments Womens and Childrens Rights Committee, Daw Khaing Khaing Leh is dedicated to protecting the regions youth and female constituents.

In the first seven months of this year, her committee has received more than 40 complaints of sexual violence against females, including the alleged rape of minors. While investigating sexual assault cases and working to bring the perpetrators to justice, the 38-year-old lawmaker has also been promoting the rule of law.

A former lawyer, Daw Khaing Khaing Leh was elected to the state Parliament to represent Thaton Township for the National League for Democracy in the 2015 general elections, becoming one of six female lawmakers in the 31-seat legislature.

She has urged the state government to take steps to ensure security and the rule of law and tried to promote good relations between the executive and legislative branches. She also chairs the Parliaments Bill Committee.

Daw Khaing Khaing Leh spoke recently with The Irrawaddy at the Parliament in Mawlamyine about the difficulties local lawmakers are facing to implement reforms and how much progress they have made since the general elections.

Lawmakers raise problems affecting the public and the needs of their constituents in parliament. How satisfied are you with how they are being solved or improved?

When we look at whether the government has kept all the promises it made to Parliament in response to lawmakers questions and proposals, it hasnt. I am saying this because a report by a parliamentary committee on the governments guarantees, pledges and undertakings said the government only implements about 30 percent of its promises. Some are still in the works, some have been implemented and others are pending.

Another thing is state development. Mon State has been receiving a larger budget, so we have been able to work on improving municipal services and road transportation in the state over the past three years. But in our state we do not yet have full electricity coverage in Ye Township and in rural areas while we are generating electricity for other states and regions.

What do you think of the governments failure to fulfill most of its promises?

There are two points. One is that when it is easy to take action on lawmakers questions or proposals, the government does. Like asking it to build roads or bridges. Its easy to implement that because it just puts the requests in the budget proposals. But when it comes to issues like squatting and illegal land use, there are some delays in government action. But those are the things lawmakers often raise. In cases of confiscated land, it needs to be solved according to the policies of the Union governments Committee for Scrutinizing Confiscated Farmland and Other Land. It has difficulty acting on cases where the state government doesnt have authority and needs to collaborate with the Union government.

But some say work is not being done because government departments drag their feet and because there is too much red tape.

Yes, there is that too. When [the state] Parliament writes to the state government, it takes days to hear back. Even sending information between the chief ministers office and another ministers office in the same building takes a long time. Then directives will be issued to other departments after that. We need to find ways to make those steps quick. We are developing an e-government system. But I think it will be a long time yet before implementation. Before then, we need to eliminate some unnecessary steps in the paperwork to be effective at providing public services.

What do you think the [state] government should prioritize in the remaining two years of its term?

There are no priorities. Everything should be done simultaneously. Every government focuses on infrastructure developments such as building bridges, constructing roads and providing electricity and water, which are important in fulfilling the basic needs of the public. But while we are working on infrastructure, ensuring the rule of law is also important. People would be satisfied with improvements in meeting their basic needs, but they hope to live having equal rights and justice. Only by strengthening the rule of law will peace and development be sustainable.Asia Cambodia's Garment Workers Fear EU Trade Threat But Producers Optimistic

A woman works at a Japanese-owned factory at the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Dec.17, 2014. / Reuters Tags: BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT

PHNOM PENH  A European Union decision to ramp up trade pressure on Cambodia has alarmed unions in its garment industry, a pillar of the economy that employs about 700,000 people, but a key grouping of manufacturers said the risk would take months to materialize.

Cambodias biggest export market, the EU, warned this month that the Southeast Asian nation would lose special access to the worlds largest trading bloc in a punitive response to its move away from democracy.

Some Western countries have criticized a July election won by Prime Minister Hun Sen, calling it flawed because of a campaign of intimidation by his allies and the lack of a credible opposition dissolved by the Supreme Court.

The repercussions could devastate garment exports, which account for about 40 percent of Cambodias gross domestic product (GDP), and industries such as sugar.

The European market is an important one, said At Thon, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union. If factories close their doors, it will be hard.

Cambodias factories supply global brands, such as Gap Inc., Swedish fashion brand H & M and sportswear brands Nike, Puma and Adidas, among others.

Cambodias exports to the European Union, under its Everything but Arms (EBA) scheme, were worth 5 billion euros ($5.8 billion) last year, EU data show.

Although Hun Sen vowed to defend Cambodias sovereignty in the wake of the EU announcement, some union leaders fear workers already grappling with personal debt could see bank balances plunge further into the red.

Workers borrow some money to build houses for their parents or do other businesses, Sia Kunthea, president of the Cambodia Women Labor Union Federation, told Reuters.

The European Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia is seriously concerned about the possibility of trade preferences being withdrawn, it told the European Commission this week.

We would suggest a different course of action to foster the EUs core values, through cooperation activities rather than by implementing a suspension or sanctions, the body representing the private sector, said in a letter.

Producers optimistic

Cambodias $7-billion apparel industry is the largest formal employer among a population of 15 million.

It will be difficult if the EBA is suspended, said Hoeun Tharith, 42, a shoe factory worker and father of three, adding that he shrank from the consequences of losing his monthly income of about $210.

Yet the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), which represents 600 factories, is optimistic.

The threat of tariffs was still months away and would be the subject of a six-month EU review, said Kaing Monika, the groupings deputy secretary general.

At this point, nobody can guarantee what the outcome will be and whether it will result in a substantial loss, Kaing Monika told Reuters.

What we are more concerned about is the media speculation leading to reduced confidence from buyers and investors  the actual situation might be much less frightening.

Some say it is too soon to tell if buyers will pull out and turn to lower-cost Asian rivals.

Swedens H&M, which sources from 62 factories in Cambodia, said it understood the need to look into the rights situation, but urged the European Union to also weigh the impact on workers.

Potential negative effects on the employment for the people in the garment industry must be taken into consideration, it said in a statement to Reuters, without saying if it planned to pull out of Cambodia.

Costs are lower in neighboring Vietnam, another garment-making hub, where the minimum wage ranges from $118 to $170.

This advantage will only improve after a hike of seven percent takes effect in Cambodias textiles and footwear industry in January, pushing the corresponding figure to $182.

Of course if companies move, Vietnam might benefit a little bit, Dang Phuong Dung, a former official of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association, told Reuters.Burma More Than 170 Rohingya Refugees Resettled in Northern Rakhine, Govt Says

Rohingya returnees wait to be processed by authorities at a reception camp in northern Rakhine State. / Min Aung Khine / The Irrawaddy

SITTWE, Rakhine State  More than 170 Rohingya refugees who have returned from Bangladesh to Rakhine State through unofficial channels have moved back home or been resettled in villages where they have relatives, according to Maungdaw District authorities.

Deputy district administrator U Ye Htoo said 177 Rohingya have been resettled in all, including 106 males and 71 females.

Since April, 177 [Rohingya] have come back into the country. Weve sent them to the villages of their closest relatives through the village administrations. For those who have homes, we have sent them back to their homes, U Ye Htoo told The Irrawaddy.

They were among the 700,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in northern Rakhine triggered by militant attacks on security posts in the area in August 2017.

Of the 177, 62 were arrested upon their return but granted amnesty and released on May 27 by the government, which reasoned that they did not know Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed to an official repatriation plan. Of the rest, 92 were rescued at sea from a capsized boat in June and 23 crossed the border over several months without being arrested.

The people who came back this month are from Kyein Kyaung village. I heard they are currently staying in Maung Ni village and that the government and UN agencies have provided them with food, U Anarwa, the administrator of Pantawpyin village in Maungdaw, told The Irrawaddy.

Though Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to a formal repatriation process months ago, it has not been used to return a single refugee to date.

It is said that some 4,000 to 6,000 [Rohingya] will be repatriated, but we have not received any official letter about it, said U Ye Htoo.

Authorities have issued National Verification Cards (NVCs) to the Rohingya returnees, while the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement has provided them with food, he added.

NVCs have been issued in Rakhine since June 2016. The government said the cards have been issued to 6,097 males and 3,076 females in the state as of Jan. 3.

The Myanmar government has opened two camps along the border to take in returnees and a third to temporarily accommodate them until they are permanently resettled.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Three Bentleys, 40 Maseratis and many luxury SUVs are said to have been purchased for the 3-day APEC forum in Port Moresby

KEITH JACKSON

PORT MORESBY  The Papua New Guinea chapter of Transparency International (TIPNG) has said the only way to stop allegations of corruption is for the government to be honest and transparent in its procurement processes.

Late yesterday TIPNG called for the government and the APEC Authority to publicly disclose the total cost involved in the purchase and import of 40 Maserati and three Bentley sedans and other luxury vehicles which generated controversy in PNG and internationally this week after it was estimated the purchases amounted to at least 40 million kina.

The organisation also said that the government needs to demonstrate that it had complied with public procurement processes.

APEC minister Justin Tkatchenko MP said the government had procured the vehicles in the expectation they would be later sold to private sector buyers after next months APEC leaders forum in the national capital.Jaswant Singhs rift with the BJP widened when it did not field him in 2014 from Barmer in Rajasthan, his home base.

New Delhi: Rajasthan BJP MLA Manvendra Singh, son of former Union minister Jaswant Singh, joined the Congress on Wednesday ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. Mr Singh met Congress president Rahul Gandhi before joining the party in the presence of top leaders, including Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and Avinash Pande. Mr Singh had quit the BJP on September 22, describing his disenchantment with the party at a public rally with the phrase: Kamal ka phool, hamaari bhool (BJPs lotus was my mistake). He said after the death of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, his fathers contemporary in the party, that there is an end of an idea and culture I was born into.

After joining the Congress, he said it was a difficult decision that he had thought over for a long time. He added he had asked his father Jaswant Singh, who lies comatose after a fall in 2014, but he didnt respond. Mr Jaswant Singhs rift with the BJP widened when it did not field him in 2014 from Barmer in Rajasthan, his home base. Mr Jaswant Singh, one of the founders of the BJP, contested as an Independent and lost to the BJP candidate. The slight didnt go down well with Rajputs, who form about seven per cent of Rajasthans voters, and have traditionally voted BJP.

Speaking at Mr Singhs joining ceremony, former CM of Rajasthan and AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said: I was witness to how Jaswant Singh was denied a ticket in 2014. Someone who had served as defence, external affairs and finance minister and who was a potential prime ministerial candidate became the target of a conspiracy, just like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi.Burma Official Suing Journalists for Incitement Tells Court Their Article was Wrong

Three journalists for the Eleven Media Group are brought to the Tamwe Township Court in Yangon on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The government official suing three Eleven Media Group journalists for incitement told a court on Wednesday that information in a recent article was incorrect.

Managing editors U Kyaw Zaw Lin and Nari Min and chief reporter U Phyo Wai Win were arrested on Oct. 10 and charged under Article 505 (b) of the Penal Code for an article published two days earlier that was critical of the Yangon Region government.

The trial started Wednesday at the Tamwe Township Court.

The story in question, written by U Phyo Wai Win under the pseudonym Phyo Wai, criticized the Yangon government for wasting public money because of mismanagement, citing as examples a government loan for the purchase of a fleet of school buses obtained from two private banks without parliamentary approval and irregularities at the governments Yangon Metropolitan Public Company, where more than 600,000 shares are under the regional planning and finance ministers name.

The facts written by Phyo Wai are incorrect, said U Aung Kyaw Khaing, a director of Yangons government office.

The regional government formed the Yangon Metropolitan Public Company as a public entity and registered it with the Directorate of Investment and Company Administration in 2017, he said.

The Yangon government owned 51 percent of the companys shares and the 64 billion kyat ($41.6 million) investment was approved by Parliament, he added.

A statement from the regional government on Oct. 11 said that 539,500 shares in the company were owned by the government and that 486,000 shares were owned by the Myanmar Construction and Development Co. Ltd., a private company mostly made up of developers.

It is not the case that shares are under [Planning and Finance Minister] U Myint Thaungs name. He just represents the government in the company, said U Aung Kyaw Khaing.

The incorrect information published in Weekly Eleven prompted shareholders and officials from Myanmar Construction and Development to worry about public mistrust in the company and dishonors the regional government, he added, quoting from the Oct. 11 statement.

Speaking with reporters outside the courtroom, U Phyo Wai Win defended his reporting.

[My story] was based on what [regional] lawmakers said, as [lawmakers] Daw Sandar Min and U Kyaw Zeya had said. I didnt do anything wrong, he said.

Daw Sandar Min and U Kyaw Zaya have told the media that the story was not wrong because it was based on what they said in Parliament based on the Auditor Generals report on the governments 2016-17 fiscal year budget.

The defendants have applied for bail. The court will announce its decision on the request at the next hearing on Oct. 26.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Burma President Orders Yangon Govt to Follow Law in Eleven Media Case

Police escort handcuffed Weekly Eleven journalists to the Tarmwe Township Court for a hearing on Wednesday. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGONMyanmar President U Win Myint on Thursday intervened in the detention of three Eleven Media journalists, ordering the Yangon regional government to follow the Media Law in handling their case.

The Yangon regional government filed lawsuits against two editors and a reporter from Eleven Media Group earlier this month accusing them of committing offenses against the state. They have been held at Insein Prison for the past nine days.

In the afternoon, a Presidents Office directive to the Yangon government went viral on Facebook. It briefly stated the three main steps required under the media law: to file an initial complaint about the case with the Press Council in line with the Media Laws Article 22; to deal with the issue in cooperation with the council; and, if the case is not addressed by the council, to bring the case to court.

The Yangon government didnt follow the procedures stated. Instead, the journalists were arrested and taken to court immediately.

The presidential intervention comes amid mounting criticism that the Yangon governments lawsuit against the journalists constitutes an assault on freedom of expression. Even lawmakers said the story that prompted the lawsuit was based on MPs discussions in Parliament about the generals auditor report on the government budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year.

Presidents Office spokesman U Zaw Htay confirmed the directive while speaking to reporters in Naypyitaw on Thursday. In brief comments, he said the regional government had notified the Presidents Office of its action against the Weekly Eleven journalists, and that the Union government had responded by ordering it to act in line with the law. He declined to comment further about the letter, directing inquiries to Yangon authorities.

According to the presidential directive, the case was reported to the president last Wednesday, the same day on which the journalists were arrested.

The Myanmar Press Council (MPC) announced that it had received a complaint letter from the Yangon government on Thursday afternoon. Regional government director U Aung Kyaw Khine, who is acting as the plaintiff in the case on behalf of the government, submitted the letter personally, said council member U Zeyar Hlaing, who is also chief editor of Mawkun magazine. However, the official failed to present a concrete reason for the filing of the complaint, U Zeyar Hlaing said.

[U Aung Kyaw Khine] merely told us that he submitted the case to the Press Council on the instruction of higher authorities. He did not say who was actually behind the order, he said.

It is unclear what action the Press Council will be able to take, however, as it is prohibited from getting involved in ongoing lawsuits. Council chairman Hanthawaddy U Ohn Kyaing was quoted in a local publication as saying that if the case was to be mediated by the council, the lawsuit needed to be dropped first.

U Zeyar Hlaing said, Although there are multiple options for resolving the case, its pretty obvious that the regional government deliberately chose to file serious charges against the journalists.

He added that the Weekly Eleven report did not defame the government, as its reporting was based on statistics contained in the chief auditors report and discussed by lawmakers in the regional Parliament.

I dont see anything defamatory in the article, and it did not tarnish the image of the government. But the government has now really damaged its own image by failing to act in line with procedures, U Zeyar Hlaing said.Burma Switzerland Joins EU in Sanctioning Myanmars Military Generals

Rohingya refugee girls are seen on Shamlapur Beach in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh in March, 2018. / Reuters

YANGONSwitzerland has imposed an asset freeze and travel ban (entry and transit) on seven high-ranking members of Myanmars military and security forces for human rights violations committed in the country.

The bans see Switzerland aligning itself with the sanctions against the Myanmar military adopted by the European Union in April and June this year.

Switzerlands Federal Council said the ban came into effect on Wednesday but didnt mention the names of the seven individuals. Its likely, however, that they are the same seven as those listed in the sanctions imposed by the EU in June: Deputy Maj-Gen Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maj-Gen Maung Maung Soe, Brig-Gen Than Oo, Brig-Gen Aung Aung, Brig-Gen Khin Maung Soe, commander of the Border Guard Police Brig-Gen Thura San Lwin, and the commander of the Eighth Security Police Battalion Thant Zin Oo. All were accused of atrocities against the Rohingya by the EU as well as rights group like Amnesty International.

Apart from the asset freeze and travel ban, the Swiss ban also targets the sale, supply, export and transit of dual-use goods to military end users and to military and border guard police end users in Myanmar as well as equipment, technology and software that can be used to monitor communications (internet, telephone) in addition to the existing embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression.

The Federal Council condemns the ongoing widespread, systematic, grave human rights violations committed by Myanmars military and security forces, and is deeply concerned by the deteriorating human rights situation, said the council in their statement.

The EU extended its arms embargo on Myanmar for another year, accusing Myanmar of serious and systemic human rights violations in military operations in the countrys northwest last year that sent nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh.

Despite its bans on the military, the Federal Council reaffirmed that Switzerlands support for peace, democracy and socio-economic development in Myanmar will continue.

Meanwhile, the EU is considering trade sanctions on Myanmar over the Rohingya crisis which would mainly affect the countrys garment industry and major exports to the EU. The move has received criticism, however, by those who say the sanctions would potentially put nearly 450,000 jobs in the country at risk.News UNs Special Envoy Discusses Peace Process with Kachin Officials

UN special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener and the chief minister of Kachin State held a meeting in the Kachin State government office on October 17, 2018. / Kachin State Government Office / Facebook

YANGONThe United Nations Secretary-Generals special envoy to Myanmar discussed the peace process with Kachin government cabinet members on Wednesday, during her first trip to Kachin State.

We mainly discussed the peace process, Kachin Minister of Social Welfare U Thin Lwin told reporters after the meeting in the Kachin State government office.

Government officials discussed their actions in the peace process at state level even though the Kachin [Independence Army] have not signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA). Both sides agreed that the peace process requires patience and takes time, he said.

During the visit, the UN special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener visited IDP (internally displaced persons) camps in Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin State, which is home to people who have been displaced from areas near Myitkyina due to ongoing fighting between the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) since 2011.

Christine Schraner Burgener held meetings with the Kachin State Chief Minister U Khet Aung, Kachin State Security and Border Affairs Minister Col. Thura Myo Tin, the social affairs minister and secretary of the Kachin State government and Kachin State advocates. She also met with the Commander of the Northern Command Maj-Gen Tay Zar Aung and senior military officers of the command.

In Naypyitaw on Friday, the UN special envoy held a meeting with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, sharing views on the latest progress in the process of national reconciliation and peace; ongoing inter-communal dialogue; the opening of the Office of the Special Envoy in Naypyitaw; and the implementation of the repatriation of displaced persons under the bilateral agreement between Myanmar and Bangladesh, according to the Ministry of Information.

During the discussion with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, both sides also addressed the challenges facing Myanmar, including the situation in Rakhine State and cooperation between Myanmar and the Office of the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, according to the Ministry of Information.

On Monday, she visited northern Rakhine StateSittwe, Maungdaw and Buthidaung townshipsand met with local communities who suffered from communal violence during the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine State. She held a meeting with state government officials including Rakhine State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu and Commander of the Western Command Maj-Gen Soe Tint Naing. She also visited IDP camps in Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships.

Discussions with the state government officials focused on three main topics: building peace and harmony between the two communities; the resettling process; and the repatriation of displaced persons, vice-speaker of the Rakhine State parliament, U Mya Than told The Irrawaddy.

Rakhine-based media reported the speaker of the Rakhine State parliament U Kyaw Zan Hla revealed a positive view of Christine Schraner Burgener, saying she is more flexible when discussing the Rakhine issue than the UN human rights envoy to Myanmar, Yanghee Lee.

Christine Schraner Burgener made her first visit to Myanmar in July this year. She discussed the Rakhine humanitarian issue with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the militarys Commander-in-Chief Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing during the trip and also met with Muslim and Hindu refugees in Maungdaw, Rakhine State.News US Senate Leader: Congress Should Not Join 'Pile-On' On Myanmar's Suu Kyi

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during an interview with Reuters in Washington, US, on Wednesday. / Reuters

WASHINGTON  The Republican leader of the US Senate said on Wednesday that civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains the best hope for Myanmar and that it would not be helpful for Congress to join an international pile-on against her over a military crackdown on the countrys Rohingya Muslims.

The pile-on has been quite obvious. Its also noteworthy that it hasnt done any good, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in an interview with Reuters. And I just dont think joining that and further undercutting the best hope we have for genuine Burmese democracy in the future is good policy.

The United States was a strong backer of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as she emerged in the 1980s as a pro-democracy icon who endured years of house arrest for standing up to military rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She and McConnell have had a close relationship for years, and he has an enduring interest in the country.

When asked whether Congress should press Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to voice support for pardoning two Reuters journalists convicted of violating an official secrets law, McConnell did not rule out the possibility.

Im not going to answer right now, McConnell said. But thats an interesting question.

So far he has not allowed Senate votes on legislation to punish or condemn Myanmars action against the Rohingya.

Asked what might change his stance, McConnell said he did not see a helpful role for Congress to take action.

I think the Secretary of State is continuing to work on it. I dont think Congress [having] some resolution of condemnation or whatever beyond the sanctions that have already been imposed on individualsby the administration, is going to be helpful, he said.

Pressure mounting

Global pressure has been mounting on Myanmar  and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi  to act after a crackdown in Rakhine State last year drove some 700,000 of the largely stateless Rohingya Muslim minority over the border into Bangladesh.

Myanmar has denied most accusations of human rights abuses, saying the military responded to a legitimate threat from Rohingya militants who attacked police posts.

Governments and human rights advocates around the world also have been calling for the release of the two Reuters journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, who were convicted on Sept. 3 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in a case seen as a test of the countrys democracy.

The two reporters, who pleaded not guilty, were investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya villagers by the Myanmar security forces, at the time of their arrest.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to use her moral authority to protect civilians, and there have been calls for her to be stripped of her Nobel Peace Prize. She was also sharply rebuked by the United States after she said the journalists imprisonment had nothing to do with freedom of expression.

A UN report released in August accused Myanmars military of genocide and called for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo, impose targeted sanctions and set up an ad hoc tribunal to try suspects or refer them to the International Criminal Court.

Myanmars government rejected the report as false allegations.

A US State Department report released last month accused Myanmars military of waging a well-planned and coordinated campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Rohingya, but stopped short of calling it genocide or crimes against humanity.

Myanmar officials did not respond to the US report.

The United States has imposed sanctions on a handful of military and police commanders in Myanmar.World Trump to Nominate Former Air Force General as Top Asia Diplomat

The White House on the morning of the US presidential election in Washington on November 8, 2016. / REUTERS

WASHINGTONUS President Donald Trump plans to nominate former Air Force General David Stilwell to be the State Departments top diplomat for East Asia, a post that has remained unfilled for more than a year despite major challenges in the region.

A White House statement on Wednesday said Trump had announced his intention to nominate Stilwell, a former career fighter pilot who speaks Korean, Chinese and some Japanese, to be assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, but experts said Stilwell would likely receive broad support from the chamber.

The post has remained unfilled since the previous incumbent, Daniel Russel, stepped down in April last year, in spite of a major crisis over North Koreas pursuit of nuclear weapons and worsening relations and a trade war with China, the worlds No. 2 economy and Washingtons main rival in the region.

Stilwell retired from the US Air Force in 2015 with the rank of brigadier general after 35 years of service.

The White House statement said he was currently director of the China Strategic Focus Group at the US Indo-Pacific Command Headquarters in Hawaii and an adjunct senior fellow at the East West Center in Honolulu.

Stilwell joined the Air Force in 1980 as a Korean linguist and served in South Korea before earning degrees in Asian studies and the Chinese language.

He also served with the Air Force in Japan, as well in a senior Asia planning role at the Pentagon and as defense attache in Beijing from 2011 to 2013.

Russel welcomed Stilwells nomination.

I have worked with Dave Stilwell and know him well. Im glad that the president has now nominated an experienced Asia hand to this important position and hope the Senate will confirm him expeditiously, he said in an email.

Trumps former secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, previously nominated Russels former deputy, Susan Thornton, for the post, but she was seen by administration hawks as too soft on China and her nomination never came to a vote in the Senate.

Eric Sayers, an Asia specialist and former Republican congressional staffer, said Stilwell would be welcomed by Republican Asia watchers and should also have good chemistry with the two other senior administration officials responsible for Asia, Matt Pottinger at the National Security Council and Randy Schriver at the Pentagon.Travel Dutch Govt Lifts Travel Restrictions to Southern Rakhine, Tourism Industry Wants More

Sun loungers on Ngapali Beach located in a part of Rakhine State that has recently had its red status travel warning removed. / Ngapali Bay Resort / Facebook

YANGON  Despite a number of European countries continuing to discourage travel to Myanmar based on allegations against the army of committing crimes against the Rohingya community in August 2017, the government of the Netherlands has eased its stance on one Rakhine State tourist destination last week.

Last year, on the official map outlining areas of Myanmar considered safe and unsafe to travel to, the Netherlands marked the entire Rakhine State in red, marking it as an unsuitable state to visit due to instances of violent conflict there, particularly referring to northern Rakhine State from where nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled from military rampages and sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

The official website of the Netherlands Foreign Affairs Ministry The Netherlands Worldwide published in Dutch updated its map on Oct. 10 to mark the areas of Kachin State, northern Shan State and the majority of Rakhine State to a red status.

The website warns travelers against visiting Rakhine State, specifying thatespecially in northern Rakhine Statethere are great tensions between the Muslim and Buddhist community, and these tensions regularly lead to violence. The website uses Muslim and community rather than using the contentious term Rohingya.

As well as Thandwe Townships Ngapali Beach in southern Rakhine, one of Myanmars most popular tourist destinations and a great source of tourism income having the red status removed, the map shows the red status warning remaining in place on other southern townships namely Taungup, Ramree and Kyaukphyu. It states that if tourists are interested in spending their holidays at Ngapali, they can travel there by air or land via the motorway south of Ngapali but warns Travel no further than the line at Thandwe (see map).

The website advises tourists traveling to Ngapali Beach to follow the messages in the media and to inform a travel company, hotel and local authorities in advance of their trip.

Some Myanmar travel agencies and hoteliers have welcomed the Dutch authorities update to the map. However, there have been some points of criticism towards the update as some key tourism areas still remain in the red zone. Specifically, northern Rakhines famous archeological site, the ancient city of Mrauk-U where a large number of pagodas, temples and stupas still exist, spurring archeologists and the ministry of religious affairs to apply for UNESCO World Heritage Site status for the site in 2019 in still under red status.

Its unclear how many western governments rank Myanmar as an unsafe country for holidaymakers on their official travel advice websites.

Daw Yin Myo Su, owner of Mrauk-U Princess Hotel near the ancient city site assumes two possible factors for Mrauk-U remaining in the red zone on the Dutch travel warning map: there could be barriers for travelers in applying for travel insurance if they intend to travel to the area, and there could be a lack of proper information about the on-the-ground safety status via the respective foreign embassies.

[Changing the status of] southern Rakhines Ngapali is better than nothing for [the tourism sector]. We are glad to hear that either way, she said.

She explained that Mrauk-U should not be recognized as a conflict-sensitive area as it located one hundred miles from the conflict-torn Maungdaw Township and doesnt even have an internally displaced persons camps like the state capital of Sittwe and Thandwe Township. She had expected wider travel relaxations from western countries and urged for travelers to be provided with more accurate information.

Managing director of travel agency Nature Dream Daw Sabe Aung, said she was confused about the selective destination ranking by the Dutch government and questions whether the change is linked to interests in foreign investment in Ngapali or whether the ranking is based on complaints from travelers to who want to visit Ngapali.

Is that because of foreign investors in Ngapali? As far as I know, there is no foreign-owned hotel business in the Mrauk-U tourism industry, said Daw Sabe Aung.

In her work as MD of one of the top travel agencies in Myanmar, Daw Sabe Aung noticed that many Russians, Germans and some other westerners have travelled to northern Rakhines Mrauk-U recently. She added that some of them even went to Chin villages located in rural areas outside the town of Mrauk-U to see the women with traditional facial tattoos.

Even women and children toured Mrauk-U safely. They havent received any disruption or inconveniences during their trips. My point is that the Arakanese are expecting tourists.BJP president Amit Shah holds a meeting with national security adviser Ajit Doval to discuss the issue, decision taken that Akbar should resign.

New Delhi: Under severe pressure after being accused of sexual harassment by several women, minister of state for external affairs M.J. Akbar resigned Wednesday evening, a day ahead of the first hearing of the defamation case filed by him in a Delhi court. In a statement, Mr Akbar said he thought it appropriate to resign since he had decided in his personal capacity to challenge the accusations in court. However, sources said the BJPs top brass had decided it was time for an embattled Mr Akbar to step down. Sources further said the decision on Mr Akbars resignation was taken after BJP president Amit Shah had a meeting with national security adviser Ajit Doval to discuss the issue on Tuesday. Prior to that meeting, Mr Doval also met Mr Akbar and then home minister Rajnath Singh before meeting the BJP president. President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the resignation of Mr Akbar.

Political observers noted it was becoming increasingly untenable for the government and the BJP to ignore the allegations and withstand the pressure amid calls from the Opposition for his resignation. There was also growing discomfiture within the BJP that the allegations against Mr Akbar and his continuation as a minister could have an adverse electoral fallout, especially in urban areas. Also, if a sitting Union minister appeared in court to fend off allegations of sexual harassment, it could have proved even more embarrassing for the government and the BJP.

Journalist Priya Ramani, who was one of those who levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Akbar and against whom Mr Akbar filed a defamation suit, said she felt vindicated by the resignation.

In a statement, Mr Akbar said: Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge the false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have therefore tendered my resignation from the office of MoS external affairs. I am deeply grateful to PM Narendra Modi and to EAM Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country. Mr Akbar is the first minister in the Union government to resign after the #MeToo campaign against sexual harassment of women gathered steam in India. He had initially refused to quit on Sunday.

Several women journalists, including Ghazala Wahab, Priya Ramani, Shutapa Paul and Shuma Raha, had made allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Akbar. Pressure mounted on Mr Akbar to resign after as many as 20 women journalists signed a petition speaking of the culture of casual misogyny, entitlement and sexual predation that Mr Akbar had engendered and presided over. In her reaction on Twitter, Ms Ramani wrote: As women we feel vindicated by MJ Akbars resignation. I look forward to the day when I will also get justice in court.

The Congress Party said Mr Akbars belated resignation is a result of the persistent pressure put by women who have shared their horrific and uncomfortable stories. It added: We in the Congress Party salute the women who stood their ground despite the brazen stance of the Modi government. It was the Congress Party which first asked for Mr M.J. Akbars resignation on October 10th. It is a womens movement for the women and by the women.

Hours after returning to New Delhi on Sunday morning after an official visit to Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, Mr Akbar had refused to step down from his post and denied the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by several women. He termed these as viral fever, saying these were false and fabricated, spiced up by innuendo and malice, and added he would be taking appropriate legal action.

While Mr Akbars initial decision not to resign was also believed to have been taken after consulting the BJP top brass after he explained his side of the story, there was a growing feeling that Mr Akbars decision not to resign would provide ammunition for the Opposition in the election season.

Mr Akbar is a Rajya Sabha member belonging to the BJP. The Congress had been attacking the government on the matter, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modis silence was conspicuous and unacceptable.Motorola Solutions is delivering new number plate recognition and in-car video technology to Victoria Police under a five-year, state-wide $17.3 million managed services contract.

The high-resolution, cloud-based Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology enables police to rapidly scan through thousands of vehicle number plates to identify dangerous and unauthorised drivers in real time.

The technology will also help police detect stolen and unregistered vehicles and crack down on offences, including traffic violations and speeding.

Under the contract, Motorola will fit out 220 highway patrol vehicles with the technology.

The solution will help increase protection and accountability for interactions between police and the public through the collection of high-quality video and audio recordings that can be submitted as evidence in court.

The technology is claimed to be vital to achieving Victoria Polices goals outlined in Towards Zero, the Victorian Governments plan to make roads safer while striving for zero deaths on Victorian roads.

Motorola says the mobile number plate program will complement other systems being used by Victoria Police, including its BlueConnect Mobile Technology program.

Motorola Solutions vice-president and managing director Steve Crutchfield said fresh and reliable number plate data provided public safety agencies with valuable insights into road user behaviour.

By combining ANPR detection with in-car video, this solution will provide high-quality visual and audio corroboration of incidents and offences witnessed by police. Solutions like this have been proven to increase accountability and even make individuals modify their behaviour when they know they are being filmed, contributing to greater safety for all road users and police officers," he said.

Crutchfield said the agreement with Motorola Solutions gave Victoria Police the flexibility to add enhancements to the program over time as vehicle and video standards and technologies matured.

In addition to the high-resolution number plate technology, Motorola Solutions manages the networks that provide Victoria Police with mission-critical radio communications and narrowband data services  and a mobility managed service to increase situational awareness, safety and productivity for police officers on the front line with a purpose-built mobility application to help officers manage their daily workflows.Facebook and Google appear to be using the hysteria in the US over alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections  yes, its still going on  to block access to alternative, smaller media sites and videos.

The two companies are basically killing three birds with one stone by carrying out this kind of censorship: first, they are mollifying the politicians  both Republicans and Democrats  and pretending that they are taking the complaints about Russian hands in the pie seriously.

Second, they are gaining in favour with the mainstream media as both are effectively removing sites that compete, in whatever small way they can, with the big established media companies who trumpet the government view - and also the dominant view of the big tech firms.

And third, both companies are hoping that their actions put a brake on any moves to regulate them. During the eight years when Barack Obama was president, Google representatives could walk in and out of White House as they pleased. But the Trump administration is somewhat hostile to big tech and thus by pleasing the government, the two big tech firms are hoping to avoid the passage of any laws that will prevent them from doing as they please.

Neither Facebook or Google is bothered that this takedown of media sites seems to go against the doctrine of free speech  the so-called First Amendment, about which Americans can never stop bleating.

Google is looking to re-enter China and launch a censored search engine. For this, it needs the government to be on-side and hence it will do anything and everything to ensure that.

Facebook too has been scared of regulation or a split-up of the company so that Instagram and WhatsApp are required to operate as separate units. That would really hurt chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's dream of continuing to foist advertising on the public through these two apps and add a few more billions to his bank balance.

The Washington Post said among recent sites that Facebook took down are one called Nation In Distress, which calls itself first online publication to endorse President Donald J Trump."

Another page, Reverb Press, had about 700,000 followers and was an anti-Trump site. A third, called Reasonable People Unite, had among its content one post from a Twitter user who said, Somewhere in America, a teenage girl is listening to her parents defend Brett Kavanaugh and she is thinking to herself, if something like that happens to me, I have nowhere to go.

Among the YouTube sites that Google has purged are a number of Iranian sites, including the official site of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Russian sites have also been removed willy-nilly.

The search firm has used reports in various media about YouTube sites that had content that could be termed extremist, anti-Semitic and violent. Building on this, the company has taken down sites like that belonging to the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Comedian Jimmy Dore's YouTube site was demonetised.

It is unlikely that there will be an outcry about this censorship; after all, the government and the mainstream media are both served well by it. And in the US there is one golden rule: those who have the gold generally make the rules.Google's chief economist Dr Hal Varian is of the opinion that his employer should not pay "excessive" tax on its Australian revenue because this money is derived due to its "intellectual capital" which mostly resides in California.

During a chat with the ABC's PM program on Thursday, Dr Varian claimed that imposing taxes in the place where value is created was the norm in international corporate taxation.

It's a pity that the ABC let this go through to the keeper and failed to remind Dr Varian that Google is essentially an advertising company that gets the majority of its revenue through incredibly well-targeted ads.

And that targeting is done through the accumulation of a wealth of personal data  through search queries (of which there are about 3.5 billion a day), location targeting and snooping on Gmail users, to mention some avenues  which ends up in the custody of a company that is now contemplating doing business in censorship-happy China.

So why shouldn't the search behemoth pay taxes on the money earned from Australian advertisers? It's a pity the PM host did not pose this question to the good doctor.

Dr Varian is in Australia because the Federal Government has suddenly shown some commonsense and is contemplating advice from the Treasury which would impose tax on high-tech companies based on their revenue, and not their profits.

This is an idea that has been stolen from the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, but nevertheless it is laudable that Canberra is finally even thinking of this.

In the case of the EC, a proposal was unveiled back in March to apply a blanket 3% tax on digital companies that had annual worldwide revenues of 750 million (US$925.6 million) and EU revenues of 50 million.

ABC's PM host also goofed when asking Dr Varian about the company's plans for re-entering China. He mentioned something about the company not having any definite plans but only considering such a move.

The PM host was obviously unaware that on Monday Google chief Sundar Pichai spoke openly about the China project  codenamed Dragonfly  for the first time, telling a conference that what had been developed so far was "very promising".

Hence, this went through to the keeper as well.The man who developed and sold a Windows remote access trojan known as Luminosity Link has been sentenced to 30 months in prison in the US and will also have to forfeit the proceeds he reaped from selling the software.

Colton Grubbs, 21, of Stanford, Kentucky, was sentenced for "conspiracy to unlawfully access computers in furtherance of a criminal act, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the illegal removal of property to prevent its lawful seizure", according to a statement from the US Department of Justice on Monday.

The software was able to record keystrokes, spy on users through webcams and microphones, view and download files, and steal login credentials.

As iTWire reported, In February, Britain's National Crime Agency said it had acted in collaboration with security officials in Europe, the US and Australia, to take the software off the Web.

According to the US statement, Grubbs offered help to users through forums on the Internet. It said in his plea agreement, Grubbs admitted to selling the software for US$39.99 apiece to more than 6000 customers around the world.

The British NCA said at the time that law enforcement had acted to neuter the RAT in September last year. Luminosity Link was first found on the PC of a suspect in Bristol who was arrested in September 2016; his arrest was in connection with another investigation under the Computer Misuse Act.

Our modern society is dependent on computers, mobile devices, and the use of the Internet, said Robert Duncan, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

People simply have to have confidence in their ability to use these modern instruments to transact their business, privately communicate, and securely maintain their information.

"It is essential that we vigorously prosecute those who erode that confidence and illicitly gain access to computer systems and the electronic information of others. Everyone benefits when this deceitful conduct is discovered, investigated, and prosecuted.Security vendor McAfee has detected the re-use of code associated with Chinese military affiliated hacker group APT1, aka Comment Crew.

The re-use of an implant associated with APT1 is "a significant finding", according to McAfee fellow and chief scientist Raj Samani.

The new campaign  which began in May  has been dubbed Operation Oceansalt by McAfee, reflecting its use of code previously seen in 2010's Operation Seasalt. As far as McAfee has been able to determine, there are no indications that the Seasalt code became public.

Oceansalt initially targeted the South Korean higher education sector, and involved a macro in a document showing "a strong command of the Korean language".

It subsequently extended to public infrastructure organisations in South Korea, and later circulated fake information about the Inter-Korean Co-operation Fund.

The documents were distributed from compromised South Korean sites.

Later waves targeted a small number of organisations in other parts of the world, including the US and Canada.

"Is China back? We don't do attribution," said Samani.

He outlined three possibilities: a code-sharing agreement between two nation states, an actor obtaining the source code from someone associated with APT1, or a "false flag" operation intended to suggest collaboration between China and North Korea.

The implant is able to exfiltrate and delete files, and set up a reverse shell giving full control over the affected computer, among other functions. But Samani said it had not been possible to determine the goal of the campaign.

He added that McAfee had delayed announcing its findings until the information had been cleared by relevant law enforcement organisations, and that the indicators that a system has been compromised by the campaign are being made public.

The writer attended McAfee's Mpower Cyberecurity Summit as a guest of the company.Ecuador is making moves to try and strip WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange of his citizenship, granted last year, in order to comply with reported US demands for his extradition to be tried on charges of leaking secrets.

A report in the Ecuadorian media said these moves were afoot because article 79 of the Ecuador constitution forbids the extradition of citizens.

Assange was granted Ecuadorian citizenship last year by then president Rafael Correa. The new president, Lenin Moreno, appears to have closer ties with the US and has met US vice-president Mike Pence since he came to office.

The WikiLeaks publisher has been holed up in Ecuador's London embassy since June 2012 when he took refuge there to avoid being arrested by the UK and fearing extradition to the US thereafter.

A group of diplomats have expressed support for stripping Assange of his citizenship in a letter to the Ecuador chancellor Jose Valencia.

Paola Vintimilla, a member of the Ecuadorian Assembly, has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to annul Assange's citizenship, based on a claim that the sole purpose of making him a citizen was to give him diplomatic status so that he would not be arrested by UK authorities if he left the London embassy.

Vintimilla claims to have papers which show irregularities in the process gone through to give Assange citizenship.

Assange's problems began when he visited Sweden in August 2010 to attend a conference where he was scheduled to give a talk. During that visit, he had sex with two women and the pair later filed rape and molestation complaints against him, claims that he denied.

He was questioned by Swedish authorities and cleared. He could have left the country then and there, but stayed for a while, in case the authorities decided to question him again.

Interpol issued a Red Notice for his arrest on 20 November 2010. On 27 November, Assange surrendered to authorities and appeared before a Westminster judge. He was granted bail in December after his backers provided 240,000 in cash and sureties.

A legal back and forth eventuated and went on until June 2012, when Swedish prosecutors sought his extradition.

Assange's lawyers, among them the world-renowned Australian Geoffrey Robertson, replied that if he agreed to the extradition request, then he could be flown to the US from there.

On 19 June 2012, he jumped bail and took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, seeking asylum in the South American country. British police surrounded the building and blocked any chance of his leaving and have been guarding the building ever since.

Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012.An anonymous Amazon employee has called on the company's leadership to stop selling its facial recognition software, Rekognition, to law enforcement bodies in the US because it "runs counter to Amazon's stated values".

In a post published on Medium  which said it had verified that the author was indeed an Amazon worker  the employee said history had provided enough lessons that powerful surveillance tools left unchecked in the hands of the state would be used to target people who had done no wrong.

In June, a group of Amazon workers wrote to their chief executive, Jeff Bezos, telling him not to sell Rekognition to law enforcement agencies and to cancel the contract for hosting data-mining company Palantir on its cloud.

Else, they said they would refuse to build the platform that powers the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and would not contribute to tools that they claim violates human rights.

The lone employee said that Bezos was aware of the concerns around Rekognition but had said that he preferred to wait for society's "immune response".

"If Amazon waits, we think the harm will be difficult to undo," the post said. "After all, our concern isnt one about some future harm caused by some other company: Amazon is designing, marketing, and selling a system for dangerous mass surveillance right now."

The employee pointed out that Orlando was testing Rekognition with live video feeds while a sheriff's department in Oregon was using the software to compare photos to a database of mugshots.

In the US, a lack of public accountability had resulted in over-policing of communities of colour, immigrants and people exercising their First Amendment rights, the post said, adding, "Ignoring these urgent concerns while deploying powerful technologies to government and law enforcement agencies is dangerous and irresponsible."

The employee pointed out that there had been cases of false positives. As iTWire reported, a test by the American Civil Liberties Union found that Rekognition identified a number of US politicians as criminals.

"We follow in the steps of the Googlers who spoke out against the Maven contract and Microsoft employees who are speaking out against the JEDI contract," the post said.

"Regardless of our views on the military, no one should be profiting from 'increasing the lethality' of the military. We will not silently build technology to oppress and kill people, whether in our country or in others.

"Amazon talks a lot about values of leadership. If we want to lead, we need to make a choice between people and profits. We can sell dangerous surveillance systems to police or we can stand up for whats right. We cant do both."Akbar sued Ramani accusing her of 'intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious' allegations.

Editor-turned-politician MJ Akbar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women, stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday evening, saying he will challenge the accusations against him. (Photo: File | PTI)

New Delhi: The defamation case by former union minister MJ Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani will be heard in the Patiala House court in Delhi today.

Priya Ramani is the first woman journalist to accuse Akbar of sexual harassment around 20 years.

Akbar had sued Ramani on Monday, accusing her of "intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious" allegations to harm his goodwill and reputation.

The editor-turned-politician, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women, stepped down as Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday evening, saying he will challenge the accusations against him.

"Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity. I have, therefore, tendered my resignation from the office of Minister of State for External Affairs. I am deeply grateful to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and to the External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj for the opportunity they gave me to serve my country," Akbar said in his letter.

Akbar, former editor of newspapers like The Telegraph and The Asian Age was named by Ramani in a tweet on October 8 where she said MJ Akbar was the man she had written about in a magazine article a year ago, when the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the US set off an avalanche of #MeToo allegations.

After Ramani named him, more women posted stories against Akbar.

On Wednesday Ramani said, "As women we feel vindicated by MJ Akbar's resignation. I look forward to the day when I will also get justice in court."

Twenty journalists had come out in her support on Tuesday evening, saying she was not alone and that they would testify in court against Akbar.

Akbar's name had cropped up in the social media campaign #MeToo against alleged sexual harassment when he was in Nigeria.

Hours after returning home, Akbar had termed the allegations levelled against him by several women as "false, fabricated and deeply distressing" and said he was taking appropriate legal action against them.

The women who accused Akbar of sexual harassment, included Ghazala Wahab, Shuma Raha, Anju Bharti and Shutapa Paul.This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.Ostrowski 05 Joins IES Abroad as Program Dean

Oct. 15, 2018

Lauren Ostrowski '05

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.  IES Abroad, a non-profit study abroad program which partners with dozens of Illinois Wesleyan University students every year, has welcomed former participant Lauren Ostrowski 05 as the Program Dean for its EU, Freiburg, Granada, and Madrid Centers.

An English and Hispanic Studies double major at IWU, Ostrowski studied abroad in Madrid her junior year through IES Abroad, an experience which led her to work for IES Abroad from 2006-10 as a Program Associate and later as the Academic Project Manager.

As a Fulbright Fellow, Ostrowski returned to Madrid to earn her masters degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language from the Universidad Alcala de Henares. She then joined Teach For America in San Diego, where she served as their Managing Director and Chief of Staff, among other roles.

In her role as a Program Dean, Ostrowski directly manages a portfolio of international centers in Spain, Germany and China. She is responsible for overall program and academic quality, including developing and implementing proposals for new areas of curricular focus and leading qualitative and quantitative program reviews. She is also charged with leading overseas staffing, designing and executing strategic plans, and budget management.

Each year, IES Abroad coordinates 140 different study abroad programs for over 6,500 students in over 30 countries. Throughout the process, IES Abroad supports students with personal advisors in their home country as well as on-site staff. Illinois Wesleyan students interested in applying to study abroad through IES or any of IWUs other partner organizations can view hundreds of available programs on the International Offices study abroad webpage.

By Rachel McCarthy 21The lawyer also forwarded the brief resignation letter of Akbar, who was associated with several media houses in the past.

New Delhi: M.J. Akbar's criminal defamation complaint against journalist Priya Ramani, who has accused him of sexual misconduct around 20 years ago, is scheduled to come up for hearing on Thursday in the Patiala House court.

Akbar on Wednesday tendered his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs. His lawyer Sandeep Kapur of law firm Karanjawala & Co said that the private criminal defamation case will come up for hearing on Thursday before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal.

The lawyer also forwarded the brief resignation letter of Akbar, who was associated with several media houses in the past.

Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity, Akbar said in his letter.To continue using Jomashop.com (The online store to shop and buy watches, handbags, and fashion)Suhasini and her colleague managed to cross Pamba and reach Marakkoottam, which is near Sabarimala shrine, but were stopped by protesters.

New York Times journalist, Suhasini Raj and her colleague, who managed to climb halfway to the Sabarimala shrine on Thursday morning, were forced to return after massive protests. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Thiruvananthapuram: A New York Times journalist, Suhasini Raj, who managed to climb halfway to the Sabarimala shrine on Thursday morning, was forced to return after she was stopped by protesters.

Suhasini, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to cross Pamba and reach Marakkoottam, which is only a few kilometres away from the hilltop shrine, but were stopped by those who are trying to impose an age-old ban on the entry of women between 10 to 50 years of age despite the Supreme Court verdict.

According to reports, the crowd heckled her as she continued up the hill and reached Marakkoottam saying that she did not come to pray but to do her work. However, as trekking became difficult due to massive protest, she and her colleague decided to return.

Reporters of Malayalam news channels who followed the journalist to the hill shrine said the devotees shouted slogans ladies go back and allegedly hurled abuses at her opposing her entry into the ancient shrine, news agency PTI reported. Local TV crew said she is in her late 40s.

Meanwhile, Kerala police claimed that they were ready to offer her protection but on reaching Marakkoottam, Suhasini decided to come back after seeing the crowd.

We will give protection to everybody going up. It's our job to give protection to all pilgrims. We will put more manpower and secure all routes. She (Suhasini Raj) wasn't forced to come back, she came back, a police official told news agency ANI.

Later, Suhasini and her colleague were taken to Pamba police station.

If she had been able to climb the hills, she would have become the first woman of the menstrual age group to visit the Sabarimala Temple.

The Sabarimala temple opened for the first time Wednesday evening after the Supreme Court ruling last month allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

However, protesters opposing the entry of women of the banned age group to the Lord Ayappa shrine heckled women journalists, smashed their vehicles and also clashed with the police. They besieged the road leading to the temple, checked buses and stopped women from going near the shrine.

Following intense protests, Kerala government has imposed Section 144, banning assembly of four or more people has been imposed in parts of Kerala.

Several outfits, protesting womens entry in Sabarimala shrine, also called for a 12-hour shutdown.Seeking pardon from people, Congress leader DK Shivakumar said politics in name of religion was unacceptable.

DK Shivakumar even admitted that the Congress' poor show in the assembly election was proof that people did not like the move. (Photo: File)

Bengaluru: In an embarrassment for the Congress, senior leader and Karnataka water resource minister D K Shivakumar has conceded that his party committed a "major blunder" by recommending religious minority status for the Lingayat community in the run-up to the May 12 assembly polls.

Seeking pardon from people, he said politics in the name of religion was unacceptable. The previous Siddaramaiah government's gamble to play the Lingayat card with a religious minority tag turned out to be a costly misadventure electorally, leaving Congress poorer in terms of assembly seats.

The open admission gives a potential weapon to the opposition BJP to attack the Congress ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The saffron party had accused the previous Siddaramiah-led government of dividing society to draw political mileage.

Shivakumar made the admission during the 'Dasara Sammelan', organised by the Rambhapuri Seer Veerasomeshwara Shivacharya Swamiat Gadag Wednesday.

"Our government in Karnataka committed a major blunder. I wont say we did not commit it. We the people in politics and in government should never ever lay hands on the matter pertaining to religion and caste. It was a crime committed by our government," he said.

He even admitted that the Congress' poor show in the assembly election was proof that people did not like the move.

"I would like to say that the peoples verdict (assembly elections) is proof that no government should never ever lay hands in religious matter," Shivakumar said.

"We beg your pardon for the blunder committed by our government. Please pardon us wholeheartedly....," he said.

Rambhapuri seer had opposed the move to accord religion status to Lingayat as it did not incorporate Veerashaivas in it.

Later, speaking in Bengaluru on Thursday, Shivakumar said as a minister he felt he should express his views.

"I am not bothered about how people read it, react to it and what they call me. I felt I must speak my mind on this issue," Shivakumar said.

He claimed that many senior Congress leaders had advised him that government should not interfere in the matter.

Shivakumars statement has created a rift within Congress as another Congress heavyweight and former minister M B Patil, who was at the forefront of recommending religious status for the Lingayats, said he would raise the matter in the party forum.

"I dont know in which context he spoke. We will discuss the matter within the party forum," he said.

An MLA from Babaleshwara constituency, Patil said, "There wasnt any loss in the election.

Let him (Shivakumar) introspect. We have to analyse how much votes we garnered in Hassan, Mandya and Vokkaliga belt. There isnt any connection between Lingayat religion tag and Congress party," Patil said.

The May 12 Karnataka assembly polls threw up a hung verdict with BJP emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats. Congress was next with 78 and JD(S) followed with 37. The BSP has one MLA and two seats went to Independents.

Shivakumar belongs to the Vokkaliga community.

Many seers have welcomed Shivakumar's statement.

Hailing Shivakumar, Srishaila seer Channasiddarama Panditaradya Swamiji said the statement was an endorsement that politicians should not interfere in religious affairs. Ahead of the assembly polls, the previous government notified the Lingayats and Veerashaiva Lingayats as religious minority, but said it would come into effect after the central government's approval to the state government's recommendation on the issue.

The move backfired, exemplified by the defeat of three prominent ministers, Vinay Kulkarni, Dr Sharanprakash Patil and Basavaraj Rayareddi.

All the three ministers were the prominent faces of the Siddaramaiah government, who had aggressively pushed for the religious minority tag to the Lingayat community.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashanti Gold Corp. (Ashanti or the Company) - (TSXV: AGZ) is pleased to announce Anastasia Levashova is joining the Board of Directors. Ms. Levashova is current a Portfolio Manager at Blackfriars Asset Management, a London, UK based fund management boutique specializing in equities investment within global emerging and frontier markets. Ms. Levashova has over 20 years experience in emerging markets working in New York, London and Moscow at such institutions as Merrill Lynch and BNP Paribas.

Ms. Levashova holds a PhD from Moscow Lomonosov State University in International Relations and an MA in International Finance from Columbia University.

Tim McCutcheon, Ashantis CEO, said: We are very excited to have Anastasia join our board. She has deep experience in emerging markets and has long-standing relationships with financial institutions, private investors and other capital market participants. She is a great addition to the Ashanti team.

ABOUT ASHANTI GOLD

Ashanti is a gold-focused, exploration and development company that targets projects where it has a competitive advantage due to past work experience of the team and specific project know-how. The Company is driving forward its 100%-owned Kossanto East project in Mali on the prolific Kenieba Belt of Mali, which hosts such deposits as Loulo, Fekola and Sadiola. Ashanti is also working to advance, together with its earn-in partners, the Anumso project and the Ashanti Belt project in Ghana, which are near-adjacent to the Akyem deposit.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of

ASHANTI GOLD CORP.

"Tim McCutcheon"

Tim McCutcheon

CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ashanti Gold Corp.

2300  1177 West Hastings Street

Vancouver BC, V6E 2K3

Phone: 604-638-3847

Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information



NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the anticipated content, commencement, timing and cost of exploration programs, anticipated exploration program results, the discovery and delineation of mineral deposits/resources/reserves, and the anticipated business plans and timing of future activities of the Company, are forward-looking statements. 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 typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, the state of the financial markets for the Company's equity securities, the state of the commodity markets generally, variations in the nature, quality and quantity of any mineral deposits that may be located, variations in the market price of any mineral products the Company may produce or plan to produce, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV acceptance, for its planned activities, the inability of the Company to produce minerals from its properties successfully or profitably, to continue its projected growth, to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.DELTA, BC, Oct. 18, 2018 /CNW/ - Desert Gold Ventures Inc. ("Desert Gold" or "the Company") (TSXV: DAU) (FF: QXR2) (OTC: DAUGF) is pleased to provide guidance regarding the upcoming work season. The Company is also pleased to announce that during ongoing geological mapping and surficial exploration at its Farabantourou permit, the Company has discovered a new mineralized trend consisting of several active large artisanal mining sites known as the Frikidi trend.

Frikidi Trend Observation

The newly discovered Frikidi trend and related artisanal mining areas are hosted by strong, sericite-, potassic- and pyrite-altered felsic sills that intrude a northwest-trending package of intermediate volcanic rocks along a 2.4 km long, northwest trend. Two grab samples of the zone returned 29.7 g/t Au and 0.83 g/t Au which strongly supports the observed artisanal mining. Proximal 'waste' piles up to five metres high are predominantly comprised of strongly altered felsic intrusion and are believed to be gold-bearing. Further geological mapping and additional rock sampling will be conducted on this target later in the year. Grab samples are selected samples that are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted on the property.

The Frikidi zone host rocks are inferred to be folded equivalents of the Mako Series rocks which host Teranga's Sabodala Mine, Toro Gold's Mako Mine and Randgold's advanced Massawa exploration project, which lie on the western side of the Mali-Senegal Shear Zone. This occurrence area has never been drill tested before and represents additional upside to Desert Gold's Farabantourou Project (see Figure 1).

Gold-in-soil Follow-up

In addition to a follow-up on historic drill results, property-scale soil sampling demonstrates a significant amount of gold-in-soil anomalies and anomalous gold-in-soil anomaly trends that have not yet been fully evaluated. The newly discovered Frikidi Trend was one of these anomalous areas. Based on the attached figure, there are in excess of 45 untested gold-in-soil anomalies containing greater than 200 ppb gold with values ranging up to 7,589 ppb gold. These anomalies occur both east and west of the Mali-Senegal Shear Zone, suggesting significant exploration potential in a variety of geological settings (see Figure 1).

Work Commencement

Fieldwork in Mali is scheduled to start in early December 2018 shortly after the end of the rainy season and continue into 2019. The company is planning an ambitious exploration program at all three of its properties in Mali. At Farabantourou, drilling is planned to follow-up known gold zones. At Farabantourou and Segala West, auger drilling will be carried out over select laterite-covered zones in conjunction with geological mapping, prospecting and systematic evaluation and prioritization of strong gold-in-soil targets. At Djimbala, which is contiguous to Hummingbird's Yanfolila mine permit, previously collected soil samples will be analyzed with follow-up field evaluation and property-scale mapping. This work, in conjunction with drilling, is expected to lead to the development of a significant amount of new priority drill targets at all three properties.

Desert Gold holds three gold projects (Farabantourou, Segala Ouest and Djimbala), of which, Farabantourou and Segala West are located within the Kenieba Inlier of western Mali. The Farabantourou project lies 40 km to the south of AngloGold Ashanti's/Iamgold's Sadiola gold mine and 50 km to the north of Randgold's Loulo-Gounkoto complex gold mines (see Figure 2).

Farabantourou Property Map Showing Frikidi Trend and Gold-in-Soil Anomalies

(1) Randgold's Loulo-Gounkoto mine complex to the west with ore reserves of 32 Mt average at 4.6 g.t for 3.7 million oz Au in the Proven and Probably category. Endeavour Mining's Tabakoto and Segala mines which hosts ~3 million oz Au (18.5 Mt at 3.5 g/t for 1.8 million oz Au measured and indicated, 9 Mt at 3.6 g/t for 1 million oz Au inferred and 6.4 Mt at 3.5 g/t for 0.7 million oz Au proven and probable. B2Gold Fekola mine to the south with ore reserves of 48.3 million Mt average at 2.37 g/t gold for 3.34 million oz Au in the Proven and Probably category and 65.8 million Mt average at 2.13 g/t gold for 4.5 million oz Au. To the north Sadiola/Yatela mine contains ore reserves of 38 million Mt at 1.57 g/t gold for 2 million oz Au and 87 million Mt at 1.58 g/t gold for 6 million oz Au in the measured and indicated category.

QAQC

All rock samples were geologically described following Desert Gold's established standard operating procedures. All individual samples represent approximately 2-kilogram which is sent for preparation and gold assaying at the SGS laboratories in Bamako, Mali. Each sample is fire-assayed for gold by SGS laboratories in Bamako using Au-FAA505 method which is a 50g fire assay fusion with AAS instrument finish. In addition to SGS own QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) program, an internal quality control and quality assurance program is in place throughout the sampling program, using blind duplicates (1 :20), blanks (1 :20) and recognized industry standards (1 :20).

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Sonny Janda"

___________________________

Sonny Janda

Director

This note was reviewed by Dr. Luc Antoine who is a director of the Company and is registered as a Member of the Geological Society of South Africa (MGSSA 967397). He approves the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release and has the necessary experience relevant to the style of mineralization and types of deposits under consideration and to the activity as a Qualified Person as defined in the National Instrument 43-101.

Additional information can also be viewed at www.SEDAR.com under the company's profile.

This news release contains forward-looking statements respecting the Company's ability to successfully complete the Offering. These forward-looking statements entail various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations, are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such statements, including the inability of the Company to successfully complete the Offering. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the capital markets, the price of gold; operational, funding, and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; and the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with mining operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available at www.sedar.com and readers are urged to read these materials. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such statements unless required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities described herein in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the united states securities act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the united states or to the account or benefit of a U.S. person absent an exemption from the registration requirements of such act./NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

VANCOUVER, Oct. 18, 2018 /CNW/ - Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX-V: MED) is pleased to announce that due to strong interest from investors, the Company has increased the size of its previously announced private placement financing. The Company has now closed the placement with the issuance of 4,902,800 units at $0.30 per unit, raising gross proceeds of $1,470,840. Each unit consists of one common share and one full warrant, each warrant entitling the holder to purchase one additional common share of the Company at $0.40 for two years from closing. The warrants are subject to an acceleration provision such that if the closing price of the Company's shares for 10 consecutive trading days is $0.60 or greater, the Company may give notice to the holders of the warrants that the warrants will expire 30 calendar days after receipt of such notice. The shares and warrants issued are subject to a resale restriction until February 18, 2019.

The Company paid cash finder's fees totaling $22,409 on a portion of this financing. The proceeds of the placement are intended to be used for exploration of the Company's 100% owned Ljubata Project in Serbia, project generation, and for general working capital purposes.

A portion of this private placement is considered to be a "related party transaction", pursuant to Multilateral Instrument 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101"). The Company has determined that exemptions from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 were available for the related party transaction, pursuant to Section 5.5(a) and Section 5.7(a) of MI 61-101, on the basis that the fair market value consideration of the transaction involving the related parties was not more than 25% of the Company's market capitalization.

The securities referred to in this news release have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of such Act. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. Any public offering of securities in the United States must be made by means of a prospectus containing detailed information about the company and management, as well as financial statements.

About Medgold Resources Corp.

Medgold is a Serbia-focused, TSX-V listed, project generator company targeting early-stage gold properties in the Oligo-Miocene Belt of Serbia. Run by an experienced management team with a successful track-record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold exploration company.

Additional information on Medgold can be found on the Company's website at www.medgoldresources.com and by reviewing the Company's page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Dan James"

Daniel P. James, President & Director

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

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and include, without limitation, statements about the private placement, and the Company's projects. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "estimates", "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "upgraded", "offset", "limited", "contained", "reflecting", "containing", "remaining", "to be", "periodically", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

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 results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors include, among others, whether the Company will spend the financing proceeds as intended; the exploration plans for the Company's projects; changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the Company or any joint venture partner not having the financial ability to meet its exploration and development goals; risks associated with the results of exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the proposed exploration of the Tlamimo Project will proceed as intended; that the Company will spend the financing proceeds as intended; that the Company's stated goals and planned exploration and development activities will be achieved; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof 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, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2018 /CNW/ - IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") today provided results from its 2018 drilling program at the Diakha deposit on its wholly owned Siribaya Project in Western Mali. In 2018, the Company completed a combined diamond and Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling program designed to infill and increase confidence in the current resource as well as target expansions of the Diakha deposit to support an updated resource estimate. Assay results are reported herein for 100 drill holes totaling 14,634 metres.

Diakha drill hole plan map





Assay intersections relating to this release are provided in Tables 1 and 2, and include the following highlights: (a drill hole plan map is attached to this news release.)

Infill Drill Holes:  SRD18-241: 8.0 metres grading 8.31 g/t Au o Includes 5.0 metres grading 11.93 g/t Au and 6.0 metres grading 10.15 g/t Au o Includes 3.0 metres grading 19.80 g/t Au  SRD18-249: 13.0 metres grading 6.05 g/t Au o Includes 5.0 metres grading 10.04 g/t Au  SRC18-753: 8.0 metres grading 6.05 g/t Au and 4.0 metres grading 6.77 g/t Au  SRC18-762: 52.0 metres grading 1.61 g/t Au o Includes 6.0 metres grading 7.16 g/t Au  SRC18-783: 22.0 metres grading 2.96 g/t Au o Includes 8.0 metres grading 4.66 g/t Au Expansion Drill Holes:  SRD18-244: 7.0 metres grading 12.46 g/t Au o Includes 5.0 metres grading 17.22 g/t Au  SRC18-728: 13.0 metres grading 11.60 g/t Au o Includes 5.0 metres grading 22.37 g/t Au  SRC18-756: 17.0 metres grading 1.39 g/t Au and 47.0 metres grading 1.28 g/t Au o Including: 11.0 metres grading 2.17 g/t Au

Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD, stated, "We continue to be very pleased with the results of our delineation drilling programs, which confirm not only wide zones of mineralization and locally high grades from infill holes within the existing resource, but also well mineralized intervals beyond the original resource limits. The deposit now extends for nearly 3 kilometres along strike, which we believe will positively impact an updated resource estimate due for completion by year end."

About the Siribaya Project

The Siribaya project is wholly owned by IAMGOLD and consists of 8 contiguous exploration permits which cover a total area of 596.5 square kilometres, located in the Kedougou-Kenieba inlier of the West African Craton region of western Mali along the borders with Senegal and Guinea.

The project hosts current mineral resources comprising indicated resources of 2.1 million tonnes averaging 1.90 grams of gold per tonne for 129,000 ounces and inferred resources of 19.8 million tonnes averaging 1.71 grams of gold per tonne for 1.1 million ounces (see news release dated February 12, 2018).

Gold mineralization is hosted within highly prospective, Birimian-aged metasedimentary, volcanic and intrusive rocks proximal to the Senegal-Mali Shear Zone. At Diakha, the largest deposit discovered to date, gold mineralization occurs within an albitized sandstone unit similar to that hosting IAMGOLD's Boto gold deposit located in Senegal approximately 10 kilometres to the north along strike and for which a feasibility study is nearing completion.

Next Steps

The drilling results will be used to refine the deposit model to support an updated resource estimate expected by year end. Upon completion of the resource estimate, further drilling is anticipated in 2019 to continue to better define and expand resources at the Diakha deposit as well as explore other identified priority targets.

Technical Information and Quality Control Notes

The drilling results contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

The sampling of, and assay data from, drill core and RC chips are monitored through the implementation of a quality assurance - quality control (QA-QC) program designed to follow industry best practice. Rock chips from Reverse Circulation drilling are collected at the rig site, at one metre intervals, under the direct supervision of IAMGOLD geologists and field technicians. Samples are riffle split to obtain two 3 kg samples. One sample is retained for reference purposes and the other sample is sent for assay.

Drill core (HQ and NQ size) samples were selected by the IAMGOLD geologists and sawn in half with a diamond saw at the project site. Half of the core was retained at the site for reference purposes. Drill core sample intervals are generally one metre in length.

The samples were assayed at the SGS Minerals Analytical Laboratory in Bamako, Mali, using a standard fire assay with a 50-gram charge and an Atomic Absorption finish (FAA505). All samples returning values greater than 10 g/t Au were re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (FAG505).

Qualified Persons

The information in this news release was prepared under the supervision of, and reviewed and verified by, Craig MacDougall, P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD. Mr. MacDougall is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, potential mineralization, potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets and other risks disclosed in IAMGOLD's most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD (www.iamgold.com) is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in North and South America and West Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise.

For further information please contact:

Ken Chernin, VP Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 360-4743 Mobile: (416) 388-6883

Laura Young, Director, Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-4952 Mobile: (416) 670-3815

Martin Dumont, Senior Analyst Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942

Toll-free: 1-888-464-9999 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please note:

This entire news release may be accessed via fax, e-mail, IAMGOLD's website at www.iamgold.com and through CNW Group's website at www.newswire.ca. All material information on IAMGOLD can be found at www.sedar.com or at www.sec.gov.

Si vous desirez obtenir la version francaise de ce communique, veuillez consulter le Click Here.

Table 1: Diakha Deposit - 2018 Diamond Drilling Assay Results (36 DDH totaling 7,098 metres)

UTM WGS84/Zone29 EOH Azimuth Dip From To Length Gold HOLE-ID Easting Northing Elevation (m) () () (m) (m) (m) (g/t_Au) SRD18-175-Ext 240620 1369795 155 120 108 -63 NSA SRD18-211-Ext 240612 1369692 158 67 115 -61 NSA SRD18-233 240660 1368671 156 201 115 -60 NSA SRD18-234 240691 1368777 153 255 115 -60 NSA SRD18-235 240627 1368893 153 13 115 -50 Abandoned SRD18-235A 240627 1368890 154 280 115 -50 48 52 4 0.74 95 99 4 1.19 258 262 4 0.71 SRD18-236 240565 1368941 153 220 115 -50 72 76 4 2.43 202 206 4 4.11 SRD18-237 240699 1369043 163 300 115 -50 96 105 9 1.33 156 160 4 5.98 Includes 156 158 2 10.10 181 198 17 1.87 Includes 185 192 7 2.80 SRD18-238 240625 1369894 154 240 115 -60 49 52 3 7.36 164 168 4 0.71 202 205 3 0.75 222 226 4 1.52 SRD18-239 240641 1368961 147 252 115 -50 191 194 3 3.13 SRD18-240 240410 1369995 140 174 115 -60 34 38 4 1.21 96 99 3 1.59 SRD18-241 240668 1369174 161 220 115 -60 144 152 8 8.31 Includes 147 152 5 11.93 157 163 6 10.15 Includes 160 163 3 19.80 SRD18-242 240372 1370132 139 232 115 -60 151 167 16 0.80 179 183 4 0.91 190 193 3 1.16 SRD18-243 240890 1369948 159 170 115 -60 NSA SRD18-244 240665 1370161 150 176 115 -60 51 54 3 1.22 72 75 3 0.76 141 144 3 0.80 168 175 7 12.46 Includes 168 173 5 17.22 SRD18-245 240433 1370161 139 154 115 -60 92 101 9 3.70 Includes 92 95 3 8.98 111 123 12 1.10 SRD18-246 240796 1369110 170 220 115 -50 NSA SRD18-247 240404 1369897 140 194 115 -60 86 95 9 1.69 98 104 6 1.00 SRD18-248 240691 1369596 159 340 115 -57 116 119 3 3.32 125 134 9 0.75 137 140 3 1.01 172 178 6 0.70 239 244 5 4.67 304 307 3 0.50 SRD18-249 240622 1369189 159 267 115 -60 171 174 3 0.68 219 232 13 6.05 Includes 220 225 5 10.04 252 255 3 0.74 262 267 5 0.55 SRD18-250 240715 1369475 164 13 115 -60 Abandoned SRD18-250A 240711 1369478 161 320 115 -60 123 126 3 2.56 130 134 4 2.22 225 240 15 0.90 Includes 232 240 8 1.41 SRD18-251 240740 1369023 168 351 115 -50 41 53 12 0.86 124 134 10 5.78 SRD18-252 240444 1370429 159 160 115 -60 91 115 24 0.78 Includes 101 110 9 1.01 SRD18-253 240429 1370328 146 176 115 -62 90 98 8 0.49 140 143 3 0.63 153 156 3 12.09 SRD18-254 240737 1368806 148 200 115 -55 42 47 5 0.73 117 125 8 2.17 SRD18-255 240393 1369793 140 170 115 -60 115 127 12 1.02 SRD18-256 240739 1368872 164 330 118 -50 140 145 5 2.19 187 190 3 1.15 SRD18-257 240713 1368985 163 300 115 -60 23 27 4 1.81 152 155 3 2.19 159 167 8 1.20 SRD18-258 240722 1368923 164 300 115 -50 40 44 4 0.84 50 53 3 2.15 159 164 5 2.17 SRD18-259 240731 1368704 153 250 118 -60 76 87 11 0.93 116 119 3 0.58 SRD18-260 240669 1368814 154 250 107 -55 96 99 3 0.58 SRD18-261 240385 1370182 139 183 115 -60 142 146 4 0.68 167 172 5 0.90 SRD18-262 240426 1370274 137 165 115 -60 90 96 6 0.68 104 112 8 0.78 Includes 110 112 2 1.05 . SRD18-263 240455 1370369 150 165 115 -63 87 92 5 2.38 109 113 4 3.00 SRD18-264 240490 1369913 148 108 115 -58 20 29 9 1.9 Includes 20 23 3 4.12 34 38 4 1.95

 NSA  No significant assays  Drillhole intercepts are calculated using a minimum downhole length of 3 meters, a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t gold, and may include up to 5 metres of internal dilution.  The true widths of intersections are interpreted to approximate the reported downhole lengths.

Table 2: Diakha Deposit - 2018 RC Drilling Assay Results (64 RC holes totaling 7,536 metres)

UTM WGS84/Zone 29 EOH Azimuth Dip From To Length Gold Hole No Easting Northing Elevation m () () (m) (m) (m) (g/t_Au) SRC18-724 240810 1370255 156 90 115 -58 6 19 13 0.91 Includes 14 18 4 1.58 SRC18-725 240498 1370578 152 114 115 -58 39 50 11 0.67 Includes 39 41 2 1.71 SRC18-726 240534 1370560 151 78 115 -58 11 19 8 1.11 SRC18-727 240890 1370049 158 114 115 -58 NSA SRC18-728 240745 1368540 159 144 115 -58 44 57 13 11.60 Includes 44 49 5 22.37 62 65 3 0.48 101 106 5 1.97 SRC18-729 240572 1368717 154 140 115 -58 52 60 8 0.92 Includes 55 57 2 1.47 SRC18-730 240554 1368836 153 138 115 -58 64 75 11 1.38 Includes 64 68 4 2.75 SRC18-731 240603 1368815 154 120 115 -58 42 46 4 0.76 SRC18-732 240590 1368877 154 140 115 -52 42 45 3 1.27 57 59 2 2.17 108 118 10 0.63 Includes 113 114 1 2.09 136 140 4 1.81 0 SRC18-733 240631 1368854 154 140 115 -55 27 33 6 1.12 36 38 2 2.34 SRC18-734 240832 1368488 159 131 115 -55 NSA SRC18-735 240759 1368616 157 140 115 -58 40 44 4 0.85 SRC18-736 240850 1368587 155 144 115 -58 NSA SRC18-737 240740 1368758 148 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-738 240749 1368583 158 140 115 -58 37 45 8 1.72 113 117 4 2.80 SRC18-739 240391 1369850 140 121 115 -58 106 112 6 2.18 115 120 5 0.94 SRC18-738A 240392 1369851 152 60 115 -58 Abandoned SRC18-740 240528 1369883 149 72 115 -58 18 24 6 1.04 SRC18-741 240546 1369932 150 75 115 -60 3 6 3 0.67 SRC18-742 240582 1369915 152 36 115 -60 NSA SRC18-743 240577 1369976 151 54 115 -58 13 15 2 2.03 SRC18-744 240449 1370200 138 126 115 -58 75 81 6 2.43 104 109 5 1.62 SRC18-745 240559 1369782 152 50 150 -60 NSA SRC18-746 240568 1369161 156 102 115 -90 NSA SRC18-747 240837 1368816 182 126 115 -85 53 55 2 11.42 Includes 53 54 1 21.80 115 126 11 1.14 Includes 120 125 5 2.89 SRC18-748 240840 1368815 183 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-749 240879 1368796 184 140 115 -58 48 51 3 3.20 SRC18-750 240920 1368776 185 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-751 240773 1368723 148 140 105 -58 105 108 3 5.21 SRC18-752 240855 1369967 160 126 115 -58 0 3 3 1.52 22 25 3 3.67 117 118 1 11.2 SRC18-753 240934 1369930 158 120 115 -58 57 65 8 6.05 73 77 4 6.77 SRC18-754 240556 1370047 144 72 115 -58 NSA SRC18-755 240481 1370467 156 140 115 -58 63 84 21 0.95 112 114 2 1.60 SRC18-756 240524 1370444 156 132 115 -58 10 13 3 1.08 17 34 17 1.39 Includes 24 26 2 2.56 38 85 47 1.28 Includes 56 67 11 2.17 107 127 20 0.77 Includes 107 114 7 1.09 SRC18-757 240571 1370423 155 90 115 -58 18 27 9 0.66 SRC18-758 240832 1370300 155 72 115 -58 0 4 4 0.97 SRC18-759 240518 1370232 140 140 115 -58 22 39 17 0.92 SRC18-760 240508 1370676 149 102 115 -58 27 32 5 1.06 42 47 5 0.92 SRC18-761 240597 1370470 154 78 115 -58 12 16 4 3.23 SRC18-762 240478 1370137 139 105 115 -58 43 95 52 1.61 Includes 43 49 6 7.16 99 105 6 1.57 115 -58 SRC18-763 240775 1368404 173 0 Abandoned SRC18-763A 240775 1368406 164 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-764 240808 1368697 148 140 105 -58 NSA SRC18-765 240472 1370252 138 126 115 -58 59 63 4 2.30 SRC18-766 240531 1370162 140 54 115 -58 0 15 15 0.63 SRC18-767 240521 1370116 140 66 115 -58 15 18 3 0.83 SRC18-768 240531 1370334 144 90 115 -58 25 28 3 1.03 37 44 7 1.30 SRC18-769 240487 1370353 150 132 115 -58 43 48 5 1.81 62 66 4 2.27 70 86 16 0.57 SRC18-770 240782 1370216 156 102 115 -58 22 29 7 0.88 SRC18-771 240491 1370022 140 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-772 240456 1369972 140 120 115 -58 NSA SRC18-773 240707 1368604 157 140 115 -58 64 72 8 1.28 87 90 3 0.92 SRC18-774 240855 1368651 150 140 112 -58 NSA SRC18-775 240789 1368567 158 112 115 -58 34 43 9 0.97 SRC18-776 240713 1368488 161 140 129 132 3 0.73 SRC18-777 115 -58 47 52 5 1.16 240756 1368471 161 140 73 77 4 1.65 85 96 11 2.43 SRC18-778 240795 1368453 162 140 115 -58 54 61 7 0.95 Includes 58 61 3 1.27 83 88 5 1.76 92 96 4 1.46 SRC18-779 240593 1368964 152 140 115 -58 NSA SRC18-780 241090 1368753 172 66 115 -58 NSA SRC18-781 241002 1368678 164 120 115 -58 10 13 3 1.01 SRC18-782 241059 1368656 168 66 115 -58 NSA SRC18-783 240963 1369919 157 70 115 -58 28 50 22 2.96 Includes 28 36 8 4.66 SRC18-784 240556 1369068 156 140 125 -55 64 70 6 1.42 SRC18-785 240576 1369098 156 102 295 -75 37 42 5 0.88Mosquito immunity research gets boost from network science with $2.8 million NIH grant



Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018

A nearly $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will help a cross-disciplinary research team led by Kansas State University's Kristin Michel to understand how malaria mosquitoes fend off infections, as well as find a framework for monitoring the immune status of the insect. | Download this photo.





MANHATTAN  Network science may be the answer to understanding how mosquitoes are able to transmit diseases and unveil a framework for biological control of the insect.



Kansas State University's Kristin Michel, associate professor in the Division of Biology, is the principal investigator for a recently awarded $2.87 million National Institutes of Health grant that will use genetics, biochemistry and network science to understand mosquito immune response.



"Mosquitoes have to combat many different types of infection and prevent constant attack from pathogens encountered through their blood meal," Michel said. "At the same time, mosquitoes must be able to regulate their overzealous immune response and prevent it from attacking valid bodily functions. This balance is necessary for any organisms' immune system, including humans."



According to Michel, mosquitoes have more than 7 million potential protein-to-protein interactions responsible for shutting down or activating immune system responses, which provide an ideal system to research how complex information networks function.



"This grant will allow us to get a 30,000-foot view of the mosquito's immune system," Michel said. "We can use network analysis to understand how all these interactions are integrated, visualize the data and make predictions as to how a mosquito's immune system will be activated if we shift the system."



Among the many attempts to control mosquitos as carriers of deadly human pathogens are avenues that can affect the mosquito's immune system, such as entomopathogens, or fungi that act as parasites to kill or disable insects. According to Michel, a better understanding of the mosquito's immune system can help aid decisions for proper biological control of diseases.



Michel is working with Kansas State University's Mike Kanost, university distinguished professor of biochemistry, and Caterina Scoglio, LeRoy and Aileen Paslay professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Mike Osta, associate professor at the American University of Beirut. The interdisciplinary team will help bridge vector biology and genetics with protein biochemistry and computational modeling to answer questions about mosquito immunity.



"This effort requires expertise in multiple scientific disciplines and collaboration to investigate a very complex system by which mosquitoes mount and regulate immune responses to pathogens," Kanost said.



The research will help biologists understand the mosquito's immune system better and advance network science. Computer and mathematical calculations will simulate how proteins are connected during mosquito immune responses to provide an innovative representation of a multilayer network.



"While network analysis of a single-layer is well-studied, the analysis of multilayer networks presents theoretical challenges," Scoglio said. "The goal of our work will be to infer missing links, detect critical protein types, and determine the network robustness."



Mosquitoes' immune systems are made up of a cascade of protein and enzyme reactions, Michel said. Very few of those reactions are understood and may influence other cascades in the system. Network science can help sort out the complexity and visualize the potential for how to interrupt the system.



"In this sea of interactions, or potential interactions, we can use the network analysis to figure out which interactions are really critical to the mosquito's immune response," Michel said. "Then, if we use things in the field to kill mosquitoes, we can make predictions of how the mosquito's immune system would shift from that manipulation."



"This network is crucial in regulating the mosquito immune response to parasites such as those that cause malaria and other microbes," Osta said. "The work will provide novel insights into the immune mechanisms that regulate parasite survival in its mosquito vector."





The 32-year old Reshma is mulling to climb Sabarimala in the company of a few other women Ayyappa swamis.

Kozhikode: The conflict between modernity and conservatism took the toll of jobs for two young women who announced their plan to go Sabarimala. Reshma Nishanth of Irinavu in Kannur, who was on a 41-day vrutha has to quit the teaching post at an unaided college as she cannot step outside.

My husband or relatives cannot provide escort on all the 41-days on the way and back to college. Hence I quit the job, she says. A group of people claiming to be Ayyappa devotees led a torch-light protest march to her house on the night of October 14. The abuses against her on social media ranges from she wants to be popular at the cost of maligning Hindu religion to she is the puppet in the hands of Communist party to abuse Hindu dharma. Gauging the mood, she said that she would do the Kettum Nira (The ritual where the Ayyappa devotee prepares his/her bag to go to Sabarimala) from somewhere else.

The 32-year old Reshma is mulling to climb Sabarimala in the company of a few other women Ayyappa swamis. Soorya Devarchana, another young woman who is on vruta and now staying in Kozhikode was fired from her job. In her Facebook post, she said that she had been fired apparently due to her decision to go to Sabar-imala. Its not clear where she was working and Ms Devarchana was unavailable for comment. But the mounting pressure has not dampened the spirit of Mrs Nishanth.

She pins all hopes on the state government. I am aware of the protest, blockade and chaos at Nilakkal since the past two days. But I trust that police will give protection to all the devotees who want to see Lord Ayyappa, she said.The Travancore Dewasom Board is yet to take a decision on filing a review.

New Delhi: The All-Kerala Brahmins Association has moved the Supreme Court seeking a review of the judgment, allowing entry of women of all ages into Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

This is the sixth review petition against the September 28 verdict. The Travancore Dewasom Board is yet to take a decision on filing a review.

The association, also known as Kerala Brahmana Sabha, in its petition submitted that the restriction on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 years cannot be seen as gender discrimination issue and that the court had erred in looking at the matter from the prism of individual dignity without considering similar restrictions placed on men in many other temples in the country.

It faulted the majority judgment for failing to appreciate the distinction between pilgrims and devotees. It pointed out that different temples across India follow different practices such as different time of opening and closing, donation of hair etc., and such a customary practice cannot, therefore, be questioned.

The petition said that the judgment has unnecessarily widened the scope of adjudication by going into the question of whether the practice in question is an essential aspect of Hindu religion instead of confining the scope to the question as to whether the said practice is an essential aspect of the Saba-rimala temple or not.

It quoted evidence to show that the practice in question has been going on from time immemorial due to the tantric nature of the temple and the celibate form of the deity.

It said the court has completely ignored the diverse practices, traditions and schools, which exist within the Hindu faith. In arriving at the aforesaid conclusion, the court has completely disregarded the examples of the Hindu temples dedicated to female deities where restrictions are placed on the entry and participation of men in the temple and its practices.

Drawing a distinction between a devotee and a pilgrim, it said that a devotee may go as a tourist to any temple where permitted but not to certain places where only those who come on pilgrimage are allowed. Pilgrimage is sacred journey. They require a different environment. A pilgrimage to temple enables the devotee to live within the context of a sacred narrative. Devotees will become pilgrims if they got to a particular temple. In that circumstances they have to follow different custom and usage followed in such temples.

The petitioner said that the court should take note of the fact that post-judgment, an overwhelmingly large section of women worshipers came out in support of the custom of prohibiting the entry of women between the age group of 10 and 50 years at Sabarimala Temple and that the judgment was rendered behind the back of the review petitioners and millions of devotees of Lord Ayyappa.

It also said that the court erred in holding that the devotees of Lord Ayyappa do not constitute a separate religious denomination and went on to frame the issue of whether restriction on entry of women is an essential practice of Hindu religion.

It pointed out that the majority judgment was in error in holding that exclusion of women with reproductive capabilities has nothing to do with the celibate nature of the deity at the Sabarimala Temple and is therefore not an essential religious practice. The petitioner while seeking review pleaded for oral hearing as review petitions are normally decided in the presiding judges chamber.50 people charged with violence; prohibitory orders clamped for two days.

Sabarimala: Prohibitory orders were clamped on a 30-km radius of Sabarimala for two days on Wednesday evening after pitched battles raged through the day between the police and pro-Sangh Parivar agitators, leaving scores injured, including eight journalists, and causing extensive damage to vehicles and other assets at the Nilakkal foothills.

The shrine at Sabarimala sannidhanam opened in the evening for the customary puja during the first five days of the Malayalam month. Pathanamthitta district collector P.B. Nooh, who clamped the orders, said utmost restraint had been used, hoping the agitators would agitate peacefully.

But the situation has slipped up and now we cant take chances. We will ensure Sabarimala remains peaceful for pilgrims to offer prayers, said Mr Nooh. Pampa, Nilakkal, Sannidhanam and Elavunkal are four places under ban orders.

Fifty people have been charged with violence. Ayyappa Dharma Sena and Achara Samrakshana Samiti activists held Nilakkal and Pampa to ransom, taking advantage of the small-sized police pickets. The police arrested prominent activist Rahul Eswar and other members of the tantri family. Pathanamthitta SPs car fell into a ravine, caught in the attack by agitators.

Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran accused RSS criminals of fomenting violence and attributing it to the pilgrims.

However, the police failed to ensure safe passage for two women  Ms Lebi from Cherthala and Ms Madhavi and her family from AP  to have Ayyappa darshan despite the top courts verdict and the state governments assurance of protection to young women. Ms Lebi was stopped by agitators in Pathanamthitta town while Ms Madhavi and family were escorted for some distance up the hills and turned back by the police.

ADGP Anil Kant and IG Manoj Abraham were on the scene, chalking out the police action after first round of stone-pelting and vigilante checking of vehicles.

The police personnel, heavily outnumbered by the agitators, apparently were under orders from high-ups, and held back even when goons masquerading as pilgrims stopped vehicles, including KSRTC buses, targeting young women. They turned their ire on journalists, especially women, belonging to the national media. A woman devotee lay injured in the stampede.

In the forenoon, the police removed a roadside marquee set up by the agitators, after which agitators massed in from different directions. It was at about 3.45 pm when a group of devotees started pelting stones indiscriminately at Nilakkal junction. Soon stone-throwing spread to Pampa; the police retaliated in kind and resorted to caning. The BJP and the Congress leaders held their satyagraha at separate venues as the battle raged.

Earlier in the day, Minister Kadakampally Surendran was closeted with Travancore Devsawom Board (TDB) officials and public representatives for a review in connection with preparations for the pilgrimage season. However, the TDBs half-hearted approach to the SC verdict was clear as it ensured only women older than 50 years to attend the meeting.

Even Health officials, additional director K J Been and deputy director Dr Meenakshy were subjected to checking by TDB officials for proof of their ages. They had to show their ID cards and sign on the register.

After their eviction, a group of BJP leaders began the namajapa (prayer) meet at the same venue. BJP state general secretaries K Surendran, M T Ramesh and Shobha Surendran were among those who led the prayer meet. They alleged that the police removed the members of the traditional tantri and royal families without any provocation.

Inaugurating the sit-in, Congress State working president K.Sudhakaran reiterated that government was trying to create violence in Sabarimala in the name of the verdict. He went onto say that it was the ego of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan which created a crisis in Sabarimala.Young India is hungry for jobs that pay, and there are not enough  a harsh reality that even official documents are forced to acknowledge.

Migrant dreams and nightmares fuel Indias development story. The malls, the factories, the highways, the bridges, the luxury condominiums  the markers of the countrys stunning economic transformation over the past few decades  would not have come up without the sweat of migrant labourers. But those who migrate from one part of the country to another in search of a livelihood, continue to be problematised. This has to change.

Currently, Gujarat is on the radar. There are reports of renewed tension in the state, recently scarred by anti-migrant sentiments. Earlier this week, a three-year-old girl was raped and killed in Surat. The suspect is a migrant labourer from north India. There are also reports of assaults on construction workers from Bihar for wearing a lungi.

Hopefully, these incidents would not spark a fresh round of violence in Gujarat, which is recovering from a turbulent fortnight. Migrant labourers from northern India  mainly from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh  were harassed and attacked in seven out of the states 33 districts in recent days. The trigger had been the rape of a 14-month-old baby girl by a migrant labourer from Bihar in Gujarats Sabarkantha district on September 28. Soon after, all too predictably, local politics came into play. Alpesh Thakor, a Congress MLA, is reported to have made an inflammatory speech that stoked anti-migrant sentiments. Mr Thakor now says he is all for peace.

What happened in Gujarat has happened elsewhere in the country innumerable times. Incidents like a rape act as a lightning rod. If the suspected culprit is a migrant labourer, it becomes childs play to inflame local sentiments, and target entire communities, stigmatising them for the crimes of a few. It is not difficult to raise the bogey of the outsider and jobs in danger even in an affluent state when job growth is not keeping pace with aspirations, and where there are deep pockets of poverty amid the plenty. The number of families in the state living below the poverty line (BPL) rose by 18,932 in the past two years, the Gujarat government admitted in the Assembly earlier this year in response to starred questions by Opposition MLAs.

Anti-migrant sentiments bring public attention back to Indias most pressing challenge: jobs.

Young India is hungry for jobs that pay, and there are not enough  a harsh reality that even official documents are forced to acknowledge.

It is clear that providing Indias young and burgeoning labour force with good, high productivity jobs will remain a pressing medium-term challenge, noted the Economic Survey 2017-18.

Trust-building meetings along with the police are being held in many cities in Gujarat and the workers who had fled out of fear are coming back. These are promising signs, but sustainable peace would take a lot more work.

The fact is that Gujarat needs migrant labourers as much as the migrant labourers need Gujarat.

What do we make of Indians problematising other Indians as outsiders at a time when high-decibel nationalism rents the air?

We are all Indians. But we say my spot is here and your spot is there. The problem is the increasing unwillingness to accommodate others in ones economic space and cultural space, says Prof Binod Khadria, professor of economics and education at New Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University and a migration expert. Add to this, the impact of social media and the internet. Both of these can be passports to mobility as well as amplifiers of existing prejudices. Remember August 2012, when thousands of panic-stricken people from the Northeast fled Bengaluru, which figures in the global list of the top 25 high-tech cities in the world, following rumours.

Internal migrants in India are estimated to be above 450 million. The poor will always vote with their feet whether one likes it or not. Migration is inevitable, given the highly skewed development status of states in India. It comes as no surprise that the more populous northern states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar send out a huge chunk of their workforce to states in the south and west which are more affluent and where work is easier to find.

The stark reality is that with agriculture not able to provide a livelihood in many parts of the country, migration is here to stay. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are likely to remain among the biggest source states from where there is migrant outflow in the near future. The same is the case with states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi are likely to remain popular destination states.

In a democracy, you cannot tell people not to move to greener pastures; migrants have to be accommodated and given security and basic amenities. It helps no one to have them live in a permanent state of vulnerability. The Gujarat government must make sure that anti-migrant sentiments are not stoked, prejudices are not tapped. Migrant enclaves must get all the protection they need.

Migration can foster dialogue between communities who are cultural aliens to each other in this country. Migrants bring in new ideas and energy. To see a community only through the lens of the few who have committed crimes is lopsided. Migrants and host communities must be encouraged to mingle so that they get to know each other better.

This does not mean that unplanned migration is the way ahead. It only means that policymakers must factor in the reality of migrant labourers and manage the process more smoothly. This will be difficult if the politics of exclusion, the otherising of anyone who is different, from a different place, doesnt stop.

Jose Saramago, the Portuguese writer and Nobel laureate, once wrote: Let him who has not a single speck of migration to blot his family escutcheon cast the first stone If you didnt migrate then your father did, and if your father didnt need to move from place to place, then it was only because your grandfather before him had no choice but to go, put his old life behind him in search of the bread that his own land denied him... It is worth keeping Saramagos lines in mind.A Manchester man is accused of providing drugs and alcohol to a minor before sexually assaulting her.

Marlon Drain had his preliminary hearing Tuesday on a third degree sexual abuse charge. A criminal complaint says Drain, 45; the victim, who was under 18; and several others were at his home on September 20.

It says the victim was intoxicated and went to Drain's bedroom to sleep. She says she did not consent to sex and reported the incident the next day.Various estimates show cryptocurrency crime is on the rise, keeping pace with the markets rapid growth.

When Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke learned in January that hackers cracked a 40-character password and cleaned out their cryptocurrency wallet, they did not go to the police or alert the tokens issuer, the Berlin-based technology group IOTA.

They bought more coins. The Cyprus-based German couple, who describe themselves as financial educators, figured they had no chance of recovering the coins and it was not even clear who might take up their case. Yet they took the roughly $14,000 loss in stride - something that comes with the territory when one bet on a new, exciting technology in a yet unregulated market.

We really believe in cryptocurrencies. We have studied this for about a year before investing, so we are aware of the risks, Peggy Lachmann-Anke said. There was nothing we could do.

Far from unusual, the episode is emblematic for a market where few rules apply and where investors faith in the blockchain technology goes hand in hand with the belief that it also helps criminals cover their tracks so well that trying to catch them is a fools errand. Patrick Wyman, FBI supervisory special agent at the financial crimes section of the agencys anti-money laundering unit acknowledges cryptocurrencies pose some unique challenges.

A decentralized currency system like bitcoin or another form of virtual currency is not governed by any entity, suspicious reporting activity, and any anti-money laundering compliance, Wyman told Reuters.

Various estimates show cryptocurrency crime is on the rise, keeping pace with the markets rapid growth. That forces investigators to focus on high-profile cases, security professionals and officials say, effectively leaving small investors to their own devices.

We do not pretend that every law enforcement agency is devoting resources to every single crime. That would not be possible, said Jaroslav Jakubcek, an analyst at Europol, which serves as a centre for the European Unions law enforcement cooperation, expertise and intelligence.

UNREPORTED CASES

Officials still encourage people to report cryptocurrency theft to local police like any other crime, saying failing to do so only emboldens criminals. Yet because many victims simply do not see the point, cryptocurrency theft is far more common than any published estimates suggest, security professionals say.

According to financial research firm Autonomous NEXT and Crypto Aware, which works with investors affected by crypto scams, about 15 per cent of cryptocurrencies have been stolen between 2012 and the first half of 2018, representing a cumulative $1.7 billion in value at the time of the theft and with a rising tendency. In the first half of this year alone, more than $800 million has already been stolen, according to the data. Yet Lex Sokolin, a partner and global director of fintech strategy at the firm, estimates that as much as 85 per cent of crimes go unreported and says the published statistics only represent publicly reported heists.

Reuters interviews with half a dozen victims paint a similar picture. Out of that group, only two reported their losses to the authorities and one soured on cryptocurrency investments.

Armin Fischer, a Vienna-based IT specialist said he lost about $5,300 in ether coins in a phishing scam in the summer of 2017 and immediately alerted the local police just to find out that the duty officer had no idea what he was talking about. He said it took many months of knocking on doors to get his case ultimately taken up by Vienna prosecutors office, but it is still pending. Fisher says by now he has had enough.

I have seen firsthand how big the security leaks are.

Others are more philosophical. Dave Appleton, a blockchain developer for HelloGold, a gold trading app company in Kuala Lumpur, said he lost about $3,000 of ether coins when scammed by a fake site touting a startups token pre-sale. He said he just moved on, glad he did not lose more.

The point is theres no one to report the crime to, Appleton said. I am not sure what country or jurisdiction it would come under.

According to ICO tracker Coinschedule a record $21.3 billion flowed into new tokens so far this year as investors keep snapping up initial coin offerings, undeterred by high-profile heists, bitcoins and other currencies slide from late 2017 peaks, and government warnings of widespread fraud and theft.

MILLIONS AT STAKE

David Jevans, chief executive of cybersecurity firm CipherTrace in Menlo Park, California, estimates that even when exchanges or trading platforms get hacked, perhaps only a fifth of stolen coins is recovered because of the ease with which digital tokens can move across several borders.

You have to get law enforcement in five countries interested enough, have time enough, and have evidence enough to open a case, he said. By the time they agree, get the information, do all the paperwork, the money has been moved. Security experts say in most cases millions need to be at stake to justify such an effort.

US entrepreneur and long-time cryptocurrency investor Michael Terpin, who says he got robbed twice, learned firsthand that not all hacks are created equal. He said the first time when criminals accessed his cellphone with stolen SIM card credentials, emptied a wallet connected to it, and tricked his friends into sending money by impersonating him on Skype, he contacted a friend at the FBI. But once she learned that only $60,000 got stolen, she advised him to file a report via the FBIs internet crime centre website. Terpin said he did, but never heard back.

Then, when last January he lost almost $24 million in tokens from his mobile account, he went straight after the service provider AT&T, filing a $224 million lawsuit accusing it of negligence that allowed digital identity theft, a claim AT&T denies. Undeterred, Terpin says he remains committed to blockchain comparing it to the early days of Amazon.com Inc when the online retailer faced much scepticism and even derision.

Thats similar to todays narrative that all ICOs (initial coin offerings) are scams and nothing will ever be developed of value because theyre not already fully deployed, he said. Steadfast commitment to the new technology and believe that it gives sophisticated criminals the upper hand mean that even some multimillion heists go unreported.

For example, when hackers stole about $9 million worth of ether tokens from a Zug, Switzerland-based company Swarm City in July 2017, the peer-to-peer digital platform did not report the theft to the police, business leader Bernd Lapp said.

Its impossible to track and return the funds. We live and die with this technology.Imran Ali was arrested after he raped, killed 8-yr-old Zainab Ansari.

Relatives of Imran Ali convicted of killing eight children avoid media in a van while arrivIng to receive his body at a prison in Lahore on Wednesday. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Imran Ali  sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Zainab Ansari and 12 other minor girls  was hanged on Wednesday at Lahores Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan.

The black warrant for Imran Alis execution was carried out at 5.30 am in accordance with the prevailing law on capital punishment.

Imran Alis body was later handed over to his family. Ali was convicted in February after being identified through DNA tests and was sentenced to death on one count, 25 years of imprisonment on two counts.

In other cases, Imran Ali was awarded death sentence on four counts and life imprisonment on one count.

Zainab Ansari was abducted on January 4 from near her aunts house in Kasur. Her body was recovered from a garbage heap near her house five days later, sparking widespread protests in which two people died from police firing.

The police later collected DNA samples of 1,187 people from January 12 to January 23 to trace the accused. On January 23, the police arrested Imran Ali, a neighbour of Zainab Ansari, as his DNA matched not only with the DNA samples collected from the body of Zainab Ansari, but also at least seven other victims.

On February 10, the court handed over copies of the challan (charge-sheet) to the accused counsel in a hearing which was held in Kot Lakhpat jail and February 12 was fixed for framing of charges.

On February 12, the judge asked the accused whether he accepted the charges levelled against him in the challan (charge-sheet).

The accused refused to accept the charges after which the court indicted him in the case and started regular trial proceedings.

However, on the next day, Imran Ali confessed to raping and killing Ayesha Asif, Eman Fatima, Noor Fatima, Laiba Saleem, Zainab Ansari and others. All the victims were less than 8 years old.GRANTS PASS, Ore.  A homeless woman has filed a class action lawsuit against the city of Grants Pass, alleging that the city government has pursued a policy of "trying to run homeless people out of town," according to court documents.

Previous records put Debra Blake at roughly 60 years old. In her suit, she says that she has lived in Grants Pass for 14 years. Seven years ago, Blake lost her job and her housing  leading to her life sleeping outdoors in the city.

Since Blake became homeless, she claims, the city has done little to provide for their ballooning homeless population, and instead has done everything in its power to get them to simply "move along."

Now Blake is represented by attorneys at the Oregon Law Center, who filed her suit against the city on Monday:

"Over a period of years, the City of Grants Pass has taken coordinated steps to drive homeless people out of town," the suit claims. "The City has refused to allow warming stations in the winter (which are very cold), and cooling stations in the summer (which are very hot and increasingly smoky). The City has removed park benches from its parks. The City has paid one-way bus fare for homeless people to leave town. The City has driven people to Jackson County.

"One city councilor stated in a city council meeting, 'the point is to make it uncomfortable enough for them [homeless people] in our city so they will want to move on down the road.' At the same time, city council has voted against affordable housing in the City and has failed to take steps to create a low-barrier emergency shelter for the hundreds of homeless people who live in the City."

Meanwhile, Blake claims, Grants Pass authorities have pursued a ruthless campaign to "criminalize" the existence of homeless people  consistently waking, and often arresting or citing the homeless when they attempt to sleep anywhere within the City limits.

Blake says that she now owes Grants Pass more than $4,000 in fines and late fees  all stemming from illegal camping or trespass charges.

As a class action lawsuit, Oregon Law Center will be seeking more plaintiffs to join the suit from the Grants Pass homeless population.

The lawsuit does mention that there are several shelters in the city operated by the Gospel Rescue Mission. However, the suit says, the Mission limits the duration of stays to 30 days and levels a number of extra conditions that restrict who can stay with them and how.

Blake's lawyers at the Oregon Law Center denied a request for comment. The Grants Pass Department of Public Safety and the City Attorney likewise declined to comment on the case.

This is a developing story, and NewsWatch 12 will post updates as more details emerge.MEDFORD, Ore.  One Jackson County detectives dual loyalty with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will allow him to pursue high tech crimes wherever they may take him, according to a statement from the Jackson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO).

Detective Gabe Burchfiel was sworn in as an FBI agent on Tuesday after a period of intensive training. But his new status won't take him away from the Jackson County  instead, JCSO says, he'll be primed to take on online crimes that may originate outside of their jurisdiction.

"The dual designation allows Detective Burchfiel to investigate local crimes that may include activity outside Oregon, such those that involve children lured by internet predators," JCSO said.

Burchfiel is now poised to join the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force (SOHTCTF), a unit embedded at the Medford Police station that consists of a team of investigators from both local and federal agencies. Most of their cases are linked to child sexual abuse or exploitation, but they have also been known to assist with homicides, sexual assaults and drug trafficking.

The kind of training that Burchfiel received from the FBI includes a certification for the "forensic examinations of electronic devices," a component that JCSO says has become increasingly common in criminal cases these days.

With a detective now trained in the pursuit of computer-related crimes, JCSO says that thy won't have to look far afield at other labs for their high tech needs.MEDFORD, Ore. -- President Trump says the people in California's government need to "get their act together."

He spoke in the Oval Office today, saying several governors claim, "there's no reason for forest fires to be like that in California," and "So I say to the governor or whoever is going to be the governor of California you'd better get your act together."

The office of California's governor, Jerry Brown, says fires burned more acreage on federal land versus state-managed land.

CalFire says fires burned 742,050 acres on Forest Service land this year, versus 505,956 on state land.

According to "The impact of land ownership, firefighting, and reserve status on fire probability in California," forest thinning happens more frequently on private land, which falls under California's jurisdiction than federal land.

CalFire Deputy Cal Fire Chief Scott McLean says thinning and prescribed burns are just part of the picture. The state has seen severe drought, and the precipitation from the past two years hasn't been enough to make an impact.

McLean adds CalFire is beefing up it's prescribed burns and preventive measures. It's using six teams of 10 firefighters to work year-round on fire preventative measures. He adds these firefighters will not be pulled from those measures to fight active fires.KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. -- Representative Greg Walden hosted a very powerful & influential congressman at Kingsley Air Base in Klamath Falls Wednesday. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry toured the base and spoke with representatives about everything Kingsley and Klamath Falls has to offer.

Their hope is that the base will become the future home of the F-35. Kingsley is currently the only training base in the country for the F-15, but the planes are old and in need of an update.

Colonel Jeff Smith is the 173rd Fighter Wing Commander. He described his feelings about the F-15. "She's a great beast, a great combat bird," he remarked. "But she's old and she's tired and it's probably time to pivot to the future."

Rep. Walden described his reasons for arranging the visit. "We have great weather conditions, great flying space, excellent place to train with enormous community support," Walden explained. "It's a jewel. I felt really compelled to make sure the armed services committee chairman gets an opportunity to see first hand and hear first hand about the enormous asset America has right here in the Klamath Basin."

Rep. Thornberry said he could see just how much the community supported Kingsley Air Base. He said this is perhaps the most important component when making future decisions.

"Whether we ever consider another round of base closings or what not, that community support for the military and the mission that putting arms around the men and women who are our most valuable asset," he said. "That's a key asset for any base."The celebration was attended by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife, visiting the Vatican. Moon thanked Pope Francis for his support for the path of reconciliation between the North and the South. The hope that the Holy See's involvement will convince the most skeptical Koreans and the international community.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Tonight, we humbly wish to raise our eyes to God, to the One who holds the history and destiny of humanity, and to implore, once again, for the whole world the gift of peace. We do this by praying in particular so that also on the Korean Peninsula, after so many years of tensions and division, the word "peace" can finally completely resound": this is how Card. Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, introduced his homily at the Mass for Peace on the Korean peninsula celebrated last night in the Basilica of St Peter at the altar of the chair.

The South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his wife, together with a large group of Korean faithful, a hundred priests and missionaries, some bishops and many representatives of the diplomatic corps to the Holy See participated in the celebration.

The Mass for Peace is the way in which the Vatican wants to support the signs of reconciliation that have multiplied in recent months between South and North Korea, after the " Panmunjom Declaration" last April and the visit of Moon to Pyongyang last September.

On that occasion, Kim Jong-un delivered a letter of invitation for Pope Francis to go to North Korea. The letter will be handed to the Pope today by Moon during a private audience.

Pope Francis has often expressed his concern for North-South dialogue and invited the faithful from all over the world to pray for the reconciliation between Seoul and Pyongyang.

According to several observers, the Vaticans support in the path of dialogue between North and South serves in turn to increase support for President Moon's policy despite the fringes of South Korean society, doubtful about the peaceful intentions of the Northern leader. At the same time, the involvement of the Holy See could facilitate the collaboration of the international community - above all of the USA, China, Russia, Japan - for peace in the peninsula.

Before arriving at the Vatican, President Moon made a series of visits to Europe with the same purpose.

Yesterday, at the end of the Mass, President Moon addressed a brief speech to those present in which he thanked the Vatican and the Korean Church for the work of reconciliation, development aid and democracy so far and urged his fellow countrymen to have faith in the many signs of peace that are flourishing in the peninsula. He also thanked Pope Francis for his support in the path of peace and the strengthening of "fraternity" between South and North Koreans.Pope Francis and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met today. According to a South Korean presidential spokesman, the pontiff expressed encouragement for the peace efforts on the Korean Peninsula. "Move forward without stopping. Do not be afraid," he said. Now the ball is in North Koreas court. The Vatican and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.

Rome (AsiaNews) - Pope Francis today expressed his willingness to visit North Korea if officially invited during a private meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. The pontiff said that he would "certainly" respond to such an invitation.

Moon had said that he would bring an invitation to the pope to visit Pyongyang from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The pontiff noted the verbal invitation relayed by President Moon should be sufficient but that an official invitation would also be nice, said Moon's top press secretary, Yoon Young-chan.

The Holy Father supports without reservations ongoing peace and denuclearisation efforts on the Korean peninsula. "Move forward without stopping. Do not be afraid," the pope said.

For his part, Moon, a practising Catholic baptised with the Christian name Timothy, thanked the Pope for his support for the peace process and for meeting him despite the ongoing Synod on Young People.

Moon said that he always reminds himself of the pope's message that dialogue is the only solution in all conflicts whenever he and his country faced a critical moment in their efforts to establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.49 Shares Share

Mary first took oxycodone after a minor surgery and found she liked it. Returning to her surgeon a month later with vague ongoing pain, she received another prescription. Her primary care provider took over from there  until one day that physician checked a urine drug screen and a prescription monitoring program (PMP) report, only to find that she was obtaining various opioids from several providers. The physician cut her off and reported her to the PMP just as crackdowns on opioid prescribers arose. The prescriptions dried up. She tried buying pills from illicit sources but found that at roughly a dollar a milligram, the street price of prescription opioids can rapidly exceed a generous mortgage every month. A friend offered her heroin to stave off the shivering, vomitous withdrawals, and she accepted. She is now hooked on heroin.

The patient is not real, but her story is a true-to-life composite of dozens of patients who have recounted the same well-beaten pathway to heroin in my medication-assisted treatment (MAT) practice. These patients fall victim to the pull of narcotics on an opioid-adjusted brain, but they also fall prey to the invisible hand of inviolable market principles. For people stuck on these substances, prescription opioids are a product of price inelasticity  the economic principle that posits that the demand for some products stays steady no matter how steep the price. Many people will not be able to quit opioids simply because Medicaid stops paying the copays  but they will drift to the cheapest source of a substance that will fit tight into the opioid receptor and satisfy the withdrawals for another day or at least another hour. And if the price of that source rises, they will either pay it or find another product that will do the job.

Enter Suboxone and its key ingredient buprenorphine  the mainstay of MAT treatment in the primary care setting. Suboxone staves off withdrawals longer than most opioids and boasts a much preferable safety profile. But it is expensive at the pharmacy and on the street. The single largest cost of switching to the safer, milder buprenorphine molecule is the wait time it requires to find a prescriber who possess the X-waiver license necessary to prescribe this medication in the United States, to hope that prescriber has not reached their patient limit of 30 or 100 or 275, and to pray that your insurance  if you have insurance  covers the drug without cumbersome paperwork and limitations. That makes Suboxone a precious commodity, creating medical rationing and an inevitable robust black market for the life-saving substance.

The key to solving both the opioid epidemic and the unsavory black market for Suboxone may lie over the Atlantic Ocean. Faced with their own opioid epidemic several decades ago, France has allowed buprenorphine prescription from primary care offices for over 20 years without the strict licensure and limits in effect in the United States. This liberal prescribing policy has resulted in wide availability of buprenorphine and a lower overdose death rate for the country. The policy functions on a basic market principle: flood the market with a safer alternative that then becomes the preferred product of opioid users. Use the marketplace of personal choices to make Suboxone cheaper and more available than cut-rate, adulterated heroin, and people will flock to it.

While Frances liberal prescribing policies for Suboxone may seem revolutionary, the isolation of buprenorphine to a special class of medications requiring extra training and licensure is an outlier in American medical regulations. I can prescribe insulin, Dilaudid, and Xanax without any more training than I received in a routine family medicine residency, even though all three of these medications can exert consequences far more severe than buprenorphine. But I cannot prescribe buprenorphine without meeting strict requirements and being subject to surprise DEA audits.

Above and beyond bucking the drug-war trend toward draconian supervision of opioid use disorder treatment, utilizing market-based approaches requires a fundamental belief that patients with substance use disorders are not crazed, irrational beings that have been hijacked by an exogenous molecule. Instead, patients with opioid use disorder are rational actors in their own lives who follow similar decision trees as anyone else: if you are ill, you seek to treat that illness effectively. If you are in pain, you seek means of relieving that pain. And just as a cash-strapped college student might comparison shop and clip coupons, individuals with opioid use disorder will find the means of satisfying their needs via the most financially expedient pathway that presents itself. If heroin is the cheapest fix on the market, users will choose heroin. If the safer, longer-acting Suboxone is that rational choice, users will choose Suboxone.

In a situation where the most rational choice is subsidized, widely available Suboxone, patients are free to make rational market-based choices that support their health, rather than paths of least financial resistance that result in exposure to impure substances, injection site or systemic infections, and street crime. We have only to correct the fundamental market mistakes of the drug war  especially the ludicrous assumption that banning an addictive chemical will result in anything but a sharp rise in black market supplies and the violence that accompanies prohibition  and move forward with policy choices that mesh with fundamental principles of human behavior.

Julie Craig is a family physician who blogs at America, Love It or Heal It.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comSPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- Crews from Eugene Springfield fire are shaken up after shots were fired at firefighters on scene of a house fire early Wednesday morning.

RELATED: Police identify subject in early morning shooting, fire



Eugene Springfield Fire was called to a house fire at 536 Oakdale Avenue at about 3:54 a.m. Officials said when first responders arrived on scene, they came under gunfire from a shooter who was walking through the area with a rifle.

The gunman was later identified as Lance Jacobs, 65, who ultimately shot and killed himself.

Bullets struck the windshield and front of the fire engine. Fire personnel took cover and requested police assistance.

The last thing youre expecting when you roll in is to come under fire like that, said Springfield Police Lt. Scott Mckee.

Springfield police arrived on scene by 4:02 a.m.

A SWAT team and detectives were also called as the suspect continued to fire at responding officers.

Fire personnel then fought the house fire. Four residences caught fire: a duplex at 536 and 542 Oakdale Ave. and two single-family residences at 518 and 530 Oakdale Ave.

In the photo below, you can see five spots where gunshots pierced the windshield.

In Seattle, firefighters recently added bulletproof vests to their equipment to protect them from similar incidents.

KEZI asked Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Joe Zaludek if they plan on adding bullet proof vests and he said its not a plan right now.

"We have had bullet proof vest for some assignments that include special duty, but at this time, we do not, Zaludek said. We believe our best safety is using our powers of observation and our training like they did today to fall back.

Fire officials said after crews ran to safety, police who were on the scene picked up a hose and started fighting the fire.

Zaludek said hes aware of similar ambush situations happening across the country, but after seeing It happen in Springfield, hes concerned.

He said the next step is to look at industry standards to make sure this doesnt happen again. He also said coordination with law enforcement is key.

"We are in harms way on occasion, but we have very good coordination with law enforcement and they're there to support us, he said. Our training is to observe and to identify something that doesn't seem right at the scene and to work as a team and have an officer provide leadership to give direction and direct the crew in a safe manner."

Zaludek said hes never seen police step in and help fight a fire, but said hes grateful they did.

He said hes thankful none of the firefighters or police officers on scene were hurt.

"We're concerned for each other's wellbeing. They were very thankful,Zaludek said. We had the chance to visit with them at the station today and we are going to continue to work on their well-being and that's really our priority is the recovery and well-being of not only their families, but the entire department who experienced this and the stress that went on from their attack."

Police believe Jacobs set fire to his own home to ambush first responders.

Its unclear who placed the 911 call, and the cause of the fire is under investigation.EUGENE, Ore. -- On Wednesday night, teachers from Holt Elementary School presented a letter to the 4J School Board during their regular meeting.

That letter was in regards to an investigation by the school district, about an employee at Holt Elementary that was accused of sexual harassment.

KEZI first broke the news of that investigation in June.

RELATED: Holt Elementary employee facing sexual harassment allegations

In their letter, they asked the board for the results of that investigation which they said they are allowed to have based on district guidelines.

Teacher Jessica Brewer also listed the questions they still have about that investigation.

"We're left with a series of questions," Brewer said. "What did the investigation conclude? What were the complaints confirmed? What action, if any, did the district take? What consequences were there for the former principal, who is ultimately responsible for maintaining a safe working environment?"

School board members thanked the teachers for their comments, but didn't respond to their request at the meeting.

4J spokesperson Kerry Delf said that employee resigned before the investigation was complete.SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- The Oakdale Neighborhood Watch group held a meeting with Springfield Police and Springfield Neighborhood Watch on Wednesday night.

The Oakdale group was still trying to find its' footing when fires and an active shooter happened in their neighborhood early Wednesday morning.

Penny Hales, President of Springfield Neighborhood Watch, said the information given to the Oakdale group on Wednesday can help all neighborhoods.

"Talk with your neighbors," Hales said. "You can say, did you notice George down the street is a little different lately? Process that. Always, as we say, call. You can have a well check done."

Towards the end of that meeting, a young couple walked in.

Josh Harvey and his wife just moved to the neighborhood in August.

He was already up at 4:00 a.m. when those fires and gunshots started.

"So I heard, like, firecrackers going off, and I was like, man, that sounds like it's in the middle of the street," Harvey said. "I was like, why are their fireworks going off in the middle of the street."

He walked outside, and that's when he saw the fire.

"I ran back inside and was like, babe, you gotta call the fire department," Harvey said. "Then I ran back outside to make sure all the people were out of the house and alright and make sure they got things. Then all the sudden, I started hearing gunshots."

Harvey said he saw Lance Jacobs firing shots near that house, and ran to inform fire fighters allowing them to get out of the area.

Harvey took cover behind a vehicle until police arrived.

"Then I was relaying.. relaying back to them, saying there's an active shooter, he's right by this car by this house, then we kept talking and talking, and soon they called SWAT, and that's when stuff really went down," Harvey said.

Harvey said after all that, he may be interested in joining the neighborhood watch.

He said for now, he's just glad everyone was safe and just wants to catch up on sleep.TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Calls to breach four hydroelectric dams in Washington state have grown louder in recent months as the plight of the critically endangered Northwest orcas has captured global attention.

Some argue the quickest way to get more fish to the starving salmon-eating whales is to tear down four dams on the Lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia River.

Others say the dams provide many benefits to the region in hydropower, navigation and recreation.

Breaching the dams has long been contentious, but it's gained renewed attention as the orcas have hit the lowest numbers in more than three decades. The whales struggle from pollution, boat noise and lack of chinook salmon.

A task force called by Gov. Jay Inslee is coming up with potential solutions to address those three threats. At a meeting Thursday, there was little consensus on the dam removal issue.SPRINGFIELD, Ore.  The gunman who set a fire that burned four Springfield homes and shot at firefighters before killing himself posted on Facebook about an hour before it all happened.

READ MORE: Police identify subject in early morning shooting, fire

Around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Lance Jacobs, 65, wrote a lengthy post on his Facebook page about his declining health and numerous MRSA infections in the last two years, as well as suffering from sleep apnea.

He also said he never recovered from the trauma of his divorce 28 years ago and not being able to see his kids anymore devastated him. He said his life has been broken and meaningless ever since.

Jacobs said he was worried he would face charges for something he didnt do because of his ex-wifes lies.

About an hour later, police said Jacobs set fire to his home in the 500 block of Oakdale Avenue and then fired shots at firefighters.

The fire then spread to other homes, destroying three and damaging another.

RELATED: Police help put out fire after firefighters ambushed in Springfield

Police said Jacobs then shot and killed himself. They believe he was trying to kill first responders, but they are not sure why.

Jacobs does not have any past criminal cases in Oregon.

Read Jacobs entire Facebook post below:

"I have become so ill in recent years. My health just continues to go downhill. I've got painful injuries to discs in my lower back, and my left knee is getting to the point where it will soon need a knee replacement. My doctor told me that surgery has done all it can to repair the torn meniscus. Then my cardiovascular problems started six years ago, and have slowly been getting worse. On top of that, I have something wrong with the right side of my sinuses, and have suffered chronic infections in my right sinus for many years now. Many times my right eye has become infected too. Yet no doctor seems to be able to explain why this happens.

Then 2 1/2 years ago, I became infected with MRSA, after a visit to the Sacred Heart RiverBend hospital. And i have had numerous MRSA infections break out in many parts of my body since then.

And on top of everything else, I suffer from really severe sleep apnea. The chronic nasal congestion I suffer made trying to use a CPAP machine impossible. And when I get this bad congestion in my right sinus, it really aggravates my sleep apnea greatly. I wake up some mornings with my bed in shambles, and still feeling tired, and lately even with a headache.

I've continued to suffer falls, which I believe that the sleep apnea is contributing to. Just 10 days ago, I fell. I broke my fall, by putting out my left hand. But now my left wrist has been in pain ever since.

I had a great doctor at Springfield Family Physicians for 13 years, but since he is gone, I feel like I am treated like a stranger there. And Peacehealth staff at both the hospital, and also their Gateway Urgent Care, have both refused to believe me this year, when I told them that I was suffering from a bad sinus infection again, and instead brushed off my complaints by saying that I was having allergies.

My right sinus is so badly infected. And the infection has spread the past two months to my right eye, and my vision in my right eye has now been destroyed. It is like muddy blotches now cover my right eye, and everything is a blur now. And just the last couple of days, I now have new symptoms of bright dots of green and blue, and sometimes red, now appearing in my vision.

I've also never recovered from the emotional trauma of my divorce 28 years ago, and the monstrous abuse and witch hunt that my ex was able to orchestrate against me in divorce court, with the help of Samantha Payne. How the authorities in Nevada could have ever come to rely on that woman, I will never understand. When she told Judge Griffin that there was no such thing as false allegations of abuse, he simply nodded.The trauma of not being allowed to see my kids anymore totally devastated me. Plus the stress of the never ending police investigations due to my ex continuing to manufacture new allegations, and fearing being charged with something that I've never done, all based on her false allegations. I had two emotional breakdowns during the divorce, ( which lasted 2 years and 10 months in court ). I even sought help from a local expert on trauma after moving to Eugene, as I actually suffered constant nightmares, that went on for 4 years after the divorce was over. Night after night, I would relive the trauma and pain of losing my kids. It was like an echo that just would not stop.

I've never really fully recovered emotionally. My life has been broken and meaningless ever since.

It is ironic that the terrible emotional pain that I have suffered so very long with, is now being matched with all of these physical pains and health problems. I have become so very disabled by my medical issues now."Corvallis, Ore. -- Oregon State defensive lineman Isaac Hodgins talked with the media about cheering for his brother, wide receiver Isaiah, the play of the defensive line, and being a true freshman earning significant playing time.by Moon Jae-in

The South Korean president: "We are paving the way for a noble effort, which will ensure a peaceful future for the Korean peninsula and the whole world". Moon praises the role of the Church in the history of the country: " During the dark hours of colonization, division, war and dictatorship, it stood tall to shed light on human dignity and justice, as well as the path of peace and love".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in expresses "deep gratitude to Pope Francis and the Holy See for providing great encouragement and hope to the two Koreas" on their path of reconciliation. In Europe for a series of official visits, Moon took part in the Mass for peace on the Korean peninsula, celebrated last night in St. Peter's Basilica by Card. Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State. The president was joined by his wife, a large group of Korean faithful, about a hundred priests and missionaries, some bishops and many representatives of the diplomatic corps of the Holy See. We propose below the full text of the speech given by the South Korean president. (Translated by AsiaNews).

Praise Jesus!

His Eminence Cardinal Parolin, Secretary of State,

Distinguished guests,

It is my great pleasure to be here at St. Peters basilica, the home of Catholic faith, to meet you all and attend this Holy Mass.

On behalf of the Korean people, I would like to express my profound gratitude to Cardinal Parolin for personally celebrating this Special Mass for Peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as all the staff here at the Holy See who have extended warm hospitality and prepared this meaningful event.

Half a century ago, on October 6, 1968, 24 Korean martyrs were beatified here in this Basilica of St. Peter.

For the first time, prayers and hymns in Korean resounded in this great cathedral.

The Korean faithful numbering 500 shed tears of joy.

Up until today, Korea has produced 103 martyrs, which is the fourth largest number in the world, behind Italy, Spain and France.

At the homily that day, Pope Paul the 6th challenged people to emulate the great example of the Korean church.

He pointed out that, in the global history of the Catholic church, Korea is a unique case in the sense that the church movement started after people had a direct encounter with the word of God before the missionaries came.

This was a great honor bestowed upon the Catholic church in Korea.

The Catholic church in Korea embraced the down and out and emulated the life of Jesus in the form of a social calling.

During the dark hours of colonization, division, war and dictatorship, it stood tall to shed light on human dignity and justice, as well as the path of peace and love.

The priests and the laity in Korea stood by the weak and the persecuted within the society.

At times, they took to the streets to stand for democracy and human rights.

I myself have served as a member of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace as well as the Commission for Human Rights for a long time.

Im immensely proud of this fact.

Having witnessed the dedication of the Catholic Church for democracy, human rights and welfare, the Korean people came to respect the Catholic faith as an exemplary religion.

I hope glory shines upon the Catholic church.

Distinguished guests,

Right now on the Korean Peninsula, historic and heartwarming changes are taking place.

In September, Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea and I adopted the Pyongyang Joint Declaration.

We vowed to end military confrontation between the two Koreas and declared a peaceful Korean Peninsula that is free from nuclear weapons and threats in front of the whole world.

Thus far, the two Koreas have been implementing the agreements one at a time. We are withdrawing weapons and guard posts from the demilitarized zone.

We are also conducting demining operations.

The West Sea, where armed conflicts brewed in the past, has now become the sea of peace and cooperation.

The United States and North Korea have also ended the 70 year-long hostile relations and have sat down together.

Just as Pope Francis had prayed ahead of the U.S-North Korea Summit, we are blazing the trail for a noble endeavor that will secure the future of peace for the Korean Peninsula and the whole world.

During the harsh winter of 2017, the Korean people carried the candles in the most beautiful and peaceful way to safeguard democracy and light the new way forward.

The path of peace that began from the candlelight revolution became the driving force of a miraculous turnaround.

The Holy See dispatched a delegation to the opening ceremony of the Pyongchang Olympic Winter Games and provided strong support to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Pope Francis blessed our journey towards peace and walked together with us through his prayers.

I would like to once again express my profound gratitude to Pope Francis and the Holy See for providing great encouragement and hope to the Korean nation as a whole and the two Koreas that desire peace and are currently recovering the sense of brotherhood.

His Eminence Cardinal Parolin,

Distinguished guests,

The love for humankind that Christianity and the European civilization helped blossom transcended time and space to provide encouragement to the Korean Peninsula.

The spirit of inclusiveness and solidarity embodied by the European Union is providing inspiration to our journey towards permanent peace on the Peninsula.

The history that humankind has been writing so far is a regrettable one permeated with stories of war.

The declaration to end the war on the Korean Peninsula and the signing of a peace treaty will be akin to dissolving the last remaining Cold War regime on the earth.

As written in the book of Psalms, love and truth will meet, and justice and peace will embrace each other in a kiss now on the Korean Peninsula.

The prayers we have offered for peace on the Korean Peninsula at the St. Peters Basilica today will also resound as echoes of hope in the hearts of the people of the two Koreas as well as the people of the whole world who desire peace.

This will be a source of great strength for our people who long for peace. Our prayers today will turn into reality for sure.

We will achieve peace and overcome division without fail.

I pray for peace for each one of you.

Thank you.by Mathias Hariyadi

The bishop of Ketapang stressed the important role young people played in the birth of Indonesia. For him, diversity is our cultural heritage and a great blessing for the nation." The Indonesian Church is for inter-faith dialogue and harmony. Young Muslim woman recalls her participation in pre-Synod meetings.

Jakarta (AsiaNews)  The Indonesian Church urges young Catholics to become "agents of change", capable of reshaping for the better the community and its social context, said Mgr Pius Riana Prapdi (pictured, third from right), bishop of Ketapang (West Kalimantan province) and president of the Youth Commission (KomKep) of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Indonesia (KWI).

Currently in the Vatican, the prelate shared with AsiaNews the message that Indonesian delegates want to pass on to the world at the Synod on Young People (3-28 October 2018).

Mgr Riana Prapdi and Mgr Adrianus Sunarko, bishop of Pangkal-Pinang, are the two Synodal Fathers representing the KWI. They are accompanied by Anastasia Indrawan (picture 2, left), a member of KomKep and a Synod auditor.

The bishop of Ketapang noted the important role played by Indonesias youth in the birth of the nation. Mgr Riana Prapdi cites in particular the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge) of 28 October 1928 when young Indonesian nationalists proclaimed three ideals: homeland, nation, language.

The first day of that historic Congress, organised by young people, was held in the building of the Katholieke Jongelingen Bond, the Catholic Youth Association.

Currently, some 260 million Indonesians live on more than 17,500 islands divided in at least 300 different ethnic groups, speaking more than 700 living languages.

"It is a fact that, as Indonesians, we live and enjoy our daily life in a pluralist society, which every young Indonesian Catholic should be able to embrace, said Mgr Riana Pradpi.

"Within such an historical and social framework, Catholic youth are called to become 'agents of change'. Our position is clear: Sumpah Pemuda has always been the reference for the nation and the Church," the bishop said.

This is partly due to the nature of many Indonesian families. "Young Catholics come from families of baptised people or people who have undergone adult conversion, the prelate explained. Most likely, their parents come from different ethnic groups with different languages and cultures."

"This should not be considered a 'social bond', but a good starting point for Indonesian society. Diversity is not something 'terrible', to be avoided, but it is our cultural heritage and a great blessing for the nation. It is within this framework of thoughts that parents must offer moral education in the family."

As evidence of the Indonesian Church's commitment to dialogue and inter-faith harmony in the country, Dewi Kartika Maharani Praswida (picture 3, right), a young Muslim woman, was one of the young people who took part in the pre-Synodal Meeting held in the Vatican between 19 and 24 March.

A graduate of the Soegijapranata Catholic University in Semarang (Central Java), she is a member of GusDurian, a youth movement affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nation's largest Muslim organisation.

"At the beginning, Dewi said, as a Muslim I was surprised by my involvement in this initiative of the universal Church, which had convened so many young people from all over the world to discuss issues related to Catholics.

"However, after days of meetings, I found the answer: Pope Francis is also interested in the opinions of non-Catholics and their expectations of the Church. Of course, my perspective was different but my colleagues appreciated it anyway. This opportunity has taught me that friendship can transcend religious affiliation."A number of Kilkenny councillors have expressed their disappointment with the name given to new bridge crossing the River Barrow from Kilkenny to New Ross, as part of the bypass.

The bridge will be officially named The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge, after the socialite, philanthropist and matriarch of the Kennedy family. At a recent joint meeting between New Ross and Piltown Municipal District councillors, that name was chosen in a 8-6 vote.

Five of the six Piltown councillors and one New Ross councillor voted for the alternative name The Pink Rock Bridge. The remaining Piltown councillor, Melissa O Neill, sided with seven of her New Ross counterparts, however.

The matter turned into a war of words on Monday, when Cllr Fidelis Doherty said that Cllr O Neill had voted against [her] own on the matter.

The discussion arose when Cllr Pat Dunphy said the decision that was made wasnt made on public submissions, because if it was, it would be The Pink Rock Bridge.

Cllr Doherty then expressed her disappointment with the chosen name. She said that in the public submissions, 51 people had called for Pink Rock Bridge, while 28 wanted Rose F Kennedy Bridge.

Cllr Doherty said that five Kilkenny councillors voted to support the wishes of their electorate, but one did not.

It wasnt what the electorate wanted, she said.

Unfortunately, one of our own voted against us.

Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh questioned the late Ms Kennedys relevance to the area, and wondered if the name would strike a chord with anyone crossing the bridge.

Ive no memory of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy coming to here - Kilkenny or Wexford, or Ireland. Did she? she asked.

Director of services Tim Butler said that the council had its own infrastructure naming policy, and that naming infrastructure was not a popularity contest, and it was not always the name that had the most votes that was chosen. He said other factors were taken into account.

Mr Butler added that Wexford was the lead authority in this particular case. Both councils had nominated particular names, and a general vote was held by the two municipal districts.

It wouldnt be totally within our remit as it spans both counties, and Wexford is the lead authority, Mr Butler said.

TIANJIN, Oct 18 (Reuters) - * Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd , one of China's biggest gold miners, will produce around 37 tonnes of the precious metal in 2018, its chairman said on Thursday.

* The company's gold output will be flat or a little lower than last year, Zijin Chairman Chen Jinghe told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Tianjin.

* Zijin is "paying attention" to Tanzania but "not yet negotiating", he said, after Reuters reported earlier this year that it would set up a joint venture with Acacia Mining, a unit of Barrick Gold, to develop Tanzanian gold mines.

* Zijin, which last month agreed to acquire Canadian miner Nevsun Resources Ltd for C$1.86 billion, has already had some preliminary communication with Freeport McMoRan Inc over development of the Timok copper project in Serbia, Chen added.

* The lower zone of Timok is a joint venture between Nevsun and Freeport

(Reporting by Tom Daly; Editing by Sunil Nair) Reuters Messaging: dominique.patton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) Reuters Messaging: dominique.patton.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.(Kitco News) - Gold prices are trading near unchanged in early U.S. trading Thursday. This weeks pause, or sideways trading on the daily chart, is normal given the solid gains scored last week. Bulls appear to be readying for their next upside advance. December gold futures were last up $0.40 an ounce at $1,227.90. December Comex silver was last down $0.103 at $14.56 an ounce.

Global stock markets were mixed overnight, with European stock indexes mostly firmer and Asian indexes mostly lower. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward weaker openings when the New York day session begins.

Traders and investors are awaiting the results of a Turkish investigation into the disappearance of a Saudi journalist. The Turks say the journalist was killed and the Saudis deny knowing anything about it. This matter is likely to come to a head in the next few days, with President Trump saying results of the investigation are likely yet this week. If the Saudis are complicit, ramifications for the world markets will be significant. Some press reports say the Saudis killed the journalist.

U.S. Treasury bond yields are on the rise again following FOMC minutes released Wednesday afternoon that were deemed a bit hawkish on U.S. monetary policy.

The key outside markets today find the U.S. dollar index slightly lower on a corrective pullback from Wednesdays solid gains. Meantime, November Nymex crude oil prices are lower, hit a four-week low and are trading below $69.00 a barrel. Brent crude oil has now fallen below the $80.00-per-barrel level. Rising U.S. oil stockpiles this week are bearish for the oil market.

U.S. economic data due for release Thursday includes the weekly jobless claims report, the Philadelphia Fed business survey, and leading economic indicators.

Technically, gold bulls have the near-term technical advantage and their next upside price objective is to produce a close in December futures above solid resistance at $1,250.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,200.00. First resistance is seen at this weeks high of $1,236.90 and then at $1,240.00. First support is seen at this weeks low of $1,220.40 and then at $1,215.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0

December silver futures bears still have the overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $15.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at the September low of $13.965. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $14.655 and then at this weeks high of $14.88. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $14.47 and then at the October low of $14.255. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 3.0.FIGLINE VALDARNO, Italy (Reuters) - The head of Italys anti-establishment 5-Star Movement Luigi Di Maio said on Thursday that a dispute with the League over a tax amnesty needed to be sorted out because it was upsetting financial markets.

We need a political clarification, Di Maio told reporters in Tuscany after the two ruling parties had their first major clash over the amnesty contained in the 2019 budget.

Di Maio said a steep rise in yields on Italian government bonds on Thursday was because markets think this government is no longer united.

Di Maio, who is deputy prime minister, said on Wednesday the legislative text of the amnesty had been manipulated after his party had signed off on the measure in cabinet, raising doubts about the stability of the coalition government.

5-Star has always opposed amnesties - a frequently used policy in Italy where people or companies can avoid being pursued for tax dodging by paying a fee.

The right-wing League on the other hand favors amnesties, which bring money into the Treasury and are popular with its traditional voter-base of self-employed businessmen, a sector of the population in which tax evasion is common.

Di Maio said the manipulated text spelled out a far more wide-ranging amnesty than 5-Star had agreed to. He did not clarify who could have amended the document, but League Leader Matteo Salvini said there had been no last-minute tampering.

The terms of the decree will not change and everyone will take responsibility for his actions, he said during a visit to the northern city of Bolzano.

Di Maio said he was confident the two parties would find a point of compromise.

Asked by reporters in Brussels about a possible coalition rift, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte - who is not from any political party - replied: There is no division. He added he would work on the legislative text after returning to Rome on Friday.BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Italys prime minister on Thursday denied any division between the two parties in his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues, and insisted Rome will move ahead with planned expansionary budgetary measures.

His remarks came as European Union leaders raised concerns about Romes extravagant budgetary plans that could further increase Italys public debt ratio, which at 133 percent of gross domestic product is the highest in the EU after Greece.

In what could be a further source of concern, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star party, said on Wednesday a legislative text on a partial tax amnesty had been manipulated before its final approval.

The anti-establishment 5-Star has always opposed amnesties - a frequently used policy in Italy where people or companies can avoid being pursued for tax dodging by paying a fee. Its coalition partner, the far-right League, favours amnesties, which bring money into the treasury and are popular with voters.

Di Maio did not clarify who could have amended the document.

Asked by reporters about a possible coalition rift, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte - who is not from any political party - replied: There is no division.

Arriving at the EU summit in Brussels, Conte acknowledged that budget plans to boost welfare spending, cut the retirement age and hike the deficit were unlikely to please the European Commission, which polices euro zone states fiscal policies.

The Commission says the budget is likely to breach EU fiscal rules and increase debt.

Im aware this is not the budget the Commission expected. I expect critical observations. We will discuss and we will reply to these considerations, Conte told reporters.

On Wednesday Conte said he saw no room for changing tack and on Thursday described the budget as beautiful.

At the summit, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said fiscal rules should be respected by all, adding: Too much debt is dangerous.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a meeting with Conte on Wednesday, called for positive dialogue between Italy and the EU on the budget.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter he had expressed concerns over Italys budget plans in a meeting with Conte on Thursday. He added that the Commission had Netherlands full support in making sure EU fiscal rules are respected.

In its review of Romes budgetary plans, the EU Commission can raise concerns until Monday. It could then decide to send the budget back for changes by Oct. 29, in what would be an unprecedented move that is likely to cause further market turmoil.

Yields on Italian benchmark 10-year bonds spiked after elections in March [IT527480=].* Report says nickel pig iron output surges in China* Copper dips to one-week low* Tin only metal in positive territory on Indonesia news(Adds analyst comment, updates prices, changes dateline from MANILA)

By Eric Onstad

LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Nickel hit a one-month low on Thursday, while copper and lead prices were also in the red, as investors worried about Chinese growth and higher U.S. interest rates.

Tin gained, however, as some of the metal was suspended from trading in top exporter Indonesia.

Macro-economic concerns continued to bedevil the industrial metals sector, even though many of the metals showed signs of supply tightness, said Warren Patterson, commodities strategist at ING Bank in Amsterdam.

"Generally the base metals complex is under pressure from outside influences, such as the Fed comments, which were pretty hawkish," he said, referring to the U.S. central bank.

Federal Reserve policymakers are largely united on the need to raise borrowing costs further, minutes from their September policy meeting showed, while Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said China's economy faced increasing downward pressure, ahead of GDP data due on Friday.

"I continue to believe that copper is looking fairly cheap ... but as long as we've got this stronger dollar and the threat of further tariffs on Chinese goods, the speculators are looking at avoiding copper altogether," Patterson added.

Three-month nickel on the London Metal Exchange was down 1.3 percent at $12,220 a tonne at 1023 GMT, the lowest since Sept. 18, while LME copper slipped 1.1 percent to a one-week low of $6,152 a tonne.

* COPPER PREMIUM: The Chinese copper premium for physical material dipped to $117.50 a tonne from $120.

* STEEL FUTURES: Also weighing on nickel, mainly used in stainless steel, was a fall of more than 1 percent in Chinese rebar steel futures.

* NICKEL PIG IRON: Another negative factor for nickel was a report about rising output of NPI, a lower-nickel-content substitute for refined nickel often used in stainless steel.

"China's NPI output has (reportedly) climbed to the highest daily rate in over 4 years in Sept at 43,400 tonnes of contained metal," Alastair Munro at broker Marex Spectron said in a note.

* INDONESIA TIN: Tin prices got a fillip after news the Indonesia Commodity & Derivatives Exchange has suspended trading of tin ingots and tin ore with origin verified by PT. Surveyor Indonesia. LME tin was the only metal in positive territory, rising 0.3 percent to $19,130 a tonne.

ZINC STOCKS: On-warrant LME zinc stocks , those not earmarked for delivery, tumbled 23 percent to 105,400 tonnes, the lowest since February.

LME zinc pushed into positive territory after the stocks data was released, but later gave up the gains and was down 0.1 percent at $2,662 a tonne.

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Mark Potter)

Reuters Messaging: eric.onstad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))LME price overview COMEX copper futures Base metals news All metals news All commodities news Foreign exchange rates SPEED GUIDES ))WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would no longer attend next weeks investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration awaited the outcome of investigations into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mnuchin announced the decision in a post on Twitter following a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently returned from meetings with top leaders in Riyadh and Ankara.

Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia, Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.

The Saudis have said they plan to move forward with the conference, scheduled for Oct. 23-25, despite a wave of cancellations by high-profile business, government and media leaders.

Mnuchins withdrawal comes after top financial, trade and foreign officials from Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands also dropped out.

Trump has urged patience in the wake of U.S.-based Khashoggis disappearance earlier this month during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and said he took the matter seriously.

Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi - a Washington Post columnist who was a strong critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - was murdered at the consulate and his body chopped up and removed.The Church must broaden the role of women and young people. In Ukraine, the war has generated a certain dislike for the Church. Poor access to education for young people in some countries like Madagascar can hinder the promotion of evangelical values. Metropolitan Hilarion of the Moscow Patriarchate spoke at the Synod.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  The Synod on Young People focused this morning on giving more room to women in the Church, a topic that could also be the subject of a separate Synod. Another issue was the renewed proposal of setting up a Youth Council in the Roman Curia with representatives from the five continents present in the Popes home.

In addressing the issue of an adequate female presence in the Church, participants agreed to reject all forms of exclusion and bias as well as speed up the fight against the still dominant male chauvinist culture as well as clericalism in order to develop respect for women and the recognition of their charisms. For one Synodal Father, this is a real urgency.

Others looked at how to approach youth needs in a concrete way starting with the places, schools and university, where the first contact with the Church occurs in some countries. Young people also need help to stay connected with God, the GPS of their lives.

Faced with the challenges of todays world, the Fathers insisted on not denying the symbols of Christianity, on not letting the Catholic religion be ridiculed, and above all on fighting the scourge of abuse. The Churchs credibility is at stake.

What is required is living amid the people, far from palaces, "to smell young people". The Gospel of Jesus, who was born poor and died on the cross and was resurrected, must be proposed without any watering down. Christ is worthy of love and following; he is the leader young people seek.

During the morning, some presentations dealt with tragic issues like the war in Ukraine, a conflict already in its fifth year whose indelible repercussions on the lives of young people will be felt for a long time to come. The latter, some participants noted, have a certain dislike for the Church, seen as a cold structure fighting for its survival and geopolitical interests."

From the Church, young people want a moral authority that offers clear reference points for their lives. "A young man who saves civilian lives under bombardments, some said, understands better the price of human life than an arrogant priest or a miserly politician."

The bishops attention was also drawn to the suffering endured by young Catholics in the Central African Republic, a country torn by violence, fundamentalism and religious syncretism, which cause wounds that are hard to heal. The spotlight was also turned on certain countries like Madagascar where the lack of access to education for young people makes the promotion of evangelical values a losing proposition.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Department for External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, addressed the Synod. As a brotherly delegate, he brought the greetings of Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia.

"The Church, old and always young, holds the millennial Christian Tradition, a force that transfigures and changes the surrounding world. The participation of the representatives of non-Catholic Churches in the Synod has now become a well-established tradition that bears witness to the ever-higher level of inter-Christian collaboration on the most important issues of our time, which concern all Christians regardless of their religious affiliation."

Hilarion stressed the value of brotherly Orthodox-Catholic collaboration in the face of de-Christianisation, secularism, denial of Christian values and persecution. He noted that a shared mission is to teach young people to discern good from evil, what is authentic from what is false, in a society in which "freedom is perceived in wrong ways and religion is rejected in the name of relativism".

For Hilarion, defending moral values, guaranteeing access to the sacraments, and providing good theological education are important answers. Above all, the Churches must offer the person and the unchangeable truth of Christ, who died and rose, the one who can transform life and fill it with meaning.* Pound at 10-day low after May comments on Irish border* Retail sales weaker than expected, also weigh on currency* Graphic: World FX rates in 2018* Graphic: Trade-weighted sterling since Brexit vote (Writes through after May comments, updates prices) LONDON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The pound fell to intraday lows in late Thursday trade, as summit talks in Brussels failed to resolve a Brexit standoff between London and the EU over the status of the Irish border, an issue playing an increasingly dominant role in negotiations.

Prime Minister Theresa May said late in the day that a solution to the impasse might come through the option of extending the Brexit transition period. But that failed to lift the British currency from lows hit after she earlier said European Union proposals for avoiding a hard Irish border were unacceptable. Sterling fell as low as $1.3057, down 0.4 percent on the day, from near $1.31 before May spoke, and dropped 0.3 percent versus the euro to 88.03 pence . Tim Graf, State Street Global Markets' EMEA Head of Macro Strategy, said that despite the pound looking "very cheap" Brexit remained a major risk. "The market seems very complacent about the headlines which really dont look constructive," he said. European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday that he was sure EU leaders would respond positively to any request from Britain for a longer transition period. Elsa Lignos, global head of FX strategy at RBC, said a longer transition period made the need for a 'backstop' on Ireland - a proposal aimed at avoiding a hard border - less likely. "It remains to be seen if Brexiteers in her party can be persuaded to sign on," Lignos said.

RETAIL SALES FALL A flurry of data this week, including the strongest wage growth for a decade, have briefly focused traders' attention on the UK economy and away from Brexit negotiations, although investors say the pound remains at the mercy of the talks. On Thursday, data showed UK retail sales fell by the most in six months in September. The sales volumes dropped by 0.8 percent in September from August - a bigger fall than economists had expected in a Reuters poll - after the largest decline in food purchases since October 2015, official data showed. "Weve had three data points from the UK in the last three days with only the unemployment figures providing any real support for the pound," David Cheetham, chief market analyst at broker XTB, said.

"Despite this, sterling continues to keep calm and carry on despite the obvious Brexit threat with negotiations on this front clearly not progressing as many wouldve hoped."

(Reporting by Tommy Wilkes and Sujata Rao Editing by Robin Pomeroy and Susan Fenton)AwazToday.pk Privacy Policy: We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.



Disclaimer: AwazToday.pk is not responsible for any content linked to or referred to from these pages. All videos, live tvs, blogs or video links point to content hosted on third party websites or members. We are using third party links for live tvs. Users who upload these videos or blogs agree not to upload illegal content when creating their user accounts. AwazToday.pk does not accept responsibility for content hosted on third party websites or by the members. If you have any questions please contact us. Copyright  2000-2021 AwazToday.pk. All rights reserved unless where otherwise noted.President Moon Jae-in shakes hands with Italian President Sergio Mattarella with first lady Kim Jung-sook and Mattarella's daughter Laura standing next to them during a welcoming ceremony for Moon at the presidential palace in Rome, Wednesday. Moon later had a summit with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, at which they agreed to develop Korea-Italy relations into a strategic partnership. Yonhap



By Kim Yoo-chul



ROME  Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed full support for President Moon Jae-in's drive for complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization (CVID) of North Korea.



"Prime Minister Conte expressed full support for the diplomatic initiatives undertaken by President Moon through the three inter-Korean summits to advance inter-Korean relations, and achieve complete denuclearization and permanent peace in the Korean Peninsula. The two leaders shared the view that denuclearization must be achieved in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," Conte said in a joint press statement after the two leaders' summit in Rome, late Wednesday (KST).



Moon, who is on a nine-day European trip, paid an "official visit" to Italy from Oct. 16 to today. He will later attend an Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) to be held in Brussels, Belgium.





Rep. Chu Hye-seon of the Justice Party, fourth from right, speaks during a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday, to protest GM Korea's plan to spinoff its research and development unit. / Courtesy of Rep. Chu Hye-seon



By Park Jae-hyuk



GM Korea's union said Thursday it will go on strike Oct. 22 unless the company scraps its plan to establish a separate corporate body for research and development.



The union also called on the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) to vote against the spinoff plan at the carmaker's shareholders' meeting which will take place at 2:00 p.m. Friday.



GM Korea has been allowed to hold the meeting after Incheon District Court rejected an injunction KDB had submitted to prohibit it.



The court ruled Wednesday that there was no reason to suspect that the KDB, the second-largest shareholder of GM Korea, would suffer serious damage if the meeting was allowed to take place. The bank, which holds a 17 percent stake in GM Korea, also opposes the spinoff plan.



"We are disappointed at the dismissal of the injunction that KDB had applied for. To prevent the spinoff, the bank must use its veto and apply for another injunction to invalidate the shareholders meeting," union head Lim Han-taek said in a press conference at the National Assembly, Thursday.



"It is time for labor and management to join forces for business normalization, but GM headquarters is trying to divide GM Korea in two. This is regarded as another attempt at restructuring following the shutdown of the Gunsan factory."



Union members already voted to go on strike in a two-day vote that began Monday  78 percent of the 10,234 members agreed to a walkout. They are waiting for the National Labor Relations Commission's decision on the labor dispute, which will likely be made Oct. 22.



On July 20, GM announced the plan to spin off its R&D unit from GM Korea's manufacturing facilities, saying the move would allow each unit to focus on their respective sectors and improve efficiency.



The union opposed the plan because 3,000 of its members would have to move to a new site after the spinoff, and due to suspicions that the move was a preliminary attempt to sell off the Korean unit, allowing GM to withdraw from Korea.



Rep. Chu Hye-seon of the minor opposition Justice Party said GM Korea's union would be helpless after the spinoff as workers belonging to the new unit would not benefit from collective agreements signed between labor and management.



"As GM Korea cannot withdraw from Korea for the next 10 years due to its agreement with the KDB, it may seek to cut costs by restructuring its manufacturing unit," the lawmaker said. "Even if workers at the manufacturing unit protest the restructuring, those at the R&D unit will not be able to help them."



KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull has warned that the state lender will exercise its veto rights if GM Korea moves to create the R&D unit at the shareholders meeting.



However, GM Korea denied the union's claims, noting that the KDB invested $750 million in the carmaker on the condition that it would stay and normalize operations over the next 10 years. The carmaker also claimed the KDB cannot use its veto on the spinoff plan, saying it was not a matter for a special resolution at the shareholders meeting.



The KDB said it was considering taking legal action after the shareholders' meeting.

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Hot on the heels of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Audi China has got the license to test L4 autonomous vehicles on roads in Beijing, China's capital, the automaker announced recently.

The company is allowed to test autonomous vehicles on several road sections in Beijing Economic Technological Development Area, Shunyi District and Fangshan District to further improve its self-driving technologies via various testing scenarios.

Audi China said it will set up a R&D and testing center in Wuxi in the first quarter next year to support the on-spot tests of autonomous driving and IoV (Internet of Vehicles) technologies. As an important part of Audi 2025 Strategy, Audi China will keep strengthening the investment in autonomous driving and intelligent connectivity areas to provide Chinese consumers with intelligent driving technologies based on Chinas road conditions, said President of Audi China Thomas Owsianski.

As early as 2017, the German automaker joined hands with Huawei, a China's leading provider of ICT infrastructure and smart devices, to test LTE-V ( the long-term evolution-vehicle) program on public roads. On July 10, 2018, Audi announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei to develop in-depth cooperation in ICV area. The agreement constituted part of a broad-based partnership between companies in China and Germany initiated by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On October 11 at HUAWEI CONNECT 2018, Huawei and Audi announced their future cooperative plan to conduct joint innovation in L4 autonomous driving area and showcased the all-new Audi Q7 as the embodiment of both parties' state-of-the-art technologies.Tashkent, Oct 18 (AFP) Russian President Vladimir Putin starts his first state visit to Uzbekistan under new leadership on Thursday as the Kremlin attempts to recalibrate a once thorny relationship with billions of dollars in business deals.

The last time Putin jetted off to ex-Soviet Central Asia's most populous republic in 2016, Uzbekistan was in the throes of political uncertainty following the death of long-term ruler Islam Karimov.

Now the two countries are preparing to sign contracts worth over $20 billion, more than half of which will be for an atomic power station built with Russian financing in the west of the country.

Karimov, an obstinate authoritarian wary of Moscow's influence became Uzbekistan's paramount leader even before the country's formal independence from the Kremlin in 1991.

More than two years after his death, his protege Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has used significant political and economic reforms to position himself as the republic's undisputed leader.

While publicly Mirziyoyev has honoured Karimov's memory he has also abandoned some of his predecessor's more repressive policies while projecting an image of a country more open to foreign investment and tourism.

Despite the pair meeting in Moscow last year, the two-day visit carries special significance for both men, according to Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Moscow-based Political Expert Group think tank.

"For Putin it is important to show he has partners. For Mirziyoyev it is important to show how respected he is in Moscow," Kalachev told AFP.

In the long-term, Kalachev said, Moscow's aim will be to turn Uzbekistan "from a partner into an ally."

The trip offers an opportunity for Moscow to reinforce its economic clout in the Muslim-majority country of 32 million whose main export to Russia remains people - around two million Uzbeks are estimated to be working or seeking work there. They are a key source of hard currency remittances back home in Uzbekistan.

The high point of Putin's visit is likely to be a groundlaying ceremony for the nuclear power plant.

The project is worth USD 11 billion and is expected to come online in 2028, according to Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, who called Uzbekistan the Kremlin's "strategic partner" in the region.

The plant has "breakthrough" importance for Uzbekistan, according to Bakhtiyor Ergashev of the Ma'no Centre for Research Initiatives in Tashkent.

It will be the first of its kind in Central Asia, where attitudes to nuclear power have been shaped by the Chernobyl nuclear plant tragedy and atomic weapons testing in the steppes of Uzbekistan's neighbour Kazakhstan.

The nadir in relations between Russia and Uzbekistan came about in 2012 after Tashkent walked out of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc that now consists of six ex-Soviet members.

Relations picked up towards the end of Karimov's reign, however, and have been lifted to a "new level" by investment-hungry Mirziyoyev's ascent to power, according to Ergashev.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean Uzbekistan will be rushing to re-join the CSTO or other Moscow-led blocs, he said.

Uzbekistan's foreign policy remains based on "keeping equal distance from the main centres of global power", of which Moscow is one, Ergashev told AFP. (AFP) MRJ

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Chandigarh, October 18: Scores of farmers in Punjab blocked the railway track near Batala on Thursday to protest against the ban on stubble burning and demand more sugar mills in the state. The national capital region is bracing for choking smog owing to constant stubble burning in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana. Strict action has been taken against farmers who burn crop stubble ahead of the sowing season.

The air quality in Delhi remained "very poor" for the second consecutive day on Thursday. As per the latest Air Quality Index (AQI) data, the air quality of Delhi's Lodhi Road area showed levels of prominent pollutants PM 2.5 and PM 10 at 224 and 272, respectively, above normal. It must be noted that an AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 401 and 500 "severe". Punjab: Farmers Protest Against Ban on Stubble Burning, Say 'Have No Option But to Set Crop Residue on Fire'.

Punjab: Farmers blocked railway track near Batala today to protest against issues of stubble burning and demand for more sugar mills in the state. pic.twitter.com/DYjVlIoA6z  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Farmers have been upset as they say that the alternatives to stubble burning are too costly. They are of the opinion that compensation must be provided by the government to stop stubble burning. Meanwhile, some farmers in Punjab are continuing to burn stubble in Ludhiana's Raul village, owing to the absence of machinery. One of the farmers said that it is difficult to prepare compost with the help of machines as it takes almost 20 days for the whole process to be completed. 'Stubble Burning Leads to Tuberculosis,' Says IMA President Ravi Wankhedkar.

On Thursday, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for compensation to farmers to discourage them from burning stubble. Singh warned that the problem could aggravate if the matter is not addressed urgently. According to a report by PTI, the prime minister was sympathetic to the problem of farmers, said Singh, who is pressing for Rs 100 per quintal compensation to farmers to check stubble burning.

Stubble burning is not recommended as particles from stubble burning combine with industrial pollution, vehicle exhaust and dust to cover the region every year as winter approaches and wind speeds drop. As the stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is causing deterioration of air quality in Delhi-NCR, strict norms have been implemented in these areas.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 05:54 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Kathmandu, October 18: Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli will invite his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to attend the "Bibaha Panchami" celebrations in December during the latter's state visit to the Himalayan nation.

"Bibaha Panchami' held annually in Janakpur, the birth land of Goddess Sita. As the festive season is going on we are yet to make a detailed programme and inform our other officials regarding it," an aide to the Nepal Prime Minister confirmed to ANI.

"His visit invitation for the Bibaha Panchami on December 12 this year is confirmed as Bishnu Rimal has earlier confirmed. A detailed report about it will be released as soon as the festive season is over," he added.

Along with the visit to Janakpur, Prime Minister Modi will also be inaugurating the railway bridge between Janakpur and Bihar's Jainagar, which is being constructed with the aid from India and had been stalled since 2014 over an upgrade. Previously, Prime Minister Modi was confirmed to be visiting the Himalayan nation at end of November. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nepalese Counterpart Khadga Prasad Oli Hold Talks; Seek to Reset Indo-Nepal Ties.

During the Indian Prime Minister's visit to Janakpur, his fifth visit to Nepal since taking office, Prime Minister Modi is also scheduled to visit Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha.

"As the Nepal Government is set to write to Indian Prime Minister inviting him over visit the previous schedule is sure to be changed. As they are working on the schedule we haven't got any information here though. But his visit to Lumbini as of now remains intact," an official inside the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu told ANI.New Delhi, October 18: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Thursday informed that the southwest monsoon winds will be withdrawing from October 20. According to a tweet by ANI, the conditions are likely to become favourable for the commencement of northeast monsoon. The IMD informed that a cyclonic circulation lies over south coastal Andhra Pradesh due to this there will be scattered rains, thunderstorm and gusty winds over Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Monsoon 2018: 1,400 People Lost Lives Across India Due To Floods And Rain Related Incidents.

On Wednesday, the IMD had said that a low-pressure area may form over the North Andaman Sea and adjoining South-East Bay of Bengal around October 23. The normal dates of monsoon withdrawal from Mumbai and Pune are around September 29 and September 30, respectively. Over the years, monsoon withdrawal has rarely stuck to these dates. Monsoon completely withdraws from Maharashtra by October 15, said A K Srivastava, head of the Climate Monitoring and Analysis Group, IMD, Pune. Rains Lash Several Areas in Mumbai, Brings Respite From October Heat.

SW monsoon will be withdrawing from 20th Oct. Conditions likely to become favourable for commencement of northeast monsoon.Cyclonic circulation lies over south coastal Andhra Pradesh due to this there'll be scattered rains, thunderstorm& gusty winds over Tamil Nadu&Puducherry:IMD pic.twitter.com/4vyt32BMLM  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

This year, the IMD had forecast a normal monsoon but the monsoon, which ended on September 30, saw a 9.4 per cent deficit in rainfall in 2018. The southwest monsoon had hit Kerala on May 29 this year, three days before its scheduled arrival, the IMD had informed.

According to details by Skymet Weather, the southwest monsoon started its journey of withdrawal in September, setting the way for the Northeast Monsoon. This is also known as the post-Monsoon season that spans from October to December. The report further added that the three-month-long season holds great relevance for Southern Peninsula, particularly Tamil Nadu.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 04:27 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).New Delhi, October 18: The BJP IT Cell Chief, Amit Malviya, in a fresh attack on the Congress party, alleged that the Congress party has sponsored Facebook ads in Pakistan to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP social media head also shared a video to support his claim on the Congress party. Communist-Islamist Nexus in Kerala Criticising Indian Support & Celebrating Non Existent Rs 700 Cr UAE Aid: BJP's Amit Malviya Tweets.

Amit Malviya, who is incharge of the social media activities of the BJP on Twitter, also tweeted an image and video which showed the Congress' official Facebook page allegedly showing the message 'Desh Bachao, Modi Hatao'.

Check the Tweet Below

Official Congress page sponsoring ads on Facebook in Pakistan to remove Modi! pic.twitter.com/F9hhMFEPzS  Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 18, 2018

Malviya also shared a video showing how Congress allegedly sponsored the page on Pakistan. In the video, it is demonstrated how the page has been sponsored by the grand old party.

BJP's Amit Malviya has also found himself in controversy due to some of his tweets in the past. The BJP IT chief had tweeted the date of the Karnataka Elections in a tweet even before the EC declared them. However, he ended up getting the dates wrong.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 03:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has come down heavily on the Bhim Army and alleged that the outfit is eulogising Ravan, a demonic and controversial figure from the Indian epic Ramayana, whose effigy is burnt on Dussehra as a symbol of victory of the good over evil. The Bhim army had earlier asked for action against those burning Ravan effigies and demanded that action be taken against violators under the Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST act. Dussehra 2018: Why Is Ravana, The Ten-Headed Demon King Worshipped in Some Parts of India?

Swamy also added that the demands of the Bhim Army will not be supported by the majority and that the "mainstream of India will not be impressed." He added that in a democracy, "all types of organisations exist" and called the Bhim Army a bunch of "jokers".

Watch the video in the tweet below

The Pune unit of the Bhim Army had recently written a letter to Pune police and said that the practice of burning effigies of Ravan on Dussehra is akin to hurting the sentiments of certain Tribal (Adivasi) and Bahujan groups as Ravan is considered as a "a symbol of humanitarian culture". Bhim Army Demands Ban on Burning of Ravan Effigies on Dussehra, Seeks Action Under SC/ST Act on Violators.

The letter states that Ravan should not be burnt in the name of demon. The Bhim Army group also warned that if their demands are not met and Ravan effigies continue to be burned, they will not be responsible for any disturbance in law and order situation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 10:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).New Delhi, October 18: Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad landed in a soup when he said that Hindus leaders of his party no longer invite him for campaiging, apparently because of his religious identity. The comments made by Azad didn't go well with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that accused the Congress of insulting the Hindu community.

"Since the days of the Youth Congress, I have been campaigning across the country from Andaman Nicobar to Lakshadweep. 95 per cent of those who used to call me were Hindu brothers and leaders, and just 5 per cent were Muslim brothers," Azad said in Lucknow on Wednesday. The opposition leader in Rajya Sabha further said those leader don't invite him now.

"But in the last four years, I have observed that the figure of 95 has dropped to just 20 per cent. This means that there is something wrong. Hindus in Congress don't invite me any more for campaigning because they think it may hit their votes," Azad added. Reacting to Azad's remarks, the BJP said it was an insult of the Hindu community.

The BJP accused the Congress of repeatedly demonising Hindus. "Yet another attempt by the Congress to malign the Hindus. Hindu-Terrorists, Hindu-Pakistan, Hindu-Taliban, Bad-Hindus want temple and now this," BJP spokesperson Smabit Patra tweeted. Ealrier, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor came under fire for using term 'Hindu-Pakistan'.

While the BJP demanded an apology from Tharoor, the Congress leader stood by his remarks that a BJP win in 2019 Lok Sabha polls will create conditions which would lead to creation of 'Hindu Pakistan'.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 18, 2018 01:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Oct 18, 2018, 5:07am ET

Google Maps now provides charging station information

It tells EV drivers the type of chargers and the number of spots in a given station.

Taking a road trip in an electric car just got a little bit easier. The Google Maps smartphone application now provides detailed information about the charging stations motorists will encounter on a given route.

Users can enter search terms like "ev charging" or "EV charging stations" to display the nearest station, according to a blog post published by Google. The app also shows information about the businesses near the charging station, which is helpful for drivers who want to go shopping or drink a coffee while they wait for their car to charge.

The new feature provides information like the types of ports available, the charging speeds, and the number of spots at a given station. User-submitted ratings, reviews, and photos also show up when someone taps on a station in the app.

Maps supports a number of charging businesses including Tesla Supercharger, Chargepoint, SemaConnect, EVgo, and Blink. The feature also works in the UK, where it gives information about Chargemaster and Pod Point stations. It's part of the latest version of Maps currently being rolled out to Android- and iOS-powered devices. The feature will come to the desktop application in the next few weeks.

Google also launched a separate feature that adds information about electric car charging stations to a business' page. Look up the local Target, for example, and -- assuming it has charging ports -- you'll see relevant charging information along with the store's hours and address.Bethlehem's Memorial Pool renovation got a $1 million boost Thursday morning.

The 61-year-old city-owned pool was closed this past summer, and is set to remain closed in 2019, for a massive modernization and overhaul estimated to cost between $3 million and $3.5 million.

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn announced the grant award in front of the pool Thursday alongside Mayor Bob Donchez and other local dignitaries.

The funding comes from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. Officials urged Congress to reauthorize the fund that's been responsible for 41,999 projects since 1965. It expired Sept. 30.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola, herself a former city lifeguard, also helped the city to obtain two grants totaling $542,000 through the Keystone Communities Program.

In total, the city will receive $1,542,0000 in state grants towards the renovation, said Joe Kelly, the Democratic senator's chief of staff.

The city plans to pay the remaining cost through a mix of borrowing, cash reserves and recreation fees, said Eric Evans, city business administrator.

In 2017, Bethlehem undertook a study of its entire park and recreation system that recommended major renovations at Memorial Pool. The city closed the pool for the 2018 season with plans to begin construction this spring. The new pool is slated to open in 2020.

"It's really a destination recreational facility for Bethlehem," Donchez said.

Community meetings have been held to gather citizen input for the new pool's design.

Plans call for a new complex of three pools within the same footprint of the existing pool, said Jane Persa, city director of recreation. There will be a six-lane, 25-meter lap pool with a diving board; a zero-entry pool and a pool going from 3-feet to 5-feet deep with a slide.

This architectural rendering shows the plans for Memorial Pool. (Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Memorial Pool opened in 1957 as a war memorial. At the time, newspaper articles referred to its ultra-modern design, Persa said.

"It really hasn't changed since 1957," she said gesturing to the pool behind her.

Over the past 61 years, tens of thousands of families have visited Memorial Pool to cool off, learn to swim and relax, said state Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton.

"This project is a regional asset," Samuelson said.

Dunn, the state conservation secretary, said she was thrilled to announce the grant award on Thursday and help the mayor bring his vision to life.

"Our children need safe places to go and cool off in an ever-warming climate," Dunn said.

Pool are important to communities but pool projects are hard to fund, which is why she tasked her staff with assisting Bethlehem, said Kelly, from Boscola's office.

"Investing in our local pools and parks, improves our quality of life, enhances our communities and makes them more attractive places to live," Boscola, who missed Thursday's event because she was still in Harrisburg, said in a news release.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.The company that owns QVC and the Home Shopping Network plans to open a new fulfillment center in Bethlehem, bringing more than 1,000 jobs.

Qurate Retail Group announced the news Wednesday. Qurate is the parent-company created after QVC and HSN merged in a $2.6 billion deal last year.

HSN and QVC US will merge into a business unit called QXH, although they will remains separate brands.

HSN's headquarters will remain in St. Petersburg, Florida, the company said in a news release.

The retail group plans to cut about 350 jobs, mostly at HSN, by the end of this year. St. Petersburg and Long Island, New York, as well as West Chester, Pennsylvania, will be hardest-hit by the cuts.

Next year, the company will open a new fulfillment center for the QVC and HSN unit in Bethlehem.

Qurate also owns the online retailer Zulily, which opened an 800,000-square-foot distribution center in 2015 in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII off Route 412.

The new center will bring between 1,200 to 1,500 new jobs.

At the same time, Qurate plans to close a QVC fulfillment center in East Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania; an HSN fulfillment center in Roanoke, Virgnina; and a temporary fulfillment operation in Greeneville, Tennessee in 2020.

The center closures will equal about 1,725 jobs.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.An Allentown man accused of a homicide during a drug deal in Williams Township is headed for trial in the case.

Nathaniel Markland was in court Thursday for his preliminary hearing on homicide, aggravated assault and related charges in the April 2 fatal shooting of Shyheem Smith.

Following the hearing, District Judge Dan Corpora sent all the charges to Northampton County Court, where the 29-year-old Markland will face trial unless he pleads guilty or the case is disposed of in an alternative manner.

Markland, of the 900 block of Hamilton Street in Allentown, remains in county prison without bail.

Cellphone records and DNA evidence linked Markland to the shooting, state police said.

Witnesses also placed Markland in the 1100 block of Centre Street in Williams Township the night Smith was shot, state police allege.

Investigators said that night, Willie Sam Wallace was driving a Land Rover, with Markland in the front passenger seat and Michael Drummond and Terrance Roderick in the rear passenger seats.

A drug deal was planned, investigators said, and Wallace allegedly picked up Markland first in Allentown, then picked up Drummond and Roderick in Easton.

Drummond reportedly told troopers he set up a deal with the mother of his children, Davonna Barndt.

That night, Barndt was driving a Kia Sorento, with Smith in the front passenger seat and Jacquelyn Padilla in the back, troopers said.

Surveillance video from the night of the shooting reportedly shows both vehicles arriving in the 1100 block of Centre Street.

State police said Markland and Roderick got out of the Land Rover, and were walking toward Smith in the Kia.

Barndt saw a masked man dressed in black walking to the car; Smith reportedly said he didn't recognize the man and told Barndt to leave.

Markland was walking in front of Roderick, when Roderick heard two gunshots, ducked down and ran back to the Land Rover, troopers said.

Smith was shot in the neck and Barndt drove him to Easton Hospital.

Smith was later transferred to Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township, and was put on life support. Smith was pronounced dead on April 3, and his death was ruled a homicide.

The SUV was found the night of the shooting on Northampton Street. Police said they found a ski mask on the sidewalk near the front passenger seat, and that gloves and a neck warmer were found on the floor of the front passenger seat.

Gunshot residue was collected on the front passenger door and gloves, troopers said.

DNA samples from the mask and gloves were compared to Markland's DNA, taken June 1 via a search warrant. Test results allegedly found Markland's DNA matched a major component of the DNA profile found on the mask and gloves.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.School of Rock Easton is bringing the noise to a new space.

The school for aspiring musicians will move early next year from its current location at 19 S. Bank St. to a Federal-style building at 24 N. 4th St.

Ray Thierrin, who established the School of Rock locations in Easton and Allentown with his wife Sue Thierrin, purchased the 3,300-square-foot space for $535,000. The deal closed on Oct. 16,. Lehigh Financial Group arranged financing, People First Credit Union funded the buyer's loan and Casey Foreman of Century 21 Pinnacle in Bethlehem Township was the realtor for the sale.

Ray Thierrin said that School of Rock Easton started looking for new space because the landlord at its current building was looking to sell. He was offered a lease to stay, but it was significantly more than he had been paying.

"We wanted to control our own destiny," said Thierrin, who lives in Lopatcong Township.

He was, however, committed to staying in Downtown Easton.

"That was one of the challenges," he said. "There were not many buildings we could even contemplate making into a music school."

The new space, previously owned by Keith Frankenfield and Brent Brugler of KABT Enterprises, will mark a downsizing for School of Rock Easton. Its current location is about 700 square feet larger. Thierrin doesn't see it being an issue.

"It was a little bit of wasted space," he said of some parts of the current location.

In the new space, School of Rock Easton will build six lesson rooms on the first floor and two rehearsal spaces and a student lounge on the second floor.

School of Rock Easton first opened in 2009, with the Allentown location following in 2012 and moving to 621 N. 19th St. in 2015.

School of Rock's programs include one-on-one lessons and group band practices for students ranging from young children to adults. Guitar, drums, singing, bass and keyboard/piano lessons are all available.

Andrew Doerfler may be reached at adoerfler@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @adoerfler or on Facebook.Authorities have identified a 60-year-old man killed in a crash with vehicle Tuesday night in Lehigh County.

Eric Eck, no current address, was pronounced dead at 3:01 a.m. Wednesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township.

The crash occurred at 11:38 p.m. Tuesday in the 5200 block of Hamilton Boulevard in Lower Macungie Township, between North Krocks Road and Brookside Road, Pennsylvania State Police said.

Eck died from blunt force trauma due to the crash, and his death was ruled an accident, the Lehigh County Coroner's Office said.

Authorities have not identified the driver.

The crash and death are being investigated by the coroner's office, state police and the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Larry Anderson and Connie Ehrhart were headed to Lowe's on Union Deposit Road to buy an extension cord when they saw sudden brake lights and bright sparks on Interstate 83 in front of them.

A car that had been pinned and pushed along the concrete median by a full-speed, out-of-control tractor-trailer burst into flames and a second car that had been rammed by the tractor-trailer started to burn in the middle of the highway.

Other wrecked cars and debris littered the three traffic lanes as Anderson, the fire chief of Wellsville Borough in York County, and his passenger, Connie Ehrhart, an emergency medical technician, pulled over.

Larry Anderson, chief of the Wellsville volunteer Fire Company, (at left) with Connie Ehrhart, an EMT. (Pennlive.com photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

They weren't on duty. They had been on a routine errand. But they were about to spend the next five hours working one of the most horrific wreck of their careers.

Anderson angled his pickup truck across the middle lane and turned on his emergency lights. A tractor-trailer driver behind him, who was a former firefighter, also angled his truck across several lanes of highway to alert oncoming vehicles that the road was closed. They wanted to prevent other vehicles from hurtling into the crash scene and hitting victims who were still climbing out of their wrecked vehicles.

They would find out later that a tractor-trailer driven by Jack E. Satterfield, 29, of McComb, Mississippi plowed into the backs of the vehicles that had slowed down or stopped in construction traffic just before Union Deposit Road.

In all, 11 vehicles were damaged, six people were hurt and three people, including a 16-month-old baby, were killed.

Anderson quickly donned his turnout gear and called county dispatchers while Ehrhart sprinted toward the mayhem.

The car that had been crushed against the median by the careening tractor-trailer was completely engulfed in flames. No one could get close. At that time, it was unclear if anyone was still inside, Ehrhart said. She found out later a 24-year-old father, Zachary Lybrand, and his baby girl, Elliana, died in that car.

Ehrhart turned her attention to an injured man and woman standing in the road and asked if they had come from the other car that was starting to burn from its rear end. They said no.

Their injuries were minor so Ehrhart told them to go to the shoulder, away from the burning cars, while she ran to check on the occupants of the half-burning car.

She found an unconscious man behind the wheel as flames creeped toward him into the crushed back seat. Anderson joined her and pressed his own body, clad in fireproof gear, against the backseat door on the driver's side, blocking the encroaching flames as Ehrhart and another bystander pried open the driver's door.

Other bystanders approached with small fire extinguishers they had in their vehicles to douse some of the flames and give Erhart room to work.

One of the bystanders had a seatbelt cutter tool with his knife and they used it to free the driver. But the 22-year-old man, Ethan Von Bochoven, had already died from the impact of the crash.

They carefully placed his body in the road a safe distance from the burning vehicle while a bystander fetched a blanket to cover him. Meanwhile, other bystanders pried open the front passenger-side door, rescuing a critically-wounded woman before the flames got to her.

A bystander carried her to the shoulder where Ehrhart tended to her wounds in the dark, against the chill, without any of the usual medical supplies. No penlight. No gauze. No latex gloves.

As it happened, an ambulance was traveling in the opposing lanes of the highway and the driver pulled over. He vaulted over the concrete median with a handful of supplies for Ehrhart, including an abdominal gauze pad that she used to stop the bleeding from the woman's head. But the ambulance crew already had a patient on board who needed to get to a hospital so they had to leave the scene.

A firefighter from the Lancaster area who had been toward the front of the multi-car wreck held the woman's hand and comforted her as tires from the burning cars exploded, creating frightening noises for the already traumatized victims.

"I had limited tools," Ehrhart said. "I focused on keeping everyone calm and away from danger. I couldn't do much else but reassure them."

Ehrhart and the Lancaster firefighter remained with the most seriously injured woman and the original couple that Ehrhart had encountered while Anderson set out to see if anyone else needed medical attention. He found three additional wounded people from two other vehicles that had been pinned between the tractor trailer and the concrete median.

Two people had crawled out of the driver's side door of a pickup truck that ended up on its side, facing the wrong way, and pinned between the tractor-trailer and a BMW.

The woman driving the BMW crawled out of her sunroof after her vehicle was pinned between the pickup truck and the median. It was a miracle that they survived with minor injuries, Anderson said.

He also found a stack of vehicles damaged accordian-style in front of the tractor-trailer. Those occupants suffered minor cuts and bruises.

Anderson placed the victims in triaged-groups so when medical help arrived, paramedics could save time and focus on the most seriously-injured victims first.

About 10 or 15 minutes after the crash, fire trucks from the Colonial Park Fire Company arrived and started dousing the burning vehicles. A series of ambulances arrived as well and hauled six patients away.

The driver who caused all the devastation fled after the crash, but Lower Paxton police officers identified him in a crowd of onlookers in the Best Western parking lot next to the highway.

Jack Satterfield was wearing a short sleeved shirt and no shoes despite the cold temperatures and didn't seem affected by the cold, said Lower Paxton Public Safety Director Adam Kosheba. Those elements drew an officer's attention and the officer then confirmed the man matched a photo of the driver associated with the empty offending tractor-trailer. The officer called for backup and they confronted the man, who made incriminating statements, Kosheba said.

"He made no effort to show anyone he was the driver," Kosheba said, "but when confronted, he didn't resist."

Court records supporting homicide charges against Satterfield would later allege that the driver downed five double-shot margaritas and three beers with dinner in New Jersey before climbing into his cab and driving into Pennsylvania.

It's unknown if he consumed additional drinks on his way to Harrisburg but police reported a strong odor of alcohol on Satterfield when they arrested him.

Officers eventually routed motorists trapped behind the wreckage off the northbound highway by driving southbound back to the nearest exit.

Ehrhart and Anderson stayed at the scene until about 1:30 a.m. They have training in trauma yet still were rattled by what they saw that night.

"It doesn't just stop the day after" Anderson said. "It stays with you."

The effects on regular bystanders of witnessing that volume of devastation concerned Ehrhart.

"It's not something you deal with every day," she said. "They saw a lot in the seconds before we got there. They saw the car on fire and they realized no one ever got out. Some of the people, you could tell it was very traumatic what they saw."

Ehrhart spent some time at the scene advising bystanders about symptoms of trauma-related problems and encouraging them to seek help if they notice any signs.

Anderson and Ehrhart said they were both impressed by how well all of the randomly assembled bystanders worked together so seamlessly.

People donated whatever they had from their vehicles to help, they said. One family were headed on vacation and they pulled items of clothing from their suitcases to help keep victims warm. Others emptied fire extinguishers onto flames or offered kind words.

"The bystanders were great. They were just amazing," Ehrhart said. "The kindness we saw, you couldn't ask for a better bunch of people."

Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Easton's City Council met Wednesday night to discuss the master plan for the proposed Da Vinci Science City, a $150 million project that would bring a 130,000-square-foot museum and science center to the Downtown gateway.

The meeting was not, however, to take action on the plan. Council and the public saw projections of attendance, the current status of project fundraising and more about the exhibits and other features the building could have if completed.

Da Vinci Science City Master Plan Overview Presentation 10-17-18 by Anonymous arnc2g2N on Scribd

"This is not the last step, this is the first step," Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said. "I know we've had a lot of steps before, but this is where we get down to the nitty-gritty."

At a packed meeting in City Hall, Lin Erickson, executive director of the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, said the project has $52.5 million in committed fundraising, with more to be secured. Some of that, she said, is still "in the pipeline."

Those are "gifts ready to close once we sign the development agreement with the city," she said. "The funders need to know that the project is happening."

Previous reports have described Science City as a $130 million project, but that figure did not include the cost of site acquisition, site development and "soft costs."

The master plan overview presented Wednesday presented some of what is already known: Da Vinci would like to build a STEAM -- Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math -- education facility and museum with several exhibits, a NatureDome for live animals and a 100-foot-tall walk-through Vitruvian Person, based on the famous 1490 drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci.

It would also have a 400-seat theater able to show movies and science shows, a flight tunnel for simulated skydiving -- similar to iFLY in King of Prussia -- and a space for traveling "blockbuster" exhibits.

The target building site is at South Third Street and Larry Holmes Way, the former site of the Days Inn at the gateway to Downtown Easton.

Erickson pitched the Da Vinci Science City as a "world-class science center" that would be "on par with Philadelphia's Franklin Institute and Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center."

Four outside firms were hired to examine the interest in the project, she said. H2R, a St. Louis market research firm, conducted online interviews of 1,000 people within 100 miles of Easton to gauge their likeliness to visit, and how often they would. The results were positive, she said.

Da Vinci's board has signed a letter of intent to continue moving forward until a development agreement is ready, Erickson said. That letter will be brought to council to sign soon, since the current memorandum of understanding about the project expires in a week and a half.

The H2R survey focused on a ticket price of $20 or $25, but that could be as low as $16 for big groups, Erickson later added. Panto said, in response to a question from Councilman Peter Melan, that Da Vinci and the city have an understanding that the museum would be free for many city residents on certain days.

The attendance projections for three years out -- not factoring in a first year that would likely have greater than the average attendance -- show that as many as 600,000 people could visit. But the Science City could still be viable with only 400,000 visitors per year, Erickson said.

Council members were told that the Crayola Experience draws about 425,000 people per year to Easton. Erickson said Science City could draw more because of a greater appeal to adults.

Some residents expressed concerns about whether the jobs that would be created -- 541 at Science City and 1,573 in two years of construction -- would pay well enough.

The part-time jobs will pay at minimum $12 an hour, while full-time jobs pay at minimum $35,000 per year.

After a brief recess, Walker Consultants, a firm that studies parking at universities, airports and other public spaces, presented about its initial analysis of parking downtown.

Staff from the firm came at multiple times each on a weekday on a Saturday to count cars and plot out where parking was in use and not in public and private spots in a 57-block area of the city's Downtown.

Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ.

Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.People will be able to sit down in the next few weeks to ask questions of and talk with a local police chief.

Slate Belt Regional police Chief David Mettin has scheduled three events to allow residents to meet him while enjoying a free cup of java.

"Coffee with a Cop" events began in 2011 as a California police department's attempt to bring law enforcement officers and community members together. Similar events have been hosted since then by departments throughout the United States.

"It's local police going out there to meet our residents in a more casual setting," Mettin said.

Mettin plans to host an event in each of the three municipalities that his department covers. Residents are invited to attend one or all three of the free events. No registration is required.

The first meeting is schedule for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Pen Argyl Borough Hall, 11 Robinson Ave.

Tuesday, Nov. 13, is the date for the Wind Gap Borough Hall meeting at 545 E. West St. at 2 p.m.

Finally, the third meeting at the Plainfield Township Municipal Building at 6292 Sullivan Trail is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14.

Slate Belt Regional police are engaged in several community outreach efforts, including citizen and junior police academies, D.A.R.E. and the Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run.

Mettin said he thinks it is important to engage the residents of the area the department covers. People who show up for coffee will be able to discuss whatever is on their minds, he said.

"I think we have an excellent relationship with the local community," he said. "I haven't seen it better anywhere else."

These types of community outreach events are beneficial to the relationship between law enforcement officers and the residents, according to Mettin.

"It benefits the community but it also benefits the police officers," Mettin said.

John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Facebook makes American society better

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View ResultsSpecsavers in Naas and Newbridge have together raised more than 300 for Beaumont Hospital Cochlear Implant Department. The store recently held in-store fundraising activity to coincide with World Deaf Day, which took place on Sunday 30 September, to raise awareness of the importance of taking a proactive approach to your hearing health. The store experienced enormous support and kindness from the local community, making this fundraiser a fantastic success.

Pictured at Specsavers Naas and Newbridges recent fundraising day are local employees Aisling McGing, Gillian Moore, Alannah Ryan, Patrick Moore, Shannon Ennis, Maria Slattery and Ciara O' Keefe.

Specsavers Naas and Newbridge added that Director of Audiology Carol O Neil and audiologist Louise McConnell will climb Scafell Pike in May 2019. Scafell Pike the highest mountain in the UK and all funds raised from this activity will be donated directly to the Beaumont Hospital Cochlear Implant Department.

Director of Audiology at Specsavers Naas and Newbridge, Carol O Neil, said: "With Beaumont Hospital Cochlear Implant Department being Specsavers Audiologists new charity partner, we were delighted to hold an event to raise much needed funds for the charity. We saw all of the team here at Naas and Newbridge get involved and we would like to thank locals for their amazing generosity and for helping us raise money for such a worthy cause."Two friends one from Kildare and one Dublin will both be honoured on Friday at the National Bravery Awards for mounting a dangerous sea rescue of a man off the coast of Wexford.

They will both receive the award from the Ceann Comhairle Sean OFearghail TD for their outstanding acts of courage at the National Bravery Awards in Dublin tomorrow.

Paul McInerney of Celbridge and Eugene Duff of Kimmage are receiving Bronze Medals and Certificates of Bravery for their actions on 10 August 2017, when the holidaymakers noticed a man collapse and fall into the sea near Kilmuckridge, County Wexford. The pair swam to the man as he was being pulled by the current into deep water and, with great difficulty, brought him back to shore. The man had suffered a heart attack and, despite their efforts to save him using CPR, Mr. Duff and Mr. McInerney could not save him

They are among 21 people being honoured at Fridays ceremony at Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park, Dublin

The annual awards since 1947 have been administered by Comhairle na Mire Gaile  the Deeds of Bravery Council  which is also chaired by Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail TD.

The presentation of the National Bravery Awards is an opportunity to celebrate the courage of ordinary people who risk their own safety to protect their fellow citizens, the Ceann Comhairle said. In a world often dominated by bad news, it is important to recognise the sacrifices made by good people, whose selflessness can serve to remind us of our duty of care to one another. It is an honour to present awards to 21 deserving recipients and I thank them for their courage.

The Deeds of Bravery Council includes the Cathaoirleach of Seanad Eireann, the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Cork, the Garda Commissioner, the President of the Association of City & County Councils and the Chair of the Irish Red Cross.

The Council may award Gold, Silver or Bronze medals as well as Certificates of Bravery.Movember has launched it's 10th year in Ireland and calls on Kildare to lend it's support.

Leading global mens health charity, the Movember Foundation, today marked ten years of fundraising for mens health issues in Ireland as it launched its 2018 Movember campaign.

Movember is calling on men and women in Kildare to grow a moustache, host an event or move to raise much needed funds and awareness for mens health issues.

In the past ten years, over 100,000 men and women in Ireland have loaned their upper lip or helped to raise funds for what has become the most effective mens health initiative of a generation; making a real difference to the lives of the thousands of people affected by prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health issues in Ireland each year.

Movember has funded over 30 prostate cancer initiatives, in partnership with the Irish Cancer Society, ranging from financial grants for patients and their families to ground-breaking research that has united the prostate cancer research community in an effort to improve outcomes and quality of life for the 1 in 7 Irish men who will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.

Neil Rooney, Movember Country Director, said: What Irish men and women have done over the past 10 years to raise funds and awareness for mens health issues has been phenomenal. However, serious issues still remain and we are fully committed to continue our work over the next 10 years and beyond to help close the four year gap in life expectancy between men and women in Ireland, and we need ongoing support to continue our work. If you havent grown a Mo before, now is the time. If you have, ditch that razor, put your lip to work again and help men live happier, healthier, longer lives!

Ten years ago, awareness and funding of male cancers and mental health was critically low and the issues were often ignored in Ireland. As a result, men suffered and died in silence. It simply wasnt acceptable. Movember gave a platform for change to men who wanted to challenge outdated, toxic attitudes to masculinity and women who wanted a better, brighter future for the men in their lives. We became a diverse movement of rugby players, students, farmers, firemen and friends challenging the status quo and redefining the way mens health issues are addressed and we thank them all sincerely for their ongoing support.

Head of Services at the Irish Cancer Society, Donal Buggy, said: We are very proud of our partnership with Movember in Ireland. Through their fundraising efforts over the past ten years, Movember has become the largest non-governmental funder of prostate cancer initiatives in Ireland. The Irish Cancer Society has worked with Movember to fund over 30 research and patient support programmes improving the lives of men across the country. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Movember Ireland and building on our vital work in supporting men affected by prostate cancer in Ireland.

Speaking at todays launch, bestselling author and mental health advocate John Connell said: I am delighted to have partnered with Movember this year on their 10th anniversary. Movember has played an important role over the past ten years in destigmatising mental health issues in Irish society and I look forward to working with them to let men know its good to talk when they face these challenges.

Movember are taking the opportunity to announce the inclusion of Ireland in their global prostate registry, The International Registry for Men with Advanced Prostate Cancer (known as IRONMAN).

Funded by Movember Ireland and managed by the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish contribution to the project will be led by researchers in 7 hospitals across Dublin, Cork and Sligo. The IRONMAN registry collects information about a patients type of prostate cancer, their treatment and what side effects they may be experiencing to help inform cause, prevention and treatment.

To help Movember continue their ongoing work you can sign up and get involved or make a donation on Movember.com.Sligo/Leitrim TD, Deputy Marc MacSharry is calling for the Minister with responsibility for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O'Connor to state her views on the accuracy of using Google Maps and Eircodes for Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) grant measurements, despite the fact that this app is throwing up conflicting distances.



In a baffling situation, Co Leitrim student, Sarah Poole, who is attending Cavan Institute and lives in the Mohill area, has been refused a Non-adjacent Maintenance Grant despite the fact she lives in the same house as a sibling who was, only a year previously, awarded the non-adjacent grant to attend the same institution. Under the grant criteria, students must live more than 45km from their place of education.



Sarah's older sister Hannah was awarded the grant in 2016 following an appeal. However Sarah has been refused the grant to attend the same institution.

SUSI, using Google Map measures and an Eircode for Cavan Institute, calculated the distance between Sarah's home and the Institute as being 43.7km, under the 45km requirement.

This has left Sarah in a difficult situation as she now has to take on additional work to make up the grant shortfall.

Sarah appealed the decision showing that, depending on whether you used Eircodes or addresses, four measurements are produced ranging from 45.6km to 54.2km.

Sarah even drove the route to college herself and found that the shortest route is 45.6km, which still puts her over the non-adjacent threshold. Despite providing evidence of this, in an appeal to the SUSI Appeals officer and further with the SUSI Grant Appeals Board, Sarah was refused the non-adjacent grant.



She also lodged a complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman, citing the significant variation in the distances given by Good Maps. This was not upheld.

As a result, Sarah's mother, Catherine Poole, has to drive her daughter 18km to the nearest bus stop so she can travel to school.

She can't afford to drive there and she also has to work long hours to make up the difference between the Adjacent and Non-adjacent grant, she points out.

Catherine said the situation faced by her daughter is 'ridiculous'.



It's not a case that we've moved our home. Our house is in the same location and yet Sarah's application for the Non-adjacent grant has been refused, when her sister was approved for the same grant the year before. It is crazy. How can they approve a grant for one child in a family and then refuse the same grant to another?

Central to the issue she says, is SUSI's reliance on Google Maps for establishing distances in grant applications.

Catherine said that this app produces too many different distance readings and should not be relied upon, especially in cases where a SUSI appeal has been lodged based on distance.

But even on appeal SUSI still uses Google Maps for measurements, even when it is pointed out that the original measurements were conflicting, notes Catherine.



Where distance is being challenged SUSI should not use Google Maps but should use maps produced by Ordnance Survey Ireland to give an accurate result, she said.

Her daughter, Sarah, is still trying to appeal the decision to refuse her the Non-adjacent grant, but Catherine points out that this isn't an issue just impacting their family.

This must be happening to others, she says, but in our case, where we have one child who got the grant and another being refused and they live in the same house, well, there's something obviously wrong with the way these decisions are being made.



Catherine has taken the matter to a number of public representatives and Sligo/Leitrim Deputy Marc MacSharry has written to Mary Mitchell O'Connor, Minister for State for Higher Education at the Department of Education and Skills, seeking a review of Sarah Poole's case.

He has also asked the Minister to state her views on the accuracy of using Google Maps and Eircodes as the measurement benchmark for assessing eligibility for the non-adjacent rate of the student maintenance grant, especially where evidence of a 'clocked' drive of the distance proves the figures produced to be inaccurate.

Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, Deputy MacSharry acknowledged the school transport scheme pops up similar concerns for families each August, but said never has a case (involving SUSI) been as clear cut as this one.

This is an example of an absence of common sense. The distances that the decision on the grant were based on were provided through Google Maps and they were wrong, he said.



We all realise there needs to be rules and there has to be a threshold for applicants for this and other grants, but here we have a scenario where one daughter in a family, living in the family home, is approved for the grant and a year later, her sister, also living in the same family home and attending the same college, is refused on the grounds she doesn't meet the distance requirements.

It is a ridiculous situation. Here's a scenario where the criteria is being applied but in a way which is obviously wrong.

He agreed with Catherine Poole that Ireland's Ordnance Survey map measurements should be the criteria used for gauging distance.



The people processing these applications are opting for the easiest way out and ignoring common sense, he said.

It comes back to the problem of 'box ticking' an application rather than using a level of discretion to see if a person actually qualifies for a grant.

In terms of the State's assessment of such applications, it cannot be simply a case of 'box ticking'. A higher standard has to be adhered to and you cannot rely on something like Google Maps, when a question has been raised about its accuracy in an appeal.

Deputy MacSharry said he expects to have a response from the Minister on this issue in the coming week.

Also read: Leaving Cert students advised to consider all optionsPart of North Leitrim can align with both Wild Atlantic Way and the Hidden Heartlands tourism brands according to Failte Ireland.



Manorhamilton area councillors recently wrote to Failte Ireland demanding that North Leitrim be put into the Wild Atlantic Way tourism brand as they didn't feel the Hidden Heartlands suited them, so close to the coast.

Read more on: Leitrim demands to be in Wild Altantic Way



This week, Failte Ireland responded to the members and told them that Leitrim will see great benefits from the Hidden Heartlands campaign but that businesses can align with either marketing campaign.

They did specify that businesses from Tullaghan to Manorhamilton can align themselves with the Wild Atlantic Way and that part of Leitrim has changed colours on their marketing map.



How ever it was noted that Parke's Castle in Dromahair, Lough Allen and Drumkeerin are not included in the Wild Atlantic Way.

Cllr Mary Bohan was not happy and said the letter had stated that all of the Manorhamilton Municipal Area needed to be marketed together as Wild Atlantic Way.



Cllr Felim Gurn stated once again that part of Kerry that is 70 miles from the coast is part of the Wild Atlantic Way.

Cllr Justin Warnock said all of North Leitrim needs to be packaged together. He even went so far to ask if the Welcome to Leitrim Council signs could be changed to Welcome to North Leitrim from the approaches from Sligo and Donegal. Council staff politely refused his request saying it would be of no benefit to North Leitrim.



Cllr Gurn asked would Manorhamilton receive signage from both campaigns as they are in a unique position of being in two marketing campaigns and next door to Ireland's Ancient East.

Cllr Mary Bohan lead praise and congratulations from all councillors to local Tidy Towns groups on their success this year and to award winner of Leitrim's Love Where You Live.



Chief Executive of Leitrim County Council, Lar Power also congratulated Tidy Towns groups and all volunteers that work across Leitrim to help make their area better.

Also read: Drumshanbo and Glenade Lough in major new TV AdMinister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Sean Canney T.D. joined CEO of eir, Carolan Lennon, as the company announced 350 new positions in its new state of the art facility at Rathedmond in Sligo town.

The roles will be mainly in customer services and are part of eirs overall programme to bring all customer-facing functions back in-house.

The goal of this programme is to deliver a higher quality of service for customers and importantly, greater levels of ownership and responsibility for eir employees.

eir is Irish-led, with a deep understanding of Ireland and the needs of its customers and employees, both urban and rural. In keeping with a strong commitment to its national footprint, 750 of the jobs eir is bringing back in house will be located in hubs outside of Dublin: in Cork, Limerick and at this brand-new facility in Sligo.

Since its acquisition twelve months ago, eir is now part of the most innovative telecoms company in Europe, with plans to invest 1bn in the coming years, on top of the 1.5bn it has already invested in recent years. eir is keenly committed to providing broadband across the country and through a self-funded 250m rural investment programme we will have delivered super-fast broadband directly to 330,000 rural premises by June 2019, with 236,000 having already been completed nationally.

By June 2019, 28,000 premises across Sligo will also have been passed with eirs fibre broadband at a total cost of 10m.

Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Sean Canney, T.D. said: I am very happy to welcome eir to Sligo. This Government is committed to ensuring the benefits of the economic recovery continue to reach well beyond our cities, and todays announcement is in recognition of the immense talent that exists in every part of Ireland. Projects located in the regions also tie in with the Programme for Government commitment to the Atlantic Economic Corridor to act as a counterbalance to overdevelopment in urban regions.

CEO of eir, Carolan Lennon said We are delighted to announce these jobs and to extend our team in Sligo. Sligo is an excellent place to do business, giving us access to highly skilled people from across the North-West region. eir is committed to investing in Ireland in every sense of the word, from providing top quality jobs across the country, to ensuring our superfast broadband and high quality mobile service reaches everybody in Ireland. We have been very impressed with the quality of the applications we have already received so far and I look forward to welcoming hundreds of new members to the eir team in the coming months.

CEO of Sligo Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Aidan Doyle welcomes todays announcement This new development forms part of eir commitment to investing in the regions and ensuring that broadband and high quality mobile services reaches everyone nationally. Todays announcement by eir is a result of engagement and collaboration by all the stakeholders in the region.LifeStyle

The best Lifestyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel Lifestyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Shaynna Blaze and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand.COUNCILLORS have voted through plans for a new strategy which could pave the way for a public bathing area in the heart of Limerick.

At this weeks community meeting, members heard a presentation from Elisa ODonovan of Swimmable Limerick, who outlined the public swims she has organised along the River Shannon.

Free places for the latest open swim next weekend, being held as part of the Samhain Festival, sold out within a few hours, she said.

Elisa said: The emphasis is on the community and people coming together to enjoy the city river. The numbers are growing every time we do something.

There are many benefits to river swimming, she added, saying: It increases the immune system and decreases stress, as well as promoting tourism and the heritage of the river. Its a great treatment for depression according to the British Medical Association.

The founder of Swimmable Limerick also said the group has been inundated with calls from across the world since they began their recreational swims.

Where else in the world could you swim in front of a medieval castle, Elisa asked.

She said the wishes of the swimming community here is to have safe entry and exit from the river, and changing facilities.

Solidarity councillor Cian Prendiville, who invited Elisa to the meeting, said the opening of a public bath is something that should be moved on rapidly.

It should be something which we could focus on in next years local election. Id hope pressure can be built up to make this a reality, he told The Leader.

It could be a fantastic facility for everyone in the city and a unique attraction for people to come to Limerick, he added.

Councillors unanimously accepted a recommendation from director Gordon Daly that a strategy is put together to assess the need for swimming facilities.

It will now be raised at full council next month.A FARMER has been told he will avoid a conviction for animal cruelty offences if he makes a donation to the ISPCA.

Leonard Lynch, aged 47, who has an address at Ardamore, Lispole, County Kerry, was prosecuted in relation to the discovery animal carcasses on farmlands at Curaheen North, Askeaton, on November 18, 2016.

Inspector Liz Kennedy told Newcastle West Court that gardai called to the lands, which were being leased by the defendant, after they received a complaint from the district veterinary officer.

She said the skeletal remains of a number of dead sheep were discovered on the lands and that the tags were traced back to the defendant.

Solictitor John Herbert said his client, who now lives in Scotland, was not present in court but had instructed him in advance of the hearing to enter a guilty plea to the charge under the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act 2013.

He told Judge Mary Cashin that Mr Lynch had rented the lands at Askeaton but that his primary farming activity at the time was at a large dairy farm near Dingle.

He said his client was a busy man around the time of the offences as he was in negotiations on the farm in Dingle.

Having done so, the defendant, who has no previous convictions, moved to Scotland where he is hill farming.

Mr Herbert said his client, who has been farming all his life, suffers from health problems and he appealed to the court not to record a formal conviction as it may affect his livelihood.

Judge Cashin noted this and indicated she will not record a conviction if 500 is paid to the ISPCA.

The case was adjourned to November 9, to facilitate payment of the monies.LIMERICK has received a significant boost this Thursday with confirmation telecommunications firm eir is to create up to 120 jobs in the city.

The positions will be created at the companys exchange in Roches Street, and will mainly be in customer services role.

A spokesperson for eir said between 40 and 120 positions will come to Limerick, while Senator Maria Byrne has hailed the creation of the positions.

The roles are part of the providers overall programme to bring customer-facing functions back in house from outsourced facilities.

eir chief executive Carolan Lennon said: eir is committed to investing in Ireland in every sense of the word, from providing top quality jobs across the country, to ensuring our superfast broadband and high quality mobile service reaches everybody in Ireland. We have been very impressed with the quality of the applications we have already received so far and I look forward to welcoming hundreds of new members to the eir team in the coming months.

Ms Byrne added: It is a very significant announcement for Limerick and proof that our infrastructure and talented workforce are attractive to big companies. Job creation is the key to sustaining local communities and services throughout Limerick, as only a strong economy, supporting people at work, can pay for the services needed to create a fair society.AUGHINISH has been given a further reprieve in the ongoing battle between the US government and various Russian oligarchs and companies.

At the weekend, Rusal, which owns Aughinish, had its licences to trade with the US further extended to December 12.

The move has been welcomed by Minister of State, Patrick ODonovan who said it was a recognition of the importance of the issue and would allow all those involved to continue working for a longer-term solution that will protect jobs at Aughinish.

Last April, the US treasury introduced sanctions targeting Russian individuals and businesses. These included sanctions on Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska the majority shareholder in EN+ Group which owns 48 per cent of Rusal, which in turn owns Aughinish.

The US authorities initially gave the company until the end of October to come up with a solution to address Mr Deripaskas interest in the company. This was then extended for three weeks to November and now has been extended again.

Since the sanctions issue first emerged, lobbying by Ireland and a number of European countries, including France and Germany, has been intense, given that Aughinish supplies some 30% of European alumina, used mainly for the motor and aviation industries.

Our embassy and our ambassador Dan Mulhall are continuing to maintain contact with the US Treasury, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the State Department and using whatever influence we have with people in Congress, Minister ODonovan confirmed. There is an understanding in Washington of the importance of this to Ireland. This extension is welcome as it will ultimately allow us to bridge the gap and to have a longer term, permanent solution.

It allows us the opportunity to continue working to make sure we get the best possible deal, he said.

The US Congress will have to approve any proposals for a solution.A HUNTING enthusiast who admitted having unlicenced firearms at his home in Limerick for several years has failed in his bid to secure a firearms certificate.

The applicant, who lives in the Castletroy area of the city, appealed the decision of Superintendent Derek Smart to refuse his application for a renewal of two firearms certificates which had lapsed.

During a hearing at Limerick District Court, Judge John King was told the applicant was granted separate firearms certificates in 2009 and 2010  one for a .22 rifle and one for a 12-gauge over and under shotgun.

The applicant told the court he moved address sometime later and that difficulties arose regarding the renewal of the certificates, which are valid for three years.

He told his barrister, David McHugh, that he had made efforts to rectify matters and had contacted gardai at both Roxboro Road and Henry Stations.

The applicant, who is a member of a gun club, insisted he heard nothing until detectives called to his home in 2015 and seized the two firearms from him.

He told Mr McHugh he is now aware of what is required of him and that there will be no further issues.

Cross-examining the witness, Supt Derek Smart, put it to him the firearms licences had lapsed in October 2012 and August 2013 and that he had retained the firearms, without valid licences, for a number of years until they were seized.

Copies of several letters which were sent by Supt Smart to the applicant were produced in court and Supt Smart also stated that had sent detectives to his home on more than one occasion in an effort to rectify matters.

He confirmed he met the applicant in person last year and that following this, he formally told him that he was refusing his application,

I am not satisfied he a suitable person to hold a licence based on the attitude he has shown, Supt Smart said.

Dismissing the appeal, the judge noted the two guns had been unlicenced for a considerable amount of time before they were seized.

Gardai were being proactive, even after they (the firearms) were seized, it was the gardai who went to him, Judge King commented, adding the applicant did not have the correct attitude.PARTS of the historic town wall in Kilmallock are visible for the first time in generations.

Limerick City and County Council lead a project to conserve more than 500 metres of the west wall and create a walkway along the route. It allows locals and visitors to experience the wall for the first time.

Up until now it was on private property.

Kilmallock was an important Norman town and was at the centre of Irelands political development from the 13th through to the 17th centuries, a history that is evident through the rich architectural heritage and national monuments. The original circuit of the towns defences was 1,700 metres and of this about 1,200 metres remains standing.

The four national monuments in State ownership are Kings Castle (15th century), Stone Mansion (16th century), Collegiate Church (13th century) and the Dominican Priory (late 13th century).

What makes this project unique is that visitors to the west wall walkway will be seeing the same landscape as those centuries ago, as Kilmallock has never really expanded outside its original walled boundary. To enhance the town even further, the new pedestrian bridge was officially opened on Friday.

It provides a greatly improved link from the town and hugely increased safety to the recently developed riverside walk.

Overall cost of the west wall walkway and footbridge amounted to almost 900,000, with funding from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Irish Walled Towns Network, Rural Economic Development Zone, Hinterland, and council own funds.

Cathaoirleach of Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district, Eddie Ryan cut the ribbon on the bridge, alongside Minister Patrick ODonovan.

Kilmallock has a long and rich history and today we see that history becoming more accessible to a lot more people with the official opening of the west wall walkway, which is just under 500 metres in length. It is set to become a new thoroughfare for Kilmallock, providing a wonderful amenity to residents and visitors alike. The people of Kilmallock value their heritage and know that it makes the town unique, beautiful and magical and the town wall is central to that vision, said Cllr Ryan.

Minister ODonovan said it is a great day for Kilmallock, especially for the people of the town and surrounding areas.

Over the past number of years, there has been a massive metamorphosis in Kilmallock, with a huge amount of projects finished or nearing completion. The ideas have come from the bottom up and facilitated by the government. There has been a new fire station, courthouse, library, new primary and secondary schools, sewage treatment plant and now a new pedestrian bridge and a new walkway by the wall.

There is more to be done such as with the medieval mansion in the town. I know the contribution that building can make into the future, as much as it made in the past. Over the last number of years we have been developing a rural strategy for our towns and villages and it is out of that, that some funding will be secured for projects in Kilmallock, said Minister ODonovan.

Sean Coughlan, director of support services, highlighted the contribution of the councils architect Sarah McCutcheon.

Her passion and drive to have the walls of Kilmallock preserved for generations to come has almost single-handedly guaranteed the completion of the project, said Mr Coughlan.LIMERICK TD Jan OSullivan has said women politicians have often been passed over for ministerial promotion in favour of male colleagues with less ability.

Deputy OSullivan is one of 17 former female government ministers and two former female Presidents of Ireland interviewed by RTEs Political Correspondent Martina Fitzgerald for her new book Madam Politician, published this week.

In the book the 19 women collectively reveal for the first time the challenges and triumphs of getting to the top table of Irish political life.

Ms Fitzgerald said: As a female political correspondent working in Leinster House over the last few years Ive been very conscious that there are very few women in national politics. In writing this book I set out to explore issues such as the enduring focus on womens appearance, overcoming prejudice and sexism and juggling a career and family life.

Deputy OSullivan, who was at cabinet as Minister for Education from 2014 to 2016, told Fitzgerald: There are some very able men who get to cabinet, and they should be in cabinet. But from time to time there are men who get to cabinet, when in my opinion there are women who arent in cabinet who would be better.

When the Labour TD was first selected as a candidate in Limerick East in the 1992 general election, she says the transformation of womens role in the party was well advanced.

There was a time back before I got involved when there were twelve men representing the Labour party in Leinster House.

Deputy OSullivan was Jim Kemmys running mate in 1992 but she had to wait another six years before becoming a Dail deputy.

Her entry into national politics was dependent on being the Labour candidate in a by-election in September 1998, following Kemmys death six months earlier. She acknowledges that political dynasty considerations meant Joe Kemmy - who was his brothers second-in-command - would have had a right to the nomination.

But she says there was recognition of her political track record when Joe Kemmy and other supporters told her: Look you are the one who has done your apprenticeship, you are the one who has been on the council. Its your turn.

She took the seat and has retained it in the four subsequent Dail elections.

Deputy OSullivan was appointed Minister for Education in 2014. Only 10% of those who have sat at the cabinet table in Ireland in almost 100 years have been women, a total of just 19 female politicians.

In endorsing the book, Emily OReilly, European Ombudsman, said Ms Fitzgerald had written a timely and important contribution to the contemporary reflection on womens historic and future place in Irish society and public life.

Martina Fitzgerald will be in Limerick this Friday at 1pm to sign copies of her book at OMahonys bookshop, OConnell Street and then again the following Friday, October 26 at 1pm with Deputy Jan OSullivan in Eason on OConnell Street.LIMERICKs northside has received a big boost after a development promising up to 150 new jobs was given the green light.

The multi-million euro proposals  first revealed in the Limerick Leader  will see a massive Barack Obama Plaza style service station build on a vast site adjacent to the Coonagh Roundabout and the Clondrinagh Business Park.

One hundred construction jobs and 50 permanent roles are being planned for the development, which was given the all-clear by An Bord Pleanala.

This came after rival petrol stations the Petrogas Group and Topaz objected to the original grant of permission by Limerick City and County Council.

Local Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan, who has held meetings with the man behind the development Liam Carroll, has welcomed the permission.

He said: Anything which brings jobs and business is welcome. That part of the Mid-West which includes Clare and Limerick is going to be well-developed, so its good to put the infrastructure in before-hand. Obviously, we have a motorway there, practically minutes from it, so that road is only going to get busier.

As part of he scheme, developers are planning to construct a service station forecourt and a two-storey restaurant building with a drive-thru facility on a play area.

The service station would operate on a 24/7 basis, with the restaurant open between 6am, and 10pm, documents show.

Pat ONeill, one of the men behind the plan said last year, it would represent a landmark development for the northside, and he compared it to the Moneygall Barack Obama Plaza in terms of size and scale.

An Bord Pleanalas gave the development the go-ahead with a number of conditions.

These include a stipulation that site development and building works will only be carried out between 8am and 7pm on weekdays, and 8am to 4pm on Saturdays.

No works are allowed to take place on Sundays and Bank Holidays. During construction the developer shall provide parking facilities for associated traffic.HAZELWOOD College is leading the way when it comes to training people in life-saving CPR.

Earlier this year, in a move inspired by Hazelwood teacher, Michelle Herbert, and with the support of the Irish Heart Foundation, training was given to staff from 25 schools all over Munster, with the aim of getting them to go back and train their own school communities.

Then, last week, the Dromcollogher school reached another significant milestone, holding its first Celebrating Us day and training all its students and staff in CPR and preparing all its 600 people to go back into their home communities with the skills and confidence to save lives.

And it all took place on a day that will be etched forever into the memory of Michelle Herbert. On October 9, 2016, Michelle, who teaches chemistry and agricultural science in the school, suffered a heart attack while playing for Newcastle West in the Limerick Junior Camogie Final.

But thanks to the quick thinking of the woman who was marking her, Sarah Jane Joy, Michelle received CPR and defibrillator shocks on the pitch, and survived.

Michelle and Sarah Jane both appeared on the Ray Darcy show, recalling their dramatic tale of two years ago but also putting forward a passionate case for CPR training. The message that it can save lives was eloquently but forcefully obvious.

Sarah Jane Joy was also one of a number of guest speakers who joined students and staff in Hazelwood last week. Others included Clare hurler, Podge Collins, Irish Triathlon star, Caroline Hayes and Clare Scanlan whose son Darragh died as a result of cardiac arrest in the young in 2011. And of course, Michelle Herbert.

No one knows when they may need to use this skill so it is vital that as many people in the country as possible are confident in this lifesaving skill, Michelle told the school community.

At Hazelwood College, we are delighted to be helping create a generation of lifesavers who will have the skills and knowledge to recognise someone in a cardiac arrest and perform CPR.

Representatives from the Irish Heart Foundation and their mobile unit were on campus throughout the day and the Liam McCarthy Cup made an appearance.

Michelle and her colleagues here in the school are incredible ambassadors for CPR 4 Schools and we are thrilled to present the school with a Special Recognition Award to acknowledge the exceptional work they have done to train students and staff in CPR, said.

Laura Hickey, Children and Young People programme manager with the Irish Heart Foundation.

Were delighted to be here in Hazelwood College for todays event.

5,000 lives are lost every year in Ireland to sudden cardiac death, thats 13 lives lost every day, she added.

But CPR is a lifesaving skill. If you start CPR, you can double or even triple a persons chance of survival. Through the Irish Heart Foundations CPR 4 Schools programme, we are hoping to train 360,000 secondary school children in CPR and in the process create a new generation of lifesavers.

With sessions on yoga, mindfulness, cookery, physical activity as well as CPR instruction and a barbeque, the focus in Hazelwood was firmly on equipping students with ways to face the challenges of modern living, including social media and rising stress levels.

It was, the schools Heart Committee explained, about ensuring that all students and teachers left the school, not only able to undertake CPR but feeling positive, energised and with a new appreciation for life.Chemotherapy caused odd changes in one mans fingernails, including lines called Muehrcke's lines (indicated by the short arrow) and Mees lines (indicated by the long arrow).

Chemotherapy can have odd effects on a person's hair and nails, but in one man's case, the cancer treatment created a particularly striking pattern.

The 42-year-old man, who lives in Saudi Arabia, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that starts in a type of white blood cells called lymphocytes. He underwent four cycles of chemotherapy, according to a new report of his case, published yesterday (Oct. 17) in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Five months after his initial diagnosis, the man's doctor noticed changes in the patient's fingernails: They had turned brown, with smooth, horizontal, white lines extending straight across them. [10 Do's and Don'ts to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer]

But what caused this to happen?

The brown discoloration is due to a condition called "melanonychia," which occurs when the nail has excess melanin, a dark brown or black pigment that colors the hair, skin and iris of the eye.

As for the lines across the nails, which look like a manicurist painted them on, they have two causes. The opaque lines, called Mees' lines, can result from an injured nail matrix. (The nail matrix is part of the tissue that lies beneath the white part at the base of the nail, where new nail forms.) The more-translucent lines, called Muehrcke's lines, can result from changes to the blood vessels in a person's nail bed, according to the report. When you press on the nails, the Muehrcke's lines will start to disappear, but the Mees' lines won't.

These lines "are not super common, but they're not rare," said Dr. Marc Glashofer, a dermatologist at The Dermatology Group in northern New Jersey who was not involved with the man's case. Chemotherapy is "notorious, sometimes, for causing skin and hair and nail changes," Glashofer added. Indeed, chemotherapy drugs are known to cause these specific lines and colors, according to the report.

Dr. Musa Alzahrani, a co-author on the case report and hematologist at the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, agreed that "it is not uncommon to have one [type of] nail change." However, "having three [types of] changes at the same time is rare," Alzahrani told Live Science in an email.

Chemotherapy isn't the only cause of nail changes, however; various medications can lead to Mees' lines. If somebody came in with any kind of nail change, "my first question would be  any new medications?" Glashofer told Live Science.

Other factors, such as low protein levels, can also lead to Muehrcke's lines.

Skin, nail and hair changes can be "windows into the body, into what's going on internally," Glashofer said. Many times, certain diseases, such as those in the liver and kidney, can lead to changes in a person's nails, as can starting certain medications, he said.

The lines will all grow out over the course of months, Glashofer said. The man in the new case went on to complete two more rounds of chemotherapy. By six months after his last round of treatment, his fingernails had completely returned to normal, according to the report.

Originally published on Live Science.By studying the arm movements of two distant relatives of T. rex  the domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) and the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis)  researchers have learned that T. rex and other theropods (a group of mostly meat-eating, bipedal dinosaurs) could likely turn the palms of their hands toward their chests.

In essence, "they may have been able to rotate the palm of the hand inward and upward in such a way that the palm would face the chest when the elbow was flexed," study co-researchers Christopher Langel, an undergraduate student of geology, and Matthew Bonnan, a professor of biology, who are both at Stockton University in New Jersey, told Live Science. [Photos: Newfound Dinosaur Had Tiny Arms, Just Like T. Rex]

This adds to the popular saying that "T. rex was a clapper not a slapper," in the way that it held its hands. In other words, the dinosaur likely kept its hands in a clapping position (palms facing inward) rather than a slapping stance (palms facing downward). But the dinosaur king wasn't limited to clapping: the new research suggests T. rex and other theropods could turn their palms inward and upward if they so desired.

They may be tiny, but T. rex's arms may have helped the beast bring prey close for a bite. (Image credit: iStock/Getty Images Plus)

As for why this would be advantageous, it's hard to say for certain without seeing a ferocious, nonavian theropod in action, the researchers said. "But we might speculate that such a movement (rotating the forearm and hand in toward the chest) could allow some theropods to bring prey in close for a bite,"Langel and Bonnan told Live Science in an email.

In fact, the next step of the scientists' research may shed light on this question. The team plans to examine the shapes of the forelimb bones in the theropod Allosaurus and compare them with those of alligators and turkeys "to help us narrow down whether this could actually occur in a theropod dinosaur," said Langel and Bonnan. The two presented their research here at the 78th annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting yesterday (Oct. 17). The research has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Turkey time

The researchers couldn't simply study a T. rex arm, because soft joint tissues rarely fossilize. "As a consequence, we are missing information on what the shapes of the [theropod] joints actually looked like and how far apart the bones were when the predatory dinosaur was alive," Langel and Bonnan said.

An alligator arm ready for the X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology, or XROMM. (Image credit: Langel/Bonnan, Stockton University)

To investigate, then, the researchers looked at the ulna and humerus in the alligator and turkey with a technique called X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology, or XROMM. First, the investigators attached each wing and arm to a plexiglass platform between two devices that generated X-ray movies. Then, the researchers used fishing wire to tug on the elbow of each specimen, causing the wing and arm to fold up, the researchers said. [Image Gallery: The Life of T. Rex]

Finally, "we used the two X-ray views of each elbow to reconstruct how the bones moved in three dimensions by precisely matching virtual models of each bone to the movies," the researchers said.

The results showed just how complex turkey and alligator elbows are. In humans, "when we flex our elbows, both forearm bones follow the hinge joint to fold in toward the upper arm," the researchers said. "Our hands often rotate palm side up when we flex our elbows, because one forearm bone pivots around the other."

On the other hand (so to speak), in alligators and turkeys, "the elbow joint is more complex, and both bones in the forearm not only pivot around the joint, but [also] rock sideways toward the upper arm bone as the elbow is flexed," the researchers said. "Unlike our elbows, both forearm bones [in alligators and turkeys] cause the palm of the hand to turn inward and somewhat upward."

These results were somewhat unexpected, the scientists said.

"It was especially surprising to see how much the forearm bones could rock side to side at the elbow, a movement that is essentially off limits to mammals like us," Langel and Bonnan said. "In essence, alligators and turkeys can turn the palm of the hand inward and upward like we do, but [they do it] by using more-complex movements of the bones at the elbow. Once again, Mother Nature has solved the same problem in different ways." [Dinosaur Profile: Tyrannosaurus Rex (Infographic)]

Other paleontologists were impressed with the team's approach.

"If we just look at bones without considering cartilaginous reconstructions, we could potentially slip into different results as to how we reconstruct the movement of limb joints," Viktor Radermacher, a master's student of paleontology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who wasn't involved with the research, told Live Science. "And that has very big downstream implications for how we interpret ancestral things that then evolve into more specialized forms and understanding that transition."

Matthew Inabinett, a graduate student of paleontology at East Tennessee State University, who wasn't involved with the research, agreed. "It's easy to forget how much of a part soft tissue and cartilage play" in the movement of creatures that died so long ago, Inabinett told Live Science.

Originally published on Live Science."I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

Movie audiences first heard these calmly intoned and ominous words in 1968, spoken by a spaceship's intelligent computer in the science-fiction masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey." With that one phrase, the computer named HAL 9000 confirmed that it could think for itself, and that it was prepared to terminate the astronauts who were planning to deactivate it.

Fifty years after director Stanley Kubrick released his visionary masterpiece of space colonization, how close are humans to the future that he imagined, in which we partner with artificial intelligence (A.I.) that we ultimately may not be able to control? [5 Intriguing Uses for Artificial Intelligence (That Aren't Killer Robots)]

We might be a lot closer than we think, with machines as smart  and as potentially threatening  as HAL lurking "in plain sight on Earth," according to an essay published yesterday (Oct. 17) in the journal Science Robotics.

Essay author Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University, knows artificial intelligence well; she was a pioneering leader in the development of disaster-response robots, and she serves as director of Texas A&M's Humanitarian Robotics and AI Laboratory, according to a faculty biography.

Kubrick's portrait of HAL represented a rare glimpse of what were then very young fields: AI and robotics, showcasing three disciplines that were critical for developing artificial intelligence: "natural language understanding, computer vision and reasoning," Murphy wrote in the essay.

HAL learned from observing its environment, watching and analyzing the words, facial expressions and movements of the human astronauts on the spaceship. It was responsible for performing rote functions such as maintaining the spaceship, but as a "thinking" computer, HAL also was capable of responding conversationally to the astronauts, Murphy explained.

However, when the mission goes awry and the astronauts decide to shut HAL down, the AI discovers their plot by lip-reading. HAL arrives at a new conclusion that wasn't part of its original programming, deciding to save itself by systematically killing off the people onboard.

The prospect of AI doing more harm than good may not be that farfetched. Experts suggest that weaponized AI could play a big part in future global conflicts, and the late physicist Stephen Hawking suggested that humanity might soon find AI to be the biggest threat to our survival.

"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," Hawking told the BBC in 2014.

During a pivotal scene in "2001," HAL strands astronaut David Bowman (Keir Dullea) outside the spaceship, cutting off his demands for re-entry with an emotionless, "This conversation can serve no purpose anymore." But the conversation about AI today is far from over; humanity's growing dependence on computers for a range of everyday uses demonstrates that AI has already established a firm foothold in our homes and in our lives.

What that could mean for humanity over the next 50 years, however, remains to be seen.

Originally publishedon Live Science.BERLIN  Earlier this year, the World Health Organization listed "Disease X" among the diseases most in need of research and development.

Disease X is not a specific illness, but rather a hypothetical epidemic that could be caused by a pathogen (contagious strain of a virus or bacterium) that we don't yet realize affects humans.

Experts at the World Health Summit in Berlin this week warned that we're not prepared to find such a disease at its likely animal source, or spot it quickly when it starts making people sick.

Most emerging epidemic threats  from Ebola to SARS  have been zoonotic diseases, meaning they originate in animals, said veterinary pathologist Tracey McNamara, who organized a summit panel on Disease X.

"If we want to protect people, it makes sense that we should detect these threats in animal populations before spillover to human populations," said McNamara, who is a professor at Western University of Health Sciences. "We need to take a species-neutral approach, and we need to find whatever novel emerging pathogen could threaten human health." [The 9 Deadliest Viruses on Earth]

But McNamara said there is little to no surveillance of wildlife diseases, and in her career, she has found that the divide between the public health sector and animal health sector makes it very difficult to recognize and respond to a novel threat.

In the summer of 1999, McNamara was head pathologist at the Bronx Zoo, and she noticed that crows were dropping dead on zoo grounds. Her investigation of the dead birds showed she was dealing with a novel disease. She wondered if the deaths could be connected to a spate of human deaths from an unusual form of encephalitis in New York City. But she had a hard time getting a diagnosis for the crow disease because government agencies didn't deal with disease samples from zoo animals. (In a recent TED Talk , she describes the spirit of the response she got from the CDC as, "We don't do flamingos.")

"I knew something was going on, but it took me three weeks to get a diagnosis because no one would test my samples," McNamara said.

The disease turned out to be the West Nile virus, which hadn't been seen in the Western Hemisphere before.

Two decades later, she fears the lessons from the West Nile outbreak haven't been learned. She pointed to the example of last year's outbreak of a bird flu strain in cats at a New York City shelter. Hundreds of cats were infected  and a veterinarian at the shelter got sick  before a quarantine was established.

"It was just sheer luck that it wasn't 'the one,'" McNamara told Live Science. "We haven't addressed the bureaucratic impediments to getting real-time diagnosis to diseases that may show up in any species. From a financial point of view, it's far less expensive to find diseases at their source."

The developing world could be especially vulnerable to an outbreak of an emerging infectious disease that originates in wildlife. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently sent expeditions to 13 countries in West, Central and East Africa to evaluate surveillance systems for animal diseases. McNamara called the results "sobering." [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

"There is a lack of capacity on several levels," said Sophie von Dobschuetz, FAO global surveillance coordinator. As in the U.S., there is often a disconnect between public-health services and veterinary services, and relative to human health, animal health gets fewer resources, von Dobschuetzsaid. Moreover, she added, a lack of resources in the field might prevent veterinary workers from carrying out sampling. Central laboratories for testing samples are often far from the field, and labs in the field, if they exist, may not be functional because they lack basic supplies. Civil unrest, terrorist attacks and war might keep surveillance from being done in the field. "These are all things that prevent us from finding the disease at the source in the animal host in a timely manner," von Dobschuetzsaid.

In the short term, McNamara said that veterinary sectors should piggyback on existing investments in public health by sharing things like equipment, lab space or sample delivery systems. In the long term, she'd like to see more attention on building veterinary health programs.

Where should donors and policymakers be putting their funds to make that happen? McNamara asked Mukesh Chawla, coordinator of the World Bank's Pandemic Emergency Financing facility, how much money is being spent on building veterinary capacity. He couldn't find an answer.

"What we have in front of us is what should be an extremely simple exercise but is not," Chawla told the audience. "We don't have a definition of preparedness. We cannot make a case for more spending if we don't know how much we're spending right now."

Once a potential Disease X does jump to humans, the challenge becomes the recognition of the signal of the new threat. Dr. James Wilson of the Nevada Medical Intelligence Center has looked at the response to epidemics dating back to the Russian flu of 1889; he's found that there is typically a months-long delay in the response to a new epidemic. "A lot of the signals that are present in public-health emergencies have been present in open-source media," such as local news articles reporting unusual illnesses, Wilson said. But a lack of communication between sectors might cause the delay in recognizing those early signals, and while deaths might draw more attention, it can be harder to find a disease when it's only making people sick rather than killing them, Wilson said.

Wilson, however, cautioned that excessive alarm in discussions about Disease X might only make matters worse. He sees a tendency toward hyperbole in discussions about epidemics in the U.S.

"Everything that we talk about tends to go toward the 'Walking Dead,'" Wilson said. If you keep driving the conversation to the catastrophic endpoint, you lose credibility. If you push people into that position of fear, you find that they become paralyzed."

He thinks it's important to also talk about human resilience. "We're very difficult to kill," Wilson said. "Just look at the collapse of our ecosystem."

Original article on Live Science.A city in China may soon have a second moon in its evening sky.

Moonlit skies over the Chinese city of Chengdu may soon get a boost from a second moon.

City officials recently announced plans to build an artificial moon, launching it to hang over Sichuan province's capital city by 2020, Chinese news site People's Daily Online (PDO) reported.

The illuminated orb is intended to complement the light of Earth's existing moon, and will be eight times brighter than the natural satellite, Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co. Ltd. (CASC)  the primary contractor for the Chinese space program  told PDO. [Photos: Mysterious Objects Spotted on the Moon]

In fact, light from the artificial moon is expected to save the city money by doing away with the need for streetlights, Chunfeng added. The new moon will be capable of illuminating an area of up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) in diameter, according to PDO.

Though the human-made moon will light up only Chengdu, the glowing ball will be visible across China and even overseas, Asia Times reported. The real moon, of course, can usually be seen from anywhere on Earth. But little is known about the height, size and true brightness of the proposed artificial moon  all of which are factors that could affect its visibility to distant observers.

It is also unknown if the project has secured official support from the city of Chengdu or the federal government, The Guardian reported.

This isn't the first time that a country has tried to outshine the moon. A similar project was unveiled by Russia in the 1990s, with the launch of a solar reflecting system  a "space mirror"  intended to produce light "equivalent to three to five full moons" covering an area approximately 3 miles (5 kilometers) in diameter, the New York Times reported in 1993.

Another Russian attempt to launch a space mirror in 1999 fizzled before it got off the ground, according to The Guardian.

"A dusk-like glow"

Regarding concerns about the Chinese artificial moon interfering with astronomical observations or disrupting animals that are active at night, Kang Weimin, the director of the Institute of Optics of the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, said that the light would amount to only a "dusk-like glow," PDO reported.

However, research has shown that many animals are highly sensitive to the light and phases of the moon. For example, nocturnal eagle owls communicate with each other through the display of white throat feathers, and scientists have found this activity increases during the full moon, when moonlight is brightest.

And in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, hundreds of coral species simultaneously release their eggs and sperm in an annual mass spawning event linked to the level of moonlight.

The size and illumination technology of Chengdu's artificial moon are not yet available, so it remains unclear if the brightness of the proposed artificial satellite would indeed be intense enough to interfere with the routines of local wildlife. In addition, while the company is calling it a "satellite," which suggests that it will be launched into geostationary orbit  in which the orb circles the Earth above the equator  no details have been released about how the company plans to deploy the "artificial moon."

Originally published on Live Science.The winter outlook 2018-2019 map for temperature shows higher than average temperatures across much of the U.S.

Most of the United States can look forward to a mild winter with above-average temperatures, particularly in Alaska, Hawaii and the northern and western states, experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today (Oct. 18).

Officials with NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) shared their predictions at a news conference, describing the outlook for winter precipitation and temperatures in the U.S. from December 2018 through February 2019.

Below-average temperatures are expected to be scarce in every part of the U.S., but there's likely to be plenty of snow or rain, with wetter-than-average conditions predicted for the southern part of the country and up into the mid-Atlantic states, according to the NOAA winter outlook. [In Photos: Best National Parks to Visit During Winter]

A developing El Nino  part of an ocean-climate cycle that can influence weather  could also leave its mark on the winter weather, as El Nino typically brings wetter conditions to the southern U.S., while shaping warm, dry conditions in the North, Mike Halpert, the CPC's deputy director, explained at the news conference.

Northern Florida and southern Georgia have the highest probability of experiencing a wetter-than-average winter, according to the report.

Though El Nino is still taking shape, there's a very good chance  about 70 to 75 percent  that it will emerge over the next few months and persist through the winter, Halpert said. El Nino is part of a climate cycle known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO); during El Nino, warm Pacific Ocean waters shift to the eastern coast of South America. In a strong El Nino year, ocean temperatures are even warmer than average. This phenomenon heats the air above the water and sets up a feedback loop between the sea and the atmosphere, which can dramatically impact weather patterns.

A powerful El Nino can bring unusually warm winter temperatures to the U.S. The winter of 2015 to 2016, which took place during the strongest El Nino in 60 years, was the warmest winter on record for the continental U.S., Halpert said.

However, this year's El Nino is anticipated to be much weaker than that, he added.

As for drought predictions, some relief is expected in Arizona, New Mexico, the southern parts of Colorado and Utah, and the coastal Pacific Northwest.

But drought conditions are expected to persist in the northern Plains states; in Southern California and the interior parts of the Pacific Northwest; and in the central Rockies, the central Plains states and the central Great Basin.

While there is always a certain amount of uncertainty in long-term weather and drought predictions such as these, the track record for the accuracy of the CPC seasonal outlooks is about 40 percent, up from a previous estimate of 30 percent, Halpert said.

"That's the general level for these type of forecasts," he added.

Originally publishedon Live Science.Whales have it hard. For a century, they were hunted to a mere fraction of their preindustrial populations, and they now face constant threats from pollution, climate change and ongoing human meddling in the planet's waterways. It's a lot for a cetacean to worry about, and now, according to recent research, whales can add "cat poop" to their list of concerns.

In the new study, published online Sept. 27 in the journal Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, a team of marine researchers from Canada tested the brain and heart tissues of 34 beluga whales. The animals died in Quebec, Canada's St. Lawrence Estuary between 2009 and 2012. The researchers were looking for parasites  in particular, Toxoplasma gondii. This single-celled parasite is commonly found in cats and is notoriously good at spreading to other animals, usually through feces. The team found that 15 of the whales (about 44 percent of the samples) tested positive for T. gondii.

Still, these findings don't prove that the whales died from this parasite, study co-author Stephane Lair, a professor of veterinary medicine at the Universite de Montreal, told the CBC. Rather, "it means [that the parasite was present] either in their heart or their brain." [7 Strange Facts About the 'Mind-Control' Parasite Toxoplasma Gondii]

T. gondii causes a disease called toxoplasmosis. The parasite is spread primarily via the feces of wild and domestic cats, who get the parasite by eating infected rodents. T. gondii is notoriously easy to transmit between most warm-blooded creatures.

Oddly enough, marine animals have lived in contact with the parasite for thousands of years, Lair said, but the infection rates have risen significantly over the last few centuries, as has the popularity of domestic cats. If you know a cat, T. gondii may even be in you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 20 percent of the U.S. population may be infected with T. gondii, while other studies have estimated that up to 80 percent of the world's human population could carry the parasite.

In human adults, T. gondii infection usually has pretty mild effects. Toxoplasmosis could result in a few weeks of flu-like symptoms in people, although some studies have tentatively linked the disease to neurological conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and, uh, really wanting to start a business.

The precise health effects of toxoplasma on various marine mammals are still under study. This parasite is believed to cause a number of neurological and behavioral disorders in marine life, and it has been identified as a cause of death in sea otters, monk seals, dolphins and whales. Mammals living near freshwater outflows into the ocean (like the St. Lawrence Estuary) are thought to face a greater risk of infection, because, as the saying goes, cat poop flows downstream.

Want to help save the whales from this looming poop crisis? Here's how you can help: If you have a cat, don't flush its litter down the toilet. Often, that's a direct channel for T. gondii parasites to slip into the sea.

"The parasite is quite resistant," Lair said. "It would survive all the different [sewage] treatments and end up in the estuary."

Originally published on Live Science.A piranha-like fish with a mouth full of pointy teeth (some even jutting down from the roof of its mouth) once swam the Jurassic seas, ripping flesh or even fins from the bodies of other aquatic creatures.

That was 152 million years ago, a new study of a fossil of the creature found in Germany revealed. At that time, pterodactyls flew in the skies and stegosaurs and brontosaurs walked the Earth. The scientists discovered the specimen in 2016 in the same limestone deposits in the south German countryside that yielded fossils of Archaeopteryx, long considered the first known bird.

Back when this fish lived, the area in which it swam "was occupied by a shallow tropical sea dotted with small, sunbathed islands, covered by a probably sparse vegetation of ferns and cycads on which exotic animals lived  numerous insects, lizards, small dinosaurs and the early bird Archaeopteryx," study lead author Martina Kolbl-Ebert, a vertebrate paleontologist and director of the Jura Museum in Eichstatt, Germany, told Live Science. "In the sea, there were sponge reefs as well as small coral reefs. There were numerous invertebrate species, such as crustaceans, but also many different fish and marine reptiles." [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]

After the scientists carefully freed the 2.8-inch-long (7.1 centimeters) fossil from its rocky prison with the help of scalpels, needles and a microscope, they discovered that it had long, pointed teeth in the front of both the upper and lower jaws. These teeth also appeared on the outside of the vomer, a bone forming the roof of the mouth. In addition, triangular teeth with serrated cutting edges jutted from the bones that lay along the side of the lower jaw.

The fossil of the new piranha-like fish shows its pointed teeth that probably helped it feed on the fins of other fishes in Jurassic seas. (Image credit: M. Ebert and T. Nohl)

The pattern and shape of the teeth and jaws suggest that this fish was equipped to slice flesh or fins in a strikingly similar manner to modern piranhas, the study said. The researchers named this fish Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, with Piranhamesodon referring to the creature's piranha-like nature and pinnatomus meaning "fin cutter."

The paleontologists also discovered fossils of fish that Piranhamesodon may have hunted; these animals had chunks of tissue missing from their fins.

"This is an amazing parallel with modern piranhas, which feed predominantly not on flesh but [on] the fins of other fishes," study co-author David Bellwood, at James Cook University in Australia, said in a statement. "It's a remarkably smart move, as fins regrow, [making them] a neat renewable resource. Feed on a fish, and it is dead; nibble its fins, and you have food for the future."

Previously, bony fish  fish whose skeletons are made of bone  were not known to bite chunks of flesh or fins from prey until a much later period on the evolutionary timeline, Kolbl-Ebert said. Instead, they were thought to either crunch on invertebrates or swallow their prey whole. (Sharks were long known to bite chunks of flesh from prey, but their skeletons are made of cartilage, not bone.)

"The new[found] fish is a most interesting example for convergent evolution, evolving a  for bony fish then  completely new way of life," Kolbl-Ebert said. "The fish represents the earliest record of fin feeding in bony fishes." (Convergent evolution is when two different animals evolve in similar ways to solve similar problems, such as how dolphins and ancient marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs had similar body shapes to help them swim quickly in the water.)

Piranhamesodon belongs to a group of fish named the pycnodontids. "Normally, all the fish in this fish group have grasping teeth in the front and button-like teeth in the back, suitable for crushing marine snails, sea urchins or other shelly organisms," Kolbl-Ebert said. "But this one had daggers and scissors in the mouth. It was a veritable wolf in sheepskin."

This discovery "highlights the sheer evolutionary flexibility of fishes," Kolbl-Ebert said. "If a fish with highly specialized crushing teeth can develop highly specialized cutting teeth, what is next? It is a staggering example of evolutionary versatility and opportunism."

The fossil is now on display in the Jura Museum in Germany. The scientists detailed their findings online Oct. 18 in the journal Current Biology.

Originally published on Live Science.NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - Thirty-six years after its birth, the musical spoof "Little Shop of Horrors" still resides in a special chamber of the heart of its mega-successful composer.

"Like few things in my life," Alan Menken says, as he sits at a keyboard in an impressively outfitted studio on his Westchester County, New York, estate, a room glistening with shelves of Oscars and Tonys and Grammys. "When people ask, 'What's the complete masterpiece?' I have to say 'Little Shop.' The structure of the story, the conceit of the score and the tone. They just meshed perfectly with the tale of a plant that eats people."

That voracious arrangement of stalks, leaves and lips, the basso-voiced Audrey II, has materialized all over the world since first sprouting on the stage of off-off-Broadway's WPA Theatre in 1982. The show, an affectionate lampoon of a schlocky 1960 Roger Corman horror movie of virtually the same title (it had a "The") was an instant sensation, moving a couple of months later to the Orpheum Theatre in the East Village, where it would run for five years and enter the pantheon of all-time off-Broadway smash hits. Its book writer and lyricist, the beloved Howard Ashman, who died in 1991, declined offers at the time for a Broadway transfer, saying that off-Broadway was where it belonged.

Some of its many incarnations since have been both high-profile and somewhat anticlimactic, such as the cold 1986 big-screen version, with Rick Moranis and original cast member Ellen Greene, and a belated Broadway premiere in 2003 with Hunter Foster and Kerry Butler that received only tepid notices. Now, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., hoping for results closer to those of the early glory days, is finally taking a crack at "Little Shop," in a production directed by Mark Brokaw that begins performances Wednesday.

It is also a reunion, of sorts, for Menken and one of the original cast members, Lee Wilkof, who created the lead role of Seymour, the nebbishy flower shop clerk who slakes Audrey II's blood thirst and in the process wreaks rock 'n' roll havoc on the unsuspecting denizens of Skid Row. The actor is back in the shop, this time as Mushnik, the craven proprietor who is, in essence, ultimately eaten up by his own profits.

"It completes a circle for me," says Wilkof, who has taken a train up to Menken's house from New York City for a chat about the days when "Little Shop" was being dreamed into being. "Getting to work at the Kennedy Center is a thrill. And going back to the show now, I will tell you that I have no intention of telling Mark Brokaw how we did it. I'm just looking forward to being in it again."

The show is being mounted as the first of this season's three offerings in the institution's Broadway Center Stage series. Begun last year, with concert versions of "Chess," "In the Heights" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," the program revives musicals from distinct eras, luring Broadway talent for a week of performances in what are intended to be stripped-down productions, and actors appearing with scripts still in hand. For this second season, the other musicals will be "The Who's Tommy" and "The Music Man."

In "Little Shop," the second season kicks off with a bona fide crowd-pleaser and another cast of proven mettle: Josh Radnor as Seymour, Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart (the genie in "Aladdin") as Audrey II and Megan Hilty as Audrey, the role that inscribed Greene as an off-Broadway legend.

It's surprising that "Little Shop of Horrors" has never appeared on a Kennedy Center stage. It is a milestone in American musical comedy, its signature numbers - "Downtown (Skid Row)," "Somewhere That's Green" and "Suddenly Seymour" - enshrined in show-tune lovers' hearts. "We were pulling from classic rock and pop prototypes," says the 69-year-old Menken, for whom the revival is another enshrinement of working with Ashman. Their partnership not only resulted in "Little Shop," but later in two of Disney's biggest movie musical hits, "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast." Both were turned into Broadway musicals.

Wilkof has worked regularly on stage and television, and in 2016 directed a little gem of a movie about the actor's life, "No Pay, Nudity." Menken, of course, has gone on to collaborate with other lyricists, including Tim Rice, with whom he wrote what he describes as "the most successful song" of his career, "A Whole New World," from "Aladdin." Menken's successes also include the stage version of "Newsies" and the movie musicals "Pocahontas" and "Enchanted," the latter two written with Stephen Schwartz. But it's clear that for the gregarious Menken, the memories of Ashman are burnished with a special luster. "Howard was so f---ing brilliant," he declares. "His kind of brilliance, the gold standard. Nobody has touched it."

"Little Shop" has an exuberant soul, thanks to Ashman and Menken et al., but it was not all effervescence bringing it to life. "It was a painful birth," Wilkof says. "There was lots of sturm und drang. It was not one of those companies where there were hugs and kisses backstage."

Greene's intensity was something they both remember. "She pushed herself like crazy," Menken says. "She would dissect every moment. But then she came up with a performance for the ages."

In slightly tawdry surroundings, the show found its milieu; "Little Shop" excelled in an atmosphere of decrepitude. "There's a concept of economy and tackiness that is essential to it," Menken says. Something about its spiky sense of kitsch satisfied a savvy audience's yen for winking trashiness, because once the show began running, the response was electric.

"It was explosive when it opened," Menken says. "The WPA was unbelievable," Wilkof adds, referring to "Little Shop's" first home. "They were begging for tickets. Begging."

Is it possible to recapture some of that beguiling tastelessness today, in the more luxe confines of the Kennedy Center? One delightfully tacky thing this "Little Shop" won't feature is an actual Audrey II puppet, long a mainstay of "Little Shop" productions. "There's no physical plant onstage," confirms Jeffrey Finn, the Kennedy Center's vice president of theater producing and programming. "The plant will be James Iglehart!"

For what that means for the comic horrors that "Little Shop" tallies, and how they measure up to the irreverent carnage Audrey II left behind in the past, Menken and Wilkof might be among the best positioned to make the call. The bar, from their perspective, has been set pretty high. As Wilkof says of that production all those years ago, when Audrey II was first taking root: "I think it was close to perfect."

---

"Little Shop of Horrors," book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by Alan Menken. Directed by Mark Brokaw. $89-$215. Wednesday-Sunday at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. kennedy-center.org or 202-467-4600.A teen has been arrested for fleeing the scene of a crash, Laredo police said.

Noe Alejandro Martinez Valadez, 17, was arrested Sunday and charged with accident involving injury.Around 5 a.m. on Jan. 15, 2017, four friends pulled up to an "after-after-party" at Kush Smoke Emporium on Arkansas Avenue.

Daniel Murillo was driving his white Chrysler. Guillermo Capetillo was in the passenger seat. Jonathan Morales was in the backseat behind the driver. And Ernesto Rodriguez was in the backseat behind the passenger.

Capetillo is now accused of killing a man and causing serious bodily injury with a firearm to another outside of the smoke shop that night.

READ ALSO: Trial begins for Laredo man accused of murder, aggravated assault in 2017 shooting incident

On Tuesday, the jury for this case heard testimony from the driver, Murillo. On Wednesday, they heard the perspective of the two passengers in the backseat, Morales and Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is the one who brought the .40-caliber handgun, for his own safety, he said.

That night he had been to Hal's with his wife, then went to Murillo's house afterward, where he met Murillo and Morales, he testified. Capetillo showed up later and invited them to Kush, Rodriguez said.

When they pulled up, Capetillo reached behind him and grabbed the gun from Rodriguez, he said. Capetillo allegedly went toward his girlfriend, waving and pointing the gun at her and said, "What are you doing here? Go home," Rodriguez testified.

The group of four then got back into the car, but a bunch of guys came up to the car and started banging on it from all sides. In Morales' testimony, he said he thought they were screwed, and he feared for his life. Morales said he was pulling on the handle to hold the door shut from the inside when he saw Capetillo get out of the car, and then he heard gunshots.

Both of these witnesses testified Tuesday that they had had been drinking that night  the equivalent of a 12-pack or 18-pack of beer.

When Capetillo's attorney George Altgelt asked Morales if he had done cocaine that night, Morales said, "I plead the Fifth." Rodriguez said that he had not done coke.

Capetillo's other attorney Linda Garza asked Rodriguez if he remembered a couple of things he had told a Laredo police detective the next day. When he did not, they played video clips of the interview.

"If he's going to take the blame, then that's it or what?" Rodriguez asked the detective in the first video.

In another, Rodriguez says, "And the saddest part for me is that he took away my gun."

Rodriguez told the jury that he bought the gun three months before, and did not have a license to carry.

He also testified that he's never shot anyone, and he would never do anything like that.

Rodriguez said he never saw or touched the gun again after the shooting. Garza noted that his hands were sampled, and gunshot residue was found on his hands.

The jury also heard testimony from Cynthia Vachon, a forensic scientist at the Bexar County Criminal Investigation Lab in San Antonio.

Vachon checked for gun shot residue on the swabs taken from six people, and a pair of jeans and a shirt worn by Capetillo on the night of the shooting.

RELATED: LPD: One dead, another wounded after shooting in central Laredo

Vachon said she found gunshot residue on the jeans around the front upper thighs and front pockets. She did not find gunshot residue on the shirt.

Laredo police did not send her clothing to test from anyone else, she said.

During the proceedings on Tuesday, Altgelt asked 49th District Court Judge Joe A. Lopez for a mistrial, alleging that information about Murillo's testimony was being shared with other witnesses waiting outside of the courtroom.

On Wednesday, Altgelt noted that after Morales testified, he went back to a room where he was kept alone with Rodriguez, who had not yet testified. Rodriguez said they were not talking about the case.

Still, Lopez ordered that witnesses who had testified not be left alone with others.

Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.comThe number of voters in Virginia who have cast early ballots ahead of the November election is dramatically up compared to last year, suggesting an electorate that is energized around several hotly contested races for Congress that are spread across the state.

Virginia allows voters to cast "absentee" ballots in person if they have a valid excuse for not being able to vote on Election Day.

Nearly 78,000 people have completed ballots since absentee voting began Sept. 15 - more than double the number who voted early by this pointlast year, according to an analysis of voting data by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project.

That number is still shy of the 123,221 absentee ballots cast during the 2014 mid-term elections, state data shows.

But with a little less than three weeks before the Nov. 6 election, local election officials say this year's absentee totals are on pace to eclipse 2014 and may even approach the turnout for the presidential election of 2016, when a near-record 496,452 Virginians cast early ballots.

"It's actually quite shocking," said Richard Keech, deputy director of the elections office in Loudoun County, which has seen a 239 percent jump in absentee voting this year, with 11,106 ballots either already cast or mailed to voters so far.

"This would be the first time without a president on the ballot that we've seen this kind of increase," Keech said.

Fairfax County, the state's largest jurisdiction, has seen a roughly 100 percent increase since last year, with 21,582 absentee votes cast so far, officials said. Nearby, Prince William County, the second-largest jurisdiction, has climbed by about 114 percent to 4,693 absentee ballots cast.

Both Republicans and Democrats are angry over a range of issues, including immigration, health care and the controversy surrounding Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's nomination after he was accused of sexual assault.

And President Donald Trump adds another dimension to the election. In Virginia, broad discontent with the Trump administration last year fueled a wave of Democratic victories in state legislative races and the gubernatorial contest that helped level the balance of power in Richmond, said Quentin Kidd, director of the Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University.

"Turnout is going to be up everywhere where there is a competitive race going on," Kidd said, predicting that Democratic enthusiasm will continue in Virginia. "What we don't know is how big that wave is going to be."

The VPAP analysis shows that early voting has skyrocketed in several hotly contested House districts.

In the 2nd District, where Republican Rep. Scott Taylor leads former U.S. Navy Commander Elaine Luria, a Democrat, in a recent poll, absentee voter turnout increased by 90 percent, with 4,911 absentee ballots cast. Roughly half of those votes hailed from Virginia Beach City, which has swung back and forth between the two parties in recent elections.

In the 5th District, where Republican distillery owner Denver Riggleman and Democratic journalist Leslie Cockburn are locked in an increasingly bitter race to fill the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Tom Garrett, absentee ballots were up by 117 percent to 6,090. There, ballots cast in heavily Democratic Charlottesville were up by 213 percent to 673.

And, in 7th District, where Republican Rep. David Brat is fighting a challenge by former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, absentee ballots climbed by 133 percent to 6,248. The 182 absentee ballots cast in historically Republican Spotysylvania County jumped 171 percent from last year.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who is leading Republican challenger Corey Stewart by 20 points in some polls, has been spending time and money trying to boost Democrats running for the House.

Both Democratic and Republican state party leaders said they have been ramping up efforts to get more people to the polls early and each saw signs of hope in the response this year.

Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, said absentee voters are typically motivated.

The surge in interest allows candidates to focus more on voters who are less inclined to make it out on election day," he said.

"The more people vote early, the more campaigns can concentrate on people about whom they have doubts are going to show on Election Day," he said.

In Fairfax on Thursday, a steady trickle of voters walked into the county government center to cast their ballots.

"This will be a big turnout year," said Kate Hanley, secretary of the county's board of elections. "Not yet presidential, but we could get there."

Several voters in the predominantly Democratic county said their dislike of Trump motivated them to vote early, a sentiment that could signal trouble for Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock in that portion of her 10th District as she tries to fend off her challenger, state Sen. Jennifer Wexton.

Catherine Wydeman, who lives in Rep. Gerry Connolly's 11th District and voted for him, said she was driven by a host of Democratic causes, including immigration reform and the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Everything is kind of scary," Wydeman, 34, said.Horrifying new details are leaking out about the reported murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi: According to a Turkish official who described audio of the killing, Saudi agents beat and tortured Khashoggi to death, then dismembered him and cut off his fingers.

Unbearably, it's not clear if the latter came after the finality of the former.

At the same time, there is mounting evidence that President Donald Trump is, shall we say, less than eager to determine the full truth about Khashoggi's death. As The Washington Post reported:

"The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president's closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries."

An agreeable explanation? Is that really what we should be searching for?

We don't know yet know what direction the Trump administration's handling of the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, will take. But if the administration falls short in demanding a full accounting of the killing from the Saudis, or, worse, goes along with a sham Saudi accounting of it, either of those will in itself be another truth that won't remain buried forever. That's because it will be an appropriate topic for Congressional scrutiny.

Several experts and congressional aides I spoke with suggested that a Democratic-controlled House would be very likely to take a hard look at multiple aspects of the Trump administration's response to the killing, one that looks at the broader Trump-Saudi relationship and even Trump's personal profiting off of Saudi money.

"This is exactly the kind of issue that Congress should get into," Joel Rubin, who was the State Department's senior liaison to the House of Representatives in 2014 and 2015, told me today. "We've got a specific issue where the White House's comments are changing and confused. The primary liaison to the Saudis, Jared Kushner, is hidden from public view. This is a slam dunk issue for oversight."

In a series of private conversations, Trump has reportedly been looking for ways to continue protecting the Saudi-U.S. relationship, fretting about the Saudi investment in U.S. arms, the future flow of Saudi oil and the implications of alienating a country that could help counter Iran's influence.

And so, Trump has publicly suggested that "rogue killers" might be behind the murder. Trump also tweeted that the crown prince has begun "a full and complete investigation into this matter." Trump, then, appears prepared, or even eager, to accept the results of this investigation.

Indeed, Trump compared this situation with that of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh, complaining, "here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent." The comparison is revealing: Trump's conception of due process constitutes not just the presumption of innocence (which is granted far more readily to friends and allies), but crucially also harbors zero desire for any serious follow-up fact-finding that could unearth truths that are inconvenient to them - and to him.

Imagine, then, the following scenario: The Saudis mount a sham investigation that somehow absolves the crown prince of any culpability of or connection to the murder. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signal that they find it satisfactory.

If that happens, Rubin tells me, then there are ways for serious congressional oversight - led by Republicans if they were so inclined, or by Democrats, who would certainly do this if they take the House - to try to get to the bottom of that.

For instance, Rubin points out, House committees could probe what transpired privately between the Trump administration and the Saudis throughout the process. "Congress could subpoena communications between the White House, State Department, and the Saudis - internal discussions related to the Khashoggi affair," Rubin told me. He added that House committees could seek private or public briefings from intelligence officials about what the intelligence indicates about the killing, in contrast to what the Saudi "investigation" found.

As it is, the intelligence we know about seems to point in an extremely troubling direction. A U.S. intelligence official told The Post that intercepts show that the crown prince ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials also say privately that they have no reason to doubt the account provided by Turkish officials. And experts highly doubt such an operation would be undertaken by Saudi agents without the crown prince's direction or assent.

But, in a particularly alarming moment, Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, told The Post that the administration has "clamped down" in sharing intelligence with Congress about what has been learned about Khashoggi's killing. Corker flatly stated that this probably means "the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia."

Serious congressional oversight could try to force this out into the open. In fairness, it should be noted that some Republican officials have been scaldingly critical of the Saudis' handling of this affair, and in some cases, Congress has been willing to behave aggressively towards them. But the question is whether Republicans would be willing to conduct serious oversight into this whole saga that might look at the Trump administration's handling of it.

As Rubin pointed out, it seems unlikely that, say, current House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes would supply such an effort, since it would create discomfort for Trump, who is basically Nunes' client at this point. "If you want oversight on the Khashoggi affair, the one shot is if you have Democrats control the House," Rubin said.

Trump's financial entanglements with the Saudis

Such an examination would inevitably look at Trump's financial entanglements with the Saudis as well. Senate Democrats have requested that Trump turn over information about the Trump Organization's extensive "business relationships with the government of Saudi Arabia and members of the Saudi royal family," suggesting this raises serious conflict of interest potential. The question of whether Trump's personal profiting off the Saudis is shaping U.S. policy is a reasonable one - and the possibility cannot be dismissed that this includes the response to the Khashoggi affair - all of which could be the focus of more robust oversight.

Mariah Sixkiller, who was senior national security adviser to House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer for years, told me that scrutiny of the relationship between the United States and the Saudis, particularly with regard to the Trump administration's coddling of them, "will likely grow if the Democrats win the House majority."

"Khashoggi's murder is part of a disturbing trend of increasingly undemocratic behavior by a supposedly reform-minded leadership in Riyadh," Sixkiller said. The relationship between the U.S. and Saudis is "critical in many respects," Sixkiller added, "but this level of administration deference in the face of such a radical act merits heavy Congressional scrutiny."

Let's hope we get it sooner rather than later.Steven Mnuchin has a big decision to make. The treasury secretary says he will announce Thursday whether he's sticking with his plan to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh next week.

The trip is an increasingly lonely prospect, as fellow global finance chiefs, Wall Street bigs, corporate executives and others have beat a steady parade away from the "Davos in the desert" conference. A building pile of evidence suggesting the Saudi regime's involvement in the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has made the event toxic.

Addressing reporters Wednesday, Mnuchin said he would "revisit the decision again tomorrow," noting that "for now" he's committed to attend. He said he would make a final call based on a report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who visited Saudi Arabia this week, delivers to President Donald Trump. During his trip, Pompeo privately warned Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in blunt terms that he needs to "own" the situation and that the facts will come out, CNN reports.

But the Trump administration has resisted assigning blame, with the president repeatedly reaching for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship, as my colleagues Bob Costa, Josh Dawsey and Phil Rucker report: "Trump has stressed Saudi Arabia's massive investment in U.S. weaponry and worries it could instead purchase arms from China or Russia. He has fretted about the oil-rich desert kingdom cutting off its supply of petroleum to the United States. He has warned against losing a key partner countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. He has argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom is too wealthy to ever be truly isolated."

Against that backdrop, it would play against recent history for Mnuchin, a stout Trump loyalist, to scotch his plans. Recall, for example, that Gary Cohn - who is also Jewish - considered resigning last summer after the president equivocated about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville; Mnuchin made clear at the time under no circumstances would he consider such a move.

Mnuchin's attendance at the Saudi conferece has become a proxy for Senate Republicans eager for the administration to register some outrage over Khashoggi. The latest: Sen. John Neely Kennedy, R-La., who said Wednesday he didn't think it was "appropriate" for Mnuchin to attend. He joins fellow GOP Sens. Marco Rubio, Fla., Jeff Flake, Ariz., and Todd C. Young, Ind., in calling for the treasury secretary to skip the event.

\

Not all Senate Republicans agree. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah said Wednesday that Mnuchin should attend if he wants. "Those are important meetings," he said. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told Fox News Radio that he's withholding judgment about the appropriate broader response until Pompeo delivers his report. "If what happened is what we think happened, I can't imagine there won't be a response," he said.

Meanwhile, the details emerging about what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 are getting ever grislier. The New York Times reports that Saudi agents were waiting for him. "Mr. Khashoggi was dead within minutes, beheaded, dismembered, his fingers severed, and within two hours the killers were gone, according to details from audio recordings described by a senior Turkish official on Wednesday." The paper also reports that U.S. intelligence officials have growing circumstantial evidence that MBS was involved.

Controversy over the event is bound to overwhelm next week's conference, says Jon Alterman, the head of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies - and that's one reason he says Mnuchin should skip it. "The Treasury Secretary not only doesn't have anything to advance on the political front but also is almost invariably going to be photographed smiling," he said. "That's not the right mood to convey at this moment."

And he said there's little downside to bowing out. "The Saudis need us and are not going to punish us in a fit of pique," Alderman said. "I don't think there's a cost to not going to the conference. I think there's a cost to going, which is the growing sense that the administration is trying to be an accomplice to obstructing truth rather than finding truth."A longtime Jacksonville upholstery business has relocated.

Kluge Custom Upholstery will reopen Monday at 504 S. Main St. after being located at 512 E. Morton Ave. for 34 years.

Mom and Dad are downsizing, and I wanted to move the business to a larger location, said Ben Kluge, who has assumed ownership of the business from his father, Heinz Kluge.

The shop mainly reupholsters household and office furniture.

We can re-cover all household and office furniture, but some other things, such as car, motorcycle and boat seats, are on an approval-only basis, Kluge said.

In recent years, Kluge Custom Upholstery has completed contracts with Jacksonville-area schools, hospitals and restaurants.

We are working on something new all the time, Kluge said. In the past few years, we have been really busy. We do work for people all over the country. This summer, we completed three antique pieces for a familys new home in Kentucky.

The business has more than 200 fabric sample books and hundreds of rolls of fabric in stock.

We will just replace the foam in cushions if thats what the customer asks for, Kluge said.

Kluge is assisted by his sister, Karin Kluge Zink, who have been involved with the business since childhood.

Their father moved to Jacksonville in 1969 and, in 1971, opened an upholstery shop. Together with his wife, Dodie, they ran the business until 2017, when their youngest child, Ben, took over the shop.

Dad continues to assist us as he enjoys retirement, Kluge said.

Upholstery is a unique and fun trade, he said. We have seen a number of improvements in fabric clean-ability and durability, and a lot more styles of furniture.

Kluge Custom Upholstery is open from 8:30 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, or by appointment.

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.While clergy sexual abuse scandals aren't new, the ones that have rocked the Catholic Church this summer revolved around a group seldom focused on before: seminarians. The sexual harassment and abuse of seminarians, and the response of seminary leaders, have been at the center of the case of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whose removal from ministry in June launched months of focus on the topic of abuse.

Many Catholics share a heightened, even unprecedented, level of concern for the well-being of Catholic seminarians. They rightly wonder, as well, whether our seminaries can not only screen out potential sexual predators, but also rise to the challenge of preparing for life and ministry men who are emotionally mature, and psychologically and sexually healthy. This requires training for contemporary American society.

The convergence of these concerns invites a long-needed conversation about reform in American seminaries.

Many of us who have labored in seminary formation for years find 2018 to be a watershed moment, in fact, to insist on long overdue adjustments and enhancements to seminary training. In retrospect, many of our institutions have too often failed miserably in preparing men for ministry, and many still fall far short of the goal of forming happy, healthy, holy priests. The church urgently needs new approaches to preparing men for priestly ministry given today's sexualized, secularized culture and the personal challenges facing seminarians.

Young men who feel called to priesthood, though well intentioned, often have enormous gaps in their prior formation and upbringing. Many lack interpersonal communication skills. Many need basic formation in Catholic teaching. Not infrequently, they need counseling to discover and deal with trauma: "father wounds," bullying, parental divorce, porn addiction, or even sexual abuse. Added to that, they must acquire a series of qualities and pastoral skills before ordination.

Bishops, rectors and seminary formation personnel can too easily believe that the way we're doing formation today is just fine. But if we're honest, we know that in many cases it's not.

Of the approximately 450 men ordained to the Catholic priesthood every year, a small percentage will abandon the ministry within the first few years. Many others will struggle mightily with challenges for which their seminary formation failed to prepare them.

Typically, our seminaries work like this: upon a chassis of a heavily academic four-year program, we superimpose elements of human, spiritual and pastoral preparation for ministry. In addition, seminary life, too often, unfolds in the confines of old, cavernous, institutional buildings. Such parameters easily foster isolation, and work at cross-purposes to an experience of genuine fraternity and the kind of deep-down formation our men require. This model of seminary is today highly inadequate, and it's time for bishops to think far outside of such boxes.

So what needs to change?

First, an overemphasis on academics must yield to a sharper focus on forming candidates who are emotionally mature and have a healthy, well-integrated personality and spirituality. If we've learned one thing since the crisis of clergy sexual abuse exploded in 2002, it's that many priest-abusers reached ordination in a stage of arrested psychosexual and emotional development. Where focus on personal psychological integration is lacking, space opens for disordered living of precisely the type that has grabbed headlines in recent months.

Second, bishops need to work urgently to ensure that in our seminaries there reigns an inner culture of trust, transparency and honest dialogue between seminarians and the formation team. It has pained me to hear, in recent weeks, for example, that some seminarians have felt prohibited from engaging in open dialogue about the McCarrick affair or the publication of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in that state. Such censoring of honest reactions is utterly wrongheaded. Seminarians must feel they can freely, frankly and confidently express to the formation team their concerns about the seminary community, their opinions about or disagreements with the formation process and any other honest apprehension or contribution they want to make in a spirit of honest dialogue.

While I would like to think that the vast majority of our seminaries are healthy environments, to the extent seminarians might have concerns about their own safety or exposure to potential exploitation, every seminary should have a clear sexual harassment policy and corresponding protocols. Seminaries should appoint an independent ombudsman who anyone (seminarian, lay student, staff member) can contact, independently of the diocese as part of that policy.

Third, in general bishops need to slow down the rush to ordination and consider a minimum age for beginning seminary formation - perhaps 22, with the candidate having a college degree and some work experience under his belt. They could then follow up with eight years of formation, beginning with a year dedicated to detoxing from the culture and social media, growth in self-knowledge, prayer and a secure masculine identity. The final year before priestly ordination would be dedicated to intensive fieldwork and pastoral ministry.

Given the pressing need for priests, however, the vast majority of bishops staunchly resist the idea of prolonging the formation process. But how is the church well served by rushing men to ordination before they are ready? When years later some of them falter, with addictions or other personal struggles, we all pay a heavy price.

The delayed maturation process of young men these days is well documented. My years of screening candidates for priesthood confirm that our men need ample time to allow life wounds to heal and to grow in a solid, well-integrated interior life. As challenging as it might be, bishops need to think in the direction of a future church with fewer, but better-formed, priests.

Fourth, bishops must not assign to seminary priests who lack the skill set and drive to become mentors, role models and moral guides - nuances all captured in the term "formator." A doctorate in theology does not render a priest automatically suitable for such ministry. Bishops must also demand and provide for the ongoing professional formation of the formators themselves.

Fifth, let's identify the seminaries that are working hard to get formation right and those that are not. Bishops should convene an independent blue-ribbon panel of seasoned seminary formators to undertake a visitation and review of our seminaries. Bishops should think seriously about either reforming or closing those seminaries that are failing in their mission.

Sixth, the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate (CARA) annually collects data on the 70 seminaries that serve American dioceses. As reported by CARA in 2017, 11 of those seminaries have 100 or more seminarians enrolled, but fully one-third have fewer than 50 seminarians. What must we conclude? The United States does not need 70 Catholic seminaries. So, let's reduce the total number to 15 or 20 regional institutions. Let's pool and share the best formators to serve as teams in these regional seminaries that offer the quality of formation our times require. Seminary formation needs radical rethinking. The bishops must be catalysts in this process.

- - -

Berg is professor of moral theology, vice rector and director of admissions at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York.While Beto O' Rourke yard signs appear to be popular in the traditionally-liberal Montrose area, some residents proudly show their support for Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

And this week, one mustachioed man took aim at the Republican's yard signs in the Houston neighborhood, according to a now viral video posted on Facebook this week.

CRUZ'S CHALLENGER: Katy resident plans to fight HOA to keep huge Beto sign in front yard

A homeowner living near the Black Hole Coffee House filmed the unidentified man as he uprooted and tore two signs from a nearby yard. The man also proclaimed, in a particularly demonic voice, that he hated Ted Cruz.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

"Your vote is your voice," the homeowner, Alfred Ramos, told Chron.com. "No need to go nuts."

The post has garnered more than 500,000 views and 12,000 shared since is was posted Monday afternoon.

The video starts with the man about to uproot a sign from Ramos' yard, but the man stops when Ramos tells him it's his property.

The man then sets his sights on two yard signs across the street, pulling them out of the ground and ripping them up as Ramos follows.

"That's my neighbors property," Ramos said in the video. "He's a gun owner."

"Oh, I'm a gun owner, too," the man responds before taking the signs.

RELATED: President Trump's NRG Arena rally for Senator Ted Cruz to be held at smaller than billed venue

At one point, the man turned around and yelled "I hate Ted Cruz" into the camera in a strange voice. Ramos films him as he walks toward Black Hole coffee and eventually wanders away.

Ramos said he did not know the man's identity, adding that this isn't the first time someone has stolen yard signs in the area.

"You can't support conservatives in this area without having your signs stolen or damaged," he said.

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 | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageAfter hours of fervent public comment from both sides, the City Council today voted 9-2 in favor of an unprecedented makeover of Alamo Plaza, San Antonios most famous public space.

The vote authorizes:

Closure of Alamo Street and a portion of Houston Street in the plaza to traffic;

A 50-year agreement for the Texas General Land Office to lease and manage the space  now owned by the city  that was once enclosed by the mission-forts outer walls;

SUBSCRIBERS: Beloved or reviled, Alamo Plaza's urban habitat may not survive looming makeover

Repair and relocation of the Cenotaph monument roughly 500 feet south of its existing location, perhaps the most controversial aspect of the plan because it would put it outside the forts footprint.

Council members Clayton Perry and John Courage voted against the plan.

Before the vote, the council heard dozens of people speak passionately for and against the plan, estimated to cost up to $450 million and be completed by January 2024.

About 40 supporters of the plan wore amber-colored T-shirts with One Alamo in white letters.

Sherry Driscoll, director of education at the Alamo, said the vast array of human activity, from streakers to street preachers, detract from her efforts to tell the sites multilayered history with children and families.

RELATED: Nirenberg signs off on plan to transform Alamo Plaza

They want to understand what happened here that makes it so important to Texas, she said. This is the Alamo. It deserves more. Please make this a reality for Texas schoolchildren.

Others who addressed the council were worried that the plan gives away the citys most important public space to the state. Susan Beavin, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society, presented petitions with 7,600 signatures opposing the plan, and said closing off pedestrian access in the plaza would undermine the Alamo as a symbolic embodiment of freedom.

The proposed limitations on access convey the opposite message, Beavin said.

The city has committed to spend $38 million on changes to the plaza and the Land Office has spent or will spend about $106 million, including $75 million appropriated last year by the Legislature. It will be up to the nonprofit Alamo Endowment to raise the rest of the money for the museum/visitors center and some site improvements.

Scott Huddleston is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | shuddleston@express-news.net | Twitter: @shuddlestonSAGov. Greg Abbotts first term has been a mishmash of accomplishment and disappointment.

On the accomplishment side, setting up a commission to make recommendations on public school financing. On the disappointment side, though including school finance on a special session agenda, not getting it done in the Legislature last session.

Accomplishment: Arguably good response to the disaster that was Hurricane Harvey last year. Disappointment: Including the bathroom bill on his list of things for the Legislature to do in a special session if it got other stuff done.

Accomplishment: In a letter to members of the Texas delegation, he urged congressional action on the Trump administrations shameful action of separating asylum-seeking immigrant families at the border. Specifically, he asked for comprehensive immigration reform. Disappointment: Earlier blaming congressional Democrats for inaction on comprehensive immigration reform when President Donald Trump had the power to end the separations himself.

The governor has done pretty much what he promised in his first campaign. This Editorial Board recommends Greg Abbott for a second term.

But, understand, that has as much to do with being underwhelmed by his Democratic challenger, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, as it does with any of his accomplishments.

In the Democratic primary, we recommended businessman Andrew White over Valdez because White had a better understanding of state governance and the issues. Those doubts about Valdez have not disappeared. We dont believe she will be a strong executive, though we suspect wed like more of her vetoes if she were elected.

The governors record on border issues is a concern. He backed redirecting Department of Public Safety resources and the National Guard to the border to shore up border security. But we view this as political theater and a questionable use of funding given public education needs. We have a border that has arguably never been more secure.

But Valdez, while having a more reasoned approach on immigration and the border generally, has attracted criticism for allowing ICE detainers for undocumented immigrants in her jail.

She correctly notes that property taxes increase because of inadequate state school funding. But the governor acknowledges this also, though belatedly and still arguing for local public votes on tax increases of a certain percentage.

We understand if you cast a ballot for Valdez because of what bills she might veto, but we recommend Abbott because he will be the stronger executive.Sometimes people have to hit bottom before they can start to turn their lives around. Yet, just when it looked like the Houston Independent School District trustees had finally sprawled out on the floor and were ready to get back up, they somehow found a way to stumble into the basement.

Were speaking, of course, about the dizzying administrative flip-flop in which the board hit interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan with a surprise demotion, announced former Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra as her successor, and then reversed course and reinstated Lathan. We can only hope there is no further subterranean cavern for the nine-member board to ignobly spelunk.

Students, parents, teachers and voters all deserve to know how the board ended up making such a brazenly inappropriate decision. What specifically needs to be investigated is whether five trustees devised this scheme outside the legal mandates of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

So far, instead of personal accountability we have disclaimers. Trustee Diana Davila issued her non-confession via Twitter: Ive participated in this dysfunction.

The trustees took a good first step to recovery on Monday by issuing a public apology for their outrageous behavior

The apology was necessary but insufficient.

Voters deserve to know the details of the bizarre decision-making in which five trustees attempted to bypass public debate and board buy-in.

True accountability means that each participant in this plot owns up to her poor judgment in a forthright way, and not hide behind vague passive language.

True accountability also means real consequences.

The public needs to know who among the nine trustees was the ringleader of this ill-fated coup. Fingers point to Davila, who both voted for Saavedra as interim and issued the apology for the group. Because the proceedings were largely secret, we cant be sure about her role. But whoever orchestrated this rash and possibly illegal scheme should step down from the board immediately. A functional board must have trustworthy members capable of collaborating with other trustees.

Its hard to imagine how the leader of this attempted revolt could ever repair her relationship with her fellow trustees.

Accountability requires more than any individual trustee stepping up to accept personal responsibility. Of the five trustees who voted for his appointment, only Davila, Sergio Lira and Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca told Chronicle reporters Zach Despart and Jacob Carpenter that they met with Saavedra beforehand. The other two yes voters, Elizabeth Santos and Anne Sung, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The Texas Open Meetings Act is designed to prevent secret meetings to conduct business that should occur in public. The conversations with Saavedra before the board meeting to appoint him are just the kind of skulduggery that this law is aimed at rooting out.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg needs to act urgently to investigate whether the trustees acted illegally. The responsibility for our childrens education lies in the hands of this nine-member board and the public deserves to know who, if anyone, should be called upon to resign.

Consider this whole escapade further evidence that the board must be restructured to create a mix of district and at-large members.

The longer the HISD board remains stuck in the depths of scandal, the harder it will be for the institution to earn back its respectability and public trust. The only way up is through full accountability. Half-measures wont do.U.S. Rep. Will Hurd has worked tirelessly to represent the diverse interests of Congressional District 23 and deserves re-election.

Hurd is facing Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones, a former intelligence officer with the U.S. Air Force. She is a dynamic and compelling candidate, having served in Iraq and advised operations in Africa and Latin America. She is deft on security and international issues, knows the district and is passionate about ensuring all Americans have health care. We believe she has the makings of a fine representative.

That said, Hurd, a Republican and former CIA operative, is an effective and dynamic incumbent. If more lawmakers in both major parties operated like Hurd, Congress just might achieve meaningful bipartisan legislation.

Case in point  his bipartisan USA Act, which mixes border security with protections for Dreamers, people who were brought to this country illegally as children, and have grown up as Americans and deserve a path to citizenship.

This district stretches from San Antonio across vast stretches of desert in West Texas. It includes some 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. Hurds views on immigration and border security are reasonable and realistic  unlike so many other members of his party.

He has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a border wall and instead said border security should be based on technology. He has denounced family separation and has spoken passionately about some type of permanency for dreamers.

He has been a proponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement and has been invested in local issues, including securing funds for the new federal courthouse in San Antonio.

We dont agree with Hurd on everything. He has too much faith in President Donald Trumps tax cuts and too little concern about the expanding national debt at a time when the economy is strong. We were also underwhelmed by his answer that more federally funded community health centers are an adequate way to provide medical care to the uninsured. Texas leads the nation in uninsured residents.

And we remain in sharp disagreement with him about the politics around the release of a Republican memo alleging FBI bias and surveillance abuses in the Russian investigation.

Still. Over his two terms, Hurd has been an effective lawmaker who has broken with his party on immigration and stayed attuned to the communities he represents. Hes an expert on security issues and a much-needed reasonable political voice.

Hurd deserves another term.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants voters to re-elect him even as he faces felony charges for alleged securities fraud. Yes, everyone is entitled to the presumption of innocence, which is why we have advocated for Paxton to take a leave of absence from office, rather than resign. He deserves his day in court.

But not resigning is different from deserving another term. Simply, Paxton, a Republican, has not earned another term. We recommend Democrat Justin Nelson, who has an impressive resume and unparalleled potential.

Paxton faces three felony charges and stands accused of lying to his friends and colleagues about a $100,000 commission he earned for steering them to invest in a North Texas company that went bust.

Prior to his indictment, he signed a reprimand with the Texas State Securities Board and paid a $1,000 fine for illegally soliciting clients and failing to register as an investment adviser. The indictment nothwithstanding, this is unacceptable. The ethical standard is higher for anyone who serves in such an important position.

In contrast, Nelson is a potential dynamo. A Houston native, he earned his bachelors degree from Yale. He then graduated valedictorian in his class at Columbia Law School. He clerked on the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Republican. He also clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor, also a Republican.

He became a partner in Susman Godfrey, focusing on civil litigation. He also teaches constitutional law at the University of Texas School of Law.

So, on one hand, we have an indicted incumbent. On the other, we have a constitutional law expert who clerked for a former Supreme Court justice and was tops in his class at one of the nations best law schools.

And then there are policies to consider. Paxton has made a habit of suing the Obama administration, and that suing has continued though we are well into the Trump administration. He is, for instance, leading an effort to undercut the Affordable Care Act and eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, which is arguably the most popular aspect of the health care law.

Paxton has also sued to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. This is a policy that shields children who were brought to this country illegally from deportation.

Nelson has said, if elected, he will withdraw Texas from this lawsuit.

If elected, Nelson has said he will bring a particular focus on anti-corruption efforts, strengthen ethics and disclosure laws, aggressively prosecute price gouging and provide support for enhanced consumer protection. He has also said he will increase revenues collected for child support.

Hes also not indicted. Nelson for attorney general.Steven Kling is a decorated military veteran who has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democratic nominee in the Texas Senate District 25 race, he is for ending the shameful underfunding of public schools and being honest about why Texas is a national leader in property taxes. He dislikes the scapegoating in the policy debate on immigration in this state.

Republican Donna Campbell is the incumbent. We recommend Kling in this race. Simply, Campbells policy flaws are far too many to recommend her for another four-year term.

Campbell is essentially part of the Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick crowd that brought us the bathroom bill and failure to act on public school financing, among other items whose highest value seems to be dividing Texans rather than solving problems.

She has authored legislation to eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants, backed a bill that penalizes so-called sanctuary cities (entities that exist mostly in fevered imaginations), sponsored a bill seeking to stymie an international takeover of the Alamo when no such action was in the offing, is always a vote to reignite the abortion war and sponsored legislation for universal school choice that amounted to vouchers for students to attend private schools.

But we recommend Kling, who works in IT and lives in Dripping Springs, as much for his strengths as her policy flaws.

To help more sufficiently fund public schools, he would close a loophole that keeps large commercial properties from paying their fair share of property taxes, leaving homeowners and small businesses holding much of the bag. He favors a constitutional amendment that would mandate the state share of public school funding never dip below 50 percent.

Kling labels as political theater calls for limits on local jurisdictions ability to increase property taxes, recognizing that insufficient state funding essentially mandates these increases.

He knows that Texas failure to expand Medicaid contributes to the states No. 1 ranking in the number of uninsured residents, a move that also leaves significant federal dollars on the table to help these Texans.

Campbell has a funding edge and the district has been crafted to nearly ensure a Republican retains the seat. He hopes some demographic shifts will temper or overcome these factors. He has an uphill battle.

Those factors notwithstanding, Kling is the best candidate in this race.Waste Management, the company proposing to build an Auckland regional landfill north of the Dome, has confirmed that it does not yet own the land.

The company, which is owned by the Chinese state-owned Beijing Capital Group, has secured Overseas Investment Office approval to purchase in total 1000-hectares of rural and forestry land that borders State Highway 1.

It plans to develop a landfill on the site to replace Redvale where consents expire in 2028.

Managing director Tom Nickels spoke to Mahurangi Matters journalists at an open day on the site yesterday We all know someone who needs a hand with their fashion choices and a new series for RTE aims to provide that help to people from all over the country.

'The Fitting Room' tasks three of the country's top fashion designers with creating a bespoke outfit for their participants.

In a call-out earlier this month, RTE mentioned that it is looking for all sorts of people, ranging from those with unusual body shapes to those who are gender non-conforming and people who live with disabilities.

However, producers have contacted the Longford Leader to say they need more "lovely men from Longford." It appears Dublin dominates the applications list, so the call is out for the men of Longford.

If you would like to take part in this new show, you can email your name, age, contact number and a recent photo of yourself outlining the reason you would like some help to belfast@dsp.tv.

Also read: Longford businesswoman slams VAT hike, saying: 'Very few businesses will be able to absorb this'The growing likelihood of an earlier than expected general election has seemingly ramped up the political hostility between the two men vying to become Longfords next TD.

Cllrs Joe Flaherty and Micheal Carrigy crossed swords at last weeks local authority meeting over the current challenges facing Longfords housing plight.

ALSO READ: Longford general election rivals go toe to toe over Baltimore twinning calls

The former took issue with the commendatory approach which had been taken by council officials to the Governments Rebuilding Ireland housing programme.

Cllr Flaherty said a press release sent out on behalf of the Council and social media commentary that followed at a time when more than 800 people were on its local authority waiting list was indicative of how some officials had been effectively browbeaten into taking part into the #Housing Focus week model.

One third of our labour workforce has a third level qualification and you factor in that we have 822 live applicants on our housing list at the minute, I dont think its an awful lot to be singing about and its not something we should be tweeting about, he said.

The Fianna Fail general election candidate was speaking following a request made by Cllr Gerry Warnock for councillors to be given a blow by blow breakdown of the number of households across the county that are eligible for social housing support.

In reflecting on the passing of the recent Budget, Cllr Flaherty lauded the part played by Fianna Fail in bringing about the introduction of an affordable housing programme.

If you want to put it into context, go back to 2009 when the country was in freefall and that year we were able to deliver 204 new units in the county which included 8 rural new cottages and included 26 houses that were purchased, said a bullish Cllr Flaherty.

We also had 24 affordable houses that year and in 2009, one year into a recession, we were able to create 334 social houses in Longford.

Thats the type of house building programme you can go and shout about and certainly one you can tweet about.

Director of Services John Brannigan was quick to take up Cllr Flaherty on his claims local authority staff had been coerced into rhyming out figures on behalf of the Government.

Nobody was browbeaten in the housing staff last week to tweet out any information, he said.

We were highlighting information on the building programme we are doing.

The housing staff are working very hard, going from a base of building no new houses in the county to building over 50 new houses this year and we are building on that year on year.

But it was when Cllr Flahertys rivalling Fine Gael opposite number, Cllr Micheal Carrigy intervened that caused the biggest stir inside the chamber.

They are outrageous remarks to say people were browbeat into sending out tweets, said an indignant Cllr Carrigy.

I think both Minister (Damien) English (Minister of State for Housing) and Minister (Eoghan) Murphy (Housing Minister) are doing an excellent job in difficult circumstances.

The housing section and executive of Longford County Council are working hard in developing projects throughout the county.

The Fine Gael group leader also said he was pleased to note Cllr Flahertys acceptance that the country was in freefall in 2009, adding: We all know who was in government then.Dr Norah Patten is an astronomer from Co Mayo who is set to become the first Irish person to go to space.

She first found her love for astronomy when she was on a family holiday in Cleveland, Ohio where she visited NASA at the age of 11.

ALSO READ: First-rate programme of events lined up as Longford prepares for 20th annual Aisling Children Arts Festival

She attended the University of Limerick where she got a PhD, and a 1.1 Bachelors degree in Aeronautical Engineering.

In 2017, Dr Norah Patten was selected to participate in a scientist-astronaut training program in Florida called Project POSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere); she was one of 12 participants selected.

This project is bringing Dr Norah Patten closer to achieving her dreams. Dr Norah Patten launched Irelands first student experiment to the Internation Space Station (ISS) in 2014.

Other than her passion for astronomy, Dr Patten is author of 'Planet Zebunar' and is very involved with the project Bold Girls.

This project aims to show young women and girls that they can pursue their passions by promoting a strong female protagonist in books.

The topic of a strong female figure for young women and girls is particularly important this year because it is the centenary of women's suffrage in Ireland.

Bold Girls is coming to Scoil Mhuire NS in conjunction with Childrens Books Ireland on Tuesday, October 23, and we are looking forward to welcoming Dr Norah Patten to Longford.

Boys and girls are all welcome to attend the event in Newtownforbes.Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Health & Wellness, Press Releases, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: October 18 2018

Funding Will Help OASAS Certified Outpatient and Opioid Treatment Providers Secure Approximately 120 Nurse Practitioners and 50 Certified Peer Recovery Advocates.

Albany, NY - October 18, 2018 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced $5 million in state funding is available to support the recruitment and retention of Certified Recovery Peer Advocates and nurse practitioners to assist New Yorkers suffering from addiction. The New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services will award up to 170 grants to certified outpatient and opioid treatment providers to help secure approximately 120 nurse practitioner and 50 Certified Peer Recovery Advocate positions across the state.

"The scourge of addiction has devastated families and communities across this state and this nation, and we will continue to provide the necessary prevention, treatment and recovery services to help New Yorkers suffering from this deadly affliction," Governor Cuomo said. "This funding will help ensure New York addiction treatment programs have the professionals and advocates they need to provide these critical life-changing resources to those who need it most."

"This funding will help to ensure opioid treatment providers have the staff they need to help New Yorkers struggling with addiction," said Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, Co-Chair of the State Heroin and Opioid Abuse Task Force. "We are continuing to make significant investments in resources and services to help combat the opioid epidemic that plagues communities across the state. These treatment programs are critical with helping individuals and families battling with drug abuse lead healthier and safer lives."

The availability of this funding supports the Governor's ongoing efforts to increase support for New Yorkers in obtaining services needed to recover from substance abuse, while also fighting the broader battle to combat addiction.

Certified Peer Recovery Advocates are individuals who hold an OASAS approved certification and provide peer support services. The advocates are either in recovery themselves, or have a close family member in recovery, and work to help patients develop recovery plans and learn effective coping habits. Nurse practitioners treat patients attempting to break their addiction to drugs, alcohol or other addictive substances. They may diagnose, treat, and prescribe for a patient's condition that falls within their specialty area of practice. Within OASAS settings, their responsibilities may include: acute care; adult health; family health; psychiatry; and women's health.

Administered through OASAS, eligible outpatient and opioid treatment programs may apply to receive one-time funding of $25,000 for the recruitment and salary needs for a nurse practitioner position. Eligible outpatient programs may also apply to receive one-time funding of $40,000 for a Certified Peer Recovery Advocate position. Providers operating more than one certified outpatient or opioid treatment program may apply for up to four awards.

The funding will be made available through a Request for Applications administered by OASAS on October 17, 2018. Applications will be accepted through November 7, 2018. Interested parties can review the Request for Applications on the OASAS website

Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez said, "For individuals to have a fighting chance against addiction, we must provide them with as much assistance as we can throughout every phase of their care. This funding will be critical in helping us provide essential services for those seeking our help where and when they need it."

Senator George Amedore, Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse said, "Peer advocates and certified professionals who can help those struggling with addiction navigate the system and get the services they need are so important to help people get back on the right track. These grants ensure inpatient and outpatient programs are able to recruit and retain these valuable positions."

Assembly Committee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Chair Linda Rosenthal said, "If we are going to turn the tides in the fight to save lives from opioid overdose, we need more boots on the ground, working to connect people with supportive services and interventions. Peer advocates build deep connections with those struggling with substance use disorder, based on trust, mutual understanding and respect. They have been proven effective tools in battling the opioid epidemic, and I am pleased to see resources being committed to expanding their reach."

Since taking office, Governor Cuomo has instituted an aggressive, multi-pronged approach to addressing the opioid epidemic, creating a nation-leading continuum of addiction care with full prevention, treatment, and recovery services. To combat this epidemic, the Governor has worked to expand access to traditional services, including crisis services, inpatient, outpatient, and residential treatment programs, as well as medication assisted treatment, and mobile treatment and transportation services.

In 2016, Governor Cuomo's Heroin Task Force recommended new, non-traditional services, including recovery centers, youth clubhouses, expanded peer services, and 24/7 open access centers, which provide immediate assessments and referrals to care. These services have since been established in numerous communities around the state and have helped people in need access care closer to where they live.

The Governor has advanced legislative and regulatory reform to enable individuals suffering from addiction to get treatment faster by eliminating many insurance restrictions. Additionally, the Governor advanced legislation to reduce most opioid prescriptions from 30 days to seven days, and legislation to increase training and education for prescribers. Governor Cuomo has also taken action to combat patient brokering and fraudulent addiction treatment services.

The Governor has also worked to increase training and availability of naloxone, resulting in more than 300,000 individuals in New York State being trained and equipped with the opioid overdose reversal medication. Through Governor Cuomo's actions, pharmacies around New York State are now able to provide naloxone without a prescription.

New Yorkers struggling with an addiction, or whose loved ones are struggling, can find help and hope by calling the state's toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY (1-877-846-7369) or by texting HOPENY (Short Code 467369).Local News, Business & Finance, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: October 18 2018

The event offered residents and small business owners an opportunity to sell new and gently-used clothing, jewelry, home goods, toys, art, and more.

Legislator Abrahams (far left) with the NCPD Explorers and Hempstead Town Supervisor Laura Gillen (in green) at the Fall Outdoor Community Market in Baldwin.

Baldwin, NY - October 18, 2018 - Nassau County Legislator Kevan M. Abrahams (D  Nassau County Legislator Kevan M. Abrahams (D  Freeport ) welcomed more than 100 vendors and hundreds of shoppers to the fifth annual Mega Fall Outdoor Community Market in Baldwin on Saturday, Oct. 6.

Held in the Baldwin LIRR stations parking lot, from Milburn to Brookside Avenues, the community yard sale-style event offered residents and small business owners an opportunity to sell new and gently-used clothing, jewelry, home goods, toys, art, and more. Additional vendors included government agencies, banks, community groups, realtors, law offices, churches, the Long Island Nets. and the Freeport Farmers Market with farm fresh fruits and vegetables.

For more information, please contact Danny Schrafel at 516-571-4214 or

Im proud to provide a venue for residents to combine forces and sell their excess belongings, promote a business or raise awareness about work they do in the community, Legislator Abrahams said. I have truly enjoyed watching this event evolve and grow during the last five years and thank everyone who helped to make this years Fall Outdoor Community Market a success once again.Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company announced Thursday that Invesco will acquire OppenheimerFunds, an asset management affiliate of MassMutual.

Invesco will pay about $5.7 billion as part of the agreement, including $4 billion of preferred shares and 81.9 million of common stock. The deal will bring Invesco's total assets under management to more than $1.2 trillion, making it the sixth-largest investment manager in the United States.

"This is a compelling, highly strategic and accretive transaction for Invesco that will help us achieve a number of objectives: enhance our leadership in the US and global markets, deliver the outcomes clients seek, broaden our relevance among top clients, deliver strong financial results and continue attracting the best talent in the industry," Martin L. Flanagan, president and CEO of Invesco, said.

MassMutual is expected to own an approximate 15.5% stake in the common equity of Invesco, becoming the company's largest shareholder.

"MassMutual is excited for the next chapter in our successful asset management strategy," said MassMutual Chairman, President and CEO Roger W. Crandall said. "This strategic combination positions us well to continue to benefit from a strong, diversified global asset management business, which will further strengthen our financial position and support our ability to invest in the long term, provide increased value to our policyowners and customers, and help us deliver on our purpose to help people secure their future and protect the ones they love."

The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019.SPRINGFIELD -- City officials and shoppers gathered Thursday for the grand opening of a new Save-A-Lot supermarket at the Breckwood Center Plaza in Sixteen Acres, saying it provides added convenience, jobs and economic vitality to the area.

"I'm thrilled to have a grocery store back in the neighborhood," said Linda Charest, a neighborhood resident. "It's clean. It's friendly. There's a real buzz in there -- the neighbors are happy to have them."

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and Ward 5 City Councilor Marcus Williams were among officials and residents taking part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the opening day of the supermarket located at the intersection of Wilbraham Road and Breckwood Boulevard.

Sarno praised Fran Cataldo, president of C&W Realty Enterprises, which owns the plaza, for his efforts in bring in new tenants and vitality to the plaza.

In addition, Save-A-Lot provides nearly 40 new jobs, "and that's music to my ears," Sarno said.

"You can see all the storefronts here are vibrant, many are redone," Sarno said. "We appreciate Save-A-Lot's belief and investment in the city of Springfield."

During the opening ceremony, Save-A-Lot presented a $2,000 donation to the Gray House, a local charitable organization.

Cataldo said it was a long but successful effort to bring Save-A-Lot to the plaza in the Sixteen Acres-Pine Point area and add to the variety and vitality of the plaza. The plaza was once location of the Springfield Cinemas, a 12-screen movie theater that closed in 2004.

Cataldo said he had heard from many residents who spoke of the need for a grocery store in the area.

"The experience has been great," said Tyler Elliott, district manager for Save-A-Lot. "We had a lot of excitement leading into the (opening) event within the community, a lot of citizens in the area are really excited. And we're excited to serve them."

The supermarket is approximately 15,000 square feet.

Plaza tenants also include an expanded Dollar Tree store adjacent to Save-A-Lot, Wynn Liquors, Peppa's Express Pizzeria and Paddy's Irish Pub.

On Saturday and Sunday, more festivities and music are planned at the Save-A-Lot to further kick off the store opening, Elliott said.

Cataldo said the location at 1060 Wilbraham Road has great traffic and is in a great neighborhood.

There are also Save-A-Lot stores in Springfield at 459 Main St., Indian Orchard, and 655 Liberty St.On Friday, October 19, beginning at noon, the Boston Symphony Orchestra will collaborate with Mass Audubon, the BBC Radio in England and 99.5 WCRB radio in Boston in programming a special, live 150-minute performance from the 18th century barn at Pleasant Valley in Lenox, Massachusetts, as part of the BBC's Radio 3's Into the forest, In Tune.

The live broadcast is available to a worldwide audience at https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3, beginning at noon, Eastern Standard Time, on Friday, October 19.

Limited outdoor seating for this broadcast may be available depending on the weather. Please check the Mass Audubon Pleasant Valley Facebook page on Friday morning, October 19, for more information on availability.

This special performance and live broadcast on BBC's Radio 3 will feature performances by violinist Yevgeny Kutik ; Boston Camerata; Borromeo String Quartet; fiddler and banjo player Bruce Molsky; and a trio of Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, including pianist Nathan Ben-Yehuda, who will also perform solo piano music by Messiaen.

Information about the Tanglewood Music Center can be found here:

. Further details about the musical program are included in a listing at the end of this release.

Hosted by Sean Rafferty, Into the forest, In Tune, Pleasant Valley edition, will also feature segments on the natural history of forests and the intersection of forests, music, and the arts, with special interviews with Boston Symphony Orchestra Artistic Administrator and Director of Tanglewood, Anthony Fogg, Mass Audubon's President, Gary Clayton, Berkshire Sanctuaries Director, Becky Cushing, and Mass Audubon scientist, Tom Lautzenheiser.

Berkshire-based writers and artists will provide additional commentary about the relationship between the arts and nature, with the environmental sounds of Pleasant Valley providing a special auditory backdrop to this unique and multi-faceted program.

The October 19 edition of BBC Radio 3's Into the Forest, In Tune is the finale of a week-long residency for In Tune, which celebrated great American musicians amongst the autumn forests of New England, alongside the BBC Radio 2's Autumnwatch, looking at the magical influence of the woods on music and the arts.Tiny Traveling Virgin Loves Coming Home to Zapopan

Jalisco, Mexico - The Romeria of the Virgin of Zapopan is one of the most important annual religious celebrations in Mexico. Up to 3 million Catholic pilgrims accompany the medieval statue of Our Lady of Expectation as it is carried five miles from the Cathedral Basilica of Guadalajara to its home in the Franciscan basilica in neighboring Zapopan.

The story goes back to 1695, when the Virgin of Zapopan is believed to have saved the inhabitants of this part of Jalisco, in western Mexico, after a series of epidemics and floods. The Virgin of Zapopan became the local patron saint against storms, and the Romeria - the Spanish term for a short pilgrimage - has continued uninterrupted for roughly 300 years.

Every year on June 13, the Virgin is taken on a four month journey through Guadalajara, where she visits every Catholic church in the region. The 10" statue, which is 486 years old and one of Western Mexico's most important religious icons, spends about a week in each church, where festive celebrations are held in honor of her visit.

On October 12, escorted by bishops, priests, seminarians, and several million pilgrims, the Virgin makes the last five-mile trek from Guadalajara Cathedral to her home church, La Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Zapopan.

At the front of the pilgrimage, thousands of tribal dancers perform in adoration of the Virgin, who is carried on a flower-filled float and dressed differently each year in elaborate costumes decorated with meaningful symbols that include the dolphin, the peacock, the dove and the anchor, which represents Christ.

Her homecoming is an amazing spectacle that turns from a devout pilgrimage to a huge party with fireworks and dancing in the evening. The Virgin remains in Zapopan through June before returning to Guadalajara for the four months before the next annual Romeria.BOSTON - Open the door to one room and you find a Spanish forest with thick moss on the floor and live trees scattered around the room in different places.

Open another door and you're suddenly inside a cooperage in Scotland filled with wooden barrels and metal hoops used to keep them together.

Walk down a hallway and there's even a miniature copper still emitting the fragrant aroma of a whisky distillery in Scotland. (Whisky is whiskey made in Scotland. Scotch can also only come from Scotland.)

And in each room, there's a different Single Malt Scotch whisky to taste.

All of this might sound like some whiskey drinker's fantasy. But on a recent night in Boston, an old, private social club on Commonwealth Avenue, The Algonquin Club, was transformed into The Macallan Manor.

This fictional place was dreamed up by marketers for Macallan, the famous Single Malt Scotch Whisky distillery in the Speyside region of Scotland.

The inspiration for The Macallan Manor is the stately manor house featured on the label of each bottle of Macallan.

"We are reaching a new group of consumers around the U.S. with the goal to inspire and transform them into fans of The Macallan while giving them a never-seen-before, sensorial, educational and interactive experience," said Samantha Leotta, Brand Director of The Macallan in the Americas.

The tour of The Macallan Manor began on the ground floor of the stately Algonquin Club, which was built in 1888 and designed by McKim, Mead & White. From there, our guide led us up the grand staircase to the Spanish forest room. Before entering, we were invited to put on scarves, hats and coats for the forest-like environment.

Inside, one of the Macallan ambassadors explained how Spanish oak trees give many, Macallan Single Malt Whisky's their distinct, woodsy aroma and flavor. Guests were then invited to taste their first of four whiskys - Macallan 12 Year Old Single Malt Double Cask Whisky. The name of this spicy yet smooth Scotch comes from the fact that it's aged in two different types of barrels - American oak and European, sherry oak casks. This whisky's flavors also include hints of vanilla and apricot.

We then walked through a door into the next room designed to look like a 19th century style cooperage. There, a surly cooper surrounding by metal hoops and barrel staves explained how barrels are made and the influence they have on flavors of Macallan whisky.

We were then presented with two more whiskys - Macallan 12 Year Old Single Malt Sherry Oak Cask Whisky and Macallan 15 Year Old Single Malt Triple Cask. We were not told which one was which at first. We had to guess. Many of us guessed wrong, including myself. Then again, they were both delicious. The famous, 12 year old Scotch has a smooth, softer finish and subtle, floral aromas. The 15 year old has spicier notes up front, followed by brighter, vanilla-like flavors.

After a brief stop in a hallway to examine a miniature copper still similar to the ones used by Macallan in Scotland, we climbed another set of stairs to the final room on the formal tour. Here, guests were invited to make themselves at home in two, cozy adjoining rooms filled with comfortable armchairs, leather couches and nautical paintings and memorabilia. We were then treated to the Macallan Rare Cask Single Malt Whisky and told about the age-old art of having a wee dram (small glass of whisky) with a good friend for a good craic (good, lively conversation).

To the frustration of some whisky drinkers, including myself, there's no age listed for the Rare Cask whisky since it's a blend of several different Macallan whiskies. But based on the price (it often sells for well over $250 for a single, 750 ml bottle), it's safe to assume the Scotch has been aged for many, many years.

The Macallan Rare Cask has a slightly spicy finish reminiscent of the 15 year old triple cask. However, the Rare Cask has a slightly butterscotch flavored finish with hints of apricots and chestnuts. The flavors also linger longer than the other Macallans offered at The Macallan Manor.

Guests were then invited to linger a little longer in another room with either a Macallan-based cocktail or a glass of Macallan 12 Year Old Single Malt Sherry Oak Cask Whisky. My friend and I opted for glasses of the Macallan 12 year old neat, no ice.

Many of the other people who attended The Macallan Manor downed their drinks and left fairly quickly. My friend and I took the organizer's advice and stayed for a good hour or so, talking and drinking Scotch by an empty fireplace.

Sitting there, I was reminded of many nights spent by a roaring fire, drinking Macallan with my grandfather, who's family roots stretch back to Scotland. That's the beauty of a great Single Malt Scotch. It's about more than just a whisky. It's who you share it with that matters.

Remaining stops on The Macallan Manor nationwide tour:

Chicago, IL

October 18

International Museum of Surgical Science

Washington, D.C.

October 23, October 24

Arts Club of Washington

Atlanta, GA

October 30, October 31

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center

Los Angeles, CA

November 6, November 7, November 8

Greystone MansionA 26-year-old Boston man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly took a photo up a woman's dress inside an MBTA red line station.

At 4:43 p.m. Tuesday Transit police were called to the Charles/MGH station after a woman reported an instance of upskirting. Upskirting, or taking a photo or video up an unsuspecting person's skirt or dress, was made illegal in Massachusetts in 2014.

Transit police say Abdul Ahmed was riding an escalator behind a woman on Tuesday afternoon. He allegedly reached his cell phone between her legs, capturing a photo up her skirt. Another person in the station corroborated the story, police said.

Ahmed was arrested shortly after police spoke with the woman.A Boston police officer who was allegedly shot by a convicted drug dealer in 2016 filed a lawsuit Thursday against an online firearms marketplace, the man accused of shooting him and the woman who bought the gun.

Veteran Boston Police Officer Kurt Stokinger and his wife, Janella, filed the lawsuit against Armslist, Grant Headley and Sarah Johnson in Suffolk Superior Court.

Stokinger was shot during a Jan. 8, 2016 traffic stop in Dorchester. He was shot in the leg.

The officer received a medal of honor last year at the state's 34th Annual George L. Hanna Awards. The officer who arrested the suspect in the shooting received a medal of valor.

Headley, the man accused of shooting Stokinger, used a .40 caliber Glock to wound the officer, according to authorities.

"Stokinger is lucky to be alive," the lawsuit says. "He survived the shooting thanks to his fellow officers' quick reaction in applying a tourniquet to control the bleeding."

The lawsuit says Headley, who still has his case pending in Suffolk Superior Court, fired five shots, but the gun jammed eventually. There was one round stuck in the gun's chamber and seven more rounds in the magazine.

Headley was on probation after serving a 5-year sentencing on drug and gun possession charges. The convicted felon was not allowed to legally have a gun, the lawsuit states.

Armlist.com, the online firearms marketplace, allowed Headley to get a gun through Johnson, a woman convicted in New Hampshire federal court. Johnson, records show, purchased guns through the website and armed gang members in Boston.

"While other online gun companies have instituted safeguards to make it more likely that gun are sold legally and responsibly, Armslist has done the opposite," the lawsuit claims. "Intentionally entering into this risky environment, Armlist chose to establish an online firearms marketplace which facilitated sales to illegal purchasers and did not include reasonable safeguards to minimize the risks of illegal and dangerous conduct."

Armslist, which has been named in federal lawsuits as a defendant in other cases, fails to screen potential buyers and allows private sales of guns without registering or having to identify themselves, the lawsuit says.

The website allows people to buy guns from private sellers, the lawsuit further says.

Johnson sold the Glock to Headley. She purchased numerous guns using the website and sold them to gang members and drug dealers, federal court records in New Hampshire said.

The lawsuit lists several cases involving murders where weapons were bought through Armslist. One of those killings involved a Chicago Police commander.

Boston police recovered the weapon used in Stokinger's shooting near the scene. The serial number had been obliterated, but Boston police were able to identify the gun.

The gun was traced to New Hampshire. Authorities learned Johnson bought the gun for $460 after arranging a purchase on Armslist.

The gun was sold to her at a McDonald's restaurant in New Hampshire. Johnson purchased between 30 to 63 firearms through the website, the lawsuit says.

"She would meet her sellers in random parking lots to complete the cash transactions," according to the lawsuit. "At least four of the firearms purchased by Johnson were subsequently recovered on the streets of Greater Boston within seven months of less of Johnson purchasing them."

Elizabeth Mulvey of Crowe & Mulvey in Boston, John Kimball of Blank Rome in New York, and Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington D.C. are representing the Stokingers.

The couple is suing Johnson and Armslist for negligence along with other claims. All three defendants are being sued for loss of spousal consortium.

The couple did not list a demand amount in the lawsuit.CHICOPEE -- The Massachusetts State Police continues to investigate the July 19 motorcycle accident of Chicopee Police Chief William R. Jebb and a report could be released this month, an official said Wednesday.

"The investigation is not completed but it is expected to be completed very shortly, probably in the next few weeks or so," state police counsel Dan Brunelli said.

The accident occurred three months ago, but it's not unusual for such investigations to take this amount of time, given the examinations of tire tracks, measurements, estimates of speed and other steps required, he said.

Jebb's accident occurred about 10:35 p.m. at the Interstate 391 exit ramp off Grattan Street.

The Republican is seeking state and Chicopee police reports about Jebb's accident under Massachusetts Public Records Law (MGL Chapter 66, Section 10).

Jebb was released from Baystate Medical Center in Springfield July 29 after the crash, officials said. He returned to work Aug. 13.

After the crash, officers and Chicopee Fire Department EMTs stabilized Jebb and he was brought to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield by ambulance, officials said.

He was alert and conscious at the scene. No other vehicles were involved in the crash and no one else was injured, officials said.

Jebb was shown smiling and wearing a sling on his left arm in a photo posted in August on the Chicopee Police Department Facebook page.WARE -- The goodness or gouging in the host community agreements of marijuana companies paying fees to cities and towns has been a statewide topic, including here at Town Hall Tuesday.

The Board of Selectmen approved a host community agreement with proposed recreational marijuana business B'leaf Wellness Centre LLC. The retail dispensary would pay the town quarterly over five years 3 percent of gross sales of marijuana and marijuana products.

That's on top of a 3 percent annual excise tax established on such companies by town meeting, Town Manager Stuart Beckley told the five-member board.

Other cities and towns have extracted additional money from marijuana companies in the form of grants to community groups and pledges of employee time helping at events or with municipal services.

"The town attorney wouldn't shy away if you asked for additional impacts...other towns have asked for $10,000 for this, $3,000 for that," Beckley said.

But his view is that whatever programs the town chooses to fund with the money from marijuana companies can come from the 3 percent of gross sales that state law has stipulated for host community agreements instead of seeking more, he said.

"How much of these extra fees do liquor stores pay?" Selectman Alan G. Whitney said.

None, Beckley said.

Selectman Tracy R. Opalinski said other communities use additional money from host community agreements with marijuana companies to fund programs that could help here such as health education.

"But do we ask liquor stores to contribute to Alcoholics Anonymous?" Whitney said.

"I'm not sure you should be comparing these to liquor stores," Opalinski said.

"Why?" Whitney said.

"Because this is cannabis," Opalinski said.

People can be affected with ingestion of alcohol and marijuana, Whitney said.

Seeking extra money in a host community agreement could fund programs to help Ware's substance abuse problem, Opalinski said.

"I agree. I just think the 3 percent" suffices," Beckley said.

Later in the discussion, Selectman Keith J. Kruckas said, "To me, alcohol is just as dangerous and we're not taxing them."

Lori and Megan Sinclair, both Ware natives and residents, want to open a retail marijuana business at 60 Main St. under the name B'leaf Wellness Centre. It would be less than 1,000 square feet and have five to eight employees, they said.

The majority of voters in this Hampshire County town followed the statewide lead in approving a ballot question in 2012 to legalize marijuana for medicinal use and another in 2016 to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Beckley said his sense is that the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission and the Legislature eventually will take action as cities and towns hit up marijuana companies for fees that go beyond the law's 3 percent of annual gross sales.

But in August the commission declined to revisit the host community agreement issue. Some members of the five-member commission said that enforcing additional regulations was outside the commission's authority and that reviewing every host community agreement in the state would take too much time.

Commissioner Shaleen Title disagreed. The time was now to set a standard on such agreements and ensure cities and towns and marijuana companies follow the law, she said.

It is important to make the marijuana industry in Massachusetts inclusive by blocking a big company from trying to exercise undue influence by offering a seven-figure payment to a city or town on top of the 3 percent of gross sales cap, she said.

In Holyoke, a program has been established in addition to the 3 percent of annual gross sales allowed by the state in host community agreements. The intention of the "Verde (Green) Fund" in Holyoke is to solicit voluntary contributions from marijuana companies of money that would go directly to neighborhood associations without government involvement, City Councilor Nelson R. Roman has said.

The Holyoke City Council also attaches conditions on the special permits it issues to marijuana companies that call for giving Holyokers hiring preference for jobs.

In Montague, the host community agreement also exceeds the 3 percent gross sales contribution for proposed recreational marijuana business 253 Organic LLC. The agreement there includes a goal of making $15,000 in donations to community groups and donations of employee time to events such as those dealing with substance abuse, senior citizens and military veterans.

The Ware Board of Selectmen approved the host community agreement with B'leaf Wellness Centre 4-1.

"Anybody who's been to these meetings knows I'm not in favor of marijuana," said Chairman John E. Carroll, who voted no.

Voting yes were board members Michael Fountain, Whitney, Opalinski and Kruckas.

The B'leaf Wellness Centre needs final approval from the town and a license from the Cannabis Control Commission before it could open.AMHERST - Unnameable Books Amherst plans to open at 48 North Pleasant St. this weekend with a celebration featuring a lot of art: Dozens of writers and performers will share their work Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The business buys and sells used books.

Unnameable Books describes its offerings as "a first-rate selection of secondhand books, and (soon) a smattering of small press, local & excellent first-hand books, too."

Adam Tobin, 43, the bookstore's owner, opened the first Unnameable Books in Brooklyn, New York, in 2006.

"I am really excited to be in Amherst," Tobin said Wednesday.

"There used to be a lot more bookstores" in town, he said. "There's one; now there will be two."

The Brooklyn store used to be called Adam's Books. Tobin said he changed the name of his New York store because a textbook distributor, Adams Books Co., threatened legal action.

In a 2010 interview with Patch.com, Tobin said, "I didn't really want to give it a name more complicated than Adam's Books because I didn't want to brand it with any particular thing. I want there to be some indeterminacy to what the store is or is going to be, so it was kind of a refusal to name it."

In response to a question about whether a local bookstore can stay in business with all the resources on the internet, Tobin gave reasons, in that interview, as follows:

"The possibility of browsing is a big one. The possibility of seeing things you don't intend to see, that you're not looking for. That's the reason that I go to bookstores, especially used bookstores."

Among the 39 artists Tobin invited to perform this weekend is Hampshire College alumna Maria Damon. A poet, literary scholar and visual artist, Damon is now a humanities professor at the Pratt Institute in New York City.

Also this weekend, on Friday and Saturday night, Amherst College is hosting Pioneer Valley Poetry Productions' second annual Festival of Major American Poets.

The event, co-sponsored by Amherst College English department, is free and open to the public.

Reading Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. are Monica de la Torre, Brian Henry, Sawako Nakayasu, Uche Nduka and Eleni Sikelianos.

Saturday readings begin at 6 p.m. with John High, Ruth Lepson, Michael Leong, Elinor Nauen, Patrick Donnelly and Fanny Howe.A 90,000 square foot facility in Leicester, which will cultivate, process and package marijuana products, on Thursday received the approval of Massachusetts regulators.

The Cannabis Control Commission signed off on provisional licenses on in-door cultivation and product manufacturing for East Coast Organics LLC.

The five-member commission also handed out provisional licenses to the following marijuana businesses: Caroline's Cannabis of Uxbridge (retail); Commonwealth Cultivation Inc. in Pittsfield (cultivation); Curaleaf Massachusetts Inc., of Webster and Oxford (cultivation, product manufacturing and retailing); and Theory Wellness, Inc. in Great Barrington (retail).

The commission also signed off on final licenses to a key part of the nascent marijuana supply chain: CDX Analytics of Salem and MCR Labs LLC of Framingham, independent testing laboratories.

The two labs are involved in testing medical marijuana. State law calls for recreational marijuana to be tested for safety before it can be sold.

"One more piece of the puzzle, coming together," Steve Hoffman, the commission chairman, told reporters.

MCR Labs received the license despite an incident last year involving an alleged marijuana theft by an employee. Hoffman said the commission was aware of the issue, "we looked into the issue, we do not believe it was a disqualifying issue."

Hoffman noted commission staff had said MCR Labs made changes to its security operations since the incident.

Asked when retail marijuana shops, which would be the first on the east coast, will open in Massachusetts, Hoffman said, "We're getting very close. I mean, I don't think there's any merit in me saying two weeks, three weeks, four weeks."

The commission earlier this year provided final licenses to another Leicester-based marijuana establishment: Cultivate Holdings, which runs a medical marijuana dispensary in the Worcester County community.

Cultivate Holdings received final licenses for retailing, product manufacturing and cultivation.

New England Treatment Access (NETA), which wants to open a recreational marijuana shop in the same location as its Northampton medical marijuana dispensary. NETA has also received a final license for retail.

The two businesses must still meet several conditions before opening and selling recreational marijuana.

"It's a complicated process, it is a controversial process," Hoffman told reporters after the commission's Thursday meeting. "We have always said we're going to get this right and that's more important to us than an artificial deadline."Massachusetts' wild bumblebees could be at risk even from low environmental levels of neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study.

Researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute have found that queen and male bumblebees, who are essential to the formation of bee colonies, are particularly vulnerable to neonicotinoids. The study, published in the open-access scientific journal PLOS One, is the first granular look at how these pesticides affect individual queen and male bees.

"As our bumblebees and other native pollinators disappear, so too will our native flowering plants and the animals that use them for food, shelter, and nesting sites," study co-author Robert Gegear said in a statement. "We need to understand all the factors that are contributing to the decline of wild bees, but the evidence is mounting against neonicotinoids in agricultural and urban areas. Because neonicotinoids are readily translocated from the soil to the nectar and pollen of wildflowers growing in these areas and can persist in the environment for long periods of time, they pose a potential hazard to wild bumblebees at every stage of their annual life cycle."

Gegear, an assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, wrote the study with WPI PHD candidate Melissa Mobley.

Each fall, newly spawned male and queen bees leave their wild colonies to mate. Queen bees then find a place where they can survive the winter, staying there as their original colonies die off in the cold. In the spring, they emerge, nest and lay eggs, starting a new colony.

It is that delicate cycle that may be at risk from neonicotinoids, the study says. Gegear and Mobley's research found that while worker bees can survive the low levels of pesticide bees may encounter in the real world, males and queens suffer increased mortality rates.

It is a potential harm missed by previous research on bees, which has largely focused on how neonicotinoids affect managed honeybees kept by humans to use for pollinating crops, Gegear said.

"All of these vulnerable points get missed when you focus on bees in an agricultural context," Gegear said in an interview.

The fate of American bees became a national cause for concern in 2006, when beekeepers and scientists noticed the widespread and unexplained loss of honey bee colonies -- known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Managed honey bee colonies saw loss rates of over 30 percent in the winters of 2006 and 2007, according to the Bee Informed Partnership, a USDA-funded research coalition -- well above acceptable rates of about 15 percent.

Loss rates dropped to the mid-20s, but remained above normal levels. And in 2017-2018, rates spiked about 30 percent again, according to preliminary results from Bee Informed.

The mysterious nature of the colony disappearances drew headlines and outcry from environmental groups, who warned that the loss of pollinating honey bees could pose a threat to the American agricultural ecosystem.

Researchers posed a number of theories about the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder. While parasites and diseases are largely responsible for annual bee deaths, researchers questioned whether a new class of insecticides called neonicitinoids were causing unintended harm to bee populations.

The "Beepocalypse" warned of by breathless media reports has not come to pass for honey bees. Overall managed honey bee populations have rebounded since the mid-2000s, largely due to efforts by beekeepers in the face of continuing colony losses,.

But while Colony Collapse Disorder has largely subsided, die-off rates are still high, Science News reported earlier this year. And that recovery has only been measured for bees kept by humans, leaving the fate of wild bees uncertain.

Those wild bees -- bumblebees and other species who pollinate native plants, rather than tended crops -- are the focus of Gegear and Mobley's research.

The problems facing honey bees are an economic rather than existential problem, Gegear said, with the most likely negative effects being a rise in food prices as the cost of pollination rises for farmers.

But for some of Massachusetts' native bees, the die-offs could could cause extinction. Geager, who has personally surveyed bee populations across much of the state, has found that two of the 11 bee species historically living in Massachusetts are likely no longer present. Another four are in decline, while the rest are stable or increasing in population.

And while farmers are concerned with the raw numbers of workers available to pollinate crops, the state's environment has more specific needs, Gegear said. Wild bumblebees are a keystone species whose pollination habits maintain ecological diversity. And disruptions to those species could ricochet up the foodchain, affecting herbivores who feed on pollinating plants and the predators who eat those animals.

"There are cascading negative effects that ripple throughout the ecosystem," Gegear said. "I don't think people realize when we see birds going extinct, it ultimately could come down to pollinators."

Gegear views his study as evidence of the real-world harms of neonicotinoids, saying that when used on crops, lawns or flower beds, the pesticide can linger in the soil for years and contaminate wildflowers used by wild bees.CHICOPEE - A Connecticut woman awaiting sentencing Friday for terrorizing an elderly victim during a home invasion is facing an unrelated drug charge after she was allegedly caught with crack cocaine in jail.

Melissa Mimitz, 36, Enfield, was released on bail in March, seven months after pleading not guilty to home invasion, kidnapping, armed robbery and related charges in Springfield District Court.

Mimitz and Lily Bodenlos, 29, of Naugatuck, Connecticut, allegedly tied up, assaulted and pepper sprayed the victim before stealing $8,000 in cash, several bottles of prescription pills and other valuables on Aug. 30, 2017, in Springfield.

Both women were initially held without right to bail after Assistant District Attorney Mary Sandstrom said they "tortured" the victim and stole her life savings.

Mimitz was eventually released on $10,000 bail, only to have it revoked after new charges were filed in May in Chicopee District Court.

The charges date to Dec. 22 when officials at the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center in Chicopee allegedly found Mimitz with a packet of cocaine, a glass pipe and a lighter minutes after a visit from her boyfriend, according to court records.

Jail officials observed the exchange and confronted Mimitz, who said she planned to give the cocaine to another inmate, records show.

Lsat month, Mimitz and Bodenlos pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court to charges from the Springfield home invasion and are scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Sandstrom has recommended state prison sentences of 20 to 21 years for both women, while requests from defense lawyers range from three years in prison to three years probation.

A pretrial hearing in Mimitz's drug case was held Tuesday in Chicopee District Court. The case was continued to Dec. 17.SPRINGFIELD - A city man who fired a gun on Maple Street Wednesday night was arrested and found to be in possession of PCP and cocaine, police said.

Police, alerted by a ShotSpotter activation, found the suspect in the area, Ryan Walsh, spokesman for Springfield police, said.

After the suspect, Steven Santiago, 29, of State Street, was taken into custody at about 9 p.m., police found he was in possession of the drugs.

A review of video evidence showed that Santiago fired a gun in the 100 block of Maple Street, Walsh said. There were no victims.

Santiago was charged with carrying a loaded firearm without a license, possession of a firearm in commission of a felony, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a building and two counts of possession of a Class B drug (cocaine and PCP).Fall Garage Sale to Benefit PuRR Project, November 10

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - This season's first fund raising event for PuRR Project will be another huge garage sale in Marina Vallarta on Saturday, November 10, 2018 from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm.

We're still collecting donated items, but so far we have: a Casio CTK-120 Keyboard, a Whirlpool microwave, a Ninja Professional Blender/Kitchen System, two still-in-the-box American Standard sinks, several brand-new Moen/Helvex designer faucets, a glass-top desk, as well as lots of men's and women's clothing, jewelry, household items, luggage, artwork and mucho, Mucho mas!

Saturday, November 10 (one day only)8:00 am until 3:00 pmGaviotas #143 in Marina Vallarta

Driving Directions: Turn into the Marina at the big whale sculpture; take the first right onto Pelicanos; the next right is Gaviotas.

Make plans now to come check out all the goodies at PuRR Project's Fall Garage Sale. You name it... we probably have it! Get there early for the best selection!

All proceeds of the sale will benefit the furry residents of the PuRR Project shelter - it's been a long, hot, wet summer and the coffers are needing replenishment. If you have items to donate, please email info(at)purrproject.com.The endangered nature of bee colonies has been one of those subjects anti-environmentalists snicker about, which only shows how little they know about it.

Twelve years after bees made national headlines, they're back in the news. A report from Worcester Polytechnic Institute that says even low levels of neonicotinoid pesticides could be killing Massachusetts' wild bumblebees.

Queen and male bumblebees are essential to bee colonies and their formation.

"As our bumblebees and other native pollinators disappear, so too will our native flowering plants and the animals that use them for food, shelter, and nesting sites," study co-author Robert Gegear said. "We need to understand all the factors that are contributing to the decline of wild bees, but the evidence is mounting against neonicotinoids in agricultural and urban areas."

It's the type of statement the anti-environmental community too often either dismisses or ridicules. The problem with that head-in-the-sand attitude is that studies have consistently shown these warnings to bear truth.

Bees were big news in 2006, when a large-scale and baffling loss of honey bee colonies became known as Colony Collapse Disorder. Loss rates doubled from acceptable levels.

From there, levels dropped to levels still higher than traditional norms, but above the depths that set off alarms. This was due mainly to aggressive maintenance by beekeepers, but there's new suspicion that 21st Century pesticides are killing off bees, at least in this part of the country.

As environmentalists call for renewed attention to a problem they say threatens the nation's agricultural ecosystem, they may be hampered by their own success in bringing the so-called 2006 "Beepocalyse" panic under control. It's a different version of an old story, and one we've especially seen with climate change.

It goes like this: environmentalists warn of doomsday scenarios, either to attract attention from from a lethargic public or because of their own passion and conviction. When doomsday fails to arrive, the public loses interest and skeptics ridicule the predictions.

The central problem that caused the alarm, though, does not go away. That's where Massachusetts sits with its endangered bee population.

At the very least, the loss of wild bees would spike a rise in food price, concurrent with the rising cost of pollination. But Geager's study warns that some native bees could become extinct.

Of the 11 bee species associated with Massachusetts, five are safe but two have vanished from the state and four are declining.

It's not a laughing matter. What to do about the pesticides is not clearly spelled out in the study, but bees play an important role in our agricultural cycle.

As the national government turns its back on the environmentalists, Massachusetts remains known as a place that will listen to intelligent, fact-based concerns. Based on the WPI study, bee colonies are a good place for them to focus their attention.Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker defended the head of the State Police and said he didn't believe she knew about an attempt to destroy records amid ongoing criminal investigations.

During the second televised match-up between the governor and his Democratic opponent Jay Gonzalez, Baker said the law enforcement agency's request to a state board to destroy records was a "mistake" but the records weren't part of the investigations.

"I don't believe she knew about it," he told the moderators when asked whether Col. Kerry Gilpin -- installed by Baker to clean up the State Police after the discovery of alleged overtime abuse -- about the attempt to destroy records.

"These were relevant records," Gonzalez said. "Personnel records. Attendance records. These are the very issues that go to the heart of the criminal activity and the corruption that's going on in the State Police."

Baker said while it was a mistake, the attempt to destroy records was not intentional, and the independent state board tasked with overseeing such requests for records destruction put the request on hold, citing an audit.

Gonzalez has called for Gilpin to be fired and replaced by an outsider who would run the agency. During the debate, Baker again defended Col. Gilpin, noting her investigation has led to federal and state prosecutors indicting current and former troopers in the overtime abuse scandal. She has also brought in the accounting firm Ernst and Young.

"Look, the colonel is the one who did the investigation that's led to every single indictment and every single plea that's happened since this whole thing began," Baker said.

Dozens of troopers remain under investigation.

"Virtually all of the bad behavior" occurred within Troop E, which patrolled the Massachusetts Turnpike, and Gilpin disbanded the troop, Baker said.

"There's a culture of corruption in Troop E and that's why it got abolished," Baker said. "But to paint a brush across 2,000 men and women who every single day serve the Commonwealth and serve the people of Massachusetts and support gang units and fugitive units and do a lot of the really important grunt law enforcement work that needs to be done in the Commonwealth I think is unfair."U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, called on the Trump administration this week to provide details on the implementation of its "zero tolerance" immigration policy, following a report suggesting that officials may have provided misleading or inaccurate information on how separated migrant families were being tracked.

Warren, a vocal opponent of the White House's immigration approach, joined U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, in pressing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar for answers on when the agency launched its "central database" and another computer portal containing information on the location of parents and children separated under the "zero tolerance" policy.

Noting that a recent Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report has raised questions about Azar's June testimony before the Senate Finance Committee -- particularly the existence of a separation database and accuracy of factsheets distributed following the policy's announcement -- Warren and Wyden asked the secretary to address those concerns by Nov. 2.

"We were, and continue to be appalled by the administration's cruel policy of family separation, and disturbed by the possibility that your agency provided inaccurate or misleading information to Congress and to the American public on the administration's ability to locate and track these children," they wrote in a Wednesday letter.

The senators specifically called on Azar to clarify whether the "manually compiled spreadsheet" maintained by HHS and other agencies was created after a June 23 factsheet, and what constituted the database referenced to in the agency's release.

They further sought information on the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement's "portal" to track separated children, including, among other things, whether it was created "in response to or in anticipation of litigation," how it relates to the "matching table" described in the IG's report and how HHS obtained matching information on parents and children for it.

Azar testified to senators that his agency's Office of Refugee Resettlement had a computer portal that could locate separated children, stating that "there is no reason why any parent would not know where their child is located."

"I could, at keystrokes -- I've sat on the ORR portal -- with just basic keystrokes, in seconds could find any child in our care for any parent," he said.

The IG's report, however, found that while DHS announced on June 23 -- days before Azar's testimony -- that it had "a central database" containing location information for separated parents and children, which both it and HHS could access and update, "OIG found no evidence that such a database exists."

It noted that "two officials suggested that the 'central database' referenced in DHS' announcement is actually a manually compiled spreadsheet maintained by HHS, (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel."

The inspector general found that the spreadsheet -- known as a "matching table" -- was not created until after June 23, "suggesting that it is not the 'central database' referenced in the department's June 23 announcement."

The report also suggested that "there is no 'direct electronic interface' between DHS and HHS tracking systems."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April that the administration would take a "zero tolerance" approach to immigration, directing all U.S. attorneys who serve in districts along the United States' southern border with Mexico to criminally prosecute all cases of attempted illegal entry or illegal entry that are referred by DHS.

The policy reportedly led DHS to separate about 2,000 children from their parents, as children were not allowed in adult criminal detention facilities. The children were placed in the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, according to reports.Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he misspoke after initially expressing indecision over whether he'll vote for US Sen. Elizabeth Warren's GOP challenger weeks after endorsing him.

Asked by Jay Gonzalez, the Democrat hoping to oust Baker from the Corner Office, whether he's voting for Republican US Senate candidate Geoff Diehl, the governor said during Wednesday's WGBH-TV debate that he would vote for himself and a "series of other candidates." He added that he didn't know whether he would vote for Diehl, a fellow Republican.

Diehl is challenging Warren, a Cambridge Democrat running for a second six-year term while weighing a 2020 presidential campaign.

"You don't know if you're going to vote for the guy you endorsed?" asked Jim Braude, one of the debate moderators.

"I haven't made a decision," Baker said.

Gonzalez jumped in. "So you're asking people in Massachusetts to vote for Geoff Diehl and you're not even going to vote for him?"

"I said I was going to support the [GOP] ticket and I do," Baker said. He added: "I'll make my decision eventually and I'll make sure people know."

Gonzalez noted that Diehl was President Donald Trump's campaign co-chair in Massachusetts, a state won by Hillary Clinton.

Later in the debate, Gonzalez returned to press Baker on his remarks. "I still can't believe that the governor's asking people in this state to vote for Geoff Diehl and won't say whether he's going to vote for him himself," he said.

Baker, a moderate Republican who blanked the 2016 presidential ballot rather than vote for Clinton or Trump, pointed to where he parts ways with Diehl, supporting abortion rights and gay rights while calling them "fundamental issues."

Minutes after the debate ended, Baker told reporters he misspoke when he said he hadn't decided whether to vote for Diehl despite endorsing him.

"In the midst of all of it, I said I endorsed the ticket, I'm going to vote for him," Baker said. "I'm going to vote for the ticket."

Baker continued: "Look, in the back and forth, I simply misspoke but I'm going to vote for the ticket. And I think it's interesting that my opponent spent so much time talking about the US Senate race and so little time talking about the race for governor, which is the office he's actually seeking."

The general election is Nov. 6. The ballot will feature races for US Senate and governor, local races, and statewide questions on nurse staffing and transgender protections.Nearly half of women have dense breasts, a risk factor for breast cancer. For proper screening, spotting dense breast tissue is important, as it can hide the presence of tumors. Currently, dense tissue is identified by radiologists viewing mammography images, but their evaluations are subjective and therefore can vary from physician to physician.

A team of scientists from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have now created a piece of software that can automatically assess whether a given womans breast tissue is dense or not, with an accuracy matching that of a team of human radiologists.

Breast density is an independent risk factor that drives how we communicate with women about their cancer risk. Our motivation was to create an accurate and consistent tool, that can be shared and used across health care systems, said Adam Yala, one of the leads of the research.

The system relies on a convolutional neural network, a computer science technique now widely used in a number of fields including image recognition tasks. It was trained, using nearly 60,000 mammography images, to learn what dense breasts look like thanks to each image having been already been used in a real case and tagged with a radiologists diagnosis.

The system was tested on patients screened at the Massachusetts General Hospital, with radiologists receiving the softwares estimate of breast density with every mammography image. The radiologists were simply given a choice to agree or to disagree with the systems decision, and after looking at over 10,000 images the system demonstrated a 94% agreement with the radiologists.

Study in journal Radiology: Mammographic Breast Density Assessment Using Deep Learning: Clinical Implementation

Via: MITGlobal Brachytherapy Market  Overview

Brachytherapy is a type of radiation therapy in which a radiation emitting source is placed near the area requiring treatment. Brachy is a Greek word for short distance and therapy means treatment. It effective for the treatment of cervical cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer and other types of cancers. Cancer cure rates after brachytherapy are comparable to surgery or external beam therapy (EBT). Demand for brachytherapy is increasing because of an increase in prevalence of various type of cancers, low treatment time and high efficiency. Its treatment results also show an increasing cure rate which is also contributing to the growth of this market. Global market of brachytherapy is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.9% during the forecast period 2017-2023.

Brachytherapy Market  Key Players

Modus Medical Devices Inc. (Canada),

Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (US),

Eckert & Ziegler (Germany),

C. R. Bard, Inc (US),

Argon Medical Devices, Inc. (US),

Elekta AB (Sweden),

IsoRay Medical, Inc. (US),

IsoAid (US), and others

Brachytherapy Market  Industry Updates

August, 2017 Becton Dickinson and Company (BD) acquired Bard. The acquisition will expand its focus on disease treatment beyond diabetes, and include urology, peripheral vascular disease, cancer, and hernia.

Get Sample PDF Illustration @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1035

May, 2017 Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG signed an agreement to acquire Gamma-Service, a specialist in manufacturing isotope technology. With this acquisition Eckert & Ziegler is expected to strengthen their market position and focus on the optimal servicing for their existing customers.

Feb, 2017 Merit Medical Systems, Inc. to acquire products from Catheter Connections, Inc. and Argon Medical Devices. These product acquisitions will broaden Merits product portfolio and simultaneously expanding the companies geographic presence. The company also focuses on widening its customer base globally.

Jan, 2017 Alliance Medical signed a pact to purchase Eckert & Ziegler Radiopharma GmbH (Eckert & Zieglers cyclotron division), a subsidiary of Eckert & Ziegler AG. The cyclotron division consist of four cyclotrons across Germany, Austria and Poland. The acquisition of Eckert & Zieglers cyclotron division will further extends the companys molecular imaging presence in Europe as well as the radiopharmacy facilities in the Italy and UK.

August, 2016 Eckert & Ziegler had acquired BranchySolutions BVBA, a European prostate seed distributor. The acquisition will strengthen Eckert & Ziegler seed manufacturing position in Europe

Jan, 2016 Argon Medical Devices, Inc. acquired three vascular products from Rex Medical, LLC. The product include, UltraStream Chronic Hemodialysis Catheter Option, ELITE CLEANER Rotational Thrombectomy System, and Retrievable Vena Cava Filter are wholly owned by this company. The acquisition is expected to fortify the existing interventional portfolio. It further enables the company to offer customer procedure-based comprehensive solutions.

Major Chapter from Table of Content

Chapter 1. Report Prologue

Chapter 2. Market Introduction

Chapter 3. Research Methodology

Chapter 4. Market Dynamics

Chapter 5. Market Factor Analysis

Chapter 6. Global Branchytherapy Market, By Type

Chapter 7. Global Branchytherapy Market, By Device

Chapter 8. Global Branchytherapy Market, By Application

Chapter 9. Global Branchytherapy Market, By Region

Chapter 10. Company Landscape

Chapter 11. Company Profiles

Chapter 12. MRFR Conclusion

Chapter 13. Appendix

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Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comTyto Care, based in Israel, won the European CE Mark, allowing it to introduce its telemedicine system on the continent. This product lets people perform exams on each other under the guidance of a physician who is able to see and hear whats going on in real time and is able to review the various measurements.

The Tyto at-home device has a stethoscope, otoscope, tongue depressor with a built-in camera, and thermometer that can be used to examine the heart, ears, throat, abdomen, and other parts of the body. The physician gives instructions to the operator of the device and monitors how its used. When applied as an otoscope, for example, the physician sees the image the otoscope captures and can tell the parent to advance or retract the device to get a proper look inside a childs ear.

Thanks to the Tyto system, physicians can arrive to the home as quickly as a phone call, performing basic exams while patients remain in the comfort of the home. This can save valuable time and money while improving treatment in many cases, particularly for people who have anxiety when visiting a clinic.

The system is already FDA cleared and has been adopted by a number of practices and institutions

Link: Tyto Care company homepage

Flashback: Tyto, a Portable Device Lets Primary Care Doctors Examine Patients Remotely

Via: Tyto Careby Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 17, 2018

A lawsuit accusing Facebook of violating an Illinois biometric privacy law by compiling a faceprint database could discourage companies from developing new technology, the Silicon Valley lobbying group Internet Association argues in a new court filing.

Facial recognition technology can allow consumers to unlock their smartphones with a glance, streamline airport security screenings, and assist doctors in identifying rare genetic diseases, the Internet Association writes in court papers filed Wednesday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The organization adds that a recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Donato, who allowed Facebook users to proceed with a privacy class-action against the company, could threaten new uses of biometric information -- including uses that protect people, such as security cameras that can recognize strangers outside the home, fingerprint readers that prevent access to sensitive information, and facial recognition systems that can help locate missing children online.

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The Internet Association is weighing in on a battle dating to 2015, when several Illinois residents alleged that Facebook's photo-tagging feature violates the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act. The company's photo-tagging function recognizes users' faces and suggests their names when they appear in photos uploaded by their friends. To accomplish this, the social networking service draws on its vast trove of users' photos.

The Illinois law requires companies to obtain written releases from people before collecting certain biometric data, including scans of face geometry. That measure, passed in 2008, also requires companies that gather biometric data to notify people about the practice, and to publish a schedule for destroying the information. The law provides for fines of up to $5,000.

Facebook unsuccessfully urged Donato to dismiss the case, arguing that users couldn't show they were injured by the alleged practices, and that its photo-tagging feature isn't covered by the Illinois law, because Facebook doesn't have servers in Illinois. The company also unsuccessfully contended that the matter should not proceed as a class-action, arguing that users could not show they were injured by the alleged practices.

Donato rejected Facebook's arguments on all counts, ruling that the users could proceed with the litigation. Facebook appealed Donato's decision to the 9th Circuit, which put the case on hold.

Facebook filed written arguments with the 9th Circuit last week, but did so under seal -- meaning they are not yet publicly available. On Wednesday, the Internet Association -- which counts Facebook, Google, Amazon, eBay and other tech companies as members -- submitted a friend-of-the-court brief siding with Facebook.

The Internet Association says Donato shouldn't have allowed the case to proceed. Biometric technologies serve many useful purposes in our societyfrom providing new authentication features that enhance security (like the ability to unlock ones phone with a fingerprint), to facilitating the organization and sharing of photographs (like the ability to quickly retrieve photographs stored in a private account), to promoting health and wellness (like allowing for digital patient check-ins at the emergency room), the group writes. These are applications that millions of people already enjoy, and that offer great potential in the future. It is in no ones interest that the lawful development and use of biometric technologies be artificially chilled.

The organization specifically argues that the users should not be able to move forward without showing how they were injured by the alleged privacy violations. Technology companies, like the Associations members, are frequently subject to opportunistic lawsuits claiming vast statutory damages without real-world harm, the organization writes. Plaintiffs here readily admit that they have suffered no physical, financial, or other tangible or intangible injury. And they make no claim that their alleged biometric data was used for any purpose other than to suggest tags to people they had chosen to connect with.

The group also argues that Donato's ruling effectively allows Illinois law to govern activity that occurs in other states. The Constitution provides that Congress can regulate interstate commerce; courts interpret that clause to mean that individual states usually can't govern commercial activity outside their borders.

The users who are suing are expected to file their legal papers by November 8.by Larissa Faw , October 18, 2018

Publicis Groupe is divesting its healthcare practice (Publicis Health Solutions) after the unit helped drag the companys organic revenue down to 1.3% in the third quarter. Excluding the unit from the numbers, holding company growth would have been 2.2%, executives said on a call with analysts and investors Thursday to discuss Q3 results.

The Groupe has a very distinctive positioning in the healthcare communications sector with PHS which services CSOs (contract sales organizations), a business that does not exist in other healthcare communications networks as most of its competitors are specialized in outsourcing.

By its very nature, this business is highly volatile and developments in the healthcare sector have led clients to make last-minute adjustments, including the postponement or even the cancellation of campaigns, the company reported during the investor call, adding this entity is classified as a "non-core activity."

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Company CEO/Chairman Arthur Sadoun also reported that the firm has launched a review of its asset portfolio, which he said would optimize the allocation of our resources and help us scale our strategic game changers. We have to absolutely focus on disposing of non-core assets that are not aligned with our priorities, he says.

Other Adland giants are conducting similar portfolio assessments, most notably Omnicom, which sold off 19 companies (mostly in the CRM space) in the third quarter alone.

Publicis Groupes Q3 net revenue was 2.20 billion euro ($2.53 billion), up 0.5% from 2.19 billion euro ($2.52 billion) in Q3 2017.

While healthcare operations were a drag on performance, the 1.3% growth achieved in Q3 was an improvement compared with the 0.4% organic revenue decline reported for the first six months of the year, the Groupe reported.

On the new business front, Publicis Groupe won the GSK global media assignment earlier this month. The win, said Publicis Media chief Steve King, is both emblematic and a concrete example of our attractiveness with the ability to execute at scale in global markets with data and technology at the core of our proposition.

The GSK win follows assignments earlier this year from Cathay Pacific, Western Union, Nestle, and Mondelez International among others.

All geographies in Q3 reported positive organic growth. North America was up 1.0% while Europe returned to growth at +4.2%.

For the first nine months of this year, net revenue was 6.48 billion euro ($7.46 billion), down 5.4% from 6.85 billion euro ($7.89 billion) for the corresponding period in 2017. The impact of exchange rates was a negative 5.5% or down 379 million euro.

Organic growth for the first nine months 0.2%, but would have been 0.8% without PHS.

Publicis shares were up 6% Thursday in midday trading on the Paris exchange.by Alex Weprin , October 18, 2018

Cheddar continues its local push with a new deal in New York City. The video news network has signed a deal with CUNY TV to produce a half-hour news program that will air on the channel weekdays at 7 p.m.

For Cheddar, the deal marks an expansion of its local news push, which includes business news segments that run on a handful of TEGNA stations, News12 stations, and PIX11 in New York City.

Cheddar founder-CEO Jon Steinberg tells Digital News Daily that at launch, the CUNY TV broadcast will feature primarily national news stories for a couple of months before deciding whether to expand its local news programming.

If I see traction, we will invest in local news segments. We already shot a demo, Steinberg says. Im very cheap, so I want to wait and see before we invest in local content. But Im optimistic.

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The Cheddar NYC demo includes an extended segment about the looming shutdown of the L train in Brooklyn and Manhattan,as well as a story about a department store opening next to Katzs Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. It also includes local transit delays, weather and upcoming events.

CUNY TV is the television station operated by the City University of New York. It is available in approximately 1.7 million homes in New York City as a digital broadcast network, and in 7.3 million homes as a cable channel through Charter Spectrum, Alice Optimum, RCN and Verizon Fios.

Cheddar launched in 2016 as a streaming business news channel, a millennial take on CNBC. It expanded earlier this year with Cheddar Big News, a general-interest news offering. The company has deals with just about every streaming bundle provider to offer its channels;; it also distributes shows through Twitter, Twitch and other digital platforms.

The company is also distributed on college campuses through CheddarU.by Larissa Faw , October 18, 2018

MDC Partners is promoting Ryan Linder from Chief Marketing Officer, U.S. to executive vice president, global CMO, as part of an intensified global growth strategy effort, the company said.

The move comes just a month after the firm said it was looking for a new CEO to succeed Scott Kauffman. It is also exploring a potential sale and has retained investment band LionTree to shop the company around.

Linder will lead a team that includes Robyn Freye (senior vice president, strategic growth, USA), Lotta Malm Hallqvist (CMO, Europe), and Ned Russel (managing director, Healthcare).

The six-year MDC veteran has been instrumental in forging many partner-client alliances across the MDC family.

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Linder is said to have strong relationships with many agency partners, a sharp contrast to many previous MDC corporate executives who have had strained relationships with their creative teams.

Ryan is a rarity in his role  he listens more than he talks, said Carl Johnson, founding partner/global CEO, Anomaly. That approach, which is closer to one of casting agent, means his focus is on truly matching agency skill sets, talent and culture with client needs. Its the secret to his success  and why I like him.

Linder replaces Bob Kantor, who parted ways with the company in July. Freye is assuming some of Ryans U.S. responsibilities.by Larissa Faw , October 18, 2018

The Ad Council has added new members to its Board of Directors.

This year's lineup includes Nick Law, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe, and president, Publicis Communications; Kasha Cacy, global CEO, Engine; Sean Reardon, CEO, Moxie, MRY and Zenith USA; Tiffany R. Warren, chief diversity officer, Omnicom; Lynn Lewis, president, East Coast and global CMO, UM; Elizabeth McCune, chief growth officer, GroupM Global; and Tony Weisman, CMO, Dunkin' U.S.

They serve under chairperson Linda Boff, CMO of General Electric (GE). Board members are appointed to an initial three-year term that can be extended.

"These new members are among the most innovative and creative leaders in the communications industry, and we are grateful for their commitment and talent to help us change the world," says Lisa Sherman, president and CEO of the Ad Council.

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The Ad Council is also adding new members to its Leadership Council, which consists of executives from media companies, creative and digital agencies, and corporate advertisers who identify ways their companies can support campaigns and share learning, insights and capabilities.

These new executives are Dan Carroll, CEO, Founder, AdPredictive; Christine Fruechte, CEO, Colle McVoy; Harold Lueken, CEO, Starlite Media; and Kate Parker, head of safety & insurance brand, Uber. They are guided by chairman and Ad Council Board Member Harry Kargman, founder & CEO of Kargo.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, October 18, 2018

A karate school owner who advertises on Google wants a federal appellate court to revive a class-action complaint accusing the company of mishandling paid-search campaigns.

Mark Trudeau, an Oakland County, Michigan resident who co-owns Troy Martial Arts, alleged in a lawsuit filed earlier this year that Google displayed wrongly pay-per-click ads for his karate studio when users' search queries contained negative keywords -- meaning terms that were supposed to prevent ads from appearing.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman in San Jose, California granted Google's motion to send the matter to arbitration. Freeman ruled that Google's 2017 contract with AdWords advertisers required arbitration of all disputes. On Wednesday, Trudeau appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The legal battle dates to February, when Trudeau sued Google for allegedly breaching the AdWords agreement by overcharging him.

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Trudeau alleged that he began advertising with Google in 2012, and agreed to pay between 50 cents and $5 per click. He also said he attempted to use negative keywords to block ads from being displayed when people's search queries suggested they lived far from Oakland County. For instance, he said, he wanted to block ads from being displayed to people who used the word Southfield in their queries, because he didn't believe people in Southfield would travel to Troy for martial arts training.

Despite his attempts to block those ads, Google sometimes served ads when the queries contained negative keywords like Southfield, he alleged. For example, he alleged, if search users misspelled Southfield as Douthfield, Google sometimes showed ads for his studio in Troy.

Troy Martial Arts has determined that approximately one out of every two-hundred clicks occurs when Google improperly places Troy Martial Arts ad at the top of a search containing one of Troy Martial Arts negative keywords, his complaint read.

Google argued the matter should either be dismissed outright or send to arbitration. The company said it amended its contract with advertisers in 2017 to require arbitration of disputes relating to AdWords. When Google revised its contract, the company gave advertisers up to 30 days to opt out of the new arbitration provisions.

Trudeau countered that a change in terms in 2017 shouldn't apply retroactively to search campaigns that occurred in the past. He also argued that Google buried the ability to opt out of the new arbitration provision.

Freeman rejected Trudeau's arguments, ruling that he agreed to Google's 2017 revised terms of service.

The arbitration provision is valid and enforceable and covers the claims at issue here, such that Googles motion to compel arbitration must be granted, she wrote.by Larissa Faw , October 18, 2018

Publicis Groupe chairman/CEO Arthur Sadoun is quite confident that his company holds the secret sauce to winning market share going forward. He talked to MediaPost in a follow-up interview after detailing the firms third-quarter earnings on a call with analysts and investors.

Sadoun told MediaPost that the Groupe's client-win percentage has ramped up seventeen percentage points with accounts that place creativity, data, and technology as the core platform. "You can't win creative without media expertise and you can't win media without creative expertise. And you can't do either without technology," says Sadoun.

Our biggest challenge right now is accelerating our game-changers. Today, our offering of personalization at scale by linking of data, creativity and technology represents about 10% of our revenue, but its growing at 27% and is at the origin of most of our new business wins. The challenge is: how fast can I scale our game changers to see that kind of growth all over our business?"

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Sadoun attributes the recent GSK global media win partly to the Marcel business platform as testimony to Publicis Groupes ongoing transformation. Marcel is now entering its next phase to expand its promising beta testing period to 1,000 users.

We can see how we can shift from Marcel being at the core of our transformation to Marcel being at the core of our organization, as an operating model for numerous ways to leverage talent around the world, he says.

Still, Sadoun recognizes that the beta testers, while representative of the Groupe, certainly represent a higher engagement rate than is to be expected at the start when the platform is rolled out globally to all 80,000 employees. I wont say its easy, but it serves as tangible proof of our value, as proven with GSK, and we understand the long-term potential as well.

Additional accounts awarded in the last quarter include Cathay Pacific globally, the Western Union worldwide creative budget, the Nestle media account in Southeast Asia, the Government of Singapore, and the Mondelez International media budget in several markets.

The EU's new privacy regulations, known as GDPR, did not impact the Groupe's Q3 financials at all, says Sadoun. "Clients may be more cautious, but things are back to normal."

Sadoun declined to comment about the ongoing FBI investigation into media-buying practices, although he does believe "more transparency is better" for the entire industry.Multiple sclerosis affects millions of people worldwide, though its underlying causes, and the physiological factors that trigger it remain unclear. Recently, however, researchers are looking to the human gut microbiota for answers.

Share on Pinterest Does the autoimmune response that harms brain tissue in multiple sclerosis originate in the gut?

In multiple sclerosis (MS), the immune system attacks myelin, the coating that surrounds the axons that connect nerve cells.

This damage eventually leads to symptoms, such as muscle weakness, fatigue, and vision problems. While it remains unclear what causes MS, over the past few years, researchers have been hypothesizing that gut bacteria may play a key role.

Emerging evidence shows that the microorganisms that populate our guts can make or break numerous aspects of our overall health, including our heart health and our mental health.

The link between the brain and the gut does not stop at mood disorders, however. Studies have linked the composition of gut microbiota with Parkinsons disease and, more recently, researchers have suggested that it may also be involved in the development of MS.

Now, a study conducted by scientists from the University of Zurich in Switzerland indicates that the gut may trigger the harmful immune response that causes demyelination (the deterioration of myelin).Seems like New York City is the place to be for the hotties of B-town right now, because maybe the Mumbai streets have become boring?

Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor have been spending some quality time together with Ranbir's parents and it's not everyday you see your favourite stars let their hair down and roam around the streets and stores shopping like regular people.

New York is also the place where our 'desi' girl lives and hosts her Bollywood friends whenever they are in town. So, when Alia was in New York, it was only natural for PC to sing 'In My City' and take the gorgeous girl for a day out.

Looks like they dumped their boyfriends for a day to have a girls day out, because sometimes, it's all about sisters before misters.Tosyali signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Senegals ministry of mines and geology during the second Turkey-Africa Economic & Business Forum in Istanbul on Wednesday October 10.Once a location is decided, Tosyali will lay the foundations for the plant by the end of 2018, the company said on October 15.

It has...On Tuesday, October 16, the Turkish Antalya station issued an illegal NAVTEX to the effect that the ship Barbaros would be conducting seismic research on a segment of the Greek continental shelf.

This new provocation on the part of Turkey, demonstrates that it continues to act in a way that causes tension in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.

We remind that the carrying out of research on the Greek continental shelf requires prior permission from the competent Greek authorities and furthermore that the issuing of such NAVTEX is within the competence of the latter.

In the present case, due procedures stipulated by international law and international regulations were, yet again, not followed, a fact that is strongly emphasized in a strong demarche that is made to the Turkish side in such cases according to established practice.Career and Technical Education gaining steam among Michigan students

Career and Technical Education gaining steam among Michigan students

CTE adds 1,300 students in just one year, programs grow by 112

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018

TED MEDIA CONTACT:

Erica Quealy

517-582-2961 | quealye@michigan.gov

LANSING  The programs that prepare students with in-demand skills needed to land a high-demand, good-paying career gained more traction among Michigan high school students, data shows.

Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs added more than 1,300 students in the 2017-2018 school year, continuing an upward trend for the third consecutive year in CTE enrollment. These programs provide more than hands-on learning, they provide real-life application of lessons typically taught in a classroom setting and 21st Century skills that prepare students for life, no matter their postsecondary career path.

Now more than ever, its important to highlight all pathways to great, high-demand and high-wage careers in Michigan among our young people, Talent and Economic Development Interim Director Jeremy Hendges said. Adding more than 1,300 students in one year is impressive and it shows the work we are doing to eliminate stereotypes surrounding these programs that have proven time and time again to be a great way for students to explore and land one of the thousands of good jobs available in the state is gaining momentum.

The total number of students in CTE courses stands at 110,316 for the 2017-2018 school year, growing from 104,038 in the 2014-2015 school year to 107,930 in the 2015-2016 school year and 109,005 students in the 2016-2017 school year.

Similarly, the number of these high-tech, hands-on learning opportunities grew from 1,915 programs across the state during the 2016-2017 school year to 2,027 the next year. Among the most popular programs were those in agriculture, healthcare, business management and marketing, which account for 596 CTE programs serving nearly 54,000 high school students across Michigan.

Our job as educators is to ensure a meaningful education experience for all students  one that prepares them for life after high school, Interim State Superintendent Sheila Alles said. CTE programs provide educators with an opportunity to do just that, while ensuring we continue to play an important and critical role in preparing our young people to become lifelong learners and the top-notch talent of tomorrow.

As the state focuses on retaining and attracting young professionals in the science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) careers, CTE programs provide a fast track for students to get engaged in STEAM careers here at home.

Hendges said CTE programs are a great career path option for all students, helping them explore what they like and dont like before starting their postsecondary education journey  be it an apprenticeship, two- or four-year degree, or specialized credential.

As we continue our work to revolutionize our states education system with the Marshall Plan for Talent, CTE programs continue to embody a learning environment that equips our students with the knowledge they need for today and the future, and keep building Michigan into becoming a Top 10 education state in 10 years, Alles said.

Expanded CTE programs and enrollment align with the Marshall Plan for Talent program launched earlier this year by Gov. Rick Snyder, the Talent and Economic Development Department and the Michigan Department of Education, as well as Michigans Top 10 in 10 initiative.SAGINAW -- Pope Francis has appointed the Most Rev. Walter A. Hurley, Bishop Emeritus of Grand Rapids, as Apostolic Administrator for the Diocese of Saginaw, effective immediately.

In this capacity, he serves as the caretaker for the diocese in this time of transition, addressing the spiritual needs of the diocese and keeping things working in an orderly way until the new bishop is appointed. Rev. William Rutkowski, who has served as Vicar General for the Diocese of Saginaw since 2013, welcomed Bishop Hurley in a meeting with Diocesan staff Wednesday.Hearst Connecticut Media Group is acquiring several weekly newspapers from Ridgefield-based HAN Network, bolstering the coverage and subscriber base of the states largest news outlet.

The companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal, which transfers to Hearst Connecticut Media the The Ridgefield Press, The Wilton Bulletin, New Canaan Advertiser, The Darien Times, The Shelton Herald, The Trumbull Times and The Milford Mirror.WASHINGTON - Former vice president Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast Thursday that President Donald Trump "seems to have a love affair with autocrats," criticizing his posture toward Saudi leaders following the disappearance of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

"He's already making excuses before the facts are known," Biden said of Trump during an interview with "CBS This Morning." "It hurts us internationally."

Trump has continued to press for patience with an inquiry into the suspected torture and murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and stressed denials of involvement by the Saudi king and crown prince.

"I just don't know why this administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from Putin to Kim Jong Un to . . . Duterte," Biden said, referring to the leaders of Russia, North Korea and the Philippines. "I don't understand it."

Asked by co-host Norah O'Donnell to explain Trump's behavior, Biden said: "I don't want to speculate on my worst fears. But either he doesn't know what he is doing or he has an absolutely convoluted notion of what allows America to lead the world."

Biden, who is weighing a 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, said doubts he has harbored about the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have been confirmed in the past few weeks.

"My doubts are that there's very little sense of rule of law, respect for human rights, dignity," Biden said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday. "The allegations that are made so far . . . are not inconsistent with the way the kingdom would act."

As the crisis over Khashoggi's disappearance has deepened, Trump has emphasized positive aspects of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia and rebuffed calls to respond by cutting off arms sales to the kingdom.HARTFORD  With a partnership with the Petit Family Foundation, the Space Foundation is extending its STEM education outreach to the greater Hartford, Conn., region this school year.

The Hartford STEM initiative will launch on Saturday, Oct. 27, with a free Girls STEM Experience for local girls ages 12 to 18, to be held at the Connecticut Convention Center from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The premier sponsor for the event is Aetna.

The experience will include a Women in Science panel discussion with panelists Mary Lockhart, President and CEO, PEMDAS Technologies and Innovations; Karolyn Maloney, Senior Director of IT Hygiene Program and Identity and Access Management, Aetna; Bridget Oei, Miss Connecticut, Researcher, UConn Health; and Dr. Kathy Thornton, Professor, University of Virginia, former NASA astronaut, Space Foundation Board Vice Chairman.

The day also will include hands-on STEM activity stations for the girls, including robotics coding, LIDAR surface mapping, rocket engineering and a design lab. An instructional workshop for teachers during the Girls STEM Experience will show teachers the same activities so they can take them back to the classroom.

Through its education programs, the Space Foundation is inspiring the next generation of STEM professionals. For some students, this will be their first exposure to this kind of technology, or these types of activities, and this will be the experience that inspires them to pursue a career in a STEM-related field, said Bryan DeBates, Space Foundation Vice President  Education. We are working to shape a dynamic and exciting future for these students.

The morning will culminate with a luncheon and inspiring STEM presentation by former NASA astronaut Col. Paul S. Lockhart, USAF (Ret.). The luncheon will be attended by the participating girls, their parents, teachers and invited guests.

Seating is limited to the first 200 girls who register at http://bit.ly/PetitSF.

Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and the worlds premier organization to inspire, educate, connect, and advocate on behalf of the global space community. Learn more at www.SpaceFoundation.org and DiscoverSpace.org.

The Petit Family Foundation honors the memories of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, Hayley Elizabeth Petit and Michaela Rose Petit by continuing the kindness, idealism and activism that defined their lives. The foundations funds are given to foster the education of young people, especially women in the sciences; to improve the lives of those affected by chronic illnesses; and to support efforts to protect and help those affected by violence. Learn more at www.petitfamilyfoundation.org.

Action council holding workshop

CROMWELL  A workshop will be held for employers and families who are affected by the opioid crisis called The Honest Truth: Opioid Addiction Resources for the Workplace and for Families, at the Red Lion Hotel Cromwell, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

A panel discussion covering access to treatment, recovery in the workplace and the role of insurance in treatment will take place and will be followed by a question & answer session.

Panelist include Dr. Matthew Lundquist, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Occupational & Environmental Medicine and Employee Health Services at Middlesex Hospital; Dr Jeffrey Shelton MD Chair, Department of Psychiatry at Middlesex Hospital; Margaret OHagan-Lynch, MS, LPC, Division Director at Connecticut Valley Hospital Addiction Services Division; Sarah Becker, LCSW - Director Wheeler Clinic, Substance Abuse Access Line, and Ann Kaiser from 12 Step Resource Support.

The panelists will provide a unique perspective on the opioid crisis and will provide answers to all manner of questions for treatment for both employers and families. We encourage the community members to attend this workshop to learn more answers to the opioid crisis affecting this community, said Anthony Salvatore, Board President of the Middlesex County Substance Abuse Action Council.

Immediately following the workshop will be the Connecticut Connections Business to Business Expo with over 100 exhibitors and a full day of events and seminars. Workshop attendees are welcome to attend this as well.

The Red Lion Hotel is located on 100 Berlin Road, Cromwell. The workshop is free and open to the public but seating is limited. For more information contact Jean Crouch at MCSAAC by calling 860-347-6924 or via email at jean@middlesexchamber.com

Scarecrow Fest voting dates announced

OLD SAYBROOK  Scarecrow Fest 2018 features the creative and whimsical talents of Old Saybrook and area businesses and residents. This community-wide scarecrow competition is open businesses, families, schools, and non-profits, who are invited to show off their community spirit while spreading some Fall cheer.

Two elements are new this year. The first is the newly created Golden Broom Award. We thought itd be fun to have an actual award that the winner could display for an entire year, right through to next years competition, said Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Judy Sullivan.

Also new this year is voting by text. Each scarecrow will be assigned a unique number. To vote, the public will text the word scarecrow followed by the number assigned to that scarecrow, to #74574. Voters can text their vote once per day during the voting period, October 17 - 27.

Scarecrow Fest runs from Oct. 17 - 31. There is a $25 registration fee to enter the competition. Registrations must be received by Oct. 15. Visit www.oldsaybrookchamber.com/scarecrow to register or for more information.

Spay-ghetti dinner benefits Cat Tales

MIDDLETOWN  Cat Tales will hold its Semi-Annual Spay-ghetti Dinner on Friday, Oct. 26 at the Fox Parish Center, 10 Elm St. Middletown. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $12 and include pasta, meatballs, salad, bread and dessert, raffle and door prizes.

Those who bring 3 cans of Friskies or two rolls of paper towels receive a door prize drawing ticket.

To purchase/reserve tickets, email info@CatTalesCT.org or call 860-344-9043.NEW HAVEN  A Superior Court jury Tuesday found Damarquis Gray not guilty of murder but guilty of felony murder in the shooting death of Durell Law four years ago outside an Eastern Street apartment building.

Gray, 20, of New Haven, also was found guilty of attempted first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery and carrying a pistol without a permit.

In order to convict a person of murder, a jury must find the defendant intended to kill the victim. A felony murder conviction requires the conclusion the victim was killed in the course of the defendant committing another crime, such as an attempted robbery.

Superior Court Judge Elpedio N. Vitale scheduled Grays sentencing for Jan. 8. He faces a maximum of about 100 years in prison.

Witnesses had said Law, 20, was surrounded by a group of males for what seemed to be a robbery attempt. Within a few seconds, a skirmish broke out and Law, while trying to run away, was shot in the back.

Three other men allegedly involved in the crime are awaiting trial on felony murder: Joel Alexander, Arik Fraser and Thomaine Riddick, all of New Haven.

The shooting occurred on the annual holiday marking the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.: Jan. 20, 2014. It happened in the broad daylight of early afternoon.

The two-week trial featured eyewitnesses who were reluctant to testify because they said they feared retaliation by the neighborhood group to which Gray belonged, the Playboys. But defense attorney Dean Popkin said in his closing argument Monday that such fears were not credible.

Senior Assistant States Attorney Michael Pepper and Assistant States Attorney Lisa DAngelo responded in their closing arguments that Gray was believed to be the one who wrote a letter from the New Haven Correctional Center in which he told the recipient to instruct witnesses that they should recant their statements to police. The letter had threatening phrases such as, They fear for their life just by taking the (witness) stand.

A state forensics examiner testified nine impressions from the letter matched Grays fingerprints. The letter was not signed.

Pepper noted in his argument that four eyewitnesses stated Gray approached Law, pointing a gun at him. Some of the witnesses said Gray went through Laws pockets, prompting Law to punch him. Gray then shot Law, hitting him in the back.

The 12 jurors began deliberating Monday at 3:05 p.m. Vitale dismissed them for the day at 4:45 p.m. They resumed their efforts Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., then took a lunch break. At 3:40 p.m., the jury foreman knocked loudly on the door of the deliberation room and gave a message to Vitale that they had reached a verdict.

The courtroom quickly filled up. Grays family and supporters sat on one side and members of Laws family sat on the other.

Vitale ordered Gray, dressed in a blue shirt and gray pants, to stand and face the jury. The courtroom remained quiet as the foreman announced not guilty to the murder count and guilty to the four other charges.

At Peppers request, Vitale raised Grays bail from $1 million to $2.5 million.

Grays family members declined to comment on the verdicts as they left the courtroom. Delroy Clarke, Laws father, said, Thank you to the jury and the prosecutors, the officers, everyone involved. Without them, this wouldnt be possible.

Members of the Law family said they will have more to say at the sentencing hearing.

randall.beach@hearstmediact.comChina's Sub Force Is Growing More Powerful. This Is What the US Navy Needs to Do to Stay AheadThe U.S. Air National Guard on Wednesday identified its fighter pilot and the Ukrainian pilot killed when an Su-27UB Flanker-C fighter crashed during Exercise Clear Sky.

Lt. Col. Seth "Jethro" Nehring, a fighter pilot with the California Air National Guard's 194th Fighter Squadron, out of the 144th Fighter Wing, and Col. Ivan Petrenko, deputy commander of the East Air, Chief of Aviation from Ozern Air Base, Zhytomer, Ukraine, were killed in the crash, the 144th Fighter Wing said in a release.

"The incident occurred in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, approximately 175 miles southwest of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine," the release said.

Nehring was with Petrenko in the twin-seat Su-27 for a familiarization flight; no other aircraft were involved in the mishap, U.S. Air Forces Europe-Africa said earlier Wednesday.

Related content:

The incident is under investigation.

Nehring had been a member of the 144th for more than 20 years, officials said. He began his career as an enlisted crew chief before being selected for a pilot slot, flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon for more than 15 years before converting to the F-15 Eagle, Guard officials said.

"We are a close-knit family and when a tragedy like this occurs, every member of the 144th Fighter Wing feels it," said Air Force Col. Daniel Kelly, commander of the 144th. "We share in the sorrow felt by Jethro's loved ones and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends as well as those of the Ukrainian aviator."

Nehring, serving as the operations officer in the joint operations center during Clear Sky, was handpicked for the assignment because of his flight background.

"This is a sad day for the United States and Ukraine," Maj. Gen. Clay Garrison, commander of the California Air National Guard and the exercise director, said in a separate release. "Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and fellow airmen of both the U.S. airman and Ukrainian aviator who were killed in the incident."

Garrison, a pilot with nearly 4,000 hours in both the F-16 and F-15, spoke with Military.com last week before the crash.

"The Ukrainian air force would like to increase their ability to operate with the regional partners," he said in a telephone interview. "Their country's at war, and the[ir] air force is an important part of [their] capabilities."

Garrison explained that due to their geographic location -- next door to Russia, but also close to NATO allies -- "they would like to do more, and be a better regional partner."

He continued, "NATO is the gold standard of military defense agreements, and the way we train is very useful."

The general said the purpose of the entire exercise was to inform and equip the Ukrainian air force with similar training techniques so they too would understand the practices and procedures NATO partner nations adhere to when they fly.

The last time the Air Force participated so extensively in a Ukrainian exercise was in 2011 during Exercise Safe Skies, focused on air-sovereignty rules of engagement, Garrison said.

Meanwhile, Clear Sky -- which marks the 25th anniversary of the longstanding State Partnership Program between the California Guard and Ukraine -- is intended to become a stepping stone to understanding higher task flight operations. Once the U.S. leaves, Ukraine could integrate with the Romanians, Poles or whichever partner would be willing to practice as needed to keep up with their slow but steady military flight achievements, Garrison said.

This time around, the Ukrainians would not be learning how to advance against Russia in the electronic warfare domain or the realm of hybrid threats, nor would they be flying in ways designed to circumvent or evade surface-to-air threats to include bomb-laden drones.

Electronic warfare is a popular method being used in Eastern Ukraine. For months, Russian-backed separatists have been using jamming technology to misdirect or take out the commercial drones Ukrainian soldiers use to conduct aerial surveillance. The move, first observed in 2014, put U.S. troops on alert as they trained Ukrainian guardsmen on the western side of the country. There's also an offensive front: Russian drones carrying grenades or other types of ammunition have thwarted Ukrainian air space or have taken out facilities in country.

"We've [first] got to establish a common language and common set of rules [with] which we can operate," Garrison said. "This will set us up as we go further; but the Ukrainians are interested in getting there."

He continued, "[But] the Ukrainian ground base defense forces are participating as well, so as we progress with each training sortie...there's going to be some integration of forces that includes [surface-to-air] threat reactions."

U.S. assets participating in the exercise at Ukraine's Starokostiantyiv Air Base included six F-15C Eagles from the 144th Fighter Wing; an F-15D from the 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath, England; and C-130Js from the Guard's 146th Airlift Wing, operating out of Vinnytsia Air Base roughly 80 miles away.

Clear Sky is the first time F-15s from the California Air National Guard have touched down in Ukraine, and the first time the aircraft has been in Ukraine overall since 1998, Garrison said.

Pararescue airmen from California's 129th Rescue Wing have also been in Vinnytsia for combat search-and-rescue training with their Ukrainian counterparts, including some Ukrainian helicopters. Other U.S. airmen and aircraft such as an MQ-9 Reaper drone have been operating out of Poland for the missions. Some refueling aircraft, operating out of Powidz, have also participated.

Guardsmen in intelligence ops and air weapons control from Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Alaska and Washington, and some active-duty airmen from bases in Europe, have also been involved.

On the Ukrainian side, Su-27 Flankers, Su-25 Grachs, Su-24 Fencers and MiG 29 Fulcrums have been participating out of Starokostiantyiv. An Antonov An-26 twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft has also been used in aeromedical evacuation training.

Joint terminal attack controllers from various countries including the U.S. were working about an hour north of Starokostiantyiv to call in strikes for the MQ-9 from the 163rd Attack wing operating out of Miroslawiec Air Base in Poland, Garrison said.

Poland also participated in the JTAC operations with its F-16s, as well as air-to-air simulated runs with Ukrainian fighter jets, he said.

The Su-25s were being used primarily for close air support during the same drills. The tactical airlift C-130s and An-26 together were trying out low-level flight training, airdrops and assault landing to "share tactics, techniques and procedures," Garrison said.

Last but not least, cyber defenses have been in play: California Guardsmen from the 195th Wing out of Beale, as well as Guardsmen from the 175th Wing in Warfield Base, Maryland, have been helping the Ukrainians to understand basic "network management, instruction ... and tools to ensure that your network is properly defended ... and connected," he said.

In all, the multinational exercise has involved approximately 950 personnel from nine nations, including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

The hope is, "when we come back, we'll be able to start where we left off so the training scenarios will be more complex," Garrison said. "We've introduced the process that allows us to train together, so next time ... we're going to start to add on. That's the ultimate goal."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.The U.S. Army announced Thursday that the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade will relieve the 1st SFAB in Afghanistan next spring and assume the service's advise-and-assist mission to support Afghan security forces.

The announcement is part of several deployment notices the service released Thursday, listing units scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, Iraq, Europe and Kuwait over the next six months, according to a U.S. Army press release.

The 2nd SFAB, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is one of six specialized Army brigades being activated to assume the permanent mission of training, advising and assisting the conventional military forces of friendly nations.

The unit is scheduled to do a training rotation at the National Training Center before it deploys, Brig. Gen. Donn Hill, commander of 2nd SFAB, said in the release.

"The 2nd SFAB is a conventional unit with a special mission ready to answer the nation's call," he said. "We will build upon the success of the 1st SFAB and allies as we partner with Resolute Support forces and Afghan National Security Forces to build long-term stability through credible and ready security forces."

The Army National Guard recently announced it is activating the Army's sixth SFAB, with battalions based in six states. The service's five active-duty SFABs are based in Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado, Washington and Texas.

In addition to the 2nd SFAB's deployment, three other units are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan next year.

The 1st Armored Division Combat Aviation Brigade, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, will replace the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) Combat Aviation Brigade as part of a regular rotation of forces in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

"The 'Iron Eagles' look forward to working with our Afghan and regional partners, said Col. Jay Hopkins, commander of 1st Armored Division CAB. "We are a trained combat aviation brigade, which is prepared to conduct a full range of operations in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel."

The 1st Cavalry Division Headquarters, out of Fort Hood, Texas, will also deploy to Afghanistan to replace the 40th Infantry Division Headquarters, California Army National Guard, as part of a rotation to support Freedom's Sentinel.

"The troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division headquarters are well trained and prepared to return to the OFS mission in Afghanistan," said Maj. Gen. Paul Calvert, commander of 1st Cavalry Division. "Our professional leaders and troopers will train, advise, and assist our Afghan Security Force partners as they continue to build upon and enhance their capability to provide for the security of the Afghan people."

The 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, based at Fort Riley, Kansas, is scheduled to replace the 101st Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to support Freedom's Sentinel.

Before the end of the year, the 101st Airborne's 1st Brigade Combat Team will deploy to Iraq to replace 3rd Cavalry Regiment as part a rotation to support Operation Inherent Resolve.

"Our soldiers are well trained and ready for this important mission," said Col. Derek Thomson, 1st BCT commander. I am proud of all their hard work and commitment, and grateful for the support we've received from our families and the Fort Campbell community."

The Army also announced two deployments to Europe scheduled for the coming winter.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, from Fort Riley, will replace 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, stationed at Fort Hood, as part a rotation to Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.

"After spending the last several months conducting an intensive and comprehensive training cycle that included a National Training Center rotation, the Devil Brigade is looking forward to deploying to Europe in support of the Atlantic Resolve mission," said Col. Charles Armstrong, commander of the 1st BCT.

In addition, the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade will replace 4th Infantry Division CAB, stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve.

"The 1st CAB is excited to deploy to Europe to support our allies and regional partners," said Col. Ronald Black, commander of the 1st Infantry Division Combat Aviation Brigade. "The CAB has been busy building readiness at Fort Riley, Kansas, and we stand ready to take on any mission that is required."

The Army also announced it will deploy the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, stationed at Fort Carson, to Kuwait in the spring to replace the 155th Armored Brigade Combat Team, Mississippi Army National Guard, to support of Operation Spartan Shield.

"We are honored to support U.S. Central Command as well as our Middle East allies in the coming months," said Col. Michael Simmering, commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team. "We are equally proud of our Iron Brigade soldiers and all that they have accomplished over the past year as we returned from deployment in Europe, refocused our efforts on other threats to our nation, re-trained and prepared to deploy again."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.Vice President Mike Pence will convene a space-focused meeting Tuesday with Cabinet secretaries, members of the national space and security councils, and policy officials, but the White House will not be discussing a key provision for establishing the Space Force -- one Pentagon officials have been waiting months to address.

Since June, the Defense Department has wanted to focus on Space Policy Directive-4, which lays a critical foundation to create the Department of the Space Force, according to Pentagon officials.

Next week's planned meeting was seen as an opportune time to discuss it, given that top leaders will meet to "focus on national security space policy and consider insights from the national security community and members of the National Space Council," according to the White House draft agenda.

But SPD-4 is not on the agenda for this fourth official meeting, "Moon, Mars and the World Beyond: Winning the Next Frontier," Military.com has exclusively learned.

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Instead, participants will hear from a panel of defense and commercial industry experts before top brass can make remarks and suggestions, according to a copy of the agenda. Attendees include Doug Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy; Mark Sirangelo, an "entrepreneur-in-residence" at the University of Colorado Boulder's aerospace engineering program and former head of Sierra Nevada Corporation's space business; and Air Force Lt. Gen. James K. McLaughlin, deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command.

Loverro has been an outspoken proponent of the president's proposed sixth military branch. In June, he penned an Op-Ed in Space News claiming that Space Force critics don't understand what militarized space truly means. He said space operations do not belong to any one entity, pointing to the Air Force and its attempts to control space operations.

"The Air Force failed to identify space as essential to their identity. A Space Force would have had no such qualms. A Space Force would have used the opportunity of the threat to push even harder and faster to defend U.S. space assets, not engage in a retreat -- because if they did not, they would no longer matter," he wrote. "Similarly, while the Air Force jealously advocates for more and more resources for air operations, and consistently attempts to expand its mission space to engage in new areas of warfare, it consistently tries to shed space missions as unnecessary or unessential."

Loverro and others will make their recommendations before Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, two Pentagon officials have confirmed.

Wilson's presence comes just a few weeks after reports surfaced that she is on the outs with President Donald Trump over her efforts to carry out his Space Force agenda.

According to a report from Foreign Policy published earlier this month, Trump is considering removing Wilson over her reluctance to advance his Space Force proposal. The president is assessing whether to fire Wilson, who was confirmed as the 24th Air Force secretary last May, after the midterm elections, Foreign Policy reported, citing three anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter.

The Pentagon and White House have both strongly refuted the report.

"This is nonsense," Pentagon chief spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement Oct. 5. "The Department of Defense leadership team is focused on defending our great nation and working together to be worthy of the blood, treasure and faith entrusted to us by the American people."

Others at the meeting will include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen; National Security Adviser John Bolton; NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross; Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats; Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao; Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta; Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney; Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Kelvin Droegemeier; and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Doug Fears.

The meeting will be held at the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.

The Scope of SPD-4

Officials said that while SPD-4 remains in limbo, recommendations from the meeting will go straight to Trump, who is likely to authorize the steps needed to start standing up components of the department, without needing congressional approval.

Previous White House meetings laid foundations for the first three Space Policy Directives, which focused on human space flight to the moon, economic growth and streamlining regulations for both public and private space industry, and space traffic management. The meetings mark a renewed U.S. focus on space since Trump reinstituted the National Space Council in 2017.

SPD-4 has a very specific focus: The establishment of the U.S. Space Force.

If the White House is in earnest about its ambitious timeline for the creation of a Department of the Space Force as an independent branch of the military, it will need to address the authorities assigned to carry out the new space directive.

Mattis would be tasked to identify and consolidate "existing space resources to establish the Space Force components within [30] days" after the directive goes into effect, according to the Pentagon SPD-4 draft report.

The proposed "Department of the Space Force," to be led by a civilian secretary, will be part of the Defense Department and responsible for the training, equipping and organization of the U.S. Space Force.

"Space Force," as Trump calls it, encompasses both the proposed Department of the Space Force and the U.S. Space Force military service, the document states. This will include the unified U.S. Space Command and the Space Development Agency.

"Until the establishment of a Department of the Space Force, [U.S. Space Command] will have the responsibilities of the Joint Force Provider and Joint Force training for the Space Operations Forces," the document continues. The Space Operations Forces, according to Pence's unveiling of the plan at the Pentagon in August, are meant to be composed of personnel from all services, with experts in operations, intelligence, engineering, cyber and other disciplines made available to leaders of combatant commands.

"Moving expeditiously toward a unified command reflects the importance of warfighting in space to the Joint Force," the document says. "The Commander of this command will lead space warfighting though global space operations that may occur in the space domain, the terrestrial domains or through the electromagnetic spectrum."

The definitions are not far off from the congressionally mandated report crafted by Shanahan in August, which said the Pentagon has the authority to create a combatant command, known as U.S. Space Command, without lawmaker approval.

The Space Development Agency

The DoD would also move forward with the Space Development Agency (SDA) to oversee satellite and other space equipment acquisition created in part out of the existing Air Force Space and Missile Center.

Mattis would have only a few weeks to lay out just how SDA will work once SPD-4 is signed. He will "develop an operating model and reporting structure of the Space Development Agency within [45] days," the report says.

There has been much confusion over the handling of the SDA and whether it is feasible.

In a 14-page memo dated Sept. 14, Wilson made the case against a separate agency to oversee satellite acquisition, a move championed by Shanahan in his report. Satellite acquisition, she said, should be handled by a single service to facilitate streamlining and monitoring.

"It has to be done right the first time," she wrote. "You don't have maintainers who go up and fix satellites."

In the same memo, Wilson said the DoD will need roughly $12.9 billion over five years to resource personnel and infrastructure for the proposed Space Force.

Mattis would also work with Coats on how the intelligence community, including the National Reconnaissance Office and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, will fit into the Space Force effort, SPD-4 says.

The Pentagon's third Space Force report, which will advise lawmakers on the appropriate legislative language needed for the fiscal 2020 budget request, is scheduled to be published in December. A preliminary report was created in March; the second report was unveiled by Pence, Shanahan and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen Paul Selva in August.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.--Editor's note: this story has been updated to more accurately reflect who was wounded in the attack. Officials initially said three Americans were wounded, and later corrected to note one of the wounded was a coalition contractor.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan survived an attack Thursday in the southern province of Kandahar in which a legendary Afghan police general and the local intelligence chief were killed and two Americans were wounded, as well as a non-U.S. contractor, officials said.

Officials with Operation Resolute Support said late Monday morning the three wounded were one U.S. service member, one American civilian and one contractor. They have been medically evacuated and are stable, officials said. No other information was immediately available.

The shooting happened at a building where senior officials had just wrapped up a meeting on the situation in the south of the country, a police official who was not authorized to speak with the media told Stars and Stripes. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin "Scott" Miller, attended the meeting but was unharmed in the incident.

The attack killed the province's police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, and the local leader of the country's main intelligence agency, the official said.

NATO's Resolute Support mission confirmed that an incident had occurred.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," a NATO statement said. "Two Americans were wounded in the crossfire and they have been medically evacuated."

"Gen. Miller is uninjured," the statement added. "We are being told the area is secure."

Officials were unable to immediately identify the attacker. U.S. Forces Afghanistan officials said reports indicate he is dead. The location in which the attack occurred has been secured, officials said.

In 2014 U.S. Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene was killed and about a dozen U.S. soldiers were wounded when an Afghan soldier opened fire inside a building in Kabul. Greene was the highest-ranking general killed in the Afghan War.

-- Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report.Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of student veterans, despite having robust GI Bill education benefits, contend they were deceived into racking up federal loan debt through abusive practices of certain for-profit colleges.

On Tuesday these students, along with thousands of non-veterans, gained an easier path to loan forgiveness from a federal court ruling in Washington D.C.

U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss dismissed legal arguments from an association of for-profit colleges, which succeeded for more than a year to block Obama administration rules to bring financial relief to defrauded student borrowers and to strengthen federal protections against deceptive school practices.

The Trump administrations Department of Education also had fought the Obama reforms until a month ago when the same judge rejected legal arguments from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Trump administration attorneys.

In that case, two student-borrowers and a coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia filed separate lawsuits to invalidate the departments stay order on Obama loan rules, which had been set to take effect in July 2017. Judge Moss called the Trump teams effort to protect for-profit schools, and to avoid billions of dollars in loan forgiveness for borrowers, arbitrary and capricious.

Together the dual rulings force DeVos, who is still critical of the Obama rules are too expansive, to implement them even as her department prepares more stringent regulations. Given the statutory schedule for rulemaking, the DeVos rules cant take effect before July 2020, the department confirmed. That creates a window for borrowers with loan debt tied to fraudulent or deceptive schools to apply for relief under more liberal rules in effect from the Oct. 16 court decision.

The department likely must update information on filing borrower defense claims. Heres a link to whats available now: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/borrower-defense

Obamas Education Department designed its rules to better protect student borrowers against misleading and predatory practices by postsecondary institutions; to clarify a process for federal loan forgiveness in cases of institutional misconduct; to allow group actions to replace thousands of individual loan forgiveness claims, and to hold for-profit colleges accountable for harmful practices.

The department decided its 20-year-old regulation on so-called borrower defense claims needed updating after a deluge of claims from students with federal loans following closure of a mega for-profit enterprise, Corinthian Colleges, in April 2015. The 1995 regulation, officials found, lacked detail on how students should submit and how the department should adjudicate a tsunami of loan relief requests. The old rule also limited eligibility for loan forgiveness to borrowers in default.

Obama officials released their final regulations in November 2016. They were to take effect the following July but the California Association of Postsecondary Schools filed a lawsuit to block them. A supportive DeVos quickly announced that she would block the Obama rules and prepare new ones to reflect concerns of for-profit schools and to protect taxpayers from automatic forgiveness of billions of dollars in federal student loans associated with failed for-profit colleges.

Consumer advocacy groups for students, including veterans, praised Judge Mosss recent rulings.

Its really positive news, said Walter Ochinko,research director for Veterans Education Success (VES), an advocacy group formed to protect veterans and their education benefits from fraud and deceptive practices.

The Obama rule went into effect at noon Oct. 16 and is to be implemented immediately. But the devil is in the details, Ochinko said. The judge didnt give the department detailed instructions on how to implement the many provisions.

Its so easy for an administration that doesnt want to implement something not to do it, said Ochinko. Well just have to see how it plays outAdvocacy groups will be watching very closely.

He contends the processing of borrower defense claims by the department at grounded to a halt during the first half of Trump administration, a slowdown that cant entirely be blamed on having old rules in place. But Tuesdays court ruling creates a window of opportunity thats going to last until July 2020 to apply for loan forgiveness under terms much more favorable to the student than if the [DeVos alternative] had gone into effect.

The Department of Education has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to inform students about borrower defense claims. The number of student veterans who might be eligible isnt known, Ochinko said. The VES data base holds 4,000 complaints of deceptive practices by for-profits schools.

Certainly, many of those veterans will be eligible, he said. How many have applied [already] I dont know.

As part of the Forever GI Bill law enacted in August 2017, veterans who used Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits at for-profit schools that suddenly closed, leaving them with worthless credits or degrees, have seen those education benefits restored.

The new Education Department rules provide additional protections. One key feature of the Obama rules will allow certain borrower defense applicants not only to have loan balances forgiven but be reimbursed for loan amounts already paid. That might be relevant for someone like former Marine Sergeant Jonathan Ngowaki

He enrolled in DeVry University in 2010 seeking a business degree. Ngowaki said he assumed his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefit would cover all costs so he resisted a push from DeVrys financial aid office to complete a financial aid application. Finally, he relented when told it was a requirement for enrollment.

Soon, he received a $5,000 check, which a woman in DeVrys financial aid office said was grant money. I kept telling her I dont need the money, he said.

By his third semester he got a lender notice, and realized he was $15,000 in debt with direct federal student loans. The money made life easier but he didnt need it for education costs, Ngowaki said, and ordered the loan arrangement stopped.

Ngowakis theory is that DeVry wasnt confident, as the Post-9/11 GI Bill began, whether student payments would arrive on schedule. Perhaps to ensure steady cash flow it pushed student veterans into federal loans. DeVry in time helped Ngowaki with some debt, he said, but most of the $15,000 he repaid himself.

Whether and how the new regulations might deliver more loan relief to a veteran like Ngowaki is still unclear, Ochinko said.

Many student veterans end up needing loans because they havent served long enough on active duty to qualify for full Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The loans become bad investments if for-profit schools close or dont provide promised degrees or transferable credits or if employers dont view the degrees as desirable.

One attorney for student plaintiffs who helped unleash the Obama rules, Adam R. Pulver, said an Obama change resisted by for-profit schools bans them from requiring students to accept arbitration in settling all complaints.

Its been pretty much exclusive to for-profit schools that to enroll you have to sign an agreement to arbitrate all disputes, and the agreements often state that students cant file a class action lawsuit, said Ochinko. The problems of for-profit schools would have come to light a lot sooner had people been able to sue.

Another key feature of the Obama rules would require for-profit schools facing financial risk to show a letter of credit and to make cash deposits with the Education Department as they set off various financial responsibility alarms, so taxpayers are not as deeply exposed by loan claims when for-profit schools fail.

To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120 or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: @Military_Update.Inscribed on a plaque, right by the entrance to the Department of Veterans Affairs, is the VA's motto: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan."

That's a direct quote from the man many consider to be our greatest president, taken from his second inaugural address in 1865 as the war was winding down and the nation had to deal with the destruction after its bloodiest conflict.

Of course, women didn't serve in the military in 1865. Or, more accurately, women's military service wasn't recognized as military service back then, so Lincoln's declaration is a fair representation of his times.

By 1959, when the VA adopted his statement as its motto, things were most definitely changing. Women had made a critical contribution to the victory in World War II and were actively serving in the United States military.

The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) have launched a campaign to get that motto changed on the grounds that the motto is "gendered and fails to recognize the sacrifice and service of the over 2 million women veterans and their survivors, relegating them to the fringes of the veteran community."

As part of IAVA's She Who Borne the Battle campaign, they have delivered a "petition for rulemaking" requesting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to replace its current outdated and exclusionary motto with one that is inclusive of women.

They've been joined by Yale Law School's Veterans Legal Services Clinic, the Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), and the New York City Veterans Alliance .

What do you think? Should the VA adopt a new motto that represents all veterans? Should we honor the words of Lincoln and leave it alone?

Or should we alter Lincoln's quote to make it more gender neutral? (To care for them who shall have borne the battle, and for their spouse, and their orphan?)

As anyone who flies the flag on their front porch knows, symbols matter. Does this one need to be changed?The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation to figure out why the tailgate on some 2017 Ford pickup trucks is unexpectedly opening while in motion.

The probe from the NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation covers 2017 Ford F-250 and F-350 Super Duty trucks. A somewhat confusing twist to this probe is the fact that the federal agency listed the number of affected vehicles as "confidential."

The Associated Press reports Ford spokesperson Elizabeth Weigandt said the automaker did not request the confidential listing, and that an NHTSA spokesperson was looking into the reasoning behind it.

In the government documents, the NHTSA says it has received five consumer complaints concerning the tailgate unexpectedly opening on affected models.

"Technical Service Bulletin, 17-2196, submitted to the agency by Ford on 16 October 2017, acknowledged the issue and finds water intrusion in the wire harness as the root cause," the documents read.

"Consequences of an uncommanded tailgate opening include spilling of unsecured contents from truck bed and damage to other equipment to the vehicle. A Preliminary Evaluation has been opened to further assess the scope, frequency and safety consequences of the alleged defect."

There are no known reports of crashes, fires or injuries connected to the defect as of Oct. 12. The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker sold about 897,000 F-Series trucks in 2017, and A.P. reports 299,000 of those were Super Duty models.

To search active recalls, use the NHTSA's website to search your 17-character VIN at this link. VIN numbers are typically located under the driver's side windshield, or along the inside of the doors behind the seat or under the steering wheel. To sign up for NHTSA safety alerts for a specific vehicle, sign up at this link.WYOMING - Three candidates, including Mayor Jack Poll and incumbent council members-at-large Kent Vanderwood and Sam Bolt, are running unopposed this November, but voters in Wyoming will see one contested election on the ballot.

That contest, to be the First Ward's representative on City Council for the next four years, will be between Sheldon DeKryger and Peter Ricketson.

DeKryger was appointed to the First Ward seat on City Council earlier this year following the decision by longtime council member William Ver Hulst to step down due to health concerns.

Learn a little more about each of the candidates below:

Sheldon DeKryger (incumbent)

DeKryger, 49, is a residential home builder who was appointed to City Council in March. Among his top priorities are public safety and financial sustainability.

"My wife and I believe in servant leadership and that is why our family has spent the last 20 years serving others in our community, school and church," DeKryger said. "I believe the next step in serving my community is being your voice on the Wyoming City Council.

"I am committed to Public Safety -- we must have good funding levels; business growth -- we must continue to make Wyoming an attractive place to do business; and financial sustainability -- we must keep taxes low and live within our means."

Peter Ricketson

Ricketson, 41, is a bus operator at The Rapid who believes City Council is in need of a First Ward representative who will listen to the will of the people. He said he is concerned about the city's budget, as well as the possible implementation of a city income tax.

"I am running to represent the people, as right now the City Council cares more about big business and special interest groups than those they are supposed to represent," Ricketson said. "For too long now, the City Council has not listened to the will of the people."

Ricketson said he believes the residents of Wyoming would struggle even greater financially were the city to implement an income tax, an idea that has been discussed by city officials on a few occasions over the last few years. "People in Wyoming are struggling financially even before a new tax," he said.ANN ARBOR, MI - Ann Arbor Public Schools is further increasing its response to lead in the water at schools.

Superintendent Jeanice Swift announced this week that, beginning immediately, the district will be testing all drinking water and food preparation sources in all AAPS schools.

The district is amending its strategy to take mitigation action anywhere lead levels are found to be greater than 5 parts per billion. Previously, the district took action if levels were above 15 ppb.

Now, any drinking water or food preparation locations testing at greater than 5 ppb will be taken out of service until mitigation is completed and acceptable test results are achieved, Swift said in a written update shared with parents and other community members this week.

"Over the coming days, we will be engaging with a respected expert in water quality who will advise the AAPS in our continuing efforts to achieve and sustain the lowest possible levels of lead in drinking water, and we look forward to sharing more information soon," Swift wrote.

Swift said the district has been busy installing new hydration stations, which are drinking fountains with lead filters and a water bottle filling feature, and all schools will have at least one by next week.

"We will continue the process to replace older water fixtures with hydration stations in all schools until we achieve the recommended 1 station per 100 individuals, dependent on floor plan of the building and student and staff population," Swift wrote.

The district is in the process of conducting its annual lead testing, taking water samples from faucets and fountains in the schools.

"Testing in AAPS schools is focused on all drinking water and food preparation locations, including all high-priority sites such as drinking fountains, kitchen sinks, and classroom water fixtures," Swift wrote, noting the testing is done by Arch Environmental Group.

"The AAPS protocol for addressing the issue, when lead levels read at >5ppb, may include replacing water fixtures, installing certified lead filters and, in some cases, replacing water pipes behind the fixture, which is the protocol indicated by water quality experts."

Swift previously said remediation efforts would be implemented when lead levels were greater than 10 ppb, with "additional attention" paid to any water fixtures that test between 5 and 10 ppb.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality recommends taking action if the lead concentration is above 5 ppb, a recommendation the district is now committing to following.

The district's last annual tests from July and August of 2017 showed several schools had lead in the water from various faucets and drinking fountains above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency action level of 15 parts per billion, and others at lower levels.

Huron High School was the only one out of 33 buildings tested that didn't have any detectable levels of lead.

In some cases, the levels were well above the EPA action level -- as high as 320 ppb from one faucet at Burns Park Elementary.

Swift said the district has voluntarily tested the water annually since 2016 in all AAPS schools and has addressed issues in all cases where there were lead levels above the 15-ppb action level, and now the district is implementing its own voluntary 5-ppb action level.

Some concerned parents have pointed out the 15-ppb action level the district followed in the past is not a health standard and the EPA actually has set a maximum contaminant level goal for lead in drinking water at zero, because lead is a toxic metal that can be harmful even at low exposure levels, and children are particularly vulnerable.

In children, low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells, according to the EPA.

"We are committed to achieving the lowest possible levels of lead in drinking water in the AAPS, and take very seriously the risks associated with lead exposure, particularly with our youngest children," Swift wrote in her message to the community this week.

District officials said at a school board meeting last week their ultimate goal is to get lead levels down to zero.

The last round of testing last year showed the following detections of lead from various school water fixtures:

Abbott Elementary -- 2-8 ppb

Allen Elementary -- 2-8 ppb

Angell Elementary -- 1-42 ppb

Ann Arbor Open at Mack School -- 1-9 ppb

Bach Elementary -- 2-15 ppb

Balas Administration Building -- 1 ppb

Bryant Elementary -- 1-4 ppb

Burns Park Elementary -- 2-320 ppb

Carpenter Elementary -- 2-4 ppb

Clague Middle School -- 1-50 ppb

Community High -- 2-26 ppb

Dicken Elementary -- 2-25 ppb

Eberwhite Elementary -- 2-39 ppb

Forsythe Middle School -- 2-120 ppb

Haisley Elementary -- 1-38 ppb

Huron High -- no detections

King Elementary -- 1-8 ppb

Lakewood Elementary -- 1-9 ppb

Lawton Elementary -- 1-51 ppb

Logan Elementary -- 1-6 ppb

Mitchell Elementary -- 1-4 ppb

Pathways to Success Academic Campus -- 2-7 ppb

Pattengill Elementary -- 1-16 ppb

Pioneer High -- 2-10 ppb

Pittsfield Elementary -- 4-8 ppb

Preschool and Family Center -- 1-8 ppb

Scarlett Middle School -- 1-3 ppb

Skyline High -- 1-31 ppb

Slauson Middle School -- 1-11 ppb

STEAM at Northside -- 1-110 ppb

Tappan Middle School -- 1-11 ppb

Thurston Elementary -- 1-2 ppb

Wines Elementary -- 1-82 ppb

Abby Dumes, the parent of an AAPS first-grader, has been among the concerned community members who've pushed school district officials to do more to address the issue of lead in the water.

Dumes, a University of Michigan lecturer whose work includes medical anthropology and environmental health, created a petition in collaboration with two pediatricians and the deputy director of the Ecology Center, urging the school district to test all water sources used for drinking and cooking. More than 900 people signed it.

Dumes said the district's new commitment to test all sources and lower the action level to 5 ppb is a big step in the right direction.

"Now we just need to ensure that every student has immediate access to safe drinking water," she said.ANN ARBOR, MI - Police are investigating a robbery at a Chase bank branch in Ann Arbor Thursday morning.

Police were on scene at about 10:15 a.m., Oct. 18, at the Chase bank, 2475 W. Stadium Blvd. for a reported robbery, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department.

Michigan State Police and a University of Michigan Public Safety Department K-9 unit are at the scene assisting in the investigation.

The bank is closed for the time being.

No additional information is available at this time. Check back with MLive as this story develops.ANN ARBOR, MI - State Rep. Yousef Rabhi wants to see Michigan step up its game to reduce pollution and address climate change.

The Ann Arbor Democrat introduced a bill this week that would require all of Michigan utilities' energy to come from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2050. House Bill 6466 would expand on the state's existing renewable portfolio standard, requiring energy providers to meet a series of new targets between 2019 and 2050.

"Strengthening Michigan's commitment to renewable energy is vital to the health of our citizens and our economy," Rabhi said.

"As renewable technology becomes increasingly affordable, we have the opportunity to invest in good jobs in our own state, save consumers money, and protect our air and water."

Currently, only 10 percent of the state's energy must come from renewable sources such as wind and solar. The state's renewable requirement for utilities goes up to 15 percent in 2021.

Rabhi's bill would raise this standard to 25 percent by 2025, 50 percent by 2032, 75 percent by 2040, and 100 percent by 2050.

Rabhi's office notes the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a report warning that ecosystems and human health are in danger without swift action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"On the heels of a major new report finding that, if left unchecked, some of the worst impacts of climate change will hit us sooner than previously believed, it is now more important than ever that we take action to move fully towards renewable energy," Charlotte Jameson, energy policy and legislative affairs director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said in a statement in support of Rabhi's bill.

"Transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy is achievable and will usher in more economic prosperity for the state while reducing costs for families and protecting public health and the environment."

DTE Energy, which serves roughly 2.2 million customers in southeast Michigan, announced earlier this year plans to double its renewable energy over the next four years with wind and solar projects.

DTE said last year it plans to reduce the company's carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050 by moving away from burning coal, and have 40 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources by 2040.

DTE's plan includes interim targets of reducing emissions by 30 percent by the early 2020s, by 45 percent by 2030, and by 75 percent by 2040.

That's to be achieved by shuttering aging coal plants and replacing them with a mix of natural gas and renewable sources such as wind and solar. In 2040, DTE's targeted mix of energy is 20 percent nuclear, 40 percent renewable and 40 percent natural gas.

The city of Ann Arbor has a goal of powering 100 percent of the city's municipal government operations with clean and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2035 or sooner.KAWKAWLIN, MI - Township officials from around Michigan and a group of about 300 citizens gathered Tuesday in Bay County at a forum where they heard from a speaker critical of wind energy.

Energy companies are looking at several sites in Bay County as possible locations for a new wind turbine farm.

Keynote speaker Kevon Martis, a senior policy fellow E and E Legal, spoke to the audience at the Beaver Township Community Hall Tuesday, Oct. 16, about some of the problems residents with wind turbines in their area have claimed. Those issues include noise and location near houses, he said.

"You're being pressured in each township to write an ordinance that says yes or no to wind development," he said.

He said his research shows that Michigan's wind resource is not economical and that it is a "poor environmental value."

Representatives from Bay County's Monitor Township were at the meeting, including Ken Malkin, township supervisor.

"It was informative, we are getting a lot of good feedback. Our township residents have spoken clearly that they want an ordinance that protects them," he said.

Mark Suchy, a farmland owner who helped put on the event, said it was to help inform people about wind energy.

"So the group that put this on (is) a group of us that is passionate about understanding this," Suchy said. "There needs to be a multi-township community-wide, I call it a symposium, and it's where we bring more people together."

Suchy said he believes in renewable energy and is a green builder, too.

"We did a whole bunch of research. Kevon's name would come up over and over and over again, when you're looking for a non-biased, nonpublic official and not working for an energy company," he said. "Maybe non-biased isn't the right word but I wanted someone who didn't work for the wind energy company and wasn't a government official."

At the meeting, no one spoke in favor of wind energy or what potential benefits it might have.

According to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, wind energy is a clean energy source that doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, which emit nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxides.

Martis said that the areas where DTE Energy and other wind companies want to put turbines in mid-Michigan or in the Thumb are actually not good sites for turbines because there isn't enough steady, strong wind.

"I'm not anti-wind turbines, I'm pro-economics and pro-environment," he said, adding that wind turbines in Michigan are a very expensive and inefficient way to produce electricity and reduce emissions.

There are several operating wind-energy farms in the Thumb and in Michigan's Lower Peninsula.ROYAL OAK -- A pair of Swedish wolverines have been brought to the Detroit Zoo to live and breed.

Born in separate zoos, male wolverine Yaroslawl, 2, and female Janis, 1, were relocated from Sweden and were recommended for breeding by the European Endangered Species Programme, the Detroit Zoological Society announced Thursday.

The Detroit Zoo has long been home to North American wolverines, but Yaroslawl and Janis are the first Eurasian wolverines to live there, according to the zoo.

"Wolverines have been a popular species at the Detroit Zoo since the beginning. They are well adapted to Michigan's climate, and guests love watching them explore and play, particularly in the winter when they are especially active," said Scott Carter, DZS chief life sciences officer, in a news release.

The zoo has a 91-year tradition of caring for wolverines. A year before it was open to the public, wolverines were "among the first species to arrive" during construction in 1927, according to the zoo.

"North American and Eurasian wolverines are facing conservation concerns due to persecution, deforestation and other human developments," according to the zoo. "The wild European population was recently estimated at approximately 2,260 individuals throughout Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway."FLINT, MI - A judge said the testimony of a woman who alleges she was raped and tortured over a nine-hour period was sufficient evidence to bind the suspect over to circuit court for trial on more than a dozen felony charges.

Gilbert B. Conway, 60, was bound over by Genesee District Judge David Guinn on criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, torture and other charges during a preliminary exam on Thursday, Oct. 18.

"If this is not torture, I don't know what is," Guinn said. "The complainant was held captive over nine hours. She was beaten. She was raped. She was urinated on."

The woman testified on Wednesday, Oct. 17, that she was out putting up fliers for her cleaning business when Conway allegedly befriended her and asked her to come to his home and give her an estimate.

MLive-The Flint Journal does not typically identify victims of sexual assault.

After arriving at Conway's home, she testified on Wednesday, she looked through a few rooms before he asked her to check his room.

She said the door was locked by Conway who then asked her to take off her clothes and then forced them off when she did not comply with the request.

The woman was raped over the next nine hours and Conway would choke her when she moved or did not follow his commands. He also allegedly urinated on her during the sexual assault.

"I felt like I was in a life-or-death situation, so I had to calculate my every move," she said Wednesday, testifying Conway allegedly commented he would kill her if she struggled.

Eventually, she said she pretended to be Conway's friend, which allowed her to get out of the home after repeated escape attempts.

Attorney Archie Hayman said Conway retired after working 30 years for General Motors and has no prior convictions.

"He loves his family. His family loves him," Hayman said after the bind over on Thursday, aiding he hopes an impartial jury can be seated should Conway go to trial. "Hopefully they will reserve judgment."

A victim went to Flint police, which led police to Conway, other victims and 500 videos.

It is believed there are "hours and hours" of video, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said, and that the tapes "go back years."

Leyton alleges the tapes show Conway sexually assaulting victims.FLINT, MI -- The city of Flint's ban on a cost-effective tool and its method for finding lead water service pipes may mean it could run out of money before all its hazardous pipes are removed.

The price of digging up and burying a copper pipe increased from $285 to $3,513 after changes were made to the FAST Start replacement program in June. As a result, the city will pay millions of dollars in settlement funds reburying thousands of copper pipes.

In 2017, the city was given $97 million in a settlement after social groups like the Concerned Pastors for Social Change and the Natural Resources Defense Council demanded enough funding to replace the estimated 18,000 hazardous lead and galvanized steel pipes in Flint.

"The city's illogical approach means that hundreds of lead and steel pipes will likely stay in the ground and in use, and Flint families will remain in harm's way in the meantime," said Cyndi Roper from the NRDC.

Rather than checking homes documented to have hazardous pipes first, the city wants to dig up pipes at all 25,800 homes with active water accounts at its own pace.

The city referred all questions about its methods to AECOM, a Los Angeles-based engineering firm contracted for $5 million to oversee FAST Start.

Alan Wong, Flint program manager for AECOM, testified the city doesn't prioritize which homes are assigned to water piper replacement contractors at a Aug. 21 U.S. District Court hearing.

The city's current method for finding hazardous pipes caused social groups to seek a court order to enforce the settlement's central agreement -- prioritizing the removal of lead pipes. The court hasn't ruled on the request.

Factors like a list of homes with active water accounts, maps and historic water cards are used to assign 3,000 homes to each pipe-replacement contractor, Wong stated.

Over 140,000 historic water cards were discovered two years ago and over 95,000 of them were digitized free of charge by Captricity, a paper-to-digital processing company.

According to a city press release, of the 7,060 homes checked this year, 79 percent had pipes made of copper. The city will pay $19.4 million for digging up those copper pipes and reburying them.

A statistical analysis submitted to the court shows this year's method finds lead at a worse rate than randomly picking a home for the work. The current method's 21 percent success rate for finding lead contrasts with last year's success rate of 80 percent.

Last year, FAST Start was able to replace about 6,200 hazardous water pipes and check over 8,000 homes. This was done by utilizing a computer model built by researchers to plan which homes had a higher risk of having lead pipes and should be checked first.

The model estimates that more than half of the remaining 9,157 digs required by the settlement will uncover hazardous pipes.

AECOM isn't using the computer model to find these lead or steel pipes because the model has a 94 percent success rate, Wong said.

This heat map was made by researchers Jacob Abernethy and Eric Schwartz using their predictive model to identify service lines. The blue represents areas predicted to have copper, or safe lines, the red predicts areas that have lead or galvanized lines and the black is where AECOM has dug up pipes in 2018.

Finding lead

In 2016, retired Michigan National Guard Gen. Michael McDaniel was assigned to manage FAST Start and the city was mandated to find and replace all its lead or galvanized water service pipes.

It was a daunting task because funding or a reliable record of the city's water system wasn't available, McDaniel said.

"It was like looking for a black cat, in a dark room, in the middle of the night," McDaniel said. "Where do we start?"

After learning about Flint's problem, researchers Eric Schwartz from the University of Michigan and Jacob Abernethy from Georgia Tech worked free of charge and built a computer model that predicts what materials a home's water service pipes are made of.

"This was a laser beam of light pointing us in the right direction and it's proved to be true," McDaniel said.

The computer model uses data from the historic water cards, a home's age, value, GPS coordinates, Census data, the data from last year's replacements and data from any water testing that occurred at a home, to predict if a home has hazardous pipes.

"The model was getting better as we put more data into it," McDaniel said. "We were able to construct a map showing where we've replaced service lines and where we should go next."

Had the city used the computer model from the start, it could have saved $10 million in unnecessary costs, according to a paper the researchers published.

Using a cost analysis the city submitted to the court, it is estimated for every $10 million saved, some 2,000 homes could have their lead pipes replaced.

The computer model was utilized for planning which homes to check and a hydrovac was used to confirm and dig up hazardous pipes.

A hydrovac uses a high-pressure water and vacuum system to dig a hole. It's the cost-effective tool Mayor Karen Weaver banned contractors from using in June.

Losing ground

The ban was made shortly after Weaver expressed concern at a Flint Water Interagency Coordinating Committee meeting that a hydrovac might miss spliced lines. So far, contractors have found seven spliced lines.

A spliced line is a lead or steel pipe that leaked and was patched using a "copper band-aid." According to the city, the only way to be sure a spliced line isn't missed is by digging 8 to 10-foot wide holes uncovering the pipe.

But hydrovacing is just another means of digging that hole, said Goyette Mechanical project manager Joe Parks. Goyette is one of five companies contracted with the city to replace service water pipes.

"We're digging the same hole whether it's with a hydrovac or a backhoe," Parks said.

The only difference in using a hydrovac is that it cuts the cost of digging significantly. That difference in cost can't be disputed, Wong said.

Lead Costs Breakout_UPDATE (002).png

The most efficient method of digging up pipes is a combination of shovels, backhoes and the hydrovacs, Parks said.

"When you take away a tool from us that we planned on utilizing, it slows us down and makes the job more dangerous and expensive," he said.

The company centered its bid around the hydrovac and didn't expect to be forced to work without it, Parks said.

In a cost change sent to the city, Goyette estimates it'll incur $500,000 in extra costs by the end of the project if the ban on hydrovacing isn't lifted. So far, the city hasn't agreed to pay the company the extra costs.

Spending time in the wrong places

Researchers say the city should prioritize homes that are historically known and statistically estimated to have hazardous pipes.

"You shouldn't spend most of your time on homes that have a 10 percent chance of having a lead line because we know there are other homes remaining that have a 90 percent chance," Abernethy said.

Brenda Cristi's house on Craig Drive is in the 4th Ward, a ward predicted to have the least amount of lead or steel pipes. Only 17 of the 702 pipes dug up in this ward were found to be hazardous.

Without warning, Cristi said, all the homes on her street had their pipes dug up in August. Cristi was surprised at the urgency in digging up her neighborhood. She said her pipes are safe because she had her water tested and never had issues during the Flint Water Crisis.

In the 5th Ward, the ward estimated to have the most hazardous lines, only 163 homes have had their pipes checked. Nine out of ten homes checked had lead or steel pipes.

"My biggest concern is the residents of Flint deserve the best possible effort and use of taxpayer, city, state and federal funds," Schwartz said. "They deserve to know the most accurate and credible information about the replacement of these lines."

Wrapping up the year

The city set a goal to find and replace the estimated 18,000 lead or steel water service pipes by 2020.

As of October, the city has checked 15,893 homes and nearly half of them were found to have copper water service pipes. This year's replacements account for 76 percent of all the copper pipes that have been dug up and reburied.

At the rate the city is finding and replacing hazardous pipes, only 1,280 of the 4,800 lead or steel pipes estimated to be underground will be removed.

This has left some plaintiffs in the settlement concerned there isn't enough urgency from the city to find these hazardous pipes.

"You know something is seriously wrong when digging up service lines randomly would find more lead pipes than the city's current approach," Melissa Mays, co-founder of Water You Fighting For and a plaintiff in the settlement said. "The people of Flint deserve better."GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Grand Rapids police are opening their doors in response to a planned protest organized by a Kent County commissioner after an unarmed 12-year-old girl was handcuffed at gunpoint last week.

The police department is joining Commissioner Robert Womack to host a community forum at 5-6:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, inside the department at 1 Monroe Center Ave. NW.

Chief David Rahinsky and Womack met Wednesday morning to discuss recent incidents involving police officers and youth, and to talk about ways to strengthen community-police relations and address concerns about disparate outcomes.

"We'll have opportunity for public comment, not just people yelling outside," Womack said. "We're still doing the march. But we want to be diplomatic. We want a chance for dialogue and if we can be accommodated in the correct way, we can have that dialogue."

Rahinsky said his police department prides itself on being transparent and accountable. He'll be at Sunday's forum.

"We are here to protect and serve, and we take that responsibility very seriously," Rahinsky said in a statement. "Anytime an issue arises that threatens to damage our relationship with the community or our mutual trust, it is essential to keep the lines of communication open in every direction."

A handful of city and county commissioners, as well as families of some of the youths who have been handcuffed by Grand Rapids police within the last two years, are expected to be in attendance Sunday.

"There are going to be some ears there who can affect policy change so it'd be a great time for dialogue," he said.

Womack announced Tuesday, Oct. 16, that he was organizing Sunday's "All Kids Matter March" in response to Rahinsky's comments about an Oct. 9 incident at a residence in Northeast Grand Rapids.

Rahinsky said his officers showed "good discretion" when they handcuffed a 12-year-old girl while investigating a 911 call that a woman at her family's house had been shot. The girl was handcuffed for less than two minutes, Rahinsky said, and was released after it was determined that she didn't have a gun.

Police also patted down a 10-year-old boy, who they didn't handcuff, and searched the children's mother and grandmother at the scene on Batavia Place NE, just north of Fulton Street.

No weapons or shooting victims were located.

On Tuesday, Rahinsky said his officers followed policy and showed "compassion" and "good judgement." Asked about Commissioner Womack's public criticism of his officers' decision to handcuff the young black girl, the chief said his comments did a disservice to the community and the police department.

"Some of these issues transcend race," Rahinsky said. "This didn't have to be a racialized issue ... This response would be the same at any ZIP code in the city. It'd be the same if it was my house, yours, or Commissioner Womack's."

But Womack said "it is racial." He referenced at least 11 unarmed black children and young teens who have been handcuffed in the last two years by local police.

On March 24, 2017, five young men -- ages 12 to 15 -- were stopped at gunpoint and handcuffed while police responded to a report of youths being seen with a gun. No guns were found.

Nine months later, 11-year-old Honestie Hodges was handcuffed at gunpoint by officers searching for a 42-year-old suspect in an attempted murder case. In response to the incident, the police department crafted a youth-interaction policy.

Then on Aug. 26, two 11-year-old brothers and a 17-year-old male family friend were stopped at gunpoint and handcuffed because police said they matched the description of a teen seen walking down the street with a gun.

In each instance, the children's family has said the temporary detainment left the youth traumatized. Meanwhile, police have said brief detainment is necessary to ensure safety for both officers and their fellow members of the community.

Sunday's session will include:

Opening welcome and introductions by Rahinsky and Womack;

Police department command staff will distribute copies of the department's Youth Interaction Policy and hold discussions around the content of the policy;

Members of the department's training unit will discuss and answer questions about officers' decision-making training and, more specifically, how the department has incorporated the youth policy into its training;

The Internal Affairs Unit will explain the GRPD complaint process and encourage members of the community to file a complaint if they believe a situation is handled inappropriately;

There will be an open forum public comment session for community members to voice their concerns or bring forward ideas about the youth policy with Rahinsky and Womack

Womack said an important takeaway from his conversation with Rahinsky on Wednesday was that the chief plans to make the majority of his department's policies and procedures public soon by posting them on the city's website.

The county commissioner called it "a big step for the community."

"We can see what we need to tweak and work on in order to improve community-police relations," Womack said.OTTAWA COUNTY, MI -- Unvaccinated students at Waukazoo Elementary in the West Ottawa School district must stay home for two weeks after a student was diagnosed with chickenpox on Oct. 17.

Ottawa County Department of Public Health supervisors issued the order Thursday, Oct. 18

In a letter sent to parents citing state statute, health leaders wrote "if your child has not been immunized and you cannot provide a verification of a previous diagnosis of chickenpox, he/she will be excluded from school until November 1, 2018, and may return to school November 2, 2018, provided they have not developed chickenpox during this time period."

The chickenpox case, involving an unvaccinated student, is the second time in less than a month that health officials have issued an student exclusion order in Ottawa County.

In late September, one or more cases of confirmed chickenpox came to light at Jenison schools' Kids First - Early Childhood Center.HOLLAND, MI -- In Holland, pigs now have a place in the home apart from the dinner table.

The Holland City Council OK'd pigs as pets at their meeting Wednesday, Oct. 17.

The vote revises the city's pet ordinance to include the keeping of miniature pigs, or those pigs which won't grow more than 120 pounds, according to the ordinance language.

Each household is allowed to keep no more than two mini pigs, and no more than five total dogs, cats and mini pigs. Residents do not need a permit or license for their mini pigs.

The ordinance doesn't include leash or collar requirements for out-and-about pigs.

Council took a vote on pet pigs after being approached over the summer by a resident who desired one as a household pet, according to a report from the city manager's office.

City staff previously researched mini pigs as pets in October 2016 but nothing came of it. They did so again after the resident request.

Holland Community and Neighborhood Services Director Mark Vanderploeg said the passage clears up some ambiguity in the pet ordinance.

In addition to specific animals, the ordinance allows people to keep animals that are "commonly kept and housed inside dwellings as domestic, household pets." It wasn't clear if mini pigs fit the bill, Vanderploeg said.

Holland is not the first West Michigan city to allows pet pigs. Kalamazoo allows mini pigs with a special permit from the city commission or its representative.

In Grand Rapids all pigs, no matter the size, are effectively not banned as pets. Pigs and other designated "farm animals" are allowed in Grand Rapids only if they're kept at least 100 feet from any housing, according to the city ordinance.

Backyard chickens can be kept in the city with a valid permit.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A federal jury has cleared three Ottawa County Jail corrections officers in a civil trial surrounding a jail inmate's suicide death in 2013.

Vanessa Meirs, the widow of 50-year-old Scott Meirs, filed a lawsuit against Ottawa County and three corrections officers in 2015, claiming his suicide death should have been prevented.

Scott Meirs died Aug. 13, 2013, four days after he hung himself with a bed sheet inside his jail cell.

Lawyers for Vanessa Meirs claimed the deputies showed deliberate indifference to his medical needs and they ignored warnings from other inmates that he intended to kill himself.

Meirs, who served in the U.S. Army, had post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, chronic pain and drug addiction, according to the lawsuit.

The trial lasted 12 days in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids and a jury deliberated for less than two hours before returning a verdict earlier this week that exonerated the deputies form liability. The county was removed as a defendant several months before the trial.

"Certainly any suicide in a jail is a tragedy that we try to prevent as well as we can," Ottawa County Sheriff Steven Kempker said in a written relaease. "However, our deputies observed no suicidal behavior by Mr. Meirs directly and he made no cry for help. In fact, during his 5 days at the jail, he told one suicide screening officer and two nurses--one as late as the morning of the suicide--that he had no history of mental health treatment or medication and no thoughts of harming himself."OTTAWA COUNTY, MI - Ottawa County Treasurer Bradley Slagh, a Republican, is set to square off against Democrat Christopher Banks for a Michigan House of Representatives seat that historically is held by a Republican.

State Rep. Daniella Garcia, R-Holland, did not seek reelection to pursue a run for a state Senate seat.

Slagh won the Republican primary, collecting more than 80 percent of the vote.

The winner between Banks, 43, and Slagh, 61, will earn a two-year term in the Michigan House of Representatives. The general election is set for Nov. 6.

Michigan's 90th House District includes Holland, Hudsonville, Zeeland and Jamestown Township.

Slagh has spent the last 10 years as Ottawa County treasurer. Before that, he served as Zeeland Township supervisor for five years.

The Zeeland native pursued business administration and teaching at Hope College before entering the banking industry for 18 years. He also maintains a real estate license "for the knowledge and ongoing training it provides," according to his campaign website.

Banks has been a resident of Holland for more than 26 years and has worked over 20 years in manufacturing and 10 years in the automotive industry. He currently works in quality assurance.

He graduated from Holland High School and went on to become a graduate at Ross Medical Education and Dale Carnegie. According to a background check, Banks was charged with a misdemeanor for driving without insurance on Dec. 4, 2011 and had to pay $350 fine.

Banks is an ordained minister who has worked with elderly and those incarcerated.

This year, MLive Media Group partnered with the League of Women Voters of Michigan Education Fund to provide candidate information and other voting resources to our readers. Each candidate was asked to answer a series of questions about their policy stances.

Here are a few of their answers provided by Slagh and Banks:

What are your top three state legislative priorities and how would you address them?

BRADLEY SLAGH

Seeking ways to continuing to grow the economy for the state; Working on providing quality education for every student in the state; Seeking ways to provide high quality infrastructure without breaking the budget.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

Livable wage - raising minimum wage to $15.

Education - standardize curriculum, high caliber teachers, smaller classrooms (15 or less).

Universal health care to prevent individuals from falling through the cracks of the system.

What measures do you support/propose to achieve improved educational outcomes and accessibility for Michigan students from early childhood through post-secondary education?

BRADLEY SLAGH:

Looking for ways to involve the family, the church, and private/public partnerships to catch and engage children in education. Seeking ways to provide continued investment in teachers. Find, Use and Promote those good ideas that are working at raising students' levels of education and excitement. Find better ways to testing to determine student outcomes so that we are not simply educating for testing sake.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

I propose incentive based programs to attract excellent teachers. Redirection of funds to support initiatives to educate our children to the highest degree. Offering our neighbors choices of higher learning through community colleges and training facilities to build our overall economy.

What policies do you support to increase jobs and help Michigan residents improve their economic positions?

BRADLEY SLAGH:

Need to place focus on being a business-friendly environment, eliminate or reduce unnecessary regulations. Look for ways to bring affordable housing to the communities that will enable people to be in the community they are working in.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

Raising the minimum wage will boost economy. Incentive based technical skills training will increase job moral and entrepreneurship to those with specialized skill to offer the public.

What state policies do you support regarding campaign funding and voting rights?

BRADLEY SLAGH:

I believe the campaign finance laws are working as they are currently established. Elections should be limited to only US Citizens only. I am interested in no reason absentee voting as long as it remains secure.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

Transparency is key to the voters confidence in legislators. Archaic laws surrounding absentee ballot has to be repealed.

What actions or policies do you support to protect Michigan's water, air and land for current and future generations, while meeting the state's energy needs? Explain how those actions or policies would effect the future of Enbridge Pipeline 5.

BRADLEY SLAGH:

Government should stay mostly out of the way so that investors and industry can find and promote renewable energy usage. I do not support arbitrary regulations that set quotas for certain types of energy production, especially if it forces increased costs to the users.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

Criminal prosecution and heavy fines are essential to preventing rogue individuals and companies from destroying our environment.

What policies will you pursue to promote social and racial justice in our state?

BRADLEY SLAGH:

I do not have specific policy objectives. We do need to be focused on the impact that cultural bias plays in everyone's actions and thoughts, and continue to find ways to bring cultures together for the benefit of the whole. E pluribus unum.

CHRISTOPHER BANKS:

Fair housing, raising the age to eliminate youth being intermixed with adults is priority for me. Equality for minorities is paramount. Racial profiling is despicable and must be addressed on a state level.

All responses in the voter guide were submitted directly by the candidate and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for necessary cut if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected. Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should not be considered as an endorsement. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties.EASTPOINTE, MI - A 49-year-old woman wanted for a fatal Alaska shooting has been arrested in Michigan.

Linda Richards was found hiding in a home in East Point near Detroit, according to the Anchorage Police Department. She was taken into custody and transported to Macomb County Jail in Mt. Clemens where she awaits extradition back to Alaska.

Richards, who was identified as a suspect by the Anchorage Police Department on Sept. 14, had been considered armed and dangerous.

She is charged with second-degree murder, kidnapping and armed robbery in the Jan. 28 death of 52-year-old Carl Bowie Jr., who was shot to death in the 3400 block of Spenard Road in Alaska's biggest city.

A second suspect, 19-year-old Austin Cottrell, faces the same charges and is jailed in Anchorage.DICKINSON COUNTY, MI - Chronic wasting disease has reached the Upper Peninsula.

A 4-year-old doe killed in Dickinson County's Waucedah Township has tested positive for the fatal nervous system disease, confirming its presence in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for the first time.

The deer was shot on an agricultural farm about 4 miles from the Michigan-Wisconsin border.

"We remain committed to maintaining healthy Michigan wildlife for the residents of, and visitors to, this great state, now and into the future," said Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh.

"Fortunately, over the past few years, with the help of hunters, the U.P. CWD Task Force, DNR staffers and others, we are far better prepared to respond to threats posed by chronic wasting disease in the U.P."

The finding was verified by Michigan State University's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in East Lansing and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

The DNR has tested hundreds of deer from Upper Peninsula counties bordering Wisconsin. As of Oct. 11, 625 deer have been tested from Dickinson, Gogebic, Menominee and Iron counties this year.

Chronic wasting disease has been found in free-ranging deer in six additional counties in Michigan including Clinton, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm. A total of 63 deer within these counties have tested positive for the disease.

In North America, a total of 25 states and three Canadian provinces have confirmed the presence of chronic wasting disease in free-ranging or captive deer, elk or moose, or both.

To date, there have been no reported cases of CWD infection in humans. Appropriate steps are being taken to limit the spread of the disease in the U.P.

"For next hunting season and beyond, the DNR will discuss possible response actions with U.P. hunters and other stakeholders to determine the best approach to fighting CWD in the region," said Chad Stewart, DNR deer management specialist.Dana Nessel wants to bring the power of the attorney general's office back to the people of Michigan.

The Democrat believes the office has catered too much to corporations and special interests under Republicans.

"I (am) honestly very unhappy with the way that office has been run," she said. "I grew up during the Frank Kelly era when I saw that office as an entity that was charged with the responsibility of really pro-actively protecting citizens and residents of the state of Michigan."

Nessel hopes to bring that tone back to the office. She's running for attorney general against Republican Tom Leonard, Independent Chris Graveline and Libertarian Lisa Lane Gioia. The election takes place on Nov. 6.

MLive has partnered with the League of Women Voters Education Fund to provide information and resources in the 2018 election. More information can be found at Vote411.org.

Beginnings

Nessel is a lifelong Michigander. She went to the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree and Wayne State University for law school.

While at Wayne State, Nessel clerked at the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, where she was hired after finishing her degree.

"I spent eleven years there working on just about every kind of case you can imagine," she said.

The cases included homicides, domestic violence, child abuse and rapes. Nessel also worked with the police contact review team, which investigates officers accused of committing trespasses against the community.

Nessel, who would be the first openly gay person to hold statewide office if elected, specialized in crimes against members of the LGBT community. She was one of the attorneys to work on the DeBoer v. Snyder case which landed at the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was combined with two others and led to the landmark ruling allowing gay marriage in America.

Nessel continued her fight for the LGBT community when she formed the Fair Michigan Justice Project with Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. The special unit has taken on about two dozen hate crime cases, a few of which are still in the justice system. Nessel is proud to point out the cases that have reached a resolution have been convictions.

"At this point we have a 100 percent conviction rate," she said.

She also helped start a program to help people accused of assaulting or abusing LGBT friends or family members get into counseling as opposed to just punishing them in the criminal justice system.

"It keeps families together," she said.

'Ridiculous'claims

Nessel's Republican opponent, Michigan's Speaker of the House Tom Leonard, has claimed she is "unfit" for office because of the way she's treated campaign staffers, according to the Associated Press.

Nessel's ex-senior advisor Abby Dart, described as a veteran of Democratic politics, told the AP that Nessel had been abusive toward campaign workers in person and in writing.

"Obviously candidates, particularly first-time candidates, are under a lot of stress," Dart said, according to the AP report. "But that doesn't give them the authority to have the behavior that's just really out of line, really out of line."

Nessel told MLive the claims are "ridiculous" and quickly pivoted to environmental issues.

"I think it's a distraction from the incredibly important issues that I'm discussing and that I'm trying to let people know are important parts of the office of Michigan Attorney General," she said.

Nessel cited the recent, dire United Nations climate change report as a big issue. The allegations, she said, are just distracting voters.

"These are really important topics and they have to do with the sustainability of the planet and the future of the 10 million people who live in the state," she said. "Those types of issues (allegations of abusing campaign staffers) are nothing but a distraction from incredibly important issues we have to be focused on."

Priorities

Protecting Michigan's environment is indeed at the top of Nessel's list of priorities. If elected, she vows to shut down the Enbridge oil pipeline that flows underneath the Straits of Mackinac. Gov. Rick Snyder recently announced plans to revamp the way oil flows underneath the straits by building a tunnel.

"I don't care about whatever plans the governor has in place right now," Nessel said. "Line 5 needs to be shut down. It needs to be shut down as soon as possible."

Nessel also wants to attack the issue of PFAS, a chemical contaminating Michigan waters. News of state's PFAS problems gets worse each day.

"We need an AG that's going to aggressively go after the chemical manufacturers that knowingly disseminated these products and allowed PFAS and PFOS to proliferate," she said.

Nessel is also committed to defending people's right to healthcare.

"I'm absolutely committed to protecting people's healthcare, in this state and that means aggressively defending the ACA (Affordable Care Act), unlike the man who will be my predecessor, who filed nine times to dismantle the ACA, I will be filing suits to protect it, including the mandate that insurers have to cover people with pre-existing conditions," she said.

Like Independent opponent Chris Graveline, Nessel believes the Attorney General's Office has gotten too political. She says she has no ambition to run for governor.

But when asked if she'd join suits brought by Democratic attorney generals across the nation, a move she criticizes Schuette for doing as overtly political, Nessel said it would depend on the circumstances.

"My analysis would be this: Would such a lawsuit benefit the residents of the state of Michigan, would it protect people who live in Michigan who would be my constituents?" she said. "If the answer to that is yes, and there is a legal means to move forward, absolutely I would."Buoyed by the tunes of Michigan-born musicians Kid Rock and Ted Nugent, Donald Trump Jr. and former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle visited Pontiac Wednesday night to rally the Trump base and encourage them to support the state's Republican candidates.

Joining a rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James, Trump Jr. told the crowd he thought his father was wrong about one thing - that his supporters might eventually get tired of winning.

"I want to keep this winning going," he said to loud applause.

During the rally, Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle touted the Trump administration's foreign policy and economic agenda and said voters need to get out to the polls on Nov. 6 if they wanted to keep the momentum going.

"In 2016, you all believed in my father," Trump Jr. said. "Michigan believed in my father. You believed in him when it was just talk...guess what? He's delivered, time and time again."

Trump Jr. and Guilfoyle was critical of Democrats' opposition to Trump, arguing that the party has argued for resisting Trump without supporting any of his ideas or bringing new ones to the table.

"If Donald Trump today passed a bill in favor of oxygen, the Dems would be vehemently against it," Trump Jr. said.

Trump Jr.'s Michigan appearance comes as part of his national tour to campaign on behalf of Republican candidates and to support the Trump administration agenda.

He's not the only national figure to visit Michigan ahead of the midterms - Vice President Mike Pence was a headliner at two Michigan events in August. President Trump last rallied with Michigan voters in April, when he came to Macomb County in lieu of attending the White House Press Correspondents Dinner in Washington, D.C. On the other side of the political spectrum, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., will be in Ann Arbor Friday to support Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer.

James is a Farmington Hills businessman and veteran and is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. He was previously endorsed by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and James has visited with Trump in Washington, D.C.

Guilfoyle praised James as a rising star for the country, and Trump Jr. called him an "incredible guy with an incredible story."

"You could have John James or Debbie Stabenow," Trump Jr. said. "Honestly, what do you have to lose? It can't get worse. You have a guy in the White House that's getting it done - we need people who can support him."

James said he was running not just to beat Stabenow, but to give the people of Michigan better representation.

"I'm a citizen, a taxpayer, a voter. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired...both political parties have failed Michigan," he said.

Other candidates who spoke at the rally were incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, who is running against Democrat challenger Elissa Slotkin; Republican congressional candidate Lena Epstein, who is running against Democrat Haley Stevens for the open 11th Congressional District seat; and Republican Attorney General candidate Tom Leonard.

Bishop said it was crucial for Republicans to hit the polls, because Democrats "are so angry that we beat them last time."

"This is the most important election in our lifetimes," he said.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Schuette, who was endorsed by the elder Trump ahead of the August primary, was not in attendance at the rally. Nugent was a surprise guest, offering brief comments before playing his version of The Star Spangled Banner.

Sue Kregulka and MaryAnn Carman of Temperance have been to three Trump rallies, and were excited to see Trump Jr. here to support Michigan candidates.

"We've got to get the Republicans back in, we need their help," Kregulka said, adding that she enjoyed attending the rallies because she enjoys being with like minded people who "want the same things for the country."

Outside the rally, roughly 20 people organized by NextGen Michigan and other progressive groups protested the event.

"On Monday, James claimed at the Senate debate that he will stand up to President Trump when the situation calls for it, but his choice of company suggests otherwise," said Janet Williamson, NextGen's Michigan media manager. "Young people are not fooled by candidates who claim to value bipartisanship and then campaign with GOP talking heads like Kid Rock and Kimberly Guilfoyle."Former USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny was accused of tampering with evidence related to a sexual assault investigation of Larry Nassar and arrested in Tennessee on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

It was a Texas grand jury that issued the indictment. According to the Associated Press, it's a third-degree felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison. He is expected to be extradited to Texas.

Penny was president of USAG from 2005 until 2017, when he resigned under pressure related to the Nassar scandal.

Nassar was a Michigan State University doctor who served as medical CEO for USAG. For close to 20 years, he was also sexually abusing his patients, including Olympic gymnasts, under the guise of providing medical treatment. He has been sentenced for federal child pornography charges as well as first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges in Michigan.

Penny was president of USAG as the Nassar scandal began to unravel.

The indictment alleges he ordered the removal of Nassar-related documents from the Karolyi Ranch, a gymnastics training center near Huntsville, Texas, according to the Associated Press.

Penny was called to testify before Congress in June, but refused to answer any questions, invoking his fifth amendment right. That action irked some gymnasts.

Under Penny USAG received reports of sexual abuse, reported it to the FBI, and quietly severed ties with Nassar. But the FBI did not follow up quickly and USAG did not notify Nassar's employer, Michigan State University, of the serious accusations. Nassar returned to MSU and continued his pattern of sexual abuse for more than a year before the university fired him in September of 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Proposal 3 on the November statewide ballot seeks to overhaul Michigan election law, and includes some reforms with near-universal support and others that are more controversial.

Known as "Promote the Vote," Proposal 3 has the highest public support of the three statewide initiatives on the November ballot, based on recent polling. (Proposal 1 would legalize recreational use of marijuana and Proposal 2 would create a citizens commission to end gerrymandering.)

If approved, Proposal 3 would:

Automatically register people to vote when they obtain or renew their driver's license or state identification card, as long as they are a U.S. citizen and age 18 or older. Currently, Michigan residents must request and fill out separate paperwork for voter registration.

Allow people to register to vote and cast a ballot on the same day, including on Election Day. The current registration deadline is 30 days before the election.

Allow voters to obtain an absentee ballot without providing a reason. Absentee balloting is currently limited to people who are age 60 and older, disabled, poll workers or who sign an affidavit saying they will be out of town on Election Day.

Reinstate the option of a straight-ticket vote for all candidates of a particular political party by marking one spot on the ballot. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law ending that practice, and this November election will be the first time that option is not allowed.

Proposal 3 also would allow voters to seek an audit of statewide elections.

In addition, it would add the current legal requirements for secret ballots and military and overseas voting to the Michigan constitution. Currently, the right to a secret ballot and the military/oversees voting timetables are part of Michigan election law but are not in the constitution.

The petition campaign to put Proposal 3 on the ballot was largely funded by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The initiative also is backed by the League of Women Voters of Michigan, the Detroit chapter of the NAACP and the Michigan League for Public Policy.

The Democratic candidates for governor and secretary of state, Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Benson, have backed Proposal 3, while the Republican candidates for those offices, Bill Schuette and Mary Treder Lang, are opposed.

Republicans are particularly critical of the potential reinstatement of straight-ticket voting and same-day registration and voting.

Critics say only a few states still have straight-ticket voting, and voters should be encouraged to consider each race when casting their ballot.

As for same-day registration, Lang and others say they are worried that same-day registration of voters could create chaos.

"Right now, election clerks spend up to two weeks vetting voter registrations" to make sure people are qualified to vote and are not registered in more than one place, Lang said. "Is it fair to put that burden on clerks the day of the election?"

(If approved, the new law would require those registering to those to vote on Election Day must do so at an election clerk's office vs. a polling place.)

Benson acknowledges that Michigan's decentralized voting system, in which elections are run by city and township clerks, could present a challenge to same-day voter registration.

But she pointed to other states that allow the practice, and said she's confident it can be successfully implemented with proper procedures and training.

"I want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat," she said. "I believe in these reforms."

Here's the wording on the ballot for Proposal 3:

A proposal to authorize automatic and Election Day voter registration, no-reason absentee voting, and straight ticket voting; and add current legal requirements for military and overseas voting and postelection audits to the Michigan Constitution

This proposed constitutional amendment would allow a United States citizen who is qualified to vote in Michigan to:

Become automatically registered to vote when applying for, updating or renewing a driver's license or state-issued personal identification card, unless the person declines.

Simultaneously register to vote with proof of residency and obtain a ballot during the 2-week period prior to an election, up to and including Election Day.

Obtain an absent voter ballot without providing a reason.

Cast a straight-ticket vote for all candidates of a particular political party when voting in a partisan general election

Voters guide for November election

MLive has partnered with the League of Women Voters Education Fund to provide information and resources in the 2018 election. More information can be found at Vote411.org, which has information on all state and federal races and many of Michigan's county and local races.

All responses in the voters guide were submitted directly by the candidate and have not been edited by the League of Women Voters, except for necessary cut if a reply exceeded character limitations. Spelling and grammar were not corrected.

Publication of candidate statements and opinions is solely in the interest of public service and should NOT be considered as an endorsement by the League of Women Voters. The League never supports or opposes any candidates or political parties.As U.S. Rep. Fred Upton stressed his bipartisan credentials during a campaign debate Wednesday, his Democratic opponent Matt Longjohn suggested that Upton talks like a moderate but votes like a conservative.

"People know me as problem-solver," said Upton, R-St. Joseph, who was first elected to Congress in 1986 and is seeking re-election in November. "People know that I'm about results. ... I work both sides of the aisle."

Upton name-checked a number of Democrats he has worked with over the years -- from former President Obama to U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, to state Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo -- and twice mentioned that former Vice President Joe Biden recently called Upton "one of the finest guys in Congress."

Upton also never mentioned President Trump by name, and distanced himself from the current administration. "I'm not 100 percent on board with our president," he said.

Meanwhile, Longjohn, a public health official who lives in Portage, said it's time for a "new generation of leaders" in Congress -- ones who are not beholden to special interests and who take seriously the issues of everyday people, such as the need to obtain affordable health care.

"Mr. Upton said for years before the tax bills passed that he wanted to end corporate subsidies and loopholes," said Longjohn. "Just like he said he was always going to protect essential health benefits and pre-existing conditions."

But Upton played central roles in a tax bill that left many corporate loopholes intact and a health-care bill that weakened protections for people with pre-existing conditions, Longjohn said.

"So Mr. Upton is for protecting pre-existing conditions until he's not. He's for ending corporate loopholes until he's not," Longjohn said. "If he says he's for Social Security and Medicare today, I don't know where he will be when that vote comes."

WWMT-TV, Channel 3, hosted the debate for the 6th Congressional District candidates, who also include Stephen Young, representing the U.S. Taxpayers Party.

Young, a Hopkins resident and facilities maintenance manager, said he is running to end "federal government overreach."

"The federal government involvement in our lives is what causes far more problems than we need," Young said during the debate. "Place limitations on the federal government, which the constitutional stipulates, and free us up.

"Federal government should never be involved in local matters, in education, in business, in farming, in water, in any of these things," said Young, who also advocated for a "Biblical" approach to solving problems.

Here's what Upton and Longjohn had to say on specific issues.

Health care

Upton said the Affordable Care Act has not provided affordable health care, and defended his support of a bill that ultimately failed in the Senate.

He said it was "bogus" to say he did not support coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, pointing to his proposal for $8 billion over five years to create high-risk insurance pools for people with expensive conditions.

Upton added that people would not have seen any change in coverage as long as they didn't allow their insurance to lapse.

Upton also touted his sponsorship of "21st Century Cures" legislation to boost funding for research into diseases such as cancer. "That's what we should be focusing on -- finding cures for these diseases," Upton said.

Longjohn said that Republicans have "sabotaged" the ACA, driving up health-care premiums.

Speaking with reporters after the debate, Longjohn offered a detailed critique of Upton's contribution to the health-care bill that failed in Congress. He said the $8 billion for high-risk pools was considered inadequate by groups such as the American Medical Association and the AARP.

Longjohn said that the Upton Amendment to the failed health-care bill was merely a fig leaf for Upton to support the bill while maintaining that he cared about people with pre-existing conditions.

"He was playing politics with people's lives," Longjohn said. "Everybody recognized that."

Jobs and the economy

Upton said that roaring economy is a sign that the tax cuts approved by Congress this year are working.

"Pfizer just announced a half-billion-dollar investment here," with 400 new jobs, Upton said. "They were going to expand overseas but because of the tax bill, they're doing it here.

"Like it or not, the tax bill has had a big hand in creating jobs," he said.

Longjohn pointed to wage stagnation in Michigan, as well as an increasing federal deficit.

"The deficits heaped on my children's backs are going to hurt the economy in the long run," he said.

Longjohn also pointed to comments by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he would like to cut Medicare and Social Security spending to help reduce the federal deficit.

"I'm not voting to cut Medicare and Social Security," Upton said.

Gun control

Both Upton and Longjohn said they support universal background checks.

Upton said that he was the only Michigan Republican to support background checks and he supports banning bump stocks, more funding for mental health and programs that would flag people who might pose a threat.

"I believe in the Second Amendment," Longjohn said. "I'm a gun owner."

But as a public-health official, Longjohn said, he also thinks that gun violence needs to be addressed from a public-health perspective.

Clean water

As Michigan continues to grapple with fallout from the Flint water crisis and the contamination of groundwater by PFAS chemicals, Longjohn accused Upton of supporting the Trump administration's efforts to deregulate the Environmental Protection Agency.

Meanwhile, Upton talked about his work with Democratic colleagues in trying to address the Flint water crisis and the PFAS issues in Parchment and elsewhere.

Higher education costs

"We need to do everything we can to help people send their children on" to college, Upton said, adding that he's been a longtime supporter of Pell grants and federal college loan programs.

Longjohn said there is "no better path to the middle class than education," and the federal government needs to ensure that federal loan rates are affordable.

Both candidates said they support loan-forgiveness programs for graduates in certain fields, without providing specifics.

Upton remains a favorite in the race

Upton is considered the heavy favorite in the race. Fivethirtyeight.com, the website run by Nate Silver, says the Republican has a 87 percent chance of running re-election.

In campaign finance statements filed Sept. 30, Upton has raised almost $2.8 million in campaign contributions compared to $1.1 million raised by Longjohn.

Still, this could be the tightest race ever for Upton, who typically wins by double-digit margins. Since his first win in 1986, his tightest contest occurred in 2012, when Upton took 54 percent of the vote compared to 43 percent for Democrat Michael O'Brien.

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 at South Haven High School.

Longjohn and Young are scheduled to attend an Oct. 24 Kalamazoo event hosted by the League of Women Voters. The forum will be held at 7 p.m. at The Fountains at Bronson Place.BATTLE CREEK, MI -- Sometimes pizza is more than just a meal.

For Julie Morgan and Rich Morgan of Indianapolis, it was the nice gesture that came with two pizzas delivered from their favorite pizzeria soon after they learned that Rich would enter hospice care, that made their day.

Julie Morgan posted on Facebook about the experience, saying that she and Rich lived in Battle Creek 25 years ago. Though money was tight, Rich would bring home a pizza from Steve's Pizza every payday, she said.

The couple's planned getaway to Michigan and to Steve's Pizza in Battle Creek was interrupted by a trip to the ICU, where they learned Rich's battle with cancer was coming to an end, she wrote on Facebook.

They returned to Indianapolis, where they were enjoying spending time with family, when Julie Morgan's father secretly called Steve's Pizza.

"They would always say there's no one that measures up to Steve's Pizza," Julie Morgan's father, David Dalke, said. He described the couple's situation, hoping the restaurant might send a card or text.

Dalton Shaffer answered the phone.

"He said, 'Well what kind of pizza do they like?'" Dalke said.

A couple of slices of pizza from Steve's Pizza, delivered about 225 miles from Battle Creek to Indianapolis.

"Dalton, I want to make sure you know where I'm calling from," Dalke remembers saying.

Shaffer said he would drive the pizzas to them after closing the shop, even though Steve's Pizza doesn't normally deliver.

And even though it was across state lines about 225 miles away; about 450 miles round trip.

"I just felt really sad for them," Shaffer, 18, said.

He closed the store at closing time on Saturday, Oct. 13, cleaned up and hopped into his Honda Accord to make the drive down with two 16-inch pizzas with pepperoni and mushrooms, he said.

He arrived at the Indiana home about 2:30 a.m. and refused money for a hotel, Julie Morgan wrote, leaving right away to get back for work the next day.

Family members of the couple at the house came out and hugged him, Shaffer said.

"They couldn't believe I would do that," he said.

Shaffer told the family they are in his prayers, and he asks everyone else to think of them during the tough time.

"I am beyond overwhelmed and humbled by this act of genuine kindness. Dalton brought our family so much joy - and the best pizza in the world - at a really difficult time. While 'thank you' hardly seems adequate - from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Dalton from Steve's Pizza in Battle Creek, MI for making your epic middle of the night pizza delivery!" Julie Morgan wrote on Facebook, posting a photo of two slices of pizza.

Shaffer said he didn't do it for attention, and that he was surprised to see the story on Facebook. He missed phone calls from a few news agencies, he said on Wednesday.

Morgan's post had nearly 2,000 shares as of Wednesday afternoon, less than a day after it was posted.

Julie Morgan and Rich Morgan were asleep when the pies arrived, and enjoyed some the next day.

"It was as delicious as we remembered!" she said.

Sometimes a slice of pizza is more than it appears to be! Read on for the story of an epic pizza delivery and the... Posted by Julie Morgan on Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Dalke calls the trip a journey of mercy.

"He was just delightful," Dalke said about the intrepid delivery driver. "He's just an outstanding man who has his heart in the right place."

"My gosh we need people like this in the world. We need other people to be this way."TITTABAWASSEE TWP, MI -- A detective with a key role in the sexual assault case against a Roman Catholic priest in Saginaw no longer is employed with his department.

Brian J. Berg was until recently a detective with the Tittabawassee Township Police Department and, as such, was a lead investigator in the case involving the Rev. Robert J. "Father Bob" DeLand Jr., a priest with the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

MLive was unable to reach Police Chief Dennis Green or Township Supervisor Rick Hayes immediately for comment on the reasons why Berg is no longer employed.

In a written statement, though, Berg referred to his end of employment as a "termination" effective at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17.

"As a proud Christian and dedicated police officer of 35 years, with 50 Letters of Commendation during my career, I will never be deterred from doing the right thing, regardless of the costs associated with doing what is right," Berg wrote.

"A detective should not be expected to look the other way, be labeled too effective, or be told the township does not like media attention. The recent high-profile cases Tittabawassee Township has experienced is not something I personally sought out. However, when presented with such crimes I will always investigate the cases thoroughly and bring the criminals to justice," he continued.

"I laud the Saginaw County Prosecutor's Office for their hard work and courage to handle such a high-profile case as the Father DeLand case. Many other prosecutor's offices would simply have covered it up," he wrote.

Berg ended the statement by writing that he is not commenting further due to advice from counsel.

Saginaw County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner said Berg's dismissal would "absolutely not" affect the DeLand case.

"I'm not privy to the reasons for the termination, nor would I have any business knowing it, but I've spoke with Police Chief Green, who assured me it had nothing at all to do with the DeLand investigation," Gaertner said.

Berg in an April preliminary examination testified a Tittabawassee Township teen and his family came to police in early November 2017 to report DeLand acting inappropriately. Berg began an investigation, part of which entailed the teen going undercover in DeLand's presence.

"My goal was to give Father Bob the opportunity to do the right thing by planting police ruses," Berg said at the time.

The first of these ruses involved the teen's dad calling DeLand and falsely telling him he caught his son watching gay porn. Berg said he hoped DeLand would react to this by talking the teen out of such behavior, saying the Catholic church still believes homosexuality is a sin. However, subsequent recorded conversations involved DeLand encouraging the teen to engage in homosexual activity, Berg testified.

On one occasion, DeLand encouraged the teen to bring another male to DeLand's home where they could have sex, Berg testified. DeLand also told the teen if he wanted to run away from home, he could stay at his condo and he wouldn't tell his parents, Berg said.

Other ruses involved the teen pretending to be high on Xanax while with DeLand and advising him that drugs were easy to get, but expensive. DeLand responded by taking the teen to an ATM, giving him cash, and encouraging him to get drugs, Berg testified. DeLand also made a comment that cocaine was a good drug to do, because it's safer, the detective said.

During these recorded conversations, police were listening nearby in case they had to quickly intervene, Berg said. When the teen was at DeLand's condo on Feb. 25, there were several officers outside with search warrants ready to be executed if they felt they needed to rescue the teen, Berg testified.

"My intent on using (the teen) was to hopefully show Father Bob was that upstanding citizen and man of God he's been referred to, and not a criminal defendant," Berg testified.

He added investigators did not engage in entrapment with DeLand, as every scenario they presented him with allowed for him to make a choice.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Alan A. Crawford, Berg said he once was a Catholic altar boy but later left the church. Crawford asked the detective if he has strong feelings regarding the church, to which Berg said he disagrees with its philosophy.

Crawford also asked Berg if he wrote in police reports that the Roman Catholic church has a propensity to cover up sexual assault allegations among its clergy. Berg replied he did write that, and stands by it.

DeLand on Sept. 4 pleaded no contest to all seven charges he faced. In a press conference the following day, Berg said he supported the resolution.

"Father DeLand has been doing this for decades," Berg alleged. "It allows for closure, but what's really important, too, is what I've learned through this investigation is Father DeLand has a very strong following of some older Catholics, and there's a philosophy of, 'No matter what, protect the Mother Church.'"

DeLand on Sept. 28 withdrew his pleas due to issues with the sentencing guidelines. His first trial is expected to begin no earlier than January, Gaertner said.The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that about 22,000 infant carriers exclusively sold at Target have been recalled due to an increased fall hazard.

There are eight known incidents of buckles breaking on the infant carrier but no reported injuries, according to the CPSC. Affected infant carriers were sold under the Eddie Bauer brand name, manufactured in China and imported by Denver-based company Gold Inc.

The $70 "Eddie Bauer First Adventure" infant carriers were sold exclusively at Target through its retail locations and online between December 2017 and August 2018.

This product is meant to be worn by the parent/caregiver with the child strapped into the front. Affected carriers come in black with "Eddie Bauer" and "First Adventure" printed in gray lettering on the front and outside.

"Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled carriers and contact Gold Inc. to verify that the product is subject to this recall. Once the product is verified, consumers will receive replacement products of comparable value or a full refund," the CPSC reports.

"Consumers who purchased this recalled product must cut off and return both straps and tag with their name, address, and phone number to receive selected replacement products, free of charge, or a full refund."

To contact Gold Inc. concerning this recall, call 866-600-7205 or head to its website by clicking here.In the aftermath of a failed launch to the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Nick Hague is being praised for his ability to handle the high-pressure situation by his peers.

Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin were the only two aboard the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft as it launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan back on Oct. 11. Shortly after takeoff, the U.S. space agency says there was an "anomaly with the booster and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing of the spacecraft."

The two landed south of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan and were said to be recovered by search and rescue teams in "good condition."

"My partner, Nick (Hague), acted as a true expert and was completely cool-headed," Ovchinin told reporters of his crewmate on Wednesday, Oct. 18. "I never saw a hint of fear in his eyes.

"He had been responding immediately to all questions from Earth (in Russian) and it was obvious that he was in total control of the situation."

NASA says that after they were recovered, the two astronauts who were supposed to be en route to the International Space Station were transported back to the tarmac where they were met by their families and NASA and Roscosmos officials.

Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, told the Associated Press that his first reaction after takeoff was that "things aren't going well and he's not speaking English."

"So, in other words, he was calm, he was cool, he was collected, he was doing what he was trained to do," Bridenstine, who was in Kazakhstan for the launch, said while recalling hearing Hague relay the G-forces to officials in Russian.

"There was the time when I heard 6.7G, and that was the first time I realized that's not right. And then, of course, data was lost, communications was lost for a period of time, and then everybody went to their respective corners attempting to find out what the truth is. And when we learned the crew was safe and descending it was a moment to behold. A lot of people very, very happy."

Thank you all for your support & heartfelt prayers. Operational teams were outstanding in ensuring our safety & returning us to family & friends. Working with our international partners, Im confident that we will find a path forward & continue the achievements of @Space_Station. pic.twitter.com/GyoEWB1gRB  Nick Hague (@AstroHague) October 12, 2018

Live now: @AstroHague speaks with media for the first time since his trip to the station was aborted last Thursday. Shortly after launch, there was an anomaly with the booster, and the launch ascent was aborted, resulting in a ballistic landing. Watch: https://t.co/PQiocFxvoc pic.twitter.com/eHCMZtsbs6  Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 16, 2018

A.P. reports that two minutes after Hague and Ovchinin launched that their rocket failed, which prompted the emergency landing causing the spacecraft to fall from 31 miles "at a sharper-than-normal angle."

It reportedly took about 34 minutes for the Soyuz spacecraft to parachute and return to Earth's surface. The Russian space agency has vowed to share findings from its investigation into the failure with NASA.

"Roscosmos has formed a commission to assess the root cause of the failure, and NASA will support Roscosmos' investigation into the incident," NASA writes in a news release.

"In parallel, NASA and the International Space Station partners will review upcoming operational schedules, including the plan for two spacewalks targeted later in October."

.@AstroHague answered a question from @m_momholt's six-year old child live on @NASA TV today, "Do You Know When You Will Launch Back To Station?" pic.twitter.com/heIyR16Ipt  Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) October 16, 2018

--live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The contamination of 1.5 lakh vials of oral polio vaccine with traces of the long-eradicated type 2 polio virus has put India's polio-free-country status at risk and has left millions worried about their children's health.

The episode also underlines that India's vaccine industry, which used to be the most dominant across the globe until recently, is gradually losing its prowess.

The contamination

The strain, which has been eradicated worldwide, was found in vaccines manufactured by Ghaziabad-based Bio-Med.

The investigation conducted by Indian drug regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on the premises of Bio-Med's facility failed to reveal the source of the virus.

Online news portal Print quoted an unnamed health ministry official as saying that they hadn't found anything suspicious during the investigation on Bio-Med's premises, except for some problems in sterilisation and deviation of manufacturing standards.

This led the CDSCO inspectors to suspect that the source of contamination was PT BioFarma, the Indonesian state-owned vaccine maker. Indian drug inspectors are now headed to Indonesia for further investigation.

An email sent to PT BioFarma remained unanswered at the time of publishing this story.

PT BioFarma is one of the largest suppliers of polio and measles 'bulk vaccine' in the world. The company, with WHO prequalification, produces at least 1.4 billion doses of oral polio vaccines to meet the global demand.

Dominant to dependent

At least two executives at vaccine companies told Moneycontrol that Indian vaccine makers have long stopped manufacturing oral polio vaccines in-house.

Instead, they formulate and fill the imported monovalent (or single) bulk attenuated (weakened) polio virus strains into an oral vaccine.

Bio-Med procures the bulk vaccine from BioFarma, formulates it into a finished product, and supplies it to the government's National Immunisation Programme, and exports it to other countries.

Even other companies like Panacea Biotec, Bharat Biotech and Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals import bulk polio vaccines from BioFarma, as they compete for government contracts to supply the vaccine at the lowest price.

"Oral polio, measles, DPT, rabies, Hepatitis A and B vaccines have all become like commodity, with procurement prices of a vial less than cost of a water bottle in public procurement. Chinese and Indonesian companies who have built huge capacities are supplying these bulk vaccines at affordable prices," said one of the two executives mentioned above.

"This is something akin to generic formulation business, where we rely on 80 percent of active ingredients from China," the executive said.

"In chemistry, China struggled to move up the value chain, but in biotechnology they are already ahead of us," he added.

India, once the manufacturing powerhouse of vaccines, is seeing a slow decline. Vaccine exports from India dropped 4 percent to $653.40 million in FY18, according to data provided by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council, a body under the Ministry of Commerce.

This kind of slide in exports has been seen in previous years as well.

Over the years China, South Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam vaccine companies have not just emerged as suppliers of bulk vaccines, but were also competing for global tenders for vaccine supplies.

China, which has 34 vaccine manufacturing facilities and large investments in research and development, is giving Indian companies a tough fight in terms of pricing.

Also, China's push to improve quality standards is helping its manufacturers win the trust of global procurement agencies.

Grey areas

In August this year, Chinese vaccine maker Changsheng Biotechnology Corporation recalled batches of rabies vaccines from across the globe, including India.

This was after the Chinese drug regulator found some of the vaccine batches to be mixed with expired ingredients, and production dates and the batch numbers to be inconsistent.

Chinese authorities have slapped a fine and asset seizures totalling a whopping $1.3 billion on Changsheng.

The regulator also found DPT vaccines produced by Changsheng and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products to be sub-standard and ordered their recall.

Another executive who heads a public sector vaccine company says that not all imported vaccines can be called inferior, as many of them are sourced from facilities compliant with the World Health Organization's (WHO) good manufacturing practices (GMP).

"It's not like importing drugs, vaccines will have to be tested on humans for safety and efficacy before they could be approved and launched in the Indian market," the executive said.

"In the Bio-Med case we still don't know what went wrong, we need to wait for the outcome of investigation," he said.CRUDE-OIL

OPEC has urged its members not to mention oil prices when discussing policy in a break from the past, as the oil producing group seeks to avoid the risk of US legal action for manipulating the market, sources close to OPEC said.

Proposed US legislation known as "NOPEC", which could open the group up to anti-trust lawsuits, has long lain dormant, with previous American presidents signalling that they would veto any move to make it law.

But US President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, blaming it for high oil prices and urging it to increase output to relieve pressure on a market hovering around four-year highs.

That has made OPEC and its unofficial leader, Saudi Arabia, nervous about what it might mean for NOPEC, or No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act.

The decision to refrain from discussing a preferred oil price level -- one way the group can guide market expectations -- underlines how Trump's aggressive stance on the oil market is unsettling OPEC and testing ties between allies Riyadh and Washington.

In July, senior OPEC officials attended a workshop in Vienna with international law firm White & Case to discuss the NOPEC bill, and the lawyers advised avoiding public discussion of oil prices and rather talk about the stability of the oil market, two sources familiar with the matter said.

OPEC officials were also advised to explore diplomatic lobbying channels to try and prevent the NOPEC bill from becoming law, one of the sources said.

On August 1, the OPEC secretariat sent a letter to the ministers making a similar recommendation.

"We solemnly believe that market stability, and not prices, is the common objective of our actions," UAE Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui, who holds the rotating OPEC presidency this year, wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters.

"I would like to call upon OPEC Member Countries, as well as our participating Non-OPEC colleagues, to refrain from any reference to prices in their commentary about our collective efforts or oil market condition," he added.

White & Case did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Specifying oil prices is not the only way OPEC tries to guide the market. By cutting production it can support prices and by raising supplies it can do the opposite, for example.

But the private coordination of how to communicate OPEC's message to the market represents a departure from past practice, when Saudi Arabia would often signal a preferred price level when speaking about OPEC policy and seek to push through actions to achieve that.

TIES STRAINED

While chances of the law passing this year appear slim, concerns among OPEC members and other oil producers are growing that it may ultimately get the support of Trump, given his open criticism of OPEC and high oil prices.

The OPEC letter came two months before US-Saudi relations were further strained when a Saudi journalist disappeared during a visit to the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials say they believe Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi policies, was murdered and his body removed. Saudi Arabia has strongly denied killing Khashoggi.

Some members of the US Congress, which has long had a testy relationship with Saudi Arabia, have criticised the kingdom over the case.

A Senate source familiar with the bill said renewed interest in NOPEC was likely, as lawmakers weigh any actions in response to Khashoggi's disappearance.

The source, who declined to be named, said that with lawmakers out of town for the next several weeks, it was difficult to measure current sentiment.

LITIGATION RISKS MAY BE BEHIND IPO DELAY

Over much of the last year, Saudi Arabia irked Washington by pushing OPEC to adopt measures to boost oil prices in a shift from its previous, more moderate stance.

Industry sources have linked that shift to a desire to maximise revenues and raise the valuation of state energy giant Saudi Aramco ahead of a planned IPO, a key part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's reforms aimed at diversifying the economy.

The share float, expected by some to be worth up to $100 billion, has been put on hold, sources have told Reuters.

Prince Mohammed said this month the float was postponed to 2021, and several industry sources say the delay was partly because of litigation risks if Aramco was listed in New York, a preferred venue by the Saudi crown prince.

"There is a major fear NOPEC could turn into another JASTA," one of the sources familiar with Aramco IPO preparations said, referring to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act which allows victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia, which denies involvement in the attacks, had long had broad immunity from the lawsuits. That changed in 2016, when the US Congress overrode then-President Barack Obama's veto of JASTA.

With close to $1 trillion in investments in the United States, including assets owned by Aramco, Riyadh has a lot to lose if the NOPEC bill was passed into law.

It would revoke the sovereign immunity which oil producers, including OPEC members, currently enjoy from U.S. legal action.

Washington-based legal firm Gibson Dunn and the Saudi embassy there signed a contract in late August, according to a copy of the contract filed to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The contract outlines that among its other responsibilities, Gibson Dunn would be "opposing NOPEC".

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih has also raised concerns over NOPEC with senior U.S. officials including U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry during private meetings, two sources familiar with the talks told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.auto 3 point analysis | Mid-range cars in India to be equipped with traffic assist, voice recognition German automotive technology giant Bosch is said to be working on a range of new innovations that will be integrated with everyday technology in the automotive sector.CRUDE-OIL

There is a famous saying in the commodity market that the cure for high prices is high prices. When prices rise, producers are willing to produce and sell more to maximise profits. This self-correcting mechanism leads to higher supply and a fall in prices. This phenomenon is not being seen in oil prices currently. While crude oil prices have risen sharply over the past few months, there hasnt been a parallel uptick in supply lately. Is it just a restrain being observed by producers as a lesson from miseries of the past or is there more to it?

While global demand for crude oil has been growing, response from the supply-side has remained inadequate. The crash in global crude oil prices in 2014 led to a sharp decline in upstream investments, with a 25 percent year-on-year fall in 2015 and 2016, flat growth in 2017 and only a modest rise in 2018, early data from the International Energy Agency suggests.

Despite the recovery in prices, investment growth has remained slow with bottlenecks due to smaller players producing from larger oil fields and limited funding avenues. Sharp volatility in prices and scepticism over future oil demand due to rising use of alternate fuels is also contributing to slow investment growth.

With rapidly growing demand and maturing oil fields, the investment needs are expected to be much higher than before. Each year almost 3 million barrels per day (mbpd) of production is lost to maturing fields, so investment is required to maintain current production levels and meet future demand uptick.

While Saudi Arabia has assured the market of covering up for lost Iranian barrels in November in the likelihood of US sanctions, there is suspicion over how much the kingdom would stretch. Saudi Arabia currently has close to 1 mbpd of spare capacity and any incremental production above this level would require additional capital expenditure and time.Crude oil production has been shrinking due to various macro and micro issues plaguing oil producing nations. In the last three years, production from China, Mexico and Venezuela has fallen by more than 1.7 mbpd. While Chinese decline has been addressed, Mexico is planning massive reforms.

The situation in Venezuela remains weak given the worsening political and economic crisis, leading to a sharp decline in crude oil production. With a tight economic and fiscal position, the government has little resources available to invest in maintenance of rigs and oil fields. Exports have dropped by half since 2016 to below 1 mbpd. To support the tumbling output, Venezuelas state-run oil firm PDVSA has signed a $430 million investment agreement to increase production by 640,000 bpd at 14 oil fields. However, given the country's political and economic instability, it is doubtful if this investment would go through.

Other producing nations like Iraq and Libya have also been entangled in internal conflicts, which has led to tightening oil supply. Political dispute between the central government and Kurds in Iraq has led to an output loss of almost 300,000 bpd since last year. Iraq has since been sitting on this reserve capacity and has lately indicated plans to boost production. While there has been a slight uptick in overall production from Iraq in recent months, we need to observe how much of it could re-enter the system.

Since late August, clashes between rival armed groups have shattered Libya, which impacted production. Output from the countrys major oil fields fell 125,000 bpd following attacks on its supply infrastructure. While the situation is now coming under control, how much of its production would flow back into the market would be something to watch out for.

In the past whenever crude oil prices saw a sharp spike, the market witnessed a sharp rise in suppliers getting on board the rising crude oil ship. However, this time around there have been several factors which have led to supply remaining suppressed. There has been a lag in investments, given the hit producers had to take when crude oil prices fell below $50 a barrel. Investments have also remained suppressed due to blurry long-term demand in light of rising use of renewable fuels. Various country-specific factors have added fuel to this fire and kept production low. While various nations have indicated their intention to increase production, how much of it would flow back and what would be the timeline is something to watch out for. This would define the contours of crude oil prices in coming months.

Follow @Ruchiagrawal

For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research pageSpeculation and Market sentiment | Speculation, and the use of market instruments such as hedging, lead to a spike or dip in prices. Brent crude is the benchmark for global oil prices, whereas Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is another benchmark for oil futures that is focused on North America. A difference between the spot prices and the future prices reflects the sentiment of investors. It is for this reason that oil prices hit a four-year high of $86.74 a barrel earlier in October, as the market grapples with the expected loss of Iranian exports due to the US sanctions. (Image: Reuters)

Crude oil prices have kept rising since the beginning of the year, even managing to reach record highs that were last seen in November 2014.

What is surprising is that the rise continues despite the International Monetary Funds (IMF) recent downgrade in the global growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 by 0.2 percentage points to 3.7 percent.

The downgrade was attributed to disruptions in trade policies between members of the European Union (EU) over Brexit, and the ripple effects of the ongoing tariff war between the United States (US) and China.

Yet, the prices of crude oil continue to increase as they are influenced by several covert and overt factors that economies across the world leverage to their advantage.

Also read: How crude oil is traded and why the prices are on the rise

A key factor that affects the prices is the supply of crude oil in global markets. While most of the world runs on the energy released from burning the black gold, not every country is privileged enough to find a steady supply under its crust. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is responsible for about 40 percent of the worlds oil supply and 60 percent of the oil traded globally.

This imbalance in the distribution of oil means that geopolitical events play a big role in its supply and the market sentiment. Iran, the third largest supplier of oil in the OPEC countries, is set to face new round of economic sanctions from November 4 after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord in May.

The US states that this measure was taken in retaliation to Irans possession of nuclear weapons, and its alleged support of terrorist activities. US President Donald Trump has urged the OPEC to raise output to help cover a shortfall due to new US sanctions on Iran.

India imports close to 80 percent of its crude oil demand, and is the largest importer of oil from Iran, followed by China and Turkey.

The other factor that affects oil prices is the market sentiment. Speculation, and the use of market instruments such as hedging, lead to a spike or dip in prices. It is for this reason that oil prices hit a four-year high of $86.74 a barrel earlier in October, as the market grapples with the expected loss of Iranian exports due to the US sanctions.

Also read : Govt says no issues with oil supplies, sentiment hurting price

Brent crude is the benchmark for global oil prices, whereas Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude is another benchmark for oil futures that is focused on North America. A difference between the spot prices and the future prices reflects the sentiment of investors.

If Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announces in future that India has secured a waiver from the sanctions imposed by the US, it would continue purchasing crude oil from Iran. This would likely reflect as a dip in the oil prices.

Another factor weighing in on the speculations around the oil prices is the recent disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi from a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi is a fierce critic of the Saudi Arabias policies and administration, with his views aired on the Washington Posts opinion page.

Allegations made by the Turkish government of Khashoggis murder by the Saudi establishment soon surfaced. In light of these updates, many top executives from companies such as Google, Uber, Master Card, HSBC and Credit Suisse bailed out from an investment conference that was to take place in Riyadh.

Even International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde has deferred a planned trip to the Middle East. She was reportedly "horrified" by media reports about Khashoggis disappearance.

The events led to a support in oil market prices amid growing US tensions with Saudi Arabia. According to a CNBC report, it has stoked fears that Saudi Arabia may reduce its output to raise oil prices further. Of all member countries of OPEC, Saudi Arabia accounts for close to 10 percent of the worlds oil supply. Thus, state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco can throw around its weight if need be, with its public statements on the supply of oil having the power to alter prices.

How does the rise in oil prices affect the stock market?

Aside from a sharp drop in oil prices towards the end of 2014, the two have traced a similar trajectory. A World Bank article attributed the fall to the slowing growth of emerging economies like India, China and Russia from 2010 onwards, leading to a steep drop in demand.

The rising oil price pressures from 2008 also forced countries like the US and Canada to tap into shale oil reserves through fracking. This further reduced the demand on global oil. Finally, OPEC did not intervene by cutting down its supply, as its member countries were of the consensus to produce as many barrels as possible, as reported in the Washington Post

Above is a graph plotting the monthly spot prices of Brent crude with the BSE Sensex over a ten year period. It can be clearly seen that the stock markets and crude oil prices generally run in tandem.

A rise in crude oil prices motivates the more affluent of the OPEC nations to use the rise in oil revenues to spur further growth, and commission industries to take on new projects. This sort of spending has a ripple effect on industries across borders, which reflects as gains in the market.

OPEC and its allies including Russia agreed to reduce output by 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) from the start of 2017 with Moscow pledging to cut some 300,000 bpd.

As oil prices hit $80 per barrel in recent months and with global oil inventories shrinking fast, Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to ease restrictions although they never said the exact levels they would target. Amid the rising geopolitical tensions, these measures should provide some relief in crude oil prices in the coming future.

(With inputs from agencies)

(With inputs from Ritesh Presswala)Setting a precedent, the Uttar Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) for the first time has decided to consider a proposal by defrauded homebuyers to take over and complete a project in Noida that has been delayed by several years. While this is a great move and may set the trend for other homebuyers in stuck projects, arranging funds to complete construction could still pose a challenge, say real estate experts.

UP RERA for the first time has asked over 700 home buyers of Subhkamna Tech Home to come up with a proposal to complete the project they had invested in and get the consent of at least 60 percent buyers within 10 days, Balwinder Kumar, Member of UP RERA bench told Moneycontrol.

The project was due for delivery in 2014. Almost 70 percent of the work on the towers is complete and buyers have claimed they have paid about 80 percent of the amount. The project is located in Sector 137, Noida.

If the homebuyers are able to get about 60 percent members of their association to agree to the proposal, we will get it examined by the financial consultant of Noida Authority Currie & Browne. The consultant will then discuss it with the concerned stakeholders such as Noida Authority. Once the financial consultant gives its approval and agrees that the homebuyers have the capacity to complete the project and arrange for finances, then we will have no problem in giving them permission, Kumar said.

Homebuyers are yet to pay Rs 40 crore. Almost Rs 50 crore is required to complete the project. Homebuyers have told us that they can arrange for the money. We have asked them to get the consent of 60 percent of buyers. We have given them 10 days and then the financial consultant will take another 15 days to do a due diligence after which we will hear the case in detail, Kumar said.

Through this, we also want to convey a message to other homebuyers that if they can form associations, arrange for funding to complete the projects, we are willing to consider their proposal, he added.

Gap funding to complete unfinished projects the biggest challenge

In this case, some buyers have paid 80 percent, some have paid more. But all buyers have to pay some remaining amount. They will have to show the receipts that they have so far paid and the balance money that is due from them to the committee. These amounts will be kept in a separate account and the committee will have to work with a corpus, say experts.

Arranging for deficit funding will continue to be a challenge. Recovering the said amount by selling other assets of the promoters may not be an easy task either, says Sunil Tyagi of Zeus Law.

In April this year, Madhya Pradesh Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in another first, had come to the rescue of as many as 800 allottees of a project located in Indore whose promoter has been absconding for over three years. It had planned to facilitate completion of the project by constituting a committee of buyers who will get the finishing work done by pooling in the amount due from them.

We are planning on taking up only such towers where work is more than 80 percent complete. In most towers for this particular project, last mile work is left, Madhya Pradesh RERA Chairman Anthony DeSa had then told Moneycontrol.

When approached for his comment, DeSa said while it is a good start, there are several challenges, the foremost being that of funding. In the Indore matter, the promoter has been arrested and served summons to be heard. The High Court too has passed a few orders and formed a committee to deal with the project. In a similar matter in Gwalior, we were unable to get all allottees on board, he says.

RERA Section 8 provides an indication that the Authority can provide a platform to take up stressed projects and bring them to completion. However, greater clarity is required because the provisions as they stand at the moment seem restrictive and can be implemented only under certain circumstances, he said.

Clarity is required on what percentage of homebuyers need to come together and even if they do, there has to be complete agreement among them because there is always a danger of the remaining not cooperating or not making payments.

If a stressed project is to be taken up and completed, all three parties have to agree to take a haircut  the buyers may have to give up all claims for compensation, builders have to agree to no profits and financial institutions whether banks or NBFCs have to take a haircut in order to save their NPAs. And for this, RBIs instructions may be required as no bank would voluntarily agree, he said.

At the conference on RERA held in Chennai recently, I had suggested that a national conference be held on the issue of stressed assets and we should have all stakeholders such as RBI coming on board. The suggestion was positively received by the government of India, he said.

Homebuyers welcome the move. Prima facie, this appears to be an excellent move and will also set a very good precedent. But it is also very important to know (a) how the project will be funded and (b) if the builder has taken more money than what work has been done by him and how RERA plans to recover excess money from him, says Abhay Upadhyay, President, Forum For People's Collective Efforts.

Section 8 of RERA empowers the authority to execute remaining development work

Upon lapse of registration or on revocation of registration under this Act, the Authority, may consult the appropriate Government to take such action as it may deem fit including the carrying out of the remaining development works by competent authority or by the association of allottees or in any other manner, as may be determined by the Authority:

Provided further that in case of revocation of registration of a project under this Act, the association of allottees shall have the first right of refusal for carrying out of the remaining development works, the Act says.

Difficult for RERA to undertake a project from scratch

RERA can step in, provided a project has reached its completion stage. Doing something from scratch is very difficult. We will not advise it. It all depends on the size of the project and should be taken up on a case-to-case basis. It is not something that can be applied across the board, says an expert.

If the project is 80 or 90 percent complete, something can be done about it. In its early stages, half complete, half structure, it may become very difficult for the committee of buyers to take over. Then it is a complex construction. Important for the whole structure to be in place. If only finishing work is left, the committee can take over and complete it. The committee cannot do any structural work, the expert says.A proposal for acquisition of 1,334 hectares of land in Jewar for an international airport has been sent to the Uttar Pradesh government by the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration, officials said on October 17. After examining the proposal, the state government would issue a notification under section 11A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 for the acquisition of the land, District Magistrate (DM) Brajesh Narain Singh told reporters.

A total of 5,000 hectares of land is to be acquired for the greenfield airport, proposed to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 crore. Once built, it will be the second airport in the National Capital Region (NCR), after Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

For the first phase of the project, 1,334 hectares of land is required. As much as 1,239 hectares of land from six villages (Rohi, Dayanatpur, Parohi, Kishorepur, Ranhera and Banwari Baans), which belonged to farmers, would be acquired by the government and due compensation given to them, Singh said.

The remaining 95 hectares of land in the region already belonged to the government, he added.

"I am happy to announce that the requisite 70 per cent consent from the land owners has been taken for the project. In fact, 72 per cent of them have consented to the land acquisition. All formalities have been completed at the district level and a proposal has been sent to the government," the DM said.

Under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, the consent of at least 70 per cent of land owners is mandatory for a government to proceed with land acquisition for any such project.

"The next step is that the appropriate government has to express its intent to acquire the land for public purpose under section 11A of the Act. So, the collector, in this case the additional district magistrate (land and acquisition), has sent the proposal with our approval to the state government after fulfilling all formalities.

"The government will examine it and issue the notification under section 11A for the land acquisition," Singh explained.

He said the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) report and Social Impact Management Plan (SIMP) for the affected region have already been approved by the government.

According to the SIA report, 5,905 families will be impacted by the project and out of the these, 5,007 are farmers' families while 898 are landless families.

"Around 1,775 families from three villages -- Rohi, Dayanatpur, Kishorepur -- will likely have to be rehabilitated due to the project. A total of 4,235 of the families have given their consent for the project, around 72 per cent, which fulfils the requisite legality of at least 70 per cent consent for carrying out any such land acquisition," the administration said in a statement.

The district administration said when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had visited Gautam Buddh Nagar on August 3 to talk to the farmers about the project, his instructions were clear to the administration: "Get the project negotiated at the earliest and the farmers must be taken into confidence before moving ahead."

"Our team has worked really hard for this and I believe the process has been very fair, transparent and democratic. The proposal has been scrutinised and the farmers have been taken into confidence. A very fair process has been adopted," the DM said.

Some landowners, including farmers, had initially resisted the land acquisition citing various reasons such as an "inadequate" compensation amount and related benefits, besides the resettlement policy.Royal Dutch Shell plans to invest $1-2 billion annually in oil exploration and production in Brazil through 2025, Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico reported on Thursday.

The investment will be made regardless of the outcome of presidential elections on October 28, Wael Sawan, executive vice president for Shell's deepwater division, said in an interview with Valor.

Shell is the second largest oil producer in Brazil, where oil majors have spent top dollar in recent months to lock in stakes in its prolific offshore pre-salt play, where billions of barrels of oil lie beneath a thick layer of salt under the ocean.

Shell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Armies of India and Japan will hold their first-ever joint exercise from November 1 at a jungle warfare school in Mizoram's Vairengte with a focus on strengthening counter-terror cooperation, officials said.

The focus of the two-week-long exercise 'Dharma Guardian" will be to increase interoperability between the two forces and enhance coordination in dealing with various security challenges, they said.

"Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well developed tactical drills for neutralisation of likely threats that may be encountered in urban warfare scenario," the Army said in a statement.

Security experts from both sides will also hold detailed discussions to share their views on various aspects of military operations as part of the exercise, it said.

The Indian contingent will be represented by 6/1 Gorkha Rifles while the Japanese contingent will be represented by 32 Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force.

"It will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other's militaries and also facilitate tracking the worldwide phenomenon of terrorism," the statement said.

The Army also described the exercise as yet another step in deepening the bilateral strategic ties.India said it was engaged with the US, Iran and other stakeholders on the issue of American sanctions on import of Iranian oil which will come into effect from November 4.

The spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs, Raveesh Kumar said India has already conveyed to the US about its position on the matter.

Asked about how India will make the payments to Russia for the S-400 missile deal, Kumar said India is also engaged with the US on the issue.

"We are engaged with the US on the matter. We have shared our position with the US sides at different levels. These discussions have contributed to a better understanding by the US about our objectives and concerns as well as our sensitivities and expectations," he said.

On October 5, India and Russia signed the $5 billion S-400 air defence system deal, notwithstanding US sanctions on military transactions with Moscow.

On US sanctions on import of Iranian oil from November 4, Kumar said, "Our discussions are on with Iran and other stakeholders. It will not be proper to go into the details how we will deal with the situation."

He said US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook held talks with officials of various relevant ministries on the issue.

"We have conveyed to him that the price of crude oil is a matter of concern for our domestic economy and directly affects the common people," he said at a press briefing.

Kumar said India's "expectations" have been made known to the US side, adding India appreciated the statement made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that intention of imposing sanctions on Iran is not to hurt India.

"We do intend to continue our engagement with the US and other statekeholders to ensure our energy security and to protect our national interests," Kumar said.

He said India was trying to see how it can find a solution to the issue.

There has been indication that India may not totally stop import of crude oil from Iran.

Kumar said India will do everything possible to ensure the country's energy security.

In May, the US brought back sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal which was struck in 2015.

The US has told India and other countries to cut oil imports from the Gulf nation to "zero" by November 4 or face sanctions.

Iran is India's third-largest oil supplier after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied 18.4 million tonnes of crude oil between April 2017 and January 2018 (first 10 months of fiscal 2017-18).

Sources said India is also looking at the possibility of falling back on the rupee-rial arrangement for importing oil from Iran in the wake of US sanctions.

The rupee-rial arrangement was used to buy oil from Iran before sanctions were lifted against it three years ago.

NDTV has been sued by Anil Ambanis Reliance for 10,000 crores in an AHMEDABAD court. For our coverage of Rafale. We will fight this brazen attempt at harassment and intimidation.

 Suparna Singh (@Suparna_Singh) October 18, 2018

News channel NDTV has been sued by Anil Ambani's Reliance for Rs 10,000 crore in an Ahmedabad court for the channel's coverage of the Rafale deal, CEO of the NDTV Group, Suparna Singh tweeted on October 18.

Calling this move a "brazen attempt at harassment and intimidation", Singh said the news channel will fight back.

An earlier report by NDTV stoked a controversy with the Opposition led by Congress President Rahul Gandhi accusing the Modi-led NDA government of corruption and crony capitalism.

The opposition has attacked the ruling BJP over the procurement of jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation under a Rs 58,000 crore deal.

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 a deal for procurement of 126 Rafale aircraft.

Further, under the deal's offset clause, Indian companies including Reliance will get contracts worth Rs 30,000 crore.

Reliance has denied all allegations of any wrongdoing on its part for any part of the deal.

Earlier on October 18, NDTV was issued a show cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for an alleged violation of the forex law amounting to over Rs 4,000 crore.

NDTV has put out a follow-on statement on the issue saying the news channel "reported all sides of the story including Dassaults denial that it had been under any pressure to select Reliance".

"As the Rafale deal has become a larger news story in India, the Reliance group has been on a notice-serving spree; to sue a news company for 10,000 crores in a court in Gujarat on false and frivolous charges, ignoring facts that are widely reported everywhere and not just by NDTV, can only be interpreted as an unsophisticated warning to the media to stop doing its job," NDTV said in the statement they put out on their channel on October 19.

The news channel said it "outright rejects any charges of defamation and will present material in court to support its case."

The matter is listed for hearing on October 26.

: This article has been updated to incorporate the latest developments.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

India said the controversy surrounding the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France has not impacted the strong ties between the two strategic partners at all.

"We continue to enjoy very strong relationship with France. It is our strategic partner. I can say that this (Rafale controversy) has not impacted our relationship at all," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He was asked whether the controversy relating to Rafale deal impacted the ties between the two countries.

There has been fierce political backlash between the ruling BJP and the Congress over the procurement of the jets from French aerospace major Dassault Aviation under a Rs 58,000 crore deal.

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 a deal for procurement of 126 Rafale aircraft.

The Congress has also been targeting the government over 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.India Pakistan

India said the onus was on Pakistan to create conducive conditions for talks by taking steps such as action against terrorists and terror infrastructure operating from its soil.

During a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar reiterated India's stand that talks and terror cannot go together and said this was one of the reasons why the scheduled meeting in New York between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan was cancelled.

Barely 24 hours after agreeing to the engagement, the government had called off the meeting last month, citing the brutal killings of three policemen in Jammu and Kashmir and Islamabad releasing postage stamps "glorifying" Kashmiri militant Burhan Wani.

Asked if there was any message or signal from the Pakistani side for talks, Kumar said, "I am not aware of any proposal for a track 1 or track 1.5 dialogue or a meeting between India and Pakistan."

"The onus is on Pakistan to take credible steps, to create conducive conditions, for such talks which of course means taking action against terrorists, taking action against terrorist infrastructure which operates from its soil," he said.

Asked about Pakistan Army's statement warning of "10 surgical strikes" against India in response to a single such attack, Kumar said, "You should ask this question to the Indian Army, they will give a befitting reply to them."

India-Pakistan ties have nose-dived in view of a number of terror strikes by Pakistan-based groups. India retaliated by carrying out 'surgical strikes' in September 2016 across the Line of Control (LoC). India has been maintaining that terror and talks cannot go together.October 20, 2018 / 02:50 PM IST

Protests erupt over rumours of Tamil Nadu woman climbing Sabarimala hill

A massive protest by devotees of Lord Ayyappa broke out near the Sabarimala Sannidhanam on October 20 following rumours that a woman from Tamil Nadu below 50 years of age climbed the hills to offer prayers to the presiding deity.

The situation turned tense in the area, where section 144 was clamped, as devotees gathered in large numbers at 'Valiya Nadapandhal' to protest against the woman's entry into the temple.

However, the tension was defused after the woman, who had come with her family members, convinced the protesters that she was above 50 years, and proceeded to the shrine. (PTI)

Read the full story here.The BJP accused the Congress on Thursday of running a "paid campaign" on Facebook in Pakistan for removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling it a serious matter.

Its spokesperson Sambit Patra flashed copies of a Facebook page which shows an advertisement of the opposition party calling for "Desh bachao, Modi hatao" (Save country, remove Modi), with Pakistan being highlighted as the location.

"What does it mean? You are running a campaign in Pakistan against our popular prime minister in Pakistan," he told reporters.

It is understandable if a campaign against the prime minister is run in India by the opposition party but why it should sponsor this in Pakistan, he asked.

"Congress leaders have been showing their love for Pakistan," he alleged, and cited Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's reported comments that he culturally connected more with the neighbouring country than with south India, to attack the opposition party.Congress

The CPI on Thursday accused the BJP-RSS combine and Congress of indulging in "double-talk" and playing "dirty games" over the Sabarimala issue to target the Left government in Kerala by exploiting people's sentiments.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) is the second biggest constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy termed as "very unfortunate" the protests in Kerala against the Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women of all ages to the hill shrine.

"They (agitators) should respect the SC judgement in spite of the sentiment which they may be having (against it)," Reddy said.

"Gender equality has to be accepted in the 21st century. The old things cannot continue like this," he told PTI.

On Wednesday, protesters opposing the apex court order allowing the entry of women of menstrual age group into the shrine turned violent at Nilackal and clashed with the police, who resorted to baton-charge.

Reddy said there was a "political angle" vis-a-vis the agitation because Kerala is ruled by a Left front government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine welcomed the judgement at the national level but are opposing it in the state, he said.

"So, this is a dirty game. They want to fight behind communalism. There are many such beliefs among people which are unscientific. This should not continue and the RSS-BJP should not indulge in double talk, one at the Centre and one at the state level," he said.

If the BJP-RSS have "got any morality", they should control their people at the state level and make them withdraw the agitation, he added.

On Congress lending its support to the stir, Reddy said the party was behaving in a "very irresponsible" manner.

"This is all third-rate type of politics," Reddy said adding, the Congress being the main opposition party in Kerala was "very irresponsible in behaving like this".

The veteran Communist leader said both the BJP and the Congress were unnecessarily politicising the issue and exploiting the religious sentiments of the people.

He also clarified that the government cannot file a review petition in the court as it has already filed an affidavit in the SC stating it has no objection over women praying at the shrine.

"(Travancore) Devaswom Board (which manages over 1,200 temples in the state, including the Lord Ayyappa Temple at Sabarimala) can go for an appeal if they want... They should discuss with the state government but the state government cannot do this (file review petition)," Reddy said.

"On October 19th, there is a meeting of the Devaswom Board, they may discuss and decide," he said.

On the agitation drawing significant support in the state, he admitted that there was quite a big section of people on the streets but stressed that emotional issues can be dealt with only if the people are objective.

"But if the RSS wants to take advantage of the sentiment and Congress too wants to utilise this (opportunity) to fight against the LDF government, it will not be possible (to deal with this issue properly)," he added.The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Tripura are at loggerheads over the foundation of a Ram temple in the state's southern Matai village, according to a report by The Indian Express.

The CPI(M) has claimed that the foundation stone for the temple was laid by the BJP and the Sanatan Sena, a Hindutva outfit, after removing a memorial of Mohini Tripura, a communist leader.

"BJP vice-president Subal Bhowmik and one Mrinal Sen, chief of Sanatan Senas Tripura chapter, have removed the memorial and laid the foundation stone for a Ram Mandir," CPI (M) state leader Tapas Dutta told the newspaper. Dutta added that this was done in order to "erase the history of Left democratic struggle."

Mohini Tripura, according to the report, was a tribal rights leader who led a movement in 1968 against the then Congress-led state government.

After coming to power in 1967, the Congress government prohibited the practice of 'jhum' or shifting cultivation in forest lands. The practice was followed by the tribal population in the state for their sustenance. Mohini Tripura was gunned down while leading a protest against the decision.

After the Left Front government came to power in the state in 1978, the communists built the memorial at Matai, apart from dedicating a school and a village to Mohini Tripura's memory.

The BJP, however, claimed that the land where the memorial was built was illegally grabbed from a local person.

"There was no voice of common people in 25 years of Left Front rule. This land was grabbed by CPI(M). Real owner of the land was present with us on the dais when we laid the foundation stone for Ram Mandir at Matai [sic]," BJP vice-president Subal Bhowmik told the newspaper.

According to the report, while state communist leaders registered a complaint against the move, South Tripura Superintendent of Police Jal Singh Meena said that he was unaware of the development.

"I dont know of any incident where a memorial was replaced by a temples foundation stone," Meena said.

Earlier in March, the two parties were at loggerheads after the statue of Soviet-era leader Vladimir Lenin was pulled down, allegedly by BJP supporters. The incident followed BJP's historic victory in the Tripura assembly elections, bringing an end to the Left Front's 25-year rule.k chandrashekar Rao,telangana assembly polls 2018

In a bid to woo voters ahead of the Telangana Assembly polls, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on October 16 announced key promises from Telugu Rashtra Samithi (TRS)s election manifesto.

Rao revealed some details from the manifesto even as the party is yet to release the final document.

The committee entrusted with drafting the manifesto met people from different walks of life and took their suggestions into account.

Here are some of the major promises:

Farm loan waiver of up to Rs one lakh to benefit 42 lakh farmers

Rao has assured up to Rs 1 lakh farm loan waiver if the TRS is voted back to power.

The chief minister said that the party had announced a similar farm loan waiver of Rs 1 lakh in the run-up to the 2014 state elections and had implemented it after coming to power.

Rao said that the scheme will be implemented again as farmers needed further support. He suggested that the scheme could be implemented in two instalments.

Justifying the promise, Rao said there were around 45 lakh farmers in the state who avail bank loans, of which nearly 42 lakh took loans of less than Rs 1 lakh.

Hike in Rythu Bandhu benefits

TRS has promised to increase the amount of annual financial assistant given to farmers under the Rythu Bandhu scheme from existing Rs 8,000 per acre to Rs 10,000 per acre per annum, in two instalments of Rs 5,000 each.

Hike in Aasara pensions

Rao has announced increment in pension given under the Aasara scheme.

The amount would be more than doubled from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,016 per individual. For the physically challenged, pension would be hiked from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,016.

Also read | Assembly Polls 2018: All you need to know about upcoming state elections in 5 states

Other announcements

Age limit for old-age pensioners has been relaxed from 65 years to 57 years.

Allowance for unemployed individuals of Rs 3,016 per month without any immediate cap on the number of beneficiaries.

TRS has promised setting up of one food processing unit for every two Assembly constituencies by women Self Help Groups with subsidised loans.

The party has said that it would continue its double bedroom housing scheme with more options.

Seeking early polls, Rao had dissolved the 119-member state assembly prematurely on September 6.

Telangana will head for polls on December 7. Counting of votes for the state will happen along with Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan on December 11.

TRS, which is hoping to retain power in Indias newest state is facing a challenge from a united opposition alliance comprising of Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).

(With inputs from PTI)Making a strong pitch for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray Thursday said he would visit the Uttar Pradesh town on November 25 and "question" Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue. Addressing the party's annual Dussehra rally in central Mumbai, a few months before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Thackeray said a "2014-like wave" is not prevailing in the country.

The BJP had attributed its 2014 electoral success to the "Modi wave".

Thackeray also asked Sena workers to be prepared for polls.

In the party convention held earlier this year, the Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Maharashtra and the oldest member of the NDA, had declared to go solo in future polls.

"I will go to Ayodhya on November 25. I will ask questions to the prime minister (over alleged delay in constructing the temple)...We are not enemies of the prime minister, but we don't want to play with the emotions of the people," Thackeray told a huge gathering of the party workers.

He also sought to know why Modi had not visited Ayodhya in the past four and half years, after becoming the prime minister.

Thackeray asked the ruling BJP to declare its promise to construct the Ram temple as a "jumla" (gimmick) if it is not going to implement the same.

The Sena chief also sought to dispel perception that his party is sticking to power in Maharashtra even as it has been unrelenting in criticising the BJP and the prime minister.

Thackeray said his party has been targeting the government over non-performance of the BJP government.

"Now the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is also speaking the same language as ours... Recently, RSS leader Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said it is the duty of Raja (king) to keep people happy. We all know who is the king in democracy," Thackeray said, without naming anyone.

"You ask us to walk out of the government (when the Sena criticises the government)... Why don't you ask the RSS to tell the BJP to walk out of the government now (for its criticism by the Sangh)?" Thackeray asked.

He also hit out at the BJP-led government over several issues, including price rise, alleged delay in implementing the promise of abrogating Article 370 and for not acting tough against Pakistan.

Thackeray also criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government for "delay" in declaring drought in the state despite several parts reeling under water shortage.The Moon of Baroda, a 24-carat diamond necklace worn Marilyn Monroe in 1953, is displayed at the "Diamond Divas" exhibition in Antwerp April 10, 2008. The exhibition, which runs from April 11 till June 8, showcases items worn by royals, high-society members and stars. Monroe wore the necklace to the premiere of her film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM) FOR BEST QUALITY IMAGE: ALSO SEE GM1E5A5175T01 - GM1E44A1L3J01

The 24.05 carat 'Moon of Baroda' diamond which was once owned by Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe will go under the hammer next month in Hong Kong. The value of the rare gem is expected to be in the range of $500,000 and $750,000, reports Hollywood Reporter.

The diamond, in a pear-shaped locket, had gained the attention of the American actress in 1953 when she was on a publicity tour for her comedy film Gentleman Prefer Blondes which has the unforgettable song  'diamonds are a girls best friend'.

The jewel is on display between October 16 and 20 in Christies showroom before being auctioned on November 27 at the Magnificent Jewels Hong Kong Sale.

The rare diamond dates back to the 16th century and pulled from the legendary Golconda mine, outside Hyderabad.

It is believed to be in possession of Barodas erstwhile royals, the Gaekwad family. The family gifted the rock to Maria Theresa of Austria, the Habsburg Dynastys only female monarch. But it was returned to the Gaekwads after her death in 1780.

In 1860, it was embedded in a necklace and sold to an unknown buyer. Eventually, it was added in the collection of Prince Ramachandra, who brought it to the US in 1926.

Later, it was sold to Samuel H Deutsch, a diamond cutter and jewelry manufacturer in Cleveland, Ohio, and then to Meyer Rosenbaum, president of the Meyer Jewelry Company in Detroit. From here, the diamond was loaned to the legendary actor and photos of her wearing it went viral.

In talks with the publication, Christies Connie Luk said, Given the size and color of the stone I feel that everyone will find it very gorgeous.

Asked about the story attached with the gem  that if it travels overseas, bad luck will come to its owner  Luk said, I think its just a rumor, cause as far as we know, the current owner of the stone, it has been in his hands for more than two decades and hes doing very well and hes in good shape and great financial condition. So, I dont think theres such a thing as the curse of the diamond.Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan wished all Hindu citizens on the occasion of Diwali. Prime Minister Imran Khan wishes a happy Diwali to all Hindu citizens, tweeted Prime Ministers Office in Pakistan.

Pakistan may not have to approach the IMF for loans as it has received "positive" responses from some "friendly countries", Prime Minister Imran Khan has said, days after Islamabad formally approached the global lender for a bailout to tide over the economic crisis.

Talking to a delegation of senior editors, Khan said his government was in touch with some "friendly countries" and has sought cooperation to address the mounting balance of payments deficit and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Though he did not name any countries, Pakistani media has reported that the government was consulting allies like China and Saudi Arabia for financial help.

"Their response is positive. I am quite hopeful that we will not have to approach the International Monetary Fund for our economic needs," he was quoted as saying by The News.

Khan's comments follow some tough talking by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and the US on Pakistan's bailout plan, demanding absolute transparency on the country's debts, including those owned by China under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects.

Apart from selling off surplus luxury cars, Prime Minister Khan's proposals include turning state-owned buildings into universities, dispensing with VIP security protocol and cutting air conditioning in government offices to keep the economy afloat.

Khan has vowed to steer Pakistan out of a looming balance-of-payments crisis, saying it needs $10 to 12 billion.

He said Pakistan's economy has been badly hit. He said the previous governments borrowed so much that it has become hard for his government to repay the loans.

"Had the former government not received loans or the amount so received was utilised properly, the economy of the country would have been in a good shape," he said.

Pakistan Finance Minister Asad Umar met IMF chief Lagarde on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bali, Indonesia on October 12 and formally requested a "stabilisation recovery programme".

Umar said that a team of the IMF will arrive in Pakistan on November 7.

He said the government don't want to fully rely on the IMF and would do anything to bring improvement in the economy. He said the loan programme with the IMF is almost final, but the government will have to see that the IMF does not place any undoable conditions for Pakistan in return.

Lagarde has made it clear to Umar that the IMF would require absolute transparency on Pakistan's debts, including those owned by China under the multibillion-dollar CPEC.

The CPEC is a network of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan that will connect China's Xinjiang province with Gwadar port in Pakistan's Balochistan province. It is the part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambitious Belt and Road initiative.

The US has said that the huge Chinese debt was responsible for the economic challenges facing Pakistan, adding that it will review Islamabad's bailout plea to the IMF from all angles, including the country's debt position.Pakistans Prime Minister Imran Khan wished all Hindu citizens on the occasion of Diwali. Prime Minister Imran Khan wishes a happy Diwali to all Hindu citizens, tweeted Prime Ministers Office in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a review petition filed by a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Imran Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar dismissed the review petition filed by PML-N leader Hanif Abbasi, saying that "no lawful point has been raised in the petition", Geo TV reported.

During the hearing, Abbasi's lawyer said, "Imran provided documents in pieces which were not verified and not acceptable."

At this, the chief justice said, "The court decides whether it is satisfied with the documents that are submitted and we are satisfied with the ones we received."

Abbasi's lawyer, however, said, "If the court was advised then it would have clarified the law."

In response, Chief Justice Nisar said, "We have clarified the law in our decision."

Last month, the apex court had refused to form a full bench to hear Abbasi's review petition against its decision to dismiss the disqualification case against Prime Minister Imran.

In his 13-page review petition, Abbasi had demanded the disqualification of Khan over non-disclosure of his assets and ownership of offshore companies.

The petition stated that now, since Imran has become the prime minister, the matter is more pertinent for the public.

The original petition, filed by Abbasi in November 2016, had sought Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen and Imran's disqualification over non-disclosure of their assets and ownership of offshore companies.

It accused the PTI leaders of not declaring their assets to the Election Commission and violations of the lncome Tax Ordinance, 1979, and Peoples Act, 1974. It also claimed that the PTI is a 'foreign-funded' party.

In its December 15, 2017 ruling, the apex court had disqualified Tareen but ruled in favour of Imran.

The chief justice had cleared Imran in the case as the petitioner was not directly affected in the foreign funding case.State oil giant Saudi Aramco signed an agreement on Thursday to invest in a refinery-petrochemical project in eastern China, part of its strategy to expand in downstream operations globally.

The memorandum of understanding between the company and Zhejiang province included plans to invest in a new refinery and co-operate in crude oil supply, storage and trading, according to details released by the Zhoushan government after a signing ceremony in the city south of Shanghai.

Zhejiang Petrochemical, 51 percent owned by textile giant Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, is building a 400,000-barrels-per-day refinery and associated petrochemical facilities that was expected to start operations by the end of this year.

This is the third such project in China that Saudi Aramco has set its sight on as it seeks to lock in long-term outlets for its crude oil and produce fuel and petrochemicals to meet rising demand in Asia and cushion the risk of a slowdown in oil consumption.

Last month, Saudi Aramco signed a long-term deal with the Zhejiang project's operator Zhejiang Rongsheng to supply crude oil.

The oil giant had not yet finalised the size of its stake in the project and still needed to complete due diligence, Aramco's Senior Vice President of Downstream, Abdulaziz al-Judaimi, told Reuters on the sidelines of the event.

Saudi Aramco expects to supply 170,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude to the refinery in Zhoushan when it starts operations, he said.

The first crude carrier supplying the refinery should arrive in December or January, depending on when the project starts, he added.

Aramco also owns part of the Fujian refinery-petrochemical plant with Sinopec and Exxon Mobil Corp, and has plans to build a 300,000-bpd refinery with China's Norinco. It is also in talks with PetroChina to invest in a refinery in Yunnan.A top Republican lawmaker has urged the Trump administration to immediately designate Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism and terminate its non-NATO ally status, asserting that Islamabad consistently defends Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and condemns US' counterterrorism efforts.

Congressman Ted Poe said in the House of Representatives that Pakistan will not receive any financial support from the US if terrorists continue to live safely in the country.

"Now is the day of reckoning. All assistance to Pakistan must end, its Major non-NATO ally status must be terminated, and the State Department should immediately designate it as a state sponsor of terrorism," Poe said last week, according to Congressional records.

In his remarks, the Republican Congressman from Texas slammed Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi for what he described as lecturing the US on aid.

"While I do not oppose open engagement with Pakistan, our position must be clear: Pakistan will not receive a dime of US support if terrorists continue to live safely on their soil," he said.

"For too long the opposite has been the case. Fortunately, President Donald Trump has disrupted the status quo and suspended most of the funding we give to Pakistan, specifically calling them out for their support to terrorism. But more should be done," he said.

Poe said if Qureshi was truly interested in restoring the relationship between the two countries, he would accept responsibility and acknowledge that countless terrorists still live inside Pakistan.

"His country has been the epicenter for extremism for decades, where extremists are still able to hold massive public rallies to incite young men to violence. This isn't conjecture, the evidence is well documented," he asserted.

Poe said Mumbai terror attack mastermind and the founder of the US and UN-designated terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed operated freely in Pakistan.

Despite his role in the 2008 Mumbai attack, Saeed leads public rallies and can raise money for extremists causes, he said.

"Yet, Pakistan, including its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consistently defends Saeed and condemns US counterterrorism efforts," Poe said.

He said Qureshi even claimed terrorist groups that target Pakistan had safe haven in Afghanistan under the US' watch.

"Yet it is Pakistani officials who somehow claim there is a 'good' Taliban, while the US makes no distinction," he said.

"If the Foreign Minister wanted to earn our trust, his government could demonstrate good faith by taking action. This includes handing over Saeed, the leaders of the Taliban and Haqqani Network, and banning all extremist groups on its soil. But this is a fantasy," Poe said.

The relations between Pakistan and the US nosedived this January after President Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to Washington but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

The US Congress also passed a bill to slash Pakistan's defence aid to USD 150 million, significantly below the historic level of more than USD one billion per year.US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he has decided against attending a Saudi investment summit later this month following global outrage over the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

With this he has joined a long list of top US and global leaders, corporate executives and International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials in opting out of the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia. In a tweet, Mnuchin said he met President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the White House.

"We have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia," he said.

The decision by Mnuchin comes in the wake of mounting pressure on the Trump administration in the aftermath of the missing Saudi dissident journalist who is feared killed inside Saudi consulate in Istanbul in Turkey early this month.

Saudi Arabia has denied allegations that its officials planned Khashoggi's murder. It has assured the US of a thorough investigation into the matter.

Pompeo on his return from Riyadh and Ankara said the US takes the matter very seriously, but would wait for the investigations to be over and look at the probe report before taking a call on it.

Britain's Trade Minister Liam Fox also pulled out of the conference and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra have also cancelled, along with several top business executives, following rising global indignation over the matter.Mis-selling of insurance policies by banks (bancassurance channel) is on the rise, thanks to high commissions and business links. Several banks have invested in life insurance companies and, hence, there is a push for selling policies to bank customers. However, bank officers are now demanding that top management be restricted from setting targets for bank employees to cross-sell insurance products to customers.

"With utter dismay, we have found that no action has been initiated from any of the authorities till date to try to curb this menace of cross-selling in banks, although we sent a letter with all the details way back in August 2017. Even today, the situation is the same, if not worsened," says a letter from All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC). The Confederation had sent a letter to Indian Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) chairman on 3 August 2017.

In this letter, DT Franco, the then general secretary of AIBOC had stated, "Instead of setting unrealistic 'cross selling' targets for its employees and officers, the bank management would do well to focus on its core banking areas such that customer trust is reinstalled. Also, just in case any 'cross selling' activity is tried upon, the welfare of the bank and its customers should be kept in mind instead of just incentive mongering on the part of some self-centred officials."

The letter provides clear proof of how Reserve Bank of India (RBI) continues to ignore consumers and non-government organisations (NGOs) which have protested against the mis-selling of insurance policies by banks without regard to customer harassment. The travails of bank officers forced to meet targets and the cost of selling insurance are also issues brought out in the letter.

Furthermore, the bank staff are specifically trained and recruited to discharge only banking services. They have neither the training nor the technical knowledge to even understand the business of insurance and all its nitty-gritties, let alone explain that to customers, the AIBOC letter says referring to observations made by RBI after making incognito visits to some of the branches of public and private sector banks.

(i) In some branches, there are no qualified / trained staff to market the insurance products;

(ii) No record of business sourced because of third parties is maintained by the branches / offices;

(iii) No specific due diligence on the needs and capabilities of the customer is being undertaken and recorded in most branches, no record of due diligence reports were available at most of the branches;

(iv) Suitability and appropriateness of the product to the requirements / profile of the customer was not examined by some of the branches, the objective of sales appeared to be mostly to achieve the targets;

(v) It could not be verified whether detailed terms and conditions of the policy and charges were explained to the customers;

(vi) In a few branches, premium for the policy was debited to the customer's account without written mandate of the customer;

(vii) Majority of the branches did not inform the customers about the availability of similar products from other service-providers;

(viii) Cross-selling of the Third party product was made mandatory in a few banks as part of terms and conditions of their own product;

(ix) Many bank branches did not give the customers the option to avail products from other service-providers and insisted for insurance cover only from Companies with whom the Banks have a tie up;

(x) A few bank branches received complaints from customers regarding forced selling / mis-selling of third-party products, but most bank branches do not have appropriate mechanism to capture such complaints; and

(xi) There was no separate system for recording complaints on the sale of third-party products by the bank branches.

It is not surprising, then, that mis-selling of insurance is so rampant in our country. How can somebody, who is himself largely ignorant of the nuances of insurance be expected to provide sound advice to all customers?

Read: Moneylife Foundation memorandum to RBI on mis-selling by banks ) Moneylife has been reporting such rampant mis-selling for the last several years. After receiving numerous such complaints about banks cross-selling risky investment products, many of which are from senior citizens, in April 2013, Moneylife Foundation took up this issue with the RBI (RBI). The Memorandum, asked RBI to free the system of mis-selling of financial products by bankers, misusing the savers trust. (

Over the past few years, we have heard numerous such cases where banks have used the financial information of their clients and have exploited this to sell products that more often than not, are not suited to the clients needs. Such hard-selling bankers are aptly described as banksters these days, operating with a licence to cheat from top management.

Banks and insurance companies have unrealistic monthly targets which often leads to mis-selling of policies to those who are easy targets. Insurance policies are sold by banks when the customers may think they are investing in a fixed deposit (FD) or ELSS (equity linked saving scheme).

Regular premium policies are still being sold when bank customers think they are buying single-premium policy with no further obligation to pay every year. Single-premium policies usually have cover less than 10 times the premium. It means that the maturity amount is taxable, but customers may not even realise it until the policy deducts tax at source on the maturity amount.

Insurance policies are sold in the name of son or daughter or sometimes even in the name of grandchildren when senior citizen customers do not qualify due to age limit.

Senior citizens with comfortable savings are being systematically targeted and defrauded by insurance companies. What is worse, this organised loot is done by relationship managers of the best banks and their insurance associates, with the top management turning a blind eye to the fraud. The mis-selling is almost like a template.

Read: How Insurance Mis-selling Defrauds Senior Citizens ) The bank relationship manager convinces the senior citizen to buy a bunch of policiesoften as a gift for children and grandchildren. These policies are portrayed as fixed deposits with insurance benefits but are, in fact, policies requiring payment of hefty annual premiums. Consequently, the annual premiums range from Rs1 lakh to Rs5 lakh, which the seniors are unable to pay and the policies lapse. (

A few years ago, a dubious relationship manager of ICICI Banks Pune branch systematically ripped off a number of senior citizens by conning them into buying multiple, single-premium insurance policies as a succession planning exercise where the beneficiaries were the children and grandchildren. In one case, 12 policies sold to an 80-year-old totalled over Rs62 lakh. His brother, 84, was sold several policies adding to over Rs1 crore.

An 86-year-old had his signature forged in policy documents. A 77-year-old doctor was sold a single-premium policy of Rs70 lakh and learnt that she was conned; she needed to make another five instalments of Rs70 lakh or lose everything. The Bank conducted an inquiry and has paid back two of the victims after Moneylifes intervention.

Banks sell more of traditional insurance products for commissions. Traditional insurance products are frontloaded with 35% to 40% first-year commission. It is high time IRDAI revamps traditional products by reducing the first-year commission. Traditional insurance products also have pathetic surrender value.

Customers lose out with traditional products whether they continue paying premium or not.

The RBI and IRDAI are fully aware of problems as well as solutions.

Here are demands put forth by AIBOC...

To deposit all the commissions / incentives earned, in the Commission Account of the Bank rather than shelling out the money to individuals and thus to encourage them engage in more and more mis-selling.

Cross-selling should not carry weightage in the appraisal of top executives to staff to avoid force selling.

A separate vertical should be created for cross-selling so that the public sector banks (PSBs) do not shift its focus from core activities and thereby contribute to the growth of the nation and remain viable.

The earning on account of commission on cross-selling should also find a place in public domain for all public servants as per the Lok Pal bill in order to maintain total transparency and comply with the govt. guidelines.

A detailed investigation is carried out by investigating agencies such as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), IRDA, and RBI to keep the banking system transparent, risk free and confidence of the customers on the PSBs remain intact.

To stop all such lavish functions at the banks cost, which includes cocktail dinners, foreign / inland tours.

You may also want to readIn the last 24 hours, Canada legalised recreational use of cannabis, or pot, in a move that could have a huge impact on markets.

At stake is an estimated market of $200 billion  with more growth on the horizon.

According to Brendan Kennedy, President of Canadian cannabis firm Tilray:

It will be around a $100 billion opportunity over the next five to 10 years.

As of the most recent available statistics, Canada dominates global production and exports, with CA$6.2 billion of the market.

But you have to remember that Canadians smoke a lot of pot, as seen below:

Source: bbc.com

As a result, Reuters reports that Australia will join Uruguay, Israel and the Netherlands in looking to fill the potential shortfall in supply.

Australian cannabis companies like AusCann Group Holdings Ltd [ASX:AC8] and Cann Group Ltd [ASX:CAN] will look to capitalise by going for quality over quantity, at least initially.

Below, you can see Cann Groups enticing price performance over the past year:

Source: marketindex.com.au

David Radford, CEO of Hydroponics Company Ltd [ASX:THC] says that for now:

The Australian cannabis market is akin to the wine industry: youll have your premium, Grange hermitage wines, and then you will have goon bags. We will be at the premium end.

If you want to get in on the Aussie pot stock market, we have a free investment guide available here.

Where to find growth in Aussie pot stocks

Another aspect of the budding Australian cannabis market is its potential to focus on intellectual property.

Australia is well known for its research capabilities and there is the option to not just harvest the product, but package it as a pharmaceutical.

GW Pharmaceuticals in the UK for instance, markets products such as an oral solution and a mouth spray.

Other options include treatments for acne and topical pain relief.

But perhaps cannabis most exciting prospect for widespread use comes from a little known cannabinoid present in varying amounts, depending on the strain.

A cannabinoid is a class of chemical compounds found in cannabis that acts on receptors in the brain.

There are at least 113 cannabinoids that can be found in cannabis.

The cannabinoid that may be of most interest is called cannabidiol or CBD.

CBD may be the best bet for Aussie pot stocks

CBD is so unique because it doesnt really get you high.

So whats the point then?

The point is that CBD is perhaps the most therapeutic of all the cannabinoids.

Its potential uses are vast  it can be used for multiple sclerosis pain, childhood epilepsy, mood disorders and anxiety.

With Australias background in research, this may well be the countrys best shot at a cannabis industry for the foreseeable future.

The good news is that in the past two years, the Australian government passed a law that allows for the export of medicinal cannabis products.

Knowing where to start investing can be tricky though.

There are a large range of Aussie pot stocks on the market, and not all of them will be winners.

Luckily weve got a free report on how to pick the best pot stocks for you right here.

Happy hunting.

Regards,

Ryan Clarkson-Ledward,

For Money MorningLast Friday night I landed at Melbourne airport at about 11:15pm in the evening. Jumped off the plane, brisk walk down to immigration through the smart gates.

Picked up my bag, out through customs and into my brothers car as he waited for me in the pick-up bay.

We got chatting on the way back to his place. The general chitchat one takes part in when youve been on the plane for a day. How are you? Good. How was the flight? Good. You tired? Nup. You awake? Nup.

That sort of thing.

Anyway, once Id livened up a bit and got out of single syllable answers we got into deeper conversation.

As youd have it we got into the state of affairs in Aussie politics. And I started to get a little confused.

Maybe it was jetlag rearing its beastly head. Maybe it was because the state of Aussie politics is such a clustererm, such a mess.

Anyway, I genuinely found myself asking, whos the Aussie Prime Minister again? And for a brief moment I half expected the answer to be Malcolm Turnbull. You see when I was last in Australia that was the correct answer.

But the answer this time was Scott Morrison.

Ah, yes, that bloke, I found myself responding. Of course I knew this. But only because I pay attention to Australian news. Why it was a little harder to recall is that the rest of the world doesnt really give a stuff.

You see I love coming back to Australia. I love the country, the people, the food, the sporttheres a lot to love. But the moment I leave and head back to the UK I quickly come to the awakening that the rest of the world doesnt share the same enthusiasm.

Sure, people love to holiday here. And people know Australia is big, beautiful and hot. But thats about the extent of it.

Australia barely registers overseas when it comes to anything economic, political, finance or business related. Its like we dont exist.

Thats not to say Australia isnt relevant. And its not to say our economy and business markets arent important or full of opportunity. In fact if you want to talk about opportunity the ASX could be one of the best untapped markets that most overseas investors leave for Aussie investors to raid.

Its just that outside Australia the rest of the world is primarily focused onthe rest of the world.

The problem with Aussie politics

When I eventually made it into the office this week I got chatting with Harje Ronngard and Ryan Clarkson-Ledward.

We got talking about the geopolitical scenes over in the UK. And my answer to them was its basically the same as it is in Oz, just with BREXIT in the mix.

And it is the same. Youve got a two party preferred system, Labor to the left and the Tories pretty much following suit. Its a political world where all have abandoned their core party motivations to just get stuck into the popular social issue of any given day.

Its no great surprise that the Conservative government in the UK recently held their annual conference in Birmingham. Thats up in the midlands of the UK. Meaning its outside of London. Meaning far more working class, far less wealth than down south  a far more important battleground.

Nonetheless its almost a perfect replication of the Aussie situation. And theres more effort put into inner party conflict that actual decisions for the betterment of the country.

But the problem here isnt just the kakistocracy thats running the show. The problem is the show itself.

The problem with the political scenes in Australia and the UK is that they all battle just to survive from month to month. This is thanks to the ability to knife a leader in the back, spill the ship and seize power.

Thats why since John Howards 11-year reign weve had six different Prime Ministers (Rudd twice). And average tenure of 1.83 years each.

Now let me ask you thishow much impact can you have on the future of a country with just 1.83 years on the job?

Short answer: None.

Does democracy work?

The problem with Aussie politics and the problem with the future of Australia is the political system its built on. The democracy we live under is failing. If you want another Royal Commission anytime soon, perhaps there should be one on the state of the political system.

Which begs the question, does democracy work?

Well, I wouldnt want to live in Russia or China. But youve got to give them credit for one thingconsistency. At least Putin and Jinping have been able to play the long game because theyve had a long game to play.

And maybe theres something to be said for an element of authoritarian rule. The difference youd want is to have come of a base without the social injustice and crimes against humanity.

But what if there was a way to adopt this long game approach to a democracy like Australia? A change of law that meant when you became Prime Minister (democratically elected) you were in the office for five years, guaranteed.

No one from your party could oust you. There wouldnt be another federal election for five years. You would have free reign to implement and see through the things you promised youd do to make the country great again.

And if you did a good job, and did it well, youd probably get another five years. Or if you stunk it up and turned things into the dust bowl, well the outcome would be pretty clear  out you go.

Theres no perfect fix to the issues of making a country relevant in the future. And for a country like Australia being relevant in the future is something we need to work towards.

But you wont have a future with a turnover every 1.83 years. Maybe Russia and China have the system figured out. Maybe we should be more like them.

Regards,

Sam Volkering,

Editor, Secret Crypto Network

PS:There are two different flavours that mix two common all-time favourite ingredients together - coffee and caramel & coffee and chocolate.

The drink appears to boast sophisticated flavours that are intended to linger on the palate.



The drink seems it would be delicious as a standalone drink, or to spice up a cocktail, or no doubt will be tried in a delicious recipie!

While it's been confirmed to be released over the ditch in Australia there is no official word that it will be coming to our shores. Fingers crossed if it goes well over there they will bring it to us!A slew of lenders are part of Lender Network, including Scotiabank, First National, CMLS, Equitable Bank, and the Paradigm Quest group of lenders. Brokers will be able to securely pull credit from Equifax and TransUnion and then submit their files seamlessly.

Lendesk will soon announce additional lenders. It will operate on a pilot basis to start to ensure operations run smoothly.

Over the last year and a half, weve confidentially and quietly contracted with and built integrations to lender partner systems, continued Conconi. Its a big undertaking just connecting our system to one of these lenders and its something that can take many months, depending on where things are at with the lender. The announcement shows that weve made a lot of progress and we have a lot of support from a lot of lenders to make this a reality.

While Lender Network will surely make filing applications leaps and bounds easier, not to mention faster, lenders, too, are rejoicing.

CMLS is committed to the broker channel and to engaging with its broker partners in ways that enhance the flow of communication, data and documents, said Dan Putnam, senior vice president of business development at CMLS Financial. The Lendesk Lender Network launch should help enhance all of the above.Nomura Holdings America and affiliates will pay a $480 million penalty to resolve allegations that it misled investors about the quality of shoddy mortgage-backed securities during the run-up to the financial crisis, according to the Justice Department.

The US Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of New York claimed that Nomuras investors, including university endowments, retirement funds and federally insured financial institutions, suffered significant losses due to the banks misconduct.

This settlement holds Nomura accountable for its fraudulent conduct in connection with its residential mortgage-backed securities offerings, which caused substantial harm to investors and contributed to the financial crisis of 2008, said US Attorney Richard P. Donoghue. The Department of Justice, this office and our partners will continue to aggressively pursue wrongdoing in our financial markets, including, as appropriate, financial crisis-era misconduct.Pretium Partners has announced that it has agreed to acquire the parent company of Selene Finance, a Houston-based residential mortgage servicing company.

The investment management firm focused on real estate, mortgage finance, and corporate credit will acquire Selene Holdings from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management and Ranieri Partners. Selene Holdings also includes SelecTitle, a title services company, and New Diligence Advisors, a third-party diligence and advisory services firm.

Selene Finance is a special servicer of nonperforming, re-performing, REO, and performing loans. With more than 500 full-time employees, the company is able to service in all 50 states.ODESSA  Drones are increasingly filling Permian Basin skies, and several were on display at the Permian Basin International Oil Show.

From surveys of well and tank battery containment sites to mapping assets, such as newly-acquired wells to power lines or pipelines, companies like Open Range Field Services and its partners Lythix, which specializes in electrical engineering, and SkyHawk UAS are keeping busy.

"Both companies have been busy with pipeline right-of-way" for pre-construction surveys for the pipeline projects being proposed for the region, said Michael Wight, mapping tech and UAV services lead with Open Range.

OIL SHOW COVERAGE: Group from Minnesota develops, sells pipe handler

Wight said he also sees demand for drone surveys when wells change ownership.

"Asset mapping," agreed Shane Gaskell, project coordinator. "Also, responses to 811 calls" to map pipelines before someone begins excavation.

The drones are also used to locate lines in relation to new-drill wells, from flowlines to pipelines.

"We even have calls from local residents for property surveys," Gaskell said.

He pointed to one drone that can survey 150 acres in 25 minutes.

Both Wight and Gaskell said they hire people all over the country, from Michigan to West Virginia to Texas to help with surveys. Gaskell said the company is currently seeking surveyors locally but having a difficult time due to the high cost of housing.

"The plus side is, we have a lot of work," he said.The following article is written by Angel Fernandez Alvarez and translated by Joshua Gregor.

This October 31, I will give a conference entitled The Spanish School of the XVI and XVII Centuries at Harvard University, in order to explain in detail the institutional framework and the principles of growth upheld by the late Spanish scholastics.

In the conference, organized by the Harvard Real Colegio Complutense, I will explain the importance of Christian humanism, which spread especially from the University of Salamanca but also from other Spanish universities such as Alcala, Valladolid, Palencia, Valencia, and Seville.

As a result of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, an initial globalization took place, with migrations of the European population to the New World. Maritime transport and trade increased in the Atlantic Ocean, which created a need to study the moral disputes arising from colonization and market transactions.

For this reason, Spanish professors and academics studied political and economic questions during the process of colonization and Christianization of the New World in the 16th and 17th centuries, in works by dozens of significant authors. Among these we can note Francisco de Vitoria, Domingo de Soto, Diego de Covarrubias, Martin de Azpilcueta, Tomas de Mercado, Luis Sarabia de la Calle, Pedro de Valencia, Pedro de Aragon, Luis de Molina, Francisco de Suarez, Juan de Mariana, Juan de Salas and Juan de Lugo.

The Spanish scholastic authors thought of the market as a natural order (something that exists independently of the human will) that arises spontaneously from the exercise of freedom in sociocultural interactions and commercial exchanges among the thousands of people that live in a given region.

In 2015 I defended my doctoral thesis on Juan de Mariana (1536-1624) at the Complutense University of Madrid. In it I showed that Fr. Marianas scholastic ideas are present in the English moral philosopher John Locke (1536-1624) and in the American founding father and second president John Adams (1735-1826). Here I will briefly explain Marianas influence on Locke and Adams, based on documentary evidence cited and included in the doctoral thesis and the book The Spanish School of Economics.

Juan de Marianas influence on the moral philosopher John Locke

Analyzing the ideas of the English moral philosopher John Lockes book Two Treatises of Government (1689), we observe a strong likeness to Marianas ideas regarding the origin of civilized society, sovereignty entrusted to government by the people, the origin of private property, the importance of property, the principle of the peoples consent before tax hikes or changes in the laws, and even the limitation of political power by the right of opposition to leaders that act as tyrants by attacking private property. This can be read in Marianas work De Rege et Regis institutione (1599).

While professing Anglicanism, John Locke read at least two works of the Catholic Jesuit Mariana. For one, he cited Marianas work Historia de rebus Hispaniae (1592) in his essay on the history of navigation. We also find that Marianas work De ponderibus et mensuris was in Lockes private library. In fact, Locke recommended the reading of Mariana for the education of a gentleman, as he held Marianas thought in high esteem.

Locke wrote his book to give impulse to the ideas upheld by the Glorious Revolution (1688) and to secure the establishment of modern parliamentarianism in England. Curiously, though, his works also gave intellectual grounding for the American Revolution (1775-1783), which triumphed with the drafting of the US Constitution in 1787 and the Bill of Rights in 1789, containing the first ten amendments to the Constitution. These documents set up a limited government by means of an institutional framework with the following characteristics:

Sovereignty belongs to the people and is merely entrusted to the government.

Rights and individual liberties are guaranteed, and private property in particular is protected to the highest degree.

The principle of consent of citizens is established, which translates into free elections and more recently to the holding of referendums.

Executive government is limited by the legislative Congress and also by the selection of judges and independent tribunals.

Defense of individual rights, the market, and limited government

In my doctoral thesis I showed that Juan de Marianas works and Spanish scholastic ideas not only spread in Europe among the Protestant scholastics (as Joseph Schumpeter [1883-1950] called Hugo Grotius, Samuel Pudendorf, and John Locke), but also crossed the Atlantic and moved to America.

Juan de Mariana offered a resounding defense of private property from political power, justifying the right of opposition (overthrow or rebellion) to tyrants. In fact, he established limits to political power in the form of institutions such as the defense of property and the principle of consent before changes in laws, tax raises, and even currency debasement. Because of this firm defense of citizens individual rights and freedoms, Juan de Marianas works were suppressed by absolutist governments in Europe. Thanks to printing and the use of Latin as the academic language of the time, however, his scholastic ideas were replicated in in the works of Protestant authors such as Grotius, Pudendorf and Locke, and even in the works of the founding fathers of the United States, including the second president, John Adams.

Juan de Marianas influence on the founding father John Adams

Like Locke, Adams was an inveterate bibliophile and assembled a library of more than 3000 volumes, with books in Greek, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and English.

John Adams published A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America in 1787. This work references the ideas, paragraphs and pages of the work Excellencie of a Free-State (1654) by the English journalist Marchamont Nedham, where Juan de Mariana is cited in relation to the limitation of executive power and the separation of legislative power.

Besides this, a letter survives written by Adams to John Taylor, dated December 14, 1814, in which Adams affirmed the following regarding Juan de Mariana:

But to come nearer home, in Search of causes which arrest our Efforts. Here I am like the Wood cutter on Mount Ida, who could not See Wood, for Trees, Mariana wrote a Book De Regno, in which he had the temerity to insinuate that Kings were instituted for good and might be deposed if they did nothing but Evil. Of course the Book was prohibited and the Writer persecuted I already feel, all the ridicule, of hinting at my poor four volumes of Defence and Discourses on Davila, after quoting Mariana, Harrington Sydney and Montesquieu. But I must submit to the imputation of vanity, arrogance, presumption, dotage, or insanity, or what you will because I have still a Curiosity to see what turn will be taken by public affairs in this Country and others. Where can We rationally look for the Theory or practice of Government, but to Nature and Experiment?

John Adams, in fact, was looking for Juan de Marianas work on political economy entitled De Rege et Regis institutione (1599), until he received a copy dated 1611, corresponding to a second edition published in 1605. This was a gift to Adams from Thomas Brand Hollis on April 7, 1788, when Adams was only two weeks from finishing his diplomatic mission in Europe and returning to America. The work is in John Adamss private library and is conserved in the Boston Public Library.

In my doctoral thesis and in the book The Spanish School of Economics, I explain in detail how the English moral philosopher John Locke and the founding father John Adams bought, read and cited the works of Juan de Mariana, and used the Spanish Jesuits ideas on political economy. As a result we can say that Mariana, as one of the principal exponents of the Spanish school of the 16th and 17th centuries, was a precursor of the tradition of freedom in England and the United States, since his works influenced authors who gave impulse to the institutions on which liberal democracies are based.

Angel Fernandez Alvarez is Jefe de Financiacion at the Spanish Ministry of Finance. His upcoming conference The Spanish School of the XVI and XVII Centuries will be held at Harvard Universitys Real Colegio Complutense on October 31, 2018.

(Photo credit: Ana Saiz Garcia, David Fernandez Vaamonde, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.5.)ODESSA - There is no oilfield activity in Minnesota. But that didn't stop a group of entrepreneurs from entering the business.

"I'm an entrepreneur who was asking how to get in oil and gas," said Michael Jeseritz, chief executive officer of Hawker Well Works, which manufactures a hydraulic laydown machine called the Hawker Pipe Handler.

"It lifts tubing to the workover rigs. (And) they can use our machine to take pipe out and place it on the pipe rack," Jeseritz said while standing at the booth he was sharing with Rig Works. "It eliminates the need for manual labor, it's more efficient, and it's safer."

He said the company began with travels to the Bakken Shale play in North Dakota, where he and an ownership group with varying backgrounds put together a prototype of the machine.

OIL SHOW COVERAGE: Exhibits focus on automation, lifting resources to surface

"We gave it to a company for free and asked them to use it," he recounted. The company later came back to Hawker with a list of changes that should be made. Those changes were incorporated, the company used the updated machine again and loved it, he said.

"We focused on North Dakota right away and then branched out to other regions," Jeseritz said. "Now, we have units in all the U.S. producing basins and in South America."

In fact, he said he was delivering three units to Permian Basin clients this week.

The units are manufactured in Minnesota, and the company contracts with companies in the producing regions to assist with service and support. Rig Works has helped Hawker in the Permian Basin, he said.

"We're developing some new products, some smaller units, some larger units, some skid units," he reported, saying the developments are driven by Hawker's customers. "We get a lot of feedback from our customers," he said.

Standing at the outdoor exhibit amid cold temperatures and misting rain, he said the weather may have been iffy, but he had seen good traffic. "It's been a good show," he said.ODESSA -- The Permian Basin International Oil Show is in full swing at the Ector Country Coliseum. The weather might be cold and wet, but the experience is unforgettable. Touring the grounds can be overwhelming with the number of booths and free promotional items.

To start out the morning, coffee is a must. Free coffee is everywhere, but a lucky few might find free Starbucks coffee in the main building, which is labeled J on the map. Most booths had donuts or muffins to entice people to stop and listen to presentations for a while.

Stop by Environmental Specialties International, Inc. (D-29 through D-30) and Shamon Miller will give a shoe shine or weather-proof boots for the puddles waiting outside between buildings. Remember to bring a lot of business cards to drop in prize giveaway boxes, which are mostly Yeti coolers.

Midlands Safety Training Center (Building J) has a free raffle for a framed oil well print. Anyone who would like to enter needs to complete simple tasks while wearing drunk goggles. There are four goggles that represent four different BAC content levels. Complete a task wearing one of the goggles and receive two tickets to put in the raffle. Other booths had virtual reality headsets that let people view different machines the company builds.

A bald eagle named Challenger appeared with the American Eagle Foundation at the Eagle Rubber & Supply Booth (D-56 through D-59). According to a press release, Challenger was blown from a wild nest as a baby during a storm. He was hand-raised by his rescuers and imprinted on humans. Despite two attempts to release him back into the wild, he kept landing near humans for food. With the American Eagle Foundation, Challenger helps educate people about his species and has been on national TV numerous times.

Food and beverage are plentiful among booths. The Odessa Chuck Wagon Gang Feed is ready to feed any hungry traveler to the oil show. Barbecue is the main entree, served fresh and hot. Domestic beers are cool and waiting at Wellhead Systems Inc. (OS-221 through OS-223). Despite this booth being located outside, the tent is kept warm by fire pits, and patrons can indulge in hot chocolate as well.

NAPA Auto and Trunk Parks (OS-107 through OS-124) has a high striker to test any attendees strength, and he or she could possibly win a hat. The Old Timers Rig and Lounge is a good stop for learning about the history of oil production.

The Permian Basin Oil Show is a cultural experience. To understand the oil industry people simply need to attend and listen to conversations going on around them.ODESSA -- For a few days every couple of years, the Permian Basin is a hodge-podge of diversity, even though everyone is gathered for the same reason.

The Permian Basin International Oil Show truly gives a global flair to West Texas. This year, exhibitors and attendees have come from as far and wide as Argentina and Vietnam.

Monica Tschauner, director of the Odessa Convention and Visitors Bureau, described the shows lure.

It brings people from all over the country, she said. Ive seen people here from China and from other countries. Its a huge event, and people start calling to plan for that trip.

For one oil show veteran, the upturn in the economy has proven troublesome logistically. Brad Warner is from Camrose, Alberta, Canada. He works for Meridian Manufacturing as a business development manager and has attended the last four oil shows.

Compared to the last show, this year he noticed more people in the aisles and more parking problems.

Last time I was able to get parking right out front, and this time Im not even sure where Im at, Warner said.

He credits this all to the boom.

When its going good, its really good. Its amazing how they ramped up after the downturns, Warner said.

Lodging proved to be a hassle. His first mistake was booking his hotel room just six weeks ago. He found a room for $100 a night in Snyder.

$100-a-night hotel room is better than ($400-) or-$500-a-night, Warner said. Ive done this rodeo a few times Ill have a look at Midland, but generally its too rich, price-wise.

Warner also had to fly into the Lubbock airport, which saved him about $900. I probably should have booked a year ago, he said.

Vincent Huang said he needed to book his hotel six months ago and fly into Houston. His company, Entire Coupling Co. Ltd., is based in Taiwan and has another operation in Vietnam. He flew three hours from Vietnam to Taiwan and then another 13 hours to Houston. Texas is the capital of energy, so we need to be here, Huang said.

The business does casting and engineering for machines. They design and produce all the products in Vietnam and Taiwan. Huang said he came to the show from Vietnam because he has many customers here who are oil-related.

Attending the Permian Basin International Oil Show seemed like a good way for one attendee to introduce area oil companies to the possibility of trade with Argentina.

Thats why Enrique Caceres came to Odessa, representing the Argentina Texas Chamber of Commerce.

Caceres, who lives in Buenos Aires, is managing director of Diadema USA. He said the 3-year-old chamber wants to foster trade between his country and Texas in energy, real estate, food, wine and agriculture. Argentina is home to the Vaca Muerta Shale play, believed to hold the worlds fourth largest shale reserves.

We are trying to sell in Argentina, said Allen Lindsey, president and chief executive officer of D-Jax Corp. Enrique has been invaluable to those efforts.

He dismissed concerns about the Trump administrations trade policies, saying, I think theres a lot of hype going on, and when all the dust settles, itll be fine.

Caceres agreed, saying the region recently has seen significant improvement in stability, with the only problem in the region being Venezuela.

There was an Argentina-based company in attendance this year. Duxaoil Texas is a member of Duralitte Group that is based in Argentina; it has another headquarters in Brazil.

According to the companys website, Duxaoil Texas was founded in 2013 in response to the growing demand from the international oil market. From its headquarters in Houston, Duxaoil Texas supplies to the regions of North America, Central America and the Caribbean and the Persian Gulf.

The company is opening a new plant in Houston this year. Agustin Niejadlik works in sales, and said having contact with customers helped them make it out to the oil show. The company presents at five or six shows around the country each year, Niejadlik said, but this is the first time in the Permian Basin.

Its a good show, its bigger compared to others.

The government of Mexico was also represented. The Ah Chihuahua! booth is promoting the energy industry of the state of Chihuahua and representing the government.

Jorge Lopez, director of energy for the state of Chihuahua, said many companies in Chihuahua create pipelines, tanks and forge other products to sell here in West Texas. Chihuahua has a great supply potential for the oil and gas industry, Lopez said.

West Texas is connected to Chihuahua by La Entrada al Pacifico, a state- and federally designated trade corridor beginning in Midland-Odessa and extends to the Mexican Pacific costal state of Sinaloa. The concept was developed by the Midland Odessa Transportation Alliance and the Departments of Economic Development of the States of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango.

According to motran.org, the trade route with Mexico diversifies the economy to provide stability during the ups and downs.

The development of the La Entrada al Pacifico corridor, associated pipelines, and bringing the West Texas Export Assistance office to the Midland-Odessa area have all been critical components of this process, according to the website. Chihuahua is one of the four largest trading partner states with the United States and the corridor captures many of this trade for Texas, read the website.

One exhibitor truly embraces what it means to be an international company.

Triol Corp. is a manufacturer of equipment in fields of oil production and power electronics based in Kharkov, Ukraine. All their products are developed and manufactured in Ukraine. The company has a headquarters in Houston and with a presence in North America, South America, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia.

Marietta Avanesian, a client support specialist from Ukraine, said Triol became a part of the oil show after customers told them they should participate. Avanesian said it was difficult to get the booth here, but they sent their partners some advertising material from Ukraine and brought over equipment. Overall, Texas has given a good first impression.

I like it; its very interesting to see all these people. Its very diverse from Ukraine. A lot of the style, people, everything, Avanesian said.

The same rings true for Chris White, president of Fruitland Manufacturing of Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada

The environment has been great; people are terrific, everybody is interested, he said. We have a very strong client base here, at the oil show, have for many years. Our pump is probably the primary pump used for fracking, for frack water  transporting water to and from the frack sites, said White. Midland-Odessa, and this whole area, is very important to us.

Because the show is every two years, he said its important to just be here and make it work. Attendance has been good, and the rainy weather has driven people from outside to inside the buildings where their booth is.

For Nikolai Korniyuk, who works in marketing and business development for Riger, things in West Texas arent so different after all.

We live in Canada, so its the same continent, and its the same culture. We dont have much of a difference. Its just the travel, he said. Travel in our case was just four hours, two flights  one connection in Denver.

However, even other Canadians agreed the weather here was cold.

This year its a little uncomfortable, but in general  Ive been up and down here a few times  people are very friendly, I find, said Earl Secord, business development representative for Volant out of Alberta, Canada.

The company is opening a new facility in Katy next week and Secord estimates about 10 to 20 percent of their business is in Texas, primarily with running tools.

This year has been very strong; theres a lot more turnout than there was two years ago. Obviously, the economy is driving that.

Despite the weather, attendees are finding whats best about West Texas: the people.

People are warm, so it makes up for the weather, said Corbin Coyes, president of Tangentflow Inc. from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

He has visited Texas eight times a year for the last 10 years because nearly all his clientele and suppliers are here. I love West Texas, and I love the weather but it is cold.

Erika ORiordan with Tangentflow said the show is very organized, and the people of West Texas are very hospitable. She said there is a lot of diversity with the exhibitors and they were able to make a lot of networking connections, which is important for a global business.

For a small guy at a big show, it really helps the companys footprint, Coyes said.

Tangentflow has just started production in Lockhart, near Austin, to help companies be more profitable, Coyes said. He estimated half of his business is in West Texas.

Overall, West Texas has oil to thank for its booming economy and international pull. However, Warner best summarized the atmosphere as cautiously optimistic that the boom will hang around a while this time.

Mella McEwen and Simone Jasper contributed to this reportA toddler abandoned Wednesday night on his neighbor's front porch in Spring is expected to be reunited tonight with his family and the woman who left the boy there could face criminal charges, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said.

The woman  a friend of the child's mother  was apparently supposed to drop the 2-year-old off at his father's house in the afternoon, said Lt. Scott Spencer of the sheriff's office. When that didn't happen, the father assumed plans had changed and left his residence.

AMBUSHED: Two arrested in armed robbery of pizza delivery man

What followed was a series of events that angered the boy's father and shocked many Houston-area residents and law enforcement. Surveillance video showed the friend bringing the boy to a neighbor's house instead of the father's -- and leaving the child alone there at night.

"If that was her child, she wouldn't have left him," said the boy's father, Willie Simmons, as he stood on his doorstop Thursday morning while he spoke with the media. "She ain't have no business leaving my son right there. I try to hold it in, I can't hold that in, man. I can't keep holding that in. Just imagine if my nice neighbors weren't there. My son would have wandered in the street and got hit. Just imagine nobody would have been there. He just would have been walking."

Deputies were called to the 30700 block of Legends Ridge Drive in Spring around 8:20 p.m. after the homeowner discovered the toddler on her doorstep without an adult.

Video surveillance showed the woman arriving at the home while she carried the boy by one arm. She knocked on the door and rang the doorbell before leaving the boy on the step, along with two bags she'd also been carrying, Spencer said.

The whole incident lasted 23 seconds.

The woman left the scene in a white passenger car. She hasn't spoken to authorities, but the sheriff's office now knows her identity, Spencer said at a news conference. She was originally described as being in her mid-20s to early 30s.

Officials don't believe that she is on the run from the law at this time.

Authorities found the father after a member of the news media saw him leaving his residence Thursday and asked if he knew anything about the boy, Spencer said. He watched the video and recognized the child as his son.

Law enforcement knocked on every door nearby, including the father's, after the child was found alone, Spencer said. The father wasn't home at the time.

Simmons said the woman's actions Wednesday night were upsetting. "They done that for excitement ... cause she's laughing. On the camera she's laughing, he he's a toy, like it's a joke."

"Every time I watch that video I'm upset. You don't do that.

The mother of the child was in the hospital during the incident and was discharged this morning. She believed she was handing the boy to a responsible adult, Spencer said.

Simmon's next-door neighbor said she thought the incident was a "miscommunication."

"I just thought maybe our dog had gotten out. It was late, and our neighbors have kids and I thought it was something neighborly," said the woman, who requested to be identified as Mary. When (the child) didn't have an adult, we knocked on the doors and nobody was home, so we reviewed the video and saw that he'd been left and then we called the police.

"But it was always, we think this is just a wrong-house situation," she said. "Nobody thought it was totally random. It was more like, he belongs to somebody close by. It was a miscommunication."

Child Protective Services took custody of the 2-year-old, who is doing well and doesn't seem to be aware of what happened, Spencer said.

He's currently in foster care and is waiting to be reunited with his family.

"I can confirm that CPS is investigating and the child is safe, healthy, no signs of abuse and is happy," said Tejal Patel, spokeswoman of the Department of Family and Protective Services for the Greater Houston area. She later stated that the child was expected to be at home with his mother Thursday night.

The woman in the video could face charges of child abandonment, a third-degree felony. She hadn't been interviewed by authorities at the time of the press conference.Winchester musician Stuart Smith has been there, done that when it comes to cutting a debut album in Nashville, Tennessee.

Twelve years ago, I put out an album I did in Nashville, he said. I traveled behind it and did that for about two years.

Then he branched into ministry for the next decade.

When he got the chance to make a second album a dozen years later, he deliberately did things a bit differently.

The first album, its completely different, Smith said. I was working in Christian music at the time, had producers kind of dictating what I was doing. It was very within a certain vein.

If his new album falls within a particular vein, its all his vein, he said.

Its more about who I am, Smith said of War Horse, a folk-blues-jazz-Americana album that he considers his true debut album.

Featuring album art by Springfield artist Kevin Veara and performances by a range of central Illinois musicians, it will be released Friday on digital, CD and vinyl, and via iTunes, Amazon and Spotify, among others.

Ive spent time since (that first album) playing blues and jazz and music in the church, Smith said. All of those things that have happened musically in the past 10 years have found their way onto the album. Its a much better representation of who I am. You live a lot in 10 years, your writing becomes different, the way you see the world is different.

Smith wrote most of the songs on the album during a three-month period about a year ago. He spent the next five months recording  pulling a lot of musician friends into the studio with him.

Over the past decade Ive made a lot of friends and played with a lot of people, he said. Theyre as good as any (musician) Ive ever met. People Ive met on blues gigs, jazz gigs, people who played with me at church and have continued to play with me.

He wanted all of them on War Horse, and the resulting juggling of schedules took time. So did getting the end result how he wanted it, including the albums available formats.

Really, the manufacturing side of it has taken as long as the recording, Smith said. Fellow musicians Tom Irwin and William Fitzsimmons have been down this road before and were able to steer me where I needed to go.

One challenge? Smiths determination to have the album available as a true vinyl record album.

I love vinyl records, he said. I wasnt willing to compromise on that.

He was so unwilling to compromise on vinyl that, after getting the CD copies of the album on Friday, he drove to Memphis, Tennessee, to pick up the vinyl record albums on Monday.

He also took advantage of his quick trip to Tennessee to swing by the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis to record tracks for a six-song EP he hopes to release at some point in the not-too-distant future.

As soon as Im done with one thing, I have to start looking at the next thing, Smith said. Part of the reason I did this EP is that my writing has changed, even since the album. I dont want to sit on these songs until I do another album in two years.

First, though, he gets to launch War Horse  a few times.

Smith will have a pre-release show at 7 p.m. today at Dr. Ugs in Virginia, a release show with almost everyone who plays on the album at 7 p.m. Friday at Danenberger Family Vineyards in New Berlin, and a solo acoustic release show at 6 p.m. Saturday at Nuccis in Pittsfield.

Instead of finding (one) venue to do it all in, when I started doing this a year ago, those were the three places  each has a unique venue and theyve been supportive from the beginning, Smith said.  The places you play at, the people you play with, they kind of become family. Its more personal doing shows at those places.

Choosing just one wasnt an option, in Smiths mind.

Each of the places, they all have their own audiences, people who have come to just the shows there, he said. All of the owners love music.  I thought, lets just do something unique at each of them, so thats what were going to do.

Angela Bauer can be reached at 217-408-2057.JERSEYVILLE  Traditionally in the United States, Arbor Day is celebrated in the spring with communities, groups and individuals planting trees.

However, thanks to the Jerseyville Rotary Club, there was an Arbor Day celebration on Oct. 12-13. Freshly planted Red and Pin Oak, Red Maple, Crabapple, Red Bud, Cherry, Magnolia and Cyprus trees are now taking root at Jerseyvilles Wock Family Lake Park thanks to a collaborative project headed by the Jerseyville Rotary Club.

In addition to its local fundraising efforts, the Jerseyville Rotary Club applied for and was awarded a Rotary District 6460 Grant, made possible through donations of Rotarians and the 48 Rotary Clubs within the West Central Illinois District. These funds allowed the Jerseyville Rotary Club to work with the Jersey County Soil and Water District to purchase 40 trees native to this area.

Then, with the assistance of the City of Jerseyville and the Jersey Community High School FFA, Rotarians enjoyed two days of hole digging, planting, watering, along with social interaction and other camaraderie.

The idea initially started as a challenge by Australian Ian Riseley, the 2017-18 Rotary International president. During his term, he challenged every Rotary club to make a difference by planting a tree for each of its members during his term.

The idea has carried on and grown well beyond his term in office. The Jerseyville Rotary club stepped up in response to the challenge, as well as to the City of Jerseyvilles outreach to the community asking for help with purchasing trees to plant at Wock Lake to help with its erosion problems.

As the local project grew, it became clear if more trees were added to the lake area, not only would Rotary be helping increase groundwater recharge and help improve water quality by preventing runoff and soil erosion, Jerseyville residents and guests would be able to enjoy the natural landscape and shade over the next several decades while walking, fishing, or just visiting Jerseyvilles Wock Family Lake Park.

In addition to the erosion prevention and scenic aspects of planting trees, U.S. Department of Agriculture data notes that one acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. So tree-planting also contributes to addressing climate issues due to the ability of trees to absorb carbon dioxide. Trees are also an important part of storm-water management in many cities and provide valuable habitat for local wildlife.

It is my hope that the result of that effort will be far greater than the environmental benefit that those 1.2 million new trees will bring, Riseley said. I believe the greater result will be a Rotary that recognizes our responsibility not only to the people on our planet, but to the planet itself. Jerseyville Rotary is honored to be assisting in this global project on a local level.

If you are interested in finding out more about Rotary International and the Jerseyville Rotary Club, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, contact any member, visit the groups Facebook page (Rotary Club of Jerseyville, Illinois) or stop by one of our regularly schedule lunch meetings most Mondays at starting at noon at the Jerseyville Peace United Church of Christ.Over the past few decades tornadoes have been shifting  decreasing in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas but spinning up more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, a new study shows. Scientists arent quite certain why.

Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in Wednesdays journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas. Even with the decline, Texas still gets the most tornadoes of any state.

The shift could be deadly because the area with increasing tornado activity is bigger and home to more people, said study lead author Victor Gensini, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Northern Illinois University. Also more people live in vulnerable mobile homes and tornadoes are more likely to happen at night in those places, he said.

Even though Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma get many more tornadoes, the four deadliest states for tornadoes are Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

More folks are generally at risk because of that eastward shift, Gensini said.

Because tornadoes sometimes go undercounted, especially in the past and in less populous areas, scientists dont like to study trends by using counts of tornadoes. Gensini and tornado scientist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Lab looked at significant tornado parameters, a measurement of the key ingredients of tornado conditions. It looks at differences between wind speed and direction at different altitudes, how unstable the air is and humidity. The more of those three ingredients, the more likely tornadoes will form.

The increases in this measurement mirrored slightly smaller increases found in number of twisters.

The study looked at changes since 1979. Everywhere east of the Mississippi, except the west coast of Florida, is seeing some increase in tornado activity. The biggest increase occurred in states bordering the Mississippi River.

Overall there is a slight increase in tornado activity, but its not too much and not nearly like whats happening in the east, Gensini said.

Why is this happening?

We dont know, Gensini said. This is super consistent with climate change.

As the Great Plains dry out, theres less moisture to have the type of storms that spawn tornadoes, Gensini said. Tornadoes form along the dry line where there are more thunderstorms because theres dry air to the west and moist air from the Gulf of Mexico to the east.

That dry line is moving east.

This is what you would expect in a climate change scenario, we just have no way of confirming it at the moment, Gensini said.

Gensini said unless there are specific detailed studies, he and others cannot say this is caused by global warming, just that it looks like what is expected.

Pennsylvania State University meteorology professor Paul Markowski, who wasnt part of the research, praised the study as careful and well done.During her contract signing with ABS-CBN yesterday, October 17, it was revealed that Regine is set to be a judge, not on 'The Voice Philippines', but on the 'Search for the Idol Philippines', a local version of American Idol.She will also have a new sitcom with hubby Ogie Alcasid and Ian Veneracion, and will also be part of ASAP starting on its Sydney show this coming Saturday.Exciting!Now, I can't wait to see Regine doing movies for Star Cinema, doing concerts and guesting on Kapamilya shows like GGV and Magandang Buhay.Before moving to ABS-CBN, she was with GMA 7 for 2 decades.Back in 2008, the Asia's Songbird almost transferred to ABS-CBN when she expressed interest to do 'Betty La Fea'. However, it didn't push through as the titular role went to Bea Alonzo and Regine remained as a Kapuso, and did 'Ako si Kim Samsoon' instead. Mykiru.phChristopher Clark TCSO Booking Photo View Photos

Sonora, CA  A Jamestown man faces a decades-long state prison term in connection with a murderous attack on his spouse that led to an eight-hour standoff with deputies.

According to Tuolumne County District Attorney Laura Krieg, this week Judge James A. Boscoe sentenced 42-year-old Christopher Clark to 12 years plus seven years to life in prison in connection with the horrific attack and aftermath that occurred last Oct. 12 at Oak Hills Apartments on Preston Lane, as reported here.

On Sept. 14, as reported here, Clark was convicted on several related offenses, among which were: first-degree premeditated attempted murder; inflicting injury to a spouse causing great bodily injury; false imprisonment causing great bodily injury; criminal threats, and resisting an executive officer with force or violence.

Krieg explains that the first part of his dozen years of prison time covers all but the premeditated, first-degree murder conviction. Upon completing that sentence, Clark will begin his seven years to life sentence.The 18-year-old shot and killed by San Antonio police early Wednesday on the West Side was unarmed and was struck by a bullet fired at another occupant of the home, officials said.

Charles Roundtree died inside a home in the 200 block of Roberts Street after police responded to a call for an assault around 1:25 a.m., said San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.

McManus initially said the officer spotted a weapon in a person's waistband and later "wound up using deadly force on that individual."

Wednesday afternoon, he revised that to say the officer fired at a 24-year-old who was reaching for a gun in his waistband. The bullet went through that person, who has not been identified, and struck Roundtree.

The suspect, who was still recovering in the hospital Wednesday, is someone with an "extensive record with police," McManus said. Officers recovered the pistol the suspect had and also found drugs in the home.

RELATED: Fatal head-on collision snarls traffic on I-10 West near Leon Springs

"It's a very, very unfortunate, tragic incident that happened," McManus said. "Unfortunately, that person who was just sitting there was killed by a bullet fired at someone who was attempting to use deadly force against police."

Despite the outcome, McManus still credited the officer for his handling of the situation.

"The approach was very professional," he said. "It was simply an inquiry. There was nothing hostile about it and unfortunately the reaction from the individual with the gun was something he should not have done."

The officer, who has been with San Antonio police for five years, has not been identified and was put on administrative duty. McManus did not say how many shots he fired.

The home was also one police were familiar with, the police chief said. Officers have responded to that home more than 50 times this year and roughly 100 times the previous year. The house, which McManus said was known for drug activity, was even the subject of a Dangerous Assessment Response Team investigation.

According to police, officers responded to the home because someone was trying to sell something but was attacked by a person inside. When police arrived they found the front door slightly ajar. An officer knocked and the door opened up, McManus said.

Jason Caldwell, Roundtree's cousin and lifelong friend, said he last saw Roundtree hours before the shooting. He said the house where Roundtree was killed was a friend's grandfather's house and that Roundtree had been there several times before.

RELATED: 5 deputies suspended for street brawl outside house party

"I don't know what to believe," he said. "I just want to see the body camera footage. The only people that know what happened would be my cousin, the officer and the people in the house with him."

McManus said body camera footage does not get released until they are finished with their investigation.

Roundtree was the father of a young son, Caldwell said, and spent most of his time with family. He previously attended Lanier High School but dropped out last year.

On Facebook, Caldwell mourned Roundtree's death, saying the two had made plans to grow old together and take care of their family, most of whom are based in San Antonio.

"I'm hurting," he said.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | cdowns@mysa.com |@calebjdownsThe Facebook video is nuts, but I can't tear my eyes away. A plane, struggling in a huge storm, does a 360-degree flip before safely landing and letting out terrified passengers.

It turns out the video is totally bunk, spliced together from a computer-generated clip and unrelated real news footage. But that didn't stop the Facebook post from arriving in my News Feed via a friend last month. I watched it. Maybe you did, too: It has nearly 14 million views.

Everyone now knows the web is filled with lies. So then how do fake Facebook posts, YouTube videos and tweets keep making suckers of us?

To find out, I conducted a forensic investigation of the fake that fooled my social network. I found the original creator of that CG plane clip. I spoke to the Facebook executive charged with curbing misinformation. And I confronted my friend who shared it.

The motives for a crazy plane report may be different from posts misdirecting American voters or fueling genocide in Myanmar. Yet some of the questions are the same: What makes fake news effective? Why did I end up seeing it? And what can we do about it?

Fake news creators "aren't loyal to any one ideology or geography," said Tessa Lyons, the product manager for Facebook's News Feed tasked with reducing misinformation. "They are seizing on whatever the conversation is" - usually to make money.

This year, Facebook will double the number of humans involved in fighting constantly morphing "integrity" problems on its network, to 20,000. Thanks in part to those efforts, independent fact-checkers and some new technologies, Facebook user interaction with known fake news sites has declined by 50 percent since the 2016 election, according to a study by Stanford and New York University.

But if you think you're immune to this stuff, you're wrong. Detecting what's fake in images and video is only getting harder. Misinformation is part of an online economy that weaponizes social media to profit from our clicks and attention. And with the right tools to stop it still a long ways off, we all need to get smarter about it.

The crazy plane video first appeared Sept. 13 on a Facebook page called Time News International. Its caption reads: "A Capital Airlines Beijing-Macao flight, carrying 166 people's, made an emergency landing in Shenzhen on 28 August 2018, after aborting a landing attempt in Macao due to mechanical failure, the airline said."

No real commercial plane did a 360 roll so close to the ground, but an emergency landing really did happen that August day in Macau.

Four days later, in Los Angeles, film director Aristomenis Tsirbas started getting messages from his friends. A year earlier, the computer graphics whiz had created and posted to YouTube a video he'd made showing a plane doing a 360. Someone had taken his work and used it at the beginning of a fake news report.

"I realized, oh my God, I'm part of the problem," Tsirbas told me. The artist, who has worked on "Titanic" and "Star Trek," has a hobby in creating realistic but implausible videos, often involving aliens. He posts them on YouTube, he said, in part to demonstrate CG and in part to make a little money from YouTube ads.

The photorealism of Tsirbas' clip played a big role in making the fake story go story viral. And that makes it typical: Misinformation featuring manipulated photos and videos is among the most likely to go viral, said Facebook's Lyons. Sometimes, like in this case, it employs shots from real news reports to make it seem just credible enough. "The really crazy things tend to get less distribution than the things that hit the sweet spot where they could be believable," said Lyons.

Even after decades of Photoshop and CG films, most of us are still not very good about challenging the authenticity of images - or telling the real from the fake. That includes me: In an online test made by software maker Autodesk called Fake or Foto, I correctly identified the authenticity of just 22 percent of their images.

Another lesson: Fake news often changes the context of photos and videos in ways their creators might never imagine. Tsirbas sees his work as pranks or satire, but he hasn't explicitly labeled them that way. "They are clearly fakes," he said. After we spoke, he wrote to say he'd now add a disclaimer to his CG videos: "This is a narrative work."

Satire, in particular, can lose important context unless it's baked into an image itself. Another doctored fake news image, first posted to Twitter in 2017, appears to show President Donald Trump touring a flooded area of Houston, handing a red hat to a victim. Artist Jessica Savage Broer, a Trump critic, told me she photoshopped it to make a point about how people need to "use critical thinking skills." But then earlier this year, supporters of the president started sharing it on Facebook - by the hundreds of thousands - as evidence of the president's humanitarian work.

Why would someone turn Tsirbas' airplane video into a fake news report?

There's no clear answer, but there are some clues. Time News International, the page that published it, did not respond to requests I sent via Facebook, an email address or U.K. phone number listed on its page.

Facebook's Lyons said pages posting misinformation most often have an economic motive. They post links to articles on sites with just-believable-enough names that are filled with advertisements or spyware, which might attempt to invade our online privacy.

Lyons' team shared with me a half dozen samples of fake news. But the links to money aren't always immediately clear. The Time News International page doesn't regularly link to outside articles, though it posts a lot of outrageous photos and videos about topics in the news. That has attracted it a following of 225,000 people on Facebook - a base it could direct to content it might capitalize on in the future.

Facebook and other social media companies deserve some of the blame. It's easy to grow an audience for outlandish stories when publishing doesn't require vetting, and algorithms are tuned to share the stuff that garners the greatest outrage. I saw that crazy video because Facebook decided I should.

Fake news producers also use our friends to add to their credibility. When I saw the plane video, my suspicions weren't on high alert because it came from my friend, who I trust as a smart guy. He told me he realized later the video was a fake, but thought comments on his post would alert his friends. "It's just funny thinking about the steps by which we get duped," he said.

Facebook's response to the plane video shows how far it's come in the fight with fake news - and how far we have to go.

On Sept. 17, a few days after it was posted, the video was detected by Facebook's machine-learning systems, programs that try to automatically detect fake news. The company won't disclose exactly how those work, but it said the signals include what sorts of comments people leave on posts.

Once detected, Facebook passed the video to its network of independent fact-checkers. After Snopes labeled it as "false," Facebook made it show up less often in News Feeds.

Why does the fake plane video remain up at a time when Facebook is making headlines for taking down other posts? Facebook said deletion is for violations of its community standards, such as pornography. "My job is to prevent misleading and false information from going viral," said Lyons. "Even if something is false, we don't prevent people from sharing it. We give them context."

That comes in the form of a label. Now when the video appears in a News Feed or someone attempts to share it, up pops "Additional Reporting On This," with a link to reports from fact checking organizations. Facebook said it also notified people who had already shared it, though my friend doesn't recall seeing a warning.

"I wouldn't consider this a success from our side," said Lyons. Typically, posts that Facebook demotes have an 80 percent reduction in the total number of views, so it's possible without Facebook's action, the post could have been seen by hundreds of millions. (Later, Facebook's automated systems also detected duplicates of the video being uploaded by other pages.)

It's also an issue of new media literacy. Facebook and others have produced fliers such as "Tips for spotting false news," but it's hard to change a response that is both human and pretty fundamental to the social media experience. There have always been hoaxes, but perhaps we need time to internalize just how easy they've become to create.

Lyons is already tracking the next generation of CG images dubbed "deep fakes" that don't even require the expertise of a creator like Tsirbas. Instead, they use artificial intelligence to splice together bits from lots of existing videos to create, for example, a fake speech by a president.

Maybe we'll eventually learn to be less trusting of our friends - at least the online ones. The people we count on for important information in the real world aren't always the people who fill our social media feeds.

Or if you want to avoid being that friend: Before you spread the latest outrage online, stop and consider the source.Nearly all of America's most beloved burger chains have made no commitment to restrict antibiotic use in their beef, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Twenty-two chains, including In-N-Out, Five Guys and Whataburger, all got failing grades on the NDRC's antibiotics report card because they've made no concrete, timeline-backed pledges to rein in their use of antibiotics in their beef supplies.

In fact, all but three major U.S. burger chains received a grade of F.

ALSO: Look inside the kitchen where Shake Shack is developing new creations

Antibiotic use in meat production can contribute to the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can then cause infections that are harder to treat, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

In some cases, antibiotics are given to food animals who are not sick in order to promote growth and head off diseases fostered by factory farming practices, according to the NDRC report, which encouraged the chains to create policies of treating only sick animals with antibiotics.

"In-N-Out Burger publicly announced in 2016 that it intended to source beef raised without

medically important antibiotics," the report says. "Despite requests to do so, the company has yet to follow through with a time-bound commitment or provide any updates on its progress."

MORE: California Dems urge boycott of In-N-Out over donation to Republican party

The report goes on to blast In-N-Out for failing to provide follow up on their 2016 promise or respond to thousands of consumer letters about its usage of antibiotics.

Some chains, like Chick Fil-A and KFC, have pledged to curb antibiotics use in their chicken supply, but so far fewer major burger restaurants seem to have signed on to do the same with the cows raised for beef.

Wendy's got a D-minus grade for promising to cut back on one antibiotic used in part of its beef supply. New York-based Shake Shack and the Florida-based Burger Fi got A's for their supply-chain transparency and commitment to antibiotic-free meat.

For those who are worried about antibiotics in meat, there's a silver lining here: Shake Shack lands in the Bay Area this month, first in Palo Alto. Outposts in Larkspur and San Francisco are expected to follow by next year.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterThings are about to get seriously cheesy in San Antonio.

Christian Assistance Ministry will hold its second annual Queso Meltdown Nov. 10 at its building on McCullough Avenue downtown. The showdown will pit amateur and professional cooks in a battle for San Antonios queso crown.

And this year, the heat is really on. The Queso Meltdown has partnered with Austins Quesoff. The winner of the Austin event will join the fromage fracas here, the winner walking away with bragging rights that stretch like a triple cheese pizza up and down the Interstate 35 corridor.

A $5 entry fee buys access to all that cheesy goodness  and the chips needed to scoop it all up. A $25 VIP option includes cocktails and food served in the nearby historic Dullnig House. Live music, food trucks and a bouncy house for kids to burn off all the ooey gooey excess also will be available.

The contest will be judged by a panel including chef Brian West and San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, who will be tasked with identifying the winners for best overall, and the professional and amateur categories. Participating restaurants include Acenar, Alamo Cafe, Chisme, Guillermos, Iron Cactus, Quarry Hofbrau, Ritas on the River and Torchys Tacos, among others. Attendees also will vote for an audience favorite.

Proceeds from the event will benefit CAMs ongoing efforts to provide food, clothing, financial assistance and more to area residents.

Dip your chip from from 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 10 at 110 McCullough. More information and tickets at 210-223-4099 or cam-sa.org.

Paul Stephen is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephenMILFORD  Hindu temples were few and far between in Connecticut just two decades ago. Now there are at least 15 in the state with the latest one just opened in Milford.

At the moment, the temple at 25 Research Drive isnt much to look at as Hindu temples go. Its a former industrial, warehouse and office building that was built in 1975.

But with its 17,000 square feet and its large open spaces, leaders say there are plenty of possibilities for the building.

The temple in Milford is a member of the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) denomination, one of several Hindu spiritual lineages.

Its two principal deities, Swaminarayan and his successor, Gunatitanand Swami, stand at the center of the elaborate shrine built inside the sanctum. They are flanked by statues, or murtis, of seven other deities and photos of five of the most important gurus in the BAPS linage, including the current spiritual successor Mahant Swami Maharajwho took over in 2016.

This is significant because were the 100th BAPS temple to open in North American, said Harshav Ravel, one of several volunteers on hand for opening day on Oct. 7. Joining him were more than 300 BAPS followers, the women dressed in colorful silk saris.

Mahant Swami Maharaj speaks about a lot of things, and one of his most important messages has to do with unity  unity within the family, within the community, within the temple and also unity within the world as well, said Ravel. He teaches that we should see good in others, and thats one of the most important reasons for this temple  to pass these ideas on to the next generation.

At the opening ceremony, scores of plates brimming with sweets were placed in front of the shrine by members as a demonstration of their devotion to the deities and their teachings.

Ravel said the purpose of the temple goes beyond that of the teachings of Mahant Swami Maharaj and his predecessors.

Its also keeping the culture of India alive  the music, the dramas and language, he said.

The temple also has a small shop that sells items from India.

Since 1985, the Milford building was owned by the Teamsters Tri-State Health Insurance Plan. It was appraised at $1.8 million.

This temple is a work in progress, said Falgun Patel, another volunteer. Come back in a few weeks and youll see some real changes.

The new Milford temple joins another recently opened temple in Stratford, the Hindu Cultural Center. That temple is on Chapel Street in a building that used to be owned by the Unitarian Unilateralist Church. For a time, temple officials rented the building from the Unitarians, then bought the building outright a few years back.

HCC Vice Chairman Renu Vij admits that Hinduism can be mind-numbing to the newcomer.

The are so many books and so many deities, she said. You really have to grow up with it.

She explained that, with all Hindus, there are three principal gods that form the backbone of the religion: Brahma, who created the universe; Vishnu, who preserves the universe, and Shiva, the destroyer of evil.

At HCC, the deity that is the most important is Durga, the goddess of strength, Vij said. She added that HCC doesnt belong to any one Hindu denomination.

We are open to all  Hindus and anyone else who would like to come, she said.

HCC is also a growing temple thats undergoing improvements, Vij said.

As for language, HCC, the Milford temple  and all Hindu temples in the U.S.  are struggling with second-, third- and fourth-generation Indians who have a less-than ideal grounding in Hindi. And the preferred language in BAPS temples is Gujarati, a language spoken in Gujarat, the northwest Indian state where the BAPS originated.

The religious lessons can be difficult for the children because of the language barrier. Vij said. But some children take to it well  they know the chants, and they dance and sing.

In Milford, followers meet for services, or pujas, Sundays from 5 to 7 p.m. Theres also an assembly for children that takes place at the same time. The HCC pujas take place on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Weddings and funerals within the community rarely take place in the temple.

Some of the families that belong to HCC have husbands or wives who arent from India. For them, cooking classes and yogi lessons offer ways to participate, Vij said.

Im losing touch with Hindi myself, Vij admited. I cant write it well as I used to, but, these days, you can set the keyboard on your phone or your computer to Hindi.

Hindus arent evangelical  they dont try to convert others to their faith.

You really have to be born into it, Vij said.

jburgeson@ctpost.comNORTH HAVEN  Before a friendly crowd in his old hometown, Bob Stefanowski, the Republican candidate for governor, diverged slightly Thursday morning from his strict campaign message of cutting taxes and state spending.

He revealed a softer side, while probing class-consciousness in his campaign with Democrat Ned Lamont, a millionaire Greenwich investor.

In a solo appearance before a crowd of about 60 people in a New Haven Chamber of Commerce coffee-and-Danish forum, Stefanowski, a former corporate executive from Madison, portrayed himself as a blue-collar hope for the state, framing Lamont as a privileged prep schooler.

I went to North Haven public high school. My opponent went to Exeter, private school, up in New Hampshire, said Stefanowski, 56, who in his first campaign for elective office. My mom passed away a year ago. And my dad, hes still in the same house up here off of Ridge Road. We never bought a new car. My dad always bought used Volkswagens. My mother used to bring packets of sugar home from Glenwood (Diner) and Dinos. And Im not trying to make you feel...it was a great upbringing. We had everything we needed. And we had one vacation a year. It was a week up in Maine.

The scene for these personal revelations was Ulbrich Stainless Steels on Washington Avenue, where at least one executive, Frederick Ulbrich, contributed $500 to Stefanowskis campaign, according to state election regulators.

The first remark from the audience of mostly male, white business leaders, was a plea for Stefanowski to become more aggressive in the TV advertising on which he has primarily based his campaign, while Lamonts ads have been tying him to President Trump, whom Stefanowski has praised on the campaign trail.

Ill tell you, politics is a rough business, he said. This kind of smear campaign, it bothers me a lot.

He said that as he mother faded away from the effects of dementia, his father, Robert V. Stefanowski Sr., tried to keep her home for the final two years of her life, burning through his life savings at a rate of about $6,000 a week.

So for the other side of the aisle to say that Im not sensitive to health care, or education, is insulting to me, he said. You hit a hot button here.

He described returning from a campaign event late on a recent night, and encountering his 24-year-old daughter, a 2017 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, a former intercollegiate sailor.

Shes been home for a year now, he said. Its been great having her home, because, you know, these campaigns are tough on you. And I said, you know Lauren, its been great having you home, but its really time to fly the nest. You know, you got to go do your thing. Shes a social-welfare major and she wants to help people. But right now shes the most-educated barista in the town of Madison, Connecticut.

The event, which was a follow-up to a recent chamber forum that featured Lamont and independent Oz Griebel on the Orange campus of the University of New Haven, drew to a close at about 38 minutes, after a campaign aid held up his arm and tapped his wrist, indicating to organizers that the agreed-upon time was up.

After 10 minutes of post-forum chit chat with some of those in attendance, Stefanowski was led to a waiting black SUV by a two-member security detail of retired state troopers, and would not stop for a reporter. The next televised debate for governor was six hours away.NEW HAVEN  Wallingford resident Timothy Estridge, 37, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court here to one count of possession with intent to distribute, and distribution of, amphetamine, according to a press release from John H. Durham, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut.

The case stems from a statewide initiative targeting narcotics dealers who distribute heroin, fentanyl or opioids that cause death or serious injury, the release said.

According to court documents and testimony, Wallingford police and emergency medical personnel responded to a Wallingford residence Dec. 16, 2017, after a 911 call reported the untimely death of a 38-year-old male. The caller did not leave contact information and was not on scene when responders arrived, the release said.

The victim was pronounced dead at the scene, where investigators seized evidence including a small plastic baggy containing approximately eight suspected oxycodone pills, a glass dish with white powder residue, a broken credit card, pieces of wax folds commonly used as heroin packaging, a used plastic syringe and prescription pill bottles, according to Durham.

More for you Wallingford man charged with drug trafficking in connection with fatal overdose

One of the pill bottles recovered  for 30 Adderall pills of 10 milligrams each  was in Estridges name, the release said.

The Connecticut chief medical examiner determined the victim died of intoxication by a combination of heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, alprazolam, amphetamine and ethanol.

Investigation revealed Estridge had filled a prescription Dec. 1, 2017, for Adderall, which contains amphetamine, and subsequently distributed the pills to the victim, Durhams release said. Investigation further revealed that, on multiple occasions between July and December 2017, Estridge distributed heroin and amphetamines, according to the release.

Estridge is scheduled to be sentenced in Hartford by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson on Jan. 9, 2019, at which time he faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years. He is detained, pending sentencing.

The Drug Enforcement Administrations New Haven Task Force and the Wallingford Police Department investigated. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Natasha M. Freismuth.Although the National Weather Service is only predicting about an inch of rain Thursday in Central Texas, flooding is still a major concern for residents in the Hill Country who have been inundated with rain over the past week.

Llano County is only two days removed from a major flooding event in which one woman was found dead and many had to be rescued from their homes but an upper level trough of rain could flood the river again Thursday.The Bexar County Medical Examiner has ruled the July death of 7-month-old Michael Carter Donnell, who was found unresponsive in his day care crib, was caused by "sudden unexplained death in infancy."

The child's parents, Gabriella Garcia and Richard Donnell, have filed a lawsuit against Our Little Hopes and Dreams Christian Learning Center on Callaghan Road, alleging the "wrongful death" was a result of negligence on the parts of the day care, director Carmel Puente and Linda Mitchell, who was responsible for supervising the baby, who his family called Carter.

Carter died July 23 around 2 p.m., less than an hour after his mother was alerted he had been found unresponsive. Garcia declined to comment on the update to the case.

RELATED: Jury finds San Antonio man not guilty in case involving toddlers with gonorrhea

Puente referred questions to her attorney, who also declined to comment.

The San Antonio Police Department investigated the case, and, following the medical examiner's ruling, determined there was no evidence to support a criminal charge.

Garcia and Donnell recently issued an amended petition in their lawsuit.

"Michael Carter Donnell was neglected for a significant amount of time and later found unresponsive by Defendant Mitchell, in a crib full of blood and vomit," the amended petition states. It later added that "the death of Michael Carter Donnell and the damages of plaintiffs were caused by defendant's wrongful acts, neglect, carelessness, and unskillfulness."

Garcia and Donnell requested damages of over $1 million. Our Little Hopes and Puente denied all allegations of wrongdoing, according to legal documents.

RELATED: Suspect abducts 2 children in vehicle theft on North Side, then drops them off during escape

Our Little Hopes and Dreams, which has a stated capacity of 74 children, has been in business since at least 2010. Over the past three years, Texas Department of Health and Human Services inspectors have written the day care up for deficiencies nearly 30 times, including multiple times since Carter's death, according to HHS.

On July 25, two days after Carter's death, the facility was cited for placing two infants to sleep on their bellies during nap time, which is considered a high-risk deficiency. Garcia previously said she thought Carter's death occurred because her son was sleeping on his stomach, spit up and choked on his own vomit.

"I don't know what the truth is, but the fact of the matter is my son was alone somehow," she told mySA.com in July.

RELATED: Children testify against San Antonio sergeant accused of sex assault

In the lawsuit, Carter's parents allege Carter's supervisor at the day care had a history of allowing Carter to sleep on his stomach because "he liked to sleep on his stomach"  despite requests from Carter's mother and doctor as well as state law mandating he be placed on his back.

The lawsuit also states the day care, Puente, and the supervisor failed to arrange the room in a suitable way to hear and see infants, failed to provide prompt and individual attention, failed to provide constant supervision and failed to call emergency management services immediately after Carter was found unconscious.

The lack of information about whether or not protocol was followed that day prompted Garcia's hopes to push for the Michael Carter law in her son's honor, which would require day cares to use cameras inside rooms, particularly where infants are kept.

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San Antonio police arrested a second suspect in a violent home invasion that left a man dead and a second person wounded.

Fidencio Badillo, 57, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon by Bexar County sheriff deputies on the West Side of town.

Earlier Thursday, another participant in the home invasion was arrested after he was caught stealing less than $20 from a West Side store, San Antonio police said.

Jose Sanchez, 30, is also accused of carrying out a double shooting at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 6200 block of Old Pearsall Road. Police say three masked suspects forced their way into an apartment and started a fight with two residents inside. A shootout between both parties ensued.

David Escobedo, 51, was killed in the gunfire and another man was wounded. Responding officers found Escobedo's body in a breezeway outside the apartment and paramedics took the other man to University Hospital for treatment.

RELATED: SAPD: Masked gunmen at large following violent home invasion that left 1 dead, 1 injured

Sgt. Michelle Ramos, a spokeswoman for the San Antonio Police Department, said the shooting was likely the result of a botched robbery attempt, as detectives found narcotics and money inside the victims' apartment.

"Yesterday, we had homicide detectives working on the case all day long," Ramos said. "They did speak with several individuals, and they were able to identify one of the suspects in the case."

That suspect was Sanchez, and police were able to secure an arrest warrant for him on a charge of murder.

This morning, at about 4 a.m., Sanchez was caught stealing less than $20 of merchandise from a retail store near Loop 410 and West Military Drive, Ramos said. Loss prevention held him at the store until police arrived, at which point they discovered Sanchez was wanted for murder.

A few hours later he was escorted in front of reporters to a police squad car, which ferried him to the Bexar County Jail. It is unclear if he will also face theft charges.

A warrant has been issued for the third suspect in the case, Henry Lozano, 29.

Caleb Downs covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County. Read him on our breaking news site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com | cdowns@mysa.com | @calebjdownsGULFPORT, Miss. -- Mississippi Power in conjunction with the Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) hosted its 14th annual Blacks in Energy Awareness Month (BEAM) to give students across Jackson and Harrison Counties a look into their operations and career opportunities in the energy industry.

Students were broken into three separate breakout sessions where various Mississippi Power professionals held mock strategy meetings and students provided input as to what they thought should be the next step or how a strategy should be executed.

This year's event also coincides with the state of Mississippi's "Careers in Energy" week.

Ann Holland, Workforce Development and Education Coordinator said teachers contact her every year looking forward to attending the event because of the impact it has on students.

"We hope when they leave us after hanging with us for a day that they have a better understanding of energy careers and the various options that exist in our industry," Holland said.

Holland said one of the biggest misconceptions students may have about working in energy careers is that you need a four-year degree, however, that is not the case.

"Students often think we are all engineers and we're not -- we have to have skilled labor and our workforce is probably 50-50," she said. "We have to have those linemen and process operators in the plant, which you only have to have a two-year degree for, but balance is always needed for our company to be successful."

Burt Jackson, Lead Counselor for the Moss Point School District couldn't say enough about the event and the exposure it provides to students in the MPSD.

"This is a great resource because it gives students a specific and tangible road map for a more expansive view of fields of study directly related to STEM," Jackson said. "Moss Point High School has participated the last four years and some of our students have chosen their major based on information provided by BEAM/AABE. Also, one of our 2016 graduates is scheduled to intern with the Southern Company."

The Gulf Coast Chapter of AABE is a non-profit organization comprised of individuals in the electric, gas, oil and water industries based in the coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi and northwest Florida.

The group's mission is to ensure the input of minorities in the discussions and development of energy policies, regulations, research and development technologies and environmental issues.

The high schools participating in this year's event included: Bay, Biloxi, D'Iberville, Gulfport, Harrison Central, Long Beach, Moss Point, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, Pass Christian, St. Martin and West Harrison.MEXICO CITY (AP)  Authorities say they have found 16 bodies, including those of two women, in a clandestine burial pit in western Mexico.

The bodies were found in a pit in a vacant lot in Tonala, on the outskirts of the city of Guadalajara in Jalisco state.NEWTOWN BOROUGH >> Newtown Borough Police are investigating a traffic accident involving a pedestrian and a motor vehicle on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 13 at 12:52 p.m. The accident occurred on S. State Street at Centre Avenue when a truck, driven by an 86 year old Newtown Township man, struck a 54 year old Yardley woman as she was crossing South...In Republican Steve Allison and Democrat Celina Montoya, voters in state House District 121 are blessed with two quality candidates.

We recommend Allison. We do this, frankly, because of what voters in this district are losing in House Speaker Joe Straus decision not to seek re-election.

We see in Allison what Straus provided in the House  a conservative who values pragmatism over ideology, who does not think earning the admiration of folks across the aisle and the derision of those on the extreme end of his own party are disqualifying.

Yes, its likely true we will come to disagree with Allison on some issues  as we did with Straus. But our fear is that Straus will leave something of a vacuum by way of moderating influence. And while freshman Allison wouldnt enter with the powers that Speaker Straus had, we see that intraparty influence as important. We are under no delusions that this state is done with bathroom bills and other divisive measures.

Allison, a business lawyer and former school board president in the Alamo Heights Independent School District, is anti-voucher, as is Montoya. He knows firsthand that the state has been underfunding public education and that this is a big reason property taxes are high  though he is for a 4 percent cap on local ability to raise property taxes (not without voter approval). We dont favor this.

Allison, like Montoya  a small-business owner and former reporter saw no sense in the bathroom bill. And he said Medicaid should be expanded as part of the Affordable Care Act. He would back legislation to invalidate the paid sick leave ordinance San Antonio recently enacted. Montoya would not.

Allison for state House District 121.Under-pressure local companies  reeling from myriad problems which include having to deal with soaring production costs  have rejected demands by unions to pay their employees in United States dollars.

The demands to have employees paid in hard currency comes as Zimbabwe is experiencing a severe economic crisis  characterised by acute shortages of foreign currency which have in turn led to shortages of drugs and basic consumer goods.

Our position as employers is that every competent employer wants to do the best they can for their workers.

However, and in this situation that we find ourselves in, it would be hard for all employers to do so, except for exporters who are able to get their returns in foreign currency.

If I am selling on the local market and being paid in bond notes, how on earth do I get the US dollars to pay my workers with, John Mufukare, the executive director of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (Emcoz) told the Daily News yesterday.

Let it be up to each enterprise to discuss with their workers about this and find out whether they can pay in foreign currency or not, he added.

But workers representative body, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), is demanding that all workers be paid in US dollars despite the current economic challenges.

ZCTU president Peter Mutasa said yesterday that workers no longer wanted to be paid in bond notes and RTGS transfers.

We have always been consistent that we do not want bond notes and this is a continuation of our demand.

The call is now more urgent because workers are losing out and prices have skyrocketed and most goods and services are now charged in US dollars, Mutasa told the Daily News.

Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of a huge economic crisis which President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government are battling to get on top of  as their new policy measures have not found resonance with long-suffering Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe adopted a multi-currency regime in 2009 during the short-lived but stability-inducing GNU which ousted former leader Robert Mugabe entered into with the late popular opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to end a political crisis that had stemmed from the hotly disputed 2008 presidential elections.

However, since the end of the GNU in 2013 and the removal of Mugabe from power last year, the government has yet to find the right formula to end shortages of foreign currency and to re-invigorate the sickly local economy.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsThe Constitutional Court (Con-Court) yesterday delivered a landmark ruling which has far-reaching implications for the policing of public gatherings and protests in the country.

It said the draconian Public Order and Security Act (Posa)  which was a favourite weapon of former leader Robert Mugabe whenever he needed to crush the opposition  is unconstitutional.

Posa was enacted in 2002, replacing the equally detested Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma), which was enacted by the Rhodesians before the countrys independence in 1980, to suppress political activism by blacks during the bitter years of Zimbabwes liberation struggle.

Under Posa, police enjoyed wide and discretional powers  such as sanctioning or banning public gatherings and peaceful demonstrations  with some rogue officers often using excessive force to deal with peaceful protesters.

Having found that the limitation in Section 27 of Posa is not fair, reasonable or necessary, I have not been able to find any other basis upon which it can be justified.

In addition to failing to pass the test on fairness, necessity and reasonableness, there is another feature of Section 27 of Posa that I find disturbing.

It has no time frame or limitation as to the number of times the regulating authority can invoke the powers granted to him or her under the Section. Thus, a despotic regulating authority, could lawfully invoke these powers without end.

This could be achieved by publishing notices prohibiting demonstrations back to back as long as each time the period of the ban is for one month or less.

It thus has the potential of negating or nullifying the rights not only completely but virtually, the historic judgment put together by Rita Makarau, and agreed to by eight other judges, noted.

The apex court also said in terms of the countrys Constitution, peaceful demonstrations were a guaranteed right.

On the basis of the foregoing, it is my finding that Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act (Chapter 11:17) is unconstitutional.

In the result, I make the following order: the question referred to this court by the Supreme Court is answered as follows: Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act (Chapter 7:11) is unconstitutional.

The declaration of constitutional invalidity of Section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act is suspended for six months from the date of this judgment, the court ruled.

The Con-Court ruling came as a result of an application by vendors, opposition parties and civic groups  who challenged section 27 of Posa which was routinely used by the government to thwart and crush demonstrations in the past.

This, in turn, came after Judge President George Chiweshe had upheld a ban on demonstrations in 2016, after ruling that police were within the Constitution parameters then, and that Posa was justified in a democratic society.

Yesterday, the Con-Court vehemently disagreed with that ruling.

Once having found that the provisions of Section 27 of Posa have the effect of imposing greater restrictions than are necessary to achieve their purpose, the High Court ought to have found the provision unconstitutional without qualification.

It is the blanket or dragnet effect of the ban that is permissible under Section 27 of Posa that taints the whole provision.

It matters not that the ban may be limited both geographically and in terms of time, a blanket or dragnet ban is neither fair, reasonable nor necessary. It is irrational, the Con-Court said.

Under Posa, public gatherings had to be first cleared by the police  who effectively acted as the judges, jury and executioners  and this resulted in tens of thousands of Zimbabweans becoming victims of this provision.

Analysts also say Posa was one of the key instruments that were used to keep Mugabe in power for nearly four decades  as it was exploitatively deployed to foil dissent and peaceful demonstrations under his ruinous rule.

Yesterdays ruling comes as temperatures are rising over the governments recent austerity measures, which have been rejected by long-suffering ordinary Zimbabweans.

Meanwhile, political analysts told the DAILY NEWS that the Con-Court ruling was most significant and an encouraging sign under President Emmerson Mnangagwas

administration.

I think it will be important for the government to acknowledge that the law has been misused in the past for political purposes.

I think that this will go a long way in building some faith and credibility in the government.

Posa was really a strengthened iteration of the Rhodesian legislation that was a repressive component of the legal machinery that (late Rhodesian leader) Ian Smith regime had in place, said Piers Pigou  a senior consultant with the International Crisis Group.

Namibia-based scholar Admire Mare said the court ruling was a victory for ordinary people who had suffered much at the brutal hands of authorities.

I think its a victory for all progressive and democracy loving Zimbabweans because finally citizens can organise, raise their grievances and co-ordinate public gatherings without being constrained by an archaic piece of legislation.

Lets hope more unconstitutional laws will now be dealt with once and for all, Mare told the Daily News.

Stephen Chan, Professor of World Politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)  of the University of London  also welcomed the Con-Court ruling.

I have myself always regarded Posa as not being in keeping with the Constitution. At this stage I would simply view this as correct jurisprudential thinking on an Act which was both suppressive and unconstitutional, Chan said.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsThe MDC takes great exception the current proceedings of the so called commission of inquiry. The whole charade is nothing but a big sham. It is from this premise that the party will not participate and sanitize this farce which is nothing more than a cover up exercise.

The whole exercise is a choreographed event meant to provide a platform for Zanu PF supporters meant to shield the entire leadership of the illegitimate regime from the pulpable liability.

It is clear the sham commission of inquiry has narrowed down to investigate civilian activity when the actual issue is supposed to be on how soldiers ended up in the streets, firing live ammunition at unarmed civilians.

We restate the point that there was no need to set an inquiry into the contact of the military if the state had complied with section 210 of the constitution which provides for the establishment of an independent complains mechanism against members of the security forces.

The MDC however has substantial reservations against the commission as evidenced by how the commission has so far failed to show any intention to call the army men who killed innocent civilians or even the Generals or whoever gave the orders.

On the 29th of August, Emmerson Mnangagwa made a decision to appoint a Commission of inquiry on post-election violence and killings, this decision in our view was unlawful on the basis that he is expected at law to make such a decision in consultation with the cabinet. At the time no cabinet had been set up as provided for under section 88 (2) and section 110 of the Constitution.

Section 110(6) compels the president in carrying out an executive function or decision to consult cabinet.

It is a known fact that the shootout that took place on the 1st of August, was carried out by the military.

The constitutional authority to deploy the military for whatever reason is solely the purview of the President. Operational liability can therefore not be removed from the deploying authority.

Moreover the constitution is clear that he has to explain himself promptly, in appropriate detail to parliament the reason for deployment and the place of deployment. Deployment of military must have parliamentary approval. Therefore we have taken note of the following:

a) It is the President himself who deployed the military.

b) He has to explain why he deployed the soldiers.

c) He also has to explain the rationality behind such a decision.

d) Did he follow due process in coming up with that decision?

The MDC holds strongly that E.D Mnangagwa is a tainted person and cannot go on to set up a commission of inquiry over his own actions as though he is unaware of what his decision led to.

Furthermore the choice of commissioners leaves a lot to be desired, especially the local appointees.

Firstly, Professor Lovemore Madhuku participated in the very same elections as a presidential candidate. He therefore cannot investigate when he has presumptive liability. Most importantly Professor Madhuku already made pronouncements in public accusing the MDC Alliance and its leaders for being responsible. He already pre-emptied his mind to a subject he now investigates, bringing his impartiality into doubt.

Secondly, Professor Charity Manyeruke is a known staunch Zanu PF supporter who holds a senior position within Mashonaland East Zanu PF Structures and was an official mascot of Zanu PF starring on their campaign commercials singing praise and worship songs for Mnangagwa.

Zanu PF has a material interest over the outcome of this case.

In our view the police who have already said they are investigating the violence and have in any case arrested scores of people, were simply supposed to be empowered to investigate even the soldiers. They cannot do a worse job than the dogs breakfast.

The terms of reference of the commission are wrong, misdirected and a wild goose chase sadly funded by tax taxpayers money.

The rightful terms of reference must hold accountable those behind the trigger, they must therefore read as follows:

1.Who deployed the military to the streets and residential areas of Harare on the 1st of August?

2.What was the legal basis for the deployment and nature of the assignment to be accomplished?

3.After the deployment, what was the full extent of the violations of human rights in the period stated?

4.Who were the actual individuals who perpetrated the violations?

5.To what extent was their conduct in line with the laws of Zimbabwe and the UN guiding principles on the use of force in controlling crowds? What was the chain of command leading to these violations?

6.What is the full extent of the harm of the actions by the perpetrators?

7.What assistance was due to each of the affected victims and how much of such was made available?

8. What form and amount of restitution is reasonable and just for each of the person affected.

9.What reforms must be put in place to rebuild the relationship between the people of Zimbabwe and the security services.

10.What measure must be put in place to ensure that never again will such an atrocity happen on Zimbabwean land?

Jacob Mafume

MDC National Spokesperson

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Related Zimbabwe Latest NewsThis is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1019 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser and what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, extending our reach.

Its perplexing to see the cheerful tone of the press after Theresa May gave her evening talk to the members of the EU27 because nothing bad happened. To be more accurate, nothing happened except everyone for the moment got less cheesed off with each other. That is helpful for getting an agreement stitched up but vastly short of what needs to happen.

But what is outright troubling is that the EU27 has decided not to meet in November and no one seems very bothered by that. Recall that this was originally planned as a last-ditch extension of the original date for the agreement to be settled, at this very summit. Then at the disastrous Salzburg meeting, the European Council told May shed better have shown enough progress by this Council meeting or no talks in November. Some papers speculated that the Council would meet in November regardless, to do Brexit crash out contingency planning, and to allow for the possibility to consider better UK proposals if May could somehow get things sorted out.

The next European Council meeting isnt until December.

The way things seem to be moving is that the EU now seems to be falling into a sense of complacency. Having the November emergency session, even it it would be a nuisance for the parties involved, would be an important hedge against a crash out in terms of preparedness. It would also put pressure on May and more important, the recalcitrant Ultras. Polls are now showing that UK voters who arent undecided now split 40/60 for Leave v. Remain. Thats a big enough shift to potentially change the political calculus, even though the recognition of waning support for Brexit isnt yet well reflected in the press. If, and this is a big if, the press were to turn even half as fiercely against Brexit as it was for it right after the referendum, it could change what is possible politically.

The other reason the EU backing off its earlier timetable is worrisome is that negotiations befit from a sense of urgency. The EU had set deadlines for moving the negotiations along. It now has no deadlines for hepherding the negotiations to resolution.

Worse, the UK side seems not to appreciate the operational requirements on the EU side. Richard North took Mays desire to present again to the EU27 leaders as a failure to comprehend that any proposal will have to be presented in a detailed form to the sherpas, at least a day ahead of any European Council meeting, so they can analyze it and advise their bosses. So the next maybe-sorta deadline for having the open terms settled is shortly before the December meeting, although the EU did say it was prepared to call a special meeting. However, the UK may well interpret that as meaning it can push things until January or February.

As commentor NormandChris said on Richard Norths website:

It is a terrible state of affairs when at what should have been presentation of a contribution, yesterday, from the Maybot towards solving the NI border backstop, that the only successful conclusion was she did not insult all the other leaders this time and the atmosphere was cordial.

According to the Financial Times, the EU thinks the ball is in Theresa Mays court:

EU leaders shelved plans for a special Brexit summit next month, saying they were waiting for Theresa May to make a decisive move in a negotiation that could still take some weeks or months. The decision came at a short, low-key dinner on Brexit in Brussels, where Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, noted that talks had hit a deadlock and other leaders expressed frustration at political paralysis in Westminster, according to diplomats briefed on the meeting. However, in the discussion over dinner after Mrs May had left the room, the German chancellor struck a pessimistic tone, saying that London needed to bring new ideas, according to two diplomats. A third said that Ms Merkel had advocated the EUs holding firm in coming weeks. Juha Sipila, the Finnish prime minister, said it was almost not worth holding the meeting because we knew all the things we have been told. Dalia Grybauskaite, Lithuanias president, articulated a frustration felt by some EU leaders when she called for concrete understanding of what the UK really wants. We dont know what they want, she said. They do not know themselves what they really want. Thats a problem.

The Financial Times stressed that the negotiators would keep talking. But its not clear how long they can keep talking past each other, particularly since the UK may interpret Barniers effort to come up with creative solutions as a sign that the EU is anxious to get a deal done and will cede more ground if the UK keeps being intransigent. Perhaps I missed it, but I didnt see a press report of any EU leader correcting the record on Theresa May depicting what she had agreed to in the Joint Agreement of last December as a new demand by the EU on the Irish border. Nor did I see anyone go so far as even tut-tut the UK for threatening to reopen the agreement on the so-called exit bill.

This section of EUs morning European newsletter is what really got my juices going:

BREXIT FATIGUE: How did Wednesday evening at the European Council summit go? Well, there were no humiliations and a lot of goodwill. Is that a sign of fatigue, as one EU diplomat put it? The positive assessment: Unlike during Septembers Salzburg summit, May didnt appear to be putting on an act for her home audience. She didnt repeat that the Irish backstop had to be temporary, or refer to frictionless trade (read: the single market). Tajani observed that her body language was more positive than in the past. Kurz said on his way out after the dinner that a lot of what she told us was known to us. But the most important is that she wants to bring about an agreed solution. But but but: Leaders expected more, said one diplomat. She was disappointing. Some were expecting May to move beyond the known British position. In Salzburg all 27 leaders intervened, but merely half of them took the floor Wednesday night, one diplomat said. May left at around 8 p.m. The rest wrapped up their debate at a record-early 10:30 p.m. No urgency: Once May took off for the British ambassadors residence, the EU27 werent all that interested in hearing about the Commissions plans for no-deal preparedness. The message is supposed to be that they want a deal  but feel no urgency on their end to strike one. Weve done so much under time pressure in the financial crisis, said a diplomat who stuck around for a while. We wont be pushed.

If that diplomats statement is representative of thinking in Brussels and in European capitals, its a very bad sign. Wanting a deal and getting one are two different things. And as frantic as the various bank and government rescues during the crisis were, they were not anywhere near as politically and operationally complicated as getting a Withdrawal Agreement completed with the UK parliament so divided. Having a central bank that you can deploy makes rescues like that feasible.

It seems as if at least some key people in the EU who ought to know better are falling into their own version of the pathology weve seen in the UK: A crash-out would be so terrible, surely it wont be allowed to happen.

And weve seen too much of clever ideas that fall short of being solutions nevertheless being touted as the real thing, like a longer transition period. As PlutoniumKun pointed out yesterday in comments:

And from Varadkar: Taoiseach Leo Varakdar has said he could support the idea of a one year extension to the two year transition period which will run after 29 March next year. However, it could not be a substitute for the backstop, he said. From Irelands point of view were willing to hear any proposals that might help to bring about a solution. A lot of us feel that negotiating a new economic and security relationship between the EU and UK within two years would be a real challenge and bear in mind within those two years youd have to negotiate this new relationship, and it also have to be ratified by 28 parliaments. But I really need to say though that any extension to the transition period couldnt be a substitute for the backstop. We would still need to have that, but perhaps it would allow people to have greater confidence that it would ever need to be invoked. The more I see of this, the less it seems. Barnier is simply throwing out the idea of giving more time if there is an agreement, he must know well this doesnt in any way address the issues of the DUP/Ultras. I think well see a string of these stories essentially offering minor concessions, the primary aim being to keep up the appearance of progress and EU flexibility.

And we also have the wee problem of the Ultras. From the BrexitCentral daily newletter (emphasis theirs):

However, some reports are talking about a years extension, which would mean vassal state status for the UK extended until the beginning of 2022 and the idea is already provoking deep hostility from Brexiteer voices back home, not least because of the additional financial cost involved: even an extension of a single day into 2021 would take us into a new seven-year financial framework, in all likelihood without the UK rebate taken into consideration any more. The bill for one year would be at least 10 billion (and some suggest it could be nearer double that) while having to continue to abide by all EU rules, including freedom of movement, without any say.

And Labours Shadow Chancellor isnt keen either, and point about the business community not being keen about a prolonged transition being a negative for the business community is yet another complicating factor:

John McDonnell has ruled out the notion of extending the Brexit transition period beyond March 29 2019. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani commented on Thursday that both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table. However, the shadow chancellor does not believe this is viable and told ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston: Everyone I talk to now  business leaders, investors, trade union leaders  all of them are saying the uncertainty and insecurity at the moment mean that decisions are not being taken about long-term investment. There is a real issue if this drags on that uncertainty drags on  we need a deal.

And we have the press continuing to flog the UK misapprehension that a customs union would keep the UK in the single market and prevent the need for a hard border, such as in this Politico story, UK, EU take tentative steps toward a backstop compromise:

Brussels is prepared to write a new clause into the Brexit divorce agreement allowing for a legally enforceable, U.K.-wide customs arrangement to give London certainty that the Irish backstop will never be used, two senior officials familiar with the negotiations said.

Help me. A customs union wont produce frictionless trade. Richard North must have produced a week of posts with different example of customs union arrangements showing border stops.

Now having said that, some countries are not slacking off on disorderly Brexit planning. Again from the Financial Times:

France published a draft bill to handle a no-deal exit in March 2019 that empowered the government to use emergency decrees to reimpose customs checks and impose visa requirements on British citizens visiting France.

The lack of any momentum is also a bad manifestation of the Soros concept of reflexivity. Reflexivity is a fancy word for market dynamics feeding on themselves, oftentimes disconnected to fundamentals or other real-world issues. As vlade and other readers have stressed, one thing that would shake the UK out of its torpor would be a sterling crisis. But it appears that the UK businessmen who are clued in enough to be alarmed are afraid to express it in a public setting for fear of being hammered in the press and if they do business with the Government, of being punished commercially. Similarly, if EU officials act as if the lack of progress is no big deal, Mr. Market will take that as proof that an agreement will come together at the 11th hour and/or a crash out isnt as terrible as the worry warts say.

In other words, serious financial wobbles have the highest odds of getting UK MPs to hold their noses and vote through whatever deal May can get done to secure a transition period (not that I am sure that will happen; the Ultras seem to be as dogmatic our NRA or Freedom Caucus, but it might lead Labour members to cross the aisle). And events seem to be moving in a direction to prevent that critical source of pressure from kicking in until too late.This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1021 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser and what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, extending our reach.

Dems damp down hopes for climate change agenda The Hill

Retired admiral says climate-change research may mean our survival Stars and Stripes

Fixing the Climate Requires More Than Technology NYT. In fact, in requires a strong, functioning State, but apparently its still taboo to say something like that in a headline.

Were just beginning to understand the toll climate change takes on mental health Grist

U.S. Shales Glory Days Are Numbered OilPrice.com

Uber considers spinning off self-driving car unit FT

Did Uber Steal Googles Intellectual Property? The New Yorker. Nice people we have at Google:

One day in 2011, a Google executive named Isaac Taylor learned that, while he was on paternity leave, [robot car maven Anthony Levandowski, who later left for Uber,] had modified the cars software so that he could take them on otherwise forbidden routes. A Google executive recalls witnessing Taylor and Levandowski shouting at each other. Levandowski told Taylor that the only way to show him why his approach was necessary was to take a ride together. The men, both still furious, jumped into a self-driving Prius and headed off. The car went onto a freeway, where it travelled past an on-ramp. According to people with knowledge of events that day, the Prius accidentally boxed in another vehicle, a Camry. A human driver could easily have handled the situation by slowing down and letting the Camry merge into traffic, but Googles software wasnt prepared for this scenario. The cars continued speeding down the freeway side by side. The Camrys driver jerked his car onto the right shoulder. Then, apparently trying to avoid a guardrail, he veered to the left; the Camry pinwheeled across the freeway and into the median. Levandowski, who was acting as the safety driver, swerved hard to avoid colliding with the Camry, causing Taylor to injure his spine so severely that he eventually required multiple surgeries. The Prius regained control and turned a corner on the freeway, leaving the Camry behind. Levandowski and Taylor didnt know how badly damaged the Camry was. They didnt go back to check on the other driver or to see if anyone else had been hurt. Neither they nor other Google executives made inquiries with the authorities. The police were not informed that a self-driving algorithm had contributed to the accident.

Cmon, lets be fair. Who keeps track of collateral damage?

Brexit

The depths of the cuts: the uneven geography of local government austerity British Politics and Policy, London School of Economics

U.S. Stalls U.K. Bid to Stay in $1.7 Trillion Market Bloomberg

European Commission Threatens to Reject Draft Italian Budget Der Spiegel

The Psychologicals LRB. Irish novelist Anna Burns.

Syraqistan

China?

Cambodia construction boom built on blood bricks and slavery  report Reuters

Indonesians underestimate how bad nepotism is for the economy Asian Correspondent

Indias central bank has finally removed the biggest roadblock for e-wallets Quartz

The empty seat on a crowded Japanese train: 10 years on, the gaijin seat still grates Japan Times. The story is more optimistic than the headline.

New Cold War

The Autocracy App NYRB

Trump Transition

What if there was a prize for food sovereignty? New Food Economy

Democrats in Disarray

Imperial Collapse Watch

WEAPON SYSTEMS CYBERSECURITY: DOD Just Beginning to Grapple with Scale of Vulnerabilities (PDF) GAO. I can well believe that DOD is an enormous IT clusterf*ck, but Im also leery of studies like this, because of the obvious implication that another round of enormous spending on weapons built like Ferraris is whats needed, an enormous windfall for IT, which (a) wrote the code for the vulnerable systems in the first place, and (b) hasnt demonstrated an ability to secure anything else.

Guillotine Watch

Inside the Washington areas most expensive homes for sale WaPo. Check out the interiors. The actual Versailles was far more tasteful.

Class Warfare

The American Economy Is Rigged Joseph Stiglitz, Scientific American A $21,634 bill? How a homeless woman fought her way out of tow-company hell Seattle Times. Law enforcement for profit; the tow company has a city contract, so no wonder it felt free to ignore a judge.

Icelands Lessons for the #MeToo Era Foreign Policy. Lysistratic non-action

A Blue Pill Is Stopping HIV, World-First Study Shows Bloomberg (original).

Maker Movements Should NOT Endanger School Libraries, Librarians, and Reading Nancy Baileys Education Website

Living with Dolly Parton Long Reads

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote (via):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.This is Naked Capitalism fundraising week. 1027 donors have already invested in our efforts to combat corruption and predatory conduct, particularly in the financial realm. Please join us and participate via our donation page, which shows how to give via check, credit card, debit card, or PayPal. Read about why were doing this fundraiser and what weve accomplished in the last year, and our current goal, extending our reach.

Yves here. The uproar over the almost certain execution of Jamal Khashoggi is so disproportionate to the event that its become a proxy for something else in terms of the US-Saudi relationship. The post by Vijay Prashad makes the argument that Khashoggi went too far in defending his allies in the royal family who were opposed to Mohammed bin Salman, which led to his presumed execution, and that the US wont do much about it due to the importance of the arms sales. While this is probably part of the equation, the US also has important air bases in Saudi Arabia. The US recognized that it was at risk of having the kingdom become unstable regardless of whatever the path of succession was after King Salman, who was well liked internally, decided to cede power. But Salmans choice of MbS was contrary to tradition and expectations (57 year old Prince Mohammed bin Nayef would have been the new ruler under the usual protocol), setting factions in the royal family even more against each other. And MbS has consolidated power in an extremely heavy-handed way, by using corruption charges to arrest rivals and their allies and stripping them of assets. As Wikipedia noted:

The arrests resulted in the final sidelining of the faction of the late King Abdullah and MbSs complete consolidation of control of all three branches of the security forces, making him the most powerful man in Saudi Arabia since his grandfather, the first King, Ibn Saud.

There are likely members of the US military apparatus who are sympathizers with the losers in the royal family power struggle But if what Wikipedia says is correct, MbS looks to have consolidated his position quickly and with a ruthless show of force.

Its puzzling to see the press up in arms about Khashoggi, given that the US has been joined at the hip with the thuggish Saudis for decades. Informed reader input welcomed.

By Vijay Prashad, a writing fellow at the Independent Media Institute, chief editor of LeftWord Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. He is also the author of Red Star Over the Third World (LeftWord, 2017) and The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016), among other books. Originally produced by Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute

By now, few doubt that Jamal Khashoggi is dead. It is most likely that the Saudi journalistwho once advised kings and billionaireswas killed by an interrogation team sent from Saudi Arabia to meet him in Turkey. If this was the case, then it is impossible for the hit on Khashoggi to have taken place without a green light from the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (affectionately known as MBS). The Saudi royal palace would have signed Khashoggis death warrant because he had turned on the kingdom he otherwise loyally served. Nothing in Jamal Khashoggis career suggested that he would become a dissident. But, MBS had consolidated power against the fragile balance within the royal family and he had arrested and humiliated Khashoggis friends, including Al Waleed bin Talal of Twitter and Goldman Sachs. Khashoggis dissent was the complaint of one fraction of the ruling elite against another. If he were an unknown Saudi blogger sitting in Virginia, fulminating for a miniscule readership, he would have been left alone. That he represented powerful interests inside the kingdom made it impossible for him to survive.

Saudi Arabia is in the midst of an internal review of the death of Khashoggi. Whispers from inside the kingdom suggest that the final report will say that this was a rogue operation, a word introduced into this incident by U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump, who has bet a great deal on Saudi Arabia, has been caught flatfooted. He did not want this scandal. He thought that disavowing Khashoggibecause he was a permanent resident of the U.S. rather than a U.S. citizenwould make the case disappear. But it has not, largely because Khashoggi has close friends in Washington, D.C. (including colleagues at the Washington Post), because he is so well-connected inside Saudi Arabia, and because the Turkish governmentwhich is in a long-term tussle with Saudi Arabiawill not let the matter drop. Even a substantial bribe from Saudi Arabia was rebuffed by Turkey. This news is not going anywhere.

Guns from Washington

Pressure came upon Trump to at least block U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. But, Trump is a pragmatic man. He knows that this would do two things he cannot affordit would show that the U.S. does not stand by its allies, who might then seek allies elsewhere, and it would jeopardize the massive arms deals that the U.S. arms manufacturers have signed with the Saudis. Buying arms from the United States has come into use in Saudi Arabias insane war against Yemen, but more than that it has always been an insurance policy, a way to recycle Saudi petrodollars into the U.S. exchequer through arms deals. Not many U.S. politicianswho have arms manufacturers in each districtwould be willing to throw Saudi Arabia overboard as long as it buys weapons systems that it mostly never used. Given this situation, Trump quite rightly ignored calls to stop the arms salesI actually think wed be punishing ourselves if we did that.

Why say that Trump was right to do what he did? It was not only because Trump wanted to maintain the U.S.-Saudi relationship. It was largely because Trumps industrial strategy relies upon weapons sales around the world. And this is not merely Trumps strategy. This has been the industrial strategy of the U.S. ever since manufacturing began to escape U.S. shores from the 1970s and ever since the USSR collapsed and Russian weapons manufacturing deteriorated (a situation remedied only recently). It is worth pointing out that the U.S. has been the worlds largest arms exporter for decades. It is also worth pointing out that U.S. arms exports have increased astronomically since 2008; it was arms manufacturing that was the fulcrum of the U.S. recovery from the credit crisis. Twenty percent of U.S. arms sales go to Saudi Arabia, whose appetite for U.S. weapons has increased by 448 percent from 2008-12 to 2013-17. This monstrous relationship that deposits Saudi petrodollars into the U.S. in exchange for weapons benefits the U.S. financial markets and the arms manufacturerstwo key fractions of U.S. capital.

In previous decades, the Saudis warehoused the arms, watching them rot and then be replaced with new arms. They were not buying arms as much as using the oil profits to underwrite the U.S. financial and arms industries. This was a Saudi bribe, an insurance policy, to the U.S. political class. It ensured that Saudi Arabia was a key ally of the U.S., and it bought the friendship of the U.S. politicians who made sure to shut down any conversation about human rights abuses inside Saudi Arabiaand the very fact that it is a monarchy. U.S. presidents often talk of Saudi Arabia as an ally in the promotion of democracy, a witheringly bizarre tone that runs from liberal Democrats to arch-conservative Republicans.

Trump has been ferocious in his arms dealings. In the first half of 2018, the U.S. sold as many weapons as it did in all of 2017. This will be a record year. It is fated to continue in this vein. Arms will flow not only to Saudi Arabia, but to other Arab states, parts of the world that need to dry out from war rather than be put in the position where the gun becomes the solution to any problem.

Saudi Arabias Vietnam

Now, Saudi Arabia is using the arms sold to it by the U.S. and the UK in its barbarous war against the people of Yemen. Last year, Khashoggi made it clear that when Saudi Arabias war in Yemen erupted in March 2015, there was widespread Saudi popular support for itincluding by me. Khashoggi believed that Saudi Arabia must go to war to beat back an Iranian threatan illusionary story that the Saudis had been flogging since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Two years into the war, Khashoggi said that the humanitarian crisis in Yemenentirely the fault of Saudi Arabiahad badly damaged the kingdoms reputation, and it had weakened Saudi Arabias credibility. Khashoggi called upon MBS to recognize all factions in Yemen as legitimate and to get serious about peace. This advice fell on deaf ears. The deafness of the palace annoyed people like Khashoggi, many of whom had full sympathy for the goals of the Saudi campaign but saw it poorly executed.

There is a full-blown humanitarian crisis in Yemen. That is true. But there has also been quite fierce military resistance to the Saudi and UAE war against Yemen. Plucky Yemeni forces from many factions have not permitted the Saudis to feel safe for a major land invasion. They have been restrictedsince 2015to an aerial bombardment of Yemen, a destruction of its infrastructure that includes its crucial ports. Anyone who looks at the Saudi war in Yemen is quickly disgusted by its brutality, but they should also see the resistance of the Yemenis that has prevented the much-wanted Saudi victory.

But the Saudi war on Yemen has slipped off the radar. It was Khashoggis disappearance that captured the imaginationa macabre story of a man that many journalists knew. During the wall-to-wall coverage about Khashoggis disappearance and now murder, Cyclone Luban struck Yemens Al Mahrah governorate. Relief workers in the area say that the cyclone was very destructive and the governor of the province, Rageh Bakrit, tweeted photographs of the high flood waters. The disastrous conditions, Bakrit said, surpasses our humble capabilities. He wants help, but help cannot easily get there. The Saudi war prevents assistance. This is the fifth cyclone to strike Yemen since the Saudi bombing began. The war continues; children continue to die (five killed a day since the Saudi bombing began in March 2015). Nothing is going to stop that. Not Khashoggis critical column nor his death. Nothingas long as Saudi Arabia pays those billions of dollar in insurance payments in the guise of arms purchases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.Faugheen teenager Jack Fitzgerald is part of a team of 9 local people who have come together to skydive this Sunday to raise funds for the Youth Suicide Prevention Ireland charity in memory of 14 year-old Elisha Gault, who died tragically in March.

The challenging tandem skydive will happen at the Irish Parachute Club, Clonbullogue, Edenderry Co. Offaly after 20 minutes of training.

The team named "Jump for Elisha" includes friends and family of the late Elisha Gault from Carrick-on-Suir. Elishas mother Grainne Gault is the driving force behind the skydive in aid of the YSPI charity.

Jack, a student at Callan CBS, was a good friend of Elishas and is looking forward to doing the parachute jump in her memory.

He explained that all in the Jump for Elisha team, who are made up of her family and friends, have been overwhelmed with the sponsorship and support from their families, friends and the local community who have dug deep to help raise funds for the charity.

Jack has so far raised 1070 and he sincerely thanks everyone including family overseas who have generously sponsored him.

Students at Comeragh College where Elisha attended school, also held a bake sale recently in the and raised 1400. Talking openly about the real issues with young people suffering from mental health problems, Jack emphasised that if everyone could support charities such as YSPI it could help alleviate problems in the future.

He spoke of how the team has supported each other with the skydive fundraiser and how important it is for young people to talk to each other and share difficulties in an attempt to find solutions.

This will be a great experience in raising awareness of young peoples issues and will hopefully help remove the stigma that surrounds mental health. Young people need support systems in place.

Jack also spoke of the waiting lists for people to see specialised health professionals and how over time they may feel isolated and that their problems are not seen as important. The Jump for Elisha teams includes: Jack Fitzgerald, Faugheen; Joe Ryan, Owning; Elishas mother Grainne Gault, sisters Bhrianna Gault and Chloe-Nicole King; Lee Lanigan, Darragh Gibbs and Graham Bysouth from Carrick-on-Suir and Nicole Vaughan from Rathgormack.

Anyone wishing to sponsor the event can Text YSPI SFL 3249 to 50300 and 4 will be donated from the phone credit, or log on to Http://bit.ly/2KHODTY and follow the sponsorship updates. Also a sponsorship card is available in The Junction Bar, Carrick-on-Suir.Carlow College, St. Patricks has awarded its inaugural St. Columbanus Medal to Dr Martin Mansergh, MRIA in recognition of his contribution to the Peace Process in Ireland over many decades in his role as advisor to four Taoisigh on Northern Ireland.

In particular, the St. Columbanus Medal recognises his contribution to achieving the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the twentieth anniversary of which is being marked this year.

Dr Mansergh is a former South Tipperary TD and Minister of State and a noted historian.

He was was born in Woking, Surrey, England and he obtained his doctorate in philosophy from Christ Church, Oxford University for a study of pre-revolutionary French history.

He has served in the Seanad, the Dail and was a Minister of State from 2007-2011. He is the author of The Legacy of History and he has been a columnist with both The Irish Times and the Irish Catholic.

He is Vice-Chair of the Governments Expert Advisory Group on the Decade of Centenaries and is a member of the College Governing Body.

Fr Conn O Maoldhomhnaigh, President of Carlow College will award the St. Columbanus Medal to Dr Mansergh during an awarding ceremony on Tuesday, 27th November at 7pm in Carlow College, St. Patricks.

Speaking about the award and recognising Dr Manserghs work and contribution, Fr Conn noted  the College is honoured that Dr. Mansergh has agreed to be the recipient of the St. Columbanus Medal on the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

The medal has been minted in honour of St. Columbanus, who was born in the shadow of Mt. Leinster and who contributed extensively to the ecclesiastical and cultural life of sixth and seventh century Ireland and Europe.All-StarTipperary hurler Cathal Barrett has been found guilty of assaulting a barman during an early-hours incident after he had been drinking following a club match last year.

Mr Barrett (25) of Beakstown, Holycross, will be sentenced next month after Judge Elizabeth MacGrath found the facts proven in the section two assault case against him. The Tipperary defender had denied the charge.

His brother, Brian Barrett (31), pleaded guilty to assaulting a barman at Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, causing him harm, and will also be sentenced next month.

Thurles district court heard that Brian Barrett headbutted Dylan Kerr, who was sitting on a stool at the bar looking at his phone while waiting for a lift home after work, and Cathal Barrett then grabbed him around the neck with his arm.

Cathal Barrett said that he was trying to "restrain" Dylan Kerr as he thought he was moving towards his brother after the headbutt.

The former young hurler of the year and All-Ireland winner in 2016 told gardai following the incident that he had four pints of Guinness on the night of May 27, 2017, in Holycross with his team-mates after a club game. They then went to Thurles and he had five vodkas with Seven-Up in a local bar, and three more vodkas with Red Bull in Hayes's Hotel.

Judge MacGrath said at the end of the case: "I have no doubt that the level of alcohol consumed on the night had quite a bearing on the situation."

Brian Barrett told gardai that he had no memory of what happened in the bar at Hayes's Hotel with Dylan Kerr, and tried to contact the injured party the following day when he realised what went on.

Mr Kerr told the court that the incident happened at about 3.30am on the morning of May 28 last year, when he was waiting for a lift home after work.

"Brian Barrett was sitting on my left and Cathal Barrett was standing on my right hand side. He was waiting for a lift."

Brian Barrett came over to him and started talking to him and was "extremely aggressive and quite rude," Mr Kerr said, so he tried to ignore him and gave him "yes and no" answers. Brian Barrett then headbutted him, causing him to drop his phone on the floor. He went to pick up his phone and Cathal Barrett "grabbed me by the throat".

Cathal Barrett was "quite aggressive as well" and said "come on you c..t, come on you p...k" and also "watch my f..king leg". Mr Barrett's leg was in a brace at the time.

Mr Kerr said he didn't think Mr Barrett was trying to hurt him, but was "doing his best to restrain' him and was also being abusive and aggressive.

In a garda interview, Brian Barrett said he was shown CCTV of the incident and could see himself "headbutting that lad" and was "ashamed and disappointed" and didn't know what frame of mind he was in at the time.

Cathal Barrett took the witness box and said that, just before the incident, he was sitting at the end of the bar, making phone calls to try and arrange a lift home. "In the meantime, an incident occurred. I didn't actually see the incident, I was kind of dreaming and thinking how I was going to get home more than anything. An incident occurred and my first reaction was, I grabbed Dylan to try and restrain him and defuse any situation that might occur."

He had no intention of hurting Dylan, he said, and didn't know him. "He got off his chair and he was going around towards Brian's direction, not necessarily to do anything. My instinct was just to hold on to him."

Under cross-examination, he said it wasn't his intention to grab Dylan by the throat and didn't think it was recklessness. "I tried to do the best in the situation."

He denied "roaring into his ear" or calling Dylan a "c..t" but probably did say "mind my f..king leg" as it was in a brace, the defendant said.

Judge MacGrath said there was no evidence that Dylan Kerr acted in any way aggressively and said she was satisfied that Cathal Barrett's actions were "reckless" and didn't accept a defence that he was acting to try and protect his brother.

She adjourned the case until November 6, pending the preparation of a written impact statement by Mr Kerr.The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia marked an important step on its road towards NATO membership on Thursday (18 October 2018), beginning two days of formal Accession Talks at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.

The formal Accession Talks cover detailed aspects of membership, including political, military and legal questions. The Talks are chaired by NATOs Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez, who welcomed Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska-Jankovska and the delegation from Skopje to NATO headquarters. The Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller also met with Minister Sekerinska-Jankovska to discuss the ongoing accession process.

Work on the accession process began in July, following the invitation from Allies at the Brussels Summit. At the recent meeting of the NATO Defence Ministers, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that once all the constitutional changes on the new name are completed we can sign the accession protocol. He underlined that this is a historic opportunity, and urged all political leaders and parties to work together constructively and responsibly to seize this opportunity.

The country has worked closely with NATO, joining the Partnership for Peace (PfP) in 1995 and the Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 1999. For many years, the country has provided valuable support to NATO-led operations and missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo.(Natural News) Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been one of POTUS Donald Trumps most vociferous critics, and she has particularly bristled at his reference to her as Pocahontas, a jab at her alleged Native American heritage which she has used in the past as a means of advancing her academic career prior to politics.

As such, in a bid to silence the presidents criticisms and to prove her ancestry, Warren had a DNA test performed recently, the results of which she made public on Monday.

To say that this stunt has backfired on her in a big way is an understatement. In fact, its fair to say that she nuked her own credibility on claims that she has Cherokee lineage.

First, the test results. According to published reports, the test was conducted by a Stanford genetics professor, who concluded that there is strong evidence Warrens heritage included Native American DNA six to 10 generations ago, CNBC noted.

However, the parameters of the test left open the possibility that Warren was only 1/1,024 Native American  a tiny fraction that the Massachusetts Democrats opponents were quick to point out, the network reported. (Related: Navajo code-talker honored by Trump destroys Liz Warren with epic one-liner.)

But it gets even worse for Fauxcohontas. According to Michael Patrick Leahy writing for Breitbart News, an ancestor of Warrens actually corralled Cherokee Indians for the deadly Trail of Tears:

For over a quarter of a century, Elizabeth Warren has described herself as a Native American. When recently asked to provide evidence of her ancestry, she pointed to an unsubstantiated claim on an 1894 Oklahoma Territory marriage license application by her great-great grand uncle William J. Crawford that his mother, O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, Ms. Warrens great-great-great grandmother, was a Cherokee.

After researching her story, it is obvious that her family lore is just fiction.

Leahy writes that O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford has no Cherokee lineage and, in the census of 1860, was listed as white. Moreover, her husband  Warrens great-great-great grandfather Jonathan Crawford, was apparently a member of the Tennessee Militia who rounded up Cherokees from their family homes in the Southeastern United States and herded them into government-built stockades in what was called Rosss Landing at the time (now Chattanooga)  the point of origin for the horrific Trail of Tears, which began in January 1837.

Oops.

Lets go to the real historical record

Jonathan Crawford served in the East Tennessee Mounted Infantry Volunteer Militia, which was commanded by Brig. Gen. R. G. Dunlap from late 1835 to late 1836. While serving, Jonathan Crawford was a member of Capt. Richard E. Waterhouses company under Dunlap.

These were the troops responsible for removing Cherokee families from homes they had lived in for generations in the three states that the Cherokee Nations had considered their homelands for centuries: Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, Leahy writes.

The involuntary removal of Cherokees from their homes werent really rife with violence. However, members of the tribe would sometimes receive a brutal welcome when they arrived at the quickly-built containment areas at Rosss Landing.

While Jonathan Crawford most likely did not join regular Army troops escorting the Cherokees along the Trail of Tears, he did fight in the Second Seminole War in Florida. Leahy notes that Crawfords service and the dates have been verified and corroborated by existing documents.

All of this, of course, prompted POTUS Trump to tweet Tuesday, Pocahontas (the bad version), sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Warren, is getting slammed. She took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, DNA test is useless. Even they dont want her. Phony!

Pocahontas (the bad version), sometimes referred to as Elizabeth Warren, is getting slammed. She took a bogus DNA test and it showed that she may be 1/1024, far less than the average American. Now Cherokee Nation denies her, DNA test is useless. Even they dont want her. Phony!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018

Hes right; the Cherokee Nation has heavily criticized Warren and her test. A DNA test is useless to determine tribal citizenship, Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in a statement, USA Today reports. Current DNA tests do not even distinguish whether a persons ancestors were indigenous to North or South America.

Read more about the Elizabeth Warren Native American hoax at Hoax.news.

Sources include:

CNBC.com

Breitbart.com

NewsTarget.com(Natural News) A smart meter is an electronic device that records the amount of electricity consumed by a household and then relays that information to the electricity supply company for monitoring and billing. That might sound like a really smart, energy-efficient idea, but despite their intelligent-sounding name, smart meters are actually a really dumb idea  not to mention dangerous.

The electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by these devices have been linked to a variety of health problems, including headaches, fatigue, digestive issues and sleeping problems. There is also evidence that EMFs cause more serious conditions like autoimmune disorders and certain types of cancer. And, as if that wasnt enough reason to refuse to have one of these devices in your home, research has found that they arent even accurate! Not only do they put your familys health at risk, but they may be ripping you off financially at the same time.

As reported by Natural Health 365, a study published in the journal IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Magazine, conducted by researchers from the University of Twente and the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, found that some smart meters give readings far higher than the actual amount of energy consumed. In fact, some of these meter readings were over 580 percent higher than they should have been.

Paying more to make you sicker

In the Netherlands, the governments stated objective is to have a smart meter in every home by 2020, and at the time of the study they had already been installed in many homes. The research team set out to check how accurate the readings delivered by these smart meters would be, and their findings were shocking, to say the least. (Related: A professor of toxicology explains how EMFs cause biological damage and even cancer.)

Natural Health 365 reported:

To conduct the study, lead researcher Franz Leferink, Professor of Electromagnetic Compatibility at the UT, tested nine different electronic meters manufactured between 2004 and 2014. The meters were connected via electric switchboard to various power-saving devices  including energy-saving light bulbs, heaters, LED bulbs and dimmers. The team then compared actual energy consumption with the readings furnished by the electronic meters.

The results were profoundly disturbing. Five of the nine meters  more than half  gave readings higher than the actual power consumed  in some cases, a staggering 582 percent higher. Other readings were 475 percent, 566 percent, 569 percent and 581 percent higher than actual use. (This could theoretically reflect a near six-fold increase in a utility bill  a rip-off of outrageous proportions!)

Interestingly, of the remaining four meter types, two were accurate and only two billed less (32 percent) than the actual electricity consumed. The odds are overwhelming high, therefore, that you are more likely to get stuck with overbilling than underbilling.

Why the difference?

The researchers discovered that there is a design flaw in some meters which causes the elevated readings. Meters containing a Rogowski coil current sensor delivered faulty readings when used in combination with modern, energy-efficient switching devices like dimmers, LEDs and energy-saving lightbulbs. The reason for this is that when these modern devices are used, the electricity produces an erratic rather than a perfect waveform, which these types of meters have not been designed to read.

The meters associated with the lower readings in the study were those that used a Hall effect-based current sensor. (Related: Smart meters threaten privacy, health and basic human rights.)

Unfortunately, all these types of meters are certified and meet legal requirements, which means you have to know exactly what youre getting if you do decide to ignore the health risks and choose to install a smart meter in your home.

Learn more about smart meters at SmartMeters.news.



Sources for this article include:

NaturalHealth365.com

IEEEExplore.IEEE.org(Natural News) Pennsylvania is defined by its winding rivers and lovely lakes. But the beauty and health of those vital waters are threatened by pollution discharge from local coal plants that havent renewed their permits in years, according to a Sierra Club article.

There are 20 coal-fired power plants operating in the state. In addition to the dark columns of air pollution that spew from smokestacks, burning coal generates arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium and other heavy metal byproducts.

These toxic wastes are discharged into nearby rivers or lakes, where they will accumulate in fish and contaminate the water. People who consume either of those can contract cancer, encounter problems with their kidneys and livers, and witness their childrens IQ drop.

Other noxious waste products from coal-fired operations include sulfuric acid and coal ash. The latter requires storage in a well-lined ash pond to prevent the leakage of heavy metals into the groundwater nearby bodies of water.

Coal plants like the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant, however, skimp on the linings of their ash pits. The unlined coal-slurry pond called Little Blue Run is the largest in the world. Its also right beside the Ohio River.

Coal plants dont bother renewing permits

Now, the Clean Water Act has set maximum amounts of water pollution that such facilities can discharge into their surroundings. It also compels coal-fired power plants to secure five-year discharge permits from their states Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which will make sure the applicants are using modern technologies to minimize their pollution.

Unfortunately, thats not the case in Pennsylvania, where coal power plants havent renewed their water pollution permits for years.

The Cheswick Generation Station, for example, last secured a permit in 2007. That expired in 2012, but Cheswick never bothered to get a new one from the Pennsylvania DEP, which in turn didnt prosecute the plant or other offenders.

The 2016 Toxic Release Inventory from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identifies Cheswick as the second-biggest air polluter in Allegheny County and one of the major offenders in terms of lead pollution. The power plant was further indicted by a 2015 PennEnvironment report titled, Toxic Ten.

More than 30,000 people live within three miles of the plant.

Pollution control technology and policy have left Cheswick and other coal plants behind. New regulations require plant operators to run all of their existing pollution control systems.

However, coal plants with outdated permits have left their NOX controls off, exacerbating Allegheny Countys issues with ground-level ozone smog. (Related: Old-school smog solution: Wear a giant fishbowl on your head.)

Coal plants arent the only offenders, nor the biggest ones. Steel mills like ATI Flat Rolled Products and Coke facilities like U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works are even worse polluters than Cheswick.

It took a lawsuit to get the DEP moving

The Sierra Club and two other conservation groups previously sued the Pennsylvania DEP for allowing 10 coal-fired power plants to keep dumping toxic waste despite outdated water pollution permits. They settled the suit once the DEP acknowledged it should be enforcing its own rules.

The DEP pleaded budget cuts and understaffed offices for its slow action against the offenders.

Following this settlement, the DEP will be drafting new water pollution permits for the 10 coal plants with expired permits. The drafts will be published to the Pennsylvania Bulletin, where the public can submit comments over the next 30 days.

Another notoriously dirty Pennsylvania coal plant, the Brunner Island facility, plans to stop burning coal.

Cheswick secured an updated Title 5 air quality permit from the DEP, which resulted in significant reductions of smog-related pollutants from the plant. It has not yet secured an updated water pollution permit.

Read more about the causes of pollution in rivers at Pollution.news.

Sources include:

SierraClub.org

PennEnvironment.orgOn August 12, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Iran, and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Caspian Seas Legal Status in Astana. The Conventions provision endorsing the construction of a subsea pipeline raised optimism regarding the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) project, which has been stalled due to the Caspians uncertain status. Discussions on the TCGP have been ongoing since the 1990s, envisaging the export of 30 billion cubic meters/year (bcm/y) of Turkmen gas to Europe across the Caspian by integrating with the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC).

BACKGROUND: In the late 1990s, US, Israeli, Turkish and European companies shelved their plans for developing TCGP due to numerous delays in the project. After the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis, the EU lobbied for constructing TCGP: by registering the pipeline among Projects of Common Interest; financing the projects commercial engineering, feasibility and environmental studies; mandating the Commission in 2011 to negotiate a legally binding treaty with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan; and inking the 2015 Ashgabat Declaration with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to draft a contract on Turkmen gas supply to Europe. However, while the declaration conferred political commitments, it contained no legally binding obligations; thus neither commercial, nor legal arrangements were achieved. These efforts were stalled due to the Caspians unresolved status, Chinas increasing share in Turkmenistans gas export and Turkmenistans unwillingness to finance the project.

The failure of the Nabucco project, and the commissioning of the Russia-Turkey Blue Stream and Iran-Turkmenistan Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipelines dampened optimism for TCGP. Thus, Ashgabat postponed the idea of exporting gas to Europe (where Russias Gazprom instead cemented its position) and focused on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline. Yet after disagreements with Russia on gas prices and contracts, Ashgabat has sought to multiple its re-export and transit options.

Russia has been tying the construction of TCGP to the determination of the Caspians legal status and the approval of all coastal states. However, the Conventions Article 14 authorizes the construction of undersea pipelines in the Caspian with agreement required only from those states whose sectors will accommodate the pipeline. Even before the Convention was signed, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan asserted that only the concerned sides need to agree on the pipelines route. In an interview to Tass, Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev stated that the unsettled status of the Caspian Sea does not affect bilateral cooperation between the Caspian states.

IMPLICATIONS: While the Convention opens for the construction of TCGP, it also articulates the necessity of coordination with other coastal states regarding the environmental effects of prospective pipelines. Thus, each coastal country will examine the environmental impact of transboundary pipeline projects, which could provide an instrument for delaying TCGPs construction. From the very beginning, Russia and Iran have demanded to make the construction of TCGP contingent on final environmental authorization from the coastal countries.

Even before the Convention was signed, gradual steps were taken in favor of TCGP. In August 2017, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Understanding pledging to expand energy cooperation through joint projects. On February 15, a Turkmen delegation for the first time participated in the SGC advisory council meeting in Baku, where they reportedly discussed the possibility of gas export via the SGC and the TCGP with EU representatives. On February 19, an Azerbaijani-Turkmen working group discussed cooperation on energy projects.

Ashgabat can benefit from TCGP due to its diversification needs and its vulnerable revenue portfolio associated with suspended gas exports to Iran and Russia, and its overdependence on Chinas gas imports. However, unlike Azerbaijan, which actively engaged in the construction and financing of SGC, Turkmenistan does not make a similar commitment to the external pipeline. Neither does it grant international oil/gas companies a Production Sharing Agreement, but merely offers a Technical Service Contract.

Once Turkmenistan decides to supply gas to Europe through Azerbaijani territory, as President Aliyev mentioned, Baku will definitely consider this with great interest. Azerbaijan can transit Turkmen gas to Europe through its infrastructure when TANAP/TAP increases its throughput capacity for extra gas from third suppliers. Baku can subsequently benefit from transit fees for gas transportation, which can even be paid in the form of gas (Georgia has a similar arrangement for Azerbaijans gas transit). This gas can be re-sold in Turkey or Europe, complementing the Trans-Anatolian/Trans-Adriatic Pipelines (TANAP/TAP) capacities. However, Azerbaijan expects to first pump its gas from the Shah-Deniz-II (SDII) field under long-term contracts, before receiving a large volume of Turkmen gas into SGC. Baku also contemplates bringing additional volumes from its new gas fields to augment its gas contribution for SGC. For Turkmenistan, providing a smaller volume via TCGP would not be commercially attractive.

Turkey has also sought to receive Turkmen gas via TANAP in the expansion capacity to reduce its imports from Russia and Iran. In 2014, Turkish Atagas and Turkmenistans Turkmengaz signed a gas purchase agreement via TANAP. However, Turkeys engagement with Russias pipeline projects (Blue Stream and Turkish Stream) has altered the economic calculus to TCGPs disadvantage.

Aside from TCGP, Turkmen gas can be delivered in the western direction under several alternative scenarios. First, Turkmen gas can be shipped as Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) or Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) by tankers to Azerbaijan, then through SGC; or via railway to Georgias Black Sea port and onwards via tankers to Europe (to Romanias Constanta port). This would neither pose any environmental threat to the Caspian Sea, nor trigger a maritime dispute between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. However, given the shipment distance, CNG/LNG delivery is not economically lucrative since construction and transportation is costly, and is technically problematic due to a lack of regasification/liquefaction terminals. This option could revive the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania Interconnector project, but would bypass Turkey in transit and encounter Gazproms market.

Second, Azerbaijan could buy 3-5 bcm of gas from Malaysian Petronas (an SDII stakeholder), working in Turkmenistans offshore fields. The undersea gas platforms of the two countries could be linked, and gas pumped from Azerbaijans offshore platforms via underwater pipelines to the Sangachal terminal.

Third, Turkmenistan and Iran have at different times planned a gas-swap deal to deliver Turkmen gas to Turkey, where it could even be injected into TANAP. Yet these plans have not been realized due to a dispute over debts and prices, the extra expenses that the process would incur, and the sanctions towards Iran. The transit of Turkmen gas to Europe, which Tehran considers a potential market, would ultimately undermine also the latters own export plans. The delivery of Turkmen gas via TANAP partly depends on Azerbaijans decision to increase the throughput of the pipeline.

Fourth, Iran could receive a small volume of Turkmen gas at the border (which Turkmenistan prefers most) and deliver its gas to Azerbaijan in a swap operation. The gas could then enter SGC or be consumed in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan could buy Turkmen gas to supplement domestic demand until new fields come onstream, as foreign customers have contracted most of its potential gas volumes. The gas, which is cheaper during summer, could be kept in Azerbaijans gas storages and re-sold during winter at a profit when prices peak.

However, these arrangements require Iran to harmonize its relations with Turkmenistan regarding the debt dispute. Following Iranian President Hasan Rouhanis visits to both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in March 2018, the perspective for a swap deal may have gained momentum.

In case TCGPs realization is delayed, Gazprom could resume purchasing Turkmen gas at low prices and resell it to European countries at self-determined prices. In fact, Turkmenistan does not exclude the possibility of shipping gas via Russian pipelines to the CIS and Eastern European countries, since Ashgabat is in need of cash revenue as long as there is no concrete commitment to TCGP.

CONCLUSIONS: Along with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistans large gas reserves are considered a promising alternative for the EUs gas imports and the viability of SGCs throughput capacity. However, bringing Turkmen gas into SGC is conditioned on TCGPs commerciality (including investment and price decisions; production/transport costs; and purchase points of gas). A lack of solid political or financial support for TCGP has aligned Turkmenistan with Chinas gas import. Until the concrete infrastructure is built for bringing Turkmen gas into SGC, Azerbaijani gas will remain the most certain source. Moreover, TCGP might become a less attractive option for certain European consumers in the future, since the European gas market experiences multiple changes including the development of domestic interconnectors, LNG talks, and decreasing gas prices, as well as the finalization of Russias Turkish Stream project.

AUTHORS BIO:

Ilgar Gurbanov is a Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Image source: By: www.dragonoil.com via Wikimedia Commons accessed on 10.16.2018(Natural News) A new study has discovered that mussels, clams, and oysters produce ridiculous levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in a year.

The research team from Cardiff University and Stockholm University have stated in their paper that these marine creatures made these gases, particularly methane and nitrous oxides, through bacteria in their guts. The methane that is released by clams contributes to at least 10 percent of the total methane found in the Baltic Sea  which is equivalent to 20,000 dairy cows.

This finding indicates an overlooked source of GHGs and may have a far-reaching effect on future policies, and researchers have asked to take the results of the study into consideration in decisions to promote shellfish farming. In recent years, there have been discussions on the efficiency of shellfish in countering the effects of anthropogenically induced stress on the environment, like excess nutrients brought into bodies of water by fertilizer run-off. Some experts believe that these creatures are important in managing nutrient loading in bodies of water, as they can break it down and release it as gas. In addition, farming shellfish can also address social and economic issues, since this can create new opportunities for people who may live near areas where lakes or coastlines are heavily loaded with nutrients. However, critics have pointed out that this will bring up new problems, with an increase in shellfish leading to other nutrient run-offs. (Related: NF3 in Microchips Maybe the Missing Greenhouse Gas.)

To test their theory, the team evaluated trace gas, isotopes, and molecules from worms and clams which were sampled from ocean sediments in two areas in the Baltic Sea, Tvaren Bay and Uttervik, at differing depths. Both groups were then examined to determine the amount of methane and nitrous oxide they produced, as well as its effects on its surrounding environment. This was done through simulating conditions in their natural location and observing the results. Scientists looked at both indirect and direct production of methane and other GHGs for the study.

Results indicated that clams and worms increased methane production by a factor of eight, over those sediments without them. Worms indirectly released methane by a process called bioturbation, wherein the chemical was released with the sediments that it had disturbed while moving. Bivalves, on the other hand, produced methane thanks to bacteria that live in their gut. Low temperature also contributed to the production of nitrous oxide which is consumed by bacteria living in the sediment floor.

However, scientists wrote that the role of coastal benthic microfauna is still amply debated, largely because of the unknown properties of how these creatures regulate the production and transport of their gases. What was known is that these organisms make nitrous oxide in their digestive tracts; however, the effects of the nitrous oxide when it is released was unclear. Studies were not been able to determine if this chemical reached the water column to transport the gas from the sediment to the surface of the water, or whether this was broken down by nitrogen-breaking bacteria in the sediment floor.

However, they were able to determine that tubificid worms correlated with increased methane levels in urban wetlands where they were located. Interestingly, bivalves in the Baltic Sea sediment produced more methane when there is benthic microfauna compared to sediments without microfauna. Further studies would be needed to study the effect of microfauna on methane production in shellfish.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

Nature.com

Phys.org(Natural News) Researchers from The University of Warwick in the United Kingdom have reportedly developed a breakthrough new technology that allows for hundreds of varieties of anti-microbial polymers, potentially capable of killing drug-resistant superbugs, to be both tested and produced using simple light.

Using the facilities and resources within the schools Department of Chemistry, the team came up with a novel new way to synthesize large libraries of polymers that makes it easier and faster than ever to test each ones respective antimicrobial activity.

The new technology, which also doesnt require sealed vials, gives scientists the unique opportunity to test hundreds of different structures at once for various specific properties. In this case, their goal was to test antibiotic activity across an array of unique polymer samples.

Professor Matthew Gibson and his colleagues took a little detour from the more traditional antimicrobials like penicillin that work their magic by inhibiting certain cellular processes that lead to disease. In the polymers they looked at, antimicrobial activity stems from host-defense peptides actually breaking apart the protective membranes of bacteria.

Whilst many people have successfully mimicked antimicrobial peptides with polymers, the limiting step was the number of different combinations of building blocks you can use, Gibson told the media about his findings.

We used simple robotics and a light controlled polymerisation, which lets us do the chemistry open to air, without any sealed vials which are essential for most polymer syntheses.

Most effective polymers were actually those that inhibited bacterial growth

The methods with which Gibson and his team evaluated the polymers antimicrobial activity allowed for a closer examination of any unexpected activity that occurred during the chemical reactions. Based on this, they were able to ascertain a different mode of action through which polymers get rid of harmful bacteria.

We prepared the polymers in such a way that at the end of the reaction, we use the robotics to mix polymers directly with bacteria so we could look for unexpected activity, which we achieved, stated Dr. Sarah-Jane Richards, one of Gibsons co-authors.

Surprisingly, the best materials do not seem to break apart the bacteria as we predicted, but rather inhibit their growth. We are investigating this further, she added.

Polymers now being used to bond other antibacterial substances like copper into clothing and other textiles

Copper is another antimicrobial material that can be embedded in fiber form into clothing, furniture, carpet, and other textiles. Another study out of The University of Manchester, published earlier this year, found that copper nanoparticles have vast potential for widespread use in the medical field, including in medical clothing.

Using a process known as Polymer Surface Grafting, researchers were able to successfully bond copper nanoparticles into various textile materials that, even after 30 washes, maintained strong antibacterial resistance.

Several years back at Swedens KTH The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, researchers identified a specific polymer substance with similar antibacterial activity that they found can be successfully embedded into sportswear, diapers, bandages, and other materials without spurring the creation of resistant bacteria.

We have managed to find an antibacterial polymer that attaches stably to cellulose and therefore cannot be released into the environment, stated Josefin Illergard, a chemistry researcher at KTH about the amazing discovery.

In the future, I believe our material will be used in cleaning clothes, in sanitation for hospitals and in different kinds of water purification filters.

For more news about amazing technological discoveries that are changing the landscape of our modern world, check out Discoveries.news.

You can also learn more about the good and bad of nanotechnology by visiting Nanotechnology.news.

Sources for this article include:

ScienceDaily.com

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) Gene editing of food happens when scientists remove part of a plant or seeds DNA sequence and replace it with bacteria or pathogens that would normally never grow that way in nature. There is absolutely no science proving this is safe for humans, so anyone who consumes genetically modified foods is playing Russian roulette with their health.

Monsanto, the most evil corporation on planet Earth, is now branding their latest fruit and vegetable science monsters that grow from Crispr gene editing during laboratory experimentation as cutting-edge technology, even though past GMO experiments (like with BT corn and Roundup Ready crops) have completely backfired, causing cancer, anxiety, depression, and kidney failure in tested lab animals.

If youre into taking health RISKS, eat experimental peach-flavored strawberries, seedless tomatoes, non-browning mushrooms, and ultra-sweet strawberries

Pro biotech propagandists always refer to anyone who doesnt want to eat genetically modified foods as anti-science. They believe that anything created in a laboratory is 100 percent safe for the environment, farm animals, and of course, humans. They lie and say there is a World Scientific Consensus that doesnt exist. These biotech shills are the same pharma goons and charlatans that promote every vaccine and flu shot as 100% safe and effective, even though the vaccine industry has paid out over $3.5 billion to parents whose children have been maimed by toxic immunizations. Now youre asking, what does this have to do with food?

Consider this: To be anti-GMO is actually pro-science, not anti-science. When honest scientists research how inserting the genes of bacteria into produce affects animal health, the results are horrendously shocking, but Monsanto skews their own research to hide these facts and then has their shills bad-mouth all contesting research. This has been going on for decades, ever since GM corn and soy were first created in labs and grown on U.S. soil in the mid-1980s.

New versions of old fruits will be planted in the produce aisles conspicuously to trick consumers who avoid GM crops at all costs. If GMOs are so great for the environment, farm animals and humans, why doesnt Monsanto put a bright sticker on everything GMO  bragging about it and announcing all food thats gene edited? Why do they fight so hard to keep labels off genetically modified food if its supposedly going to save the world from starvation, drought, bugs, and weeds? The answer is simple. Its all experimental and dangerous, using chemicals in laboratories to alter the genetic makeup of Mother Natures pure food, while their rogue scientists claim its all safe, sustainable, and cutting edge technology.

Crispr gene-editing technology is NOTHING like traditional breeding techniques, though Monsanto wishes to brainwash everyone otherwise

Changing the taste, feel, and color of produce in a laboratory using gene splicing techniques that replace normal genes with bacteria and pathogens is nothing that ever occurs in nature, period. Traditional farming techniques of the past simply retained seeds of their best produce to grow preferred traits. Now, scientists for Monsanto grow food that contains weed killing and bug killing toxins so they can spray those crops with even more chemical toxins in the fields and they wont die.

That means that even if you wash that produce well when you get home, youre still eating cancer-causing and dementia-causing chemicals. Monsanto has now invested $125 million in their new Frankenfood-creating company, called Pairwise, with the goal of changing the architecture of plant branches and controlling plant protein switches the scientists can turn on or off through gene editing.

This is all highly experimental and no research or testing has been done to see if this is at all safe for human consumption. Plus, since Monsanto basically runs the FDA and the EPA, no tests will likely be done regarding human or environmental impact.

Inside the insidious labs at Tropic Biosciences in Norwich, creepy scientists are mutating seeds and rewriting the code of life while claiming to solve farming problems. Gene-editing could bring a host of health nightmares to consumers, including new extreme allergic reactions. Crops might also begin spontaneously mutating in the fields, spreading and infesting organic crops. Crispr crops might also become completely void of nutrition. And none of that addresses the cost to the environment.

Dont be a lab rat or a guinea pig for Monsanto. Avoid GMOs and Crispr produce at all costs. Tune into GMO.news for more updates on Frankencrops invading our food supply.



Sources for this article include:

TheGuardian.com

EnvEurope.springeropen.com

GMOevidence.com

GMO.news

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.orgAbout a dozen of activists dressed in white coveralls blocked a commuter Google bus in San Jose Thursday morning.

Holding a large sign that reads "Destroy The Tech-Savior Industrial Complex," demonstrators who stood on the streets near San Jose State University say they are concerned about the impact of Google's planned expansion in San Jose and that it will drive up prices.

Demonstrators say they're wearing a mock hazmat suit because Google is "toxic."

San Jose Police said protesters aren't allowed to block traffic but they can demonstrate on the sidewalks. Officers later told the protesters to disperse and they chanted "we'll be back."

Google announced a major expansion project near the Diridon train station earlier this year. The tech giant said it has spent more than $220 million buying up property on the western edge of the downtown district.

In May, dozens of protesters blocked tech commuter buses in San Francisco with e-scooters to voice their concerns about the growing number of homeless people.

Protesters decried the "techsploitation" of San Francisco and held up signs that read "your disruption is our displacement."

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.The conversation about teen suicide takes to the big screen Thursday with the release of a Bay Area-produced documentary at the Downtown Los Angeles Film Festival.

"The Edge of Success" explores two suicide clusters that claimed the lives of nine Palo Alto and Gunn High School students from the perspective of their classmates.

The documentary followed six students through two years of high school as they dealt with the loss of their classmates and their parents and schools efforts to find the best way to help them move forward.

"In the film you hear kids talking about feeling inadequate, that they werent doing as much as their peers and they werent doing enough so they had to do more than their peers and so it was a constant comparison between themselves and their classmates," said documentarian Kathryn Basiji.

The filmmakers say they were most struck by how much pressure was coming from the students themselves and how willing they were to be open about that difficult time.

"Even students who werent great friends with the people who passed away, it was still a classmate that is gone, a classmate who were not going to see again  never being able to see that person again," said Gunn graduate Tone Lee.

Palo Alto superintendent declines to comment on the documentary.

Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among teenagers. The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 800-273-8255.A grass fire sparked by a power line failure was threatening a major Chevron natural gas pipeline junction Thursday, leading 4,000 people to evacuate from their homes to a BART station parking lot.

Police officers started knocking on doors of homes between Bay Point and Pittsburg Wednesday night, telling them to grab whatever they can and leave. Two evacuation points were set up at Calvary Temple Church in Concord and Pittsburg/Bay Point BART parking lot.

Families lined up parking lot early Thursday morning to receive food, water and blankets from the American Red Cross.

"So far I got my in laws with me and the elderly. My father-in-law can't walk. He's in the car, his medication is in our house," Bay Point resident Tonya Manuha told NBC Bay Area.

Pete Suratos talks to Scotch Williams, one of the 4,000 evacuees who left their home after a power line failure threatened a major Chevron natural gas pipeline junction.

Michelle Calhoun says she had been running the heat in her car because she wasn't able to get the first batch of blankets since they were first given out to children and the elderly.

"I didn't understand when the cops first knocked on the door because it's like midnight, you're in a deep sleep. They wake you up out of your sleep and you have to evacuate," Calhoun said.

Scotch Williams said he got a phone call about the evacuation around 9:15 p.m. but he didn't pay much attention to it. "I just sat down and started eating. Next thing I knew, there was a knock on the door," he said.

Williams told his wife to go stay with her counsins and he stayed at the BART station to stay closer to their house.

"When I got here there was about 15 cars, an officer got a phone call there was going to be 3,000 people more coming. Next thing I knew, BART got pretty crowded," Williams said.

Pete Suratos talks to Marissa Esque, one of the 4,000 evacuees who left their home after a power line failure threatened a major Chevron natural gas pipeline junction.

Marissa Esquer said she just grabbed her dog, put on some pajamas and she and her brother just got in the car. "It's uncomfortable. I can't really watch my surroundings so I don't really wanna fall asleep because you can't really trust people nowadays," Esquer said.

The evacuation center at BART was later moved to Los Medanos College on 2700 E. Leland Rd., the Red Cross said.

Chevron said they learned of the blaze about 8 p.m. Wednesday, immediately shut down the gas line and spent the night working to reduce pressure in it.

Fire officials advised residents not to be alarmed by a loud, shrieking noise that they described as being a "normal part of the risk-mitigation process" at the pipeline facility on Buchanan Road in Antioch.

Pete Suratos talks to Tonya Manuha, one of the 4,000 evacuees who left their home after a power line failure threatened a major Chevron natural gas pipeline junction.| BY Lynchy |

J. Walter Thompson Perth has launched a powerful new campaign, Look Up WA, aimed at raising awareness of the dangers of mobile phone use when driving and reducing the shocking statistics of this modern-day road safety problem.

In 2017, the number of deaths on WA roads linked to driver distraction doubled, accounting for one in six fatal accidents. And even though 81% of drivers in WA admit to using their phone whilst driving, nine out of 10 drivers know its an extremely risky behaviour.

The campaign features influencer Gary Turk, whose original Look Up film about mobile phone addiction went viral, and has garnered over 400M views globally. He was approached to take part in this new campaign, a fitting evolution of his original  only this time about driving.

Says Simon Langley ECD, J. Walter Thompson: This is an important road safety campaign and another demonstration of the RACs commitment to making WA a better place. The fact that we were able to get the support and involvement of Gary, a guy whos had countless brands approach him to endorse their message, but has politely refused each request, is a real coup.

RAC advocacy and members executive general manager Patrick Walker said the campaign was prompted by the growth of distracted driving to epidemic levels.

Distracted driving is fast becoming one of the leading causes of deaths and serious injuries on our roads and as technology evolves so too does the level of distraction in our cars, he said. There is a myth this type of distraction is only a problem among younger drivers, however the issue affects all ages and is one of the most complex and devastating road safety challenges we currently face.

Through Turks social clout and involvement, which includes appearing in the film, PR and radio executions, the campaign taps into the influencers global audience to help amplify the message beyond WA.

Real human connection and a strong sense of our surroundings is far more valuable than gazing at our smartphones, said Turk. The spoken word is an engaging and effective way to start a conversation and a memorable way to get people thinking about a subject like distraction.

The campaign also features visually simple and striking outdoor, print and digital executions, plus promotional support to evolve the campaign message through Seven West Media and Southern Cross Austereo.

The campaign will roll out over the coming months on TV, Outdoor, Press, Social, Digital, and Radio.

Agency: J. Walter Thompson, Perth

ECD: Simon Langley

Creative Director: Joe Hawkins

Creatives: Dustin De Souza, Sinead Roarty, Joe Hawkins

Broadcast Producer: Jackie Archer, Tom Pearce

Group Account Director: Donna-Maree Gavin

Account Manager: Andrew Douglas

Executive Planning Director: Angela Morris

Planner: Brona Kilkelly

Print Production: Sarah Parsons

Photographer: Shaun Atherton, Allan Myles

Client: Elizabeth Lockett, Maree Setzinger, Jon McKenzie

Production Company: Beautiful Pictures

Director: Brett Ludeman

Sound: Brainestorm

Media: Initiative MediaThe general contractor that managed construction of San Francisco's troubled $2.2 billion transit terminal is suing the agency in charge of the project alleging faulty design and mismanagement.

The joint venture of Webcor Builders and Obayashi Corp. filed the lawsuit Tuesday in San Francisco.

The lawsuit claims design and planning mistakes sent construction soaring and led to costs overruns that cost the joint venture $150 million.

The contractor said it submitted 12,000 requests for information and 1,603 change order requests to officials with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority during construction of the terminal in downtown San Francisco.

The project has been mired in litigation.

The terminal closed last month after cracks were found in steel beams.

Agency spokeswoman Christine Falvey did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday seeking comment.

Mohammed Nuru, chair of the board of directors, Transbay Joint Powers Authority provided the following statement:

"The Transbay Joint Powers Authority will hold Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture responsible for their contractual commitment to deliver this project to the people of the Bay Area and the state of California. While we are still reviewing the details of the complaint, at first glance, many of the accusations that deal with delays to the project pre-date Webcors repeated commitments to deliver the transit center on time.

"The TJPA remains focused on reopening the transit center as soon as safely possible to the public and we hope that all parties will join us in that effort."

The transit center was shut down Sept. 25 when a cracked beam was discovered at the center.The Diocese of San Jose on Thursday released the names of its clergy who have been "credibly accused" of child sex abuse. The list named 15 priests, most of them already dead.

"I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of authority and who violated that sacred trust by abusing children, Bishop Patrick McGrath said in a letter accompanying the list. The sexual abuse of children and young people is an appalling crime and a sin. When these perpetrators are members of the clergy, there are not only psychological wounds but spiritual wounds."

[[497948451,C]]

The list, which mostly contains accusations made decades ago, was released after the the Bishop held four listening sessions for survivors and members of the church. McGrath said the meetings were informative and painful. He also defined credible accusation, a term some abuse victims feared would lead to an incomplete list because the Church would be the ultimate arbiter of an accusers credibility.

One of the former priests listed by the Diocese of San Jose as "credibly" accused of child sex abuse maintains his innocence from allegations dating to 1987. He lsays he didnt know he was on the list or banned from the ministry until Thursday. A survivor meanwhile says the list doesn't paint a complete picture of the clergy abuse. Ian Cull reports.

A credible accusation is one after all the information has been gathered that normal people would look at that and say there is a problem here," McGrath said. "And that to me would be credible. And then we would do more investigation again just to make sure.

Only five of the 15 priests on Thursday's list released by the San Jose Diocese are still alive. And most of them appear to still live in the Bay Area. That includes Hernan Toro, who was convicted in 1983. But he continued to be assigned to parishes in the Bay Area until he was permanently banned from ministry in 1990. Robert Handa reports.

Some question whether the list goes far enough in addressing the sexual abuse of children and say the church needs to open its records to law enforcement or an independent third party.

"This whole investigation should not be controlled and managed by the bishop, he should ask the DA or the attorney general's office to investigate and help people heal," said Dan McNevin of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath discusses clergy accused of abuse.

The San Jose Diocese was the first in the Bay Area Diocese to say it will release the names of priests in response to new revelations about priest sex abuse in Pennsylvania and around the world. The Diocese of Oakland said it will release its own list around Thanksgiving, but the Diocese of San Francisco has yet to commit to any such action.

Several priests included on todays list continued to serve in parishes around the Bay Area, even after credible allegations of sexual abuse, specifically: Rev. Don Flickinger, Rev. Arthur Harrison, and Msgr. Alexander C. Larkin.

Msgr. Alexander C. Larkin was reported in 2003 but served at Sacred Heart in Saratoga until 2005.

Liz Sullivan, a spokesperson for the diocese, said Larkin was placed on leave after those allegations were deemed credible. Sullivan said Flickinger, who came to San Jose from the Fresno Diocese to be near his ailing mother, was sent back to Fresno after the diocese learned of the allegations against him.

Others, including Rev. Robert A. Gray, Hernan Toro and Rev. Leonel Noia were assigned to various parishes after being criminally convicted.

The Diocese of San Jose says the Catholic Church changed the way it handled these cases after 2002, when the Dallas Charter was established. The Charter is a comprehensive set of procedures established by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in June 2002 for addressing allegations of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy.

They have demonstrated over and over again that they cannot govern themselves, John Salberg, a survivor of sex abuse by Rev. Joseph T. Pritchard in San Jose said. They cannot investigate themselves. They're incapable of doing so.

A statement released today by the Diocese says they received the first report on Pritchard in 2002. But Salberg said he went to church leaders, including Bishop Patrick McGrath, in 2000 to share his story of abuse when he was twelve-years-old at St. Martins of Tours Parish in San Jose.

According to Salberg, the Diocese was also warned about Pritchard decades prior, when the parents of another victim reported the priest to the Diocese in the 1970's. Pritchard was transferred to St. Nicholas in Los Altos in 1979, but never faced criminal charges. He died in 1988.

I don't believe they're being proactive, I believe they're being forced into the situation, but it's the right thing to do now, Salberg said.

We have hidden nothing, Bishop McGrath said in an interview on Wednesday in repsonse to Salbergs allegations.

NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit found the list likely captures just a fraction of Catholic priests accused of child sexual abuse in the South Bay.

Five religious order priests accused of sexual misconduct in Santa Clara County and listed on the Bishop Accountability Project website were conspicuously absent from todays list.

Allegations of sexual abuse of children by religious order priests who served or resided at schools and other institutions operated not by the Diocese but by their religious order in Santa Clara County were investigated by the religious order, to which the priest belonged, Sullivan said in a written response to questions from NBC Bay Area. In these cases, without their personnel files, we do not know whether the allegations were deemed credible and cannot responsibly release their names.

The list also excludes accused priests from other dioceses who worked in the South Bay at some point in their service.

A recent lawsuit filed in Southern California, accusing hundreds of priests from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles of sexual abuse, shows at least nine of those priests spent time working in the South Bay, and 20 others in the greater Bay Area.

The criminal statute of limitations has expired on all sex abuse cases included on today's list that have not already been prosecuted.

The Diocese of San Jose has arranged for former FBI Executive Assistant Director, Dr. Kathleen McChesney, and her firm, Kinsale Management Consulting, to oversee an in-depth independent review of all records of the Diocese pertaining to the sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults committed by any cleric appointed by the Diocesan Bishop to serve in the Diocese.

There can no longer be a culture of secrecy in the Church, but one of transparency and accountability, Bishop McGrath said a statement released today.  Our work will not be complete until all of those who have been harmed have received assistance in healing and until the evil of child sexual abuse has been eradicated from society.

Churches, Schools and Religious Centers with Links to Publicly Accused Priests

This map includes names released by the San Jose Diocese, names of priests who have been identified by Bishop Accountability and names of priests identified in lawsuits. Note: This map will be updated as more information is released.A 20-year-old San Jose man was arrested Wednesday in the violent sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl behind a church in an Eastside neighborhood, according to the San Jose Police Department.

At about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Esteban Mosqueda lured the teenage girl to a secluded area of Liberty Baptist Church in the 2700 block of South King Road and violently attacked and sexually assaulted her, police said.

Detectives with SJPD's Covert Response Unit took Mosqueda into custody at a San Jose home Wednesday and booked him into Santa Clara County jail on charges of penetration with a foreign object, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and sexual battery, police said.

"I want to commend our survivor for her strength through this ordeal," police Chief Eddie Garcia said. "I also wish to laud the amazing work of our detectives, who tirelessly followed up leads and used amazing police instincts to identify and take a violent predator off our streets."

The victim's condition was not provided.

Anyone with information about the suspect or incident should contact Detective Beth Stenger of the San Jose Police Department's Sexual Assaults Investigation Unit at (408) 277-4102. Persons wishing to remain anonymous may call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line, (408) 947-STOP (7867).Four men who say that they were sexually abused by five priests in parishes across Illinois have filed a lawsuit against every diocese in the state, saying that there was a widespread scheme to cover-up sexual abuse.

The survivors say the church is holding back, keeping the names of accused clergy secret, and keeping secret records on the cases themselves.

In response to that alleged cover-up, the four men filed a lawsuit in Chicago Thursday. The suit, known as a public nuisance lawsuit, is one of few potential avenues for the men, whose claims fall outside of the statute of limitations.

The suit is looking to force the disclosure of the secret documents, and more importantly, to change church policy on the handling of abuse claims.

You are the leaders of the leaders of the flock. Please do the right thing, abuse survivor Cyndi Yesko said.

Some dioceses, including Chicago, have released information about credibly accused priests, but the suit alleges there is information the diocese held back, and that, they say, creates a dangerous public nuisance.

(Its) a conspiracy of silence, a conspiracy of secrecy, a conspiracy of self-protection and scandal avoidance, attorney Jeff Anderson said.

The lawsuit alleges that abuse took place beginning in the early 1970s and lasted through the late 1990s.

The Archdiocese of Chicago says it has yet to see the lawsuit, but has been taking action.

We have not had time to review the lawsuit, the archdiocese said in a statement. In 2006, the Archdiocese of Chicago published on its website the names of diocesan priests against whom there were substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse. The list can be found at protect.archchicago.org.

The archdiocese also gave a detailed list of its efforts to combat sexual abuse in the church, saying that it has released more than 20,000 pages of documents pertaining to the abuse.

Last month, Cardinal Blase Cupich called for an independent review of the archdioceses policies and procedures, and for the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation process to help heal survivors of abuse, their families, and the community as a whole.

Despite what Chicago has done, attorneys say other dioceses throughout the state have not made any disclosures whatsoever.

People have been outraged by the perpetrators of these crimes, and equally disturbing, if not more disturbing, is the fact that people in leadership knew about it and allowed it, Marc Pearlman, an attorney for the victims, said.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has also launched an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Attorneys for the survivors say they support that investigation and hope it leads to real changes in the church, and in its handling of abuse cases.An Amber Alert has been canceled Thursday after a 7-month-old girl was taken by a man fleeing police during a traffic stop in Illinois.

The man, whose nickname is Boopa, was driving with the childs mother to Madison, Wisconsin, police said. When authorities pulled over the vehicle on westbound Interstate 90 milepost 21.25 near Belvidere in DeKalb County, Boopa refused to exit the car, jumped into the drivers seat and fled, police said. The womans child was still in the car.

The man does not have any rights to the child, police said.

According to police, the child was later located in Chicago with a family member. The incident is still under investigation, and no suspect is in custody.

Boopa, whose real name was not given, is a 32-year-old black man with brown eyes and black hair, according to police. He stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about 225 pounds. He was last seen wearing a tan and black jacket.

The vehicle he fled in was a silver 2013 Chevrolet Malibu with license plate AV65043. It has tinted windows and the front passenger side window is cracked, police said.

Illinois State Police are asking anyone with information to call (217) 786-6677.A police dog helped catch a man who allegedly broke his ex-girlfriends home and choked her early Thursday in north suburban Warren Township.

Lonnie J. Henderson, 39, is accused of forcing entry to the home in the 18700 block of West Ash Drive in Warren Township, according to a statement from the Lake County sheriffs office spokesman Sgt. Christopher Covelli. He then choked and battered the woman, who is in her 20s, before she was able to leave the home and call 911. She was treated by paramedics.

Deputies arrived at the home and found that Henderson had run away, Covelli said. A K-9 named Dax was able to track Hendersons scent for more than half a mile and authorities found him hiding in a marshy area near a business.

Henderson, who has no permanent address, was arrested and charged with felony counts of aggravated domestic battery and domestic battery, according to Covelli. He was also charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal damage to property, criminal trespass to property and disorderly conduct.

He was being held at the Lake County Jail pending a bail hearing, the sheriffs office said.One man was killed and two other people were injured in a crash involving a car and a motorcycle in Chicago's south suburbs early Thursday.

The crash took place at around 1:30 a.m. on Torrance Avenue between 140th and 142nd streets in Burnham, authorities said.

Illinois State Police were on the scene, conducting an investigation and doing a full reconstruction to see exactly how the car and motorcycle collided.

Family members confirmed that 21-year-old Kendall King was on the motorcycle and killed in the crash.

The father of a 2-year-old boy, King was riding the motorcycle with the mother of his child, his family said. She was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where her condition was not released.

The driver of the car was also injured in the collision and taken to an area hospital in unknown condition, authorities said.

King's uncle said he and the woman had been together since high school and that his nephew was a hard worker and "great dad" to his son.

Further details were not immediately available and the investigation into the incident remained ongoing.The Pentagon has confirmed that U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Smiley was shot in a Taliban attack that killed two Afghan leaders in Kandahar province last week.

U.S. military spokesman Cmdr. Grant W. Neeley provided no other details. The Washington Post reported earlier Sunday that Smiley was recovering after suffering at least one gunshot wound while he was inside the Kandahar governor's compound.

The Taliban assassinated two top provincial officials Thursday in an attack on a security conference attended by the top U.S. military commander in the country, Gen. Scott Miller. He escaped injury.

Smiley was assigned in the summer to lead a Kandahar-based command with a mission to train and advise Afghan security forces and help with counterterrorism operations in southern Afghanistan.What to Know The improper use of multiple power strips caused the fatal April 7 fire at Trump Tower, the FDNY said

The 50th-floor apartment did not have a smoke alarm

The fire killed Todd Brassner, a 67-year-old art and guitar collector; he's being sued by the Trump Organization for $90,000 for unpaid fees

The Trump Organization has filed a lawsuit seeking to reclaim $90,000 in unpaid fees from a Trump Tower resident who died in an April fire at the tower.

The board of Trump Tower Condominium  through Trump Organization lawyer Sonja Talesnik  filed the suit in Manhattan Supreme Court late Tuesday against the estate of 67-year-old Todd Brassner seeking the common charges and fees. The New York Post reports Brassner's heirs, Todd and Heather Brassner, did not return calls seeking comment.

A man was critically injured after a fire erupted in an apartment at Trump Tower in Midtown on Saturday evening, the FDNY said. (Update: Authorities later said the man died and that six firefighters were injured.)

The New York Fire Department has said the fire was accidental and Brassner's apartment did not have a smoke alarm. The apartment didn't have sprinklers either, due to a loophole in city regulations applying to high-rise buildings like Trump Tower.

[NATL-NY]In Photos: Major Fire Breaks Out at Trump TowerA body found in the Shetucket River in Windham has been identified as a missing man from Willimantic, according to Connecticut State Police.

John Bennett, 87, was reported missing from his home earlier this week. His body was found Thursday in the area of Plains Road in Windham.

Police said his death is not suspicious.| BY Ricki Green |

Australian-based The Glue Society has recently directed Mother Londons latest project for Stella Artois, which aims to encourage the beer-drinking public to slow down, remove day-to-day distractions and make time to enjoy lifes simple pleasures, by highlighting the absurdity of our on-the-go lifestyles.

The Glue Society directed the spot in Londons Spitalfields  a process which included designing the deliberately flawed paper chalices and picking up the resulting dry cleaning bills  via their new UK production partner, Biscuit Filmworks.

The campaign forms part of the current Joie de Biere campaign, built around Stella Artois philosophy to make time for what you truly enjoy.

Launched in early October, the 360-degree campaign will be amplified via a range of activity, encompassing cinema, TV, print, PR, social and digital, and out-of-home.

The brand is targeting those who burn the candle at both ends, with a pop-up experience that reinvents the takeaway coffee cup. Rather than offering a typical flat white, the Stella Artois

baristas pour beers-on-the-go in handy, fake, paper chalices.

However, paper and beer dont mix well together, and quickly the fake glasses begin to disintegrate, or fall apart, highlighting why some things arent meant to be rushed.

Says Alexis Berger, marketing director Europe, Stella Artois: We all know modern life is incredibly busy but were calling out this constant on the go attitude and reminding everyone to make time for what they truly enjoy.

In Australia & New Zealand, The Glue Society is represented by Revolver/Will ORourke.

Client: Stella Artois Europe

Agency: Mother London

Director/Editor: The Glue Society

Production Company: BiscuitA Hartford womans truck was destroyed because she didnt pay to have it released from the impound lot before the state-mandated 45-day period. Now, Joyce Adams-Stewart is out of a vehicle and out of patience. She said it all started with an expired parking sticker.

I suffered so much indignity, said Joyce Adams-Stewart. We have nowhere to go, nowhere to turn as far as a ride went.

Last summer, she and her husband parked their pickup in the assigned lot at their apartment complex on a Friday night. When they went out to the parking lot the next morning, and the truck was gone.

I said, No that cant be true. Ive been here for six years, said Adams-Stewart.

Adams-Stewart discovered that Cross Country Towing, which is contracted through management at her apartment building, towed their vehicle. When she called the company, she said they told her that it was because of an expired parking sticker.

Adams-Stewart said she complained to management, and management never gave her a current parking sticker.

According to the property manager, all tenants must have their vehicle registration and insurance card at the time they pick up their parking sticker because they change the color every year. But, she told NBC CT Responds, Adams-Stewart and her husband didnt have those documents when they came to the office to request a new parking sticker.

Cross Country Towing in Hartford confirmed that Adams-Stewarts vehicle had been towed there and it was no longer on the property. An employee said they notified her through certified mail after she failed to pick it up.

Adams-Stewart insisted she didnt receive the notice and said she couldnt afford the $145 tow cost, plus the storage fees to get the vehicle.

My husband wasnt working. Its only me collecting a Social Security check, added Adams-Stewart.

What the apartment building and the towing company did was legal and its a costly lesson that Adams-Stewart wants to share with others.

Heres what you need to know about private towing in the state of Connecticut:

The towing company must notify the police within two hours of towing the vehicle.

The towing company has to contact the owner through certified mail.

The vehicle owner has up to 45 days to pick up the vehicle.

The towing company must file paperwork with the DMV to dispose of the vehicle.

DMV will process the documents giving the towing company ownership of the vehicle.

The vehicle is either auctioned or demolished.

According to the towing company, the sales of those auctioned vehicles go back to the tower to pay for the bill.

As for Adams-Stewart, she said its time to cut her losses. Ill just have to buy a new vehicle and move on, she said.Police are searching for a suspect they said should be considered armed and dangerous after a shooting in Middletown Thursday that led to schools being placed in secure mode.

Police identified 22-year-old Kyshone M. Jackson Jr., of Middletown, as a suspect. They said they are familiar with him and are asking for help from the public to find him.

The victim was shot in the face in the 400 block of Long Lane around 1 p.m. and was transported to Saint Francis Hospital. Its not clear how severe the injury is, but he is expected to survive.

Jackson and the victim know each other and had "issues," according to police, who said this was an isolated incident.

He had fled from the area before police arrived.

Schools were placed in secure mode during the investigation and Long Lane was shut down.

Police said there is no known threat to the public.

No additional information was immediately available. Check back for updates.A Hamden woman is accused of spitting on a firefighter and smearing feces all over a holding cell at police headquarters Monday.

Police arrested Dorothy Hart, 72, after a domestic dispute Monday afternoon. According to police, Hart and her boyfriend got into a physical fight.

During the investigation of that incident, officers discovered Hart had three arrest warrants, and took her to police headquarters. While at headquarters, police said, Hart spit on a firefighter who was trying to treat her.

Police said officers put Hart in a cell, where she pooped on the floor and smeared the feces on the floor and window. She also flooded the cellblock area, police said.

Hart was charged with third-degree assault, disorderly conduct, refusal to be fingerprinted, assault on a public safety, emergency medical, public transit or health care professional, criminal mischief, and three counts of failure to appear in court. She was held on a $15,000 bond and is next due to appear in court on Nov. 6.Election day is less than three weeks away and on Wednesday night candidates for the 5th Congressional District squared off in a debate at Central Connecticut State University.

For most of the night, voters heard two candidates miles apart from each other on policy. When asked about the economy and national debt, Democrat Jahana Hayes slammed the federal tax cut, while Republican Manny Santos said the tax cut helps raise tax revenue.

"The poorest people in our community shouldn't have to pay so that corporations can get huge tax breaks in the name of saving our economy," Hayes said.

"Only with more tax revenue will we be able to take control of our debt, our yearly deficits. Other than ending the various programs, it's the economy. With more tax revenue we'll be able to afford the things we want to afford like infrastructure, and so I would be very supportive of continuing the tax cuts," said Santos.

The two were asked about infrastructure spending, criminal justice reform, the opioid crisis, and student loan debt. For many of those topics, Santos drilled down on the economy being the key.

When it came to criminal justice reform, Hayes spoke about offering support and counseling services to students struggling and to make sure those in the system are able to re-enter society as a productive member. Santos spoke about making sure the economy is good enough so that anyone who wants a job can work and to support programs that promote trades in community colleges and high schools.

Regarding the opioid crisis, Santos discussed getting the medical community involved to help reach solutions. Hayes said that a punitive response doesn't work, that addiction is a disease and it has to be addressed as such. She also mentioned the importance of education about the issue.

When asked about gay marriage, Hayes said she supported it while Santos did not.

"I support gay marriage in the state of Connecticut, and I will do everything I can to ensure they have the same constitutionally-protected rights as any other groups," said Hayes.

"Gay marriage in Connecticut is legal. I am personally not in favor of gay marriage. I believe marriage is a union between a man and a woman. That's not to say I'm against civil unions or the gay community," said Santos. "I'm against any legislation that violates a person's right to work or carry out their lives regardless whether they're gay or not."

Both candidates also had different takes on student debt.

"Offer incentives for people who return to our state, return to our communities to live and work. After so many years, reduce either the interest or the amount that's owed because those people are now taxpayers. They're investing in our communities, and they're helping our economies to thrive," said Hayes.

"The student debt issue is something that, frankly, a lot of students bring upon themselves. When you enter college, you enter college with the understanding that these loans have to be paid back," said Santos.

The former Meriden mayor's response created a shocked reaction from several people in the crowd. After the debate, a University of Connecticut sophomore with $60,000 in debt, who is also a first-generation American and first-generation college student, told Santos she works a part-time job and it's still not enough.

Santos replied that a robust economy would allow better-paying jobs for students drowning in debt but that students also have to be careful with their decisions.

"It behooves you to choose a college that is more affordable for you and maybe not one that is a better fit or better environment," Santos said.

At the end of the debate, both gave closing statements and spoke about the importance of November's election.

"We want a brighter future for our children. We want equitable access to high-quality education. We want to be able to love who we love and have healthcare and jobs. We want our families to be safe and protected, and we want people to be welcomed in our communities," said Hayes.

"The Democrat Party has been co-opted by the extreme left and is promoting socialism, Medicare for all, free college, open borders, and citizenship for illegal aliens, and the elimination of the right to protect ourselves and our family, infringing on our second amendment rights," said Santos.The Center for Children's Health, led by Cook Children's, unveiled Wednesday the latest findings of an in-depth survey reflecting the well-being of children in a six-county area.

The group conducts the survey every three years and includes information gathered from more than 8,000 families in Tarrant, Denton, Johnson, Hood, Parker and Wise counties.

The survey asked parents and community leaders questions about a variety of topics regarding their children's health.

The goal of the data is to help community leaders and organizations identify children's health priorities and implement solutions.

"It's a very big deal, because it guides our work in the community," said Marilyn Nappier, director of child health evaluation at The Center for Children's Health.

According to The Center for Children's Health, the top findings included:

Ninety-two percent of parents felt their children were safe at school. This was lower than the national rate of 98 percent and the state rate of 97percent.

Community leaders felt the importance of addressing mental health issues was up from 41 percent in 2009 to 68 percent in 2018.

Community leaders also reported feeling the importance of addressing child abuse was up from 41 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2018.

Children in our region are more likely to miss school than the state and national rates reflect.

The survey also found that 50 percent of parents don't believe oral health is connected to overall health.

"It's really helped us target where do we need to be? Where's the missing link? Where do we advocate legislatively for? Where do we need to make sure we inundate with education and awareness?" said Tonya Fuqua, DDS, director of Save A Smile.

Save A Smile provides preventive and restorative dental care for children from low-income families with the help of volunteer dentists who do screenings at schools.

The school-based grassroots approach of the program includes a social service model and is the key component to connecting children to the care they need.

Fuqua said data from the survey helps them fill the gaps of service and raise awareness.

"We have a lot of work to move that needle," Fuqua said.A driver and a state trooper were hospitalized Thursday morning after a crash on the Dallas North Tollway.

It happened at about 1:23 a.m. near Northwest Highway.

Two vehicles  a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and a silver Toyota Camry  were heading north on the DNT when the driver of the Camry lost control, struck a concrete barrier and collided with the trooper's patrol vehicle, according to Lonny Haschel, DPS spokesman.

The driver of the Camry and the trooper were both transported to Parkland Hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, Haschel said.

Northbound lanes of the DNT were closed between Lovers Lane and Northwest Highway for the investigation into what caused the crash. All lanes were reopened several hours later.

No further information was released.Winning re-election while indicted is a rare feat in U.S. history.

But San Diego Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter is attempting to do just that in November's midterm election.

After pleading not guilty in August to federal charges, Hunter is entering the final weeks of the campaign doing what they can to lay low. He has largely avoided the media and refused to debate their opponents.

Instead, Ducan has mostly appeared at Republican-friendly events, and run attack ads against his Democratic challenger that some say seek to exploit racial prejudice and xenophobia.

It was the same for Rep. Chris Collins of New York, who was indicted on a separate charge.

Both declined repeated requests to comment for this story.

Indictments and even jail time have not always ended political careers. A few have won re-election while facing criminal charges and some ended up exonerated. Others were convicted and later resigned.

But the Collins and Hunter contests are emerging as a fresh test of partisanship in the Trump era. Some voters may look past such a blemish this year to ensure that their preferred party remains in power.

"If you look at the question of partisanship, it sort of makes sense to me why Republican voters would prefer a Republican under indictment to a Democrat," said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan analytical newsletter at the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "Two decades ago, partisanship was not as strong, and (they) would have been in more trouble."

Collins, 68, initially suspended his campaign after being charged with insider trading that prosecutors say helped his son and others avert nearly $800,000 in stock losses. But he reversed course over the difficulty in removing his name from the ballot, saying the stakes "are too high" to allow a Democrat to take the congressional seat he has held for three terms.

Democrats are trying to pick up 23 seats nationwide to win control of the House.

Don Lloyd, a 70-year-old retired engineer who lives in Eden, New York, said he'll vote for Collins even though he believes he should not be running.

"But what am I really voting for? I'm voting for a Republican," Lloyd said. "And let's face it, the election isn't about Chris Collins. It's about Trump. ... I'm supporting the Republican Party."

Collins came under fire for a TV ad that showed his Democratic opponent, Nate McMurray, speaking Korean, over a backdrop of ominous music, a portrait of the North Korean dictator and captions falsely implying he was talking about sending American jobs to Asia. McMurray has studied and taught law in South Korea and is married to a woman from South Korea.

In California, Hunter and his wife face a 60-count indictment accusing them of using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for everything from a family trip to Italy to Costco shopping sprees and then trying to hide the illegal spending in government records as donations to charities, including for wounded warriors.

After his last court appearance in San Diego, Hunter was swarmed by protesters, including one wearing a bunny suit in reference to claims that he used campaign funds on airfare for a pet rabbit.

"We're still running, and we're going to win," Hunter told reporters over the chants of "lock him up!"

Polls suggest the race has tightened between the 41-year-old former combat Marine and his opponent, Ammar Campa-Najjar, a 29-year-old first-time candidate who worked in the Obama administration.

Hunter, who is seeking his sixth term, has struck back with a YouTube ad alleging Campa-Najjar, a Latino Arab-American, is working to "infiltrate Congress." It falsely asserts he is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood. It also mentions his Palestinian background. His father served in the Palestine Liberation Organization and his grandfather was a leader of the group that orchestrated the terror attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics that killed 11 Israeli athletes.

Dozens of national security experts have assailed the attacks as racist. Campa-Najjar, who was raised in San Diego by his Mexican-American mother, had little to do with his Palestinian father and his Palestinian grandfather was killed before he was born. The FBI vetted his family before giving him security clearances to work in the Obama administration.

Maria Patton, an independent, said she is still undecided about whom to vote for, but the attacks have turned her off.

"I don't support that kind of mentality," said the 60-year-old retired educator, who lives in La Mesa, east of San Diego. "I find it unfair."

Hunter has stepped up the attacks as donations have poured in for his opponent, who raised $1.4 million in the third quarter compared with $132,000 by the incumbent.

"There's a high premium on truth this election year," Campa-Najjar told The Associated Press.

McMurray, town supervisor of Grand Island, also saw donations triple in the third quarter, when he raised $520,000 compared with $33,000 for Collins.

"Both Democrats and Republicans are starting to support me and there's a reason: Because people want something better," McMurray said.

Like Collins and Hunter, Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey refused to resign after being indicted in 2015 on corruption charges. The case was dismissed after a hung jury. He is now in a tight race with his Republican opponent.

In 2014, Republican Rep. Michael Grimm of New York was re-elected while under indictment but later resigned after pleading guilty to tax evasion. After serving more than seven months in prison, he ran again in the June primary but lost.

_____

Watson reported from San Diego. Thompson reported from Buffalo, New York.A 55-year-old Anaheim man was charged Thursday with murder for allegedly killing a friend in a Santa Ana motel.

Milton Louis Mayfield is accused in the death of 55-year-old Deborah Ann Simon, whose body was found shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday at the Sunshine Village Motel, 1427 E. First St., said Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna.

Mayfield was spotted by California Highway Patrol officers at 4:50 a.m. Tuesday with a disabled vehicle -- that was later determined to belong to Simon -- alongside a freeway in Tulare County, Bertagna said. When officers spoke to him, Mayfield "made spontaneous statements indicating he may have killed a woman in a motel room in the area of First Street and Grand Avenue in the city of Santa Ana,'' according to a police statement.

CHP officers detained Mayfield and contacted Santa Ana police, who began searching various motels in the area, eventually discovering Simon dead at the motel. The cause of her death has not been released.

Santa Ana detectives traveled to Visalia and interviewed Mayfield, and he was brought back to Santa Ana and booked into the city jail on suspicion of murder.President Donald Trump on Wednesday presented the nation's highest military honor to an 80-year-old retired Marine sergeant major for valorous action in Vietnam five decades ago.

Sgt. Maj. John Canley's heroism includes twice scaling a hospital wall in view of the enemy to help wounded Marines and carry them to safety.

According to the White House, Canley, a native of Caledonia, Arkansas, who now lives in California, fought off multiple enemy attacks over several days in early 1968 while his company moved toward Hue as part of a counter-offensive to retake the city from the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces.

"He assaulted enemy strongholds, killed enemy fighters and with deadly accuracy did everything you had to do," Trump said. "He raced into heavy machine gun fire on many occasions -- all to save his fellow Marines. In one harrowing engagement after another, John risked his own life to save the lives of those under his command."

Canley took over after his commanding officer was severely wounded in a battle to retake Hue, in what was then South Vietnam. At the time, the city was held by at least 6,000 communist fighters, Trump said.

On the fifth day of combat, Canley's company was charged with liberating the Joan of Arc school, which had become the communists' strategic and symbolic stronghold in the city.

They were greeted with machine gun fire. Canley and a colleague charged forward with rocket launchers, killing enemy fighters and driving them from their positions, Trump said.

"The enemy didn't know what the hell happened," Trump said.

During seven days of combat, Canley personally saved the lives of more than 20 Marines, the president said.What to Know Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville said the three year old named Aamira was discovered to have acute flaccid myelitis.

A North Florida hospital has confirmed the first case in 2018 of a rare illness in the state that has been compared to polio.

In a Facebook post Wednesday calling the diagnosis "one in a million," Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville said the three-year-old named Aamira was discovered to have acute flaccid myelitis  an extremely rare condition in which reflexes and muscles become weak and can cause paralysis.

"I've had my breakdown moments, just crying my eyes out and thinking what's going to happen next, if it's going to be good or bad, but in this situation it's hard to even think about it," mother Reba Faircloth said.

Officials from the hospital say that AFM is not contagious while the Centers for Disease Control recommends parents take their child to the doctor if they experience sudden weakness or tone loss in their arms and legs.

NBC station WTLV-TV reports another child was diagnosed with the virus in 2016.

The cause of AFM is unknown, but parents are recommended to protect children with steps like washing their hands and staying up to date with immunizations as well as other measures.

From 2014 to 2018, almost 400 cases were reported in America with most occurring in children, according to the CDC.What to Know Smith said workers at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center told her they couldn't deliver a baby that day, so she walked several miles home.

Capps drove Smith to a hospital about 80 miles to the north in Dothan, Alabama, which was flooded with coastal refugees from Michael.

Their home full of soggy furniture and mosquitoes, Wilmer Capps was desperate to find shelter for his wife and their son Luke, born just three days after Hurricane Michael ravaged the Florida Panhandle.

So Capps, wife Lorrainda Smith and little Luke settled in for the longest of nights in the best spot they could find: The parking lot of a Walmart store shut down by the storm.

On a starry night, mother sat in the bed of the family's pickup truck; her child sat in a car seat beside her. Dad sat in the dark and pondered how it could be that his son's first night out of a hospital could be spent outside a big-box retailer because of a lack of help.

"It really upset me, man, because I've always been the type of person who would help anyone," Capps said in an interview with The Associated Press, which found the family outside the store Monday night. An AP photographer accompanied them on a journey from the lot to a hospital and met them again at a hotel where donors later provided them a room.

Luke is healthy and so is Smith, his mom. But she said her newborn deserves better than the stormy life he's had so far.

"We had everything. Full-time job, a place to live. One day we had it all, the next we had nothing," said Smith. "This is not what I thought I'd be bringing him back to."

The story of Luke's birth is just one amid the chaos that life has become in areas of the Florida Panhandle hit hardest by Michael.

With the hurricane bearing down on their native home of Panama City, Capps and Smith sent their three other children to stay with relatives. Doctors had planned to induce labor on Oct. 11, the day after Michael made landfall between here and Mexico Beach, wiping out a wide expanse of buildings and timber.

Smith went to the hospital as planned that day, courtesy of a ride in a police car along streets crisscrossed with downed trees and powerlines. Smith said workers at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center told her they couldn't deliver a baby that day, so she walked several miles (kilometers) home after being unable to find a ride back.

Anya Mayr, a Gulf Coast Regional spokeswoman, said the hospital has operated only as an emergency room and hasn't admitted patients since Michael. About 560 people have been treated for injuries ranging from storm wounds to heart attack and chainsaw cuts, she said, and more than 170 have been transferred to other hospitals by ambulances and helicopters.

Labor pains started the next day, so Capps drove Smith to a hospital about 80 miles to the north in Dothan, Alabama, which was flooded with coastal refugees from Michael. She gave birth at 1 a.m. last Saturday, three days after Michael's landfall.

Discharged from the hospital and unable to find a hotel room nearby, the couple drove back to Florida, where conditions had improved only slightly since Michael.

Still unable to stay at their storm-damaged home amid oppressive heat and bugs, Capps settled on the Walmart parking lot because they were low on gas and were fearful of driving at night with a curfew in place. The store has a reputation for letting travelers sleep in the parking lot overnight, and Capps knew it.

"I had no choice, (Luke) would have had a heatstroke. When he started acting like he was getting sick from the heat and wouldn't eat, that's when we went to Walmart," Capps said. "There was kind of a breeze there, there was no bugs biting us. I said 'We're all right now."

Police officers who showed up after the AP photographer realized the couple's plight and escorted them back to Gulf Coast Regional, where workers checked out Luke but couldn't provide a bed for the night, frustrating Capps. Fearful of safety and sanitation problems at a shelter suggested by workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the family returned to the Walmart lot.

There, they met a security guard who helped secure them a hotel room in nearby Panama City Beach with air conditioning, water and power Tuesday night. Capps doesn't know how long the aid will last, but he intends to repay the donation.

Pulled back from the brink after doubting the kindness of humanity on that night in the parking lot, Capps still has little money and no permanent home. But things are looking up because of the kindness of strangers.

"These people have been a godsend, because otherwise we'd be back in the parking lot tonight," he said.What to Know Surveillance video outside the bar in Ocoee shows Lathon Yee pulling out a weapon and firing several shots at 39-year-old Eric Meeks.

A Central Florida man has turned himself in after police say he shot a man outside a bar after the victim refused to drink with him.

Surveillance video outside the bar in Ocoee, near Orlando, shows 39-year-old Lathon Yee pulling out a weapon and firing several shots at 39-year-old Eric Meeks. Yee fled the scene while Meeks also ran away after suffering a gunshot wound to his foot.

Officials say the shooting occurred after Meeks refused to take a shot of liquor with Yee, according to NBC affiliate WPTV.

Yee was charged with attempted second degree murder in the case.What to Know 29-year-old Ryan Basdeo was arrested Tuesday and charged with vehicular homicide and several DUI counts.

A Pembroke Pines man has been charged in a drunken driving crash that left his 3-year-old daughter dead.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that 29-year-old Ryan Basdeo was arrested Tuesday and charged with vehicular homicide and several DUI counts.

Authorities say Basdeo was traveling 60 mph in a 25 mph zone in Miramar in October 2016 when he lost control and hit a guardrail and two trees. Basdeo, his wife and their daughter were all hospitalized, but the little girl, Sophia, died the next day.

A defense attorney said during a bond hearing that Basdeo is not a violent criminal and has no other significant criminal record.

Basdeo was being held on $111,000 bail.President Donald Trump acknowledged Thursday it "certainly looks" as though missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and he threatened "very severe" consequences if the Saudis are found to have murdered him. His warning came as the administration toughened its response to a disappearance that has sparked global outrage.

Before Trump spoke, the administration announced that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had pulled out of a major upcoming Saudi investment conference and a U.S. official said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had warned the Saudi crown prince that his credibility as a future leader is at stake.

Pompeo said the Saudis should be given a few more days to finish and make public a credible investigation before the U.S. decides "how or if" to respond. Trump's comments, however, signaled an urgency in completing the probe into the disappearance of the journalist, last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The messaging underscored the administration's concern about the effect the case could have on relations with a close and valuable strategic partner. Increasingly upset U.S. lawmakers are condemning the Saudis and questioning the seriousness with which Trump and his top aides are taking the matter, while Trump has emphasized the billions of dollars in weapons the Saudis purchase from the United States.

Turkish reports say Khashoggi, who had written columns critical of the Saudi government for The Washington Post over the past year while he lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S., was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by members of an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudis have dismissed those reports as baseless but have yet to explain what happened to the writer.

Trump, who has insisted that more facts must be known before making assumptions, did not say on what he based his latest statement about the writer's likely demise.

Asked if Khashoggi was dead, he said, "It certainly looks that way. ... Very sad."

Asked what consequence Saudi leaders would face if they are found to be responsible, he replied: "It will have to be very severe. It's bad, bad stuff. But we'll see what happens."

Vice President Mike Pence said earlier in Colorado that "the world deserves answers" about what happened to Khashoggi, "and those who are responsible need to be held to account."

In Istanbul, a leaked surveillance photo showed a man who has been a member of the crown prince's entourage during trips abroad walking into the Saudi Consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there  timing that drew the kingdom's heir-apparent closer to the columnist's apparent demise.

Turkish officials say Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb flew into Istanbul on a private jet along with an "autopsy expert" Oct. 2 and left that night.

In Washington, Pompeo, who was just back from talks with Saudi and Turkish leaders, said of the investigations in Istanbul:

"I told President Trump this morning that we ought to give them a few more days to complete that so that we, too, have a complete understanding of the facts surrounding that, at which point we can make decisions about how, or if, the United States should respond to the incident surrounding Mr. Khashoggi."

Although Pompeo suggested the U.S. could wait longer for results, an official familiar with his meetings in Riyadh and Ankara said the secretary had been blunt about the need to wrap the probe up quickly.

The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the private meetings and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Pompeo told the crown prince that "time is short." The official added Pompeo had warned him that it would be "very difficult for you to be a credible king" without a credible investigation. The prince is next in line for the throne held by his aged father King Salman.

Shortly after Trump and Pompeo met at the White House, Mnuchin announced that after consulting the president and his top diplomat "I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia."

The Saudis had hoped to use the forum, billed as "Davos in the Desert," to boost their global image. But a number of European finance ministers and many top business executives have pulled out as international pressure on Riyadh has intensified over Khashoggi.

Pompeo said that whatever response the administration might decide on would take into account the importance of the long-standing U.S.-Saudi partnership. He said, "They're an important strategic ally of the United States, and we need to be mindful of that."What to Know More than 20 people chanted outside the Canada Goose store in SoHo on Thursday to protest the retailer's "cruel" use of fur and feathers

PETA has accused the coat retailer of using coyote fur and goose down from animals that were inhumanely killed on its products

In a statement, Canada Goose denied the allegations and said it is "committed to the responsible use and ethical sourcing" of materials

A handful of topless protesters joined around two dozen fully-clothed ones on Thursday to denounce a Manhattan retailers "cruel" use of coyote fur and goose feathers.

Protesters carrying signs emblazoned with messages like Fur Kills and graphic images of dead geese formed a line in front of the Canada Goose store on Wooster Street in SoHo around noon.

Five of the protesters braved 40-degree temperatures to stand topless in front of the store, with Canada Goose Kills painted on their chests.

"Canada Goose has blood on their hands," protesters chanted. Where the hell is your compassion?"

PETA and other animal rights groups have accused the Canada-based company, which sells jackets, parkas and other winter apparel, of using inhumanely-killed coyotes, geese and ducks to make its products.

PETAs website claims the coyote fur lining some Canada Goose jackets comes from animals who were trapped left to languish and then killed, and that the goose down the company uses comes from abused birds.

While the rally was organized by PETA, a number of unaffiliated animal rights advocates attended as well.

Manhattan resident Margaret Lee, 65, said shed been participating in animal rights protests for the past few years.

I think that most people buying a Canada Goose coat are unaware of the cruelty behind it, she said, noting the availability of coats made without animal byproducts. Its such an unnecessary thing  were not Eskimos, were here in New York City."

As protesters chanted, customers could be seen trying on coats inside the store. At one point during the protest, a man left the outpost carrying a black garment bag with the chain's logo on it.

We have another body bag walking down the street, protester Leonardo Anguiano, 36, who led chants for about an hour, shouted after the man had walked past.

The rally drew a number of spectators to the sidewalk across from the store. One of them, a 25-year-old woman who said she attends school in New York, stood watching the protest.

I intended to buy a jacket there, but now I feel a lot of pressure [not] to come into the store, said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Protesters had planned to set off red smoke bombs at some point during the event, but were ultimately unable to do so over safety concerns raised by a security guard and police at the scene.

In a statement provided to NBC 4 New York on Thursday, Canada Goose said it was not surprising, but unfortunate to see the lengths PETA will go to in spreading their false narrative about our companys animal welfare practices.

Their allegations are without merit and we remain committed to the responsible use and ethical sourcing of all materials in our products, the company said. PETA has a long history of using sensational tactics to try to gain media attention, and this is just another example.

After the rally wrapped up, Anguiano said he was at the store protesting when it opened approximately two years ago.

The Brooklyn resident said he hoped to dissuade people from buying the stores merchandise.

You cant always come out on the street and use your voice, but you can vote with your dollar every single day, he said.

Nowadays, if you dont know about the cruelty, its because you dont want to know.What to Know Officials say White House Counsel Don McGahn left the Trump administration

Six children in Brooklyn have been diagnosed with measles after one of them apparently returned from Israel with the disease, officials say

An overdose of pain pills may be the explanation for Roseanne Barr's absence from the Conner dining table on 'The Conners'

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.

Don McGahn Departs as White House Counsel, Officials Say

Officials say White House Counsel Don McGahn left the Trump administration, NBC News reported. News of McGahn's departure from the White House was first reported by The New York Times, which cited two people close to him. Two White House officials confirmed to NBC News that it was McGahn's last day. McGahn's departure comes a day after President Donald Trump told The Associated Press in an interview that Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone to serve as his next White House counsel. Trump in August said McGahn would leave the White House in the fall.

Man Linked to Saudi Prince at Consulate When Writer Vanished

A man who previously traveled with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage to the United States entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just before writer Jamal Khashoggi vanished there, according to images published by a pro-government Turkish newspaper. The Sabah newspaper's report showed the man also later outside the Saudi consul general's home, checking out of a Turkish hotel as a large suitcase stood by his side, and leaving Turkey on Oct. 2. The report came as Turkish crime-scene investigators finished a search of both the consul general's residence and a second search of the consulate itself amid Ankara's fears that Saudi authorities had Khashoggi killed and dismembered inside the diplomatic mission in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia, which initially called the allegations "baseless," has not responded to repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press over recent days.

6 Children in Brooklyn Diagnosed With Measles, Health Officials Say

Six children in Brooklyn have been diagnosed with measles after one of them apparently returned from Israel with the highly contagious disease and exposed others to it, city health officials say. The New York City Health Department says the child had gone to Israel, where a large outbreak of the disease is occurring, and returned to the Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, where five others have since been diagnosed with measles this month. The six children range in age from 11 months to 4 years old. Five of the kids were unvaccinated before being exposed, including four because vaccination was delayed and one who was too young to have gotten the vaccine. The sixth child had gotten one dose of the vaccine before exposure, but wasn't yet immune. Complications from the disease put one child in the hospital with pneumonia, and another with an ear infection, health officials say.

Salmonella in Raw Chicken Makes 92 People Sick, CDC Says

Salmonella from raw chicken has made 92 people sick across 29 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The CDC says 21 people are sick enough to be hospitalized, although no one has died, NBC News reported. The salmonella strain making people sick is resistant to several of the antibiotics usually used to treat infection. The outbreak strain of Salmonella was found in live chickens and in many types of raw chicken products, indicating it might be widespread in the chicken industry, the CDC said in a statement.

Despite the Science, Cities Are Removing Fluoride From Water

Fluoride prevents cavities and tooth decay, something confirmed by numerous studies, yet a small but vocal minority has gotten dozens of cities to remove the naturally occurring compound from the water supply, NBC News reported. "Anti-fluoridationists" blame fluoride for lower IQs and diseases, despite long-established science. The American Dental Association says that 74 cities have voted to remove fluoride from their drinking water in the last five years, and proposed bans are on the ballot in two more cities this November. "You cannot tailor public health to the whims of a small group of people," said Dr. Johnny Johnson, a retired pediatric dentist who leads the nonprofit American Fluoridation Society. "If you are doing that, you are harming a large group of people." While nearly 75 percent of the United States gets fluoridated water, more than 80 percent of New Jersey residents do not, and the Texas Republican Party now opposes water fluoridation as well.

A Roseanne Barr-less 'The Conners' Is a Triumph

Can there be a "Roseanne" without Roseanne? The answer is yes, indeed. There can even be a pretty good sitcom. And you might not miss her that much. The first episode of "The Conners," spinoff of "Roseanne" without Roseanne Barr, aired Tuesday night. An overdose of pain pills may be the explanation for the contentious comedian's absence from the Conner dining table, but she still haunts it, at least in the new show's pilot. The writers  Bruce Helford, Bruce Rasmussen and Dave Caplan  have done an absolutely masterful job of tackling a post-Barr world, confronting sadness, cynicism and hopefulness in just the right amount of proportions. The pilot begins three weeks after Roseanne's funeral, with the family still coming to grips with its loss.

Puppeteer Who Played Big Bird on 'Sesame Street' Retiring

The Connecticut-based puppeteer who has played Big Bird on Sesame Street is retiring after nearly 50 years on the show. Caroll Spinney, of Woodstock, Connecticut, told the New York Times Thursday will be his last day on the program, which he joined from the start in 1969. In addition to Big Bird, the 84-year-old was also Oscar the Grouch. Spinney said, I always thought, how fortunate for me that I got to play the two best Muppets? Spinney said the physical requirements of performing the characters had become difficult and he developed problems with his balance. He stopped doing the puppeteering for Big Bird in 2015 and now only provides the voices for him and Oscar.A woman is being charged with animal abuse after authorities discovered her two poodles severely neglected and underweight.

Maritza Acevedo, 45, of Elizabeth, New Jersey, surrendered her black poodles to a local animal shelter in the area on Thursday, Sept. 27, prosecutors say.

The pair of 2-year-old poodles had fur so severely matted they couldnt properly see and they both had waste stuck to their bodies, prosuectors said. One of the dogs was so malnourished it couldnt keep food down.

The shelter employees were so alarmed by the condition of the dogs that they alerted the Elizabeth Police Department.

Acevedo was charged with two counts of fourth-degree animal cruelty based on the medical conditions of the dogs. It wasn't clear if she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.A man who was trapped for days at the bottom of an old abandoned mine shaft in Arizona was rescued Wednesday after a friend hadn't heard from him.

Maricopa County sheriff's officials say the man fell into the 100-foot shaft in Aguila sometime Monday.

He was found Wednesday by his friend Terry Shrader, who knew the man was at the abandoned gold mine and hadn't heard from him, according to NBC affiliate KPNX.

"I was afraid of what I was going to find," Shrader said, but he heard shouting when he arrived at the scene and went to get help.

A medic was lowered in to treat the man, identified by KPNX as John Waddell, before a metal gurney lifted him out of the shaft, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital for a medical evaluation.

Aguila is located west of Wickenburg and about 90 miles (144 kilometers) northwest of Phoenix.

Waddell told Shrader that he killed three rattlesnakes while in the shaft, KPNX reported.The parents of a missing Wisconsin teenager, who were found dead in their home, were killed by gunshots and their deaths ruled a homicide, autopsies showed Wednesday.

No gun was found at the scene and authorities believe 13-year-old Jayme Closs was in the home at the time of her parents' deaths, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald said during a Wednesday news conference.

Closs has been missing since deputies responding to a 911 call found her parents, James and Denise Closs, dead in their home in Barron, a rural western Wisconsin community about 80 miles northeast of Minneapolis. Authorities have said Jayme isn't a runaway and investigators believe she's in danger, Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

The 911 call came from a cellphone inside the home, but the caller didn't communicate with the dispatcher.

"There was no one on site, no vehicles in the immediate area when our deputies arrived on scene," he said.

Fitzgerald said he "100 percent" believes Jayme is still alive, but noted there have been no credible sightings of the teen since her disappearance.

Jayme was last seen at a family gathering Sunday afternoon, said Fitzgerald, who said Monday that investigators don't consider her a suspect in her parents' deaths. On Tuesday, he declined to elaborate as to why investigators believe Jayme is not a runaway, saying that disclosing more information would compromise their investigation.

"I'm telling you, Jayme is missing and endangered," Fitzgerald said.

Her grandfather, Robert Naiberg, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that nothing seemed amiss at the gathering, which was to celebrate the birthday of a grandson who is cousins with Jayme.

"She was quiet as always. She was a quiet girl," he said.

Naiberg, 72, said his daughter, Denise Closs, and Jayme attended the party, and that his son-in-law, James Closs, was working and couldn't make it. He described his daughter as a "thoughtful person" who brought "a little gift for everybody" at the party.

A girl resembling Jayme was spotted at a gas station in south Florida on Monday afternoon, according to a tip Miami police say they received. Fitzgerald said authorities looked into the tip, but by Tuesday afternoon, they concluded the information was not credible. He said Miami police did not check with Wisconsin authorities before tweeting information about the tip and reminded the public that updates would come from the sheriff's department.

"If we think it's key to the case where we need the public's help, we will disseminate that information," he said.

Miami is about 1,700 miles south of Barron.

Jayme is described as 5-feet (1.5 meters) tall and 100 pounds (45 kilograms), with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes.

The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are helping in the search. An Amber Alert was issued without a description of a suspect or vehicle.

Fitzgerald urged the public to come forward with tips by calling (855) 744-3879. As of the 3 p.m. Wednesday, Fitzgerald said the department has received more than 400 tips and is following up on them.

"Check your cabins, walk your land and report anything you think is important to us," Fitzgerald said.In Stephen Hawking's final book "Brief Answers to Big Questions," published Tuesday by Bantam Books, the Cambridge professor begins a series of 10 intergalactic essays by addressing life's oldest and most religiously fraught question of all: Is there a God?

Hawking's answer  compiled from decades of prior interviews, essays and speeches with the help of his family, colleagues and the Steven Hawking Estate  should come as no surprise to readers who have followed his work, er, religiously, NBC News' MACH reported.

"I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science," Hawking, who died in March, wrote. "If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn't take long to ask: What role is there for God?"

In life, Hawking was a vocal champion of the Big Bang theory  the idea that the universe began by exploding suddenly out of an ultradense singularity smaller than an atom. From this speck emerged all the matter, energy and empty space that the universe would ever contain, and all that raw material evolved into the cosmos we perceive today by following a strict set of scientific laws. To Hawking and many like-minded scientists, the combined laws of gravity, relativity, quantum physics and a few other rules could explain everything that ever happened or ever will happen in our known universe.What to Know An Amtrak engineer charged with manslaughter in a deadly high-speed derailment in Philadelphia won't go on trial until next year.

State prosecutors wouldn't have been able to get the on-board video from the 2015 crash and other evidence needed to try the case.

A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday ordered Bostian to appear in court Dec. 20 so she can set a trial date.

An Amtrak engineer charged with manslaughter in a deadly high-speed derailment in Philadelphia won't go on trial until next year because of delays in getting evidence from federal investigators.

A lawyer for Brandon Bostian said neither he nor state prosecutors have been able to get the on-board video recordings from the 2015 crash and other evidence needed to try the case. A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday ordered Bostian to appear in court Dec. 20 so she can set a trial date.

Judge Kathryn S. Lewis said she expects to give lawyers several months from that date to prepare for trial. Lewis had reinstated the reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter charges last year after another judge dismissed them.

Eight people were killed and about 200 injured in 2015 when the New York-bound train derailed as it rounded a curve at more than twice the 50 mph (80 kph) speed limit.

Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle said it's still not clear what caused the train to accelerate. National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded Bostian lost his bearings while distracted by radio chatter about a nearby train that was struck by a rock. They found no evidence Bostian was impaired or using a cellphone.

Both McMonagle and prosecutors have given the NTSB a list of information they are seeking through public records requests, but said they had gotten little in the months since an NTSB representative promised in court to provide them. They told Lewis the office handling the agency's Freedom of Information Act requests is overwhelmed with requests, causing delays.

"I am genuinely concerned that the law enforcement agencies that's prosecuting the case doesn't have everything they need. I know I don't have everything I need," McMonagle said.

However, both he and the prosecutor, Christopher Phillips of the state Attorney General's Office, said the case has recently been prioritized, and the NTSB is starting to send out photographs, audio recordings and other materials sought.

"We agreed in September to expedite the process of FOIA documents related to this case, and that's what we're doing," said Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesman, told The Associated Press after the hearing.

Amtrak has taken responsibility for the crash and agreed to pay $265 million to settle civil claims filed by victims and their families. The railroad has since installed positive-train control technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train on its track from Boston to Washington.

The state Attorney General's Office filed charges after the Philadelphia District Attorney declined the case.One of two Roman Catholic priests charged as a result of the damning Pennsylvania grand jury investigation admitted he sexually abused children, pleading guilty Wednesday to corruption of minors and child endangerment.

The Rev. David Lee Poulson , 65, of Oil City, was arrested earlier this year during a grand jury probe that concluded hundreds of clergy in the state had sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades.

Prosecutors say Poulson abused an altar boy in church rectories and had him confess afterward. They say he also abused the boy and attempted to assault another boy at a hunting camp.

"Today's guilty plea by a predator priest in Jefferson County is a clear statement that no matter who abuses a child, no one is above the law," said state Attorney General Josh Shapiro at a news conference after the hearing in the Brookville courthouse, which is about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Poulson took the victims to his primitive, secluded hunting camp in Jefferson County about a decade ago, where they watched horror movies on a laptop and he abused them, prosecutors said. The victims were 8 and 15 at the time the crimes occurred, according to authorities.

Shapiro said he expected Poulson to have to register as a sex offender for at least a decade. Sentencing has not been scheduled.

The Erie diocese turned over a "confidential memorandum" dated in 2010 that contained an admission by Poulson that he had been "aroused" by a boy, prosecutors said. Poulson resigned from the Erie diocese earlier this year, after a military chaplain in Texas reported a 23-year-old had alleged he was abused by Poulson starting at age 8, prosecutors said.

Poulson's lawyer did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Erie Bishop Lawrence T. Persico issued a statement saying he was "saddened by every aspect of this situation."

"Many hearts have been broken, particularly those of the victims and their loved ones," Persico said, promising to contact police with all reports of sexual misconduct and cooperate with any investigations.

The other priest charged in the investigation, the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney of the Greensburg diocese, pleaded guilty to indecent assault this summer and is awaiting his sentencing.

The grand jury's report, made public in August, has roiled the Catholic church and prompted calls for Pennsylvania state legislation to allow people to file civil lawsuits over child sexual abuse allegations that would otherwise be too old to pursue. Talks on such legislation in the General Assembly have so far failed to reach a deal, and state lawmakers' two-year session is nearing its end.

Shapiro said since the grand jury report was issued, a hotline operated by his office to field reports of child sexual abuse has received nearly 1,300 calls.California Sen. Kevin de Leon tied U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to Washington dysfunction during a Wednesday event and pledged to ``fight like hell'' for immigrants and other Californians if elected to replace her, while Feinstein crafted herself as a problem solver and argued resistance is futile with Republicans dominating Washington.

"It's like hitting your head against a concrete wall  you can march, you can filibuster, you can talk all night, it doesn't change anything,'' she said. "What changes things are elections.''

The exchange represented the stylistic differences between the two Democrats. De Leon says Feinstein is too passive in today's political climate, while Feinstein argues her experience and steady hand is a boon to California.

But de Leon failed to land a winning moment during the hourlong discussion full of mostly polite disagreements. The two took questions from moderator Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California and engaged little with each other. De Leon hugged Feinstein after, seemingly to her surprise.

He's struggled to gain a foothold against Feinstein, and California Democrats are far more focused on winning U.S. House seats than they are on a safe Senate seat. California's primary system sends the two highest primary vote-getters to the general election regardless of party. She's far ahead of him in name recognition, polling and campaign cash.

Feinstein later told reporters she sees herself "in the center of the political spectrum'' and hoped Republicans who didn't plan to vote in the election would change their minds.

But de Leon repeatedly painted California as the breeding ground for progressive policies, noting his own role in authoring a "sanctuary state'' law that restricts cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities and a law to move California toward 100 percent clean energy for electricity.

"Because of the lack of action in Washington, I've had to lead in California,'' he said.

Feinstein largely ignored his criticisms and instead trumpeted her work passing an assault weapons ban, which has since expired, and presented herself as a realist about what's achievable for Democrats. Several times she told him she agreed with his positions, attempting to stifle any room for contrast.

Perhaps his harshest criticism came on immigration. De Leon, the son of a Guatemalan woman who came to the United States illegally, noted that Feinstein voted for homeland security legislation that reconstituted federal migration agencies and created Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal department that detains immigrants living in the country illegally.

Feinstein said comprehensive immigration reform is one of her top priorities. She's introduced legislation to release parents and children together if they are caught at the border.

On health care, De Leon supports a "Medicare for all'' plan that would extend the government health plan to all Americans. Feinstein favors a public option but does not support an entirely government-run health care program.

At 85, Feinstein is the oldest U.S. senator, but her age did not come up during the debate. De Leon, 51, did say it's time for a "new way of thinking'' in Washington.

Feinstein has not appeared onstage with an opponent since the 2000 election; deLeon sought a more robust debate but agreed to the more tepid moderated conversation.

He treaded carefully around Feinstein's role in the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He criticized her in September for failing to share allegations by California professor Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school. Ford sent Feinstein a letter detailing the allegations but asked her to keep it confidential.

Feinstein defended her actions and reminded the crowd of her long role in the women's movement.

"I've had a number of women come to me with allegations of sexual impropriety and when they've asked me to keep it confidential I have,'' she said.

The two agreed that if Democrats take control of the U.S. Senate the allegations against Kavanaugh should be reopened.

Likewise, Feinstein didn't criticize de Leon's handling of sexual misconduct allegations in the California capital. He was a Senate leader when nearly 150 women signed an open letter last year calling out a pervasive culture of harassment. Another senator who had been his roommate resigned after an investigation found he likely behaved inappropriately toward multiple women. De Leon has defended the Legislature's response.Great white shark attack survivor Keane Webre-Hayes was all smiles in the national television report showing him returning to school to answer questions from his classmates.

"Good Morning America" followed the 13-year-old and his mother as he stopped by school Wednesday and talked about the Sept. 29 attack on an Encinitas beach.

The teenager was diving for lobster at Beacon' Beach when an 11-foot-long shark injured his arm, ear, shoulder and back.

The first thing that I said when my mom walked up was Can you take pictures for Instagram, he told GMA.

He also said he wants to back out into the ocean to surf again soon.

Webre-Hayes made his first public appearance Saturday at Wags and Waves event to support the California Wildlife Officers Foundation.

He received a lifetime fishing license and lifetime fishing privileges from organizers of the event.

Webre-Hayes was rushed to Rady Children's Hospital in Linda Vista in critical condition after being bitten by the shark while swimming in shallow waters around 6:55 a.m.

His mother Ellie Hayes was watching her son from a parking lot on the bluffs above the beach and could hear her son's screams.

He was in serious condition for several days before being released from the hospital to continue recovering at home. Doctors and his family said that he had a long road to recovery in front of him.

A GoFundMe page has been created to help with Keane's medical bills.

Encinitas lifeguards are talking about the "heroes" who helped save an teen from a near-fatal shark attack. NBC 7's Danny Freeman has more.

University of San Diego researchers said while shark sightings are becoming more frequent off the California coast, it is extremely rare for anyone in the world to be bitten.

"Great white populations are increasing in Southern California and that's because they've been legally protected for the last couple of decades," said USD marine biologist Andrew Nosal in a previous interview. "That's a good thing for our local ecosystem. At the same time, the human population has also grown here. That means more sharks at the beach but also more people at the beach."

Read more about the shark attack in San Diego here.California will reconsider life sentences for up to 4,000 nonviolent third-strike criminals by allowing them to seek parole under a ballot measure approved by voters two years ago, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday.

The state will craft new regulations by January to include the repeat offenders in early release provisions. Gov. Jerry Brown also will not appeal a court ruling that the state is illegally excluding the nonviolent career criminals from parole under the 2016 ballot measure he championed to reduce the prison population and encourage rehabilitation.

The state parole board estimates between 3,000 and 4,000 nonviolent third-strikers could be affected, said corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters, "but they would have to go through rigorous public safety screenings and a parole board hearing before any decision is made."

It's the second such loss for the Democratic governor, who leaves office days after the new rules are due. Another judge ruled in February that the state must consider earlier parole for potentially thousands of sex offenders. The administration is fighting that ruling, which undercuts repeated promises that Brown made to voters to exclude sex offenders from earlier release.

He will not appeal last month's ruling by a three-judge appellate panel in the Second Appellate District in a Los Angeles County case that third-strikers must be included under Proposition 57's constitutional amendment. It requires parole consideration for "any person convicted of a nonviolent felony offense" regardless of enhancements under California's three strikes law.

"There is no question that the voters who approved Proposition 57 intended (inmates) serving Three Strikes indeterminate sentences to be eligible for early parole consideration," the appeals court ruled, adding that, "There is strong evidence the voters who approved Proposition 57 sought to provide relief to nonviolent offenders."

Administration lawyers said in a filing in a separate related case that the state "is not seeking review" of the appeals court decision and "is in the process of drafting new emergency regulations in compliance" with the decision by Jan. 5.

Michael Romano, director of the Stanford Three Strikes Project, called the administration's decision to comply "a big deal, a huge deal."

Clients potentially affected by the new decision include inmates serving life terms for stealing a bicycle, possessing less than half a gram of methamphetamine, stealing two bottles of liquor or shoplifting shampoo, he said.

"It's a monumental decision. It's one of the biggest decisions on sentencing policy in the Brown administration," said Romano, whose project represented third-strike inmates in several appeals.

The ruling doesn't guarantee any of the offenders will get out of jail. But it allows them to go before the parole board. Romano estimates 4,000 people will be eligible for parole.

Nonviolent third-strikers are disproportionately black, disproportionately mentally ill and statistically among the least likely to commit additional crimes, said Romano, who has studied the issue.

He cited corrections department data on more than 2,200 nonviolent, non-serious third strikers who were paroled under a 2012 ballot measure that allowed most inmates serving life terms for relatively minor third strikes to ask courts for shorter terms. Less than 11 percent returned to prison by October 2016, the latest data available, he said, compared to nearly 45 percent for other prisoners.The nations largest retailer is banking on San Diegos tech talent to stay competitive.

Walmarts tech arm, Walmart Labs, is expanding its local footprint.

The company just moved into a new 30,000 square foot space at the MAKE building in Carlsbad and is looking to more than double its workforce.

Senior Director of Engineering Claude Jones said Walmart Labs works to bridge the physical stores with the online digital experience.

We develop internal tools and systems that help power our online groceries site, our retail site Walmart.com and also power our in-store technology, said Jones.

Jones said the company is growing its local operation for a number of reasons, including the untapped tech talent in the area. He said the weather and proximity to the beach and other major attractions are also a big draw when it comes to recruiting top talent from other locations.

Walmart believes that San Diego is the next big tech hub, tech community, and we want to be able to help stimulate that job market, Jones said.

The company is adding 110 high-tech positions to its current staff of 70.

Its the full gamut. Were looking at front-end engineering, back-end engineering, mobile development. Were getting into machine learning, AI, so were really excited about expanding the office here, Jones said.

To learn more about Walmart Labs and the opportunities available at the Carlsbad location, click here.The man who prosecutors say was behind a "brazen attack on a stranger" last weekend in Little Italy made his first appearance in court Wednesday.

Christopher Merron, 28, is accused of ambushing a restaurant worker in Cafe Italia last Sunday and trying to sexually assault her.

Police say the victim was doing custodial work in the restaurant around 4:30 a.mm. when Merron broke in. Police say the man spotted by surveillance cameras inside the restaurant at the time of the alleged crime is Merron.

Investigators say he threatened the victim with a knife and forced her into a back room before she fought him off and ran away.

Merron then took the victim's car keys and stole her tan SUV, police said.

Police arrested Merron Monday afternoon on Fenton Parkway. Details of his arrest or how he was found were not released.

Merron pleaded not guilty Wednesday to six felony counts, including kidnapping and assault with intent to commit rape, and is being held on $1 million bail. If convicted on all counts he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Prosecutors say the attack was random and that Merron didn't know the victim.As some 3,000 Hondurans made their way through Guatemala, attention turned to Mexico, after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to close the U.S.-Mexico border if authorities there fail to stop them  a nearly unthinkable move that would disrupt hundreds of thousands of legal freight, vehicle and pedestrian crossings each day.

With less than three weeks before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, Trump seized on the migrant caravan to make border security a political issue and energize his Republican base.

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump tweeted, adding that he blamed Democrats for what he called "weak laws!"

The threat followed another one earlier this week to cut off aid to Central American countries if the migrants weren't stopped. Trump made a similar vow over another large migrant caravan in April, but didn't follow through and it largely petered out in Mexico.

Trump at a rally on Thursday also suggested, without evidence, that Democrats or their allies are supporting a caravan of Central American migrants traveling north toward the U.S.

Addressing thousands of supporters in Montana he said immigration is now one of the leading issues in the 2018 midterms, and he accused Democrats of supporting the migrants because they "figure everybody coming in is going to vote Democrat."

On Thursday, Mexico's foreign ministry said the government was assisting members of the caravan who had already crossed into Mexican territory. It was explaining the options to migrants and helping those who chose to apply for refugee status to navigate the lengthy process.

Mexico had also dispatched additional police to its southern border after the Casa del Migrante shelter on the Guatemalan side of the border reported that hundreds of Hondurans had already arrived there.

Apparently pleased with that response, in the evening Trump retweeted a BuzzFeed journalist's tweet of a video clip showing the police deployment, adding his own comment: "Thank you Mexico, we look forward to working with you!"

Mexican federal police and immigration officials also detained immigration activist Irineo Mujica, who led a caravan of migrants through Mexico last spring.

His organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People without Borders, said via Twitter that he was arrested Thursday in Ciudad Hidalgo on the Mexico-Guatemala border while participating in a peaceful march.

Mexican immigration officials said Mujica, who has dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship, was accused of property damage and resisting arrest. A statement from the officials said Mujica attacked immigration agents, as well as local and federal police, after he was asked for his identification as he gathered foreigners for a protest.

Mexican officials had said the Hondurans would not be allowed to enter as a group and would either have to show a passport and visa  something few have  or apply individually for refugee status, a process that can mean waiting for up to 90 days for approval. They also said migrants caught without papers would be deported.

Marcelo Ebrard, who is set to become foreign relations secretary when President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador takes office Dec. 1, said Trump's tweets need to be understood in the context of the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.

"The electoral process is very near, so he is making a political calculation," Ebrard said in an interview with Radio Centro.

Trump's stance, he said, was "what he has always presented," adding he saw "nothing surprising in it."

Current Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Videgaray was also sanguine and viewed things through the lens of U.S. politics.

"Nobody likes them (Trump's comments). There's no reason to give them greater transcendence or importance," Videgaray said from the United Nations where he sought the world body's help processing asylum requests from the migrants. "What is important to us is the migrants, respect for human rights, their due protection, particularly the most vulnerable."

Still, the idea that Mexico could close its porous southern border  or that the United States would choke off the lucrative trade and other traffic between the two nations  strained the imagination.

"There would be huge economic impacts for both the United States and Mexico ... but limited effect on illegal immigration," said Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute.

"The president certainly can slow down crossing at legal border crossings where about a million people cross each day. That would really hurt legal transit between the two countries and manufacturing and trade, which would affect American workers," Selee said. "But it would have much less impact on illegal border crossings between ports of entry."

Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, said she interpreted the tweet to mean Trump could send troops not to ports of entry but elsewhere where the illegal crossings take place.

"If that's the case, I don't think Mexico should be too worried because in a sense ... it's the same kind of thing U.S. administrations have been doing for a long time," Leutert said.

Like Guatemala and Honduras, Mexico is a country of many migrants, raising the question of whether the political will exists for a confrontation.

Lopez Obrador wants to avoid repression against migrants and also to avoid angering the United States. He said this week that Mexico would offer jobs to Central Americans. "Anyone who wants to work in our country ... will have a work visa," he said.

Juan Escobar, 24, said he had heard about Trump's comments but said they would not dissuade the migrants from continuing their journey.

"Only God on high can stop us," Escobar said.

Carlos Lopez, 27, said he was concerned by Trump's threats, but "you have to keep fighting."

Trump also warned that he prioritizes border security over even the recently struck trade deal to replace NAFTA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.

"The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border," Trump tweeted.

Analysts didn't see the pact as being in imminent danger, though trade attorney Daniel Ujczo of Dickinson Wright PLLC said there is "a significant concern" Trump could hold the agreement hostage over future issues.

"Leaders around the world are skeptical that any deal with this U.S. administration is actually final," Ujczo said.

U.S.-bound migrant caravans have been going on for years  with traveling in numbers seen as offering protection from assaults, robberies, even shakedowns by police. They're also a cheaper alternative to the $7,000 to $10,000 that smugglers, charge for passage to the border, Leutert noted.

Still, it wasn't until this year that the caravans received widespread attention.

"There have been these caravans through the years, but they become prominent because the president tweets about them," Selee said.

He predicted that, like the caravan in April, Mexico will respond with measures like granting asylum to some migrants who qualify while deporting others who don't, perhaps not eliminating the caravan entirely but significantly reducing its size before it reaches the U.S. border.

But the direct, public pressure from Trump puts Mexico, already an uneasy ally the last two years, in an uncomfortable spotlight.

"Ironically, the way President Trump responds to these caravans makes it harder for the Mexican government to cooperate with the U.S. on immigration enforcement," Selee said. "There is a lot of disposition in both the current and the incoming Mexican government to cooperate with the U.S. on some aspects of immigration control. But it becomes much harder when President Trump makes this a political issue in which he bashes Mexico."

Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman contributed to this report.Requests for absentee ballots are on the rise ahead of the November election  the first general contest since learning of Russian efforts to access voting systems, including those right here in the Washington area.

But critics, including a host of computer security experts, say a system designed to make voting easier also makes it more of a target for hackers intending to interfere in U.S. elections. Maryland officials, however, argue those concerns are hypothetical and say they've put the necessary safeguards in place.

At issue is Maryland's online ballot delivery system, which allows any voter to request and download an absentee ballot from the internet. Maryland doesn't allow residents to vote online, so users of this system must mail in their ballots.

Forty-seven states limit electronic ballot delivery to voters who absolutely need it, primarily military and overseas civilians, or voters with disabilities. But Maryland is one of three states that allow anyone to request ballots electronically. In 2016, nearly 90,000 voters used the electronic ballot delivery system, according to state data. More than 80 percent were not were military or overseas.

Mary Kiraly, a former member of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said that as a military wife, she knows how important electronic ballot delivery is for service members, overseas civilians or the disabled. But she also said, "When we open it up to every voter, then it becomes a huge target and the concern grows exponentially."

George Washington University professor Poorvi Vora agrees. She's among the computer security experts who have repeatedly warned the state elections board and legislators that Maryland is "one of the most vulnerable states in the U.S. for major election tampering." This year, she testified in support of a bill in the Maryland General Assembly that would have limited the access to military, overseas voters and the disabled, but it failed to advance.

Vora argues the data needed to request the electronic ballot, such as a name, date of birth or driver's license number, can be obtained online or through prior data breaches. She said it wouldn't be hard for hackers to identify people who haven't voted in years, request ballots in their name and have those ballots delivered to fraudulent email addresses.

"If the voter doesn't show up, they don't even know that someone voted for them," Vora said. "And the state doesn't know."

Nikki Charlson, deputy state administrator of the Maryland State Board of Elections, said the state has considered these very scenarios and put necessary safeguards in place  measures she wouldn't divulge because of security concerns.

"I can't go into the list of all the unusual behavior that we look for because I'm giving away the keys to the castle," Charlson said.

After a contentious battle, the Maryland General Assembly opened it up to all voters in order to increase voting accessibility. In the years since, no voter has complained of getting a ballot they didn't request, Charlson said, and the state can detect if and when a person's ballot is voted twice.

"Voters can be confident that if they need the convenience or need the accessibility to get their ballot that way, that they can do that and know with confidence that the ballot's secure," she said.

Still, the elections board acknowledges some risk. Voters who download ballots are warned online that the state "cannot guarantee secrecy" if they choose to mark a ballot online, "nor can it protect against all risks when using the internet."

Charlson said the online ballot delivery system was critical for Maryland's first responders who deployed to help after Superstorm Sandy, because they didn't have a physical address to receive traditional absentee ballots by mail.

"What's convenient for one person is a necessity for somebody else," said Charlson.

Vora, the George Washington University professor, has also criticized Maryland for not using signature verification to check absentee ballots downloaded online. Washington and Alaska, the only other states which offer online ballot delivery to all voters, do compare the signature on the returned ballot with the signature on file from when the voter first registered.

The courts have called the value of signature matching into question, however, and Charlson said the General Assembly would need to authorize the elections board to require it. She also noted absentee ballots comprise just six or seven percent of all turnout  a fraction of many Western states.

Critics point to federal indictments of Russian military officers, accused of meddling in the 2016 presidential election, as evidence attempts to interfere will only continue.

Federal authorities say Russian hackers tried to access election systems in 21 states, including Maryland, in the run up to the 2016 election. Charlson told the I-Team it was the state's own cybersecurity team that first detected unusual activity and reported it to the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The hackers were not able to tap into the state's networks.

Maryland officials were surprised earlier this year, however, to learn about Russian investment in one of its elections vendors. The Department of Homeland Security has found no evidence of wrongdoing, though critics have seized on that connection as another worrisome sign.

Eric Hodge, head of election security for CyberScout, a company that advises and consults with states and counties about their cybersecurity measures, said his primary concern isn't that bad actors will try to change votes  but sow chaos and shake voter confidence.

Hackers could launch a phishing scheme in which they send a fake email to voters who've used the online system in past elections, he said, and offer a link to a fake ballot for the upcoming election. Those voters might think they voted and wouldn't show up on Election Day.

"The best thinking in the FBI and the CIA is this is an effort from the highest levels of these adversarial governments to undermine the strength or the confidence or the faith in democracy and our voting process," Hodge said.

State officials say the best way Maryland residents can protect their ballot is to go to the state's website ahead of time, create an account and make sure their personal information is correct, including their email address. Voters with concerns about electronic ballots should use a traditional paper absentee ballot, which is mailed to their home and thus harder to intercept, Charlson said.

Asked if the state can assure the system is wholly secure, she said, "I can tell you that we've put in place all the right things. We look for the right things. But it would be irresponsible for me to say it's 100 percent secure, because nobody can [say] that."

Reported by Jodie Fleischer, produced by Katie Leslie, edited by Jeff Piper, and shot by Jeff Piper, Steve Jones and Chester Panzer.A group of high school seniors in Arlington County, Virginia, are learning how to determine fact from fiction.

Wakefield High School teacher Patricia Hunt has stressed the importance of a free press in her U.S. and Virginia government class.

'The people must know before they can act and theres no educator to compare with the press' - Ida B. Wells, Hunt told students in her classroom.

But in an era of "fake news" and "alternative facts," not all press is created equal.

Hunt's students said they are overwhelmed by the amount of information they see on Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets.

"Because half of its probably lies and its hard to differentiate," senior Sarah Peck said.

A new program called Checkology has taught the students how to navigate through all of the misinformation.

This is the life that theyre living. And so, this helps them make sense of their world," Hunt said.

Checkology is a visual learning platform in which veteran reporters explain how to verify news sources through interactive lessons.

News literacy is really a survival skill in a digital world, said Alan Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter.

Miller left the Los Angeles Times 10 years ago and started the News Literacy Project, which started Checkology. The Facebook Journalism Project kicked in funding for upgrades this year.

So they can know what news and information they can trust, they can share and they can act on, Miller said.

And now, we're getting to the age where we can vote, so we kind of need to know whats going on," Peck said.A Fauquier County judge sentenced an assistant manager of a CVS store to life in prison Wednesday in the murder of the store's manager.

Bernard Clark Duse Jr. was arrested and charged a week after 64-year-old Rex Mack Olsen was fatally shot July 26, 2017 near a dumpster outside a CVS on Blackwall Road in Warrenton, Virginia.

Duse believed the victim had conspired with a CVS district manager to thwart Duse's application to become a store manager, the Fauquier County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said. Duse pursued a claim against CVS, in which Olsen had testified on the company's behalf, according to the prosecutors.

The claim was dismissed six weeks before the killing.

Olsen's wife, Julia, spoke Wednesday about her husband's memory.

"He was a wonderful guy. He was very, very funny. He was very intelligent. He was very fair," she said.

They were a few months away from celebrating 40 years of marriage.

Prosecutors say Duse waited behind the store on his day off and fatally shot Olsen as the victim put a bag of trash into a dumpster behind the store.

"It was a murder imbued with a great deal of premeditation, lingering rage and malice," Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Fisher said in court Wednesday, according to a statement posted on the office's website.

Prosecutors said Duse's cellphone records placed him at the scene of the crime. Without this information, Fisher said it's possible he would not have been convicted.

A jury convicted Duse of first-degree murder in August and sentenced him to life in prison, plus three years for a firearm charge. A judge ratified the sentence Wednesday.

Olsen, a resident of Reva, Virginia, worked for CVS for 25 years. He had managed the Warrenton store since 2008, the company said.

Customers of the store were shocked by the crime in their small town last year. Olsen was friendly and kind, they said.

"He was very, very sweet," customer Eric Sigmundsson said. "He was a very, very nice guy."

A photo of Olsen went on display in the store in the wake of his death.

Duse was a Vietnam veteran who graduated from Harvard University.The ride-hailing company Lyft will offer electric scooter service in Washington, D.C., starting Thursday, the company announced, making it the fifth company to operate scooters in the District.

Lyft Scooters, as the company is branding them, will deploy gradually around the District in all eight wards, joining options from Bird, Lime, Skip and Spin, which are limited by the D.C. Department of Transportation to operate no more than 400 scooters each.

Scooters will be in service from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. They are black with purple and pink stripes on the steering column.

By bringing Lyft Scooters to D.C., Lyft is one step closer to providing a full end-to-end experience with multi-modal transportation trips on the Lyft platform, and reducing the dependency on personal vehicles for good, Lyft Bikes & Scooters' D.C. market manager Chris Dattaro said in a statement.

Lyft previously launched scooter service in Denver and Santa Monica, California, last month, with the D.C. launch being the first East Coast operation for the ride-hailing giant.

D.C. was selected because the findings of the Lyft Economic Impact Report found that Lyft users were using personal cars less, Dattaro said. A third of Lyft users in D.C. said owning a personal vehicle is less important to them now, and 48 percent said they use their cars less because of Lyft.

Lyft has worked closely with the District of Columbia and DDOT to make this the first scooter launch on the East Coast, believing that cities should be built around people, not cars, Dattaro said.The parents of slain Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington say mementos left to mark the ninth anniversary of her disappearance vanished within hours.

Harrington's parents had left a small angel and a trophy on the rail of Copeley Road bridge Wednesday, the Daily Progress reported. That was the place the 20-year-old was last seen after leaving a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia on Oct. 17, 2009. Her body was found in January 2010.

University of Virginia spokesman Anthony de Bruyn says several officers said staff hadn't removed the items. De Bruyn says the school is reviewing security footage, recognizing the bridge as "an important memorial."

Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. pleaded guilty in March 2016 to abducting and killing Harrington, as well as University of Virginia student Hannah Graham in 2014.A "painted and drawn on" human skull was found earlier this month in Northern Virginia, officials say.

The skull was found Saturday, Oct. 6 in a wooded area near W. Church Road and N. Aspen Avenue in Sterling, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. The location is near an elementary school.

A medical examiner determined the skull dates to the early to mid-1900, according to the sheriff's office. It had no identifying characteristics, and it was unknown who painted and drew on it.

"It remains unclear as to where the skull came from and why it was in the area," the sheriff's office said in a statement.

Police said there was no indication of foul play, and no threat to the community.

The sheriff's office previously said a deputy found the human remains while on patrol.Prosecutors determined a Maryland police officers use of deadly force likely saved the life of a 3-year-old child.

A distraught woman called 911 July 23 saying her ex-boyfriend had pushed his way into her Silver Spring house, was armed with a knife and was holding their 3-year-old boy hostage.

Jean Carlos Natera-Perez refused to come out of the home despite the efforts of hostage negotiators.

After two hours, officers saw him light something on fire inside the house and heard the child screaming.

Fearing the little boy was in imminent danger, the Emergency Response Team prepared to enter the home and rescue him.

At that point, according to investigators, Perez appeared in a window and was shot and killed by Officer Edward Cochran.

The 3-year-old boy was safely rescued from the home and reunited with his mother.

The Howard County States Attorneys Office conducted the independent police shooting investigation and ruled Cochrans action was justified.GULFPORT, Mississippi -- A 34-year-old Vancleave man, a known member of the Simon City Royals gang, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the U.S. Attorneys Office announced.

James Edward Hays entered the guilty plea in front of U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden in Gulfport. Ozerden set sentencing for Hays for Jan. 18.

Hays faces up to 10 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of post-release supervision.

According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, the Jackson County Sheriff's Office responded to a call of someone passed out behind the wheel of a running vehicle at a gas station on April 15.

When deputies arrived, they found Hays, thrice convicted of felonies, inside the car with methamphetamine, heroin and a loaded gun.

The JCSO and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Williams is the prosecutor.A woman who told police that a Maryland officer pulled her over and raped her believes the officer attacked her after learning that she lives in the United States illegally, according to a representative of a legal organization working on her behalf.

Prince George's County Officer 1st Class Ryan Macklin was jailed on charges of rape and assault after the woman reported that he pulled her over in a traffic stop and then attacked her early the morning of Thursday, Oct. 11.

County Police Chief Hank Stawinski said Monday, after he announced the charges, that police do not believe Macklin targeted the woman because of her immigration status.

But the victim believes Macklin attacked her after after seeing she had a federally non-compliant driver's license, which indicated her immigration status, Lizette Olmos, a spokeswoman for the immigration advocacy and assistance organization CASA de Maryland, said Wednesday.

"She indicated that after the police officer saw her driver's license and noticed that she was undocumented, that's when the aggression began toward her. That's when she realized she was in trouble," Olmos said.

The woman told police that Macklin  a former officer of the month  pulled her over about 1 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 11 in Langley Park. Then, she said he forced her to perform a sex act in her car in a nearby parking lot.

Sources told News4 that Macklin pulled the woman over in front of a furniture store on University Boulevard. Then, he had her go behind a discount store across the street. Police officers often use that store's parking lot as a cut-through to a gas station next door.

It's unclear why Macklin would have been in Langley Park, in District 1, the night of the crime. He was assigned to District 3, miles away in Palmer Park.

Macklin pleaded not guilty and learned in court Wednesday that he will remain in jail. His bond hearing was postponed until next week. His lawyers are set to argue that he should be released on bond because he does not pose a threat to the community.

Macklin's wife, who is pregnant, covered her face as she left court with her husband's defense team.

Maryland residents who live in the United States illegally are able to get driver's licenses and identifications cards after meeting several criteria, including submitting tax information. Federally non-compliant IDs in the state are printed with "Not acceptable for federal purposes," a sample from 2014 shows.Officials say White House Counsel Don McGahn left the Trump administration Wednesday, NBC News reported.

News of McGahn's departure from the White House was first reported by The New York Times, which cited two people close to him. Two White House officials confirmed to NBC News that Wednesday was McGahn's last day.

McGahn's departure comes a day after President Donald Trump told The Associated Press in a Tuesday interview that Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone would serve as his next White House counsel.

Trump in August said McGahn would leave the White House in the fall.For many living near South Carolina's coast, Florence is the visitor they never wanted who now refuses to leave.

Eleven days after the once-fierce hurricane arrived on the coast, and more than a week after it blew north and dissipated, rivers swollen by its relentless rains are still flooding homes and businesses in their paths as they make their way to the sea.

Some residents have no idea when they will return home. One of them is Vivian Chestnut, who evacuated her home in inundated Conway, South Carolina, six days ago.

The Waccamaw River, which flows through the city of 23,000, had already reached more than 21 feet (6.4 meters)  far surpassing the previous record high of 17.9 feet (5.5 meters) set by Hurricane Matthew two years ago  and it was still rising Tuesday afternoon.

The waterway was expected to crest on Wednesday, but not to drop below 18 feet or so until sometime next week. The river floods at 11 feet (3.4 meters).

"You find yourself sitting around a lot and thinking, 'What if,' or, 'I wonder what things are like right now,'" said Chestnut, who is staying with family in the area. "And wondering what you are going to find when you finally get back."

It's a scene repeating itself across eastern South Carolina, where rivers are swollen from what one meteorologist calculated is the nation's second-rainiest storm in 70 years slowly make their way down the state's gentle sloping coastal plain.

If that weren't bad enough, more weather was forming off the coast in a hurricane season that still has two months to go. National Hurricane Center forecasters watching a low pressure area about 260 miles (420 kilometers) south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, said it could become a tropical depression as it approaches the coast before moving quickly to the north.

While it will likely dump some additional rain on the Florence-battered city of Wilmington, it wasn't expected to be significant enough to worsen the flooding.

"It shouldn't put much of a dent in the rivers," said Reid Hawkins, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wilmington.

The storm was also having an enduring impact on the environment. A power outage at a wastewater station combined with heavy rain caused about 128,000 gallons (477,000 liters) of wastewater to spill into a river at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the U.S. Marine Corps reported Tuesday. The military said the spill won't threaten residential water supplies, however.

Officials at South Carolina's state-owned utility were still warily monitoring two coal-ash ponds near Conway. Santee Cooper officials said floodwater from the Waccamaw River had already made it into one pond, but most of the ash had already been removed from it during an earlier cleanup project.

The river is likely to flood the second pond soon, but the utility promised it has taken steps to lessen the environmental impact, such as installing silt fencing and a floating environmental containment boom.

Not far from the ash ponds, engineers are keeping an eye on U.S. Highway 501, the main link to Myrtle Beach. Water is now touching a temporary barrier of sand and plastic that has been erected to keep water off the bridge. Called the Lifeline, the temporary wall will remain effective if the water doesn't rise more than an additional 5 feet (1.5 meters) from its current level, according to the state Department of Transportation.

A preliminary analysis of Hurricane Florence has determined that the slow-moving storm dumped more than 17.5 inches (44 centimeters) of water on a region stretching from Fayetteville, North Carolina, to Florence, South Carolina. Hurricane Harvey delivered 25.6 inches (65 centimeters), said Ken Kunkel, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and North Carolina State University.

In North Carolina, where Florence's floodwaters temporarily cut off the city of Wilmington and inundated several others, the rivers have stopped rising, but the recovery process is really just beginning. Gov. Roy Cooper has estimated billions of dollars in damages.

In rural Jones County, between Kinston and New Bern, two of the county's six schools will have to be demolished after floodwaters left mold and mildew in their wake, School Superintendent Michael Bracy said.

Housing also promised to be scarce for flood victims. In rural areas where so many single-family and one-story structures were susceptible to flooding, even those that were untouched will not provide nearly as many options for evacuees as an urban area with multiple-story apartment buildings would, noted Red Cross Vice President of Operations and Logistics Brad Kieserman.

That will present a challenge for flood victims who initially fled to relatives' homes but will likely need to find other shelters before their own homes are ready for their return.

"Staying with family is going to get a little old for everybody," he said.

Associated Press writers Gary D. Robertson, Alex Derosier, Meg Kinnard, Sarah Rankin and Sarah Brumfield contributed to this report.A Massachusetts boy missing for two years has been found in Florida.

Authorities say Matthew Hale was 3 years old when he was abducted by his biological mother in September 2016 after his biological father was granted full custody by courts in Massachusetts.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recently received an anonymous tip that Christina and Matthew Hale were living in Orlando, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. The Webster Police Department contacted the Orange County Sherriffs Office for assistance.

Following many hours of surveillance on the suspected residence, 40-year-old Christina Hale was spotted and she was arrested on Oct. 16, according to the sheriff's office.

Matthew Hale was also at the Florida residence, and he was found in good health.

Now 5 years old, Matthew Hale was turned over to the Department of Children and Families to coordinate a reunion with his biological father, who lives in Webster.

It's unclear if Christina Hale has an attorney, what specific charges she faces and when she'll be arraigned.Residents in Providence, Rhode Island converged Wednesday night outside the home of a convicted child rapist who was recently released from jail, WJAR reported.

Richard Gardner, 51, was released from custody on Oct. 11, after serving 30 years for kidnapping and raping young boys in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Gardner's release stemmed largely from a clerical error made by prosecutors two years ago, when they failed to request he be civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person, which is an option to keep high risk offenders in custody.

When Gardner was released, he was ordered to report to his probation officer in Rhode Island, but nearby residents became angry when they learned this week that Gardner was living in the Washington Park area of Providence.

People outside Gardner's home Wednesday night could be heard shouting "we want him out."

Before heading to the home where Gardner is staying, the group of residents gathered at the Washington Park Community Center to discuss the issue with city officials.

One detective told the crowd, "I will be watching him like a hawk."

Another added that Gardner has the right to live wherever he wants as long as he is registered as a sex offender and doesn't live within 300 feet from a school.

We cannot change this, Maj. David Lapatin said. The best thing we can do is be positive.

The crowd wasn't satisfied with that advice from Maj. Lapatin, screaming, You dont live here -- we do.

While a 1996 state law requires that communities be notified when sex offenders move into their area, Gardners conviction predates Megan's Law, which means his name and address are also not publicly listed on the states sex offender website.

Police will have increased patrols, with special overtime, just to watch Gardner, Maj. Lapatin said at the community meeting. He added there will be a heavy police presence on Halloween.

Councilman Luis Aponte said starting at 11 p.m. Wednesday, there will be a police detail watching Gardner at all times.The National Sailing Hall of Fame will officially leave Maryland for Rhode Island, barring any last-minute discoveries.

The Capital reports the board of directors voted 17-9 Tuesday to proceed with its deal to purchase space in Newport's historic Armory Building. President Gary Jobson says the vote total represented "a strong statement in favor of Newport," but the site still needs to be inspected for structural and environmental issues before the Nov. 8 deal deadline.

The hall plans to spend about $4 million in total, including installing exhibits. It has a lease on a state-owned building in Annapolis until 2020, but hadn't been successful in building a museum.

Despite the departure, a spokeswoman for Mayor Gavin Buckley says Annapolis won't relinquish its title as the "sailing capital of the world."Officials are searching for a person who threw a kitten out of a moving vehicle and toward a school bus in Winterport, Maine earlier this month.

The young feline, named "Hiccup" by the Ridge Runner Veterinary Services staff, survived the incident but was left with a broken leg. According to veterinary clinic staff, a school bus full of children witnessed the event, and their screams alerted the driver.

After stopping the vehicle, the school bus driver picked up the injured 9-week-old kitten and took him to the vet clinic. Officials determined that Hiccup had been severely neglected, as he was emaciated and covered in fleas.

The kitten is being confined to a crate to prevent him from injuring his broken leg further. He has been seen by an orthopedic surgeon and it is possible he will have to have his leg amputated.

A spokesperson for the John T. Cyr bus company confirms it was one of their employees that witnessed the incident, but they declined to discuss it.

A detailed description of the vehicle involved in the animal abuse case was not immediately available. Anyone who witnessed the incident or may have information is asked to contact the Waldo County Sheriffs Department at 1-800-660-3398.

"It was heartbreaking to say the least," said Jennifer Marlow, a veterinary assistant who cared for hiccup. Despite all he has endured, rescuers say Hiccup is a very affectionate cat.

"I can't imagine why he loves people after what happened to him, but he is such a big love...just wanting to be held all the time," Marlow said.

When her sister saw pictures of Hiccup, she decided she would adopt and care for the kitten. Marlow says Hiccup is very happy in his new home.

An online fundraiser set up for Hiccup's medical expenses has surpassed its goal. Any additional funds will be sent to a local trap neuter release program.

If you would like to help, you may do so here. Be aware that GoFundMe deducts 2.9-percent of any funds raised, plus 30 cents per donation for payment processing charges.Deal creates 80m IT transformation services provider

Matt Franklin

Transformation services provider Roc Technologies has bought data centre, cloud and managed service specialist Esteem Systems.

The acquisition accelerates Rocs strategy of becoming one of the UKs leading providers of programme, process and platform services, and enhances both organisations ability to deliver performance acceleration for their customers through business and digital transformation.

The deal will extend the digital infrastructure and managed services capabilities of both organisations.

Roc, based at Wharf Street, Newbury, has built a growing reputation for delivering digital transformation in the public and private sector, with significant customer traction in the defence, justice, energy, police, higher education, airports, life sciences, pharmaceutical and legal sectors.

Rocs technology platform portfolio includes secure enterprise communications, mobility, cloud services and managed services.

With a 30-year track-record, Esteem Systems brings a complementary portfolio in private cloud, data management, desktop and managed services, and has become a strategic infrastructure and services partner in public and private sector with significant traction in local government, retail, higher education, legal, health and energy.

The combined business will have projected 2019 revenues of 80m, EBITDA of nine per cent and rising, 350 employees, UK-wide sales and support coverage with offices in Newbury, London, Wetherby and Glasgow, and secure UK managed service centres in Newbury and Woking.

Roc Technologies chief executive Matt Franklin said: I am delighted to be able to welcome Esteem Systems and our new colleagues into the Roc family.

Our strategy at Roc is simple; to become the most valuable partner in our customers digital transformation strategy, and through that value-driven customer relationship, drive Rocs growth and reputation in the market.

Esteem brings recognised strength in private and public cloud solutions and services and a strong managed services portfolio.

Together we can serve the intelligent infrastructure and cloud needs of our customers.

Esteem has also built a significant managed services business, which when added to Rocs managed services capabilities creates an incredibly strong annuity-driven business.

Rocs unique capabilities in programme management and business process transformation will deliver incremental value to Esteems customers, and together we create one of the most capable providers of business and IT transformation services in the UK.

The coming together of Roc and Esteem Systems is 100 per cent complementary in portfolio, customers, industry focus, and geography, and I am absolutely thrilled that together we can extend new value to our joint customers and accelerate our next phase of growth through a truly differentiated customer offer.

The deal will create and bring together the companys technology vendor partners including Citrix, Dell/EMC, HPE Aruba, Microsoft, Nutanix, Oracle, Tibco, UK Cloud and Cisco.

In 2017, to support its long-term business plan, Roc received investment from BGF, one of the worlds leading growth capital investors.

Roc also acquired programme and project management specialists City Change Management.Dreweatts MD first started with company as a porter

Jonathan Pratt, MD at Dreweatts 1759

Nearly three decades after he first worked at Dreweatts as a porter, Jonathan Pratt has returned as the companys new managing director.

And his return to Donnington Priory is a bit of a homecoming for the former Shaw House School pupil, whose family first moved to the area as evacuees during the war.

Looking at the beautiful building that is now his office, some of which dates back to the 13th century, you can understand why Jonathan, 46, has been drawn back to it.

He was born in Surrey, before his family moved to Ashmore Green when he was nine months old.

Cold Ash had been his fathers home as an evacuee during the Second World War and, after spending time in the Merchant Navy, he returned to the area to raise his own family.

Looking out over the sweeping lawns at Donnington Priory, Jonathan recalls a summers day he and some friends floated a dinghy up the River Lambourn from Shaw Social Club to the very spot we were meeting.

Starting his school life at Winchcombe, Jonathan attended Shaw House, before going on to study science and mathematics A-levels at St Bartholomews School.

I should have taken art, looking back now, he admits. I then took a year out and worked at Prudential in Reading for six months and that showed me that I didnt want to work in an office.

So I wrote to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and enrolled on a course in Southampton studying fine art and chattels valuation.

Admitting that he quite enjoyed student life, Jonathan stayed on for four years, leaving with a degree and has since gone on to gain a diploma in retail jewellery and a diploma in gemology  one of just two courses in the world.

He is now a fellow of the Gemmological Association and a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

His first job after leaving Southampton was as a furniture porter at Phillips Auctioneers in Edinburgh.

After that he moved to Phillips in Guildford, then enjoyed roles as a valuer both at a London company and Dreweatts.

During his first stint at Donnington Priory, Jonathan was involved in the successful Fawley Court house sale, which he says served as his baptism into the auction business.

He then joined Sothebys Sussex in 2002, before becoming managing director of Bellmans just three years later.

Here he oversaw a five-fold increase in the firms turnover, taking it from 1.5m to 6m, and introduced a streamlined three-tier sale system.

And then Jonathan came full-circle, returning to Newbury and Dreweatts 1759 earlier this year, after a chance encounter with George Bailey, now chairman of the company, in Bond Street.

If I can become managing director after going to the local comprehensive and starting out as a porter in 1991, then anything is possible for anyone, he says.

I am settling in nicely and hopefully building up relationships with everyone.

I do have some plans, but thats for another day.

The other well-known string to Jonathans bow is his regular television appearances on the BBCs and .

It was while at a colleagues wedding back in 2008 that the idea was first put to him and he has been a regular face on the shows ever since.

I did four series of , which was great fun, but very greedy on your time, he admits.

I was away from home for 30 days one summer, filming two series back-to-back and it did have an impact on work, so I decided to do one series the following year.

Then a family illness meant I decided to stop altogether.

In 2011, I was doing a series with Charlie Hanson in Belfast and it was like a holiday. It was great for me, but not for my wife, who was left at home with four young children.

I still do and Im still a person. I would love to get here one day.

But for now his attention is all on Dreweatts 1759 and his first sale, which was due to take place earlier this month.GREENWICH  There were twice as many children under the age of 5 in Greenwich as there were day care slots available in the town in 2017, according to an analysis of licensed child-care providers and U.S. Census data.

There were 34 licensed child care providers in 2017 in Greenwich, according to the Center for American Progress, a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization that recently released the analysis, with 2,181 slots available. Recent data from the Cenus shows there were 4,385 children under 5 in town.

Even if all child care providers in the town were at their maximum licensed capacity, there would be two children for every spot in licensed child care, said Rasheed Malik, senior policy analyst for early childhood policy for the Center for American Progress.

But both nonprofit administrators that operate after-school and early education programs say Greenwichs child care options are meeting the demand of the towns population.

Nearly half of Greenwich children under 5 live in what is considered a so-called day care desert by the Center for American Progress. But only such outlying neighborhoods Pemberwick, Riversville, North Greenwich, Pine Hill and North Mianus are listed as day care deserts in the report.

More for you Report: More Greenwich families struggling financially

Those neighborhoods are wealthy residential areas without infrastructure to support child care facilities, said Bill Brucker, vice president of the nonprofit Family Centers in Greenwich. Also, many families in those areas have more options because they can afford private day care.

Most of Greenwichs licensed day care centers are located centrally in the town, the report shows.

Central Greenwich is pretty populated with day care facilities, Brucker said. Its important to note that in the areas listed as so-called child care deserts in Greenwich, a majority of the families are working in central Greenwich or New York City.

Parents heading to work can drop off their children at centers in central Greenwich near I-95 and the Metro-North train station, he said.

Yenny Toone, early care and education director for Family Centers, said there are many options for child care in the heart of town.

I believe Greenwich has sufficient child care in the area, she said.

Greenwich fared better than neighboring Stamford, where the survey found three times as many many children under 5 as there are licensed day-care slots.

Across Connecticut, 44 percent of residents live in an area without adequate child care, according to the Center of American Progress. More than half of residents in Connecticuts day care deserts have a below-average income and about half are black or Hispanic.

When we think about the notion of a day care desert, what were really talking about is inequities at the very beginning of childrens lives, said Wendy Simmons, director of education and equity at the research/advocacy group, Connecticut Voices for Children. Because of the expense, even in places that have low levels of child care, people with means and resources will always have access and access to the best.

Expanding is not always simple. State regulations limit the capacity of children based on their age and the size of the facility. There must be one adult for every four infants and toddlers under the age of 3. The ratio increases to 1 to 10 for children older than 3. In family day cares, there can be up to six children who do not attend school full-time and three school-ages kids.

Despite the high demand for child care, data from the Connecticut Voices for Children shows more programs are closing in the state than opening. The problem, Simmons said, is the lack of living wage.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in May 2017 that the average child care worker in Connecticut made $12.88 an hour, which amounts to less than $27,000 a year.

Simmons said there needs to be more government funding for early child care.

The ratio is there for quality. Infants and toddlers require a lot of support, she said. Thats why most other countries have dealt with this through government subsidies. Were just a little behind.DANBURY  The race for a Danbury and New Fairfield state Senate seat next month presents voters not only with opposing policy positions, but with starkly different perceptions about the state of the state.

Republican incumbent state Sen. Mike McLachlan will defend his 24th Senate District seat against Democrat Julie Kushner, a first-time candidate but longtime political and union organizer in Hartford.

Nearly every issue each candidate has campaigned on hinges on the state budget struggles and how each toes the party line on the principles that would help the state climb out of its crippling budget deficits.

We are at a crossroads in the state of Connecticut and it clearly means that if we dont make some very important decisions in this coming session, we are going to have a domino effect on state finances going forward, McLachlan said.

But where McLachlan sees necessary cuts, Kushner argues the state should reinvest in health care, education and infrastructure to stabilize the state economy.

I agree that we are at a crossroads, I just disagree about how we go forward, she said. I believe we really need to be looking to a brighter future rather than just cutting down everything thats gone on before us.

The duo sparred for the first time in a face-to-face debate at The News-Times office on Wednesday after a bizarre spat last week at a candidate forum hosted by the Northern Fairfield County Association of Realtors.

The two had been set to debate, but some kind of miscommunication led McLachlan to speak alone at the beginning of the meeting while Kushner arrived and spoke separately a while later. Kushner has claimed it was a dodge set up to aid McLachlan, himself a Realtor, while McLachlan has said he simply followed what he had been told.

Their disagreement about those details led to a testy exchange at the end of their nearly 90-minute debate Wednesday, which might be their only one before Nov. 6.

The pairs back-and-forth underscored each candidates disagreement on policy issues and highlighted their opposite impressions of the states needs.

McLachlan, 60, has served in the 24th District seat for a decade and railed against the spending and borrowing habits of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and a Democratic majority. Instead, he pointed to his work on the Republican budget proposal that insisted on sweeping spending cuts and argued the Legislature should turn its focus on deleting unfunded mandates to municipalities.

All of the ideas of the majority party are pretty good ideas, granted, he said. But theyre would-like-to ideas. Theyre not ideas the taxpayers of Connecticut can afford in this economy or in this difficult budget scenario.

The Democratic Party in Connecticut is failing to realize that the state Capitol and the state budget is burning down, he said. They have to stop coming up with these wonderful ideas that cost money when we cant afford it.

Kushner, 66, argued lawmakers should refocus the budget to reinvest in issues that could attract more industries and consumers to Connecticut and thereby prop up the budget in the long term.

We cant cut our way out of the crisis that were in, we have to look at ways  to move forward as partners, she said. Some of the Republican solutions, I just think theyre not going to work. Theyre going to take us backwards and well need to go forward.

She touted her credentials working on paid family leave as co-chairwoman of the Connecticut Working Families Party and as the New England regional director for the United Auto Workers, from which she retired this summer.

That provision would have required businesses to offer paid family leave for employees, funded by employee contributions, and that could have made Connecticut competitive with neighboring states that offer it, she said.

But McLachlan voted against the bill, which failed in the spring. He supports the idea but said its all about the timing, and he finds the states budget problems more pressing.

The paid family leave debate is model for their differences on an array of issues.

They both oppose tolls, but Kushner would want to invest in new public transportation infrastructure like more rail lines while McLachlan sees them as an expensive extravagance that few would bother to use.

McLachlan wanted steep cuts to UConns budget to force them to reform their administration, while Kushner argued it would have affected students and scholarships.

The pair fall on opposite sides of the argument about Danbury Prospect Charter School, which has earned the approval of the state Board of Education but faces an uphill battle to receive funding from the Legislature in the spring.

McLachlan has long supported the proposal and believes it could be a cheaper, more immediate solution to the local districts increasing overcrowding situation than a $100 million new school.

He pointed to the bipartisan effort to restore proposed cuts to Danbury schools in the state budget as evidence he is committed to improving funding for the school district.

Kushner adamantly opposes the Danbury Prospect idea, calling it a nonstarter.

We really need to use every dollar we have in education in supporting our public schools. I believe that very strongly. I dont think there should be competition schools. If there are good ideas that make charter schools work, lets put those good ideas to work in the public school system.

zach.murdock@hearst

mediact.comExtending the Edges - art by Lori Barker of Goshen: Runs through Nov. 14. Library, 62 Main St. South.

A Rambling Brush - exhibit of works by Bill Merklein: Runs through Oct. 29. Artists reception, Sept. 29, 2-4 p.m. Library, Main Street. For more information and RSVP to the reception, call 860-927-3761.

MARBLE DALE/NEW PRESTON

Photography exhibit featuring works by Rich Pomerantz and Sanaa Sondhi: Opening reception, Oct. 20, 4-6 pm.. Runs through Nov. 25. At The Loft Gallery at The Smithy Store, 10 Main St.

NEW MILFORD

An Artists Eye exhibit: Runs through Oct. 20. Historical society and museum, 6 Aspetuck Ave.

From the Mountains to the Shore: The Transcendence of New England Moments - new paintings by Thomas Adkins of Southbury: Opening reception, Oct. 27, 5-7 p.m. Runs through Dec. 31. Gregory James Gallery, Route 202.

Exhibit of rare telephones: Runs through Oct. 31. AMEICO, 29 Church St. Exhibit will celebrate the buildings history, as it was built by Southern New England Telephone company. Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

ROXBURY

The Way of Water - oil paintings by Joanne Conant: Runs through Oct. 20. Library, South Street. Hours: Mondays, noon-7 p.m. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call 860-350-2181.

Dynamics - works by illustrator Robert Giusti: Opening reception, Oct. 27, 2-4 p.m. Runs through Dec. 8. Library, South Street. Hours: Mondays, noon-7 p.m. Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursdays, noon-5 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For more information, call 860-350-2181.

SHERMAN

One Thousand Bears Project photography exhibit: Runs through Nov. 28. Library, Sherman Center. Features photography by Mako Kumano and John Charles.

WASHINGTON

Exhibit of oil paintings and pastels by Susan Grisell of Gaylordsville: Runs through Oct. 31. Martys Cafe, 4 Green Hill Road. For information, call 860-868-1700.

Sticks and Stones - exhibit of works by Nicole Alger: Runs through Nov. 16. Library, Wykeham Road. Hours: Mondays and Fridays, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturdays, 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, call 860-868-7586.

Music/Dance

NEW MILFORD

Irish happy hour with Uncle Bill Whiskey, aka Bill Wisnowski: Oct. 21: with guests Julie Sorcek and Susan Lang, 5 p.m. Oct. 28: with guests Steve OTree and Friends, 5 p.m. The Abbey, 132 Danbury Road. For more information, call 860-799-6464.

Super Session: 3 Musicians and 1 Great Afternoon: Oct. 27, 3 p.m. Hunt Hill Farm, Upland Road. With Musicians Munro, Parris & Vitarello. $30. For more information, visit http://hunthillfarm.org or call 860-355-0300.

WASHINGTON

Solo recital with pianist and composer Timothy Alexandra Wallace: Oct. 21, 2 p.m. Library, Wykeham Road. For more information and RSVP, call 860-868-7586.

Special Events

BRIDGEWATER

Senior center offerings: Oct. 21, supper/concert club, 1-3 p.m. $5. Mondays: line dancing, 11 a.m. Exercise, 11 am. Tuesdays: computer group, 10 a.m. appointments with municipal agent, 9 a.m.-noon or by appointment. Silver Needles, 1 p.m. VNA blood pressure, 1-2 p.m. (second Tuesday each month). Wednesdays: Tai Chi, 10:30 a.m. Fridays: poker, 10 a.m. yoga, 10:30 a.m. Canasta, 1 p.m. Senior center, Hut Hill Road.

Two Towns Tabletop Game Club: First Wednesday of each month, 6 p.m. and second Saturday of each month, 2 p.m. New Milford Public Library, Main Street. Third and fourth Wednesday each month, 6 p.m. Burnham Library, 62 Main St. South, Bridgewater. For more information, call 860-355-1191.

GAYLORDSVILLE

Blacksmithing demonstration: Oct. 21, 1-3 p.m. At Browns Forge, Browns Forge Road.

KENT

Digital device help: First Saturday of each month: one-on-one instruction with Michael Jay, noon-1:30 p.m. Bring iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc. Second Saturday of each month: device solutions with Bryan Gundel. Library, Main Street. For more information and RSVP, call 860-927-3761.

Annual book sale: Runs through mid-October. For hours, call 860-927-3761 or visit www.kentmemoriallibrary.org. Library, Main Street.

Voting: Got Questions? Weve Got Answers: Oct. 27, 2-4 p.m. Library, Main Street. For more information and RSVP, call 860-927-3761.

Kent Pumpkin Run: Oct. 28. Kids fun run, 11:15 a.m. Five-mile race, noon. Both races start and end at Kent Green near town hall. $25 by Oct. 19 or $30 after. For more information and RSVP, visit www.kentpumpkinrun.com.

MARBLE DALE/NEW PRESTON

Morning yoga: Oct. 19. Meet at 9 a.m. at parking area for Macricostas Preserve, 124 Christian St. Dress warmly, wear shoes for 5-minute hike and bring yoga mat. With Caroline Kinsolving. For more information and RSVP, call 860-868-9131.

Meet the Maker event with Lynda Campbell: Oct. 20, noon-3 p.m. At The Smithy, 10 Main St. Owner of Saltbox Press in Ridgefield.

NEW MILFORD

Two Towns Tabletop Game Club: First Wednesday of each month, 6 p.m. and second Saturday of each month, 2 p.m. New Milford Public Library, Main Street. Third and fourth Wednesday each month, 6 p.m. Burnham Library, 62 Main St. South, Bridgewater. For more information, call 860-355-1191.

Digital literacy help: Wednesdays in October, 10 a.m.-noon: one-on-one guidance navigating digital devices. By appointment: one-on-one computer lessons. Library, Main Street. For more information, call 860-355-1191.

Tech help: Third Thursday of each month: drop-in tech help, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. By appointment: one-on-one guidance for digital devices. 860-355-6075. Hosted by library at New Milford Senior Center, 40 Main St.

Harrybrooke Park Haunted Trail: Oct. 19-20, 6-10 p.m. At Harrybrooke Park, off Still River Drive. Not intended for anyone under 12 or who may have a medical condition where scares or flashing lights could be of concern. Benefits Harrybrooke Park, the New Milford Lions Club, the Knights of Columbus, the New Milford United Methodist Church, Our Lady of the Lakes Youth Group, Boy Scout Troop 66, The Children's Center, Wildlife Line and the NMHS Grad Party Committee. For more information, or to become a sponsor, volunteer or purchase tickets in advance, visit https://www.universe.com/scarrybrooke18. or for group ticket information, email HarrybrookePark65@gmail.com, call 860-799-6520, or visit HarrybrookePark.org.

Coffee with Mayor Pete Bass: Oct. 20, 9:30-11 a.m. E. Paul Martin Meeting Room, Roger Sherman Town Hall, 10 Main St.

Special events for children and teens with special needs: Oct. 20: family, guided nature walk, with the help of Steven Morris and other friends, 11 a.m. Sunny Valley Farm. Bring water, snacks and camera. Oct. 28: Halloween costume party for all school-aged children, 1-3 p.m. The Maxx, Railroad Street. Youth Agency at JPCC, Pickett District Road. Nov. 17: family hike, 10:30 a.m. Train tunnel at Steep Rock Preserve in Washington. For more information and RSVP, call 860-210-2030.

Penny auction: Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Hosted by New Milford Senior Center Advisory Board at senior center, 40 Main St. $2/25 tickets. $5/75 tickets.

Roast beef dinner: Oct. 20, 4:30-7 p.m. Odd Fellows Hall, 25 Danbury Road. $14/adult. $12/senior. $5/child 4-12. Free/child under 4.

Merryall Chapel services: Oct. 21: with the Rev. Steve Klots of South Kent School, 4 p.m. Nov. 18: with the Rev. Linda Williams of Salem Covenant Church in Washington, 4 pm. Dec. 24: with Pastor Paul Hibbard, chaplain of Waterbury Hospital, 9 p.m. Merryall Chapel, Chapel Hill Road.

Housatonic Business Alliance meetings: Oct. 25: with Patty Oberg of All American Waste, 7 a.m. Nov. 1: with Anne McClelland of The First Bite, LLC, 7 a.m. Meets at 19 Main venue, 19 Main St.

Introduction to Wine Appreciation: Oct. 25, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Hosted by senior center at Classic Liquors, 149 Danbury Road (Route 7). $20. For more information and RSVP, call 860-350-6075.

Book club about military history: Oct. 25, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Library, Main Street. Led by Gerard Monaghan. For more information, call 860-355-1191.

Free group bike ride: Oct. 26. Gather at 10:45 a.m. for 11 a.m. in Patriots Way parking lot near railroad station. Ride will be 15 miles. Open to individuals age teenage through adult. For more information, call Susan at 203-448-7895.

Wicked Wine Evening wine tasting to benefit New Milford Hospital Breast Health Program: Oct. 26. VIP early entry at 6 p.m.: $75 and includes main tasting room and exclusive lounge. General admission at 6:30 p.m.: $40 for main tasting room. Organized by Nejaimes Wine and Spirits. For tickets, visit the shop at 164 Danbury Road (Route 7) or www.nejaimeswineandspirits.com

Trunk or Treat: Oct. 31, 5:15-7:30 p.m. Hosted by New Milford Parks & Recreation downtown on Village Green. For more information, call 860-355-6050.

ROXBURY

Spiders Among Us family-oriented program about spiders: Oct. 28, 4 p.m. Hosted by Roxbury Land Trust at town hall, Route 67. Includes screening of 10-minute comedy Widows and talk on intricate role spiders play in the ecosystem.

SHERMAN

Deer Pond offerings: Oct. 19 and 31: fall foliage bird walk with Miley Bull, 8 a.m. Oct. 19: private hike with the Litchfield Hills Audubon Society Oct. 19, 9 a.m.Oct. 20: CAS annual meeting in New London, 3 p.m. Oct. 21: 22nd annual celebration of Great Swamp Oct. 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Christ Church in Pawling, N.Y. Oct. 21: photography fun with wildlife photographers Brian Bennett, Sharon Cuartero and Rich Stone, 1 p.m. Oct. 24: autumn ecology walk with Jim Arrigoni, 4 p.m. At Deer Pond Farm, unless otherwise noted, 57 Wakeman Hill Road. For more information and RSVP, call 860-799-4074.

Meet and greet session with Jahana Hayes and Julie Kushner: Oct. 28, 7-8:30 p.m. Hosted by Sherman Democratic Town Committee at Jewish Community Center, 9 Route 39 South. Jahana is running for Congress for the 5th District and Kushner is running for the 24th District State Senate seat.

WARREN

Voter registration sessions: Oct. 30, 9 a.m.-8 p.m. For new voters. Nov. 5: for those specifically for those seeking to vote in the election whose qualifications as to age, citizenship, or residency was attained since Oct.31. Registrar of Voters at town hall.

WASHINGTON

Library childrens offerings: Oct. 20: pumpkin painting party (bring own pumpkin), 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 27: Halloween costume party and parade, 1 p.m. Library, Wykeham Road. For more information, call 860-868-2310.

Discussion and book signing: Oct. 21, 2 p.m. Hickory Stick Book Shop, 2 Green Hill Road. With Amy Julia Becker, author of White Picket Fences: Turning Toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege.

Book discussion: Oct. 26, 5 p.m. Hickory Stick Bookshop, 2 Green Hill Road. With Gunnery Headmaster Emeritus of Rumsey Hall School Thomas W. Farmen, author of Bessies Story: Watching the Lights Go Out.

Washington Green Cemetery Tour: Oct. 26, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Rain date, Oct. 28. Gunn Historical Museum, 5 Wykeham Road. For more information, email info@gunnhistoricalmuseum.org.

Penny auction: Oct. 27, 11:30 a.m. Salem Covenant Church, 96 Baldwin Hill Road. Drawing, 1 p.m.

AREA TOWNS

Celebration of the Great Swamp: Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 21, noon-4 p.m. Hosted by Friends of the Great Swamp at Christ Church on Quaker Hill, 17 Church Road, Pawling, N.Y. Includes birds of prey program, presentations and talks, childrens activiites, food and more. Free.SHERMAN  The work to stabilize a steep bank near Quaker Brook along Route 37 is several weeks overdue and residents are getting frustrated waiting for the road to reopen.

We have been cut in half, said Terri Hahn, president of Timber Trails, a 1,000-acre community surrounding the project.

Hahn said three mufflers have been destroyed on the detour and some of her older residents have been unable to go to doctor appointments. She also said Shermans economy has suffered because the southern part of the community cant get into town.

The section of Route 37 just north of Big Trail near the New Fairfield town line was closed Sept. 6 to repair the washed out road from all of the rain this summer. It was expected to reopen by the end of September, but delays have pushed it back to rush hour on Oct. 19.

One lane of traffic will be open on Oct. 22 and 23 so the crew can replace the guide rail.

It turned out to be bigger than we anticipated, said David Neelands, the project engineer with the state Department of Transportation.

The project was delayed because a utility pole had to be moved and the crew had to rent an extra long excavator to reach 40 feet down to the bottom of the slope. Rain also slowed work. The biggest challenge has been the slope itself, which has an incline of about 45 degrees, Neelands said.

Getting anything to stay in a slope like that is very difficult, he said.

But residents have concerns about how the project is being handled.

Tim Beatty, a Sherman contractor who has been building and paving roads for 34 years, said the amount of work completed could have been done in a week and in the rain. He contends the road didnt have to be closed and the work could have been completed with one lane open.

He said he feels those overseeing the project dont have a sense of urgency.

When I see what happened there, it makes my blood boil, Beatty said. Someone should be held accountable.

He said the states reimbursement practice is flawed and doesnt encourage the work to end early or on time.

As an emergency project, the state selects a company equipped to handle the work rather than going out to bid. Waters Construction Company, which has offices in Bridgeport and New Milford, was selected because they have the expertise and equipment to handle this type of work, Neelands said.

Though the project isnt bid, workers are reimbursed the same way with the crew paid for their work and equipment.

Neelands said the crews are following regulations. The project is still within the $245,000 budget.

Sherman First Selectman Don Lowe also questioned the delays.

Ive been somewhat alarmed at the pace of the work, he said. This came to my office as an emergency and I began to feel that the project wasnt being treated with the proper emphasis.

He acknowledged the rain but hoped crews would work overtime. Neelands said the crew is working this Saturday to meet the new deadline.

I had hoped, since Route 37 is a major artery for not only Sherman residents but for the entire region, that longer work days and weekends would have been put in place, Lowe said.

About 3,000 cars travel that section of Route 37 daily, according to the DOT.

Many of those cars are still attempting to travel it, even with road closure signs posted and the closure marked in Google maps.

Residents have posted their own signs stating no outlet and even one that said No b.s. the road is really closed. The state signs, though marking decreasing mileage to the closure, dont specify the direction, which has caused trucks and cars to get stuck on the dirt roads and dead ends in the area, Beatty and Hahn said.

As Hahn was observing the work Friday, two cars had to turn around and Hahn had to offer a New York driver directions on how to get around.

Neelands said the problems arise because drivers are ignoring the signs or dont believe them. He said he followed a tractor trailer recently that stopped at the detour sign and still drove down Route 37 instead of Route 39 as directed.

This happens all day long, he said.

He said the road is closed because it was unsafe to have one lane for the 400 to 500 foot stretch thats closed. It also would have required installing a traffic signal, which would have increased the projects cost, or people would have gotten stuck in the middle with lines of traffic backed up in both directions. Closing only one lane instead of the whole road could have also lengthened the project.

Im sorry it works out this way, Neelands said.

He added that state projects have more regulations than private ones and so a private contractor might not know the whole extent of the work and why a project is being done a certain way. An example is the approval they needed from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for adding stone to the water below the slope.The emergency declaration gives us some leniency but its not a free ticket, he said.Biochemists, microbiologists, drug discovery experts and infectious disease doctors have teamed up in a new study that shows antibiotics are not always necessary to cure sepsis in mice. Instead of killing causative bacteria with antibiotics, researchers treated infected mice with molecules that block toxin formation in bacteria. Every treated mouse survived. The breakthrough study, published in Scientific Reports, suggests infections in humans might be cured the same way.

The molecules cling to a toxin-making protein found across Gram-positive bacterial species, called AgrA, rendering it ineffective. Treating mice with the therapeutic molecules effectively cured infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). S. aureus is notorious for its ability to overcome even the most potent antibiotics. Its resistance arsenal is broad, limiting therapeutic options to treat infections.

In a mouse model of S. aureus sepsis, treatment with small molecules alone resulted in 100 percent survival, while 70 percent of untreated animals died. The small molecules were as effective in promoting survival as antibiotics currently used to treat S. aureus infections. The molecules also appear to give antibiotics a boost. Septic mice treated with a combination of the small molecules and antibiotics had 10x fewer bacteria in their bloodstream than mice treated with antibiotic alone.

"For relatively healthy patients, such as athletes suffering from a MRSA infection, these molecules may be enough to clear an infection," said Menachem Shoham, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and senior author on the study. "For immunocompromised patients, combination therapy with the molecules and a low-dose antibiotic may be in order. The antibiotic in the combination could be one to which the bacteria are resistant in monotherapy, because our small molecules enhance the activity of conventional antibiotics, such as penicillin." With support from the small molecules, previously obsolete antibiotics could reenter the clinic. Said Shoham, "This could provide a partial solution to the looming, global threat of antibiotic resistance."

If available, antibiotics kill most bacteria, but a small number of bacteria with natural resistance survive. Over time, antibiotic-resistant bacteria multiply and spread. By Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, at least two million Americans get an antibiotic-resistant infection annually. For some infections, effective antibiotics are no longer available. Disarming bacteria of disease-causing toxins represents a promising alternative to dwindling antibiotics.

Eliminating toxins frees up the immune system to eliminate bacterial pathogens instead of antibiotics, said Shoham. "Without the toxins the bacteria become harmless. And since they don't need the toxins to survive, there is less pressure to develop resistance."

The small molecules work against multiple bacterial species. The new study included preliminary experiments showing the molecules prevent three other bacterial species from killing immune cells. "These results indicate broad-spectrum efficacy against Gram-positive pathogens," wrote the authors. Added Shoham, "We have proven efficacy not only against MRSA but also against Staphylococcus epidermidis which is notorious for clogging catheters, Streptococcus pyogenes that causes strep throat, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and other pathogens."

Shoham led the study in collaboration with colleagues from the departments of biochemistry and dermatology and the Center for RNA and Therapeutics at Case Western Reserve University. The researchers developed two small molecules, F12 and F19, both of which potentiate antibiotic efficacy in the mouse models. The researchers are now working to commercialize both potential drugs. Case Western Reserve University has issued a license to Q2Pharma, Ltd., a biopharmaceutical startup company in Israel, to perform additional preclinical studies and develop F12 and F19 for clinical trials. Their initial trials will focus on patients suffering from systemic multi-drug resistant infections.What happens to those who behave unselfishly and make sacrifices for the sake of others? According to an interdisciplinary study by researchers from Stockholm University, the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, unselfish people tend both to have more children and to receive higher salaries, in comparison to more selfish people. The results have now been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"The result is clear in both the American and the European data. The most unselfish people have the most children and the moderately unselfish receive the highest salaries. And we also find this result over time - the people who are most generous at one point in time have the largest salary increases when researchers revisit them later in time," says Kimmo Eriksson, researcher at the Centre for Cultural Evolution at Stockholm University and one of the authors of the study "Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money".

The result is contrary to theories that selfish people manage to get their hands on more money through their selfishness, as suggested in previous research.

Previous psychological and sociological research has shown that unselfish people are happier and have better social relationships. The study "Generosity pays: Selfish people have fewer children and earn less money" focuses on unselfishness from an economical and evolutionary perspective. In this collaboration with the Institute for Futures Studies and the University of South Carolina, researchers at Stockholm University have looked at how selfishness relates to income and fertility. Selfishness was measured partly through attitudes and partly through reported behaviors. The results are based on analyses of four major studies of Americans and Europeans.

"In a separate study, we examined the expectations of ordinary people to see if their expectations aligned with our data. The results of this study showed that people generally have the correct expectation that selfish people have fewer children, but erroneously believe that selfish people will make more money. It is nice to see that generosity so often pays off in the long run," says Pontus Strimling, a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies, who is also one of the authors behind the study.

The authors themselves believe that improved social relationships may be the key to generous peoples' success from an economic perspective, but note that their research does not definitely answer this question.

"Future research will have to delve deeper into the reasons why generous people earn more, and look at whether the link between unselfishness, higher salaries and more children also exists in other parts of the world. And it is of course debatable how unselfish it really is to have more children," says co-author Brent Simpson of University of South Carolina.A new report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) states that people born and living in Spain, Japan, and China are likely to live longer than those born and living in the United States.

The study titled, Forecasting life expectancy, years of life lost, and all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 250 causes of death: reference and alternative scenarios for 2016-40 for 195 countries and territories, was published in the latest issue of the journal Lancet.

Outdoor restaurants Barcelona, Spain. Image Credit: Iakov Filimonov / Shutterstock

The study comes from a research centre that is based at the University of Washington in Seattle. The life expectancies of individuals from different countries were assessed from different sources before these results were compiled by the IHME. The IHME regularly also updates the effect of common ailments on health and life expectancy in their Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report.

Life expectancy of an individual in a population at birth determines the health of the healthcare system of a population explain the experts.

This new study came from the data collated from the 2016 GBD that lists the possible risks of death due to over 200 diseases between 1990 and 2016. The team of researchers used this data to predict the outcome of risk factors (e.g. obesity, fertility, poverty etc.) in determining life expectancy from 2017 to 2014.

Results revealed ;

Almost all countries would see an increase in life expectancy by 2040 but some nations would see a greater gain finds the report.

Spain for example would have a life expectancy of 85.8 years for a person born there in 2040. Life expectancy in Spain in 2016 is 82.9 years.

Spain would then rank first in life expectancy list from its present fourth position

Japan would have a life expectancy of 85.7 years in 2040 finds the report moving it from its first ranking now to second.

Singapore and Switzerland are expected to rank third and fourth in 2014 with 85.4 years and 85.2 years life expectancy respectively.

Others ranking fifth to tenth are Portugal (84.5 years), Italy (84.5 years), Israel (84.4 years), France (84.3 years), Luxembourg (84.1 years) and Australia (84.1 years).

China had a life expectancy of 76.3 years in 2016 from where it is likely to reach 81.9 years in 2040 that would change its rank from 68th presently to 39th sys the report.

Syria is also expected to make a huge leap from 137th rank now to 80th in 2040 because of its improvement from 68.2 years to 78.6 years.

Average life span of Americans would increase from 78.7 years to 79.8 years between 2016 to 2040. This slight rise would lower the ranking of US from its present 43rd among 195 nations to 64th.

There has been a slight dip in the life expectancy among Americans in the recent few years due to the rising opioid misuse.

The report analyzed the data for both best and worst case scenarios. It was noted that nearly half of the nations would lose in terms of life expectancy in the worst case scenarios

South Africa for example would have a life expectancy of 75.3 years by 2040 in the best possible scenario and 54.3 years if things do not go right says the report.

At present the major killers are infectious diseases and malaria. The report states that soon non-communicable illnesses and long term diseases such as diabetes, lung cancer, kidney disease, tobacco related ailments, obesity, high blood pressure etc. would be the major killers.

According to a statement from the lead author of the report Kyle Foreman, director of data science at IHME, The future of the worlds health is not pre-ordained, and there is a wide range of plausible trajectories. But whether we see significant progress or stagnation depends on how well or poorly health systems address key health drivers.

The study is available at http://www.healthdata.org and https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31694-5/fulltext

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has blamed the protests against womens entry into the Lord Ayyappa shrine on the RSS, saying encouraging such agitation would lead to banishment of backward classes from places like Sabarimala. Its been more than 20 hours since the temple gates opened for the first time since Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age the right to pray at the shrine, but no woman has been able to even reach the 18 steps let alone enter the sanctum sanctorum.



New York Times journalist Suhasini Raj tried to make the journey this morning, but had to turn back midway after being attacked by angry male devotees. Raj returned to Kochi under police protection. Speaking to CNN-News18, she lauded the efforts of the Kerala Police and said they were ready to deploy additional forces, but she decided against a fresh attempt. She was the third woman to be turned back by protesting devotees since gates of Lord Ayyappa temple opened last evening for monthly prayers. The protesters are stopping women journalists too from embarking on the trek to the temple.



A 24-hour bandh called by Pravin Togadias Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad and Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi, an outfit of devotees, has also begun taking effect in Kerala. Buses run by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have reportedly been pelted with stones in Kozikode, Cherthala and Aatingal.



The Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala had opened its iron gates on Wednesday for the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age to enter the shrine but none from the "banned" age group could make it to its hallowed precincts amid a welter of protests and violent clashes.



Authorities have imposed Section 144 at Sannidhanam, Pamba, Nilakkal and Ilavunkal, but the prohibitory orders are being violated as protesters under the gathering under the guise of being devotees.



CNN-News18 crew covering the Sabarimala protests was attacked by a mob at the Nilakkal base camp, the main gateway to the hill shrine, in a cowardly tactic designed to intimidate women devotees ahead of the temples opening at 5pm.



Women journalists from other organisations too were heckled and their vehicles smashed. Most of the attacks began in the form of "vehicle checks" by protesters to ensure that young women are not inside. Chaos and mayhem ruled supreme on the road leading from Nilakkal to Pamba in the foothills from where the devotees start the arduous trek to Sabarimala, as activists of Hindu fringe groups fought pitched battles with police, leaving many injured and bleeding.



Angry over Kerala's Left Front government's decision not to file a review plea against the Supreme Court's September 28 landmark order, protesters pelted police with stones. The police too responded with batons, leaving many fallen and writhing in pain on the road.



Several protesters were seen being bundled into police vehicles, while siren blaring ambulances carried some to hospitals. At least 10 people from the media, including reporters and photojournalists, were injured and equipment of several of them damaged, senior minister EP Jayarajan said.



Unfazed by the unfolding violence, Madhavi, a gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh in her 40s, tried to climb the Sabarimala hills to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple, but was forced to return to Pamba, menaced by agitated male devotees, reported PTI.



Both the Congress, the main opposition party in Kerala, and the BJP, which is desperately seeking to expand its footprint in the state, have lent support to the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict.



State Congress working president K Sudhakaran led his party workers in a protest at Nilakkal to express solidarity with Ayyappa devotees.



An embattled Left Front government reacted sharply to the protests, with the state's religious trusts minister Kadakampally Surendran calling them "politically motivated".



Surendran, who reviewed the situation and preparations for the three-month-long Mandalam-Makaravilakku-festival beginning November 17 at Sannidhanam (Sabarimala temple complex), said the government would tackle the agitation politically.



"The BJP-RSS are trying to create tension and destroy the peaceful atmosphere in Kerala for political gain. We know the agenda of the RSS and BJP very well," he said, and insisted the government did not want any confrontation with believers.



The BJP rejected the allegation, saying the government was responsible for the "collapse" of law and order.



Party leader and MP V Muraleedharan said the government should shed its stubbornness and respect the sentiments of the people of Kerala.



Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala blamed both the ruling CPI(M) and the BJP-RSS combine for violence.



Even as streets in Nilakkal and Pamba erupted in tumult, thousands of bare-chested Ayyappa devotees waited patiently in the vast concourse outside Sabarimala for its gates to open at the appointed hour: 5 pm.



Carrying "Irumudikettu" (the sacred bundle containing ghee-filled coconuts they offer to the deity), they calmly walked past security personnel to take their place in the long queue where they would wait for hours on end for a glimpse of Lord Ayyappa.



Though older women and very young girls could be seen in the crowd, none of menstrual age was spotted.



"No girl or woman in the age group of 10 and 50 has so far visited Sannidhanam (the temple complex) so far," a senior official of the Travancore Devaswom Board, the body which manages the shrine, told PTI wishing not to be named.



The shrine will remain open for the 5-day monthly pooja during the Malayalam month of Thulam before being closed on October 22.



The Pathanamthitta district authority has promulgated prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC banning assembly of four or more people in strife-torn Pamba and Nilakkal following Wednesday's violence and a strike called by right wing outfits.



The BJP and its NDA partners have backed a 12-hour 'hartal' called by Sabarimala Action Council to protest the police action against devotees. The Congress said it would not join the strike but hold protest demonstrations across the state on Thursday.GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn moreSorry!

This content is not available in your regionNew Delhi:

Visitors wearing jeans, T-shirts or Bermuda shorts can no more enter the Mahabaleshwar Temple at Gokarna in Karnataka. The temple authorities on Thursday announced a rigid dress code banning jeans pant, trousers and Bermuda shorts at the popular pilgrimage centre.

We have already implemented the dress code in Gokarna.

The restrictions were already there but we implemented them a month ago, the executive officer of Gokarna Mahabaleshwar temple H Halappa told PTI Thursday.

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Dresses visitors must avoid while visiting the temple: Jeans, trousers, shorts, shirt, pant, vest, hat, cap and coat.

Dress code for Men: Dhoti

Dress code for Women: Salwar suit and saree

For men only dhoti is allowed. They cant enter temple wearing shirts, tee-shirts and vest. Women are allowed only in salwar suit and saree. They cant come in wearing jeans pant, Halappa said.

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The dress code order, however, was opposed by G K Hegde, former administrator of the Ramachandrapura Mutt near the Gokarna temple.

The dress code was only for men that they should not enter the temple wearing shirts and without taking bath. There was no restriction for women, Hegde claimed.

Historical facts about Mahabaleshwar temple

The Mahabaleshwar temple in Gokarna, considered one of the seven Muktikshetras or Muktistala (places of salvation) was built by Mayur Sharma of Kadamba dynasty in the 4th Century AD.

The temple is located near the Karwar beach facing the Arabian sea.New Delhi:

Massive fire broke out at a commercial building in Mumbaias Santacruz area on Thursday, according to a leading news channel.

According to ANI report, the fire engulfed Gujral House building at CST road, Kalina in Santacruz East.

Police and fire tenders were rushed to the spot and efforts are being made to douse the massive fire that engulfed the building.

Mumbai: A fire has broken out in Gujral House building at CST road, Kalina, Santacruz. Fire fighting operations are underway. More details awaited. pic.twitter.com/6s5V2k8mqT a ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Rescue operations are underway and the actual reason behind the tragedy is yet to be ascertained.

More details are awaited.Los Angeles:

Javier Bardem says he does not approve of Woody Allens public lynching in the child sexual assault allegations that have resurfaced over the past years against the filmmaker. The 49-year-old actor, who worked with Allen in 2007s Vicky Christina Barcelona, said he collaborate with the director in a heartbeat if he called him.

At the time I did Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the allegations were already well known for more than 10 years, and two states in the US deemed he was not guilty.

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If the legal situation ever changes, then Id change my mind. But for now I dont agree with the public lynching that hes been receiving, and if Woody Allen called me to work with him again Id be there tomorrow morning. Hes a genius, Bardem said.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor was speaking at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon Tuesday.

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Dylan Farrow, Allens adopted daughter with former wife Mia Farrow, accused the director of sexually abusing her in the early 1990s while she was a child.

She reiterated her claims in a 2014 New York Times op-ed and other articles.

The allegations caught steam in the wake of the #MeToo uprising.

Last month, Allens wife Soon-Yi Previn broke her decades-long silence over claims against her husband, calling them unjust and said that her adoptive mother Mia had taken advantage of the #MeToo movement.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Hollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Rose petals and garlands greeted bishop Franco Mulakkal when he reached Jalandhar from Kerala on Wednesday after getting conditional bail in a rape case. Mulakkal is accused of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun between 2014 and 2016 during his visits to a convent in Kottayam.

Franco Mulakkal, who was escorted by personnel of the Punjab Police, was seen smiling as his followers threw rose petals, reported news agency PTI. Mulakkal, till a few weeks ago, was the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese. He divested of his pastoral responsibilities as the bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Missionaries of Jesus by the Vatican.

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The prayers of the people of Punjab supported me. I believe that they will pray for me even in the days to come. I thank everyone. An investigation is underway and I am co-operating. Im a law-abiding citizen and I trust the legal system of the country, he told reporters.

The Kerala High Court granted bail to the 54-year-old Catholic priest on Monday on conditions that he does not come to Kerala except for appearing before the probe officer once in two weeks on Saturdays, and should surrender his passport before the court. This condition would be applicable till a charge sheet is filed in the case. He was released from jail on Tuesday.

Also Read | Sabarimala Temple Row: Violent protests stall women's entry, section 144 imposed in Pamba, Nilakkal

In her complaint to the Kottayam Police in June, the nun had alleged that Bishop Mulakkal raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and later sexually exploited her on several occasions.

The nun said she had to approach the police as the church authorities did not act on her repeated complaints against the clergyman. However, the bishop has denied the charges as baseless and concocted, insisting she levelled those as the Catholic order had rejected her demand for favours.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Patiala House Court in Delhi Thursday began hearing on M J Akbar's criminal defamation charges against journalist Priya Ramani, who has accused him of sexual misconduct two decades ago. Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing former minister of state for external affairs, started referring to alleged controversial tweets of Ramani before additional chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal. Akbar resigned as Union minister on Wednesday.

Read More | Kerala Nun Case: Rape-accused bishop showered with rose petals, garlands in Jalandhar

Ramani recently accused the editor-turned-politician of sexual misconduct as the #MeToo campaign took India by storm. After Ramani named him, more women posted stories against Akbar. Around 19 women journalists had come out in her support on Tuesday evening, saying she was not alone and that they would testify in court against Akbar.

"Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levelled against me..." Akbar said in a statement on resigning as Union minister on Wednesday.

Also Read | Two Indian-Americans gain momentum ahead of mid-term Congressional polls

Reacting to Akbars resignation, Ramani said, As women, we feel vindicated by MJ Akbars resignation. I look forward to the day when I also get justice in court.

HIGHLIGHTS of the defamation case hearing

14:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Delhi court takes cognisance of Akbar's defamation case and fixes it for recording his statement on October 31

14:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Luthra refers to Akbar's reputation as a journalist and asks court to take cognisance of his complaint

14:35 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Ramani's allegations caused irreparable loss to Akbar's reputation built over 40 years, says Geeta Luthra

14:34 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Akbar has resigned due to these allegations and they show the damage caused to his reputation, says his lawyer

14:21 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Senior advocate Geeta Luthra, representing Akbar, refers to tweets of Priya Ramani before Delhi court

14:22 (IST) Facebook Twitter Whats app Linked In Hearing on criminal defamation case of M J Akbar against journalist Priya Ramani underway

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

ND Tiwari or Narayan Dutt Tiwari, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, died on Thursday (October 18) - his 93rd birthday, leaving behind a long and successful political career which began before Indias Independence. Apart from holding key portfolios at the Centre and becoming the CM of Uttar Pradesh three times, he was also the only Uttarakhand CM to complete a full term.

Heres a glimpse of his political life - Success and scandals that marked his long run in politics

Tiwari won his first election on a Praja Samajwadi Party ticket from Nainital in 1952. A decade later, he joined the Congress and stuck with it for most of his life. In the 1990s he floated his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) with Arjun Singh for a brief period. In 2017, Tiwari announced his support for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the assembly elections in Uttarakhand. As a teenager, he was jailed for 15 months in Nainital prison, according to one account for writing anti-British pamphlets, where his freedom fighter father too was lodged. On his release, he joined the Allahabad University In 1947, Tiwari became the president of the Allahabad University student union in 1947. In 1976, he became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the first time. He will be remembered for being last Congress chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. At the Centre, Tiwari served as deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission. Over the years, he also held portfolios of planning, finance, petroleum and external affairs in the Union Cabinet. He lost his Nainital seat by just 800 votes in 1991. He was the third chief minister of the newly formed Uttarakhand state but the first one to complete a full term, from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, he accepted the governorship of Andhra Pradesh. Two years later, a video clip showing three women in bed with an elderly man in Raj Bhavan brought the veteran politician's career virtually to an end. Citing health grounds, he put in his papers and shifted to Dehradun. In 2008, Rohit Shekhar filed a paternity suit claiming that Tiwari was his biological father. The result in 2012 of a court-ordered DNA test proved the claim right. In 2014, Tiwari married Shekhar's mother Ujjwala Sharma in Lucknow, finding a new family in the mother and son at the age of 88.

Also Read | Sabarimala tantri to young women: Dont come to Sannidhanam and create problem

The veteran political leader breathed his last at the Max Super Speciality Hospital at 2 pm on Thursday after prolonged illness and treatment at the hospital, doctors said. He was 93.

Read More | Bigg Boss12: Surbhi Rana calls Sreesanth mentally unstable

(With PTI inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday demanded a law to clear way for Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, saying it will lead to an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness.

The government should clear the path for construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya through an appropriate and requisite law, Bhagwat said while addressing his annual Vijayadashmi address in Nagpur, the last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Read More | Sabarimala Temple: Hindu outfits call for hartal, security on high alert in Kerala

The Ram temple construction was necessary from the self-esteem point of view and it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness, the RSS chief said.

The place of Ram Janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated although evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place.The temple would have been constructed long ago if there wasn't political interference. We want govt to clear the path for construction through law: RSS Chief pic.twitter.com/hr9wqdpRCY  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

The construction of the temple is necessary from the self-esteem point of view, it will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country, he said in his address.

The sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma, he said.

The place of janmabhoomi is yet to be allocated for the construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at that place, Bhagwat was quoted as saying by PTI.

Also Read | Two Indian-Americans gain momentum ahead of mid-term Congressional polls

A few elements are presenting various interventions in the judicial process to stall the court judgment, he said.

This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Politics is delaying the construction of Ram Mandir, he said.

Bhagwat then urged the government to expedite its decision on the ownership of the land and clear the path for the building of the Ram temple through an appropriate and requisite law.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Six more people were confirmed positive for Zika virus in Rajasthan on Thursday, taking the total number of people infected to 106 in the state, a Union Health Ministry official said.

The current total number of affected people with the virus is said to be the largest Zika outbreak in the country.

According to official report, the six new Zika cases confirmed were from Jaipur and two neighbouring districts and of the total affected people, 25 are pregnant women.

Also Read | Afghanistan: US commander survives deadly attack; top general, journalist killed in Kandahar

More than 1 lakh households have been surveyed in the densely populated Shastri Nagar and neighbouring areas and 324 teams have been engaged to destroy mosquito larvae found during the survey, state health department official said.

#Rajasthan: 324 health teams deployed in Zika virus affected wards of Jaipur's Shastri Nagar. 11135 houses surveyed out of which 1509 found positive for mosquito breeding. During house to house survey, 353 fever patients were identified. #ZikaVirus  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

According to reports, the Zika virus is most prevalent in the Shastri Nagar area, where authorities have carried out fogging and other anti-larvae activities, while the pathogen has already been found in some mosquitoes taken as samples from Sindhi Camp area in Jaipur.

#Rajasthan: 67 blood&urine samples have been collected (55 pregnant females of 1st trimester&12 fever patients&2 contacts). IRS done in 58 houses of #ZikaVirus positive patients. Mosquito fogging done in affected areas in Jaipur's Shastri Nagar.  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Meanwhile, in view of the rising case, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) team on Wednesday rushed to the state to accelerate measures to stop its spread.

A team of experts from ICMR has reached Jaipur to change the insecticides which are being used in the city and neighbouring districts to kill mosquitoes that spread Zika, dengue, and chikungunya viruses as a part of the integrated mosquito management programme, the official said.

Read More | Sabarimala tantri to young women: Dont come to Sannidhanam and create problem

The Union Health Ministry on October 16 directed all the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to monitor the situation on daily basis and urged people not to panic.

Sources at the state health department said almost all Zika virus infected patients are healthy after receiving treatment, while three-fourth patients do not have symptoms of disease and have recovered.

The state health department has also issued an advisory for pregnant women not to visit the affected areas as expecting mothers are more susceptible to this mosquito-borne virus.

It was on September 22, the first case had surfaced when an 85-year-old woman with no travel history tested positive for the disease in the state.

What is Zika virus?

# The virus is transmitted through the aedes aegypti mosquito. It 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 in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district in July that year.

# Both these outbreaks were successfully contained through intensive surveillance and vector management, the ministry had said earlier.The disease continues to be under surveillance of the Union Health Ministry although it is no longer a Public Health Emergency of International Concern under WHO notification since November 18, 2016.

(With agency inputs)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A night out and some booze with friends is the first thing on our long weekends to-do list. With a party on charts, the biggest challenge we face is cutting out of the budget when finances get tight. Even when you choose to stay home, you can still enjoy a great drink or two and there's no need to spend a fortune stocking your home bar, either. With just a few essentials and a little planning, you can enjoy a nice variety of easy cocktails. It may even surprise you that some of the cheapest drinks are among the most popular drinks at the bar. Think of that money you've been wasting!

Once you have those basic drink ingredients you can add a little here and there to create new cocktails and continue saving money:

Kiwi Martini

The kiwi martini is a very fun cocktail and it's one of the best drinks that makes good use of fresh fruits. Though there are a few recipes floating around, this is one of the easiest and it's an absolutely delightful green martini to drink.

Ingredients

 3 ounces vodka (or citrus vodka)

 1/2 kiwi (skinned)

 2 teaspoons simple syrup

 Garnish: kiwi slice

Steps to Make It

1. Gather the ingredients.

2. In a cocktail shaker, muddle the skinned kiwi with simple syrup to release the fruit's juice.

3. Add ice and vodka.

4. Shake well.

5. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

6. Garnish with a slice of kiwi.

7. Serve and enjoy!



Hawaiian Margarita Cocktail Recipe

Travel to the islands (well, at least in your mind) with this frozen Hawaiian Margarita. It's a terrific blended cocktail with a strong strawberry and pineapple flavour.

Ingredients

 1 cup of ice

 1 1/2 ounces tequila

 1/2 ounce triple sec

 2 ounces strawberries (fresh or frozen)

 2 ounces pineapple (fresh or canned)

 2 dash of sour mix

 Garnish: 1 slice of strawberry

 Garnish: 1 piece of pineapple

Steps to Make It

1. Pour the ingredients into a blender.

2. Blend until smooth.

3. Pour contents into a chilled margarita glass.

4. Garnish with the strawberries and pineapple.

Frog in a Blender

The "frog" is lime wheels that are only lightly blended with the other ingredients, creating the idea of an old witches brew with pieces and parts floating in it. Add a few berries, grapes, or apple slices for the look of even more unknown creature bodies inside your brew. The trick is to avoid blending until smooth as you normally would, only enough to chop things up and mix them together a bit.

Ingredients

 1 cup of ice

 2 ounces vodka

 4 ounces cranberry juice

 2 lime wheels

Steps to Make It

1. Gather the ingredients.

2. Place the ice, vodka, cranberry juice, and lime wheels inside a blender.

3. Blend for 3 to 5 seconds.

4. Pour into a chilled hurricane or margarita glass.

5. Serve and enjoy!



Its time to give up on cheap wine or a few bargain beers. With these delicious cheap cocktails, you too can become a competent at-home mixologist.

For all the Latest Lifestyle News, Food News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A large structure in the early universe, formed just two billion years after the Big Bang, was discovered by Italian and American astronomers, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, has been the largest and most massive structure yet found at such a remote time and distance.

Read More | Sabarimala Temple Row: Woman journalist begins climbing hill amid protests

Hyperion is the largest and most massive structure to be found so early in the formation of the Universe, or 11.5 billion years ago, with a calculated mass more than one million billion times that of the Sun, according to the study as reported by news agency Xinhua.

"Superclusters closer to Earth tend to a much more concentrated distribution of mass with clear structural features," said Brian Lemaux, project scientist at University of California, Davis, as quoted by the news agency.

Also Read | #MeToo: Patiala House Courts to hear MJ Akbar's defamation case against Priya Ramani today

"But in Hyperion, the mass is distributed much more uniformly in a series of connected blobs, populated by loose associations of galaxies," said Lemaux.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Afghan police chief and a journalist were among three killed on Thursday when a gunman opened fire on a high-level security meeting attended by top US commander General Scott Miller, officials said. Among those reported killed in the attack inside the governors compound in southern Kandahar province was the top police general, Abdul Raziq.



"General Raziq, one of Afghanistan's most powerful security officials and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition," a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.



ALSO READ | Pakistan's revolutionary poet's daughter runs taxi to earn livelihood



Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governor's security personnel, the official said.

The Taliban said Miller and General Abdul Raziq -- the police chief of Kandahar province who had a fierce reputation for brutality -- were the targets of the shooting.



An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.



An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting. Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.



Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.



Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.



ALSO READ | Trump's proposed changes to H-1B visa rules to hurt US-Indian IT firms



At least 10 candidates have been killed so far, including Abdul Jabar Qahraman who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.



The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes.



(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Two more GOP candidates attacked by Leftists in Minnesota: Violence is now officially a Democrat political tactic

No doubt Englands King George, circa 1776, believed that rebellious British subjects in the New World were treasonous for taking up arms against the Crown. The way it turned out, though, was historic: A country was born on the universal principles of self-rule, freedom, and liberty, never before seen in modern human history.

Today, however, another rebellion is brewing in America. But this one is not being led by people who want to set others free. It was sparked by a political party that has decided the only way it can empower itself once more is through the pursuit of lawlessness, anarchy, and  eventually  authoritarianism.

After months of elected Democrats calling on their supporters to confront Republicans and get in their faces, it has become nearly commonplace to see or read about GOP candidates, elected officeholders and members of the current administration to be threatened, physically accosted, or harmed.

It happened again this week, this time in Minnesota, as the Washington Free Beacon reports, as a pair of Republican candidates were physically assaulted  punched  by extreme Leftist supporters of the Democratic Party.

The news site reported that Minnesota state Rep. Sarah Anderson was literally struck in her arm after she saw a man destroying Republican yard signs. It was just insane, she told the WFB, saying the attack only ended after she beat a hasty retreat to her nearby vehicle and got out of there.

He was charging at me, saying, Why dont you go kill yourself? To have someone physically coming after you and attacking you is just disheartening, she added.

And over nothing more than political differences.

When are Dems going to be held responsible?

She wasnt alone. Shane Mekeland, a first-time candidate for state representative, suffered a concussion after he was sucker-punched in the head by a coward as he spoke with constituents at a restaurant in Benton County. He told the WFB that hes since suffered memory loss, even forgetting Andersons name during his interview with the news site at one point. Doctors said hell have a four-to-six-week recovery effort ahead of him. After he was struck at the restaurant, he said his head struck the floor.

I was so overtaken by surprise and shock and if this is the new norm, this is not what I signed up for, he added.

These attacks come after the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party suspended (for one week) communications staffer William Davis for suggesting Republicans be brought to the guillotine the day after the November elections.

That was far too light of a punishment, according to Jennifer Carnahan, chairwoman of the Minnesota Republican Party. She said Davis should be fired outright.

The overt hatred and violence that has become prevalent from many Democrats towards Republicans in recent times is unlawful, unacceptable, and downright scary, she told the WFB in an email. Yes, we have free speech and the right to peacefully assemble, but these words and actions by the left have gone too far.  He should have been terminated immediately.

For his part, Mekeland said he was disappointed that the attacks have not been publicly condemned by Democrats.

Thats because Democrats are too busy actually calling for these attacks. Rep. Maxine Waters of California has openly called on supporters to confront Republicans wherever they are found and tell them theyre not wanted here. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has said Democratic supporters should get in the faces of GOP lawmakers.

Which begs a question: When will the appropriate congressional entities begin holding Booker, Waters, and every other Democratic lawmaker responsible for dog whistling violence to supporters? Do we have to wait for a Republican to be killed?

Read more about the Lefts rising tide of violence at Violence.news.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

FreeBeacon.comCreig. Creeg. Greg. Gary.

These are just some of the names I have gotten on my Starbucks cups over my years of paying more money than I probably should for caffeine.

Starbucks shops are by and large loud and busy places, with machines going off non-stop, doors opening and closing, team members hard at work like submarine crews in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.

HOT BEAN WATER: Here's where to celebrate International Coffee Day in Houston

It's a fun game for Starbucks devotees to show off the misspelled names on their life-giving soy latte or pumpkin spice whatever. According to current and former employees, they're in on the joke.

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Former employee Lex Entwistle spent three years in management at Starbucks working at shops on Houston's southwest side. He said that the name all depends on the barista and their connection to the customer.

"If I know the person, I might spell their name horribly wrong on purpose to mess with them or even give them a nickname, Entwistle told Chron.com. "We once had a customer we called "douchebag" and he loved it."

BIG SPENDERS: How to spend $1 million in Houston in one day on just experiences

And yes, things are rushed and loud and the hectic nature of a coffeehouse during its busiest hours means that your name sometimes comes second to getting a cup of coffee in your hand fast.

"I think other times the barista might just be in a rush and do their best to keep the flow going in a rush," Entwistle said. "And of course there is always just mishearing the person or not having a clue how to spell a certain name."

With a wink Entwistle said that baristas like throwing us for a loop too.

"There is definitely a small joy in messing up a basic name sometimes. Joe might become Jo or Bob might become Bobb or Bobbert," he said.

LOCAL LEGENDS: Houston's most famous signs, marquees and billboards

Sometimes lagging or defective touchscreens leave random letters in names and that leads to some entertaining mistakes. Imagine trying to take someone's name down correctly next to a busy Houston street or highway.

A Starbucks media representative told Chron.com this week that the tradition of writing names on cups began at the company's founding as a way of fostering a community within each store.

"Writing names on cups is a fun tradition born out of the relationship and interaction between our partners and customers," the representative said via email. "Our partners aim to do their best when it comes to spelling the names of our customers, though at times it can be tricky. "

Over time and with familiarity the names begin to suss themselves out. There have some reports of customers being offended by the names on their cups too, which usually leads to someone facing disciplinary action. Don't be that guy, or girl.

"Our partners pride themselves on the genuine connection they have with the customers who visit their stores. It's part of what the green apron represents," the rep added.

CULT HITS: Where we like to eat, drink and be seen in the Bayou City

Customers, meanwhile, like to have fun too.

"I always give the most ridiculous fake names I can think of at Starbucks," Starbucks customer Marsha Roberts said this week. "Spanky McBanks, Corn, Alyoisius Gerbil. I also use Liza Lott, Hester Pringles, Dorcus, Candida. really just anything that pops in my head at the moment and I want to watch them have to shout out to a crowd."

There could also some interoffice play at hand too, according to Entwistle.

"The barista taking the order just wants the person handing out drinks to look like an idiot when they call out the name," Entwistle said. "I'd definitely do that to some of my baristas."

Which likely leads to your reporter here walking out with a fresh, grande cold brew meant for Creeg.

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.com | Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text messageDANBURY  A surprisingly friendly rematch is in store for Danbury voters in Connecticuts 109th District election this November.

Democrat David Arconti, Jr. is seeking his fourth term in the State House and will again face Republican Veasna Roeun, a Cambodian-American National Guard veteran and city health inspector.

Roeun unsuccessfully challenged Arconti in 2016 but will try to pull off the upset again with an emphasis on cutting government spending, promoting a local charter school proposal and reducing business regulations to try to spur economic development.

But the opponents actually agree on a broad range of issues, from revising the school funding formula to cracking down on gun violence and stridently opposing tolls.

The two even shared a pair of fist bumps and laughs when they agreed on issues during a debate last week  a stark contrast to the tenor of politics across the country this fall.

I think myself and Dave represent what needs to happen at the national level, which is really remaining on topic and discussing debates and policies rather than rhetoric, Roeun said. We stuck with that in our 2016 campaign. Even though he was the victor, I still loved the fact that we ran a respectful campaign and keep this about politics, policies and ideas rather than personality and character.

Budget fix

Both are young, Danbury High School graduates who grew up in the city. Arconti, 32, ran unsuccessfully for City Council at 25 and was first elected to the 109th District the following year.

Roeun, 39, moved to Danbury as a toddler when his family escaped from the Killing Fields of Cambodia in the 1980s. He served 10 years in the U.S. National Guard, including two deployments overseas, and is now an inspector for Danburys Health and Human Services department.

Looming largest for both candidates is the states ongoing budget troubles and the steps needed to fix them.

Arconti pointed to the current two-year state budget and stop-gap measures, such as certain caps on spending, that will give lawmakers more time to balance the next budget.

Its going to be a really good opportunity to look at how we reform the state governments relationship with municipal governments, he said. We have 169 towns and cities in the state of Connecticut  little fiefdoms is what a lot of people call them  and it represents 25 percent, about a quarter of the budget.

The state could migrate toward a county-style system, using the Council of Governments that already exist to regionalize some services, like health services and public works, he suggested.

We are shrinking, its a matter of now reinvesting in our cities, getting the economy moving faster and touching some of the third rails of Connecticut politics that didnt want to be touched in the past, like relationships with towns and cities, he said.

But Roeun argued the legislature has not acted fast enough. He said lawmakers should root out waste, which he says he saw when he worked for the state state Department of Labor before leaving the job to run against Arconti in 2016.

He said combining budget cuts with fewer business regulations would pump more money into the states economy and budget.

What I want to do is really reduce regulations, he said. Were going to make the state more business friendly. I think thats a great way to keep our revenue ... I believe our problem originates from spending.

Education pie

Where Arconti and Roeun differ most is the proposal for the Danbury Prospect Charter School, which would be the citys first public charter.

It recently earned the approval of the state Board of Education, but it still faces an uphill battle to receive funding from the state legislature.

Arconti has said he will oppose funding for the new school to instead focus on revisions to the public school district funding, or ECS.

The pie is the pie, if youre spending money through the general fund to open up a new school here in Danbury for the charter group, thats less that can be put toward ECS.

But Roeun would support the proposal and insisted lawmakers could get creative to find the money.

I know its going to be tough looking for those funds, but weve got to look at what we have right now and cut where we can, he said. Any money going toward education should be a priority of ours, we need to make sure we would invest in our children.

Cars and guns

The state should not cut back on its transportation project spending, though, nor should it consider tolls to bolster its special transportation fund, both Arconti and Roeun agreed.

But Arconti suggested the state might consider a new tax on electric cars equivalent to the gas tax to support more projects.

Battery powered cars are a disruptor thats going to be the norm in the next 20 years, he said. Theres probably very few gas powered cars, I would guess, in 20 years.

Both also agreed the state should continue to tighten access to firearms. Arconti will continue to support a ban on so-called ghost guns, which are assembled from parts that make it untraceable.

Roeun did not explicitly support that proposal  but lauded the states gun restrictions.

zach.murdock@hearstmediact.comNEWTOWN - Educators did everything they could to meet the needs of the troubled youth who went on to massacre 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook School in 2012, a new report argues.

The report, written by two former Newtown school district administrators, seeks to correct the record that educators missed red flag signs about Adam Lanza, the isolated former Newtown High School student who committed the worst crime in Connecticut history.

The document, written by Michael Regan, Newtowns former pupil personnel services director, and Janet Calabro, Newtowns former supervisor of special education, was delivered Thursday to state senators Kevin Witkos and Henri Martin, said Martins spokeswoman.

The senators met with the individuals today to receive the report and review it, and the report is being sent to the Office of the Child Advocate with a letter asking the office to review the report, Sarah Kaufman said.

Regan and Calabro asked that their defense of the school district be added to the Office of the Child Advocates 2014 report about Lanzas case.

The Office of the Child Advocates 2014 report detailed opportunities Newtown schools and Lanzas parents missed to treat his mental health disorders, but stated that no one but Adam Lanza himself was to blame for his fascination with mass murder and for the heinous crime he committed.

The Child Advocates report raised questions about his mother Nancy Lanzas commitment to her sons well-being, noting his emaciated state in the last days of his life was so acute it likely affected his brain function.

The study's authors, led by Child Advocate Sarah Healy Eagan, said Lanza's profound troubles with autism, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder could have been treated by his parents and by school officials.

Lanza killed his mother the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, and drove to Sandy Hook School with an AR-15-style rifle that he had taken from an unlocked closet. He fired 154 bullets in 264 seconds, killing 26, before turning a handgun on himself.

Regan and Calabros 22-page report accuses the Child Advocates office of unfair bias against the Newtown school district.

We are concerned that the reports authors make criticisms about (Lanzas) educational programming even though the shootings occurred three and a half years after he successfully earned his high school diploma and had exited (Newtown public schools), the report reads. That time span was marked by occurrences beyond the control of any public school system.

An official at the Child Advocates office said it was unusual to receive a report such as Regans and Calabros four years after an investigations finding were published, but that it would be considered.

Our process is leave no stone unturned, said Mickey Kramer, associate child advocate. In this case, with a multitude of experts that were contacted outside of the Office of the Child Advocate, the reality of it is whatever evidence existed at the time, we asked for it.

A spokesperson for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy agreed that Regans and Calabros report should be reviewed.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school was an unimaginable tragedy that left officials, educators, parents and neighbors wondering what could be done to prevent such a horror from occurring, said Kelly Donnelly.

In the aftermath, we came together as a state to heal, improve safety, and begin to strengthen mental health supports for those who need it, Donnelly said. And it is in this spirit of working together and listening to various perspectives that we must continue to move forward, because there is certainly more work to be done.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342NEW FAIRFIELD  The Board of Finance will give all of the school boards expense surplus from last year back to the district, but will wait to decide on whether it will do the same for the town.

Members voted Wednesday to give 100 percent of about $83,000 budgeted but not spent by the Board of Education back to the schools, which the board has said it would spend on upgrades at the schools for security and compliance with the American with Disabilities Act.

Chair Wes Marsh said most members felt returning the money was the right thing to do given that the schools are planning for security upgrades originally not put into their budget for this year. A School Safety and Security Committee started after concerns following the Parkland, Fla., shooting oversaw an audit of security policies that made several recommendations to the district.

Those are things that were not in their original budget and that the public wanted for a focus area, so we decided lets give them the full 100 percent, Marsh said.

The town ended the year with a $2.7 million surplus, including the school funds, largely because it had prepared for cuts in state aid that, for the most part, never came. Per the finance boards policy, all surplus that was due to more revenue than expected, about $2.4 million, will automatically be returned to the towns general fund.

But the finance board can decide to put up to half of the town and schools expense surpluses into the general fund, or give all the funds back to the corresponding boards.

Like the Board of Education, the selectmen also asked for 100 percent of the extra expense money, but the finance members said they will wait to officially vote on those funds.

The Board of Selectmen have said they will spend most of the $280,000 to replace one of the arms on the town docks, which have fallen into disprepair. But First Selectman Pat Del Monaco said she is still waiting to hear from companies exactly how much it would cost.

Marsh said the board needs this information before it can make a decision, mostly because any money returned to the town, unlike with the schools, will require a town meeting where the purpose and amounts are specifically outlined.

They will also look into whether the Parks and Recreation Department, which collects fees for the docks, could chip in.

It wont cover the total amount, but we want to hear what they can do to help, Marsh said. We will wait and see.

aquinn@newstimes.comRICHMOND, Va. - Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., compared the struggles of jailed drug addicts to the heat he's taking in his tight race with Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

"You think you're having a hard time - I got $5 million worth of negative ads going at me," Brat told inmates at the Chesterfield County Jail on Wednesday. "How do you think I'm feeling? Nothing's easy. For anybody. You think I'm a congressman. 'Oh, life's easy. This guys's off having steaks. Bull. . . . I got a daughter, she's got to deal with that crap on TV every day. It's tough.'"

Moments later, he quickly acknowledged to the inmates "you got it harder - I'm not dismissing that."

But his chat drew sharp criticism from Spanberger.

"These comments are disturbing and damaging in the way that they belittle and trivialize addiction and the challenges facing those in recovery," Spanberger said. "However, time and time again, Congressman Brat has demonstrated he is a politician who is more concerned with his own re-election than the struggles and well-being of people in our communities, and sadly, his comments aren't surprising."

"The truth is that Congressman Brat has also taken massive campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies, voted to give them a billion-dollar tax break, and voted to limit access to addiction services," Spanberger said.

Brat campaign spokeswoman Katey Price did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brat, who on Thursday received President Donald Trump's endorsement, is in a tough race against Spanberger in Virginia's 7th Congressional District, a longtime GOP stronghold that appears to be in play in the Trump era.

He met with about 100 inmates at the jail Wednesday to hear their challenges of recovery and life after incarceration. The meeting was organized through his congressional office and was not an official campaign event, but it dovetailed with Brat's efforts to portray himself in the campaign as a practical and compassionate problem-solver.

"As a Christian, we love the least of these - we visit those in prison," Brat said in a news release that also touted his bill to shift more money for recovery programs from Washington to state and local authorities. "As a member of Congress, one of the most moving experiences I have in this job is talking with recovering men and women fighting to rebuilding their lives."

Brat seemed to be trying to make himself relatable to the inmates by sharing some of his own struggles. One instance came after a woman said she wanted to get a college degree but was not eligible for certain grants because of her felony conviction.

Brat, a former Randolph-Macon College economics professor, advised her to get an entry-level job at a college where she might qualify for free tuition as an employee. He went on to say his two children could have attended Randolph-Macon for free when he was a professor, so he was in a financial pinch when he quit to go to Congress.

"I didn't have any savings," he said. "All went away - oops! So, plans change."

Another woman complained that the recovery houses where inmates live as they transition out of jail are often in drug-ridden neighborhoods, exposing them to temptation.

"They won't allow us to be in nicer areas," she said. "They want recovery homes to be right there on the corner where the drugs are dealt - that not in my backyard thing."

Brat's reply suggested that upscale neighborhoods are not all they're cracked up to be.

"You won't believe the depression in those hoity-toity neighborhoods," he said.

While his comments drew criticism outside the jail, the inmates seemed to appreciate his visit. Many lined up to shake his hand afterward.

Inmate Demond Williams, 34, called him a "good man," saying he appreciates "anybody that takes that time to find out what's going on with addicts.

Trump endorsed Brat on Thursday in a tweet that could cut both ways in a Richmond-area district where the president has ardent fans and foes.

"Congressman @DaveBratVA7th is one of the hardest working, and smartest, people in Washington," Trump tweeted. "He is strong on the Border, Crime, the Military, our Vets and the 2nd Amendment. He is a powerful vote for MAGA and loves the Great State of Virginia. Dave has my Total Endorsement!"

Trump's phrasing may sound familiar; he has used some of the same language when endorsing other Republicans this cycle.

Brat won the seat four years ago after pulling off a shocking primary upset over Eric Cantor, then the House majority leader. He cruised to a 15-point re-election win two years after that.

This year, Brat faces a strong challenger in Spanberger, a former federal law enforcement agent and CIA operative whose resume may appeal to swing voters and moderate Republicans.

Brat released a statement thanking Trump. "Under this administration and Republican-led Congress, Virginians are seeing more jobs, higher take-home pay, and more opportunities for our kids graduating from school. The Republican-passed tax cuts combined with regulatory relief from the administration equals a strong economy for Virginia. With all this economic growth, we can't afford to go back to the failed policies of Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama."

During his first - and likely only - debate with Spanberger on Monday, Brat mentioned Nancy Pelosi about 25 times, or once every 3.6 minutes. Spanberger has said she would not support Pelosi for speaker if Democrats win control of the House.

The sprawling district is a mix of Richmond suburbs and rural areas stretching from Culpeper to Nottoway County. Trump is popular in the 7th's rural areas, but he has greatly energized Democrats in the suburbs, where Democrats helped deliver the governor's mansion to Democrat Ralph Northam last year and nearly erased the GOP's 2-to-1 advantage in the House of Delegates. Independent political analysts rate the race a toss-up.

Spanberger, who does not accept corporate PAC donations, is ahead in fundraising. She raised nearly $3.6 million over the past three months - a record quarter in the Virginia 7th and more than the $2.8 million Brat raised for his last two campaigns combined. Brat raised $1 million for the quarter.



For most Malaysians, we have the luxury to travel visa-free to many countries, and this is thanks to the Commonwealth agreement among each of the countries.





Over the years, we have travelled without issues to many countries without the hassle of applying for any type of visa.





But since the last ten years or so, more Malaysians are getting adventurous and starting to travel to new destinations, and a little further than the regular destinations around Southeast Asia.





Malaysians love to visit China

Why Malaysians Love Traveling





The mushrooming of budget airlines in Malaysia and around the region has been the biggest contributor to the rise of travel among Malaysians.





In fact, it has become a normal weekly or monthly affair for friends or families to be travelling somewhere out of Malaysia.





Another reason for this is also thanks to the many long weekends from the public holidays that Malaysia observes. Yes, Malaysia is one of the rare countries that sees over 17 public holidays





If you ask any Malaysia if they have been to Bali or Bangkok, chances are that they have been not once, but several times!





Well, this goes to show how much Malaysians travel nowadays, and why some travellers opt for further and no to commercialized destinations.





Applying for a China Visa in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia





How To Apply For Travel Visas for Malaysians?





There are a few ways you can do this, and of course, the most common one is by visiting the embassy of the country you want to visit.





But many people who are first-time travellers would not know the proper procedures in getting a visa, hence you should always do your homework on the country you are visiting.





Back many years ago, Japan used to require a travel visa to visit, but in recent years, the Japanese government decided to waive the visa requirement for Malaysians, making travel there easy.





China, however, still requires a travel visa, and no matter which part of mainland China you visit, you still need to get one done beforehand.





Through my research, I actually did find information for China visa application , which was very helpful.





General China visa application





Types Of Travel Visas





There are three main types of travel visas that Malaysian would be applying for, and this depends on which country you are planning to visit. Hence it is important to know which kind of visa you need.





Single Entry Visa - This visa is used when you visit a country only once. For example, if you are visiting Beijing in China for a holiday, you simply need to apply for this one-time single entry visa.





Multiple Entry Visa - Similar to the single entry, this visa allows you to travel to the country as many times as you like throughout the duration of the visa. An example would be if you are in love with Tokyo and plan to visit there again and again, the multiple entry visa is recommended.





Transit Visa - This is a common visa for anyone who is travelling to Europe and transits in Dubai or Qatar and wants to explore the transit country. For example, if you are travelling to London or Europe on any Middle Eastern airlines, you will most definitely be transiting at one of the countries of the United Arab Emirates. And you will want to spend at least a day or two there, where a transit visa is required.





Visa On Arrival - This is when you arrive at the airport and get a visa on your arrival. Some countries practise this, and you simply fill up a visa form. Certain countries have waived the visa fees, but some still require you to pay for the visa on arrival.





Business Travel Visa - This is only if you are travelling for business and you can apply for a business visa to the selected countries. In this case, a family travelling may have a father or mother going there for business and leisure, and bringing along the family. The working adult applies for the business visa while the family members apply for the travel visa.





The last thing you want to see on your passport is this chop. Photo Wikipedia





Cause of Concerns





While many think it is easy to get a visa and just travel to the desired country, there are very rare cases where visitors have been turned away at the arrival from immigration officers.





Yes, we think it may never happen to any of us, but there have been cases where tourist have been denied entry to a country even he or she has all the proper documents and visas.





This is completely out of your hands as the immigration officers at the arrival country have the right to do this. There could be many reasons for this, and you should be prepared for any sudden emergencies like this.





The China visa application form





First of all, it is always recommended to dress smart casual when entering a country, as you do not want to look dodgy or shady. These are warning signs for immigration officers on duty.





Second, at times, immigration officers will question you on arrival, asking you all sorts of questions, and if you do not answer them correctly, this is where many visitors get sent back.





Questions are usually about where you are staying, why are you visiting the country, and how much money are you carrying.





To pass the checks, you need to look presentable, have your visa paperwork in order and never look nervous.





The China Visa once applied to your passport





Conclusion





Again, this article was written purely for Malaysians as we do love to travel nowadays, and at times, we often overlook many things.





It is highly important to know if the country you are visiting requires a travel visa, hence you need to get this done at least a month before your travel.





China is a popular destination for many Malaysians, and a travel visa is still required for you to visit any part of China. There are services where you can do this online, or visit the Australian Embassy to get this done.





While flights are abundance, and with many airlines to choose from, most Malaysians are penny-wise and always go for the cheapest and best deal. With so many choices, I often look at many websites and eventually found one to book cheap flights for my travels.





The long lines at one of the China immigration





Remember, if you are a first time visitor to China, you need to follow the instructions of completing the online visa application before you head to the China Embassy to get your visa.





At the end of the day, I would stress to always find out beforehand about the general information of the country you are visiting.





The main thing to check if the country requires you to have a visa before visiting, and how long the visa application will take.





As many would say, it is better to be prepared rather than get caught off guard, especially if you love to do a thing last minute or on the eleventh hour.



This in response to the editorial regarding climate change published in The News-Times Oct. 12.

Based on the Institute for Energy Research (IER) report we, the United States, reduced our carbon dioxide emissions more than any other country in the world in 2017. In fact, it was the ninth time in this century that we had the largest reductions in carbon dioxide emissions in the world.

Globally, carbon dioxide emissions increased 1.6 percent. The rate of growth of global carbon dioxide emissions last year was faster than the 1.3 percent average growth rate of the previous 10-year period.

The worlds largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions is China, whose emissions increased by 1.6 percent in 2017 almost three times as much as our emissions were reduced. China produces 28 percent of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions. India is the worlds third largest emitter of carbon dioxide emissions in 2017, more than twice as much an increase as our reduction. Together, China and India accounted for almost half of the increase in total global carbon dioxide emissions in 2017. The worlds increase in carbon dioxide was more than 10 times the reduction of ours!

China and India remain large generators of coal-fired electricity, producing 67 percent and 76 percent of their electricity from coal respectively.

Global carbon dioxide emissions increased in 2017, despite the Paris Accord  a pact made by almost 200 countries to voluntarily reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. We were one of the few countries that decreased our carbon dioxide emissions in 2017. In fact, we had the largest reduction in carbon dioxide emissions! China and India both increased their carbon dioxide emissions, together contributing about half of the increase in the worlds carbon dioxide emissions.

Therefore, in my opinion, your editorial has been directed at the wrong countries. Why should we remain a member of the Paris agreement when we seem to be the only country doing what all the countries agreed to do? Your editorial should have been directed at China and India, not at us. Obviously we have been and are doing our part which you neglected to mention.

Ray Kovalec

New FairfieldFor college students, the thought of living off-campus can be exciting and terrifying. You want to find a place that's close to campus, well within your budget, andabove allsafe. While it would be nice to be around the corner from your favorite coffee shop, after an all-nighter at the library or a night out, it's important to be able to get home without fear and sleep without feeling you have to keep one eye open.

Locating an apartment or house can be especially daunting if you're unfamiliar with the area (we're talking about you, freshmen!), but it certainly isn't impossibleyou just need to know what to look for. That's why we tapped safety and security experts for their tips on finding a safe place to live and how to make sure your college home is as secure as possible.

Do your research

Before you start pulling up apartment listings, narrow your search area by finding the neighborhoods with low crime ratings. According to David Hall, emergency manager at Missouri State University, your first stop should be the local police department. They can give you up-to-date info on what areas to avoid, as well as locations of any registered sex offenders in the area.

Once you've done that, it's time to go for a drive. Maybe a few of them, at different times of the day or night.

"Take a ride through the neighborhoods and surrounding streets to get a gut feeling," says Steve Kardian, a law enforcement officer from Westchester County, New York. "If you feel the area may be unsafe, it likely is."

Find the right building

According to Sadie Cornelius with Safe Smart Living in Washington, DC, some building types are safer than others. She says you should look for apartment buildings with interior hallways and, if possible, a front desk.

"Ideally, a unit on the second floor or higher is better, as they are less prone to break-ins," she says. "But also near a stairwell, for an easy escape in case of fire."

You'll also want to consider the routes to school from each potential location, says Hall.

"Will you have to cross any major highways, cut through yards, or pass through any areas that aren't well lit?" he asks.

Take a good look outside

It's probably the interior of the apartment you're more interested in, but Hall says to take a good look at the outside of the house or building as well.

Check out the landscaping first. Hall says there should be no shrubs higher than 2 feet against the building or in front of windows, and all trees should be trimmed to at least 5 feet high.

"This helps eliminate places people can hide," he explains.

He says you'll also want a well-lit path to the main entrance, and a well-lit parking area.

Make sure the grounds are well-maintained

A lot of off-campus housing tends to be older homes and buildingswhich is fine, as long as they've been taken care of over the years.

"You need to know if it's being well-maintained," says Hall. "You want to check things like the electric, plumbing, and HVAC systems, because those are all common sources of fires and other health concerns."

If you're not savvy in those areas, consider bringing along a friend or family member who is, or asking the landlord to provide any inspection reports from recent years.

Check the safety features

Make sure the building you're looking to rent in has solid doors and deadbolts. Hall says you should also check that all windows have working locks, especially if you're on the first floor.

The best case scenario, of course, an affordable spot with a security system. In that case, check what it includes.

"Look for someplace with cameras, gate access or a premises guard, interconnected smoke alarms, and sprinklers," Hall says.

Easy safety upgrades

Hall says there are some easy and inexpensive upgrades you can do to make your off-campus housing even safer.

If your landlord doesn't already do so, you should change the locks.

"You don't know who's had those keys. You should specify in the lease that you want new locks installed," says Hall.

He also advises that you make sure your entryway is well-lit by swapping the ordinary bulbs in any porch or outside light fixtures with LED bulbs in the highest wattage approved for that fixture.

Smoke detectors are generally required in all residences, although some states do not mandate itcheck your state and community's laws. Check your detectors and have your landlord replace any that are broken or missingor, if necessary, replace them yourself.

"You can get them cheaply, and they more than double your chances of surviving in a fire," Hall says.

Hall also strongly recommends installing a motion-detector light near the main entrance.

"Not only do they help you see intruders, but they will turn on for you and help you find your keys so you can get in the door quickly," he says.

Other inexpensive fixes Hall recommends are video doorbells and low-cost home security systems: "You can take these with you to anywhere you move, so they're a good investment."

The post How to Find a Safe Place to Live Off-Campus: Tips for College Students appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.WILTON  Six candidates faced off in a town hall-style forum at Middlebrook School on Tuesday night, but the back-and-forth exchanges between two candidates stood out.

Will Haskell, the Democratic candidate for the 26th District, faced state Sen. Toni Boucher, a Republican, for the second time this election season, and while the debate started with handshakes, smiles and occasionally assenting opinions, sparks were flying by the end.

Both candidates found common ground on issues like no excuse absentee voting and the states water conservation plan, but were in stark disagreement on others.

Haskell repeatedly called out Boucher for her record on gun laws while on the campaign trail. On Tuesday, Boucher, who was elected to the state Senate in 2009 after serving 12 years in the state House of Representatives, defended her voting record.

Some have implied that the gun laws may be too restrictive, but that is a clear distortion of the facts, Boucher said. The reality is that I was one of only three senators to write the toughest in the country gun law  (S.B.) 1160  and, as a result, I was challenged in the primary by another Republican looking to take me out.

That law, which was passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012, prohibited the sale of gun clips holding more than 10 rounds, expanded the list of state-banned assault weapons, and passed a background check requirement.

Boucher also touted a recent recognition of distinction from Moms Demand Action, as well as votes in favor of increasing the penalties for calling in gun threats to schools and the prohibition of bump stocks.

Still, Haskell did not back down from his past statements.

Senator, respectfully, when you say some have implied that you think that we went too far in regulating guns after Sandy Hook, that was you. It was a forum just like this and you were running for governor at the time. It was Republicans only in the audience, I believe, and your words were I think Connecticut went too far regulating guns after Sandy Hook. My belief  and the belief of most voters that Ive talked to over the last six months  is that we havent gone far enough, Haskell said.

Haskell went on to say that he would support legislation to ban ghost guns and the ability to buy multiple guns in a single transaction. Ghost guns have no serial numbers because they are made by individuals.

Boucher, who had used her two allotted rebuttals prior to this exchange, was unable to address the 21-year-old candidates remarks on her gun stance, but Tom ODea, fellow Republican and incumbent state representative for the 125th District, came to her defense. And thats when things took a turn for the personal.

There is not a person in this room who has done more for gun safety, children and education than Sen. Boucher, and Im sorry, Will, but if you keep attacking her like that, then I will call you out, because youre wrong, ODea said.

ODea continued his attack on Haskell, commenting that he only graduated college last May, but his remarks were cut short by fervent boos from the audience of more than 100 people, which in turn drew a warning from the forums moderator, Jean Rabinow.

Haskell and Boucher also found themselves on opposite sides of the debate on whether tolls should be implemented on Connecticut highways.

Boucher, an outspoken opponent of highway tolls, said any such plans would place an outsized burden on drivers commuting out of state for work.

Individuals like that are telling me that tolls would be just another tax taking money out of their disposable income, making them pay $50 a week and $200 a month. Connecticut cannot afford tolls right now, until it reduces some of the other costs, Boucher said.

In response, Haskell accused Boucher of misleading people with her toll cost estimates.

Respectfully, senator, youre entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. You mentioned how much it would cost to cross the border every day, but we dont even know where tolls would go yet, he said.

Haskell stated that Connecticut is the only state from Maine to North Carolina that doesnt ask out-of-state drivers or trucking companies to contribute to the upkeep of state highways. As a result, he said, the states infrastructure is falling behind that of its neighbors.

This doesnt make us uniquely advantaged as taxpayers, it makes uniquely disadvantaged because we bear the sole brunt of funding our roads. We sit here wondering why the trains are slower than they were in the 1950s, wondering why we have 302 structurally deficient bridges and yet were leaving money on the table  millions of dollars every year, he said.

ODea agreed with Boucher that a toll project would be too costly for the state right now, but he proffered a compromise between the two points of view. Instead, he said, the state should consider making a special, one-lane toll road going north and south as a part of a public-private partnership.

If they (a private company) build it, then they can control what it costs to drive on it, ODea said.

Ross Tartell, his Democratic opponent for the 125th District, sided with Haskell on the issue.

Tolls give us the money and the income stream to take care of our transportation  both in mass transit and the roads and bridges that we have to fix. It gives you an operational stream of income that is guaranteed, focused and comes from people outside of the state, Tartell said.

The idea of reducing state taxes sparked some debate between candidates for the 143rd District  Republican incumbent Gail Lavielle and her Democratic challenger, Stephanie Thomas.

You need to look at reducing taxes, while you look at reducing spending, while you are trying to engineer some economic growth. And you have to do it all at once, at the same time, but not in one fell swoop, Lavielle said.

To start, Lavielle said the state needs to start by reducing taxes that place the most pressure on retirees, such as the estate tax, gift tax, pension income tax and Social Security income tax.

Thomas said the problem with Connecticut isnt the taxes themselves, but how they are being managed.

When I talk to people, almost everyone says that they would not mind paying taxes if the money went to where it was supposed to go, so thats a management issue that has nothing to do with either Democrats or Republicans, Thomas said.Chengdu plans to launch in 2020 a mirror satellite to create dusk lighting at night. The satellite will appear to be 8 times a full moon. They believe this will remove the need for most street lighting which will save power and reduce air pollution. They dusk level of lighting may not disturb animals or plants.

I believe lighting up a megacity at night is only step one. China has the most solar farms in the world. Large 5-gigawatt solar farms have the area of a megacity. China is preparing to triple the capital value of its solar farms. A constellation of $37 billion of solar mirror satellites will boost several large solar farms and would twice the power and efficiency of the Three Gorges Dam.

This would clear a path to China having 70-80% baseload energy from solar. This would mean significant chunks of China perhaps a few hundred massive solar farms would have constant light. People could then wring their hands about the nocturnal animals. But full realization of this plan would enable China to phase out coal power with zero emission power.

So will environmentalists get behind this plan? Has the panic over the IPCC climate report been real or not? Do they really want to have massive reduction of fossil fuel or not? The affordable and scalable paths to massive fossil fuel reduction involve converting solar to constant power production with huge mirror satellite constellations and factory mass produced nuclear power.

Do people think this is not where China is going with this? Although lighting up a megacity at night is a big and bold move. It does not move the big energy or environment needle for China (or the world). I think it is pretty clear the end game is lighting up the big solar farms. China has the most and biggest solar farms and the most solar power in the world. China has to get rid of the coal.

Upward of 70 percent of Chinas utility-scale wind and solar farms have been built in the countrys sparsely populated northern provinces.

By 2020, China is planning to build 16 new ultra-high-voltage DC lines, on top of eight already in operation, connecting these provinces to coastal load centers, according to BNEF analysts. Less than half of these lines are designated to transmit renewable electricity. Lighting solar power at night would require more ultra-high-voltage DC lines, but China does not have any issues with more large construction.

More about the Chengdu fake full moon satellite

The Chengdu night light mirror satellite will be able to illuminate an area with a diameter between 10 and 80 km, while the precise lighting beam can be controlled in a few tens of meters.

Satellite tests started years ago and now the technology is ready to be put into practice.

Kang Weimin  director of the Institute of Optics, School of Aerospace, Harbin Institute of Technology  tries to calm the concerned animalists and explained that the satellite light will be like a twilight glow; therefore it should not affect the routine of the animals.

Chengdu is the capital of southwestern Chinas Sichuan province and it has about 14-15 million people.

Where is Chinas solar power now?

Chinas solar deployment is concentrated overwhelmingly in a handful of provinces, many of them in rural areas located far from population centers that need electricity and in areas where transmission development has not kept pace with renewables deployment and there is little storage capacity. Some of those provinces, solar-curtailment rates have approached 30%.

Solar curtailment is the rejection by Chinas grid operators of a portion of the electricity that Chinas solar projects generate.

The grid operators cannot take the extra power from spikes in the solar power generation. Mirror satellites can smooth out the power and make it more predictable.

Solar power remains a negligible energy source globally, contributing only about 1-2% to worldwide electricity production.

It is no forgone conclusion that solar will become cost-competitive at a scale necessary to meaningfully curb carbon emissions.

The Three Gorges Dams output amounted to one-third of the 253 million megawatt-hours of electricity produced in 2015 by all of the solar installations on the planet combined.

In 2016, China produced 71% of the worlds solar modules, IHS Markit estimates. China installs the majority of them within its bordersmainly in large solar farms in a handful of Chinese provinces.

Precursor to perpetual lighting for big solar farms

Mirror satellites can be used to provide constant light for large solar farms. This could remove the need for battery storage.

This city scale lighting looks step two on a roadmap to lighting of 5 Gigawatt solar farms at night.

Lightweight mirrors in a Dawn-Dusk Orbit beam sunlight to earth PV stations providing solar electricity in evening winter for 14 hours per day increasing solar power station capacity factor to 60% and reducing solar electricity cost to under 6 cents / kWh.

JX Crystals proposed satellite mirrors to boost solar power on earth.

Assumptions  2025  Revenue

1.) 18 satellites in dawn/dusk orbit 1000 km above earth.

2.) The suns disc diameter viewed from earth is 10 mrad. This implies solar spot size on earth from a mirror up 1000 km equal 1000 tan(10 mrad) = 10 km.

3.) Assume each mirror satellite array has diameter of 10 km.

4.) Now assume that in the year 2022 there are 40 ground stations distributed around

the world that the 18 satellite constellation will serve and that the constellation gives 1 hr x 0.7 kW/m2 of sunlight to each station in both the morning and in the evening for a total of 2 hr x 0.7 kW/m2 of sunlight per day per station.

5.) Combined, the 40 earth stations will produce 5.5 x 40 = 220 GW. Assume that the

price for electricity is $0.1 / kWh, annual revenue = $310^10 / yr = $16 billion per yr.

Mirror Satellite Constellation Cost

It all depends on launch cost for LEO orbit.

The ISC SPS study (4) assume $400 per kg. SpaceX Falcon Heavy (7) = $1,100 per kg.

MiraSolar sat (4) cost $0.6 B; constellation (4) $11 B.

MiraSolar sat (7) cost $1.8 B; constellation (7) $32 B.

Payback time range:

Assuming 40 ground stations and $400 per kg launch cost: 0.7 years.

Assuming 40 ground stations and $1100 per kg launch cost: 2 years.Bill Gates the challenge of eliminating extreme poverty, which used to be defined as living on less than a $1.90 per day. The World Bank remains committed to achieving the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030.

Innovation is the key to beating extreme poverty and societal poverty. Progress on agricultural productivity, infrastructure and other technology.

The share of the worlds population living in extreme poverty fell to 10 percent in 2015, but the pace of extreme poverty reduction has slowed.

Over 1.9 billion people, or 26.2 percent of the worlds population, were living on less than $3.20 per day in 2015. Close to 46 percent of the worlds population was living on less than $5.50 a day.

There has been great progress but current trends show that the world would still have about 500 million people in extreme poverty in 2050. This would be about 5% of the world population. About 80% would in Sub-sahran Africa. 40% would in Nigeria and Congo. Most of the extreme poor in Nigeria would be in northern Nigeria.

The World Bank notes that 45% of the world is still poor. Living on less than $3.20 per day reflects poverty lines in lower-middle-income countries, while $5.50 a day reflects standards in upper-middle-income countries.A boy at a Davis, Calif., high school says he was one of the students who bit into a sugar cookie laced with the cremated human remains of a classmate's grandparent.

Andy Knox recounted the Oct. 4 incident at Da Vinci Charter Academy to KCRA:

"Two weeks ago, I was just about to go into my sixth-period class, environmental science, and a girl who was also in the class stopped me and asked me if I wanted a cookie. And I knew her, so I figured, 'It's a cookie, why not?'"

Knox said he only took one bite.

"She told me there's a special ingredient in the cookie ... I thought that she put drugs in it or something. So I asked her if like, 'Is this a weed cookie or something?' And she said 'No.' She said it was her grandpa's ashes. And then she kind of laughed. And I was really, I was kind of horrified.

"If you ever ate sand as a kid, you know, you can kind of feel it crunching in between your teeth," Knox said. "So, there was a little tiny bit of that."

SEE ALSO: Chef claims she spiked meal served to a 'pious, judgmental' vegan

Davis Police Lt. Paul Doroshov told the Associated Press that interviews with nine students and other supporting details that he declined to disclose led him to believe that the allegations of cookie contamination were credible. Police, however, do not know why the girl and a friend baked the ashes into cookies and passed them around.

"They're juveniles and it's not a heinous or serious crime," he said. "There was no public health risk either."

Other students were informed that the cookies contained the ashes of the girl's grandparent  originally reported to be her grandmother, not grandfather  before they consumed them, police said.

Doroshov said police are allowing the school to handle the matter.

Principal Tyler Millsap said in a statement posted on Facebook those who were involved "are remorseful and this is now a personal family matter."WALLINGFORD  Some of the same factors that have kept the U.S. economy chugging for nearly a decade weigh heavily on Connecticut when viewed from a statewide rather than national perspective, according to a top official with the National Association of Realtors.

If the nations economic expansion lasts through next June, the U.S. economy will have spent a full decade growing, which would be the longest recovery on record, George Ratiu, the director of Quantitative & Commercial Research at the NAR, said Wednesday. Ratiu made his remarks at the New Haven-Middlesex Association of Realtors 2018 Commercial Real Estate Conference at The Farms Country Club.

The U.S. economy is still growing because the U.S. population is still growing at a rate of 8 percent over the past decade, he said. You cant have an economy that is growing, that is thriving, without a growing population.

And the national population is relatively young, with more than 60 percent the people under the age of 65, Ratiu said.

Connecticut, on the other hand, has a negative net population migration, which involves counting those who move out of Connecticut as well as those who move in. The state was the only one in New England that has actually lost people, he said.

And for the the most part, Connecticuts job growth has lagged behind the pace of employment gains made at the national level, Ratiu said.

But the New Haven Labor Market Area has been one of the states bright spots, he said. The region lost 142,000 jobs during the most recent recession, but has added 197,000 jobs since then.

With record profits filling corporate coffers around the country, Ratiu said many companies are taking some of that money and investing it in commercial real estate.

That kind of investment is good for commercial real estate, he said.

But that kind of investment in the New Haven area is reflective of a fundamental uncertainty about Connecticuts economy, said Michael Barbaro, president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors and owner/broker of Huntsman-Meade Partners in New Haven.

Were seeing a lot of people just buyng and holding, Barbaro said, adding that the practice is viewed as a safe alternative to companies hoarding cash in the event that another economic downturn is right around the corner.

One factor that discourages investors from parking their money in industrial properties around the state, he said, is Connecticuts Property Transfer Act. Barbaro said the act places restrictive standards on the level of environmental cleanup that must be done to property before it is sold as well as what the land can be used for once remediation is done.

Its stagnating the growth of rehabiltating these types of commercial properties, he said.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.comA Rhode Island brewer well known to Baby Boomers in Connecticut held a preview gathering the other night at Shell & Bones Oyster Bar and Grill in New Haven, where chef Arturo Franco-Camacho created a tasty series of seafood samplings.

No surprise there; the location and food are top-notch.

But this was a chance to celebrate an old-school brews nod to the competitive beer markets boutique-brew craze that fills brewers tasting rooms most nights. The old name is Narragansett; the new-ish offering is Fresh Catch, brewed specifically to pair with New England seafood.

Before we get to that, consider the brands tumultuous recent history since the 1980s  not long after Narragansett was in the category of Schaefer, Ballantine, Pabst and Piels  a good drinkin beer! as Jimmy Breslin would say.

The (Narragansett) brand was sold in the middle 70s, says Narragansett marketing official BJ Mansuetti, and due to some legal issues, it didnt go through until the 80s, to a company called Falstaff. And they were out in Indiana, and they ended up moving production out there, they changed the recipe; and we employed almost 1,000 Rhode Islanders at the time. And laying off those people just left a bitter taste in local folks mouths.

Consider that in the previous 20 or 25 years, seven out of 10 beers consumed in New England were Narragansett beers, Mansuetti says. Based in Cranston, Rhode Island, We were bigger than Budweiser ever was, he says.

Then came the rebirth of the brand.

The first thing we wanted to do when we came back in 2005  we bought the brand back; a bunch of Rhode Islanders got together, wanted to restart it and do it right  is we actually found a guy named Bill Anderson (in California), and he was in his 80s ... and he was our brewmaster in the 50s and 60s back in the heyday. And he still had the recipe.

The new owners flew in Anderson, who worked on the recipe for a month until he said, This is what I was brewing back then. Anderson died in 2017.

The lager is still the mainstay, but eventually the new owners just sort of got the itch to try out some other drinkable styles, said Mansuetti.

Fresh Catch is a beer the brew team put together a while ago in a slightly different recipe, says Mansuetti. The previous version was known as Summertime Citra Ale, which was popular.

We wanted to keep it around but it said Summertime on the can, Mansuetti laughs. So we wanted to kind of rebrand it (and) we reworked the recipe a little bit. Its a nice, light golden ale or blonde ale that we dry hop with citra hops.

So what makes a beer that goes with seafood?

The idea is that fish, and seafood in general, has pretty delicate flavors, and theyre so subtle and complex, Mansuetti said. And if youve got a beer that is super hoppy or has all this malt character or is bitter, it really kind of gets in the way of really tasting some of those ... flavors.

In keeping with the brand names classic American lager, Fresh Catch is nice and light. (The) citra hops ... give a little bit of a grapefruit and just a little bit of a passion fruit kind of aroma to it.

The hugely popular local breweries have opened in post-industrial spaces across the state (New England Brewing, Hanging Hills, Hog River, Thimble Island), with hoppy IPAs and boutique brews that seldom include the word lager. Narragansett isnt trying to do stouts, porters and sour beers. Theres no hiding it, says Mansuetti, lagers are our flagship. Its our beer, its what weve been brewing for 128 years.

So while the company has come up with an IPA called Its About Time, Narragansett has always wanted to brew beers that are drinkable and balanced. ... Youre not going to see too many ... 10 percent (alcohol) or double IPAs. Its just not really in our DNA.

There is another major twist in the Narragansett story. The original location of Narragansetts brewery was a huge plant that had since been torn down, and the reboot effort ran into red tape and failed deals to secure a new location, until about four years ago when owners were 11 days away from signing the deed to a new brewery space. And then? It went up in a five-alarm fire right beforehand, says Mansuetti. And (he sighs) ... it just made us laugh at that point because it kept getting snake-bit.

About two years ago, the group teamed up with a company called The Guild in Pawtucket and built a collaborative brewery there, moving in about 18 months ago. Some smaller breweries also use it. Narragansett, while not very big still, sells its beer from Maine to Florida, after adding the Georgia market a month ago.

We still dont have our own tasting room or tap room, where everybody else does, says Mansuetti. But whats been fun for us is it makes us go out into bars and restaurants and do this kind of stuff.

jamarante@nhregister.com; @Joeammo on TwitterMILFORD  A teachers aide at Boys & Girls Village allegedly exposed himself and inappropriately touched female students, according to reports.

WTNH and NBC Connecticut reported that the staff member at the school for special needs has suspended the aide and an investigation is underway. The stations reported that schools President and CEO Dr. Steven Kant confirmed the investigation.

In a statement, Kant said: Beyond our cooperation with the investigation, the full focus of our concern and efforts at this time is to take any steps necessary to support the well-being of the children involved. Boys & Girls Village conducts a full range of pre-employment background checks that are employed prior to hiring any employee at the agency. Boys & Girls Village will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement and other appropriate authorities to investigate this matter.

WTNH reported that two 14-year-old girls accused the aide of sending sexually suggestive text messages. The girls also accused him of exposing his genitals. One of the girls said he allegedly inappropriately touched her.MILFORD  With all the heart and enthusiasm that goes into serving students at Boys & Girls Village, the ribbon was cut on a new, 15,000-square-foot program services building at the facility, and parents, students and dignitaries also celebrated the expansion of the Charles F. Hayden School serving grades K-12.

Carol Smith Harker, chairman of the board of directors, told an audience of about 100 that when she looks at the new building, she remembers when it was a dream.

The building behind me is a physical reminder of our growth, Harker said. We appreciate all the love, all the support thats been given to our children.

Boys & Girls Village, which has a partnership with the state Department of Children and Families, serves at-risk youths from Fairfield and New Haven counties. As a therapeutic school, the program focuses on special education, emotional, behavioral and academic growth, with the goal of returning students to a mainstream setting. The physical expansion allows for expansion of programs to help children and families, officials said.

Attorney Joseph Tramuta, vice-chairman of the board and chairman of the facilities committee that oversaw the expansion, said children and families are the reason so many gathered Wednesday to celebrate. Tramuta managed through his personal connections to secure two, four-year University of Bridgeport scholarships for graduates of the program.

When I think of all the good we do here, it gives me heartfelt warmth, he said.

Boys & Girls Village has rapidly expanded in recent years as the demand for services grows, and part of the physical growth has been to add eleventh and twelfth grades to the high school.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz was among the honored dignitaries who helped make it all happen. Katz has said when she took office eight years ago, she was contacted by Dr. Steven M. Kant, a psychiatrist who also is president and CEO of Boys & Girls Village, who called her to ask, What do you need?

Katz told him almost 400 children in need of therapeutic and special education services were being sent out of state. Katz said she didnt like that, because Connecticut is one of the richest states and rather than be sent out to other jurisdictions, those children should have the opportunity to be treated and educated in their home state where they would likely naturally settle and raise their own families.

Boys & Girls Village made it happen by expanding services, she said.

Katz, who received a hat from Kant labeled BOSS, said the facility is an incredible asset in Connecticut and its success shows just what a partnership can do. A $2 million grant from DCF funded expansion of the therapeutic day school.

Katz said when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asked her to take the job eight years ago when she was a state Supreme Court judge, he prefaced it by saying he knew she already had the job every lawyer wants and he was offering her a job you couldnt pay most people to take.

Katz called him the next day to accept the DCF position. On Wednesday she said she had no regrets because theres nothing more important than children.

Katz said the agency receives 110,000 calls to its hotline annually, can have 20,000 cases at a given time, and that she can be the statutory guardian for 4,300 children at a time. She said the number of children now being treated out of state has been reduced by 97 percent.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., attended Wednesday, along with 119th District Republican state Rep. Pam Staneski, who is running for the state Senate in the 14th District.

Blumenthal said that when he visited Boys & girls Village years ago, it was so small, the word village didnt seem to fit, although, he said, it was always a village in its dedication and purpose. He said the expansion of the community/facility is a reaffirmation of the principals and values that make Connecticut great.

We leave no one behind, including the vulnerable, the needy, he said.

Boys & Girls Village has always been a beacon of hope and opportunity, he said.

Construction of the new program building was funded, in part, by a $2.16 million state grant. Boys & Girls Village will match that grant, drawing on capital support from its donors.MIDDLETOWN  More than 125 attendees from 11 community colleges and four state universities gathered at Middlesex Community College last week for the inaugural Connecticut State Colleges and Universities PRIDE Conference Oct. 13.

The convention began with a Stonewall panel discussion and informative Planned Parenthood workshop, according to a press release. Asnuntuck Community College students and Womens Leadership Institute graduates Audrey Eckhart and Kasey Dennehy organized the event.

We have a greater responsibility to do more to make sure that your futures better. We want you to have the resources you need on your campuses to make lives better, CSCU President Mark Ojakian told the students during his welcome address, according to the release. Ill continue to advocate for all in this room. You are special and deserve the world.

Eckhart and Denehy chose to organize a one-day LGBTQA conference as their social action project for their work with the Womens Leadership Institute. At first, they thought the conference would be a local event at Asnuntuck, but Ojakian learned about it when he came to one of their student government meetings. He then helped them scale it up across all the state colleges, according to MxCC. From this collaboration, the CSCU PRIDE Conference was born.

I never thought I would be doing something like this. Its very inspirational and overwhelmingly amazing, said Eckhart, a liberal arts student from Suffield who designed the conference logo and plans to study 3D animation. I met so many other people like me. Its empowering for myself because I am asexual.

Dennehy, a marketing and sociology student from Enfield, added, At first it was hard to find speakers since we didnt yet have the prestige, but once the college and the state system got behind us, everything came together.

The morning Stonewall panel discussion included four speakers from various ages and genders. Each person honestly explained their real-world experiences and how they overcame personal challenges to achieve success in their lifestyles. No matter how afraid you are, there are people who support you and love you, Andee Scallion said.

Ive lost some friends, but I forgive them. Ive accepted myself and became an advocate. It gets better, Jillian Celentano said.

After the panel, the Planned Parenthood workshop entitled Enthusiastic Consent featured videos and interactive exercises followed by a Q&A session.

Elizabeth, a first-year student from Quinebaug Valley Community College, and her friend Anti, were ecstatic to attend. This event is better than I expected. Everyone is so welcoming and thats not something you find often, Elizabeth said.

Vinny, a student at Southern Connecticut State University, was very impressed by the direct expressions from the Stonewall speakers, describing them as really powerful, which helped me understand how they feel internally.

After lunch, everyone enjoyed an entertaining drag show, emceed by Dixie Normous, aka Mark Rohrig, that featured several performers including the 2018 Miss Fire Island Pageant Entertainers of the Year.

We hope to continue to hold the CSCU PRIDE Conference every year, perhaps rotating to the various state campuses, starting with one of the universities next year, said Angelo Simoni, the executive director of student relations and compliance for CSCU.

For information, visit http://www.ct.edu.HAMDEN  First-generation American law enforcers from across the state will be honored for their public service Oct. 29 at Qunnipiac University, according to a police press release.

The Police Department will join the Connecticut FBI, Connecticut State Police and Quinnipiac University in honoring the officers, agents and troopers who have chosen to protect and serve this country.Lets talk crime. Lets talk about crime in New Haven.

Its terrible, right?

Wrong. Dont believe that old song.

Our readers often tell us: You guys only report the bad news. Why dont you write about something good?

Well, there it was on our front page on Sept. 28, with this headline: New Haven is in a better place. Subhead: City, state see overall drop in crime.

We quoted New Haven police spokesman Officer David Hartman: When comparing 2018 with 2017, the citys crime rates are down  and not just in a category or two.

Hartman said this years to-date figures when compared to last year show violent crime is down 34.0 percent, including a 41.2 percent reduction in aggravated assaults and a 33.9 percent reduction in robberies. Also, burglaries are down 33.0 percent. And drug crimes are down 23.4 percent.

New Haven is in a better place than its been in years, Hartman concluded.

But does the public believe this? Our news story by Tara ONeill quoted John DeCarlo, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven and a former Branford police chief, who said people have trouble accepting the good news.

DeCarlo said there is so much news about arrests and crimes on social media and news websites that the perception remains: its nasty out there. Things arent getting better, theyre getting worse!

Often, I feel Im part of the problem, that I help to fan this fearful stereotype about New Haven. As the New Haven Register reporter assigned to cover New Haven Superior Court, I regularly write stories about pre-trial proceedings, trials and sentencings in the worst cases: murder, manslaughter, assault, sexual assault.

Yes, but an ironic and unusual thing happened this week when I was covering the closing arguments for the trial of Damarquis Gray, who was accused of murder and felony murder in the shooting death of Durell Law four years ago in New Haven. Grays attorney, Dean Popkin, told the jury: New Haven is not a dangerous place.

At that point, I could imagine the skeptical comebacks within the minds of the jurors, some of them residing in suburban towns. Maybe some of them rarely come to New Haven because of that unfounded but persistent negative stereotype.

Popkin was responding to the prosecutions contention that witnesses were afraid to testify because they feared retaliation from Grays neighborhood group, the Playboys. Popkin asserted that such fears were not credible. He added, Please dont get lost in this notion that everyones afraid.

OK, this much is true: the jury did convict Gray of felony murder (he was acquitted of murder) and the state did seem to have a solid case. Also, it cant be denied that some of the witnesses did appear to be genuinely frightened. And yes, some of New Havens neighborhoods have more crime than others. I have sat near many grieving relatives of the victims.

But I have lived in this city for decades and spent many nights downtown. I have never been jumped, nor has my wife nor our two daughters who grew up here. You do have to be reasonably cautious but its not the crime-plagued area that many people outside New Haven imagine it to be.

I was talking about New Haven crime trends this week with David Duda, who owns the Book Trader Cafe on Chapel Street. He recalled that when he opened his store 20 years ago, that section of Upper Chapel had lots of empty storefronts and many people were afraid to venture out there at night. The first week he opened, two young men emptied their pistols at each other, very close to his store.

But that was then. The 90s were not a good time for most cities, Duda noted.

However, that strip, and the city as a whole, have been steadily rebounding since that time. And now, Upper Chapel is thriving.

Consider New Havens homicide statistics since 2011. During that year, we had 34 of them. One year later, it was cut to 17. Last year, there were seven homicides. So far this year, there have been nine. Nobodys happy about that slight uptick over the past year, but the trend remains downward.

Duda, who lives in Guilford, is planning to move to New Haven in a few years. Apartment and condo construction is going gang-busters in this city. It seems they cant build them fast enough for all the people who want to live downtown.

We should credit the police departments collaboration with the community and programs such as Project Longevity which uses local, state and federal resources to reduce crime.

Were not living in utopia and we still have to be cautious. But there you have it: some good news.

***

When I read the sad news on our obituary page this week that Vinny Mazzetta had died, at 83, I thought back to a magic moment in the basement of St. Bernadette Church where he recreated a historic event with his saxophone.

At my request for our interview on that day eight years ago, he played his solo from In the Still of the Night, recorded there by the Five Satins in 1956. That song would become a hit for the ages.

I got together with Mazzetta to make amends and to give him proper recognition for the role he played in making that song resonate around the world. I had written a lengthy retrospective about the Satins for the Register in 1980 but I was unaware at the time that Mazzetta had performed the solo. He was never a member of the group.

Mazzetta was so modest and unpretentious that he didnt talk about his contribution. For many years, he and his wife, JoAnn, shared only amongst their family what she called our little secret. But when more stories were written about that song, again overlooking Mazzetta, his family convinced him to come forward.

Mazzetta did more than play on that song; he also made it possible for Fred Parris and the other Satins to use the basement for the recording. Mazzetta was a parishioner of that church and convinced the priest to let this group of young black men onto the premises to record a couple of songs. In return for Mazzettas help, the Satins agreed to let him play his saxophone.

Mazzetta was only 21 but he had been playing sax since 16 and he was really good.

In December 2010, I finally met Mazzetta at his home in Morris Cove, the neighborhood where he spent his entire life. It was less than a mile from that church basement.

He agreed to let me drive him there and he brought along his sax. On the way over, I apologized to him for overlooking his place in history. He told me not to worry about it.

When we walked into the basement, a group of kids were gathered around a piano with their teacher, singing Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Mazzetta pulled out his instrument and played along with them.

Then I asked if he would please play In the Still of the Night and he did it. It was as beautiful as in 1956.

When I asked how he came up with that solo, he said, It just came out. I did what I felt.

Who knew? he said. Who knew where it was going to go?

Perhaps youre wondering how much he was paid for his solo on that mega-hit. He told me: I got $42.50. That was the union recording fee. And I had to pay about $40 to join the union, so actually I made nothing!

It was clear he didnt care about that either, but that he was quietly proud of what he had done. A good thing happened, he said.

randall.beach@hearstmediact.comThe group suing Harvard for discriminating against Asian-Americans in the admissions process insists it is focused on the treatment of applicants at a single college and that "the future of affirmative action is not on trial here," as lead attorney Adam Mortara declared in his opening salvo Monday.

But the grilling of Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons in court on Tuesday suggests that the plaintiff -- Students For Fair Admissions, or SFFA, led by longtime affirmative action opponent Edward Blum -- is taking a different tack.

The group accuses Harvard of engaging in "racial balancing," with admission of even the highest-scoring Asian-American students capped through vague and manipulable "personal" and overall ratings, while other minorities -- and whites -- are favored. The lawsuit is strikingly different from past challenges of race-conscious college admissions in its championing of a minority rather than of whites who feel they have been denied entry by "reverse discrimination."

Yet in its quest to replace Harvard's means of achieving diversity with a race-blind process, the closely watched lawsuit -- grinding on since 2014 and likely headed to a Supreme Court where conservative Brett Kavanaugh was just seated -- could dismantle an admissions system the high court has held up as an exemplar, and thus affirmative action at colleges across the U.S.

"The Harvard case has to be seen as a challenge to 'affirmative action' as it is being practiced at Harvard and most other highly selective universities, despite what the plaintiffs' lawyers say," said Minneapolis attorney Kirk Kolbo, who argued, and lost, one of the Supreme Court's seminal affirmative action cases, Grutter v. Bollinger.

On Tuesday, John Hughes, an attorney for SFFA, interrogated Dean Fitzsimmons over comments by Harvard admissions officers about Asian students, unearthed in a 1990 probe by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights into whether Harvard's practices were biased. The government watched the process so closely it set up shop at the school's admissions office, lawyers in the case said.

SFFA argues that the probe turned up data showing Asian-American students were better than or equal to white applicants on ratings including academics and extracurricular activities -- but not on a personal score assigned to them by the admissions office.

Among the officers' comments were those describing Asian-Americans as "quiet/shy" and "science/math oriented." One officer wrote of a prospective student, "Seems like a reserved/hardworking aspiring woman scientist/doctor," while another staffer wrote, "He's quiet of course and wants to be a doctor." A third applicant was described as "extraordinarily gifted in math, with the opposite in English."

"You didn't say to your staff, stop doing this, stop using race, stop using stereotypical comments?" Hughes asked Fitzsimmons, who has been working in Harvard's admissions office since the Nixon administration.

"That's not correct," Fitzsimmons said. "We took this report very seriously and shared this report with our staff members, and discussed the report in detail."

"You never told your staff to stop using race?" Hughes continued.

"I'm not sure I have the image of me sitting down with any individual in the admissions office," Fitzsimmons said. "I'm not sure who said these things. The point is that the entire staff certainly studied this report very, very carefully to make certain they did not engage in any racial stereotyping. It's not simply 'Talk with the individual,' but talk to the entire admissions committee."

In Grutter, Kolbo's client, Barbara Grutter, challenged a University of Michigan law school admissions process requiring officials to look to "soft variables" beyond grade point averages and test scores.

"While the plaintiffs in those cases were white, we collected detailed admissions data on all applicants," Kolbo said. "The evidence was that Asian-American applicants were discriminated against at least as much as white students in the admissions process. By that I mean that the grades and test scores for Asian-American students had to be much higher than those of African-American students" for admission.

By limiting its Asian-American population to achieve a particular racial mix, as the suit contends, Harvard is engaged in a practice Kolbo called discriminatory, unconstitutional and "morally wrong."

Harvard denies discriminating and says its use of race, as one factor among many, conforms with decades of Supreme Court precedent, starting in 1978 when it was held up as a kind of gold standard.

"We are here because Students For Fair Admissions would like to change the law and eliminate all considerations of race in college admissions," Harvard's lead defense lawyer, Bill Lee, said in his opening Monday.

No matter which side wins over U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, who is hearing the case in Boston without a jury, an appeal is likely, said Frank Wu, who teaches at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law.

"This case will likely head up to the the Supreme Court. It certainly is being litigated as if it were," Wu said. "It's a big issue. The court has been divided. The personnel has changed since the last major decision. The law is unclear. The defendant is prominent. The plaintiffs are different than in past cases. So if you were a betting person, this is a case to bet on."

Wu said the case is similar to those mounted with white plaintiffs, but he underscored what he sees as a critical difference.

"Asian-Americans have long been excluded from discussions of race by both liberals and conservatives," he said, "and it is possible, even probable, that they face racial discrimination."

Wu, who has testified before Congress in support of affirmative action, stressed that whether Harvard discriminates against its Asian applicants is a separate issue from whether affirmative action is beneficial and constitutional.

"They should not be confused," he said, adding that even if one believes diversity is a positive for schools, the evidence presented at trial could show Harvard is discriminating against Asian-Americans. Ahead of all that evidence, said Wu, who has written about the case, "it appears that Asian-Americans are being held to a higher standard than white applicants."

In court on Tuesday, Hughes was in no hurry to get off of the Harvard admissions officers' remarks.

"Are these stereotypical comments consistent with the way Harvard wants to use race in the admissions process?" he asked Fitzsimmons.

"This is not our process," Fitzsimmons said. "We do not endorse -- we abhor -- stereotypical comments. This is not how our admission office or our officers communicate."

After court, Harvard's lawyer Lee noted that ultimately the college was investigated for bias by the government twice and cleared of discrimination. He said plaintiffs pored over hundreds of thousands of pages of admissions records from a six-year period, which Harvard was forced to release as part of the case.

"If you look at 110,000 files and 4,000 applications, you may identify in any one of those a comment or two," Lee said, but "at the end of the day what they found was no discrimination."

On Wednesday, it will be Lee's turn to question Fitzsimmons.

"We'll fill in a lot of the details," he said, "where you'll be able to see just why" the government cleared Harvard.WEST HAVEN  City computers have been down since Tuesday and West Haven paid anonymous perpetrators of a cyberattack $2,000 to unlock 23 servers and restore access to data, officials said Thursday.

The ransomware attack, which initially took place early Tuesday morning, disabled 23 on-site servers  although it did not affect off-site backup servers. It was contained by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said in a written statement.

But all City Hall computers initially remained shut down Thursday as a protective and preventative measure, and employees were warned with hand-drawn signs in the workplace not to turn them on.

They were coming back up incrementally Thursday afternoon, officials said.

Finance Department staff have been working on Board of Education computers, which were not affected by the cyberattack, to prepare the citys payroll, Mayor Nancy Rossi said. Payday is Friday. Rossi said she expects city employees to get paid as they always do.

The citys information technology manager, David Richards, notified Rossi, local police and federal authorities, the statement said.

It was Richards decision to shut down all city computers rather than worry about problems continuing to spread from computer to computer while the city fixed the issue, said Corporation Counsel Lee Tiernan.

MS-ISAC, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, assisted the West Haven Police Department in the investigation and determined the attack came from outside the U.S. The city has support from IT experts from the Connecticut State Police and other state agencies.

Rossi, Richards and police IT experts determined the best course of action, given all available information, was to pay a one-time fee of $2,000 to unlock the servers, the city said in the statement.

The city paid the ransom in Bitcoin digital cryptocurrency, said Tiernan.

The data restoration of a critical system occurred shortly after the completion of that transaction, the statement said.

Despite access being blocked, there was no evidence that anything was being compromised, Tiernan said.

While city officials initially did not want to pay, research showed that that was likely the easiest way to solve the problem, he said.

Atlanta didnt pay when it was attacked, Tiernan said. They wanted $57,000. But $3 million later, theyre still trying to clean it up.

A source said the cyber threat initially entered the citys computer system through a computer in the Assessors Office.

The city hired an incident response team from TBNG Consulting in Milford to evaluate the current impact and assist in continuing remediation and restoration of City Hall computing systems, the statement said.

The response will be done methodically to reduce any future potential compromise, it said. At this moment, there is no reason to believe that any data was stolen as a result of the attack, according to federal and local authorities.

The attack remains under investigation by federal, state and local authorities, with local response being provided by TBNG Consulting, the statement said.

Corrective measures are being explored to shore up city cyberdefenses and safeguard the city from future attacks, and will be implemented by my administration, Ross said in the statement.

Rossi said she contacted state Office of Policy and Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes, who is chairman of the Municipal Accountability Review Board that is working with the city to improve its finances, because, given that theyre involved with us, they should know.

I cant believe that ... of all the communities in America, theyve got to pick West Haven, Rossi said referring to West Havens troubled finances.

University of New Haven cyber security expert Ibrahim Abe Baggili said the fact that access to the citys servers has been restored doesnt in itself mean West Havens problems are over.

They really have to find out how effective their systems are, said Baggili, Elder family chairman and assistant dean of the computer science program at University of New Haven.

Globally, cybercrime is big businesses, with damage costs expected to hit $6 trillion by 2021, Baggili said, quoting research from Cybersecurity Ventures.

Its expected that by 2019, a business will fall victim to a ransomware attack every 14 seconds, he said, quoting another report from Cybersecurity Ventures. But for me, I think one of the biggest problems is how understaffed cyber security jobs are in the state of Connecticut, Baggili said.

About 4,000 cyber security jobs were expected to open up over the last year in Connecticut, but in the last year, only 500 people entered the (cyber security) job market in Connecticut.

And right now, the top-notch kids are not staying in Connecticut. Theyre going to other states, he said.

Unless the state really dedicates resources to address the issue, its just going to get worse, Baggili said. If its not West Haven, its going to be another city, and then its going to be another city.NEW HAVEN  Yale University and its police union have reached a tentative labor pact, according to a report in the New Haven Independent.

If approved by the union membership, the agreement would cover seven years, but two years have already elapsed since the former contract expired, so the actual coverage time would be closer to five years from now, the report said.ANSONIA  Small acts of kindness really do pay off.

Just ask Shawn Venson, a custodian at Ansonia Middle School and member of James H. Wilkins Lodge No. 9.

Venson and his fellow lodge members were recently recognized at the highest level, having nabbed 2017-18 Lodge of the Year award at the national conference of Freemasons, held earlier this month in Windsor.

According to Ansonia school officials, Venson told the more than 1,500 people in attendance at the conference about money that had been taken out of the Ansonia schools budget, threatening to end the districts successful Best Buddies program, which pairs disabled students with non-disabled peers in a mentoring partnership.

Venson said he discovered last year that several teachers were covering the costs of the program and a monthly pizza lunch for the students out of their own pockets. The program helps disabled students learn life skills from their peer buddies needed to perform day-to-day living activities.

Venson said the mission of the lodge is to help the community however it can. Thats why Venson brought the plight of the Best Buddies program to his fellow members, and all agreed it was a cause worth helping. Many of the members are senior citizens, according to Venson, who contributed their own money to keep the program afloat. The lodge also agreed to contribute 10 percent of all future fundraising endeavors to the Best Buddies program.

Were all about helping our community, said Venson.

Ansonia Middle School Speech and Language Pathologist Julie Chmielewski, who established the Best Buddies program last year, said Venson approached her with the news that the lodge wanted to help keep the program going.

This is just unbelievable, Chmielewski said. Its nice to know that people still care.

Chmielewski since acquired $3,330 from the Valley Community Foundation to cover costs of field trips for the students, which she said will allow students to visit several service locations around town, including laundromats, the Ansonia Public Library and the Ansonia Nature Center.

She said the lodges contributions will enable her to continue the monthly pizza lunches for the students and their peers.

Chmielewski noted that one of the lodges members recently passed way, and when she told the Best Buddies students about it, they took action.

The students wanted to make cards to give to the lodge to express their sadness, she said.

Venson said he took those cards with him to the national convention earlier this month, and passed them around for all to see.

According to Chmielewski, lodge members will be invited to the middle school for one of the Best Buddies upcoming pizza lunches, as a way for the students to thank the lodge members in person.

Ansonia school officials said the story of the lodges small act of kindness ultimately caught the attention of the national organization, the Freemasons, which then bestowed this first major honor for the Ansonia lodge in many years.

Superintendent of Schools Carol Merlone expressed her gratitude to the lodge.

They are the best buddies our students could ever have," said Merlone. "We are very grateful to them.

jean.sos@snet.netThe U.S. Coast Guard hoisted three people to a rescue helicopter on Wednesday a day after their skiff ran aground and left them stranded off New Jersey in the Delaware Bay.

The low tide caused the skiff to become grounded near Egg Island Point in Cumberland County on Tuesday, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The boaters called the Coast Guard and decided to wait until the next tide to try to free the boat.

When the rising tide failed to free the grounded boat the next morning, the Coast Guard sent in an MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City. The boaters were flown to Millville Airport. No one was injured.

"It's important for boaters to be familiar with the tides and currents in the area they're boating," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Steve Setnicky, a watchstander at Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay. "When waters recede, boaters can find themselves in trouble, so it's important they have operational communication devices, the right gear for the weather and they file a float plan with a friend or loved one in the event they don't come back when planned."

The Coast Guard hoisted three stranded boaters to a helicopter on Wednesday after their skiff ran aground in the Delaware Bay. (Coast Guard photo)

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.The United States Department of Justice is currently investigating the Cumberland County Jail -- where at least six inmates committed suicide in a three-year span -- to see if the institution provides adequate care for inmates with mental health issues.

NJ Advance Media obtained images of a card being distributed at the jail Tuesday with contact information to an attorney at the Department of Justice asking if anyone has information to come forward.



The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the Cumberland County Jail provides adequate mental health care to prisoners and takes reasonable measures to prevent suicides. We will be examining processes designed to prevent such harm such as mental health screening and care, classification and housing and supervision. This investigation focuses on large systematic problems. Unfortunately, we cannot represent individual prisoners in any civil or criminal matters.

A spokeswoman at the department said as a matter of policy, they do not confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of an investigation.

Cumberland County Jail Warden Richard Smith confirmed the investigation in a June 2018 statement.



"The Department of Corrections has been informed that the United States Department of Justice will review practices and procedures related to inmate suicide prevention at the facility," Smith said in a press statement issued previously.

"We welcome the opportunity to address and resolve any concerns that the Department of Justice may have concerning suicide prevention at the County Jail. We previously addressed several issues related to additional medical services, officer training, surveillance equipment, and early response procedures. We are eagerly awaiting the construction of our new jail that is scheduled to open in 2020. We look forward to working cooperatively with the Department of Justice as we strive to improve and ensure positive outcomes for our inmates as well as our staff."



During a three-year span at the jail, at least six inmates committed suicide. Two corrections officers at the facility, Justin Cimino and Nicholas Gomez, were charged with third-degree tampering with public records and third-degree endangering another person after allegedly putting false information on a "close watch" form used to monitor inmates who present the risk of suicide. Both avoided jail time by being admitted into admitted to the pre-trial intervention (PTI) program.

Family members of all six of those who committed suicide are suing the county jail. Their lawyer, Conrad J. Benedetto, said the investigation should have happened sooner.

"Based on the lawsuits we have brought against Cumberland County on behalf of families whose loved ones have died while incarcerated in the county's jail, we think the DOJ's investigation is long overdue," Benedetto told NJ Advance Media. "The facts in those cases and in other lawsuits that have been filed paint a deeply disturbing picture of a county that apparently has no ability to, or interest in, tending to the mental health needs of some of its own citizens. Perhaps the DOJ's investigation will further address and help fix what is nothing less than a public health crisis in Cumberland County."

Stuart Alterman is the attorney for Local PBA 231, the union that represents the corrections officers at the jail. Alterman also confirmed the department was in the jail Tuesday and distributed the cards to officers. Alterman says the issues at the jail begin at the top.

"We as the union have attempted to address, and have addressed the issues of training over the last several years, and, in particular over the last two years, especially in grievances and unfair practices that have gone unabated, and have fallen on deaf ears," Alterman said. "We have been rebuffed and disrespected significantly because either the people that are in charge, and who are the true decision makers, either do not know or they do not care. Either one of those potential answers is not any good."

Cumberland County solicitor Theodore Baker says the county been cooperatively working with the DOJ to address their inquiries. Baker also says the county previously initiated its own review ,and implemented a number of changes and improvements, including the construction of a new jail.

"At this point there is only a cooperative effort between the County and DOJ to review practices and procedures and we have been informed that this is not a criminal investigation," Baker said in a statement. "No suit has been filed civilly and we believe that we have taken a proactive approach to reviewing and addressing mental health care and suicide prevention over the last 24 months,and even before that. Thankfully, we have not seen any suicides in the last year and a half and we will strive to do all that we can to try to prevent such incidents."

Baker added the jail successfully prevented numerous incidents of overdose and several suicide attempts.

"We will continue to implement additional measures to try to ensure that theses attempts are eliminated to the greatest extent possible," the solicitor said.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsNew digital kiosks with 55-inch screens have sprouted across the city of Newark that will allow passers-by to make free phone calls, connect to public Wifi or charge their mobile devices.

Newark is the first in New Jersey to launch the LinkNWK sidewalk kiosks created by Intersection, a New York-based technology company. New York City was the first to roll out the technology in 2016 and Philadelphia will install the kiosks later this fall.

On Tuesday, officials debuted the newly-installed kiosks across from the Prudential Center on Broad Street. A total of 45 kiosks will be in operation in the city -- with at least one in every ward. So far, two are up and running.

"Newark is once again defining itself to the state, nation, and world as a cutting-edge, high-tech city," Mayor Ras Baraka said. "These kiosks will enable residents and visitors alike to gain immediate information about Newark, ranging from upcoming cultural events to emergency service response."

The kiosks, which Intersection installed at no cost to the city, display information on city services, fun facts about Newark, upcoming events and advertisements.

The ad revenue will go to the company and be shared with the city as well.

Representatives at Intersection said this time, the kiosks will not allow internet browsing. When the devices were first installed in New York City people used the kiosks to watch pornography, according to reports at the time.

LinkNWK kiosk on Broad Street. Oct. 16, 2018. (Courtesy: City of Newark)

The company has not announced plans to install kiosks in any other New Jersey cities.

The Newark kiosks will be the first to roll out with a Wifi app that allows users to connect to the LinkNWK network and pull up a map to find the nearest kiosk.

NJIT has also partnered with Intersection to find creative ways of using the devices to benefit the community.

"Newark is a rising star in the tech economy, and we are proud that LinkNWK will only add to this momentum," said Jen Hensley, President of Link at Intersection.

A minority investor in Intersection is Sidewalk Labs, which was created by Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.BAYONNE -- The City Council officially designated SeaStreak, LLC as its ferry operator Wednesday night, bringing Bayonne one step closer to establishing a passenger ferry route to Manhattan.

"SeaStreak is pleased to have been chosen as the operator for this new ferry service and to be working with the City of Bayonne," said Brett Chamberlain, a spokesman for the company, adding that the company "will work out the details moving forward."

The resolution, which was unanimously approved, allows for officials with the company and the city to enter into negotiations "to effectuate the development and operations" of a commuter ferry.

City officials have touted the commuter route on the former Military Ocean Terminal as a boon for the city, as new developments sprout up near the location are likely to draw city-bound commuters.

Questions still remain, however, such as how much a one-way trip will be; how much monthly or yearly passes will be; if there will be free parking near the terminal; and what the exact schedule and frequency of vessels will be.

City officials had hoped the ferry would be operating by the end of the year, but spring 2019 now appears a more likely target.

A city spokesman did not immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking comment.

SeaStreak offers services to points in Manhattan, central New Jersey, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. The Bayonne ferry service will be SeaStreak's first in Hudson County, where NY Waterway provides the majority of rides across the Hudson River.

Officials have previously signaled the ferry would travel to Battery Park in Manhattan, and could perhaps make a stop in Midtown.

City officials have been working to secure a ferry service for years now. The city began serious discussions with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in early 2017 and in April of this year announced it had secured a lease agreement for land on the former Military Ocean Terminal, a man-made peninsula jutting into the New York Harbor.

The city agreed to lease 65,278 square feet (1.5 acres) of land, as well as 46,852 square feet (1.08 acres) of waterside area from the bi-state agency, which owns much of the land, for $212,470 annually.

The city secured federal funding for the service, and voted to begin the bidding process for a terminal operator in June.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- A Jersey City man set to be retried for a 2015 murder took an 11th hour plea deal Tuesday just as jury selection in the murder trial was to begin.

DeAndre Thomas, 26, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter for fatally shooting Davonte Carswell, 23, on Nov. 15, 2015 inside a Jersey City bodega that doubled as an illegal gambling joint.

In court Tuesday, Thomas admitted firing two shots at Carswell with extreme indifference to human life, knowing it was probable he would cause his death. Carswell was shot on a staircase leading to the basement of Los Yoleros Mini Market Deli on Ocean Avenue and then shot in the face after he had fallen.

Thomas also pleaded guilty to possession of a handgun by a felon, an official said.

He is expected to be sentenced to eight years in prison on the manslaughter charge and 10 years on the gun charge when he is sentenced by Hudson County Superior Court Judge John Young on Jan. 3, an official said.

The prison terms will run concurrently. Thomas must serve 85 percent of the manslaughter term before becoming eligible for parole and five years on the gun charge before becoming eligible for parole, an official said.

Thomas' first trial for Carswell's murder ended on April 21 after jurors told Young they were hopelessly deadlocked. Thomas flashed a big smile after the mistrial was declared and the victim's mother moaned before falling into a family member's arms crying.

The state's case in the first trial relied heavily on security video footage from inside the bodega. In the basement, people were seen congregating at a Plexiglas-covered window. The prosecution said they were placing bets. Telephone records were also produced as evidence.

During the trial, Thomas' 26-year-old brother, Devon Thomas, was fatally shot inside a parked car at the Curries Woods housing complex in Jersey City. Devon Thomas was charged in a 2012 homicide, but was acquitted of murder at his trial in 2015.

Following his arrest, DeAndre Thomas' bail was set at $500,000 cash or bond and he has been incarcerated since then.

The retrial and subsequent guilty plea were handled by Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Leo Rinaldi.JERSEY CITY -- A man wounded during the fatal shooting of Darren Edwards in 2010 refused to answer questions from the prosecutor Wednesday when called to the witness stand in the murder trial of Anthony Shuler.

Shuler was 19 years old when he was arrested following a motor vehicle stop in Clifton on charges that he fatally shot Darren Edwards on June 28, 2010 at the corner of Duncan and Olean avenues in Jersey City.

The man who was wounded in the incident was asked numerous questions by the prosecution out of the presence of the jury, but refused to answer.

With the jury out of the courtroom, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Karan Kazanchy noted that the man had implicated Shuler as the gunman in one of two statements he gave investigators prior to the trial. Another witness also identified Shuler as the shooter to investigators, but recanted those statements when he was called as a witness.

Kazanchy added that the man injured in the shooting had a conversation with Shuler while the two were in a holding cell in the Hudson County Administration Building, which was also recorded.

"Do you remember being in the bullpen on Sept. 27, 2018," Kazanchy asked.

"Yes," the man replied.

When Kazanchy asked if he remembered having a conversation with Shuler at that time, he said he did not.

When she asked if he remembered Shuler apologizing to him for shooting him during that conversation, he said he didn't.

Kazanchy asked the man if he remembered Shuler telling him "They ain't got nothing on me" and "You ain't saying nothing." He said he did not remember.

After a while, the man just remained silent. Hudson County Superior Court Judge Patrick Arre asked him if he was going to testify and he responded, "I said I don't want to testify."

"What reason is it that you don't want to testify?" Arre asked.

The man responded, "I just don't want to testify."

But the witness spoke to his personal attorney several times out of the courtroom and began answering differently.

When Kazanchy asked if he remembered Shuler as the man who shot Edwards, the man responded that he would not answer because he did not want to be charged with perjury.

He gave the same response to additional questions put to him by Kazanchy:

"Do you remember saying Anthony Shuler shot you first and then you threw a bowl of spaghetti at him?"

"Do you remember going to the memorial for Darren Edwards the next night when you were on crutches?"

"Do you remember saying you wanted to handle this yourself?"

"Do you see Anthony Shuler in court today?"

The witness was no longer on the stand when testimony resumed Thursday. His questioning on Wednesday was out of the presence of the jury except for a very small portion.

Shuler has been awaiting trial in jail for more than eight years due to a number of factors. The case became complicated when the state charged Robert Dawson, Eric Dawson and Golden Williamson with tampering and conspiracy to murder two witnesses who were expected to testify during Shuler's trial.A man faces multiple federal drug crimes for quantities of heroin and a chemical used to make fentanyl that authorities found in Mercer County, and at his apartment in Spring Valley, New York.

David Valle Campos, 45, appeared in federal court in Trenton Tuesday and was detained without bail, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey announced. He's charged with possessing with intent to distribute heroin and 4-anilino-n-phenethyl-4-piperidine (ANPP), a controlled substance used to make fentanyl.

Federal customs agents arrested Campos Monday at the Hamilton Marketplace shopping center off Route 130 after receiving a tip from a law enforcement source that a man would be there and have either fentanyl or heroin, or both, for sale.

Agents set up a surveillance and say Campos arrived at 12 p.m. as their source said he would, and was driving a minivan with the license plate that tipster provided, authorities said.

They pulled him over after watching him talk to another man. Campos was cooperative.

In the criminal complaint against him, an agent wrote that Campos gave them permission to search the vehicle, and they found two cylindrical packages inside a brown paper bag on the center console.

The substance later tested positive for ANPP and weighed 1.2 kilograms.

While in custody, Campos gave a voluntary statement to agents in which he told them he had more packages stored in his apartment which he thought were drugs, the complaint says.

He gave agents his address, verbal and written consent to search it and also handed over his keys. Agents then went to Spring Valley, in Rockland County just north of Bergen County, New Jersey.

There, they found six more cylinders tightly wrapped in light brown tape, which they tested and found to contain heroin that weighed 2.1 kilograms, the complaint says.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations unit in Cherry Hill continues to investigate Campos.

In June, the same agency, also acting on a tip from a source, arrested two California men at the shopping center and seized 51 pounds of methamphetamine and 20 pounds of heroin.

Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevintshea. Find NJ.com on Facebook.The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office has filed an emergency appeal of a judge's decision to release a man accused of trying to lure a 5-year-old girl earlier this month, the office said Thursday.

Darren Maglione (Police photo)

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Anthony Massi ruled to release Darren Maglione, 47, of Robbinsville - with conditions, like a location-tracking ankle bracelet and a curfew.

That evening, the prosecutor's office said on Thursday, prosecutors on the case filed an emergent application with the Appellate Division to appeal the judge's decision.

That application was granted, and an appellate court will hear the prosecutor's office's arguments on keeping Maglione jailed pending trial.

Maglione will be released Thursday, pending the Appellate Court's decision. He will be fitted with an ankle monitor and will adhere to Massi's conditions until a decision can be made on the appeal, officials said.

Maglione's attorney Robin Lord said by email that "their appeal is frivolous."

Briefs from prosecutors and Maglione's defense are due tomorrow.

The prosecutor's office said there's no way to know how long a decision may take.

Maglione was arrested Oct. 12 for allegedly approaching a 5-year-old girl a few days prior in Trenton. He was driving a black Porsche in the Prospect Village apartments, and police say he told the the girl to "hop in the car" three times.

Paige Gross may be reached at pgross@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @By_paigegross.Members of the FBI Newark Division's SWAT team rush in to rescue "hostages" during a multi-agency training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

By Thomas Moriarty and Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Bursts of gunfire, flashing emergency lights and an ominous black banner draped out a window heralded what the FBI described as a hostage situation turned terrorist incident Wednesday at a U.S. Navy base in Colts Neck.

The dozens of heavily armed law enforcement officers who descended on Naval Weapons Station Earle, however, weren't faced with actual terrorists, but role players in what an FBI agent called a training exercise of a theoretical "complex, coordinated attack scenario."

Were preparing for a variety of scenarios, from lone gunman to mass casualty attacks, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Joe Denahan told reporters. So were pushing ourselves and training like this so that (when) the bell goes off in real life, were absolutely ready to react.

These kind of training exercises, a base spokesperson said, also serve to make the high-security facility "an even harder target."

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Law enforcement officers escort a role player out of the Windjammer Club at Naval Weapons Station Earle during a training exercise involving multiple agencies in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The roughly 12,000 acre military base, comprised of a main facility in Colts Neck and a waterfront complex in the Leonardo section of Middletown Township, supplies ammunition to the Navy's Atlantic carrier fleet, the U.S. Marine Corps expeditionary forces and the U.S. Coast Guard. Approximately 1,200 people work on the base at any given time.

While Navy security personnel can use force to protect the base and subdue intruders, only civilian law enforcement officers can make arrests for violations of state and federal law, public affairs officer Bill Addison said.

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Members of the Middletown Township Police Department's Emergency Services Unit take up position across the street from a "hostage situation" during a multi-agency training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Wednesday's exercise saw base security forces and agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) aided by tactical teams from both Middletown Township and the FBI, among the agencies primed to respond to a real-life major attack.

Our Navy security folks are trained and ready to handle these incidents, but we have all these local, federal and state entities actually pretty close by  were not as isolated as you might think, Addison said, calling the law enforcement partnerships critical.

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A member of U.S. Navy Security Forces stands guard while a law enforcement officer searches a role player during a hostage rescue training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The scenario Wednesday drew chilling parallels to real-life attacks in recent years, with the attackers blowing past base defenses and taking hostages.

Navy security personnel and law enforcement arriving at a building where the exercise kicked off approached it cautiously, but quickly moved in with guns drawn after hearing shots fired inside. After clearing the building, first responders led out at least two of the role players in handcuffs.

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A terrorist banner hangs from a window as multiple law enforcement agencies conduct a hostage rescue training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

At least one of the fictional attackers, however, made their way to a barracks deeper inside the base, taking numerous hostages inside.

After yelling at police surrounding the building to stay back, a role-playing "hostage taker" on the second floor draped a black flag or banner, bearing symbols associated with the Islamic State, out of a window.

While the Navy base is a federal facility where the FBI would already have jurisdiction, officials pointed to the visible suggestion of terrorist ties as an element that could escalate the bureau's involvement in a real-life crisis.

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Jared Maples, director of the state's Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, told reporters the lessons learned at the training on base were applicable far beyond its boundaries.

Anytime you can go through these real-times events  whether it be a school or an office building or any other type of location throughout the state  I think its vital to what were doing to prepare and get out ahead of these problems again before they become incidents, he said.

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An officer from the Middletown Township Police Department's Emergency Services Unit escorts a rescued "hostage" to safety during a multi-agency training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

When some "hostage" role players managed to escape from the barracks, limping across the street, officers from Middletown's Emergency Services Unit moved in to pull them to safety, using a smoke screen as cover in one instance.

Not long after the standoff evolved into apparent terror attack, FBI personnel arrived in a lengthy convoy of unmarked vehicles to take control of the scene. Denahan said the bureau's hostage negotiators and one of its aircraft were deployed as part of the exercise, in addition to SWAT and other personnel.

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A law enforcement sharpshooter takes up postiion as multiple agencies conduct a hostage rescue training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

It has all the hallmarks of a real-life critical incident, Denahan said of the training scenario. It has (a) lack of complete information. We compress the timeframe for decision-making for our leadership, and we make the tactical problem very complicated.

The lessons the first-responders learn under that pressure, he said, can be extrapolated to "anywhere in the country."

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A role player portraying a hostage taker threatens his captives Wednesday as FBI SWAT members look on during law enforcement exercise at U.S. Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

In Wednesday's exercise, the arrival of the FBI SWAT team didn't deter the terrorists, who refused to release their captives. After a hostage role player jumped to safety out a first-floor window, camouflage-clad agents rushed the building, some of them using an armored vehicle for cover.

One of the terrorists, threatening to kill two hostages in front of law enforcement, was "shot" before the SWAT team stormed the barracks.

Participants in Wednesday's exercise used weapons firing Simunition training rounds, which use gunpowder to propel non-lethal colored projectiles. The sound of the simulated gunfire echoed off nearby brick buildings.

The "attackers" dead or in custody, the agents began methodically escorting the role-playing hostages to safety.

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Members of the FBI Newark Division's SWAT team gather near an armored vehicle during a multi-agency hostage rescue training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Denahan, the FBI agent, called the threat of an attack on a military installation something that were always concerned about.

Theres no specific information of targets against the military, but weve seen in the past they have been targeted, he said.

Beyond training for the specific scenario in play Wednesday, all of the officials who spoke to reporters stressed what they described as the inherent value of learning how their agencies work together in a crisis.

"The ability to train together with them, to reinforce our plans and our training together, is really critical," Addison said.

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

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Law enforcement and emergency preparedness officials observe a multi-agency hostage rescue training exercise at Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Colts Neck, N.J. Wednesday, October, 17, 2018 (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

Related stories:When Zane Batten, a conservation police officer with the state Division of Fish and Wildlife, got a tip that a man was growing marijuana plants in a shed on property adjacent to state lands in South Jersey, he decided to set up a sting operation.

He knew the suspect from previous encounters and was certain he was up to no good.

Batten placed a notice on Craigslist in 2013 advertising free scrap metal available at the suspect's property, and included his phone number and address.

The officer hoped that if people started showing up unannounced, it would spook his quarry and he would try to move his plants, giving the officer probable cause for a search.

A day after placing the ad, Batten hid behind the shed for eight to 10 hours, but saw nothing suspicious.

The plan had failed.

That wasn't the end of this story, though.

As it turns out, Batten never notified his superiors about his ruse and didn't have approval for the operation.

He was suspended for 70 days without pay. He appealed that suspension and the state appellate court has now upheld the earlier decision.

Batten's superiors would have never known about this episode had it not been for another encounter between Batten and his suspect, described in court documents by the initials J.G., just days after the failed pot bust.

Batten was investigating a trespassing complaint on state lands he was patrolling when he claimed J.G. struck him with a bucket, according to the appellate ruling. J.G. was arrested and charged with assault, but that charge was later dismissed.

It was while J.G.'s attorney was investigating Batten's assault claim that he learned about the phony ad on Craigslist. J.G. had received phone calls and about a dozen visitors as a result of that ad.

J.G. filed a complaint with the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, which referred the matter to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which oversees the Fish and Wildlife division.

Batten had launched his own investigation into the alleged pot growing after first referring the matter to the county prosecutor's office, according to the appellate documents.

He also stated his actions were in keeping with past practice, saying he would only discuss open investigations with superiors once he established probable cause, and that it was not unusual to initiate an investigation without notifying anyone.

All of this was contrary to the DEP's standard procedures, appellate judges noted

During a review of his conduct, Batten admitted placing the ad, but when he was asked to submit a written statement on his actions, he refused, citing concerns that the statement could be subject to an Open Public Records Act request. Batten said he was concerned for his safety if J.G. filed an OPRA, because he believed J.G. and his associates "were involved in violent crimes," according to court documents.

Batten had several encounters with J.G. over an 18-year period and the officer believed the man "was an active gang member whose friends were murderers and drug dealers," according to the appellate court ruling.

Given those claims, officials noted that Batten's sting operation placed innocent people in potential harm.

"While he was allegedly concerned for his own safety, he testified he was not concerned about the individuals who might have shown up on the property in response to the phony ad," the appellate court wrote.

While one of Batten's superiors recommended he receive a formal letter of reprimand but no suspension, the DEP settled on the 70-day suspension without pay, citing Batten for conduct unbecoming a public employee, for initiating an investigation without notice to or approval from his chain of command and for potentially endangering the public. He was also cited for refusing to provide a written statement about his actions.

Batten appealed the suspension and an Office of Administrative Law judge upheld the DEP's decision. The judge wrote that Batten's "failure to report the investigation, even after the fact, was further evidence that he knew such conduct was not permitted."

The Civil Service Commission accepted the judge's determination and issued its final decision in 2016.

Batten argued that the administrative law judge improperly questioned and cross-examined witnesses, failed to address testimony supporting his statement that he didn't refuse to provide a written statement, and failed to consider that the DEP's office of labor relations had exceeded its disciplinary role in recommending the suspension, since an immediate supervisor had already disciplined and verbally counseled him.

He also argued that the suspension "was not consistent with progressive discipline."

Batten appealed the commission's decision to the appellate court, which upheld the commission's decision last week.

It's not clear if he has already served the suspension.

Efforts to reach Batten and his attorney for comment were unsuccessful on Thursday.

Batten, who graduated from the Burlington County Police Academy and joined the conservation officer ranks in 2001, earns an annual salary of $87,201.74, according to state payroll records.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented Batten with an Award of Excellence last year for his work in law enforcement.

The commission noted Batten's work on several cases that resulted in domestic and international charges in cases involving illegal eel harvesting along the Atlantic Coast and illegal commercialization of striped bass from the Delaware Bay.

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.UPDATE: Jersey Shore bar owner defends bouncer, says 'belligerent' patron hit head on potted plant

The owners of Long Beach Island bar have been charged with lying to police and withholding evidence after one of bar's bouncers assaulted a customer last month, authorities said.

Terrace Tavern co-owners Toby Sweeney and Michael Sweeney were charged with hindering on Wednesday and released with summonses, Long Beach Township police said in a statement.

The bouncer, Kenneth Widmer was arrested last week and charged with aggravated assault, unsworn falsification to authorities and two counts of criminal mischief.

The victim suffered a serious head injury around 2 a.m. on Sept. 29, according to police. A nurse who was at the bar on her wedding day helped treat the man, giving him chest compressions and other aid. An off-duty member of the Beach Haven first aid squad who was also at the tavern assisted the nurse, police said.

A spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, which is assisting in the investigation, wasn't able to immediately provide an update on the condition of the man. A spokesman for the Long Beach Township police also couldn't be immediately reached.

A message left at Terrace Tavern, which is closed Thursday, seeking comment from the bar's owners wasn't immediately returned.

Terrace Tavern is on the corner of Long Beach Boulevard and East Maryland Avenue in Beach Haven.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.MONTREAL -- There's been a lot of debate in Trenton about how the Legislature should go about legalizing marijuana.

But after a trip to Canada for the first day of legalization, I can say this in all confidence: There's no debating how many people will show up to buy legal pot:

Roughly 1.4 gazillion.

That's a scientific estimate I made after I observed opening day at a store in Montreal run by the Societe Quebecois du Cannabis, or "SQDC" as it's known.

The line in front of the nondescript shop went all the way to the end of the block. Then it snaked around the corner down a side street for another block.

After I parked and walked toward the store, I saw a middle-aged guy pull up on a Honda scooter. He chained it to a post and then got on the back of the line, still wearing his motorcycle helmet against the early onset of some winter weather.

I told him how long the line was, but he said he didn't care.

If what I saw in Montreal was any indication, the lines could stretch across New Jersey once it becomes legal. (Photo by Paul Mulshine | The Star-Ledger)

"When you buy it on the street, you don't know what you're gonna get," he said.

That wasn't the case at the SQDC store. When I walked up to the entrance I could read a display inside describing the types of marijuana for sale, sativa, indica and a hybrid, with a description of the characteristics of each as well as a chart of its strength.

As I read it, I'd see satisfied customers walking out, each carrying a brown paper bag and smiling. One woman told me she waited two hours to buy half an ounce of weed. But it was worth the wait, she said.

"I suffer from anxiety and this cures it."

She liked the price as well, $110 Canadian for 15 grams. That works out to about $200 an ounce in American dollars, well under the projected price once New Jersey legalizes.

But the Canadians don't have much choice when it comes to raising prices. The market for legal pot faces tough competition from a black market that wasn't all that black even before legalization.

The woman told me that up till Wednesday she'd been buying edible pot online from a place in Vancouver. That was no big deal, she said.

"They put it in a smell-proof wrapping and it doesn't cross a border, so it doesn't get checked."

Unlike our own, the Canadian postal service doesn't check packages for pot, she said.

Now there will be a lot more of it in the mail.

(Photo by Paul Mulshine | The Star-Ledger)

On the drive up, I'd stopped by a head shop in Quebec's neighboring province of Ontario. I'd expected to see pot on sale there, but the forlorn owner told me that the provincial government hadn't yet approved cannabis sales in stores.

All he could sell was a pipe to put it in. To get any weed, Ontario residents will have to order online.

So will most residents of Canada. It's a huge country.

The province of Quebec, where Montreal is located, has about the same number of people as New Jersey, 8.5 million to our nine million. Those people are spread over a land mass that reaches almost to the Arctic Circle. But there were a mere 12 shops to serve them on opening day.

Here in Jersey, all nine million residents will be within driving distance of whatever pot stores open up. And unlike the Canadians, Jerseyans won't have the option of ordering online. Every single pothead must make his purchase in person.

If what I saw in Montreal was any indication, the lines could stretch across the state.

That could cause some inconvenience for the neighbors.

After standing around in the cold for a while, I went in to a sushi shop to warm up. As I was enjoying my bowl of noodles, a regular customer dropped in, said his hellos to the staff, and then started complaining that the crowds blocked the shop entrance.

"This is crazy. They were lined up at 4 a.m. in downtown Montreal," he said. "They.should have just decriminalized it first."

Another regular came in with her young daughter. She was upset that the crowd kept her from parking anywhere near the building.

"For drugs!," she said. "All this for drugs."

In defense of the potheads, they all seemed quite polite and well-mannered. After I left the sushi shop, the guy in the motorcycle helmet had worked his way about halfway to the SQDC entrance. He was cold but happy.

Meanwhile the line behind him had gotten no shorter. For every purchaser who exited, one would show up at the end of the line.

As for those who didn't feel like waiting, there was always a black market selling a product that becomes legal the moment the buyer completes the sale.

There's a lesson in that for our legislators.

I recommend they visit the Great White North and find it out for themselves.

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.By Jennifer Rubin

President Donald Trump barely disguises his own ignorance on the critical issues of the day. In his jaw-dropping interview with the Associated Press, he was asked about climate change, specifically scientists' conclusion that we are "nearing a point where this can't be reversed." He replied:

"Some say that and some say differently. I mean, you have scientists on both sides of it. My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years. Dr. John Trump. And I didn't talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture."

His uncle was a scientist, whom Trump really didn't speak to but Trump knows science! He -- like talk radio, Fox News, right-wing blogs and other know-nothings now dominating the party - makes no effort to wrestle with facts. He continues to restate the false talking point that the scientific community is divided on the topic. In the right-wing bubble, where ignorance in service of tribalism is no sin, Trump faces no ridicule or serious opposition.

The Republican Party, if it decided that flat-earthism or spontaneous generation were politically advantageous, would surely adopt those theories as well.

Sadly, policy built on willful ignorance or intentional falsehoods is not limited to climate change, sadly. Trump and his followers eschew not merely "conservatism" but also fact-based governance, which was a precondition for democratic governance itself.

It is not "conservative" to believe that Post Global Opinions columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by "rogue killers," massive tax cuts were going to pay for themselves, immigrants steal jobs and cause a crime wave, Russia (or Russia alone) might not have meddled in the 2016 election and other such poppycock.

These are out and out falsehoods, and the determination to maintain them and label truth-tellers as enemies is indicative not of conservatism but of a totalitarian mind-set in which leaders make up their own reality and avoid the consequences for their real-world calamities.

Trump's performance also revealed the degree to which the right has become intellectually corrupt but also bereft of anything resembling traditional values or simple decency.

Trump's imitation of manly virtues is not born of respect for traditional values, a mainstay of conservatism for many decades. To the contrary, when he insults women's appearance ("Horseface" was his latest gibe, directed at one of his alleged former paramours to whom he had paid hush money, Stormy Daniels) --and then denies insulting women ("You can take it any way you want") -- he is exhibiting churlishness, crudeness and cruelty.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., aptly remarked, "That's not the way men act."

But that's how Trump acts, and his legions of followers, who still cling to the moniker "social conservative," couldn't care less.

In fact, they love it when he mocks and insults women. Traditional values used to encompass family unity and concern for children's upbringing, but Trump (even aside from his serial adultery) is arguably the least pro-family president we've had in the past century.

He touts his cruel family-separation policy, insisting that he did well by the youngsters who were ripped from the arms of their parents. He delights in deporting those brought here illegally as children, even at the expense of separating them from American-born family members. Trump has eradicated respect for "family values," and yet his evangelical cronies praise him to the hilt.

In the same vein, the president who constantly invokes his love of the military has - from his draft deferments over bone spurs to his refusal to visit the troops in combat arenas - consistently revealed a lack of physical courage. This exchange with the AP was truly cringe-worthy:

"AP: On the subject of American soldiers and military overseas, why have you not yet visited a military base in a combat zone like in Iraq and Afghanistan?

"Trump: Well, I will do that at some point, but I don't think it's overly necessary. I've been very busy with everything that's taking place here. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I mean, this is the greatest economy we've ever had, best unemployment numbers. Many groups are, you know, we've never even been close to these numbers. I'm doing a lot of things. I'm doing a lot of things. . . ."

In sum, Trump represents a party that now embraces (or is resigned to) intellectual rot and moral nihilism.

The GOP is a party that has adopted Trump's sense of male victimhood and has made peace with Trump's cruelty to women and indifference to children's welfare.

And while Trump would prefer to bask in the reflected glory of the military, his personal weakness and cowardice are evident. In fully embracing Trump as its champion, the GOP has lost intellectual respectability, moral legitimacy and respect for even the most fundamental value, courage.

Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a center-right perspective.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.In no way should the following editorial diminish the horror of the alleged rape of state employee Katie Brennan by Albert J. Alvarez, or the way that Gov. Phil Murphy's administration shamefully rewarded Alvarez with a key state job, despite Brennan's on-the-record sexual assault allegations. Both had been working at the time on Murphy's 2017 campaign team.

In full damage-control mode, Murphy has launched an administration investigation into how Alvarez slipped through the background-check cracks or was deliberately lifted over them. The result will probably be similar to former Gov. Chris Christie's self-examination of the Bridgegate scandal, but presumably will cost taxpayers less money. In any case, there probably does not exist in Trenton enough whitewash to cover Murphy after Christie used up his share.

So, we also, appropriately, have the Legislature looking into this incident, as well as changes in how the state deals with employee-to-employee sexual harassment cases. It's to state Senate President Stephen Sweeney's credit that Sweeney, D-Gloucester, named a bipartisan panel, and that Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen -- herself a survivor -- will lead it.

But, to digress from how shockingly Brennan's rape accusations were dismissed by prosecutors, and were deep-sixed or remained undiscovered by Murphy's hiring team, let's focus for a moment on that state job that Alvarez held for about eight months before abruptly resigning as the scandal broke.

He was the chief of staff for the New Jersey Schools Development Authority, an obvious place to stash an outlier who needed a job. It's almost surprising that anyone found Alvarez hiding in plain sight at the SDA.

This brings us back to a question posed in this space before: Why on earth does the Schools Development Agency -- a redundant and nearly useless extension of state government -- exist? The last time we called for its abolition was 11 months ago, when it was part of a controversy over a long-needed replacement for Camden High School.

To trace its origin story, the SDA's forerunner, the Schools Construction Corp., was created in the early 2000s because Republicans who led the Legislature didn't trust administrators in New Jersey's poorest districts to spend some $8.6 billion that became available to replace decrepit buildings. The overseers were the price of the overdue jump start in construction spending, but the SCC quickly developed a reputation for cost overruns and project delays. In 2007, then-Gov. Jon Corzine signed a law abolishing the SCC, replacing it with the Schools Development Authority.

The SDA remains perhaps the world's best-paid nanny with the smallest scope of work. It spends about $23 million annually, mostly to vet construction activity and contracts in the 31 urban districts that it was designated to shadow. Efforts to make the SDA into a real efficiency model by adopting cookie-cutter school designs for the whole state haven't really panned out. Suburban districts, which also receive substantial construction funds from the state, don't get the same heavy hand on their expansion/replacement projects.

Frankly, the prompt removal of Alvarez's name from the SDA's management roster might be the most efficient thing the agency has ever done.

Among the state Department of Education, the 31 monitored school districts themselves, and municipal construction officials, there must exist sufficient guidance to keep these projects on track.

Although the SDA's problem du jour may be a $140,000-a-year chief of staff who never should have been appointed, this doesn't help the agency justify itself as much more than a bloated patronage hut. End it, and transfer whatever actual work it does elsewhere.

Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- After his visit to Iowa earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is heading south Thursday to spend two days in another early-voting state on the 2020 presidential primary calendar.

Booker, D-N.J., will be visiting South Carolina, with stops in Columbia, Orangeburg and Charleston to help get the vote out Nov. 6. He will accompanied on his stops by former South Carolina Democratic Chairman Jaime Harrison, who has known Booker from their days at Yale University.

It's another opportunity to Booker, a potential 2020 Democratic hopeful, to make friends and influence people in an important state should he decide to run for president. A CNN poll placed him fifth among possible contenders.

"You meet political people who will run local campaign offices," said Matthew Hale, a political science professor at Seton Hall University. "You meet local donors who will write checks. You get on the news with speculation about the run, which feeds political people, donors and more news."

Four states will vote early -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- and strong performances there will unlock the campaign donations, momentum and party support needed continue on.

Booker has been to three of them, and on Wednesday he sent out a fundraising email on the part of New Hampshire Democratic gubernatorial nominee Molly Kelly, a former state senator challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

"With President Trump in the White House, state leadership is more important than ever," Booker wrote. "And New Hampshire needs a governor who will push back against the Trump administration's harmful agenda and champion the needs of working families -- Molly Kelly will be that governor."

Even if he decides against running for president, Booker's presence will be a boon to the party.

"Cory Booker is the best orator the Democrats have," Hale said. "He can light up any crowd with his speeches. That is still a valuable commodity in politics and Booker is smart to use it in as many places as he can, even if the president thing doesn't work out."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Thursday became the latest hospital to drop a three-year-old lawsuit against Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey that accused the state's dominant health insurance provider of squeezing community hospitals out of the market.

CentraState was once one of seven hospitals that sued Horizon for relegating them to a more expensive tier in the company's OMNIA discount health plans, which Horizon said would revolutionize health care options in the state.

Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, the last plaintiff in the case, and Horizon are scheduled to square-off in a state Superior Court Bergen County on Monday, Valley's attorney Michael Furey said.

The lawsuit accuses Horizon "breached its duty to act in good faith" by relegating the hospital to OMNIA's second tier, costing the hospitals -- smaller, independent and largely Catholic hospitals -- millions of dollars.

According to once-confidential documents NJ Advance Media obtained through a lawsuit, Horizon did not select tier 1 hospitals based on lower costs. The largest hospital systems came out ahead even if smaller competitors scored better on quality measures.

OMNIA's 400,000 policy holders are able to save thousands of dollars more in copays and deductibles by using 39 "tier 1" hospitals and medical professionals, which have agreed to Horizon's terms to accept lower reimbursements in exchange for higher patient volume. Consumers can use "tier 2" hospitals and doctors but they will pay more to do so.

In a joint statement Thursday, Horizon and CentraState officials said they were "pleased to put our differences behind us and to recognize that working collaboratively to improve the quality of care, lower costs and enhance the patient experience is better than continuing to focus on differences."

CentraState will remain a Tier 2 hospital, the announcement said.

Next year, the hospital's orthopedics and maternity/newborn care programs will "accelerate the development of value-based care initiatives" which focus on preventive care.

"CentraState and Horizon will continue our long history of working together to transform the healthcare system to one that promotes health and wellness over sick care and shifts the focus from the volume of care delivered to the quality of outcomes and the value of care achieved."

The original seven hospital systems suing Horizon were Capital Health System in Trenton and Hopewell; Centrastate; Holy Name in Teaneck; JFK Medical Center in Edison; St. Luke's Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg; Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth and Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.

Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck withdrew its claim against Horizon for an undisclosed financial settlement in July.

Saint Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick filed a separate lawsuit to challenge its tier 2 designation.

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- New Jersey voters dislike President Donald Trump more than they're worried about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's ethical problems, according to a poll released Thursday that gives the Democratic senator a 9-point lead over Republican Bob Hugin among likely voters.

Menendez led Hugin, the former Celgene Corp. executive, 49 percent to 40 percent, in the Monmouth University Poll.

It is the third consecutive survey to give Menendez at least a 7-point advantage following two polls earlier this month that put his lead within the margin of error. He held a 51-44 percent advantage in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday.

Menendez and Trump both have negative approval ratings. But 56 percent of likely voters said their views of the president were a more important factor in deciding which Senate candidate to support, while 31 percent said their opinion of the senator was more important.

"If these poll results hold, the first person Bob Menendez should thank in his election night victory speech is Donald Trump," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Poll.

"Hugin was successful in making this one competitive by hammering away at Menendez's ethical baggage," Murray said. "But the incumbent has been able to fight back to get the margin into a range that is closer to the norm for New Jersey."

A majority of likely voters, 55 percent, disapproved of Trump's performance in office, while 42 percent supported him. Menendez was viewed unfavorably by 45 percent and favorably by 28 percent, with 27 percent having no opinion.

The opposition to Trump threatened to spill over into the New Jersey's U.S. House races, where the Cook Political Report rated Democratic candidates as no worse than 50-50 to win four of the five congressional districts now represented by Republicans.

In those five seats, 48 percent supported the Democratic candidate and 45 percent backed the Republican, In the 2014 midterm election, the Republican candidates held a 61 percent to 38 percent advantage.

"The question this year is whether ambivalence about the candidates at the top of the ticket or the Trump factor will have more of an impact down ballot," Murray said.

Voters said their No. 1 issue was health care, and trusted Menendez more than Hugin on that subject, 40 percent to 28 percent. By 48 percent to 14 percent, they had a negative view of the pharmaceutical industry.

Menendez has criticized Hugin's tenure at Celgene, which fought efforts to allow a lower-cost generic alternative to its Revlimid cancer drug while continuing to raise its price.

"Hugin's pharma past does not help him in a year when worries about rising health care costs top the list of voter concerns, which is true not just in New Jersey but nationwide," Murray said.

The No. 2 issue was corruption, the centerpiece of Hugin's campaign against Menendez. Hugin was trusted more to handle that issue, 39 percent to 26 percent.

Menendez was "severely admonished" by the Senate Ethics Committee for accepting gifts and trips from a friend and campaign donor, Dr. Salomon Melgen, while intervening with federal agencies on his behalf.

But 64 percent said Menendez's behavior was no different than that of other politicians, while just 22 percent said it was worse.

"You've got to wonder if New Jersey voters look at corruption through a different lens than other voters," Murray said.

Considering that two indicted House Republicans still are running competitive re-election campaigns, "perhaps the goalposts have been moved nationwide in recent years," he said.

The poll of 527 likely voters was conducted Oct. 11-15, with a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Union County residents may turn in unwanted guns in their possession at one of two locations from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Guns may be surrendered at the Macedonia Baptist Church at 1251 Fairmount Ave. in Elizabeth or the Visions of God Family Worship Church at 350 Leland Ave. in Plainfield.

Residents can turn in up to three firearms and receive up to $250 for each weapon.

"These buyback events offer our residents a secure way to remove unwanted weapons from their possession and ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands," said Freeholder Chairman Sergio Granados.

Gun buybacks are designed as an opportunity for anyone to turn in any gun, in any condition, with no questions asked.

The gun buyback event is supported by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders and sponsored by the Union County Prosecutor and the Union County Sheriff with the Union County Division of Police and the police departments of the cities of Elizabeth and Plainfield.

For questions about the buyback event, call the Union County Department of Public Safety at 908-654-9816 or the Public Information Line, 877-424-1234.High Point Regional High School sent students home early Thursday because the lone nurse was not present and the school was unable to find a last-minute substitute.

Students were dismissed at 12:25 p.m. due to what Superintendent Scott Ripley, in a message on the school's website, attributed to "circumstances beyond our control."

"We have children who are medically fragile, who require medical services that are administered by a certified professional," Ripley told NJ Advance Media.

Ripley declined to say why the nurse was not present, but explained that the K-12 district has a contract with a service provider but was unable to find a substitute for the day.

He said it is the first time that has happened since the high school reduced its nursing staff from two to one in September 2017.

The reduction was prompted by a sizable decrease in the school's enrollment, from about 1,400 in 2008 to under 1,000 this year.

"Our school has lost quite a bit of people," Ripley said, adding that schools throughout Sussex County -- where the population has been declining -- have been grappling with a similar loss of students.

High Point Regional High School is located in Wantage, and also enrolls students from Branchville, Frankford, Lafayette, Montague and Sussex Borough.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com 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: musician Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

The icon: Louis Moreau Gottschalk.

The legacy: Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the son of a London businessman and a Creole woman, showed piano-playing talent while he was still a child, giving his first concert in 1840 at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans. He was sent to France to study, and his talent blossomed, not only as a pianist but also as a composer. Gottschalk started composing before he was 20, and he eventually wrote more than 300 pieces. His music, which is considered a forerunner of jazz, draws on themes Gottschalk learned from his maternal grandmother, Josephine Deynaud Brusle, and Sally, a slave who was his childhood nurse. He returned to the United States in 1853 and became a major figure in American musical life until an 1865 scandal involving his relationship with a student at a music seminary prompted him to flee to South America. During his tour there, he contracted yellow fever and died in 1869, three weeks after collapsing during a concert in which he had just played "Morte!! (She Is Dead): Lamentation." He was just 40 -- but in those four decades he had become New Orleans' first international musical superstar.

The artist: Jeff Morgan.

The quote: "Gottschalk was assimilating the musics of Europe, North America, South America, and the Islands into a cauldron that would eventually produce jazz in the late 1890s and early 1910s. One wonders how fellow pianist and composer Jelly Roll Morton (and Scott Joplin, for that matter) would have turned out had Gottschalk not preceded him." -- C. Michael Bailey, in the essay "There Would Be No Jazz Without Louis Moreau Gottschalk" for allaboutjazz.com.

Explore more of Morgan's work online at WhereYart.net and in person at the Where Y'Art gallery, 1901 Royal St.

Gottschalk lived with his family in a cottage at the southwest corner of Royal Street and Esplanade Avenue. He later moved in with relatives at 518 Conti St.

By John Pope, contributing writer

Source: The Times-Picayune archives; allaboutjazz.com; staff research

More on 300 for 300:Photo: Town of Oliver The canal where it goes underground near Gallagher Lake

Town of Oliver mayor Ron Hovanes is off to Ottawa next week for a meeting with the federal Minister of Infrastructure to try to secure funding for the irrigation canal rerouting project.

MP Richard Cannings secured the meeting, set for Monday, after raising the issue in the House of Commons last month.

It's really a good news story, there is some good potential here to get some funding out of this, Coun. Dave Mattes said during this weeks council meeting.

The nearly 100-year-old Oliver canal brings water to 1,400 hectares of farmland along its 17.4 kilometre route between Vaseux Lake and Hester Creek.

In 2016 a rockfall damaged the canal at Gallagher Lake, and since then, the municipality has been working to secure funding to reroute the canal away from the rockslide-prone area.

The provincial government has committed $5M of the $10M needed to complete the project, but the federal government has so far refused to help.

The project has so far not fit the criteria for grant programs in both the infrastructure and agriculture ministries, to the frustration of the Town of Oliver.

MP Cannings will participate in the meeting with Hovanes and Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne.It debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was instantly proclaimed an award-season contender. It screened at the BFI Festival in London, where it earned still more accolades and more buzz. But for "Green Book" director Peter Farrelly, his film's New Orleans debut -- which took place Wednesday night (Oct. 17) to kick off the 2018 New Orleans Film Festival -- occupies a particularly special place in the film's still-developing journey.

"This is one of the highs of my life," Farrelly said Wednesday night from the stage of the Orpheum Theater, after basking in a post-screening standing ovation. "... I'm just being honest: It'll never get better than this. I plan to make good movies in the future, but I don't know that I'll ever make a movie that does this."

Part of that, of course, comes from just being in New Orleans, where Farrelly's son attends Tulane University and which Farrelly called "the best town in the country." In addition, the screening marked a homecoming for "Green Book," which was shot almost entirely in the New Orleans area in late 2017 and early 2018.

"Showing it down here, where we shot it, it's really a special night for us," Farrelly said.

In one brief, delightfully meta moment in the film, the Orpheum Theater itself turned up on-screen, doubling for a concert hall in Macon, Georgia. It's one of a number of local landmarks that get screen-time in the film; others include Tulane's McAlister Auditorium, the Roosevelt Hotel and the W.P. Brown mansion on St. Charles Avenue.

The screening was only the latest stop on what many foresee as a potentially fruitful award season for "Green Book," which stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in a story -- inspired by real events -- about a rough-around-the-edges, Italian-American bouncer from New York who is hired to accompany an erudite black piano genius on a concert tour of the American South in 1962.

Nick Vallelonga, the son of the real-life man portrayed by Mortensen -- and who co-wrote and co-produced the film with Farrelly and Brian Hayes Currie -- called it a "dream come true," not just to see his father's story brought to the big screen but to see the film earning such accolades.

"My father would be, 'Yeah, of course. It's about me, of course it's good,'" Vallelonga said on the New Orleans Film Festival red carpet.

As for what audiences can expect when the film is released into theaters Nov. 21, Vallelonga added: "I hope they expect to feel good, to be moved, to learn a little bit, be entertained. It's an amazing story."

As has become tradition on opening night of the annual film festival, the movie was followed by a New Orleans second-line parade, in which the Kinfolk Brass Band led moviegoers from the theater, down Canal Street and to a post-screening party at the Jung Hotel and Residences.

The 29th annual New Orleans Film Festival continues through Oct. 25, with more than 220 films scheduled to screen at venues around town, including the Orpheum, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Broad Theater and the Prytania Theater.A Northshore High School student has been arrested and accused of threatening another student at the Slidell school in a text message, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office said Thursday (Oct. 18).

The student, a 16-year-old boy, was booked late Wednesday night into the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center in Robert on one count of terrorizing. The Sheriffs Office did not name the student.

In a news release, the Sheriffs Office said a parent "was made aware that the teen had sent text messages to other students referencing guns and his plans to harm another student. The parent initially contacted the Slidell Police Department, which turned the investigation over to the Sheriffs Office because the teen lives outside city limits.

The arrest is the second this year involving a public school student accused of making a threat. A 14-year-old Lakeshore High School student was arrested in August after authorities said she made a threat.

We have made it very clear that law enforcement and the school system will take threats like this seriously, Sheriff Randy Smith said in a news release. We will continue to work with our schools and investigate any and all threats at our schools or to the students and faculty who attend them. Parents I urge you, to please speak with your children about the seriousness of actions such as these.

The Sheriffs Office and school district administrators have urged parents to talk with their children about the serious nature of any threats they might make.

Several students were arrested last year on accusations of terrorizing following a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school in February. The St. Tammany Parish public school district has warned students that they would be arrested in such cases, even if the threats are made as a joke.

Following the mass shooting in Florida, a St. Tammany school district task force met to discuss ways to make the parishs 55 campuses safer. The school board voted to hire uniformed deputies and police officers -- called school resource officers -- and mental health providers on each campus starting this school year.Revolutions are exhausting.

Its been a year now since Harvey Weinsten became a household name for those outside the realm of Hollywoods elite, and about the same since here, in New Orleans, John Beshs future at the restaurant group bearing his name was thrown into question. Dozens of other men with big shot titles printed on their business cards came tumbling down as Me Too went from hashtag to movement and accusations of sexual misconduct in varying degrees were lobbed against people whod seemed untouchable.

Man. Hell hath no fury like women assaulted, harassed, raped, forgotten and ignored.

Its tough to call any of whats happened a victory, exactly, because of the cost. But its tough, too, to look at the past year and think were not better off.

Trust me, that itself is hard to say. Especially after the past few weeks. We watched actress Alyssa Milano, who popularized Tarana Burkes #MeToo on Twitter, as she poked her head out from behind then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaughs angry mien as he sparred with senators moments after Christine Blasey Ford testified that Kavanaugh had attempted to rape her as a teenager.

"It was a very hard day to be in that room, but I was proud to be a woman and I was proud to be a survivor, and I felt like I needed to be there for other survivors that couldn't be there," Milano told CNN.

Naturally, Kavanaughs on the Supreme Court now. And any hope that maybe  just maybe  wed made enough strides this time that a qualified woman could be believed over a qualified man on national TV was shoved right back into the box it came in.

A couple months back, before any of that, we hosted two meetings in the NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune newsroom to get to know the New Orleans high schoolers on the team of contributing column writers we call NOLA Student Voices. By happenstance in their own schedules, we ended up with two groups, one of which was primarily male and the other primarily female.

Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

As I sat in on the second group, I listened to these young women  teenagers  talking about the issues that mattered most to them. Gender equality, feminism and the pay gap were all top of mind. They talked about unfair dress codes favoring male bodies and making female ones out of line. They talked about going to school-sponsored events where the girls were encouraged to cheer on the boys, but the favor wasnt returned. And they talked about how they wouldnt stand for it.

It wasnt that long ago that I was their age, but I was stunned and thankful to hear them say those things. Not that they were dealing with inequalities, but that they were recognizing them -- and saying so.

As a teenager, I didnt have the language to explain why, when a school administrator stroked a hand across my exposed lower back, a breach of our own dress code, I found it so uncomfortable. I didnt know to tell someone it was inappropriate when a male boss, decades my senior, told me he thought my glasses made me look like a sexy librarian. I so often didnt know what to do or how to feel, a kind of miseducation in gender equality by a thousand paper-cuts.

I remember, in particular, Januarys Babe.net piece detailing one womans experience on what some called a bad date with Aziz. While that piece received complicated reactions, it did give us an important lesson: If this is normal, then weve got much more to do.

The lucky thing is, as messy and as exhausting and as hard as its been for the adults in the room, the kids seem to get it. Weve got a generation of young women and young men learning how to talk about the things we still have trouble doing.

Ive been in the room when those conversations are happening, and let me tell you: Theres no stopping it.

- - -Photo: CTV

Police were called again to a suburban Victoria law office after a suspicious substance was received in the mail on Tuesday.

RCMP are investigating the second incident at Hemminger Law Group in Langford.

Again, mail was received containing an unknown white powder. Police say the package also contained an anonymous threatening letter.

A similar incident prompted a police and hazmat response in September.

In both cases, police determined the substances were benign.

 with files from CTV Vancouver Island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The New Orleans Saints re-signed veteran offensive lineman Michael Ola on Thursday, according to a league source.

As of early Thursday afternoon, it was unclear exactly why the team felt the need to add some depth along the offensive line. Left tackle Terron Armstead (knee) and left guard Andrus Peat (head) were both limited in practice on Wednesday, but theyve played through injuries in previous games this season, though Peat sat out Weeks 1 and 3.

The Saints have not yet announced the Ola acquisition or a corresponding move that would open a spot on the 53-man roster.

Ola, 30, was with the Saints this offseason and was a backup with the team in Week 1.

Drew Brees, Saints hoping to end losing streak against RavensPhoto: Nicholas Johansen

Consumers in British Columbia wanting to legally buy recreational marijuana for the first time on Wednesday were most likely to use the province's online sales system, which Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth says passed one significant hurdle in the early going.

After it went live at midnight, Farnworth says the system recorded about 1,000 sales in the first hour.

"It did not crash," he told a conference call with reporters.

By 2 p.m., the only government store in B.C., in Kamloops, had taken about 200 orders, and the province said there had been about 5,600 online purchases. By mid-afternoon some products were sold out.

Farnworth said he expected demand to exceed supply for some of the products.

"Some strains are going to sell out faster than other strains, and it shows people are excited about the prospect of being able to buy legal cannabis in B.C. and in the rest of the country," he said. "It doesn't surprise me. It's like you go to the liquor store and sometimes your favourite wine is sold out."

Viviana Zanocco, a spokeswoman for the BC Liquor Distribution Branch, said producers "fell short" on what the government expected to be delivered.

Blain Lawson, CEO of the distribution branch, said the store's frosted windows meet a Health Canada regulation that prohibits product being visible from the street. "We're making sure that it looks nice from the outside, but children won't be able to see into the store," he said.

The store has a clean, streamlined layout with white walls and glossy shelves. Mounted electronic tablets with touch screens display strains of marijuana available for purchase and prices.

Consumers can take a whiff of each strain from a clear plastic "smell jar" that has a small piece of bud inside. Staff carry small flashlights to help customers take a closer look at the nuggets, but otherwise the product is not openly displayed.

Kevin Satterfield, director of cannabis retail operations for the distribution branch, said about 20 people have been hired to work at the store and they looked for staff with awareness of cannabis. All underwent criminal background checks, but a small pot possession conviction would not necessarily disqualify them.People dont always understand the value of audio in meetings, said Randall Lee, Director Strategic Channel Marketing at Yamaha Corporation when speaking about the companys UC solutions.

This reminds us We were once an amateur audiophile ourselves. In the days when we had to drag a diamond over a spinning plastic disc to produce quality tunes. And even back then, we knew about the Yamaha legacy.

They have actually been in the U.S. since 1960 and are in virtually all facets of audio. They started building pianos in 1900 and are still a leader in the space. The brand always stood for premium sound and we have been a fan of many of their products over the years.

We are digressing a bit but not too much. Some time back, the company bought Revolabs. In a way, this is the merging of the companys Professional Audio Equipment group started in 1969 with the latest in UC endpoints.

Randall explained quite eloquently that often when installing videoconferencing solutions, IT focuses on the video solution but doesnt take into account the fact you can have a call without video but not without audio.

He went on to tell me the company has always been about audio capture and feedback and they continue to bring audio innovation to the business space. He said, From the backpack to the boardroom to the lecture hall to operating theatres in giant spaces.

In case you missed it, our colleague Paula Bernier recently broke the news about the companys new YVC-200 Portable Speakerphone.

One differentiator the Japanese leader espouses is a common UI and UE across all devices and platforms with a goal of providing the best audio out there.

They will continue to be software-agnostic allowing customers to easily switch conferencing vendors if they choose to. He did mention however they will consider making vendor-specific devices to work with large providers.

We went on to discuss the CS-700 Video Soundbar which has been described as a huddle room powerhouse.

The device has support for USB, bluetooth, NFC and remote management and we can expect a dialer, SIP and DisplayLink support in the future.

For larger conference rooms there is the YAI-1 allowing out-of-the-box installation with wireless microphones and Yamaha audio processing such as DSPs; all integrated into a single solution. This includes PoE speakers.

The company has a new engineering center in Hamamatsu which they liken to the Bell Labs of audio meaning we can continue to expect leading-edge audio quality from the company. From musical instruments all the way to your huddle and conference rooms and even your auditoriums and concert halls (if applicable).

Learn more about IT and UC at ITEXPO, January 29-February 1st, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Where Doers & Disruptors Find Communications & Technology SolutionsPhoto: (L to R) Canadian Mental Health Association, Vernon & District Branch Peer support volunteers Christy and Patricia, with service dog, Deja.

For more than 20 years, the Canadian Mental Health Association Vernon & District has been offering social contact and support for community members with mental illness through its Peer Support program.

Living with a mental illness can be an isolating existence.

While there are many treatments and supports that help people recover, there is one tool that is often left untapped. This tool is peer support.



October 18 is Global Peer Support Day. Its a day where we acknowledge the power of peer support and bring awareness to the community so nobody has to suffer in isolation.

Our team of trained volunteers who have experienced mental illness in their lives provide one-on-one support to individuals in our community and offer the opportunity to take part in social activities once a week, said Julia Payson, executive director of CMHA Vernon & District.

CMHA Peer Supporters are trained in recovery guidance and share knowledge and experiences from coping strategies to helping navigate the mental health system and can refer individuals to programs and services in the North Okanagan.



The relationship between an individual and their peer supporter is one that is supportive and encouraging.



"There is no 'one size fits all' approach to mental health recovery, but peer support can help you find what works for you," said Payson.



"Many of our Peer Support Volunteers have accessed the Peer Support Program for themselves, and their health has benefited, so they have decided to volunteer to help others."



Vernon resident Patricia has been volunteering with the program for 20 years. "You meet fantastic people  the staff, volunteers and peers. It helps me too because I get out of the house and I get to use my education that I worked so hard for," said Patricia, who has earned a masters degree.



Christy has been volunteering with peer support for three and a half years.



"It distracts me from own illness and I get to help people. I was once that lost puppy dog and didnt know the resources that were available."



Trained as a residential care aid, Christy says her education helped her to learn to accept people for who they are despite their health challenges.



"Physical and emotional pain can be the same. But with physical pain, it can be easier to treat and deal with than emotional pain. We need to treat mental health the same as physical health," she said.



"Many people only hear about us when they end up in the hospital, so we see them at their sickest. With us being peers we know what they are going through. Sometimes they tell us more than they tell their doctors, so we encourage them to talk to their doctors to get the help they need."



This is a nice, non-judgmental place to come. We help people build confidence and acquire skills in a safe environment, she said.



The best thing is you get to see the change in people from when you first visit them at the hospital, said Christy.



The program currently has 14 volunteers and is looking for more to meet the demand.



People who are caring, empathetic, and accepting and who have good listening skills make great volunteers, said Patricia.



In Vernon we are very lucky to have the amount of resources available for a community this size. We also have good networking between services, she said.



The Peer Support Program operates 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday to Friday at the CMHA office located at 3100 28th Ave. Volunteers are there to answer phone calls and welcome walk-ins. Peer Support Services are offered free of charge and maintain a strict code of confidentiality at all times.



Volunteers visit the Vernon Jubilee Hospital Inpatient Psychiatric Unit on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays to provide support for individuals receiving treatment. Dedicated volunteers also visit the hospital on holidays to ensure those without family in the area dont face isolation during holidays throughout the year.



Many of our volunteers have experienced a stay at the hospital and can provide unparalleled support for those facing one of the most challenging times in their lives, said Payson.

Funding from Interior Health allows CMHA to offer Peer Support Services and community support helps us educate the community about this essential service.

In-kind and financial donations also ensure Peer Support Services are responsive and accessible, and allow us to provide Christmas Gifts, holiday parties, and other additional supports. To help fund the program, please contact 250.542.3114 ext. 224.

 files from CMHA Vernon & DistrictPhoto: Contributed

The National Energy Board reported in June that crude oil-by-rail exports from Canada set a new record of 204,558 barrels a day.



Industry analysts predict that by the end of this year, oil exports could increase to 300,000 barrels.



The International Energy Agency has predicted that by the end of 2019, Canadian oil by rail exports could hit 390,000 barrels a day with the potential to possibly hit peak levels of as much as 590,000 barrels.



For some added context, in 2012, the shipment of oil by rail was roughly 30,000 barrels of oil a day.



I mention these things because the efforts to block the Trans Mountain pipeline have been successful to date and have only served to increased shipment by rail, a less environmentally efficient option.



At the same time the production of oil in Alberta continues to increase.



Oil production is on pace to hit 5.6 million barrels a day by 2035, an increase of over 30 per cent compared to current production levels. In the absence of increased pipeline capacity, it is clear why oil by rail exports will only continue to increase.



Aside from the logistical challenges, there is also the current inability to access new markets that are willing to pay more for Canadian oil then is currently the case with exporting to the United States.



Industry experts predict that roughly $1 billion a month is being lost in potential increased revenue from accessing new markets.



As many will know, the Federal Liberal government has paid $4.5 billion to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and has repeatedly stated it will spend an additional $7-9 billion to build the expanded project.



Currently, the project remains at an impasse with no clear deadline being set by the Government for completion let alone construction.



What if there was another way?



Independent Senator Doug Black has tabled a private member's bill in the Senate  Bill S-245, An Act to declare the Trans Mountain Pipeline Project and related works to be for the general advantage of Canada.



As many know, the B.C. NDP government has been making efforts to block the Trans-Mountain pipeline.



Bill S-245 proposes that the authority of class 29 of section 91 and paragraph (c) of class 10 of section 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867 to be used to declare this project necessary for the general advantage of Canada.



This bill passed in the Senate and is before the House of Commons this week.



Given that the Prime Minister has repeatedly stated that the Trans-Mountain project is in Canadas national interests, it will be interesting to see if the Liberals support this Senate bill.



My question this week:.

Do you support Senate Bill S-245 and the intent to declare this project necessary for the general advantage of Canada?

I can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free 1-800-665-8711. Don McGahn, above, departed as White House counsel after a 21-month tenure during which he spearheaded President Trumps most significant political accomplishments but also became a witness against him in the special counsel inquiry. [The New York Times]

 Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain asked for an extension of the proposed 20-month standstill period following her countrys withdrawal from the E.U., a sign that negotiations are likely to go down to the wire. [The New York Times]

 Israeli fighter jets attacked targets in the Gaza Strip hours after a rocket fired overnight by militants in the territory struck a house in southern Israel. [The New York Times]

 Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway issued a government apology to Norwegian women who were mistreated after World War II because of their relationships with Nazi soldiers. [BBC]

 The conservative Australian state of Queensland scrapped a century-old law that made abortion an offense punishable with prison time. [The New York Times]

 An Indian cabinet minister, M.J. Akbar, quit his post amid growing sexual harassment allegations. [The New York Times]The dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared after he walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul just over two weeks ago, and evidence increasingly suggests he was brutally murdered.

But on Wednesday night, a new piece of his work  submitted by his assistant after he disappeared  was published by The Washington Post, for which Mr. Khashoggi worked as a columnist.

In just over 700 words, his column lamented the dearth of a free press in the Arab world, which he said is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors, but through domestic forces vying for power. He sought to promote the free exchange of ideas and information under the headline, What the Arab world needs most is free expression.

Mr. Khashoggis editor, Karen Attiah, wrote a preface to the column. She said she received the file from Mr. Khashoggis translator and assistant a day after he was reported to be missing.Mark Peterson has received this years W. Eugene Smith Grant for Humanistic Photography for his long-term work on the rise of white nationalism and how the American confederacy manifests itself today. He will receive $35,000 to complete his work, The Past Is Never Dead.

This is a violent movement wrapped in the language of reclamation, patriotism and cultural heritage, he wrote in his proposal to the Smith Memorial Fund. Its central aim is the dismantling of decades of civil rights, immigration and gender equality legislation and the promotion of a revisionist history which claims slavery wasnt such a bad thing.

Mr. Peterson, who grew up in Minnesota, has been working steadily as an editorial photographer in the New York area for over 30 years. His stark, critical images provide a jaundiced view of American political culture and have dominated the visual coverage of the rise of the right wing since 2013. His photographs anticipated the Trump era and were collected in the book Political Theatre published by Steidl in 2017.But Mrs. Clinton went further. She smacked down the notion that her husband should have resigned over the whole sordid mess  Absolutely not  or that it constituted an abuse of power. Which it absolutely did  and would have been even if Mr. Clinton had been the president of a small business rather than of the United States.

She also insisted that she had no regrets about how she had handled her personal life in the 1990s: I did what I thought was right, and I feel very good about that. And she rejected the suggestion that having not contended fully with her husbands accusers makes it harder for her to be an effective supporter of the #MeToo movement. Well, no, she said, because there was the most intense, comprehensive investigation, which she believes came out in the right place.

Its one thing for a wife to stand by her spouse, especially when both have long been the targets of partisan warriors dead-set on destroying them. But it is no secret that Mr. Clintons response to sexual scandal was to try to trash the reputations of the women involved. And while the degree to which Mrs. Clinton joined in such efforts may remain in dispute  in the CBS interview, she denies having played any role  her fundamental complicity is beyond reasonable doubt.

This is the sort of moral arrogance and self-justification that has long troubled even many Democrats about Mrs. Clinton. The former first lady, turned senator, turned secretary of state may have been one of the most qualified nominees ever to run for president. But widespread ambivalence about her among not only swing voters but also her own base set the stage for her to lose the presidency to arguably the least qualified individual ever to hold that office.

Two years since that loss, Mrs. Clinton remains broadly unpopular. As of late September, her favorability rating still hovered at 36 percent, down several points from where it was at the time of the election.

Mrs. Clinton remains a singular obsession of Mr. Trump and his followers. The higher her profile, the more Republican leaders can use her as a rallying point for their voters. Months ago, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee boasted of his partys plan to hang her around Democrats neck in the midterms: Were going to make them own her.

Hillary Clinton is a woman of extraordinary achievement who has earned the right to share her views on whatever topic she sees fit. But this close to Election Day, discussing hot-button issues in national interviews is nothing but problematic for her party  and, ultimately, her own legacy. She and Mr. Clinton are set to begin a series of joint speaking appearances soon after the elections. Perhaps she could save her more incendiary observations for then.American presidents have periodically engaged in cover-ups of their own corruption or licentiousness, but President Trump is breaking new ground. He is using the United States government to cover up a foreign despots barbarism.

As someone who knew Jamal Khashoggi for more than 15 years, Im outraged at the reports that a Saudi team of royal thugs beat, drugged and murdered Jamal  even cutting off his fingers, presumably because thats what he wrote with  and then dismembered him with a bone saw. But Im equally outraged at the pathetic White House response.

In the past, Trump repeatedly denounced President Barack Obama for having bowed to a Saudi king. But today Trump is not just bowing to a king; hes kowtowing to a mad prince. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as M.B.S., has repeatedly manipulated Trump and Jared Kushner, for he knows how to push Americans buttons, and now its happening again: Trump is helping whitewash what appears to be the Saudi Arabian torture-murder of an international journalist.

[Nicholas Kristof answered your questions about his column on Facebook and Twitter.]

At least f our of the alleged killers have ties to M.B.S., The Times has reported, and anybody who knows Saudi Arabia knows that this brazen attack could never have happened without M.B.S.s approval.Gliding into her 70s, Glenn Close is in her prime. Her performance in Jane Andersons four-handkerchief Mother of the Maid, at the Public Theater, is a triumphant blend of sharp sense and passionate sensibility, of an old pros expertise and a newcomers enthusiasm.

This production, which opened on Wednesday night under Matthew Penns lucid direction, is Ms. Closes second interpretation of a script by Ms. Anderson, who wrote the screenplay for her current film The Wife. In that movie  which has sparked talk of another Oscar nomination (her seventh) for Ms. Close  she offers equally dazzling evidence of the more subliminal skills of screen acting.

But if you want to see a bona fide stage star at the height of her powers, drawing energizing sustenance from an audiences rapt attention, Mother of the Maid is the ticket for you. Ms. Andersons robustly sentimental play, a take on a saint-in-the-making from a parents perspective, provides an old-fashioned showcase for the kind of acting with a capital A that once had Broadway theatergoers queuing around the block for returns.

There was a time when Ms. Close would have been a natural for the Maid of the title. Thats Joan of Arc, the teenage French warrior and holy avatar, who is played here most credibly by a rough-hewed Grace Van Patten. In her early film career, in works like The World According to Garp and The Natural, Ms. Close was celebrated for her wholesome radiance and clean-scrubbed, androgynous beauty.Serious kudos from Prime Minister @justintrudeau & MP @Fuhrmp in Ottawa today for #Kelownas #JourneyHome Strategy to fight homelessness. Incredible collaboration by the task force & our community to bring it to this level! Read more at https://t.co/5eLm5Eymlf #housingfirst pic.twitter.com/ln5rr0yjBG  City of Kelowna (@cityofkelowna) October 17, 2018

Kelowna's strategy to end homelessness got props from the highest political house in the country.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at the urging of Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr, praised homeless strategies in Kelowna and nationally.

"I know that his (Fuhr) city of Kelowna recently released their strategy for fighting homelessness," said Trudeau in the House of Commons, referring to the city's Journey Home Strategy.

"I want to thank our member and Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran for working to combat a problem that affects every community.

"Thanks to both our homelessness strategy, Reaching Home, and our national housing strategy, we are improving the lives of Canadians and building communities that benefit everyone. "

Basran, in the midst of a re-election campaign, has touted the Journey Home Strategy as one of the crowning achievements of his first term as mayor.WASHINGTON  President Trump awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday to a Marine who saved the lives of numerous fellow soldiers during one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War, when he repeatedly charged into enemy fire and carried wounded Americans to safety during fighting that went on for a week.

Sgt. Maj. John L. Canley was a 30-year-old gunnery sergeant when he took command of his company after its commanding officer was seriously wounded on its way into Hue City at the beginning of the Tet Offensive. On Wednesday, Sergeant Major Canley, who retired from the Marines in 1981 and is now 80, stood on stage with Mr. Trump in the ornate East Room of the White House to receive the highest commendation available to members of the American military.

This is one of my favorite events, Mr. Trump exulted as he took his place onstage to honor the Marine hero, to shouts of oo-rah! from Marines and others on hand for the occasion. I like brave people.

The president then told the tale of Sergeant Major Canley, who was born in Caledonia, Ark., and stole his brothers paperwork to enlist in the Marines at age 15.WASHINGTON  Donald F. McGahn II departed as White House counsel on Wednesday, ending a tumultuous 21-month tenure during which he spearheaded some of President Trumps most significant political accomplishments, including two appointments to the Supreme Court, but also became a chief witness against him in the special counsel investigation.

Mr. McGahns departure was confirmed by two people close to him. Mr. McGahn and the president sat for a farewell chat on Wednesday, one said. Mr. Trump said this week that he would install as Mr. McGahns replacement the longtime Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone, calling him a very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people.

As White House counsel, Mr. McGahn took on a handful of often-conflicting roles: counselor to the president; protector of top law enforcement officials, including the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III; and witness in the investigation into whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice. He has told associates that he stopped Mr. Trump from firing Mr. Mueller and from forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to retake control of the Russia inquiry after he recused himself from oversight of it.

A longtime fixture in Republican legal circles, Mr. McGahn led White House efforts to slash government regulations and stack the federal courts with conservative judges. He shepherded the nominations of both of Mr. Trumps Supreme Court choices, Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh.Hurricane Michael was the worst storm to ever strike the Florida Panhandle, and it left a trail of destruction in its wake: It leveled buildings, knocked out electricity and cellphone service, and left thousands homeless and 16 dead in Florida.

And Election Day is in 21 days. How will people in these areas be able to vote?

That is an urgent question in the hardest-hit counties, home to over 200,000 registered voters in the states Second Congressional District, which in recent years has been represented by both Democrats and Republicans. The first day of early voting is Oct. 27.

Floridas secretary of state, Ken Detzner, said in a statement it was his number one priority that all registered voters, first responders and volunteers in affected areas are able to cast their vote safely and securely without any barriers.

Officials say they are working to ensure that people in devastated communities can vote in the midterm elections. Here is a brief guide to how they are handling a thorny problem.But the stockpiling has prompted grumbling among some Republican strategists, who contend  mostly in private  that the cash would be better allocated to the partys at-risk congressional candidates, many of whom are being drastically outraised by their Democratic opponents.

Mr. Trump, they argue, does not need the money now as much as the partys congressional candidates, both because he will not face voters again for more than two years, and because he won his 2016 campaign more by relying on his megarallies and Twitter feed than on pricey campaign infrastructure.

Even some of Mr. Trumps defenders admit that his brisk early fund-raising and spending may be more about self-preservation than about bolstering the party.

The president is concerned about keeping his power, and part of his power is the money, and the small donors, said Sam Nunberg, one of the first employees of Mr. Trumps 2016 campaign. Mr. Nunberg is now a senior adviser to a political action committee started by Mr. Trumps former chief strategist in the White House, Stephen K. Bannon, which is mounting a midterm effort urging voters to support candidates who aligned with Mr. Trump to save the president from a possible impeachment push by Democrats.

It was important for the president to build this massive operation for his re-election to demonstrate that it would be a fools errand for anyone inside the party to try to primary him, and because we dont know whats going to happen in the House with a possible impeachment, Mr. Nunberg said.Since Britons voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, their divided government has struggled to define a negotiating position that reconciles conflicting objectives. While some want to keep close economic ties to the bloc to protect the economy, others would prefer a cleaner break and some hard-line pro-Brexit members of Mrs. Mays cabinet may be on the brink of resignation.

Talks broke down on Sunday, halting discussions over Brexit that many had hoped would reach a climax at the Brussels summit meeting. On Wednesday, Mrs. May was battling to save the negotiations and keep channels of communication open. She addressed the other leaders ahead of a dinner, insisting that a deal was possible before leaving them to their meal and their own discussion about the way ahead.

A summit meeting that had been penciled in for November to finalize a Brexit agreement is now unlikely to take place and most diplomats expect any deal will have to wait until December.

The big sticking point in the negotiations is the Irish border. On Wednesday, Mrs. May restated her commitment to ensuring that, whatever happens in talks on future trade ties between Britain and the European Union, there will be no need for new customs and other checks on goods at the frontier between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which will remain in the European Union.

Given the difficulty of untying the knotty issue of how to manage a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, most diplomats now expect that an agreement is unlikely before December. The European Union negotiator, Michel Barnier, called for calm discussions but said: We need much more time.In her lawsuit, Ms. Waterbury charges that the men used degrading language. She says that Mr. Finlay wrote to Mr. Catazaro that the age of 18 is prime time for women and, he goes on, It might sound creepy but 18 is the age of consent for a reason.

Mr. Catazaros reply, according to the suit, Word up bro, 18-22.

Thats among the tamer exchanges in Ms. Waterburys lawsuit. How at ease would a dancer, novice or veteran, wearing little more than a leotard, tights and point shoes, feel with partners who are accused of talking like this?

Ms. Waterburys suit makes reference to the companys fraternity-like atmosphere; Mr. Catazaro and Mr. Finlay have been setting off my bro alarm for months. In performances, I noticed careless partnering as they took to the stage with puffed-out chests. In November, Mr. Catazaro posted on Instagram a photo of Mr. Finlay and himself at a restaurant with the caption, When youve got classic Bond and contemporary Bond enjoying a night out. Mr. Catazaro was in crisp white jacket sipping what seemed to be a martini; Mr. Finlay wore blue velvet. It was almost self-parody.

A boys-will-be-boys defense has no place anywhere, but its particularly disturbing in ballet, where the vulnerability of a dancers body is heightened every day. While the culture surrounding ballet is frequently misunderstood  its not the back-stabbing horror depicted in a film like Black Swan  there are elements that cant be escaped. Dancers, self-critical by nature, face a mirror that lets them know that they will never be perfect no matter how hard they try.

They are also raised in a culture in which theyre expected to behave as grown-ups even when they arent. As apprentices and new members of City Ballet  or just about any ballet company in America  theyre barely legal adults. They arent fully realized. Part of the joy in watching ballet over time is to see a dancer transform from a girl into a woman  or a boy to a man  and emerge self-possessed and strong.

Ballet, like balance, is an illusion. Standing still on point is not a static act, but a flurry of micro-muscles working in tandem to make a body float. Days and years disappear as dancers train to hide the effort behind their superhuman strength. They have enough pressure; whats exciting is that the dancers at City Ballet dont have to live in a horror movie any longer. They can focus on grace.The museum said it had accepted less than $20,000 for the event, which is to take place on Tuesday. The Met still has the money, and is deciding what to do with it now that it will not be used for the seminar.

In a statement, Brooklyn Museum officials said they believe strongly in the value of culture to create bridges and build a more connected, civic and empathetic global community. But they said that in light of recent events and in harmony with the international communitys concerns, the museum will not use Saudi money for its exhibition, Syria, Then and Now: Stories from Refugees a Century Apart, which began last Saturday.

Stephen Stapleton, a London-based artist who runs Edge of Arabia, which is partially supported by the Saudi government and its state-run oil company, and is a main organizer of the yearlong initiative, said in a statement: We are fully understanding and supportive of our partner organizations in the Arab Art & Education Initiative when it comes to decisions around funding, and are delighted there continues to be a commitment from our partners to present open and free cross-cultural programming, as part of the initiative, here in New York City.

Last week, the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, which had helped organize the initiative, said it would be pulling out. Columbia University said it was postponing its portion of the initiative, a talk with the Saudi artist Ahmed Mater originally scheduled for next Monday. According to Mr. Stapleton, that event did not involve Saudi money. Other institutions have continued their involvement, including the Museum of Modern Art, which hosted a conversation with the Kuwaiti artist Monira al Qadiri this past Monday. That event was funded by MoMA and did not involve Saudi donations. The Guggenheim is also maintaining its offering, a talk next Tuesday with Samia Halaby, a Palestinian artist who lives in New York.

Representatives from another backer, the Misk Foundation, which is tied to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. The crown prince has been accused of approving a plan to kill Mr. Khashoggi.MANTUA, Italy  In 1972, Gerhard Richter represented West Germany at the Venice Biennale and presented one of his most renowned series of paintings: 48 Portraits, which depict famous and forgotten white men in blurry, pallid black and white. While in Venice that summer, he went to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where he came upon a painting by Titian from around 1539. It was a small, foamy scene of the Annunciation, hiding in plain sight amid the Scuolas dozens of more dramatic works by Tintoretto. Titian paints Mary crouched to the right of the composition, her eyes cast down and her hand clasped over her breast. The archangel wafts in from the left on a cloud of smoke, wearing a tunic of lustrous magenta, spreading his wings of steely gray as he delivers the big news.

Mr. Richter bought a postcard. The next year, back in his spotless German studio, he started to repaint the Titian  the first and only time he copied a work of art history. His Annunciation After Titian (1973) represents the same dramatic announcement of the Incarnation, but Titians already soft brush strokes have deliquesced into an even blur. The cloud beneath Gabriel that Titian depicted as smoke has turned an impalpable white, while the column and pediment to Marys right have vanished into fuzziness. Four other Annunciations After Titian from that year are blurrier still, the last of them evaporating into a nearly monochrome cloud of pink.What would you like to see here? Email us at popculture@nytimes.com.

Hello! Welcome to your daily roundup of whats going on in pop culture.

Are you a Big Bird or an Oscar the Grouch? Since news of Caroll Spinneys retirement broke yesterday, I have been pondering the two characters he played as a new formula for understanding the world. Oscars are the underdogs, Big Birds the extroverts. Everyone loves Big Bird, and yes, he would help you move apartments, but he might also invite you to his improv show. Oscar would never. Please email your defenses of either iconic puppet to popculture@nytimes.com.

Stream these great horror movies directed by women

The public apology of the day comes from the horror producer Jason Blum (Get Out, The Purge), who pledged to do better after his comments in a Polygon interview drew criticism: There are not a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror. To help him out, here are some excellent horror movies directed by women that you can stream at home: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.

Trumps Natural Instinct for Science

With hurricanes regularly thrashing Americas coastlines, Stephen Colbert said on Wednesday that he wished President Trump would believe the scientific consensus on climate change. But Trump has made it clear he doesnt.

I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture, Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould

The Liberal government is proposing to strengthen laws against bestiality and animal fighting.

Legislation tabled today would add a definition to existing bestiality provisions to make it clear the offence prohibits any contact for a sexual purpose between a person and an animal.

Two years ago the Supreme Court of Canada ruled existing bestiality offences only prohibit sex acts with animals in cases where there is penetration  a loophole the new bill would address.

The bill also would ban a broader range of activities associated with animal fighting, such as promoting, arranging, and profiting off fights, as well as breeding, training or transporting an animal to fight.

In addition, the bill would forbid the keeping of an arena for the purpose of animal fighting, not just cockfighting as the law now stands.

The government says animal fighting has often been linked to organized crime, including illegal gambling and the illicit trafficking of drugs and weapons.An Off Broadway riff on Harry Potter streams on BroadwayHD. And Star Trek Into Darkness airs on FXM.

Whats Streaming

PUFFS on BroadwayHD. How much you enjoy this play may partly hinge on whether youre someone who has ever thought about which Hogwarts house youd belong in. The playwright Matt Coxs comedic riff on J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter saga, streaming on BroadwayHD while still being performed in New York, follows a group of students at Hogwarts. It unfolds in tandem with the timeline of Rowlings series; the shows subtitle is Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. Think spells, references and chocolate frogs. In her review for The New York Times, Laura Collins-Hughes wrote that the play exudes a jovial, winking fondness for all things Harry. With Rowlings lightning-bolt-scar hero currently on Broadway and at the New-York Historical Society, that fondness remains, with little sign of fading.Character matters, in literature as much as life. This weeks recommended titles delve deep into the stories of complicated individuals, whether through biography (Gandhi, Lorraine Hansberry) or memoir (Sally Field, Marwan Hisham) or fiction (the heroine of John Wrays novel, derived from a real-life figure, is an American fighting for the Taliban). For readers who prefer a wide-angle lens, we offer a manifesto about female rage, a simmering thriller from Tana French about the ways that privilege protects and blinds its recipients, and a celebration of libraries that opens with the harrowing tale of a fire tearing through the stacks. It will make you feel even more protective of your books than you do already.

Gregory Cowles

Senior Editor, Books

GODSEND, by John Wray. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) Wrays latest novel is based loosely on the story of John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban. Its heroine is an 18-year-old girl named Aden Sawyer who lives in California and goes to Pakistan with a friend. Disguising herself as a man, she begins military training and eventually makes her way to the front lines of battle in Afghanistan. The novel is serious, sober and frequently mesmerizing, according to our critic Dwight Garner. The author has clearly mastered a great deal of learning about Islam and warfare and the nature of life in Afghanistan, and he carefully husbands these resources.

THE LIBRARY BOOK, by Susan Orlean. (Simon & Schuster, $28.) The subject that inspired The Library Book was a 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Central Library in which 400,000 books were incinerated and another 700,000 were damaged. But Orleans new book is not just about that event; it is also a history of libraries and the personal story of Orlean and her mother, and the authors library-centric childhood in suburban Cleveland. What makes The Library Book so enjoyable is the sense of discovery that propels it, the buoyancy when Orlean is surprised or moved by what she finds, says our critic Jennifer Szalai.

Explore the New York Times Book Review Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more. See whats new in October: Among this months new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric. Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125. That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books.



THE WITCH ELM, by Tana French. (Viking, $28.) French has stepped away from her standout Dublin Murder Squad series to deliver an extraordinary new novel  equal parts crime thriller and psychological study  that takes the story of an art gallery publicist and an unsolved murder in his family as the occasion to meditate on luck: the good, the bad and the extremely ugly. The book is lifted by Frenchs nervy, almost obsessive prose, Stephen King writes in his review. This is good work by a good writer. For the reader, what luck.NO PROPERTY IN MAN

Slavery and Antislavery at the Nations Founding

By Sean Wilentz

350 pp. Harvard University Press. $26.95.

Across from the New York Stock Exchange sits Federal Hall National Memorial, the beautiful Greek Revival columned structure that in 1842 replaced Federal Hall, the birthplace of American government. That building is where George Washington took the oath of office as the first president. It housed the Supreme Court and the first Congress. The address is 26 Wall Street. Two blocks east at 75 Wall Street stands a 42-story modern structure of marble, glass and steel. This condominium sits at the old waters edge of the East River, atop the slave market where for half a century (1711-62) enslaved Africans were bought and sold like cattle and corn. They were traded as commodities in the enormous trans-Atlantic slave markets that linked four continents together for nearly four centuries. These parcels of flesh and bone were not like merchandise, James Madison argued at the Federal Convention in 1787. But they were counted as assets, or property, that helped build and finance the infrastructure and the wealth of the richest nation in the world.

It is impossible to comprehend American history without understanding slaverys role in every aspect of its early development. Eleven slaves built a wall to protect a fledgling Dutch colony in 1626. Within a century, those 11 grew to represent one in five residents of what is now Manhattan, the nations first capital city and todays global financial capital. Ten of Americas first 12 presidents were slaveholders, as were two of the nations earliest chief justices.

Slavery is at the heart of the nations origin story. The core of our democratic institutions  from the presidency to the Congress to the courts  was shaped immeasurably by it. And yet it is one of the least understood and distorted subjects in American history. The hip-hop superstar Kanye Wests bizarre remark this spring that slavery was a choice is just one of many examples. A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that a bare majority of social studies teachers said they are qualified to teach it. Educators also complained about unclear state content standards and inadequate curricular resources. The net result: High school students are virtually illiterate on the subject, and this has had severe consequences for our national life.(Want to get this briefing by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Good morning.

Heres what you need to know:

U.S. agencies grow convinced of princes role

American intelligence officials say they have increasing circumstantial evidence that Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia was behind the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Theyre preparing a classified assessment for President Trump, who has been careful to maintain a close relationship with the kingdom and has suggested that rogue killers may have been responsible.

 Gruesome details: Audio recordings show that Mr. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered shortly after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago, Turkish officials said on Wednesday.

 The Interpreter: The Khashoggi case has provoked an unusual crisis in U.S.-Saudi relations. Our columnist explains.Delta is serving a small-batch pretzel mix, above. And next month, American Airlines will pass out snacks from Lorissas Kitchen, a maker of grass-fed beef jerky.

Byrds, Uniteds new cookie supplier, was making 200 million cookies a year before the airline started offering them. Now it bakes 1.9 billion.

The demand can be too much of a good thing. Many of the companies havent been quite ready to offer their products on such a large scale, an airline spokeswoman said.

Have a refreshing evening.

Correction: Wednesday nights briefing misspelled the surname of the star of the original 1978 version of Halloween and the new remake. She is Jamie Lee Curtis, not Curtiss.

It also incorrectly characterized the enormousness of Pando, the vast grove of root-connected aspens in Utah. The forest is the worlds most massive organism, not the largest. (That distinction goes to Oregons so-called Humongous Fungus, which occupies an area the size of three Central Parks.)

Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning.

Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.

What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at briefing@nytimes.com. A devastating Taliban attack.

Two top leaders in Kandahar Province were assassinated in an attack that narrowly missed the top American commander in the country, Gen. Austin Miller. Above, one of the victims, police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq. Accounts suggested it was an inside job.

The attack came just two days before national elections that have already been marred by violence; at least 10 candidates and dozens of their supporters have been killed.

With no clear path for the 17-year-long Afghan war and an unsustainable number of security forces dying, the country is going through an existential crisis.Sometimes it seems as if were living under a constant barrage of heavy news. But it isnt all bad out there. This feature is meant to send you into the weekend with a smile, or at least a lighter heart. Want to get The Week in Good News by email? Sign up here.

Here are seven great things we wrote about this week:

I remember being 18. For me, a socially awkward bookworm, it was a time that mingled uncertainty and big half-formed dreams for the future.

We wanted to look at what it meant to be 18 around the world. So we selected young female photographers in nearly two dozen countries and asked them to document their experiences.

Read about Victory Chukwu, from Nigeria, who dreams of visiting Paris. And Madison Breanne Justice, from Mississippi, who aims to finish her G.E.D. and go to college. And Millie Landewee, from Australia, who is part of an all-girls skate crew.Israel

Israel is becoming a world leader in medical A.I. with dozens of new health care start-ups in a country that has a population just shy of New Jerseys. The government announced a five-year program with a budget of $280 million to digitize patient data and use A.I. to gather important insights, with hopes of turning the homegrown expertise into consumer products that could make Israel an industry leader.

India

India released its A.I. strategy only this summer, but it contains a big idea that could catch them up: become the garage that develops A.I. that creates economic growth and social development for themselves and the rest of the developing world. The plan, which they are calling #AIforAll, will focus on projects around health care, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation.

France

The French government released a 150-page document earlier this year that spells out its A.I. efforts around the health, environment, transportation and security sectors, and is putting $2 billion into funding projects around those areas. And when (or if) Britain leaves the European Union, France is well placed to be the unions epicenter of A.I. Both Google and Facebook already have offices in Paris dedicated to A.I. research.SEATTLE  Amazon wont say a word about where it plans to put its much-hyped second headquarters. Officials in the 20 cities and regions named as finalists say that they dont know anything  and that even if they did, they wouldnt share it publicly.

But that hasnt stopped investors, economic officials and developers from trying to reverse engineer the HQ2 search, to understand what a company seen as embodying the future wants and needs, and what local governments should do to be part of that future.

The growing consensus is that the place that checks the most boxes is Northern Virginia. In online betting forums, it has the best odds of landing the project. Analysts at Citi recently said most investors they spoke with also expected HQ2 to end up in the Washington area, noting that Northern Virginia is home to Amazons cloud computing divisions largest and fastest-growing office outside of Seattle.

Many have gone a step further, suggesting that Crystal City, an older office area being revitalized just across the Potomac River from Washington, offers the best site. Its upsides: good transit, diverse residents, a friendly business climate and a single developer with a big chunk of land.Have the Chinese been able to weaponize A.I. yet?

Everyone is weaponizing A.I. Some countries are building autonomous weapons systems based on A.I., while others are focused on disinformation or propaganda or bots. It takes different forms in different countries. In Israel, for instance, we have one of the largest laboratories for A.I. surveillances in the world  its called the Occupied Territories. In fact, one of the reasons Israel is such a leader in A.I. surveillance is because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Explain this a bit further.

Part of why the occupation is so successful is because of A.I. surveillance technology and big data algorithms. You have major investment in A.I. (in Israel) because there are real-time stakes in the outcomes  its not just some future scenario.

A.I. was supposed to make decision-making a whole lot easier. Has this happened?



A.I. allows you to analyze more data more efficiently and far more quickly, so it should be able to help make better decisions. But it depends on the decision. If you want to get to a major bus station, A.I. can help you find the easiest route. But then you have cases where someone, perhaps a rival, is trying to undermine that decision-making. For instance, when the decision is about choosing a government, there may be players who want to disrupt this process and make it more complicated than ever before.

Is there a limit to this shift?

Well, A.I. is only as powerful as the metrics behind it.

And who controls the metrics?Photo: Contributed

UPDATE: 8:10 p.m.

The managers of two pot shops on Vancouver Island where police seized thousands of dollars worth of marijuana say the British Columbia government failed them by only approving one store in the province before legalization as raids were reported on both ends of the country.

The RCMP say they entered the Port Alberni Cannabis Club at around 11 a.m. Wednesday, before visiting Leaf Compassion Cannabis Dispensary around 2 p.m., and found both stores were open without provincial licences.

Police gave the store no warning in the weeks or days before the raid, said general manager Christine Jarvis, and she blamed the province for not approving her licence application in time for legalization on Wednesday.

"I feel violated. They had enough time to do this," she said, adding it's been three years since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signalled his intention to legalize marijuana.

Eric Vesaranta, general manager of Leaf Compassion Cannabis Dispensary, said the Mounties left the store practically empty. He intends to dispute his $575 ticket.

"It's literally all the government's fault with not having applications ready on time," he said. "Everybody filled them out in time, but the government didn't give them back in time for legalization."

Officers seized cannabis products from both locations in Port Alberni, and issued the owners violation tickets for the unlawful sale of marijuana, the RCMP said in a statement.

"In accordance with the new legislation and regulations, cannabis is to be sold exclusively at government-run stores, licensed private retailers, and the B.C. government's online store," the statement said.

"While the legal recreational use of cannabis may be new, the enforcement of laws around the illegal production, distribution and consumption of cannabis is not."

Sgt. Janelle Shoihet said she was not aware of any other raids by the Mounties in British Columbia. The RCMP's national headquarters said it could not provide a response Thursday on whether there'd been other similar enforcement by the Mounties in other parts of Canada.

ORIGINAL: 2:05 p.m.

Police raided two illicit marijuana dispensaries on Vancouver Island shortly after cannabis became legal on Wednesday.

Port Alberni RCMP say both stores were open and operating without the required provincial licences.

An RCMP statement says officers seized an undisclosed amount of cannabis and weed products from both locations and issued the owners violation tickets for the unlawful sale of marijuana.

Under new legislation and regulations that came into effect Wednesday, cannabis is to be sold exclusively at government-run stores, licensed private retailers and the B.C. government's online store.

However, the province only has one licensed location at this point, a government-run store in Kamloops.

Earlier this week, Vancouver Chief Const. Adam Palmer, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said raids of unlicensed pot shops on Day 1 of legalization were "highly unlikely."By age 25, Edward S. Lampert was already a Wall Street wunderkind, celebrated for his intellect, ambition and prodigious work ethic. The famed investor Richard Rainwater, the billionaire Hollywood mogul David Geffen, and Michael Dell and Thomas J. Tisch were among the prominent backers who gave him more than $200 million in start-up capital.

At 28, he was the subject of a front-page profile in The Wall Street Journal headlined The Climber. His hedge funds 29 percent annualized return landed him on the cover of Businessweek in 2004. Forbes pegged his net worth at $3.5 billion in 2005, ranking him 61st on its annual list of the richest Americans.

Then he bought Kmart out of bankruptcy and merged it with the venerable Sears.

With the bankruptcy this week of Sears Holdings, which he has run as chief executive and chairman since 2013, Mr. Lampert, now 56, was back on the nations front pages. The coverage has been as damning as it was once fawning. Mr. Lampert has become the villain, accused of pillaging and destroying an American retail icon to further line his already stuffed pockets.

If that was his intent, it was a singularly inept effort. Mr. Lamperts steadfast  many would say stubborn  commitment to Sears has cost him billions in personal wealth, not to mention the damage to his reputation. Nearly all of his early investors have abandoned him. His hedge funds assets have dwindled. Last year, one of his staunchest backers, the hedge fund manager Bruce Berkowitz, bailed out, saying that Sears had wrecked his hedge funds returns. The decline of Sears has been hugely frustrating and fatiguing for me to watch, Mr. Berkowitz told his investors.Private equity firms and large real estate investors have been looking to buy trailer parks and combine them into larger companies. They are attractive investments because prefabricated homes are relatively cheap to produce and maintain. New manufactured homes often sell for as little as $70,000.

One of the companies settling with New York is Sun Communities, which has a market value of $9 billion and whose shares have soared nearly a thousand percent in the last decade. Sun operates more than 300 parks for manufactured homes and recreational vehicles.

Sun representatives didnt respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Kathy Bonamo was one of the people who complained to the state. She said she and her boyfriend had moved out of a rent-to-own manufactured home they were leasing in Calverton for $1,600 a month because they were tired of paying annual rent increases and had no way to come up with the $20,000 payment to complete the purchase. Ms. Bonamo, 62, said she had to forfeit a $2,500 deposit.

It was terrible what they did, she said. This is where we were planning to retire.

Lakewood Park, where Ms. Bonamo and her boyfriend were living, is owned by Kingsley Management of Provo, Utah, which operates in a dozen states. The firm is another operator settling with New York, the people said. Kingsley representatives didnt respond to requests for comment.

The investigation by Barbara D. Underwood, the New York attorney general, found that the leases often included clauses that prohibited renters from holding park operators liable for any damage to a home or injuries sustained in the community. Manufactured homes were also rented as is, requiring the renter to make all repairs.Thirteen years ago, Sharon Gauci became the first woman asked to join the judges panel for her native countrys Australian Design Awards. The annual laurels had been handed out since the 1950s, so Ms. Gauci may be forgiven if she viewed the invitation  a career highlight  as a smidge overdue.

Things are better now, Ms. Gauci, General Motors executive director for industrial design, said recently. But the numbers still arent what wed like them to be. Our industry needs and wants creative people from different backgrounds  women, minorities, everybody.

Today, as one of her companys top design professionals and a member of its leadership team, Ms. Gauci, 48, plays an important role in the visual expression of General Motors and its brands around the world. In 1993, however, when she graduated with honors from Swinburne University in Melbourne, she was one of just two women in her industrial design class.

Only a handful of colleges and universities offer bachelors degrees in automotive design, typically called transportation design and often a subset of industrial design. Women still account for a small percentage of graduates, but their numbers are increasing, the schools say.Essential to the table is the Ivorian staple foutou banane, plantains boiled, then beaten repeatedly until stretchy to the touch. This is hard labor. All the women who do it are strong, said Fatima Dione, the American-raised daughter of a Guinean diplomat. She is manager, host and waitress at once, and often steps into the kitchen to help the three cooks: Ms. Boleane; Djeinaba Dia, from Senegal; and Laurette Silue, from Ivory Coast.

Pieces of foutou, dense and faintly sweet, are pulled off and dabbed in stew, to drink it up. Its ideal match is sauce graine, whose surface has the sheen of red hematite. The color derives from palm nuts crushed into paste, their scarlet oil rising to the top. The texture on the tongue is lush, messing with diction; you might suddenly find yourself slurring your words.

And here is okra the underestimated, a vegetable that confounds some Americans with its inner tap of mucilage, a viscous liquid shunned as slime. But viscosity has its rewards, turning to voluptuousness in gombo frais, a stew of broken-down tomatoes, palm oil and okra chopped into little rondelles and cooked until the guts melt.

With the stews might come alloco (fried plantains) or riz gras, listed on the menu by its more generally West African name, jollof rice. The grains are fattened and cooked in a soup thats built from onions fried into a sugary sweat and simmered with garlic, fresh tomatoes and tomato paste, for layers of bright and dark.Before reading the article:

Did you watch Sesame Street growing up? If so, what memories do you have of the show? Who were your favorite characters? What did you learn from them?

If not, watch one of these clips of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. What do you think children could learn from this show? Do you think it is still relevant today?



Now, read the article, Original Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, Leaves Sesame Street After Nearly 50 Years, and answer the following questions:

1. How long has Spinney been on Sesame Street? What parts did he play on the show?

2. Why does the author call Spinneys run on the show remarkable?

3. Why is he retiring now?

4. How did Spinney come to be on the show? How did he help shape the characters he played and the organization itself?Eze gets scammed before he even passes through customs in Lagos and emerges into its parched, weedy cityscape. After fighting in school, Eze was banished to his homeland to stay with his Aunt Grace (Tina Mba), a professor with a talent for tough love. Once this entitled princeling arrives, his mother informs him by phone that his mission is to learn who you are and where you are from. Oh, and she has canceled his return ticket. As for Dad back in New York, he wont take Ezes calls.

If the books in Graces tiny apartment are any indication, her specialty is law, while her sons is contravening it, a lifestyle that tempts Eze, who panics without his American privilege. In Graces stifling house, the electricity is dicey and the internet nonexistent. There isnt a shower or extra bed. Just the third-world glaze of sweat and privation you see everywhere in this richly endowed land of economic imbalance, an atmosphere the film, Faraday Okoros feature debut, captures expertly.The opening scene echoes throughout On Her Shoulders. In it, Nadia Murad is nearly besieged by a mob of admirers, scores of whom have their cellphone cameras held high to capture her image. Again and again they take her photo. Again and again she presses on to speak for her cause.

Murad survived a 2014 massacre of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority, by Islamic State forces in Northern Iraq. Her village was destroyed, members of her family were murdered and she was held captive as a sex slave. She escaped and now travels to bring attention to the killings and to help refugees.Like the best podcasts and radio plays, the stripped-down Danish thriller The Guilty paints such vivid pictures with words that, afterward, were not exactly sure what we saw and what was merely imagined.

Imagination, though, is so rarely asked of movie audiences these days that the daring of the first-time feature director, Gustav Moller, can hardly be overstated. Locking the viewer in two cramped, drab rooms, he builds suspense with little more than a single character and a few voices on a telephone. But the ingenious screenplay (by Moller and Emil Nygaard Albertsen) reaches beyond the solving of a mystery to paint a psychological portrait of the man at its center.The director views Waldheims candidacy as a moment when Austria could no longer see itself as an innocent casualty of Nazi rule. The country had often presented itself, were told, as Hitlers first victim, and people like Waldheim as honest soldiers caught on the wrong side. The truth, it seems, was a lot more complicated, and disturbing.

Beckermann, who narrates, makes no claims to objectivity. She tells us at the outset that she participated in protests against Waldheim. Some of the most fascinating parts of her film show the growth and coalescing of her fellow activists, who became invested in stopping his candidacy. As such, The Waldheim Waltz sometimes dances between a brisk, present-tense recounting of political history and a more wandering, personal reflection on the filmmakers history.

But it leans more toward the political. Beckermann wants not so much to contextualize as to invoke  with the hope, perhaps, that placing us in the middle of this debate will create its own context. Indeed, watching Waldheims campaign, its hard not to think about the present day  from the emergence of old hatreds, to the closure of elite ranks around their own, to the weaponizing of nationalism against the truth. The film may end in 1986, but the darkness it reveals still looms.CHICAGO  Like New Yorks subway, it is another century-old system struggling to keep up with the transit demands of a booming city. It, too, has been plagued by crumbling tracks, antiquated signals and unreliable trains that turn routine commutes into nightmares.

But the difference is that Chicagos L has made a comeback, reversing decades of cost-cutting and neglect.

Today, nearly one-third of its tracks have been rebuilt for faster and smoother rides. Rail cars from the 1970s have been replaced with the latest models. More than three dozen stations have been overhauled, many rebuilt into sleek, steel-and-glass outposts. There are new elevators, wider platforms, high-definition security cameras and works by Chicago artists.

Weve had a pretty impressive turnaround, said Joseph P. Schwieterman, a professor of public service at DePaul University. Its still an old system  and we still have delays  but the problems are staying out of the headlines and thats quite an achievement.Photo: ONA

The Okanagan Channel is full of sockeye, as thousands return to spawn four years after the first release of local hatchery salmon in Penticton.

2014 was sort of a pivotal year, and here we are four years later, explained Okanagan Nation Alliance fisheries biologist Ryan Benson.

Sockeye spend four years out at sea, so this will be the first time the Okanagan River will see fish return after the inaugural release from the facility on Penticton Indian Band land. Prior to the Penticton out-plant, hatchery sockeye were reared in the Shuswap.

One thing that weve noticed, there seems to be a greater percentage coming back to Skaha Lake, and I think a lot of that has to do with the hatchery adults homing into the hatchery water, Benson said.

Its believed spawning activity is near or at its peak right now, he added.

More than 150,000 sockeye passed through Wells Dam in Washington State, the last point on the Columbia River before they head up the Okanagan.

Benson said forecasts place 40,000 to 60,000 in the Okanagan River at Oliver, with 20-30 per cent of those coming to spawn in the Penticton Channel. Statistics on the final count wont be available until later this year.

While the hatchery has played a big role in restoring the Okanagan sockeye, Benson said its just one part of a holistic approach that also includes habitat restoration in Oliver and better computer modelling for dam outflows in Penticton.

A lot of the American models up until, well even now, the way they conduct business is just pump out more and more hatchery fish. But if there is marginal habitat, it really doesnt make a whole lot of difference, he said.

The latest project this fall to install additional spawning beds in Channel has been completed, and Benson said sockeye have already started using them.

More salmon than usual also appear to be butting up against the Penticton dam, possibly seeking a non-existent route in the Okanagan Lake.

ONA fisheries staff are also out collecting broodstock and eggs for the hatchery. Benson said they could collect a little under five million eggs this year, the second most ever.Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal helped build New York Citys public housing and other works projects, but much of the money ended up being siphoned to other states. Nelson A. Rockefeller, as vice president, did not particularly favor New York after saddling the state with Moral Obligation bonds that exacerbated the fiscal crisis in the 1970s as governor.

Mr. Trump may have exceeded Mr. Rockefellers capacity to enrage New Yorkers when he signed off on ending state and local tax deductions that had been a boon for New Yorkers. Far from helping fund New York projects, he instead instructed Republicans to rip funds away from the massive Gateway rail tunnel project because he was mad at Mr. Schumer.

New Yorks problem is you have these great personalities, but those personalities can work against them in terms of what they can achieve and what they can deliver, Mr. Cunningham said. Trump wont deliver for New York. Giuliani is not looking out for New Yorks interests right now. Schumer and Trump are locked in battle institutionally, which limits the cooperation needed to get local projects.

But others look to the golden years of Senator Moynihan and Senator Alfonse DAmato, the Republican who served with him and who brought plenty of bacon to the grand griddle that is New York.

We would be in a tremendous position to do more things for our great city, Mr. Jeffries said. If we were given the opportunities to govern, we could focus on transportation and infrastructure projects and fix our crumbling mass transit system. That would be a top Democratic priority.

Further, Ms. Lowey, with the power of the purse strings, could work with the states delegation to help shore up that Gateway Project for the Northeast corridor, or the tortured Pennsylvania Station remodel, among other things.For almost 30 years, parents sought out Dr. Reginald Archibald when their children would not grow. They came to his clinic at The Rockefeller University Hospital, a prominent New York research institution, where he treated and studied children who were small for their age.

He also may have sexually abused many of them.

The hospital sent a letter last month to former patients of Dr. Archibald asking about their contact with him. Ten days later, on Oct. 5, it posted a statement online saying it had evidence of the doctors inappropriate behavior with some patients and that it first had learned of credible allegations against him in 2004. The letter went out to as many as 1,000 people, said a former patient who spoke with a hospital administrator.

Dr. Archibald, an endocrinologist who spent most of his career at Rockefeller, died in 2007. His son, Larry, declined to comment. This doesnt make any sense to me, he said.



The New York Times spoke with 17 people, most of them men, who said they were abused by Dr. Archibald when they were young boys or adolescents. Most of them learned of the possibility of other victims for the first time when they received the letter. A few, however, said they had filed complaints with the hospital or authorities in the past, but their allegations were not investigated.Days after President Trump had one defamation lawsuit dismissed, his lawyers were back in court Thursday arguing to have another suit tossed out.

Mr. Trumps lawyers appeared before the New York Supreme Courts Appellate Division to argue the president could not, while he is in office, be sued for defamation by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on Mr. Trumps show The Apprentice.

Ms. Zervos sued Mr. Trump last year after he disparaged her and nine other women who accused him of sexual misconduct during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump called their accusations made-up nonsense to steal the election and total lies. Ms. Zervos had said Mr. Trump twice made unwanted sexual advances on her.

In March, a trial court judge in New York ruled Ms. Zervoss case could go forward because his comments had nothing to do with his official duties. The ruling set up the possibility the president might be deposed under oath about allegations he sexually harassed not only Ms. Zervos, but several other women.Ara Guler, a Turkish photographer who was best known for capturing poignant and nostalgic images of a bygone Istanbul but who also portrayed famous figures and everyday life in far-flung lands, died on Wednesday in the city he so lovingly chronicled. He was 90.

His death was announced by Magnum Photos, his agency, in a statement on its website.

Mr. Gulers pictures reflected the shadows and sparkle of Istanbul, a city he once described in an interview as a sort of Madwoman of Chaillot who had grown old but never neglectful of how she looked: Touch her, he said, and a jewel will appear.Dr. William Shearer, who treated the so-called bubble boy  a youngster isolated from birth in sterile plastic cocoons because he lacked a functioning immune system  through the last years of his short life, died on Oct. 9 at his home in Houston. He was 81.

His wife, Lynn DesPrez, confirmed his death. She said he had polymyositis, an inflammatory disease that causes muscle weakness.

Dr. Shearer, a pediatric immunologist, was a professor of pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis when he was hired in 1978 by Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston to take over the case of David Vetter, a bright-eyed 7-year-old with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID. David had by then been living in a series of bubbles that guarded him against exposure to bacteria and viruses, which would have probably been fatal.

In their first meeting, David immediately put his arms in the gloves extending from his plastic isolator system to shake my hand, Dr. Shearer wrote on the hospitals blog in 2011. The boy then peppered him with questions to see if he was competent to care for him.During World War II, when Raye Montague was 7 and growing up in Arkansas, her grandfather took her to see a traveling exhibit of a German submarine that had been captured off the coast of South Carolina. She was enchanted.

I looked through the periscope and saw all these dials and mechanisms, she recalled years later. And I said to the guy, What do you have to know to do this? 

His response: Oh, youd have to be an engineer, but you dont have to worry about that.

The clear implication was that as a black girl she could never become an engineer, let alone have anything to do with such a vessel.

She would go on to prove him very wrong.

The girl who faced racism and sexism in the segregated South, where she rode in the back of the bus and was denied entry to a college engineering program because she was black, became an internationally registered professional engineer and shattered the glass ceiling at the Navy when she became the first female program manager of ships. She earned the civilian equivalent of the rank of captain.Sue Hubbell, who wrote quietly penetrating books and essays about her life as a beekeeper, a curious wanderer and a divorced woman navigating middle age, died on Oct. 13 in Bar Harbor, Me. She was 83.

Her son, Brian Hubbell, confirmed the death. He said she had been dealing with dementia.

In books like A Country Year: Living the Questions (1986) and A Book of Bees  and How to Keep Them (1988), Ms. Hubbell examined the natural world and her own experiences for insights into relationships, self-reliance and, as she put it in A Country Year, where we older women fit into the social scheme of things once nest building has lost its charm.

In that book, her first, she wrote of coming to grips with the end of her first marriage and her struggles to continue running the large beekeeping operation she and her husband had acquired. It was a transition that forced her to become her own bee expert, accountant and truck mechanic, among other things.

Though her interest is in the long issues of life and death, Doris Betts wrote in reviewing the book in The Los Angeles Times, this woman, who not only shingles a roof but first makes her own shingles, is a natural and un-self-conscious feminist.Last summer my wife, Juju, was invited to attend a conference in Paris, and she asked me to come along. Id always wanted to visit Paris, so of course I said yes. But before I could book my ticket, I needed to do some research. Im blind, and I use a Seeing Eye dog  a German shepherd named Nadia  to help me get around.

First, I needed to find out where the French stood on guide dogs. This wasnt an unreasonable concern. In New York, where the law clearly states guide dogs can accompany their owners everywhere, I frequently run into trouble  in restaurants, cabs, parks, even hospitals. I didnt want to go to Paris on vacation only to have the same fights over my guide dog I could have at home.

My research turned up some good news. It said that the French have some of the strongest service animal laws in the world, and more important, these laws are rigorously enforced  any form of discrimination is strictly forbidden. I was ecstatic. Not only was I going to experience a city that Id always wanted to visit, but I also was now sure that my guide dog and I would be welcomed with open arms.

The problems began the moment we arrived in Paris. The representative from the apartment rental company took one look at Nadia and me and demanded an extra 700 euros security deposit, along with an additional 500 euros for a mysterious deep-clean fee. I felt like Id been smacked in the face. And it really stung after the warm welcome Id imagined.As climate change begins to make water scarcity a critical security issue globally, wealthier countries have begun to look outside their borders to meet their water needs. In moves that have important trade and geopolitical implications, Saudi Arabia and China have come to America to help solve their water problems and feed their people.

In 2014, Saudi Arabias largest dairy company, Almarai, bought about 15 square miles of farmland in Arizona for $47.5 million to grow alfalfa to feed its dairy cows back home. Huge amounts of water are required to cultivate the crop  nearly four times as much as wheat  which is why the Saudis had come to Arizona.

China, too, had come to the United States for food that requires vast amounts of fresh water to produce. Facing water scarcity issues in and around the Gobi Desert, China has been importing more than half of the worlds soybeans , another water-intensive crop, from farmers in the United States and South America . And not just soybeans. In 2013, a Chinese company bought the worlds largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods. Until recently, the meat from a quarter of all the hogs raised in the United States  a process that also consumes enormous amounts of water to grow the feed for these animals  ended up in China.

But with the new trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, China is turning to other countries for soybeans, and the pork Smithfield is producing in the United States has become even more expensive for China to import.The Khashoggi story isnt going away. Here is a sampling of commentary:

This trend toward repression cannot be blamed entirely on the United States, but it cannot be entirely disconnected from the United States, either, Max Boot writes in The Washington Post. The only thing that matters to this intensely solipsistic president is how other rulers treat him; how they treat their own people or even their neighbors is irrelevant.

So far, Trumps reaction to the Khashoggi crisis mirrors his approach to domestic politics: it involves telling lies, writes The New Yorkers John Cassidy: Another receptive audience for Trumps disinformation campaigns is made up of foreign despots.

Eli Lake, who has sometimes defended Trumps foreign policy, says the larger problem for Saudi Arabia isnt even the implausibility of its emerging story of what happened to Khashoggi. Its the crown prince. These are not the decisions of a steady-handed leader, Lake writes in Bloomberg Opinion.

If Congress wanted to punish Saudi Arabia, what are the options? Sanctions on oil, Saudi Arabias biggest export, are among them, says Amy Myers Jaffe of the Council on Foreign Relations. The United States has shown on many occasions that it has many other values that supersede oil, including international norms of behavior, free democratic elections, and freedom of speech, she writes. Samantha Gross of the Brookings Institution is more skeptical. Trump cant afford to have skyrocketing oil prices and rising gasoline prices at the pump going into the midterm elections, she said on yesterdays episode of the 5 on 45 podcast.

Finally, The Washington Post published what is likely Khashoggis final column, written before his disappearance, and it reads like a warning. Crackdowns on the media in the Middle East no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community, he wrote. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence.

You can join me on Twitter (@DLeonhardt) and Facebook. I also write a daily email newsletter and invite you to subscribe.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion).Amid the ongoing protest against the Supreme Court verdict on allowing all ages of women to enter the temple, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said that the verdict has given rise to the unrest and divisiveness in the society.

The legal verdict has given rise to unrest, turmoil and divisiveness in the society in place of peace, stability and equality, said Bhagwat asking why only Hindu society experiences such repeated and brazen onslaughts on its symbols of faith.

Delivering his annual Vijayadashmi speech in Nagpru, Bhagwat as The Hindustan Times quoted said The situation arising out of the recent verdict on Sabarimala temple shows the predicament. The nature and premise of the tradition that has been accepted by society and followed for years was not taken into consideration.

Bhagwat also said that the heads of religious denominations and faith of crore of devotees were entertained in the case. The one who filed petition is not devotees and a large section of women that follows this tradition was ignored too.

Earlier, RSS criticized the Kerala government for implementing the Supreme Court verdict after Kerala Chief Minister said that his government will not file review petition in the case.Saudi Arabias apparent torture, murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi has been met in some quarters with more lamentation than outrage. Here  so the argument goes  was the most reformist government in the kingdoms history; and then it did this stupid, awful thing; and now the U.S. runs the risk of making matters worse in a fit of righteousness, as one observer recently put it.

O.K. But can we dwell on that awful thing just a bit longer?

That awful thing isnt that somebody in Riyadh, deploying the cold logic of raison detat, chose to kill an enemy. Its who it chose to make an enemy of.

Khashoggi was not Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric killed in 2011 on orders from President Obama after he had joined forces with an Al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen and gone to war with the United States. He was not Fernando Pereira, the photographer unintentionally killed in 1985 aboard a Greenpeace ship after French intelligence agents sank the boat in New Zealand.

He was not even Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence agent murdered in London in 2006 on Vladimir Putins orders. Litvinenko was trying to blow the lid on the crimes that helped bring Putin to power. His murder was an outrage, but he knew he was swimming in shark-infested waters.Youve probably heard the starfish story. Theres a boy on the beach who finds thousands of starfish washed ashore, dying. He picks one up and throws it back into the ocean. A passer-by asks him whats the point of that. All these thousands of other starfish are still going to die. Well, the boy responds, I saved that one.

Many of our social programs are based on that theory of social change. We try to save people one at a time. We pick a promising kid in a neighborhood and give her a scholarship. Social programs and philanthropic efforts cream skim in a thousand ways. Or they mentor one at a time, assuming that the individual is the most important unit of social change.

Obviously its possible to do good that way. But youre not really changing the structures and systems that shape lives.

Maybe the pool story is a better metaphor than the starfish story. As a friend of mine puts it, you cant clean only the part of the pool youre swimming in.In the absence of meaningful federal oversight of voting laws, states can take the lead. Many have already taken steps to modernize and streamline their voter-registration systems. Its not hard, as long as your goal is ensuring that as many people as possible can participate in the political process.

The gold standard is automatic voter registration, which has become law or policy in 13 states since 2015, with more likely to adopt it soon. In states with automatic registration, which cross the political spectrum, an interaction with a government agency, like the Department of Motor Vehicles, automatically registers an eligible citizen to vote, unless he or she affirmatively opts out. This increases voter turnout, saves money and increases the accuracy of voter rolls.

In Oregon, the first state to adopt automatic registration, the rate of new registrations quadrupled in the first year, to 272,000; by one estimate, more than 116,000 of those Oregonians were unlikely to have registered otherwise. Nationwide, automatic registration could add as many as 22 million voters to the rolls in a year, which would translate into roughly eight million more people casting a ballot, according to a study by the Center for American Progress.

Another common-sense innovation is same-day registration  letting voters register and vote during a single trip to the polls, whether on Election Day or in an early-voting period, as 17 states and the District of Columbia now offer. This lifts the pressure of early registration deadlines and is especially relied on by groups who move frequently or struggle to make multiple visits to election offices  like minorities, young voters and working parents.

Theres also online registration, which is cheaper, more accurate, more convenient and more intuitive to a generation of Americans who have grown up in front of computer screens. Speaking of the younger generation, four million Americans turn 18 every year , and getting them preregistered when theyre 16 or 17 increases the likelihood that theyll vote.

Of course, registration doesnt mean much if people dont get out and vote. And lack of time or opportunity to get to the polls is one of the biggest hurdles to voting for people who are registered. The good news is that more and more states are coming to realize that theres nothing sacred about voting on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia offer a period of early voting, and more than one- third of all voters now vote on a day other than Election Day.

Beyond its convenience to voters, early voting makes for shorter lines, which eases pressure on poll workers and reduces chances for error. The same goes for voting by mail, as Oregon, Washington and Colorado now require for all voters, and no-excuse absentee ballots.But because the country lacks business experience and special expertise outside of the oil and petrochemical industries, that wont be possible without foreign  and particularly American  participation. Thats why the Saudis have been making so many deals recently: The Public Investment Fund has partnered with AMC to open and run movie theaters across the country because AMC knows how to manage cinemas. Saudi Arabia is pursuing deals for Snap and Amazon to open facilities in the kingdom because they can offer tech opportunities.

Its not just the private sector. The Saudi government bureaucracy also relies heavily on American management expertise. Riyadh has been hiring American consultants since the 1950s, and in recent years American firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Oliver Wyman have worked on hundreds of projects for the kingdom. In some cases, Saudi government bureaucrats work side by side with these consultants to implement government programs.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund  the kingdoms sovereign wealth fund, which is estimated to have more than $250 billion in assets  is also closely tied to the American economy. To name just a few of its major investments: It put $3.5 billion into Uber in 2016 and almost half a billion dollars in the start-up Magic Leap this year; it invested $45 billion in SoftBanks Vision Fund, which invests heavily in American technology start-ups; and it made a $5 billion investment with a possible growth to $20 billion in a Blackstone fund for United States infrastructure. Much of the tens of billions of dollars cannot be pulled out on a whim. These start-ups are private companies without open markets for their shares. Prince Mohammed is building a domestic reputation with this tech portfolio, so its success is politically important, too.

All of this is at risk if the dispute worsens between Saudi Arabia and the United States over Mr. Khashoggis disappearance. Not only could the Saudis not retaliate because their economy is so intertwined with that of the United States, but they will also be susceptible to pressure. Targeted sanctions  if it comes to that  could force consultants to withdraw or cut off the Saudi Public Investment Funds access to the profits of its investments. More likely, though, is that a continuing dispute would force American businesses like AMC to seriously reconsider involvement in the country because of negative publicity.

What about oil? Whereas Saudi Arabia could once shock the world economy by cutting oil exports or production to raise prices, it no longer has that power. The oil market today is significantly more diverse than it was in 1973, when Saudi Arabia and other Arab petroleum exporters unilaterally raised the price of oil and unsettled the American economy. In fact, the United States now produces more oil than Saudi Arabia, and imports make up a smaller percentage of domestically refined crude oil.Prince Muhammad bin Nayef has a reputation for ruthlessness and may not be able to amass support from the royalty and the commoners. He was loved by the Western governments for his campaign against Al Qaeda since 2003 and was offered the George Tenet medal by the C.I.A. weeks before he was dismissed as crown prince in 2015. But he also spread fear in society, detaining and torturing activists, and many Saudis suffered as he used the war on terror to silence peaceful dissent.

In contrast, Prince Mutaibs name is not associated with repression. His power base was among the tribal groups that joined the national guard. He can live off the reputation of his father as the old patron of the kingdom. If he continues the paternalism of his father, he may become a focal symbol for rebuilding trust among his own kin.

Nobody knows for sure what the Saudi royals are thinking, but nobody would challenge King Salman if he replaces his son. Most people patronized by M.B.S. are recent appointees and should not be expected to put up a fight against King Salman.

But it is unclear if the aging King Salman fully understands that damage M.B.S. has done to the kingdom  tarnished its reputation through reckless wars, detentions, torture, and now murder, alienated the broader royal family, shattered its old consensus. Cosmetic measures  women driving, cinemas, theaters  are not enough to usher in a new dawn in the kingdom.

Although a long shot, if King Salman does replace M.B.S., he must transform the absolute Saudi monarchy into a constitutional monarchy with an elected government and parliament, who approve the appointment of future kings and crown princes. That alone will prevent the emergence of a new M.B.S.-like figure who could amass all the power and threaten the interests of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has had the time and the money to transform itself into a modern state that respects basic human rights and freedoms, but it has avoided that path. In the past, citizens and some royals have sought rudimentary forms of political representation but calls for constitutional monarchy have landed its proponents in prison. There is little hope of change.

King Salman will never voluntarily push for such a change without serious pressure from inside and outside the country. Given the support he has from the West, especially President Trump, most Western governments might be happy to see another abbreviation emerge as the new face of the kingdom to absorb the global outrage over Jamal Khashoggis disappearance and murder.People have always told stories about their ancestral origins. But now millions of people are looking at their DNA to see if those stories hold up. While genetic tests can indeed reveal some secrets about our family past, we can also jump to the wrong conclusions from their results.

The reception of Senator Elizabeth Warrens DNA results is a textbook case in this confusion.

On Monday morning, Senator Warren released an analysis on her DNA showing that six to 10 generations back she had a Native American ancestor. Within hours, Michael Ahrens, an official at the Republican National Committee, dismissed the results in a tweet:

So Elizabeth Warren is possibly 1/1024 (0.09 percent) Native American. Scientists say the average European-American is 0.18 percent Native American. Thatd make Warren even less Native American than the average European-American.

By Monday afternoon, James Freeman, an assistant editor of The Wall Street Journals editorial page, had fleshed out Mr. Ahrenss arithmetic. The DNA analysis, he wrote, suggests that the senator is somewhere between 1/64th and 1/1024th Native American. He added: Her genetic makeup is perhaps similar to that of the average white person in the U.S.

These numbers then began to ricochet around social media. They carried a clear implication: that Elizabeth Warren was no different in her Native American ancestry than a great many other white Americans.As some of us know from personal experience, finding bedbugs in your apartment is jarring. While they dont carry diseases to humans (that we know of), their bites are itchy and can get infected.

Bedbugs are adept hitchhikers, easily picked up in hotel rooms, car shares, movie theaters and other public spaces. And once they settle into your home, they are difficult and expensive to get rid of  and notorious for spreading to the neighbors apartments.

We asked Localize, a website that can provide information on any address in New York City, to analyze the last five years worth of bedbug violations (through August 2018) for rentals in the five boroughs, to find out where the problem has been the worst and if it is getting any better. (Violations are issued by the city to landlords who fail to properly address an infestation.)Last night, wildflowers seemed to rain from the ceiling at La Mercerie in New York as guests assembled for Ts Greats party, in celebration of the magazines Oct. 21 issue. For the occasion, the florist Emily Thompson created a fantasyland of flora inside of the Roman and Williams Guild, the SoHo furniture and flower store run by the designers Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, in which the restaurant is located. The idea was to bring the worlds weather into the space, Thompson said. Lush swaths of foraged wild smilax vines and milkweed fluff hung like clouds above guests heads in the dining room. A brilliant-green curtain of horsetail reeds and explosion grass, which conjured a tropical downpour, divided the restaurant from the store, where guests  including Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson and Prabal Gurung  mingled with Champagne amid urns of wild grasses mixed with Nerine lilies, dill weed and bronze anthurium.

When everyone sat down for dinner (oysters with seaweed butter, boeuf bourguignon, pistachio cake), they became part of the scene, thanks to fantastical floral crowns made by the Brooklyn-based artist Joshua Werber. Carrie Mae Weems, one of the issues six cover subjects, donned a spray of delicate white dianthus while the evenings host, Ts editor in chief, Hanya Yanagihara, wore a towering cascade of agapanthus. For the playwright Jeremy O. Harris: a waterfall of trumpet-shaped blue Gentiana flowers; for the photographer Petra Collins: a flourish of bright yellow bromeliad. At the end of the rows of white-clothed tables, a stand sold autumnal bouquets that guests could take with them, along with the set of Greats playing cards  decorated with illustrations of the issues honorees  that completed each place setting. Click through the slide show to see highlights from the night.Next month, the actor Viggo Mortensen, one of the six cover subjects of Ts 2018 Greats issue, will star alongside Mahershala Ali in Green Book, a movie based on the true story of the jazz pianist Don Shirleys road trip through the American South in 1962. Here, the author Kaitlyn Greenidge discusses The Negro Motorist Green Book, which served as a guide for black travelers across North America and inspired the film.

How did you and Daddy meet? I used to ask my mother. The answer always shifted  through friends, through the circle of black undergraduates in Boston-area colleges in the late 1960s. But once she said, When we were children, his family knew there were black people who lived along the Concord Turnpike. Theyd stop to see us on their way in and out of town. Everyone did it  by everyone she meant black middle-class Bostonians  theyd drive by to look at us while we played in the yard.

That image  of black people in incongruous places, and the joy and pride we derive from encountering them  stuck with me for years. It was the inspiration for my first novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman (2016). One of the characters, a black girl in 1940s Maine, becomes an object of fascination for black tourists. By the time I wrote that character, I had heard of the existence of the Green Book, a guide published between 1936 and 1967 that black motorists and vacationers could use as a resource to find which businesses, motels and towns would welcome them in a segregated United States. I was fascinated by this book, which included both black- and white-owned businesses. For every state, the Green Book attempted to list the hotels, barbershops, auto garages, restaurants and tourist homes that would accommodate black travelers. I found this last distinction intriguing  under it were listed the parsonage of the AME church sometimes, other times, for states like Idaho, only the address for a lone dude ranch. I couldnt resist, so I included a fictionalized version of it for my character. She and her family were an example of what was possible as the northernmost Negroes in the Continental United States according to the Colored Motorists Guide, the title I used to stand in for the Green Book.In his cluttered man-cave of an office in an industrial park here, he is now expanding this slender notion. He writes: The bison are gathered around the canyon.  What comes next? He hits tab. The computer makes a noise like pock, analyzes the last few sentences, and adds the phrase by the bare sky.

Mr. Sloan likes it. Thats kind of fantastic, he said. Would I have written bare sky by myself? Maybe, maybe not.

He moves on: The bison have been traveling for two years back and forth.  Tab, pock. The computer suggests between the main range of the city.

That wasnt what I was thinking at all, but its interesting, the writer said. The lovely language just pops out and I go, Yes. 

Image Mr. Sloans debut novel, written the old-fashioned way, was described by a New York Times critic as a slyly arch novel about technology and its discontents. Credit... Patricia Wall/The New York Times

His software is not labeled anything as grand as artificial intelligence. Its machine learning, facilitating and extending his own words, his own imagination. At one level, it merely helps him do what fledgling writers have always done  immerse themselves in the works of those they want to emulate. Hunter Thompson, for instance, strived to write in the style of F. Scott Fitzgerald, so he retyped The Great Gatsby several times as a shortcut to that objective.Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, one of the most-wanted terrorists in South Asia, has lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan-led government for seeking aid from the Trump administration and walking into what he termed as an American trap of giving aid for the killing of Kashmiri and other 'Mujahideen' in the country.

"The U.S. has ordered Pakistan to capture Afghan and Kashmiri Mujahideen with an aim to convert Pakistan into an extended territory of the U.S.", Saeed said while addressing a huge crowd at Markaz Al Qadsiya in Lahore city.

He added, "The US puts pressure on Pakistan government to close the madrasas (Islamic seminaries) and stop teaching the Holy Quran. They say those studying here are all 'jihadis'. The US gives such diktats while coming to Pakistan. They also want syllabus on religious teachings to be removed as it gives birth to 'jihadis'. The government of Pakistan agrees on such orders and informs them about banning 'jihadi' outfits in return of receiving monetary aid and support."

Saeed founded Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group, which waged the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks. The organisation is on the United Nations list of global terrorist groups.

Emphasising on the need to promote religious teachings, Saeed said, "We must reform our educational syllabus and to train our professors in accordance with Islamic education based on Quran and Hadith so that they can handle the economic, political and the various problems created by the U.S.".

Saeed, who carries a USD 10 million bounty for his role in terror activities, criticised the Pakistani government for accepting suggestions to ask the US and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for aid.

He further asked Imran Khan to fulfill promises made during the election campaign of turning Pakistan into a true Islamic State.

"We have to safeguard Islam and Pakistan and should not get trapped into the US and IMF's entrap", said Saeed in his address.

Saeed strongly criticized those studying and supporting the Western education system in Pakistan.

-ANIOur guide to plays and musicals coming to New York stages and a few last-chance picks of shows that are about to close. Our reviews of open shows are at nytimes.com/reviews/theater.

Previews and Openings

BIG APPLE CIRCUS at Damrosch Park (performances start on Oct. 20). This New York institution, rescued from bankruptcy in 2017, returns with a twist: Now, the ringmaster is a ringmistress: Stephanie Monseu of the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus. Familiar acts, like Jenny Vidbel and her dashing dogs and horses, combine with new ones that involve a wall trampoline and a free-standing ladder.

212-257-2330, bigapplecircus.com

CATCH AS CATCH CAN at the New Ohio Theater (previews start on Oct. 22; opens on Oct. 31). In this Page 73 production, mothers and sons and fathers and daughters are a little closer than usual. Mia Chungs play stars three actors: Jeff Biehl, Michael Esper and Jeanine Serralles (all names that light up a cast list). Each of them portrays two members of working-class New England families. Ken Rus Schmoll directs.

866-811-4111, page73.orgIt had been estimated to sell for $5,000 to $8,000. But with the newfound buzz around the Monroe connection, it may go for up to $12,000, said Mr. Greenstein, whose auction house, J. Greenstein & Company, is based in Cedarhurst, N.Y.

Image The inside of Monroes prayer book, which is being sold in New York next month. The 1922 volume appears to have originated at a Brooklyn synagogue attended by Monroes husband, the playwright Arthur Miller. Credit... Abe Kugielsky

Monroe and Miller were married in 1956 at a courthouse in Westchester County, according to a 2012 book about the couple, The Genius and the Goddess. Two days later, they had a religious ceremony, and a rabbi converted Monroe to Judaism.

Monroe once told the actress Susan Strasberg that she could identify with the Jews, according to the book. Everybodys always out to get them, no matter what they do, Monroe said. Like me.

Others believe that Monroe embraced Judaism because it drew her closer to Millers family, especially considering she never had much of one herself. Because her mother spent time in and out of mental institutions and her father died in a motorcycle accident when she was a toddler, Monroe ended up living in a dozen foster homes.

Academics and museum curators have learned more about Monroes faith through letters from Rabbi Robert Goldburg, who presided over her conversion. In a 1962 letter to a scholar of Jewish history, dated a few weeks after Monroes death, Rabbi Goldburg wrote that Monroe had no religious training in her life apart from some memories of a Fundamentalist Protestantism which she had long rejected.Both Efrain and Oswaldo spoke on condition that their surnames not be published.

The new rush of migrants highlights the Trump administrations struggle to control the border in the weeks before the midterm elections, with immigration proving to be a defining issue in campaigns across the country. Since his days on the presidential campaign trail, Mr. Trump has taken a tough stance on immigration, vowing to build a border wall and to end what he refers to as catch and release of migrants, which has been on clear display here in Arizona in recent weeks.

By law, the government cannot keep migrants in holding facilities at the border for more than 72 hours. It must either transfer them to an immigration detention facility or release them.

Advocates for migrants in Arizona said the government has been letting hundreds of detained migrants go free each week because it lacks enough beds to hold them in family detention facilities. ICEs three residential family centers  two in southern Texas and one in Pennsylvania  can accommodate 3,326 parents and children.

The largest share of migrants show up in Texas, but there appears to be a swelling number who are entering through Arizona.

Border Patrol arrests in the Yuma area were up nearly 130 percent in the first 11 months of the 2018 fiscal year, compared with the same period in fiscal 2017. Apprehensions in Tucson more than doubled.

The routes that migrants take to reach the United States border are most often determined by smugglers. While Arizona is farther from Central America than Texas is, there may be a perception that migrants stand a better chance of being released from ICE custody in Arizona, according to some of those who work with migrants.

Arizona became a major entry point in the 2000s after the California border was sealed to combat illegal entries. When authorities tightened the Arizona border as well, migrant traffic shifted to Texas.Does he have friends who are lobbyists? You bet, said Allan Katz, a former city commissioner who served with Mr. Gillum and later became Mr. Obamas ambassador to Portugal. Did I have friends who were lobbyists? You bet.

And as Mr. Gillum seeks the states highest post, at least one of those friends has brought baggage, dragging his name into an F.B.I. investigation and, unbeknown to him, placing him in the extended company of undercover agents. About two years ago, a lobbyist, Adam Corey, who had been close with Mr. Gillum since their student government days, introduced him to men who identified themselves as out-of-town developers eager to invest in property on Tallahassees south side  but were in fact working undercover to investigate the citys community redevelopment agency for possible corruption.

Mr. Gillum has insisted that investigators told him he is not their target, and the inquiry has yet to produce any indictments. But subpoenaed documents revealed that Mr. Gillum took two personal trips in 2016 with Mr. Corey: one to Costa Rica with a top Gillum adviser, Mr. Pittman, and another to New York with Mr. Gillums younger brother and the agents. Mr. Gillum has said he paid his own way for most of the travel, with his brother treating him to a Broadway performance of Hamilton and a hotel stay. Both trips are under investigation by Floridas state ethics commission. Mr. Gillums younger brother, Marcus, declined to comment, and a lawyer for Mr. Corey declined to provide further case details.

Mr. Gillums defenders have said any whiff of impropriety is inconsistent with the man, and the city, they know.

There is no corruption in the city of Tallahassee, Curtis Richardson, the citys mayor pro tempore, said in an interview. (Later, he seemed to hedge slightly: Its not like its systemic corruption, and multiple individuals are involved, and its from the top down. Its not that at all.)

Mr. Katz, the former commissioner, said Mr. Gillum had been too ambitious, for too long, to behave recklessly. He always was looking for a political future for himself and was therefore, I think, extremely careful, Mr. Katz said. But all of us whove been involved in politics sometimes wind up in the wrong room with the wrong guy.

Mr. Gillum has chafed most at the labels applied to him as the investigation churns, which he believes fail to capture the totality of the affair. You only put people in characters: lobbyist and mayor, the mayor said of the lobbyist matter during a 45-minute interview at a local coffee shop. I have a very easy time saying no to friends.Mr. McCurdy said that there was no shortage of former members of Congress or high-level administration types interested in his soon-to-be vacant post, but that they were probably at a disadvantage.

And it is not just partisanship. Many politicians are not seen as having the skill set necessary for running large organizations. Senate and House offices are essentially small businesses, run very top-down, with a single goal  the re-election of the chief executive. Not to mention that politicians are often coddled with staff aides enthusiastically tending to their needs and frequently very reluctant to challenge them  or get an earful when they do. Association executives have to contend regularly with executives who are successful in their own right, with proven track records in their field.

Even though politicians say they have a lot of bosses, they really dont, Mr. McCurdy said. You have to understand it is a different role. You have to understand how to effectively work with boards, manage boards, lead boards, but also learn from and listen to boards.

And while politicians get judged every two or six years at the ballot box, those running the associations say they are constantly evaluated.

With how much politics has changed in the last 10 years and the continuing focus on the bottom line, every company in America is looking at their trade association and trying to figure out what value they are getting out of it, said Mr. Sommers, who is overseeing an organization with a $230 million budget and 350 employees worldwide.

No doubt some Washington-based advocacy groups will always welcome a big-name former lawmaker with extensive contacts who is considered capable of bringing in members and drawing the attention of the news media. And to organizations with a strong ideological bent of their own, partisanship wont be a problem. But given the turnover in Congress and potential losses by incumbents of both parties next month, there could soon be a glut on the market.

A few departing members such as Speaker Paul D. Ryan will be able to rake in substantial speaking fees  at least for a while. Others could catch on with lobbying and law firms to serve as strategic advisers while waiting for lobbying bans to expire. But the job market isnt what it once was for ex-office holders, particularly those who werent committee chairmen or in leadership.Mr. Trump never pursued it, but the F.B.I. building continued to intersect with his business  and later with his presidency. As recently as early 2015, months before he announced his candidacy, an executive at his company expressed concern to a congressional aide about the redevelopment project creating potential competition for Mr. Trumps hotel. And now, as the first real estate developer turned president, Mr. Trump has again taken an interest in the F.B.I. project.

Within months of his taking office, his administration killed the original plan to trade the Hoover site for a suburban campus. A little over a year into Mr. Trumps term, and after at least one meeting in which the president was personally involved, the administration announced a new plan that would keep the F.B.I. on the existing site in a new building, rather than turn over the property for commercial development.

It is not clear that putting another commercial development on Pennsylvania Avenue, even one with a competing hotel, would necessarily hurt Mr. Trumps hotel. Still, the degree to which Mr. Trump influenced decisions about the F.B.I. building has emerged as another flashpoint in the running debate over whether his business holdings create conflicts of interest with his duties as president.

The sudden change in plans for the F.B.I. project has already prompted an inspector generals report that documented the presidents involvement in the process. And as Democrats make plans to investigate Mr. Trump more aggressively should they win control of the House in the midterm elections next month, they are zeroing in on the issue as one of their priorities and saying that the president should have recused himself entirely from any decisions about the building.

As an initial step, Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, and four other House Democrats sent a letter to the General Services Administration on Thursday seeking a trove of documents about the F.B.I. project.A few hours later on Tuesday, Heritage deleted the references to donors, secrecy and loyalty from the application materials it had posted on its website. Ms. Deutsch did not respond to a request for an explanation and to other questions about the program. Nor would she disclose the identities of the programs donors or its faculty, which was said to include several sitting federal appeals court judges and professors from various prominent law schools.

Jill Dash, vice president for strategic engagement at the American Constitution Society, which is often described as the Federalist Societys liberal counterpart, said there was no comparable program aimed at liberal law clerks.

I am not aware of anything like this on the progressive side, she said.

According to the application materials, Heritages unnamed donors were to pay for travel expenses to Washington, hotel rooms and meals during the three-day program. The curriculum would cover, the materials said, originalism, textualism, habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights and other substantive legal and practical subject matter. Originalism and textualism are modes of interpreting the Constitution and statutes that are generally but not exclusively associated with conservatives.

The application called for several short essays. One prompt said, Please describe your understanding of originalism. Another said, Please identify the United States Supreme Court justice (past or present) whose jurisprudential philosophy and approach to judging you agree with most, and explain why.

It was unclear whether an applicant hostile to originalism, which seeks to interpret the Constitution as it was understood by those who drafted and ratified it, or who named a liberal justice would have been admitted to the program.

Lawrence Baum, a political scientist at Ohio State University, said the program was an extension of other initiatives from the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.

One hallmark of the conservative legal community since the 1980s has been the efforts of its leaders to identify and nurture promising young lawyers with conservative views who may rise to important positions such as judgeships, he said. This academy is a good example of those efforts.There are other reasons Republicans might prevail in Iowa. The unemployment rate is among the lowest in the country, and jobs are abundant. Immigration has become a thorny issue after Republicans seized on the death of an Iowa college student  authorities say she was killed by an undocumented immigrant  as evidence the country needed more secure borders. More recently, the bitter fight over Justice Brett M. Kavanaughs confirmation has outraged many Republican voters.

A lot of us are disgusted with what the Democrats have been doing, said Joleen Ballard, 66, who was selling pumpkins and gourds at a fall festival in Toledo, a small town about 70 miles from Des Moines. She voted for Mr. Trump, she said. And come Election Day, she planned to vote for Ms. Reynolds.

Shes been through what a lot of us in Iowa have, Ms. Ballard said. Shes one of us.

Mr. Trumps success among white, working-class voters spanned much of the Midwest, powering victories in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. As Democrats try to reclaim these states, they are counting on young voters, women and minorities in the cities and suburbs to provide the bulk of Democratic support. But here in Iowa and elsewhere, they are also making appeals to small-town voters who went for Mr. Trump.

It was no coincidence, for example, that Mr. Hubbell chose as his running mate Rita Hart, a farmer and state senator who represents rural areas in the eastern part of the state.

Mr. Hubbell, whose family name is so entrenched in Des Moines that one of the main roads leading out of the city is called Hubbell Avenue, likes to talk about how he is a fifth-generation Iowan. He is banking heavily on a moderate, Iowa-focused message that revolves around bread-and-butter issues  health care, education, the economy.

He tends to pepper his remarks with financially abstruse phrases like fiscal impact analysis and tax-credit review panel. He rarely, if ever, mentions Mr. Trump. I got to be honest with you, he said, Im pretty well focused on whats going on in our state.The Saudi leaders assured me that they will conduct a complete, thorough investigation of all of the facts surrounding Mr. Khashoggi and that theyll do so in a timely fashion, Mr. Pompeo said in remarks to reporters at the White House after he briefed the president about his meetings in Riyadh. He said the Saudi report would be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about and to acquire.

Typically reports involving national security matters are highly redacted, if they are released at all. Mr. Pompeo also reminded journalists of Americas long strategic relationship with the Saudis, dating back to 1932, and he said the kingdom remained an important counterterrorism partner.

After so many other executives and foreign officials scrapped plans to attend the conference, Mr. Mnuchins attendance emerged as a litmus test for Americas commitment to human rights. Mr. Trump and Mr. Pompeo have emphasized that the strategic economic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia goes back decades, and that it should not be upended by the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi.

Mr. Trump has also been focused on the fact that the Saudis are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase American-made military equipment and has said he does not want to do anything that could cost American jobs.

Former Treasury officials and friends of Mr. Mnuchin have been watching closely to see if he would change his mind about the conference and several have spoken candidly about his need to withdraw.

As the news media described gruesome audio recordings that purport to depict the dismembering of Mr. Khashoggi, Mr. Mnuchin faced backlash from Republican lawmakers such as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, as well as several top Democrats.

Former Treasury Secretary Paul H. ONeill, who served during the George W. Bush administration, called the idea of Mr. Mnuchin attending ridiculous under the circumstances.Good Thursday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

_____________________

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has cultivated an image of talking tough. But his trip to Saudi Arabia to discuss the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi offered a different picture. Read the story.

 Rick Scott, the Florida governor and Senate candidate, is fabulously wealthy. Heres how his investments might present conflicts if he makes it to Congress.

 Senate Democrats had struck a deal with Republicans, confirming one last slate of President Trumps judicial nominees in order to recess ahead of the midterms. But Republicans have resumed hearings for more conservative judges, apparently breaking the truce.Republicans are betting that voters will distinguish their attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act from the issue of pre-existing conditions. They maintain that their replacement bill, the American Health Care Act, would ensure that people with pre-existing conditions could receive insurance, although the bill would have let states seek waivers that would weaken those protections. It would have also eliminated rules blocking insurance companies from charging patients with pre-existing conditions more.

But political winds have shifted. A Fox News poll released this week found that 54 percent of those polled had a favorable opinion of the Affordable Care Act, tying a record high.

Health care remains voters top issue in the midterms, according to polling released Thursday by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. When those who call it very important are asked to describe what health care issue concerns them, nearly one in five names a need to increase access, and far fewer mention opposition to the Affordable Care Act, the poll found. Those findings track with a previous study that found widespread support for the health laws provision preventing insurance companies from denying coverage based on a persons medical history.

This seems to be a real breakthrough for people; whatever else they understand about how health insurance works, it bothers them to think that insurers might charge you more or exclude coverage for your condition because its pre-existing, said Karen Pollitz, a senior fellow at the foundation. It registers in such a profound way with the public, they want that to continue to be the law of the land.

But Republican leaders have not wavered. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, told Bloomberg News this week, Its no secret that we preferred to start over to repeal and replace the health law.

Democrats have seized on Mr. McConnells remarks as proof that Republican candidates tempered remarks are nothing but campaign artifice.

"Republican candidates know they are on the losing side of this issue, so theyre just covering their tracks, said Leslie Dach, the chairman of Protect Our Care, a liberal advocacy group. Theyre putting these statements on TV, and I think McConnells statement pulls the rug out from everything theyve been saying.WASHINGTON  By the time Terry J. Albury arrived in Minneapolis in 2012, about 11 years after he went to work for the F.B.I., he had grown increasingly convinced that agents were abusing their powers and discriminating against racial and religious minorities as they hunted for potential terrorists.

The son of an Ethiopian political refugee, Mr. Albury was the only African-American field agent assigned to a counterterrorism squad that scrutinized Minnesotas Somali-American community. There, according to his lawyer, he became disillusioned about widespread racist and xenophobic sentiments in the bureau and discriminatory practices and policies he observed and implemented.

In 2016, Mr. Albury began photographing secret documents that described F.B.I. powers to recruit potential informants and identify potential extremists. On Thursday, he was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty last year to unauthorized disclosures of national security secrets for sending several of the documents to The Intercept, which published the files with a series titled The F.B.I.s Secret Rules.

[Read court documents in Mr. Alburys case.]

Before Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright announced the sentence, Mr. Albury spoke haltingly in her courtroom in downtown St. Paul, pausing to wipe his face and breathe deeply. He apologized to his former F.B.I. colleagues and said he had been motivated to act by perceived injustices. In hindsight, he said, he wished he had voiced his concerns through official channels and not the news media.Turkish officials said he was brutally killed and his body dismembered by a team of operatives sent from Saudi Arabia. In phone calls with Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo and other top American officials, Prince Mohammed and other Saudi leaders have denied any involvement.

Mr. Pompeo said on Thursday that the United States would give the Saudis a few more days to conduct their investigation. He told reporters at the White House that the Saudi report would be transparent for everyone to see, to ask questions about and to acquire.

Mr. Trump said in the interview it was still a little bit early in the process to draw definitive conclusions about who ordered the killing. But he expressed no doubt that the truth would come out soon. Were working with the intelligence from numerous countries, he said.

This is the best intelligence we could have, Mr. Trump added.

Intelligence reports have drawn direct links between the Saudi operatives who traveled to Istanbul and the Saudi royal court. Four of the operatives, whose images were caught on surveillance video, served as guards for Prince Mohammed in April during his visit to the United States.

American intelligences agencies, however, are divided on the degree of responsibility that can be pinned on the prince  which is complicating an appraisal that they are compiling to present to the White House, according to a former senior administration official.

The Central Intelligence Agency, whose analysts draw on an array of hard facts and subjective judgments, are increasingly convinced that Prince Mohammed is culpable in Mr. Khashoggis death.

But other agencies have stopped short of that conclusion. The National Security Agency, for example, collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official. But the intercepts do not reveal whether Prince Mohammed directly ordered the killing of Mr. Khashoggi.SOUTHPORT, Fla.  Stacks of cash are being handed out at a Sams Club! Bed bugs have infested a hurricane shelter! Bay Countys Emergency Operations Center is on fire!

Unfounded rumors, all of them.

The free-for-all of hearsay began even before Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle, and more than a week later, the area is still trafficking in speculation. It is as if the region is playing a game of telephone with no clear beginning, no rules and, for now, no end in sight.

Misinformation, well intentioned or otherwise, is common in disasters, fueled by human nature and a speak-now-assess-later approach that has only been magnified in an era of text messages and social media posts. Making matters particularly difficult in Florida is the scale of the disaster, the delay in resuming cellular service and the fact that what is true in one county is not necessarily so in another.

There are parked trailers filled with dead bodies!

Early on after the hurricane passed, the areas medical examiner, Dr. Jay Radtke, said his office responded to reports about dead bodies buried in the ruins only to find nothing but rubble. For a time, he said, the false alarms outpaced the number of fatalities, which have totaled 20 in Florida.STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga.  The Rev. Ferrell Brown, a white pastor at a suburban Atlanta megachurch, stood on the big bald top of Stone Mountain on a warm Saturday morning, sharing a stage with two relatives of those murdered at a black church in Charleston, S.C., three years ago.

In front of him were 2,000 evangelical Christians  mostly a mix of black and white Southerners  who had come to the mountaintop to worship across racial barriers.

Below them, etched across three acres of granite on the mountains north face, was the carving of Southern Civil War leaders that is literally the largest Confederate monument problem in the world.

Pastor Brown spoke of his familys history, divulging that he was a descendant of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan. He spoke of his grandfather, who, he said, would throw a meal in the trash at a restaurant if he saw a mixed-race couple walk in.For anyone who came of age before the advent of streaming, the made-for-TV horror movie was once a low-budget, often camp, and sometimes genuinely horrifying treat this time of year. Original, self-contained and surprisingly high-concept, these stories were never quite a prime-time staple. But the makers of atmospheric chillers from the Golden Age like Dont Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) and Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) usually had a pretty high bar to clear: Appeal to a general audience, do it cheap, and leave time for commercials.

What resulted were sometimes bad, sometimes good-bad, and frequently great regardless, packed with snappy dialogue and daring ideas (not to mention cheap special effects). Many of these movies are hard to find today, but a handful of greats are streaming. These are the 10 we like best.The Project Baseline researchers are learning this firsthand. They say they have discovered and promptly alerted participants to potentially lethal conditions that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, like cancer and aortic aneurysms, so they can seek appropriate medical care. But some of the participants have also been frightened by fairly innocuous findings, like chest X-rays that reveal small, usually benign nodules in their lungs that they may look up on the internet and think are cancerous, said Dr. Charlene Wong, a Project Baseline investigator. For most of our participants, it will not be cancer. But were still in the process of working with participants to find out if we can return that data in the right way so that we minimize the anxiety it can cause, she said.

Dr. Ken Mahaffey, a Project Baseline investigator and cardiologist at Stanford, said that he and his colleagues have a responsibility, socially, morally and ethically, to get systems in place so we can share the results with participants in ways that they can understand them and then help them engage with their own physicians and clinical providers.

Despite the anxiety it can cause, many people welcome such data. Studies like Project Baseline are especially appealing to the so-called Quantified Self movement, the growing community of people who track their every biometric with smartphone apps, high-tech gadgets and direct-to-consumer health tests. Some 2,000 people have enrolled in Project Baseline so far, and thousands more have signed up in a registry of potential volunteers who may be called on as the project expands to additional medical centers.

While there have been plenty of longitudinal studies in the past, many of the largest and most important were not very diverse. The landmark Framingham heart study that began in 1948, for example, focused mostly on white adults. Dr. Svati Shah, an associate professor of medicine at Duke, said Project Baseline is recruiting many people who are black, Hispanic, Asian and other ethnicities so the study can shed light on differences in disease risk factors among people of different backgrounds.

That includes people like Rosa Gonzalez, 57, a nurse who lives in Concord, N.C. Ms. Gonzalez, who is Mexican-American, joined the study earlier this year and has encouraged at least a dozen Latino friends and acquaintances to join it as well.

Other studies present data and talk about Latinos, but they dont have Latinos in the study, she said. Im trying to set an example so other Latinos see that its good to take part so that we can have data that shows how were the same or different.

Dr. Gambhir said the idea for Project Baseline was hatched in 2013, when Google executives approached him and said they wanted to do a landmark study on human health. Dr. Gambhir proposed a study to find early markers of cancer in people who are otherwise healthy.GUATEMALA CITY  For days they have traveled north from their homes in Honduras, walking, taking buses and hitching rides in cars and trucks. They have carried only the essentials in small bags and knapsacks.

As the large caravan of migrants entered Guatemala on its way toward the United States, more people had joined the march, which has fractured into smaller units. By Wednesday night, some had stopped to rest and sleep in Guatemala City. There were many families and pregnant women among the ranks.

The caravan  as many as 4,000 people by some estimates  has prompted a flurry of tweets from President Trump, who on Thursday threatened military action at the southwestern border of the United States if Mexico failed to halt the group.

The caravans participants are making the journey for several reasons. Some say they are fleeing gangs that terrorize their neighborhoods and are seeking sanctuary in Mexico or the United States. Others are in search of work and more stability for their families.A caravan of migrants, nearly all of them Hondurans, is making its way north through Guatemala toward Mexico and the United States. It is the latest, and certainly the largest, iteration of a phenomenon that has occurred from time to time: big groups of Central Americans joining together to face the challenges of migration, their numbers providing security against the criminals that stalk the route north.

But this one has drawn the ire of President Trump, who warned on Thursday that he would shut down the southwest border of the United States if Mexico did not halt the group. He also reiterated his threat that unless the governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador stopped the caravans progress, he would suspend foreign aid to them.

I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  he posted on Twitter, and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!

And for good measure, perhaps with the midterm elections in mind, he took a shot at the Democratic Party, blaming it in part for the caravan of migrants.KABUL, Afghanistan  When the White House ordered American diplomats this summer to engage the Taliban directly in the hopes of jump-starting an Afghan peace process, many in Afghanistan welcomed it as a vital first step in trying to break the stalemate that dominates the 17-year war here.

Publicly, President Ashraf Ghani was among them, projecting a measured tone. But officials say that in private, the Afghan leader repeatedly expressed concern and resistance to American officials about the prospect of talks that did not include his government.

They say his concern was that such talks, which the Taliban have insisted should not include the Afghan government, could become a fatal marginalization of the countrys leadership at a hazardous moment.

Last week, Mr. Ghanis fears came true, in a humiliating way that he had worked to avoid.

The American special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, just days after hearing Mr. Ghanis concerns in Kabul, the Afghan capital, flew to the gulf state of Qatar and quietly met with Taliban representatives. Mr. Ghani and his government heard of that meeting only through news reports, and found out further details not through his American allies  even after he asked  but through a Taliban statement, according to several officials with detailed knowledge of the developments.An unusually strong typhoon season may have caused some of Japans famous cherry blossom trees to bloom several months early.

Weathernews, a weather site in Japan, said it had received more than 350 reports this week of emerging cherry blossoms, which typically attract tourists from around the globe in April, when they usually appear.

With few exceptions, the picturesque pink flowers dont reveal themselves in the fall. But Hiroyuki Wada, an arborist for the Flower Association of Japan, told the public broadcaster NHK that extreme weather had stripped the trees of leaves, which produce a hormone that inhibits the buds from growing. In September, Japan was walloped by Typhoon Jebi, its strongest storm in 25 years.

This years storms affected wide regions, and the strong winds may have caused the blooming, he said. Ive never seen anything like this.NEAR SABARIMALA TEMPLE, India  As a woman and a man climbed a steep trail on Thursday leading to one of Hinduisms holiest temples, a mob multiplied with frightening speed.

From a point farther up the path, several hundred men screamed at the woman, insisting that she immediately turn back from visiting the Sabarimala Temple, a centuries-old shrine in southern India. When the pair of visitors, both journalists for The New York Times, decided to descend, the crowd rushed at them, hurled rocks and pummeled two dozen police officers.

Madam, you dont be afraid, O.K.? Habeeb Ullah, one of the police officers, told one of the journalists, a bit too late.

For centuries, women of childbearing age were prohibited from entering the temple, which is perched on a lush hill in the coastal state of Kerala. Last month, after Indias Supreme Court struck down that ban, saying that barring women from the temple infringed on their constitutional rights, thousands of protesters pledged that women who dared to visit the temple would be punished.SINGAPORE  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis tried to lower the temperature on the array of hostilities between Washington and Beijing on Thursday, saying it is up to the militaries of the two competing global superpowers to act as a stabilizing force amid rising political tensions.

During an hour-and-a-half meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Mr. Mattis sanded down some of the sharp edges from Vice President Mike Pences pointed critique of China this month. Mr. Mattis urged the two militaries to talk through their many differences and even repeated an invitation for Wei Fenghe, Chinas defense minister, to visit the United States, according to a senior Defense Department official who was in the meeting.

But the cordial tone belied deep tensions that showed no signs of abating on Thursday. China, as it usually does, brushed off Mr. Mattiss complaints about Beijings continued militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, other countries present at a meeting in Singapore of Southeast Asian nations continued to resist American entreaties to add their voices to the American challenge of Chinas claims in the disputed area. And two of those countries  Malaysia and Thailand  prepared for a joint naval exercise with China that American officials worry is part of a larger effort by Beijing to peel away American allies.General Raziq was the third of the last four Kandahar police chiefs to be killed on the job.

Mr. Smith said he had brought a measure of calm to a city that was experiencing daily explosions when he took command of the provinces police force in 2011. But his methods, he said, often involved a savage campaign against the Taliban, tactics that were celebrated in the city but terrified people in the countryside.

General Raziq was 17 when he picked up a gun, and for years he was known to boast about Taliban body counts. But he mellowed in recent years, the war visibly changing him.

I was a young man and then thought it was a good thing, General Raziq said in an interview in 2015. But I have come to despise it. I have come to realize this cant be done through death and blood.

Initially, there were conflicting reports about whether the Kandahar governor, Zalmai Wesa, and Gen. Nabi Elham, a police commander responsible for several provinces, had survived the attack. General Ibrahimi said both are wounded but are under medical operation, but other officials, including one of Mr. Wesas deputies, Agha Lalay Datagiri, said the governor had been killed. Other officials said the police commander had been injured.

In a brief televised message, President Ashraf Ghani said he had dispatched his intelligence chief and other senior officials to Kandahar to investigate the shootings. I promise the Afghan people that soon the situation will get normal in Kandahar, Mr. Ghani said.

The loss of General Raziq casts a further shadow on a political season already marred by bloodshed. One-third of polling stations will not open because of security concerns, and at least 10 candidates and dozens of their supporters have been killed. The Taliban have threatened to attack polling places.ROSSLYN, Va.  Speaking last month at a Washington think tank, Rushan Abbas relayed tales of suffering she had heard about Chinas repression of ethnic Uighur Muslims  including the detention of members of her husbands family in a widespread system of mass internment camps.

Within six days, Ms. Abbass ailing sister and 64-year-old aunt disappeared from their homes in northwest China. No family members or neighbors have heard from them in more than a month.

Ms. Abbas is an American citizen and Virginia resident; her sister has two daughters, and both live in the United States. They all assume the women are being detained in the camps, which Western analysts estimate hold up to one million people.

Ms. Abbas said they had fallen victim to the persecution against which she had been campaigning  and because of her.Months later, Ms. Doyle is still looking for a job.

While some states currently protect students against discrimination, Tasmania is the only state in which it is illegal to discriminate against a teacher based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Despite the government panels recommendations, 74 percent of Australian voters oppose laws that allow religious schools to discriminate against students and teachers based on their orientation or identity, according to a recent poll.

On Wednesday, a letter signed by 47 gay, transgender and intersex organizations called on the government to end discrimination . Teachers should be focusing on educating their students, not worrying about losing their job, the letter said.

While the debate on the governments proposal has largely focused on Christian schools, the same exemptions apply to all religious educational institutions (and in New South Wales, to all private schools).

In Melbournes Orthodox Jewish community, a teacher reported losing her job after revealing she was transgender. And gay Muslim students in Australia often face homophobia, bullying and even violence, say leaders in that community.

Nur Warsame, the first openly gay imam in Australia, who runs Marhaba Melbourne  a support group for gay and transgender youth  said he feared that the governments report has opened the floodgates for hurt and discrimination in the name of religion.

Even if the laws are amended, discrimination and bullying remain a serious issue for the L.G.B.T. community in Australia. Gay, transgender and intersex people between 16 and 27 years old are five times as likely than the general population to attempt suicide in their lifetimes, according to figures from the National L.G.B.T.I. Health Alliance. Another recent study found that gay conversion therapy, a practice widely discredited by science, is still employed at churches around the country.Well do more of these gatherings in more cities, but here are a few of the questions we asked:

 When you look at The New York Times homescreen or app, what would you like to see less of? What would you like to see more of?

 What is the most memorable story youve read in The Times recently  and what made it stand out?

 What are the issues in Australia (or the forms of journalism) youd like The Times to explore?

 Ultimately, what do you think would persuade more Australians to read The Times and subscribe?

If you have thoughts or answers to any of these questions, shoot us an email at nytaustralia@nytimes.com.

Many of the comments that stood out to me during the dinners involved coverage areas and interests.

Our small sample of readers was eager to examine Australian identity: What role the country should play in the world, and what it means to be Australian today.

They wondered how the country has changed after nearly three decades of uninterrupted economic growth. They wondered about the divide between economic winners and losers, between young and old, whites and nonwhites, and why there was less attention to those whose struggles seem to be worsening.ROME  Pope Francis received an invitation on Thursday to visit North Korea, a message relayed to him in a private audience at the Vatican with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea.

Mr. Moon, who is Roman Catholic, passed along the oral invitation from North Koreas leader, Kim Jong-un. South Korean officials said the pope had suggested that he would consider a visit if he received an official invitation.

The Vatican did not comment on Francis reaction to the offer.

The possibility of an invitation was raised this month, when Mr. Moon suggested that Mr. Kim invite the pope to North Korea, said Yoon Young-chan, Mr. Moons spokesman.

The pope has repeatedly expressed a wish for dialogue and reconciliation between the governments of North and South Korea, and has urged the faithful across the globe to pray for it.JERUSALEM  Israels Supreme Court ordered the government on Thursday to admit an American woman on her student visa, overruling the Interior Ministry, which pushed to deport her over a stint as an advocate for Palestinian rights while she was an undergraduate at the University of Florida.

Lara Alqasem, 22, had been held in a cell at Ben Gurion Airport for more than two weeks while she fought deportation. She will now be allowed to follow through on her plans to enroll in the law school at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where she hopes to study for a masters degree in human rights and transitional justice.

The Interior Ministry accused Ms. Alqasem, while she led a campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, of actively supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that presses Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank. Pro-Israel advocates consider the movement anti-Semitic and bent on Israels destruction, not least because it promotes Palestinians right of return to land now in Israel.

The case put an uncomfortable spotlight on what has become an acrimonious debate over who should be allowed into the country and more broadly, the health of Israeli democracy. Ms. Alqasems supporters, and even some critics on the right, accused the government of an overzealous border policy and said it would do more damage to Israels image abroad than any students call for a boycott.Digital Promise Global has received a three-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to address equitable access to computational education in public schools.

The nonprofits project, titled Developing Inclusive K-12 Computing Pathways for the League of Innovative Schools , is a research-practice partnership between Digital Promise and the members of its flagship network of public school districts.

The partnership will set out to design, study, and improve 12 school districts computational thinking pathways, and focus primarily on addressing access and creating equitable learning experiences in computational education for underserved students, according to news release. Computational thinking is basically a form of learning in which students use problem-solving approaches and computing techniques to show problems and then determine their solutions.

Computation is super important to kids futures, Jeremy Roschelle, executive director of Learning Sciences Research for Digital Promise Global, said in an interview. We need to start early. We dont want kids to tune out this opportunity.

Roschelle pointed out that there are a lot of computational thinking resources that teachers can choose from, but that raises a lot of questions about what to use and why. Districts have done a lot of experimentation, but now we need to figure out what we can do consistently, he said.

The project will focus on three core districts, each having its own goals to solve an equity problem:



Iowa City Community School District , Iowa, which has 14,000 students, aims to increase participation in computing among minority and English-Language Learners.

, Iowa, which has 14,000 students, aims to increase participation in computing among minority and English-Language Learners. Indian Prairie School District , Illinois, which serves 28,000 students, wants to improve achievement for students from low-income families.

, Illinois, which serves 28,000 students, wants to improve achievement for students from low-income families. Talladega County Schools, Alabama, which has 7,500 students, plans to work to improve achievement among girls and low-income students.

The project will also involve nine pilot districts, which will also work to improve equity and access for target groups. The nine pilot districts are Compton Unified School District (Calif.); Elizabeth Forward School District (Pa.); Franklin West School District (Vt.); Henry County Public Schools (Va.); Highline Public Schools (Wash.); Kettle Moraine School District (Wis.); Mineola Public Schools (N.Y.); South Fayette School District (Pa.); Utica Community Schools (Mich.).

Every district will define its own pathway, or course of action, in terms of implementing computational thinking, Roschelle said. But each year of the three-year partnership will have a different focus: the first year will focus on the perception of the pathway, the second year on implementation and student experience, and the third year will emphasize how to continue improving the pathway.

In an increasingly digitized and computational world, several organizations have released revised computer science education standards. Last week, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) released new computational thinking standards . Code.org Advocacy Coalition and the Computer Science Teachers Association also released a report that shows states are increasingly adopting computer science policies, but many students still lack access .

Digital Promise aims to share the research theyll gain from the new project as an online toolkit for educators and districts to use, Roschelle said. The toolkit will have examples of pathways, surveys, and other resources to help districts plan their own courses of action.

See aslo:A Saudi official says this is the man who organized the operation that killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The agreement that we have with our friends in Washington, that we will continue to work together for the stability of the region. His name is Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri. Hes a top Saudi intelligence official and is close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. We are friends with all the countries, we never have dispute. And if we have one, we resolve it through the dialogue, through the international law. The kingdom is said to have issued a general order to return dissidents who are living abroad. An official says that when the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul reported Khashoggi was coming in for an appointment, Assiri dispatched a team of 15 men to confront him. The official says the situation escalated, and Khashoggi was strangled to death in a chokehold. Assiris high-ranking position gave him easy access to the crown prince. Mohammed bin Salman himself promoted Assiri from his previous position as the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen. We confirmed from Day One that we are working hard to avoid collateral damage. The war in Yemen has killed thousands of civilians. But Assiri often appeared in Western media outlets fiercely defending his governments conduct. Are you violating the rules of war, international law? Let me, let me tell you something. You are conveying wrong information. No, let me, let me  do you doubt that picture? Where was it taken? I dont care. You never be in Yemen. You never see. You dont have any witnesses. And you tried to convey something wrong. And I try to correct this kind of picture. In October, Saudi state media announced that General Assiri and other high-ranking officials had been dismissed. By pinning Khashoggis death on Assiri, the crown prince may be seeking to deflect blame from himself, even though American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced he is behind Khashoggis death.A frequent companion of Saudi Arabias crown prince entered the countrys consulate in Istanbul just hours before Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident writer, disappeared inside, according to a time-stamped photograph published on Thursday by a pro-government Turkish newspaper.

The photograph of the companion, who has been previously identified as Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, is one of the most striking pieces of evidence to date linking Mr. Khashoggis Oct. 2 disappearance and possible death to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

[It has been weeks since Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared. Here all the facts we know in the Khashoggi case, to date.]

The Saudi authorities have denied any involvement but have provided no information on Mr. Khashoggis fate and say they are investigating as well.JERUSALEM  The Trump administration said Thursday that it would abolish the United States Consulate in Jerusalem, which has long overseen American ties to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and fold its operations into the newly relocated embassy in the city.

The move effectively downgrades American representation to the Palestinians, dealing them another blow after President Trump reversed longstanding American policy and recognized Jerusalem as Israels capital late last year. The United States then moved its embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, angering the Palestinians.

The consulates stand-alone diplomatic mission has functioned as a quasi-embassy to a future state the Palestinians hope to establish. In its place, American relations with the West Bank and Gaza will now be managed by a Palestinian Affairs Unit that will report to David Friedman, the ambassador, who has been a staunch ally of the right-wing Israeli government, an unabashed friend of the Jewish settlement movement and a stern critic of the Palestinians.

The closing of the consulate follows a series of punitive measures by the Trump administration against the Palestinians and their leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in hopes of compelling them to participate in an American-led peace process.After President Trumps popularity on social media helped propel him to an upset victory in 2016, Democrats vowed to catch up.

Two years later, their efforts appear to be paying off.

A New York Times analysis of data from the Facebook and Instagram accounts of hundreds of candidates in next months midterm elections reveals that Democrats  and especially Democrats running for House seats  enjoy a sizable national lead in engagement on the two influential platforms.

In Most House Races, Democrats Had More Facebook Interactions Than Their Opponents MINNESOTAS 8th DISTRICT The Republican running for this open seat had 3,300 more interactions on Facebook than his opponent. Outlined circles indicate the most competitive races. WISCONSINS 1st DISTRICT The Democrat running for Speaker Paul D. Ryans open seat in Wisconsin had 318,000 more interactions. FLORIDAS 27th DISTRICT The Republican running for this districts open seat had 10,000 more interactions. TEXAS 7th DISTRICT The Democratic candidate had 7,100 more interactions than the Republican incumbent. WISCONSINS 1st DISTRICT Outlined circles indicate the most competitive races. The Democrat running for Speaker Paul D. Ryans open seat in Wisconsin had 318,000 more interactions on Facebook than his opponent. FLORIDAS 27th DISTRICT The Republican running for this open seat had 10,000 more interactions. TEXAS 7th DISTRICT The Democratic candidate had 7,100 more interactions than the Republican incumbent. ME-2 UT-4 VA-2 NM-2 FL-27 FL-26 Republican Democrat Competitive race = 15,000 more Facebook interactions than opponent Circles are sized based on the margin by which candidates had more Facebook interactions than their opponents. Facebook interactions include likes, comments and shares over 30 days ending Oct. 15. Competitive races are based on those rated as toss-ups by Cook Political Report as of Oct. 15. Races with only one major-party candidate are not included. | Source: CrowdTangle

But the analysis of the engagement data, which includes all non-advertising content, also shows that Republicans in many closely contested races for Senate and governor are faring better on Facebook than their Democratic challengers.

The data, collected from more than 53,000 posts by more than 1,100 accounts, reflects a months worth of social media activity by nearly all of the Republican and Democratic candidates running for House, Senate or governor this year. The data, which covers 30 days ending Oct. 15, was gathered using a Facebook-owned tool called CrowdTangle. The tool counts the number of times users comment on, react to or share a users posts, a measure of popularity known as total interactions.

The data includes public posts made by candidates on Facebook and Instagram. It does not include paid ads unless those ads began as organic, non-paid posts that were subsequently boosted using Facebooks advertising tools. It also does not include activity on private accounts, or posts made visible only to specific groups of followers. In instances where candidates had an official government account as well as a campaign account, both accounts were included in the calculations. In some instances, politicians who are independent, but who caucus with Democrats or Republicans, were included on those parties lists.

Together, the data amounts to a revealing picture of how those candidates messages are resonating with a digital audience, and how social media activity both mirrors and departs from more traditional polling methods.

It also shows that Democrats often dominate the conversation on Instagram, but Republican candidates are finding their biggest audiences on Facebook, the largest and most influential social network.

Measuring total interactions on social media is an imperfect way to gauge a candidates electoral chances, in part because it does not distinguish between types of engagement. A negative comment left on a Republican candidates page by an angry Democrat would still count as an interaction, for example. In addition, it does not account for the fact that some candidates have more followers than others.

But social media engagement can be a crude measure of popularity, and a bellwether of shifts in public opinion that often turn up in polls days or weeks later. In 2016, many polls and pundits gave Mr. Trump little chance of winning, but his performance on Facebook was soaring, bolstered by millions of dollars in targeted advertising. His digital campaign director, Brad Parscale, later credited Facebooks scale and influence with his victory.

As some Republican lawmakers accuse Facebook of anti-conservative bias, the partys candidates are still intensely interested in using it to get elected. Even the most tech-skeptical candidates have recognized that when it comes to modern political campaigning, there is no avoiding Facebook.

Facebook is the most widespread platform, and for campaigns, its like broadcast television, said Tim Lim, a Democratic digital consultant. You have so much reach, and so many ad units, and probably more eyeballs than anywhere else.

The National Story: A Democratic Boom

At the national level, Democrats on Facebook and Instagram appear to be winning the battle for social media supremacy in a landslide.

Interactions with posts on candidates Facebook pages over the 30-day period Senate candidates 10m Democrats Republicans 2.2m House candidates 3.5m Democrats Republicans 1.5m Gubernatorial candidates 1.6m Democrats Republicans 1.7m Interactions with posts on candidates Facebook pages over the 30-day period Senate candidates 10m Democrats Republicans 2.2m House candidates 3.5m Democrats Republicans 1.5m Gubernatorial candidates 1.6m Democrats Republicans 1.7m Interactions on Facebook include shares, comments and likes. | Source: CrowdTangle

Democrats running for House, Senate and governors seats in this falls elections received a combined 15.1 million interactions on Facebook in the 30-day period, roughly three times the 5.4 million interactions received by Republican candidates.

Some of the Democrats social media gains can be attributed to a well-organized online resistance movement. An influx of small-dollar donations has given Democrats a large fund-raising lead, which has allowed them to spend more on digital campaigning and advertising. A surge in involvement from organizations like Tech for Campaigns  which has mobilized nearly 10,000 volunteers from the tech industry to help Democratic campaigns use digital tools  has also helped.

Jonathan Strauss, a former advisor to Democratic campaigns who is now head of product at Swing Left, said that investments made by Democrats after Mr. Trumps election were paying dividends.

I dont want to jinx anything, but were definitely doing a lot better than 2016, Mr. Strauss said.

The Democrats Superstar Problem

Democrats national success on social media may not translate to the blue wave many liberals are hoping for in November.

Thats because much of the lefts firepower is concentrated among a few of its high-profile candidates  namely, Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and the Texas Senate candidate Beto ORourke, who has more than 600,000 followers on Facebook and Twitter and more than 250,000 on Instagram.

Source: CrowdTangle

Of those candidates, only Mr. ORourke is running in a competitive race this year.

During the 30-day period, Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and Mr. ORourke accounted for 86 percent of Democratic Senate candidates Facebook interactions and 92 percent of their Instagram interactions.

If you strip away those three Democrats and their challengers, the lefts social media advantage in Senate races virtually disappears.

Excluding Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren, Mr. ORourke and their challengers, Democrats and Republicans are essentially tied, with Democrats getting only about 8 percent more Facebook interactions over the 30-day period.

Part of the popularity of Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and Mr. ORourke on social media is their political personas, which are punchy, passionate and tailor-made to resonate with fired-up progressive audiences online. They also have dedicated digital staff members and sophisticated tools to create custom content and test various messages for impact.

Smaller campaigns often have fewer resources devoted to digital campaigning, and few have captured the attention of huge online audiences.

We only have one Beto ORourke, said Mr. Lim, the Democratic consultant. In reality, we should have 20 Beto ORourkes.

Instagram Is for Democrats

In addition to revealing which candidates are finding the biggest audiences online, the data also hints at the partisan balance of each network.

Interactions with posts on candidates Instagram accounts over the 30-day period Senate candidates Democrats 5.4m Republicans 213k Gubernatorial candidates Democrats 640k Republicans 270k Interactions with posts on candidates Instagram accounts over the 30-day period Senate candidates Democrats 5.4m Republicans 213k Gubernatorial candidates Democrats 640k Republicans 270k Interactions on Instagram include comments and favorites. | Source: CrowdTangle

Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo app, has a younger and more progressive crowd than its parent companys namesake social network.

In the past 30 days, the number of interactions on Democrats' Instagram accounts dwarfed those on Republican accounts. These interactions were again led by Mr. Sanders, Ms. Warren and Mr. ORourke, whose posts received a combined 5.2 million favorites and comments in the past 30 days.

The political tilt of platforms reflects the demographics of the people who use them. According to the Pew Research Center, Facebook is used by 65 percent of Americans over 50, and by 58 percent of rural users and 60 percent of users with a high school degree or less, all groups that often lean more conservative.

Instagram, by contrast, is most popular with users between ages 18 and 29, who tend to vote for Democrats.

In Close Races, Some Republicans Are Surging on Facebook

Of course, not all midterm races matter equally.

The social media activity in races rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report, an independent election analyst, mirrors many recent polls, which show a slight edge for Republicans in the Senate and an edge for Democrats in the House.

In five of the nine toss-up Senate races, Republicans received more interactions on Facebook than Democrats.

Competitive Senate races in which Republicans Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Tennessee Marsha Blackburn 138k Phil Bredesen 123 Indiana Mike Braun 92k Joe Donnelly 55 Missouri Josh Hawley 51k Claire McCaskill 38 Nevada Dean Heller 29k Jacky Rosen 20 Arizona Martha McSally 31k Kyrsten Sinema 23 Competitive Senate races in which Democrats Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Texas Ted Cruz 820k Beto O'Rourke 1.6m Florida Rick Scott 102k Bill Nelson 105 North Dakota Kevin Cramer 23k Heidi Heitkamp 96 Montana Matt Rosendale 34k Jon Tester 54 Close Senate races in which Republicans Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Tennessee Marsha Blackburn 138k Phil Bredesen 123 Indiana Mike Braun 92k Joe Donnelly 55 Missouri Josh Hawley 51k Claire McCaskill 38 Nevada Dean Heller 29k Jacky Rosen 20 Arizona Martha McSally 31k Kyrsten Sinema 23 Close Senate races in which Democrats Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Texas Ted Cruz 820k Beto O'Rourke 1.6m Florida Rick Scott 102k Bill Nelson 105 North Dakota Kevin Cramer 23k Heidi Heitkamp 96 Montana Matt Rosendale 34k Jon Tester 54 Source: CrowdTangle

In Tennessees Senate race, for example, Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who is leading in the polls by a slight margin, got 77,000 more interactions on Facebook over the 30-day period than Phil Bredesen, her Democratic opponent. (Mr. Bredesen has an overwhelming lead on Instagram, where he got more than three times as many likes and comments as Ms. Blackburn.)

In five of 10 gubernatorial toss-up races, Republican candidates saw more engagement on Facebook than their opponents.

Competitive gubernatorial races in which Republicans Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Georgia Brian Kemp 225k Stacey Abrams 119 Wisconsin Scott Walker 118k Tony Evers 31 Iowa Kim Reynolds 47k Fred Hubbell 18 Connecticut Bob Stefanowski 30k Ned Lamont 17 Maine Shawn Moody 15k Janet Mills 8 Competitive gubernatorial races in which Democrats Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Florida Ron DeSantis 151k Andrew Gillum 589 South Dakota Kristi Noem 14k Billie Sutton 41 Nevada Adam Laxalt 21k Steve Sisolak 25 Ohio Mike DeWine 7k Richard Cordray 17 Kansas Kris Kobach 15k Laura Kelly 15 Close gubernatorial races in which Republicans Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Georgia Brian Kemp 225k Stacey Abrams 119 Wisconsin Scott Walker 118k Tony Evers 31 Iowa Kim Reynolds 47k Fred Hubbell 18 Connecticut Bob Stefanowski 30k Ned Lamont 17 Maine Shawn Moody 15k Janet Mills 8 Close gubernatorial races in which Democrats Facebook pages had more interactions over the 30-day period Florida Ron DeSantis 151k Andrew Gillum 589 South Dakota Kristi Noem 14k Billie Sutton 41 Nevada Adam Laxalt 21k Steve Sisolak 25 Ohio Mike DeWine 7k Richard Cordray 17 Kansas Kris Kobach 15k Laura Kelly 15 Source: CrowdTangle

In Georgia, Brian Kemp, the Republican running for governor, has outperformed Stacey Abrams, his Democratic challenger, on Facebook. Despite Ms. Abrams having thousands more Facebook followers than Mr. Kemp, Mr. Kemp received 90 percent more Facebook interactions than Ms. Abrams over the 30-day period. His most popular post, in which he accused Ms. Abrams of raising money from radical liberals who want to turn Georgia into the next California, was shared more than 9,000 times.

In close House races, things look a bit better for Democrats. Of the 31 House races listed as toss-ups by Cook Political Report, Democratic candidates received more interactions than their Republican opponents in 23 of them.

Republicans Benefited More From the Kavanaugh Effect

Candidates from both parties appear to have benefited from the late September fervor surrounding the contentious confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh, which galvanized conservatives in his favor and created a surge in left-wing support for Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Justice Kavanaugh of sexual assault.

But Republicans in close races appear to have benefited slightly more from a Kavanaugh bump than Democrats.

In Indianas Senate race, Mike Braun, the Republican running against the incumbent Democrat, Joe Donnelly, was trailing Mr. Donnelly in Facebook interactions for the two weeks leading up to Sept. 27, the day that Dr. Blasey testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

For nearly three weeks following the testimony, Mr. Braun led Mr. Donnelly on Facebook by a significant margin.

50k Facebook interactions 40k Week of Blasey- Kavanaugh hearing Christine Blasey Ford identified 30k 20k 10k Sen. Joe Donnelly Mike Braun Sept. 2 Sept. 9 Sept. 16 Sept. 23 Sept. 30 Oct. 7 Oct. 14 50k Facebook interactions 40k Week of Blasey- Kavanaugh hearing 30k 20k 10k Donnelly Braun Sept. 2 Sept. 16 Sept. 30 Oct. 14 Chart shows weekly total Facebook interactions. | Source: CrowdTangle

In the week of Sept. 30, the period following Dr. Blaseys testimony when the Senate would vote to confirm Justice Kavanaugh, interactions on the Facebook pages of Republican Senate candidates shot up by 64 percent. Democratic Senate candidates saw an increase of just 30 percent.

Republicans in toss-up races may have benefited even more from the Kavanaugh effect. Among the nine most competitive Senate races, interactions on Facebook for Republicans rose by 94 percent during the week of Sept. 30. Interactions for Democrats in those races remained flat.

Whats a Like Worth?

Political strategists disagree about the importance of social media popularity. Some think it amounts to a kind of real-time voter sentiment index, while others play it down as, at most, one piece of a successful campaign.

Retweets dont vote, Mr. Strauss of Swing Left said. All of this social engagement is really just a proxy for the results that matter, which is what happens at the polls on Nov. 6.

For Republicans who are worried about a wave of progressive enthusiasm sweeping Democrats to victory, though, the data from swing district social media accounts may be comforting.Internal migration, particularly out of Auckland to provides such as Northland, the Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and of course Taranaki has been well documented over the past three years, File said.

While the residential property market in Auckland has well and truly peaked, city dwellers from up there are still taking advantage of the lifestyle opportunities and financial benefits of relocating to the regions. And from those perspectives, Taranaki has a lot to offer.

The more recent flood of interest in the countrys regions has been described as a southern pilgrimage, with baby boomers selling off land through subdivision to make the move, and young Aucklanders taking advantage of the significantly more affordable property prices. The Auckland housing market has meanwhile remained stagnant following a boom of activity, with the median house price remaining at $850,000 for 18 months to date.

According to Dean File, Bayleys new acquisition is reflective of a highly promising regional market.

The investment in relocating to new Taranaki premises and simultaneously growing the company through acquisition reflects Bayleys optimism for the long-term future of Taranaki as a regional economy, File said. At a time when other real estate agencies are hunkering down for what they perceive as a period of consolidation in the markets, Bayleys is in fact gearing up for growth.Lets hope Donald Trump is kowtowing before Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman because the president really believes hes the triggerman on the $110B weapons deal that would result in the employment of thousands of Americans.

Those are the biggest orders in the history of the country, probably the history of the world, boasted Trump.

The reality: the $110B is largely aspirational and years away from fruition, according to the Oct. 17 Huffington Post.



Mohammad bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

The alternative scenario to why is Trump licking the sandals of the 33-year-old crown prince is not a very attractive option.

What do the Saudis have on Trump?

The president moved to nip such speculation in the bud via Twitter on Oct. 15 with this message:

For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter). Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!

Trump may not have interests in Saudi Arabia, but the royal family certainly has had its tentacles into TrumpWorld.

The HuffPost reported that the Saudi royals and their allies have spent tens of millions for Trump condos and stays/events at Trump hotels.

The Royals helped Trump while he was facing personal bankruptcy in 1991 by buying his yacht and then purchasing the entire floor of one of his buildings in NYC.

More recently, the Saudis have been hosting large entourages at his hotels in NY and Chicago.

The Economist (Oct. 18) ridicules the US president as the crown princes champion. E.g., shades of former British PM Tony Blair lambasted as George W. Bush's poodle during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Other than being the ringleader of OPEC, Saudi Arabia is insignificant from a business standpoint, noted the magazine.

The Economists Schumpeter wrote that for all its oil wealth and with the exception of the arms business, Saudi Arabia is not as important to western companies as it thinks it is.

And from a PR perspective, Schumpeter wrote that companies have no choice but to consider the reputational risk of associating with a regime that not only may have blood on its hands in Istanbul but is also waging a war in Yemen that has caused a humanitarian crisis."

Et tu, Donald."Insanity" - that's how Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary described the idea of a regional airport in Offaly back in 2016, and yet the private consortium behind it, led by the Tullamore-based Patrick Little, remain undeterred.

In the pipeline for over a decade, the Midlands Airport Development took off again this week when a meeting of Offaly County Council revealed the local authority was facilitating a funding bid for the airport with a 2.5 application for government cash.

The airport would be located at Tubber, not far from the county's border with Westmeath, and aims to create over 5,000 jobs, with a 3.5km runway taking commercial and cargo aircraft.

Commentators and the likes of Michael O'Leary were quick to scoff at the idea of an airport in Offaly in 2016 when it seemed discussions with landowners were concluding and the proposal was advancing. Talk of 500 million to fund the plan and subsequent returns of a similar figure per annum were fodder for naysayers.

Writing in the Irish Times at the time, after picking apart the prospect of the airport, Ciaran Hancock jibed, "the acronym for Midlands Airport Developments is MAD, which is rather unfortunate. Sadly, it might prove to be apt in the long run."

That was the consensus at the time, but with a number of councillors this week basically saying, 'let's see where this goes,' it seems the barricade may be softening, at least within the county. It was apt that this airport plan came up at a meeting of Offaly County Council on the same day the IDA was in town to give a progress report, one that was rather predictably roundhoused by councillors.

The IDA numbers showed the Midlands was the weakest performing region in the country on the foreign direct investment front, both in terms of current jobs and growth rate. Indeed, the people behind the Midlands Airport Development, pointed out this very fact in their initial justification for the project.

As well as aviation opportunities, the developers say the airport will deliver knock-on benefits. "The IDA has designated the Midlands as a regional centre for biopharma industries. 100 acres of development sites will be available for Irish and Foreign industries working within this industry," they say. They also say hotel space, residential units and educational facilities will be provided at the site of the airport.

Evidently, talk is cheap and running an airport is not, but who are we to argue with financiers who clearly have deep pockets? The industry element of this development could address some of the imbalance in foreign direct investment across the regions. The East and West, as well as the big urban centres nationwide, are racing clear while the Midlands languishes.

Even within the Midlands, councillors in Offaly have lambasted the IDA for sending most FDI coming here to Athlone, rather than Tullamore. This airport's location between both regional centres could be a means of sharing that investment around - logistics are high on the list for the IDA and the companies they invite to Ireland, after all, or so they would have us believe.

With an airport near Clara and Tullamore, a link-up to the rail network should be seamless, opening up passengers and companies to the entire country. It also opens up the possibility of taking on Dublin for air traffic in a bigger way than the likes of Shannon, Cork or Belfast, especially in terms of freight services.

Having said that, taking on Dublin, which takes over 80% of all the country's air traffic and has a virtual monopoly on freight services, is unrealistic, especially when the head of the biggest airline in Europe has called your idea insane. But, as was pointed out at Offaly County Council this week, Dublin has a capacity issue and a distinct need for a second runway, a planning fiasco that has now dragged on for more than a decade.

Planning permission for a second runway at Dublin Airport was given planning permission in 2007 but was parked during the recession. It has been revived and according to Failte Ireland, is badly needed to deal with demand, especially with growing tourist numbers. If the runway does eventually go ahead, it may be 2022 before shovels hit the ground on the site, while night-time restrictions have also been mooted to the dismay of the DAA.

As well as possibly attracting industry, a Midlands Airport could be a winner with tourists, if supported by the airlines. It would be one of the best-connected airports in the country with the rail network on its doorstep and the M6, N62 and N52 linking the site with every motorway in the land. You can drive from Tubber to Dublin or Galway in just over an hour. You'd get to Cork in two and a half hours, and could reach Belfast in a similar timeframe.

A Midlands Airport opens up the tourism potential of the entire country, not just Dublin and the popular destinations of Galway and Kerry. If the likes of Failte Ireland really believe in the likes of the Hidden Heartlands, and the outer reaches of the so-called Ancient East, they should be fully behind this proposal. The opportunity to market the entire island to tourists, especially foreign tourists, is not one to turn your nose up at.

There are many issues with the idea of a Midlands Airport, not least the challenge of wrestling meaningful passenger traffic away from Dublin, and the slow rate of success this would entail during the expensive early years, but we shouldn't cast it aside so quickly.

The reaction to the Offaly Express story regarding the funding application for the project this week sparked a huge reaction, largely one of hilarity, but also dismissal. The same attitude could be attributed to the likes of Michael O'Leary who basically laughed this out of the room in 2016, but he might be reminded that people also thought he was mad at one time.

In a day where rural Ireland, especially the Midlands, is being left behind in the economic recovery, ambition, even blind ambition, should be respected. One of the most bewildering comments on this week's news was the suggestion Offaly was "getting notions." Tongue-in-cheek as that may be, there is a whiff of that derisive 'get-back-in-your-box' attitude.

Rural Ireland should have notions about itself and grand ambitions - because you can be damned sure, no one else is going to have them for us.The above photograph was taken by a follower of the Republic of Edenderry community Facebook page at approximately 6pm on Thursday evening, October 17. It was shared with their thousands of followers soon after.

It is one replicated most evenings as workers from the town, many of whom travel to Dublin to their jobs, arrive home after leaving at 6am.

Frustration is growing in Edenderry with repeated calls for an inner relief road. We recently found out we are getting one, and that Offaly County Council have just this week lodged an application for funding of more than 2.5 million to build it. The one problem with that is the fact they are putting it in the wrong place.

The inner relief road in the pipeline will join the Fairgreen with Granary Court and the centre of the town at Paddy Power. That will be welcome news for some, but it will be little consolation for the hundreds of motorists creeping, bumper to bumper, along the Enfield to Edenderry road.

A number of councillors, the most vocal being Noel Cribbin, have voiced the need for a relief road on the Dublin side of the town. A link from the Lawton and Foley garage to the Carrick Road would seem the most logical route to disperse the traffic to different areas.

When people read about relief roads at the Fairgreen, they despair and suggest the people making these decisions have never, in fact, visited Edenderry.

Traffic funnelling through the centre of town is an issue, both in the evening and on Saturdays, but it won't be solved with the current plan. Depending on traffic calming solutions and junction layouts, it could actually exacerbate the problem .

While we argue over the finer details on that plan, tailbacks grow on the Dublin road, workers spend longer in their cars than their own homes, and businesses in the centre of the town face extinction because people steer clear of the dreaded congestion.

Edenderry has a message to those in power making these calls, lift your head from the drawings and get out and experience this issue - make decisions on the ground.Anger of Rajputs may worsen the already bad situation in Rajasthan for BJP

India

oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 18: Woes of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is far from getting over as the party that is facing wrath of people is magnified with former BJP MLA Manvendra Singh joining the Congress. The chief minister was not only under attack for alleged opposition of appointment of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as minister in the Modi government and killing of a Rajput gangster.

Manvendra Singh, son of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, joining the Congress will have its impact in the Marwad region of the state that included Badmer, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur districts of the state as most of the people belonging to Rajpur community are with the family of Jaswant Singh besides Sindhi and Muslims community supporting the family.

Rajasthan elections 2018: BSP to go all out in all 200 seats

There are certain Assembly constituencies in Badmer district where Rajput Sindhi and Muslims play an important role. There are eight MLAs belonging to Rajput community in the Marwad region while there are total 26 Rajput MLAs in the state Assembly. So Manvendra will now help the Congress to win over Rajput votes for the Congress in the state. There are total 7 per cent Rajput in the state.

He has already started visited Rajput-dominated areas when he had gone to Bikaner and Jodhpur recently. Actually the community is not happy with the chief minister of the state and the Congress does not have any recognizable face from the community in the state. But with Manvendra joining the Congress, influence of the party and equation in Jaisalmer, Badmer, Jodhpur and Nagore will change making things difficult for the BJP.

Sources said that anger of a section of Rajput community due to encounter of Anand Pal belonging to the Rawana Rajput community. The BJP was trying to somehow placated it but nothing much has been done. The community has withered away from the BJP's fold following a spate of unsavoury standoffs in recent times.

Not only Rawana Rajputes but Royal Rajputs like Diya Kumari, who is also a legislator from BJP opened a front against the government forcing Vasundhara Raje to unseal her palace. But Rajputs, who backed the royal family, took it as an attack on the entire community. A number of social organisations have pledged support to Congress sending warning signals to the incumbent BJP.

People in Rajasthan happy with the government but angry with the chief minister

Besides all this president of Rajput Sabha of Rajasthan Giriraj Lotwara said that the community would oppose BJP in the coming elections while Rajput Arkashan Manch among other social organisations opposed Raje's poll yatra demanding quota in jobs and education as promised by BJP in its previous rule. The impact of government role in dealing with Padmawat is also visible in the state. So the BJP is trying to handle the community careful with Royal Rajputs still with them.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 13:10 [IST]Mehul Choksi gets bail by Dominica HC, can travel to Antigua for medical treatment

Antigua examining Mehul Choksi's extradition request: Government

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Oct 19: The request for extradition of fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi is being "examined" by Antigua and Barbuda, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday.

Answering a question on Choksi, MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar at a briefing said, "According to the information that I have, the extradition request by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and the ED (Enforcement Directorate), is being examined by them (Antigua and Barbuda authorities) and after they have examined it, they have said they will convey their response to India."

Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi loan default case: ED attaches assets worth Rs. 250 crore

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had met Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda EP Chet Greene last month on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly and raised the issue of extradition of Choksi, who is currently in the Caribbean island.

Greene had conveyed to Swaraj the assurances of his Prime Minister for fullest cooperation of their government in the matter of extradition of Choksi to India, Kumar had said after the meeting.

Blow for India as UK says it could share extradition details with Nirav Modi

Choksi is one of the alleged masterminds of the $2 billion scam in state-run Punjab National Bank and is an uncle of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi. He is wanted in India by the CBI and ED probing the fraud.

On a question on absconding businessman Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, Kumar said that in the case of Nirav Modi, extradition requests from the CBI and ED are pending with the UK authorities.

"The requests are under consideration," he said.

"We are committed to take this matter forward and to bring back the economic offenders," he said.

PNB fraud: ED attaches assets worth Rs 637 crores of Nirav Modi

On Mallya, he said the Westminster Magistrates' Court has fixed December 10 as the date for verdict in the case.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's mysterious disappearance, Kumar said, "I think I have seen media reports that this matter is still under investigation and so at this stage I have no comments."

PTI

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Story first published: Friday, October 19, 2018, 0:13 [IST]Congress in alliance talks with Sharad Pawar's party, others for Goa polls

Congress sponsoring facebook ad in Pak for removing PM Modi, alleges BJP

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Oct 18: The BJP today accused the Congress of running a "paid campaign" on Facebook in Pakistan for the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Calling it a serious matter, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra flashed copies of a Facebook page which shows an advertisement of the opposition party calling for "Desh bachao, Modi hatao" (Save country, remove Modi), with Pakistan being highlighted as the location.

"What does it mean? You are running a campaign in Pakistan against our popular prime minister in Pakistan," he told reporters.

Sidhu's Pakistan, TN comment sparks row; BJP demands apology

It is understandable if a campaign against the prime minister is run in India by the opposition party but why it should sponsor this in Pakistan, he asked.

"Congress leaders have been showing their love for Pakistan," he alleged, and cited Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu's reported comments that he culturally connected more with the neighbouring country than with south India, to attack the opposition party.

What do both Congress and Pakistan badly want? BJP has the answer

Bharatiya Janata Party's IT department head Amit Malviya also tweeted a photograph of the Congress' Facebook page, saying "official Congress page sponsoring advertisements on Facebook in Pakistan to remove Modi!"

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 19:47 [IST]Step by step instructions on how to lock and unlock your Aadhaar biometrics online

No denial of Covid vaccine, treatment, essential services for want of Aadhaar: UIDAI

Customers telecom service will not be disrupted during transition to new KYC: DoT

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Oct 18: The government would ensure that telecom customers do not face any disruption in services due to change in know your customer regime following the court order on Aadhaar use, an official said.

Around 25-30 crore telecom subscribers may be affected due to transition from Aadhaar-based authentication to a court-compliant system but they will not face any service related issues due to documentation, the DoT official stressed.

UIDAI asks telecom companies to submit Aadhaar de-linking plan in 15 days

There are speculations that subscribers enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication process may have to provide fresh documents to complete their KYC process again as a Supreme Court judgement has restricted use of Aadhaar-based verification by private entities.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had given time till October 15 to telecom operators for complying with the apex court order and asked them to close Aadhaar-based verification for their services.

1.2 billion Aadhaar records compromised in first half of 2018: Gemalto report

BSNL partners Nokia for private 4G service to businesses

Reliance Jio has its entire customer base enrolled through Aadhaar-based authentication and other telecom operators too started following the process in 2017.

"We will ensure that customers services are not affected. Whatever arrangements are put in place it will facilitate a smooth transition from current regime to the Supreme Court-compliant regime," the DoT official said.

The DoT on October 17 held meeting with telecom operators to check the status of compliance and way forward.

Telecom operators have approached the DoT with a new e-KYC process as an alternative to Aadhaar-based verification. They have suggested an app-based customer enrolment method in which photograph of customer will be clicked by the SIM seller and embedded in the form along with self-attested copy of any identity and address proof.

Under proposed mechanism, consumer application form (CAF) has to be embedded with photograph and scanned images for end to end digital paperless process.

The form under proposed method will be then stamped by a watermark of the company along with retailer name, circle where transaction took place, date and time so that the images cannot be re-used.

Following validation, the app will send consumer application form (CAF) to the system of telecom operator for verification of the form, identity and address proof; and after successful verification, the number assigned to the subscriber will be ready for tele-verification.

As an additional safeguard, the system will also verify that the geotag of customer's picture and final submission of request by sale point is not more than 50 metres away.

The telecom operator will generate and send a five digit pin to an alternate number provided by the customer.

The number will be activated after customer completes tele-verification by either entering PIN number send to him or last 4 digits of identity proof during the call.

The DoT official said that decision on the proposed method will be taken after detailed presentation from telecom operators and evaluation by the department.

PTIAP EAPCET Round 1 seat allotment delayed again: New date to be announced soon

Delhi Minister releases NASA images of stubble burning

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Oct 18: Environment Minister Imran Hussain on Wednesday released NASA satellite's recent images of north India which showed stubble burning at "dangerous levels".

"It is high time that the crop residue burning in the fields be immediately halted, failing which a serious health hazard awaits entire northern India," he said in a statement.

Last week, Hussain had released photographs of stubble burning across the Delhi-Chandigarh National Highway.

Also Read | Delhi air quality deteriorates as stubble burning begins

Delhi's air quality for the first time this season deteriorated to the "very poor" category on Wednesday, with several areas in the national capital nearing severe levels of pollution, according to the authorities.

The Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) has already imposed since Monday the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which prescribes a set of measures to curb air pollution, after Delhi's air quality deteriorated to "poor" a few days back.

The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi was recorded at 315 Wednesday, according to the Centre-run System of Air Quality Forecasting and Research.

An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor" and 401 and 500 "severe".

(with PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 16:43 [IST]Delhi hotel: Gun-toting VVIP Brat Ashish Pandey surrenders before Court

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Oct 18: Aashish Pandey, son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, who was seen brandishing a gun outside a hotel in Delhi on October 14 surrendered before a Patiala House courts judge in Delhi on Thursday morning. Pandey has been on the run since Monday when a video, which shows him brandishing a gun at the entrance of the hotel, made headlines.

Police had registered an FIR on a complaint from the assistant security manager of the Delhi-based 5-star hotel. It has also recorded the statement of the duo, and of Ashish's friends and relatives in Delhi and Lucknow.

While speaking to media, Pandey said,''I'm being projected like I'm a wanted terrorist and police across the nation is looking for me. Look Out Circular has been issued against me. If you check CCTV footage, you'll find who went to ladies toilet that night and who threatened whom.''

''I took the gun with me for safety. I didn't brandish it. It was hanging behind me all the time. I didn't even address that girl, she pushed me and made obscene hand gestures. I've faith in judiciary and so I decided to surrender. There is no history of police case against me,'' he also said.

The original video, shot on Saturday night at Hyatt Regency Hotel, had gone viral, prompting the Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, to intervene and direct quick action by the police.

Also Read | Look Out Circular issued against neta's son for brandishing gun outside 5-star hotel in Delhi

A team of the Delhi Police raided several places on Wednesday along with their teams of UP Police, but in vain.

The Ambedkar Nagar district administration, meanwhile, suspended an arms license issued to Ashish in 1999. The UP Police had also searched for his criminal records but so far they could not find any such case against Ashish, the report said.India keeps a close watch on Maldives amid demands of not letting president go out of country

India

oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 18: Election process in Maldives is complete and the new President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih is about to take over on November 17 amid the outgoing president Abdulla Yameen challenging the election and demanding a fresh polls.On the other hand the incoming president wants the police not to allow the outgoing president leave the country and India is keeping a close watch on the development in the island country.

Ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, "India has consistently held the position since the imposition of emergency early this year that there was a need to protect democracy in the Maldives and preserve the mandate of the people. India welcomes the acceptance of the verdict of the people of Maldives. This election marks not only the triumph of democratic forces in the Maldives, but also reflects the firm commitment to the values of democracy and the rule of law. We are confident that the mandate of the people will prevail."

Why the Chinese are not going away from Maldives anytime soon

He said, "We have welcomed successful completion of the third Presidential election process and have congratulated Solih on his victory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to President elect Solih and offered his personal congratulations. Other world leaders have also welcomed the successful conduct of the elections. In keeping with our 'Neighbourhood First' Policy, India looks forward to working closely with the Maldives in further deepening our partnership."

Meanwhile, Solih has urged police to impose a travel ban on outgoing President Abdulla Yameen so he can face investigations in connection with graft cases that the party aims to launch. Solih won presidential elections on September 23 but Yameen petitioned the Supreme Court challenging his election defeat.

Chairman of Solih's Maldives Democratic Party, Hassan Latheef, said that Yameen would face inquiries related to the suspected misappropriation of funds at a state-owned agency that promotes the leasing of islands for resort development, in the first of several cases. "A travel ban against President Yameen must be instituted. There are several cases pending investigation including cases of corruption," he said after filing a petition before the police.

But an Islamic country with less than half a million people suffered a turbulent transition to democracy following the end of three decades of authoritarian rule in 2008. Solih had won the election on the promise of cleaning up corruption and would pursue cases vigorously.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 19:14 [IST]#MeToo: Vikas Bahl gets clean chit, to be credited as director of 'Super 30'

#MeToo: Maneka Gandhi requests political parties to constitute internal complaints committee

India

oi-Vikas SV

New Delhi, Oct 18: In the wake of surge in sexual harassment allegations, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has requested all poltical parties to constitute an internal committee to look into such issues. She said political parties should create an atmosphere conducive to women.

"I wrote to every political party president,requesting them to start internal complaints committee.I think there are 6 national parties and about 90 smaller parties. It's an office,hundreds of women work there and I expect a more condusive atmosphere for them," ANI quoted Maneka Gandhi as saying.

Several women in the past few months came out in the open to level sexual harassment charges against prominent persons from fthe film industry to politics. The movement, called #MeToo, gained traction in India late in September after actress Tanushree Dutta accused Nana Patekar of inappropriate behaviour on the sets of a film they were shooting in 2008.

In October, the Minister of state for External Affairs MJ Akbar was accused of sexual harassment by several female colleagues.

Filmmakers Subhash Ghai, Sajid Khan, Rajat Kapoor and actor Alok Nath are among those who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 16:08 [IST]MJ Akbar's defamation case: Court fixes Oct 31 as next date of hearing

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Oct 18: The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Thursday fixed October 31, as the next date for hearing in MJ Akbar's defamation case.

MJ Akbar, who is accused of sexual harrassment, has filed a defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani, the first woman to name him in the growing #MeToo movement in India. Ramani is one of the 20 women who have accused him of sexual harassment during his stint with The Telegraph and the Asian Age, where he worked as an editor.

Mr Akbar has accused Ms Ramani of "intentionally putting forward malicious, fabricated and salacious" allegations to harm his reputation.

Also Read | Union Minister M J Akbar resigns over #MeToo

The editor-turned-politician has been called out by multiple women over the past few days. Resigning as Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday evening, he said: "Since I have decided to seek justice in a court of law in my personal capacity, I deem it appropriate to step down from office and challenge false accusations levied against me, also in a personal capacity."

Mr Akbar's name first surfaced on October 8.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 14:58 [IST]Mohan Bhagwat Vijayadashmi speech: 'Centre should bring ordinance to build Ram Mandir'

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Oct 18: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered his annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur today, his last major address before the Lok Sabha elections next year. He demanded a law to pave the way for construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying an organised Hindu society is the bedrock of unity and the acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the "panacea" for fundamentalism.

Speaking at annual Vijayadashami speech in Nagpur on Thursday, Bhawat warned the anti-India forces saying that the country is strong to fight any such force. He said, "If someone musters the courage to fight then there is destruction on both sides. So, in order to maintain peace, we have to be so strong that anyone doesn't even think of harming us."

Bhagwat said the sangh has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma.

The acceptance of eternal Hindutva ethos is the panacea for fundamentalism, selfishness, unrestrained consumerism arising out of hardcore materialism and insensitivity, he said.

"Temple construction is necessary from self-esteem point of view; it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness," he said.

Referring to the recent controversy over "urban Naxals" , Mohan Bhagwat says Maoism has always been urban. The RSS chief questions if social media campaigns against India are being fuelled from Pakistan or US. He also alleges that some forces are trying to get political mileage out of such campaigns.

RSS chief, in his last speech before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, said that the constitution given to this country by Baba Ambedkar should be read thoroughly. "Ambedkar said what we did to throw Britishers out of country we shouldn't continue doing anywhere, he considered also satyagrah incorrect," Bhagwat said.

Mohan Bhagwat also spoken about the Sabarimala temple row in his Vijayadashami speech, saying devotees should have been consulted before the SC verdict on women's entry was implanted.

In Nagpur's Reshimbagh Ground, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is conducting this year's annual "Vijaya Dashami" function where Nobel Prize winner and social activist Kailash Satyarthi is the chief guest. This is seen as Bhagwat's last major address before the Lok Sabha elections next year.

The Vijaya Dashami programme and the RSS chief's speech are among the most important events in the organisation's annual calendar.In pics: Indian Railways gets first pod hotel at Mumbai Central station; Details on Price, facilities here

Mumbai model Mansi Dixit was murdered for refusing sex, say police

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Mumbai, Oct 18: Muzzammil Syed, the 19-year-old student who was arrested in connection with the murder of 20-year-old model, Mansi Dixit, on Wednesday told the cops that he killed her after she turned down his demand for sex. The body of Dixit was found dumped in the mangroves at Malad on Monday.

The model, Mansi Dixit, was in her early 20s and was an aspiring actress. The victim hailed from Rajasthan and was living in a flat in Andheri to work as a model and try her luck in Bollywood. She was a very ambitious woman who had made some appearances in mainstream movies and also acted in short films.

It is learnt that Dixit had returned from her native town in Rajasthan on Sunday. Syed too had arrived in the city only a few days ago from his native place in Hyderabad.

Also Read | Woman tries to abduct partner from 'Previous Birth'

The next day, Syed and Dixit had met for the first time when Dixit went to his residence in Milat Nagar at Andheri West.

Syed in his confession said he got scared after she lost conscious. He tried to wake her up by sprinkling water on her. She then gained partial consciousness. However, Syed was worried that his mother would come home. So, he strangled her with a rope.

Also Read | 20 year old acquitted in case of sexually harassing sister

He then booked a cab from his phone to dispose of her body. The cab driver, who witnessed this series of events, sensed something was amiss and informed the police. The cops reached the spot, under Bangur Nagar police station limits, and found Mansi's body inside a suitcase with a rope tied around her neck.

Police then arrested Syed within four hours.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 13:51 [IST]Not aware of meeting between MJ Akbar and Sushma Swaraj: Raveesh Kumar

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

New Delhi, Oct 18: MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said he was not aware of meeting between former union minister MJ Akbar and EAM Sushma Swaraj.

In a weekly press conference, Raveesh Kumar, said, "MJ Akbar The minister has resigned and made a statement, I have nothing else to add. He was a part of an official meeting after he arrived in India, I am not aware of any meeting between him and EAM Sushma Swaraj."

S-400 air defence system:

Raveesh Kumar said, "S-400 air defence system is dictated by our national interest. We have shared our points with the United States. The idea is to remain engaged with the US as far as this issue is concerned."

We have made our expectations known to the US side. United States Secretary of State Pompeo has said that the sanctions on Iran are not to hurt India.

We continue to enjoy a very strong relationship with France, it is a strategic partner for India. This has not impacted the bilateral relations between India and France:

Can Ababeel deceive India's missile defence system?

India and Pakistan dialogue:

Raveesh Kumar reiterated that talks and terror can't go together with Pakistan.

"I'm not aware of any proposal for track 1 or track 1.5 dialogue or a meeting between India and Pakistan. We've very clearly mentioned that talks and terror can't go together. That was one of the reasons why scheduled meeting between two foreign ministers was cancelled, said Raveesh Kumar.

The onus is on Pakistan to take credible steps and create conducive conditions for such talks which of course means taking action against terrorist infrastructure which operates from its soil.NYT journalist on way to Sabarimala temple stopped by protesters

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Sabarimala, Oct 18: Two journalists of the New York Times, who managed to climb up the pathway to reach the famed Sabarimala temple, were forced go back following a massive protest by devotees who are protesting against the Supreme Court verdict.

Journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times, on her way to the #SabarimalaTemple, returned midway after being stopped by protesters. Police say, 'when she reached Marakoottam, she decided to come back after seeing the crowd. Police was ready to take her'

Kerala Minister blames RSS for Sabarimala temple violence

#Visuals from #Kerala: Journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times, on her way to #SabarimalaTemple, returned midway after being stopped by protesters today. pic.twitter.com/D5bh5a1kNv  ANI (@ANI) October 18, 2018

Also Read: Sabarimala protests LIVE: Buses and auto-rickshaws go off roads in Kerala

Speaking to CNN-News18, Suhasini Raj, who was stopped from going to the temple by protesters, lauds Kerala Police. "I was given an escort by Kerala Police, they had done a fantastic job. During my trek, we encountered protesters who were against my presence there. They pelted stones at us. Kerala Police protected me. They were ready to call in additional forces, but I decided against it and called off my trek to Sabarimala. When I was brought back to the police station, I was offered medical help and now I have been given a police escort to Kochi," she says.

IGP Thiruvananthapuram range, said, " We'll give protection to everybody going up. It's our job, to give protection to all pilgrims. We'll put more manpower&secure all routes.She(journalist Suhasini Raj reportedly working with New York Times)wasn't forced to come back, she came back."BSP implodes ahead of critical UP polls next year: What lies ahead for Mayawati?

BSP to fight solo in UP, Uttarakhand, no tie-up with Owaisi's AIMIM, says Mayawati

'Should not be misled': Mayawati reaches out to Brahmins before UP polls

Congress prime opposition to BJP in UP, will win without SP, BSP alliance: Ajay Kumar Lallu

UP 2022 assembly election survey result: Yogi's government likely to defeat SP, BSP in next polls

Rajasthan elections 2018: BSP to go all out in all 200 seats

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Jaipur, Oct 18: The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is planning to contest on all 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan, a senior leader of the party said.

The party won three seats in the 2013-assembly elections by securing 3.37 per cent vote share, which was 7.60 per cent in the 2008-elections when the party had won six MLAs.

People in Rajasthan happy with the government but angry with the chief minister

"Our preparations are in full swing and we will contest on all 200 seats in the forthcoming elections," state party vice president Dungarram Gedar said.

In the last assembly elections, the party had contested in 195 constituencies.

He informed that the tickets will be finalised soon and BSP chief Mayawati will hold rallies in the state.

"We are expecting to increase our tally in the 2018-elections because people are unhappy with both the BJP and the Congress. There is a resentment against the ruling BJP and people are not seeing any hope in the Congress," another BSP leader Bhagwan Singh said.

He informed that the party chief will hold rallies in different parts of the state during elections.

Rajasthan will go to the polls on December 7.

Rajasthan CM's inaccessibility and arrogance the biggest issue in the state

Districts in eastern Rajasthan like Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawaimadhopur, Alwar and in northern parts like Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar, Bikaner has significant number of Scheduled Castes (SC) population, which is the vote bank of the party.

In the state, there are 34 SC and 25 ST seats out of the total 200 seats.

"The BSP is contesting solo and the Congress is going to suffer a loss," he said on Mayawati's recent announcement of not having alliance with the Congress for contesting assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

The party is contesting assembly elections in the state since 1990, but it registered its first victory in 1998 by winning two seats.

In 1998, the party had fielded 108 candidates and secured 2.17 per cent vote share.

In 2003 elections, the BSP fought in 124 constituencies and won two seats and increased its vote share to 3.98 per cent.

Caste to be key to ticket distribution in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh

The biggest victory of the party in the state was in the 2008-elections when six of the party's candidates won elections and the vote share increased to 7.60 per cent.

However, that victory was short-lived as all the six BSP MLAs joined the Congress and supported the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 6:04 [IST]Right wing players intensify pressure on the govt for construction of Ram temple

India

oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 18: Various right wing organisations in the country have intensified their campaign demanding construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. They have started putting pressure on the government to bring ordinance or get it done whichever way it is possible so what if they are being accused of racking up the matter in the election year. The 2019 Lok Sabha elections are just six months away. However, the Supreme Court will start hearing of the case from October 29, 2018.

RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat in his annual Vijaydashmi speech in Nagpur demanded bringing ordinance for the construction of Ram Temple when he said, "This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics for selfish gains. Despite such mechanism, the decision regarding ownership of land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for construction of grand temple through appropriate requisite law."

Build Ram temple at Ayodhya or declare it is a 'jumla': Uddhav Thackeray

Bhagwat further said, "Temple construction is necessary from self-esteem point of view; it will also pave way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness. The RSS has been associated with sentiments of crores of country men in the efforts for construction of a magnificent Ram temple at the birthplace of Lord Rama, who is the personification of life energy of the nation and icon of upholding the dharma."

Another player Shiv Sena too has jumped into it which is struggling for the political base in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over delay in construction of Ram temple by saying, "You go to countries which we might not have even seen in geography textbooks. But why haven't you gone to Ayodhya?" He asked Prime Minister Modi while addressing his annual Vijaydashmi rally in Mumbai. Now he plans to go to Ayodhya which will further intensify the matter. "I will go to Ayodhya on November 25 and ask this to PM Modi," he said.

Mohan Bhagwat Vijayadashmi speech: 'Centre should bring ordinance to build Ram Mandir'

Uttar Pradesh power minister and spokesperson of the state government too has said that there was nothing wrong in government bringing ordinance and the government is well within its right to bring such thing.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad already has already had a meeting on October 5, 2018 in Delhi to discuss the matter of Ram Janmabhoomi. They have chalked out a detail strategy in which they will mobilise people and seek support. In their attempt to do so, they are meeting MPs, MLAs and governors in every state. They will also seek time of the Prime Minister before November as after that they have plans to go in public that who all are responsible for this matter getting delayed.

Bhagwat's demand for law to construct Ram temple politically motivated: Opposition

Bajrang Dal, another outfit associated with the temple construction is working in the villages and they are reaching out to village chiefs of 5000 villages to spread awareness about the issue. Though the matter in the court is being taken care of by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy and he too is talking about early construction. Sources said that this is being seen as a move to bring the Congress in trap which was playing soft Hindutva card and they will supposedly be exposed if any such law is brought in and they oppose.RSS chief appealing not to vote for NOTA has certain inherent meaning

India

oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 18: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat in his annual Vijayadashmi address has clearly talked about not exercising provisions of None of the Above (NOTA) or even not voting to any party. Actually the statement made by the RSS chief has definitely some inherent meaning in view of the anger of a big section of people against the BJP.

Bhagwat said, "The characteristic of democratic politics is such that no one can be considered as completely right or wrong. In such a situation, not voting or using provisions of NOTA goes in favour of the one who are most ineffective. So 100 per cent voting is essential keeping in mind national interest as supreme without getting swayed away by the campaign of all the sides. The Election Commission also appeals for the hundred per cent voting and conscience voting. The RSS swayamsevaks have always been abiding by this as a duty as citizens and will do this time as well."

Mohan Bhagwat Vijayadashmi speech: 'Centre should bring ordinance to build Ram Mandir'

Political analysts not to be named said that this appeal becomes all the more important in states like Madhya Pradesh where not only the base of the RSS is very strong but also people have put out huge hoardings to use NOTA but not to vote for the BJP. There have been several constituencies in the country in recent elections in the state where votes polled in NOTA were more than victory margin. So NOTA is becoming decisive by the day. Sources said that it is not that people appealing for pushing NOTA button all belong to the RSS but a big section is angry with the BJP in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh so the appeal made by Sarsanghchalak will certainly have its impact as a section of people talking in these state to teach a lesson to chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Opposition can't oppose Ram temple as deity is revered by majority of Indians: Bhagwat

Sources said that the appeal made by Sarsanghchalak is for people belonging to upper caste communities as it is they who's voting percentage is not very good. So this appeal will also impact them. A section of the RSS feels that second term is important for Modi as result of some of the works done by Modi government will reflect in the second tern so why to give credit to others for the good work done by the BJP. So the RSS might have sniffed the danger of people moving away from the BJP. So such appeal is made.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 14:29 [IST]Sabarimala temple in Kerala to open for monthly rituals from July 16; Conditions apply for devotees

How to Book Sabarimala Virtual Q Tickets Online 2021? Know Date, Price and Other Details

Sabarimala protests updates: Congress says TDB's should file review plea instead of detailed report

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

New Delhi, Oct 17: In the three days that Sabarimala has been open for the first time since the landmark Supreme Court order, no woman in the age group of 10-50 has made it to the shrine.

Two women, one activist and another a journalist, on Friday (October 19) began their ascent towards the Sabarimala Temple where the entry of women between the ages of 10-50 is prohibited. The women of the said age group have not been allowed for centuries but last month the Supreme Court scrapped the traditional practice.

Massive protests are being held at the base of the hill from where devotees begin their trek to the temple opposing the Supreme Court order. The locals are hell bent to stop women from entering the shrine saying that it is an age old practice.

Amid violent protests, the doors of Sabarimala temple in Kerala opened on Wednesday for the first time since the Supreme Court lifted the centuries-old ban on entry of women of menstrual age but by available indications, none from this age group made it to the famed hilltop shrine.

[Sabarimala verdict: No consensus on filing review petition]

The verdict had however received mixed responses with several thousand protesters flocking the streets of Kerala demanding an overturn in the ruling citing that it is against their traditional beliefs.

[Sabarimala: SC's verdict to be implemented, anyone who wants to go will be protected, says Kerala CM]

A meeting by The Travancore Devaswom Board, a temple body yesterday with various stakeholders including the Pandalam royal family and Ayyappa devotees failed to come to a conclusion on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Police has said that no attempts to threaten law and order, or to stop women devotees from entering the shrine will not be tolerated.

Congress President Mulapally Ramachandran on Tuesday declared that the party won't object to any woman coming to the temple but wished that this does not happen.

State BJP president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai expressed full support to the protesting believers.

On Tuesday, hundreds of devotees, including a large number of women, protesting against the Supreme Court ruling, gathered at Nilakal and started checking all vehicles bound to the temple town.Sabarimala temple in Kerala to open for monthly rituals from July 16; Conditions apply for devotees

How to Book Sabarimala Virtual Q Tickets Online 2021? Know Date, Price and Other Details

Sabarimala protests: Two Right-wing outfits call for 24-hour hartal; security tightened

India

oi-Deepika S

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 18: Sabarimala Karma Samithi, a devotee group, protesting against the entry of women of menstrual age at Sabarimala temple has called for a state-wide dawn to dusk hartal on Thursday.

The hartal is called against the police crackdown including baton-charge against protesters that took place on Wednesday. The BJP and its NDA partners have backed a 12-hour 'hartal' called by the council.

Sabarimala temple opens for all, but protesters prevent entry of women

Right wing outfit, 'Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad' led by Pravin Togadia and the 'Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi', an outfit of devotees, have also called a 24-hour-long hartal on Thursday starting midnight. The outfits are protesting the CPM-led LDF government's decision to implement the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all age groups to enter the hill shrine.

The famed Lord Ayyappa temple opened on October 17 for the five-day-long monthly poojas in a surcharged atmosphere of protest over the Supreme Court verdict permitting entry of women of all age groups.

Sabarimala temple: Mediapersons attacked by protesters

The day witnessed tense moments at Pamba and Nilackal at the foothill as protesters opposing the Supreme Court order turned violent and clashed with police, which resulted in baton-charge by the latter.

Stones were pelted at police vehicles and buses. Several persons including an old woman was injured in the stone-pelting and connected incidents.

Some women journalists were heckled and blocked from proceeding toward here by the protesters who also attacked their vehicles.

Sabarimala: Lord Ayyappa has his right to privacy and right to religion is not absolute

From October 18, regular poojas and other rituals like 'ganapathi pooja' and 'neyyabhishekam' would be held till October 22, according to the schedule.

The selection of new chief priest of the temple and that of the adjacent Malikappuram shrine would be held October 18.

Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran and Travancore Devaswom Board President, A Padmakumar were among those present before the sanctum sanctorum when it was opened.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 2:19 [IST]Siddaramaiah retires again? Is he serious this time?

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Bengaluru, Oct 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah once again announced retirement from active politics. He had made a similar announcement first before the 2013 elections and then before the 2018 Assembly polls. This time, he has announced retirement less than a year before 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Announcing his retirement for the third time, Siddaramaiah said that he retired from electoral politics but he added that his work for the party or people will not stop. His political career started with his entry to 7th Karnataka Legislative Assembly in 1983 and he has so far contested 13 elections from 1983 to 2018.

Citing his age for the very first time as one of the reasons to quit electoral politics, Siddaramaiah, said, "I have faced 13 elections so far and after completing my five-year term as MLA, I will not contest any more elections. I am already 71 years old."

Also Read | Karnataka bypolls 2018: Show of strength by political families

According to reports, there are speculations that the Congress is likely to insist on Siddaramaiah contesting the Lok Sabha polls. At a time when the party has decided to take on the BJP jointly with the JD(S).

Political analyst, Mahadev Prakash, says, "He (Siddaramaiah) had firmly declared his retirement in the last assembly elections. No need to read his statement between lines. He contested 2018 elections because he would have been CM for the second term had the Congress won ."

On the question who will replace Siddaramaiah, "Charges are there that Congress may weaken in his absence. If he retires, I don't see alternative leadership of his stature acceptable throughout the state," said Mahadev Prakash.

Also Read | Goa: More trouble for Congress as two more MLAs set to resign

Mahadev Prakash doubted that whether Deputy CM Dr G Parameshwara or Mallikarjun Kahrge have that stature. "However, DK Shivakumar has a chance. He is financially strong and not anti-Lingayat in his political posture. Lingayat s are comfortable with DKS leadership," added Mahadev Prakash.

Though Congress high-command is keen on Siddaramaiah's leadership, the time for his retirement seems to be fair for a graceful exit. First of all, Siddaramaiah has established son, Dr Yathindra is an MLA from Varuna constituency, in state politics. Most importantly, after losing power due to political blunder called separate religion status for Lingayat, Siddaramaiah still has considerable clout in Congress-JDS coalition as Congress Legislative Party chairman.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 14:49 [IST]Sri Lankas internal politics led to the creation of an imaginary RAW assassination plot

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, Oct 18: There were reports that emerged suggesting that during a Cabinet meeting, the Sri Lankan President, Mathripala Sirisena had alleged that India's external spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing was planning on assassinating him.

A few hours later, Sirisena telephoned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and categorically rejected the reports in the media about him alluding to the involvement of India in any manner whatsoever in an alleged plot to assassinate the President and a former Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka.

He mentioned that the michevous and malafide reports were utterly baseless and false, and seemed intended to create misunderstanding between the two leaders as well as damage the cordial relations between the two friendly neighbours.

India dragged into internal politics of Sri Lanka:

It may be recalled that after Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the elections, he accused the R&AW of meddling with the polls, which led to his defeat. Since the defeat of Rajapaksa, there has been a sustained campaign in Sri Lanka to spread disinformation about India.

This spread of disinformation relating to India could also be seen in the context of the differences between Sirisena and Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Also Read | India's R&AW trying to kill me says Sri Lankan President Sirisena

Former Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, Vappala Balachandran tells OneIndia that this is the most ridiculous charge that I have heard against the R&AW. Why should our agency kill the Sri Lankan President, he asks.

In our entire history nothing of this sort has been planned or executed. It is the vivid imagination of some people and it was wrong on part of the media to have published the story, he also adds.

Balachandran adds that the R&AW has excellent relations with the current Sri Lankan government. Had Rajapaksa made the allegations, then one could understand as his relations were not good with India.

On being asked if the Chinese could be behind the misinformation campaign, Balachandran says he does not think so. They would not get into such an immature type of disinformation campaign. In the entire history R&AW has not done any personal harm to any political leaders. It is the imagination of some that we would try and destabilise a friendly country.

Reacting to this development, an official from New Delhi said that it is unfortunate that such a spread of misinformation is taking place. It clearly appears to be an attempt to embarrass the establishment in both in New Delhi and Sri Lanka ahead of Wickremesinghe's visit to India on Thursday. This is clearly a case of the internal politics of Sri Lanka that has led to the spread of such misinformation. When asked if Rajapaksa and his team could be behind this, the officer offered no comments.

India a true friend:

Sirisena was clearly upset with the development and said that there has be a thorough probe into the spread of such misinformation.

Sirisena said that he regards the Prime Minister (Modi) as a true friend of Sri Lanka, as also a close personal friend. He stressed that he greatly valued the mutually beneficial ties between India and Sri Lanka, and remained steadfast to work with the Prime Minister for futher strengtheing them.

Also Read | Lanka govt rejects reports on President Sirisena's assassination plot by India's R&AW

The Prime Minister appreciated the prompt steps taken by the President and his Government to firmly refute the malicious reports by publicly clarifying the matters. He also reiterated India's emphasis on 'neighbourhood first' policy and the priority the Government of India and he personally attach to developing even stronger all-round cooperation between the two countries said a note from the Prime Minster's Office.

Background:

Reports regarding an assassination plot emerged when one person by the name, Namal Kumara, who was part of an anti-corruption outfit claimed that he was aware of the plan to assassinate Sirisena and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

He was questioned, following which a person by the name M Thomas also claimed that he was aware of the plot. This was reported in the local media widely.

The Sri Lankan government however denied this. Media minister, Mangala Samaraweera said that this was a disinformation campaign and urged reporters to be more responsible.

Also Read | PM Modi assassination plot: Urban naxal-NE terror groups under radar

At the meeting that was held on Tuesday, Sirisena said that the India national must be the R&AW agent trying to kill him. The Indian PM may not be aware of this as that is often the case. Trump may not be aware of CIA's similar moves, Sirisena said according to The Hindu report.

At the meeting there was a vehement argument between Sirisena and Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe over the development of the Colombo Port. Sirisena is said to have objected to any Indian involvement in the project. However the PM said that Colombo had already promised New Delhi on collaborating on the project.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 9:06 [IST]Telangana elections: Why Jagan and Pawan Kalyan have decided to give it a miss

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Hyderabad, Oct 18: The Telangana assembly elections will witness a direct fight between the TRS and the Congress which is in alliance with the TDP. However there are two other key players, who are likely to give this election a miss.

The YSR Congress Party, led by Jagan Mohan Reddy and Pawan Kalyan's Jana Sena will stay away from this election. Both parties are opposed to the Congress and the TDP. Both would however call on the voters to reject the Grand Alliance comprising the Congress-TDP and CPI.

Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided not to throw his hat into the ring as he wants to focus on Andhra Pradesh entirely. After losing the AP polls in 2014, he has been on a major re-building exercise. Moreover his support base in Telangana is restricted to the voters of AP origin.

Also Read | Telangana: Four years on, the vote is still for the sentiment and not the caste factor

Further, in case the YSR Congress fails to win a seat in the Telangana assembly elections 2018, it would take a beating on the image of the party in AP. Hence it has been decided that the YSR Congress would stay in the background and instead urge the voters to defeat the Congress and TDP.

While many within the Jana Sena Party feel that they should contest at least 20 seats in Telangana, no decision has been taken by Kalyan as yet. Like the YSR Congress Party, the Jana Sena too is focusing heavily in AP. The party feels that if it performs poorly in Telangana, it could have a bearing in AP.

Also Read | Telangana polls: With BJP-Cong eyeing for second spot, TRS is ahead

In recent times, Pawan Kalyan has pressed KCR on a few occasions. He had praised him for his government welfare schemes. This are indications that he may stay away from the polling process in Telangana and instead urge the voter to defeat the Congress-TDP combine.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 9:49 [IST]'Alpine girl' from Bengaluru treks to 50 high-altitude lakes in Kashmir

With 2 more arrests NIA steps up heat on terrorists targeting civilians in J&K

Cleaning up the inside rot: The importance of gunning down Kashmirs white collared terrorists

TuM terrorist killed in encounter with security forces in Pulwama

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar P

Pulwama, Oct 18: A Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) terrorist was killed in Pulwama in the encounter with security forces on Thursday.

The deceased militant was wanted in a grenade attack on a police party in Baramulla's Pattan. Arms and ammunition were recovered from the encounter site.

Jammu and Kashmir: 3 militants killed, 1 police martyred in encounter

J&K Police, tweeted, "Recently active terrorist of TuM outfit and wanted in Pattan grenade incident Showqat was killed at Pulwama. Arms and ammunition recovered."

Pulwama update. Recently active terrorist of TuM outfit and wanted in Pattan grenade incident Showqat was killed at Pulwama. Arms and ammunition recovered. @JmuKmrPolice  Kashmir Zone Police (@KashmirPolice) October 18, 2018

This comes a day after, security forces in a joint operation gunned down two terrorists and their active accomplice in Syed Ali Akbar area if Fateh Kadal.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 8:51 [IST]Union Minister says #MeToo movement started by people with 'perverted minds', sparks controversy

India

oi-Deepika S

Chennai, Oct 18: Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan made a shocking statement on #Me Too allegations saying the movement started by perverts, to corrupt the purity of land.

"If someone makes an allegation that such a thing happened.....when the incident happened we were playing together while in class 5....Would it be fair? "This (MeToo movement) is the result of the behaviour of some people who have perverted minds," Radhakrishnan, Union Minister of State for Shipping and Finance said.

Noting that the 'MeToo' movement had sullied the image of the country and women, he wondered if it would be right for men to start "making similar accusations like them"."That will be such a big insult....Will it be acceptable?" Radhakrishnan said.

The BJP leader made the comments in response to questions by reporters Wednesday amid the raging #MeToo storm which has hit many celebrated journalist M J Akbar.

Akbar, who edited many mainstream publications before joining politics, resigned as Union Minister of State for External Affairs on Wednesday after a host of his former women journalist colleagues accused him of sexual harassment.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 18:24 [IST]BJP under Yogi to win big in UP, Congress to get 5-8 seats: Opinion poll

UP: Cop shouting thain-thain to scare criminals during encounter gets bravery award

India

oi-Madhuri Adnal

Lucknow, Oct 18: In a bizarre move by the Uttar Pradesh police, the policeman who shouted 'thain thain' to scare criminals away during a recent encounter in Sambhal has been recommended for an award.

The Sambhal police have come out in defence of their colleague who mimicked gunshots when his guns jammed during an encounter.

Superintendent of Police Yamuna Prasad, said he would present a certificate of bravery to S-I Manoj Kumar for his "quick thinking".

Also Read | UP: Cops nab notorious criminal after brief encounter in Noida

He also has written a letter in this regard to the Director General of Police. According to the SP, the move by Manoj Kumar to shout out 'thain thain' after a pistol got jammed acted as a booster for the morale of other policemen who were part of the encounter.

Police team involved in the encounter last week faced a serious situation when the revolver of one of the cops got jammed while they were chasing some notorious criminals in Sambhal.

#WATCH: Police personnel shouts 'thain thain' to scare criminals during an encounter in Sambhal after his revolver got jammed. ASP says, 'words like 'maaro & ghero' are said to create mental pressure on criminals. Cartridges being stuck in revolver is a technical fault'. (12.10) pic.twitter.com/NKyEnPZukh  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) October 13, 2018

The entire incident was caught on camera and later shared on social media platforms.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 12:27 [IST]Delhi to have its first scramble 'X' crossing at Red Fort; Likely to open by July 15

Will attend flag hoisting ceremony at red fort on October 21: PM Modi

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Oct 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join a flag-hoisting ceremony at Red Fort on October 21 to mark the 75th anniversary of the 'Azad Hind government' headed by Subhas Chandra Bose, he announced Wednesday.

PM Modi stated this in a video interaction with Bharatiya Janata Party workers during which he spoke at length about his government's works to celebrate the contributions of many personalities who, he said, were neglected by the Congress in its rule of several decades.

Congress has 3 CM candidates in Madhya Pradesh, each pulling others down: Modi

He also hit out at the Congress over its criticism of him and the BJP government in Gujarat over Sardar Patel's statue project, claiming that the opposition party was in fact insulting Patel as it always had contempt for the country's first home minister, credited for uniting hundreds of princely states.

History knows that the Congress had a lot of contempt for Patel and it could never tolerate him being recognised for his works, Modi said, attacking the opposition party for its "Made in China" jibe at the project.

The Statue of Unity, said to be tallest in the world, will help the young generations appreciate Patel's contributions, he added. While the Congress neglected the likes of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, Bose and Patel, the BJP believed in remembering everybody who contributed to nation-building, he said, citing his government's works, including constructing museums for noted tribal personalities and developing five places linked to Dalit icon Ambedkar.

"We respect everybody who served the country," he said while noting that he recently inaugurated a statue of Sir Chhotu Ram in Haryana.

He was a multi-faceted personality and people should read about him, Modi said.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 1:40 [IST]Will the BJP be able to capture Mizoram the last citadel of the Congress in North-East?

India

oi-Vinod Kumar Shukla

New Delhi, Oct 18: Assembly elections in the northeastern state Mizoram is also scheduled along with the four other states of the country. The elections for 40 Assembly seats will be conducted on November 28. The Congress with 34 seats in the Last Assembly is in power while the Bharatiya Janata Party started its campaign in the state and would be contesting on all 40 seats.

Comparatively a new state, Mizoram became 23rd state of the country in 1987 and has been under the Congress rule for around 20 years. Despite the BJP being active in the state since 1993, but it failed to make any mark in the state so far while Mizo National Front is another political party that has been in the government for twice. The resignation of state home minister R Lalzirliana has been a major set back for the Congress, but the party is trying to come out of it as it is the only state where it is in power in north-east.

Also Read | Assembly elections: How Mizoram voted in 2013

Regional political parties talk about Mizo identity and status of Mizoram. But to put up a formidable challenge before the Congress, the BJP has joined hands with Mizoram Chhantu Pawl, Save Mizoram Front and the Operation Mizoram while its ally in Manipur and Meghalaya, National People's Party (NPP) has set up its local unit in the state.

National parties contesting election with full strength

The BJP's alliance partner in two other northeastern state, the NPP, has announced to contest elections in Mizoram. It is in the government along with the BJP in Manipur and Meghalaya. NPP chief and Meghalaya CM Conrad K Sangma launched his party's Mizoram unit. The ruling Congress too has made some organisational changes by naming Luizinho Faleiro as the AICC general secretary in charge of Northeast India and Bhupen Kumar Borah secretary in charge of Mizoram. They had the experience of supervising 2013 Assembly elections and 2014 Lok Sabha polls of Mizoram successfully with handsome victories for the Congress. Appointment of Shillong (East) MLA Ampareen Lyngdoh as AICC secretary in charge of Mizoram is being looked upon as wooing people of the state.

Anti-Incumbency a factor in Mizoram

The Congress seeking a third consecutive term in the state which is making things little difficult for it due to anti-incumbency. This is really a worrying factor for the party in the state besides corruption charges on ministers. The resentment of farmers is also an issue in the state as thousands of farmers hit the streets in Aizawl recently demanding land reforms and regulated market system for sustainable development who account for more than 11 lakh that is around 70 per cent of state's population.

Also Read | Congress to adopt same methodology for ticket distribution as done in Gujarat and Karnataka

Corruption against the state government

There have been charges against Mizoram chief minister having amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. It was alleged by deputy controller of mines at the Indian Bureau of Mines Lalhriatrenga Chhangte. He alleged that the Mizoram CM was constructing a multistory building in Kolkata. The state government is being accused by the BJP that Rs 42,972 crore in developmental aid given to the state didn't reach the people. When Congress was at the Centre and Mizoram received only Rs 19,974 crore in the 13th Finance Commission but after the BJP coming to power at Centre, the allocation was doubled to Rs 42,972 crore. The Rs 42,972 crore that the Modi government gave to the state government had gone as an offering to corruption because of the corrupt state government. New Land Use Policy (NLUP) and the New Economic Development Policy (NEDP) launched by chief minister is also being criticised.

The Lalzirliana Factor in the state

There was a major setback for the Congress when state Congress vice president Lalzirliana quit the Congress to join Mizo National Front and reports are coming that some more people also quit the party. Though the Congress served a show cause notice on him but the damage is done as elections are around the corner. Sources said that with the resignation of Lalzirliana, the Congress may face a situation similar to what it faced in Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur as the election draws nearer. Chief minister Lal Thanhawla is also accused of promoting his younger brother Lal Thanzara as his probable successor. Meanwhile, the Congress accused the BJP trying to split the party in the state.

Unsettling the issue of Tribals

There is resentment in a section of tribal community. The issue of Bru Tribal is a major issue that is plaguing the state with over 32,000 Bru tribals still living in six temporary camps in North Tripura, only 31 families have returned to Mizoram since August 2018. Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples' Coordination Committee (MBDPCC) has refused to come to Mizoram unless the Centre accepts its seven-point charter of demands. The Bru tribals have demanded the creation of an area development council for the Brus in Mizoram, allocation of five hectares of land to each refugee family, cluster villages with each housing at least 500 families, Rs 4 lakh compensation to each family and new electoral rolls in relief camps. Some compromise was reached as on July 3, 2018, when Union home minister Rajnath Singh, the governments of Mizoram and Tripura and the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF) inked a pact for repatriation of displaced Bru refugees after a gap of almost 22 years. But the Centre turned down the proposal for inclusion of the fresh demand and stated that as decided, displaced Bru refugee would be repatriated to Mizoram before September 30, 2018, and all the temporary camps in North Tripura would be closed in the first week of October. But no headway has been made so far.

Is BJP emerging a new factor in the state?

The BJP is not only getting aggressive in Mizoram but also formed an alliance in the state. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah said on October 17 that Mizoram will celebrate Christmas under the BJP government. He kicked off the party's campaign at Aizawl's R Dengthuama Indoor Stadium.

The BJP is working at the booth level in the state. It is looking at Mizoram to be the 20th state with the party's government under the leadership of Narendra Modi. Seven out of eight states in the Northeast already have a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by the BJP. Christian-majority Mizoram is the last citadel of the Congress in the Northeast while the BJP does not have any legislator in the 40-member Assembly. The BJP-Alliance will contest all 40 seats in the state. A senior Congress leader BD Chakma has joined the BJP during his visit.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 11:16 [IST]India, 7 other nations seek non-interference in Afghan affairs, stress on inclusive govt

At NSA meeting Tajikistan says Afghan situation poses risk of terror, drugs, criminality

Afghan foreign minister in Pak, likely to meet special reps attending Troika Plus meet

In our better interest: Taliban on NSA level meet on Afghanistan convened by India

US Congress report says Pakistan playing active and disruptive role in Afghanistan

Explosion hits Afghanistan mosque during Friday prayers, at least 12 wounded

Afghan guards kill Kandahar police chief in insider attack; US troops hurt

International

oi-PTI

Kandahar, Oct 18: An Afghan security chief and a journalist were killed and three Americans wounded Thursday when a gunman opened fire on a high-level security meeting attended by top US commander General Scott Miller, officials said.

The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack in the southern city of Kandahar that comes two days before Afghanistan's parliamentary elections that the militant group has vowed to disrupt.

Security forces swarmed the city after the attack at the provincial governor's office where the senior Afghan and foreign officials had gathered, witnesses told AFP.

The Taliban said General Abdul Raziq, the powerful police chief of Kandahar province with a fierce reputation for brutality, was the target of the shooting.

Raziq was killed and six of his bodyguards wounded, a provincial security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The shooting happened as they were leaving the meeting," the official said, adding two members of Afghanistan's spy agency also were injured.

Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," Peters said.

"We are being told the area is secure."

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was "full of military forces".

"They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

Afghanistan is on high alert ahead of the long-delayed legislative elections, scheduled for October 20, after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

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Story first published: Thursday, October 18, 2018, 20:47 [IST]US President Donald Trump

"We have rebuilt China, just so you understand. Our country has rebuilt China, with their hard work and genius also. But how our country has allowed itself to lose USD 500 billion a year, and much more than that, is ridiculous, is ridiculous," Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

The White House

"So, it's hard for them to do a deal, because they've had it so good for so long; it's a very hard thing for them to do," said the US president when asked why he told the Chinese that they are not ready for a trade deal yet. "You said the Chinese want to make a deal, but you told them they're (not ready yet)," he was asked.

"I told them they're not ready yet. No, because they've had -- they've made too much.." he said as he went to explain that Chinese have benefited a lot from the current trade relationship with the US and that is why they do not want any change.

"But we have a very good relationship with China. I have a great relationship with President Xi, and I think you'll see something happen that's going to be good for both countries," Trump said.

Trump government imposes USD 16 billion import tariffs on China

Chinese President Xi Jinping

The relation between US and China dates back to 1784 as they share an extreme economic relationship and the trade between two countries created positive political relations. As of 2018, United States has the world's largest economy and China being the second largest.

During Obama's tenure as a president, he met Xi Jinping in 2013 in an effort to build "new model of relations", as Obama supported One-China policy, military leadership between two countries started to improve the same year.

Former US President Barack Obama

After Trump became president, he had a conversation with Xi Jinping about issues such as denuclearisation and importance of trade development between two countries. However, his administration placed 16 billion tariffs on China in August 2018 after it was known that China supports cyber intrusions into US computer networks to gain unauthorised access to valuable business information.

PTIOngoing FEMA has closed some of its Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC), established last month to assist residents and businesses whose property was damaged by Tropical Storm Ida. However, face-to-face assistance is still available. Residents can find their nearest DRC online at fema.gov/drc,...Editors Note: Christine McCartney traveled to Finland as part of the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching program, and when she returned, she was inspired to start a service learning program called Global to Local with fellow teacher Jacqueline Hesse. Both teach at Newburgh Free Academy P-TECH in Newburgh, New York, and this program gives their students the opportunity to travel and engage involunteer work.



By guest bloggers Christine McCartney and Jacqueline Hesse

Volunteerism plays a crucial role in building strong communities and most educators recognize the importance of inviting students to participate in local volunteer opportunities. But one often overlooked aspect of high school community service requirements is an intentional focus on the learning and growth that occurs when students engage in authentic work for social change.

While volunteering, students learn professional skills such as collaboration and leadership, the importance of community engagement, and how to identify and address problems at the local level. As educators who run a global service learning program for our school in New York, we have thought a great deal about how to create meaningful opportunities that capitalize on this learning. We believe that when students are able to learn from someone who is working toward positive social change, whether in our own community or in a community in another country, it helps them to not only understand the need for others to step into that role, but also to be better able to envision themselves doing so.

Our service learning program, Global to Local , allows students to travel to another country at no cost each summer for twelve to fourteen days with the goal of volunteering their time and talents to support local organizations. We have traveled to Ecuador and Cambodia and will travel to Uganda next. Aside from volunteering in these locations, we also spend time with grassroots change-makers who have identified a need in their own communities and have worked toward solutions to address it. Over the years, the way we select these role-models for our students has evolved. We have identified four key characteristics we not only look for in our partners, but consciously cultivate in our students. Below we have attempted to illustrate each attribute and provide an example of someone with whom our students have collaborated, both locally and internationally.

1. We value selfless individuals who are able to articulate and model a clear set of community minded values.

While in Ecuador a few summers ago, our students visited an organization called Casa Victoria, which is an NGO run by Alicia Ballan-Duran and her husband, Dan, in the San Roque section of the countrys capital of Quito.

At Casa Victoria, underserved youth from the surrounding area have a safe haven to visit every day after school. The children receive three hours of homework help, hot meals, and daily values lessons. Alicia and Dan intentionally established their organization in a neighborhood that is off the beaten path and rarely visited by tourists, and they immediately recognized the need to create a community-wide sense of ownership and connection with Casa Victoria.

Shortly after purchasing their colonial-era mansion in San Roque, Alicia and Dan hosted a series of dinners for local residents, many of whom were unemployed, struggled with substance abuse, and were in gangs. Once those same residents realized that their children and family members would benefit directly from the resources the organization offered, they became advocates for and guardians of Casa Victoria. During the ten days we spent with Alicia (called Mamalicia by the children), our students were constantly moved by hearing her speak so lovingly of the young people under her careyoung people who otherwise would have been on the streets during the long hours after school. As one student, Colton Andress, reflected toward the end of the trip, They gave up everything just to help the community. They bought this house and built it just for the kids, and that really moved me.

2. We seek community organizers who model inclusion and genuine empathy.

Just over a year ago, we met Melanie Collins, a local Newburgh resident who recently opened a coffee shop in an underutilized and often overlooked section of our city. Her abundant energy is focused on bringing people together, whether over a cup of locally roasted coffee or for a community project. Everything about the coffee shop creates a sense of intentional inclusiveness, from the art on the walls featuring famous hip-hop artists and musicians, to the very name of the establishment: Blacc Vanilla .

It didnt take long for Melanie to begin inviting our students to sit at planning tables of various projects, most recently a student-led initiative to design and paint crosswalk murals with messages of inclusion and encouragement on our city streets. Through her nonprofit, The Blacc Vanilla Community Foundation, she and her husband have been instrumental in securing bikes for city children, backpacks for students, and community spaces for addressing both food waste and food shortages.

It is inspiring to meet a business owner who is more concerned about supporting the people in her community than she is about profits. During a recent crosswalk project, Melanie invited local activists and artists to join our students at the table, keeping the students as key stakeholders in every decision that was made. Our students felt valued and learned a great deal as they worked alongside community activists in our city. They thought deeply about how the crosswalk designs could be painted in a way that honored what the community valued and included as many young people from the city as possible.

3. We look for those who are willing to share challenges and discuss how they overcame obstacles.

While in Cambodia this past summer, our students volunteered at Little Angels Orphanage, an NGO started by Srey Rattana, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide who shared with our students how his past experiences led him to create a safe place in which children have the space and support necessary to learn and grow.

After overcoming incredible obstacles and hardships, including witnessing the murder of his mother and grandmother, Rattana was able to find work for himself by learning the leather carving trade under a mentor who took him in. He immediately recognized the value of having that specific skill set and now teaches it to young children who are either orphaned or who do not have the means to attain basic living necessities. Those children work for one hour each day creating handmade items that support the running of the orphanage. In exchange, the students receive hot meals, homework help, and a place to live.

Once the young Cambodians are ready to move on to university or into the working world, they have not only their education to lean on, but they are also skilled tradesmen. One of our students had been in the New York state foster care system for several years when we traveled. After meeting the children at the orphanage and seeing how Rattana turned the trauma he experienced in his life into inspiration to help others, she immediately began making connections and envisioning the work she could do in our own community to support young men and women with unstable living situations.

4. We look for role models who live their values.

Overall, we hope our students will see the importance of living their own values, and all of our partners do the same. When we met Juan-Carlos Pineiro at the recommendation of another local activist who identified him as a resource, we immediately saw the connection between his work and what we try to convey to our students. Juan-Carlos has studied and speaks often about the importance of creating space for young people to find a sense of purpose , and he offered to mentor students in our class as they planned the Newburgh Youth Leadership Summit and Enlightenment Expo , a student-led celebration of local arts and history.

As he visited our class each Tuesday morning, he created an incredible environment of trust and honesty, and our students engaged alongside him in guided meditation, mindfulness exercises, and memorization techniques to help them prepare for performance roles at the event. He assisted them in articulating their purpose for wanting to host the event and helped them ensure that each action they took in preparation served their vision. One of our students, Azariah McLymore, who worked with him wrote that, he has shown me that just by sharing my talents with the community, I am helping eliminate the loneliness many people feel and possibly inspiring others to make change in their everyday lives. By passing down his confidence and strength, I am now a better leader who knows she can take action in her community.

This work has also shifted the way we look at new relationships with community activists, and we intentionally cultivate collaboration with those who believe in the power of young people to work for change. We look for individuals whose organizations are fully dedicated to the population they serve; sometimes this means passing on organizations that might be easy partnerships, but that dont have clear, altruistics missions. Through extensive conversations that take place both in person and virtually, we spend time with each of our partners before introducing them to our students, in the hopes that we can help our students thoughtfully prepare for whatever comes next.

In the same way that it is not enough to have students complete community service hours without providing an opportunity for reflection and growth, it would also be a misstep to put powerful role-models in front of our students and not create the time and space for them to think about how those individuals have taken careful steps to enter into the work they are doing. When our students meet these community-minded role models, they are intentionally invited to reflect on the values these individuals embody, as well as to name the hopes they have for themselves as future change-makers. We hope these experiences help them see the importance of making change in their local communities. Our hope is that all educators will think about how they can provide similar opportunities for youth in their own communities and out in the world.

Connect with Christine , Jackie , and Heather on Twitter.

Image One, Casa Victoria pic courtesy of Erica Virvo

Caption: Students from Global to Local on the steps of Casa Victoria with Alicia (in blue)

Image Two, Crosswalk pic courtesy of Cassie Sklarz

Caption: Melanie, in the back row wearing a hat, with our students outside Blacc Vanilla on the day of the crosswalk painting

Image Three, Cambodia pic courtesy of Jackie Hesse

Caption: Tamara learns leather work from one of the young people at Little Angels

Image Four, Juan Carlos pic courtesy of Juan Carlos Pineiro

Caption: Juan Carlos taking a selfie with Jason, Alejandro, Elise, and NaishaScientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz (Germany) together with scientists from Dresden, Leipzig, Sofia (Bulgaria) and Madrid (Spain) have now developed and characterized a novel, metal-organic material which displays electrical properties mimicking those of highly crystalline silicon. The material which can easily be fabricated at room temperature could serve as a replacement for expensive conventional inorganic materials used in optoelectronics.

Silicon, a so called semiconductor, is currently widely employed for the development of components such as solar cells, LEDs or computer chips. High purity silicon, a highly ordered material which is expensive to produce, is required to develop such applications. This is due to the fact that the electrical properties of a semiconductor (as silicon) are strongly affected by disorder. The scientists around group leader Enrique Canovas (MPI-P, Department of Prof. Dr. Mischa Bonn) have now developed a novel low cost metal-organic framework (MOF), which has similar electrical properties.

The MOF, produced by Xinliang Fengs group in Dresden, is a highly crystalline solid made of iron ions linked by organic molecules, hence the name metal-organic framework. In contrast to silicon, the material can be made at room temperature, and the sample chemistry, morphology and electronic properties are easily customizable during the manufacturing process.

MOFs produced in the past showed no or very little electrical conductivity, this prevented MOFs to be employed in optoelectronic applications, where an easy displacement of electrons under an applied electrical field is required. With the novel MOF, the researchers from Mainz have now demonstrated - for an organic-based material - a behavior of the conductivity similar to silicon, a so-called "Drude behavior" (named after the physicist Paul Drude). A Drude behavior implies that electrons within the material are almost free to move under the application of an external electric field, i.e. if a voltage is applied. This behavior, a common observable for highly ordered inorganic crystals like silicon, has been hardly seen in organic based materials; organic based materials are generally disordered in nature, unlike MOFs.

To characterize the unique properties for the developed MOF, the scientists at MPI-P employed ultrafast terahertz spectroscopy, a tool that allows measuring the conductivity of the material without requiring physical  perturbative - contacts. Using this tool, energy is transferred to the electrons in the semicondcuting material due to the absorption of light (mediated by an ultrafast laser pump pulse in the visible region). A second laser pulse - a so-called terahertz probe, which oscillates about a factor of 1000 slower than visible light  allows to interrogate the conductivity for the photo-generated electrons. This results in a frequency dependent conductivity signal from which the scientists were able to model by Drude the nature of the transport of the electrons in the MOF. From this response, we obtained record mobilities of the electrons in such materials which exceed the mobilities measured in insulating MOFs by a factor of 10000, says Dr. Enrique Canovas of the MPI-P. This means that electrons can easily drift under an electric field over long distances in MOFs, an aspect that was independently verified in ~1000 micron length devices. Thus, the new material paves the way for the use of MOFs in optoelectronics.

In the future, the researchers will work on the ability to directly set and predict the electronic properties via tuning the composition of their produced metal-organic framework.Despite misleading allegations made by Fresenius throughout the trial regarding Akorns regulatory compliance practices and activities, Akorn takes data integrity and other U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) compliance issues very seriously, Akorn said in a news release. Akorn is focused on working collaboratively with the FDA as Akorn continues to evaluate and improve its practices and procedures to ensure compliance with FDA regulations.We think we still have a terrific opportunity to grow here in Chicago, given the amount of consolidation of local smaller banks that served small and medium-size business, Paracchini said. We think theres a gap in the market, and we think we are very well positioned to capitalize on that opportunity.Within the next six months MiR plans to launch artificial intelligence that allows the robot to detect whether the obstacle in its path is human or an object, so that it can decide whether to stop or go around it, said MiR CEO Thomas Visti. Another goal of the company is to make the wheeled robots so easy to use that a customer can take them out of the box and install them immediately, like Ikea furniture or an iPhone, Visti said.The Victor, N.Y.-based company, which bases its beer business in Chicago, announced Wednesday that Sands will relinquish his CEO position in March to Bill Newlands, hired in 2015 as chief growth officer and promoted to president in February.The Tribune reported in August that Google is planning a two-level flagship store in Chicagos Fulton market district, near the companys Midwest headquarters. Google spokeswoman Kayla Conti declined to comment on those plans, but she said the pop-up will allow the company to assess what its next steps are for retail in the city.When people have a relationship to a farm, when they have a farm in their mind and in their heart, theyre engaged more as citizens of this planet, Peterson said. I can lament the declining sales and the struggles for farmers, but I really feel that the bigger issue is that the more people are cut off from the source of their food, the less able they are to deal with the issues of the world.The selection of an independent monitor will mark a significant step in the ongoing process of instituting court-mandated police reform in the coming years. The winning team is expected to have broad powers and access to the department, its officers and buildings as it helps supervise a sweeping revision of department policies and practices required by a forthcoming consent decree. That team will report on the forces compliance to the federal judge.Last week, even after reports surfaced about a possible link between the killing and Saudi's royal family, Mnuchin expressed his intent to still attend the conference. But multiple financial executives and media outlets announced in recent days they would not attend the conference.4) Pizza and yoga dont seem to go together, but Logan Squares Paulie Gees Pizza is gonna make you rethink the pairing, if only for one day. Yoga pop-up Rise & Wine is hosting a breakfast-time yoga session in the pizza parlor, followed by a tasting of a number of styles, including a secret pie that may or may not make it onto the Paulie Gees menu some time in the future. Tickets from $29. 10 a.m to noon Saturday. 2451 N. Milwaukee Ave. bit.ly/2J3EhTOCarbon Nanotubes Market to Observe Strong Development of 17.09% CAGR by 2023 | Global Key Players - Arkema SA, Carbon Solutions, Hanwha Chemical, Cheap Tubes, Nano-C, Nanocyl SA, NanoIntegris

Carbon Nanotubes Market

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Marketprognosis.com Publish a New Market Research Report On Global Carbon Nanotubes Market 2018 - 2023 which contains global key players survey information and forecast to 2023.Overview of the Global Carbon Nanotubes Market:The Global Carbon Nanotubes Market is expected to witness a high CAGR of 17.09% during the forecast period (2018- 2023), owing to increase in the utilization of carbon nanotubes in the electronics industry. Technological advancements to bring down prices and improve quality are also likely to stimulate the carbon nanotubes market during the forecast period.Get a Sample Copy of this Report @Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for electronics applications are still under a strong focus for research. They exhibit excellent electrical properties, and have a huge potential in electronics applications, such as photovoltaic, sensors, semiconductor devices, and conductors. CNTs are used for making transistors, and are applied as conductive layers for the rapidly growing touchscreen market. Increasing demand for smartphones and rising investments in China and India are likely to drive the carbon nanotubes market.Demand for CNTs is on a significant rise from the aerospace & defense industry, owing to their superior properties and capability to facilitate designing of lightweight parts. They are used in composite materials which are employed on external surface of aircrafts to reduce the risk of damage and penetration during lightning strikes. With the increase in air traffic across the globe, the demand for airplanes is rising at a rapid rate, which, in turn, is likely to drive the carbon nanotubes market.In terms of consumption in 2017, Asia-Pacific registered the largest regional market for carbon nanotubes. Penetration of CNTs in the electronics and energy industry is contributing to higher demand in this region. New agreements and construction plans in Asia-Pacific are coming up to meet the growing demand for travel. In May 2017, US aircraft giant, Boeing, had started to build its first overseas factory in China, aiming to deliver 100 Boeing 737 planes per year. This is likely to drive the market in Asia-Pacific at a high rate, compared to other regions.Purchase this report online with Top Key Players Analysis and List of Tables & Figure @Major Key Players:1 Arkema S.A2 Arry International Group Limited3 Carbon Solutions, Inc.4 Hanwha Chemical Corporation5 Cheap Tubes6 Hyperion Catalysis International7 Kumho Petrochemical8 Nano-C9 Nanocyl SA10 NanoIntegris Inc and More..Any Query? Ask to our Expert @This study answers to the below key questions:1 What will the market size be in 2023 and what will the growth rate be?2 What are the key market trends?3 What is driving this market?4 What are the challenges to market growth?5 Who are the key vendors in this market space?6 What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?7 What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?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 Carbon Nanotubes 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Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market 2018 Industry Trend and Forecast 2025

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Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management IndustryNew Study On 2018-2025 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Global Key Player, Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Forecast Added to Wise Guy Reports DatabaseThis report focuses on the global Mobile Customer Relationship Management status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players. The study objectives are to present the Mobile Customer Relationship Management development in United States, Europe and China.A mobile customer relationship management is an application that enables to keep track of customer relationship management activities via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The idea behind mobile CRM is to gather all data regarding clients on mobile using CRM apps within the organization to give an integrated and complete view of each customer. It offers better customer service as it satisfies and anticipates customer due to complete and up-to-date customer database on mobile. The benefit of mobile CRM is it helps in increasing work capacity as its strategy optimizes all the process related to customer relationship management. Mobile CRM aids in improving overall sales performance and growth in productivity due to social and mobile enabled CRM.Try Sample Report @North America and Europe are expected to dominate the mobile CRM market in the forecast period due to increase in usage of mobile services or platform for employees and clients in business. Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa are expected to be the emerging regions to contribute for maximum growth during the forecast period.The key players covered in this studySalesforce.comZohoIBMMicrosoftOracleSAP SESybaseKony SolutionsResco.netSoftware AGRepsly, IncMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoOn-premiseCloudMarket segment by Application, split intoBFSIGovernmentRetailHealthcareManufacturingOtherMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaCentral & South AmericaThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze global Mobile Customer Relationship Management status, future forecast, growth opportunity, key market and key players.To present the Mobile Customer Relationship Management 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.For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @Some Major Points from Table of content:1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.4.1 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size Growth Rate by Type (2013-2025)1.4.2 On-premise1.4.3 Cloud1.5 Market by Application1.5.1 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Share by Application (2013-2025)1.5.2 BFSI1.5.3 Government1.5.4 Retail1.5.5 Healthcare1.5.6 Manufacturing1.5.7 Other1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size2.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Growth Trends by Regions2.2.1 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Regions (2013-2025)2.2.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)2.3 Industry Trends2.3.1 Market Top Trends2.3.2 Market Drivers2.3.3 Market Opportunities3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Manufacturers3.1.1 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Revenue by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Revenue Market Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)3.1.3 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Concentration Ratio (CR5 and HHI)3.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Mobile Customer Relationship Management Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans4 Breakdown Data by Type and Application4.1 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type (2013-2018)4.2 Global Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application (2013-2018)5 United States5.1 United States Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)5.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in United States5.3 United States Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type5.4 United States Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application6 Europe6.1 Europe Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)6.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in Europe6.3 Europe Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type6.4 Europe Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application7 China7.1 China Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)7.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in China7.3 China Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type7.4 China Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application8 Japan8.1 Japan Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)8.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in Japan8.3 Japan Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type8.4 Japan Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application9 Southeast Asia9.1 Southeast Asia Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)9.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in Southeast Asia9.3 Southeast Asia Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type9.4 Southeast Asia Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application10 India10.1 India Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)10.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in India10.3 India Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type10.4 India Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application11 Central & South America11.1 Central & South America Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size (2013-2018)11.2 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Key Players in Central & South America11.3 Central & South America Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Type11.4 Central & South America Mobile Customer Relationship Management Market Size by Application12 International Players Profiles12.1 Salesforce.com12.1.1 Salesforce.com Company Details12.1.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.1.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.1.4 Salesforce.com Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.1.5 Salesforce.com Recent Development12.2 Zoho12.2.1 Zoho Company Details12.2.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.2.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.2.4 Zoho Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.2.5 Zoho Recent Development12.3 IBM12.3.1 IBM Company Details12.3.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.3.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.3.4 IBM Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.3.5 IBM Recent Development12.4 Microsoft12.4.1 Microsoft Company Details12.4.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.4.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.4.4 Microsoft Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.4.5 Microsoft Recent Development12.5 Oracle12.5.1 Oracle Company Details12.5.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.5.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.5.4 Oracle Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.5.5 Oracle Recent Development12.6 SAP SE12.6.1 SAP SE Company Details12.6.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.6.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.6.4 SAP SE Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.6.5 SAP SE Recent Development12.7 Sybase12.7.1 Sybase Company Details12.7.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.7.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.7.4 Sybase Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.7.5 Sybase Recent Development12.8 Kony Solutions12.8.1 Kony Solutions Company Details12.8.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.8.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.8.4 Kony Solutions Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.8.5 Kony Solutions Recent Development12.9 Resco.net12.9.1 Resco.net Company Details12.9.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.9.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.9.4 Resco.net Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.9.5 Resco.net Recent Development12.10 Software AG12.10.1 Software AG Company Details12.10.2 Company Description and Business Overview12.10.3 Mobile Customer Relationship Management Introduction12.10.4 Software AG Revenue in Mobile Customer Relationship Management Business (2013-2018)12.10.5 Software AG Recent Development12.11 Repsly, IncContinued..For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comAbout UsWise 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 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.Contact Us:Norah Trent+91 841 198 5042Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaIf youre wondering where Fume Blanc fits into all of this, well, those wines are related but a world apart from the sauvignon blancs of the Loire Valley. Fume blanc is the name coined by Robert Mondavi for his wood-kissed California sauvignon blancs. Other New World sauvignon blanc producers have adopted the Fume Blanc name and wine style, and many of those are fine versions of sauvignon blanc. But they are related to Pouilly-Fume only in that they share a grape variety and a portion of their names. To further complicate things, sauvignon blanc grapes and the local wines made from them are sometimes referred to as Blanc Fume or Blanc Fume de Pouilly in the Loire Valley.Wearable Apps Market Segmentation 2017 Application and Major Key Players are Apple, Fitbit, Google, Samsung Electronics, Appster, DMI, Fuzz Productions, Intellectsoft, Intersog, LeewayHertz, PointClear Solutions....

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This Report by Worldwide Market Reports on Wearable Apps is a detailed analysis of the market providing you with the latest industry data and future market trends. The details and data in the report will allow you to identify three important factors in the market which are products, revenue, and growth profitability.In todays busy world, people want to track their daily activities to improve their lives. The wearable devices can be worn on the body as implant or accessories to use the wearable apps for various functionalities. Wearables are providing many services using IoT and Machine Learning technologies. Due to IoT, these devices can exchange data between the device and network. From physical fitness to fashion Industry, the use of wearable devices and wearable apps is increasing day by day leveraging wearable applications development services.Wearable technology today, has become as popular as smartphones, mobile apps, broadband, and computing.Request a Sample Copy:This report studies the Wearable Apps market, analyzes and researches the Wearable Apps development status and forecast inUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaThis report focuses on the top players in global market, likeApple, Fitbit, Google, Samsung Electronics, Appster, DMI, Fuzz Productions, Intellectsoft, Intersog, LeewayHertz, PointClear Solutions, Redmadrobot, Sourcebits, Touch Instinct, Worry Free LabsAsk for Discount:Market segment by Type, Wearable Apps can be split intoFitness appsIndustrial appsOnline transaction appsCustomization appsHealthcare appsMarket segment by Application, Wearable Apps can be split intoSmart watchesFitness bandsSmart glassesTable of ContentsWearable Apps Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Wearable Apps2 Wearable Apps Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Wearable Apps Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)5 United States Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook6 EU Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook8 China Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook9 India Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Wearable Apps Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)12 Wearable Apps Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors Analysis14 Research Finding/Conclusion15 AppendixElse place an Inquire before Purchase Wearable Apps Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022:If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Us:Worldwide Market Reports is your one-stop repository of detailed and in-depth market research reports compiled by an extensive list of publishers from across the globe. We offer reports across virtually all domains and an exhaustive list of sub-domains under the sun. The in-depth market analysis by some of the most vastly experienced analysts provide our diverse range of clients from across all industries with vital decision making insights to plan and align their market strategies in line with current market trends. Worldwide Market Researchs well-researched inputs that encompass domains ranging from IT to healthcare enable our prized clients to capitalize upon key growth opportunities and shield against credible threats prevalent in the market in the current scenario and those expected in the near future.Mr. ShahWorldwide Market ReportsTel: +1 415 871 0703Email:sales@worldwidemarketreports.com1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154,U.SGDI System Market Outlook with Company Profiles  Robert Bosch, Delphi, Stanadyne, Denso, Hitachi, Continental, Park-Ohio, Keihin, Renesas and Magneti Marelli

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Bigmarketresearch.com Adds a New GDI System Market 2013  2023 research report providing information and data by manufacturers, type, application, industry analysis, regional outlook, growth potential, price trends, competitive market share & forecast spreading across 137 pages with table and figures in it.This report focuses on the GDI System 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.Sensors market is estimated to show the fastest growth and is expected to dominate the GDI system market, by components.The worldwide market for GDI System 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 study.Request a Sample Copy of this Research Report:Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.) and Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa).Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Robert Bosch, Delphi, Stanadyne, Denso, Hitachi, Continental, Park-Ohio, Keihin, Renesas and Magneti Marelli.Get a Discount on this Research:Market Segment by Type, covers Fuel Injector, Engine Control Equipment, Sensor, Fuel Rail and Fuel Pump. Also, the market segment by applications, can be divided into Passenger Car and Commercial Vehicle.Related Report:Global Brake Override System Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023This report focuses on the Brake Override System 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.The worldwide market for Brake Override System 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 study.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Renault, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, BMW, Robert Bosch, Hyundai and Volvo.Read More:About Us:Big Market Research has a range of research reports from various publishers across the world. Our database of reports of various market categories and sub-categories would help to find the exact report you may be looking for.We are instrumental in providing quantitative and qualitative insights on your area of interest by bringing reports from various publishers at one place to save your time and money. A lot of organizations across the world are gaining profits and great benefits from information gained through reports sourced by us.Contact us:5933 NE Win Sivers Drive, #205, Portland,OR 97220 United StatesDirect: +1-971-202-1575Toll Free: +1-800-910-6452E-mail help@bigmarketresearch.comPower Transformer Market Brief Analysis by Top Key Players - GE, ABB, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Mitsubishi Electric, Hyosung, Toshiba Corp., Hyundai Electric, Daihen

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Global Power Transformer market report added by MarketstudyReport.com is one of the most comprehensive research studies on Power Transformer offering 1768 data tables, 16 figures, covering 15 companies and regional outlook for 34 countries on segments covered in this report.Ongoing expansion of utility aided transmission & distribution networks to sustain the growing energy demand across the globe will drive the power transformer market size. Rising investments to refurbish the existing grid infrastructure across developed regions further proliferate the product penetration. In addition, increasing demand for rural electrification coupled with favorable regulatory framework across emerging electricity market will further complement the business outlook. Power transformer market size will exceed USD 35 billion by 2024, as reported in the latest study report.Eminent participants in the power transformer market include GE, ABB, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Crompton Greaves, Mitsubishi Electric, Hyosung, Toshiba Corp., Hyundai Electric, Daihen, SPX Transformer, Celme, Kirloskar, and BHEL.Request a sample of this premium report at:China power transformer market is set to surpass 2,500 annual installation by 2024. Favorable government reforms subject to the establishment of a sustainable electricity infrastructure will positively influence the business growth. Rapid industrial expansion across the nation to cater volume manufacturing practices by industry participants will positively stimulate the product demand.Stringent energy efficiency compliance coupled with advancing smart transformer technologies will substantially augment the power transformer market growth. Ongoing auxiliary capacity addition across the globe with an aim to integrate a sustainable energy mix will boost the product penetration. Perpetual electrification programs subject to large scale renewable addition along with rapid expansion of utility based high tension electricity networks will further complement the industry outlook.The U.S. power transformer market will grow owing to ongoing investments toward refurbishment of existing electricity infrastructure. Expeditious expansion of infrastructure projects under the peninsula electrification program will fuel the product demand. In 2017, regulators across the U.S. proposed a funding worth USD 100 million to strengthen electricity infrastructure across the rail networks in California.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:Global shift towards energy conservation along with growing measures to provide safe and reliable electricity will foster the power transformer market. Energy efficiency measures coupled with briskly expanding smart-grid networks will further accelerate the product penetration. In 2017, in compliance to the smart grid agreement, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, and UK proposed investments worth USD 133.7 billion with an aim to sustain the rapid smart grid adoption across the region.Middle East & Africa power transformer market is set to witness sheer progression in line with ongoing deployment of decentralized generation units coupled with rapid expansion of micro-grid networks. Escalating infrastructural investments from institutions including the International Finance Corporation, and African Development Bank (ADB), across the region will positively impact the business landscape. In 2017, ADB declared investments over USD 12 billion to sustain the soaring electricity demand across Africa.Table of Content:Chapter 1. Power Transformer Market Methodology & ScopeChapter 2. Power Transformer Market Executive SummaryChapter 3. Power Transformer Industry InsightsChapter 4. Power Transformer Market, By CoreChapter 5. Power Transformer Market, By WindingChapter 6. Power Transformer Market, By InstallationChapter 7. Power Transformer Market, By CoolingChapter 8. Power Transformer Market, By InsulationChapter 9. Power Transformer Market, By PhaseChapter 10. Power Transformer Market, By RatingChapter 11. Power Transformer Market, By MountingChapter 12. Power Transformer Market, By ApplicationChapter 13. Power Transformer Market, By RegionChapter 14. Power Transformer Market Company ProfilesFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Report:United States Large Capacity Power Transformer Market Report 2018In this report, the United States Large Capacity Power Transformer market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.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:Blood Collection, Processing, Management Devices, and Consumables Market Key Players : Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson & Company, Haemonetics Corporation, Grifols International S.A., Immucor, Inc.

Blood Collection, Processing, Management Devices, and Consumables Market

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Blood collection, processing, management devices and consumables are medical devices used to collect whole blood from donors, and separate it into blood components such as RBC, WBC, platelets, and plasma. After collection and separation, blood is preserved for therapeutic purposes. These devices and consumables help to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases during transfusion.The growth of the blood collection, processing, management devices and consumables market is driven by increase in incidence of chronic diseases and emergence of advanced automated blood collection & processing devices. However, dearth of skilled professionals in handling the automated processing devices and high cost of blood handling devices impede the growth of the market. Rise in prevalence of lifestyle diseases and increase in government initiatives to develop innovative technologies are expected to provide lucrative opportunities for the market.The key players operating in the global blood collection, processing, management devices and consumables market include Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson & Company, Haemonetics Corporation, Grifols International S.A., Immucor, Inc., Danaher Corporation, Terumo Corporation, Sysmex Corporation, ThermoFisher Scientific Corporation, and Macopharma SA.Get Sample PDF Brochure :The global blood collection, processing, management devices and consumables market is segmented on the basis of application, product, end user, and region. Applications covered in the study include diagnostics, therapeutics, research, and others (transplantation compatibility tests and therapeutic drug effect monitoring).The diagnostics segment is further divided into infectious disease diagnosis, noninfectious disease diagnosis, blood typing, and others (doping, forensics and pregnancy tests). The therapeutics segment is subsegmented into hematology diseases, injury, trauma & surgeries, and oncology.By product, the market is classified into devices, consumables, software, and servicing. The devices segment is further divided into hematocrit centrifuges, blood grouping analyzers, blood coagulation analyzers, hematology analyzers, blood processors, blood warmers, blood bank refrigerators, blood bank freezers, slide stainer, and others. The consumable segment is subcategorized into blood administration sets, blood collection needles & syringes, blood collection tubes & microcollectors, blood lancets, blood filters, hematology reagents, blood bags, microscopic slides, vials, sedimentation tubes, blood grouping reagents, blood coagulation reagents, blood bags, blood filters, sedimentation tubes, hematology reagents, vials, and others. The software segment is further divided into hospital software and blood bank software.According to end user, the market is categorized into hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, academic & research laboratories, blood & blood component banks, ambulatory surgical center, and others (biopharma & biotech companies and clinics). Geographically, the market is analyzed across North America, Europe, AsiaPacific, and LAMEA.Key Benefits The study provides an in-depth analysis of the market with current trends and future estimations to elucidate the imminent investment pockets. It offers a quantitative analysis from 2017 to 2023, which is expected to enable the stakeholders to capitalize on prevailing market opportunities. Comprehensive analysis of all geographical regions is provided, which helps to determine the prevailing opportunities. Key players are profiled and their strategies are analyzed thoroughly, which help to understand the competitive outlook of the global market. Extensive analysis represents the use of blood collection, processing, management devices and consumables in the collection, separation, and preservation of blood for therapeutic purposes.Blood Collection, Processing, Management Devices, And Consumables Market Key Segment:By Application Diagnosticso Infectious Disease Diagnosiso Non-Infectious Disease Diagnosiso Blood Typingo Others (Doping, Forensics, and Pregnancy Tests) Therapeuticso Hematology Diseaseso Injuryo Trauma & Surgerieso Oncology Research Others (Transplantation Compatibility Tests and Therapeutic Drug Effect Monitoring)By Product Deviceso Hematocrit Centrifugeso Blood Grouping Analyzerso Blood Coagulation Analyzerso Hematology Analyzerso Blood Processors,o Blood Warmerso Blood Bank Refrigeratorso Blood Bank Freezerso Slide Stainero Others Consumableso Blood Administration Setso Blood Collection Needles & Syringeso Blood Collection Tubes & Microcollectorso Blood Lancetso Blood Filterso Hematology Reagentso Blood BagsAllied 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.David C5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Giving back to the land and sea  SeaTrek Sailing Adventures shows leadership and responsibility for the environment of Indonesia in myriad ways

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Munich/Bali, October 18, 2018: For the past 18 months, SeaTrek Sailing Adventures has been working with Bali-based non-profit organisation Kopernik, to provide and deliver clean energy technologies to remote communities across the Indonesian archipelago. Now, with this success in hand, the company continues to position itself as a dedicated conservation-oriented company.More than 30 years ago, SeaTrek pioneered small-scale expedition cruising in Indonesia with the dream of providing people with a unique opportunity to explore this beautiful remote part of the world by offering intimate adventure voyages. Ever since, social and environmental responsibility has been one of the core values to the company. Its cooperation with Kopernik in the providing of water filters and solar lamps has serious benefit to the lives of many people in the far-flung corners of the country.The company feels a strong responsibility for the oceans and communities of the archipelago and indeed this stewardship is at the very essence of its business. Knowing that plastic pollution is one of the biggest threats is just one example, and SeaTrek is actively taking steps to preserve the unique marine environment, which reveals astonishing natural wonders to employees and guests alike.The company has recently teamed up with Indigo V, an organisation that encourages citizen science through boat owners to drag for micro plastics and microscopic biota while being out on the ocean. The Ombak Putih, one of SeaTreks two traditional motor sailors, is now equipped with a sustainably powered auto-sampling device provided by Indigo V that will filter out micro plastics from the sea. Guests on board can participate by collecting the filtrate and see the effect that plastic has on the environment at first hand. As part of a world-wide programme, the collected data is sent to the headquarters of Indigo V and will help to identify the amount of plastic in the ocean as well as the footprint of the polluters.Furthermore, Frank Hyde, director of SeaTrek Sailing Adventures, is proud to announce that the company was recently accredited with three Starfish out of a possible five in WWFs Signing Blue programme, officially showing that the business is run according to the long-term health of communities and natural habitats on and around the waters of Indonesia.Apart from taking actions themselves, SeaTrek also provides various sponsorship opportunities for NGOs who care for the environment. For example, the company supports NGOs like Water1st International, U.S. Wildlife Trafficking Alliance and CREST (Center for Responsible Travel) by donating cabins for auction.They also take this commitment to the grass roots level by supporting local people who are protecting their environment at the simplest of levels; be it saving giant coconut crabs from hunters on remote islands or bringing tourists to see birds of paradise in their forests  these local heroes, are the embodiment of stewardship, showing that by protecting local resources and making wildlife worth more alive than dead, they can help provide employment and increased livelihood for themselves while at the same time preserving the wonderful bounty of nature that surrounds them.By providing these opportunities for their guests, SeaTrek hopes to create ambassadors for conservation, and a hope for a better more sustainable world.For detailed information on SeaTrek Sailing Adventures, please visitFor further information about the NGOs and companies mentioned in the press release, please visitAboard the UNESCO World Heritage wooden pinisi sailing ships of Indonesia, SeaTrek Sailing Adventures follow the historic trading routes and the trade winds to bring guests in comfort and style on engaging, high-content cruises to remote areas where they are unplugged and immersed in the cultural and natural wonders of the worlds longest and most biodiverse archipelago. From Bali to the far flung reaches of Papua, life on board their two traditional pinisi ships, is one of relaxation and comfort, with six and twelve cabins on the Katharina and Ombak Putih, respectively, guests enjoy fresh local and international cuisine, attentive service, and fine company mixed with plenty of adventure, culture, water sports, history, wildlife, culture and tropical exploration  and all combined with a strong commitment to conserving the natural environment, the local cultures, and the unique wildlife of Indonesia.Tourism UnlimitedJudith HoppePartnerSchmid-Wildy-Weg 4681739 MunichGermanyph: +49-89-673 78 619seatrekbali@tourism-unlimited.comSimultaneous Localization and Mapping Technology Market Forecasts By Key Industry Players: Fetch Robotics, NavVis, GeoSLAM Ltd, Omron Automation  Americas, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, KUKA AG, Clearpath Inc.

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Technology Market

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According to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc., Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Technology Market is projected to surpass USD 2 billion by 2024. The rapid technological developments, industrialization, and urbanization have resulted in a massive transformation in the business functioning. Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, AR, and other technologies have automated processes, leading to the establishment of new businesses.With an increased adoption of automation in various industries, there is a corresponding increase in the demand for advanced technologies, which had led to the acceptance of SLAM technology solutions. SLAM technology can replace the GPS navigation and tracking in certain applications, especially in indoor locations or big cities with an obstructed sky view. The technology takes precise measurements of the physical environment, accelerating the SLAM technology market growth.Request for a sample of this research report @The robot platform dominates the simultaneous localization and mapping technology market and held around 94.7% of the market share in 2017. These robots perform complex tasks that need navigation in dynamic and intricate indoor and outdoor surroundings without any human support. With the integration of SLAM technology, the robots have become technologically advanced, offering precise and flexible solutions, making them a preferred choice for a wide range of applications. These include military services, car production, space exploration, remote & invasive surgery, underwater exploration, fixing oil spills, investigating hazardous environments, and commercializing agriculture.Simultaneous localization and mapping technology market in autonomous vehicles segment is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate over the forecast period. Autonomous driving involves various critical tasks, such as navigation, planning, and collision avoidance, which cannot be fulfilled by sparse map representations. To obtain dense maps, SLAM technology has been used to produce highly accurate maps. Googles driverless cars employ the SLAM technology that uses roof-mounted LiDAR sensors for creating a 3D map of their surroundings. This is done by the system within 10 seconds as a quick response is necessary since the machine being tracked is moving with high speed and acceleration.The manufacturing and logistics segments in the simultaneous localization and mapping technology market are projected to grow at a CAGR of 72.8 percent over the forecast timespan. The integration of SLAM into an automatic guided vehicle within a manufacturing system assists in pick & place tasks, allowing the automated guided vehicle to pick and deliver products with the manufacturing system. Furthermore, extensive R&D activities are going on in this field to develop innovative SLAM-based manufacturing applications, enhancing its capability and functionality features.The commercial sector dominates the global simultaneous localization and mapping technology market with an industry revenue of USD 22.2 million in 2017 anticipated to reach USD 933.4 million by 2024. Various industries using the SLAM technology include healthcare, hospitality, construction, service, education, automotive, retail, and wholesale departments. The healthcare department requires image guidance systems for performing critical surgeries. These systems must be capable of displaying a detailed computer-based 3D visualization that enables the surgeon to rotate the 3D model on the computer for gaining an enhanced understanding of the location of the robot with respect to the anatomical target.Make an inquiry for buying this report @The Asia Pacific simultaneous localization and mapping technology market is anticipated to grow at the fastest rate due to the presence of a large number of electronics and automotive industries with low manufacturing cost units. The increasing demand for automation in various sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and agriculture and the rising aging population also contribute to the market growth.North America dominates the global simultaneous localization and mapping technology market with an industry share of 50.5% in 2017. The major factor contributing to the growth include the presence of several drone manufacturers in this region. Being home to some of the leading SLAM solution providers including Apple and Google, the region is presenting new growth prospects for advanced adoption of the SLAM technology. The companies functioning in this region are also involved in new product development strategies for expanding their presence in the highly lucrative market.Market expansion and new product developments are the main strategies adopted by the enterprises operating in the simultaneous localization and mapping technology market. The prominent companies functioning in the industry include Google, Facebook, Apple, Parrot SA, Kuka AG, Microsoft Corporation, SMP Robotics, Wikitude, GeoSLAM Ltd., Kudan, Clearpath Robotics, Inc., DIBOTICS, Aethon, Fetch Robotics, Ascending Technologies GmbH and NavVis.Browse key industry insights spread across 200 pages with 328 market data tables & 36 figures & charts from the report, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) Technology Market in detail along with the table of contents:About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact UsArun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Bug Tracking Software Global Market 2018 Top Key Players  Atlassian , IBM , JetBrains, Zoho Corporation, Airbrake, Axosoft and Forecast to 2023

Bug Tracking Software Market

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Global Bug Tracking Software MarketWiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Bug Tracking Software Market 2018 by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 New Document to its Studies Database. The Report Contain 148 Pages With Detailed Analysis.DescriptionA bug in computer technology is an error or fault in a computer program. It leads to unexpected and incorrect results in the outcome of the program. Bug tracking is the process of capturing, reporting, and managing data regarding bugs in a program or software. The software that is used for bug tracking is called a bug tracking software. It is mainly used by software testers and developers. One of the major factors that drive the global market growth of bug tracking software is the increased spending in software testing processes. Bug tracking software is an integral part of the software testing process. Hence, increased activities in the testing market will also stimulate growth in the global bug tracking software market.Scope of the Report:This report studies the Bug Tracking Software 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 Bug Tracking Software market by product type and applications/end industries.Get sample Report @This market research analysis identifies the advantages associated with the use of bug tracking software as one of the key factors in the global bug tracking software market. Efficient tracking of bug allows the companies to maintain a record of the bugs that frequently arise and further makes it easier to resolve the recurring issue. Moreover, these records also help the software developers to focus only on the critical issues and can reduce the intensity of the bug, before it turns into a malicious threat. Since most of the bug tracking software are open source, the software can be seamlessly installed and upgraded. These advantages associated with the software will further propel the growth of the market.North America, is a key market due to the rise in investments in software testing activities in the U.S. and Canada. A large concentration of software testing companies is also spurring the market in the continent.The global Bug Tracking Software 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 Bug Tracking Software.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 coversAtlassianIBMJetBrainsZoho CorporationAirbrakeAxosoftBontqBugsnagbugzilla.org contributorsCountersoftDoneDoneFog Creek SoftwareInflectra CorporationMantisBT TeamOverOpsRaygunRollbarSentrySifterMarket 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, coversCloudOn-PremiseMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoBanking, Financial Services, and InsuranceTelecommunicationMediaInformation TechnologyRetailOthersComplete Report Details @Table of Contents -Major Key Points1 Bug Tracking Software Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Bug Tracking Software1.2 Classification of Bug Tracking Software by Types1.2.1 Global Bug Tracking Software Revenue Comparison by Types (2017-2023)1.2.2 Global Bug Tracking Software Revenue Market Share by Types in 20171.2.3 Cloud1.2.4 On-Premise1.3 Global Bug Tracking Software Market by Application1.3.1 Global Bug Tracking Software Market Size and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023)1.3.2 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance1.3.3 Telecommunication1.3.4 Media1.3.5 Information Technology1.3.6 Retail1.3.7 Others1.4 Global Bug Tracking Software Market by Regions1.4.1 Global Bug Tracking Software Market Size (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2023)1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico) Bug Tracking Software Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy) Bug Tracking Software Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia) Bug Tracking Software Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia) Bug Tracking Software Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.5 Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa) Bug Tracking Software Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.5 Global Market Size of Bug Tracking Software (2013-2023)2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Atlassian2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Bug Tracking Software Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Product A2.1.2.2 Product B2.1.3 Atlassian Bug Tracking Software Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 IBM2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Bug Tracking Software Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Product A2.2.2.2 Product B2.2.3 IBM Bug Tracking Software Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 JetBrains2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Bug Tracking Software Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Product A2.3.2.2 Product B2.3.3 JetBrains Bug Tracking Software Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Zoho Corporation2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Bug Tracking Software Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Product A2.4.2.2 Product B2.4.3 Zoho Corporation Bug Tracking Software Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Airbrake2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Bug Tracking Software Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Product A2.5.2.2 Product B2.5.3 Airbrake Bug Tracking Software 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)Furniture Lacquer Market Key Players : AkzoNobel N.V., Hempel A/S, Nippon Paint Co. Ltd., PPG Industries, Kansai Paints Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Company, BASF SE, Axalta Coating Systems, Diamond Paints, RPM International Inc.

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Lacquers are clear or colored coatings that provide glossy finish to furniture and fixture surfaces. They are available with many different sheen levels, ranging from high gloss to ultra-matte. It offers extremely hard finishes, and is highly resistant to damage, particularly from acid, alkali, water, and abrasions.It is dispersed in solvent, which evaporates quickly by curing process leaving a hard, durable finish on the furniture. Solvent-based lacquer such as nitrocellulose lacquer cures slow, which makes the finishing process, touch-up, or repair easier and more controllable. It is produced from the nitration of cotton and other cellulosic materials, which produce high shine, providing hard, flexible, and durable finish. Acrylic lacquer provides enhanced adhesion to metals, and has high resistance to UV ray and water.Furniture Lacquer Market Key Players are AkzoNobel N.V., Hempel A/S, Nippon Paint Co. Ltd., PPG Industries, Kansai Paints Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Company, BASF SE, Axalta Coating Systems, Diamond Paints, RPM International Inc.Get Sample PDF Brochure :The advantage of acrylic lacquer over nitrocellulose lacquer is its significantly rapid drying time. Increase in environmental- and health-related risks have led to the development of water-based lacquers. It is extensively used in wood furniture finishing, but does have combustibility issues as that of solvent-based lacquers.Rise in disposable income and change in lifestyle patterns in emerging countries, such as China, India, Brazil, Middle East, and Africa, have fueled the demand for building renovation & remodeling, which drive the growth of the global furniture lacquer market. Moreover, growth in population in these countries is expected to boost the demand for housing and commercial infrastructure.Rise in preference for eco-friendly, nontoxic products and increase in environmental awareness among the consumers have supplemented the demand for water-based furniture lacquer. However, solvent-based furniture lacquer is witnessing a downturn, owing to stringent government regulations and environmental policies due to presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).The global furniture lacquer market is segmented based on type, application, and geography. On the basis of type, the market is bifurcated into solvent-based lacquers and water-based lacquers. The solvent-based lacquers segment is further divided into nitrocellulose lacquer and acrylic lacquer. Application covered on the study include wood furniture and metal furniture. The report analyzes the market trends in different geographies, which include North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.Key Benefits The report provides an in-depth analysis of the current trends, drivers, and dynamics of the global essential furniture lacquer market to elucidate the prevailing opportunities and potential investment pockets. It offers qualitative trends as well as quantitative analysis for the period of 20162023 to assist stakeholders to understand the market scenario. In-depth analysis of the key segments demonstrates various type of furniture lacquer. Competitive intelligence of the industry highlights the business practices followed by key players across geographies as well as the prevailing market opportunities. The key players in the market are profiled along with their strategies and developments to understand the competitive outlook of the industry.Furniture Lacquer Market Segmentation:By Type Solvent Basedo Nitrocellulose Lacquerso Acrylic Lacquers Water BasedBy Application Wood Furniture Metal FurnitureAllied 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.David C5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Security Paper Market Competitiveness | Top Key Players are Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, Ciotola S.R.L., Document Security Systems, Inc., EPL House for Security Printing, Security Paper Limited

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Security paper is a paper which constitutes features that help qualify and identify a document as authentic or original. The use of security paper exemplifies the importance of a document and helps in distinguishing between authentic and counterfeit documents. It is widely used for printing currency, legal, and government documents.Counterfeiting of documents and currency has augmented over the recent past, resulting in major losses being incurred by companies, governments and individuals. This has increased the demand for the development of various security features, with security paper as the most significant. However, growing digitization in the developed markets emerging economies, which ensures expeditious authenticity of documents, is a major challenge faced by the security paper market.Download PDF Brochure @Security Paper Market OutlookAsia Pacific is the largest market for security paper, as the largely populated countries India and China are present here. The use of security paper across all applications is swiftly increasing in these countries, with currency printing being the largest application. With increasing population and strong economic growth, the security paper industry in Asia Pacific, is expected to flourish over the forecast period. North America is the second largest market for security paper. The US dollar is the worlds most used reserve currency and the most traded currency in the foreign exchange market.Europe is a shrinking market for security paper due to increased digitization in both, government and private dealings. Moreover, use of plastic currency i.e. credit and debit cards has reduced demand for paper currency. Sweden is poised to become the first country to shift to completely digitized currency system.Africa is estimated to be the significant market of security paper, as low income groups tend to use paper currency due to lack of bank accounts and stable income sources. The Middle East, despite having high public digital penetration lags in business and the surge in digitized government affairs is projected to negatively impact the security paper industry.Latin America is witnessing slow growth due to political and social instability in many countries. This has resulted in an economic slowdown in the region, hindering growth of the security paper industry as well.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.commHealth Market to 2025 | Top Key Players are Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, athenahealth, Inc., Honeywell Life Care Solutions, Cisco Systems, Inc., OMRON Corporation, Masimo, AgaMatrix,

mHealth Market to 2025

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The mhealth market is estimated to account for US$ 246,820.4 Mn by the end of 2025, escalating at a CAGR of 31.3% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2025, rising from US$ 22,722.1 Mn in 2017.Get Sample Copy of this Report at:The increasing acceptance of mobile health expected to propel the growth of the mhealth market in the forecast period. The mobile health is the most advanced and exciting development which is developed to widely distribute the medical information or health data to patients, in a timely manner. The ongoing progression of wireless communications technology with doubtless help bring the mHealth initiatives to maturity in the forecast period. Additionally, the other applications of mhealth including emergency response systems, patient safety systems and health extension services are the emerging trends that help to boost the demand for mhealth services.Leading mHealth Market Players:1. LifeWatch2. KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V.3. Medtronic4. Boston Scientific Corporation5. athenahealth, Inc.6. Honeywell Life Care Solutions7. Cisco Systems, Inc.8. OMRON Corporation9. Masimo10. AgaMatrix, IncmHealth is referred to the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, personal digital assistants and other wireless infrastructure. mHealth allows the education and awareness, remote monitoring, diagnostic and treatment support and other services.Inquire about this Report at:The global mhealth market is a mature market which is segmented on the basis of services, devices end user. Based on services, the market is classified as remote monitoring services, diagnosis services, treatment services, health support services, fitness & wellness services and others. By devices, the mhealth market is segmented into insulin pump, BP monitor, glucose monitor, personal pulse oximeters and others. On the basis of end user segment, the market is classified as mobile operators, devices vendors, health providers and othersThe object of developing mhealth services is to support the long-distance clinical health care, patient & professional health-related education, public health and health administration, the wireless and electronic information and telecommunications technologies are developed. These advanced and innovative technologies known as mhealth that include live video-conferencing, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, mobile health, terrestrial & wireless communications and the internet.The major players operating in the market of mhealth market include LifeWatch, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS N.V., Medtronic, Boston Scientific Corporation, athenahealth, Inc., Honeywell Life Care Solutions, Cisco Systems, Inc., OMRON Corporation, Masimo, AgaMatrix, Inc. and among others.Ask For Discount at:TABLE OF CONTENTS1. GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET  INTRODUCTION 161.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 161.2 THE INSIGHT PARTNERS RESEARCH REPORT GUIDANCE 162. GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET  KEY TAKEAWAYS 183. GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET  MARKET LANDSCAPE 213.1 OVERVIEW 213.2 MARKET SEGMENTATION 213.2.1 Global mHealth Market  By Services 223.2.2 Global mHealth Market  By Devices 223.2.3 Global mHealth Market  By End User 233.2.4 Global mHealth Market  By Geography 233.3 PEST ANALYSIS 243.3.1 North America  PEST Analysis 243.3.2 Europe  PEST Analysis 263.3.3 Asia Pacific  PEST Analysis 283.3.4 Middle East & Africa  PEST Analysis 303.3.5 South & Central America  PEST Analysis 324. GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET  KEY MARKET DYNAMICS 344.1 KEY MARKET DRIVERS 344.1.1 Increasing Adoption of Smartphones & Other Mobile Platforms 344.1.2 mAgeing Program By WHO 344.1.3 The EU mHealth Hub Project 344.2 KEY MARKET RESTRAINTS 354.2.1 Policies and Regulations for mHealth 354.2.2 Rising Data Security 354.3 KEY MARKET OPPORTUNITIES 354.3.1 mHealth in Low- and Middle-Income Countries 354.4 FUTURE TRENDS 364.4.1 Increasing Acceptance of Mobile Health Technology 364.5 IMPACT ANALYSIS 365. MHEALTH MARKET  GLOBAL ANALYSIS 375.1 GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET REVENUE FORECASTS AND ANALYSIS 375.2 GLOBAL MHEALTH MARKET, BY GEOGRAPHY - FORECASTS AND ANALYSIS 38Reason to Buy:- Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the global mHealth 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 mHealth Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Buying this Customized Report at:About Us:The Insight Partners is a one top 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The Chicago native, whose legal name is Keith Cozart, was arrested in June 2017 at the Sioux Falls airport when drugs were found in his carry-on bag after he performed at the University of Sioux Falls. He later pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges for possessing marijuana, edibles and drug paraphernalia.Contactless Payment Transaction Market Overview, Share, SWOT Analysis, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 | Apple Inc., Barclays, Gemalto N.V., Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Heartland Payment Systems, Inc.

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Contactless Payment Transaction Market: OverviewThis report on the global contactless payment transaction market provides analysis for the period 20152025, wherein 2016 is the base year and the period from 2017 to 2025 is the forecast period. Data for 2015 has been included as historical information. The report covers market dynamics including drivers, restraints opportunities, and trends expected to influence the global contactless payment transaction market growth during the said period. Mode of payments that are playing a major role in the driving the global contactless payment transaction market have also been covered in the study.The study provides a comprehensive analysis on market growth throughout the above forecast period in terms of revenue estimates (in US$ Bn), across different geographies. Contactless payment is a safe and sound method for consumers to buying products or services through credit card, debit card, contactless card (NFC/RFID), contactless wearable devices, and contactless mobile payment, by using NFC or RFID technology. Furthermore, in contactless payment consumer needs to tap their purchasing card near a sales desk which is known as tap-and-go also it does not require a PIN or signature.Request to Get Sample Copy of This Report @Contactless Payment Transaction Market: SegmentationThe contactless payment transaction market has been segmented on the basis of mode of payment and end-use. Based on mode of payment, the market has been further classified into Contactless Card (NFC/RFID), Wearable Devices, Contactless Mobile Payment. By end-use, the market is further classified into Hospitality, Transport, Media & Entertainment, Retail, Healthcare, Others.Geographically, the report classifies the global contactless payment transaction market into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America; the regions are analyzed in terms of revenue generation. Furthermore, the study also includes quantitative analysis of the competitive scenario for region wise prominent countries which covered in the report include the following - the U.S, Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Poland, Sweden, China, India, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and Argentina. The market size and forecast for each region has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the CAGR (%) for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025.Contactless Payment Transaction Market: Scope of the ReportThe report also includes key industry developments in the contactless payment transaction market. Porter Five Force analysis is also included in the report. Ecosystem Analysis which identifies the process of distribution of the product in the contactless payments services is also covered in the report. The report also covers segment wise, market attractiveness analysis and market positioning analysis for all regions covered in the scope of study.This report shows market attractiveness analysis for all the segments and for all the regions in the scope of study which identifies and compares segments market attractiveness on the basis of CAGR and market share index.Request to Get Complete Report List Of Tables and Figures @Contactless Payment Transaction Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report also includes competition landscape which include competition matrix, market position analysis of major players in the global contactless payment based on their 2016 revenues, profiling of major players (Contactless Card (NFC/RFID), Wearable Devices, and Contactless Mobile Payment providers). Competition matrix benchmarks leading players on the basis of their capabilities and potential to grow. Factors including market position, offerings and R&D focus are attributed to companys capabilities. Factors including top line growth, market share, segment growth, infrastructure facilities and future outlook are attributed to companys potential to grow. This section also identifies and includes various recent developments carried out by the leading players.Company profiling includes company overview, major business strategies adopted, SWOT analysis and market revenues for past years. The key players profiled in the global contactless payment transaction market include Apple Inc., Barclays, Gemalto N.V., Giesecke & Devrient GmbH, Heartland Payment Systems, Inc., Ingenico Group, Inside Secure, On Track Innovations LTD, Samsung Electronics Ltd., Verifone Systems, Inc., and Wirecard AG.The global contactless payment transaction market is segmented as below:Global Contactless Payment Transaction Market, By Mode of PaymentContactless Card (NFC/RFID)Wearable DevicesContactless Mobile PaymentGlobal Contactless Payment Transaction Market, By End-UseHospitalityTransportMedia & EntertainmentRetailHealthcareOthersGlobal Contactless Payment Transaction Market, By GeographyNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaRest of North AmericaEuropeThe U.K.GermanyPolandSwedenFranceRest of EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)IndiaChinaJapanAustraliaSouth KoreaTaiwanSingaporeRest of Asia PacificMiddle East and Africa (MEA)UAETurkeySaudi ArabiaSouth AfricaRest of MEASouth AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaBuy This Premium Report From here @MarketResearchReports.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Global Bio Polymers Industry Promising Growth Factors Analyzed by :- BASF SE (Europe), Braskem S.A (UK), Biome Technologies , Plantic Technologies Limited , Bio-on S.p.A

Bio Polymers industry , Bio Polymers Market

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Global Bio Polymers Market Information- by Type (Bio-PE, Bio-PET, Poly lactic acid (PLA), Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), Biodegradable polyesters, and Others), by Application (Films, Bottles, Bottles, Fibers, Seed Coating, Vehicle Components, Medical Implants, and Others), by End Use Industry(Packaging, Agriculture, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Construction, and Others) and by Region - Forecast till 2023Synopsis of Bio polymers MarketThe Global Bio polymers is expected to witness a significant growth of USD ~ 6.37 billion by 2023 with CAGR of ~12.05 % between 2016 and 2023Biopolymers are polymers which is produced from biomass, and also bio-degrade with the action of heat, micro-organisms, and moisture. Biopolymers can be made by left-over starch from a crop that has been grown for foodstuffs. Increased use of bio-polymers would reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, another benefit is that biopolymers are easily bio-degradable. Bio polymers plastics, such as biobased PE and biobased PET, are the main drivers of global biopolymers market growth. More than 65% of the bioplastics production capacity worldwide in 2016 was biobased, long-lasting plastics.Key Players:-Key players of the global bio polymers market are BASF SE (Europe), Braskem S.A (UK), Biome Technologies Plc (UK), Plantic Technologies Limited (Austrelia), Bio-on S.p.A. (Europe), Novamont S.P.A (Europe), Toray Industries Inc (Japan), Tianjin GreenBio Materials Co., Ltd (Japan), Danimer Scientific (US), Rodenburg Biopolymers (US), and OthersGet Report Sample @Bio polymers has found in various applications such as films, bottles, fibers, seed coating, vehicle components, medical implants, and others. Increasing in demand of packaging industry is likely to drive the bio polymers market growth. The growing packaging and construction industry on account of developing domestic as well as commercial market particularly in Asia-Pacific and North America has boosted the global bio polymers market over the forecasted period.Regional AnalysisAsia Pacific is the largest market of bio polymers in terms of production especially in China region. The Second largest market in terms of production is Europe followed by North America. In terms of consumption global bio polymers market is led by Europe region due to demand in various applications such as packaging and pharmaceutical industry. Second position is held by APAC region and the third largest market of bio polymers is North America. Latin America and Middle East also witnessed in growth of bio polymers market due to various application such as films, bottles, bottles, fibers, seed coating, vehicle components, medical implants, and others.SegmentationThe global bio polymers market is majorly segmented on the basis of types, application, end users and region. Based on types bio polymers the market is segmented into bio- polyethylene (PE), bio- polyethylene terephthalate (PET), poly lactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), biodegradable polyesters, and others (regenerated cellulose, starch blends). Based on application of bio polymers the market is segmented into films, bottles, bottles, fibers, seed coating, vehicle components, medical implants, and others (printed circuit boards, audio devices, fuel and exhaust system). Based on end user the market segmented into packaging, agriculture, automotive, pharmaceutical, construction, and others (electronics, personal care, sports), and based on region market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, Middle East & Africa.Browse Full Report Details @Geographic Analysis:-The report covers brief analysis of geographical region such as:North AmericaUSCanadaEuropeGermanyFranceItalyNetherlandsU.K.Rest of EuropeAPACChinaIndiaJapanRest of Asia-PacificRoWSouth AmericaMiddle EastAfricaThe report about Global Bio Polymers Market by Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with detail analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts and key opinion leaders to gain a deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of the current market scenario which includes past and estimated future market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report further provides detail information about strategies used by top key players in the industry. It also gives a broad study about different market segments and regions.Study Objectives of Bio Polymers Market:To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 7 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global Bio Polymers MarketTo understand the supply and demand dynamics including supply and consumption concentration mappingTo provide region level market analysis and future outlook for North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW) and their countriesTo provide competitor positioning of the marketTo provide company profiling of major players in the market along with their production and capacityTo provide regional trade analysisTo evaluate historical market trends, patents and technologies, and current government regulatory requirements that are relevant to the marketIntended AudienceBio Polymers manufacturersTraders and distributors of Bio PolymersProduction Process industriesPotential investorsRaw material suppliersNationalized laboratoryAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSilicone Gel Market  Revolutionary Trends 2025| KCC Corporation, ACC Silicones Ltd

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Global Silicone Gel Market: SnapshotThe global silicone gel market has welcomed several new application avenues in the last few years thanks to its versatility of use. Silicone gel is now commonly used in several modern medical devices, electronic goods, lubricants, and, most importantly, cosmetics. The steady growth of numerous end use sectors has been the key driver for the global silicone gel market, as sectors such as cosmetics, electronics, and medical devices are likely to remain leading consumers in the global silicone gel market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Asia Pacific is likely to be a key region for the global silicone gel market in the coming years. Countries in the region, including China, India, and Japan, have been leading pioneers in the solar energy sector in Asia Pacific, which has been a major factor in driving the Asia Pacific silicone gel market. The abundant availability of sunlight in the subtropical region has led to the solar power sector receiving significant government support throughout Asia Pacific, while the rising geopolitical complexities in the region have also heated up the alternative energy scenario, as power constitutes a key part of the economic dynamics in the region.The medical devices sector in rising Asia Pacific countries has been subject to significant investment in the last few years from government agencies as well as private investors keen to enter the increasingly lucrative healthcare market in Asia Pacific. Rising private investment in the healthcare sector in ASEAN countries is likely to remain a key driver for the Asia Pacific silicone gel market in the coming years. The rising standard of care in emerging economies has also enabled growth of the geriatric demographic in Asia Pacific, leading to further growth of the silicone gel market.Global Silicone Gel Market: OverviewThe increasing use of prosthetics and implants in the medical application segment is expected to boost the market for silicone gel, according to new findings. Silicone gel is characterized by resinous, rubbery, and fluid texture. It is water-repellent. It is chiefly used in the manufacturing of lubricants, adhesives, hydraulic oils, electrical insulation, and cosmetics.Request TOC of the Report @The report discusses the key market opportunities, trends, growth drivers and restraints. Key market segments have been analyzed in detail along with statistical data and figures. The supply-demand dynamics, market size, and market projections have been discussed in the report. The major players in the market for silicone gel have been discussed in terms of their business strategies, product analysis, and market shares.Global Silicone Gel Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe silicone gel market will grow to a great extent on account of new applications. Some of these applications are chemistry, LED lighting, cosmetics and personal care, photovoltaic sectors, automotive electronics, aerospace and defense, comfort pads, agriculture, pharmaceutical industries, footwear and medical industries. The rapidly expanding electrical & electronics industry will boost the demand for silicone gel. Silicone gel has some primary properties such as high dielectric breakdown, hydrophobicity, and resistance for humidity, water, and high and low temperatures. It is also easy to use. As these properties are of great benefit to the electrical & electronics industry, it has been demanding silicone gel increasingly. Therefore, the market for silicone gel will rise at a considerable pace.On the other hand, the high costs of silicone gel in terms of manufacturing and unstable prices of raw materials have been key market restraints. However, extensive opportunities are to be found in the medical sector, as the geriatric population increases on a global scale.The medical application segment is projected to expand at a substantial rate due to the usage of silicone gel in medical implants. Apart from medical applications, silicone gel will gain prominence on account of the growth of LED lighting industry. Silicone gel plays an important role in the protection of the diode, along with improving light transmission. Moreover, it can also be used as a packaging material to cover and protect ready-to-ship lighting or display units.Global Silicone Gel Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and MEA can be the key market segments. The region of Asia Pacific is expected to grow at a phenomenal rate over the coming years, with a promising CAGR, on account of the high demand displayed by end-user industries in the region.China is likely to emerge as be the most prominent regional segment in Asia Pacific. Latin America and MEA will exhibit a sluggish rate of growth, whereas Europe will display decreased demand for silicone on account of vast stakes at risk. However, countries such as Japan, India, South Korea, and China have been exhibiting increased usage in their photovoltaic sector, boosting growth. Popularity of low-cost, small, and advanced electronics components in these countries is also expected to fuel the market for silicone gel, apart from the factors such as increased healthcare expenditure, rising disposable incomes of people, and rapid infrastructural development.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Companies Mentioned in the ReportSome of the key players operating in the global market for silicone gel are North Coast Medical Inc., DOW Corning Corporation, Applied Silicone Corporation, KCC Corporation, and ACC Silicones Ltd. One of the key developments in the competitive scenario is that ACC Silicones has announced that currently it will supply silicone gel only for short term out-of-body exposure, and not inside-the-body applications such as breast implants.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends. Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal Tax Software Market 2026| Industry Leading Players - ADP LLC, Blucora, Inc., Chetu, Inc., Intuit Inc., Drake Software.,Thomson Reuters Corporation, Vertex, Inc., Wolters Kluwer N.V., Xero Limited, Sage, Avalara

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Market Research Report Search Engine (MRRSE) recently announced the addition of a new research study to its comprehensive collection of research reports. The research report, titled Tax Software Market  Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2018  2026 offers a detailed analysis of the market, providing insights into the market dynamics that are expected to influence the overall market positively in the next few years. Furthermore, the product segmentation, drivers, barriers, key geographical segments, and the competitive scenario of the Global Tax Software Market have been elaborated upon in the research report.Download Exclusive PDF Sample on Tax Software Market Report @Technological inventions in electronic equipment have increased at a fast pace. Tax management systems are one such innovation that play a vital role in banking, government, telecom, retail, etc. Tax software is designed to help companies or individuals in ensuring tax compliance for corporate tax, income tax, VAT, customs, sales tax, service tax, and similar tax users may require to pay. Tax software simplifies the process of filing tax through tax forms and also automatically calculates a company's or individuals tax compulsions/obligations. The objective of this software is to provide the user with a simplified solution to calculate tax payment and minimize any associated human error.Tax software offers numerous opportunities for countries that intend to invest in developing new technological features in various industries. Vendors are popularizing the use of tax software due to their advanced features providing electronic accounting solutions, handling financial data, automation of business critical applications, reduced execution risk by reducing operating costs, improving management, visibility, and increased productivity.Key drivers of the tax software market are increase in the penetration of tax software, rise in investments in digital solutions, and adoption of electronic accounting. Demand for tax software is increasing exponentially due to the advanced features offered by these solutions. Vendors across regions are investing in the development of advanced technology to provide tax management solutions. For instance, banks and insurance companies are most heavily hit by identity theft and lose billions of dollars each year as a result. Therefore, the banking sector is adopting tax software in order to avoid losses. Tax software are anticipated to revolutionize many sectors of the economy, including business, healthcare, social networks, and transportation. However, a major restraint faced by the market is security and networking issues for cloud applications. The market presents an opportunity for vendors across China, Germany, India, and the U.K. to develop new tax software.Gain Full Access of Tax Software Market Report along with complete TOC @The tax software market can be segmented based on component, tax type, software deployment type, end-user, industry, and geography. Based on component, the market can be segmented into tax software and services. Furthermore, the tax software is sub-segmented as standalone and integrated whereas services is sub-segmented as managed and professional. On the basis of tax type, the market is categorized as sales tax, income tax, and others such as VAT, service tax, and estate tax. In terms of software deployment,the market is segmented into cloud and on premise. In terms of end-user,the market is classified into individuals and commercial enterprises, wherein commercial enterprises is further classified into large, and small and medium (SMEs) enterprises. Based on industry, the market is classified into banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), government, healthcare, retail, IT & telecom, manufacturing, transportation, energy and utilities, etc.In terms of region, the tax software market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is projected to dominate the tax software market due to the presence of strong players in the U.S. and spending by the U.S. government for the provision of tax management systems in various public and private organizations. The market in Asia Pacific and Europe is likely to present strong growth opportunities during the forecast period,due to a rise in investments in the taxation industry and business expansion of vendors across the region.The research study includes profiles of leading companies operating in the global tax software market. Some of the key players profiled in the market include ADP LLC., Blucora, Inc., Chetu, Inc., Intuit Inc., Drake Software.,Thomson Reuters Corporation, Vertex, Inc., Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Kluwer Publishers and Wolters Samsom), Xero Limited, Sage, and Avalara.Have any Query? Ask to Our Expert @About (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207(United States) Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:UN International Day of Non-Violence 2018 Mahatma Gandhi 150 Jayanti Shastri Birthday Swachh Bharat Combo Celebrations at JMA Pilani

UN International Day of Non-Violence 2018 Mahatma Gandhi 150 Jayanti Shastri Birthday Swachh Bharat Celebrations at JMA Pilani

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Who else but the Mahatma could have said "Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man." The very same Mahatma Gandhi in his book The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1927 also had said There are many causes I would die for. There is not a single cause I would kill for."The UN International Day of Non-Violence is marked on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. The day also marks the birth anniversary of Lal Bahadur Shastri who as Prime Minister led the country during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965 and gave the slogan of "Jai Jawan Jai Kisan" which became very popular and is remembered even today.Established in 2004, Smt Jamuna Mishra Academy - JMA Pilani which has a rich tradition of observing various days of national and international importance organized a colorful combo celebration on 02 Oct 2018 to mark the International Day of Non-Violence Gandhi  Shastri Jayanti and Swaach Bharat Abhiyan.Afer Principal Mrs Booma gave an overview of the significance of the day, student Arvind spoke on Gandhi while Ronaq spoke on Lal Bahadur Shastri. Many students from junior section who had come dressed up like Gandhi and Shastri were cheered by the entire audience. The celebrations included several patriotic songs and favorite bhajans of Mahatma Gandhi such as Vaisnav jan to and Raghupathi Raghav Rajaram. Following the Gandhi  Shastri Jayanti, students carried out cleaning up activities of the school and surroundings.Principal Mrs Booma Natarajan thanked the team of teachers for the excellent organization of the proceedings and urged the students to make Swachh Bharat as not a once in a year activity for photo finish operations but as a daily mission with passion.For more details about JMA Pilani seeAbout JMA Pilani: Smt. Jamuna Mishra Academy (JMA) established in the year 2004 is presently one of the most sought after schools at Pilani considered as Oasis in the desert state of Rajasthan well known in India today for top ranking institutions like BITS Pilani University as well as CSIR Laboratory CEERI and globally renowned Birla Science Museum. JMA Pilani is a Co-educational English Medium School with Experienced Teachers, Spacious Classrooms and Modern Amenities designed to impart Quality Education combined with All Round Personality Development and lay the Best Foundation for the Childs Future. While the school admits both boys and girls, the girl student enrollment has been steadily rising every year and is presently nearly 50% of the total strength. The school has boys NCC, girls band which has been winning laurels every year too. Yoga and Fine arts are not just part of school routine but a way of life for the students.Mrs Booma Natarajan, M.Sc., M.A., B.Ed.Principal, Jamuna Mishra Academy  JMANear Old Pilani Post OfficePilani Rajasthan 333031 IndiaPhone 91-1596-242314Email booma_pilani at yahoo.co.inWebsite:Facebook:Hypotension Treatment Market 2023 Top Key Players are A & D medical, Schiller AG, American Diagnostic Corporation, Spacelabs Healthcare, and OMRON Corporation

Hypotension Treatment Market

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Market Research Future has as of late communicated another investigation to its wide research portfolio, which is titled as Hypotension Treatment Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2023" gives an inside and out examination the gauge of market size and development.Market Overview:Hypotension refers to very low blood pressure and affects people across all age groups. Blood pressure is the force exerted by human blood against the artery walls, while blood is pumped out by the heart. Hypotension is normally characterized by a diastolic pressure that is lower than 60mm Hg. A systolic pressure lower than 90 mm Hg is also typically symptomatic of hypotension.Get Premium Sample Copy @Global Key Players:Worldwide Hypotension Treatment Market include A & D medical, Schiller AG, American Diagnostic Corporation, Spacelabs Healthcare, and OMRON Corporation. They engage in product & therapeutic developments to generate higher sales & maintain an edge over the others.The global hypotension market is propelled by hypotension incidences, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and other health issues. When patients suffer from low blood pressure or hypotension, they may feel dizziness while standing up after sitting for long periods of time. This is why, many of them are advised to not rise suddenly and take support/more time to stand up without any discomfort.Hypotension can also result from dehydration, nervous disorders, and endocrine issues. The geriatric population is quite susceptible to suffering from low blood pressure, boosting the rates of hospitalization and driving the industry. Apart from the elderly population, postpartum mothers and teenagers are also affected by hypotension. Rising population contributes to stress and lifestyle illnesses, leading to the demand for advanced treatments.In addition to the above factors, the advent of novel participants (companies investing in hypotension treatments) and wider technological adoption should drive market growth. With the industry predicted to experience decent expansion over the forecast period, the side-effects of hypotension medicines can prevent further growth.Considering the side-effects, many patients resort to alternative treatments and exercises. Patients need to assess whether they can tolerate the harmful effects of these medicines and decide for themselves. Every patient is different and what is suitable for someone may not be ideal for others. That said, exercising conveniently & regularly under the doctors guidance could yield very good results.Get Standard Discount @Some of the other propellers of the hypotension treatment market are the need for cardiovascular devices and poor eating habits. On the other hand, what has restricted the industry from progressing more is the lack of proficient medical professionals. Also, huge expenditures in the detection & management of cardiovascular disorders hamper the industry.The World Health Organization (WHO) states that approximately 59 percent of the overall mortality rates stem from chronic illnesses globally. The prevalence of diabetes and cardiac disorders is adding more burden on developed & emerging regions. The targeted audiences of the hypotension treatment industry comprise research laboratories, manufacturers, research & development firms, potential spenders, and market research & consultation services.Categorization/Segmentation:The worldwide market is divided on account of indications, products, end-users, and regions. Coronary heart diseases, hypotension, and others constitute the indications. The products consist of blood pressure transducers, sphygmomanometers, blood pressure devices, etc. By end users, the industry is fragmented on the basis of diagnostic centers, homecare, hospitals & clinics, and others. According to regions, the global hypotension treatment market is divided further into Europe, Americas, the Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific.Regional Analysis:Americas has generated the largest shares and its diabetic & cardiovascular incidences have accounted for the same. Europe is the second biggest market and driven by larger medical expenses & patient groups. Asia Pacific is projected to witness the fastest expansion till 2023. The Middle East & Africa would grow stably owing to its need for therapeutic & diagnostic centers.Table of Content1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.3 Research Objective2.4 Assumptions2.5 Limitations2.6 Market Structure2.7 Market Segmentation3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4 Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Mega Trends4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsContinuedReports Enquiry @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Storage Area Network (SAN) Market Trends and Opportunities 2016 - 2026 : Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, Dell, Inc.

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Accessing a consolidated network of data storage systems that connects several depositories of information is necessary to improve business workflow efficiency. Up-to-date information on the inventory, sales, product damage analysis and rebates helps businesses rectify any impedance on a priority basis. By integrating a Storage Area Network (SAN) with their databanks, organisations can immediately access such information from multiple locations, eliminating the complexities arising due to lack of connectivity, traditional storage approach or ineffective data backup procedures.Report overview:According to Future Market Insights report, titled Storage Area Network (SAN) Market: Global Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, the global storage area network market is projected to witness a steady upsurge in its revenues, reaching US$ 22,678.1 Mn over the period of 2016 to 2026. The market will grow at a modest CAGR of 3.5% through 2026.Businesses from diverse industrial verticals are investing capital on IT services, remodelling their business models by adopting cost-effective data storage management systems through various types of SANs. Leading tech giants such as The Hewlett-Packard Company, Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, Dell, Inc., IBM Corporation, and Cisco Systems, Inc., are the key storage area network service providers. The report has also profiled the markets prominent participants, such as, NetApp, Inc., Critix Systems, Inc., QLogic Corporation, Nutanix, Inc., DataCore Software Corporation, and NEC Corporation.Request to View Sample of Research Report @Besides the type of technologies, growth of the global market for storage area network is also reliant on the growth of components, types of networks, their end-users and prominence of leading industrial verticals. Through 2026, large enterprises as end-users, conventional SANs as types of networks, and Fibre Channel technologies will dominate their respective segments in the global storage area network market. Software components are expected to proliferate the market by accounting for 37% share of the global market value by the end of 2026, while BFSI and IT & telecom will collectively account for over 50% of the global market value, becoming the most lucrative industrial verticals around the world.America and APEJ: Most Lucrative SAN MarketsNorth America and Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) continue to stay the most lucrative markets for storage area network. Although North America will dominate the global SAN market throughout the forecast period, the regions revenue share is expected to incur a slight dip from an estimated 37% in 2016 to less than 35% in 2026.APEJs storage area network market is projected to rise from over US$ 3.7 Bn in 2016 to an estimated US$ 6 Bn by the end of 2026. During the forecast period, the APEJ region will be rendered highly lucrative for expansion as well as establishment of storage area network businesses as the region is anticipated to exhibit highest regional growth in the global market at a CAGR of 4.8%.In Latin America, Brazil will account for the largest revenue share of the market. Meanwhile, Fibre Channel technologies will predominantly govern the growth of Japans storage area network market by expectedly accounting for over US$ 800 Mn by the end of 2026; which is more than 65% of the countrys estimated SAN market valueRequest Report for Table of Contents @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:Nut Ingredients Market Prominent Player Analysis - Barry Callebaut Schweiz Ag, Specialty Commodities Inc., Kerry Group, Fruisec SA, Mars, Incorporated, Kanegrade Ltd., Mondelez International, Inc., Russell Stover Chocolates, LLC

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Global Nut Ingredients Market is projected to grow at a substantial rate in the forecast period. There are numerous factors that have contributed to the market growth of nut products. The consumer demand for healthy, innovative and convenient food products is driving the growth of the industry. Various government organizations and associations have encouraged the consumption of nut products which are creating opportunities for the manufacturers to adopt the business. The ready-to-eat trend has accelerated the growth of the product market. There has been a significant rise in the flavors of nuts which has given impetus to the snacks and confectionery industries.Request Table of Content of This Report @The product is a substitute for baked food containing protein. Many nuts contain vitamin E and omega-3 fats which are a good substitute of meat, and are a preferred choice for vegetarians. As the vegan population is increasing, there has been a great rise in the demand of the product. The deterring factor is the high number of calories and fats which are present in nut ingredients. The artificial flavors, allergies and sodium content can cause harm to the heart. The increasing obesity levels further add to the factors that hinder the growth of the market. Nevertheless, due to the global consumption of healthy foods, the market size of the product will increase in the forecast period.In a botanical sense, a nut is a dry fruit with one or two seeds having a hard ovary wall as it matures. The seed is not attached to the ovary walls. Nuts are used in various food products. There is a wide variety of nut ingredients such as almonds, pistachios, peanuts, cashews, hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts, soy nuts, pecans, sunflower nuts, etc. They are energy boosting snacks enriched with proteins, calcium, fiber and other nutrients. They also contain monounsaturated and polyunsaturated oils. They are used in various product formulations and are highly preferred by food manufacturers. The category of the products has expanded and has added functionality in various food products.The nut ingredients market can be classified on the basis of form, type, application and region. Based on the form, the product can be divided into roasted nuts and unroasted nuts. Roasted nuts are in high demand across the global market with an upward trend in the forecast period. Manufacturers have offered many brands for roasted nuts. Based on the type, the product is divided into hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts, peanuts and others such as soy nuts, chestnuts, etc. In terms of revenue, almonds are dominant, followed by hazelnuts, walnuts and cashews. The demand for walnuts has been increasing owing to the health benefits associated with them. There is a high demand of almonds in snacks in North America.Based on application the market has been segmented into bakery products, confectionaries, dairy products, cereals, desserts, snacks and bars, beverages and others such as sauces and salads. The snacks and bar segment has seen the highest rise in the consumer market owing to the wellness and health trends. Based on region, the market has been segmented into five regions, North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa. North America has the highest share of the product in the global market. Europe and Asia Pacific are the next in queue.Inquiry before buying @Some of the major market players are Barry Callebaut Schweiz Ag, Specialty Commodities Inc., Kerry Group, Fruisec SA, Mars, Incorporated, Kanegrade Ltd., Mondelez International, Inc., Russell Stover Chocolates, LLC, Blue Diamond Growers, The Hershey Company, Olam International, Delphi Organic GmbH, Cargill, Inc., Northwest Hazelnut Company, Edible Solutions Ltd., Crain Walnut Shelling Inc., etc.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:Explore Our Blog @New report forecasts 2023 future of global Sleep Apnea Device Market | Key Players - Fukuda Denshi, Infinium Medical, Covidien, GE Healthcare, Nihon Kohden, Philips Healthcare and more

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Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Report provides complete industry analysis, market outlook, size, growth, opportunities and forecast 2023. This report will assist in analyzing the current and future business trends, sales and revenue forecast. It provides top manufacturers information along with Manufacturing Cost Analysis, Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and growth.This report focuses on the Sleep Apnea Device 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.Positive Airway Pressure Devices. Positive airway pressure machines, used with a variety of breathing masks, are the most widely used treatment for moderate and severe sleep apnea. ... Although PAP devices are not used to treat snoring alone, they do eliminate snoring in addition to treating obstructive sleep apnea.Request a sample of this premium report at:Scope of the Report:The worldwide market for Sleep Apnea Device 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 research study.The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2018 through 2025. Also, a five-year historic analysis is provided for these markets.Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research.This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Sleep Apnea Device in US$ by the following Product Segments: Anesthesia Device, Respiratory Device, Sleep Apnea DeviceCompany profiles are primarily based on public domain information including companyFukuda Denshi, Infinium Medical, Covidien, GE Healthcare, Nihon Kohden, Philips Healthcare, Mindray Medical, Drgerwerk, Schiller, Masimo.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Masimo Fukuda Denshi Infinium Medical Covidien GE Healthcare Nihon Kohden Philips Healthcare Mindray Medical Drgerwerk SchillerMarket 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, covers Anesthesia Device Respiratory Device Sleep Apnea DeviceMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Hospitals Ambulatory Surgery CentersRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Sleep Apnea Device market.Chapter 1, to describe Sleep Apnea Device Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Sleep Apnea Device, with sales, revenue, and price of Sleep Apnea Device, 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 Sleep Apnea Device, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the market by countries, by type, by application and by manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Sleep Apnea Device market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Sleep Apnea Device sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Sleep Apnea Device Market Overview2 Manufacturers Profiles3 Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Competition, by Players4 Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Size by Regions5 North America Sleep Apnea Device Revenue by Countries6 Europe Sleep Apnea Device Revenue by Countries7 Asia-Pacific Sleep Apnea Device Revenue by Countries8 South America Sleep Apnea Device Revenue by Countries9 Middle East and Africa Revenue Sleep Apnea Device by Countries10 Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Segment by Type11 Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Segment by Application12 Global Sleep Apnea Device Market Size Forecast (2018-2023)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 AppendixMore Details on this Report: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:Sun Care Product Market - Latin America and Asia Pacific are anticipated to present lucrative opportunities for players to Maximize Revenue, Industry Outlook 2018-2025

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QY Research has come up with a brand-new report that provides the accurate and detailed analysis of the overall scenario of the global market. The key objective of QY Research is to offer a full-proof report that provides various market opportunities and the latest updates such as acquisitions and mergers, a launch of new brands and new entrants in the industry for the projected period. QY Research ensures that each research report consists of an in-depth analysis of statistical data which is examined by our expert team of analysts. In order to give a crystal clear view of the entire market, the analysts have also included market taxonomy, top players, key drivers, restraints and trends.This study researches the market size of Sun Care Product in United States, European Union and China, presents the Sun Care Product sales, revenue, market share and growth rate by companies, type and application, history breakdown data from 2013 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.PDF Sample For In-depth Analysis and Forecast -For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the sales, revenue, market share and growth rate for the top players, key data from 2013 to 2018.Sun Care is the first line of day-to-day defense to counter damaging effects of sun exposure giving long-term safety against UVA and UVB rays which may be the cause of early skin ageing and causing various side effects like tanning, sun burns, skin cancer, etc. To overcome such harmful effects there are various sun care products available in the market today. These sun care products are available in various forms consisting of a broad spectrum of Sun Protecting Factor usually known as the SPF to protect the skin against harmful rays. Additionally, sun care products also have multi-functional whitening properties with prevention against wrinkles.The increasing demand for multifunctional after sunburn care products is expected to drive the growth prospects for the global after sunburn care products market in the coming years. One of the major factors responsible for the growing demand for multifunctional after sunburn care products is the increasing demand for products that can hydrate, moisturize, and deliver an anti-oxidation property.Emerging economies in Latin America and Asia Pacific are anticipated to present lucrative opportunities for players in the sun care market as increasing disposable income and growing awareness levels direct their purchasing patterns.In 2018, the market size of Sun Care Product is xx million US$ and it will reach xx million US in 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% from 2018; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.In this report, 2017 has been considered as the base year and 2018 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Sun Care Product.Browse report Details with Complete ToC-In United States, European Union and China market, the following companies are covered:Johnson & JohnsonL'OrealProctor & GambleShiseidoAvon Products...Market Segment by Product TypeSun Protection ProductsAfter-Sun ProductsSelf-Tanning ProductsMarket Segment by ApplicationGeneral PeopleChildren and Pregnant WomenKey Regions split in this report:United StatesChinaEuropean UnionRest of World (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)Make an Enquiry for More Information -The study objectives are:To analyze and research the Sun Care Product status and future forecast in United States, European Union and China, involving sales, value (revenue), growth rate (CAGR), market share, historical and forecast.To present the key Sun Care Product manufacturers, presenting the sales, revenue, market share, and recent development for key players.To split the breakdown data by regions, type, companies and applicationsTo analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends, drivers, influence factors in global and regionsTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketIn this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Sun Care Product are as follows:History Year: 2013-2018Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025QYResearch, established in 2007, focuses on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, and data base &seminar services. The company owns large basic databases (such as National Bureau of Statistics Database, Customs Import and Export Database, Industry Association Database, etc.), expert resources (including industry experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D in industries of energy, automotive, chemicals, medical ICT consumer goods, etc.), professional survey team (the team members obtained more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years deep expert interview experience), and excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team).QYResearch has more than 4000 global well-known customers, covering more than 30 industries including energy, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, agriculture, etc. Company services cover one-stop solution as Data-Analysis-Suggestion-Consulting Implementation. Research regions cover China, US, EU, Asia, Middle East and Africa, South America, Australia, and other regions in the world. QYResearch built research or marketing centers in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong), USA, Canada, Germany, UK, France, etc. Currently, QYResearch has become the first choice, worthy and trusted consulting brand in Global and Chinabusiness consulting services17890 Castleton St. Suite 218 City of Industry, CA 91748Tel:+1-6262952442(International)Email - marketing@qyresearch.com"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is an atypical project for the Steppenwolf for Young Adults program, which has never before produced a recent Broadway hit, certainly not a high-tech show with a running time of 2 hours. Jonathan Berry directs this first Chicago production of the show based on the Mark Haddon novel, adapted by Simon Stephens. Christopher, the teenage hero of this play, describes himself as "a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties" (autism is not mentioned). He is fond of whiz-bang special effects when it comes to his own storytelling; if you saw the original incarnation of Christopher's trip to London, with its vivid description of how a young man strives to overcome anxiety as an Underground train roars toward him, you won't see something fully comparable here. But despite the low-budget set, this production is well worth seeing. Caroline Neff's work as Christopher's teacher was the best I've seen in this role. Through Oct. 27 at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1635 N. Halsted St.; $20-$30 at 312-335-1650 or www.steppenwolf.orgHIT IT HIT IT  Junior Matt Sion goes up for a ball in last Fridays win over Clarence in the Division...

Girls tennis concludes season, finishes eighth in state Teams top doubles pair comes in second place at states

The Orchard Park girls tennis team wrapped up an impressive season last month with its top doubles pair playing in...

OP teams drop pair of playoff matches Football The OP football team was handed its worst defeat of the 2021 season last Friday when the Quakers took...

All-Bee  Boys Soccer Amherst schools have lock on First Team honors

There is one thing all nine players on the 2021 All-Bee Boys Soccer Team have in common: they all represent...Managers of a Southeast Portland apartment complex where tenants have mounted a rent strike have dropped the first eviction suit to go to court.

Lawyers for Holgate Manor and a resident, Sara Brassfield, agreed this week to dismiss the case and try to resolve the dispute in mediation.

Brassfield was one of 11 residents at Holgate Manor, an 82-unit complex near Southeast 36th Place and Holgate Boulevard, who stopped paying rent to the landlord in August, saying the owners of the complex had raised rents while failing to address maintenance concerns.

Property managers had tried to evict Brassfield for nonpayment of rent in a case that was headed to a trial next week. She responded in court filings that the managers had failed to address habitability concerns such as mold and pest infestations and that the eviction was retaliation because Brassfield was an organizer of the rent strike.

Brassfield and other tenants have paid their rent into a trust controlled by their attorneys during the strike.

It's not clear how many tenants are still participating in the strike. Managers for the apartment complex claimed Brassfield was the only resident still withholding rent. Portland Tenants United, a renters rights group that helped organize the strike, said at least six residents paid October's rent into the trust.

Brassfield said the mediation could address only her own grievances with Holgate Manor, but that she hoped it would encourage the property managers to directly negotiate with her neighbors.

"It took a really big gamble to get them to come to the table, and that's frustrating," Brassfield said. "That's why I feel we need some kind of rental authority that governs this stuff."

Jill Eiland, a Holgate Manor spokeswoman, confirmed that the parties had agreed to mediation. She said previously that managers had made requested repairs.

Brassfield said Thursday those repairs were not sufficient to address mold and pest issues.

Holgate Manor tenants began organizing earlier this year after Fred Kleinbub of La Jolla, California, bought the complex for $12 million and managers announced plans for major renovations.

They offered to pay residents up to $5,500 to vacate ahead of renovation work, and the company said residents could return at discounted rates once the work was completed, though the discount would last only for one year.

Residents who didn't take the payment, however, said their rents were raised 9.9 percent this year -- just under the threshold when landlords must compensate tenants for moving costs under city code.

The property had long offered apartments for unusually low rents for the neighborhood. That had attracted a attracted a diverse set of residents, some had lived in the complex for more than a decade.

The controversy has followed Kleinbub to his California home this week.

On Monday, members of the San Diego chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America interrupted an event at the Timken Museum of Art, where Kleinbub serves as treasurer, and read a statement criticizing the rent increases at Holgate Manor.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com

503-294-5034

@enjusIt's been one month since a Multnomah County Circuit Court judge ruled transit police had illegally stopped and arrested a TriMet rider during a routine fare enforcement mission, and the transit agency has something to say.

Yes, you still have to pay to ride the MAX or bus in the Portland area, and no, TriMet has no plans to change how it enforces fares on the public transit system.

TriMet's new education campaign comes as Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum decided Tuesday not to appeal Judge John Wittmayer's ruling, which found transit police had violated the state's constitution by stopping and arresting Ana del Rocio at an Old Town Chinatown light rail station in March.

Roberta Altstadt, TriMet's communications manager, said employees have noticed a lot of confusion in the past month on the tri-county system, and it hopes to educate riders about the rules. "Fare is fair," she said in an interview Wednesday, adding, "we don't want anybody to get a citation because they are confused."

Next week, TriMet will ask its Board of Directors to amend the agency's rules for how it enforces fares. The tweaks are more clarifications, Altstadt said, and they will directly state riders must pay to take a train or bus and point out the agency has every right under state law to enforce those rules, despite the court ruling. Violating fare requirements is grounds for a citation and not a criminal act in and of itself, the new rules will clarify.

Last month, the ACLU of Oregon said Wittmayer's ruling confirmed what it had already believed, that "these dragnet searches violate the rights of all people that are stopped."

The civil rights organization praised Rosenblum for declining to pursue charges against del Rocio. Mat dos Santos, the group's legal director in Oregon, said TriMet has subjected all riders "with or without fare, to suspicionless searches that violate the constitution."

"We hoped that TriMet would embraced the changes that are called for here. It is beyond disappointing that, since the judge's ruling, they have continued their flawed fare enforcement approach without addressing the underlying problems with this unfair system," he said.

Del Rocio issued a statement saying she would now work on "putting this nightmare behind me."

"The focus now should be on our continual efforts to make transit more accessible to those who need it," she said.

TriMet said it believes clarifying its rules will satisfy the judge's opinion that riders had a reasonable concern they would face potential criminal charges, including jail time for theft of services or other charges, if stopped during a fare sting.

Wittmayer's ruling also argued TriMet's authority for conducting random fare stops was thin and "unpersuasive."

But TriMet believes clearly articulating its authority in its own rules and ensuring riders won't face criminal charges for fare evasion alone will satisfy the judge's concerns and ward off any future cases arguing similar grounds.

The agency in July enacted new rules decriminalizing fare evasion and reducing the fines levied to riders who are caught using the system without paying. TriMet also instituted a low-income fare program thanks to funding from the 2017 statewide transportation package.

The Wittmayer ruling appeared to raise the possibility TriMet could change its fare tactics, partly because stopping passengers randomly on a platform was criticized in the opinion as an action without "reasonable suspicion."

Two Washington County cases previously found TriMet fare missions on moving trains were legal searches.

But Altstadt said TriMet was unlikely to limit its fare stops to moving MAX trains because it keeps staffers or transit police confined to one area and it could lead to "unwanted consequences" such as only stopping passengers who happen to be next to a fare enforcement officer on a crowded train.

"We want to be able to enforce fares in a random way," she said, "It's the same process used by light rail systems across the country."

The transit agency issues an average of about 20,000 citations for fare evasions every year, and its estimated fare evasion rate was 13.1 percent in 2017.

TriMet's board meets Oct. 24 and will discuss the rule changes.

-- Andrew Theen

atheen@oregonian.com

503-294-4026

@andrewtheen



If you don't know Palomar, you probably know its building. The five-story, inner Southeast Division Street structure boasts a 70-foot-tall spray-painted mural of a woman, her updo made of living plants. And if you've looked closely, you might have spotted a trogon -- the national bird of Cuba -- perched on her shoulder.

That bird is a subtle nod to Palomar, a Cuban-inspired bar and restaurant from Ricky Gomez, the New Orleans-born, Portland-trained bartender whose parents left the island nation before he was born. Seven nights a week, Gomez and his team shake and blend near-perfect daiquiris as the bar's neon shines out onto a still industrial stretch of close-in Southeast Portland.

Gomez might not be a household name in Oregon, even among the cocktail savvy, though he absolutely should be. After joining the opening team at New Orleans' favorite Cure, he moved to Portland for a job at Teardrop, the Pearl District's famed bartender finishing school, sticking around to help open Ox before being crowned U.S. Bartender of the Year at the largest cocktail competition in the world. After touring behind that win as a brand ambassador, he returned home, where he helped set up the bar programs at two of the most celebrated New Orleans' restaurants of the past few years: Compere Lapin and Saffron NOLA.

Gomez insists he could have opened Palomar in New Orleans, a city that has begun to embrace a wider palate of global flavors, including the Indian dishes at Saffron. He's not so sure about Miami.

"Every summer, we would visit family in Miami, so that was Cuba to me," Gomez says. "But I'm second-generation Cuban-American. I don't know if I'm Cuban enough to open a Cuban bar in Miami."

Instead, Portland quietly poached one of New Orleans top bartending talents, the bartending equivalent of the Trail Blazers signing Anthony Davis. Last year, a connection Gomez made during his local bartending days reached out to him about the ground-floor space opening up at the new Solterra headquarters on Southeast Division Street. He flew out and had a handshake deal by day's end. (While there, he also met Fin DAC, the Irish artist behind the dramatic mural, who soon added the colorful bird to his design.)

The bar Gomez built blends all of his experience and personal history: Palomar is a Miami cool bar with a dash of New Orleans hospitality and an intensely Portland appreciation for craft drinks. It's also our 2018 Bar of the Year.

The bar opened in April with a full menu of Cuban diner food from former Interurban sous chef Patrick Kille, comfort food that has improved over time (try the medianoche sandwich, a spin on the classic Cuban served on a soft, sweet roll). In other words, you can have dinner, though you won't be faulted if you never make it past the first page of drinks. There, Gomez and longtime Portland bartender Brandon Josie pay homage to Cuba and the legendary old Havana fish house El Foridita with a half-dozen daiquiris, including a Hemingway, an anejo with cacao and the best frozen you'll find in Portland. Stop by some sunny Friday afternoon for a Hotel Nacional, a daiquiri cousin with apricot liqueur and pineapple juice named for another Havana institution, and you might find yourself staying for three.

Flip the page on the gorgeous hard-bound menu (designed, like all the graphics, by Josie) to find 20 more classics from across the cocktail pantheon, from swizzles to spritzes to cobblers to old fashioneds, each with its own house spin, each perfectly constructed. The sour might be Palomar's most photographed drink, a tequila-based cocktail with a peppermint-colored EKG stained into its egg white froth. And Palomar does all this without a whiff of snobbery. At night, you'll hear blenders whirring up pina coladas. No one gives you guff for ordering a mojito.

"Our style is approachable, flavorful, unpretentious, and yet if you want to geek out about toasted coconut masala syrup, you can," Gomez says.

The room is designed with the same attention to detail. One of Palomar's biggest opening expenses was its furniture: gold-flecked tabletops modeled after a discontinued line of G.E. laminate ("it reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen table"), plush 1950s style stools and chairs upholstered in ketchup and mustard-colored Naugahyde. "I must have looked at 30 wall sconces," Gomez says. The black-and-white encaustic tile floor comes from Portland Tile & Marble, a nearby business that happened to have been founded by a Cuban family. Bartenders can change the lighting behind the quartz bar with the click of a remote, though so far they've mostly stuck with a very South Beach shade of teal.

At night, Palomar shines neon bright onto a sidewalk wet from water cascading down from the mural's living hair. Laughter beckons from Palomar's mezzanine. Yes, Palomar could have opened anywhere, but Gomez chose to open it here, for many of the same reasons he first moved eight years ago.

"In Portland, you can geek out about anything culinarily," Gomez says, "coffee, beer, wine, spirits. This is the place to be."

What you're drinking: If you're only staying for one, consider a hand-shaken mulata daiquiri, another El Floridita special made with anejo rum and cacao.

Details: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday to Friday; 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday; 959 S.E. Division St.; 971-266-8276; barpalomar.com

-- Michael RussellPhotos by Mark Graves, The Oregonian/OregonLive, unless otherwise noted.

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In 2018, Portlanders drank at new cocktail bars filled with modernist gadgets, glorified shacks with awesome hospitality and better beer and a sui generis sake bar straight out of "Twin Peaks." For this, The Oregonian/OregonLive's first bar guide in two years, we dug back a bit further than we normally would to come up with our 10 favorite new bars -- Lombard House, for example, just celebrated its second anniversary -- though most opened in the past year. Any of these bars would make a perfect date night cap, though each is worth a special trip all its own.

-- Michael Russell

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Bar Norman

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Michael Russell | The Oregonian

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Ideally, Dana Frank's first solo foray into bar ownership might not have coincided with her first national book tour. But then, just a few months before her and food writer Andrea Slonecker's "Wine Food" was set to publish, Frank's "dream space" opened up kitty corner from the Clinton Street Theater. The old building has been gently transformed into a casual wine bar with white walls, second-hand tables festooned with bright pink menus and a hi-fi system set up in the loft where Frank's husband, Bow & Arrow winemaker Scott, spins records some Friday nights. Visit when Bar Norman opens at 4 p.m. and you might have the place to yourself, with your pick of window seats and space to peruse the retail wall of natural wines, or those made with minimal intervention; add a $10 corkage to drink any bottle in house. (Frank, who previously ran the wine program at Southeast Portland's Ava Gene's and helped open Northeast Portland's Dame, wraps up her book tour by the end of the month.) The twin chalkboard menus list more than 20 wines by the glass, most obscure to all but hardcore fans of natural wine. The food menu is mostly limited to tinned seafood, pungent cheeses and baguette slices from Little T, the great bakery around the corner, and are likely to stay that way. It all feels a bit like a spacious version of a modern Paris wine bar, and it's part of a wealth of openings that have made Portland one of the most exciting places in America to drink wine. -- MR

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- Bar Norman is a new wine bar in Southeast Portland Michael Russell | The Oregonian

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Michael Russell | The Oregonian

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What you're drinking: Frank's staff is highly skilled at guiding you to a wine you might love -- an autumnal lambrusco, an earthy gamay, a white that "smells like a colored marker" (in a good way). All are available as half glasses for half the price.

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Details: 4 p.m. to midnight Monday to Saturday; 2615 S.E. Clinton St.; 971-229-0290; barnorman.com

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Cat's Paw Saloon

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Mickey Reyes wasn't looking to open a bar when he drove through Southeast Portland looking at commercial properties about two years ago. Reyes had come from San Francisco and was hoping to open a combination laundromat/cafe like one he'd long been a fan of in the Bay Area. But when he came upon the Southeast Division Street storefront, boarded up for nearly three decades, he knew that was the place. The only problem: converting the dilapidated space into a laundry was outside his budget. What would fit, though, was a saloon. Reyes, 52, had spent much of his previous career working for Deluxe, a skateboard company that came of age in the heyday of the sport in San Francisco. He called in favors from all over the skateboarding industry, and got to work making the old space over and creating maybe Portland's coolest skateboard bar. The art that hangs in the finished bar rotates frequently, but some mainstays pay homage to Reyes' roots. Pristine skateboard decks hang from the walls that often echo early-90s hip hop. The custom wood tables have an extra layer of ply sandwiched in them, a nod to the skateboard manufacturing process. There's even a highly sought-after custom "Cat's Paw" Nike skate shoe. -- Kale Williams

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What you're drinking: Like the art, the cocktail rotations are frequent, but an enduring favorite is the "Rabbit Fighter," a feisty mix of tequila, hibiscus-habanero syrup and lime juice ($10).

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2 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily; 3565 S.E. Division St.; 503-719-5189;

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Chandelier

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One of Portland's oddest bars is hidden in an apartment building on Southeast Ankeny Street. Look for the door with the crystal chandelier overhead and the Buddha statue to the side. Inside you'll find a curved bar with eight stools and a single bartender -- often owner Matthew Ellis -- pouring interesting sakes, from dry-as-a-bone beauties to stranger pours that taste like absinthe, cocoa or blue cheese. The cozy space and jazz on the sound system recall the tiny bars of Tokyo's Golden Gai drinking district. Ellis says he was inspired by late nights in the neighborhood, but wanted to "recontextualize what sake is" for American drinkers -- not just an accompaniment to sushi, but a diverse product of careful craftsmanship to be enjoyed on its own merits, like whiskey or wine. (The bar also serves a small selection of wine and beer.) Ellis, who lives upstairs, built Chandelier out himself with an eye for slightly spooky whimsy. Zigzagging black tile and red curtains recall the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks; a tangle of plumbing overhead is painted gold and adorned with sculptures of lovebirds; a Cadillac badge is glued to the mini-split air conditioner over the bathroom door. The bathroom is an experience unto itself, but let's leave that for you to discover. -- Ben Waterhouse

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What you're drinking: Moriki Tae No Hana "Sublime Beauty," a sake made from barely polished brown rice by Japan's first female brewer that's both smooth and severe ($10 glass, $50 bottle).

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4 to 11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 4 p.m. to midnight Friday-Saturday; 4 to 10 p.m., Sunday; 1451 S.E. Ankeny St., 503-841-8345,

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Deadshot

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You can split the cocktail world's top tier between bars that look forward -- using unusual ingredients and gadgetry -- and bars that look back -- gently twisting or fine-tuning the classics. Portland's scrappy bar scene has mostly been focused on the latter. Until Deadshot. Adam Robinson, who launched his cocktail bar as a Monday-only pop-up at Holdfast Dining, made his name locally at Park Kitchen and The Bent Brick, then spent two years bartending in Taipei, traveling in his spare time to the luxe cocktail bars of Singapore and Hong Kong. If you find yourself at Deadshot's new seven-day-a-week home after getting lost in Ladd's Addition, start with the Crystal Daiquiri, a shaken daiquiri made with clarified lime, simple syrup and a blend of three rums that arrives in a small coupe, the liquid as clear as water, a dehydrated lime floating on top like a lily in an abnormally transparent pond. The signature Casper's Ghost is a pale-green cocktail of bitter melon, pineapple, rhum agricole and mezcal garnished with tarragon. The Jack Nance is a whiskey sour variation made with, among other things, sesame, mustard and egg yolks. And if none of that sounds appealing, Happy Hour brings $5 glasses of wine and $2 pints of Rainier. Partners Will Preisch and Joel Stocks, who moved their reservation-only Holdfast Dining into the space next door, chip in with chicken skin nachos, blood sausage mac and cheese and other bar snack oddities including, on a recent visit, a tasty Icelandic hot dog. If you have to ask -- MR

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What you're drinking: The Crystal Daiquiri ($12).

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4 p.m. to 1 a.m. daily; 2133 S.E. 11th Ave.; 503-504-9448;

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Either/Or

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Michael Russell | The Oregonian

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In five years in Sellwood, cozy coffee shop Either/Or earned a reputation for warm service, steller chai and inventive, alcohol-free coffee cocktails. The shops second location, which opened this spring on North Williams Avenue, retains all those charms and adds a robust food menu, a full bar and a party-ready attitude. In terms of Elliott Smith, whose 1997 album inspired the cafes name, the new cafe is

to the originals

Owner Ro Tam says an all-day cafe and bar was always the concept for Either/Or, and the new menu shows some serious thought. Cocktails range from delicate and fruity to bitter and boozy, with 10 inventive alcohol-free options. The beer and wine list is short but interesting. The food is a mashup of global drinking hits, including loaded nachos, wonton noodle soup and steak with peppery Chinese dipping sauce. The space is a mix of finesse and fun, with white-leather booths and upholstered captains chairs along the bar and both record players and a claw machine full of branded merchandise. On a recent Friday evening, as a DJ played flute jazz and classic soul and patrons sipped Japanese whiskey highballs by the open roll-up door, Either/Or felt like the coolest place in the neighborhood. Drink up, baby, stay up all night.

-- BW

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Michael Russell | The Oregonian

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What you're drinking: Horse in the Hospital, a seriously bitter blend of mezcal, Cynar and Grand Marnier ($11), or the ridiculous Coke Brew, a giant fishbowl of cold brew on soda ice with a bottle of Mexican Coke tipped in ($9)

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7 a.m. to midnight, daily; 4003 N. Williams Ave.,

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Little Beast Beer Garden

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The Oregon craft beer roots run deep at Little Beast's Southeast Division Street beer garden. For the former Beaverton brewery's first proper tasting room, Charles Porter, the founding brewer at Logsdon Farmhouse Ales, took over the old Hedge House, an early beer bar originally opened by Lompoc Brewing owner Jerry Fechter and the late Horse Brass publican Don Younger. Porter and co-owner Brenda Crow, a specialty foods expert, added a menu of creamy hummus and bay shrimp rolls, installed a gleaming walnut bar inside the converted Craftsman home and began offering blankets to customers in the half-hidden beer garden or for families wanting to build impromptu picnics under the large Catalpa tree out front. For fans of Little Beast's beer, the taproom is a little godsend, offering the first fixed home to enjoy Porter's beers since the Logsdon days, with as many as 16 taps pouring farmhouse-style saisons, barrel-aged sours, collaborative IPAs and Czech-style pilsners, plus a couple of taps devoted to wine and another pair for guest beers. While we wait for the sun to reappear, grab a beer, a book and a cozy corner indoors. -- MR

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Drink this: Little Beast's fruit beers (when in season).

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3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; noon to 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; noon to 10 p.m. Sunday; 3412 S.E. Division St.; 503-208-2723;

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Lombard House

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There's no better proof that great things come in small packages than Brian Koch's North Portland beer bar, which packs an improbable amount of charm into a 360-square-foot shop facing North Lombard Street. The 100-year-old structure was built as an office for a construction company that developed many of the houses in the area. Over the years, it's served as a bike shop and bakery. Koch, a longtime fixture of the Portland beer scene who's worked at Upright Brewing and The Commons, happened upon the newly remodeled building two years ago on his way back from the St. Johns parade. Like NWIPA on Foster Road or Bottles on Fremont Street, Lombard House is both a warm neighborhood gathering place and a killer craft beer destination. On a recent visit, the bar was pouring fresh hop brews from Level, Georgetown and Finnriver alongside a varied lineup of German and Belgian styles. The bar's four tables fill up quickly, but there's plenty more room on the side deck and the smoker-friendly back patio, an expanse of wood chips and umbrellas facing a fence armored with brewery signs. The breweriana continues inside and mingles with Philadelphia sports pennants -- Koch, a Pennsylvania native, opens the bar early for televised Eagles games. -- BW

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What you're drinking: A pint of Upright Engelberg Pilsner ($5) with a jam jar of pretzels ($2).

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Details: 2 p.m. to midnight Tuesday-Saturday, 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday; 7337 N. Lombard St.; 503-539-5889

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OK Omens

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In a year of great new wine bars, nowhere captured the imagination of Portland's drinking public quite like OK Omens. The sleek new bar with the unusual name took over the old Cafe Castagna in June, offering chef Justin Woodward and sommelier Brent Braun from next door's fixed price Castagna a chance to show what they can do with salads, burgers and a neighborhood friendly wine list. It turns out, quite a bit. Woodward's cilantro and lime-zapped Torito salad and (finally) dialed-in cheeseburger landed OK Omens on our guide to Portland's best new restaurants of 2018. But it was Braun's truly playful wine list that really surprised. Known as a full-throated advocate for the power of good riesling, Braun has made a list that runs the gamut from natural to conventional, from downright cheap to the mid three figures. The more time you spend with the list, the more secrets it reveals, with special sections for wines tinted orange from light skin contact, staff picks ("what we drink when we're not helping you drink") and at least one intriguingly smoky red made from Columbia River Gorge grapes "tainted" by last year's wildfires. Keep an eye on the age page, a collection of old wines from as far back as the 1980s, several in the $75 range, that Braun gathered from both the restaurant's cellar and the basement of longtime Castagna owner Monique Siu's home. -- MR

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What you're drinking: If you can afford it, you won't find a better deal on wines 20 years old or older than that age page, including, for now, a 1997 Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon for $75. If not, more than 20 wines are available by the glass, from $8 to $17, with half pours available.

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5 p.m. to midnight daily; 1758 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.; 503-231-9939;

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Palomar

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Read our 2018 Bar of the Year feature on this Miami-cool cocktail bar that combines New Orleans hospitality with a Portland appreciation for craft drinks.

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Details: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday to Friday; 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday-Sunday; 959 S.E. Division St.; 971-266-8276; barpalomar.com

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T.C. OLearys

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When you step into the cozy Irish pub T.C. O'Leary's, you feel like you've been transported away from Northeast Alberta Street to a bar near Boston's Fenway Park. Red Sox banners and pennants are everywhere. Historic photos of BoSox greats hang in places of honor about the taps. And you might even hear Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" breaking up the sound-system's traditional Irish tunes. Leading the cheering squad is the bar's owner, Tom O'Leary, a one-time Dublin stage and TV actor, best known for a stint on the Irish soap opera "Fair City." A whirlwind romance with a Portland woman brought the actor here, where he's traded in the boards for a life pulling pints of Guinness and mixing Irish whiskey cocktails. The bar O'Leary has created evokes the tiny pubs that can be found in any Irish town, serving hearty fare like fish and chips and shepherd's pie, along with 12 taps of beer and cider to wash it all down. Beyond the Beantown baseball memorabilia, the vibe is all Ireland, with a long wall covered with framed family photos, hanging over whiskey barrel and pub tables, with banquette seating running the restaurant's length  a perfect setting for weekend brunch or cold nights made warmer by whiskey and laughter. -- Grant Butler

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What you're drinking: Galway Girl ($12), an Irish twist on a Manhattan, featuring Kilbeggan single-grain whiskey and dry vermouth, or a Brown Derby ($10), combining Kentucky bourbon, maple syrup, grapefruit juice and a twist of lime.

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4 to 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 4 p.m. to midnight Friday; 11 a.m. to midnight Saturday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday; 2926 N.E. Alberta St.; 503-477-5969;

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Check out our 2018 Bar of the Year, our favorite bars for non-alcoholic cocktails and our guide to the best places to eat late at night in Portland.

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A word for young people, people of color and, in particular, young people of color:

The Republicans are scared of you.

Maybe you find that hard to believe. Maybe you wonder how the party can be scared of you -- or of anybody -- given that it controls all three branches of the federal government and most of the nation's state houses. You're worried about paying your student loans, putting food on the table, getting home without becoming some cop's mistake, and the GOP is scared of you?

In a word: Yes.

See, the party knows that if everybody votes, it can't win. That's simple math. The Republican electorate skews sharply older and white. Polling from The Roper Center at Cornell University says whites went for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 57 percent to 37 percent, while people of color strongly supported her, African Americans giving her 89 percent of their vote. Trump also lost big among young voters, but won big among their elders.

This dependence on older whites is a problem for the GOP, given that the United States is fast moving toward a younger, non-white majority. The Census Bureau predicts that, well before mid-century, America will be a nation where no racial group enjoys a numerical advantage. And the authoritative FiveThirtyEight blog reports that the white median age in this country is 43, while for Asians it's 36, for African Americans, 34 and for Hispanics, 29.

As the trend lines are clear, so is the party's solution: keep you from voting. Thus, as we approach a critical midterm election, the GOP is embracing voter suppression with a brazenness not seen since Bloody Sunday in 1965.

In Bismarck, North Dakota, lawmakers have passed a photo ID law that requires residents to show a current street address. And surely it's only unfortunate coincidence that many Native Americans live on reservations that don't use street addresses, only P.O. boxes, which the law doesn't recognize.

In Georgia, secretary of state and GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp is being sued over the state's so-called "exact match" law, in which voter registration applications are flagged if the voter's identifying information fails to match state records, down to such picayune matters as missing hyphens and transposed letters. Over 53,000 people are said to have been impacted, most of them people of color.

In Tallahassee in July, a federal judge decried "a stark pattern of discrimination" against young people in Florida's blocking of early voting at colleges and universities. Across the country, nearly a thousand polling places have been shut down in recent years, many in Southern black communities. In Cuthbert, Georgia, in August, the elections board beat back a plan to close seven of the nine polling places in a county that just happens to be majority black. Meantime, Stacey Abrams just happens to be running to become Georgia - and the nation's - first black woman governor.

If you are a young person, a person of color or a young person of color, then, you may well face long lines, paperwork and other headaches as you seek to exercise your constitutional rights next month. Please persevere. That's the only way to elect people who understand that access to the ballot is a fundamental principle of democracy. It is the only way to rescue this country.

Don't let anyone tell you your vote doesn't matter. Ask yourself: If your ballot wasn't important, would Republicans work so hard to keep you from casting it? Of course not. And I'll say it again: They are scared of you.

Please show them that they have reason to be.

-- Leonard Pitts is a columnist for The Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla., 33132. Readers may contact him via e-mail at lpittsmiamiherald.com.Three Oregon prison inmates died at three separate prisons over the last seven days, according to the state department of corrections. The agency declined to release information on how the three people died on Wednesday.

Douglas D. Miller, 72, died last Friday at the Oregon State Penitentiary in the prison infirmary. Raymond Madrigal, an 81-year-old Two Rivers Correctional Institution inmate, died Sunday after being taken to a hospital. Sally A. Bicandi, 54, died Tuesday after she was taken to a hospital from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility.

Miller had been at the Salem prison since October 2006 after a conviction in Multnomah County for first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy. His earliest release date was in January 2021, the department of corrections said.

Madrigal, held at the Umatilla-based prison, was convicted in March 2006 in Multnomah County for first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy. His earliest release date was in August 2022.

Bicandi was sentenced to Coffee Creek in Wilsonville in May for attempted second-degree assault in Washington County. Her earliest release date was in November 2019, the state corrections department said.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyA: Actually it didnt come about quite that way. I had heard about Scotty  but not by name  for years in my role as an editor-at-large and writer for Vanity Fair because I frequently wrote stories that had to do with old Hollywood, or great figures in Hollywood who were either at the end of their careers or making comebacks. A lot of those guys were gay, and they would mention this gas station on Hollywood Boulevard and they said it was more than a gas station. Merv Griffin, I think, was the first one to mention it. So Id always known that there was something there to explore, and it was on my list of potential projects. I didnt really know anything about it and there wasnt anything really to find on Google or in any other form.Three women, including a current prison inmate and two former ones, filed a federal lawsuit this week alleging they were abused by a gynecologist during medical examinations at the state womens prison.

The lawsuit names Dr. Catherine Crim, David Brown, a nurse, and Steven Shelton, the medical director who retired from the Department of Corrections last year.

The women allege Crim abused them at Coffee Creek Correctional Institution and that supervisors Brown and Shelton failed to take steps to prevent the alleged abuse or discipline Crim.

According to the Corrections Department, the agency contracted with Womens Healthcare Associates from 2002 through earlier this year. Crim was a subcontractor for Womens Healthcare Associates, which ended its contract with the state in March, according to the Corrections Department.

The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday tried to reach Crim through Womens Healthcare Associates. A message left for CEO Brian Kelly early Wednesday was not returned.

Shelton declined to comment, as did Corrections Department officials. Brown could not be reached for comment.

According to the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners, Crim has been licensed to practice medicine in the state since 1993. Her specialty is obstetrics and gynecology. She has no history of discipline, according to the board.

The lawsuit was filed by a Portland lawyer, Leonard Berman, who has represented other female inmates who have previously sued the state over allegations regarding medical care at the prison in Wilsonville.

Two of those suits are pending and a third has been settled.

In this latest lawsuit, two former inmates claim Crim sexually abused them during exams.

The suit alleges that Crim touched them in a sexual manner and made inappropriate comments, though the suit does not detail the remarks she allegedly made. In an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Berman said Crim made complimentary statements about the womens intimate areas.

The third inmate, who is still in prison on identity theft and burglary convictions, alleges Crim used an oversized speculum very roughly during an exam. The lawsuit says she filed grievances and appeals, all of which were denied by prison officials.

In an interview, Berman said the woman was severely injured during the exam.

The Oregonian/OregonLive does not disclose the names of alleged sexual abuse victims. Last year, the state agreed to pay a $175,000 settlement to one of Bermans clients who alleged she was sexually abused by a different prison doctor during a 2013 gynecological exam.

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

@noellecrombieIn an unprecedented court filing Wednesday, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian accused top legislative officials of ignoring subpoenas issued by his agency in its investigation of sexual harassment at the Oregon Capitol.

The filings seek contempt of court rulings and $1,000 a day fines against Senate President Peter Courtney, House Speaker Tina Kotek, Senate Republican Leader Jackie Winters and nine others who Avakian accuses of disregarding subpoenas. A contempt finding can carry a sanction of jail time.

The subpoenas were necessary because Avakian has reason to believe they would protect key documents from "imminent destruction," the filing states.

It is the first time in memory that the Bureau of Labor and Industries has sought contempt rulings, said spokeswoman Christine Lewis.

Through a private attorney, Edward Harnden, legislative officials subpoenaed by the bureau all declined to turn over requested records and sit for interviews.

They argued its demand for information was overly broad, and said compliance would require them to break pledges of confidentiality made to the people who reported harassment.

Representatives for Courtney, Kotek and Winters on Thursday directed questions to Harnden, who said he is confident a judge will find no wrongdoing by members of the Legislature. Avakian is overstepping his authority "and he knows it," Harnden said.

The judge in the case, Judge Stephen Bushong of Multnomah County, set a hearing for Nov. 19 to consider Avakian's arguments.

In a rebuke of his fellow Democrats, Avakian in August accused Courtney, Kotek and the others of covering up a culture of sexual harassment at the Capitol when he filed a complaint with his own Bureau of Labor and Industries.

That set in motion a civil rights investigation, under which the subpoenas were issued. Rather than investigate his own complaint, Avakian instructed his civil rights attorneys to carry out the investigation.

In his complaint, Avakian charged that Kotek, Courtney and officials including Dexter Johnson, the Legislature's attorney, and Lore Christopher, its human resources director, failed to stop sexual harassment by then-Sen. Jeff Kruse despite longstanding complaints against him.

A legislative investigation found Kruse, a Roseburg Republican, had sexually harassed or groped many women at the Capitol  including fellow senators, a lobbyist and two interns. Kruse resigned in March after 26 years in office.

Avakian was not immediately available for comment Thursday, said Lewis, his spokeswoman. The investigation of sexual harassment at the Capitol he prompted will likely be Avakian's last major case before he leaves office next year.

His bureau's request for contempt rulings and fines demonstrate Avakian's determination to get answers, even if from lawmakers who were once political allies.

That Courtney, Kotek and others disregarded the subpoenas did not come as a surprise, the documents show. In response to the subpoenas, Harnden, the Legislature's attorney, turned over publicly available documents. But declined to provide to other records, saying it would publicly expose those who complained about Kruse after they were promised confidentiality.

Lawmakers have argued they are exempt from labor laws that govern other employers and are not susceptible to the labor commissioner's investigatory powers.

Avakian responded tersely.

He wrote that the legislators "are not above the law and their conduct is not beyond all scrutiny."

-- Gordon R. FriedmanKnute Buehler stood in front of Wapato Jail on Thursday morning and announced that he would like to use it as a homeless shelter.

Buehler, the Republican candidate for governor, joins a long list of developers and politicians who had proposed the same thing. His promise, though, was that he would "fast-track" the project if he is elected governor. He challenged Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to make the same commitment.

Brown's campaign did not give an opinion on Wapato, but said that Buehler's plan is not detailed enough.

"How would he pay for it? How would he overcome the zoning, which bars this use? Who would operate it? Who would pay them? Who would own it? Who would he serve?" said Brown's campaign spokesman Christian Gaston.

Buehler said he would kick in some of the $10 million he has said he would use to create 4,000 emergency shelter beds to get it up and running. Buehler said Thursday that the jail's owner, developer Jordan Schnitzer, said $1.5 million could get the building usable.

However, he would then run into the operational costs, which have long been the stumbling block for those who want to use the 500-bed minimum-security prison as a public resource.

Buehler said the jail could run on an unspecified mix of state, federal, local and philanthropic dollars.

Brown's homelessness platform focuses more on affordable housing and $370 million worth of proposed investments.

Schnitzer bought the facility for $5 million when Multnomah County offloaded the $58 million jail after decades.

The developer has called for viable proposals from nonprofits, lawmakers, local government leaders -- or really anyone with an idea. However, no one has been able to show they have a secure funding source.

Schnitzer authorized his company Harsch Investment Properties to begin the permit process to demolish the building to make way for an industrial warehouse.

That likely won't happen for months, Schnitzer said. He has said he would be happy to stop that progress at any time if a funded proposal comes forward.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said last week that he has talked with Schnitzer about the facility and linked it as a possible mental health and addiction recovery center.

-- Molly Harbarger

mharbarger@oregonian.com

503-294-5923

@MollyHarbargerNike co-founder Phil Knight has dropped another $1 million on Republican Rep. Knute Buehler's bid to be Oregon's next governor.

That Oct. 10 gift brings Knight's direct spending on Buehler's campaign to $2.5 million, according to state campaign finance records. Knight also gave $1 million in August to the Republican Governors Association, which turned around and spent $962,000 on Buehler's campaign, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on Tuesday.

Buehler, a Bend legislator and physician, is running against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown.

Knight's latest contribution was filed with the state just before midnight Wednesday and was first reported early Thursday morning by the Portland Tribune.

Although he has supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past and shelled out significant sums on gubernatorial campaigns, Knight's spending on Buehler's campaign has far surpassed the previous record for an individual political donor in Oregon. The state does not have campaign contribution limits.

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrudLawyers painted starkly different portraits of Portland rapper Desmond Washington as a federal judge Wednesday weighed whether he should be locked up as a danger to the community or remain out of jail while awaiting trial on a charge of illegally possessing a gun as a felon.

Citing a recent increase in gang shootings in Portland, Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter D. Sax argued that "gang-involved felons'' with guns such as Washington pose an "unacceptable risk'' to the community.

In the last 2  weeks, police have responded to at least 12 shootings in the city, including two that occurred as officers were close by and in sight.

Desmond B. Washington

Sax showed the judge photos from Washington's Instagram profile, including one of him pointing a handgun in his right hand and holding up an AK-47-type assault rifle in his left hand.

He also submitted snapshots of Washington posing with guns in YouTube music videos and cited the hashtags on Washington's August Instagram profile, which included #blood gang, #inglewood bloods and #shooter. The prosecutor identified Facebook photos of Washington wearing a red bandana and one tied to a gun he's holding that Sax said revealed the defendant's "brazen wearing of his gang colors'' and ties to the Deuce Four Inglewood Blood gang.

"This is not a referendum about rap music or the defendant's right to be rap artist,'' Sax said. "We're prosecuting him for being a felon in possession of a firearm.''

Washington's defense lawyer Susan F. Wilk criticized the government's "speculative and misleading'' characterizations of her client's alleged gang ties, arguing they're based on a "troubling pyramid of insinuations and assumptions'' and race-based profiling drawn from his social media posts that reflect his work as a performer.

In contrast, she provided the court with pictures of her client standing with his arms around his children, accompanied by the hashtag #fatherlove. Although Washington had been involved in street gangs when he was younger, he's eschewed those ties and is focused on creating music and being a father, Wilk said. He has five children with one on the way.

"Today the government says Mr. Washington is free to be a rap artist,'' Wilk told the court. "Yet the government principally relies on representations on social media associated with his persona.''

Police arrested Washington last Wednesday after searching his girlfriend's apartment with a warrant obtained in an unrelated investigation. Officers found a Taurus model .45-caliber gun in the master bedroom's dresser drawer, beside Washington's personal belongings, including a gold dental grill, several gold necklaces and an "i5da.p" pendant, his rap music moniker, according to Sax.

The pistol, with a black handle and silver slide, was reported stolen from a storage locker in Tualatin in March or April 2017, and further forensic tests are being done to determine if the gun is tied to any shootings, the prosecutor said.

Washington professed to a probation officer last year that he'd "always'' be a part of the "Deuce Four Inglewood Family Blood,'' but claimed he wasn't "banging anymore,'' Sax wrote to the court.

Last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo, despite the prosecutor's protestations, released Washington from custody, allowing him to live with his father. U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez upheld the decision later that day. Sax then submitted a motion to revoke Washington's release, which U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mosman heard Wednesday.

Sax this time cited Washington's 12 prior convictions, including seven felonies  among them an earlier case of being a felon with a gun, attempting to elude police, unlawful use of a weapon and delivering cocaine. Washington failed to appear in court on eight occasions, violated his supervision three times and had his state probation revoked in the last 18 months for having a gun, Sax said.

Wilk said the probation revocation was news to her.

Mosman said he wasn't going to consider the social media postings each side presented. Instead, he said he was troubled by Washington's history, which is the only concrete information he can rely on to predict the defendant's future behavior.

He cited concerns about Washington's convictions, his failures on supervision and his most recent probation revocation.

"I cannot ignore the past,'' Mosman said. "The past for you is terrible. ... While on supervision, you got revoked for possessing a gun. That really, for me, is insurmountable.''

Washington, sitting beside his lawyer, turned over his belt to his girlfriend and sister. Deputy U.S. marshals then handcuffed him and led him out of the courtroom.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianEli Himebauch got quite a surprise when he pulled over to report an abandoned Ford Focus as it sat on a Southeast Portland street.

Just then two men crawled out from underneath the stripped car. Apparently they were still at work.

Himebauch locked himself inside his pickup, and refused to budge when one of the men pounded on the window and ordered him out.

Then without warning or explanation, the man pulled out a cordless grinder and chewed away at Himebauchs 2011 GMC truck, ultimately causing $6,500 in damage.

This week, that man -- 41-year-old Nathaniel George Rosales -- was sentenced to 10 days in jail, 80 hours of community service and 18 months of probation.

Rosales also handed over a $1,000 check -- money that will pay off Himebauchs insurance deductible. If Rosales hadn't come up with the money, his plea agreement called for a 30-day jail sentence.

At a previous hearing, Rosales pleaded guilty to felony first-degree criminal mischief.

Reached by The Oregonian/OregonLive after Rosales sentencing, Himebauch expressed shock that Rosales came through with the $1,000. Himebauch then recounted the rest of the crazy encounter last Feb. 12.

Himebauch, who lived nearby, had passed the abandoned Ford at Southeast Foster Road and Barbara Welch Road a few times.

It was missing more and more parts by the day, said Himebauch, 38. I told the grand jury it was like watching coyotes picking apart a deer carcass.

So Himebauch decided to jot down the Fords vehicle identification number, then report it to authorities.

Thats when Himebauch said he interrupted Rosales and the other man -- and Rosales went on the attack.

It was about 7:30 p.m. Himebauch realized he was stuck in his truck with nowhere to go. With the abandoned car in front of Himebauch and traffic rushing behind him, he couldnt back out.

So he called 911. As Rosales kept grinding away without seeming to tire, Himebauch decided to act, he said.

I was in disbelief, Himebauch said. And I was mad."

He jumped from his truck and began to chase Rosales, who responded by hopping in his partners waiting car and speeding off, Himebauch said.

Himebauch followed.

At this point, its more This guy is going to have to answer for what he did, Himebauch said. Im following him and Im on the phone with 911 and all of a sudden, his car stops again.

Himebauch said Rosales ran toward his truck, this time with a cordless reciprocating saw.

He says: Ill kill you. Leave us alone! Himebauch recounted.

Himebauch backed his truck up, and his attacker charged again, he said.

This happens about three times, Himebauch said. It was like a game of cat and mouse.

Thats when the other suspect drove off, leaving Rosales in the middle of the road, Himebauch said. Rosales ran off, climbing over fences and running through backyards near Southeast 136th Avenue and Harold Street, Himebauch said.

Police arrived, tracked him down and arrested him a short while later. Most of Himebauch's story is outlined in court papers filed by the prosecution. Himebauch filled in the rest for the news organization.

At the time, Rosales had no job and had been living on public assistance. He's now working in construction, said his defense attorney.

Rosales had no previous criminal history. He told jailers he had no mental health problems. He also said he hadnt used methamphetamines in years, but authorities still suspect he struggles with the drug, because of his behavior that night and a small amount of meth they found on him.

As part of Rosales' sentence, he must undergo a drug evaluation and treatment, if it's determined necessary. Because of Rosales lack of criminal history, he was booked into jail about 8:30 p.m. on the night of his arrest and released 2  hours later.

Himebauch said hes been left feeling disappointed in the systems response to quality-of-life crimes that blemish the citys reputation. Last year, his wife's car was stolen. Last week, his teenage son's car was, he said.

Im just tired of this mentality around Portland, Himebauch said. ... Im so fed up.

-- Aimee GreenThe estate of an Intel contractor sued the company Wednesday, alleging its negligence resulted in him being crushed to death inside a manufacturing tool last year.

The suit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court by the contractor's mother and daughter, seeks $995,000, plus unspecified medical and burial services from Intel and an Intel employee.

Jay Elwell, 49, died on July 12, 2017. He worked for an Intel contractor, Raymond Handling Concepts Corp., and was performing scheduled maintenance on a manufacturing tool at the company's Ronler Acres campus.

Semiconductor manufacturing is Oregon's largest industry. Intel employs 20,000 in Oregon, more than any other business and more than anywhere else the company operates.

Often depicted as clean and antiseptic, chip production is actually an industrial process that involves huge manufacturing tools and hazardous chemicals.

Regional chip manufacturers have reported several accidents over the decades - some of them severe, resulting in hospitalization and ground contamination. Still, public officials have said they have no record of any deaths before Elwell's.

A Hillsboro police report on the incident said Elwell and a colleague ran into a problem with the machine, so Elwell went inside the large tool to fix it. His colleague, outside the machine, pressed controls to move a carousel inside in one direction. The tray rotated in the opposite direction instead, moving Elwell over the top of the machinery and down the other side, crushing him in the process.

Investigators reached no conclusion on why the tray inside the machine rotated in the wrong direction. But Oregon's Occupational Safety and Health Division levied a $17,400 penalty against Raymond Handling in January, concluding the contractor had failed to use a safety procedure that would have prevented it from starting while a worker inside was in a hazardous position.

Wednesday's suit does not name Raymond Handling as a defendant. Joe Piucci, the Portland attorney representing the Elwell family, said Oregon law shields direct employers from lawsuits when workers are injured or killed, provided that employer has workers' compensation insurance.

Though OSHA did not cite Intel, it issued a "hazard letter" to the company in January for failing to inform employees of the precautions they need to take before working in confined spaces during projects that require work permits.

The lawsuit also names an Intel employee, Seungwoo Lee, as a defendant, though it does not identify what role he might have played in the incident. The state investigative report identifies Lee as a senior process engineer.

Lee told investigators he plays no role in maintenance of the production tool other than escorting contractors from Raymond Handling to the work site. He said he did not know maintenance contractors were entering the tool themselves.

Intel declined comment and Lee, through the company, also declined to respond.

"While we can't comment on litigation, Intel cooperated fully with the investigation of this tragic accident, and we are committed to maintaining a safe working environment for our employees, our suppliers and our community," the company said in a written statement.

Staff writer Aimee Green contributed to this article.

-- Mike Rogoway | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699President Donald Trump moved Wednesday to withdraw from a 144-year-old international postal agreement that enables businesses in China to mail small packages to the United States at a hefty discount, an arrangement government officials said boosts foreign competitors and costs the U.S. Postal Service roughly $170 million per year.

Trump's notice to exit from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) treaty comes as the White House cranks up the pressure on Beijing to drop what it calls predatory commercial practices, including swiping trade secrets from American companies operating in China.

"This has been a long-standing, long-festering problem," said Robert Taub, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent federal agency.

The administration framed the departure as separate from the trade war in which Trump has impod tariffs on roughly half of Chinese goods entering the United States.

Dropping out of the postal treaty, first ratified in 1874, is expected to exacerbate tensions with China, but the Postal Service and business groups applauded the action Wednesday.

"The current system has led to the United States subsidizing the imports of small packages from other countries," said Jeff Adams, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

Under the treaty, which sets fees that national carriers in 192 countries charge for mail delivery, the U.S. Postal Service bills China-based companies at a sharply discounted rate for parcels that weigh less than 4.4 pounds.

Trump administration officials say the leg up, granted under a 1969 provision, was intended to promote growth in poor countries. But it remained in place after China became an e-commerce powerhouse.

The deal has allowed the country to flood the United States with cheap goods at shipping discounts of up to 70 percent, putting American companies at a disadvantage and straining the U.S. mail system while fueling growth abroad, Taub said.

That resulted in $170 million in losses for the post office last year.

"They're using our Postal Service and contributing nothing to the overhead, and Americans have to pay for that," he said.

A one-pound package that costs the U.S. Postal Service about $10 to deliver can be mailed from China for just $2.50, according to White House figures.

Administration officials said they informed the UPU, which is based in Switzerland, that the United States intends to withdraw from the pact - a one-year process, per United Nations rules.

Over this period, the State Department will aim to negotiate better rates for Americans, the White House said, or choose to walk away from the international body in 2020.

UPU Director General Bishar Hussein said in a statement Wednesday that he "regrets the decision" and welcomed the opportunity to talk further with U.S. officials.

"The UPU remains committed to attainment of the noble aims of international collaboration by working with all its 192 member countries to ensure that the treaty best serves everyone," he said in the statement.

The postal treaty irked leaders from both parties long before Trump took office, Taub said. The Reagan administration pressed for change with few results, and a 2015 government report warned that mail from abroad was straining America's postal system.

Singapore and European countries also benefit from the arrangement.

Packages from China surged as the country morphed over the past decade into an e-commerce powerhouse with the world's largest online retail market, which logs approximately $354 billion in annual sales.

Small packages from China to the United States jumped by 182 percent between 2011 and 2012, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Postal Service.

Sean Heather, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation, praised the administration's step to negotiate higher rates for China and other countries.

"American companies should not pay more for package delivery within the United States than what the U.S. Postal Service collects to deliver packages from overseas," he said in a statement.

But some analysts brushed off Wednesday's move. Derek Scissors, who studies China at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, said Trump's announcement doesn't carry much heft compared with his promise in September to impose what he vowed to do in September. After Beijing imposed new duties on $60 billion in American imports, Trump said he would punch back with levies on an additional $267 billion in Chinese goods, effectively placing higher border taxes on everything the United States buys from China.

So far, that plan hasn't materialized.

"It's a stunt to distract from the fact that the president promised more tariffs last month and doesn't want to act," Scissors said.

A stronger approach to securing better rates for the United States would include other developedcountries, such as Norway, that also shoulder a disproportionate burden through the UPU pact, said Blaine Johnson, a China analyst at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank.

"Threats to withdraw may in fact be counterproductive," she said, "as U.S. allies may prefer a more consensus-seeking approach."

(c) 2018, The Washington Post. Written by Danielle Paquette.It gets complicated, she said, when you try to talk about addiction in relation to A Star is Born. The movie waves away a lot of borderline-abusive behavior under the guise of, well, hes an addict. Id be more OK with it if there was a scene where the Lady Gaga character is dealing with it all, and processing her role in his life, and in her own. Romain acknowledges that Coopers film exerts a pull. Its almost there for me. But the lack of her voice, and the confusing message about addiction, and what we should allow and accept regarding the addicts in our lives  this is a really unhealthy romance.Doc Ardrey, a Lowcountry resident, enjoys writing more today than in his previous 69 years, dating back to sixth grade. His career credits total more than 5,000 published articles in global business and technical publications  plus Escquire, NY Times and the Congressional Record.The Alden B. Dow Museum and the Midland County Historical Society will join forces for fall Halloween fun for all ages.

"Chemistry is Out of This World," an evening of fun and educational STEM activities, is set for 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at the AB Dow Museum inside Midland Center for the Arts and at Midland County Historical Society's Heritage Park. Presented as part of National Chemistry Week, there will be fun hands-on activities at both locations. The event is included with AB Dow Museum admission at both sites.The School of Music at Central Michigan University is proud to welcome back alumni Mike List ('06, '08), Thom Monks ('08), Drew Parent ('11), joined by Patrick Fitzgibbon as part of its 2018-2019 Master Series selection of concerts. The group combines music from around the world with jazz and art-music sensibilities to create their unique sound.

Going around and hitting objects made out of glass may not seem like the best idea, but the percussion quartet Rela Percussion will perform a concert on all glass instruments at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at Staples Concert Hall. The instruments were created as a part of the Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Artist Pavilion Program (GAPP) in 2017 and include marimbas, gongs, singing bowls, udu drums as well as a few other surprises.On World Polio Day -- Wednesday, Oct. 24 -- the Rotary Club of Saginaw-Downtown and Riverside Saginaw Film Festival will team up for a special showing of the movie "Breathe" at the Court Street Theatre in Saginaw.

Based on a true story and set in 1958 England, Robin Cavendish contracts polio at age 28, is paralyzed and confined to bed, and is given only months to live.

But with the help of his wife Diana and her twin brothers, and the groundbreaking ideas of inventor Teddy Hall, Cavendish emerges from the hospital ward and devotes the rest of his life to helping fellow polio patients and the disabled.

"Breathe" (2017, PG13) will raise money for the Rotary International PolioPlus polio eradication program. The suggested donation is $10 at the door.

Since 1985, Rotary International and its clubs worldwide have contributed more than $1.8 billion, including matching funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to fight the disease and remains committed to eradicating it.

Rotary volunteers have helped immunize more than 2.5 billion children against polio in 122 countries, along with its partners WHO, UNICEF and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In that span of time, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases in 1988 to 22 confirmed in only Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2017.

Seven years ago, Rotary International established Oct. 24 as World Polio Day to commemorate the birth of Jonas Salk, who led the first team to develop a vaccine against poliomyelitis.

The 7 p.m. showing of the movie at the Court, 1216 Court St., will include a video preview of this year's Nov. 8-11 Riverside Saginaw Film Festival lineup. Door prizes are planned, and the concession stand will be open.

Tom Braley, the owner of the Court Street Theater, is a Rotarian and is waving a rental fee for the evening.(Harold and Ollie Leigeb are sons of Michael and Mary (Winter) Leigeb. Moving to the Midland area in 1920, the Leigeb family first lived on Vance Road, then on Waldo Road and at last made their permanent home in Averill. Rich in history, the story of lumbering in the area captured the imagination of their youngest son, Harold. The story continues of growing up in a family of 10 boys and two girls: Mike, Tony, Matt, Paul, Frank, Ed, Elmer, Adeline, Ollie, Joanne, Joe and Harold. )

Mike Leigeb had dairy cows while living on Waldo Road. Milk cans were put in the water trough to keep the milk cool until it was picked up. Fred Behling was the guy who picked the milk cans up. Ollie said, "He was a little guy but he could heave those milk cans up into that Model T truck without any help."

Eventually Mike got a job at The Dow Chemical Co. and was content to have a small vineyard and an orchard when the family moved to Averill. Ollie remembers how his mother would use a scrub brush and Fels Naptha soap on the feet of his sister Adeline and his feet before they got in a tub of grapes, stomping them to get the juice out. Sugar and yeast were added to the grape juice and put in a 55-gallon barrel where it would ferment. The wine was kept in the cellar.

The wine was for their dad and when company came but the older boys found a knot in the board and knocked it out making an opening to the cellar. Then they took a coat hanger, straightened it out and taped a short water hose to it. With great patience, the water hose was threaded into the barrel where they managed to siphon some of the wine off into a glass fruit jar.

When the boys came in from doing chores their mother would say, "Well, I don't know why you boys come in from doing chores so happy?" Ollie said, "They had been drinking wine while doing chores."

Carl Siechert not only carried groceries; he also carried coal and periodically two coal cars would be left on the siding to be unloaded. Carl hired Ollie and Paul, and Harley Draves, to unload the two coal cars. Ollie said, "We unloaded the coal cars a piece at a time by throwing the coal out of the cars. We could unload the two cars in two days." They were paid 15 cents an hour and a candy bar and a bottle of pop.

When a new girl came to the one room country school, Harold had a crush on her. He sat near enough to Gloria Abby that he could whisper to her. One day he whispered loud enough that the teacher heard him and asked him to stop. He did momentarily and then began whispering again. He was so intent on making an impression on Gloria that he didn't see the teacher come up behind him. Harold said, "The next thing I knew a green metal wastebasket hit me on the side of my head. It hurt but the waste basket got a dent in it. Years later I visited the school and there was the green metal wastebasket with the dent still in it."

The Leigeb family was living on Waldo Road when Harold was born. Ollie said, "Dad told us to go outside and stay there." Mike Leigeb delivered Harold because Dr. Towsley had been delayed in town.

When Harold was 2 years old, their mom Mary had a nervous breakdown and lived with Anna Furst in a little trailer beside the old Homer Grange Hall to recover. During that six weeks, Adeline, who was now in school, carried 2-year-old Harold each day to school with her where he spent the entire school day sitting in a corner of the school room. Harold has a vague memory of being carried to school by his sister and sitting in a corner with nothing much to do the entire school day.

Joe and Harold did a lot of things together, being the two youngest. The Tittabawassee River was shallow enough to wade in but there were some spots that were deep where logs had been dumped into the river and gouged out large holes. Joe and Harold were wading in the river when they hit one of those holes. Neither could swim. Harold said, "Joe and I were grabbing each other, pushing our heads under water, trying to find a place shallow enough for us to wade back to shore."

In 1925 Mike Leigeb bought a Blue Bird Overland car. (Overland became Pontiac.) He added a spotlight on the front of the car doing the wiring himself. After the spotlight was added, he decided to take the car for a drive. He started pulling out of the driveway when the wire to the spotlight "grounded out" and the car began smoking. Everyone jumped out of the car and stood there helplessly watching the car burn up. They had no insurance. A whole year of crops had gone into buying that car.

Some of the family were going to town and Ollie remembers being little enough that he was standing up in the back seat. Adeline was whining because she wanted to go, too. Her dad got out of the car. He got a long piece of twine and a washtub, tied the washtub with the twine to the back bumper and put Adeline in the tub. Mike Leigeb pulled out of the driveway. The twine broke. And Adeline sat there, crying, because she wasn't going to go to town after all.

The children became teenagers, then adults, married and left to establish their own homes. Five sons were in the service during World War II.

Eventually only Joe and Harold were still home. Harold remembers when his dad came home from work. Mike would take his work jacket off, wash his hands and sit down at the table. Harold said, "You had better be sitting at the table when he came in."

Mary died at the age of 79. Mike died when he was 83. Still the 12 children kept in close contact through the years. Memories of their mother loom large when they talk about what it was like growing up. Her Hungarian goulash. Her strudel with the dough stretched so thin you could see through it. Saturdays saw her baking a dozen pies.

The early Greeks and Romans had temples with a perpetual flame burning to honor the deceased. The one who tended the flame was called Keeper of the Flame. Today Keeper of the Flame still means keeping a legacy alive. Ollie and Harold Leigeb have become the keeper of the flame for the Michael and Mary Leigeb descendants. We are all keepers of the flame when we remember those we loved.Sabrina Peters was excited to kayak down the Cedar River with her family from Gladwin City Park to her relative's house in Beaverton. But she didn't anticipate the group having to stop, lift their kayaks over fallen trees and continue back on the river.

"Yes, it is a problem," said Gladwin Mayor Dee Jungman. "We are working with state representatives to get the problem cleaned up."

Fallen trees, large branches and trash are making parts of the Cedar River impassable. Furthermore, Beaverton City officials worry the water will bring large logs their way.

"When the logs get to us, we migrate them through the dam," said Beaverton City Manager Heath Kaplan. "We've not seen one so big that it hasn't continued downstream."

Yet, based on the size of the trees on the river, both cities are worried about the impact.

Jungman and Gladwin City Manager Jack Abernathy reached out to Michigan Rep. Jason Wentworth and Sen. Jim Stamas. Both said they are working with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Natural Resources and the National Guard to help fix the problem.

The DEQ can bring machinery in and cut the logs, but must then place them on the river bank. Some of the river bank includes private property -- but some property owners don't want the logs on their property.

"We are basically working our best to resolve this issue," Abernathy said Wednesday.

DNR Northern Lower Peninsula Wildlife Supervisor Rex Ainslie, said the policy is when the trees are cut up in the water, they are placed on the shoreline, which is sometimes private property. However, it first requires a DEQ permit to bring in the heavy machinery to cut the logs. While the DEQ suggests placing the cut logs back on the property from which it fell, there is also an issue of property rights and private owners can refuse.

"Property owners definitely need to be involved," Ainslie said.

Ainslie said the situation isn't unique to the Cedar River. He said the growing amount of dead ash trees is creating log jams in many rivers and waterways.

Ainslie, who has spoken to Wentworth and Stamas, said this is a "long-term issue" and there is a "funding issue."

Gladwin resident Kyle Grove believes the cleanup is going to have to be by people who care about the river. Grove said he's heard from the DEQ and Department of Natural Resources that residents couldn't do it themselves. Ainslie said that is due to an issue of permits and possible trespassing.

"Well keep pushing the idea, it can be done," Grove said. "It's a major job and it will take hard-working volunteers who want it done.

"I don't think there's financial help from the state, but I think we'll get the head of some departments involved to help us."

Grove said if people sit back and wait for someone else to do it, it will be plugged for "another 25 years."

Even Gladwin City Councilwoman Sarah Kile spent time this summer with a chainsaw trying to cut some of the logs, to allow swimmers, tubers, kayakers and canoers navigate the river.

"It's not just one location on the river," Peters said. "There are places along the way that you either have to navigate around or completely stop and maneuver over."A loner and a dork by his own labeling, the Sacramento, Calif.-raised Honnold grew up with parents (now divorced) who didnt go in for easy praise or physical affection. Young Alex became the bright, steely, temperamentally tricky man, now 33, we see in Free Solo, someone who casually refers to himself as a bottomless pit of self-loathing. At the beginning of the documentary, he has resigned himself to free soloing over any semblance of a conventional romantic relationship. I will always choose climbing over a lady, says Honnold, who lives in his van.To the editor:

My sister, Sarah Schulz, is running for the 98th district of the Michigan House. As a hospice nurse, I am so proud of my sister and her candidacy. I believe she is the most qualified candidate for the office. So I would like to correct some misinformation that is circulating.

Through letters and Facebook posts, Sarahs opponent, Annette Glenn, has repeatedly stated that Sarah just moved here seven years ago. This purposely implies that Sarah is not a Michigan native, which is not true. Sarah and I grew up in Flint. We are fifth generation Michiganders. She attended Michigan State University for both her bachelor's and master's degrees. Our family cabin is on Wixom Lake, where we spent childhood summers, and yearly attended the Midland County Fair. Now Sarah is a wonderful role model to my five children.

So her husband could secure a teaching job, Sarah only left Michigan to live in New York City from 2005-2010. When they returned, Sarahs family came to Midland where her husband now teaches in a neighboring community.

Sarahs opponent, Annette Glenn, is not a native Michigander. She moved here from Idaho in the late 1990s when her husband took a job with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Annette is not From Michigan, did not grow up here, and was not educated here.

It is important for constituents to vote based on the truth.

CARON ESTERDAHL

Flushing,

formerly of HopeTo the editor:

Please join me in voting to support attorney Kurt Yockey as he seeks a position on the Midland School Board this November.

Kurt's devotion to Midland Public Schools is evidenced by his 45 years of volunteer service. Kurt believes that every student deserves the opportunity to have their best educational experience and, in turn, grow into great citizens. He understands that the school board is charged with many responsibilities, including crafting a vision for Midland Schools so that every student's diverse needs and interests are met.

Kurt is ready to work as a team on the school board so that educational opportunities can continue to grow for students of Midland Public Schools. The men and women honored by our community with the chance to serve in this capacity must have the temperament and respect for the stakeholders. Kurt Yockey has both that temperament and respect for the position. He will be an advocate for the students, the faculty, and the community.

In his over 37 years of legal experience, Kurt has served on the board of several businesses. He is currently serving on the Attorney Discipline Board, a position he has held for over 30 years. There he evaluates the conduct and ethical standards of attorneys across Michigan. Kurt Yockey will bring his business experience, his legal experience, and his unquestionable ethics and integrity to our school board. He is not afraid to ask the tough questions and do the work necessary. Our schools and, more importantly, our students deserve this high-level representation.

Thank you Kurt for your years of service and positive influence. You are appreciated and respected by so many. I will proudly cast my vote for you in November.

ASHLEY METHNER-RAPANOS

MidlandLepore, who calls herself the worlds most famous transsexual, is a heroine of augmented proportions; as a teenager, the diva began exchanging handmade costumes for black-market estrogen and underwent gender confirmation surgery soon after leaving high school (her actual age and birth year are the stuff of mystery). In the late 80s, Lepore burst onto the New York scene while working at Patricia Fields makeup counter and went on to be a member of Michael Aligs weekly Disco 2000 in the early 90s, then serving as a muse for everyone from Dave LaChapelle to cosmetics giant M.A.C.Wilkof has worked regularly on stage and television, and in 2016 directed a little gem of a movie about the actor's life, "No Pay, Nudity." Menken, of course, has gone on to collaborate with other lyricists, including Tim Rice, with whom he wrote what he describes as "the most successful song" of his career, "A Whole New World," from "Aladdin." Menken's successes also include the stage version of "Newsies" and the movie musicals "Pocahontas" and "Enchanted," the latter two written with Stephen Schwartz . But it's clear that for the gregarious Menken, the memories of Ashman are burnished with a special luster. "Howard was so f---ing brilliant," he declares. "His kind of brilliance, the gold standard. Nobody has touched it."Retail operator Heinemann Duty Free has launched a local fine food campaign at Budapest Airport, Hungary, which will run until October 31, 2018.

The Festival of Gourmets reflects the special culinary flair of the inhabitants along the Danube river, with popular regional products such as salami, wine, fruit brandy, herb liqueur and chocolate. Local suppliers participating in the festival include the wineries Royal Tokaji, Patricius, St Andrea, Vylyan and Vida Peter, as well as the palinka (fruit brandy) distillery Bestillo and chocolate manufacturer ChocoMe.

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Ildiko Jankovich, managing director, Heinemann Duty Free Budapest, said, We wanted to offer our guests an extraordinary dining experience at a special venue where they could enjoy the finest Hungarian cuisine and have interesting conversations in a relaxed atmosphere.

At Heinemann Duty Free Budapest, we constantly strive to delight our customers with our attractive shopping offer. At this event, however, our primary concern was to create a tangible experience for the customers of the brands and our range of specialties, and to ensure that their visit to us was a special, emotional experience.

Patrick Bohl, head of retail and advertising at Budapest Airport, said, Being at the core of Budapests distinctive shopping experience, our partnership has allowed us to offer our customers exclusive campaigns and the Festival of Gourmets has given us another opportunity to continue our vision and commitment.The one thing Trump cares more about than money is, apparently, immigration. Thursday morning, the President threatened to end a recent trade deal with Mexico unless it stops a migrant caravan en route to the United States southern border. The trade deal in question wont even be sent to Congress for ratification until next year. His executive declaration went live on Twitter, of course.

He tweets: In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught.

Trumps war-like trade strategies are hitting an entirely new low, along with any shred of diplomacy he may have had hidden away. He calls the migrants CRIMINALS, though in their home countries, the migrants say they face gang threats and violence. These people simply want better for their families. Yet his xenophobic assumptions continue unabated.

If Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras are unable to stop the caravan, Trump says hell call on the military to CLOSE THE SOUTHERN BORDER. Much like his wall idea, that border solution likely isnt feasible. The military is forbidden from deploying for domestic civilian duty, unless its at a U.S. base, as the Washington Post points out.

And, of course, Trump blames the Democrats for weak immigration laws. He wraps up the final executive tweet with the line, All Democrats fault for weak laws! Its worth reminding the President that his own party has controlled all arms of the government since his inauguration. The few immigration strategies Republicans have employed are not only psychological torture, but also outright ineffective, as more families pour into the States. WaPo reports that September saw the highest number of families arrested in one month, at over 16,000. Its an 80 percent increase from July.

Nothing Trump or his party tries is effective when it comes to immigration, nor is it moral. Its not even sensical.

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

....In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018The Cloud Lets Anyone Recover from Disaster

Data safety is a core business concern these days, even for small to midsize businesses (SMBs). But being prepared to ensure that your business operates even during potentially catastrophic disasters requires more than simply implementing business cloud backup. While such services are certainly part of a healthy disaster recovery (DR) plan, there's a lot more to be considered before you can call your organization safe, especially from an IT standpoint. A "disaster" refers to a complete halt of most or all of your systems simultaneously. If someone asks what your organization would do if all of its systems went dark one day, and you can't answer that question with confidence, then you're setting yourself up for serious problems down the roadand that's "when," not "if" because disaster hits everyone sooner or later. Fortunately, the cloud and the internet combine to make recovering from system disasters easier than ever.

Many SMBs dismiss planning a coherent DR policy because they believe such strategies are only for deep-pocket, enterprise-scale IT budgets. What can an SMB do? In the past, SMB-style preparation usually meant doing frequent backups and storing backup tapes offsite. Effective and cheap. Enterprise DR followed the same rules, but added provisioning for a hot-site, meaning another office that could be provisioned to house data center infrastructure and workers on short notice, or at the very least, have spare "dark" hardware and infrastructure capacity on hand to quickly replace failed systems. These measure do ensure some level of disaster-proofing, but they're both slow by today's standards and exceedingly expensive, which is why many SMBs opt to ignore DR planning entirely.

Fortunately, today's options are not only more effective, they're also cheap enough to be affordable for businesses of any size. That's due to two important IT enhancements: software-based infrastructure and the cloud. Virtualization allows businesses to provision servers as software instances on top of disparate hardware. So, for example, SMB X may have a single physical server in a data closet somewhere, but using Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESXi (among other virtualization platforms), they could be running two, three, or more software servers on that hardware with each software instance looking and behaving like any other server as far as the network and users are concerned. By implementing servers as software-based instances, IT managers get the ability to back those servers up by using the same methods they would for data.

But while backing up your virtual servers to a separate disk or tape gives you the ability to restore the server on another server eventually, backing them up to the cloud puts them in another data centera shared data center that can not only restore your servers, but also initialize them and operate them just like you would and on just a few minutes' notice. That means, instead of paying for another building with an expensive data center you'll only access in emergenices, you can configure a cloud account to continually backup the most recent instances of your servers and simply switch them on if the primary servers at your local site fail. Instant Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS). And, since most of these cloud services operate on a pay-as-you-use basis, this lets even small businesses operate with sophisticated DR options at a fraction of what it would have cost in the past.

In this roundup, we tested five different DRaaS offerings, including Carbonite Server Backup, Microsoft Azure Site Recovery, Quorum onQ Hybrid Cloud Solution, Zerto Virtual Replication, and Zetta Backup and Recovery. All of those solutions are based on the DRaaS model, combined with some client-side software, as well as remote storage options.

What Is DRaaS?

During testing, we discovered that DRaaS vendors may loosely define exactly what DR consists of. Some vendors market their offerings as a simple, all-in-one solution, while others approach the DR market with a variety of options, such as SQL Server or MS Exchange-focused backups or complete server and even data center resurrection in the cloud. Weigh your options carefully as more options usually equals higher cost.

That said, it becomes very clear as to what must be part of a DR solution at a minimum:

The ability to automatically backup critical systems and data.

The ability to quickly recover from a disaster, with minimal user interaction.

Flexible recovery options, such as restoring a single application or the whole infrastructure.

Easily understood billing structure.

Backup target options.

While the above outlined must-haves give a basic indication of what a DRaaS solution should do, SMBs should not just stop there to determine what service to choose. With that in mind, we created a checklist that should make the selection process a little easier:

DRaaS Checklist

Armed with the above checklist, SMB owners should be able to make short work of selecting a DRaaS provider that meets their needs.



Backup: (Which backup options/capabilities are offered)



 Will the DRaaS offering protect all of your line-of-business apps and platforms?



 Does the DraaS solution create local backups as well as cloud-based backups?



 Does the DraaS solution incorporate file size management to reduce storage needs?



 What apps, operating systems, and databases are directly supported?



 How frequently is the data backed-up or synchronized?



Recovery: (What happens if there is an on-site failure)



 How long does it take to recover an app? Server? Data?



 Will the DraaS support a self-service model?



 How complex is it to move from a backup to a live state?



 Does the DraaS offer a local appliance and address network change issues?



Failure-State: (How does the temporary recovery solution work)



 What level of performance can be expected when failed apps are hosted in the cloud?



 What architecture is used by the host to guarantee availability?



 What is the maximum number of VMs the DRaaS supports?



Failback: (What happens when on-site capabilities return to normal)



 Are there time limits on how long the provider will host the recovery environment?



 Are there additional charges, penalties, or other costs associated with long-term hosting?



 How does the provider manage restoration/failback?



 Is there a danger of data loss during failback?



 Does the failback process introduce downtime?Storage has been a core aspect of the Microsoft Azure service since its inception, so it's only natural that the company eventually extend that expertise to Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) and business continuity. Microsoft does this via Azure Site Recovery (ASR), which begins at $16 per month per protected instance. Even though ASR is specific to Microsoft Azure, as compared to other solutions, like Zerto Virtual Replication, that offer third-party back-end cloud options like Amazon Web Services (AWS), its nice price coupled with an easy-to-use yet sophisticated set of backup, disaster recovery (DR), and reporting features earn it an Editors' Choice award when compared to the rest of the contenders in our DRaaS solution review roundup.

While it seems only logical that virtual machines would be a primary use case for ASR, given the popularity of Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization platform, it is possible to protect physical machines as well. Virtual machine protection includes those running on the VMware platform along with Microsoft Hyper-V. ASR provides a great solution for protecting complex workloads involving multiple servers and services. This capability takes advantage of Windows PowerShell and Azure Automation Runbooks to perform any number of configuration steps. Microsoft also provides both detailed documentation and white papers for specific applications to help get you going. While you'll get the most bang for your buck with ASR if you employ IT staffers who are familiar with Windows Server, the service doesn't actually require IT intervention and certainly not configuration by Azure staff, like you have with Zetta Backup and Recovery ($175.00 at Serve from American Express) .

You Can Trust Our Reviews Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. ( Read our editorial mission .)

Microsoft has a published list of currently supported application-aware ASR solutions broken down by configuration type. Both Hyper-V and VMware solutions support site-to-site and site-to-Azure target scenarios. Surprisingly, the VMware solution currently supports a wide range of site-to-site solutions, including Microsoft Exchange. Hyper-V support of virtual Exchange workloads for site-to-Azure is listed as "coming soon" at the time of this writing. ASR does have other limitations, including a current maximum disk size of 1TB. The previous limitation of 127GB for OS disks has been removed in the latest release. Generation 2 virtual machines (VMs) are supported through a conversion process during failover and failback. Additionally, the company announced ASR support for its latest Microsoft Windows Server 2016 operating system in November of 2016. As of that announcement, Microsoft claims ASR customers can recover Windows Server 2016 operating system instances and workloads not only to Azure but another data center of their choice.

Installation

Azure Site Recovery supports two primary deployment scenarios for protecting both physical and virtual servers. For complex, multi-machine scenarios Azure Site Recovery requires an installation of Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), which you need to factor into the overall cost of the solution especially if you have a large IT staff. SCVMM is not required for single system protection, but for anything beyond just a few systems you'll need it.

Installing Azure Site Recovery in the single system case required me to establish a Recovery Vault on Azure followed by a Hyper-V Site within the Vault. Once these were created, I had to download the Azure Site Recovery Provider installer plus a key file, which links the local Hyper-V host machine and Azure. Be advised that Windows Server 2016 TP4 is not currently supported as a Hyper-V host.

The final step I had to accomplish was to connect the local host with the Azure service using the previously created registration key file. This step only took a few minutes and, once accomplished, added the local machine to the Azure Site Recovery dashboard. With the system registered on Azure it was possible to schedule an initial backup of a target virtual machine with a single 13GB virtual disk. This was started late one evening and completed early the following morning over an Internet connection with a 5MB upload rate.

Management Interface

Microsoft Azure's management dashboard has continued to evolve over the years. The newest Azure portal release uses responsive UI techniques to deliver a fluid interface. While I had a little trouble navigating to specific tasks at first, the search feature always helped me find what I was looking for. I found the Site Recovery documentation, which includes introductory material, planning documents plus detailed instructions on every step, to be clearly written and easy to follow.

Failover testing is a critical step to make sure your disaster recovery (DR) solution actually works. The Azure interface makes this as simple as one click. One click, that is, after a good bit of configuration steps. Fortunately, Microsoft provides a Quick Start page that outlines these steps, though it's not aimed at neophytes. Both an Azure storage account and virtual network must be created prior to initiating a failover. ASR uses the concept of a Protection Group to make it easier to collect everything necessary to get an application back online running on Azure.

For complex scenarios, Microsoft offers a gallery of Azure automation runbooks to accomplish a variety of configuration tasks. These include things like opening specific ports for remote desktop access or for Web access. Other runbooks make it possible to execute custom PowerShell commands once a system has failed over, which provides a serious boost to ASR, provided your IT staff has some in-house PowerShell skills. The Jobs tab shows a detailed history of all previous system actions and an export button for reporting purposes.

ASR Pricing

Azure Site Recovery is billed based on number of instances protected. Every instance protected with Azure Site Recovery is free for the first 31 days and then billed at $16 per month for recovery to customer owned sites or $54 per month when protected to Azure. You'll also pay for the storage used at rates from a low of $0.024 per GB for locally redundant storage (LRS) up to $0.061 per GB for Read-Access Geo Redundant (RA-GRS) storage. Prices go down as your total storage increases.

Bottom line: you will pay roughly $80 per month to protect a single VM with up to 1TB of disk using locally redundant storage at one Azure data center. That's a far cry from competitors like Quorum onQ Hybrid Cloud Solution ($175.00 at Serve from American Express) that are not only more expensive but also require dedicated on-site hardware.

Middling Performance

Azure Site Recovery is not solid as an instantaneous failover solution. In the case of an unplanned failover it can start up the instance of the most recently synced data in a fairly short amount of time, depending on the complexity of the workload, but that will still be measured in minutes or potentially even longer spans. Then again, for typical DRaaS use cases, instantaneous failover isn't much of an issue when you're busy fleeing the office. The default setting for replication is set to 15 minutes. For small workloads involving only a few VMs, the time to spin up in the Azure environment is minimal, and in our case just over five minutes.

Planned failovers perform a synchronization prior to the transferring execution from the local instance to the one running in Azure. I ran a planned failover on a single-VM instance which had been previously synced to Azure, and it required a total of one hour and 24 minutes. This included 39 minutes for data synchronization and 37 minutes to execute the failover.

You can tweak these numbers by managing your configuration and network settings matched against ongoing ASR reporting. ASR has some reporting available through its native management interface, but for best results, customers should use reports obtained through Windows Server management or System Center. Azure Site Recovery provides a cost effective solution for Microsoft-centric installations integrating with Microsoft System Center offering a wide range of automation options for specific applications. For its overall depth of backup reporting features and workload options combined with the lowest price of the bunch, Azure Site Recovery was the clear pick for Editors' Choice.

Microsoft Azure Site Recovery 4.5 Editors' Choice Check Price Pros Support for Linux and Windows, physical and virtual.

Support for VMware virtual machines (VMs).

Support for Windows Server and System Center management tools. Cons Requires IT-level knowledge for all but the simplest disaster recover (DR) scenarios.

Failover a manual process.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager required for multi-VM configurations. The Bottom Line Azure Site Recovery is an excellent choice for companies seeking to protect critical workloads running on either Hyper-V or VMware. Pricing is competitive and a tight integration with System Center makes this a very strong choice for companies that have standardized on the Microsoft stack.There was a mountain of evidence stacked up against Matthew Darby, age 22, in the first-degree murder case involving his college ex-girlfriend, 20-year-old Alina Sheykhet, at the University of Pittsburgh.

There were the protection-from-abuse documents showing Sheykhet said Darby was physically abusive and prone to fits of jealousy, TribLive.com reports.

There was the time prosecutors say he broke into Sheykhet's Oakland apartment two weeks before the killing.

And then there was the night of the murder, itself, in the predawn hours of Oct. 8, 2017.

That's when prosecutors say Darby, armed with two knives and a hammer, brutally killed Sheykhet in her apartment bedroom. She would be found by her parents and roommates that morning.

So with Allegheny County prosecutors gunning for the death penalty in the case, Darby on Wednesday pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole, TribLive.com reports, adding:

Darby also pleaded guilty to burglary, theft, trespassing and possessing an instrument of crime in connection with Sheykhet's killing. In a separate case in which he broke into Sheykhet's apartment two weeks before the killing, Darby pleaded guilty to trespassing.

Asked why he was pleading guilty, he answered, "Because I am guilty."

Shortly after 4 a.m. on the morning of the murder, Darby called for an Uber, which took him from Brottier Hall to a street adjacent to Sheykhet's home, a driver testified at the previous hearing.

Investigators collected surveillance footage they said shows Darby tossing items into a sewer near Sheykhet's place. Pittsburgh police homicide Detective Edward Fallert said he and other officers found two knives and a hammer in the same sewer grate, the latter of which appeared to have hair and skin stuck to the claw portion.

Darby also had been charged with corruption of minors and simple assault in a separate case, the assault of a 17-year-old girl in Elizabeth Township less than a week before Sheykhet's murder.You've heard of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir -- but what about Berthe Morisot? One of the founding members of the impressionist movement, she's been largely cut out of the historical narrative. A new exhibit at the Barnes Foundation is ready to change that.

"Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist" showcases 68 paintings by the artist, who lived between 1841 and 1895. More than half of those paintings belong to private collectors and thus are rarely available for public viewing, making this exhibit one of the rare chances to see them.

The exhibit runs Oct. 21 through Jan. 14, 2019 at the Philadelphia-based Barnes Foundation, before making its way to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Musees d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie in Paris.

This is the first time in more than 30 years that Morisot has been the focus of an exhibition in the United States. For many, it'll be the first time they've even heard her name, despite the fact she was a key part of the impressionist movement, appearing in nearly all of the original impressionist shows and exhibiting more work in them than Monet and Renoir.

"Morisot is at the very heart of the impressionist movement. She was one of the founders of the movement but the way our history has been written has undermined that role," said Nancy Ireson, deputy director for collections and exhibitions at the Barnes. "It's our duty and our pleasure at the Barnes to rewrite that history to show her in her true light."

The reasons for Morisot's decline in fame are several and gender definitely plays a part, exhibit curators said. Other factors included the fact that Morisot did not promote her work as forcefully as some of her contemporaries did and the fact that much of her work is in private collections.

"We start seeing her less and less in exhibitions over the course of the 20th century," said Nicole R. Myers, the curator of European painting and sculpture at the Dallas Museum of Art, and one of the co-curators for the exhibition. "Even today, you can count how many group impressionist exhibitions in the U.S. alone have been held in the last five years and very few of them have examples of her work, even though she was exhibiting in seven of the eight impressionist shows."

As for that only show she missed, it happened shortly after she gave birth to her only child, Julie.

"She was really a part and recognized as a leader in this movement, Myers said. "Our project here is really to try to re-insert her into the story. She was there and she gets written out.

"And it's not just to say that she was important, but to show what her contributions were so that, after this, our hope is that she's included in these group exhibitions and we don't have to say 'woman impressionist,'" Myers continued. "Our hope is that people will have a sense of who she was, how important she was and start to recognize her style too."

"Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist" showcases the work of French artist Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), one of the lead figures in the impressionist movement. It's at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia Oct. 21, 2018 to Jan. 14, 2019. Julia Hatmaker | jhatmaker@pennlive.com

Morisot approaches her subjects differently than her impressionist colleagues. She regularly painted portraits and figures, and often they were women. That's not too different from others, but where she stands out is how she paints them. When her contemporaries paint women, often there's a story in the painting itself -- Myers uses the example of a sad expression on the face of a woman getting ready with a crumpled love note on the ground.

With Morisot, the figures stand on their own, often without much of a clearly defined background at all.

"It switches the focus into the psychology of the sitters," Myers said. "For me, that's one of the things that's really unique with Morisot. She's invested in conveying something of the inner life of her sitters and it's not a quality we find with most of her colleagues."

Another unique aspect of Morisot's work is how she depicts mothers or nannys. She doesn't feel the need to showcase the women being overly happy or doting, instead she grants them melancholy, thoughtful or ambiguous expressions.

Morisot also paints her husband, Eugene Manet (brother to the painter Edouard Manet), in a paternal and domestic light. He's depicted multiple times with their young daughter, Julie, playing with toys and keeping her company. While painting their families is nothing new for artists, Morisot's nature provides a different perspective from the male artists who dominated her field.

The lack of narrative also forces the viewer to examine Morisot's technique and style. Myers highlighted Morisot's brushwork ,which is gestural and loose, as well as how Morisot deals with lighting effects.

The exhibit shows Morisot's work over time while providing insight into her life, how she came to be a professional artist and the struggles she faced.

"I don't think there has ever been a man who treated a woman as an equal," Morisot is quoted as saying. "And that's all I would have asked for -- I know I am worth as much as they are."

"Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist" is curated by Myers and Sylvie Patry, chief curator for curatorial affairs and collections at the Musee d'Orsay. Tickets for the exhibit are $30 for adults and $28 for seniors, and include admission into the Barnes' main collection display. There are daily tours of the exhibit at 1 p.m. at the Barnes, for those looking for an in-depth look at Morisot's work. The Barnes Foundation is located at 2025 Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. For more information and to purchase tickets visit

or call 215-278-7000.I told Steven Avery the same thing I tell everyone. If you hire me and youre guilty, trust me, Ill do a way better job than the prosecutors. I will find out if you are guilty, and were going to do testing. We cant control the results. The results will be turned over to both sides, so really think about this, Zellner says on the first episode of Season 2. You would have to be an idiot to be hiring me to prove that youre guilty.MEXICO BEACH, Fla. -- With stunned faces and tears, residents of hard-hit Mexico Beach returned home for the first time Wednesday about a week after Hurricane Michael hit to find pieces of their lives scattered across the sand and a community altered.

Nancy Register sobbed uncontrollably after finding no trace of the large camper where she'd lived with her husband. She was particularly distraught over the loss of an old, black-and-white photo of her mother, who died of cancer.

Husband Taylor Register said he found nothing but a stool that he uses for cutting his hair, a hose and a keepsake rock that was given to him by a friend 40 years ago.

"That's my belongings," he said, pointing to a small pile beside his red pickup truck. Choking up, he said: "I appreciate God humbling me. Everybody needs it."

Just up the road, tears ran down Lanie Eden's face as she and husband Ron Eden sifted through sand in search of items they left before evacuating from the small beach house they've rented each October for years. They didn't find much - just a large pack of toilet paper that somehow stayed dry and a son's camp chair.

The Edens, who are from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and are temporarily staying in Alabama, were stunned to see mountains of debris and countless destroyed buildings as they drove into town for the first time. In a state of condominium towers, Mexico Beach was one of the few remaining places with small houses and a 1950s feel.

"Basically, we lost 'old Florida.' It's all gone," said Lanie Eden.

READ MORE: 17 dead, unknown number still missing days after Hurricane Michael hit

Residents among the community of about 1,200 people who rode out the storm at home have been in Mexico Beach since Michael hit. But officials used the city's Facebook page to tell others to stay away for a week after the Category 4 storm ravaged the beach town with 155 mph (250 kph) winds and a strong storm surge.

State emergency management officials said some 124,500 customers across the Panhandle were still without power Wednesday morning and 1,157 remained in shelters.

In Bay County, home to Mexico Beach and Panama City, more than half of the households and businesses remained without electricity. Inland, in Calhoun County, 98 percent of the customers didn't have power Wednesday morning, according to the emergency management website. And in Jackson County, which borders Alabama and Georgia, about 83 percent were without power.

In the meantime, in many areas devastated by the hurricane, law enforcement officials are battling looting of homes and businesses.

Bay County Sheriff's Maj. Jimmy Stanford said deputies have arrested about 10 looters each night since the storm hit. In some parts of the county, residents have spray-painted signs warning that "looters will be shot."

Panama City resident Wes Allen said looters have been a constant problem at the badly damaged motel where he is staying with his wife and three children. Residents have formed a nighttime patrol to keep an eye out for thieves.

READ MORE: American Red Cross had 112 Pa. volunteers assisting in hurricane relief efforts

"We've got looters breaking in and stealing whatever they can," he said. Allen said he hasn't reported the thefts to police because authorities seem so busy with other things.

Often the looters have been armed, Stanford said.

"Most of our officers lost their homes, have been working 16- to 18-hour shifts with no sleep, no shower, and now they're encountering armed individuals," he said. "It's a stressful time for everyone in Bay County."

The storm killed at least 16 people in Florida, most of them in the coastal county that took a direct hit from the storm, state emergency authorities announced Tuesday.

That's in addition to at least 10 deaths in Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

The state's tally did not provide details of how the victims' deaths were storm-related, and The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm those details for all of them. The AP's tally of deaths, in which authorities have confirmed details of how people died, stood at eight in Florida, and 18 overall including other states.

In Mexico Beach, what had been a town of about 1,200, residents don't expect power or anything else anytime soon.

Carlton Hundley, 25, returned to the house he rented with his girlfriend Connie Huff to find nothing but a long pile of shattered wood. What few possessions they found, including one of his shoes, were scattered across the ground.

"I knew it was bad, I'd already seen the pictures. But it's a lot more than I thought," he said.

Roxie Cline, 65, was overcome with emotion as she tried to describe the destruction in Mexico Beach, where she and her husband had lived for three years.

"I can't, I can't," she said, tearing up. "It's devastating. You lose everything. Everybody has."

___

Jay Reeves of the Associated Press wrote this story. AP writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, and Freida Frisaro in Miami contributed to this report.

___

For the latest on Hurricane Michael, visit https://www.apnews.com/tag/Hurricanes .NEW CASTLE, Pa. (AP) -- A man who is facing charges in the fatal shooting of a man, a woman and her 10-year-old daughter in western Pennsylvania awaited arraignment Thursday.

Authorities arrested Stephen Procopio, 19, of New Wilmington, on Wednesday night and charged him with three counts of homicide.

"I didn't hurt her," Procopio told WPXI-TV in response to a question about the girl's death as he was taken into custody.

#BREAKING & JUST IN: Police have arrested 19-year-old Stephen Procopio of New Wilmington. He will be charged with 3 counts of criminal homicide in the killing of a mother, her daughter and another man that happened at a home on West North St. Stay with @WPXI for the latest. pic.twitter.com/P0TUupgPL2  Mike Holden (@WPXIMikeHolden) October 18, 2018

A relative found the bodies of 31-year-old Nichole Pumphrey, 10-year-old Amariah Emery and 31-year-old Lawrence Cannon in a New Castle home on Tuesday. Officials said the woman was shot twice and the other victims were each shot once.

Police Chief Robert Salem told WFMJ-TV Procopio knew Pumphrey. "We believe he used to babysit the children. He was an acquaintance with Nichole," the chief said.

KDKA-TV reported Procopio and a woman were taken into custody for questioning and later released on Tuesday. He was again taken in on Wednesday night.

Four other children were found in the home. All were interviewed and then released to relatives.

Police did not disclose a motive.Seven firefighters and at least two residents were injured in a Baltimore blaze that resulted from a gas explosion at an apartment Wednesday.

The fire broke out just before 3:15 p.m. on the 4400 block of Bowleys Lane, CBS Baltimore is reporting.

According to reports, once firefighters got into the building, an explosion occurred, causing two of the firefighters to fall through the floor into the basement and injuring five others.

Six firefighters are being treated at burn centers and the seventh was taken to a trauma center.

According to reports, one of the injured residents may have jumped out of a window to escape the fire.

Reports indicate the fire was still burning late Wednesday night.A state appeals court panel Thursday restored an aggravated assault charge against an Indiana University of Pennsylvania student who had been accused of killing a fraternity brother during a drunken scuffle.

The Superior Court judges refused, however, to reinstate a homicide charge Indiana police lodged against 21-year-old Brady C. DiStefano of Johnstown for the February 2017 death of 20-year-old Caleb Zweig.

The state court took on the case after prosecutors appealed an Indiana County judge's ruling that dismissed the homicide and assault counts. County Judge William Martin found investigators had not even made a basic case for their allegation that DiStefano had caused Zweig's death.

Senior Judge John L. Musmanno agreed only partially in the state court's opinion.

Musmanno noted Zweig, of Rockville, Md., died after a hazy incident that occurred while he, DiStefano and another Phi Delta Theta brother, Trevor King, were walking home from a party.

King later testified that he heard DiStefano and Zweig, who both were intoxicated, arguing as they walked behind him. He said he saw the two poke each other, turned back around, and then heard a scuffle.

When he turned around again, he saw Zweig on the ground and DiStefano kneeling over top of him, King testified. He said he pulled DiStefano off Zweig, who was unconscious. "Some weird noises were coming from (Zweig's) throat," King told investigators.

An ambulance was called, but Zweig died soon after arriving at the hospital, Musmanno noted.

His endorsement of Martin's dismissal of the homicide charge stemmed in part from testimony by county Coroner Ashley Zezulak. She testified that Zweig died from "asphyxiation secondary to presumed chokehold and chest compression," Musmanno noted. Yet Zezulak said she found no physical evidence that a chokehold or chest compression had been applied.

Musmanno also cited Martin's observation that King, the only witness to the scuffle, never actually saw how Zweig ended up on the ground.

"The commonwealth's case for criminal homicide relied upon only a tenuous inference that DiStefano was the cause of Zweig's death," Musmanno concluded.

There is more of a legal basis for the aggravated assault charge, he found, since Zweig suffered a scalp wound that Zezulak determined did not cause his death.

"Though King did not see how Zweig was knocked to the sidewalk, given the fact that DiStefano and Zweig had engaged in a 'scuffle' immediately preceding this, it could be reasonably inferred...that Zweig got knocked to the sidewalk as a result of the altercation," Musmanno wrote.

Therefore, he found it is possible for the prosecution to legitimately argue Distefano's acts met the "reckless" element needed to support an aggravated assault charge.A Carlisle man contacted a juvenile girl on social media and lured her to a sexual assault at a Mechanicsburg park in 2017, Mechanicsburg police said Thursday.

Daniel Eugene Seibert Sr. contacted an unidentified girl through social media apps "Whisper" and "Kik," police said.

While talking to the girl, he eventually lured her to a secluded area of Memorial Park and "engaged in unwanted sexual behaviors" with her, police said.

Online court documents show the incident occurred on July 1, 2017.

Seibert was charged with felony counts of rape by forcible compulsion, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor - sexual offenses, criminal use of communication facility and corruption of minors, according to court dockets. He was also charged with misdemeanor indecent assault by forcible compulsion.

Seibert was taken into custody and arraigned on Wednesday, and was released after posting a bond his for $50,000 bail.

Police are only aware of this victim, they said. If anyone has additional information, contact Det. Keith Anthony at 717-691-3300.Coming one day after the General Assembly failed to advance a statute of limitations reform bill, news that the federal government had launched an investigation into clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania served to advocates a reminder that their fight is not over.

"I'm not surprised. What was in this latest grand jury report was horrific," said Rep. Mark Rozzi, the Berks County Democrat who led the effort to enact a retroactive window into reform legislation. "We've said all along that the crimes committed by perpetrators are bad but the crimes committed by the church are egregious. It's not surprising that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating at all."

The Associated Press on Thursday first reported that the federal government had opened an investigation into the sexual abuse of minors by priests inside the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

Dioceses have already received subpoenas demanding confidential files and testimony from church leaders, AP reported.

The dioceses of Harrisburg, Erie, Greensburg and Allentown have confirmed they received subpoenas from federal investigators.

The Diocese of Harrisburg confirmed it is cooperating fully with the inquiry. The dioceses of Erie, Greensburg and Allentown released similar statements.

"This subpoena is no surprise considering the horrific misconduct detailed in the statewide Grand Jury Report," Greensburg Diocese spokesman Jerome Zufelt said in a written statement. "Survivors, parishioners and the public want to see proof that every diocese has taken sweeping, decisive and impactful action to make children safer. We see this as another opportunity for the Diocese of Greensburg to be transparent."

The investigation comes two months after the Office of Attorney General released the findings of an 18-month long grand jury investigation into six dioceses in Pennsylvania. The findings, released in August in a 900-plus page report, detailed horrific crimes of rape and molestation of thousands of children by more than 300 priests; and the concealment of the crimes by church officials.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, who issued the subpoenas, is looking into whether priests, bishops, seminarians or others committed any federal crimes.

Few prosecutors have ever invoked - much less succeeded with - a seldom-used but powerful federal law designed to combat organized crime.

Only a few federal prosecutors have ever initiated civil lawsuits against the church under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a federal law better known as RICO that has been used to prosecute mobsters, the Hells Angels and other criminal enterprises.

It is not clear whether federal prosecutors in this case are invoking RICO.

Marci Hamilton, an attorney and prominent advocate of reform to statutes of limitations, says that more to the point, federal prosecutors should be applying a relatively unknown 1910 statute known as the Mann Act, which officially is named the White Slave Traffic Act after its author, Rep. James R. Mann.

The law was originally intended to fight forced prostitution and "debauchery" but more recently has been broaden to combat the interstate trafficking of children for sex.

"This is something they could have been prosecuting with for years," said Hamilton, a University of Pennsylvania law professor and CEO of ChildUSA. "The federal government has been silent on sex abuse in the church ....Congress, the presidents, the FBI and the U.S. attorneys, but it just became impossible to ignore anymore."

In 2008, federal prosecutors invoked the Mann Act to prosecute New York's Democratic governor, Eliot Spitzer. The statute has also been used to prosecute polygamous Mormon fundamentalists.

"It's about time that the federal government noticed that children are been taken across the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border for sex and that priests were transporting children from here to the shore repeatedly," Hamilton said.

In the latest grand jury report out of Pennsylvania, investigators found that priests had at times transported children across state lines for the purpose of sexually molesting them. Church officials for decades concealed the crimes from law enforcement.

The RICO statute features a slew of onerous and difficult requirements, most narrowly defined.

For instance, the government must prove the defendant is an enterprise and one that is engaged in two or more instances of racketeering activity, including: illegal gambling, bribery, kidnapping, murder, money laundering, counterfeiting, embezzlement, drug trafficking, slavery, among other crimes.

Prosecutors would have to prove that the church directly invested in, maintained an interest in, or participated in the criminal behavior affecting interstate, even foreign commerce. In other words, that it covered the crimes up.

Moreover, complex and esoteric international law virtually renders the Vatican, and the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, impervious to lawsuits involving clergy sex abuse. Attempts to do so have proven nearly impossible.

For starters, courts treat dioceses as a free-standing corporations, independent of other dioceses and the Vatican. A prosecutor looking to go after the pope would have to show the personal involvement of officials in the Vatican in the wrongdoing. Additionally, only nations can go before the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. Most of those crimes involve war crimes or crimes against humanity.

To date, Attorney General Josh Shapiro has convicted two priests as a result of the grand jury investigation: David Poulson and John Sweeney, both priests, have pleaded guilty to sexually molesting minors.

Mike Barley, a spokesman for the Diocese of Harrisburg, reaffirmed that the diocese was cooperating fully with the investigation.

He acknowledged that since the diocese was thoroughly investigated by state agents of the attorney general's office, the diocese has all records that might be needed for the federal investigation in order.

"It's very similar," Barley said. "We have produced a lot of those records before so the collection process won't take as much time."

The General Assembly on Wednesday failed to advance Senate Bill 261, which as amended would have eliminated criminal statute of limitations going forward, and most notably, open a retroactive window that would have allowed victims time-barred from the courts to file civil lawsuits against predators.

The bill met its demise after a substantial cohort of lawmakers - particularly in the House - vowed to reject the plan, which included restrictions as to who could be sued. The bill would have allowed victims to sue only abusers - and would have exempted institutions like the church from suits.

Barley said the diocese remained committed to establishing a victims compensation fund.

"I think the Diocese of Harrisburg has been clear with our position moving forward with the fund," he said. "Certainly we were monitoring what was going on and we will continue to monitor. I know our position is to move forward with the survivors' fund."

Barley could not provide additional information as to how the fund would be financed and whether it would be a joint venture with other dioceses.

"We are committed to a fund," he said. "I don't know how it will be constructed but I know we are committed to doing it."

For now, victims and advocates may not have secured all the recommendations handed down by the grand jury, but knowledge that federal prosecutors are conducting their own probe into possible federal crimes served as some comfort.

Rozzi said he is confident that prosecutors will find that children had been trafficked across state lines for the purpose of sex.

"We understand that more stuff is going to continue to come down the road with the New York and New Jersey grand juries," he said. "We are going to see trafficking back and forth. That won't be surprising at all.

"It was a punch in the gut for victims last night but to wake up and see this is coming says the fight is not over."In a ruling that wrecks a central Pennsylvania drug case, the state Supreme Court has found that police illegally subjected a suspected drug courier to a "sniff search" by a K-9 cop.

That decision, contained in an opinion by Justice Christine Donohue, invalidates all the evidence, including boxes of marijuana wrapped as Christmas presents, that two state troopers acquired after pulling Randy J. Valdiva over in Centre County.

The crux of the case is that Valdiva only gave two human troopers consent to search his rented minivan following the Dec. 12, 2013 stop on Interstate 80, Donohue found.

The troopers did not have any reasonable cause to believe that consent extended to requiring Valdiva to wait another 40 minutes at the roadside for the drug-sniffing dog to arrive, the justice concluded.

Troopers Jeremy Hoy and David Long said they stopped Valdiva because he made a lane change without signaling. Hoy later testified that several signs, including Valdiva's nervousness and the common practice of gift-wrapping to camouflage drug packages, caused him to suspect Valdiva was transporting drugs. I-80 is a known narcotics pipeline, the officer added.

Hoy testified that he called the drug dog's handler even before seeking Valdiva's consent to search the van. However, and this was a key factor in the Supreme Court's decision, Hoy said he wasn't sure if he told Valdiva a dog would be involved in the search.

In any case, Dougherty noted, the officers and Valdiva had to wait 40 minutes for the dog to arrive. The K-9 alerted on one of the boxes that was opened and found to be packed with marijuana.

Valdiva was convicted on drug charges during a non-jury trial after Centre County Judge Thomas King Kistler rejected his request to suppress the evidence secured through the dog sniff. He was sentenced to 11 1/2 to 23 months in prison.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after Valdiva appealed a Superior Court decision that upheld Kistler's denial of his evidence suppression plea.

While she rejected Valdiva's claim that Hoy and Long had used deceit to get him to consent to the search, Dougherty agreed that the search exceeded the scope of Valdiva's consent.

The justice cited Valdiva's argument that he believed the troopers would only conduct a brief hand search of the van immediately after receiving his consent.

"There was no canine officer or handler present at the time, nor did the circumstances surrounding the interaction between Valdiva and the troopers suggest that a canine unit was going to be used to conduct the search," Donohue wrote. "Under these circumstances, we cannot conclude that a reasonable person in Valdiva's position would have understood that his consent to allow two human officers to search his vehicle would somehow operate to permit the search to be conducted by a canine trained in drug detection."

Also, she found, the time that elapsed between the granting of the consent and the actual search, "was beyond that which a reasonable person would have expected and understood."The father involved in the so-called "Black Widow" murder will soon be joining his daughter in serving a life prison term.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that Anthony Rocco Franklin, 76, is facing an automatic life term after a Columbia County jury convicted him of first-degree murder for the July 2012 ambush slaying of his former son-in-law.

Investigators said Franklin conspired with his daughter, Maria Sanutti-Spencer, to murder her ex, Frank Spencer, who was killed in a sniper attack at his home near Bloomsburg.

Sanutti-Spencer, 52, a former resident of Dauphin County's Lower Paxton Township, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2015 and is serving a life-plus-50-year sentence. She was convicted of terrorizing her ex, torching his house and recruiting her dad to kill him.

Frank Spencer was killed less than a month after the couple's divorce became final. Investigators said Sanutti-Spencer's DNA was found on cleaning gloves at the murder scene.

A state Superior Court panel denied Sanutti-Spencer's appeal in January.

Franklin's conviction was a case of delayed justice, Shapiro noted. Franklin fled to South America during the murder investigation in 2013 and wasn't extradited back to the U.S. to stand trial until last year.

Prosecutors told the Columbia County jury that Franklin and Sanutti-Spencer had terrorized Spencer and his family long before the slaying. Franklin wanted to exact revenge because he believed Spencer had disrespected him, Shapiro said.PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department has opened an investigation of child sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

That's according to two people familiar with the probe, who say federal prosecutors have served subpoenas on dioceses across the state that seek a trove of sensitive files and testimony from church leaders.

The two people are not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The subpoenas follow a state grand jury report in August that detailed hundreds of allegations of children being sexually abused by priests in dioceses across Pennsylvania.

Because of Pennsylvania's time limits on prosecuting old cases, only two priests were charged as a result of the grand jury investigation.Exhausted and hoarse, the state Senate's top leader conceded a measure of defeat late Wednesday night.

The clock, and perhaps the will, had run out on a bill that would have overhauled child sex crime laws and possibly set right a tainted legacy of the Roman Catholic Church.

Speaking in his office just minutes after the Senate adjourned, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati excoriated his detractors in his effort to pass the reform bill. Still, he left open a door for possible future negotiations even though Wednesday was supposed to be the last day of the Senate's session until January.

More than 12 hours had passed since the Senate convened on Wednesday. A Jefferson County Republican, Scarnati criticized some lawmakers for what he said was a campaign to undermine his efforts to reform the laws to change the statutes of limitation. Nearly all the victims in the grand jury report on clergy sex abuse have no option for legal action because the offenses occurred too long ago.

Scarnati said he sought to deliver a mechanism to thousands of victims who are timed out of the court system, so they could seek justice and perhaps monetary compensation.

He castigated Rep. Mark Rozzi in particular for what he said was his constant vilification of him in the media. For Rozzi, who was raped as a child by his priest, it had been nothing but a mission of justice. Scarnati insisted he sought to provide justice, too.

Rozzi had made himself fully available to media, granting interviews and appearances to support the calls for justice against his church. At least four major grand jury investigations in the state in recent years concluded that priests had preyed on children and the church had covered it up.

Scarnati, who had evaded the media in recent days while the Senate considered the hotly contested bill, betrayed his anger about the failed bill. He also offered a rare window into his personal experiences.

He said he had been called - mostly by Rozzi - "what I would call the most undesirable names I could think of" throughout the debate over Senate Bill 261. The debate, he said, had become disgusting. Scarnati said that as a father of three children and one who had lost a child, "To say that I stand with pedophiles is insulting and disgusting."

But in the somber press conference in his office, Scarnati aimed to focus on the Senate bill. With the legislative clock expiring, the Senate failed to generate the support needed to pass it and send it back to the House for concurrence.

"We are at a standstill," Scarnati said.

And he described the hotly debated bill bluntly.

"It's a disaster," he said.

Scarnati had come under scrutiny - indeed, attack - for proposing amendments to the bill that would bar victims from suing church officials or dioceses. Under the proposal that emerged Wednesday, victims would have to limit their lawsuits under the retroactive window to individual perpetrators.

Critics, including victims and House members in both parties, said it was unacceptable to prevent victims from suing the church. The measure surprised some lawmakers, since Scarnati had long argued that any retroactive window to sue was unconstitutional.

"The amendment was further than I was comfortable with going, that's what took so much time, but I wanted to find middle ground and I wanted to negotiate in good faith," Scarnati said. "Unfortunately no one else during the past weeks and months decided to move or negotiate."

Throughout the entire day, scores of victims of child sexual abuse (not all by clergy) lined the halls of the Capitol. They kept a vigil for what they viewed as the most important piece of legislation out of the term. As the evening wore on and 11 p.m. approached, it was clear that the Senate was not going to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

Senators dashed in and out of the party's caucus room, dodging members of the media peppering them with questions about the fate of the bill. Soon enough it had became clear that the bill had met its demise.

"It's dead for the session," Sen. Daylin Leach said emerging from the Senate chamber. "There will be no further action. We'll come back in January... things being what they are...as of now there is no vote in Rules (Committee)."

Leach supported the sticking point in the bill: a retroactive window that would allow victims who are beyond the statutes of limitation a short period of time to file civil suits against predators, including the church.

Under state law, victims must file civil action by age 30, so those who were abused decades ago have no recourse in the legal system.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro started the day in Erie announcing a guilty plea from one of the few priests indicted as a result of the grand jury report. Late Wednesday night, Shapiro appeared back at the Capitol to stand by victims (they were still there) and pledge his support for them.

"Senate leaders prioritized the church over the victims," Shapiro said.

Rozzi at intervals popped out of House proceedings to check up on the other side. He slammed the proposal to prevent victims from suing the church.

"A window that does not include institutions is not a window at all," he said.

Jennifer Storm, the Pennsylvania Victim Advocate who has stood by victims, found silver linings.

"It means we don't get a bad bill but it also means they didn't do their job," Storm said. "But we are willing to come back in January..we are willing to come back until Nov. 30, their deadline."

Some time later, in the quiet of his office conference table, Scarnati reflected on how the House had failed to act on his bill for nearly 20 months. He crafted the bill in the Senate in 2017. The House amended it after the August grand jury report made among its recommendations a retroactive window.

The bill would broadly reform the state's child sex crimes. It would have eliminated the statutes of limitation in criminal cases going forward. Currently, victims must pursue criminal cases by age 50.

Scarnati's bill also called for the establishment of a tribunal of judges to preside over a compensation fund. The fund would benefit victims who are time-barred from the legal system due to expired statute of limitations. Catholic dioceses had supported the creatioin of the fund.

Scarnati said he had looked for "common ground" but that "none of other sides were willing to compromise." He heard victims, and they wanted to face their abusers in court.

But as usual, the devil was in the details.

His amendments contained all four recommendations laid out by the grand jury, but to a point. To some victims and their advocates, the provision barring victims from suing institutions - including the church - was far too limiting.

By mid-afternoon, negotiations behind closed door suffered setbacks. Scarnati cited the pronouncement by House Majority Leader David Reed that the amended bill would be unacceptable to his chamber. Scarnati said that dealt a serious blow to passing the bill in the Senate.

"Why move a bill on a product that is going to die in the House?" Scarnati said.

For the record, Scarnati said he had not spoken to Reed, nor House Speaker Mike Turzai for that matter. He lamented that out of respect, the members of the respective chambers have historically communicated when amending bills from the other chambers.

PennLive produced this report in the early morning hours of Thursday and could not reach out to either lawmaker for comment.

Scarnati, for weeks silent on the negotiations, admitted that he didn't want to let organizations or the church off the hook. The church, he said, would "pay substantially to make right the horrific sins of the past."

In the end, it didn't matter.

"Quite frankly, I very much wanted to resolve this issue," Scarnati said. "I very much agreed with Representative Rozzi. I believed that we could come together and stand together in order to have a bill done tonight."

It wasn't to be - at least not for October 2018.

The clock had run out for this legislative session. At least, technically on paper. The leaders in the Legislature have all the power to reconvene its members - at least in this session until late November, well after the midterm elections.

Scarnati signaled that it was a legitimate possibility.

"I'm prepared," he said. "I will wait for a proposal..We get a proposal that works for 26 members and I'll bring them back."

For the time being, Scarnati laments the lack of action for the victims.

"What is justice?" he said. "Is justice about money? Is justice facing your perpetrator? Is justice putting somebody behind bars? I can say my bill brought justice and brings healing....We are going to have a whole group of victims out there unable to move forward. I think that's unconscionable."In Prairie Fires, Fraser demonstrates the importance of Wilders daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, in this mythmaking. Lane, a tabloid journalist, had encouraged her mother to earn money by writing newspaper columns. It was not until after the stock market crash of 1929, when Wilder was 62, that she began the Little House books. The two had a vexed relationship, as Wilder was thrifty and Lane was profligate; Wilder was anxious, while Lane suffered from wild mood swings. Fraser, working as a literary detective, takes on the enduring theory that Lane had ghostwritten the Little House books, and she meticulously shows how Wilder shared her drafts with her daughter to embellish and shape them, but that the writing was uniquely her own.PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An Amtrak engineer charged with manslaughter in a deadly high-speed derailment in Philadelphia won't go on trial until next year because of delays in getting evidence from federal investigators.

Brandon Bostian

A lawyer for Brandon Bostian said neither he nor state prosecutors have been able to get the on-board video recordings from the 2015 crash and other evidence needed to try the case. A Philadelphia judge on Wednesday ordered Bostian to appear in court Dec. 20 so she can set a trial date.

Judge Kathryn S. Lewis said she expects to give lawyers several months from that date to prepare for trial. Lewis had reinstated the reckless endangerment and involuntary manslaughter charges last year after another judge dismissed them.

Eight people were killed and about 200 injured in 2015 when the New York-bound train derailed as it rounded a curve at more than twice the 50 mph speed limit.

Defense lawyer Brian McMonagle said it's still not clear what caused the train to accelerate. National Transportation Safety Board investigators concluded Bostian lost his bearings while distracted by radio chatter about a nearby train that was struck by a rock. They found no evidence Bostian was impaired or using a cellphone.

Both McMonagle and prosecutors have given the NTSB a list of information they are seeking through public records requests, but said they had gotten little in the months since an NTSB representative promised in court to provide them. They told Lewis the office handling the agency's Freedom of Information Act requests is overwhelmed with requests, causing delays.

"I am genuinely concerned that the law enforcement agencies that's prosecuting the case doesn't have everything they need. I know I don't have everything I need," McMonagle said.

However, both he and the prosecutor, Christopher Phillips of the state Attorney General's Office, said the case has recently been prioritized, and the NTSB is starting to send out photographs, audio recordings and other materials sought.

"We agreed in September to expedite the process of FOIA documents related to this case, and that's what we're doing," said Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesman, told The Associated Press after the hearing.

Amtrak has taken responsibility for the crash and agreed to pay $265 million to settle civil claims filed by victims and their families. The railroad has since installed positive-train control technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train on its track from Boston to Washington.

The state Attorney General's Office filed charges after the Philadelphia District Attorney declined the case.SHAMOKIN -- For the first time in nearly four years Northumberland County has a prison.

The 148 male inmates who have been housed in leased space in the nearby Coal Twp. state prison were moved by bus into the new facility early Wednesday morning.

Male inmates housed in other county jails and women being housed at the Muncy state prison will be transferred by county staff over the next several weeks, Warden Bruce Kovach said.

Receipt of new prisoners will not begin until Monday to make sure there are no glitches in the booking process and to give the 148 inmates the opportunity to become acclimated, he said.

The county had been without a prison since January 2015 when fire destroyed the 139-year-old jail in downtown Sunbury.

The new prison has a capacity of 206 men and 76 women in cell and dormitory settings.

It has separate recreation areas for men and women inmates, 13 multi-purpose rooms, medical screening and booking areas, medical and dental and mental health treatment facilities and two contact visiting rooms for children.

Staff consists of 63 officers but more will be added as the need arises, Kovach said. Corrections officers have been hired over the past three years to supervise county inmates in the state prison, he said.

The total project cost was $31.698 million, county Commissioner Sam Schiccatano said. That is $12 million to $14 million less than the estimate to build a prison in Sunbury, he said.

The former board of commissioners bought the site of the former Knight-Celotex plant in Sunbury for $2 million with plans to build the prison there.

Those plans changed when NHS Human Services of Lafayette Hill approached the commissioners about buying the 168-acre former Northwestern Academy complex in Coal Twp. outside Shamokin.

The county in June 2016 paid $6.5 million for former juvenile center. It still owns the former Knight-Celotex site, which it hopes either to sell or develop.

Construction costs of the new prison totaled approximately $22 million, which is $800,000 less than what was budgeted, Schiccatano said.

"It was a long process but a rewarding experience," he said.

"We're excited" Commissioner Richard Shoch said. It will change how Northumberland County addresses corrections, he said.

The size of the prison, especially accommodations for females, makes it likely space will be available to house inmates from other counties, the commissioners said.

Adjacent to the new prison will be detoxification and drug rehabilitation center operated by Gaudenzia Inc. that operates programs at 101 facilities for men and women in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.After the state Senate couldn't move a bill to aid clergy sex abuse victims, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Senate Republican leaders have the wrong priorities.

"Senate leaders prioritized the church over the victims," Shapiro said at a Capitol press conference late Wednesday night. "They let the institution that enabled the rape and abuse of thousands of children off the hook."

The bill stalled Wednesday after Senate GOP leaders pushed a plan that would have allowed child sex abuse victims a limited window to sue in cases that went beyond the statutes of limitations.

But the plan had a caveat: victims wouldn't be able to sue institutions, including the Catholic Church.

Lawmakers and advocates said that provision was unacceptable and the opposition defied party lines. House Majority Leader Dave Reed, an Indiana County Republican, said his chamber wouldn't accept a provision to shield institutions from suits.

With Wednesday being the final scheduled day of the state Senate's session, the bill to revamp the state's child sex abuse laws appears to be stalled until January.

Shapiro, who led the investigation into clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania, repeatedly referred to the grand jury report in making the case for a window for victims to sue the church. The grand jury called for a temporary window as a way to ensure such systemic abuse wouldn't occur again.

The investigation in Pennsylvania has garnered national attention and prompted other state prosecutors to conduct similar investigations. So Shapiro said he was particularly disappointed to see the effort to change state law fall short.

"It seems to me the only organization here in Pennsylvania that doesn't understand the ramifications of what was contained in that report are some senators here in Pennsylvania," Shapiro said. "But they will. As time goes on, they will and we'll get it passed."

Shapiro vowed to continue fighting for victims and for changes in state law. He praised House lawmakers for passing a bill that would have given victims a window to sue the church. He also praised lawmakers, including Reed, for helping to defeat a flawed plan that would have shielded the church from suits.

To victims, Shapiro said, "I will never ever leave your side."Investigators kept about 4,000 doses of heroin and fentanyl from hitting the streets during a drug bust this week, Franklin County District Attorney Matt Fogal said Thursday.

The drugs were seized Wednesday from a room at the Red Roof Inn in Chambersburg, the DA said.

He said the man police claim owned the narcotics, Daquan D. Seabrook, was under surveillance and was arrested in Guilford Township after leaving work. Seabrook, 23, of Chambersburg, was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail on drug charges.

The raid stemmed from an investigation that included state police and officers from Chambersburg, Shippensburg and Washington Township, Fogal said.Larry Anderson and Connie Ehrhart were headed to Lowe's on Union Deposit Road Friday Oct. 12 to buy an extension cord when they saw sudden brake lights and bright sparks on Interstate 83 in front of them.

A car that had been pinned and pushed along the concrete median by a full-speed, out-of-control tractor-trailer burst into flames and a second car that had been rammed by the tractor-trailer started to burn in the middle of the highway.

Other wrecked cars and debris littered the three traffic lanes as Anderson, the fire chief of Wellsville Borough in York County, and his passenger, Connie Ehrhart, an emergency medical technician, pulled over.

Larry Anderson, chief of the Wellsville volunteer Fire Company, (at left) with Connie Ehrhart, an EMT.

They weren't on duty. They had been on a routine errand. But they were about to spend the next five hours working one of the most horrific wreck of their careers.

Anderson angled his pickup truck across the middle lane and turned on his emergency lights. A tractor-trailer driver behind him, who was a former firefighter, also angled his truck across several lanes of highway to alert oncoming vehicles that the road was closed. They wanted to prevent other vehicles from hurtling into the crash scene and hitting victims who were still climbing out of their wrecked vehicles.

They would find out later that a tractor-trailer driven by Jack E. Satterfield, 29, of McComb, Mississippi plowed into the backs of the vehicles that had slowed down or stopped in construction traffic just before Union Deposit Road.

In all, 11 vehicles were damaged, six people were hurt and three people, including a 16-month-old baby, were killed.

Anderson quickly donned his turnout gear and called county dispatchers while Ehrhart sprinted toward the mayhem.

The car that had been crushed against the median by the careening tractor-trailer was engulfed in flames. No one could get close. At that time, it was unclear if anyone was still inside, Ehrhart said. She found out later a 24-year-old father, Zachary Lybrand, and his baby girl, Elliana, died in that car.

Ehrhart turned her attention to an injured man and woman standing in the road and asked if they had come from the other car that was starting to burn from its rear end. They said no.

Their injuries were minor so Ehrhart told them to go to the shoulder, away from the burning cars, while she ran to check on the occupants of the half-burning car.

She found an unconscious man behind the wheel as flames creeped toward him into the crushed back seat. Anderson joined her and pressed his own body, clad in fire-resistant gear, against the backseat door on the driver's side, blocking the encroaching flames as Ehrhart and another bystander pried open the driver's door.

Other bystanders approached with small fire extinguishers they had in their vehicles to douse some of the flames and give Erhart room to work.

One of the bystanders had a seatbelt cutter tool with his knife and they used it to free the driver. But the 22-year-old man, Ethan Von Bochoven, had already died from the impact of the crash.

They carefully placed his body in the road a safe distance from the burning vehicle while a bystander fetched a blanket to cover him. Meanwhile, other bystanders pried open the front passenger-side door, rescuing a critically-wounded woman before the flames got to her.

A bystander carried her to the shoulder where Ehrhart tended to her wounds in the dark, against the chill, without any of the usual medical supplies. No penlight. No gauze. No latex gloves.

As it happened, an ambulance was traveling in the opposing lanes of the highway and the driver pulled over. He vaulted over the concrete median with a handful of supplies for Ehrhart, including an abdominal gauze pad that she used to stop the bleeding from the woman's head. But the ambulance crew already had a patient on board who needed to get to a hospital so they had to leave the scene.

A firefighter from the Lancaster area who had been toward the front of the multi-car wreck held the woman's hand and comforted her as tires from the burning cars exploded, creating frightening noises for the already traumatized victims.

"I had limited tools," Ehrhart said. "I focused on keeping everyone calm and away from danger. I couldn't do much else but reassure them."

Ehrhart and the Lancaster firefighter remained with the most seriously injured woman and the original couple that Ehrhart had encountered while Anderson set out to see if anyone else needed medical attention. He found three additional wounded people from two other vehicles that had been pinned between the tractor trailer and the concrete median.

Two people had crawled out of the driver's side door of a pickup truck that ended up on its side, facing the wrong way, and pinned between the tractor-trailer and a BMW.

The woman driving the BMW crawled out of her sunroof after her vehicle was pinned between the pickup truck and the median. It was a miracle that they survived with minor injuries, Anderson said.

He also found a stack of vehicles damaged accordian-style in front of the tractor-trailer. Those occupants suffered minor cuts and bruises.

Anderson placed the victims in triaged-groups so when medical help arrived, paramedics could save time and focus on the most seriously-injured victims first.

About 10 or 15 minutes after the crash, fire trucks from the Colonial Park Fire Company arrived and started dousing the burning vehicles. A series of ambulances arrived as well and hauled six patients away.

The driver who caused all the devastation fled after the crash, but Lower Paxton police officers identified him in a crowd of onlookers in the Best Western parking lot next to the highway.

Jack Satterfield was wearing a short sleeved shirt and no shoes despite the cold temperatures and didn't seem affected by the cold, said Lower Paxton Public Safety Director Adam Kosheba. Those elements drew an officer's attention and the officer then confirmed the man matched a photo of the driver associated with the empty offending tractor-trailer. The officer called for backup and they confronted the man, who made incriminating statements, Kosheba said.

"He made no effort to show anyone he was the driver," Kosheba said, "but when confronted, he didn't resist."

Court records supporting homicide charges against Satterfield would later allege that the driver downed five double-shot margaritas and two to three beers with dinner in New Jersey before climbing into his cab and driving into Pennsylvania.

It's unknown if he consumed additional drinks on his way to Harrisburg but police reported a strong odor of alcohol on Satterfield when they arrested him.

Officers eventually routed motorists trapped behind the wreckage off the northbound highway by driving southbound back to the nearest exit.

Ehrhart and Anderson stayed at the scene until about 1:30 a.m. They have training in trauma yet still were rattled by what they saw that night.

"It doesn't just stop the day after," Anderson said. "It stays with you."

The effects on regular bystanders of witnessing that volume of devastation concerned Ehrhart.

"It's not something you deal with every day," she said. "They saw a lot in the seconds before we got there. They saw the car on fire and they realized no one ever got out. Some of the people, you could tell it was very traumatic what they saw."

Ehrhart spent some time at the scene advising bystanders about symptoms of trauma-related problems and encouraging them to seek help if they notice any signs.

Anderson and Ehrhart said they were both impressed by how well all of the randomly assembled bystanders worked together so seamlessly.

People donated whatever they had from their vehicles to help, they said. One family were headed on vacation and they pulled items of clothing from their suitcases to help keep victims warm. Others emptied fire extinguishers onto flames or offered kind words.

"The bystanders were great. They were just amazing," Ehrhart said. "The kindness we saw, you couldn't ask for a better bunch of people."Victims of childhood sexual abuse apparently will see no legislative remedy from the state Capitol this year, barring any new proposal.

In the final hours remaining in the legislative session, the state Senate lacked the votes to act on a measure that would have broadly reformed child sex crime laws, lawmakers and advocates said.

The bill would have eliminated the statute of limitations in criminal cases of child sexual abuse. But the measure stalled after hours of heated debate over a proposal that would have allowed victims only a limited ability to sue predators.

Critics opposed a new proposal that emerged Wednesday that would prevent victims from suing institutions, including the Catholic Church. Victims and advocates condemned the measure and House members vowed to reject it.

Lawmakers and victims advocates said there weren't enough votes to move the bill. So barring late action, the measure appears to be stalled until the new legislative session begins in January. Wednesday was the Senate's last scheduled day.

At a press conference in the Capitol late Wednesday night, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and Democratic lawmakers chided the Republican-controlled Senate for ignoring victims.

"Senate leaders prioritized the church over the victims," Shapiro said.

Some lawmakers and advocates had pushed for a window to allow victims to sue and that was one of the key recommendations in the grand jury report on clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, who had earlier said a retroactive window to file lawsuits would be unconstitutional, pushed the plan for a limited period for victims to sue individuals. Speaking late Wednesday night, a hoarse Scarnati excoriated those who he said fought to derail a plan to help all victims of child sexual abuse.

"I wanted to find middle ground and I wanted to negotiate in good faith," Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, said. "Unfortunately no one else during the past weeks and months decided to move or negotiate."

Scarnati said he would bring senators back to Harrisburg if other lawmakers come up with a plan that can pass his chamber.

In a statement, Gov. Tom Wolf said he was disappointed that "survivors must wait longer for justice." The Democratic governor has supported the effort to allow victims to pursue legal action against the Catholic Church.

"Through this process, a bipartisan coalition has come together to support these recommendations and I believe that we will ultimately prevail," Wolf said. "Today was a setback but we cannot allow it to deter our dedication to doing the right thing for the victims."

Heated debate

The legislation stalled after hours of negotiations behind closed doors Wednesday.

Under the revised bill, beginning Jan. 1, 2020 adults who were sexually abused as children would have been given a two-year period to file civil lawsuits against predators. Advocates have clamored for a retroactive window for victims of child sexual abuse that occurred decades ago and is beyond the statute of limitations.

But under the revised proposal, victims would have been allowed to name only their abuser in the lawsuits and not the institution.

Shapiro had pressed for the window throughout the day Wednesday. Earlier in the day, he touted the need for such a window after a former priest in the Erie diocese pleaded guilty to crimes relating to the sexual assault of a boy.

More than 1,000 children were sexually abused in Catholic dioceses across the state over a period of seven decades, according to the grand jury report released in August. The grand jury recommended that the Legislature enact a retroactive window to sue as a safeguard to preventing such systemic abuse from happening again.

The exemption of institutions from lawsuits largely disarmed its impact for victims, critics say. The vast majority of predatory priests identified by several grand jury investigations statewide are dead.

Barred from suing church officials or dioceses, victims would have had few legal avenues, opponents said.

"The Republican-led Senate walked away from the victims and walked away from justice," said state Sen. Vince Hughes, a Philadelphia Democrat.

Clash over compensation fund



Senate Bill 261 would have broadly reformed the state's child sex crimes law, eliminating criminal statutes on child sex abuse going forward. Under current law, victims must pursue criminal cases by the age of 50 and must file civil lawsuits by age 30.

The bill, championed by Scarnati, called for the establishment of a tribunal of judges to preside over a compensation fund that would benefit victims who are time-barred from the legal system due to expired statute of limitations.

The plan had the support of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the state's eight Catholic bishops.

Scarnati had argued that the compensation fund would offer genuine relief to victims while sparing them the anguish of going to court. Catholic leaders spoke out in support of the fund. Some Catholic dioceses, including the Diocese of Harrisburg, said a retroactive window for victims to file lawsuits could lead to bankruptcy.

Scarnati had long argued that a retroactive window for victims to file lawsuits would violate the state constitution. The fund would avoid the question of constitutionality, Scarnati has said.

Late Wednesday night, state Rep. Mark Rozzi said the flawed proposal to allow for a retroactive window to sue abusers represents an admission by Scarnati that "retroactive windows are in fact constitutional."

"His opposition to a window is nothing more than an attempt to protect institutions that covered up their role in the sexual abuse of children," said Rozzi, a Berks County Democrat.

Wednesday was the last scheduled day of the legislative session, although lawmakers could at some point add days to the remaining term. They are unlikely to do so before the midterm elections, however, so lawmakers are essentially running out of time to find a compromise on this bill.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, swiftly rejected the plan to shield the church and institutions from lawsuits. If the Senate had passed it, Reed vowed that the bill would not advance in his chamber.

"We will not accept that proposal," said Reed. "We will not accept anything that does not have a clear window to hold not just individuals but the institutions who helped perpetrators commit crimes for decades upon decades."

A long battle continues

Senate Bill 261 was authored in the Senate last year by Scarnati, long before the 40th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury released its findings pointing to widespread and systemic abuse of children by hundreds of priests across six dioceses.

The bill represents the latest effort by lawmakers to reform the statute of limitations.

In 2016, Rozzi, a victim of clergy sex abuse, led similar legislation to give victims the chance to go to court. Rozzi said the move to shield the church and other institutions from lawsuits is unacceptable.

"A window that does not include institutions is not a window at all," Rozzi said.

Once again, Rozzi led efforts to ensure victims were extended a retroactive window. The House last month amended SB261 to reflect that and the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

The retroactive component has earned the objection of church officials and the insurance industry. Lobbyists for both argue that retroactive lawsuits would bankrupt institutions like the Catholic Church.

Barring an unexpected development, lawmakers aiming to revamp the state's child sex abuse law will have to begin the process again in January.

Several lawmakers vowed they weren't done fighting.

"I'm not going anywhere. If anything, it's going to fire me up a little more if that's possible," Rozzi said.

Staff writer Jan Murphy contributed to this report.UPDATE: Measure to aid child sex abuse victims appears stalled until January

House Majority Leader David Reed warned the Senate Wednesday that his chamber will reject a plan to reform the statutes of limitation that exempts institutions from lawsuits.

"We will not accept that proposal," said Reed, an Indiana County Republican. "We will not accept anything that does not have a clear window to hold not just individuals but the institutions who helped perpetrators commit crimes for decades upon decades."

Lawmakers are clashing over plans to revamp the state's law regarding child sexual abuse and the statutes of limitation. The GOP Senate majority on Wednesday was ironing out the last details on a plan that would revise Senate Bill 261. Most notably, the plan would include a clause that would require victims who file lawsuits under a retroactive window to name an individual abuser rather than institutions, such as the Catholic church.

The clause ostensibly would bar victims from filing civil lawsuits against institutions. The bill, first drafted in the Senate in 2017, was amended in the House to include a retroactive window to file suits even if the abuse occurred decades ago.

The retroactive window for suits was among the key recommendations for reform in this year's grand jury report on clergy sex abuse. That report unearthed widespread sexual abuse of minors by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests.

If enacted, the bill, which is being pushed by President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson), would bar thousands of victims named in recent grand jury reports across the state from suing church officials and dioceses. The vast majority of priests identified by investigators have died.

Speaking in front of the lieutenant governor's office in the Capitol, Reed said he wanted to make sure "everybody within this building and outside" understands completely where the House stood on the Senate proposal.

"Hopefully the Senate will do the right thing and send us a proposal supported by our caucus, the House Democratic caucus, the governor and the attorney general and the victims of these crimes," Reed said. "If they send us the proposal that is out there right now, we will either not concur and form a conference committee or we will revert to the original House version and we will send it back before the end of session."

Rep. Mark Rozzi, the Berks County Democrat who spearheaded the retroactive window amendment to the Senate bill, reiterated Reed's message that the proposal to exempt institutions from the window clause was unacceptable.

"The institutions covered up. The institutions need to be held account," Rozzi said. "Leaving the institutions out...is unbelievable. I think we all know the suffering that these victims have gone through. They deserve some type of fair compensation to recover for these damages that they've been suffering their entire life. Why are we protecting the church?"A former Catholic priest turned advocate for sexual abuse victims says he hasn't lost hope -- even after the collapse of a bill that would have created a window for older victims of abuse by priests to sue. The bill failed late Wednesday despite strong support among Pennsylvania lawmakers.



"There is no way I'm going to quit this fight," said James Faluszczak, a former Erie priest who says he was sexually abused by a priest as a child. "From my standpoint, nothing changes moving forward. We are going to keep pushing for a two-year retroactive window."



Faluszczak was reacting Thursday morning to the failure of a bill that would have given victims of abuse who are now adults a two-year window for suing both priests who abused them and the Catholic church. Under current law, they can't sue if they have already turned 30.



Fueled by the explosive grand jury report that concluded more than 300 Roman Catholic priests had abused at least 1,000 children in Pennsylvania over the past seven decades, the state House had overwhelmingly approved the two-year window.



But the bill may well have died in the state Senate late Wednesday, with a committee taking no action as the last scheduled voting day of the session passed.



The demise came after an amendment by Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, that would have created the two-year window to sue priests, but not the church. Scarnati pulled the bill from consideration after it became clear the House would reject it. His amendment also set the framework for a fund to compensate victims.



Faluszczak said on Thursday morning he's convinced a majority of senators would have supported the bill passed by the House. But he believes senators caved under pressure from Scarnati, who, Faluszczak believes, is under the sway of the Catholic church and its lobbyists.



For his part, Scarnati said late Wednesday his amendment "was further than I was comfortable with going, that's what took so much time, but I wanted to find middle ground and I wanted to negotiate in good faith." He has said he believes a retroactive window to sue is unconstitutional.



Failure to pass the bill before the the two-year legislative session expires would mean a new bill would have to be introduced in the new legislative session that begins in January.

Scarnati said he would bring senators back to Harrisburg if other lawmakers come up with a plan that can pass his chamber.



Shaun Dougherty, another Pennsylvania survivor of abuse by a priest, also had hard words for Scarnati on Thursday. He said that even with a strong majority, Scarnati "failed miserably" to get a bill passed. Worse, according to Dougherty, he did so as the world awaited Pennsylvania's response to the abuse detailed in the August grand jury report.



"We have just shown the world we are incapable, as a state, to protect our children from rape. That is what I am in shock about," he said.



The failure to pass anything, Dougherty said, "has me questioning whether we have the correct leadership in the Senate."



He said advocates will turn their focus on the next month's election. "We move into campaign mode. This movement does not adjourn, ever. We are going to do our level best to flip as many senate seats as possible in our favor."



SNAP, a national group for survivors of abuse in institutional settings, said Pennsylvania's senate "had a chance to make a real difference for survivors of sexual abuse. Instead, they kicked the can down the road and out of sight." The group further said, "The simple fact is that statutes of limitations only protect wrongdoers."



Faluszczak said he's resigned to "starting from scratch" on a bill. But he also predicted Republican senators will pay a price during the November election. Scarnati is not up for election.



Acknowleding that "it's baffling to me" that so many Republican senators apparently sided with Scarnati, he said "The ones who are up for reelection are really doing to have to give account of why they sided against victims."



Faluszczak said his greatest regret on Thursday centered on victims who so badly wanted the changes to the statute of limitations, and who "had the wind taken out of their sails."



Passing the bill would have gone far toward easing suffering that continues to cause victims to commit suicide, abuse substances or struggle in their marriages, he said.



Still, recent developments such as the grand jury report and the struggle over the bill served to shed more light on the issue, while letting victims know they have strong support. As a result, new victims will continue to come forward, putting ever more pressure on lawmakers to act on their behalf, Faluszczak said.



Overall, Pennsylvania lawmakers had shown a willingness to eliminate a time limit on criminal prosecution of priests who abuse children, and to increase to age 50 the window for future victims to sue.



But the Catholic church and private insurers, as well as some Republican senators, opposed a new window for lawsuits, saying it would create a financial incentive for people to sue, and for lawyers to bring cases, while also cutting into the church's charity outreach.



Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, which represents Roman Catholic dioceses, said last month they are willing to set up a fund to compensate victims.



On Thursday, the conference issued a brief written statement, saying "As has been done in other states, PCC supports legislation that includes a compensation fund administered by an independent third party. This would allow survivors to begin receiving the justice they deserve more quickly so they can continue their healing process."



However, the conference refused to answer questions regarding the status of the fund it has proposed, or whether it will create the fund absent legislation.

It's widely acknowledged that funds such as the one supported by the conference allow victims to receive compensation faster, although payouts are typically smaller than those awarded by juries and courts. A fund would also enable the church to settle cases without opening church records to the public.

While the court payouts are typically larger, up to 40 percent of payouts go to lawyers and legal fees.By Sabina Deitrick

With three senior Pennsylvania congressmen retiring from critical committees, the Commonwealth must continue to find opportunities to support its military installations and strengthen its defense sector.

Sabina Deitrick (University of Pittsburgh photo)

The military infrastructure throughout Pennsylvania not only provides for our national security but also plays a key role in driving the state's economic competitiveness, delivering billions of dollars to our state's economy and strengthening our local communities.

Yet, the importance of Pennsylvania's military and defense sector is not always widely recognized across the state.

The University of Pittsburgh recently completed a study for the Pennsylvania Military and Community Enhancement Commission (PMCEC), which aids Pennsylvania's defense sector through support for applied research and strategic investments in local communities.

Our report, A Comprehensive Assessment of Pennsylvania Military Installations and Impacts, found that Pennsylvania's 12 major military installations generated over $11 billion in output to the state's economy and 55,000 total direct and indirect jobs in our communities.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense was the seventh largest employer in the state, with a workforce including civilian employees, active duty service members, reservists of all branches, and Army and Air National Guard members.

Pennsylvania's National Guard membership ranks second highest in the country, after Texas. Its total number of reserve forces, including the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, Pennsylvania Air National Guard and reserve components of the federal military services, ranks fourth in the nation.

Here in Central Pennsylvania, six important military installations are major generators of jobs of choice for area residents, and the installations benefit from the region's stable and experienced workforce. In 2016, Letterkenny Army Depot, Naval Support Activity Mechanicsburg, Defense Logistics Agency Susquehanna, Fort Indiantown Gap, the U.S. Army War College, and the 193rd Special Operations Wing generated a total of $5.8 billion in economic output to Central Pennsylvania through direct and indirect economic benefits.

A significant number of workers in Central Pennsylvania are either working at one of the installations or work at a job that depends on the installation. Counting both the direct employment at the bases plus the effects of intermediate impacts in the supply chain and spending by employees and service members in the community, over 31,000 full-time equivalent jobs are generated by these six military installations in Central Pennsylvania.

These economic benefits are only part of what the installations do for our local communities. They also have forged community partnerships, like shared service agreements between an installation and local government or public authority to provide services or share resources.

But Pennsylvania cannot rest on its successes. Through the PMCEC and stakeholders and partners, Pennsylvania needs to build on the successful foundation of state and community partnerships and enhance their roles.

It's time for state officials to embrace a more comprehensive strategy through continued and expanded job training partnerships with area schools and higher education institutions. These partnerships will become more important in the coming years as increasing numbers of Defense Department employees reach retirement age.

Our military installations are important partners in our communities and major drivers of our state's economy. With billions of dollars contributed to our state's economy and tens of thousands of high-paying, stable jobs, Pennsylvania needs to expand its support of these major military installations and protect their future in the Commonwealth.

Sabina Deitrick is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and co-director of the Urban and Regional Analysis program at the University Center for Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh.*This story has been updated to include more comments and reflect a final vote total after the bill was reconsidered by the Senate.

Help is on the way for Harrisburg to continue down a path of financial recovery as it prepares to exit Act 47, a state program for financially distressed municipalities, at the end of this year.

The Senate on Wednesday voted 46-3 to approve a bill that gives Pennsylvania's capital city enhanced taxing authority for the next five years under the oversight of a newly established a state-appointed five-member Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.

The Senate action on the bill, which won House passage on Monday by a 185-5 vote, sends it to Gov. Tom Wolf's desk for enactment. A spokesman for Wolf indicated the governor will sign the bill into law.

If it becomes law, it would allow Harrisburg to continue charging residents a 2 percent earned income tax and retain its tripled local services tax, which amounts to a $156, on people who work in the city. This will help the city address its longstanding structural budget deficit.

Without the added taxing authority which brings in $12 million annually to the city's coffers, the earned income tax rate would drop back to 1 percent and the local services tax would decline to $52 but city property tax rates would have jumped 100 percent.

In a concession to maintain the enhanced taxing authority, the city will be barred from ever imposing a commuter tax.

The city's Mayor Eric Papenfuse thanked everyone who worked on the legislation and said, "together, we achieved what many thought was impossible. While I wish we had been able to achieve a permanent solution for the city and the region, Harrisburg's immediate fiscal crisis has lifted. I look forward to working with the new members of the intergovernmental cooperation authority - as it's time to roll up our sleeves and continue to work for the long-term success of Harrisburg and the Capital Region."

Rep. Patty Kim, D-Dauphin County, said this bill enables the city to continue to balance its budget.

"Harrisburg has made tremendous strides in the last 10 years. We hit bottom and entered receivership but thanks to the city's leadership, we have painfully come out where we see the light and a very bright future," Kim said. "This bill that will become law helped avert a crisis."

Rep. Greg Rothman, R-Cumberland County, who sponsored the bill but worked on it with Kim, Rep. Tom Mehaffie, and Sen. John DiSanto, said he was very concerned about the city imposing a 1 or 2 percent commuter tax and the impact that would have on his 10,000 constituents who work in the city as well as worried private businesses would leave the city.

"I think the people that come into the city and work already pay enough and we want to bring more people in and more businesses in and that will help the city," Rothman said. "I think this bill will do that."

Kim said she was hoping for a plan that would have helped Harrisburg on a longer term but "this is what we got. Although we're grateful, we still need to do more work in terms of policies that help all third-class cities."

She said she was pleased to have a state-appointed oversight body comprising financial experts "walk Harrisburg along to make sure that we do well." If after witnessing all the cutting and other efforts the city undertakes to keep its fiscal house in order and it doesn't work, that body might say, "Harrisburg has done everything that it possibly could. We need to change things."

Mehaffie, R-Dauphin County, noted that in five years, the city will have paid off more of its debt, cutting its annual debt service from $10 million to $5 million so it will be in a better place budgetwise then. What's more, the intergovernmental cooperation authority, which expires on Dec. 31, 2023, is going to provide the General Assembly with annual reports so "we can see how they advance and work through this."

DiSanto, R-Dauphin County, also was pleased with the bill's passage. He said even with all the progress the city had made to regain its financial footing under Act 47, it was apparent a transition period with additional revenue authority would be needed for it to succeed.

This bill "provides the city this transition period, offers taxpayers oversight of the city finances through an intergovernmental cooperation authority, and gives commuters protection from potentially more onerous commuter tax," he said in a statement. "It helps the city, its residents, and those who visit Harrisburg for work and entertainment. I am proud to have supported it in the Senate and I look forward to continuing to work with the mayor and the city officials to move Harrisburg forward for all of us."

In the Senate, the dissenting votes were cast by Sens. Judy Schwank, D-Berks County; Scott Hutchinson, R-Venango County, and John Eichelberger, R-Blair County.

Schwank indicated during an earlier committee discussion on the bill that she opposed it out of fairness to other third-class cities facing financial struggles. The two Republican senators voiced concern about it setting a "dangerous" precedent for other Act 47 communities and preferred waiting until work that has begun on the latest iteration of Act 47 is completed rather than going about addressing its shortcomings in piecemeal fashion.

* Staff writer Christine Vendel contributed to this story.Innovative in structure, Lincoln in the Bardo, which also won last years Man Booker Prize, is about life and death, about grief and rebirth, and ultimately about the radical act of transformation deeply connected with the power of empathy. This radiant and slightly surreal novel challenges the realism so often associated with the literature of the heartland, but it also enlarges that tradition with a new perspective on our 16th president. Readers feel Lincolns struggle and witness his growing resolve to end the war as quickly as possible, even if this would mean more immediate bloodshed. With this supernatural layer to history, with the chorus of ghosts, Lincoln in the Bardo speaks to the universal plight of humanity and grief, casting it in a mythical light.The Pennsylvania legislature passed legislation Wednesday to lengthen mandatory minimum prison terms for persons convicted of vehicular homicide while under the influence who have prior DUI convictions.

The bill now goes to Gov. Tom Wolf for signing.

Under its terms, drivers who cause a new fatal accident while under the influence would face a minimum term of five years for each death caused, up from the current three, if they had a previous DUI conviction.

The minimum term would jump to seven years for someone with two or more prior DUI convictions.

Prime sponsor Sen. John Rafferty, a Montgomery County Republican, said he hopes the stiffer prison terms will have a deterrent effect on persons with DUIs in their past.

Conversely, if they cause another fatality while under the influence, Rafferty has said, those defendants deserve harsher penalties.

"When you go through our criminal system for a DUI, then you should know the gravity of your wrongdoing," Rafferty said after an earlier vote in the state Senate this year.

"If you are drunk, get behind the wheel again and kill someone, you are more liable and you will be held more accountable."

According to data from Pennsylvania Parents Against Impaired Driving, a grassroots group of parents who lost children in DUI crashes, repeat offenders are responsible for approximately 40% of all DUI-related fatalities.

The bill also targets harsher penalties for two other groups of repeat offenders.

Senate Bill 961 regrades DUI charges as a felony for people being arrested for the third time with blood-alcohol content levels testing at .16 percent or higher, and in all fourth or subsequent arrests for drunk or drugged driving.

This would have the effect of enhancing penalties for those multiple repeat offenders.

At present, Pennsylvania is one of just four states that treat all standard DUI convictions as misdemeanors.

Finally, the bill also raises punishments for persons imposes a stepladder of stiffer penalties for repeat violations of driving with a license that has been suspended for DUI.

Supporters of the tougher penalties have pointed out many of these same offenders now have an opportunity to continue driving through the suspension if they agree to use an ignition interlock device.

In many ways, SB 961 is designed as the stick to that carrot, passed two years ago.

The stricter punishments passed easily in both chambers on the last voting session of the 2017-18 term, cruising through the House on a 184-1 vote, and then passing in the Senate by 45-4.Petoskey to have second leaf pickup later this weekFrom the Ground Up: Meals on Wheels is a growing communityIn 2015, President Barack Obama let it be known that he was taking Chernows Washington: A Life along to his family vacation on Marthas Vineyard. Obama already knew Chernows work well: When a young Broadway writer-performer named Lin-Manuel Miranda had picked up a copy of Chernows Alexander Hamilton biography right before a Mexican vacation in 2008, thus changing the trajectory of the American musical theater, the first songs to come out of Mirandas skull were performed in front of Obama at a White House Poetry Slam. The Obamas subsequent embrace of Hamilton was as heartfelt as it was financially consequential. Michelle Obama would go on to describe the musical inspired by Chernows biography as the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life. No wonder the Obamas were eager to participate in the musicals coronation at the 2016 Tony Awards, contributing a videotaped introduction for a performance by the Hamilton cast.Federica Mingolla climbing in Valle dell'Orco: on the second pitch of Legoland, one of the most famous trad climb on Sergent, 7b fist crack Photo by Klaus Dell'Orto

Federica Mingolla climbing in Valle dell'Orco: Know Yourself 8a trad up Torri di Aimonin, freed by Rolando Larcher in 2016 Photo by Andrea Cossu

Federica Mingolla climbs old projects in Valle dellOrco, Italy

Italian climber Federica Mingolla reports about her first free ascent in Valle Orco, Italy, of an old project bolted in 2001 by Giovannino Massari and now graded 8a+. The route joins another nearby line freed by Mingolla a year ago: Occhi Nuovi 8a+.

I've been returning to Valle Orco for almost 5 years; I was introduced to this valley by Adriano Trombetta, a mountain guide and good friend, and it really was love at first sight. I cant actually put my finger on it, but whenever I think about this valley, the words "home" and "family" spring to mind. Ive got lots of friends here, have experienced moments of pure happiness and this is why this valley holds a very special place in my heart.

The rock is similar to granite but not quite as pure as that on Mont Blanc, making the climbing extremely demanding, as the much-needed friction is often completely absent. This means careful footwork is required, as well as the ability to crimp tiny edges, often as sharp as razor blades.

But its not just the rock, and its rich Nuovo Mattino climbing movement history, that attract me to this valley, but it is the place itself! It's paradise! Beautiful mountains above Lake Ceresole, trees with wildly coloured leaves, lush alpine meadows that surround the few houses in the tiny villages, huge yellow or gray towering rock faces, as smooth as marble quarries...

This is perhaps the reason why I've climbed several single and multi-pitches that few others have done. At times Ive even bagged a first free ascent, such as Occhi Nuovi and KTM on the formidable Sergent rock face. These single-pitches require precision and technique and a style of climbing that could easily be defined as demode, no longer in fashion. I dont think I was the first because theyre particularly difficult, in fact I graded both 8a+, so they're by no means near the limit. No, I reckon I was the first because this type of climbing is no longer in vogue, people more often than not prefer to climb on limestone, which almost never fails to gratify.

It has to be said that were now in the 21st century, nowadays people train mainly at indoor climbing gyms that are great at teaching you how to move on limestone, but less good at dealing with the intricate moves found on granite and, in particular, in Valle dell'Orco.

The climbing up here is different, old school, very mental and less physical. It's the style I like most because its a continuous quest for how to breach sections that seem impossible at first, before suddenly becoming feasible after numerous attempts or when conditions become favourable.

There are still a large number of climbs waiting for their first free ascent because many routes were established in the past with the use of aid. Ill certainly continue to visit the Orco valley and search out these delicate vertical games. And I'll obviously be happy to share thoughts and ideas with those who come to repeat these routes, up here in magical Valle dell'Orco.



by Federica Mingolla



Links: Facebook Federica Mingolla, La Sportiva, Petzl, adidas640 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) went after his own partys Senate Campaign Committee while announcing that he would campaign for the Republican nominee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn because Democratic nominee and former governor Phil Bredesen is a good friend.

Video:

Transcript via ABCs This Week:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You also reported this week that something you said about the Tennessee senate race caught the eye of Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader. You were recorded saying the Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen is quote a very good mayor, a very good governor, a very good business person.

So what happened after that with Senator McConnell and who do you support in this Senate race?

CORKER: Well Im supporting the nominee, everyone knows that. Ive sent the maximum check (ph), plan to vote for them. What  what is unbelievable to me, George, is that the leadership of the Republican senatorial (ph) committee would leak out this conversation purposely to the Washington Post to get you to ask me questions about this.

I  I dont even know what theyre thinking.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What do you think they are thinking?

CORKER: You know, Ive been real clear  I have no idea. I mean, its  its the most ridiculous thing Ive seen politically in recent times, but apparently, they want you to ask me about the Tennessee race.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And the answer is  you just said  so youre supporting the Republican nominee Marsha Blackburn?

CORKER: Yes. I mean, its been clear. I mean, I sent the maximum check as soon as it was determined that she was our nominee. What I said what Ive got a friend that Ive been working with for 23 years on the Democratic side. Weve worked  I was Mayor of Chattanooga, I was commissioner of finance for our state. Weve done a lot of things together and hes a friend.

Im not going to campaign against him but certainly  you know, Im  Ive sent the maximum contribution plan to support the nominee and  and yet for some reason in their brilliance, the Republican Senatorial Committee tried to create a big story out of this so you and other stations this morning would ask me questions. I dont know what the outcome is theyre looking for here, but obviously, its again being asked (ph).

Corker never said Republican nominee Marsha Blackburns name. He only referred to her as the nominee. Secondly, Corker isnt going to campaign for her. Thirdly, giving the maximum personal contribution is the equivalent of doing nothing for Blackburn. Bob Corker has more than $6 million in campaign committee account, and he sent Marsha Blackburn $2,700.

The message that Sen. Corker is sending clear. He is supporting the Republican nominee in the loosest sense of the word. Corker is pretty much staying out of the race, and it appears that it would be fine with him if his friend won the seat for the Democrats in November.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Eleven Senators are demanding that Donald Trump disclose all of his family business ties through the Trump Organization to Saudi Arabia.

Here is the full letter:

Democratic Senators U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-NM), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory A. Booker (D-NJ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-OR) wrote, It is imperative that this sanctions determination, and U.S. policy towards Saudi Arabia generally, are not influenced by any conflicts of interest that may exist because of your or your familys deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia.

The Senators want answers to questions and documents by November 17, 2018. Trump may be able to ignore this letter for now, but in three weeks, if Democrats win control of the Senate, the Democratic demand will become an investigation. You can bet your bottom dollar that Democrats win a majority in the House; they will also be investigating Trumps business ties to the Saudis.

It is an assumption that Trumps efforts to run PR for the Saudi Royal family after they murdered a journalist who was living in the United States is related to money. In a few more weeks, if the election goes their way, Democrats will no longer have to assume anything. They will be able to investigate and subpoena.

The letter is just the beginning. Whether Trump gets or not, his world is about to change if the blue wave arrives on Election Day.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.565 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

A new Morning Consult/Politico poll disproves Trumps claim that he will not be to blame if Republicans get beaten in the midterms.

Trump told the AP that would not accept blame if Republicans lose the House, No, I think Im helping people. I dont believe anybodys ever had this kind of an impact.

The Morning Consult/Politico poll found that voters see little difference between GOP candidates and Trump:



A majority of voters (56%) say President Trump represents the majority viewpoint of Washington Republicans. That is 13 percentage points higher than a similar poll conducted in April, and up 23 points since August 2017.

Together, it marks a net 45-point swing toward Trump as the face of the GOP in D.C., since Morning Consult first asked the question eight months into his first term as president. The trend polling shows Democrats, Republicans and independents all growing more likely to say Republicans in Washington are reflective of their partys standard bearer.



There is also this little nugget, A majority of voters (58%) believe President Trump should be challenged to a 2020 Republican primary, 30% say he shouldnt.

The problem for Trump in a graph:

Voters see no difference between Trump and Republican candidates

Trump is going to get blamed if Republicans lose one or both chambers of Congress because voters are going to the polls and using their votes as a vote on Trump. The president is going to do his usual distancing act and blame others when Republicans have a bad night on the first Tuesday in November, but the reality is the same for Trump as it was for Obama, Bush, and Clinton before him. The midterm election is a referendum on the president.

An ominous storm cloud for 2020 is that voters would like Trump to be challenged within the Republican Party. Congressional Republicans are about to be steamrolled in a few weeks because they refused to stand up to Trump. If Republicans refuse to grow a spine in dealing with their own president, they could lose the White House in two years.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.992 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut took direct aim at Donald Trump on Wednesday for essentially being paid off by the Saudis to cover up the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

In an interview with MSNBCs Chris Hayes, the Democratic lawmaker drew a direct line from Trumps deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia to his recent push to help them cover up the killing of Khashoggi, who was a legal U.S. resident.

In a letter sent to Trump on Wednesday, Sen. Blumenthal and ten other lawmakers demanded the president release information detailing his ties to the Saudis.

This letter very simply seeks facts relating to the possible motive of the president for, in effect, aiding and abetting Saudi Arabias disinformation and distraction campaign, Blumenthal told the MSNBC host.

Video:

Richard Blumenthal wants Trump to disclose all of his financial ties to Saudi Arabia. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/09SpbJruIN  PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) October 18, 2018

Sen. Blumenthal said:

Well, this letter very simply seeks facts relating to the possible motive of the president for, in effect, aiding and abetting Saudi Arabias disinformation and distraction campaign. And as you outlined so well at the opening, he has deep, lucrative, longstanding financial ties to the Saudis. He has sold them apartments and condos. He rents them to them. And hotel bookings have literally saved Trump properties. And they continue to make these payments to him in violation of the chief anti-corruption provision of the United States Constitution known as the emoluments clause. Weve just surmounted a major legal hurdle in the last couple of weeks when the court ruled in the District of Columbia that we have standing, 200 members of Congress, and in this lawsuit, Blumenthal v. Trump, we seek basically facts and that letter also asks for facts relating to the financial ties.

Trump is putting personal profits ahead of American values

As Sen. Richard Blumenthal explained, what drives Trumps behavior as president is not a commitment to American values or even basic human decency. Instead, its his commitment to himself his personal profits that drive his decisionmaking.

This president has deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia. He has repeatedly bragged about that in the past. Clearly, those ties are driving his PR blitz on behalf of the Saudis.

The same is true of Russia. While the rest of the world and Trumps own intelligence apparatus have condemned the Kremlin for waging an attack on American democracy, the president has been missing in action. To this day, he likes to cast doubt on the undeniable fact that Russia meddled in the 2016 campaign.

As disturbing as all of this behavior has been, none of it is surprising for a man who has spent a lifetime putting himself and his own interests ahead of everything else.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook.By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  Republicans could try again to repeal Obamacare if they win enough seats in U.S. elections next month, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, calling a failed 2017 push to repeal the healthcare law a disappointment.

In a forecast of 2019 policy goals tempered by uncertainty about who will win the congressional elections, McConnell also blamed costly social programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, for the fast-rising national debt.

On Nov. 6, Americans will vote for candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives.

McConnells Republicans now hold majority control of both chambers. Democrats will try to wrest control in races for all 435 House seats and one-third of the 100 Senate seats.

Despite their dominance of Congress and the White House, Republicans dramatically failed last year to overturn former President Barack Obamas signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare. McConnell called it the one disappointment of this Congress from a Republican point of view.

He said, If we had the votes to completely start over, wed do it. But that depends on what happens in a couple weeks Were not satisfied with the way Obamacare is working.

McConnells comments drew a sharp reaction from Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, who have sought to portray the Republican healthcare effort as an attack on the middle class.

If Republicans retain the Senate they will do everything they can to take away families health care and raise their costs, Schumer said in a statement. Americans should take Senator McConnell at his word.

President Donald Trump also favors ending Obamacare, which Republicans criticized as a costly and unneeded intrusion on Americans healthcare. About 20 million Americans have received health insurance coverage through the program, a landmark legislative achievement for Obama and Democrats.

On social programs, McConnell said in an interview with Reuters: Entitlements are the long-term drivers of the debt.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS

Social programs that help the poor, the aged, the unemployed, veterans and the disabled are often referred to as entitlements in Washington. These also include Medicaid.

We all know that there will be no solution to that, short of some kind of bipartisan grand bargain that makes the very, very popular entitlement programs be in a position to be sustained. That hasnt happened since the 80s, he added.

But at some point we will have to sit down on a bipartisan basis and address the long-term drivers of the debt.

The Treasury Department this week reported a 2018 budget deficit of $779 billion, the highest since 2012.

The report cited higher military spending as a reason for the increase and showed government revenues were flat after deep tax cuts pushed through late last year by Republicans, despite a growing economy and rising spending levels.

McConnell said Republicans would take a hard look at funding for discretionary domestic programs next year, saying he reluctantly agreed to increased discretionary spending this year to get Democrats to accept more military spending.

We had to negotiate with the Democrats and spend more on the domestic side than I would have preferred, McConnell said.

Well have to sit down again and decide what were going to do with our annual discretionary spending after the first of the year and see what kind of agreements we can reach.

Trump on Wednesday asked his cabinet for proposals to cut their budgets by five percent.

(Reporting by David Morgan. Additional reporting by David Shepardson, Richard Cowan, Amanda Becker, Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Alistair Bell)1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rachel Maddow exposed yet another Republican plot  this time in Texas  to suppress Democratic voters in the state.

According to the MSNBC host, Texas Republicans are intentionally slow-walking voter registration applications so that they cant be processed in time for election day.

When youve got Republican control of the legislature and the state government like Republicans have in Texas, they know its to their own advantage to keep the elections process, to keep the voting process, to keep the voter registration process slow and screwy, Maddow explained.

Video:

Rachel Maddow said:

In the Texas capital city of Austin, we also saw some new reporting today about a very large number of voter registrations coming in there. This is from ProPublica: Travis County, Texas, the home of Austin, Texas, has experienced a massive spike in voter registrations this cycle, which officials will attribute to the heightened interest in the states competitive Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto ORourke. The county received around 35,000 registrations on the final day to submit them this year. Thats 10,000 more than on the same day in 2016, which was a presidential year. Texas is one of only 13 states not to have online voter registration, so now, about a dozen county employees are sifting through thousands of applications, verifying them and entering them into the states voter rolls by hand. Of the 35,000 registrations received on the last day of registration, October 9th, 25,000 of those 35,000 have yet to be processed. And thats with early voting starting in that state on Monday. You think theyre going to get them all processed in time? Why do they have to process every voter registration application by hand? In a state that has tens of millions of people living in it? Why on Earth would you make it so hard? Not only for people to register, but for those registrations to be processed, why would you make it so cumbersome? So that it honestly cant get done before voting starts. Well, the more people vote, the more people who get their votes counted, the worse Republicans tend to do in U.S. elections. So when youve got Republican control of the legislature and the state government, like Republicans have in Texas, they know its to their own advantage to keep the elections process, to keep the voting process, to keep the voter registration process slow and screwy. Because that works for them just fine. More people trying to register, more people trying to vote? Thats scary to them.

Republican voter suppression efforts are exploding across the country

The news out of Texas isnt even the first example of voter suppression in the state that weve seen over the past week.

As Rachel Maddow pointed out last Thursday, officials in Texas are also trying to make it more difficult for African American students in parts of the state to vote. Which party do you think will benefit from that tactic?

All across the country, from Texas to Georgia to North Dakota, Republicans arent waging a war of ideas. They arent trying to inspire people to turn out to the polls. Instead, they are waging a war on voting rights. They know the fewer people who vote, the better their chances are of preserving their power.

Luckily, as Rachel Maddow pointed out on Wednesday, most Americans are starting to see through this charade. In some areas where suppression tactics have been most heavily used, registration applications and early voting numbers have skyrocketed.

It remains to be seen whether the voters most targeted by the GOP will be able to overcome these suppression tactics, but at the very least, Republicans are beginning to realize that Americans value their rights most when someone is threatening to take them away.

Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook.By Peter Eisler, Jason Lange, Sharon Bernstein and Tim Reid

STOCKTON, N.J. (Reuters)  Leonard Lance is a Republican congressman seeking re-election in a Republican district. But he has little to say about the Republican president.

Lances campaign website, which outlines his positions on immigration, taxes and other hot issues, offers no statement of support for President Donald Trump.

On his Twitter and Facebook accounts, Lance has offered no plaudits this year for the president. When he does reference Trump, hes more likely to note their differences. Hes co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to restrict the presidents power to impose tariffs on imports and to require reunification of immigrant children and parents separated after being caught crossing the southern border. Hes also touted his support for gun control.

Lance says hes not necessarily trying to distance himself from Trump. There are areas of agreement, but I also point out the areas of disagreement, he said in an interview. In a moderately conservative district, he added, his bipartisan approach is consistent with the views of a majority of the constituents.

Yet Lances approach also reflects a broader reality. Novembers congressional elections are widely viewed as a referendum on the president, and in the well-heeled, reliably Republican suburbs in North Jersey where Lance is running, theres not a lot of love for Donald Trump. Its a challenge faced by Republican candidates in similar districts nationwide who are trying to capture the moderate-to-conservative voters they need to win.

Perched in the outer ring of the New York City suburbs, New Jerseys 7th Congressional District has been a Republican stronghold for three decades. Its an enclave of white, wealthy, well-educated voters where the median household income exceeds $100,000 and nearly three-quarters of adult residents have attended college.

The 7th is typical of the higher-income, generally suburban districts that are battlegrounds in the fight to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives this November.

Trump largely enjoys strong support within his party: Reuters/Ipsos opinion polls put him at 82 percent approval among Republican likely voters. But that backing softens among Republicans with college degrees and higher incomes. In 2016, he ran poorly in many districts where those voters hold sway.

Some disenchanted Republicans take issue with Trumps policies, particularly on immigration, the environment and U.S.-Russia relations, polling shows. More often, they condemn the president for being divisive and disrespectful.

Now, with polls and analysts favoring Democrats to win the House majority, battleground Republicans need every vote. And few questions loom larger than how closely they should align themselves with the president.

The answer for many: keep quiet.

Among 56 House battleground districts, the Republican nominees in 19  more than a third  have offered no support for Trump on their campaign websites or on campaign Twitter and Facebook posts made this year, a Reuters analysis shows. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2IC3C7s)

The trend is particularly profound in the 10 wealthiest of those battlegrounds. Just four of the Republican candidates in those districts have supported Trump on their websites or social media accounts. In the 10 battlegrounds with the lowest median incomes, eight of the Republican candidates have expressed support for him.

The Reuters analysis provides a measure of how many Republican candidates in battleground races are trying to steer clear of the president. Anecdotal reporting has shown some distancing themselves from Trump, but there has been no clear picture until now of how often this is happening.

Reuters analyzed dozens of campaign websites and thousands of social media posts of candidates in battleground races. The analysis shows how the Republican Partys battleground candidates are handling competing pressures: a Republican base that shuns candidates who criticize Trump, and moderates and independents who want legislators to stand up to him.

Among the incumbent Republicans who are running silent on Trump, most have backed the bulk of his legislative priorities. But they are not touting that support. Its a delicate balancing act.

Donald Trump dominates everything, says Republican pollster Whit Ayres, who is advising several congressional candidates in affluent suburban districts. Ayres urges those candidates to steer clear of embracing Trump  and to avoid criticizing him. Keep the president out of the conversation, he says, and emphasize how great a fit the Republican candidate is for the values and interests of that particular district.

Trump has campaigned in support of a dozen House candidates since early August, including several in battleground districts with more modest household incomes. He plans additional events for House candidates in the weeks ahead.

In an Oct. 1 memo, White House political director Bill Stepien warned that Republican candidates who dont embrace the president wont capitalize on the zeal he generates among people who like the countrys direction. Noting that Republicans are lagging in enthusiasm for the partys congressional candidates, Stepien hailed Trumps ability to turn out new and unlikely voters. To win, he added, candidates must closely, clearly and boldly align themselves with the president and his policies.

The memo, which was reviewed by Reuters, was first reported Tuesday by the New York Times. The White House declined to comment.

THE TRUMP TEST

Leonard Lance is the latest in a string of Republicans who have held New Jerseys 7th District congressional seat since the 1980s. Its a success built on steady support from an electorate heavy on white collar professionals who favor moderate, fiscally conservative candidates. This year, some of those constituents, including even a few local Republican officials, are applying a new litmus test for their vote: They want a candidate who opposes Trump.

Theres nothing presidential about him, says Michelle Garay, the Republican mayor of Alexandria, a small township in the district. Garay, a retired industrial scientist and first-time elected official, finds Trumps views extreme on everything from immigration to environmental regulation.

Theres very little I can find where I agree with him. This year, Garay says, shes backing Lances Democratic opponent, Tom Malinowski, a former State Department official in the Obama administration.

Nic Messina, a Republican official in the nearby borough of Stockton, shares similar views. Republicans are not standing up for their true values, says Messina, president of the boroughs governing council. He once appeared on a political flier with Lance and is seeking reelection this year as a Republican. But he plans to vote Democrat in the congressional race because he wants more active opposition to Trump.

Most of this years 56 battleground seats, like New Jerseys 7th, already are in Republican hands. Just five have Democratic incumbents. In many of the Republican-held districts, the Trump effect on voters like Garay and Messina has made it tougher to navigate a path to victory.

Reuters identified a district as a battleground when three independent political analysis groups  Cook Political Report, Inside Elections and the University of Virginias Center for Politics  agreed the race was competitive or leaning against the incumbent party.

Trump won in 34 of those 56 districts in 2016, but his victories were concentrated in areas with lower incomes. He won more than 75 percent of the battleground districts with median incomes below $75,000; he won fewer than 20 percent of those with median incomes above $75,000. Trump also fared slightly worse in districts with high percentages of college-educated voters  a demographic that typically correlates with higher incomes.

Polling suggests Trump remains a harder sell with those constituencies. Among Republicans with college degrees and household incomes of $75,000 or more, 51 percent said over the last month they are certain to vote in the upcoming congressional elections, down 9 points from 2014, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.

In battleground districts, races can be decided by a handful of votes. Republican Party officials recognize that some candidates face a dilemma in how to handle the president. And they are letting them steer their own course.

We trust our candidates to run races that are relevant to their specific districts, says Jack Pandol, who handles communications for House races in western states at the National Republican Congressional Committee. In deciding whether to support Trump, he adds, candidates should shape their campaigns based on feedback theyre getting from voters.

THE TRUMP TIGHTROPE

Six-term Representative Peter Roskam has a good sense of how voters in Illinois 6th Congressional District feel about the president. Despite re-electing the Republican congressman in 2016, they backed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over Trump by nearly 7 percentage points.

The district typifies the battlegrounds where Republican candidates face anti-Trump headwinds: a fast-growing suburb west of Chicago with a median income near $100,000.

Roskam has made no statements of support for Trump on his website or in posts this year to his social media accounts. He acknowledges that associating himself with the president might do more harm than good. Having Trump campaign for him in the district obviously wouldnt be helpful, he said in an interview.

Roskam has criticized Trumps tariffs on imported goods and has decried the administrations separation of immigrant children from parents. After Trump held a July press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to condemn Putin for interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, Roskam called Trumps performance an affront to American democracy.

But Roskam notes that he also backs the president on issues important to pro-Trump voters, such as raising military spending and lowering taxes. In an August tweet, Roskam described as absurd a statement by his Democratic opponent comparing Trump with al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.

This district is discerning, Roskam said, and voters want a candidate who will represent their interests independent of the president.

But Roskams reluctance to embrace Trump isnt enough for some of the anti-Trump Republicans hes trying to capture.

Peter Roskam has distanced himself from Trump, but he doesnt stand up to him, said Bill Wentz, 73, a lifelong Republican and former federal government lawyer.

Roskam hasnt done enough to fight the president on economic policies that Wentz says undermine traditional Republican support for free markets by picking winners and losers. He also is uncomfortable with Trumps failure to fully embrace U.S. intelligence agencies finding that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections.

Wentzs answer: vote for Roskams Democratic opponent, Sean Casten.

Fostering enthusiasm among disaffected Republicans without alienating Trump loyalists is a tall order, says Christine Matthews, a pollster advising Republican candidates. The presidents core supporters dont want to see any distance between you and Trump, Matthews says, while some college-educated Republicans and independents are motivated to vote against Trump.

Reuters/Ipsos polling suggests the number of Republicans who are so turned off that they are likely to stay home is relatively small. Among moderate, registered Republicans with college degrees and incomes of $75,000 or more  a group somewhat less supportive of Trump than other Republicans  less than 1 percent say they dont plan to vote.

The bigger threat is the 14 percent in that Republican demographic who, like Wentz in Illinois, say they will back a Democrat or a third-party candidate.

Robert Ellis, 75, a Republican businessman in Nevadas 3rd Congressional District, is among them. A regular Republican donor, Ellis is put off by Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric and divisive tweets. So, hes not backing Republican nominee Danny Tarkanian, a fervent Trump backer, in the battleground race outside Las Vegas.

Instead, Ellis says, hes throwing his financial support and his vote to Democratic candidate Susie Lee, hoping Democrats can win the House and provide a check on Trump.

That way they will have to compromise, Ellis says. Work together.

Lance, the Republican candidate in New Jerseys 7th district, is seeking that elusive middle ground.

Lance says he backs the president on issues such as fighting Islamic State and standing tough against Irans nuclear weapons program. But hes quick to tick off examples of his differences with the president. He notes he was among just 12 House Republicans to oppose the Trump-backed tax reform act, which limits local and state tax deductions that are popular in New Jersey.

He dismisses the notion that his race will be a referendum on Trump. The districts voters, he says, have a history of casting ballots based upon candidates and based upon issues.

Its a nuanced approach in a district where anti-Trump sentiment runs high. In 2016, Lance won handily even though the district voted narrowly for Clinton in the presidential race.

Garay and Messina, the two Republican officials who plan to vote Democrat in this years congressional race, want a candidate who will work against the president. Both say plenty of Republicans in the district share their frustration with Trump, but they expect many will stick with the partys congressional candidate.

There are people who say, Im a Republican and I will never vote for a Democrat, no matter what, Garay says. Raised in a Republican family that favored conservative icon Barry Goldwater, Garay fiercely opposed Clinton in 2016. But her discomfort with Trump drove her to vote for a third-party candidate.

Now, she says, its time to put country before party and back Malinowski, the 7th Districts Democratic challenger. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures.

(Additional reporting by Chris Kahn in New York and Susan Cornwell in Washington; Editing by Jason Szep, Ross Colvin and Michael Williams)Many of the mothers who died of pregnancy-related causes could have possibly been saved, according to the report. Those mothers include the woman referred to in the report as Jasmine. Doctors did not thoroughly screen her for blood clotting issues, according to the report, and her condition was misdiagnosed as back pain. The report also notes that providers appear to have misinterpreted her pain as drug-seeking behavior, illustrating how implicit bias or prejudice can have an impact on the care black women receive.382 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By Brendan Pierson and Sarah N. Lynch

NEW YORK/ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters)  A U.S. Treasury Department official has been criminally charged with leaking confidential documents relating to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and others to a reporter from digital media company BuzzFeed, Manhattan federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Natalie May Edwards, a senior adviser in the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), was arrested on Tuesday and charged with unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports and with conspiracy, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates have pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into whether President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia. Prosecutors said Edwards leaked documents that became the basis of BuzzFeed articles about that investigation.

In federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan ordered that Edwards, 40, be released after surrendering her passport and posting a $100,000 bond.

Edwards lawyer, Peter Greenspun, declined to speak to reporters at the hearing.

Stephen Hudak, a spokesman for FinCEN, said Edwards had been placed on administrative leave.

Matt Mittenthal, a spokesman for BuzzFeed, had no immediate comment.

In an interview with federal investigators on Tuesday, Edwards said she was a whistleblower who made the disclosures for record keeping, according to a criminal complaint filed by prosecutors.

Information from the disclosures was reported in 11 articles that appeared in Buzzfeed over the course of a year, prosecutors said.

Suspicious activity reports are submitted by banks to alert law enforcement to potentially illegal transactions. Prosecutors said beginning in October 2017, Edwards disclosed suspicious activity reports connected to Manafort, Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina, the Russian embassy and a unit of Prevezon Holdings Ltd, a corporation owned by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv.

Prosecutors said Edwards saved the confidential reports on a flash drive and sent them to the BuzzFeed reporter using an encrypted messaging application.

Prosecutors also said in the complaint that the reporter exchanged encrypted messages with an unnamed associate director at FinCEN to whom Edwards reports, who was not charged in the case. Hudak and Richard Delmar, a spokesman for the Treasury Departments internal investigative unit, both declined to comment on the allegations involving the associate director.

Butina was ordered jailed in July while she awaits trial.

(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York and Sarah N. Lynch in Alexandria, Virginia; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Tom Brown and Richard Chang)241 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Former vice president Joe Biden said Thursday that President Donald Trump seems to have a love affair with autocrats, criticizing his cozy relationship with the leaders of Saudi Arabia after the disappearance (and presumed killing) of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden knocks Trump for coddling Saudi leaders after Khashoggis disappearance https://t.co/rDEQMR6TAt pic.twitter.com/RfRsKXiXVJ  GDPR Revolution99 (@gdpr) October 18, 2018

Biden spoke about Trump during a television interview on the show CBS This Morning, saying:

Hes already making excuses before the facts are known. It hurts us internationally.

Trump is still demanding patience with an inquiry into the involvement of the Saudi government into the claimed torture and murder of Khashoggi. The journalist, who had been critical of the Saudi regime, walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd and has not been seen since. There are reports, however, of recordings of a seven-minute torture session during which Khashoggi was dismembered and killed by Saudi Arabian security officials.

The Saudi king and crown prince have denied all involvement in Khashoggis disappearance.

I just dont know why this administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from Putin to Kim Jong Un to . . . Duterte, Biden lamented to his CBS interviewer. I dont understand it.

In his comments Biden was pointing out that our American president seems to have warm and friendly relations with some of the most sinister dictators in the world, the leaders of Russia, North Korea and the Philippines.

Host Norah ODonnell then asked the former Vice President is he could explain Trumps behavior. Biden responded by saying:

I dont want to speculate on my worst fears. But either he doesnt know what he is doing or he has an absolutely convoluted notion of what allows America to lead the world.

Biden also said that he has had many doubts about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the designated heir to the Saudi throne. And unfortunately, he now believes these doubts have been confirmed through the Khashoggi incident.

My doubts are that theres very little sense of rule of law, respect for human rights, dignity, Biden said in the interview. The allegations that are made so far . . . are not inconsistent with the way the kingdom would act.

Biden is considering a 2020 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination and has been increasingly vocal in his criticisms of President Trump in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, at a campaign rally, Trump challenged Biden to a fist fight and said he would love to take on the former vice president.537 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that the Trump administration is severely restricting access to information about missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Washington Post that the administration had clamped down on sharing intelligence Khashoggi.

Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2nd.

The restrictions on information sharing came as President Trump has taken the side of top Saudi officials and has denied all wrong doing.

Corker was quoted by the Post as saying, I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia.

Corker also said that Trump administration officials have canceled a scheduled intelligence briefing. Corker said that he was also told that additional information about Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia would not be shared with the Senate at this time. The Tennessee senator said this new development was disappointing.

Since the Senate is on a month-long recess Corker and his colleagues have had little to say this week as the Khashoggi drama plays out on the world stage.

Corker told reporters late last week that everything indicates that Khashoggi was murdered by the Saudis.

On Wednesday he told the Post that, based on the intelligence he had been able to review previously, everything points  to MBS, he said referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This could not have happened without his approval, Corker made clear.

Turkey says they have an audio recording proving that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate and told The New York Times on Wednesday that he was dismembered shortly after entering the consulate.

Saudi Arabia has denied all wrongdoing, and they have been backed up by President Trump,who has said they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

On Wednesday Trump said he has requested audio and video recordings from Turkey that relate to Khashoggis disappearance.

We have asked for [the recording], if it exists, Trump said in the Oval Office, later adding that it possibly does.3.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

The presidents son, Eric Trump, showed some of the desperation that is building in the Republican Party as he begged Republicans to show up and vote during an interview on Fox News.

Video:

Trump said with what took on a pleading tone, I hear from people all the time, you know, my guy is trump. My guy isnt on the ballot. Im not going to go out and vote. Please, please, whatever you do, you cannot think that way. By not voting youre effectively voting against him.

Eric Trumps Argument is not going to work

Eric Trumps argument that a non-vote is a vote against his dad is not going to work. I know this because the exact same argument didnt work for Democrats when they tried it in 2010 and 2014. It also didnt work for Republicans in 2006.

The argument that Eric Trump pulled out is one the last stands that parties that about to get creamed at the polls always resort to. Republicans, like Democrats after 2008, have a sense of contentment. The Republican problem is even worse, because they were not expected to win in 2016, and they have a president who keeps undermining their get out the vote efforts by telling his supporters that everything is going to be fine, while he promises an imaginary red wave made up of Democrats who cross over to vote for Republican candidates.

The Trump Family Is Desperate

A recent investigation revealed that entire Trump family business is nothing more than a pump and dump fraud scheme. If Democrats take back all or one chamber of Congress, Eric Trump, and the Trump family finances are going to come under more scrutiny and investigation than they ever have before. The Trump family is already under investigation in New York where their foundation has been referred to as a criminal enterprise.

A real investigation of the Trump family finances could result in state charges that could send members of the Trump family to prison.

Republicans are using everything from voter suppression to violent protests to try to cling to power. It is the behavior of a political party that cant run and win on the issues and no popular accomplishments to tout. The president son is practically begging Republicans to get out and vote, but why should they? They got the massive tax cut and two Supreme Court justices. Their big motivation was getting the Supreme Court. Now that they have it, the Republican Party is in for a period of content complacency that could go beyond 2018 and into 2020.

The desperation, just as the threat of the Trump familys criminal con being exposed, is growing and getting more real by the day.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.206 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  The U.S. Congress could request President Donald Trumps tax returns under a seldom-used 1924 law, which Democrats say they plan to invoke promptly if they win control of the House of Representatives or the Senate in the Nov. 6 elections.

In a move that would set up a battle over one of Trumps most closely guarded secrets, the newly installed Democratic chairs of any of three congressional tax committees could ask Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to hand over the returns.

The law says the Treasury secretary must comply, but it does not say how quickly that must happen, leaving open the possibility of delays that could force Democrats to seek a court order.

It needs to be done immediately, said Representative Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who sits on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, which could become the focal point for any effort to obtain Trumps returns. Shortly after Trump was inaugurated in 2017, Pascrell had asked the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Republican Kevin Brady, to obtain Trumps tax returns to be reviewed in a closed session, a request that Brady rejected.

George Yin, a University of Virginia law and taxation professor and former chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, said the three committees  one in the House, one in the Senate, and one joint committee  do have the power to obtain Trumps returns. Individual Americans tax returns are normally confidential, but recent presidents have made theirs public.

Trump, however, has refused, even as he maintains his ownership of extensive hotel and other business interests, in the United States and overseas.

The material can only be examined in confidence, Yin said. But the committee has the ability to agree to release it to the full House or the full Senate. Doing so would effectively make the returns public, he added.

An attorney who has handled Trump tax affairs in the past could not immediately be reached for comment.

Democrats say Trumps business dealings and any gains he realized from deep tax cuts approved last year by Republicans will be high on their investigative agenda, if they win control of one or both chambers of Congress.

Any such effort could expose Democrats to political blowback heading into the 2020 presidential election if Republicans can persuade voters that Democrats over-reach their authority.

There could be payback on Capitol Hill, as well, with some experts saying a Republican-controlled Senate might retaliate against a Democratic-controlled House by seeking the tax returns of leading Democrats.

Given that Republicans in the House and the Senate have previously rejected Democratic calls to force Trump to release his tax returns, it is not likely they would invoke the law if they retain their majorities in both houses on Nov. 6.

In 1924, Congress awarded itself the power to obtain tax returns. Previously only the president could disclose them. The change came during a bribery scandal involving federal officials and Wyoming oil field leases known as the Teapot Dome scandal.

The law was crafted in part to help Congress investigate wealthy businessman Andrew Mellon, who was Treasury secretary under Republican President Warren Harding. Like Trump, Mellon kept his business interests while in high public office.

The law says the Treasury secretary shall furnish tax returns requested by the chairman of any of three congressional tax panels: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Leslie Adler)401 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Republican strategist Rick Tyler said that Democrats dont need a fresh face. They need someone like Biden who rise about the Trump mud, unite people, and flip the Rust Belt.

Tyler said on MSNBC:



I hate to say this. I dont want to sound cynical, but the Democrats dont need a fresh face now. They need someone who can beat Donald Trump in a general election. This is not an open seat. This is a seat thats occupied from someone who people didnt consider formidable. Donald Trump will be formidable. As Biden said, Donald Trump will drag you in the mud that you cannot go lower than Donald Trump and you need someone who can unite people and rise above it and Joe can do that.

Joes a known quantity. Hes experienced. Hes been through this before. Hes not likely to make the kind of mistakes that Joe has made in the past. I think he ran in 88, he ran long, long time ago. Its really those rust belt states that need to come back for the Democrats. They need to get back in their column if they want to win the White House, and Joe Biden is the only candidate who has demonstrated that he can do that.

Video:

If Biden is the nominee, Pennsylvania is almost a lock to flip back to Democrats. If there is one thing that Pennsylvanians love, it is to support their own, and besides Dunder Mifflin, Joe Biden is the most famous Scranton byproduct in the world. Biden is a perfect fit for Wisconsin and Michigan. He also has already won statewide twice in Ohio.

Joe Biden appeals to those Rust Belt voters who flipped from Obama to Trump. All you have to do is spend five minutes talking to them, and theyll tell you that they like Joe.

If Democrats want a fresh face, they can put someone like Sen. Kamala Harris in the VP slot.

Trump spends all of his time talking about Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) because he doesnt want to face Joe Biden.

For the latest election news, join our Blue Wave 2018 group.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.270 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

The same day U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Saudi Arabia the U.S. government received a $100 million payment from the Saudi kingdom, both the The New York Times and Washington Post reported.

Pompeo went arrived on Tuesday to discuss the disappearance and presumed murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Trump administration officials have insisted the timing of the transfer of fund was a coincidence. But many people do not believe that is true.

Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahomas Center of Middle East Studies, said he believes the two events are connected.

In all probability, the Saudis want Trump to know that his cooperation in covering for the Khashoggi affair is important to the Saudi monarch. Much of its financial promises to the U.S. will be contingent on this cooperation, Landis said.

One unnamed U.S. official, who is involved in Middle East policy, told the Times, The timing of this is no coincidence.

Saudi Arabia publicly pledged the payment to support U.S. stabilization efforts in northeastern Syria in August, but there were many questions concerning when and if Saudi Arabia would actually pay the money.

Brett McGurk, a U.S. envoy, said the Saudi payment had no connection whatsoever to Pompeos meeting with the Crown Prince or Khashoggis alleged murder.

The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to do with other events or the secretarys visit, McGurk said.

Many people believe the murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi was the work of people from the Crown Princes inner circle. But both and Pompeo and President Trump said this week that the Saudis should be given more time to investigate the situation and should be assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Trump and Pompeo have continually stressed close ties between the Saudis and the United States, and have also mentioned several times the massive amounts of money that the U.S. receives from the kingdom.

Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday that we need to make sure we are mindful of the important business and government ties with Saudi Arabia as the U.S. considers next steps regarding the Khashoggi case.

I do think its important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships  financial relationships between U.S. and Saudi companies, governmental relationships, things we work on together all across the world, the efforts to [counter Iran], Pompeo said, according to CNN.

When asked about Khashoggis disappearance last Thursday, Trump said that while we dont like it even a little bit, it wouldnt be acceptable to him to stop selling billions of dollars worth of weapons to Riyadh.

One thing that Trump did not mention is that he and his family have also have many business ties to Saudi Arabia, and this may color his judgment when it comes to what policy the U.S. should adopt. On Tuesday Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show offered evidence that Trump is in fact compromised due to his financial connections to the Saudi kingdom.7.9k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Steve Schmidt delivered a passionate message to America that the people must rise up against Trump and his Saudi murder cover-up.

Schmidt said in part on MSNBCs Deadline: White House:

And in the same way that Paul manaforts criminality was an absolute utter open secret in Washington, D.C., who this guy is is also an open secret. And there are few things more shameful than, one, an American president on his first foreign visit goes to Saudi Arabia, a place where we hail MBS and his progressivism because women can now drive a car alone? We need them for nothing.

And when we look at this relationship, and we look at the degree to which the Saudis with their money have corrupted the American system of government, and you look at the shamefulness of his coast-to-coast tour with the the Rock. I  I admire the Rock, but its time for Dwayne Johnson to stand up and repudiate him. Its time for every P.R. Agency in this country that has an office in Riyadh to shut it down and come home.

Its time for every lobbying firm to fire the Saudis. Its time for every state pension fund to divest, for everything technology company, for every media company that has taken dirty Saudi money, send it back. This is a disgrace. This moment in time, what weve seen, is the murder of a U.S. Resident with American citizen children, a Washington Post columnist with a complicit president who has called journalists the enemy of the people, the American people should rise up against this. But we should put truth to the lie about who this guy is and what this regime is.

Video:

In 19 days, we the people have our chance to rise up and say no more. We the people can tell the world that Donald Trump cover-up for murdering despots is not who we are. We the people can stand tall and say no more. Donald Trump may be president for now, but his actions are not ours, and he does not represent what we believe.

Our time is coming. We the people will get the last word.

For the latest election news, join our Blue Wave 2018 group.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.1.2k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

A woman pointed to the older and mostly retired all-white crowd shown waiting in line for Trumps rally and Montana and used the line as evidence that Trump is bringing people together.

The woman said, And we are weak when we are apart! That is a saying from my mother that has been passed down through our family.

An MSNBC reporter asked, And you think Trump is bringing us together?

She answered, He is bringing us together. If you dont see this, this is togetherness!

Video:

The Trump delusion runs deep

There are a few problems with the idea that Donald Trump is bringing people together. The line for Trumps Montana rally as it was shown was mostly made up of old white people, who dont have jobs because they had the time to spend all night and all of the next day in line waiting for Donald Trump.

Secondly, Trump is bringing people together in a low population white conservative state. That does not signal togetherness.

However, the crowd in the line for Trump are the true believers. They are the ones who will stand by Trump no matter what happens, but for the rest of us who live in reality. They are the perfect example of how disconnected from the rest of us the Trump cult has become.

For the latest election news, join our Blue Wave 2018 group.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Follow Jason Easley on Facebook.412 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

According to a new article this morning in the Washington Post, President Donald Trump has threatened to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal.

The Post said that the president has been experiencing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras that has been making its way toward the United States. He said he may take military action to stop immigrants from crossing the southern border into the U.S. if Mexico does not take action to stop the onslaught.

In a series of early-morning tweets Trump blamed Democrats for the assault on our country, adding that illegal immigration is far more important to him than trade or the new USMCA trade pact with Mexico and Canada.

He also harshly criticized Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, saying these Central American countries have almost no control over their population.

The president tweeted:

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S..

.In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..

.The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!

I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

.In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught  and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

.The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

Trumps tweetstorm came while an immigrant caravan of thousands of people is moving north from Honduras toward the US-Mexico border. Trump earlier this week said he would withhold financial aid to Central American countries if the caravan is not stopped. In the most recent fiscal year, the United States gave $248 million in aid to Guatemala, $175 million to Honduras and $115 million to El Salvador.

Last April the president said he would deploy U.S. troops to guard the Mexican border until his proposed wall is built. He also said that he had been discussing the idea with Defense Secretary James Mattis.

Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military, Trump said at the time. Thats a big step. We really havent done that before, or certainly not very much before.

So far Trump has not deployed troops to the southern border, but if todays tweets are any indication, he is close to taking that action.

Trump has been demanding that Republicans in Congress make immigration a central issue in this years midterm election campaigns. He has continually blamed Democrats for his own failures in passing immigration reform legislation in the GOP-controlled Congress.Its just a few minutes drive from Paducah, and its some of the best barbecue around, Bradley said about this friendly, no-frills joint that only takes cash and checks; no credit cards. Known for its pulled pork (Bradley also digs the brisket), Knoths has been around for more than half a century. The popular, family-run business was about to call it quits last year when, at the last minute, Paducahans Ed Musselman and Andy Wiggins hatched a plan to save it and carry on the culinary tradition. As in years past, Knoths will take the winter off. After Dec. 23, it wont reopen again until March.Since 2009, millions of monthly readers rely on and trust PoliticusUSA for real independent liberal news. We arent owned by a corporation, we dont take any special interest money. We have no shareholders, and we are here to deliver you the unfiltered truth that the mainstream media and their corporate owners dont want to talk about.

PoliticusUSA is completely independent, and our goal is to bring you the news with truth and integrity. We are committed to keeping the news free to every reader, but we could use your help. For as little as $1, you can support PoliticusUSA, and keep delivering the message to the corporate media that both sides dont do it. The facts still matter, and truth rises above all.

Please give today, and if you cant donate subscribe to our newsletter.241 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

A Roman Catholic pharmacist in Michigan refused to fill a womans prescription for miscarriage medicine, saying he couldnt do it because he is a good Catholic male.

The woman, Rachel Peterson, told The Chicago Tribune:

He said that he was a good Catholic male and that he couldnt in good conscience give me this medication because its used for abortions, and he could not prescribe that. When youre at one of the lowest moments of your life, you dont expect this sort of demeaning treatment.

The medication, Misoprostol, is used in combination with another drug to induce labor, but can also be used against stomach ulcers. The incident took place at a pharmacy inside a Meijer supermarket. Peterson eventually went to a different Meijer location where a pharmacist did agree to fill the prescription.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan wrote to Meijer this week complaining that the pharmacists action was discriminatory and violated Michigans public accommodations laws.

Merissa Kovach, a Michigan ACLU policy strategist, issued a statement expressing her opinion that Peterson was a victim of sex discrimination.

Had the customer been a man prescribed the same medication, that is also commonly used to treat ulcers, the pharmacist would have filled it, Kovach wrote in her statement.

What we would hope is that Meijer and other pharmacies would agree that theyre allowed to accommodate the personal beliefs of their employees, but that accommodation cannot include permitting discriminatory denials of care that burden patients and customers, Kovach told the Tribune.

The ACLU is requesting that Meijer implement a new policy that will ensure that all pharmacy customers receive their medication without undue delay regardless of the personal beliefs of its pharmacists.

Christina Fecher, a spokeswoman for Meijer, told the Tribune that the company works hard to support all of our pharmacy customers needs, but declined to comment on Petersons specific case.

Fecher said that Meijer has a company policiy that acknowledges the rights of pharmacists to abstain from filling a prescription due to religious beliefs. If they do that, however, they must transfer the prescription to another pharmacy or have another Meijer pharmacist fill it. Peterson in her claim said that the pharmacist who refused to fill her prescription did not do either of those two things.

Meijer is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has 242 stores throughout the Midwest.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.Warren Lance Wise covers retail, real estate and Charleston International Airport for The Post and Courier. A graduate of the University of South Carolina, he holds nearly 50 local, state and national awards for journalistic excellence.Tens of thousands of foreign workers are flooding into South Carolina and other states through a government-sponsored program to take jobs Americans dont want, even as the Trump administration clamps down on illegal immigration and pushes for a border wall to bolster security.

These seasonal migrant workers mostly come from Mexico, and theyve become an essential lynchpin in the agricultural network that moves fresh produce from the nations fields to its supermarkets and dinner tables.

Use of this "guest worker" program has risen steadily since the mid-1960s. But its growth has surged exponentially in recent years as the nations low unemployment rate and a massive crackdown on undocumented workers has made it difficult for farmers to find laborers to help harvest their crops.

Nearly a quarter-million foreign workers poured into the country to fill these jobs last year through the U.S. Labor Departments H-2A visa program  almost triple the number recorded just five years earlier.

Roughly 5,200 of those workers have ended up in South Carolina so far this year, placing it among the 10 states that most heavily depend on the program. Use of H-2A workers here jumped 30 percent in the past year. Farmers say they have no other choice, with most Americans simply unwilling to do this grueling work for the state's prevailing wage of $10.95 an hour  among the nation's lowest.

You either import your labor, or you import your food, said Hugh Weathers, South Carolinas agriculture commissioner.

Protections in place to safeguard these workers, however, have not kept pace with the programs explosive growth, leaving foreign laborers vulnerable to abuse, mistreatment and exploitation, legal experts said.

The U.S. Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division has 14 inspectors assigned to watch over the 162 farm labor camps in South Carolina that use temporary foreign workers. But those inspectors must juggle that mission with a host of other cases involving different workforce issues.

South Carolina Legal Services Migrant Unit  the federally funded group responsible for representing workers rights  provides another layer of protection. But the group has one attorney and one paralegal to represent these temporary workers if problems arise. North Carolina, by contrast, has nine legal aid workers to assist guest laborers.

Whats more, South Carolina does not guarantee legal aid workers access to participating farms, as other states do. They must use a variety of strategies to connect with guest laborers  at times risking the wrath of farmers who dont want them poking around their properties.

In 2017, for example, legal aid worker Jeremy Wierenga said he stopped at a field in the Midlands to chat with workers. Moments after he left the camp, a Ford F250 slammed its brakes in front of Wierengas car. Behind the wheel was the owner of the farm, who yelled and threatened to have him arrested. It was super intimidating, and it was effective, he said.

Yet, those efforts have uncovered problems that escaped the attention of labor inspectors, legal aid workers said. Among other things, they have documented several instances of workers being underpaid, stiffed on reimbursements for travel expenses or stuck with visa costs that should be borne by their employers, they said.

Last summer, Karla Martinez, the sole attorney in the legal aid migrant unit, visited a labor camp near Lodge, a tiny community in rural Colleton County, and discovered wooden units that lacked running water. Cockroaches crawled on moldy cots that lay on the floor. Electrical wiring popped out of the walls.

Martinez said she notified the Labor Department of these issues, but because a contractor owned the houses and not a grower, the complaint went nowhere.

Protecting workers

In 2017, the Labor Departments Wage and Hour Division investigated 483 agriculture worker complaints across the Southeast, but it appears that most of the agencys attention went to states other than South Carolina. Since 2014, the Labor Department has conducted just 13 H-2A investigations in the Palmetto State, though the agency also pursued 92 investigations on behalf of other, undocumented, farm workers. Violations were found in the majority of those cases, the agency said.

Agency officials said confidentiality requirements prevented them from discussing specifics of those complaints, but they insisted the Labor Department has a "strong commitment to protecting workers and holding employers accountable."

Sometimes, Martinez said, its faster to threaten employers with civil suits and settle out of court rather than wait for the government to intervene. This year, Martinez secured a $23,000 settlement for four Mexican blueberry pickers who had been underpaid by an Upstate grower who also failed to provide them reimbursements for travel and visa fees.

"The money means everything," said Angela Myers, director of the legal aid migrant unit.

Wage rates The Adverse Effect Wage Rate  "AEWR"  was designed to pay H-2A workers a wage that would not adversely affect wages of domestic farm workers in the U.S. These wages vary by state based on averages from the the U.S. Department of Agriculture's annual Farm Labor Survey. This year, South Carolina's hourly AEWR is $10.95. Many employers use a "piece rate," a pay system based on the number of buckets of fruit or vegetables picked in a day. Current H-2A rules allow employers to cut workers' pay once 75 percent of the total hours promised in a contract have been worked.

Similar  and worse  incidents have been documented across the country.

In Arizona, for example, regulators last year pounced on a farm owner accused of keeping his workers in a dirty and dangerous encampment of old school buses and trailers. Another grower, in Missouri, was cited for providing unsanitary and unsafe housing. And in Washington State, a blueberry farm was accused of shortchanging workers on food and water while demanding they work unless they were on their deathbed.

Certainly, not all H-2A workers are treated this way, and some growers are known for going to great lengths to make their guest laborers feel comfortable. For example, Titan Farms, a large-volume peach producer in the Midlands, spent more than $350,000 to outfit its worker barracks with air conditioning.

Farmers say they are doing the best they can to navigate an expensive and often cumbersome visa program that has become a necessity to guarantee fragile crops are harvested on time and not lost to the elements. Any delay in securing labor poses a threat to a farms viability.

In North Augusta, for instance, farmer Clyde Gurosik said he lost almost $60,000 when his strawberries rotted in the field because a hang-up with the Department of Labor prevented his foreign workers from getting visas in time to help with the harvest.

Were trying to keep things running in a perishable environment, said Kemp McLeod, a north Midlands peach, berry and row crop farmer.

Struggling to fill jobs

While the harvesting of row crops such as soybeans and corn has become mostly mechanized with combines and GPS-oriented tractors, the art of cultivating fresh produce remains primitive. Only human hands can prune fickle tomato vines or pluck soft and delicate blueberries from their stems.

Harvesting produce remains a labor-intensive enterprise: It takes about 220 workers, for example, to pick 80 acres of blueberries. A work day can last 16 hours with no breaks.

Its arduous work, and in the Carolinas an entire harvest can be spent in hot, humid, sweltering weather. Temperatures can reach 100 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Hurricanes and droughts can wipe out entire harvests and cost workers a years salary.

South Carolina farmers have found it increasingly difficult to attract local, native-born workers to fill these jobs, even though the hourly pay is about $3 more than the minimum wage.

"It takes work, trying to hire locals, high schoolers," McLeod, the north Midlands farmer, said. "One boy just told me, 'I cant handle it.' Fifteen to 20 years ago, the whole shed was full of high school kids."

The U.S. has long relied on Mexican farm labor to bridge those gaps.

During World War II, the U.S. government created the Bracero program, which employers used to contract Mexican labor for farm work (Bracero is Spanish for laborer). Fraught with human rights violations, the Bracero program was eliminated in 1964. A year later, it was replaced with the H-2 visa program. And in 1965, the U.S. government put its first cap on legal immigrants coming from Mexico.

For many years, undocumented migrant workers provided a ready source of labor for growers looking to avoid the cost and red tape of bringing in help with H-2A visas. But federal immigration crackdowns in recent years have cut into the undocumented workforce and made H-2A more of a necessity.

In the year following the 2016 election, farmers' requests for temporary workers jumped 20 percent. President Donald Trump has even made use of the program to secure foreign labor to work his 1,300-acre vineyard in Virginia.

The American dream?

Inside the sprawling packing shed at Titan Farms, silver conveyor belts whisked piles of peaches from the washroom toward the sticker machine. Dozens of women stood in rows examining the fruit for bruises and quickly discarding the rejects.

+28 Photos: South Carolina crops are harvested by thousands of foreign workers Thousands of guest workers on H-2A visas leave their homes to harvest the fields of farms across South Carolina.

Titan Farms, located in a rural swath of South Carolina between the capital city of Columbia and the Georgia border, shells out $750 annually for each of its 850 guest workers. Its a price owner Chalmers Carr is more than willing to pay in exchange for a stable, dependable workforce at Titan. (The average cost to hire an H-2A worker is about $1,500, including agent fees; Carr hired an in-house labor contractor).

Carr sees the program as a win for his farm and the guest workers, who can earn more here than they could back home.

You wanna talk about the American dream, he said. They want to provide for their families.

Still, not all farms have the resources to provide the same amenities as Titan. Many operate on tight margins with every harvest offering the potential for boom or bust. In this environment, some seek to hedge their bets by cutting corners and shortchanging workers, legal aid workers said.

Though the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act protects the rights of these workers, the number of federal labor investigators assigned to look into potential violations has continued to decline while the nations workforce has steadily grown.

At times, that has left others to take up the torch and try to provide a voice for a shadow workforce that remains largely invisible to the public eye.

On a steamy June afternoon, Wierenga, the legal aid paralegal, drove through the pine forests of rural Bamberg County to speak with guest workers at a squash farm near Ehrhardt, a town of 545 people with the closest Walmart some 25 miles away.

Most of these workers came from same rural village in southeastern Mexico. They had endured a 19-hour bus ride to the visa-processing center in Monterrey and then traveled 32 hours more to reach South Carolina. Now drawing a paycheck, they were reluctant to discuss their working conditions and risk jeopardizing their jobs.

One man scrubbed his work clothes against a well-rusted refrigerator door, trying to remove skin-irritating pesticides from the fabric. The man simply smiled and joked when asked about his routine.

No complaints here, the work crew told Wierenga.Paul Bowers is an education reporter and father of three living in North Charleston. He previously worked at the Charleston City Paper, where he was twice named South Carolina Journalist of the Year in the weekly category.Chloe Johnson covers the coastal environment and climate change for the Post and Courier. She's always looking for a good excuse to hop on a boat.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.Politicians are going to do whatever they want anyway. This kind of victim mentality keeps people struggling at the bottom. They dont believe they have the power to change anything. So they abdicate their responsibility to others who are most likely to vote against their best interests. And their belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy  politicians get to do whatever they want because no one is holding them accountable.In Wednesday night's first debate of the South Carolina governor's race, Republican incumbent Henry McMaster and Democratic challenger James Smith threw out several claims about the state and each other's records.

Here are a few key points of dispute and the background behind them:

Best states to do business

Smith claimed that South Carolina is now the 33rd best state to do business, while North Carolina and Georgia are 8th and 9th.

A CNBC scorecard released in July had similar numbers, but Smith was just slightly off. South Carolina was ranked 30th, North Carolina was ranked 9th and Georgia 7th.

The point, Smith spokesman Brad Warthen said, is how poorly South Carolina is faring compared with its neighboring states.

Other rankings have offered quite the opposite conclusion, however. Chief Executive magazine, for example, ranked South Carolina as the third best state to do business, tied with North Carolina, in their annual poll of CEOs.

Tax votes

McMaster repeatedly dinged Smith for supporting tax increases during his 22 years in the Legislature.

Since entering the Statehouse, Smith has supported several proposed tax increases, ranging from sales taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to the gas tax that passed through the Legislature last year despite McMaster's veto.

Smith noted that the governor does not have the power to unilaterally enact a tax increase unless it is first passed by the Legislature, which is true.

But the governor can stop a tax increase from going into effect by vetoing it if the Legislature does not have a supermajority to override.

Tax exemptions

Asked which tax exemptions he would consider eliminating, McMaster suggested there aren't any.

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"When you eliminate an exemption, you're raising taxes," McMaster said. "I want to have comprehensive tax reform, but I want them to go lower, not up."

Yet in response to a series of questions from The Post and Courier just this past weekend, McMaster said he believes "we must eliminate some exemptions to simplify our tax code."

McMaster campaign spokeswoman Caroline Anderegg said the governor's answer at the debate was about eliminating exemptions without any other changes.

Cutting taxes leads to growth

Asked how he would continue to fund state services at current levels if taxes are cut, McMaster said lower taxes would spur the economy and actually lead to more money coming in for the state government.

"It's been proven every time," McMaster said. "It's worked."

Many economists do believe that tax cuts tend to lead to growth in principle, but other hotly dispute whether the two phenomena necessarily work in tandem. Several examples in recent American history have suggested the opposite can happen depending on the circumstances.

Perhaps most famously, former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback slashed income taxes in his state in 2012, promising it would boost the state's economy. Instead, the state saw revenues decline and had to cut funding to education and infrastructure, leading to slower growth there than the rest of the country.

South Carolina has also grappled with a negative impact from major tax cuts at the wrong time before, like the 2006 measure that slashed property taxes and wound up creating a major shortfall in the state budget.

Medicaid expansion

Both Smith and McMaster threw out a lot of numbers about the potential impact of Medicaid expansion, which McMaster  like his predecessor, Nikki Haley  has declined to accept and Smith has pledged to change.

Smith claimed accepting the federal dollars could lead to 40,000 new jobs in South Carolina's medical industry and would offer the state $2 billion without raising taxes. McMaster countered that the state could be on the hook for up to a billion dollars a year after the first few years, when the state is required to match some of the federal funds.

Analyses of the potential impact of Medicaid expansion vary wildly, often depending on which group is commissioning the study and what their interests are. Estimated figures should be taken with many grains of salt.

One study by the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business in 2012 and prepared for the South Carolina Hospital Association (which supports expansion), found that federal funding for the state could have been approximately $11.2 billion from 2014 to 2020 and could support nearly 44,000 new jobs.

After the first few years, the state would need to start matching a portion  up to 10 percent  of the funds, which would cost around $635 million over the same period.

But again, other groups have offered differing analyses, and the true economic impact is difficult to measure without knowing exactly how many residents would be enrolled.FLORENCE  Gov. Henry McMaster and rival Democrat James Smith sparred Wednesday over taxes, expanding Medicaid and public education in their first debate before next month's election.

McMaster, who's looking for his first full term, painted Smith as a tax-and-spend Democrat, saying he's voted repeatedly over two decades to raise taxes.

The long-time House member from Columbia used a Ronald Reagan line to swat down the accusation.

"There you go again," Smith said, prompting laughter. "The people of this state can count on me to make sure were fiscally conservative. ... Who said anything about raising taxes?"

Taxes

McMaster touted his proposal to eliminate income taxes on the retiree benefits of officers and first responders  a proposal that went nowhere in the Legislature.

South Carolina lawmakers have continually cut taxes over the last decade, including income and property taxes. McMaster insisted that continuing to cut income taxes in South Carolina won't impact services because the cuts will encourage job growth and actually boost money into state coffers.

Last year, McMaster vetoed the state's first gas-tax hike in 30 years, a move Smith said put politics over the state's needs. The law, which followed a years-long debate on the state's crumbling infrastructure, will eventually provide $800 million annually for rebuilding South Carolina's roadways.

"We got it done  Republicans and Democrats  and it was you who vetoed the bill," Smith said. "That is not a profile in courage."

His comments came after McMaster supported building two controversial roadways  extending Interstate 526 in Charleston County and Interstate 73 to Myrtle Beach, saying those are among the state's many infrastructure needs.

Medicaid

Expanding Medicaid is one area where their views differ sharply.

Smith believes expanding the government insurance program  as allowed under Congress' health care overhaul under President Barack Obama  is "the most fiscally responsible thing to do," saying it will improve health care for South Carolina's poorest residents and bring tens of thousands of jobs.

McMaster, like his predecessor Nikki Haley, countered the state can't afford the eventually required state match.

"I see us having to pay money we don't have," he said.

Education

McMaster said the answer to education is improving the economy. A manufacturer moving into a poor, rural county to provide jobs would change everything, he said.

Smith countered that's not an answer at all.

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"That plant isnt going to come to that county if it doesnt have the educated workforce to fill those jobs," he said.

Both agreed the state is facing a teacher shortage crisis.

Smith said teachers' salaries should be raised above the Southeastern average  and can be without a tax increase. By law, teachers' average salaries in South Carolina are supposed to meet the Southeastern average. But they haven't hit that mark since the Great Recession.

Doing so would require a roughly 5 percent pay hike, as Superintendent Molly Spearman is seeking.

Neither candidate directly addressed how legislators should spend a $177 million surplus of one-time money left over from the fiscal year that ended in June. McMaster suggested it shouldn't be spent at all.

Guns

Other than putting an armed law enforcement officer in every South Carolina school  as both candidates want  neither offered specifics for curbing gun violence.

The debate at Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center came two weeks after Florence Police Sgt. Terrence Carraway was killed and six other officers were wounded in a Florence suburb. Police say Vietnam War combat veteran Fred Hopkins ambushed officers as they showed up to investigate a sexual assault allegation against his son. About 130 weapons were found in the home.

Asked whether such a stockpile should be allowed, both said there's no constitutional way to restrict lawful citizens from owning guns.

McMaster said the answer is an "alert citizenry and good law enforcement."

"If we train them and educate them and give them the tools they need to do their job, they can make the place a lot safer," he said. "Everyone ought to be their neighbors keeper. There are a lot of things you cant solve with a law."

Smith, a major in the Army National Guard, said he agreed law enforcement officers should be supported. He also used the discussion to remind voters he led troops in Afghanistan.

"Ill be for them just as I was there for my soldiers," he said.

Smith did note he supports closing the so-called Charleston loophole.

Convicted killer Dylann Roof, who gunned down nine people at a Charleston church in 2015, was allowed to buy the gun he used by default, after a three-day window expired. Federal law gives the FBI three business days to tell a gun dealer if someone cant legally buy a firearm. The Legislature's GOP majority has opposed all proposals to extend that timeline in South Carolina.

McMaster called that a failure in technology, not a loophole.

"The system did not work fast enough," he said. "We have the technology to get an answer immediately."The latest example of that involves President Donald Trump, who trumpeted his decision to lift the summer ban on fuel containing 15 percent ethanol. He made much of it during a recent campaign appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he suggested that Democrats would abandon ethanol and biofuels is they become the majority party in the House and Senate in this year's mid-term election.

The summer ban that runs from June to September on E15 was enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency because, in its opinion, the alternative fuel emits more particles into the atmosphere than environmental rules allow, creating more smog and unhealthy air.

Many farmers and ethanol makers have long disagreed with that assessment.

Trumps self-avowed support for ethanol and alternative fuels rings hollow based on the administrations earlier actions. Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley  long an ethanol supporter  and others know that the administrations earlier actions indicate it is a tepid supporter of alternative fuels. The prime proof of that is the Environmental Protection Agency decision earlier this year to weaken the nations biofuels mandate.

The weakened mandate has damaged ethanol producers by reducing demand and thus cutting into profit margins.

The administration cannot have it both ways. If President Trump intends to seriously support ethanol and not just use it as a campaign weapon, he ought to pressure the EPA to reverse its decision on biofuels.

As it is, lifting the ban will have a minimal positive impact, although it could be an effective tool on the campaign trail.

Common sense is in extreme short supply in Washington. Ethanol and other biofuels have been successful because their positives far outweigh their negatives. Alternative fuels are good for the environment, reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and remain a vital economic development tool in rural America.

New rules on the trading of biofuel credits, which allow oil refineries to sidestep blending ethanol into their products, need to be made and need to have teeth.

We have no doubts that the administration will come under increasing pressure from oil-producing states to let them ignore the E15 mandates. The president is focused on jobs and will probably hear the worn-out statement about ethanol taking away jobs from refineries. Trump needs to be reminded that E15 will mean steady jobs at ethanol plants in corn-producing states, as well as help corn hold its sale price for farmers.

Any effort to buck up fossil fuels and protect its market share would be short sighted and should backfire.

Heres a suggestion for Republican and Democratic office seekers: make alternative fuel support a centerpiece of your campaigns as you seek rural voter support.

Make it clear that the EPA needs to reverse its biofuels decision. Trumps decision to lift the ban is important, but it's just a small step in the right direction.Ando gives us that kind of space in Wrightwood 659s lobby, an unexpected, four-story burst of space thats energized by the rhythmic treads and risers of an exposed concrete stair that corkscrews upward. Common brick recycled from the original buildings corridor lines the walls, its mottled texture in counterpoint with finely honed stairs. The space is so good that it compels you to set aside the contradiction of a self-professed anti-elitist architect laboring once more in the service of a wealthy man.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One ongoing snag is with Chicago Parking Meters, which owns the citys parking franchise and is still in discussions with Car2Go on how it can pay for meters, Moskowitz said. Car2Go users have to pay for parking meters themselves if they use them, and cannot end their trips at one. Customers can park for free in residential areas that do not require a permit, or in designatedparking lots, Moskowitz said.NORRISTOWN  An Easton man was sent to prison for having indecent contact with a Pottstown woman without her consent after a night of drinking at a local bar.

Christopher Robert Wolf, 27, of the 700 block of South Washington Street, Easton, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 3-to-6-years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of indecent assault without consent and strangulation in connection with a June 2017 incident at a residence along the 800 block of East High Street in Pottstown.

Judge Steven C. Tolliver, who accepted a plea agreement in the matter, also ordered Wolf to complete eight years probation following parole, meaning Wolf will be under court supervision for 14 years. Tolliver ordered Wolf to have no contact with the victim as a condition of the sentence.

Wolf faces sex offender supervision during the parole and probationary periods.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Erika Wevodau. Wolf was represented by defense lawyer Nicholas Reifsnyder.

An investigation began on June 26, 2017, when Pottstown detectives received a report of an attempted rape that took place at a residence in the 800 block of East High Street. The victim told police she was sexually assaulted between the night of June 25 and the early morning hours of June 26.

According to the victim, prior to the assault, she went to a local bar with a relative and Wolf. Later in the evening, the woman stated she had to leave the bar or she was going to pass out and Wolf accompanied the woman home, according to the criminal complaint. Once at home, the woman passed out in the bathroom and Wolf allegedly woke her up and she went to sleep on a couch.

The victim woke up several times to Wolf having unwanted sexual contact with her. The victim was unable to stop Wolf and was in and out of an unconsciousness state during this time, Pottstown Detective Heather Long alleged in the arrest affidavit. The victim attempted to push Wolf off her but was unsuccessful.

When the victim said No, Wolf sat on top of the victims chest and pushed her head into the couch pillows so she could not breathe, according to the arrest affidavit.

The victim tried to push Wolf off her, but he kept pushing her head into the couch cushions holding her there. The victim passed out after that and woke up the next morning, Long alleged.

With the strangulation charge, prosecutors alleged Wolf knowingly or intentionally impeded the breathing of the woman by blocking her nose and mouth.

Other charges of attempted rape of an unconscious person, attempted sexual assault, unlawful restraint and aggravated indecent assault were dismissed against Wolf as part of the plea agreement.EXETER  Police are asking for the publics help in identifying the driver of a vehicle that struck a 6-year-old girl as she was getting off a school bus.

Exeter Police said in a post Tuesday that they are currently investigating a hit-and-run that sent a 6-year-old girl to the hospital.

Police said at around 4 p.m. a 6-year-old child was exiting her school bus in the area of W. 47th and Oak Parkway when a red SUV believed to be an Acura MDX with partial Pennsylvania license plate: KDX, ran through the bus stop sign and blinking red lights. The SUV struck the girl, sending her to the hospital.

The SUV then fled the scene.

Police are now trying to identify the driver and are asking for the publics help. Anyone with information on the hit-and-run is asked to contact Exeter Police at 610-779-1490 for case #18-5053.LIMERICK  Limerick Fire Company is helping to spread knowledge about fire fighting and safety by opening up a camp experience for individuals with special needs.

On Saturday Oct. 13, Limerick Fire Company opened its doors to welcome 32 campers into the station to learn about fire fighting. The Firefighter Day Camp for individuals with special needs is the first of its kind in the area.

The camp included activities such as a tour of the firehouse, learning about the fire apparatus and the gear firefighters wear, using fire extinguishers and hoses, as well as a smoke detector demonstration.ROYERSFORD  The Spring-Ford Area School Board is poised to award contracts to its two top administrators Monday night  eight months before the current contracts expire.

At the Oct. 15 school board work session, there was no comment by the public or school board members offered on agenda items proposing a new three-year contract for Superintendent David Goodin; or a new four-year contract for Assistant Superintendent Allyn Roche.

Both current contracts expire on June 31, 2019.

Following a series of queries from Digital First Media, Goodin broke with previous practice and revealed his new salary and that for Roche prior to the vote.

Much like our teacher contract, the terms of the superintendent and assistant Superintendent contracts are negotiated with the school board. The terms of these contracts are typically made available upon request following the school board meeting vote. While the contract has not yet been voted on or approved, I can share that my anticipated base salary would remain $198,250 in the 2019-2020 school year, and the anticipated base salary for Dr. Roche would be $180,000 in the 2019-2020 school year, Goodin wrote, adding, these numbers are relatively low when compared to school districts across Montgomery County.

He also addressed the vote coming eight months before his and Roches current contracts expire.

This timeline falls in line with our last contract renewal, which was October 2014, Goodin wrote.

Many school districts address superintendent and assistant superintendent contracts months in advance so that they may continue to plan for future initiatives within the district. For Spring-Ford, we are looking to expand our Modernized Learning program in the 2019-2020 school year, rolling out the Act 339 plan, and addressing the need to support the mental health issues facing our community, he wrote.

In 2014, when Goodins contract was renewed, his salary was increased from $175,032 to $178,532.64 for the 2014-15 school year. At that meeting, some audience members took issue with the exact figure of the raise not appearing on the meeting agenda prior to the vote by the school board.

In June, 2016, the school board unanimously increased Goodins salary from $185,000 to $188,700 and Roches salary from $160,000 to $163,200.

Goodin was hired in 2011 to a four-year contract at a starting salary of $165,000, meaning his salary has increased by 20 percent in eight years.

The salaries of other school district employees are routinely listed in the agenda of school board meetings prior to voting. That is because they are most often part of a broader contract, such as a teacher contract, that is already in place and dictates those salaries, said Erin Crew, manager of communications and marketing for Spring-Ford.

By contrast, the contracts for Goodin and Roche do not become public documents until after the school board had adopted them.

On the same agenda, the approval of a contract with Joanna Roger McCourt, Ed.D.of Yardley, to serve as an interim principal at Evans Elementary School for 12 weeks, was listed and included the fact that she would not be paid more than $27,000 for that work.

The same agenda also included a recommendation to approve the hiring of Amy S. Hiller, a new supervisor of special education at at Upper Providence Elementary School, at a compensation of $115,000 prorated with benefits per the administrators plan.

She replaces Daniel C. Currie, who resigned.

Community members are encouraged to attend school board meetings which are held in the Spring-Ford Area High School cafeteria, and are open to the public. These meetings are also live streamed on the school district website, and published to the district website. Meeting agendas and minutes are available to the public through the district website, Goodin wrote.

Our nine school directors assess the districts needs to develop an educational program that is consistent with the districts mission and vision. I encourage community members to reach out to their region representatives at any point during the year, wrote Goodin.News item: Two GOP candidates assaulted in Minnesota.

News item: Antifa mob overruns Portland, and Democratic mayor stands aside. (And to think, I had dinner once with Ted Wheeler a few years ago, before he was elected mayor of Portland, and thought he was a sensible human being. Another case of misleading first impressions I guess.)

News item: Ricin sent to Sen. Susan Collins.

News item: Democrat assaults, critically injures Republican Senator in capitol.

Okay, so this last item is from 1856the famous caning of Republican Senator Charles Sumner by southern Democrat Preston Brooks. But some things never change. And as Lincoln once said, If we know where we are, and whither we are tending, we can better judge what to do, and how to do it. And with the Democratic Party openly embracing mob tactics, we can make out a reversion to a very old pattern.

By coincidence, this week in my Berkeley class on political leadership I went through Lincolns first significant public speech, his Lyceum Address of 1838, when we was just 28 years old. (Yes, I use this class to sneak in history students today dont know, and sure enough most students know next to nothing about Lincoln or the Civil War.) The formal theme of the speech is The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions, but Lincoln spends a large portion of the speech decrying the rising mob violence of his time. After reviewing three examples of mob violence that had recently received national attention, Lincoln explained:

But you are, perhaps, ready to ask, What has this to do with the perpetuation of our political institutions? I answer, it has much to do with it. Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil; and much of its danger consists, in the proneness of our minds, to regard its direct, as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the gamblers at Vicksburg, was of but little consequence. They constitute a portion of population, that is worse than useless in any community; and their death, if no pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually swept, from the stage of existence, by the plague or small pox, honest men would, perhaps, be much profited, by the operation. Similar too, is the correct reasoning, in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He had forfeited his life, by the perpetration of an outrageous murder, upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city; and had he not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law, in a very short time afterwards. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was, as it could otherwise have been. But the example in either case, was fearful. When men take it in their heads today, to hang gamblers, or burn murderers, they should recollect, that, in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be as likely to hang or burn some one, who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is; and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of tomorrow, may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them, by the very same mistake. And not only so; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it goes on, step by step, till all the walls erected for the defence of the persons and property of individuals, are trodden down, and disregarded. But all this even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in spirit, are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used to no restraint, but dread of punishment, they thus become, absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded Government as their deadliest bane, they make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations; and pray for nothing so much, as its total annihilation. . . Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyedI mean the attachment of the People. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last.

Of course, even non-radical Democrats (your phone booth awaits you for your next meeting) openly detest the Constitution, so the prospect that this Government cannot last is probably more of a feature than a bug at this point. Whither we are tending. . .Over the weekend, a CBS reporter asked Hillary Clinton whether her husband should have resigned due to his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Absolutely not, Hillary replied.

Hillary has been criticized and ridiculed for her response. And some feminists are wringing their hands over what one of them has called the enduring Bill Clinton dilemma.

But Hillary is right. Bill Clinton should not have resigned over his affair with Lewinsky.

Lewinsky was 22 years old at the time of the affair. She clearly wanted to have sex with the president. This, then, was a relationship between two consenting adults.

Im not saying Bill Clinton did nothing wrong. His affair with Lewinsky was wrong at several levels.

But, absent a partisan ulterior purpose, only a puritan or a nutty feminist would think Clinton should have resigned the presidency over the affair. The American president is not a religious leader and the U.S. government is not a Boy Scout troop.

Abstaining from extra-marital sex with consenting adults has never been considered a qualification for the presidency. To the extent the MeToo movement wants to make it one, at least with respect to White House employees or interns, this is simply more evidence of the movements overreach.

Im speaking here only of the affair between Clinton and Lewinsky. Reasonable people could conclude that Clinton should have resigned, or been ousted, for lying under oath about whether he had sex with that woman. And if Clinton raped or sexually assaulted anyone, thats an an entirely different matter.

But Hillary wasnt asked about these matters. Her answer to the question about her husband resigning was the correct one. It was self-serving, of course, but also, inadvertently, a service to the country, a portion of which seems to be losing its mind about consensual sex between grown-ups.Around 9:30 a.m. Thursday, the scene was already cleared and several people were back in the laundromat to do their laundry. A manager said she was not working and previous night and declined to provide details on the shooting.Many questions surround the apparent murder of Jamal Khashoggi. By far, the most important ones are who, exactly, is responsible and what will the U.S. do in response.

Heres another question that, although of far less importance, may be of interest: Why did the Washington Post hire Khashoggi as a contributor?

David Goldman describes Khashoggi as a top level spook who played a high-stakes game in Saudi spookdom. Is Goldman exaggerating? I dont know. But Khashoggi does seem to have been some form of Middle East operative. Why would the Post choose a Middle East operative to write columns for it?

Here is what Ben Hubbard and David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times say about Khashoggi and the Post:

After a successful career as an adviser to and unofficial spokesman for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, he had been barred from writing in the kingdom, even on Twitter, by the new crown prince. . . . So in the United States, he reinvented himself as a critic, contributing columns to The Washington Post. . .

Why would the Post enable a former spokesman for the Saudi royal family to reinvent himself by contributing columns?

Hubbard and Kirkpatrick describe Khashoggi as a political Islamist who forge[d] a personal bond with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Why would the Post use as a columnist an Islamist pal of Erdogan?

The Times reporters say that, according to Khashoggis friends, he joined the Muslim Brotherhood. They claim Khashoggi stopped attending Brotherhood meetings but acknowledge that he remained conversant in its conservative, Islamist and often anti-Western rhetoric, which he could deploy or hide depending on whom he was seeking to befriend. Was Khashoggi hiding such rhetoric in his Post columns?

Why would the Post hire a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who sometimes deployed (and other times hid) Islamist, anti-Western rhetoric?

I dont know. But we shouldnt be too surprised. Lets remember that the Post holds out Jennifer Rubin (and, earlier, Dave Weigel) as its conservative (center right) voice. Truth in columnists isnt the papers strong suit.Years ago, back in the early 1980s, I had a conservative friend in England who liked to say, The great thing about America is that you either vote Tory or you vote Tory, meaning that the Carter-Mondale Democratic Party of that time wasnt very far to the left at all. I tried to explain why American conservatives didnt see it that way, but you have to understand that from his point of view, with a Labour Party committed then to pacifist disarmament to the Soviet Union and full socialism at home, it made some rough sense. And to be sure, Bill Clinton, for all of his duplicitous politics and appalling personal behavior, yanked the Democrats back to the center on economic policy, such that today the left hates on Clinton for being (along with Tony Blair) a neoliberal, which is about the worst thing you can be called on a college campus these days.

It is popular on the left these days to charge that the polarization and bitterness of todays politics is entirely the fault of Republicans, who, the thesis runs, have steadily lurched to the right since 1980. This is the thesis, for example, of my old pals Norm Ornstein and Tom Mann, such as in this article in The Atlantic. This thesis relies in part on the work of several political scientists who purport to measure changes in the voting patterns of Republican members of Congress, yielding the chart to the left.

Ive never bothered to do a deep dive into the numbers behind this chart for several reasons. First, it defies common sense. Take abortion as an example. Im so old I can recall that George McGovernwho was wrongly called the candidate of acid, amnesty and abortion as least when it came to abortionactually had two pro-life Catholic running mates on his 1972 presidential ticket. What are the chances a pro-life Democrat could be a presidential running mate today? Are there even any pro-life Democrats left?* There used to be quite a number of them, even Al Gore and Richard Gephardt on occasions. Could a Democratic presidential candidate today repeat what Bill Clinton said in 1992that abortion should be safe, legal, and rare? To the contrary, it is evident that Democratic Party orthodoxy about abortion today is like Democratic Party orthodoxy about slavery in the 1850s: it must be celebrated as a positive good. But because there are so few votes on abortion-related issues cast in Congress in recent years this shift doesnt show up on any quantitative metrics. (By the way and for the record: McGoverns actual position on abortion in 1972before Roe v. Wadewas that the issue should be left up to the states to regulate. Just imagine what would happen to any Democrat who said that today.)

I could go on with other examples, such as the marked shift in Democratic Party fondness for single-payer health care, since it is obvious that Obamacare fixed very little. But the biggest flaw in this exercise is so blindingly simple that it is almost embarrassing to point out. The analysis purports to show that Republicans moved to the right in the 1980s and kept going that way. There is some truth to this, of course. But what else happened in the 1980s and 1990s? Hmmmm. . . What could it be? Ah, thats right: Republicans started winning more elections! First Reagan for president, and then for Congress starting in 1994. And since Republicans are forever supposed to be the Washington Generals to the Democrats progressive Globetrotters, something is clearly wrong with the order of the universe when Republicans win. If Republicans moved to the right and then started winning more elections, what does it say about the American people, or at least the preferences of voters? Liberals rarely say openly what they think, though when we do, we get deplorables.

This is all a long preface for setting up notice of Thomas Edsalls column in the New York Times today, The Democrats Left Turn Is Not an Illusion. Edsall, keep in mind, is a liberal, though hes long been critical of his own side, and keenly attuned to the populist rejection of establishment liberalism. His warnings, however, went unheeded. Here are a few excerpts from todays article:

Over the past 18 years, the Democratic electorate has moved steadily to the left, as liberals have displaced moderates. . . From 2001 to 2018, the share of Democratic voters who describe themselves as liberal has grown from 30 to 50 percent, according to data provided by Lydia Saad, a senior editor at the Gallup Poll. . . Well-educated whites, especially white women, are pushing the party decisively leftward. According to Gallup, the share of white Democrats calling themselves liberal on social issues has grown since 2001 from 39 to 61 percent. Because of this growth, white liberals are now roughly 40 percent of all Democratic voters.

Edsall does not shrink from pointing out some truly astonishing findings in the survey data, like this:

White liberals are well to the left of the black electorate on some racial issues. Take the issue of discrimination as a factor holding back African-American advancement. White liberals are to the left of black Democrats, placing a much stronger emphasis than African-Americans on the role of discrimination and much less emphasis on the importance of individual effort.

Hmmm. . . Maybe this is related to the polls showing surprising levels of black approval of Trump, and the apparent apathy of Hispanic voters about Democrats.

Toward the end Edsall quotes Harvards Yascha Mounk (mentioned here recently), who warns his fellow liberals:

One of the dangers for the Democratic Party  and the left-leaning parts of the establishment more broadly  is that they confound their actual audience with a small but highly visible group of activists.

Lets vote.

* UPDATE: Turns out the New York Times on Tuesday asked whether there are any pro-life Democrats left, and pretty much comes up with the answer: No.

Joan Barry has been a member of the Missouri Democratic Party for 53 years. As a state legislator, she voted regularly for workers rights, health care and programs for the poor. So when the party began writing a new platform after its crushing losses in 2016, Ms. Barry, a member of its state committee, did not think it was too much to ask for a plank that welcomed people like her  Democrats who oppose abortion. At first the party agreed and added it. Missouris Democratic senator, Claire McCaskill, even called Ms. Barry to praise her. But within days, Ms. Barry began receiving angry emails and Facebook messages. People called her a dinosaur, a has-been and worse. Her children started to worry. . . [Berry] worried that the Democratic Party had moved too far left on abortion. Gone were the days when the party, under President Bill Clinton, called for abortion to be safe, legal and rare. She also noticed fellow Democrats showing contempt for her when they learned her stance on abortion.

The party of tolerance and diversity proves once again it has neither.

Hat tip: Ben Boychuk.PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-19 00:41:24

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BELOIT, WI / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 /Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc. (OTCQX: BHWB) (''Blackhawk Bancorp'' or ''the Company''), holding company for Blackhawk Bank, (''Blackhawk Bank'') announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement with First McHenry Corporation (''First McHenry''), parent company of First National Bank of McHenry (''FNB McHenry''), McHenry, Illinois, under which Blackhawk Bancorp has agreed to acquire 100% of the common stock of First McHenry.Under the terms of the agreement, Blackhawk will pay First McHenry shareholders $23.0 million in aggregate cash consideration. FNB McHenry had approximately $175 million in assets, $45 million in loans, and $160 million in deposits at June 30, 2018.The merger agreement has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of both Blackhawk Bancorp and First McHenry, and the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019. The transaction is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approval and approval by the shareholders of First McHenry.''Blackhawk is a high-performing, growing, and successful community banking organization. We chose to partner with Blackhawk because its culture and leadership team's values align very closely with ours,'' said First McHenry CEO William Busse. ''Our customers can feel confident that this merger only strengthens our ability to serve them and continue to do business with them in the manner they have come to expect from First National Bank of McHenry. Blackhawk will take a good bank and make it even better.''Blackhawk CEO Todd James added, ''We are enthusiastic about this partnership and look forward to continuing and enhancing the commitment to the communities in which FNB McHenry operates. We intend to continue operating each of FNB McHenry's offices and bring our unique and successful approach to banking to FNB McHenry's market helping more businesses and residents meet their financial needs.'' Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC is serving as financial advisor to Blackhawk Bancorp, and Howard & Howard Attorneys is serving as its legal advisor. Olsen Palmer LLC is serving as financial advisor to First McHenry, and Godfrey & Kahn is serving as its legal advisor.About Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc.Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc. is headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin and is the parent company of Blackhawk Bank, which operates nine banking centers in south central Wisconsin and north central Illinois, along the I-90 corridor from Elgin, Illinois to Janesville, Wisconsin. Blackhawk's locations serve individuals and small businesses. The company offers a variety of value-added consultative services to small businesses and their employees related to the financial products it provides.About First McHenry CorporationFirst McHenry Corporation is headquartered in McHenry, Illinois and is the parent company of First National Bank of McHenry. Located in the heart of the upper Fox River Valley, First National Bank of McHenry was started as and continues to thrive as one of the last great community banks in the area. With locations in McHenry, Island Lake, and Richmond, First National Bank of McHenry has been providing banking services to local residents since 1969.For more information: www.blackhawkbank.com For detailed acquisition information: www.blackhawkbank.com/assets/files/iamDNSuU/BlackhawkFNB.pdf Contact: Todd JamesBlackhawk Bancorp, Inc.President & CEOtjames@ blackhawkbank.com (608) 299-3476SOURCE: Blackhawk Bancorp, Inc.PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 12:32:02

Cao Xiwen, the actress of Character Noble Consort Wan in Ruyis Royal Love in the Palace, is acclaimed as the perfect Chinese wife

Sharwater Japan Co., Ltd.

Tel: 080 3595 3426

Jenny.zhang

Recently, the Chinese ancient costume TV series Ruyis Royal Love in the Palace has become a hit in Japan, attracting much attention. The play tells about the emotions and marriages between Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty and Ulanala, his Step Empress. According to the research conducted by Sharpening Jar Corporation in September, of all the Japanese netizens favorite characters in Ruyis Royal Love in the Palace, Noble Consort Wan acted by Chinese actress Cao Xiwen ranks the first.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005

The Character Noble Consort Wan in Ruyis Royal Love in the Palace of China holds a great reputation amongst the Japanese, and Cao Xiwen is acclaimed as the Perfect Chinese Wife. (Photo: Business Wire)

The number of Japanese netizens to vote is 2985. The most popular character in Ruyis Royal Love in the Palace is Noble Consort Wan (54.3 %, 1,622 persons), who is considered to be gentle and submissive. She is scanty of words after marriage and devotedly protects her husband and family no matter how her husband treats her. Japanese female netizens express that such a traditional wife image in ancient China shall be respected, and Japanese male netizens state outright that this is exactly the wife that every Japanese man wants to marry and highly praising the actress Cao Xiwen to be the perfect Chinese wife.

Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui acted by Hu Ke ranks the second (855 persons, 28.6%), and the Step Empress acted by Zhou Xun ranks the third (398 persons, 13.3%).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181018005PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 14:06:02

Comodo CA Brand Adds Data Centers in Six Countries, Helping Customers and Partners Protect Websites and Comply with GDPR

ATLANTA, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comodo CA, the worlds largest commercial Certificate Authority and a leader in web security solutions, announced that its CodeGuard brand has expanded to six locations in EMEA and APAC in order to meet demand for its services internationally. Comodo CA acquired CodeGuard, Inc., a global leader in website monitoring, backup and disaster recovery, in August 2018.

CodeGuard enables business owners to reverse damage caused by intentional cyberattacks or unintentional impacts of development issues, content management errors and server crashes.

Founded in 2010, CodeGuard has seen increased demand from businesses seeking simple website backup and one-click recovery, as well as compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In effect since May 2018, GDPR mandates that organizations operating within the EU, as well as any organizations outside of the EU that offer goods or services to customers or businesses in the EU, ensure that personal data is gathered legally and under strict conditions. In addition, the organizations that collect and manage the data are obliged to protect it from misuse and exploitation, or face penalties for not doing so.

CodeGuards expansion of Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, extends the companys popular services beyond the U.S. to customers, hosting providers, and resellers located in:

Australia

France

Germany

Ireland

Singapore

UK

The tremendous synergies between CodeGuard and Comodo CA since our acquisition in Q2 are benefitting our resellers, SMB customers, and growing number of enterprise accounts, said David Moeller, President of Comodo CAs CodeGuard division. 2018 has been an exciting time for the company. We are on track to see over 100% YoY revenue growth, fueled by Comodo CAs global channel team and increased demand throughout the world.

Comodo CA acquired CodeGuard in August 2018 and has kept the CodeGuard brand intact and operating independently out of its Atlanta location, while also working to integrate all current CodeGuard services and solutions into its offerings for customers and partners. (Check out daily updates of successful website restorations on Twitter @CodeGuard).

About Us

CodeGuard is the leading cloud-based website backup and maintenance solution in the world, with more than 250,000 customers and protecting more than 600,000 websites and databases. With industry-leading reliability, quality control, and performance, enterprises, web service providers and web-hosting companies rely on CodeGuard to protect their web assets and their customers web assets. CodeGuards patented recovery solution is available through its partners and to individual customers and scales with growing business needs. For more information, visit codeguard.com and follow @CodeGuard on Twitter.

Comodo CA is the web security partner with the industry expertise and innovative technologies needed to help businesses of all sizes across the globe protect, monitor, and manage their web presence and IoT. The worlds largest commercial Certificate Authority, with more than 100 million SSL certificates issued worldwide, Comodo CA has been trusted by enterprises for more than 20 years to provide digital identity solutions that protect their employees, customers, intellectual property, and overall brands from online threats. For more information, visit www.comodoca.com and follow @Comodo_SSL on Twitter.

Contact

Liza Colburn

Director of Communications

Comodo CA

+1 781-562-0111

liza.colburn@comodoca.comPR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 14:01:52

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American Diversified Holdings Corporation ("ADHC"-OTC) Provides Corporate Vision for Future Growth DEL MAR, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / American Diversified Holdings Corporation (OTC PINK: ADHC) is a publicly traded company trading on the Over the Counter Market under the ticker symbol " ADHC." The company is currently trading under the PINK-Current status. Currently the company has two operating divisions: American Cannabis Holdings Inc. and Brazos Biomedical, Inc. Profiles of both divisions can be found below.The Management has been working diligently with our partners to setup up solid operating business with strong potential for enhancing shareholder value. OTC-QB Up-listing. ADHC has met with our SEC counsel and SEC Auditors and has received proposals to provide the necessary audits and legal filings to up-list to the OTC-QB. Management believes that trading on the OTC-QB will provide significant advantages to building shareholder value by attracting more institutional investors, providing more transparency to the market and creating a more appealing investment opportunity for raising capital and broadening our shareholder base.In addition to our infused beverage business, ADHC management is meeting with Cannabis growers, suppliers, technology providers and other Cannabis business sector. We are targeting growing operations as acquisition candidates particularly in Canada where there are no government restrictions. The first step for ADHC is to develop a distribution model to provide CBD Infused beverages to the US consumer markets primarily through ecommerce technology. US Federal Regulations are rapidly evolving in the Cannabis arena. With the Canadian legalization and legalization in many large US states, there will be tremendous motivation for the US congress to fully legalize Cannabis. Analysts have estimated the legal Cannabis business could well exceed $50 billion in the US alone. When this occurs American Diversified Holdings Corporation "ADHC" with be very well positioned to capitalize on the billions of dollars of business in the legal cannabis industry. Several Major developments have occurred that have provided the impetus for ADHC to make the move into Cannabis.-Canada fully legalized Cannabis nationwide on October 17th, 2018.-US Federal policy has loosened is classification of CDB to a schedule 5 drug. CBD in the non-psycho-active component of the cannabis plant.-Numerous pharmaceutical companies are researching CBD to develop therapies for major diseases and disorders.-Constellation Brands (maker of Corona and Modela beer) has invested $4 billion into Constellation Brands a Canadian Cannabis grower.-Coca Cola (KO) is in talks to enter the Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF) to develop CBD infused drinks-Cowen Analyst Vivien Azer estimated the Cannabis market could grow to over $200 billion in the next 15 years.In addition to our infused beverage business, ADHC management is meeting with Cannabis growers, suppliers, technology providers and other Cannabis business sector.AMERICAN CANNABIS HOLDINGS Inc. (An Operating Division of "ADHC")American Cannabis Holdings Inc. has entered into a supply and distribution agreement with a manufacturer of CBC infused Tea. The company in the process of development an ecommerce site where consumers can purchase the CBD infused tea for direct shipment. Each cup of tea will contain 5 mg of CBD and will be sold in 18 unit packages at very competitive prices.The tea comes in three flavors: CBD Chamomile Blend, CBD Matcha Green Tea, CBD Peppermint, and CBD Turmeric and Ginger Tea.These teas are crafted using nano-sized particle of WATER-SOLUBLE CBD, the innovative process ensures the CBD actually ends up in the tea and can be extracted into the hot water unlike Oil soluble CBD.ACHI will be embarking on several strategies to develop this business using ecommerce, On-line sales, Business to Business, Business to Consumer models leveraging marketing partners, retailers, product promotion services. It is anticipated that ACHI will be offering CBD infused teas for sale to consumers in the next few weeks. Major companies in the Cannabis space include: LEVEL BRANDS INC (LEVB), NEW AGE BEVERAGE CORP (NBEV), TILRAY (TLRY), CANOPY GROWTH CORP (CGC), CRONOS GROUP INC. (CRON), AURORA CANNABIS (ACBFF), CLS HOLDINGS (CLSH), ALEAFIA HEALTH INC. (ALEAF), CONSTELLATION BRANDS (TICKER), INDIAN GLOBALIZATION CAPITAL INC. (IGC), CHINESE INVESTORS.COM (CIIX), PURATION INC. (PURA).BRAZOS BIOMEDICAL LLC is a bio device company utilizing electro stimulation for pain management to improve patient outcomes through creative innovation with a core competency in the migraine and headache pain space. Our Patented Flagship: product AURACIStm is a "TENS" Headband device worn by migraine suffers to alleviate the pain from chronic migraines. "TENS" or Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation is a technology that uses electric impulse to block nerve pain. The founder of AURACIStm developed AURACIStm as the result of performing the OMEGA surgical procedure for more severe patients. There are 38 million potential patients in the US resulting $58 billion market. Management is currently meeting with medical device developers, FDA consultants and major distribution partners. See www.brazosbio.com for more information.ADHC is a holding company that provides executive management, corporate governance, administrative support, financial advice, and introductions to capital sources to various micro-cap private and public companies that have proven revenues and business models.This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's plans to change and are in no way intended to guarantee that the Company will be successful in executing its plans. common stock currently trades on the over-the-counter under the symbol ADHC. This press release in no way constitutes any recommendation regarding the securities of ADHC or its affiliates. Any person reading this press release is advised that this release should be considered in the light of all facts and circumstances regarding the business and financial condition and prospects of ADHC, and no reference has been made that this release contains all information. Contact: adhcinvestor@ gmail.com Tel: 858-259-4534 SOURCE: American Diversified Holdings CorporationPR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 14:00:45

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TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / Rockcliff Metals Corporation ("Rockcliff" or the "Company") ( TSX.V: RCLF) (FRANKFURT: RO0, WKN: A2H60G) is pleased to announce that geological prospecting has identified the "McLeod Gold Horizon", more than a 10-kilometre long mineralized corridor associated with gold and copper mineralization on the Company"s SLG Gold Property. President & CEO of Rockcliff, Ken Lapierre commented: "This strategic property hosts multiple historical gold-rich zones along several regional structural fault splays. The McLeod Gold Horizon has never been drill tested, yet hosts numerous historical gold showings. Rockcliff"s grab samples confirmed the presence of high-grade gold and copper mineralization. In 2019, we plan to advance this gold asset with additional surface work in preparation for a drill program focusing on top priority gold targets."The SLG Gold Property is immediately adjacent to three former gold producers with total production of over 1.4M ounces and a 2,000 tonne per day gold mill facility. The newly identified McLeod Gold Horizon is part of the regional McLeod Road Thrust Fault, a world-class structure known to be associated with the former gold mines on the neighboring property.Please refer to the plan map (Figure 1) on the following page highlighting locations of gold potential within the SLG Gold Property.The SLG Gold Property is part of Rockcliff"s extensive property portfolio within the Snow Lake mining camp, which includes Manitoba"s first and highest-grade former gold mine and some of the highest-grade copper-rich and zinc-rich Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits within the prolific Flin FlonSnow Lake greenstone belt. SLG GOLD TARGETSMcLeod Gold Horizon: The McLeod Gold Horizon hosts quartz veining and volcanic rocks within and proximal to the regional McLeod Road Thrust Fault. Variable styles of mineralization, including stringer to massive sulphide, and lode gold-bearing quartz veins have been intermittently traced for over 10 kilometres with widths up to 30 metres. Historical grab samples were reported to grade from trace to 2.0 g/t gold and trace to 5.2% copper. Rockcliff"s rock grab samples yielded from trace to 235.6 g/t gold and from trace to 2.41% copper. Wolverton and West Wolverton Gold Zones: Historically, multiple quartz veins are associated with rusty, weathered, garnetiferous quartz-feldspar-biotite gneiss. Vein #1 is 305m long and between 3.5m to 10.5m wide. Vein #2 is 1,372m long and averages 0.6m in width. Historic shallow exploration drilling in the 1940s and 1970s intersected values ranging from 1.37 g/t gold over 0.61m to 24.69 g/t gold over 1.04m. Rockcliff"s rock grab samples yielded quartz vein material grading from trace to 19.58 g/t gold. Birch Gold Extension:Historical documents indicate shallow drilling gold intercepts inside the property boundary and located 300m east of the former Birch Gold Mine. - Zone 3: 8.92 g/t Au across 0.7m (BIR11-06); - Zone 5: 6.65 g/t across 0.4m (BIR11-11); - Zone 5: 3.82 g/t Au across 3.15m including 6.28g/t across 1.0m (BIR11-12); and - Zone 6: 61.83 g/t Au across 0.41m (BIR11-12). Gold mineralization is associated with arsenopyrite, pyrite and pyrrhotite within moderately to strongly sheared quartz-carbonate flooded zones. The Birch Lake Gold Extension is hosted within the regional Birch Lake Thrust Fault. Figure 1 - Plan map illustrating Rockcliff's sample locations, and the historic gold and base metal showings.Laboratory QA/QCA total of 206 rock grab samples were taken in the field, packaged and shipped directly from Rockcliff"s field office to TSL Laboratories (TSL), Saskatoon, SK. TSL is a Canadian assay laboratory and is accredited under ISO/IEC 17025. Each bagged rock sample was dried, crushed to 70% passing 10 mesh and a 250 gram pulp was pulverized to 95% passing 150 mesh for assaying. A 0.5 g cut was taken from each pulp for base metal analysis (if needed) and leached in a multi acid (total) digestion and then analyzed for copper, lead, zinc and silver by atomic absorption. Gold concentrations were determined by fire assay using a 30 g charge followed by fire assay gravimetric and atomic absorption finish. Samples greater than an upper detection limit (3000 ppb) were reanalyzed using a 1 AT charge. Rockcliff inserted certified blanks and standards in the sample stream to ensure lab integrity.QPKen Lapierre P.Geo., President and CEO of Rockcliff, a Qualified Person in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements as set out in NI 43-101, has read and approved the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for the disclosure contained in this press release. The reader is cautioned that grab samples are selective by nature and may not represent the true grade of the mineralization of the prospect or showing sampled. About Rockcliff Metals CorporationRockcliff is a well-funded Canadian resource exploration company focused on base metals, gold and royalties in the Snow Lake area of Manitoba. Rockcliff"s extensive portfolio of properties totals 169,000 hectares and includes 8 of the highest-grade undeveloped base metal deposits as well as Manitoba"s first and highest-grade historic gold mine. Rockcliff"s goal is to be known as a Canadian mine finder with ultimate conversion of its projects into cash generating royalties. Please visit http://rockcliffmetals.com . for additional information on Rockcliff Metals Corporation. For further information, please contact: Rockcliff Metals Corporation CHF Capital Markets Ken Lapierre, P. Geo Cathy Hume, CEO President & CEO Off: (416) 868-1079 ext. 231 Cell: (647) 678-3879 cathy@ chfir.com Off: (416) 644-1752 ken@ rockcliffmetals.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements contained in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although Rockcliff believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not a guarantee of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this newsPR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 16:19:53

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- Preliminary Geological review completed on recently acquired Curved Lake VMS target and Phantom Ledge Lake Gold targetsVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / Searchlight Resources Inc. ("Searchlight" or the "Company") (TSX-V: SRCH) is pleased to announce that field work has been completed on recently announced optioned claims located near Creighton, Saskatchewan, five kilometres southwest of the city of Flin Flon, Manitoba.Searchlights team of geologists have completed a preliminary evaluation of the Curved Lake VMS target and Phantom Ledge Lake Gold targets which were acquired in the recently announced option agreement. Option and property details are outlined in the Searchlight press release at https://searchlightresources.com/news/2018/searchlight-resources-options-4-claims-in-saskatchewan-from-diamond-projects/.This is a first look at the new targets with primary focus on the location of showings based on historical data and initial sampling. At Curved Lake the team located and sampled past trenches and pits, plus mineralized road cuts on highway 167. At Phantom Ledge Lake, mineralized outcrop, including quartz veins have been located and sampled, though due to snow cover no pits or trenches were located. In addition, the geologists visited the Dion Lake VMS targets located on Companys claims approximately 1 km southeast of the Companys Rio (Bootleg) gold project and 7km south of Hudbays 777 mine. During the visit the team located and sampled the area surrounding the past exploration shaft and pits, collecting mineralized and malachite stained samples. See map below.Stephen Wallace, President and CEO of Searchlight stated, "It was good to get a team out on the newly optioned targets before winter sets in. This gives the company planning data for next year. The teams successfully visited all proposed targets and samples are now on the way to the lab."Qualified PersonStephen Wallace, P.Geo., is Searchlight's Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.About Searchlight Resources Inc.Searchlight Resources Inc.("Searchlight" or the "Company") is a mineral exploration and development company listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSXV). The company is active with mineral exploration projects in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Nevada, three of the top seven jurisdictions in the world for mining investment as ranked by the Fraser Institute. The Company holds a portfolio of gold, cobalt and base metal projects from grassroots stage to advanced exploration and NI43-101 resource development. Saskatchewan - Gold and Base Metals The Bootleg Lake project is 16,900 hectares of claims in Saskatchewan covering prospective areas of the Flin Flon Greenstone belt. Exploration is being carried out at the past producing Newcor, Rio (Bootleg) and Henning Maloney Gold mines located approximately 5 kilometres from Creighton Saskatchewan and about 7 kilometres from the Hudbay 777 mine located in Flin Flon, Manitoba. In addition, the Bootleg Lake claims hold Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) base metal potential with claims adjacent to the Hudbay Mines claims hosting the producing 777 base metal and gold mine in Flin Flon and the four past producing base metal mines, Flexar, Birch Lake, Amisk and Coronation.Ontario - Copper, Cobalt, Nickel & Gold1) The Munro Warden project is an early stage exploration prospect targeting VMS copper, nickel and cobalt within the Kidd- Munro assemblage of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt. The project covers 1,100 hectares including 9 mining lease and 11 claims blocks located approximately 90 kilometres east of Timmins, Ontario.2) The Cameron project is a grassroots cobalt, gold exploration prospect located 25 kilometres southwest of Cobalt, Ontario with the highly prospective Cobalt EmbaymentNevada - CopperSearchlights Nevada project New York Canyon hosts two copper deposits in the Walker Lane Structural Belt located in western Nevada. The Long Shot Ridge skarn deposit with a 2010 NI43-101 resource estimate and the Copper Queen porphyry deposit drilled out by Conco in the 1970s.On behalf of the Board of Directors,"Stephen Wallace"SEARCHLIGHT RESOURCES INC.Stephen Wallace, President, CEO and DirectorContact: Searchlight Resources Inc.Investor Relations(604) 331-9326info@ searchlightresources.comForward-Looking StatementsInformation set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect managements current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Companys control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Companys limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.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.SOURCE: Searchlight Resources Inc.PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 08:01:02

JERSEY, Channel Islands, Oct. 18, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Serinus Energy plc (Serinus, SEN or the Company) (AIM:SENX, WSE:SEN), announces an operational update.



Romania

The Moftinu gas plant is completed and able to operate at pressure with sustained production, but is waiting for the installation of the Low Temperature Separation (LTS) unit and the Triethylene Glycol (TEG) unit (together, the Units), as previously announced.

Since 21 August 2018, the Company has been awaiting access codes from Romanias National Pipeline Operator, Transgaz, to start experimental commercial gas production during the commissioning of the gas plant, as is the legal right of the Company. Transgaz has so far denied the Companys gas production into the Transgaz system citing that the gas quality is not according to their network specifications due to minimal quantities of water. The Company believes that the very high quality of gas, in excess of 90% methane, should be acceptable into the Transgaz system. Transgaz has maintained that even the very small percentage of water, 0.21% maximum, means that this gas cannot be injected into the system and that until the Units are in place, no gas sales can be accommodated.

It is the Companys view that Romanian law provides for such minor quality differentials during the proscribed experimental production phase and as such the Company is legally entitled to provide this gas to the system. The Company believes that the gas from the Moftinu wells is within the specifications that would allow Transgaz to accept this gas with no discernible impact on the integrity of the Transgaz System.

The Company will continue to pursue the acceptance of this gas into the Transgaz system. Regardless, the Company will be in a position to remove any minor residual water once the Units are installed and there are no further issues that would prevent the Company moving to full production.

The latest timeline provided by the EPC Contractor is that the Factory Acceptance Tests for the Units will be conducted at the manufacturing facility in Canada on or around 17 November 2018 and the Units will be loaded onto a freighter for shipment to Bremerhaven, Germany, on or around 22 November, with installation, commissioning and production anticipated for December 2018. These Units are being constructed by a subcontractor, AVAL Engineering of Calgary, Canada. AVALs delivery of the Units is now expected to be more than 11 months after the original delivery date. AVAL has provided project progress reports to our EPC Contractor with six separate delivery dates over the last 11 months, all of which have been missed. The Company has been required to send senior executives, alongside representatives from our EPC Contractor to inspect the works completed by AVAL as the progress reports from AVAL were unreliable. On consecutive visits, the Serinus team, alongside our EPC Contractor have now been able to verify the progress and are now in a position to have confidence that work is progressing, and the current completion ex-works date can be met. Once the Factory Acceptance Test is completed, the shipment of the Units is estimated to take 10 days to reach Europe, followed by a three-day shipping time by truck to the site. Once the Units have arrived at the site, it is estimated that it will take up to two weeks to install and commission the Units.

Tunisia

Discussions with Tunisian authorities have progressed and the Company believes that, subject to an administrative procedure settlement, it will be in a position to restart the Chouech Es Saida field in Tunisia in Q1 2019. The Company believes that progress has been sufficient that it can now take early steps to re-initiate production in this field. This field has been shut-in since February 2017 due to labour unrest. The Company has started the tendering process for long lead time items and essential production support services. Prior to shut-in, the Chouech Es Saida field produced an average of 488 barrels of oil equivalent in Q4 2016.

About Serinus

Serinus is an international upstream oil and gas exploration and production company that owns and operates projects in Tunisia and Romania.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 ("MAR").

For further information, please refer to the Serinus website ( www.serinusenergy.com ) or contact the following:

Serinus Energy plc

Jeffrey Auld, Chief Executive Officer

Calvin Brackman, Vice President, External Relations & Strategy



+1-403-264-8877 Numis Securities Limited

(Nominated Adviser and Joint Broker)

John Prior

Paul Gillam

Ben Stoop



+44 (0) 20 7260 1000 GMP FirstEnergy

(Joint Broker)

Hugh Sanderson

Jonathan Wright



+44 (0) 20 7448 0200 Camarco

(Financial PR)

Billy Clegg

Owen Roberts +44 (0) 20 3781 8334

Forward Looking Statement Disclaimer

This news release includes forward looking information and statements within the meaning of securities laws. Such statements relate to the Corporations or managements objectives, projections, estimates, expectations, or predictions of the future and can be identified by words such as plans, assumes, will, anticipate and may or variations of such words. These statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses by the Corporation that reflect its experience and understanding of future developments. Such statements are subject to a number of uncertainties, including, but not limited to, continued listing on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and AIM, the Corporations ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the delisting and other factors identified in the Corporations filings with regulatory authorities in Canada. Many of these uncertainties are beyond the Corporations control and, therefore, may cause actual actions or results to differ from those expressed or implied herein. 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, unless required by law.

Translation : This news release has been translated into Polish from the English original.



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Developments in road infrastructure and increasing demand for paved roads continue to influence sales of soil compaction machines. Highways and roads being a key facet of infrastructure sector in an economy, their construction becomes an imperative aspect. This factor is likely to remain instrumental in driving the demand for construction equipment such as soil compaction machines. Fact.MR foresees that the demand for soil compaction machines is projected to expand at a CAGR of 4.1% in terms of volume during the period of forecast, 2018-2028. Albeit a steady growth rate, demand for soil compaction machines is expected to translate into sales volume of more than 370,000 units by end of the assessment period, envisages Fact.MR The soil compaction machines market is likely to be impacted with a number of aspects circling the rental trend. OEMs and distributors of soil compaction machines have been inclined toward renting soil compaction machines owing to high initial costs. Mid-level contractors have been facing challenges apropos to raising funds for new soil compaction machines along with managing maintenance costs. This has translated into a significant growth in the soil compaction machines rental trend, consequently influencing its market.Request Free Sample Report- https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=1978 Manufactures of soil compaction machines have been focused on development of their soil compaction machines. Shift from static to vibratory soil compaction machines has been witnessed across the globe, says the report. In addition, soil compaction machines manufacturers are also introducing machines featuring higher fuel efficiency and low maintenance. Furthermore, manufacturers are focusing on introducing based on specific application requirements. For instance, Wirtgen Group has introduced HD 12 VV soil compaction machines that are suited for small road construction and landscaping sites.Heavy soil compaction machines is likely to witness significant demand and adoption across major construction projects including highways and airports. However, volume of heavy soil compaction machines sold is expected to remain low as compared to their light counterparts. Fact.MR foresees that the volume of light soil compaction machines sold is likely to surpass 190,000 units by end of 2019, in turn leading the soil compaction machines market.Demand for pneumatic rollers in the soil compaction machines marketplace is projected to expand at a relatively higher pace throughout the period of forecast owing to their higher efficiency in soil compaction process. However, the report estimates that sales of pneumatic rollers are likely to remain at a relatively lower base. Sales and demand of single drum rollers, particularly the 8-12 ton and above 15 ton variants, are estimated to account for a significant share in the heavy soil compaction machines and the overall soil compaction machines market.To Get more Insights on Soil Compaction Machines Market, Visit - https://www.factmr.com/report/1978/soil-compaction-machines-market Sales of light tandem rollers as opposed to trench rollers are expected to account for more than 51 percent of the light soil compaction machines marketplace. However, report projects that the demand for trench rollers is projected to expand at a comparatively higher pace during the assessment period on the back of superior productivity and compaction output. In addition, trench rollers can be used in highly cohesive soils. Manufacturers of soil compaction machines are largely investing in improving trench rollers in a bid to enhance longevity and achieve higher customer satisfaction. For instance, Ammann has introduced new Articulated and Rigid Frame trench rollers that offer higher operator safety and comfort with enhanced productivity.The sales of soil compaction machines are likely to remain concentrated in the emerging economies of Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region, particularly in China and India. Increasing number of road infrastructure projects, including Super Highway project in China and Highway Super System project in India, are likely to influence demand for soil compaction machines. The demand for soil compaction machines across European countries is also projected to increase at a noteworthy rate during the forecast period, says the report. Manufacturers of soil compaction machines can expect a positive outlook in the APEJ market with momentous growth in the forthcoming years.To Buy Soil Compaction Machines Market Report, Visit- https://www.factmr.com/checkout/1978/S About Fact.MR Fact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports."All of them have covered up and continue to cover up, are guilty of withholding their files and we are seeking to force the bishops to come clean, to require that all of them disclose fully the names of all the offenders they know who have violated children ... in their diocese," Anderson said.PR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 15:38:11

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ROSEMONT, IL / ACCESSWIRE / October 18, 2018 / Next week, over 5,000 suppliers, buyers and users of assembly equipment in manufacturing plants will gather for The ASSEMBLY Show at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL taking place Tuesday, October 23 through Thursday, October 25. The sixth annual event will include timely educational sessions, hundreds of exhibiting companies displaying products and services for manufacturing plants, a dynamic keynote speaker and two exciting networking receptions.''We are thrilled to be back in Rosemont for our 6th Annual event and bring together over 300 exhibiting companies on our largest trade show floor to date with over 5000 buyers to see the latest technology on display,'' said Tom Esposito, Publisher, ASSEMBLY Magazine. ''We have a phenomenal line-up of workshops, education sessions, and new special events features including the FIRST Robotics Demonstrations, guided tours of the exhibit floor and the New Product of the Year Award. There is truly something for everyone at this years event.'' Below is a schedule of events.Tuesday , October 23, 2018 - Workshops (1:00 - 4:00 pm) - There will be two half day workshops. The first will focus on Automated Assembly Systems with speakers from Arthur G. Russel Co, Performance Feeders Inc, Balluf Inc, and ATC Automation. The second workshop will focus on Robotic Assembly with speakers from Epson Robots, Universal Robots, SCHUNK, and KUKA Robots. Click here, for additional information. - Robotics Demonstrations (4:00-7: 00pm) - High school students from FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Illinois Robotics programs will demonstrate the robots they have built which use technology that is applicable for assembly manufacturing on from. - The "Taste of Rosemont" Welcome Reception (4:00 - 7:00pm) will take place in the Exhibit Hall and will feature over 300 exhibiting companies including Gold Sponsor PROMESS; Silver Sponsors FESTO and Schunk; and Bronze Sponsors, Kistler, Orbitform, and Schmidt Technology, as well as dozens of charter exhibitors who have been part of the show since its inception in 2013. Click here for access to the floor plan and exhibitor list.Wednesday , October 24, 2018 - Keynote Presentation (9:00 - 10:00 am) - Eric Pope, Vice President of Operations at US Synthetic Corp will discuss Culture by Design following the presentation of the ASSEMBLY Plant of the Year Award. - Exhibit Hall (10:00 am - 5:00 pm) - Over 300 exhibiting companies will showcase new products and services. - Learning Theater Presentations (11:00 am - 4:40pm) offer a unique opportunity for exhibitors to demonstrate their companys expertise in an area related to the latest technological advances in assembly. Companies presenting include: Balluff, Bosch Rexroth, Desoutter Industrial Tools, elliTek, EPSON Robots, Go&Up Automation, Henkel Adhesive Technologies, Jervis B Webb Company- a Division of Daifuku North America, LACO Technologies, Inc., RedViking, Sturtevant Richmont, and Visual Knowledge Share, Ltd. Click here, for the schedule. - 'Pub Night' Networking Reception (5:00 - 7:00 pm) - Relax over a pint, chat over burgers and make new connections while participating in pub-style games. Thursday, October 25, 2018 - Exhibit Hall (10:00 am - 3:00 pm) - The 6th Annual ASSEMBLY Show will feature over 300 exhibiting companies. Click here for access to the floor plan and exhibitor list. - Guided Tour of the Exhibit Floor (10:15 am - 1:15 pm) - New this year, editors of ASSEMBLY Magazine will lead four 45-minute tours focused on Adhesives, Conveyors, Robotics and Fastening Tools. Click here for more information. - Learning Theater Presentations (10:20 am - 1:00 pm) offer a unique opportunity for exhibitors to demonstrate their companys expertise in an area related to the latest technological advances in assembly. Companies presenting include: FANUC America Corporation, Real Time Automation, and Ubisense. Click here, for the schedule. - New Product of the Year Award (2:00 pm) - The winner of the New Product of the Year Award, which honors the company that has the most innovative and efficient new product, will be announced.Over 5,000 suppliers, buyers and users of assembly equipment in manufacturing plants interested in the latest technological advances in custom automated assembly systems, robotics, screw driving, adhesives, dispensing, plastics assembly, presses, conveyors, fasteners, packaging, workstations, welding, vision systems, and much more will attend! Click here to see registered companies. The ASSEMBLY Show is sponsored by ASSEMBLY ( www.assemblymag.com) , a monthly trade magazine read by 56,000 engineers and managers responsible for manufacturing and designing cars, computers, catheters, coffee makers, etc. ASSEMBLY covers the processes, technologiesand strategies for joining discrete parts into finished products. The event is produced by BNP Media ( www.bnpmedia.com) , one of the country's leading business-to-business media companies serving professionals across 50+ industries. For more information, visit www.theassemblyshow.com . For furtherinformation, ContactAmy Riemer, Media Relations978-475-4441 (office) or 978-502-4895 (cell)amy@ riemercommunications.comSOURCE: The ASSEMBLY ShowPR-Inside.com: 2018-10-18 05:03:44

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WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESSWIRE / October 17, 2018 / The MEMRI Lantos Antisemitism Documentation Project was launched in 2009 with the Lantos Foundation to expose antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world and to inform policies, strategies, and legislative initiatives to counter antisemitism.On October 12, 2018, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) released new content from the Lantos Project; this content was sent to MEMRI email subscribers. MEMRI's extensive audience relies on MEMRI to provide primary sources on antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world. The Lantos Antisemitism Documentation Project documents antisemitic themes in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, and Turkish newspaper reports, editorials, and other media sources. This project maintains the Lantos Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial Archives, which is the largest archive in the world of translated antisemitic content from the Middle East from the past decade. MEMRI's objective in highlighting the work of the Lantos Project is to bring the issue of antisemitism to media, to present evidence so that legal countermeasures can be taken, and to inform policy makers in order to provide the informational infrastructure for policies, strategies and legislative initiatives to counter antisemitism. It also seeks to enhance academic research of antisemitism. The Lantos Project distributes all its content - reports, analysis, and videos - through a blog and all its videos through the Lantos MEMRI TV page. The Lantos Project YouTube page includes videos from annual events held in the Speaker's Dining Room of the U.S. Capitol marking the establishment of the Lantos Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial Archives. No other organization does this vital work; all major organizations that focus on antisemitism depend upon the research from this project. The new content from the Lantos Project included a report and two clips, which are listed here:New Lantos Project Research Added: Jordanian Writer: The Spanish Inquisition Murdered Hundreds Of Thousands Of Muslims, While The Holocaust Involved The Death Of No More Than Several Thousand JewsKhan Al-Ahmar Friday Sermon by PA Judge Sheikh Muhannad Abu Al-Rumi: The Jews' Rabbis Sanction All Global CorruptionSaudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Arifi: The Jews Are Cowardly by Nature; In the Holocaust They Came to Be Slaughtered - ArchivalMEMRI research and translation efforts on exposing antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim world have provided crucial resources to educate policymakers, media organizations, the public, and others. MEMRI asks for your help to continue this important work through tax-deductible donations.About MEMRI:Exploring the Middle East and South Asia through their media, MEMRI bridges the language gap between the West and the Middle East and South Asia, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends.Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization. MEMRI's main office is located in Washington, DC, with branch offices in various world capitals. MEMRI research is translated into English, French, Polish, Japanese, Spanish and Hebrew.MEMRI - Middle East Media Research Institute: https://www.memri.orgMEMRI In The Media: https://memriinthemedia.orgMEMRI TV - MEMRI: https://www.memri.org/tvContact Information:MEMRImedia@ memri.org202-955-9070www.memri.orgSOURCE: MEMRIThe United States African Development Foundation (USADF) has entered a $10 million agreement with Kebbi State Government to provide seed capital and technical assistance to local agribusinesses in the state.

The agreement, which will last for five years, is to develop and expand local agricultural enterprises in the northern Nigerian state.

Kebbi State and the USADF will be contributing $5 million each over the period.

Speaking at the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Abuja on Thursday, the president of USADF, C.D Glin, said empowerment of local governments is essential for rural transformation.

He said his organisation recognises the challenges facing the African continent today and in the future.

Mr Glin said as part of its efforts to build agribusiness in Nigeria, USADF will provide $1million a year in seed capital funding as well as technical assistance through Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) for the five years.

The Governor of Kebbi State, Abubakar Bagudu, said the partnership will help the region achieve sustainable development.

$10 million is big for Kebbi State because we are a very small state. This is very important to us, Mr Bagudu said.

He urged other states to emulate the steps Kebbi has taken.

He said the state government has approved funds to improve transportation infrastructure, as well as to boost agricultural activities.

Kebbi State Governor, Abubakar Bagudu, US ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington and the Chairman of the US African Development Foundation, Jack Leslie during the signing of an MOU in Abuja on Thursday.

In his remarks, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Stuart Symington, said the partnership is to make Nigeria better.

He said they were working together because they share a belief in the future of Kebbi State.

Mr Symington said the MOU is about transforming the lives of people who will be working in the agriculture value chain.

The partnership demonstrates a joint commitment to achieving sustainable development for the region and finding ways to increase Kebbi State market competitiveness in rice production, while also increasing incomes for farmers and their families.

USADF has been active in Nigeria since 2001, investing a total of $9.5 million in 100 grassroots, growing enterprises and reaching nearly 500,000 people with improved livelihoods.It came like an innocent, harmless offer. But looking back now, Francis Nwufoh, the proprietor of an Abuja-based private school, Whiteplains British School, is wishing he never took it.

Today, the supposed harmless offer is the subject of a bitter legal battle between Mr Nwufoh and the management of First Bank Nigeria (FBN) over alleged forgery and fraud involving a N630 million credit now threatening the survival of the high-end school, located in Jabi, Abuja.

The loan was granted on June 26, 2013 by the Utako branch of the bank located within the Shippers Plaza premises in Zone 5 area of the federal capital territory.

Under the terms and conditions of the credit signed between the bank and Mr Nwufoh, its tenor was scheduled to expire in June 2019.

But, months before the terminal date, the loan has not only become a subject of various investigations by the Police and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but also a subject of litigations in various courts.

On May 11, 2018, Mr Nwufoh petitioned the EFCC to accuse FBN of forgery and fraud over the loan. He asked the anti-graft agency to ensure his demands were properly addressed, investigated and First Bank of Nigeria Plc prosecuted.

In a copy of the petition seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Nwufoh raised a number of allegations against the bank, bordering on fraud and forgery.

The bank has however refused to address the issues raised, upon enquiry by PREMIUM TIMES seeking its reaction to the allegations.

The spokesperson of the bank, Folake Ani-Mumuney, who spoke through another official of the bank, Babatunde Lasaki, said its management would prefer not to talk about a matter still pending in court.

Since the matter is in litigation, we will rather wait for the outcome of the judgment. We are not issuing any statement or reacting to any issue, Mr Kasali said.

Origin of loan

The loan relationship began in 2008 when Mr Nwufoh sought and got a N70 million credit from Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) to acquire the land where Whiteplains School is currently located in Abuja.

Following the prompt repayment of the loan, Mr Nwufoh said GTB offered to provide another N390 million loan to facilitate the development of the school and provision of key infrastructures.

The GTB loan was still running when Mr Nwufoh said FBN surfaced with an offer to Whiteplains School management to grant another commercial mortgage loan.

Mr Nwufoh said he was interested in the offer on condition that FBN would first pay up the schools indebtedness to GTB (then about N430 million), in addition to another N200 million facility to help complete the development of the schools permanent site.

The loan was also to facilitate the construction of the administrative block, classroom blocks, examination hall, science laboratory, assembly/graduation auditorium, library, dining hall, male and female hostels and principals quarters.

To formalise the banking relationship, FBN wrote to GTB for the updated status on Whiteplains loan with it.

Prior to signing the final agreement on June 26, 2013, FBN paid off Whiteplains indebtedness to GTB and took over the loan, along with all security documents used as collateral, including a certificate of occupancy dated August 2005.

Additional provision was made for another N200 million facility to take care of furniture and running cost for the school, bringing the total loan to about N630 million. First Bank withheld the security documents used as collateral, which it collected from GTB.

Under the agreement, part of earnings from school fees would be used to service the loan and the balance for the day to day running of the school.

Root of crisis

But the lawyer to Whiteplains British School, Chukwuma Ume, told PREMIUM TIMES trouble began shortly after the N200 million loan reached the schools account with the bank.

Mr Ume, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said hardly had the money landed in the schools account than FBN deducted over N188 million. No explanation was forthcoming.

Initially, Whiteplains said FBN claimed it was for running cost. Following protests and series of demands for further explanation, the lawyer said FBN claimed it was for perfection of deed documentation.

Although the N200 million was meant for administrative purposes, including payment of salaries to teachers and other categories of workers, Mr Nwufoh said for more than three months the school was unable to meet its running cost for lack of funds in its account.

He said the crisis degenerated, with the school unable to meet its basic financial commitments, which took its tolls on the entire school management resulting in teachers leaving.

With First Bank unable to provide concrete explanations why the school could not have sufficient funding in its account with the bank despite huge lodgments from tuition and other fees, Mr Nwufoh said the school management devised other means of meeting its obligations.

Crisis deepens

Mr Ume said the unraveling of the crisis came when FBN took Whiteplains management to court alleging breach of loan agreement.

Curiously, Mr Ume said while in court, FBNs application never made any reference to or claim of any monetary debt by the school, or demand the court to help recover its loan.

Rather, he said FBNs interest was on the receivership of Whiteplains School premised on a Tripartite legal Mortgage agreement purported to have authorised the transfer of the ownership rights.

The agreement allegedly drafted by Muftau Ande, lawyer, was purportedly signed between the directors of Whiteplains School (Mr Nwufoh and his wife) and late Lycious Ibes wife and son, Emeka, as directors of France-Lee Nigeria Limited.

Mr Ibe, a former retired Permanent Secretary, Federal Civil Service Commission, owned the company that sold the land to Mr Nwufoh on which the Whiteplains School currently stands.

Although Justice BFM Nyako ruled in favour of FBN, she ordered the bank to release the title document it was withholding to Whiteplains School to enable it sell to repay the loan.

Again, First Bank was asked to agree on an arrangement with the owners of Whiteplains on how to collect its loan to term without disrupting the payment of teachers salaries.

Besides, the bank was advised to ensure it performed its duties without being visible in the administration of the school so as not to traumatize the students.

Following the court ruling, Mr Ume said Whiteplains management agreed to structure an arrangement where all tuition fees were paid into its First Bank account to service the loan repayment obligations.

Other revenues were directed into other accounts in other banks to take care of teachers salaries.

Inquest in document

After the court ruling, Mr Nwufoh said he was not convinced about the authenticity of the tripartite agreement on which the judge based her judgment.

He said he was even more worried that FBN did not release to Whiteplains the collateral documents it collected from GTB when it bought over the previous loan.

Although he said he did not suspect anything fishy, he sought to see and review the document FBN claimed he signed. He said his findings were shocking and scandalous.

When the document was presented to me, it looked strange, because I was not only seeing it for the very first time, but there were clear disparities with our signatures on the loan agreement with First Bank, Mr Nwufoh told PREMIUM TIMES.

On closer scrutiny of the signature the bank said I signed with my wife as directors of Whitesplains School, it was clear they were forged, he added.

Yet, he said he opted not to rush into any hasty conclusion until he met with the other two persons the bank claimed signed the document with them. As suspected, the revelations were even more damning.

Mr Ume told our reporter, Mrs Ibe did not only deny signing the document, she could not recall ever seeing the lawyer whom FBN claimed she hired to represent France-Lee Nigeria Limited in packaging the agreement.

The woman was even more scandalized when she learnt her son, Emeka, 40, was also a signatory to the document with her, despite not visiting the country since he left at the age of 18, Mr Ume said.

Apart from never stepping her foot on FBNs banking hall, Mrs Ibeh swore she did not know Shippers Plaza, where the banks branch that generated the documents was located.

To put her story in a historical perspective, Mrs Ibe recalled her son, Emeka, who is a director in his fathers company, France-Lee Nigeria Limited, was barely eight years old in primary school when the company was about to be registered.

Because he was too young at the time to have a signature on official documents, the name, Emeka, was appended on the Corporate Affairs Commissions form in place of his signature.

Emeka lived and schooled in Nigeria till he became 18, when he left for the United Kingdom.

Mrs Ibe said since Emeka left Nigeria, he never returned to the country until 2014 when he came to attend his fathers burial. The father died in 2013. Immediately after the burial, Mrs Ibe said Emeka left Nigeria back to the UK on April 2, 2014.

Curiously, the tripartite agreement FBN said Emeka signed bore October 25, 2014. Mrs Ibe said she could not understand how her son came to sign the document.

Was the document taken to him in UK? Or did he return to Nigeria without her knowledge to sign the document?

To further unravel the mystery surrounding the agreement, Mr Ume said he approached the CAC to apply for and get the certified true copy. A review of the document threw up even more startling discoveries.

Beyond the agreement, he said there was another document with which the agreement was sent to CAC, considering the need to create a scenario that gave the impression directors of France-Lee Nigeria Limited gave their consent.

On two supporting documents, Dibiaezue Chuks, who claimed to be counsel to France-Lee Nigeria Limited, was also the same lawyer claiming to represent FBN.

In one document, the lawyer gave his address as LAGARDER & CO (Barristers & Solicitors) representing FBN, and on the other as LAGARDERA & CO (Barristers & Solicitors), representing France-Lee Nigeria Limited.

Interestingly, his office address and telephone numbers were the same on two opposing documents for prosecution and defence.

Besides, Mrs Ibe also denounced the notarized affidavits FBN also said she signed with her son authorising the registration of the agreement at the CAC.

But, shockingly, even the notary public before whom the quartet were said to have appeared to sign the agreement not only denied any knowledge of the deal, but also said he never met any of them.

With all the findings, Mr Nwufoh and Mrs Ibe swore on oath denying the authenticity of the document.

Mr Ume said all the documents were attached to a petition to the police. During investigation, the police brought the lawyer who drafted the documents on behalf of First Bank to meet with Mrs Ibeh.

On interrogation, the lawyer agreed he never met the woman, neither did the woman ever direct or authorise him to produce the contentious tripartite document.

Pressed to find out who did, Mr Ume said the lawyer confessed First Bank asked him to do it that way.

Armed with the latest findings, Mr Nwufoh said Whiteplains filed an appeal urging Justice Nyako to set aside the November 18, 2016 ruling he gave, as it was procured based on fraud and forgery.

But, on June 29, 2018, the court ruled its judgment could not be set aside, as Whiteplains neither raised the issue of forgery nor fraud against the document throughout the hearing.

However, Mr Ume is insisting Whiteplains could not have raised any objections to the document or object to its authenticity when FBN refused to release the document in its possession.

The lawyer said since FBN was asked to come and identify the four persons it claimed signed the tripartite agreement, it has not showed up.

Despite several letters delivered through registered mails to FBN management, including its chairman, managing director and all board members calling for investigation into the forgery and fraud, Mr Ume said no response has been forthcoming.

First Bank keeps mum on allegations

On Tuesday, when PREMIUM TIMES contacted FBN for its side of the story, its spokesperson, Folake Ani-Mumuney, requested a formal mail detailing the issues to guide her response.

On Wednesday, when our reporter called back for her response, she directed her colleague, Babatunde Lasaki, to meet with the banks general counsel to respond.

When contacted, Mr Lasaki said the bank preferred not to respond to any enquiries on the issue or join issues with Whiteplains Schools, as the matter was already before a court.

The position of the bank is that it is not going to join issues with them (Whiteplains). We are not going to respond in black and white (to PREMIUM TIMES enquiry), because we do not want to join issues with them, since they have already written to our regulator and the matter is in court.

What the legal unit of the bank is saying is that there are some sacrosanct facts in the matter, which are that Whiteplains School did not deny they are owing the bank money, and they breached their repayment terms.

They should rather explain why it is possible for the bank to have the original copy of the document in question (tripartite agreement) on which the bank had actually gotten judgment in the first instance.

The school has gone on appeal and the matter is in court. The bank will rather wait for the outcome on the matter, before joining issues with Whiteplains on the pages of the newspapers.

If Whiteplains feels that what they are doing is right, they should rather wait for the outcome rather than going about organizing press conferences, Mr Lasaki said.A veteran Yoruba actor, Ola Omonitan, died on Thursday after a prolonged battle with a heart-related ailment. He was 80.

His name might not ring a bell in Nollywood , but the late actor, popularly known by his stage name, Ajimajasan, is one of the earliest Yoruba theatre artistes to popularise comedy.

His death comes barely 11 days after veteran actor, Moses Olaiya aka Baba Sala passed on.

His eldest child, Ajike, confirmed the news in a telephone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES.

She said her late dad had been admitted at the University College Hospital, Ibadan where it was discovered that he had been suffering from an enlarged heart, spinal cord problem and prostate cancer.

After successfully undergoing another prostrate cancer operation in 2013, he could not be operated upon again due to his age and frail stature, she said.

He died in the early hours of Thursday. Our family will issue a statement detailing his burial arrangements. My father spent over 5 decades in the movie industry and I am glad that he touched many lives.

He was based in Ibadan, Oyo State and his contemporaries in drama include Akin Olumegbon, Lere Paimo, Ojo Ladipo, Moses Omilani and Jimoh Aliu .

He was also one of the foremost Nigerian comedians to host a comedy series on television for one year. The productions include Omo Araye Le, Bata Wahala and Ogun Laye.

The programmes ran for one hour each on the Nigerian Television Authority in 1981. The late actor would also be remembered for his lead role in the TV drama series, Omi Okun which is one of his post popular works till date.Clashes between South Sudanese cattle herders over grazing land have left 18 people dead, authorities said on Wednesday, the latest violence over territory in the troubled country.

We have confirmed the killing of 18 people in the inter-communal fighting, Terekeka State minister for information, Dominic Ladu, told dpa.

The clashes occurred on Tuesday in Terekeka state over the use of grazing land along the River Nile, he said.

Clashes over land and cattle raids are both common in the volatile East African nation.

Much of the fighting is often along ethnic lines.

(dpa/NAN)The Turkish Government expects to see the results of an ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi soon, Justice Minister, Abdulhamit Gul, said on Thursday, more than two weeks after the Saudi journalist went missing.

We all expect the probe to be concluded as soon as possible, Mr Gul told state news agency, Anadolu, characterising the investigation as very careful and successful.

Turkey will do whatever the international law requires, he added but declined to comment on the nature of the probe.

Mr Khashoggi, a vocal critic of Saudi Arabias powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, where he had gone to pick up papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee.

It was not immediately clear when Turkey would release the results of the investigation.

A team concluded its search of the Saudi consulate and the consuls residence early Thursday.

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutors office said they could release details during the course of the probe if necessary, according to Anadolu.

Turkish officials told the media that the Washington Post columnist was murdered inside the consulate.

Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations.

Mr Gul urged people to ignore leaks regarding the Khashoggi case on social media and elsewhere.

However, leaked information continues to appear in pro-government media outlets, including images and the names of alleged hitmen.

Anadolu on Thursday published an article accusing the Saudi leadership of failing to cooperate with Ankara on the probe and raised questions on the lack of surveillance video recordings.

It also speculated that the Saudis are preparing to confess to the alleged assassination of Mr Khashoggi.

Turkish officials earlier confirmed that 15 Saudi citizens entered the consulate building on October 2, minutes after Khashoggi.

It remains unclear why the 15 people, some of them identified as senior Saudi soldiers and forensic experts by Anadolu, were there.

The Sabah Daily published images from surveillance video at the Saudi consulate and the consul generals residence, showing Maher Mutreb walking into the Saudi consulate.

The report identified him as the alleged head of the 15-man execution squad.

Anadolu news agency showed footage of forensic teams carrying in bags and boxes what it said was evidence collected from the consuls residence.

The team entered the residence late on Wednesday, a day after Saudi Arabias consul general in Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, left Turkey on a commercial flight.

The search by the Turkish team, accompanied by Saudi officials, took nine hours at the residence, while the teams conducted a second search at the nearby consulate building in Istanbuls Levent district, Anadolu reported.

The searches come a day after U.S. Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, met Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusogluon, in Ankara.

Mr Pompeo had met with the Saudi leadership on Tuesday in Riyadh to discuss Khashoggis disappearance.

Mr Pompeo is due to brief U.S. President Donald Trump on the Khashoggi case at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT).

In the wake of Khashoggis disappearance, several high-profile U.S. media companies, including CNN, CNBC, the New York Times, the Economist and Financial Times, have pulled their sponsorship from Saudi Arabias Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh later this month.

The heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund pulled out, too, along with business leaders including Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan and Bill Ford of Ford Motor.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, is expected to announce as early as Thursday, whether he would join the slew business leaders and politicians in skipping the conference in Riyadh, a showcase event for the government.

Similarly, a suspect involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist, Khashoggi, died in a car accident in Saudis capital of Riyadh, Turkish media reported on Thursday.

Meshal Saad al-Bostani, who was one of the 15 suspects arrived and left the Saudi Arabias consulate in Istanbul when Khashoggi visited there on Oct. 2, died in a traffic accident in Riyadh, according to pro-government daily, Yeni Safak.

The report said sources did not give any details about the traffic accident in Riyadh.

This case is attracting worldwide concern.

(Xinhua/NAN)The governing council of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has indefinitely suspended Usman Yusuf, the Executive Secretary of the scheme indefinitely.

The chairperson of the NHIS governing council, Enyantu Ifenne revealed the resolution of the council to journalists after a two-day closed door meeting at the Abuja head office of the scheme.

The chairperson said the council resolved to suspend Mr Yusuf because it has been inundated with petitions and infractions against the official. Mrs Enyanatu said the council also resolved to set up an administrative panel to examine allegations leveled against Mr. Yusuf.

The panel has three months to complete its assignment and report back to us, she noted.

She said the reason for the suspension is to allow the panel an infetted space to do a thorough investigation.

We consulted and got the approval of the honorable Minister of Health before this suspension. 

Mrs Enyanatu also announced that Mallam Sadiq Abubakar will now act as Executive Secretary in Mr Yusufs stead in the time being.

Mr Yusufs reign in the state run insurance scheme has been fraught with various allegations of corruption, infractions and highhandness.

The executive secretary was previously suspended by the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, in July 2017 over alleged gross misconduct and fraud.

The minister then set up a panel to investigate the allegations.

According to documents in possession of PREMIUM TIMES, the panel indicted Mr Yusuf on most of the allegations and recommended sanction, following which the minister forwarded the report to the presidency.

But in February, without informing the minister and against the recommendations of the probe panel, President Muhammadu Buhari reinstated the executive secretary into his office.

The reinstatement ignited an uproar, with a group of workers staging a protest at the agency against it.

Since his return in February, many other allegations of fraud has trailed the controversial official with the staff and many management members of the scheme repeatedly calling for his sack.

More details later.A non-governmental organisation says it has reached a milestone in its history after providing medical care to over one million persons living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

AIDs Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global AIDS organisation operating in 41 countries, including Nigeria.

In a statement on Thursday, the organisation said providing medical care and services to more than one million persons affected by the disease was a milestone in its 31-year history.

The patients are said to cut across Africa, the United States of America, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean and Asia.

Over one-million lives in AHFs carethe most momentous achievement in the 31-year history of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and an achievement proudly shared by many, many dedicated staff, board members, partner organizations, volunteers, family, friendsand patients, president of AHF, Michael Weinstein, said.

Just three short years ago, we marked 500,000 patients in care. To now reach over twice that number, one-million lives, is simply incredible, he said.

The Managing Director, Africa Bureau Chief for AHF, Penninah Lutung, said the AHF Africa Bureau crossed the half-a-million patient mark in late Septembertwo years early in our goal as part of the 20X20 Campaign.

I could not feel prouder of each and every one who has helped us reach this milestone and, far more significantly, helped save so many thousands and thousands of lives.

As an expert in the delivery of HIV/AIDS medical care and an influential advocate, we celebrate this achievement today and also vow to continue to be at the forefront of efforts to control AIDS globally, she said.

AHF Nigeria Country Programme Director, Echey Ijezie, said I am happy with Nigerias contribution to this achievement and I can say that we are further motivated to achieve more.

We would achieve more with a redoubled effort to work more collaboratively with government and from the feedback we are getting, we are certain to achieve more, he said.

In his reaction, the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Sani Aliyu, said the agency welcomes all efforts by its stakeholders and partners to identify and put all people living with HIV on treatment, as this is the best way to achieve epidemic control.

In Nigeria, the three main partners (Pepfar, Global Fund and the Government of Nigeria through NACA are responsible for 99 percent of those on treatment.

The government is grateful to our external partners for their ongoing support to the HIV response, Mr Aliyu said.The Abuja head office of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was on Thursday thrown into jubilation following the announcement of the suspension of Usman Yusuf. This is the second time in one year that Mr Yusuf, the Executive Secretary of the scheme, will be suspended from office.

Mr Yusuf, a professor of Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant, has a reputation for seemingly disrespecting laid rules and constituted authorities at the scheme.

Workers said he ran the NHIS with an iron fist for the two and a half years he held sway at the saddle. So, when the governing council, which is empowered by the NHIS Act to oversee operations of the scheme, announced his suspension on Thursday, staff and management members sighed in relief.

Our position is that of obvious jubilation because this is an answered prayer. Its a breakthrough, a top official of the scheme said.

Operations have been hanging, the people where idle. They come to work and cross legs and do nothing from Monday to Friday. This man has shut down operations. Our regional offices around the country are all in jubilation. Its a major deliverance, the official who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation said.

He (Yusuf) has no blueprint, no objective. No roadmap, nothing. He just comes to ensure he is collecting money like the scheme is his personal business and that is why the scheme has failed absolutely under him. What the council has done is to take concrete action to revamp the scheme and pull it back from the brink.

This officials stance was echoed by Kayode Olawuyi, the Chairman of the Medical and Health workers union, NHIS chapter.

Generally, there is a sense of relief that the man is gone and gone for good, Mr Olawuyi who doubles as the NHIS Joint Union Chairman told PREMIUM TIMES on phone.

Inside Yusufs Controversial Reigna At NHIS

Mr. Yusuf, 54, took over the state-run health insurance provider on July 29, 2016 but his reign at the agency has been bedevilled by controversies.

He posed as an untouchable, said a worker, and on many occasions brazenly disregarded directives from the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, who supervises the agency.

His controversial reign partially came to a halt last year when Mr Adewole sent him on indefinite suspension over allegations of misconduct and corruption.

Thereafter, Mr Adewole asked a panel to investigate the allegations against Mr Yusuf. Although documents in possession of PREMIUM TIMES revealed that the panel indicted him and recommended sanction, President Muhammadu Buhari reinstated the executive secretary seven months later.

Since his reinstatement in February this year, the agency has been engulfed in infighting as Mr Yusuf and some senior officials traded accusations of fraud.

The NHIS governing council since inception in March has also been confronted by piles of petitions against the official. The council repeatedly rejected the 2018 budget of the scheme over alleged padding by Mr Yusuf.

Members of the council held several emergency meetings over the crisis.

Senior workers at the scheme about a week ago urged the government to ask the embattled executive secretary to step aside after again accusing him of fraud.

While announcing his suspension to journalists on Thursday, Enyantu Ifenne, the chairperson of the governing council, said several executive infractions that we can not ignore had been observed, noting that the council resolved to suspend Mr Yusuf because it was inundated with petitions and infractions against him.

Mrs Ifenne said the council had resolved to set up an administrative panel to examine allegations levelled against Mr. Yusuf.

The panel has three months to complete its assignment and report back to us, she noted.

Mrs Ifenne, a pediatrician, also announced that Sadiq Abubakar will act as Executive Secretary in Mr Yusufs stead. Before now, Mr Abubakar was the General Manager in the schemes legal department.

The council in a statement after the press briefing listed eight major infractions against Mr Yusuf.

The board chairperson later explained to this newspaper that insubordination was one of the infractions.

He came for our meeting nearly 40 minutes late yesterday and he did not show up at all today, even though there was some things council were to submit to the management today.

PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Yusufs known official line.

This is the wrong number, it is not the right number Ok, a mans voice said to this reporter after formal introductions. SMS and Whatsapp messages forwarded to the same line drew no response, although officials in the scheme confirmed the number is that of Mr Yusuf.

The NHIS was tainted by graft and sharp practises even before Mr. Yusuf took over as the head in 2016. In fact, many described the arrangement of the scheme as skewed against the people.

It was because of what Nigerians go through in the quest for often expensive medical care that brought about the establishment of NHIS.

The scheme made it possible for the insured to seek immediate care whenever there is imminent need to see a physician.

The scheme was set up to ensure financing of health care costs and management for Nigerians through the pooling and judicious use of financial resources to ensure cost burden sharing for patients through pre-payment mechanism. It has, however, been enmeshed in several controversies.

Since its establishment 13 years ago, the number of Nigerians covered by the scheme is about 1.5 per cent of the population. Most of the beneficiaries are civil servants and corporate workers in the private sector.He was riding his motorcylce in the 14000 block of Torrence Avenue in Burnham when he was struck by the car, authorities said. He suffered blunt force trauma and was pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Hammond in Indiana just after 1:25 a.m., according to the Lake County coroners office.The Lagos State All Progressives Congress publicity secretary, Joe Igbokwe, on Thursday released a 10-member list to champion the cause of Igbo people within the party.

In a statement made available to PREMIUM TIMES, he described the shortlisted persons as the new leaders of Ndigbo in APC Lagos.

We have succeeded in putting this leadership structure together in order to present a united Igbo family to the leadership of APC Lagos for the good of the commonwealth, said Mr Igbokwe, who issued the statement.

In the list is Mr Igbokwe himself; Oby Onu; Chris Ekwilo (representing Anambra State); Uche Dimgba, Eze Igbo Ikeja (representing Abia State); Baba Tata (representing Imo State); and Mr Mordi (representing Igbo-speaking people of Delta State).

Others are James Ugwu (representing Enugu State); Unya Smart (representing Ebonyi State) and Jude Idimogu, a Lagos State House of Assembly lawmaker representing Oshodi-Isolo constituency.

The Igbo-dominated areas in Lagos mostly vote the Peoples Democratic Party during elections.

In the run-up to the 2015 general elections, Rilwan Akiolu, the Oba of Lagos, delivered a stern rebuke to a group of Igbo traditional rulers who paid him a courtesy visit, saying they would perish in the lagoon if they failed to vote the APC.

In his statement, Mr Igbokwe said the 10-member list of Igbo leaders in the APC had become imperative in order to refurbish, reposition, and reorganise Igbos in Lagos politics.

This is because we have noticed that all manner of people gather themselves every election year and go to extort money from the State, promising to deliver Igbo votes to our party in Lagos.

Over the years we have noticed that these people are funny characters, fraudsters, interlopers and political entrepreneurs whose aim is to make money and nothing more.

While they enjoy their loot every election year the real people that work and vote for our party are left with nothing. While the real party men and women work tirelessly to lift our party up, these political traders abandon their shops to reap where they did not sow.

We have brought this matter before our National Leader Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinibu, the incoming Governor of Lagos State, Mr Jide Sanwo-Olu and the Chairman of the Party, Alhaji Tunde Balogun.

Mr Igbokwe urged the APC leaders in the state to recognise the Igbo representatives as the final bus stop for Igbos in APC Lagos.

It is our wish that henceforth all matter pertaining to Ndigbo in APC Lagos will be routed through this body. On our (own), we promised (sic) to provide the required leadership, carry everybody along, be fair to all concerned, show commitment and finally mobilize our people for victory.

The body of leaders will visit our people wherever they are: homes, markets, Churches, clubs, offices etc to sell our message. We are aware that a dream does not become reality through magic, it takes sweat, determination, and heart.

We are determined to do things differently this time around by providing the required synergy that will galvanise our people into action. Consequently, this will lead to more votes for APC Lagos given our numerical strength here.There is an embarrassing confusion over the number of persons killed in Fridays explosion at a pipeline of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Umuaduru and Umuimo villages in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area of Abia State.

Officials, including of the state government, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and a senator are offering widely conflicting figures, less than a week after the disaster.

Initial reports stated that at least 24 persons were confirmed dead from the incident.

But this figure was on Wednesday dismissed as grossly inaccurate by a former governor of the state, Theodore Orji, who is now a senator.

Speaking at the Senate chamber, Mr Orji said the death toll had reached 150.

Even after Mr Orji spoke, NEMA and the Abia State Government were still insisting on vastly different figures, demonstrating an alarming shoddiness in disaster management in Nigeria.

Asked to confirm the claim of the senator, Abia State NEMA head of operations in Imo and Abia, Evans Ugho, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview that the records of the agency showed 60 persons died.

He said the figure was obtained when officials of the agency visited the scene the day after the incident.

The incident happened on Friday so on Saturday in the evening before we left, the total number of death was 60, he said.

Many of the victims were taken to the hospital, there was also information that more people transferred at different locations died. So we cannot confirm the (present) figure, Mr Ugho added.

He confirmed there are many conflicting reports concerning the number of the dead.

There are various published sources. A newspaper said the youths said 115 died, the traditional rulers said 200 people died, so there are conflicting stories everywhere. And they said as at Saturday many people were dying.

Asked if NEMA was in touch with victims that survived the blast, Mr Ugho said no.

Since the victims have been discharged from the Abia State Teaching Hospital in Owerri, the victims have gone home and we are no more in touch with them.

However, when PREMIUM TIMES reached the Chief Press Secretary to the Abia State Governor, Enyinnaya Apollos, he insisted the total number of death is 28.

Mr Apollos further disputed that NEMA officials had been to the scene, five days after the incident.

I and the governor were there today (Wednesday) and the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, was also present, Mr Apollos said.

This is the second time we are visiting there. So from the details given to us from both the community and the local government chairman; with the woman that died in the morning, (the number) is about 28, Mr Appolos said.

When told NEMA also provided a different figure, the governors spokesperson said, NEMA is completely not correct. Ask them if they have ever been there because they have not visited.

Because if they have been there, what have they done to show that they have visited there? As I told you, the governor was there on Saturday and today; we both went there. That figure from NEMA is incorrect, he stressed.

The Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Chikwendu Kalu, has said the state government would institute an investigative panel to ascertain the immediate and remote causes of the explosion.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Orji (Abia Central) blamed the explosion on alleged negligence by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigeria Police.

It was a fire outbreak not because of vandalisation but dereliction of duty by NNPC and police. They knew that it was leaking and they even charge villagers N1200 to scoop fuel from the leaking place, Mr Orji said.

So it was a phone that rang that day that caused the fire outbreak. Chairman of the local government had called the depot manager but he didnt come, he added.

Hours after the Friday incident, the NNPC had suggested in a public statement that the fire was caused by pipeline vandals.Following the federal governments announcement that it has proposed N24,000 as the minimum wage for civil servants after consultations, the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) said it will hold an emergency meeting next week to take a decision.

The general secretary of NLC, Peter Ozo-Esan, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday night said the committee adopted (through a motion) to recommend N30,000 naira as the minimum wage and that motion was moved and seconded by members from the labour union and the employers representatives.

The minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, on October 10 after Federal Executive Council meeting debunked media reports quoting the president of the NLC, Ayuba Wabba 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

But Mr Ozo-Esan said the tripartite committee adopted a figure and that is the only relevant thing in the issue.

If Ngige is manufacturing something that was not agreed at the table, that is his problem. We have called our organs for an emergency meeting that will hold next week and the next step will be taken from there. We have no business with Ngiges falsehood and his falsified process of the committee work, he said.

Earlier, the national president of United Labour Congress (ULC), Joe Ajaero, on October 16 said the labour unions would not sign any agreement with the federal government on new National Minimum Wage if it is less than N30,000.

N24,000 can never be the new Minimum Wage for workers. If the government pays it, then it is an award, Mr Ajaero said.

Mr Ajaero said the tripartite committee agreed that N30,000 would be paid at the end of its negotiations

He said it was sad that N30,000 was adopted by the tripartite committee but the representatives of government announced N24, 000.

The labour leader said the unions would stand against it and would not sign any document, which does not reflect the true deliberation by the tripartite committee.

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.

No Work, No Pay

Meanwhile, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has also approved the implementation of the no-work, no pay principle for striking workers.

Mr Wabba has however said the federal government cannot apply the no work no pay rule in isolation of other provisions of the law that allow the rule.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Ayuba Wabba. [Photo credit: Pulse.ng]

Mr Wabba in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday night said it is morally and legally wrong to apply a phrase of the law in a body of law without respecting all other provisions of the law.

He said the threat to no work no pay cannot deter workers and trade unions from exercising the right to strike or demanding for a new minimum wage noting that there are clear procedures provided by the law.

Mr Wabba said the same law being quoted provides that a workers wage is due after 30 days and collective bargaining agreement needs have to be respected.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige

Therefore, morally and legally, it is justifiable to apply no pay, no work where the law is violated. The right to strike is a human and trade union right and cannot be wished away, that is why strike is legalised by the same law they are quoting in the trade union act and has been exercised since the colonial era till date, he said .

The NLC president said the issue of  no work, no pay cannot apply once the legal requirements for embarking on a strike are met.

The right to strike is what differentiates a worker from a slave, just like the right to strike, the right to work, the right to protest and peaceful assembly. The same law provides that the union must give notice and reason for their action to proceed on strike, either 7 days , 14 days or 21 days, Mr Wabba said.The governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties are expected to submit their list of candidates for the 2019 general elections today.

The electoral commission (INEC) had in a notice to all the political parties directed them to conduct primaries as required by the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) and submit their list of candidates before October 18.

The last day for submission of lists of sponsored candidates (Form CFOO2) and personal particulars (Form CF001) remains October 18 for Presidential and National Assembly and November 2 for Governorship and State Houses of Assembly, the commission said.

As at Tuesday night, according to the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, only eight of Nigerias 91 political parties have submitted the names of their candidates.

The APC, Nigerias governing party, is one of the parties troubled with submission of candidates lists largely due to crises in primaries conducted in some states.

Hours to the deadline, party faithful in Adamawa, Zamfara, Delta and Kaduna among others are not sure who their candidates will be for certain positions.

Adamawa

In Adamawa State, two of the aspirants who were challenging Governor Muhammed Jibrilla for the APC ticket, former chairman of the EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu and Mahmud Ahmed, an in-law to President Muhammadu Buhari, both accused the panel sent by the national headquarters of the party of conniving with the governor to declare him the candidate when elections were never conducted.

Up-till this hour, many in the state told PREMIUM TIMES they were not sure whose name will finally be submitted by the APC to INEC as the state governorship candidate.

One of the sources said the party leadership and the presidency are still not sure of Mr Bindows ( as he is popularly known) loyalty.

The governor reportedly declared his unwavering loyalty to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. He however, made a U-Turn and assured Mr Buhari that he is now fully in support of the presidents second term bid after Mr Abubakar defected back to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The same scenario played out with former Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, who first pledged her loyalty to Mr Abubakar, but eventually made a U-turn and assured Mr Buhari that she will support him.

Aisha Alhassan

The U-turn was not enough because the APC led by former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, eventually disqualified her from running for governor in Taraba, citing doubts over her loyalty.

Also, incumbent senator representing Adamawa North, Binta Garba, was declared the candidate of the party, although, some of the aspirants alleged that no primary election was held.

One of them, Idris Ahmed, told PREMIUM TIMES over the telephone on Wednesday that APC was not fair to them by not allowing election to hold.

We were there spending our money, she never went there and a day to the conduct of the primary they told us they have given Binta the ticket. Is that fair?

Even PDP with all their impunity has never done that. Lets not forget that it is fairness (that) brought Buhari to power, otherwise Jonathan wouldnt have conceded defeat to him, he said.

Mr Ahmed also said I spent over N150 million of my own money, no one from the party even consulted with us and I can assure you that there are well over 1000 of us across the country who were basically swindled. I dont know how the party plans to win in 2019.

Apart from Adamawa north, there are uncertainty over the names of candidates to be submitted for some House of Representatives and State Assembly elections.

Kaduna

In Kaduna state, the uncertainty is over who will be submitted by the party as the candidate of the APC for Kaduna Central Senatorial District.

The former senator representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, Shehu Sani

While, the APC headquaters in Abuja insists that incumbent Shehu Sani is the candidate of the party, the panel it sent to the state however, conducted a primary which was boycotted by Mr Sani, and declared an aide to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Uba Sani, as winner.

Zamfara

The case of Zamfara is even more serious. INEC had already told APC that it is not expecting the party to submit list of candidates for election into various positions because it was aware the party failed to hold primary before the deadline of October 8.

However, the party told the electoral umpire that it will present its candidates for all elective positions in Zamfara State in the 2019 general elections despite the directive.

In a response by Mr Oshiomhole, the APC said 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, 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.

The party chairman disputed INECs position in the letter written to it by INEC 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.

The state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, also claimed that all primaries have been concluded in the state.

One of the governorship aspirants, a senator, Kabiru Marafa however, declared his support for the decision of INEC that the APC does not have candidates in the state for the 2019 general election. Mr Marafa said no primaries were held.

INEC on Monday says it stands by its statement that the APC will not field candidates for the 2019 general elections in Zamfara.

Meanwhile, reports says a Zamfara state High Court has issued an interim order restraining the APC and INEC from disqualifying the partys candidates from the state.

The order was given Tuesday by judge, Mukhtar Yushau, following a suit filed by three executive members of the party in the state.

Those who filed the suit are the chairman of the party in Gusau Local Government Area, Babangida Abdullahi; his counterpart in Tsafe Local Government Area, Kabiru Chafe; and Sanusi Dan-Alhahi.

Whether or not INEC recognises the list from Zamfara sent by the APC headquarters, the party is expected to send same. However, will the party dance to the tune of the governor whom it has chastised for sabotaging the primaries?

Niger

In Niger State, of all the primaries conducted to field candidates for the ten federal constituencies, only one has been officially declared concluded with a winner announced.

However, all the results of the three senatorial primaries were declared.

The state governor, Abubakar Sani-Bello, is believed not to be in good terms with most of the federal lawmakers in the state.

The frosty relationship between the governor and the lawmakers cannot be unconnected to the defeat of two out of its three serving senators who sought reelection in the primaries.

The two senators, David Umaru and Sabi Abdullahi, who is the senate spokesperson, lost in the senatorial primaries held across the state.

In Niger north senatorial district, Mr Abdullahi lost to the state serving commissioner for local government, community development and chieftaincy affairs, Zakari Jikantoro, while David Umaru lost to Sani Musa.

A serving House of Representatives member, Mohammed Bago is the only winner that has been officially declared as the party flagbearer.

For many serving lawmakers, the wait continues to see which candidates names the APC headquarters will send in Niger.

Delta

In Delta state, a court has temporarily barred the APC, from presenting candidates for the 2019 elections in the state

The Federal High Court in Asaba, the Delta State capital, restrained the National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC from submitting the list of the partys candidates in Delta State to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC CHAIRMAN, MAHMOOD YAKUBU

In a ruling on Wednesday, a day to the deadline by INEC, the judge, Toyin Adegoke, ordered the party and other respondents to maintain the status quo and not submit any list of candidates from the two factions of the party in the state to INEC, till the substantive suit is heard.

Mr Oshiomhole was joined in the suit as the second respondent with APC as first respondent. Also joined are INEC and Jones Erue as the third and fourth respondents respectively.

The Cyril Ogodo-led State Working Committee (SWC) of the party in the state and others had applied for the interlocutory injunction restraining NWC of APC and Mr Oshiomhole from submitting the list of candidates from Mr Erues faction to INEC.

In her ruling, the judge said: this matter shall be given an accelerated hearing owing to fact that it is a pre-election matter. All defendants are to take note of the pendency of this suit.

Parties shall maintain the status quo as at today, the 17th day of October 2018. That is the order of this court, the judge ruled.The National Economic Council (NEC) met on Thursday but did not discuss the crucial matter of a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers, an official said.

The NEC is headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and has all the 36 governors and some ministers as members.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the NEC meeting which held at the State House Presidential Villa, the Bauchi State Governor, Mohammed Abubakar, in response to inquiries said the issue of minimum wage was not discussed at NEC today.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige had last week told reporters that while labour unions are asking for N30,000 per month, the federal government proposed N24,000 per month and state governors proposed N20,000.

Mr Ngige said the tripartite committee involved in negotiations will continue to meet to arrive at a figure.

Labour groups however, insisted that they will not accept anything less that N30,000.

The labour leaders including the presidents of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the United Labour Congress, have condemned Mr Ngiges statement, saying the tripartite committee already agreed on N30,000.

Mr Abubakar on Wednesday said the issue was not discussed because the governors are part of the tripartite committee and are allowing negotiations to continue.

We are represented by six governors in the negotiations, he said.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported how the NLC has called a crucial meeting next week to discuss its next action should the government not accept the N30,000 minimum wage.President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday met with the heads of Nigerias security agencies to review the countrys security situation ahead of the 2019 election.

The meeting, which held under the auspices of National Security Council, held inside the presidents office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

A statement made available by the spokesperson of the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan-Ali, Tukur Gusau, a colonel, said after reviewing the security situation across the country, the meeting recommended the deployment of security agencies to states to enable the elections to be conducted peacefully and to further douse tension created by the outcome of the political parties primaries and some desperate persons to sabotage the electoral process.

The statement said the meeting also discussed attempt to put pressure on electoral body by some notable personalities through demonstrations which was brought under control by combine efforts of security agencies to avoid being hijacked by hoodlums and armed bandits.

Although, the statement did not state which demonstration was discussed, the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recently held a protest at the headquarters of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.

The protest was in respect of the conduct of the governorship election held in Osun State two weeks ago.

PDP lost to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) after two rounds of voting.

INEC declared the first round inconclusive because the number of votes cancelled where higher than the difference between the two leading candidates.

PDP alleged that APC rigged the election, especially the rerun in seven polling units.

The protest to INEC was led by Senate President Bukola Saraki; Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus; and some leaders of the party.

Mr Dan-Ali said Thursdays meeting also looked at possible post-election violence in violence-prone areas, as desperate politicians may whip up ethno- religious sentiments to create security situation in the country.

Also of concern is the proliferation and stockpiling of weapons by some disgruntled elements with a desire to take laws into their hands at the slightest opportunity.

The council called for the concerted efforts of all security agencies to ensure that 2019 elections are hitch free and the need for continuous sensitization of the public by National Orientation Agency (NOA) and regular meetings of relevant stakeholders including INEC, international/ local observers and the media ahead of the elections, the statement said.The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has joined a host of local and international bodies troubled over Mondays execution of another health worker by Boko Haram terrorists, within a month.

According to the doctors, the Nigerian government needs to step up in the areas of security of lives and property, especially of those offering humanitarian services across the country.

After the dreaded sect killed Saifura Khorsa, an aid worker, on September 16, it slayed Hauwa Liman, a midwife after a deadline it gave the government to meet its demands elapsed, on Monday.

Both health workers, until their deaths, were employed by the International Committee of the Red Cross worker, ICRC. They were abducted among others at an Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDP), in Rann, Kala Balge Local Government Area of Borno State last year.

Ms Limans death two days ago sparked outrage at home and abroad, with the Nigerian government expressing shock over the incident especially after it appealed to the sect not to do so.

While condemning the killings Wednesday in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Obitade Obimakinde, the doctors noted that adequate and proactive security measures would have prevented the needless act of terrorism and kidnapping embarked upon by the dreaded Boko Haram.

We also note the response of the Federal Government, condemning the killing while stating that they did all they could do to ensure her release. While appreciating the efforts of the government so far, we admonish the government to step up in the areas of security of lives and property, especially of those offering humanitarian services across the country, the statement read.

Describing Ms Limans killing as a despicable act, the NMA also sympathised with the Red Cross and the family of the deceased at this difficult time.

The doctors further called on the federal government to do everything within its capacity to ensure the release of all the other captives of Boko Haram which include Alice Loksha, the remaining health worker in captivity and Leah Sharibu, a 15 year old student abducted by the group in a separate incident in February.

The insurgents still have Ms Loksha, another aid worker and a school girl, Ms Sharibu in captivity.

The Boko Haram insurgency has caused the death of about 100,000 people since 2009, according to the Borno State Government, whose state is most affected by the insurgency.

Due to the efforts of the military and other security agencies, the terror attacks have been largely limited to Adamawa, Borno and Yobe since 2016. Before then, attacks were carried out in many Northern Nigerian states including Kano, Nasarawa and Abuja.

Despite the efforts of the military, however, the latest attacks show the terrorists are still able to carry out attacks on civilian and military targets.Two years after a case of alleged medical negligence was brought against a Nigerian hospital, the matter is yet to witness its first hearing by an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.

After several adjournments, the case, involving an aged mother, Portia Sambo and the Federal Medical Centre Abuja, among other defendants, was again postponed on Wednesday because the court was too busy.

The reason for todays adjournment is because the court plans to entertain a matter involving the SSS. According to the registrar, the court plans to listen to a lot of witnesses presented by parties in the SSS case and as such, it cannot attend to any other matter for the day. Our matter was supposed to be for hearing today, said Richard Aneke a lawyer representing Mrs Sambo while speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, after informing our reporter about the adjournment of the case on Wednesday.

Clad in a yellow-laced native attire, Mrs Sambo stood, apparently frustrated about the entire situation.

I arrived Abuja today, from Lagos. I was told about the matter just yesterday and they said I needed to testify, Mrs Sambo said, sadly before approaching an empty sit outside the courtroom to occupy it.

According to Mr Aneke, the case has been adjourned till November 15.

Mr Aneke informed PREMIUM TIMES about a request by a counsel to the medical and dental council for the motion to be amended, following the death of one of the doctors.

The hospital brought an application today asking us to amend our motion because one of the accused doctors has died. That is doctor Amadi, said Mr Aneke. But we plan to oppose that motion, he added.

Mrs Sambo approached the court in September, 2016 two months after the death of her then 29 years old daughter, Sandra David, following alleged medical negligence by doctors working with the federal Medical Centre, Abuja.

The events, resulting in the death of Ms David, was reported by PREMIUM TIMES in December, 2016.

After several attempts to get updates on the allegation from the regulatory body for medical doctors, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria; the council said in a June, 2017 letter that investigations into the alleged medical negligence was ongoing and that results would be released soon.

The letter was signed by the secretary to the councils investigation panel, Enejor Abdu, a medical doctor.

Six months later, however, when the PREMIUM TIMES approached the council again in December, 2017, its acting registrar, Tajudeen Sanusi, described the outcome of the investigation as a private matter.

Number one, you are a journalist. We dont discuss the issue of the investigative panel, because it is a private sitting. Nobody is in charge. All they do is to carry out investigation into an alleged professional misconduct of any registered practitioner.

It is only when a prima facie (based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise) case is established and the matter is transferred to a tribunal, then it becomes a public matter. I wont say whether investigation is still on, or not. But, when it is concluded, parties involved will be notified, Mr Sanusi said in a telephone interview with PREMIUM TIMES.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Abdu on Monday to find out if the investigation has been concluded, as suggested by Mr Sanusi, the panel secretary asked that a text message be sent, containing the required information.

Hours after our reporter sent him the text message, however, Mr Abdu did not respond to the request by this reporter.The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) has concluded arrangements for its second annual conference holding on Friday, October 19, 2019 at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos State.

A statement released in Lagos on Wednesday by GOCOP Publicity Secretary, Olumide Iyanda, confirmed that the theme of the conference is Online Publishers Role Towards a Sustainable Economy, Credible Election and Security in Nigeria.

A former Governor of Ogun State, Olusegun Osoba (CON), has confirmed his availability to chair the event.

Aremo Osobas choice as chairman is informed by his enviable profile as a journalist, elder statesman and peace advocate.

He brings in a wealth of experience as former Managing Director of Daily Times Nigeria Limited, Governor of Ogun State and member of the Nigerian Constituent Assembly, among others, the statement said.

A former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Senior Team Manager for the Africa Program of the Open Society Justice Initiative, Chidi Odinkalu, has also confirmed his attendance as guest speaker.

Recognised globally as an authority in international law, international economic and human rights law, public policy and political economy, Prof Odinkalus presentation will provide a clear roadmap for the media and other critical stakeholders in the Nigerian projects, the statement added.

The Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Multimedia Technology, Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Ralph Akinfeleye, a professor ; and former Director, ICT Centre, Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa State, Leonard Shilgba, also a professor, will later discuss the keynote.

The Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and other stakeholder groups in the media will be represented at the conference.

GOCOP represents media organisations registered in Nigeria with promoters drawn from practitioners who have served at senior levels in the profession.After Mondays gruesome killing of Hauwa Liman, an aid worker in Nigeria, by Boko Haram, ActionAid Nigeria has appealed to the federal government to consider, as a priority, the release of Alice Loksha, Leah Sharibu, and other abducted civilians.

The slain aid worker, Ms Liman, was kidnapped alongside others in March in Rann, Borno State when the insurgents attacked a camp for displaced persons.

One of the kidnapped aid workers, Saifura Khorsa, had been killed in September.

The federal government described the killing of Ms Liman as dastardly, inhuman and ungodly.

The government, speaking through the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Monday, said it did everything any responsible government should do to save the aid worker.

While speaking in Abuja on the killing, Ene Obi, the country director of ActionAid Nigeria, said the killing of Ms Liman could have been avoided, and that it was obvious the insurgents were not making empty threats.

It will be a blow on us as a nation if nothing is done urgently to bring back Alice and other abducted civilians, Mrs Obi said, adding that ActionAid grieves with the family, friends, and colleagues of the slain aid worker, and that the organisation stands in solidarity with all aid workers in Nigeria, especially those who have remained brave and have continued to render lifesaving services to the survivors of the conflict in North-east.

Mrs Obis remark is contained in a press statement issued on Thursday by the humanitarian non-governmental organisation which has been working in North-east.

We will like to also remind the federal government to expedite the safe return of Leah Sharibu, the 15-year-old school student, who was taken from her school in Dapchi, Yobe State in a separate abduction in February 2018.

We hereby, call on the federal government to expedite and prioritise the safe return of all civilians abducted by insurgents and emphasise that the government exhibit a greater sense of responsibility by ensuring the safety and security of citizens and fulfill its promise of ending the security challenges in the country, she said.And while some states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana  its only legal for limited medical purposes in Illinois  requirements for international travelers wishing to enter the United States are governed by and conducted in accordance with U.S. Federal Law, which supersedes state laws, the statement continued, adding that the sale, possession, production and distribution of marijuana or the facilitation of the aforementioned remain very illegal under federal law.A chief magistrates court in Minna, Niger, has sentenced a 23-year-old commercial motorcyclist, Adamu Mohammed, to four years imprisonment for having anal sex with six boys.

Mr Mohammed was docked on the charge of an unnatural offence, contrary to section 284 of the penal code law.

The police prosecutor, Daniel Ikwoche, told the court that one Yusuf Buhari reported the matter at the Chanchaga station on October 6.

Mr Ikwoche said the complainant accused Mr Mohammed of luring his 10-year-old son into his room at Korokpa village, Minna and having sex with him through the anus.

He said further investigation revealed that the accused person also committed the act with five other boys between the ages of 10 and 12 years, all of Korokpa area.

When the charge was read to him, he pleaded guilty and begged for leniency.

The prosecutor, thereafter, prayed the court to try him summarily in line with section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

In his ruling, the presiding magistrate, Nasiru Muazu, sentenced the accused to four years in prison with hard labour without an option of fine.

(NAN)The Senate on Thursday, confirmed Mohammed Durnnguwa as a commissioner for the National Population Commission (NPC).

The Senate had earlier withheld Mr Durnnguwas confirmation.

It resolved to stand down Mr Durnguwas confirmation after the chairman of the Senate Committee on National Identity Card and National Population Commission, Suleiman Hunkuyi (PDP, Kaduna North), complained that the committee found discrepancies in the nominees credentials.

The deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, had directed the committee to carry out further investigations on the nominee and report back in four weeks.

Presenting the report, My Hunkuyi said the same methodology and screening was carried out for the nominee and findings of the last report left two items.

We requested the nominee to come before the committee with those two letters, he said.

He said the nominee presented a letter from the ministry of education, Katsina where the secondary school he attended resides and another letter from the same secondary school, which he attended.

Those two letters were considered by the committee and the recommendation of the committee is that the committee is satisfied with the nominee. The nominee can hereby be confirmed by the senate.

The minority leader, Biodun Olujimi (PDP, Ekiti South), thereafter, pointed out some discrepancies in the nominees certificate.

Theres a need to look at the document. The candidate was born 1964 and he was able to finish his school cert in 1978.

If you look at his Teachers Training Course (TTC), his Grade 2, he finished in 84 and then he did the NDE almost immediately after and the gap between when he left school and when he did his NCE is almost 10 years.

If he was very intelligent, he would not have done his NCE in 10 years and NDE, the same year. He did his NCE 1987, he did NDE 1987. He did B.ed 1995 and did NYSC 1995. There is something wrong with this and we need to sort it before we proceed, she said.

The lawmakers were quick to rebuke her claims as most of them believe Mr Durnnguwa was fit for confirmation.

Barau Jubrin (APC, Kano North), accused lawmakers of playing politics with the issue.

We should look at issues based on national interest. People are bringing politics into this matter. Im surprised that our very respected minority leader is bringing this up, he said.

He urged members of the senate to approve Mr Durnnguwas confirmation.

The recommendation was put to vote and the lawmakers unanimously voted for his confirmation.

Mr Durnguwa is a top chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He was the coordinator of the Nasir El-rufai Governorship Campaign in Kachia Local Government Area of the state in the last general elections.President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday in Abuja assured ambassadors in Nigeria of continued support and ease of access to ensure improved relations and shared benefits for both countries, while commending Saudi Arabia for creating a more enabling environment for pilgrims who visited in 2018.

President Buhari gave the assurance while receiving Letters of Credence from the Ambassadors of the Republic of Turkey, Ahmet Melih Ulueren, High Commissioner of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, E.M.D. Shameem Ahsan and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Adnan Bin Mahmoud Bin Muhammad Bostasi, at the Presidential Villa.

The President told the Saudi Arabian envoy that Nigeria was particularly delighted with the support it had received from the country on security and economic issues, adding that the immigration and logistic challenges encountered by pilgrims had been significantly smoothened.

I have written a letter to His Majesty suggesting the creation of more bio-metric capturing centres so that Nigerians, who travel for Hajj in thousands, will find the experience easier.

I appreciate His Majestys large-heartedness in accommodating pilgrims from all the over the world, and do extend our deep gratitude for all the hospitality, he said.

President Buhari said the economic and trade relations between Nigeria and Saudi Arabia had expanded over the years, describing the historical alliance between both countries as nostalgic.

The president commended the growing trade relations with Turkey and the historical relevance of the country to the world, assuring the ambassador that His government will support efforts for a deeper and richer relationship.

He said Nigeria had a lot to learn from Bangladesh on agriculture, noting that the partnership had already started.

In his remarks, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador said his government had started work on increasing registration offices for pilgrims and easing the immigration processes.

We are working on improving the offices. It is a very big project. We are looking at concluding immigration issues from the take-off points like Kano and Abuja so that pilgrims can arrive in Saudi Arabia and move straight to the mosque, he added.

He said Nigeria and Saudi Arabia share the same vision of ending terrorism and fighting corruption.

The High Commissioner of Bangladesh said his countrys population of 160 million people had largely remained self-sufficient in feeding, adding that the experience on self-reliance on agriculture can be shared with Nigeria.

The Turkish Ambassador congratulated President Buhari for Nigerias robust statement at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which captured the burning issues of migration and need to restructure UN.The Independent National Electorate Commission (INEC) said on Wednesday that only eight of the 91 registered political parties have submitted lists of their candidates for 2019 general elections as at the end of Tuesday.

The chairman of the commission Mahmood Yakubu, made this known while speaking at a quarterly dialogue session of the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room session with INEC.

He said the commission expects a very busy time receiving submissions from the other 82 parties between Wednesday and Thursday as the deadline for this submission is October 18.

Section 31 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, states that every political party shall summit the list of their candidates not later than 60 days before the fixed date for a general election.

Mr Yakubu who expressed worry over the last minute rush by political parties to file their lists of candidates, said N189 billion was approved by the National Assembly for the 2019 general elections.

INEC is expected to publish the names and particulars of all nominated candidates at the constituency where they intend to contest the election within seven days of receipt of the list.

At the meeting, a representative of the Inspector General of Police, Kenneth Ebiripson, addressed the session of the Situation Room, detailing security plans for 2019 elections.

He said the police had mapped out three stages of intervention before, during and immediately after the 2019 polls.

He also said the security agencies had plans to deal with aggrieved persons who he described as bad losers and those that might want to cause trouble during and after the 2019 general elections.The House of Representatives has called on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to rescind its decision to suspend the Benue State University (BSU) from participation in the scheme this period.

The House made this call after adopting a matter of urgent national importance on Thursday by Orker Jev (Benue, PDP).

The lawmakers described the the decision of NYSC as illegal.

Prospective corps members from the BSU and other higher institutions in Benue State were banned by the NYSC from partaking in the compulsory one-year youth service programme on allegation of falsification of age and other sundry reasons.

The situation resulted to protest by the prospective corps members who besieged the state secretariat of the NYSC calling for the body to reverse its decision.

The conduct of NYSC has brought many untold hardship on many innocent graduates who have not been included in the allegation but are eager to serve the nation, Mr Orker-Jev said while moving the motion.

He added that the NYSC refused to provide any reason for their action even upon persistent inquiries, until Wednesday when it released a letter justifying the sanction.

The lawmakers called on the scheme to mobilise prospective corps members for the Batch C of the scheme coming up next month.The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in Plateau State, Jeremiah Useni, has named James Dalak as his running mate for the 2019 election.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) had reported on Wednesday, quoting the PDP state organising secretary, Yakubu Chocho, that the party and Mr Useni had chosen Benedict Shignuhul as the running mate.

However, on Thursday, Mr Useni, speaking through his media aide, Ateeku Abubakar, in Jos said Mr Dalak and not Mr Shignuhul is the person to run with him.

The information making the round that Jeremiah Useni has chosen Benedict Shignuhul as running mate was not true. That was just a rumour. The person to run with Useni is Dr. James Dalak ,  Mr Abubakar told journalists.

Mr Dalak hails from Mangu Local Government Area of the state and has a PhD degree in Accounting.

He was the former head of revenue, Ikeja Area Office of Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) until his current appointment as Deputy Director, Finance in the organisation.The Kaduna State Government has imposed a 24 hour curfew on the Kasuwan Magani community.

Kasuwan Magani is situated in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.

The curfew is with immediate effect, the government said Thursday.

It said the measure is to prevent breach of law and order in the area.

Although the government did not provide details of what led to its decision, the community has a history of religious violence. The last one occurred in February 2018 between Christians and Muslims.

A youth leader in the area, Yahaya, also known as Dan Najeriya, had told PREMIUM TIMES that that crisis was as a result of some girls wanting to change their religion but were scolded by some youth in the community.As the All Progressives Congress (APC) gets ready to submit its list of candidates for various elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday, members of the party in Enugu State have cried of imposition by some leaders of the APC in the state.

Those accused of imposing their candidates include former governor, Sullivan Chime; former governor of Old Anambra State, Jim Nwobodo and a chieftain of the party, Baywood Ibe.

The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, who was a senatorial aspirant for Enugu West district told PREMIUM TIMES that he is one those who were shortchanged by some chieftains of the party in the state.

Mr Okechukwu said a cabal, headed by Messrs Ibe, Chime and the gubernatorial candidate, Ayogu Eze, were behind the imposition.

I am (a) victim of their ignoble manipulation of valid results. They imposed Juliet Ibekaku who neither truly participated in the primary nor in last years November local government elections in Enugu State, as the candidate of Enugu West senatorial district, he said.

Mr Okechukwu, who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES over the telephone on Wednesday said another aspirant who suffered the same fate in Igboeze North/South Federal House is Bato Ugwoke.

Mr Okechukwu added that a host of others like Ejike Okolo, Gp Capt Joe Orji were all casualties.

The VON DG said the case of Mr Ugwoke is even more baffling. He said the aspirant ran unopposed and was declared winner by the panel sent from the national headquarters of the APC.

As I speak to you now, they are trying to smuggle in somebody else, against the deadline by INEC, he said.

Also, a female senatorial aspirant from the state, Adaku Ogbu-Aguocha, accused the party chieftains of playing god with the destinies of people who paid through their noses for the party nomination forms.

She said imposing people who did not participate in the primary process is a threat to the internal democracy of APC.

Another aspirant, who declined to be named for security reasons said these people simply sit in a hotel room at Nike Lake Hotels to write the results of primary election that never held.

Osita Okechukwu

The actual ward and local government results were scribbled on a torn piece of paper and discarded. No one has even seen a results sheet to verify the votes.

90 per cent of all positions available were allocated to recent PDP decampees, People whose loyalty cannot be counted on, he said.

Allegations not true

One of the chieftains of APC accused of the imposition, Jim Nwobodo, however, said it is simply (a) misconception.

He said all those being accused are neither chairmen nor secretaries of the APC in the state and could not, therefore, have carried out the offence for which they are being accused of.

Mr Nwobobo, speaking of himself, said I am an elder statesman and I have no interest on whoever emerges, whoever wins is my own. I have no interest at all in the primaries.

The elder statesman said what he often does is to settle any difference that may arise among members of the party in the state.

My position is always advisory. I am not running for any office, I have no reason to protect any particular interest, he said.Dozens of commercial bus drivers on Wednesday blocked the LASU-Iyana Ipaja road to protest alleged harassment and extortion by police officers and officials of the Lagos State Task Force.

The protest which started at College Bus Stop was later moved to Igando market as all commercial buses were forced to discharge their passengers and join the march.

A driver who identified himself as Sir K narrated the state officials incessant harassment on them.

The task force block our vehicles at both front and back with Danfo, LT, and their vehicles that are loaded with touts.

You know that Igando is an authorised park, the task force will come with a bus that is loaded with touts and block the road from both front and back, all the yellow buses at that moment are in trouble.

He said the law enforcement agents are accompanied by police officers and use commercial vehicles to disrupt their means of livelihood, harassing and illegally extorting them daily.

Our buses are being seized by this task force, the owners will bring it back with a towing vehicle. The task force, who do not have any means of identification, collect within the range of N20,000 to N30,000 and they do not ask for their driving license or any relevant documents.

Since they (task force) perceive that we respond to them fast, they have now turned this route to an ATM station 24/7, once they resume in the morning they close around 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Today they came to our park (College Bus Stop) shooting guns, although it was not a stray bullet, they took all the buses at our base and those ones that they could not seize, they damaged the windscreen.

Another bus driver, who identified himself as Eniolorunmo, said their protest is not to fight or disrupt the community peace but to express their dissatisfaction over the extortion by the task force.

He said they would go on strike so commuters can have a sense of what they are going through.

The protest caused a gridlock which lasted about an hour before the police and military arrived.

Abdulrafiu Aneru, who led the team of police officers to the scene, told PREMIUM TIMES that the situation is under control.

Passengers stranded at bus stop Drivers stopping other vehicles Passengers trekking away after being dispatched.

When contacted, Chike Oti, the Lagos State police spokesperson, denied the claims of extortion by the task force officials.

The task force accompanies the mobile force and I know that with the mobile force if you do the wrong thing you pay fine or go to jail.

Last July, the police had issued a statement banning its officers from operating in mufti and commercial vehicles such as the yellow buses popularly known as Danfo or other commercial buses.The Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, and his predecessor, Ayo Fayose, are at loggerheads over the actual status of the states indebtedness under the last administration.

Mr Fayemi renewed the long standing controversy when at his inauguration on Tuesday, he said preliminary findings had shown that the Fayose administration had plunged the state into a debt of about N170 billion.

His allegation echoes Mr Fayoses assertions when he took over in 2014 that Mr Fayemi had left office with a debt commitment which would not be liquidated until 2036.

But Mr Fayoses media aide, Lere Olayinka, on Wednesday replied the governor, saying the states debt profile under the last government was not more than N60 billion, warning that the new governor was heading towards failure by his initial missteps.

He also said that the debt was either directly incurred during Mr Fayemis first tenure or as a result of the loans restructuring done at the instance of the federal government and the Federal Economic Council.

He gave the breakdown as follows: Commercial Bank Loan, N2,087,788,065.28; CBN Grant for Water Project, N163,450,000; Excess Crude Account Backed Loan, N9,545,173,472.78; Bailout, N9,083,761,215.40; FGN Bonds, N18,226,699,707.18; State Bonds, N3,484,469,345.51 and Budget Support, N16,869,000,000.

Mr Olayinka challenged Mr Fayemi to name the banks being owed the N170 billion and monthly repayments by the state government to such banks.

He should not wait till 100 days to cook up false stories of how much debt was left by the Fayose administration. He should rather tell Nigerians how it is possible for a state that is indebted to the tune of N170 billion to be making N1.1 billion repayment monthly, Mr Olayinka said.

Instead of lying so blatantly to cover up his impending failure, Fayemi should publish the Debt Management Office (DMO), Ekiti State Executive Council and House of Assembly approvals for the loans since no loan can be taken without these approvals.

In September this year, Fayemi claimed that Ekiti debt was N117 billion, one month after, he said the debt is N170 billion. So did the debt increase from N117 billion to N170 billion in less than 30 days?

The reality is that Fayemi is reputed for speaking from both sides of his mouth. In the past, when Fayose assisted him to be governor, he described him (Fayose) as an honourable person whose word is always his bond and today, he goes about denigrating the same Fayose.

The federal government deliberately refused to release legitimate funds belonging to Ekiti State to the Fayose administration and for this reason, the arrears of salary could not be cleared as promised.

We are aware that in a matter days, the withheld fund of over N30 billion is to be released to the state by the federal government as refund on federal roads construction, arrears of budget support and Paris Club refund.

Our plea is that Governor Fayemi should stop making excuses and use the over N30 billion to pay workers salary.

However, a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Olayinka Oyebode, on Wednesday, appeared to have reviewed the governors earlier statement of N170 billion indebtedness down to N120 billion.

The statement read in part:

The truth about the actual financial records of Ekiti State is now in the open going by the debt figures voluntarily submitted to statutory regulators, the Debt Management Office by the outgoing government of Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose in Ekiti State, the statement read.

Contrary to repeated claims by the Fayose Administration that Fayemi plunged the state into a debt burden that will not be paid off till 2036, it is now clear than the bond taken by the Fayemi administration is almost completely paid off with the first tranche of N20bn to be completed in October 2018 and the second tranche of N5bn bond due for payment in 2020.

The report revealed that the domestic debt of Ekiti State leapfrogged by N3bn within the last three months from N117bn to N120bn between March and June 2018 making Ekiti state debt to quadruple since Fayose assumed office as the Governor in Ekiti State from N31bn in 2014 to N120bn.

In a document forwarded to the DMO Office by the outgoing government, the components of the N120bn debt by the Fayose administration as at 31st June, 2018 include: Commercial Bank Loans of N2,087,788,065.28 received from Wema Bank in 2016, balance of N18,226,699,707.18 received from the FGN bond by his government in 2015, Budget Support Facility of N16,869,000,000.00 received in 2016 and 2017, Salary bail-out of N9,083,761,215.40 received in 2015, Commercial Bank Loan against funds due to Ekiti State in the FGN Excess Crude Account of N9,545,173,472.78 received by the current government in 2016, Contractors Arrears of N2,087,788,065.8, Pension and Gratuity Arrears of N22,162,602,017.49, Salaries arrears and other staff claims of N8,373651,226.50 and Judgment Debt of N95,048,963.35.

The report also comprised the commercial agric loan of N163,450,000.00 and N3,484,469,345.51 outstanding balance of the Bond taken by the Fayemi administration.

Although Governor Peter Ayodele Fayose recently got the approval of Ekiti State House of Assembly to further incur expenditure of N10bn barely 30 days to the end of his tenor as Governor of the State, current debt figure of N120bn does not include outstanding subventions due to tertiary institutions namely: Ekiti State University (EKSU), College of Education and College of Health Technology which is in excess of N5bn and N4.8bn 8months arrears of salaries and allowances due to the Local Government workers in the state and other contractual obligations not reported since end of the second quarter of this year.

There is also no doubt that contractors obligations have been grossly understated in the report due to obvious reasons and until a proper review of the debt of the state is carried out by the incoming administration, it will be near impossible to determine accurately the indebtedness of the state and the damage done by the outgoing government.

Mr Fayemi had on Tuesday vowed to commence a probe of the last government with a view to ascertaining the true financial position of the state.

He also promised to ensure the probe was carried out within the first 100 days in office.

Meanwhile, Mr Fayose is currently in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over allegations of fraud, a query he could not answer as governor due to the constitutional immunity he enjoyed as a state governor.Jammie Holmes was in the 1700 block of West 85th Street in the citys Gresham neighborhood when he was found shot in the head about 7:45 p.m. Sunday, Chicago police said.The Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has declared that he will not support the person recognised by his partys headquarters as the Ogun APC governorship candidate.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how two separate governorship primaries were held in Ogun by different factions of the party. While the faction loyal to Mr Amosun adopted Adekunle Akinlade as its consensus candidate, the primary committee sent by the APC headquarters in Abuja conducted a primary that produced Dapo Abiodun as the candidate.

Mr Abioduns name is expected to be submitted by the APC headquarters as the partys candidate.

However, Mr Amosun in a statement by his information commissioner on Wednesday said he would not recognise or support Mr Abiodun.

Read the full statement below.

My Position on Ogun APC Governorship, by Amosun

The Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, has followed with deep reflection and consternation, the false and embarrassing reports in some sections of the media, that he had been prevailed upon by some party leaders in the state to support the purported emergence of Dapo Abiodun as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dayo Adeneye, in a statement, said the malicious allegations would have been ignored, but for the general interest of the public and the good people of Ogun State.

He described the allegation as nothing, but another in a series of political propaganda to tarnish the image of Governor Amosun, who stands solidly behind the duly elected consensus candidate of the APC, Adekunle Akinlade.

Those behind the unfounded rumours are doing so to heat up the polity ahead of the 2019 general elections. They are doing it on behalf of their paymasters for cheap political motives. It has become a routine of many political jobbers in Ogun State, he added.

He submitted that, There are no slaves in Ogun State as insinuated by some aggrieved politicians. Everyone under our watch is free born and the Amosun administration will continue to defend the freedom of the masses and work for the socio-economic advancement of the state till our last day in office.

He implored political actors to be wary of statements that could de-market the state and reverse the enormous gains of the recent years.

You dont have to be seen to discredit a government with sterling achievements, in order to advance your own selfish ambition, or make wild, inflammatory and seditious comments that have no foundation.

You dont also create artificial tension and insecurity in order to advance your cause, without the thought of the economic consequences to the state and welfare of the masses. This is not the right way to play politics, he intoned.

The statement concluded that politicians who know their onions and enjoy grassroots support fight their political battles on the electoral field rather than recourse to cheap blackmail and propagation of falsehood.

Signed:

Otunba Dayo Adeneye

Hon. Commissioner

Ministry of Information & Strategy,Students of Oyo State-owned tertiary institutions on Thursday shut down the states secretariat in Ibadan over unpaid salaries and allowances of their teachers.

Their schools have been on strike for three months.

The students, acing under the aegis of the National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS), blocked roads linking the secretariat, waved placards and chanted anti-government songs.

Confirming the protest, Moronkola Teslim, NANS leader for Oyo State, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview that it was to call the attention of the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, to issues affecting the states schools.

The state-owned tertiary institutions strike has lasted for more than three months, said Mr Teslim. We demand that the government do the needful.

The states Commissioner of Information, Toye Arulogun, refused to respond to calls and text messages sent to him by PREMIUM TIMES reporter.

The affected schools are Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology, Igbo-Ora; The Polytechnic, Ibadan; Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo; Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa; Oke-Ogun Polytechnic, Saki; and College of Education, Lanlate.

These schools embarked on a strike for several months last year over non-payment of their workers salary arrears and cutting of government subvention to the schools to 25 per cent.The Ogun State House of Assembly on Thursday confirmed Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu as the substantive chief judge of the state.

The lawmakers said Mrs Dipeolu, who was the acting chief judge, was found eligible and suitable for the office upon her screening by the lawmakers on Wednesday.

This was sequel to the adoption of the report of the Committee of the Whole House at a session chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo, who also moved the motion for the adoption of the report.

After Adebowale Ojuri, the member representing Odogbolu State Constituency seconded the motion, the lawmakers passed it through a voice vote.

The lawmakers, thereafter, urged Mrs Dipeolu to use her wealth of experience to further reposition the state judiciary for optimum performance through speedy dispensation of justice to the people of the state.

In a related development, the Speaker of the House, Suraju Adekunbi, said he would work with his colleagues in the Conference of Speakers in Nigeria to ensure speedy implementation of financial autonomy for states legislature and judiciary, through interface with the Nigerian Governors Forum.

He gave the assurance while responding to the request of his Deputy, Mr Oluomo, who called the attention of the Assembly to the recent autonomy granted to the two arms as part of the recent amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

He called on the state Commissioner for Finance, Accountant-General and Auditor-General to step up measures for the take-off of the amendment.

The Speaker, who described autonomy as a catalyst for promoting good governance, promised to continue to engage relevant stakeholders for its immediate implementation

Meanwhile, two bills on Thursday scaled first reading in the House after which they were read by the Clerk, Lanre Bisiriyu, before the lawmakers.

The bills are The Tai Solarin College of Education, Omu (Amendment) law, 2018 and Ogun State Official Orders of Precedence of Public Officers and other Persons Law, 2018.Chicago police on Thursday were searching for the driver of a silver van that struck two people, critically injuring one of them in an Englewood neighborhood crosswalk before fleeing the scene.Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Michael Toomin said a state law allowing children as young as 10 to be locked up not only trumps the county ordinance under the state's constitution but also does a better job of protecting the public. Both boys have gun charges on their records, and both ran away from home after being charged.Officers initially stopped the mans silver Volkswagen around 8:05 p.m. Wednesday in the 13100 block of South Langley Avenue for a traffic violation, police said. While running his name, they found out he was wanted for questioning for something unrelated, so officers asked him to get out of his car, police said.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.



Michael Muszynsky, 48, of the Albany Park District, drove to the departments headquarters at 3510 S. Michigan Ave. on the South Side for a random drug test around 4 a.m., according to police spokesman Rocco Alioto.SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The OpenMTA is a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) designed to support openness, sharing, and innovation in biology and biotechnology. Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) provide the legal frameworks within which research organizations define the terms and conditions for sharing their materials - everything from DNA molecules to plant seeds to patient samples.

Use of the OpenMTA allows redistribution and commercial use of materials, while respecting rights of creators and promoting safe practices. The new standardized framework also eases the administrative burden for technology transfer offices, negating the need to negotiate unique terms for individual transfers of widely-used material.

The OpenMTA launches today with a commentary published in the journal Nature Biotechnology. It provides a new way to exchange materials commonly used in biological research and engineering, complementing existing, more restrictive arrangements. The OpenMTA also promotes access for researchers and individuals working in less privileged institutions and world regions.

The agreement was developed through a collaboration led by the San Francisco-based BioBricks Foundation and the UK-based OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre. The collaboration brought together an international working group of researchers, technology transfer professionals, social scientists, and legal experts to inform the creation of a framework that could improve sharing of biomaterials. The team identified five design goals on which to base the OpenMTA: (i) access, (ii) attribution, (iii) reuse, (iv) redistribution, and (v) non-discrimination. Additional design goals include safety and sharing in an international context.

Dr. Linda Kahl, Senior Counsel of the BioBricks Foundation, said: "We encourage organizations worldwide to sign the OpenMTA Master Agreement and start using it. In five years' time my ideal is for the OpenMTA to be the default option for the transfer of research materials." "Instead of automatically placing restrictions on materials, people will ask whether restrictions on use and redistribution are appropriate and instead use the OpenMTA to promote sharing and innovation."

Dr Nicola Patron, Synthetic Biology Group Leader at the Earlham Institute, added: "We have already used the OpenMTA to provide 'DNA parts' developed for our own research to scientists at several international research organizations. We hope that use of the OpenMTA will enable these materials to be shared and reused by plant scientists and biotechnologists everywhere. We believe that easy access to research materials accelerates both fundamental research and the application of scientific research to agriculture, industry and medicine."

Drew Endy, President of the BioBricks Foundation and Professor at Stanford University, noted: "The OpenMTA provides a permissive foundation supporting many communities and interests. It is a needed step forward in enabling all people to benefit from next generation biotechnologies. I encourage universities, corporations, funders, and charities to consider making the OpenMTA their default materials transfer option."

Dr. Colette Matthewman, Programme Manager for the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre, also noted: "We hope to see the OpenMTA enable an international flow of non-proprietary tools between academic, government, NGO and industry researchers, to be used, reused and expanded upon to develop new tools and innovations."

Professor Jim Haseloff, University of Cambridge, UK, added: "The OpenMTA provides a new pathway for open exchange of DNA components - the basic building blocks for new engineering approaches in biology. It is a necessary step towards building a commons that will underpin and democratize access to future biotechnological advances and sustainable industries."

The new agreement was also welcomed by Dr Joanne Kamens, Executive Director at Addgene, a leading global charity that helps scientists share plasmids.

"Addgene is excited to see this new option becoming available to increase reagent sharing and scientific collaboration. This kind of open exchange drives innovation and accelerates research," she said.

Dr. Fernan Federici, an early adopter of the OpenMTA, from the Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), Santiago, Chile, said: "The OpenMTA will be particularly useful in Latin America, allowing researchers to redistribute materials imported from overseas sources, reducing shipping costs and waiting times for future local users. We are implementing it in an international project that requires sharing genetic tools among labs in four different continents. We believe, the OpenMTA will support projects based on community-sourced resources and distributed repositories that lead to more fluid collaborations."

See the full commentary in Nature Biotechnology at https://rdcu.be/81zc and visit https://biobricks.org/openmta/ to become a signatory.

About the BioBricks Foundation

The BioBricks Foundation is a US-based public-benefit organization dedicated to building with biology in an open and ethical manner to benefit all people and the planet. For more information, please visit https://www.biobricks.org

About OpenPlant

The OpenPlant Synthetic Biology Research Centre is a joint initiative between the University of Cambridge, John Innes Centre and Earlham Institute, funded by the UK Biotechnology and biological Sciences Research Council and the Engineering and Physics Council as part of the UK Synthetic Biology for Growth programme. For more information, please visit https://www.openplant.org

Press Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE BioBricks Foundation

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https://www.biobricks.org

- Alquity, convened by Philanthropy University, launches the Transforming Lives Awards to identify & support outstanding nonprofits & social enterprises delivering sustainable livelihood initiatives across Asia, Africa & Latin America

- Awards process supported by business leaders such as Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson and Unilever's Paul Polman

- Interested organizations should apply by October 31st, for their chance at up to $100,000 in funding

The Transforming Lives Awards identifies and supports excellent nonprofits and social enterprises driving sustainable livelihood programs across Asia, Africa and Latin America

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nonprofits and social enterprises have two weeks left to begin their pre-application process for the Transforming Lives Awards - a new initiative founded by Alquity and convened by Philanthropy University to find and fund organizations supporting growth in sustainable livelihoods and the achievement of UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

The Awards offer new paths to capital, profile and expert advice so that winners can invest in their futures and the futures of those they serve.

The pre-application period started on October 1, and ends October 31, during which time interested entrants are invited to submit short and long-form questionnaires about their organizations. The process also involves a first-of-its-kind peer assessment that sees local organizations' participation in the vetting process.

Award winners will receive between $25,000 to $100,000 in funding. Critically, the winning organizations will demonstrate a pathway to a sustainable funding model, even if their current model requires donor funding.

"We at Philanthropy University are reimagining capacity building for the digital age," said Connor Diemand-Yauman, CEO and Co-Founder of Philanthropy University, "and that includes connecting local organizations to funding opportunities through our learning platform. This awards program also pioneers a tech-enabled participatory approach, more deeply involving, and recognizing, local organizations as the experts and leaders."

"Alquity's vision is to be a thought-leading 'shared values' business by generating economic value in a way that also produces value for society by addressing its challenges," said Paul Robinson, Founder of Alquity. "The Transforming Lives Awards will be the catalyst for increasing our impact through uncovering organizations delivering sustainable solutions and supporting more equitable economic development across all of our key emerging markets."

"Alquity and Philanthropy University have launched an exciting initiative to identify the most innovative and scalable models to promote economic growth in developing countries," said supporter Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group. "I look forward to seeing the organizations which emerge from the program as they strive to help make greater progress towards ending poverty around the world."

A total of 120 organizations will be selected to move on to a formal application process, when they will be assessed by an esteemed judging panel that includes Unilever CEO Paul Polman and Hilde Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairperson of the World Economic Forum and Chairperson of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

"I am delighted to join the judging panel for the Transforming Lives Awards," said Schwab. "Social entrepreneurship has the potential to deliver meaningful change for underserved communities by applying the ambitions, determination and strategic approach of business to solve serious social issues. Building sustainable livelihoods is the backbone of creating inclusive societies that provide opportunity for all."

The winners will be announced at a global awards event in Summer 2019, following an extensive assessment and due diligence process.

Currently totalling $600,000, the awards will fall into three categories:

Nonprofit High Impact: for organizations that can demonstrate strong management practices and measurably strong results through programs designed to support the economic empowerment of their communities.

Nonprofit High Potential: for organizations that can demonstrate potential to scale livelihoods focused programs.

Small and Medium Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurs: for enterprises employing sustainable business models to address social or environmental challenges, or indeed visionary start-ups with a viable and scalable business plan.

To learn more and start your pre-application for an award, visit the Philanthropy University website .

About the Awards

Award winners will come from target countries in three regions:

Africa : Egypt , Ghana , Kenya , Morocco , Nigeria , South Africa

: , , , , , Asia : China , India , Vietnam

: , , Latin America : Brazil , Chile , Peru , Mexico

There will be at least one award given in each region.

Award winners will be focused on achieving UN SDG 8; economic growth and decent work for all.

Alquity is donating the initial $600,000 of awards money and funding the costs of the awards. The business is looking for opportunities to increase this funding by bringing additional partners into this community of excellence.

About Philanthropy University

Philanthropy University is a free online learning platform that provides locally-led organizations in the Global South with access to practical courses, knowledge-share discussions and funding opportunities so they become more effective in their work. Our easy-to-use University blends expert instruction with engaging content to unlock potential and impact, on the ground.

Start learning at https://philanthropyu.org/

About Alquity

Alquity is an asset management business investing in high-growth markets across the world. Its goal is to connect investors to their investments and social progress in order to deliver better financial outcomes for all. Its investments target attractive returns across Africa, Asia, and Latin America through portfolios that include transparent companies, with effective management that is aligned with shareholders. Alquity funds are therefore responsible by design, targeting consistent out-performance whilst contributing to long-term growth.

Alquity donates a minimum of 10% of its management fees to development projects in the regions in which it invests. In this way, the business aligns the values of investors, employees, holdings and communities  uniting them with the fundamental belief that these shared values are key to achieving enduring financial and societal success.

To find out more about Alquity the business http://alquity.com/

To find out more about Alquity's Foundation http://alquityfoundation.org/

Contacts:

Paige Dearing

Director, Marketing & Communications

[email protected]

+1 301 717 1415

Suresh Mistry

Director

[email protected]

+44 207 5577 867

SOURCE Philanthropy University

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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MUFG Union Bank, N.A. today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Intrepid Investment Bankers, a leading Los Angeles-based regional middle market investment banking firm.

Following the close of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, Intrepid Investment Bankers will operate under its current name as a subsidiary of MUFG Union Bank and will work in close partnership with the bank's Commercial Banking and Wealth Markets groups. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Intrepid employees will be retained and become employees of MUFG Union Bank, and Intrepid CEO Ed Bagdasarian will report to Tim Wennes, West Coast President of MUFG Union Bank.

Founded in 2010, Intrepid Investment Bankers is a premier middle market platform providing M&A, capital raising and strategic advisory services to entrepreneurs and middle market companies across multi-sectors. It has a large, longstanding referral network and a highly attractive client base with deep industry and sector knowledge in consumer products and services, healthcare, industrials, technology and digital media, and business services.

The MUFG Union Bank Commercial Banking Group, under the direction of veteran commercial banker Bita Ardalan, serves middle market clients on the West Coast. Over the past two years, the team has significantly expanded its reach into new specialty market niches, including healthcare and technology, adding to its longstanding expertise in not-for-profit, agriculture and wineries, while maintaining outstanding portfolio quality.

"The addition of this highly successful boutique M&A advisory team will greatly complement the product and coverage capabilities of our Commercial Banking team and drive accretive asset growth in our Wealth Market businesses," said Wennes. "We have enjoyed a long-term and productive relationship with the principals of Intrepid, whose prestigious brand and deep expertise are well recognized in our markets. We serve similar client profiles in shared geographies. For many reasons, this transaction is an ideal strategic fit with our vision to continue the growth of our middle market banking activities."

"We founded Intrepid to bring differentiated M&A and capital raising services to middle market companies in the United States," said Bagdasarian. "We built a successful platform that delivers advisory services through dedicated industry groups in several key verticals. We are thrilled to join the MUFG Union Bank platform to bring our M&A and capital markets capabilities to its large base of commercial lending clients, and benefit from the resources of one of the most respected banking institutions in the US," continued Bagdasarian.

About MUFG Union Bank, N.A.

As of June 30, 2018, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 355 branches, comprised primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states, along with commercial branches in Texas, Illinois, New York and Georgia, as well as 22 PurePoint Financial Centers. We provide a wide spectrum of corporate, commercial and retail banking and wealth management solutions to meet the needs of customers. We also offer an extensive portfolio of value-added solutions for customers, including investment banking, personal and corporate trust, global custody, transaction banking, capital markets, and other services. With assets of $123.8 billion, as of June 30, 2018, MUFG Union Bank has strong capital reserves, credit ratings and capital ratios relative to peer banks. MUFG Union Bank is a proud member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MUFG), one of the world's largest financial organizations with total assets of approximately 299.1 trillion (JPY) or $2.7 trillion (USD)1, as of June 30, 2018. The corporate headquarters (principal executive office) for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, which is the financial holding company, and MUFG Union Bank, is in New York City. The main banking office of MUFG Union Bank is in San Francisco, California.

1 Exchange rate of 1 USD=110.5 (JPY) as of June 29, 2018

About Intrepid Investment Bankers

Intrepid provides M&A, capital raising and strategic advisory services to entrepreneurs and middle-market companies in various industry sectors. Our heritage, rooted in our founders' successful 35-year history, breeds a culture that embraces teamwork, tenacity, and creativity to win big for our clients. We believe that every company has an entrepreneurial passion that drives it and a story that defines it. Our team delivers results through skillful positioning and relentless execution.

SOURCE MUFG Union Bank, N.A.WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PACEM Defense is proud to announce the completion of its acquisition of AMTEC Less Lethal Systems, Inc., aka "ALS," of Perry, Florida, and the appointment of Michael Quesenberry as the new President of ALS. On his first day as President, Quesenberry announced that the newly completed acquisition, "brings with it existing state-of-the-art less lethal production capacity and many highly qualified personnel, and will allow PACEM significantly to increase production capacity, and at the same time offer new high explosive production capacity." He explained, "PACEM Defense is excited to acquire the successful and growing AMTEC less lethal business. We look forward to working with the current team to continue to grow the less lethal business and investing in additional capabilities for new products and markets. These investments include significant resources to upgrading the security and quality systems that reflect PACEM's long-standing commitment to both our customers and our employees."

The new capabilities, which are highlighted in a web-posted video, allow PACEM to expand into emerging markets such as the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Middle East and Africa (ME&A), East Europe, and Asia.

Cory Mills, Pacem Defense's Chairman and now the new Chairman of ALS's Board of Directors, added, "PACEM is very excited about the expansion of our business and the direction we are heading. We have a tremendous team, and the ALS acquisition helps us to serve our existing clients better, and to build additional capacity. Our state-of-the-art training complex and manufacturing facility rivals any in the region. PACEM remains committed to delivering the highest quality defense and less lethal products, most up to date tactical trainings, as well as risk management and government services to our domestic and international clients."

PACEM co-founder Rana AL-Saadi, one of the new ALS Directors, added, "We are so excited about this acquisition, which provides a win-win opportunity to build upon PACEM's growth over the past five years in the security and defense industry. As a female with no military background in a predominantly male-dominated industry, I feel empowered and proud to serve our great nation. I will continue to support our business and employees by ensuring that all our employees, women and men, are treated fairly, and by enhancing our client relationships."

About Michael Quesenberry

Mike Quesenberry's decades of experience in the ammunition industry, at distinctly different facilities and in multiple functional disciplines, positions him well to lead the Pacem Defense team in Perry, FL. He began his career as a process engineer with Alliant Tech Systems at Radford Army Ammunition Plant. After eight years at Radford, Mike progressed to ATK Advanced Weapons in Plymouth, MN. At Advanced Weapons, he served as the Director of Tank Ammunition on ATK's prime contracts to the DoD for all 105mm and 120mm direct fire ammunition, M829A3, M1002, M1040, M830A1, etc., and after five years was promoted and transferred to ATK's Alleghany Ballistics Laboratories in Rocket Center, WV, where he was the Vice President of Production on the electronic integration efforts.

Mike joined Chemring in late 2010, and in 2011 became President of Chemring Ordnance and Military Products in Perry, FL. While at Chemring, Mike successful led the team in a business turnaround and subsequent substantial growth, going from ~$40m in sales per year to over $250M annual revenue. Mike has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and lives in Perry, FL, with his fiance.

About PACEM Solutions International and PACEM Defense



PACEM Solutions International is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, and offers cutting-edge approaches to consultancy, training, and risk management. We believe in developing solutions with our clients that enable programmatic development without stifling project staff outreach. Our team is comprised of experts who have extensive private sector business, government, and military backgrounds at the U.S. Government agency chief executive leadership level, as well as at the program and country management levels.

PACEM Defense provides state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, highly qualified personnel, and substantial financial resources to ensure high quality, reliable products are delivered on-time. Over the past few years, PACEM has successfully delivered millions of defense products around the world to some of the most challenging regions, including the highly effective-against-ISIS 40 mm M430A1 high velocity, high explosive cartridge that can be used in mounted and crew-served weapons, and the M433 low velocity high explosive dual purpose cartridge used in both single-shot and multi-shot, hand-held grenade launchers.

Contact Person: Cory Mills

Company Name: Pacem Solutions International

Telephone Number: 571-385-0299

Email Address: [email protected]

Web site addresses: www.pacem-solutions.com

SOURCE PACEM Solutions International LLC

Related Links

pacem-solutions.com

The National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada has funded a University of Victoria project aimed at collaborating with RepliCel to optimize cell culture and manufacturing technologies

VANCOUVER and VICTORIA, BC, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - RepliCel Life Sciences Inc. (OTCQB: REPCF) (TSXV: RP) (FRA: P6P2) ("RepliCel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has signed a collaborative research project agreement with the University of Victoria ("UVic") in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The project will be co-funded through a grant from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada ("NSERC") under the NSERC Collaborative Research and Development ("CRD") program.

The collaboration will focus on approaches to optimize cell culture platforms, such as those employed in RepliCel's cell therapy manufacturing, for eventual commercial-scale production. The project aims to employ microfluidic technology and advanced materials to develop an innovative platform for larger scale adherent cell culture in small volumetric footprints.

The project will be led by UVic's Dr. Mohsen Akbari, Assistant Professor at the University of Victoria and Director of the Laboratory for Innovations in Microengineering (LiME). Co-leading the project will be RepliCel's Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Kevin McElwee who is also Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK.

"We are very pleased to have NSERC CRD support to work with Dr. Akbari and his team at UVic. He is one of the world's emerging experts on biomedical engineering and the employment of advanced materials and micro-technologies for cell and tissue culture. The collaboration represents a unique opportunity to leverage his expertise and non-dilutive grant funding to innovate around RepliCel's technologies in ways expected to improve the Company's eventual commercial-scale manufacturing," stated RepliCel President and CEO, R. Lee Buckler.

The two-year NSCERC CRD funding commitment and collaboration agreement with UVic may result in publications, patents, and/or the development of technologies with potential applications and value broader than RepliCel's immediate uses. New intellectual property arising from the project will be the sole and exclusive property of UVic with a fully paid, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to RepliCel for any commercial purposes. RepliCel has the option to negotiate an exclusive license to such intellectual property from UVic for commercial purposes important to the Company.

About Dr. Mohsen Akbari

Dr. Mohsen Akbari received his PhD (2011) in Applied Sciences from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, British Columbia). He also conducted research from 2012-2015 as a postdoctoral fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital (Boston, USA), Harvard Medical School, and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Dr. Akbari is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is also affiliated with Center for Biomedical Research (CBR) and Centre for Advanced Materials and Related Technology (CAMTEC) at the University of Victoria. His research lies at the interface of cellular biology, biomaterials, and microtechnologies with a focus on the biofabrication of engineered tissue substitutes for regenerative medicine, development of biomimetic tissue models using microengineering techniques for disease modeling and drug discovery, and development of advanced drug delivery systems for therapeutic applications.

Dr. Akbari has 46 peer-reviewed articles (citations=+1650, h index=21) in high impact journals including Science Translational Medicine, Nature Microtechnologies and Nanoengineering, Biotechnology Advances, and Advanced Materials, three book chapters, three patent applications/disclosures and more than 30 conference presentations in prestigious conferences such as TAS, World Biomaterials Congress, and IMECE, and ASME. Dr. Akbari is the recipient of several institutional, national, and international awards such as the British Columbia Innovation Award, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) postdoctoral fellowship, and the Kaiser Foundation Award. Recently, he was recognized as a rising Canadian star in global health.

About RepliCel Life Sciences

RepliCel is a regenerative medicine company focused on developing cell therapies for aesthetic and orthopedic conditions affecting what the Company believes is approximately one in three people in industrialized nations, including aging/sun-damaged skin, pattern baldness, and chronic tendon degeneration. These conditions, often associated with aging, are caused by a deficit of healthy cells required for normal tissue healing and function.

The Company's product pipeline is comprised of RCT-01 for tendon repair, RCS-01 for skin rejuvenation, and RCH-01 for hair restoration. RCH-01 is currently being co-developed with, and under exclusive license by, Shiseido for certain Asian countries. All product candidates are based on RepliCel's innovative technology, utilizing cell populations isolated from a patient's healthy hair follicles. RepliCel has also developed a proprietary injection device, RCI-02, optimized for the administration of its products and licensable for use with other dermatology applications.

Please visit www.replicel.com for additional information.

Forward-looking information

Certain statements in this news release are forward-looking statements, which reflect the expectations of management regarding the results of the project outlined in this release. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release include: statements relating to the statements that (i) data from this project is expected to improve the Company's eventual commercial-scale manufacturing; and (iii) the results will improve our product manufacturing, clinical outcomes, and assays critical to regulatory approval and commercialization. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks which may cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including: risks that the Company's products may not perform as, or have the benefits, expected; risks that the Company's products may not be accepted and adopted by the public; the risk that the Company will not obtain CE mark clearance for its injector device; the risk that there will be delays enrolling clinical trial participants or commencing any clinical or research programs; the risk that the Company will receive negative results from the Company's clinical trials; the effects of government regulation on the Company's business; risks associated with the Company obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals for its various programs; risks associated with the Company's ability to obtain and protect rights to its intellectual property; risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's ability to raise additional capital; and other factors beyond the Company's control. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity or performance. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made and, except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all of such factors and to assess in advance the impact of such factors on the Company's 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 statement. Readers should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factor disclosure outlined in the Company's annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Edgar at www.sec.gov and with the British Columbia Securities Commission on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE RepliCel Life Sciences Inc.

Related Links

www.replicel.com

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Attorney General of Louisiana Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq. and the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") are investigating the proposed sale of SendGrid, Inc. ("Send") (NYSE: SEND) to Twilio Inc. ("Twilio") (NYSE: TWLO). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Send will receive only 0.485 shares of Twilio Class A common stock for each share of Send that they own. KSF is seeking to determine whether this consideration and the process that led to it are adequate, or whether the consideration undervalues the Company.

If you believe that this transaction undervalues the Company and/or if you would like to discuss your legal rights regarding the proposed sale, you may, without obligation or cost to you, e-mail or call KSF Managing Partner Lewis S. Kahn ([email protected]) toll free at any time at 855-768-1857, or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-send/ to learn more.

To learn more about KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General, visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

1100 Poydras St., Suite 3200

New Orleans, LA 70163

SOURCE Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

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NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors and Officers of Community First Bank ("Community First" or the "Company") (OTC: CMYF) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty relating to the sale of the company to First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. ("First Interstate"). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Community First will only receive $45.45 in cash for each share of Community First that they own.

Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/community-first-bank. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer.

If you own common stock in Community First and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2018 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

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NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors and Officers of Esterline Technologies Corporation ("Esterline" or the "Company") (NYSE: ESL) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty relating to the sale of the company to TransDigm Group Inc. ("TDG"). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, shareholders of Esterline will only receive $122.50 in cash for each share of Esterline that they own.

Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/esterline-technologies-corporation. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer.

If you own common stock in Esterline and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2018 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

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TOKYO and LONDON, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sosei Group Corporation ("Sosei") (TSE Mothers Index: 4565) the world leader in GPCR medicine design and development, today announces that it will not exercise its exclusive option to acquire further equity in MiNA (Holdings) Limited ("MiNA"), the holding company of UK company MiNA Therapeutics, a pioneer in RNA activation therapeutics.

Sosei's decision is based on: (1) an evaluation of the investment opportunity including a rigorous analysis of interim data from MiNA Therapeutics's Phase 1/2a OUTREACH study of MTL-CEPBA in hepatocellular carcinoma; and (2) the prioritization of resources directed towards other opportunities across its partnered and proprietary GPCR-targeted drug candidate portfolio.

Dr. Malcolm Weir, Chief R&D Officer of Sosei, said: "Our strategic investment in MiNA gave us an early option on a novel technology platform to enhance our pipeline. We noted some interesting findings from the interim clinical data, as well as subsequent observations with respect to the potential to combine MTL-CEBPA with other oncology drugs. MiNA has committed to investigating these findings in further clinical development and is continuing its multi-target partnership with one of the world's leading companies in liver disease, Boehringer Ingelheim. Despite this, the investment opportunity, which included a detailed analysis of the OUTREACH study data, did not meet our strict internal hurdle requirements. Our primary focus remains prioritizing our resources toward advancing GPCR-targeted drug candidates. We remain encouraged by the progress made by MiNA in pioneering novel RNA-activating drug candidates and continue to be supportive of the company as a significant minority shareholder."

The 28 million (4.2 billion equivalent) carrying value associated with Sosei's 25.6% investment in MiNA will be reviewed in conjunction with our auditors and our conclusion will be included in our results on 8 November 2018. MiNA will remain an associate company of Sosei, enabling the Company to benefit from any potential appreciation in the value of MiNA in the future. However, by not exercising its exclusive option to acquire additional shares in MiNA the option has now expired and the 7 million (1.0 billion equivalent) carrying value associated with the option has been fully written down.

This is a translation of a document written in Japanese and has been prepared for reference purpose only.

About Sosei

Sosei is an international biopharmaceutical company focused on the design and development of new medicines originating from its proprietary GPCR-targeted StaR technology and structure-based drug design platform capabilities. The Company is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of partnered and wholly owned product candidates in multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, cancer, metabolic diseases and other rare/specialty indications. The Company's leading clinical programs include a proprietary Phase 2 candidate for dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) in Japan, together with partnered candidates aimed at the symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's disease (with Allergan) and immuno-oncology approaches to treat cancer (with AstraZeneca). Sosei's additional partners and collaborators include Novartis, Pfizer, Daiichi-Sankyo, PeptiDream, Kymab and MorphoSys. The Company is headquartered in Japan with R&D facilities in the UK and Switzerland.

Sosei is listed on the Mothers Index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (ticker: 4565). For more information, please visit http://www.sosei.com/en/ .

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery, development and commercialization of products. Various risks may cause Sosei's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: adverse results in clinical development programs; failure to obtain patent protection for inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners to develop and commercialize products and services; difficulties or delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial funding to conduct research and development and to expand commercialization activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Enquiries:

Sosei



Investor Relations and Corporate Communications



Shinichiro Nishishita, Yu Okada



[email protected] +81 (0) 3 5210 3399







Citigate Dewe Rogerson (for international media)



Mark Swallow, David Dible



[email protected] +44 (0) 20 7638 9571



SOURCE Sosei Group Corporation

Related Links

http://www.sosei.com

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to last month's tragedy in the Greater Lawrence area of Massachusetts (near Boston), Spire is sending 26 team members to help restore natural gas service to 8,600 customers by mid-November.

Spire crew members will be installing gas meters, performing safety checks and helping to reactivate gas appliances to get customers safely connected to gas service as Columbia Gas works to quickly replace pipelines in the area. Half of the crews left earlier this week with trucks and supplies. They will be working long hours for two weeks until the next shift of Spire workers arrives to take over and finish the work.

"At Spire, giving back to the community is a part of who we are  even when the community in need is far away. When we asked for volunteers our crews responded immediately," said Tim Goodson, vice president of operations for Spire. "Spire volunteers are picking up and leaving their families and lives for two weeks to help others. We couldn't be prouder of their sacrifice and care for others."

To learn more about the larger effort of Columbia Gas to upgrade pipelines and restore service in this area, please visit the website they have created: www.columbiagas.com/massachusetts/home

About Spire

At Spire Inc. (NYSE: SR) we believe energy exists to help make people's lives better. It's a simple idea, but one that's at the heart of our company. Every day we serve 1.7 million homes and businesses, making us the fifth-largest publicly traded natural gas company in the country. We help families and business owners fuel their daily lives through our gas utilities serving Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri. Our non-utility operations include Spire Marketing, which provides natural gas marketing and related services. We are committed to transforming our business and pursuing growth through 1) growing organically, 2) investing in infrastructure, 3) acquiring and integrating, and 4) innovation and technology. Learn more at SpireEnergy.com.

Media Contact:

Jenny Gobble

314-342-3300

[email protected]

SOURCE SpireAs were experiencing at the health and hospital system, the complexity of finances really should be a wake-up call for the board to acquire more tools and grow its capacity to engage in both the generation of revenues as well as the expenditure of revenues that come in, Garcia said.NEW BRITAIN, Conn., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of one of the largest and most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the continental United States, Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) today announced a commitment of up to $150,000 for immediate disaster relief and rebuilding. The company will donate $50,000 to the American Red Cross for its immediate disaster relief efforts and $50,000 in STANLEY, CRAFTSMAN and DEWALT Tools to ToolBank Disaster Services, as well as double its Employee Matching Gifts program (matching employee gifts $2 for every $1 raised) to generate an additional $50,000.

"Tens of thousands of Americans have been affected by the recent storms, and are in need of support and aid to get back on their feet," said Stanley Black & Decker President & CEO Jim Loree. "Organizations such as the American Red Cross and ToolBank USA provide vital support in these critical times, and their efforts are truly inspiring. We are committed to improving the communities where we live and work and being a force for good, particularly during challenging times such as these. Our hearts go out to the families and their loved ones."

The American Red Cross is always one of the first responders to reach the ground when natural disasters strike. ToolBank is a 25-year-old nonprofit with a commitment to providing tools and supplies so that nonprofits can fulfill their missions without worrying about tool inventories. The ToolBank network has grown into ten metropolitan areas across the United States and now includes several Disaster Services Vehicles, which are a fully-stocked 18-wheel tractor trailers able to deploy when natural disasters strike. The ToolBank Disaster Services contains tools from many of Stanley Black & Decker's most well-known brands, including STANLEY, CRAFTSMAN and DEWALT.

Through its support of ToolBank, the American Red Cross and other organizations, Stanley Black & Decker has a longstanding track record of providing disaster relief services, and a demonstrated commitment to rebuilding within the communities impacted by natural disasters.

About Stanley Black & Decker

Stanley Black & Decker is a $13 billion revenue, $20+ billion market capitalization, purpose-driven industrial organization. Stanley Black & Decker has 58,000 employees in more than 60 countries and operates the world's largest tools and storage business, the world's second largest commercial electronic security company, a leading engineered fastening business as well as Oil & Gas and Infrastructure businesses. The company's iconic brands include BLACK+DECKER, Bostitch, CRAFTSMAN, DEWALT, FACOM, Irwin, Lenox, Porter Cable and Stanley. Stanley Black & Decker is a company for the makers and innovators, the craftsmen and the caregivers, and those doing the hard work to make the world a better place. Learn more at www.stanleyblackanddecker.com.

Media Contacts:

Tim Perra

Vice President of Public Affairs

860-826-3260

[email protected]

SOURCE Stanley Black & Decker

Related Links

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RECORD QUARTERLY SALES OF 25,842 OUNCES

ANNUALIZED PRODUCTION RATE OF MORE THAN 100,000 OUNCES PER YEAR

OVER THE PAST SIX MONTHS

(In US Dollars unless otherwise stated)

TORONTO, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Superior Gold Inc. ("Superior Gold" or the "Company") (TSXV: SGI) is pleased to announce detailed production results for the third quarter of 2018 from the Company's 100%-owned Plutonic Gold operations, located 800 kilometres northeast of Perth, in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold operations include the Plutonic underground mine and the Hermes open pit mine.

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Production details are summarized in the table below.

Operating Parameters1 Q1 Q2 Q3 YTD Nine month period ended September 30, 2018 Stope material mined (Tonnes) 152,101 157,479 176,068 485,649 Stope grade mined (g Au/t) 2.61 3.18 2.75 2.84 Development material mined (Tonnes) 55,401 35,483 49,219 140,103 Developmentgrade mined (g Au/t) 1.58 1.79 1.96 1.76 Hermes material mined (Tonnes) 157,179 252,521 245,672 655,373 Hermes grade mined (g Au/t) 1.58 1.51 1.40 1.49 Hermes waste mined (Tonnes) 2,517,823 2,269,357 2,789,275 7,576,455 Surface material milled (Tonnes)2 133,741 199,315 216,797 549,853 Surface material grade (g Au/t)\2 1.52 1.64 1.45 1.53 Total material milled (Tonnes) 343,932 388,513 437,067 1,169,512 Grade milled (g Au/t) 2.01 2.27 2.02 2.10 Recovery (%) 86% 90% 87% 88% Gold Produced (ounces)3 19,232 25,608 24,719 69,559 Gold Sold (ounces)3 18,940 25,797 25,842 70,579

1 Numbers may not add due to rounding. 2 Surface material milled in Q1, Q2, and Q3 is primarily from Hermes but includes additional material totalling 33,169 tonnes

(at 0.62 g Au/t), 18,707 tonnes (at 0.52 g Au/t), and 8,555 (at 0.79 g Au/t), respectively. 3 Gold produced and gold sold in Q1 includes a contribution from Hermes prior to commercial production being declared.

Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: "We are pleased to have achieved record quarterly gold sales for the second successive quarter at our Plutonic Gold operations. The ounces sold in the third quarter of 2018 represent a 24 percent year over year increase. Of particular significance is the fact that, with cumulative production of 50,327 from the second and third quarters, we have now maintained an annualized production rate of more than 100,000 ounces for the past six months.

During the quarter, we commissioned the gravity circuit and saw the positive benefits from its operation. A scheduled tank reline was expected to negatively affect recoveries, but this was offset by the beneficial impact of the gravity circuit. Recently announced site changes are achieving the intended improvements, which we believe will lead to improved operating performance".

The Company will be releasing complete financial and operating results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2018 before market open on November 13, 2018.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Pascal Blampain, who is a member of the AusIMM and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) and a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mr. Blampain is an employee of the Company and serves as Chief Geologist.

About Superior Gold

Superior Gold is a Canadian based gold producer that owns 100% of the Plutonic Gold operations located in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold operations include the Plutonic Gold mine and central mill, the Hermes open pit gold mine and an interest in the Bryah Basin joint venture. Superior Gold is focused on expanding production at the Plutonic Gold operations and building an intermediate gold producer with superior returns for shareholders.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. "Forward-looking information" includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "potential" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, and statements regarding exploration results and exploration plans.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 15, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.

The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Superior GoldBROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- As autonomous and connected vehicles inch nearer to reality, the implications in New York for government policy, land use, taxi fleets, pedestrians, and everyday drivers and passengers will be explored in depth at a symposium open to all on October 23-24, 2018.

The New York City Symposium on Connected and Autonomous Vehicles will be hosted at the Downtown Brooklyn campus of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering by the C2SMART Center, a Tier 1 U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Center led by NYU Tandon. This year's conference is supported by the New York City Department of Transportation and the Intelligent Transportation Society of New York.

The symposium will bring together engineers, land-use planners, policymakers, industry representatives, agency staff, academic researchers, and others to address the challenges involved in the real-world deployment of connected and autonomous vehicle technology in the city.

The symposium will feature updates on New York City's Connected Vehicle Project, including C2SMART's work on an app to assist visually impaired pedestrians. Panel discussions will address steps to deployment, data and cybersecurity concerns, urban land use impacts, policy and legal issues, economic impacts, and driver and pedestrian safety.

The event's agenda features a range of prominent voices from industry, government, and academia. Steven Shladover of the University of California Berkeley PATH Program and one of the earliest researchers in the autonomous vehicle field, will deliver the keynote address, "Practical Challenges to Deploying Highly Automated Vehicles. Panels will include New York City agency representatives; researchers from NYU, the City University of New York, Princeton University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), and other schools; and leaders from transportation and technology companies.

Additionally, a startup showcase will feature pitches from leading mobility entrepreneurs to a panel of industry innovators. Any startup with an original mobility idea with strong market potential in New York is invited to apply.

The symposium is free of charge but seating is limited and registration is required at http://cavnycsymposium.com/registration.php.

Symposium organizer C2SMART is a collaboration of NYU, Rutgers University, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Washington, and City College of New York. Academic collaborators for the symposium are the C2SMART partners, the City University of New York, University at Buffalo, Princeton University, and RPI. This will be the sixth annual NYC Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Symposium. The series was initiated in 2012 by researchers from CUNY, Rutgers, RPI, and the University at Buffalo. NYU Tandon last hosted the event in 2016.

About the C2SMART Center

C2SMART (Connected Cities for Smart Mobility toward Accessible and Resilient Transportation) Center is a USDOT Tier 1 University Transportation Center taking on some of today's most pressing urban mobility challenges. Using cities as living laboratories, the center examines transportation problems and field tests novel solutions that draw on recent advances in communication and smart technologies. Our consortium includes New York University, Rutgers University, University of Texas at El Paso, University of Washington, and City College of New York. For more information, visit http://c2smart.engineering.nyu.edu/.

About the New York University Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, one of the country's foremost private research universities, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu.

www.facebook.com/nyutandon

@NYUTandon

SOURCE NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Related Links

http://engineering.nyu.edu

HAMBURG, Germany, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Data presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 meeting in Munich, Germany by three clinical oncology research groups demonstrate the importance of a highly sensitive test for detection of clinically-relevant mutations present in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) derived from a simple blood draw. Sysmex Inostics' ultra-high sensitivity OncoBEAM test was able to uncover mutations below the limits of detection for next-generation sequencing (NGS) as well as quantitative PCR (qPCR) tests, which represents a subset of patients for whom these lower-sensitivity methods could potentially miss important clinically actionable information.

In a study sponsored by the Cancer Genomics Group at Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, investigators compared Sysmex Inostics' OncoBEAM RAS test to Biocartis' Idylla platform for detection of RAS mutations in plasma for patients with advanced-stage colorectal cancer. The OncoBEAM test uses BEAMing technology, an enhanced digital PCR method optimized for high sensitivity across different specimen types, while Idylla employs qPCR and is designed primarily for ease-of-use for mutational analysis of tissue and plasma specimens. Comparison of Idylla with reference results generated by the OncoBEAM assay, the current gold-standard for highly sensitive liquid biopsy, demonstrated inferior performance of Idylla with detection of KRAS mutations in only 81 out of 116 (70%) positive plasma samples. As expected, concordance with OncoBEAM substantially decreased at lower mutant allele frequency (MAF), which is representative of lower sensitivity achieved by qPCR techniques such as Idylla.

In another study, investigators at Hospices Civiles de Lyon evaluated Sysmex Inostics' OncoBEAM EGFR test as well as the 56G oncology NGS panel from Swift Biosciences for detection of the EGFR T790M resistance mutation present in advanced NSCLC patients on first-line EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy for whom progression was suspected. OncoBEAM, which has pioneered acceptance of liquid testing for lung cancer in routine clinical practice, was able to detect T790M in a greater number of patients than the 56G oncology NGS panel. Notably, all positives detected by OncoBEAM but not 56G oncology NGS exhibited T790M present below 0.35% MAF, which is below the limit of detection for the NGS panel in this study (0.5% MAF) but in the range of reliable detection for the OncoBEAM test (LOD 0.02% MAF). As Dr. Lea Payen commented, "Resistance mutations such as T790M represent a significant therapeutic opportunity for NSCLC patients experiencing disease progression. However, detection T790M is often confounded due to its heterogeneous distribution throughout a patient's tumor burden which presents a diagnostic challenge for single-site tissue biopsies. Further, EGFR sensitizing and T790M mutations have been shown to be present at low allelic frequencies due to variable and sometimes limited ctDNA amounts in the plasma for NSCLC patients. The implementation of a highly sensitive assay like OncoBEAM, which demonstrates reliable performance at low mutant allelic frequencies, is important in the context of NSCLC in order to reliably detect ctDNA in blood samples that may be missed by less sensitive approaches."

Building on the proven high sensitivity of the OncoBEAM EGFR test, the LungBEAM study conducted by researchers at 19 different hospitals across Spain and led by Prof. Pilar Garrido sought to evaluate the clinical value of longitudinal EGFR plasma testing in tissue-confirmed advanced NSCLC patients during first-line EGFR TKI therapy. The timing of emergence of the T790M resistance mutation was examined, as well as the dynamics of EGFR sensitizing mutations (L858R and exon 19 deletions) compared to radiological progression. Out of 60 patients who completed the study and showed clinical or radiological progression, 20 (33%) exhibited T790M present in plasma; for 13 of these patients, T790M was detected an average of 14 weeks prior to radiological progression. It was also found that clearance of EGFR sensitizing mutations 8 weeks after initiation of EGFR TKI therapy correlated with increased progression-free survival (40.3 weeks with clearance vs. 25.8 weeks without) and may be a favorable clinical indicator of PFS that can be easily measured early during therapy administration.

Together, these studies reinforce how the exquisite sensitivity of the OncoBEAM platform which enables detection of the greatest number of positive patients overall can deliver unique clinical value. A highly sensitive assay is especially important for timely detection of mutations that can be monitored in real time as surrogate biomarkers of disease burden. "The demonstrated high sensitivity of OncoBEAM is ideal not only to maximize detection of known therapeutic indications, but also to explore potential clinical uses of ctDNA to monitor disease evolution at much higher resolution that is currently possible through radiographic imaging," commented Dr. Pilar Garrido, lead investigator for the LungBEAM study. "At a time when many different technologies and products are available for molecular oncology, it has become increasingly important for researchers and clinicians to select the best option to answer the specific question at hand."

Presentation Details (all times local)

Saturday, October 20 th , 12:30, Biomarkers, 100P : Comparison of OncoBEAM and NGS methods to detect plasma EGFR T790M mutations at progression of NSCLC.

, 12:30, Biomarkers, : Saturday, October 20 th , 12:30, Biomarkers, 121P : LungBEAM: A prospective multicenter trial to monitor EGFR mutations using BEAMing technology in Stage IV NSCLC patients.

, 12:30, Biomarkers, : Sunday, October 21 st, 13:05, Gastrointestinal tumors - colorectal, 550P: Evaluation of the sensitivity of RAS mutation detection of the Idylla platform in comparison to the OncoBEAM RAS CRC assay.

About OncoBEAM

Sysmex Inostics' highly sensitive OncoBEAM services allow for molecular genetic analysis of cell-free tumor DNA from blood or plasma, delivering an individualized approach to complement treatment decision-making in oncology. Based on the highly sensitive BEAMing technology developed at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, OncoBEAM testing is able to provide multiplex hotspot mutation analysis for the accurate and reliable detection of rare mutant molecules of tumor DNA from blood samples of patients with cancer. Due to its minimal-invasive nature, OncoBEAM delivers new possibilities for cancer management while minimizing costs and risks inherent with tissue biopsies. The OncoBEAM assays target a wide variety of clinically actionable genetic mutations in various cancers like melanoma, colorectal, breast and lung cancer, delivering information in real-time to support therapy selection, detection of emergent mutations and assessment of drug response. In the US, OncoBEAM tests are available as GCP and CLIA services. OncoBEAM RAS CRC CE IVD kit is available in EU.

About Sysmex Inostics

Sysmex Inostics, a subsidiary of Sysmex Corporation, is a molecular diagnostic company whose core competency is mutation detection utilizing highly sensitive technologies such as BEAMing and Plasma Safe-Sequencing. Sysmex Inostics is a trusted partner to leading pharmaceutical companies, advancing their efforts to bring the most effective personalized cancer therapies to global markets.

With BEAMing and Plasma Safe-Sequencing (SafeSeq) being some of the most sensitive technologies available today for the detection of tumor-specific somatic mutations in blood samples, Sysmex Inostics' services are readily available to support clinical trials and research in oncology. In addition, OncoBEAM tests are available today through a CLIA-certified laboratory for routine clinical analysis.

Sysmex Inostics' headquarters and GCP Service Laboratory are located in Hamburg Germany; Sysmex Inostics' Commercial Offices and CLIA-certified and GCP Clinical Laboratory is located in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information on Plasma Safe-Sequencing and OncoBEAM blood testing, please visit http://www.sysmex-inostics.com or email [email protected] .

Contact:

Sysmex Inostics

Press Release

Phone +49(0)40-3259070

Mail [email protected]



SOURCE Sysmex Inostics GmbHNEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The increasing focus on reducing data leakage and manipulation will fuel the demand for the automotive blockchain market



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05594573



The automotive blockchain market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 31.19% during the forecast period, and the market size is projected to grow from USD 0.35 billion in 2020 to USD 5.29 billion by 2030. The automotive industry is a complex connected ecosystem with multiple transactions involved. There is a need for an immutable database to record these transactions with shared, secured, and highly permissioned access. In response, many OEMs have initiated pilot projects on automotive blockchain to bring the transparency of information in the business network, which accelerate the growth of the automotive blockchain market. For instance, French automaker Renault unveiled a new digitized car maintenance log prototype built using blockchain in July 2017. At the same time, uncertainty over regulations and low consumer acceptance can be major obstacles for the growth of the automotive blockchain market.



The market for application and solution providers is projected to hold the largest share in the automotive blockchain market

Application and solution providers are the real facets of the automotive blockchain to introduce the technology to the end consumers.The introduction of technologically advanced blockchain solutions has witnessed a certain level of adoption in the automotive applications such as car sharing, ride sharing, electric mobility, automotive title, and the supply chain management, thereby fuelling the overall market growth of the automotive blockchain.



However, the front-end applications are costly and require skilled workforce to create and maintain.With time, the functions/features of these applications/solutions will also increase, in turn, making them even costlier.



The abovementioned reasons would result in applications and solution providers constituting the largest share in the automotive blockchain market.



Smart contracts is projected be the fastest growing application in automotive blockchain market

Smart contracts allow computer programs to execute records and store them on the ledger as a part of the transaction.Smart contracts have a significant number of applications in the automotive industry such as title transfer, dealership management, and B2B contractual agreements.



For instance, the current process of vehicle ownership transfer from buyer to seller involves multiple middlemen, phases, and reconciliations to execute.Blockchain helps streamline this complex process by digitizing titles' transfer process and reduce the time needed to authenticate and validate the transaction.



According to secondary research and industry experts, more than 42 million used cars were sold in the US last year.With the rise in income levels and changing customer preferences, the market for used cars is increasing in developing countries like India and China.



Hence, it would increase the market adoption of blockchain-based smart contracts.



Asia Oceania: The fastest growing region in the automotive blockchain market

Asia Oceania is projected to be fastest growing region in the automotive blockchain market.The major factors driving the growth of the Asia Oceania market include fast-developing countries such as China and India and increasing expenditure on development of advanced technologies.



For instance, IBM partnered with India-based multinational Mahindra Group for the development of a blockchain solution aimed at the supply chain. In 2015, Chinese conglomerate Wanxiang Group, one of the largest auto parts manufacturers, invested USD 50.0 million in blockchain technology. In July 2018, Tech Mahindra set up a blockchain center within its R&D arm 'Makers Lab' at its Hyderabad (India) facility to assist co-innovation in the space by developing enterprise-grade solutions for customers across industries globally. Additionally, the growing Asia Oceania automotive industry calls for an immutable database to record the multiple transactions between automotive ecosystems with shared, secured, and highly permissioned access. Hence, automotive blockchain market in Asia Oceania is expected to witness considerable growth during the forecast period. However, because of the slow pace of technological adoption in the region, the growth of the automotive blockchain market in this region is expected to be slow till 20242025.



BREAKDOWN OF PRIMARIES

The study contains insights provided by various industry experts, ranging from OEMs to automotive blockchain platform and solution providers. The breakdown of the primaries is as follows:

 By Company Type: Tier-I55%, Tier-II30%, and Others*15%

 By Designation: C level70%, D level20%, and Others**10%

 By Region: Europe35%, Americas30%, Asia Oceania25%, and MEA10%



Note: **Others include sales, marketing, and product managers.



Tier I are automotive blockchain platform suppliers, while Tier II are application and solution/protocol providers and others* are OEMs, consulting and research institutes.



Company tiers are based on the value chain; revenue of the company has not been considered.



The report provides detailed profiles of the following companies:

 IBM (US)

 Microsoft (US)

 Accenture (Ireland)

 caVertical (Estonia)

 Helbiz (US)

 Tech Mahindra (India)

 HCL Technologies (India)

 XAIN (Germany)

 NXM Labs (US)

 CarBlock (US)

 Cube (UK)

 Context Labs (US)

 SHIFTMobility (US)

 BigchainDB (Germany)

 Dashride (US)

 Consensys (US)

 FOAM (US)

 RSK Labs (Argentina)

 Gem (US)



Research Coverage:

The report provides a picture of the automotive blockchain market across different verticals and regions.It aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of the automotive blockchain market, by application, mobility type, provider, and region.



Furthermore, the report also includes an in-depth competitive analysis of the key players in the market along with their company profiles, competitive landscape, recent developments, and key market strategies.



Reasons to Buy the Report:



The report provides insights into the following points:

 Market for key countries: The report provides the market sizing of the automotive blockchain by application and provider for 15 key countries from 2020 to 2030.

 Potential Use Cases: The report provides comprehensive information on the potential use cases of automotive blockchain offered by the top players in the industry.

 Market Development: The report provides comprehensive information on various automotive blockchain application trends. The report analyzes the markets for various automotive blockchain applications and providers across countries.

 Market Diversification: The report provides exhaustive information about emerging technologies, recent developments, and investments in the global automotive blockchain market.

 Competitive Landscape: The report offers an in-depth assessment of recent developments of the supply chain players that include application and solutions providers, platform providers, infrastructure and protocols providers, and startups.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05594573



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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WEST CHESTER, Pa., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Venerable today announced the appointment of Glenn Black as Vice President, Head of Tax. In this role, Black will report to David Wiland, Chief Financial Officer, and be responsible for developing and implementing the company's tax strategies, oversight and management of all income tax returns, tax accounting, and reporting. He will be based in West Chester, PA.

Black has significant background in tax practices for financial services organizations and most recently served as Assistant Vice President of Tax for Unum Group in Chattanooga, TN. In this role, Black was responsible for tax planning and mergers and acquisition support, including acquisition of a foreign life insurance company and leading a team to analyze and identify necessary reforms due to the Tax Cuts and Job Acts of 2017. Prior to Unum, Black held various tax leadership positions at Symetra, TIAA and ING. Black holds a Master of Accountancy and Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Management from Southern Illinois University.

"Glenn's extensive background in financial services tax compliance and planning, as well as M&A analysis will be a great benefit to our organization," said David Wiland, Chief Financial Officer for Venerable. "His leadership will be critical to the establishment of our tax function."

About Venerable

Venerable is a privately held company with business operations based in West Chester, Pennsylvania and Des Moines, Iowa. Venerable owns and manages the legacy variable annuity business acquired from Voya Financial, Inc. Created by an investor group led by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC, Crestview Partners, and Reverence Capital Partners, Venerable is an emerging business with well-established, strategic investors, experienced in successfully building and growing insurance businesses with patient, long-term capital. For more information, please visit www.venerableannuity.com.

Contact:

Allison Proud, 610-425-4269

Corporate Communications

[email protected]



SOURCE Venerable

Related Links

http://www.venerableannuity.com/

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Zentera Systems, Inc., the leader in next-generation networking and network security technologies for the digitally-transformed enterprise, today announced the release of version 4.3.1 of CoIP Enclave, with full support for hybrid Kubernetes deployments, in order to securely connect containerized applications across multiple cloud or datacenter environments. The new version of CoIP Enclave is available immediately.

Kubernetes is a portable, open-source platform that allows companies to manage and containerize their workloads and services. With orchestration on the computing, networking, and storage infrastructure, enterprises are provided the simplicity of a Platform as a Service (PaaS) with the flexibility of an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

Zentera's CoIP Enclave solution connects containers in hybrid Kubernetes environments, providing application-centric networking to enterprise customers. The CoIP Enclave overlay network deploys on top of a company's existing network infrastructure, replacing complex network configurations with simple, software-defined, per-application connectivity and security policies. Customers who deploy Zentera's technology can rapidly connect on-premises workloads to cloud-based containers and services, such as Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Customers can also leverage CoIP Enclave's security features to segment container traffic at the application level. CoIP Enclave's strong suite of security capabilities led to being named a Cool Vendor in Cloud Security by Gartner.

"We were very impressed with how quickly the overlays could be implemented," said a director at a Fortune 500 customer. "Traditionally this would've taken many weeks to complete, but we were able to put them in place during a 30-minute meeting."

Zentera will participate and demonstrate CoIP Enclave and its new features in Oracle OpenWorld 2018 Booth #4014, which will take place in San Francisco, CA, Oct. 22  Oct. 25. The event is one of the premier business and technology conferences for customers and partners of Oracle. OpenWorld provides an engaging platform, where business thought leaders and innovators discuss how today's technology can address their client's dynamic business needs.

About Zentera

Zentera secures application workloads in hybrid environments with a type of software-defined perimeter called an enclave. The CoIP Enclave solution provides security and connectivity. It works with any infrastructure in any environment, does not interfere with existing environments or security, and can be up and running in less than a day. CoIP Enclave provides comprehensive network security for enterprise applications in the cloud, moving to the cloud or on-premise, and is deployed for worldwide operations by global corporations. The company has received numerous honors, including consecutive Red Herring Top 100 Awards, and is based in Silicon Valley.

Media Contact

Mike Loftus, VP Strategy & Marketing

Zentera Systems, Inc.

+1 408-436-4811

[email protected]

All trademarks cited here are the properties of their respective owners.

SOURCE Zentera Systems, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.zentera.net

OXFORD, England, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The PostgreSQL Global Development Group today announced the release of PostgreSQL 11, another major milestone for the project and PostgreSQL community. Some of the most notable features in this release have been developed by members of the 2ndQuadrant team, which has proudly contributed to the PostgreSQL project consistently for the past 15+ years.

This release presents important improvements in partitioning and parallelism  two critical areas for any relational database system  which are specifically beneficial for large analytical databases.

2ndQuadrant

Parallelism has been enhanced, providing faster execution and the ability to create indexes in parallel. Partitioning advancements now produce even more rapid results when performing a search and simplify the management of partition tables, making analytics much easier.

"The PostgreSQL project continues to evolve rapidly with improvements for enterprise use. 2ndQuadrant has developed major enterprise features  such as PROCEDUREs with server-side transactions  based on client requirements, then fed back into the community for wider use," states Simon Riggs, founder and CEO of 2ndQuadrant.

As major contributors and historical thought leaders of the PostgreSQL project, the 2ndQuadrant team is excited about this release, and has many notable contributions in terms of both features and bug fixes. Some of the major contributions by 2ndQuadrant are listed below:

Implementation of SQL procedures, including transaction control. Transactions can be started and committed in PL/pgSQL, PL/Perl, PL/Python and PL/Tcl procedures, as well as via SPI. [ Peter Eisentraut ]

] Enable index creation on partitioned tables, with automatic propagation to partitions. [Alvaro Herrera]

Replicate TRUNCATE activity when using logical replication. [ Simon Riggs / Marco Nenciarini / Peter Eisentraut ]

/ / ] Reduce WAL retention to span one checkpoint rather than two. [ Simon Riggs ]

] Allow replication slots to be advanced programmatically, alongside consumption by subscribers. [ Petr Jelinek ]

2ndQuadrant has also worked actively with fellow members of the PostgreSQL community to contribute the following features:

Allow ALTER TABLE to add a column with a non-null default without a table rewrite. [Andrew Dunstan / Serge Rielau]

Making partition elimination faster and improve its applicability. [ David Rowley / Amit Langote / Beena Emerson / Dilip Kumar ]

PostgreSQL has been gaining traction with every release; interest and usage by large enterprises worldwide are growing exponentially due to the robust capabilities it provides. 2ndQuadrant intends to continue their active contributions in development and supports the overall growth of PostgreSQL.

To learn more about PostgreSQL and its scalable business benefits, attend 2ndQuadrant PostgreSQL Conference 2018 being held Dec. 4-5 in Chicago.

Media Contact

Britt Cole

[email protected]

SOURCE 2ndQuadrant

Related Links

https://www.2ndquadrant.com

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers have developed a new test that could diagnose chronic kidney disease early in patients with type 2 diabetes. This novel method, published today in AACC's Clinical Chemistry journal, could improve quality of life for diabetic patients by potentially catching chronic kidney disease in time to stop its progression to full-blown kidney failure.

More than 35% of diabetic patients aged 20 years or older have chronic kidney disease, a condition in which the patient gradually loses kidney function. If left unchecked, this disease can progress to end-stage kidney failure, which is fatal unless the patient is able to get regular dialysis or a kidney transplant, and chronic kidney disease also increases the risk of other serious chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. With diabetes becoming a global epidemic, it is more important than ever for healthcare providers to detect chronic kidney disease early so that patients can undergo timely interventions that slow the progression of this condition. However, the tests currently used to gauge the severity of kidney damage in diabetics do not reliably detect chronic kidney disease in its initial stages.

In a new study, a team of researchers led by Guillaume Pare, MD, of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, shows that a test for the protein trefoil factor 3 (TFF3) could meet the need for an early chronic kidney disease diagnostic. To develop this test, Pare's team first analyzed data from more than 130,000 participants in various chronic kidney disease studies to identify genetic variants that are linked with declining kidney function. Using an innovative analysis method known as reverse Mendelian randomization, the researchers then determined if these genetic variants are associated with any biomarkers that were measured in more than 4,100 type 2 diabetes and prediabetes patients who participated in the 2003-2005 ORIGIN study. Finally, Pare's team assessed whether the biomarkers identified by reverse Mendelian randomization predicted the eventual development of chronic kidney disease in the ORIGIN participants, who had normal kidney function at the study's start.

Through these analyses, the researchers found that when kidney function decreases, TFF3 is the one biomarker that is directly affected, i.e. its levels increase in response. Furthermore, Pare's team demonstrated that 34.4% of diabetic patients in the highest quartile of blood TFF3 levels went on to develop chronic kidney disease, compared with only 19.8% of patients in the lowest quartile. This shows that individuals with high levels of TFF3 have a significantly greater risk of developing chronic kidney disease and indicates that diabetic patients with elevated TFF3 results could potentially benefit the most from early chronic kidney disease interventions.

"We demonstrated TFF3 concentration is a significant independent predictor of incident chronic kidney disease in a dysglycemic population," said Pare. "Future research should be directed toward better elucidating the biological role of TFF3 and trefoil family proteins in the kidneys and further evaluating the clinical utility of TFF3 as an early diagnostic tool for chronic kidney disease in broader populations. Importantly  reverse [Mendelian randomization] could be a novel method used to identify sensitive and early diagnostic biomarkers for a variety of other diseases."

About AACC

Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.aacc.org .

Clinical Chemistry is the leading international journal of clinical laboratory science, providing 2,000 pages per year of peer-reviewed papers that advance the science of the field. With an impact factor of 8.636, Clinical Chemistry covers everything from molecular diagnostics to laboratory management.

Christine DeLong

AACC

Manager, Communications & PR

(p) 202.835.8722

[email protected]

Molly Polen

AACC

Senior Director, Communications & PR

(p) 202.420.7612

(c) 703.598.0472

[email protected]

SOURCE AACC

Related Links

http://www.aacc.org

LONDON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The book addresses five key themes that are occupying the minds of individuals, politicians, business leaders, and civil society organizations across the globe:

Exponential Technologies- How might exponential technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) evolve over the next two decades and impact society, business, industry sectors, and government?

Future of Work  What are the implications for the way work will be organised and executed in the future and the net impact on employment?

People First- With powerful technological shifts reshaping our world and straining the old social fabric, how can we keep humanity at the centre of the story?

Policy Priorities- What societal, political, and economic priorities are required, so that we avoid dehumanizing ourselves and future generations?

Enriching Humanity -How can we harness intense technological bursts of possibility to bring about a better world for all its inhabitants?

The scale of likely future disruption is driven by the commercial and competitive drive from companies and countries to be leaders in the race to dominate world changing fields such as AI, blockchain, and genomics. Indeed, the central argument of the book is that we cannot and generally should not try to hold back innovation. Instead, the book argues that we need to overturn the death grip of decaying orthodoxies and assumptions that hold back societal adaptation and human advancement.

"A Very Human Future" is a call to experiment with a range of actions and initiatives to prepare ourselves for a radically different world and range of possible futuresbecause we simply don't know if AI and its disruptive cousins will eliminate more jobs than they create.

At the heart of the human challenge lie education, social skills, curiosity, and digital literacy at every level of society. To help achieve this massive uplift in our understanding of a changing world, Fast Future has launched a global offer where every educator and student over the age of 16 can receive a free electronic copy of all of Fast Future's books exploring different aspects of the future.

"The book is designed to challenge our thinking about the inevitability of technology taking over and humans becoming servants of the machine. To respond effectively, we have to ensure that the education system understands our changing world and is preparing people for it. That is why we have made our free book offer to educators and students  we don't just want to talk about A Very Human Future  we want to enable it through practical actions." -Rohit Talwar

As lead author, Rohit has been captivating audiences across the globe from California, Washington D.C., and New York to Singapore, St. Petersburg and Dubai, pulling no punches on the hurdles we must overcome to enable a future where everyone has hope. His speeches inspire attendees to go beyond expressing concern to starting practical trials of actions that individuals, businesses, governments, and society can undertake to begin preparing for fundamental and unpredictable shifts in everything we take for granted from employment to schooling.

"Ultimately, 'A Very Human Future' is about a fundamental shift in the scale of priority placed on people and the investment required to enable a more equitable and inclusive future for all." -Steve Wells

In the book, Talwar and his co-authors Steve Wells, Alexandra Whittington, and Helena Calle present a hard-hitting twelve-point manifesto of how we can prepare ourselves for deep disruption. The book backs up these core themes with a range of ideas and actions through which we can start to experiment our way through the potential shocks to employment, civil society, and the economy.

"Each chapter looks at how new ideas enabled by emerging technologies are straining the old social fabric, and proposes radical future scenarios, strategies, and actions to safeguard humanity from harm and enhance the opportunity for all." - Alexandra Whittington

"A Very Human Future" depicts the future as not one, but many. The authors use positive stories and visions of the future as beacons for thoughtful social adaptation.

"The scale of the new technologies requires a protective logic for moving forward, keeping humanity at the center of the story so that we avoid dehumanizing ourselves and future generations." - Helena Calle

Read more about the book: "A Very Human FutureEnriching Humanity in a Digitized World."

To arrange an interview, request a review copy, or discuss a potential contribution from the Fast Future team please contact:

Rohit Talwar

Tel +44 (0)7973 405145

[email protected]

Alexandra Whittington

Tel +1 (713) 702 1823

[email protected]

Related Links

Find it on Fast Future Website

Find it on Amazon

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IflI2u5vH8

SOURCE Fast FutureIll only say that raising money, period, as a candidate, you try to raise money as broadly as you can so youre not indebted to any particular constituency or tribe and youre free, as I always have been, to make the best decisions you can on behalf of all of the people, she said.HALIFAX, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Adaptiiv, an innovative medical technology company announced today the United States Military will use 3D Bolus Software, Adaptiiv's advanced software, in treating American veterans with cancer at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC). Dubbed "The Nation's Medical Center," WRNMMC is the United States' largest and most renowned joint military medical center that provides services in over 100 clinics and specialties.

3D Bolus Software provides practitioners with a turn-key solution that enables 3D printing of patient-specific uniform thickness bolus, modulated bolus for MERT (modulated electron radiation therapy), High Dose Rate (HDR) surface brachytherapy and other potential ancillary devices. Bolus created using Adaptiiv's software conforms to the patient anatomy to improve dose and the patient experience. Patients are more comfortable throughout the treatment period, while set-up and production times are reduced.

"We could not be more honored to make this announcement," says Adaptiiv CEO, Peter Hickey. "Working with the team at Walter Reed, Adaptiiv continues to make significant strides in the battle against cancer while transforming novel and experimental ideas into real world applications."

Adaptiiv is the first company in the world to receive FDA 510k clearance for 3D printing software used in radiation oncology. The company's software is already used in the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Ireland, Hong Kong and England.

About Adaptiiv

Adaptiiv Medical Technologies Inc. (formerly 3D Bolus Inc.) is the definitive 3D technology platform for radiation oncology. Headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Adaptiiv is shaping the future of patient-specific healthcare through innovation and collaboration with leading Cancer centres throughout the world. Adaptiiv has a 510(k) clearance, is ISO 13485 certified and has received a CE Mark.

Website: http://www.adaptiiv.com/

SOURCE Adaptiiv Inc

Related Links

http://www.adaptiiv.com

ISTANBUL, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In advance of the of SCTE Cable-Tec Expo and Broadband World Forum conferences next week, AirTies, the most widely deployed provider of managed Wi-Fi Mesh solutions to global service providers, announced plans to make its managed Wi-Fi solution available for devices running the RDK software platform in Q1 2019. The company also disclosed that a Tier 1 operator expects to deploy AirTies' software on RDK-based CPE in the coming year.

"We've seen significant interest in RDK from service providers around the globe in recent months," said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies. "Operators want greater standardization and transparency, and RDK provides core technical functionality to make that easier. With this forthcoming integration, operators using RDK will easily be able to deploy AirTies' Managed Wi-Fi Mesh software on their broadband CPE, and it will be deployed by a Tier 1 operator in the near future. Today's announcement further demonstrates our commitment to continuous product innovation, and providing operators with more options to help them get Wi-Fi under control."

"AirTies is a recognized global leader for in-home Wi-Fi, and we are delighted that they have committed to making AirTies' Managed Wi-Fi Mesh software run on the RDK platform for service providers," said Steve Heeb, President and General Manager of RDK Management. "Since the RDK is an open source software platform for the connected home, improving the home Wi-Fi experience through new applications and analytics is of paramount importance."

RDK software resides on the chipsets within CPE, below the application and services layer, and enables video and broadband providers to standardize certain technical functionality. The open source software provides a common interface to SoCs, acting as a kind of universal SoC adapter. Specifically, the RDK software solution provides a common method to manage various broadband functions on gateways, such as home-networking interfaces, routing, device management, telemetry, and more.

AirTies' software solution will be deployed atop the RDK software layer. AirTies' software is portable across chipset and CPE vendors as a firmware update, enabling operators to better manage in-home Wi-Fi and make gateway Wi-Fi smarter. The software automatically "steers" consumers' devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, game systems, smart home devices, etc.) to the best available channel and band (2.4GHz and 5GHz), based on real-time network conditions in a home. It also includes access to AirTies' Remote Manager, a cloud-based Wi-Fi optimization software suite that provides real-time and historical performance data and analytics to proactively manage the consumer in-home Wi-Fi experience. Notably, operators can experience these benefits on a single gateway deployment, or in homes with Wi-Fi Mesh extenders.

AirTies enables service providers with solutions to fix their subscribers' in-home Wi-Fi issues and create premium Wi-Fi services. More than 25 million homes are powered by AirTies' technologies across more than 50 service providers across 4 different continents. With AirTies, service providers can seize new opportunities to improve customer satisfaction, drive incremental revenue, and differentiate with new classes of premium Wi-Fi services.

At the upcoming SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta from October 22-25, AirTies will be demonstrating its Managed Wi-Fi Solution, Mesh Extenders, and Mesh enabled set-top boxes on the show floor in booth 2130. At the Broadband World Forum in Berlin from October 23-25, AirTies will be at stand D109. Additional information about AirTies is available at www.AirTies.com. More about RDK is available at www.RDKCentral.com.

About AirTies

Founded in 2004, AirTies is the most widely deployed provider of Wi-Fi Mesh solutions to operators around the globe. AirTies provides software solutions that enable service providers to improve Wi-Fi performance and proactively manage the in-home experience, along with products such as Mesh extenders and set-top boxes. AirTies technologies are powering more than 25 million homes worldwide. AirTies' customers include: AT&T, Atlantic Broadband, GET, Midco, Singtel, Sky (SKY Q in the UK; Germany; Italy; and New Zealand), Swisscom, Vodafone, Waoo, and many others. More information is available at www.AirTies.com.

SOURCE AirTies

Related Links

http://www.airties.com/

CHICAGO, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2018, one of the largest international meetings of surgeons in the world, convenes in Boston next week, October 21-25. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center will house the majority of the scientific sessions and other activities during the conference.

The Clinical Congress provides a prime opportunity for writers, editors, and producers who cover the health care and health policy beats to provide the latest information for their readers or viewers in topic areas such as:

Opioid-Sparing Practices in Surgery (a two-part session)

Personalized Breast Cancer Treatment and Tumor Genomics

Checking in on the Checklist - Ten Years of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

In addition to hundreds of general and specialty sessions, a series of lectures by prominent guest speakers and hundreds of research-in-progress reports will be presented during the Scientific Forum sessions. Technical exhibits from more than 200 companies will be on display at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, along with scientific exhibits from surgical researchers around the world.

Dozens of surgeon scientists and researchers from the Boston area will also deliver presentations throughout the entire conference. View a list of these presenters.

We hope you will take the opportunity to join us for this premier surgical research conference, which opens for press registration on Sunday, October 21. The actual program sessions begin as early as 8:00 am on Monday, October 22.

Press badges will be issued to qualified members of the media who present the appropriate identification in the ACS Press Room located in the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. View criteria for press credentials.

The phone number for the American College of Surgeons Press Room is 617-954-3967 (effective October 21).

If you have any questions before the conference begins, contact us at: [email protected].

ACS Press Room hours are:

Sunday, October 21: 9:00 am4:00 pm

Monday, October 22: 8:00 am5:00 pm

Tuesday, October 23: 8:00 am5:00 pm

Wednesday, October 24: 8:00 am5:00 pm

Thursday, October 25: 8:00 am10:00 am

The Clinical Congress program can be viewed online.

Or download the conference app and begin planning your conference coverage today.

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 80,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit www.facs.org.

SOURCE American College of Surgeons

Related Links

http://www.facs.org

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT) today announced it will host an Investor Day for investors and analysts on Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Presentations about BB&T's financial performance and corporate strategies will be made by BB&T's executive management team beginning at 8 a.m. and ending at approximately 3:30 p.m. ET.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kelly S. King will also host "An Evening at the Leadership Institute" Nov. 13 at the BB&T Leadership Institute, also in Greensboro. The event will begin at approximately 6 p.m. and end at approximately 9 p.m. ET.

These events are intended for institutional investors and analysts by invitation only due to space limitations. For others who would like to participate, a live webcast of the events will be available through BBT.com.

To access the webcasts of the events and presentation slides, go to BBT.com and select "About BB&T." In the "Investor Relations" section, select "webcasts and presentations." A replay of the webcasts will be available to the public approximately six hours after the live events and will remain on the site for 30 days.

About BB&T

BB&T is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S. with $222.9 billion in assets and market capitalization of approximately $37.4 billion as of Sept. 30, 2018. Building on a long tradition of excellence in community banking, BB&T offers a wide range of financial services including retail and commercial banking, investments, insurance, wealth management, asset management, mortgage, corporate banking, capital markets and specialized lending. Based in Winston-Salem, N.C., BB&T operates more than 1,900 financial centers in 15 states and Washington, D.C. A Fortune 500 company, BB&T is consistently recognized for outstanding client service by Greenwich Associates for small business and middle market banking. More information about BB&T and its full line of products and services is available at BBT.com.

SOURCE BB&T Corporation

Related Links

http://www.bbt.com

"After listening to dozens of customers in energy, telecom, utilities and aerospace sectors, we are the first to bring to market the tool that industry is asking for  a gas detector with built-in two-way radio ," said Sean Stinson, VP Sales & Product Management at Blackline Safety. "This is a significant accomplishment that took our in-house engineering team over 12 months to create and launch. The result is the world's most versatile connected gas detector that enables efficient employee communications, converging two devices into one while saving the added expense of a two-way radio."

Just over a year ago, Blackline shipped the world's first cellular-connected gas detector with field-replaceable gas sensor cartridges. Push-to-talk communication is the latest addition to Blackline's G7 platform that leverages integrated cellular communications, connecting employees to the Blackline Safety Network and a live safety monitoring team. No matter if it's a gas leak, injury or health event, G7c automatically notifies monitoring personnel, triggering a real-time emergency response directly to the employee's location. With push-to-talk, Blackline has expanded its G7 program in a new direction that significantly improves employee efficiency and productivity.

With G7c priced at $489 USD and push-to-talk with gas detection service plans starting at just $30/month, Blackline saves businesses thousands of dollars over the life of their equipment. Combining connected gas detection and two-way radio functionality, Blackline's G7 platform provides businesses with peace of mind, helps to control costs and keep teams safe.

Rather than the usual 16 or 32 channels offered by many conventional two-way radios, G7c push-to-talk delivers 100 channels for communication between teams, across facilities and even between different countries  all without need for Wi-Fi or other costly infrastructure. G7c devices work right out of the box, automatically connecting to wireless networks in over 100 countries.

Push-to-talk radio calling will begin shipping in December 2018 as part of Blackline's G7 Insight gas detector program that replaces traditional 'beep-and-flash' gas detectors with a connected solution. This new program includes a G7c device, Blackline's cloud-hosted user portal, an online regulatory compliance dashboard and Blackline Analytics software, making it easy to manage a world-class gas detection program. G7 Insight was recently named OH&S Magazine New Product of the Year in the categories of Internet of Things and Industrial Hygiene  Gas Monitors.

Blackline Safety will be demonstrating G7c push-to-talk capability in booth #4501 at the National Safety Council's Congress & Expo. This event will be held from October 2224 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. To learn about Blackline Safety, visit www.blacklinesafety.com and follow on Twitter @blacklinesafety.

About Blackline Safety: Blackline Safety is a global connected safety technology leader. Providing comprehensive live-monitoring and wireless gas detection, we help teams working in hazardous environments respond to emergencies in real-time and manage efficient evacuations, accounting for everyone's safety along the way. With millions invested in technology research and development, Blackline Safety is recognized for quality and innovation. Our talented team of designers and engineers create and manufacture in-house  from wearable technology and personal gas detectors to cloud-hosted infrastructure and web-based interfaces for global industry. We deliver the world's first turn-key, work-anywhere, connected safety monitoring solution with gas detection, 3G wireless, satellite communications, two-way speakerphone, employee messaging and live monitoring to meet the demanding safety challenges and increase productivity of organizations in over 100 countries. For more information, visit www.BlacklineSafety.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.

SOURCE Blackline Safety Corp.

Related Links

http://www.blacklinegps.com

SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile operators have recently been under pressure for their data practices and privacy policies. Europe is leading the way with GDPR. Other regions are adopting similar regulations to protect consumers. As the industry refines their approach to privacy, the underlying technology platforms also need to evolve, to be able to perform deeper analysis with limited, privacy-compliant data. That's where LotaData (https://lotadata.ai) comes in.



Venture-funded technology company LotaData, a GovTech 100 honoree, today joined the Telecom Council Innovation Showcase at the TC3 Summit in Silicon Valley where they announced their People IntelligenceTM platform for mobile service providers to transform their data into actionable insights.



"We expected a total shakeup of the mobile data space, so we designed our tech stack with privacy at the core. Our carrier-grade AI creates a real-world graph of people activity," said Apurva (Apu) Kumar, CEO of LotaData. "We call this People Intelligence, a concept that LotaData has pioneered and trademarked in major markets worldwide. Our SaaS platform analyzes billions of anonymized data points in 1000 cities across 16 countries every day."



LotaData's geospatial cloud paints a comprehensive narrative of the time people spend in neighborhoods, businesses and commercial establishments, without any personal information. Telco customers and channel partners can gain intelligence about people presence, activity and movement through APIs and online visual dashboards. Smart city projects can access accurate location insights and evaluate how micro and macro events impact residents, from a unitary block to an entire city.



"LotaData is in the sweet spot for our members who are always on the lookout for innovative AI companies that can add value to their networks," said Liz Kerton, President of Telecom Council.



LotaData has already partnered with some of the largest mobile operators in Asia. "Sampling accurate mobile data at the right moments and solving the jigsaw of where people have been and where are they going is a complex challenge that LotaData excels at," said Bernd Sven Vindevogel, COO of True Corporation, the largest telecommunications conglomerate in Thailand.



"Partnering with LotaData to enrich our data sets has allowed us to scale our business intelligence centered on location and mobility," said Prashant Pathmanaban, Head of Digital Products & Services at Digi  Telenor, Malaysia's leading mobile service provider.



"LotaData's AI empowers us with accurate location-based insights to augment campaigns for our clients across multiple verticals," added Alice Dickey, Director of Mobile Strategy at Amobee - Singtel.



Relevant LotaData Links:



Twitter: @lotadata

Website: https://lotadata.ai

Blog: https://lotadata.ai/blog

Careers: https://lotadata.ai/careers

Email: [email protected]

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lotadata-inc-/



Contact:

Customer Success

[email protected]



Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12735396



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE LotaData

Related Links

http://www.lotadata.com

HARTFORD, Conn., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CareCentrix is proud to announce that it has earned URAC accreditation in Health Utilization Management. URAC is the independent leader in promoting healthcare quality through accreditation, certification and measurement. By achieving this status, CareCentrix has demonstrated a comprehensive commitment to quality care, improved processes and better patient outcomes.

CareCentrix is an industry leader in making home the center of patient care. We partner with providers and payors in the transition to value-based care offering home health management solutions and services that support improved outcomes and efficient care delivery.

"We are proud to once again receive URAC Accreditation in Health Utilization Management which CareCentrix has maintained since November 1, 2009," said John Driscoll, Chief Executive Officer, CareCentrix. "The accreditation recognizes our commitment to patients, providers and payors and inspires us to continue to build a better health care system that recognizes the value of home care and delivers reduced costs of care and lower readmissions through the use of innovative technology."

"Appropriateness and efficiency are words to live by in meeting new value-based goals for population health. CareCentrix's URAC accreditation shows an ability to abide by the gold standard when it comes to performing Health Utilization Management functions," said URAC President and CEO Kylanne Green. "URAC's utilization management accreditation standards promote an evidence-based and reasonable review of services that respect both patients and providers."

About CareCentrix

CareCentrix partners with providers and payors in the transition to value-based care with home health management solutions and services that support improved outcomes and efficient care delivery. Headquartered in Hartford, Conn., CareCentrix connects patients with the care they need at home through a national network of over 8,000 credentialed provider locations. CareCentrix provides optimal access to quality home care for more than 24 million lives by connecting providers with patients and helping them navigate the complex home care system. CareCentrix's extensive range of services provides support and coordination for patients and their families in every step of the healing process, including home health, durable medical equipment (DME), home infusion, sleep management and care management services, which ultimately improve care transitions and reduce unnecessary readmissions and emergency room visits. For more information, please visit http://www.CareCentrix.com.

About URAC

Founded in 1990, URAC is the independent leader in promoting healthcare quality through leadership, accreditation, measurement and innovation. URAC is a nonprofit organization using evidence-based measures and developing standards through inclusive engagement with a range of stakeholders committed to improving the quality of healthcare. Our portfolio of accreditation and certification programs span the healthcare industry, addressing healthcare management, healthcare operations, health plans, pharmacies, telehealth providers, physician practices, and more. URAC accreditation is a symbol of excellence for organizations to showcase their validated commitment to quality and accountability.

SOURCE CareCentrix

Related Links

https://www.carecentrix.com

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hailed as one of the West Coast's most reputed designers of affordable and high-quality wedding dresses and every bride's favorite, CocoMelody has designed highly coveted bridal collections in the past that exuded unapologetic charm and glamor and were desired by brides all around the world. The brand has yet again launched exquisite new collections of bridal gowns for their 2019 bridal collection, namely the Lily White Collection, Grace Luxury Collection, and Classic Collection. The brand showcased their new collection at a fashion show they had in their Los Angeles store last month.

Lily White Collection from CocoMelody 2019 Collection is available online already! The classic collection and Grace Luxury Collection will be available next week!

In signature CocoMelody style, their 2019 bridal collection offers a perfect blend of classic embroidery and aesthetics, modern silhouettes and embellishment and impeccable detailing.

Their first collection Lily White is already available on their website. Drawing inspiration from the motion of air, Lily White Collection is soft, flowy and easy, and is perfect for an outdoor or a destination wedding. With this collection, CocoMelody has embellished their top silhouettes, including A-line, Mermaid, and Sheath with delicate laces and illusion tulles that look absolutely stunning. Dresses from Lily White Collection are available in blush as well as pastel colors that brides can easily customize to their likings.

CocoMelody is a brand that believes in reinventing itself, and that is apparent in their next collection, Grace Luxury. With this collection, CocoMelody has designed the most glamorous, dazzling pieces that can transform any bride into a queen. As the name suggests, Grace Luxury Collection is inspired by "luxe" or "luxury"  or something that is absolutely ornate and of the most exceptional quality. Unlike the smooth lines of Lily White Collection, dresses in Grace Luxury Collection stand out because of their jaw-dropping, dramatic silhouettes and intricate details. This wonderful new collection will be available on CocoMelody's website by the end of this month.

Last but definitely not the least; Classic Collection is for those brides who are looking for the perfect blend of tradition and elegance. Inspired by the British Royal weddings and bridal gowns that appeared in old Hollywood movies; Classic Collection is true to its name and embodies that perfect vintage look and feel that is absolutely awe-inspiring. Dresses in this collection are created using high-quality silks, Chantilly laces, and forgiving stretch crepes that will lend brides a timeless and sophisticated look.

The 2019 Bridal Collection is CocoMelody's most intriguing yet. Taking inspiration from the different facets of the modern woman, culture, and nature, there is something for every type of bride in this collection: whether she is romantic and whimsical; lavish and fashion-forward, or traditional and graceful.

About CocoMelody

CocoMelody has long been an expert in designing and retailing an outstanding quality of dresses in the wedding industry. Through its bridal boutique store in Los Angeles and its website, CocoMelody has been providing brides with everything from wedding essentials like shoes and jewelry to couture gowns of their dreams, not only in high quality but also at affordable prices. Their aim is to help every bride-to-be find the perfect wedding dress or bridesmaid dress for their big day.

Contact CocoMelody

Website: https://www.cocomelody.com/

Store address: 910 S Los Angeles St Suite 801/802, Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA

Media Contact: Lydia Lee (Marketing Manager)

Email Address: [email protected]

Related Links

COCOMELODY 2019 NEW COLLECTION

COCOMELODY LOS ANGELES STORE

SOURCE CocoMelody

Related Links

https://www.cocomelody.com

FREMONT, Ohio, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors for Croghan Colonial Bank (the "Bank") and Croghan Bancshares, Inc. (the "Holding Company") (OTC-QX:CHBH) proudly announces that effective January 1, 2019, Kendall W. Rieman will become President and CEO of the Bank. Mr. Rieman will be joining the Board of Directors of the Holding Company and the Bank. Mr. Rieman is currently Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Bank and Treasurer of the Holding Company and has been in that position for the previous 12 years.

Mr. Rieman holds a Bachelor of Finance degree from Michigan State University and is a graduate from the Graduate School of Banking from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been in banking for over 26 years, joining Croghan Colonial Bank in 2006. Prior to joining Croghan, Mr. Rieman was CFO at Thumb National Bank in Pigeon, Michigan for 14 years.

Mr. Rieman is an active member of Sandusky County Economic Development Corporation, the Sandusky County Regional Airport Authority and the Clyde Flier Boosters. He resides in Fremont with wife Lisa and three sons, Collin, Zachary and Carson.

Also, effective January 1, 2019, Rick Robertson, current President and CEO of the Bank will move to the newly created position of Chairman at the Bank. In this new role, Mr. Robertson will primarily serve in an advisory role and will serve as the Chairman of the Board Loan Committee. Mr. Robertson joined Croghan Colonial Bank in 2010 and will be completing his 45th year in the banking industry during 2019. Mr. Robertson will continue to be a Director of Croghan Bancshares, Inc.

Director James Bowlus will continue in his current role as Lead Director for Croghan Bancshares, Inc. which will remain as the top position on this board.

About Croghan Colonial Bank

The Croghan Colonial Bank was founded in 1888 and proudly serves Sandusky, Erie, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa, Seneca and Wood Counties and banking center locations in Fremont, Bellevue, Clyde, Curtice, Green Springs, Maumee, Monroeville, Norwalk, Oak Harbor, Oregon, Port Clinton and Tiffin. Croghan Colonial Bank is a recognized leader in community banking throughout the region. Its focus is helping good people make good decisions.

SOURCE Croghan BancsharesWOONSOCKET, R.I., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), announced today that it has begun using time delay safes in all of its 329 stores in Ohio, including pharmacies in Cleveland, Akron and Toledo. The safes help prevent pharmacy robberies and combat the ongoing opioid epidemic by keeping controlled substance narcotic medications from being misused or abused by keeping them out of the hands of unauthorized individuals. In addition, the safes will help CVS Pharmacy ensure the safety and well-being of its customers and employees.

Controlled substance narcotic medications that are sought after by robbers, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, are now stored in time delay safes in every CVS Pharmacy store in the state of Ohio. Time delay safes help deter pharmacy robberies by electronically delaying the time it takes for pharmacy employees to be able to open the safe. In 2017, stores in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton began using time delay safes. Since those safes were installed, CVS Pharmacy has seen a 50 percent drop in pharmacy robberies in those markets.

"The installation of time delay safes at pharmacies in several of our Ohio markets has proven to be a deterrent for pharmacy robbers," said Alisa Ulrey, Division Vice President of CVS Pharmacy in Ohio. "We know that time delay safes, combined with other security policies and procedures in place at our stores, have drastically reduced robberies in our pharmacies and we are pleased to be able to implement them in all of our Ohio stores."

"The battle against the opiate epidemic continues locally and across the state of Ohio. The fight isn't over," explained Sheriff George T. Maier. "But, with each new resource and each new partnership developed we take another step towards victory. I commend CVS for answering the call to action and playing a role in the ongoing effort to create safer communities."

The time delay function cannot be overridden and is designed to serve as a deterrent to would-be pharmacy robbers whose goal is to enter and exit their robbery targets as quickly as possible. All CVS Pharmacy locations with time delay safes are displaying highly-visible signage to inform the public that time delay safes are in use to prevent on-demand access to controlled substance narcotics.

The implementation of time delay safes across CVS Pharmacy stores in Ohio is the latest in a series of measures put in place by CVS Health to help combat prescription drug abuse in the state of Ohio. CVS Health's commitment to preventing and addressing prescription drug abuse also includes community education, efforts to encourage safe disposal of unused medication and increasing access to the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone. The company's Pharmacists Teach program brings CVS Pharmacists to schools across the country to talk to students about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. More than 400,000 students across the country, including more than 15,000 in Ohio, have participated in the program.

CVS Health has also completed installation of 29 safe medication disposal units in CVS Pharmacy stores in Ohio, in addition to the 38 units it has donated to Ohio law enforcement agencies. Nationwide, 750 safe medication disposal units have been installed in CVS Pharmacy locations, adding to the more than 900 units the company has donated to law enforcement agencies. In total, the company has facilitated more than 1,650 units nationwide, which have collected more than 480,000 pounds, or 217 metric tons of unwanted medication, including more than 18,000 pounds, or more than eight metric tons in Ohio alone. Increasing community access to safe medication disposal helps rid homes of unused medications that could otherwise be diverted, abused or contaminate the water supply if disposed of improperly.

Additionally, CVS Health has worked with 48 states  including Ohio  to increase access to the opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone, also known as Narcan. Patients can obtain this life-saving medication, which is a safe and effective antidote to opioid overdoses, without an individual prescription in these states.

About CVS Pharmacy

CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), is America's leading retail pharmacy with over 9,800 locations. It is the first national pharmacy to end the sale of tobacco and the first pharmacy in the nation to receive the Community Pharmacy accreditation from URAC, the leading health care accreditation organization that establishes quality standards for the health care industry. CVS Pharmacy is reinventing pharmacy to help people on their path to better health by providing the most accessible and personalized expertise, both in its stores and online at CVS.com. General information about CVS Pharmacy is available at http://www.cvshealth.com.

Media Contact:

Amy Lanctot

(401) 770-2931

[email protected]

SOURCE CVS Pharmacy

Related Links

http://www.cvshealth.com

The delegates had just gathered for a group photo when gunfire broke out inside the provincial governor's compound in Kandahar city, according to an AP television cameraman who was there. Everyone scattered, and the U.S. participants scrambled toward their helicopter. But a firefight broke out between the U.S. service members and Afghan police when they tried to stop the U.S. delegation from reaching their helicopter, said the cameraman.Frost & Sullivan will host an interactive briefing discussing the medical marijuana market revenue trends and challenges

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan, the growth partnership company, announced today that it will host a live, complimentary Growth Innovation Leadership (GIL) briefing titled, "Medical Marijuana Market Trends  Future Clinical Role of Medical Marijuana & CBD," on Tuesday, October 30, 2018, from 1:00 to 2:00 PM Pacific Time. The webinar will offer expert insight from Nitin Naik, Global Vice President, Life Sciences, Barbara Gilmore, Senior Consultant, Life Sciences, both at Frost & Sullivan, and Dr. Joseph C. Maroon, Clinical Professor and Vice Chairman, at the University of Pittsburgh.

For more information and to register for the webinar, please visit http://frost.ly/2t3.

Medical cannabis use is driving industry revenues into the billions. Investments by pharmaceutical and Big Tobacco companies in the development of cannabis and CBD-based products and devices, along with healthcare-conscious consumers having access to these products, are spurring growth. Physicians, aware of increasingly widespread medical marijuana legalization, are interested in understanding the potential of these treatments. In the US states where cannabis is approved, the use of prescription drugs, including the use of opioids, has decreased.

"The use of medical marijuana is sparking keen interest not only with investors, but also doctors and patients. All but four states in the US have legalized either medical marijuana or CBD use. There are over 770 clinical trials underway studying the use of medical cannabis in various diseases and another more than 500 trials studying the use of CBD," noted Gilmore. "With all of these studies underway, it is interesting to note that states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use have seen a steady decrease in the number of recorded patient prescriptions. This is a trend that will be studied going forward as physicians learn more about the medical marijuana efficacy as it related to the diseases it is successfully treating."

The informative webinar will cover key insights:

Learn about a variety of medical marijuana science and clinical uses/applications (patient experiences);

Discover health-related applications of medical marijuana based on interactions with the endocannabinoid system; and

Explore the latest clinical research in cancer, neurological, psychological, metabolic and pain disorders using medical marijuana.

The event will also be recorded and available for on-demand viewing at http://frost.ly/1ti.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

For more information, visit ww2.frost.com or call +1 (877) 463-7678.

Press Contact:

Mariana Fernandez

Frost & Sullivan

+1 (210) 348.1012

[email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Oakland-based specialty El Rey tequila took home first place in the Monterey Bay Tequila & Cuisine competition -- marking themselves as a brand to watch out for.

For this competition, 14 pre-selected judges sampled 22 different tequilas and a total of 39 expressions comprised of blanco, reposado, anejo and extra anejo. Blind samples were numbered, categorized by expression and judged on four categories: aroma, flavor, finish and value -- for a total score of 100.

El Rey Tequila

Judges have several weeks to taste and evaluate each expression. Individual tabulation and scoring is stored through the noteworthy Tequila Matchmaker mobile app. Tequila Matchmaker founder Grover Sanschagrin keeps track of all tabulations for the final results.

El Rey was the clear contender in the Blanco category, surpassing other popular brands like Fortaleza by several points. Their Reposado also took number one, showing that their traditional expressions hold up to well established and respected brands.

Launched in 2006, El Rey was inspired by a revelatory glass of home-brewed tequila from a cantina in Sayuaho, Mexico. It took six years to recreate the smooth, richly nuanced taste of that transcendent first sip, but the hard work paid off. In 2017, El Rey won its first Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Today, El Rey is delighting both connoisseurs and the newly initiated with its refined yet approachable taste. Their line of flavored tequilas offers a tantalizing detour from the traditional agave expressions, while still using their award-winning Blanco as the base.

Sold at select BevMo and Total Wines & More locations, it is also a favorite of discerning stockists and mixologists who appreciate the way El Rey reimagines tequila's classic flavor for the modern palette.

See a video of the competition below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=3zCC_LpvMfI



And more about El Rey at www.tequilaelrey.com.

Media Contact:

Nick Navarro

Phone: 510.843.5464

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

image1.jpg

image2.jpg

Related Links

Monterey Bay Tequila & Cuisine

El Rey Tequila

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zCC_LpvMfI

SOURCE El Rey Tequila

Related Links

http://www.tequilaelrey.com

STOCKHOLM, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Eltel's Polish company Eltel Networks Energetyka S.A. has in a consortium signed an agreement with the Polish power grid company PSE S.A. to deliver a 400 kV overhead line. Eltel's part of the contract is worth approximately EUR 18.5 million.

The new overhead power line will run between Ostroeka and Stanisawow, with a total length of 105 km. The agreement also includes an upgrade of two substations, design works, right of way and documentation of the delivery.

The project has started and will be completed by the end of 2023.

The two other partners in the consortium are SPIE ELBUD Gdansk S.A. and ELFEKO S.A., with the latter being the consortium leader. Eltel's share of the consortium will be equal to the other partners, which means a third of the contract value.

About Eltel

Eltel is a leading Northern European provider of technical services for critical infrastructure networks - Infranets - in the segments of Power, Communication and Other, with operations throughout the Nordics, Poland and Germany. Eltel provides a broad and integrated range of services, spanning from maintenance and upgrade services to project deliveries. Eltel has a diverse contract portfolio and a growing customer base of large network owners. In 2017, Eltel's net sales amounted to EUR 1.3 billion. The current number of employees is approximately 7,680. Since 2015, Eltel AB is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

PDF: http://mb.cision.com/Main/11435/2647691/928464.pdf





SOURCE EltelGEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman, October 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

EQIBank demonstrates momentum with accounts for top cryptocurrency exchanges set to open this year

EQIBank, the world's first licenced and regulated bank for national currencies, crypto and digital assets, has announced that it expects to secure 50bn in custody assets by July 2019 and hold 10bn under deposit by the end of 2019.

Founded by former HSBC, Credit Suisse, Bank of New York and UBS bankers, EQIBank lets customers manage traditional and crypto assets within a single banking relationship for the first time. It is the first licensed [1] and regulated bank ready to provide secure, consistent and scalable banking to the under-serviced cryptocurrency sector, which currently has a market capitalisation of US$210bn[2]. This is why EQIBank is currently working with four of the top ten largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world to open accounts in December.

"The inability to bank cryptocurrency is probably the major challenge facing cryptocurrency exchanges globally with bank accounts constantly being denied or shut down for compliance reasons. EQIBank solves this problem by allowing exchanges and their clients to transact in cryptocurrency and national currency within the one regulatory and technology system in accordance with global banking compliance standards. It is a breakthrough for the blockchain industry as it provides banking certainty for businesses that involve blockchain and cryptocurrencies," said Sam Lee, Founder and CEO of Blockchain Global.

"GMEX Group delivers the technology behind innovative exchanges and digital asset trading platforms across the globe. We are proud to be recognised as one of the powerhouses of the blockchain economy. However, the well-documented challenges around banking cryptocurrency are proving a major roadblock in this space, preventing blockchain from fulfiling its potential. EQIBank has made great strides in tackling this problem, allowing exchanges, businesses and individuals to bank in cyrpto and national currency - that's why MINDEX our gold exchange initiative and our other exchange ventures across the globe will be using EQIBank," said Hirander Misra CEO of GMEX Group and Chairman of MINDEX.

The opportunity is huge for a new breed of bank

Existing global banks hold over $143.75 trillion in assets[3] but are burdened by legacy systems and cumbersome organisational structures. Their lack of flexibility is a key reason that challenger banks have gained such momentum. EQIBank is the first offshore challenger bank in the world - and technology sits at the core of its proposition, using cloud computing, digital services and blockchain technology to bridge the worlds of cryptocurrency and banking.

"Existing and new global clients are not adequately serviced by the current antiquated banking structure. Many regional and global banks have merely not scaled to meet the requirements of innovative industries like blockchain. The services of EQIBank are in huge demand by our Law Firm and clients. We hope to open as many as 1000 client accounts a month via our Foreign Direct Division of Yingke, Corporation China." said Marco Pearman-Parish, President, Yingke Global - China's largest law firm[4] .

EQIBank anticipates a huge level of success is because it is unique in addressing the needs of many additional high-value markets:

The global bank of choice for hedge funds: EQIBank launched offshore where 85% of the world's hedge funds are domiciled[5] meaning that it is perfectly positioned to be the first choice for the fund industry

High-net-worth individuals: The global volume of net investable assets of high-net-worth individuals is expected to increase by around 25% to almost US$70 trillion by 2021[6] but challenger banks are simply not focused on this space. This is where EQI has a unique proposition to enable this market to manage national and crypto assets in a single banking relationship

Digital custody: The four largest global custody banks hold more than $91 trillion in assets under custody and administration[7]. This provides a huge opportunity for EQIBank, which is targeting the clients of these traditional banks that have so far refused to provide custody services for cryptocurrency

EQIBank will be joined by onshore jurisdictions in Europe and Asia in early 2019 to better meet demand from all of these markets. To apply for a bank account today please visit EQIBank.com.

1. EQIBank full, unrestricted offshore banking license in CARICOM and is regulated by the Financial Services Unit# and Eastern Caribbean Central Bank

2. https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/

3. Statista 2018

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_Chinese_law_firms

5. http://www.cayman.finance/2016/03/the-cayman-islands-a-guide-for-hedge-fund-managers/

6. https://www.ey.com/publication/vwluassets/ey-wealth-management-outlook-2018/$file/ey-wealth-management-outlook-2018.pdf

7. https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/08/08/largest-custody-banks-saw-negligible-growth-in-their-asset-bases-over-q2/#7867a45279ac

For media inquiries contact

Jasmin Athwal

Chameleon

eqi @madebychameleon.com

+44-(0)-20-7680-5500

For more information on EQIBank contact:

Clinton Nicholson

[email protected]

SOURCE EQIBankSEATTLE, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In the third quarter of 2018, investment into European venture capital-backed companies reached 4.5 billion, pushing 2018's total venture capital (VC) deal value to 14.8 billion. At this pace, 2018 could hold the mark for most venture capital invested in Europe in a single year, according to PitchBook's 3Q 2018 European Venture Report. Fierce competition among investors and larger fund sizes have put upward pressure on deal sizes and valuations in 2018. Particularly, capital invested into the early stage companies in 3Q was the highest of any stage (2.3 billion across 295 deals) as companies found more support from investors at that stage of the lifecycle. Landmark early stage deals include, About You (256 million), Dfinity (102 million) and SEBA Crypto (103.3 million). Additionally, VC exit activity has remained a bright spot in 2018 as exits over 100 million account for a larger proportion of exit value. Favorable market conditions also drove several billion-euro businesses to list on the public markets  IPOs have made up 66% of exit value so far in 2018. Venture fundraising also remained strong in the third quarter, amid sliding fund counts. European fund managers continued to raise fewer, larger funds as evidenced by a 50% rise in median fund size from 2017.

To download the full report and data packs, please click here.

"While European VC deal activity was slightly tempered in 3Q, the impressive ascent in capital invested in the first part of the year has set up 2018 to be a landmark year for the European venture capital industry," said Cameron Stanfill, analyst at PitchBook. "Investors are increasingly raising larger funds, making it more efficient to allocate larger amounts of capital to more mature companies in the early and late stages. However, a shortage of late stage investment targets led to a subdued third quarter, in stark contrast to the US VC ecosystem where outsized deals in the late stage are commonplace. From our perspective, the major difference is a current lack of widespread VC support or ability to execute 100+ million deals. As Europe's venture ecosystem continues to mature, so will its ability to complete deals in the late stage and further drive up capital invested."

Investment Activity

In the third quarter, venture investors deployed 4.5 billion across 584 deals. Despite a slightly slower pace of investment compared to 2Q 2018, investment activity is on pace to exceed 19 billion, a new record for total capital deployed in Europe.

The growing prevalence of larger fund sizes coupled with increased competition have caused deal sizes to balloon across all stages, with notable jumps over 2017's value at the early (85.4%) and late (64.2%) stages.

Companies based in the UK and Ireland continued to attract the most venture investment, making up 39% of total European VC deal count and representing the fourth straight year capital invested in the region exceeds 5 billion.

Exits

The third quarter saw 7.2 billion exited across 67 deals, pushing year-to-date exit value to 20 billion, already the highest total since 2014. If this pace holds, 2018 could see the highest exit value achieved in a single year.

Rising valuations have allowed exits of more than 100 million to account for anywhere between 75% and 92% of total exit value over the last six years, with 2018 representing the most extreme data point of 92%.

VC-backed IPOs accounted for more than two-thirds of exit value in 2018, an increase of 5.2 billion over the annual 2017 figure. The two largest exits of 3Q 2018 were both IPOs of London -based companies valued at more than 1 billion, including Farfetch and Funding Circle.

Fundraising

Down slightly from 2Q 2018, VC investors secured 2 billion in capital commitments across 13 vehicles, bringing 2018's fundraising total to 6.5 billion raised across 49 vehicles. At this pace, 2018 fundraising activity is expected to surpass 2017 figures (8.2 billion raised across 76 funds).

Similar to trends observed in the US, European fund managers increasingly raised fewer, larger funds to keep pace with ever-growing deal sizes. Median fund size rose from 79.7 million in 2017 to 123.2 million in 2018. Funds closed in the 100 million to 500 million range now make up 58.1% of funds closed by count, up from 13.2% just six years ago.

2018 fundraising has been concentrated among UK and Ireland VCs with 2.4 billion raised across 16 funds, the most commitments to date. However, German VC investors secured the largest amount of capital in 3Q 2018 (700 million), driven in large part by Munich -based Digital+ Partners debut VC fund (350 million).

Additional coverage in this report includes:

Overview

Corporate VC

Regional spotlight: UK and Ireland

Exits

Fundraising

Download the full report here.

About PitchBook

PitchBook is a financial data and software company that provides transparency into the capital markets to help professionals discover and execute opportunities with confidence and efficiency. PitchBook collects and analyzes detailed data on the entire venture capital, private equity and M&A landscapeincluding public and private companies, investors, funds, investments, exits and people. The company's data and analysis are available through the PitchBook Platform, industry news and in-depth reports. Founded in 2007, PitchBook has offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York and London and serves more than 18,500 professionals around the world. In 2016, Morningstar acquired PitchBook, which now operates as an independent subsidiary.

Press Contacts

Bailey Fox

PR Manager

[email protected]

+1 206.823.3022

SOURCE PitchBook

Related Links

http://www.pitchbook.com

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The 124th import and export fair, also known as the Canton Fair 2018, will take place from October 15 to November 4 in Guangzhou. The fair, with a huge exhibition space, will be greeting over 25000 with competent credibility and potential financial capacities, from more than 200 countries and regions, with 16 exhibition categories to be showcased all over 3 phases.

The Canton Fair 2018, as the perfect example of China's reform and opening up, has been the symbol of China's ever-growing profound international business ties with the world.

Leading Import and Export Canton Fair 2018-19 in China

Xu Bing, Deputy Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, said: "The Fair with its image as the window to China, reflects the development of China's foreign trade as well as its reform and opening up policy. We always make renewed efforts to open this window ever-wider in all aspects with greater contributions to the world."

This year, more than 200 eminent brands and 2000 corporation from China will exhibit avant-garde designs for electronics, households and electrical appliances zone as the initial phase continues.

The second and the third phase will exhibit the high-end products and applications that are highly diversified unique and compelled by the rapid changing expectations for final consumers.

Welcoming more diversified corporate partners and a promise to advance into an open economy, the net worth of China's import and export from 2017 hit 4.45 trillion dollars.

eWorldTrade.com will be an online media partner of Canton Fair 2018. One of the largest e-commerce portals for cross-border trade with unparalleled competence, eWorldTrade.com has played a major role in revolutionizing business to business transactions and made international trade easier than ever thought possible.

With its aim of "Connecting Businesses Globally,'' eWorldTrade.com has over 500,000 registered users on its platform and millions of buyers and suppliers seeking e-commerce across the border.

Tracing the past records of 4 decades China has revolutionized as the second largest economy in the world, taking part in 30 percent of the overall economic growth. In the recent global economic plight, eWorldTrade.com contributes in Canton Fair to target and enhance its crucial role as a platform to secure trading opportunities, a better business ecosystem, and a better market to be recognized in international trade.

Canton Fair is conducted biannually in Guangzhou China every spring and fall, connecting 1000s of global importers to Chinese industries. Incorporated in 1957, the Canton Fair is considered as a detailed exhibition, with a rich history, high grade, and comprehensive scale and extensive products with the huge distribution of buyers and massive turnover in China.

Enterprises with contemporary competitive advantages of foreign business will enjoy potential achievements in exports and Chinese products, gaining high popularities. As for the exhibitor's road to diversified markets will be open.

The Canton Fair mainly focus on the business from all over the globe seeking for the most innovative products that China brings to market and to find the reliable suppliers for long-term alliances.

124th China Canton Fair 2018 Phase Schedule;

Phase 1 (15th-19th October 2018)

Phase 2 (23rd-27th October 2018)

Phase 3 (31st October - 4th November 2018)

Contact Information

Imran Malik

PR Executive

Pacific Place, 1910 Pacific Ave, Dallas, TX 75201, United States

Phone: +1(214) 247-7153

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.eWorldTrade.com

Related Links

China Import Export Fair

Canton Fair China

SOURCE eWorldTrade

Related Links

https://www.eworldtrade.com

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Exude, Inc., a human capital management consulting firm, has been named one of the Best Places to Work in PA for 2018. The awards program, created in 2000, is one of the first statewide programs of its kind in the country. The program is a public/private partnership between Team Pennsylvania Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, the Pennsylvania State Council of the Society for Human Resource Management, and the Central Penn Business Journal.

"At Exude, our people are the heart and soul of our organization," stated Marcos Lopez, Founder & CEO. "Culture is extremely important to us, and winning this award confirms that our employees love what they do and who they work with."

This survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Pennsylvania, who are benefiting the state's economy and its workforce. Employers are categorized based upon the total number of employees they have in the United States, 15 to 99 employees, 100 to 250 employees, or more than 250 employees.

Companies from across the state entered the two-part process to determine the 100 Best Places to Work in PA. The first part of this process was evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, philosophies, systems and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process.

Exude, Inc. will be recognized at the Best Places to Work in PA awards banquet on Thursday, November 29, 2018, at the Lancaster County Convention Center in Lancaster, PA. Rankings will be revealed at the ceremony.

About Exude:

At Exude, we work diligently with our clients to achieve optimal organizational health by ensuring strategy, culture, and employee experience are aligned. We provide consulting services in Employee Benefits, Human Capital Management, Wellness, Property Casualty Insurance & Risk Management and Retirement Planning.

For more information, please visit www.exudeinc.com or contact us at [email protected].

Contact: Morgan Festa

Marketing Manager

www.exudeinc.com

215-875-8732

SOURCE Exude, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.eXudeinc.com

The British foreign office has promised to formally request the CR authorities for an update on the case.

"We've been fighting almost 10 years to solve this mystery and we'll keep on fighting even if we have to do it alone," Michael's brother, David Dixon, said.

"My dad recently passed away never knowing what happened. I can't let that happen to my mum," David Dixon said.

NB. ANY NEW INFORMATION TREATED WITH STRICT CONFIDENTIALITY

BACKGROUND:

Michael Dixon disappeared on the evening of 18 October 2009 in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, while on holiday.

Evidence indicates he was the victim of violent crime, but British and Costa Rican authorities failed to properly investigate.

The 33-year old British journalist had been living in Belgium and working for a US magazine.

He was 1.7m tall, with a slender build, brown eyes, short dark hair, and light brown skin.

Costa Rica is a popular tourist destination, visited by 20,000 British people a year. However, it is not the Switzerland of Latin America as its tourist board claims it to be. In recent times more than 20 foreign nationals have vanished and most cases remain unsolved.

"Corruption is rife in this country and all the investigations into Michael's disappearance were never fulfilled" David Dixon said.

FOR MEDIA AND LAW ENFORCEMENT PROFESSIONALS:

For all further enquiries, please contact: David Dixon, +44 7920 792 204 [email protected]

For comment by responsible person in British foreign office, please contact: Nicola Powell, +44 20 7008 0195, [email protected]

For comment by CR authorities, please contact: Luis Guillermo Fonseca, Phone: +506 2666-1103, email: [email protected]

For a BBC report on the Michael Dixon case, please go to: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/fast_track/9485099.stm

For more on the Help Find Michael Dixon campaign, please go to: http://helpfindmichaeldixon.com/

SOURCE David DixonSAN RAMON, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The chosen color of bright pink is seen more places, and people proudly wear the pink breast cancer ribbon to show their support of finding a cure. As of January of this year, over 3.1 million women have had a history of breast cancer, making it the second most common type of cancer for women. 1 in 1,000 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer Financial Education Benefits Center (FEBC), a membership benefits program that offers select health and personal wellness discounts.

"Health risks come up when least welcome, not that they're really ever wanted. But there are so many factors to health and personal biology that it can be difficult to determine who will get sick," said Jennifer Martinez, manager at FEBC. It's hard to determine who will and who won't develop breast cancer, as 85% of breast diagnosis occur in women who have no prior family history of the cancer, but regular check-ups for early detection can help catch the problem before it becomes fatal. Scientific discoveries have brought survival rates up by helping with early detection and different treatment therapies. Funding helps scientists discover further ways to prevent and treat breast cancer and there are many charities that gladly accept donations. To make sure that donations go as far as possible, it might help to do some research before donating to a campaign, to ensure that particular foundation is truly helping instead of spending money on a party for its chair members.

Doing a self-exam at home can help detect early signs of breast cancer. It won't catch everything, but it's a start for people who want to be proactive about their health. FEBC members may also be able to better help themselves keep an eye on their health thanks to FEBC's 24-hour nurse hotline for non-emergency medical questions. This benefit is not meant to replace or act as insurance. "We strive to offer relevant discounts to our members, to help them better achieve personal financial wellness," said Martinez.

About Financial Education Benefits Center

Financial Education Benefits Center is located in San Ramon, California. The membership company has already helped thousands save money and obtain the necessary education required to live a financially healthy life.

Financial Education Benefits Center has partnered with several name brand third-party companies to expand the financial and educational products and services available to its members and to provide a variety of wellness services as well.

Financial Education Benefits Center Newsroom

Contact

To learn more about Financial Education Benefits Center, please contact:

Financial Education Benefits Center

2010 Crow Canyon Place Ste. 100

San Ramon, CA 94583

1-800-953-1388

[email protected]

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Reach For A Cure

cienpies/Bigstock.com

SOURCE Financial Education Benefits CenterCHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eight hundred military families in Charlotte will receive enough food to supplement meals for a week plus daily essentials, thanks to a partnership between PepsiCo, Feed the Children, Restaurateur Rocco Whalen of Fahrenheit Restaurant and the United Service Organizations (USO) of North Carolina. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. EST at North Carolina National Guard Armory at 4240 West Blvd., Charlotte, N.C.

This is the second year PepsiCo, Feed the Children, Restaurateur Rocco Whalen and the USO of North Carolina have partnered to help feed military families in Charlotte. This event is part of a larger initiative between PepsiCo and Feed the Children to help feed communities in cities throughout the United States.

The receiving military families have been identified and preselected by the USO of North Carolina.

"After our first Feed the Children event in Charlotte last year, we knew we needed to bring it back in 2018," said Aaron Parker, zone sales leader, Charlotte zone, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division. "We want to use this opportunity to support service members and their families in the Charlotte area. At PepsiCo, we believe in engaging our colleagues in community projects and initiatives that make a positive difference in places where we live and work."

"Feed the Children is proud to partner with PepsiCo, Restaurateur Rocco Whalen and the USO of North Carolina" said Travis Arnold, Feed the Children president and CEO. "We know that when we combine our efforts we will have a greater impact on the lives of families who need us mostright here in America."

Each qualifying recipient at today's event will be given:

One 25-pound box of nonperishable food items

One 10 to 15-pound box of personal-care items

One box of AVON products

products Frito-Lay Variety Pack

PepsiCo beverages

Quaker Life Original Cereal

Quaker Oatmeal

Quaker Granola Chewy Bars

Volunteers from PepsiCo and the USO of North Carolina will be onsite serving families and assisting with distribution at the event.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2017, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose  our fundamental belief that the success of our company is inextricably linked to the sustainability of the world around us. We believe that continuously improving the products we sell, operating responsibly to protect our planet and empowering people around the world is what enables PepsiCo to run a successful global company that creates long-term value for society and our shareholders. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com.

About Feed the Children

Established in 1979, Feed the Children exists to defeat hunger. It is one of the largest U.S.-based charities and serves those in need in the U.S. and in 10 countries around the world. It provides food, education, essentials and disaster response. Domestically, it operates 5 distribution centers (located in Oklahoma, Indiana, California, Tennessee and Pennsylvania).

In fiscal year 2017, Feed the Children distributed 79.8 million pounds of food and essentials to children and families in the U.S. Internationally, it provided nutritious food or other benefits to 1,080,000 children, empowered 291,000 parents to make better decisions for their children, and positively impacted more than 1,200 communities and schools in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

SOURCE PepsiCo

Related Links

http://www.pepsico.com

The court accepted Alqasem's appeal, saying her desire to study in Israel undermines the premise of her alleged support for a boycott. It said that if her deportation was based on her political opinion, then the state's order was "a radical and dangerous step" that could erode Israeli democracy.CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AvidXchange, the leading provider of accounts payable and payment automation solutions for midsize companies, today announced that Denise Leleux has joined the leadership team as the Senior Vice President for Supplier Services. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, Steve Boehm, Denise Leleux will drive additional growth and innovations by creating greater value to client relationships.

"As AvidXchange continues to experience growth within the company, we are excited to welcome Denise Leleux to the executive team," stated Steve Boehm, Chief Operating Officer of AvidXchange. "Denise brings extensive knowledge in both national and international global customer experience which is imperative to AvidXchange's overarching mission to deliver the best solutions for businesses."

"I'm incredibly honored to be part of a team like AvidXchange," added Leleux. "In the last few years, I've watched the company grow from a startup to a leading influencer in the tech space. Joining a team composed of so many innovative leaders and thinkers in the FinTech industry is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I look forward to utilizing my experience to add to the company's growth."

Denise Leleux comes to AvidXchange from Tesla where she led Global Customer Experience for the Tesla Automotive and Energy Businesses. Prior to Tesla, Denise led Global Customer Experience for North America and Europe at eBay. She developed deep commercial payments, product, and customer management skills through prior assignments at First Data, Capital One, Visa, and Barclays UK. As a passionate people-centered leader, she is active in the Women in Technology group in Salt Lake City, and will bring those connections, along with the many she forged traveling the world, to AvidXchange.

About AvidXchange

AvidXchange simplifies the way companies pay their bills through a trusted network fostering a true buyer and supplier collaboration. Serving more than 5,500 clients throughout North America, AvidXchange automates the end-to-end payment process for midmarket companies spanning across multiple industries including Real Estate, Community Association Management, Construction, Financial Services, Energy, and more. Headquartered in one of the top financial districts in the United States, AvidXchange has spent the last 18 years revolutionizing the FinTech space. As a result, Forbes identified AvidXchange as one of the top leading cloud companies in the world today. AvidXchange has been recognized as the top software company in North Carolina by the North Carolina Technology Association and one of the 50 fastest-growing private companies in the Charlotte area for six consecutive years. Ranked among Deloitte's Fast 500 this past year, AvidXchange continues to remain true to its most valued competitive advantage  its people. For eight consecutive years, AvidXchange has been honored as one of the Best Places to Work in Charlotte. For more information, contact us at 800.560.9305 or [email protected].

SOURCE AvidXchange

Related Links

http://www.avidxchange.com

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FundGuard , a cloud-based investment funds operating system powered by AI and designed to revolutionize the investment funds technology space, today announced its launch and $4 million in funding led by venture firms Blumberg Capital and LionBird. FundGuard will use the capital to accelerate the development of its platform and Contingency NAV product as well as to bring operational efficiencies afforded by AI and cloud technologies to market.

FundGuard helps asset managers, custodian banks and fund administrators manage investments across mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts, pension funds as well as insurance. Using machine learning and AI to identify unstructured financial and operational anomalies or potential fraud, the platform provides real-time support while providing insights and recommendations to its customers.

"With continued pressure on management fees driven by the proliferation of ETFs, robo-advisors, 'zero fee' offerings, and frequently changing regulations, the industry is clearly now in need of an operating system that's highly accurate across all asset classes and efficient to operate," said Lior Yogev, CEO and co-founder of FundGuard. "Our SaaS platform is built to meet the needs of today's investment industry, designed to support sophisticated trading environments and new technologies such as distributed ledgers. Users will find a modern UX, APIs, plus workflow and collaboration tools that will add tremendous value to their companies and keep them ahead of the competition."

Many of today's industry challenges can be traced back to archaic technologies powering the industry. Most of these were built in the 1980's and barely support today's transaction volumes and need for real time positions and valuation information. Additionally, these aging technologies are finding it hard to keep up with rapidly changing regulatory requirements and tax changes.

FundGuard's Contingency and Oversight NAV product provides an unparalleled daily-resetting, fully automated operating system at a secondary independent location to enable asset managers to fulfill their fiduciary responsibility for business continuity and for protecting their funds' proprietary and most critical data and valuation during core systems failures and cyber attacks. This solution is designed to efficiently address the systemic risk of long period outages similar to a week-long incident at a large custodian bank that impacted hundreds of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, damaging their reputations.

"We are excited to join forces with Lior and the FundGuard team as they work to make this huge industry digital from the core," said Yuval Ariav, general partner at LionBird Ventures. "The company's unique product vision, at a time of structural and regulatory pressures facing the industry, will transform it to the benefit of investment managers, banks, fund administrators, and ultimately, retail and institutional investors."

FundGuard was founded by Lior Yogev, Yaniv Zecharya and Uri Katz. The trio met more than 20 years ago as officers in Israel's Defense Forces' Unit 8200, one of the world's most elite intelligence and technology agencies. Yogev, who previously led Multifonds' business in North America, was part of the executive team that sold Multifonds to Temenos for $265 million, and was previously an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Zecharya, the company's CTO, previously led Salesforce's AI R&D efforts. He joined Salesforce through the acquisition of BlueTail, a machine learning sales insights company he co-founded. Katz, the company's vice president of R&D, has years of financial technology experience that includes building enterprise cloud systems and machine learning.

"When we first met the FundGuard team, we were impressed with their industry expertise and their vision of leveraging AI to bring operating systems for investment funds into the future," said Chris Gottschalk, principal at Blumberg Capital. "FundGuard will change how asset managers, custodian banks and fund administrators get their jobs done by increasing productivity, transparency and access to data."

About FundGuard

FundGuard is a cloud-based investment funds operating system powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The platform will revolutionize the investment funds technology industry, which today is run using on-premise, batch-based and non-scalable technologies created decades ago, while helping asset managers, banks and fund administrators manage investments, identify unstructured financial and operational anomalies, as well as automatically resolve exceptions while streamlining investment operations. For more information, visit fundguard.com .

Contact:

Michael Celiceo

(415) 370-6943

[email protected]

SOURCE FundGuard

Related Links

http://www.fundguard.com

DUBLIN, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market: Focus on Platform, Type and Components - Analysis and Forecast, 2018-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The market reported a revenue of $229.2 million, in 2017 and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR during the forecast period 2018-2023.



The communication industry has grown significantly due to the demand for increased connectivity. Communication technology plays a vital role in almost all the industries for running their businesses over the large distance across the globe. Telecommunication is the most prominent sectors which is responsible for providing internet connectivity to support the transmission of data. There are various modes of transmitting the data from one location to another that includes copper wires, fiber cables, and radio frequency communication, among others.



However, there are certain limitations of every technology that boost the need for a fast, secure, flexible, and low-cost communication technology. Optical wireless communication is one of the latest communication technologies that utilizes unguided visible, infrared (IR), or ultraviolet (UV) light for transmitting the signals. Free Space Optics (FSO) communication technology is the form of optical wireless communication which wirelessly transmits data through light propagation in free space. FSO communication technology is immensely suitable for performing data transmission in the locations that are not suitable for physical connections.



Moreover, the technology also provides inter-satellite communications, satellite to ground communication and other airborne applications. The growing number of satellites is one of the most prominent factors for the developments of free space optics communication technology in satellite communication applications. For instance, in November 2017, two small satellites were launched to the International Space Station (ISS) to test the latest space to ground laser communication system.



Commercial as well as non-commercial sectors are the end-users of the FSO communication technology applications. Some of the prominent applications includes Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), last mile access, backhaul, outdoor wireless access, research and space exploration, among others. There are many research and development organizations such as European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), among others, that are continuously putting their efforts in developing free space optics communication solutions. Furthermore, the telecommunication companies are also focused on more advanced free space optics communication technology systems. There are many research and development organizations that are continuously putting their efforts in developing more efficient free space optics communication technology.



The global free space optics communication technology market has been segmented into three platforms: terrestrial, satellite, and airborne. The terrestrial platform market acquired the largest share, however, satellite platform FSO communication technology is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, 2018-2023. In addition, the global FSO communication technology market is also classified into its range type such as short range, medium range, and long range. Short range reported the highest revenue in 2017, however, long rage is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, 2018-2023. The FSO communication systems constitutes of various components that includes transmitters, receivers, modulators, demodulators, encoders and decoders.



North America is expected to have the highest share in the free space optics communication technology market during the forecast period, 2018-2023, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of-the-World (RoW). The U.S. and Canada are some of the prominent countries in North America for the development of the free space optics communication technology market. The U.S. dominates the overall market of the free space optics communication technology and it is expected maintain its position during the forecast period, 2018-2023.



The increase in the demand for free space optics communication technology in North America is due to the increasing need for applications across satellite platform. France is one of the prominent countries in Europe which is currently focusing on the deployment of free space optics communication technology. Some of the other prominent countries include the U.K. and Germany.



The Asia-Pacific region majorly consists of China, Japan, Australia, and India in the free space optics communication technology market. Japan, currently, is having a largest share of the free space optics communication technology market while India is expected to grow at the highest rate in Asia-Pacific region. Moreover, there are ample opportunities for new entrants in this region as the demand for optical wireless communication technology is increasing for commercial as well as military applications.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

1 Market Dynamics

1.1 Market Drivers

1.1.1 Need for Secure and High-Speed Wireless Communication

1.1.2 Higher Flexibility at Low Cost

1.2 Market Challenges

1.2.1 Unfavorable Environmental Factors

1.3 Market Opportunities

1.3.1 Integration of Technologies to Enhance FSO System Performance

1.3.2 Incorporation of FSO in the 3G, 4G and 5G Networks



2 Competitive Insights

2.1 Overview: Key Strategies and Developments

2.2 Competitive Benchmarking Map



3 Industry Analysis

3.1 Overview

3.2 Major Companies and Product Overview

3.3 List of Patents Assigned

3.4 Industry Attractiveness: Porter's Five Forces Analysis

3.5 Value Chain Analysis



4 Global Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market, 2018-2023

4.1 Assumptions and Limitations

4.2 Market Overview



5 Global Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market, 2018-2023 (by Platform)

5.1 Market Overview

5.2 Terrestrial Platform

5.2.1 Terrestrial Platform by Application

5.3 Satellite Platform

5.3.1 Satellite Platform by Application

5.4 Airborne Platform (Drones, Aircraft, and High-Altitude Platforms)

5.4.1 Airborne Platform by Application



6 Global Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market, 2018-2023 (by Range Type)

6.1 Market Overview

6.2 Short-Range Market

6.3 Medium-Range Market

6.4 Long-Range Market



7 Global Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market, 2018-2023 (by Components)

7.1 Market Overview

7.2 Transmitters

7.3 Receivers

7.4 Modulators

7.5 Demodulators

7.6 Others (Encoders and Decoders)



8 Free Space Optics Communication Technology Market, 2017-2023 (by Region)



9 Company Profiles



AIRLINX Communications, Inc.

AOptix Technologies, Inc.

Anova Technologies

BridgeSat, Inc.

CableFree: Wireless Excellence

Fog Optics, Inc.

L3 Technologies, Inc. (L3 Photonics)

LightPointe Communications, Inc.

Mostcom Ltd.

Mynaric AG

Plaintree Systems, Inc.

Sky Fiber, Inc.

Space Photonics, Inc.

Trimble, Inc.

fSONA Networks Corp.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5x2wdv/global_free_space?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

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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VANCOUVER, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Goldplay Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: GPLY,OTCQB: GLYXF - the "Company" or "Goldplay") is pleased to announce that it has received approval from the Mexican national environmental agency for its upcoming drill programs at the San Marcial Project, Sinaloa, Mexico. Planning is underway for drilling campaigns to complement the Company's San Marcial resource estimate, due in December 2018, and the subsequent PEA studies scheduled for completion in 2019.

Goldplay President and CEO Marcio Fonseca commented, "The grant of the drilling permit opens the door for Goldplay to move forward with its objectives to delineate new mineralized zones beyond the historic NI 43-101 resource estimate area ("historic resource"). This will also allow the identification of new discoveries in the 3.5 km long mineralized trend and providing additional drilling information to support a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") of the San Marcial Project in 2019."

The drilling approval was granted by SEMARNAT (Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales) following the submission by Goldplay of an Environmental Impact Statement specific to the San Marcial Project and upcoming drill plans, and allows for surface geological exploration including trenching and drilling activities. SEMARNAT recognizes that the activities proposed by Goldplay will be beneficial to the local community with opportunities of employment for local residents and will contribute to the socio-economic development of the local community.

Approval has been granted to the Company for the completion of up to 69 drill holes, by either diamond core or reverse circulation methods, in a period of two years ending August 2020, and within a highly prospective area selected by Goldplay. Encouragingly, the positive response to Goldplay's proposal by the Mexican authorities does not impose any extraordinary conditions on the proposed drill programs. Standard requirements include the rehabilitation of disturbances caused by the exploration activities, as well as minimizing construction of new access tracks and avoiding damage to the local environment.

NI 43-101 Resource Estimate  as announced in a News Release dated 5 October 2018, Goldplay is finalizing the first 3D Geological model ("3D model") of the San Marcial silver-zinc-lead-gold deposit using high grade results received from recently sampled and assayed historic drill core. The 3D model will be used to complete a NI 43-101 resource estimate, scheduled for completion before the end of 2018.

Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA)  Goldplay expects to undertake a PEA study in 2019 carrying out preliminary engineering and economic analysis assuming a combined open pit/underground future development of the San Marcial Project.

Drilling under the recently granted permit will allow Goldplay to test down dip and along strike extensions to the mineralization identified in the historic resource, as well as to provide additional samples for metallurgical, that will feed into the PEA.

The Qualified Person under the NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for this news release is Marcio Fonseca, President and CEO of Goldplay, who has reviewed and approved its contents.

About Goldplay Exploration Ltd.

Goldplay owns a >250 sq. km exploration portfolio in the historical Rosario Mining District, Sinaloa, Mexico. Goldplay's current exploration focus includes surface exploration and drilling, with a resource update to follow at the advanced-stage San Marcial Project and follow up exploration program at the El Habal Project.

The San Marcial land package consists of 1,250 ha, located south of the La Rastra and Plomosas historical mines and 20 km from the Company's 100% owned El Habal Project in the Rosario Mining District, Sinaloa, Mexico. San Marcial is an attractive, near-surface high-grade silver, lead and zinc project for which a historical resource estimate has been previously disclosed.

San Marcial exhibits significant exploration upside supported by regional exploration programs completed by previous operators who identified 14 exploration targets similar to San Marcial within its 100% Goldplay-owned concessions. Some of these exploration targets consist of old shallow pits, caved shafts and historical underground workings in areas with extensive hydrothermal alteration, hosted by major regional structures.

The El Habal Project is a drilling stage project with an ongoing drill program. The oxidized gold mineralized zone outcrops along a series of rolling hills with evidence of historical shallow underground mining along a 6 km long prospective corridor. The El Habal Project is located near the historical gold-silver Rosario Mine which reportedly operated for over 250 years. Goldplay's team has over 30 years of experience with senior roles in exploration, financing, and development in the mining industry, including over ten years of extensive exploration experience in the Rosario Mining District, leading to previous successful discoveries. A current NI 43-101 report on the El Habal Project is filed on SEDAR.

Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements and information that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS PRESS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE GOLDPLAY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.

Mr. Marcio Fonseca,

P. Geo, President & CEO

Goldplay Exploration Ltd.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE Goldplay Exploration Ltd

Related Links

http://www.goldplayexploration.com/

Sixty-seven teams competed in the first ever Hedera hackathon, on Oct 15-16th, in Bangalore, Dallas, London, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, and Tel Aviv. Winners from each location were then entered into judging for the grand prize of $50,000. The global winner was Payper , a Romania-based team that competed in the London hackathon. Payper enables web-based micropayments, a critical component of the open API economy. It was demonstrated using HTTP, making it easy for web developers to integrate into their applications. The team members were Alex Males, Eugen Males, Alexandru Popa, and Vlad Suciu.

The winners from each location, each awarded $10,000 worth of cash and hbars, included:

Blume , a peer-to-peer internet hotspot sharing app using micropayments, from the Bangalore hackathon,

, a peer-to-peer internet hotspot sharing app using micropayments, from the hackathon, Hash Name Service , a low-cost native implementation for a human-readable name service, from the Dallas hackathon

, a low-cost native implementation for a human-readable name service, from the hackathon Helpon , a decentralized charity platform to transparently connect people in need with those willing to help, from the Moscow hackathon

, a decentralized charity platform to transparently connect people in need with those willing to help, from the hackathon Proof of Life , a solution that enables identity and life verification through voice to streamline the pension process, from the Paris hackathon

, a solution that enables identity and life verification through voice to streamline the pension process, from the hackathon H X , which utilizes the speed and fair ordering of hashgraph to create a trusted secondary auction market with verified goods, from the San Francisco hackathon

, which utilizes the speed and fair ordering of hashgraph to create a trusted secondary auction market with verified goods, from the hackathon Artgraph , a platform that allows artists to get paid in-person or online when their art is sold, viewed, or rated highly, from the Singapore hackathon

, a platform that allows artists to get paid in-person or online when their art is sold, viewed, or rated highly, from the hackathon Cronos, an SDK for developers to create new user rewards with a shareable tokenized asset earned by time spent in app or games, from the Tel Aviv hackathon

In addition, Hedera gave out awards to 21 global Hedera MVPs, recognizing their hard work and tireless efforts to grow and foster the Hedera community. MVPs are ambassadors who have gone above and beyond in their ambassadorship by coordinating a wide array of meetups, consistently providing insightful and educational community content, and assisting with global Hedera events and outreach. The new MVPs, hailing from 14 countries worldwide, are:

New Hashgraph.org Community Resource

Hedera today also announced the launch of hashgraph.org , a free resource to the community, moderated by hashgraph Ambassadors and select community members. The development of Hashgraph.org was community inspired. Previously, communication and education channels for hashgraph have been fragmented across multiple networks including Telegram, Discord, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Hashgraph.org aims to reduce fragmentation, and therefore enable greater education, knowledge transfer, and community discussions. It will provide a community portal plus a platform that aids in education and support for the market through community generated content. Hashgraph.org intentionally supports a global audience, and therefore has forum and content areas dedicated to serving readers and speakers of different languages.

"We are excited to provide a comprehensive educational resource for the hashgraph community, as well as a platform for discussion and a place for community members to share their ideas," said Andy Grant, Vice President of Community for Hedera. "In addition, we believe hashgraph.org will become a resource to promote community members that are true thought leaders in the DLT space. For more information, visit http://hashgraph.org/ .

About Hedera

The Hedera hashgraph platform will offer a distributed public ledger with highly diversified governance that enables anyone to easily develop globally decentralized applications. Developers can build secure, fair, blazing-fast decentralized applications on top of the Hedera platform. For more information, visit hedera.com , or follow us on Twitter at @hashgraph , Telegram at t.me/hederahashgraph , or Discord at hedera.com/discord . The Hedera whitepaper can be found at hedera.com/whitepaper .

For Media Inquiries

Zenobia Godschalk

E: [email protected]

T: 1.833.794.7537 x 717

SOURCE Hedera HashgraphDALLAS, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- InfraREIT, Inc. (NYSE: HIFR) ("InfraREIT" or the "Company") today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC ("Oncor") for $21.00 per share in cash, valued at approximately $1.275 billion, plus the assumption of approximately $940 million of InfraREIT's net debt, as of June 30, 2018.

Transaction Highlights:

InfraREIT stockholders to receive $21.00 in cash for each share of InfraREIT common stock, an 18 percent premium to InfraREIT's unaffected share price of $17.79 on January 12, 2018 ;

in cash for each share of InfraREIT common stock, an 18 percent premium to InfraREIT's unaffected share price of on ; InfraREIT expects to continue paying regular quarterly dividends of $0.25 per share through the closing of the transaction;

per share through the closing of the transaction; Transaction benefits all stakeholders through the acquisition of InfraREIT by Oncor, the largest electric utility in Texas ; and

; and After receiving all required approvals, the transaction is expected to close by mid-2019.

As a condition to Oncor's acquisition of InfraREIT, InfraREIT's subsidiary, Sharyland Distribution & Transmission Services, L.L.C. ("SDTS"), and Oncor also signed a definitive agreement with SDTS's tenant, Sharyland Utilities, L.P. ("Sharyland") to exchange, immediately prior to Oncor's acquisition, SDTS's South Texas assets for Sharyland's Golden Spread Electric Cooperative interconnection ("Golden Spread Project") located in the Texas Panhandle, along with certain development projects in the Texas Panhandle and South Plains regions, including the Lubbock Power & Light interconnection ("LP&L Project").

Under the terms of the agreement with Oncor, InfraREIT's stockholders will receive $21.00 per share in cash upon the closing of the transaction. The $21.00 per share price represents an 18 percent premium to InfraREIT's unaffected share price of $17.79 on January 12, 2018, the last trading day prior to the time Hunt Consolidated, Inc. ("Hunt") filed an amendment to its Schedule 13D with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") regarding its consideration of alternative arrangements between Hunt and the Company.

InfraREIT expects to continue paying regular quarterly dividends of $0.25 per share through the closing of the transaction, including a pro-rated dividend for any partial quarter prior to the closing.

"This transaction is the result of a comprehensive review of De-REIT alternatives," said David A. Campbell, Chief Executive Office of InfraREIT. "We believe the acquisition by Oncor, a highly-regarded utility in Texas and the operator of the largest transmission and distribution system in the state, is in the best interest of our stockholders and benefits all stakeholders."

The transaction, which was unanimously approved by InfraREIT's Board of Directors and Conflicts Committee, is subject to regulatory and stockholder approvals and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close by mid-2019 and is not subject to any financing conditions.

The agreement with Oncor includes a "go-shop" provision that allows the Conflicts Committee and its advisors to actively solicit and negotiate with other potential acquirers to determine whether they are interested in making a proposal to acquire InfraREIT. Accordingly, InfraREIT will solicit competing acquisition proposals through November 17, 2018.

Transaction Details

Asset Exchange:

Under the asset exchange agreement with Sharyland and Oncor, SDTS will exchange its South Texas assets for Sharyland's Golden Spread Project and other related assets. The difference between the net book value of the exchanged assets will be paid in cash at closing. Upon closing of the asset exchange and the acquisition of InfraREIT, Oncor will own all of InfraREIT's existing transmission system excluding the South Texas assets and will also own the Golden Spread and LP&L Projects currently owned by Sharyland. Following the asset exchange, Sharyland will operate as an independent utility in South Texas. Additionally, SDTS and Sharyland have agreed to terminate their existing leases in connection with the asset exchange.

Oncor Merger:

After the completion of the asset exchange transaction with Sharyland, Oncor will acquire InfraREIT for $21.00 per share in cash. Upon the close of the transaction, Oncor will own and operate all of SDTS's post-asset exchange assets, including the Golden Spread and LP&L Projects. Oncor plans to fund its acquisition of InfraREIT with capital contributions from its owners Sempra Energy and Texas Transmission Investment LLC.

The asset exchange and Oncor merger are mutually dependent on one another and neither will become effective without the closing of the other.

Arrangements with Hunt:

InfraREIT is externally managed by Hunt Utility Services, LLC ("Hunt Manager") under its management agreement, which will be terminated upon the closing of the transactions. Under the management agreement, Hunt Manager is entitled to the payment of a termination fee upon the termination or non-renewal of the management agreement. The termination of the management agreement automatically triggers the termination of the development agreement between InfraREIT and Hunt. InfraREIT has agreed to pay Hunt approximately $40.5 million at the closing of the transactions to terminate the management agreement, development agreement, leases with Sharyland, and all other existing agreements between InfraREIT or its subsidiaries with Hunt, Sharyland or their affiliates. That amount is consistent with the termination fee that is contractually required under the management agreement.

Agreements among Hunt, Oncor and Sempra Energy:

Concurrently with the execution of the merger agreement and the asset exchange agreement, Sharyland and Sempra Energy have entered into an agreement in which Sempra Energy will purchase a 50 percent limited partnership interest in Sharyland Holdings LP ("Sharyland Holdings"), which will own a 100 percent interest in Sharyland. The closing of Sempra Energy's purchase is a requirement of the asset exchange agreement between SDTS and Sharyland. Additionally, under a separate agreement with Sharyland, Oncor has agreed to operate and maintain all of Sharyland's assets following the closing of the transactions.

Solicitation of Additional Offers:

The agreement with Oncor includes a "go-shop" provision that allows the Conflicts Committee and its advisors to actively solicit and negotiate with other potential acquirers to determine whether they are interested in making a proposal to acquire InfraREIT. Accordingly, InfraREIT will solicit competing acquisition proposals through November 17, 2018. If the Conflicts Committee and Board of Directors accept a superior proposal prior to December 27, 2018 that was received during the go-shop period, then InfraREIT would pay a termination fee to Oncor of approximately $19 million. If the Conflicts Committee and Board of Directors accept an unsolicited superior proposal received after the go-shop period, InfraREIT would be required to pay a termination fee to Oncor of approximately $45 million. There can be no assurance that the go-shop process set forth in the merger agreement will result in a superior proposal. InfraREIT does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the solicitation process or any competing proposals that may be received unless and until the Conflicts Committee and the Board of Directors have made a decision with respect to any potential superior proposal.

Transaction Approvals and Closing Conditions

The closing of the transactions is dependent upon and will be subject to several closing conditions, including:

Public Utility Commission of Texas ("PUCT") approval of the transactions, including:

("PUCT") approval of the transactions, including: Exchange of assets with Sharyland;



Acquisition of InfraREIT by Oncor; and



Sempra Energy's indirect 50 percent ownership of Sharyland Holdings

Other necessary regulatory approvals, including Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval, Hart-Scott-Rodino clearance and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States clearance;

clearance; Stockholder approval;

Certain lender consents; and

Other customary closing conditions.

Under the definitive agreements, SDTS, Sharyland and Oncor are required to file a Sale-Transfer-Merger application with the PUCT no later than November 30, 2018. A special meeting of InfraREIT's stockholders will be held following the filing of the definitive proxy statement with the SEC and subsequent mailing to its stockholders, which is expected to be filed by December 10, 2018. The transactions are expected to close by mid-2019.

Important Additional Information and Where to Find It

This release relates to a proposed business combination between InfraREIT and Oncor. The proposed merger and the related agreement and plan of merger will be submitted to the Company's stockholders for their consideration and approval. In connection with the proposed transaction, the Company will file a proxy statement with the SEC. This release does not constitute a solicitation of any vote or proxy from any stockholder of the Company. Investors are urged to read the proxy statement carefully and, in its entirety, when it becomes available, as well as any other relevant documents or materials filed or to be filed with the SEC or incorporated by reference in the proxy statement, because they will contain important information about the proposed acquisition. The definitive proxy statement will be mailed to the Company's stockholders. In addition, the proxy statement and other documents will be available free of charge at the SEC's website, www.sec.gov. When available, the proxy statement and other pertinent documents may also be obtained free of charge at the Investor Relations section of InfraREIT's website, www.InfraREITInc.com, or by directing a written request to InfraREIT, Inc., Attention: Corporate Secretary, 1900 North Akard Street, Dallas, Texas 75201.

Participation in the Solicitation

The Company and its directors and executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction. Information regarding the Company's directors and executive officers is available in its definitive proxy statement for its 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders filed with the SEC on March 22, 2018. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the proxy statement and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available.

Forward Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements give the current expectations of the Company's management. Words such as "could," "will," "may," "assume," "forecast," "strategy," "guidance," "outlook," "target," "expect," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," or "project" and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, forward-looking statements contained in this release include the Company's expectations regarding the consummation of the transactions described herein.

Forward-looking statements can be affected by assumptions used or known or unknown risks or uncertainties. Consequently, no forward-looking statements can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially and adversely from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among other things, (a) the risk and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC from time to time and (b) the following risks inherent in the transactions (in addition to others described elsewhere in this document and in the subsequent filings with the SEC): (1) failure to obtain the approval of the Company's stockholders; (2) failure to obtain regulatory approval necessary to consummate the transactions or to obtain regulatory approvals on favorable terms and (3) delays in consummating the transactions or the failure to consummate the transactions.

Because the Company's forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions that are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control or are subject to change, actual results could be materially different and any or all of the Company's forward-looking statements may turn out to be wrong. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and can be affected by assumptions the Company might make or by known or unknown risk and uncertainties. Many factors mentioned in this release and in the Company's annual and quarterly reports will be important in determining future results. Consequently, the Company cannot assure you that the Company's expectations or forecasts expressed in such forward-looking statements will be achieved.

Advisors:

Evercore is acting as financial advisor to the InfraREIT Conflicts Committee and Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is acting as legal advisor to the InfraREIT Conflicts Committee in the transaction. Additionally, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is acting as legal advisor to InfraREIT in the transaction. Additional information regarding the transaction can be found in the Current Report on Form 8-K filed today with the SEC and on InfraREIT's Web site, www.InfraREITInc.com, under the "SEC Filing" tab of the "Investor Relations" section.

About InfraREIT, Inc.

InfraREIT is engaged in owning and leasing rate-regulated electric transmission assets in the state of Texas and is structured as a real estate investment trust. The Company is externally managed by Hunt Utility Services, LLC, an affiliate of Hunt Consolidated, Inc. (a diversified holding company based in Dallas, Texas and managed by the Ray L. Hunt family). The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HIFR". Additional information on InfraREIT is available at www.InfraREITInc.com.

About Sharyland

Sharyland Utilities, L.P., is a Texas-based electric transmission utility that is fully regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Sharyland Utilities is committed to providing safe, reliable, and efficient transmission and substation services, ensuring operational excellence, and investing to support the infrastructure needs of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid. Sharyland Utilities is privately-owned by Hunter L. Hunt and other members of the family of Ray L. Hunt and is managed by Hunter L. Hunt. Additional information about Sharyland can be found at www.sharyland.com.

About Oncor

Headquartered in Dallas, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC is a regulated electricity distribution and transmission business that uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to consumers. Oncor operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, delivering power to more than 3.6 million homes and businesses and operating more than 134,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines in Texas. Oncor is managed by its Board of Directors, which is comprised of a majority of independent directors.

About Sempra Energy

Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services holding company with 2017 revenues of more than $11 billion, is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' approximately 20,000 employees serve more than 40 million consumers worldwide.

For additional information, contact:

Brook Wootton

Vice President, Investor Relations

InfraREIT, Inc.

214-855-6748

SOURCE InfraREIT, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.InfraREITInc.com

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IPRO's AtIantic Quality Innovation Network (AQIN), the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for New York, South Carolina and the District of Columbia, is proud to announce that it is featured in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS') newly released 2017 QIO Program Progress Report. AQIN is one of 14 QIN-QIOs that contributed to the Program's success in improving the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries throughout the United States.

The annual QIO Program Progress Report highlights how QIN-QIOs nationwide are helping to reduce clinician burden and supporting person-centered quality improvement initiatives that combat disparities and promote population health. It includes findings from the Program's past year and features recent success stories from around the country, data-driven results from QIN-QIOs and Beneficiary and Family-Centered Care (BFCC)-QIOs, and future priorities for the QIO Program.

"Both BFCC-QIOs and QIN-QIOs shined in their work in 2017, with QIN-QIOs seeing especially impactful results in the areas of medication safety, immunizations, care coordination, diabetes and nursing home care," said Dennis Wagner, director of the Quality Improvement and Innovation Group (QIIG) within CMS's Center for Clinical Standards and Quality. "QIN-QIOs' care transitions work contributed to over 50,900 readmissions avoided and 23 million beneficiaries potentially affected. QIN-QIOs' diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) resulted in more than 5,300 diabetes educators trained and over 47,800 beneficiaries completing DSMES in 17 different languages. Together, QIN-QIOs and BFCC-QIOs helped improve the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of care provided to our nation's Medicare beneficiaries."

AQIN-New York's (IPRO's) current work with 468 nursing homes across New York State has contributed to a 38% rate of relative improvement in reducing the use of antipsychotic medicationsmore than double the rate of improvement (15%) included as a contract goal for nursing homes. AQIN-South Carolina (The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence) has supported a reduction in potential adverse events involving high-risk medications including opioids, anticoagulants and diabetic agentscontributing to a nearly 8% statewide relative improvement rate for calendar year 2017.

"We're gratified to be part of a national initiative that is achieving real and lasting improvements in the quality of healthcare delivered to Medicare beneficiariesamong our nation's most vulnerable populations," said Clare Bradley, MD, MPH, IPRO's Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer.

Another specific example of AQIN's successful quality improvement activities can be viewed in the report's "Snapshots of Success" section. That example focuses on important work being done by AQIN-District of Columbia (Qlarant), in partnership with the DC Million Hearts Campaign to help physicians improve cardiac screening programs.

The QIO Program Progress Report is available online at http://progressreport.qioprogram.org/. A printable PDF version is also available for download from that site.

A national organization based in Lake Success NY, IPRO leads the Atlantic Quality Innovation Network (AQIN), one of 14 Medicare-funded Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs) operating across the U.S.

Founded in 1984, IPRO is highly regarded for the independence of its approach, the depth of its knowledge and experience and integrity of its programs. IPRO holds contracts with federal, state and local government agencies, as well as private-sector clients, in more than 33 states and the District of Columbia. IPRO has offices in Albany, NY, as well as Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and California.

SOURCE IPRO

Related Links

http://www.ipro.org

BENTON HARBOR, Mich., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JennAir is at it again. The kitchen appliance brand that broke away from the pack earlier this year continues to grow its progressive mission in redefining luxury. As JennAir breaks the boundaries on a once stagnant category, the brand proves that conventional luxury is dead, and the new modern luxe consumer killed it. With orders opening on the RISE and NOIR design expressions, this marks the first time a luxury kitchen appliance brand has created two new trail-blazing design expressions across two full kitchen appliance suites. The JennAir brand's departure from convention does not stop there: with a new digital platform and expanded service footprint on the West Coast, JennAir continues to deliver on the cravings of today's luxury consumer and their custom-built luxury lifestyle, stamping a defiant "J" across the country.

JennAir RISE Range JennAir NOIR Range

JennAir arrives at the WestEdge Design Fair, October 18 - 21 in Santa Monica, Calif., paving a new era of luxury for the kitchen appliance industry. Bringing to life the brand's new Bound By Nothing ethos, which launched this spring at the Architectural Digest Design Show in New York, JennAir will debut its two industry-exclusive, full-portfolio design expressions side-by-side for the first time, offering a style to fit today's luxury consumers' demands and desires. Cutting across all new products, its website, connected app and reimagined JennAir showrooms, the new digital platform gives consumers, designers, architects, and more a transformed way to immerse themselves in the JennAir brand's products offerings.

"Burning down the tired act of conventional luxury, JennAir has chosen progressive design and personalization to meet the new modern luxe consumers' demand for true luxury," said Jon Hall, product and brand marketing director, JennAir. "We listen to what they want, and we are happy to step up to the plate and deliver. Pushing the pedal of progress all the way to the floor, JennAir delivers not only on their needs, but their desires. Across our new offerings, we're giving designers the tools to grant consumers full control of their product experiences, reducing friction and transforming the way the new modern luxe consumer experiences life in the kitchen."

The two new design expressions, now available for order at showrooms across the country, are made for those who lead, never follow. Progressive in every detail, the RISE design expression delivers luminary brilliance and defiant beauty, inspiring designers with a suite of precise, powerful appliances, each built for consumers who are unwilling to settle for the status quo. The NOIR design expression brings together sensuality and geometry in a minimalist style, with crisp craftsmanship and intimate details demonstrating that true luxury can revel through utter defiance in progressive design. Both lines come to life across a full suite of appliances, including column refrigerators, built-in refrigerators, professional-style ranges, rangetops, wall ovens, custom cooktops, urban living offerings, dishwashers and wine centers.

"The JennAir brand relaunch includes a new overhauled digital experience that focuses on the entire consumer journey  from how they shop for our products to their interactions in our showrooms to their post-purchase experiences in the home, which are nothing short of magical," said Jason Mathew, senior director, Global IoT Strategy, Whirlpool Corporation. "According to Marketo, 79 percent of today's U.S. consumers expect personalized experiences, so we've overhauled the entire consumer journey with an amplified digital and connected platform. From an all new website to a transformed app experience, we're empowering consumers to match their personality to our design expressions, curate their own luxury kitchen combinations, and wield control of their appliances to fit their lives  even when remote. With JennAir, modern luxury consumers will experience luxury and indulgence with every interaction."

JennAir's new digital ecosystem reduces the friction from finding the right product and gives consumers an ease of navigation, all the way from discovery to ownership. Across the platform, key new features include:

Discovery of Personal Expression: Which design expression are you? Across the new website, inspirational product imagery and detailed product pages help consumers, designers and trade partners alike explore the best offerings for their custom kitchen experience.

Which design expression are you? Across the new website, inspirational product imagery and detailed product pages help consumers, designers and trade partners alike explore the best offerings for their custom kitchen experience. Make It Yours: The first phase of the new collections will allow consumers and trade customers to save and share products and suites, with a second phase enabling them to save to their personal accounts and share with collaborators as they build their dream kitchens.

The first phase of the new collections will allow consumers and trade customers to save and share products and suites, with a second phase enabling them to save to their personal accounts and share with collaborators as they build their dream kitchens. Product Configuration: Coming in early 2019, new product configuration tools make the complex simple by allowing users to build and personalize their product configurations, bringing to life the full product story together in one place. The tools allow users to select layout, size and design elements across the suites, as well as share the configurations with their clients and partners.

Coming in early 2019, new product configuration tools make the complex simple by allowing users to build and personalize their product configurations, bringing to life the full product story together in one place. The tools allow users to select layout, size and design elements across the suites, as well as share the configurations with their clients and partners. Influencer Hub: A new knowledge hub exclusive for designers, builders, architects, installers and service technicians enables them to fully immerse in deeper product knowledge and product resources. Personalized for each industry, users can explore products and take courses from demos to installs, arming them with the tools they crave for greater design inspiration and an elevated experience for their clients.

For owners, JennAir integrates seamlessly into their digital lives, powered by an uncompromising mobile experience to deliver the meaningful, custom interactions consumers deserve from true luxury products. New features include:

Remote Access & Notifications: Real-time notifications allow owners to control appliances from anywhere: connect to WiFi to preheat ovens, check cooking status, activate keep warm mode and configure oven features for recipes that are ready when you are [1] .

Real-time notifications allow owners to control appliances from anywhere: connect to WiFi to preheat ovens, check cooking status, activate keep warm mode and configure oven features for recipes that are ready when you are . Culinary Intelligence: The JennAir  app inspires progress in the kitchen by driving the exploration of recipes. The app includes personalized cooking algorithms to deliver highly customized results for every step of the food experience, from discovery and prep to beautifully crafted meals [2] .

The JennAir app inspires progress in the kitchen by driving the exploration of recipes. The app includes personalized cooking algorithms to deliver highly customized results for every step of the food experience, from discovery and prep to beautifully crafted meals . One-Touch Access to Service: With connectivity spanning throughout the kitchen and JennAir  appliances, the future of appliance reliability is undeniably digital. Via the JennAir  digital platform, owners can directly access the JennAir  Epicenter with a single touch, tapping into the brilliant minds of JennAir's support staff who know the appliances inside and out.

With connectivity spanning throughout the kitchen and JennAir appliances, the future of appliance reliability is undeniably digital. Via the JennAir digital platform, owners can directly access the JennAir Epicenter with a single touch, tapping into the brilliant minds of JennAir's support staff who know the appliances inside and out. Appliance Usage Reporting: Month to month, users will receive insights on their appliance usage with custom reports digitally in their inbox, and in 2019 via the app or ownership center, infused with personal data and inspiration to fuel progress in the kitchen through their JennAir  products. With content intended to drive progress through deeper utilization of product features, Appliance Usage Reporting provides the status of all appliances across various data touchpoints and can help identify issues early. Further driving a personalized experience and building inspiration in the kitchen, Appliance Usage Reporting gives connected owners the tools and resources to help take friction out of the meal coordination process and own the full kitchen experience.

Month to month, users will receive insights on their appliance usage with custom reports digitally in their inbox, and in 2019 via the app or ownership center, infused with personal data and inspiration to fuel progress in the kitchen through their JennAir products. With content intended to drive progress through deeper utilization of product features, Appliance Usage Reporting provides the status of all appliances across various data touchpoints and can help identify issues early. Further driving a personalized experience and building inspiration in the kitchen, Appliance Usage Reporting gives connected owners the tools and resources to help take friction out of the meal coordination process and own the full kitchen experience. Smart Integration: Tap, swipe or use voice commands with an Alexa-enabled device or Google Assistant enabled device like Google Home for a fluid experience. Simple voice commands do everything, from adjusting cooking times to turning the oven off, while the Nest Learning Thermostat reacts to rising cooking temperatures, adjusting the room climate to create your ideal environment [3] .

Tap, swipe or use voice commands with an Alexa-enabled device or Google Assistant enabled device like Google Home for a fluid experience. Simple voice commands do everything, from adjusting cooking times to turning the oven off, while the Nest Learning Thermostat reacts to rising cooking temperatures, adjusting the room climate to create your ideal environment . Auto Reorder: Automatically order dishwashing supplies when you're running low by syncing your JennAir app with your Amazon account. The dishwasher estimates the amount you have left and targets the right time to order necessities like detergent[3].

To complete the owner experience, JennAir is expanding its service prowess, bringing the Dedicated JennAir Service network, comprised of specialists thoroughly trained on all aspects of JennAir appliances and owner support, to six new markets nationwide. Last year, JennAir kicked off phase one of its expansion in Miami, New York City, New Jersey and Houston. This October, the expansion moves into its second phase as the network expands to Boston, Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and San Francisco. Phase three of the expansion, kicking off in 2019, aims to achieve near-national coverage, ensuring today's modern luxe consumers' needs and demands are met with the expertise they deserve.

To learn more about the new products, platforms and where to find them, visit us at the new JennAir.com or on social at @JennAir on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.com/JennAir.

About JennAir

Defying physics with the invention of downdraft ventilation, Lou Jenn forged the path to an open concept and changed the kitchen forever. Founded in that progressive spirit, JennAir fearlessly carries his torch forward as champions of the design community and the industry at large. Hell-bent on burning down the tired conventions of luxury, JennAir crafts distinctive luxury kitchen appliances that push form and function to transform spaces. With exceptional performance, masterful execution and provocative design, JennAir offerings are powerful, yet bespoke to individual tastes, shattering norms to deliver the progress that today's luxury consumer deserves. To speak with a badass call agent at the JennAir Epicenter or learn more about the new offerings from JennAir, please visit JennAir.com or join us on instagram.com/JennAir, facebook.com/JennAir , twitter.com/JennAir and youtube.com/JennAir .

[1] WiFi & App Required. Features subject to change. Details and privacy info at jennair.com/connect . Appliance must be set to Remote Enable.

[2] Features subject to change. Compatible, connected appliance required. Details and privacy info at jennair.com/connect.

[3] WiFi & App Required. Features subject to change. Details and privacy info at jennair.com/connect . Appliance must be set to Remote Enable. Alexa is a trademark of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Google is a trademark of Google LLC.

Nest / Nest Learning Thermostat are trademarks licensed by Nest Labs, Inc.

SOURCE JennAir

Related Links

http://www.jennair.com

HOUSTON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Linggu Chemical Co. Ltd (Linggu) for an ammonia plant in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province in China.

Under the terms of the contract, KBR will provide the technology licensing and basic engineering design (LBED) package for building a new 1,500 metric tons per day ammonia synthesis unit as a replacement for one of their existing units in Yixing, China. The plant will utilize KBR's proprietary ammonia synloop technology.

KBR's ammonia synloop provides a cost-effective ammonia synthesis solution with low energy consumption, and low CAPEX and OPEX for a reliable and efficient plant. This is the second grassroots ammonia synthesis unit for Linggu using KBR technology. KBR licensed the first synloop unit to Linggu in 2015.

"With KBR's advanced ammonia synthesis technology, we believe our plants will stand out in the coal-to-ammonia market in China," said Mr. Tan Fuyuan, Chairman of Linggu.

"We are honored to deliver this second ammonia unit to Linggu," said John Derbyshire, KBR President, Technology. "This project award showcases the superiority of KBR's Ammonia Synthesis Technology and its great fit for the market needs in China."

KBR is a leader in ammonia technology and has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering, and/or construction of more than 230 grass roots ammonia plants and over 100 revamp ammonia projects globally.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining and gasification

Hydrocarbons Services, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU); program management and consulting services

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com

New this year  in celebration of Spirit Day and for one day only, Oct. 18  limited edition "All Together" Spirit Day cereal boxes, will be available exclusively at Kellogg's New York City Cafe to mix favorite Kellogg's cereals together in celebration of belonging no matter how you look, where you're from, or who you love. All proceeds from Kellogg's "All Together Cereal" will be donated to GLAAD.

Celebrating Spirit Day globally, Kellogg employees around the world will participate in conversations that enable the company to build a culture where all employees are inspired to share their passion, talents and ideas. At Kellogg Company World Headquarters, employees will invite the community to help celebrate Spirit Day with an anti-bullying art exhibit  created by local students  during a local art hop event.

"At Kellogg, we are committed to a diverse and inclusive environment. We have long been allies and supporters of LGBTQ employees, their families and the community," said Mark King, Global Head, Diversity and Inclusion. "For more than 100 years, Kellogg has nourished families so they can flourish and thrive and the company continues to welcome everyone to the table."

About Kellogg Company

At Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), we strive to enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter. Our beloved brands include Pringles, Cheez-It, Keebler, Special K, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Eggo, Mini-Wheats, Kashi, RXBAR and more. Net sales in 2017 were approximately $13 billion, comprised principally of snacks and convenience foods like cereal and frozen foods. Kellogg brands are beloved in markets around the world. We are also a company with Heart & Soul, committed to creating three billion Better Days by the end of 2025 through our Breakfasts for Better Days global purpose platform. Visit www.KelloggCompany.com or www.OpenforBreakfast.com .

SOURCE Kellogg Company

Related Links

http://www.kelloggcompany.com

Mutreb's name matches that of a first secretary who once served as a diplomat at the Saudi Embassy in London, according to a 2007 list compiled by the British Foreign Office. The same name also appears in an email published by WikiLeaks from the 2015 breach of surveillance company Hacking Team of Saudi officials being trained to use their software. That breach showed how governments were increasingly turning to mercenary hackers-for-hire to pry into the cellphones and computers of their domestic opponents.CINCINNATI, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) will host an investor conference October 29-30, 2018 in Cincinnati. Rodney McMullen, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Mike Schlotman, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and additional senior executives will address investors.

The presentation will broadcast online at ir.kroger.com on October 29 from 8:00 p.m. (ET) to approximately 8:45 p.m. (ET) and on October 30 from 8:00 a.m. (ET) to approximately 12:30 p.m. (ET). Click on Events & Presentations to access the event. An on-demand replay of the presentations will be available starting at approximately 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, October 30, 2018.

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit. We are nearly half a million associates who serve over nine million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and 2,779 retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

SOURCE The Kroger Co.

Related Links

http://www.kroger.com

DALLAS, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Dickey's Barbecue Pit Chief Executive Officer, Laura Rea Dickey, is a keynote speaker at the Adriatic AWS Innovation Days 2018 hosted in Croatia.

This event is co-hosted by iOLAP, a partner of Dickey's Barbecue Pit and Amazon Web Service (AWS). The Innovation Days will focus on cloud-based journeys and the latest technological advancements and innovations from AWS.

Laura Rea Dickey, wife of Roland Dickey, Jr., the third generation Dickey's owner, joined the Dickey's Barbecue Pit family in 2008 as the Chief Information Officer where she implemented many technological advancements to the brand including creating Smoke Stack, Dickey's data warehousing system. As Dickey's continued to expand, Roland Dickey, Jr. became the CEO of Dickey's Capital Group, while Laura Rea transitioned to CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

"At Dickey's Barbecue Pit, we are constantly trying to learn more about our guests to tailor our messages and serve them in the best way," says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. "I am looking forward to speaking with and learning from all of the folks that will be at the Adriatic AWS Innovation Days."

Learn more about Dickey's Barbecue Pit here.

About Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest barbecue chain was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey. For the past 77 years, Dickey's Barbecue Pit locations across the nation have served guests Legit. Texas. Barbecue. At Dickey's, all meats are smoked low and slow on-site, every night in every location. The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers several slow-smoked meats and wholesome sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. The fast-casual concept has expanded worldwide and includes more than 500 locations in 44 states. In 2016, Dickey's won first place on Fast Casual's "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" list and in 2018 Dickey's Barbecue Pit made the Top 10. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, Franchise Times and Nation's Restaurant News. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.

Media Contact:

Callie Head

[email protected]

Ashley Richardson

[email protected]

SOURCE Dickey's Barbecue

Related Links

http://www.dickeys.com

BOSTON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Liberty Mutual Insurance announced today that it is undertaking a strategic review of its London-based Pembroke Managing Agency Limited, acquired through the lronshore purchase in May of 2017. The company has retained Evercore to serve as its adviser through the process.

Pembroke, headquartered in London with hubs in the US, Middle East and Asia, underwrites a portfolio of specialty insurance products through Lloyd's (Syndicate 4000) and company paper, including: property, liability, political risks, marine and energy, accident and health, agriculture, and select specialist lines. Pembroke is also a specialist provider of Lloyd's managing agency services to third party capital supported syndicates.

Liberty Mutual does not plan on providing additional details of the review until its completion.

About Liberty Mutual Insurance

Liberty Mutual is the fifth largest property and casualty global insurer based on 2017 gross written premium, with nearly 50,000 employees in 30 countries and economies around the world. Our purpose is to help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow. The promise we make to our customers throughout the world is to provide protection for the unexpected, delivered with care. We achieve this by offering a full range of personal, commercial, and specialty property and casualty insurance coverages. Our customers' trust has earned us the 68th spot on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S., based on 2017 revenue. You can learn more about us by visiting www.libertymutualinsurance.com.

Media Contact:

Richard Angevine

Office: 617-574-6638

Mobile: 617-833-0926

SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance

Related Links

http://www.libertymutual.com

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nine West Holdings, Inc. today announced that it, together with certain of its affiliates (collectively, the " Company "), has filed an amended chapter 11 plan of reorganization (the " Plan ") and related disclosure statement with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Plan is accompanied by an amended and restated Restructuring Support Agreement, which has been signed by parties that hold or control over 85% of its secured term debt, over 80% of its unsecured term debt, and the Company's indirect equity owners.

"Following the successful sale of our Nine West and Bandolino footwear and handbag business, today's filing of the amended Plan and entry into the amended Restructuring Support Agreement is another important milestone in our work to right-size the Company's capital structure and to position our One Jeanswear Group, The Jewelry Group, Kasper Group, and Anne Klein businesses for continued long-term success," said Ralph Schipani, interim chief executive officer of Nine West Holdings, Inc. "We look forward to working closely with all stakeholders over the coming weeks and months as we move through the plan approval process."

The proposed Plan is the result of the Company's engagement with its creditors over many months on the proper path forward for the Company's businesses and other assets. The Plan reduces the Company's pre-bankruptcy debt obligations by more than $1 billion. The Plan further provides significant near-term cash recoveries to stakeholders through the settlement of potential claims and causes of action against the Company's indirect equity owners that have been at the center of creditor investigations during the Company's bankruptcy cases. These claims will be settled for a $105 million cash contribution by the indirect equity owners to the Company, which cash will be distributed to the Company's unsecured creditors. The Company also will receive a 3-year purchase commitment from Belk, Inc. for an assortment of merchandise across the Company's businesses, further strengthening the Company's operations.

The proposed Plan contemplates the following creditor recoveries:

The Company's secured term debt holders will be repaid in full in cash;

The Company's unsecured term debt holders will receive (i) 92.5% of the equity of the reorganized company, subject to certain adjustments and dilutions set forth in the Plan, and (ii) onethird of the equity holder settlement proceeds;

The Company's unsecured noteholders and general unsecured creditors will share in an equity pool of 7.5% of the equity of the reorganized company, subject to dilution and certain adjustments set forth in the Plan; and

The Company's unsecured noteholders and other unsecured creditors at Nine West Holdings, Inc. will also receive (i) warrants for 20% of the reorganized company's equity, and (ii) two-thirds of the equity holder settlement proceeds.

A hearing has been scheduled for November 7, 2018, to consider approval of the Disclosure Statement related to the Plan. Following Court approval of the Disclosure Statement, the Company will distribute the Plan and Disclosure Statement to voting creditors for their consideration. The Plan remains subject to bankruptcy court approval and customary closing conditions.

This press release is not intended as solicitation for a vote on the Plan.

Additional information about the Plan is available at https://cases.primeclerk.com/ninewest.

The Company's legal advisors are Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The Company's financial advisor is Lazard Freres & Co. Alvarez & Marsal North America LLC has been retained to provide an interim CEO and additional personnel.

About Nine West Holdings, Inc.

Nine West Holdings, Inc. is a leading jeanswear, women's apparel, accessories and licensing company with a portfolio of brands that includes Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Kasper, and Napier. The Company is a wholesale partner to major U.S. and international retailers.

Media Contact:

Ruth Pachman

Kekst CNC

[email protected]

212/521-4891

SOURCE Nine West Holdings, Inc.SHANGHAI, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Noah Holdings Limited ("Noah" or the "Company") (NYSE: NOAH), a leading wealth and asset management service provider in China with a focus on global investment and asset allocation services for high net worth individuals and enterprises, today announced that it will hold its 2018 annual general meeting ("AGM") of shareholders at the Jinmao Hotel Lijiang, No. 8 Xiangjiang Road, Gucheng District, Lijiang, Yunnan province, People's Republic of China, on November 27, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. local time. No proposal will be submitted for shareholder approval at the AGM. Instead, the AGM will serve as an open forum for shareholders and beneficial owners of the Company's American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") to discuss Company affairs with management.

The record date (the "Record Date") for determining the shareholders entitled to receive notice of the AGM or any adjournment or postponement thereof has been set as the close of business on October 19, 2018.

Holders of record of the Company's ordinary shares at the close of business on the Record Date are entitled to attend the AGM and any adjournment or postponement thereof in person. Beneficial owners of the Company's ADSs are also welcome to attend the AGM in person. In order to assist us in our preparation for the AGM, please RSVP by email to [email protected].

Shareholders and ADS holders may obtain a copy of the Company's annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2017, free of charge, from our website at http://ir.noahgroup.com, or by sending an email to [email protected].

ABOUT NOAH HOLDINGS LIMITED

Noah Holdings Limited (NYSE: NOAH) is a leading wealth and asset management service provider in China with a focus on global investment and asset allocation services for high net worth individuals and enterprises. In the second quarter of 2018, Noah distributed RMB29.1 billion (US$4.4 billion) of financial products. Through Gopher Asset Management, Noah had assets under management of RMB161.5 billion (US$24.4 billion) as of June 30, 2018.

Noah's wealth management business primarily distributes onshore and offshore fixed income, private equity, secondary market equity and insurance products. Noah delivers customized financial solutions to clients through a network of 1,495 relationship managers across 287 branches and sub-branches in 81 cities in mainland China, and serves the international investment needs of its clients through offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, United States, Canada, Australia and Singapore. The Company's wealth management business had 220,601 registered clients as of June 30, 2018. As a leading alternative asset manager in China, Gopher Asset Management manages private equity, real estate, secondary market equity, credit and other investments denominated in Renminbi and other currencies. The Company also provides other financial services, including lending services, online wealth management and payment technology services.

For more information, please visit Noah at ir.noahgroup.com.

Contacts:

Eva Ma

Noah Holdings Limited

Tel: +86 21-8035-9221

[email protected]

SOURCE Noah Holdings Limited

Related Links

http://ir.noahgroup.com

SEATTLE, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nordstrom, Inc. today announced it will be hosting a company-wide hiring day on Friday, October 19, with events taking place in every Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack store across the U.S. and Canada, as well as in its distribution and fulfillment centers. In an effort to best serve customers during the upcoming holiday season, the retailer is looking to fill approximately 24,000 roles in its stores, call centers, distribution and fulfillment centers. Interested candidates can also apply online at the Nordstrom Careers page, careers.nordstrom.com.

"Our focus is always on serving our customers, and our employees enable us to help deliver outstanding customer experiences," said Christine Deputy, chief Human Resources officer at Nordstrom. "The holiday season is one of our busiest times of year and we need to be sure we have the right teams in place to be able to offer our customers the service and experience they're looking for, no matter how they choose to shop with us."

From salespeople to back of house support roles to gift wrappers, the company is looking to fill approximately:

20,300 positions at its 122 Nordstrom stores and 242 Nordstrom Rack stores in the U.S. and Canada

900 positions to support the company's call center

2,800 positions at distribution and fulfillment centers located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ; Elizabethtown, Pa. ; and San Bernardino, Calif. ; and its distribution centers located in Portland, Ore. ; Dubuque, Iowa ; Ontario, Calif. ; Newark, Calif. ; Gainesville, Fla. ; and Upper Marlboro, Md.

"Our seasonal roles offer new employees a terrific opportunity to learn more about Nordstrom and the many career paths we offer," said Deputy. "We have a promote-from-within philosophy, which is why so many of our long-term employees began their Nordstrom careers in a seasonal role."

Lenny Hill began his Nordstrom career during the 2006 holiday season. "I didn't initially envision the position lasting more than a few weeks, but I quickly fell in love with selling and Nordstrom as a company. I became determined to stay on as a regular employee so I could build a career with the company," said Hill. Hill was offered a salesperson role and worked his way down the Nordstrom inverted pyramid through roles across our business. Today, he is an HR Regional Manager supporting our Southern California stores.

Nordstrom will host a national hiring day event on Friday, October 19 beginning at 11 a.m. (local time) in every Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack store in the U.S. and Canada, as well as at the company's distribution and fulfillment centers. The events will feature same-day interviews and job offers made on the spot. Interested applicants can find their nearest store by visiting the company's store locator page.

Nordstrom offers comprehensive benefits for all of its employees: competitive pay, a fabulous merchandise discount, and employee charitable match and volunteering programs. Eligible employees can also receive medical coverage, an employer-matched retirement plan and much more.

ABOUT NORDSTROM

Nordstrom, Inc. is a leading fashion retailer based in the U.S. Founded in 1901 as a shoe store in Seattle, today Nordstrom operates 379 stores in 40 states, including 122 full-line stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico; 243 Nordstrom Rack stores; three Jeffrey boutiques; two clearance stores; six Trunk Club clubhouses; and three Nordstrom Local service concepts. Additionally, customers are served online through Nordstrom.com, Nordstromrack.com, HauteLook and TrunkClub.com. Nordstrom, Inc.'s common stock is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol JWN.

MEDIA CONTACT: Emily Sterken

Nordstrom, Inc.

206.303.3034

[email protected]

SOURCE Nordstrom, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nordstrom.com

The public launch of Outpacing the Impossible: the Northwell Campaign , an ambitious $1 billion, seven-year effort to support Northwell's promise to the people it serves, was held at Northwell's Center for Advanced Medicine in Lake Success Wednesday evening. The event brought together more than 600 of the organization's highest-level benefactors who support initiatives across the health system's footprint.

This comprehensive campaign supports capital projects, improves hospitals and clinical programs, and advances research and funding endowment for teaching and research initiatives. A significant portion of the campaign will also be allocated to the development of Northwell's care locations in Manhattan. Northwell Health is comprised of 23 hospitals and more than 665 outpatient care locations throughout the New York metropolitan area and beyond.

Outpacing the Impossible includes all funds given by individual donors, corporations and foundations. Donors to Northwell have given nearly $500 million since the campaign's inception on January 1, 2016.

Along with  and as part of the public campaign  Northwell has launched its first enterprise-wide employee giving program, which enables employees among all levels throughout the organization to participate. More than 5,000 Northwell employees  including 99 percent of Northwell's leadership  have already given over $7 million to support projects and programs across the health system.

What the campaign will do

This campaign will fuel innovation in strategic areas, including research, pediatrics, women's health, behavioral health and military veterans programs. Every gift to the campaign accelerates potential cures, and helps Northwell find answers and create treatments and therapies that strengthen our local communities.

"Philanthropy is critical to Northwell Health," says Brian Lally, Northwell's senior vice president and chief development officer. "Our entire health system is focused on the communities we serve. Philanthropy is our investment back into our communities and helps us to take better care of more people."

Leonard Feinstein, William L. Mack and Roy J. Zuckerberg  all long-time benefactors to the organization  are co-chairs of the Outpacing the Impossible campaign. The endeavor is also being led by a campaign committee, comprised of significant donors, prominent volunteer community leaders and Northwell leadership.

"We believe in the power and potential impact of taking on challenges and going where others won't," says Northwell Health President and CEO Michael Dowling. "Our ambition is to innovate, and it's part of everything we do. We don't settle for the norm in health care, and through the generosity and support of our communities, and each other, we will push our standards even further, for the best care to better the lives of every person we touch."



Seeing health care differently

Northwell's mission begins with its patients and families who have come to expect the unexpected from the organization. Outpacing the Impossible rests on four pillars that define Northwell's culture.

Driven to discover  Focused on the future of healing, teaching and research, Northwell pursues and implements new knowledge that brings the impossible to life, such as the creation of bioelectronic medicine, a new field of medicine that uses electrical implants to help the body heal itself.

 Focused on the future of healing, teaching and research, Northwell pursues and implements new knowledge that brings the impossible to life, such as the creation of bioelectronic medicine, a new field of medicine that uses electrical implants to help the body heal itself. Disruptive thinking  Northwell fosters the intellectual capital behind its breakthrough research, innovations and treatments. Through inventive teaching methods at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra /Northwell that defy expectations and inspire, we don't just see things differently, but are changing the way the world sees health care.

 Northwell fosters the intellectual capital behind its breakthrough research, innovations and treatments. Through inventive teaching methods at the of Medicine at /Northwell that defy expectations and inspire, we don't just see things differently, but are changing the way the world sees health care. Pioneering solutions  Northwell's depth and breadth, agility and nimbleness enhances its ability to have an immediate impact across the region and beyond.

 Northwell's depth and breadth, agility and nimbleness enhances its ability to have an immediate impact across the region and beyond. Seeing people fully  Northwell sees and treats people as who they truly are: families, friends, neighbors and coworkers.

Why Northwell, why now

Innovation fuels advancement in health care, and at Northwell, philanthropy fuels innovation. The increasing costs of health care delivery, combined with declining and delayed government and insurance reimbursements for delivered care, creates the perfect storm of challenges to advance medicine, pioneer real-time care solutions and deliver the right care at the right time.

Over the last three years, Northwell Health has seen exponential growth of its philanthropic support, further impacting the health system's ability to deliver on its mission. In 2017, the organization had a record year, receiving over $177.3 million for its hospitals and programs.

"This campaign is already having a significant impact on our health system," says Mark Claster, chair of Northwell's Board of Trustees. "Like most nonprofits, we operate on incredibly thin margins and we don't use our revenue to pay shareholders. We reinvest that money back into the organization to improve our facilities to take better care of people and keep them well."

To learn more about Outpacing the Impossible, The Northwell Campaign, visit support.northwell.edu.

About Northwell Health

Northwell Health is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, 665 outpatient facilities and more than 18,500 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 66,000 employees  16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners  are working to change health care for the better. We're making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu.

SOURCE Northwell Health

Related Links

https://www.northwell.edu

LONDON, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Opportunities in the Global Prepared Meals Sector: Analysis of Opportunities Offered by High Growth Economies



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4806044



Summary

A growing population, rising urbanization rate, and improving economy will remain the primary factors driving the sector globally.Ready Meals represents the largest and the fastest-growing market for prepared meals, given their convenience, which allows increasingly busy consumers to enjoy a quick meal at home as opposed to cooking from scratch.



Global prepared meals sector was valued at US$86.9 billion in 2017 and is forecast to record a CAGR of 4.1% during 2017-2022 to reach US$106.4 billion by 2022. Western Europe represented the largest regional market with a value share of 39.4% in the global prepared meals sector in 2017.



However, negative consumer perception about prepared meals as being unhealthy due to the presence of preservatives and excess saturated fats poses a major challenge for manufacturers, particularly in developing countries. On the same time the high preference for freshly prepared food, the value share of prepared meals in the global food industry is set to remain same, subdued by declining share in the APAC and Western Europe regions.



The global prepared meals sector is witnessing increased competition from other food sectors, particularly dairy foods and savory snacks, as consumers become busier and choose a quick, healthy alternative over prepared meals, especially when consuming food out-of-home.



The US represented the largest market for prepared meals with a 23.1% share of global value sales in 2017. Egypt emerged as one of the fastest-growing markets for prepared meals with a projected CAGR of 15.7% during 2017-2022. Hypermarkets & supermarkets is the leading distribution channel for the global prepared meals sector, with a value share of 68% in 2017, followed by convenience stores with 19.8% share.



The report "Opportunities in the Global Prepared Meals Sector", provides an overview of global and regional markets covering - Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Americas, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe - highlighting sector size, growth drivers, latest developments, and future inhibitors for the region.



It also identifies top ten high potential countries and provides deep dive analysis of top countries in each region.The report draws on the sector data by analyzing key distribution channels for prepared meals in the global market.



Sector data is also used for studying the level of competition in the sector by identifying the top brands at a global and regional level with insights on sector shares of private label products.



The report specifically covers -

- Market overview: Provides an overview of current sector scenario vis-a-vis the future outlook in terms of ingredients, product claims, labeling and packaging. The analysis also covers regional overview across six regions - Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Americas, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe - highlighting sector size, growth drivers, latest developments, and future inhibitors for the region.

- Change in consumption: Provides a shift in the consumption of prepared meals as compared to other major sectors such as meat, bakery & cereals, savory snacks, and dairy foods during 2012-2022 at global and regional level.

- High potential countries: Provides risk-reward analysis of top 10 high potential countries across five regions based on market assessment, economic development, socio-demographic, governance indicators, and technological infrastructure.

- Country and regional analysis: Provides deep-dive analysis of 10 high potential countries covering value growth during 2017-2022, key challenges, consumer demographics, and key trends. It also includes regional analysis covering new product launches in the primary countries and future outlook for the region.

- Health & Wellness analysis: Provides insights on the health & wellness products in terms of value and percentage share in the overall prepared meals sector at global and regional level during 2012-2022. The analysis includes key health & wellness attributes and consumer benefits driving the sales of prepared meals across the six regions in 2017. It also covers the market share of leading companies offering prepared meals with health and wellness attributes in the same year.

- Competitive landscape: Provides an overview of leading brands at global and regional level, besides analyzing the product profile, country level presence, market share, and growth of private labels in each region.

- Key distribution channels: Provides analysis on the leading distribution channels in the global prepared meals sector in 2017. It covers four distribution channels: hypermarkets & supermarkets, convenience stores, food & drinks specialists, and others that include cash & carries and warehouse clubs, 'dollar stores', department stores, e-retailers, and general retailers.

- Preferred packaging formats: The report provides percentage share (in 2017) and growth analysis (during 2012-2022) for various packaging materials, container, closure, and outer types based on the volume sales (by pack units) of prepared meals.



Companies Mentioned: Nestle SA, Dr. August Oetker Kg, ConAgra Brands Inc, Amy`s Kitchen, Inc., Nomad Foods, Unilever, Marumiya Corporation, Heinz, General Mills, Inc., Pinnacle Foods, Inc., Frosta AG, Toyo Suisan Kaisha, Ltd., Bellisio Foods, Inc., The Kraft Heinz Co, Continental Foods, Schwan`s Consumer Brands, Inc, Nichirei, Katokichi Co., Ltd., McCain, Fleury Michon.



Scope

- The report provides an overview of global and regional markets covering - Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Americas, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe - highlighting sector size, growth drivers, latest developments, and future inhibitors for the region.

- It also identifies top ten high potential countries and provides deep dive analysis of top countries in each region.

- The report draws on the sector data by analyzing key distribution channels for prepared meals in the global market.

- Sector data is also used for studying the level of competition in the sector by identifying the top brands at a global and regional level with insights on sector shares of private label products.



Reasons to buy

- To have a thorough fact based analysis with information about the global prepared meals sector across the five regions in value terms and the underlying factors that are driving the sales

- To gain confidence to make the correct business decisions based on a detailed analysis of the global prepared meals sector and to identify high potential countries over the next 5 years

- The analysts have placed a significant emphasis on the mega trends that drive consumer choice and will provide a clear picture about the future opportunities that can be explored across the regions, resulting in revenue expansion

- To gain competitive intelligence about leading brands in the prepared meals sector at global and regional level with information about their sector share, business descriptions and product profiles.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4806044



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com

NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced First National Bank Alaska (OTCQX: FBAK), Alaska's largest locally owned community bank, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. First National Bank Alaska upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market.

First National Bank Alaska begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "FBAK." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com .

"We are pleased to welcome First National Bank Alaska as the 20th community bank to join OTCQX this year and as the first bank from Alaska," said Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice President of Corporate Services, OTC Markets Group. "First National Bank Alaska will trade alongside investor-focused community banks on OTCQX that are distinguished by the integrity of their operations and diligence with which they convey their qualifications."

"For nearly 100 years, our Alaskan-owned and operated bank has earned sustained success by providing high quality banking services to friends and neighbors, to their businesses, and to their employees," said Betsy Lawer, First National Board Chair and CEO. "We think that's a story worth telling on a national stage. By joining the OTCQX Best Market on Alaska Day, October 18, it is our intent to generate broader recognition by investors and highlight First National's long-term commitment to the Great Land. By doing so, we expect to enhance share value to all shareholders."

First National Bank Alaska was sponsored for OTCQX by Raymond James & Associates, Inc., a qualified third-party firm responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements and recommending membership.

About First National Bank Alaska

Alaskan-owned and -operated since 1922, First National proudly meets the financial needs of Alaskans with ATMs and branches in 18 communities throughout the state. This year Alaska Business readers voted the bank the "Best of Alaska Business" in the Best Place to Work category for the third year in a row and as best Corporate Citizen for the second. Also in 2018, Microsoft News named First National the most admired company in the state and American Banker chose First National as a "Best Bank to Work For."

About OTC Markets Group Inc.

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com.

OTC Link ATS and OTC Link ECN are operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC and SEC regulated ATS.

Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed

Media Contact:

OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected]

SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.otcmarkets.com

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new lawsuit alleges women and minorities employed by the American Bankers Association "are subjected to systemic discrimination and a culture of fear designed to deter them from reporting discrimination or otherwise advocating for equal opportunity," the law firm Outten & Golden LLP said today.

Christine "Christy" Walika, a former executive vice president who worked for the organization for 25 years, sued the American Bankers Association in Superior Court in the District of Columbia, alleging the banking industry's largest trade association violated the D.C. Human Rights Act and the D.C. Family and Medical Leave Act after she reported discriminatory conduct.

Susan E. Huhta, Cassandra W. Lenning, and Mikael A. Rojas, of the Washington, D.C. office of Outten & Golden LLP, represent Ms. Walika.

According to the complaint, "Christy Walika demonstrated an exceptional work ethic and exemplary performance. She rose through the ranks of the American Bankers Association, but when she used her position to speak out against its discriminatory practices against herself and other women and people of color at the company, she became the target of hostile treatment and retaliation, was denied promotion, and ultimately fired."

Ms. Huhta said, "We hope this lawsuit helps our client and other women in the financial industry feel confident that they can come forward and speak out against discrimination and harassment without fear of illegal retaliation."

This lawsuit charges the American Bankers Association with "discriminatory and retaliatory actions against Ms. Walika, including denying her equal pay, denying her a promotion, demoting her, unfairly disciplining her, subjecting her to multiple materially adverse changes to the terms of her employment, and terminating her, all due to her gender, prior complaints of discrimination and other protected activity, and her request for medical leave, in violation of anti-discrimination and medical leave laws."

The lawsuit also alleges that over the years the "American Bankers Association has received reports involving sexual harassment and discrimination" by men at the top levels of the organization, yet allowed those men to remain in power.

The lawsuit alleges that although the "American Bankers Association markets itself as an organization that supports the advancement of women and people of color within the banking industry, behind the scenes, women and minorities are subjected to systemic discrimination and a culture of fear. Ms. Walika's experiences at the American Bankers Association reveal an outdated 'old boys club' culture where discrimination, harassment and retaliation against women, African Americans and other minorities is standard."

Throughout its history, according to the lawsuit, the organization "has excluded women from leadership and promotion opportunities" and since "its founding in 1875, no woman has ever served as the American Bankers Association's highest executive officer" and no "woman of color has ever served at the Executive Vice President level."

"We believe that women and people of color should not be relegated to second-class status in any workplace, and that they should be able to speak out against systemic discrimination when they see it or experience it firsthand," added Ms. Huhta.

The case is "Christine Walika v. American Bankers Association" in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Civil Division.

CONTACT: Susan E. Huhta, Outten & Golden LLP, 202.847.4400, www.outtengolden.com.

SOURCE Outten & Golden LLP

Related Links

http://www.outtengolden.com

55th District: We know, we know. Rep. Marty Moylan, D-Des Plaines, is a popular guy. Hes friendly. We like him too. But last year in the middle of a budget crisis, he sponsored legislation to regulate what kinds of trinkets could be sold at the Illinois State Museum. He followed that with a bill that set criminal penalties for local officials who approved right-to-work zones in their towns. Jail time for mayors trying to lure economic development? Can we get serious? Moylan is portraying his Republican opponent, Marilyn Smolenski of Park Ridge, as a gun zealot. She is passionate about self-defense and concealed carry due to a stalking incident in her life. But she is running for the seat to focus on voters pocketbooks. She supports a cap on property taxes, similar to Indianas model, and she would oppose a graduated income tax, which she believes would hit her community hard. We have endorsed Moylan in the past. But hes gone astray of the commonsense, independent-minded approach we appreciated. Smolenski is endorsed.SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Panoply, the smart cloud data warehouse built for business intelligence, is excited to announce a new data governance functionality called Teams.

For larger companies or those who have to adhere to data compliance and governance, proper access to information is critical. This includes being able to control data permissions and provisioning to avoid over-sharing of data.

The Teams feature grants Panoply customers the ability to give certain teams access to specific data tables to keep data secure based on a need-to-know basis only.

"We're very excited to enable customers to enforce data governance in their organizations," said Roi Avinoam, Panoply CTO and Co-Founder. "With Teams, which is just the beginning of our governance functionality, database admins can ensure correct levels of access to data based on an individual or team's role and needs."

To quote Panoply customer Adam Beltz, Sr. Manager of Information Architecture at Matilda Jane: "Being 'data-driven' is a huge driver in every aspect of Matilda Jane's business. Now that decision-makers have access to easy-to-use data analysis and visualization tools, we now have a glut of data and it's hard for data managers to ensure the right data is being consumed. Data governance and controls are very much needed and Teams from Panoply fits the bill."

Teams is rolling out to customers now and more information can be found on Panoply's blog.

About Panoply

Panoply is the world's only smart data warehouse for business intelligence (BI). Built for the cloud, Panoply utilizes machine learning and natural language processing to automate highly diverse data integration, query optimization and elastic data management making it fast and simple to gain actionable insights without the need of IT and Engineering. The company, based in San Francisco and Tel Aviv, is privately held and funded by investors such as Intel Capital, 500 Startups, Blumberg Capital, and C5 Capital.

Contact:

Jason Harris

(503) 334-2574

[email protected]

SOURCE Panoply

Related Links

www.panoply.io

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Nearly 80 percent of pharmaceutical product packages still do not have a readable barcode with all four required data elements pursuant to the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) despite the looming November 27, 2018 enforcement deadline  according to a barcode assessment study conducted by GS1 US, in collaboration with AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson Pharmaceutical (McKesson).

The three pharmaceutical wholesalers, representing approximately 90 percent of pharmaceutical distribution in the U.S., examined package and homogenous case level barcodes in their distribution facilities in May 2018 to obtain a snapshot of industry's progress implementing DSCSA serialization requirements. When AmerisourceBergen and McKesson scanned 100 percent of on-hand package (lowest saleable unit) barcodes in their distribution centers, they found that only 20.7 percent (compared with 6.6 percent in 2017) of packages carried a readable 2D data matrix barcode with all four required data elements, including NDC (represented by Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)), serial number, lot number, and expiration date.

AmerisourceBergen assessed 5,009 packages of specialty medications and McKesson analyzed prescription pharmaceuticals, scanning 16,200 packages. Cardinal Health evaluated homogeneous case-level barcodes on pharmaceutical products, scanning 15,708 barcodes on 6,481 cases, and found just 15.1 percent of homogeneous cases were marked with the 2D barcode and four data elements.

Additional issues identified in the assessment include poor barcode placement, a lack of alignment when UPC-A and 2D barcodes are both required on the same package, serialization adherence, improper coding, and inconsistent expiration date formats.

"The industry has made only marginal progress in the past year toward implementing DSCSA serialization, and U.S. FDA enforcement is around the corner," said Siobhan O'Bara, SVP industry engagement and services, GS1 US. "Just over one month from now, failure to meet these critical requirements could begin to negatively impact companies' reputations and bottom lines, so time is of the essence."

AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson recommend suppliers refer to and implement GS1 Standards for barcode guidance with size, placement, encoding, and more, to improve barcode quality. All three wholesalers offer implementation assistance, including sample barcode testing, educational sessions, and individualized support. Suppliers should also pay particular attention to barcode placement on cases and packages to avoid readability issues, and use the DSCSA education and implementation resources available from GS1 US. Finally, they urge suppliers to accelerate the implementation of serialization and address any issues now.

"Compliance is critical," said Ms. O'Bara, "but it is important to understand that the whole point of serialization is ultimately to effect industry-wide improvements in traceability, efficiency and accuracy  and most of all, patient safety  goals we can all get behind."

Details of the barcode assessment methodology and findings, as well as recommendations and resources to support implementation, are published in a new GS1 US report, "2018 Update: Implementation of DSCSA Serialization Requirements." For more information about GS1 US, visit www.gs1us.org.

About GS1 Healthcare US

GS1 Healthcare US is an industry group that focuses on driving the adoption and implementation of GS1 Standards in the healthcare industry in the United States to improve patient safety and supply chain efficiency. GS1 Healthcare US brings together members from all segments of the healthcare industry to address the supply chain issues that most impact healthcare in the United States. Facilitated by GS1 US, GS1 Healthcare US is one of more than 30 local GS1 Healthcare user groups around the world that support the adoption and implementation of global standards developed by GS1. For more information, visit www.gs1us.org/healthcare .

About GS1 US

GS1 US, a member of GS1 global, is a not-for-profit information standards organization that facilitates industry collaboration to help improve supply chain visibility and efficiency through the use of GS1 Standards, the most widely-used supply chain standards system in the world. Nearly 300,000 businesses in 25 industries rely on GS1 US for trading partner collaboration that optimizes their supply chains, drives cost performance and revenue growth while also enabling regulatory compliance. They achieve these benefits through solutions based on GS1 global unique numbering and identification systems, barcodes, Electronic Product Code(EPC)-based RFID, data synchronization, and electronic information exchange. GS1 US also manages the United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC). www.gs1us.org .

SOURCE GS1 US

Related Links

http://www.gs1us.org

With the cranberry harvest in full swing, the curators of cranberry creations are refreshing their seasonal offerings with new Ocean Spray CranHarvest Juice Drink, a fresh, fall blend of bold cranberries, crisp apples and a hint of cinnamon spice to warm those cool autumn days. Ocean Spray CranHarvest Juice Drink is available in a twin 96-ounce size, at BJs Wholesales outlets nationwide through December or while supplies last.

About Ocean Spray

Ocean Spray is a vibrant agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers in the United States, Canada and Chile who have helped preserve the family farming way of life for generations. Formed in 1930, Ocean Spray is now the world's leading producer of cranberry juices, juice drinks and dried cranberries and is the best-selling brand in the North American bottled juice category.

The Cooperative's cranberries are currently featured in more than a thousand great-tasting, good-for-you products in over 100 countries worldwide. With more than 2,000 employees and nearly 20 cranberry receiving and processing facilities, Ocean Spray is committed to managing our business in a way that respects our communities, employees and the environment. For more information visit: www.oceanspray.com or www.oceanspray.coop.



SOURCE Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.

Related Links

www.oceanspray.com

Count Me In aims to sign up more than 100,000 patients across all major cancer types, as well as rare cancers, over the next several years. Cancer patients and researchers can visit JoinCountMeIn.org to learn more , join in one of the four current projects, or sign up to be updated when other projects launch.

Patient information holds important clues that might lead to new therapies or knowledge about who will respond to which treatments  but most of this information is never collected, aggregated, or made available for study.

One reason is that the vast majority of cancer patients receive treatment in community hospitals and clinics  not at the large academic medical centers that conduct cancer research. Because of this, only a fraction ever have the opportunity to contribute to research that might unlock critical insights.

Count Me In is organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization designed to benefit patients and researchers. Count Me In is being stewarded by four leading organizations: Emerson Collective, a California-based social change organization; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a leading nonprofit biomedical research institution; the Biden Cancer Initiative, an independent nonprofit organization that builds on the federal government's Cancer Moonshot; and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a leading cancer hospital.

Count Me In is supported by philanthropy and does not sell patient information. It is committed to patients having an active voice in decisions, and researchers everywhere having rapid access to new data to ensure that anyone can make discoveries. A significant component of Count Me In projects is direct engagement between patients and researchers. Through online groups and one-on-one communication, each research project maintains a close working relationship with participants.

Count Me In began with discussions between Emerson Collective and Broad Institute in 2013 about new approaches for patient-partnered research, which led to projects launched with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute beginning in 2014 to test ideas and create the necessary infrastructure.

Since then, four projects have been launched and thousands of patients have chosen to donate their medical records, tumor samples and genomic information. More than 5,700 patients receiving care at more than 1,000 medical centers across all 50 US states and Canada have participated in Count Me In projects to date.

The current projects are:

The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project (mbcproject.org), launched in October 2015 ;

; The Angiosarcoma Project (ascproject.org) launched in March 2017 ;

; The Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project (mpcproject.org) launched in January 2018 ; and,

; and, The Gastroesophageal Cancer Project (gecproject.org), which launched this month.

"Answering many important questions about cancer will require engaging and empowering many more patients as partners and offering the opportunity to participate in groundbreaking research to all people living with cancer, whether they live near a research hospital or not," said Nikhil Wagle, the director of Count Me In, and medical oncologist and cancer researcher at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute. "The challenge has been that most stored tumor samples and medical records have not been available for these types of studies, because most cancer patients are cared for in community settings where this type of research is not done. Count Me In aims to help make that possible."

"By connecting with patients and advocacy groups through social media, we have been able to build true partnerships with women and men who understand that, although these research projects are not likely to personally help them, their experiences and voices matter and may help change the future for other patients in measurable ways," said Corrie Painter, associate director of Count Me In and cancer researcher at the Broad Institute. "These patient-partners have helped us design our outreach to engage a more diverse set of people, make consent forms easier to understand, and design entire studies from the ground up."

With this new model of patient-partnered research, Count Me In teams will make information widely available through public databases, such as the cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics and the National Cancer Institute's Genomic Data Commons. Each research project within Count Me In will collect and de-identify patient data, and combine them with data from genetic analysis of tumor, blood and saliva samples. These data will then be released at regular intervals to provide a continuously growing resource for analysis by researchers.

"Count Me In is on a mission to make every patient's experience count in our efforts to understand and ultimately overcome cancer," said Reed Jobs, director of Emerson Collective's Health team and co-chair of Count Me In. "By harnessing modern communications, patient groups from across the country, and cutting-edge research, we can overcome cancer together."

"Many patients have told us they want to share this information, but have had no way to do it," said Eric S. Lander, founding director of Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and a co-chair of Count Me In. "Patients' medical records, tumor samples, and personal experiences hold myriad clues  about which cancers will respond to or become resistant to which therapies  that often can't be found in research labs or clinical trials."

Over the next few years, Count Me In plans to launch additional projects in all major cancer types, as well as many rare cancers, including brain cancers, osteosarcoma, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, urinary cancer, ovarian cancer and others.

"Patients are importantthe research is for patients," said Joel Nowak, a patient-participant in the Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project. "I think patients are able to help researchers develop better questions and, more importantly, find ways to reach out into the community of patients."

"African Americans and people of color are often the most forgotten about in research, so we're not counted in," said Bridgette Hempstead, a patient participant in the Metastatic Breast Cancer Project. "Count Me In is a place you want to be to make sure that when other researchers are looking at how to cure cancer that you're counted in."

With patient consent, all data created by Count Me In programs are shared with the global biomedical community after being stripped of readily-identifiable information to rapidly accelerate the pace of discovery and expand our understanding of this disease.

"The potential to improve the cancer experience for patients and their families is within reach, and the key to making this happen has to do with standardizing, sharing, and putting the power of data in the patient's hands," said Greg Simon, President of the Biden Cancer Initiative. "Count Me In helps us do that, at a scale that was unimaginable and impossible just a few years ago."

"As the Count Me In projects have already demonstrated, patients are often eager partners in the effort to accelerate cancer research," said Laurie Glimcher, M.D., President & CEO of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "Expanding the reach of this innovative patient engagement model will empower even more patients to participate in research more directly, and help unlock the potential of their data and experience to drive new discoveries."

"As a patient, I want to contribute more to the research," said Shoba Rao, a patient participant in the Angiosarcoma Project. "As a participant in Count Me In, you're contributing to the scientific community and whether it helps you or not, it's going to help people later on."

As Count Me In launches new projects in the coming years, the organization also plans to launch a smartphone app in 2019, which will feature a simple sign-up process and will provide additional research project information for participants.

About Count Me In

Count Me In is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to make every patient's experience count in the effort to understand and overcome cancer. Founded in 2018 by Emerson Collective and Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Count Me In engages and empowers patients to participate in cancer research by donating medical records, genomic data and tumor samples for study. To learn more, visit JoinCountMeIn.org .

About Emerson Collective

Emerson Collective is a social change organization that uses a broad range of tools to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Established and led by Laurene Powell Jobs, Emerson Collective uses philanthropy, impact investing, advocacy and community activation in order to remove barriers to justice for individuals, families and communities across the country and around the globe. For further information about Emerson Collective, go to http://www.emersoncollective.com .

About Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was launched in 2004 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine. The Broad Institute seeks to describe all the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods, and data openly to the entire scientific community.

Founded by MIT, Harvard, Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff, and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to http://www.broadinstitute.org.

CONTACT:

Emerson Collective

Marcy Stech

Director of Communications

[email protected]

Morgan Warners

202-337-0808

[email protected]

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

David Cameron

Director of Communications and Media Relations

617-714-8600

[email protected]

SOURCE Emerson Collective; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Related Links

http://www.joincountmein.org

MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) has scheduled a conference call for 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Thursday, October 25, 2018, to discuss the company's third quarter 2018 financial results. The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations website, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that controls and operates four global brands: Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises and Silversea Cruises. We are also a 50 percent joint venture owner of the German brand TUI Cruises and a 49 percent shareholder in the Spanish brand Pullmantur Cruceros. Together, these brands operate a combined total of 59 ships with an additional 15 on order as of September 30, 2018. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.azamaraclubcruises.com, www.silversea.com, www.tuicruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, or www.rclinvestor.com.

SOURCE Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.royalcaribbean.com

"I am proud of SAP's excellent business momentum: our accelerating cloud growth shows our strategic priorities are exactly on track. Our non-IFRS operating profit was up double digit even with a higher share of cloud and services revenue. As promised SAP's business is growing its resilience with a constantly increasing share of more predictable revenue. All of this makes me confident that we will deliver on our raised 2018 outlook and 2020 ambition." - Luka Mucic, CFO

Business Performance

Financial Highlights Third Quarter 2018

New cloud bookings[1] growth accelerated to 36% (37% at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew 39% year over year to 1.30 billion (IFRS), up 41% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).[2] Software revenue was down 9% year over year to 937 million (IFRS), down 8% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). While SAP had a strong software revenue performance in APJ and Greater China, customers in the Americas and parts of EMEA were moving faster than expected to cloud and hybrid models. With its expanded Intelligent Suite in the cloud and unique hybrid capabilities, SAP is capitalizing on this market trend. This is reflected in the strong new cloud and software license order entry[3], up 12% at constant currencies year over year in the third quarter. Cloud and software revenue grew 7% year over year to 5.01 billion (IFRS), up 10% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Total revenue grew 8% year over year to 6.02 billion (IFRS), up 10% (non-IFRS at constant currencies).

SAP's rapidly expanding cloud business together with solid growth in support revenue continued to drive the share of more predictable revenue. The total of cloud subscriptions & support revenue and software support revenue as a percentage of total revenue grew three percentage points year-over-year to 68% in the third quarter.

Amid a higher than expected share of cloud and services revenue third quarter operating profit declined 6% year over year to 1.24 billion (IFRS) and was up 11% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). The IFRS operating profit was mainly impacted by higher share-based compensation expenses. As announced in January 2018, the Company expects a positive revenue and profit impact from the adoption of IFRS 15 in 2018. In the third quarter, this positive impact on SAP's operating profit was around 74 million. Earnings per share declined 1% at 0.82 (IFRS) and increased 13% to 1.14 (non-IFRS).

Operating cash flow for the first nine months was 3.48 billion, down 16% year-over-year. The decrease in operating cash flow was mainly due to higher share-based compensation payments, higher tax and insurance payments as well as currency headwinds. Free cash flow decreased 26% year-over-year to 2.34 billion. Free cash flow was also lower due to the previously announced additional CapEx for 2018. At the end of the third quarter, net liquidity was -2.78 billion.

Segment Performance Third Quarter 2018

SAP's three reportable segments "Applications, Technology & Services", "Customer Experience" and "SAP Business Network" showed the following performance.

Applications, Technology & Services (ATS)

In the third quarter, segment revenue in ATS was up 5% to 5.05 billion year-over-year (up 8% at constant currencies). Solutions which contributed to this growth in the third quarter are listed below.

SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is at the core of the Intelligent Enterprise. With S/4HANA, customers automate more and more of their business processes enabling employees to focus on higher-value tasks. It detects patterns, predicts outcomes and suggests actions empowering companies to reinvent their business models for the digital economy across every industry.

S/4HANA adoption grew to approximately 9,500 customers, up 37% year over year. In the third quarter, approximately 50% of the additional S/4HANA customers were net new.

S/4HANA continues to be selected by world-class global companies, including Wipro, Bombardier and McKesson. OSRAM Continental went live with S/4HANA this quarter. A growing number of companies including Delivery Hero and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group have chosen S/4HANA in the Cloud. Shell has gone live on S/4HANA Cloud in the third quarter.

Human Capital Management

SAP delivers total workforce management across both permanent and contingent labor. The SAP SuccessFactors suite is localized for 92 countries and 42 languages.

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, which is the flagship of SAP's HCM offering, added more than 200 customers in the quarter and has now more than 2,800 customers globally. Competitive wins included Skechers, Atos, and Air Arabia. American Airlines went live with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central in the third quarter.

SAP SuccessFactors was recently named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Talent Management Suites and all four IDC MarketScape reports for Worldwide Integrated Talent Management, Performance, Learning and Compensation.

SAP Leonardo

SAP Leonardo brings together cutting-edge technologies  AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Blockchain  with deep process and industry expertise, delivering completely new ways of working and powering the Intelligent Enterprise.

Companies like Deloitte and Chint Group are among many others that adopted SAP Leonardo solutions in the third quarter.

SAP Digital Platform

SAP Digital Platform includes SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Data Management Solutions. With SAP HANA's data rich and real-time in-memory architecture as the foundation, this represents a massive opportunity to drive full use of HANA.

The SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) facilitates new app development, extensions and seamless integration. It orchestrates "hybrid" customer landscapes across on premise and cloud.

The SAP Data Hub is the "enterprise control tower" bringing together multi-source data including unstructured. It provides a 360-degree view of all company data and manages compliance and governance policies from one central location.

Grupo Energia Bogota is one of many customers that adopted SAP's Digital Platform solutions in the third quarter.

Customer Experience

In the third quarter, SAP's C/4HANA customer experience solutions achieved triple-digit growth in new cloud bookings and cloud subscription revenue year-over-year. Segment revenue in Customer Experience was up 54% to 232 million year-over-year (up 54% at constant currencies).

SAP's C/4HANA solutions serve a wide range of industries across both B2C and B2B and enable businesses to manage their entire front office: marketing, sales, commerce, service, customer data cloud  seamlessly and in real-time.

C/4HANA provides companies with a single, complete view of their customer across all channels and connects demand to the fulfillment engine in one end-to-end value chain.

Giorgio Armani, Dubai Expo 2020, Colgate-Palmolive, HP, and Dohler were among those that chose SAP's C/4HANA solutions this quarter.

SAP Business Network

In the third quarter, segment revenue in SAP Business Network was up 22% to 675 million year-over-year (up 22% at constant currencies).

With the SAP Business Network SAP provides collaborative commerce capabilities (Ariba), effortless travel and expense processing (Concur) and flexible workforce management (Fieldglass). SAP Business Network is the largest commerce platform in the world with approximately $2.6 trillion[4] in global commerce annually transacted in more than 180 countries.

Public Works of Canada, United States Department of Defense, Nationwide, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia chose SAP's Business Network Solutions in the third quarter.

Segment Results at a Glance



Segment Performance Third Quarter 2018

Applications, Technology & Services SAP Business Network Customer Experience  million, unless otherwise stated

(Non-IFRS) Actual Currency  in %  in % const. curr. Actual Currency  in %  in % const. curr. Actual Currency  in %  in % const. curr. Cloud subscriptions and support 600 38 39 563 24 24 151 >100 >100 Segment revenue 5,046 5 8 675 22 22 232 54 54 Segment profit 2,096 4 8 155 60 57 24 21 23 Cloud subscriptions and support

gross margin (in %) 48 0pp -1pp 78 3pp 3pp 70 16pp 16pp Segment margin (in %) 42 -1pp 0pp 23 5pp 5pp 10 -3pp -3pp

























Regional Revenue Performance

SAP had a solid performance in the EMEA region with cloud and software revenue increasing 4% (IFRS) and 5% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was strong and grew by 40% (IFRS) and 40% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with Germany and Russia being highlights. In addition, SAP had strong software revenue growth in Russia, Italy and the Netherlands.

The Company had a strong performance in the Americas region. Cloud and software revenue increased by 9% (IFRS) and increased by 13% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue increased by 36% (IFRS) and 38% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with a solid quarter in the United States. Canada had an especially strong quarter in software revenue.

In the APJ region, SAP had a strong performance. Cloud and software revenue was up by 15% (IFRS) and grew by 17% (non-IFRS at constant currencies). Cloud subscriptions and support revenue was exceptional and grew by 53% (IFRS) and 58% (non-IFRS at constant currencies) with Greater China and Japan being highlights. For software revenue, Greater China, Japan, India and South Korea had impressive quarters.

Financial Results at a Glance



Third Quarter 2018

IFRS Non-IFRS1)  million, unless otherwise stated Q3 2018 Q3 2017  in % Q3 2018 Q3 2017  in %  in %

const.

curr. New Cloud Bookings2) N/A N/A N/A 411 302 36 37 Cloud subscriptions and support revenue 1,304 937 39 1,315 938 40 41 Software licenses and support revenue 3,702 3,720 0 3,702 3,720 0 2 Cloud and software revenue 5,007 4,657 7 5,017 4,658 8 10 Total revenue 6,020 5,590 8 6,031 5,590 8 10 Share of predictable revenue (in %) 68 65 3pp 68 65 3pp

Operating profit 1,236 1,314 6 1,742 1,637 6 11 Profit after tax 974 993 2 1,360 1,214 12

Basic earnings per share () 0.82 0.82 1 1.14 1.01 13

Number of employees (FTE, September 30) 94,989 87,874 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A



Nine months ended September 2018

IFRS Non-IFRS1)  million, unless otherwise stated Q1Q3 2018 Q1Q3 2017  in % Q1Q3 2018 Q1Q3 2017  in %  in %

const.

curr. New Cloud Bookings2) N/A N/A N/A 1,078 857 26 31 Cloud subscriptions and support revenue 3,588 2,775 29 3,614 2,775 30 37 Software licenses and support revenue 10,714 10,968 2 10,715 10,968 2 3 Cloud and software revenue 14,302 13,742 4 14,329 13,743 4 10 Total revenue 17,280 16,656 4 17,307 16,657 4 10 Share of predictable revenue (in %) 68 66 2pp 68 66 2pp

Operating profit 3,304 2,913 13 4,618 4,405 5 12 Profit after tax 2,401 2,189 10 3,401 3,220 6

Basic earnings per share () 2.01 1.81 11 2.85 2.67 7

Number of employees (FTE, September 30) 94,989 87,874 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A



1) For a detailed description of SAP's non-IFRS measures see Explanation of Non-IFRS Measures online. For a breakdown of the individual adjustments see table "Non-IFRS Adjustments by Functional Areas" in this Quarterly Statement.

2) As this is an order entry metric, there is no IFRS equivalent.

Due to rounding, numbers may not add up precisely.

Business Outlook 2018

Due to the strong cloud and overall business momentum the Company is raising its outlook for the full year 2018:

Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue is now expected to be in a range of 5.150 billion  5.250 billion at constant currencies (2017: 3.77 billion), up 36.5%  39.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was 5.050 billion  5.200 billion at constant currencies.

Non-IFRS cloud and software revenue is now expected to be in a range of 21.150  21.350 billion at constant currencies (2017: 19.55 billion), up 8.0%  9.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was 21.025  21.250 billion at constant currencies.

Non-IFRS total revenue is now expected to be in a range of 25.200 billion  25.500 billion at constant currencies (2017: 23.46 billion), up 7.5%  8.5% at constant currencies. The previous range was 24.975 billion  25.300 billion at constant currencies.

Non-IFRS operating profit is now expected to be in a range of 7.425 billion  7.525 billion at constant currencies (2017: 6.77 billion), up 9.5% - 11.0% at constant currencies. The previous range was 7.400 billion  7.500 billion at constant currencies.

While SAP's full-year 2018 business outlook is at constant currencies, actual currency reported figures are expected to be impacted by currency exchange rate fluctuations as the Company progresses through the year. See the table below for the Q4 and FY 2018 expected currency impacts.

Expected Currency Impact Based on September 2018 Level for the Rest of the Year In percentage points Q4 FY Cloud subscriptions and support 1 to 1 pp 4 to 6 pp Cloud and software 1 to 1 pp 3 to 5 pp Operating profit 1 to 1 pp 3 to 5 pp

IFRS 15 Impact

As of January 1, 2018, SAP changed several of its accounting policies to adopt IFRS 15 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers'. Under the IFRS 15 adoption method chosen by SAP prior years are not restated to conform to the new policies. Consequently, the year over year growth of revenue and profit in 2018 will be impacted by the new policies.

As already announced in SAP's Q4 2017 Quarterly Statement, the Company expects the full year 2018 impact of the policy change[5] on revenue, operating expenses and profit to be as follows:

Revenues are expected to experience a benefit of substantially less than 0.1 billion with most of the difference resulting from exercises of customer software purchase options granted in prior years which result in software revenue.

Operating expenses are expected to benefit, in cost of sales and marketing, in the amount of approximately 0.2 billion from higher capitalization of sales commissions. Other policy changes will weigh on operating expenses with an additional cost of revenue of substantially less than 0.1 billion.

The above-mentioned effects will result in a net positive impact on operating profit of approximately 0.2 billion.

The new revenue recognition policies were described in our Half Year Report 2018. Details regarding the IFRS 15 impact in the third quarter and first nine months can be found in the section 'Impact of Changes in Accounting Policies' in this Quarterly Statement.

Ambition 2020

Looking beyond 2018, SAP continues to expect in 2020:

8.2  8.7 billion non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue

28  29 billion non-IFRS total revenue

8.5  9.0 billion non-IFRS operating profit

The share of more predictable revenue (defined as the total of cloud subscriptions & support revenue and software support revenue) in a range of 70%  75%.

The full Q3 2018 Quarterly Statement can be downloaded from www.sap.com/investors/sap-2018-q3-statement.

Additional Information

All numbers for the SAP group and the Customer Experience segment include Callidus revenues and profits from April 5, 2018 onwards. Numbers for periods before the acquisition do not include Callidus' revenues or profits.

This Quarterly Statement and all information therein is unaudited.

For a more detailed description of all of SAP's non-IFRS measures and their limitations as well as our constant currency and free cash flow figures see Explanation of Non-IFRS Measures online.

Webcast

SAP senior management will host a financial analyst conference call at 2:00 PM (CET) / 1:00 PM (GMT) / 8:00 AM (Eastern) / 5:00 AM (Pacific). The call will be webcast live on the Company's website at www.sap.com/investor and will be available for replay. Supplementary financial information pertaining to the third quarter results can be found at www.sap.com/investor.

About SAP

As the cloud company powered by SAP HANA, SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best. Our machine learning, IoT, and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers' businesses into intelligent enterprises. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enable more than 413,000 business and public customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

For more information, financial community only: Stefan Gruber +49 (6227) 7-44872 [email protected], CET Follow SAP Investor Relations on Twitter at @sapinvestor.

For more information, press only: Rajiv Sekhri +49 (6227) 7-74871 [email protected], CET Daniel Reinhardt +49 (6227) 7-40201 [email protected], CET

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products: Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24 United States Only: +1 (800) 872-1SAP (+1-800-872-1727)

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

 2018 SAP SE. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice.

Some software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. National product specifications may vary.

These materials are provided by SAP SE and its affiliated companies ("SAP Group") for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP Group shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP Group products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Please see www.sap.com/about/legal/copyright.html for additional trademark information and notice.

1 New cloud bookings is the total of all orders received in a given period the revenue from which is expected to be classified as cloud subscription and support revenue and that result from purchases by new customers and from incremental purchases by existing customers. Consequently, orders to renew existing contracts are not included in this metric. The order amount must be committed. Consequently, due to their pay-per-use nature, business network transaction fees which do not include a committed minimum consumption are not reflected in the bookings metric (e.g. SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass transaction-based fees). Amounts included in the measures are generally annualized (annualized contract value ACV). 2 For the third quarter 2018, Callidus contributed 52 million to SAP's Non-IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue at constant currencies and negatively impacted the operating margin by approximately 40 basis points. The Callidus acquisition was closed on April 5th 2018. 3 New cloud and software license order entry is the total of new cloud order entry and software license order entry. The new cloud order entry metric is identical to the new cloud bookings metric defined above except that it considers the total contract value (TCV) of the orders where the new cloud bookings metric considers the orders' annualized contract value (ACV). Software license order entry is the total of all orders received in a given period the revenue from which is expected to be classified as software license revenue. The support services commonly sold with the software licenses are not included in the software license order entry metric. 4 SAP Business Network commerce is the total commerce transacted on the Ariba, Concur and Fieldglass Networks in the trailing 12 months. Ariba commerce includes procurement and sourcing spend. Previously we only included the total commerce transacted on the Ariba Network in this metric. 5 "Impact of the accounting policy change" means the difference between a revenue and profit measure determined under SAP's new IFRS 15-based policies and the respective measure as it would stand had our previous accounting policies continued to apply.

SOURCE SAP SE

Related Links

http://www.sap.com

SAN DIEGO, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seclytics, a threat analytics platform predicting attacks before they are launched, today announced the availability of Seclytics for the Palo Alto Networks Application Framework. The Application Framework is a cloud-based framework that extends the capabilities of the Palo Alto Networks Security Operating Platform, which allows organizations to rapidly consume and implement a variety of innovative cloud-based security applications from any provider, large or small.

Seclytics provides forward-deployed predictive intelligence, allowing organizations to protect themselves from cyber-attacks before they are launched. Leveraging machine learning and data from the infrastructure of the internet (e.g., DNS, BGP, IP), Seclytics is able to identify cyber-criminal infrastructure during its setup. On average, Seclytics predicts these indicators of attack 51 days before the actual attack occurs.

Additionally, to protect against old attacks, Seclytics provides cleansed and prioritized threat data to report on old threats. Old threat data is aggregated from various sources, including spam traps, honeypots, malware sandboxes, DNS sinkholes, open source intelligence (OSINT), and other threat feeds.

KEY BENEFITS

Protect against attacks before they're launched.

Generate custom enforcement lists based on customer traffic, which can be used by Palo Alto Networks firewalls.

Detect attacks without deploying dedicated monitoring devices.

Analyze detailed security data collected by next-generation firewalls.

QUOTES

"We are extremely excited about our partnership with Palo Alto Networks. Nowadays, organizations invest lots of money in buying multiple products and building a security stack to protect their organizations. The App Framework makes this easy with just a few clicks."

- Saeed Abu-Nimeh, CEO, Seclytics, Inc.

"We are thrilled to see the debut of third-party applications for our customers, and we welcome Seclytics to the Application Framework developer community. Together, we are fueling innovation in the cybersecurity market by completely changing the way that organizations test, deploy, and manage security. This important advancement will make organizations everywhere more secure and help protect our way of life in the digital age."

- Lee Klarich, chief product officer, Palo Alto Networks

AVAILABILITY

Selytics for Palo Alto Networks Application is available immediately. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

for more information. The Palo Alto Networks Application Framework is now available worldwide to customers at https://apps.paloaltonetworks.com/apps.

About Seclytics

Seclytics is the next generation security prediction, prevention, and analytics platform. Offering a SaaS solution, Seclytics easily integrates into the corporate security stack, providing protection against current and negative day threats via their patent-pending prediction platform.

For more information, visit www.seclytics.com.

Media Contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Seclytics

Related Links

https://www.seclytics.com

BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. is pleased to announce the acquisition of Redel Insurance Agency, Inc., headquartered in Ballwin, MO.

Redel Insurance Agency has been serving the state of Missouri for three-quarters of a century. They offer personal and commercial insurance, from auto and life insurance to employee and worker's compensation, with affordable premiums to work with any budget. Led by a team boasting more than 140 years of collective experience, Redel Insurance Agency is one of Missouri's longest running insurance agency due to their dedication to customer care and the ability to find the right plan for every need. This acquisition will strengthen Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty's foothold in the Midwest.

Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. continues to target high-quality independent agencies for geographic expansion and continued growth throughout the United States. With the addition of Redel Insurance Agency, Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc. will continue to reach new and current clients by helping them protect their most important valuables with not only the right insurance but with the right service for each client.

SHP&C offers:

Homeowner's Policy

Automobile Insurance

Renter's Policy

Private Client

Umbrella Coverage

Commercial and Employee Coverage

Personal Liability Coverage

Employee Benefits

Human Resources

Professional Liability Insurance

Marshal Seeman, President of Seeman Holtz Property and Casualty, stated, "We are proud to be working with Steve Redel and his team. To bring a seventy-five-year-old agency, with tremendous client relationships, into our family is a great feeling." Brett Williams, Vice President, added, "Steve Redel and his crew will be working with Steve Phillips and our First Choice team out of Poplar Bluff.to enhance our midwestern client base."

About Our Company:

The Seeman Holtz family of companies provides comprehensive financial and insurance advice to clients across the country.

Contact: Eric Holtz

Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty

844.255.6639

[email protected]

SOURCE Seeman Holtz Property & Casualty, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.seemanholtzpc.com

NEW YORK, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating the Board of Directors and Officers of Idaho Independent Bank ("Idaho Independent Bank " or the "Company") (OTC: IIBK) for possible breaches of fiduciary duty relating to the sale of the company to First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. ("First Interstate"). Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Idaho Independent stockholders will receive 0.5 Class A shares of First Interstate for each share of Idaho Independent common stock owned.

Click here for more information: https://monteverdelaw.com/case/idaho-independent-bank. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer.

If you own common stock in Idaho Independent Bank and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

[email protected]

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2018 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE Monteverde & Associates PC

Related Links

http://www.monteverdelaw.com

DALLAS, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sharyland Utilities, L.P. (Sharyland) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement with Sempra Energy to co-invest in Sharyland's South Texas utility business as part of a broader set of transactions among InfraREIT, Inc. (InfraREIT) and its subsidiary, Sharyland Distribution & Transmission Services, L.L.C. (SDTS), as well as Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (Oncor). Sempra Energy owns an indirect 80.25 percent interest in Oncor.

"For the past 20 years, Sharyland has committed itself to finding value-added transmission solutions that benefit customers throughout Texas," said Hunter Hunt, founder and Chairman of Sharyland Utilities. "The transaction announced today is an important next chapter in our history, as we believe that Sempra Energy will be a fabulous partner as we continue our development efforts going forward."

This proposed transaction will result in Oncor acquiring InfraREIT and its electric transmission utility business, which Hunt created and that grew to $2 billion in assets over the past two decades, along with Sharyland's Golden Spread Electric Cooperative interconnection and other development projects outside of South Texas. Upon closing, Oncor will own and operate all of Sharyland's and SDTS' existing electric transmission assets located in Central Texas, West Texas, and the Texas Panhandle and South Plains.

Sharyland will continue as an independent privately-held transmission utility, owned 50 percent by entities controlled by Hunter L. Hunt and other members of the family of Ray L. Hunt and 50 percent by entities controlled by Sempra Energy, and will own the transmission assets that it developed in South Texas. Sharyland will continue to seek development opportunities that benefit customers throughout the State in partnership with Sempra Energy and Oncor.

"This transaction continues our long and productive relationship with Oncor and allows us to partner with Sempra Energy, who shares our passion for developing critical infrastructure in Texas," said Hunt.

"Our investment in Sharyland is an excellent complement to our investment in Oncor and furthers our vision of becoming North America's premier energy infrastructure company," said Jeffrey W. Martin, CEO of Sempra Energy. "We look forward to working with Sharyland on developing new and better ways to serve consumers in Texas."

The transactions will require the approval of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, as well as a vote of approval from the majority of InfraREIT shareholders, among other approvals. Assuming these approvals are obtained, Sharyland expects to close the transaction by mid-2019.

Baker Botts is acting as legal advisor to Sharyland and Hunt Consolidated, Inc. in the transaction. Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Hunt Consolidated, Inc. in the transaction.

About Sharyland Utilities, L.P.

Sharyland Utilities, L.P., is a Texas-based electric transmission utility that is fully regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. We are committed to providing safe, reliable, and efficient transmission and substation services, ensuring operational excellence, and investing to support the infrastructure needs of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas grid. Sharyland Utilities is privately-owned by Hunter L. Hunt and other members of the family of Ray L. Hunt, and is managed by Hunter L. Hunt. Additional information about Sharyland can be found at www.sharyland.com.

About InfraREIT, Inc.

InfraREIT is engaged in owning and leasing rate-regulated electric transmission assets in the state of Texas and is structured as a real estate investment trust. The Company is externally managed by Hunt Utility Services, LLC, an affiliate of Hunt Consolidated, Inc. (a diversified holding company based in Dallas, Texas and managed by the Ray L. Hunt family). The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HIFR". Additional information on InfraREIT is available at www.InfraREITInc.com.

About Oncor

Headquartered in Dallas, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC is a regulated electricity distribution and transmission business that uses superior asset management skills to provide reliable electricity delivery to consumers. Oncor operates the largest distribution and transmission system in Texas, delivering power to more than 3.6 million homes and businesses and operating more than 134,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines in Texas. Oncor is managed by its Board of Directors, which is comprised of a majority of independent directors.

About Sempra Energy

Sempra Energy, a San Diego-based energy services holding company with 2017 revenues of more than $11 billion, is the utility holding company with the largest U.S. customer base. The Sempra Energy companies' approximately 20,000 employees serve more than 40 million consumers worldwide.

Contact: Paul Schulze

214-978-8534

SOURCE Sharyland Utilities, L.P.

Related Links

http://www.sharyland.com

Of course, any stand taken in the name of basic human rights principles is better if it comes from the president himself. If Trump needs inspiration, maybe he can read Khashoggis last column, submitted to The Washington Post before his disappearance and published by the Tribune online Wednesday and, come Friday, in print. Speaking of infringement of press freedoms in the Arab world, Khashoggi wrote, These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence.SunPure Industries, Under Its Subsidiary SunPure Cannabis Co., Signs LOI Agreement With Big Red Nose Productions for Cannabis-Infused Beverages

VERNON, British Columbia, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SunPure Industries Ltd., under its wholly owned subsidiary SunPure Cannabis Co. (www.sunpure.ca) ("SunPure Industries"), and Big Red Nose Productions ("BRN") are pleased to announce that they have entered into the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) Agreement to form a joint venture to pursue opportunities to develop non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages for the Canadian market following legalization.

The joint venture will be structured on a semi-exclusive basis for a period of five (5) years to produce a line of cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beverages for Canadian distribution, following regulatory approval. The new business development venture will combine the proven beverage experience of BRN's successful Colorado-leading cola experience and a recognized innovator in the fast-growing consumable cannabis sector market, which is expected to be legally permissible in Canada in 2019.

SunPure's President and CEO Mike Mueller stated, "Canada is breaking new ground in the recreational cannabis sector and SunPure has a unique opportunity to participate in this exciting and rapidly expanding consumer segment. This new venture is consistent with our growth strategy and our commitment to bringing stakeholder value to our shareholders and joint partnerships. While we remain a late-stage ACMPR-applicant and greenhouse business at our core, we are excited to create a separate new venture with a trusted partner that will offer Canadian consumers new experiences with quality, reliable and consistent non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages. We look forward to partnering with BRN, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in the Colorado cannabis beverage sector to our potential revenue streams in British Columbia and, as we expand, across Canada."

"Big Red Nose Productions is pleased to work towards a definitive agreement and, with a respect for law and regulations, establish a relationship built on trust, where together we will develop responsible, high-quality cannabis-infused beverages for the consumable cannabis market in Canada. The goal of BRN has always been to create cannabis drinks that are new and uniquely crafted to the cannabis market. We shall market these drinks in view of the cannabis connoisseur mindset and not in the fashion taken on by generic drinks or alcohol. Our message will be clear - be yourself and don't judge others. Our goal is to create drinks and marketing campaigns driven to the rise of a market that's truly unique," said Robert Morrissey, president and CEO of Big Red Nose Productions. In 2009, Robert Morrissey was the sole founder and creator behind Keef Cola's original branding, recipe and launch into the cannabis beverage market of Colorado.

Closing of the transaction, which is targeted to occur before Oct. 30, 2018, is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, including execution and delivery of various transaction agreements, including governance documents, R & D, packing, licensing, distribution and supply agreements.

About SunPure Cannabis Co.

SunPure Cannabis Co. is a start-up cannabis cultivation company under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR), located in Armstrong, British Columbia. SunPure currently owns a 40-acre parcel land package. There is currently a 1,500-square-foot agricultural building with concrete, with dedicated electrical service to the property, with an Artesian well to tap into the Spallumcheen underground aquifer that overlies the valley bedrock, with an estimated yield of Artesian Well of 200 to 600 gallons/per/minute (gpm). SunPure is founder-funded to date, which includes land acquisition, all site construction costs and is debt-free. SunPure is now in the "Detailed Review Stage" in preparation for receipt of our "Confirmation of Readiness" letter. SunPure is set to break ground on construction of its Phase One 12,500-square-foot automated greenhouse and is currently retrofitting the existing processing facility on site. Targeting a 30-acre outdoor seeding of industrial hemp Q2 2019; Option for Spring 2019 to seed our land with industrial hemp and utilizing third-party cannabidiol (CBD) extractors, formulators and processors. SunPure is focusing on growing our export division through supply contracts, offtake agreements and increasing revenue streams by developing our hemp and extraction divisions.

The SunPure brand will feature craft cannabis strains ideally suited for Canada's emerging medical and upcoming recreational marijuana markets. Our comprehensive quality control program will ensure safe and reliable products that are responsibly grown and delivered with unparalleled customer service.

About Big Red Nose Productions

In 2009, Robert Morrissey was the sole founder and creator behind Keef Cola's original branding, recipe and launch into the cannabis beverage market of Colorado. Le Canna Royale is designed to be the legacy brand of cannabis drinks. Many, if not all, of its features go against the flow of traditional cannabis sodas, non-alcoholic beers and wines. These beverage flavours are designed to drink alone or in combination with top spirits in a social shared experienced.

Le Canna Royale Market

As seen in the Colorado and California legal cannabis markets, beverages are on the rise. However, the cannabis drink market is becoming fully saturated with colas. It is BRN's official stance that the drink market needs diversity. Le Canna Royale fits the niche market of 750ml bottles designed to drink as a socially shared experience. Our ability to not be locked into mainstream corporate price wars will allow for BRN to capitalize on its individuality as a product. With little to no competition at this time in the socially shared cannabis drink market, BRN estimates that Le Canna Royale will become the measuring point of this market.

For further information about SunPure Industries, please visit the Company's website at www.sunpure.ca and to view a video of the Armstrong facility;

On Behalf of the Board Of Directors Mike Mueller President and Chief Executive Officer [email protected] For Further Information Contact Catherine Jones Executive VP Business Development [email protected] 1-833-356-PURE

WWW.SUNPURE.CA

Follow us @ https://www.facebook.com/SunPure-Cannabis-Co-203920356884837/

This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected including, but not limited to completion of planned improvements at both the Canadian and U.S. sites on schedule and on budget, the availability of financing needed to complete the Company's planned improvements on commercially reasonable terms, the availability of contractors and materials, planned occupancy by the tenant-growers, commencement of operations, weather and other natural factors that may affect agriculture-based businesses, the ability to mitigate the risk of loss through appropriate insurance policies, and the risks presented by federal statutes that may contradict local and state legislation respecting legalized marijuana. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances save as required under applicable securities legislation. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell securities and the Company is not soliciting an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.

This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. These securities have not and will not be registered under United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to a U.S. Person unless so registered, or an exemption from registration is relied upon.

Related Images

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LOGO

SOURCE SunPure Cannabis Co.MCLEAN, Va., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Tandem Innovation Alliance, a community of more than 5,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and supporters, has selected the first 13 participating companies for the inaugural cohort of the Tandem Product Academy, filling half of the 25 slots available in this unique educational program that will teach technology product entrepreneurs in the Greater Washington region how to scale their businesses. The program starts on Nov. 10, 2018. Interested businesses have until Oct. 31 to apply for the remaining slots.

The Tandem Product Academy is a historic first in regional cooperation. It was founded with strong community support in Virginia, Maryland and the District. Its partners include Fairfax County, Greater Washington Partnership, Greater Washington Board of Trade, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Technology Council, Prince George's Chamber of Commerce, Virginia CIT, Maryland TEDCO, Robert H. Smith School of Business and AARP. Fairfax County, AARP and Amplifier Ventures have provided the seed capital to launch the program.

The Greater Washington region is one of the most entrepreneurial innovation communities in the world but is widely seen as being too reliant on consulting models for its entrepreneurial business activities, particularly in comparison to competing regions better known for developing businesses based on technology products. The composition of the initial group of selected participants for the Tandem Product Academy reveals the many ways that technology innovation occurs in the Greater Washington region. Their leaders also share a common desire for greater access to product development expertise. The selected companies include successful government services businesses on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing businesses, venture-backed technology product startups and federally funded research and development businesses that want to commercialize products.

Founder of the Tandem Product Academy Jonathan Aberman said, "The diversity of this initial group, both from the standpoint of the types of companies, but also their geography, reveals the region's great potential as to be a leader in technology product innovation. What I have heard in speaking with the applicants is a hunger for knowledge and a shared desire to build something together: a region that is seen by all as a great place to be a technology product entrepreneur while pushing back on the notion that we are a community of consultants."

Zhensen Huang, CEO of Precise Software Solutions, whose company has been accepted into the Academy, says, "The DMV region has unmatched information technology brain power in the country, but it lacks a robust, supportive community to nurture product-oriented entrepreneurship. We are excited about working with the other participants to learn from each other, advance our vision of being a connective force in the community and foster a culture of entrepreneurship in the region."

Another participant, Justin Antonipillai, CEO of WireWheel, believes that the teaching team assembled for the Tandem Product Academy is in itself an important development for the region, seeing it as "a testament to the strength of our startup community." Mike Borek, CEO of CoorWorks, says the program is an opportunity for the Greater Washington region to move past "buzz and hype" and to give entrepreneurs meaningful support through real and practical advice so that they can "scale, scale, scale."

Geoff Barrows, CEO of Centeye, is excited to be part of a program that provides local product development assistance since he is "tired of getting on airplanes" to find the resources he needs to advance his company's technology. He's looking forward to working with other local entrepreneurs "about how to add a product aspect that can help grow our business and get our technology in more people's hands."

The Tandem Product Academy will accept applications until Oct. 31, 2018. The program is completely free for participants. Participants must be senior leaders of a business that has a technology product (including software) ready for customer adoption and whose company, within the last 12 months, has done any of the following:

Had gross revenue in excess of $500,000 ;

; Obtained at least $500,000 in capital from sources other than the founder's immediate friends and family; or

in capital from sources other than the founder's immediate friends and family; or Received at least $500,000 in federal research and development funding.

Interested entrepreneurs should visit the Tandem Innovation Alliance website for more information and to apply. For further information, visit http://www.tandeminnovate.com/academy.

The 13 initial accepted participants in the Tandem Product Academy are:

Breezio, Rockville, MD

https://info.breezio.com

Breezio helps associations, trade groups and event managers create ongoing communities around the content and attendees.

Centeye, Washington, D.C.

http://www.centeye.com/

Centeye is a research and development business working with DARPA and the Air Force, primarily in vision sensors and sensing for robotics.

ConnectDER, Arlington, VA

http://connectder.com/

ConnectDER is developing and deploying technology to interconnect with utility grids solar power and electric vehicles installed in the home.

CoorWorks, Herndon, VA

https://www.coorworks.com/

CoorWorks specializes in productizing complex logistics management solutions in niche sectors of the financial services, retail and telecommunications industries to help manage distributed workforces in physical security.

CrossLead, Washington, D.C.

https://crosslead.com/

CrossLead is a Software as a Services company providing a platform and tools to facilitate team management, organizational change and strategic alignment.

CU Rise Analytics, Tysons, VA

https://www.cu-rise.com/

CU Rise Analytics provides technology serving the credit union industry through data analytics and knowledge management.

Fieldforce, Arlington, VA

https://getfieldforce.com/

Fieldforce is deploying a next-generation platform to manage 5G, Internet of things and telecom networks.

Hatch Apps, Washington, D.C.

https://hatchapps.com/

Hatch Apps provides a platform that allows its customers to build mobile apps for a fraction of the time and cost of existing solutions.

Higher Digital, Tysons, VA

https://higher.digital/

Higher Digital provides higher education institutions with analytical tools and insights to assist in the development and deployment of digital experiences and educational products.

Precise Software Solutions, Rockville, MD

http://www.precise-soft.com/

Precise is a rapidly growing government technology services business with strong expertise in healthcare technology.

REI Systems, Sterling, VA

https://www.reisystems.com/

REI has developed a Software as a Service grants management product  GovGrants  that helps federal, state and local governments evaluate and manage the grant-making process.

RFID Global, Reston, VA

http://www.rfidgs.com/

RFID Global is a leading provider of real-time asset management solutions for enterprise and supply chain applications.

WireWheel, Arlington, VA

https://www.wirewheel.io/

WireWheel combines machine learning and data analytics to provide new approaches to data protection and data protection regulations.

For further information, contact:

Jonathan Aberman, Managing Director Tandem Innovation Alliance

[email protected]

703 260 1700

About Tandem Innovation Alliance

The Tandem Innovation Alliance's mission is to help innovators looking to develop a technology product-based business to answer the question "what comes next?" It brings together the .com, .gov and .edu communities to pool resources and provide opportunities to help innovators grow their businesses through a curated community of events, content and opportunities. In addition to the Tandem Product Academy, Tandem Innovation Alliance operates the TandemNSI national security innovation community and partners with the Greater Washington Partnership in its Capital CoLab initiative. Visit http://www.tandeminnovate.com for more information.

SOURCE Tandem Product Academy

Related Links

http://www.tandeminnovate.com

ATLANTA, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- EmployBridge is proud to announce the selection of its temporary associate Violeta "Shaya" De Oleo Medina as the 2019 American Staffing Association (ASA) National Staffing Employee of the Year. De Oleo Medina is a bilingual call center representative with RemX, a specialty division of EmployBridge, and one of more than 15 million temporary and contract employees hired by U.S. staffing agencies each year. De Oleo Medina was formally honored at a recognition ceremony during the ASA annual convention and expo, Staffing World 2018, on October 17 in Washington, DC.

After immigrating to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic and learning to speak English by watching Netflix programs, De Oleo Medina was quickly connected with a temporary call center job after applying with RemX. Thriving in her role, her communications and leadership abilities landed her a permanent position as a bilingual call center representative after only a few months on the job. De Oleo Medina was also honored as the 2017 RemX Associate of the Year. Hear more about her career journey with RemX.

"We couldn't think of a better person to represent the millions of associates who better their work and personal lives through temporary job opportunities every year," said Joanie Courtney, president of RemX. "Shaya is a shining example of how hard work, dedication and determination can transform a life. Her story illustrates what we're striving to do every day as we connect talented workers with promising job opportunities that ultimately contribute to U.S. companies and the overall economy. We are so honored the ASA has recognized one of our own for this coveted award."

De Oleo Medina is an inspiration to anyone seeking to improve their skills and further their careers. "This experience has taught me that anything is possible if you put your mind to it," says De Oleo Medina. "I taught myself the English language and rode my bike to work every day, and now I have achieved every goal I set out to accomplish. This career opportunity has made a tremendous impact on my life, and I feel amazing. I'm very grateful to RemX for jumpstarting my career and can't wait to see what else is in my future. As they say, the sky is the limit!"

Headshots and video footage of the ASA recognition ceremony will be available upon request. To learn more about the National Staffing Employee of the Year program, visit americanstaffing.net.

About EmployBridge

As workforce specialists, EmployBridge provides value-added workforce solutions and job opportunities through focused specialty divisions including ResourceMFG, ProLogistix, ProDrivers, Select, RemX, Westaff and Remedy. Combining the advantages of national scale, in-depth local market knowledge, industry-specific expertise and powerful recruiting and retention tools, EmployBridge is recognized by Staffing Industry Analysts as America's largest industrial staffing firm. The company puts more than 86,000 people to work each week across a network of 500+ offices in 48 states and Canada. In 2017, EmployBridge provided more than 164 million work hours to 10,000 clients, generating more than $3 billion in revenue. For more information, please visit www.employbridge.com.

Media Contact Ken Christensen (678) 534.2346

SOURCE EmployBridge, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.employbridge.com

MIAMI and FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Broward County Chapter of the United Nations Association of the United States of America each year honors community leaders that exemplify the motto, "Global Leadership Begins with the U.S." This year's Scholarship and Awards Luncheon will be held on Sunday, October 21, at the Signature Grand, Davie, Florida. Among this year's award recipients is Laurick Ingram, known as The Give and Save Guy, and Director of Give and Save 365.

Laurick Ingram's Story

"I grew up as the youngest of eleven children in the James E. Scott Housing Projects of Liberty City," said Ingram. "My father was placed in a state hospital shortly after I was born, and my mother raised me and my siblings with the help of welfare and food stamps."

Ingram's inspiration comes from his mother who generously gave of her time and her money even as she worked and cared for her eleven children. He also learned from people in his community who gave books, food, clothes and other necessities to his family to keep them educated, safe and healthy.

The Mission

The Give and Save 365 Concept is "Creating prosperity through philanthropy." It is rooted in the belief that you can grow your giving through faith and grow your faith through saving. The philosophy came from his pastor, Bishop Victor Curry, who taught him the necessity of giving, and his grandmother, Victoria McCullough, who taught him the power of saving.

The Plan

Ingram lays out an easy plan to create a prosperity cycle in people's lives. The four steps are as follows:

Give

Save

Learn

Repeat

The challenge is to start immediately, even if only giving and saving a dollar per day. Just as a mustard seed properly planted and cared for can grow into a beautiful tree; a dollar per day properly given and saved can grow into a worthwhile financial future.

ABOUT THE GIVE AND SAVE GUY: Laurick Ingram is a speaker, investor, philanthropist and the author of The Give and Save 365 Easy Money Management Guide. He lives in South Florida with his wife, Kim, and their two sons, Joshua and Jawanza. Laurick has devoted himself and GIVE AND SAVE 365, LLC, to creating prosperity through philanthropy. The organization was founded on the beliefs that you can grow your giving through faith and grow your faith through saving. For more information about The Give and Save Guy, go to his website https://giveandsave365.com/.

For review copies, images, interviews and speaking engagements, please contact Da-Venya Armstrong, Armstrong Creative Consultants, at 305.546.0908 and [email protected].

SOURCE Give And Save 365, LLC

Related Links

www.giveandsave365.com

SANTA ANA, Calif., Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- US Business Funding ("US Business Funding" or the "Company"), a leader in small business funding, working capital and equipment leasing and financing, announced unaudited funding results for 2017 and revenue results through the third quarter of 2018.

In 2017, US Business Funding funded a record amount of deals totaling $102 million in small business loans, equipment financing and working capital lines. This total included over 1,100 customers and transactions. In comparing 2017 to 2016, the Company saw a 166.76 percent increase in originated loans from the prior year. The average loan size for US Business Funding loans came to a total of $90,717.55.

From 2017 to 2018, US Business Funding also saw record revenue growth in its business. In comparing the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, US Business Funding generated $89 million in revenue vs. $37 million in 2017, a 239 percent increase. The Company is on pace to exceed the previous highest full-year revenue by over 100 percent.

US Business Funding achieved its increase in revenue year-over-year through new and repeat clients that took advantage of the Company's lending products and equipment leasing and financing services. The top four industries that US Business Funding services fall under manufacturing, retail, medical and construction.

US Business Funding's CEO Peter Ribeiro had the following to say: "We have been able to grow at a rapid pace due to our proprietary marketing technology that gives us unlimited leads with a very low cost-per-acquisition compared to the competitors we have in the market. At the same time, we have developed a lot of strategic partnerships on the equipment and working capital side of the business that has given us a great boost. We anticipate these growth figures to continue to climb as we scale the business."

The Company expects to see additional growth in the following years due to their high rate of repeat customers and their focus on customer-centric and professional service.

About US Business Funding

US Business Funding is headquartered in Santa Ana, California, and provides small business loans, working capital and equipment leases to new and established businesses. US Business Funding is one of the top business funding companies in Southern California and the entire nation.

For more information about US Business Funding, visit www.usbfund.com.

Media Contact:

US Business Funding

Marina Ibrahim

Phone: (800) 991-6287

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

us-business-funding-logo.png

US Business Funding Logo

us-business-funding-icon.png

US Business Funding Icon

us-business-funding-is-an-inc-500.png

US Business Funding is an Inc. 500 Featured Company

Related Links

US Business Funding Blog

US Business Funding Small Business Loans

SOURCE US Business Funding

Related Links

http://www.usbfund.com

KELOWNA, BC, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Valens GroWorks Corp. (CSE: VGW) (the "Company" or "Valens"), a multi-licensed, vertically integrated provider of cannabis products and services utilizing proprietary extraction processes is pleased to announce that it has formed an advisory board to assist in implementing the Company's current strategic plans and identify means to capitalize on future growth opportunities.

The advisory board will be tasked with:

Leveraging marketing initiatives;

Assisting in the development of a consumer-packaged goods strategy for Valens branded products;

Supporting international expansion plans; and

Developing strategic relationships in the industry.

The Company has initially appointed Mr. Phil Donne and Mr. Brett Channer to the advisory board.

Mr. Donne's background in the food and brand / communication industries extends over 30 years, spans 8 countries and incorporates rebrands, restructures, re-launches and bold brand and communication initiatives. From foundation experience at General Mills and Coca Cola up to his last role as President / CEO of Campbell Company of Canada, Mr. Donne's bias has been to truly push the status quo and to spark innovation to achieve new levels of potential and awareness. His years at Campbell's witnessed a spurring of the health and wellness renovation and relaunch of the entire soup portfolio. At Campbell's, Mr. Donne also led the first "meal replacement" offering in a can that was used to help in the fight against hunger both domestically and abroad. With Kellogg's, Mr. Donne gained experience across Europe as President in several posts. Returning to Canada as CEO of Kellogg Canada, he led a relaunch of the business that featured the breakthrough introduction of North America's first "meal replacement" cereal, Vector which remains the single largest new cereal product of the last 20 years.

Mr. Channer has over 25 years of marketing industry experience leading businesses as the CEO, President, and Chief Creative Officer and is now the founder of Mass Minority, a media studio with patent pending technology that works with creative content to outperform the market. Mass Minority is enjoying exponential growth and in less than three years has become a top agency in Canada. Before starting Mass Minority, Mr. Channer created the agency start up Red Lion for the Publicis World Wide Group, a digitally rooted company that shaped brand behaviour. Profitable in its first year, Red Lion became a change agent for Publicis and for clients seeking a new way to connect with customers. At Saatchi & Saatchi, Mr. Channer worked into the role of CEO and CCO. He was responsible for leading Saatchi Canada to "Most Improved Agency in Canada" as recognized in Strategy Magazine, as well as one of the top 10 most creative agencies in Canada. Becoming one of the top performing offices for growth in the Saatchi Network, Mr. Channer was the first Canadian to be invited onto the Saatchi Worldwide Board where he had shared responsibilities in the company's global performance.

"The creation of this advisory board marks the next exciting stage of development for Valens. With the initial appointment of Phil and Brett, each of whom bring a unique skillset and vast experience to the Company, we look forward to working with these leaders to shape the future of marketing in the Canadian cannabis space and develop a leading Valens product brand we can proudly share with the market," says Valens GroWorks Corp. CEO, Tyler Robson.

Option Grant

The Company granted 2,652,000 options to purchase common shares of the Company exercisable at a price of $1.95 per share and expiring on October 13, 2023, to employees, officers and consultants of the Company. The options vest quarterly over a three-year period and are granted pursuant to the terms of the Company's stock option plan, subject to regulatory approval.

About Valens GroWorks

Valens GroWorks Corp. is a vertically integrated provider of Canadian cannabis products developed from our proprietary extraction techniques, with three wholly-owned subsidiaries located in and around Kelowna, BC. Subsidiary Valens Agritech ("VAL") holds a license to cultivate and produce oil as a Licensed Producer ("LP") under the ACMPR, and a Dealer's License under Health Canada. VAL also has a supply agreement with Canopy Growth Corporation under their extensive CraftGrow distribution network. Subsidiary Supra THC Services is a Health Canada licensed ISO 17025 accredited cannabis testing lab providing sector-leading analytical services and has partnered with Thermo Fisher Scientific to develop a Centre of Excellence in Plant Based Medicine Analytics. Subsidiary Valens Farms is in the process of becoming a purpose-built facility in compliance with European Union (EU) Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards, ensuring the product from this facility can be exported anywhere in the world where Cannabis is nationally legal for medical or adult usage purposes. For more information, please visit http://valensgroworks.com. The Company's investor deck can be found specifically at http://valensgroworks.com/investors/

Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of such statements under applicable securities law. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "anticipates", "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed", "positioned" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Corporation is under no 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 expressly required by applicable law.

The CSE or other regulatory authority has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. We seek Safe Harbour.

SOURCE Valens GroWorks Corp.From October 2-9, 2018, representatives from the groundbreaking technology company, Viv, worked inside the homes of a small community in Guatemala to build clean cookstoves for families currently cooking on open fires with little to no ventilation. This project will help improve respiratory health for families that have previously lacked the resources to transition to cleaner burning stoves. Traditional methods of cooking, including open fires and inefficient cookstoves, use materials that cause a variety of harmful impacts. Clean cookstoves , however, can reduce illness related to smoke inhalation, lessen pollution, and reduce negative environmental impact. They also burn lower and slower, reducing the cost of firewood and improving economic conditions for the hard-working families.

The project was a joint effort with Long Way Home, an organization that gives communities the resources to overcome poverty through innovative solutions to local challenges. As a for-purpose company, Viv is wholeheartedly dedicated to using its resources and influence to enact meaningful change and help organizations like Long Way Home bring their visions to life. Viv's CEO Cami Boehme believes that collaborating with organizations like Long Way Home to support the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstove's goals is the best way companies and individuals can help work toward the goal of installing 100 million clean cookstoves by 2020.

"As business leaders it's important that we act for purpose, not just for profit; we have the great opportunity to use business as a vehicle to address global issues," said Boehme. "There are communities like this one all around the world that lack basic necessities critical to thrive. As business leaders, when we begin to see our local and global communities as included among our most critical stakeholders, we can begin to create change. Our business model thrives on demonstrating that you can do well by doing good and we are committed to including as many hands-on volunteers in our journey as possible."

The project had just as much of an impact on the volunteers as it did on the community they served.

"There truly are no words to describe the impact a journey like this has on each of us as volunteers. The love our company and each of our representatives genuinely give to others is inspiring," described Lisa Kenny, a Life Consultant for Viv who took part in this initiative.

"As we strive to help communities like Xiquin Sanahi thrive, one project and family at a time, each of us grow as people," said Hannah Wells, Director of Impact and Engagement for Viv. "We're brought closer together as we experience how billions of people are living without the very things we take for granted every day like clean air, water and adequate sanitation."

Although Viv is a for-profit organization, the company also considers itself a "for-purpose company" committed to becoming a certified B-Corp after the prerequisite first year of business. Through their One At A Time initiative, Viv contributes a minimum of 1% of company revenue toward helping communities access energy, water, health, education, sustainability, and economic development - the six pillars the company focuses on. As their tagline suggests, they are dedicated to making "Life Better" for the world as a whole, with products that offer convenience, savings and peace of mind, and an entrepreneurial opportunity with heart. The company's Better Life Platform offers savings and simplicity on things like energy, healthcare, travel and home security. And Viv's Life Consultants can pursue a dynamic side gig offering products and services that change lives.

"We give people a way to live their life better - our customers, our consultants and our communities," Boehme said. "Every time our customer base grows our capacity to give grows, and together with our customers and consultants, we are committed to helping make life better for millions around the world."

ABOUT VIV: Viv Network, LLC (Viv) is a Connecticut-based technology company that provides energy and lifestyle products and services that everyone needs and uses every dayproducts that make Life Better, as the company's tagline suggests. Providing radical transparency with a customer-centric focus and commitment to social good are core to the company's mission to provide consumers a way of life that is easier, more affordable and more satisfying. Viv is a proud member of the Path One Group of Companies, along with sister company Utiliz, LLC. Viv's flagship product, AutoPilot, is provided through a partnership with Utiliz, a licensed energy broker currently active in Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Ohio, and is actively working on launching in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Rhode Island.

For more information contact:

Hannah Wells

[email protected]

203-548-0795

SOURCE Viv Network, LLC

Related Links

http://www.justviv.com

Across 3,600 booths, the show features the latest mobile devices and accessories, speakers, headphones, AR/VR devices and wearables from Verified Suppliers. Exhibitors are companies from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Bulgaria, Germany, India, Israeli, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States of America. It also includes a special product launch area and product gallery along with tech conferences and an experience zone to highlight innovative products and technologies.

Tommy Wong, President of Global Sources Electronics Group, said: "Global Sources is focusing on tomorrow's hot consumer trends today. We are continuing to build the strength of our trade-show offerings in the fields of AIoT (Artificial intelligence and Internet of Things), and VR/AR/MR in addition to mobile products so that by the time these burgeoning technologies have become commonplace in consumers' everyday life, buyers have long been well placed to cater to the current and future needs of their markets."

The show features Asia's largest pavilions for smartphones and tablets, speakers and headphones, VR & AR, wearables and mobile accessories. Expanded selections for the October show include AIoT and wireless charging. The new Brand Hall will be buyers' first stop to discover innovations, technologies from China's leading OEM/ODM brands. Other special attractions are the AIOT Park and VR Experience Zone powered by HTC Vive. To spotlight high-growth product categories, the Analyst's Choice Zone is set to host product launch areas and product demo displays.

Startup Launchpad offers expert insights and shelf-ready innovation

Startup Launchpad is a major tradeshow and conference in Asia for the Startup sector that facilitates global distribution between hardware and retail solution startups and renowned online and offline retailers. Staged at the Mobile Electronics show, it is set to bring together 300 startups from 15 countries and regions to showcase new innovations covering IoT, wearables, smart home, robotics, VR/AR, supply chain, POS and other high-growth categories.

Startup Launchpad's full-fledged conference program is scheduled to gather more than 60 thought leaders to share insights on the Future of Retail over 2 days. This Fall sees the addition of an Ecosystem Day, where various players in different markets plan to inform startups on the resources and funding available in their respective markets. The Startup Launchpad Investment Competition is also scheduled to return this Fall catering to startups seeking investors and investment strategies. More information is available at http://www.launchpadhk.com.

Tech conferences focusing on cutting-edge technology and industry applications

Global Sources Mobile Electronics is scheduled to host a series of on-site conferences including 5th VR/AR/MR Ecosystem Summit and the Mobile Phone CEO Summit to cover mobile and wireless technology developments, AIoT, VR/AR/MR, sourcing best practices and online retail. Top industry experts plan to share their views on market trends and industry development.

The Global Sources Electronics show is expected to attract more than 70,000 buyers from 150 countries and territories, including purchasing decision makers from Acer, Belkin, Cisco, Dolby, eBay, Foxconn, Fujitsu, Google, HP, Huawei, Intel, Intelbras, JVC Kenwood, Logitech, Microsoft, Nokia, NTT Docomo, Oracle, Panasonic, Pioneer, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sennheiser, Siemens, SONY, Target, Toshiba, Unitel Group of Companies, Vivo, Walmart and Yamaha.

The Global Sources Electronics show also includes seminars to help online and Amazon sellers boost profits. Visitors can get to meet exhibitors that accept small orders along with online retail experts.

The GlobalSources.com app enables buyers to shortlist exhibitors; find the location, take pictures and then follow up with exhibitors after the show. The At the Show newsletter provides daily reports and live videos of the hottest products.

The show is complemented year-round by the industry's leading websites, GlobalSources.com. Updated daily, each site delivers exclusive content, including Analyst's Choice products, an unbiased selection of new and innovative items.

Opening hours for the show are:

October 18 - 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

20 from October 21 from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Buyers can find more information about the Global Sources trade fairs at http://www.globalsources.com/exhibitions.

Global Sources news and updates are also available at http://www.corporate.globalsources.com/, Facebook(@GSExpos) and Twitter (@globalsources).

About Global Sources

Global Sources is a leading business-to-business media company and a primary facilitator of trade with Greater China.

The company organizes export sourcing shows in Hong Kong every April and October with eight events annually, including the world's largest electronics and mobile electronics shows. Global Sources is also a majority shareholder in Shenzhen International Machinery Manufacturing Industry Exhibition (SIMM) and its related shows  the leading machinery exhibitions in Southern China.

The core business facilitates trade between Asia and the world using English-language media such as trade shows (GlobalSources.com/exhibitions), online marketplaces (GlobalSources.com), magazines, and apps.

More than 1.5 million international buyers, including 94 of the world's top 100 retailers, use these services to obtain product and company information to help them source more profitably from overseas supply markets. These services also provide suppliers with integrated marketing solutions to build corporate image, generate sales leads and win orders from buyers in more than 240 countries and territories.

For over 46 years, Global Sources has been serving the B2B industry with a reliable, professional trade platform highly trusted by the Company's buyer and supplier communities.

Press Contact



Lierence Li



Tel: (852) 2814-5580



e-mail: [email protected]





SOURCE Global Sources

Related Links

http://www.globalsources.com/exhibitions

Washington, Oct 18 : The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said it is important to give time and space for the investigation of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Speaking to the media at Brussels International Airport, after wrapping up his travel to Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Pompeo said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had "made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in, and that they're going to share information that they learned with the Saudis as well," reported Xinhua news agency on Wednesday.

"There's been a couple of delays, but they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis were going to permit them to do the things that they needed to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation as well," Pompeo noted.

"They want to complete their investigation, and they will have a process. I'm sure they will have their own prosecutors looking at this as well since it took place in their country, albeit on consulate property," he said.

However, Pompeo refused to say whether he had asked to hear the alleged audio on the disappearance of Khashoggi.

"I'm not going to get ahead of...we have two countries conducting investigations. We're going to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident, and when they issue their reports, we'll form our judgment about thoroughness, depth, and the decisions they make about accountability connected to that," he said.

"As for responses that the US will take, we need to know the facts before we can begin to formulate what the appropriate response for this would be," he noted.

Although Pompeo said the alleged death of the journalist is "unlawful" and "unacceptable", he said: "I do think it's important that everyone keep in their mind that we have lots of important relationships between the US and Saudi Arabia."

Speaking of his visit to Turkey, Pompeo said that he had "a good, constructive" conversation with President Erdogan on the release of US pastor Andrew Brunson, Turkey's purchase of Iranian oil and Syria as well, without giving more details about whether there is an agreement reached.

"We have Iran sanctions taking place November 4. We are working with the Turks to make sure that we get to the right place," he said. "They buy Iranian crude oil; we'd like them to buy less."

"President Erdogan is fully engaged in ensuring that Idlib Province remain inside the agreement that he struck, and we are hopeful that that will remain the case as well," he added.

US President Donald Trump also on Wednesday said that his nation has requested Turkey to give the audio and video materials related to the alleged death of the Saudi journalist.

Denying that he had ever been "giving cover" to the Saudi side at all, Trump said "we will probably know that by the end of the week" after he got a "full report" from Pompeo upon his return.

The case of Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, has become a major source of tension between Saudi Arabia and the West.

Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Unconfirmed reports said that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, a claim denied by Saudi officials as "baseless".Mumbai, Oct 18 : Actor and general secretary of the Cine and TV Artists Association (CINTAA) has appealed to the media not to run one-sided #MeToo stories as several "fake stories" are being highlighted through the social media.

Sushant Singh was interacting with the media at a press conference organised here by CINTAA on Wednesday to put forth their perspective about the ongoing #MeToo campaign.

Sushant Singh said: "I think film industry has been singled out. But if you see, the problem persists in other sectors as well -- whether it's corporate or politics. 'You have to please your boss' -- this line has been used so many times in films as well. So yes, we do know this problem exists in our industry but we have been ignorant about it..."

He welcomed the #MeToo movement as it encouraged the survivors to voice their agony.

Appealing to the media not to get swayed by one-sided #MeToo stories, he said: "I think the flag-bearers of this movement have to be very careful, because some quarters are trying to hijack the campaign and they are trying to label sane voices as the guilty to discredit them. If flag-bearers will get discredited, the movement will die a natural death.

"People are posting fake stories on social media, which can easily get discredited... This can lead to even real survivors being discredited and then everyone will be looked upon suspiciously and the real culprits will automatically get clean chit. I, therefore, appeal to the media that they shouldn't run one-sided stories and should also approach the opposite side to hear their version."

Sushant Singh also said that CINTAA will try to address sexual harassment cases with Producers Guild of India.

"We will try to address these issues with producer's body (Producers Guild of India) because at the end of the day, producers are the employers."

CINTAA is cooperating with investigation agencies on sexual harassment cases, the actor said. "We are looking into the cases of Nana Patekar-Tanushree Dutta, Alok Nath-Vinta Nanda and Flora Saini-Gaurang Doshi cases and we are co-operating with police. We are taking legal advice to decide our plan of action in the coming days. We hope that in the end truth will prevail."

Sushant Singh announced that CINTAA will form a sub-committee to look into sexual harassment cases.

"We will form a sub-committee, apart from a committee which will look into sexual harassment cases, which will generate awareness people on sexual harassment. Raveena Tandon, Renuka Shahane, Amol Gupte, Swara Bhasker, journalists, lawyers and psychologists will be part of the sexual harassment complaints committee," he added.

The CINTAA general secretary was accompanied by Vikram Gokhale (President) and Amit Behl (Senior Joint Secretary) at the press conference.San Francisco, Oct 18 : China-based search engine giant Baidu Inc. has become the first Chinese member of the US-led alliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) -- the Partnership on AI (PAI).

PAI, which includes some big names in Silicon Valley such as Apple and Amazon, is focussed to addressing the challenges and impacts of AI.

The US supergroup on PAI development said in a statement on Tuesday that Baidu has in recent years involved into a diverse technology conglomerate, with ventures in autonomous driving, smart assistants and AI platform services, Xinhua news agency reported.

Baidu has pushed forward a series of initiatives aimed at limiting AI's unintended consequences as the Chinese Internet leader has taken "safety and security" as its first principle in the development of autonomous driving, the PAI said.

Baidu is currently working on three new AI products, with Apollo being the largest open source autonomous driving platform.

Its two other AI products are DuerOS, a voice-enabled digital assistant, and Baidu ABC, a smart cloud for the enterprise market.

"Admitting our first Chinese member is an important step toward building a truly global partnership," said Terah Lyons, PAI Executive Director.

The growth and scope of work on AI in China is extensive, and any conversation about the future of AI that does not involve China is an incomplete conversation, Lyons said.

Baidu President Ya-Qin Zhang said AI's safety, fairness and transparency should not be "an afterthought but rather highly considered at the onset of every project or system we build".

He added that Baidu's AI leaders will join the existing PAI Working Groups and forthcoming lines of programming to help develop policies, tools and principles that will drive responsible AI development.

The PAI was set up in 2016 to formulate the best practices on AI technologies and advance the public's understanding of AI evolution.Rome, Oct 18 : Amid an escalating trade war between the United States and China, Italy's premier Giuseppe Conte and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday voiced "deep concern" at the danger of resurgent protectionism after they held talks in Rome.

"The leaders expressed deep concern about the threat of protectionism in the world and affirmed strong support for free, fair and rules-based trade and multilateralism," Conte and Moon said in a joint statement.

Conte and Moon pledged to "further strengthen their shared commitment to the expansion of mutually beneficial, free and multilateral trade," the statement said.

"In this regard, the leaders acknowledged the role of the existing Free Trade Agreement between the South Korea and the European Union and agreed on the need to strengthen its implementation."

Moon's two-day visit to Italy through Thursday -- the first by a South Korean President since 2014 -- is part of a European trip that included France and Belgium, where he attended an EU-Asia summit in Brussels.

Defence, civil aviation and other cooperation accords were expected to be signed during Moon's visit, which was also aimed at garnering support for his diplomatic struggle for peace with North Korea and goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.Washington, Oct 18 : US President Donald Trump awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour to retired US Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. John L. Canley for his heroic actions 50 years ago during the battle of Hue City, one of the bloodiest scuffles of the Vietnam War.

"Fifty years ago, an American Marine fought with unmatched bravery in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War - the Battle of Hue City," Trump said on Wednesday during the ceremony.

"The name of that heroic Marine is Sgt. Major John Canley."

The 80-year-old veteran received the nation's highest military honour during an event at the White House.

One day before he turned 30, Canley's unit headed to the city of Hue to provide support to the troops cornered by the North Vietnam Army in the former imperial capital.

When his commanding officer was gravely wounded, Canley took the lead of his garrison, which provided support to other US and South Vietnamese troops waging against approximately 6,000 enemy soldiers, Trump added.

For six straight days, the two armies faced off against the adversaries, during which time he was caught in a "deadly crossfire", darting into the open so his Marines could seize a building and carried wounded soldiers to safety while exposing himself to the enemy.

"Despite sustaining serious injuries - very, very serious injuries - John continued to face down the enemy with no thought for his own safety," praised Trump.

Throughout his military career, from which he retired in 1981, Canley received many military awards, including the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.Brussels, Oct 18 : The leaders of the 27 countries that will remain in the European Union (EU) after Britain's withdrawal called off an extraordinary summit on the Brexit in November due to insufficient progress to organise the meeting.

"For now, the 27 are not planning to organise an extraordinary summit on Brexit in November," European sources said on Wednesday.

Those same sources said that the leaders stand "ready" to convene a European Council, "if and when" the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, reports that "decisive progress" has been achieved, reports Efe news.

The Heads of State and Government of the 27 met in Brussels on Wednesday to hear a statement delivered by the British Prime Minister Theresa May, on the Brexit and then, without the UK, discussed how to proceed with the negotiations less than six months away from the planned British exit.

Brussels had planned to close the withdrawal agreement with the British government in October so the the European Parliament and Westminster parliament could ratify it before March 29, when Brexit will materialize.

During the informal summit in Salzburg in September, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, already said that the October meeting would be "the moment of truth" for the negotiations and that by then he hoped "the maximum progress and result".

"If we feel that we will be able to finalise and formalise our agreement in November, I will convene this extraordinary meeting", which would take place on November 17 and 18, the Polish politician said last month.

However, on October 14 London and Brussels failed to close an agreement and decided to stop negotiations This Wednesday, the Heads of State and Government of the 27 reaffirmed their "total confidence" in the community negotiator, Michel Barnier, and their determination to remain united.Sabarimala (Kerala) : Sabarimala (Kerala) Oct 18 (IANS) A Delhi-based female journalist. who managed to climb up the pathway to reach the famed Sabarimala temple, was on Thursday forced to abandon her trek following a massive protest.

Suhasini Raj, who works as the India reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall before her.

According to witnesses, the protesters forced the two journalists to return.

As she was ascending, Raj kept saying that she did not come to pray but to do her work.

"It was a massive protest by the devotees. The protesters were sitting on the pathway shouting slogans against her. She had no other way but to return and she did that," said a witness here.

On Wednesday, the protesters, who opposed the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Sabarimala temple, clashed with the police and heckled female journalists as the pilgrimage season opened.

The temple opened for the first time on Wednesday after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

The district authorities have clamped a 24 hour Section 144 in a 30 square km radius of the temple town and the state is observing a statewide shutdown on Thursday called by a Hindu organisation backed by the BJP-led NDA.Srinagar, Oct 18 : A shutdown called by separatists affected life across the Kashmir Valley on Thursday with heavy security deployed here and other vulnerable places.

The Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), a separatist conglomerate headed by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik, called the shutdown against the killing of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, Mehrajudd in Bangroo, his associate Faiz Ahmad Waza and Rayees Ahmad in a gunfight on Wednesday in Srinagar's Fateh Kadal area.

Shops, other businesses and public transport remained closed in Srinagar and other district headquarters of the Valley.

Skeletal private transport moved in the uptown areas of Srinagar.

Educational institutions were closed due to the Dussehra holiday.

The authorities have imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar's old city areas.

Train services between Baramulla and Bannihal towns were suspended as a precautionary measure.

However, no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the valley.San Francisco, Oct 18 : As part of its annual privacy upgrades, Apple has introduced a new portal that lets users see what personal data the company has kept on them, the media reported.

The information collected may include data such as calendar entries, photos, reminders, documents, website bookmarks, App Store purchases, among other items, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

The search function is in line with Apple's efforts to differentiate itself as a company that does not montetise user data as it does not treat customers as its products. The company takes pride in making money though its hardware.

"Whether you're taking a photo or asking Siri a question, you can do it knowing that Apple doesn't gather your personal information to sell to advertisers or other organisations," Apple says in its privacy website.

According to a report in USA Today, users still have to wait a few days to retrieve the information, from the updated http://www.apple.com/privacy section of the Apple website, as the tech giant confirms the request, but it should be way easier to find the tools now than before.

Apple updates its privacy website every autumn, after the introduction of new phones and software upgrades to the mobile and computer operating systems, iOS12 and MacOS, which this year is called Mojave, the report said.Jaisalmer (Rajasthan), Oct 18 : It was once a much sought-after destination for tourists who wanted to experience camel safaris, golden sands, mesmerising dunes, and the rich culture and heritage of the Thar desert. Then came the Khalistan Movement of 1986 and since the borders of Rajasthan's Jaisalmer district were bound on the west and southwest by Pakistan, tourists weren't permitted beyond 45 km of this World Heritage City.

Around 2/3rd of the district was brought within the ambit of the Protected Area Permit (PAP), which barred any kind of tourist activity in its vicinity without prior permission from police and administration.

The Khalistan movement left a sad imprint on this border area. Even the once popular 14-day safari from Jodhpur/Bikaner to Jaisalmer came to a tragic halt with the implementation of the PAP here.

Those affected the most by this harsh initiative were the locals who survived on the decent incomes being generated from tourists. Even the numbers of camels dwindled substantially as demand fell, drastically cutting the income of their masters.

"Until 1986, the area was absolutely open and people used to do long safaris from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, right along the border. There were royal desert safaris too which lasted 10-15 days. Many dignitaries from India and abroad were a part of these safaris," Vikram Singh Bhati, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaisalmer, told IANS.

"In the 1970s, the border of Jaisalmer bustled with the activities of Bollywood stars during the shoot of Bollywood hit 'Reshma Aur Shera'. Film stars such as Waheeda Rehman, Sunil Dutt, Amitabh Bachhan and more camped on the golden sands, went on camel safaris and created many memories for the locals to cherish. What made the difference was that the film was shot right at the border," Bhati added.

As Khalistan movement was growing strongly and Jaisalmer had a 450 km-long border with Pakistan, the authorities preferred shutting down the area.

"Now, whoever wants to visit the border areas needs to take permission from the police. One can enter Jaisalmer but can't go beyond 45 kilometres. Beyond this, they need to go to the local police station and take permission and only then can they go ahead," Bhati said.

"People want to come and see desert and the real desert starts from 45 km and beyond. That's the best part of the Thar desert, the second-largest desert of the world, which now remains inaccessible to people, he added.

If the area is opened up again, it can help generate better incomes for locals. The infrastructure can also improve and the number of camels, which is dwindling, can be increased, he said.

"If people are allowed to go there, they can see camels, culture and heritage."

"Sadly, the villagers are now switching to lucrative cash crops on land once used to graze camels. We have the best breed of camels in Asia with us, and now this is dwindling because the locals can't bear the cost of retaining the camels," he said.

Bhati said the tourism ministry can take up the issue with the home ministry, adding the defence ministry too had no problem with this as Lt. General Cherish Mathson, Army Commander, Southwestern Command, has also pitched for the prospects of battlefield tourism in the state.

At the Indian Heritage Hotels' Association conference last month, Lt. General Mathson had said: "Rajasthan's history is replete with battles which form an integral part of the state's heritage and culture. Historical battles attract the interest of the general public owing to their tremendous emotional pull due to displays of bravery and valour. There is a huge bank of people ready to respond positively to battlefield tourism if the right infrastructure to facilitate the same can be developed."

Meanwhile, as the rounds of discussions and debates continue on the issue, the sufferers are those who want to experience the real Thar, which spreads far and beyond the 45 km stretch of the city as permitted at present.

(Archana Sharma can be contacted at archana.s@ians.in)Patna, Oct 18 : After Katrani rice, Jardalu mango and Magahi paan (betel vine), Bihars Shahi litchi has got the Geographical Indication (GI) tag and has become an exclusive brand in the national and international market, an official said on Thursday.

The famous Shahi litchi, which is famous for its sweet, juicy, unique flavour and aroma, is mostly grown in Muzaffarpur and neighbouring districts including East Champaran, Vaishali, Samastipur and Begusarai.

It has officially become an exclusive brand with the GI tag. We were informed about this positive development on Tuesday. It was a much awaited news for Bihar's Shahi litchi, said Vishal Nath, Director of National Research Centre on Litchi (NRCL).

The GI registration was done in the name of Litchi Growers Association of Bihar, which had applied for the tag, said Bachcha Prasad Singh, President of Litchi Growers Association of Bihar.

Nath told IANS that the GI tag to Shahi litchi will boost up its demand in the market and will minimise the fear of fake and poor quality litchis.

"The GI tag for the fruit will help and benefit thousands of litchi growers who will gain access to more markets and get better price in the country and abroad," he said.

Bihar produces 40 per cent of the litchi grown in the country on 38 per cent of the area.

A GI is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin such as a town, region, or country. Its use may act as a certification that the product possesses certain qualities due to its geographical origin.Nagpur, Oct 18 : Secured borders are of paramount importance to ensure prosperity and development of India given the current complex international scenario, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said here on Thursday.

"Border security and internal security are issues of foremost consideration as they ensure space and opportunity to the nation for prosperity and development.

"Fruitful efforts have been made to entwine the web of international relations by appraising the nations with our security concerns and getting their cooperation," Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief said.

While the government and the armed forces have displayed "clear intent to maintain peaceful and cordial relations with all the countries, including the neighbouring ones", at the same time it was necessary to remain firm and make prudent use of our capabilities while taking bold actions wherever necessary in the context of our security, he said.

For this, Bhagwat said efforts were underway to enhance the morale of our armed forces to make them well-equipped with the latest technologies, which is one of the reasons India's prestige is rising in the world.

He was addressing the much-anticipated annual Vijayadashmi celebration of the RSS at its Reshimbaug headquarters in Maharashtra, also known as the Orange Country.

Bhagwat also said attention must be paid to improve the basic amenities of the armed forces and their families, so that they can fight for the security of the borders without harbouring worries for the social security and wellbeing of their loved ones.

Though there are some laudable steps taken by the government, its implementation needs to be expedited as they pass through various departments like Defence, Home and Finance.

"All these actors (departments) need to be more sensitive and respectful to the endeavours of these forces and their readiness to make a supreme sacrifice even by putting their lives at stake that is a natural expectation that comes up in many discussions," Bhagwat pointed out.

Besides securing the land borders, the RSS Sansanghchalak urged the need to boost India's maritime borders in view of the dynamic international developments.

"There are hundreds of islands in the coastal area of India from Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the Lakshadweep Isles, situated at strategically important locations. Their maintenance and strengthening the facilities there must be implemented urgently from the security point of view," Bhagwat added.

He called for prioritising coordination, cooperation and resources among the Indian Navy and other forces guarding the maritime borders and the islands, since Indians living along the sea borders firmly hold their ground despite facing several peculiar challenges.

"If their wellbeing is taken care of these locals in the border areas can be of great assistance to tackle problems like infiltration, smuggling, among others.

"For this proper relief, education, healthcare and employment opportunities must reach them promptly and they should be imbued with patriotism, valour and virtues," Bhagwat said.

Commenting on the ongoing border skirmishes, the RSS chief said that the newly formed government in Pakistan has not resulted in any decline in its "overt and covert provocative activities" in states like Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab... "which was neither expected nor happened".

He added that security without "total self-reliance" in the field of defence production cannot be assured and the pace of national efforts in that direction must be accelerated while continuing with the international multilateral exchanges wherever required.

Internationally-acclaimed child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest for this year's programme.Mumbai, Oct 18 : Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha says while the MeToo movement is noble, it is becoming "free-for-all" and being blown out of proportion.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Your dear friend Subhash Ghai stands accused of multiple sexual offences. Your comments?

A. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? I am all for the MeToo movement, never in my 40-year career have I misbehaved with any woman. I treat every lady with utmost respect. Having said that, I think this MeToo campaign is being blown out of all proportion.

Q. In what way?

A. While the cause was definitely noble and praiseworthy, it has now become a free-for-all. Anyone can name and shame anyone. Reputations and jobs are being lost through a trial by media. To all the women who are aggrieved I say, please go to court and make sure the wrongdoers are punished.

Q. You've done some terrific films with Subhash Ghai. Would you work with him in future?

A. Why not? If he is proven innocent, why not? Even if he is proven guilty, and he serves the punishment given to him, I'd work with him. Sanjay Dutt served his jail sentence and is back working in our large-hearted film industry. In fact, we had no problem working with him even when he was an accused in a serious case.

Q. Many of the top stars and directors have vowed not to work with sexual offenders?

A. This hypocrisy I can't understand. They have no problem working with Sanjay Dutt who has been convicted. But they want to blacklist people whose guilt is yet to be proven. Just to look like heroes of the MeToo movement.

Q. A-list actors have dissociated themselves from tainted directors?

A. I don't want to name anyone. But I will say this. Sau choohe khaa kar billi haj ko chali'. Those seeking to perch themselves on a high moral ground, should look into their conscience. The problem of sexual exploitation, doesn't end with some names being put out in the social media. This is just the beginning. The problem runs much deeper.

Q. Your tainted party colleague M.J. Akbar refuses to step down. What is your take on his brazen attitude?

A. I don't even know which political party I belong to anymore! Having said that, M.J. Akbar is a friend. And a wise one. I know him from the time he revolutionised journalism in this country. He knows what he is doing, and why. I believe he has employed 97 lawyers to defend him against charges (of sexual harassment). He should have employed three more lawyers... It would have been a century... Seriously, how can he afford such a massive legal fleet? I can't afford it if I ever need it.Lucknow, Oct 18 : Hundreds of files and documents were gutted after unidentified miscreants on Thursday set on fire a chamber of a court in Uttar Pradesh's Chandauli district, police said.

The court of the Special Additional District Judge, where the incident happened, functions out of the premises of a degree college in the district. Employees raised an alarm when they saw smoke billowing from one of the chambers.

Fire tenders were rushed to control the blaze.

The windows of the chambers was found removed, and the miscreants apparantly slipped through it to set the documents on fire, police said.

An official informed that a forensic team had been called to help in the probe, and night watchman Pawan Pandey had been detained for interrogation.Washington, Oct 18 : US President Donald Trump's administration has barred American aid groups from travelling to North Korea as it pressures Pyongyang to dismantle the countrys nuclear weapons programme.

Sanctions imposed by the UN last year have already forced aid groups to severely limit some activities, such as shipping farming equipment into the country, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

North Korea is one of the world's poorest nations, and its citizens grapple with food shortages.

The moves by the administration seek to tighten sanctions as part of its maximum-pressure campaign during nuclear negotiations, as well as sever non-government exchanges between Americans and North Koreans.

Since last month, the State Department has refused to grant special permission to aid workers to travel to North Korea.

It had done so in some cases in the year since the Trump administration enacted a general ban in September 2017 on Americans travelling to North Korea.

Asked for a comment, the State Department told The New York Times that it was still reviewing exceptions to the general travel ban "on a case-by-case basis, taking into account a range of factors".

Last year's travel ban was issued after an American student, Otto F. Warmbier, died as a result of brain damage suffered in a North Korean prison. Warmbier was arrested in 2016 while on a tour in Pyongyang.Sabarimala (Kerala), Oct 18 : Tension prevailed on Thursday a day after the opening of the short five-day pilgrimage season as the state observed a shutdown against the alleged police attack on protesters even as a senior member of the Sabarimala priest's family urged women of the hitherto barred age group to respect tradition and not visit the Lord Ayyappa temple.

While on Wednesday a couple of women devotees were prevented from undertaking the trek to the hill temple and some women journalists were stopped from proceeding with their coverage amidst violence by activists of Hindu groups affiliated to the BJP and RSS, no women devotee of the ages that have been allowed darshan by the Supreme Court turned up on the day.

On Thursday morning, Suhasini Raj, who works as the India reporter for The New York Times, along with her colleague, a foreign national, managed to go past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall before her.

"I had reached half way and then the protests grew stronger. I was hit by a stone and then we decided to return. The police had provided us all the security," said Raj, who had earlier pointed out that she came to do her job to speak to devotees.

Pathanamthitta District Collector P.B. Nooh told the media on Thursday afternoon that Section 144 was in force and would be there till Friday midnight. Police would provide security to any woman who wished to go and pray, he said.

Of the 30 protesters, who was arrested on Wednesday, 20 were produced before the Magistrate Court in Ranni near here. They were remanded to two weeks judicial custody. The arrested activists included a member of the Tantri family, Rahul Eashwar.

A dawn-to-dusk shutdown backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party was called against Wednesday's police attack on protesters who were opposing the entry of women within the age group of 10-50 years to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

At a few places in Kozhikode, Malappuram and here, protesters stoned buses of the Kerala State Road Transport Corp following which their operation was suspended.

On the occasion of Mahanavami, all state and central government offices, banks and educational institutions were closed.

Shops and markets also remained shut. There were poor attendance at the IT park here and in Kochi. Railway commuters faced the brunt of the shutdown as they failed to get taxis and public vehicles from the stations.

Speaking to the media at the temple premise, Chief Priest Kantararu Rajeevaru said: "We have the highest regards for women. And those who otherwise come to pray at the temple are treated with utmost respect.

"We always respect the law of the land but in the wake of the apex court's ruling, we humbly request women that they should not try to break the tradition of this hallowed temple."

He said it was most unfortunate that there had been a wrong campaign that if any woman in the hitherto banned age group entered the temple, he would close the temple.

"I have never ever said such a thing. We all wish and want that the Sabarimala temple is not turned into a conflict zone as there are lakhs and lakhs of devotees of this temple all over the world."

The temple opened on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for the first time after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.

As part of the convention, the temple opens for five days on the first of every Malayalam month. It will now be open till October 22.

Strong protests were witnessed on Wednesday as political and religious groups turned out in large numbers. Some protesters opposed to the entry of women in the 10-50 age group clashed with police and heckled women journalists.

Some demonstrators and police engaged in stone throwing, leading to a lathi charge on the protesters.

On account of the violence, the Pathanamthitta district collector has clamped Section 144 in around 30 sq km around the temple.

State BJP chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai on Thursday said all this happened because of the Left government.

"We condemn the violence that took place there and we will bring this to the attention of the Centre. This is outrageous.

"We have decided to intensify our protest. From today, till October 22, every day at 11.30 a.m., 41 Yuva Morcha activists will break Section 144 and will get arrested," he said.

Vijayan, now in the UAE, wrote in his Facebook post that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were trying to turn the hallowed temple into a conflict zone.

"The devotees of the temple should realise this ploy but the state government is determined to thwart all such attempts and would deal with the situation in the appropriate manner," said Vijayan.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Police on Thursday warned of tough action against all those who spread canards on the social media about Sabarimala in the present situation.Motegi (Japan), Oct 18 : Spain's Jorge Lorenzo on Thursday said he was disappointed over the possibility of not being able to participate in the upcoming Japanese MotoGP in Motegi.

Lorenzo, who suffered a dramatic crash during practice in Thailand, was officially passed fit to take part in the race this weekend but said he was unsure of racing as he has not yet fully recovered, reports Efe.

"I am very disappointed because I knew the fracture existed after the scan but I thought after 13-14 days the injury would improve and I would feel much better here," Lorenzo said in the pre-race press conference.

"In the first days I felt some improvement, that is why I started to swim and make some exercises, but when I slightly force the wrist, I feel quite a big pain after some hours," he added.

"The wrist is quite inflamed, the feeling is not good, the pain is quite big, (when) making some movement," said the rider from Mallorca.

Lorenzo said Motegi was one of his favourite circuits and he was going to test himself in practice on Friday, adding that his participation depended on the rate of recovery.Kuala Lumpur, Oct 18 : Malaysia's former Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was arrested by the country's anti-corruption body on Thursday on charges of misuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering.

Ahmad, who is also President of the country's main opposition party the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), has been called in by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) several times for questioning this year.

In a statement, the MACC said that Ahmad was detained shortly after being summoned to its headquarters in Putrajaya and faces charges of misuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering, Efe news reported.

The UMNO President will be presented at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on Friday.

He was arrested in relation to the alleged misappropriation of funds worth RM800,000 ($192,424) from Yayasan Akal Budi, a welfare foundation that he chairs. The money were used to pay his credit card bill.

Ahmad denied the corruption charges and said that the payments were made due to an error by the accountants.

His arrest came after former Prime Minister Najib Razak was charged in a corruption scandal involving the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund.

Najib's wife, Rosmah Mansor, was arrested on suspicion of money laundering on October 3 during the investigation into the former Prime Minister.

The US Justice Department estimated that about $4.5 billion were diverted from 1MDB, of which about $1 billion could have been laundered in the US through the purchase of real estate, yachts, jewellery and works of art, among other goods.

The UMNO-led coalition was the ruling party from Malaysia's independence in 1957 and held power till it suffered its first defeat in the May 9 general election.Nagpur, Oct 18 : Raking up the pet saffron agenda ahead of next year's Lok Sabha polls, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday pitched for a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya "at the earliest" through law and accused "fundamentalist forces" of obstructing the process.

Delivering his Vijayadashami speech on the 93rd foundation day of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he also criticized the Supreme Court verdict on Sabarimala entry for women of all ages while touching upon internal and external security issues.

"The Ram temple must be constructed at the earliest at Ramjanmbhoomi. It should not be delayed any more. The decision should be taken at the earliest. We say the government should bring legislation and construct Ram temple. Whatever steps would be taken by sants in this regard, we will stand by them," he said.

"Lord Ram does not belong to any community. He is not about Hindus and Muslims. He is an icon of India. His temple must be constructed, be it any way. The government should bring legislation."

Bhagwat's remarks assume significance against the backdrop of the Supreme Court deciding to begin hearing the title suit of the Ayodhya dispute from October 29. The VHP has decided to launch a mass campaign in favour of building a temple.

The RSS chief said a place was yet to be allotted for construction of the temple although all kinds of evidence have affirmed that there was a temple at "that place" -- where the 16th century Babri Masjid stood until it was razed on December 6, 1992.

"The matter is in court. It is getting delayed and delayed. How long it will be delayed? The Hindu society is waiting since long for the construction of the temple. People know the facts about it. But some people do politics on it. They are trying to delay the process. Had politics not been there, the temple would have been constructed long ago. It could have been constructed with the cooperation and coordination of all," he said.

He said there was "an obvious game plan of a few elements" to stall a judicial ruling. Constructing the Ram temple "will also pave the way for an atmosphere of goodwill and oneness in the country.

"This matter of national interest is being obstructed by some fundamentalist elements and forces that play communal politics. Despite such machination, the decision regarding the ownership of the land should be expedited and the government should clear the path for the construction of the grand Ram temple through appropriate and requisite law."

Speaking on national security, Bhagwat said India needs to become self-reliant in defence production and emphasised that it should get technology and enhance domestic capacity.

"Border security and internal security are issues of foremost consideration as they ensure space and opportunity to the nation for prosperity and development.

"Fruitful efforts have been made to entwine the web of international relations by appraising the nations with our security concerns and getting their cooperation," he said.

While the government and the armed forces have displayed "clear intent to maintain peaceful and cordial relations with all countries, including neighbours", it was necessary to remain firm and make prudent use of Indian capabilities while taking bold actions wherever necessary, he said.

For this, Bhagwat said efforts were on to enhance the morale of the armed forces to make them well-equipped with the latest technologies, which is one reason India's prestige was rising in the world.

Commenting on border skirmishes, the RSS chief said the newly-formed government in Pakistan had not led to any decline in its "overt and covert provocative activities" in states like Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab ... "which was neither expected nor happened".

"We have to save ourselves, we need to become so strong that those who plan an attack will not dare to do so."

He added that security without "total self-reliance" in defence production cannot be assured and the pace of national efforts in that direction must be accelerated while continuing with the international multilateral exchanges wherever required.

On the protests over the Sabarimala temple in Kerala, he said the Supreme Court verdict had not taken into consideration the nature and premise of the tradition that had been accepted by society.

"The decisions taken without considering all aspects will neither be adopted in actual practice nor will they help in creating a new social order in tune with changing times and positions.

"The idea was to have gender equality, which is fine. However, there should have been talks (with the followers of the tradition). The faith of crores of devotees was not taken into account," he said.

In his 90-minute speech, Bhagwat cautioned against Urban Maoism and charged that it was propagating falsehood and spreading hatred in the society.

"The actual presence of Jihadi and terrorist elements in one way or other in such incidents is a common factor among all these. So the emerging conclusion is, this is a bigger canny conspiracy in collusion with forces from within and outside the country.

"It no more remains just a power politics by the opposition, but in this process, politically ambitious individuals and groups and weaker sections crushed under deprivation and neglect get drawn as ammunition unknowingly or unwillingly," he said.

Child rights activist and Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi was the chief guest at this year's programme.New Delhi, Oct 18 : "Bluffmaster" director Rohan Sippy says it was fun to tell the story of a side hero in Bollywood with his series "Side Hero".

"I have been working in the business for so long and (have seen that) the spotlight is on the heroes. I thought that there are so many wonderful actors and people who I have worked with, who don't come into that category. I thought it will be lot of fun to tell their story," Sippy told IANS over the phone.

"It becomes an excuse to look at the film industry itself as a setting of the story. That is how we started off and it kept growing from there," he added.

"The Side Hero", an eight-episode series, has a humorous take on Kunaal Roy Kapur's character's life who is juggling between the willingness to get a lead role but always ending up being the side hero.

It revolves around how he is trying to strike the perfect chance to make it big in Bollywood, but failing every time. The series, which went live on Eros Now, a video OTT platform, also stars Gauahar Khan.

Sippy joined forces with Kunaal after "The President Is Coming" and "Nautanki Saala!".

On working with Kunaal, the director said: "We have worked together so we know that we have a similar kind of sensibility. He has been a side hero of a film and has kind of lived out that part...He is playing a version of himself... And the number one reason that I wanted to work with him was because we thought of creating something fun."Colombo, Oct 18 : Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday left for India on a three-day official visit, his office said in a statement.

During his visit, Wickremesinghe will hold discussions with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi on a wide range of topics including housing projects in the north of Sri Lanka, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wickremesinghe will also meet Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Wickremesinghe's delegation includes International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama and Petroleum Resources Minister Arjuna Ranatunga.Panaji, Oct 18 : The BJP has formally started its hunt for a leadership alternative to ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, party leaders as well as an alliance partner said on Thursday.

The issue of leadership change had been a taboo subject for most of the Bharatiya Janata Party leadership, including MLAs and state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, who until late on Wednesday had maintained that there was no question of even discussing possible alternatives to Parrikar's leadership as the Chief Minister, who is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer, was "recovering" and "governing the state well".

The obduracy over the issue of leadership alternatives to Parrikar appears to have given way to a sense of pragmatism in the BJP ranks, especially with their national President Amit Shah formally broaching the subject with leaders from Goa's ruling coalition parties.

"Amit Shahji spoke to leaders from our coalition parties today in Delhi. They discussed possible leadership options for the near future. A final decision will be taken after consultation with the party high command and state leadership," a BJP leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.

Among the names of leaders discussed as possible Chief Minister alternatives at the meeting held between Shah, Goa Forward party President Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party leader Sudin Dhavalikar and other BJP leaders include Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, state BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, Speaker Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, the party official said.

Sardesai, who met Shah earlier today, has also maintained that the BJP leadership is "seriously looking" at the leadership issue. "Some names have been discussed," Sardesai said.

The failure of Chief Minister Parrikar to attend to day-to-day administrative and political chores due to prolonged treatment of cancer has thrown Goa into a political crisis for several weeks.

The BJP earlier this week inducted two MLAs from the Congress into its own party, in a bid to foil a government-toppling plan being engineered by the opposition party.

Ever since Parrikar's health conditioned worsened, allies like Goa Forward as well as the MGP had been in touch with Congress leaders tinkering with a possible regime change, even as they had also been pressurising the BJP to allocate more plum portfolios to ministers from the coalition parties.New Delhi, Oct 18 : The BJP on Thursday said the Congress was running a 'Modi Hatao' campaign in Pakistan and accused it of 'demeaning' and defaming the Hindu community in India.

The party alleged that the Congress was deliberately targeting the Hindus for crying foul over glorification of "terrorists" in university campuses.

"The way in which Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the Hindus don't call him anymore for campaigning was against the secular fabric of the country. And it is a big abuse to Hindus," Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters.

Azad made the remarks at the 201st birth anniversary of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) founder Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in Lucknow on Wednesday.

Accusing the Congress of running sponsored advertisement in Pakistan, Patra said, "Modi hatao (remove Modi) campaign was being run in India and Pakistan."

He said that India is a democratic country and they could advertise against BJP here. "But what sense does it make to do so in Pakistan?" he questioned.New Delhi, Oct 18 : India is continuing to engage with the US over the H-1B visa, largely availed of by Indian IT companies, after the Trump administration proposed changes to the programme, a senior official said on Thursday.

"It is a very important topic for us and that is the reason why we have time and again at various levels we have taken up this matter with the US side," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in response to queries by journalists here.

Kumar said that most recently, the issue was raised during the first ever India-US 2+2 Ministerial Meeting held here last month that was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.

On Wednesday, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to come out with its new proposal by January 2019.

The DHS said it was also proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation.

The move to end the rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visa holders, who have work permits.

The H-4 visas are issued by the USCIS to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the holders of H-1B visa.

The DHS said it will propose to revise the definition of specialty occupation to increase focus on obtaining the best and the brightest foreign nationals via the H-1B programme.

It will also "revise the definition" of employment and employer-employee relationship to "better protect" US workers and wages, the DHS said.

In his remarks on Thursday, Kumar said that India is closely engaged with the US administration as well as the US Congress on this matter.

Stating that there are certain bills which have been introduced, he, however, said that "it is important to note that none of these bills have been passed so far".

"When we have engaged with the US, we have emphasised that our partnership which we have in the digital sphere have been mutually beneficial," the spokesperson said.

"We have highlighted the role which has been played by the highly skilled Indian professionals who have actually contributed to the growth and development of the US economy," he stated.

"And also they have helped the US to maintain a competitive edge in the world towards innovation and science and technology."Lucknow, Oct 18 : The Uttar Pradesh government will start on November 1 the process to recruit 56,808 people in the state police, officials said on Thursday.

The government will announce the results of the three-phase recruitment process in June 2019, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar and Director General of Police O.P. Singh told reporters here.

The government aims to appoint 51,216 constables, 3,668 jail wardens and 1,924 firemen following a written test and physical examination. Interviews for the posts have been done away with, they said.

This is the second such recruitment drive since the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath came to power in the state in 2017.

Besides providing reservation for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes, the government has set aside 20 per cent of the seats for women candidates.

Authorities have decided to deploy the Special Task Force to prevent irregularities in the recruitment process.New Delhi, Oct 18 : India is continuing to engage with the US and all other stakeholders regarding the S-400 missile deal with Russia and import of crude oil from Iran following Washington's sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

"On S-400, I can tell you that this is dictated by our national interests," ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said at a media briefing here.

"We are engaged with the US on this matter and we have shared our position with the US at different levels," Kumar said.

"These discussions have contributed to a better understanding by the US on our objectives, our concerns, as well as our sensitivities and expectations."

The S-400 missile deal, signed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi earlier this month, has been an issue of much speculation after the Trump administration's Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) law came into effect in January. CAATSA targets countries doing business with Russian, Iranian and North Korean defence companies.

A group of US senators imposed the sanctions on Russia over what they called Moscow's continued involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria and its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Following the signing of the S-400 deal, the US Embassy spokesperson here said that the intent of her country's implementation of CAATSA was "to impose costs on Russia for its malign behaviour, including by stopping flow of money to Russia's defence sector".

Spokesperson Jinnie Lee said that CAATSA was "not intended to impose damage to the military capabilities of our allies or partners".

There have also been concerns in New Delhi following fresh US sanctions on Iran, set to come into effect on November 4, since the West Asian nation is a major supplier of crude oil to India.

The US pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that Tehran had signed with the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, Germany and the European Union and imposed the new sanctions on the West Asian nation over its nuclear programme.

Under the sanctions, the US wants all countries in the world to stop importing oil from Iran.

"On the Iran issue and the issues growing out of the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, again we are engaged with all stakeholders in this matter," spokesperson Kumar said.

"Our expectations have been made known to the US side."

Kumar said that India appreciates the statement made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the intention of imposing sanctions on Iran is not to hurt India.

"We do intend to continue our engagement with the US and other stakeholders to ensure our energy security and to protect our national interest," he stated.

He also said that Brian Hook, the Special Envoy of the US on Iran, visited India and held discussions with several officials and interlocutors in different ministries.

"Basically, he also wanted to understand our position and our perspective on this matter," Kumar said.

"We have conveyed to him that the price of crude oil is a matter of concern for the domestic economy and directly impacts the common man."Shillong, Oct 18 : Meghalayas most wanted separatist leader and Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) General Secretary Cheristerfield Thangkhiew surrendered before Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday at the Police Headquarters.

Thangkhiew arrived in Shillong on Thursday from Bangladesh following several rounds of discussions between his family members and the Deputy Chief Minister for his surrender.

"He arrived in Shillong today (Thursday) from Bangladesh via Dawki (near the India-Bangladesh border) and travelled by road to Shillong to surrender before the government," a Meghalaya Police official told IANS.

The surrender of the General Secretary is believed to be a major blow to the Khasi secessionist outfit which now is left with its military wing commander Bobby Reagan MarweiA, who is hiding in Bangladesh with a few of his trusted lieutenants.

Deputy Chief Minister Tynsong said that "frequent discussions" were held between him and Thangkhiew's family members and his brother Gray to facilitate the separatist leader (Thangkhiew) to come overground.

Thangkhiew, one of the founding members of the HNLC, was hiding in Bangladesh after he along with Bobby Reagan MarweiA, Dilash Marak and Jerome Cherian Momin of the A'chik Liberation Matgrik Army (ALMA) and two cadres of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Isak Muivah faction escaped from Shillong Jail in 1995.

HNLC Chairman Julius Dorphang was the first top leader of the outfit to surrender before Chief Minister D.D. Lapang on July 24, 2008. Dorphang later successfully contested the 2013 Meghalaya Assembly election but was later arrested on January 7, 2017 for raping a minor girl. He is currently lodged in Shillong prison.

"I am sure his (Thangkhiew) decision to comeback will send a message to other cadres who are in Bangladesh to follow his footsteps. I am sure you (Thangkhiew) will be instrumental in taking part in the programme of the government," Tynsong told the separatist leader.

Asked whether Thangkhiew will face trials for various crimes he had committed, Tynsong said: "...The government has handled such cases a number of times in the past. You have seen how the government handled the issue of people coming overground. Therefore, just leave to the wisdom on how to handle this issue to the government."

Thangkhiew, who said that he has no regrets for joining the HNLC that had killed several civilians and security forces, offered himself to play the role of a negotiator with the HNLC.

"If the government needs me, I am ready to be a negotiator but it all depends on the government. I have discussed with members of the outfit about my decision (surrender). This is my personal decision. There is no personal enmity or differences and I still have a good relationship with all the members of the HNLC," he told journalists.

Hitting out at the previous Congress government in Meghalaya for not taking seriously to the HNLC's offer for peace talks, Thangkhiew said: "From the inception of the Indian union, there has been problems created by the Indian National Congress and they did not take it seriously. I also had a telephonic conversation with the previous Meghalaya Home Minister Roshan Warjri for dialogue but the then Congress government in Meghalaya did not take it seriously."

The HNLC, which runs hit-and-run operations from its hideout in Bangladesh, has been demanding a sovereign Khasi homeland in Meghalaya.

Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.New Delhi, Oct 18 : India is looking forward to further deepen its partnership with the Maldives following the just concluded presidential election in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

Stating that India has already welcomed the successful conclusion of the third presidential election process in the Maldives, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to President-elect Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and offered his personal congratulations.

Solih, the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party's candidate, emerged victorious over incumbent President Abdulla Yameen. He will be sworn in on November 17 and his term is expected to continue until 2023.

The atoll nation's relations with India became strained during Yameen's rule, with tensions peaking after India criticised Male's refusal to enforce a Supreme Court ruling quashing the convictions of nine opposition figures, among them former President Mohamed Nasheed.

"In keeping with our Neighbourhood First policy, we look forward to working closely with the Maldives in further deepening our partnership," Kumar said.

"We have consistently held this position since the imposition of emergency earlier this year that there is a need to protect democracy in the Maldives, preserve the mandate of the people".

The spokesperson said that this election marks "not only the triumph of the democratic forces of the Maldives but also reflect the firm commitment to the values of democracy and the rule of law".

"We are, of course, confident that the mandate of the people will be upheld," he added.

Asked whether Modi will visit the Maldives at Solih's invitation to attend the swearing-in ceremony in November, Kumar said that the contours of the visit are still being worked on and a formal statement will be made once it is finalised.Kandahar (Afghanistan), Oct 18 : Three top Afghan officials and a local journalist were killed in a shooting at a meeting attended by Afghan and US officials in this southern Afghan province of Kandahar on Thursday.

Gen. Abdul Raziq, police chief of Kandahar, and Gen. Momin Khan, head of the intelligence department, were killed on the spot while Kandahar Governor Zulmay Weesa died of serious wounds in a hospital, a source told Xinhua news agency.

Gen. Raziq was a key anti-Taliban figure in southern Afghanistan and he had escaped over two dozen direct attacks and suicide bomb blasts in the past, the source said.

The shooter, who served as the Governor's bodyguard, was also killed in the incident.

The source added that Gen. Austin Scott Miller, top US-NATO commander in Afghanistan, escaped from the attack but three US soldiers and several other people were injured in the attack, claimed by the Taliban insurgent group.

"This was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident. Three Americans were wounded, have been medically evacuated and are stable. Gen Miller is uninjured. We are being told the area is secure. The attacker is dead," the US-Forces in Afghanistan tweeted.

The attack came as the country was preparing for long-delayed elections for Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of the Afghan Parliament, slated for Saturday, with more than 2,500 candidates vying for the chamber's 249 seats.

The meeting discussed security measure for providing security for polling centers in Kandahar and other restive southern provinces.

On Wednesday, an Afghan Parliament member, Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was seeking re-election, was killed in a Taliban bomb blast in neighboring Helmand province.New Delhi, Oct 18 : The National Capital Region saw a "very-poor" air quality on Thursday, which experts believe may further deteriorate within the next two days due to weather conditions, stubble burning and festival season.

Delhi and neighbouring regions also saw a shoot-up in particle pollutants, ranging from very-poor to severe levels in some regions, which was over three to seven times the permissible limits.

The stubble burning increased in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana, with environment activists asserting that farmers have intensified burning the crop resedue protesting the lack of official support.

The stubble burning, however is neither a sole reason for Delhi's pollution nor has it affected the NCR's air-quality to its full potential yet, weather analysts said.

On Thursday, a total of 48 regions across NCR, of which 36 were in Delhi, saw an average very-poor air-quality.

Due to several meteorological reasons, there was a shoot-up in the major air pollutant PM2.5, or particles with diameter less than 2.5 mm, and PM 10 or particles with diameter less than 10mm, in the past 24 hours.

Anand Vihar in east Delhi and Rohini in north Delhi, Bavana in northwest Delhi, Dwarka in southwest, Okhla in outh and Wazirpur in north Delhi saw severe air-quality with PM2.5 ranging above 300 units. The peak PM2.5 levels in Anand Vihar was 466 units on Thurday morning.

The permissible range or PM2.5 is 60 as per national standards and 25 by the international standards.

Meanwhile, the satellite images from NASA's FIRMS web Fire Mapper showed a slight hike in the stubble burning in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana, where farmers are trying to make up for the small window between summers and winters crops.

According to the data from Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), at 4 pm the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 297 labelled poor, while on Wednesday it was moderate.

In Noida, despite a very light rain shower at some places, the pollution levels remained very-poor.

"The situation may worsen and the AQI which is poor at 4 pm may drop to very-ppor in few days, due to several resons, including Dussehera and the meteorological conditions," Shambhavi Shukla from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) told IANS.

Meanwhile, Central Government's organistation System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), labelled NCR air-quality as toxic and recommended sensitive groups to keep the relief medicine handy.

SAFAR recommended everyone from abstained from doing outdoor physical activities.

"Right now Delhi is experiencing light wind, which is not definetive due to which whatever pollution we are facing here are mostly due to local pollution sources, with stubble burning not playing much role. In the coming days, it may worsen," said Mahesh Palawat, director private weather forecasting agency Skymet.

"The Centre has only released Rs 600 crore to manage stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The endowments have not reached at ground due to which farmers, incited by politicians, are collectively burning stubble," RTI and Environment activist Vikrant Tongad told IANS.

According to a SAFAR study, vehicle and industrial pollution is biggest contributor of PM2.5 in Delhi-NCR.

"The industrial emission increased by 48 per cent in 2018 compared to 2010, due to increase in industrial activities in fringe areas of Delhi and not inside Delhi," said a study by SAFAR. It also said that heavy commercial vehicles and private four-wheelers have emerged as main pollution sources in Delhi.New Delhi, Oct 18 : Indian and Japanese armies are going to hold their first-ever joint military exercise between November 1 and 14, which will include conducting tactical drills against likely urban threats, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

The military exercise named 'DHARMA GUARDIAN-2018' will be held between the Indian Army and Japan Ground Self Defence Force at Counter Insurgency Warfare School, Vairengte, in the state of Mizoram.

The Indian contingent will be represented by 6/1 Gorkha Rifles while the Japanese contingent will be represented by 32 Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Ground Self Defence Force.

"During the 14-day exercise, due emphasis will be laid on increasing inter-operability between forces from both countries. Both sides will jointly train, plan and execute a series of well-developed tactical drills for neutralisation of likely threats that may be encountered in urban warfare scenario," the government said in a statement.New Delhi, Oct 18 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned "most strongly" the terror attack earlier in the day in Kandahar, Afghanistan, that claimed the lives of three top provincial officials.

"Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terrorist attack in Kandahar," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) tweeted quoting Modi.

"India condemns it most strongly and mourns with our Afghan brethren the loss of life, including that of Kandahar's senior leadership," Modi said.

"We stand in solidarity with the brave people of Afghanistan in fighting terrorism imposed on them," he added.

Abdul Raziq, police chief of Kandahar, and Momin Khan, head of the intelligence department, were killed on the spot in a shooting at a meeting attended by Afghan and US officials in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar while the provincial Governor Zulmay Weesa died from serious wounds in a hospital.

Raziq was a key anti-Taliban figure in southern Afghanistan and he had escaped over two dozen direct attacks and suicide bomb blasts in the past, the source said.

The shooter, who served as the Governor's bodyguard, was also killed in the incident.

Austin Scott Miller, top US-NATO commander in Afghanistan, escaped unhurt, but three US soldiers and several other people were injured in the attack, claimed by the Taliban insurgent group.To find the state where most people are quitting their jobs, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the BLS report State Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary for August, the most recent available. We included the quit rate  the number of people quitting during the month as a percent of total employment  for August, the increase in quit rate from July to August, and the change in the number of quits from July to August. For similar lists visit 24/7 Wall St.Rome, Oct 18 : Italian authorities have deported two Moroccans and an Egyptian, bringing to 106 the number of alleged Islamic extremists expelled this year, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The 37-year-old Egyptian was arrested in May outside Milan after allegedly threatening passers-by with a large knife. The suspect also injured a policeman during his arrest and caused criminal damage to his prison cell, the ministry said.

The two deported Moroccans are aged 33 and 42, said the ministry.

The 33-year-old Moroccan showed "clear intolerance" towards Christianity while serving time in prison for common crimes and forbade other inmates from displaying religious symbols, according to the ministry.

The man also lauded the deadly 2017 Barcelona terror attack, saying he hoped all Muslims would carry out such acts, the ministry added.

The 42-year-old Moroccan suspect, who had prior convictions for illegal arms possession, had become "increasingly radicalised" and "showed unease and bitterness" towards Italian and western society, the ministry said.

A total of 343 religious extremists have been deported from Italy since the beginning of 2015, the ministry stated.United Nations, Oct 19 : The United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, has demanded that Palestine and Israel take immediate action to reduce current tensions in the area and avoid another armed conflict in Gaza.

"We remain on the brink of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that nobody claims to want, but a conflict that needs much more than just words to prevent," said Mladenov in a videoconference speech to the Council on Thursday.

"Barring substantial steps to reverse the current course, this precarious sense of calm is doomed to give way under the mounting pressure. It is already beginning to fray," he said, reports Efe.

The diplomat called on Hamas and other groups to "immediately" halt all "provocations and attacks" and to stop all violence along the border, while adding that Israel must facilitate access of goods and people to Gaza and ensure that its security forces are acting with maximum restraint.

Mladenov addressed the Security Council to review the new escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, where on Wednesday Israel staged about 20 airstrikes in reprisal for the launching of rockets from the Palestinian enclave.

Mladenov, who is working with Egypt in negotiations to try and stabilize the situation in Gaza and facilitate reconciliation among the Palestinian factions, said that the arrangements that have maintained a certain calm in recent years are breaking down under growing pressure.

The UN official said he was afraid that there is no more time for mere words and that the international community and the local parties must act now.

The upsurge in violence is taking place as Israeli society and members of the country's Cabinet debate whether to launch a broad new military operation against Gaza to guarantee calm, after six months of mobilizations in the Strip, the launching of hundreds of incendiary balloons and dozens of attempts to damage the border fence and infiltrate into Israel, some by armed militias.

These actions come amid the so-called Great March of Return, which began on March 30 resulting in the deaths of more than 200 Palestinians in demonstrations and in violent incidents or Israeli bombings against militias.

Mladenov emphasized that the situation in Gaza is absolutely not sustainable: "Gaza is collapsing. This is not hyperbole. It is not alarmism. It is a reality."

He said that the economy of the Strip is in free fall, with unemployment of 53 percent, and 70 percent unemployment among young people.

All the key indicators - humanitarian, economic, security and political - continue to deteriorate, he said.

Mladenov emphasized that there is a clear and growing international consensus about the need to act to respond to the situation, above all with humanitarian initiatives, adding that reducing the humanitarian pressure on the ground will directly reduce the threat of escalation and provide space for efforts led by Egypt to return the legitimate Palestinian government to Gaza, which is currently under the control of the Islamist Hamas movement.Bengaluru, Oct 19 : In an unusual revelation, a senior Karnataka Minister has admitted that the religious minority status granted to the powerful Lingayat community by the previous Congress government led to its defeat in the May Assembly election.

"The poor show by Congress in the Assembly election is proof that people not liking our government's decision," Shivakumar told reporters here on Thursday.

Shivakumar, 56, is a Congress Minister for Water Resources in the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition government in the southern state. He was Energy Minister in the previous government.

In the triangular contest to the 224-member Assembly on May 12, the Congress won 79, JD-S 36 and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 104, resulting in the ouster of the Siddaramaiah government when results were declared on May 16.

Confessing that it was a crime to interfere in religious issues, Shivakumar said the poll verdict had proved that no party or government should lay its hands in religious matters.

"It was a crime our government committed. We apologise for the blunder and beg your pardon whole heartedly," recalled Shivakumar saying at a Dussehra function on Wednesday night in Gadag, 390km northwest of Bengaluru.

The Siddaramaiah government on May 23 notified minority religion status to Lingayats amid protests by some sections of the community.

The notification termed Lingayat followers of 12th century social reformer Basava's philosophy (Tatva) as a religious minority, excluding Veerashaivas.

Lingayats, who worship Hindu god Shiva as their deity, and Veerashaiva Lingayats constitute the largest community (17 per cent) in the state.

Clarifying that he spoke on the sensitive issue in personal capacity and according to his conscience, Shivakumar said the party and its previous government should not have raised the issue ahead of the Assembly poll.

"Politicians should not interfere in religious and caste issues and no government should meddle in them. Congress should not indulge in religious politics. It is my personal opinion," the Minister reiterated.

Shivakumar, one of the richest politicians in the country, is a six-time legislator from the Kanakapura segment in Bengaluru Rural district.Despite a substantial increase in the number of hotel rooms in Stockholm last year, the demand for more hotels in the Swedish capital continues to develop. Changed travel habits, a growing middle class in Asia and cheaper flights have contributed to the increase in the proportion of private hotel guests,

[]Richard Uechtritz, the former managing director at electronic retailer JB Hi-Fi, seems set to create a Byron Bay compound.

Spending $4.17 million, he's bought Australia's most easterly home on Brownell Drive overlooking Wategos Beach.

The property adjoins his current Byron retreat which cost $6.5 million in 2007. Now he has 1,435 sqm.

LJ Hooker Byron Bay agent Liam Annesley secured the sale.

Uechtritz was the boss at JB Hifi from 2000 to 2010 before stepping down and joining Seven Group Holdings.

Love & Hatred jewellery designer Giovanni D'Ercole returned recently to Wategos paying $4.3 million for a hillside Christine Vadasz-redesigned 1960s timber-clad cottage.

D'Ercole has been up in the Byron Bay hinterland in recent times.

Wategos last beachfront reserve sale when when Melbourne-based former Swisse Vitamins owner Stephen Ring bought from the art collector and onetime Skilled Engineering group boss Greg Hargrave.

The oceanfront reserve property had been on and off the market for seven years before its recent sale through Byron Bay property agent Vicky Innes.

Whalewatchers with its dress circle position overlooking Wategos Beach has been listed by the Sydney-based Salmat co-founder Peter Mattick and his wife Pam who have enjoyed the ocean views for 14 years.

Set on eastern end of beachfront Marine Parade, the home is spread over two levels with a central pool. The Mattick's bought the 803 sq m holding property in 2004 for $3.9 million before commissioning architect Tim Moon. No expense was spared on its finishes including copper, basalt stone and spotted gum floor that integrate the house. Listing agent Liam Annesley, of LJ Hooker Byron Bay, says a property like this "is nearly impossible to find on the east coast of Australia." He's hopeful it will break the $15.68 million record set in 2006 by the house at the other end of the parade, which was bought by property developer Danny Goldberg who seeks $25,000 a week rental for Wategos House.

This article was first published in the Sunday Telegraph.Perths rental market has improved, with positive results observable across all key market indicators, According to new reiwa.com data for the September 2018 quarter.

REIWA President Damian Collins said leasing activity was up, median rents remained stable, stock levels had reduced, average leasing times were quicker and the vacancy rate had plummeted to its lowest level

in more than four years.

The rental sector is really leading the charge in the Perth property market recovery. The September 2018 quarter results are very encouraging and should provide landlords and investors with a lot of confidence," Mr Collins said.

median rent price

Perths median rent price across houses and units held at $350 per week for a sixth straight quarter.

Reiwa.com data shows this is the longest period of stable rents the Perth rental market has experienced.

Additionally, when looking at houses reiwa.com data shows the median house rent increased $10 this quarter to $360 per week.

Reiwa.com analysis shows 105 suburbs across the metro area saw their median rent increase during the September 2018 quarter.

"The five best performing suburbs for overall rent price growth were Kallaroo (up 39.5 per cent to $530 per week), City Beach (up 25.9 per cent to $850 per week), Gwelup (up 24.5 per cent to $623 per week),

Cottesloe (up 23.5 per cent to $605 per week) and Alexander Heights (up 21.9 per cent to $390), Mr Collins noted.

Other top performers were Connolly, Inglewood, Ashby, Beaconsfield and Wembley.

Leasing activity

There were 13,234 properties leased during the September 2018 quarter.

Reiwa.com data showed this represented an increase of 5.2 per cent compared to the June 2018 quarter.

Tenants were a lot more active this quarter than last, with 132 suburbs across the metro area recording increases in the number of properties leased, Mr Collins said.

Reiwa.com data shows the five suburbs with the highest volume of properties leased during the quarter were Perth (346), East Perth (343), Scarborough (319), Baldivis (243) and Maylands (235).

South Perth, Rockingham, West Perth, Rivervale and Midland were also standout suburbs.

Mr Collins is of the opinion, "provided landlords are listening to the advice of their property manager and pricing their rental in line with market expectations, they have a very good chance of

securing a tenant.

Listings for rent

There were 7,286 properties for rent in Perth at the end of the September 2018 quarter.

Reiwa.com data shows that these stock levels represent an 11.9 per cent drop compared to the June 2018 quarter and a 25.1 per cent drop compared to last years September quarter.

Mr Collins stated, This sharp decline can be attributed to a combination of leasing activity improving and new dwelling commencements slowing. With less new properties coming onto the market, rental stock is being absorbed at a quicker pace, which has put downward pressure on listing volumes.

Average leasing time

It took landlords 46 days on average to find a tenant for their rental during the September 2018 quarter.

According to reiwa.com data this is one day faster than the June 2018 quarter and eight days faster than the September 2017 quarter.

Mr Collins said that this was due to, a combination of increased tenant activity and lower listing levels has had a positive impact on average leasing times for landlords, with tenants needing to act quicker to secure a rental.

Vacancy rate

Perths vacancy rate declined to 3.9 per cent during the September 2018 quarter, the lowest level Perth has experienced since the March 2014 quarter, according to reiwa.com data.

Since key market indicators improved during the September quarter, Perths vacancy rate has now fallen below the 10 year average.

Mr Collins concluded, slowly but surely we are moving towards parity in the Perth rental market, with improved conditions across the board meaning there is good opportunity for tenants and landlords to benefit simultaneously.Darwin house rents held steady over the quarter, but declined over the year by 3.8% to $500 a week, according to the latest rental report from Domain.

The report found that unit rents in Darwin experienced no quarterly or annual change, holding steady at $400 per week.

This is the first time in four years unit rents have not declined over the quarter and year.

Darwin continued to offer investors the highest unit gross rental yields at 6.08%, the only Australian capital city to achieve a yield above 6%.

"For investors, a softening sales market continues to improve unit gross rental yields, almost pushing them back to the record highs achieved in 2004 and 2005," said Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell.

"A turnaround in rental demand for the city is largely dependent on economic growth, jobs creation and an improved population growth.

"The Northern Territory Government has announced a revitalisation of Darwins CBD with an aim at enhancing liveability, and offering key workers financial incentives to relocate.

"The impacts from the initiatives remain to be seen but the long-term approach to addressing population growth are likely to support rental demand."Despite house rents increasing by 4.2% over the year, Adelaide remained the second most affordable city for tenants (behind Perth), according to the latest rental report from Domain.

The report found that rental prices held steady over the quarter at $375 per week.

Adelaide remains the most affordable capital city for units with median weekly rents remaining at $300 per week - up 1.7% year-on-year.

Gross rental yields for houses declined over the quarter and year to 4.47%.

For units, gross rental yields strengthened by 0.1% over the quarter and 2.1% over the year to 5.19%.





Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell said: "Adelaides rental market appears to be tightening with advertised stock levels declining.

"If rental supply continues to track lower in the coming months it will create greater competition between tenants, which will drive up asking rents.

"Despite rental prices rising, Adelaide remains one of the more affordable rental markets.

"For investors, the city offers more favourable yields relative to the other Australian capital cities."In Brisbane, median weekly house rents remained stable over the September quarter and year at $400 per week, according to the latest rental report from Domain.

Unit rents increased marginally by 1.4% over the quarter and year to reach $375 per week.

The report found that Brisbane provided the third strongest gross rental yields for houses and fourth for units compared to all other Australian capital cities.

House gross rental yields improved by 0.6% over the quarter to 4.62% despite an annual decline of 0.6%.

Unit gross rental yields increased by 0.7% from the June quarter and 3.9% annually to 5.12% - the strongest annual increase in more than six years.

Domain Senior Research Analyst, Dr Nicola Powell said:

"Apart from a couple of fluctuations, tenants in the sunshine state have enjoyed four years of steady house rents at $400 a week - this is the longest period of stability in Brisbanes rental history.

"The unit market appears to have had a minor turnaround, with rents increasing for the first time in two years.

"Brisbanes advertised rental stock slipped as a result of the unprecedented inner-city unit development slowing.

"The state experienced a decade high level of internal migration, with Brisbane becoming one of Australias fastest growing city populations.

"All signs point to a broad tightening of the rental market.

"We may also see Sydney and Melbourne investors, dissatisfied with falling property prices, looking north for better yields and growth prospects, as well as seeking lower entry-prices and holding costs."The latest ABS unemployment figures show the trend unemployment rate is at a six year low.

The trend unemployment rate remained steady at 5.2 per cent in the month of September 2018 after the August figure was revised down.



"Today's figures continue to show a gradual decrease in the trend unemployment rate that began in late 2014," ABS chief economist Bruce Hockman said.

"The trend unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent is the lowest it has been since mid 2012."

Click here to enlarge.

Over the year, trend employment increased by over 290,000 persons or 2.4 per cent, which was above the average year-on-year growth over the past 20 years (2.0 per cent).

Unemployment is down to 4.4% in New South Wales, 4.5% in Victoria and to 6% in Western Australia.

Ahead of the unemployment figures the employment segment of the NAB Quarterly Business Survey rose 2.4 points in September.

The jump, from +9.5 points in August to 11.9 point in September, brings the total points to the third highest level in 12 and a half years.

The 12 month moving average of +10 points is a record high.

NAB group chief economist Alan Oster said business conditions have stabilised after a mid-year pullback.

Business conditions have pulled back through the middle of 2018 after reaching very high levels earlier in the year. However, the latest monthly survey suggests that conditions have stabilised at a still high level," Oster said.

"This suggests that momentum in the business sector has not weakened further. Overall, trading conditions, profitability and employment conditions remain quite favourable.

Oster noted that despite conditions easing across most industries, generally most industries continue to report above average conditions.

"Retail however, remains weak, as it has been for some time," Oster noted.

Roy Morgan's latest data found 246,000 more Australians employed than last year, with unemployment down to 9.4 percent in September off a two-year high.

"Australian employment has grown solidly over the past year with nearly 200,000 jobs created split evenly between full-time and part-time employment," the market research firm advised.

There were a total of 12,164,000 Australians employed in September, up 192,000 over the last year.

The September increase however was split evenly across full time jobs (97,000 created) and part-time jobs (95,000 created).

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said as a consequence, part-time employment in Australia has hit a new record high of nearly 4.5 million in September.

In addition to the new jobs created a further 54,000 Australians entering the workforce were unable to find a job and became unemployed," Levine said.

"Now 1.3 million Australians are unemployed in September equivalent to 9.4% of the workforce and up 0.3% on a year ago," Levine said.

Compared to three years ago, there are now 4.1% less Australians in full-time work (63.3%), while part-time employment is up 4.1% (36.7%).

As weve noted previously the persistent high level of unemployment and under-employment in Australia isnt because jobs arent being created, its because the workforce continues to grow at a faster rate than the growth in employment," Levine suggested.

"Not only is the expanding Australian workforce not providing enough jobs to reduce unemployment but the long-term trend of an increasing casualisation of the Australian workforce is continuing.

The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating fell by 0.7 percent to 117.3 in the past week.

The index is comfortably above the average of 114.2 held since 2014, and above the longer term average of 113 held since 1990.

CommSec's Ryan Felsman said the hiring spree in Australia continues.

"Labour market conditions are positive, employment growth is solid, the unemployment rate is at six-year lows, job vacancies are elevated and the participation rate has been hovering near record high levels," he said.

"And while home prices have moderated in Greater Sydney and Melbourne, the unemployment rates in both cities are at near ten-year (4.4 per cent) and six-year (5.5 per cent) lows in August."

Felsman said further job gains are anticipated, with the Aussie domestic economic backdrop supportive.The cryptocurrency consortium that was the underbidder on Great Keppel is now attempting to buy Dunk Island.

The international cryptocurrency consortium is understood to be keen to buy the derelict island, according to The Australian newspaper.

The Dunk Island Resort in far north Queensland was devastated when Cyclone Yasi struck.

Dunk Island Resort occupies 150 hectares, the largest in what is known as the family group of islands.

Represented by Tim Sommers and Sean Neylon, Royalty Blockchain is understood to have entered an exclusive period of due diligence after paying a cash deposit.

Royalty Blockchain was the underbidder on Great Keppel Island, which was sold to wealthy Singaporean and Taiwanese interests for about $70 million last week.

Dunk, which is tipped to be worth around $25 million, was last traded when bought by the founder of the failed Linc Energy, Peter Bond, in 2012.

Mr Bond has since allowed the lease over the neighbouring spit, which is part of the islands national park, be taken over by a Cairns-based skydiving outfit.The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors announced today the launch of their new website to support the efforts of 7,000 chronic disease program workers in the United States. The new chronicdisease.org reflects our long history of programmatic success, our deep bench of expertise, and our continued commitment to supporting our Members work on the ground and online for the next 30 years," said NACDD CEO John Robitscher.

National Association of Chronic Disease Directors CEO John W. Robitscher, MPH kicked off the Associations year-long celebration of its 30th anniversary today with the launch of the Associations new digital home at chronicdisease.org. Developed during the course of a year and leveraging Member feedback, the new website offers state, tribal, and territorial chronic disease program staff targeted resources, practical guidance, and tools as well as networking and thought-leadership opportunities.

New features include:



Detailed information about NACDD programs and councils in autoimmune disease, biomarkers, cancer, cardiovascular health, diabetes, health equity, health promotion, healthy aging, healthy communities, oral health, and the Pacific Chronic Disease Council.

Opportunities to read our database of hundreds of Member and partner-submitted success stories on chronic disease programs and activities.

A comprehensive Learning Center where Members can evaluate their competencies, strengthen their current skill sets, become better leaders, and apply to receive technical assistance for their programs.

An enhanced Advocacy section providing previous NACDDD congressional testimony and sign-on letters, white papers, and tools to support Members advocacy work.

Also available for the first time is NACDDs Publications Library, a carefully curated selection of the most recent and relevant Association and partner documents covering our areas of focus.

The site continues to house other popular content, such as the most comprehensive listing of chronic disease training events available on the web as well as opportunities for Members to create their own online profiles to network in a secured space with those of similar interests.

NACDDs site map can provide a quick reference for navigating the new space.

Since we began in 1988, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors has grown into a model public health organization and become the go-to resource for state and territorial work in chronic disease prevention and control, said Robitscher. The new chronicdisease.org reflects our long history of programmatic success, our deep bench of expertise, and our continued commitment to supporting our Members work on the ground and online for the next 30 years.

The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors

Promoting Health. Preventing Disease.

The National Association of Chronic Disease Directors (NACDD) and its more than 7,000 members seek to strengthen state-based leadership and expertise for chronic disease prevention and control in states and nationally. Established in 1988, in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the NACDD is the only membership association of its kind to serve and represent every chronic disease division in all states and U.S. territories. For more information, visit chronicdisease.org.

CONTACT: Paige Rohe, prohe(at)chronicdisease.org, 404-924-8295Ray Brandt Volkswagen of South Mississippi, which is located at 11689 Bobby Eleuterius Boulevard in D'Iberville, will soon welcome the 2019 VW Tiguan compact SUV and 2019 VW Atlas three-row SUV.

SUV shoppers in DIberville and elsewhere in the Gulf Coast region will be treated to the arrival of two new models at Ray Brandt Volkswagen of South Mississippi. The dealership will soon welcome the highly-capable and feature-rich 2019 VW Tiguan compact SUV and 2019 VW Atlas three-row SUV.

With its sleek styling, fun-to-drive nature, innovative MQB architecture, advanced multimedia and driver assistance technologies and a refined, spacious, and versatile interior, the 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan is a superb choice for the compact SUV segment. It delivers excellent performance with its 2.0-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, which doles out 184 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque. Excellent traction comes courtesy of the available 4Motion with Active Control all-wheel-drive system. Inside the Tiguan, theres an abundance of passenger and storage space, while the split-fold second row and 50/50 split-fold third row offer a great deal of flexibility.

The 2019 Volkswagen Atlas is a wonderful vehicle choice for families in South Mississippi, with its roomy and versatile interior, high-level safety and innovative multimedia technologies. On top of all that, the Atlas boasts impressive performance and off-road capabilities. Buyers of the 2019 Atlas have two engine choices. The 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine produces 235 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, while the 3.6-liter VR6 engine churns out 276 horsepower and 266 pound-feet of torque. Like the 2019 Tiguan, the 2019 Atlas offers the available 4Motion with Active Control all-wheel drive system. The cabin has a cavernous total passenger volume of 153.7 cubic-feet, while the maximum cargo capacity of 96.8 cubic-feet makes it easy to load up for family trips.

Volkswagen shoppers in the Gulf Coast region who would like to learn more about the 2019 VW Tiguan or 2019 VW Atlas can visit Volkswagen of South Mississippis website at http://www.vwofsm.com or call (855) 630-7323.

Volkswagen of South Mississippi is located at 11689 Bobby Eleuterius Boulevard in D'Iberville.@properties Commercial recently brokered 11 Chicago-area commercial transactions totaling nearly $14 million in sales. The transactions include:



The creators of Little Bad Wolf, an Andersonville bar and eatery serving craft beer, artisanal cocktails and upscale bar food, will open a new restaurant concept in Logan Square after purchasing a 3,000-square-foot freestanding restaurant at 2833 W. Armitage Ave. Previously, the property was occupied by Ugos Kitchen and Bar  an Italian restaurant. Ryan Hanley and Nate Grill of @properties Commercials The Hanley Group represented the buyer. Brian Laskov of Kudan Group represented the seller in the $715,000 transaction, which included the business and real estate.

Kevin Rocio, team lead of @properties Commercials ROC Realty Group, represented the buyer of a 5-building multi-family portfolio on Chicagos South Side. Rocio assembled the portfolio from two individual sellers. The buyer, an international investor, paid $2.7 million for the buildings. With 57 total units, the collection of properties includes 7722 S. Jeffery Blvd., 7754 S. Colfax Ave., 7830 S. Essex Ave., 8109 S. Colfax Ave., and 8121 S Colfax Ave.  all located at the border of the South Shore and South Chicago neighborhoods.

Larry Cohn, senior broker for @properties Commercial, represented the seller of W-R Chemical Co. in the $750,000 sale of a 17,000-square-foot building at 2303 W. 18th St., in Chicagos Pilsen neighborhood. Michael Richwine of @properties Commercial represented the buyer, Froomer Pictures LLC, which intends to re-purpose the space from light industrial to a film studio for food commercials.

James Scully of @properties Commercial represented a private seller in the $380,000 sale of a vacant two-story building and adjacent lot at 2157-2159 W. 21st Pl., in Pilsen. The private buyer intends to demolish the property and build a new 6-flat apartment building in the rapidly-appreciating area. Scully was the sole broker in the transaction.

Scully also represented a private buyer in the acquisition of a 6-flat at 3300 W. Pershing Rd., in Chicagos Brighton Park neighborhood, for $280,000. The 5,400-square-foot building will undergo a gut rehab. According to Scully, the project will yield a 12% cap rate upon completion. Scully was the sole broker in the transaction.

Kevin Rocio of @properties Commercial solely brokered the sale of a vacant church at 617 W. Evergreen Terr. in Old Town, on behalf of a private owner. Rocio said the property was under contract within 20 days with multiple offers, after previously spending 345 days on the market with another firm. The property was purchased by a local event company for $750,000.

Rocio also represented a private owner in the sale of a 6-unit apartment building at 15201 Orlan Brook Dr., in Orland Park. LaNita Cates of RE/MAX Ultimate represented the buyer, a private investor who paid $720,000 for the property.

Dan Stratis, managing broker for @properties Commercial, and Mike Rourke of @properties Commercial, represented a private investor in the sale of a 50,000-square-foot office and retail property at 19081 Old La Grange Rd., in Mokena, for $3,700,000. Bill Groebe of Coldwell Banker represented the buyer, also a private investor. At the time of the sale, the property was 100-percent leased to a mix of retail and office tenants including DOCs Smokehouse. According to Stratis, the sale represents the largest transaction of an investment property in the Mokena market in the past five years.

Dan Stratis and Joseph Kunst of @properties Commercial represented a private investor in the sale of a 28,000-square-foot retail shopping center at 6925-37 Joliet Rd., in Indian Head Park, for $2,750,000. According to Stratis, the property is a stabilized asset  with a strong mix of retail tenants including State Farm, Ombudsman and Wolf Head Inn  and will provide a solid return to the buyer. Larry Katz from Saber Realty represented the buyer, a private investor.

Stratis also solely brokered the $350,000 sale of a 4,500-square-foot commercial/retail building at 204 S. Villa Ave., in Villa Park, on behalf of a private seller. The building was vacant for five years prior to the sale, and will open as a restaurant to add to the revitalization of Villa Parks downtown district.

Mike Rourke and Joseph Kunst of @properties Commercial brokered the sale of a 6,000-square-foot, multi-tenant retail property at 58 E. Northwest Hwy., in Des Plaines. Rourke and Kunst represented the seller, a private investor, in the $895,000 sale. AJ Jacobs of HSA represented the buyer, a private investor.

About @properties Commercial

@properties Commercial is the full service commercial real estate division of @properties, the Chicago areas largest brokerage firm by sales volume. @properties Commercial focuses on all asset classes within commercial real estate including multifamily, retail, office, industrial, land, hospitality, as well as specialty properties. Services include investment sales, commercial leasing, investment-advisory services, asset management, receivership and consulting. For more information, visit http://www.atproperties.com/commercial.Shady Grove Fertility Pennsylvania Physician, Dr. Brianna Schumacher I chose medical school because I wanted to look after people. At Shady Grove Fertility, every decision comes back to the patient.

Shady Grove Fertility (SGF) announced today its welcoming reproductive endocrinologist, Brianna Schumacher, M.D. to the practices Pennsylvania medical team. Dr. Schumacher will join physicians Drs. Isaac Sasson, Caleb Kallen, and Ryan Martin, and will be seeing new patients at the Philadelphia and Chesterbook, PA locations. SGF currently has five locations in the Pennsylvania region including Warrington, Lancaster, Mechanicsburg, Philadelphia, and Chesterbrook and six reproductive endocrinologists throughout the state offering patients even more convenient access to highly specialized fertility care.

Dr. Schumacher will provide patients in Philadelphia and Chesterbrook, PA with a full range of state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment options for female and male infertility, as well as elective fertility preservation, fertility preservation prior to cancer treatment, and LGBTQ family building.

Dr. Schumacher earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and a masters in clinical research at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

I chose medical school because I wanted to look after people. At Shady Grove Fertility, every decision comes back to the patient. In almost every difficult situation we ask, what would I want if I were this patient? That's why I love Shady Grove Fertility and why Im so excited to be joining the SGF team, says Schumacher.

An advocate for early fertility diagnosis and treatment, as well as egg freezing for women to preserve their fertility for future family building options, Dr. Schumacher was a clinical instructor in gynecology at the University of North Carolina, and has held a variety of leadership roles within the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, New England Fertility Society, Pacific Coast Society, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and American Medical Association.

To schedule an appointment with Dr. Schumacher or any SGF physician, please call 1-888-761-1967 or submit this brief online form.

About Shady Grove Fertility (SGF)

SGF is a leading fertility and IVF center of excellence with more than 50,000 babies born and counting. With 32 locations throughout MD, PA, VA, D.C., GA, and FL, we offer patients individualized care, accept most insurance plans, and make treatment affordable through innovative financial options, including treatment guarantees. More physicians refer their patients to SGF than any other center. Call 1-888-761-1967 or visit ShadyGroveFertility.com.With the Ricoh 7210sx, we can meet our customers need for unique, eye-catching options in addition to adding capabilities on their short-run, on-demand custom packaging, book wraps, menus and promotional materials projects

Customers at AlphaGraphics Kansas City have more options for print media thanks to the new digital presss 5th Color Stations ability to print beyond traditional CYMK. Also, this press allows for printing on specialty and textured papers, in addition to oversized sheets up to 27.5 inches.

The decision to invest in the Ricoh 7210sx was based on giving our customers a new way to create pieces that will help them stand out among their competition, and it helps set AlphaGraphics Kansas City apart from other print communications companies, says Haley Haar, AlphaGraphics Kansas City president. Our customers depend on us for unparalleled quality and consistency, which is why we add new presses and are working toward our G7 Color Management Certification. G7 reflects color matching performance and lets customers know they are working with the best printers in the marketplace.

AlphaGraphics Kansas City will begin with white, clear and pink as their expanded color options, beyond the typical CMYK, in the Ricoh 7210sx 5th Color Station. White, used as a color or applied as a base layer, retains color integrity, mimics metallic printing and achieves vivid effects on transparencies, adhesives and dark colored media. Clear produces mesmerizing images and enhances product photography and brand logos on business cards, brochures, tickets and direct mail. Pink delivers bold colors ideal for point-of-purchase, direct mail and packaging, plus multiplies the range of vibrant oranges, reds and brand colors that can be matched by using unique blends.

Beyond expanding color options and effects, AlphaGraphics Kansas Citys Ricoh 7210sx lets customers print marketing and business materials on specialty stock, including magnetic and synthetic papers, adhesive, metallic, linen and more. With the Ricoh 7210sx, we can meet our customers need for unique, eye-catching options in addition to adding capabilities on their short-run, on-demand custom packaging, book wraps, menus and promotional materials projects, says Haar.

About AlphaGraphics Kansas City

Located in the creative Crossroads Arts District, AlphaGraphics Kansas City is a certified Women-Owned business that specializes in helping businesses solve marketing problems. The printing companys production specialties are in digital color printing and large format printing. To enhance services for customers, AlphaGraphics Kansas City added specialty finishes that include square back booklets and soft-touch laminating.

About Ricoh

Ricoh empowers digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2018, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,063 billion yen (approx. 19.4 billion USD). For further information, please visit http://www.ricoh.comAPS VP Flight Operations Clarke "Otter" McNeace "Clarkes unparalleled dedication to excellence stems from a true passion for aviation and unrelenting commitment to the highest standards of safety. He lives the APS vision of helping pilots bring everyone home safely, every day."

Aviation Performance Solutions (APS), the global leader in Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT), is proud to announce that APS VP Flight Operations and Standards Capt. Clarke McNeace was awarded the 2018 NBAA Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award at the NBAA-BACE convention in Orlando, Florida. The award recognizes individual aviation professionals who have demonstrated outstanding professionalism and leadership in support of aviation safety in the business aviation industry.

Clarke McNeace, also known by his Navy call sign, Otter, is a veteran US Navy and former airline pilot with over 15,000 hours of flight time. He is also a four-time Master Certificated Flight Instructor with the Aerobatic distinction. Clarke is active in a number of industry safety and educational efforts, and he has been at the forefront of the industry in addressing the threat of Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I), aviations number one cause of fatalities. Read more on Clarkes background and his safety related efforts in the aviation industry: apstraining.com/mcneace/

For over a decade, Clarke McNeace has devoted his full time efforts to improving aviation safety, and he serves as an influential safety leader both at APS and across the industry, says Paul BJ Ransbury, president of Aviation Performance Solutions. Clarkes unparalleled dedication to excellence stems from a true passion for aviation and unrelenting commitment to the highest standards of safety. He lives the APS vision of helping pilots bring everyone home safely, every day.

ABOUT AVIATION PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS

Aviation Performance Solutions LLC (APS), headquartered at the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona, trains thousands of professional pilots and instructors in comprehensive Upset Prevention and Recovery Training skill development. APS provides integrated LOC-I solutions via industry-leading computer-based, on-aircraft (jet and piston), and full-flight simulator Upset Prevention & Recovery Training (UPRT). All training is in full compliance with the Airplane Upset Recovery Training Aid, FAA Advisory Circular 120-109A on Stall Training, ICAO Manual on Aeroplane Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, IATA Guidance Material and Best Practices for the Implementation of Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, and the FAA Advisory Circular 120-111 on Upset Prevention and Recovery Training. APS is the only Part 141 Flight School certified in the delivery of complete upset prevention & recovery, stall/spin and instrument upset recovery training courses worldwide. With additional training locations in Texas (USA), The Netherlands (Europe), and military division in Alabama (USA), APS provides global access to the highest quality Upset Prevention and Recovery Training available. Please visit our website at: apstraining.comGeorgia-based personal injury firm Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC is one of the fastest growing law firms in the country. For the second year in a row, the firm landed a top spot on the Law Firm 500. Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC ranks 16th on the list, with 611% growth in the past three years.

Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLCs Founding Attorney Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert says she is thrilled that her law firm is included on the list: I am so honored and excited for this recognition on the Law Firm 500 list. Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLCs growth and continued success would not have been possible without our amazing staff, clients, professional advisors, and other supporters.

The Law Firm 500 is an annual list showcasing the top 250 fastest growing law firms in the country (percentage of growth over three years). The honorees have achieved significant revenue growth; the firms also demonstrate innovation, operational excellence, and a commitment to client service. For the full 2018 Law Firm 500 list, visit lawfirm500.com/2018-award/honorees.

Jennifer Gore-Cuthbert and the Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC team will be recognized at the Law Firm 500 Conference & Awards Gala, which will be held October 18-20 at the Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa. This years keynote speaker is best-selling author and environmental activist Erin Brockovich.

About Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC: Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC believes that the victims of serious collisions deserve compensation for their injuries. They should not have to deal with uncooperative insurance companies or get the runaround while trying to recover physically, financially, and emotionally. Atlanta Personal Injury Law Group  Gore LLC represents victims of auto collisions, motorcycle collisions, truck collisions, victims hit by drunk drivers, those injured in a slip-and-fall, as well as wrongful death cases.Cosmetic Town, an online plastic surgery and information community based in Los Angeles, is helping patients looking to change the shape, size or contour of their breasts by publishing a list of the Best Breast Surgery Doctors in San Francisco.

According to the senior editor of Cosmetic Town, "Breast surgery covers more than simply augmenting the size of the beasts. Depending on the final results desired by the patient, breast surgery options can include breast reduction, a breast lift, breast implants, fat grafting and a mastectomy for patients suffering from breast cancer. He added that, the fact that there are so many options available means patients need to know more information about the doctor they are thinking of visiting to perform the surgery.

When asked about the methods used to choose the doctors on the list, the senior editor said, an intelligent algorithm, focused on cosmetic surgery, was used to prepare the list of doctors. Our research team examined the number of articles written by the doctor as part of an ongoing effort to educate patients about plastic surgery and to also share with their peers. In addition, we took the skill level of the doctors into account as well as the satisfaction level felt by patients when it came to the doctor and their final results.

The senior editor made sure to note that the doctors were not picked or placed on the list using any sort of monetary compensation. Cosmetic Town does not accept any form of compensation from doctors in order for them to make any of our lists. The 2018 list of doctors was compiled and published in order to help patients have an easier time during their search for board-certified doctors that provide results that are natural in appearance and long-lasting.

About Cosmetic Town

Cosmetic Town is an online cosmetic medicine publication that also features doctors that are endorsed and highly recommended by their peers. This reliable and streamlined database allows users to easily navigate the website and access the information they need with just a click of a button. Users can also stay informed and get the latest news on plastic surgery by reading the regularly updated news section.Brooklyn Crush Wine & Artisanal Food Festival presented by Citi returns to Industry City in Sunset Park Brooklyn, Saturday, November 10. Tickets on sale now: NewYorkWineEvents.com Industry Citys fun, industrial-chic setting provides an intriguing backdrop for Brooklyn Crushs curated selection of diverse wines from around the globe and sumptuous artisanal foods, offering a lively and entertaining wine and culinary experience where guests can meet the makers.

New York Wine Events is pleased to announce the Brooklyn Crush Wine & Artisanal Food Festival: Fall Edition presented by Citi will return to Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Saturday, November 10. The fifth annual fall tasting event offers a choice of two sessions: Afternoon: 2-5pm or Evening: 7-10pm along with a premium early access ticket enabling guests to enter an hour prior to the start of the general sessions.

Brooklyn Crush takes place at The Landing at Industry City and will feature an expansive selection of wines, artisanal foods, and select lifestyle product and service sponsors, along with light fare including hors doeuvres and cheese, bread, and cracker selections. Artisan food companies from New York City and beyond will sample charcuterie, cheese, chocolates, olive oils, sauces, baked goods, and other specialty items. In addition to sipping and nibbling, guests can keep their complimentary custom tasting glass as a souvenir.

Tasting tables located throughout the spacious, bi-level venue will feature diverse selections including bold, jammy, and complex red wines; oaked, steel-aged, buttery, and dry white wines, plus some sweet and sparkling varietals. Old, new and emerging wine regions around the globe will be showcased including France, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, South America, Greece, and more. New York State wines will be showcased from regions including Long Island Wine Country, Hudson Valley, Niagara, and the Southern Tier.

Were pleased to partner with Citi once again for Brooklyns premier fall tasting event, notes Sam Kimball, founder of New York Wine Events. Industry Citys fun, industrial-chic setting provides an intriguing backdrop for Brooklyn Crushs curated selection of diverse wines from around the globe and sumptuous artisanal foods, offering a lively and entertaining wine and culinary experience where guests can meet the makers.

Participating sponsors include: Citi, Jaguar Land Rover, Angry Orchard, barkTHINS, Barrows Intense, Beechers Handmade Cheese, Bennetts Deli & Sandwich, Brotherhood Winery, Champignon North America, Cutco, Don Zavier Mamajuana, Drunken Fruit, Ends Meat, Essentia Water, Ferreira Carpenter Winery, Fragrances of Wine, Fine & Raw Chocolate, Fragrances of Wine, Freefall Sangria, Gladiator Wine Distribution, Green Mountain Energy, Harlem Chocolate Factory, John Wm. Macys Cheesesticks, KAS Spirits, Ketel One, LELO Fine Foods, Les Trois Petits Cochons, Maiden + Liberty, Matthews 1812 House, Milea Estate Vineyard, Moore Brothers Wine Company, Mums Kitchen, Ms. Vees Sweet Treats, My/Mo Mochi Ice Cream, Natalie's Orchid Island Juice Company, Olde York Farm Distillery & Cooperage, Organic Olive Juice, Pallini Limoncello, Sahadis, Salsa di Parma, Simply Nicki, SkinnyPop, Sparkling Ice, Spoonable Spirits, Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery, Sovereign Vines, Taconic Distillery, Toast Ale, Toma Artisanal Bloody Mary Mix, Topo Chico Sparkling Water, Twisted Truffles, Victorianbourg Wine Estate, and Wines of Brasil. Restaurant sponsors sampling their specialties include Ortzi NYC, Table 87, and Yaso Tangbao. Additional wineries and artisanal food purveyors will be added in the coming weeks; check web site for details. As with all of New York Wine Events festivals, artisanal food companies and New York State wineries and distilleries and will have full size items and bottles available for guests to purchase and enjoy at home.

Tickets to the Brooklyn Crush Wine & Artisanal Food Festival are on sale now, ranging from $42 to $120, depending ticket level, and time of purchase. Check the web site for details about limited time discounts, 15% savings for groups of 10 or more, and New York Wine Events Taste VIP program membership benefits including complimentary event tickets and discounts. Must be 21 or older to attend all of New York Wine Events festivals. Advance purchase is highly recommended as the popular tastings have experienced sold out crowds for over a decade, and the fall event is expected to do the same.

For complete details and to purchase tickets for Brooklyn Crush, visit NewYorkWineEvents.com.

About New York Wine Events

New York Wine Events is committed to bringing together New York Metropolitan wine and food lovers, whether its at one of our wine fests, while browsing other New York area food and drink events, or reading our in-depth articles online about the area food and drink scene. The companys goal is to provide a wine tasting experience that allows guests to sample as many diverse wines as possible while enjoying a festive atmosphere and the company of other wine lovers. Visit NewYorkWineEvents.com.I had doubts at first from people saying I couldnt do it or itd be dangerous, but I realized its OK, Nardone said. Ive seen kids come in where they can barely look you in the eye and by the end they are presenting a speech, Nardone said. They come in with a bad perception of police officers and by the end, they are best friends. It helps kids with their idea of self-worth.The Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) has selected Naylor Association Solutions to refresh and produce six of its multimedia communications offerings. We believe in the role associations play for their members and industries, and look forward to using Naylors unique offerings to help CSAE and other Canadian associations engage their members and find effective ways to drive non-dues revenue," said Alex DeBarr, president and CEO of Naylor.

With the goal of bringing more value to the membership experience, the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) has selected Naylor Association Solutions to refresh and produce six of its multimedia communications offerings, including Association magazine and magazine website, Association Agenda eNewsletter, an Online Supplier Directory and its annual Source Guide. In addition, Naylor will manage advertising sales for CSAE communications, including ad placements on CSAE.com through its new programmatic advertising platform.

Im excited about CSAEs new partnership with Naylor, said Tracy Folkes Hanson, president and CEO of CSAE. As CSAE renews its commitment to producing valuable communications for our membersand for the association and not-for-profit sector as a whole in Canada, we appreciate that Naylor offers multiple services within one company and knows our market very well.

Naylor was founded in Canada, signed our first association in Canada and continues to work with 64 Canadian associations today, said Alex DeBarr, President and CEO of Naylor Association Solutions. Were excited to again be working with CSAE, which Canadian association executives know as the driving force for associations in Canada. We obviously believe in the role associations play for their members and industries, and look forward to using Naylors unique offerings to help CSAE and other Canadian associations engage their members and find effective ways to drive non-dues revenue.

Association magazine is CSAEs flagship publication that Canadian association and not-for-profit leaders read to stay up-to-date on trends, research, promotions and regulations affecting the sector. Association is mailed to 10,000 Canadian association executives quarterly and is distributed at all CSAE events. The first Naylor-produced issue of Association will debut at Associations: Future Proof, CSAEs annual conference & showcase in Ottawa, Oct. 24-26.

The companion website for Association will be an online hub for association professionals looking for in-depth features as well as quick updates about association operations, board management and member programming best practices. It will allow CSAE to publish information about trending association topics quickly while leaving plenty of room for perennial topics. In addition, through advertising spaces and sponsored sections, the magazine website will open another stream of non-dues revenue for CSAE that will help fund its member events and programming.

Naylor is excited to work closely with CSAE on their member communication and as an official corporate partner, said John Kilchenstein, senior director, business development for Naylor. In addition to providing quality communications, we look forward to helping CSAE expand its ability to service its members through increased revenue from the publications.

CSAE joins Naylors first group of clients to dive into programmatic advertising and offer its advertisers more highly-targeted ad placements on CSAE.com, the Association companion website and Naylors digital ad network. Programmatic advertising is the use of automation in the buying and selling of online media. Through a specialized technology stack, site user characteristics are collected, allowing ads to be sold by individual impression and creating highly targeted advertiser campaigns. Programmatic advertising through CSAE.com, visited by more than 72,000 people annually, and related websites will make it easier for CSAEs staff to reach members with in-house messages about association events, courses and member benefits as they browse the internet.

Association Agenda is CSAEs biweekly update for executive members that brings CSAE news into focus and promotes available association jobs. Distributed to 12,000 association professionals, this publication provides busy association executives with quick updates pertinent to the association community.

Naylor will also produce CSAEs annual Source Guide, a printed directory of businesses and individuals who serve the Canadian association market, and the Online Supplier Directory, a digital companion to the Source Guide that lets association staff research multiple potential vendors in one convenient online location. Naylors Canada-based team of sales professionals will solicit advertising in those publications. These updated publications will roll out by the end of 2018.

About Naylor Association Solutions

Since 1969, Naylor has helped build strong trade and professional associations by delivering solutions that engage members and generate non-dues revenue. We offer a comprehensive set of solutions, including communications strategy, print, digital and video content and production, full service event management, advertising, sponsorships and exhibit sales, career centers, online learning, association management and association management software (AMS). Our expertise and breadth of services help us see opportunities others miss, and our commitment to excellent customer service fuels our passion to help associations achieve more success. Naylors headquarters is located in McLean, Va. with additional offices in Alpharetta, Ga.; Gainesville, Fla.; Hunt Valley, Md.; Schaumburg, Ill.; and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Visit http://www.naylor.com for more information.

About the Canadian Society of Association Executives

Established in 1951, the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) is a member-based not-for-profit organization providing information, advocacy, education and networking opportunities to leaders in the association and not-for-profit sector across Canada, as well as to businesses that support the sector with products and services. With area networks in BC, Alberta, Manitoba, the GTA/Golden Horseshoe, Ottawa-Gatineau, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, this association of associations is Canadas only national organization committed to promoting excellence across the sector.Michael H. Rosenblum I believe that by exploring and understanding who we truly are as people, anyone can achieve the happiness they so richly deserve.

Michael H. Rosenblum, successful Chicago, Illinois residential real estate broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group, is pleased to announce his debut book titled Happily Ever Always. The book is a detailed recipe containing steps, ingredients and best practices to create a happy and successful life.

The book takes the reader on a journey to discover their personal truth and path to happiness. Each chapter details a key point that Michael has identified as pivotal to his own growth. He shares personal experiences to reinforce the concepts while thought-provoking exercises offer an opportunity for the personal reflection that is such an important element to success.

Rosenblum said, I believe that by exploring and understanding who we truly are as people, anyone can achieve the happiness they so richly deserve. He continued, I wrote this book because I want to help people grow and develop, identify their talents, gifts and motivations and uncover the path they were truly meant follow to attain success in all areas of their lives.

Happily Ever Always is available in softcover and ebook formats worldwide, including at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.com where it has received a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars. Michaels book tour began September 28, 2018 in Sacramento, CA. where he was a guest on CWs Good Day Sacramento. Additional tour stops included ABC's Good Day Tulsa, CBS Chicago's "Sunday Morning and NBC's "North Dakota Today, among others. Limited supplies of the book are available for editorial review upon request.

ABOUT MICHAEL H. ROSENBLUM

With more than 30 years in residential real estate, Michael has achieved career sales of over $400 million across more than 1,000 transactions. In 2017, He ranked among the top half of 1 percent of agents in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices national network, earning him the Chairmans Circle Diamond award. He is also consistently in the top 1% of Chicago brokers. An inductee into the inaugural class of the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group Hall of Fame in 2014, Michael was selected for achieving and sustaining high-level career performance and making significant contributions to his company and industry. For eight years in a row, he has been the top producing agent within Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Groups Gold Coast office, and he has also been the #1 producing broker in the River North neighborhood. Michael lends his expertise as a committee member of the Professional Standards and Ethics committee of Chicago Association of REALTORS. He studied Business Administration at the University of Missouri at Columbia. After college, he moved to Chicago to live Happily Ever Always. Visit HappilyEverAlways.com.

ABOUT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES KOENIGRUBLOFF REALTY GROUP

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices KoenigRubloff Realty Group is a full-service real estate firm with nearly 1,500 real estate professionals and staff in 23 offices serving customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area, the North Shore, Western Suburban communities and Harbor Country, Michigan. Deep local roots are complemented by the extensive global reach of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, the top real estate brand in the nation. Affiliated and ancillary services in the form of HomeServices Lending, Fort Dearborn Title, and HomeServices Insurance complete the comprehensive services offered to clients. Visit KoenigRubloff.com.City of Beaverton Joins the MITN Purchasing Group Beaverton is happy to join other local government agencies to create a one-stop site for future procurement opportunities.

Today, the City of Beaverton announces it has joined the MITN Purchasing Group, a regional purchasing community by BidNet. Local government agencies throughout Michigan utilize the purchasing group for bid and vendor management. The City of Beaverton invites all potential vendors to register online with MITN Purchasing Group to access its upcoming solicitations by visiting https://www.bidnetdirect.com/mitn.

The City of Beaverton joins the MITN Purchasing Group and the community of 207 participating local government agencies located throughout Michigan. Along with a variety of bid and vendor management solutions, the City of Beaverton gains access to a bid library to help with bid creation, a shared pool of vendors, and association with like-minded purchasing professionals in the area.

Beaverton City Manager Heath Kaplan indicates that Beaverton is happy to join other local government agencies to create a one-stop site for future procurement opportunities.

Vendors interested in doing business with the City of Beaverton and other nearby government agencies are encouraged to register at https://www.bidnetdirect.com/mitn. Benefits of joining the MITN Purchasing Group include:



Centralized location for bids from all 207 participating agencies

Bid alerts customized to the vendors products or services

Reliable and timely delivery of notifications, addendums and documents

Advanced notice of Term Contract expiration

E-Bid and E-Quote Submission

The MITN Purchasing Group is one of BidNets regional purchasing groups throughout the country. It provides the City of Beaverton a bid and vendor management solution, document and addendum distribution, and tracking of all activity throughout the procurement process.

About the City of Beaverton:

Beaverton is a vibrant community with a friendly small-town atmosphere; offering year-round events. Beaverton remains a walkable city with a strong sense of community that is seldom found in this busy world.

About the MITN Purchasing Group:

The MITN Purchasing Group is a part of BidNets regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. With years of input from procurement professionals, BidNet specifically developed the bid system to fill the need for a robust bid and supplier management solution for local government agencies. BidNet runs 40 regional purchasing groups used by over 1,300 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit https://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyersJennifer Corbett-Shramo, CEO, Innovative Cleaning Services The immediate future of sustainable cleaning is global.

Jennifer Corbett-Shramo has spent the past 33 years redefining sustainability, primarily in North America and Europe. At the recent 3rd International Forum held by China Cleaning Industry in Beijing, China, Corbett-Shramo had the honor of bridging the gap to share her wealth of experience with industry leaders from all over China.

The forum, which took place in June 2018, brought together more than 300 enterprises and organizations in Chinas cleaning industry, with the primary intention of promoting cross-border exchange and cooperation throughout the industry, providing advice and suggestions for industry and business development.

Along with key note speaker Corbett-Shramo, representatives throughout the international sustainable cleaning community were present, providing a rich opportunity for cultural and industry exchange. Notable speakers included Steve Ashkin of ISSA, and Paul Greenland, former president of BSCAI, as well as many notable policy makers and industry leaders of China, including president of the Beijing Association of Building Facilities Service Enterprises, Zhang Hong, and President of the Clean Service Industry Association, Li Yong-Gang, among many others.

As Corbett-Shramo noted, environmentally preferable cleaning programs have not kept pace with the explosive growth and development in the metropolitan areas of China. Zhang Hong, who also organized the forum, explained that China's cleaning industry is now facing a wide range of pressures, including higher requirements for service quality, increasing costs of labor productivity, shortage of talent, and traditional management practices that are less effective. The disadvantages of inefficient labor, low standard requirements, and low service quality brought about by low-price bids have seriously hampered the development of the industry, Zhang added.

Based on discussions, Corbett-Shramos immediate recommendation for Chinas sustainability efforts was greater education for property managers in large industrial centers, which would foster change through "Better knowing the underpinnings of janitorial operations." She also advised that property managers could also benefit from a broader awareness of the effects of cleaning methods on their tenants. Finally, adoption of healthy cleaning practices throughout the world will need to come from, Greater credibility in sustainability, which can be promoted through international forums like this one.

Additionally, Corbett-Shramo spoke of the importance of the event itself, as well as its potential impact on a broader scale. So much of the book on sustainable cleaning is written from a Western, or North American perspective. It was both enlightening and essential to learn more about Chinas background, perspectives, and current state of affairs in cleaning. The immediate future of sustainable cleaning is global, and it was an honor to both share and learn so that more growth is possible. Those managers who attended the Forum were very enlightened on the impact of Green Cleaning.

Corbett-Shramo noted that the positive outcomes from the forum were both practical and poignant. This real data seemed to create hope and passion for driving a transformation in sustainable cleaning in one of the largest countries in the world. She hopes to accept offers that were extended for her return.

ABOUT ICS

Innovative Cleaning Services is an industry-leading janitorial service provider based in Orange County, California, founded on a dedication to enhance the cleaning industry through sustainable practices. ICS is a woman-owned business that is committed to customer satisfaction by promoting transparency, sustainability, and a culture of care.We are pleased to announce that Comfort Experts has won the readers choice Best Of title in the Heating & Air Company category for Living Magazines 2018 Readers Choice Showcase.

Living Magazine, a popular publication that is widespread in distribution across Texas, began its voting in January for its sixth annual Best Of list. The publication asks readers in a number of areas around Texas to vote on the best businesses in a variety of categories, and each year they print the results in the Best Of Readers Choice Showcase. In the cities of Arlington and Mansfield, Comfort Experts was named the best heating and air company for 2018.

Comfort Experts is a North Texas heating and air company that serves residents in several communities across the state. Since the companys inception over 50 years ago, they have continuously provided exceptional services to their customers, proving themselves a trustworthy company that truly cares about their clientele.

Erika Sorelle, Communications Manager for Comfort Experts had the following to say:

It has been a great pleasure serving the Mansfield and Greater Arlington area through these years. We are truly grateful for our loyal customers & we are incredibly honored that they chose us. Thank you for your support!

North Texas HVAC company Comfort Experts, Inc. provides a variety of services to their customers, including AC repair, HVAC installation, heating & furnace services, HVAC maintenance, indoor air quality services, ductwork services, energy efficiency analysis, and more. The company prides itself on quality services, highly trained staff, a commitment to customer satisfaction, and the utmost professionalism in every job they complete. They strive to provide the best rates and the best services in the industry, and because of this, they offer free estimates, second opinions, a cost-benefit analysis, and a 100% guarantee on every job they take on.

It is clear that Comfort Experts has been a well-respected and highly referred heating and air company for decades, and receiving the Best Of win in the heating and air company further confirms the companys excellence. To learn more about the best HVAC company in Mansfield and Arlington, get in touch with Comfort Experts, Inc. at ComfortExpertsInc.com or by calling 1-877-AC-GENIUS (1-877-224-3648).

Comfort Experts Inc is located at 3601 Hulen St Suite 101, Fort Worth, Texas, 76107 and can be reached at 817-341-5149As the point of departure and return for thousands of soldiers, the Fayetteville area has always had a unique bond with veterans. Cumberland County has hosted Heroes Homecoming since 2011, helping it to become the largest commemoration and reunion of its kind.

The Communities of Cumberland County along side the Fayetteville Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (FACVB) have announced that the sixth annual Heroes Homecoming celebration will be dedicated to acknowledging the sacrifice and service of our countrys brave veterans as well as their families. This year also marks the 100 years of Armistice Day (now known as Veterans Day) as well as 100 years of Fort Bragg, the countrys largest military installation. Because of these important anniversaries, the theme of Heroes Homecoming 6 will be A Centennial of Service.

As the point of departure and return for thousands of soldiers, the Fayetteville area has always had a unique bond with veterans. Cumberland County has hosted Heroes Homecoming since 2011, helping it to become the largest commemoration and reunion of its kind. With so many amazing military anniversaries this year, what a perfect way to honor all those who have been involved both at home and abroad than by dedicating Heroes Homecoming 6 to them, said John Meroski, CEO of FACVB. In years past, our community has honored veterans from various conflicts. This year we will honor everyone from spouses, children, and volunteers for the sacrifices they have made while supporting our troops.

Marquee events during this years celebration include:

Veterans Day Concert & Art Exhibit - ASOM - Nov 9

Veterans Day Parade - Downtown Fayetteville - Nov 10

Heroes Homecoming Motorcycle Rally - Ft Bragg Harley-Davidson - Nov 10

Centennial of Service Speaker Series - ASOM - Nov 10

In addition to honoring veterans and their families through local events from November 8-12, Heroes Homecoming is also challenging businesses and organizations to participate in the Missing Man Table Initiative as a way to inspire and help educate the public on the importance and symbolism of the display. The Missing Man Table, similar to the Fallen Comrade Table, honors the memory of missing or imprisoned military service members. To date, North Carolina has more unaccounted for veterans than any state in the southeast, with a recorded 1,536 POW/MIA. Currently, more than 150 area businesses and organizations have pledged to participate, with the number growing every day.

For more information on Heroes Homecoming and a full list of events, visit http://www.HeroesHomecoming.com. Follow along with the celebration on Facebook and Twitter.October JLT Market Reports provide valuable business information on manufactured home communities in the midwest. A new Illinois market is included in the October 2018 reports. Thirteen communities with a total of 2,830 homesites have been added for the Champaign/Urbana market.

Datacomp, publisher of JLT Market Reports and the nations #1 provider of manufactured housing industry market data, today announced the publication of its October 2018 manufactured home community rent and occupancy reports for 10 markets in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Recognized as the industry standard for manufactured home community market analysis for more than 20 years, JLT Market Reports provide detailed research and information on communities located in more than 160 major housing markets throughout the United States. This includes the latest rent trends and statistics, marketing programs and a variety of other useful management insights.

Datacomps manufactured housing data published in the October 2018 JLT Market Reports includes information on 293 All ages and 55+ manufactured home communities located in 10 major markets in the six states. Altogether, the reports include data representations for 75,190 homesites.

A new Illinois market is included in the October 2018 reports. Thirteen communities with a total of 2,830 homesites have been added for the Champaign/Urbana market.

Our data shows growth across the board in all markets represented in the October 2018 reports, Datacomp Co-President Darren Krolewski said. This includes adjusted rent growth, as well as increases in occupancy. This is true with only one small exception, for 55+ communities in the Kansas City market, which was only down slightly in occupancy and continues to perform very well.

Each JLT manufactured home community rent and occupancy report published by Datacomp includes detailed information about investment grade manufactured home communities in major markets. Information includes number of homesites, occupancy rates, average mobile home community rents and increases, community amenities, vacant sites, and repossessed and inventory homes.

Established reports show trends in each market with a comparison of October 2018 rents and occupancy rates to October 2017. In addition, there is a historical recap of rents and occupancy from 1996 to present date in most markets.

The October 2018 JLT Market Reports for 10 markets in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin are available for purchase and immediate download online at the Datacomp JLT Market Report, or they may be ordered by phone in electronic or printed editions at (800) 588-5426.

Each fully updated report for mobile home communities is a comprehensive look at investment grade properties within a market, enabling owners and managers, lenders, appraisers, brokers and other organizations to effectively benchmark those communities and make informed decisions.

About JLT Market Reports

For more than 20 years, countless professionals have trusted JLT Market Reports for timely and accurate management reports on land lease manufactured home communities. JLT Market Reports are currently published for 140 markets nationwide and are recognized as the industry standard for manufactured housing industry data. In 2014, JLT & Associates merged its resources, skills and expertise with Datacomp, the industrys oldest and largest national mobile home appraisal company and number one provider of market data for the manufactured housing industry, and MHVillage, the premier website for advertising mobile homes for rent and sale nationwide. For more information, or to purchase complete JLT Market Reports, call (800) 588-5426 or visit http://www.datacompusa.com/JLT.We are very excited to be working with such a great institution to expand student access to coding, said Ido Yerushalmi, CEO of Intelitek.

On December 15, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) will host the finals of the states Cyber Robotics Coding Competition (CRCC), being held by the New Hampshire Department of Education (NH DOE) and the Intelitek STEM and CTE Education Foundation (ISCEF). The CRCC, sponsored by Intelitek and Oracle Academy, is an eight-week virtual coding competition in partnership with UNH and New Hampshire 4-H that provides students and educators with the opportunity to build STEM related skills using a cloud-based simulation platform featuring a virtual, 3D-animated robot.

Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the NH DOE, will be on hand to give out awards. We are very excited by the commitment that the University of New Hampshire is making to the Cyber Robotics Coding Competition, said Edelblut. Students will be competing with their peers from across New Hampshire inside one of our states premiere learning institutions while also learning new skills and having fun. What a great opportunity for everyone.

The NH DOE and Intelitek have been excited to collaborate to create this competition and in doing so, gave rise to an international phenomenon that has resulted in more than 50,000 students all over the world participating in similar events.

NH 4-H is excited to co-host the 2018 NH CRCC final competition, here at UNH, said Kate Guerdat, Ed.D, associate state 4-H program leader. Inteliteks collaborative and innovative approach to increasing access to STEM experiences for diverse NH communities aligns with UNH Cooperative Extensions priority of meeting people where they are. As the youth outreach component of Cooperative Extension, NH 4-H looks forward to not only supporting the capacity building experience for youth, but engaging families in STEM learning as well.

In the first New Hampshire CRCC, held at the end of 2017, more than 2,500 students in middle and high schools throughout the state used CoderZ, a cloud-based coding platform to compete in over 80 different and challenging robotics missions. In addition to winning prizes for inclusiveness, faculty participation and diversity, the top schools competed in a grand finale competition for the best middle school, best high school and a grand prize called the Governors Award. (Gallery).

UNH has an incredible computer science program that has prepared graduates to work at industry giants such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, so of course the UNH computer lab is a very fitting locale for the CRCC Finals, said Ido Yerushalmi, CEO of Intelitek. We are very excited to be working with such a great institution to expand student access to coding.

The NH CRCC will be held from mid-October to mid-December. To register a school, club or community organization for the event, visit https://crcc.io/signup.

For more information on CRCC competitions, go https://crcc.io/new-hampshire/ or contact Danny Watt, Director of CRCC at ISCEF, at dwatt@iscefoundation.org.

About CRCC

The first-of-its-kind Cyber Robotics Coding Competition (CRCC) was created by ISCEF and is supported by Intelitek and Oracle Academy. The online competition is designed to be interactive and exciting as participants learn how robots work and expand their knowledge of STEM careers. Parties interested in organizing Cyber Robotics Competitions for their school, district or state can contact ISCEF at info@iscefoundation.org

About Intelitek

Intelitek has been transforming education and bringing robotics into classrooms across the globe through comprehensive technology learning solutions for more than 30 years. The Companys innovative tools and technologies empower instructors and inspire students to improve the world around them. Inteliteks sustainable support and professional development ensure the continued success of educational programs. By helping deliver the competencies needed for in-demand careers, Intelitek is producing results for students, teachers, nations, and economies.

About the NH DOE

The New Hampshire Department of Education is committed to providing leadership and services which promote equitable educational opportunities that enable the states citizens to become fully productive members of society. The department helps students, parents, and educators meet the educational needs of children so they can build bright futures while also working to improve family engagement with schools. The department assists residents with disabilities in gaining access to educational opportunities and employment while also approving programs for veterans. The NH DOE works to promote lifelong learning, and ensures that post-secondary institutions and career schools meet applicable standards so the people of New Hampshire can improve their lives.

About Oracle Academy

As Oracles flagship philanthropic educational program, Oracle Academy advances computer science education globally to drive knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields, offering a free and complete portfolio of software, curriculum, hosted technology, faculty trainings, support, and certification resources. Supporting 6.3 million students annually in 128 countries, the program works with public and private partners to provide the tools educators need to engage, inspire and prepare students to become innovators and leaders of the future. Through Oracle Academy, students receive hands-on experience with the latest technologies, helping to make them college and career ready in the era of big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and beyond, please visit us at academy.oracle.com.

Trademarks

Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

# # #

With the FAA-mandated 2020 ADS-B upgrade fast approaching, Device Technologies, Inc. (DTi), a leading manufacturer of wire protection grommet edging, announces the availability of a NEW ADS-B Wire Protection Install Kit that includes its industry-preferred and FAA approved snap-on Spring-Fast M22529/2 grommet.

The Spring-Fast product line provides Best-in-Class EWIS Anti-Chafe Protection at half the cost of legacy systems. Spring-Fast grommets save 49% of total install costs by applying with finger pressure. No glue. No clean up. No curing.

DTi developed this install kit to facilitate the ADS-B upgrade and help MRO service centers and aircraft owners alike protect critical wires, their overall equipment investment and reduce AOG time due to its quick installation. This helps MROs lower cycle time and take on more ADS-B refit work.

FAAs ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) uses satellites instead of ground-based radar to determine aircraft location and is a key technology behind the FAAs Next Generation Air Transportation System. The FAA has mandated installation of ADS-B OUT for flights after January 1, 2020, in airspace where a transponder is required today.

According to DTi President and frequent flier, Nick Petri, ADS-B is clearly a game changer with regards to CRM (cockpit resource management) and situation awareness. Our kit reduces ADS-B install time and ensures that wires are properly protected for years to come.

The DTi Wire Protection Install Kit includes:

12 feet- Spring-Fast M22529/2 grommet

12 feet- PFA-PFW- 1  braided wrap wire sleeving

1 pair- 830 PS Full Bypass Shears

1 each- 860 GSB Cut to length bench mount measuring scale

Device Technologies, Inc is partnering with leading aircraft aftermarket distributor, EDMO for sale of DTis Wire Protection Install Kit. The kits are available in four standard sizes and can be customized for larger aircraft and length as required.

For ordering information, contact Ted Augustine, teda(at)edmo(dot)com, 509-535-8280

About Device Technologies, Inc.

Founded in 1984, Device Technologies, Inc. (DTi) designs, manufactures, and sells specialty components including grommet edgings, enclosure seals, trims, and wire protection sleeving and EMI shielding/absorber/thermal materials for a broad spectrum of uses including aerospace and avionics OEM and MRO applications, Tactical Equipment, Wind Turbines, Telecom back up power systems, and IT Servers. DTis advanced protection materials have wide applications in other industries such as HVAC, Transportation, Medical, Military, Gaming, Automotive and Food Service Manufacturing.

DTis Advanced Technology Division (ATD) specializes in fully automated, linear and selective polymer coating for cable, wire, flat wire, stampings and profile metal-formed products encapsulated in a broad range of thermo-plastic and thermo-setting resins.

DTi continues to invest in R&D to enhance opportunities for its product and process technologies, in compliance with ISO 9001 and AS9100 standards. More information is available at http://www.devicetech.com or call (508-229-2000).

Spring Fast, Fast-Drop, Trim-Fast, Seal-Fast, Protect-Fast and Shield-Fast are registered trademarks of Device Technologies, Inc.

Customer Service Contact:

Device Technologies, Inc.

155 Northboro Rd., Unit 8

Southborough, MA 01772-1033

+1-508-229-2000

customerservice(at)devicetech(dot)com

North America & Asia Technical Contact:

Steven OLoughlin

Device Technologies, Inc.

+1-508-229-2000 Ext. 250

soloughlin(at)devicetech(dot)com

EMEA:

Meike Kurzak

Office: +49 40 350 85 128

Mobile: +49 177 170 3181

m.kurzak(at)devicetech(dot)com

About EDMO

Over the course of 47 years, EDMO Distributors, Inc. has developed robust relationships with the aviation industrys most trusted brands by connecting them to the right customers. EDMO serves commercial, corporate, military, and general aviation customers in the fixed-wing and rotor markets. To accommodate such a wide customer base, EDMO carries a comprehensive range of products including aircraft electronics, installation and bench supplies, wire and cable, tooling, test equipment, tactical communication solutions, pilot supplies, and ground support equipment.

Now, more than ever, EDMO has what you need when you need it. A recent expansion to Nashville, Tennessee means that most of our U.S. customers receive their orders in 1-2 days with ground shipping. Thats just EDMO doing whatever it takes to deliver quality and excellence to our brands and customers.

EDMO Contact:

Ted Augustine, teda(at)edmo(dot)com

12830 E. Mirabeau Parkway

Spokane Valley, WA US 99216

T: 509-535-8280

http://www.edmo.comSupporting 4G/LTE connections for Eagle Eye Bridges and CMVRs gives these customers a solution for viewing and recording remote cameras.

Eagle Eye Networks today announced it added support for the Verizon MiFi 4G LTE Global Modem USB730L to the Eagle Eye Cloud VMS. Now any Eagle Eye Bridge or Eagle Eye Cloud Managed Video Recorder (CMVR) can be connected to the Eagle Eye Cloud Data Center using the USB730L modem from Verizon Wireless.

The Global Modem USB730L provides a fast and secure Internet connection in over 200 countries, including high-speed 4G LTE Network across the U.S. This modem can be purchased directly from Verizon Wireless. Support is immediately available from Eagle Eye Networks.

The Verizon Global Modem USB730L plugs into an Eagle Eye Bridge or CMVR USB port. There are no additional fees from Eagle Eye Networks to connect cameras using the 4G/LTE modem. Eagle Eye has previously supported other Verizon USB Cellular modems in order to provide recording and remote access to cameras where wired internet is not readily available.

Customers often have cameras in locations where wired Internet or WIFI is not available. Supporting 4G/LTE connections for Eagle Eye Bridges and CMVRs gives these customers a solution for viewing and recording remote cameras, stated Dean Drako, CEO of Eagle Eye Networks. The Eagle Eye Cloud VMS is architected and designed to support all types of video from all the different sources. Its a universal solution so that customers can access and store all their video in a single place making it a lot more convenient. We will continue to add support for more and more different video sources and types.

The Eagle Eye Cloud VMS currently supports over 1,000 different digital cameras, 5,000 different analog cameras, HD over Coax cameras, wire-free cameras, body cameras, and many other types of video devices.

For more information, please contact +1-512-473-0500 or visit http://www.een.com.

PRESS CONTACT

Deborah Demarchi

ddemarchi(at)een.com

+1-512-473-0500

ABOUT EAGLE EYE NETWORKS

Founded in 2012, Eagle Eye Networks, Inc., is the leading global provider of cloud-based video surveillance solutions addressing the needs of businesses, alarm companies, security integrators, and individuals. Eagle Eyes 100% cloud managed solutions provides cloud and on-premise recording, bank level security and encryption, and broad analog and digital camera support  all accessed via the web or mobile applications. Businesses of all sizes and types utilize Eagle Eye solutions for operational optimization and security. All Eagle Eye products benefit from Eagle Eyes developer friendly RESTful API platform and Big Data Video Framework , which allow for indexing, search, retrieval, and analysis of live and archived video. Eagle Eyes open Video API has been widely adopted for integration in alarm monitoring, third party analytics, security dashboards, and point of sale system integrations.

Eagle Eye sells its products through authorized global distributors, resellers and installation partners. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA, Eagle Eye has offices in Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.een.com or call +1-512-473-0500.The Medigap EZ-App Allows Consumers to Easily Apply for Medigap Insurance without Speaking to an Agent For the first time, a Medicare Supplement application is customer-centric and allows consumers to apply easily online without having to consult an insurance agent.

Ensurem, LLC, an innovative technology and digital marketing platform dedicated to simplifying the process of buying insurance, announced today the launch of the first 100 percent digital application for Medicare Supplement insurance. The Medigap EZ-App was developed by Ensurem as part of its mission to streamline the insurance industry.

The e-application offers consumers the ease and convenience of purchasing Medicare Supplement insurance completely online. It uses automatic underwriting technology to produce immediate results about the consumers qualification status.

For the first time, a Medicare Supplement application is customer-centric and allows consumers to apply easily online without having to consult an insurance agent. The reduced acquisition and maintenance costs leads to savings that are passed onto the consumers, resulting in more competitive premiums, stated CEO and founder of Ensurem, David Rich.

Catholic Life Insurance, one of the top 10 fraternal life insurance organizations in the nation, is the first company to offer a product using the Medigap EZ-App.

Ensurem designed and built the online software from the ground up and was responsible for all development and marketing. In addition to the Medigap EZ-App, Ensurem also developed a website (catholicmedicaresupp.com) including quoting tools and educational material explaining the benefits and intricacies of Medicare Supplement insurance.

The launch of this application is a testament to Ensurems commitment to partnering with insurance companies to offer efficient, innovative products. Ensurem has the capability to develop, support, and sell products through its digital platform.

We are driven to transform the insurance industry through the development of new, digitally-based, consumer-friendly insurance products and procedures, said Rich. Our exclusive Medigap EZ-App platform is a prime example of the type of efficient applications we will continue to build in the future.

Catholic Life is proud to partner with Ensurem, said President and CEO of Catholic Life Insurance, J. Michael Belz. We believe our customers will greatly benefit from the ease and convenience of the online application. We look forward to working with Ensurem on future products.

To learn more about the Medigap EZ-App, visit https://catholicmedicaresupp.com/. For more information about Ensurem, visit http://www.ensurem.com.

About Ensurem, LLC

Ensurem, LLC was launched in January 2016 with a two-fold mission of Awaring America about the value of life insurance and supplemental health products and providing a simplified buying process. Based in Tampa Bay, Florida, the company provides insurance-related products to consumers nationwide through its online platform. Ensurem offers several features to help customers live Life Optimized, including direct-to-consumer products as well as a library of product guides and resources.

About Catholic Life Insurance

Catholic Life Insurance ranks among the top 10 largest fraternal life insurers in the nation. More than 80,000 families rely on Catholic Life for protection and security. Its assets exceed $1 billion and insurance-in-force surpasses $2 billion. The company offers life insurance, IRAs, annuities, Medicare Supplement Insurance and fraternal benefits to individuals and families throughout Texas, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Mississippi and New Mexico. The company also offers volunteer opportunities that enhance its members' lives and benefit the communities in which they live. Although the common bond for most members is the Catholic faith, Catholic Life is independent of any Catholic institution and welcome people of all beliefs and religions. For additional information visit http://www.cliu.com.As an athlete with exercise equipment in my home, Ive learned first hand that its a challenge to find someone to service our fitness machines. In an area filled with corporate complexes, apartments, hotels, schools and residential homes, Im excited to provide a solution to that problem.

Fitness Machine Technicians, specialists in the maintenance and repair of exercise equipment for gyms, corporations, hotels, and private residences, announced today it is expanding into the Northwest Atlanta area. The business will be led by Smyrna resident Robert Scott.

Robert grew up in Toronto, Canada and attended Queens University where he graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He began his career as an engineer and designer for Consultec Ltd., and then transitioned to management consulting at Deloitte Canada. In 2001, Robert moved to the U.S. to study at Duke University, where he received his MBA. This led him to the finance world, where he has served as leader of the finance team for Home Depot.com, and Finance Director at The Weather Channel, CHEP and Access Insurance. Most recently he has worked as a finance consultant for some large local companies.

As an athlete with exercise equipment in my home, Ive learned first hand that its a challenge to find someone to service our fitness machines. In an area filled with corporate complexes, apartments, hotels, schools and residential homes, Im excited to provide a solution to that problem, says Mr. Scott.

Fitness Machine Technicians offers reliable service/repair and maintenance services on a variety of exercise equipment on a contract and non-contract basis. The company is based outside of Philadelphia and currently services Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Georgia and Utah.

CEO & Founder Don Powers notes, Robs strong background in mechanical engineering and finance makes him the perfect fit for owning Fitness Machine Technicians. Hes a driven individual and were thrilled to have him establish a presence in the Northwest Atlanta area.

Fitness Machine Technicians is now open in Northwest Atlantas Cobb, Cherokee, Paulding, and Barrow counties. For more information about having a fitness machine or exercise facility serviced, please contact Robert Scott at 770-282-3687 or visit http://www.FitnessMachineTechnicians.com/Atlanta/Northwest

###Whole Foods We are honored to receive the continued support of Whole Foods and give an opportunity for the community to support our work, said Emily Brown, Chief Executive Officer of FEI.

Food Equality Initiative (FEI) and Whole Foods are pleased to announce a partnership and giving opportunity to support FEIs Allergy Friendly and Gluten Free Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy free-from foods to patients diagnosed with food allergies and celiac disease in KC.

You can support the cause by shopping at the Overland Park, or Olathe Whole Foods location on Thursday, October 18th.

Five percent of all sales for the day will be donated to Food Equality Initiative. Customers shopping on the Giving Day will have an opportunity to meet FEI staff and volunteers to learn more about the organization and its critical mission.

We are honored to receive the continued support of Whole Foods and give an opportunity for the community to support our work, said Emily Brown, Chief Executive Officer of FEI. Most residents dont know that our area is leading the country in providing free-from foods to those who need it the most. We established the nations first allergy-friendly and gluten-free food pantry in the nation, right here in the greater Kansas City area. We are so excited to announce this Whole Foods partnership that will enable us to feed more people.

We are delighted to again support the incredible work Food Equality Initiative is doing to provide nourishing, allergen-friendly food to Kansas City area residents in need, said Rachel Rauth, Marketing Manager at Whole Foods Market. Food Equality Initiative is creating true change and setting higher standards for emergency food systems across the country.

Highcharts Gantt Users expect project management tools to work over the web whether they are on a Mac, PC, Linux machine, tablet or a smartphone.

Highsoft has taken a fresh and innovative look at Gantt charts for the web with todays premiere of Highcharts Gantt. It is a module built on top of the worlds most popular commercial JavaScript charting library, Highcharts.js.

In close collaboration with clients, Highsoft set out to re-think what tools today's developers need to meet end-user expectations when it comes to Gantt charts. The result, Highcharts Gantt, remarkably differs from solutions of the past. It fully exploits modern web technologies and awards both developers and end users with a truly modern and dynamic experience.

Highcharts Gantt features:



Comes built-in with helpful GUI enhancements such as milestones, percent-complete shadings, current day indication, and relationships between activities.

Sophisticated navigation that intelligently adapts to any device, including support for multi-touch gestures, mouse and keyboard interaction.

Ability for end users to re-arrange tasks along the timeline, change their duration and order by simple drag-and-drop actions.

Allows developers to write custom event handlers for building custom planning tools.

Allows end users to one-click export of any chart into a several raster or vector graphics formats. Perfect for including the charts in static reports and presentations.

Being built on the foundation of the battle-tested charting library Highcharts.js, the Gantt module also inherits Highcharts legacy browser compatibility, a still important requirement for many enterprise users, as well as a community of hundreds of thousands of active developers.

For decades, Gantt charts have been the standard way to visualize and interact with project management and other timeline-based resource management tools. However, many such tools remain desktop based, or built on obsolete web technologies, says Torstein Hnsi, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Highsoft. This renders them near useless in our cloud-based, collaborative era. Users expect to be able to access data and collaborate over the web whether they are on a Mac, PC, Linux machine, tablet or a smartphone.

Highcharts Gantt is offered as a stand-alone product, and may also be purchased as part of discounted product and support bundles that include Highcharts.js, Highstock.js and Highmaps.js.

Learn more about Highcharts Gantt at: https://highcharts.com/products/gantt

About Highsoft, AS

Founded in 2006, Highsoft is an industry leader in JavaScript data visualization. Its flagship product, Highcharts JS, was launched in 2009 and remains is the most robust enterprise charting library on the market. Highsoft is located deep in the fjords of Norway and has over 30 employees working full-time on developing, marketing, and supporting its products. Its global customer-base include over 80% of the worlds largest corporations, such as Visa, CA, Cisco, Deutsche Bank, and GE. For more information, visit http://www.highcharts.comRemove one spouse as a co-owner of a timeshare located in California, Florida, Hawaii and Nevada due to a divorce settlement. Without transfer between spouses or the removal of one spouse, both spouses can use the timeshare and both remain liable for the maintenance fees.

This Tip Sheet by Deed and Record explains how to change ownership between marital parties due to a divorce settlement for timeshares located in California, Florida, Hawaii and Nevada. Without transfer between spouses or the removal of one spouse, both spouses can use the timeshare and both remain liable for the maintenance fees.

Timeshares are fractional real property interest. Each state is responsible for maintaining records of who owns each real property interest. Florida delegates its responsibility to the courthouse located in each County. California and Nevada delegate their responsibility to an independent government entity, the recorder, that is created in each County. Hawaii delegates it responsibility to the Bureau of Conveyances that maintains records for the entire state.

These states are notified of a transfer between spouses or the removal of one spouse by a document known as a deed. The deed is signed by the spouse who is removed as co-owner. California, Hawaii and Nevada require the owners signature on the deed acknowledged by a notary. Florida in addition to the acknowledgement, requires the owners signature witnessed by two individuals. After the deed is prepared and the signature acknowledged the deed is recorded with the state.

A copy of the recorded deed must be provided to the timeshare company to update their records of ownership. Timeshare companies may have additional documentation requirements, depending on the company. These companies also require a fee to update those records.

This Tip Sheet explains how to remove a spouse as owner of a timeshare due to a divorce settlement. Ownership change is by deed, signed by the spouse to be removed as co-owner. States covered in this Tip Sheet are California, Florida, Hawaii and Nevada.

This press release is provided by Mark W. Bidwell, an attorney in California. Office is at 4952 Warner Avenue, Suite 235, Huntington Beach, California 92649. Phone number is 714-846-2888. Mr. Bidwell markets through a website DeedandRecord.com.If you do any work with Active Directory, Azure AD, or any other types of identity-focused security, youll find the HIP Conference to be the two best days of training youve had in all of 2018, says Sean Deuby, 15-time Microsoft MVP and presenter at this years and last years event.

The second annual Hybrid Identity Protection Conference is bringing identity, directory, and security professionals together for two days of in-depth learning, sharing, and problem solving led by renowned industry experts. The event will be held November 5 and 6 at the Renaissance New York Midtown Hotel.

The agenda is designed to advance the knowledge and skills of professionals charged with design, defense, and day-to-day management of their organizations identity infrastructures.

Semperis is hosting the event and has partnered with identity veteran Gil Kirkpatrick to assemble an impressive line-up of more than 20 passionate, engaged speakers that includes:



Pamela Dingle, Director of Identity Standards, Microsoft

Ben Johnson, CTO and Co-founder, Obsidian Security

Andy Robbins, Co-creator of BloodHound

Brian Desmond, Principal, Ravenswood Technology Group

Sean Metcalf, Creator of the ADSecurity.org blog

If you do any work with Active Directory, Azure AD, or any other types of identity-focused security, youll find the HIP Conference to be the two best days of training youve had in all of 2018, says Sean Deuby, 15-time Microsoft MVP and presenter at this years and last years event.

For a full list of speakers, session topics, and to register, please visit https://www.hipconf.com. Note to media/industry analysts: if interested in attending, please email Dan Chmielewski of Madison Alexander PR at dchm@madisonalexanderpr.com.

About Semperis

Semperis is an enterprise identity protection company that helps organizations recover from cyber breaches and directory service failures, on-premises and in the cloud. The companys leading technology for Active Directory is used by IT and Security teams in the Fortune 500, government, financial, healthcare, and other industries worldwide. Semperis solutions are accredited by Microsoft and recognized by Gartner.

# # #

Media Contact: Dan Chmielewski

Madison Alexander PR

714-832-8716

949-231-2965

dchm@madisonalexanderpr.comJeff Reiter, owner of RWK IT Services, gives a presentation on cybersecurity to an audience at Aurelios Pizza in Frankfort. Today, not paying attention to your online security is like leaving your car windows open with your purse on the seat.

Recently, the Frankfort, Illinois-based RWK IT Services, a company offering informational technology solutions to small and medium sized enterprise markets, educated the public about protecting their online files during Annual Shred Event hosted by Town Center Bank in Frankfort .

Held at Aurelios Pizza in Frankfort, Jeff Reiter, RWKs owner, presented a free cybersecurity seminar filled with much information and tips. Reiters 30 years in cybersecurity have led him to conclude that this period is the most vulnerable time in hacking history.

Today, not paying attention to your online security is like leaving your car windows open with your purse on the seat, he said.

The company is very aware of the growing threats of the Dark Webthe part of the World Wide Web that is only accessible by means of special software, allowing users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable. Most people dont know that the Dark Web is 550 times larger than the surface/searchable web and that half of it is criminal. According to Federation of American Scientists, 99 percent of businesses arent protected, and 85 percent of businesses with less than 1,000 employees have already been hacked and dont realize it. To help its clients, the company developed its Dark Web ID, a 24-hour monitoring system that can detect threats to homes and businesses before they infiltrate. RWK does not charge to run a check that determines if a systemor even an emailhas been hacked.

Cybersecurity is a really important topic that any individual, business, or municipality has to take seriously. I am happy to give my time, Reiter said.

The momentum of this event leads straight into National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) in October. It was created as a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure every American has the resources they need to stay safer and more secure online. There is more information at the website https://staysafeonline.org/

About RWK IT Services

We are a team of diverse and driven professionals working at the pace of innovation. At RWK we have had a 20-year obsession over empowering organizations to do what they do better, and after all of this time we find ourselves more obsessed with that mission every day. The difference maker in any IT organization are the individuals behind the mess of technology. We believe streamlining technology to work to our advantage, can empower any organization to truly excel at what they do. In the last two decades, humanity has begun largest technological revolution in human history. As technology dramatically changes day to day, RWK works at the pace of innovation to be a pivot point in every organization that we have partnered with. So that as we innovate in our field, we are empowering the progress of everyone who works with us. For more information, visit https://www.rwksolvesit.com/Minc Law Minc Law is proud to announce Colton Johnson as the first annual winner of the Minc Law Scholarship

Minc Law LLC, an Internet Defamation Removal law firm, based out of Cleveland, Ohio is proud to announce Colton Johnson as the first annual winner of the Minc Law Scholarship.

Colton, who attends the University of Houston, was chosen out of hundreds of applicants who submitted essays discussing the topic of what steps should be implemented by states to protect society from the ever-growing problems of cyberbullying, revenge porn, and other forms of harassment and online defamation. Here's Coltons winning essay.

Johnson, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Performance says he hopes to work in both stage theatre as well as television and film where he can help tell the stories of those who cannot speak for themselves. Minc Law wishes Colton and all of the other applicants the best of success as they embark on their upcoming school year.

Minc Law would also like to announce the opening of their 2019 Minc Law Scholarship. This years essay topic is Should there be federal laws that protect victims of cyberbullying, online harassment, revenge porn, and online defamation? Explain why or why not, and if yes, what should those laws be. Explain the pros and cons that could result if federal legislation were passed by Congress to attempt to address these issues.

The application deadline for the 2019 scholarship is July 31, 2019. The winner will be selected by the foundation panel by August 31, 2019. For more details on the scholarship, process visit the Minc Law Scholarship page on their website.

Minc Law LLC is an Internet Defamation law firm that offers a full range of services to help businesses of all sizes and individuals from all walks of life control their online reputation and image.The InVivoAX technology addresses the unmet need for data reproducibility and data sharing in preclinical imaging studies. Dr. Alexander Klose

InVivo Analytics Inc., announces the publication of a research study demonstrating the companys automated preclinical image data analysis tool, InVivoAX, for quantitative bioluminescence tomography using its InVivoPLOT plug-in for optical imaging systems. The technology finds applications in preclinical imaging of small animal models of human disease. The research article titled, Automated Quantification of Bioluminescence Images, was published online in the journal Nature Communications. InVivo Analytics is a cloud-based data analysis company using proprietary image processing and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to streamline preclinical imaging for the research and pharmaceutical industry.

InVivoAX, InVivo Analytics cloud-based data analysis platform, is powered by machine learning tools to gain new insights from preclinical imaging data. It uses plug-in modules for different imaging modalities, such as optical imaging, micro-CT, and positron emission tomography (PET). InVivoPLOT, the plug-in module for optical systems, enables reproducible bioluminescence imaging and tomography. InVivoPLOT is comprised of the proprietary body-conforming animal mold (BCAM), a digital mouse atlas (Organ Cloud), and a multi-view mirror gantry.

InVivoAX with InVivoPLOT transform bioluminescence images into three-dimensional (3D) spatial maps of a bioluminescence reporter inside the animal. Such reporters can track, for example, a bacterial infection in response to antibiotics or the migration of T-cells in cancer immunotherapy. A key component is the companys BCAM, an animal shuttle for enabling data congruency across different animals and imaging modalities. Furthermore, the 3D maps are automatically analyzed by machine learning algorithms and statistical tools for providing reproducible metrics of therapy efficacy. All imaging data and analysis results are stored in a database, while an automated study report can be retrieved from the cloud by the investigator at any location and at any time. For the first time, InVivoAX parses image data into a searchable database while enabling fully automated analysis of entire cohorts or even projects. Data analysis is accelerated, saves precious time for the investigator, and ensures data reproducibility which has known to be a challenge in pharmaceutical research said Alexander Klose, Ph.D. the lead author of the paper, co-founder and chief technology officer at InVivo Analytics. Furthermore, the BCAM provides data congruency from animal to animal to permit automation of the data analysis process.

In the published study, 3D tomographic images were reconstructed from multiple two-dimensional (2D) bioluminescence images of a kidney infection model. InVivoAX algorithms subsequently aligned the spatial location of the bioluminescence source inside tissue with a statistical animal atlas to determine the extent of the infection at an unknown organ. Additionally, InVivoAX automatically compared all the sites of infection in the cohort to determine the primary site of infection was within the kidney. These data were rigorously compared to serial plating of bacteria, the gold standard in infectious disease research for determining the bacterial organ load, and a correlation greater than 0.9 was reported.

Ultimately, InVivoAX is the first platform system to transfer preclinical imaging data to the cloud where operator independent data analysis is performed. Most importantly, the platform is compatible with optical, nuclear and magnetic resonance imaging modalities, said Neal Paragas, Ph.D., a co-author of the paper, co-founder of InVivo Analytics, and assistant professor and director of the small animal imaging center at the University of Washington. Overall, this cloud-based system will offer interconnectivity of existing imaging systems for automated data analysis and data sharing. Furthermore, this AI-powered technology can be applied to quantitatively visualize many biological processes such as T-cell targeting in immuno-oncology studies. We hope that using artificial intelligence and data science will unlock value and insights to aid in curing disease.

About the Study

The study was supported, in part, by InVivo Analytics Inc. and grants from the National Institutes of Health (R44EB018644).

About In Vivo Analytics

Started at Columbia University and fueled by grants from the NIH, InVivo Analytics develops preclinical imaging solutions which transform current small animal imaging systems into a fully automated cloud-based image data analysis platform. Powered by artificial intelligence, the platform is operator independent, and yields quantitative and reproducible data for preclinical research and drug discovery.

Media Contact

media(at)invivoax.comToday Jon Elwell, CEO of Kno2, the company that provides Interoperability as a Service to everyone in healthcare, told attendees of the National Association of Long Term Hospitals (NALTH) Fall Leadership Conference and Advocacy Hill Day that In the 'Wheres Waldo?' book series, you always began with the understanding that Waldo was in the picture somewhere. The challenge was finding him in the midst of everything else going on. The same is true today for interoperability in healthcare. He went on to say that if one based availability solely on Health IT headlines communicated through healthcare, then it is easy to assume that interoperability is simply complex and elusive. In his presentation, Mr. Elwell brought the Waldo of interoperability out of hiding, and provided evidence that interoperability is, in fact, simple and available to everyone.

He stated to the audience that the reasons why not everyone has it is because:



Early stages of Meaningful Use excluded important sectors of healthcare, thus the EMR companies focused on these sectors were not aggressively pursuing interoperability

The obvious is often difficult to recognize

The historical view of interoperability perpetuated the perceived complexity and capital investment required

Mr. Elwell concluded that the search for effective and efficient interoperability can end with the easy and affordable adoption of simple however, powerful networks like Direct Messaging, query-based exchange using Carequality or CommonWell Health Alliance and HIE connectivity.

About Kno2:

Kno2 is leading healthcares path to interoperability across every patient care setting. Kno2: Interoperability as a Service (IaaS) turns on connectivity to millions of healthcare providers and the capability to send, receive, find and use patient information with everyone. Kno2s IaaS enables access to providers via cloud faxing, Direct secure messaging, patient information query and patient care networks (referrals, ACOs, HIEs) guided by connectivity assessments and analytics. To discover your path to interoperability, please visit http://www.kno2.com .The founders feared the tyranny of the mob, in other words, the passions of the people and of democracy that could steer the nation down the wrong road in the heat of the moment. So they created a Senate, again to represent the states that formed the Union. It acts as a break on the popular will of the day and the passions of the people.We know attorneys are busy and already work hard, so were excited to offer our excellent content to Virginia attorneys in a more flexible way.

Lawline, the nations leading online Continuing Legal Education (CLE) provider, is thrilled to announce that programs are now available to Virginia attorneys via its award-winning app.

For 2018s October 31 deadline, Virginia attorneys can look to Lawline for a selection of on demand courses made available in an audio download format for the very first time. Moving forward, all one-credit courses will be available to Virginia attorneys in this format - all accessible in the app. In addition, Lawline offers 4+ live webcasts every month, hundreds of On Demand video courses, and unique tools (such as the groundbreaking Universal CLE Tracker and the exciting new blog) to assist Virginia attorneys in the completion and management of their CLE requirements.

We know attorneys are busy and already work hard, so were excited to offer our excellent content to Virginia attorneys in a more flexible way, said Meredith Cohen, Lawlines Director of Customer Experience. Our team is thrilled that Virginia attorneys can now earn their CLE on the go!

Check out Lawline.com for all of the Virginia-approved content you need this compliance period!

About Lawline

Lawline is the leading provider of online continuing legal education (CLE) with over 120,000 attorneys trusting Lawline with their CLE compliance. Offering legal education nationwide, Lawline strives to create timely and engaging content that supports attorneys throughout their career. The company is headquartered in downtown Manhattan and has received multiple awards recognizing its superior product, service, and company culture. Lawline's success has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Forbes.com.I can recall one instance when I was at my local gym, where I got on one treadmill, and the TV screen wasnt working, so I moved to the next treadmill and the entire machine wasnt working, so I got back on the original treadmill, and strained my neck to watch my neighbors TV. It was so frustrating

Fitness Machine Technicians, specialists in the maintenance and repair of exercise equipment for corporate gyms, universities, hotels, and private residences, announced today it is expanding into the Central New Jersey area. The local owner is David Musyimi of Princeton.

Originally from Nairobi, Kenya, David moved to the U.S. to attend Boston University where he received his business degree. Prior to opening Fitness Machine Technicians, David worked in sales to the financial industry. As a local gym-goer, he saw an opportunity when he noticed his gyms equipment was continually in disrepair.

I can recall one instance when I was at my local gym, where I got on one treadmill, and the TV screen wasnt working, so I moved to the next treadmill and the entire machine wasnt working, so I got back on the original treadmill, and strained my neck to watch my neighbors TV. It was so frustrating! That was when I realized the challenges equipment owners go through, said David.

Fitness Machine Technicians offers service/repair and preventative maintenance services on a variety of exercise equipment on a contract and non-contract basis. The company is headquartered outside of Philadelphia and currently services Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, Utah, Michigan, and Texas. The company has access to a wealth of knowledge in the industry and invaluable relationships with most fitness equipment brands to bring the best service possible.

CEO & Founder Don Powers notes, Were excited to have David on our team and serving a location close to our headquarters. His passion is inspiring and he has a lot of knowledge about the industry.

Fitness Machine Technicians is now open and serves Mercer, Somerset, Middlesex, Burlington, and Hunterdon counties. For more information about having a fitness machine or exercise facility serviced, please contact David Musyimi at 609-250-3266 or visit http://www.FitnessMachineTechnicians.com/central-new-jerseyOftentimes at our local gym, it can be frustrating when equipment isnt working properly. This areas universities, hotels, and apartments deserve the best when it comes to the upkeep of their fitness equipment  it plays an important role as an invaluable part of peoples daily routines.

Fitness Machine Technicians, specialists in the maintenance and repair of exercise equipment for corporate gyms, universities, hotels, and private residences, announced today it is expanding into the Southeast Michigan area. The local owner is Julie Jenney of Oakland County.

Jenney is a lifelong resident of the Detroit area and attended Michigan State University where she studied Merchandising Management. She spent her career in retail, computer leasing, and raising her 3 children with her husband Scott of 26 years. Now integrating her business experience and the opportunity to explore a new career path, she will serve her local community in fitness equipment repair.

Oftentimes at our local gym, it can be frustrating when equipment isnt working properly. This areas universities, hotels, and apartments deserve the best when it comes to the upkeep of their fitness equipment  it plays an important role as an invaluable part of peoples daily routines. Jenney adds.

Fitness Machine Technicians offers service/repair and maintenance services on a variety of exercise equipment on a contract and non-contract basis. The company is headquartered outside of Philadelphia and currently services Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Georgia, and Utah. The company has access to a wealth of knowledge in the industry and invaluable relationships with most fitness equipment brands to bring the best service possible.

There is tremendous value in maintaining and servicing exercise equipment. Not only does it extend the life of the equipment but also it avoids the frustration and disappointment of members or guests finding a non-functioning machine. Just like an automobile, fitness equipment is a long term investment and needs to be maintained and serviced to operate at its peak performance, says Jenney.

CEO & Founder Don Powers notes, Im excited to have Julies expertise serving the Detroit area with Fitness Machine Technicians. Her knowledge of the local community and business skills are the perfect fit for this market.

Fitness Machine Technicians is now open and serves the Detroit area including Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and Washtenaw counties. For more information about having a fitness machine or exercise facility serviced, please contact Julie Jenney at 248-728-5508 or visit http://www.FitnessMachineTechnicians.com/Detroit

###Mediaclip, the premier developer of product personalization software, is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the upcoming Visual 1st Conference. Visual 1st, formerly known as Mobile Photo Connect, will be held at the Golden Gate Club in San Francisco from October 22 - 23, 2018.

This marks the sixth year of the annual conference with the mission of regrouping industry pioneers, newcomers, and main tenors of the imaging and video industry. For two exciting days, Visual 1st attendees will take part in educational sessions and panels. Additionally, attendees have the exclusive opportunity to listen and engage with show-and-tell sessions of new, innovative apps.

We are proud to be a Silver Sponsor at this event because we believe that sharing knowledge and innovative ideas amongst industry leaders is the best way to grow the imaging market as a whole, said Marion Duchesne, CEO, and founder of Mediaclip (https://www.mediaclip.ca/).

This year, Mediaclip is sponsoring their partner, Mimeo Photos, during the show-and-tell sessions. Sean Doherty, General Manager of Mimeo Photos, and Jim Simpson, Director of Information Architecture, will be presenting the Mimeo Photos application. Mimeo Photos is tightly integrated into Photos for macOS and was amongst the first extensions to launch.

Working on a project of this scope in the limited time we had to do so was quite a challenge, added Sean Doherty. Fortunately, Mediaclip and Mimeo were able to combine their expertise to deliver Mimeo Photos  a global app that provides a delightful and seamless user experience within Photos for macOS.

The Mediaclip and Mimeo Photos teams will be available during Visual 1st to answer attendee questions and discuss their vision of the product personalization market. Mediaclip team members will be providing a hands-on demonstration of the Mediaclip Designer.

Building connections, providing education, and exchanging our respective market vision allow us to take advantage of the multiplicity of expertise and new technologies that are reshaping the way people perceive and interact with photo and video in their daily live, added Duchesne. Mobile Connect, now called Visual 1st, is a great accelerator of that knowledge sharing.

ABOUT MEDIACLIP

Mediaclip is a leading provider of white-label software solutions allowing its customers to offer online personalization of any product. Our delightful user experience is designed to work on any device and our technology allows you to customize the look and feel of the tool in order to reflect your brand and differentiate yourself from everybody else in the market. Our solutions are offered in a wide range of business models to address your specific needs and help you execute your market strategy.

A privately-held company headquartered in Montreal, Mediaclip offers worldwide support. Our software solutions are currently integrated into hundreds of leading photo websites around the world.http://www.mediaclip.ca

ABOUT MIMEO PHOTOS

Mimeo Photos enables Apple macOS users to create premium quality Photobooks, Cards, and Calendars through a wide variety of customizable themes, layouts, and sizes directly within the Apple ecosystem. As Apple's longtime print partner, Mimeo Photos has elevated this core offering to ensure that the creative and design needs are met for all customers. To learn more, visit http://www.MimeoPhotos.com

Related Links

https://www.mimeophotos.comThe Michigan Court of Appeals has affirmed the lower court decision in State of Michigan v Elamin Muhammad (No. 338300, Muskegon Circuit Court LC No. 14-065263-FC) in which the defendant was convicted of armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Writing the courts opinion for the three-judge panel, Judge Christopher M. Murray stated, The principal issue to decide  is whether the trial court abused its discretion in admitting expert testimony regarding the results from STRmix probabilistic genotype testing. We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the results from this testing 

STRmix  a sophisticated forensic software used to resolve mixed DNA profiles previously thought to be too complex to interpret  was used to analyze a degraded, mixed DNA sample found on the insole of a shoe police recovered at the scene of the robbery. The results of the DNA analysis indicated that the evidence was one hundred billion times more likely if Mr. Muhammad was a donor to the profile that if a random man was.

In his opinion, Judge Murray noted, The trial court did not err in finding that the prosecution introduced sufficient evidence to authenticate the shoe and the insole  There was no evidence to show that the shoe insole was contaminated or tampered with 

The opinion also noted that the use of STRmix to analyze the DNA sample had met all of the criteria required by Daubert, the legal standard used to assess whether an experts scientific testimony is based on reasoning or methodology that is scientifically valid and can properly be applied to the facts at issue.

Judge Murray explained,  the trial courts findings on the relevant [Daubert] factors were not clearly erroneous because they had ample support in the evidence. That evidence  showed that STRmix utilizes well-established mathematical and scientific methods, and that the software has undergone various validation studies.

Those studies included manual calculations, true and false donor tests, and tests against other software, as well as validation studies which subjected STRmix to field conditions  none of which produced false positive or false negative identifications.

The opinion went on to note, The trial court found that STRmix is a generally accepted method. The evidence supports this conclusion  Moreover, STRmix  was subjected to peer review and approved for casework by the New York Commission on Forensic Science. As a result, The trial courts findings on the relevant factors supported its conclusion that the DNA evidence was admissible, and thus the trial court properly discharged its gatekeeper role.

STRmix is now being routinely used to resolve DNA profiles by 36 forensic labs in the U.S., including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and multiple state and local agencies. STRmix is also in various stages of installation, validation, and training in more than 50 other U.S. labs.

To date, there have been at least 24 successful admissibility hearings for STRmix in the U.S., while DNA evidence interpreted with STRmix has been successfully used in numerous court cases.

Internationally, STRmix has been used in casework since 2012. Currently in use in 14 labs in Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, Dubai, and Canada, STRmix has been used to interpret DNA evidence in more than 100,000 cases.

A new version of STRmix, STRmix v2.6, recently was introduced. The new version features a user interface that has been completely redeveloped and refreshed, providing users with vastly improved usability and workflow. Version 2.6 also enables a range of contributors to be entered when performing a deconvolution, and any type of stutter to be added and configured.

STRmix was developed by John Buckleton, DSc, FRSNZ, and Jo-Anne Bright of the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), and Duncan Taylor from Forensic Science South Australia (FSSA).

For more information about STRmix visit http://www.strmix.com.Milgard Bike MS Fundraising 2018 The Milgard Team of riders and volunteers, as always, brings family and friends together for a day of giving back, said Tim Large, Milgard ERP Core team.

Milgard Windows & Doors, with the support of Masco Corporation, raised over $35,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society through their participation in Bike MS, putting them in the top 10 of company fundraising for the third year in a row.

The Bike MS: Deception Pass Classic, is a two-day ride through Skagit, Whatcom and Island Counties of Washington State. On September 8th, 1,100 riders and 300 volunteers participated in the event which raised funds to further multiple sclerosis research.

Milgard had a team of ten volunteers and riders made up of employees, family and friends to help the cause. The volunteers began their day at 7am creating two separate rest stops at the beginning and the end of the route to support each and every rider in need.

The Milgard Team of riders and volunteers, as always, brings family and friends together for a day of giving back, said Tim Large, Milgard ERP Core team. A perfect day for riding and volunteering for the fight for a world free of MS. I cannot be more proud of the group we bring to the Deception Pass Classic each and every year.

This was the seventh year in a row Milgard has participated in the event.

(Pictured: Rebecca Slater, Matt Slater, Tim Large, Seth Hooper)

About Milgard Windows & Doors

Milgard Windows & Doors, a Masco company based in Tacoma, Washington, offers a full line of vinyl, wood, fiberglass and aluminum windows and patio doors for builders, dealers and homeowners, backed by a Full Lifetime Warranty, including parts and labor. The company has been recognized as Builders Choice for vinyl and fiberglass windows in the Western United States, in a yearly survey sponsored by Hanley-Wood Inc., publishers of BUILDER Magazine. Milgard is the highest online rated window and patio door brand, as measured by the 2017 NRS consumer sentiment study conducted by MetrixLab and commissioned by Masco. Milgard has approximately 3,800 dealer locations nationwide. For more information, visit milgard.com or call 1.800.MILGARD.

About Masco Corporation

Masco Corporation (NYSE: MAS), parent company of Milgard Windows & Doors, is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of branded home improvement and building products. Our portfolio of industry-leading brands includes Behr paint; Delta and Hansgrohe faucets, bath and shower fixtures; KraftMaid and Merillat cabinets; Milgard windows and doors; Kichler decorative and outdoor lighting; and Hot Spring spas. We leverage our powerful brands across product categories, sales channels and geographies to create value for our customers and shareholders. For more information about Masco Corporation, visit Masco.com.

About the National MS Society

The Society mobilizes people and resources so that everyone affected by multiple sclerosis can live their best lives as they stop MS in its tracks, restore what has been lost and end MS forever. Last year alone, through its comprehensive nationwide network of services, the Society devoted $122.2 million to connect more than one million individuals to the people, information and resources they need. To move closer to a world free of MS, the Society also invested $54 million to support more than 380 new and ongoing research projects around the world. The Society is united in its collective power to do something about MS now and end this disease forever. Learn more at http://www.nationalMSsociety.org.In this months NEPC Education Interview of the Month, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education Gregory A. Smith and Dr. Gordon Lafer, a political economist at the University of Oregon, discuss the fiscal impact of charter schools on the funding of public education.

Focusing on Dr. Lafers study of the expansion of charter schools in three California school districts, they explore the way this expansion is limiting the capacity of district-run schools to best serve their students.

Dr. Lafer explains the net fiscal impact of a charter school opening and why this information is so critical for public education. In many parts of country, the unlimited expansion of charters has resulted in cuts to services for the vast majority of the students remaining in public schools. Losing students to charters has cost the California public school districts millions of dollars per year in funding.

California has one of most unregulated charter school industries in the country, with no cap on the number of charters that can open. There are only two reasons a state can reject a charter application: if there is evidence that it will harm the students, or if it has no educational benefit whatsoever. Lafer argues that as a result the detrimental fiscal impact of charter schools has become increasingly severe.

According to Lafer, to prevent unfettered growth of incompetent charters and the resulting funding cuts to public schools, state policy must take into account the economic and educational impact of charters in deciding whether or not to allow their future growth.

A new NEPC Education Interview of the Month, hosted by Gregory A. Smith, Lewis and Clark College Emeritus Professor of Education, will be released each month from September through May.

Dont worry if you miss a month. All NEPC Education Interview of the Month podcasts are archived on the NEPC website and can be found here.

Coming Next Month

In November, Gregs guest will be Dr. Rick Mintrop of University of California Berkeley. Greg and Rick will explore the universal implementation of school vouchers and privatization in Chile, and what might happen in the U.S. if similar policies were to become more widespread here.

Stay tuned in to NEPC for smart, engaging conversations about education policy.

Find Documents:

Publication Announcement: https://nepc.info/node/9468

NEPC Publication: https://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/publication/smith-lafer

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, produces and disseminates high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. Visit us at: https://nepc.colorado.eduLouis Wigdorsky Vogelsang returns to the publishing scene with the release of To Die in New York (published by AuthorHouse), an adventure novel about lies, love for money and the willpower to change the wrong into right.

To purchase and know more about the book, readers can visit https://www.amazon.com/Die-York-Louis-Wigdorsky-Vogelsang/dp/154623487X.

The action starts in Santiago de Chile and ultimately ends in New York. Fernandisimo is a multimillionaire Chilean citizen, who, for unknown reasons, wishes to die in New York. His money, personality and dreams are pivotal in all the actions that complicate the novel. And does he really have something to do with Osama Bin Laden?

To Die in New York will entertain readers because of its riveting plot, with sudden changes and very particular scenes and situations. Completing the action are the unique and very peculiar characters, each with their own goals and purpose.

I wish the readers feel that almost always it is possible to make spiritual alchemy, to change bad for good, hatred for love, slavery for freedom. Second, I wish the readers understand that each of us is able to improve little by little in this imperfect world if we begin from our hearts, Vogelsang imparts to readers.

To Die in New York

By Louis Wigdorsky Vogelsang

Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 208 pages | ISBN 9781546234876

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 208 pages | ISBN 9781546234883

E-Book | 208 pages | ISBN 9781546234869

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Luis Wigdorsky Vogelsang was born in Santiago, Chile. His parents were Germans who settled in Chile after World War I. He has always loved the American culture because of his fathers influence. Vogelsang is a professor of Spanish linguistic and literature at the University of Chile, where he obtained his degree. He is also a professional actor who has been performing in theatre, radio, movies and television in Chile. He travels to New York every year for acting training. Vogelsang has always enjoyed reading novels and has penned short stories at age 10. To Die in New York is his latest publication.

AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industrys only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrated 15 years of service to authors in Sept. 2011. For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 1-888-519-5121. For the latest, follow @authorhouse on Twitter.The Company is very encouraged by the DS107 biomarker data which is the first time we have observed such a significant reversal in the molecular signature of Atopic Dermatitis. DS107 could potentially be a disease modifying therapy and these results further support the recent positive topical DS107

DS Biopharma (DS), a privately held biopharmaceutical company, today announced that oral treatment with DS107 reversed the molecular signature of Atopic Dermatitis (AD) patients in a phase 2b clinical trial comprising 319 patients with moderate to severe AD (ADvance Study).

DS107 is a novel, immunomodulating, bioactive lipid which targets the immune activation and skin barrier dysfunction of AD by inhibiting the expression of CD40. Inhibition of CD40 downregulates T-cell activation and downstream Th2, Th17, Th1 and Th22 cytokine production. As activated T-cells play a role in triggering and sustaining AD, this mechanism of action suggests that DS107 has potential utility as a disease modifying agent in this disease.

The ADvance trial was an international (predominately US), randomized, double-blind, multi-centre, placebo-controlled phase 2b study over 8 weeks of treatment where the efficacy and safety of oral DS107 administered in capsules in once daily doses of 1g and 2g, were evaluated. The participating patients were 86% moderate and 14% severe.

As part of the study procedures, serum samples were taken from all patients pre and post treatment. These blood samples were analysed to evaluate the key inflammation and immune response biomarkers associated with AD.

The biomarker results showed statistically significant reversals in the proteomic profile of AD patients who received 2g DS107 after 8 weeks of treatment contrasting with little or no change in patients administered with 1g DS107 or placebo. The treatment with the 2g DS107 dose improved the proteomic AD profile significantly decreasing the expression of 99 upregulated proteins. This includes statistically significant reductions in a number of key cytokines from downstream pathways targeted by other AD therapies including Th2 (OSM, IL5-RA, IL-13), Th17 (IL-17A) and Th1 (IL-12, IL-18). In addition, 2g DS107 was shown to have a statistically significant impact on key fibrotic markers (TGF-, EGFR, VEGF-A, HGF).

Oral treatment with DS107 was safe and very well tolerated in the ADvance study without any drug-related Serious Adverse Events (SAEs). The ADvance results have been accepted for presentation at the next Inflammatory Skin Disease Summit being held in Vienna, Austria from the 12th-15th of December 2018 where full detail of the results will be available.

Commenting on the data, Prof. Emma Guttman-Yassky, MD PhD, Professor of Dermatology and Immunology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and DS Biopharma scientific advisory board member said: DS107 is an oral molecule with a novel mechanism of action which has significantly impacted AD biomarkers in serum and has the potential to offer a safe and effective oral therapy for Atopic Dermatitis."

DS Biopharma Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Markus Weissbach MD PhD said: The Company is very encouraged by the DS107 biomarker data which is the first time we have observed such a significant reversal in the molecular signature of Atopic Dermatitis. DS107 could potentially be a disease modifying therapy and these results further support the recent positive topical DS107 phase 2b data. We look forward to sharing detailed clinical data on oral DS107 at the Inflammatory Skin Disease Summit in December. The additional finding that DS107 downregulates a number of fibrosis biomarkers also expands the potential of DS107 in other indications such as scleroderma.

About DS Biopharma

DS Biopharma (DS), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a privately held, clinical stage, pharmaceutical drug discovery and development company, which develops new medicines for unmet needs in dermatological diseases. The compounds under development are based on a novel bioactive lipid platform. These lipid molecules have been shown to be crucial to the pathways of several conditions including skin disorders such as atopic dermatitis (AD). The Companys lead compound; DS107 is being explored clinically as both a topical cream for mild to moderate AD (phase 3 ready) and separately as an oral capsule in moderate to severe AD (phase 2b). DS holds multiple patents and pending applications protecting the DS107 product and its clinical uses.

Contact DS Biopharma: investorrelations(at)dsbiopharma(dot)com, +35312933590Patient Experience Conference 2019 The Beryl Institute announces three keynote speakers and a patient and family panel as part of Patient Experience Conference 2019, to be held April 3-5 at Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas.

The Beryl Institute announces three keynote speakers and a patient and family panel as part of Patient Experience Conference 2019, to be held April 3-5 at Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas. Patient Experience Conference is the largest independent, non-provider or vendor hosted event bringing together the collective voices of healthcare leaders, staff, physicians, patients and families across the globe to convene, engage and expand the dialogue on improving patient experience.

Keynote speakers bring various patient experience perspectives and include:



Alex Sheen, Founder of because I said I would

Rana Awdish, MD, FCCP, Author & Medical Director of Care Experience at Henry Ford Health System

David Zaas, MD, MBA, President of Duke Raleigh Hospital

Through Sheens commitment to the betterment of humanity, he will tell stores of the promises he has made to inspire millions around the world. In her personal patient experience of suffering a sudden critical illness, Awdish will discuss how she has devoted much of her career to improving empathy through connection and communication. Zaas will share his story about being diagnosed with leukemia and how important his family was to him during his treatment.

In addition to keynote speakers, the patient and family plenary panel will focus on the topic of Opioids, Pain and the Patient Experience. Panelists will bring a personal, human voice to the current opioid crisis, help reinforce the concept that every patient has a story and explore the complexities and potential found in managing pain for patients.

The conference program includes global insights, patient and family voice and healthcare executive representation with a broad range of topics, care settings and development levels. In addition, the Institute announces over 50 inspiring breakout sessions and 20 poster presentations to be included in the Patient Experience Conference 2019 Program. Proposals were submitted and evaluated by The Beryl Institutes patient experience Executive Board, Advisory Board, Global Patient and Family Advisory Council and conference planning committee. Sessions follow eight primary learning themes aligned with the Institutes Experience Frameworks strategic lenses:



Culture & Leadership

Environment & Hospitality

Infrastructure & Governance

Innovation & Technology

Policy & Measurement

Patient, Family & Community Engagement

Quality & Clinical Excellence

Staff & Provider Engagement

View the conference program and register at: http://www.theberylinstitute.org/

About The Beryl Institute:

The Beryl Institute is the global community of practice dedicated to improving the patient experience through collaboration and shared knowledge. We define the patient experience as the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organizations culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care.Ferguson also was charged with drug-induced homicide in Czipos death, but in February he pleaded to a lesser charge of drug possession. Ferguson was ordered to pay $1,260 in court costs and sentenced to a year in prison. However, with credit for time served in jail, he was released. He died in September, according to authorities and an online obituary. He was 23.Predicine's NGS laboratories are CAP-accredited and CLIA-certified. Gaining identical CAP accreditation for both our Shanghai and Hayward facilities enables us to provide a unified quality management system to fully support our partners global clinical trials.

Predicine, a molecular insights company, announced today that its CLIA-certified genomic sequencing laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area has received accreditation from the College of American Pathologists (CAP) for meeting the highest standards in quality, operations, and patient safety.

Predicine received CAP accreditation for its Shanghai facility last month. The current dual CAP accreditation of its laboratories in U.S and China enables the company to offer harmonized biomarker assays to its biopharma partners to support clinical trials in China and worldwide. In this setting, all patient samples collected in China will be locally processed in the Shanghai laboratory and samples collected outside of China will be shipped to and processed in the Hayward, California laboratory.

The dual distinction of being CLIA-certified and CAP-accredited demonstrates our commitment to uphold the industrys most stringent requirements in laboratory testing for our harmonized assays, said Dr. Shidong Jia, Founder and CEO of Predicine. Gaining identical CAP accreditation for both our Shanghai and Hayward facilities enables us to provide a unified quality management system to fully support our partners global clinical trials.

Predicine has developed a propriety GeneRADAR liquid biopsy technology to detect genetic cancer variants in circulation using blood and urine samples. Most recently, Predicine launched an RUO 600-gene TMB liquid biopsy panel at AACR and partners with world-leading biopharmaceutical companies to support global clinical trials in U.S., Europe, Australia, and China.

About Predicine

Predicine is a molecular insights company that is committed to developing the best-in-class precision diagnostics and precision medicine portfolio to address the unmet medical needs worldwide. Predicines proprietary GeneRADAR technology is the industrys first ctDNA+ctRNA combo liquid biopsy test to provide a comprehensive understanding of the molecular alterations in cancer. Through its integrated one-stop biomarker service facilities in US (California) and China (Shanghai, Harbin), Predicine partners with leading biopharma companies and hospitals to support global clinical trials, early cancer screening, and targeted therapy. For more, please visit predicine.com and follow Predicine on Twitter @Predicine.Andrew Anderlonis, President of Rediker Software, cuts the ribbon to the company's new development floor. State Senator Eric Lesser and State Representative Brian Ashe participated in the ceremony. "We have been working hard to build one of the best development teams in Western MA."

Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software, held a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 17th to celebrate the opening of its newly finished third-floor office space and the addition of 30 high-tech jobs in software development. The ceremony took place at the companys 33,000 square foot facility in Hampden, MA with State Senator Eric Lesser and State Representative Brian Ashe in attendance. Rediker Software employees and customers also joined the celebration.

"It's an honor to congratulate Rediker Software on their renovated office space and the new high-tech jobs they are creating in Western Massachusetts, stated Lesser, who currently serves as Chair of the Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies. For decades, Rediker Software has been a global leader in education technology, all while remaining locally owned and committed to their hometown of Hampden and the Greater Springfield community. We know the future of our region depends on creating and retaining high-tech jobs, and we are grateful to Rediker Software for being on the leading edge of the Western Massachusetts renaissance.

Designed for Rediker Softwares new Development and Operations (DevOps) team, the new modern office space features an open layout, two conference rooms, a Microsoft Surface Hub, kitchenette, dining space, and several recreational areas designed to spark creativity and foster a spirit of teamwork among employees. Local artist Nate Duval, known for his whimsical imagery and rock posters, has been commissioned to add wall art to the space.

The new space brings a taste of Silicon Valley to Western Mass, said President of Rediker Software Andrew Anderlonis. It inspires team collaboration and innovative design of future school software solutions with some fun aspects as well. We are extremely proud of how the third floor came out and are excited to share the space with our employees, customers and the local community.

Developing Next-Generation Technology

Back in the early 1980s, owner and CEO Rich Rediker started Rediker Software from the basement of his family home, much like technology giants Microsoft and Amazon that began in home garages. As Rediker developed more sophisticated programs, sales exploded and by 1998 he and his staff of less than 20 people moved into the current facility in the center of Hampden. Even as business grew, Rediker didnt imagine that 20 years later he would employ more than 100 people. While Rediker remains the companys CEO, Anderlonis, who is Redikers son-in-law, oversees daily operations.

Rich Rediker has done an outstanding job ensuring the company has been profitable every year since it was founded, said Anderlonis, noting the company carries an impressive record of growth. Rediker Software has been included in the "SUPER 60" list - deemed by the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc. as one of the top 30 fastest-growing, privately-held companies in Western Massachusetts for the past 23 years running.

Anderlonis added that the last few years have been an especially fruitful time at Rediker Software, particularly when it comes to developing next-generation technology. With the products were introducing to the market, were focused on providing even more robust, powerful, and flexible tools for schools to utilize. We consider ourselves the market leader for student information systems, stated Anderlonis.

Staying Ahead of the Technology Curve

Anderlonis is striving to keep Rediker Software ahead of the technology curve. As part of this effort, Anderlonis created an internship program that provides high school and college students with real-world software development experience. Many of these interns have graduated to full-time positions within the company, becoming the next generation of Rediker Software developers. Anderlonis has also teamed up with Tech Foundry, a Springfield-based technology skill center that trains professionals for the IT workforce.

Brett Couture, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Rediker Software, is leading the companys new DevOps team. "We have been working hard to build one of the best development teams in Western MA, stated Couture. Our team is using the latest technology to create resilient and high-performing modern cloud applications for schools. Our objective is to ensure the continued happiness of our customers by delivering competitive and innovative platforms that streamline school data management for years to come."

At the ribbon cutting ceremony, Anderlonis emphasized his focus on Rediker Softwares future. My goals are to really set the company up for the next generation of management and success with our school software products, and to create a strategic vision going forward, said Anderlonis. Finishing the third floor and creating the new DevOps team were important steps in reaching those goals. Its a very exciting time at Rediker. The best is yet to come.

About Rediker Software

For more than 38 years, Rediker Software has been a leader in school administrative software for private, public, international, religious and independent schools. Through its innovative solutions, Rediker Software helps schools in over 120 countries manage administrative tasks, maximize school-to-home communication and inspire student performance and success. The companys products include AdminPlus, a cloud-based SIS solution, TeacherPlus Gradebook, Admissions Plus Pro and Teacher Evaluator. Rediker Software offers experience, reliability, unsurpassed technical support, ease of use, and leading-edge features not found in any other system. For more information about Rediker Software, please visit http://www.rediker.com.

Reuniting with Maria and giving her the platform to lead in our intensely collaborative culture will improve outcomes for our customers, insurance partners and colleagues

Risk Cooperative, a specialized insurance brokerage and risk advisory firm, announces the appointment of Maria Jaramillo as Director of Operations and Stephane Le Bouder, as Practice Leader of Structured Risk Solutions. In this role Maria Jaramillo brings more than 13 years of experience in the insurance brokerage and risk management markets, and Stephane Le Bouder has spent more than 17 years in management consulting, private equity, financial regulation and investment promotion.

Prior to joining Risk Cooperative, Maria Jaramillo spent 7 years at leading international insurance brokerage, Clements Worldwide, where she managed multiple lines of insurance, customer service and operations. She joins Risk Cooperative following the newly announced strategic partnership with RCM&D, which creates one of the most comprehensive and fast-growing insurance platforms in the region. Marias expertise in frontline service and operational effectiveness across all lines of insurance in domestic and international markets is a key addition to the team. Maria is fluent in English and Spanish.

The combination of Marias leadership, poise and professionalism are rare qualities, as is her expertise in operational effectiveness across insurance classes. Reuniting with Maria and giving her the platform to lead in our intensely collaborative culture will improve outcomes for our customers, insurance partners and colleagues, said Dante Disparte, Risk Cooperatives founder and CEO.

Long known as a center of excellence in the political risk, trade credit and investment promotion, Risk Cooperatives appointment of Stephane Le Bouder as Practice Leader of Structured Risk Solutions, gives this key growth area the leadership and expertise it deserves. Stephanes academic and professional pedigree are hard to find in the insurance markets. Prior to joining Risk Cooperative, Stephane was the Managing Director of the pan-African private equity fund, AFIG, based in Dakar, Senegal. He also served in the U.S. Treasury Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives as Staff Director on the International Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee.

Stephanes far-reaching leadership in the capital markets, trade and investment promotion, as well as high-level consulting and financial innovation will not only give our Structured Risk practice focus, it will accelerate the work being carried out in RC Labs, as well as our risk advisory and transfer capabilities. The battle to harness and understand risk gains a formidable leader in Stephane, added Dante Disparte. Stephane is fluent in English and French, has an MBA from Harvard Business School and masters and undergraduate degrees in economics from McGill University.

About Risk Cooperative

Risk Cooperative, a coverholder at Lloyd's, is a specialized strategy, risk and insurance advisory firm licensed to originate, place and service innovative risk-transfer and insurance solutions in all 50 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Risk Cooperative helps organizations address risk, readiness and resilience through a comprehensive service and solution offering in partnership with leading insurance companies and value-adding partners.

To learn more visit http://www.riskcooperative.com.AJ Baggott Named COO of RJ Young We are making these internal changes to help prepare for our growth. He has done a great job overseeing finance and operations, and we are giving him additional areas to make sure we are prepared for our future, said President & CEO Chip Crunk.

RJ Young, one of the nations largest independent office technology dealers, announced AJ Baggott as its new Chief Operations Officer. Baggott previously served as the Chief Financial Officer for RJ Young.

We are making these internal changes to help prepare for our growth. He has done a great job overseeing finance and operations, and we are giving him additional areas to make sure we are prepared for our future, said President & CEO Chip Crunk.

Under Baggotts new role, he will continue to oversee all finances and the operations department. Additionally, RJ Youngs IT and service departments will now fall under his direction. Since Baggott joined the RJ Young family in 2016, he has been instrumental in helping expand the companys footprint. Under AJs watch, RJ Young has moved into 10 new markets across 8 states throughout the Southeast.

Upon joining the RJ Young family in 2016, Baggott started off serving as the Chief Financial Officer, and has since been promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Under his leadership, RJ Young has seen exceptional growth over the last two years  both financially and through expansions. As AJ settles into his new role as COO, he will help shape the future of RJ Young and solidify a long-term plan of financial prosperity as one of the nations largest independent office technology dealers.

I have tremendous respect for Chip Crunks leadership and drive to stay at the forefront of an ever-changing industry, while staying true to the core values of the organization, Baggott said. He added, Being a part of the continued innovation that is synonymous with the RJ Young brand is exciting, and I am honored to be a part of a team with such a positive reputation in the Nashville community, and beyond.

Baggott is a native of Nashville, Tennessee. He earned his bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from Lipscomb University and is a Certified Public Accountant. He is a member of the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants and the American Society of Certified Public Accountants. He has also served as a Young Leaders board member, treasurer for Make-A-Wish of Middle Tennessee, and is a Young Leaders Council graduate.

About RJ Young

RJ Young is one of the largest independent office equipment dealers in the Southeast, specializing in document management solutions, managed print services, IT services, and office imaging. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, RJ Young has been in business since 1955 and has over 600 employees in 28 sales and service locations across eight states. Under the corporate tagline Your productivity is our mission, RJ Young helps modern professionals become more successful in their businesses with solutions to securely manage paper and digital information, maintain vital information technology systems and empower businesses with leading printing technologies. For further information, please visit http://www.rjyoung.comSchool Bus Safety Co. continues to be the industry leader in the development and delivery of school bus driver, management and location safety training materials. The companys content and delivery combination are the best and most complete solution in the market.

School Bus Safety Company, Inc. (SBSC), North Americas premier school bus safety and training company, announced that Christopher Walls has joined the companys leadership team while the highly regarded industry safety expert and company Founder, Jeff Cassell, transitions to a Senior Advisor role. Mr. Cassell will be focused on content creation and ensuring that SBSC is at the forefront of the industrys latest safety trends and regulations.

I am thrilled to join the industry leader in school bus safety and training, stated Walls. The reputation that SBSC has in the industry, created through Jeffs extensive expertise and leadership, has laid a foundation that I will look to build upon. We have an exceptional team here at SBSC and will continue to produce and deliver the most effective and comprehensive safety training programs in the industry.

Walls, who earned a bachelors degree in Business from Indiana Wesleyan University and an MBA from Western Governors University, also served in the United States Army. His duties included working for 12 years in military transportation, reaching the rank of Captain, and holding roles from Maintenance Manager to Safety Manager, to Transportation Operations Manager.

Beginning his career in student transportation in 2011 with Indianapolis Public Schools, Indianas largest school district, Walls was appointed Director of Transportation. After his successful stint there, he moved to a role at a large student transportation provider in 2014 as a Regional Vice President where he won the companys Most Improved Location for a 40% year over year accident rate reduction and improved safety culture. In addition to Indianapolis, Walls has also effectively managed operations in St. Louis, Philadelphia, Memphis, San Bernardino, Kansas City and Baltimore.

SBSC has a stellar reputation in the industry for its school bus driver safety and training programs. Through its diverse content catalogue, the company has well over 100 available modules ranging from its nationally recognized Safety Leadership Program to other topics such as Bullying Prevention, Transporting Students with Special Needs, CDL Training, and Student Safety to name a few.

Today, SBSC continues to be the industry leader in the development and delivery of school bus driver, management and location safety training materials. The companys content and delivery combination are the best and most complete solution in the market, added Walls. As we look at enhancing delivery methods, taking further consideration into the psychology of how people learn, staying on top of industry updates, and changes to laws and regulations, including the important MAP-21, and how to maximize retention of material; we want to ensure that we continue to be in the forefront and leading the industry.

We will continue to take the safety of school bus transportation to higher levels. I cant think of a better mission within our field than being tasked with providing training solutions that not only change driver behaviors, but with indoctrination, will improve driver knowledge and awareness and ensure the safe passage of our future leaders to and from school every day.

To learn more about School Bus Safety Company, Inc. or to purchase training videos from their catalogue, please visit http://www.schoolbussafetyco.com.

###

About School Bus Safety Company, Inc.

The experts at the School Bus Safety Company, Inc. (SBSC) have been designing school bus driver training programs for more than 20 years. SBSC was founded by Jeff Cassell, a safety expert with more than 20 years of experience in making kids safer. Mr. Cassell was responsible for both the installation of crossing gates on more than 38,000 buses and the first major installation of the Child Check-Mate System to ensure that drivers checked for sleeping children. To learn more about SBSC, please visit http://www.schoolbussafetyco.com.Dr. Gregory Toback, New London Periodontist, Speaks on Ailing Dental Implants Although the pathogenesis of dental diseases of natural teeth has been researched for generations, the ailing implant presents a rather new challenge for the clinician and is not clearly understood.

The next Shoreline Periodontics Synergy Study Club event will be hosted by Drs. Gregory Toback and Marianne Urbanski on Thursday, November 29, 2018 from 5:30pm to 9:00pm. Board-certified periodontist, Dr. Toback, will be the speaker at this event. His lecture, "The Realities of Ailing Implants: Does Anything Really Work?" will cover how clinicians can discover peri-implantitis early on as well as the cutting-edge treatment options available today with a focus on evidence-based approaches. Drs. Toback and Urbanski are leading periodontists in their area who are renowned in their field for applying and teaching the latest techniques for improved periodontal care.

Drs. Toback and Urbanski warmly invite interested parties to sign up for the upcoming Shoreline Periodontics Synergy Study Club event. This study club series provides continuing education credits for dentists, periodontists and other specialists featuring a variety of speakers and topics. During the latest lecture, Dr. Toback will take the stage to discuss not only how to avoid, identify and treat peri-implantitis, or failing dental implants, but the causes and origins of peri-implantitis inflammation and attachment loss as well.

Although the pathogenesis of dental diseases of natural teeth has been researched for generations, the ailing implant presents a rather new challenge for the clinician and is not clearly understood, says Dr. Toback. Passionate about identifying areas of improvement in his field, Dr. Toback believes this course will offer something dental clinicians have not been able to thoroughly examine yet but that needs to be understood before offering effective peri-implantitis treatment. During this lecture, he will also delve into how to choose an appropriate treatment solution specifically discussing non-surgical therapy, incisional surgery and laser dentistry techniques.

In addition to providing continuing education opportunities through their Synergy Study Club, Hygiene Study Club and Spear Study Club, the Shoreline Periodontics team also offers leading periodontal care to patients in New London and their second location in Westerly, RI. Individuals with single or multiple missing teeth can receive single or full-arch dental implants from Drs. Toback and Urbanski. In cases where peri-implantitis or gum disease has occurred, this team recommends the most minimally invasive treatment to first save the implant or natural tooth before resorting to removal.

Drs. Toback and Urbanski encourage interested persons to sign up for the upcoming Shoreline Periodontics Synergy Study Club event soon as seats are limited. This event will be held at the Hilton Mystic, across from the aquarium. They also invite patients with peri-implantitis looking for a skilled periodontist in New London, CT or the Westerly, RI, areas to schedule an appointment by calling their practice or visiting http://www.shorelineperio.com.

About the Periodontists

Shoreline Periodontics is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients since 1998 and is located in New London, CT and Westerly, RI. Leading board-certified periodontist, Dr. Gregory A. Toback, received his B.A. from St. Johns University and his Doctorate of Dental Medicine from the University of Connecticut. He also received advanced training in periodontics and dental implants at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Toback focuses on minimally invasive surgeries, offering LANAP and belongs to a small group of dental professionals currently providing the Chao Pinhole Surgical Technique for treatment of gum recession. Dr. Marianne Urbanski has been voted one of Connecticuts top dentists for more than seven years by Connecticut Magazine. Dr. Urbanski graduated cum laude from the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts where she earned a Bachelors degree in Biology. She also received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree and her Masters of Dental Science degree from the University of Connecticut Dental School. Dr. Urbanski prides herself on offering caring, professional treatment to each patient. To learn more about Shoreline Periodontics and their dental services visit their website at http://www.shorelineperio.com or call 860-443-2428 for the New London, CT location, or 401-596-0000 for the Westerly, RI office.Platform lifts are designed for rapid drive-on, drive-off maintenance. The Stertil-Koni SKYLIFT Washbay model with a water-resistant stainless steel construction is ideal for undercarriage cleaning. Now is the time to plan for, and advance your preventative maintenance (PM) strategies

Following an in-depth review of bus and truck maintenance facilities across North America, combined with heightened service demands resulting from the increased severity of weather events over the past decade, heavy duty (HD) vehicle lift leader Stertil-Koni recommends 10 top tips to improve safety for the busy technicians working on the shop floor  well in advance of what of what meteorologists anticipate to be a demanding winter season.

Consider this: An early fall and winter prediction by AccuWeather forecasters is sobering. AccuWeather states that warmer El Nino conditions pushing in more rain in the East and Southeast could lead to additional flash flooding. Meanwhile, the Central and Northern Plains will get a little bit of everything, including a threat of early-season snow. The Southern Rocky Mountains could be hard hit again this winter with above average snowfall and average precipitation is projected in the New England area, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

With the fall and winter months fast approaching and weather conditions shifting at a record pace, now is the time to plan for, and advance your preventative maintenance (PM) strategies, noted Peter Bowers, technical sales support manager at Stertil-Koni. The advantages are compelling, especially in the form of heightened shop safety, prolonged vehicle life, reduced failures and breakdowns, and sustained maximum vehicle uptime, added Bowers.

The need is quite pressing.

With so much riding on commercial vehicles and the maintenance personnel that service them, Stertil-Koni has developed 10 top tips for the safe operation of HD vehicle lifts during cold winter months.

1. Certification is Significant  Consider purchasing lifts certified by the Automotive Lift Institute (ALI). The ANSI/ALI ALCTV (current edition) is the standard for automotive lifts. This lift certification program makes it easy for buyers to choose lifts that meet all safety requirements for construction, testing and validation. The ALI gold label is the only guarantee that a lift has been independently proven to meet stringent industry standards.

2. Lift Choice and Capacity  Know in advance the weight of the heaviest vehicle to be lifted and make certain that the lift selected is certified to meet or exceed that capacity. Also, confirm the height of the vehicle is appropriate for your shops ceiling height.

3. Learn the Lift  Well-trained lift operators should know the lifts use and abilities, prior to powering up. Proper training ensures safe and efficient operation and prepares the user for an emergency situation. Keep a copy of the manufacturers lift manual nearby at all times.

4. Safety First  During lift set up check the perimeter of the lift to confirm that nothing is obstructing its path and there are no hazards in the lifting area. Lift the vehicle no more than 12 inches off the ground, pause, and do another sweep of the area to further check that there are no impediments.

5. Stability is Key  Always place lifts on a firm foundation and on level ground. This is especially important with Mobile Column Lifts  as they can be easily relocated for operation both inside and outside of the maintenance shop. When outside, check for wind loads. Further, select a lift with an electronic synchronization system. As the lift goes into motion and continues through the full-range up to its maximum height, vehicles should rise smoothly, even those with unequal weight distribution, such as fire trucks and pumpers. Assure that the lifted vehicle itself is level.

6. Adhere to Proper Lifting Points  At all times use designated lifting points on the vehicle. For inground lifts, operators should check that the contact points are properly positioned.

7. Technician Protection  Lift vehicles to a proper height so technicians can move about freely, safely and comfortably underneath the vehicle. Verify lifts are locked in position before standing under the vehicle.

8. Maintain a Lift Maintenance Schedule  Make sure lifts receive annual inspections by a certified ALI lift inspector. Also, use factory or manufacturer-authorized technicians to service and repair your lifts.

9. Create a Culture of Safety  Publicly and prominently post service bulletins, safety messages, and continuously update the skills of all technicians. This is vital to a smooth-running maintenance facility.

10. Accessorize your Lift  Utilize lift accessories specifically designed to help ensure fleet maintenance operator safety and proper ergonomics. One example is a high lift wheel dolly, which allows wheel removal and adequate alignment of dual tire assemblies and brake drums to be completed efficiently and accurately, without back strain.

In conclusion, noted Dr. Jean DellAmore, Stertil-Koni USA president, Safety is always mission No. 1 in the service bay. That is precisely why we suggest using a well-planned safety-first approach so that shop technicians can perform their duties efficiently, ergonomically and with complete confidence. It also creates a positive workplace atmosphere, helps improve worker retention and contributes to greater longevity of the vehicles being serviced and the maintenance equipment the techs operate.

About Stertil-Koni

Stertil-Koni is the market leader in heavy duty vehicle lifts, notably bus lifts and truck lifts, and proudly serves municipalities, state agencies, school bus fleets, major corporations, the U.S. Military and more. Stertil-Koni's breadth of products meets all ranges of lifting needs and includes portable lifts such as mobile column lifts, 2-post, 4-post, inground piston lifts, platform lifts, and its axle-engaging, inground, scissor lift configuration, ECOLIFT. The companys innovative, inground telescopic piston DIAMONDLIFT is now available with an optional Continuous Recess system, ideal for low clearance vehicles. Stertil-Koni USA is headquartered in Stevensville, Maryland with production facilities in Europe, The Netherlands, and in Streator, IL.Strategic Dreams gives us an opportunity to make a real difference in our employee-owners lives, said CEO Ryan Sasson. The reward of being able to grant dreams to integral members of our Strategic Family is incredibly gratifying."

Strategic Financial Solutions announced in its 3rd Quarter 2018 Town Hall that it has granted 12 Strategic Dreams to its employee-owners. Strategic Dreams is an innovative program that allows the employee-owners of the company to submit dreams that they would like the company to help grant. Dreams in the past have included bedroom furniture, engagement rings, honeymoons, surfboards, continuing education classes, Fitbits, new laptops, gym memberships, and even all-inclusive family trips to Disney World and the Caribbean.

Strategic Dreams gives us an opportunity to make a real difference in our employee-owners lives, said CEO Ryan Sasson. The reward of being able to grant dreams to integral members of our Strategic Family is incredibly gratifying. Strategic is more than a company, it really is a family and Strategic Dreams encapsulates the best version of that spirit.

This quarter, Strategic Financial Solutions granted a wide variety of dreams including helping with medical bills, bathroom remodels, extra PTO so employees can visit loved ones and multiple family vacations. Edward Perez, a Negotiations Representative, dreamed of getting help with funding for an engagement ring for his girlfriend. My fiance and I have been together for years and I knew she was the one, said Perez. I cannot thank Ryan Sasson, Kimberly Celic, and everyone else at Strategic enough for helping to make my dream come true. This is a big relief from the multiple things I was worried about. I cannot say thank you enough.

Strategic Dreams is currently in its 4th year and has granted over 160 dreams to employees since its inception.

About Strategic Financial Solutions

Strategic Financial Solutions, a proudly employee-owned company, is a leading financial services company that provides comprehensive debt relief solutions for people in difficult financial situations. Through its personalized, tailored approach that includes debt consolidation loans and debt resolution programs, Strategic Financial Solutions has successfully resolved more than a billion dollars in debt for over 100,000 clients. For the last three years, Strategic Financial Solutions has been ranked as one of the Best Companies to Work for in New York State. Prior to that, in 2015 and 2016, Strategic Financial Solutions was named by Crains New York Business to its Fast 50 Companies list. The company has also been recognized by the INC. 500 company as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States. More information can be found at https://stratfs.com/.

Contact:

Gary Foodim

Senior Vice President of Marketing

Office: (212) 810-4544

Email: gfoodim(at)stratfs.comSunTec is excited to now provide faster mobile auto glass replacement & repair services anywhere in the Phoenix, AZ area!

Chandler-based windshield services company, SunTec Auto Glass, is delighted to announce that it is opening up at a second location. From this October of 2018, the auto glass business will also operate in Central Phoenix. The new headquarters will be located at 4742 N. 24th St., Suite 300 Phoenix, AZ 85016. It is a move that will mean the company can more effectively deliver mobile windshield repair and replacement services throughout the entire Valley.

The main reason for the expansion is that SunTec is a growing company. While still a relatively fresh business, the operation has focused primarily on serving owners of vehicles in southeast Valley cities such as Chandler, Tempe, Gilbert and Mesa. The company is known locally for customer service and accessibility  it offers a mobile windshield repair service which also operates on weekends, including same-day service options. Same-day service can be an option for a customer to choose, however, it is reliant on the vicinity of the auto glass service location, time of day and if a technician is available in that area.

Phoenix was chosen as a second location and new operations headquarters as it is the most populous city in Arizona. Currently, the company serves Phoenix Valley residents (including those in North Scottsdale, Glendale, Peoria and Surprise) through its mobile repair service  where the company's technicians travel to Phoenix areas and meet customers at a location convenient to them. In total, SunTec's reach spans over 100 cities and towns together with over 1700 neighborhood communities in both the east and west Valley and areas within both Maricopa and Pinal Counties.

With the opening of a Phoenix headquarters, http://www.suntecautoglass.com will be able to assist more customers and offer a faster response time over a larger area. Not only can customers choose to have a SunTec technician come to their house or work to complete the glass service, they can also opt to meet a technician while out running errands, on their way to work, or shopping at the mall. This is good news for residents in the Phoenix area and should see SunTec continue to grow and cement its reputation as a convenient local auto glass repair firm in Maricopa County.

SunTec Auto Glass is a local AZ company specializing in windshield replacement and repair. The company provides a friendly and knowledgeable auto glass repair service in the Maricopa County region, from Chandler and now central Phoenix, as well as via the free mobile windshield repair service offered across the Valley. The company's services include repair and replacement of all auto glass including windshields, rear windows and door windows for cars, vans, trucks and specialty vehicles. For more information, a free quote or to set up an appointment, please call: 480-900-7010.Attendees to the Supplier Forum learned the latest information on the SAE G-22 Committees AS13xxx series of aerospace engine supplier quality standards.

The Aerospace Engine Supplier Quality (AESQ) Strategy Group held a Supplier Forum hosted by IHI and attracting 115 attendees in Tokyo, Japan, October 10, 2018.

The keynote was delivered by Mr. Toshihiko Noguchi, Deputy SVP  Engineering and Maintenance, ANA. Noguchi focused his remarks on Voice of the Customer from the ANA perspective.

Mr. Honglei Zhu, Production Manager, SAM Suzhou Co. Ltd., presented their experience, Deploying AS13004 to Achieve Zero Defects as a supplier success case study.

Attendees to the Supplier Forum learned the latest information on the SAE G-22 Committees AS13xxx series of aerospace engine supplier quality standards. This series was developed to set common quality requirements for the global aerospace engine supply chain to operate more efficiently.

Those in attendance were able to share their views and experiences with the current set of standards as well as provide feedback for inclusion in several new standards currently under development including problem solving, internal audit requirements, process control and supplier management.

About AESQ

The Aerospace Engine Supplier Quality (AESQ) Strategy Group, a program of the SAE ITC, was established to develop, specify, maintain, promote and deploy quality standards specific to the Aerospace Engine supply chain. This work is intended to reduce customer specifics through a focused set of standards that integrate industry best practice and aerospace engine unique elements.

AESQ member companies include GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Safran, GKN, PCC, MTU and Arconic.

Further information about AESQ including G-22 standards, future events, training opportunities and supporting documents can be found on AESQ's website at: http://aesq.saeitc.org/

The SAE ITC team specializes in establishing and managing consortia by providing proven processes, tools and resources. SAE ITC enables public, private, academic and government organizations to connect and collaborate in neutral, pre-competitive forums thus empowering the setting and implementation of strategic business improvements in global highly engineered industries. (http://www.sae-itc.com)

SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series.

http://www.sae.orgThe man who tried to enter the school was described as white, in his 50s and wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt and a black jacket. Though police say they do not believe the community faces any danger, they still want to locate the man and interview him.Known for featuring hundreds of vendors offering countless lifestyle wares, the O.C. Market Place has become a weekend staple for Southern Californians. In a bid to expand their offerings and support local artisans and entrepreneurs, the O.C. Market Place has partnered with the Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network (SBDC) for OC Made, a new program offering a four-week course for entrepreneurs who want to test their business concept or new products at the Market over the weekend of November 24th, which includes Small Business Saturday.

The idea came about when Peyton Jeter, the marketing director for the O.C. Market Place, began exploring ideas for expanding the markets reach and bringing in new vendors. We wanted to support small businesses, so I started doing some research and Mike Daniel, the Regional Director of the OCIE SBDC Network, and I got in touch, and we were able to have a meeting and discuss opportunities between the SBDC and our market place. We realized we had a good opportunity to bring new products to a physical market.

With a rich and storied 50-year history, the O.C. Market Place has helped numerous small business owners and entrepreneurs launch their businesses  brands such as Tillys and Rustys Potato Chips got their start at the Market. The Market has the capacity to host vendors offering everything from food to arts and crafts, making it a great place for new vendors to test the market for their products  which is what inspired Daniel to co-create OC Made with Jeter. Dedicated to helping small business owners realize their dreams the SBDC offers a variety of services that are no cost, no catch to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses. The SBDC offers consulting in business planning, marketing, funding and management, along with training and workshops throughout the year in the counties of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside.

At the SBDC we see 5,000 clients per year, and the O.C. Market Place would be a great starting point for someone who has never started a business, Daniel says. So lets say I wanted to sell chocolate bars. I can go to the Market Place and figure out what people are going to buy my bars for  it can be a test and validation of a concept before you spend the money on a brick-and-mortar storefront.

Daniel built the OC Made program as a four-week intensive, offering small business owners and entrepreneurs a solid and focused curriculum to help prepare them for debuting their goods at the O.C. Market Place. The timing was deliberately specific. It will take four weeks to get them prepared to go to market, teaching them everything they need to know about getting their inventory ready, learning about marketing their goods, how to take payment and understand market segmentation, learning about permits, DBAs and setting up their bank accounts, notes Daniel. In his vision, program attendees are those who have been selling their wares at home or online and are ready to go to the next level with direct customer interaction.

One of the most valuable aspects of OC Made comes from the experienced instructors who will be training new vendors through the four-week preparation. One of the SBDC consultants, Greg Bell  a 30-year food industry veteran who has worked with entities such as Bennigans and Koo Koo Roo  is one of the programs instructors. With a focus on helping food-based businesses prepare to enter the Farmers Market, Bell offers unique insight on everything from sourcing ingredients, to preparing ones booth, to attracting customers and handling scheduling. But perhaps most importantly, he knows how to address the fears associated with realizing ones small business dreams.

In my classes I open with my experience of wanting to start a restaurant  it was a cloud following me that never got pinned down and finalized because of not knowing, being unsure of directions, and making mistakes, Bell shares. One thing we teach in all programs is projections and forecasting numbers prior to launching a business so you can see where they point, so you know if youre setting up for success or need to rethink your direction.

Bell continues, I think one of the biggest and most compelling things I like to talk to people about in these classes is that this is a very focused and specific road to the Farmers Market and a small start-up opportunity for people who have that cloud following them and want to see how they can do it, and what they need to do. Well point them in the direction and take the fear of failing out of the equation.

For her part, Jeter feels the SBDC has put together a comprehensive workshop with tons of valuable information to help those who are just getting their businesses up and running. As she puts it, I think its going to be a really good foundation for small business owners looking to start out on the right foot, adding that shes pleased the Market Place is coming on as a partner to offer a physical forum for these businesses to launch. And she has no doubt that the participants in OC Made will have the opportunity to share their wares with a wide and varied audience.

Says Jeter, We have great diversity of products, from tube socks and sunglasses to bespoke paper florals and cutting boards to handknit caps  theres something for everyone here, and the audience is looking for something unique and different. For us, last year was the first big initiative for Small Business Weekend, and it was the second highest attended day for that calendar year. The community already rallies around shopping small and local, so were expecting something similar this year, which is why were extending Small Business Saturday to Sunday, too.

If youre ready to take your small business to the next level and take over a booth at the O.C. Market Place over Small Business Weekend, visit: https://oc-made.eventbrite.com to register (theres no cost for the program.) Only 25 people will be selected based on an interview process. If youre accepted, classes begin on Saturday, October 27th.

If youd like more information about how to partner with the SBDC through programming, please contact Mike Daniel, OCIE SBDC Regional Director at midaniel(at)fullerton(dot)edu or (657) 278-1803.

For additional information about how to request a no cost, no catch appointment with the SBDC or register for an upcoming business workshop please visit: ociesmallbusiness.org or contact us at 1 (800) 616-7232.

The Orange County Market Place, is located on the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa and operates every Saturday and Sunday of the year except during the Orange County Fair. With hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, the Orange County Market Place has grown to become the centerpiece of the Orange County outdoor shopping experience. To stay up to date on all upcoming events at the Orange County Market Place and for coupons, free admission and special offers, sign up for our EClub. More information can be found by visiting http://www.ocmarketplace.com.

The Orange County Inland Empire Small Business Development Center Network (OCIE SBDC) offers no cost, no catch business consulting and training to current business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs throughout Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Our team of consultants are ready to assist in a variety of areas like: startup assistance, debt and equity funding, attracting and retaining customers, international trade and technology commercialization. For additional information contact us at 1 (800) 616-SBDC (7232) or http://www.ociesmallbusiness.org.

The OCIE SBDC Network is hosted by California State University, Fullerton and funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions, and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. All programs are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.The SPARROW FILM PROJECT is made possible with major sponsorship from Kaufman Astoria Studios and is presented in partnership with the Kaufman Arts District (KAD), which creates, supports and presents public arts installations and events in the Astoria community The Sparrow Film Project will culminate with an awards ceremony and gala on Thursday, December 6th at the Museum of the Moving Image, a co-founder of the KAD with Kaufman Astoria Studios and Queens Council on the Arts.

The Sparrow Film Projects unique theme and assignment was announced during the SFP 2018 Filmmakers Sign-up, which welcomed a record-breaking 104 teams.

The Sparrow Film Project 10th year anniversary theme is Sound and Vision, and centers around perspective and inspiration. What is art? What makes art, art? What does art mean to the individual and how does it uniquely affect each one of us? For the first portion of the assignment, each team was randomly assigned a work of art (painting, sculpture, photograph, etc.) Each art piece is meant to be interpreted and inspire the story of the film.

For the second portion of the assignment. YouTooCanWoo, a Brooklyn-based music and audio production company, has generously curated 100 pieces of music from their library for participants in The Sparrow Film Project to use in their films, allowing the filmmaking teams to set a tone for their stories.

This year, the filmmaking teams are challenged to create a 3-minute film juxtaposing two mediums (Art and Music), to explore how sound and vision inform their creation.

For the prompt, YouTooCanWoo curated a selection of diverse music tracks from its original music library, capturing everything from modern cinematic ambient soundscapes to grungy rock, to east coast hip hop, blockbuster orchestral pieces, dramatic electronic tracks, and eccentric selections.

Zach Abramson, composer/producer and partner at Brooklyn-based music and audio company YouTooCanWoo, is happy to see two of his creative communities combine forces: As a longtime Astoria resident Im thrilled to become a bigger part of this growing community of creators, and happy to see how the Sparrow Film Project has expanded their reach beyond the neighborhood. I cant wait to meet all the participants and hear what they can do with our music."

Michael Freeland and Sal Milazzo, Artistic Director and Technical Producer of The Sparrow Film Project says, "SFP has been looking to make a music-oriented assignment for years. We are excited that YouTooCanWoo has helped us achieve this in such a thoughtful and unique way."

The SPARROW FILM PROJECT is an annual short-film competition that challenges first-time and established filmmakers to create three-minute films in three weeks. For each edition, filmmakers are guided by a unique set of criteria based on a new theme, and each team draws a random assignment from a hat. Since its inception, The Sparrow Film Project has championed films that display a high-degree of craft and ingenuity, while imbued with wonder and whimsy.

THE SPARROW FILM PROJECT was initially conceived in 2008 by Founder and Chief Creative Officer Evangelos Roumeliotis, an artist and entrepreneur with deep roots in the Astoria, Queens community. In its humble beginnings, a theme would be drawn from a hat, and filmmakers were tasked with creating a three-minute film, with awards ceremonies held every three months. Shorts were screened and nominees were handed awards at the Sparrow Tavern and later, another local bar, Hell Gate Social. The Sparrow Film Project was started in 2008, in over 5 years, SFP has grown to over 500 submissions, highlighting provocative, experimental, groundbreaking films, both local and international in scope.

The Key Dates for The Sparrow Film Project 10th Year anniversary are as follows:

The Sparrow Film Project Mixer: Monday Aug. 27, 2018 at The Sparrow Tavern, Astoria Queens

The Sparrow Film Project Filmmakers Sign up: Sunday, Sept 9, 2018 at Let Love Inn, Astoria Queens - Registration from 7pm to 10pm. Drawing and film assignment starts at 10pm.

The Sparrow Film Project Filmmakers Turn-in: Sunday, Sept 30, 2018 at Sparrow Tavern Astoria Queens

The Sparrow Film Project 2018 Screenings: Saturday Dec 1st, 2018, at Museum of the Moving Image

The Sparrow Film Project 2018 Bar Crawl: Sunday Dec 2nd- Multiple locations TBD

The Sparrow Film Project Awards Ceremony and Gala: Thurs. Dec 6th, Museum of the Moving Image

As in previous years, The Sparrow Film Project supporting sponsors include B&H Photo & Video and Radeberger Pilsner.

For More Information, visit The Sparrow Film Project:

Website: https://sparrowfilmproject.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sparrowfilmproject/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FilmSparrow

IG: https://www.instagram.com/thesparrowfilmproject

For More Information, visit YOUTOOCANWOO:

Website: http://www.youtoocanwoo.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/youtoocanwoo/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Youtoocanwoo/

Instagram: @youtoocanwoo

Twitter: @youtoocanwoo

About Founder and Chief Creative Officer Evangelos Roumeliotis: Evangelos is an entrepreneur with a passion for creative expression. Evangelos first established Tupelo (Bar) in 1999 which was an early prototype for the contemporary, community-minded local pub. Evangelos later went on to open various establishments in Queens and Brooklyn. He now owns The Sparrow Tavern (which was featured on Food Networks Diners, Drive-ins and Dives), Mars, a restaurant which continually tops NYCs best of lists, and The LetLove Inn, a music venue which also tops NYCs best of lists. Evangelos started the Sparrow Film Project in 2008. With deep roots in the Astoria, Queens community ,Evangelos continues to be one of the largest supporters of the local creative community in Astoria, Queens.

About Artistic Director Michael Freeland: Michaels previous producer film credits include American Bomber, Dead Light Glory, The Shoulder (which premiered this year at the Queens Film festival), and In Between, which premiered at the 2018 Cannes Short Film Corner. Michaels theatre credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Hugging the Shoulder, the feature length play that the aforementioned film, The Shoulder, was based. He was also an Associate Producer for two theatre companies, Hudson Warehouse and Wide-Eyed Productions, for their 2007 and 2008 seasons. Michael attended school at The University of Southern Mississippi and graduated from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, as well as receiving his B.S. from The New School University.

About Technical Director Sal Milazzo: Sal has been an event planner in Astoria, Queens since 2008. One of his greatest successes is The Great Astoria Gut-Off, a yearly weight loss competition, inspiring a healthy lifestyle for the community. Sal joined The Sparrow Film Project Committee in 2013, and helped usher the Gala and Awards Ceremony from the local bars, to the Museum of the Moving Image. He is excited to still be participating for the 10-year anniversary.

Zach Abramson composes music for games, film and other media. He contributed music for the AAA open-world action game Just Cause 3 (2015) and is currently creating the score for its upcoming sequel Just Cause 4. He is a partner at music and audio production company YouTooCanWoo. http://www.zachabramson.com

About Kaufman Astoria Studios:

Kaufman Astoria Studios (KAS) has established itself as one of the largest and most sophisticated production centers in New York and on the East Coast. Our versatility and emphasis on service has made KAS the studio of choice for countless productions. AS is at the center of a bustling creative environment where shooting, pre- and post-production take place around the clock. We offer producers, directors and other industry professionals over 500,000 square feet of sound stages, production office and service space. Our recently opened backlot spacethe only outdoor stage facility in New York is complete with a Hollywood-style gate designed by David Rockwell. With demand for studio space at an all-time high, KAS is the quintessential film studio for all productions in the New York area.

Built in 1920, Kaufman Astoria Studios was the original home of Paramount Pictures, and over 100 silent films were made on its sound stages. Today, top Hollywood film, television, and digital on-demand series are made at the studio, including the Netflix hit Orange is the New Black, Showtimes Nurse Jackie, Amazons Alpha House, Starzs Flesh and Bone, the NBC pilot State of Affairs, and Sesame Street, which has filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios since 1992.

About the Museum of the Moving Image:

Museum of the Moving Image is the country's only museum dedicated to the art, history, technique, and technology of the moving image in all its forms. The Museum is a one-of-a-kind destination for audiences of all ages and interests, from connoisseurs of classic cinema to children and families to avid gamers.

Embracing a wide range of subjects, from nineteenth century optical toys to the latest in digital art, the Museum explores every phase of the production, promotion, and exhibition of moving images. It offers an engaging, highly interactive core exhibition, programs of contemporary and classic films from around the world, discussions with leading figures in film and television, a unique collection, inspiring educational programs for learners of all ages, stimulating changing exhibitions, and groundbreaking online projects.

About YouTooCanWoo:

YouTooCanWoo is an artist-owned music and audio production company with a stunning studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We create music and full-service audio packages for film (screened at Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival and more), advertising (including Apple, Google, Mercedes), and branding campaigns (e.g. for Spotify, MTV, NBCUniversal) through our production studio, and release music on our record label. http://www.youtoocanwoo.com

About the Kaufman Arts District:

The Kaufman Arts District, anchored by the historic Kaufman Astoria Studios, is home to a community of unique cultural institutions that support emerging artists. Founded by KAS, Museum of the Moving Image and Queens Council on the Arts, KAD spans 24+ blocks and serves to advocate for and promote arts in our neighborhood. KAD is Queens first cultural district.

For interview requests, please contact: Lisa James, LMJ Public Relations, lmjpublicrelations@gmail.comNeal Simon, unaffiliated candidate for Marylands U.S. Senate seat, today announced his endorsement of Gov. Larry Hogan for a second term as Marylands 62nd governor.

Simon issued the following statement:

"Im happy to announce my endorsement of Gov. Hogan today for another term as Marylands governor. From cutting taxes and fees, to investing in education and cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, Gov. Hogan has accomplished a lot for Marylanders. And hes done it by working across the aisle to find common ground. Instead of sowing divisiveness and conflict for cheap political points, Gov. Hogan has stayed true to his promise to govern from the center. He's a true model for how to get things done."

A new statewide poll conducted by Gonzales Research & Media Services shows Simon has gained 10 points in the U.S. Senate race for Maryland, securing 18 percent of support from likely voters, making him the best performing independent U.S. Senate candidate in the country and the one with the best chance of winning. The same poll shows a rapid decline in incumbent Sen. Ben Cardins support, which Gonzalezs research shows has dropped below 50 percent for the first time this cycle.

Despite common misconceptions from the press about a lack of support for unaffiliated candidates, 54 percent of voters said they will consider an unaffiliated candidate for U.S. Senate; 56 percent of Democratic respondents also said they would consider an unaffiliated candidate; 30 percent of undecided voters lean to Simon. In comparison, only 4 percent of undecided voters are leaning towards Cardin and only 3 percent are leaning towards voting for Republican candidate Tony Campbell.

For more information, visit http://www.nealsimon.com and follow on Twitter: @nealjsimon.

Paid for by Neal Simon for U.S. Senate.Wharf Fest Chowder Competition

Wharf Fest, San Franciscos beloved waterfront festival, comes back for the sixth year in a row on October 20, 2018. The Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit District is throwing the ultimate festival to celebrate San Franciscos historic waterfront district. Bay Area locals are invited to visit the district after the tourist season has ended and before San Franciscos fabulous fall climate fades away. This years festival will include, for the sixth year, the popular Chowder Competition, a ticketed event. At the free street fair, festival-goers can visit approximately 50 booths of fine arts, crafts, and more. The festival takes place on two blocks of Little Embarcadero street, between Taylor Street and Powell Street. The festival overlooks the San Francisco Bay, the Pier 43 promenade, and Alcatraz Island.

At Wharf Fests Chowder Competition, 12 restaurants of Fishermans Wharf, Californias chowder capital, will battle it out for the title of Best Chowder at Fishermans Wharf. The Chowder Competition has become a San Francisco favorite and the pre-sale tickets sold out in early September. There will be 150, $30 tickets available at the festival the day-of. There will also be a contest run on http://www.SF.Funcheap.com for free tickets. The 2017 winners of the Chowder Competition were Fog Harbor Fish House, for the Peoples Choice award, and Cioppinos, for the Judges Choice award. This years panel of judges includes Ashley Mincey, a top three finalist from the most recent season of MasterChef, Heather Knight, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Lawrence Kane, Editor-In-Chief for SF Weekly, and for the second year, Elaine Forbes, Executive Director of the Port of San Francisco, and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, chief culinary advisor of Serious Eats and author of New York Times Best Seller, The Food Lab.

The following Fishermans Wharf Restaurants will be competing in the Chowder Competition:



Blue Mermaid Restaurant & Bar

Boudin Bakery

Cioppino's

Fog Harbor Fish House

Franciscan Crab Restaurant

Lefty ODouls Ballpark Buffet

McCormick and Kuleto's

Pescatore

Pier Market Restaurant

Swiss Louis Italian & Seafood Restaurant

Tarantino's

The Grotto

Wharf Fest is hosted by the Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit District and produced by Steven Restivo Event Services. Wharf Fest is sponsored by the Port of San Francisco.

Please visit WharfFest.com for more details.

ABOUT THE FISHERMANS WHARF COMMUNITY BENEFIT DISTRICT:

The Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit District (FWCBD.com), a nonprofit organization, was founded in November of 2005 by the business and property owners of the San Francisco neighborhood. The district is funded through an annual assessment for 15 years from the property owners. The purpose of the Fishermans Wharf Community Benefit District is to preserve and enhance its vast San Francisco waterfront landscape and multi-cultural heritage, while integrating modern efficiencies to enrich the experience of visitors from both near and far.

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITORS:

Suggested Facebook Post:

Wharf Fest is coming back to Fishermans Wharf [tag @Fishermans Wharf] this Sat, October 20! This free festival will be the ultimate waterfront celebration with a chowder competition and fine arts & crafts vendors! Learn more at WharfFest.com

Suggested Tweets:

#WharfFest is this Sat, 10/20! Chowder, arts & crafts fair & the best view in SF @TheWharfSF! Learn more at WharfFest.com

12 restaurants compete in this years #WharfFest Chowder Competition 10/20 @TheWharfSF. Who will win the crown this year?Foisie Business School Associate Professor Andrew Trapp and PhD student Narges Ahani are working on an NSF-funded grant to develop software to aid in refugee placement.

Andrew C. Trapp, a professor at the Foisie Business School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has received a $320,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop a computational tool to help humanitarian aid organizations significantly improve refugees chances of successfully resettling and integrating into a new country. Built upon ongoing work with an international team of computer scientists and economists, the tool integrates machine learning and optimization algorithms, along with complex computation of data, to match refugees to communities where they will find appropriate resources, including employment opportunities.

There is a great deal of information to consider when helping a refugee begin a new life in the United States, said Trapp, associate professor in the Foisie School and lead investigator for the project. It is a labor-intensive process whose ultimate goal is to help a refugee land in a place where he or she has as many opportunities as possible to successfully integrate and contribute to the community. Technological solutions can have a profound societal impact.

Each year, tens of thousands of refugeesmany fleeing war, violence, and persecutionare resettled in dozens of host countries around the world. In the United States, the Department of State oversees nine non-profit agencies that manage the countrys resettlement programs, placing incoming refugees in communities across the nation. While there is growing evidence that the initial placement of refugee families profoundly aects their lifetime outcomes, there have been few attempts to use technology to optimize resettlement destinations.

The NSF-funded work will further develop a software program Trapp and colleagues created in an effort to improve resettlement outcomes. Called Annie MOORE (Matching Outcome Optimization for Refugee Empowerment), after Anna Moore, an Irish woman who was the first recorded immigrant processed at the Ellis Island federal immigration station in the late 1800s, the software was developed by Trapp, Alexander Teytelboym of the University of Oxford, and Tommy Andersson and Alessandro Martinello of Lund University in Sweden.

Trapps ongoing work involves new advances in methodology to solve the difficult types of optimization problems represented by the refugee-location matching process, which, when solved at scales much larger than presentsay, many thousands of refugees and hundreds of locationsmay pose significant computational challenges. If the specific problem structures are better understood, then we can develop improved computational methods for solving these problems, he said. Trapp and his team are investigating innovations for solving these, and a number of related, problems by studying and exploiting the underlying mathematical structure of the matching problem.

Based on the algorithms and data gleaned from prior placements, Annie predicts the likelihood of employment for each working-age refugee. These predictions are then used to guide the search for the best way to match refugee families to host communities for resettlement workers. Refugees are typically expected to find employment within 90 daysconsidered an early indicator of future integrationand establish a degree of self-sufficiency within about six months.

Trapp and colleagues recently co-authored Placement Optimization in Refugee Resettlement, a working paper being submitted for publication, in which they found that Annie significantly improved refugees chances of finding work within three months. The team worked with the non-profit organization HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), the oldest of the nine agencies, to pilot Annie and plans to demonstrate the program to the eight other US agencies. WPI Data Science PhD student Narges Ahani developed the user interface based on feedback from HIAS resettlement staff.

In initial pilot testing, of the 496 refugees HIAS resettled through manual matching in 2017, 159 were able to secure some form of employment within the 90-day window. Using data on those same 496 refugees, the team optimized their placement through Annie and calculated that, conservatively, over 200or more than 20 percentwould have found a job in the same time frame. Under some scenarios, the refugee employment rate increased by as much as 37 percent. Future challenges for Annie will include taking into account refugees own preferences.

Trapp and colleagues believe that with this NSF research, the program can be adapted to other humanitarian needs and applications, including adoption services.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

WPI, a global leader in project-based learning, is a distinctive, top-tier technological university founded in 1865 on the principle that students learn most effectively by applying the theory learned in the classroom to the practice of solving real-world problems. Recognized by the National Academy of Engineering with the 2016 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education, WPIs pioneering project-based curriculum engages undergraduates in solving important scientific, technological, and societal problems throughout their education and at more than 45 project centers around the world. WPI offers more than 50 bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs across 14 academic departments in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. Its faculty and students pursue groundbreaking research to meet ongoing challenges in health and biotechnology; robotics and the internet of things; advanced materials and manufacturing; cyber, data, and security systems; learning science; and more. http://www.wpi.edu

Contact: Alison Duffy, Director of Public Relations

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

amduffy@wpi.edu; 508-340-5040; 508-831-6656The Crown Publishing Group has joined the Random House Publishing Group in a newly-combined division reporting to current Random House president and publisher Gina Centrello, who has been named president and publisher of the new supergroup, Penguin Random House US CEO Madeline McIntosh wrote today in a letter to staff. As a result of the merger, Maya Mavjee, president and publisher of Crown, will leave the company at the end of the year. The imprints will retain their distinct editorial identities, McIntosh continued in the memo, and the change is effective immediately.

At least for the moment, the two groups will retain their existing names: the Crown Publishing Group and the Random House Publishing Group. The change has no impact on PRH's other adult publishing groups, the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and the Penguin Publishing Group, or its two children's divisions.

McIntosh attributed the move to "book discovery and buying patterns [that] continue to shift, resulting in growth opportunities in the nonfiction categories in which Crown in particular already has a strong foothold: food, lifestyle, health, wellness, business, and Christian. To further pursue this growth," she added, "we will need to do two things simultaneously. First, we must expand and strengthen the expert publishing teams who are specialized in and dedicated to each category. Second, we must invest even more aggressively in title-level and scaled marketing programs, capabilities, and partnerships. This will ensure that we not only maximize the sales for each individual book but also keep pace with consumer trends. Both Crown and Random House have been keenly aware of these market opportunities and have been applying their impressive creative and entrepreneurial energies to meet them. I am confident that, teamed together, with joined talents, resources, and strengths, as a united division they will be able to move even more quickly and effectively."

Newly reporting to Centrello are David Drake, executive v-p and deputy publisher of Crown, and the Crown senior executive team: Tina Constable, senior v-p and publisher of Currency, Convergent, WaterBrook & Multnomah, and Crown Forum; Jill Flaxman, senior v-p and director of publishing operations; Molly Stern, senior v-p and publisher, Crown, Broadway, Archetype, Three Rivers Press, and Hogarth; Aaron Wehner, senior v-p and publisher of Ten Speed Press, Clarkson Potter, Rodale Books, and Harmony; and Katie Ziga, senior v-p and executive director of business operations. Executives currently reporting to Centrello at Random House will continue to do so.

"Aside from their well-earned reputations for excellence in all aspects of publishing, the imprints in the Random House group have garnered accolades for their innovative marketing programs and capabilities; those can now be applied to the benefit of the Crown list," McIntosh wrote. "Crown, in turn, has already built expertise in effectively engaging consumers across their portfolio of authors, and they contribute exposure to markets outside of our New York epicenter with their publishing operations in California and Colorado. Together, the group will be able to offer its authors and readers even more robust service and selection across literary and commercial fiction, and narrative nonfiction, than ever before."

This is the second, and more significant, restructuring McIntosh has implemented since being named CEO of PRH US in April. In May, she promoted a number of top executives at Random House, PRH corporate, and in the company's audio division, Penguin Random House Audio Group.Premium online access is only available tosubscribers. If you have an active subscription and need to set up or change your password, please click here

New to PW? To set up immediate access, click here.

NOTE: If you had a previous PW subscription, click here to reactivate your immediate access. PW site license members have access to PWs subscriber-only website content. If working at an office location and you are not "logged in", simply close and relaunch your preferred browser. For off-site access, click here. To find out more about PWs site license subscription options, please email Mike Popalardo at: mike@nextstepsmarketing.com.Graveside Paranormal will host the event from 2 to 6 p.m. Oct. 28 at the states oldest standing brewery, built in 1857, where Al Capone ran some bootleg operations. Hear tales of crime and violence amid the limestone walls, wander down to the artisan well known for supernatural occurrences and be part of a spirit portal session.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!Reports say the suspects were arrested by a Police Joint Investigative team, following the arrest of the principal suspect, Azeez Yakubu, in whose house 11 human skulls, human bones, hairs, and powder suspected to be ground human bones and charms were found.

Law enforcement officers were compelled to search Yakubus upon on October 5th following reports of missing persons, kidnapping, murder, killings for rituals, and exhuming of the dead, removal of human skulls and other human parts.

Police spokesman, deputy commissioner Jimoh Moshood is reported as saying the Inspector General of Police on receipt of the situation report from the Kwara State Police Command, immediately directed the IGP Monitoring Unit to proceed to Kwara State and assist the Kwara State Police Command in their investigation of the matter, arrest perpetrators for the law to take its course.

READ MORE: Bride who looked sad on wedding day shames criticsThe Police Joint Investigation Team on arrival in Ilorin, Kwara State on the 5th of October, 2018 assisted by the personnel of D Divisional Police Headquarters, Adewole, Kwara Police Command, working on actionable intelligence from public spirited individuals in the area, swung into action, obtained search warrant and moved into the house of one Azeez Yakub.Further investigations by the Special Team of the IGP Monitoring Unit led to the arrest of Seven other suspects, Azeez Yakub, Abdulrasaq Babamale, Aishat Yunisa, Lukman Saka, Ahmed Yahaya, Abdulfatai Kadri a.k.a (Adedoyin)  Vigilante Commander, Adeta Zone, Ilorin, Soliu Ayinde a.k.a Baba Fawasi, Abdulganiyu Bamidele, Jimoh Moshood said.We wanted to show the Chicagoland area that pastel can be handled in a variety and diverse ways  it can be just as prominent as oils or any of the other mediums, Kolasinski said. It isnt necessarily a fragile material to work with and it can be done and handles in so many different ways.This means that the tariffs charged by the aforementioned networks will also go up, a statement from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications said.

The Chamber said AirtelTigo, MTN and Vodafone are reviewing their tariffs as a result of the amendments of the Acts referenced in the 2018 mid-year budget review.

READ ALSO: Unibank shareholders file counter suit against receiverUnibank shareholders file counter suit against receiver

Customers are, therefore, be expected to pay more since the networks will pass the cost of the new levies to their consumers.

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"The objective was to give effect to the conversion of NHIL and GETFL into levies that are not subject to the input-output mechanism, and delinking them from VAT by removing the option of input tax deductibility, thereby giving both levies a unique and different legal identity and distinguished from VAT," sections of the statement read.

The statement, which was signed by CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications, Kenneth Ashigbey, further noted that the telecommunication networks would comply fully with Ghanas laws and ensure the distinction between VAT and the new levies.

"Our members, who are responsible corporate entities, would comply fully with Ghanas laws and ensure the distinction between VAT and the new levies emanating from their separate origins and basis in law."

"As intended the incidence of the two new levies will thus be on consumers and will result in the increase of the cost of telecommunication services.

"Customers of telecommunication services will be notified by their service providers prior to any changes being made and the expected changes will take effect on 1st of November 2018, it added.

READ ALSO: Report to work on time  Akufo-Addo tells NABCO recruitsReport to work on time  Akufo-Addo tells NABCO recruits

Read the full statement from the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications below:

The Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications on behalf of its members  AirtelTigo, MTN and Vodafone  wishes to notify its esteemed customers and the general public of tariff modifications following the implementation of the new tax laws.

The government as part of the 2018 mid-year review of the budget amended the Acts referenced above.

The objective was to give effect to the conversion of NHIL and GETFL into levies that are not subject to the input-output mechanism, and delinking them from VATby removing the option of input tax deductibility, thereby giving both levies a unique and different legal identity and distinguished from VAT.

Our members, who are responsible corporate entities, would comply fully with Ghanas laws and ensure the distinction between VAT and the new levies emanating from their separate origins and basis in law. As intended the incidence of the two new levies will thus be on consumers and will result in the increase of the cost of telecommunication services.

Customers of telecommunication services will be notified by their service providers prior to any changes being made and the expected changes will take effect on 1st of November 2018.The receiver; Nii Amanor Dodoo sued the founder of the Unibank, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor and 16 others for the same reason.

In a counter suit, the three argue that the Central Bank would not have revoked Unibanks license if not for what they claim are acts of misrepresentation and the rent-seeking behaviour of KPMG and the receiver.

READ ALSO: Mobile app to monitor performance of NABCO recruits

The three, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Professor Newman Kusi and Boatemaa Kakra Duffuor Nyarko, are seeking the court to declare that the procedure leading to the appointment of KPMG as an official administrator was unlawful, illegal, and contrary to the prevailing and acceptable custom of the banking industry.

Again, they want the court to declare that the plaintiff was not authorized by law to set aside, impugn or interfere with any or all transactions duly entered into between Unibank and any of its customers.

The defendants also deny abusing their fiduciary duties and further indicate that it was on record to have obeyed all given rules from the Central Bank.

The Receiver for uniBank, Nii Amanor Dodoo, earlier sued the 17 shareholders of the now-defunct bank over the repayment of a GHC 5.7 billion debt.

READ ALSO: Report to work on time  Akufo-Addo tells NABCO recruitsReport to work on time  Akufo-Addo tells NABCO recruits

According to the receiver the GHC 5.7 billion debt, was left by the shareholders.

The plaintiff, Nii Amanor Dodoo, said that defendants have breached their duties as directors of uniBank Ghana Limited, and are liable for all the loss to uniBank Ghana ltd by their acts of breach.

uniBank was one of the five local banks that was merged on August 1, 2018, to form the Consolidated Bank Ghana over what the Central Bank described as poor corporate governance and mismanagement of depositors funds.Investigator, Detective Chief Inspector Augustine Nkrumah told an Accra High Court hearing the case of Gregory Afoko that after he was told about what the deceased said about the cause of his death, he (investigator) independently investigated the statement and it turned out to be true.

The investigator who is under cross examination told the court that "After the receipt of the information, the Bolgatanga police assisted us in contacting some of the witnesses and it was confirmed by some of the witnesses that the deceased actually mentioned Afoko and Asabke.

"To be sure of the substance that was poured on the deceased, the exhibit collected was also sent for forensic analysis and it was confirmed to be sulphuric acid."

Lead council for Gregory Afoko, Osafo Buabeng then asked the investigator if he found out where in particular the deceased mentioned the names of Afoko and Asabke Alangdi as the ones who poured the acid on him.

But the police chief said the deceased mentioned the names to his wife whiles he was still in his car struggling as well as at the hospital to other people.

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Gregory is before the Accra High Court for allegedly intentionally and unlawfully causing the death of Adams on May 20, 2015 at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region.

According to the police, a suspect who helped Afoko called Musah, who is a member of the NPP, on May 19, 2015, solicited and procured the deadly acid which he gave to other two suspects who in turn poured the acid on Adams.

Asabke Alangdi, the third accused has been on the run together with his wife, leaving behind their one-and-a-half-year-old baby.

Gregory is facing charges of conspiracy and murder.

Meanwhile, the court has rejected a medical report from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital on Gregory Afoko concerning some scars on his body which were examined by a medical officer at the hospital.The preacher said the main reason why many Christians of today suffer is because they are too religious.

According to him, God specifically created both heaven and earth so that His people will have time to work and time to worship Him.

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To this end, the controversial man of God said a Christian may genuinely know God, but if he refuses to work, then he is a fool.

God knows exactly why he separated day from night, so that man can use daytime to work hard and make a living, not to be in church praying, yet Christians choose to pray more than working which is wrong, Christians know God but are fools, Prophet Kobi said on Agoo TV.

He further stated that he doesnt support church services that are organised on weekdays, since such times must be used for working.

He said the only thing that could prompt him to allow such a practice in his church is when God himself wishes it.

The pastor urged Christians to be productive and work to support their families, instead of spending all their time in the church.

For me I know weekday services is not in the bible so I will never allow or practice it my church unless God directs me to do so, it doesnt even make sense.It is estimated that over a hundred thousand (100,000) graduates will benefit from the programme in its first year of implementation.

In his address, President Akufo-Addo charged the beneficiaries to help build a nation that they will be proud of".

And under the above categorisations, there are seven (7) different modules the scheme will run on.

They are Educate Ghana, Heal Ghana, Feed Ghana and Revenue Ghana. The rest are Digitise Ghana, Civic Ghana and Enterprise Ghana.

Below are what the employees are expected to do under each module.

Digitise Ghana: Employees under Digitise Ghana will essentially aid the intended digitisation of services by the government. They will help out in the delivery of initiatives like the National Identification Scheme, Ghana Land Title, Digital Address System, Archival and digitization at Registrar-Generals Department, Birth and Death Registry, and at Passport Application Centres.

Revenue Ghana: Graduates under this module will augment the work of the nation's revenue collection institutions. They will be used to provide minimal technology solution to generate the requisite revenue for the development of Ghana. Most of the employees under this module will be based with the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Educate Ghana: Graduate teachers will mainly be based under this module to help with the education of students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and other relevant subjects across the country. On the technology component of this module, fellows are required to apply their skills in areas such as: library and archival, non-formal education programmes, digital and mobile libraries programme.

Civic Ghana: Employees under this module will focus mainly on governance at the district and constituency levels. According to the framers of the policy, the aim is to bring government to the people in the most simplified and collaborative way.

Feed Ghana: Feed Ghana programme will provide extensive support to farmers, e-agriculture and the dissemination of scientific knowledge, mechanization centres, and seed and fertilizer programmes, the district centres for Agricultural transformation, district warehouse and logistical management.

Heal Ghana: Trained nurses and other healthcare workers will be in the Heal Ghana programme. They will provide healthcare delivery to deprived and rural communities across Ghana. The health module has taken note of the need for social care within the community: in particular, care for the vulnerable and persons with a range of disabilities, especially those within public institutions.

Enterprise Ghana: This module is designed to assist with the effort to industrialize all parts of the country. The employees will focus a district industrial drive under the One District One Factory initiative; and the drive to stimulate existing industries.The executives presented their petition to the Chief of Staff at the Jubilee House in Accra.

The executives last month called for the President to remove the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive after accusing him of denying them contracts, insubordination and hoarding of the assemblys funds to further his personal ambitions.

They accused the Mayor of "constituting and paying 61 member non-functional Task Force which cost the Assembly GH9,150."

Yussif Danjumah confirmed the presence of the delegation in Accra on radio. Danjumah said they still stand by their allegations against the MCE and insists the president sacks him.

We never resolved anything. We have presented our petition to the Jubilee House, so we are hoping to meet the president on Thursday so after we meet the president we then talk to the media, he said.

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Confusion, however, set in, when a counter group made up of the constituencies polling station and area coordinators dismissed calls for the removal of the embattled Mayor, and asked the President to reject the calls.Whats this society coming to? I read another article about a poor little dog that was abused, not groomed, had horrible sores all over his body and was traumatized. Whats wrong with these people? How can you hurt a harmless animal? There have been so many stories lately of abuse to animals. Why is society so sick that it gets joy out of hurting animals that only want to love you? Often an animal is more companionship than a human. If you dont want your animal, dont abuse it or hurt it. Give it up. . . Have a heart. Dont hurt animals.The Nigerian Senate has approved the request of President Muhammadu Buhari to borrow a $2.78 billion through foreign sources with a warning on debt burden.

The lawmakers also gave their approval for debt issuance of $82.54 million to refinance the balance of a $500 million matured Eurobond.

The latest loan will be the fifth external borrowing in the last two years under President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration. The government last dollar debt was raised in February 2018 at $2.5 billion.

Africa's largest economy has been raising finance through local and external means to promote economic growth after emerging from its worst recession in 2017.

The foreign loan will be used to fund a record 2018 budget at N9.120 trillion ($29.8 billion) and other key projects, the country's president, Muhammadu Buhari had said in a letter addressed to the Upper Chamber last week.

Nigerian government appoints financial advisers on planned Eurobond

Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria's finance minister, said the government has approved Citigroup, Standard Chartered Bank and local firm FSDH Merchant Bank as financial advisers to facilitate the international borrowing.

Senate, foreign bodies warn Nigeria over debt distress

The Senate, however, advised the government to limit its foreign borrowing and find ways to generate revenue internally.

The international organisations have also advised the country to increase its taxes instead of increasing foreign debts.

Recently, the deputy secretary-general of the United Nations (UN) and former Nigeria's minister, Amina Mohammed, expressed worried over the current state of Nigeria's debt profile.

Speaking at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the UN Working Together Conversation alongside IMF Chief, Christine Lagarde, Mohammed questioned how Africa wants to grow its economy with massive debt.

She called for an overall conversation on how to grow the African economy and bring about stability.

Nigeria's debt stock at N22.4 trillion

Nigerias debt stock increased by 3% from the N21.68 trillion recorded in December 2017 to N22.4 trillion ($73.21 billion) at the end of June 2018 according to the latest figures from the debt management office.As you know, the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC is a compulsory program for all University, Monotechnics and Polytechnic graduates in Nigeria and you can't exempt yourself from the service except you are above 30, have a national honour or you're a security personnel.

Surprisingly, the NYSC is not allowing graduates of the Benue State University (BSU) to be enlisted for the program.

According to reports the graduating students of this institution were not allowed to upload their details on the NYSC portal for mobilization. It was also reported that the agency will not allow the graduates of the school to participate in the national program for two years.

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What did these students do to deserve this punishment?

When you hear about NYSC stopping graduating students from participating in the program, the question that comes to mind is why is NYSC discouraging students from participating in the course it was established to uphold?

The simple answer to that question is this: the NYSC bars graduating students of Benue State University from its program because the management of the school allegedly helped the students to manipulate their age to make them eligible for the program.

The agency also accused the university of fielding the names of students that read courses that were excluded from NYSC mobilisation.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Moses Kembe has denied the allegation saying the school management was not involved in the age manipulation.

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kembe said, The NYSC did not inform the management of the institution of its decision before executing it. The organisation did not inform us that it had issues with the current list of prospective corps members from our university.

On October 2, the Dean of Students reported to me that they could not upload the names of prospective corps members from the university on the NYSC portal.

The management of the university then detailed the Liaison Officer to write a letter to find out why the university could not upload its list of prospective corps members on the NYSC portal.

We just got a reply of the letter a few minutes ago, but we are doing our investigation to find out whether the fault is from the JAMB, NYSC or the university. But I assure you that if the problem is from our school, we will fish out the culprits and sanction them.

We have the best forensic expert in the whole of the country from this university and we are going to engage his services to find out those behind this.

I wonder why the NYSC did not fish out the culprits and sanction them but decided to come down heavily against the entire university,

However, the situation has led to the affected prospective corps members trooping out to protest the NYSC decision.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the protesters have also threatened to close down the NYSC Orientation Camp at Wannune, Tarka Local Government Area of the state if the decision was not reversed.

Meanwhile, Benue State University is not the only school involved in the alleged age falsification scandal. NAN reports that, ''an audit was carried out in most of the institutions nationwide and eventually, six major institutions were affected and many of them are actually from Benue State''.The universitys Principal Assistant Registrar, Communication Unit, Taiwo Oloyede, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) said the institution is planning to screen the new students.

Oloyede said the screening is meant to ensure a drug-free academic community as well as promote peaceful co-existence.

She added that the University will not hesitate to withdraw the admission of the students if they test positive to drugs.

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This test is compulsory and will be administered on new students before they are allowed to go ahead with registration. Admission of any newly-admitted students who test positive for drug use shall be withdrawn. Our students must be seen to be good products not only of the institution but also of the larger society. We want to ensure that we get students who will be willing to maintain peace, show leadership qualities and be law-abiding.

The university official also said that the institution has concluded preparations for registration of new students admitted on merit.

ALSO READ:During the hand washing relay which took place at L.E.A Model Primary School Maitama, Abuja, children were taught simple steps of handwashing and the fact that they must wash their hands with soap as often as possible in a day. School children drawn from 7 public and private schools from across various LGAs of the FCT participated in the hand wash relay.

The event was witnessed by Mr. Fubara Chuku, National Coordinator Food Safety and Quality Programme, who represented the Honourable Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Folorunso Adewole. Other attendees include Mrs. Jumai Muhammed, Director, Child Development, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, who represented the Minister Of Women Affairs, Katherine Arron Rengkwar Headmistress of L.E.A Model Primary School, Maitama, as well as senior executives of RB.

Speaking at the event, General Manager, RB West Africa, Mr. Dayanand Sriram stated that Dettol has been the trusted champion for good health and hygiene for over 50 years in Nigeria, and we believe that it is important to inculcate good habits such as proper handwashing at an early age. A simple act of washing hands with soap can prevent illnesses and arrest diarrhoea related deaths. This is why we are continuing with the tradition of driving habit change, and provision of needed infrastructure.

Dettol has provided handwashing sites and educated over 7 million children, parents and teachers about the importance of handwashing through the School Hygiene Program, which is a mass education program about proper handwashing and hygiene habits, he added.

The Global Handwashing Day was launched globally on the 15th of October, 2008 to emphasise the importance of a simple act of hand-washing with soap, and drive habit change, particularly among children who are considered as the most effective agents of change in society.

For several years, Dettol has been running health and hygiene programmes across Nigeria focusing on about 1 million new mothers every year who are educated on good hygiene practices through the outreaches in public hospitals and clinics.According to a report on IG the suspect was a secondary school student in April 2017 when his father sold him out to the anti-graft commission.

Adamu had reportedly told his dad about a profit that ensured that he is able to buy "a house and a shop valued over N2 Million." The EFCC reportedly opened a case of conspiracy and theft following this report.

A farmer in Plateau state Porong Daniel Nash has been identified as the victim in Adamu's fraudulent activities. He is alleged to have withdrew money from Nash's bank account and shared to his own.

So far, a sum of N939,000 has reportedly been recovered since EFCC commenced investigation.According to the CBS News"deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office responded to a home in Spring, Texas Wednesday evening."

A 911 caller told law enforcement officers that she found a 2-year-old girl on her doorstop after responding to a knock on her door.

In a surveillance footage capturing the event a woman arrives the Texas apartment in a white car and approached the doorway with the child in her hand.

She reportedly left two bags with the girl.She thought her husband had drowned in his borrowed car  unknown to her, he faked his own death to claim an insurance compensation he took without her knowledge.

According to Voice of China, she drowned herself at a pond near their home. Her name was Mrs. He. She posted a suicide note on WeChat before she took her own life.

Upon learning of his familys death, her husband, Mr. He turned himself in to police in Xinhua county, Hunan province on October 12, 2018. Earlier that day, he had posted a video, crying about his losses.

He had been presumed dead after a car he borrowed was found in a river On September 19, though his body was never found.

ALSO READ: Woman kills stepson because her children were neglected by husband

According to the BBC, in early September, he took out an insurance policy worth One Million Yuan (110,000; $145,000) without his wifes knowledge  but she was the named the beneficiary of the policy.

He was found to have over 100, 000 Yuan in debts from loans.

The incident has since sparked conversations about financial pressures and familial issues on Weibo and Wechat, and the hashtag #ManFakesDeathLeadingtoWifesDeath been viewed almost 29 million times on microblogging site Weibo.ALSO READ: Reps ask President to stop concession of Ajaokuta steel company

Bello revealed the details of their discussion in a report by The Nation News.

First of all, the Vice President, being the Chairman of the National Economic Council, we came to make some enquiries from him over the purported sale of Ajaokuta Steel Complex and he has indicated that there is nothing like that.

He said there is no plan by the Federal Government to sell Ajaokuta Steel Company. The VP said Ajaokuta is an asset of the Federal Government and that they are looking into how best to make good use of that particular complex for the benefit of Nigerians at large.The former governor gave himself up to the anti-graft agency on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, facing allegations of receiving N1.3 billion from the office of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, in the run up to the Ekiti State governorship election in 2014.

Fayose made a show of turning himself in on Tuesday as he wore a shirt with "EFCC, I'm here" inscribed on it, and also carried two packed bags as he earlier said he was prepared to be detained.

According to a report by The Punch, a source disclosed that the anti-graft agency has secured a two-week remand order that is subject to a renewal if requested.

"We have obtained a court order to hold Fayose for at least two weeks pending investigation. He could be released earlier or later than two weeks depending on the outcome of investigation," the EFCC source said.

However, Fayose's lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), said the anti-graft agency will be sued for breach of fundamental human rights if Fayose is not released on Thursday, October 18.

He said the former governor is not a flight risk and should not be indiscriminately detained for questioning especially since he willingly surrendered.

He said, "His lawyers will consider approaching the court for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights if he is not released on Thursday. Section 35 and 36 of the constitution are clear on this.

"He is not a flight risk. He willingly submitted himself to the EFCC even earlier than the time he was supposed to come. What the EFCC is doing is nothing but media trial.

"From the way they have been chasing Fayose in the last three years, one would have expected that the EFCC would have completed its investigations and would arrest him immediately his tenure expires and charge him the next day but that is not the case.

"They want him to write a statement by force and then use the statement against him instead of using their own evidence."

How Fayose allegedly received N1.3bn from Obanikoro

According to a fact-sheet obtained from the EFCC and published by The Nation in August 2018, Fayose received $5.377 million and another N1.3 billion (through a proxy) from then-Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, to help his re-election campaign in 2014.

The sheet read, "On his part, Fayose was allocated N1.3 billion and $5.377 million (at the exchange rate of N168. The $5,377,000 was handed over in cash by Obanikoro to Fayose while the N1.3 billion was received by Fayose's associate, Mr. Abiodun Agbele, in the presence of the ex-Minister's Aide-de-Camp, who also accompanied them to the bank along with bank officials.

"From the $5 million, Fayose gave his Personal Assistant, Agbele about $1 million, which he exchanged to Naira and paid for properties on behalf of the governor. Detectives suspected that Fayose added more of the N1.3 billion cash to what he gave Agbele to buy the affected assets.

"The properties worth N1.8 billion purchased with the said proceeds of crime have been recovered from Fayose and his sister, Moji Ladeji. These assets include four in Lagos (N1.1 billion) and two in Abuja worth about N500 million to N700 million.

"But Fayose has been claiming that he used his company, Spotless to obtain a loan of N120 million from Zenith Bank as part of what he used to buy one of the properties in Abuja. We are already tracking how he disbursed the N1.3 billion.

"A prima facie case has been established against Fayose but he is enjoying immunity from prosecution as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution. He will, however, face trial as soon as he hands over power to his successor.

"But the associate of the governor, Abiodun Agbele, has been charged to court accordingly."

Fayose's other 'sins'

Fayose is also believed to be under probe for allegedly receiving bribes from various contractors as Ekiti State governor. He is alleged to have used fronts to acquire properties in Lagos and Abuja with bribes from said contractors.INGOs Senior Information Management Officer, Mr Mashood Raimi, said in a statement in Maiduguri that the justice the forum needed for the victims was immediate end to the conflict ravaging the region.

Raimi condemned the murder of Liman by the Boko Haram insurgents, saying it was a sad incident that spotlighted the severe challenges facing the country.

He explained that the call was imperative as measure to ensure that justice prevailed for the slain aid workers and thousands of women and children killed or abducted by the insurgents.

Raimi added that the forum was in solidarity with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

We are deeply saddened and condemn the killing of Hauwa Mohammed Liman, a dedicated and passionate aid worker.

Hauwa Mohammed Liman was based in Rann, Borno, providing health services to civilians who continue to suffer in the nine-year old conflict.

On March 1, following a deadly attack by an armed group in which three aid workers were killed, Hauwa Liman was abducted alongside her colleagues, Saifura Khorsa and Alice Loksha.

Both Hauwa and Saifura were killed by their abductors.

We call on relevant authorities to ensure justice for Hauwa and Saifura as well as thousands of innocent civilians who lost their lives by bringing this conflict to an immediate end, he said.

Raimi also called for unconditional release of Loksha; Leah Sharibu and hundreds of women and children in the insurgents captivity.The Commissioner for Information, Malam Muhammad Garba, disclosed this while addressing newsmen on the outcome of the weekly State Executive Council meeting in Kano on Thursday.

He said that the policy was adopted during the state executive council meeting to mitigate drug abuse in the state.

All political appointees, civil servants particularly the ones that are due for promotion and students seeking admission will henceforth undergo compulsory drug test in the state, he said.

Garba said the council had also approved N332 million for the treatment of malnourished children for the period of six months in 2018.

According to him, the council also approved N67.3 million for the construction of drainages in Warkai village in Warawa Local Government Area in order to avert flooding.

The council also approved over N240 million for the maintenance, renovation and procurement of diesel for traffic lights and street lights for the months of April, October and June.

The council approved N70 million for electrification works at Kofar-Mata, Sanka and Yakasai quarters in Kano metropolis, he said.

He added that the council approved the release of N16 million for state contingents to participate in the 2018 Agric show in Kano, Nasarawa state.

Similarly, the council also approved N16 million for equipping and furnishing of Hotoron-Arewa health centre in Nasarawa Local Government Area.The Assembly ordered the 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state to call on the PSP to go back to refuse collection and disposal with immediate effect.

Speaker of the house, Mudashiru Obasa, made the directive during plenary on Thursday, October 18, 2018.

"We insist that we don't know anything about Visionscape because we were not consulted before they started work," the speaker said.

In his words, the House should have approved the refuse disposal policy of the state government before Visionscape started operation.

The House also ordered the Commissioner for Environment, Babatunde Durosinmi-Etti, to appear before them next week on the matter.Mrs Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi, the Coordinator of the DSVRT, disclosed this on Thursday at Roundtable with NGOs organised by theEuropean Union-sponsored Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC) Programme.

She said: The number of reports from the *6820# platform from July to September were 667.

There were 179 domestic violence reports, 201 sexual abuse reports, 143 reports on child abuse and 144 actual cases.

The local government area with the highest reports is Alimosho followed by Kosofe, Ikorodu and Ikeja.

From July to September, the DSVRT attended to 442 clients, 41 of whom were male and 401 female.

The statistics of the ages of the clients from zero to 17 years was 27; clients of ages 18 to 45 years were 378 and ages 46 years andabove were 37.

Vivour-Adeniyi noted that the purpose of the roundtable with the NGOs was to create a synergy between the organisations and theDSVRT in fighting gender-based violence.

We need a forum to share our successes and challenges as well create a centralised database of NGOs, she said.

Also speaking, Mrs Jibola Ijimakin, the Coordinator of ROLAC, highlighted the purpose of the organisation which is to implementthe work of the justice sector in Nigeria.

This is to be done in collaboration with key Nigerian institutions and partners. The purpose of ROLAC is to enhance good governance in Nigeria.

This is to be done by contributing to the strengthening of the rule of law and curbing corruption, reducing impunity and improvingaccess to justice for women, children and persons with disabilities, she said.

Ijimakin noted that ROLAC conducted an assessment of the implementation of the Domestic Law in Lagos in June and realised it hadlow level of partnerships with NGOs.

She added that the meeting was to bridge the gap between ROLAC and the NGOs.

The assessment was to note the priority areas the ROLAC should support.

One of the key findings was that we needed to have more collaboration with NGOs beyond the DSVRT to share information withNGOs about what we are doing, she said.

In her address of welcome, Mrs Biola Oseni, the Director of the Directorate of Citizens Rights, said the roundtable was to highlight the importance of NGOs in tackling the scourge of domestic violence in Lagos State.

In its response to Sexual and Gender Based Violence, DSVRT has taken cognisance of the fact that the NGOs are the first port of callfor most survivors due to its mien.

We are therefore not oblivious of the roles NGOs and Civil Society Organisations play in addressing issues of domestic violencein Lagos State and indeed Nigeria.

Oseni said the Lagos State Government intended to create a directory of NGOs that respond to Gender-Based Violence.

It is our earnest desire that after this roundtable there would be an improvement in synergy between NGOs and DSVRT.Yusuf was suspended following allegations of gross misconduct and fraud.

The chairman of the governing council of the scheme, Ifenne Enyanatu, revealed the resolution to newsmen in Abuja after a two-day closed-door meeting at the head office of the scheme.

She said the governing council has also resolved to set up a panel to look over the allegations leveled against him.

The Chairperson stated that the council got the approval of the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, before suspending Yusuf.

Due to his suspension, the council has announced Mallam Sadiq Abubakar as the acting Executive Secretary of the scheme for the time being.

Yusuf found 'guilty'

Yusuf was previously suspended as Secretary by Prof. Adewole in June 2017, following allegations of monumental fraud, gross abuse of office and nepotic acts.

After the initial three months suspension handed down to Yusuf in June, the health minister extended the suspension indefinitely after the panel that probed allegations against him found him "culpable in many areas" of his performance as Executive Secretary.A BBC documentary that aired in April 2018 had exposed how cough syrup with codeine was illegally sold in the black market with the help of people in the pharmaceutical industry.

Madubuike was caught on camera illegally selling 60 bottles of cough syrup to the BBC reporters who were masquerading as drug dealers and assured them that it came straight from the company's manufacturing room.

He went on the run in May after the airing of the documentary but has now been apprehended in Lagos, according to a BBC report.

According to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, Madubuike was arrested in the border town of Idiroko in Ogun State while he was heading to Cotonou in Benin.

Explaining how he was caught dealing with the undercover reporters, Madubuike told the Police that he was only trying to meet his sales target and that he regrets selling to unauthorised persons.

Despite his claim that he was under the impression that he was selling to a genuine businessman, Madubuike had been caught boasting about how the codeine could sell really well with addicts on the streets.

He had said, "This is a product I know that if I have one million cartons, I can sell it in a week. You know drug addicts. When an addict comes and there is no money, he wouldn't mind dropping even the key of his motor car just to satisfy that urge immediately. It's a paradise."

Emzor had fired Madubuike in May and reported him to the Police for supplying the substance to unauthorised persons. Emzor also suspended the production of the extremely addictive drug.

Following the airing of the BBC documentary, the federal government announced a ban on the use of codeine as an active agent in the production of cough syrup.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) also temporarily shut down production sites of three pharmaceutical companies including Emzor, due to their inability to provide required documents during the inspection of their facilities.

Effects of codeine abuse

Codeine abuse can lead to common side effects such as nausea, vomiting, constipation, and drowsiness. More severe side effects include shallow breathing, low blood pressure, seizures, urination problems, confusion, agitation, and hallucinations.

Further abuse of codeine, such as mixing it with alcohol or other sedatives, can also lead to respiratory depression which can cause an overdose.Our engineers were just ecstatic to get to work on something thats very cool but also a challenge given what the requirements are, said David Ross, general manager with OTTO. The switches that were making are unique and very high-performance. The specifications are pretty tough. These are obviously very critical in terms of they have to be tested extensively. They have to work, there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it."Describing the decision as illegal, the House directed the agency to mobilize the affected graduates immediately with the 2018 Batch C prospective corps members.

According to the Daily Trust, the House resolution followed a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance on suspension of Benue State University graduates from further participation in the NYSC scheme by Emmanuel Orker-Jev (PDP, Benue).

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ALSO READ: NYSC extends online registration for Batch C Prospective Corps Members

The lawmaker noted that despite the fact that the graduates of the institution have been participating in the scheme for over two decades, the NYSC had refused to mobilize them for the national program.

He said, ''on 17 October, 2018, the NYSC released a letter stopping Benue State University graduates from participating in the mandatory service year with reason that some of the graduates falsified their age in a desperate move to take part in the scheme

You will recall that on Pulse reported on Tuesday, October 16, 2018, that graduating students at the University of Agriculture, Makurdi and Benue State University are not going to be allowed to participate in the NYSC program for two years.This followed the presentation of the report of the Committee on National Identity Card and National Population Commission by its Chairman, Sen. Suleiman Hunkuyi.

Durnnguwa, from Kaduna state, is one of the 23 nominees whose names were sent by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate for screening and confirmation in April.

While others were confirmed on Oct. 11, Durnnguwas nomination was stood down due to issues raised about his West African Examination Certificate (WAEC) result.

His case was further referred to the Committee on National Identity Card and National Population Committee for further legislative action.

Presenting his report on Thursday, Hunkuyi said the nominee appeared before the committee with two letters on the areas for which the committee demanded clarification.

One of the letters, he said, came from the Ministry of Education, Katsina State, where the secondary school Durnnguwa attended was located, while the other came from the school.

Hunkuyi said the committee was satisfied with the contents of both letters, confirming that the nominee obtained his WAEC OLevel certificate from the school.

However, Durnnguwas confirmation did not come without some argument led by the Minority Leader, Biodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti), who had raised some age issues in the nominees educational journey.

Olujimi said he could not have finished secondary school at the age of 10 as stated in his CV.

She further argued that it was impossible for Durnnguwa to get the Grade II certificate and the National Certificate of Education (NCE) within less than 10 years after leaving secondary school.

Mr President, there is something intrinsically wrong in this and we need to sort it out before we pass it, she said.

Some All Progressives Congress (APC) members, including Barau Jibrin (Kano) and Adamu Aliero (Kebbi) countered Olujimi, accusing her of playing politics with the matter.

Aliero said the minority leaders opposition was uncalled for since the issues raised by her had already been addressed by the committee.

In his contribution, the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe), said the issues raised by Olujimi were not partisan as alleged by his colleagues.

Lawan, however, said the same issues were raised last week, and that he believed that the committee applied due diligence on the matter.

He said that an investigation he personally carried out on the matter also gave the nominee a clean bill of health.The deceased, identified as Ibrahim Balogun, aka Small Jaypron, and Solo, were killed at a political gathering in Obanikoro area of Lagos State on Wednesday, October 17, 2018. Their deaths snowballed into a wave of violence that brought unrest to the Shomolu and Bariga areas of Lagos late on Wednesday before Police restored order.

According to a statement by the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Chike Oti, on Thursday, October 18, the deceased persons had been wanted by the authorities for their alleged involvement in several cult clashes, and were on the wanted list of the police for leading several cult fights in the Shomolu, Bariga, Fadeyi and Ojuelegba areas of the state.

He disclosed that 21 suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the case and are being questioned by homicide detectives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) Panti, Yaba. He said the state's Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, has ordered a manhunt for the perpetrators involved in the deadly clash.

ALSO READ: Read how 2 notorious cult leaders were shot dead during Lagos gang war

He noted that the convener of the political gathering, Hon. Ademorin Kuye, had failed to notify the authorities for adequate security, giving room for the clash that resulted in the loss of lives. He disclosed that Hon. Kuye has been invited for questioning.

Small Jaypron was a self-confessed cult leader

Small Jaypron, one of the deceased victims of Wednesday's clash, was a self-confessed leader of the Eiye confraternity. Solo belonged to a rival Aiye confraternity.

When he was paraded in handcuffs at the Ikeja Police Command headquarters in August 2016, Jaypron shared the story of how he took the lives of rival gang lords and why he became a bloodthirsty cultist.

"I am an Eiye cult leader. I joined the cult in 2009. The reason for my joining was to avenge the death of a close friend, Sunday Folorunsho, aka Small Biscuits.

"It was the Aiye cult members who killed him. So, the Eiye faction approached me and said I should join them and they would help me fish out the people who killed my friend.

"I had a lot of boys working for me. I have killed three persons among whom were Femi Wiper and Lekan Akon."Retired Vice Adm. Ishaya Ibrahim, NIWAs Board Chairman, gave the assurance when he led members of the board on inspection to the Port Harcourt Area Office of NIWA.

Ibrahim, a former Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), also said that an economically viable inland waterways in Nigeria would be achieved when the waterways were charted and secured.

According to him Nigeria is sitting on a gold mine with various waterways that could boost safer and cheaper transportation industry.

We are sitting on a goldmine but we do not know how to mine it. The white men came to Nigeria through the water.

Any nation bound by water like Nigeria is a blessed nation. We need very little efforts to improve our life as a nation, through the waterways.

But crude oil does not allow us to see the potential. Water is enough to sustain Nigeria. Nations dig canals for water to flow for goods and services to be moved.

We do not only have canals in Nigeria, but God gave us the waterways and we are abusing them, he said

Ibrahim also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his interest in NIWA.

Similarly, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, the newly-appointed Managing Director of NIWA, said that transportation through waterways would no doubt reduce pressure on Nigerian roads.

Mamora, who described Nigeria as a blessed nation through its waterways, said that NIWA Amendment Act currently before the National Assembly would ensure a more effective, operational and efficient NIWA when passed into law.The national chairman of the ruling APC, Adams Oshiomhole had earlier set up an appeal committee to investigate complaints arising from various state primaries.

According to SaharaReporters, the panel, headed by Professor Oserheimen Osunbor in its report which it submitted on Wednesday, October 17, 2018, upheld Sanis candidacy.

Controversial primary election

The acting APC spokesman, Yekini Nabena had earlier saying that Sen. Sani remained its only senatorial candidate from Kaduna Central.

Nabena made the announcement after a primary election was held and Uba Sani, a Special Adviser to Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai was declared as the winner with 2,088 votes.

Senator Sani also distanced himself from the election, describing it as illegal.The former vice president took to his Twitter account to disclose that poverty creates an enabling environment for crime, a problem he promised to solve as president.

He posted, "The most effective way to fight crime is to provide opportunity to create wealth, because poverty is conducive to crime.

"If you elect me as your President, I will equip the security forces to fight terrorism and crime. Additionally, I will do what I do best - job creation."

Atiku was elected the presidential candidate of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) at the party's national convention in Port Harcourt on October 7, 2018, and has selected former Anambra governor, Peter Obi, as his running mate."My dear and proud people, today I tendered my resignation," Pashinyan said, pledging to "ensure the free expression of (the) people's will during snap parliamentary elections."

He came to power in May after spearheading weeks of mass anti-government rallies which toppled veteran leader Serzh Sarkisian.

Pashinyan has since reshaped the Caucasus nation's political landscape, ousting many of the old elites from power.

The new government quickly found itself at loggerheads with the majority of lawmakers who are allied with ex-president Sarkisian and have stood in the way of Pashinyan's reform drive.

Pashinyan, a 43-year-old former journalist, aims to hold snap polls before the end of the year in an attempt to weaken the influence of Sarkisian who was ousted after a 10-year stint as president.

Parliamentary elections are not scheduled until 2022.

Pashinyan's resignation could trigger snap polls -- but only if MPs twice fail to select a new prime minister over the next two weeks, resulting in the dissolution of parliament.

During a meeting with his party members on Tuesday, Pashinyan said that he planned to put forward his candidacy for the prime minister's post -- but "with the aim not to get elected" so as to spark the snap poll.

All the opposition factions in the parliament have agreed they will not nominate their own candidates for prime minister.

"Pashinyan's resignation is aimed at artificially creating a situation leading to snap polls, which he needs to complete the revolutionary process," political analyst Arman Boshyan told AFP.

Pashinyan and his ministers will continue as an acting cabinet until a new prime minister is elected.

According to the Armenian constitution, snap legislative elections must be held between 30 and 45 days after parliament is dissolved.

At peak of popularity

In a move that triggered new street protests by Pashinyan's supporters, the Armenian parliament passed on October 3 a bill making it harder to dissolve the assembly and hold snap elections.

Pashinyan accused MPs of stabbing him in the back, saying the adoption of the bill was nothing short of a "counter-revolution".

He then fired six ministers from the Prosperous Armenia and Dashnaktsutyun parties who backed the controversial bill which was sponsored by Sarkisian's Republican Party.

The Republican Party has said it is not against holding snap polls but wants them to be called no earlier than in May or June so the parties have time to prepare for the campaign.

Analysts said that Pashinyan, who has campaigned against corruption and for economic reform, is seeking new elections while he is at the peak of his popularity.

"He is in a hurry because he knows that his popularity -- which is at its peak right now -- might dwindle," said Boshyan."I listened stupefied to a president on this continent because I couldn't believe he could be such a liar," Rodriguez said on Wednesday, referring to the claim that "6,000 unwell Venezuelans a day are entering Ecuador."

Ecuador said it "will not tolerate any demonstration of disrespect towards our authorities," adding however that it would continue to offer help to Venezuelans entering the country.

South America has been grappling this year with a migration crisis sparked by a mass exodus of Venezuelans fleeing poverty, failing public services and shortages of basic necessities.

The United Nations says 2.3 million Venezuelans are living outside the country, with 1.6 million having fled since 2015. An estimated 90 percent have fled to other Latin American countries.But the offer extends to speakers of German or the regional language Ladin -- not to those who only speak Italian.

While the passport issue isn't on the ballot per se, and other issues such as immigration have dominated the campaign, the dual-nationality question has nevertheless been a hot-button topic.

Proponents of dual citizenship claim it will forge a stronger European identity in the face of growing far-right and populist forces.

But critics fear offering Austrian nationality only to German- and Ladin-speakers could prove divisive in a territory often held up as a model of peaceful cohabitation between the different linguistic groups.

And a furious Italian government sees Kurz's proposal as an attack on its sovereignty.

"You can't give away passports without our consent," Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said at the weekend. "A dual passport is out of the question."

Vienna, which has yet to draw up a concrete roadmap for its scheme, has recently sought to calm the waters, promising to proceed solely with Rome's consent.

'We have nothing to do with Italy'

In South Tyrol's capital Bolzano, the low-key campaign is in evidence only through a few political posters in the town's green spaces.

For retired bank employee Rene, Austrian citizenship would be a dream come true.

"We have nothing to do with Italy. It'll give us back a feeling of belonging to our Austrian homeland," he told AFP.

Part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire for over five centuries, South Tyrol was ceded to Italy after World War I, but awarded autonomous status.

Subjected to forced "Italianisation" by Benito Mussolini from the 1920s, just before World War II the province's German speakers were offered the option of "returning" to Nazi Germany or remaining as fully fledged Italians.

In 1948, the rights of the three main language groups -- German, Italian and Ladin -- were enshrined in the territory's autonomy statute.

But for many the dream of rejoining Austria, or attaining independence from Italy, never faded. There was even a series of separatist bombings during the 1950s and 1960s.

Everyone is required to identify with a linguistic group and according to the latest figures from 2014, 65 percent of the half-a-million-strong population feel themselves to be German speakers, 27 percent Italian and four percent Ladin.

All public signs are trilingual and most people switch effortlessly between Italian and German.

Nevertheless, with its stunning views of the Dolomite mountains and traditional Alpine architecture, Bolzano has an undeniably Austrian feel.

The restaurants that ring the main square all offer apple strudel. One store even sells that most quintessentially Viennese cake, the Sacher Torte.

Political majority?

The ideal of full independence is inscribed in the statutes of the ruling South Tyrolean People's Party, but its leading candidate, Arno Kompatscher, concedes that most people are happy with the status quo.

"According to polls by all parties, the top campaign issue is immigration. Dual citizenship comes very low down," he told AFP.

He said he feared the issue could be instrumentalised by far-right or identitarian groupings.

Sven Knoll, a candidate for the more stridently pro-independence Die Freiheitlichen (Freedom) party, believes "there is already a political majority for dual citizenship, across party lines".

But Guenther Pallaver, political science professor at Innsbruck University, is sceptical.

"With no concrete proposal on the table from Vienna and no official opinion polls on the matter, I think the debate will evaporate after Sunday's vote," he told AFP.

Marc Roeggla, researcher in minority rights at the EURAC institute in Bolzano, said that even if a near-term solution seemed unlikely, the issue of dual citizenship would not go away.

Vienna's mistake had been to announce the move unilaterally.

"If everyone can come to the table as an equal partner from the very beginning, I really think it could work," he said.

Maria Eichbichler, a shopowner in Bolzano, said she was all for dual citizenship.On average, 20 veterans per day are committing suicide, and only six of those have registered for services through the VA. Our goal is to get all veterans to get the word out so that all veterans know about the services available to them, Wolf said."It's a very big thing. It's grown bigger than the purpose I designed it for," Crabtree told AFP during a recent visit to New York to be a judge at Comic Con.

The book's success has been amplified by the wild popularity of the Hulu series, which first aired in April 2017 just as liberal America started contending with the presidency of Donald Trump.

Atwood's nightmare of an America transformed into a totalitarian society, where women are reduced to sexual slavery, quickly became a parable to many about the political shift to the right and the national reckoning about sexual abuse.

Since then, female protesters have donned the costumes worn on TV by the persecuted women on Gilead all over the world.

In Washington, women who opposed the confirmation of new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- in part because of sexual assault allegations against him -- donned the habit.

Others wore it at abortion rallies in Buenos Aires and Dublin, or at anti-Trump rallies in Warsaw.

Crabtree, the daughter of a US father from Kentucky and a Japanese mother from Okinawa, admits she was oblivious to the phenomenon at first.

"For two and a half years, I was doing 'The Handmaid's Tale'. I did not really see the impact," she says.

Filming was intense and breaks were rare. It was only afterwards that Crabtree, who worked in fashion in the 1990s before moving into television, realized that her design had taken on a life of its own.

"For me, it's brilliant news -- it's something that's quite emotional and emotionally satisfying," she tells AFP.

"As an artist, you are trying to express the times, aren't you? Trying to understand how to communicate and emotionally commune with people."

'Normal and terrifying'

Her costume -- which instantly evokes dread -- clearly struck a chord, even if the design cost her countless sleepless nights and lengthy periods of self-doubt.

"I had great love for the story and respect for the story," she said. "I didn't want to get it wrong."

But she knew she wanted "to do something different, not just do a period look that nobody would relate to in 2016," explained Crabtree.

"I wanted people to be afraid. I wanted it to be normal and terrifying. Sometimes the most terrifying things are the most normal things and then you think, 'Oh my God, it could happen -- this really could be me'."

Crabtree's bet paid off, but she didn't escape unscathed. The two seasons she spent working on "The Handmaid's Tale" dredged up a past she had been keen to forget.

"This show triggers too much of my own personal life and I didn't realize this until this month," she said.

US President Donald Trump's 2016 election victory left her "so angry" that she threw her rage into her work and says the experience brought to the surface sexual abuse she suffered as a child.

'Healing'

"I didn't remember anything till I was 28 and it is still buried in many ways," she said.

"It was not at the forefront when I began this journey with 'The Handmaid's Tale' but it has absolutely highlighted everything," she added.

The mental toll became so onerous that she left the series after two seasons, despite the show's enormous success and the boost it had given her career.

"It's so healing in the long run, it's both very painful and beautiful at the same time... how it keeps coinciding with real life."

While she has since worked on other projects -- notably a "feminist" film with "Mudbound" director Dee Rees and another with actress Anjelica Huston -- Crabtree is happy to see her costumes take on a life of their own.

Reality star Kim Kardashian made a "Handmaid's Tale" statement -- albeit an incongruous one with a plunging neckline, bulging cleavage and thigh-high slit.

Lingerie website Yandy caused uproar with a "Brave Red Maiden Costume" for Halloween -- a skimpy, skin-tight minidress with long red cape and white bonnet, which it was forced to withdraw in late September under a storm of controversy.

Crabtree laughs it off.

"Everyone is going to dress themselves the way it fits them," she says.Now the two countries are preparing to sign contracts worth over $20 billion, more than half of which will be for an atomic power station built with Russian financing in the west of the country.

Karimov, an obstinate authoritarian wary of Moscow's influence became Uzbekistan's paramount leader even before the country's formal independence from the Kremlin in 1991.

More than two years after his death, his protege Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has used significant political and economic reforms to position himself as the republic's undisputed leader.

While publicly Mirziyoyev has honoured Karimov's memory he has also abandoned some of his predecessor's more repressive policies while projecting an image of a country more open to foreign investment and tourism.

Despite the pair meeting in Moscow last year, the two-day visit carries special significance for both men, according to Konstantin Kalachev, head of the Moscow-based Political Expert Group think tank.

"For Putin it is important to show he has partners. For Mirziyoyev it is important to show how respected he is in Moscow," Kalachev told AFP.

In the long-term, Kalachev said, Moscow's aim will be to turn Uzbekistan "from a partner into an ally."

Economic sweeteners

The trip offers an opportunity for Moscow to reinforce its economic clout in the Muslim-majority country of 32 million whose main export to Russia remains people -- around two million Uzbeks are estimated to be working or seeking work there. They are a key source of hard currency remittances back home in Uzbekistan.

The high point of Putin's visit is likely to be a groundlaying ceremony for the nuclear power plant.

The project is worth $11 billion and is expected to come online in 2028, according to Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, who called Uzbekistan the Kremlin's "strategic partner" in the region.

The plant has "breakthrough" importance for Uzbekistan, according to Bakhtiyor Ergashev of the Ma'no Centre for Research Initiatives in Tashkent.

It will be the first of its kind in Central Asia, where attitudes to nuclear power have been shaped by the Chernobyl nuclear plant tragedy and atomic weapons testing in the steppes of Uzbekistan's neighbour Kazakhstan.

The nadir in relations between Russia and Uzbekistan came about in 2012 after Tashkent walked out of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc that now consists of six ex-Soviet members.

Relations picked up towards the end of Karimov's reign, however, and have been lifted to a "new level" by investment-hungry Mirziyoyev's ascent to power, according to Ergashev.

Nevertheless, that doesn't mean Uzbekistan will be rushing to re-join the CSTO or other Moscow-led blocs, he said.Security forces swarmed the southern city of Kandahar after the shooting that shuttered shops and sent terrified civilians -- already on high alert for attacks -- into their homes.

In a Twitter post, the Taliban said Miller and Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq, who was killed, were the targets of the shooting.

"General Raziq and the provincial NDS (intelligence agency) chief have been killed, and the governor himself is in a critical condition," a senior government official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died, media support group NAI said in a statement.

Six of Raziq's bodyguards and two intelligence officers also were wounded in the attack that was carried out by one of the governor's security personnel, the official said.

The shooter had been killed, he added.

An Afghan security official told AFP the attack happened as the officials, including Miller, were leaving the meeting.

Miller was not hurt in the shooting, NATO's Resolute Support mission spokesman Colonel Knut Peters said in a statement.

Three Americans, including a soldier, civilian and contractor, were wounded in the cross-fire and had been evacuated from the scene.

"Initial reports indicate this was an Afghan-on-Afghan incident," Peters said.

"We are being told the area is secure."

A hospital official told AFP that several senior officials had been brought to the medical facility, but they would not provide further details.

Another witness said the city was "full of military forces".

"They don't allow anyone to come out of their houses," he told AFP.

Raziq, an anti-Taliban strongman, was widely seen as a bulwark against the insurgency in Kandahar, the militant group's birthplace, and had previously survived multiple assassination attempts.

He long controlled the province with an iron hand and was accused of running secret torture chambers, an allegation he denied.

Bloody violence

Afghanistan is tense ahead of the October 20 legislative election after the Taliban pledged to attack the ballot.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house, including doctors, mullahs, and the sons of former warlords.

The election process has already been marred by bloody violence, with hundreds killed or wounded in recent months.

At least 10 candidates have been killed so far including Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who was blown up Wednesday by a bomb placed under his sofa in the southern province of Helmand.

The election is seen as a rehearsal for the presidential vote scheduled for April and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on "democratic processes".Canadians can now buy, sell and possess recreational marijuana in the country, after it was legalised today.

Hundreds queued in the eastern areas of Canada to be among the first to buy legal marijuana when it became legal at midnight.

Medicinal marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2001. Uruguay is the only other country where it's completely legal.

Dale Carruthers, crime reporter, told RadioLIVE Drive that from today, he can officially be a legal "weed smoker".

"It's a pretty historic day in Canada. As a crime reporter, I'd reported on cannabis and crime for a long time, and I've seen first hand how marijuana convictions have dramatically altered lives," he said.

It's a huge day in Canada.

The new law comes with some restrictions. It will be illegal to possess more than 30 grams of dried cannabis in public, grow more than four plants per household and to buy from an unlicensed dealer.

Listen to the full interview with Dale Carruthers above.

Drive with Ryan Bridge, 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on rova available on Android and iPhone.

RadioLIVE.Steven Grover, professor from the University of Otago Business School, offers his expert analysis on surviving sex scandals in the wake of the claims that have been levelled against former National MP Jami-Lee Ross over the past 24 hours.

Listen to the full interviews above.

The Long Lunch with Lynda Hallinan, 12pm - 3pm on RadioLIVE and streaming live to the rova app on Android and iPhone.

RadioLIVE.A sociologist says the Jami-Lee Ross saga has exposed a potentially concerning example of donor influence within the National Party.

On Wednesday, outgoing MP Jami-Lee Ross released the recording of a conversation he had with Simon Bridges over a $100,000 donation. In the audio, Mr Ross and Mr Bridges discuss how the Chinese donors would like to have more than one ethnically Chinese MP in the party.

Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley says it is not surprising to hear the National Party list could be on offer in exchange for sizeable donations.

In the recording, Mr Ross tells Mr Bridges one of the donors could become a candidate after going through "candidate college".

"I am deeply concerned that somebody who should give a donation to a political party should then expect certain political outcomes," Prof Spoonley told RadioLIVE, saying it might be typical in China, but not here.

"We need them to understand that in our society, we have certain requirements in terms of democratic process. That needs to be carefully explained to them."

But Mr Spoonley emphasises that it would be naive to think that influence was limited to the Chinese community.An 18-month 140m modernisation of Liverpool Lime Street station has been completed. Platforms across the station have been completely remodelled, two new platforms have been built, and extensive signalling enhancements completed.Mattis to Seek More Resilient U.S. Ties With Chinas Military

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will seek more resilient military ties during talks with his Chinese counterpart in Singapore slated for Thursday, a U.S. official said, as both militaries attempt to navigate mounting tensions.

Mattis saw first hand last month how growing Sino-U.S. friction could undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for an October meeting in China with Defence Minister Wei Fenghe, in apparent retaliation over U.S. sanctions.

A meeting with Wei now appears set to take place on the sidelines of a gathering of Asian defense ministers in Singapore.We have to come back to the table to figure out what this will cost and whether people will even want to tax themselves for this, she said. There is just not enough information to provide to the constituency right now to say why this is best.In the face of new challenges, Germany is recommitting itself to the Nato alliance. But what will playing a more central military role mean to a country that has often been accused of reluctance about its armed forces?

It was an unseasonably mild morning as the Sun rose slowly over the training range at Pabrade in Lithuania. This is effectively Nato's eastern front. Belarus is just a few kilometres away, with Russia beyond.

Lurking just outside the perimeter wire loom several Leopard battle tanks of a German armoured battalion.

So what are the Germans doing here and what is the significance of this deployment for Berlin and for the Atlantic alliance as a whole?Iran is raking in more cash from oil exports thanks to higher prices despite the decline in amount of oil exported, the country's Vice President Eshaq Jahagiri told Iranian media, as quoted by Radio Free Europe.

America thinks Saudi Arabia can replace this oil. But right now Iran's oil has reached more than $80 [per barrel], and with half the previous exports we will have the same income as before, Jahagiri said, adding that while some of Iran's oil clients had stopped buying its crude oil, the country had taken on some new buyers.

"On the other hand, we have also negotiated with traditional customers to find solutions for cooperation," the vice president said, as quoted by state news agency Shana. It's not strange for countries that are being sanctioned to look for ways to circumvent sanctions.

Radio Free Europe notes that Jahagiri's remarks are in essence an acknowledgement that Iran's oil exports had shrunk by half from 2.5 million bpd exported before President Trump pulled the United States out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly called the Iran nuclear deal.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By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/17/2018



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Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade.

star Darcey Silva insists Jesse Meester is the one who wanted their relationship more although he was shown breaking up with her on Season 2 of the Before the 90 Days spinoff.During an appearance at a Season 6 mixer for in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Darcey told Us Weekly of her toxic romance with Jesse."I'm going to try to forgive and forget. There's bigger and better for me. He'll never actually admit in actuality what he wanted from me."Darcey was portrayed on the series as an insecure woman madly in love with a man who wavered in his feelings for and commitment to her.When Jesse flew from the Netherlands to the United States to break up with Darcey face-to-face, she was shown expressing optimism their love would conquer all and prevail.Although many fans accused Jesse of being controlling, manipulative and emotionally abusive to Darcey, she appeared to take him back and giving him more chances at every opportunity."I knew he wanted something more out of me. It was insecurities on his end. Everything was opposite," Darcey said of criticism she was the weaker partner in the relationship. "Really, he wanted the relationship more. It was really toxic and hard trying to get out of."Darcey and Jesse went toe-to-toe on Sunday night's Tell All special for : Before the 90 Days, but the pair actually hugged it out in the end and wished each other all the best going forward.And according to Darcey, 42, she has remained single since then -- and there's no going back to Jesse, 24."The whole nature of our relationship was very up and down. We fought and then made up. To me, that was normal," Darcey told Us, before adding that Jesse tried to "paint a story" that made him "seem so grand."The night before Jesse departed the United States, he went into Darcey's hotel room to check on her following their breakup. As shown on : Before the 90 Days, Darcey insisted they had sex, but Jesse absolutely denied it."I came to the room thinking he wanted to make up from all the nonsense in our relationship. I didn't know he was coming there to break up. I was also going through personal things with my sister, which he embellished," Darcey said, likely referencing her arrest that Jesse often talks about.In terms of Jesse's denial about their sexual encounter, she continued, "I think he wants the attention to be on him. It's just sad. I feel violated by that. I knew it was coming to an end. I fell for it, but, I'm not going to do it again."As for her two daughters, Darcey revealed they are happy and relieved Jesse is out of their lives."I don't need to talk bad about him. He's just weird. I felt like he hated me, he never really loved me," she confessed to the magazine.Darcey and Jesse starred in both Season 1 and Season 2 of : Before the 90 Days.Season 6 of with six new couples is set to premiere Sunday, October 21 at 8PM ET/PT on TLC.,



We're sorry, this article is not currently availableWhile Maria Taylor can usually be seen as a reporter for ESPN or an advocate for her charity, The Winning Edge Leadership Academy, she spoke aNewsweek, with the help of Statista Inc., recently released a list of the World's Best Hospitals for 2019. Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center has been ranked as the 154th best hospital in the U.S.Contributed photo

BARKMANSTED  The 13th Annual Farmington River Wild and Scenic Photo Exhibit will open Thursday at the annual Farmington River Coordinating Committee (FRCC) Open House at the historic Squire's Tavern, located at 100 East River Road, at Peoples State Forest in Pleasant Valley/Barkhamsted, 4:30-7 p.m.

The exhibit will include works by local photographer Tom Cameron, some inspired by the river's outstanding Wild and Scenic characteristics: scenic beauty; free-flowing, clean water; wildlife; recreation; history; cultural (native/early American); fish.TORRINGTON  The City of Torrington Parks & Recreation Department, in conjunction with the Torrington Lions Club, Torrington Municipal & Teachers Federal Credit Union, and Doyles Medical Supply will be hosting a Trunk or Treat event on Saturday, Oct. 27, 4 p.m .to 6 p.m. in the parking lot behind the Torrington Armory,153 South Main St.

Anyone interested in showcasing their creativity and talent by participating in Trunk or Treat should register in advance and plan to show up by 2:30 p.m. to decorate their vehicle. Trunk or Treat Vehicle Registration forms are available at the Parks and Recreation Department until all spaces are filled. Anyone registering their vehicle for the event will be required to provide their own candy to hand out.

Children under the age of 15 are encouraged to wear their costumes to the event as they go trunk or treating. The event will also feature Halloween themed bounces houses, photo booth, hayrides, stilt-walker, juggler, open suitcase circus station and a DJ with music.

As this event draws crowds in excess of 1,000 people, donations are needed to help ensure that there is enough treats for the children. Monetary donations or donations of candy can be brought directly to the Mayors office, Torrington Municipal & Teachers Federal Credit Union, Sullivan Senior Center, or the Parks & Recreation Department. Several local businesses and organizations have already made monetary contributions toward this event, however additional donations are needed.

The event will begin at 4 p.m. The rain date is Oct. 28 at 4 p.m.

Volunteer drivers needed

The American Cancer Society is in need of volunteer drivers from throughout Litchfield County to support the Road To Recovery program, which provides cancer patients with free rides to and from treatment. A successful transportation assistance program can be a tremendous, potentially life-saving asset to the community.

Volunteer drivers are needed to help give cancer patients a much-needed ride. The organization screens and trains all volunteer drivers, and coordinates the rides for patients. Volunteer drivers donate their time, use of their vehicle, and can provide as many rides as they want. All drivers must have a current, valid drivers license, a good driving record, access to a safe and reliable vehicle, a regular desktop, laptop, or tablet computer access. and proof of car insurance.

To learn more about volunteering for the Road To Recovery program, visit cancer.org or call us at 1-800-227-2345.

Wisdom House to hold retreat

Litchfield - Jung, Intuition and Spiritual Creativity will be offered at Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center on Friday, Oct. 26 through Sunday, Oct. 28. Don Bisson, FMS will be presenting.

This program will explore creativity at its source. Through talks, sharing, and creative expression, participants will use a Jungian lens to view intuition and its role in feeding the wellspring of human creativity.

Don Bisson is known internationally as a lecturer on Christian spirituality and Jungian psychology. He holds graduate degrees in liturgy, spirituality, and transpersonal psychology as well as a Doctor of Ministry from Pacific School of Religion specializing in Spiritual Direction and Jungian Psychology. Bisson is a Marist brother based in Esopus, NY. Visit: www.donbisson.com

For fees and further information visit: www.wisdomhouse.org, or call 860-567-3163, or email programs@wisdomhouse.org.

Womens Forum welcomes speaker

LITCHFIELD  The Womens Forum of Litchfield welcomes all to what promises to be a lively and informative program by Elizabeth Hogan, Ghosts in our oceans: Protecting marine wildlife at the Litchfield Community Center at 421 Bantam Road, Litchfield, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2:30 p.m.

Hogan is the Program Manager for Oceans and Wildlife with World Animal Protection, where she specializes in marine wildlife entanglement in addition to work on marine debris, illegal wildlife trade, whaling policy, and wildlife in captivity. For the last five years she has researched the impact of derelict fishing gear on marine mammals and worked on establishing rescue networks and protocols for entangled marine life. She has previously worked with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) on protective policies and fishing gear modification for the conservation of North Atlantic Right Whales.

Prior to working in the animal welfare sector, Hogan developed 15 years of experience with government, corporate, and non-profit organizations, including four years as a consultant on climate change, deforestation policy, and sea level rise. She has also worked in ecotourism development in Ecuador and with the Camara de Industrias of Costa Rica to assist Central American businesses in adopting environmentally sustainable business practices.

She is a contributing author to two books on corporate social responsibility. She has a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a dual Master of Science in Marine & Coastal Natural Resources and a Master of Science in Sustainable Development from the University for Peace in Costa Rica and American University in Washington, DC.

The event isopen to non-Forum members with a $10 fee at the door, which includes a High Tea reception. For more information call 860-567-3966 or visitwomensforumoflitchfield.org.

Harvest Fest, 5K Run/Walk scheduled

The Whigville Preservation Group will hold the 3rd Annual Whigville Harvest Fest Sunday, Oct. 28, in conjunction with the 9th Annual Burlington 5K Run/Walk presented by the Burlington Land Trust.

There will be fun for the entire family after the 5K race, such as a kids games and activities, arts and crafts, tractors on display, baked goods, local produce, a silent auction, and more.

The Whigville Preservation Group is a project of the Burlington Land Trust.

Whigville is a throw-back to another time in American history when farming was prevalent, said Paul Rochford, President of the Burlington Land Trust. The landscape of Whigville, with its scenic views and grange, is increasingly unique in 21st century New England, and saving it is one of our top priorities.

The Whigville Harvest Fest runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Whigville Grange, 153 South Main Street, Burlington. The Burlington 5K Run/Walk will start at 10 a.m. at the same location.

For more information, email whigvillect@gmail.com.

The Whigville Preservation Group is a project of the Burlington Land Trust, Inc. The mission of the Whigville Preservation Group is to preserve and protect the agricultural heritage of Whigville, both its farmlands and woodlands, for future generations. To find out more, visit www.facebook.com/whigvillect/The Torrington Police reported the following arrests:

BREACH OF PEACE: George Crownshaw, 47, of Beechwood Avenue, was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with second-degree breach of peace and second-degree threatening. He was released on a $5,000 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in courts on Nov. 15.

PARAPHRENALIA: James Holcomb, 31, of Belmont Drive, was arrested on Oct. 12 and charged with possession with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of narcotics. He was released on a $1,000 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

BREACH OF PEACE: Matthew Bielefield, 27, of Elm Street, was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with second-degree breach of peace and reckless driving. He was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in in Superior Court in Torrington on Nov. 29

DUI: Christian Vargas-Gonzalez, 30, of South Main Street, was arrested on Oct. 14 and charged with driving under the influence and evading arrest. He was released on a $500 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

DUI: Tashia Bridges, 28, of Holabird Street, Winchester, was arrested on Oct 13 and charged with driving under the influence. She was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

ASSAULT: Howard Nemaizer, 51, of Red Mountain Road, was arrested on Oct. 13 and charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace. He was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Nov. 29.

TRESPASSING: Frank Stephens, 57, of East Elm Street, was arrested on Oct. 8 and charged with second-degree criminal trespassing, resisting arrest and public disturbance. He was issued a summons to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

ASSAULT: Katherine Joy, 50, of Prospect Street, was arrested Sept. 26 on a warrant and charged with personal assault. She was released o a $1,500 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

ASSAULT: Joseph Cilfone, 20, of Main Street, was arrested on Oct. 13 and charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct. He was released on a $1,500 non-surety bond and appeared in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 13 where he was released from custody.

RISK OF INJURY: Jasmine Ruiz, 20, of North Elm Street, was arrested on Oct. 11 and charged with risk of injury, second-degree breach of peace, third-degree assault and violating a protective order. She was held on a $2,500 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Nov. 30

RISK OF INJURY: Jorge Gonzalez, 27, of Hoffman Street, 2nd floor, was arrested on Oct. 11 and charged with risk of injury, second-degree breach of peace and violating a protective order. He was held on a $2,500 surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 17.

ASSAULT: Michael Zarillo, 51, of Hillcrest Street, was arrested on Oct. 10 charged with third-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace. He was released on a $1,000 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

RESISTING ARREST: Alexander Roland, 42, of Meyer Road, was arrested on Oct. 11 and charged with resiting arrest and breach of peace. He was released on a $1,500 non-surety bond and is scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Oct. 22.

BREACH OF PEACE: Lorraine Plourde, 53, of South Main Street, was arrested on Oct. 10 and charged with second-degree breach of peace, violation of a restraining order and third-degree assault. scheduled to appear in Superior Court in Torrington on Nov. 15.What meaning-centered psychotherapy does not mean is that suddenly everyone participating is going to feel happy or to have found joy or that outcomes from the disease will change, she said. But it does lead participants to live in the present moment, to focus on relationships and support, to find meaning and purpose in everyday experiences.Carballido said that in addition to help from its volunteer board, Lake County Honor Flight relies on the major donations and support it receives from community groups and individuals, and the devotion of volunteers, known as guardians, who offer to go along on the trips and help the vets with everything from getting around to companionship.The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on Thursday expressed serious concerns about rights violations against lawmakers from Cambodias now-dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and called for a meeting with CNRP chief Kem Sokha, who is currently held under house arrest.



The IPUs Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians said in a statement that it had met with former CNRP president Sam Rainsy and the official delegation from Prime Minister Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) during its Oct. 14-18 session in Geneva, Switzerland, to examine the cases of 57 Cambodian lawmakers after the unlawful dissolution of the CNRP in November last year.



The IPU reaffirmed its prior conclusions that the fundamental rights of all the opposition parliamentarians have been blatantly violated by the authorities, including the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, the statement said.



The statement also cited IPU President Gabriela Cuevas, who met with both sides, saying she strongly condemned the violations and asked the official delegation to allow an IPU mission to see Mr. Kem Sokha, who was recently placed under house arrest due to ill health in detention.



Kem Sokha was arrested in September last year on treason charges widely seen as politically motivated and the Supreme Court dissolved his CNRP two months later for its part in an alleged plot to topple the government, banning its candidates from taking part in a July 29 general election that the CPP steamrolled without any viable opponent.



The political crackdown drew condemnation from western governments who lamented Cambodias reversals on democracy, dismissed Julys ballot as unfree and unfair, and had demanded Kem Sokhas release and a reinstatement of the CNRP.



Hun Sen, who secured another five-year term to add to his 33 years in office after official election results were announced on Aug. 15, has made a practice of heavy-handed crackdowns on his critics, followed by a relaxation of restrictions after facing international condemnation.



Despite being denied bail six times, Kem Sokha was finally granted a release by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court from pre-trial detention on Sept. 10, under the conditions that he must stay within a block radius of his home, cannot meet with CNRP officials or foreigners, and cannot or host any rallies or political activities.



Sam Rainsy on Thursday welcomed the IPUs statement, which he noted was made on behalf of the members of parliaments from 184 countries, and called it critical in the fight to safeguard democracy in Cambodia.



The IPU condemns the brutality of Cambodian authorities and the abuse of human rights in Cambodia, said the former CNRP leader, who is currently living in self-imposed exile to avoid several convictions in Cambodia.



The IPU demands Kem Sokhas release and the dropping of bogus charges against opposition party members. They also demand that the CNRP be reestablished and permitted to return to politics.



Sam Rainsy said that the IPUs statement showed Hun Sen that he wont be able to get away with what he has done, adding that the prime minister must hold another election if he wants international recognition of election results.



Ruling party responds



Cambodias now one-party National Assembly, or parliament, dismissed the IPUs criticism on Thursday, saying that its Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians had based [its findings] solely on information from another political party.



The IPU has blacklisted Cambodia through its biased statement, regardless of the facts, the National Assembly said in a response attributed to spokesman Chheang Vun.



Chheang Vun warned that the IPUs statement could hinder Cambodias efforts to obtain peace, and reiterated that the country had held a free and fair election and respects human rights.



The National Assembly spokesman also denied that Kem Sokha is being held under house arrest, saying that he was transferred from pre-trial detention following a court decision and on a humanitarian basis.



The IPUs statement came a day after Hun Sen arrived in Brussels for top-level meetings hoping to persuade European leaders to forgo threatened sanctions against his government.



The European Union launched a fact-finding mission to Cambodia in early July to assess whether Hun Sens government was adhering to its commitments in the Generalised Scheme of Preferencesan agreement that grants Cambodian exports tax-free entry into the European market under the Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme.



Weeks after the investigation, the CPP rolled to victory in the countrys national election following a months-long crackdown on the opposition, NGOs and the independent media.



On Oct. 5, the EU informed Cambodia that it will lose preferential trade status unless it makes clear and demonstrable improvements to its rights record.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.University students study in a corridor for the upcoming Chinese Graduate Student Entrance Examination at the Hebei University of Engineering in Handan, northern China's Hebei province, Dec. 20, 2017.

The administration of President Xi Jinping is stepping up a nationwide political campaign targeting higher education institutions in China, as a number of professors have lost their jobs over comments made online or in public, an overseas rights group said on Thursday.

"The worsening conditions for free speech by academics in China come as universities aggressively implement Xi Jinpings ideological assault on universal values, including against freedom of expression," the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network, which compiles reports from groups inside China, said in a report on its website.

It said at least six professors have been affected since April, of whom four have been fired.

Guizhou University professor Yang Shaozheng was fired after he made comments critical of the ruling Chinese Communist Party in an online article.

Yang received notice in Aug. 2018 that he would stop receiving wages in 20 days, and his appeal against the decision was rejected on Sept. 30, CHRD said.

Meanwhile, Xiamen University history professor Zhou Yunzhong was fired on Sept. 1 after he made "inflammatory" comments about Chinese society on his social media account.

And in June, economics professor You Shengdong lost his job at the same institution after students reported comments he made in class to school authorities that were supposedly "politically inappropriate," the group said.

The Hebei Engineering University fired professor Wang Gang in July for criticizing the government on the social media platform WeChat, while Zhai Juhong was suspended from teaching at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law in Hubei after she criticized the constitutional amendments allowing President Xi to rule indefinitely.

And in April, assistant professor Xu Chuanqing was suspended from teaching class at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture after students reported comments he made in class about the "superiority" of Japanese students to Chinese students.

The seven taboos

Political commentator Li Weidong said Xi's campaign on China's campuses is based on the "seven taboos," a list of things never to be discussed in public life, the subject of party Document No. 9, which veteran political journalist Gao Yu was jailed for "leaking overseas."

They are: universal values of human rights and democratic, constitutional government; press freedom; civil society; citizens' rights; the historical mistakes of the Chinese Communist Party; the financial and political elite; and judicial independence.

"These are their red lines," Li said. "You can't talk about freedom, constitutional government, or even social responsibility."

"This is fundamentally illiberal, comprehensively opposes universal values," he said. "This is a process of Nazification, which is very dangerous."

Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, said there is no public space left in which Chinese academics feel safe having a debate.

"I agree with Li Weidong's statement that China is becoming like the Nazi regime," Xia said. "Now is a time of totalitarian expansion, and China has abandoned all classical Marxism."

"Xi Jinping's faction has taken the place of the party, and the party has taken the place of the government," he said. "Xi Jinping has become a new god, which means that he has also replaced the government. This is a very dangerous practice."

Li said that while the party would always revere the idea of late supreme leader Mao Zedong, Xi's administration now has the hallmarks of an extreme-right regime.

"Xi Jinping would never ditch Mao, because he is basically like an ancestral tablet to the leadership," Li said. "He also binds the party and government together, into a nationalistic entity."

"Actually, this is really right-wing centralization of power, with a strongman at its core," he said.

Xia said the party will likely move onto mass political campaigns, once it has locked down freedom of speech on campus.

"This kind of right-wing regime needs the support of various mobs, and that will follow once the Chinese Communist Party has managed to extinguish any trace of independent thought and the public availability of knowledge," he said.

Reported by Shi Shan for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.A website editor who failed to implement a delete notice from China's internet police has stood trial at a court in the southwestern province of Sichuan on charges of "failing to perform internet security management duties."



Xu Hua pleaded not guilty to the charge at his Oct. 10 trial at the Jiangyang District People's Court in Sichuan's Luzhou city.



His lawyer says Xu's trial was the first since amendments to China's Criminal Law were made in 2015.



"The trial ended without a verdict being announced, and Xu faces up to three years in prison if convicted," the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network reported.



Xu stands accused of failing to implement a directive from his local branch of China's powerful Cyberspace Administration, ordering the deletion of 12 "politically harmful" posts on the website he administered, the China Wine City Forum, in August 2016.



"Xu refused to delete the posts, which referred to late supreme leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, saying they contained information widely available in the public domain," the overseas-based CHRD said.



One of the "politically harmful" posts was titled "Chairman Mao made mistakes but wasn't wrong, while Deng Xiaoping was wrong, but made no mistakes."



Xu was reportedly called in for a "chat" with the local internet police, and told to correct his omission, but he refused point blank to comply with the directive.



His refusal to comply had "led to the widespread dissemination of 12 illegal articles," the prosecution said.



The indictment took into account the number of times each of the posts had been viewed, dating back to before the law was amended.



Xu's defense attorney Ran Tong said he had argued in court that Xu shouldn't be retroactively punished for actions he failed to carry out before the law was changed.



Xu was initially detained on Aug. 22, 2017 and formally arrested the following month. Prosecutors issued his indictment on March 22.



He is currently being held in the police-run Luzhou Detention Center and faces a maximum jail term of three years under amendments to the Criminal Law adopted in 2015.



New rules



Earlier this month, China's Ministry of Public Security also issued a set of new rules empowering police to enter and search the premises of any internet service provider at any time, and to perform inspection of their equipment.



"Public security departments [police] should conduct supervision and inspection of internet service providers and users in accordance with requirements to manage online security risks, the rules state.



"Police may operate under the instructions of [the internet police] to enter business premises, computer rooms and workplaces, to explain, review, and copy any information related to internet security and inspection work," the directive said.



"They may also take technical measures related to network operations and online security," it said.



An online activist surnamed Liao said the move is evidence of an ever-widening clampdown on all forms of online expression.



"Any speech that is unfavorable to the ruling party is regarded as an online security risk," Liao said. "When a news report is forwarded online, it is also regarded as a security threat ... but in fact this is just a disguised way of cracking down on freedom of speech."



The new regulations take effect from Nov. 1, and also require internet service providers and users to take measures to "eliminate potential risks."



An internet user surnamed Wang from China's northeast said tight controls of China's internet show that the government has scant respect for human rights.



"Countries that have a constitution that you can rely on, and [honor] human rights, don't shut down their internet," Wang said. "To be frank, there are no checks and balances on power, so they go after whomever they want."



Reported by Qiao Long and Wang Yun for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Location where Thai troops will join their Malaysian and Chinese counterparts for a 10-day naval training exercise in the Strait of Malacca off Malaysia.

Thai troops will join their Malaysian and Chinese counterparts this weekend for a 10-day naval training exercise in the Strait of Malacca off Malaysia, marking the first time the three nations will drill together at the Indian Ocean gateway.

China and Malaysia began the Peace and Friendship drill as a table top exercise in 2014 and expanded to on-sea training involving troops from both nations the next year.

Thai officials said they were invited to join as a result of military talks with Malaysia in September. Bangkok will send 53 troops and three senior Thai Royal Navy staff members to participate in the drills, which will kick off on Saturday.

This trilateral military training is the first of its kind between China and ASEAN nations, Lai Yew Ming, a South China Sea analyst at Universiti Malaysia Sabah, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

We shouldnt see Chinas trilateral military training from a new perspective, but instead it should be expected.

China announced it would be sending 692 troops along with three ships, two helicopters, three airplanes and four vehicles.

The exercise aims to further demonstrate the common will of the armed forces of the three countries in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea region, strengthen practical exchanges and cooperation, and enhance their ability to jointly respond to various security threats, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said in statement earlier this week.

It does not target any country.

The Strait of Malacca is not in the South China Sea. It is a chokepoint between the southern Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

Malaysia, the host country, meanwhile, has not announced the number of troops or ships that will be involved in the exercise planned for ports Dickson and Klang, near Kuala Lumpur.

Only China would issue a statement about the exercise, a Malaysian military press officer told BenarNews.

The trilateral exercise helps China build relations in the region, said Prashanth Parameswaran, a fellow with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

China has been looking to cast its growing security links with Southeast Asian states as a demonstration of its commitment to regional stability, including in the South China Sea, even as it continues activities perceived to undermine that very stability, he told BenarNews.

Thailands inclusion is not surprising  China has been strengthening security ties with Thailand over the past few years including with new exercises, and that is seen as an even bigger win considering that Thailand is a U.S. treaty ally, he said.

Indonesia reacts

Neighboring country Indonesia, whose Sumatra island borders the Strait of Malacca, is aware of the training exercise.

This is something countries regularly do in their waters, foreign ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told BenarNews. We will continue to monitor.

In May, Indonesia and India  Chinas largest rival in Asia  announced plans to establish a strategic naval port at the mouth of the Malacca Strait. Arrmanatha said he did not have updated information on the port.

Anil Wadhwa, an Indian diplomat who served as ambassador to Thailand, said the exercise was not a threat to his nation, but he signaled that Malaysia and Thailand were willing to work with China to promote regional security.

It is also significant that the exercise is being held off the Straits of Malacca, which is an important choke point on sea lanes from the Indian Ocean leading to the Pacific Ocean, he told BenarNews.

China to host ASEAN navies

The exercise begins two days before China hosts Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members in their first joint naval exercises amid ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Running from Oct. 22 to 29, the training follows a computer-simulated exercise that took place in Singapore in August.

Both China and the regional bloc agreed that the upcoming exercises would take place in Zhanjiang, which sits on the South China Sea.

The sea region is the focus of tensions between rival powers the United States and China, and it is where territorial disputes between four ASEAN members and Beijing have simmered for years. China has transformed seven disputed reefs in the mineral-rich sea into man-made islands that house surface-to-air missiles and runways.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.In some instances, were finding properties that might have not had maintenance done on toilets, flapper valves or other things for which the (old) water meter was not catching consumption, Duebner said. The new water meters are seeing that. Were pointing it out to customers and having them make appropriate repairs. Once its taken care of, the bills always come back in line.Lao villagers formerly leasing land to a Vietnamese rubber company under a profit-sharing arrangement are now being refused compensation by the foreign-owned firm, which says the land belongs not to the villagers but to the state, Lao sources say.



Eighty families in Pak Houei village in Champassak provinces Pathumphone district signed the agreement in 2009 with Vietnams Daklak Rubber Company under which villagers would provide labor and 700 hectares of land for cultivation, with profits shared at 80 percent for those owning the land.



Claiming growing losses over the next four years, Daklak then renegotiated its lease to terms more favorable to the firm, with villagers and the company taking profits in a new 50-50 split.



But three years later, still losing money, the company brought in Vietnamese to work the land, saying the Lao villagers were poor workers and offering them compensation for the lands use instead.



Speaking to RFAs Lao Service, a villager said the proposed compensation, $50 per hectare per year, was too low, and when Daklak raised its offer to $55 per hectare, villagers requested the money in a lump sum payment covering the period 2009-2029.



All payments by Daklak then ceased, with Daklak demanding proof the villagers owned the disputed land on which they have paid taxes and grown corn, bananas, and vegetables for generations.



We would have accepted the new offer, even though we werent happy with it, a village leader told RFAs Lao Service.



Besides, we didnt want to upset the authorities, he said, adding that district and provincial authorities had pressured the Lao villagers to accept Daklaks offer.



Now, the villagers receive no money from the Vietnamese firm at all, sources say, adding that villagers have sent a letter to government authorities requesting fair compensation.



Speaking to RFA, an official of the provincial agriculture and forestry department claimed lack of detailed knowledge of the dispute over use of the land.



I still dont know much about the $55 compensation plan. I am not involved in this case, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



Some of these cases are handled by the districts, and others are handled by the natural resources department or by the agriculture and forestry department, he said.



The seizure of land for development or agricultural useoften without due process or fair compensation for displaced residentshas been a major cause of protest in Laos and other authoritarian Asian countries, including Cambodia and Myanmar.



Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Richard Finney.Myanmar residents stand near the Chinese-owned Fu Yuen Garment Company Ltd. factory after armed thugs attacked and hospitalized some workers on strike, on the outskirts of Yangon, Oct. 15, 2018.

More than 100 Myanmar garment workers are continuing a strike on Wednesday in front of Maha Bandula Park in downtown Yangon, demanding that a Chinese-owned textile factory rehire 30 workers responsible for starting the labor action and punish those responsible for a violent attack on striking workers on Monday that injured 25 people.

They also called on officials to enact laws to protect workers in Myanmar.

Workers from the Fu Yuen Garment Company Ltd. in Yangons Dagon Seikkan township have been on strike since Aug. 21 demanding better work conditions and an end to mistreatment by factory owners. After the 30 members of a committee that had been campaigning for better conditions for workers were sacked, others set up a protest camp outside the factory.

On Monday, the striking workers clashed with thugs hired by the factory, who attacked them with iron bars, leaving 25 laborers injured.

Following the violent clash, neighborhood residents demanded that police take action against those who beat the striking workers.

After police told them to file complaints so they could arrest the assailants, the locals got into a fight with people still working at the factory, and authorities arrested two student union leaders on Wednesday.

RFA's Myanmar Service was unable to reach the relevant police station and Fu Yuens management during several phone calls.

Authorities issued false information that striking workers sustained injuries in a clash with those still on the job, instead of publicly acknowledging that they were beaten by thugs hired by factory owners, said Thet Htar Swe, chairwoman of the Fu Yuen factory union, who was among the striking employees.

Everybody knows whos right and whos wrong, she said, adding that the problem needs to be resolved as soon as possible.

If not, there could be more serious problems, and the government and the Myanmar Police Force will be the ones who create instability, she said. Even if factory officials let us continue working at the factory, we can be discriminated against and face danger, and wed have to protect ourselves. We cant depend on anybody to protect us.

Activist Myat Kyaw, who is helping the striking workers, said some suspect that police collaborated with the factorys owner in making a plan to crack down on the workers protest.

We would like to request that authorities implement a plan to resolve this problem, he said.

Yangon regional lawmaker Nyi Nyi said that the police and other administrative organizations are responsible for delivering justice in this situation.

They also need to be transparent and release information, which is why there has been a delay in resolving the dispute between Fu Yuen and its workers, he said.

The factory is wrong, and the tension between the factory and workers is getting worse, said Mya Sein, a lower house lawmaker representing Dagon Seikkan township.

I have sent report letters on this case to the minister of labor, the Yangon regional minister, and the [ruling] NLD [National League for Democracy] party because I feel we need to solve this problem as soon as possible.



Two student activists arrested

On Tuesday, plainclothes police officers arrested two student activists who were part of a group from the Basic Education Student Union and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions protesting outside Dagon Shopping Center in Yangon in support of the striking factory workers.

Hnin Aung, one of the arrested activists, told RFA that officer Win Naing plans to file a case against him and fellow protester Wai Yan Oo for violating Article 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, which allows public demonstrations only if organizers first obtain permission from local authorities.

Police released both activists on bail Tuesday night.

We staged a protest questioning whether authorities were ignoring the attack on the workers by a group of thugs hired by the owner, Hnin Aung said.

They told us that we will be contacted later to undergo the legal process, he said.

RFA could not reach the San Chanung township police station where the two activists were taken.

Two dozen of the workers injured during Mondays clash between workers and the hired thugs were discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, Thet Htar Swe said.

The injured workers have filed a case against the attackers at Dagon Port police station, she said. The case is pending until medical reports have been received.

RFA could not reach the Dagon Port township police station or Fu Yuen factory management for comment.

On Monday, thugs believed to be hired by factory owners and other employees still working at the plant destroyed the protest camp and beat dozens of workers as they demanded the reinstatement of the 30 fired employees.

Those injured were taken to Sanpya Hospital, said injured factory worker Aye Thet Moe.

They hired gangsters to crack down on the protesters, he said. I got hit on my head and had to get three stitches.

Zayar Phyo, a union member of the MCE Rainbow Soup Factory who sent the injured workers to the hospital, told RFA that more than 20 workers were being treated at the medical facility for injuries to their heads, legs, hands, and other parts of their bodies and for broken bones.

As protesters blocked both of the two entrances to the factory, supervisors and assailants created a small entryway along the factorys rear wall for non-striking employees and the thugs to access the building, he said.

We, the protesting workers, blocked this door because the protest has gone on for months, and the workers are tired, he said.

But assailants wielding iron pipes and wooden sticks beat workers, most of whom were women, who blocked the entryway.



Police personnel stand guard along a street near the Chinese-owned Fu Yuen Garment Company Ltd. factory after armed thugs beat up and hospitalized some workers on strike, on the outskirts of Yangon, Oct. 15, 2018. Let others work

Aung Htay Win, deputy director general of the Labor Department, said that the clash occurred when the striking workers blocked the rear entrance to the factory that about 1,000 employees still on the job are using to access the plant.

Workers who want to protest can protest, but they should let the others who dont want to protest work, he said.

Khin Maung Thwin, coordinator of Yangon regions Labor Affairs Department, told RFA on Monday that labor officials, police, and township administration officials were on site to prevent further problems when those still working ended their shifts at 4:30 p.m. local time

He said he could not confirm that hired thugs had beat striking workers because he hadn't seen the attacks, though they were reported on the news.

What I heard is that the protesting workers tried to stop those still working from entering the factory, and they got into a fight, he said

The injured workers and people living in this township have demanded that police to take action against those who caused the injuries, he said at the time. Police have told the workers to file complaints, but I havent seen any reports yet.

Kyaw Htwe, chairman of the Local and International Labor Committee of Myanmars upper house of parliament, said his chamber in June approved changes to the countrys current labor law for disputes between workers and business owners, and sent them to lower house lawmakers for comment.

The changes include points on how to prevent disputes and how to take action against those who violate rules or regulations, he said.

The upper house will issue a final approval when we receive the changes back from the Union parliament with the comments, Kyaw Htwe said, adding that he could not comment on the Fu Yuen factory incident because lawmakers have yet to approve the legislation.

Myanmar's labor law was enacted in 2012 and amended in October 2014 after workers' groups said that factory employers routinely violated labor rules with impunity or were only made to pay fines when found guilty of violations. They demanded that imprisonment be added to the penalties.

The current draft amendment adds jail sentences of one to three months for violations and increases the fine to 10 million kyats (U.S. $6,223) from 1 million kyats (U.S. $623).

Myanmars garment sector jobs are facing a threat as the European Union mulls the reinstatement of economic sanctions over the Rohingya crisis that would end the industrys tariff-free access to the bloc.

By Aung Theinkha, Khet Mar, and Nadar Chann for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar and Nandar Chann. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.The UN Security Council holds a meeting to discuss the violence in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, at the United Nations in New York, Sept. 28, 2017.

UPDATED at 10:52 A.M. EDT on 2018-10-19

Myanmar officials on Thursday said the country will lobby its allies on the U.N. Security Council to block any possible decisions by the body based on next week's briefing by a U.N. fact-finding mission that investigated atrocities committed against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state.

The United States was among the nine nations on the 15-member Council that voted on Tuesday for a briefing by the panels chairman, Marzuki Darusman, to get additional information on the situation and its implications for global peace and security. Nine of 15 votes are required to approve agenda items.

The fact-finding missions 444-page report issued on Sept. 18 detailed violence by Myanmar security forces and called for the prosecution of top military commanders on genocide charges at the International Criminal Court or by another criminal tribunal.

The results of the vote prompted a strong objection to the Councils request by Hau Do Suan, Myanmars permanent representative of Myanmar to the U.N., who called it one-sided.

We objected to the U.N. Security Council holding the meeting, but nobody can object to it now by vetoing it, according to the rules, said Chan Aye, director general of Myanmars Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The U.N. Security Councils meeting will be held between October 22 and 26, and we have to adhere to its decision, but Myanmar and its ally countries are working on not having a decision issued by the Council, he said. China and Russia, two of five countries that wield veto power on Security Council resolutions, are Myanmar allies.

Myo Nyunt, a spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government, said it was unacceptable for Myanmar as a sovereign state to be subject to a forced decision by the U.N.

The U.N. knows how much responsibility, rights, and authority the current government has [to make decisions in Myanmar], he said, referring to the civilian governments limited power over Myanmars military. Thats why we would like to request that the U.N. Security Council do something acceptable.

If the U.N. forces Myanmar to do what it wants the country to do to try to resolve the Rakhine issue, it will create further divisions among Buddhists and Muslims in the region, and there will be no chance of reconciliation, he said.

The two communities will be eternal enemies. That would be fuel for the fire, Myo Nyunt said

To try to prevent this from happening, Myanmars leaders should determine how the country will resolve the Rakhine crisis and ask parliament to come up with a clear-cut foreign policy that they can take to the U.N., said Naing Ko Ko, a Myanmar political researcher at Australian National University.

Activist Thet Swe Win said he welcomed the Security Councils vote on the briefing by the fact-finding mission.

We should tell them that we have a problem in the country, if we really have one, he said. Its a shame to avoid it by pretending as if we have no problem.

This issue will become more serious if the government ignores the truth out of fear of losing power in the next election or of having difficulties with opposition groups, he said.

Pressure mounts

Meanwhile, pressure from the international community continues to build for Myanmar to be held accountable for widespread atrocities committed against the Rohingya during a crackdown in Rakhine state in 2017, which drove 720,000 Muslims across the border and into Bangladesh.

The government has largely denied the attacks and defended the brutal campaign by security forces as a necessary measure to stop Rohingya militants responsible for deadly attacks on police outposts.

The U.N. report on Rakhine, as well as those of human rights groups, have condemned the Rohingya militant group as well as Myanmars military and the Rakhine groups that abetted the killings.

As part of the increased pressure, the European Union is considering trade sanctions on Myanmar over human rights abuses, which would remove the countrys tariff-free access to the bloc.

In June, The EU imposed sanctions on senior military officials in Myanmar deemed responsible for violations against the Rohingya, freezing the assets of seven Myanmar army, border guard, and police officials. The officials were also banned from traveling to the EU.

Two months earlier, the EU strengthened an existing arms embargo on Myanmar, prohibiting military training and cooperation with the countrys army.

The U.S. and Canada have also imposed sanctions on Myanmar military officers.

Myanmar will be subject to more [international] pressure now that the EU says it will impose sanctions against it country, said political analyst Aung Thu Nyein.

If Myanmar believes that the fact-finding missions report is wrong, then it should correct it fact by fact, he said.

Reported by Wai Mar Tun for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Dozens of Tibetans living in Chinas Gansu province are protesting in front of government offices in Chone county to demand compensation promised for livestock culled three years ago under government order, Tibetan sources say.



The protest in Chones Nyipa township was launched on Oct. 13, and calls on authorities to provide government subsidies and other benefits for about 100 families who reduced their herds to required numbers.



Speaking in a video obtained by RFAs Tibetan Service, a local villager says that promises made by officials in 2015 have not yet been honored.



The government has failed to deliver on their promises to provide assistance to the farmers, the villager says in the video, which has circulated widely on Tibetan social media.



So because we have not received the government assistance we expected, the Tibetans living in Nyipa township are lodging a complaint.



Government efforts to limit the numbers of herd animals kept by Tibetan families have been driven by concerns about the overgrazing of vulnerable grasslands, but the curb on livestock numbers has had an adverse impact on local livelihoods, the villager says.



The villagers feel they have been fooled by the government, he said.



Tibetans taking part in the protest include elderly villagers who have now slept on the pavement for several nights, with officials paying no heed to their complaints, he said.



Speaking to RFAs Tibetan Service on Oct. 17, Golog Jigmea Tibetan former political prisoner now living in Switzerlandsaid that only about 60 to 70 out of 100 Nyipa township families now have any livestock left at all.



The remaining 30 families have now sold all their animals, including cows, yaks, and sheep, Jigme said, citing contacts in the region.



Repeated calls seeking comment from Chone county officials rang unanswered this week.



Reported by Dorjee Tso and Sonam Lhamo for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Dorjee Damdul. Written in English by Richard Finney.Authorities in northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are holding a prominent Uyghur journalist and poet in a political re-education camp, according to his son, who said the arrest is being used as leverage against him because he is living in exile in the U.S.



Bahram Qurban, the son of former editor-in-chief of the official Xinjiang Cultural Journal Qurban Mamut, told RFAs Uyghur Service that his parents visited him for a month in the U.S. beginning in February 2017, marking the first time the three had seen each other in more than nine years.



After the couple returned home to the XUAR, 68-year-old Mamut went missing, and Qurban said that he later learned that his father had been taken to one of a network of re-education camps in the region, where Uyghurs accused of harboring strong religious views and politically incorrect ideas have since April 2017 been detained without legal process.



I inquired about him and learned that he had been arrested, he said.



He never committed any crime, but the authorities regularly arrest people who have relatives living abroad [to gain leverage over them]. I believe that is why he was arrested. While it isnt my fault, I feel that I am the reason for his arrest.



Qurban said he believes his father was arrested in February this year, adding that by incarcerating Mamut, Chinese authorities had acted in violation not only of international law, but of their own constitution.



Meanwhile, he said, his 66-year-old mother Aynisa Yaqup had been admitted to the hospital because her heart condition had worsened after Mamuts arrest, and he had lost contact with his elder sister, 38-year-old Dilare Qurban.



For an elderly retired couple, this is an unimaginable assault, Qurban said.



My father has always been a very career-driven personI grew up watching him work late into the night, and it is an extremely demanding task to produce and publish a high-quality journal, he added.



We are very proud of his achievements that were the result of tireless and selfless hard work. He made every effort in producing one of the best journals in the region because of his work ethic and love for his people. He was simply doing his duty, and certainly had not committed any crimes.



Mamut, of Kuchar (in Chinese, Kuche) county in the XUARs Aksu (Akesu) prefecture, earned a bachelors degree in literature from Xinjiang University in 1976 and worked as a journalist and editor for the official Xinjiang Peoples Radio Station until 1984.



He worked for the Xinjiang Cultural Journal from 1985 until he retired as editor-in-chief in 2011, and was known for selecting works by the regions most influential writers on Uyghur culture, history, politics and social development for publication.



Intellectuals targeted



Repeated efforts by RFAs Uyghur Service to contact local officials about Mamuts situation went unanswered by the time of publishing, but one of the journalists neighborsa Uyghur student who is currently studying abroadsaid that he had also recently learned of the arrest.



The neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, but said that he had lived on the same street as Mamuts family since I was little, told RFA that Dilare Qurban had posted a photo of the journalist on social media in December last year with a comment that read, my poor father.



At that time, we were unaware of what had happened, so we didnt pay much attention to it, but I then heard news of his arrest in April  from other neighbors, he said.



They confirmed that he was arrested at the end of November or the beginning of December last year. I also heard that there were threats [against other family members] involved as well.



News of Mamuts arrest comes amid reports of several Uyghur writers and intellectuals being taken into custody by authorities in the XUAR and either jailed or sent to re-education camps.



Speaking from exile in the U.S., the Uyghur poet Tahir Hamut recently told RFA that since the re-education campaign began last year, authorities had singled out anyone involved in preserving Uyghur culture and promoting Uyghur values.



Qurban Mamut played an important role in illuminating the ethnic consciousness in a most cultured manner, he said.



We must make every effort to raise our voices to highlight the persecution of such prominent figures in an effort to attract international attention.



Camp network



Western governments have increasingly drawn attention to re-education camps in the XUAR in recent months as media reports detail the stories of Uyghurs who have been detained in the facilities.



U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert recently said the U.S. government was "deeply troubled" by the crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang, adding that credible reports indicate that individuals sent by Chinese authorities to detention centers since April 2017 number at least in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions.



Adrian Zenz, a lecturer in social research methods at the Germany-based European School of Culture and Theology, has said that some 1.1 million people are or have been detained in the re-education camps, which equates to 10 to 11 percent of the adult Muslim population of the region.



The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), a U.S. congressional advisory panel, last week issued an annual report on Chinas human rights situation, calling it dire and on a continued downward trajectory, by virtually every measure.



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, the report said.



Senator Marco Rubio, CECC chairman, and Representative Chris Smith, co-chairman of the body, said they plan to introduce 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.



Chinese authorities had earlier denied the existence of internment camps, but this week they launched a state media propaganda blitz extolling the success in countering extremism of what they now call "employment training centers.



Chinas state-run news agency Xinhua quoted a senior Chinese official as saying over the weekend that Muslims in Xinjiang must practice Chinese-style Islam to promote ethnic solidarity and religious harmony in the troubled region.



Reported by Gulchehra Hoja for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by RFAs Uyghur Service. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.Vietnam dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (C) is surrounded by well-wishers as she arrives at Houston George Bush airport in Houston, Texas, in handout photo released and taken by Amnesty International, Oct. 18, 2018.

Vietnamese blogger and activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynhknown by her blogger handle Me Nam, or Mother Mushroomarrived to a large crowd of supporters in the U.S. city of Houston and vowed to keep speaking out on human rights back in her communist nation.

Quynh, 39, won a surprise release from a 10-year jail sentence for anti-state propaganda on Wednesday, and flew to Houston with her elderly mother and two young children.

The Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency said she smiled and spoke to a large crowd of friends and supporters, at Houston's George Bush airport after her arrival before midnight on Wednesday.

"I will continue to raise my voice until there is human rights in Vietnam, real human rights," she told AFP by phone before getting into a car with her family.

"It was time for me to think of my family, I made this final decision (to leave) for the future of my two kids," AFP quoted her as saying.

AFP quoted the U.S. embassy in Hanoi as saying Quynh had requested to go to the United States if released.

"We will continue to call on the government of Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience," embassy spokeswoman Karen Tang said, according to AFP.

The release came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis left Vietnam after a brief visit, but it wasnt clear if he played any role in securing Quynhs freedom.

Arrested in October 2016, the 39-year-old Quynh was sentenced in June 2017 to 10 years in jail on charges of spreading propaganda against the state under Article 88 of Vietnams Penal Code.

Quynh's detention, during which she staged several hunger strikes, was one of the more high profile cases of activists handed heavy sentences as part of an ongoing crackdown by the one-party state in the Southeast Asian nation, which holds more than 100 political prisoners and adds more to the list every week.

Her release was welcomed by rights groups who had long championed her cause, but they also said she should never been in jail to begin with.

We are overjoyed to learn that Mother Mushroom has been released, said James Tager, Deputy Director of Free Expression Research and Policy at PEN America. Of course, she should never have been in prison in the first place, as blogging is not a crime.

We encourage the Vietnamese government to act to release the dozens of other bloggers who have been similarly imprisoned for their online expression, Tager said in a statement.

Other Vietnamese bloggers said Vietnam appears to have adopted a policy of sending critics into exile or using them as diplomatic bargaining chips. Chinas communist regime used a similar tactic with jailed dissidents in the 1990s as it lobbied to enter the World Trade Organization and to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

I think this is a new policy of the government of Vietnam. They use political prisoners to bargain with other governments. For example, we release this person, we can gain something else like signing a trade deal or buying weapons, blogger Truong Duy Nhat told RFAs Vietnamese Service.

But another blogger said exile wont necessarily silence Mother Mushroom.

They think if they can get rid of us then they wont have to worry too much. However, after I left Vitenam, I still do a lot (for democracy) in Vietnam. I think after Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh comes, she and her blogger network will continue bring their voices to more fora, said Nguyen Van Hai.

Quynh had blogged about human rights abuses and corruption for more than a decade, and more recently voiced criticism over Vietnams policy toward Chinas territorial claims in the South China Sea.

She has also criticized the governments response to a 2016 toxic waste spill by a Taiwanese firm that destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Vietnamese living in four coastal provinces.

Quynh received the International Women of Courage Award in 2017, presented to her in absentia by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.

Authorities have long targeted activist writers and bloggers in an ongoing crackdown in one-party Communist Vietnam, where dissent is not allowed.Deep concerns have emerged within the Serbian Orthodox Church over a move by the leadership of Orthodox Christianity toward recognizing the Ukrainian church's independence from Moscow.



The reasons for concern go beyond the Serbian Patriarchate's historical and political ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, which announced on October 15 it was severing ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over its recent decree on recognition of the autocephaly the Ukrainian church.



The Serbian Patriarchate has its own decades-old disputes with unrecognized breakaway churches in Macedonia and Montenegro -- territory long considered by the Constantinople Patriarchate, the spiritual leadership of the world's Orthodox Christians, as the domain of the Serbian Orthodox Church.



Serbian Church officials say they fear the Constantinople Patriarchate's decree on Ukraine will be followed by recognition of the breakaway Macedonian Orthodox Church.



Bishop Irinej Bulovic, a spokesman for the Serbian Church, says there is "a real danger" new divisions will emerge in the aftermath of the Ukraine decision and fracture unity across the Orthodox Christian world.



In an interview with the Belgrade daily newspaper Politika, Bishop Irinej predicted the split would be "even bigger and harder" than the East-West Schism of 1054 that institutionally separated Christianity into the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Decision Time

Miroslav Kavezdi, an expert in Serbia on religious affairs, told RFE/RL that Orthodox patriarchates in the Balkans and around the world must now decide whether to continue honoring the leadership of the Constantinople Patriarchate or follow the Russian Church's lead and cut ties with the 1,600-year-old institution.

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, currently Bartholomew I, has honorary and historical supremacy over the world's other Orthodox patriarchs.

He is considered to have spiritual and official precedence as "first among equals," but does not have the right to intervene in the religious affairs of other patriarchates.

Kavezdi says the process each patriarchate goes through will entail a lengthy reexamination of canon law on the issue of whether the Constantinople Patriarchate -- one of the world's most enduring institutions -- has jurisdiction to change the status quo in other partriarchates.

"A lot of things have not been elaborated," Kavezdi told RFE/RL. "There will be a long, tedious but necessary process of clarifying what is actually happening."

There is "concern among those who are members of the Serbian Orthodox Church because some solutions that are reflected in Ukraine in the status of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate [one of the three Orthodox churches in Ukraine] could be applied" to the cases of the breakaway churches in Macedonia and Montenegro, Kavezdi said.

Conversely, Kavezdi says the Ukraine decision has bolstered hopes for the recognition of other breakaway churches.

In the face of those challenges, Bishop Irinej insists the Serbian Orthodox Church is committed to "respecting the canonical order of the past millennium."

But that position leaves open the question of whether the Serbian Patriarchate would continue to honor the authority of the Constantinople Patriarchate if it were to move toward granting independence to breakaway churches.

The Moscow Patriarchate weighed in on the issue at an October 15 synod in Minsk led by Patriarch Kirill of Russia, an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Having held jurisdiction over Ukraine since the late 1600s, the Russian Church announced that the Constantinople Patriarchate has "excluded itself from the canonical field of the Orthodoxy" with "lawless and canonically void moves" on Ukraine.

Historic Feud Over Macedonian Church

The Constantinople Patriarchate has been examining a request to recognize the breakaway Macedonian Orthodox Church since May 2018.

The split goes back a half century to 1967, when the autonomous Macedonian Orthodox Church proclaimed independence from the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The Serbian Patriarchate responded by denouncing the move and labeling the Macedonian clergy as schismatic.

WATCH: Turmoil In The Orthodox World

Since the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the Serbian Church has tried to restore its control in Macedonia.

The breakaway Macedonian Church, which remains unrecognized by any Orthodox patriarchate, sees the efforts by the Serbian Church as being closely linked with the agenda of Serbia's government.

Funded by the Macedonian state, the breakaway Macedonian Church claims jurisdiction over eight dioceses and more than 1,000 churches across the country -- including the historic Archbishopric Of Ohrid established on Lake Ohrid in 1019, and hundreds of medieval Serb Orthodox shrines.

The breakaway church also claims jurisdiction over hundreds of thousands of ethnic Macedonian emigrants and their descendants around the world who form the Macedonian diaspora.

Since being elected in 1999 as the head of the breakaway Macedonian Church, Archbishop Stefan has lobbied politicians for support in the feud with the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Meanwhile, the Serbian Patriarchate has tried to regain its control over Macedonian diocese since the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

It considers a competing branch that falls under the umbrella of the Serbian Orthodox Church as the only legitimate Macedonian Church, and it recognizes a Serb Orthodox bishop, Jovan Vraniskovski, as the legitimate leader.

The Serbian Patriarchate in 2005 appointed Jovan as Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje.

But Macedonia's state commission on religion recognizes Stefan's breakaway church and refuses to register Jovan's Serbian-backed Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric.

Authorities in Skopje also have expelled Jovan and his supporters from his former Metropolitanate, jailing the Serbian Orthodox bishop several times on charges ranging from disturbing the peace, resisting police, instigating ethnic and religious hatred, and embezzlement.

Jovan said shortly before the Ukraine decision that he was skeptical about the Constantinople Patriarchate ever granting independence to his rivals in the breakaway Macedonian Church.

Jovan said that "no one can take away" the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church over Macedonia "because it would create very big problems and would be unprincipled."

But Bishop Timotej, a spokesman for the synod of the unrecognized Macedonian Orthodox Church, told RFE/RL that the process of recognition remains "open."

Timotej says he expects the dispute to be resolved through the Constantinople Patriarchate.

"This will mean that the Macedonian Orthodox Church will be recognized by most of the Orthodox churches as an equal Orthodox church that can communicate on an equal footing with other Orthodox nations and churches," Timotej said.

"Whether the Serbian Orthodox Church or others agree with such a decision should not disturb us too much," Timotej said.

But some analysts see the Macedonian Church's battle for recognition as part of geopolitical positioning in efforts between Russia and the West -- with the Russian Orthodox Church increasing its pressure on other churches.

Protodeacon Andrei Kurayev, a prominent Russian Orthodox theologian, told RFE/RL on October 16 that he expects "Moscow diplomats, both those in religious robes and secular ones, will impose pressure on other churches to support Moscow."

"None of them will be ready to jump from a window if Moscow asks them to do so," Kurayev said. "None of them will break their ties with Constantinople.

Meanwhile, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev says he expects a resolution to the Macedonia-Serbia dispute soon.

Zaev told RFE/RL that the Constantinople Patriarchate's decision on Ukraine encourages the competing churches to look at the issue through the prism of "friendship and cooperation" in the interest of worshippers.

Written by Ron Synovitz with reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan and Belarus Services.A number of Iranian-Americans have responded with anger after U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham quipped in an interview that it would be "terrible" if DNA testing revealed that he had Iranian ancestry.



A South Carolinian who has been hawkish on Iran and was a vocal critic of the 2015 nuclear deal that was subsequently abandoned by fellow Republican President Donald Trump, Graham quickly sought to clarify his comments by saying that his joke was directed at the Ayatollah, not the Iranian people.



But some prominent Iranian-Americans had already decried the perceived slight as racist and disgusting."



Iranian-American executives, including Twitter chairman Omid Kordestani, criticized the comments.



Please start upholding the best values of our great nation and its institutions and stop mimicking the divisive and simpleminded voices! An apology is in order, Kordestani tweeted on October 17, before word of Graham's follow-up interview in which he said the remark was "a joke."



CNNs chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, reacted to Grahams original comments in a series of tweets where she wrote, Whatever you think of the regime, no need to tar all the people.



In fact, just look around to see Iranian-Americans powering major sectors of U.S. life and economy, from Silicon Valley to Wall Street, from science and surgery to architecture and engineering, from art and culture to yes, even the media, she added.



Hadi Partovi, CEO of nonprofit Code.org, which seeks to expand access to computer-science programs inschools, also criticized Grahams comments as insulting.



Some of the greatest businesspeople, scientists, athletes, and leaders in America are of Iranian descent," Partovi said. "By calling us terrible you insult everything that makes America great."



A California-based venture capitalist of Iranian descent, Pejman Nozad, tweeted a thread of "facts about Iran" that included a list of political, intellectual, and cultural accomplishments in Persian history, as well as some of the "endless" achievements of Iranian-Americans.



Graham's initial remark came during an October 15 interview on "Fox & Friends" during which he was asked about an announcement by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren that she had taken a DNA test that indicated some native American ancestry in response to repeated taunts from candidate, then president, Trump.



"I'll probably be Iranian. That would be, like, terrible, Graham said on the show.

Follow-Up Interview

Brian Kilmeade, a co-host of the show, reacted by saying, Well, they have great people, just bad leaders, to which Graham responded: Yeah, bad leaders. Im not in the ayatollah branch.



It was an apparent reference to current Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on political and religious matters in Iran, and the religiously dominated leadership that took power in the 1979 revolution.



In a follow-up interview with Fox, Graham said, If you know anything about me, name one person whos been a bigger defender of the Iranian people to fight back against their oppressor."



It was a joke, Graham said, before adding in a reference to the 3-year-old nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that exchanged curbs on Iranian nuclear activities for a relaxation of sanctions.

The Iranian people are brave and cultured. To my liberal friends who are offended by my statement, [at] least I didnt vote for an agreement that gave $150 billion dollars to the man who kills Iranians in the street, Graham said.

Under the deal, U.S. officials are estimated to have released some $100 billion in previously frozen Iranian assets.



The Trump administration withdrew from the deal in May and announced the reimposition of sanctions and a renewed effort to punish companies and countries that do business with Iran.



Iranians were also the target of a recent U.S. travel ban on a handful of mostly Muslim countries over objections from critics who called it religiously based discrimination against would-be visitors to the United States.



Iranian-American organizations, including the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and The Public Affairs Alliance Of Iranian Americans (PAAIA), also criticized Graham's comments.



The Iranian-American community will not forget such casual racism, nor will it forget which party has enacted policy on the basis of such racism by banning our family members from Iran," the NIACs president, Jamal Abdi, said in a statement.



In a letter to Graham, PAIAA Executive Director Leila Austin said her organization hoped that the senator would refrain in the future from broad generalizations that are likely to mischaracterize an entire group of Americans and run counter to U.S. foreign policy objectives.



While the reaction inside Iran to Grahams comments appeared muted, the conservative news site Tabnak.ir suggested that while U.S. officials have stated repeatedly that sanctions are targeting the Iranian establishment, not the people, their comments and actions suggest the opposite.



We have witnessed many times comments and actions by them that highlight contradictions in their behavior, Tabnak said. It appears that the U.S. approach toward Iran has entered a new phase that targets the identity of the Iranian people through a racist view."



U.S. officials for decades have sought to distinguish their criticism of the Iranian government from a broader appreciation for the Iranian public and its history and culture.



The 2015 nuclear deal under President Barack Obama took years to complete and drew sharp criticism from hawkish elements in the United States who insisted it emboldened and enriched a government that had thumbed its nose for years at nuclear nonproliferation efforts, sowed instability through terrorism and support for radical elements in the Middle East, and trampled the rights of its own people.



There did not appear to be any public comment from Iranian officials over Graham's remark or subsequent apology.Italy's deputy prime minister says his country will oppose a renewal of European Union sanctions against Russia, but he suggested Rome is not ready to break with the rest of the EU and veto a rollover of the sanctions.

"I come here because I am convinced that sanctions are economic, social, and cultural madness," Matteo Salvini said on a visit to Moscow on October 17. Salvini leads Italy's far-right League party and is also Italy's interior minister,

He criticized the basis of the sanctions, which were imposed on Moscow after Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and backing for separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war against the government.

The EU's dominant powers, Germany and France, and most other EU members have said the sanctions should stay in place until progress is made in ending that conflict.

Salvini charged that the EU is sanctioning Russia for "alleged violations against Ukraine," while taking no action over Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus -- "a European country" -- since 1974.

"It is folly," he said, vowing to "do his best" to bring an end to the Russian sanctions, or at least to resist attempts to make their renewal every six months automatic.

"If we are asked to confirm, we will say no. It's clear that it makes no sense that they are in place," he told a gathering of Italian businessmen in Moscow in a speech live-streamed on his Facebook account..

But he stopped short of saying Rome would veto a plan to roll over the sanctions, which is expected to come before a summit of EU leaders in December. The sanctions are due to expire in January.

"We can only play the veto joker once in Europe," Salvini said, noting that Italy is also battling Brussels on other fronts, including over the EU budget, immigration reform, and Italy's own, contested 2019 budget.

"If they reject that, I don't know what card I will play," he said.

EU sources have told RFE/RL that Italy might agree to extend the sanctions if the EU agrees to Rome's proposal to soften them somewhat by reviving EU bank funding for small Russian businesses that were not targeted by the sanctions.

Both Salvini's League party and Italy's other governing party, the Five Star Movement, are opposed to Russian sanctions on the grounds that they hurt Italian businesses and the economy.

Salvini has openly expressed admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the League signed a cooperation deal in 2017 with United Russia, Russia's dominant political party.

"I feel at home here. In some European countries I don't. Here, I feel as safe as in my home," Salvini told the Moscow gathering.

During his visit, Salvini was received by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is due in Moscow next week for talks with Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

With reporting by AFP, dpa, and ReutersRussian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has accepted a challenge to a duel from the head of Russias National Guard and has proposed a venue and his weapon of choice.

In a comical-but-defiant video published on October 18, Navalny expressed his "thanks" to Rosgvardia Director Viktor Zolotov and offered to meet him in a live televised debate.

The move comes weeks after Zolotov, a former steelworker and longtime security chief for Russian President Vladimir Putin, released a video in which he appeared in full dress uniform, cap, and epaulets, and challenged Navalny to a duel in the fighting form of his choice, vowing to "make mincemeat" of his opponent.

At the time, Navalny was behind bars, the result of one of several jail sentences he has faced in recent years for organizing protest rallies, mainly against government corruption.

In And Out: All The Times Aleksei Navalny Has Been In Jail

"I accept your call and choose the place and weapons, as proposed...our duel will take place in the form of a debate" on national television, Navalny, a fierce Kremlin critic, said in his video.

"Our duel will be a debate live on Channel 1, or Channel 2, or any other federal channel," Navalny said in his video, which featured images of Star Wars characters, Mickey Mouse, and late martial-arts star Bruce Lee.

He urged Zolotov to respond within a week.

Despite the sometimes-humorous nature of the video, Navalny offered strong criticism of Zolotov and Putin's administration.

He said that, with the original challenge to a duel, Zolotov had "proven" that "inadequate and insane" people are in power in Russia.

He added that Zolotov and Putin are turning Russia into "a banana republic."

Navalny showed images of luxurious properties in and around Moscow and in other Russian regions, claiming they were bought by Zolotov and members of his family for "stolen money."

In his video released in September, Zolotov called Navalny and other Putin critics rotten, rusty, and decaying people with no morals and no country, no Fatherland.

"I simply challenge you to a duel, in the ring, on the judo mat, anywhere," he said.

State TV rarely shows Navalny, and what coverage he does get is negative, so his proposal of a debate -- if accepted -- would be a chance to raise his profile.

Navalny said that if state TV declined to broadcast such a program, he would be willing to host the debate on his YouTube channel.

The response so far suggests a debate televised on state TV is unlikely to happen.

A National Guard spokesman told the Associated Press news agency that he had not seen Navalnys latest video, adding, however, that the service had more important matters to be considering at this time.

With reporting by dpa and APHerzog, 68, never planned to be a Medicare maven. After a 36-year career in the nuclear power industry, he retired in 2013 with no other plans than to take a trip to Alaska. He and a buddy hopped into a car and drove as far as the roads would take them into Alaska to Prudhoe Bay. We toured Alaska and parts of Canada and saw spectacular scenery and lots of wildlife. It took us 30 days for the round trip, recalls Herzog. But with that item checked off his bucket list, he returned to his Naperville home, his wife, two adult children and two grandkids.The police chief and intelligence head of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar have been killed in a shooting attack, officials say, in a major blow to the Western-backed government in Kabul.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the October 18 assault in the provincial capital, also named Kandahar, which came just two days before parliamentary elections.



Afghan officials told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that a bodyguard opened fire after a high-level security meeting in the governor's compound.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Scott Miller, was present at the gathering but was unhurt, said NATO Resolute Support spokesman Grant Neely.



However, Kandahar Province's police chief General Abdul Raziq -- one of Afghanistan's most powerful commanders, with a fearsome reputation as an enemy of the Taliban -- and provincial intelligence head Abdul Momin Hassankhail were shot and killed.



Today I lost a great friend Lt. Gen. Raziq. We had served together for many years. Afghanistan lost a patriot, my condolences to the people of Afghanistan. The good he did for Afghanistan and the Afghan people cannot be undone, Colonel Dave Butler, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, quoted Miller as saying.

Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah said he was deeply saddened" by Raziq's death, whom he described as a "great patriot," a "close friend," and a "hero" of the war against terrorism.

An Afghan journalist working for state media also died in the attack, according to NAI, a group supporting open media in the country.



There were conflicting reports about the fate of Kandahar Governor Zalmai Wesa, with some reports saying he was also killed.



However, Deputy Interior Minister Akhtar Mohammad Ebrahimi said Wesa was wounded.



Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in a short speech confirmed the deaths of the police and intelligence chiefs, but didn't mention the governor.



Butler said "three Americans were wounded, have been medically evacuated and are stable."



He also said the gunman had been killed and that Afghan officials were the "target of the violence."

The Taliban claimed responsibility in a statement, saying, "The brutal police chief of Kandahar has been killed along several other officials."

"The target was General Miller and General Raziq," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter.

Fearsome Reputation

A close ally of the U.S. military, Raziq, has been credited with pacifying large swaths of Kandahar but has been accused by human rights groups of gross human rights violations, including forcible disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

"We strongly condemn this terrorist attack & stand united in our unshaken resolve to fight terrorism. The struggle continues," Abdullah, Afghanistan's chief executive, wrote in a tweet.



Around 14,000 U.S. troops are currently in Afghanistan, and Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner told the Reuters news agency that the attack in Kandahar "will not change U.S. resolve in our South Asia strategy, if anything it makes us more resolute."



The Pakistani military condemned the Kandahar incident, saying it wishes to see the "Afghan and other security forces succeeding to bring an end to this prolonged violence in Afghanistan."



"Peace in Afghanistan is essential for peace in the region. Support all initiatives towards this end, it added.

Afghanistan is on high alert ahead of the long-delayed parliamentary elections on October 20, after the Taliban pledged to block the vote.

More than 2,500 candidates are competing for 249 seats in the lower house of parliament.

The run-up to the elections has been marred by deadly militant attacks and targeted killings of candidates, 10 of whom have been killed so far.

With reporting by Reuters and AFPA court in Finland has sentenced the founder of an anti-immigrant, pro-Russia website to 22 months in prison on charges of defamation and negligence.

The Helsinki district court on October 18 said Ilja Janitskin's MV-Lehti website published offensive content about a Finnish investigative journalist, Jessikka Aro.

Two other defendants, Johan Backman, described in the media as a longtime mouthpiece for Moscow in Finland, and a female employee at MV-Lehti, were given suspended sentences.

The defendants were ordered to pay a total of 136,000 euros ($155,000) in compensation.

Aro, a reporter for Finnish national broadcaster YLE, had become the subject of a hate campaign and death threats following her reporting on online Russian propaganda efforts and the existence of so-called Internet troll factories.

According to the court, MV-Lehti published disparaging articles about Aro, including one that accused her of being a drug addict.

The court said Janitskin acted as MV-Lehtis editor in chief in 2014-18 and was therefore responsible for content on the site.

Janitskin denies any links to Russia, while Backman regularly appears on Russian media.

Aro received Finland's Grand Prize for Journalism for her work, and the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) group expressed support for the Finnish journalist.

Western governments have accused Moscow of using "bot" networks or online tools to interfere in their internal matters. Moscow denies the allegations.

Based on reporting by the BBC, Yle, and DWRussian authorities say the death toll in a shooting rampage at a technical school in Ukraine's Moscow-annexed Crimea region has risen to 21, including the suspected shooter.

The Russia-imposed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, told reporters on October 18 in the Crimean city of Kerch, where the attack took place a day earlier, that a 16-year-old girl heavily injured in the shooting died in the regional capital, Simferopol, where she was waiting to be airlifted to Moscow for treatment.

Russian media reports quoted unnamed officials of the Health Ministry as saying that the girl sustained very serious wounds and it was impossible to save her.

Russian investigators identified the suspected shooter as Vladislav Roslyakov, an 18-year-old student at the technical college, and said he committed suicide.

In the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attack a "result of globalization" and said that adults are failing to offer young people an alternative to an outburst of violence.

Kerch Deputy Mayor Dilyaver Melgaziyev said earlier that all the victims of the attack had been identified, adding that five of them were college employees and the rest were students, of whom seven were younger than 18.

Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said earlier that a total of 70 people were wounded in the attack, with several in critical condition being airlifted to top Russian hospitals for surgery. Dozens more remain hospitalized in Kerch.



Aksyonov said earlier that the first victim will be buried later on October 18.

Authorities and eyewitnesses say the teenager walked calmly through the Kerch polytechnic school shooting people seemingly indiscriminately with a shotgun before turning it on himself.

Aksyonov described Roslyakov, a fourth-year student, as a shy boy who had no known friends and a good record in school.

"What he published on his [social media] account was not open to the public. Access to his account was restricted; he didn't have any friends," Aksyonov told Rossia-24 television.

"He wasn't aggressive, he was rather timid," Aksyonov said, speculating that Roslyakov might have "watched some movies" that inspired him to go on the shooting spree.

"He was walking around and shooting students and teachers in cold blood," Aksyonov said.

The announcement that the shooter was a student who acted alone came after hours of shifting explanations as to what happened at the school, with investigators initially saying it might have been a terrorist attack.

In the immediate aftermath of the incident, the authorities declared an emergency in Crimea and Russia sent National Guard troops to protect schools and a new 19-kilometer bridge connecting Crimea with Russia.

Speaking at a conference in Sochi on October 18, Putin said that the attack was a continuation of an American trend.



"It all started with the well-known tragic events...at schools in the United States," he said, referring to numerous schools shootings that have occurred there since the 1990s.



Putin said that such attacks showed that adults were failing to "fast-changing realities" in which unstable young people were creating "fake heroes" and "reaching out for a surrogate for heroism."



The attack in Kerch was the greatest loss of life in school violence in Russia since the Beslan attack by Chechen separatists in September 2004, in which 333 people -- many of them children -- were killed during a three-day siege.

While such school shootings are rare in Ukraine and Russia, which seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the bloodbath raised questions about school security. Reports said the Kerch school had only a front desk with no security guards.

Lawmakers in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and Russia's State Duma separately commemorated the victims with a minute of silence on October 18.

Aksyonov said on October 18 that although the perpetrator "certainly was alone when killing people in the college, but he could not have been able to prepare the rampage by himself only," adding that investigators were looking for possible accomplices.

His statement came after some witnesses said more than one person was involved, with one saying a bomb with shrapnel that went off in the school lunchroom during the siege was set off by a second attacker.

Earlier, Aksyonov said Roslyakov made the bomb himself and set it off while using a shotgun he recently acquired and 150 cartridges he bought just a few days ago to conduct his deadly shooting spree.

Aksyonov said Roslyakov had recently received a permit to own the shotgun after passing routine background checks.

With reporting by AP, TASS, Interfax, UNIAN, Rossia-24, Christopher Miller in Kyiv, RFE/RL's Russian Service, the Crimean desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, RIA Novosti, Mediazona, Dozhd, and ReutersA man suspected of raping and murdering Bulgarian television journalist Viktoria Marinova was extradited from Germany to Bulgaria on October 17, officials say.

Media broadcasts showed police vehicles meeting a plane carrying the suspect, identified as Bulgarian Severin Krasimirov, 20, at the Sofia airport.

The body of Marinova, 30, was found near a jogging path next to the Danube River in the northern town of Ruse on October 6.

Authorities said that she died from blows to the head and suffocation, and that she had also been raped. The case has shocked Bulgaria and drawn strong international condemnation.

Although many commentators have suggested a connection between the crime and Marinova's work, investigators say they have seen no evidence to support this theory.

The suspect initially fled to Romania and later traveled to Germany, where several of his relatives live.

Krasimirov was arrested in the northern German town of Stade on October 9.

German investigators said Krasimirov admitted having an argument with the victim and punching her in the face after he'd been drinking and using drugs, but he denied raping or robbing her.

However, Bulgaria's chief prosecutor, Sotir Tsatsarov, told Nova TV on October 16 that the evidence pointing to Krasimirov was "more than solid."

Bulgarian police said they found the man's DNA on Marinova, and items belonging to her were also found at his home in Ruse.

From Sofia, Krasimirov was to be transferred to police detention in Ruse, over 300 kilometers northeast of the capital. From there, he was expected to undergo DNA and psychiatric tests before being officially indicted.

Tsatsarov has said that Krasimirov will be charged with rape and intentional murder perpetrated in an extremely vicious manner. If convicted, he risks a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, and ReutersA bombing targeting a NATO convoy near Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, has killed at least two civilians and wounded several alliance soldiers, Afghan and NATO officials say.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said a suicide bomber rammed his car into the convoy.

Wahida Shakar, spokeswoman for the provincial governor in Parwan, said the attack occurred late on October 17 in the Bagram district. Bagram is located about 40 kilometers from Kabul and is the site of a sprawling U.S. military base.

It wasn't immediately clear how many NATO troops were wounded. NATO spokeswoman Debra Richardson said three service members were wounded in the bombing but didn't provide more details.

The Czech Defense Ministry said five of its soldiers were wounded in the blast, one of them seriously. The soldier underwent surgery and his life was no longer in danger, the ministry said in a statement.

On August 5, three Czech soldiers were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing while on patrol in the eastern province of Parwan.

It was the deadliest assault on NATO soldiers in many months.

Based on reporting by dpa, AP, and AFPThe United Nations envoy for Syria is stepping down after gains this year by Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces in reasserting control over much of the country, eclipsing prospects for an international peace deal ending Syria's seven-year civil war.

Staffan de Mistura said on October 17 that he was resigning his post after four years in November for "purely personal reasons," and claimed that despite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's advances in the war, he will only secure a lasting peace if he submits to a UN-backed peace deal.

"What matters is winning the peace," the envoy said. "The alternative will be territorial gains and no sustainable peace."

De Mistura is the longest-serving of three UN mediators during the long conflict. His predecessors -- former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi -- both quit in frustration over a global stalemate on how to end the war.

The best hopes for a UN-backed solution to the war now hang on vows by Western leaders not to provide badly needed funding for reconstruction of the devastated country until Assad submits to a political power-sharing deal and new elections.

De Mistura told the UN Security Council that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had instructed him during his final weeks in the job to "verify once and for all" whether a credible, balanced constitutional committee can be convened.

Participants at a Syrian peace conference in Russia in January agreed to form a committee to rewrite the Syrian Constitution that will be made up of 150 people, with a third chosen by the government, a third by opposition groups, and a third by the United Nations.

But de Mistura said creation of the panel had been delayed because "questions continue to be raised, mainly by the Syrian government, over the composition" of the UN list.

The UN sought to balance its list "so that no political side could dominate the committee," he said, but the Syrian government reportedly wants its supporters to dominate the UN list so its views will prevail in making changes to the constitution.

Still, de Mistura said he remained hopeful that a solution can be found, "if there is a political will." He said he will visit Damascus next week and hopes to win government approval for a "credible and inclusive third list."

The UN council has long been deadlocked over Syria, with Western powers pitted against Syrian ally Russia, which has been backed by China. The war in Syria has killed more than 400,000 people and displaced millions more.

French UN Ambassador Francois Delattre accused the Syrian government of obstruction, "which ultimately shows us that it does not want to participate in the diplomatic efforts underway, while its allies are either unable or unwilling to convince it to put an end to its intransigence."

Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said Moscow wanted a constitutional committee to be formed as soon as possible, but said that "setting artificial deadlines in this case would be counterproductive."

"We need to be patient," Nebenzya said.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and ReutersA U.S. Treasury official has been charged with leaking to the online news outlet BuzzFeed confidential documents of suspects in a special-counsel probe of ties between Russia and President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

U.S. prosecutors in New York said on October 17 that Natalie May Edwards, a senior adviser in the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, was arrested on October 16 and charged with conspiracy and unauthorized disclosure of suspicious-activity reports from banks about former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other suspects.

Both charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Manafort and his longtime associate, Rick Gates, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Prosecutors said Edwards leaked documents that became the basis of BuzzFeed articles about that investigation. Information from the bank disclosures was reported in 11 articles that appeared in Buzzfeed over the course of a year, they said.

A U.S. magistrate judge in Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Edwards, 40, be released after surrendering her passport and posting a $100,000 bond on October 17.

Edwards' lawyer, Peter Greenspun, declined to speak to reporters at the hearing.

A Treasury spokesman said Edwards had been placed on administrative leave. BuzzFeed had no immediate comment.

In an interview with federal investigators, Edwards described herself as a "whistle-blower" who made the disclosures for "record-keeping" purposes, prosecutors said.

Banks must file suspicious-activity reports with the Treasury Department when they spot transactions that raise questions about possible financial misconduct such as money laundering.

Prosecutors said that beginning in October 2017, Edwards disclosed suspicious-activity reports connected to Manafort, Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina, the Russian Embassy in Washington, and a unit of Prevezon Holdings Ltd, a corporation owned by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv.

Prosecutors said Edwards saved the confidential reports on a flash drive and sent them to a BuzzFeed reporter using an encrypted messaging application.

Prosecutors also said the reporter exchanged encrypted messages with an unnamed associate director at Treasury to whom Edwards reports, who was cited as a "co-conspirator" but was not charged in the case.

Butina was arrested in July for allegedly acting as an unregistered agent for Russia, and is in a Washington, D.C., jail awaiting trial.

With reporting by AP and ReutersSuccess! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.The state leagues website even offers a step-by-step guide on how other chapters can replicate Napervilles award-winning program. In the previous canvass, students asked residents a few survey questions, such as if the person was a registered voter and if he or she planned to vote. Those who said they werent voting were asked for their reasons for not doing so.Tickets purchased in advance will be $25, with special drinks and snacks available for an extra $10. Tickets at the door will be $30. Drinks and refreshments will be available for sale before the show and during intermission.Maya Train to have little environmental impact, more than half constructed in Quintana Roo

Riviera Maya, Q.R.  During a recent meeting, president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the Maya Train will have little environmental impact, adding that half of its route will be constructed in the state of Quintana Roo.

After a meeting with the governor of Campeche Alejandro Moreno, the president-elect commented that the neighboring entity would have about 500 kilometers of the train, which would represent a third of the length of the project.

The project could be enhanced with connections to high-altitude ports, which would allow an intense movement of goods he said. Already, the governor of Yucatan told me of the need to take the train to Progreso, he added.

The president-elect also met with the governors of Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Tabasco, where the Maya Train will run, to refine details of the project. The leaders affirmed that there will be respect for the environment and the communities through which the project will be built.

Eduardo Ortiz Jasso, director of the Strategic Projects Agency of Quintana Roo says of the 972 kilometers of new track that will be required, 54 percent (521 kilometers) will be built along the Cancun-Tulum, Tulum-Bacalar, Bacalar-Escarcega and Cancun-limits with Yucatan.

The official clarified that the project would cover nearly 1,500 kilometers in five states, of which about 600 kilometers are already built in Chiapas, Tabasco and Campeche. What we are clear about is that the Cancun-Tulum section will be two-way and would become the backbone of a new mass transit system in the north Caribbean region, he added.

He also confirmed that the Railway Maintenance Center is planned to be installed in Chetumal, which will provide service to everything related to the train, which would generate jobs and opportunities for the state capital.

Chetumal is practically halfway between Cancun and Palenque, because there the train would go to Calakmul. We are basically in the analysis of the reserve areas and how they would be linked to the layout of the train, he explained.

Ortiz Jasso recalled that the agency worked for more than a year on the Cancun-Tulum stretch, but the current federal government reversed the project. The incoming administration took it back as Tren Maya, which is more complete, he said.

He also said that they do not have data on the trains that would travel the route daily or the number of tourists or users.

The corresponding studies would be done next year, and until now, it is only known that the Cancun-Tulum section will be the one with the greatest flow of passengers, he added.Priyanka Chaturvedi

PTI, New Delhi (18th Oct'18): The Congress Wednesday termed as "victory of truth" the resignation of union minister M J Akbar following charges of sexual harassment against him. Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said she saluted those women who stood on their charges against the minister bravely despite the "brazen" stance taken by the government. "This resignation is a vindication of the power of truth. More strength to India's women," she said.

Akbar's resignation victory of truth

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"The resignation of MoS External Affairs MJ Akbar after serious charges were levelled against him by senior women journalists who worked with him is a vindication of the power of truth even if it began with one brave person speaking up," she said. The Congress leader hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what she said was his "silence" in the matter. "I salute these women who stood their ground despite the brazen stance of the GoI, silence of the PM who speaks about women empowerment, the arrogant misuse of power by deploying a battery of lawyers against one woman and allowing the accused to continue in his role," Chaturvedi said in a tweet.

Alleging that using threat and intimidation as a tool to silence voices has become the norm of the Modi government, she said but this brazenness is returning to haunt them. "The women of the country are saying the time for this is up&threat to silence voices can no longer be the norm or acceptable," she said. Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev termed Akbar's stepping down as a "moral victory" for everyone and sought support for the #MeToo movement across party lines.

Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev

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"M J Akbar's resignation is a moral victory for everyone. The defamation case can't change that. The #MeToo movement needs support across party lines," she tweeted. " I admire the courage of @priyaramani & all the victims who spoke out against sexual harassment & abuse. @mjakbar s resignation is a moral victory for everyone. The defamation case can't change that. The #MeToo movement needs support across party lines.Captain Amarinder Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Spokesman News Service, New Delhi, 18th Oct'18: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for compensation to farmers in lieu of stubble burning, while also urging his intervention to ensure settlement of the Rs. 31000 crore CCL gap and assistance for the preparation of the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji.

The Prime Minister was sympathetic to the problem of the farmers, said the Chief Minister, who has been pressing for Rs. 100 per quintal as compensation for the farmers to check the problem of stubble burning. Captain Amarinder Singh told Modi that the problem of stubble burning could get aggravated, despite various steps being taken by the state government, with the close of the harvest season, and needed to be urgently addressed.

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The Chief Minister also took the opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for the central governments decision not to disturb the 60:40 ratio with respect to the appointment of officers in the UT of Chandigarh. It may be recalled that Captain Amarinder Singh had, in recent weeks, expressed his strong protest over the constant efforts being made to disturb the fine balance in sharing of officers and other resources between Haryana and Punjab that had been achieved over a period of time after a great deal of effort.

Giving details of the meeting, an official spokesperson of the Punjab government later said the Chief Minister had urged Modi to advise the Finance Ministry to urgently settle the Rs. 31000 crore CCL gap on the principle of shared responsibilities.

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Reiterating his demand for resettlement of gap in Food Cash Credit Account of Punjab, which had resulted from systemic and structural reasons, the Chief Minister told Modi that this should be settled on the principle of shared responsibilities amongst the stakeholders in procurement of foodgrains for the country, he said. In fact, he pointed out, the matter had been discussed in detail in internal report of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, referred as the PK Jha Committee Report.

Noting that the Ministry of Finance, GoI, which was looking into the matter on a reference received from the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, was yet to finalise the matter, Captain Amarinder Singh sought the Prime Ministers intervention to resolve the issue. He urged the Prime Minister to advise the Ministry of Finance to reconsider and review conversion of Rs. 31,000 crore as long term loan as it cannot be solely attributed to the State of Punjab given the principle of shared responsibilities.

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Citing similar commemorative events held in the past, when generous assistance packages were given by GoI to the state government, the Chief Minister reminded Modi of his assurance that the Centre would provide due assistance to the Punjab government to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Sri Guru Nanak Dev ji next year in a befitting manner. He urged the Prime Minister to issue suitable directions to the Ministry of Culture and the National Implementation Committee, instituted in June this year, to provide the necessary support to the state to make suitable arrangements for the event.

Earlier, in a letter to the Prime Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh also sought Rs. 800 crores in compensation for the losses incurred by the state due to the recent flooding resulting from exceptionally heavy rainfall, the spokesperson disclosed. The Chief Minister, in the letter, had informed Modi that the heavy rainfall in Punjab and adjoining Himachal Pradesh, from 22nd to 24th September, had caused extensive damage to life, agricultural crops, property and other infrastructure at different places in the State.

The estimated damage to crops was Rs.150 crore, while road network had been damaged to the extent of Rs. 119.32 crore, with another Rs. 516.51 crore caused to flood protection infrastructure and minor irrigation works, said the Chief Minister. Further, there was damage to the tune of Rs. 5.11 crore to human population livestock and private residences, he noted, seeking compensation from the Government of India to enable the state to tide over this natural calamity.Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh

Spokesman News Service, Chandigarh, 18th Oct'18: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has exhorted the people to raise their voice against the myriad evils that are ailing the Indian society, in the collective spirit of the message propounded by the festivals of Dussehra and Durga Puja.

Extending his greetings to the people on the occasion of Dussehra and Durga Puja, which are being celebrated on Friday around the country, the Chief Minister underlined the continued relevance of these festivals in todays challenging political, cultural and social environment.

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The nation today stands at the crossroads of various challenges that require all its citizens to take inspiration from these important religious festivals to battle the trials and tribulations together, said Captain Amarinder Singh, in his message. In a subtle reference to the #MeToo campaign, the Chief Minister said such incidents were unacceptable in the land of Goddess Durga, who epitomises the strength of the Indian woman and womanhood.

The festival of Durga Puja teaches us to respect that strength, he said, calling for women empowerment as the key to the nations progress. Both Dussehra and Durga Puja, said the Chief Minister, were symbolic of the ultimate victory of good over evil, which remains at the core of the Indian ethos and spirit.It is my hope  and I assume its the case  that some of the audience members will learn things they didnt know before. And when they leave the program, they think over what theyve learned and can apply it to their own lives now, Luick-Thrams said.Captain Amarinder Singh will meet the President of Israel

Spokesman News Service, Chandigarh, 18th Oct'18: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh will meet the President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, on October 23 to hold extensive discussions on a wide range of subjects of mutual interest, during his 5-day visit to the Gulf nation, beginning October 21.

The Chief Minister, who will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, will be meeting several ministers and top-ranking officials during the visit. Among those he is scheduled to meet are Israeli Minister for Agriculture Uri Ariel and Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Dr. Yuval Steinitz.

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President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin

The visit is expected to witness the signing of two important MoUs in the field of water management, which is a priority area for the Punjab government. A series of MoUs are also on the agenda between PAU and TAU, as well as the Galilee Institute, as part of the seminar on Investment Opportunities in Punjab, to be held on October 23.

Giving further details of the visit, an official spokesperson said Captain Amarinder Singh is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Sunday and leave on October 25. He is slated to visit several historic and culturally important sites, as well as some major centres of hi-tech irrigation, agriculture, horticulture and dairy farming. He will also visit the Commonwealth Cemetery for Battle of Haifa martyrs.

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Those accompanying the Chief Minister during the visit include Media Advisor to CM Raveen Thukral, ACS Industries Vini Mahajan, ACS Development Viswajeet Khanna, DGP Intelligence Dinkar Gupta and Secretary Water Resources Arunjit Maiglani.Sukhbir Badal asks CM Capt Amarinder Singh

Spokesman News Service, Chandigarh, 18th Oct'18: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked Congress chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh to explain why his government had failed to incentivise a single farmer to prevent stubble burning and why he was indulging in politics of lies and deceit by getting photo ops clicked with the Prime Minister to befool the farmers of the State.

Reacting to the tamasha enacted by Capt Amarinder Singh in Delhi to hide his governments abysmal failure to give any compensation to the farmer to cover the cost of managing paddy straw, the SAD President said the chief minister should first give a report card of the utilisation of Rs 385 crore received from the centre to manage paddy straw. Isnt it strange that Capt Amarinder is asking the centre for more money to to compensate farmers before telling why the State has been unable to disburse a single paisa to the anndaata for this purpose?.

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Asking the CM to walk the talk first before demanding more money from the centre, Mr Badal said the Punjab government should immediately release Rs 3,000 per acre to all paddy growers to cover the cost of managing paddy straw. Once you do this we will ourselves accompany you and ask the centre to give more funds to better the lot of farmers. However if you do not do this you will have to answer why you misused central funds and did not give any direct benefit to the Punjab farmer.

Asking the chief minister to tell where the Rs 385 crore had gone because there was no material difference in management of paddy at the ground level, he said a huge scam was in the making and would be uncovered by the SAD in the coming days. He also announced that the SAD would stand with farmers and would not allow the Congress government to prosecute them in any manner. He asked the party rank and file to rush to the aid of farmers wherever they were being persecuted and prevent registration of cases against them.

Stating that farmers could not be asked to bear the cost of managing paddy straw which came to more than Rs 3,000 per acre under any circumstances; Mr Badal said they were already suffering from the States dictatorial decision to delay paddy transplantation by ten days to June 20. He said this had left farmers with a very small cropping window to manage paddy straw. This is why the government must now act quickly and disburse money to farmers to enable them to prevent stubble burning, he added.One of our biggest concerns is that, just like we re-created big tobacco, we will create big marijuana,  Collins continued. If we allow for-profit businesses to market and sell marijuana, it will lead businesses to market aggressively to heavy pot users who may have a drug problem. This is similar to what has happened in the alcohol and tobacco industries, where companies make much of their profits from users with serious addiction issues.Eric H. Holder, who has never been elected for anything in his life, has some advice for his fellow Democrats. Revising Michelle Obamas mantra  When they go low, we go high  Holder says, When they go low, we kick them. All through this great nation of ours, Republicans licked their chops. Someone should check to see if Holder is on the GOP payroll.

Holder, once President Barack Obamas attorney general, did a wee retreat from his kick them statement, saying it was not, of course, a call for violence. Of course not. Holder is not stupid. Shortly after birth, it seems, he became a Superior Court judge, then he served as the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and then as deputy attorney general during the Bill Clinton administration. In addition, that mysterious entity that the storied New York Times columnist Russell Baker called The Great Mentioner has mentioned Holder as a possible presidential candidate. I thought I should mention that.

I should also mention that Michael Avenatti, so impatient with the Great Mentioner that he has mentioned himself, uttered a similar sentiment: When they go low, I say hit back harder. Even Hillary Clinton joined in. You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, she said. Actually, you can. You just dont have to be a patsy.

The trouble with these statements is that here and there are people who dont need encouragement to act uncivilly or even violently. Already, there has been an upsurge in confrontation that has made for ugly television. The confrontation two women had with Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)  Look at me, one of them ordered  was difficult to watch and was used by pro-Brett M. Kavanaugh senators to their advantage. So, too, was the hounding of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) in a D.C. restaurant. I admit it takes some effort to feel sorry for Cruz, but even he is entitled to a sense of security.

You might disagree. But recent political history strongly suggests that bad manners make for bad tactics. Ronald Reagan was elected governor of California twice by running against student demonstrators at the University of California at Berkeley. Reagan, who is invariably lauded as a gentleman, called the campus a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters and sex deviants. The demonstrations did little to change America, but they eventually made Reagan president of the United States.

Similarly, Richard M. Nixon used the anti-war demonstrations of the Vietnam era to pummel George McGovern. Nixon ran, both shamelessly and ironically, on a law-and-order platform that worked wonders with some of the same white working-class voters who now are in a swoon over Trump. The Democrats fondness for the marginalized  hardly an evil trait, by the way  ran into a rebuttal with Richard M. Scammon and Ben J. Wattenbergs important book, The Real Majority (1970). It argued not only that elections are won in the center but also that the party needed to look beyond economic issues and toward the social issues that disturb ordinary Americans. Take that, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Nixons call for law and order was hardly innovative. Throughout the 20th?century, right-wing movements made headway urging an end to (left-wing) demonstrations and coupling this with an attack on modernity  secularism, homosexuality and the usual list of prejudices. They all recognized that most voters feel uneasy with social change and absolutely abhor anything that portends violence or the lack of civility. It makes them feel unsafe and suggests, as does graffiti on a subway car, that worse will follow.

The urge to deal with Trump on his own terms is understandable but shortsighted. Not even Avenatti, who hardly lacks self-confidence and would surely suffer horribly if deprived of media attention, can match Trump when it comes to sheer narcissistic aggression. The presidents genius is reading his opponents tell  their inner weakness. He destroyed his GOP rivals with insults that were, really, encapsulations of what was perceived but not yet stated: Jeb Bushs passivity, Marco Rubios youth and so on. As he showed on his reality show, The Apprentice, the president  like any predator  is adept at finding weakness and moving in for the kill. His show was a companion to Animal Planet.

Going low is not, like proper meds, going to restore Trump voters to sanity. It will, however, only further debase American politics and validate Trump. Politics is not beanbag  whatever that is  and a little larceny is not only permitted but required. But an uncivil society is a dangerous place with possibly horrendous consequences. Beware. The Civil War had nothing to do with manners, but its a warning nonetheless.

Richard Cohens email address is cohenr@washpost.com.Ladies and Gentleman. I have enjoyed this evening immensely, Wilde crowed. The actors have given us a charming rendering of a delightful play, and your appreciation has been most intelligent. I congratulate you on the great success of your performance, which persuades me that you think almost as highly of the play as I do myself.Ubanwa instructed EMTs to eliminate certain words, such as stand, walk, pivot or wheelchair, from their run reports that could cause denial of a claim for reimbursement and to write in those reports that they lifted and assisted the patient even if that statement was not true, according to the indictment.Africa Tarver, executive director of planning and development for Hammond, said UniFirst wanted to keep its operations in Hammond where many of their employees live and the city worked with them to remain within its borders.She was told to be in the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and to use sick leave or personal time if she had to leave the office prior to 5 p.m. for any reason and she had to inform Moores secretary every time she left the building, according to the lawsuit.Bay Area businessman Derf Butler has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the federal government as part of a bid-rigging scheme tied to a renovation project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Attorney Alex Tses office said this week.

A federal grand jury indicted Butler in April on charges that he and others conspired to defraud the U.S. Department of Energy, which was seeking to renovate a building on the Lawrence labs campus. Butler also pleaded guilty to a charge of making false statements to federal investigators.

The charges stemmed from a scheme that began in 2013 in which Butler orchestrated a conspiracy involving contractors submitting phony, inflated bids for the renovation project, Tses office said. The scheme was designed so that a particular developer  who was actually an undercover FBI source  could submit the lowest bid and win the contract.

Butler received thousands of dollars in cash payments from the developer for his role in finding the contractors and arranging their sham bids, according to the U.S. attorneys office.

In March 2014, Butler lied to the FBI about his dealings with the developer, claiming they had no financial relationship. At that point, he had actually accepted $15,000 and had requested another $15,000, Tses office said.

Butler faces a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine for the false-statement count; and a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge.

Another participant in the scheme, Anton Kalafati, president of B Side Inc. in San Francisco, admitted to being one of the contractors who submitted sham bids and pleaded guilty in March, the U.S. attorneys office 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.

Butlers indictment in April arose out of the FBIs corruption investigation of San Francisco political consultant Keith Jackson, former San Francisco state Sen. Leland Yee and the related organized crime investigation of Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow. The undercover FBI source who posed as the developer was also involved in the investigation of Jackson and Yee, who were convicted of corruption charges in 2015.

Last year, the San Francisco Examiner reported that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency had awarded Butlers company, Butler Enterprise Group, a $3.2 million contract for public outreach services despite the pending charges. Butler denied that he was still affiliated with the company at the time.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassaSan Francisco voters face a long list of candidates for the San Francisco school board  18 contenders vying for three open spots, with just one incumbent, recently appointed by the mayor, among them.

The candidates come from a wide range of backgrounds and include teachers, parents, community advocates, a firefighter and even a private investigator.

Three new faces on the seven-member board could shake up the status quo, with several of the candidates calling for reconsideration of district policies, including the elimination of Algebra I classes in middle schools.

Current board members Shamann Walton, Hydra Mendoza and Emily Murase will not be seeking re-election. Walton is running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, Mendoza resigned to take a job with the New York public schools, and Murase missed the deadline to file for candidacy.

Its possible that a fourth seat could open up after the election.

Candidates for San Francisco Board of Education Paul Kangas, doctor and private investigator dr8kangas@gmail.com Michelle Parker, nonprofit grant writer/parent www.michelleparker.org Martin Rawlings-Fein, educator/parent www.martinrawlings-fein.com Monica Chinchilla, education advocate www.monicachinchilla.com Phil Kim, public school educator www.philkim.org Mia Satya, case manager/author www.miasatya.com Alida Fisher, parent/education consultant www.alidafisher.com Alison Collins, educator and parent organizer https://alisoncollinssf.com Gabriela Lopez, public school teacher www.gabrielalopez.org Lex Leifheit, parent/public servant www.lexleifheit.com Faauuga Moliga, school social worker/parent www.faauugamoliga.com Roger Sinasohn, software developer www.sinasohn.com Connor Krone, financial literacy educator www.connorkrone.com Lenette Thompson, firefighter www.lenettethompson.com Phillip House wrsus@hotmail.com John Trasvina, former law school dean www.johnforsf.com Li Miao Lovett, academic counselor www.lilovett.com Darron Padilla, organization development consultant See More Collapse

In the meantime, Mayor London Breed shook up the race by appointing one of the candidates, Faauuga Moliga, to fill Mendozas vacant seat for the remainder of her term. A former school social worker, Moliga, 36, is the first Pacific Islander to serve in a citywide office.

The appointment arguably gives Moliga a boost heading into the final weeks of the campaign.

But he might not be the last mayoral appointment to the board.

Board member Matt Haney, who still has two years left on his term, is campaigning for city supervisor. If he wins, he will vacate his school board seat and Breed will designate a replacement.

That would mean a majority composed of four new members.

The seven-member board dictates the districts $890 million annual budget serving 57,000 students and sets policy, often during five-hour-plus meetings.

Whoever is elected will probably face several issues over the next year or two, including an increasingly tight budget strapped by skyrocketing pension costs. In addition, the current board expects to launch a process to revamp the widely panned student assignment system, which the new board would inherit.

The districts relationship with charter schools is also a topic the state and the local school board could  and should  face, said Kevine Boggess, political director of Coleman Advocates, which supports city families.

What is our relationship to charter schools, and are we really holding charter schools accountable to what theyre promising families? he asked.

The new board also will need to tackle the pernicious achievement gap that leaves English learners, foster children, African American, Latino and special education students behind their peers, Boggess said.

I think the advice Id have for them is to understand that families and students are the experts of their experience and let that guide them, he said. Spend as much time in schools as possible.

The new members will also need to get up to speed on recruiting and retaining teachers given that many parents consistently raise concerns at board meetings about schools that still lack permanent teachers, said Miranda Martin, director of policy for Parents for Public Schools San Francisco, which advocates for and educates parents.

In addition, families have expressed frustration about the language immersion programs, which have a hard time finding enough teachers fluent in Mandarin or other languages, Martin 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.

There still seems to be a real problem with vacancies, she said.

The 18 candidates raised a total of $361,468 for their campaigns as of early October, with education advocate Monica Chinchilla at the top of the pack with $62,003 in contributions, followed by $54,979 raised by former law school dean John Trasvina, and $43,364 for Michelle Parker.

Former candidate Josephine Zhao had raised more than $90,000 before dropping out of the race amid reports of derogatory comments about transgender rights and the sexuality of her opponents.

Several of the remaining candidates boast a long list of political and influential endorsements.

The United Educators of San Francisco, the teachers union, endorsed educator Alison Collins, academic counselor Li Miao Lovett and school social worker Moliga.

Mayor London Breed also endorsed Moliga, as well as Parker.

The three candidates with the most citywide votes will win the seats.

Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer: Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltuckerThe Catholic Diocese of San Jose on Thursday released the names of 15 clergy members who were known by the church to be child sex abusers.

At least nine priests on the list are dead, and the rest are permanently banned from the ministry. Many of the allegations were already publicly known through lawsuits and news reports.

One of the priests, Don Flickinger, who was sued for sexual abuse years ago, is assigned to the Fresno Diocese. He was permanently banned from the ministry in 2006, meaning he may not celebrate Mass, wear clerical attire or perform other priestly duties with the exception of participating in a funeral Mass for another priest within the diocese.

Fr. Flickinger has maintained his innocence and has cooperated with the restrictions placed upon him, said Teresa Dominguez, a spokeswoman for the Fresno Diocese. She stressed that the allegations against him were part of one civil suit and noted that it settled before going to trial.

The sexual misconduct allegations against the 15 men, which were not described in detail, spanned 1961 to the early 2000s and occurred at parishes within the Santa Clara County diocese. No cases of recent or ongoing abuse were included.

The list includes one priest, Leonel Noia, who served jail time after he was convicted of molesting a boy during a 1976 camping trip. Noia was suspended for three years in the 1970s but was allowed to return, spending the next 24 years at three San Jose parishes. He died in 2005.

Another, Joseph Pritchard, was sued for repeatedly molesting a 13-year-old altar boy in the 1970s. The lawsuit, which included allegations against other priests, resulted in a $21.2 million settlement in 2005. Pritchard died in 1988.

The list included only clergy members who admitted misconduct, were criminally convicted or were found to be culpable by a review board convened by the diocese.

Robert Gray, also on the list, was sentenced to probation for sexually abusing a teenage boy in 1993 whom he had been teaching karate. After his conviction, Gray took a leave of absence until 1995 and then completed administrative assignments for the church until 2002, when he was permanently banned. A 2017 directory for the Diocese of San Jose listed him as being on a leave of absence. He lives in Sunnyvale.

Allegations against Flickinger surfaced in 2002, 2005 and 2006, according to the list, and he was also the subject of legal complaints. In 2011, he was accused of abusing a 13-year-old boy a decade earlier at a San Jose church, and was accused of abusing children at a Saratoga parish throughout the 1990s. In 2013, victims settled with the dioceses of San Jose and Fresno for $985,000 stemming from allegations against Flickinger.

I express my deepest apologies for the actions of those who were in positions of authority and who violated that sacred trust by abusing children, San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath said in a statement. The sexual abuse of children and young people is an appalling crime and a sin. When these perpetrators are members of the clergy, there are not only psychological wounds but spiritual wounds.

List of accused The priests on the list released by the San Jose Diocese on Thursday are: Thomas Bettencourt: Last served at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Los Gatos from 1982 to 1988. Died in 1990. Don Flickinger: Currently at the Diocese of Fresno. However, also listed as having been permanently banned from the ministry in 2006. Robert Gray: Currently in Sunnyvale, last served administrative assignments from 1995 to 2002. Arthur Harrison: Last served at Church of the Ascension in Saratoga from 1987 to 1989. Died in 2006. Laurent Largente: Last served at St. Joseph Cathedral in San Jose from 1992 to 1993. Died in 2015. Alexander Larkin: Currently in San Jose, last served at Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga from 1996 to 2005. Philip McCrillis: Last served in the Chancery in San Jose from 1996 to 1999. Died in 2007. George Moss: Last served at St. Joseph Parish in Mountain View from 1963 to 1976. Died in 1986. Leonel Noia: Last served at Five Wounds Parish in San Jose from 1986 to 2002. Died in 2005. Joseph Pritchard: Last served at St. Nicholas Parish in Los Altos from 1979 to 1988. Died in 1988. Noel Senevirante: Last served at St. Maria Goretti Parish in San Jose in 1970. Died in 2009. Toro Hernan: Currently in San Leandro, last served in Detention Ministry from 1988 to 1990. Joseph Dondero: Last served at Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos from 1980 to 1997. Died in 1997. Angel Mariano: Last served at Most Holy Trinity Parish in San Jose from 1993 to 1998. Dismissed in 2002. Phil Sunseri: Currently in San Jose, last served Holy Family Parish in San Jose in 1987. See More Collapse

McGrath said last month he would release the names after a Pennsylvania grand jury published a landmark report on systemic cover-up of child sex abuse by diocesan leaders in the state and at the Vatican. The investigation subpoenaed and reviewed the churchs internal records, which showed credible allegations against more than 300 priests and identified more than 1,000 child victims. The grand jury said victims likely probably number in the many thousands.

Bishop Michael C. Barber of the Oakland Diocese said he would also release a list of clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse in the coming weeks. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco hasnt committed to such a move, but said he is considering it.

Other dioceses, including those of San Diego and Stockton, have published lists, too.

Abuse survivors and their advocates said the release by McGrath was inadequate and probably deficient. They are calling for a probe similar to Pennsylvanias to be conducted by outside authorities.

Were not going to get that sort of disclosure from the bishops of San Jose or San Francisco or Oakland, said Dan McNevin, a local leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. They have too much to lose by opening their files. ... If they really cared about victims, theyd open themselves to a subpoena-powered law enforcement investigation.

The list, McNevin noted, does not include Catholic school teachers, nuns or deacons. It appears limited to a subset of clergy members hired by bishops.

This release will help those victims of these released names, but it does not serve transparency and does not illuminate Bishop McGraths role in handling abuse in his diocese, McNevin 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.

McNevin and other survivors have met with California Attorney General Xavier Becerras staff, who would not confirm the existence of an investigation. Becerras grand jury authority is different from that of his Pennsylvania counterpart, Josh Shapiro.

Becerra has the creative power to look into these files somehow, McNevin said.

State prosecutors wanted to know what the survivors knew about California bishops networks and relationships to each other.

Another Bay Area SNAP leader, Melanie Sakoda, said only an investigation by law enforcement can provide a full accounting of abuse by clergy in the region.

Part of the problem is that when youre investigating yourself, you have a tendency to ignore some of the evidence, she said. It could be your friend, someone you went to seminary with, so its not as removed.

McGrath did not say why the list wasnt released earlier. He cited guidelines from 2002 instructing bishops that making the names of clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse of children public strengthens our accountability and demonstrates transparency to rebuild trust.

All these bishops that are releasing lists, they could have done it at any point after they became head of their diocese, Sakoda said. Even though it is too little, too late, it is good for survivors and good for the public when names get out there.

The San Jose Diocese retained a former FBI investigator, Kathleen McChesney, and her consulting firm to oversee a review of personnel files related to sexual abuse and determine how diocesan leadership handled the allegations.

As a result of the examination, there may be additional offenders identified, the church said. If so, then their names will be added to this list by the end of the year.

Kimberly Veklerov and Ashley McBride are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, ashley.mcbride@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov, @ashleynmcbIndependent lab tests ordered by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission found no evidence of pesticides in San Franciscos drinking water, the agency announced Thursday.

The SFPUC collected and analyzed 21 water samples following a minor panic last week after several residents in the Sunset District complained that their store-bought water-testing kits yielded positive results for the herbicides Atrazine and Simazine. Their concerns were amplified over social media.

These independent test results confirm what our rigorous testing and monitoring program continues to show  that the water we deliver to customers meets and often exceeds drinking water standards, SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly said in a statement. The agency conducted more than 100,000 water-quality tests last year. Regular monitoring showed no signs of pesticides before the independent lab tests.

We appreciate that our residents care deeply about the citys water supply and we look forward to a continued dialogue with the community, Kelly said.

Andrew DeGraca, the SFPUCs director of water quality, said the samples were collected from the Sunset Reservoir, wells, distribution monitoring points, a customer home test kit site, at Dianne Feinstein Elementary School and other locations.

I am glad that the SFPUC took residents concerns seriously and conducted additional testing, said District Four Supervisor Katy Tang, whose district includes the Sunset. Residents should rest assured that the water delivered to their tap is safe to drink.

The test kits used by the homeowners who raised concerns can be purchased at hardware stores and tend to use colored lines to indicate the presence of elevated levels of harmful chemicals, DeGraca said. That can leave the test results open to interpretation.

With these test kits, youre looking at colors and comparing two blue lines, comparing how dark they are. People see things differently, he said. If you read the test kits, there are a lot of disclaimers. This is a crude test, and if you really want (confirmation), you need to do lab tests that follow the EPA-approved methods.

DeGraca said the agency planned to test similar store-bought kits.

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.

The SFPUC began adding groundwater to its Sierra supplies in April of last year to diversify its water portfolio.

Water in the Sunset is mostly a blend of surface and groundwater, though some is purely surface water, according to city records. The blended water typically contains less than 1 percent groundwater.

Changing the blend of water from SFPUCs reservoirs, even slightly, may result in potentially noticeable changes to taste, the agency said.

But DeGraca urged anyone who experiences changes in water smell or taste to contact 311, the citys service portal, so the SFPUC can conduct tests.

Dont be shy; thats what were here to do, he said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassaLietz reportedly let Elias Costello, 18, Nathaniel Asbury, 21, and a 16-year-old boy into her familys home in the 3000 block of Crane Place, court records state. The burglars wore ski masks, and one had a shotgun, which was used to order a female in the house to stay on a couch where the female said two of the burglars raped her, according to court records.The University of California has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit from a former colleague against UCSFs famed anti-tobacco crusader and researcher Stanton Glantz, who also faces a second, similar lawsuit from a former employee.

The lawsuit filed in December by Eunice Neeley, a former post-doctoral researcher for Glantz, claimed that during 2016 and 2017, he repeatedly stared at her body and chest, leered at her (and) forced her to hug him on several occasions, and referred to orgy scenes from movies and to Playboy magazine during professional conversations.

In the suit, Neeley says that after she formally complained about him to UCSF in March 2017, Glantz retaliated against (her) by removing authorship credit for a paper she researched and wrote.

Under the new settlement, signed last month, Glantz agreed to relinquish his rights to the paper  which looks at tobacco industry claims about low-tar cigarettes and offers recommendations for the FDA  and transfer its ownership to Neeley.

Through her attorney, Neeley declined to comment.

As part of the settlement, UC and Glantz denied all of Neeleys allegations.

UCSF and Glantz declined to comment. But Glantz, in a rebuttal of the lawsuits allegations posted on his blog, cited extensive written records that he said refute Neeleys claims. One is a June 2017 letter in which UCSF officials tell the medical journal that considered the disputed research paper that Neeleys name wasnt on it because she wouldnt let Glantz include her, despite repeated requests.

Glantz, a medical school professor who has been on the UCSF faculty since 1977, is one of the universitys best-known figures. He has written five books and nearly 400 scientific papers, according to his university bio, and has helped attract millions of dollars in grant money  including a $20 million federal grant last month to study the health effects of electronic cigarettes, on which he is considered a national expert.

But the new settlement does not end Glantzs legal problems or calm all allegations against him.

The sexual harassment complaint that Neeley filed last year with UCSF triggered two internal investigations. Although both are secret under UC policy, The Chronicle has confirmed that in December, the first one concluded that Glantz had more likely than not engaged in some or all of the conduct alleged by Neeley.

A second internal investigation by a committee of at least three faculty members then delved deeper into the allegations, The Chronicle confirmed. Based on those findings, UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood determined last month that Glantz had violated the Faculty Code of Conduct. Glantz now has the option to seek an internal hearing before the Faculty Senates Privilege and Tenure committee, which has the power to recommend disciplinary measures.

Meanwhile, although Glantz violated UCs sexual harassment policy and its Faculty Code of Conduct, a spokeswoman for the UC regents confirmed that UC has been paying Glantzs legal bills.

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.

UC is also picking up the legal tab for Glantzs defense in a second sexual harassment suit by former employee Juliette Jackson, filed in Alameda County Superior Court in March.

Jackson, a paralegal hired by Glantz in 2014, claims in her suit that Glantz repeatedly leered at her breasts, yelled at her and spoke insensitively about her as a Native American, creating a hostile work environment.

Jackson also alleges in the suit that UCSF mishandled the sexual harassment complaint about Glantz she filed with the campus in March 2017. She said the campus failed to protect her from Glantz and repeatedly delayed its investigation.

At that time, UCSF was experiencing problems of its own and fired the head of its sexual harassment prevention office in April 2017 for serious misconduct that included mishandling cases, The Chronicle reported last year. However, that person was on leave when Jackson filed her complaint.

In court papers, Glantz denied leering at Jackson. He admitted that at times he referred to Native Americans as Indians, but denied that he yelled, snarled his face, and spoke in a demeaning tone to Jackson, as alleged.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimovThe future of retail  one where smartphone apps take the place of the familiar rows of cashiers and registers  may soon touch down in San Franciscos Financial District.

Amazon.com, the Seattle e-commerce giant, long eschewed bricks and mortar. Lately, though, it has expanded in the physical realm, from its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods to its fast-growing Amazon Books chain. Its new San Francisco outpost, revealed through permits and job listings, will make its vision for the merger of digital and real-world shopping a palpable presence in the heartland of technology.

The company received city approval in August to install an Amazon Go electric sign at 300 California St., according to property records. The documents strongly suggest that a store will open in the office buildings ground-floor retail space, which is along a busy downtown thoroughfare. Amazon Go is listed as a lessee, or tenant, in the permit application.

Amazon has five Go stores in Seattle and Chicago, which sell prepared food and groceries  no checkout required, as shoppers use an app to enter the store. Cameras and other sensors monitor the items shoppers take, which are charged to their Amazon account.

The Chronicle reported in May that Amazon was in talks with San Francisco officials to open its first Amazon Go store in California. The companys website has job listings for a San Francisco Amazon Go store manager and for multiple retail associates; while Go stores dont have cashiers, workers prepare foods and stock shelves. Amazon declined to comment.

Besides its Whole Food stores in the Bay Area, Amazon operates Amazon Books stores in San Jose and Walnut Creek. Amazon is also planning to open an Amazon 4-star store, which sells a variety of goods rated highly by online reviewers, in Berkeley, according to signs first noted by Berkeleyside, an online news site.

Existing Amazon Go stores in other cities sell prepared food, alcohol and non-prescription medicine. If the new store stocks similar goods, it will compete with drugstores Walgreens and CVS, which have multiple locations in the Financial District, as well as the TargetExpress on Bush Street, a smaller-format outpost of the discount retail chain.

Amazon Go could also compete with numerous downtown delis and casual restaurants. The San Francisco job listings say stores include ready-to-eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options made by our chefs and favorite local kitchens and bakeries, including bread, milk, cheese and chocolate.

The 300 California St. space is at Battery Street and near major office hubs like the Embarcadero Center. The intersection sees steady foot traffic throughout the workday, particularly during lunch. But the retail space has been vacant since 2014, when Staples closed. The office supply store has struggled with declining sales  and, yes, competition from Amazon.

On Wednesday, the retail spaces windows were almost entirely covered up, and it wasnt possible to see any activity inside. Signs on the building list Kazuko Morgan and Mary Kate Banchero, brokers with Cushman & Wakefield, as marketing contacts. Morgan didnt respond to a request for comment.

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The property is owned by the LeFrak Organization, a 113-year-old family firm that is one of New Yorks largest landlords. LeFrak did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Three Amazon Go stores opened this year in the companys hometown of Seattle and two in Chicago, with another planned for the Windy City. The company told the Information, a technology news site, that it is looking at New York for expansion. Last month, Bloomberg reported that the company is aiming for 3,000 or more Amazon Go locations by 2021. Amazon declined to comment to Bloomberg on expansion plans.

Amazon would have to invest an estimated $500 million to $3 billion for the stores, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note last month, but they said the effort would pay off by providing Amazon more data on shoppers.

Amazon has thousands of employees in the Bay Area, from warehouse employees to Kindle hardware engineers to video game designers. In 2017 and 2018, it leased a combined 300,000 square feet at San Franciscos 525 Market St., about three blocks south of the Amazon Go location, according to real estate brokerage data. The Twitch video-streaming site, which is owned by Amazon, is headquartered in the city, and the division leased half of a new tower at 350 Bush St. in 2016, with space for over 1,000 employees.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisfSquare, the company that made its name on portable credit-card swipes for farmers markets and food trucks, is tackling more mainstream businesses with a new, all-in-one handheld payment device.

Previously, businesses would typically use an iPhone or iPad running Square software and connected to Square hardware, or a larger, stationary Square register. The new Square Terminal introduced Thursday offers portability  and no phone or tablet is needed, so it looks more professional.

The new device costs $399. Merchants pay 10 cents plus 2.6 percent of the purchase price on each payment. Thats a lower per-transaction rate than businesses were charged before, but the per-transaction fee is new.

Caroline Krogh-Jensen, owner of the BoConcept furniture store in San Francisco, was one of about 60 merchants across the country who tested the device. It worked well, she said  better than the clumsy arrangement she used before, an iPad with a Square card reader plugged in.

When someones buying and interacting in a furniture setting, theyre sitting in the sofa that theyre about to buy, Krogh-Jensen said. Its nice to be able to bring the terminal over and complete the transaction anywhere in the showroom.

Kat Berumen, the manager at Edo hair salon in San Francisco, said the Square Terminal has made chair-side payments easier, especially when clients at the salon are running late to another appointment.

Its so much more convenient, Berumen said. Its so much easier to have it all in one and be able to hand it to the clients. Before, if the card reader was misplaced, a worker would have to key in the card number manually, for which Square charges a higher fee.

Jesse Dorogusker, Squares hardware chief, who joined the company in 2011 from Apple, said the new device is also suitable for restaurants, where the terminal can be brought to the customer. That practice is already common in Canada and Europe. Dorogusker also spoke of a plastic surgeons office that brought the terminal to a patients room for more privacy.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

We dont think about it strictly as a countertop device, even though a lot of people talk about terminals as countertop equipment, Dorogusker said. You plug it into the wall, you plug it into the phone line, you hide it as much as possible  those days are over.

Square made payment processing easier for small businesses with its Square Reader, which debuted along with the company in 2009 and can be plugged into phones. It introduced the Square Stand  an iPad holder which also swiped cards  in 2013 and the all-in-one Square Register in 2017.

Dorogusker envisions selling Square Terminal to seasonal businesses like pumpkin patches and fireworks stores, so they dont have to buy multiple phones with Square readers for employees. He also sees convenience stores with limited counter space as a potential market.

Square, headquartered in San Francisco, went public in 2015. Its stock price fell last week after announcing that its chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, was leaving to become CEO of the San Francisco neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor.

Sophia Kunthara is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.kunthara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaKuntharaEvacuation orders were lifted Thursday afternoon for 4,000 Bay Point residents who were forced out of their homes the prior night after an underground vault caught fire, threatening a gas pipeline.

Contra Costa County firefighters extinguished a grass fire in the area of Bailey Road around 6 p.m. Wednesday, but they returned to the scene an hour later after hearing reports of a fire in a nearby Chevron vault, where workers access gas pipeline valves.

Officials sent a drone over the facility Wednesday night and found that a concrete vault had reached 430 degrees.

We realized very quickly there was a high probability of danger, so a decision was made to escalate the incident, which included setting an evacuation zone of a half mile, said Terence Carey, an assistant fire chief for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.

As of Thursday morning, the vault had cooled to 100 degrees, but crews spent a total of 15 hours identifying the issue and flowing natural gas out of the pipeline before injecting nitrogen to render the line safe.

We are very happy this went according to plan, Carey said.

Cell phone robocalls went out Wednesday night to residents of 1,400 homes in the evacuation zone near Bailey Road, officials said, but not everyone got the message.

Tony Raymond, 53, worked 12 hours Wednesday at a nearby refinery before taking his wife out to dinner to celebrate her 45th birthday. At 9:30 p.m., the couple got into bed with their two dogs, Camilla and Yoko, and fell dead asleep.

Two hours later, Raymond woke to seven missed calls from his son, who relayed the evacuation orders. Neighbors had already left the area, and the couple had slept through law enforcement knocking on their door.

Raymond walked out his front door around 11:30 p.m. and was met by police officers, who asked him what he was still doing home.

I have to get the pets, Raymond recalled saying. I didnt have time to put my socks on.

He put the dogs in his pickup truck, before going to the familys Toyota with their cat, Princess, and the cage that held their three cockatiels: Summer, Terry and Candy.

Those are our babies right there, Raymond said, pointing at the chirping birds. We had to get them all. It was a nightmare. It was crazy. I hope we dont have to do that again.

Raymond and his wife, Wendy, spent the night in the Bay Point BART parking lot, but neither of them slept.

Early Thursday, officials started moving Bay Point BART Station evacuees to the parking lot of Los Medanos College. Wendy Raymond sat in the back of the familys pickup truck, her hands resting on the cages as she shushed the birds.

I still cant believe this is happening, she said. I was so confused, nauseous at the same time.

A few hundred evacuees also sheltered Wednesday night at the Calvary Temple Church in Concord. Pastor Jason Morgan was leaving a board meeting when he saw a police officer racing through the church parking lot.

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The officer told him 1,500 homes were being evacuated and nearly 4,000 people would be displaced, and he asked if residents could use the churchs parking lot.

I said 100-percent yes, Morgan said.

The pastor also unlocked the churchs lobby doors so people could use the bathroom and get water and coffee.

Officials said that three buses were dispatched to get people out of the evacuation zone.

We recognize we probably have many individuals who dont have the transportation, said Lt. Paul OMary, a member of the county Sheriffs Office. We went down literally every street.

Busloads of people arrived at the church, where volunteers prepared cots and couches, brought in groceries and ordered hundreds of Grand Slam breakfasts from a nearby Dennys.

The whole building was just lined with people, Morgan said. The lobby was full. People were standing in the cold. It was very somber. Some people were in tears when they first started arriving. A lot of people were scared, a lot of people were confused  they hadnt grabbed anything.

Sarah Ravani and Gwendolyn Wu are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani, @gwendolynawuThe Hearst Foundations have awarded $1.35 million in grants to 14 California nonprofits specializing in culture, education, health and social services, the organization said.

Paul Dino Dinovitz, executive director of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the Hearst Foundation Inc., announced the recipients after a Sept. 25 foundation board meeting. The recipients include organizations raising awareness for clinical trials for cancer patients, increasing arts and culture diversity in Silicon Valley, and supporting low-income, first-generation college students.

San Francisco nonprofits received five of the grants, which range from $50,000 to $250,000. Compass Family Services received $100,000 in funding for comprehensive social service programming, while the Dignity Health Foundation was awarded $75,000 for its North State Healthy Moms Project.

The foundation donated to three art nonprofits in the Bay Area, including $50,000 for general operations at the Merola Opera Program, $75,000 for dance education programming at the Alonzo King Lines Ballet, and $50,000 for the Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Project in San Jose.

Students Rising Above of San Francisco was awarded $50,000 for its Select Program, which provides first-generation, low-income college students with financial, academic and emotional support.

The largest single grant, $250,000, went to Claremonts Keck Graduate Institute, which announced plans for a new school of medicine in July.

Three Los Angeles nonprofits each were awarded $100,000 in grants: the Childrens Institute, which supports indigent youths and families in Southern California; My Friends Place, a homeless youth program in Hollywood; and the Industry Foundations Stand Up to Cancer: Clinical Trials Awareness Project.

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.

Other grants include $150,000 for the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural Historys centennial programming; $100,000 for the Montage Health Foundations Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula Mobile Health Clinic; $75,000 for a palliative care fellowship and residency program at Providence TrinityCare Hospice in Torrance (Los Angeles County); and $75,000 for the Drummond Culinary Academy vocational training program at Rancho Cielo in Salinas.

The Hearst Foundations have given $5.75 million in nonprofit grants this year. The charity operates separately from Hearst Corp., which owns The Chronicle.

Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @gwendolynawuIt is actually easier, and believe it or not safer, if we burn it bigger because it has really good barriers out there, he said. Instead of us having to go with weed whips and leaf blowers and mowers and try to put in a barrier to the fire - if we burn from road to road, and railroad track to trail, which is basically what we are doing, it is safer for us in the long run. We can do more with less people that way.Selective outrage: As our editorial notes, President Trump sure seems to give the benefit of the doubt to privileged men accused of crimes. Even so, his reticence to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for what appears for all the world to be the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is reprehensible. Its hard to escape the notion that Trump is putting the sanctity of big-money deals over the life of a journalist who called the United States home.

What were saying

Debate upshot: Sen. Dianne Feinstein took the debate stage against an opponent for the first time in 18 years. Actually, it was more of a conversation in San Francisco with challenger (and fellow Democrat) Kevin de Leon, moderated by Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California. Who won? Our editorial gives the clear edge to Feinstein, whose performance effectively defused the age issue.

Ben Margot / Associated Press

Joe and John Show: Our senior political reporter Joe Garofoli and I offer our analyses of the U.S. Senate debate in this edition of the Opinion Central podcast.

Hate robocalls? So does editorial writer Caille Millner in this Last Word. She even suggests a solution may be in the works. Or not.

Sleazy Mailer of the Week

For the record: We dont mind when quotes from our endorsement editorials end up in campaign mailers. But this one, from the Yes on 10 campaign, is just plain confusing and deceptive.

Here is what our editorial against Proposition 10 said.

Sleazy Tweet of the Week

It only gets worse: Just when you thought President Trump couldnt go any lower, here is his tweet after a judge ruled in his favor in a lawsuit by Stormy Daniels. One can only imagine what Trump would have tweeted if he lost the decision.

Where to follow us

We have a new Twitter channel, Opinion Central (@sfc_opinions). Please add it to your stream. Youll catch our editorials and opinion pieces, as well as our drive-by comments on assorted subjects in the news.

Also, please add our Opinion Central podcast to wherever you receive yours. This is the place for backstories and commentary with our opinion writers and special guests.

Letter of the Week

On the scene: Jeffrey Earl Warren of St. Helena offered this firsthand account of the consequences of that PG&E preventive power shutdown last weekend:

I grew up on a Napa Valley ranch four miles from St. Helena and up a mile dirt road. On Sunday night, PG&E cut off power to our ranch.Over the years, we have had to stand on the roof of our home, hosing it down and dousing embers as fire raged all around us. We live on a well, which requires electricity to pump water. Not only does cutting off power kill our refrigerator (causing ice to melt and food to spoil), but we cant cook, watch TV, use the computer, or turn on the air conditioning. Worst of all, we have no water to bathe, brush our teeth, flush our toilets, or fight fires. This is not just insane, it is cruel. If we lose our home due to this insane policy  fair warning, PG&E  you will be held legally responsible. Are there no legislators who can fix this? Rural lives matter!

And please check out our other letters of the day responding to this and other matters. You can send us a letter via this form.

Sign up for the newsletter Want to get the latest San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board opinions in your inbox? Subscribe to Opinion Central. See More Collapse

Just a reminder

The Chronicles editorials represent the collective judgment of our Editorial Board, which includes the publisher as well as the writers and editors from the opinion team. Our editors and reporters on the news side are not involved in those decisions (including election endorsements). They and are charged with reporting fairly and objectively without regard to our editorial positions. It is one of the core values here at Fifth and Mission streets.

Opinion Central is a thrice-weekly newsletter from John Diaz, The Chronicles editorial page editor, and the rest of the Editorial Board. Follow along on Twitter: @sfc_opinionsPresident Trumps empathy has a curious habit of making its rare appearances when privileged men are credibly accused of crimes  even if the alleged wrongdoing doesnt involve dodging taxes or consorting with Russians.

Here we go again with, you know, youre guilty until proven innocent, Trump told the Associated Press this week when asked about Saudi Arabias involvement in the suspected assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident journalist and Virginia resident who was last seen entering the kingdoms consulate in Turkey. I dont like that. We just went through that with Justice Kavanaugh.

The presumption of innocence generally applies to criminal justice, not extrajudicial killings. But the greater problem is that, as with accusations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh and election sabotage by Vladimir Putin, Trump doesnt care what the Saudis did  only what they have done and can do for him. His supposed efforts to figure out what happened to the Washington Post contributor have been limited to politely asking those widely suspected of masterminding his murder, the Saudi royals. Having been so shameless as to parrot their rogue killers theory to the press following a phone conversation with King Salman on Monday, Trump went on to dispatch Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh to hear more such tall tales in person.

Repressive authoritarianism is the rule throughout the Saudis kingdom; the idea that they dont know what goes on in their own consulate defies credulity. Moreover, Turkish and U.S. officials have already produced extensive evidence that the regime ordered and carried out a hit on Khashoggi, a prominent critic.

It will fall to Congress to mount any meaningful response. Saudi Arabian oil and wealth have purchased American acquiescence through many administrations, but Trump and company have doubled down on the error. His business entanglements allow the Saudis to put money in his pocket, and he has made the transactional nature of the relationship explicit. Hence he defends the sanctity of his deals with the Saudis over the life of a journalist who called the United States home.

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.Dear Gov. Brown,

Heres a question for you: Whats a vagina worth?

Thats probably not an issue you have spent much time pondering, but you should.

Currently, tens of thousands of women living in California are suffering every day from severe, often permanent, injuries due to implants of transvaginal mesh.

They were among some roughly 2 million women in America who received mesh implants to repair conditions that affect some 30 percent women after childbirth or as they age: pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence. The mesh is supposed to support the vaginal wall, bladder and uterus.

But those mesh implants were not tested first in vaginas, thanks to loose regulations demanded by the medical device lobby. These women were guinea pigs.

This is one of the biggest scandals in the modern womens health care. Dr. Tom Margolis, a Burlingame pelvic surgeon and an expert on pelvic mesh, warned the Food and Drug Administration in 2011 that vaginal mesh implants were unsafe. His mesh removal surgery wait list stretches to mid-2019.

Injuries and deaths have led other countries including Australia, Ireland and Scotland to stop such implants. Earlier this year, the United Kingdom shut down these operations to conduct a long-term study of mesh damage.

However, in the United States, companies that make vaginal mesh continue to advertise and gynecologists continue to implant it. Why is this happening?

Money. The mesh implant makers have amassed billions of dollars in sales over the past decade, and they dont want to lose this lucrative revenue stream. Nor do the ob-gyns who were aggressively recruited by mesh marketers sales reps, with promises of wealth. Sales reps even helped train the doctors in the implant procedure.

It is time for California to stop vaginal mesh surgery in-state while it reviews the extent of tragic results. This can be part of your legacy, Gov. Brown.

California saw more vaginal mesh implants than other states  perhaps as many as 100,000, according to mesh experts. It is estimated that 10 percent of the women will need partial or complete mesh removal to pull the plastic from organs it has cut. In my reporting, doctors and patients told me that implant surgeries cost about $3,500 but the removals are in the range of $50,000. The British health system says mesh removal surgeries are costing it millions of pounds.

The Food and Drug Administration says serious problems with vaginal mesh are NOT rare. Thousands of women across America endure repeated emergency room visits for chronic urinary tract infections, unrelenting pain, and difficulty walking.

A group of those women, several in wheelchairs, came to Chicago last week to rally before pro-mesh doctors at the annual medical conference on womens pelvic disorders.

Among them was a woman from Colorado who has had five surgeries at UCLA since 2015 for mesh removal and pelvic repair. Mesh had caused inversion of her small intestine, which was hanging out. Her vagina was so damaged by mesh that it was removed and reconstructed, to a point. Not surprisingly, she calls mesh deterioration genital mutilation.

In 2016, the California Attorney General  then Kamala Harris  paved the way for California to stop these implants. In 2016, she announced that California was suing Johnson & Johnson for deceptive marketing. Harris said, Johnson and Johnson put millions of women at risk of severe health problems. The company sold 787,232 devices nationally from 2008 to 2014, more than 42,000 in California. And Johnson & Johnson was only one of four companies selling mesh in California.

This summer, Netflixs documentary The Bleeding Edge and CBS 60 Minutes showed damage done to womens internal organs by plastic mesh migration (as its politely called).

The company that manufactured the polypropylene used in mesh warned that it was not intended as an implant in humans. A clinical trial in the United States was halted in 2009 because of the shocking 15 percent complication rate among patients within three months. Mesh-maker executives have said under oath that they knew this plastic could shrink, move and perforate organs.

But companies sold billions of dollars of vaginal mesh anyway.

Ill bet their investors know what a vagina is worth.

People tell me theyre uncomfortable discussing vaginal mesh. Katrina Spradley of Georgia, who organized the rally for Mesh Awareness in Chicago, can discuss the cheese grater that her mesh felt like. Spradley has also had removal surgery at UCLA. She talks freely about the incident before her repair operation, when a piece of mesh that pushed through her vaginal wall unexpectedly scratched her husbands penis during sex.

Now that is uncomfortable.

If California acts to halt these mesh surgeries, other states will follow.

As one of your last official acts, Gov. Brown, show that California is still first in protecting womens health.

Alicia Mundy is writing a book on womens health care disasters. Email: aliciamundy007@gmail.comKevin de Leon fashioned himself as the activist in his debate Wednesday with the U.S. senator he is trying to unseat, Dianne Feinstein. Restless with the glacial pace of Washington, the former state Senate president said California has had to take the lead on issues like immigration and climate change.

Feinstein was the institutionalist. She said its hard to get bipartisan consensus in a bitterly divided Capitol, especially when Democrats dont control Congress or the White House.

But even as de Leon knocked a lack of action in Washington and a lack of courage among D.C. Democrats, he passed up most opportunities to take on Feinstein by name.

The challenger who blasted Feinstein early this year for having lived in a mansion behind walls all her life was largely absent at the debate in San Francisco at the Public Policy Institute of California, the only scheduled face-off between the two before election day. Instead, he stuck to assertions that Californians are looking for new leadership and that its time for a new generation  in each case, not mentioning the 85-year-old, four-term senator by name.

Its because of a lack of action in Washington that California has had to lead on issues like climate change and immigration, de Leon said.

He complained that Democrats in Washington lack the courage of their convictions. Even when they controlled Congress and the White House under Barack Obama, he noted, they failed to renew Feinsteins ban on assault weapons, which lapsed during the presidency of George W. Bush. And he said that Washington  which he often used as a proxy instead of mentioning Feinstein by name  has done little on immigration reform.

Left unsaid was that in the Legislature, the Los Angeles Democrat has been able to help pass progressive legislation because his party has consistently held overwhelming majorities  a far different situation from the minority status in which Democrats find themselves in Washington.

Feinstein agreed that more needs to be done to overhaul the nations immigration system and said she has crafted a bill to address the issue comprehensively. But she said that until Democrats control Congress and the White House, it wont go anywhere.

Feinstein, who was first elected to the Senate in 1992, said change in Washington doesnt come via broad gestures or activist-like rhetoric. Twice, she addressed de Leon as Kevin as she referred to her work to enact the assault weapons ban in 1994 and water legislation that she crafted with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican, that went through 26 drafts and took three years to pass.

Sure, you can protest  and we do  but they (Republicans) move their majority regardless, Feinstein said. Partisanship has become so calcified that its like hitting your head against a concrete wall. You can march. You can filibuster, you can talk all night. It doesnt change anything. What changes things are elections.

De Leon also went easy on Feinstein when moderator Mark Baldassare, president of the Public Policy Institute of California, raised the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation controversy. Last month, De Leon ripped Feinstein, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, for not going public earlier with a letter she received from Palo Alto University Professor Christine Blasey Ford accusing Kavanaugh of trying to rape her when they were in high school.

After de Leons criticism, however, Feinstein became a figure of sympathy for Democratic voters when President Trump accused her of leaking the letter to reporters, something the senator denied. On Wednesday, there was no criticism of Feinsteins actions from de Leon.

Feinstein made a bit of news when she said she would favor reopening the investigation into Fords charges should Democrats retake the Senate. Last week, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco ruled out any effort by the party to impeach Kavanaugh from the Supreme Court.

There were few differences between the candidates when it came to policy, with health care being the main exception. De Leon supports a single-payer health system and helped pass a bill in the state Senate last year that would have instituted it in California. Feinstein doesnt back single payer, but said she supports a public health care option and letting people enroll in Medicare at 55.

Their stylistic differences showed when it came to how to deal with Trump. De Leon said that at a time when we have a president who has no soul, Democrats should not be biting their tongues  another oblique reference to Feinstein. She has often said she strives to find common ground with the White House where she can, in hopes of getting some Democratic legislation signed into law.

You cannot trust this president, because he continually moves the goal posts when Democrats have tried to negotiate with him, de Leon said.

Feinstein said there could be an opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation next year on immigration reform and gun control in the next Congress, again providing that Democrats are in the majority.

Its very hard back there on issues like this, Feinstein said. Its different than California.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political correspondent. Email:

jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliDemocrats love to talk about getting big money out of politics. So if big money in politics is your issue, heres a challenge: Which Democrat do you vote for lieutenant governor?

(Yes, we know what your next question is: Whos running?)

Do you vote for Eleni Kounalakis? Her father, wealthy Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, gave nearly $5 million to an independent committee supporting her. One of her opponents in the June primary, former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, snarked: Most dads might think about buying their daughter a pony. In this case, a dad wants to buy his daughter an executive seat.

Kounalakis told The Chronicle that her father, a self-made immigrant from Greece, doesnt want anything in return. He is just proud of me, she said. He wants me to win so I can help other families to walk the pathway of the American dream the same way. Her campaign points out that 44 percent of her 3,000 donations are for $100 or less.

Your other choice: state Sen. Ed Hernandez of West Covina (Los Angeles County) who, like Kounalakis, is a Democrat. A Sacramento Bee analysis found that Hernandez was the top recipient of drugmaker money in the Legislature since 2011, accepting at least $207,411 from pharmaceutical firms and their interests. In the campaign hes received most of his money from labor organizations and health care interests.

Hernandez, whose father is a retired factory working living on Social Security, told The Chronicle that I have to take money from everybody. For the past couple of years, he said, hes spent eight hours a day, three to four days a week raising money, much of it in $100 to $500 chunks.

I just dont have the luxury of writing a big check, he said. My dad plays the lottery and he said that if he wins, hell give me the money.

Even the experts are stumped on which big-money stream is more onerous.

Former GOP state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, who now heads the Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, said theres some comfort in knowing that realistically, the lieutenant governor is not going to be involved in a lot of major policy decisions.

True, but lets not forget that the lieutenant governor is one heartbeat  or perhaps one successful run for president  away from being in the big chair.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliAs would be done with any vendor under these circumstances, commissioners said, a meeting was held with the lease management company for the office. The purpose of the meeting was to determine what options may be available to assure minimal negative impact on the office and its operations so that all potential plans could be presented to the county council at their planned executive session next week.The sunny weather worked in favor of a group of nudists who took to the streets on Sunday for the second annual Nude Valentine's Day Parade.

The parade began at noon in the Castro District, with the crowd making its way from Jane Warner Plaza to City Hall.

Nude activist Gypsy Taub released a statement inviting fellow nudists to join in the parade. Taub stated that during this current "climate of hate" the parade is the time to "demand freedom on all levels of human existence":

We want to show the world that we are not afraid, that we are united in the name of love and that we have nothing to hide and nothing to be ashamed of. We want our naked bodies to demonstrate that we don't fight with weapons nor violence, but with our hearts and minds using the power of our spirit and the power of love. We don't hide under military camouflage, nor do we cover our faces nor our bodies out of fear. We are not afraid to just be ourselves in the name of love, in the name of freedom.

The group also prepared some chants for the event, many centering around the theme of acceptance and stopping body shaming.

"Clothes are boring, clothes are lame! Let's say 'No' to body shame!" went one chant.

"We got skin, you got skin. Love your body  ain't no sin!" goes another chant.

Taub has organized similar events in the past, along with the inaugural Nude Valentine's Day parade that began last year. She also instigated the nude "Summer of Love" parade last August, which saw two dozen people walk from the Castro district to Haight-Ashbury in the buff.

RELATED VIDEO: Stripped-down march in SF for right to bare all

Taub's activism has led to run-ins with city government, particularly over a ban on public nudity in San Francisco enacted in 2013 (with the exception of events where proper permits are obtained). In 2015, a federal judge ordered that the city grant a permit to Taub and other nudists, after the city sought to block the group from holding a "Nude-In March."The Loma Prieta earthquake of Oct. 17, 1989, unleashed forces of change that have invigorated San Francisco's waterfront, revived civic treasures and sparked the creation of new city landmarks.

Now comes the temblor's final and most visible effect: a new southern skyline where people live, not work.

The full impact of this vertical neighborhood near the waterfront south of Market Street goes beyond height or the potential 7,400 new housing units. It will transform the visual image of San Francisco. Unlike Chicago or New York, cities defined so emphatically by their skylines, San Francisco is something much more: a memorable and truly unique drama of hills and buildings, trees and towers, water and light and fog.

The skyline-to-be will climb above the low-rise industrial jumble of the blocks that line the approach to the Bay Bridge. The area already has a handful of residential towers as high as 250 feet, but the city now intends to allow a dozen or more towers up to 550 feet -- adding an urban neighborhood to a city long enamored with cozy, village-like settings.

All this might seem worlds removed from the harrowing 15 seconds of Loma Prieta. But several towers will be on land once covered by ramps of the late, unlamented Embarcadero Freeway -- a casualty of the quake -- and close by the newly inviting waterfront, with its attractions that didn't exist 15 years ago.

For the new skyline to enhance the city, San Francisco must heed the lessons of Loma Prieta.

The best changes since the earthquake are the ones rooted in San Francisco's distinctive setting and values. They're imbued with the sense of community, the notion that public spaces should be enticing, that neighborhoods should include diverse populations, and that well-crafted buildings can glow with pride.

But the residential towers built so far don't reach those standards. Looking at them together, you see monochromatic gray clutter. Despite prices that have surpassed $1.5 million per unit, the structures have a cut-rate feel. You'd think San Francisco is a city that doesn't care about its appearance.

As history shows full well, that most definitely is not the case.

When the 1960s dawned, San Francisco looked the same as it had for 30 years: Low, light-colored buildings draped the hills, except for a few modest exclamation points rising over the Financial District or on top of Nob Hill.

And then everything changed.

New towers popped up above the 435-foot gothic summit of the Russ Building, the Financial District's highest peak -- and pushed out into places where nobody ever expected them to be. Portsmouth Square in Chinatown sprouted a 364-foot-high slab that may be the least beckoning Holiday Inn in existence. The Bank of America proclaimed its corporate might with 779 feet of craggy red granite.

As the 1970s began, the Transamerica Pyramid topped everything before it with 853 feet of concrete across the street from the cherished, brick-lined passageways of historic Jackson Square.

For those who loved their big city's small-town scale, each new skyscraper was another dagger aimed at the city's soul.

"People living in neighborhoods like North Beach, Telegraph Hill and Chinatown saw towers coming at them," recalls Jerry Cauthen, one of the founders of San Francisco Tomorrow, which was created in 1969 to tackle development issues. "We had 50 or 60 neighborhood groups screaming. The buildings were brutish and pretty ugly -- a lot of schlock architecture -- and the city didn't seem able to do anything about it."

So residents did. They won some battles and lost most others before deciding the best defense was a good offense -- such as a 1971 ballot initiative to cap the height of new buildings at six stories. Period. The unlikely source: a dressmaker named Alvin Duskin, who kicked off his effort with newspaper ads proclaiming, "You can help decide if our city will become a skyline of tombstones."

What followed was a crusade more than a campaign, complete with an anti-high-rise coloring book featuring cartoons with such captions as "little cable cars that used to cling to the sides of sunny hills now moved through dark canyons."

The crusade also brought apocalyptic warnings that the towers would unleash "Manhattanization" -- a charged term that in 1971 meant more than tall buildings. New York City then embodied everything Americans feared about big cities: People were moving out as fast as crime was going up in a dirty city that couldn't pay its bills.

Why should San Francisco -- snug Baghdad-by-the-Bay -- follow New York over the cliff?

The Duskin initiative lost handily. But five more variations followed in the next 15 years, and voters in 1986 put a cap on growth that for all intents and purposes allowed no more than one smallish office tower a year.

Looking back, Cauthen suggests that height became symbolic of much deeper concerns.

"There was always an element of the population that hated to see something disappear and be replaced by something much bigger, but there was lots more going on," Cauthen said. "There were beautiful buildings being destroyed, and we seemed to be submerging the hills in high-rises. All that wrapped in together."

So what happened to the fear of heights?

One answer is that San Franciscans found more pressing things to worry about -- AIDS, homelessness and out-of-control housing prices. And the recession of the early 1990s, exacerbated in San Francisco by Loma Prieta's economic aftershocks, meant that for years there was no demand for new tall buildings.

By the time there was, the skyline upheaval that began in the 1960s was a full generation in the past.

The average San Franciscan today is 36, meaning he or she was born in 1968 -- the same year the Bank of America building soared into the air, and months before pickets wearing dunce caps protested Transamerica's planned tower.

Now, the Transamerica Pyramid is the most recognizable icon on the skyline -- the only San Francisco skyline many of us have ever known.

"The genie is out of the bottle," says Michael Antonini, 58, a planning commissioner who has lived for 31 years on the city's west side, where anything larger than a single family home is viewed with suspicion. "You don't see hills like you once did ... Now height is secondary to the quality and tastefulness of what gets done. There's the potential that some really good things could happen."

The future of high-rise living in San Francisco will depend on people like Nav and Avi Singh.

The young couple moved north in May from Orange County and a townhouse snuggled close to the ground. Now they own a condominium in a much different setting: the eighth floor of the Metropolitan, a complex at First and Folsom streets in a fast-changing part of town called Rincon Hill.

The 21- and 27-story towers include a health club, a concierge, freshly planted trees along the sidewalk and a view that stretches from Potrero Hill to the Financial District. The Singhs have a car but rarely use it because they work downtown. The couple's Saturday ritual is a stroll to the Embarcadero and the Ferry Building and, if there's time, up to North Beach.

"I feel like we're getting the total San Francisco experience even though it's not a neighborhood neighborhood," says Nav, 29, a financial analyst. "The benefit of living in a nice building near work outweighs the benefit of being in an old setting."

Planners and developers know there are other Nav and Avi Singhs who, given the chance, will pay good money to live in a district that's new and tall. They might be young couples who aren't ready to settle in the suburbs, or older ones looking for a change after their children leave home.

"There's the push of bad traffic and the pull of better downtowns," says John McIlwaine, a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C., a developers' think tank. "You're buying a lifestyle. They want to go out in the evening and feel like they're part of the action."

The high-rise scene will center on about 95 acres between Yerba Buena Center on the west, Mission Street on the north, the bay on the east and the Bay Bridge on the south.

It's an area that hasn't been glamorous since the 1860s, when Rincon Hill and its stubby 100-foot peak had a brief reign as the city's address of choice before cable cars made it possible to build mansions atop Nob Hill. The blocks inland from the Embarcadero and south of the Financial District devolved into a backwater of warehouses, repair shops and light industry.

Now the nearby waterfront is in bloom, the old warehouses have become lofts or office space -- and the blocks on either side of Folsom Street are poised to take on a new identity.

The north side is under the watch of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, which has drawn up a plan that allows six towers between 300 and 550 feet on land formerly covered by ramps that tied the Embarcadero Freeway to the Bay Bridge.

Selling the ramp land to developers will help finance the $2.1 billion Transbay Terminal project, which involves an underground extension of the Caltrain commuter line from the Peninsula to a new transit hub at First and Mission streets.

On the south side of Folsom lies Rincon Hill, where the city's planning department last year made the mistake of approving two projects containing a total of four 350- and 400-foot towers. The quartet -- packed tightly in a zigzag along Folsom between Spear and Beale streets -- could block views to and from the bay.

Since then, the department has taken a more pro-active approach: It is drawing up a long-range plan for the neighborhood rather than reacting to what developers bring in the door. The department's proposal would allow four more towers between 400 and 550 feet, but they are spaced widely at the crest of the hill to prevent views from being walled off.

The changes flanking Folsom Street have other things in common beside height. Roughly 20 percent of the housing units will be reserved for low- and moderate-income residents -- a smart reminder that new urban neighborhoods should provide housing for all types of people.

And there's a focus on the ground, not just in the air, with small parks and landscaped sidewalks laced throughout the dense urban terrain.

"We're trying to create a neighborhood where people want to live," says David Habert, a redevelopment planner, "that people want to visit."

Make no mistake: What's proposed will alter San Francisco.

Instead of the Transamerica's pointy peak capping a thicket of blocky corporate towers that stops just south of Market Street, slender glassy high-rises will spike up within yards of the Bay Bridge approach. They'll be what greets hundreds of thousands of people entering downtown San Francisco each day.

That's why it's so troubling that the first set of residential towers comes up short.

The concrete high-rises that now squat near the Bay Bridge proclaim an architecture of expediency, not inspiration. You sense the developers were focused on getting City Hall to sign off and then getting the units ready to sell. The impact on the cityscape -- what the rest of us must deal with -- was an afterthought.

In a location this prominent, that's not enough. And it's the lack of ambition that's the problem, not the height.

The good news is that San Francisco has recent examples of how to get things right. They are two office towers, 560 Mission and 101 Second, which enhance the skyline with crisply detailed elegance. The buildings also improve the street-level environment -- especially 560 Mission, with a plaza that blends grass, water, tall bamboo and potted maples.

As for residential models, look across the bay to Oakland and the recent Essex condominium building on Lake Merritt. While it's modest in height at 20 stories, the graceful silhouette and the curved wall facing the water show a sophistication that Rincon Hill has yet to see.

The vertical world envisioned along Folsom Street is new to San Francisco. A shortsighted emphasis on housing quantity over neighborhood quality could result in a set of towers that block views and create wind tunnels.

But anyone who has visited downtown Chicago knows that such a district can hum with urban excitement. Vancouver does the same while also showing how high-rises can draw energy from a distinctive bayside terrain.

The challenge at Rincon Hill and Transbay is to make this tall new neighborhood the culmination of all the positive developments around it.

The stakes are too high to settle for anything less.

What the years since the Loma Prieta earthquake have shown is that for all the city's knee-jerk protectiveness, San Francisco is still a city that can achieve great things. Risks and vision have produced lasting results that enrich life on a day-to-day basis.

Fifteen years later, instead of the Embarcadero Freeway's grim wall, there's an inviting downtown waterfront that ties San Francisco inseparably to its bay. Provocative new museums invigorate the cultural and architectural scene. Union Square and the blocks around it are again filled with activity. Civic treasures such as City Hall have been reborn; so has the Hayes Valley neighborhood, long deadened by the Central Freeway.

Is there more to be done? Of course. It will be difficult to strike a balance between public access and private development along the Embarcadero, and to finish the task of reviving the Civic Center. Transbay and Rincon Hill are just getting started.

There also are whole sections of the city that, while not affected by the 1989 earthquake, are still in early, vital stages of their development.

There's the Mission Bay neighborhood, stretching west and south from SBC Park, with its long blocks of residential units and a new campus for UCSF. And the 1,491-acre Presidio, near the Golden Gate Bridge, which faces the difficult task of making a former Army base with hundreds of aged buildings blossom anew as an urban national park.

Not everything done since 1989 in San Francisco shines, of course. Look no further than the unadventurous towers of Rincon Hill or the drab residential lofts erected hastily during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. But the boldest strokes are the ones turning out the best -- the ones driven by a creative determination to make San Francisco a fuller, more seductive place. That's the lesson to remember.

Changing the landscape is always controversial in the Bay Area, and for good reason: There's a lot to lose in a region that, despite a population topping 8 million people, still casts a spell because of its intimate bond to the hills, the bay, the valleys and the sky.

But the ingenuity and vision that have shaped San Francisco in the aftermath of Loma Prieta show that change is not to be feared. It can make the urban landscape better than it was before -- even in a city as alluring as San Francisco.

A new look

This computer rendition prepared for the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency shows how the view of San Francisco from Treasure Island would change if Rincon Hill and Transbay develop along proposed lines. The buildings depicted are shown to demonstrate the dimensions that would be permitted.

Today, Folsom Street offers empty air and drab sidewalks, top. If it grows as planners want, the result could be tall towers and green streets, as shown in the computer rendition at bottom.If you're in the market for one of those light up Christmas reindeer for your front yard or a new umbrella frame for your patio, you've still got a few days left to head down to one of the Bay Area's Orchard Supply Hardware stores and pick one up at a big discount. But don't expect to find too many other things on your shopping list.

The 87-year-old chain, which started as a Depression-era farmers co-op in San Jose, announced in August that it would close all 99 stores by the end of the year. But representatives from Lowe's, parent company of OSH, told SFGATE this week that most Bay Area stores won't make it much past Halloween.Investigators reviewed phone calls that Hughes made from the Lake County Jail, a probable cause affidavit states. When Hughes called the mother of his children on Oct. 11, he said that one of his phones, which police had been trying to locate, was at Tyrone Jacksons house in the 1300 block of East 51st Place in Gary, the affidavit states.In airport news, TSA adds three new airlines to the PreCheck roster; the opening of Istanbul's huge new airport is delayed; American starts work on a big terminal overhaul at LAX; the Transportation Security Administration will go all in with biometric IDs; an on-site hotel opens at Minneapolis-St. Paul International; the trendy burger boom continues with popular new outlets at San Francisco International and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson; a new hotel coming to New York JFK gets a most unusual cocktail bar.

The Transportation Security Administration announced today the expansion of its PreCheck expedited screening program to two international carriers: Norwegian Air and Icelandair. Domestically, Via Airlines will begin participating on November 1. Today's announcement brings the number of airlines participating in TSA PreCheck to 56 domestic and international carriers. (Full list here.)

Turkey is building a massive new airport for Istanbul that was supposed to open on October 29, the anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic. But delays in construction, partly due to labor problems, has pushed back the debut. Airport officials now say that the transfer of most airline operations from the city's existing Ataturk Airport will take place on December 31. The only airline activity at the new airport by the end of this month will be a few Turkish Airlines domestic and regional flights. Under construction since 2015, the facility currently carries the catchy name "Istanbul New Airport," although it is expected be renamed after a figure from Turkish history. The airport will initially have a passenger capacity of 90 million a year, but it is expected to expand in three more phases over the years until it can handle up to 200 million passengers, making it the world's largest airport. (By comparison, the current title holder  Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson  handled just over 100 million travelers last year.)

American Airlines this week hosted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other dignitaries at Los Angeles International for the groundbreaking of a $1.6 billion project to modernize AA's Terminals 4 and 5. The airline calls it the "largest individual investment at an airport in (American's) 92-year history." The total project could take a decade, but it has started with reconfiguring the ticket lobby in Terminal 5, which will make room for construction of the Landside Access Modernization Project Core, a new structure to be built in between T4 and T5 that will provide elevators, escalators and stairs to accommodate travelers coming from the airport's new Automated People Mover trains. The project will also bring a new unified departure hall that combines the entranceways of T4 and T5. Other aspects of the modernization project include "open and efficient check-in and security processing areas; more inviting gate areas with increased seating and access to modern amenities; and greater ability for airline operations to quickly adapt to and incorporate rapidly evolving new technologies," American said. It will ultimately provide a unified 300,000 square foot, 28-gate terminal complex, 16 security screening lanes, more power outlets at gate areas, and "world-class dining and retail options," the airline said.

The burger wars are escalating at the nation's major airports, and the newest battlegrounds are San Francisco International and Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson. At SFO, local favorite Super Duper Burgers  with 13 outlets in the Bay Area  has opened its first airport location in Terminal 3, Boarding Area F. The company specializes in made-to-order burgers from locally sourced, grass-fed beef, as well as free-range chicken sandwiches, organic veggie burgers along with a breakfast menu that adds house-made donuts and egg sandwiches... Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson recently opened its first Shake Shack, and that outlet already has some new competition. Food Network celebrity chef Bobby Flay cut the ribbon this week on the first airport location for his Bobby's Burger Palace, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner in ATL's Concourse B, serving up a selection of Bobby's burgers, French fries and milkshakes.

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Following the lead of (and partnering with) Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Transportation Security Administration announced this week that it plans to implement biometrics technology for passenger identity verification in the months and years ahead. The agency said it has already been testing facial recognition cameras at Los Angeles International and New York JFK for international travelers, matching images with CBP's database of passport and visa photos. It has also started testing fingerprint ID verification for PreCheck members at the Atlanta and Denver airports, but it plans to transition PreCheck biometrics from fingerprints to photographs. As of last month, TSA said, "passengers who enroll in TSA PreCheck or renew their membership in person are required to provide their photograph. Using applicants' photographs, TSA will test facial biometric technology in TSA PreCheck lanes at select airports once enrollment numbers support this testing."

InterContinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group this week opened the doors at the new InterContinental Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. The 12-story, 291-room hotel has a pedestrian skybridge on its third floor that connects directly to Concourse C of the airport's Lindbergh Terminal (Terminal 1). It has a lobby-level French Brasserie called La Voya; an evening venue called Bradstreet Craftshouse with cocktails and bar food; and a 12th-floor Altitude Observation Bar with sweeping views of the airport and downtown Twin Cities. The hotel also has an Elevations Spa and 32,000 square feet of meeting space for same-day, fly-in fly-out conferences. Rates start at $289. It's the newest example of major airports adding upscale hotels right next to their terminals instead of two or three miles away. Denver opened an on-site Westin a couple of years ago, and new on-site hotels will be opening soon at San Francisco International, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson and New York JFK.

That new on-site hotel at JFK is called the TWA Hotel because it's being built around the former TWA Terminal, a 1962 architectural classic designed by Eero Saarinen that will now serve as part of the hotel's public areas. And now the hotel is adding another nostalgic feature: a cocktail bar and event space that is actually a restored TWA Lockheed Constellation dating back to 1958. The restored TWA "Connie" is one of just four of its type left in the world; the restoration work was done in Maine, complete with fresh TWA livery, and the plane was trucked in pieces this week to JFK Airport where it will be reassembled in a permanent location just outside the hotel.

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Chris McGinnis is the founder of TravelSkills.com. The author is solely responsible for the content above, and it is used here by permission. You can reach Chris at chris@travelskills.com or on Twitter @cjmcginnis.This article, Hyperion is an ancient cosmic beast formed 2.3B years after Big Bang, originally appeared on CNET.com.

Astronomers have discovered a massive proto-supercluster of galaxies -- bigger than even one million billion Suns.

Scientists have called the ancient colossal structure Hyperion, the European Southern Observatory announced Wednesday. It is reported to have appeared just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang, which took place about 13.7 billion years ago. The cluster's namesake is one of 12 titans born to the gods Gaia and Uranus in Greek mythology.

The discovery was made using data from the Hubble Space Telescope's VIMOS Ultra-deep Survey, which can measure the distance to hundreds of galaxies and map positions within the forming supercluster in 3D. Hyperion was located in the constellation of Sextans and found to have a "very complex structure."

"Superclusters closer to Earth tend to have a much more concentrated distribution of mass with clear structural features," explained astronomer Brian Lemaux who co-led the team behind this discovery.

"But in Hyperion, the mass is distributed much more uniformly in a series of connected blobs populated by loose associations of galaxies," he added.

Astronomers believe this may be because superclusters closer to us have had more time than Hyperion to "gather matter together into denser regions." Give Hyperion a few billion years and it'll likely evolve into something similar.

"This is the first time that such a large structure has been identified at just over two billion years after the Big Bang. Normally these kinds of structures are known at lower redshifts, which means when the Universe has had much more time to evolve and construct such huge things," said lead author Olga Cucciati.

"It was a surprise to see something this evolved when the Universe was relatively young Unearthing this cosmic titan helps uncover the history of these large-scale structures," she added.

More for you Beer Takes a Hit From Climate Change! 3 Things to Know Today.

See what Earth looked like from space when it was ruled by dinosaurs.

This NASA rocket plane was our first space vehicle, and it got left behind.During that time, the student and others on the floor were interviewed, OShea said. Nobody else heard those particular noises. Some did say those noises can be typical in that building. Id rather him make that call rather than sit on it. He did the right thing by calling us with what he heard.Winning re-election while indicted is a rare feat in U.S. history.

But two Republican congressmen are attempting to do just that in Novembers midterm elections: Reps. Duncan Hunter of San Diego County and Chris Collins of New York.

After pleading not guilty in August to separate federal charges, both congressmen are entering the final weeks of the campaign doing what they can to lay low. They have largely avoided the media and refused to debate their opponents. Both declined repeated requests to comment for this story.

Instead, they have mostly appeared at Republican-friendly events, and run attack ads against their Democratic challengers that some say seek to exploit racial prejudice and xenophobia.

Indictments and even jail time have not always ended political careers. A few have won re-election while facing criminal charges and some ended up exonerated.

But the Collins and Hunter contests are emerging as a fresh test of partisanship in the Trump era. Some voters may look past such a blemish this year to ensure that their preferred party remains in power.

If you look at the question of partisanship, it sort of makes sense to me why Republican voters would prefer a Republican under indictment to a Democrat, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan analytical newsletter at the University of Virginias Center for Politics.

Collins, 68, initially suspended his campaign after being charged with insider trading that prosecutors say helped his son and others avert nearly $800,000 in stock losses. But he reversed course over the difficulty in removing his name from the ballot, saying the stakes are too high to allow a Democrat to take the congressional seat he has held for three terms.

In California, Hunter and his wife face a 60-count indictment accusing them of using more than $250,000 in campaign funds for everything from a family trip to Italy to Costco shopping sprees and then trying to hide the illegal spending in government records as donations to charities, including for wounded warriors.

Hunter, who is seeking his sixth term, has struck back with a YouTube ad alleging his opponent, 41-year-old former combat Marine Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Latino Arab-American, is working to infiltrate Congress. It falsely asserts he is supported by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Julie Watson and Carolyn Thompson are Associated Press writers.I appreciate the patience and understanding of the entire campus community as we addressed this challenging and complicated situation, Gard said. Please understand that all decisions made by both the university administration and the River Forest Police Department were made in order to ensure the safety of all students, faculty, staff and visitors.Stretched across an 18-plus acre swath of waterfront property is Mare Island Dry Dock, a convergence of the islands rich naval history and its present-day economic rebirth.

The site is home to two active concrete graving docks, which can accommodate ships under fully loaded conditions.

Cruise ships, coastal tankers and barges, ferries, Military Sealift Command, U.S. Coast Guard, commercial freighters and bulk carriers  if it floats on water, chances are Mare Island Dry Dock can provide services for it, as well as provide vessel berthing for repairs and retrofit.

Mare Island Dry Dock operates two of the four graving docks on Mare Island, said Christina Snyder, executive vice president for Mare Island Dry Dock. Drydock 2 and Drydock 3 were reopened for ship repair on Nov. 1, 2013. A management team of experienced dry-dock owners and operators as well as other experienced maritime professionals were assembled to help ensure the success of the operation.

For longtime Vallejo residents, the business keeps the lore of Mare Islands naval past alive while ushering in a new era of multi-use economic opportunity on the island. That mix of past and present was on full display on May 31 when U.S. Navy submarine tender, U.S.S. Emory S. Land, arrived at Mare Island Dry Dock for repairs, marking the first time an active Navy ship has berthed at the former shipyard since the early 1990s.

Jana Modena, field representative for Assemblymember Tim Grayson (District 4), took on a lead role in coordinating a string of events to welcome the 400 sailors.

It was so exciting to see everyone just pitch in and make the welcome of the U.S.S. Emory such a success, Modena said. Every person we called to pitch in was like, You bet, how can we help?

The ship was in town for approximately 100 days, and Snyder said the city can look forward to seeing a steady stream of ships coming to Vallejo.

Aside from the local ship, boat, tug and barge work that fills the dry docks, Mare Island Dry Dock bids for work in a high-demand climate, said Snyder, pointing to opportunities from the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Military Sealift Command, including other public customers like San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority and Golden Gate Ferry.

Asked why Mare Island is the perfect home for Mare Island Dry Dock, Snyder lists off several reasons: location, the islands naval history and architecture and the citys business-friendly climate.

In the end, she points to a quote from the U.S.S. Emory Lands commanding officer, Capt. Doug Bradley: We call our ship the Land of Opportunity, and Vallejo is the City of Opportunity.WASHINGTON  Don McGahn departed as White House counsel Wednesday, ending a tumultuous 21-month tenure where he spearheaded some of President Donald Trumps most significant political accomplishments, including two appointments to the Supreme Court, but also became a chief witness against him in the special counsel investigation.

McGahns departure was confirmed by two people close to him. McGahn and the president sat for a farewell chat Wednesday, one said.Trump said this week that he will install as McGahns replacement the longtime Washington lawyer Pat Cipollone, calling him a very fine man, highly respected by a lot of people.

As White House counsel, McGahn took on a handful of often-conflicting roles: counselor to the president; protector of top law enforcement officials, including the special counsel, Robert Mueller; and witness in the investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. He has told associates that he stopped Trump from firing Mueller and from forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to retake control of the Russia inquiry after he recused himself from oversight of it.

A longtime fixture in Republican legal circles, McGahn led White House efforts to slash government regulations and stack the federal courts with conservative judges. He shepherded the nominations of both of Trumps Supreme Court choices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

McGahn played a pivotal role in keeping Kavanaughs nomination on track at one of its most precarious moments, encouraging the nominee to defiantly reject sexual assault allegations against him in a high-stakes hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But McGahn had little tolerance for Trumps often emotional responses to the legal cloud hanging over his administration, referring to the president as King Kong  out of Trumps earshot  because of his explosive anger. McGahn often tried to stop the president from taking steps McGahn viewed as legally or politically problematic, such as firing the special counsel. The president blamed McGahn for the deputy attorney generals appointment of Mueller in May 2017, saying McGahn had not done enough to control the Justice Department.

McGahn may have also caused more damage for Trump than any other White House official in the special counsel investigation. McGahn has spent at least 30 hours with Muellers investigators, laying out how Trump tried to interfere with or quash the inquiry, including by trying to fire Mueller himself in the summer of 2017.

Trump also considered giving the job of White House counsel to Emmet Flood, the White House lawyer for the special counsel investigation whom he has grown to trust. Some White House officials told Flood, who wants to represent the president if impeachment proceedings begin in Congress, that he should have taken the job to maintain control over the special counsel investigation and possible impeachment. Flood ultimately did not take the job, according to people familiar with the discussions, and is expected to remain in his post.

McGahn had long planned to leave the White House this fall. But in August, shortly after the extent of his witness testimony was revealed by The New York Times, the president surprised McGahn by announcing on Twitter that he would be leaving as White House counsel after Kavanaugh was confirmed.

McGahn, 50, graduated from Notre Dame and attended Widener Universitys Commonwealth Law School in Pennsylvania before coming to Washington, where he worked in private practice specializing in election law and served on the Federal Election Commission for five years. He joined the Trump campaign in 2015, when Trump was a long-shot candidate.

Inside the White House, McGahn was often protected by the chief of staff, John Kelly, who created a buffer between McGahn and the president, according to the presidents advisers. McGahn also developed a particularly close relationship with the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, whom McGahn worked with closely on judicial nominations even after McConnells relationship with Trump frayed.

This article originally appeared in The New York TimesOscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke shares his experience of making documentaries at a recent event in Beijing. [Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Since his first visit to Beijing in 1981, the country has had a special place in the life of filmmaker Malcolm Clarke.

On his latest trip to Beijing, Oscar-winning director Malcolm Clarke recalled the first time he visited the Chinese capital in 1981.

At an event held by China International Communication Corp to announce a series of projects that will be coproduced with foreign partners, Clarke was invited to speak about, and share his experience of, making documentaries.

Since starting his nearly 40-year-long career as a filmmaker at the BBC, Clarke has traveled to 86 countries to shoot numerous documentary films.

In 1984, he won a best director Emmy for Soldiers of The Twilight, and followed that up with two Academy Awards for best documentary (short subject) for You Don't Have to Die in 1989 and The Lady in Number 6 in 2014.

For Clarke, however, China has been an important chapter of his life. Back in 1981 when Clarke had just moved from his native United Kingdom to New York to work for the American Broadcasting Company, he was assigned to the Chinese capital to carry out research for a new documentary project that was intended to examine the changes that had occurred in New China since it was founded in 1949.

"Lots of things were happening in China then. The country was just getting back on its feet," he recalls.

Like most foreign guests who visited China in the early 1980s, he stayed at the Beijing Hotel, which faces south toward Chang'an Avenue.

Every morning he would wake up to the ringing of bicycle bells and was astonished to look out of his window and see the street flooded with hundreds of locals biking their way to work.

Over the following nine months, Clarke traveled deeper into the country, from far-flung mountain villages in Sichuan province, to regions alongside the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, and he talked to people from many different walks of life.A scene from the first episode of the CCTV documentary The Slow Train Home shows passengers and crew on board the No 5633 train on the Chengdu-Kunming route. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A documentary series soon to be aired on CCTV tells stories of China's legendary green trains.

Television producer Ren Chongrong remembers the day when she crawled through a window to board a train that was headed from Beijing to her hometown Chongqing in 1994.

It was during a winter vacation for Ren, then a student at China Journalism College, which was based in Beijing and shut down in 2002.

After being literally pushed into the crowded carriage by two classmates, she found that the train started moving before the other two youngsters could get on board.

It was a "green-skinned" train, which was slow and crowded, and the journey was unforgettable, she says.

"As I failed to purchase a seat ticket, I sat with the luggage alone on the train floor for more than 30 hours," says Ren, 45, now working with state broadcaster China Central Television.

But the tough journey also provided Ren with spectacular views.

Along the route which stretches nearly 2,000 kilometers, she saw plains, hilly terrain, mountains and village houses. And that is etched in her mind and is an inspiration for the upcoming The Slow Train Home, a six-episode documentary series to air on CCTV's documentary channel from Oct 22 to 27, with a 25-minute episode being shown each night.

Featuring at least one passenger on a green train, the documentary was filmed by six teams comprising a total of 34 members who trekked totally 3,000 kilometers to cross more than 40 villages in the provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, Heilongjiang and Shanxi, among others, and the Xinjiang autonomous region.

Green trains, once a major transport facility that was used from the 1950s until 1990s, are so named for the color of their external paint.

Their trademark characteristics include being powered by coal, running at a slow pace and shabby interiors without air conditioning or sleeper beds.Tanya Holland closed her acclaimed West Oakland restaurant Brown Sugar Kitchen several weeks ago, without much fanfare. The nationally known chef had been mulling over the idea for a while, she said, but needed to find the right moment.

After temporarily shutting the 10-year-old space in May, then turning it into a test kitchen open a few days each week, Holland decided it was time.

I spent 10 years there. Ten years of my life. Thats a long time, she said. Its just time to move on as a chef. Theres a lot of reasons, but I felt like the restaurant was no longer challenging me. At this point in my career, I want to do something thats going to be new and challenging for me.

Holland said there is a potential pair of new owners waiting in the wings for the Brown Sugar Kitchen space. She said the buyers are chefs of color, but did not provide other details, as the sale is not final.

Holland, one of the Bay Area culinary scenes most recognizable faces, is also among the countrys most celebrated black chefs. Her elevated soul food, based around chicken and waffles, made her a household name during the past 10 years. In that time, shes become a cookbook author, had her name as an answer on the long-running Jeopardy game show, and recently was a contestant on Top Chef.

The accolades, the attention, successes and the failures in her career all can be traced to the little shop on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, Holland said. It gave her a platform on which she could grow.

Now she wants to offer other chefs of color a chance to create their own legacies in the East Bay.

Im working with them now as a mentor. I know this area, the good and the bad. I know the concepts that can work here and what might not work, Holland said of the would-be owners. I want to pass this knowledge on to someone who might be like I was, just looking for an opportunity.

Holland is also turning her attention to several forthcoming projects across the Bay Area. Among them are outposts of her fast-casual Brown Sugar Kitchen Counter at San Franciscos Ferry Building and the Warriors Chase Center Arena in Mission Bay.

Holland has another Brown Sugar Kitchen Counter in the works in Uptown Oakland. The restaurant is located in the 13,600-square-foot space left vacant by Pican and Ozumo on Broadway.

The Broadway location will be open before the Ferry Building. Im thinking like mid-November, as long as everything goes according to plan, she said. Construction is still going on there and were at the point where were going to be putting in fixtures and things like that.

As to her former flagship, Holland said she hasnt really taken time to mourn its closure, nor does she plan to.

In the last days it was open, realizing she had inventory to dispose of, Holland said she called friends to come pick up macaroni and cheese and containers of fried chicken so the food wouldnt go to waste. In a way, that was her goodbye, feeding those closest to her in the simplest, easiest terms.

Im moving forward, Holland said. This is a new chapter for me. Im excited to see where it goes.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JustMrPhillipsA fine art exhibition kicked off in Beijing on Oct 12 to showcase overseas Chinese painters' talents.



The exhibition at the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China features about 100 fine art pieces  ink and water works, canvas pieces and woodcut prints  from 11 Chinese painters living overseas.

The painters  who have not only brought their famous art pieces but their recent works  come from the Horizon Painting Club, an association comprising overseas Chinese artists founded in Shanghai in 2012. The artists are based in Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Qi Degui, the deputy director of the museum, says that the exhibition is also a move to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the launch of the of reform and opening-up. The exhibition will run through Oct 21.SAN JOSE (BCN)



A 20-year-old man was arrested today in connection with a violent rape behind a church in East San Jose on Sunday, police reported.



San Jose resident Esteban Mosqueda will be booked into jail on suspicion of penetration with a foreign object, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and sexual battery, according to police.



The rape happened at about 6:30 p.m. in the 2700 block of King Road, according to police. The suspect allegedly lured a 17-year-old girl into a secluded area, then violently attacked and sexually assaulted her.



The victim suffered injuries that were not life-threatening, according to police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia.



Police investigated the assault and obtained an arrest warrant for Mosqueda, which they carried out at his home on today.



"I want to commend our survivor for her strength through this ordeal," Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in a statement.



Anyone with further information is asked to contact Detective Beth Stenger at (408) 277-4102.









Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.OAKLAND (BCN)



A 19-year-old Antioch man has been charged with murder for the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man in Oakland last week, police said.



Davonte Tyson is charged in connection with the shooting of Marcel McCarther in the 2300 block of High Street at about 4:05 p.m. on Oct. 9.



Tyson, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 5 to enter a plea.



Court records indicate that the Alameda County District Attorney's Office filed the murder charge against Tyson last Friday.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.OAKLAND (BCN)



We got power in our veins.



Those were the words of young Oakland poet Anatsia King, who kicked off an hour-long panel discussion on voter turnout among young people held tonight in Oakland.



King's words mirrored the message of the five panelists - though everyone acknowledged it's an uphill battle.



Only 8 percent of California young people ages 18 to 24 voted in the 2014 midterms, and almost half of young adults in that age group were not even registered to vote that year, according to the California Secretary of State.



But most of the five panelists at tonight's event were intent on changing those numbers.



Many of them are trying to register younger voters and, just as importantly, show them that their vote can have an impact.



"Some of them are politically inclined but they may not see the importance of voting, or see the correlation between voting and the issues they're worried about," said panelist Des McSwain of the Black Organizing Project. "We have to start small."



YR Media, formerly known as Youth Radio, hosted the panel in conjunction with holding a voter registration drive targeted toward young people.



One reason why young voters don't always feel connected to the political process is because California's electorate is not as diverse as the state's population, according to Eliana Jimenez Honeycutt, an organizer with the Dolores Huerta Foundation.



CALmatters reporter Ben Christopher said that if more young people voted it would have a direct impact.



"Even if we saw a modest increase you could really see some changes in who the electorate is and what kind of policies you get," he said.



The political issues that matter most to young people are immigration and housing, according to a Power California poll. Those are topics that touch on "lived experience," Calvin Williams from the Movement Strategy Center said.



Laneisha Butler, a community organizer with Oakland Rising, said many young people in Oakland are focused on leaving the area instead of on trying to change things.



So Butler not only tries to get them registered to vote, but also connects them with volunteer and career opportunities.



"You need to really engage folks year round, not just during elections," she said.



The panel ended on a lighter note: a discussion over Proposition 7, which if passed would be a step toward eliminating daylight saving time.



Williams summed up his perspective with a shrug.



"You can spring forward, you can fall back, I'll be late either way," he said to laughter.



Voter registration runs until Monday and vote by mail ballot requests must be made by Oct. 30, according to the Secretary of State. Election day is Nov. 6.





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.WOODSIDE (BCN)



Authorities and animal rescue workers freed a great horned owl found tangled in a kite string in Woodside this week.



Someone spotted the owl Monday and called the Peninsula Humane Society & Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which helped rescue the bird. The San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and the Woodside Fire Protection District also helped.



"The poor owl was hanging by her wing suspended between two trees," PHS/SPCA spokeswoman Buffy Martin Tarbox said in a news release. "She was unable to free herself and without human assistance more than likely would have perished."



Firefighters cut the kite string and humane society staff caught the owl and checked it for injuries.



"Thankfully she suffered no injuries from her ordeal and was immediately released back to the wild," Tarbox said.



Workers believe the owl wasn't stuck long. If it had been stuck for a long time it would have had more serious injuries such as a broken shoulder or wing, Tarbox said.



"This owl was just incredibly lucky," she 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)



Immigration topped the list of issues in a U.S. Senate debate today in San Francisco between Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her opponent state Sen. Kevin de Leon.



The debate was hosted by the Public Policy Institute of California, as part of their Speaker Series on California's Future.



Feinstein and de Leon also debated, among other issues, dealing with the administration of President Donald Trump.



When asked about immigration reform, Feinstein, who is the lead Democrat on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said, "If dems are in the majority, there will be a comprehensible immigration reform plan before our committee."



She said, "There is a real need for a major immigration bill and I believe that if Democrats control the U.S. Senate, you will see one come out of the committee and you will see one be passed by the Senate."



De Leon, the son of Guatemalan nationals, said he would also support to reform immigration.



"I believe that our nation has turned its back on families of immigrants and we have betrayed American children because we have hunted down their mothers and fathers and pursued them with our ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents," he said.



"This is an issue obviously that I take very personal. My mother had the courage to cross the border to come to this country and work her fingers to the bone to put a roof over our heads. If it weren't for her and millions of others like her, because my story is not unique; it's not original; it's a story of so many other hardworking immigrants in California. We need to have action in Washington D.C. The cruel reality is that there has been no action for decades," he said.



When asked about what issues the senators disagreed with the Trump Administration on, Feinstein said, "I do not believe in separation of children from their parents, I'm strongly against it."



If re-elected, Feinstein said she and her staff would go look at the facilities where immigrant families, including children, are being placed.



"We need to look at our immigration system and see that it's humane and fair and is able to be carried out without chaos and without the separation of minor children from their parents," she said.



When asked the same question, de Leon said he disagreed with the administration on several issues, including climate change, immigration and travel bans.



"It's been California who's been the leading voice for the entire nation and that's why the world looks to California for leadership, not toward Washington D.C. on the issue of climate change, immigration reform because there's been inaction in Washington, because it's been so deeply dysfunctional right now."



Feinstein, a former San Francisco Supervisor and the city's first female mayor, has served in the U.S. Senate since 1992.



De Leon, a former state Assemblymember representing Hollywood and other parts of Los Angeles, was first elected to the state Senate in 2010.





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The lead contractor for the troubled Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco has sued the government agency in charge of the project in Superior Court, alleging violation of its contract.



The contractor, Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture, alleges the Transbay Joint Powers Authority broke its contract by providing incomplete and defective design documents, delaying in responding to the contractor's questions and using a contingency fund improperly.



The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, asks for a jury trial and seeks about $150 million in damages.



The $2.2 billion first phase of the project, a regional bus center, opened on Aug. 11. But the transit center closed on Sept. 25 after a fissure in a steel beam was found.



Another fissure in a second beam was found later that day.



The Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture was chosen as the general contractor and construction manager for the project in 2009.



The lawsuit claims the authority failed to compensate the joint venture for the costs of incomplete plans and delays the authority itself allegedly caused.



The agency responded in a statement, "The Transbay Joint Powers Authority will hold Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture responsible for their contractual commitment to deliver this project to the people of the Bay Area and the state of California."



Mohammed Nuru, chair of the authority's board of directors, said, "The TJPA remains focused on reopening the transit center as soon as safely possible to the public and we hope that all parties will join us in that effort."



The Transbay Joint Powers Authority is made up of San Francisco, the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board and the California High Speed Rail Authority. Caltrans is an ex-officio member.





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By Bay City News Service



A Pittsburg middle school will be closed today due to an ongoing fire at a utility vault in Bay Point in unincorporated Contra Costa County early this morning, according to Pittsburg police and the school district.



Willow Cove Elementary School in Pittsburg won't be open today due to the blaze at a utility vault on top of a Chevron natural gas pipeline, police said.



As of 5:30 a.m. today, work on the pipeline being depressurized is going well, according to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill. Purging of the gas line will follow and an inspection to make sure it is safe.



Hill said a decision on the ongoing evacuation will be made once the line is declared safe.



Amtrak's Capitol Corridor route announced early this morning to expect delays due to anticipated increased train traffic on the passenger train's regular route between Sacramento and San Jose. The Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway tracks are currently closed through Antioch and trains will be re-routed around the closure, Amtrak officials and Hill said.



Around 4,000 people have been evacuated from 1,400 homes in Bay Point after the fire started Wednesday night, Hill said.



Hill said residents near the Chevron pipeline facility in the Antioch area near Buchanan Road might hear a loud noise similar to a jet engine early this morning, which is normal in the venting process and advised them not to call 911 if they hear it.



BART officials advised residents who use the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station that parking might be limited this morning due to the station parking lot being used as an evacuation center. Commuters are advised to be dropped off or to use another station parking. BART officials advised that the fire would not affect service.



The fire at the vault - which may have been sparked by a fallen power line - was first reported at 8:41 p.m. in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues, fire department spokesman Steve Hill said. The 12-inch, high-pressure natural gas line runs through the East Bay.



The line affected by the blaze has been isolated from the rest of the pipelines, Hill said. He advised that didn't mean the threat of an explosion was mitigated and said residents should still heed evacuation orders from Wednesday night in an abundance of caution because there is still a threat of an explosion.



Hill said the department is working on getting a drone over the vault to check on the pipeline.



Chevron released a statement early this morning saying the company immediately shut down the line after the fire was reported and was working with fire officials and the California Office of the State Fire Marshal to evacuate residents.



Evacuations have been ordered in the area of North Broadway Avenue to the west, Summer Way to the east, Suisun Avenue in the north and Willow Pass Road to the south are being ordered to evacuate.



Residents are being asked to stay away from the area overnight.



Evacuation centers are being set up at Calvary Temple Church at 4725 Evora Road in Concord and at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station at 1700 W. Leland Road in Pittsburg.



Law enforcement officers can help anyone who needs help evacuating. Residents needing assistance can call 911.



There are no injuries to anyone at this point, Hill said.



The initial grass fire was reported at 5:49 p.m. Tuesday and contained at 6:17 p.m. Hill said PG&E did shut down the power to the power line at 6 p.m.



The official cause of the fire is under investigation.





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Two men charged with murder for the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old San Francisco man in the city's Mission District earlier this month both entered pleas of not guilty this morning.



Joe Nunez-Dosangos, 27, and Reno Ramos, 20, are accused of killing Tony Patton Jr. on Oct. 8 near the corner of 19th and Capp streets, police said.



San Francisco Superior Court Judge Braden Woods ordered that the pair be held without bail.



Ramos and Nunez-Dosangos are set to return to court on Oct. 26.



When officers initially responded to the shooting around 1:15 a.m., they found Patton on the ground suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.



Three days later, homicide investigators identified Ramos and Nunez-Dosangos as suspects and arrested them.



Both have also been charged with participating in a criminal street gang and assault with a semi-automatic firearm. Nunez-Dosangos has also been charged with robbery for an unrelated incident in July, according to court documents.



A motive for the shooting has not been provided, and further documents in the case have been sealed.



Ramos is being represented by the Public Defender's Office, while Nunez Dosangos is being represented by attorney Cheryl Wallace.





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A utility vault that houses valves for a Chevron natural gas pipeline that runs through the East Bay caught on fire in Pittsburg on Wednesday night after a power line fell on the structure sometime after a grass fire earlier in the evening, according to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District officials.



The fire at the vault was first reported at 8:41 p.m. in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues, fire department spokesman Steve Hill said. The 12-inch, high-pressure natural gas line runs through the East Bay.



The line affected by the blaze has been isolated from the rest of the pipeline and other pipelines housed in the vault, Hill said. He advised that didn't mean the threat of an explosion was mitigated and said residents should still heed evacuation orders from Wednesday night in an abundance of caution because there is still a threat of an explosion.



Hill said the department is working on getting a drone over the vault to check on the status of the structure and pipeline.



Chevron released a statement early this morning saying the company immediately shut down the pipeline after the fire was reported and was working with fire officials and the California Office of the State Fire Marshal to evacuate residents.



Evacuations have been ordered and Pittsburg police and sheriff's deputies are letting residents know to evacuate. People who live in the area of North Broadway Avenue to the west, Summer Way to the east, Suisun Avenue in the north and Willow Pass Road to the south are being ordered to evacuate. Residents are being asked to stay away from the area overnight.



Evacuation centers are being set up at Calvary Temple Church at 4725 Evora Road in Concord and at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station at 1700 W. Leland Road in Pittsburg.



Law enforcement officers can help anyone who needs help evacuating. Residents needing assistance can call 911.



Train traffic on rails owned by the Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway has been halted in both directions as of late Wednesday night, Hill said.



There are no injuries to anyone at this point, Hill said.



The initial grass fire was reported at 5:49 p.m. Tuesday and contained at 6:17 p.m. Hill didn't say if PG&E shut down power to the power line after the initial blaze.





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.Evacuations remained in place this morning in Bay Point after a fire at a utility vault threatened a Chevron natural gas pipeline below it Wednesday night and into today, according to fire officials.



Chevron officials said in a news conference this morning that a small .375-inch transmitter line was ignited by a fire source -- possibly a fallen power line -- and threatened a bigger 12-inch natural gas pipeline.



The transmitter line relays information from the location of the pipeline to Chevron's control center.



Around 4,000 people have been evacuated from 1,400 homes in Bay Point after the fire started Wednesday night.



The fire at the vault was first reported at 8:41 p.m. in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues.







Pittsburg police are seeking a 43-year-old man wanted for a fatal shooting last weekend.



Taurus Miller is suspected of the killing of Jjuan Sanders, 38, who was found shot shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday in the 600 block of Cumberland Street and later died at a hospital, police said.



Investigators determined that Miller and Sanders knew each other and had gotten into an argument inside a nearby establishment. Shortly afterward, both men left the business and the shooting took place, according to police.



Police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of Miller, who is considered armed and dangerous. He was last seen driving a 2006 silver Chevrolet HHR with California license plate No. 6HHR651 and police do not know his whereabouts.







A 36-year-old man died when a big-rig pulling two trailers turned in front of his vehicle on U.S. Highway 101 south of Chualar in Monterey County on Wednesday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.



The crash was reported at 4:18 p.m. A 63-year-old Salinas man was trying to turn left from southbound Highway 101 across the northbound lanes to an agricultural field east of the highway but apparently failed to notice a 2005 Nissan Altima in the northbound lanes, CHP officials said.



The Nissan struck the side of the second trailer, becoming wedged underneath as the big-rig continued toward the east shoulder of the highway, according to the CHP.



The Nissan driver was taken to Natividad Medical Center and succumbed to his injuries there. His name has not been released. The big-rig driver was uninjured, CHP officials said.







Vacaville police have arrested a man on suspicion of arson at the Mission on the Hill events center early Sunday morning.



The 5 a.m. fire destroyed part of the interior of the events center at 1300 E. Monte Vista Ave. and caused heavy smoke damage in the rest of the building, Vacaville Deputy Fire Chief Alan Hartford said.



Vacaville police arrested Terry Smith, 45, of Vacaville, after viewing surveillance video from the events center. He was booked into Solano County Jail.



The Vacaville Fire Department and the Solano County Fire Chiefs Association's Fire Investigations Unit investigated the fire, police said.



Hartford said the fire started inside and spread to a gazebo outside, and it appeared the fire was smoldering for some time before flames were visible outside.







A fire destroyed a liquor store in Castro Valley early this morning, an Alameda County battalion chief said.



The one-alarm fire was reported at 2:32 a.m. in the 16000 block of Foothill Boulevard.



The blaze was extinguished in about 20 minutes, but not before destroying the liquor store and causing smoke damage to neighboring businesses, Battalion Chief Mark Carter said.



No injuries were reported in the fire, which remains under investigation, Carter said.







Two men charged with murder for the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old San Francisco man in the city's Mission District earlier this month both entered pleas of not guilty this morning.



Joe Nunez-Dosangos, 27, and Reno Ramos, 20, are accused of killing Tony Patton Jr. on Oct. 8 near the corner of 19th and Capp streets, police said.



San Francisco Superior Court Judge Braden Woods ordered that the pair be held without bail.



Ramos and Nunez-Dosangos are set to return to court on Oct. 26.







A shooting in San Francisco's Mission District on Wednesday night injured a 39-year-old man, police said today.



The shooting was reported at 9:19 p.m. in the 100 block of Julian Avenue between 15th and 16th streets.



The victim reported hearing several gunshots, then realized he had been struck by the gunfire. He was taken to a hospital to be treated for his injuries, which were not considered life-threatening, police said.



No arrest has been made in the case as of this morning and no suspect information was immediately released by police.







San Jose voters are considering a bond measure on the Nov. 6 ballot to fund approximately $450 million in affordable housing projects.



Measure V would fund housing for senior citizens, teachers, service workers and houseless individuals in an effort to ease a mounting housing crisis.



The annual tax rate to service the bond would be about $0.08 per $1,000 in assessed property value, and the measure would require a two-thirds majority to pass.



Santa Clara County passed the similar Measure A in 2016, approving a $950 million bond measure to fund homeless programs. The Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association and the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County have opposed Measure V on the ballot, saying they haven't seen results from Measure A and that the new bond will only bring more debt.







California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is assisting residents with criminal convictions by launching a new tool to let them know whether they are eligible to vote.



The Restore Your Vote tool, available online at RestoreYourVote.sos.ca.gov, emphasizes that Californians convicted of a felony can register and vote as long as they are not currently in prison or on parole.



At the website, people are asked to answer whether they are a U.S. citizen and resident of California, whether they are 18 or older on Election Day, whether they are currently in prison or on parole for a felony, and whether they have been found mentally incompetent to vote by a court.



Based on the answers, users are told whether they can register to vote. Those who are eligible will be provided a link to online voter registration, and this coming Monday is the deadline for people in California to register to vote for the Nov. 6 election.







A couple from Daly City was sentenced to a year in county jail and five years of supervised release Wednesday after pleading no contest to felony child endangerment, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.



Neighbors said that Aisha Genera, 36, and Michael Guardado, 40, were arguing and shouting constantly in their one-room studio apartment in June and July of 2016. On July 9, the couple called 911 to report that their 3-month-old baby had stopped breathing, prosecutors said.



The child was having seizures, and when examined at the hospital was found to have multiple fractures to the legs, ribs and skull and with retinal bleeding in both eyes. Doctors said the symptoms were consistent with shaken baby syndrome, according to the district attorney's office.



The pair pleaded no contest in August to felony child endangerment as part of a plea deal and returned to court Wednesday for sentencing.







Petaluma police arrested a transient on suspicion of assaulting a man at a homeless shelter Wednesday night.



The victim said David Larkin Papazian struck him several times during an argument. Police said the victim was injured in the lower leg and upper arm with a large piece of rebar at the Mary Isaak Center at 900 Hopper St.



Papazian was gone when police arrived around 9 p.m. but he was found later nearby, Sgt. Aaron Garihan said.



Witnesses identified Papazian, 54, as the aggressor, and he was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Garihan said.





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A popular TV soap opera about a miserable mother has split viewers in an apparent reflection of evolving views on womanhood and patriarchy in modern Chinese society.



Mother's Life began airing in September and achieved a viewership of over 2 percent on Beijing TV. Most such shows - 80 percent in fact - have viewerships less than 0.5 percent this year, the China News Service reported.

The 76-episode series proved a palpable hit with older generations, but rated 2.8 out of 10 on the Douban review website.

As of press time, more than 83 percent of about 16,000 users awarded the program a solitary star.

Mother's Life reinforces outdated notions of patriarchy, stereotyping women as "good wives and mothers without any sense of independence," one Douban website user, Hehe Qianan, typically posted.

Set during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), protagonist Liu Yingniang yearns for a son to pass on the family name, even if that boy could cost her life.

Liu is ostracized and abused by her mother-in-law for giving birth to three daughters. She responds with time-honored, unconditional filial piety.

"My grandmother waits in front of the TV and watches the news and weather before the show because she doesn't want to miss a single minute," reluctant viewer Fu Qinglian told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Fu, a student in Beijing, watched the show with her 66-year-old grandmother during national holiday week in her hometown of Yuncheng in North China's Shanxi Province.

Nobody could switch channels, even during commercial breaks, Fu said.

Her grandma never said it, but in her heart she seems to believe sons and grandsons are more important, Fu said.

Sun Mengfan, 25, also endured the 45-minute syrupy soap for the sake of her grandmother.

Sun felt it ridiculous to portray a woman kneeling and begging for mercy as the only means of solving problems,

"But my grandmother never thought Yingniang's obedience an issue," Sun said.

Liu Yingniang should not be seen as a role model, Mother's Life director Guo Jingyu told the China News on Saturday. "She represents oppressed women," he said.

But Guo's argument doesn't impress a growing legion of mostly female, urban critics.

"Mother's Life is portrayed as this perfect mother and wife," Sun said.

"I don't believe the show was criticizing old values," she added.A male suspect shot by a U.S. Park Police officer near San Francisco's Aquatic Park on Tuesday night remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, police said.



The suspect was still in the hospital Wednesday afternoon.



The shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday near the park, located along Beach Street between Van Ness Avenue and Hyde Street.



San Francisco police initially responded to the park and determined that a shooting between a U.S. Park Police officer and a suspect had occurred. The U.S. Park Police officer was not injured, police said.



San Francisco police officers were able to recover a firearm with an extended magazine at the scene.



Officers were also able to locate a second suspect and arrested the person on suspicion of possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with a large capacity magazine. Police have not released the name of either suspect or said what led up to the shooting.







The lead contractor for the troubled Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco has sued the government agency in charge of the project in Superior Court, alleging violation of its contract.



The contractor, Webcor/Obayashi Joint Venture, alleges the Transbay Joint Powers Authority broke its contract by providing incomplete and defective design documents, delaying in responding to the contractor's questions and using a contingency fund improperly.



The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, asks for a jury trial and seeks about $150 million in damages.



The $2.2 billion first phase of the project, a regional bus center, opened on Aug. 11. But the transit center closed on Sept. 25 after a fissure in a steel beam was found.



Another fissure in a second beam was found later that day.







An Alameda County sheriff's sergeant was arraigned on four felony charges for allegedly making illegal and secret recordings of juvenile suspects in an interview room in March.



The arraignment was Wednesday.



At his brief appearance at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, Sgt. James Russell, 44, didn't enter a plea to four counts of eavesdropping on or recording confidential communications for his alleged actions at the Eden Township sheriff's substation in San Leandro on March 15.



Prosecutor Keydon Levy asked for $40,000 bail for Russell, who is on paid suspension from his job and has been free on his own recognizance since the Alameda County District Attorney's Office filed charges against him on Oct. 3.



But Russell's attorney Judith Odbert said Russell doesn't pose a public safety threat and isn't a flight risk because he's lived in the Bay Area his entire life, is married and has three children.



Referring to the charges against Russell, Odbert said, "When all the facts come to light it will be shown that this was more of a misunderstanding of the law and there was not any intent to violate the law for nefarious purposes."







A Santa Rosa man was sentenced in Sonoma County Superior Court to three years of probation and credit for jail time served since May for the stabbing death of a man in a dorm room at Sonoma State University.



The sentenced was handed down Wednesday.



Tyler Bratton, 20, pleaded no contest last month to the involuntary manslaughter of Steven John Garcia, 26, of Santa Rosa, on May 13 as part of a negotiated plea agreement. His attorney Lynnette Brown argued at a preliminary hearing that Bratton acted in self-defense.



Bratton faces four years and eight months in prison if he violates his probation, according to Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady.



Testimony at a preliminary hearing indicated there were three confrontations involving Garcia's friend Rebecca Stjern, 21, Bratton, Bratton's girlfriend Riley O'Rourke, 20, and two other people days before the slaying.







Roads in the Bay Area were the worst in the nation and accounted for high costs to drivers in 2016, according to a report released by a national nonprofit.



The report was released Wednesday.



Staffers at The Road Information Program (TRIP), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit focused on transportation issues, used highway data to rank more than 100 urban areas that they say have the worst roads.



The region defined as the San Francisco-Oakland urban area, meaning those two cities and others in the surrounding area, came out on top of that list. The report says 71 percent of major roads in that area are in poor repair, according to pavement data from the Federal Highway Administration.



Because of that, drivers in the area lost on average more than $1,000 annually when their vehicles depreciated, needed maintenance and used more fuel.



San Jose, another Bay Area city, ranked second in the nation in the TRIP report with 64 percent of roads in bad shape. The average San Jose driver lost $983 annually, according to the report.







A fire is burning a utility vault that is on top of an underground Chevron natural gas pipeline early this morning in the community of Bay Point, according to the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.



Fire officials said the blaze started at the vault at 8:41 p.m. Wednesday in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues.



Around 4,000 people have been evacuated.



Residents in the Bay Point areas of North Broadway Avenue to the west, Summer Way to the east, Suisun Avenue in the north and Willow Pass Road to the south have been told to leave their homes and stay away from the area at least through the night.



Evacuation centers are being set up at Calvary Temple Church at 4725 Evora Road in Concord and at the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station at 1700 W. Leland Road in Pittsburg.



Train traffic for the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF and Amtrak trains has been halted in both directions, fire spokesman Steve Hill said.





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Two ex-cons were sentenced to state prison terms today for a shooting during a robbery in West Oakland last year that killed a San Francisco man who worked as a cinematographer and composer.



Dorsey Howard, 27, and Zuberi Steel, 31, both of Oakland, were charged with murder and the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery for the shooting death of 46-year-old Joachim Hanwright in the 1700 block of Seventh Street, near Oakland's main post office, at about 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2017.



But at a hearing on Aug. 29, Howard pleaded guilty and Steel pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.



Alameda County Superior Judge James Cramer sentenced Howard, who was the man who shot Hanwright, to 26 years in prison and sentenced Steel, who played a lesser role, to 11 years.



Hanwright attended University of California at Santa Cruz and is survived by two children, according to an online profile.



Hanwright worked as a cameraman on the 1997 movie "The Rainmaker," as a composer for the 1998 movie "Larga Distancia" and as the cinematographer for the 2000 movie "Obstacles," an urban crime drama filmed in Oakland and Vallejo.



Hanwright's mother Trisha Hanwright said at the hearing for Howard and Steel today that she was speaking on behalf of Hanwright's son, who she said was "very angry" about his shooting death.



Several other family members and friends of Hanwright also attended the sentencing.



On the day of the shooting, Howard and Steel loitered in the 1700 block of Seventh Street waiting for Hanwright to exit a residence he owned so they could rob him, Oakland police Officer Michael Jaeger wrote in a probable cause statement.



When Hanwright left the residence, Howard ran up to him while holding a pistol and when the two men struggled, Steel ran up to help Howard, according to Jaeger.



Hanwright was able to break free and run away but Howard then fired multiple shots at him, striking him and causing him to collapse in the street, Jaeger wrote. Hanwright was pronounced dead at the scene.



Howard and Steel entered Hanwright's residence after the shooting but then fled the scene without taking anything, Jaeger wrote.



Howard and Steel were arrested a week after the shooting after witnesses identified them, according to police.



According to prosecutors, Howard has prior felony convictions for first-degree burglary with a person present in 2009 and first-degree residential burglary in 2011.



Jaeger said Howard was still on parole for the 2011 conviction at the time of the fatal shooting.



Prosecutors say Steel has a 2006 conviction for possession for sale of cocaine and a 2012 conviction for being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.





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A U.S. Park Police officer who shot at a suspect and left him with critical injuries Tuesday night at San Francisco's Aquatic Park will not be identified unless that officer is charged with a crime, park police said today.



The officer, who was not injured in the shooting, is currently on paid administrative leave.



According to U.S. Park police, the San Francisco Police Department is handling the investigation into the officer-involved shooting "to ensure it is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner."



The shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m. near the park, located along Beach Street between Van Ness Avenue and Hyde Street.



According to San Francisco police, the male suspect who was shot was taken to a hospital.



At the scene, San Francisco police officers were able to recover a firearm with an extended magazine at the scene. They also arrested a second suspect on suspicion of possessing a firearm and possessing a firearm with a large capacity magazine.



Police have not released the name of either suspect or said what prompted the shooting.



Park police officials said that they do not believe there is any ongoing safety concerns for the public.



Anyone with information on the case is asked to call San Francisco police at (415) 575-4444 or to send a text message to TIP411 and begin 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.Evacuations remain in place this morning in Bay Point after a fire at a utility vault threatened a Chevron natural gas pipeline below it on Wednesday night and into this morning, according to fire officials.



Chevron officials said in a news conference this morning that a small .375-inch transmitter line was ignited by a fire source -- possibly a fallen power line -- and threatened a bigger 12-inch natural gas pipeline.



The transmitter line relays information from the location of the pipeline to Chevron's control center.



Chevron officials said an active fire is still ongoing in the valve vault and nitrogen will be inserted into the transmitter pipeline that will extinguish the fire once all the remaining gas in the pipeline is purged. The line is also being vented at a Chevron facility in Antioch.



Although Chevron officials said there isn't a threat of an explosion at this point, Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill said until the fire is out, they aren't confident a major accident or failure won't occur.



Willow Cove Elementary School in Pittsburg won't be open today due to fire, police said.



Around 4,000 people have been evacuated from 1,400 homes in Bay Point after the fire started Wednesday night, Hill said.



He said a decision on the ongoing evacuations will be made once the line is declared safe, and said crews are hoping to resolve the situation by around 10 a.m. today.



Amtrak announced early this morning to expect delays on its Capitol Corridor route due to anticipated increased train traffic on the passenger train's regular route between Sacramento and San Jose. The Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway tracks are currently closed through Antioch and trains will be re-routed around the closure, Amtrak officials and Hill said.



Hill said residents near the Chevron pipeline facility in the Antioch area near Buchanan Road might hear a loud noise similar to a jet engine this morning, which is normal in the venting process and he advised them not to call 911 if they hear it.



BART officials said commuters can now park at the BART station at 1700 W. Leland Road in Pittsburg since the evacuation center at the parking lot has moved to Los Medanos College. BART officials advised that the fire would not affect service.



The fire at the vault was first reported at 8:41 p.m. in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues, Hill said. The 12-inch, high-pressure natural gas line runs through the East Bay.



The line affected by the blaze has been isolated from the rest of the pipelines, Hill said.



He said the department is working on getting a drone over the vault to check on the pipeline.



Chevron released a statement this morning saying the company immediately shut down the line after the fire was reported and was working with fire officials and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to evacuate residents.



Evacuations have been ordered in the area of North Broadway Avenue to the west, Summer Way to the east, Suisun Avenue in the north and Willow Pass Road to the south are being ordered to evacuate.



There are no injuries to anyone at this point, Hill said.



Crews initially responded to the area for a grass fire reported at 5:49 p.m. Wednesday and contained at 6:17 p.m. Hill said PG&E shut down the power to the power line at 6 p.m.



The cause of the fire is under investigation.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.All evacuations caused by a fire threatening a natural gas pipeline in the Bay Point area of unincorporated Contra Costa County on Wednesday night were lifted as of 2:30 p.m. today, fire officials said.



The fire at a utility vault in the vicinity of Poinsettia and Suisun avenues was first reported at 8:41 p.m., Contra Costa County Fire Protection District spokesman Steve Hill said.



Crews initially responded to the area for a grass fire reported at 5:49 p.m. Wednesday and contained it at 6:17 p.m., Hill said.



PG&E shut down the power to the power line at 6 p.m.



Chevron officials said in a news conference this morning that a small 0.375-inch transmitter line was ignited by a fire source -- possibly a fallen power line -- and threatened a bigger 12-inch natural gas pipeline.



Emergency crews worked to depressurize that 12-inch pipeline, from 485 PSI to 25 PSI, then pump nitrogen into the line to render it safe, but all the ingredients for a disaster were present, according to fire officials.



Chevron released a statement this morning saying the company immediately shut down the line after the fire was reported and was working with fire officials and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to evacuate residents.



Around 4,000 people were evacuated from 1,400 homes in Bay Point after the fire started Wednesday night, Hill said.



Evacuations were ordered in the area of North Broadway Avenue to the west, Summer Way to the east, Suisun Avenue in the north and Willow Pass Road to the south.



"I want to thank our citizens that were inconvenienced for quite a while," Assistant Fire Chief Terrence Carey said. "We appreciate their patience and we're glad to get them back into their homes."



Willow Cove Elementary School in Pittsburg did not open today due to the fire, but will reopen Friday, police said.



Amtrak announced early this morning to expect delays on its Capitol Corridor route due to anticipated increased train traffic on the passenger train's regular route between Sacramento and San Jose. The Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway tracks were currently closed through Antioch because of the incident, Amtrak officials and Hill said.



The cause of the fire is under investigation.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.U.S. carmaker Tesla Inc. has just purchased a tract of land measuring 864,885 square meters from Shanghai municipal government, to set up its first overseas plant in the city, said a source of Shanghai Lingang Area Development Administration Wednesday.

The price tag of the deal is kept unknown.

The website of Shanghai Land Market, however, shows the original starting price of the land for sale was 973 million yuan (about 141 million U.S. dollars).

Tesla's super factory in Shanghai was officially launched in the Lingang Area after Tesla signed a land grant contract with Shanghai municipal administration for planning and land resources.

Tesla signed an agreement with Shanghai municipal government in July to build a factory with a planned annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. The company is the first to benefit from a new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in China.

According to the Shanghai municipal government, it will be the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in the city's history. Lingang Area has already enhanced infrastructure in the surrounding area to support the project.Chinese export-oriented companies have brought cutting-edge products to the nation's largest trade event, aiming to maintain steady business growth by attracting more foreign buyers.

Gree Electric Appliances Inc, a major home appliances maker based in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, displayed its GMV ECO, a new-generation of energy-saving air conditioners for commercial use, at the ongoing China Import and Export Fair.

The fair, better known as the Canton Fair, which is taking place in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong, is seen as a barometer of China's foreign trade.

"The new product, incorporating cutting-edge technology, will help greatly reduce energy consumption. We believe it will have big sales in the overseas market," said Zhao Guoliang, assistant general manager of Gree's overseas sales department.

According to Wang Shunfang, manager of the North America Region of Gree's overseas sales department, Gree's overseas sales continued to grow in the first three quarters of this year. "Gree's business in the overseas market maintained growth thanks to the competitive high-end products and technology we have brought to the market in recent years," said Wang.

The North American market accounts for a large proportion of Gree's overseas sales, according to Wang.

"There is very high demand in the market for high-quality and high-tech air conditioners. Through the introduction of such products, Gree's business has not been affected by the uncertainty brought about by trade friction between China and the United States," said Wang.

Gree has already established eight sales centers in North America and two production centers in Brazil and Pakistan.

"We are planning to open more overseas manufacturing facilities in the near future, bringing our technologies and products closer to our customers," said Wang.

He added that Gree's products are also widely sold in Brazil, Argentina and the Middle East.

Shenzhen Jedel Electronics Co Ltd, a manufacturer of keyboards and other computer accessories, also has confidence in its overseas market expansion.

This company invests nearly 1 million yuan ($144,000) in research and development annually, helping generate 60 million yuan in export volume in 2017, according to Wang Guangdong, deputy general manager of the Shenzhen-based company.

"We will see a possible year-on-year increase of 20 percent in overseas sales this year," said Wang.

Xu Bing, spokesman of the organizing committee of Canton Fair, said the number of overseas buyers is expected to maintain stable growth compared with the last session.

"Chinese companies are attaching more importance to enhancing the competitiveness of their products by increasing their efforts in technology research and development," said Xu.The 2018 China International Trade Facilitation Forum, jointly sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government, concluded recently in Shenzhen. With the theme of "Trade FacilitationA New engine for Global Economic Development," the forum focused on international trade facilitation and discussed suggestions and ideas on the optimization of business environment. The forum is also tasked to seek new ideas, expand new paths and draw a new blueprint for the facilitation of China's international trade.







At the opening ceremony, Wang Lixin, deputy mayor of Shenzhen, delivered a welcome speech on behalf of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. In his speech, Wang said, The world is in an era of great development, great change, and great readjustment. Economic growth needs new impetus while trade and investment call for facilitation, and it is of great significance to speed up the facilitation of international trade.





Zhang Shenfeng, vice president of CCPIT, said in his opening speech that CCPIT will continue to improve the level of trade facilitation. Through deeper participation in FTA negotiations, building a broader platform for promoting trade and investment, and providing more commercial law methods, it is possible to remove trade barriers and help to promote the sustained and healthy development of global trade.





Yi Xiaozhun, deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization, also attended the opening ceremony. He gave praise to the forum and said that efficient customs clearance is an important cornerstone of the global value chain, and trade facilitation is the "soft infrastructur" of the Belt and Road Initiative.







A number of business representatives also attended the forum and spoke on their expectations and recommendations on trade and investment facilitation. Xiang Xiaofang, government affair director of DuPont China, said that for a long time DuPont China has been consistently supporting China's trade facilitation, and the company itself has received tangible benefits. Song Zhenghuan, president of Goodbaby International Holdings Limited, spoke on his experience of opening up and doing business globally.





During the forum, Gary Gereffi, director of the Global Value Chain Center at Duke University, Zhao Zhongxiu, vice president of the University of International Business and Economics, Graham Slack, chief economist of Maersk Group, Mei Xinyu, researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, and other guests unanimously praised and called for implementing more solid actions on trade facilitation, and expressed firm support for a global system of multilateral trade.





Qin Yang, secretary-general of the Organizing Committee of the China International Trade Facilitation Forum and expert committee of CCPIT, told reporters that the forum was held for the first time in 2012 and was officially approved by the State Council. It is by now China's largest and most high-profile conference featured in trade facilitation.





"We will actively build a platform for communication, exchange and cooperation between the government and the business sector, by jointly exploring new measures to further optimize the business environment and enhance the level of trade facilitation, we aim to firmly promote trade facilitation," Qin said. "We will make new and greater contributions to the construction of a new pattern of China's comprehensive opening up."The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge connecting the east and west sides of the Pearl River Delta in South China will officially open on Oct. 23, the liaison office of the central government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region revealed on Wednesday.

The confirmation of the opening details for the mega bridge intensified the anticipation that had been building for weeks across the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, whose development is expected to receive a major boost from the bridge.

The ceremony will be held indoors on Tuesday in Guangdong province, on an artificial island, home to Zhuhai port, a source familiar with the matter told China Daily. After the ceremony, the bridge is expected to open for traffic later in the day, the source said.

The HZMB, more than a decade in the making, is a 55-kilometer-long bridge-island-tunnel complex across the Pearl River Delta. The project also includes a 6.7-km undersea tunnel. The tunnel links to the bridge via two artificial islands.

Chief engineer of the bridge's island and tunnel project, Lin Ming, said he's thrilled to see the date finally fixed for the grand opening.

Lin spent 12 years on the construction of the sea crossing. He said he's more than happy to see it finally serve its intended purpose and open to cross-boundary traffic.

The main bridge, located in Chinese mainland waters, will be managed by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Authority located in Zhuhai, which is jointly founded by the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in 2010.

Meng Fanchao, a major designer of the bridge, couldn't conceal his excitement on Wednesday. He said he felt like a proud parent as his child will soon shoulder immense responsibilities, serve society and stand the test of real-life challenges.

Meng is highly confident in the safety and quality of the bridge. He said the bridge held strong during many tests, including the ravages of two severe typhoons in 2017 and 2018.

According to government documents, the ports in Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao, built and managed by the respective local governments, will be open 24 hours daily.

Zhuhai and Macao will cooperate to implement a one-off customs clearance in the two ports, allowing travelers to finish the exit and entry process in one operation.

The total cost to build HZMB is about 120 billion yuan ($17.3 billion). The burden is shared in different proportions by the Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao governments, in accordance with an assessment of prospective economic benefits for the three cities.

Lo Wai-kwok, a Hong Kong lawmaker representing the engineering constituency, hailed the bridge and expressed excitement over its scheduled opening. The former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers said he organized several visits to the bridge in the past few years.

"It may go down in history as a masterpiece in modern engineering," he said.

Lo, also chairman of the Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong, predicted the bridge's opening will boost economic development in the Greater Bay Area, facilitating the flow of people, goods, capital and services in the region.Serious violations in implementation of environmental protection work have been found in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to the central environmental inspection group.

Among the problems discovered are severe damage caused to grasslands, and improper treatment of industrial waste, said the central environmental inspection group on Wednesday at a meeting held to provide feedback to the local authorities on their work undertaken to solve environmental problems detected since the last round of inspection.

The areas of grassland in seven leagues (an administration level above city in Inner Mongolia) and cities in the autonomous region have been on decline, showed a 2016 survey on grassland resources.

A primary reason behind the shrinking of grassland is mining, said the inspection group.

It pointed to the Party committees and governments of Tongliao and Huolin Gol for failing to pay enough attention to serious damage caused to grasslands, allowing coalmines in Holin River to illegally occupy grasslands.

In Xilin Gol League, the local land and resources bureau was criticized for giving green light to mining operations that did not restore damaged grasslands as required.

The inspection group said large amounts of alkaline earth were piled up randomly in a mining area operated by Sunite Alkali Ltd Co and the company did not cover soil and plant grass on it, which affected the growth of grasslands in the surrounding areas.

In Ewenki Autonomous Banner of Hulunbuir League, the local land and resources bureau falsified data of areas of water and soil loss restored in a mine by a building materials manufacturer.

The inspection group said grasslands have also been illegally occupied for the purpose of tourism development. A total of 71 scenic spots have occupied grasslands, 57 of them having done so without approval.

Moreover, overgrazing was not effectively controlled, particularly in Tongliao, Chifeng, Ordos and Bayannur League, and some local authorities did not grant subsidies of grassland protection to herdsmen as required, leading to serious overgrazing.

The inspection group also pointed to the problem of improper treatment and illegal dumping of industrial wastes.

The environmental inspection group was dispatched by the central government to provincial-level regions to check the environmental protection and policy implementation of local governments. Local authorities and officials that fail to perform the duty will be punished.

The first round of central inspection work was launched in January 2016, and all 31 provincial-level regions have been covered by the end of 2017. And the ongoing second round of inspection is expected to last for three years.The 2018 National Poverty Alleviation Awards were announced in Beijing on Wednesday. A total of 99 individuals and 40 organizations received awards for their endeavors, contributions, dedication and innovation in poverty relief.

The list of awardees includes people who have shaken off poverty through their own efforts, entrepreneurs who have helped those in need to achieve a better life, innovative pioneers in poverty alleviation, and the organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to helping the poor.

Liu Hong, secretary of CPC municipal committee of Jinggangshan city, Jiangxi province, said in his speech that the city is a pioneer in China. Through various reforms, innovation and targeted poverty alleviation, the city rid itself of poverty in 2017. Its outstanding achievements made it one of top 10 examples of China's reform in 2017.

Wang Xiling, a person in charge of a local seedling cooperative, shared her story with the audience and other winners. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, and spent all her family savings on treatment. In 2013, her husband died in a traffic accident. Despite suffering great physical and emotional pain, she had never given up. With the help of the local government, she founded a seedling cooperative which earned revenues of 1.58 million yuan (US$228,200) in three years, and more importantly, she helped 43 other households planting seedlings, 18 of whom had escaped from poverty.

The award ceremony has been held every year since 2016 by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development. The jury panel members included National People's Congress (NPC) delegates, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) members, professionals, academics, and representatives of the grassroots, the media, and other social organizations.- 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."Selective outrage: As our editorial notes, President Trump sure seems to give the benefit of the doubt to privileged men accused of crimes. Even so, his reticence to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for what appears for all the world to be the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is reprehensible. Its hard to escape the notion that Trump is putting the sanctity of big-money deals over the life of a journalist who called the United States home.

What were saying

Debate upshot: Sen. Dianne Feinstein took the debate stage against an opponent for the first time in 18 years. Actually, it was more of a conversation in San Francisco with challenger (and fellow Democrat) Kevin de Leon, moderated by Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California. Who won? Our editorial gives the clear edge to Feinstein, whose performance effectively defused the age issue.

Ben Margot / Associated Press

Joe and John Show: Our senior political reporter Joe Garofoli and I offer our analyses of the U.S. Senate debate in this edition of the Opinion Central podcast.

Hate robocalls? So does editorial writer Caille Millner in this Last Word. She even suggests a solution may be in the works. Or not.

Sleazy Mailer of the Week

For the record: We dont mind when quotes from our endorsement editorials end up in campaign mailers. But this one, from the Yes on 10 campaign, is just plain confusing and deceptive.

Here is what our editorial against Proposition 10 said.

Sleazy Tweet of the Week

It only gets worse: Just when you thought President Trump couldnt go any lower, here is his tweet after a judge ruled in his favor in a lawsuit by Stormy Daniels. One can only imagine what Trump would have tweeted if he lost the decision.

Where to follow us

We have a new Twitter channel, Opinion Central (@sfc_opinions). Please add it to your stream. Youll catch our editorials and opinion pieces, as well as our drive-by comments on assorted subjects in the news.

Also, please add our Opinion Central podcast to wherever you receive yours. This is the place for backstories and commentary with our opinion writers and special guests.

Letter of the Week

Sign up for the newsletter Want to get the latest San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board opinions in your inbox? Subscribe to Opinion Central. See More Collapse

On the scene: Jeffrey Earl Warren of St. Helena offered this firsthand account of the consequences of that PG&E preventive power shutdown last weekend:

I grew up on a Napa Valley ranch four miles from St. Helena and up a mile dirt road. On Sunday night, PG&E cut off power to our ranch.Over the years, we have had to stand on the roof of our home, hosing it down and dousing embers as fire raged all around us. We live on a well, which requires electricity to pump water. Not only does cutting off power kill our refrigerator (causing ice to melt and food to spoil), but we cant cook, watch TV, use the computer, or turn on the air conditioning. Worst of all, we have no water to bathe, brush our teeth, flush our toilets, or fight fires. This is not just insane, it is cruel. If we lose our home due to this insane policy  fair warning, PG&E  you will be held legally responsible. Are there no legislators who can fix this? Rural lives matter!

And please check out our other letters of the day responding to this and other matters. You can send us a letter via this form.

Just a reminder

The Chronicles editorials represent the collective judgment of our Editorial Board, which includes the publisher as well as the writers and editors from the opinion team. Our editors and reporters on the news side are not involved in those decisions (including election endorsements). They and are charged with reporting fairly and objectively without regard to our editorial positions. It is one of the core values here at Fifth and Mission streets.

Opinion Central is a thrice-weekly newsletter from John Diaz, The Chronicles editorial page editor, and the rest of the Editorial Board. Follow along on Twitter: @sfc_opinionsActor Kevin Nealon is still looking to step away from his stately home in Pacific Palisades. He recently put it back on the market for just one dollar shy of $5 million.

Nealon and his wife, actress Susan Yeagley, have changed the price and taken the luxurious, Georgian Colonial-style home on and off the market almost 10 times since initially putting it up for sale in 2016. Listing prices have ranged from $5.45 million to $4.7 million.

The showbiz couple bought the well-situated property in 2010 for $3.45 million.

It's located in the El Medio Bluffs neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, within walking distance of a scenic section of Sunset Boulevard and the shops and restaurants of the new Palisades Village. The Village recently held an opening gala with Nealon serving as Master of Ceremonies.

Kevin Nealon's home realtor.com

Backyard realtor.com

And as lovely as it is to live there, it looks as if Nealon and Yeagley are more eager than ever to sell their seven bedroom, 5.5 bath, three-story home.

Built in 2010, the home has elegant finishes, including marble and solid white oak flooring, double and triple crown molding, coffered ceilings, and floor-to-ceiling multipaned windows with transoms, to let in lots of light.

Living room realtor.com

One of the highlights on the main floor is the white kitchen with custom cabinetry, Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, private butler's pantry, a 12-foot center island, and an 8-foot peninsula. The kitchen opens to a large family room with a fireplace.

Kitchen realtor.com

Family room off kitchen realtor.com

The spacious master bedroom has a fireplace (the home has three fireplaces) and opens up to a large deck with a built-in daybed and kitchenette.

Master bedroom realtor.com

Deck off master bedroom realtor.com

There is what some people would consider a basement level, although it has direct outdoor access and plenty of windows. Down here, you'll find three bedrooms (one of which is being used as a gym), as well as a spacious game room/family room, with its own dining area and kitchenette.

Family room realtor.com

Nealon, 64, spent nine seasons on "Saturday Night Live" and has appeared in numerous movies. He's also had an active small-screen career, starring on "Weeds" and "Man With a Plan."

The post Actor Kevin Nealon Lists His Pacific Palisades Home ... Again appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.Page Content



Editor's Note: SHRM has partnered with Harvard Business Review to bring you relevant articles on key HR topics and strategies.

In 2016, General Electric announced that it was moving its longtime corporate headquarters from suburban Fairfield, Connecticut, to downtown Boston. The company felt it needed to plug in to Boston's high-tech young ventures and talent to become more innovative and digitaland ensure that it would be on the forefront of any emerging disruptive technologies. Jeff Bornstein, then the CFO, summed up the advantage of Boston to The Wall Street Journal this way: "I can walk out my door and visit four start-ups. In Fairfield I couldn't even walk out my door and get a sandwich."

Leading cities have long had an outsize influence on the global economy, but today the impact that top talent clusters like Boston and San Francisco have on innovation is especially pronounced. In 2017, America's 10 largest tech hubs accounted for 58% of U.S. patents. Globally, cities such as Tokyo, Paris, Beijing, Shenzhen and Seoul produced a similarly large proportion. The increased clout of these hubs poses a dilemma for companies that have historically located their leadership and talent in suburban industrial parks. Having a presence in innovation hotbeds is crucial, but it's also extraordinarily expensiveespecially in the narrow innovation districts within cities where most of the high-tech activity takes place.

How can companies most effectively harness the benefits of these urban pools of knowledge and skills? In my work on global talent flows, I've seen corporations take three core approaches: At one extreme, they relocate their headquarters, just as GE did. A less expensive and more easily reversible way to establish a brick-and-mortar foothold is to set up an innovation lab or corporate outpost in a talent cluster. The most conservative option is to organize executive retreats and immersive visits there.

The three options are not mutually exclusiveespecially since companies often need to keep in touch with several clustersand each one involves substantial risks. But as the influence of a handful of global cities continues to grow, these approaches offer a playbook to companies that find themselves outside the action in today's concentrated innovation geography.

Option #1: Headquarters Moves

While we tend to associate innovation hubs with entrepreneurs and start-ups, increasingly they're the domain of incumbents, too. Twenty years ago inventors working in the top 10 cities for patenting activity accounted for fewer than half the patents filed by America's 50 largest companies; their innovations were developed mostly in corporate labs in smaller cities. In 2017, by contrast, inventors working in the top 10 cities accounted for almost 70% of the Fortune 50's patent filings. Corporations have gone from being underrepresented in tech hubs to exceeding the national average.

To some extent, this shift reflects the displacement of legacy companies in the Fortune 50 by innovative firms such as Alphabet and Amazon. But other incumbents besides GE are moving resources to tech hubs. In 2016 packaged foods manufacturer Conagra, for instance, relocated its headquarters from Omaha, Nebraska, to Chicago in order to attract more Millennials and recruit senior talent with experience in consumer brands. While he praised Omaha, CEO Sean Connolly told the Omaha World-Herald, "Chicago is an environment that offers us access to innovation and brand-building talent."

Though cross-state moves grab headlines, companies are also migrating out of less-dense areas surrounding talent clusters and into urban centers. In Boston, organizations relocating to the downtown area include Reebok, Converse and much of the local venture capital industry. A local recruiting agency, WinterWyman, has reported that downtown Boston and Cambridge accounted for more than 60% of recent tech hires in the metropolitan area, compared with just 5% two decades ago. Conagra closed a suburban Chicago facility so that it could move more of its executive team into its downtown HQ. McDonald's, Motorola Solutions, Kraft Heinz and some 50 other companies have also relocated to downtown Chicago from nearby suburbs. Greg Brown, the CEO of Motorola, noted that its HQ move would accelerate cultural change in the company and make recruiting software developers and data scientists easier.

The increased access to talent can be substantial, since the share of the local college-educated workforce engaged in digital fields in hub cities is typically two to three times as high as the national average. Moreover, many talented young people want to work in hip downtown locations with sleek new offices, not aging suburban complexes with lots of parking.

But a headquarters relocation poses several risks. For large incumbents it can be incredibly difficult, time-consuming and expensive. The need to uproot an existing workforce, change legacy customer locations and establish new local political connections and responsibilities means that any relocation will be disruptive, offsetting the advantages a talent cluster might offer. What's more, HQ moves are hard to reverse. Because talent hot spots can rise and fallin the 1950s, Silicon Valley was barely a dot on the economic map, and Detroit was the epicenter of rapidly growing industrycorporations may end up overinvesting in a temporary competitive advantage.

One way to mitigate that risk is to build smaller headquarters that are focused on innovation and the key needs of top decision makers. GE is moving fewer than 800 people (out of a workforce of more than 300,000) to Boston; only those who are especially focused on innovation and digitization are being relocated. At some incumbents the top leaders already work mostly remotely, especially if they have heavy travel schedules. New corporate HQs are starting to look and operate more like the offices of unicorn start-ups than of industrial giants. Communication technologies and connectivity allow corporate leadership to oversee operations with ever greater scope and scale from a small command post.

This points to the second broad risk with headquarters moves: that ideas generated within the talent hub may fail to spread to the rest of the organization. Cutting-edge concepts picked up in Boston or Berlin will benefit a global company only if they improve the productivity of operations around the world. Moving key executives to talent clusters may distance leaders from other employees in the firm, whereas the older corporate HQs in suburban office parks tended to minimize internal distances. As a result, careful thought will have to go into diffusing acquired knowledge throughout the organization's facilities.

Talent rotations can mitigate this risk. A study of an Indian R&D center at a leading multinational showed that short business trips to the firm's U.S. headquarters boosted the productivity of the site's scientists and engineers upon their return home, because they had gained technical knowledge and formed tighter personal relationships with leaders at headquarters and were better able to match people's skills to assignments. And as more companies are learning, communication technology is not a substitute for people flows but a complement. Yes, great videoconferencing technology helps, but there's no better way than meeting in person to kick off or renew a relationship.

A third risk is negative press and the loss of political capital. No city wants a leading firm to leave, but the potential for ill will extends to new locations, too. Many companies seek tax breaks and other incentives for their new headquarters; it's a delicate balancing act to secure preferential treatment but also be perceived as a partner in the new home city. Amazon has been criticized for the multi-round bidding contest it held and the incentives it sought when scouting sites for its second North American headquarters. As Apple began its search for the site of a fourth U.S. campus, CEO Tim Cook remarked that his company would not hold a beauty pageant like Amazon's. "That's not Apple," he told Recode.

Headquarters moves must also deliver on high expectations. They must weather any changes in corporate leadership and the ups and downs of company performance. Shortly after John Flannery took over as CEO of GE, in 2017, the company announced that it would delay construction on its new $200 million building in Boston. And after GE announced job cuts, some of which would affect Boston workers, last fall, a local newspaper columnist wondered, "Was Boston sold a lemon"? GE remains committed to its new HQ but is also rethinking the role of the HQ as it works to realign itself.

A fourth risk that companies must guard against is a "leaky bucket." Although they can recruit more easily in hubs, they can see ideas and talent flow out, too. In top clusters being an attractive local employer often means stacking up well against an Apple or a Spotify with competitive salaries and benefits.

Finally, there's a risk of unintended and unforeseen consequences. Research shows that companies are more likely to close plants that are distant from HQs than plants close by, for instance. Headquarters moves permanently shift the internal workings of a firm in material ways. The company will also adopt more of the culture of the new home basewhich was often the point of the move, after alland executives will have a new peer group going forward. But for executives and directors looking to deeply transform their organizations, all those risks may be warranted.











Option #2: Creating Outposts and Innovation Labs

At many companies, moving the headquarters is not up for discussion. In September 2017, the same month that Amazon began its search for a second North American headquarters, Walmart announced the construction of a new head office in its longtime home of Bentonville, Arkansas. But even if Walmart remains forever rooted in Arkansas, it has no intention of ceding the battle for the insights of talent clusters to the likes of Amazon (Seattle) and Alibaba (Hangzhou). Walmart Labs, opened in 2011 in Silicon Valley, focuses on making advances, ranging from voice-enabled shopping to crowdsourced delivery, on the frontiers of e-commerce.

Many companies a small fraction of Walmart's size have opened similar corporate outposts in order to access important talent clusters in their industries. Such offices can serve a range of functions. Some simply house a small team that listens to what's going on locally and scouts out business development opportunities. Some establish an innovation lab like Walmart's that works on new technology development. At others, companies focus on corporate venturingpartly to make a financial return on investments, but more to have a better vantage point on new advances.

Companies benefit most from innovation when they acquire the best ideas, not when their average ideas are better. A physical presence in leading clusters helps companies connect with the most powerful concepts emerging in their sector. Corporate outposts are relatively inexpensive to launch, at least compared with HQ moves, and some companies effectively buy one by acquiring a young tech start-up. An important step in the launch of Walmart Labs, for instance, was the retail giant's purchase of Kosmix in 2011.

Companies often want a presence in two or more clusters. One never knows where the next top idea will emerge, and firms can compete for talent better when they touch multiple clusters at once. Microsoft Research, for example, has built a network of labs outside Redmond, Washington, in locations that include Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cambridge, England; New York; Montreal; Beijing; and Bangalore. The Chinese white-goods giant Haier has five R&D centerswithin and outside top clusters in the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia and Chinawhich are helping it stake out a role in the internet of things.

One of the major risks with outposts is being "penny-wise and pound-foolish" when selecting real estate. Location matters even within cities. The costs of locating close to Sand Hill Road or Market Street are substantially higher than elsewhere in the San Francisco areabut so are the benefits. A study of advertising agencies in Manhattan is illustrative. Manhattan's agencies create about a quarter of all advertising in the United States. They rely on personal networking to share project work, splitting larger jobs into parts that can be independently attacked by each firm. However, the study found that sharing declines rapidly with geographical distance, disappearing entirely when two firms are more than half a mile apart. To successfully tap into the market, an ad agency requires not only a New York address but an address within a few city blocks of Madison Avenue.

The good news is that real estate vendors that make it less costly for companies to launch outposts are emerging. The coworking company CIC, for example, located in the heart of Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, offers high-end, flexible office space on a month-to-month basis. CIC has created packages suitable for the innovation outposts of large companies, and its clients have included Amazon, Bayer, PwC and Royal Dutch Shell. CIC even houses a "Captains of Innovation" program that links corporations to local innovators.

An advantage of outposts is that companies can experiment and start with a small teamkeeping the option open for investment down the road. Five years before announcing its move to Boston, GE launched an outpost in Silicon Valley to accelerate its digital innovation efforts. The one-person office initially housed just Bill Ruh, an executive recruited from Cisco to lead a new lab. Over the next three years, he grew the office to 150 people, hiring Silicon Valley talent almost exclusively. The launch strategy kept initial needs small and allowed Ruh to shape the effort to Silicon Valley's practices rather than being restricted by GE's typical playbook. His group would grow to 1,800 employees and ultimately become its own business unit, now branded GE Digital.

If outposts aren't working out, they can be closed, but this reversibility carries its own risk. Companies often pull the plug too quickly, believing an operation is failing because they have unrealistic expectations about how quickly they'll see results. Leaders must understand that it takes time to build relationships; three to six months is rarely sufficient. What makes talent clusters special is an enormous volume and diversity of activity. The investment in start-ups housed within CIC's coworking space alone exceeds the venture investment made in most U.S. states, for instance. There is much to learn before a new outpost can be effective, and discovery processes take time. This is especially true when organizations invest in a cluster far from home.

Another risk is that small teams away from the corporate center will be viewed as impotent, rendering outpost executives less interesting to local entrepreneurs and innovators. Empowering the local staff to make modest deals on behalf of the company goes a long way toward boosting the stature of an outpost's leaders at the watercooler.

Perhaps most critical is the choice of initial outpost directors. These executives lend their personal credibility both internally to the corporation and externally to the cluster. One approach is to seek a "best of both worlds" launch team by combining a relocating executive from the parent's HQ with a star already working in the cluster. When a foreign company enters the United States, this local talent is often an ex-pat of the same nationality as the parent organization.

A final risk with innovation outposts is that the best ideas and innovations will not flow back to the parent company effectively. Studies of patent data show that poor internal transfer is especially pronounced in cross-border settings. This may explain why many firms are disappointed with the returns from overseas innovation workif the right conditions aren't set, the output tends to be isolated.

One effective countermeasure is to promote international knowledge transfer by distributing collaborative teams across locations. That way, a company's innovations are more likely to build on the patents filed in several locations. This approach is used extensively when companies first open new international facilities, either as a deliberate hedge to protect intellectual property or simply as a needed prop for the fledgling operations. Cross-border collaborative teams now account for 13% of the patents of large U.S. companies, up from just 1% in 1975. Though these global teams need to be carefully managed (see Tsedal Neeley's HBR article "Global Teams That Work," October 2015), they're likely to grow in importance as companies seek more access to talent clusters.

Option #3: Executive Retreats and Immersions

Executive visits to top talent clusters can be a cost-effective way to increase awareness and excitement about efforts to accelerate innovation and reshape business models and management approaches. Though a weeklong trip rarely provides the missing piece to a company's innovation puzzle, it can help executives build a grounded understanding of what's happening at the frontier and how their companies may need to react.

In 2014 executives at the large European bank ING Netherlands felt that their organization, while profitable and seemingly stable, was not realizing its full potential in a financial services sector that was rapidly being revolutionized. So they embarked on visits to Spotify, Google, Netflix, Zappos and other innovative companies to explore new possibilities.

Those trips led the executives to reimagine ING Netherlands as a smaller, nimbler organization with a stronger customer focus. To fulfill that new vision, the company would adopt agile team methodology throughout the organization, reduce head count at its Dutch headquarters by 25%, and redesign its facilities to have open floor plans without offices (even for the CEO) in order to foster new team interactions. Every person at headquarters had to reapply for a job, and all positions would be quite different under the new system. The transformation went live in 2015. CEO Vincent van den Boogert has been very pleased with the gains ING Netherlands has made since then in product innovation, customer satisfaction and digital talent acquisition.

The global telecom giant Vodafone has also made executive immersions part of its innovation strategy. The company is based in London, a premier talent cluster, but outgoing CEO Vittorio Colao strongly feels that Vodafone must tap into other clusters to stay on the cutting edge in communication technologies and other advanced technologies that affect firm operations. Every year the top 50 Vodafone executives take a weeklong trip to Silicon Valley together to broaden their perspectives. Many other companies organize similar visits to New York, London, Boston, Shanghai and other clusters for their executives or board members. (I myself have organized corporate immersions in Boston, and this article draws on those experiences. None of the companies mentioned in this article have been my clients, however.)

But many firms underinvest in immersions, for two reasons: Executives view the trip as a semi-vacation or, at the other extreme, can't extract themselves from e-mails about daily operations to the team back home. The CEO must emphasize immersions' high priceespecially the opportunity costs related to executive timeto all participants. Mandates from the CEO regarding prework for the trip will set the tone, and nothing keeps executives off their smartphones the way the CEO's mindful eye and visible passion do. An all-in mentality for leaders makes the immersion a success, and trips should be planned at times when that kind of dedication is realistic for the executive team.

A second risk is that participants in immersions won't dig deep enough. Visits to local companies can be informative and inspiring, but not if they don't get past preset professional tours. ING's visit to Spotify became much more effective, for instance, when people at the Swedish music company began to relate the costs and challenges of adopting agile methodology, not just the benefits.

One (rare) route to deep immersion is to park the leadership team abroad for an extended time. To obtain insights on innovative technology and services in emerging regions, Starwood Hotels has moved its entire corporate headquarters from America to China, India and the United Arab Emirates for monthlong immersions. With shorter trips, visiting companies need to organize tailored sessions with local experts (such as business leaders and university faculty members) to achieve greater learning.

Companies also must ensure that the insights gathered are acted on back home. A one-off immersion may deliver short-term change while it's top of mind for executives, but its lessons may soon get crowded out by other priorities. Tying immersions to a regular strategy or leadership-building process is a good way to capture their benefits. Immersions that have clear links to important corporate work before and after the retreat will have the strongest power, and executives should spend time on the trip itself debating and applying insights.

Vodafone offers a good example of how to leverage an immersion's insights back home. The company invites its top 250 employees to London for three-day training sessions on the advanced technologies its top 50 leaders have studied. This programwhich includes exercises like building a rudimentary chatbot for ordering coffeepushes familiarity with the technologies into the organization's second tier of leadership. To spread the insights throughout its vast organization, the company incorporates the emerging technology trends it has identified into personalized learning programs on its digital Vodafone University platform. (Vodafone also pairs leaders with young "digital ninjas" to provide ongoing upward mentoring on emerging technology trends and applications.)

A final risk is that executives will bring the wrong insights home with them. Clusters excel when the local community buys into the same priorities and perspectives, such as the deep respect given in Silicon Valley to people who launch game-changing companies. But any tightly knit place can also suffer from group think. Silicon Valley's "move fast and break things" ethos has arguably left many tech giants blind to a backlash on issues like privacy, data security and surveillance. Executives participating in immersions may be dazzled by the wrong things, when they should be listening carefully and asking questions.

Conclusion



A striking feature of today's business landscape is the growing concentration of innovation activityand the exceptional talent associated with itinto a small number of geographic clusters. As new technologies continue to disrupt industries, the fate of corporations will increasingly be determined in these hot spots. By taking one or more of the approaches I've outlined here, companies can access the intelligence in these key locations and keep up with the fast pace of change.

William R. Kerr is the Dimitri V. D'ArbeloffMBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the author of The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society (forthcoming from Stanford University Press).

This article is reprinted from Harvard Business Review with permission. 2018. All rights reserved.CITY HALL -- On Sept. 11, 2001, Huguenot resident Nathan Spencer was working at Broadway and Fulton St. as a financial systems manager at Barclays, within steps from the World Trade Center.

He was talking to a colleague early that morning when he heard what sounded like a sonic boom.

It was the sound of American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the World Trade Centers North Tower, and the start of deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

It was also the moment that changed his and thousands of others lives forever.

Just days after the attack, Spencer was sent to his companys disaster recovery site in New Jersey, before he eventually went back to his office just about 1,000 feet away from Ground Zero a month later.

Five years later, he was diagnosed with breast cancer, and three years after that, he learned he had skin cancer too.

At that time I never thought of illnesses or anything but with the towers coming down, the pollutants, the carcinogens, the pcps that were coming out of the ground ... those were poisons, those were toxins, those were things that gave me and a lot of other people the illnesses that we ended up with, Spencer said.

Though both cancers are now in remission, Spencer suffers from a host of other ailments linked to the attacks, including sleep apnea and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Spencer said the $15,000-20,000 in costs for his medication and medical equipment to treat his illnesses remain a constant struggle for him.

Without help from funds like the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund and others, he said it would be difficult for him to pay for his medication and put away money for his family in the event he suddenly dies from his illnesses.

Spencer said he has made it a personal mission of his to help others register for assistance before funding runs dry.

AT RISK OF RUNNING OUT OF FUNDING

But the $7-billion fund that has helped Spencer and tens of thousands of others financially after the attacks, recently announced funding may be insufficient to compensate all claims in the coming years.

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed a bill reauthorizing the VCF for an additional five years, which gives people only until Dec. 15, 2020 to submit claims before it expires.

The VCF said it expects about 5,500 new claims to be filed before it stops taking claims in 2020, a projection the fund said is likely an undercount of potential new claims.

Meantime, the fund has yet to see a noticeable decrease in the number of new claims filed per month.

As of Sept. 30, 2018, the VCF has received 35,625 compensation claims from 9/11 victims to date. More than 9,000 of those claims are still under review and nearly 20,000 have been awarded.

THOUSANDS OF STATEN ISLANDERS HAVE FILED CLAIMS

Since the VCF began accepting claims in 2011, some 3,194 Staten Islanders have submitted claims to the VCF and the fund has awarded 1,706 claims to Island residents, according to data the fund provided to the Advance.

The highest number of claims both submitted and awarded came from Island residents living in the 10312, 10314, and 10306 zip codes.

Attorney Michael Barasch who has represented more than 10,000 VCF claimants including 1,800 Staten Islanders, said with more and more people getting 9/11 linked cancer, victims of the attacks need federal assistance now more than ever.

Of our 5,000 [clients] with cancer over 600 of them have now died, Barasch said. Not a day goes by without one my clients dying now, not a day goes by without 10 new people calling me up to tell me they have cancer.

This year, the World Trade Center Health Program said more than 10,000 people were certified with cancer.

Of the 10,000 people Barasch represents alone, he said about half of them have one or more of the 68 cancers linked to the 9/11 attacks.

Nobody envisioned the cancer clusters that we are seeing today, nobody could have envisioned how many people are dying today, he said.

This month, U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) introduced bipartisan legislation, along with 15 other co-sponsors, that would permanently reauthorize and fund the VCF if approved.

The legislation would ensure the VCF would cover 9/11 first responders who become sick with certified 9/11 illnesses in the future.

We simply cannot turn our backs on our 9/11 heroes and let the Victim Compensation Fund expire, Gillibrand said. I urge my colleagues to do the right thing, protect our heroes and their families, and pass this bipartisan bill to permanently reauthorize the VCF now. Anything less would send a cruel message to our heroes and their families that Congress is shrugging their shoulders at their suffering. We can and must pass this vitally important bipartisan bill now.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Cops are investigating an incident where a student showed up at South Richmond High School with a reported stab wound on Thursday morning.

A suspect is in custody in connection with the incident that happened around a half hour before it was reported at 8:15 a.m. at the high school at 6581 Hylan Blvd., Pleasant Plains, according to a spokeswoman for the NYPDs Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

Very preliminary information is that a 16-year-old male suffered a minor stab wound to the chest during a fight with another student at a location away from the school grounds, the police spokeswoman said.

The victim was transported to Staten Island University Hospital in Ocean Breeze following a call at 8:17 a.m., according to spokeswomen for the police and FDNY.

South Richmond High School is located on the grounds of Mt. Loretto.STATEN ISLAND -- The Island residents living in some New York City Housing Authority complexes in the borough received windows upgrades as the city tries to better prepare NYCHA homes for winter.

Window were upgraded were at the Islands West Brighton II and Cassidy-Lafayette homes.

The city said that systemwide, NYCHA residents now have more heating staff, more mobile boilers ready for emergencies, and a better handling of residents heat complaints.

Additionally, some 87,000 residents living in NYCHA developments with chronic heating issues last year have received target improvements, which include new boilers and new third-party experts that will manage heating plants to reduce outages.

Every NYCHA resident deserves heat in the winter. Our new leadership at NYCHA have delivered major improvements that will reduce outages and get the heat back on faster, said Mayor Bill de Blasio. This plan will benefit all 400,000 New Yorkers who call NYCHA home, and is the only the beginning of more improvements to come."

Last winter, the agency came under fire after thousands of residents lost heat and water during record cold temperatures.

About half of NYCHA developments experienced one or more heat service interruptions that lasted longer than 24 hours lasting longer than 24 hours last winter.

Since that time, new leadership vowed to reduce outages and restore heating faster ahead of the winter weather this year.

Ahead of this years winter weather, the city added new heating technicians, more mobile boilers, replaced old ones, and installed new window balances to help keep the cold out of apartments.

FOLLOW SYDNEY KASHIWAGI ON TWITTER.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Oneatha Swinton, the 39-year-old former Port Richmond High School principal who was charged with insurance fraud, will go to court for a pretrial conference on Wednesday, Dec. 12, in Monroe County, Pa.

Swinton is scheduled for a pretrial conference, which is the process after arraignment and before a trial begins, at Monroe County Court of Common Pleas in Stroudsburg, Pa., at 1:30 p.m., according to court records.

She was arraigned at the court on Oct. 10.

According to an official Pennsylvania government website, a pretrial conference is an informal meeting between a judge and lawyers to narrow issues, agree on what will be presented at trial and make a final effort to settle a case without trial.

The defendant may plead guilty, or plead not guilty, and if so, ask for a jury or non-jury trial. The defendant and prosecution can also work out an agreement, or a plea bargain.

CHARGES

Swinton is facing four counts of insurance fraud, a third-degree felony; theft by deception and criminal conspiracy.

In May 2014, authorities said Swinton used the address of Tanya John, 44, a former employee of the city Department of Education (DOE), to get her Pennsylvania driver's license. The Staten Island resident then allegedly registered her two Lexus vehicles in Pennsylvania to cash in on the insurance discount.

Swinton filed two claims after obtaining this policy, and both incidents occurred in New York City, officials said.

In December 2017, the controversial administrator found out about the Pennsylvania investigation and got a New York drivers license that listed her Staten Island address, according to a release from the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office.

Swinton and John had a preliminary arraignment in June in Monroe County Court and were released on $5,000 bail.

DISCONTENT AT SCHOOL

Parents and students expressed their discontent over changes at the school under the guidance of Swinton since the beginning of the 2017-2018 school year, including concerns that the honors programs had been eliminated.

While the DOE told the Advance that the programs werent eliminated, parents sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop the city from appointing Swinton as principal in May.

After being removed from Port Richmond High School in June, Swinton was reassigned to a DOE central office, said Doug Cohen, a DOE spokesman.

Former Assistant Principal Andrew Greenfield is currently serving as the schools interim-acting principal.

Greenfield began as a teacher in 1994 and has been an assistant principal at the school since 2001.To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.

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A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution Sarah McNaughton is in discussions with the government and other parties in expectation of referrals for prosecution from the banking royal commission.

In an appearance at a Parliamentary committee hearing on Thursday, the CDDP also confirmed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had not raised any matter relating to the bank's alleged breaches of their breach reporting requirements under 912(D) of the Corporations Act which is a criminal offence during its national level discussions with the prosecutorial body.

No bank has ever been prosecuted under this section of the act despite tardy breach reporting being an ongoing issue for the big four banks.

The issue of CDPP and ASIC funding is a red hot topic after the first six rounds of hearings at the royal commission uncovered a litany of misconduct in the financial services sector, including alleged criminal conduct.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has already flagged its intention to hand a brief of evidence to the CDPP on AMP's alleged misleading of ASIC as revealed at the royal commission.For the first time Australians will be able to easily see whether their hard-earned money - through a superannuation fund, health fund or fund manager - is flowing to tobacco companies.

Not-for-profit organisation Tobacco Free Portfolios, with the support of Princess Dina Mired of Jordan, on Thursday launched the world's first "Verified Tobacco-Free" certification stamp, which will be rolled out in Australia next year.

Bronwyn King was concerned that her superannuation could be invested in tobacco companies. Credit:Arsineh Houspian

The stamp will indicate whether a financial institution is investing money in tobacco, the single largest preventable cause of early death.

"I am a mother of a cancer survivor, so cancer is very personal to me," Princess Mired told a crowd of superannuation fund CEOs and fund managers in Sydney.School banking programs in primary schools will go under the microscope in a review by the corporate watchdog.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Thursday announced it would conduct a review of school banking under its remit as the lead government agency for financial capability.

ASIC deputy chairman Peter Kell said transparency around school banking programs "is important".

"ASIC wants to understand the motivations and behaviours around school banking programs to ensure they ultimately serve the interests of young Australians, and to enable school communities to have an understanding of the potential impact of these programs," he said.A non-compete clause between the brothers kept Mukesh out of that arena until the agreement was scrapped in 2010. Mukesh quickly returned, pumping in more than 2.5 trillion rupees ($US34 billion) over the next seven years to build a speedier 4G wireless network for his Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. "It was a very, very big bet," said James Crabtree, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore and author of the book "The Billionaire Raj," which examined wealth inequality in India. Jio also gave Mukesh the chance to forge his own legacy beyond the shadow of the businesses he had inherited, he said. "Jio in that sense was an all-in bet." Mukesh's fortune has ballooned on the back of his Reliance Jio phone network. Credit:Bloomberg It took a long time to pay off. Reliance's shares lagged S&P BSE Sensex index for most of the past decade as investors watched Mukesh pour money into his telecom network with little sign of a return at first. Price war

When it came in 2016, the impact was dramatic. By July this year, less than two years after starting the service, Jio had signed up 227 million users and was making a profit. Rivals were bleeding as Mukesh's upstart embarked on a devastating price war, offering monthly plans for as little as $US2. "Reliance's strategy to diversify beyond the energy sector was the biggest game changer," said Sanjiv Bhasin, executive vice president at India Infoline Ltd. "Mukesh Ambani had the 10-year vision to foresee that data will be the next gold and he invested heavily." Loading What financed that investment was Dhirubhai's old oil and petrochemicals business, which, expanded by Mukesh, still accounts for 90 per cent of Reliance's profit. Cash flow from the business, together with a blue-chip rating gave Reliance Industries access to a large pool of cheap capital. "Mukesh Ambani has very adroitly used this competitive advantage," said Saurabh Mukherjea, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers. Meanwhile, Anil has been selling assets to quell investor concerns around the indebtedness of some of his companies that contributed to declines in his shares.

Like his brother, Anil invested billions to expand his portfolio, but the younger brother didn't have a cash cow like the oil refinery to finance growth. Instead, like other businesses in India and elsewhere, many of his companies increased debt. The borrowing spree by local companies caused India's banks to amass one of the world's worst bad-loan ratios and when the central bank started cracking down on the resulting $US210 billion mountain of stressed debt, highly leveraged companies came under pressure. "The only options any indebted company has is to sell assets, seek refinancing or get new investors," said Crabtree in Singapore. Of Anil's businesses, shares of Reliance Naval & Engineering Ltd. saw the worst decline this year, losing 75 per cent. Bought in 2015 as part of his bet on defense as the next engine of growth, the warship and submarine maker has proven hard to turn around. Its loan accounts have been "irregular or substandard" since 2014, the company said in March. The defense contractor is in arbitration with ex-owners over the latter's alleged breach of some warranties. Auditors in April cautioned against the firm's ability to survive and two creditors have an ongoing lawsuit to send Reliance Naval into insolvency. In a stock exchange filing in April that sought to allay the auditor's concerns, the company said it is engaged with its lenders and is confident on reaching a solution "to resolve the financial position of the company and to continue as a going concern."

Other group units have also faced difficulties. Another of Anil's defense firms has come under scrutiny over the 2016 negotiations between France and India for $US8.7 billion of French warplanes. In an August 20 statement, Anil and his company denied allegations from opposition lawmakers that the deal unfairly benefited his company, saying the lawmakers had been "misinformed, misdirected and misled by malicious vested interests and corporate rivals." Loading Missed payment Anil's Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., which built Mumbai's first metro line, missed a bond payment in August as it waited for proceeds from the sale of power transmission assets to fellow billionaire Gautam Adani's unit to cover the amount. It plans to be debt-free by next year, Anil said at a briefing in August.

Electricity generator Reliance Power Ltd., also part of Anil's group, has failed to stem a decade of overall decline in its shares since its record IPO in 2008, just as the global financial crisis hit. The group's profitable financial services firm Reliance Capital Ltd. has also seen its shares decline this year, despite staying away from bad news. But the biggest challenge for Anil's empire came from his brother's business. Reliance Communications Ltd., once the flagship of Anil's portfolio, was battered by the price war Jio started. Last month, Rcom sold its 178,000 kilometre fibre-optic network for 30 billion rupees as part of a disposal that will see it divest of almost all of its wireless assets and exit from the mobile phone business. The buyer was Mukesh's Jio.

RCom "was the crown jewel given away to Anil Ambani after the family businesses split," said Bhasin. "Then the debt and interest burden spiraled." In May, a creditor persuaded a court to begin insolvency proceedings for RCom before agreeing to an out-of-court settlement. Loading Bloomberg News is currently defending litigation brought by Anil Ambani and Reliance Communications in connection with previous Bloomberg reporting. The sale of RCom assets to Jio brings the saga of the two brothers full circle and sets the stage for the next chapter in the story of one of India's great business dynasties.

Anil is gradually unwinding RCom's debts and refocusing the firm toward real estate. This month he told investors that a property development in Navi Mumbai, a planned city across the bay from India's financial capital, will create 250 billion rupees in value for investors. A big gamble "It may be a late coming but at least he is not running away," said Bhasin, who remains bullish on the group's infrastructure, finance and power businesses. Mukesh is gearing up for an even bigger gamble. In July he announced plans for an e-commerce foray that would marry the group's telecom and retail business to take on global rivals Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. While the news helped boost shares of Mukesh's Reliance Industries since the announcement, some investors are sounding a note of caution about another ambitious expansion. Reliance Industries' total debt has risen in the past five years and non-core investments have shown muted returns on capital.Sydney is to get another shiny new tower with new plans lodged by the City Tattersalls Club, one of the oldest operating in the country, for a $270 million, 49-storey mixed-use development atop its Pitt Street premises.

An artist's impression of how the new tower would look.

It comes after a series of issues with financing and developers and some concerns about heritage designs by the City of Sydney council halted proceedings, but it is now back on track.

Following the false starts, the Club's members voted in the new chief executive Marcelo Veloz, who has worked with architects to prepare an indicative design scheme to illustrate the potential to create a complete re-development of the 123-year-old club.

The plans including the construction of a four-star boutique hotel with about 100 rooms and a residential tower comprising 246 apartments.South32 says its first-quarter coking coal output has more than tripled from the same year-ago period, helped by robust production at its Appin and Dendrobium collieries.

Production of coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, at the mines in Illawarra rose to 1.5 million tonnes in the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year from 494,000 tonnes a year earlier.

Production of coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, at the mines in Illawarra rose to 1.5 million tonnes in the first quarter. Credit:Andy Zakeli

That handily beat a UBS estimate of 1.2 million tonnes.

South32 had suspended operations at its Appin coal mine on the order of a government regulator last June due to concerns over high gas levels in the mine."Meditation is more mainstream now than it used to be and corporates are more open to implementing it," McLeod says.

One of McLeods clients is AMEX. There, meditation is just one of 18 health and wellbeing initiatives the company has offered its employees since the start of 2018. The offerings have proved so popular that 1700 employees have attended at least one session during the year.

But classes arent the only way corporates are helping their staff reset. At Mkt. Communications in Melbourne the companys wellbeing program includes a two-day meditation course for each of the 20 staff, after which they are encouraged to find 20 minutes each workday to meditate on their own. To make finding a serene location easy theres the purpose-designed "Quiet Room", complete with a comfy couch and headphones. For design director Maddie Steendam its been a big plus.

"Since learning and starting meditation it has completely changed my outlook on situations. I am more alert, calm and look at the world in a more focused light," she says.

The ability to make meditation both accessible and devoid of anything resembling "whoo whoo" is also key to McLeods mission to encourage more workplaces to give meditation a go.

"A lot of people think you have to sit on the floor cross legged like a pretzel with your index fingers touching. For me thats not the case at all, everyone just sits where they are comfortable: I try to remove those barriers," he says.In the shadow of #MeToo, actress Kristen Bell has expressed concern about Snow White and the prince who kissed her without consent.

Bell, who provided the voice of Princess Anna in Disney's animated film Frozen, told Parents magazine that when she reads Snow White to her two young daughters, she poses a question: "Don't you think that it's weird that the prince kisses Snow White without her permission? Because you cannot kiss someone if they're sleeping!"

Kristen Bell was the voice of Princess Anna in Disney's animated film Frozen.

She told the magazine she also warns her daughters, aged 3 and 5, not to take apples  or anything else  from strangers.

"Every time we close Snow White I look at my girls and ask: 'Don't you think it's weird that Snow White didn't ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got the apple?'" Bell told Parents.In early 2017, the Drones Gareth Liddiard was sitting opposite Beasts of Bourbon bass player Brian Hooper at a kitchen table of Andrew McGees residence-cum-recording studio in Nagambie, having accepted Hoopers invitation to put some guitar down on his new solo record.

With only a bottle of wine and Hoopers tongue-in-cheek exhortation to do your worst as guidance, Liddiard rode the rollercoaster of Hoopers cathartic creative process. Brian was kind of being a cheerleader for me ... trying to find a back door into every abnormal trope there is, cheering me on saying Thats it! Whenever I did it the wrong way, that was the right way, Liddiard recalls with a laugh.

Brian Hooper's solo album What Would I Know? is being launched next month.

Twelve months after the recording session, Hooper died from aggressive lung cancer, a week after playing his last gig, an emotionally-charged Beasts of Bourbon set at his own benefit show at the Prince of Wales in St Kilda.

Like Hooper, Liddiard was born and raised in Perth where he met Hooper during his tenure in Kim Salmon and the Surrealists. By the time Liddiard moved to Melbourne with the Drones in the early 2000s, Hooper was a central figure in the so-called Melbourne Music Mafia, playing on records by Spencer P. Jones, Rowland Howard and Charlie Marshalls Body Electric.Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has made a series of flawless fashion choices so far on her tour of Australia with Prince Harry. But she possibly missed an opportunity to wear a Melbourne brand on the couple's short visit there on Thursday.

Stunning ... and very Sydney ... Meghan in Dion Lee at Government House in Melbourne on Thursday. Credit:PA

Hopes had been high among the industry in Melbourne, often dubbed the "fashion capital" of Australia, that Meghan would reward the city by dressing in a local brand.

Instead, when she boarded the plane in Sydney on Thursday, she was spotted carrying a Gucci bag and a trench by Martin Grant, who, in fairness, originally hails from Melbourne's eastern suburbs and is now based in Paris.

The trench has been one of only two "repeat wear" items on the trip, the other being her Rothy's flats that have come in handy for ferry rides and beach walks.Its the clip I always come back to when the world gets too grim  four baby pandas gleefully hurling themselves face-first down a slide in a Chinese conservation centre.

Ninety seconds of pure joy that never fails to cheer me up.

My gratitude journal helps me see the light even on the darkest of days. Credit:Stocksy

In an age where were bombarded with bad news, sometimes its the simplest pleasures that help keep us afloat.

An insatiable 24-7 news cycle and social medias immediacy can paint a bleak picture of the world that leaves us feeling as if were perpetually teetering on the brink of the apocalypse.A vigilante group that allegedly financed and assisted women in Australia to abduct their own children and keep them hidden in violation of family law court orders has been struck down by authorities.

Police allege that for the past decade the group, headed by a doctor from Grafton, has operated a sophisticated syndicate of "like-minded people", who used clandestine methods to abduct and move children around the country; including dyeing their hair, changing their names and altering their dates of birth.

The network was targeted by the Australian Federal Police in raids around the country on Wednesday. Police have also identified a yacht, purchased and re-fitted for $140,000, used to transport abducted children from its mooring in Fremantle, to Tasmania and then on to New Zealand or South Africa.

Dr William Russell Massingham Pridgeon, a Grafton GP and the founder of the Australian Anti-Paedophile Party, which ran senate candidates in the 2016 federal election, was one of four people arrested and charged on Wednesday morning.After a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison at Kirribilli House, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's official schedule for day four of their Australian tour has come to an end.

Tomorrow marks perhaps the most significant day of their tour, with the pair attending the first event of Prince Harry's Invictus Games - the Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge - on Cockatoo Island at 9.30am.

Later, Harry and Meghan will attend a reception at Bennelong Restaraunt at the Opera House. The structure's forecourt will serve as the site of the Invictus Games' opening ceremony at 7.30pm.

The couple will spend several hours watching the festivities, with the forecourt expected to be packed to the brim with participants from 18 competing nations.

Royal watchers are expected to flock to the harbour to observe the event from a distance, which will also be broadcast on ABC 1.A bogus shrink has been caught using forged documents in his failed attempt to be re-registered as a psychologist.

Vito Zepinic, 65 has been branded unethical and dishonest and has had a string of convictions for passing himself off as a doctor, but he recently told a NSW Tribunal that his convictions were fraudulently recorded and he should be allowed to practise as a psychologist.

Vito Zepinic pictured outside his Turramurra home in 2008 before he left for London. Credit:Kate Geraghty

The former security chief for the Butcher of Bosnia, convicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, Zepinic has been convicted in Australia and the UK for falsely claiming to be a psychiatrist. He has been found to have lied under oath, falsified documents, forged signatures and been declared a vexatious litigant over years of failed legal battles in a renovation dispute.

In his latest stoush with the Health Care Complaints Commission, in which he was demanding compensation of $1.5 million and the reinstatement of his psychologists registration, Zepinic was caught using a forged document he claimed was a reference from a medical practitioner.A doctor has been charged after he allegedly drugged and indecently assaulted a woman at his medical practice in western Sydney.

Officers from Leichhardt police started investigating after a 20-year-old woman attended Glebe police station on Friday, August 31 and spoke with detectives.

It will be alleged in court the woman was indecently assaulted after she was drugged without her knowledge or consent while under the care of the 48-year-old man.

On October 18, a search warrant was executed at his medical practice in Auburn and at his home in Rydalmere, where police seized a number of items. The man was arrested and taken to Granville police station.

As a result of the ongoing investigation, three other victims were identified.A bus strike that would have stranded tens of thousands of commuters on Friday has been averted by the Andrews government, which has staked taxpayers money to avoid a politically bruising transport crisis with the state election weeks away.

About 1000 drivers at the state's largest bus operator, Ventura Bus Lines, were preparing to walk off the job for 24 hours in a fight for better pay.

Ventura runs 40 per cent of the bus network, including SmartBus routes, as well as services to schools, universities and medical centres. It has over 900 buses.

The Age understands the strike was stopped after a meeting between Public Transport Victoria, Ventura and the Transport Workers Union on Wednesday, in which the government is understood to have made an offer that met the union's demands of a 15 per cent wage increase over three years.The first sign that something was awry with Joshie Devine was moments after his birth, when the midwife counted his fingers and his toes and came up one short.

He was missing a thumb.

How is he going to play football? his mother stressed. But in the end, the absent digit was the least of the little boys troubles.

Joshie Devine with his mother Catherine. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

Joshie, now four years old, is one of the many Australians who live with an unknown disease  one that perhaps has not even been discovered yet.



The 12th summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) is taking place on October 18-19 in Brussels, Belgium, bringing together representatives of 53 European and Asian countries and representatives of partner organizations like the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).



The theme this time is "Europe and Asia: global partners for global challenges." There will be discussions on trade and investment, connectivity, sustainable development and climate, and security issues like terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation and cyber-security, along with unplanned and irregular migrations.

Chaired by European Council President Donald Tusk, the event has attracted such world leaders as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

China is an important member of ASEM, and Premier Li has already arrived in Belgium to attend the summit. According to Chinese media, Li will exchange views with Asian and European leaders on jointly safeguarding multilateralism, building an open world economy as well as facilitating connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.

"Li will also propose China's initiatives on Asia-Europe cooperation and share views on international and regional hotspot issues," Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Hanhui told an advance press briefing.

Details issued by the organizers show inclusive growth and connectivity will be highlighted as the leaders seek to strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the two continents.

Indirectly, the theme of the planned discussions is a rebuke to Donald Trump, who has been trying to wreck the global consensus in favor of free trade and globalization. The first draft statement of the summit shows that the participants support the rule-based international system."

ASEM provides a platform for bringing together not just top political leaders but also experts and people from many different backgrounds, heavily involved in side events before and during the summit.

For example, the European Parliament hosted an ASEM parliamentary meeting on September 28-29 to discuss issues such as the economy, security, and the impact of climate change on migration.

The ASEF young leaders' summit being held on October 15-19 is focusing on the topic of development of ethical leadership.

The think tank Bruegel is hosting the Asia Europe economic forum on October 17-18 to focus on monetary and housing policy, global climate change, international trade and Asia-Europe connectivity.

Business Europe is organizing the ASEM business forum on October 18, bringing together business leaders to discuss how to strengthen trade and investment relations.

The organizers have also announced to host an ASEM cultural festival in Brussels on October 18-30 to highlight the creativity and cultural diversity of Asia and Europe through dance, digital art, film, music, theatre and visual arts.

The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) was established in 1996 and it has come a long way as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Europe and Asia.

Its 53 partners together represent 55 percent of global trade, 60 percent of world population, 65 percent of global GDP and 75 percent of global tourism.

The ASEM summit is organized every two years, alternately in Asia and Europe. The previous summit was held in Mongolia in 2016. The aim is to set out the priorities of the partnership. Apart from the summit, ASEM Day is celebrated on March 1 every year to promote connectivity and partnership between Asia and Europe.

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.Time to wrap up the blog for another week. Thanks everyone for following along and sending updates.

Have a lovely, sunny weekend and we'll see you on Monday.Ellie has written an account of her alleged rape at a University of Melbourne residential college. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui

A University of Melbourne residential college has taken the unprecedented step of publishing a students account of being raped within its grounds.

Its believed to be the first time the 137-year-old Ormond College  which was the scene of the 1992 sexual harassment scandal documented in Melbourne writer Helen Garners The First Stone  has published a first-hand account of sexual assault.

The piece was included in an annual publication of student work and written by 20-year-old University of Melbourne student and Ormond resident Ellie, who does not want her last name published.

He was someone I trusted, someone I was friendly enough with, Ellie wrote in her essay in the Ormond Papers.Police have charged a man with indecently assaulting a girl he was tutoring last month.

It is alleged in September 2018, the man indecently assaulted a young girl he was tutoring. Credit:File Image

Child abuse squad detectives have charged the man following their investigation into his tutoring of students in mathematics in the southern suburbs.

Police will allege in September this year the man indecently assaulted a young girl he was tutoring.

The 53-year-old man from Willetton has been charged with indecent dealing with a child.Government contractor Thales applied to the attorney-general to have information removed from an auditor-general's report that was critical of a $1 billion deal it had with the Defence department.

Last month Auditor-General Grant Hehir published his analysis of Defence's procurement of Hawkei light protected vehicles, with sections of the report redacted due to a certificate issued by Attorney-General Christian Porter.

An Australian army Hawkei protected mobility vehicle. Credit:Department of Defence

The sections were redacted under a clause in the Auditor-General Act which could block publication of information that would prejudice security, defence or international relations, or would "unfairly prejudice the commercial interests of any body or person".

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the issuing of the certificate, the Attorney-General's department revealed the contractor made the request to redact parts of the report on January 5 this year, claiming that the company's commercial interests would be unfairly impacted.Outspoken Liberal MP Julia Banks has sent a powerful signal to voters that she may run as an independent candidate at the next federal election, keeping the option alive after she called out the bullying and intimidation in Parliament.

Ms Banks has sent a written message to voters that she will not be contesting the next election as a member of the Liberal Party but has been silent on her further plans in the wake of the August leadership spill.

Asked about her email to voters, Ms Banks issued a short statement to Fairfax Media saying: My focus is on my constituents and always has been, and I always keep my options open.

Liberal MP Julia Banks in Question Time this week. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The message throws another wild card into the next election, due by May next year, as the Liberals prepare to choose a candidate next week to replace Ms Banks in the eastern Melbourne seat of Chisholm."He deserves the support of his fellow officers and they need to pull together now to save the ship, not argue over who is going to be the captain." Mr Joyce has denied canvassing votes but his Queensland-based backers have been counting the numbers. MPs agitating for change have discussed forming a delegation to ask Mr McCormack to resign, fearing a wipeout in Queensland at next year's federal election. Some of Mr McCormack's own supporters believe the Deputy Prime Minister could command just eight votes out of the 22-member party room if a spill is called when Parliament resumes next week. Another option being canvassed is a move in late November or early December. "The fact is I have the majority support in the National Party," Mr McCormack said. "Not one National Party member has come to me and said they're dissatisfied with anything."

Mr Fischer told Fairfax Media that Mr McCormack deserved more time to stamp his authority on the party and build his profile. Michael McCormack has covered more ground than I ever did in the seven months he has been leader and Deputy Prime Minister," Mr Fischer said. "I think everyone should go back to their electorates, lie down and have a Bex." A switch back to Mr Joyce would guarantee his return to cabinet and trigger a wider frontbench reshuffle just two months after Prime Minister Scott Morrison's new-look ministry was sworn in at Government House in Canberra.

Nationals senator John Williams said he had not been approached by any camp but acknowledged "someone" is leaking against the Nationals leader and likened the situation to pouring petrol on a fire. "It grows and grows," he said. The senator said he was "surprised" Nationals MP Michelle Landry had publicly predicted Mr Joyce would eventually return to the leadership. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce in Question Time on Thursday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I think Michael needs time and he will get time, I have no doubt about that," Senator Williams said.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud  who is widely viewed inside the government as a future Nationals leader  has ruled himself out of running in any spill. Mr Fischer said a Nationals leader needed to be a unifying figure in all parts of the country, not just Queensland. I am backing Michael. I think he is off to a flying start. He needs to continue to step up in that role. And in so many ways it's important to bridge the very real Brisbane line," Mr Fischer said. There is a gap in what flies north of the Brisbane line versus what happens south of the Brisbane line.

Until you learn how to come up with the right set of words that cuts through both sides of the Brisbane line, you will be done over, on nothing more so than the issue of multiculturalism." Nationals deputy leader Bridget McKenzie said Nationals MPs had a tradition of waiting patiently for leaders to retire before they rose to the leadership. Mr Anderson said Mr Joyce needed to recognise "what is required" if the Coalition was to have "any chance" at the next election. Loading "The enemy at the moment is an alternate government that will take this country back to the utterly failed policies of the 1950s and the 1960s," Mr Anderson said.Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer says the government "has not given up" on its union-busting Ensuring Integrity Bill, calling on Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to support the legislation after the Federal Court fined the CFMEU and its officials more than $300,000.

"Bill Shorten needs to be a bit more like Bob Hawke, he needs to call out rogue unions, he needs to support this bill," Ms O'Dwyer said.

The comments came after the Federal Court imposed $313,000 worth of fines on the CFMEU and its officials on Thursday, bringing the union's tally of penalties for the financial year to date to more than $1 million.

Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O'Dwyer says the government remains committed to the Ensuring Integrity Bill. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Ms O'Dwyer said the court decision was "further evidence that this very militant mega-union has a very ruthless disregard for the law".The Morrison government is flagging a change to skilled migration to maximise the gains for employers and the economy, as it claims a long-term boost worth $9.7 billion from the arrival of new migrants every year.

Immigration Minister David Coleman will make the case for strong migration in a major speech on Friday that signals the governments reform plan while defending the annual intake against critics who want radical cuts.

The policy speech puts Australians on notice to expect extensive changes to the regional migration program as well as a preference for skilled workers who are sponsored by employers rather than those who seek to arrive on their own.

"Direct and substantial economic benefits": Immigration Minister David Coleman. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Mr Coleman will also caution against demands for cuts to more than 500,000 overseas students now studying in Australia, noting the education sector now earns four times as much export revenue as beef.The Morrison government suspects a state Labor government may have leaked a secret ASIO briefing that warned the Prime Minister's mooted shift on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel could provoke unrest and violence in Palestinian territories.

The leak to Guardian Australia of the memo stating that any announcement of a possible relocation of Australias embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem may provoke protest, unrest and possibly some violence in Gaza and the West Bank is now being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

The political temperature continued to rise on Thursday over the issues of Israel and Iran, with federal Labor accusing the government of chaos that was damaging Australia abroad, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelling recent behaviour by elements of the NSW Labor Party anti-Semitic.

ASIO director-general Duncan Lewis. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The ASIO note added that Australias changes to policy on Israel and Iran could attract protest directly against Australian interests overseas or even within Australia though in the latter case "we have no information to indicate such protest would be violent".Senior NSW Liberals said it would take a "miracle" to win the Wentworth byelection, labelling a damaging email smearing independent Dr Kerryn Phelps "the final nail" in the campaign.

Sources close to the campaign said the email which claimed Dr Phelps had HIV and was pulling out of the race was "hugely damaging", and had cruelled their chances of holding the seat.

Liberal candidate Dave Sharma called the email "vile" and supported Dr Phelps' demands for it origin to be investigated by the Australian Electoral Commission.

But party sources said the email, alongisde the leak of the Ruddock report into religious freedom, would have the desired effect of causing "maximum damage" and portraying the Liberals as "homophobes".

In a last ditch appeal to disillusioned Liberal voters, former Prime Minister John Howard on the hustings in eastern Sydney's Double Bay on Thursday, in a bid to drive home the message that a strong protest vote would have dire consequences for the federal government. Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Anton Vaino, head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, in Beijing Wednesday.





Xi asked Vaino to convey his greetings and warm wishes to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he and President Putin had maintained close contacts, which played a guiding role in the in-depth development of China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.





Sino-Russian relations are at their best period in history. Under the current world situation, China and Russia should cherish the bilateral mature and solid partnership and unswervingly deepen cooperation in various fields, said Xi.





Xi called on the two sides to promptly implement the consensus reached between the two presidents, deepen the cooperation in such areas as energy and innovation, accelerate the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, and intensify communication and coordination in international affairs.





The two sides should design and plan high-level bilateral exchanges in the next stage and push China-Russia relations in the new era to a new level, said Xi.





Xi said the cooperation mechanism between the General Office of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation serves as a special channel in bilateral exchanges. The mechanism is very important and also reflects the particularity and importance of Sino-Russian relations.





Expressing support to maintain that mechanism, Xi called on the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation to implement the cooperation consensus reached by the two leaders, so as to better serve the overall development of bilateral relations.





Vaino conveyed President Putin's greetings and best wishes to President Xi, saying that Putin spoke highly of the in-depth talks with Xi during the Fourth Eastern Economic Forum in Russia's Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok in September and looked forward to meeting with Xi again.





He said the strategic cooperation with China is a priority for Russia's foreign relations, as bilateral ties are at their best level in history and their cooperation could be considered as a model in the international relations.





The Russian side was glad to see the two leaders maintain frequent exchanges and the governmental departments of the two countries have active cooperation, said Vaino, adding that the traditional friendship between the two peoples also provided a fundamental guarantee for the development of bilateral ties.





Vaino said the cooperation mechanism between the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation and the General Office of the CPC Central Committee is an indispensable part of Russia-China cooperation.





He said the Russian side will further strengthen cooperation between the two offices, earnestly implement the consensus of the two leaders, and make new contributions to the development of Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.As you may be aware, the nation is currently overrun with creatures we might call the undead.

They have particularly disquieting powers, having previously risen to the heights of leadership.

To achieve such stature, of course, they became expert in all the dark arts: the thrust of the dagger upwards, the slash of the boot down, the soothing use of flattery before the skewering.

It now appears they also took courses in the practice of maleficium, which, as a fellow long-serving public servant of the surviving kind, you would understand is the Latin word for the most malevolent form of witchcraft.

Barnaby Joyce. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Cast out of their roles as leaders, it is apparent they each have used these taxpayer-funded lessons to fearful effect.NSW Labor leader Luke Foley has been accused of harassing an ABC journalist at a function, with the allegation levelled against him by a government minister in NSW Parliament.

Corrections Minister David Elliott used parliamentary privilege to accuse Mr Foley of being a "double drink driver" and "who had a little bit too much to drink at a party and harassed an ABC journalist".

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Mr Foley rejected the harassment allegation as "untrue".

Mr Elliott made the comment on Thursday afternoon while responding to a motion about the Invictus Games, which begins in Sydney this weekend.Steven Miles, Labor, Murrumba (voted 'yes') "To say that 'I am against abortion' is to say that I believe in forcing a woman to stay pregnant. It is to say that you do not think a woman's body and life belong to her. It is to say that you know better than she does. Now, I know that as a man I cannot speak for a woman. I do not know better than they do what is right for them. I can say that I believe her though. I can say that I believe women. I believe any woman who says that she cannot afford children or cannot manage any more children than she already has or who does not want to have a child with her violent partner." Loading Mark McArdle, LNP, Caloundra (voted 'no') "Emails were sent to my office, some saying that they would no longer be my friend if I voted in a certain manner. I say to all people that I will vote on this bill in relation to my conscience. I will not accept the gratuitous advice of those who seem to have the opinion that I should vote in a certain set manner. I accept that this is an emotional bill. However, I put on the record that some parties on both sides of the debate need to reflect on their behaviour and tactics. They should be mature enough to conduct themselves otherwise and in some regards their actions and tactics were quite repulsive."

Brittany Lauga, Keppel, Labor (voted 'yes') "One woman, in particular, told me about how she had to make the heartbreaking decision to terminate a wanted pregnancy because the fetus was diagnosed with a significant heart deformity at the morphology scan at 20 weeks. No doctors in Queensland would perform a termination, even though the fetus would not survive after birth, so she was required to travel to Canberra at significant expense to have a termination at 22 weeks." Dale Last, Burdekin, LNP (voted 'no') "I shudder to think that a woman and perhaps her partner would consider terminating a life because it is the wrong sex, their relationship has dissolved, it is no longer convenient to have a baby or the mother has lost her job. To me, that is nothing short of murder." Leeanne Enoch, Algester, Labor (voted 'yes')

"When I was very young - maybe around six or seven - I was so accustomed to family and friends staying with us that it did not phase me when someone new arrived at the house ... I had never seen this woman before and I have never seen her since ... I remember, however, that she had a terrible sadness about her. She cried a lot and even though she had all of us she seemed quite alone ... It is a story that formed my pro-choice position. She was staying at our house and travelling the next day to New South Wales to terminate a pregnancy because it was illegal in Queensland." John-Paul Langbroek, Surfers Paradise, LNP (voted 'no') Loading "My personal view is that abortion is a private matter that should be discussed and decided by the woman, her family and her doctor. For absolute clarity, I believe it should not be included in the Criminal Code ... I have concerns about other provision in the bill ... The issue of choice is complex and delicate enough without conflating it with another very complex issue: free speech." Tim Nicholls, LNP, Clayfield (voted 'yes')

"I do not support abortion. I do support women and their right to control their own reproductive health." Jon Krause, LNP, Scenic Rim (voted 'no') "How far away from potential hotspots of disagreements will parliaments in Australia be permitted to banish protesters? We start with 150 metres, but then with some conflict on the fringe there will be calls for larger, bigger exclusion zones - 500 metres, one kilometre. Where does it end?" Steve Minnikin, LNP, Chatsworth (voted 'yes') "Even after a person dies, unless they had clearly given their written consent to being an organ donor before they died, doctors cannot harvest their organs, even if it means another person will die without a transplant. If we as a society start saying that a fetus has the right to life that overrides the pregnant woman's right to give or deny consent and by law forces women to continue pregnancies against their will and without their consent, then effectively we would be giving a fetus more rights than an actual person ... we would be giving pregnant women less rights than a corpse."

Nick Dametto, Katter's Australian Party, Hinchinbrook (voted 'no') "Seventeen years ago, I was in high school completing grade 12, and my now-wife and I were faced with the dilemma of a teenage pregnancy ... It would have been easier to abort. No one would ever have known ... But when I was faced with the stone cold facts that we would be facilitating the killing of our unborn son or daughter, that is something that I knew I would not be able to live with on my conscience for the rest of my life." Jackie Trad, Labor, South Brisbane (voted 'yes') "I fundamentally believe that if men were capable of bearing children we would never be having this conversation. The right of women to control their own reproduction, their own bodies is such an important part of equality in our society." Ann Leahy, LNP, Warrego (voted 'no')The police investigation into Victorian Labors 'red shirts' affair should be finished before the November 24 state election, according to Commissioner Graham Ashton.

Mr Ashton told morning radio on Thursday that a decision on criminal charges on the matter would be announced as soon as fraud squad investigators wrapped up their inquiries.

Labor is still troubled by the the red shirts affair. Credit:Scott Barbour

The police chief also told radio 3AW that Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, as the complainant in the case, would be advised of the outcome of the investigations.

Police are investigating the scheme which saw about $388,000 siphoned from Labor MPs' Parliamentary budgets and into their campaigns for the 2014 state election.A couple of years ago I wrote about Nura headphones, then at prototype stage. They were the idea of a little Melbourne start up that was seeking $100,000 in crowd funding and, at the time I was writing, had overshot that by $1.6 million. Obviously lots of people liked the idea of headphones that give you a hearing test and then adjust their sound to the strengths and weaknesses of your hearing.

I promised Id get back to you when I got a production pair to try. This took a lot longer than I thought. There were two false starts but third time lucky, I finally scored a cordless pair with Bluetooth AptX HD and noise cancelling for evaluation. Many readers have seen Nuras on social media and asked about them, so Ill say right away that good conventional headphones beat them on comfort and sound quality.

Nuraphones measure and store a map of how your ear reacts to sound.

Theyre very different to conventional headphones. Despite being over-ear models they have buds moulded into the earcups that plug into your ear canals. These measure each ears response during the hearing test. They feel strange and although you get used to them the strangeness doesnt go away. If you find buds uncomfortable you wont like these, if not theyre okay for extended listening sessions but not great, I started feeling fatigue after two hours. Id want longer when flying.

Download an app for the hearing test and it sets your profile. A word of warning: Load the app onto your primary music source. I put it on my iPad while I mostly listen to a hi-res music portable. This worked fine until I opened a different app on the iPad and the music disappeared.Beijing: Australia has been called on by Canada to help "save the WTO", with the Morrison government preparing to attend a meeting next week that deliberately excludes trade war combatants the United States and China.

In a sign of the political sensitivity of moves to reform the World Trade Organisation, which Donald Trump has threatened to quit, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham is exected to represent Australia at the Ottawa Ministerial on WTO Reform on October 25.

A discussion paper circulated ahead of the Ottawa meeting implicitly criticises the US for blocking the appointment of new judges to the WTO, which "threatens to bring the whole dispute settlement system to a halt". By December, there will only be one judge left.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Canada is pushing to strengthen dispute resolution and modernise the WTO, and has invited Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland and the European Union, among others, to the meeting, which has been dubbed the "save the WTO summit".Pompeo's trip to the kingdom was supposed to forge the beginnings of a diplomatic resolution. But current and former officials conceded that diplomatically the visit had been a disaster. Pompeo's private meeting on Tuesday with Salman, attended by a small number of aides on both sides, was highly scripted, and he made no dramatic threats or ultimatums, said one former senior administration official who was briefed on the gathering. Pompeo asked for an accounting of what happened and the prince, denying any involvement in Khashoggi's disappearance, said an investigation was underway, the official said. In the end, the official said, Pompeo's plea to the Saudis was to complete the investigation quickly and transparently. At the State Department's headquarters in Washington, some diplomats were dismissive when asked about Pompeo's mission to Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

But a person familiar with the meeting said that privately, Pompeo sternly told the prince that even if he did not know that Khashoggi had been killed, he would have to take responsibility to help the kingdom avoid the consequences of an international backlash. Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in Virginia and wrote for The Washington Post, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to gather legal documents before his planned wedding. He has not been seen since, and Turkish security officials have privately said they believe Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents  an explanation purportedly backed up by a gruesome audio recording of his death. A State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday that Pompeo had not heard the tape. Top Saudi officials, including the prince and King Salman, have repeatedly denied any role in Khashoggi's disappearance. Publicly, Pompeo declined to discuss the case as he left Riyadh on Wednesday. "I don't want to talk about any of the facts," Pompeo said dismissively. "They didn't want to either."

His response set off an immediate maelstrom of criticism. Loading "The fact that Saudis 'didn't want to' talk about the facts is to be expected," said Samantha Power, who served in the Obama administration. "The fact that the representative of the United States didn't want to talk about the facts is a travesty." Hours later, on his way back to the United States, Pompeo addressed the criticism that he had failed to hold the Saudis to account. He said he wanted "to give them the space to complete their investigations of this incident." "It's reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it so they get it right, so that it's thorough and complete," Pompeo said after a brief stop in Ankara, the Turkish capital.

"That's what they've indicated they need," he said, "and then we'll get to see it. We'll evaluate this on a factual, straight-up basis." "His instructions are clearly to preserve the US-Saudi relationship at all costs," said Wendy R. Sherman, a former top State Department official. "So his nonverbal cues and his remarks are intended to do that." But, she said, "he could have taken off the grin, dispensed with small talk, said facts were important and the US was committed to get them and ended in a better place." At the White House, Trump said he would "have a long talk" with Pompeo about what he learned in Saudi Arabia and Turkey. "He spent a lot of time with the crown prince, and he's going to have a full report," Trump said.Geneva: The United Nations' chief mediator for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, will step down at the end of November, becoming the third diplomat to leave the job since Syria's civil war began in 2011.

UN Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria Staffan de Mistura. Credit:AP

De Mistura announced his resignation as special envoy during a meeting of the Security Council after four years and four months in the role, at a time when the future of Syria is uncertain. His departure could complicate efforts to negotiate an end to the war as it is winding down.

While his predecessors left the job out of frustration, de Mistura, 71, said he was leaving for "purely personal reasons," adding, " I will definitely not say goodbye or engage in reflections today."

The conflict, which began as a popular uprising in 2011 before degenerating into civil war, has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.PHILIPSBURG:--- In light of the developments and media reports during the last months, the Board of the Philipsburg Jubilee Library (PJL) would hereby like to inform the general public as follows.

More than a year ago, hurricane Irma destroyed practically the entire library building and at least 80% of the librarys books and other media. Despite this disaster, and thanks primarily to the unrelenting hard work, dedication, and sacrifices of the librarys staff and others, the PJL was able to reopen and continue to offer services to the public.

On November 23rd and December 14th of 2017, the Board and Management of the PJL met with the former Secretary-General of the Ministry of ECYS, the former acting Head of Culture, representatives of the Ministry of VROMI and the Head of Facility Affairs about relocating the PJL to an alternative location as soon as possible.

On March 1st, 2018, the PJL Board wrote a follow-up letter to the former Minister of ECYS. On April 6th, 2018, the PJL Board sent another follow-up letter to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of ECYS. Then, in May of 2018, the former Minister of ECYS and her advisors met with the Board and Management of the PJL, and agreed that the Government would take the decision to allocate insurance payments for the PJL towards the rental payments for the temporary relocation of the PJL to the Super Plaza building.

The availability of the Super Plaza building right across the road from the current PJL location was very convenient from a practical and logistical point of view. The idea was to move over before the start of the 2018 hurricane season, in order to prevent further damage to an important part of Sint Maartens national heritage, and also to drastically improve the working conditions of the staff.

As also agreed with Government, the temporary move would allow for the demolition of the remains of the PJL and the construction of a completely new, fully accessible, fully hurricane-proof, and modern National Heritage Center (NHC) at the current location of the PJL. The funding for the construction of this NHC was included in the initial World Bank reconstruction fund list. It is estimated to take approximately 2-3 years to build and will incorporate the PJL, Sint Maarten Museum, and SIMARC. The latter two accommodations were even more severely damaged than the PJL during hurricane Irma.

The co-location of the three organizations has been ten years in the making, and shortly after the meeting with the former Minister of ECYS, the Boards of the PJL, Sint Maarten Archeological Center (SIMARC) and The Sint Maarten National Heritage Foundation (Sint Maarten Museum) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) based on which a joint Task Force started the preparations for the establishment of the NHC for Sint Maarten.

However, since said meeting with the former Minister of ECYS five months ago, and after numerous attempts by the Board and Management of the PJL to get a confirmation of the decision of the Government, the temporary move to the Super Plaza building was ultimately rejected by the Council of Ministers. Moreover, the Government recently informed the NHC Task Force that the funding for the NHC was not on the World Banks list of projects to be funded, and did not indicate which initiatives, if any, were being considered.

As a result of these developments, the PJL, its staff, and the national heritage in the remains of the building have continued to suffer from deplorable working conditions and the effects of heavy rains and winds respectively. It is also abundantly clear that any minor hurricane passing over Sint Maarten will most probably destroy what remains of the PJL and the national heritage it houses.

The Board and Management of the PJL have repeatedly brought this matter to the attention of the Government during the past months. Pictures and videos of the extreme water damage and deplorable working conditions inside the PJL building after every rain shower have been provided by library staff.

However, despite the verbal support for Sint Maartens national heritage by (members of) Government as recently expressed in the local press, genuine interest in terms of concrete action to protect what is left of it, and/or to ensure that it will continue to be easily accessible to future generations, is non-existent .

This is very worrisome and highly unfortunate, especially when compared to the commitment to-, and actual investments in the preservation, promotion, and expression of national heritage in all its forms as displayed by governments on other islands of the Dutch-, and English-speaking Caribbean.

As a result of these developments, the Board of the PJL and the NHC Task Force have decided to urgently seek alternative solutions to ensure the temporary move of the PJL, the continuity of its services to the community of Sint Maarten, the protection of the health and safety of the PJL staff, and the construction of the NHC as soon as possible.

Besides having requested an urgent meeting with the Minister of ECYS and his advisors, contacts with potential sources of funding on Sint Maarten, the Caribbean region, and beyond have been initiated, and consultations with said institutions about their potential participation in the development of the NHC have commenced.

The Board of the PJL looks forward to the cooperation of the Government and the continued support of the general public and all other supporters and stakeholders in moving forward with the plans for protecting the national heritage of Sint Maarten. Flash

China is ready to work with Belgium to strength cooperation and exchanges at all levels, said Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

Li made the remarks in Brussels when holding talks with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel during a working visit to the country.

Noting that China-Belgium ties have maintained the momentum of sound development, Li said Belgian companies are welcomed to invest in China, which will give equal treatment to all foreign enterprises as domestic enterprises.

Li said China is willing to import more high-quality Belgian agricultural products that suit the demands of Chinese market and hopes that Belgium can further facilitate bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Li said the two countries can boost cooperation in technology and innovation and expand nuclear cooperation on the basis of abiding by international laws and meeting international obligations.

The two countries can deepen practical cooperation in infrastructure development and the digital economy while actively exploring the third-party market cooperation, he added.

The Chinese premier said China and Europe, both as major economies, should work together and take steps to push for progress in the negotiations of a China-EU investment treaty so as to send a positive message of upholding free trade, economic globalization, and the multilateral trading regime.

Michel said Belgium is willing to align the connectivity program of the European Union with China's Belt and Road Initiative and support Belgian enterprises in investing in China.

Furthermore, Belgium is ready to strengthen bilateral cooperation in trade, agriculture, technology, nuclear, aviation and other fields while enhancing the third-party market cooperation in Africa and Asia, Michel said.

Belgium supports effective multilateralism and free trade and stands ready to work with China to strengthen coordination and communication in the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, Michel said.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on nuclear, the third-party market, culture, logistics, aviation, among others.WILLEMSTAD: ---On Friday, October 12th, 2018 the Social Economic Councils (SERs) of the Dutch Caribbean countries of the Kingdom, held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Curacao the Hon. Eugene Rhuggenaath. The purpose of the meeting was to achieve a sustainable policy in the field of labor/economic migration. It is important that the Caribbean countries within the Dutch Kingdom, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, work together, each with their own responsibilities, laws and regulations. Collectively, scenarios can be explored that can lead to medium and long term socio-economic development.

All three countries are confronted to a greater or lesser extent with the same issues in the areas of population policy and socio-economic development. The challenges that present themselves in among other things, a prolonged stagnating economy, increased aging, brain drain, a social welfare system that is under pressure, an unequal labor market, the socio/economic crisis in Venezuela and the issue of undocumented migrants in general. The question here is what impact will regional and international developments of migration have on the aforementioned socio-economic issues and how policy can be accommodated in this respect.

The countries can support each other in the field of developing strategic policy, substantiated based on 'lessons learned' and 'best practices' of the Kingdom, in the region and elsewhere.

The policy will have to focus on the aforementioned challenges, as well as on the opportunities and benefits that migration and especially labor migration entails, for sustainable socio-economic development in the countries with the emphasis on future of work, social certainty, medical care, and improved living conditions in the neighborhoods.

The Presidents and the Secretary-Generals of the SER institutions gave a presentation to the Prime Minister, which focused on the theme of labor migration in the context of the aforementioned challenges and the underlying principles with regard to sustainable socio-economic development. In closing it was also proposed by the participating SER institutions to organize a joint symposium in Curacao for the first quarter of 2019.

Prime Minister Rhuggenaath, in turn, has expressed the idea of supporting a symposium as well as cooperation between the three countries. He will discuss this with his colleagues of Aruba and Sint Maarten this month, during the next tripartite meeting of the Prime Ministers of the three Caribbean countries of the Kingdom.SIMPSON BAY:--- Ten local youth have recently started a comprehensive maritime course, which will allow them to obtain multiple local and international certifications. The 3-month course has been made possible through the collaboration of K1 Britannia Foundation & Kidz at Sea Foundation with Holland America Line as the course sponsor.

Holland America Line reached out to K1 Britannia Foundation in March 2018, enquiring how they could assist the island in its long-term recovery after hurricane Irma. One of the many concerns that were discussed was the lack of employment opportunities post-Irma for Sint Maartens youth.

"There are so many ways that we can build back stronger, not only in terms of buildings and infrastructure but in terms of society. K1s second chance program before Irma had a broad focus; we've had to narrow it down after Irma to focus on the current needs facing our target group of youths, enabling them to get the proper training and opportunities based on the job market on the island said Alan Schet, Project Manager at K1.

K1s pre-existing second chance program has been built on the principle of giving youth opportunities; training and mentoring needed to become successful members of society. As a maritime foundation, getting the youth into the maritime industry, potentially a big job market on the island, as well as abroad has always been a priority. This passion is shared by Kidz at Sea Foundation who focus on exposing local youth to the opportunities in the maritime industry of St. Maarten by offering them unique training opportunities.

After Hurricane Irma, Kidz at Sea and K1 started discussions of how to provide training so that participants would become immediately employable in the maritime industry, especially with the current demand for boat repair. Out of these discussions the idea was formed to create a training program that will offer them certification through the level of Coastal Captain and significant hands on maintenance experience. Robbie Ferron, President of Sint Maarten Marine Trades Association reiterated the need for participation in the industry: The board is aware of the shortage of trained personnel in this labor area, especially after hurricane Irma, and believes that this initiative is strategic for the Sint Maarten Economy.

The idea of this program was then brought to Holland America Line who quickly jumped onboard. They wanted to be part of providing immediate employment and supporting St. Maartens recovery efforts from not just an economic perspective but also from a societal perspective.

Holland America Line is honored to partner with K1 Britannia on its disaster relief efforts. Long term recovery though job creation and a focus on youth is the reason we chose this project. This program is changing lives for these young people stated Pamela Baade, Corporate Giving Manager of Holland America Line.

The goal of the course is to not only provide training for youth that will enable them to find a job in the short term, but skills and certification that will give them a career for life. Opening them up to a world of possibilities, both in St. Maarten and the rest of the world.

Kidz at Sea has been instrumental in the courses design, having years of experience in giving a variety of maritime courses on the island. The course will prepare the candidates to slide right in and be able to fill positions in either the day charter, mega yacht or cruise line positions that become available says founder of Kidz At Sea, Lorraine Talmi.

Court of Guardianship Director Mrs. Richelda Rodriguez-Emmanuel added: Finding work can be quite a challenge for youngsters, especially those who face additional challenges because of their education level, background and/or family situation. Creating specific opportunities for them is important because they then get a chance to prove themselves and also will be able to contribute to our society. The training programs also allow for personal growth, which is very important.

The results during the last several weeks have been very encouraging, with participants showing keen interest in the maritime field and excelling. By the end of the program, participants will have obtained multiple local and international certifications starting with basic keelboat, basic cruising, bare boat cruising, vessel maintenance, STCW 2010, ending with a boat master license.

The Sint Maarten Marine Trades Association have endorsed and been very supportive of this program, with several companies having committed to offering these youths jobs upon successful completion of this course.

We are very excited to partner with Holland America Line and Kidz at Sea for this program. We believe it's very important for the future of getting youth into the maritime industry, says Priya Thirumur of K1 Britannia Foundation.

Through collaborative efforts of local charitable and other maritime organizations, and with partners and sponsors such as Holland America Line, life-changing opportunities are created for youth in terms of training and job opportunities, both in St Maarten and abroad.

For more information about Kidz at Sea Foundation, K1 Britannia Foundation, and Holland America Line, visit www.k1britanniafoundation.org, www.facebook.com/Kidz-At-Sea-227713444470718/ or www.hollandamerica.comWILLEMSTAD:--- Considerable effort has been made to balance the 2018 budget, however, the multi-year budgetary problem of Curacao still is the reason for concern. The country does not yet have its financial management in order. Cft has therefore agreed with the government on how to achieve sustainable public finances.

Based on documents provided by Curacao (budget amendment and execution report), the CFT stated earlier that the 2018 budget no longer met the standards laid down in the Kingdom Act on financial supervision. In the process during which both sides are heard (hoor en wederhoor), the Minister of Finance presented additional measures and submitted new information. The Cft concluded nevertheless that there are still uncertainties about the claim on state-owned UTS, the risks surrounding Sehos and HNO and the fact that - more generally - ad hoc measures cannot solve the structural financial problems of the country.

An important prerequisite is that the financial management is brought up to standard and kept that way. Without proper financial management, an orderly budget process is not attainable. The (ultimate) proof is the timely adoption of the financial statements with an unqualified auditors' report. It has been agreed that the government of Curacao will ensure that this will be the case with the 2021 financial statements. A roadmap will be developed and adopted for the next two years. The implementation of the said roadmap will be made possible by rapidly and drastically strengthening the financial column of the government apparatus. Furthermore, agreements have been made about better levying and collecting taxes, and tax reform.

Raymond Gradus, chairman of the Cft: Strengthening the economy of Curacao mainly requires private investments. Private investors want to reduce their risks and be able to rely on the stability and quality of the civil service and government administration. A necessary condition for this is solid management of public finances. About the agreements made he states: It is now up to the government to implement these decisively and energetically. As Cft we will follow this meticulously. The Cft will inform the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom about the measures taken by the government and the agreements made with the Cft.

During its visit to Curacao, CFT met with the Governor, the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Finance, the financial committee of the States, the ministerial director and supervisor (Ministeriele Regisseur en Toezichthouder) for the new hospital, the management of the central bank and the management of the refinery. It was the first visit of the new Cft members Henk Kamp (on behalf of the Netherlands) and Russell Voges (on behalf of Sint Maarten). The other members to form part of the Board are chairman Raymond Gradus and Gregory Damoen (on behalf of Curacao).POND ISLAND:--- The cruise line Holland America Line (HAL) has contributed to a comprehensive three-month maritime course which will allow 10 local young people to obtain local and international certifications.

The course is being coordinated by Kidz at Sea Foundation and K1 Britannia.

Kidz at Sea focus has been on exposing the nations youth to job placements in the maritime sector by first offering training opportunities.

K1 Britannia second chance program was established by the civic organization to focus on the current needs of youth by getting the training and providing mentoring that would enhance their possibilities for finding employment.

I was pleased to learn about the support that Holland America cruise line is providing to a local maritime training program for our youth.

Efforts have been underway over the years to get more young people involved in the maritime sector. We need locally trained persons who can do the job at the various ship/boat yards throughout the country.

There are also employment opportunities with day charters, dive boat operations, mega yachts, and the cruise lines.

There are other opportunities as well within the maritime sector and the nations youth can benefit from by being gainfully employed.

I would like to take the opportunity to commend HAL for their support and commitment to helping creating employment on the island.

I also commend the Kidz at Sea Foundation and K1 Britannia for their efforts in pulling this together and making it happen.

Both organizations have years of experience with the existing societal programs that they offer which is making a positive mark on our island as they get the training and find employment in the ever-important maritime sector, Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Stuart Johnson said on Wednesday.

Kidz at Sea Foundation and K1 Britannia have collaborated to create a training program that will offer certification through the level of Coastal Captain along with maintenance know-how including knowledge of basic keelboat, basic cruising, bareboat cruising, and STCW-2010 (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping code).Kralendijk:--- The Board of financial supervision Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (Cft) has called on both the Executive Council and the Island Council to demonstrate more decisiveness. The Cft has been stating for some time now that on too many levels Bonaire is not complying with the legal standards. In addition, agreements made with the public entity have repeatedly not been fulfilled at all or not in an adequate manner. "If this situation does not improve, an advice for an instruction will become unavoidable", according to the Cft chairman Raymond Gradus.

During its visit on Tuesday, October 16, the Board met with the Lieutenant Governor, the Executive Council, the Island Council and the acting Kingdom Representative. A working visit was also made to the Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland (Dutch Caribbean Tax Authorities) where the Board received, amongst others, an explanation of the collection of government taxes on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.

An intense conversation was held with the members of the Executive Council. The Cft has once again voiced its concerns about the quality of the financial management, which is strongly lagging behind. In the meeting with the Executive Council, the Board indicated that according to the applicable legislation the agreements regarding the improvement plan for financial management should be further formalized. The current improvement plan for financial management must be refined and expanded by adequately applying the auditors recommendations for the 2017 financial statements. If the Cft does not see sufficient progress in this process and in the implementation of the adapted plan, then an escalation by means of an advice to the State Secretary of Interior and Kingdom Relations to proceed with an instruction will become inevitable. The Cft has called on the Executive Council to prevent this.

The concerns about the budget and accountability cycle have also been discussed. For example, the 2019 budget and the 2017 annual accounts, for which the Executive Council had requested postponement until the end of September, have still not been submitted to the Cft. As a result, Bonaire does not comply with the deadlines laid down in the Public Finance Act of Bonaire, Sint-Eustatius and Saba (FinBES Act).

This visit was also the first visit of Mr. H.G.J. (Henk) Kamp. As of July 1st, Mr. Kamp has succeeded Mrs. S.M. (Sybilla) Dekker as a member of the Cft upon the recommendation of the Netherlands. As of July 1st 2018 the Cft BES consists of chairman Raymond Gradus, member upon the recommendation of the BES Herbert Domacasse and member upon the recommendation of the Netherlands Henk Kamp.This is breaking folks and the info is sketchy.From what I'm gathering the 3 Star in charge of Afghanistan was present during an attack.I'm reading that as the Taliban have so thoroughly penetrated our Afghan allies that they know is schedule of stops. That should make his Personal Security Detail shit bricks. I bet that PSD has gone from Platoon size up to a Reinforced Company with a couple of Apache and another couple of Blackhawks shadowing them when they're on the ground.This 3 Star is suppose to be another of those Special Ops types and I think that's the problem.SOCOM is all raids all the time.They're not built or equipped to either LEAD a war OR to WIN one! They're support. High speed dudes but still fucking SUPPORT!Regardless.Our strategy is failing and they just have to get lucky one time to send our senior commander home in a body bag.So what do we do?Better to walk away than be carried away. Let the Afghans deal with the Taliban. We can't make these people get along. It's their country. They either fight for it and win...or they lose. But its up to them, not us.Nordic Gold Secures Funding to Complete the Path to Production

Posted by Publisher Internet

NORDIC GOLD CORP. (TSX-V: NOR)?(\Nordic\ or the \Company\  http://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298584? ) is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with PFL Raahe Holdings LP (?PFL?) to provide US$7,000,000 in additional funding (the ?Supplemental Tranches?) to enable the Company to reach production at the Laiva Gold Mine. ?PFL is an investment vehicle controlled by Pandion Mine Finance Fund, LP (?Pandion?).

The mine is a past producer, is fully built and fully permitted. On October 11th, Laiva received written approval for startup. Mining started on August 5th. 1st gold pour is scheduled for November 27th, 2018.

The terms of the Supplemental Tranches are as follows:

PFL will provide US$3,000,000 immediately and another US$4,000,000 in November 2018, subject to conditions precedent, as partial consideration for the purchase of gold under the Pre-Paid Forward Gold Purchase Agreement (as amended, the ?PPF Agreement?) dated November 10, 2017. The Supplemental Tranches will be in addition to the US$20,600,000 provided in December 2017.

Nordic will be obligated to deliver to Pandion an additional scheduled monthly quantity of gold at a price equal to the then-current spot price, less a specified discount.

Required gold deliveries related to the Supplemental Tranches may be reduced or cancelled entirely by Nordic prior to June 30, 2019 through the payment of the full amount of the Supplemental Tranches.

Nordic will use its best efforts to raise US$7,000,000 in a private placement to reduce or cancel the gold deliveries related to the Supplemental Tranches. Executive Chairman, Basil Botha and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Hepworth, will invest an additional $200,000 through a participation in the private placement.

A cash sweep will be added to the PPF Agreement, requiring any cash above a balance of US$2,000,000 from the Company?s operations be used, in part, to reduce the delivery obligations. This will be cancelled upon payment by Nordic of the full amount of the Supplemental Tranches by June 30, 2019.

The start date of gold deliveries under the PPF Agreement has been extended to January 2020 from May 2019.

Nordic announced on September 6??, 2018 that it had reached an agreement with PFL to amend additional terms and provisions of the PPF Agreement.

The parties have agreed to remove the entirety of Section 23 of the PPF Agreement, which allowed PFL to elect, in lieu of delivery of 24,000 ounces of gold (from the restart of the Laiva Gold Mine), to exchange such ?gold delivery? for up to 270 million common shares of Nordic (?Nordic Shares?) in increments of 100 ounces of gold equal to 1,125,000 Nordic Shares, subject to PFL restricting such exercise at any time such that it would not, following exercise, own more than 20% of the Nordic Shares.?

In return for the removal of Section 23, the parties have agreed to the following:

PFL will be granted a 2.5% net smelter return (?NSR?) on gold production from the Laiva Gold Mine.

PFL will be issued 36.5 million Nordic Shares ? representing 19.99% of the outstanding Nordic Shares following such issue.

Simultaneous with any subsequent equity raise by the Company, until the Company has raised CA$10,000,000 in equity, PFL will be issued sufficient common shares to maintain PFL?s ownership stake in the Company at 19.99%.

Nordic will make a payment of US$1,500,000 to PFL within six months of entering into the amendment to the PPF Agreement.

The foregoing amendments have been given provisional approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

The PPF Agreement includes provisions for early buy back.? Nordic has advised Pandion that it intends to exercise such provisions.

Michael Hepworth, President and Chief Executive Officer said, ?The gold forward sale initially enabled our small company with a market cap of around $3,000,000 to acquire a high-value, fully-built and permitted mine for around $25,000,000. The previous owners, Nordic Mines AB, invested ?220,000,000 to build the Laiva Gold Mine. In addition, there is a US$155,000,000 tax loss carry-forward provision in place that the Finnish government has already approved for Nordic?s use should the company accrue taxable income.?

?Our financing options have significantly increased, now that the project is largely de-risked, and first gold is scheduled to be poured on November 27th, 2018. ?The PEA gives us an after tax NPV of US$69 million and a 1.7-year payback. As production is expected to be 67,000 ounces of gold in the first 12 months, this means that some debt is now an option and consequently we intend to refinance at more favorable terms. ?

Nordic is already in discussion with several banks and several potential strategic investors, with regard to a refinancing. The goal is to have such financing in place by May 2019.

The Company also amended the terms of its non-brokered private placement, announced on September 6, 2018. Specifically, Nordic announced that it intends to reprice the previously announced private placement to raise up to $10,000,000 in gross proceeds.? Nordic now plans to issue units (?Units?) consisting of one Nordic common share and a full warrant (each a ?Warrant?) at $0.10 per Unit.? Each Warrant forming part of the Units will be exercisable for 24 months at $0.13 per share and will contain an early acceleration clause if the common shares trade above $0.25 for 30 consecutive days.?

All announcements in this press release remain subject to the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange. The securities issued under the private placement will be subject to a four month hold period under applicable Canadian securities laws.

About the Company

Nordic Gold Corp. is a junior mining company with a near production gold mine in Finland.?? The Laiva Gold Mine is fully built, fully permitted and financed to production via a gold forward sale agreement. ?Production is scheduled to start in the 4th quarter of 2018. ?

The Company?s name was changed from Firesteel Resources Ltd. to Nordic Gold Corp. on August 9, 2018.

A recently released PEA was conducted by John T. Boyd Company?of Denver, Colorado (?Boyd?).

Please find further information in the attachement.

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

Advisory Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. Users of forward-looking statements are cautioned that actual results may vary from forward-looking statements contained herein. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: expectations, opinions, forecasts, projections and other similar statements concerning anticipated future events, conditions or results that are not historical facts. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as ?plans?, ?expects? or ?does not expect?, ?is expected?, ?budget?, ?scheduled?, ?estimates?, ?forecasts?, ?intends?, ?anticipates? or ?does not anticipate?, or ?believes?, or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results ?may?, ?could?, ?would?, ?might? or ?will be taken?, ?occur? or ?be achieved?. While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date those statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of the Company?s future performance.? Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot give any assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct.?

The Company?s forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date of this new release.? Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, the Company does not intend nor does it undertake any obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent information, events, results or circumstances or otherwise.M2 Cobalt commences initial drilling program

Posted by Publisher Internet

M2 Cobalt Corp. (the ?Company?) (TSXV: MC.V  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07gK0kl_Mrs) is pleased to announce it has launched an initial drill program focused on key targets discovered during its successful Phase 1 work program. The Company has entered into a drilling contract with an East-African drilling company and currently plans up to 3,000 metres of diamond core drilling with the ability to extend the program as required.

Simon Clarke, CEO stated, ?the commencement of drilling is a very exciting time for the Company. The success of our phase 1 program, during which we discovered multiple large-scale targets with surface sampling up to 1.75% Co, 0.91% Cu and 0.26% Ni, has positioned us strongly for this initial phase of drilling.? It moves us closer to achieving our corporate objective of discovering and developing world-class deposits of cobalt and associated minerals.

We will keep shareholders appraised of developments and anticipate regular news-flow as this initial drilling program unfolds.?

During its phase 1 program, the Company discovered multiple targets and 3 distinct styles of mineralization; volcanogenic massive sulphide (?VMS?) copper-cobalt at its Kilembe-area properties, Katanga-style sediment hosted, copper-cobalt mineralization at Bujagali as well as ultramafic nickel, copper and cobalt at Bombo. The initial drill program will test key targets at depth in each style of mineralization and will position the Company to embark on a larger drill program. ?

About M2Cobalt

M2 Cobalt Corp. is focused on discovering and developing world-class cobalt assets (and related minerals) to help address the growing deficit in the supply of cobalt. The Company has a large, highly prospective land package in the Republic of Uganda, East Africa bordering historic production and on the same mineral trends as some of the major mines in the neighbouring DRC where over 60% of world cobalt supply originates. Uganda is a stable country with a growing economy looking to re-energize its historic mining industry. The Company has a highly experienced management team and board of directors, which has been involved in funding and advancing resource projects globally. Further information on the Company and its projects can be found at?www.m2cobalt.com

The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dean Besserer, P.Geol., the Technical Advisor of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

For further information, contact Simon Clarke at sclarke@m2cobalt.com or Andy Edelmeier at andy@m2cobalt.com

On behalf of the Board,

M2 COBALT CORP.

Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch

www.resource-capital.ch

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release may contain certain ?Forward-Looking Statements? within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words ?anticipate?, ?believe?, ?estimate?, ?expect?, ?target, ?plan?, ?forecast?, ?may?, ?schedule? and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to exploration work to be undertaken in Uganda, the reliability of third party information, and certain other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company?s current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. Flash

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that she wants Britain to remain a close and trustworthy partner of the EU, even after leaving.





The words of the chancellor came in a government statement on the EU summit which will later take place on Wednesday night.





Merkel stated that both sides moved closer to each other and the intention was to "put future relations on a new basis."





According to Merkel, 90 percent of the agreement had been reached so far. However, she emphasized that the German government is preparing for all possible scenarios of Brexit, including a so-called hard Brexit without any agreement at all.





A major point of contention was the issue of how the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland should be regulated, Merkel stated. One of the EU's main conditions for a withdrawal agreement is the prevention of border controls between the British territory of Northern Ireland and the EU member Ireland.





"Everything is currently looking at the Ireland issue, but despite the political spectacle, solutions are now emerging in this regard," Juergen Matthes, head of the Research Unit International Economics and Economic Outlook at the German Economic Institute (IW) said on Wednesday.





"More importantly, the withdrawal agreement should not slam the door on a free trade area for goods as proposed by the British government. If the British government makes sufficient concessions here, also in terms of immigration and EU contributions to cohesion policy, the EU should be able to accept this proposal," explained Matthes.





The current status of the Brexit negotiations will be the key issue at the EU summit on Wednesday evening. British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to explain to heads of state of the 27 EU members how she envisages a solution to the remaining questions regarding Brexit.Chief Buster Hatcher of the Waccamaw Indian People, left, and Chief Vernon Thompkins of the Chicora Indian Tribe visited together at the November 2017 Waccamaw Pau Wau. Hatcher will be among the chiefs attending the Shakori Inter-Tribal Gathering on Oct. 20.The Apollo missions were the answer to a challenge issued by President John F. Kennedy to put a man on the moon. But just to get there, scientists had to build a powerful rocket. And to actually land on the moon and return the astronauts safely, NASA had to develop new spacecraft and a new type of rocket.

NASA ultimately decided on a solution that consisted of three parts: A lunar lander (known as the lunar module) would put humans on the moon. A command module would bring the astronauts to the moon (lunar module attached) and back home. And the Saturn V rocket would provide enough power to propel both lander and command module into Earth orbit to prepare for their moon journey.

During the Apollo program, NASA investigated many options for uprating the Saturn V, from stretching the 1st stage to adding enormous solid rocket boosters, and even a nuclear powered upper stage  NERVA  that could be used for missions to Mars. (Image credit: Adrian Mann)

Saturn V rocket

NASA developed the Saturn V rocket to meet the challenge of launching people to the moon. At 363 feet (111 meters), it was taller than a 36-story building and was the largest, most powerful rocket ever launched. Powered by five engines in each of its first two stages, the rocket produced 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. [Apollo 11 Moon Rocket's F-1 Engines Explained (Infographic)]

The Saturn V moon rocket had three expendable stages. In the configuration that sent astronauts to the moon, the first stage used liquid oxygen and kerosene, the second stage used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and the third stage used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

Each stage lifted the rocket until that stage's fuel was expended. The first stage shot the rocket up about 42 miles (68 kilometers) and the second stage carried the rocket even closer to orbit. The third stage placed the Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit and pushed it toward the moon. The first two stages fell into the ocean after separation, while the third stage either stayed in space or hit the moon.

Fifteen Saturn V rockets were built, and only two were tested without a crew. The first Saturn V to launch with a crew was Apollo 8, which set off in December of 1968. In July of 1969, a Saturn V launched the crew of Apollo 11 to the first crewed landing on the moon. Saturn V rockets carried six more moon missions into space: Apollos 12 through 17, between 1969 and 1972. A two-stage Saturn V also lifted the Skylab space station into orbit in May 1973. Three remaining, unused Saturn V rockets are on display at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas, the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Alabama.

This NASA schematic details the size of the Apollo space capsules, service modules and lunar landers that would ultimately take astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (Image credit: NASA)

Apollo spacecraft

Sitting atop the Saturn V rocket was the Apollo spacecraft, which had three components: the service module, the command module spacecraft and the lunar module spacecraft.

The service module provided power, propulsion and storage to the command module. It was cylindrical, at 24.6 feet (7.5 m) long and 12.8 feet (3.9 m) in diameter. It contained fuel tanks and oxygen/hydrogen tanks and housed the fuel cells that provided most of the power for the crew compartments. For most of the mission, the service module and command module were attached, with the units sometimes referred to as a single craft: the command-service module.

The command module housed the astronauts. It was 10.6 feet (3.2 m) tall and 12.8 feet (3.9 m) wide at its base. Inside, the astronauts had about 210 cubic feet (6 cubic m) in which to move around  about the space in a car's interior. The command module was the only part of the spacecraft that would return to Earth. It re-entered the atmosphere with its heat shield facing the planet, to defend against the high temperatures caused by atmospheric friction.

As the mission approached the moon, the command module separated from the lunar module. One astronaut stayed in orbit aboard the command module, while the other two descended to the lunar surface in the lunar module.

The lunar module was 23 feet (7 m) tall and 14 feet (4 m) wide and had two sections: the upper ascent stage and the lower ascent stage. The upper stage carried the crew, equipment and an ascent rocket engine; the lower stage had the landing gear, lunar surface experiments and the descent rocket engine. When the mission was over, the lower stage provided a launch platform and was left on the moon. The upper stage rendezvoused with the command module and was jettisoned after the astronauts were reunited.

During Apollo 13 in April 1970, the lunar module served as a temporary lifeboat after an explosion damaged the command module and service module; all three astronauts returned safely to Earth.

Today, the command modules for all of the Apollo missions are on display at various museums. The lunar module lower stages are mostly on the surface of their respective landing sites on the moon. The upper stages were either deliberately crashed into the moon or sent into orbit around the sun. An exception is Apollo 13's lunar module, which was needed to bring the astronauts back home; it burned up naturally in Earth's atmosphere during the descent.

Between 2018 and 2021, NASA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the various Apollo missions. The largest celebration will likely come on July 20, 2019, when NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.

This article was updated on Oct. 17, 2018 by Space.com Contributor, Elizabeth Howell.The panelists of "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going To Mars?" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Sept. 26, 2018. From left to right: theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates Jr.; RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson, moderator and WMHT President Robert Altman; Ellen Ochoa, former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center; and Space Foundation CEO Thomas E. Zelibor.

A monthslong journey. Docking on a faraway moon. What scenarios would make a human voyage to Mars possible?

In late September, four experts participated in an hourlong conversation about what a mission to Mars would actually look like. "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going to Mars?" took place at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, on Sept. 26.

"There's a romantic aspect to this," theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates Jr. said during the event. "Because Mars, of all of our sister planets, is the one that has had the most impact on our culture  in the last several hundred years  as a place to go and think about." [If We Want to Walk on Mars, We'd Better Get Serious About Planetary Protection]

A student asks a question at the end of the panel, "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going To Mars?" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Sept. 26, 2018. (Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute )

Ellen Ochoa, former space shuttle astronaut and previous director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, explained some challenges in designing a voyage to Mars.

"We've looked at a variety of different things," Ochoa said. "And one of the things that you have to grapple with immediately is  there're really only kind of two choices: You're there [on Mars] for a couple of weeks, or you're there for almost a year."

Ochoa said the short-mission option might involve orbiting the planet or landing on one of Mars' low-gravity moons, where the crew might attempt to send robots to work on the planet's surface before attempting a human landing. And a longer mission might involve bringing humans to Mars' surface and performing a closer analysis of the Red Planet's regolith, or dust, to perhaps learn if it could be turned into a propellant, she added.

Former astronaut and former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, Ellen Ochoa, addresses a question at the event "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going To Mars?" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Sept. 26, 2018. (Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute )

Ochoa also detailed the challenge of combating harmful radiation: "The problem with the radiation, the galactic cosmic rays, is that you're getting this constant dose the entire time," she said. Radiation may increase a crew's risk for cancer and alter their cognitive ability, according to Ochoa. To help deal with this problem, researchers could focus on designing a magnetic shield to protect passengers and learning how genetic factors play a role in susceptibility to radiation.

Shirley Ann Jackson, a theoretical physicist and president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, affirmed during the panel discussion that these are all possible hazards. "But in many ways the real challenge, from a technological point of view, is that they are really intersecting challenges and vulnerabilities" that could be treated by looking into the research of other disciplines. "But therein lies opportunity," she said.

Jackson proposed that mission team designers might learn by observing fields of science such as biology and oncology to develop deep-space spaceflight materials.

Would collaboration across governments, like Jackson argued for across scientific disciplines , be necessary, too? [Hulu's 'The First' Confronts the Drama of Getting Humans to Mars]

A photo of the panelists and the student crowd at "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going To Mars? at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Sept. 26, 2018. (Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

"Right now, there's plenty of competition going on," Thomas E. Zelibor said during the event. He is the CEO of the Space Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for space activities. "If you look at the commercial enterprises that are launching into space versus, as I call them, the industrial military complex, [or] traditional people that we think of, there's a tremendous competition going on. But I think they're going to be forced into a cooperative environment," Zelibor said. Otherwise, he said, "there's just not enough money to do it."

NASA has moved in the direction of private company partnerships over the last 10 years, according to Ochoa. "We [at NASA] really changed our model in terms of how we work with companies... we are now buying services; we don't own the spacecraft," Ochoa said. Companies now have more decision-making power about how they will meet spaceflight requirements, she added.

Ochoa said companies are free to look for other customers, too. "NASA's still clearly the anchor customer for human space exploration... there's really no other big customer out there, but there's the hope that it will grow," Ochoa said. "So, we've really changed the model of how we work."

A full recording of the event, called "An Evening with Trailblazers  Are We Going To Mars?" is accessible here.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter@salazar_elin. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.An artist's impression of a supernova and its host galaxy, as they would appear if gravitationally lensed by an intervening black hole.

Scientists have ruled out black holes as a possible source for most of the elusive dark matter scattered throughout much of the universe.

Dark matter seems to make up more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe, yet it remains one of the most mysterious entities in the cosmos. In 2015, gravitational waves were detected from two colliding black holes using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Following this discovery, some astronomers thought black holes could be the source of the universe's dark matter  but a new study suggests otherwise.

A team of astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley, analyzed 740 of the brightest supernovas discovered to date, revealing that black holes can account for only 40 percent of dark matter in the universe, according to a statement. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]

"We are back to the standard discussions. What is dark matter? Indeed, we are running out of good options," Uros Seljak, study co-author and professor of physics and astronomy at UC Berkeley, said in the statement. "This is a challenge for future generations."

Specifically, the researchers found that no intervening black holes, which could act as gravitational lenses, magnified or brightened the 740 supernovas studied. If black holes were the primary source of dark matter in the universe, then the researchers would have found more supernovas magnified by primordial black holes, which arose soon after the Big Bang, the statement said.

Therefore, none of the universe's dark matter consists of heavy black holes or any similar object, including massive compact halo objects (MACHOs). Rather, based on the new analysis, black holes can account for no more than 40 percent of the dark matter in the universe, the researchers said.

A follow-up study of 1,048 black holes is also in the works. The researchers expect that this study will reduce the possibility even more, showing that black holes are the source of as little as 23 percent of the universe's dark matter, according to the statement.

Their findings were published Oct. 1 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Follow Samantha Mathewson @Sam_Ashley13. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Mercury is a tiny, shrinking greyish ball of metal, an unassuming neighbor that's easy to overlook  but don't laugh off the possibility that the little world could rewrite our understanding of our own solar system as well as those all around us.

Scientists haven't visited the innermost planet since 2015, but that will change with a mission launching this week: BepiColombo, a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). BepiColombo will launch from Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:45 p.m. EDT Oct. 19 (0145 GMT Oct. 20) on an Ariane 5 rocket; you can watch the launch live at Space.com courtesy of ESA.

The long gap in missions didn't occur because the planet is boring. "Mercury is a challenge in many aspects: to get there, to stay there, and then there are many, many open questions that need to be solved," Joe Zender, deputy project scientist at ESA for the BepiColombo mission, told Space.com. "It's a kind of mystery  maybe one of the last mysteries on the terrestrial planets." [Most Enduring Mysteries of Mercury]

The problem, you see, is that when scientists put together what they know about the whole solar system and build explanations for how it came to be that way, Mercury keeps messing them up. It's the black sheep of the planetary family, with a host of weird characteristics.

The spacecraft of the BepiColombo mission stacked together and waiting to be placed on board the rocket currently scheduled to launch Oct. 19 (Oct. 20 GMT). (Image credit: M. Pedoussaut/ESA)

Take, for example, how incredibly dense it is, with a massive metallic core surrounded by a thin, rocky shell, like a planetary M&M. Ignore Mercury and the planets line up neatly, from least dense at the center to densest at the edge of the solar system. But that model leaves scientists wondering how a planet so dense could have formed so near the sun. (One idea is that a giant impact stole away most of the lighter material, but that's still just a hypothesis.)

So, scientists want more information about Mercury to feed into their models of how the solar system formed, in hopes of coming up with an explanation that can even account for its strange traits.

But it's not just about our solar system, since our neighborhood is also a stand-in for the hundreds of other planetary systems that scientists have identified over the past couple of decades. Early results suggest those neighborhoods may also often host an unusually dense planet nearest their stars, just like Mercury, making the puzzle still more important to solve.

"We're discovering more and more solar systems every day," Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory who worked on NASA's most recent mission to Mercury, told Space.com. "We're going to first look here, to understand how our own solar system formed, to interpret all of these around us."

BepiColombo to the rescue

Fortunately for stumped scientists, BepiColombo will be uniquely poised to uncover some of Mercury's deepest secrets. "BepiColombo has the instruments to now do intensive investigations of everything from the interior out to the exosphere," James Slavin told Space.com. Slavin, who was referring to the thin layer of gas surrounding the planet like an extremely wimpy atmosphere, studies magnetic fields at the University of Michigan and is co-investigator on one of BepiColombo's instruments."It's just going to be very exciting," Slavin said. "This is the stage of planetary research where we finally get definitive answers to all of the questions we generated on [NASA's] Mariner 10 [mission, which flew by the planet three times in the 1970s] and MESSENGER [(NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mission)]."

BepiColombo, which cost almost $2 billion, according to Spaceflight Now, is made up of two separate spacecraft, the European Mercury Planetary Orbiter and the Japanese Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, nicknamed Mio. The two have been joined together in an arrangement that's 20 feet (6 meters) tall for the seven-year-long journey to Mercury; once they arrive, they'll part ways but continue to work in tandem for at least a year. [Photos of Mercury from NASA's Messenger Spacecraft]

Having two spacecraft at the tiny planet will allow scientists to take unprecedented measurements of Mercury's magnetic field by keeping one spacecraft inside that field's bubble and one outside of it. It's unusual enough for such a small planet with a seemingly solid core to have a magnetic field at all, and being so close to the sun means it's constantly bombarded by a heavy stream of charged particles in the solar wind.

Here on Earth, the interaction of solar wind and magnetic field causes space weather, which when particularly strong can cause power outages. But our magnetic field is much stronger, and the solar wind that reaches us is much weaker. "Now we can investigate another different case and an extreme case, with strong solar wind and weak magnetic field, in order to understand how it works," Go Murakami, JAXA's project scientist for BepiColombo, told Space.com.

But that's just one facet of BepiColombo's long to-do list. Other instruments will be studying the planet itself, from its surface to deep down into its core. Geological questions BepiColombo should help scientists tackle include its past volcanic activity and why the already-tiny planet is shrinking. As it carries out its studies, it will be building on MESSENGER's work in the 2010s.

Take, for example, small hollows dotting the planet's surface. "They were one of the examples of why we send spacecraft to places we haven't been before," Chabot said. "They were a totally new landform that was discovered when MESSENGER got into orbit."

An artist's depiction of the BepiColombo spacecraft nearing their target, Mercury. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab/NASA/JPL)

The current idea is that the hollows are caused by rock actively sublimating  jumping straight from solid to gas  on the surface, and that the process is still playing out today. "It seems like some sort of volatiles, something that was there and then gets exposed to Mercury's surface, which is hot and close to the sun," Chabot said. "But it's very arm-wavy, because we've only been at this since 2011."

And there's another, more poignant way BepiColombo may follow in MESSENGER's footsteps: by photographing the crater likely about 50 feet (16 meters) across created when the spacecraft, out of fuel 11 years after its launch, slammed into the planet. Now, that abrupt end could be the beginning of new science if scientists can get a good glimpse of the rubble that the impact carried to the surface. "We know exactly when it happened," Chabot said, which means they can study how that rock weathered.

There's just one catch for BepiColombo: It will take the spacecraft seven years to fall into orbit around Mercury. Along the way, the spacecraft will fly past Earth once, Venus twice and Mercury itself six times, in a complicated dance designed to avoid the massive pull of the sun.

"We still have a very long way in front of us," Zender said, "but we are all very excited that we start the long journey now."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. Original article on Space.com.Artist's illustration of the hypothetical Planet Nine, a world with roughly Neptune's mass that may lie undiscovered in the outer solar system.

Planet Nine is probably just playing hard to get.

Evidence of a big, unseen world in the extreme outer solar system continues to mount. Take the recent discovery of the distant dwarf planet 2015 TG387, known as "The Goblin." This world's highly elliptical orbit appears to have been sculpted by the gravity of a sizable planet way out there in the dark depths  as have the orbits of more than a dozen other faraway objects, researchers say.

"Planet Nine really remains the only viable explanation for all of the stuff that we observe," said Konstantin Batygin, a theoretical astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. [The Evidence for 'Planet Nine' in Our Solar System (Gallery)]

Starting the hunt

Batygin is a major player in the hunt for Planet Nine, which really kicked off in 2014.

That year, astronomers Chad Trujillo and Scott Sheppard proposed the existence of a large "perturber" far beyond Neptune. Such a planet, the scientists said, could explain weird features in the orbits of the dwarf planets Sedna and 2012 VP113, as well as a few other distant objects.

In January of 2016, Batygin and fellow Caltech researcher Mike Brown marshalled more evidence for this hypothetical world, which the duo dubbed "Planet Nine." Batygin and Brown also took a stab at characterizing the planet, estimating that it's perhaps 10 times more massive than Earth and orbits about 600 astronomical units (AU) from the sun on average. (One AU is the Earth-sun distance, about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)

Further detections of distant objects with oddball orbits followed. Astronomers have now spotted 14 bodies that bear the imprint of a perturber's tug, Batygin said.

That imprint is primarily a pronounced clustering. Basically, the elongated portions of the objects' highly elliptical orbits point in the same direction, in a way predicted by the Planet Nine models.

The chances of such a configuration developing by chance alone are less than 0.1 percent, Batygin said. And other possible explanations fall short, he added.

For example, some researchers have proposed that the clustering resulted from the combined tugs of many small objects in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune's orbit. But a "self-modulating" Kuiper Belt would look very different from the actual belt that we see, Batygin said. And, he added, a recent study suggests that the entire Kuiper Belt (sans Planet Nine) harbors no more than 2 percent of the mass of Earth  not nearly enough to shape the bodies' orbits in the observed manner.

"The evidence for Planet Nine is really, really solid," Batygin told Space.com. [Our Solar System: A Photo Tour of the Planets]

He pegged the probability of the world's existence at "over 90 percent." Sheppard, who's based at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., is similarly bullish.

"We think it's more likely than not," Sheppard told Space.com. "For me, personally, it's probably at the 80 [percent] to 90 percent level."

Where is Planet Nine hiding?

Batygin and Brown have systematically searched for Planet Nine over the past few years, as have Trujillo and Sheppard (who refer to the hypothetical world as "Planet X"). Both teams have been using Japan's 26-foot (8 meters) Subaru Telescope, which sits atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Other research groups around the world have joined the hunt as well. Still, it's not all that surprising that the putative planet remains undiscovered, Sheppard said.

"Where we think the planet is  hundreds of AU away, if not 1,000 AU  something even as big as Neptune would be fainter than most telescopes could see," Sheppard said.

"And most of our surveys to date do not go that faint, do not go that deep. We've covered very little of the sky to the depth that's needed to be covered to find something this faint," he added. "You can hide a very big thing in the outer solar system very easily."

Indeed, the search has so far covered just 20 percent to 25 percent of "premium sky," the regions where Planet Nine is most likely to be, both Sheppard and Batygin said.

It's tough to make predictions about when Planet Nine will finally be spotted, because astronomers don't know the object's mass, brightness or precise orbit  or even that it exists at all. But Batygin said he suspects that Subaru is capable of seeing the planet. (Subaru combines good resolution with a wide field of view. That latter quality is key. Some instruments, such as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, are probably sharp-eyed enough to spot Planet Nine but have such narrow fields of view that employing them in the hunt would be impractical.)

If Planet Nine is too faint for Subaru, then Batygin, Sheppard and other hunters likely won't despair. Help will soon arrive in the form of powerful new instruments, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which is scheduled to come online in the Chilean Andes in the early 2020s.

"If we don't find it in the next five or so years," Batygin said, LSST "is definitely going to deliver the final word on Planet Nine."

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. Flash

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that his nation has requested audio and video materials from Turkey that are related to the alleged death of a missing Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.





Trump told reporters at the White House that "we've asked for it, if it exists."





However, he did not confirm whether there was any such recording as reported by Turkish media, saying that "I'm not sure yet that it exists."





The Turkish daily Yeni Safak earlier reported that Turkey has audio recordings that could reveal the details of what happened to Khashoggi after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, noting that he had been tortured during an interrogation, with his fingers cut off.





Trump suggested that "rogue killers" may have been responsible for the disappearance.





In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, the president compared the Khashoggi case to the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying "here we go again with, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent."





When asked about his ambiguity towards Saudi Arabia's link with the journalist's disappearance, Trump denied that he has ever been "giving cover" to the Saudi side at all.





"No, not at all, I just want to find out what's happening," Trump said. "I'm not giving cover at all."





On Tuesday, The Washington Post, for which Khashoggi had been writing, accused the Trump administration of performing a "diplomatic cleanup operation" for Riyadh.





In an editorial, the paper called for an independent international investigation into the disappearance of the journalist, saying that the travel to Saudi Arabia by State Secretary Mike Pompeo has seemed to fail to find the truth.





Pompeo, "who smiled broadly as he greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appeared less intent on determining the truth than in helping the de facto Saudi ruler escape from the crisis he triggered," the article said, noting Trump had signaled that he is more than ready to assist in that dodge.





It urged an investigation by the UN's Security Council or Human Rights Council, noting that "until the full truth about Mr. Khashoggi is disclosed, U.S. businesses should shun the Saudi regime and Congress should block all military sales."





U.S. media outlets have reported that Turkish police investigators searching the Saudi Consulate had found evidence that Khashoggi was killed there, citing toxic material inside the building.





However, Trump said "we will probably know that by the end of the week" after he got a "full report" from Secretary of State Pompeo upon his return from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.





Earlier on Wednesday, he told Fox Business Network that the United States relies on Saudi Arabia to fight against terrorism and Iran, and would thus be unwilling to walk away from the kingdom, a "tremendous purchaser" of U.S. military equipment.





"It is 500,000 jobs, it will be ultimately $110 billion, it's the biggest order in the history of our country from an outside military, and I said we are gonna turn that down?" he asked.





"So hopefully it is working out. We'll find out. We'll get down to the bottom of it. I hope that the king and the crown prince didn't know about it," he said. "That is a big factor in my eyes, and I hope they haven't," he said.





Several U.S. media outlets reported on Monday that the Saudi side was preparing a report that Khashoggi's death was a result of a botched interrogation.Fisher Space Pen is celebrating its 50 years in space with a limited edition AG-7 astronaut space pen and coin set.

Fifty years ago, Walt Cunningham became one of NASA's first Apollo astronauts to fly into space and, aboard the same mission, one of the first people to use a Space Pen.

Cunningham, together with his Apollo 7 crewmates Wally Schirra and Donn Eisele, spent 11 days in Earth orbit checking out the Apollo command and service module systems. Launched atop a Saturn IB rocket on Oct. 11, 1968, the three astronauts confirmed that the spacecraft was ready to support subsequent crews on flights to the moon and back.

They also verified that a pen equipped with a pressurized ink cartridge was suited for writing in microgravity. [Apollo's First Crewed Trip to Space Happened 50 Years Ago]

"Fifty years ago, I flew with the first flown Space Pen on Apollo 7. I relied on it then, and it's still the only pen I rely on here on Earth," states Cunningham as reproduced on a small plaque that accompanies a new commemorative edition of the original pen.

Fisher Space Pen Company has launched the "Apollo 7 50th Anniversary Gold Titanium Astronaut Space Pen" in celebration of the first Apollo crewed mission and the first use of its writing instrument in space.

"We are extremely proud to be celebrating 50 years in space," said Cary Fisher, the president of Fisher Space Pen. "My father Paul Fisher was a visionary who personified American entrepreneurship and innovation. Our products are sold all over the world but we are still a family business manufacturing high-quality, state-of-the-art writing instruments, proudly made in the USA."

Contrary to an urban legend that NASA spent multiple years and millions of dollars developing a pen for its astronauts to use (while Soviet cosmonauts simply used pencils), the Space Pen began as the idea of Paul Fisher, an established ballpoint pen manufacturer, who invested his own $1 million into its invention. Foregoing the need for gravity to pull the ink down, Fisher's 1965 Anti-Gravity 7 (AG-7) pen used a pressurized cartridge and gel-like ink such that it continued to work when holding the pen upside down, in extreme temperatures and even underwater.

And, as it turned out it, in space.

Realizing his pen might be a good fit for astronauts, Fisher sent samples of the AG-7 to NASA, where it was put through and passed a series of tests. The Space Pen made its on-orbit debut aboard Apollo 7. A year later it was adopted by the Russian space program, too. For five decades, Space Pens has been on board every human spaceflight mission.

Astronaut Walt Cunningham writes using a Fisher AG-7 Space Pen during the Apollo 7 mission in October 1968. (Image credit: NASA)

The Apollo 7 50th Anniversary Gold Titanium Astronaut Space Pen reproduces the AG-7 model in brass with gold titanium nitride plating. The barrel is engraved with a depiction of the Apollo 7 spacecraft flying through a star field. Each pen is individually numbered and is inscribed "APOLLO 7 Anniversary" and "First Apollo Crew | Oct. 11-22, 1968."

Limited to only 500 pieces, the pen comes in a clear black lacquer gift box with a commemorative medallion featuring the Apollo 7 spacecraft on one side and the Fisher Space Pen "50" logo on the other. The set is packaged in a gold cardboard outer box and black velour string-tie bag.

The Apollo 7 50th Anniversary Gold Titanium Astronaut Space Pen is available via the Fisher Space Pen Company website for $500.

In addition to being the maiden flight of the Space Pen and first crewed mission of NASA's Apollo moon landing program, Apollo 7 was also the first three-person U.S. spaceflight and the first mission to include a live television broadcast from an American spacecraft.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.In a new book that was published posthumously, Stephen Hawking, who died in March, wrote that it is impossible for God to exist in our universe.

From his desk at Cambridge University and beyond, Stephen Hawking sent his mind spiraling into the deepest depths of black holes, radiating across the endless cosmos and swirling back billions of years to witness time's first breath. He viewed creation as a scientist, and when he was called to discuss creation's biggest puzzles  Where do we come from? What is our purpose? Are we alone?  he answered as a scientist, often to the chagrin of religious critics.

In Stephen Hawking's final book "Brief Answers to Big Questions," published Tuesday (Oct. 16) by Bantam Books, the professor begins a series of 10 intergalactic essays by addressing life's oldest and most religiously fraught question of all: Is there a God? [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

Hawking's answer  compiled from decades of prior interviews, essays and speeches with the help of his family, colleagues and the Steven Hawking Estate  should come as no surprise to readers who have followed his work, er, religiously.

"I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science," Hawking, who died in March, wrote. "If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn't take long to ask: What role is there for God?"

In life, Hawking was a vocal champion of the Big Bang theory  the idea that the universe began by exploding suddenly out of an ultradense singularity smaller than an atom. From this speck emerged all the matter, energy and empty space that the universe would ever contain, and all that raw material evolved into the cosmos we perceive today by following a strict set of scientific laws. To Hawking and many like-minded scientists, the combined laws of gravity, relativity, quantum physics and a few other rules could explain everything that ever happened or ever will happen in our known universe.

"If you like, you can say the laws are the work of God, but that is more a definition of God than a proof of his existence," Hawking wrote.

With the universe running on a scientifically guided autopilot, the only role for an all-powerful deity might be setting the initial conditions of the universe so that those laws could take shape  a divine creator who caused the Big Bang to bang, then stepped back to behold His work.

"Did God create the quantum laws that allowed the Big Bang to occur?" Hawking wrote. "I have no desire to offend anyone of faith, but I think science has a more compelling explanation than a divine creator."

Hawking's explanation begins with quantum mechanics, which explains how subatomic particles behave. In quantum studies, it's common to see subatomic particles like protons and electrons seemingly appear out of nowhere, stick around for a while and then disappear again to a completely different location. Because the universe was once the size of a subatomic particle itself, it's plausible that it behaved similarly during the Big Bang, Hawking wrote.

"The universe itself, in all its mind-boggling vastness and complexity, could simply have popped into existence without violating the known laws of nature," he wrote.

That still doesn't explain away the possibility that God created that proton-size singularity, then flipped the quantum- mechanical switch that allowed it to pop. But Hawking says science has an explanation here, too. To illustrate, he points to the physics of black holes  collapsed stars that are so dense, nothing, including light, can escape their pull.

Black holes, like the universe before the Big Bang, condense into a singularity. In this ultra-packed point of mass, gravity is so strong that it distorts time as well as light and space. Simply put, in the depths of a black hole, time does not exist.

Because the universe also began as a singularity, time itself could not have existed before the Big Bang. Hawking's answer, then, to what happened before the Big Bang is, "there was no time before the Big Bang."

"We have finally found something that doesnt have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in," Hawking wrote. "For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to have existed in."

This argument will do little to persuade theistic believers, but that was never Hawking's intent. As a scientist with a near-religious devotion to understanding the cosmos, Hawking sought to "know the mind of God" by learning everything he could about the self-sufficient universe around us. While his view of the universe might render a divine creator and the laws of nature incompatible, it still leaves ample space for faith, hope, wonder and, especially, gratitude.

"We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe," Hawking concludes the first chapter of his final book, "and for that I am extremely grateful."

Originally published on Live Science.International mediators struggled to prevent unrest on the Gaza border from erupting into war as a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet said Israel should shoot to kill any Palestinian who tries to break through the border fence.

Naftali Bennett, Israel's education minister and leader of the religious Jewish Home party, spoke in an interview as seven months of confrontation in Gaza threaten to deteriorate into all-out war. After a Palestinian rocket destroyed a home Wednesday in the Israeli city of Beersheba and another landed in the sea near Tel Aviv, Israeli fighter jets struck military targets across the territory.

"We haven't shown enough of a steel fist there," Bennett, a longtime political rival within Netanyahu's governing coalition, said Tuesday at his Tel Aviv office. "We've been mighty soft on the fence, and that softness invites an increase in attacks."

Egyptian and United Nations diplomats were in Gaza on Wednesday to try to broker an agreement that would prevent the current round of violence from boiling over. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars over the past decade, most recently in 2014, that have left thousands of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis dead.

Israeli politicians have been jockeying to see who can talk toughest against Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers as speculation swells about early elections. Violence from Gaza has grown since a campaign of mass protests against Israel was launched in late March. Bennett criticized Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman this month, saying his policies had failed and were jeopardizing residents of Israel's south.

Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli parliament, said Bennett was effectively advocating war crimes.

"He's asking to shoot more and commit more war crimes," Tibi said in a text message.

The Gaza protest campaign has included frequent attempts to cut through the 10-foot (3-meter) wire fence to enter Israel. Gaza residents have sent flaming balloons and kites over the border, setting fire to thousands of acres of forest and agricultural land, and militants in the strip fire rockets at Israeli towns from time to time.

Israeli snipers deployed on the border have killed more than 200 Palestinians, including seven last weekend, and injured thousands. One Israeli soldier was also killed by sniper fire from Gaza.

Israel's approach to Gaza should be, "Get the hell out of our territory," Bennett said. "Stop infiltrating Israel, and if you do infiltrate, you're risking your life."

At an Oct. 13 funeral for a man killed by Israeli troops, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on Palestinians to keep fighting until the blockade against Gaza is lifted.

"The blood of the martyrs brings us closer to victory over the Zionist enemy," he said.

Bennett, 46, who harshly criticized Netanyahu for letting the 2014 war drag on for seven weeks, has pushed for a swift, punishing air campaign focused on destroying Hamas military bases and weapons factories. While members of his party -- many of them former residents of Gaza's Jewish settlements -- advocate reoccupying the territory Israel held for 38 years, Bennett says such a step would be imprudent.

"It would be like putting your hand in a beehive," he said.

Israel's Security Cabinet met about Gaza late into the night Wednesday. Beforehand, Netanyahu threatened a "very painful" response if Hamas didn't curtail its attacks. Liberman said Israel was prepared to strike a "serious blow" that could cripple Hamas' assault capabilities for several years.

Bennett, who's proposed annexing most of the West Bank to Israel while offering the Palestinians "autonomy on steroids," said he would oppose any effort to establish a Palestinian state, even if it's included in President Donald Trump's forthcoming peace plan.

His said his experience as a high-tech executive taught him the value of testing a product through a pilot program, and only then disseminating it more widely. For Palestinian statehood, "we have a pilot. It's called Gaza," Bennett said. "It would be ridiculous - crazy - to have such a failed pilot and then go 'live.' "

---

Bloomberg's Saud Abu Ramadan contributed to this report.DARIEN  A rule change will no longer allow parents to eat with kindergartners and first-graders at the towns elementary schools.

Citing safety concerns and educational reasons, Interim Superintendent Elliott Landon sent an email to parents saying they would no longer be permitted to sit by their children in the lunchrooms of elementary schools while they eat.

For educational reasons, students of this age need to learn how to function independently under the supervision of a trained educational professional without parental distraction, Landon wrote in an email.

One parent after another voiced their opinion on the change at a recent Board of Education meeting.

Jessica Xu, a Darien resident and parent, said at the board meeting that she was hurt and offended by the decision to end the policy.

The action taken to cut the program allowing parents to come to some of the elementary schools really felt like a punch in the gut, Xu said.

She said she understood security is an issue and how it could take more work on the part of the teachers. However, Xu said creating a school culture that recognizes the community learning is beneficial to everyone.

Having parents and loving people sitting in the cafeteria to help children learn how to sit, engage with each other and more was important, Xu said.

Nancy Hidalgo, resident and parent, said she loved the school system and it was one of the reasons she moved to Darien. However, she also was concerned with the decision to end the policy.

I can appreciate security concerns. I completely get that, Hidalgo said. But for me theres no other interaction we can have with our kids that is somewhat unstructured and yet meaningful in a social engagement kind of way.

She said sitting down with kids during lunch it gave parents an opportunity to model good behavior. The unscheduled and somewhat unstructured environment of being able to visit during lunchtime was incredibly valuable to parents.

As a working parent we try to engage with the school as often as we can, but its hard because our schedules dont really allow us to do it, Hidalgo said.

Elizabeth Lane, a parent and resident, said she thinks not letting parents into lunch was good because kids have to learn how to work with each other and socialize with each other.

Putting a parent in changes the dynamic dramatically, Lane said. They have to learn how to deal on their own.

She also said it was a little disruptive to have parents in during lunch and she appreciated the end of the program.

Terry Steadman, a parent, said she was shocked and upset when she received the email about the change from Landon. She also said with the policy there needs to be some flexibility and a potential meeting in the middle for both sides.

To just ban parents from the lunchroom, which is essentially what youre doing with this email, I dont think its right and I dont think its in the spirit of a collaborative environment, Steadman said.

She said the email went out abruptly without consideration or discussion with the parents on alternatives for parents to interact with their children during the day.

Theres many reasons why a parent would want to interact with their children throughout the day, she said. Maybe theyre going through family issues, maybe they miss a child, its their birthday. Many reasons.

No further discussion was held on the change at the meeting.

dj.simmons@hearstmediact.com, 203-842-2568There are probably only a handful of people in the history of the world who have ever turned down $2.5 billion. My father is one of them, and I was standing beside him when he did it. I was stunned.

Coca-Cola wanted to enter into a partnership with my fathers Vietnamese beverage company, but he didnt feel that it was a good fit. How can $2.5 billion not be a good fit?

Related: The Most Fulfilling Way to Enjoy Your Success Is to Create a Lasting Legacy

If the deal had gone through, it would be have been the largest foreign acquisition in Vietnams history at the time it was presented in 2012. After the elevator door closed and the stunned Coca-Cola executives were gone, my father gave me some advice that I will never forget. Never show emotion; never show your hand, he said. Talking about our family as well as our business, he said, Proud we stand, as we always have and always will. He told me the partnership offer presented by Coca-Cola was not a meeting of the minds.

Our company was one of the first in Vietnam to show that family businesses could compete with the big boys when it came to fighting for a share of a lucrative, rapidly emerging market like Southeast Asia.

There are many other pearls of wisdom my father gives me about the business in his current role as chairman and CEO. The ability to pass down knowledge from one generation to the next is one of the biggest advantages family businesses have over big international companies that want to gobble them up.

Related: If You Only Take One Piece of Leadership Advice, It Should Be This

According to a study by McKinsey and Company, a global management consulting firm, in emerging markets like Southeast Asia, approximately 60 percent of private sector companies with revenue of $1 billion or more were owned by founders or families in 2010. By comparison, less than one third of the companies that large in the S&P 500 are founder- or family-owned.

Family businesses also have a reputation that goes beyond brand loyalty. My father is relentless about protecting our reputation personally and professionally. He makes sure every day that the family and the employees know that our reputation is the most important thing we own.

According to the McKinsey report, Doing business on behalf of a family can signal greater accountability -- the familys reputation is at stake, after all -- and a stronger commitment. In some cases, a personal commitment from the owner of a family business was as powerful as a signed contract.

While multinational corporations with their power and prestige have huge clout, family businesses also have advantages when competing with these behemoths. Those advantages include:

Speed: Family businesses typically do not answer to a board of directors that must approve every move. If the market suddenly changes, a family business has the ability to change quickly.

Adaptability: A family business is more likely to move into new lucrative territory faster than a large bureaucratic business.

Knowledge of local markets: Locally run family businesses are more connected to the community.

Ability to achieve long-term goals: Local family businesses do not have to worry about quarterly profits like most major companies. They can take a longer view of the business and do not feel as pressured to react to short term issues.

Buy in: If the familys name is on the door, they are going to try to make sure every customer is happy.

Related: At 27, She Unexpectedly Became the CEO of Her Family Business. Now She is the Leader of a $120 Million Company.

Family businesses are not the past, but the future of business in Southeast Asia. American family-owned businesses that are struggling might want to examine our success to see if there is something they may benefit from.

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Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedHave you ever heard someone describe themselves as a "brand evangelist"? What was your response -- maybe an eye roll, a laugh or a little bit of intrigue? It's not surprising if you've heard someone use this term, or even used it yourself. The concept of brand evangelism has picked up steam in recent years, and is now fairly common jargon. But, it's also a lot more than that. It's a movement and an approach that can actually help accelerate and grow businesses.

Related: 4 Critical Steps for Building a Memorable Brand

So, is your business benefiting from brand evangelism? It can -- and should -- be. But, first, you must understand what exactly brand evangelism is.

What we're getting wrong

The dictionary defines evangelism, in part, as having to do with "zeal, purpose or activity." And most people know that the term "evangelism" has religious roots, usually referring to people who spread their beliefs enthusiastically and consistently to others. So, it makes sense that business folks have borrowed the term, and repurposed it to describe a deep commitment to advocating for a brand.

Microsoft, HP, Adobe and many other companies even have official "brand evangelists" on their payrolls, using these people to stir up interest in their company as an employer. But, when we talk about brand evangelism, it's not just about HR and it's definitely not about talking about your product. Either of these approaches is dead wrong.

Here's what evangelism really is -- or should be: It's about clarifying the problem, building a community around the philosophy of the solution (not your product) and making it possible for people to be part of the solution. It's fine to give people the title of "evangelist" within your company if you want, but what really matters is the actions these individuals take in spreading the word about the problem your brand is solving and about the community you're building.

Related: Savvy Startups Like Casper and Brandless Are Investing in Brand Image First -- and You Should, Too

The real starting line

Evangelism isn't something to be decided on down the road; it should actually be in the DNA of the founding team from the get-go. Since the focus is primarily on the problem you're solving, building a community of believers and your philosophy around best practices, the timing of evangelism isn't dependent on your product.

As a matter of fact, having a community who believes in the problem and feels part of the solutions is better than having a solution with no customers. The timing is even more critical when you are thinking of building a brand new category, which requires a lot more education around why a problem exists. In this case, you're setting yourself up to be a category leader.

Think about companies like Salesforce and Hubspot. Each has become a category leader in its own right, building vibrant communities through their actions of evangelizing the problem they solve. For example, Salesforce's annual conference Dreamforce brings together 150,000-plus people who are passionate around solving problems that existed in the CRM space. And Hubspot brings together 24,000-plus people purely due to evangelism of the problem it's solving, followed by the product (not preceded by it).

Even if someone could build a better product/platform than Salesforce and Hubspot, the evangelism through their community building efforts laid such a strong foundation for these companies that no competitor could even come close to them. In these cases, and in the case of others that are true evangelists, evangelism isn't only in the DNA of the founding team but also in the entire community. This is how loyalty is built, and how momentum is gained.

Related: How to Charm Rejected Applicants Into Being Brand Ambassadors

Measuring success

One of the issues with brand evangelism to date is that it can sound a little abstract. People don't know exactly how to define it (or are defining it incorrectly), so then they aren't able to accurately tell whether they're succeeding with it. If you do it right, you can actually see how your brand evangelism is impacting your bottom line. In fact, I'd argue that this can be measured by your market caps compared to the second in your category without community and evangelism. If you're doing well in this area, your market caps will far exceed your nearest competitors.

The greatest result of evangelism is the net result of your employees, customers, future customers, influencers and community talking about your company's brand as synonymous with the problem and category you are trying to build. Let's say you develop software to help the commercial construction industry streamline the process of new construction. The problem you're solving is lengthy schedules and wasted costs due to inefficiencies. If you're handling brand evangelism well, you should see your brand name mentioned in any forums, social media conversations, etc., in which these problems are being discussed.

Related: The Top 200 Franchise Brands People Love the Most

Can I be a brand evangelist?

If you want to move your company toward being a category leader, and experiencing exponential success, you can. You don't have to be a founder, CEO or have a manager-level title. What you do have to have, though, is deep belief in your brand's singular cause and a dedication to bring about change, gather people, connect others, bring life to the conversation and pursue your business's mission until the end.

The best brand evangelists don't bounce between new ideas and trends, but rather have one idea and purpose they're laser-focused upon. People follow them because they can trust them to continue to fight, no matter what happens. These people are not doing a "job"; they're on a mission to make change happen and bring a community together. You can absolutely be a brand evangelist if these are qualities near and dear to you.

As marketing expert Jay Baer has said, "If your stories are all about your products and services, that's not storytelling. It's a brochure. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger." By focusing on the problem you're solving, building a community of like-minded folks who are passionate about getting this problem solved and then making them part of the solution -- you make the story bigger, and your brand too.

Related:

What Brand Evangelism Really Means -- and Why It's So Important

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Using the Power of Influence to Build Your Global Cannabis Brand



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Flash

The U.S. Department of State will file notice that the United States will withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an international body of the United Nations (UN), the White House announced on Wednesday.





"This will begin a one-year withdrawal process, as set forth in the UPU Constitution," the White House said, adding the Department of State will seek to "negotiate bilateral and multilateral agreements" that resolve the problems related to reform the terms of the postal treaty.





"If negotiations are successful, the Administration is prepared to rescind the notice of withdrawal and remain in the UPU," said the White House.





The UPU, which consists of 192 members and is located in Switzerland, sets shipping rates for international mail in a way that guarantees lower prices for shipments from developing economies and higher rates for those from advanced economies.





The Donald Trump administration believed that the current structure of international mailing rates benefit some developing economies, while putting American small businesses and manufacturers at a severe competitive disadvantage.





The administration had sought to renegotiate the postal rates, known as terminal dues, at a summit of the UPU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last month, but was rebuffed by other countries, senior White House officials on Wednesday told reporters in a conference call.





Now the administration plans to set its own "self-declared" international postal rates as it moves to pull out of the 144-year-old international postal body.





"The President concurs with the Department of State's recommendation to adopt self-declared rates for terminal dues as soon as practical, and no later than January 1, 2020," the White House said.





It's not clear whether U.S. consumers will face higher prices reflecting new shipping rates if the Untied States formally withdraws from the UPU.





The move against the UPU represented another U.S. departure from multinational organizations and treaties, after it pulled out of the Paris climate accord, the UN Global Compact on Migration, the UN culture and education body UNESCO, the UN Human Rights Council, as well as the Iran nuclear deal.T he boss of Asos was bullish on Wednesday as he revealed plans to plough more cash back into the business to turbocharge it after a jump in profits and sales.

Investors have voiced concerns this year, reflected in the share price, about Asoss aim to spend up to 250 million a year in the next few years to help build warehouses in Europe and the US.

The business, started 17 years ago and now selling more than 87,000 branded clothes and its Asos Design brand in more than 200 markets, said its substantial investment continued apace.

Chief executive Nick Beighton said: Investment is important for future growth and were eyeing up a much bigger prize than where were currently at. Were ramping up our capabilities faster than ever before.

In April, Asos said it was aiming to make sales of 4 billion. Today it delivered sales of 2.5 billion  two years earlier than forecast  up from revenues of 1.9 billion last year. Pre-tax profits jumped 28% to 102 million and the shares followed, up 666p at 5666p.

Another notable positive is the group hasnt exceeded its investment budget. Thatll be a relief for investors as Asos hasnt always had the strongest grip on expansion costs, said George Salmon, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Investecs Ben Hunt, however, was bearish. We remain negative with concerns that margin pressures are building and other levers to mitigate margin headwinds are dissipating.T he Home Office has quietly privatised the spy planes used by MI5 to gather information on UK suspects.

Previously, three specially kitted-out planes known as Islanders were given the task of flying over the UK on surveillance missions.

The nature of their work is speculated to include scooping up mobile phone conversations and sending them to GCHQ for analysis.

However, according to investigation by Secret-bases.co.uk, which monitors aviation movements, the work has been given to fast-growing private aviation group 2Excel with three brand-new aircraft called the Piper PA-31 Navajo.

They continue to operate from RAF Northolt by 2Excels Scimitar business unit, according to the reports. Run by former RAF officers, 2Excel is also thought to run air surveillance flights for the military. Its directors did not respond to requests for comment.

There are no public tender documents for the work.

A government spokesman said: We do not comment on matters of national security.C onsumer goods giant Unilever on Thursday attempted to provide some relief to shareholders by posting sales growth and insisting there are no regrets over a humiliating climbdown from plans to move its HQ to Rotterdam.

The Marmite maker gave its first trading update after it abandoned proposals to shift its legal head office to the Netherlands from London two weeks ago. That followed a major rebellion from investors.

Finance director Graeme Pitkethly said: We certainly dont regret having brought the proposals [forward] themselves. He added: I dont feel time was wasted. He also said the firm met some 370 investors since the proposal was unveiled in March.

The Anglo-Dutch firm, which last year fought off a 115 billion swoop from US foods behemoth Kraft Heinz, had wanted to move to Rotterdam, where Dutch laws typically favour the defender in takeover attempts, to simplify its corporate structure.

However, a number of UK shareholders came out almost daily between September and early October to oppose the idea, concerned that exiting the FTSE 100 would mean the stock is less likely to be included in UK managers portfolios.

Unilever this week was under fire from Labour MP Rachel Reeves, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee.

She pointed out that the manufacturer had faced investor revolts not just over the relocation, but also over executive pay.

Unilever boss Paul Polman, who took home 10 million last year, saw more than a third of shareholders vote against a deal that could have handed him 10 million in bonuses and 1.45 million in fixed pay this year.

Speaking about the Rotterdam talks, Pitkethly told the Standard today: We have lots of valuable learnings from the process.

His comments are likely to be closely watched in the City because Unilevers third-quarter release made no mention of the botched Netherlands plan.

The FTSE 100 firm, which also makes Vaseline and Dove soap, saw turnover fall 4.8% to 12.5 billion (11 billion), hit by the disposal of its spreads business.

But underlying sales rose 3.8%, boosted by growth in all divisions and higher prices.I n Brussels last night, Theresa May told the 27 other EU leaders that she was willing to consider extending the post-Brexit transition period by a year. This would mean that the UK would follow EU rules, remaining inside the customs union and the single market and paying into the EU budget until the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister is prepared to consider such an extension as a means of unravelling what European Council President Donald Tusk described this week as the Gordian knot of the Irish backstop. At the end of her 15-minute statement to the leaders before they went off to dinner without her, Mrs May said the final stage of Brexit negotiations required courage, trust and leadership on both sides.

Its never too late to show courage or leadership but time may be too short to reverse the loss of trust in the Prime Minister and her government that is at the root of the EUs demand for an Irish backstop.

Northern Ireland and the border were scarcely mentioned during the 2016 referendum campaign but Brexit was always going to complicate the delicate balance of relationships on the island of Ireland and across the Irish Sea.

Over the past 20 years, the border has disappeared from the consciousness of those who live on either side of it, who cross its hundreds of roads every day to do business, go to school or receive medical treatment. Farms straddle the border and milk often makes a number of journeys in both directions across it to be collected, processed and distributed.

Denis Staunton / Brenda Fitzsimons

Immediately after the referendum, the hope in Ireland was that the British Government would seek the closest possible economic relationship with the EU, staying inside the single market and the customs union. This would have allowed the border to remain open, with no need for customs or regulatory checks and the physical infrastructure that accompanies them on every border in the world.

Mrs May ruled out such a solution when she promised that the UK would leave the single market, the customs union and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights.

By then, the EU had identified Ireland and the border as one of the priority issues, along with the divorce bill and citizens rights, that had to be resolved before the future economic relationship could be negotiated.

These three issues would be settled in a legally binding withdrawal agreement, which would be accompanied by a non-binding political declaration on the future relationship. And failure to agree a withdrawal agreement would see the UK crash out of the EU next March with no transition arrangement and with potentially catastrophic economic consequences.

From early in the negotiations, the UK appeared to be dragging its feet, raising the suspicion in Brussels that it hoped to use the border as a lever to win a more advantageous economic relationship with the EU as a whole.

"Irish officials fear that even unobtrusive infrastructure on the border would be a target for dissident Republicans"

The Prime Ministers political room for manoeuvre diminished after last years general election, which left her dependent at Westminster on the votes of 10 DUP MPs. The hardline unionist party represents just over a third of voters in Northern Ireland, where a majority voted to remain in the EU in 2016.

It opposed the Belfast Agreement 20 years ago and its leader, Arlene Foster , said this month that its provisions should not be regarded as sacrosanct. This scepticism is shared by some English Brexiteers, who have also dismissed the issue of the border as a distraction.

Although Mrs May rejected the EUs proposed text for the backstop last February, she told last nights meeting in Brussels that she remains committed to a legally operable backstop. And she stands by the commitment she made in March that such a backstop would remain in place unless and until a permanent solution to keep the border open is agreed.

Under pressure from the DUP, the Prime Minister has characterised the EUs backstop proposal as an attempt to carve Northern Ireland out of the UK. In fact, the constitutional status of Northern Ireland has been settled by the Belfast Agreement, which says it will remain in the UK until a majority of its citizens vote for a united Ireland in a referendum.

But Northern Ireland has a different constitutional status to other parts of the UK, including Scotland and Wales. An international treaty gives Dublin a consultative role in how Northern Ireland is governed, although it has no direct authority there. People born in Northern Ireland can choose to be British or Irish or both, and its devolved government must be formed by a coalition of representatives of both the unionist and nationalist communities.

The island of Ireland has a single electricity market and it has long been a single sanitary and phytosanitary unit, prompting the late Rev Ian Paisley to declare during an outbreak of mad cow disease in Britain that although his people were British, their cows were Irish.

The EU is willing to agree a UK-wide customs backstop and to make regulatory checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland almost invisible. But Ireland and Brussels are determined that, if the UK wants to leave the single market and the customs union, it cannot do so at the expense of the peace settlement in Ireland.

Although Brexiteers dismiss fears of a return to violence, Irish officials fear that even the most unobtrusive infrastructure on the border would become a target for dissident Republicans. That would require measures to protect such infrastructure, which could lead to an escalation in violence as a generation too young to remember the Troubles gets involved.

That is a risk Ireland is not willing to take to facilitate a hard Brexit and to accommodate the Prime Ministers rebellious backbenchers." London doesnt need any more shops and none of us need more stuff."

Its quite a big statement coming from the man in charge of Londons newest and most anticipated retail district. But Craig White thinks theres a loftier purpose to his job as senior project director for Kings Cross and Coal Drops Yard (CDY) than just selling stuff.

"Its not about consumption  you can get that online  its about delighting people," he explains.

"Rather than worry about the future of retail, we wanted to capture the spirit of shopkeepers and go back to a time of passion, skill and service when people would live and work above their shops. So if you come here you might bump into Tom Dixon grabbing his coffee at Caravan, or Paul Smith serving in his shop on a Saturday. Were only working with brands that have the ability to be creative and enrich peoples experiences in some way."

On 26 October, 50 of these carefully curated brands will open under one Thomas Heatherwick-designed roof in Coal Drops Yard, utilising buildings that come with a lot more history than your average shopping mall. In the 1850s this was where wagons from northern England dropped eight million tonnes of coal every year, to be loaded on to horse-drawn carts and carried across London to power the city. If you were a raver in the 1980s and 1990s, youll know it better as the sweaty arches where beats were dropped, as the site of legendary warehouse raves and later the nightclubs, The Cross and Bagleys. Soon a predicted 20 million visitors a year will shop until they drop here, with a mix of big-name brands such as Cos and Aesop mingling with independent concept stores. Good luck getting a table at Dishoom now.

Heatherwicks ambitious shopping arcade takes the two long Victorian brick and cast-iron sheds, which he refers to as "two KitKats", and links the cobblestone yard between them with two "kissing" roofs that just seem to touch, made of 80,000 slate tiles drawn from the same Welsh quarry as the original 1850s covering. A flagship Samsung store has snagged the glass-fronted sweet spot underneath the smooch.

"It wasnt going to be enough to sandblast the bricks and bung a few shops in," Heatherwick tells me over the phone from Singapore airport, where hes designing a mega-terminal.

"I wanted to open up these historic structures to the public again and find a way to see them with fresh eyes. I thought: 'What would the Victorians do?' They were very audacious."

Heatherwick felt under pressure to get it right, having lived and worked in Kings Cross for 17 years. "Its right on our doorstep so I feel a big sense of trying to make this a place that has soul and isnt generic," he says.

"So often, new places feel lifeless and sterile, so we want to help to make it as accessible and welcoming to all of London as possible, not just a certain section."

This is the latest chapter in the 3 billion development of Kings Cross, which has been 18 years in the making and has seen these disused railway properties transformed from a less-than-salubrious no-mans land with a reputation as a red-light district into a hotspot for creativity, technology and, of course  the ultimate signifier of a middle-class makeover  a Waitrose. Across 27 hectares of what was once mainly inaccessible terrain  "an area bigger than Soho" as White points out  the developer Argent has been transforming these railyards, gasholders and warehouses into offices, restaurants, shops, public space and the campus for Central Saint Martins. It is one of the biggest urban rejuvenation projects in Europe. It even has its own postcode, N1C.

Ahead of the curve: Thomas Heatherwicks design

It would be easy to pour scorn on the noble ideals expressed for Coal Drops, given the high-end nature of most of the shops here. Only a tiny percentage of Londoners can drop 400 on a pair of Churchs brogues.

"Yeah, some of its expensive, but we only engage with brands whose ethos and culture is about sharing and making people feel welcome," insists White.

"All the brands here have raised their game and offered multi-purpose creative spaces in what Im calling the 'Heatherwick halo' effect. So you can come and buy a coffee and hear a talk by someone interesting, or get involved in a workshop."

Tom Dixon Studio embodies this multi-disciplinary ethos. The interior designer has moved his headquarters from Ladbroke Grove to The Coal Office, a 1,625 sq metre complex that sits between Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square.

"We looked all over the city because the last thing people want is a dusty old furniture shop and you have to work harder to be interesting these days," says Dixon. To that end therell be a shop, gallery, office, restaurant and The Factory, a fully-functioning workshop where customers can make their own geometric Tom Dixon etch pendant light.

"My origins are making things with my hands in London, so we wanted to get a bit of manufacturing going on here as well," he explains. "The plates for the restaurant [a collaboration with Assaf Granit from The Palomar] were made in the factory and fired in the Central Saint Martins kiln."

Arty: Tom Dixon new studios

Dixons old friend Paul Smith will be doing similarly ambitious things in his shop across the way, which features a blue rubber floor and a wall covered in Japanese one-yen coins.

"For me there was always a connection to this area," says Smith. "Coming from Nottingham Id always come into St Pancras and Id use Kings Cross to go up to Leeds, which was where all the fabrics came from and a lot of the clothes were made. So I was very familiar with the history and authenticity of the architecture round here, and the coal drops with their brick and cast iron are just fantastic spaces."

Having a store at CDY is also a homecoming for the handmade eyewear brand Cubitts, named after the Cubitt brothers, the Victorian master builders who designed Kings Cross station and the adjacent Great Northern Hotel in 1854. "For a long time this area has kind of been forgotten and downtrodden, but scratch below the surface and theres such amazing history," says Tom Broughton, founder of Cubitts, whos lived here for 15 years.

"There was a house of correction, public baths, the largest potato market in the UK theres something really cool about taking this area thats been forgotten for so long and repurposing it for the modern age."

Sharmadean Reid of WAH Nails, herself a Central Saint Martins graduate, will be bringing her new app Beautystack to life with a pop-up salon, where Insta-famous beauty brands, such as the lash bar Slash Beauty, will offer cutting-edge treatments. "Ive not seen a shopping space like this anywhere else in the world," says Reid.

"Were so used to being on top of each other on Oxford Street, whereas this feels more like a warehouse in downtown LA."

King's Cross area guide: The Highlights 1 /21 King's Cross area guide: The Highlights Wellcome Collection Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images The Star of Kings The Racketeers The Place Benedict Johnson The Lighterman Scala Platform 9 3/4 AFP/Getty Images Pizza Union Notes Justin De Souza London Canal Museum Kings Place Nick White Halfcup Granger & Co Granary Square Getty Images Foundling Museum GG Archard Foodilic Caravan Camino British Library Getty Images Big Chill Bar Pepito

High-end high street names were also eager to get in on the act. Karin Gustafsson, Creative Director at Cos, compares the brands outlet at Coal Drops Yard to previous collaborations at Salon del Mobile or with the Serpentine Gallery.

"We admired the look of the building and liked the historical elements and the fact that it was being reinvented by Thomas Heatherwick," she says. "We felt that our space had a unique feel, more like a gallery, with different floors to separate themes. For us this space is a first."

And its not just about shopping and beauty, craftsmanship and history. Google now has not one but four office buildings here including DeepMind (the AI division) and its new European HQ, a Heatherwick-designed 1 billion groundscraper as long as The Shard is tall. Facebook is about to move in nearby.

Coal Drops Yard will also become a talked-about dining destination courtesy of an outpost of the Michelin-starred Spanish tapas bar Barrafina  along with Casa Pastor, a big sister to Boroughs permanently packed taqueria El Pastor, and a wine bar and diner called The Drop. Sam Hart, who founded Barrafina with his brother Eddie, and now runs the business with their youngest brother James and business partner Crispin Somerville (from El Pastor), first missed out on a spot in this location 10 years ago.

"To be honest we didnt even bother going to see it," laughs Sam. "We just thought, 'Kings Cross? Who will ever want to go there?' It seemed ridiculous. Turns out, we were very short-sighted and very very wrong."

Coming soon: The new development

Likewise, chef Pip Lacey, formerly of Murano and winner of Great British Menu, admits that the new Wolf & Badger flagship store wasnt the obvious choice for her first restaurant. "Initially I wasnt into the idea of having a restaurant on top of a shop  I thought it would be like egg and cress sandwiches in the John Lewis cafe. But we realised it was a really good fit for our concept and it was everything we wanted but couldnt afford on our own."

Hicce (pronounced ee-che) will offer simple modern European fare, and Wolf & Badger is no typical department store. Its a three-storey creative hub featuring a bookshop, a florist and a Raw Press juice bar.

One wonders what the ravers at Bagleys would make of wheatgrass shots under the same hallowed arches. But those days of debauchery might not be totally over thanks to Dixon, who has plans to install a disco in the basement of his studio. "Were working with Spiritland, which has the best record player in London," he says. "I may have gone to The Cross once or twice in my youth, so itll be good to pay homage to that history."

So whether youre an ageing raver or a young creative, a discerning foodie or just a fan of sexy architecture, well see you at Coal Drops Yard.Chattanooga State Community College and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) have announced an agreement that provides direct transfer opportunities between the two institutions. Through the partnership, SNHU guarantees transferability of all eligible credits earned in the following Chattanooga State associate degree programs to the corresponding SNHU bachelors degree:

Chattanooga State Community College General Education Core

Chattanooga State Community College Associate of Arts (AA) or Associate of Science to SNHU Bachelor of Arts in General Studies

Chattanooga State Community College Associate of Applied Science in Allied Health to SNHU Health Sciences

As Southern New Hampshire University is a regionally-accredited institution via the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, all academic coursework in which students earn a grade of C minus or higher is fully transferable based on course equivalents. SNHU will accept up to 90 transfer credits from Chattanooga State toward a bachelors degree.

Based on the agreement, eligible Chattanooga State Community College graduates, employees and immediate family members of employees (spouse, domestic partners, children, siblings, and parents) will receive a ten percent tuition reduction for SNHUs online programs, to commence with the official signing. Additionally, the agreement allows for a waiver of the application fee to SNHU. Programs offered at military tuition assistance levels are not subject to the reduction.

Community college graduates often look for opportunities to continue their education by transferring credits to a bachelors degree program, said William Hartglass, vice president of strategic partnerships, SNHU. Partnerships, like this one with Chattanooga State Community College, make it easy by creating a direct pathway from an associate degree to a bachelors degree. We are always eager to work with community colleges that are looking to help students find ways to continue their education to achieve their personal and professional goals. This gives us the opportunity to share our resources and further our commitment to students.

I am so pleased to sign this articulation agreement today with Southern New Hampshire University. This agreement will provide our graduates with more options for completion of a bachelors degree with SNHU. I am so grateful to SNHU for partnering with Chattanooga State, said Dr. Rebecca Ashford, president, Chattanooga State Community College.You are here: World

 Flash

Mongolia and Vietnam have signed an agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons, the Mongolian Foreign Affairs Ministry said Thursday.

A Mongolian delegation led by Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Tsend Nyamdorj visited Vietnam on Oct. 15-17, during which Nyamdorj and Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam signed the agreement, the ministry said in a statement.

"Currently, there are no Mongolian citizens imprisoned in Vietnam. But the number of Mongolian visitors in Vietnam has been growing in recent years," the ministry said, stressing that this kind of agreement is important to protecting the rights of Mongolian citizens abroad.

According to data released by the ministry, a total of 174 Mongolian citizens are serving their prison sentences overseas.

Among the 19 foreign nationals serving sentences in Mongolia, two are Vietnamese.T hink about your favourite horror movie scenes  the ones that always lurk in the back of your mind, making you wish you could sleep with one eye open  and the chances are there's a killer soundtrack accompanying it.

So much of the genre is visual, from the gore and the grotesque villains to the ghoulish settings, but the aural aspect is crucial. It sets the mood, ramps up the tension and makes the heart beat that little bit faster.

Here, we've picked out five iconic scenes (only four from the horror genre, but all wholly unnerving) where music plays the starring role. Just don't blame us if you can't get to sleep tonight.

Psycho  Bernard Herrmann (1960)

The fact this scene can be so endlessly aped, by both the parodists and lazy composers that followed, and still retain all of that gut-twisting terror, 58 years after it first appeared on-screen, is testament to just how special it is. Its the scene that made a generation of people ever so slightly scared to close their eyes while taking shower, but what really seeps irretrievably into the crevices of the memory are those piercing orchestral shrieks, courtesy of composer Bernard Herrmann. They cut as sharply as the knife, clawing at the silence that had previously reigned. As the blood trickles away and the hand scrapes slowly down the bathroom tiles, the full horror of whats just happened sinks in, and Herrmanns score swells with looming, unforgettable dread.

The best Halloween movies of all time 1 /10 The best Halloween movies of all time Halloween Well, how else could we start? They literally named the film for it. From the sinister opening sequence, shot in POV, to the terrifying moment serial killer Michael Myers sits up, appearing to come back from the dead, Halloween is packed with some of the most nerve-shredding scenes in horror history. Masterful direction from John Carpenter saw him establish himself as one of the leading genre filmmakers in the 70s and 80s, while Jamie Lee Curtis burst onto the scene as protagonist Laurie Strode. A string of sequels and reboots range drastically in quality (from the surprisingly good Rob Zombie film Halloween II in 2007, to the unsurprisingly naff Halloween: Resurrection, which starred Busta Rhymes, Tyra Banks and American Pies Thomas Ian Nicholas in 2002), but the thrill of the original movie and its impact on horror cinema cannot be understated. Edward Scissorhands Edward Scissorhands, the first of many Tim Burton and Johnny Depp collaborations, proved one of the most memorable dark romances of its time when it was released in 1990. The surprisingly affecting movie tells the story of a young man with scissors for hands, who comes to experience a new life in suburbia after years in isolation. He might have turned into a parody of himself in recent years with turns in the likes of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Pirates sequels, but Depp delivered an inspired performance in the film. He proved himself as one of the most unique and compelling talents of a generation with the role, bringing the titular character to life with heartbreaking vulnerability. Poltergeist Forget the derivative 2015 reboot  the original Poltergeist from 1982 is the only version of the horror classic worth investing in this Halloween. With a screenplay by Steven Spielberg and directed by Texas Chainsaw Massacre filmmaker Tobe Hooper, the film made a big impact upon audiences at the time, establishing itself as one of the most compelling supernatural horrors of all time. The visual effects are a little dated by todays standards, but the movie remains a genuinely creepy viewing experience, and the famous theyre here sequence will change the way you look at your TV screen forever. Hocus Pocus The definition of a cult hit, Hocus Focus gradually found an audience after years of relative obscurity, and its now seen as one of the most loveable comedy horrors of the early 90s. The movie focus on three witches who are accidentally summoned by a teenager in modern day Massachusetts. A young Sarah Jessica Parker stars in the movie, which is fantastic fun and a top film to to unwind to this Halloween. Donnie Darko Richard Kellys Donnie Darko is one of the most original movies of the last few decades, and theres real darkness at the core of this ambitious piece of filmmaking. A strange narrative plays out against weird, unconventional cinematography, all helped by an excellent soundtrack and star-making performances from Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The integral appearance of a halloween costume in the movie makes it a perfect fit for the occasion too. Beetlejuice Tim Burton mixed horror inflections and inspired weirdo comedy in the unforgettable cult classic Beetlejuice. An electric performance from Michael Keaton in the title role sparks the films ghostly narrative into life, while Burtons typical visual flair and oddball aesthetics give the film real personality to boot. Revisit the classic this Halloween, but just dont say his name three times in a row... Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock The Exorcist It's regarded by many as the greatest horror film of all time, so what better time to scare yourself silly than revisiting William Friedkins masterpiece the Exorcist? The film is still one of the most unnerving movies ever made and the sequels and spin-off films are (mostly) worth checking out too. To say theyve been mixed through the years in an understatement  that a man as talented as Richard Burton was in Exorcist II is a cinematic horror in itself  but Exorcist III is also a phenomenal achievement in its own right, and contains one of the best jump scares ever too. The Addams Family Not every Halloween film has to be terrifying. The Addams mysterious but loveable gothic world is the perfect place to revel in this October. Christina Riccis Wednesday Addams and Christopher Lloyds Fester proved endearingly idiosyncratic characters, while heads of the family Morticia and Gomez are total couple goals too. Its always a movie worth re-watching, making for perfect Sunday afternoon viewing. The movie (which was given a PG rating in 1992) makes it a family-friendly option too. Scream The iconic mask featured in Scream is genuinely disturbing and one of the most unforgettable American pop culture images of the 90s  but its easy to forget just how much fun the film is. The movie incorporates dark humour and a strong cast list of emerging stars (Drew Barrymore, Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan and Courteney Cox to name a few) while simultaneously channelling and subverting slasher movie tropes, creating one of the trashiest, but most compelling horrors of the decade. A Nightmare on Elm Street A Nightmare on Elm Street eschewed gore and cliche for uncanny and eerie qualities to create some of the most chilling moments in 80s horror cinema  ideal for an unsettling Halloween watch. Robert Englund delivers an unforgettable performance as the dream-haunting serial killer Freddy Krueger, bringing a terrifying physicality to the screen, while director Wes Craven creates some of horrors most skin-crawling moments. Sequences such as Freddys tongue emerging through the phone to lick Heather Langenkamp are the kind that stay with viewers for years. New Line

Halloween  John Carpenter (1978)

In horror, the unknown is always scarier than the known. Its about what isnt seen or heard, rather than what is  that dark suspense is a central tenet of the genre. In the closing scene of Halloween, the score from the masterful John Carpenter explores this sparse unease to devastating effect. Those staggered pianos leave a cavernous space between them, punctuated only by a shrill staccato  and with those noises, Carpenter created a faithful sonic representation of fear itself, both the unutterable dread and the frenzied alarm. The synth that comes in on top is breathless as Michael Myers tears at those cupboard doors. As it all reaches fever pitch, with Laurie Strodes thrust of the knife  silence. It stays that way until the arrival of the films unforgettable scene  seeing Myers sit up behind Strode hits like a punch to the stomach, but its the return of the pianos, a second later, that squeezes the last gasp of air from your neck. Thats not to even mention the music that accompanies the gloomy closing sequence. Exceptional.

Suspiria  Goblin (1977)

This scene is by no means just about the music  it is shot faultlessly by director Dario Argento, bursting with colours that are vivid to the point of nausea  but the score is utterly essential, one half of a gruesome marriage between sight and sound. Written by the Italian prog-rock band Goblin, with guidance from Argento, the score is a voyage of occult psychedelia. It matches the grotesque viscerality of the visuals  the third time we see the face pressed up against the glass, a horrific contortion of the face, its matched by a dark static splurge  and as the faceless killer takes hold, the percussion is a psychotic clatter. Once we we reach that blood-splattered crescendo, the music breaks into a tinnitus siren. Its the kind of score that forbids you from breathing or blinking, such is its all-encompassing effect. Thom Yorke, who is scoring the 2018 remake, released next month, has a lot to live up to.

American Psycho  Huey Lewis and The News (2000)

You like Huey Lewis and The News? Theres a dark comedy that flows throughout American Pyscho and in no other scene does it land quite so stingingly as it does here. The murderous Wall Street banker Patrick Bateman is a man of contradictions and the hideous dichotomy of his character comes to the fore here. As he proceeds to hack his business-card rival Paul Allen to death, with blood-spewing force, were blasted with the chirpy optimism of Its Hip to be Square. At first it may seem laughable, but once Bateman sits down and smokes his cigar with chilling nonchalance, and were left to ponder the body hes just hacked to pieces, with that now-enraging song still playing, any smiles disappear.

The best movie villains of all time 1 /10 The best movie villains of all time 10. Count Orlok Count Orlok became one of the most abiding characters in horror when he appeared in 1922 silent classic Nosferatu. An incredible performance from German actor Max Schreck brought the demonic character to life, looming over his Transylvanian surroundings with long, curled fingers. The character borrows from the tropes of gothic literature and traditional vampire stories, while the scratchy, black and white footage adds to the eeriness. The presence of Orlock helps make the film just as unnerving nearly 100 years on. 9. The Predator One of the great 1980s action movie monsters, the Predator was as utterly terrifying as it was unstoppable. The super-advanced extra terrestrial gradually picks off Arnold Schwarzeneggers military team, showing no signs of weakness or mercy. Interestingly, the viewer was given a chance to see from the monsters point of view. While the thermal-vision effect is pretty dated by todays standards, it was one of the most inventive use of POV since horror master John Carpenter used it to devastating effect in 1978's Halloween. In the words of Schwarzeneggers army commender, the Predator might be one ugly mother*******, but it remains one of the most ruthless movie villains ever. It only remains to be seen whether the 2018 reboot will do the original movie justice. 8. Hans Gruber Hans Gruber proved the perfect, conniving adversary to Bruce Williss all-action, all-American everyman John McClane in 1988s Die Hard. Alan Rickmans sinister performance is perfectly pitched, bringing an unlikely charm to the role of the ruthless German terrorist. Incredibly, the part marked Rickmans first ever movie appearance too. The moment he fakes an American accent to keep his identity hidden from McClane is in equal parts pathetic and terrifying  one of many highlights in a flawless performance. 7. Patrick Bateman Vacuous investment banker and self-confessed insane serial killer, Patrick Bateman welcomed in a new generation of movie villian in 2000s thrilling blacker-than-black comedy American Psycho, set in 1987 New York. For all the gruesome violence and manic episodes, its the meticulous nature of Bateman that makes him so unnerving  whether it be it the excessive morning exercise and skincare routine, his obsession over business cards and inane pop music, or the way he lays down newspaper and carefully pulls on a raincoat before murdering colleague Paul Allen in his apartment. The film is constructed in such a way that the viewers grasp on reality deteriorates along with Batemans mental state during the movie, making us doubt everything weve just seen. However, theres no doubt that Christian Bales Bateman is one of the most troubling and insidious screen presence of all time. 6. Ernst Stavro Blofeld Legendary British thespian Donald Pleasence brought Ian Flemings villainous creation to life in 1967s You Only Live Twice, leaving an indelible mark in British film. The shaved head, distinctive facial scar, lapel-less suit and Persian cat made him instantly recognisable, providing the inspiration for hundreds of spoofs down the years  not least Mike Myers Dr Evil in the Austin Powers movies. The ham-fisted attempt to revive the character in 2015 film Spectre notwithstanding, Blofeld is Bond's greatest ever adversary. Allstar 5. The Terminator (Model 101 and T-1000) The Terminator series has welcomed not one, but two timeless villians in the form of the time-travelling, cyborg assassins Model 101 and T-1000. While Schwarzeneggers incarnation of the Terminator in the original movie was ominous in its ruthless pursuit of its target, the shape-shifting T-1000 played by Robert Patrick in the excellent sequel offered a less predictable threat. Theyre both two of cinema's ultimate robot killing machines and two of the most relentless  only when the red lights of its eyes fade in the final scenes of the first movie are audiences able to breathe a sigh of relief. 4. Freddy Krueger Krueger's ability to haunt the dreams of his victims makes him the single most inescapable and utterly terrifying horror creation of the 1980s. Robert Englund provided one of the finest physical performances the genre has ever seen in 1984's unforgettable A Nightmare on Elm Street, fleshing out this shape-shifting boogeyman with devastating effect. Both the tongue-through-the-telephone scene and the sequence with the long, dangling arms are some of the simplest, but most surreal and terrifying moments in horror cinema  truly the stuff of nightmares. New Line 3. The Joker Different generations of film fans will have their preferred depictions of the Joker, whether it be Jack Nicholsons frenetic and irreverent take on the role or Heath Ledgers chilling portrayal in the Dark Knight. However, the compelling DC villain has stolen the show in many a big-screen adaptation, and always proves the perfect counterpoint to the incorruptible Batman. The character is consistently creepy and sadistic, yet charming, while also being utterly devoid of empathy or morality - something that makes him a pretty terrifying prospect. The less said about Jared Letos Joker in Suicide Squad the better, perhaps, but Joaquin Phoenix has the opportunity to do the classic DC villain justice in the upcoming 2019 movie Joker. 2. Darth Vader The ultimate, undisputed villain of sci-fi cinema has to be Darth Vader, the malevolent heart of the Star Wars franchise. Vader, the uncompromising figurehead of all evil in the galaxy, helped make the original trilogy so compelling and viewers were delighted to see the character make a reappearance in 2016s Rogue One. It was nearly so different though  hilariously, the original dialogue recorded for the role by Bristol-born actor David Prowse makes Vader sound less like the leader of the Galactic Empire and more like a substitute Geography teacher. However, once James Earl Jones stepped in to provide the voice, the character was fully realised and the iconic villain was born. 1. Dr Hannibal Lecter Dr Hannibal Lecter first came to life in the novels of Thomas Harris, before arriving on the big screen in some of the most accomplished thrillers of the last few decades. Anthony Hopkins performance in The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon verge on pantomime-levels of camp and melodrama at times, but always incorporate shocking levels of violence and malevolent cunning  not to mention the most piercing, unblinking blue eyes ever put to screen. Hes synonymous with the role, but hes not the only one to have inhabited the character. Brian Coxs more understated performance in Michael Manns 1986 movie Manhunter was the first big-screen appearance, while Mads Mikkelsens depiction of a more urbane, dashing Lecter was the heart of the cult Hannibal TV series. Lecter remains the most chilling, absorbing and singularly entertaining villain in movie history  once seen, never forgotten.

The Exorcist  Tubular Bells (1973)TLC

As well as releasing No Scrubs, one of the greatest songs of the 90s, TLC were far more culturally significant and influential than your average pop group. In fact, few best-selling songs are as impactful as TLCs huge hit Waterfalls and its accompanying video, which makes references to the AIDS crisis and the illegal drug trade in the US. It was pretty groundbreaking at the time and remains a huge moment in the career of a truly great act, who represent the top selling US girl group of all time. Sadly, the music world mourned the loss of founding member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in 2002, but her musical legacy with TLC will never be forgotten.N eil Borthwick, former executive head chef of Merchants Tavern in Shoreditch, will launch a new restaurant in the upstairs kitchen at the French House on Monday.

Partner of Murano chef Angela Hartnett, Borthwick announced in an Instagram post he would be taking over the Soho institution next week.

In the post he said: So from next week I will be cooking @frenchhousesoho. Im doing what I love best!

The new menu, posted on Instagram by Guardian food editor Bob Granleese shows strong Gaelic influences, with dishes such as pigs head terrine and roasted John Dory.

Borthwick will join a line of prestigious chefs gracing the kitchen above the French House, including St. John founder Fergus Henderson, who cooked in it in 1993.

His latest appointment will add to his already-impressive culinary CV, which includes learning under Gordon Ramsay and working at the Connaught  where he met Hartnett when she was head chef in 2002.

Previously known as the York Minster, legendary Soho spot the French House is allegedly the place where General Charles de Gaulle wrote his famous speech "A tous les Francais".T he Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos

Armed robber Michael Hudson is released from jail  or, in con-speak, goes uptown  earlier than expected thanks to Phil Ornazian, an Armenian lawyer.

The street Hudsons mother lives on in Washington DC has been gentrified while hes been inside. This chimes with his desire for a fresh start. A prison librarian has turned him on to the joy of reading but before he can fill the bookshelf in his bedroom with Elmore Leonards, Ornazian asks for a favour in return. He needs him to drive a getaway car.

Pelecanos, best known as a screenwriter on such series as The Wire and The Deuce, is first and foremost a novelist. If you havent read any of his work, this is an excellent place to start.

The Cold Summer by Gianrico Carofiglio

Those who have read Carofiglios outstanding quintet featuring lawyer Guido Guerrieri will be familiar with the incomprehensible violence of life. The Cold Summer, the first in a new series of Italian jobs, introduces us to Pietro Fenoglio, a Carabinieri marshal in the Adriatic port of Bari.

A 10-year-old boy is kidnapped and, thanks to an anonymous tip-off, is soon found dead at the bottom of a well. His father, who just happens to be a big shot in Puglian organised crime, promises to eat the heart of the man responsible.

He suspects Vito Lopez, one of his disaffected deputies, who has gone Awol with a consignment of cocaine. When Lopez hears this he seeks refuge with the boys in blue by becoming a supergrass.

The Reckoning by John Grisham

One morning in 1946 Pete Banning, war hero and cotton farmer, shoots dead a Methodist preacher then refuses to say why. This being Mississippi, its not long before hes in the electric chair.P hilip Larkins reputation has had its ups and downs since he died in 1985. In 1992 Anthony Thwaite published a selection of his letters that revealed aspects of his character  racism, a taste for pornography, extreme conservatism, general spite and spleen  that shocked some readers while diverting others.

Then, a year later, Andrew Motion published his official biography of Larkin, spilling the details of a miserable life, damaging his image even further.

Motion did try to keep a clear distinction between the life and the writing. In his introduction he attempted to negotiate the problem by saying, almost poetically, that by the time he found his authentic voice in the late 1940s, the beautiful flowers of his poetry were already growing out of pretty dismal ground.

The overall effect of his biography was deeply damaging, though. Throughout the Nineties modish academics steadily disparaged and rejected Larkins work on the basis of what Motion had disclosed about his life.

Meanwhile his poetry became steadily ever more popular with the public: in a 2003 poll he was declared the nations best-loved poet. Several versions of his collected and uncollected poems have been issued, culminating in a grand scholarly edition, edited by Archie Burnett, in 2012. Although little of the previously uncollected work is close to the standard of what he chose to publish, it has become apparent that such is Larkins stature, so inward a part of our lives has he become, that we would like to know everything about him that we can  and perhaps even endeavour to develop a slightly more sophisticated appreciation of the relationship between his life and his work than seeing the poems as blooms emerging from a muckheap.

Rabbiting on: Philip Larkin with his mother Eva and their wicker rabbit, in 1964 (Estate of Philip Larkin)

A 475-page selection of Larkins 1,421 letters and 521 postcards to Monica Jones, his most long-term lover, was published in 2010, again edited by Thwaite. It is a challenging book, revealing both Larkins endless romantic prevarications and his embarrassing whimsicality  the pair liking to pretend that Monica was a rabbit. Yet the letters also have serious literary value, giving a glimpse into the context from which the great poems emerged. He sends her a little poem about the sun: its the sort of thing anyone can write. It is the immortal Solar, a poem only Philip Larkin could have written.

Now an even more confounding collection is appearing. Philip Larkin: Letters Home 1936-1977 (Faber, 40) is edited by James Booth, a dedicated Larkin scholar and fan who edits the magazine About Larkin and has written a much more generally admiring biography of him than Motions.

This turns out to be by far Larkins largest correspondence, 607 letters chosen from more than 4,000, a few of them addressed to his older sister Kitty, the rest to his parents, initially to Sydney and Eva together and then, after his fathers death in 1948, to his mother, Mop, alone.

They are acts of familial piety, or, to put it another way, domestic servitude. Larkin wrote home at least once a week, from the time he went up to Oxford in 1940 until Evas death, aged 91, in 1977 (save for a two-year period shortly after Sydney Larkins death when the poet actually lived with his mother).

Larkin about: the Larkin family on holiday at Bigbury-on-Sea, 1932 (Estate of Philip Larkin)

Booth admits the correspondence is humdrum and domestic but loyally maintains it is psychologically fascinating nonetheless. The truth is that these are some the most prosaic letters ever printed. Larkin writes about the weather, what he has eaten, what he has drunk, his weight, the laundry, his socks, his shopping, his expenses, his teeth, his hat, his glasses, his aches and pains, his work, and his noisy neighbours.

He asks always after Evas domestic round similarly and invariably lavishes the same endearments on her, addressing her as my very dear old creature. Often he draws little pictures of himself as a creature, a rudimentary one-eyed homunculus, as a cute illustration of what hes been up to.

Eva Larkin emerges as exasperating: timid, tiresome, and dependent, incapable of being on her own or managing life competently, a constant bother.

In one letter Larkin actually goes so far as to offer his depressed mother some eloquent life-advice: Do not worry about the past: it is, after all, past, and fades daily in our memory & in the memories of everyone else. Further, it cant touch the future unless we let it. Every day comes to us like a newly cellophaned present, a chance for an entirely fresh start We are silly if we do not amble easily in the sun while we can, before time elbows us into everlasting night & frost.

But thats a rare excursion. Mostly he does his best to fit in with her limitations, only occasionally admitting his frustration to her: Im afraid I was not a very nice creature when at home. I wish I could explain the very real rage & irritation I feel: probably only a psychiatrist could do so. It may be something to do with never having got away from home. Or it may be my concern for you & blame for not doing more for you cloaking itself in anger.

To Monica, however, Larkin, wrote bitterly in his mid-40s: People ought to get away from home as chickens get out of eggs, wholly, utterly, immediately, clearly I suppose I shall become free at 60, three years before cancer starts. What a bloody sodding awful life.

Motion calculates that actually Eva died when he was 55 and it was seven years before he fell ill with cancer, but this extra time wasnt long enough for him to change the pattern of his feelings.

He wrote little poetry thereafter. Both Booth and Motion acknowledge that, strange as it may seem, Eva Larkin was nothing less than his muse. Booth puts it carefully: Larkin is a great poet of domestic joys and sorrows. Eva haunts his poetry, as theme and muse. Motion is more sweeping: Difficult and limiting as she was, his mother produced the mental weather in which his poems prospered Eva was his muse  not a beauty to be won like Maud Gonne but a misery that had to be both resisted and accepted.T his Halloween, Beauty app RUUBY is teaming up with the best MUAs in the business to bring Londoners professional Halloween looks.

The make up artists on the app include prosthetic artists who have established their names on the set of movies and even the Emmy Award Winning TV Series Game of Thrones.

They app want to RUUBY offer their customers a unique, celebrity worthy experience this Halloween. Founder Venetia Archer said, Whether you want to summon a makeup artist from the app to your door to transform you into a white walker, or a glamourous mermaid adorned with glitter and diamonds, RUUBY will cater to your wildest makeup and prosthetic fantasies.

Dubbed the Uber of Beauty the app has become the go-to app for beauty fanatics, and was voted the best London app Buzzfeed. A full face of Halloween inspired RUUBY makeup starts from 70 to 200 for looks created by celebrity prosthetic artists.What to see

Alamy Stock Photo

Swing by Sonora, a pretty and bustling Gold Rush-era town, on Saturday for the farmers market, then go for a tour and tasting at nearby Indigeny Reserve, where hand-crafted cider is made. Jamestown  a 15 minute drive from Twain Harte, five from Sonora  is also a must, thanks to the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, where you can ride on a turn-of-the-century steam locomotive. Kitsch-lovers might also consider a visit to the 1859 Historic National Hotel, where very little has changed since, you guessed it, 1859.

Where to day trip

Getty Images

The northern half of Yosemite National Park lies within eastern Tuolumne. If you dont fancy navigating the mountain roads, theres a Yarts bus between Jamestown and the Yosemite Visitor Center, a great base for tackling famous hikes including the Half Dome Trail and the Yosemite Falls Trail. Yes, the park is crowded but the vastness of the landscape is magical. Get the earliest bus to allow for maximum hiking time.

Getting there

Getty Images/imageBROKER RM

Alice-Azania flew with Aer Lingus. One-way fares from London to San Francisco from 229. She was a guest of McCaffrey House Bed & Breakfast Inn (rooms from 120; mccaffreyhouse.com) and 1859 Historic National Hotel (rooms from 107; national-hotel.com). Car hire was provided by Hertz. Seven days one-way car hire from San Francisco to LA from 327 (hertz.co.uk).

Where to visit

Tuolumne (pronounced too-ah-lum-ee) is a picturesque drive from San Francisco  think golden plains followed by deep forests. Still, its worth spending a night or two in San Fran (or nearby Sausalito) to recover after the flight. Both are accessible from the airport by taxi, so you can return to pick up your hire car (a mid-size SUV is recommended) on the day youre hitting the road.

Where to stay

Michael and Stephanie McCaffrey are Tuolumne celebrities  and after visiting their B&B, just outside Twain Harte, you will see why. It isnt only the charming property  a kind of giant chalet in the forest  or the indulgent breakfasts. What makes McCaffrey House Bed & Breakfast special is the warmth of Michael and Stephanie. Its brilliantly located  a 15-minute drive from Sonora, and two hours from Yosemite. Michael is an authority on the latter.

Where to eatA s unbeatable as the feeling of a preposterously expensive handbag may be, the truth remains that it is also nice to have some money left over to put in it.

And for those of us who cannot stomach the thought of a cheap catwalk copy either  which, lets face it, would be all of us  there has long been a craving for a brand offering the perfect balance of style and substance, with that addictive instant gratification factor that weve come to expect from the Zaras of this world.

And so to some good news. Theres a new disruptive accessory brand solving this style conundrum that has just arrived in the UK. Introducing Charles & Keith, the well-heeled and well-priced Asian accessory giant with a portfolio of 500 stores across Asia that launched an e-commerce hub here last month and is eyeing further expansion. Cue fashion-forward footwear thats cool and contemporary, and retailing on average for less than 50 a pop. Its the biggest news in high street accessories since that Spanish titan arrived on our shores.

CHARLES & KEITH boots, 65. (charleskeith.co.uk)

Sitting among retailers such as & Other Stories, Cos and Arket, Charles & Keith is offering the perfect accessory counterpart to AW18s purist wardrobe, dominated by modernised clothing archetypes and artful proportions, rather than fleeting trends. Its a look spearheaded this season by catwalk brands from Jacquemus to Victoria Beckham. And as a result weve dubbed Charles & Keiths accoutrements architessories for their clean, architectural appeal.

"I came across the brand through my friend Yoyo Cao, an influencer and designer from Singapore," says journalist and blogger Susanna Lau. "Its impressive that they can combine such on-point design with affordable prices." Indeed, Charles & Keiths bucket bags and pointed slingbacks were out in force kerbside at London Fashion Week (selling out the same week), while its minimal sandals and slip-on mules featured in Molly Goddards SS19 show.

CHARLES & KEITH heels, 49

"Its about products reflecting lifestyle trends, while being accessible," says the brands executive director Emmanuelle Mace-Driskill. "Its about desirability and being able to get your coup de coeur [fashion crush] without feeling guilty," continues the Parisian who joined the Singapore-based brand from L Catterton Asia, the private equity arm of LVMH and also one-time investors of the accessory juggernaut.

So just who is Charles & Keith? And how did a brand with a name that sounds like a 1990s pop duo-turned-wedding-band become one of Asias biggest retail success stories? "Its a family affair," says Mace-Driskill of the media-shy Singaporean brothers Charles and Keith Wong, now the sole owners of the 22-year-old accessory giant. "Their mum owned a retail fashion store in Singapore and as teenagers they would help her and developed an interest for the business, especially shoes."

In 1996 the brothers launched their eponymous brand with a store in their home town. "The approach was to offer women fashionable and accessible shoes and to keep listening to their customers. It was crucial for them that women should enjoy fashion and be able to express themselves through it."

CHARLES & KEITH heels, 49 (charleskeith.co.uk)

Two years later the pair opened a shop in Jakarta, and expansion happened quickly  to Bangkok, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and farther, across Asia, India and the Middle East. The business has a presence in 35 retail markets, and 42 online, employing more than 5,000 people. Not bad for a womens megabrand named after two men.

Mace-Driskill smiles: "Its a success story of two brothers who took risks in their fearless 20s. And it comes from their complementary characters." Like every great fashion partnership, one is the business mind (Charles), while the other oversees the creative side (Keith).

So with Brexit looming and retail spending on the downswing, why start with the UK as its first push into the European market?

Runway edit at Molly Goddard SS19 / WWD/REX/Shutterstock

"London is a hub for artistic expression, a trend incubator and a pioneer in digital," Mace-Driskill says. "It felt like the right market to launch digitally first."N etflix is backing Kiernan Shipka big time.

The streaming service cast the 18-year-old  who is still best-known for playing Don Drapers young daughter Sally in seven seasons of Mad Men  as the lead in their next big launch, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. So confident is Netflix in both Shipka and this new teen horror show, it shot two seasons back to back.

"Netflix has been really frickin supportive and awesome," Shipka beams. "And its global  this show hasnt even come out yet and Im seeing Instagram fan pages from all different countries. There is the odd, 'Oh my God, this is so crazy' moment, but everything has been so incredibly positive and the energy on set is so good, the pressure really just adds to the excitement."

This isnt the first TV outing for Sabrina Spellman: in the 1990s Melissa Joan Hart played her as the sweet and sunny Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But this reboot is a much darker affair, beginning on the eve of Sabrinas 16th birthday party, when she is expected to sign her name in blood and give herself to the devil.

Written and created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (who was also the force behind Riverdale), the show revels in the same gothic territory as those original teenage vampire-slayers Buffy and Bella, but has much more of an edge.

"I read the script and I was 10 times as obsessed as I thought Id be, because it was 10 times as dark and feminist and had these really scary moments, but it was also funny," says Shipka. "I think if I had to be trapped in a room with someone for eternity  after my family and dog  I would choose Roberto, because he is so fun and wonderful and smart."

The pair bonded over their love of classic horror films. "You can really feel that foundation, that love of movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Rosemarys Baby," she explains. "Its such an homage, and the throwback references are so cool that I think true horror fans are really going to dig it." She was so desperate to get the part: "I was a bit of a mess for a few days. And then Im at the podiatrist and I get the call telling me Im going to be Sabrina and I just started completely crying."

Cover photograph by Arianna Lago. Styled by Sophie van der Welle. Cover artwork by Hattie Stewart. ACNE STUDIOS dress, POA; knitted top, POA (acnestudios.com)

Shipka may only be a teenager herself, but she has been in the business a very long time. She shot her first commercial at five months old and by the age of six she was already plotting her career. Born in Chicago in 1999, she is the only child of John, president of a real estate company, and Erin, president of an asbestos removal firm. Her parents signed her up for everything, from martial arts to Irish dancing, swimming to drama. And the acting stuck hard and fast.

"I just grabbed onto it and was completely obsessed and just loved it," she says in a breathy rush. "I think early on my mom could just see it brought me so much excitement. I dont know how to explain that at the age of six I was just hell bent on doing this for the rest of my life, but I was." The Shipkas struck a deal with their daughter that if she booked 10 commercials, they would take her to Los Angeles to try her luck in Hollywood. She did, they honoured the bargain and Shipka bagged the role in Mad Men aged eight. She laughs as she remembers her father driving her back from a costume fitting, telling her mother: "I think this might be a big deal, it seemed kinda legit."

Shipka in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina / Diyah Pera/Netflix

Though they upended their lives for her, Shipka says her parents have never been pushy about her work. "My parents are wonderful and amazing and supportive," she says. "I could quit acting tomorrow and they would be fine, they would support me whatever. To them its just my job." She still lives at home with them in LA, and her mum stays in Vancouver with her while shes shooting Sabrina. "I never plan on moving out," she laughs.

The family home was just 10 minutes drive from the Mad Men set. "This was my first big experience and I was so happy," she recalls. "I wasnt working every day, and I wasnt doing other jobs. I felt like I had this wonderful balance growing up. I was really excited to go out with my friends at the weekend and do silly things and be a kid, and then a teenager." She ended up working on the show from the age of eight to 15, racking up 64 episodes in the seven-year run: the child actor playing her brother was recast each season.

Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina Trailer

"I felt like they really grounded Sally and presented her as the age she really was," she says of the Mad Men team. "I dont think I even started wearing make-up until the fourth season. Not even concealer, nothing. They were like, 'No, youre seven'." When the show ended, Shipka "had been on Mad Men longer than I hadnt. It wasnt scary until the finale actually aired. Thats when it sunk in that it was actually over. There was definitely a moment of, 'Oh my gosh, whats next?' All I knew for sure was that I wanted to continue acting."

She remains close to January Jones, who played her screen mum Betty, but it is John Hamm, who played Don Draper, who she credits with teaching her to tackle a lead role with humility and generosity. "He set such a good tone on set," she recalls. "He was always so nice, so grounded, so fun. He managed to command the ship and make the energy light and funny, but also completely serious and respectful when the scene called for it. I really admire him for that."

January Jones, Christopher Stanley and Kiernan Shipka in Mad Men / TCD/VP/LMKMEDIA

Mad Men was also when she discovered fashion, and that "clothes can tell a story, be a character of their own. I was literally a kid in a candy store, walking through rows and rows of the most amazing vintage clothes. And I started flipping through magazines and checking out runway [shows] and just lusting after stuff. And then Gossip Girl started and I became utterly obsessed with the clothes on that show."

Her own personal style emerged in 2013, aged 14, when she saw a Delpozo dress online and asked her stylist if they could get it for her to wear to the Emmy Awards. "It was super weird, super out there," she says. "It was unique  I guess you would call it polarising  and I remember thinking that there is no point in playing it safe. I felt really free after that. I spent the whole night loving that I was wearing it and not caring what anyone else thought." These days, while she still has an eye for a fun, quirky outfit, she has little time to shop for clothes. "And when Im working, I show up to set half the time  who are we kidding? 80 per cent of the time  in pyjamas or sweats."

Shes worked steadily since Mad Men and is rightly proud of the independent horror movie The Blackcoats Daughter (directed by Anthony Psycho Perkins son, Oz) that also turned out to be a favourite of Aguirre-Sacasa. And she loved playing Bette Daviss daughter BD Merrill in the FX series Feud because it gave her the opportunity to work with Susan Sarandon. "That was a dream, an absolute dream. Susan is just wonderful."

CARVEN dress, as before

She brings up the #MeToo movement unprompted. "I feel so hopeful about the future of Hollywood right now," she says. "There are some incredible voices out there standing up for whats right and I am incredibly grateful to them and that it is happening now, because it makes me feel so much better about going forward in my career."

Sabrina is set to make her a big star. Is she worried about the scrutiny that level of fame brings? "Privacy is a big deal to me," she responds seriously (her romantic life is not up for discussion). "Its easy to feel like you have to share everything but you dont. If youre not really careful it can become toxic. I am a big believer in protecting yourself from the comparison trap. I like to keep my private life private, and thats not to say I dont enjoy Instagram, I do."

Her feed is full of fun and flirty photos of herself with her friends and co-stars. But she also recently featured 10 teachers and their classroom wish lists, encouraging her followers to help them.

Shipka in Feud / Allstar/FOX 21 TELEVISION STUDIO

There are also many, many snaps of delicious looking dinners. I tell her I saw one follower begging her to stop posting so many photos of pasta and she looks horrified. "Oh no! This will never be a carb-free feed," she screams. "Unfollow immediately."

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is on Netflix from 26 October.

Photographs by Arianna Lago

Styled by Sophie Van Der Welle

Illustrations by Hattie Stewart

Hair by Dritan Vushaj using Sachajuan by David Pirrotta

Make-up by Lauren Gott using ChanelHome is

My house, with Morwenna Banks, our children Dolly, 17, and Ezra, 13, and four cats: Pip, Ron, Tiger and Monkey. We did have a guinea pig but he died just before the England-Sweden game. This turned out to be a good omen. He was called Bjorn.

Where do you go to let your hair down?

My hairdresser. Winston, of Enry Iggins in Flask Walk, Hampstead.

What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?

I would dress up as Boris Johnson and shout, "I was actually Mayor! I know! Cray-cray!"

Best meal youve had?

Ive had a couple of incredible meals at Umu in Bruton Place. Last time I was there with Jimmy Carr, who made it his mission to feed me the best sushi in London, a mission Im going to nudge him to continue on. Umu does amazing sushi, including all sorts of unusual extra toppings. Which makes it sound a bit like a very upmarket Baskin-Robbins.

What makes someone a Londoner?

Not noticing the city most of the time. Very, very occasionally, like on one of the bridges on a warm evening, you might think, "Blimey  this is like somewhere I might want to visit one day."

Favourite club?

I like Soho House, but they appear to have just stopped my membership due to me forgetting to pay.

Who do you call when you want to have fun?

Tim Hincks. I do my Bowie-centred music podcast, Stalking Time for the Moonboys, with him. We do it in a shed in Notting Hill. Its the most fun Im having at the moment.

If you could buy any London building, which would it be?

Big Ben. Good view, youd always know the time, and have your finger on the pulse of political stupidity for satire.

What is your London secret?

Dars in South End Green is a brilliant Pakistani and Indian restaurant. I say this partly because it is and partly because I took Giles Coren there and he didnt accept the truth of this. And then, fantastically, Fay Maschler, the Evening Standard critic, came in on my side. I have relished that victory almost as much as I relish its haleem (a sort of lamb porridge).

Last play you saw?

I saw a revival of Pippin at Southwark Playhouse. I went with my daughter Dolly. Im a big fan of [composer] Stephen Schwartz: there are more beautiful melodies in Godspell than in most great pop albums.

Ever had a run-in with a policeman?

I was arrested in 1984 at a Stop the City march. Its a very long story, involving me jumping over a police barrier to stop myself being crushed to death and then being thrown about in a police van for 20 minutes. I used to do a joke about it, in the 1990s, about how when skinheads are beating you up, you can at least hope that at some point the police will arrive; but when the police are beating you up, theres no point in thinking, "Oh well, maybe in a minute, some skinheads are going to turn up".You are here: World

 Flash

Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile toward a military camp in southern Saudi border region of Najran on Thursday, the Shiite rebels said in a statement.

The Badr-1 missile targeted the camp in Buko area, according to a statement carried by the rebel-controlled Saba news agency.

The statement did not provide further details, while there was no comment yet from Saudi Arabia.

Buko is a shared Saudi-Yemeni border crossing area bordering the Yemeni northern province of Saada, which is the main stronghold of the Yemeni rebels.

Buko has been under control of the Saudi border forces since 2016, after the Saudi troops defeated the Yemeni rebels and forced them to retreat back to Saada few months after the war erupted in early 2015.

The attack was the latest attempt by the Houthis targeting the Saudi territory, in response to the Saudi-led airstrikes on the Houthi-controlled northern areas in Yemen.

Last week, the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said the Saudi air defenses in Najran intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile fired from Yemen. It reported no casualties.

Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile.



A former boxer found beaten to death in the first-floor lobby of a council block regularly confronted drug dealers on the estate, his family said today.

Ian Tomlin, 46, a father-of-two who drove council buses for the elderly and disabled, was found slumped by lifts outside his flat in Battersea last night.

The killing marks the 106th homicide investigation launched in London this year. A neighbour who stumbled on the scene told the Standard: It was like a slaughterhouse.

Ian Tomlin, 46, was found by lifts outside his flat in Battersea on Wednesday / Nigel Howard

The victims tearful father Cecil Tomlin, 84, told the Standard: There were always drug dealers hanging outside his home smoking - he told them to move on because his kids live there. Maybe that started an argument. He was worried for his kids.

These people will attack anyone. The government needs to do something about it. They need to be caught.

Police at the crime scene cordon / Nigel Howard

His family is understood to live in another flat on the estate nearby.

Mr Tomlin sr added: He was a good son and a great father. He was kind to everybody and spoke to everybody. He never had a problem with anyone and wouldnt start fights.

He had two kids.. we havent even told them yet. Their mother is devastated.

Neighbour Francis Rafferty, 57, was one of the first to discover Mr Tomlins body and told of desperate efforts to save him.

Police were called to reports of men fighting in Battersea / Peter Banfalvi

He said: There was blood everywhere. It looked like he had been stabbed. The police were running into the block and shouted at me to get towels. But he was already dead.

Police were called to Cromwell House in Charlotte Despard Avenue at around 5.30pm yesterday to reports of a group of men fighting.

Mr Tomlin was found in a communal area with injuries after having been assaulted, police said.

The suspects had fled before officers arrived. Witnesses told how they heard screams and saw a man sprint away from the scene.

The killing marks the 106th homicide investigation launched in London this year / Nigel Howard

A staff member at nearby Battersea Fish Bar said: Suddenly this guy ran out of the building. He was holding a metal rod. I think he was hurt as well, he was limping.

He was saying open the door, open the door. There was a guy waiting in a car and they drove away in a black Astra.

A resident of the block of flats, who asked not to be named, said: We went up in the lift, the door opened and suddenly boom.. there was blood everywhere and a body.

I was lucky, I didnt see his face. A guy with me literally jumped back inside and shouted dont look. He was shaking.

He said it wasnt like it was just stabbed once, it was much more than that. It was like a slaughterhouse.

Mr Tomlin lived on the first floor of the 10-storey block on the Doddington Estate near Battersea Park his entire life, his family said.

A friend described him as a strong and friendly man who was always around.

Large swathes of the estate were cordoned off today as forensic officers gathered evidence.

Local MP Marsha de Cordova urged anyone with information to contact police and added: I am very sorry to learn that another life has been taken as a result of violent crime in Battersea. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims friends and family.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said there had been no arrests, and that a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course.A murder investigation has been launched after a man was killed during a brawl in south-west London.

The victim, 46, was found suffering injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene in Battersea on Wednesday evening.

Police were called to reports of a group of men fighting in Charlotte Despard Avenue at 5.30pm.

The shocking incident took place within a communal area of a block of flats in the same street.

Police were called to reports of men fighting in Battersea / Peter Banfalvi

All suspects had fled before officers arrived, Scotland Yard said.

There have been no arrests.

A Met Police spokesman said: Next of kin have been informed and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course.A divisional director who drunkenly hurled racist slurs at a couple has been banned from all central London pubs.

Robert Tolley, 48, had spent more than six hours at a Liverpool Street pub for a colleagues leaving party before he headed to get the train home.

While on the escalator he bumped into Sheikh Ahmed and his partner Sayema Khanom, pushing them and abusing them.

Westminster magistrates heard he called Ms Khanom a Kumar prostitute and Mr Ahmed a brown dog, and was arrested after the incident on February 21.

Tolley is a divisional director at EC3 Brokers, which has its headquarters opposite the Gherkin.

District Judge Michael Snow sentenced the father of two to a year-long community order, which includes a ban from all pubs, bars, and clubs in central London and Wiltshire, where he lives.

Since you cannot control yourself while you are drinking we are going to try and curb your drinking, said the judge. He also imposed a night curfew for the next nine weeks, with exceptions for Tolley to go on work trips to Palma and Barcelona next month.

The defendant used an umbrella emblazoned with his employers brand outside court yesterday, when he pleaded guilty to two charges of racially aggravated common assault. He said he was deeply ashamed of himself.

The court heard the victims were heading for the Bishopsgate exit of Liverpool Street station when Tolley moved close to Ms Khanom. He goes down the escalator, he pushes Mr Ahmed and Ms Khanom tries to intervene in the centre of that dispute, said Ricky Yau, representing Tolley.

He has a decent job in the financial services. It was a lunchtime leaving do for a colleague that started at 1pm and ended at 7.30pm.

Judge Snow told him: The aggravating features of this offence are that there were two victims here, not one, and the incident took place at a very busy central London station. That would have caused extra distress for anybody who had to witness what you did.F amilies of the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing face a wait of at least another year before inquests into the deaths of their loved ones are held.

Coroner Sir John Saunders said it will be another 12 months before the inquests take place and the families get the "answers" they want.

The High Court judge spoke at a pre-inquest review hearing at Manchester Town Hall, attended by around 20 family members.

A minute's silence was held at the start of the 90-minute hearing, which dealt mainly with administrative matters.

Manchester Arena explosion aftermath - In pictures 1 /35 Manchester Arena explosion aftermath - In pictures Stephanie Brodie and mother Lisa Brodie who were inside the foyer when the explosion happened Jeremy Selwyn Armed police patrol near Victoria station in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Police close to the Manchester Arena the morning after a terrorist attack at the end of a concert by Ariana Grande left 22 dead PA Prime Minister Theresa May addresses the media in Downing Street Stefan Rousseau/PA A police officer moves a floral tribute close to the Manchester Arena PA A man embraces a woman and a teenager as he collects them from the Park Inn Hotel where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at the Manchester Arena Getty Images Police forensic officers investigate the scene of an explosion at Victoria Station Getty Images People affected by the deadly terror attack at Manchester Arena look out from a hotel window in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Police stand guard at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack during a pop concert by Ariana Grande in Manchester AFP/Getty Images A flag flies at half-mast from the Houses of Parliament AFP/Getty Images Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese speak to the media outside Manchester Town Hall after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester. PA Police forensic investigators walk along a bridge linking Victoria Station with the Manchester Arena where a suspected terrorist attack at the end of a concert Ariana Grande PA Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester Ben Birchall/PA The scene at Manchester Royal Infirmary as the death toll from the Manchester bomb attack rose to 22 with 59 injured PA Armed police patrol inside Victoria Station adjacent to Manchester Arena Getty Images A flag flies at half-mast from the Treasury Office in London AFP/Getty Images Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester PA Greater Manchester Police chief constable Ian Hopkins speaks to the media in Manchester where he said that the death toll from the Manchester bomb attack has risen to 22 with 59 injured PA Susan Walton and her daughter Katie who attended the pop concert by US star Ariana Grande pose in Mancheste AFP/Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images A police officer escorts people near to Manchester Arena Getty Images Police stand guard at the scene of a suspected terrorist attack during a pop concert by Ariana Grande in Manchester AFP/Getty Images Tributes left outside St Ann's Church in Manchester PA A man embraces a woman and a teenager as he collects them from the Park Inn Hotel where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at the Manchester Arena Getty Images People leave Victoria Station adjacent to Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Karen Moore and her daughter Molly Steed, aged 14, from Derby, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last nights explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about the attack in Manchester Reuters A Union Flag flies above Victoria Railway Station, close to the Manchester Arena Getty Images An ambulance arrives as police officers stand at the Miller Street and Corporation Street Crossroads, near the Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Ariana Grande concert attendees Vikki Baker and her daughter Charlotte, aged 13, leave the Park Inn where they were given refuge after last night's explosion at Manchester Arena Getty Images Home Secretary Amber Rudd arrives for a COBRA meeting in Downing Street Getty Images British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon arrives for COBRA meeting at the Cabinet Office on Whitehall Getty Images Flags fly at half mast above Downing Street, London, after a suicide bomber killed 22 people, including children, as an explosion tore through fans leaving a pop concert in Manchester PA

The names of the victims were read out as Sir John, the two dozen lawyers representing the families and other parties stood in silence with relatives of victims to remember the dead.

One family member wiped away tears and was hugged by another attendee.

Salman Abedi, 22, from Manchester, whose family settled in the UK from Libya, detonated his device at the end of an Ariana Grande pop concert on May 22 last year, as the concert-goers, many of them youngsters, streamed out of the venue.

His attack left 22 dead and hundreds injured.

Bomber: Salman Abedi detonated an explosive device at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester Arena

Progress on holding the inquests has been held up because they cannot be held before the conclusion of any criminal investigation and possible trial of any suspects.

The hearing was told the investigation is still "live" and the UK is still trying to extradite the bomber's brother, Hashem Abedi, from custody in Libya where he is being held.

Jeremy Johnson QC, representing Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said detectives were still carrying out a "very full and thorough murder investigation".

He added: "It is far from concluded and evidence is still being obtained and considered by the police and CPS."

Manchester arena victims commemorated in emotional day

Mr Johnson said further details could not be given but on a broad scale the inquiry had so far obtained 2,687 witness statements and 14,555 exhibits including a large number of telephones.

He confirmed that 23 people had been arrested as part of the investigation.

However Anna Morris, representing the family of the youngest victim Saffie-Rose Roussos, aged eight, told the hearing despite the scale of the ongoing police investigation there was still no "timetable" for the extradition of Hashem Abedi.

"We very much urge meaningful coronial progress given we are 18 months after the tragedy," she said.

Manchester bombing victim Saffie-Rose Roussos

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquests, submitted that the oral hearings should not commence until after any criminal proceedings are complete.

He said the scope of the inquests may cover whether the attack could have been prevented by the authorities, the build-up to the bombing, the incident itself, the response of the emergency services and security arrangements within and outside the Manchester Arena.

John Cooper QC, representing families of 10 victims, suggested that the private security arrangements of Ariane Grande on the night could also be examined.

Mr Cooper also raised the issue of security at the forthcoming oral hearings as he said there was "reason to believe that threats have been made".

Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Tributes in lights 1 /10 Manchester Arena Terror Attack: Tributes in lights Wembley Stadium lit up after the Manchester concert bomb attack PA A man stands in front of a fountain illuminated with the colours of the Union Jack flag in Zagreb AFP/Getty Images A "We Love Manchester" sign on the Mancunian Way in Manchester, after the Manchester concert bomb attack PA Penshaw Monument in Sunderland illuminated in the colours of Union flag after the Manchester concert bomb attac PA A moment of silence is held for the attacks in Manchester before a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers in Boston, Massachusetts Getty Images the Burj Khalifa in Dubai lit up with the union flag in tribute to the victims of the Manchester attack NYCs Empire State Building goes dark in remembrance of the Manchester Attack victims People sit in front of the famous water fountain"Le Jet d'Eau" illuminated in the colors of the British flag to pay tribute to the victims of a suicide attack EPA The downtown Dallas skyline is lit up with a British Union flag to pay tribute to the victims of the Manchester bombing James Breeden / MEGA Belfast City Hall illuminated in the colours of Union flag after the Manchester concert bomb attack PA

Mr Greaney said he had received assurances that the matter was being considered at the "highest level".

In opening remarks, Sir John said: "It was an appalling and needless waste of life.

"It affected not only the families of people who died, but all the people of Manchester and the rest of the country."

The inquests were adjourned until the next pre-inquest review on February 28 next year, also at Manchester Town Hall.

No date has been yet for the next preliminary hearing into Salman Abedi's inquest.E very morning, when Lucy and her fellow students arrive at Abbey Manor College in Lewisham, their school day starts with a full body search. They line up in front of a security guard who frisks them with a metal detector looking for knives and mobile phones. He then scours their bag for sweets, chocolate, sugary drinks and drugs.

Once inside the building  a converted old peoples home at the back of a housing estate  pupil movement is strictly controlled.

Corridors are locked down and even visits to the toilet permitted only with an adult escort armed with a special electronic fob to open the doors. Its to prevent vandalism and provide an environment in which these children can learn, says headteacher Heather Johnston.

If Abbey Manor seems more like a prison than a school, that is because it is a pupil referral unit, an alternative provision for children permanently excluded from mainstream schools. In other words, where the boroughs bad kids are dumped.

Lockdown: top, a security guard stands ready to frisk Abbey Manor students as they arrive at the referral unit / Jeremy Selwyn

The most common reasons for sending pupils there are physical violence and persistent disruptive behaviour. In the case of Lucy, 15, an academically able student, it was a physical fight with another student. I wasnt able to control my anger and so I ended up here but I hope if I behave I can go back to my mainstream school, said Lucy (not her real name). The sad reality is that few mainstream schools re-admit PRU students these days.

Vicious circle of violence

Compared to the general student population in England, excluded pupils are: 10 times more likely to suffer mental health problems 7 times more likely to have a special educational need 4 times more likely to have grown up in poverty 2 times more likely to be in the care of the state Source: Institute for Public Policy Research, October 2017, Breaking the link between school exclusions and social exclusion The dominant social characteristics of adult prisoners 64% have used class A drugs 59% were regularly truant from school 42% were excluded permanently from school Source: Bromley Briefings Prison Factfile, Autumn 2017

Over the last five years, there has been a 50 per cent rise in the number of students permanently excluded in England; Lucy is one of 7,720 who found themselves in that position last year. In total, 16,732 pupils in England attended PRUs in 2017, 3,206 of them in London.

Their academic results are abysmal: if Lucy gets five good GCSEs, she will be one in 100; according to government data, PRU students seeking five good GCSEs have a 99 per cent failure rate.

The situation is compounded, the Youth Violence Commission says, by a clear link established between school exclusions and youth violence. It has led the cross-party commission to call for zero exclusions from mainstream education as part of their public health approach to tackling rising youth violence.

The public health approach is backed by the Evening Standard as part of our 1 million Save London Lives campaign. But is a zero exclusion policy realistic?

At Dunraven School in Lambeth, where many of the 1,700 students come from troubled estates and almost half the pupils are eligible for free school meals, they believe it is. Since headteacher David Boyle took over in 2004, he has cut permanent exclusions from five a year to zero and temporary exclusions have plummeted from 510 to just 10.

How have they done it? We realised that the overwhelming majority of students who are violent or disruptive have a history of trauma or vulnerability, said Boyle, 54. These children tend to be caught up in domestic violence, gang disputes or suffer disadvantage through mental health issues, neglect or poverty. So instead of sending these students to a PRU, we set up an alternative on-site provision to support them that we call the Base.

He added: The key thing is that instead of viewing the Base as a punishment, it is seen as a resource to address vulnerable childrens needs.

The result is that students with violent behavioural problems, much like Lucys, are managed in-house. Base students, as they are called at Dunraven, are educated separately on site, given bespoke mentoring and pastoral support and reintegrated into the main school when they are deemed ready.

Abbey Manor College headteacher Heather Johnston / Jeremy Selwyn

The Standard visited the Base and found a relaxed space a far cry from the regimented regime of Abbey Manor PRU. Children learn in a colourful room with computers, a central table, beanbags and walls covered with affirmations.

Tia-Jo Mclaren, 14, a student who would have been expelled to a PRU by most schools, said: I used to shout at teachers and walk out of class when I liked, and two years ago I was sent to the Base. Base made me calmer because there were less people and I got one-to-one attention.

I started to get insight into my behaviour. I realised I had anger issues and they helped me find a way to deal with it. I learned ways to calm down and to focus. As my behaviour improved, I was allowed back into regular classes.

In year nine, I was at Base half the time and this year I dont go to Base at all. Now I get As for English and history. Base has changed my life.

Maxine Clarke, who runs the unit, said: Around 50 students a year use the Base and every one gets a bespoke intervention. They come in having had lots of negative experiences and we start to change their narrative and build on their positive attributes. These children know they are in the last chance saloon and so what happens here can alter the trajectory of their lives.

Kyle Miles, 14, another Base student, was referred two years ago. He said: I got in with the wrong crowd. My friends carried knives and got involved in fights and I carried that aggressive behaviour into school.

When I came to Base, it took me six months to calm down. I started to realise that I didnt want to end up in prison or dead. I changed. Now I am back in the main school and thriving.

According to Boyle, there are two red lines that will typically get a child permanently excluded: knives and drugs. Even then, we try to arrange a fresh start in another mainstream school rather than cast them out to a PRU, he added.

The impact on their life chances of keeping them on site is stark: 26 per cent of Dunraven Base students got five A* to C grades for their GCSEs in 2016, compared with zero per cent of students at Lambeth PRUs. And two-thirds of Base students got five A* to G grades, with 100 per cent getting at least one pass.

At Abbey Manor PRU, the Standard attended a business studies lesson to see why this disparity in results might exist.

Their classroom was the size of a small converted bedroom and there were five pupils in attendance: one was properly engaged, one was rude and disruptive, one lay horizontal and stared at the ceiling, one had her bag packed and sat with a clear desk, and one appeared unable to grasp the point of the lesson. Is it time to go yet? she asked. Im hungry, said another, scrunching up his paper and hurling it at the bin. Afterwards the teacher reflected and said: That was a successful lesson.

Abbey Manor, it must be said, is one of the more successful PRUs, achieving a good Ofsted report in 2016, unlike many where provision is inadequate.

But its not just that PRUs are breeding grounds for failure  they are also very expensive. The cost per student at Abbey Manor PRU is 18,000 a year, said Johnston. This is 20 times the 900 cost per student Boyle said it costs to run the Base at Dunraven.

The strong recommendation to the Government by the Youth Violence Commission is that money should be reallocated away from PRUs towards alternative provision within mainstream schools like Dunraven. The comparison between Dunraven and Abbey Manor makes this argument apparent. In all but very exceptional circumstances, PRUs have passed their use-by date.A 24-year-old man who fell from a height at an east London shopping centre has been arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and reckless endangerment of life.

Police said he landed on a fellow shopper after falling from an upper floor in Stratfords Westfield complex on Wednesday at approximately 4pm.

The Metropolitan Police was called to report of a man having fallen and a woman injured in the incident.

One witness tweeted shortly after that the centre was partially closed due to a customer falling from an upper floor landing on a fellow shopper.

The incident happened in the busy Westfield centre in Stratford (File image)

Scotland Yard confirmed a man and a woman were injured.

Neithers wounds were deemed to be life-threatening though hers are now thought to be life-changing.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: The man, aged 24, was arrested at hospital on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and reckless endangerment of life. He remains in hospital

Enquiries into the circumstances remain ongoing. 

Footage of the aftermath was shared online and showed a man on the floor with crowds watching on.

Witnesses reported that he fell from the second or third floor.

Another witness, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Standard they were on an escalator when they "heard gasps".

They looked up to see a man mid air". They said: I saw him fall onto someone."A victim of modern slavery in London has revealed how producing her own artwork with the help of a charity has helped her turn her life around.

The woman, known as Rashida, arrived in the UK from the Gambia in her early 30s and was taken to different houses, forced to sleep with different men and threatened with violence if she refused.

With the help of charity Hestia, she has been able to get the help she needs and is now looking to support others who have suffered similar experiences.

Her work is included in an exhibition of art produced entirely by victims of modern slavery to celebrate their freedom, as the UK marks anti-slavery day.

The exhibition, Art is Freedom, curated by charity Hestia, is open to the public and gives Londoners an insight into how victims were treated when arriving to the capital and how their lives have changed.

Rashida spoke to the Standard about her own harrowing ordeal and how she wants to appeal to other people to seek support and help.

Rashida's work on display at the exhibition

The 45-year-old said she did not have a happy childhood and experienced female genital mutilation (FGM) when she was just eight years old.

She said: There was no anaesthetic and a single blade. My father forced me to sleep with men so he would continue to pay for my schooling.

When I was 11, my mum had a breakdown and was taken away. I never saw her again and I miss her so much. I dont know if she is alive.

My uncle told me he would pay for my education and help me when I was in the UK. When I arrived, my VISA and passport were taken away from me. I was in my early thirties. He lied to me. He said I must work for him to pay back the travel.

After I arrived at Gatwick, I was taken to a house in east London. I dont know exactly where it was, it was a normal street with lots of houses.

Those who took part in the exhibition were given a camera and encouraged to take pictures of London

They were very nice houses. At night I was often taken to different houses to sleep with different men, I didnt know anything about them.

I was not allowed to ask any questions. They could have been anyone. I was forced to drink alcohol.

They would twist my arm and beat me if I didnt do what they said and if I tried to escape they said they would kill me. They said that the police would beat me up or kill me if I tried to get help.

Rashida said she was locked in a small room all day and did not see anyone during this period, using a small mattress to sleep on and a pan in the corner of a room to relieve herself with.

She added her life has changed so much since she was able to get help from the Salvation Army and Hestia, and is now looking to help other people who have been through similar experiences.

Artists featured in the exhibition came from all over the world

One of her pieces, a hat, featured in the exhibition, and creating it has helped to give her a voice, she said.

Rashida said: I thought my voice would never be heard again, Ive never had a voice myself.

The experience of creating the art for a wide audience, Rashida added, was emotional.

Work in the exhibition came entirely from victims of modern day slavery

I was very emotional for the first time [when we met to create work], she said, And then I had something that made me feel ok. It was very helpful to get the opportunity to show what I can do.

The thought of people seeing her work, she added, was so good because it allowed other possible victims of modern slavery to see there is support and help available.

She said: Its very important for people to know there is help out there, I never knew there was any help there.

I would tell [other victims of modern slavery] them they need to speak out. I never opened up. You will come across someone that will help you.

Since being helped by the charity, Rashida said she has a support worker who has changed her life and has helped her do every day, once daunting, tasks like organising a doctors appointment or going to the hospital.

Rashida said: I want to use my voice to help people who have experienced what I had been through.

The exhibition is on all week

I want to let people know there is support out there like Ella from Hestia. People should not be scared to come forward.

The police are here to protect you. You should not be scared of them. I volunteer at a centre for women who have been abused sexually and I tell them it does get better, it takes time. I dont want them to feel alone.

Rashidas name has been changed to protect her identity

Art is Freedom is taking place at Anise Gallery, SE1 2PU, until Tuesday October 23.P olice are probing the death of a man who was found outside the back of a north London takeaway with a head injury.

The man, who is yet to be identified, died of a head injury but his death is being treated as unexplained, Scotland Yard said.

Nearly a month after his body was found on September 21 in Finchley Road, Barnet, the man remains unidentified.

Police said he is thought to have been an Eastern European of slim build and had short cropped hair.

It is believed he was aged between 30 and 40, and may have been homeless, police added a bid to identify the man.

Police in Barnet are trying to identify this man / Met Police

CCTV from nearby shops shows the victim walking down an alleyway from the direction of Rodborough Road towards Hodford Road at around 10pm on September 20.

Four minutes later, he was seen walking in the opposite direction and appeared to be staggering before sitting down against a wall, where he was found dead the next morning, police said.

An appeal was launched on Thursday for anyone who may have passed or spoken to the victim that evening to come forward.

Detective Constable Fred Itiose, from Barnet CID, said: We are keen to establish not only who the victim is but also the course of events leading to his death on Thursday, 20 September.

We know a number of people were in the area at the same time and may have spoken to the victim in his final hours. We urge anyone with information to speak to us.C hurchill star Brian Cox today invoked the wartime prime ministers words to call for a fresh national vote on Brexit.

The 72-year-old actor suggested Winston Churchill would have been appalled by Britain leaving the European Union.

In a video message for the Peoples Vote march through London on Saturday, he said: In 1940 with the threat of fascism knocking on the door of our island, Winston Churchill proposed that the people of France and the people of the United Kingdom be united - by joint citizenship.

Then in 1963, two years before he died, he wrote, The future of Europe, if Britain were to be excluded, is black indeed.

TODO: define component type apester

Never have those words been as prescient as they are today. Now more than ever has there been a time when a united not divided Europe should hold and keep a balance of political sanity in our world.

More than 100,000 people are expected to assemble at noon on Saturday to march to Parliament Square for a giant rally where the video will be played.

Mr Cox attacked the opportunistic clowns of Brexit who showed not an iota of Churchills vision and wisdom.

Lies were told, promises made that cannot and will not be honoured, he raged.

Brian Cox posted a video message for the Peoples Vote march through London on Saturday / Brent N. Clarke/Invision/AP

The lack of consideration of our industrial and business enterprises, of relationships that have blossomed and flourished for over 40 years under our European alliance. The damage is incalculable.S ir Michael Caine said he remains a Brexit supporter despite the impact it might have on the UK economy.

Speaking on Radio 4s Today programme, the renowned actor said: "I don't listen to all these pundits. I'm a Brexiteer myself. Certainly.

People say Oh, youll be poor, youll be this, youll be that. I say Id rather be a poor master of my fate than having someone I dont know making me rich by running it.

The Dark Knight stars comments come as Luxembourgs prime minister Xavier Bettel said that time was running out for a deal, but said the EU27 were not under any pressure.

Sir Michael Caine: "I'm a Brexiteer myself. Certainly." / PA

"On March 29, it's game over," Mr Bettel said on Thursday.

"March 29 is the last day when the UK is a member of the EU so we have to have a deal before."

He said the EU27 would await word from chief negotiator Michel Barnier before deciding whether to hold a special Brexit summit or wait until the next scheduled summit in December, adding: "We are not under pressure."

"We know Theresa May is in a tricky situation because she has got huge pressure in the UK and at Westminster, Mr Barnier added.

The British Prime Minister was yet again under huge pressure on Thursday after her key Brexit talks at the European Council concluded without a breakthrough.

Ms May was also facing a backlash from Tory Brexiteers after she indicated Britains transition out of the EU could be extended for a further year.

This would mean the UK remaining in the single market and customs union  as well as being subject to EU rules  for almost three years after Brexit day on March 29 next year.

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Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington said how much it would cost to extend the transition period was something that would have to be "teased out" during the negotiations.

Asked if it would only be for a few months, he told BBCs Today: "Yes, that is certainly the intention. That is how we see it. That is something that is now in the mix with the negotiators."

Mr Lidington dismissed claims by some former Cabinet ministers that the details of the Irish backstop had not been clear when it was signed off in principle last year.You are here: World

 Flash

Mongolia is willing to learn from Cuban experience in preventing disasters and reducing disaster risks, Mongolian deputy prime minister said Thursday.

Ulziisaikhan Enkhtuvshin made the remarks when meeting with Cuban ambassador to Mongolia Raul Delgado Concepcion, according to the Mongolian government press office.

"Cuba has great experiences in preventing and fighting disasters. So, we are willing to cooperate with the Caribbean island nation in this sector and learn from its experience," Enkhtuvshin said.

The Cuban ambassador invited the Mongolian deputy prime minister to visit Cuba.

The Cuban side also expressed its willingness to learn from Mongolian experience in the mining industry.

Mongolia and Cuba are set to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2020.T heresa May is facing a backlash for indicating she is ready to consider extending the UKs transition out the EU for another year, to the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister refused to rule out an extension after she failed to make progress in what was called a moment of truth leaders summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

It comes as EU leaders ditched plans for a special summit in November as chief negotiator Michel Barnier said "much more time" was needed to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

Extending the transition phase by another 12 months would buy the two sides more time to come up with a solution.

Theresa May is welcomed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ahead of the summit / REUTERS

But furious Brexiteers said the move would delay further the moment when Britain could sign new trade deals with countries around the world.

Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said it would delay full withdrawal almost until the general election scheduled for May 2022 and "may mean we never leave at all".

And Tory MP Nadine Dorries repeated her call for former Brexit secretary David Davis to replace Mrs May as leader.

"We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit," said Ms Dorries.

Theresa May: Brexit deal "achievable" ahead of crunch EU summit

And Mr Davis's former chief of staff Stewart Jackson asked: "If you can't - or in the EU's case won't - resolve the backstop issue now because it's an issue of principle than why will it take another three years to resolve it? Will it not be an issue of principle once we have coughed up billions more in UK taxpayers' cash?"

Leaders of the 27 remaining EU leaders ditched proposals for a special Brexit summit in November, after chief negotiator Michel Barnier told them he needed "much more time" to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

With just 160 days to go to the official date of Brexit, Mrs May urged the EU27 to find a "creative" way out of the current dilemma.

"We have shown we can do difficult deals together constructively," the PM said. "I remain confident of a good outcome."

The Prime Minister arrives to speak at the crucial meeting on Wednesday / AP

And she told them: "The last stage will need courage, trust and leadership on both sides."

After her Chequers plan for Brexit was humiliatingly rejected in Salzburg last month and efforts to seal a last-minute deal foundered last weekend over the EU's demand for a "backstop" arrangement for Ireland, Mrs May was fighting to keep the door open for an agreement to deliver an orderly withdrawal.

EU leaders gave her 20 minutes to make her pitch before discussing Brexit in her absence over a dinner of turbot cooked in wheat beer.

The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, said: "Both sides mentioned the idea of an extension of the transition period as one possibility which is on the table and would have to be looked into."

Theresa May insists Chequers Brexit deal is not dead

A senior EU official later said Mrs May had indicated she was "ready to consider" a longer transition period.

Mrs May initially suggested an "implementation period" of around two years after Brexit, to give the UK's authorities and companies time to prepare for the new arrangements.

But she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

It emerged on Wednesday that Mr Barnier was ready to discuss a further year's extension to allow time to find a solution to keep the Irish border open.

Theresa May updates the media on the state of negotiations / AP

UK officials stressed that the Prime Minister was not proposing any extension to the period already agreed.

This week's summit had been billed as "the moment of truth" when agreement was needed to allow time for ratification in the Westminster and European parliaments.

But Mrs May did not come forward with the new "concrete proposals" on the border issue which European Council president Donald Tusk said were needed to break the deadlock.

While expressing their willingness to work for an orderly UK withdrawal, a number of EU leaders said their countries were beginning preparations for a no-deal Brexit.

Barnier: Brexit deal 'possible' in coming months

In a speech to the German parliament before travelling to Brussels, Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the possibility of a Brexit deal was "still there", but added that Berlin was making plans for a no-deal withdrawal.

And in Paris, Emmanuel Macron's government published details of legislation to authorise preparations for a no-deal Brexit, which could see the restoration of customs checks and health inspections for animals at French ports, and even a requirement for Britons to seek visas for stays of three months or more.

Mr Macron, who held separate talks with Mrs May ahead of the three-hour dinner, said it was time to "accelerate" talks.

But Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite said there would be "no breakthrough" this week because Mrs May lacked a strong mandate from her party and parliament.T heresa May was hit by a fierce Tory backlash today as she admitted that she could delay Britains final departure from the European Union until almost 2022.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the hardline Brexiteers group, savaged it as a rather poor attempt at kicking the can down the road... an example of a failure to decide things. Two Cabinet ministers, Michael Gove and Penny Mordaunt, appeared to make warning noises by speaking of the need to quit the bloc at the earliest possible point and swiftly.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said it was the wrong direction, while Remain-backing ex-minister Nicholas Boles called it a desperate last move by a Prime Minister forced repeatedly into humiliating concessions.

The Prime Minister was under pressure from all sides, with Tory Remainers also furious that the Government is attempting to curtail Commons voting on any withdrawal deal, while EU leaders made plain they expect Britain to make the next move to solve the impasse over the Northern Ireland border.

Tempers boiled over after Mrs May arrived at day two of the summit in Brussels and confirmed that she is not ruling out a proposal from the EU side to extend the period in which Britain will be tied to its rules and fees for a matter of months after the current exit date of December 2020.

Theresa May arrives for the second day of a European Union leaders summit at the European Council in Brussels / AFP/Getty Images

While UK officials played down the significance, saying it was only an option suggested by the EU side for months, the ferocity of the backlash suggested that Tory MPs were losing patience and faith.

Mr Rees-Mogg said it looked wet and claimed MPs across the Conservative party were opposed. I would prefer the money was spent on ensuring Universal Credit worked. Mr Davis told the Evening Standard: This is moving in the wrong direction. This is what the EU wants, so why are we offering it?

Environment Secretary Mr Gove told MPs it was vital that Britain leaves the EU at the earliest possible point, after he was asked whether an extension to the transition period would be helpful in achieving a thriving food and drinks sector after Brexit. Senior British officials later stressed that Mrs May was still firmly ruling out any backstop that would create a border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. They said any extension to the transition would be for months and not several years. The option could be written into the withdrawal agreement but it was unclear how it might be triggered.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar ramped up the emotional pressure for a binding backstop by handing leaders an Irish newspaper which featured a historic account of an IRA bombing of a border customs post.

British officials stressed that an extension would only be used if more time was needed to put in place a permanent deal on the UKs future trading relationship with the EU. Full talks on a deal will only begin after formal Brexit next March, and few believe they can be concluded in under two years. Mrs Mays de facto deputy David Lidington called it an insurance policy.

Former minister Mr Boles, a prominent Remain campaigner in 2016, criticised the Prime Minister for making humiliating concessions in a vain hope that implacable EU leaders would bend on the Irish border impasse. It really is a desperate last move, he said, adding that Tory MPs were close to despair at the state of the negotiations. He predicted that Britain would end up paying an extra 16 billion to extend the transition for a year, until December 2021, rather than the 9 billion that the UK currently pays per year because it would overlap a new EU budget period.

Its a classic of negotiations that she keeps on thinking that one more concession is going to somehow mean with one bound shes free, he told the BBC. And shes not going to be free, shes getting ever more trapped. Im afraid she is losing the confidence of colleagues of all shades of opinion, people who have been supportive of her throughout this process.

A source close to Brexiteer ministers said any extension was a smokescreen because the real issue was whether Mrs May signed an Irish border backstop that legally ties Britain into a permanent customs arrangement with the bloc.

Nobody would welcome an extension, but it might be tolerable if it provided time to negotiate a Canada-style trade deal, said the source. But the backstop is the issue that matters right now and her team has shown no new ideas on how to deal with that.I conic British landmarks including 10 Downing Street and Marble Arch have been lit up red to mark anti-slavery day in the UK.

The Home Office, Cabinet Office and Foreign Office also turned red on Thursday evening as the Government displayed its backing for new measures to tackle modern slavery.

Anti-slavery day aims to raise awareness of child trafficking in the UK, with more than 2,000 suspected victims reported to authorities in 2017.

Other buildings including Edinburgh Castle, Croydon Town Hall, Marks and Spencer at Oxford Circus and the Co-op headquarters in Manchester were also lit up red.

To mark anti-slavery day, the Government announced it is stepping up measures to tackle modern slavery by warning thousands of businesses they face action if they fail to meet legal obligations.

The Home Office is writing to 17,000 chief executives telling them to "open up" about modern slavery in companies which supply them with goods and services.

Businesses with a turnover of more than 36 million have to publish annual statements setting out what they are doing to stop modern slavery, but fewer than two in three have complied and some are said to be of poor quality.

Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability Victoria Atkins said: "It is horrible to think some of the goods and services we buy could have been produced by someone forced into modern slavery. This is abhorrent and as global leaders in the fight against modern slavery, we will not tolerate it.

"Some businesses are already leading the way in taking action by being open and transparent about what they are doing to identify, tackle and prevent forced labour in their supply chains, but too many are still failing to meet their basic legal obligations.

"That's why the Home Office is sending letters to businesses today with a clear message that continued non-compliance will not be tolerated."

The Home Office announced new measures to crack down on modern slavery

The Environment Agency said it had trained over 100 officers to recognise exploitative work practices.T he UK's International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is pulling out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia, officials said.

It comes amid concerns over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A Government spokesman said Dr Fox had decided the "time is not right" for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh later this month.

"The UK remains very concerned about Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance," the spokesman said.

Turkish government sources have claimed that Mr Khashoggi - a critic of the government in Riyadh - was murdered during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago.

The UK Government spokesman said: "We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent and prompt investigation, as announced.T he Scottish government has confirmed that a new case of BSE, or "mad cow disease", has been discovered on a farm in Aberdeenshire.

Restrictions have now been put in place at the farm after authorities said it was too early to tell where the disease came from.

The case was identified as part of the routine testing of all animals over four years of age that die on farms.

What is BSE? What is mad cow disease?

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or BSE, was first detected in Britain in the late 1980s.

It spread from here to other parts of Europe, ravaging cattle herds until the early 2000s.

It is a fatal neurodegenerative diease that causes cow's brains to become "spongy" and full of holes.

It attacks the central nervous system of cows and symptoms typically include a lack of co-ordination and aggression.

These symptoms caused BSE to be known as mad cow disease.

Scientists declared that it could be passed to humans and measures were taken to to stop it spreading.

Sales of beef plummeted during the outbreak in the 1990s / AFP/Getty Images

Can humans get BSE and what happens if they do?

BSE has been linked in humans to the brain-wasting Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

The NHS says it can be hard to prevent because of its rarity but measures are in place to stop it from entering the food chain.

Guidelines have also been tightened around the use of medical equipment to prevent it from being passed through blood transfusions.

If a human does get CJD, there will have difficulty walking and have balance and co-ordination problems.

Their speech will be slurred, they will have numbness and pins and needles and suffer from dizziness.

The NHS also says they will have vision problems and some will suffer from anxiety and depression.

It is fatal in humans and there is no cure. Current treatment revolves around relieving the patient's symptoms.

What happened the last time there was an outbreak?

In an effort to stop the disease spreading, millions of cattle were culled in the UK in the 1990s.

There were around 100,000-200,000 confirmed cases in the early 1990s, and two more cases were confirmed in 2015.

Sales of domestic beef plummeted, the cost dropped and British beef was banned in the EU until 2006.

It is thought the outbreak in the 1990s cost the UK economy between 740 million and 980 million

To date, 177 people have been killed as a result of contracting a variant of the disease.

An inquiry concluded it was caused by cattle being fed the remains of other cattle.

How to avoid it?

Controls are in place to prevent BSE entering the food chain.

These include a ban on farm animals from being fed the remains of other animals and destroying animals that could be infected.P rime Minister Theresa May today said the option emerged to extend the Brexit transition period "for a matter of months", but that she still expected it to conclude at the end of 2020 as she arrived at an EC summit in Brussels today.

Mrs May earlier faced backlash from angry Brexiteers after she said she is ready to consider extending the transition period by a year.

Arriving at the European Council summit this morning, she said that the option of an extension of the transition had been floated as a way to bridge any gap between the end of 2020 and the start of a deal on the future EU/UK relationship, to ensure there was no hard border in Ireland during this time.

She insisted the extension would "only be for a matter of months" after her earlier remarks suggested it could go on into 2021.

She said: "A further idea that has emerged - and it is an idea at this stage - is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months - and it would only be for a matter of months.

"But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

Nigel Farage claimed "we may never leave at all" / AP

"I'm clear that it is possible to do that and that is what we are working for, and in those circumstances there would be no need for any proposal of this sort and I'm clear that I expect the implementation period to end at the end of December 2020."

She previously indicated extending the transition until the end of 2021 could be on the cards.

Nigel Farage said that it would mean that the UK wouldnt fully withdraw from the EU until almost the next general election in 2022 and may mean we never leave at all.

While Conservative MP Nadine Dorries called for Mrs May to be replaced as leader by former Brexit Secretary David Davis.

TODO: define component type apester

She said: We cannot find the money to fund our frontline police properly, we cannot find the 2 billion for the vulnerable on Universal Credit, but we can mysteriously find billions to bung to the EU for the unnecessary extra year Clegg and Blair asked Barnier for to waylay Brexit.

While Mr Davis former chief of staff Stewart Jackson said: "If you can't - or in the EU's case won't - resolve the backstop issue now because it's an issue of principle than why will it take another three years to resolve it? Will it not be an issue of principle once we have coughed up billions more in UK taxpayers' cash?"

Instead of a longer transition period, Mrs May had suggested an implementation period of around two years after Brexit to allow for extra time for authorities and companies to prepare for the new arrangements.

However she later accepted a 21-month transition offered by the EU, ending on the last day of December 2020.

Leaders of the remaining 27 EU states have ditched plans for a special Brexit summit in November after chief negotiator Michael Barnier told them he needed much more time to find a way to avoid a hard border in Ireland.A Tesco worker is suing the supermarket chain for harassment and race discrimination after a colleague broke wind in his face.

Atif Masood, 42, a customer assistant at a branch in Thornton Heath, is demanding 20,000  claiming the farting amounts to bullying.

He says he has not received an apology, and that Tesco has not investigated his complaint properly. Mr Masood claims it was one of a number of acts of less favourable treatment he suffered because of his Muslim background.

Tesco denies the claims despite an internal investigation stating it was found that there was sufficient evidence from CCTV footage to support his farting allegation.

In legal papers submitted to the London South employment tribunal, Mr Masood claims there was too much racism in the Thornton Heath store, and felt he was discriminated against by colleagues because he was Pakistani.

He claims that WhatsApp messages sent to him were derogatory and he felt insulted by alleged comments such as Muslims are terrorists and being called a liar in front of customers.

The documents, seen by the Standard, claim Mr Masood raised with bosses a very serious and disturbing act that in December last year a senior colleague had broken wind in the claimants face, in the presence of another worker  and that those two members of staff started laughing at the claimant.

Mr Masood, through his lawyers, Rahman Lowe Solicitors, alleges it amounted to unwanted conduct which had the purpose or effect of violating his dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive [situation], and in the act of breaking wind in the claimants face, a smelly environment for him because of his race. Mr Masood, who has worked for Tesco since 2006, raised an internal grievance, which in February this year found no evidence of race discrimination and that the statements were made with the intention of being a joke.

Although acknowledging that the farting grievance had been upheld, Tesco said the accused colleague vehemently denies that he passed wind in Mr Masoods face. In papers submitted to the tribunal in July, Tesco denied all the claims on behalf of all those accused. Tesco also said in the papers that Mr Masood failed to substantiate his allegations and that his grievance appeal was dismissed after due consideration.S audi Arabia has finally confirmed that journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who first vanished two weeks ago, was murdered.

Mr Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to get marriage documents while his fiancee waited for him outside.

Saudi Arabia had initially denied any knowledge of Mr Khashoggi's whereabouts and insisted he had left the building alive.

But on Friday officials for the kingdom said Mr Khashoggi, who wrote for the Washington Post and was a critic of the Saudi government, said he had died after a "fist fight" at the consulate before describing his death on Monday as murder.

Last week it had emerged that a seven-minute audio recording of his death captured his final moments in which he was allegedly tortured and dismembered while still alive inside the consulate.

Pressure is still growing on Saudi Arabia to give a full explanation of what happened to Mr Khashoggi.

Here's what we know so far

Turkish forensic police officers arrive the residence of the Saudi consul for investigation in Istanbul / EPA

Mr Khashoggi, born in Medina in October 1958, was an author and former editor of Al-Arab News Channel and newspaper Al Watan.

He was the nephew of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who became known for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal of 1985-1987.

The 59-year-old was a leading critic of crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman, and fled Saudi Arabia in June last year.

A US resident, he started writing for the Washington Post as a columnist in September last year.

What happened?

Mr Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

He had gone to finalise paperwork so he could marry his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.

She was outside and says she did not see him leave. Mr Khashoggi is believed to have been killed during the visit.

Turkish officials say police searching the consulate found evidence Mr Khashoggi was killed there.

Turkish forensic police arrive at the Saudi embassy in their probe into the alleged killing of Jamal Khashoggi / EPA

They say they believe a 15-member Saudi "assassination squad" killed Mr Khashoggi at the consulate, but has yet to publish any evidence of him being killed.

Authorities are believed to have a seven-minute audio recording of him screaming as he was being allegedly interrogated, tortured and dismembered.

Pro-government newspaper said Mr Khashoggi's fingers were severed during the interrogation and he died within minutes.

Saudi Arabia denied allegations he was murdered and his body cut up, describing them as at the time as "baseless".

Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia was being treated as "guilty until proven innocent" / Getty Images

The Gulf country also dismissed accusations Mr Khashoggi was murdered by a hit squad inside the countrys consulate in Istanbul as lies and that they had nothing to do with his disappearance.

Donald Trump also appeared to move to the defence of Saudi Arabia, saying the Gulf state was being treated as "guilty until proven innocent", and said the king had no knowledge of what happened.

The US president wrote online: "Just spoke to the King of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of whatever may have happened to our Saudi Arabian citizen.

But on Friday Saudi Arabia finally admitted its agents had killed Mr Khashoggi after he entered the consulate, saying he had died after a "fist fight".

The kingdom denies that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or King Salma were involved.

Trump said he was "not satisfied" with this account of Mr Khashoggi's death and added sanctions were possible - but stopped short of halting an arms deal.

On Monday the country's foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir described Mr Khashoggi's death as murder and blamed it on a "rogue operation".

Jamal Khashoggi went missing on October 2 / AFP/Getty Images

What now?

Pressure is growing on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Mr Khashoggi after he walked into the consulate days ago.

The country's Consul General in Istanbul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, has been sacked and placed under investigation over Mr Khashoggi's alleged torture and murder.

Mr al-Otaibi fled Turkey after the alleged killing.

The development came as world leaders intensified pressure on Riyadh over Mr Khashoggi's disappearance, as a frequent companion of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was named in reports as a possible suspect.

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Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and his G7 counterparts said they were very troubled by the case of the missing dissident journalist and insisted those responsible must be held to account.

The kingdom said 18 suspects are now in custody and that intelligence officials have been fired.

Mr al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia was determined to find out all the facts and "to punish those who are responsible for this murder".

Mr Khashoggi's fiancee has reportedly been given 24-hour police protection.

The UK, France and Germany have issued a joint statement on Mr Khashoggi's death, saying there is an "urgent need for clarification" on what happened.A British-built spacecraft is set to blast off from Earth on a five billion mile mission to Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.

BepiColombo will take off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 2.45am UK time on Saturday, October 20.

The four-tonne craft will be thrust into space by a heavy lift Ariane 5, the European Space Agency's most powerful rocket.

It will then immediately begin a complex journey that will take seven years.

A life size mock-up of the BepiColombo spacecraft, on display at the Science Museum in London / PA

Once it has arrived at its destination, BepiColombo will deploy two orbiters, one European and the other Japanese, to circle the planet for up to two years.

Scientists hope to unravel some of Mercury's mysteries, such as the reason for its oversized iron core, its spectacular volcanic vents and the possible existence of water ice in shadowy parts of its blazing hot surface.

The answers they get from the 1.4 billion mission are expected to shed new light on the origins and evolution of the solar system.

The spacecraft is fitted with ion plasma engines, designed and built in the UK, which emit beams of electrically charged xenon gas.

The BepiColombo spacecraft which will use a host of instruments to explore Mercury / PA

It is the first time the technology has been used on a major interplanetary mission. Smaller craft have previously employed ion thrusters to reach asteroids and the moon.

The ion drive will be used not to accelerate the spacecraft but to act as a brake as it falls into the grip of the sun's powerful gravity.

A complex series of fly-bys past the Earth, Venus and Mercury will further reduce its velocity.

Even so, BepiColombo will reach a top speed of 60 kilometres (37 miles) per second.

An Artist's impression of BepiColombo in "cruise mode" on its way to Mercury / PA

The European Space Agency's Mercury Planet Orbiter (MPO), which will survey the planet's surface and probe its chemistry, was built by satellite company Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage.

"The challenge is to get to Mercury and be captured in its orbit, and to do that you have to brake, brake, brake for years and years," Justin Byrne, head of science and earth exploration systems at Airbus, said.

Airbus also constructed the power unit carrying the orbiters, the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM). The ion thrusters were supplied by British defence technology company QinetiQ.

One of the European orbiter's 11 instruments, the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (Mixs), was designed and built at the University of Leicester.

BepiColombo standing in position at a test facility in Spijkenisse in the western Netherlands / AFP/Getty Images

The Japanese space agency Jaxa's Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter (MMO) will study the planet's internal structure and enveloping magnetic field.

A major challenge for mission planners was ensuring the spacecraft could withstand searing temperatures of more than 350C so close to the sun.

Protective measures include a heat shield, novel ceramic and titanium insulation, ammonia-filled "heat pipes", and in the case of the Japanese orbiter, spinning.

Dr Graham Turnock, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, said: "UK scientists, engineers and technicians have played a vital role in developing BepiColombo and the incredibly sophisticated set of scientific instruments on board."

Mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, prepare for the launch / PA

Only two spacecraft have previously visited Mercury. NASA's Mariner 10 flew past the planet three times in 1974-75 and the American space agency's Messenger probe orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015, taking photos of the surface.

Dr Jerry Bolter, project manager at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, said: "The scientists describe Messenger as the hors d'oeuvre and Bepi as the main course."

The spacecraft was named after the late Guiseppe "Bepi" Colombo, an Italian scientist and engineer who played a leading role in the 1974 Mariner 10 mission to Mercury.A British woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after her husband was stabbed to death on the Malaysian island of Langkawi.

Police said John William Jones, 62, was found lying on the floor of his home with a stab wound to his chest at 2.30am on Thursday.

His wife, Samantha Jones, 62, could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

She was remanded in custody when she appeared at Alor Setar Court on Thursday and is due to return to court on October 24, the Star in Malaysia reported.

British authorities are assisting Jones and offering support to her husband's family.

"We are supporting the family of a British man following his death in Malaysia, and are in contact with the Malaysian authorities," a Foreign Office spokesman said.

He added they were also in contact with the Malaysian police.

The couple had reportedly lived on the tropical island of Langkawi for more than 10 years. Flash

A suspect involved in the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi died in a car accident in Saudi's capital of Riyadh, Turkish media reported on Thursday.

Meshal Saad al-Bostani, who was one of the 15 suspects arrived and left the Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul when Khashoggi visited there on Oct. 2, "died in a traffic accident in Riyadh," according to pro-government daily Yeni Safak.

The report said sources did not give any details about the traffic accident in Riyadh.

Khashoggi, journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, has been missing since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. This case is attracting worldwide concern.

Turkish authorities suspect that the journalist may have been killed while inside the consulate, but Saudi denied the accusation.

After Turkey and Saudi agreed to work together on the probe, the Turkish investigation team has searched the building of the consulate and the home of the consul general.



B lossoms on cherry trees in Japan have arrived six months ahead of blooming season with experts citing this years extreme weather as the cause.

A typhoon hit the country in September, bringing warm weather that is thought to have brought out the pink blossoms early.

More than 300 people have reported seeing cherry blossoms in a survey conducted last week, according to Weathernews.

Toru Koyama, a senior official with the Flower Association of Japan said: We get reports every year of cherry blossom blooming early, but those are confined to specific areas, this time we are hearing about it from all over the country.

Cherry blossoms are blooming early across Japan / Reuters

Typhoon Trami was the worst storm in over 25 years to hit Japan.

Experts say the warm weather brought by the typhoon mimicked spring weather that signals the right time to bloom.

Japan's Cherry Blossoms - in pictures 1 /11 Japan's Cherry Blossoms - in pictures Sakura with Mount Fuji in the background Shutterstock Unsplash Shutterstock Unsplash Unsplash Unsplash Shutterstock Unsplash Unsplash Pixabay Pixabay

They also warn that the buds that have opened now will not open in spring.

Thousands of tourists flock to Japan every year during spring to see the flowers in bloom.C hina has unveiled plans to launch its own artificial moon to replace its streetlights in just over a years time, according to reports.

An illumination satellite, designed to complement light from the real moon, may be launched in the south-western city of Chengdu in 2020.

The artificial moon will be able to light up an area with a diameter of 10 to 80 kilometres, with the range being controlled within tens of meters, Peoples Daily reports.

It said that Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the Chengdu aerospace science and technology microelectronics system research institute, suggested it is now ready after testing began years ago.

Announcing the news on October 10, Mr Chunfeng said that the illumination satellite would be eight times brighter than the actual moon and would be bright enough to replace street lighting.

The artificial moon would have a dusk-like-glow, an audience at a national mass innovation and entrepreneurship event held in Chengdu last week heard.

According to Peoples Daily, the inspiration for the satellite came from a French artist who imagined hanging a necklace made of mirrors above the earth which could reflect sunshine.

Roughly 14.5 million people live in Chengdu, one of the three most populous cities in western China.

Speaking to CIF News, Kang Weimin, director of the Institute of Optics, School of Aerospace, Harbin Institute of Technology, said people should not be concerned about animals being affected.A woman in China killed herself and her two children after her husband allegedly faked his own death for an insurance payout.

The 34-year-old man was presumed dead after a car he borrowed was found in a river. He later gave himself up to the police.

His wife, who was unaware of the alleged plan, drowned herself, her four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter after posting a suicide note online, The China Daily reported.

The man, known only by the surname He, handed himself over to the police last Friday.

Mr He, from Xinhua county in Hunan province, was detained on charges of insurance fraud and intentional damage to property, police said.

Officers said he was in 100,000 yuan (11,000) of debt and had taken out an insurance plan worth one million yuan (110,000).

He is understood to have named his wife as beneficiary.D onald Trump has threatened to use the US military to close the countrys southern border if Mexico does not halt the crossing of illegal immigrants.

In a series of angry tweets, the president asked Mexico "in the strongest terms" to take action to stop large groups of migrants headed for the US from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

"I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the US military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

Mr Trump threatened to withhold regional aid this week as a large group os several thousand Honduran migrants travelled through Guatemala to Mexico hoping to cross the US-Mexico border and escape endemic violence and poverty in Central America.

The president also dispatched US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City on Friday.

Honduran migrants take part in a caravan towards the US / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Trump, who has made cracking down on immigration and building a wall on the Mexican border a key policy, has previously threatened to shut off aid and dispatch troops there.

Donald Trump tours Mexico border wall prototypes 1 /9 Donald Trump tours Mexico border wall prototypes REUTERS Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images REUTERS REUTERS REUTERS AFP/Getty Images REUTERS

In his tweets, Mr Trump also appeared to link the issue to trade and a newly minted deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement pact that is awaiting ratification.

The assault on our country at our southern border, including the criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as president, than trade or the USMCA," Mr Trump wrote, referring to the newest trade deal known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.A high school student made cookies containing her grandfathers ashes and served it to some of her classmates.

The student and a friend baked the cookies and handed them to at least nine classmates at Da Vinci School in Sacramento on October 4.

Davis Police Lieutenant Paul Doroshov confirmed that some of the students had been told about the content of the cookies whereas others were unaware.

Andy Knox, a classmate said he had taken a bite of the sandy-textured cookie without realising its contents.

He added: She had mentioned her grandpas ashes before.

Mr Knox said that the girl had previously offered him some ashes if he swapped desks with another student in their class.

I didnt believe her until she pulled out the urn. She told me theres a special ingredient in the cookie.

It was only after he had taken a bite that the girl told him about the cookies contents.

Police have said the motive behind the incident is unclear. The school will now be handling the incident as officers could not determine a crime.

They added that there was no public health risk.

Principal Tyler Millsap said in a statement posted on Facebook and emailed to parents that the incident "has been particularly challenging and we have responded appropriately and in the most respectful and dignified way possible."

He said those who were involved "are remorseful and this is now a personal family matter."I SIS has kidnapped 700 people including several US and European nationals in Syria and will "execute 10 people every day" unless its demands are met, Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

The militant group has already killed a number of hostages and warned of daily executions to come, the Russian president said.

He did not specify the group's exact demands, Reuters reports.

ISIS fighters attacked a refugee camp in an area controlled by US-backed forces last week, kidnapping some 130 families, according to local media.

The Russian President said the hostages had been taken as conflict continues in Syria / AFP/Getty Images

Images have emerged allegedly showing ISIS fighters attacking and kidnapping fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the same area the day before.

Speaking to the Valdai discussion forum in Sochi, a Russian city by the Black Sea, Mr Putin said: "They have issued ultimatums, specific demands and warned that if these ultimatums are not met they will execute 10 people every day.

"The day before yesterday they executed 10 people."

In Washington, the US military cast doubt on Putin's claims.

Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said: "While we have confirmed that there was an attack on an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near (Deir-al Zor) last week, we have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin and we are sceptical of its accuracy.

"We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp."

A representative of The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the estimated number of detainees held by ISIS was 300.

These included 90 women, some of whom are the widows of IS members killed earlier in the Syrian war.

They said: "The real number of abductees held by the 'Islamic State' organisation is estimated by 300 persons including 90 women."

ISIS was expanding its control in territory on the left bank of the River Euphrates controlled by US and US-backed forces, the Russian president said.

On Wednesday, the TASS news agency reported ISIS militants had taken around 700 hostages in Syria's Deir-al Zor province.

This was after they attacked a refugee camp in an area controlled by US-backed forces on October 13.

The agency reported the militants had kidnapped around 130 families and taken them to the city of Hajin.

A man carries a wounded child after a car bombing in Syria in May / AFP/Getty/Omar Haj Kadour

The Syrian Democratic Forces said that its fighters had engaged in combat with ISIS on October 13 and killed 20 members of the group.

This was as, according to a statement, militants from ISIS descended to "target the camp for the displaced people".

The group added that "special units of our forces carried out an urgent evacuation of civilians from the camp to areas away from the engagements field".D onald Trump has said it "certainly looks" as though missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the consequences must be very severe.

The president had previously warned Saudi Arabia will face severe punishment from the US if it is found the kingdom was responsible for Mr Khashoggis death.

The writer, a columnist for the Washington Post, has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul more than two weeks ago, on October 2.

Turkish authorities said he was murdered and dismembered. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement.

Istanbul: Turkish forensic police officers arrive at the residence of the Saudi consul for the investigation / EPA

Saudi and Turkish governments are conducting separate investigations into the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi.

Mr Trump earlier expressed confidence in intelligence reports that suggest a high-level Saudi role in the suspected killing.

But in an interview with the New York Times, he it was still "a little bit early" to draw definitive conclusions about who may have been behind it.

Jamal Khashoggi was last seen on October 2 / AFP/Getty Images

It comes as government officials from around the world pulled out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the dissident journalists alleged murder.

The US Treasure Secretary Steven Mnuchin joined ministers from the UK, France and Netherlands in cancelling his trip to the event known as Davos in the desert.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, to discuss the allegations / EPA

Mr Mnuchin announced he would pull out of the summit following a discussion with Mr Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mr Pompeo revealed he told the president that Saudi Arabia should be given a few more days to complete its own investigation before the US decides how, or if to respond.G overnment officials from around the world have pulled out of an investment conference in Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of a dissident journalist.

The Middle Eastern country is facing allegations it was behind the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

A critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he went missing more than two weeks ago after entering the Gulf kingdoms consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish forensic police officers gather evidence at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul / AFP/Getty Images

Saudi Arabia, which denies the killing, has allowed Turkish investigators into the consulate to gather evidence.

Mr Mnuchin announced he would pull out of the summit following a discussion with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Mr Pompeo has revealed he told Mr Trump that Saudi Arabia should be given a few more days to complete its own investigation into the disappearance of Mr Khashoggi before the US decides how, or if to respond.

He added that Turkey also promised to share the results of its own investigation with the Saudis.

US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi is believed to have died within two hours of entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul / REUTERS

Mr Pompeo said he believes those combined efforts will produce "a complete picture" of what happened to Mr Khashoggi.

"I think it's important for us all to remember, too - we have a long, since 1932, a long strategic relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," he added.

Earlier on Thursday, a UK Government spokesman said International Trade Secretary Liam Fox had decided the "time is not right" for him to attend the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh.

CCTV appears to show the last sighting of Mr Khashoggi as he arrives at the consulate / REUTERS

They said: "We encourage Turkish-Saudi collaboration and look forward to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conducting a thorough, credible, transparent and prompt investigation, as announced.

"Those bearing responsibility for his disappearance must be held to account."

Liam Fox has pulled out of an international investment conference in Saudi Arabia / Getty ImagesA chilling column written by journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been published by the Washington Post as police were seen removing evidence from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he is thought to have died.

Mr Khashoggis assistant sent the article, titled What the Arab world needs most is free expression the day after he was reported missing after walking into the Gulf kingdoms consulate on October 2.

Karen Attiah, the Post's global opinions editor, said the column was not published immediately "because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together".

She added: "Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen. This is the last piece of his I will edit for The Post."

Jamal Khashoggi is said to have died within two hours of entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul / REUTERS

She said his column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world.

Mr Khashoggi, who was based in the United States, is said to have died within two hours of going into the building earlier this month to pick up documents so he could marry his Turkish fiancee.

In the column, he wrote that Tunisia is the only truly free Arab country and that most people in the Arab world "are either uninformed or misinformed", limiting their ability to stand up to power.

Turkish forensic police pack up after searching the Saudi Arabian consulate / Getty Images

He also referenced his "dear friend" Saudi writer Saleh al-Shehi who is serving a five-year prison sentence for "supposed comments contrary to the Saudi establishment".

He called for a platform of Arab voices isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda."

It came as Turkish police searched the Saudi consulate in Istanbul overnight as part of a probe into his disappearance.

A Turkish forensic police officer carries evidence packs while he leaves the Saudi consulate / AFP/Getty Images

Images show forensic police officers leaving the consulate carrying evidence in paper bags before loading them into a van.

Turkish officials believe Mr Khashoggi, who was critical of Saudi Arabias crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, was murdered at the consulate and his body removed.

The Saudis have denied the allegations.

A CCTV still of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 / Hurriyet/AP

US president Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was waiting for a full report on what had happened to Mr Khashoggi from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr Pompeo has been sent to Saudi Arabia and Turkey to meet officials.

Mr Trump, who has forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia and the 33-year-old crown prince, said the US has asked Turkey for any audio or video evidence.

Turkish officials reportedly have an audio recording indicating Mr Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate.

Turkey's pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak published on Wednesday what it said were details from audio recordings that appeared to document his torture and interrogation.T he Duke and Duchess of Sussex enjoyed a classic Aussie day of beach lifeguards, Australian Rules football and grilled kangaroo - as Meghan-mania hit Melbourne.

The royal couple were greeted by huge crowds in Australias second city on the third day of their Down Under tour which also takes in Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand.

A crowd of up to 5,000 locals gathered in the Royal Botanical Gardens to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.

Harry and Meghan arrived 20 minutes late for their first engagement of the day in the Victoria state capital after spending longer than expected meeting wellwishers.

India Brown, 19, was overwhelmed when Harry spotted her sign saying: Been here since 4am, loved you since I was 8.

Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex chat with local schoolchildren as they take a ride on a tram in Melbourne / AFP/Getty Images

She burst into tears as the prince gave her a hug and said to her: You are going to get me in trouble.

The Duchess wore a navy blue dress by Australian brand Dion Lee with a camel-coloured trench coat and black stilettos.

The couples first engagement - when they eventually got there - was a reception at Melbournes Government House.

Meghan was persuaded to throw an Aussie Rules football during a display of activities including netball, yoga, boxercise, cricket, cycling and Zumba from the This Girl Can empowerment campaign.

The couple arrived to cheers from well-wishers after their short tram ride / AFP/Getty Images

As she gingerly threw the ball, she admitted: Im not sure I did it right!

But Jerril Rechter, chief executive of VicHealth who showed Meghan around the event, said: She did pass an AFL football. She did a handball. Thats a pretty incredible thing for anybody to do.

She had not seen an AFL football before Howard, the governors husband, explained to her what it was like - the weight of it is a little bit different, and that you handball it, you dont pass it.

Meghan is showered with gifts on the tram / Getty Images

The Duchess had a fright during another display.

She and Harry were being shown a display by the F1 in Schools team and were given the chance to race two miniature cars.

On seeing the table-turned-drag race track, Harry joked, We should put one in Buckingham Palace.

However, the pupils from Trinity Grammar forgot to tell the couple about the noise generated by the cars hydraulics when they started.

There was a loud bang as Harry and Meghan pressed the buttons to launch their cars along the state dining room table.

Meghan Markle revealed she didn't yet know a name for her baby / Getty Images

Meghan looked shocked, then doubled over with laughter, as Harry looked on with a smile.

After the morning of engagements, the couple headed to social enterprise cafe Charcoal Lane in the suburb of Fitzroy for lunch.

Chefs trained by the Mission Australia programme, which helps young indigenous Australians into employment, served up a starter of mushroom and quinoa nest and chargrilled kangaroo, followed by main courses of wild boar, saffron risotto and barramundi.

During a tour of the kitchen given by executive chef Greg Hampton, Harry said: Youve got a very clean kitchen  is it always this clean? Especially clean today?

Later in the day youngsters accompanied the couple on a tram trip to the beach. Charlie Wolf, a 12-year-old pupil from Middle Park primary school, asked if the couple had any names for their baby.

Harry and Meghan's Royal rain in Dubbo - In Pictures 1 /21 Harry and Meghan's Royal rain in Dubbo - In Pictures Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit students from Dubbo College Senior Campus Getty Images The Duke of Sussex talks to Luke Vincent, 5, after arriving at Dubbo airport, in Australi PA Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex watch aboriginal dances at Victoria Park in Dubbo AFP/Getty Images The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex visit a local farming family, the Woodleys in Dubbo, on the second day of their visit to Australia PA The Duke and Duchess of Sussex meet children from Dubbo South Public School after arriving by plane at Dubbo PA The Duke of Sussex meets children from Dubbo South Public Schoo PA The Duke of Sussex meets children from Dubbo South Public Schoo PA The Duke of Sussex meets children from Dubbo South Public Schoo PA The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive at Dubbo airport PA The Duke of Sussex and Duchess of Sussex visit a local farming family PA The Duke and Duchess of Sussex talk to Luke Vincent, 5 PA Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (C) pours hand feed from a bucket with farmer Richard Woodley (R) and granddaughter Laura Woodley (L) during a visit to their drought-affected farm called Mountain View near Dubbo AFP/Getty Images Britain's Prince Harry (3/R) and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (3/L) chat with farmers Scott Woodley (2/R), daughter Laura Woodley (R) and Scott's father and mother Margaret (L) and Richard Woodley (2/L) during a visit to their drought-affected farm called Mountain View in Dubb AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry (R), the Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan (C), the Duchess of Sussex, meet with local school children after their arrival at Dubbo Regional Airport in Dubbo EPA Meghan, Duchess of Sussex pets a dog as she meets members of a local community at Victoria Park in Dubbo AFP/Getty Images Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex meet children from a local community at Victoria Park in Dubbo AFP/Getty Images The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend a community picnic in Victoria Park in Dubbo PA Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex look at a medical training aid designed to simulate a baby in an incubator as they attend the naming and unveiling of a new Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft at Dubbo AP Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends a naming and unveiling ceremony for the new Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft at Dubbo Airport Getty Images Meghan, Duchess of Sussex poses for a photo with members of the public at the naming and unveiling of a new Royal Flying Doctor Service aircraft at Dubbo AP Children from Dubbo South Public School wave signs while waiting for Britain's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, to arrive at Dubbo airpor Reuters

The children said Meghan replied: Weve been given a long list of names from everyone, were going to sit down and have a look at them.

Ella Burns, also 12, from Albert Park primary school, said: She said that she hadnt thought of one as it was still quite early.

On the sand the couple heard about the work of the BeachPatrol, who work to keep Melbournes beaches litter free.

Meghan, who had changed into a black Club Monaco dress and flat shoes, and Harry also spoke to lifeguards.P ope Francis has said indicated that he may visit North Korea during a private audience with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, according to Vatican and South Korean officials.

A verbal invite was relayed from Kim Jong-un by South Korean president Moon Jae-in on Thursday during a visit to Vatican City.

A formal invitation directly from North Korea was expected to follow.

The Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said of the likelihood of Francis accepting such an invite: "I would say the availability to go is there."

The gesture was designed to highlight recent peace efforts between the two countries. Kim told Moon of his wish to visit the pope during a meeting last month.

Pope Francis meets South Korean president Moon Jae-in at the Vatican on Thursday / Alessandro Di Meo/Reuters

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 invite is designed to highlight ongoing peace talks between North and South Korea. Kim, left, is pictured with Moon, right / EPA

A trip that would be the first by a pope to officially atheist North Korea would need "serious preparation and consideration", Mr Parolin said.

The South Korean president's private audience with the pope lasted 35 minutes and included an exchange of gifts.

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. The trip never happened.

Information about how many Catholics are in North Korea is, of course, scarce. Religious agencies have guessed they number between the few hundreds to about 4,000.T he horrific scale of the Crimean college massacre became clear today as the faces emerged of the young people slaughtered in a gunman's shotgun and bomb attack.

A total of 20 people were killed and 68 injured as the carnage unfolded at the college on the annexed Black Sea peninsula.

Five students remain in comas after the attack, and their condition is described as extremely grave.

Among the dead - mostly students aged between 15 and 19 - were a mother and daughter, Svetlana and Anastasia Baklanova, aged 57 and 26.

Mass killing suspect: Vlkadislav Roslyakov / Mash

Acts of heroism also emerged. Teachers managed to diverted the attention of alleged killer Vlkadislav Roslyakov in order to allow students to make their escape.

Teacher Vladislav Miroshnikov revealed adults at the college in port Kerch sacrificed their lives to allow students to flee amid scenes of panic when the 18 year old stormed the premises with Russian word for hatred emblazoned on his shirt.

Twenty people died in the gun and bomb attack at the college / Maxim Grigoryev/TASS

The alleged killer shot himself in the college library.

It came as a furious dispute arose amid claims the killer may not have acted alone.

Victim: Alina Kerova, 16 / east2west news

The politician appointed by Vladimir Putin as head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, insisted Roslyakov was the sole perpetrator, but the politician was shouted down by parents.

They told him: "You are lying! Our children say differently."

Several eyewitness accounts from students suggested there was more than one gunman.

Roslyakov had legally bought his Turkish-made Hatsan Escort pump action shotgun after undergoing legal, medical and psychiatric tests.

Anna Zhuravlyova, 19, was also shot dead / east2west news

it is not yet clear what drove Roslyakov to attack the college. Pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP) newspaper gave four versions, none of them linked to an attack from Ukraine.

One was that he had rowed with his first girlfriend, who he had been seen with in the days before the attack. A friend was quoted as saying: Vlad was not in the college on Monday.

Roman Karymov, 21 also died at the college / east2west news

Maybe he quarrelled with his very first girlfriend?

And he was so upset he missed a day - and then decided to punish the whole world for his failure with a girl?

Another theory is that he was a fan of bloody computer games. A friend was quoted saying: Vlad has always admired those who killed their classmates.

I talked to him about it once when we were first year students. I knew he had computer games where you shoot inside the school.

But I did not think he may do something like this in reality. Roslyakov did not really talk about it, we discussed it just once.

Locals gather near the college in Kerch / EPA

A third version portrays the boy as an outcast humiliated by his familys poverty and his poor clothes.

Crimeas senior politician Sergey Aksyonov said: "What he published on his [social network] account was not open to the public.

Military and police near the site of the attack / EPA

Access to his account was restricted, he didn't have any friends.

KP suggested investigators are checking if pressure from his peers was behind the attack. Finally, the newspaper claimed checks are being made on whether he had been recruited by an Islamic group.

20 people are confirmed to have died in the attack / AP

The version that Roslyakov might have been involved in Islamic extremist groups is being considered.

Experts are studying this students mobile phone and social networks now. As soon as his gadgets are checked it will be clear if this young man was recruited by ISIS or not.

Other reports have suggested the attack - like others on schools and colleges in Russia - has a copycat element from the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the US.

Emergency services load an injured person onto an ambulance in Kerch, Crimea / AP

Crimean administration head Sergey Aksyonov denied claims that the alleged killer was linked to a religious grouping.

"It's not true, he said. He wasn't linked [to any sects].

Childrens ombudsman for the Russian authorities now in control of Crimea, Irina Klyueva, said that investigators would carefully study what might have provoked Roslyakov.

The influence of his family, college, friends and social networks would be evaluated.

Teacher Vladislav Miroshnikov said: When the attacker began to shoot, some people sacrificed their lives to distract him in order to let others run away and escape.

He criticised the security system at the college.

Metal detector, the gate barrier  all this just to tick the box. Anyone can climb the fence or the window and get inside. There were no bars anywhere.

An informed source in the police has told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper that the boy - a student at the college - made the bombs himself and alone he was the organiser and the implementer of this crime.

Yet reports from some of those involved yesterday indicated there was more than one gunman.

Some of the wounded are being sent to hospitals in Moscow, Krasnodar and Simferopol for urgent treatment.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova: 'Overnight doctors managed to stabilise conditions of the heavily wounded. Ten teenagers were in intensive care, five of were in a grave condition, five more in extremely grave, coma-like condition.

All ten went through surgeries. By this morning, 44 people were in hospital. All the wounded people were identified, she said.

Parents are with their children. They are allowed into intensive care units which is also what helped to identify everyone.

'Evacuation of heavily wounded patients begins, and they will be taken to leading hospitals in Moscow, Krasnodar and Simferopol.

Vladislav Roslyakovs mother Galina Roslyakova is a nurse in Kerch Cancer Clinic where some victims of her sons violence were brought.

According to Mash news outlet, the mother was among the nurses who provided first aid to victims of her son.

She was then taken by police from her clinic. It was reported she had tried too commit suicide on hearing what her son was alleged to have done.

His parents were divorced and his 52 year old father was also taken in for questioning. Teacher Sergey Pasechnik, 30, said: I was in the class with my students when we heard the shooting.

I took my students outside. Then I ran back into the building, two students followed me. There were many injured.

The doors were torn out by an explosion, so we used these doors to carry out the injured guys. Ambulances arrived shortly after.

Three days of mourning have been announced in Crimea.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said: Serious injuries of the victims came as a result of the numerous tiny particles of the explosive device.

It was the self made bomb and it was full of small metal items, screws, washers, other stuff. Small metal parts are found in the muscles, in the soft tissue [of those injured].

These small parts are removed from liver, from intestines, from muscles.

She said: Two planes with necessary equipment are ready to fly to Crimea, including Ilyushin-76 with 25 beds for patients on board.

The majority of victims are in Kerch hospital. "All of them have leg traumas"

All bodies of those killed in the attack at Kerch Polytechnic College in Crimea have been delivered to a city morgue for identification, said deputy head of city administration Dilyaver Melgagiyev.

He confirmed the death toll had risen to 20.

"Twenty people died. The last ambulance brought to the morgue the bodies not of three, but four people. They found another body," he said.

A criminal case for terrorism had been opened but was later reclassified as mass murder, reported TASS.

KP claimed that a Turkish-made Hatsan Escort pump action shotgun was used in the attack. The teenager had at least 150 cartridges.

The alleged killer's friend Denis told KP: 'He was always very closed person from the first course. He did not communicate with anyone, unless he needed something for studies.

"He has not attended lessons since Monday, like he was ill. I wanted to message him yesterday, but his page in VK (social media) turned to be deleted.

We have metal detectors at the entrance, of course. But they react more to the coins in your pocket than just a metal bar.

I wouldnt be surprised if he previously a gun to check the detectors. He usually carried a hunting knife with him.

He loved military literature, history. Surely he could learn something from there.

Student Margarita Kuksova said in an audio recording with a friend: There was shooting. We began to run. We jumped over the fence. I cut my hand.

Can you imagine, we were shot? We were running and the kids were lying there she added, crying.

My friend Dasha was killed in front of my own eyes. I saw how she fell down and did not move, anymore, can you understand?

The boys were falling and blood was everywhere. All this in front of my eyes... I can not bear it... I cannot calm down. I'm shaking.T housands of young people deemed potential future leaders have gathered for the One Young World Summit in The Hague.

Delegates aged between 18 and 30 from over 180 countries are meeting at the annual summit and will be joined by world leaders and other special guests.

The summit will consider issues ranging from climate change to conflict resolution and human rights.

It was opened by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands on Wednesday who told delegates: "I hope that this summit will give and bring you inspiration, wisdom, friendship and perseverance for all the tasks that lie ahead of us.

Speakers at the event on Thursday include Sir Bob Geldof, Amber Heard and Sir John Major.

During his address to delegates at the summit, Sir John Major said that the UN requires a shake-up.

He said: The UN was formed immediately after the last war 70 years ago and its structure is out of date. The permanent members of the United Nations need to change. It needs not to be the permanent five weve got now.

Gordon Brown will deliver a keynote address later on Thursday recognising the life and work of Kofi Annan.

Speakers such as Akon and astronaut Ron Garan are yet to appear.

One Young World was launched in 2010 with young leaders creating solutions. Last year's summit was held in Bogota, Colombia.D onald Trump has asked for an audio tape of journalist Jamal Khashoggis death to be handed over by Turkish officials if it exists.

The president said he was waiting for a full report on what happened to the US writer from his secretary of state Mike Pompeo.

Turkish authorities had said they believe Mr Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Saudi Arabia has denied the allegations.

Turkish forensic police officers arrive the residence of the Saudi consul in Istanbul / EPA

Asked about the audio clip on Wednesday, Mr Trump said: We have asked for it, if it exists. I'm not sure yet that it exists, probably does - possibly does.

Turkey's pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper published what it said were details from audio of his torture and interrogation.

Jamal Khashoggi: the journalist has been missing for two weeks / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Khashoggi was killed within minutes and his torturers severed his fingers during the interrogation, the newspaper said.

His killers later beheaded and dismembered him, it added.

Turkish sources said the authorities have an audio recording indicating Mr Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate.

He has not been seen since entering the building.

The US and allies have collected some intelligence which partly confirms the existence of the audio, according to reports.C ases of modern slavery in the UK has nearly doubled in the past year, according to The Salvation Army's most recent report.

The charity, which provides safe houses for victims, said it had assisted 86 British modern slaves in 2017/18 - a rise from 44 cases in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

Last year, the Standard launched a special report on modern slavery to shine a light on the thousands of victims of modern slavery in the UK.

Figures from the National Crime Agency reveal 1,658 potential victims were reported in April-June 2018 - up 2% from the previous quarter.

The UK has made significant steps in tackling human trafficking - but what more can be done?

Here's everything you need to know:

What is modern day slavery?

The definition of slavery is no longer just based on the concept of being owned by someone. Modern definitions include being forced to work under threat and being controlled by your employer.

Kathy Betteridge, director of the Salvation Army's anti-trafficking and modern slavery unit, said: "Modern slavery shows itself in a number of different forms including forced labour and sexual exploitation where women are taken and deceived, and abused."

In the UK, most commonly people are trafficked into forced labour in industries such as agriculture, construction, hospitality and car washes.

What is the Modern Slavery Act 2015?

In 2015, the Government implemented the Modern Slavery Act with a view to stop crimes involving trafficking and forced labour and eradicate modern slavery.

The act also imposed tougher penalties on offenders and strengthening protections for victims.

Could our country better prevent human trafficking?

Protest: modern slavery is a crime with profound and lasting consequences (Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images) / AFP/Getty Images

In 2009, the Government set up the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) to refer individual cases and through which victims can access support.

However, some critics argue that cases weren't dealt with properly.

Anti-Slavery International said: "Victims were not supported and traffickers were getting away with their crimes."

After the Modern Slavery Act 2015 was launched in response to failings in the NRM system, significant steps forward were made.

Under the new act, businesses had to report on how they tackle slavery in their global supply chains and an Anti-Slavery Commissioner was established to oversee the UK's policies to tackle slavery.

However, Anti-Slavery International says the act was too focused on policing.

It said: "Many are not recognised as victims and not supported properly. Many are treated as immigration offenders rather than victims of a serious crime.

"They are also less likely to act as witnesses in court and help prosecute the traffickers."

According to UK Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner Kevin Hyland, only one per cent of victims of slavery have the chance to see their exploiter brought to justice.

Who are the victims of modern slavery?

Victims are often vulnerable and easy for others to take advantage of.

This can be someone living in poverty with no job prospects, who will accept a job abroad that turns out to be something other than what was promised.

Children are also vulnerable. In 2017, over 2,000 children were referred to British authorities as potential victims of slavery.

Why has modern slavery risen so much in the UK in the last year?

According to Anti-Slavery International, UK nationals make the biggest group of potential victims of slavery.

Ms Betteridge told the Standard: "We believe this could be a combination of an increase in modern slavery as well as raised levels of awareness and understanding, which means law enforcement agencies are more active and The Salvation Army is receiving more referrals."

How do people become vulnerable to human trafficking and slavery?

"People can be vulnerable to becoming victims of modern slavery for many different reasons," says Ms Betteridge.

"Situations such as debt, substance addiction, relationship breakdowns, homelessness or extreme poverty can mean a person is looking for a way into a different life and are therefore vulnerable to false promises.

"Traffickers often lie to victims to tell them there is no one to help them. That's why it's important for everyone to know we are here; we can transport them out of the situation, give them safe accommodation and support them with any of their needs - from physical and mental health to financial and legal help."

What can I do to help victims of modern slavery?

Call 999 immediately if you believe someone is being trafficked.

You can also dial the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The Salvation Army also runs a 24-hour confidential Referral Helpline on 0300 3038151.B acklash over Brexit transition as summit ditched

Theresa May is facing a backlash for indicating the Brexit transition period could be extended for another year, to the end of 2021.

The Prime Minister refused to rule out the possibility after she was criticised for making no real progress at yesterdays crunch talks.

EU leaders also ditched plans for a special summit next month, saying more time is needed to resolve the issue of the Irish border.

Harry and Meghan greeted by thousands in Melbourne

Harry and Meghan were met with a rapturous reception as they arrived in Melbourne for day three of their royal tour in Australia.

Locals waited from as early as 5am to catch a glimpse of the couple as they headed to Victoria as part of their 16-day trip today.

The duke and duchess were met by a crowd nearing 5,000 and abandoned their strict scheduling to meet fans for 25 minutes.

The newlyweds met the Governor of Victoria, community leaders and visited a school to discuss sustainability programmes.

They are also set to take part in a beach clean-up with volunteers.

Trump asks for journalist murder audio evidence

Donald Trump has asked Turkey for an audio tape believed to prove a missing journalist was killed at Istanbul's Saudi consulate.

The president last night said: we have asked for it, if it exists.

Saudi Arabia denies killing him.

Snow on the way

Snow could hit parts of the UK next week as temperatures plummeted to below freezing in some parts of the country overnight.

Signs indicate cold weather will also mark the start of November with further potential for snowfall.

Third of youngsters suffer with mental health issues

A third of 15 to 18-year-olds are suffering from mental health and emotional well-being issues, a study has found.

Research by charity Action for Children suggests 33 per cent of the 5,000 teenagers surveyed were experiencing problems regularly.

Common issues were feeling depressed, restless sleep, struggling to focus their minds and the inability to shake negative feelings.

Danny Dyer gets royal treatment in new series

EastEnders actor Danny Dyer is a direct descendant of Edward III so it makes sense that he fronts a new history series for the BBC.

After finding out he was related to royalty in Who Do You Think You Are, Dyer is to experience how his ancestors lived for the show.

The star will learn to hunt, eat a sheeps tongue like a Viking and wear a ruff for an Elizabethan banquet on the show.

Dyer described it as a nutty experience.

On this day...

1405: Pope Pius II was born. Pope Gregory XII also died on this day in 1417, as did Pope Pius III, who died in 1503.

1826: The last state lottery was held in Britain.

1922: The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) was officially formed.

1961: Henri Matisse's Le Bateau went on show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was not until 116,000 people had seen it, 46 days later, that someone noticed it was hanging upside down.G eorgia Steel has been forced to hit back at speculation that she split with Love Island boyfriend Sam Bird due to cheating allegations.

The reality star couple, who have been inseparable since meeting in the villa, put on a united front at the ITV Palooza on Monday night but a devastated Bird announced the sad news they had split just hours later.

Since the news surfaced, 21-year-old Steel has been forced to respond to reports accusing her of not being a loyal babe and having a fling with her manager Steven West.

Blasting reports, she told fans: The story of myself being linked with Steven West. This is laughable.

No way: Steel slammed the accusations / Georgia Steel Instagram

"He is my tour manager who drives me to all my PAs. Nothing more.

Steels response came after ex-beau Bird hinted that Steel had been unfaithful to him.

Posting a short statement on Twitter, Bird wrote: Im devastated to announce me and Georgia have split up for reasons I cant bring myself to comment on at the moment.

As always I wish her all the best, he added with a sad face emoji as fans and friends rushed to support him.

Steel, who earned a reputation on the show for her loyal catchphrase, also posted a statement on her social media and asked for fans to understand they are going through a hard time.

Writing on her Instagram story on Tuesday, she said: I'm very sad to say me and Sam have split.

I will always care about him. However please understand this is a hard time for us both. Thank you.K risten Bell is the latest Hollywood star to voice her concern over the messages that Disney princess films are sending to young girls.

The Frozen star has admitted that shes had to explain to her young daughters that the fairytale has a troubling central message about consent.

Bell is mother to daughters Lincoln, five, and three-year-old Delta, with husband Dax Shepard.

Speaking to Parents magazine, she said: Every time we close Snow White, I look at my girls and ask, 'Don't you think it's weird that Snow White didn't ask the old witch why she needed to eat the apple? Or where she got that apple?'

Parents: Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell have two daughters / Frazer Harrison/Getty

I say, 'I would never take food from a stranger, would you?' And my kids are like, 'No!' And I'm like, 'Ok, I'm doing something right.

She added: Dont you think that its weird that The Prince kisses Snow White without her permission because you cannot kiss someone if theyre sleeping.

TODO: define component type apester

Keira Knightleys recently admitted that shed banned her three-year-old daughter from watching Cinderella and The Little Mermaid because she doesnt want her to grow up believing she needs to be rescued by a man.

Banned: Keira Knightley has banned her daughter from old Disney films / Kevork Djansezian

Knightley, 33, revealed she is very particular when it comes to Edies viewing habits, but will let her watch modern Disney hits.

Speaking on The Ellen Show she said: Cinderella  banned because she waits around for a rich guy to rescue her  dont. Rescue yourself, obviously.

This is the one Im quite annoyed about because I love The Little Mermaid and the songs are great, but do not give your voice up for a man.

Knightley, who said she is keeping to it, allows Edie to watch Frozen, Moana and Dory which is a big favourite in our house.L ove Islands Georgia Steel and Sam Bird have become the latest couple from the ITV2 show to split, just hours after partying at an ITV gala.

The pair  who have been inseparable since meeting in the villa - put on a united front at the ITV Palooza on Monday night but a devastated Bird announced the sad news they had split just hours later.

Posting a short statement on Twitter, Bird wrote: Im devastated to announce me and Georgia have split up for reasons I cant bring myself to comment on at the moment.

As always I wish her all the best, he added with a sad face emoji as fans and friends rushed to support him.

Steel, who earned a reputation on the show for her loyal catchphrase, also posted a statement on her social media and asked for fans to understand they are going through a hard time.

Writing on her Instagram story on Tuesday, she said: I'm very sad to say me and Sam have split.

Split: Georgia Steel also confirmed the sad news on social media / Instagram / Georgia Steel

I will always care about him. However please understand this is a hard time for us both. Thank you.

Hours before, the pair appeared loved-up as they posed for pictures and partied with pals at the luxurious ITV bash at the Royal Festival Hall.

Love Island's Georgia Steel and Sam Bird move in together

At the time, Steel posted a video showing fans around their new little pad, writing: When the landlord brings you champagne. Happy move in day sweetheart.

Steel and Bird first met on the popular ITV2 show after Steel was rejected by Josh Denzel, who chose to bring Kaz Crossley back from Casa Amor.

They were forced to split up during their time on the show but proved they were smitten as they struggled to stay away from each other, eventually choosing to leave together rather than couple up with other contestants.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Prosecutor General Augustin Lazar on Thursday welcomed a delegation of the Federal Prosecutor's Office of Belgium, in the context of the celebration of 10 years of bilateral collaboration between this Belgian institution and the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), a release by the General Prosecutor's Office reads, according to Agerpres.

The sides addressed aspects referring to the Belgian-Romanian judicial cooperation, the magistrates' independence, the access to the magistracy and the appointment to the top positions.

Attending the talks were Eric Bisschop, deputy of the federal prosecutor, and Thomas Lamiroy, head of the International Cooperation Service on behalf of the Belgian delegation, whilst Cristian Lazar, deputy chief-prosecutor of the criminal prosecution and forensic Section and Nadina Spinu, chief-prosecutor of the international judicial cooperation, international relations and programmes' Service participated on behalf of Romania's Prosecutor's Office.The Tennessee Supreme Court has revised one of its rules to require new lawyers to successfully complete a course focused specifically on the law in Tennessee before they begin practicing law. This requirement comes in the wake of the Courts adoption in April 2018 of the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) and ensures that new lawyers are knowledgeable about both general law and Tennessee law.



The Courts adoption of the UBE in April added Tennessee to the growing list of states that use the uniform exam, which consists of three sections, including the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE).

The questions included in the MEE, while not specific to Tennessee law, are drafted and reviewed by national experts in each field. The questions are also pre-tested, which is difficult to accomplish for a state-prepared essay examination, regardless of the talent and expertise of the Tennessee drafters. The MEE is effective for measuring competency of attorneys before admission by testing knowledge of the subject matter, issue identification, and persuasive writing ability. The UBE, although very effective and reliable, does not test on Tennessee-specific law. The Supreme Courts revision to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 7 includes the establishment of the Tennessee Law Course and provides an additional layer of required knowledge that is specific to Tennessee law.The adoption of the UBE allows a law school graduate in Tennessee who earns a set minimum score on the exam to transfer the score for admission to any other state that also uses the UBE exam. In addition, a law school graduate from another state using the UBE can transfer the score to Tennessee without taking a new exam. Applicants who seek to be licensed in Tennessee by transferred UBE score will still have to undergo a character and fitness investigation and meet all of the other eligibility requirements. Complete details on admission by transferred UBE score are available on the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners website at www.tnble.org.Before adopting the Tennessee Law Course requirement, the Supreme Court appointed a committee to study the need, feasibility, and scope of a required course on Tennessee law. The Supreme Court adopted the committees recommendations to require completion of the Tennessee Law Course before admission to the Tennessee bar. The Course will highlight the distinctions found in Tennessee law. Course topics will initially include Professional Responsibility, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Torts, Property, Tennessee Court Rules, Business Organizations, Wills, Estates and Trusts, and Family Law. Professors from Tennessee law schools and Supreme Court staff attorneys will assist in preparing and presenting materials for the Tennessee Law Course. The Course content will be reviewed periodically to add, modify, or delete content as required. The Course will be delivered digitally, and outlines will be available on the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners website.The adoption of the Uniform Bar Examination and a Tennessee Law Course is a positive development for the practice of law in Tennessee. All newly licensed attorneys, not just those sitting for examination, will receive instruction in Tennessee law, which will benefit the public, said Jeffrey Ward, president of the Board of Law Examiners and chair of the Tennessee Law Course Committee.

Justice Sharon G. Lee, liaison to the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners, expressed the Courts gratitude to the Board of Law Examiners for its work in advancing bar exam testing methods; to the Tennessee Law Course Committee for its thorough study of the requirements and methods for delivery of the Tennessee Law Course; and to law professors at Belmont University College of Law, Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law, Nashville School of Law, University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, University of Tennessee College of Law, and Vanderbilt University Law School as well as Supreme Court staff attorneys for their willingness to assist in preparing and teaching the Course.



The UBE will be given for the first time in Tennessee in February 2019. By January 2019, the Tennessee Law Course will be online for applicants to complete. Applicants will be provided instructions once they have been approved by the Board of Law Examiners for licensing or with the notification of a successful bar examination.EID: Financial Statement Quarter 2/2020 (holding company)

Nguon tin: HNX |

Hanoi Education Development and Investment JSC announced the company's Financial Statement Quarter 2/2020 of holding company.Getting to the bottom of the Jamal Khashoggi disappearance is a bit like peeling an onion. It is known that Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd to get a document that would enable him to marry a Turkish woman. It is also known, from surveillance cameras situated outside the building, that he never came out walking the same way he entered. The presumption is that he was either killed inside or abducted, though the abduction theory would have to be based on a Consulate vehicle leaving the building with him presumably concealed inside, something that has not been confirmed by the Turks. If he was killed inside the building and dismembered, as seems likely, he could have had his body parts removed in the suitcases carried by the alleged fifteen official Saudis who had arrived that morning by private jet and left that afternoon the same way. The supposition is that the fifteen men, which may have included some members of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salmans bodyguard as well as a physician skilled in autopsies who was carrying a bone saw, constituted the execution party for Khashoggi.

There are certain things that should be observed about the Turks, since they are the ones claiming that the disappearance of Khashoggi may have included a summary execution and dismemberment. The Turkish intelligence service, known by its acronym MIT, is very good, very active and very focused on monitoring the activities of foreign embassies and their employees throughout Turkey. They use electronic surveillance and, if the foreign mission has local employees, many of those individuals will be agents reporting to the Turkish government. In my own experience when I was in Istanbul, I had microphones concealed in various places in my residence and both my office and home phones were tapped. A number of local hire consulate employees were believed to be informants for MIT but they were not allowed anywhere near sensitive information.

As Turkey and Saudi Arabia might be termed rivals if not something stronger, it is to be presumed that MIT had the Consulate General building covered with both cameras and microphones, possibly inside the building as well as outside, and may have had a Turkish employer inside who observed some of what was going on. Which is to say that the Turks certainly know exactly what occurred but are playing their cards closely to see what they can derive from that knowledge. The two countries have already initiated a joint investigation into what took place. Turkeys economy is in free fall and would benefit from investment from the Saudis to create an incentive to close the book on Khashoggi. In other words, Turkeys perspective on the disappearance could easily be influenced by Saudi money and the investigation might well turn up nothing that is definitive.

Saudi Arabia, for its part, has a couple of cards to play also even if it did kill and dismember Khashoggi under orders from the Crown Prince. First of all, the system of petrodollars, which basically requires nearly all purchases of petroleum to be paid in dollars, is underwritten by the Saudis. Petrodollars in turn enable the United States to print money for which there is no backing knowing that there will always be international demand for dollars to buy oil. The Saudis, who also use their own petrodollars to buy U.S. treasury bonds, could pull the plug on that arrangement. That all means that the United States will be looking for an outcome that will not do too much damage to the Saudis.

Second, Saudi Arabia is in bed with Israel in opposition to Iran. This means the Israel Lobby and its many friends in Congress will squawk loudly about Khashoggi but ultimately shy away from doing anything about it. It already appears that a cover story is halfway in place to explain what happened. It is being suggested that a rogue element from Saudi Arabia might have carried out without the knowledge of the Crown Prince an interrogation or abduction attempt that went too far. Donald Trump speculated on Monday that that might be the case, suggesting that it may already be part of the official line that will be promoted. Those who know Saudi Arabia well, however, consider a high-level assassination not ordered by the Crown Prince directly to be extremely unlikely, but that does not necessarily mean that a cover story including that feature might not be successfully floated.

In regional terms, Saudi Arabia is also key to Trumps anticipated Middle East peace plan. If it pulls out from the expected financial guarantees aspect, the plan will fall apart. Riyadh is also committed to buy tens of billions of dollars worth of American arms, an agreement that could be canceled if Washington begins to pressure the Saudis for answers. Beyond that, Saudi Arabia could stop pumping oil or fail to increase production when Iranian oil becomes subject to U.S. sanctions early next month, driving the price per barrel up dramatically for everyone. The Saudi government has already indicated that it will respond forcefully to any attempts to punish it over Khashoggi and there is no reason to doubt the seriousness of that threat.

There are, of course, possible impediments to selling the fake news narrative. Some early reports suggested that Khashoggis fiance had observed and possibly recorded the execution inside the consulate using the victims Apple wristwatch linked to an iPad in her possession. If that is true, the release of such material to the media will create worldwide demand to learn the truth that will be difficult to control. Also, there are unconfirmed reports that U.S. intelligence knew in advance of Saudi plans to abduct Khashoggi, which could prove embarrassing to the Trump administration and could narrow its options.

The trick will be to see how a bit of extreme brutal behavior by the Saudis can be manipulated by all interested parties to produce a solution that doesnt damage anyone too much. It will undoubtedly be far from the truth, but truth doesnt necessarily matter much these days.Achieving progress with North Korea is a matter of great importance for US President Trump as the November midterm elections draw near. Finding a solution to a major international problem is a serious challenge no country can manage alone. Although Washington paints Russia as a villain that can be blamed for whatever is wrong in the world, the US casually overlooks all that propaganda and buckles down to serious negotiations when it needs tangible results. Despite all the differences and tensions, Moscow and Washington are talking turkey in an effort to move forward on North Korea.

US Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun visited Moscow on October 16 to hold working meetings with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Igor Morgulov and Sergey Ryabkov. Mr. Biegun accompanied Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on his trip to Pyongyang this month for talks on preparing a second US-N. Korean summit.

On December 22, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2397, its sixth on North Korea, imposing more sanctions in response to a ballistic missile test in November. Pyongyang was deprived of $2.3 billion in annual export revenues, or almost everything it received from foreign trade. Since then, the country cannot import more than 500,000 barrels of oil a year. Thats really harsh. Russia wants the sanctions regime eased as progress is made. The goal of sanctions is denuclearization, not more painful hardships for ordinary people.

A moratorium on nuclear and missile tests is in place, and some key missile facilities, such as the Punggye-ri range in the northeastern region of the country and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, have been dismantled. In August, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had blocked another US-sponsored resolution. The fact that it is a nuclear power, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, and a neighbor of North Korea with established lines of communication to Pyongyang, makes Russia an effective broker that can make an important contribution. It has a real interest in a detente on the Korean Peninsula, as Vladivostok, Russias gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, is situated just a couple hundred miles from several North Korean nuclear and missile sites. After all, the demolished N. Korean nuclear test site was located only 200 km from Russias border. Moscow has no interest in giving the US a pretext for deploying its missile-defense systems in South Korea and Japan.

Russia is working on its own plans to host North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Moscow or Vladivostok. No date has been set, and nothing so far has been announced officially, except the fact that an invitation has been accepted by the N. Korean leader. The Russian daily Izvestia believes a Russian-N. Korean summit will take place before Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un meet each other for the second time. The event is generally expected to take place before the US midterm elections on November 6. The N. Korean leader feels it is important to consult with Moscow before meeting Donald Trump.

Speaking on October 12 at an event in Pyongyang marking the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between North Korea and Russia, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said that Pyongyang is seeking to expand ties with Moscow in 2019. He emphasized that his government deeply appreciates Russias efforts to promote progress in stabilizing the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

Moscow can offer lucrative economic projects that will make Pyongyang more amenable to dismantling its nuclear and missile programs. The parties are negotiating the construction of a new bridge across the Tumen River that would allow traffic to cross directly, without making a lengthy detour through China. Gas pipelines could be built to run from Russia to South Korea through North Korea. They could be extended into Japan. Electricity grids could be built along the same route. Moscow and Seoul are in talks over a deal to deliver 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the resource-poor and import-dependent South Korea. Another project is to restore an old rail link that used to connect South Korea to the Tran-Siberian. "Once the Trans-Korean Main Line is built, it may be connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway. In this case, it will be possible to deliver goods from South Korea to Europe, which would be economically beneficial not only to South and North Korea but to Russia as well," South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in an interview with Russian media in August.

The North Korean economy is not in such bad shape  not as bad as some describe. The growth rate was 3.7% in 2017, raising its GDP to $29.6 billion in 2018. As market forces emerge, North Koreas transformation could be accelerated, which would improve the chances of a softening in the international stance.

As stated in a joint communique released by the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, China, and North Korea after their consultations in Moscow on October 10, the United Nations Security Council should reconsider its sanctions against Pyongyang. "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," the parties emphasized.

Any agreement that is signed on further progress will need backers. Russia is perfectly suited for this role as it is one of the few nations N. Korea, China, S. Korea, Japan, and other parties can trust. It is an indispensable actor that is taking an active part in the process. Washington is being forced to admit this fact, as the recent visit of Mr. Biegun demonstrates.Patrick COCKBURN

The Khashoggi affair has weakened President Trumps campaign to impose stringent economic sanctions on Iran aimed at reducing its influence or forcing regime change. Saudi Arabia is Americas main ally in the Arab world so when its credibility is damaged so is that of the US.

On 5 November the US will impose tough restrictions on Iranian oil exports which have already been cut by more than half since Mr Trump announced the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.

Other signatories, who disagree with him, are seeking to keep the nuclear deal afloat, but the threat of secondary sanctions on oil companies, banks and commercial companies for doing business with Iran is too great a risk for them to resist.

Iran is facing economic isolation but the US will find it more difficult to maintain a tight economic siege of the country without the sort of international cooperation it enjoyed before 2015 when sanctions were lifted as part of the nuclear deal  the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

For sanctions to put irresistible pressure on Iran, they would need to be in place for years and to be enforced by many other nations. Paradoxically, the successful implementation of sanctions requires just the sort of international collaboration that Mr Trump has repeatedly denounced as being against American interests.

Mr Trump can scarcely back away from his confrontation with Iran because he has made it the principle test case for making America great again; or, in other words, the unilateral exercise of US power.

Saudi Arabia and Israel are exceptions but few other countries have a genuine interest in Mr Trump succeeding here even if they do not care much about what happens to Iran.

How has the prospect for sanctions succeeding been affected since dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi embassy in Istanbul on 2 October and failed to re-emerge?

Saudi Arabia has certainly been weakened by turning a minor critic and dissident into a martyr and cause celebre, a mistake that is convincing many US foreign policy and intelligence experts that the operational capacity of the kingdom is even more limited than they had imagined.

The alleged murder of Mr Khashoggi is only the latest of a series of Saudi ventures since 2015 that have failed to turn out as planned. The list includes a stalemated war in Yemen that has almost provoked a famine; escalation in Syria that provoked Russian military intervention; the blockade of Qatar; and the detention of Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri.

For the first time, the US media is giving wall-to-wall coverage to negative stories about Saudi Arabia. One effect of this is to undermine Mr Trumps effort to sell his confrontational policy towards Iran by demonising it as a uniquely criminal and terrorist regime. These denunciations are now being undercut by the drip-drip of allegations about the fate of Mr Khashoggi with even the case for the defence apparently resting on the claim that he was accidentally tortured to death by an overly enthusiastic security officer.

The importance of all this is that the essential political underpinnings of sanctions are being eroded.

The Iranian leadership is probably enjoying the Khashoggi scandal and wondering how it affects their long-term interests. The Iranians have a well-established reputation in the region for political cunning, but this often amounts to no more than patiently waiting for their enemies to make a mistake. They like to avoid direct confrontations and prefer long drawn out messy situations in which they can gradually outmanoeuvre their opponents.

The evidence so far is that Iran is choosing an unconfrontational response to impending sanctions. In Iraq, it has helped orchestrate the formation of a government that will once again balance between the US and Iran, but will not be vastly more pro-Iranian than its predecessor.

It looks to me as if the Iranians were making a sort of peace offer to the Americans, said one Iraqi politician who asked to remain anonymous.

Support free-thinking journalism and subscribe to Independent MindsIran will need to make sure Iraq remains one of the many breaches in the wall of sanctions that the US is trying to build. It will probably arrange barter deals that avoid cash transactions in which, for instance, Iranian gas is exchanged for pharmaceuticals, vehicles and other imports from Iraq.

Another channel for Iranian sanction busting under Mr Obama was Turkey, so Iran will be pleased by anything that worsens US and Saudi relations with Ankara.

If sanctions fail, could Washington decide that military action might be a better option? For all his verbal belligerence, Mr Trump has yet to start a war anywhere and sounds as if he intends to force Iran to negotiate by using economic pressure alone. On the other hand, as the Khashoggi affair has demonstrated, almost anything could happen and not everybody acts in their own best interests.

counterpunch.orgIsrael has been releasing more details on the thousands if Iranian documents Israeli agents seized and transported from Iran to Israel earlier this year. The continuing release of details is the result of ongoing work to translate the many documents and decipher the many technical documents. Then there is the need to keep quiet about Israeli intelligence contacts and capabilities inside Iran. But as it becomes safer to discuss that, the Israelis are doing too. This is part of a plan to expose weaknesses of the Iranian religious dictatorship to an increasingly angry (at the dictatorship) Iranian people.

On May 1st Israel went public about the January 31 Mossad operation that got half a ton of top-secret Iranian nuclear weapons program documents out of Iran and back to Israel in less than 24 hours. Israel quickly sent a senior intel official to the United States to brief the American president about the operation and arrange for the Americans to get details as quickly as the documents could be translated. That process is still underway. Although Israel has many intel specialists who can read Farsi (the Iranian language) the extent of the nuclear archive and its degree of technical detail required an extensive number of documents to be translated (to Hebrew and English) so more technical experts could examine the archive and determine the scientific implications. The Americans received a steady flow of the translated documents and by March the U.S. decided that Iran had violated the 2015 treaty it had signed, pledging to halt all work on the nuclear weapons program Iran always insisted never existed. Israel went public with the Mossad operation in May in part to make it politically and diplomatically easier for the U.S. to withdraw from the 2015 treaty. The other five nations that signed the 2015 treaty have, so far, refused to consider Iran in violation of the treaty terms. Despite that intel and military officials in some of these five nations disagree with the decision by their political leaders and continue to brief their bosses as more details come out. Unless some of these other five nations hold Iran accountable there will be no action from the UN which, by terms of the treaty, can still inspect some Iranian facilities.

Israel still has eyes in Iran (not to mention their own spy satellites) and regularly reports to the IAEA (the UN nuclear weapons inspection agency) details of how Iran is trying to disperse nuclear material and weapons related equipment detailed in the Mossad documents. Israel also suspects that Iran already has all the components for several weapons, but none of these bomb designs have been tested yet.

Since May more details have been released, apparently, as many as Mossad feels can be safely revealed without exposing intel techniques and sources in Iran that the Iranians dont know about. Early on it was revealed that Mossad discovered the location of the warehouse containing the Iranian nuclear archive in early 2016 and by 2017 had put into motion a plan to get into the warehouse and copy key documents and get the information back to Israel. As soon as the warehouse was found it was put under an increasing degree of surveillance in an effort to find out exactly what was in there (32 massive safes and it took a while to find out which one contained the nuclear documents). While this was going on conditions were changing in Iran. There were more public demonstrations against corruption and government incompetence. The extent of these new attitudes became clear after news of the Mossad operation were made public. Most Iranians didnt care about the document theft. No Iranians were injured in the operation to the average Iranian it was another example of their governments incompetence.

Once inside the Mossad agents found far more documents than expected in the nuclear safe and were ordered to take 55,000 pages of paper documents and 183 CDs of containing over 50,000 files full of more data (including photos, engineering plans and so on) and get it back to Israel. The extent of the nuclear archive and the fact that many items appeared recent indicated that there was more in that safe than anyone expected. The extent of the information Mossad was able to obtain about the warehouse and the fact that the two Mossad vehicles carrying the documents were able to make it 500 kilometers to the Azerbaijan border without getting caught made it clear that attitudes had changed in Iran. The police discovered the warehouse break-in shortly after the Mossad agents and their two vehicles left. Iran then alerted over 12,000 security personnel to quietly chase down the perpetrators. The Iranians did not know the Israelis were headed for Azerbaijan, where a plane was waiting to get the documents back to Israel immediately.

The operation in general and the escape was made possible by the widespread corruption in Iran and popular anger at an Iranian religious dictatorship that seemed to care more about destroying Israel than improving the lives of Iranians. When news of the Mossad operation were made public by the Israelis at the end of April the public opinion polls in Iran showed that most Iranians didnt care and those that paid any attention to the matter felt it was just another example of how incompetent their government was and why change was needed. The Iranian government was justifiably concerned that publicizing these documents, as Israel began doing in May, would lead to the cancellation of the 2015 treaty that lifted sanctions on Iran. The American president did just that on May 12th and the continued disclosures make it more obvious that Iran carried out a massive scam to hide what it was doing. The stolen documents show that the nuclear program did exist and was underway disguised as many different scientific research projects.

The stolen documents detail how Iran had an active nuclear weapons program called AMAD from 1998 until 2003 but suspended it in early 2003 when the Saddam government was overthrown. The Iranian nuclear program was expensive and existed mainly because Saddam had convinced Iran that the Iraqi nuclear program was continuing in secret (because of UN sanctions). Once Saddam was out of power, and especially after he was captured and eventually admitted that the Iraqi nuclear program didnt really exist. Saddam kept enough of the defunct nuclear program around to scare the Iranians. Once Saddam was out of power the Iranian government found their program hard to justify.

That cancellation of the AMAD program was never completed because by the end of 2003 Iran changed its mind and converted AMAD into the stealthier SFAND program. This was a major deception because part of this AMAD/SFAND conversion involved going public with most aspects of the AMAD program that could be passed off as non-weapons related nuclear research. The weapons aspects went deep undercover and often literally deep underground. Iran (unofficially) and many Western politicians and intel officials (officially) insist that the archive only shows that the Iranians were trying to preserve the work they had done during the AMAD program and SDAND was merely an effort to keep AMAD updated. Israel disagrees and as more documents are translated and scrutinized the Israelis appear to be right.

Iran always insisted that it never had a nuclear weapons program even though the Israelis had uncovered much evidence that the program existed and the attitude of most Iranians was that the program existed and why not because Iran had long been the regional superpower and should have nukes. But since the 2015 treaty went into effect the promised economic improvements for most Iranians have not happened and at the end of 2017 that triggered widespread public protests against the religious dictatorship. The Shia clerics who run the government have been arguing openly about how to deal with these problems and now the hardline Shia clerics, who insist that destroying Israel be the main priority of Iran, are humiliated by the nuclear documents theft going public. Some of the hardliners want to do whatever it takes to strike back at Israel but most Iranians see Israel as an unofficial ally in the popular effort to get rid of the religious dictatorship in Iran. This is nothing new. In the wake of the American-British invasion of Iraq in 2003, and quick (three weeks) overthrow of the Saddam Hussein government, many Iranians openly called for the Americans to come invade Iran and get rid of the religious dictatorship that had been ruling Iran since the 1980s on the promise they would one day get Saddam for invading Iran in 1980 and starting a war that neither side was able to win. That counted as an Iranian defeat to most Iranians and to make matters worse the chaos of the war allowed Shia clerics to take, and keep, control of the government. Before that Israel and Iran were allies and a growing number of Iranians see that as a better arrangement than the current one. All this gives little comfort, and not many options, for the Iranian leadership.

That also means less of everything, including military power and the ability to keep secrets. The IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps) and police discovered this as they investigated the Israeli theft of the Iranian nuclear weapons archive earlier this year. Officially Iran denies this document theft ever happened. In reality, the government and IRGC leaders were furious and demanded answers. The investigation found or rediscovered, that many Iranians are willing to take a bribe to provide information to just about anyone (including Israeli secret agents) and cooperate in other ways. For example, the Israelis had to discover exactly what types of safes were in the warehouse so they could gather personnel and tools needed to break in the one holding the nuclear documents. The Israelis had to know which of the 32 massive safes they had to get into and how long that would take. Details of the warehouse security system had to be determined so it could be disabled. This Israeli document heist was an operation the Iranians never considered possible. Now Iran had to review security measures used for many other secretive facilities. The Israelis demonstrated that the archive heist was not an exceptional undertaking. It could happen again and, given the current widespread anger towards the government, it would probably be easier and cheaper.So far this year over 2,800 civilians have died from Islamic terrorist violence. Nearly five percent of those deaths have been election related and as it gets closer to the October 20 th national voting the violence increases. There are an average of ten candidates for each of the 249 seats in parliament and about 20 percent of the candidates are women. That is particularly annoying to the Taliban, who dont believe in elections at all. The Taliban have made about ten percent of the 21,000 polling stations dangerous (but not impossible) to use. The drug gangs will often pay for certain candidates to be attacked to improve the chances of more drug gang friendly candidates winning. One positive change in Afghanistan since 2001 is most Afghans now accept elections as a practical way to choose local and national leaders. This shift in attitudes towards elections bothers the Taliban a great deal. Some provinces have suffered more Taliban election disruption than others but the elections keep being held.

More than half the Islamic terrorist deaths are caused by a small fraction of the Islamic terrorists. That is because of ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant). In addition to the Taliban (in Afghanistan and Pakistan) there is the smaller Afghan-Pakistan branch of ISIL (Wilayat e Khurasan or just Khurasan). This group has concentrated on attacking Moslems it considers heretics, or simply uncooperative. That means they mostly go after civilians. ISIL has about five percent the manpower of the Taliban yet accounts for about half the civilians killed Islamic terrorism in Afghanistan this year. ISIL is particularly eager to kill Shia Moslems. Since 2015 ISIL has carried out 25 major terror attacks against Afghan Shia. About half of these attacks occurred in the Shia neighborhoods of Kabul. Because of that these neighborhoods are largely deserted because of past and possible future ISIL attacks. The Taliban does more damage (death, destruction and disruption) in Afghanistan than ISIL but ISIL is more feared and hated. That is how ISIL prefers it. It helps with recruiting as most ISIL recruits are Taliban who got tired of being hired muscle for drug gangs. ISIL is more interested in the religious angle and being more Islamic than other Moslems.

ISIL and to a lesser extent the Taliban have attacked the Hazara frequently because of religious and ethnic differences. Shia Afghans (15 percent of the population) are a particular target for Sunni Islamic terrorists like ISIL. The Taliban and al Qaeda are less likely to attack Shia because both organizations rely on Iran for sanctuary and other support. Most of the Afghan Shia are Hazara, who are ten percent of the population and the descendants of the hated Mongols who conducted several invasions during the 13th and 14th centuries. These Mongol attacks destroyed more of the country and its population than any other conquerors. For centuries Hazara have suffered a lot of discrimination and actual violence in Afghanistan. But Iran is seen as an ally (at least against Pakistan) by most Afghans and Iran is mostly Shia and sees itself as the defender of all Shia.

Although more numerous and active in Afghanistan, ISIL has found it is possible to operate in Pakistan. First ISIL had to find existing groups that were at war with the Pakistani government and done so by successfully adapting to the military counter-terrorism efforts. The two most hospitable groups were the rebellions Baluchi tribesmen in Southwest Pakistan (Baluchistan). The second haven was urban areas in Sind and Punjab provinces. These two provinces contain most of Pakistans population and economic activity. This is also where most of the better educated (and often unemployed) ISIL recruits can be found. There were already some ISIL support networks in these urban areas and ISIL has learned how to use them for organizing attacks. While ISIL attacks in Baluchistan can be attributed (by the military) to Baluchi separatists or other Islamic terror groups that survive there, the attacks in Sind and Punjab are generally accepted as ISIL efforts and that embarrasses the military. Despite this most local ISIL activity occurs in Afghanistan and because of all those attacks on Afghan Shia, ISIL is apparently beginning to feel a backlash from Iran trained Afghan Shia mercenaries who fought in Syria.

Until recently there were over two million Afghans living in Iran, most of them Shia and refugees (or children of) fleeing recent (since the 1980s) wars in Afghanistan. While these Shia refugees feel some affinity with Iran they are still Afghan and many got involved with the lucrative drug smuggling business. This is dangerous as well as lucrative and has turned the Afghan-Iran border into a combat zone. Since the refugees tend to provide a lot of these smugglers, shelter them while profiting from money earned smuggling, the refugees are not very popular in Iran and it is difficult for Afghan refugees to become permanent residents. In 2012 Iran came up with a solution; allowing Afghan Shia in Iran to join an Iranian sponsored mercenary force in Syria. Iran was trying to keep the Syrian government in power against an uprising by the majority of Syrians (who are Sunni). The Shia minority has ruled Syria for over 40 years and since the 1980s done so with the financial and material support of Iran. After 2012 that support included more and more foreign Shia fighters recruited, trained (usually in only a few weeks), paid and led by Iranians. The key benefit for Afghan volunteers from Iran was that successful service (especially if killed or disabled) provided the volunteer and his family with permanent residency in Iran. Nearly 20,000 Afghans from Iran have volunteered so far and some 20 percent have been killed or wounded. Despite the losses, Afghans kept volunteering because the payoff was relatively large and real. The Iranians kept their end of the bargain. But some of the Afghan volunteers did desert and provided foreign journalists and intel analysts with details of how the system worked. For one thing Iranian recruiters stressed the religious angle and the need to protect fellow Shia in Syria. The reality was that Iran needed tough and fearless fighters to deal with Sunni Islamic terrorist groups (mostly al Qaeda and ISIL) who comprised most of the opposition. These Sunni fanatics were responsible for numerous (and ongoing) attacks on Afghan Shia and that was sufficient motivation for most of the Afghan volunteers who come from a warrior culture. In addition to keeping their end of the deal Iran has recently (since late 2016) been providing the Afghan volunteers more public praise in the Iranian media. Most of the Afghans killed in Syria are flown home for burial in Iran and photos or video of the funerals often show up in the media. The families of the martyrs are praised as well and often shown receiving their residency papers and other benefits as well (access to better housing, medical care and so on). All this angers many Afghans who see it as another Iranian scheme to exploit Afghanistan. It is, but the Afghan refugees keep volunteering. Even before the sanctions on Iran were revived earlier in 2018 the Iranian economy was having problems and a growing number of Afghan refugees in Iran were returning to Afghanistan. Among those refugees were many Hazara who had fought in Syria and had often fought ISIL forces there. Now the ISIL groups in Afghanistan have Hazara with combat experience against ISIL back in Afghanistan and organizing Shia militias to defend Afghan Shia from ISIL. This has already caused ISIL to be more careful while planning attacks on Shia.

Despite all that Taliban and ISIL violence if you put things into perspective you note that the current drought in northern and western Afghanistan has displaced more civilians, as well as caused more deaths, than the increased Islamic terrorist violence. The droughts are normal in this part of the world but have been made worse by the population growth (the result of less fighting, more economic activity and public health efforts). Drought relief (mainly food shipments) are often blocked or stolen by the Taliban.

Going For Ghazni

In the east ( Ghazni province) Pakistan has been reinforcing the Afghan Taliban since August in a continuing effort to gain control of the province. Currently the Taliban have been trying to avoid the government counteroffensive. Unable to assemble large forces for another attack on the provincial capital the remaining Taliban are fighting to hold onto their rural bases. Earlier in the month Taliban forces sought to halt traffic on the main road to Kabul and destroy bridges. Some of those efforts succeeded but the Taliban were eventually forced away from the roads and bridges. Two months of fighting in Ghazni cost the Taliban about a thousand dead. This is exceptionally high for the Taliban and led to some embarrassing consequences for Pakistan. Among the hundreds of Taliban dead Afghan security forces were able to examine many foreigners (Pakistani, Central Asian and Chechen) were identified. Since the 1990s the Pakistani ISI has sent reinforcements recruited in Pakistan to the Afghan Taliban. Officially the Pakistani denies this happens but occasionally evidence becomes so visible that it is difficult to ignore, or deny with any assurance of being believed. In addition to the foreign dead left behind the Afghan Taliban took some of their dead with them (as they always try to do to prevent identification) and those from Pakistan were smuggled across the border so their families in Pakistan could bury them. This practice is essential if the Afghan Taliban want to continue recruiting from Pushtun tribes across the border in Pakistan and maintain good relations with those tribes. A growing number of people in those tribes now have smart phones and access to social media sites where they post family news, like recent funerals and who the deceased was. A lot of deaths recently were young men who, gossip indicated, were working in Afghanistan. The pay was good but it was dangerous. But at least the family got the body back and a substantial cash payment.

In addition a lot of the Taliban casualties showed up in Pakistani hospitals and received treatment. That became news because it was rare for there to be so many casualties like this at once when, officially, there was nothing going on in Pakistan. Those casualties were result of unexpectedly prompt and effective resistance by Afghan security forces, armed locals and American air support in Ghazni province. This disrupted and defeated the large scale effort against the city and several rural areas nearby. Ghazni is near the Pakistani border and contains some major heroin smuggling routes into Pakistan. These routes are kept open by the Taliban. Ghazni has long been fought over, because of the heroin smuggling routes. Normally the drug gangs find it cheaper and more reliable to use bribes but because of the growing number of addicts inside Afghanistan the bribes sometimes dont work and the national government often sends down commandos and NDS (Afghan intel) agents to carry out specific tasks which tend to be bribe proof. Massive intimidation attacks like this often fail, mainly because of the popular anger towards the drug gangs that keep supplying the local addicts. The fact that the Afghan Taliban has always been supported by Pakistan is another incentive to fight back.

Opposing Pakistani meddling in Afghan affairs is a popular issue among most Afghans. One reason Western troops are tolerated in Afghanistan, which has, for thousands of years been hostile to foreigners, is because the Westerners and Afghans are both eager to shut down the drug trade and keep the Pakistanis out. Pakistan sees battles like Ghazni as a success because over 600 Afghans (including security personnel and civilians) were killed and there was a degree of intimidation achieved. Operations like this cost Pakistan little as the Afghan drug gangs supply the cash required. They have no choice because the ISI can deny easy access to Pakistan for needed supplies (chemicals for converting opium in to heroin) and secure smuggling routes through Pakistan to the port city of Karachi. It was later discovered that most of the 500 (or more) foreign fighters ISI supplied for the Ghazni battle cane from three known Pakistan based Islamic terror groups known to work for ISI. The most prominent of those with a contingent in Ghazni was the Haqqani Network, whose leader currently runs the Afghan Taliban.

The Afghan prime minister is demanding that his newly elected Pakistani counterpart do something about what happened in Ghazni province. So far the official Pakistani response is; it wasnt us. Pakistani prime minister Imran Kahn is more concerned with nations considered more important to Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia and China. To Pakistanis Afghanistan is more than of a potential problem than anything else. But to Afghanistan, and most of the world community, the biggest problem in Afghanistan is not the Taliban or the drug gangs, but Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban is divided over the issue of being controlled by Pakistan and being held responsible for the growing number of Afghan drug addicts. Then there is the role of Pakistan in sustaining the chaos Afghanistan has suffered since the late 1970s (when Russian backed Afghan communists tried to start a revolution). The communists were followed by a Russian invasion, drug gangs, an Islamic revolution, civil war and Pakistan seeking to take control in the 1990s with their Taliban movement. Pakistan did serve as a base for millions of Afghan refugees and thousands of Afghan rebels during the 1980s but that led to Pakistan believing it could continue to support violence in Afghanistan if it was deemed to be serving Pakistani interests. The Pakistani created and supported Taliban had control of Afghanistan (or at least most of it) from the late 1990s until 2001. That led to the American invasion and Pakistan continuing to support the drug gangs and Taliban while assisting the U.S. in its war on terror. Many Americans want to just leave. The problem is just getting out leaves Afghanistan at the mercy of Pakistan, Iran and Russia, as well as all the drug gangs, Islamic terror groups and numerous Afghans who oppose the drugs and all the outside interference. The drugs and Islamic terrorism will still be major exports. The West can leave Afghanistan but the ills of Afghanistan wont leave the West and that is just fine with Pakistan.

A growing number of Afghan Taliban leaders want peace and an end to being manipulated by the Pakistanis. Despite that the senior Afghan Taliban leader and the Pakistani generals are not inclined to consider peace talks because of all that money from the drug gangs as well as the ability to control (or at least disrupt) Afghanistan. The U.S. recently repeated its accusation that Pakistan had done nothing about the Pakistan sanctuary for the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network and several other Islamic terror groups that do the bidding of the Pakistani military.

Afghans note that the economic growth experienced after 2001 slowed down considerably after NATO withdrew most of its forces in 2014. The Taliban failed, as they long claimed they could, take control of the country after the foreign troops left. The rural population suffered the most after 2014 because thats where the Taliban had the easiest time disrupting local security. After 2014 the majority (over 60 percent) of Afghans lost ground economically. Even the urban population, which tended to continue to see economic growth, were dismayed at the increasing control Pakistan was achieving via their proxies (Taliban and drug gangs). Despite growing international condemnation for this Pakistan maintained good relations with China, Iran and Saudi Arabia and got away with it.

October 15, 2018: In the east (Nangarhar Province) an American UAV used missiles to attack an ISIL camp and kill at least nine of the Islamic terrorists.

October 6, 2018: In Kabul two bombs went off leaving two dead and nine wounded.

October 4, 2018: In the south (Helmand province) an American soldier was killed while clearing additional explosives after a vehicle had been hit by a roadside bomb. So far this year eight American troops have died in Afghanistan, versus 15 for all of 2017. Currently the 15,000 or so foreign troops are suffering losses of about 70 per 100,000 (per year), down from 130 per 100,000 in 2017. That loss rate peaked at about 400 per 100,000 in 2012. At the peak of the fighting (2005-7) in Iraq, the losses were nearly 600 per 100,000. The rate for U.S. troops in Vietnam and World War II was about 1,500 per 100,000 troops. It was higher for German and Russian troops, more like what Afghan security forces have suffered since 2014. As high as this is, its higher (twice what the army and police lose) for the Taliban and such loss rates were always common in Afghanistan. When the tribal irregulars fought Russian troops in the 1980s they suffered even higher losses. During that period the invading Russians never suffered more than 1,000 per 100,000 dead per year and eventually left because they could not afford the financial cost of seemingly endless fighting in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union fell apart a few years later and nearly three decades later Afghanistan is still a mess.

September 30, 2018: In the east (Nangarhar Province) an American UAV used missiles to attack an ISIL camp and kill at least 21 of the Islamic terrorists including several ISIL leaders.

September 25, 2018: In the east (Khost province, adjacent to North Waziristan) the Pakistani government has ordered customs officials to strictly enforce import-export rules and block any Afghan imports that do not have the proper paperwork. That means an Electronic Import Form, which is available, for a fee. Many Afghans refuse to get the forms because they see it as a ploy by Pakistan to impose fees to get goods into Pakistan, particularly perishables (like fruit and vegetables). Pakistan didnt demand the paperwork when they reopened the border to trade in May.

September 22, 2018: In the east (Khost province, adjacent to North Waziristan) a Pakistani army patrol clashed with a group of Islamic terrorists crossing the border from Afghanistan. Seven soldiers and nine of the intruders (apparently Pakistani Taliban) were killed during the battle. The surviving Islamic terrorists fled back into Afghanistan.Burma is threatened by trade sanctions if the Rohingya refugees are not returned to Burma and their property and jobs restored. Given the anti-Moslem attitudes in Burma and the fact that the West (EU and U.S.) account for less than ten percent of Burmese exports there is no economic incentive here. Moreover China stands ready to step in and provide whatever the boycotting nations are now withholding. At the same time the outrage of the Moslem world strikes Burmese as more hypocrisy than sincerity because similar situations are quite common in the Moslem world. The economic impact of sanctions is estimated to reduce GDP growth from 6.9 percent to 6.2 percent.

In Burma there is outrage but it is largely reserved for the corrupt and unrestrained Burmese military. While it was Buddhist nationalists who were behind the revival of anti-Rohingya violence the military sided with the outlaw Buddhist violence and not the rule of law. This support for mob rule backfired on the military making the generals even more unpopular to Burmese in general. The military are feeling the growing popular pressure to reform or suffer the consequences. For example the generals face the possibility of being indicted for crimes against humanity for their role in how most of the Rohingya were driven into Bangladesh. Without some popular support in Burma the generals are in big trouble here. After all many Burmese would like to see their own military leaders tried for similar crimes against Burmese during decades of military rule.

While Burma has approved 8,000 Rohingya refugees for return to Burma, along with promises to help with rebuilding homes and businesses it is unlikely that many or most of these 8,000 will actually go back. The basic problem here is Bangladesh cannot get Burma to take their Rohingya Moslems back on terms the Rohingya trust . Bangladeshi officials regularly meet with their Burmese counterparts to discuss the issue. So far nothing has been accomplished in all these meetings but both sides declare that talks will continue. Talk is cheap and Burma will discuss the issue indefinitely without agreeing to take nearly a million of its colonial era population back. Thats the key to this as it was British colonial administrators that encouraged the Rohingya Moslems to move from what was then British ruled India (which was Hindu and Moslem) to the largely Buddhist Burma. Once independent the Burmese resented the presence of these alien looking Bengalis who were always good citizens but were never accepted. The Burmese are pretty confident they can get away with expelling t he Rohingya because that is not a unique situation.

Such expulsions are part of an ancient pattern that has become a common cause of large scale disorder during the last century. This is all about the existence of large stateless populations and it is quite common in this part of the world and Bangladesh has produced more of these illegals than anyone else. Illegal migrants have become a more difficult problem since national states became the preferred form of government as that led to disputes over who belonged and who did not. The UN estimates that there are currently over ten million such stateless people.

Most of the stateless are that way because they dont want to live where they, or their ancestors, came from. Thus there are at least a million Moslems in Burma who originally (often over a century ago) came from Bangladesh but dont want to return there. They prefer to live in Burma, where most of the population is Buddhist. India has a similar problem in its northeast tribal territories, especially Assam, where four million Bengali migrants (most of them or their ancestors entered illegally) are being denied citizen status. The tribal locals have long resented the illegal migrants, more so than the legal migrants. India sees this citizenship crackdown as a way to reducing support for local tribal separatist rebels. There are similar problems on every continent and no one has found an easy solution to these deadlocks.

The Rohingya dispute has claimed some high profile victims and the most prominent is Nobel peace prize winner and Burmese national hero Aung San Suu Kyi. She is being blamed by a growing number of foreign admirers for not doing more to solve the Rohingya problem. All politics is local and Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese Buddhist who sympathizes with the plight of the Rohingya but recognizes that most Burmese feel less certain about who is at fault here. Another problem foreign critics overlook is that the Burmese military (which ruled from the 1960s to 2011) still has a lot of clout in Burma and were the first ones to make an issue of the Rohingya citizenship status, and also put the issue on hold in the 1980, when they were in power because a refugee dispute with neighboring Bangladesh was not in their interest. Now it is. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won international praise for her decades of efforts to get Burmese democracy restored in 2011 (after negotiating with the military dictatorship) agrees with this it is an internal problem policy and has the support of India and China, two neighbors that have faced similar problems that are still dealing with.

Aung San Suu Kyi also agrees with the Burmese military that that China is the best alternative (for investment and essential imports) if international economic sanctions are again imposed on Burma, as they were until the generals gave up most of their power and allowed the 2011 elections. Suu Kyi fears the Burmese military trying to seize control of the government more than she fears foreign media and diplomatic criticism. The military coup possibility is more important to most Burmese than the fate of the expelled Rohingya or how Burmese courts treat foreign journalists. The only one benefitting from the anti-Rohingya violence (which was instigated by nationalist Buddhist religious leaders) is the military, which was forced to give up a lot of their power in 2011 and agree to a restoration of democracy. But now the threat of international sanctions gives the military more power in Burma to resist corruption investigations and interference with their profitable, but illegal, activities in the north. China prefers to work with the Burmese military, which makes Burmese democrats uneasy. The military leaders (but active and those retired and in politics) find that they are losing more and more popular support in Burma because of the Rohingya mess and are actually quite willing to make a deal, as long as it does not involve allowing a lot of Rohingya to return. That is one thing most Burmese agree on.

The Phantom Menace

In the northwest (Rakhine State) and across the border in Bangladesh (where nearly a million Burmese Moslems now live) there continue to be rumors, but little evidence that Islamic terrorist group ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) is growing and becoming a threat. In mid-2017 there were rumors, but little proof, that ARSA and had attacked several Hindu villages in Burma and killed at least 99 Hindus. There have been persistent reports but not a lot of conclusive evidence that ARSA sought out and murdered Hindus. Islamic terrorists tend to take credit for their attacks, not deny them, so its unclear what is going on with this. Rakhine State Islamic terrorists first showed up in late 2016 and August 2017 when there were attacks by a Rohingya Islamic terrorist group called ARSA. Its founder (a Rohingya expatriate) and much of the cash came from Saudi Arabia. Burma prefers to call groups like ARSA Islamic terrorists but until ARSA and the Saudi cash showed up there had not been much, if any, religious aspect to the armed Rohingya resistance. ARSA was openly calling for Rohingya worldwide to support a war against Burma for the bad treatment the Rohingya have received, especially since 2012. Until this new document appeared ARSA had denied any connection with al Qaeda but that has apparently changed. The ARSA leader; Ataullah abu Ammar Jununi (or just Ata Ullah) has received more attention now that Islamic terror groups like al Qaeda are calling for its members to help ARSA and the Burmese Rohingya any way they can. Since August 2017 there have been no more large scale ARSA attacks but there have been some clashes with security forces. For the moment ARSA is largely a force on the Internet, not on the ground. The same can be said for ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), which was never able to establish itself in Burma or neighboring Thailand (which actually has a minor Islamic terrorist problem in the far south). Burma and Thailand are both Buddhist majority nations that have always allowed Moslem minorities but have responded violently if the local Moslems got aggressive or radicalized.

October 16, 2018: In two separate incidents air force F-7 fighters crashed. One was weather related while the other was equipment related. One pilot died as did a civilian on the ground. The air force still operates its aging F-7s because the more modern alternative is too expensive. In late 2009 the air force ordered more MiG-29s from Russia, as part of a plan to retire its fifty or so F-7s. Nine years later there are only 16 (of 31) MiG-29s flyable and the effort to obtain the more MiG-29s, train the pilots for them and to replace all the F-7s have stalled. There are still about twenty F-7s in service. They are cheaper to operate than the MiG-29s but more dangerous. The F-7 is a Chinese copy of the 1950s era Russian MiG-21. The more capable and expensive MiG-29 (a 1980s design) never did replace all the Mig-21s and F-7s still in service. This is particularly the case in nations like Burma who do not face a real aerial threat.

October 15, 2018: Facebook continues to find and remove accounts it believes are run by the Burmese military to spread false information, especially about the treatment of Burmese Moslems. This is the second time Facebook has done this.

October 12, 2018: After 18 months of negotiations Burma and China have reached an agreement on how to finance and manage the new port China wants to build in northwestern Burma (Rakhine State). The original proposal was for China to take an ownership share of 85 percent of the new port being built at Kyaukpyu. The Chinese have agreed to reduce their share to 70 percent and expand the capacity of Kyaukpyu in line with demand, not all at once. Burma would be able to control the growth of the Kyaukpyu economic zone and this prevent Burma from getting stuck with more debt than it can handle. The Chinese are financing and building the port facilities there and offered to convert what was originally a $9 billion loan into an ownership stake. This would give China control of yet another newly built port near India. This proposal was not unexpected and became more likely after the completion (in 2015) of a 770 kilometer oil pipeline from China. The pipeline can move about 4.5 million barrels of oil a day. Back in 2013 a 2,500 kilometer natural gas pipeline from Burmese gas fields into China was completed and began operation. About a third of the pipeline is in Burma, the rest is in China. This pipeline delivers 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. This is equivalent (in terms of energy) to 15 million barrels of oil. The Burmese gas replaces the more expensive liquefied natural gas in three provinces of southwest China as well as eliminates the need for 30 million tons of coal a year (a major source of air pollution). The success of the pipeline deal led to a January 2016 agreement that had Chinese firms investing over $9 billion to develop a SEZ (Special Economic Zone) around the pipeline terminal that will include the Kyaukpyu deep water port and a huge (1,000 hectare/2,500 acre) industrial park. China offered an additional inducement to allow the port ownership. If this was permitted China would abandon construction of an unpopular dam in Kachin State. This dam destroyed much land long used by local tribes and sends over 80 percent of the electricity generated to China. Burma was willing to negotiate and now there is a deal.

October 11, 2018: The ten tribal rebel groups that have signed the NCA (nationwide cease-fire accord) have agreed to meet with the groups that have not signed to discuss expanding the number of NCA members and implementing peace and development in the tribal areas. Most of the tribesmen in the north do not trust the military but are willing to work with the elected government.

October 1, 2018: In the north (Shan State) an army patrol shot dead a local farmer they encountered on a road after dark. The farmer was riding his motorbike down the road when he saw the soldiers and turned around rather than risk the violent interrogation troops often administer in such situations. The troops opened fire after the farmer ignored orders to stop and one of the many bullets killed him. In a rare move the army later apologized and paid compensation. But in accepting the compensation that family must agree not to take the matter to court. The army is also returning land it had confiscated from tribal owners.

September 17, 2018: In Bangladesh police commanders are complaining that NGOs (non-government organizations) and the UN are discouraging Rohingya refugees from returning to Burma. Thats not hard to do but the accusations are disputed by the UN and NGOs, What is undisputed is that the NGOs do often have their own foreign policy and a tendency to try and work the mass media to persuade or coerce governments to work for them. This has led Bangladesh to impose restrictions on what the 41 NGOs operating in the Rohingya refugee camps.Clayton Mitchell

New Zealand First MP

New Zealand First has long campaigned on the need to trial alternatives to the use of 1080 poison, so we are excited to see Waiheke Island planning to be the first urban island in the world to go predator-free without the use of aerial drops of 1080.

Waiheke is already possum-free, but there is now a strategy in place to use traps to target rats and stoats. The goal is to have the island predator-free by 2025.

Environmental groups nationwide have become increasingly outspoken in calling for 1080 to be banned, claiming that it kills native animals and birds. A commitment to exploring alternatives was a key agreement secured by New Zealand First during the coalition talks.

The government is contributing $2.6 million towards the total cost of $10.9 million on the Waiheke project. It will be a team effort, involving Auckland Council, Predator Free 2050 and Foundation North, with contributions also coming from the Department of Conservation, community groups and local landowners.

Getting the buy-in of the local community is critical to the success of this project, and to others in the future.

We are proud to be part of a government

which is concerned about the negative impacts

of the poison on our environment, and is willing to take action.

We are looking forward to seeing the outcome

of the Waiheke programme and to prove that predator control is possible without the destructive use of 1080.

It is great to see these pilot programmes starting to roll out, and there will no doubt be more to come. This is another example of the coalition partners in government working together to get great outcomes.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Mothers and pregnant women are being urged to take advantage of free immunisation for their children as a whooping cough outbreak continues to affect the Western Bay.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a serious illness that can be especially dangerous for babies and young children.

So far this year, authorities have been notified of 231 people in the Western Bay of Plenty having caught the disease, including 172 in Tauranga.

This compares with just 75 in Tauranga for the whole of last year.

The Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation and Toi Te Ora Public Health say mothers can protect their children against the disease by visiting their family doctors for free vaccinations.

Tauranga GP and PHO co-chair Dr Luke Bradford says pregnant women should get a free vaccination for themselves between 28 and 38 weeks of pregnancy.

The whooping cough vaccine is safe for use in pregnancy. The vaccine itself will not get passed on to baby, but the mothers immunity to whooping cough will.

Luke says babies, after they were born, should get their free vaccinations at 6 weeks, 3 months and 5 months of age.

Your baby needs to have three doses of the vaccine to be protected against whooping cough  even if you were immunised during pregnancy.

Toi Te Ora Public Healths Medical Officer of Health, Dr Neil de Wet, says it's important for parents to ensure their children were kept up-to-date with all the routine childhood immunisations.

He says whooping cough could be a very severe illness for young babies.

Older children and adults who get whooping cough are less likely to be seriously ill, but can spread it to others."

For that reason, it was best for people with whooping cough to stay away from work, school or pre-school until their doctor told them it was safe to return.

Neil says this is usually after a short period of antibiotic treatment or, if not given antibiotics, three weeks after the cough started.

Washing your hands often and covering coughs and sneezes can also help prevent whooping cough from spreading, says Neil

It's especially important not to cough near babies, as whooping cough is spread by coughing and sneezing.An award-winning Australasian first at Tauranga Hospital is seeing faster access for patients needing long-term heart monitors implanted.

Properly certified nurses carrying out implantable loop recorder procedures is commonplace in the UK but Adrianna Escondo has become the first Australasian nurse to do the same.

Cardiac Catheter Laboratory nurse Adrianna has performed 20 of the procedures, which cardiologists traditionally perform in theatre. The benefits of the nurse-led initiative were recently recognised with a Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand award.

Its freeing up our theatres and cardiologists to concentrate on more specialists procedures such as pacemaker, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator implants and coronary angiography. Those patients are being seen much sooner as are the patients needing an ILR, says Adrianne, who became certified to insert ILRs last year.

ILRs are small heart monitoring devices implanted just under the skin in the chest. It takes about 3-5 minutes to implant the heart monitor in the patients chest in a low-risk procedure under local anaesthetic.

The recorders are typically used for patients with unexplained heart palpitations, sudden light-headedness, dizziness or fainting that are suspicious of irregular heart rhythms.

Cardiologists use information captured on them to determine diagnosis and develop a treatment plan.

Adrianne says performing the procedure in the Day Stay area rather than theatre was also having a positive impact on patients.

For some, the prospect of going to theatre raises their anxiety levels, especially when the hearts involved. There is comfort in having the procedure done in a non-theatre environment, he says.

The idea of a cardiac nurse performing the procedure stemmed from the UK. Several NHS hospitals have cardiac nurses inserting the long-term heart monitors.

Tauranga Hospitals Cath Lab opened 18 months ago. The BOPDHB previously operated a shared service and an independent Cath Lab.

Described as a one-stop shop for heart patients, around 1600 cardiac procedures including inserting pacemakers, defibrillators and stents, have been performed onsite. That has boosted cardiac procedures by 20 percent and has reduced the need for patients to travel to Waikato for these specialist services.Good morning today is Friday October 19 2018.

Its a three-clothing layer day today with a high of 18 and an overnight low of 8 degrees. Humidity is 65 per cent.

Low tide is at 9.10am and high tide at 3.30pm.(Tay Street times). Theres a sea swell of 0.3m and the water temperature is 16 degrees. Sunset today is at 7.32pm.

If youre going fishing, the next best fish bite time is between 8 and 10pm.

In NZ history this day in 1966 President Lyndon Johnson's 24-hour visit was aimed at shoring up support for the war in Vietnam. Protesters were outnumbered by enthusiastic crowds.

In 1992 the Fred Hollows Foundation was launched in New Zealand. The foundation was established in Australia by the Kiwi-born ophthalmologist to treat eye problems in poorer countries. Within six years 200,000 people had their sight restored through cataract surgery.

In world history on this day in 1216 King John of England died and was succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.

In 1739 England declared war on Spain over borderlines in Florida. The war is known as the War of Jenkins Ear because the Spanish coast guards cut off the ear of British seaman Robert Jenkins.

In 1914 the German cruiser Emden captured her thirteenth Allied merchant ship in 24 days. In 1917 the first doughnut was fried by Salvation Army volunteer women for American troops in France during World War I.

In 1949 the Peoples Republic of China was formally proclaimed. In 1954 Egypt and Britain concluded a pact on the Suez Canal, ending 72 years of British military occupation. Britain agreed to withdraw its 80,000-man force within 20 months, and Egypt agreed to maintain freedom of canal navigation. In 2005 former Iraqi dictator Saddam Husseins trial for crimes against humanity began in Baghdad.

Today is the birthday of Alice Josephine McLellan Birney, child welfare worker whose ideas evolved into the PTA. She worked tirelessly to reform child labour laws, and to promote hot lunch programmes, mandatory immunization and a public health service for children. Born in 1858, she once said "Let us have no more croaking as to what cannot be done. Let us see what can be done, and above all, see what is done.

To get involved in activities and events, please check out the What's on page on the SunLive website.

Have a great day!As a deadline to pay the delinquent taxes owed on ShoppingTown Mall looms, the mall's owners have reached out to Onondaga County.

Ryan McMahon, chairman of the county Legislature, said the conversation revolved around the delinquent taxes Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC owes on the mall in DeWitt.

The Las Vegas-based Moonbeam owes $7.74 million in back taxes on the mall and parking lots. The deadline to pay is 5 p.m. Monday.

Moonbeam's lawyers were told there are three options: pay the taxes in full, make a partial payment and set up a payment plan, or forfeit the property for back taxes, McMahon said.

Moonbeam has not indicated what it plans to do, but the county would like the mall owners to pay the back taxes in full, he said.

This appears to be the first time in months officials from the town or county have heard from Moonbeam officials. A DeWitt town official talked with the mall's owner back in July.

ShoppingTown was on the list of properties set to be auctioned by the county. County legislators agreed last week that the property will be turned over to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) rather than be auctioned if the back taxes aren't paid.

If the property is taken over by OCIDA, the county will work with DeWitt to seek a redevelopment plan, McMahon said. The businesses that remain at the mall currently would be able to stay if the county takes over, he said.

Samuel Gordon, director of planning and zoning for the town of DeWitt, said the town will be happy to work with whoever winds up owning the property.

DeWitt Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko has said he'd be surprised if Moonbeam lets a property as valuable as ShoppingTown go.

Moonbeam can avoid forfeiting the property by paying its back taxes in full; or by paying 25 percent of the delinquent taxes, or $1.94 million, and entering into a 24-month payment program for the balance, officials said.

Moonbeam bought ShoppingTown in 2013 for $14.3 million, according to Onondaga County real estate records. It hasn't made a tax payment since 2014, according to Onondaga County's Real Property Tax Services.

The company owes $7.68 million in back taxes on the mall and $58,365 in unpaid taxes on its parking lot, according to the county. Those are the total of town, county and Jamesville-DeWitt school district taxes owed on the mall.

The once-vibrant mall has lost all its retail anchors and the majority of its tenants in recent years. Sears, which closed in September, was the last anchor to pull out.

Moonbeam has told the town of DeWitt it has plans to redevelop the mall, but nothing has materialized.

ShoppingTown opened as an open-air shopping center in 1954, and became an enclosed mall in 1975.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Officer Thomas Miller was near the end of his shift around 5 a.m. on a Thursday last November when a call came into his station. It was a point-of-interest call -- a fairly routine thing for first responders -- but the subject caught his eye: non-responsive baby.

It's not the kind of call police are required to respond to, but Miller was nearby. And his own baby was on his mind.

"When I first saw the call, all I was thinking was that could be my son," he said.

So he jumped in his cruiser and sped to Parkside Commons apartment complex. He sprinted up three flights of stairs to the apartment.

Inside, he found an unconscious one-month-old girl. Her grandmother had fallen asleep while feeding the baby from a bottle. The baby's mouth, nose and lungs were filled with milk.

"I saw the baby and her face was changing color," he said. "There was milk coming out of her nose, even the corners of her eyes."

He had no time for emotion, he said. He grabbed the baby and put her on her stomach on his left arm. With his right arm, he gave two firm pats on her back. Then he flipped her over and began chest compressions.

Suddenly the girl started breathing. And crying. And screaming. She was in rough shape, but she was alive.

Miller used his glove to clear the baby's mouth of mucous and milk. Soon after, the fire department and other emergency responders arrived and took over.

Miller went back to the station, clocked out, and went home. That was a little after 6 a.m.

His superiors didn't learn about what he did until about a week later. A firefighter who had responded that night called the station to let them know. When Miller's sergeant found out, he asked Miller why he hadn't reported the incident to get some kudos for it.

"I said no, it's just what we do," Miller said. "I'm used to doing my job and going home, not really saying much about it."

***

Miller, who has been with SPD for three years, was one of 33 Syracuse cops honored Wednesday night at the annual Syracuse Police Medal Awards Ceremony. He received the Life Saving Award for his actions that night.

At the event, Master of Ceremonies Dan Cummings said Miller responded to a call he didn't need to, and he saved that baby's life.

Other officers honored included investigators like Det. Jeremy Merola, who received the inaugural Richard Walsh Detective of the Year Award. Officer William Foster was honored for talking down an armed, suicidal man until a crisis team arrived.

Officer Eric Gerace also received the Life Saving award for saving a man who was shot in the leg on South State Street last year. Gerace had a civilian with him that night doing a ride-along: Juanita Perez Williams, who was running for Syracuse mayor at the time.

The department also honored its homicide unit, which was formed last year after a record 30 homicides in 2016. That unit had an 86 percent clearance rate last year.

The ceremony -- held at the Red House Arts Center -- opened with somber remarks from Mayor Ben Walsh, who lamented the violence plaguing the city.

Walsh also told officers in the room that his recent appeal to the New York State Police for help combating gun violence is no reflection on their ability to do their jobs. He said he's looking to bring any and all resources possible to the city.

"You are doing exceptional work in spite of these very difficult circumstances," he said, adding that he plans to soon graduate two more academy classes of police. "If in the meantime that means asking for help, if it means saving one more life, we're going to do that."

Syracuse Police Benevolent Association President Jeff Piedmonte thanked Walsh for being there and took a jab at former Mayor Stephanie Miner.

"This is a first time for Mayor Walsh and it's actually the first time in nine years we've had a mayor here, so we welcome you here," he told Walsh. The crowd laughed and applauded.

The officers honored Wednesday were:Vontelle Sparks

Syracuse, NY -- A Camillus man admitted to three felonies today in connection with a June crash in Clay that killed a bicyclist.

Vontelle Sparks, 33, pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter, leaving the scene and tampering with evidence as families from both sides watched.

He will spend 4 1/3 to 11 years in prison.

Sparks, who had been drinking, was driving a Kia Sportage on West Taft Road around 6:30 a.m. when he struck and killed bicyclist Lawrence Maturo, 27, of North Syracuse.

He then drove away from the scene and left the SUV on Syracuse's North Side. He then conspired with his girlfriend and his girlfriend's mother -- who owned the vehicle -- to cover up his involvement, reporting the SUV as stolen and hiding it in some dense shrubs on Carbon Street.

Today, Maturo's family watched in silence as negotiations stretched on for nearly an hour.

Sparks took his glasses off to wipe away tears as he pleaded guilty. He said he wanted closure.

Tears were shed on both sides as Sparks' fate was sealed. As he left the courtroom, some of his loved ones' shouted words of encouragement as a member of Maturo's family shook his head and another sobbed.

Sparks' plea came after his girlfriend, Ashley Cuozzo, and her mom, Michelle Livingston, previously pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate if the case went to trial.

Last-minute confusion arose over Sparks' possible prison sentence. Prosecutor Frank Pelosi hadn't factored in Sparks' previous assault conviction from 2011 when offering a plea earlier this month.

That previous conviction upped Sparks' minimum prison sentence under the plea from 3 2/3 years to 4 1/3 years. The maximum punishment of 11 years remained the same.

Pelosi and defense lawyer William Sullivan spent a significant amount of time in-and-out of the courtroom, at one point going to the judge's chambers to talk, before the plea was finalized.

Sparks remains in jail. He'll be sentenced Nov. 14.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A federal judge today in a police brutality trial dropped a Syracuse sergeant from the case, ruling that he wasn't liable in his role as a supervisor.

U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd ruled that Sgt. Brian Novitsky was not substantially or personally involved in the arrest and imprisonment of Alonzo Grant in June 2014.

Grant was punched several times in a violent arrest outside his home after he called police to diffuse a family dispute. Grant was later cleared of disorderly conduct and other charges by the district attorney.

A police watchdog agency later found two officers, Damon Lockett and Paul Montalto, had used excessive force in arresting Grant. The Citizen Review Board also found Lockett, Montalto and Novitsky lied in their police reports about the incident.

Grant and his wife Stephanie sued the officers and the city of Syracuse in 2015. His legal team, made up of Syracuse lawyer Jesse Ryder and California attorneys Charles and Cabral Bonner, originally filed about two dozen claims in the case.

As the case has moved toward trial, some of those claims were dropped.

After the plaintiffs' attorneys finished calling witnesses and presenting evidence before a jury this week, lawyers for the defendants asked the judge to throw out additional claims.

John Powers, of Hancock Estabrook law firm representing the city, argued that the plaintiffs had not proven that Sgt. Novitsky was really involved in Grant's arrest.

Novitsky was the supervising sergeant who approved police reports written by Lockett and Montalto. He interviewed Grant at the scene and in the hospital as part of a "use of force" investigation into his officers. He interviewed witnesses and wrote his own reports.

But Judge Hurd ruled that none of this made Novitsky liable for the arrest itself.

Hurd explained in court that he wouldn't leave Novitsky on the case simply because he was a supervisor. The plaintiff failed to prove Novitsky had a bigger role, Hurd said.

Charles Bonner, Grant's lawyer, argued Novitsky had an obligation to order Grant be released without charges because Grant did not commit a crime.

Novitsky interviewed Grant in the hospital the evening after Grant's arrest, while Grant was handcuffed to a gurney. Grant then spent the night in jail.

"He should have taken the handcuffs off of him right then," Bonner argued.

The judge sided with the city, dismissing Novitsky from the case before it gets turned over to the jury for consideration.

Alonzo Grant took the witness stand today before his lawyers wrapped up their case. He described the day police punched and handcuffed him. He discussed how his life had changed after that day.

Powers challenged Grant's account of the arrest and the severity of his injuries.

Lawyers for the city of Syracuse are now getting their chance to call witnesses. They began with a series of law enforcement officials, who testified in uniform about various parts of the day Grant was arrested. The jury will continue to hear from defense witnesses, then closing arguments before they begin deliberations.

The judge also dismissed other claims that the jury won't have to think about.

Hurd ruled that Lockett lawfully entered the Grants' home prior to the arrest when he was first responding to a report of a domestic incident.

He said it was reasonable for Lockett to enter the home to assess everyone's physical safety. He noted Lockett was likely only inside for a minute or two. He dismissed trespass and invasion of privacy claims against Lockett.

The judge still left plenty for the jury to consider, including issues at the crux of the case, such as: Did officers use excessive force when they arrested Grant? Does the city have a pattern of discriminatory, violent arrests?

The trial continues tomorrow.

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992Syracuse, NY -- There's an old adage: "He who represents himself in court has a fool for a client."

But that's exactly how Ronald Larkins won himself a new trial recently in the Aug. 24, 2010 attempted gunpoint robbery at the Best Western in DeWitt.

Larkins won a federal appeal after U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes ruled that he was denied his Constitutional right to represent himself at trial.

It stems from a 2011 trial in which Larkins was unhappy with his assigned lawyer.

When asked if he wanted to represent himself, Larkins replied: "That is correct, sir."

Retired Judge Anthony Aloi refused to let Larkins go to trial without a lawyer, anyway.

"I'm not going to allow you to represent yourself..." Aloi told him a week before the September 2011 trial. "I think you have an absolute right to represent yourself, but I'm not going to - I'm not going to grant you that right."

Going alone without a lawyer -- called "pro se" -- is considered unwise for the average person. In fact, the old adage above is often quoted to clients in an effort to convince them to be represented.

And Larkins admitted before trial that he had no expertise in law himself other than being to court numerous times in the past for a self-professed "extensive criminal history."

Aloi mentioned Larkins' lack of expertise when denying his request. "You said yourself you don't know anything about the criminal law. You don't know anything about the evidence," the judge said.

Larkins was found guilty after trial and sentenced to 14 years in prison. His appeal was denied after a state court ruled that his demand to go pro se was in the context of being unhappy with his lawyer at the time.

A federal magistrate agreed that the conviction should stand.

But in September, Judge Sannes ruled that Larkins was "unequivocal" in his demand to go to trial without a lawyer.

Today, Larkins appeared in local court again. County Court Judge Thomas J. Miller -- knowing the facts of the case -- made it clear that Larkins could represent himself if he wanted to at the new trial.

But the judge assigned Larkins a lawyer to help him through the process for now. He agreed.

Regardless of how the trial turns out, Larkins will remain in state prison. He was convicted of robbing a Weedsport motel on the same day.

He pulled a gun on the Weedsport hotel clerk and made off with money. In DeWitt, he pulled a gun, but the clerk ducked and Larkins left, police said.

He's serving 20 years to life in prison on Weedsport conviction. Any sentence for the DeWitt motel incident would likely be served on top of that.

Larkins' history included an attempted burglary in 1987 and a robbery in 1998, the judge noted.VICTOR, NY -- For the first time in its history, the giant beer, wine and spirits company now known as Constellation Brands will be led by someone who is not a member of the Sands family.

Rob Sands, whose father, Marvin, founded the business as Canandaigua Wine Co. in 1945, will leave the post of CEO March 1. He will be succeeded by Bill Newlands, who has been serving as company president.

The news came on the same day that Canada legalized recreational marijuana. The connection: Constellation last year bought a $4 billion stake in the Canadian legal marijuana company Canopy Growth.

Constellation, headquartered in the Rochester suburb Victor, is one of the world's leading alcohol producers, owning brands such as the Mexican beers Corona and Modelo, the American craft brewer Ballast Point and wine company Robert Mondavi, the Italian wine maker Ruffino and the Swedish vodka producer Svedka.

Under Sands, who succeeded his brother Richard as CEO in 2007, the company made several high profile and successful business decisions.

In 2013, Constellation made one of biggest moves, buying the U.S. rights to the Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo and gaining control of its fast-growing brand Corona. That made it the third largest beer company in the U.S.

In the past five years, Constellation's stock (STZ) has grown by more than 255 percent. It became a publicly traded company in 1973 and changed its name from Cananadaigua Wine to Constellation in 2000.

Rob Sands announced the transition after the market closed Wednesday. He will transition to the role of "executive chair" of the company board. Richard Sands, who has held that position, will become vice chair.

Newlands takes over as the legal marijuana business, which Contellation is becoming a big player in, is poised for growth. Canada became the largest country in the world to legalize recreational use. In the United States, 11 states have authorized some level of legal recreational pot, and many others have legalized marijuana for medical use.

New York started a legal medical marijuana program in 2016, and state officials are currently looking at the possibility of legalizing recreational use in the near future.

"Bill (Newlands) understands what it takes to succeed in this rapidly evolving market, and he's the right person to lead our company going forward," Rob Sands said in a statement Wednesday.

When Constellation announced its investment in the Canadian marijuana company Canopy Growth in Octover 2017, Rob Sands indicated it would not get into the business of selling weed in any form in the U.S. until it was legalized nationwide.

He said then he believed marijuana would be legalized nationally at some point.

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.If or when recreational marijuana becomes legal in New York, a statewide wine and liquor store group believes it knows the perfect outlets for legitimate weed sales:

Wine and liquor stores.

Last Store on Main Street, the same coalition that helped defeat a proposal to legalize wine sales in grocery stores a few years ago, announced its new campaign today. It wants the state to allow liquor stores to deal in legal weed.

This effort is "designed to save mom-and-pop stores from going under once recreational marijuana becomes available in New York," according to a coalition news release.

New York state is currently considering the legalization of marijuana for recreational use. A state Health Department-led study earlier this year, commissioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, concluded the positives of legalization outweigh the negatives. State officials this week finished up a statewide series of hearings on the issue.

A proposal could come before the State Legislature in its 2019 session.

"We're just beginning the process of accessing the ideas and feedback we received during the series of sessions we held across the state and we intend to advance a formal proposal early next year," said Tyrone Stevens, a spokesman for Cuomo.

The Last Store on Main Street coalition is weighing in now to help influence the process.

The group believes legal marijuana could cut into the wine and liquor business, citing evidence from states where it is already legal.

It also thinks New York's network of 3,000 wine and spirits shops, who already operate in a highly regulated sector of the retail market, are in a perfect position to sell what will be a another highly regulated legal substance.

"Recreational marijuana sales have resulted in significant declines in wine and liquor sales in other states, resulting in job loss and even stores closing," Jeff Saunders, founder of the Last Store on Main Street coalition and head of a trade group called Retailers Alliance, said in the news release. "New York should learn from the mistakes other states have made, and work with trusted partners who are already regulated by the State."

Last Store on Main Street also argues that New York's medical marijuana program, which took effect in 2016, has struggled to create successful retail outlets, known as dispensaries. The group cites the high "set-up costs" and need to find and build locations.

Wine and liquor and wine stores already have physical locations throughout the state, have experience with state rules and regulations, and would not require a new separate regulatory agency to oversee them, the coalition argues. (Wine and liquor stores are regulated by the State Liquor Authority).

The state would be able to set up marijuana markets faster by using the liquor stores, and could therefore earn tax revenues faster. The coalition says the state Health Department's proposed guidlelines for marijuana outlets already suggests placing them in the same locations and neighborhoods currently served by liquor stores.

"With more than 3,000 locations from Buffalo to Montauk, wine and liquor stores offer existing retail space with quick and cheap access to the market in every corner of the state," the coalition news release states. "That means more tax revenue, and sooner, for the State to fulfill basic responsibilities and invest in the future of our neighborhoods."

As it did when fighting wine sales in grocery stores, a battle it won in 2010, Last Store on Main Street also appeals to the nature of wine and liquor stores. In New York, they are mostly small "mom and pop" operations. New York law prohibits any one person from holding more than one retail liquor license, which prevents big chains from getting into the business.

"Wine and liquor stores provide a good living for owners, many of whom are people of color," Saunders said. "Their investments in the American Dream should not be threatened by this new product when it can easily be a life line instead."

Retail sales models are a contentious issue wherever marijuana has been legalized. In Canada, where marijuana legalization took effect Wednesday, there is much debate over whether it should be sold in government-run stores or in private outlets. Each province is setting up its own rules -- Ontario has had to delay the roll-out of its retail marijuana sales after recently deciding to switch from the government model to the private model.

The Last Store on Main Street coalition says there are several models New York could follow, including an option that would allow the already licensed medical marijuana dispensaries to partner with liquor stores.

The coalition says such models are working in California and the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

"Our owners put long hours into their stores, and the cost of running them is not cheap either," Stefan Kalogridis, president of the New York State Liquor Store Association said in the Last Store news release. "We are hoping the State will work with their long-term partners and help our stores survive in this new era."

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.Syracuse, N.Y. - Attention injera and wat lovers: Habiba Boru will start serving Ethiopian food at noon on Saturday.

Habibas Ethiopian Kitchen at 656 N. Salina St. will be Syracuse's only Ethiopian restaurant.

"I've always had the dream of opening my own restaurant," she said this week. "Now it's time."

Boru learned to cook from her mother when they lived a refugee camp in Kenya. Boru was a child, and she watched as her mother cooked and sold samosas and injera flatbread from a hut.

Boru brought those cooking lessons with her to Syracuse, where she came alone in 2000. She started cooking for friends and family in 2005. For the past couple of years, she's run a catering business.

Finally on Saturday, she and her husband, Hussein Mumin, will start serving diners six days a week. They plan to be open for lunch and dinner, Tuesdays to Fridays, and breakfast, lunch and dinner on the weekends.

The menu will include traditional Ethiopian dishes, such as spicy wats, or stews, and vegetable dishes such as gomen (collard greens) and atakilt wat (a mix of potatoes and vegetables).

Injera, a sourdough flatbread, is the staple of most meals. It also is used as a utensil: torn pieces are used to pick up and mop up stews of meats and vegetables. Boru will offer forks, but she hopes most people will be willing to dig in with their hands.

"That's the only way you can tell how the food is," she said.

Boru plans to serve a mix of spicy and mild foods; some dishes will have chicken, beef and lamb. Others will be strictly vegetarian. "The vegans will love it," she said.

She'll also make sambusa - a deep-fried dumpling similar to a samosa.

Because there are few Ethiopian restaurants in Upstate New York, Boru will have to go to the Washington, D.C., area or Atlanta for supplies -- especially for flours and spices.

"I have friends who are truck drivers," she said, who pick up groceries for her when she asks. "It comes in handy."

The restaurant seats about 35 to 40 people. She plans to serve coffee and teas, plus Ethiopian smoothies with avocado and mango. Weekend breakfasts will include ful, which is made with beans.

Mumin, who is from Somalia, will cook as well, she said. "He's a great cook," Boru said.By Zeke Miller, Jonathan Lemire and Catherine Lucey; The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If it's an "America First" presidency, where does that rank human rights?

President Donald Trump's refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy. In dealing with Russia, across Asia and, this week, in the Mideast, Trump has often appeared comfortable downplaying concerns about rights abuses and dismissing the importance of U.S. moral leadership. The onetime real estate mogul is as likely to let U.S. financial or security interests guide his choices and his words.

In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, Trump repeated the Saudi royals' denials of any involvement in Khashoggi's apparent killing and suggested he trusted them.

"I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important," Trump said. He compared blame directed at the Saudis over Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was killed in the Saudis' Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Both, he suggested, had been considered "guilty until proven innocent."

Not many U.S. leaders would cast Saudi Arabia as innocent. Saudi Arabia is engaged in a bloody civil war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and exacerbated a famine that has killed many more. Domestically, the absolute monarchy strictly regulates speech and dress, and its security services have been accused of torture.

Trump has shown no interest in calling out the kingdom over Khashoggi -- or Russian President Vladimir Putin on assassinations or North Korea's Kim Jong Un on political prisoners. Where past presidents in both parties used their office to promote U.S. values and ideals -- even when their action didn't align -- Trump has rarely seized the chance. Instead, he says what others would not, openly embracing the compromises he justifies as best for the American bottom line.

"We're not going to walk away from Saudi Arabia. I don't want to do that," he told Fox Business News on Wednesday.

Trump made clear that he was prioritizing the nation's economy, not morality.

"I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that is being poured into our country," Trump said last week. "I know they are talking about different kinds of sanctions, but (the Saudis) are spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs for this country. I don't like the concept of stopping an investment of $110 billion into the United States."

White House aides have suggested that while Trump is reluctant to criticize certain world leaders publicly -- most notably when he did not upbraid Putin at their Helsinki summit -- he has been willing to deliver tough messages behind closed doors. They have pointed to his discipline with Kim and Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, two authoritarian leaders who eventually released Americans held in their custody.

Still, Trump's transactional approach isn't sitting well with some of his Republican allies in Congress. His party for years championed the idea that the U.S. had a duty to promote U.S. values and human rights and even to intervene when they are challenged. Some Republicans have urged Trump not to abandon that view.

"I'm open to having Congress sit down with the president if this all turns out to be true, and it looks like it is, ... and saying, 'How can we express our condemnation without blowing up the Middle East?" Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. "Our foreign policy has to be anchored in values."

Trump dismisses the notion that he buddies up to dictators, but he does not express a sense that U.S. leadership extends beyond the U.S. border.

In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, he brushed aside his own assessment that Putin was "probably" involved in assassinations and poisonings.

"But I rely on them," he said. "It's not in our country."

Relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are complex. The two nations are entwined on energy, military, economic and intelligence issues. The Trump administration has aggressively courted the Saudis for support of its Middle East agenda to counter Iranian influence, fight extremism and try to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

One key for the U.S. administration has been the bond between two young princes. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are frequently in contact, and their relationship played a role in Riyadh being the unlikely first stop on the new American president's maiden international trip in 2017. Trump, despite endorsing a travel ban on many Muslim-majority countries, became the first U.S. president to make his official first trip to an Islamic nation.

The over-the-top greeting Trump received in Riyadh -- complete with sword dances, gleaming palaces and images of him on the sides of buildings and highway signs -- set the template for how he would be received on future foreign trips, with hosts leaning on flattery and pageantry.

"If you look at Saudi Arabia, they're an ally, and they're a tremendous purchaser of, not only military equipment, but other things," Trump said Wednesday. "When I went there, they committed to purchase $450 billion worth of things and $110 billion worth of military. Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country, probably the history of the world. ... And you remember that day in Saudi Arabia where that commitment was made."Its been over forty years since Fleetwood Mac formed in London, thirty since the release of Rumours, and about ten years since I first fell in love with the band and the copious amount of music that theyve made. It makes me incredibly sad to see that following Lindsey Buckingham being fired from a US tour, hes reportedly suing his former band-mates. Claiming his expulsion from the tour was at the hands of his former girlfriend and fellow musician, Stevie Nicks, I come to wonder about the number of bands and musical collaborations that have suffered at the hands of romantic upset, and whether this is a sacrifice that must be accepted for the price of great art and music.

If the band had not endured the tumultuous relationship of Buckingham and Nicks, it is unlikely that we would have favourite tracks such as Dreams and Go Your Own Way today. But of course, Nicks and Buckingham were not the only couple romantically involved in the band; John and Christie McVie sported their own rollercoaster relationship that inevitably contributed to the bands discography, particularly as their marriage began to disintegrate. I begin to wonder if perhaps a level of my fascination and obsession with the band is partially born from the musical conversation that can be had between tracks, between albums  a desire to understand the complicated and romanticised tumult that categorised much of this era of music; the relationships, the addiction, the bankruptcy I can watch documentaries and listen to interviews, but ultimately its the way in which the music interacts with itself that draws me to it: we long as listeners to be part of the conversation.

The idea expresses itself most clearly, I think, in The Chain (Rumours), the only song attributed to all members of the group. Naturally, the songs title is evocative of this very concern: how the musicians related and linked to one another. Written in a rather eclectic manner (it was pieced together with various parts of rejected songs), the nature of its composition mirrors the organised chaos of the bands relationships that would in turn produce some of their greatest material. Although Nicks and Buckingham, John and Christine McVie and even Fleetwood and his wife were each suffering their own romantic problems, they were united in their musical expression.

Yet, I am perhaps raising concerns about the cheapening and diminishing of art itself through the desire for contextualisation, and what is essentially celebrity gossip. Is the music not enough to stand alone, brilliant enough for it to spark my interest, even without the knowledge of what went on behind closed doors? It is, of course, or I wouldnt be listening in the first place, but theres something fascinating to me about the idea of these personal issues being translated into music, created by those who were suffering together. You can picture the tension in the recording studio, the sparks of inspiration generated by the anger and emotional upset that had occurred between band members. I feel more connected to the music as a result of my (partial, and probably to some extent, imagined), understanding of the emotional context of its production.

The most active years of Fleetwood Mac span a period of music that has long captivated my interest: its the age of The Velvet Underground and Blondie, and a world so distant from my own that its incredibly easy for it to be romanticised and idealised as the era of music almost untouchable. Im not living out in an abandoned New York apartment, suffering a heroin addiction and producing album after album of timeless music, but the emotional insight that the band allows the listener (even if with hindsight), is something that allows me to feel connected to this time past, and still included in the musical narrative.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.

The European Union has been stretching its wings. In the shadow of Brexit, it apparently has decided it has the real enemy of the people in its sights: social media companies and Google.

France is even more aggressive than the EU overall, suggesting that the regions right to be forgotten law should apply worldwide. Given that it actually does fall within the legitimate purview of government, it is hard not to agree.

In the United States, the administration appears to be gearing up to go to war with these companies (Google in particular).

China has viewed Google as a threat to its government almost from the beginning.

Individually, the firms likely could survive an attack  as long as the U.S. had their backs  but the U.S. appears to be one of the attackers. What that suggests is that unless something changes, these firms are likely to go the way of Gawker (although, ironically, Gawker is on its way back). Oh, and Alphabets CEO (Alphabet is the parent of Google) apparently has gone into hiding, which really cant be good.

Ill share some thoughts on why these movements may mean the death of search and social media as we know them, and Ill close with my product of the week: a new printer from HP that can print metal parts. You heard me, metal parts!

The Fall of Google

Im going to focus mostly on Google because it is the firm most likely to be broken up, and its CEO apparently has gone into hiding. This isnt their first issue with a CEO, as Eric Schmidt was known to have a string of romantic liaisons, and it was rumored that was the primary reason he was asked to step down.

Given the coverage in the book Brotopia, his conduct was hardly unusual, but given the new spotlight on #MeToo, this kind of behavior could be viewed as problematic.

Google may have anticipated the potential for problems when it adopted its dont be evil motto. It seemed to ignore it, though, and with the creation of Alphabet it was dropped from the code of conduct. Perhaps, based on the behavior of its leaders, it was considered unachievable. Boy, talk about a red flag

Googles problems likely started when it went to the European Commission, along with Sun and Oracle, and persuaded it to levy massive fines against Microsoft and compel the company to open its operating system to competing browsers.

The EC didnt care about tech until then, but the commission largely is funded by the fines it levies. Since then, Sun failed, and Oracles purchase of Sun was hindered so effectively by the EC that there was almost nothing left when it finally got control.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Google currently faces a fine that is several times greater than Microsofts penalty. Further, Google also faces a proposal that it be fined 5 percent of its total worldwide revenue for every terrorist message it fails to delete within 60 minutes.

Facebook and Twitter likely arent very impressed with Google, given that they face the same potential fine. What this means is that it would take just 20 late deletions for Google to lose a year of revenue  thats revenue, not profit  and 100 misses would result in five years of revenue lost.

To put this in perspective, Google makes round US$50 billion a year, so 100 missed messages would cost the firm a quarter of a trillion dollars. For perspective, that would represent about 1.5 percent of the EUs total GDP and exceed by $50 billion the EUs total defense spending. Thats effectively free money, making it likely that a lot of folks in the EU might try to force this fine rather than just let nature take its course.

Now Alphabet appears to have been created to help shield Google from fines that could consume it, but governments tend to be tenacious. I doubt that getting through Google to Alphabets assets would be all that difficult for the EC. Also, keep in mind that this is just Google. If we add in Facebook and Twitter, the combined exposure easily could exceed the total value of all three firms.

Imagine what that would do to the U.S. tech market.

Typically, a U.S. company could look to the U.S. for defense against the EU, but the current administration isnt happy with Google either.

Googles massive support for the Obama administration (believed largely to relate to an effort to avoid antitrust challenges), coupled with what some see as a smoking gun regarding Googles bias against the current administration, represents a huge problem.

It appears that rather than defending Google and the social media companies, the U.S. is likely to levy its own fines or file charges against the firm(s) in an effort to see who can get all the money first. The Republicans would love a risk-free revenue source, and one that was closely tied to Democratis allies likely would be especially sweet.

Wrapping Up: How Do You Spell Screwed?

What fascinates me about this, particularly regarding Google, is the irony. Google participated in the attack on Microsoft. However, much of the damage to Microsoft was self-inflicted, because it initially thought it was too powerful to be bothered by any government, including its own.

Microsoft even basically told the attorney general at the time, publicly, that she could go to heck (it didnt mean heck).

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Instead of learning from Microsofts mistake, Google appears to have tripled down on it, now facing fines that make Microsofts look trivial in comparison, and even failing to send its top brass to a congressional hearing to discuss related problems.

By the way, when your CEO goes into hiding, that is generally a sign not only that your firm is in deep sh*t, but also that you likely are in desperate need of a new CEO with crisis management experience.

Despite Microsofts arrogant behavior, the EU conflict didnt end well for the company. Still, it finally came around and became stronger for the experience. Google could have  should have  learned from Microsofts mistake. Instead it now faces a going-out-of-business sale or government takeover scenario.

As a side comment, I still think the core problem is likely weak boards of directors who fail to do their jobs, because there is an impressive number of firms at high risk at the moment due to self-inflicted wounds. Alphabet, Facebook and Twitter join Intel, Uber and Tesla as companies either on or approaching death row, and its not because of competitors, but because of avoidable stupid behavior.

Given this thing costs nearly $400K, it isnt likely you will have one in your home any time soon. However, after releasing at scale the first industrial 3D printer that could be used for manufacturing, HP stepped up its game this week and released the first metal printer, the HP Metal Jet Printer, with similar capabilities.

HP Metal Jet Printer

The parts this thing produces are significantly lighter, and they can be produced faster and far more cheaply than with competing technologies.

What is particularly fascinating is how resistant the industry has been to the technology, because with every instance of saving in the high double digits (60 percent to 80 percent), the opportunity for a firm to use this technology to disrupt its own industry is massive.

Yet it is so different from what engineers are used to that more of them seem to be fighting the change instead of embracing it. This may have to do in part with the fact that HP really is the only big tech company that has begun playing aggressively at this end of manufacturing. However, it reminds me a bit of the stories about the folks who built cars initially badmouthing Ford and their assembly lines. Look how that turned out.

I was watching one of my favorite shows this week, Street Outlaws, and noticed one of the teams was using an HP laptop. I was once again reminded that maybe this is where a lot of the focus initially should be.

Race teams spend massively to cut weight. They often need incredibly expensive parts that are not available locally, and they are held up when they dont get them. More importantly, solutions developed for racing teams often make it into production cars, and automotive is one of HPs target markets.

Of course, seeing that laptop, I kind of wondered when HP would 3D print one of those puppies.

A new technology typically comes into the market high priced, and then folks work to figure out how to cost-reduce it, making it at least possible that we will have some version of this in our homes in around a decade or so. Well see.

The HP Metal Jet represents just one of the massively disruptive advancements hitting the market this year, and it is my product of the week.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.Bottom line: Samsung's new Galaxy Book 2 looks to be a viable alternative to Microsoft's Surface Pro 6 and HP's Spectre Folio. One has to wonder, however, how big of a bottleneck the 4GB of RAM will be.

Samsung on Thursday announced its second generation Galaxy Book, a Windows-powered 2-in-1 that looks an awful lot like Microsofts latest Surface device.

Samsungs Galaxy Book 2 features a 12.0-inch sAMOLED FHD+ (2,160 x 1,440) display powered by Qualcomms octa-core Snapdragon 850 SoC, 4GB of RAM and 128GB of on-device storage. Only 4GB of RAM is a bit suspect on a 2-in-1, especially considering some of todays flagship smartphones have twice as much memory.

The Galaxy Book 2 ships with both a keyboard dock and an S Pen. Wireless connectivity options include Gigabit LTE via the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem and 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band Wi-Fi. You also get two USB Type-C connectors, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel webcam and up to 20 hours of battery life in S Mode.

The sleek system measures 11.32 inches x 7.89 inches x .30 inches and weighs only 1.75 pounds.

Word of the Galaxy Book 2 arrives just a little over two weeks after Microsoft announced its Surface Pro 6. That system, which starts at $899, went on sale two days ago. A day earlier, HP unveiled the Spectre Folio, the worlds first leather convertible PC, which starts at $1,299.99 and ships on October 29.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 launches on November 2 starting at $999.99.Something to look forward to: As the holiday season inches closer, Apple has one more event to pull out some new gadgets before shopping commences. The new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, and other devices are expected to make an appearance.

Even though Apple just held its annual iPhone unveiling event, there is more yet to come this year from Cupertino. Although this time, Apple is headed to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York for its next product unveilings.

A tagline of "there's more in the making" has been given to occasion. Officially, there is little known as usual aside from the location and its start time of 10:00am EST. A change of venue may also be in place to match the theme of the event.

Upcoming refreshes to the iPad Pro and Mac computers could place emphasis on creative professionals as has been done in the past. Rumors indicate that Apple could be adding a USB-C port to the iPad Pro for 4K HDR video output. Additionally, Face ID and a new Apple Pencil are also expected changes.

Aside from the iPad Pro refresh, it is possible that Apple may unveil a new Mac Mini and MacBook Air. Smaller bezels on the Air and a higher resolution display will hopefully bring the offering up to par with the times.

Besides the obvious options of what Apple could show off, we may finally get to see some projects that have been put on the back burner. AirPower, a wireless charger capable of topping up multiple devices at once could make an appearance. Apple also could have a new Mac Pro hidden away somewhere. Given the focus of the venue at which the event is being held, music could point towards refreshed AirPods, although admittedly that could be too far of a stretch.So far, electoral authorities have confirmed the presence of some 150 guests from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Europe. | Read MoreThe Ascension Parish public school system is adjusting its operations to cope with the closing of Sunshine Bridge, starting the day later for schools on the west bank of the river in Donaldsonville and working with parents, teachers and staff on both sides of the river impacted by the bridge closure.

The district is factoring in more travel time for teachers and other employees who live on the east bank and whose new path to work will require them to take the Veterans Memorial Bridge about 20 miles downriver from Donaldsonville at Gramercy.

How is loss of Sunshine Bridge and increased traffic being handled? Two key changes PLAQUEMINE  State highway officials have expanded the operating schedule of the Plaquemine ferry and adjusted traffic lights in St. James Par

"There are 165 teachers and staff who work in Donaldsonville schools" but live on the east side of the parish, Jackie Tisdell, public relations officer for the district, said Wednesday, the first day back for students after a two-day fall break.

School will begin at 8:30 a.m. for Lowery Middle School and Donaldsonville High, instead of the usual 7:30 a.m., and at 9:30 a.m. for Lowery Elementary, Donaldsonville Primary and the Head Start program, instead of 8:30 a.m.

Bus pickup times are an hour later than usual, as well.

The school days will end at the same time as usual, 2:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the respective schools, Tisdell said.

Principals of the five public schools in Donaldsonville are working with some parents who must leave for work before their child's new bus pickup times, Tisdell said.

"The principals are trying to work one-on-one with parents in those situations," she said.

Superintendent David Alexander said this week it's too early to work out if any instructional time will need to be made up at some point, at the Donaldsonville schools.

While some school employees are traveling the new, longer route from the east side the river to the west, other employees live on the west bank and work on the east side, Tisdell said.

It appears that the greatest impact of the damaged bridge will be on school employees  about 200 affected out of a total workforce of about 2,800 employees  rather than on students, she said.

+2 Sunshine Bridge repairs could take 'months rather than days,' reopening ferry not an option GONZALES  Louisiana highway officials said Monday that the Sunshine Bridge over the Mississippi River won't reopen any time soon after it was

The majority of the district's approximately 22,000 students attend school on the same side of the river where they live, with the greatest number of students on the east side.

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Still, nearly 90 students who live on the west bank attend school on the east bank in programs like the Early College Option at River Parishes Community College in Gonzales and the APPLe Digital Academy in Darrow.

Other Donaldsonville students attend schools on the east side of the parish through the School Choice program that allows students to attend school elsewhere, if their home school has a state letter grade of D or F.

And several Donaldsonville High School students also attend school at the Associated Builders and Contractors, Pelican Chapter headquarters in Baton Rouge.

+7 Company running barge in Sunshine Bridge crash has history of boating wrecks The operator of a crane barge that slammed into the Sunshine Bridge at Donaldsonville early Friday, shuttering the critical span, has a histor

On Wednesday, students traveling by bus from west to east over the Veteran's Memorial Bridge were picked up by their bus drivers at the usual time "with the knowledge they would be arriving a little bit later at their schools," Tisdell said.

"We're giving some flexibility on that," she said.

Alexander, the school superintendent said hes hopeful that Donaldsonville students enrolled in classes at Associated Builders and Contractors in Baton Rouge can resume their studies there next week.

The Sunshine Bridge was put out of commission for the foreseeable future in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, when a crane on a barge was pushed by a towboat into the southwest side of the bridge.

+9 Ain't no sunshine when the bridge is closed: Barge-mounted crane hits span, disrupts commuters DONALDSONVILLE  Louisiana highway officials closed a major route over the Mississippi River on Friday, and said it would remain shuttered ind

The state Department of Transportation and Development has said it could take months for repairs to be made.

"To say it's an inconvenience is an understatement," Alexander said at a School Board meeting this week.

"Certainly, it adds stress to morale as people begin to lose personal time," leaving earlier for work and getting home later, Alexander said.

Deliveries of such basics as food, office supplies and instructional resources will also be making the trip over the Veterans Memorial Bridge to west side schools from district warehouses on the east bank, he said.

"Our budget impact will be on fuel and travel," Alexander said, adding that the school system will continue to assess our approach as needed."Speaker of the House Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, gavels the House to order as the legislature convenes in special session to fix the budget deficit Monday Feb. 19, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La.Waitrs success in Chattanooga has prompted significant growth  delivery service now extends outside the city. In addition to Chattanooga, Waitr is now delivering to the Lookout Mountain area, and also just east of the city toward the Ooltewah and East Brainerd communities. The Waitr app lets you order from your favorite restaurant  then sends a Waitr driver to deliver it to you for a flat fee of $5.

Waitr has also announced more than 90 restaurants are using the service. Recent additions include DosBros Fresh Mexican Grill, Pucketts Grocery & Restaurant, Julie Darling Donuts, Tazikis Mediterranean Cafe, Innside Restaurant, Mindy Bs Deli, Formosa, Jeffersons and Chicken Salad Chick.

Waitr will be celebrating its success in the area with a special free delivery promotion and a party. Anytime you use the app through Oct. 28, you can get your food delivered free by using the promo code NOOGA at checkout. It will also be hosting a Waitr Night party at Pucketts Grocery & Restaurant today, Oct. 18, at 5 p.m. Pucketts is at 1041 West Aquarium Way in Chattanooga. Attendees at the free party can expect tasty appetizers, cold drinks and cool swag items to take home with them.

Foster Yates of Pucketts Grocery said the service Waitr provides has been a welcome addition to his store. The app has brought more attention and awareness of the restaurant. And the values and morals of the company and the drivers match the morals and the values of Pucketts.

Were very proud to be part of the Chattanooga community and are thrilled to keep adding service to the surrounding areas said Whitney Savoie, Market Development director for Waitr. From Chattanooga to Lookout Mountain to Ooltewah and East Brainerd, Waitr is here for everyone.

Savoie adds customers rave about how convenient Waitr is to use, as well as its more favorable pricing  specifically the $5 delivery flat fee. In addition, menu prices are the same on the app as they are at the restaurants. Other unique, practical features include live monitoring of deliveries and full-color photography of every menu item.The New Orleans City Council unanimously passed an ordinance that prevents city contractors from asking about potential hires criminal history on their job applications, a measure that extends an existing City Hall policy to people who want to work under employers with city contracts, cooperative endeavor grants or grant funding.

Councilmembers and proponents argue that applicants should be considered for employment on the merits of their skill and experience, not be automatically removed as a candidate because of their criminal history. (The measure does not prevent employers from performing background checks.)

The City Council also effectively denied a change that was proposed by Mayor LaToya Cantrells administration, which added wording calling for contractors' "substantial" compliance with the measure. Earlier this month, the City Council asked the administration to come back with a draft that removes the word, which councilmembers argued could end up creating loopholes for noncompliance. The version that passed Oct. 18 removes the wording.

Substantial compliance is not sufficient, said District C Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who authored the measure.

The administration also reworked its enforcement timeline; Cantrell's administration initially called for a start date of April 1, but the City Council argued that would essentially be a six-month lapse. They arrived at a March 1 compromise.

'Ban the box' and living wage rules a preview of New Orleans, statewide fight for better wages Efforts to enforce the citys living wage ordinance and ensure formerly incarcerated people have a fair shot of employment are priming New Orl

This is going to change lives, this is going to improve our city, said Council President Jason Williams.

For formerly incarcerated people re-entering the workforce, this is going to remove obstacles," he said.

Step Up Louisiana has pushed lawmakers at state and local levels to introduce similar ban the box measures, part of a three-point plan that also includes equal pay enforcement and a $15 minimum wage.

In 2014, city officials approved a policy that "bans the box" for unclassified positions at the city level, but it wasn't uniform among contractors or employers receiving city funds.

In a statement, Palmer said she has been reminded by formerly incarcerated people and their families that for far too long our criminal justice system has placed its priorities in punishment and not rehabilitation.

Ex-offenders should not serve a life sentence after serving time in prison, she said. This new policy allows them a chance to be considered for employment based on their qualifications and experience related to the position they're applying for and not their past.

'The ends aren't meeting': New Orleans workers, officials call to 'ban the box' and for better wages Barry Smith wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and clocks in at 6 with the New Orleans Department of Sanitation. For the last year and three months, hes wSomeone dared to show up wearing a Bills jersey

Just the word "pandemic"

Drunk cousin Lisa nodding off into the mashed potatoes ... again

The Jeff Landry sign in your uncle's yard

Vote

View ResultsA 60-year-old former morgue van driver for the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office admitted in federal court Thursday that he plotted to sell heroin from the van as part of a drug-dealing conspiracy with ties to South America.

Rodney Robinson  nicknamed Sugar Man  faces between 20 years and life in prison after pleading guilty to counts of conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession with the intent to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe said during a hearing.

The plea agreement is part of a broader probe by federal authorities pursuing a regional drug-trafficking group with links to Colombia, a major heroin exporter. Officials said they used telephone wiretaps and confidential informants as they traced the alleged conspiracy from New Orleans to Houston and South America.

A grand jury in March charged numerous defendants with conspiring to run drugs from Houston to New Orleans. A month later, an amended indictment added Robinsons name to the mix.

Robinson received heroin from Juan Carlos Mosquera Amari, a resident of New Orleans Carrollton neighborhood who received narcotics shipments from Houston, according to federal prosecutors and a summary of the case that Robinson signed off on.

Mosquera got the drugs from a Houston man named Alexander Muriel Diaz and would sell them to others to resell, according to prosecutors.

At one point, investigators listened in on a telephone call in which Robinson told Mosquera, The brown was better, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih said in court. Authorities contended that brown was a reference to heroin.

Robinsons attorney, Eddie Jordan, declined comment after the hearing.

The summary read by Shih suggested that Robinson also sold heroin to an informant cooperating with the feds.

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A New Orleans policeman assigned to an FBI task force arrested Robinson after he showed up in Algiers on April 13 to collect the corpse of an overdose victim with his publicly owned Coroners Office van.

That officer later testified that Robinson admitted to him that he had bought heroin and sold it in street-level quantities from the van.

As part of a deal with prosecutors, Robinson forfeited his right to appeal his case to a higher court. The government dismissed a charge that he had possessed two pistols despite being prohibited from having guns following a 2002 cocaine conspiracy conviction.

He was hired by the Coroner's Office in 2008, six years after his prior conviction. He was fired soon after his arrest.

Robinson said little during Thursdays hearing. Wearing a prisoners jumpsuit and shackles, he answered, Yes, sir, as Ashe repeatedly asked him whether he was pleading guilty voluntarily.

A few of his family members sat in the courtroom gallery during the proceedings.

Ashe set Robinsons sentencing for Jan. 24.Afterpay Touch Group, the ASX-listed buy now, pay later app , and major competitor, the listed Zip Co, say they have nothing to fear from a new Senate inquiry into their industry or the prospect that greater regulation could follow.

The share prices of the fintechs fell by up to 19 per cent on Wednesday after Fairfax Media broke the news that there will be Senate inquiry into payday lenders, debt management firms and the buy now, pay later firms.

Afterpay, the fintech co-founded by Nick Molnar, said in a statement to the ASX that it wants to be included in any extension of ASIC's product intervention powers to "promote higher levels of consumer trust". Credit:James Brickwood

The Senate inquiry will see if current regulationis adequate to protect vulnerable members of the community from financial harm." The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) already has a separate review under way into the "buy now, pay later" industry that will be released by the end of this year.

The Afterpay app enables the immediate purchase of a good or service that is paid-off in four equal fortnightly instalments over the eight weeks for established customers.The corporate regulator has said people will go to jail in the future if banks fail to report breaches to the watchdog - such as charging fees-for-no service - in a timely fashion.

Speaking at a parliamentary hearing in Canberra on Friday, ASIC deputy chair Daniel Crennan said the regulator would pursue action for breaches of the self-reporting requirement for banks and other financial services companies.

ASIC deputy chair Daniel Crennan during a parliamentary hearing Friday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

ASIC has never prosecuted anyone for a breach of the requirement to tell the regulator of a significant breach within 10 days under Section 912(D) of the Corporations Act.

The Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and AMP have all admitted to breaches of Section 912(D) for not reporting fees-for-no service breaches.US private equity giants are muscling in on Australia's lucrative home loan business, shrugging off the risks of a falling market to seize an opportunity created by the retreat of the big local banks.

KKR, Blackstone Group and Cerberus Capital Management have all snapped up small local home loan lenders in the past 14 months, providing the heavyweight backing that has made non-bank lenders the fastest-growing source of new home loans this year.

The private equity giants are seeking to take advantage of the banks' tighter lending standards. Credit:Rob Homer

With the non-banks unable to take deposits, much of their foray into home lending is being funded via the capital markets. While total issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) has fallen this year, the smaller lenders have been responsible for well over half of the market.

"The non-bank sector is changing," said Andrew Papageorgiou, investment manager at Melbourne fund manager Realm Investment House. He reckons the backing of KKR and others will enhance access to the deeper European, UK and US funding markets: "Having a private equity backer of significance changes the nature of the conversation with your senior bank funder and probably opens up a great number of options," Papageorgiou said.Victorian judicial officers have been accused of being among the state's biggest workplace bullies, according to a report by the state's barristers association.

More than half the 856 respondents to the Victorian Bar Association's biggest ever health and safety report claimed to have been bullied by a judge or magistrate in the courtroom.

Two thirds of female barristers who responded reported they had been bullied from the bench, while 58 per cent of their male counterparts claimed they had also been subjected to demeaning or humiliating remarks.

The Victorian Bar's report had barristers responding with comments such as "abuse is the norm" and "the most commonest form of judicial bullying is grossly discourteous and disrespectful behaviour from the bench." Respondents also reported rudeness, sarcasm and shouting as other forms of abuse.

The survey found that judicial bullying was the biggest issue of concern when barristers were asked to detail how their working life could improve. The bullying issue even outranked the timely payment of fees by clients.In the rooftop spa, where nude bathing is mandatory, a Scott Morrison doppelganger lolls among the bubbles, perving brazenly. We'll call him "Scummo". On the adjoining deck, another 60-ish male alternates poses as if controlled by an invisible director. (Full-frontal with hands on hips; side-on with a par-boiled buttock jauntily hitched; rear view with hand to eyes while gazing across mountains.) His partner, unmoved, reads a novel on her recliner.

Scummo slips beneath the water like a tiny U-boat and surfaces near another reclining woman: this one attractive but bald, perhaps as a consequence of cancer therapy. The man standing beside her  tall, heavily muscled, with the minuscule penis of an ancient Greek statue  spots Scummo's prying periscopes and gives him a hard look. "Dive! Dive! Dive!" whispers my partner, Leisa, and sure enough the busy perv descends and churns off towards the deep end.

For first-timers it can be a strange experience in which anxiety and prurient interest struggle for dominance. Credit:Alamy

We're at the historic Palais Thermal baths in the wonderfully named German town of Bad Wildbad. We've arrived pre-dinner, tuckered out by trail walking in the nearby Black Forest. Having read of the enforced nudity section in a brochure  and via an aggrieved web post from a family thrown out for boldly wearing bathers in the "garment-free" area  we're keen to see this Teutonic action before getting stuck into the fabled smoked trout soup at a local cafe.

In the mid-19th century, when the Palais Thermal was built, some of its smaller pools were private bathing alcoves known as "Prince Baths" because only those of royal blood could use them. As cosy as this sounds, men and women were at the time strictly segregated: blokes in Herrenbads, women in Frauenbads ("bad" being the German word for bath), suggesting a lot of blue bloods couldn't be as bad as they might have wished.You heard them before you saw them. Cries of "Harry! Oh my God!" Hysterical squeals.

Then you realised it was a false alarm. A camera crew had asked for a demonstration of enthusiasm for their live-cross and the cheer had spread among the crowd  but the rumours of a royal arrival proved greatly exaggerated.

For those following the Duke and Duchess whirlwind tour of Melbourne on TV, radio and online it must have seemed like constant delirium among the royal watchers.A 12-year-old girl viciously attacked with a blade south of Brisbane on Thursday morning bravely tried to fight off her attacker, police said, as 30 detectives joined the manhunt for her assailant.

It was believed to be a completely random attack.

Detective Acting Inspector Grant Ralston described it as a 'cowardly' attack. Credit:Jorge Branco

The girl was slashed in the face 20 times by the man beneath a motorway underpass in the Logan suburb of Marsden.

"The assault can only be described as vicious and cowardly," Detective Acting Inspector Grant Ralston said.A Queensland woman accused of using a fake terminal cancer diagnosis to get almost $55,000 in donations has been charged with fraud.

Lucy Wieland is accused of using a fake terminal cancer diagnosis to scam people into donating $54,910. Credit:GoFundMe

Lucy Wieland, 27, was arrested on Wednesday after members of the community called police and voiced suspicions about her claims she was suffering from stage five ovarian cancer.

In the backstory on a GoFundMe page which has since been deleted, Ms Wieland claimed she had a year to live after the "aggressive" ovarian cancer spread to her kidneys, liver, pancreas, bowel and stomach lining.

She also said three different specialists had not been able to give any hope of a positive outcome, so she was going to "move away from generic western medicine" and seek alternative treatments.Kim Best, East Brighton Plaudits must go for speaking up Doctors Sara Townend and Neela Janakiramanan ought be highly commended for their decency in writing to the Prime Minister calling for the transfer of asylum seekers and refugee children off Nauru to be brought to Australia ("Why we wrote to the PM on refugees", The Age, 16/10). For too long this gross disregard for decency and care to the health of fellow humans in desperate need has served as a terrible scar on our body politic. Alas, this has been denied by Scott Morrison (and by his relative tacit response, Bill Shorten) and reflects the levels to which self-serving ambition presently is the prime driving force alone of our political leaders. I am sure that in the future, along with governments' tardiness on real climate change action, this will represent one of the lowest moments in our political history. Graeme Foley, Werribee

Morrison, make us proud once more Prime Minister, be a statesman, be a human, be a Christian. Remove all refugees in one fell swoop from Manus and Nauru. Make it clear this is a one-time only gesture so we do not get a flood of new refugees. Make Australia proud again, please. Geoff Wenham, Malvern East FORUM Don't ruin the square

Federation Square is arguably the most successful example of early 21st-century architecture in Australia. As a public space, it has become a meeting place for locals, and a "must do" for tourists. If private enterprise has to be included, the destruction of the building should not be allowed. The Apple vision is an act of vandalism. Mike Francis, Fitzroy Narrative wanted I agree with Peter Costello that the Liberal Party lacks a coherent economic narrative. However, it also lacks a coherent social/political/religious narrative for modern Australia. Hence one more desperate off-the-cuff response from the PM to try to swing votes to the Liberal candidate for Wentworth. No doubt this former Australian ambassador to Israel was consulted for advice. This appears likely to be counter-productive for his campaign. Though the Wentworth electorate has a high share of Australian Jewish voters, our post-war migrant mix is far more diverse than that. We have large and respected Muslim communities and, in particular, a significant Palestinian population who, like the Jews, have suffered under repressive government policies. We also have important economic and political ties and responsibilities to Indonesia and other emerging nations.

This is not the time to abandon our Western friends and jump on the Trump bandwagon with simplistic answers to difficult world dilemmas. Scott Morrison and David Sharma on this matter do not speak for Australia or world peace. Neil Wilkinson, Mont Albert Centre of power Israel recognises true capital of Australia by moving embassy to 2GB studios. Raymond Kenyon, Camberwell

Strange timing Scott Morrison was openly effusive about Dave Sharma's ability to woo wealthy Jewish donors during the Wentworth preselection. It seems strangely coincidental then that out of the blue, and with surely more pressing things to do for Australians, Jerusalem pops up. Strange timing or are the Wentworth donations strictly COD? Stephen Farrelly, Donvale Whose land? A caller on ABC Morning radio said it did not matter what a "random ignoramus" thought about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. It was indisputable that Jerusalem always had been and always would be the capital of Israel and that Israelis had the God-given right to this land.

Well, I might be an ignoramus when it comes to history and politics in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Middle East, but I do know a thing or two about Australian history. So I am looking forward to the caller and those of like-mind handing back any stolen land they "own" in this country to the rightful and original owners of this land. I won't hold my breath. Andrew Pupillo, Northcote Racism not OK ... Yes, it's OK to be white and black and brown and yellow and maybe orange (Donald Trump?). It is not OK to be racist. Bruce Perry, Geelong

... an idiot, yes Not only is it OK to be white Pauline Hanson, it's also OK to be an idiot. But when, exactly, wasn't it OK to be white? Henry Herzog, St Kilda East Flown the coup So Malcolm Turnbull's return to Australia before the Wentworth election would be destabilising. What exactly do the Liberals think the coup did to the party?

Marie Nash, Balwyn No thanks Why would a refugee who has been locked up by the Australian government on Nauru or Manus for five years and is lucky enough to go to New Zealand ever want to become an Australian citizen? Reg Murray, Glen Iris Not illegal

Dale Wise (Letters, 16/10) writes that the people sent to Manus and Nauru did so because they "elected to try to breach our sovereign shores illegally". If this is so, why have there been no charges, no trials and no sentences? Instead, they have been sent to indefinite detention on remote islands. At least in 1788 you knew when your detention was over, generally after seven years. Pauline Brown, Woodend Look to science Kurt Lambeck has won the 2018 Prime Minister's Prize for Science for his work on how the Earth changes over time. This provides key insights into our changing planet, natural disasters and has application to navigation technology. Other scientists won prizes for their outstanding research in biomedical science, physics and technology. Professor Lambeck notes that Australia produces science of the highest quality. How much better off would Australia be if our politicians could focus more on what Australian science has to offer, rather than trying to appease the public with their politically driven agendas that often invoke outrage for their stupidity.

Leigh Ackland, Deepdene The baby factor Republicans must be wringing their hands. Not much chance of a republic for the present at least. It's just too hard to compete with attractiveness, vitality and goodwill, not to mention a baby in the offing. Helen Scheller, Benalla Royal heritage

Except for members of the inner-city cultural elite who squirm at the sight of citizens welcoming the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for most Australians, our civil tethers to Britain are an accepted fact of our heritage (Editorial, 18/10). They are certainly not front and centre of our collective conscience, but neither are they something of which to be ashamed or dismissive. The progressives need to cease with their semantic nonsense about independence and an Australian head of state. We achieved independence in 1901, and any Australian man or woman can today rise to be our Governor-General, our executive head of state. On a purely emotional level, why aspire to install a democratic dampener on the admiration and sheer joy that the growing royal family provides for so many people, often through the grind of daily life? Moreover, regardless of whether we find the monarchy endearing or not, it has, by and large, brought about both a remarkable and unique form of governmental and social stability, and it does importantly keep us connected to our historic, Christian roots. Peter Waterhouse, Craigieburn

Find right model Calls for an Australian republic are well-founded. However, without a model that is acceptable to the public, what is the point? I, for one, would not vote for a republic if it meant that we could possibly have a Donald Trump or unstoppable Tony Abbott as president of Australia. Alan Williams, Port Melbourne A fine example No matter your status or wealth, showing sincerity, compassion and kindness only takes a second and can make immeasurable difference to someone. Well done Harry and Meghan. Your wet-weather visit to Dubbo was an outstanding success and especially heartening to one small boy named Luke Vincent.

Deb Hunt, Moonah, Tas Outlandish Price The ill-informed and disrespectful approach of Environment Minister Melissa Price to former Kiribati president Anote Tong fills me with sadness for the people of Kiribati. Perhaps Price should go and live on an island like Saibai in the Torres Strait to get a local perspective on how rising seas and king tides are combining to destroy people's homes, crops and lives. Or perhaps she should visit Mr Tong in Kiribati. Read the IPCC report confirming the world's trajectory of a 1.5 degree rise this century while you're there minister. You can watch the destruction of Kiribati from rising seas and be informed of the science firsthand. But then I suspect Morrison government members are less than keen to experience Pacific solutions up close and wouldn't have a clue about what's happening in Kiribati, let alone the Torres Strait. A Pacific or Torres Strait trip is probably too much to ask. Minister, please at least watch the recently released documentary, Anote's Ark. Then, next time you meet, you'll be a little better informed. Vincent Ryan, Kensington

Senate swill How worrying is it that our elected representatives in the Senate do not know, or care, what they vote for. Surely one of the Liberal senators would have realised what was happening and questioned what was going on, but no. Hang your heads in shame. Judith Dunn, Bentleigh East Housing con The Andrews government's public housing pledge reveals the duplicitous nature of the government. The article ("Labor public housing pledge", The Age, 17/10) reports that 1000 public housing units will be built, according to Andrews "to make sure Victorians get the opportunity to build a new life". Those who are unaware of the Public Housing Renewal Program will be applauding the ALP, however, what they do not know is that at the same time that the government makes this announcement it is selling off public land with public housing to private developers. It is happening in West Brunswick, Northcote, Ascot Vale, West Heidelberg, Prahran, North Melbourne, Hawthorn, Brighton and Clifton Hill.

Marcellene D'Menzie, Ascot Vale We are aUStralia From all the way with LBJ to all the way with Donald J. Some things never change. Nadia Wright, Middle Park AND ANOTHER THING

Apple Time for Daniel Andrews to take a second bite of the apple and admit his mistake. Tony Lenten, Glen Waverley Politics With so much time spent on leadership challenges, it's surprising the LNP finds time to govern.

Annie Wilson, Inverloch The power of fake news is diversion. The underhand HIV message is secondary to the diversion from the human rights message Kerryn Phelps was giving. Melanie Lazarow, Brunswick These adults in charge really look like they need strong parenting. Joan Segrave, Healesville

Pauline Hanson, if you care to look at the colour of your skin, it is not white. Peng Ee, Castle Cove, NSW This Federal Parliament has gone rogue. It should be terminated with extreme prejudice. Brian Sanaghan, West Preston I hadn't realised I liked Malcolm Turnbull so much.

Graeme Lee, Fitzroy I can hear an extract from the National Party theme song already (with apologises to ABBA). My, my, here we go again. Phillip Roberts, Box Hill North Minister Melissa Price can certainly create an environment. Ewa Haire, Moonee Ponds

Furthermore Donald Trump's insulting description of Stormy Daniels as "horseface" was more than matched by her "game on, tiny". Tony Delaney, Warrnambool As my father often said, "You're OK, it's these humans that are the problem". Anthony Barnes, Narre WarrenA mother who killed another woman before getting her son to help dump the body in scrubland near a Mornington Peninsula beach, was allegedly bashed and raped in what police say was a payback attack.

Nicole Boroviak, 44, strangled and suffocated Joanne Martell in a Dromana house after jumping on the 43-year-old during an argument about drug use on January 18, 2015.

Nicole Boroviak has admitted killing Joanne Martell Credit:Jason South

Ms Martell's dumped body lay undisturbed in the dense undergrowth until January 2017.

In December 2015, more than a year before Ms Martell's body was found, Boroviak was allegedly attacked by two men, bashed with a baseball bat, raped and told she would be thrown off a cliff.A man has been charged over the sexual assault of 17-year-old girl on a Melbourne bus last month.

Police allege the man removed the girl's bag from the seat next to her, placed it on her lap, then sexually assaulted her.

The man then got off the bus at a shopping centre on Overland Drive in Narre Warren.

The girl had boarded the bus on Frawley Road in Hallam just before 2pm on September 17.

A 46-year-old Dandenong man was arrested on Thursday after investigators released CCTV footage and made a public appeal for help.The Australian Workers Union has savaged energy giant BP, describing its move to terminate an expired enterprise agreement with Kwinana refinery workers as an act of "industrial bastardry".

Over 16 months BP and operations and lab employees at WA's only fuel refinery met 42 times to discuss a new agreement but negotiations broke down this week. The company applied to the Fair Work Commission to have the agreement terminated yesterday.

BP has moves to terminate an agreement with Kwinana refinery workers. Credit:Caroline Spiezio

The refinery processes crude oil into fuels such as petroleum and diesel, that are distributed to service stations around the state. Lab workers perform quality control tests on the fuel.

In a statement BP said the current agreement hurt the competitiveness of the company, restricting productivity, efficiency and flexibility.Another theatre company has been formed in the Canberra area. While that isn't exactly an uncommon occurrence, there are a couple of differences about this one.

Actor and director Jordan Best will be artistic director of Echo Theatre. Credit:Nathaniel DeHoog

The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, the Queanbeyan-Palarang Regional Council and Canberra actor and director Jordan Best have teamed up to create Echo Theatre. It was launched on Tuesday.

Best says, "The Q approached me because they wanted to start producing professional work at the Q. That was very exciting."

She is the artistic director of the new company, which she says will produce work only by female playwrights. The name Echo comes from the character in Greek mythology whose voice was taken away by Hera, queen of the gods, after Echo tried to protect Hera's husband Zeus, who had consorted with the beautiful nymph.The deadline to opt-out of the federal government's controversial My Health Record system should be extended by 12 months and legislation substantially rewritten to safeguard patients' safety and privacy, a Senate inquiry has found.

The Labor-led inquiry, which released its findings on Thursday, found that Health Minister Greg Hunt's implementation of an opt-out model had meant that an unreasonable compromise may have been struck" between the system's utility and patient rights.

Health Minister Greg Hunt's changes to My Health Record do not go far enough, a Labor-led Senate inquiry has found. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King renewed Labor's call for the government to suspend the My Health Record rollout and "commission an independent review of privacy provisions".

Labor has already promised to extend the opt-out period by a year beyond the November 15 deadline if the party wins government.Most voters probably expected that the knifing of Malcolm Turnbull as prime minister had taught politicians that internal leadership battles are electoral poison. Yet it seems that another bout of the disease has broken out in the National Party.

Since Mr Turnbulls defenestration, Liberal Party polling has slumped and the party could even lose his old blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth in the byelection tomorrow. But, indifferent to that looming catastrophe for the Coalition, some in the Nationals are now scheming to stab Deputy Prime Minister and party leader Michael McCormack in the back to bring back Barnaby Joyce.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in Parliament yesterday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There are pros and cons to bringing back Mr Joyce. The Nationals are in a desperate struggle to retain their 16 lower-house seats, the highest count since 1998, at a time when they are assailed by minor parties on all sides.

The threat from the likes of One Nation and the Katter Australia Party has pushed the Nationals to take ever more populist positions.

The influence of the extreme right on the party is reportedly growing and five Nationals accidentally voted this week for One Nations offensive motion endorsing the alt-right slogan Its OK to be white. Mr Joyce is probably a better campaigner than the affable but unremarkable Mr McCormack, who seems unable to distinguish his party from its Coalition partners. As he proved by his earthy threat to the Hollywood star Johnny Depp and his illegally imported lap dogs Pistol and Boo, Mr Joyce is a great retail politician.Recent articles by Peter Wertheim and Ran Porat similarly zoom in on and press this point, the latter noticeably failing to comment on whether it is preferable to act in lockstep with the White House or to pursue foreign policy that is in our own national interests.

The rationality of such a unilateral and controversial move, they maintain, lies in trying something different to kick-start the stalled peace negotiations that at the same time wont preclude a future Palestinian capital in the city, since any diplomatic presence would be located in the citys uncontested west.

As the dust storm around Prime Minister Scott Morrisons Jerusalem comments begins to abate, we ought to focus less on whether it was a short-sighted and cynical gambit to win Wentworth and more on the claims that he, candidate Dave Sharma and other proponents of the recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital have been making.

There is a sensible objection that can and should be made to this narrative. While it is true that West Jerusalem is expected to be the official capital of Israel in any final settlement, one party does in fact reject this demarcation  the State of Israel. Its an obvious reality that the Israel lobby here seems determined to overlook. Since its illegal annexation of the citys east in 1980, Israel has made constant and shameless reference to its eternal and undivided capital.

Just recently, Israel's Knesset passed the highly contentious Nation-State Law, clause 3 of which states: Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel. In addition to being classed as a basic law  which gives it constitutional weight  it is unambiguous in its declaration that Israeli sovereignty should not be restricted to just West Jerusalem.

Proof that Israel has never been serious about relinquishing its claims to the east can be found in the 2000 Camp David Summit. Cited by both sides as a key, if not the major, sticking point, the best offer put forward by then-prime minister Ehud Barak to Yasser Arafat was nominal civil administration over the Old City (limited to the Muslim and Christian quarters) and only some of its surrounding Palestinian suburbs.

Since 2000, Israels barrier wall has cut deep into the eastern parts of the city  well beyond the internationally accepted division between east and west  in an attempt to break the city off from the West Bank. This exercise in fait accompli has also been assisted by illegal Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem (there are now more than 200,000 settlers living in and around the citys eastern fringe), and by the continued destruction of Palestinian villages whose presence links the city to the West Bank or hampers settlement construction. The forced eviction of the village of Khan al-Ahmar is a topical and illustrative example.A new mental health facility to replace Wacols ill-fated Barrett Adolescent Centre is finally being built at Brisbanes Prince Charles Hospital.

Three teenagers who were receiving treatment at the former centre committed suicide in mid-2014 after the Newman government closed the facility without a replacement facility being ready.

The $27 million replacement Barrett Adolescent Centre being built at the Prince Charles Hospital from next month. Credit:Queensland Health

Four years later, an inquest into the deaths of Will Fowell (18), Talieha Nebuer (17) and Caitlin Wilkinson-Whiticker (18) is now under way.

On Thursday, the Queensland government announced it had appointed a builder for the much-needed mental health facility for young adults.Rio de Janeiro: Brazil's top electoral authority is stepping up efforts to curb a rampant spread of fake news after the first round of presidential elections and just ahead of the October 28 run-off vote.

The court known as TSE launched an official website to debunk social media posts challenging the vote's legitimacy, and has held two video conferences with executives from California-based messaging app WhatsApp, widely used in Brazil. TSE President Rosa Weber will also address the issue in a meeting with representatives for the candidates, far-right front-runner Jair Bolsonaro and leftist Fernando Haddad, according to the court's press office.

Fernando Haddad, left, has accused Jair Bolsonaro, right, defaming him via fake news. Credit:AP

Top fact checkers have for months voiced concern about proliferation of fake news in Latin America's biggest democracy. Not only are Brazilians heavy social media users, they're particularly fond of Facebook-owned WhatsApp, where encrypted exchanges are virtually impossible to monitor.

All but four of Brazil's 35 political parties have signed an agreement with the electoral authority promising not to spread fake news, according to the TSE's press office. Among those that have yet to sign is Haddad's Workers' Party. However, most fake news items are targeting him, according to Tai Nalon, director of fact-checking site Aos Fatos.Tesla 3 The Inside Story

Detroit October 17, 2018; David Welch writing for Bloomberg reported that the manufacturing analysts who spent 6,600 hours inside a warehouse north of Detroit picking apart a Model 3 have good news and bad news for Tesla. The company now boasts the best technology of any electric car, with potential profit margins that would be the envy of most automakers. But Tesla is squandering that edge with wasted expenses linked to poor design and bloated manufacturing.

Sandy Munro, the founder of Munro & Associates, a small company that disassembles new cars piece by piece, concluded that the Model 3 costs about $2,000 more than a similarly priced BMW i3 and may have more cost problems in its assembly plant. Some compact cars and family sedans produced by conventional automakers do not make $2,000 in total profit per vehicle.

Many of the problems stem from unconventional choices made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "If that car was made anywhere else, and Elon wasn't part of the manufacturing process, they would make a lot of money," Munro said in an interview. "They're just learning all the old mistakes everyone else made years ago." Munro said he admires Tesla's technology, so he sent the company a pro bono list of 227 suggested improvements.

Take the steel and aluminum frame at the bottom of the car, a design meant to increase safety. Tesla's battery already sits in the floor and adds stiffness, Munro said, so Tesla made the car heavier and more expensive without getting much benefit.

The aluminum trunk well, meanwhile, is made from multiple pieces held together with rivets and weld points instead of one lighter, cheaper fiberglass trunk preferred by other automakers. The rear wheel well on the Model 3 also features nine pieces of metal riveted, sealed or welded together. The Chevy Bolt? It has one stamped piece of steel.

"This body is their single biggest problem," Munro said. "It's killing them."

Tesla declined comment, although the company did cite a statement from April saying that Model 3 line has gotten better since Munro's cars were built. "We have significantly refined our production processes since then, and while there's always room for improvement, our data already shows that Model 3 quality is rapidly getting better."

30% margins?

Munro's team sees the fully loaded Model 3 as a car with the potential to make 30 percent gross margins, with 10 percent margins on the cheapest versions. Falling short of that potential risks undermining Musk's efforts to generate profit and cash, which he is targeting for the second half of this year following an operating loss of $1.2 billion in the first half.

Munro takes apart cars on behalf of his clients, looking for strengths and weaknesses in their designs. Before breaking down Tesla's cheapest sedan, he tore up a Chevy Bolt and the BMW i3 to get a detailed sense of how other electric vehicles are made. In his shop outside of Detroit, there's a disassembled BMW 328i and broken apart models from Honda and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Doors, body panels, valves, wiring harnesses and circuit boards hang on peg boards throughout the warehouse.

Munro's team has taken apart about 400 different vehicles from almost every automaker. The firm has also done work for aerospace giant Boeing and defense contractor Raytheon, among others.

The Model 3 that got the tear-down treatment was a $50,000 version with a black paint job. Munro estimated the total cost to build was $34,700. Adding in logistics costs and a generous assumption for labor, Munro estimates that gross profit margins would exceed 30 percent.

A cheaper version of the Model 3 examined by his team would cost less than $30,000 to build, Munro said, because the smaller battery is less expensive and some other equipment would come out of the car. By comparison, Munro estimated the cost to produce the Chevrolet Bolt at a little more than $30,000 in parts, while the BMW i3 costs less than $33,000. Munro said his margin estimates do not count costs such as r&d investment and engineering.

Rare access

Musk has described consultants working for Tesla as "barnacles" that need to be scraped off, but Munro is the rare outsider who did get his attention. After he put out an initial report in April, identifying problems with the design of the Model 3, Musk's team arranged a call.

The manufacturing analyst warned the Tesla CEO that his car was heavy, too expensive and needlessly complicated to assemble. According to Munro, Musk replied that he had already fired the engineer responsible for the body's design.

"Not fast enough," Munro recalls saying, adding in the interview that Musk, "never should have hired him."

Musk did not say who he fired, but there has been a lot of turnover at the company in high-level positions. Doug Field left as Tesla as chief of vehicle engineering in June. He never developed cars before arriving at Tesla.

"Tesla wants to do things their way, not the conventional way," said Morningstar analyst David Whiston. "The company is still young and has a lot of things to work out."

Musk has said that the company is working to boost efficiency, especially in the body shop. "There's a lot that we can, that's easy to improve, like design for manufacturing, and changing some of the joining approaches that we use, and actually making the car lighter, cheaper, and better. And actually safer," Musk said on an earnings call in August.

Human factor

The Model 3's profit potential as assessed by an outsider like Munro is impressive  but it comes with a huge caveat. Tesla has not let Munro visit the company's car factory in Fremont, California. So Munro created his estimates as if the Model 3 had been built in an average Toyota or GM plant. Tesla has far more employees than Toyota and GM had when they jointly ran the same Fremont factory, and that inefficiency could hinder profits.

Tesla has roughly 10,000 employees in the Fremont plant. At their peak, Toyota and GM had 4,400 workers who made 450,000 cars a year at the same facility, said Ron Harbour, senior partner with consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Tesla, he said, has way too many workers.

If Tesla can consistently turn out 5,000 Model 3s per week, the plant would build at most 350,000 total vehicles, including Model S and X, next year. Part of that workforce can be explained by Tesla's decision to do a lot of work in house that other automakers do not, like build its own seats. But Munro said that even with extra work, the staff appears bloated.

"There's no way you need 10,000 people even with three shifts and with a lot of work done in house," Munro said.

Another reason for the elevated headcount is that the indoor assembly line, which Tesla calls GA3, had an automated conveyance system that failed. In the spring, Tesla finally ripped it out and used the parts to build the new assembly line under a gigantic tent.

Again, the design of the Model 3 contributed to the problem: Munro said its many weld points and rivets are just not designed for heavy automation. Musk admitted as much when he tweeted in April that "excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake."

"There's clearly too much human integration in manufacturing, and that's true with the Model S and X, too," said James Albertine, analyst with Consumer Edge Research LLC. "Elon's focus has been on better battery range and performance."

Tech edge

While Tesla's manufacturing process would have benefited from a more old-school approach, the company has an edge with regards to technology. The 75 kilowatt hour battery inside a Model 3 goes 310 miles (499 km) on a charge, about 70 miles (113 km) further than a Chevy Bolt and about triple what the BMW i3 can do. Tesla's battery costs more than $13,000, Munro estimates, about $1,000 more than a Bolt.

The Model 3 not only goes farther on a charge it's a lot faster due to the advanced electric motor. Tesla's motor costs $754 a car compared to $836 for the Bolt. The teardown by Munro's team revealed an advanced design that uses powerful magnets to spin faster and generate more power. "This electric motor is a game changer," he said. "Everyone should be benchmarking this."

The software and electronics are also better. Munro found that Tesla reduced the amount of wiring snaking through the car by concentrating a lot of the electronics in small circuit boards. That is knowledge from Silicon Valley that the automakers don't have.

The trick now is turning this established technological advantage into consistent profitsand to do that Musk needs to hire executives with experience in the nuts and bolts of carmaking. If he does, Munro said, "he's not far away from making money."GAC Mitsubishi Motors to Start Production of All New EV in China







TOKYO, Oct, 16 2018; GAC Mitsubishi Motors is to start production of the all-new Eupheme EV Electric Vehicle SUV in China.

GAC Mitsubishi Motors (GMMC) is a joint venture between the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) and the Mitsubishi Corporation. The Eupheme EV was designed by GAC and is produced by GMMC in Changsha, Hunan.

The new model supports both Mitsubishi Motors and GAC's strategic growth goals, boosts development of an advanced automotive industry and will help rapid adoption of "new energy vehicle" (NEV)(1) technologies in the world's largest vehicle market.

Twelve key cities will serve as the initial release markets for the Eupheme EV in China, including Beijing, Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Tianjin, with additional locations to be introduced across the country this year.

Eupheme EV has a cruise distance of 410 km (the fuel consumption measurement in China), and combines the powerful torque of electric vehicle with the comfort and interior space of SUV, It will be priced from 135,800 RMB(2) (approximately $20,000) as an advanced and environmentally friendly SUV for Chinese customers.

Commenting on the company's ambitions in China, Mitsubishi Motors Chief Executive Officer Osamu Masuko stated "The launch of Eupheme EV follows the Eupheme Plug-in Hybrid Electric (PHEV) SUV to market and is an important milestone for GMMC. It demonstrates the critical role that EV technology will play in meeting Chinese consumers' needs and contributes to the automotive industry in China. China is one of our most important markets and we look forward to greatly expanding our position in the country during our DRIVE FOR GROWTH plan."

As a strategic partnership, sales and production platform in China, GMMC will play a key role in supporting Mitsubishi Motors three-year DRIVE FOR GROWTH strategic plan. By 2019, Mitsubishi Motors aims to have further strengthened its operations across China by more than doubling the sales units as well as its dealer network, compared with 2016 levels. The company will also focus on expanding its vehicle lineup of four-wheel drive and PHEV SUVs in the country.

(1) New Energy Vehicles in China are defined as full electric, plug-in hybrid or fuel cell vehicles

(2) It can be purchased from after receiving the subsidy of NEVs

About GAC Mitsubishi Motors (GMMC)

Based in Changsha, Hunan, GMMC was formed as a joint venture company in 2012 between Guangzhou Automobile Group (50% ownership stake), Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (30% ownership stake) and Mitsubishi Corporation (20% ownership stake). GMMC has 4,100 employees, and serves as a sales and distribution platform for GAC and MMC-branded vehicles in China. The company has an annual production capacity over 270,000 units per year between the Mitsubishi Motors ASX and Outlander SUVs, as well as the GAC Eupheme and Eupheme EV GMMC maintains over 300 sales and service locations across China.

About Mitsubishi Motors Mitsubishi Motors Corporation is a global automobile company based in Tokyo, Japan, which has a competitive edge in SUVs and pickup trucks, electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Since the Mitsubishi group produced its first car more than a century ago, we have demonstrated an ambitious and often disruptive approach, developing new vehicle genres and pioneering cutting-edge technologies. Deeply rooted in Mitsubishi Motors' DNA, our brand strategy will appeal to ambitious drivers, willing to challenge conventional wisdom and ready to embrace change. Consistent with this mindset, Mitsubishi Motors introduced its new brand strategy in 2017, expressed in its "Drive your Ambition" tagline - a combination of personal drive and forward attitude, and a reflection of the constant dialogue between the brand and its customers. Today Mitsubishi Motors is committed to continuous investment in innovative new technologies, attractive design and product development, bringing exciting and authentic new vehicles to customers around the world.Find these stories and more in the Oct. 18 issue of The Carillon.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 17/10/2018 (1126 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Find these stories and more in the Oct. 18 issue of The Carillon.

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You gotta have faith

Reporter Jordan Ross returns to the Seine River School Division board room where trustees mulled the issue of religious instruction one more time.

No plebiscite? No problem.

Reporter Dave Baxter talks with Hanover reeve Stan Toews about the rural municipality's plans to limit cannabis retail stores with a vote.

Beautiful game, beautiful win

Sports editor Terry Frey shares about another provincial title for the Sabres soccer team.Paul Manafort. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

Paul Manaforts request to wear suits during his trial for 18 charges of bank and tax fraud has been denied by a Virginia judge. Talking Points Memo published the entire denial to the motion that Manafort filed to wear a suit to his upcoming hearing on October 19, which showed that he will be forced to wear his prison uniform.

The judges decision is based off the fact that Manafort is a post-conviction defendant. Defendants who are in custody post-conviction are, as a matter of course, not entitled to appear for sentencing or any other hearing in street clothing, read the ruling. This defendant should be treated no differently from other defendants who are in custody post-conviction.

Judge T. S. Elliss ruling included not just his October 19 hearing, but all of Manaforts scheduled appearances for the duration of his trial. The ruling seems especially pointed, considering that Manafort spent $1.26 million of the $18 million he allegedly laundered on clothing over the period of a few years.

Guess this means that lackluster $15,000 ostrich jacket wont get to be worn again, which is a real shame.Beijing Authorities Stop Chinese People From Attending US Embassy Event

As the U.S.-China trade war continues, tensions between the two nations have escalated. The Chinese regime is attempting to stir up anti-American sentiment among its people. On Oct. 10, the United States Embassy in Beijing hosted a forum on the topic of educational transformation in modern China. However, local security forces prohibited people from attending the event, using the excuse that China is in a bitter trade war with the United States. Some people who showed up at the U.S. Embassy for the event were taken away by police and held in custody.

The United States Embassy in Beijing often hosts educational events that are open to the general public and free of charge. Experts and academics from various fields share their experiences and thoughts. On Oct. 10, the Embassy hosted a lecture called Paul Monroe and the Educational Transformation of Modern China. However, local authorities did not allow the Chinese people to attend the event.

Beijing resident Chen Hongwang and his son, who is in his second year of high school, were looking forward to the event because they thought it would have been a good educational experience for them. But the local authorities stopped them from attending the event on Oct. 10. Chen spoke with New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) on Oct. 12 about his experience. Chen said that while he was waiting in line outside the United States Embassy (to get inside), the local police stopped him.

Chen said, The policeman said the U.S.-China trade war is going on, so contact with the American people is prohibited. He asked for my ID card, then other policemen came over and they forced me to get into a vehicle.

Chen said there were other Chinese people who were also stopped from entering the U.S. Embassy and were taken away by local police. Chen and three others were detained at the Maizidian Subdistrict police station in Beijing, and they were released at midnight.

Beijing human rights activist Ge Zhihui told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that on the eve of Oct. 10, when she arrived outside the east gate of the U.S. Embassy, several police stopped her. The police took her into custody and she was not allowed to eat and drink. Ge was released later that night.

Ge said that in the past, she had attended many events at the United States Embassy and she was never stopped by the police. But it was different this time. The police told Ge that she could not attend the event because China is in a trade war with the United States.

The trade war has nothing to do with us. I have food to eat, so I dont pay much attention to the trade war, Ge said.

Beijing resident Guo Likun also showed up at the United States Embassy for the event. But the police told her to leave because there was no event. But Guo had an invitation letter (for the event) which she showed the police. The police ignored the invitation and took her away, along with three others. The four were detained at the local police station. Guo said the Beijing police only bullied people.

Guo said, The police didnt allow us to go inside (the venue). Its crazy! The police arrested us without any legal documentsthey arrest anyone and do as they please. I only came to attend this event.

Who Benefits From the Trade War?

Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) limits freedom of expression in China due to increasing tension with the United States over trade issues, a large number of people from the mainland support the United States for a simple reasonthey believe the Chinese people will benefit while the CCP will lose from the trade war.

A popular article titled Three-Minute Explanation on the History of the U.S.-China Trade War has been circulating on the Chinese internet. The article read, Can you imagine a pair of shoes that costs 300 yuan ($43) in China only costs $5 in the United States? Can you imagine a microwave that costs 500 yuan ($72) in China only costs over $20 in the United States? Can you imagine beef steak that costs 200 yuan ($29) per pound in China only costs $5 per pound in the United States?

If the Chinese regime engaged in fair trade practices, then its people would really benefit from it. The Chinese people could buy imported luxury cars without the hefty price tag; they could buy non-contaminated American and Australian infant milk formula; and they could have access to affordable and safe vaccines.

If the Chinese regime loosened its tight grip on society, there would be no censorship on the internet and the media. The Chinese would be able to access any information on the internet and watch all sorts of Hollywood films.

The CCP controls all aspects of society, but many mainland Chinese find it increasingly difficult to continue living under such conditions.

By Zhou Xinjian

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Danske Bank Forced to Resume CEO Search After Regulators Rejection

COPENHAGEN Danske Bank, reeling from a money-laundering scandal, will resume its search for a new chief executive after a Danish regulator rejected its internal candidate for the job, and analysts said it would be forced to look outside the bank.

Jacob Aarup-Andersen, 40, the Danske boards choice to take over the helm of Denmarks biggest bank, was rejected by the countrys financial regulator on the grounds that he wasnt experienced enough.

The previous CEO, Thomas Borgen, was ousted last month as the group struggles to deal with a 200 billion euro ($230 billion) money laundering scandal that has prompted several criminal investigations and spooked investors.

Aarup-Andersen joined Danske from Danica Pension in 2016 as chief financial officer and has been head of wealth management since May.

While the regulator found he was well qualified in many areas, it added longer experience, including within certain of Danske Banks business areas, is needed, the bank said.

The Board of Directors unanimously backed Jacob Aarup-Andersen as new CEO, knowing full well that longer experience in certain areas would have been desirable, said Chairman Ole Andersen in a statement, adding that the board was now talking to other potential candidates.

The financial watchdogs unusual move to block the decision raises the pressure on Danske Banks board.

This cant be interpreted as anything other than a slap in the face, said Per Hansen, economist at investment firm Nordnet. However, he did not think the chairman was likely to step down before a new CEO is found.

Danske Bank will now have to look for an external candidate, possibly from outside Denmark, said Sydbank analyst Mikkel Emil Jensen. There are no more internal candidates left, he said.

Risk Hard to Measure

However, the task will be difficult as the full magnitude of the money laundering scandal and potential fines is yet to be uncovered.

There is no one who can quantify the risk that Danske Bank is in and a future CEO wont be able to quantify the work-related risk either, that is a big challenge, said Peter Lundgreen, CEO of investment advisory firm Lundgreens Capital.

Other names mentioned by analysts and media outlets as possible candidates are the CEO of Danish mortgage lender Nykredit, Michael Rasmussen; the head of European Fixed Income and Commodities at Morgan Stanley Jakob Horder; and Annika Falkengren, who is the former CEO of Swedish bank SEB and a partner in Swiss bank Lombard Odier.

Danske Bank shares hit a four-year low this month after the bank said it faced a U.S. criminal investigation into a money laundering scandal at its Estonian branch. The shares are down more than 40 percent this year.

Rating agency Moodys said last week it has downgraded all of Danskes long-term debt ratings because of the criminal investigation into the bank by the U.S. Department of Justice.

It followed similar moves by rating agencies DBRS, S&P, and Fitch.

Jesper Nielsen, who was the head of Danske Banks domestic banking business, will stay on as interim CEO.

Former CEO Borgen quit after an internal inquiry found that payments totaling 200 billion euros, many of which Danske Bank said were suspicious, had been moved through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.

By Stine JacobsenMichael Stark, an operative for the liberal super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, was arrested for allegedly assaulting a female Republican campaign manager in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 16, 2018. (Las Vegas Department of Public Safety)

Democrat Operative for Soros-Funded Group Arrested for Assaulting Republican Campaign Manager

An operative for American Bridge 21st Century, a group founded by David Brock and funded by billionaire George Soros, was arrested on Oct. 16 after the campaign manager for a Nevada Republican candidate said he grabbed and yanked her arm so hard that she was left with bruises.

Kristin Davison, the campaign manager for Adam Laxalt, the state attorney general running for governor, said the assault left her terrified and traumatized.

Politics is a little bit aggressive these days, but this is just insane. Ive never seen anything like it, Davison, 31, told Fox News.

Davison said that the operative, later identified as Wilfred Michael Stark, burst into a room where she and Laxalt were talking after a campaign event on Tuesday.

She said that Stark, armed with a camera, quickly became physical.

Were used to trackers, but this guy was very physicalpushing me, pushing into members of my staff, screaming, Davison said. This man was physically almost body-checking me. I was getting nervous about my safety, so we left, and went into an open room.

Stark followed them into the room and soon grabbed her arm, Davison said. She said he also pulled her head into his chest, bruising her neck.

The Las Vegas City Marshals confirmed that Stark was arrested based on the report by Davison and was booked into jail on an assault charge. A photo published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed Stark in handcuffs. A city spokesman told the Washington Times that Stark was released Wednesday on bail.

This is Kristin Davison, NV GOP Gov candidate @AdamLaxalts campaign manager. A tracker assaulted her, per a police report, at a campaign rally. Trackers follow the opposition and record their movements. Its an ugly side of politics but this is a new low. #NVGov pic.twitter.com/RXkub0VuoV  Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) October 17, 2018

American Bridge

According to Mike Starks LinkedIn page, he was a reporter for American Bridge. Covered DC politics and competitive federal and state governor races throughout the United States, a description of the job reads. He had also worked for Huffington Post in the past.

American Bridge is a liberal super PAC that conducts opposition research to aid Democratic candidates and organizations and was founded by David Brock, the founder of Media Matters.

Brocks network of groups was detailed extensively in Sharyl Attkissons book The Smear.

Soros has contributed millions of dollars to the super PAC, including $300,000 in February. An American Bridge official who didnt want to be named told CNN that Stark was fired after the alleged assault.

Chris Sloan, campaign manager for Laxalts Democratic opponent, Steve Sisolak, told the Review-Journal that Stark isnt affiliated with Sisolaks campaign.

This individual is not affiliated with the Sisolak campaign in any way. No one should ever feel unsafe at a political event and the type of physical violence reported is beyond the pale. We strongly condemn this violence, Sloan said.

From NTD.tv

Did you enjoy this article? Continue to read more stories here.Half the World Is Now Middle Class or Wealthier, Survey Shows

For the first time since the dawn of civilization, half of the world is now middle class or wealthier, according to a new study from the Brookings Institution.

For the first time ever, the poor and vulnerable will no longer be a majority in the world, the report states. Barring some unfortunate global economic setback, this marks the start of a new era of a middle-class majority.

For its study, Brookings defines the middle class as having some discretionary income that can be used to buy consumer durables, go to the movies, or take a family vacation. That dollar figure varies around the globe, but the idea of families being able to overcome financial shock transcends currency.

It is certainly true that living standards, almost all around the world, are going up progressively, Nicholas Eberstadt, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said by phone Oct. 15. And if you look from one decade to the next, one generation to the next, its really been wonderful progress in so much of the world. Its a very good story.

Improvements and greater access to education and health care around the world have helped contribute to more people entering the middle class, Eberstadt said.

He noted the upward trend began following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which began in 1990. Part of the trend is due to lessons learned from that collapse by countries who have emerged in the past three decades, while another part was a triumph of the liberal international economic order. The third part, Eberstadt said, we havent entirely explained.

Weve got a good thing, and we cant account for all of it, but well take it when we get it, Eberstadt said.

The report is more than just a pat on the back for those whove helped combat poverty. It also shows the potential rise of new consumers on the world stage. Two-thirds of household consumption comes from the middle class, according to Brookings.

This means there are more people able to buy goods and servicesand the number is only expected to rise. By 2020, the middle class is expected to encompass 4 billion people and is expected to jump to 5.3 billion by 2030.

Brookings said by 2030, middle-class markets in China and India will grow to $14.1 trillion and $12.3 trillion, respectively. Those numbers will come close to the U.S. middle class, which is expected to hit $15.9 trillion.

To ensure that the trend continues, mainly what we should do is not wreck things, Eberstadt said with a laugh.

On a more serious note, he added that its helpful to maintain the United States as an engine of economic growth, something the Trump administration has focused heavily on. Eberstadt also said its critical to maintain a world structure that encourages material advance and poverty reduction.

We will escape from absolute poverty, as a species, if we dont wreck it through politics or war, Eberstadt said. Its in our hands.Migrants on an overcrowded boat call for help off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa on April 17, 2016. (Patrick Bar/SOS Mediterranee via AP)

EU Moves Closer to Overcoming Migration Feud

BRUSSELSThe head of the European Parliament said EU countries who refuse to host refugees could instead pay more for EU migration and development projects in Africa, signaling a possible compromise to end a bruising dispute in the bloc.

The migration feud has divided southern and eastern EU states, as well as rich destination countries such as Germany, since 2015, when more than a million refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa reached the blocs borders.

But the tone of the discussion has changed recently after years of one camp insisting that all EU states must take in some migrants and the other side rejecting that.

No relocation(then) more money for Africa, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani told a news conference on Oct. 18 as the blocs 28 national leaders discussed migration.

This should be a good compromise. Its better to have an agreement with a compromise than no agreement, he said.

Mediterranean arrivals of migrants and refugees are below 100,000 people so far this year, according to United Nations data, a far cry from the 2015 influx that caught the bloc unprepared, and overwhelmed security and other public services.

The EU has since tightened its external borders, has turned more restrictive on granting asylum and has sealed deals with countries from Turkey to Libya to keep a lid on migrants departing their territory by sea for EU shores.

EU will further step up returns and deportations of those who reach Europe but dont qualify for asylum, a statement of the 28 national leaders meeting in Brussels said.

The bloc will seek to build a broader partnership with countries along the migratory routes, mainly in North Africa, including to crack down on people smugglers.

The chaotic scenes from 2015 still reverberate in European politics, which has since seen a surge in support for anti-immigration, populist and nationalist groups. But fewer arrivals now mean some of the heat is off, making a deal easier.

The eastern, formerly communist EU states such as Poland and Hungary, are adamant that they wont allow in any refugees from mainly Muslim countries.

Germany, France, and the Netherlands, which had previously demanded solidarity from all EU states, may be more open now to allowing their reluctant peers to buy out of the refugee distribution scheme, as a way to seal a deal, diplomats said.

We cannot force (others to take in refugees), but those that dont do so must possibly contribute in another way such asin Africa. Everyone needs to take on some of the responsibility that we all have, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told his EU peers recently.

Any political agreement is likely to take more time, diplomats and officials said, not least because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the euroskeptic Italian government have built their political clout on an anti-immigration line and criticism of how the EU has handled migration.

Migration is also playing an oversized role in European domestic politics. A showdown between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservative southern partner threatened to topple her coalition government although she appears safe for now.Food Worker Allegedly Urinates on the Job, Wastes 25 Tons of Product

A worker on the production line at a Smithfield Foods plant in Smithfield, Virginia ruined 50,000 pounds of processed meat because he didnt bother to walk to a restroom.

A security video camera caught the worker, who was busy on the production line at the companys Smithfield, Virginia pork processing plant, apparently taking a restroom breakpossibly on the food and machinery where he worked.

In the video, the worker can be seen looking up the line, as if to see who might be watching him.

Satisfied that no one is paying attention, the worker then peels off his gloves.

The precise details of what happens next are not known, because of poor video resolution.

It appears that the worker unzips his pants and leans over the production linehe is partially out of sight at this point in the video.

After several seconds the worker stands upright, apparently fastens his pants, dons his gloves and goes back to work.

While the exact events of the incident are yet to be announced, the assumption based on the video and the companys response is that the employee relieved himself on the production line, possibly contaminating either the food meant for consumers or the machinery that processed that food.

Taking No Chances With Health and Safety

The plant management is conducting an investigation. The worker is on leave until Smithfield Foods has all the facts.

In the meantime, the meat-processing giant is taking no chances.

Smithfield Foods spokeswoman Lisa Martin told CBS News, In accordance with Smithfields food safety and quality standards, more than 50,000 pounds of product were disposed of following a swift internal investigation that revealed an employee had urinated at his station during the production process.

The facility immediately halted production, fully cleaned the processing line, and sanitized all equipment multiple times before resuming operations.

Martin added, The facility and its employees immediate response and corrective actions to this isolated incident reflect the companys commitment to ensuring the safety and quality of its products. The safety and quality of our foods is fundamental to our success as a company.

Smithfield Foods produces a wide range of processed meat products, under such well-known brands such as Nathans Famous hot dogs and Armour meats.

From NTD.tvFujifilm Wins Appeal in Battle With Xerox Over Aborted Merger

TOKYOJapans Fujifilm Holdings Corp. has won an appeal in its legal battles with Xerox Corp., with a New York court overturning preliminary injunctions requested by an activist investor that had blocked their planned merger.

Xerox in May scrapped a $6.1 billion deal with Fujifilm in a settlement with investors Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason that also handed control of the U.S. photocopier giant to new management.

The ruling by the New York State Appellate Court could give the Japanese firm leverage to bring Xerox management back to the negotiating table. Fujifilm is also suing Xerox in a separate U.S. suit that seeks well over $1 billion, accusing it of breach of contract in abandoning the deal.

Its chances of success are, however, unclear as Xeroxs new management, backed by Icahn and Deason, is opposed to the proposed merger. Analysts have said the only way for Fujifilm to gain any traction with Xerox now is to raise its offer.

Fujifilm said in a statement it stands by its view that the original planned merger remains the best option for the shareholders of both companies.

(The) Courts decision will allow us to discuss with Xerox the fulfillment of the original agreement. All Xerox shareholders ought to be able to decide for themselves the operational, financial, and strategic merits of the transaction to combine Fuji Xerox and Xerox, it said.

The two companies agreed in January to a complex deal that would have merged Xerox into their Asia joint venture Fuji Xerox and given Fujifilm control. That prompted Icahn and Deason, who own 15 percent of Xerox and argued the U.S. firm was being undervalued, to launch a proxy fight.

Representatives for Xerox, Deason and Icahn were not immediately available for comment.

The New York court found in its Oct. 16 ruling that Xeroxs former CEO Jeff Jacobson, accused by Deason of negotiating the deal to save his own job, had neither misled or misinformed the board.

The board, which engaged outside advisors and discussed the proposed transaction on numerous occasions prior to voting on agreeing to present it to the shareholders, did not engage in a mere post hoc review, nor was the transaction unreasonable on its face, the ruling also said.

The bitter legal wrangling has created much uncertainty for the two firms which are seen by many analysts as inextricably intertwined through their Fuji Xerox joint venture.

The venture accounts for nearly half of Fujifilms revenue while Xerox no longer builds its own office copiers, instead relying mostly on Fuji Xerox.

Xerox has said it would start sourcing products from new vendors for sale directly to customers in Fuji Xeroxs primary Asia-Pacific market.

The U.S. firm is now led by John Visentin who worked as a consultant to Icahn in the proxy fight and just this month it appointed Louie Pastor, previously deputy general counsel at Icahn Enterprises, as general counsel.

Fujifilm Chief Executive Shigetaka Komori said in June the company was not opposed to considering any new proposal from the new Xerox board but added many of its shareholders were demanding that its money would be better off spent on its healthcare businesses.

The latest ruling is a step forward for Fujifilm to make the deal happen, said Masayuki Otani, chief market analyst at Securities Japan who believes Fujifilm should focus on healthcare. But concerns remain about whether taking over Xerox is the right step for the company.

Fujifilms shares were up 1.3 percent in afternoon trade, in line with the broader market.

By Makiko YamazakiFile photo of a man looking out of a window. A group of girls in a Pennsylvania high school reportedly lied when they accused a male teen of sexual assault on two occasions, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 1, 2018, that dubbed the female students "mean girls." (Unsplash/Andrik Langfield)

Girls Admit to Lying That a Male Teen Sexually Assaulted Them, Lawsuit Follows

A group of girls in a Pennsylvania high school reportedly lied when they accused a male teen of sexual assault on two occasions, according to a lawsuit that dubbed the female students mean girls.

As a result of their claims, the male teen, identified in the lawsuit as T.F., was fired from his job, charged with crimes, harassed and bullied at school, and expelled from school. He now suffers mental health problems.

All criminal charges were later dropped against T.F. when three girls admitted they had lied about him.

On Oct. 1, T.F.s parents, Michael Flood Jr. and Alecia Flood, filed a civil lawsuit (pdf) seeking unspecified civil damages from the girls parents, the school district, and the district attorney.

The girls have not suffered any consequences for their alleged false accusations, and neither the police, nor the school district, have taken any action against them, according to the lawsuit.

The Flood familys attorney, Craig Fishman, told Penn Live that T.F. was basically being tortured in school by the other students and investigators, but the administration was only focused on protecting the girls who were lying.

The lawsuit alleges that T.F. was subjected to gender-based discrimination by the Seneca Valley School District. It said that the policy or custom of the school district and Butler County creates a risk to males like T.F. because they result in there being no deterrent against women who make false sexual assault claims against men, resulting in a deprivation of the right to equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment for males such as T.F.

Critically Damaged  Indefinitely

What the girls have done has critically damaged T.F. physically and psychologically and will impact his young life indefinitely, the lawsuit said.

It began with two girls who conspired to have T.F. fired from his job as a lifeguard at a community swimming pool. A girl identified only as K.S. and Megan Villegas both also worked at the pool. They claimed that T.F. had sexually assaulted K.S. on or around July 19, 2017. As a result, T.F. was fired from his job on July 26, 2017.

K.S. began spreading the story of sexual assault among her peers and was overheard around Oct. 3, 2017, by a teacher, who reported the matteras required by lawto Childline, the states child abuse and neglect prevention agency. Within days, T.F. was charged with indecent assault and harassment.

The Flood family was offered a plea deal where T.F. would not admit guilt, but would be required to stay out of trouble for six months and report to the county probation departmentthey agreed to the deal in November 2017.

Following the first sexual assault accusation, T.F. was bullied and harassed at school by other students, even though he did nothing wrong, the lawsuit said.

Several months later, another three girls corroborated a sexual assault accusation against T.F. One of the girls, C.S., claimed that T.F. entered her home uninvited and sexually assaulted her on March 23.

Evidence emerged that K.S. had advised C.S. as to how to prepare a false accusation, the lawsuit said. From this second accusation, T.F. was charged on April 9 with assault and criminal trespassing. He was placed in leg and wrist shackles and removed from school, and spent the subsequent 9 days in juvenile detention, whereafter he was released on house arrest and required to wear an ankle monitor.

After 28 days, T.F. was only allowed out of his home to mow his lawn, the lawsuit said, adding that T.F. was deprived of his liberty for a total of 50 days.

However, evidence to the contrary, including Snapchat messages and a video recording, began emerging. The three girls involved in the second accusation, including C.S., were interviewed by an assistant at the district attorneys office, and they eventually admitted that they had lied. T.F.s ankle monitor was removed on May 29.

On Aug. 30, all charges against T.F., including those from the first accusation, were dismissed.

Defensive Statements

In a statement released by the Butler County district, school officials defended their actions in handling the situation and said they believe the lawsuit is without merit.

The number-one priority of the Seneca Valley School District is the safety and well-being of our students, staff, parents and volunteers who enter our buildings, read the statement, sighted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

We have followed all applicable laws, and we will vigorously defend ourselves throughout the process, the district said in response to repeated requests by the Tribune-Review to comment to the lawsuit.

On Oct. 15, School Board President Jim Nickel said that there is quite a bit of misinformation and misperception out there.

Just because something is contained in a lawsuit complaint does not mean that its fact, he said.

One Twitter post from a former Seneca Valley student read: A disgrace that one of the nicest kids, and sincere families in Seneca has to deal with this.

A disgrace that one of the nicest kids, and sincere families in Seneca has to deal with this. Actions like this damage true victims of sexual assault claims, and will make a district attorney double think before bringing charges against a true abuser. #WeStand4Flood https://t.co/Wx2sSoY6PE  Ryan Senka (@senka33) October 4, 2018

Actions like this damage true victims of sexual assault claims, and will make a district attorney double think before bringing charges against a true abuser. #WeStand4Flood

Robby Soave, an editor at reason.com and a columnist for The Daily Beast, commented on the issue:

From the schools perspective, it had no choice but to involve Childline when it learned about a possible sexual assault. And school officials cant punish any of the female students for their bad behavior outside of school.

But he said false accusations of sexual assault do happen.

To pretend otherwise, as fourth-wave feminisms believe-all-victims mantra demands, is to ignore a large number of cases involving young peopleoften young black menwrongly accused of sexual misconduct.

From NTD.tvA foreign buyer checks the quality of a diamond in the Israeli town of Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv, on Feb. 5, 2018. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Globalization Taking the Luster off Diamonds in Israel

Israel's polished diamond exports in decline

TEL AVIV, IsraelOnce the stone heats up, Menachem Moullem does his first cut. Attention! he shouts while grabbing it with tiny tweezers.

This might look to you like a vinyl record player, he said, pointing at a black plate. But this round machine does about 3,000 loops a minute to heat up the gem and polish it. Andbecause only the hardest material on earth can polish itselfit is covered in diamond dust.

Menachem has been cutting stones for almost three decades. Cracks and stains must be removed; color, transparency, cut, and weight will decide the final value. Once I am finished with it, only half of the original stone will remain, he said.

In front of Menachems workshop, several armed men are patrolling the staircase, the entrance, and corridors. Security officers are donned in grey, policemen in green. Founded in 1937, the Diamond Exchange of Tel Aviv used to be the largest gemstone stock market in the world and the heart of the Israeli economy. But in the last six years, exports have dropped by 25 percent, said Sharon Gefen, a public relations director with the exchange.

China and Russia are entering the market both as new customers and as new competitors, with the large majority of the stones now being polished in India, Gefen said.

A Jewish Family Business

A diamond on each finger and each earlobe, Sharon Gefen makes her way through the crowd. Right next to where Menachem cuts the stones, dealers from all over the world are exchanging prizes and stones on the trading floor.

Its a peculiar place: Men in shiny suits carry plastic trays from the cafeteria, while ladies with diamond necklaces drink coffee out of paper cups. Gefen points to the tables with names like Gross, Zvi, and Cohen. The industry is still dominated by Jewish family businesses, she explains.

The Jews who immigrated to Israel in the 1930s and after the war [World War II] were the first ones to import rough diamonds from Europe. There, the diamond trade was already a Jewish tradition, she said.

As far back as the Middle Ages, Jews began to work with gems, as they were not permitted to acquire land and to practice many other professions. Also, it was an advantage to carry value with you all the time, especially if you have to run for your life or flee from a pogrom. For European Jews, it was a matter of survival to own diamonds, she said.

But these days, the industry is experiencing a decline in the Holy Land: In the first half of 2018, exports fell by 6 percent, marking the fourth consecutive first-half decline in polished exports in the country, according to Rapaport, a site dedicated to the diamond market.

With e-commerce, digital currencies, and cutting-edge technology, Israeli companies try to keep their competitors in check, by moving their operations overseas as well.

You just cant avoid producing abroad. Otherwise, you have no chance, said Abraham Fluk, owner and founder of Yoshfe Diamonds International (YDI).

Globalization

The Fluks have been in business since 1942, starting in Netanya, a seaside resort 20 minutes north of Tel Aviv. Today, YDI has offices in Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, New York, and factories in India and China.

Around 30 to 50 percent of the diamond price is related to labor costs. So, it is worthwhile, thats all I am saying, said Fluk, while opening a two-meter (six-foot) metal safe storing precious stones of all colors and shapes. The black stones come from Russia, the brown ones were mined in Canada, and the pink ones in Australia.

The Fluk family has it easier than most other Israeli diamond companies. As part of the South African De Beer Empire, they own an exclusive contract with a mine in Botswana in the south of Africa. In the last century, De Beers produced up to 90 percent of diamond jewels.

However, that has changed as well. A number of international companies, including Alrosa, BHP Billiton, Harry Winston, and Rio Tinto have taken significant market share from De Beers.

The more the market opens up for new actors, the greater the risk that money launderers will abuse the trade, potentially requiring greater oversight of the industry, reads a report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from Paris. According to the intergovernmental organization, globalization of precious stone production has led to loopholes and uncertainties in the industry, requiring greater oversight.

When the business was ruled mostly by Israel, Europe, and De Beers, there were strict regulations that prevented criminal activity such as so-called blood diamonds and money laundering. With smaller companies, new markets, and internet-based commerce, the business has become less transparent.

Despite international efforts to crack down on illegal business practices, FATF reports a number of incidents of money laundering and false documentation, and new cases of illegal activity continue to come to light every day. In many of these cases, Israelis are involved as well.

Gefen seems saddened by this fact, yet not surprised. What can I say? The effects of globalization have also impacted luxury goods.Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in a polling place on Election Day on Nov. 8, 2016 in Arlington, V.A.. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Has China Influenced Virginias Elections?

Commentary

An American socialist, working out of a Chinese university, has been supplying sophisticated voter identification data to a northern Virginia-based voter registration organization. This data has apparently been used to turn several Virginia races in favor of the Democratic Party, as part of a wider effort to influence elections across the U.S. South in favor of the Democrats.

President Donald Trump recently told the U.N. Security Council, Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November, against my administration.

In fact, it seems that a major Chinese academic institution may have been involved in attempting to influence U.S. elections well before Trump took office.

Who Is Steve McClure?

Washington-area activist Steve McClure has been associated with American Maoist politics for decades. The founders of the Progressive Student Network at Kent State University, in 1980, included McClure, then of the Revolutionary Student Brigade, Student Coalition Against Nukes Nationwide, WA Coalition against Registration and the Draft, Reston, Virginia.

The Revolutionary Student Brigade was then controlled by a Maoist organization: the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters, which in 1985 merged with the equally pro-China Proletarian Unity League to form the still-existing Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

McClure wrote an article for FRSOs Freedom Road magazine in 2002 titled Genoa: Global Justice and the End of Social Peace, which addressed protest tactics and his experience with fellow radicals at the G8 summit, an annual meeting of world leaders.

The entire train I came with was full of members of Tute Bianche [anarchists] and Giovani Communisti [youth branch of the Communist Refoundation Party] prepared with gas masks, helmets and other protective gear, who, upon disembarking, immediately proceeded to form up into cordons in order to join the fight along Via Tolemaide. Other groups included black blocs [violent protest tactic] as well as many people with no organizational affiliation. It was inspiring to see thousands of young Italians and others of various nationalities marching together towards police lines singing anthems of the World War II resistance such as Bella Ciao and Bandiera Rossa, he wrote in his 2002 article.

After working as a department store visual merchandiser for many years, McClure returned to university studies in 2005.

According to the American Herald Tribune: After twenty years, he returned to higher education to learn cartography, Geographic Information Systems, and human geography. While studying at George Mason University, Stephen met many Chinese students and visiting professors and discovered he had a knack for editing technical and scientific papers, and in 2010 was invited to work at an international geospatial laboratory based at a University in central China.

Since 2010, McClure has worked out of the Geography Department of Wuhan University, China.

McClure is clearly interested in using computer-driven geographical data to strategically identify and mobilize certain voters behind leftist causes.

To most efficiently target and mobilize low propensity but reliably progressive voters, McClure is using sophisticated computer modeling, developed with the facilities of a Chinese government organization. Its difficult to imagine that Chinese authorities are unaware of his activities, or his use of state-owned property, and possibly state-funded staff, to carry out his analyses.

In 2012, McClure became an official consultant to the university. But apparently, McClure is not the only American socialist working in the area.

According to the Wuhan University website: Speaking of China, Steve never attempted to conceal his genuine affection. The moment I got out of the airport, I could sense the hospitality of Chinese people. Lots of people would come and talk to me, offering their help. I have never received more welcome anywhere else. Having stayed in Wuhan for several years, he has claimed this city as his second hometown. Its nice here. Many of the people I know from Washington D.C. are here. People go back and forth. The United States and China are connected.

One of the community organizations known to work closely with McClure is Alexandria-based New Virginia Majority (NVM), which was formerly known as Virginia New Majority. Founded and led by FRSO member Jon Liss, NVM is a voter registration operation strategically targeting mainly low-income Black, Latino and Asian-America communities across Virginia.

Lisss goal is to patch together a new progressive majority in Virginia.

According to a previous version of NVMs website: Founded in August 2007, VNM breaks from Virginias old history of racism and corporate domination. We build on the best democratic traditions.  We work to create a new and modern political system.  We build power by organizing the diverse peoples of the Commonwealth.

The NVM has signed up hundreds of thousands of new likely Democrat voters, which has turned Virginia from a reliably Republican state to leaning Democrat.

In 2013, NVMs Facebook page boasted, We delivered a stunning blow to the Tea Party by electing Terry McAuliffe as Governor, Ralph Northam as Lieutenant Governor and Mark Herring as Attorney General.

Democrats now control all key positions in the Virginia state government.

Commenting on the November 2017 wave of Democratic electoral victories in Virginia, Tennessee FRSO leader Thomas Wayne Walker wrote: This wave of victories is not just about an upsurge, but about the strategic work that helped facilitated that upsurge into electoral wins. Take VirginiaWe know that Virginia New Majority has done tremendous work to engage voters at a mass scale and build progressive electoral infrastructure.  That amazing organizing is surely fundamental to the victories on Tuesday.

How did McClure/Wuhan University make all this success possible?

Tremendous Opportunities

In 2011, McClure wrote on his blog: I have been recently working with Virginia New Majority to make a series of maps to inform planning for precinct walks in Virginia State house districts. It is collaborative, involving emails, exchanges of data back and forth, and Skype calls. The core data are lists of individual households by pan-ethnic census categories, geocode them. And I use a point density method to aggregate those households visually, and also aggregate the counts of households by precinct and display those numbers atop the cluster map.

McClure also wrote in a circa 2012 blog post titled Actionable Intelligence and Prince William County: In the general elections of 2008 Virginia voted democratic for the first time since 1964 with Obama carrying the state. Demographic shifts and increased voter participation rather than a shift in political allegiances account for this outcome. This demographic shift was an artifact of the dynamics of capital accumulation, uneven development and class struggle.

Focusing on Prince William County, Virginia, I applied spatial interpolation techniques in a GIS to translate the 2008 election returns from the geography of precincts to year 2000 zoning classification areas for further quantitative analysis. The goal was to produce actionable intelligence for working class organizations building popular power at the base.

McClure went on to talk about the nationwide implications of his sophisticated voter identification technology.

At the national scale, congressional voting records are converted to a set of x, y coordinates and scrutinized using hierarchical clustering, classified using natural breaks and grouped as binary categories to generate strategic insights. A selection of only Virginia Congress members are visualized, revealing the strategic importance of redistricting and civic engagement projects in light of demographic shifts linked to zoning and land use decisions on the micro-scale of local politics. The results are presented as maps and diagrams which might illuminate challenges and opportunities for organizations engaging with electoral efforts.

The FRSO now seems intent on applying McClures technology across the U.S. South. If the FRSO can flip certain high minority Southern states from Republican to Democrat, it will permanently alter the U.S. political map in the lefts favor. The Democratic Party may be able to enjoy a permanent electoral majority for decades to come.

Again revealing a strategic targeting of black Americans, Bob Wing and McClure wrote in the article The Importance of the Fight for the Southand Why It Can and Must be Won, published by the FRSO-affiliated website Organizing Upgrade on Sept. 4, 2017:

The majority of African Americans, the main protagonist of progressive politics in this country, live in the South. And the South has more electoral votes, battleground state votes, population, and congresspersons than any other region. The South is changing rapidly, giving rise to more progressive demographic groupsespecially Black and Latino migrations, LGBTQs and urbanitesand a growing Democratic vote. These trends can only be maximized if the importance of the South is understood as a strategic necessity and the chance to win state by state, is acknowledged and acted upon. Hard as the fight is and will be, downplaying the Southern struggle is a losing political strategy and forfeits the moral high ground on the biggest issues facing the country.

Bob Wing, incidentally, is a former leader of the Maoist Line of March organization and is now closely associated with FRSO.

McClure and Wing went on to gush that there are tremendous opportunities to build progressive political power and governance at the local level in the South as 105 counties have a Black majority.

Having effectively flipped Virginia, FRSO through its front organizations New Florida Majority and Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) are working hard to elect their friend Andrew Gillum to the governorship of Florida. NVM has also been supporting Stacey Abrams in her bid for the governorship of Georgia.

Both Gillum and Abrams are blackcynically and strategically selected for their presumed ability to inspire the black vote. Both have benefited from massive voter registration efforts among low propensity black voters, and both are currently leading in opinion polls.

Is This legal?

The NVM and FRSO are apparently using data generated in China to win elections for Democrats. Is this legal?

The Federal Election Campaign Act and Commission regulations include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States.

Foreign nationals or principals are prohibited from making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States.

A foreign principal, as defined at 22 U.S.C. 611(b), includes a foreign organization or other combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country.

Is sophisticated voter identification data a thing of value? Does Wuhan University qualify as a combination of persons organized under the laws of or having its principal place of business in a foreign country?

Trump is probably right to accuse China of seeking to interfere in U.S. elections. That interference may be much deeper than previously suspected. The Justice Department needs to immediately investigate those who may be involved in such potentially criminal efforts.

Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein brief the media at the Pentagon on November 9, 2017 in Arlington, Virginia. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Heather Wilsons Big Ask to Expand `Too Small US Air Force

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson is preparing to make her case for billions of dollars in funding that she says her service will need to deliver on the U.S.s national security strategy.

The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do, Wilson said Oct. 17 in a roundtable with editors and reporters at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The difference between what is needed and what is available is measured in risk.

She said that in March her service will detail to Congress the need to increase the Air Force to 386 airplane squadrons by 2030 from 312 today. She said the expansion is necessary under the Trump administrations national security strategy, which calls for countering major powers such as Russia and China as well as rogue states and terrorists. The comments underscore rising tension as the military services compete for funding.

The Government Accountability Office cautioned last week that Air Force funding must compete with other concerns. Among those is the Navys push to expand to expand its fleet by 25 percent to 355 vessels at a cost of about $800 billion, plus the $1.2 trillion proposed to modernize the nations nuclear arsenal.

While pushing to expand, Wilson, a former Republican congresswoman from New Mexico and an Air Force veteran, is thinking smaller as welllooking beyond the big defense contractors in an effort to buy things faster and smarter under new authorities from Congress, she said.

Same-Day Awards

The Air Force set up the Space Enterprise Consortium in January to reach nontraditional contractors, an initiative that has already yielded 32 contracts totaling $100 million. Later this month, the Air Force plans to award 50 contracts to new suppliers in a 50-hour span.

Entrepreneurs have been asked to submit proposals to address certain problems facing the service. If the Air Force likes the idea, it will offer a one-page contract and transfer money on the spot through PayPal, Wilson said.

The event is a little gimmicky, Wilson said, but its intended to send a message that the Air Force wants to reform its acquisition process.

Small companies with innovative ideas cant wait around for our contracting process, she said. We are trying to change the paradigm to drive innovation and work with businesses.

By Richard Clough & Tony Capaccio

From BloombergHungary Enacts Plans to Ban Gender Studies Courses, Tangles with Soros

The Hungarian government has carried out its plans to ban gender studies courses at universities, according to local reports.

Only two universities currently teach gender studies in Hungary, one of which was founded by George Sorosa billionaire financier of leftist causes and the arch-foe of Prime Minister Victor Orbans highly conservative nationalist administration.

Orbans government said in August that it would stop financing the courses after first mooting plans in July.

According to Hungarian media, the Hungarian Gazette quietly revealed on Oct. 12 that gender studies had been removed from teachers lists, and the accreditation of the degree had ceased.

Gender studies, as the name suggest, deals with a wide range of issues relating to gender. But it appears to be specifically the academic disciplines position that gender is a social conventionrather than a biological realitythat the Hungarian government objects to.

The Soros-funded Central European University (CEU) said on Oct. 16 that it was a major infringement on academic freedom and university autonomy.

Soros is touted by Orbans government as public enemy No. 1as the puppeteer behind leftist influences that Orban says he wants to replace with traditional Christian values.

The Billionaire Behind the Progressives

The Hungarian governments anti-Soros campaign forced his Open Society Foundations to leave the country earlier this year, after creating new rules on influence by foreign organizations.

Soross Open Society Foundations is based in the United Statesit is the second largest grant-making group in the United States. He was a large contributor to the fund-raising Super PAC group backing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Soros founded Hungarys Central European University (CEU) in 1991, which has gone on to become one the countries top universities. It is based in Budapest, but originally accredited in New York State.

A change in Hungarian law last year over the registration of foreign-registered universities was widely seen as targeting Soross CEU.

The CEU is one of just two universities that teach gender studies in the country.

Announcing the plans to withdraw funding from gender studies courses back in August, Orbans Chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said low enrollment numbers were reason enough to pull the funding.

A Mandate to Build a New Era

But he did not shy away from the governments ideological opposition.

The Hungarian government is of the clear view that people are born either men or women.

They lead their lives the way they think best, but beyond this, the Hungarian state does not wish to spend public funds on education in this area, he said, according to Reuters.

Gender studies departments are often criticized by cultural conservatives the world over as a hot-bed for neo-Marxist ideologies and for trying to overturn the traditional view that there are only two genders.

Orbans supporters say that they want to end what they see as a dominance of leftists and liberals in the arts, science, and education.

Orban, who was re-elected in April to a third consecutive term, said in July that major cultural and intellectual changes were in the works, adding that his landslide victory was nothing short of a mandate to build a new era.

Reuters contributed to this report.ISIS Captures 700 Hostages in Syria, Says Putin, but US Military Doubts Claim

Top video shows Russian sub firing missiles at targets in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the ISIS terrorist group took nearly 700 hostages, including American citizens, in Syria. However, U.S. military officials have cast doubts on his claims.

Putin said the terrorist fighters seized the hostages south of the Euphrates River and issued an ultimatum promising to execute 10 people every day, Reuters reported.

In an address at Sochi, the Russian leader said the hostages also included European nationals. He didnt say what demands the militants had made.

The TASS news agency reported Oct. 17, that ISIS had captured around 700 hostages in Syrias Deir-al Zor province after attacking a refugee camp near an area controlled by U.S.-backed forces on Oct. 13, according to Reuters. The militants also kidnapped 130 families and took them to Hajin.

Islamic State terrorists have delivered ultimatums and made certain demands, threatening to shoot ten people every day, Putin said, according to News.com.au. This is just horrible, it is a catastrophe. Some U.S. and European citizens are among the hostages.

Everyone is silent as if nothing has happened, he also stated. News.com.au reported that photos emerged and appeared to show an attack in the region where the alleged hostage situation has unfolded. The report said that photos show ISIS militants holding the one-finger salute as they grabbed the hair of victims.

Women and children are believed to be among the captured civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, also reported on the situation, saying that ISIS separated the women away from the children and men, along with subjecting all of them to questioning and investigation, amid fears over their lives of carrying out mass or individual executions against them by the organization after it executed thousands of people in the past years.

The Observatory, citing reliable sources, said there were 90 female abductees that include a number of women of different non-Syrian nationalities, who were kidnapped while they were in Al-Bahra Camp.

There was no mention of European or American hostages in the Observatorys report on the incident.

US Military Has Doubts

An American commander said that Putins claims of hostages may not be accurate

While we have confirmed that there was an attack on an IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near (Deir-al Zor) last week, we have no information supporting the large number of hostages alleged by President Putin and we are skeptical of its accuracy, Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters in a statement.

We are also unaware of any U.S. nationals located in that camp, Robertson added.China's President Xi Jinping (R) shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Great Hall of the People on May 9, 2013 in Beijing, China. (Kim Kyung-Hoon-Pool/Getty Images)

Israel Grows Wary of China Investments

Beijing has directed significant investment into Israeli ports and railroads recently, while also purchasing Israeli artificial intelligence and cybersecurity products, high-tech systems, and electronic devices for its own use.

Now, Israeli officials are growing concerned about the security risks of Chinas ambitions.

Surprisingly, we dont have a body that supervises operations of Chinese companies in Israel and that is very worrying, a senior member of the Israeli legislatures Committee for Foreign Affairs and Security told Breaking Defense, a U.S.-based online news site covering defense-related issues, in an Oct. 16 report.

In September, Shaul Horev, an Israeli maritime strategy expert and former navy chief of staff, raised questions about Chinas successful bid to operate a new port facility at Haifa, through state-owned firm Shanghai International Port Group. Haifa is Israels busiest port, with a naval base thats home to the countrys main fleets, including its latest nuclear-armed submarines.

Chinas control of the Haifa port concerns the military world because its strategic location would allow Beijing to surveil Western naval fleets passing through Haifa.

China also builtand now ownsAshdod Port, an Israeli cargo port thats 40 kilometers (about 25 miles) south of Tel Aviv, under a contract won by government-owned China Harbor Engineering Company in 2014.

The Chinese port operators will be able to monitor closely U.S. ship movements, be aware of maintenance activity, and could have access to equipment moving to and from repair sites, and interact freely with our crews over protracted periods, Gary Roughead, a retired U.S. admiral, told Newsweek in a Sept. 14 interview.

Roughead, a former chief of U.S. naval operations, was concerned that Israeli and U.S. military cooperation would be compromised by Chinas presence.

Significantly, the information systems and new infrastructure integral to the ports, and the likelihood of information and electronic surveillance systems jeopardize U.S. information and cybersecurity, he told Newsweek.

Chinese companies have also increasingly invested in large infrastructure and agriculture projects in Israel in recent years.

The Mount Carmel tunnels, the AcreCarmiel railway, Tel Avivs light-rail transit system, the Tel AvivJerusalem electric railway, and two water desalination sites, valued at a total of tens of billion dollars, are under construction by Chinese companies.

In 2014, Chinas state-owned Bright Food Group acquired 56 percent of Israels biggest dairy producer, Tnuva, for $2.5 billion.

Israeli officials have been wary of such economic partnerships, despite the inflow of cash.

Israel has to do business with China, of course, but there is no serious mechanism to make sure that we dont sell off key economic assets and valuable technological knowledge, Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Mossadthe national intelligence agency of Israeltold the Jerusalem Post in a Sept. 20 article.

Halevy added that Chinas growing relationship with Iran is also a concern.

China is Irans largest trading partner, contributing heavily to the latters military modernization and nuclear technology. Thats worrisome to Israel, given its ongoing conflict with Iran.

Background

Israel and Communist Party-controlled China established formal diplomatic relations in 1992. Bilateral trade in 1992 was only $30 million. In recent years, that number has ballooned, hovering at around $8 billion for about five years prior to 2017. According to data from the Israeli Ministry of Economy, 40 percent of all foreign investment in 2015 came from China.

Now, China is Israels biggest trading partner in Asia. In 2017, bilateral trade reached $13.12 billion, in which China exported $8.92 billion to Israel and imported $4.20 billion of Israeli goods.

In the first eight months of 2018, Israel exported $3.5 billion in goods to China, an increase of 63 percent from the year-earlier period.

Wang Qishan, Chinas vice chairman, plans to visit Israel from Oct. 22 to 25 with a large delegation, in an effort to further increase trade. The group will include Jack Ma, the co-founder and CEO of China tech giant Alibaba.

Wang will participate in the fourth installment of the Israeli Innovation Summit, a meeting on technology developments in the healthcare, cyber, aerospace, and agriculture sectors to be held Oct. 2425. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to attend.

Wang, a close ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, will be the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit Israel in more than a decade.People wearing signs that read "We want dignity for workers" (R) and "We have work but no salary" protest in front of the Italian Ministry of Labour office in Rome, Italy, Oct. 16, 2018. (Reuters/Tony Gentile

Italy Talks up Its Expansionary Budget as Clash With EU Looms

ROMEItalian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Oct. 16 he was proud of his governments freshly approved expansionary budget while the European Commission warned it may run into opposition from eurozone partners.

Italys governing coalition of the right-wing League party and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement vow not to backtrack, saying their big-spending plan is needed to boost growth and tackle worsening poverty in the eurozones third-largestbut most sluggisheconomy.

Late on Oct. 15 the coalition approved the 2019 budget bill that boosts welfare spending, cuts the retirement age and hikes deficit spending.

The weeks of wrangling that preceded the budgets approval and the previously announced plan to raise the deficit took markets on a roller coaster ride, but its passage by Contes cabinet seemed to be saluted with relief.

Italian government bond yields dropped across the board, and the gap between the yield on the 10-year benchmark and its German equivalent narrowed.

We are convinced that austerity is a path that can no longer be followed, Conte told parliament ahead of a European Union summit later this week where his peers are expected to ask him about the budget.

Conte said he would seek to explain the governments strategy to European partners in a dialogue without prejudice.

Next years projected 2.4 percent of output deficit is well below the EUs 3 percent ceilinga policy to discourage member states from going down a path of unsustainable spendingbut it is up sharply from a targeted 1.8 percent this year.

This contravenes EU regulations that call on Italy and other highly indebted countries to steadily narrow the shortfall toward zero.

EU Disquiet

If we accepted everything that the Italian government was proposing, we would see a virulent counter-reaction from other eurozone countries, European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels.

Ralph Brinkhaus, the group leader of Angela Merkels conservative party in the German parliament, signaled that Berlin was worried.

Its with concern that we are looking at Italy, especially because of its budget. We have full confidence that the European Commission will handle the question in the way imposed by the treaties, Brinkhaus told reporters in Berlin.

The commission now will have two weeks to review Italys fiscal plans underpinning the budget. It could reject them completely and ask Rome to rewrite them, an unprecedented step that would formally begin a long dispute.

But Juncker also cautioned against creating too much furor over Italys budget, as did Mario Centeno, who heads the eurozone finance ministers Eurogroup.

I dont want us to overdramatize this budget issue, but I want us to return to the application of the EU rules, not in a strict fashion, but in a fair and wise way, Juncker said.

The euro is built on decisions taken at many various moments and places. Italys budget is just one of those moments and events, Centeno said in a news conference in Lisbon.

Claudio Borghi, the Leagues often pugnacious economic spokesman, struck an unusually conciliatory tone on Oct. 16.

I do hope that at the end the war of words (will end) and that good sense will prevail and everyone will notice that this kind of budget is exactly what Italy needs to cope with its chronic lack of growth, he said in a televised interview with CNBC.

The Italian government is also set to introduce a more punitive tax regime for banks, heightening pressure on a sector that is suffering due to a spike in the countrys debt costs under the populist government.

By Angelo Amante & Crispian BalmeItalys Prime Minister Defends Beautiful Budget as EU Steps Up Pressure

BRUSSELSItalys Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte defended the countrys beautiful 2019 budget, brushing off criticism from Brussels as European authorities stepped up pressure for changes to a draft that breaches the blocs fiscal rules on Oct. 18.

Conte also denied a rift over the fiscal plan within his governing coalition, after reports of a spat over tax revenues.

The draft, signed off by Italys cabinet on Oct. 15, will expand the deficit at a time when, under European Union regulations, it should be falling, as well as boosting welfare spending and cutting the retirement age.

In the first formal step of a procedure that could lead to Brussels rejecting the budget and to fines against Italy, the European Commission will send Rome a warning letter. An EU official said it was expected to be delivered Oct. 18.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Italy had used up all the fiscal flexibility available under EU rules, and that Brussels would examine the draft without prejudice.

Conte said he wasnt worried by the letter, and that he expected the Commission to send others to Spain, France, and Portugal.

Prior to news of the letter, he told reporters: Im aware this is not the budget the Commission expected. I expect critical observations. We will discuss and we will reply to these considerations.

He described the budget as beautiful, having said Oct. 17the first day of a two-day EU summit that he saw no room for changing tack on it.

If it isnt amended, the Commission could reject the draft by Oct. 29, in what would be an unprecedented move that could further rattle markets.

Yields on Italian benchmark 10-year bonds spiked after elections in March that gave euroskeptic parties a large boost, rising further as the outline of an ambitious fiscal plan that could further boost Italys public debt ratioproportionally already the second highest in the EU after Greecebecame clear.

Coalition Spat?

EU leaders also warned Italy about the budget.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said fiscal rules should be respected by all, adding: Too much debt is dangerous.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Twitter he had expressed concerns over the budget plans in a meeting with Conte on Oct. 18. He added that the Commission had Netherlands full support in making sure EU fiscal rules were respected.

In what could be a source of concern at home, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio, leader of the 5-Star party, said Oct. 17 a legislative text on a partial tax amnesty had been manipulated before its final approval, raising doubts about the stability of Italys coalition government and about the revenues for its budget.

The anti-establishment 5-Star has always opposed amnestiesa frequently used policy in Italy where people or companies can avoid being pursued for tax dodging by paying a fee. Its coalition partner, the far-right League, favors amnesties, which bring money into the treasury and are popular with voters.

Di Maio didnt clarify who could have amended the document.

Asked by reporters about a possible coalition rift, Contewho isnt from any political partyreplied: There is no division. He added he would work on the legislative text after returning to Rome on Oct. 19.

The head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said on Oct. 18 the summit didnt discuss it in any detail.

The Italian Prime Minister presented the Italian situation to us, with big talent and in a very clear way, and we did not ask him about it because (the Commission) is currently examining the draft budget as sent to us by the Italian authorities, Juncker told a news conference.

We have no negative prejudice against the Italian budget, Juncker said.Lack of Power, Phone Service Hamper Post-Hurricane Michael Recovery

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.A lack of power and phone service in the areas of Florida flattened by Hurricane Michael last week was hindering efforts on Oct. 17 to distribute food and water and to contact residents not heard from since the storm plowed through the states Panhandle.

The hurricane, one of the most powerful storms on record to hit the continental United States, killed at least 30 people, according to county officials. It packed top sustained winds of 155 miles per hour that toppled power lines and unleashed a surge of seawater that demolished homes.

Florida officials have not said how many people are missing. Many people may not be able to call friends and family or may be staying elsewhere and are not necessarily presumed dead. Debris, downed trees, and power lines have hampered access to stranded people.

Teams made up of hundreds of volunteers with the Houston-based CrowdSource Rescue organization were trying to reach 720 people in Florida who lost contact with friends and family, said Matthew Marchetti, the organizations co-founder.

Most of those unaccounted for are from Panama City and many are elderly, disabled, impoverished, or live alone, Marchetti said. For every one person we have made contact with, there are probably three we havent.

He said the search has been hindered by spotty cell phone coverage in the devastated area, though authorities are making progress in restoring communications. The hardest hit in disasters are generally our most vulnerable populations, he said.

Many residents have also expressed frustration at the slow pace of recovery of wireless networks. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai on Oct. 16 called for wireless carriers to waive bills for customers affected by the storm.

The death toll includes 20 in Florida after three more deaths were confirmed on Oct. 16, one in Georgia, three in North Carolina, and six in Virginia, according to a Reuters tally of official reports. Officials said medical examiners were determining whether another four deaths in Florida resulted from the storm.

About 35,000 Floridians have called the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking help since and the agency has already approved $1 million in assistance for people in 12 counties, spokesman Ruben Brown in Tallahassee said.

FEMA has distributed about 4.5 million meals, more than 5 million liters of water and 9 million infant-and-toddler kits, he said.

The state government is distributing ice, water, and about 3 million ready-to-eat meals, Governor Rick Scotts office said.

Nearly 155,000 homes and businesses remained without power in the U.S. Southeast, with residents of battered coastal towns forced to cook on fires and barbecue grills.

At least 70 percent of customers in four mainly rural Florida Panhandle counties were without electricity on Oct. 17. On Oct. 16, the federal government said that 61.5 percent of cell sites remained out of service in Bay County. Officials said it could be weeks before power returns to some.

Countless numbers of people in the regions backcountry have struggled for days without running water or sanitation, awaiting help from authorities. Some have been camping in tents with the belongings they were able to salvage.

In Mexico Beach, which took a direct hit, some residents who returned to survey the damage made some startling discoveries.

The storm shoved the top floor of Charles and Janice Andersons vacation home hundreds of yards from its foundationwith the living room intact and a stuffed marlin still hanging on the wall.

Its miraculous if all we have is two fatalities, said Mexico Beach Mayor Al Cathey.

By Brian SnyderRestaurant patrons enjoy the Beaujolais Nouveau wine in a restaurant in Lyon, France, in this file photo. (Fred Dufour/AFP/Getty Images)

Lyons International City of Gastronomy to Shape the Food of Tomorrow

LYON, FranceAlready a busy chef, Regis Marcon, owner of the Michelin star-rated restaurant Le Clos des Cimes, has been involved in an ambitious project: creating the International City of Gastronomy hosted within Lyon, itself recognized as the gastronomic capital of France, and by some accounts, Europe.

The project focuses on the connection between food and health, and facilitates discussion on healthy and eco-friendly food of tomorrow. It also showcases the role gastronomy plays in the world.

For example, we were considering to showcase Japan. You would be seeing Japanese cooking demonstrations, and youd learn about Japans gastronomy history, explained Marcon, who chairs the committee overseeing the project.

Attendees would have opportunities to attend workshops and demonstrations and enjoy different kinds of food.

The International City of Gastronomy (ICG) will be divided into three main parts: an immersive museum, a temporary exhibition area, and a hub where people can meet and talk about gastronomy and topics related to food and health.

Most of all, we will hold talks and events about food and nutrition, said Marcon.

The ICG will be hosted on the site of a former health facility-turned-luxury hotel, Grand Hotel-Dieu, which was first built in medieval times. The site was extended in the 18th century by the French architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot.

Talking about food and nutrition in a former hospital makes so much sense, Marcon said lightheartedly.

The project was initially supposed to be completed in 2017, but the completion date has shifted a number of times. The latest projected opening is for the fall of 2019.

All Under One Roof

Museum-like places for food exhibition already exist, but for Pierre Sanner, director of Frances heritage and food culture mission, Lyons original idea has no equivalent anywhere else in the world.

Sanner has been one of the pioneers supporting the project after UNESCOs inclusion of the gastronomic meal of the French on the list of intangible cultural heritage in 2010.

Museum of Food And Drink in Brooklyn, Mercato Centrale in Florence, the Eataly, well-known in New York, which brings together in one location Italian restaurants, delicatessen stores, workshops, a bookstore, and cuisine lessons, are all inspiring models, said Sanner.

But none of them bring together all the fields of expertise in gastronomy.

Very French

For Michele Barriere, a French gastronomy historian and novelist, it is very fitting for a French city to host such a project.

The fact of not only doing gastronomy but also taking time to think about it, the fact that gastronomy inspires not only book recipes but also the literary and sociological field, is very French, Barriere said.

Barriere is also a part of a committee to build an ICG, but in the Eastern city of Dijon. Along with Lyon, Tours, and Paris-Rungis, the city is part of a network of four cities of gastronomy in France. Each of the four cities will be hosting their own ICG, each with a main theme. In the case of Lyon, which is the largest project of the four, the focus is on health and food.

Barriere insists that there is a difference between French gastronomy and French cuisine.

A gastronomic meal refers to the specific moment when families sit down together to enjoy a meal that has been served, with a particular succession of dishes, a menu with wine pairing, plus the fact people talk of gastronomy while eating, she said.

This whole tradition doesnt exist anywhere else except in France, and can define a gastronomic meal.

For All to Enjoy

For his part, Marcon views gastronomy as an activity that all can enjoy.

Today, for many people gastronomy equals fancy and expensive restaurants, whereas it refers to the pleasure you take from eating a fresh producta fine sandwich, or pizza, he said.

Its something everyone can experience, its universal. And this is precisely why we want Lyons International City to welcome everyone.

He said the City of Gastronomy can be a real chance for all food lovers and industry players to meet and build something better.

Everyone is talking about the dangers of glyphosate. Whats the point of just waiting and staring at each other? The objective is to talk in order to discover how to create the healthiest and most eco-friendly food possible.U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe during a meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) security summit in Singapore on Oct. 18, 2018. (Thomas Watkins / AFP/Getty Images)

Mattis Seeks More Resilient US Ties With Chinas Military

SINGAPOREU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counterpart that the worlds two largest economies need to deepen high-level ties, so as to navigate tensions and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict.

Mattis saw firsthand last month how mounting SinoU.S. friction can undermine military contacts, when Beijing upended plans for him to travel to China this month to meet with Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.

Mattis and Wei made no remarks as they shook hands at the start of their talks on Oct. 18, on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Singapore; the meeting ended without any public statements.

Randall Schriver, a U.S. assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said Mattis and Wei largely restated differing views on thorny security issues, but agreed on the need for more durable ties.

Both acknowledged that the meeting itself was significant and that high-level communication can help, Schriver said. So I think it was productive, in that regard.

Schriver said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to help reduce the chances of a devastating conflict.

Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interestswe need to make sure that when we step on one anothers toes, it doesnt escalate into something that would be catastrophic, Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis.

Wei has a standing invitation to visit the United States, but there was no agreement on a date for his trip, Schriver said.

Managing Crisis

Military-to-military ties have long been one of the more fragile parts of the overall U.S.China relationship, with Beijing limiting contacts when tensions run high. Thats been a source of major concern for years among U.S. officials, who fear an accidental collision or mishap might quickly escalate.

What we want in terms of stability are regular interactions at senior levels, so we have a good understanding of one anothers intentions, and we have confidence-building measures that will help us prevent an unintended accident or incident, Schriver said.

And, should one occur, that we have the ability to manage that, so it doesnt worsen.

China has been infuriated by the United States sanctions on its military for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped-up U.S. support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its territory.

In a recent reminder of the risks amid rising tensions, the Pentagon this month accused China of an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the South China Sea that brought a Chinese ship dangerously close to a U.S. Navy destroyer in international waters.

Mattis, speaking to reporters as he flew to Asia this week, rejected Chinese claims that the United States was acting aggressively and pointed the finger at Beijing.

When the Chinese ships are putting bumpers over the side  you dont do that when youre out in the middle of the ocean, unless youre intending to run into something, Mattis said.

But tensions between the United States and China have already extended well beyond naval maneuvers and even the bitter trade war.

U.S. President Donald Trump last month accused China of seeking to meddle in Nov. 6 congressional elections, a charge almost immediately rejected by Beijing.

Vice President Mike Pence, in what was billed as a major policy address, renewed that and other accusations this month and added that Chinese security agencies had masterminded the wholesale theft of American technology, including military blueprints.

The Pentagons top concerns have been Chinas rapid military modernization and simultaneous creation of military outposts in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway vital for international trade. The Pentagon withdrew an invitation to China to a multinational exercise earlier this year in protest. China expressed disappointment to Mattis on Oct. 18 over that decision, Schriver said.

Minister Wei said that he did hope that thered be future opportunities. And if the relationship progresses that way, Im sure well entertain it, Schriver said.

But were not there right now.

By Phil StewartA Bernie Sanders supporter at the candidate's New Hampshire Primary Night watch party on Feb 9, 2016. Millennials loved his brand of utopian socialism. They forgot the reality of the 20th century was different. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Millennials May Dream of Socialism, but It Will End in a Nightmare

Public opinion polls over the last year show that over 50 percent of millennialsthose born between 1981 and 1996have a positive view of socialism compared to a market-based economic system and society. The polls also suggest that when pressed to explain what they mean by socialism, these young respondents have nothing but a vague view of a government that takes care of people and provides free stuff.

This is what happens when a new generation does not know the reality of recent history.

This is unfortunate because the last century offered more than a laboratory experiment with real-life devastating consequences when societies accepted or had imposed on them systems of government command and control.

Nov. 7, 2017, marked the 100th anniversary of the socialist revolution in Russia, led by Vladimir Lenin. The stated ideal of its leaders and the belief of most of its followers was that it would create a bright and beautiful new world. The reality was a chamber of horrors.

The Human Cost of Building Socialism

Political scientist R.J. Rummel (19322014) spent his professional career studying the impact of tyranny and war on mankind in the 20th century. He calculated that upward of 64 million people might have been killed by the socialist regime in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1986. In the case of China under Chairman Mao, from the time he came to power in 1949 to his death in 1976, as many as 80 million men, women, and children may have perished in the name of a workers paradise for the Chinese people.

Adding up similar human costs in trying to create socialist societies in other countries, the total for the twentieth century is likely over 150 million people.

These tens of millions of human beingsinnocent and unarmed men, women, and childrenwere killed through execution, torture, starvation, and slave labor. At the same time, those who lived and survived in these societies experienced the reality and the failure of socialist central planning.

Private property and free enterprise were done away with. The government nationalized or heavily regulated all agricultural production and industrial manufacturing. What was produced, how and where it was produced, and in what quantities and qualities were now determined and dictated by the governments central planning agencies. From toothpaste to toilet paper, from clothes to canned corn, government bureaucracies determined the availability of everything, and to whom it was supplied.

The Poverty of Government Planning

I witnessed this in the last years of the Soviet Union, when I was traveling there on a fairly regular basis as a consultant on economic reforms. The government retail stores in Moscow were supposed to be the showcase for socialism. They either had empty shelves of those goods people really wanted or untouched shelves of shoddy, low-quality goods nobody wanted and wouldnt buy.

Having long-ago abolished private businesses and outlawed the profit motive, there were no incentives for the state managers of the government enterprises to be concerned with or interested in producing and selling what the Russian people actually wanted to buy. They were answerable not to the consumers of the society whose demand for things would determine whether they earned a profit or suffered a loss, like under private enterprise.

No, those state enterprise managers merely had to fulfill the production quotas given to them by the central planning agencies. Meet those, and you keep your job, get a bonus, and are allowed access to special stores and choice vacation resorts supplied to you by the government.

This led to corruption and black markets. Since you often could not get what you needed or wanted through the official government retail stores, you turned to connections, with those having access to the things you might want, and got them to supply it to you through illegal bribes or some favor you could do for them through informal off-the-books exchanges for what they could do for you.

The Farce of Civil Liberty Under Socialism

At the same time, since the government was responsible for the producing and supplying of everything in society, this also placed matters of art, literature, music, and culture in general at the discretion of the same government planning agencies providing shirts, sandwiches, and soap.

The Soviet Constitution spoke of freedom of speech and the press, freedom of religion, and freedom of association. But in reality, the government controlled and restricted all of these, based on its own goals and attempts to limit or prevent any discontent or disagreement with what those in political power set as priorities and plans.

Controlling the supply of paper and the printing presses, the only books, newspapers, or magazines published were those planned for and approved by the socialist government leadership. Dissenting or opposing views never were allowed the light of day.

Recording studios for music, as well as movie and television production facilities, were likewise under the control and command of the government. The only music, movies, and television shows available to people were those the socialist planners considered consistent with a socialist vision and view of a good and healthy societyas decided by the government officials above the central planning bureaucrats.

There was an underground world of forbidden music, books, and films. But getting caught with any of themas buyer or seller or usercould result in a long-term imprisonment, including to a forced labor camp, or even execution as an anti-social black marketeer and enemy of the people.

The Dictatorial Dead End of Socialism

Rather than the fair, equitable, and just society that socialism as an imaginary dream seemed to many people, its reality was a dismal, dirty, and discouraging world in which human beings had to conform to the dictates of the state and the planners. After all, with the end to private enterprise, the government was left as the only employer in town. Your entire future in terms of career, job, salary, living accommodations, and quality and standard of life was transferred from your own hands to that of those in political power.

This was socialism-in-practice in every country that attempted to fully implement that dream of a world without free enterprise, personal liberty, and freedom of association based on voluntary exchange and trade.

It will be no different if the millennial generation gets their wish to live under a future socialism.

Richard Ebeling is the BB&T distinguished professor of ethics and free enterprise leadership at the military college The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.NOAA Predicts Warmer Winter for Much of the US

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has predicted a milder winter across much of the United States.

The NOAA prediction has contradicted the Farmers Almanac prediction, which said the winter will be harsh this season.

In the U.S. Winter Outlook for December through February, higher-than-normal temperatures are expected across the western and northern U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii. They also said the El Nino will have a 70 percent to 75 percent chance of happening.

We expect El Nino to be in place in late fall to early winter, said Mike Halpert, who is the deputy director of NOAAs Climate Prediction Center. Although a weak El Nino is expected, it may still influence the winter season by bringing wetter conditions across the southern United States, and warmer, drier conditions to parts of the North.

In the winter, the NOAA said, typical El Nino conditions include wetter-than-average precipitation in the southern U.S. and drier conditions in parts of the northern U.S.

The NOAA said that the Southeast, Tennessee Valley, Ohio Valley, and Mid-Atlantic all have equal chances for below-, near- or above-average temperatures.

No part of the U.S. is favored to have below-average temperatures.

It also said that wetter-than-average conditions are likely across the southern part of the U.S., and up into the Mid-Atlantic. Northern Florida and southern Georgia have the greatest odds for above-average precipitation during the winter, the NOAA said.

Drought conditions are most likely across the Southwest, Southern California, the central Great Basin, central Rockies, Northern Plains, and parts of the interior Pacific Northwest.

But drought conditions are anticipated to improve in areas in Arizona and New Mexico, southern sections of Utah and Colorado, as well as the coastal Pacific Northwest and Central Plains, the agency said.

The NOAAs Climate Prediction Center posts its three-month outlook once a month. The next update will be posted on Nov. 15.

Contradicts Farmers Almanac

The Farmers Almanac said that for its winter outlook, the temperatures are going to be cold with plenty of snow.

The winter, it said, will be colder-than-normal from the Continental Divide east through the Appalachians. It added: So just how cold will it be? The real teeth-chattering arrives mid-February especially in the following zones: Northeast/New England, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Midwest, and Southeast (yes, even the Southeast will be in the chill zone!).

During that time, an Arctic cold front will move across the U.S. and produce bitter winds and a drop in the temperature over much of the U.S.

It is also predicting lots of snow for the Great Lakes states, Midwest, and central and northern New England, with the majority of it falling in January and February.

Contrary to the stories storming the web, our time-tested, long-range formula is pointing toward a very long, cold, and snow-filled winter. We stand by our forecast and formula, which accurately predicted the many storms last winter, as well as this summers steamy, hot conditions, editor Peter Geiger wrote.Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of the U.S. chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, speaks at the anti-celebration of pot legalization rally in Vancouver on Oct. 17, 2018. (The Epoch Times)

Pot Legalization Marks a Grey Day for Canadians, Says Opponent

Two B.C. anti-celebration rallies highlight downside of marijuana legalization

Increased addiction and drugged driving, the problem of second-hand smoke in multi-unit dwellings, and the exposure of children to smoke in homes where pot is used were just some of the concerns raised at two anti-marijuana rallies in Vancouver this week.

One of the rallies, both of which were billed as an anti-celebration of legalization, took place on Oct. 17, the day recreational use of the drug became legal nationwide.

We dont think that marijuana legalization is anything to celebrate, Pamela McColl of SAM Canada, the Canadian chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in an interview on Oct. 14 after the first rally.

We think that Oct. 17 is a very bad day, a very grey day for Canadians. Its very bad public policy and it will harm a lot of people, particularly children.

SAM Canada, one of the organizers of the rallies, is an alliance of organizations and individuals whose primary focus is educating the public about the harms of marijuana legalizationa policy the group claims places profit and addiction ahead of public health.

Theres many problems with marijuana, said McColl, an author and publisher who spoke at both rallies. We dont think the Trudeau government has thought this through very well and its a big mistake.

McColl questions why marijuana is being legalized when only 8.7 percent of Canadians use it.

The rights of the majority should be considered here, and the majority of Canadians shouldnt want more marijuana, more health risks, more health costs, more drugged drivers, more children harmed. Why is this being allowed?

According to the Canadian Medical Association, marijuana use has been associated with cardiovascular and pulmonary illnesses, mental illness, motor vehicle accidents, cognitive impairment, and dependence, among other issues.

The government has said legalization will help keep the drug out of the hands of children and reduce the criminal element in the market. Under the Cannabis Act, people over 19 are allowed to smoke cannabis wherever they can smoke cigarettes, apart from cars and boats.

Problem of second-hand smoke

A big concern for Naomi Baker, who also spoke at the rallies, is the increase of second-hand smoke affecting non-smokers in multi-unit dwellings that will most likely happen upon legalization.

Its something Baker has had first-hand experience with. She has been fighting to get something done about the smokeboth cigarette and marijuanathat has been seeping into her Langley, B.C., condo from neighbouring units since she and her husband bought it in 2016. The health of her young daughter has been of particular concern.

Its been an ongoing battle trying to find resolutions to keep the smoke out of our home. I dont have anything against the smokers per se, but when the smoke comes into my home it becomes my problem, she said in an interview.

Legalization does bring the anticipation of more second-hand smoke because of more people smoking, and so my position is I dont want anybody that doesnt want to be affected by smoke to be affected by smoke.

Baker formed the group Air We Share in an effort to change the laws around smoking in multi-unit dwellings, which she said heavily favour the smoker and smoking behaviour over the health and wellness of innocent bystanders who are subjected to it. She believes the default setting should be zero smoking in conjoined housing.

An online petition Baker initiated to achieve that goal gathered over 12,000 signatures in just a month. Her local MLA has agreed to present the petition to the B.C. legislature after she gets the signatures in print.

Theres thousands of people that are affected by this, she said. Everybody knows second-hand smoke is dangerous and its just a matter of time before the governments going to get sued for the damages that are happening.

Risks for children and youth

One of McColls primary concerns regarding legalization is children being exposed to the harm of second-hand smoke in homes where marijuana is used.

No child should be exposed to second-hand smoke in their home, nobody should have a child around them when theyre smoking, she said. The Trudeau government refused to allow a law to come into place that would have banned it in the homes of children. I think thats wrong.

She noted that in 2008, the State of California classified marijuana smoke as a carcinogenic under prop 65. So people should take second-hand smoke very seriously.

The Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario has warned that legalization of marijuana could pose a serious risk to the health of children and teens, noting that after the drug was legalized in Colorado in 2014, a childrens hospital in the state saw a fourfold increase in the number of teenagers ending up in emergency rooms due to marijuana intoxication.

The public needs to understand that marijuana use has been proven to cause serious damage to the developing brains of children, said PAO president Dr. Hirotaka Yamashiro in a statement last year. Parents and caregivers should be taking precautions.

The federal government has set the minimum age for recreational cannabis use at 18, but the medical community has concerns about that since the brain continues to develop until age 25, and marijuana use at a younger age can damage brain development.

The Ontario Medical Association wanted the government to ensure that the legal age for using cannabis was actually 25, not 18, OMA president-elect Dr. Sohail Gandhi recently told NTD Television.

And its because of the fact that in the younger people, school age or high school age, we would see diminished effects on school performance and wed also see more issues with perhaps behaviour like suicide and suicide attempts and other behaviours consistent with depression.

Gandhi noted that in the under-25 age group, pot use comes with an increased risk of mental health issues such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and psychosis.

In that age group theres a significant concern around taking recreational cannabis, he said.

Canada is the first G7 country to legalize marijuana and the second in the world after Uruguay to make cannabis use legal nationwide. Although some U.S. states have legalized it, the drug remains illegal under federal law.

McColl believes legalization is a big misstep for Canada.

Its very poor public health policy and thats why no other country has done it, except Uruguay, for a reasonits a really bad idea.Protester Filmed Screaming While Tearing Up Ted Cruz Signs in Texas Neighborhood

A protester was filmed screaming while yanking signs supporting Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for re-election our of the ground and ripping them up.

The man starts the video by announcing, Im just gonna take them down.

He then walks around grabbing Cruz yard signs in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.

Alfredo Ramos, who recorded the video, can be heard at one point telling the man that one of the signs he tried to destroy was Ramos property.

The man then backed off but grabbed a sign across the road.

Ramos tells the man not to mess around in the neighborhood, saying he owns a gun.

Oh. Im a gun owner, too, the man replied. If you guys shoot me over that, that would be great. That would be really, likean appropriate response.

Ramos then tells the man he has more signs inside his house and will just replace the ones he destroys.

I Hate Ted Cruz

Well, all right. Ill feel better about them, the vandal says as he rips up some signs. He then starts screaming, I hate Ted Cruz! I hate Ted Cruz! I hate Ted Cruz!

The man starts exiting the area but Ramos follows him with the camera, saying he has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years but has never seen anything like what happened.

He just went nuts. Tore up our signs, he said. The man who tore the signs up responds, telling Ramos hes lived in the area longer and that Ramos doesnt belong there.

I tore up his Ted Cruz signs, cuz Ive lived here for 26 years, grew up here, you moved here; you moved to Montrose, youre not from Montrose, the man said. Ted Cruz does not belong in [expletive] Montrose. Go to the woodlands.

The incident came around a month after video footage showed people taking down signs that showed support for Cruzs opponent, Rep. Beto ORourke. The homeowner who shared the video filed a complaint with his local constable but decided not to pursue charges, he told KRPC.

A statue in Texas prohibits removing or destroying campaign signs. Texas County Prosecutor Mike Anderson noted in 2014 that the statue says its illegal to steal, willfully deface, mutilate or destroy any campaign yard sign on private property and that the crime is publishable by a fine of up to $2,500, a year in jail, or both.

The Cruz-ORourke race has become one of the most-watched in the country as ORourke has been flooded with donations, boasting a $38 million haul in the third quarter, a record in a U.S. Senate race. However, the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls noted that Cruz leads by seven points over his challenger.

From NTD.tvAttorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at the Department of Justice on Sept. 18, 2018. Sessions announced a broad crackdown on leaks in August last year. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Second Trump-Era Leaker Sentenced to Prison

Former FBI special agent Terry Albury on Oct. 18 became the second Trump-era leaker to be sentenced to prison, after a federal judge issued him a four-year sentence in a Minnesota court.

Albury pleaded guilty in April to unauthorized disclosure and retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. He admitted to leaking classified documents to a reporter over the course of 18 months starting in February 2016, including files which were classified at the secret level.

In issuing the sentence, District Judge Wilhelmina Wright dismissed appeals for a lighter punishment that argued that Albury resorted to leaking because he felt that there was racism within the bureau as well as racism being perpetrated against the black Muslim community. The judge told Albury that he could have worked to address the wrongs from within the system, instead of breaking the law, according to an account of the proceeding by independent reporter Joseph Sabroski on Twitter.

Albury is the second leaker to receive a prison sentence during the administration of President Donald Trump. In August, former NSA contractor Reality Winner was sentenced to five years in prison for leaking a top-secret NSA report on Russian hacking. Prosecutors said Winner received the longest sentence ever imposed for criminal leaking to the media.

Albury had top-secret clearance and access to national defense documents as part of his day-to-day work for the FBIs Minneapolis Field Office. According to the plea agreement, Albury exfiltrated data from FBI systems by taking photographs of a computer screen or by cutting and pasting parts of documents into a file to get around having to directly print the originals.

Among the documents Albury leaked was an FBI program aid for assessing confidential human sources. Another document discussed the danger to national security posed by people from a specific Middle Eastern country. A government document he unlawfully retained concerned an online platform for recruitment by a specific terrorist group.

The FBI executed a search warrant on Alburys home on Aug. 29 last year. The agents found a thumb drive containing 58 sensitive and classified government documents, according to court documents. The thumb drive was in an envelope with a phone number for an unidentified reporter. Government documents also were located on several other devices in Alburys home.

Albury admitted to being aware that leaking and retaining classified information was unlawful and could lead to criminal prosecution, the plea deal states. Nevertheless, he sent the documents to a reporter despite not being authorized to do so.

Alburys sentencing follows a flurry of leak-related developments.

On Oct. 16, the FBI arrested a senior Treasury Department official for leaking financial intelligence documents to a reporter at BuzzFeed News.

On Oct. 15, James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a leak investigation. On the same day, the FBI released a file on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, which revealed, for the first time, that the bureau investigated McCabe over a leak related to former National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and the president.

Albury choked back tears as he spoke before the court. He apologized to everyone he hurt, including his former colleagues.

I fully accept responsibility for everything I did. This case has been devastating for my family and me, said Albury, who has a wife and two children, according to Sabroski.

After serving his prison term, Albury will be subject to three years of supervised release. The judge said the sentence was sufficient to deter others from committing the same crime.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a crackdown on leaks on Aug. 4 last year, less than four weeks before FBI agents searched Alburys home.Supreme Court Chief Justice Emphasizes Courts Independence, Adherence to Constitution

John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, spoke publicly on Oct. 16 for the first time since the bitter battle to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the court, emphasizing how the court doesnt represent one party but America as a whole.

We do not serve one party or one interest. We serve one nation, Roberts said, speaking at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Roberts said he wanted to touch on the Kavanaugh confirmation by explaining that the judiciary branch operates differently from the other branches by focusing on the Constitution, but said he would not criticize how public officials acted during the confirmation process.

I have great respect for our public officials. After all, they speak for the people, and that commands a certain degree of humility from those of us in the judicial branch who do not. We do not speak for the people. Our role is very clearwe are to interpret the Constitution, he said.

Independence and Collegiality

Roberts noted that the independence of the court from political branches enables it to function properly.

Without independence, there is no Brown v. Board of Education. Without independence, there is no West Virginia [State Board of Education] versus Barnette with the court held the government could not compel schoolchildren to salute the flag. Without independence, there is no Steel Seizure Case [Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer] where the court held President [Harry] Truman was subject to the Constitution even in a time of war, he said.

While the court has from time to time erred and erred greatly, but when it has, it is because the court yielded to political pressure, as in the case shamefully upholding the internment during world war II of Japanese-American citizens.

And he emphasized how the justices on the court take the time to be collegial to each other, even if they hold different views and judgments.

Those of us on the court know that the best way to do our job is to work together in a collegial way. Im not talking about mere civility, although that helps. Im instead talking about a shared commitment to a genuine exchange of ideas and views through each step of the process, Roberts said.

The justices still continue the tradition set in the late 1800s of shaking each others hands before they go onto the bench to hear a case, or into a conference room to discuss a case.

Personal Beliefs

Roberts also answered a number of questions from students, including one who asked him to give an example of a case where the Supreme Court decided against his personal beliefs.

Roberts said the case that came to mind was when a Supreme Court decision upheld the right of members of the Westboro Baptist Church to protest at funerals, since they protest on public sidewalks.

It upheld their right to protest in that manner. I did not like it but I thought that that was the right answer, he said.

From NTD.tvTaiwan Interior Minister Says 70 Percent of Illicit Drugs Come From China

Taiwanese independent politician Chao Cheng-yu raised the question at the Oct. 17 meeting of the Legislative Yuan: The government has been seizing more and more drugs, but where do they come from?

The answer, for the most part, is China, according to Interior Minister Hsu Kuo-yung.

The Internal Affairs Committee of the Republic of China Legislative Yuan invited Hsu; Director General of National Police Agency Chen Ja-chin; as well as officials from the ministries of justice, health and welfare, and education for a discussion of the governments anti-drug efforts. The Republic of China (ROC) is the official name for Taiwan.

Chao said that last month, police in Thailand seized 355 kilograms (about 783 pounds) of amphetamines in operations that involved Taiwanese smugglers. On Oct. 16, Taiwanese gangs were caught helping smuggle 90 kilos of methamphetamine to South Korea. It was at this point that Chao then asked his question.

According to Hsu, 70 percent of illicit drugs came from China, necessitating further investigation and a zero-tolerance policy. A significant amount of the rest is produced in Southeast Asia, while very little is produced in Taiwan itself, he said.

As of the end of June, 2,757.2 kilograms out of 3,601.9 kilograms of drugsabout 77 percentconfiscated in Taiwan were from mainland China and Hong Kong. Hsu stressed that the drugs confiscated by Thai police last month werent Taiwanese in origin, but were from Thailand, and had been discovered with cooperation from ROC authorities.

Officials said the 355 kilograms of Thai amphetamines were seized Sept. 26 in a rental house in Pattaya in Thailand; the suspect in charge of delivering the drugs, a man surnamed Jiang, is a Taiwanese. The drugs, which originated in the Golden Triangle of Myanmar, were hidden in Chinese tea bags labeled Guanyin King for transport in bundles to the rental property.

The 90-kg methamphetamine seizure by South Korean authorities was the largest single amount of the drug confiscated in that country, with a street value estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, according to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency. Three Taiwanese were arrested in connection to the seizure. South Korean police believe the Taiwan Bamboo Union Gang and the Japanese Inagawa-kai crime syndicate were involved.

Mainland China is one of the worlds biggest producers of drugs, including the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, targeted by the U.S. Senate in recent regulations.

According to the Associated Press, five of the six online fentanyl vendors investigated in a new Senate report are based in China. The sellers sent hundreds of packages to more than 300 sources in the U.S. by way of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

Fentanyl, a drug thats 30 times stronger than heroin, claimed the lives of more than 20,000 Americans last year, and has been implicated in the deaths of celebrities, including Prince and Tom Petty.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a statement on Twitter, saying that fentanyl comes pouring into the U.S. Postal System from China. We can, and must, END THIS NOW! The Senate should pass the STOP ACT  and firmly STOP this poison from killing our children and destroying our country. No more delay!

In Taiwan, Chao called upon the ROC government to take effective measures against drug smuggling and the gangs that facilitate it.The Great Leak Hunt Continues

Commentary

For more than a year, BuzzFeed News reporter Jason Leopold had been breaking stories based on leaked Treasury Department records.

The records, the unauthorized disclosure of which is a felony, had a common theme. They were the financial records of people associated with President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign, many of them targets of the Robert Mueller special-counsel investigationPaul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, Jared Kushner, and others.

Federal government agencies arent supposed to play political favorites. Using official powers and sensitive records to go after political targets by selectively leaking private information to the media is a criminal act. But thats exactly what happened.

In a series of scoops, Leopold revealed information that could only have come from confidential government records, such as suspicious activity reports (SARs) that are filed by financial institutions about an activity that appears to be illegal or even questionable. SARs are then sent from the bank or financial institution to the Treasury Department, which reviews them and makes a decision whether to investigate further. Treasury can either do its own investigation or hand the case off to the Department of Justice.

While all this obvious leaking was going on from inside the Treasury Department for the past year, there was much speculation as to who the leakers were and what, if any, efforts were being made to identify and prosecute them.

Now, we know the answer. Once again, without any leaks in advance, the silent professionals have struck again.

On Oct. 17, the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced it had arrested and charged a senior official inside the Treasury Department who worked in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network branch of the agency, often referred to as FinCEN.

Described as a senior adviser in the Treasurys FinCEN branch, Natalie Edwards was charged by the SDNY with unauthorized disclosure of SARs and with conspiracy to do the same.

A key part of the criminal complaint filed against Edwards says:

Beginning in approximately October 2017, and lasting until the present, EDWARDS unlawfully disclosed numerous SARs to a reporter (Reporter-1), the substance of which were published over the course of approximately 12 articles by a news organization for which Reporter-1 wrote (News Organization-1). The illegally disclosed SARs pertained to, among other things, Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, the Russian Embassy, Mariia Butina, and Prevezon Alexander.

There is little doubt at this point that Reporter-1 is Jason Leopold and that the news organization is BuzzFeed.

Media Frenzy

Reading the articles in Leopolds BuzzFeed archives shows he was looking to push a narrative that the TrumpRussia collusion story is real. Leopold was using Edwards to find documents he could use to push the theme that Trump and his close associates were all taking bribes from the Russians.

If there had ever been any evidence discovered that proved Trump and his key people were taking money from Russian sources, it would have leaked long ago. Leopold wouldnt be having to have Edwards pass him SARs from the Treasury to prove it; Mueller and his team would have found it.

There doesnt even need to be a real SAR filed by a bank for a media feeding frenzy to begin, with reporters calling for the target to be investigated, and then, for politicized officials inside the government to launch the investigation that the media is clamoring for.

I know this, because thats exactly what happened to Kushner in January. Media suddenly began claiming to have anonymous sources telling them that Deutsche Bank had filed an SAR on Kushners financial activity with them.

The bank denied the reports and threatened legal action against those publicizing this claim. No real SAR ever turned up, but in March, New Yorks banking regulator demanded to see Kushners financial information with Deutsche Bank anyway.

Pointing the Finger

Looking through archives of Leopolds articles at BuzzFeed, something stands out.

In October of last year, Leopold filed the article US Intelligence Unit Accused of Illegally Spying on Americans Financial Records, in which anonymous FinCEN sources cast suspicion for the criminal leaking of Trump associates financial records directly at another office inside the Treasury: the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA).

Ponder this: Leopold knows who the real leaker is. He knows the person is inside the FinCEN branch of the Treasury. And yet, hes publishing a news report in which hes helping anonymous FinCEN employees point the finger of suspicion for these leaks at the OIA.

Was Edwards one of these anonymous FinCEN people accusing the OIA of criminal acts? Was one of them her co-conspirator, who is mentioned in the complaint, but not identified?

The anonymous accusations led to an investigation of the Treasurys OIA. Leopold reported on the conclusion of the investigation last May.

It appears that Leopold deliberately helped cast suspicion on innocent people in the OIA to get them investigated for the criminal leaking his own sources inside the FinCEN were doing.

And then theres this issue that crops up in the Edwards complaint: Several times, Leopold appears to be asking her to make searches of the Treasurys database for the financial records of people he wants to write about.

This could be a legal problem for Leopold, since he wouldnt be just the passive recipient of a leakers documents, but giving instruction to target certain people: That could make him a co-conspirator.

There undoubtedly will be more developments soon, as everybody in Washington suddenly is coming to the realization that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was dead serious last year when he warned the leakers to stop.

They didnt listen, and now, theres going to be hell to pay.

Brian Cates is a political pundit and writer based in South Texas and the author of Nobody Asked For My Opinion  But Here It Is Anyway! He can be reached on Twitter @drawandstrike.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.First Lady Sees Newborn Victims of Opioid Crisis

PHILADELPHIAFirst lady Melania Trump is touring an intensive care unit at a Philadelphia hospital to learn about the care being given to newborns suffering from opiate withdrawal.

She was late for the visit on the morning of Oct. 17 after her first flight was forced to return to a Washington area military base because of smoke in the cabin. She took a different plane to make the trip.

Trump also spoke briefly at a conference at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital on newborns who were exposed to opioids while in the womb.

She began her remarks by saying sorry for a little delay.

She said there are few things harder than seeing a newborn suffering, and that she wants to shine a light on the issue.

The first lady was also going to visit with mothers who are in addiction treatment in a program that allows them to have their children with them.

Smoke in the Cabin

Trumps plane has been forced to return to a Washington area military base because of smoke in the cabin.

Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, says everyone is fine and everyone is safe after the plane returned to Joint Base Andrews.

She had been scheduled to visit a Philadelphia hospital and meet with families of children affected by exposure to opioids while in the womb.

Grisham says the first ladys team is evaluating whether to make other arrangements to travel to the event.

According to TV reporters traveling with the first lady, the flight was in the air about 10 minutes when smoke filled the cabin, and then Secret Service agents rushed to the front of the plane.

Its not immediately clear what caused the problem.

Did you enjoy this article? Continue to read more stories here.FBI Makes Major Arrest in Sessionss War on Leaks

The hunt for leakers that was initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in August of last year yielded a major arrest on Oct. 16, with the apprehension of a Treasury Department employee on charges that she leaked financial intelligence documents on various subjects of the Russia investigation to a reporter at BuzzFeed News.

Natalie Edwards, a senior advisor at the Treasury Departments Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), began leaking the documents to an unidentified reporter in October last year and continued to do so until this month, according to court documents.

Edwards is facing one count of unauthorized disclosure of suspicious activity reports (SARs) and one count of a conspiracy to do the same. Both charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

BuzzFeed News published 12 articles as a result of the leaks, according to the court complaint. The subjects of the articles included several people linked to the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, including veteran political operative Paul Manafort; his associate, Rick Gates; a former Russian ambassador to the United States; and others.

The leak investigation was triggered when articles surfaced detailing facts gathered from SARs, the disclosure of which is a felony. The court complaint was detailed by special agent Emily Ecksut from the FBIs public-corruption squad.

Several of the BuzzFeed News articles specifically indicated that the reporters reviewed SARs, others included enough information to ascertain that BuzzFeed had received the FinCEN documents.

The Treasury Department receives reports from financial institutions and maintains a database which can be accessed by law enforcement for the purpose of preventing criminal activity, including money laundering.

Although the complaint doesnt disclose the name of the reporter, a review of the articles and their authors by The Epoch Times determined that BuzzFeed news writer Jason Leopold was the most likely recipient of the leaks. Leopold didnt respond to a request for comment.

When FBI agents interviewed Edwards, she initially denied having any contacts in the media, but eventually admitted to communicating with the reporter and meeting him twice. Edwards denied knowing that her leaks resulted in media reports, but the FBI has evidence of her internet usage, which includes searches for articles which resulted from her alleged leaks.

Edwards worked with at least one co-conspirator, an associate director at Treasury, according to the documents. Ecksut alleges that the associate director, who isnt named in the complaint, exchanged hundreds of messages with the same reporter as Edwards.

Edwards saved approximately 24,000 files on a department-issued flash drive between January 2017 and January 2018. A forensic review of the files determined that they included thousands of SARs, including all of the SARs cited in the leaked articles, the court documents state.

During the course of the probe, investigators gained access to Edwardss private email and phone records. The investigators also used a digital pen register to track messages sent from her encrypted messaging app.

According to the court documents, Edwards communicated with the reporter via email, phone, and an encrypted messaging application meant to protect the communications from capture by third parties, including law enforcement. FBI agents were able to view some of the encrypted messages upon obtaining Edwardss phone. The messages suggest that in addition to leaking, Edwards performed SAR database searches at the behest of the reporter, according to the FBI.

Among the files, Edwards sent a 465-page report labeled Paul Manafort request from Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Edwardss arrest comes on the heels of several leaked stories linked to the Russia probe.

On Oct. 15, the FBI released a disciplinary review file on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The file showed that McCabe was investigated over a leak about Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn and President Donald Trump. Flynn was charged by Mueller with lying to the FBI as part of the Russia investigation. McCabe was fired earlier this year for authorizing another leak and lying about it under oath.

Also on Oct. 15, James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a probe into unauthorized leaks. One of the leaks listed in a statement filed with Wolfes plea deal was related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page. In the warrant, the FBI alleged that Page is a Russian agent. Page was never charged with a crime, and denies the allegation.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Treasury Department assisted the FBI in the investigation. On the day that the arrest of Edwards became public, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told inspectors general at an awards ceremony that preventing inappropriate disclosures of confidential information is one of the important issues I focused on during the past year.

Disclosing non-public, sensitive information you learn as a government employee may jeopardize an investigation or case; prejudice a defendants rights; or unfairly damage a persons reputation, Rosenstein said. It also can violate federal laws, employee non-disclosure agreements, and individual privacy rights. In some cases, it may put a witness or law enforcement officer in danger.

A Justice Department official told The Epoch Times that the arrest is part of the hunt for leakers that was announced by Sessions last year. The attorney general assigned Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray to oversee all of the leak investigations and monitor their progress.

We are taking a stand, Sessions said, at the time. This culture of leaks must stop.A view of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif., on June 12, 2017. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Trump Seeks to Remake 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Frustrated by Congresss failure to break up the overworked, often-overruled U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, President Donald Trump is attempting to dilute what he considers to be the liberal bias of the San Francisco-based 29-seat circuit court by nominating three new conservative judges.

The three nominees are California-based litigators Daniel Collins and Kenneth Lee, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Bumatay, all of whom worked for Republican administrations and are reportedly members of the Federalist Society, a conservative-constitutionalist group.

None of the three were approved by their home-state senators, Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, as part of the so-called blue-slip process. While the White House had been involved in negotiations with the two lawmakers for some time, the talks broke down over the summer, the Sacramento Bee reported Oct. 11.

Last night, the White House moved forward without consulting me, picking controversial candidates from its initial list and another individual with no judicial experience who had not previously been suggested, Feinstein said.

Harris spokeswoman Lily Adams said, Instead of working with our office to identify consensus nominees for the Ninth Circuit, the White House continues to try to pack the courts with partisan judges who will blindly support the presidents agenda, instead of acting as an independent check on this administration,

Evolution of the Blue Slip

For a long time, as a courtesy, presidents have entered into discussions with senators in states where their judicial nominees reside. They have generally refrained from moving forward unless the senators returned a blue slip in support of the would-be judge.

But in todays super-heated political environment, complete with full-on, in-your-face political campaigns on judicial nominees led by teams of lawyers and activists, the president and Senate Republicans have abandoned the custom, enraging Democrat lawmakers in California and anywhere else judicial nominations are pending.

The blue slip seems quaint these days, a relic of a bygone era in which actual qualifications, not ideology, were the issue in Senate confirmation votes that, anyway, required a filibuster-proof 60 votes, Thomas Lifson opined at American Thinker.

Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, which advocates for constitutionally limited government, acknowledged in an interview with The Epoch Times that the blue slip has changed over the years.

Blue slips used to carry the weight of a veto over nominations in the past, depending on who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, he said.

Current Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassleys (R-Iowa) position is that the lack of a positive blue slip wont prevent a Circuit nominee from advancing, if the administration has consulted with the home-state senators, Levey explained.

There should be some consultation with the home-state senators, but the president doesnt have to listen to what they say, he added.

Bane of Conservatives

Conservatives who follow judicial affairs believe that no other court compares to the Ninth Circuit. In 2012, the Supreme Court reversed 86 percent of the decisions it reviewed from that court. This year, the Supreme Court has reversed at least seven Ninth Circuit decisions. The figure for the past decade is 115.

The Circuit, which some critics call the Ninth Circus or the Nutty Ninth, previously struck down the Pledge of Allegiance because it contained the phrase under God. It has also found that citizens have no constitutional right to own guns.

Trump was especially incensed last year when judges in the Ninth Circuit ruled against Executive Order 13769, a temporary ban on the admission of aliens from the terrorism-prone nations of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The idea behind the short-term prohibition on visitors from those countries was to give the new administration an opportunity to formulate a policy to keep Americans safe from terrorism.

But judges in the Ninth Circuit and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked enforcement of the order, citing statements Trump made on the campaign trailitself a significant departure from judicial normsthat they claimed showed the presidents animus toward Muslims. Egged on by the ACLU, the media inaccurately tagged the order as a Muslim ban, even though visitors from most Muslim-majority countries in the world werent affected by it.

Seattle-based Judge James L. Robart issued an injunction against the order Feb. 3. A panel of the Ninth Circuit followed suit Feb. 9.

Eventually, the Supreme Court sided on the merits with Trump, finding 72 in December 2017 that a subsequent presidential directive on the same subject matter, Presidential Proclamation 9645, was constitutional. The Supreme Court ruling struck down lower court judges findings that the president acted improperly in imposing a temporary travel ban on individuals from Islamic, terrorism-infested nations.

This a substantial victory for the safety and security of the American people, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said at the time.

Restructuring

The Ninth Circuit is vast, covering Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Nevada, Arizona, California, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Republicans have been talking for years about splitting up the Circuit, which has the heaviest caseload of all U.S. appeals courts, into separate circuits, but they havent succeeded in Congress.

A bill that would reform the Ninth Circuit is moving forward in the nations legislature. HR6754, a bill spearheaded by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that would restructure, but not break up, the Ninth Circuit, was approved 165 on Sept. 13 by the House Judiciary Committee, Law.com reports. That measure would divide the Ninth Circuit into three regional divisions.

The bill would also create a circuit-wide division, with a chief judge and four judges from each of the newly created regional divisions. This body would hear tax cases, appeals on final agency actions, and decisions on which the regional divisions have split. The proposal would also add five judgeships, bringing the total number to 34.

For years, many have called for this court to be divided, but there remains widespread disagreement on how those divisions should be made, Issa said.

By dividing the Ninth Circuit into regional divisions that effectively function as individual appellate courts, we open the door to determining whether a circuit split would be feasible while, at the same time, preserve the current Ninth Circuit as a single appellate court, he added.

Issas legislation and Trumps three new Ninth Circuit nominations may satisfy some conservatives, at least for a while.

The thinking among conservatives is that if we cannot have a conservative majority on the Ninth Circuit, then, at the very least, lets not subject the conservative states in that circuit to the liberal majority, Levey said.Trump Threatens Military Enforcement at Border as Caravan of Honduran Migrants Nears

President Donald Trump warned that he will deploy the military to the southern U.S. border if Mexico doesnt stop the flow of migrants from Central America, most of whom end up entering the United States illegally.

I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaughtand if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER! he said in an Oct. 18 tweet.

He also warned Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, where most of the migrants originate, that the United States will cut off aid to those nations as their leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS.

In 2017, the United States sent about $530 million in aid to the three countries.

Mexicos foreign ministry didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump said he considers the increasing flow of migrants an assault on our country led by the Democratic Party, which has blocked Republican proposals to overhaul and tighten the immigration system and improve border security, including building a wall along the southern border.

The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA, he said in another tweet. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!

Caravan

In an Oct. 16 tweet, Trump said he strongly informed Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez that hed halt aid if a large caravan heading from the small country toward the United States isnt stopped and returned.

As many as 3,000 people crossed into Guatemala from Honduras after a standoff with police in riot gear on Oct. 15, according to the organizersactivists from the leftist Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party, which controls almost a quarter of the Honduran legislature and advocates socialism.

Trump retweeted a video on Oct. 18 that shows the migrants getting paid what appears to be 50 Guatemalan quetzals each (around $6.50). The video appears to have been taken in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on Oct. 16. It isnt clear where the money is coming from or who the men are that are handing out the payments.

Facebook user Enrique Vitanza posted the video on his page on Oct. 16. When asked about the origin of the video, Vitanza said it was sent to him from Guatemala. He offered several theories about who was handing out the money, but The Epoch Times couldnt independently verify them.

Can you believe this, and what Democrats are allowing to be done to our Country? pic.twitter.com/4aDpASkjIU  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018

The Honduran Foreign Ministry called on its citizens not to join the caravan. The government urges the Hondurans taking part in this irregular mobilization not to be used by a movement that is clearly political, it said.

One of the four caravan organizers, former Libre lawmaker Bartolo Fuentes, was detained by Guatemalan police after crossing the border. The Honduran security ministry said Fuentes had been detained because he didnt comply with Guatemalan immigration rules and would be deported back to Honduras.

Some migrants have since turned around and headed home, but many are continuing the trek.

Mexico sent two jetliners of federal police officers to its southern border to intercept the caravan, USA Today reported on Oct. 17.

The Mexican ambassador to Guatemala met with the migrants on Oct. 17 and warned them of the dangers of irregular entry into Mexico, especially human traffickers. The trafficking networks are controlled by drug cartels and use drug-smuggling routes to help the migrants cross the U.S. border illegally. Previous reports by media and human-rights organizations say that up to 80 percent of the women are raped by gang members, traffickers, or other migrants before reaching the U.S. border.

The ambassador told the migrants that Mexico has a process for applying for refugee status. While those who reach the United States commonly apply for asylum, most arent eligible because they arent fleeing state persecution, but instead escaping abysmal conditions in their countries.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Oct. 17 his government dismissed threats of constraints on U.S. foreign aid. He said hes spoken with Hernandez about ensuring that migrants who wish to return home can do so safely.

Violent Countries

El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala all suffer from widespread poverty and high rates of violent crime; their murder rates are some of the highest in the world.

Honduras has faced an escalation of violence since its government was destabilized by a military coup in 2009. Then-President Manuel Zelaya was turning the country in a leftist direction and eventually was accused of attempting to illegally prompt a rewriting of the constitution. But, instead of a legal removal from office, he was detained by the military and forced into exile.

The coup gave rise to a leftist movement, the National Popular Resistance Front (a predecessor of Libre), which organized large marches and civil disobedience. The interim regime then suppressed the crowds with force, sometimes deadly.

The United States, led at the time by President Barack Obama, condemned the coup. But Secretary of State Hillary Clintons emails, which were released years later, showed her department worked to block efforts of other Central American countries to restore Zelaya to the remainder of his term. Instead, she negotiated with the coup regime regarding elections scheduled later that year.

Clinton said she didnt want to call the regime illegitimate as it would force her to pause aid to Honduras. But Zelaya reacted to her move by calling for a boycott of the election, and the Honduran government descended into a legitimacy crisis.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Update: The article was updated with information about President Trump tweeting a video of the caravan migrants receiving money.U.S. President Donald Trump holds gold scissors as he cuts a red tape tied between two stacks of papers representing the government regulations of the 1960s and the regulations of today (R) after he spoke about his administration's efforts in deregulation in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Dec. 14, 2017. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Trump Vows to Cut More Red Tape to Fuel Economic Growth

Regulatory reform efforts saved $23 billion this year, says White House

WASHINGTONEconomists are divided over the impact of regulations on economic growth. The Trump administration, however, sees strong evidence that regulatory rollback is boosting jobs and economic growth.

Since taking office, President Donald Trump frequently has said that over-regulation is a costly burden to American workers and businesses and pledged to rollback unnecessary and ineffective regulations.

We have set a record on killing regulations. No administration has knocked out as many as us, and we have a long way to go, Trump said Oct. 17 during his meeting with business leaders on cutting the red tape, unleashing economic freedom at the White House.

And one of the reasons the economy is so strong is that were not hampered by the ridiculous regulations that we were getting rid of, he said.

The U.S. economy grew by 4.2 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2014. And the unemployment rate dropped to 3.7 percent, its lowest level in nearly 50 years.

By cutting regulations, the federal agencies have achieved a net cost savings of $23 billion this year, according to the White House. And since Trump took office, regulatory reform efforts have saved $33 billion.

In stark contrast, President Barack Obama, in the first 21 months of his presidency, added $245 billion in regulatory costs.

Soon after his inauguration, Trump ordered his team to slash regulatory hurdles. He signed last year an executive order that required two rules to be removed for every new regulation imposed.

The government agencies eliminated 176 regulatory actions and imposed only 14 new important regulations, so far. Thus they have exceeded Trumps requirement, cutting 12 old rules for every new one.

According to the White House, the administration focuses on commonsense regulatory reform, eliminating regulations that are no longer beneficial for the American people. But at the same time, they make sure they are not neglecting legal responsibilities to protect health, safety, and the environment, they claim.

The deregulatory efforts are in line with the principles of individual liberty and limited government, Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs said during the meeting.

Regulatory reform is in part about furthering individual liberty and the rule of law, she said.

Americans are hardworking and productive, and when government gets out of the way, we can see that jobs are created, businesses grow, and innovation flourishes.

Studies show that over-regulation poses significant problems for existing small businesses and potential entrepreneurs in the United States. The complexity of the regulations, the difficulty of interpreting them, and costs of compliance hinder entrepreneurship and innovation.

A 10-percent rise in federal regulations leads to a 0.5 percent decline in the number of small firms, while the impact on large firms is statistically immaterial, according to a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Community business leaders attended the deregulation event. Among them was Luanne Cundiff, CEO of First State Bank, a Missouri community bank.

We have new heads of many regulatory agencies in place now, and they have been boots on the ground trying to listen to concerns from community bankers and address those concerns. So its going well, Cundiff told Trump during the meeting.

We have so much more to do, she added.

During the event, Trump also talked about the recent initiative dealing with workforce development.

A lot of people are being trained and were training a lot of people. And companies are coming into our country now at a record clip, and theyre all coming in and training large amounts of people, he said.

Chris Chinn, director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, who attended the meeting praised the administrations efforts to improve high-speed internet access in rural America.

The agriculture industry is very appreciative of everything that youve done. Youve brought attention back to rural America, and we appreciate it, he said.

Adam Red, a councilman for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of Ignacio, said the deregulation efforts helped his tribe.

Our tribe has faced hurdles for years, and now were starting to see some of the light come through with the work, he said.

Trump said his administration plans to rollback more regulations next year.

I think within a period of about another year, we will have just about everything that weve wanted, he said.

The administration will soon release 2018 regulatory reform report and the fall unified agenda, which is the regulatory action that agencies project for the coming year.

During the meeting, Trump also said he would ask his Cabinet members to tighten belts.

Were going to ask every Secretary to cut 5 percent for next year, he said.British Prime Minister Theresa May at a working dinner of EU leaders in Brussels on Oct. 17, 2018. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

UK Prime Minister Puts Brexit Delay in the Cards at EU Talks

LONDONWith the clock ticking on the stuttering Brexit talks, British Prime Minister Theresa May has played one of the last cards in her negotiating hand: time.

May floated the possibility of potentially delaying the departure of the UK from the European Union when she met with EU leaders during a summit on Oct. 18, in an attempt to try to unlock negotiations.

While the summit was once slated as the moment at which the UK and EU would announce a potential deal on their future arrangements, talks are stuck on the issue of the Irish border.

The UK and EU are coming to the end of an interim period, separated but still married, as they hash out the divorce agreement before a deadline of March 29, 2019. The agreement will determine just how closely tied the UK remains to the EU system of regulations and lawsa hard or soft Brexit.

The EU and UK have in principle agreed to a transition period following the March deadlinealso called an implementation perioduntil the end of 2020.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Oct. 18, May said: A further idea that has emerged, and it is an idea at this stage, is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months, and it would only be a matter of months.

But the point, is this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020.

The suggestion was met with derision from some hard-line Brexit supporters in the UK, who already feel that May is willing to cede too much British sovereignty to the EU.

The transition period, during which EU regulations would continue to apply to the UK, only applies if a deal is struck.

Stuck at the Border Backstop

Many analysts agree that the currently agreed-upon implementation period isnt long enough to comprehensively solve the Irish border issue, the main sticking point in negotiations. In offering a longer implementation period, May is hoping to open up new options.

After Brexit, the UKs only land border with the EU will lie between Northern Ireland and Irelanda border that was once a flashpoint in sectarian violence, targeted by dissidents as a hated embodiment of what they saw as British occupation.

After a peace deal was struck in 1998, border controls have all but disappeared, with customs and immigration handled seamlessly under common EU rules. Many believe a return to a hard border (with physical checks and barriers) would be in violation of the peace agreement.

The EU and UK both agree that a hard border isnt an option, but they cant agree on how to avoid one.

The border backstop is a safety-net agreement meant to ensure that should future trade negotiations turn sour, or run on and on, a hard border wont appear between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

A Border in the Irish Sea

Brusselss solution is to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union, large parts of the single market and the EU VAT systemuntil a custom-made trade deal is hashed out between the UK and EU.

This would shunt the EUUK border to the British mainland coast, with border checks at ports between the Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

May said this is unacceptable as it violates the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom, and puts a border down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

With last months EU summit ending in an acrimonious breakdown in talks, the two-day October summit was a relative success noted EU political analyst Simon Usherwood.

So, no breakthrough, but also no collapse, Usherwood wrote on his blog. Not the most ringing endorsement for yesterdays European Council discussion on Article 50, but given the possible alternatives, certainly not the worst it could have been.Chinese-chartered merchant ship Cosco Shipping Panama crosses the new Agua Clara Locks during the inauguration of the expansion of the Panama Canal in this file photo. China is continuing its push to displace U.S. influence in the region, and already has put parts of the Panama Canal under its control. (RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP/Getty Images)

US Concerned as China Makes Inroads in Central America

Beijings checkbook diplomacy succeeds in pushing out Taiwan

Tensions between China and the Trump administration are not only evident in an escalating trade war. The standoff also appears to be intensifying in Central America and the Caribbean, creating a new wrinkle in an already volatile relationship.

At a moment of acutely strained relations with China, the United States sent strongly worded messages of discontent to three Central American nations. All have recently normalized their own relations with China.

On the anniversary of the Torrijos-Carter Panama Canal TreatySept. 7, 2018the U.S. State Department recalled Roxanne Cabral, U.S. charge daffaires in Panama. U.S. ambassadors to the Dominican Republic and El SalvadorRobin Bernstein and Jean Manes, respectivelyalso were recalled for consultation in Washington.

Each diplomat represents the United States in a country that has recently switched its diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China within the last year.

According to the State Departments press release, the three diplomats were scheduled to meet with U.S. government leaders to discuss ways in which the United States can support strong, independent, democratic institutions and economies throughout Central America and the Caribbean. The tone implies concerns that Chinese largess may be undermining institutional stability in these countries.

China Dominates Diplomatic Arm Wrestle

One area of concern for the Trump administration is the pace at which more countries are breaking off diplomatic ties with Taiwan and normalizing relations with China. Beijing refuses to maintain diplomatic ties with countries that recognize Taiwan, a self-ruling island of 23 million off the mainlands southeastern coast. Beijing views Taiwan as a renegade province.

Taiwan has had longstanding diplomatic and economic ties in Latin America, but the trend is now shifting in favor of Beijing. El Salvador cut ties with Taiwan in August, the Dominican Republic in May, and Panama last summer. With the recent changes, Taiwans formal diplomatic allies stand at just 17.

While Washington switched its formal diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 and adheres to the one-China policy, it maintains a de facto embassy in Taiwan called the American Institute. More critically, the United States sustains a strategic alliance with Taiwan, including the sale of arms to the self-governed island and a pledge to protect it in the event of a military conflict. For years, Taiwan was a crucial element in a U.S.-led cordon sanitaire around China.

Panama Canal Under Threat

The United States is increasingly concerned that the Panamanian government has already made extensive concessions to Chinese interests along the Canal Zone. An estimated 43 percent of the zones activities are under Chinese control.

The Trump administration is also uneasy about many joint Chinese-Panamanian accords in finance, economic cooperation, railways, and industries. The Panamanian president is closing many of these deals without consulting with the countrys legislature. The lack of scrutiny and democratic due process also worry some Panamanian business and political forces.

Critics of these accords in Panama believe that the growing indebtedness to China will lead to Chinese interests building a fourth set of locks in the canal. Euclides Tapia, a Panamanian international-relations professor and former government official, argues that they are already conducting a feasibility study without anyones approval. In other words, theyll indebt us up to our necks, and that canal wont be Panamas until it pays what it owes.

The Modus Operandi

Chinas practice of leveraging billions of dollars in debt to obtain critical assets, economic dominance, and political influence in Asia has alarmed a growing chorus of critics in the Americas as well.

A recent Harvard study detected a trend of countries with debts too large to pay back, which allow Beijing to acquire strategic assets or political influence over debtor nations. Major infrastructure facilities built with Chinese loans are increasingly leased for periods of 99 years to help repay debts. These facilities have multi-use purposes that range from commercial to logistical and possibly even military.

The stakes in the Panama Canal are high. The major U.S. anxiety is control of access to transoceanic shipping, a longstanding strategic geopolitical interest. The slightest threat that an adversarial power could control it is untenable for U.S. national-security interests. The prospect of a canal with a military base from an adversarial nation in the western hemisphere has the potential to unleash a geopolitical crisis.

Chinas intentions to build a canal through Nicaragua have now been routed. Financial and other considerations have all but ended the possibility of such a canal owned and controlled by the Chinese. Even though China has long had other projects, such as state-of-the-art rail lines and other transport infrastructure to help its transoceanic trade, a transoceanic canal remains a priority.

As China works to achieve its aims in the Americas, tensions with the United States are likely to escalate. Volatile trade measures and a host of other conflicts have aggravated a deteriorating relationship. This latest exchange of diplomatic announcements and warnings suggest a renewed U.S. interest in the region and a possible tilt in the center of gravity away from the United States and toward China.

Fernando Menendez is a writer and analyst of China-Latin America relations based in Washington.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.Left: An undated file photo showing a U.S. Marine wearing experimental battle-dress comprising a laminated fiberglass helmet, body armor, and armored boots, and carrying a new M-14 rifle Right: Instructor PH1 Phil Goodrich stands by as Yeoman 3rd Class Aida Cabrera prepares to fire an M-14 rifle during a practice session aboard a U.S. Navy ship. (Keystone/Getty Images; Department of Defense)

Vietnam War Hero Sentenced to 7 Years for Decades-Old Rifle Purchase

A decorated Vietnam veteran and firearms collector was sentenced to seven years in federal prison on Wednesday, Oct. 17, for a decades-old purchase of a rifle.

Alfred Pick, 70, purchased a fully automatic M14, which is illegal to own, at a Fort Worth gun show in the early 1980s, KDFW-TV (CBS11) reported.

Picks lawyer said that for the army veteran, the weapon had sentimental value.

"I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero you dont destroy the rest of his life for one mistake."    CBS DFW     

This gun was very rare. At that time it was rare to see one so he instantly had a connection to it, said Picks attorney Ryne Sandel, according to the report. Over the course of his life he and his wife had collected about 14 weapons, many of them were collectors items.

The rifle resembled the one Pick used as an Army lieutenant in Vietnam, where he earned a Silver Star after participating in more than 100 combat missions and his brief time as a POW.

The man is a Silver Star winner, he saved lives, he took care of his wife, hes been in custody for a year, I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero you dont destroy the rest of his life for one mistake, Mark Shackelford, a friend, told KDFW-TV.

Shackelford called the weapon the piece de resistance of Picks collection, and said, He had shown it to me. Ive never seen it taken out of the case.

The M14, however, had its serial number scratched out.

Last year, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents raided Picks Plano, Texas, looking for the rifle. The raid on the mans home came two weeks after his wife died of cancer.

Hes had it all these years, never robbed a bank or done anything with it, Shackleford said. I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero, you dont destroy the rest of his life for one mistake.

Picks friends came to court to support him as he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 87 months in prison. District Judge Marcia A. Crone handed down the sentence, according to CBS DFW.

Shackelford lamented the severity of his friends punishment.

Somebody that made one mistake, he said, and now 50 years later hes paying a really big price for it.

Some Vietnam veterans, however, said Pick should have known better since the rifles serial had been removed.Don McGahn, then-general counsel for the Trump transition team, gets into an elevator in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York City on Nov. 15, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

White House Counsel Don McGahn Exits After String of Judicial Confirmation Victories

President Donald Trumps White House counsel, GOP establishment lawyer Donald F. McGahn II, resigned from his post Oct. 17, according to multiple media reports. McGahn was key in getting two controversial nominees onto the Supreme Court and ran Trumps legal defense in the saga arising from the Russian electoral collusion theory.

McGahns resignation clears the way for his replacement, Pat A. Cipollone, a specialist in defamation defense and complex litigation. Cipollones talents could prove useful for Trump if Democratswho promise extensive investigations of Trumprecapture the House of Representatives in the Nov. 6 elections.

Judicial Confirmations

McGahn became a ubiquitous, if unrecognized, figure in Americas living rooms during the recent confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, usually appearing on TV seated behind the nominees left shoulder.

As the architect of the White Houses strategy on judicial nominations, McGahn gets credit for the confirmation of Kavanaugh and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, along with the confirmation of 29 appeals court judges and 52 district court judges.

When Justice Antonin Scalia died in February 2016, McGahn was Trumps campaign attorney. It was McGahns idea that candidate Trump make and publicize a list of conservative judges from which he could select Scalias replacement, if elected.

That list would prove to be a key selling point for Trump among social conservatives, who otherwise might have been skeptical of a thrice-married billionaire from New York City, according to NPR.

McGahn oversaw the presidents judicial selection process, picking nominees who are uniformly conservativeoften suggested by the Federalist Society or the Heritage Foundationand typically youngcapable of shaping the federal courts decisions for decades to come.

Senators Praise

After Trump took to Twitter to preview McGahns departure Aug. 29, federal lawmakers paid tribute to the attorney.

Don is the most impressive White House Counsel during my time in Washington, and Ive known them all, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the time. Dons significance to the judiciary, the White House and the nation cannot be overstated, and I look forward to his continued efforts on behalf of our country.

George Hartmann, a spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), said in August that the senator has appreciated Mr. McGahns work over the last two years and has considered him integral to the presidents record-breaking success on filling judicial vacancies.

Tumult

But McGahns nearly two years inside the White House were filled with tumult.

Critics blamed him unfairly for Trumps executive orders banning travel from Islamic terrorism-producing nations and punishing so-called sanctuary cities for harboring illegal aliens, claiming the orders were open to attack because they were supposedly poorly written.

Not all of his judicial picks made it through the Senate. According to Time magazine, McGahn tried to select judicial candidates who were too hot for prime time  the kind of people that make some people nervous.

He also reportedly made White House officials antsy by sitting down with investigators working for special counsel Robert Mueller for about 30 hours in at least three interviews, without his lawyer offering a full debrief to the presidents attorneys on what was said during those sit-downs, the Washington Examiner reported.

Trump wrote in a tweet on Aug. 18 that he allowed McGahn and all other requested members of the White House Staff, to fully cooperate with the Special Counsel.

McGahn pressed Trump not to fire Mueller, reportedly threatening to resign if Trump followed through with the dismissal, and argued with the president over his reported desire to pardon his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was convicted of offenses that arose out of Muellers Russia investigation but had nothing to do with the Trump campaign.

Trump himself denied McGahn lobbied him about Mueller. On Aug. 30, he wrote on Twitter that McGahn was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions. So much Fake Reporting and Fake News!

Nevertheless, it was around two weeks after McGahns cooperation was reported that the president announced Aug. 29 on Twitter that his counsel would soon be leaving.

Another one of Trumps attorneys, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, said McGahns discussions with Mueller had nothing to do with his decision to leave the White House.

Next Steps

It is unclear what McGahn will do next. He could return to private legal practice and represent Trumps reelection campaign. Formerly with the powerhouse law firms of Patton Boggs and Jones Day, he served as general counsel to the National Republican Congressional Committee and as counsel for the Illinois Republican Party. McGahn became a member of the Federal Election Commission in July 2008, serving as its vice chairman from January 2013 to 2015.

Trump said Oct. 16 before news broke of McGahns resignation that he would be replaced by Cipollone, whom the president recently described as a great guy who was very talented. Cipollone is identified as a litigation partner at the law firm of Stein Mitchell Cipollone Beato and Missner. He also has substantial expertise in defamation counseling and litigation on behalf of corporations, organizations, and public figures, including prepublication negotiations and/or litigation with major media organizations, according to his online biography.STAMFORD  A Pennsylvania woman who posed as an autism therapist has been released from prison after making her final restitution payment this week.

Stacy Lores public defender Howard Ehring told Judge Gary White his client had a check for $4,690 that would be added to her $3,600 court appearance bond to erase her $8,289 debt.

But White warned if the check bounces, Lore will be sent back to jail.

I will definitely send you to prison, he told her.

White already sent Lore back to prison earlier this year.

Lore violated her parole last October for only paying $242 in restitution to Margaret Kozlar and Kim Tromba, the parents of two Norwalk autistic children.

Lore then skipped court dates in February and March and White had her arrested in June when she appeared with only $9,000.

Lore was released in July after her family paid some of the debt and she agreed to a repayment plan, which she completed this week.

Im glad to see that Stacy is finally making good-faith payments and in a timely fashion, Tromba said. The funds will benefit Nathan (Trombas son) for sure. Glad to have this resolved and behind us.

Lore was sentenced to three years in jail after she pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny in 2010 for falsely claiming to be a board-certified behavior analyst with advance degrees. As part of her plea deal, Lore was required to reimburse the parents of two Norwalk autistic children $33,874 within five years of her release from prison in 2012.

We are glad this is all over, Ehring said shortly before Lore and her mother pushed a baby carriage with two children out the Stamford courthouse on Wednesday.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.comRecently, eight major restaurant chains, including Applebee's, Five Guys and Panera Bread, announced the elimination of "no-poach" clauses from contracts with franchisees.

Related: Just How Much Does It Cost to Own a Fast-Food Franchise?

Designed to prevent employee turnover, "no-poach" policies allowed restaurant franchisees to restrict workforce mobility and gain an advantage over independent restaurateurs. In the absence of contract restrictions, the big question is what franchisors -- and more importantly, franchisees -- will now do to increase retention through improved employee engagement.

The end of "no-poach" policies requires new strategies for employee retention.

The abandonment of "no-poach" policies is a growing trend in restaurant franchising. In July, Carl's Jr., Cinnabon and five other chains announced similar measures to eliminate contract restrictions for franchisees.

With the most recent announcement affecting more than 15,000 franchise locations nationwide, the writing is on the wall -- "no-poach" clauses are quickly becoming the exception rather than the rule in restaurant chains and fast-food franchises.

In the past, franchisees used the rule to prevent employees from taking a position with another franchisee operating under the same brand. For example, a cashier at a Panera location could not secure a position at another Panera location, even if it meant better career opportunities.

Related: 5 Affordable Franchises You Can Start for Less Than $10,000

Proponents of the "no-poach" clause claim the rule provides protections for all franchisees. Without the rule, individual franchisees' return on training investments are at risk. However, the rule's opponents point out that it creates an unfair environment that limits competition and depresses wages for workers.

But, regardless of where you fall on the merits of the policy, one thing is certain: If you're a restaurant franchisee, you'll probably need a new strategy for reducing turnover and retaining knowledgeable employees.

How to retain employees through better employee engagement

According to WorkJam research, more than half of the retail and restaurant workforce (51 percent) is either actively looking for or open to new job opportunities. To manage turnover, restaurant franchisees need to identify strategies to improve employee engagement.

1. Implement a digital employee feedback mechanism.

As a restaurant franchisee, you need to make your employees part of the team and help them contribute to the company's success in a meaningful way. Unified communication through digital platforms makes it easy for employees to provide on-the-ground insights and suggestions to managers. Platforms that feature advanced analytics take the process a step further by converting employee insights into actionable steps, creating new opportunities for both your business and employees.

2. Measure and recognize good work.

Everyone appreciates recognition for a job well done. But, to improve engagement, you have to connect recognition to measurable outcomes rather than the subjective opinions of managers or coworkers. Integrated platforms track metrics related to performance and customer satisfaction, increasing visibility to good work and allowing you to recognize the contributions of standout employees in real time.

Related: The 10 Best Franchises to Open in 2018

3. Improve scheduling processes with technology.

Restaurant and fast-food employees often experience scheduling that is chaotic and unfair. It's not uncommon for managers to ask workers to fill last-minute or previously unscheduled shifts that wreak havoc on the employee's personal life. Nor is it uncommon for employees to get cut from a shift, depriving them of earnings. Better schedule communication with more accurate availability improves employee morale and engages workers in the process. First-rate scheduling software uses self-service tools to involve employees in the process of balancing their availability with the needs of your business.

4. Offer ongoing training opportunities.

Restaurant employees value continual learning because it provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Yet, many restaurant franchisees only offer structured training during the onboarding period. In addition to periodic in-person training events, consider offering ongoing digital resources (e.g., videos, assessment quizzes, etc.) that improve employees' ability to serve your customers and prepare them for career advancement.

The end of "no-poach" policies presents an important opportunity for your restaurant franchise. Do nothing and employee turnover is all-but-guaranteed to increase. But, by developing a strategy to proactively improve employee engagement through the use of technology, you can reduce turnover and create a more loyal, higher-performing workforce.

Related:

As Restaurant Chains End 'No-Poach' Policies, How Will Franchisees Retain Trained Employees?

The Many Pros and Fewer-Than-Expected Cons of Hiring Ex-Cons

How to Keep Those Talented Employees of Yours From Fleeing to Competitors



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedNORWALK  The state Department of Transportation plans to install 253 high-definition security cameras at seven train stations  from Westport to Darien  starting next year. The project is part of a multi-phase infrastructure upgrade that will result in upward of 800 new security cameras along Metro-North Railroads New Haven Line.

The estimated $58 million federally funded project is intended to improve security. The Westport to Darien section, estimated at $11 million, will focus on train stations as well as at the railroads bridge over the Saugatuck River in Westport.

DOT Project Manager Yure Kuljis described the project as an upgrade since some of the locations have cameras while others, such as the Rowayton and East Norwalk train stations, do not have them. Whereas existing cameras, which often were paid for with U.S. Department of Homeland Security funds, feed locally, the new cameras will feed into a network.

The main purpose of this project is we will be installing cameras and connecting them to a network, Kuljis said. Before, they were being locally recorded with digital video recorders, but now we have NVRs, which are network video recorders, and all the information is fed to a network.

That network will feed into Metro-North Railroad facilities in New Haven and White Plains, N.Y., allowing officials to view images and videos centrally rather than having to travel to individual municipalities to view footage of an incident. The railroad will operate and maintain the cameras.

Phase 1 of the four-phase Network Infrastructure Upgrade Project installed 186 security cameras between New Haven and the Stratford-Milford town line. Phase 2, now under construction, will place 139 cameras along the New Haven Line between Stratford and Fairfield.

Phase 3  the one currently under discussion  will install the closed-circuit television cameras, conduits, aerial innerduct and communications cabinets at the Greens Farms, Westport, East Norwalk, South Norwalk, Rowayton, Darien and Noroton Heights train stations as well as the rail bridge over the Saugatuck River in Westport.

The fourth and final phase will install 225 cameras between Stamford and the Connecticut-New York State border, according to Kuljis.

These are high-quality, high-definition cameras with the latest capabilities, the DOT project manager said.

On Wednesday evening, Kuljis and other DOT representatives explained the forthcoming Phase 3 project during a public information meeting in the Community Room of Norwalk City Hall. Several people, including Westport Deputy Police Chief Sam Arciola, viewed display boards with detailed drawings of the proposed camera placements at the various locations.

Any improvements with any camera systems and improved technology is going to help, from a public safety standpoint, Arciola said afterward.

The new system will not displace existing train station cameras in Westport, according to Arciola.

Theyre going to have their own system, Arciola said of the planned new network. We still have our own system, which is covering our parking lots.

The detailed drawings showed the new cameras placed along pedestrian bridges and platforms at the various train stations, roughly 75 feet apart, depending on whatever obstacles exist at the individual locations.

The project also will install communications equipment at three existing node houses along the New Haven Line and built a new security node house to store such equipment at the East Norwalk Train Station.

Kuljis said the Federal Transit Administration has approved funding for the project with construction for Phase 3, which stands at 60 percent designed, scheduled to start in September 2019 and wrap up in March 2021.WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump's escalating effort to contain the political and diplomatic fallout from Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance, rather than confront Saudi Arabia, is emblematic of both his broader worldview and approach to foreign policy.

"The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of [Khashoggi] that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the president's closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries," Shane Harris reports. "But it will be difficult for the young ruler to escape scrutiny, as mounting evidence points not only to the Saudi government's knowledge of Khashoggi's fate, but also to a connection by Mohammed to his disappearance."

The effort to make it happen, however, speaks to eight elements of the Trump doctrine:

1. Trump is transactional and focused on the bottom line.

"In days of private phone calls and Oval Office huddles, Trump has repeatedly reached for reasons to protect the U.S.-Saudi relationship." The Washington Post reported. "Trump has stressed Saudi Arabia's huge investment in U.S. weaponry and worries it could instead purchase arms from China or Russia. He has fretted about the oil-rich desert kingdom cutting off its supply of petroleum to the United States. He has warned against losing a key partner countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. He has argued that even if the United States tried to isolate the Saudis, the kingdom is too wealthy to ever be truly isolated."

Trump defender Pat Robertson captured this mindset on his Christian Broadcasting Network: "You've got one journalist . . . You've got $100 billion worth of arms sales. . . . We cannot alienate our biggest player in the Middle East."

2. Trump believes in spheres of influence.

The Washington Post reports that Trump has repeatedly emphasized that, even though Khashoggi has been living in Virginia and writing for The Post, he is a Saudi citizen - "the implication being that the disappearance is not necessarily the United States' problem."

Respect for the "sovereignty" of other countries has become a Trump buzzword in foreign policy speeches, including at the United Nations last month. He's said the U.S. shouldn't meddle in another nation's domestic affairs. Other times, he's suggested that he adheres to an old-fashioned diplomatic view that great powers should be able to control events in their parts of the world. (Think Russia and Ukraine.)

3. Trump does not believe promoting human rights or democracy should be central aims of U.S. foreign policy.

The president has been especially friendly with many authoritarian leaders over the past two years and resisted pressuring them on human rights. It's a very different worldview than the one expressed by GOP internationalists like Sen. March Rubio. The Florida Republican took a hard line Tuesday on CNN. "Human rights is worth blowing that up," he said, "and luring someone into a consulate where they're thereby murdered, dismembered and disposed of is a big deal."

4. Countering Iran trumps almost everything else in Trump's eyes, and the Saudis are key to his strategy.

"A new round of sanctions on Iranian oil exports are expected to take effect Nov. 5," The Washington Post reported. "David Sanger of the New York Times reported that White House officials fear the Khashoggi imbroglio 'could derail a showdown with Iran and jeopardize plans to enlist Saudi help to avoid disrupting the oil market.' With almost comic timing, Foreign Affairs published a new anti-Iran manifesto by [Mike] Pompeo this week. The U.S.'s top diplomat heralded Trump's 'moral clarity' and eagerness to confront 'outlaw regimes,' underscoring the vast double standard the White House applies to Riyadh and Tehran."

5. Trump selectively believes people's denials when he wants to believe them.

As Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations puts it: "We take Putin's word he didn't interfere in 2016 election, Kim's he will denuclearize, and MBS that he had no role in Khashoggi murder. If Reagan was trust but verify, @realDonaldTrump is trust and look away. Sad to be sure, but also dangerous."

6. The president's personal financial interests consistently trigger questions about his decision making.

The Trump real estate business has sold properties to Saudis, and more Saudi visitors have been staying at his hotels since he became president, despite his denials this week that has no financial interests related to the country. As a candidate in 2015 and 2016, the president boasted about deals he's made in the past with Saudi businessmen. Eleven Democratic senators sent a letter to Trump and his sons yesterday seeking a full accounting of any financial ties between the Trump Organization and Saudi Arabia. Remember, the president has never released his tax records and his business is privately held.

7. Foreign policy is a family affair.

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had no meaningful foreign policy experience before the president put him in charge of trying to negotiate Middle East peace, is playing a starring role in this drama because of the close bond he forged with MBS, who he reportedly communicates with over an encrypted text messaging app. Trump also told reporters last week that he has heard Ivanka Trump's name discussed as a possible ambassador to the United Nations, and that she'd be "incredible" but that he'd be accused of nepotism if he appointed her. Last year, the president had the first daughter take his seat at a G-20 summit of world leaders. The president's sons have also continued to travel overseas while he was president to pursue business deals.

8. Trump is trying to limit the flow of intelligence that is unhelpful to his agenda.

"Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the administration had 'clamped down' on sharing intelligence about the Khashoggi case," per The Washington Post report. "He said an intelligence briefing scheduled for Tuesday was canceled and he was told no additional intelligence would be shared with the Senate for now, a move he called 'disappointing.' 'I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia,' Corker said. Based on the earlier intelligence he had reviewed, he added, 'everything points not to just Saudi Arabia, but to MBS.'"

Restricting intelligence briefings for a GOP committee chair is part and parcel of the Trump administration's broader move to crack down on leaks that belie the president's public statements. A Treasury Department official was charged yesterday with leaking financial records related to the Russia investigation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also just issued a subpoena to an immigration attorney in an effort to compel him to reveal who shared an internal memo related to Attorney General Jeff Sessions's order to restrict political asylum for victims of domestic violence and gang crimes.

If you read only one thing today, make it Khashoggi's heartbreaking final column for The Post about the need for free expression in the Arab world. "The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power," he wrote. "During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe, which grew over the years into a critical institution, played an important role in fostering and sustaining the hope of freedom. Arabs need something similar. . . . We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face."

The Post's Global Opinions editor Karen Attiah received a draft of this column from Khashoggi's translator and assistant the day after he was reported missing in Istanbul. "The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen," Attiah explains in an editor's note. "This column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for."

The Post's Editorial Board notes that Khashoggi would have turned 60 this past weekend: "[He] held numerous positions during his career, including as an adviser to a Saudi ambassador to the United States. But he was first and foremost a journalist - one who relentlessly tried to push the boundaries of free speech. He was twice fired as the editor of the most progressive Saudi newspaper, Al Watan, in one case for publishing sharp critiques of Islamist extremists. A television news network he helped to found in Bahrain in 2012 was taken off the air after one day, after it broadcast an interview with a critic of that country's authoritarian regime.

"A turning point for Mr. Khashoggi came in 2016, when he warned the regime of King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about 'an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump,' as he later described it in The Post. His column with the Saudi-owned international Arabic daily Al Hayat was canceled, and he was forced off Twitter. 'I spent six months silent, reflecting on the state of my country and the stark choices before me,' he wrote in his first Post column, published 13 months ago this week. Then he acted. 'I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice,' he declared. 'I can speak when so many cannot.'"LONDON - Brexit is seriously stuck.

Nobody really wants Britain to crash out of the European Union without a withdrawal deal, but time is running out and the sides have bogged down over the contentious issue of how to manage the Irish border.

Prime Minister Theresa May traveled to Brussels on Wednesday and was given 30 minutes behind closed doors to make another appeal to her European counterparts.

What the Europeans wanted to hear was more compromise. Many of them suspect the British leader is pursuing a strategy of delay designed to push negotiations to the brink, at which point Europe would yield and the hard-core Brexiteers in the British Parliament would be hard-pressed not to accept May's version of withdrawal, even if they despise it as a capitulation.

"The longer she leaves it, the easier it is for her to ram it through Parliament and say, 'it's my deal or no deal and you all know no deal will be catastrophic,'" said Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at Cambridge University.

Upon her arrival at the EU summit, May told reporters, "We have solved most of the issues in the withdrawal agreement. There is still the question of the Northern Irish backstop."

The "backstop" refers to a commitment from both sides that even if Britain exits without a comprehensive deal, there will never be a hard border between Northern Ireland, which would leave as part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, which will remain part of the E.U.

To ensure an open border - a stipulation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that brought an end to 30 years of sectarian violence - European negotiators have proposed that Northern Ireland continue to trade as a member of Europe's customs union.

Such an arrangement is anathema to unionists in Belfast and to May, who says it would cut Northern Ireland off from the United Kingdom.

May has proposed instead that the whole of the United Kingdom remain aligned with the customs union for a limited time. But that idea has been shot down by Europe's chief negotiator, Ireland's prime minister and members of her own party, who want the ability to do trade deals with the rest of the world. The Tory's chief whip told May on Tuesday that Parliament would vote it down.

Nonetheless, when May addressed Parliament on Wednesday, she insisted that her compromise proposals were not dead.

After the prime minister made her renewed pitch in Brussels, she left the dinner so that leaders of the remaining 27 E.U. member states could discuss Britain's fate amongst themselves.

Although the summit had been billed as a "moment of truth," when a deal must be finalized to allow an orderly exit by Britain on March 29, the moment of truth has been delayed. European leaders are now discussing another summit in November - or even December before the holidays - to secure a possible accord.

Like May, European leaders continue to express confidence a deal can be struck - even as they are growing fearful of an unruly separation.

Arriving in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed the European line that "90 percent" of the withdrawal agreement was settled.

But in an address to the German parliament earlier Wednesday, Merkel revealed that her government was stepping up contingency planning in the event that Britain leaves with no deal.

"This brings with it a whole array of questions, such as: H=how, the day after Brexit, do we manage the estimated 100,000 British citizens who, in some cases, have been living in Germany for years?" Merkel told German lawmakers.

The chancellor said, "It is only fitting as a responsible and forward-thinking government leadership that we prepare for every scenario - that includes the possibility of Great Britain leaving the European Union without an agreement."

After Brexit talks broke down last weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday, "I believe in our collective intelligence, so I think we can make progress."

But the French government also published a draft of emergency legislation that would require Britons to secure visas to visit France if Britain leaves the European Union with no deal.

In a speech in London on Tuesday evening, John Major, a former Conservative Prime Minister, said the Brexit vote was a "colossal misjudgment" and that Brexit-backers sold the country a fantasy and would not be forgiven.

Brexit will "damage our national and personal wealth, and may seriously hamper our future security. It may even, over time, break up our United Kingdom. It will most definitely limit the prospects of our young," he said.

- - -

The Washington Post's Quentin Aries contributed to this report.A strong economy has driven unemployment down significantly across the U.S. professional landscape, but the connection between upskilling and economic opportunity continues to be more limited than it should be, and the outcome is hobbling entrepreneurs. Data points like the skills gap point to a chasm between in-demand jobs and the talent pool, while also highlighting how more skill should equate to more money for workers.

The explosion of independent work makes an even better case for skill development to drive income, as its never been easier for a skilled independent worker to find opportunity and ultimately contribute to the economy. But despite that premise creating a great incentive to learn, the skills gap remains. Why?

Simply put, many of the systems that exist to bring education to workers and ultimately to the businesses that rely on them are broken. While higher education and workforce development organizations attempt to solve the problem, they fall short for various reasons. The solutions begin by addressing affordability and broader accessibility, responsive skill training, business-centric learning and finding way to approach the upskilling problem with these needs in mind. By creating more efficient and lucrative ways to upskill workers everywhere, entrepreneurs and the economy as a whole will thrive.

Related: Military Vets Increasingly Look to Solve Tech's Chronic Shortage of Skilled Workers

Affordability

Traditional higher education has long been considered a route to prosperity, with four-year bachelor degree graduates boasting 56 percent higher earnings than high school graduates, according to the Economic Prosperity Institute. However, higher education has come to mostly stand for a hefty price tag (and potentially crippling long-term student debt) while often focusing less on the practical skills businesses need and more on the conceptual elements of learning. While there is absolutely a place for the exchange of ideas and higher levels of thinking that occur across college campuses, higher education must also satiate the demands of learners in terms of a return on investment -- especially given the price tag. With $1.5 trillion in outstanding student loan debt in the United States, its safe to say thats not occurring.

Asking workers to exchange future upside for a financial pit is enough to scare many off, while creating more pressure for immediate returns after completing courses. In an era of widespread information sharing, actionable education doesnt have to come with a massive price tag, and hyper-focused skill training must make a compelling case for a return on investment for workers.

Related: Here's How to Determine If College Is Worth the Cost

Accessibility

Aside from making upskilling affordable, it must also be accessible. According to the New York Times, just 29 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in rural areas are enrolled in college, compared with 47 percent of their urban peers. The good news is that higher education is moving more toward being digitally accessible, with more than six million U.S. students taking online higher education courses in 2016, according to Babson College. However, the trend is highly concentrated, with just 5 percent of institutions accounting for almost half of all online education students.

Creating access means bringing educational opportunities to the people, and the means including all digital and mobile devices. With mobile internet browsing climbing to reach 63 percent of all U.S. traffic in 2017, true progress in upskilling must include device-agnostic access.

Related: Increasing Student Engagement With Online Learning Platforms

Staying ahead of the curve.

Potential alternative groups to higher education like workforce development institutions grapple with a different problem than just cost or accessibility: how to maintain relevant coursework that simultaneously closes the gap between education and monetization. On one side of the problem is keeping up with the pace of innovation and professional demands. The Brookings Institute studied 545 jobs from 2002 to 2016 and found that the levels of digital competency across those 545 jumped 57 percent. Specifically, the share of employment in occupations with high digital needs increased nearly fivefold from 4.8 percent in 2002 to 23 percent of employment in 2016. The trend toward newer technologies will only continue, with Indeed finding the most in-demand IT jobs of 2020 including computer vision engineer and machine learning engineer.

Upskilling must constantly have an eye toward the best bets for workers, focusing on todays top skills while recognizing how those skills can build a foundation for tomorrows top jobs. Individuals businesses may not have the insights required to make those bets, but employment and skill-based platforms can absolutely play a role in informing upskilling opportunities. Companies like Fiverr that see the global demand for talent can be part of the process that shortens the loop between education and application for workers.

Related: The Best Careers for Your Personality Type (Infographic)

The tools to monetize

While staying ahead of the curve poses serious problems for workforce development groups, giving students the experience they need to monetize their skills is an even larger challenge. Just because a worker has a skill doesnt mean he or she knows how to turn it into an income. During a time when the relationship between worker and business is changing, its increasingly common to see new economy workers operating independently, which means being accountable for more than just a skill. It means spending some amount of time on running the business of you, and learning how to monetize an in-demand skill.

Building a skill set must come with some education on how that skill set translates into a monetary benefit. From developing a proposal to understanding whether to charge by the project or by the hour, upskilling education should carry with it the larger application of a skill to truly give workers the best chance to put their talents to use.

The U.S. economy continues to change in a world of automation and technological innovation, and as a result, many jobs will change. Some will become obsolete while others are created, but the individuals behind those jobs and skills will still need to find a way to make a living while contributing to the larger economy. The businesses that rely on those individuals will still need to find talent to drive results. Solving the upskilling problem is not an easy one, but the economic impact it offers is significant. Creating affordable, accessible, in-demand and practical educational resources will go a long way in providing workers the tools to succeed.

Related:

'Upskilling' Must Improve to Provide the Skilled Workers Entrepreneurs Need to Succeed

How Upskilling Can Open Doors To Better Professional Opportunities

For Getting Udacity its Decision Making Powers



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reservedNORWALK  Anna DeWitt moved to the United States from a small town near Gorlice, Poland in 1934 when she was 15.

Her father decided immigrating would be the safest option as German troops invaded Poland and increasingly launched attacks on her country. DeWitts father brought her sister to the U.S. first, then her and her mother during a second trip. The journey from her home in south eastern Poland to Ellis Island took seven days and she and her mother ate eggs three times a day for the entire trip.

DeWitt spent years teaching herself English through night school and using translations in different dictionaries.

It wasnt easy, but I was determined to (learn), the 98-year-old said.

She moved into a house at 25 Clinton Ave. in Norwalk and lived there for 23 years. After her father died and she got married, she moved down the street to 77 Clinton Ave., where she currently resides.

The multi-family, six-bedroom, two-bathroom house was built in 1957. Back then, it cost $21,000 and her mother provided $10,000 to help DeWitt build the 3,080-square-foot house. The house hasnt been renovated or expanded since then, DeWitt said.

Since shes lived in the home for 60 years, DeWitt said she has memories of lighthearted family gatherings and darker memories of loved ones dying. Each night before she goes to bed, she says goodnight to a picture of her son and daughter, who died in 2009 and 2017, respectively. God is strange that way, that he leaves the old lady and takes the young kids, she said.

She lives on the bottom floor of the house which features a backyard filled with plants, two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, living room and television room. Shes chosen to rent the upstairs section of the house to another family, staying true to her decision to downsize as she ages.

DeWitt said its important to her to remain in the home her family collectively built. Otherwise, they would put me in a nursing home and I dont want to go there, she said.

DeWitt turns 99 in December and said her goal is to remain in her home until she hits 100.

DeWitt is not alone in her desire to stay in her house. Ninety percent of seniors would prefer to remain in their home or age in place, according to AARP.

Part of the reason DeWitt has been able to keep living on Clinton Avenue is the assistance shes received from the Family & Childrens Agency. For the past five years she has taken advantage of their senior home care program, which offers a range of services including full-time, live-in health aides, assisted transportation, caregiver support and personal alert buttons.

The senior home care program not only helps seniors remain independent, it helps keep them safe, said Megan Haque, a clinical social worker with Family & Childrens Agency. State funding pays for all of DeWitts home care services, Haque said.

DeWitt spends her days watching The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars, with caregiver, Jossette Tomlinson.

With shelves filled with old photographs and books shes collected over the years, it is also easy for the 98-year-old to reminice about her life in Norwalk.

In 1989, she was the first woman elected as auxiliary president or sheriff to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 603. As such, she was occasionally tasked with evicting people from their homes in Norwalk.

Sheriff DeWitt, Im here to evict you, she would say when she walked in.

But her sympathetic nature got in the way of her doing her job, she said.

I would scare the hell out of them and tell them I was going to come back. To tell you the truth, I had a gun, but I didnt have bullets in there, she said.

During most of the occasions, she never followed up with the evictions. DeWitt said she didnt have the heart to displace families.COLLINSVILLE  On Monday, Annie Frey, Host of The Annie Frey Show on FM NewsTalk 97.1, and lifelong Madison County resident, called on Illinois taxpayers to join her at the Taxpayer Revolt Rally on Wednesday Oct. 24 at the American Legion Post 365 in Collinsville.

We are going to be joined by those (local, state, and national) politicians that are fighting for you, the taxpayer, Frey said. These men and women are committed to fight against the Madigan Machine and against corruption. But it doesnt happen without you.EDWARDSVILLE  Using a meet-and-greet format, Wednesdays second Edwardsville Area League of Women Voters forum drew 12 candidates to the Wildey Theatre stage.

Featured were candidates for the Madison County treasurers office and Madison County Board District 11 seat.

Last weeks forum was highlighted by appearances by the two candidates seeking the 112th District seat in the Illinois House of Representatives and the two candidates vying for the 56th Illinois Senate post.

The first forum drew a crowd of roughly 180 while the second attracted approximately one third of that number.

On Nov. 6, voters will see candidates Chris Miller, a Democrat, and Chris Slusser, the incumbent Republican, on the ballot in the race for county treasurer.

Miller spoke first and said he is running because he believes county residents deserve a choice.

Whether youre a Democrat or Republican I think we can all agree that, just like in the marketplace, competition is critical to a well-functioning democracy, Miller said.I truly believe that the voters of Madison County deserve more.

He then addressed his goals if elected.

In addition to fulfilling the baseline needs of the office with excellence and integrity, my campaign is focused on three key areas; job creation, progressive tax policies and credit building, Miller said.

After having been elected to the county board in 2016, Slusser was appointed county treasurer in 2017.

Since then, hes tried to raise the standards of that office, he said.

The treasurers office has been fairly controversial for the past 20 years. So I wanted to bring a calm, professional presence to the office, eliminate politics in the office and weve done that, Slusser said.

As the person who sends out property tax bills, he said its important that he shares a perspective with county residents.

I also understand what its like to pay my property taxes. As county treasurer, I send out more than 138,000 tax bills each year and I think it just makes sense that the county treasurer should also be paying taxes and feeling some of the pain, Slusser said.

County Board District 11 is centered around Pin Oak and Jarvis townships, including a portion of Troy.

Dalton Gray, a Republican, is the incumbent in that district.

He said he continually hears about high taxes while hes out campaigning and pledges to do his part to keep the county in line.

Taxes in this state have gone out of control and (were) one of the highest, if not the highest, taxed states in the nation. Im running to ensure that I have my eyes on Madison County taxes and that were doing everything that we can do to oppose tax increases here in Madison County, Gray said.

Gray also said he believes that too many elected officials forget who they serve once they are elected.

I believe one of the biggest problems in our government is having elected officials that are more concerned about themselves or their pay raises than actually serving constituents, Gray said.

Frederick Faust, a Democrat, is seeking to unseat Gray and believes the future is what needs to be focused on.

This is a time for planning for our county. We need to look to our future. Pin Oak and Jarvis townships in particular are growing, Faust said. As a member of the Madison County Board, I will have a vision for the future of our county, especially in regard to the balancing of economic growth and quality of life.

Sticking to that theme, he made the point that once farmland is gone, its gone.

We need to compare the short-term rewards of development against the long-term costs. We must see the development through the lens of the future, from the viewpoint of our children and grandchildren, Faust said.

Jessica Ellison Thomas is a Democrat who is seeking the county boards fifth district seat.

She was in attendance and spoke at the forum Wednesday.

The fifth district, Thomas said, is comprised of unincorporated areas and includes all or parts Holiday Shores, Fosterburg, Moro and Dorsey and wraps around a portion of Bethalto.

Her opponent, incumbent Republican Mick Madison, did not attend the forum.

Jason Plummer, another Republican, is seeking the 54th District Illinois Senate seat.

Plummer was a late addition to the forum and his opponent, Democrat Brian Stout, was not in attendance.

Also in attendance were Republican Mark Rabe and Democrat Sarah Smith, who are vying for the seat of Judge of the Circuit Court Third Judicial Circuit seat.

A separate race for Judge of the Circuit Court Third Judicial Circuit has Republican David Dugan facing Democrat Marc Parker. Both were in attendance Wednesday and spoke.

Judge of the Appellate Court Fifth Judicial District candidates David Overstreet, Republican, and Kevin Hoerner, Democrat, also spoke at the forum.Scott Cousins | Telegraph file photo

EDWARDSVILLE  In advance of a pro-gun rally set to be held outside the Madison County Courthouse next week, Madison County States Attorney Tom Gibbons on Thursday said he will support citizens rights to concealed carry in the county, specifically on the sidewalks and courtyard areas around the countys Administration Building and Courthouse.

Together with Madison County Sheriff John Lakin, I am proud to support the rights of citizens to protect themselves, their families and our community by the free exercise of their Second Amendment rights, as provided for in the Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act, Gibbons said in a news release Thursday.MARYVILLE The Village of Maryville has a full day of activities planned for Saturday.

Beginning at 10 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 20 a dedication ceremony of the recently completed Centennial Memorial will begin at the corner of Route 159 and E. Division Street.

Mayor Craig Short said a program has been planned that should last about 45 minutes.

Everyone is invited and the memorial is really looking nice, Short said. We have a few guest speakers and we hope there is a good turnout.

The now completed project has a pathway, brick lighted pillars to highlight statues, and a fountain surrounded by memorial bricks that were purchased by businesses and Maryville resident. The military canon featured at the memorial was painted last summer.

Also happening Saturday, Oct. 20, is the Kiwanis Fall Festival.

Trustee Julie Clark said there is something for everyone at this years festival that will run from 11 a.m.  2 p.m. in the Maryville Firemens Park, at 300 N. Donk Ave.

This is a family friendly free event that is sponsored by the Maryville Kiwanis Club, Clark said.

She said there will be food trucks, crafts for children, a petting zoo, pony rides, bounce houses, pumpkin painting and several health screening booths for adults.

Short said the fire department will be open for tours and will have an obstacle course set up for children and the Museum Committee will have the 1958 Seagrave fire truck will also be on display.

Trustee Ed Kostyshock said this is the trucks 60th birthday.

The truck was put into service on Oct. 14, 1958, he said.

Kostyshock said that Maryville author Albert Hrubetz will also be at the fall festival signing copies of this book, Maryville Illinois: Growing up During the Great Depression.

The book, published in 2006, tells the story of Hrubetzs idyllic childhood in Maryville during the depression.EDWARDSVILLE  A pro-gun rights rally has been set for Oct. 25 at the Madison County Courthouse.

Part of the reason for the rally is to garner support for the gun sanctuary referendum on the Nov. 6 ballot.

The rally is set for 3:30 p.m. and is sponsored by The Madison County Friends of the Second Amendment.

Our Second Amendment rights in Illinois have faced many attacks in recent years, County Board Member Don Moore, R-Troy, and chairman of the group, said. It is important that elected leaders know that the Second Amendment has strong support in Madison County. We want to send a message to Springfield and Chicago that we support the Second Amendment and that laws that infringe on those rights should be stopped.

He noted Monday that unlike other similar rallies, supporters are being told to leave their firearms at home, in part because the event is being held on county property.

There will be several speakers, and pro-Second Amendment groups will have representatives at the rally.

After the rally, supporters will meet at the Edwardsville American Legion Post 199 at 5 p.m.

In June, the County Board approved placing a referendum on the ballot making Madison County a sanctuary county for gun owners.

The stakes are too high for gun owners to sit at home and not vote in this election, James Futrell, County Board member from East Alton, who led the effort to get the referendum on the ballot, stated. We need to come together to support this event and remind voters to turn out and vote Yes on the referendum.

The referendum reads Shall Madison County become a sanctuary county for law abiding gun owners to protect them from unconstitutional gun laws passed by the Illinois General Assembly?

The vote approving the referendum split along party lines, with several Democrats questioning both the need for and the wording of the referendum.

Proponents said the referendum both sends a message to the Illinois General Assembly and the northern part of the state, and gives people a chance to speak up on the matter. However, as a practical matter it will be largely symbolic.

It will not carry the force of law, Board Member Ray Wesley, R-Godfrey, said at the time. It will simply ask the peoples opinion. I want to hear what the people have to say.

Others were critical.

Ann Gorman, D-Edwardsville, said at the time that she had significant concerns about both the wording of the resolution and the Pandoras Box it would open.

Bruce Malone, D-Alton, said he did not want to take anybodys guns, but that the resolution raised questions about the separation of powers, saying it is the role of the courts to decide what is unconstitutional.

It violates basic principles on what our country is founded on, he said.

In general the question of gun control is split more along geographical lines than party lines, with most state politicians south of Chicago and the Collar Counties supporting gun rights.

Several dozen counties statewide have approved becoming sanctuary counties.

For information about the rally contact Moore at 703-362-4626, Futrell at 618-304-7953 or Derrick Keith Cox at 618-210-1469.Joe Burbank | Orlando Sentinel (AP)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions will deliver a speech in Chicago on the heels of a Trump administration decision to oppose a proposed plan to overhaul Chicago police under close court supervision.

A Department of Justice advisory Wednesday doesnt specify what Sessions intends to speak about Friday. Hell address the Chicago Crime Commission, a private group that advocates for more effective laws to fight crime.When Amazon announced recently that it would pay all of its U.S. employees a minimum of $15 an hour  more than double the minimum wage  CEO Jeff Bezos called on other large employers to join us. No company has risen to the challenge yet, but you can be sure some of them are talking about it. In addition to raising the pay of its own workers, including those who only work part time or seasonally, Amazon vowed to work with policymakers in Washington, D.C. to advocate for a higher federal minimum wage.

Much of the commentary claimed Amazon was forced to do this by political pressure or the tight labor market. What has been missing from the discussion is that it is easier for Amazon and other large corporations to raise wages, simply because these companies are more productive.

Big businesses on average pay significantly more than small businesses, including in the retail sector. For example, Walmart pays an average of 12.5 percent more than mom-and-pop retailers.

Indeed, one study, by Brianna Cardiff-Hicks, Francine Lafontaine and Kathryn Shaw, found that working in a store with 500+ employees pays 26 percent more for high-school educated and 36 percent more for those with some college education (including those with a college degree or more), relative to working in a store with less than 10 employees.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that establishments with more than 500 workers provided 74 percent more in total compensation to their workers than did establishments with less than 100 workers. This is a big reason small businesses are more likely to employ low-wage workers. The Urban Institute found that although 20 percent of all workers are employed in firms with fewer than 10 workers, such firms employ 42 percent of low-wage workers.

Big corporations like Amazon not only pay their workers more; on average they also provide much better benefits. Workers in these companies receive 85 percent more supplemental pay (e.g., overtime and bonuses), 2.5 times more paid leave and insurance, and 3.9 times more in retirement benefits than workers in businesses with fewer than 100 workers.

But todays critics of big business argue that the reason large companies like Amazon can pay their workers more is that they have market power and can use it to charge higher prices.

A few corporations in some industries now and then do enjoy pricing power. But as a rule, the companies productivity is what explains their advantage.

One older study found that the four largest companies in any industry enjoyed labor productivity rates 37 percent higher than the remainder of the industry. They passed on some of the gains to their workers, with average wages 15 percent higher than in the rest of the industry, and 17.2 percent more for front-line production workers. Big firms are more productive because they invest more in machinery and software, and they get more for those investments than do small businesses.

Despite the advantages to employees from working at large companies, the new antitrust school on the left, led by thinkers like Lina Khan and Tim Wu, claims, on the basis of a small number of studies, that the domination of a few mostly rural markets by a few corporations means that workers have less bargaining power with employers. The government should use the sledgehammer of antitrust to break a few big employers into lots of small employers and  presto  workers can demand higher wages.

In the real world, labor markets do not work like this. If they did, employees at mom-and-pop restaurants and corner grocery stores would be able to demand better wages and benefits than those at Facebook or Boeing. The opposite is the case.

Instead of trying to raise wages by the dubious and roundabout technique of antitrust, why not just raise wages directly?

Requiring all businesses, regardless of size, to pay a higher statutory minimum wage would have two salutary effects. First, it would help level the playing field, so that small firms can less easily compete unfairly against large companies that pay their workers a more decent wage.

Second, it would mean higher productivity, as more employers realize they can no longer compete on the basis of low wages. Some companies  disproportionately large, well-capitalized ones  will adjust to a higher statutory minimum wage by automation. A very few might offshore production, but that is not an option for the majority of U.S. low-wage service businesses, which have local labor forces and markets.

Will the combination of a higher minimum wage and more automation lead to mass unemployment? It never has in the past.

All historical episodes of mass unemployment, including the Great Recession, have been caused by financial crises, not by technological innovation or minimum-wage laws. Industries that increase their productivity by automation also lower prices, enabling consumers to spend more on new sectors generating new jobs to absorb workers shed by automated sectors.

Undoubtedly, a higher minimum wage will mean that some small firms whose business model is based on cheap labor will go out of business. Good riddance. Their assets and employees can be absorbed by more productive firms.

A national minimum wage will mean higher incomes for millions of workers, and would boost productivity and GDP. If progressives really care about low-wage workers, they should abandon their battle against big companies and push Congress to pass a higher national minimum wage that applies to all employers.

  

Atkinson is president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a research group, and co-author of Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business.Lind is a visiting professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He is co-author of Big Is Beautiful: Debunking the Myth of Small Business.Democrats need 23 seats to take control of the House. They are about there with likely pickups of suburban seats across the country, from Pennsylvania and Minnesota to Colorado and California. Most of these districts tilt blue, or Democratic, and were carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

But to produce a blue wave, gaining 35 to 40 seats, Democrats have to capture Republican-held seats in red-tinted small towns and rural America that havent been friendly in recent years.

Six difficult, though competitive, districts illustrate the challenge: Maines second district comprising most of the state geographically; New Yorks 22nd along the Mohawk River Valley; West Virginias third in the heart of coal country; Illinois 12th district in the southern part of the state; Kansass Second, which includes Topeka and the university town of Lawrence but is otherwise rural; and Washingtons Fifth, covering the entire less populated eastern slice of the state.

Two of the districts have open seats; the others are defended by incumbents. All of them are predominantly white. Except for the Illinois district, less than 10 percent of the voters are African-American or Latino. The income and education levels are below the national average. If that sounds like Trump country, it is; he carried all these places by double digits.

Republicans had been concerned about lethargy in these districts, they said, but now insist that the bitterly partisan hearings over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh energized their base. Trumps active campaigning and messaging in the next three weeks will make a difference in the contests, Republicans believe.

Democrats counter that the Kavanaugh effect was primarily in a few Senate races and has dissipated since he was confirmed. They contend an important indicator is their growing support among non-college-educated white women who have been voting Republican.

In the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, white non-college-educated women, over four years, had given the GOP a 10-point advantage on which party they favored to control Congress. Last month the poll flipped as these women preferred Democrats by five points.

There is no competitive House race where Trump isnt a factor; to see which way this cuts, just look at whether hes cited more by the Republican candidate or the Democratic one.

The six red-tilting battlegrounds in this analysis are all Democratic priorities, among the 84 seats on the partys Red to Blue target list. (The Democrats probably have a private list about half that length, and the six are on that one, too.) Republicans are pulling resources out of more than a half-dozen suburban seats to focus more on districts like these.

For all their demographic similarities, these contests (like most contests) are affected by the quality of the candidates and extraneous factors, like who is on the top of the partys ticket in those states in races for the U.S. Senate and for governor. In general, these considerations are working to the Democrats advantage in tough territory.

In the Northeast, the Democrats have recruited two attractive state legislators in their 30s: Anthony Brindisi in New York and Maines Jared Golden, who is a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. The central New York seat has a six-point generic Republican advantage, but incumbent Rep. Claudia Tenney, a vocal Trump supporter, is to the right of the districts electorate.

In both West Virginia, where Trump remains very popular, and Kansas, the Democrats have fielded strong candidates that suit their districts. Richard Ojeda in West Virginia may be helped by a strong showing in Democratic Sen. Joe Manchins re-election bid. In Kansas, Paul Davis ran a close race for governor four years ago and carried the House district where he is running this year. He also may be helped by an ideological struggle in the state Republican ranks.

The two most difficult races for Democrats of the six in this analysis may be against Republican incumbents Mike Bost in Illinois and Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington state. Both contests provide openings, however.

Bost is running against Brendan Kelly, who Bost charges has spent his career supporting House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic speaker of the Illinois state house. Kelly, a Navy veteran and prosecutor the past eight years, has never served in either legislature, and he opposes Pelosi for House speaker.

In her race, McMorris Rodgers, who is chair of the House Republican conference, is accused by her Democratic opponent, former state Senator Lisa Brown, of lacking convictions. McMorris Rodgers praises the huge federal tax cut, while claiming to worry about the ballooning U.S. deficit, and she supported Kavanaugh, yet said she found Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused him of sexual assault, credible.

All districts are unique. Yet looking at the results on Nov. 6 in these half-dozen seats across the U.S. will provide a reliable guide to the new House of Representatives. If the Democrats get shut out in these races, theyll be lucky to have a bare majority. If they win two or three of the six, look for an overall gain of 30-plus members. Four or five victories would signal a 40-seat edge.

If they sweep, its a blue tsunami.



Hunt is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics and policy. He was the executive editor of Bloomberg News, before which he was a reporter, bureau chief and executive Washington editor at the Wall Street Journal.Pooches dressed up and unadorned alike are set to visit downtown Ferndale with their owners for a parade and other events next week.

Now in its 11th year, Fido Does Ferndale returns from 5-8 p.m. Oct. 25 with canine activities, vendors and adventure for owners and their pets.

We pack a lot of fun activities into a short amount of time, said Cindy Willcock, deputy director of the Downtown Development Authority, which hosts the annual event.

Hundreds of people and their dogs typically turn out for the occasion that features special sales and activity events throughout the downtown.

Headquarters are set up at Schiffer Park at West Nine Mile Road and Planavon.

More than a dozen businesses in the downtown will take part in a K-9 treasure hunt featuring free dog treats.

Highlights of the evening include a pooch parade and dog contests in a variety of categories.

This year, the DDA is partnering with The Broock real estate office in the downtown for their popular Howl-O-Ween Dog Party.

The party features pet photos, treats for dogs and people, a raffle and other activities to benefit the Greyhound Expressions rescue effort.

Were partnering with The Broock for the first time, Willcock said. It gives us an opportunity to grow our event and attract a bigger crowd.

Activities will also help raise funds to install a doggy drinking fountain at Schiffer Park.

Many businesses in the district routinely put out bowls of water for visiting dogs, but Willcock said there is a need for the drinking fountain because of the number dogs that accompany their owners for downtown visits.

The event helps us celebrate that were a dog friendly town and lets them know they are welcome here, she said. It also helps connect people with some of the rescue groups where they can meet their new best friend.

Downtown sidewalks will be lined with dog-friendly vendors selling items for the four-legged set, such as organic foods, boarding, grooming, pet-sitting, collars, leads and dog clothes.

Rosie OGradys bar and restaurant is taking part and hosting a Halloween after-party for dogs and their owners with 10 percent of sales being donated to the Michigan Humane Society.American tourist in rock-climbing fall dies in ICU

PHUKET: Police have confirmed that the American man who fell while rock climbing at Railay Beach on on Tuesday (Oct 16) has died from his injuries.

tourismaccidentsdeath

By Tavee Adam

Thursday 18 October 2018, 06:07PM

American tourist died of American Priell Schmalbach, originally from Florida, fell while rock climbing at Railay Beach, Ao Nang in Krabi (pictured). Photo: Koshy Koshy / Flickr

American Priell Schmalbach, originally from Florida, fell while rock climbing at Railay Beach, Ao Nang in Krabi.

He was recovered from the scene unconscious, never to wake again. (See story here.)

Mr Schmalbach died last night, Lt Col Aattapong Sanjaiwut of the Krabi Tourist Police had confirmed to The Phuket News this afternoon (Oct 18).

He passed away at night at Krabi Hospital. Doctors did their best, but his condition was too dire, he said.

Finally, his relatives asked for him to be taken off life support, he added.

Col Aattapong noted that officials and police were assisting family members who have now arrived in Krabi.

Every relevant department of the police  Tourist Police, Immigration officers and Krabi Provincial Police  are providing what assistance they can, he said.

Col Aattapong explained that an investigation into Mr Schmalbach has been conducted by the Krabi Tourist Police and the Ao Nang Police.

We have inspected the scene and questioned his (Mr Schmalbachs) wife, Col Aattapong said.

The investigation concluded that Mr Schmalbach fell by accident, he added.

The Phuket News was informed by a family friend that Mr Schmalbach was on his honeymoon after being married on Oct 6.Thailand tourist arrivals still climbing

BANGKOK: Thailand managed to log a respectable increase in tourist arrivals during the first nine months of the year, despite hefty declines in Chinese visits since July.



By TTR Weekly

Thursday 18 October 2018, 01:28PM

Chinese tourists from Jan-Sept this year spent more than B460 billion, said the report. Image: MoTS

The total number of international tourists still rose by 8.49%. Image: MoTS

Chinese still held top spot for expenditure overall. Image: MoTS

Thailands Ministry of Tourism and Sport Permanent Secretary, Pongpanu Svetarundra, reported earlier this week that tourist arrivals, January to September, reached 28,541,887, up 8.71%.

During the same period in 2017, the country registered 26,254,806 arrivals.

Looking forward, if the final quarter performs anything like last year it will weigh in with approximately 9 million more visits, which will push the year-end total across the 37.5mn-target threshold.

Despite predictions of gloom and doom, the China market, January to September, recorded 8,376,049 trips, an increase of 13.38% when compared with 7,394,101 trips during the same period in 2017.

The scorecard presentation challenges claims by the countrys travel industry that pointed to a major drop in bookings from China that could persist through to Chinese New Year 2019.

The latest Tourism Ministry data confirmed China remained the top source market clocking 8.37mn trips for the nine months followed by Malaysia with 2.87mn.

Korea, in third place, supplied 1.33mn, Laos 1.29mn and Japan with 1.23mn was named the fifth largest supply market so far this year.

Based on estimated revenue generated from each market, China topped the five leading markets with B460 billion followed by Russia with B80bn, Malaysia B75bn, Korea B60bn and the US with B60bn.

Total revenue for the nine months was B1,490,458.01, an increase of 10.95% over the same period of last year, the ministry reported.

Septembers performance closed with 2,655,563 tourists arrivals up by a narrow 2.13% year-on-year.

Phuket International Airport in particular saw 307,574 international arrivals and 323,224 international departures during the month.

However, the months performance did reflect a massive drop in Chinese visits, down by 14.89% to register 648,000 trips.

This could be what concerns hoteliers especially at popular beach resorts. If Septembers decline in the Chinese market is replicated in October through to December, total arrivals could fall short of the 10mn target.

September was the first month since the Phoenix boat disaster in Phuket in July to record a double-digit decline in visits from China.

Septembers performance also indicated a 3.66% decline in trips from Singapore, an important top-10 market for Thailand.

In contrast, three markets in the months top-10 list, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam, recorded double-digit growth in tourist arrivals.

The top 10 tourist arrivals markets comprised of: China (-14.89%); Malaysia (+40.13%); Laos (+9.49%); Japan (+6.57%); Korea (+0.74%); India (+5.52%); Cambodia (+6.88%); Hong Kong (+20.69%); Singapore (-3.66%) and Vietnam (+11.77%).

Of the 2,655,562 foreign visitors logged in September, 1,948,414 trips were generated in East Asian markets, followed by Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and Africa, respectively.

Septembers tourism revenue reached B140,140.11, an increase of 2.92% year-on-year.

The top revenue markets were: China; Malaysia; Japan; Korea; Australia; USA; Laos; India; UK and Cambodia.

Of all the 10 revenue markets just two recorded declines in September. China generated B36.8bn in revenue, down 11.49% and Australia B6.31bn, down 3.04%.

A Ctrip report on travel bookings for the Golden Week holiday, on Oct 1-7, that saw millions of Chinese travellers visiting destinations in Asia indicated Thailand had emerged as the top destination, ahead of Japan.

But on the ground, confidence is down particularly at beach resorts such as Phuket, the scene of the Phoenix tragedy, which killed 47 Chinese tourists.

Hoteliers contacted by TTR Weekly said they were concerned bookings would continue to decline and that a full recovery could take months, possibly until Chinese New Year in 2019.

Read original story here.

Don Ross is the Managing Editor of TTR Weekly. Email donr@ttreport.comVisa on arrival fees to be waived

BANGKOK: For the next two months all visitors from the 21 nations who need visas on arrival will not have to pay a baht  in hopes the Chinese will return to Thailand in numbers again.

tourismChineseeconomicsdeathdisastersSafety

By Bangkok Post

Thursday 18 October 2018, 09:56AM

For the next two months all visitors from the 21 nations who need visas on arrival wont have to pay a baht - in hopes the Chinese will luck Thailand again. Photo: Bangkok Post

The government plans to exempt visitors from visa-on-arrival fees during November and December as it strives to salvage falling tourist numbers, especially from China.

The initiative floated by Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak aims to reassure Chinese tourists, whose numbers have declined since the Phoenix tour boat tragedy killed 47 Chinese tourists off Phuket in July.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor Yuthasak Supasorn said Mr Somkid has authorised the Immigration Office to exempt 21 nations from visa-on-arrival fees in the final two months of the year.

The government is also mulling a waiver of the 2,000-baht visa fee for Chinese visitors to increase their numbers.

Private tourism operators are worried that Thailand may lose up to 1 million Chinese arrivals over the next six months if the country is unable to restore confidence in safety issues.

The decline of the Chinese market will have an immediate impact on the countrys tourism, which contributes 20% to GDP.

From the over 35mn foreign visitors last year, roughly one-third of arrivals were Chinese. But their visits have notably decreased after the Phoenix boat disaster.

The decline is set to hit tourism and related business, particularly travel agencies, hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops, experts in the industry said.

Vichit Prakobkosol, President of the Association of Thai Travel Agents (Atta), said travel operators and airlines from the mainland are still not putting Thailand in their packages from October until March 2019.

The rules for Visa On Arrival are printed on the Immigration Bureaus website.

The six-month period is a seasonal high season for Thailand. Local tourism operators have enjoyed the peak season for many years as foreigners come for leisure and vacation.

Operators and the Chinese government have been concerned about safety and security measures since the Phoenix disaster.

I believe we risk losing 1 million arrivals from China for the high season, which could equal a loss of B50 billion, Mr Vichit said.

Hotel bookings plunge

Chinese guests at hotels in major destinations such as Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai have already plunged by 20-30% since the boat tragedy, in addition to the continued weak yuan currency, said Supawan Tanomkieatipume, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA).

Hotels in big cities, mostly three- and four-star level, have shifted to focus on the China market over the past several years. Chinese customers represent 10-50% of total customers.

A source at a four-star hotel in the Sukhumvit area said customers from China have dropped by more than 50%, especially during the Golden Week earlier this month.

THA members reported not many advance reservations from China for this month and the rest of the year, Mrs Supawan said. This is proof that we are at high risk.

If the situation is not improved, tourism in the first three months next year will continue to face difficulty, she said.

Since the Phoenix disaster, both Atta and the THA have revised down projections for the China market, expecting total Chinese arrivals to miss the 10mn targeted for this year.

Mrs Supawan said hotels and tourism businesses in Chiang Mai could see a lighter impact, as many tourists from southern China travel on their own, not as part of a group tour.

The THA said dwindling Chinese tourism will hit local businesses in many secondary provinces and communities.

In order to reclaim Chinese guests, Atta and the THA have urged the government to improve safety and security measures.

The one issue that Chinese want to hear from our government is to ensure better safety, Mr Vichit said. If we are unable to assure them on this, they will not come.

Chinese tourists have reportedly turned away from Thailand and shifted to Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore

Pongpanu Svetarundra, permanent secretary of tourism and sports, said the number of foreign tourists to Thailand stood at 2.65mn in September alone, up 2.3% from the same period last year.

Of the number, 648,000 were Chinese, down 14.9% year-on-year, with tourism income falling 11.5% to B36.87bn.

Most visitors in the month came from East Asia, Europe, South Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, Oceania and Africa, in that order.

During the first nine months of 2018, Thailand received 28.5mn international tourists, representing 8.7% year-on-year growth.

Tourists so far this year have generated income of B1.4 trillion, up 10.9% year-on-year.

Read original story here.Area schools Hamlin, Arlington seek strong finish in state volleyball tournament

Area schools Hamlin (Class A) and Arlington (Class B) are two of the 24 slated to compete Thursday through Saturday in the 2021 state high school volleyball tournament.October is breast cancer awareness month. Most women (and some men) live in fear of receiving this diagnosis. Visit the office of a radiologist who specializes in breast cancer, and you will find a room full of women in various states of fear and denial.

The world has come a long way since this treatment has been open for discussion. There was a time when it was considered tempting fate to even say the word cancer aloud. Nonetheless, it is frightening to know that every woman, if she lives long enough (depending on her genetic makeup, general health and lifestyle), will be told that she has breast cancer. What she does with this discovery will make a huge difference in the quality of her life from that point forward.

There is a new term that is being used by physicians and mental health providers that is called give-up-itis, or GUI. This occurs when there is a loss of activity in the portion of the brain that provides motivation for self-care.

Actually, the term was established after the Korean war to describe the deterioration and death of certain prisoners-of-war.

It has been recognized that individuals who develop give-up-itis can die within three days. Usually its three weeks. They are described as withdrawing from human contact and refusing to eat. They, literally, turn their face to the wall and give up.

John Leach, Ph.D. has recently published some research he piloted on the subject. It would appear that the part of the brain that stimulates the motivation for self-care ceases to function properly.

This part is called the anterior cingulate circuit. When an individual is stressed the brain releases the neurotransmitter dopamine. After this burst, and if the stress continues, the frontal cortex causes the dopamine to recede to below-normal levels.

The importance of this knowledge and its relationship to breast cancer is what doctors have told their patients over the years. A positive attitude can make all the difference in the process of recovery.

Similar in impact is the diagnosis of prostate cancer in men. One of the greatest fears and cause of ongoing depression and anxiety is the blow that is delivered to sexual functioning. Ironically, some of the hormonal treatment that may be indicated provokes symptoms close to what women experience during menopause.

Loss of libido, hot flashes and fatigue are common manifestations. Additional misgivings include a fear of sexual intimacy and feelings of emasculation. Patients whose emotional needs are met experience a more vigorous recovery.

In cases of breast and prostate cancer important sexual body parts are affected. Being surrounded by ads and attitudes regarding the perfect body, both men and women are vulnerable to feeling less than.

If give-up-itis sets in an individual is more likely to experience a return of the cancer. Furthermore, such individuals are likely to withdraw from emotional intimacy as they recognize their feelings of shame.

Another term for give-up-itis is psychogenic death. It has also been called Voodoo death. This is caused by fear. If an individual believes the consequence of breaking certain rituals or taboos results in a curse, their health may begin to deteriorate.

As a rule the casting of a harmful spell is accomplished by a recognized practitioner. Although it is possible to look up spell casting on google or to hire someone to do that for you, the spells that are most powerful are believed to come from an individual with real supernatural powers.

It is believed that Voodoo was based in the religious beliefs of slaves captured out of West Africa.

The stronghold for this practice has been identified as Haiti. As Roman Catholic priests attempted to convert the West Africans, certain groups held on to their original beliefs. A man or a woman could become a Voodoo priest. It was believed that priestly power was passed on from dead ancestors.

A curse cast by a Voodoo practitioner was a serious matter. The practitioner holds the power to cause a psychogenic death as well as the power to remove the curse. As a result of give-up-itis, the subject loses the will to live and withdraws from normal life. The result of this behavior is death.

Using contemporary findings, freeze has been added to fight or flight. When an individual is overwhelmed by fear to the point that he/she can neither fight or flee, the freeze response may set it. This occurrence will allow emotions to be numbed and can, at times, protect an individuals sanity. The other side of this manifestation may be death.

Give-up-itis, can be turned around at some of the stages of deterioration. Physical activity and/or the belief that there is hope can restore the will to live. The reason for this is that in either case dopamine is released, which will cause the individual to feel more in control.

All the above demonstrates the need for teaching ways to add dimension to an individuals way of interpreting the world. Extreme black and white thinking can be harmful to mind and body. It also is not, necessarily, valid. Inability to access imagination and flexibility can leave one feeling overwhelmed and trapped.

Cognitive/behavioral and similar modalities are essential in instructing individuals to successfully pass through the inevitable hardships that accompany life.

Using Mindfulness or positive thinking are helpful in this exploration. Hope loosens the shackles that keep one stagnant. Latching on to even an unlikely source of optimism is powerful when combating fear.

Truth be told, one cannot, as a rule, with certainty, predict an outcome. After all resources have been utilized counting on a miracle, fate, or just plain luck can be the key to what turns things around.

Bowing to GUI is, literally, the end. People die before their time as a result. The very act of resistance can give a feeling of strength to those who formerly believed all was lost.

One can always count on change. The direction and result of that change remain a mystery.

Betuel, E. (2018, September 28). People Who Give Up on Life can Die From psychogenic death, say Scientists. Retrieved October 08, 2018, from https://www.inverse.com/science

Bonar, S. (2017, March 9). Men and Prostate Cancer:the emotional impact. Retrieved October 08, 2018, from https://www.cityofhope.org/homepage

Goodman, A. (2017, September 25). Emotional and Psychological Distress Associated with Prostate Cancer. Retrieved October 08, 2018, from http://www.ascopost.com/

Ratner, P. (2018, October 2). 5 Stages of Psychogenic Death or Give-Up-Itis. Retrieved October 08, 2018, from https://bigthink.com/

Seltzer, L. F., PhD. (2015, July 8). Trauma & the Freeze Response:Good, Bad, or Both? Retrieved October 08, 2018, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/

Survival Psychology: The Won't to Live. (n.d.). Retrieved October 08, 2018, from the psychologist.bps.org.ukGrammy Award-winning American rock guitarist, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Slash, returns to New Zealand in January with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators in tow on the Living The Dream Tour.

Scheduled to perform two New Zealand shows, the tour will support the release of Slashs fourth solo album Living The Dream, released on Slashs own label Snakepit Records in partnership with Sony Music New Zealand.

Slash ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators NZ Tour Dates:

Fri, Jan 25

Baypark Arena, Tauranga

Sat, Jan 26

Spark Arena, AucklandOTTAWACanadas new asbestos ban will not prevent companies in Quebec from sifting through the waste left over from decades of mining asbestos to look for magnesium.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is set to announce the new regulations on Thursday in Ottawa after cabinet gave the nod of approval to them at the end of September.

The regulations, which will take effect at the end of the year, bar the import, sale or use of processed asbestos fibres and products containing them, as well as consumer products that have more than trace amounts of asbestos.

They also forbid the manufacture of products using processed asbestos fibres.

The regulations however do not apply to residues left from mining asbestos, which in Canada include about 800 million tonnes of residue near mines in the Quebec towns of Thetford Mines and Asbestos. Asbestos mines were the main economic driver in both regions for decades until concerns about health impacts of asbestos collapsed the market. The last mine in Canada, in Thetford Mines, stopped operating in 2011.

As much as 40 per cent of the leftover rock still contains asbestos.

Earlier this year the Quebec government helped finance Alliance Magnesium with a $17.5-million loan and a $13.4-million equity interest. The company has developed a technology to extract magnesium from asbestos tailings and hopes to sell the magnesium to auto parts makers and aerospace manufacturers who can use it in place of aluminum to make cars and planes lighter.

Kathleen Ruff, an expert on asbestos, says it is disappointing Ottawa is allowing an exemption from the ban for mining residues.

Everyone is in favour of jobs and helping communities, everyone is glad for new enterprises but it shouldnt be at the cost of human health, she said. It shouldnt be unsafe.

Gilles Mercier, whose father died of asbestos-related lung cancer in 2017 after a career installing asbestos-laden heating systems and roofing tiles, said Wednesday the federal regulations are a good start but that they dont go far enough to protect potential workers who could be exposed to asbestos fibres from the tailings.

The regulations do bar use of asbestos tailings to manufacture products that contain asbestos or for use in construction or landscaping unless authorized by the province where it would occur.

Mercier says that is just not good enough because workers will risk being exposed to asbestos, and stirring up the tailings also poses a risk to the people whose homes, schools and businesses are nearby.

Its a good start but for Quebec, Im not confident the province will take its responsibility seriously, said Mercier.

In particular, Mercier is livid that Quebecs standard for workplace exposure to asbestos fibres is 10 times higher than the rest of Canada. Quebec allows workers to be exposed to up to one fibre of asbestos per millilitre of air. Elsewhere in Canada it is one-tenth of one fibre per millilitre, and in some countries including France and the Netherlands it is 0.01 of a fibre.

Its unbelievable, he said. How can I live in a place like this?

A spokeswoman for McKenna said these regulations are the final step in banning asbestos and products containing it, and emphasizes the tailings cant be used to make anything that has asbestos in it.

All other activities, such as mine site closure, mine site reclamation, and use of asbestos mining residues to extract metals, would be outside the scope of the regulations, said Caroline Theriault. Provincial regulations for these activities would continue to apply.

Canada agreed to ban asbestos in 2016, after years of pressure from health experts and former workers and their families, but Canada continued to argue it was safe if used with proper precautions.

Statistics Canada data shows that in 2016 at least 510 Canadians died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-linked lung cancer, but that number doesnt include deaths in Quebec, which stopped reporting its asbestos-related disease rates in 2010. The number of mesothelioma deaths has gone up more than 60 per cent in the last 20 years.

Asbestos disease can take 20 to 50 years after exposure to take hold and has in the last quarter-century become the leading cause of occupational death in Canada.CALGARYAfter several days of searching for her missing brother in Montana, Julia Collin has new data that marks the last activity on his cellphone at 10:22 p.m. on Oct. 4, but theres no trace of him since.

Cam Collin, a 37-year-old from Airdrie, Alta., was at a bachelor party for the groom of his old college roommate in Billings, Mont., but the group of guys lost track of her brother when they returned from a strip club in the city to the rural property where the party started, Collin said.

She and her parents have since doubled the reward to $10,000 for any concrete facts that lead to Cam Collin. Not just feelings, she said.

We can track his phone activity  hes on a plan with my parents, Collin said.

You can see airtime, data usage and messaging. We cant see who he messaged or anything like that  all activity on his phone stopped at 10:22 p.m., she said.

Then we managed to use Google location tracking. A friend of a friend here in Alberta, she was able to track his phone and see the locations he went in Billings, where he went around and which way he went down to the property, she said. It does look like he comes halfway back.

Read more: Airdrie family offers $5,000 reward after Cameron Collin disappears in Montana

But Collin said because her brothers phone is a Canadian one, the Google location tracking function isnt reliably accurate and makes it hard to determine where his path ended.

Its pinging off of different towers, she said. Where it ends, we feel like the phone just dies.

That happened near a property on Pryor Road, which members of the Yellowstone County Sheriffs Office have scoured, only to find no sign of anybody trying to break in or anything like that, she said.

The other issue with the Google tracking function is that its vague and doesnt give specific times; it just shows a range from 7 p.m. to 10:22 p.m., she said.

Collin and her father returned to Alberta on Tuesday to recharge our batteries and check on her mother in Calgary, she said. Were heading back there (Oct. 18).

Theyve also hired local private investigator, Mike Toth with Elite Investigations, to help with the search.

Toth said hes working with the local sheriffs office to follow up on leads farther away from the property in question.

Hes also ensuring the Collin family doesnt get duped by scammers, he said.

Still, they havent found anything yet thats led them closer to finding Collin.

Collins original plan, after attending his college roommates wedding, was to fly out to Utah for his next work project as a petroleum engineer on Thanksgiving Monday (Oct. 8), his sister said. Delta Air Lines were informed to let us know if he showed up for the flight, and he never showed up. All of his belongings were still at the property.

A missing persons poster for Cam Collin says hes six feet, five inches tall with an average build, and that he was last seen wearing a long-sleeve black shirt with the phrase Affliction on it, along with blue jeans and cowboy boots.

Julia Collin said anyone with information about her brother should contact the Yellowstone County Sheriffs office at 406-256-2929 or 406-657-8200.

Read more about:Toronto filmmaker/activist Rob Stewart believed so deeply in saving sharks and planet Earth from the ravages of humankind, he could talk about his mission to groups of 20 or 2,000 people with equal passion.

I witnessed this in 2012 when I interviewed Stewart before a small gathering at Torontos Spoke Club, following a screening of Revolution, the second film in what has become his legacy documentary trilogy, linking his 2006 feature debut Sharkwater with the just-released Sharkwater Extinction.

Stewart spoke with conviction, authority and unstoppable drive, all of which he carried with him until his tragic final dive last year, when he drowned at the age of 37 in Florida while making Sharkwater Extinction.

None of this comes as a surprise to his close friend and fellow diver Brock Cahill or to his film and story editor on Sharkwater Extinction, Nick Hector, both of whom I interviewed following the films world premiere at TIFF in September.

Rob was a passionate, charismatic character, says Cahill, the founder of the U.S.-based conservation group The SeaChange Agency, who also helped introduce Stewart to the restorative benefits of yoga. He really brought a lot of life to the things that we do. So, I spent a lot of time with Robbie and those are some of the best days of my life.

Hector had the difficult task of finishing Sharkwater Extinction after Stewarts death. But he felt he really understood what was expected of him because Stewart was so specific about his intentions.

Read more:

Sharkwater Extinction a clarion call to action and a worthy farewell to the late Rob Stewart

MPs, senators unite to oppose finning at premiere of Sharkwater Extinction

Sharkwater Extinction carries on late filmmaker Rob Stewarts vision, say his parents

Rob was a prolific diarist, he says. It was so touching reading his notes, his ambitions, what he was trying to do.

Cahill was with Stewart on the final day of his life in January 2017, when Rob was testing an advanced diving device called a rebreather. It recycles oxygen to allow for deeper dives and to avoid causing the bubbles that can alarm marine creatures.

Stewart and diving instructor Peter Sotis had been exploring a sunken wreck off Floridas Key Largo, hoping to capture footage of one of the rarest and most endangered of sharks: the sawfish, so named for its distinctive front appendage.

Both men made it back safely to the dive ship, Pisces, but Sotis experienced severe breathing distress upon leaving the water. As people rushed to assist him, Stewart slipped unnoticed beneath the waves. His body was found several days later. (Stewarts family has launched a multi-defendant lawsuit in connection with his death, alleging it was a preventable tragedy.)

It seems impossible to think a diver of Stewarts vast experience and talent for escaping danger could perish in such a manner. But the rebreather is a complicated device and he was new to it.

Robbie was better in the water than anyone Ive ever known before, but nonetheless, were dealing in an environment that is not without risk, Cahill says.

And he always said of his whole life: Im very unlikely to die from anything having to do with a shark, even when diving. That was one of his famous quotes. But the truth of the matter is: What we do is not without risk and those risks have to be carefully calculated. We are very diligent about things, but things dont always go as you want them to.

At the time of his death, Stewart had already shot hundreds of hours of footage for Sharkwater Extinction, in places around the world where he and his team had been tracking the global devastation of sharks.

Hector, a University of Windsor film professor and editor of more than 150 docs, had a lot to work with, along with Stewarts diaries and emails, when the decision was made by Robs family to carry on with his Sharkwater sequel. He had first met Stewart during the filming of Revolution, but was unable to edit that film due to previous obligations.

He was impressed not only by Stewarts conviction, but also the filmmaking skills the man had developed over the course of three features, and how he learned to put himself into the film to help people connect with the plight of sharks.

That was the big surprise for me. Watching the first couple films, you get the sense of this bold young guy who wants to change the world and it just seems so effortless. But with the first Sharkwater he really struggled with putting himself in the film. He thought it needed to be about the sharks; theres no need for a human being, particularly himself, to be in it. But it just became clear that there was something magical happening.

He realized that people needed to care about somebody who cared about something. And if they could latch onto him, then it would work.

Sharkwater Extinction will be the last film made by Stewart, but it wont be the last made by his devoted team. Theres already talk of making a doc about the elusive sawfish, the shark Stewart was attempting to find, photograph and preserve when he died.

Theyve been fished to the umpteenth degree because of the rostrum, that saw on the front of their nose, Cahill says. Its considered to be medicinal and kind of a mythical powerful thing in some cultures, so theyve been hunted to the brink. We wanted to be able to feature them in this film to make people aware of their existence because if youve seen a picture of them, theyre wild-looking. Theyre very intriguing and there has not been a whole lot of information on them, so we were drawn to them, for sure.

Whatever happens, Cahill concludes, Stewarts spirit and mission remain undimmed by his passing.

I would say his most essential message is that you have the capability to change the world no matter who you are, or where you come from, or what you do. If you believe that you can make a difference, you will make a difference.Talk about a post-party crasher.

Leafly Canada managing director Jo Vos had just finished hosting her companys legalized pot ring-in early Wednesday and was curled up at home ready to place her online order with Ontarios cannabis store.

But when the executive with the worlds largest cannabis resource firm tried to make that e-commerce purchase, she couldnt. When she went to check out, the site would not accept her payment.

It was 3 a.m.  and I was very excited to place my first legal order, says Vos, whose College St. party had been attended by hundreds.

As embarrassingly high profile as this online gaffe may have been, it was one of a scattered handful of any kind reported across the country during Canadas historic first day of legal pot sales.

I think the rollout really has gone extremely smoothly, says Rod Elliot, a cannabis expert with Toronto consulting firm Global Public Affairs.

Weve seen Canadians from all walks of life  flocking to retail stores, and the online purchasing systems have nearly been flawless.

A spokesperson for the Ontario Cannabis Store, which runs the provinces online shopping site, says there were few problems recorded on an extraordinarily busy day.

The site has been preforming well, says Daffyd Roderick, the OCSs communications director. It is handling volume fine, no major issues.

While Roderick had no firm transaction numbers Wednesday, an email from online shopping giant Shopify said there was an average of 100 transactions a minute being recorded across the four provincial sites the Ottawa-based company had built.

In the first 12 hours of legalized cannabis sales we saw millions of visitors to the stores, with tens of thousands of transactions, said a release from Shopify, which powers the online cannabis stores in Newfoundland, P.E.I., Ontario and B.C.

In the first 24 hours, we expect hundreds of thousands of orders. In the first week, we expect millions of orders.

The company says its four sites had no outages over the busiest parts of the day and vice-president Loren Padelford told The Canadian Press theyd attracted millions of visitors from across the globe. Canadians can only place orders in their home provinces.

One possible downside for eager Ontarians: The OCS was warning Wednesday afternoon that the high demand might extend anticipated delivery times of one to three days to as many as five.

In Alberta, the provincially run website was temporarily overwhelmed during the early morning but was back up and running by daylight.

In Toronto, there were about 20 cannabis-related calls to the citys 311 non-emergency services number as of Wednesday afternoon.

Most of these callers were seeking information rather an outlet to carp, says Mark Sraga, the citys director of investigation services.

Sraga says that of the estimated 97 illegal pot shops that had sprung up in the city over the years, 36 remained open Wednesday.

Well be continuing our monitoring and taking appropriate enforcement actions, he said, adding there were no set time lines for such moves. But there will be actions taken is all I can say.

More clandestine dealers were also still at work Wednesday, with at last one brazenly shoving flyers through mail slots in the city.

Were just a small operation and we want to keep thing low key, said a man who answered the phone number on the Torontos Finest Marijuana Products advertisement.

We dont want to get any more attention than we have, said the man, who did not want to give his name but whose operation was promising free deliveries to its customers, who had to be 19 and older.

If there were problems with the rollout they were more systemic in nature and liable to linger for months, says Matei Olaru, CEO of Torontos Lift & Co., a cannabis industry information and resource company.

In particular, Olaru says, there are shortages in the amount of cannabis products required to supply the legal market in Ontario.

This, Olaru says, is likely the reason online sites produced so few of the tailored options their search functions were built to offer to customers, based on their needs and experience preferences.

He says most licensed producers  there are 32 supplying Ontario  have the infrastructure and capital backing to satisfy demand.

I just dont think they have their stuff ready so the searches are probably lacking, Olaru says.

He says that producers just need more time to grow the increased volumes and strains to properly fill market needs.

He also says new excise seals that producers were recently required to place on all packaging have slowed shipments to distribution centres.

I think by this time next week well see confirmation that the shortage of product that everyone was expecting is very real, says Olaru, who estimates it could last well into 2020.VANCOUVERAs Ottawa moves to streamline the suspension of criminal records for Canadians with cannabis convictions, neither Canadian nor U.S. authorities will answer whether pardons for decades-old convictions  that might not have been logged in the Canadian police database  will now appear in background checks at the border.

Some legal experts and border officials claim U.S. border officers have full access to the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC); others say its unclear. In the meantime, one lawyer is warning people with older convictions for marijuana to consider holding off on applying for a suspension of their criminal record, colloquially called a pardon.

Immigration lawyer Len Saunders, based in Blaine, Wash., said his legal practice requires him to obtain background checks on Canadian clients with criminal records who want to obtain special permission for cross-border travel.

Often, he said, older convictions simply do not appear in a search of the CPIC database, even though they do exist.

The physical court document may exist in Canadian courthouses, but the Americans cant see it, he told StarMetro in an interview.

But Saunders said things could change for people who apply to have their records suspended. He said that even though the records may not currently appear in the CPIC, the granting of record suspensions will appear.

Read more:

U.S. border ban on Canadian cannabis workers lifted

U.S. congressmans bid to lift lifetime bans on Canadian cannabis workers hinges on mid-terms, say policy experts

From pot to privacy: What we know and dont know about crossing the Canada-U.S. border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is able to view the suspended records (pardons) via CPIC, as they have access through a joint information-sharing agreement with the RCMP, he said.

So my feeling is, by encouraging Canadians to get pardons for old marijuana convictions, its going to make a huge percentage of Canadians who have old convictions, which havent created any problems at the border  inadmissible, he said.

Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner of the CBPs office of field operations, confirmed Monday during a phone-in announcement that even Canadians who have obtained pardons for cannabis convictions will still be considered inadmissible to the United States. Canadians who have had their records expunged could also be inadmissible should CBP have a previous record of that individuals conviction, he said.

A statement from the office of federal public safety minister Ralph Goodale said the minister was unable to comment on this specific scenario by deadline, only stating that a pardon removes information from CPIC.

However, Saunders insists CPIC maintains records on pardons, stayed charges and withdrawn charges. His clients are able to obtain these records themselves via the Privacy Act, while law-enforcement agencies are able to access these databases as well, he said.

The RCMP, which administers CPIC, could not respond to StarMetros queries by deadline.

Criminologist and former police officer Michael Arntfield, now a professor at the University of Western Ontario, said it is hard to say for sure whether American border guards can see whether someone has applied for a record suspension.

According to him, a name search in the first tier of CPIC will reveal whats referred to as a 10-29 abstract. That record  a basic page about the person in question  isnt supposed to include whether a record suspension has been applied for or granted, he said.

It might not be the case in every circumstance, Arntfield said. Its a primitive and inconsistent system.

In his former job as a police officer, Arntfield said, he himself saw 10-29 abstracts that did show recent applications for records suspensions and approvals.

The problem can arise, Arntfield said, when reference to an application or approval should be stripped from CPIC but isnt.

The best advice would be if you apply for a pardon  also apply for the destruction of records so its a clean wash on all elements of CPIC, he said.

But while minister Goodale said at a Wednesday news conference that legislation is coming this fall to waive the fee and waiting period for Canadians seeking a pardon for possessing up to 30 grams of marijuana, he said the government does not believe it would be appropriate to expunge records by wiping them off the books completely.

With files from The Canadian Press

Read more about:The sky didnt fall. The Americans didnt invade. Cats and dogs didnt start embracing in the streets.

Unlikely as it seems, Canadas first day as the worlds largest legal marijuana marketplace turned out to be pretty much just another day.

A bit hazier here, a bit giddier there, without doubt  but by nightfall, legalization was unfolding so smoothly there was even room for other news amid coast-to-coat cannabis coverage.

Buyers were able to vote with their feet in every province but Ontario and buy they did, lining up at newly unveiled bricks-and-mortar shops starting in Newfoundland, where at the stroke of midnight Ian Power, 46, become the first Canadian to possess a fully legal, fully taxed gram of marijuana. Powers, unlike most, said he had no intention of ever smoking his bounty, vowing instead to have it mounted on a plaque with the date and time. Im going to keep it forever.

In Canadas highest office, the man who made it all happen told reporters he has no plans to ever get high on recreational cannabis, despite having previously acknowledged smoking it a few times before.

Ive said many times Im not a drug user, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. I dont drink much alcohol, I dont drink coffee, I have no intention of using marijuana.

Read more:

Despite smooth first day of legalization, high demand could delay deliveries in Ontario, government says

Edmonton celebrates surreal legalization day at the centre of Albertas pot industry

Torontonians Wake and Bake to countrys new cannabis laws

Ontario may be the laggard on the national cannabis landscape  though online sales began at a frantic rate of 100 purchase a minute beginning at 12:01 a.m., no storefronts will open here until next April. Yet in a flurry of legislative activity Wednesday, Premier Doug Fords government passed legislation to regulate the new federal law, spelling out how and where Ontarians can buy and consume cannabis.

Although the Ford government has been criticized for loose consumption guidelines that will allow for cannabis use wherever cigarettes can be smoked, including public parks, the premier emphasized his intention to let municipalities fine-tune those rules as they see fit.

Our number one priority is to make sure our children are safe, make sure we keep it away from schools, and make sure we let municipalities decide if theyre even going to sell it, where they can smoke it, said Ford.

Under Ontarios rules, the provinces 444 municipalities have until Jan. 22 to say yes or no to private bricks-and-mortar cannabis stores.

Toronto Mayor John Tory offered a note of caution in a statement to the city, saying, For those who choose to use cannabis, I hope common-sense prevails. Dont smoke marijuana and drive. Dont smoke marijuana and go to work. Dont be inconsiderate about where youre smoking marijuana and dont smoke it around where children are present.

Mayoral candidate Jennifer Keesmaat, who is vying for Torys job in next Mondays election, said she welcomed the Ottawas move to pardon past convictions for simple possession, saying that without amnesty hundreds of thousand sof people would continue to feel the effects of outdated laws whose enforcement has had a disproportionate impact on people of colour and the poor.

Keesmaat, noting concerns of residents about the impact of legal cannabis on neighbourhoods, said she would also support zoing amendments to prevent numerous cannabis stores from clustering in proximity to each other and driving out neighbourhood businesses from our main streets.

With the surge in legal online sales across the country triggering the flow of HST and excise tax dollars from the moment the government-run websites went live, Day One of legalization passed with one curious absence  no sign whatsoever of an expected crackdown on black and grey market sales. Dozens of illegal websites that had been operating for months with de facto impunity remained active  but for how long is anyones guess.

One high-profile medical marijuana activist, Chris Enns, told the Star it was business-as-usual, another day like any other at his Halifax dispensary, the Farm Assists Cannabis Resource Centre, where he remained open despite advance warning that he should expect police intervention. Though Nova Scotia has established a government monopoly on cannabis sales, the newly opened stores do not have the high-strength extracts that Enns has spent years providing for many of his patients, including people with cancer.

The oils and extracts we have in stock are 750 per cent stronger than what the government stores have available  and were here to stand with our patients, to ensure they can get the medicine they require at the lowest possible price, said Enns.

Im grateful on this day that our community of patients is telling us theyll support us if we face prosecution. We have legal counsel on standby, we have prepared for plans A, B, C and D for whatever happens next. But at this moment, all is well. Were open.

At dusk, the Ontario Provincial Police sent a message of their own with a live online broadcast of a RIDE check timed to coincide with legalization. The live feed from the OPP was a palpable reminder that, although they dont yet have a device that can measure cannabis impairment with the accuracy of an alcohol breathalyzer, the force has spent months undergoing upgraded training to detect impairment of any sort, including driving under the influence of cannabis.

Police in Winnipeg went one step further, tweeting a photo of the first-ever ticket, not for impaired driving but for Consuming Cannabis in a Motor Vehicle, issued Wednesday to to an unnamed driver who now must pay a fine of $672. Just like alcohol, consuming cannabis is legal  and like alcohol, consuming it in your vehicle is not, the Winnipeg police tweeted.

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney provided the days most surprising twist, announcing he will join the board of directors of a large American cannabis company, Acreage Holdings, when the company is added to the Canadian Securities Exchange in November.

Obviously were on the cusp of an extraordinary period of development, utilization and need in this area, Mulroney said in an interview with Marijuana Business Daily, suggesting that while Canada is the first major industrialized country to legalize, he expects others to follow.

This seems to be an opportunity for redemption by governments towwards their citizens, on a par that is rarely equalled ... so its a big day in Canada, but its also a big day for the rest of the world who are listening.

Apart from street-level cannabis parties, much of Wednesdays frivolity played out online, with meme after meme riffing on Canadas one-time moment. One widely circulated gag typical of the mood showed a supposed satellite image of Canada after legalization, engulfed entirely in smoke.

Buzzkill, however, wasnt far away, in the form of a tweet from the Ontario Cannabis Store late Wednesday that suggested the days business was just a little too good, resulting in a backlog of orders that could threaten its one-to-three day delivery pledge.

The response to cannabis legalatization has resulted in a high volume of orders, the government-owned retailer said. Please expected your order to be delivered within one to five business days. We apologize for any inconvenience.Floyd Marinescu has never forgotten the fear and frustration of growing up in a home scarred by domestic violence.

I always dreamed my mother would just leave, said the 39-year-old Toronto businessman. But I knew she didnt have the financial means.

Thats why Marinescu was so keen to see the results of Ontarios three-year basic income pilot project, launched in 2017 by the previous Liberal government.

Not only could basic income address poverty, precarious employment and job loss due to automation and globalization, it could level the playing field for women, says the CEO of C4media, an international software publishing and conference company.

When the Ford government pulled the plug on the $150-million experiment in July, claiming jobs  not cash handouts  are the answer, Marinescu was deeply upset and determined to change the narrative.

On Thursday, he is releasing an open letter at Queens Park signed by 100 Canadian CEOs representing more than $1.5 billion in combined annual revenues, urging Premier Doug Ford and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod to reverse the decision.

Read more:

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I may end up homeless again: Six Ontarians talk about their life before, after and, once again, without basic income

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As Canadian business leaders  we see a guaranteed basic income as a business-friendly approach to address the increasing financial precarity of our citizens and revitalize the economy, says the letter, co-authored by Paul Vallee of Ottawa-based Pythian, a global data services company with more than 400 employees worldwide.

The provinces basic income pilot project provided low-income individuals in three Ontario communities unconditional cash payments of up to $17,000 a year and $24,000 for couples. Its 4,000 participants will receive their final payment March 31, barely two years into the trial. Surveys to see if the extra money helps improve health, housing and employment outcomes have also been scrapped.

With references to 20 national and international studies, the CEOs argue a basic income is urgently needed to address global structural changes to the economy that are depressing wages, reducing middle-class jobs and stifling Canadian entrepreneurship.

They object to the Ford governments claim a basic income would be too expensive to expand provincewide and suggest it could easily be funded nationally through a 3-per-cent increase to the GST, a move they say sounds like a good deal to us.

A 3-per-cent increase in the GST could be the backbone of a major economic stimulus while simultaneously ending poverty, says the letter, addressed to Ford and MacLeod.

The successful entrepreneurs, whose companies each employ between 50 and 600 workers and whose own incomes would put them in the top 1 per cent, say people cant be productive citizens, let alone create, innovate or build businesses if they cant put food on the table.

As business leaders, we see basic income as good economics and enlightened self-interest: it is a pro-growth, pro-business, pro-free-market economic stimulus that will grow the economy and create jobs, says the letter signed by CEOs such as Michael Tamblyn of Kobo Inc. and James Tonn of Podium Publishing.

Just as automaker Henry Ford paid good wages to his factory workers at the turn of the last century, so they could afford to buy his cars, businesses today need people to have enough money to buy their goods and services, Marinescu said in an interview.

Being unable to escape poverty even while working is not only inhumane, its also a huge opportunity cost for Ontario and Canadas business, the letter notes. Basic income will go right back into local businesses.

Better than a minimum wage hike or working tax credit, a basic income would also compensate for unpaid forms of work such as caregiving, community services and entrepreneurship, the letter says. And it would support those who want to retrain or move to find work.

Despite low unemployment, the share of low-income jobs in Canada is rising, the letter notes. Most people living in poverty are working, including about two-thirds of participants in the basic income project.

These are hard-working people and critically, these are your voters, the business leaders say.

I hope Progressive Conservatives read the letter and see that (a basic income) is a good thing for the economy, that it is a conservative-leaning approach, Marinescu said. It is also an attempt to show the Canadian public the consensus that already exists in the business community.

With no surveys of business leaders to draw on, Marinescu spent several months after the PC killed the experiment asking CEOs in his own business networks what they thought. About four out of five leaders he contacted were willing to sign the letter, Marinescu said. And those who declined just didnt know enough about it.

Very few were philosophically opposed, he said.

James Tonn, 37, co-founder of Podium Publishing, a fiction audiobook publisher known for discovering The Martian, which turned into a feature film starring Matt Damon, grew up in poverty in York Region. He credits six months of parental leave after the birth of his second child in 2012 for giving him a basic income while he created his highly successful company.

It allowed me to be with my wife and children and it gave us a financial safety net while I was building my company, he said.

If the Ford government believes a basic income will discourage work, it should allow the pilot to continue to prove its point, says the letter. If it encourages work, then it is something all political parties should be able to support, the letter adds.

While other governments all over the world are beginning to design their own programs, ours is already running, Martinescu and Vallee conclude in their letter. The results  will inform policy decisions all over the world.

Read more about:The Trump administration and the Saudi royal family are searching for a mutually agreeable explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi  one that will avoid implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is among the presidents closest foreign allies, according to analysts and officials in multiple countries.

But it will be difficult for the young ruler to escape scrutiny, as mounting evidence points not only to the Saudi governments knowledge of Khashoggis fate, but to Mohammeds connection to his disappearance.

U.S. intelligence reports, accounts from Khashoggis friends, passport records and social media profiles paint a picture of a brutal killing that at least had its roots in Mohammeds desire to silence Khashoggi, a former palace insider turned critic of the government and the prince in particular.

The analysts and officials said it was inconceivable that such a brazen operation as the one alleged by Turkish officials, involving a team of 15 agents sent to Istanbul, who then killed and dismembered Khashoggi, could have been pulled off by a group of rogue killers, as U.S. President Donald Trump speculated this week, moments after a phone call with Saudi Arabias King Salman.

Even one of the presidents closest advisers, Rudy Giuliani, said many senior members of the administration concluded more than a week ago that the Saudis had killed Khashoggi.

The only question is, was it directed from the crown prince or the king  or was it a group that was trying to please him? Giuliani said in an interview.

Read more:

Ottawa presses Saudis for answers over suspected murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Audio offers gruesome details of Khashoggi killing, Turkish official says

Khashoggi disappearance may disrupt Trump administrations plans to squeeze Iran

Before Khashoggi ever set foot in the consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, Mohammed was trying to get his hands on him.

In recent months, the crown prince, known by his initials, MBS, ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia, according to U.S. intelligence intercepts of Saudi officials discussing the plan.

In September, a high-ranking Saudi official close to the prince, Saud al-Qahtani, called Khashoggi and promised him safety and the prospect of an important job working for Mohammed if he returned home, said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab-American political activist and friend of Khashoggis.

He said: Are you kidding? I dont trust them one bit,  Saffuri said of Khashoggis response.

Other friends of Khashoggis, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of security concerns, told similar stories of calls from Riyadh on the crown princes behalf.

On Oct. 2, Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a document he needed to marry his fiancee, a Turkish citizen.

Members of the Saudi security team that Turkish officials say were waiting for him there, and others who flew to Istanbul for the operation, also have links to Mohammed and the Saudi royal court.

For instance, one alleged member of the team, Khalid Aedh Alotaibi, made several visits to the United States that overlapped or coincided with trips by senior Saudi officials.

Earlier this year, he arrived in the United States three days before Mohammed touched down for a nationwide tour, passport records maintained by the U.S. government show. Alotaibi is identified online as a member of the Saudi Royal Guard.

Alotaibi is one of 11 Saudis included in the group of 15 men who have ties to the Saudi security services, according to their posts on social media, emails, local media reports and other material reviewed by The Washington Post.

Its inconceivable that an operation using royal guards, other court officials and the consulate was not authorized by the crown prince. Thats not how the kingdom functions, especially with MBS as heir apparent, said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on Saudi Arabia and the royal family who served more than 30 years at the CIA.

As much as the White House is eager to absolve MBS, the rogue coverup is unravelling before its even official, Riedel added.

Mohammed is not considered to be the kind of leader to condone operatives acting outside the chain of command.

He has a reputation as a very hands-on manager, said Jon Alterman, the director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He noted that the crown prince has been directly involved in the implementation of reform policies and leads an ambitious effort to diversify the Saudi economy.

When you talk to people working on (these initiatives), the story one hears is about his attention to detail and accountability, Alterman said.

Trump was defensive this week about the suggestion that his administration is trying to give the Saudis room to come up with a statement absolving Mohammed.

Im not giving cover at all, Trump told reporters on Wednesday. They are an ally. We have other good allies in the Middle East.

The Saudis are long-standing allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorist networks, but analysts said the credibility of the U.S.-Saudi relationship depends on candour and accountability.

Its not clear what the Trump administration will do in the face of continued deflection by the kingdom, but what does seem clear is that the Trump administration must not give the kingdom a pass, said Lisa Monaco, who was a Homeland Security and counterterrorism adviser to president Barack Obama.

It is in our interest to maintain a relationship with Saudi Arabia, especially on issues like counterterrorism co-operation and regional stability initiatives, but prior administrations have been able to do that while still pushing for reforms and holding nations accountable for human rights abuses, Monaco said.

Privately, U.S. officials have said they have no reason to doubt Turkish officials, who say they have an audio recording that proves Saudi agents killed and dismembered Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. And while there is still no clear evidence that Mohammed personally ordered the killing, there is no reason to believe he was unaware of the Saudi teams presence and planned operation in Istanbul, they said.

Even if the president doesnt come around to that view, the White Houses relationship may be indelibly altered by Khashoggis death.

I know the bloom is off the rose with the crown prince, Giuliani said.

Read more about:WASHINGTONU. S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo expressed confidence Wednesday that the Saudi government could be trusted to investigate the disappearance and suspected murder of a Virginia-based Saudi journalist in Turkey  despite the likelihood that senior Saudi officials were involved.

The double-barrelled defence of the Saudi rulers signalled a shift in White House strategy and suggested the administration has decided to help its most important ally in the Arab world defuse international outrage over the fate of Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident.

But pressure on Saudi Arabia intensified as Yeni Safak, a pro-government daily newspaper in Turkey, said it had obtained audiotapes that provided grisly new details of Khashoggis apparent torture and killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

The paper said that the dissident Saudi journalist was seized as soon as he entered, drugged with an unknown substance and tortured before he was killed. His fingers were cut off during questioning and he was decapitated, the paper reported. It said he was killed in seven minutes.

The Saudi consul general, Mohammad Otaibi, could be heard telling Saudi operatives sent to Istanbul that day, Do this outside. Youre going to get me in trouble, the paper reported. Otaibi abruptly left Istanbul for the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday.

Turkish police investigators, forensic experts and prosecutors searched the Saudi consul generals residence for evidence on Wednesday afternoon. The inspection had been expected Tuesday, but authorities waited until the diplomats family had flown out of the country, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters.

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Turkish officials already have searched the Saudi Consulate, but did not disclose the results of their findings.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said U.S. authorities had asked for the tape of Khashoggis killing, suggesting Turkish officials havent yet shared it.

Im not sure yet that it exists. Probably does. Possibly does, Trump said. He said it would be the first question he would ask Pompeo when he returns early Thursday from two days of emergency talks in Riyadh and the Turkish capital, Ankara, that focused on the Khashoggi case.

Pompeo told reporters during a refuelling stop in Brussels that his meetings with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had focused in part on the allegations of an extrajudicial killing in their consulate.

We had very direct conversations about this, the seriousness of this, how serious President Trump is taking this, how seriously the United States will take this, he said.

Pompeo said the Saudis pledged to conduct a thorough, complete and transparent investigation and would show the entire world the results.

They made a commitment, too, to hold anyone connected to any wrongdoing that may be found accountable ... whether they are a senior officer or official, he said. He added, Its reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete it so they get it right, so that its thorough and complete.

He declined to say if he had asked for or had heard the alleged torture tape, but said he had spoken to Khashoggis Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz. Asked whether he believed the Saudi rulers repeated denial of complicity, Pompeo said he was reserving judgment.

Saudi Arabia is far less popular in Congress than in the White House, and a weak U.S. response will not sit well with many lawmakers, nor with the political and foreign policy establishment, who have denounced Saudi Arabia and the Trump administrations handling of the case.

Really, the president of the United States should be a leader, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters in Coral Gables, Fla. He should not be a person who makes excuses for countries just because of a financial deal, personal or official. ... This strikes to the heart of our democracy, it undermines our values as we are viewed in the rest of the world and, quite frankly, if it werent so serious, I would say it looked silly.

Khashoggi, who was 59 when he disappeared, was a U.S.-educated journalist who covered major international stories, including the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the subsequent rise of Osama bin Laden, whom he briefly befriended, for Saudi news organizations. He later served as an adviser to and spokesperson for top Saudi officials, including their ambassador in Washington.

He fell out of favour with the government after the crown prince consolidated his grip on power over the last two years with mass arrests of rivals and critics, holding some hostage until they reportedly handed over vast fortunes. Khashoggi went into self-imposed exile last year in a bedroom suburb of Washington, D.C., and wrote a monthly opinion column in The Washington Post in which he criticized the crackdown.

He first visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Sept. 28 to obtain a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife so he could remarry. He made an appointment to pick up the paperwork at 1:30 on the afternoon of Oct. 2, while his fiancee waited outside.

He reportedly gave her his two cellphones and told her to call an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan  a personal friend  if he did not emerge. Saudi officials said he left the consulate within two hours, but have offered no explanation as to how he disappeared.

Neither Trump nor Pompeo offered any new facts or insights in the case Wednesday. But unless authorities recover his body or other conclusive evidence of his death, the mystery may remain unsolved.

Pompeo urged Americans to be mindful of the extensive energy, economic and security ties between Riyadh and Washington, including efforts against what he called the worlds largest supporter of terrorism, Iran, Saudi Arabias traditional rival in the region.

The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on these issues, Pompeo said in Ankara. We need to make sure we are mindful of that as we approach decisions on whether to impose sanctions or take other punitive steps against Riyadh, as many in Congress and elsewhere have urged.

While Pompeo was in Riyadh, the Saudi government made good on a long-promised pledge and paid $100 million to the U.S. to assist in the rebuilding of war-ravaged Syria, U.S. officials said. The officials called the timing coincidental.

Few experts believe the Saudis will have to expend much capital to buy their way out of the crisis, primarily because of Trumps good favour.

Trump, if you are on his side, is going to defend you, said Daniel Byman, a former CIA analyst specializing in the Middle East who is now an associate dean at Georgetown University.

He sees the Saudis as his friends, Byman said. This is not a moment when the administration is saying, No. Roll back. Make these concessions. He is defending his supporters as part of a broader strategic relationship  for better or worse.

Some experts suggested the Saudis may make nominal gestures, such as more talk of reform in the repressive desert kingdom, or an overture to Israel, an official enemy.

In that view, Khashoggi may be a casualty of harsh political realities. Saudi Arabia lies at the centre of Washingtons strategic and political engagement with the region. The Trump administrations enmity for Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syrian President Bashar Assad, dovetails with Riyadhs goals to limit Tehrans influence.

The administration has turned to Saudi Arabia to lead  and finance  its anti-Iran drive in the region, while Riyadh relies on U.S. weapons and logistical support to pursue an increasingly unpopular war in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The Saudi government is reported to have pressured the Palestinians, and countries with large numbers of Palestinian refugees, including Jordan and Lebanon, into considering a Middle East peace plan that was crafted by Trumps son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and is still under wraps. The White House clearly would like to see what Trump has called the ultimate deal succeed, and would value Saudi support.

The response in the Middle East to the Khashoggi incident has largely reflected where each country sits in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. At least nine countries arrayed around the Persian Gulf closed ranks behind Saudi Arabia, although some say an investigation is required.

Saudi leaders for nearly two weeks denied knowing anything about Khashoggis disappearance. On Monday, they began floating a scenario  initially adopted by Trump  that blamed the death inside the consulate on rogue killers, and then suggested the journalist was accidentally killed during an interrogation that went awry.

On Tuesday, Trump offered more support for Riyadh, saying the Saudis were innocent until proven guilty and comparing the Khashoggi case to the allegations of sexual misconduct that nearly derailed the Senate confirmation of new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Analysts familiar with the desert kingdom said it was likely that Saudi leaders were hoping the scandal would blow over and that they could wait it out.

We received commitments that they would complete this (investigation), and I am counting on them to do that, Pompeo said. They gave me their word.

Read more about:HUNTSVILLE, TEXASFormer USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny was arrested Wednesday after a Texas grand jury indicted him, alleging he tampered with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of now-imprisoned gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

In a statement issued late Wednesday night, the Walker County district attorneys office in Huntsville, Texas, said Penny was arrested by a fugitive task force in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and awaits extradition to Texas.

The third-degree felony is punishable by two to 10 years in prison. It was unclear if Penny has an attorney. Messages left with USA Gymnastics werent immediately returned.

Penny resigned under pressure in March 2017.

The indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch relating to Nassars activities at the ranch, near Huntsville. It alleges Penny acted after learning that Texas Rangers and Walker County authorities were investigating the ranch, which was being managed by USA Gymnastics.

The indictment states the documents were delivered to Penny at the USA Gymnastics headquarters in Indianapolis, they have not been recovered and their whereabouts are unknown to authorities.

Read more:

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Nassar was charged in June with sexually assaulting six minors in Walker County. A former sports medicine trainer, Debra Van Horn, was also indicted on one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child. Prosecutors said Van Horn was charged as acting as a party with Nassar.

In Michigan, Nassar was sentenced earlier this year to decades in prison, after hundreds of women and girls accused him of molesting them with his hands under the guise of medical treatment. They said the abuse went as far back as the 1990s while he worked at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

Nassar was a former team doctor for both the womens program at USA Gymnastics as well as Michigan State University athletics.

In Texas, a number of gymnasts who had trained at the Karolyi Ranch have said Nassar sexually assaulted them there. Walker County prosecutors have said there is no corroborated evidence of wrongdoing by world-renowned gymnastics coaches Bela and Martha Karolyi, and the couple has denied wrongdoing.KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTANOne of the most devastating Taliban assassination strikes of the long Afghan war killed top leaders of Kandahar province Thursday, in an attack that missed the top U.S. commander in the country, Gen. Austin S. Miller, just two days before national elections that had already been undermined by violence.

Inside the provincial governors compound in Kandahar City, at least one attacker fatally shot the regions powerful police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq and the provincial intelligence chief. The gunfire wounded the provincial governor, another police commander and three Americans, Afghan officials said.

Raziq, who had survived dozens of attempts on his life, was widely considered to be an indispensable security chief with influence across critical areas of southern Afghanistan, in the Taliban heartland. He was valued by U.S. commanders as a fierce ally against the insurgents, but human rights advocates criticized him for brutal tactics that at times swept up innocent civilians as well as militants.

At 3:30 p.m., after a meeting about the security of elections, when the high-ranking participants were heading to helicopters, an enemy infiltrator opened fire on them, the deputy minister of interior, Gen. Akhtar Mohammad Ibrahimi, said at a news conference. The police chief, Gen. Raziq, and the provincial intelligence chief, Gen. Abdul Momin, were killed.

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In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had specifically been aimed at Raziq and Miller. The U.S. military released a statement confirming that Miller, who was in the compound at the time of the attack, was not hurt, but that three Americans had been wounded.

Early on, there were conflicting reports about whether Gov. Zalmai Wesa and Gen. Nabi Elham, the police commander for the southern zone with responsibility for several provinces, had survived the attack. Ibrahimi said both are wounded but are under medical operation, though it was not clear how severe their injuries were.

In a brief televised message, President Ashraf Ghani said that he had dispatched his intelligence chief and other senior officials to Kandahar to investigate the situation.

I promise the Afghan people that soon the situation will get normal in Kandahar, Ghani said.

It was not clear if there had been only one gunman, but accounts of the assassination pointed to an insider attack, carried out by a turncoat among the Afghan security personnel there.

Its believed that one of the governors guards opened fire, but it is not yet confirmed, said Agha Lalay Datagiri, the deputy governor of Kandahar.

Coming before nationwide parliamentary elections Saturday, the loss of the Kandahar leadership casts a further shadow on a political season already marred by bloodshed. One-third of polling stations will not open because of security, and at least 10 candidates and dozens of their supporters have been killed. The Taliban have threatened to attack polling places.

Another major attack last year inside the Kandahar governors office took a heavy toll on officials, killing a deputy governor, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, and members of Parliament. The governor at the time survived with burns and wounds. Raziq had just stepped out of the room.

Read more about:WASHINGTONU.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said she absolutely favours reopening an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Supreme Justice Brett Kavanaugh if her party takes control of the chamber next year.

Feinstein, who is line to become chairwoman of the committee if Democrats prevail, was asked about the prospect during a debate Wednesday in San Francisco as she seeks reelection to her Senate seat.

Oh, Id be in favour of opening up the allegations. Absolutely, Feinstein said.

Kavanaughs confirmation proceedings were roiled by allegations of decades-old misconduct from three women, including Christine Blasey Ford, who testified to the Judiciary Committee that a drunken Kavanaugh assaulted her while both were in high school. Kavanaugh vigorously denied all allegations.

Kavanaughs confirmation was delayed for a week to allow for a limited FBI investigation into Fords allegations and those of another accuser. Republicans said interviews conducted by the FBI unearthed nothing to corroborate the claims, while Democrats said the probe was too narrow in scope to be enlightening.

Republicans quickly pushed back on Feinsteins suggestion that more scrutiny is needed.

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Apparently one kick of a mule is not enough for Senator Feinstein, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during an appearance Wednesday night on Fox Newss Hannity show.

Heres what I want every Democratic candidate for the Senate to be asked tomorrow: Do you agree with Dianne Feinstein? Graham said. Are you for more humiliation, degrading treatment of this fine man? Are you for continuing the this debacle?

Feinstein was criticized by many of her Republican colleagues for not sharing a letter she received from Ford in July that outlined her allegations. Feinstein said she honoured a request from Ford to remain anonymous until her name leaked out.

Feinstein faces another Democrat, Kevin de Leon, the president pro tem of the California state Senate, in next months election. Under the rules of Californias jungle primary, the top two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party.EDMONTONThe last time I saw you was soon after we graduated high school  and two weeks before you were killed.

We ran into each other by chance at a bus stop. I remembered you as a ball of energy on the basketball court, so you seemed calm by comparison. You told me how you planned to go to NAIT and eventually work in the oilpatch. I told you that I was in my first year of university, and I was finding it difficult to adjust. I gave you my number and got on the bus. I never saw you again.

Two weeks later, you went out with some friends to buy weed  normal for kids our age. There was a disagreement over the price, and in what the media later described as a drug deal gone bad, you were stabbed four times.

On Oct. 17, cannabis was legalized in Canada. This move is being celebrated as a solution to the problems prohibition created. But for people like us, the legacy of illegal weed wont be so easy to forget.

In 1971, Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. For the American president, the war entailed harsh punishment of drug users. Its a war that intentionally targeted minority communities and the most vulnerable. Its a war that every subsequent president has supported.

And, like any war, the toll it takes on victims is immense.

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Make no mistake, the war has been waged here in Canada, too: through aggressive policing of marginalized neighbourhoods and disproportionate incarceration of Black Canadians. Mohamed, you knew the effect these policies had on the neighbourhood  our neighbourhood  where you tried to buy cannabis that night. Police officers heavily patrolled these spaces, cracking down on anyone suspected of intending to buy or sell. While in other more well-off areas, police presence was light and transactions tended to happen in the tranquillity of suburban basements and grassy parks. These conditions are what made a 16-year-old believe that he needed a knife and that he needed to use it on you.

Mohamed, I remember the fear we had of the police. Whose presence in our community was felt day in and day out as they put our friends in cuffs. I dont know if the police hated us. But I know that Black people were three to four times more likely to be charged for possession in Edmonton than white people, despite similar rates of cannabis use. Whether or not they like or agree with our countrys drug laws, police are soldiers in the war and are complicit in the damage its caused.

On the day weed becomes legal from coast to coast, Ill think about you, Mohamed, my friend who could make anyone feel welcome.

I will also remember the pain. The pain my mom felt when she found the innocuous green pipe belonging to my sister. I was young and did not understand why she cared so much about a bong.

I understand now. My mom was afraid of legal consequences and of the dangerous underground market  afraid my sister would join the rising Black prison population, which has increased 70 per cent in the last 10 years.

Mohamed, Ive seen both sides of the war. At university, my white friends would openly smoke without fear of police. During my first summer placement at the Law Courts, I ran into a childhood friend facing charges for possession; meanwhile, some of my co-workers were stoners. It was tough seeing these two worlds. People from my world who smoked were pathologized and called thugs, while those in the other world were seen as fun-loving, laid-back or quirky.

Mohamed, you should be here. I am 23 now and think each day about how unfair it is for me to be where I am now, a civil servant who has a predictable salaried job, while so many in our community are weighed down by the scars of this war.

And yet I also carry those scars. I grew up in an environment where it was the norm to see friends arrested, families fall apart and people die. Everyone who grew up with us knows a victim in this war. We all bear the scars.

Youre not here to tell your story, but I want to make sure youre not forgotten. I know you would have done the same.

Cannabis is legal, but the drug war is still officially on. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  a man who admitted that his father helped his brother out of possession charges  re-signed onto the U.S.-led war on drugs. Instead of focusing on harm reduction and creating safe spaces for people who use drugs, we have committed to targeting those who use substances other than cannabis with heavy-handed enforcement. A war that, according to criminologists, has failed.

In addition, Edmonton city council passed restrictive cannabis regulations that will effectively only allow those with their own homes or land to smoke up. Everyone else is at the whim of their landlords and will be subject to increased enforcement. Based on the history of the war, who do you think will be the primary targets of this enforcement? Its clear that this policy will lead to more victims like you.

It doesnt have to be this way.

The government has already taken the first step by signalling that it will pardon those convicted of cannabis possession  an estimated 500,000 people. However, its unclear if these pardons will be extended to all 500,000 people since the move is reported as only targeting simple possession.

We also need to change the legislation so privileged homeowners are not the only ones able to safely smoke. And finally, we should remember the current and future victims of this war, who will continue to carry these scars long after Oct. 17.

Its important that we celebrate legalization: its a major milestone and a first step toward justice. But, as we celebrate, we should remember those who are unable to join us and those who feel pain when they think about their scars. Remembrance is important; without it, well lose sight of why today matters. And so, Mohamed, I promise I will remember you long after the euphoria of Oct. 17 subsides.

Bashir Mohamed is an Edmonton-based writer.

Read more about:The killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi has become a test case for despots everywhere. Can they get away with interrogating, kidnapping and even assassinating their critics in other countries?

Khashoggi, a United States resident and contributor to The Washington Post, died at the hands of Saudi operatives at their countrys consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, almost three weeks ago.

The Saudi regime long insisted Khashoggi left the consulate alive. King Salman and his powerful crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, denied any knowledge of the journalists fate.

Early Saturday, Riyadh suddenly changed its story, announcing that Khashoggi had died in the consulate after all, as the result of a quarrel that escalated into a brawl.

Are we really meant to believe the team of 15 Saudi operatives sent to ambush Khashoggi, reportedly including four members of Prince Mohammads personal security detail and an autopsy expert equipped with a bone saw, accidentally got into a fatal fistfight with a 59-year-old columnist?

Although U.S. President Donald Trump initially threatened severe consequences for Khashoggis murder, he has since wavered between characterizing the Saudi whitewash as credible and expressing doubts.

There is more at stake in this crisis than accountability for a heinous murder. Press freedoms and the safety of journalists are under threat in many countries, but state-directed assassination of a high-profile columnist who resides in another country represents a threat to every journalist, everywhere.

And its not just journalists being targeted. Authoritarian regimes are brazenly venturing abroad to threaten, kidnap, or even kill their critics and whistleblowers.

Many of Russian President Vladimir Putins critics have disappeared or perished abroad under suspicious circumstances. The poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England earlier this year (and the death of a British citizen who accidentally contacted the poison) was likely the most recent example of Putins extraterritorial score-settling.

British authorities have charged two men with the attack, alleging both are active Russian intelligence agents, a conclusion also reached by independent investigators.

Chinese security agents have also conducted a number of alleged kidnappings abroad. In 2015, five Hong Kong-based booksellers and publishers disappeared and later reappeared in mainland Chinese prisons.

One of them, Gui Minhai, was apparently snatched from his apartment in Thailand. In another case, democracy campaigner Li Xin disappeared from a train in Thailand and turned up in a Chinese jail months later, claiming to have returned voluntarily. Other Chinese dissidents have reportedly been seized in Myanmar and Vietnam.

Turkey, the affronted party in the Khashoggi case, has conducted its own aggressive campaign to silence suspected opponents at home and abroad, including journalists. Since a failed 2016 coup against his government, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought, in particular, to repatriate supporters of a former political rival whom he accuses of orchestrating the coup.

Erdogans deputy prime minister has publicly bragged that Turkish intelligence services have seized at least 80 Turkish nationals from multiple countries.

In July, masked men reportedly abducted a Turkish educator in Mongolia and took her to a private airplane whose call sign matched that of the Turkish Air Force. She was released only after Mongolian authorities grounded the flight.

Authoritarian leaders seem to be emboldened by Trumps lukewarm approach to human rights and press freedoms. They probably took note of his praise for Americas post-9/11 torture and forced renditions of terrorism suspects. They have likely heard him characterize the U.S. media as the enemy of the people.

Saudi leaders, in particular, may have believed that their close relationship with Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would give them diplomatic cover. After all, when Riyadh excoriated Canada for speaking out on behalf of Saudi human rights activists, the White House did nothing.

Now, the United States and other liberal democracies face a serious test. If they do not put down a clear marker in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, despots everywhere will quietly celebrate. Authoritarian regimes will target even more of their overseas critics, including journalists, and ignore empty calls for them to stop.

This is how international norms are undone or upheld: one case at a time.

Roland Paris is professor of international affairs at the University of Ottawa, research associate at Chatham House, and former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Read more about:Its been a tough two years for Pride Toronto since it banned police from its annual parade.

Pride lost lucrative sponsorships and donations and, most important, support from many in its own community. Indeed, Pride acknowledged on Tuesday that the ban had come to threaten our very existence as a publicly funded, non-profit community organization.

Thats not in the interests of anyone in the citys LGBTQ community.

So its welcome news that Pride is ready to allow uniformed police officers back into next years parade. Its a positive sign that police and Pride are serious about working out their differences and restoring confidence between the Toronto force and a community that had good reason to lose trust.

The decision to ban police was always a divisive one and no doubt the move to bring them back in will be controversial as well.

But its the right direction. Prides executive director, Olivia Nuamah, argued that shes not interested in taking symbolic stands that may or may not effect change. Shes more interested in working with police to find constructive solutions to the significant issues the community has faced over the past 18 months.

Among them, she highlighted the death of transgender woman Alloura Wells, whose body wasnt found for four months after her disappearance, and the case of Bruce McArthur, who stands accused of eight counts of first-degree murder involving men in the Gay Village.

Allowing police officers to march in next years parade will also underscore the organizations original goal of inclusiveness. After all, among those most affected by the ban were gay members of the police service.

The path forward will not be easy. Pride is already coming under fire for not being more transparent about how it came to this decision. Clearly, the organization will have to work harder to heal the divisions within its membership.

But bringing police back into the parade is a positive step toward working out differences between the LGBTQ community and those whose job it is to serve and protect them, along with all Torontonians.Mayor John Tory told a story when he visited the Toronto Stars editorial board on Tuesday that was, I think, almost prototypically Tory.

The story was about one of the most encouraging moments thats happened recently in his office.

This was after the provincial election, during the whole mess about Premier Doug Fords sudden slashing of city council and kneecapping of the election. The mayor and city council were suing the province, but the premier still came down for a meeting in Torys office. What maybe was remarkable was all the personalities who were there, Tory said. Chief (Mark) Saunders, former chief (Bill) Blair, Premier (Doug) Ford and me.

You will recall the history that provides the context: roughly five years ago, Blair, then the chief of police, told the public that Rob Ford, then the mayor, had been caught on camera using drugs during a months-long investigation  complete with airplane surveillance and wiretaps  into his behaviour. Doug Ford, then a city councillor, led a months-long campaign of attack against Blair, accusing him of corruption and of trying to put a political bullet between his brothers eyes. Ford filed a formal police board complaint against Blair. Blair threatened a lawsuit against Ford.

Anyhow, as Tory tells it, now-federal cabinet minister Blair and now-Premier Ford met with him in the mayors office. The topic was gun violence. I wasnt sure if I was doing counselling or what, Tory joked, before adding quickly, Everybody got along fine in that room.

The result: (Ford) said, I can tell you were committed to investing that, I think its $3 billion, in mental health and addiction that we said during the campaign, and chief Blair across the table said, Well, were committed to investing a few billion dollars, too.

Tory thinks this is good news for people in need of supportive housing, mental health help and addiction assistance. After explaining that for a moment, he wound up the point, responding to the direct question he was asked  about supervised injection sites: I believe in the sites strongly. I wont answer the question of what were going to do if the funding is cut off until we get there.

Its a story that ties up several themes of Torys mayoralty, about how he sees himself and the style of leadership he believes hes offering voters.

The thing that will jump out to many critics is how he winds up not committing to fully fund something he claims  at length  is a priority to him. But its not hard to see the other points. The need to work with both other levels of government. The insistence that you can do that even when you are in the midst of actively objecting to other things they are doing. The promise of level-headed civility to bring people together, even people who have been bitter rivals, to find important common ground.

Tory hears the people out there  often including me  criticizing his on-the-one-hand-on-the-other approach. He hears people suggesting he needs to stand up and fight the province. But this is his response: hell let the premier know when he strongly disagrees, but hes still going to try to work with him every day.

He provided another example of this style in action among councillors, recalling how, after hed already won the vote to rebuild the Gardiner Expressway, he gathered a bunch of his opponents into a room to (expensively) redraw the plan to address many of their concerns and make the rebuilt road better than it would otherwise be.

Its about bringing people together, he said.

And as he spoke about his plans and what he considers his accomplishments, the theme that emerged was how he sees himself and what he is doing. Whats the glue, he kept asking, that holds the city together? How do you connect people up? It is a question at the heart of what he calls his single largest goal for the next term, of making what he characterizes as the isolated communities in the northern corners of the city into vibrant and connected parts of the metropolis.

Thats what hes pitching, in his way. Many of us think he isnt doing it fast enough, or urgently enough, or strongly enough. In some cases, we think hes doing it exactly wrong. But it is what he sees as his appeal.

My personality isnt such that Im going to become a feared person exercising power, he said. I believe in collaboration.

John Tory has been Torontos mayor for four years and now he wants you to re-elect him. What will he do to win your vote? Ask him yourself.

Read more about:On Sept. 1, 1995, 25 years seemed far, far away.

That was the day Paul Bernardo was convicted on two charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, forcible confinement, aggravated sexual assault and committing an indignity to a dead body. The sexual sadist had strangled and defiled teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. From the witness stand, Bernardo admitted to all of the crimes except the murders, insisting the abducted teens died when they were left alone with ex-wife Karla Homolka.

Of all the horrors exposed in that lengthy trial  jurors watched videos the abominable couple had made of the repeated sexual assaults  what was seared into the memory of this reporter were the howls of anguish from Leslies mom, Debbie Mahaffy. While the French family left the courtroom whenever the videos were played, Mrs. Mahaffy chose to remain. To bear witness, to stand by her daughter and, I suspected, to punish herself. Leslie had encountered Bernardo in a neighbours backyard the night she disappeared, locked out of her house by parents who were exercising a bit of tough love, trying to teach their wayward daughter a lesson about respecting curfews.

From a pew in the back of the courtroom, Mrs. Mahaffy laid her head in a friends lap, moaning and wailing at the sound of her daughters torture, the sound of her daughters voice, pleading for her life, begging to see her kid brother just one more time.

I dont know how Mrs. Mahaffy could stand it.

Bernardo was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for a quarter-century, retroactive to the day of his arrest, Feb. 17, 1993. Subsequently he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of Karlas younger sister, Tammy Homolka  the 15-year-old had choked on her own vomit while drugged and unconscious, sexually assaulted by the couple  and confessed to raping 14 young women. He was designated, on consent, a dangerous offender, which carries an indeterminate sentence. Bernardo could, theoretically, spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Read more:

Opinion | Rosie DiManno: Paul Bernardos pathetic, self-absorbed sob story convinces no-one

I cry all the time. Convicted killer and rapist Paul Bernardo denied parole

Timeline of events in the case of convicted rapist and killer Paul Bernardo

On Wednesday, Bernardo was denied a parole bid. He cant reapply for another two years.

The mothers of slain teenagers Leslie and Kristen made powerful victim impact statements, as they had prepared to do on several previous occasions when the felon indicated he would seek a parole hearing, only to withdraw his application. Thats a kind of torture, too. No doubt the moms will be back at Millhaven Institution in 2020, if Bernardo mounts another appeal, and every time after that for as long as both shall live.

I do not want to be in the same room as Bernardo but here I am, Mrs. Mahaffy told the two-member parole board panel. The effect of this parole hearing allows Bernardo to abduct our beautiful memories of Leslie as he had inserted himself and the ugliness of her death into our lives yet again.

Bernardo, said Mrs. Mahaffy, had destroyed her life as well, and that of Leslies father, Leslies brother. She pointed out, further, that the law at the time of the trial (it has since been changed but cant be applied retroactively) prevented judges from imposing consecutive life terms and parole ineligibility periods on offenders guilty of committing multiple murders.

Paul Bernardo is effectively getting a free pass for murdering Kristen French because his parole eligibility remains 25 years. It is wrong.

Donna French echoed that dismay.

Its painfully unthinkable that Paul Bernardos parole ineligibility did not change by a single second, a single minute, as a result of his unspeakable murder of Kristen. It so diminishes her life.

Bernardo spoke extensively, disjointedly, often in a torrent of rushed words, about his cruelties, his emotional disconnect from the victims, and what he framed as a psychological justification  at the time  for his monstrous crimes. I felt socially and sexually inadequate. I had to dominate in sexual acts, it was the only way I could perform. I offended to raise my self-esteem. I had a disregard for the victims.

Adding: it was an explosion of rage with a fist or a hammer or a flashlight. The more damaged my self-esteem, the more I had to have power and control to overcome that.

Ah, but hes a changed man now, Bernardo declared. He has developed insights into himself. Since 2015, he has participated in three intense sex offender programs, hence all the psycho jargon. Hes become a disciple of the intervention treatments hed rejected for two decades.

Except there is no cure for psychopaths and sociopaths. They just become slicker at lying, at mimicking conventional behaviour, when it suits their purpose, and feigning remorse.

I had a wake-up call when I was arrested. Too late. But I knew I would never reoffend. Heartfelt. There was no way I would ever harm another person again ... In the last 26 years Ive harmed nobody and being in prison is hard. Im so nice, Im so compassionate and caring.

The skepticism of the two parole board interrogators was evident and Bernardo realized it, too. Weve spent so much time on how terrible I was. I want you to know who I am now.

A pathetic and completely self-absorbed lifer, what he is now. And probably thats to be expected from an inmate who spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement. For the one hour daily hes allowed on the range, it is cleared of other inmates.

The panel heard that Bernardo has tested as low risk for general recidivism, moderate risk for sexual violence and high risk for partner violence. But the panel had to weigh undue risk to the public, if allowing Bernardo day or full parole, with correctional supervision for the remainder of his life. What Bernardo proposed, through his lawyer, was conditional release to a nearby facility where all his movements would be monitored.

His own parole officer, Meagan Smith, was categorically opposed to any release. At the start of the hearing, she described the Bernardo of today as minimal gains noted. At the end of the hearing, just before the panel deliberated following two hours of wide-ranging questions to Bernardo, who responded with even wider ranging rationalizations and exculpations, Smith said bluntly: I found Mr. Bernardo presented today as he normally does.

The thing is, Bernardo will likely some day be freed. Passage of time will remove many of the ever-after grieving family members, if not the rape victims who are younger than the convict. At best, it will be a two-year by two-year reassessment. A younger generation doesnt entirely grasp the revulsion triggered by Bernardo and Homolkas crimes. In a social media world, the public is growing numb to porn-crime videos. The appalling crimes will recede in memory. Theres always another worst-ever deviant, a serial murderer, a child-killer, a sexual sadist.

He may be a very old man when Bernardo tastes freedom and I might not be alive to document it, but Im convinced it will happen. I cant even say it shouldnt. Because, ultimately, we define ourselves as human beings not by the worst among us, but by our own humane and merciful nature.

Parole, as Bernardo lawyer Fergus OConnor reminded the board, isnt clemency or forgiveness. Its a provision provided by law.

We abolished the death penalty in Canada in 1976. We no longer hang offenders. But we also do not bury them behind steel walls.

Some day, a feeble and geriatric Paul Bernardo wont be deemed a risk.

Correction- Oct. 19, 2018: Convicted killer Paul Bernardo told a Parole Board of Canada hearing that In the last 26 years, Ive harmed nobody and being in prison is hard. This article was edited from a previous version that misstated 26 as two to six years due to a production error.OTTAWAThe Liberal candidate who narrowly lost the B.C. riding of Burnaby South in the last federal election says his party should buck the perceived leaders courtesy and nominate a contender to take down NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in an upcoming byelection.

Adam Pankratz, a business professor at the University of British Columbia, said he would relish the chance run against Singh and may seek the Liberal nomination himself if the party decides to name a candidate.

If you have a chance to beat up on a federal leader, then you do it, said Pankratz, who sits on the local Liberal party riding association.

You want the representative to be a Liberal, and we can win this riding, so why wouldnt we do it? Pankratz said.

I dont think its any secret that Jagmeet Singh is pretty widely considered a weak federal leader.

Burnaby South has been vacant since Sept. 14, when NDP MP Kennedy Stewart resigned the seat to run for Vancouver mayor. Singh, a former lawyer who began his political as a provincial MPP for Brampton and has never held a federal seat, had already heralded his plan to run there, ending months of questioning about when and where he would try to get a seat in the House of Commons.

Read more:

Veteran NDP MP says resignation of Jagmeet Singhs chief of staff is the beginning of a big reset

Jagmeet Singh puts on brave face ahead of 2019 election

Opinion | Chantal Hebert: As the NDPs fortunes slide, Singh battles to stay on top

By law, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has 180 days after Stewarts resignation to schedule a byelection in Burnaby South  meaning he must say when the contest will be held by March 13.

Meanwhile, the Liberals have been repeatedly asked whether they will respect the leaders courtesy, a sportsmanship convention that has been followed by some parties in the past when opposing leaders have sought seats in byelections. But Trudeaus office and the Liberal party have been coy about what they will do.

Matt Pascuzzo, a press secretary in the Prime Ministers Office, said byelections for Burnaby South and other vacant seats in Ontario and Quebec will be announced in due course and directed questions about candidate nominations to the Liberal party. Spokesperson Marjolaine Provost did not say whether the party intends to run a candidate against Singh in a byelection.

No nomination meeting has been set as of yet  but we wish Mr. Singh well as his own partys candidate, she said in an email. Were looking forward to a positive opportunity to contrast our ideas with the other parties.

In a statement to the Star, Singh said he is focused on issues in Burnaby South, such as skyrocketing housing prises, rising out-of-pocket, health-care costs, and threats to the environment. The federal NDP is opposed to the government-owned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which would almost triple the amount of oilsand bitumen transported to Burnaby and increase tanker traffic in B.C.s Burrard Inlet.

Theres a lot of people in Burnaby who feel let down by the Liberals, Singh said. If they dont want to face the voters, thats up to them.

Much could be at stake for Singh in the Liberal decision. Stewart only beat Pankratz by 547 votes in 2015, a difference that represented just over 1 per cent of votes that were cast.

The Conservative candidate wasnt far behind either, and in 2011, when the riding boundaries were slightly different, the Tory contender placed second and lost the riding by a slim 1,601 votes.

And while the Green party recently announced it would respect the leaders courtesy and refuse to field a byelection candidate against Singh, the Conservatives are game to make it a contest. On Sept. 18, the local riding association nominated Jay Shin to be their candidate. The commercial lawyer is fluent in Korean and was an adjunct professor at Hanyang University in Seoul.

Mike McDonald is the chief strategy officer at Kirk & Co. Consulting in Vancouver, was chief of staff to former premier Christy Clark, and led the B.C. Liberal Partys 2013 election campaign. He surveyed the history of the leaders courtesy on his blog this summer, and found that the practice has been sporadic when party leaders vie for seats in byelections. Since 1962, every leader in such a race has been contested by at least one major party, and the NDP has never failed to run a candidate in each of those campaigns.

The leaders courtesy hasnt really been a thing, McDonald said. Instead, the decision is likely to be made strategically, he said. In this case, the Liberals could want to avoid defeating Singh so that he remains leader for the 2019 general election and isnt replaced by someone more threatening. Conversely, running and losing to Singh could generate momentum for the NDP.

But McDonald said such a calculus is based on so many unknowns, that he would advise simply running a candidate. My personal view is that its a political partys job to run a candidate, he said.

NDP strategist Robin MacLachlan, vice president at Summa Strategies in Ottawa, scoffed at the suggestion the Liberals would neglect to run a candidate out of courtesy to Singh. He said the riding is also a hotbed for issues where the NDP says the Liberals have disappointed progressive voters, including electoral reform, affordable housing and insistence on expanding the Trans Mountain pipeline.

They dont want to have that part of their agenda so strongly questioned by a defeat, so not running a candidate lets them play this whole courtesy game, MacLachlan said.

Its been a tough year, his first year as leader. Theres no doubt about that, he added. Jagmeet Singh needs a win.Thousands of parents have already responded to the governments online call for input on sex-ed, math and other school issues, says Education Minister Lisa Thompson.

While shes not prepared to share the number, I can tell you weve more than tripled the Liberal numbers in terms of the consultations thus far, in two short weeks since launching fortheparents.ca, she told reporters at Queens Park on Wednesday.

We feel really good about the information thats coming forward in our first phase, which is written consultation via online submissions.

Its really refreshing  clearly people want a chance to have their voice heard, because they are taking time to comment on all seven areas the government is asking about.

The PC government had promised the largest consultations in the provinces history after scrapping the updated sex-ed curriculum  after social conservatives complained parents werent involved in, nor approved of, the changes. The consultations were later expanded to include math, standardized testing and financial literacy.

While were embarking on this consultation, which has far surpassed that dismal 1,638 responses the former Liberal government generated, we are actually listening to parents, Thompson said in the legislature.

Read more:

Ontario to kick off sex-ed consultations in three phases

Editorial | The Ford government is bungling sex-ed consultations

School boards sex-ed guideline for parents meant to clear up confusion

She later said the second and third phases will soon be in place  online surveys and telephone town halls.

The consultations are to wrap up mid-December.

We are just testing our digital survey, and we will be hosting our very first town-hall teleconference on Friday for northwestern Ontario, Thompson said, adding her ministry is working with stakeholders to alert parents to whats next.

The previous Liberal government introduced the new curriculum in 2015, updating the oldest sex-ed lessons in the country. Those outdated lessons, which were taught from 1998 to 2014, are for the most part what kids are now learning.

The 2015 curriculum was implemented after years of hearing from experts  including teachers and doctors  as well as school councils.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said everyday parents are not engaged in the Ford governments consultations, and said it has done a poor job of letting them know online submissions are available.

Former Liberal education minister Mitzie Hunter said its a short period of time to consult on aspects of the curriculum that are really important to people.

She said the government needs to make public the responses it receives, and must also include educators and school boards in their analysis of what they hear.

Also in the legislature on Wednesday, Former Ontario premier and education minister Kathleen Wynne asked Thompson about the governments plans to consult with school boards, parents, teachers and support staff on a regular basis on all issues.

Thompson said her party is cleaning up the mess the Liberals left, and that the bottom line to all of this is we are being very thoughtful in how we move forward and work with our partners in a thoughtful way.

Read more about:Ontarios new trade envoy to Washington is a veteran Conservative public affairs executive getting a $75,000 raise over his Liberal predecessor, but who will not be eligible for a pension or severance.

Ian Todd, who served as head of tour for Premier Doug Fords successful spring election campaign, will be paid $350,000 in a job that has taken on a higher level of importance since the Trump administration began picking fights with Canada over trade issues.

The salary for the plum patronage post prompted charges from the official opposition NDP that the Ford gravy train has arrived at Queens Park and its all aboard.

Hell be taking home more than the Canadian ambassador, New Democrat MPP Taras Natyshak (Essex) said in the legislatures daily question period Thursday. How does this government justify handing a Conservative insider this job?

Economic Development Minister Jim Wilson said the appointment of Todd  first reported by iPolitics.ca  includes serving as a special adviser to the premier, a title predecessor Monique Smith, a former cabinet minister, did not have.

In addition to her salary, she was receiving pension contributions and a one-year severance. Mr. Todd will not be receiving that, Wilson told MPPs.

In a statement, Ford said the recent negotiation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) makes the post crucial.

In the new era of USMCA, we need someone who is strategically minded, has extensive government experience, and will put Ontarios interests first.

Todd, who will work out of Ontarios office at the Canadian embassy in the U.S. capital, has served as a ministerial chief of staff in the federal government of former prime minister Stephen Harper and was a partner in Maple Leaf Strategies. He has worked on numerous Conservative election campaigns as an adviser.

Smith departed the Ontario trade post shortly after the Ford government took power. Her salary was just shy of $275,000 annually.

Todd is the second high-profile patronage appointment made by Ford, who named former Progressive Conservative party president Rueben Devlin, a retired orthopedic surgeon and Humber Hospital chief executive, to an advisory council tasked with ending hospital overcrowding and hallway medicine.

Devlin, who also gets a lucrative hospital pension, is being paid $348,00 a year.

The salary range for Canadas ambassador to the U.S. is $247,900 to $291,600. The post is held by David MacNaughton.

Read more about:VANCOUVERA new report released Thursday has named the big five Canadian banks as top investors of Canadas fossil fuel sector between 2010 and 2015, a consequence thats alarming researchers given a UN climate report urging countries to take more ambitious action.

The report titled Who Owns Canadas Fossil-Fuel Sector was issued by the Corporate Mapping Project, a joint initiative by the University of Victoria, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Parkland Institute, with funding in part from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Co-author and University of Victoria sociology professor William Carroll said in a statement that Canadas fossil fuel industry is in the hands of a few major players  that have an interest in the sectors continued growth and the economic power that shapes its future.

Using shareholder and revenue data from Orbis, a company with information on companies worldwide, Carroll found that the top 25 owners accounted for 40 per cent of the total revenues from the fossil fuel industry between 2010 to 2015.

In this period, the top two investors were Exxon Mobil Corp with 6.57 per cent in average shares and the Royal Bank of Canada with 3.35 per cent in average shares. Within the top five largest owners, two out of three were Canadian. Other than RBC, the Desmarais Family Residuary Trust held 2.46 per cent in shares.

Carroll told StarMetro that given a looming climate crisis and the 12-year window to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees outlined in the UN climate report by 91 authors, these investments means theres inertia towards developing cleaner alternatives.

Other findings in the report showed that Toronto Dominion Bank came in 6th with 2.03 per cent of average shares, and the Bank of Montreal in 9th with 1.98 per cent of shares.

Greg Flato, a senior scientist with Environment Canadas climate research division and one of the authors of the UN climate report, said 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 August 2017, RBC launched the Vision Fossil Fuel Global Equity Fund to meet demands from investors looking to incorporate climate-related concerns in their portfolios.

In a pamphlet named Fossil Fuel Divestment, the bank stated that fossil- fuel companies are not ignoring the potential impact of climate regulation; rather, they are actively monitoring the risk as it evolves and are incorporating it into their planning and business models.

RBC did not respond in time for this publication.

With files from Ainslie Cruickshank

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